glazeduck

Yep, tis the season...

Feels worth mentioning that Obada -- whom most on this board consider a project/lottery ticket type player, had a better sack/plays ratio than Aldon Smith did last year. Is he HOF caliber?!?!? In all seriousness, this is the type of guy you can bring in on a 100% prove-it, 0 second chances, crazy amount of scrutiny type of deal only. If he wants to come here and fight for a roster spot while making the veterans minimum, take a pee test daily, have the Bills monitor him 24/7, then sure, let's take a flyer because yes, at one point he was great. All that said, I don't see him being willing to put up with all of that. Like others have said, if he's not a good enough culture fit for the Cowboys, he's an awful fit for us...

It's less the height and weight -- there are plenty of tackles that are 6'5" in the league, and 305 is a little slight for playing weight, but not so much that it's uncommon. The issue is arm length. A great deal of success in the trenches happens with hands and arms and if the guy you're trying to block has significantly longer arms than you, the can be tough to control. Typically edge rushers are longer limbed than DTs, so you can get away with shorter arms inside.

Sweet. Every player receiving a paycheck should prepare, train, study, lift, practice, eat, sleep, want and feel as though they should be a starter. I don't want anyone on the roster that doesn't. That's not a shot at the article or Bates, just a general philosophy. Football is a violent sport where things can change drastically with literally every and any snap of the ball. If Bates keeps this mentality and work ethic, he'll get his shot. Him pushing for or earning a starting spot over Ford, Ike, Mongo or Morse would be a very very good thing for us.

Booooooo

No question the trade value has to make sense. I don’t think the targets thing is all that major of a concern, frankly. Short term — in the first year, he’d be a rookie with a veteran “in front of him” and vets out wide. Sure you give your new toy maybe 50 or 60 targets but that’s not the type of player you’d feed unless he just absolutely explodes, which would be a good problem to have. Longer term, Sanders moves on after this year and you’re splitting 600 targets among 4 main guys. That’s more than enough.

Insane testing numbers, really underwhelming tape. I guess I’d say if he’s our pick at 30 at least he’s basically all upside. That said, actively hoping he’s someone else’s problem and pushes a Paye/Phillips/Ossai to us.

I hated that pick but Whitner over Ngata is every bit as awful, I’d argue worse since ngata is a 1st ballot HOFer

Worth keeping in mind that he's writing for a largely superficial audience. This isn't draftnik.com or the Ispend70hoursaweekbreakingdownfilm twitter handle, this is NFL.com proper, so there's a demand for content that covers a very broad swath of readership. Furthermore, it's entirely possible that this piece was ghostwritten and/or partially quick jots from much longer scouting reports... Gil's extremely well respected in NFL circles. I think there's a reason for that... He's plenty talented, but I think he's gotten a "Draftnik bump" because of his name... He's at best a very borderline top-100 player in my eyes.

Listed on Seattle's website at 306... that's too light for a true 1T, but the kid is talented... wonder if Leslie's interested in carving out a role for him (guessing not, given our cap situation...)

Was just coming to post this: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/03/25/jarran-reed-suggests-hell-be-cut-tomorrow/ Probably nothing to see here, but the last regime tried like crazy to move up and get him, ended up with Kuandjio instead, if I'm not mistaken.

Nah, Breida's not going to keep this front office from drafting Ettiene or Harris if they think he's the best pick. Breida's more like a safety net in case we make it through the entire draft and a RB fit never feels like reasonable value. If anything, Breida is a head fake to keep other RB needy teams from jumping above us to take a guy we might like than he is a "solution" for the RB position.

Big meh on this one. With one of the 5s or a 6, sure, why not. Hope they're not thinking about him earlier...

NTs are becoming less important by the year. Even if Star wasn't on the roster and the rookie were to start immediately, that wouldn't be good value. Not to mention there's no fits for what you're looking for -- Tyler Shelvin is the only DT on TDN's top 12 DTs that weighs above 315 and there's absolutely no way he's worth a first round pick. Beyond that there are affordable options in free agency and plenty of gap holders that will be found late in the draft. Drafting a backup NT, when you can draft a starting CB, TE, G, possibly DE is not going to have the impact that you're looking for.

You're looking for impact and then drafting a backup, 2-down DL and a developmental pass rusher?

I didn't bother listing PS guys, but yes.

Maybe you didn't fully read my post but I was agreeing with you. But to play devil's advocate... I don't think you can call any of the following guys' spots ironclad locks: Ike, Fromm, Addison, Bates, Dodson, Ford (probably would need to be a trade, but still...), Hollister, Jackson, Daryl Johnson, McKenzie, Neal, Obada, Andre Smith... But again, I agree with you.

Underwear/straight-line/trackshoe speed and in-game/pads-on/spatted-up/football-cleat/navigating-other-players-speed can be two VERY different things...

Yep, and Parsons was supposed to test fast as well so not shocked at those numbers. Still think Oweh's a pass for me based on the lack of production and the Maybin nightmares I still suffer from. Hopefully he pushes Phillips and Ossai down the board...

This article seems to suggest that both offers were 1 year, so there goes my theory there. That said, if the difference is only $1.5M, I don't think it really says that much about him choosing to NOT uproot himself/family/ life, learn a new playbook, connect with new teammates, figure out a new city, etc. It's easy to forget that these are people with friends and families and relationships with their teammates and coaches, and comforts and familiarities...

Still a pass from me, but impressive, for sure.

Different spin on this, but both Juju and TY took one year deals (as did Fuller, who wasn’t mentioned and I have 0 idea if Baltimore pursued or not), as opposed to longer deals. We’ll never know the specifics of those negotiations, but the way that that Bal front office operates, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they tried to get those guys on multiple-year discounted contracts. Just a guess, but I’ll say that the contract specifics probably played a bigger role than the QB. It’s not like Carson Wentz or Big Ben’s corpse are destination QBs...

Yeah that’s the biggest issue. And contrary to popular belief, there’s really no set formula, it all depends on the trading partner, your relationship with them, their needs and strategy, who’s on/off the board, what kind of leverage you/they have, etc. Which is a long way of saying that it probably won’t happen. All that said, Pitts could easily go top 5 or slip into the teens, that’s what you’d be hoping for...

I think the competition argument, to a certain degree, holds water -- especially when we've seen Beane actually use guys who would normally be cut to get back some value in trades. But to me, especially this year, I think you go get the stud, the guy you need, the guy that's very obviously going to be a good player at a need spot. Even if he doesn't become an all-time great, by trading up for Pitts, you're all but guaranteeing that pick won't be a bust -- which I think is more than you can say than just about every other player in this draft...

I still go back to how the circumstances of the past year are going to affect everything. The draft is all about what you know, what you think you know and what you can't or don't know, and this year -- more than ever -- the list of things you can't know is crazy long. That's why, under the right circumstances, I still advocate for trading up for Kyle Pitts (those circumstances being: can't afford getting into the top 10 unless someone throws you a sweetheart deal and getting back a late pick or two). We can't know how all of these guys stack up against each other athletically (no combine), but we DO know that he's of the top percentile or two, athletically, compared to TEs historically. We can't know exactly how competition stacks up across the board (different schedules & interconference games cancelled), but we DO know that the SEC regularly pumps out the best athletes and the best coached players on that side of the ball and we know how well Pitts played against them. We don't know how the draft will shake out, but we DO know what our needs are -- TE is arguably a top 2 or 3 need -- and we also know what the veteran free agency pool looks like: fairly deep at DE, CB, G; reasonably so at DT and OT; BLEAK at TE. We also know what the makeup of our own roster looks like, and it's not looking like there's THAT many more spots to fill, so might as well use picks to get a Ferrari in the garage as opposed to a couple more Camrys. Lastly, we can also make a very reasonable assumption that there will be a higher percentage of draft misses this year due to lack of scouting, personal interviews, etc. Because of all these variables, and most specifically the last one, late picks should -- at least from a market basis -- be closer in value to higher picks this season, than ever before (because at some point, the draft is always educated guesses anyway, this year the education is lower and the guesses will start earlier.) So for me, again, if its on the table (and obviously we won't know until it is/isn't); package 1, 2 and a future 2 for Pitts and, say 2 6s. You're getting one of the few known commodities at one of your biggest positions of need and the shallowest position available, who is clearly a difference maker, will help your franchise QB and continue to open up your offense, address shortcomings in the red zone and short down & distance situations and generally be another weapon. Keeping the 3 allows you to make one more informed pick and likely fill a need at CB or DT, and you can use the day 3 picks on guys with upside. That's how I'd do it. A bird in the hand, at one of your weakest positions (both on roster and in availability) is worth several semi-educated guesses in the bush...