dave mcbride

Knox is a pretty good player, though, and he's lived up to his draft status. He's not all world but he's a credible longtime NFL starting-quality TE. So many late third round picks never do anything.

My take: you can take a person/family out of the Jets organization, but you can't take the Jets organization out of the person/family (thinking of Woody's admirable children here too).

Don't know about that. In the last four seasons, they've gone 10-3, 11-2, 8-5, and 10-3 in a brutal conference and have finished ranked 9th once and 11th twice. They also had the number 2 defense in all of college football this past season (in terms of points allowed). 5 of their 11 defensive starters were drafted this past weekend too: guys in the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth rounds. They also had a QB go in round one and a WR in round 2. Their 3 losses in 2024 were by the scores of 20-17, 29-26, and 24-17 (all one-score games). They also beat a stacked Georgia team, 28-10. I don't view national championships or college playoff appearances as proper gauges of good seasons. There are too many teams for one, and secondly it's tough to get past OSU, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, and to a lesser extent LSU and Oregon giving their recruiting prowess.

In 2018, Ole Miss had as their receiving corps AJ Brown, DK Metcalf, Dawson Knox, Elijah Moore(!), and some guy named Demarkus Lodge who had 65 catches. Their QB had the highest passing-yards-per-game average in the nation too. Yet they managed to go 5-7. To be fair, their defense was atrocious (113th out of 130 teams in points allowed).

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Can I just say how Jetsy this is?

If we’re not drafting at 32, I’m not happy.

I think the issue with his deep throwing is less that he’s more inaccurate than other qbs than that his arm is SO strong and the velocity so high that receivers simply can’t adjust like they can on throws from russell wilson and aaron rodgers. He doesn’t throw rainbows; he throws low-arc ropes that travel 50+ yards. They have to be close to perfect in placement given that the receiver will not be able to adjust. When he connects, which has happened often enough, it’s a thing of beauty.

Call me crazy, but I want players who play better in the latter part of the season and the playoffs.

Paul Seymour is who you are thinking of, I suspect. Drafted 7th overall by the Bills, he actually played OT at Michigan and converted to TE in the pros. But he was basically an elite blocking TE. He started 68 games for the Bills and had only 62 career receptions. In 1978, the Bills traded Seymour to the Steelers for Frank Lewis, who became an excellent player for the Bills. Seymour failed his physical (foot injury), was shipped back to the Bills, and never played another down.

Kirby, I get it all, but the defense was b-a-d bad last season, and not because of coaching (coaching actually saved them from being terrible). It was because of talent - slow and small.

BA in econ from Yale; was a grad student transfer to GT. https://ramblinwreck.com/roster/jackson-hawes/

It’s a Bill Parcells quote from the 1980s.

Everyone so far is an SEC player.

Fun fact: the Bills have drafted two HOF wide receivers in the fourth round: Andre Reed (86th overall) and … Paul Warfield. Warfield signed with Cleveland in the NFL, not the Bills, and despite being a 4th round pick for the Bills, he was selected 28th overall.

What I'm trying to say is that teams take risks on CBs and WRs so often because they're so fundamental to success in the NFL. You can't win with crappy WRs and guys who can't cover. Good ones are of course hard to find, but burying one's head in the sand with the hope you'll get a gem in the fifth/sixth round is no way to live in the modern NFL. Get rich or die tryin', as the saying goes. A first-round center pick, although highly likely to be successful, is not going to be a game-changing player pretty much ever. An elite cornerback is.

Huh? Of the "high-risk" positions, all except RB are passing-game players (CB, Safety, TE, WR). And CBs are the safest of the bunch. But the fact that all the high-risk positions are in the passing game should tell you how hard it is to play well and how valuable players who do excel are. The willingness to gamble is high too because of the value of the passing game: 71 CBs and 77 WRs selected, second and third only to edge rushers (a combo of LBs and DEs). The bust rate for centers is extraordinarily low because a) you shouldn't be taking centers in the first round, and b) if you do, you're probably picking a generational player at that position.

He looked fine (not great) on the Ravens. On the Rams, sure, but I am betting 99 percent of people on this board are basing that on him getting absolutely cooked by Jamieson Williams in a prime time game. He has never been an elite man corner; his calling card is matchup zone, which the Bills run.

It was a terrible call on a crucial play, but it played a big role in the Bills winning the game.

I think it’s because of the lack of qbs. It’s a terrible qb draft from the looks of it. I don’t think NIL and transfers have anything to do with it; indeed, the transfer portal is GOOD for the draft because it gives playing time to good players who are otherwise stuck on the bench at Alabama/Georgia/Ohio State. Bo Nix and Michael Penix became much better qbs by playing in multiple systems.

For those who haven’t been following his injury, he is reportedly running at full speed (straight line) already. I gather he had the cleanest of ACL tears— no other damage to the adjacent parts of his knee.

He was actually really good in late 2023 and in the postseason. He was playing quite hurt this past season in the second half. But of course he has to make that catch. I'm not worried about him.

Deion Branch too off the top of my head.

Whenever I watch a healthy Bosa, I always think I’m watching one of the best pass rushers in the league. And if memory serves, he has produced against the Chiefs.