REAL FOOTBALL Thread

Rumor that the Panthers are zeroing in on Levis, if so that's a big gamble.

Stroud and Young are the safer of the 2. THis could wind up being a huge win for Indy as I assume that Texans take young. So Indy gets Stroud and that seems like best cast scenario for Indy.
 
It would not shock me at all if the Falcons went with Bijan Robinson at the 8 pick. He's likely the only true blue chip skill player (minus QB) in this class.

Probably Pass rusher though. Nolan Smith is a damn fine player that should be there.
 
I want nothing with Nolan Smith at number 8. Ther'es much better technical DEs.

Smith is a freak athlete and would be a good mid teens to lower 20s pick.

We have a decent shot if QBs go 1-4 like a lot of people are projecting (common projection is arizona trading down) and the Falcons could have a shot at one of the 3 blue chip talents in the draft. Anderson, Carter, and Gonzalez. After them you have the QBs of course. And then a mishmash of Bijan, Wilson, Witherspoon, Van Ness, etc. all going around that space.

Of course the top 7 picks could go to the top 7 players and the best of the rest is BIjan.

I do think Nolan Smith would be the guy that Dan Quinn would have drafted.
 
zitothebrave said:
I want nothing with Nolan Smith at number 8. Ther'es much better technical DEs.

Smith is a freak athlete and would be a good mid teens to lower 20s pick.

We have a decent shot if QBs go 1-4 like a lot of people are projecting (common projection is arizona trading down) and the Falcons could have a shot at one of the 3 blue chip talents in the draft. Anderson, Carter, and Gonzalez. After them you have the QBs of course. And then a mishmash of Bijan, Wilson, Witherspoon, Van Ness, etc. all going around that space.

Of course the top 7 picks could go to the top 7 players and the best of the rest is BIjan.

I do think Nolan Smith would be the guy that Dan Quinn would have drafted.
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I think we're probably looking at the second tier of players.

The Falcons were so Falcons last year. They were absolutely terrible, had zero chance to do anything meaningful, and yet won just enough to screw up their draft position and get let out of the truly elite players.

But don't worry about Nolan Smith. No way the Falcons draft a UGA player in the first round.
 
striker42 said:
I think we're probably looking at the second tier of players.

The Falcons were so Falcons last year. They were absolutely terrible, had zero chance to do anything meaningful, and yet won just enough to screw up their draft position and get let out of the truly elite players.

But don't worry about Nolan Smith. No way the Falcons draft a UGA player in the first round.
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This is a great draft to be picking number 8 it appears. 3 QBs should be off the board meaning we get the 5th best non-QB, draft is stacked with top end edge talent and corner talent who could all be probowl level players.

This years draft is much better than last year's draft.
 
zitothebrave said:
This is a great draft to be picking number 8 it appears. 3 QBs should be off the board meaning we get the 5th best non-QB, draft is stacked with top end edge talent and corner talent who could all be probowl level players.

This years draft is much better than last year's draft.
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It's an even better draft to be picking top 5. Falcons find a way to screw things up though.
 
striker42 said:
It's an even better draft to be picking top 5. Falcons find a way to screw things up though.
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For sure. THey should have started Ridder in like week 6 and we may have lost or won a few more games but we'd know more about what we have with ridder as well.

Hypothetical scenario, we're good with ridder and we're picking like 16th, we know we have our guy so lets focus on something else. Or Ridder was brutal and we know he may not be it. And we're picking 4th. We draft Levis or Stroud and bring Ryan back on a short contract to coach the kid up to be the next great Falcons QB.
 
Every good NFL team has to be built around a QB, a LT, and an edge rusher. You need anchors at those positions. You could put CB in that group but a dominant pass rush can allow you to skimp in coverage. In any event, the Falcons have Terrell at CB so it's not a huge need for them. The Falcons have ignored these spots the past two years and spent top 10 picks on pass catchers for some incomprehensible reason. So the Falcons should be targeting one of these cornerstone positions.

The Falcons are almost certainly not getting one of the elite QBs in this draft. Stroud and Young are going to be off the board in the top 2 or 3 picks. There's a good chance Levis and Richardson (I don't wane either) are gone as well. Unless the Falcons trade up they're probably looking at throwing a season at Ridder to see if he's the answer.

If this draft has a weak spot it's the lack of elite O-line talent. There are a lot of guys labeled as "solid" or "reliable" but not a lot of elite, franchise LT candidates. There are guys that would be fine to take at 8 but no one I'd be excited about.

This draft is deep in good edge rush options but it's not deep in great ones. I'd say the only elite edge rush option is Anderson and I'd be shocked if he's there at 8. There's Tyree Wilson who scares me. He reminds me of Jamaal Anderson. Ideal size for a DE, good speed, but not really explosive and relies too much on the bull rush (which might work in the Big 12 but you need more in the NFL). Nolan Smith is a popular name at 8 and he's probably the most athletic edge rusher in the draft though he's undersized and needs a lot of work on pass rush technique.

If Richardson or Levis is there at 8, I'd consider trading back. There has to be some team farther back who would want to jump up and snag one of them. With the depth in the second tier of this draft, moving from 8 to 10 or 11 (Titans and Texans) wouldn't greatly reduce the quality of player the Falcons would get and would give them what they need most, more picks.

But the Falcons will probably do something ridiculous like pick a guard or another TE.
 
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zitothebrave said:
For sure. THey should have started Ridder in like week 6 and we may have lost or won a few more games but we'd know more about what we have with ridder as well.

Hypothetical scenario, we're good with ridder and we're picking like 16th, we know we have our guy so lets focus on something else. Or Ridder was brutal and we know he may not be it. And we're picking 4th. We draft Levis or Stroud and bring Ryan back on a short contract to coach the kid up to be the next great Falcons QB.
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The Falcons pursuing a playoff spot was one of the dumbest things they've done. It was unlikely they'd actually get it and if they did it would be one game and out. That team was nowhere near competitive. They basically shot themselves int he foot for the sake of vanity.
 
striker42 said:
Every good NFL team has to be built around a QB, a LT, and an edge rusher. You need anchors at those positions. You could put CB in that group but a dominant pass rush can allow you to skimp in coverage. In any event, the Falcons have Terrell at CB so it's not a huge need for them. The Falcons have ignored these spots the past two years and spent top 10 picks on pass catchers for some incomprehensible reason. So the Falcons should be targeting one of these cornerstone positions.

The Falcons are almost certainly not getting one of the elite QBs in this draft. Stroud and Young are going to be off the board in the top 2 or 3 picks. There's a good chance Levis and Richardson (I don't wane either) are gone as well. Unless the Falcons trade up they're probably looking at throwing a season at Ridder to see if he's the answer.

If this draft has a weak spot it's the lack of elite O-line talent. There are a lot of guys labeled as "solid" or "reliable" but not a lot of elite, franchise LT candidates. There are guys that would be fine to take at 8 but no one I'd be excited about.

This draft is deep in good edge rush options but it's not deep in great ones. I'd say the only elite edge rush option is Anderson and I'd be shocked if he's there at 8. There's Tyree Wilson who scares me. He reminds me of Jamaal Anderson. Ideal size for a DE, good speed, but not really explosive and relies too much on the bull rush (which might work in the Big 12 but you need more in the NFL). Nolan Smith is a popular name at 8 and he's probably the most athletic edge rusher in the draft though he's undersized and needs a lot of work on pass rush technique.

If Richardson or Levis is there at 8, I'd consider trading back. There has to be some team farther back who would want to jump up and snag one of them. With the depth in the second tier of this draft, moving from 8 to 10 or 11 (Titans and Texans) wouldn't greatly reduce the quality of player the Falcons would get and would give them what they need most, more picks.

But the Falcons will probably do something ridiculous like pick a guard or another TE.
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I would argue an elite pass catcher is worth it (London isn't Elite of course) but if you can get Julio, Chase, etc. it's worth the top 10 pick. And I didn't hate the Pitts entirely, but it wouldn't have been what I would have done (I would have taken Chase or Sewell, Chase to replace Jones or Sewell to start the rebuild) the drafting of Pitts was built around the lie we'd still have Julio. It made sense in that context. Give Ryan an Elite receiver corps. With Julio gone you either replace him with Chase or you take Sewell to build up your line. Which I don't think our line is that terrible at this point. The 2019 draft shored up the line a lot. But we could have taken Sewell and began sunsetting Matthews. Or we could have gotten Chase to replace Jones. As you have pointed out, having a great TE is a luxury, not a need. ANd I agree with you.

2022 was a **** year. the talent was mediocre, even the top end talent wasn't amazing. I think when you look back it will be an all time stinker, I still wanted Cross or WIlson over London. Not that I think London is a bum. I just wanted Cross for the OT. What I really wanted was to trade down but no one seemed interested in that. That or we trade way back like with the Lions and we can't get enough value there.
 
striker42 said:
The Falcons pursuing a playoff spot was one of the dumbest things they've done. It was unlikely they'd actually get it and if they did it would be one game and out. That team was nowhere near competitive. They basically shot themselves int he foot for the sake of vanity.
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I mean the Falcons being mediocre but not terrible is why they're still in the boat. One true turd of a year gets us an elite talent. Where would we be if we had Hutchinson, Sauce Gardner, Trey Lance, etc. those are talents we could work with.
 
striker42 said:
Every good NFL team has to be built around a QB, a LT, and an edge rusher. You need anchors at those positions. You could put CB in that group but a dominant pass rush can allow you to skimp in coverage. In any event, the Falcons have Terrell at CB so it's not a huge need for them. The Falcons have ignored these spots the past two years and spent top 10 picks on pass catchers for some incomprehensible reason. So the Falcons should be targeting one of these cornerstone positions.

The Falcons are almost certainly not getting one of the elite QBs in this draft. Stroud and Young are going to be off the board in the top 2 or 3 picks. There's a good chance Levis and Richardson (I don't wane either) are gone as well. Unless the Falcons trade up they're probably looking at throwing a season at Ridder to see if he's the answer.

If this draft has a weak spot it's the lack of elite O-line talent. There are a lot of guys labeled as "solid" or "reliable" but not a lot of elite, franchise LT candidates. There are guys that would be fine to take at 8 but no one I'd be excited about.

This draft is deep in good edge rush options but it's not deep in great ones. I'd say the only elite edge rush option is Anderson and I'd be shocked if he's there at 8. There's Tyree Wilson who scares me. He reminds me of Jamaal Anderson. Ideal size for a DE, good speed, but not really explosive and relies too much on the bull rush (which might work in the Big 12 but you need more in the NFL). Nolan Smith is a popular name at 8 and he's probably the most athletic edge rusher in the draft though he's undersized and needs a lot of work on pass rush technique.

If Richardson or Levis is there at 8, I'd consider trading back. There has to be some team farther back who would want to jump up and snag one of them. With the depth in the second tier of this draft, moving from 8 to 10 or 11 (Titans and Texans) wouldn't greatly reduce the quality of player the Falcons would get and would give them what they need most, more picks.

But the Falcons will probably do something ridiculous like pick a guard or another TE.
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If the Titans don't take up to 3, we aren't trading up. And that's probably only if Stroud falls to 3.

Ideally, the Texans decide they don't want to deal with Stroud and his agent since he also represents Deshaun Watson, and they decide to take AR-15. Then the Titans trade up to 3 and get Stroud.
 
Niners allegedly shopping Lance. I find that hard to believe since Purdy's recovery window is all over the place. But maybe they trade lance and sign someone like Ryan. Boy I'd hate for Ryan to go there.

I would like Lance but I wouldn't trade the 8 for him.
 
I don't see them trading him anyways. Purdy coming off a pretty major injury, and he's not exactly proven yet either.
 
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