REAL FOOTBALL Thread

Carp said:
The Raiders took Alex Leatherwood at 17, who was widely considered a 2nd round pick prior to the draft. Pretty boner move if you ask me.

Saints taking Payton Turner at 28 is also a head scratcher, though I did like him as a prospect. I didn't see any 1st round grades on Turner prior to the draft and rarely saw any 2nd round grades. I guess if you're high on him and you can't move back then you take him instead of risking losing him. But it seemed like a pretty big reach.
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I don't hate LEatherwood for the Raiders, mainly because he's a Gruden style of offensive lineman, it was a high pick, but he should have a productive career and likely is a safer pick than the OTs taken after him.

Turner was a bit of a scratcher. His stock was rising from reports I read, but I wouldn't hate it like taking a Running Back in the first round period, much less one you don't really have a need for. Why are they not bulking up their line to protect your new Franchise QB?
 
striker42 said:
If the Falcons trade Julio after June 1, they free up 15 million in cap space. That's a pretty big consideration.
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If the Falcons trade arguably the best WR of all time they free up cap space. It's not happening. It would be a foolish move. They should make the minimal moves to make the changes they need to and go for one last title shot. NFC was really weak last year, Brees is gone, they drafted Pitts, just go for it. Take one last shot, then trade Ryan. Ryan is an absolute legend for the Falcons. Assuming Ryan throws for 4500 yards again, he will almost have as many Yards as the next 4 Falcons QBs combined. Absolute Legend. But if he doesn't win it with the Falcons, they should trade him toa team where he'll have a shot to win the whole thang. I'm still salty AF at Shanahan for his second half play calling that cost us probably the only shot the Falcons will ever win the Superbowl.
 
zitothebrave said:
I don't hate LEatherwood for the Raiders, mainly because he's a Gruden style of offensive lineman, it was a high pick, but he should have a productive career and likely is a safer pick than the OTs taken after him.

Turner was a bit of a scratcher. His stock was rising from reports I read, but I wouldn't hate it like taking a Running Back in the first round period, much less one you don't really have a need for. Why are they not bulking up their line to protect your new Franchise QB?
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Jags did draft Walker Little in the 2nd round. While he will need some seasoning before he's ready to start, he was considered a future early 1st round pick before the injury. I was hoping he would fall to round 3 or 4 for the Titans.

I love Etienne as a RB, but I agree that it's an odd fit with Robinson having the rookie that he did.
 
zitothebrave said:
If the Falcons trade arguably the best WR of all time they free up cap space. It's not happening. It would be a foolish move. They should make the minimal moves to make the changes they need to and go for one last title shot. NFC was really weak last year, Brees is gone, they drafted Pitts, just go for it. Take one last shot, then trade Ryan. Ryan is an absolute legend for the Falcons. Assuming Ryan throws for 4500 yards again, he will almost have as many Yards as the next 4 Falcons QBs combined. Absolute Legend. But if he doesn't win it with the Falcons, they should trade him toa team where he'll have a shot to win the whole thang. I'm still salty AF at Shanahan for his second half play calling that cost us probably the only shot the Falcons will ever win the Superbowl.
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There's always an exception, but TEs rarely produce all that much their first season. Particularly 1st round TEs for some reason. Evan Engram has the best recent rookie season by a tight end with 772 yds and 6 TDs. You'd have to go back to Jeremy Shockey in 2002 to find a TE with a better rookie season than Engram. I wouldn't expect Pitts to have a huge impact year 1.
 
Carp said:
There's always an exception, but TEs rarely produce all that much their first season. Particularly 1st round TEs for some reason. Evan Engram has the best recent rookie season by a tight end with 772 yds and 6 TDs. You'd have to go back to Jeremy Shockey in 2002 to find a TE with a better rookie season than Engram. I wouldn't expect Pitts to have a huge impact year 1.
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You may be right, but given Ryan's skill at distribution, I would bet on him having a good year and then getting much better.
 
zitothebrave said:
You may be right, but given Ryan's skill at distribution, I would bet on him having a good year and then getting much better.
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Its also been a very, very long time since we've seen a TE with Pitts' talent come into the league. He's 6-6, 246 lbs and runs a 4.44 40 time. He also has good route running skills and is an excellent receiver.

He's a guy you almost hate to classify as a TE as he's likely to line up as a wideout a fair bit too. Considering he has Matt Ryan throwing to him, a head coach that loves to do things with TEs, and excellent WR's (assuming they keep Julio) making defenses struggle to matchup, you could see him put up some elite numbers for a rookie TE.

It's pretty much a perfect situation to get some crazy numbers from Pitts. That doesn't mean it will happen, but the ingredients are there.
 
He may run a 4.44 40. But you can't take much away from this year's pro days. Weird how there were like 5X as many sub 4.5 40s in this years cycle than there were in basically any cycle before. I think I saw like 20 or more sub 4.4 times, which is even sillier actually.

Vernon was similar athlete coming out of college. Ran a 4.38 40. I would argue Kellen Winslow and Noah Fant were about as good of athletes as Pitts. Fant had a decent rookie. I would probably expect something along lines. Maybe 2-3 more TDs than Fant since he'll have a better QB.
 
Carp said:
He may run a 4.44 40. But you can't take much away from this year's pro days. Weird how there were like 5X as many sub 4.5 40s in this years cycle than there were in basically any cycle before. I think I saw like 20 or more sub 4.4 times, which is even sillier actually.

Vernon was similar athlete coming out of college. Ran a 4.38 40. I would argue Kellen Winslow and Noah Fant were about as good of athletes as Pitts. Fant had a decent rookie. I would probably expect something along lines. Maybe 2-3 more TDs than Fant since he'll have a better QB.
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Davis was raw. People liked him because of his raw athletic ability. Pitts is a much better route runner and catcher. and while not as physically gifted (Davis was much stronger) he is taller, and as many coaches have told me, you can't coach someone taller.
 
Tapate50 said:
He’s a better pass catcher by far than Davis .

But yeah young Tes struggle
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I think part of the problem I have with some analyses of him is that it might be unfair to call him a TE. He might be as much WR as TE. They'll definitely line him up a lot of different ways.
 
striker42 said:
I think part of the problem I have with some analyses of him is that it might be unfair to call him a TE. He might be as much WR as TE. They'll definitely line him up a lot of different ways.
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I think calling him an oversized WR may be fair. I suspect a number of 2 TE packages from Atlanta in the coming year. Ryan will get a lot out of Pitts. Maybe he won't be a 1000 yard receiver his rookie year (I'd bet against it) but there's a decent chance he will be a top 10 TE from the jump. I think 600-800 yards and a half dozen TDs is doable for him. Especially because short of teams with amazing coverage LBs, no one will be able to match him. You can't stick safeties on him because you have to respect Julio and Ridley.

I think the defensive strategy against the Falcons is blitz and get to Ryan before he finds the inevitably open receiver.
 
zitothebrave said:
I think calling him an oversized WR may be fair. I suspect a number of 2 TE packages from Atlanta in the coming year. Ryan will get a lot out of Pitts. Maybe he won't be a 1000 yard receiver his rookie year (I'd bet against it) but there's a decent chance he will be a top 10 TE from the jump. I think 600-800 yards and a half dozen TDs is doable for him. Especially because short of teams with amazing coverage LBs, no one will be able to match him. You can't stick safeties on him because you have to respect Julio and Ridley.

I think the defensive strategy against the Falcons is blitz and get to Ryan before he finds the inevitably open receiver.
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That's reasonable. It's hard even for a rookie receiver to break 1,000 yards. Julio is quite possibly a future HOFer and he didn't even break 1,000 his rookie year. That's a pretty high bar for a rookie.

I'm not going to rule out an insane rookie year for him though. The circumstances he's stepping into are perfect.
 
Certainly, he could finish the season and lead the league in receptions if the league doesn't respect him. I don't think that will happen. We see what Tight-Ends can do in this league if not respected. They are basically cheat codes in short distance passing games. What I look forward to is seeing what Pitts does for Julio's deep game. My guess what most teams do is line up a big CB against him and hit him hard at the line with a LB. Falcons overcoming these things will determine how good they are.

The Falcons defense will be miserable. If they're not the worst in the league I'll be happy. How Ryan and the offense plays will determine how good they are. I expect special teams to be solid, and I think defense they need to just pray for the best. Offensively they need to just let Ryan off the hook. Basically abandon the running game use it sparingly and just hit them over and over again with passes.
 
zitothebrave said:
I'll riot. I want to see Ryan shatter passing records.
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It makes the draft make zero sense. The only way drafting Pitts makes sense is if you're going to try to make a final run or two at a Super Bowl with Ryan. To do that you have to have Julio. You trade Julio and the passing attack goes from lethal to just good. With the defense shaping up to be terrible, a good passing attack is taking you nowhere.

If the Falcons felt they couldn't keep Julio for cap reasons then they should have started a rebuild. Fields was a PERFECT fit for a rebuild. He could learn to play in a pro system behind Ryan for a year or even two, he's a local kid, he's got the potential to energize fans like Vick did, and he's probably the most physically gifted QB to come into the league in a few years.

Drafting Pitts to trade Julio just makes zero sense. However, I have to believe the rumors are true. It's not just a one source thing at this point.
 
I have to believe they know something regarding Julio's health. He only played in 9 games this past season. Anything like that again and he wont have near the trade value. Probably thinking its best to trade him now than a year too late. Teams should part with better draft picks since they wont take place till next year. Maybe they can find a good gamble and get a top 10 pick.
 
According to Rapoport, Julio requested a trade a couple months ago and that's why they're continuing to try to trade him. If that's the case, they should have gone into rebuilding mode. Drafting Pitts with the idea he'd help replace Julio is just dumb. For the Falcons to have a prayer this year they'd need the passing attack to be insane and the only way that happens is if you have Riley, Julio, and Pitts running all over the field with Ryan just throwing to whoever is open.

Should have passed on Pitts and drafted a QB. Pretty classic Falcons though.
 
striker42 said:
According to Rapoport, Julio requested a trade a couple months ago and that's why they're continuing to try to trade him. If that's the case, they should have gone into rebuilding mode. Drafting Pitts with the idea he'd help replace Julio is just dumb. For the Falcons to have a prayer this year they'd need the passing attack to be insane and the only way that happens is if you have Riley, Julio, and Pitts running all over the field with Ryan just throwing to whoever is open.

Should have passed on Pitts and drafted a QB. Pretty classic Falcons though.
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I think the bigger mistake was passing on Chase. If you're going to trade Julio, might as well draft his replacement. I guess if you think Pitts is a generational talent, I could see it. But he'd have to be Gronk/prime Jimmy Graham to be worth passing over Chase for. Also, it seems like you could have gotten more for Julio 2 months ago before all of this leaked out and teams hadn't already made their draft picks. Now you've likely taken some potential suitors like Cincy and Miami off the board.
 
Carp said:
I think the bigger mistake was passing on Chase. If you're going to trade Julio, might as well draft his replacement. I guess if you think Pitts is a generational talent, I could see it. But he'd have to be Gronk/prime Jimmy Graham to be worth passing over Chase for. Also, it seems like you could have gotten more for Julio 2 months ago before all of this leaked out and teams hadn't already made their draft picks. Now you've likely taken some potential suitors like Cincy and Miami off the board.
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You might have gotten more for Julio two months ago but the Falcons wouldn't have been able to field a team had they traded him then. Have to wait for June 1 or the cap hit would be devastating.

The Falcons need to rebuild badly.
 
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