(03-06-2022, 08:23 AM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote:

(03-06-2022, 07:32 AM)Caldrac Wrote: Agreed. My concern with Neal is that he's being compared to Tristan Wirfs at RT. Again, that's great! Just not ideal to select him there with the first overall selection. Wirfs was outside of the top ten the year he was drafted by the Buccaneers. 

I personally think Neal could be on the same level as Eugene Monroe in the NFL as a LT. Which, again, it's not bad. I just don't think you can justify selecting him, especially now after what Hutchinson just did at the combine. 

Pairing a freak athlete like Hutchinson with Allen is just too damn tempting now. Thibodeaux was already being questioned about his commitment to the game prior to the combine and he doubled down on those questions by [BLEEP] out after an event didn't go his way. 

I'll tell you this too, since this thread is all about new favorites and what not. After watching some of the other players fly around out there in the lateral drills? There's some sneaky good linebackers in this class that match up athletically with what their stat sheets were indicating. 

I was already high on Brandon Smith out of Penn State but he didn't hit that 4.4 I was hoping for. BUT...

Troy Andersen, out of Montana State. He's one of those multi purpose athlete kind of guys that has excellent football IQ. Still learning the LB position. Played RB and QB at Montana State. Did a whole multitude of different things. At his size with that 4.4 speed he's worth a flyer in RD5 or RD6 if he's there. He's a guy you can probably teach something to and just throw him out there on Special Teams as a hunter to get the football back. You could probably throw him around in the backfield. Kind of like Taysom Hill in New Orleans.

I would like to see Pederson work with him.

Totally agree. We need Hutchinson. He is super productive, he has a non-stop motor, his 10 yard split was slightly better than the average of those ran by the top pass rushers in the NFL and he had the top 3 cone time of all the edge pass rushers by a significant margin for good measure. He also did the linebacker drills at the Combine like a natural. He is hands down the top player in this draft. Pairing him opposite Josh Allen should not only give us a legitimate pass rush, it should help restore Allen to what he once was as well. 

Troy Andersen is an elite ILB in this draft class. I believe next to edge rusher, ILB is our biggest defensive need. I am not a fan of Wilson at all and Myles Jack is playing in the wrong scheme for his skillset. We have to find a true 3-4 ILB with coverage ability. Too many times we were killed by opposing TE's. That has to stop. This is not a deep draft for ILB'S. We have to get one of the top guys. Nakobe Dean and Devin Lloyd will be long gone, but we need to focus in and target guys like Chad Muma, Damone Clark, Troy Andersen or Christian Harris. I'd definitely use one of our 3rd round selections to take one of these guys, because I don't think any of them make it out of round 3. After these 3, the quality at the position dips tremendously. Very tremendously.