(05-02-2021, 08:55 AM)Bullseye Wrote:

(05-02-2021, 03:49 AM)BristolianJaguar Wrote: I don’t think it’s a bad draft, we addressed nearly all the needs we have all been mentioning as a priority other than TE. I think it was maybe done in an order that we didn’t expect and some of the favourites to be picked by us (Moehrig, Barmore & Friermuth) were overlooked.

However that in itself is interesting as titbits coming out now may explain the reasoning behind that now.

The only thing that concerns me is a few of the picks are risky but could have high reward.

I am surprised Minshew didn’t go. Be interesting to see how his situation plays out.

Generally I agree with this.

I think UMs elaboration on how Etienne will be utilized (said he would be cross trained at WR) gives me confidence they could manufacture touches for him.  Many times receiving backs don't get enough touches to make much meaningful impact.  It'll be interesting to see how successful they will be in getting Etienne out into space where he is most dangerous.

In terms of risk, I like what I saw in the clips from Cisco.  I am confident he'll be fine.  The bulk of my concern lies with Walker Little.  Once we drafted TL, T became the most important position of need for us looking at the premium positions of QB, Edge Rusher, LT, CB.  You could easily make the argument that of the premium positions, LT was the one we had no viable candidates, and it is most critical to TL's future success.  Aside from the overall uncertainty about his ACL recovery (which is mitigated in part being two years removed), that recovery time serves as a curse in some eyes because he also sat out due to Covid, so he hasn't played in two years.  If his knee is healthy-and Upper(?) posted his 3 cone (?) times indicating the knee is now sound-and Warhop and co can get the rust off of him, then I feel much better about the draft overall.

As for Minshew, barring an injury to a starter somewhere, I'm not sure I see him traded this year.  Though it's quite strange for me to type this, if you look around the league right now, there aren't too many teams in dire straits at the position in the aftermath of the draft.  Going by division starting in the east, the one team in the NFCE definitely without a long term answer at QB is Washington.  They have Fitz, who is 38, but has never been a great QB, but that's it.  Every team in the AFC East now has a promising young QB prospect.  In the NFC North, I'm not crazy about Goff, but he helped the Rams reach the Super Bowl just a couple of years ago and he's still relatively young.  Besides that, the Lions wil have a bunch of picks in the future.  Chicago just got their young QB prospect, the Vikings are still decent to good with Cousins.  The Packers are in the most precarious position with Aaron Rodgers threatening to retire, but even then, the Packers just drafted Jordan Love a couple of years ago.  In the AFC N, Pittsburgh is the one team in a precarious position.  Big Ben is on his last legs and his backups aren't that good.  Perhaps they'll be okay at the position if Haskins matures form his Washington days, but that may be an iffy proposition.  In the NFC South, the Saints are in the worst position, but it's not so bad.  Winston has his moments and is still relatively young and they have Taysom Hill behind him.  Matt Ryan is older, but has a lot of weapons around him, has never suffered a major injury, and his level of play is still high.  Our division?  Houston qualifies as a disaster given what's happening woth Watson, even though they brought in Tyrod Taylor and drafted Davis Mills.  Indy COULD be a disaster if they can't refurbish Carson Wentz, who thrived with Reich when both were in Philly.  Not sure we would trade within the division, anyway.  In the NFC West everyone in the division is set with good QB situations.  In the AFC West, only Denver is in limbo at the position, but they have an experienced backup in Bridgewater.  I think Minshew ends up staying here.

BTW, back to draft grades, NFLN Rhett Lewis just gave the Jaguars an A-the highest grade in the division.