(02-21-2024, 11:32 AM)flgatorsandjags Wrote:

(02-21-2024, 10:16 AM)Caldrac Wrote: Agreed. Not a snow ball's chance in hell that Baalke and Pederson pass up on the opportunity of drafting Brock Bowers if he falls that far in this scenario. It enables them to do a wide variety of different things offensively. 

I also cannot fathom them passing up on JPJ for a CB. I think our secondary, while not great, it has potential to be above average provided they catch onto the new defensive system and designs. 

Campbell had to battle a hamstring injury off and on last year. Williams was pretty good earlier on and the man-to-man coverage argument with him goes away when you factor in what he has done historically. Especially with the Rams opposite of Jalen. 

I still think Buster Brown is a good player to keep developing. I think Antonio Johnson, Andre Cisco and Andrew Wingard offer PLENTY on the backend and Johnson can come up and play in the nickel and blitz off the edge if needed. I just don't think CB is something that should be overly high on our radar. 

Not with all of the needs we have on offense and not in this scenario. No way you pass up on Bowers or JPJ. It's insane to consider in my opinion. Also, when your team decides to fire it's 2nd year play caller on defense? That tends to make me think that they saw coaching as an issue more so than the actual players out there. 

It was obvious we had two glaring areas of weakness on this team last year. It was within the interior on both sides of the football. I would be even more pissed that they passed up on Newton at DT out of Illinois for a CB. We missed out on upgrading our interior on defense last year because we had a hole at RT to backfill but Kancey ended up with Tampa Bay. Newton has similar traits to Kancey in my opinion.

You absolutely take Bowers if he's there, that would be an easy pick.  We would have the best TE combo in the league, he won't be there though.  Newton is a little bigger and a much better run defender than Kancey is.  Newton is one of the best run defenders in college as well. 

 If we don't get a center in FA, there will be a lot of speculation on if we will draft one or if Doug and Ballke really like Fortner there like both have said numerous times.  I hope they aren't sold on Fortner at center.  It wouldnt shock me if they really like Frazier as well being he is a 4x state wrestling champ, likely very athletic, and has a 1 1/4 longer arms than JPJ, and are looking at him in the 2nd if they want DeJean or Mitchell.  Will be interesting to see how these centers and guards test at the combine because Baalke will be looking more at that than the game tape.  The shorter arms for JPJ might be the deal breaker like it was for Hutchinson, Hutchinson arms was 1" to short

Frazier is a very good looking prospect as well. He's one of three Centers I would consider immediate starters over Fortner from this draft. It just depends on where you value them at overall and where you think you can land them. And that may or may not require a potential trading up or down effort depending on where you're at and what you have at your disposal. 

Frazier has a Linderbaum-esque background to him. Obvious connection is the wrestling background. JPJ just stands out like a sore thumb and has a gear that most NFL teams covet. His ability to snap, pop and get downfield is pretty impressive. Feels like an ideal fit for our offense. Then there's Van Pran out of Georgia. Doesn't stand out like a sore thumb, doesn't flash, but, he just gets good leverage, holds his point of attack and seems to fare better than most in both aspects of an offense. 

Ideally, one of those three guys would be somebody you target in RD1 (JPJ), RD2 (Frazier) and RD3 (Van Pran). Again, may have to move up or down to make the value make sense but it's very possible. I agree with you on the T-Rex arm length stuff. Baalke seems to be infatuated with arm length and reach with his prospects.

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