Mr. Scot

Teams (besides us) that were expected / predicted / mocked to take a QB in this draft: - Lions (nobody took that too seriously) - Falcons - Seahawks - Steelers (they did) - Saints (by a few) - Vikings (same) Am I missing anyone?

Because the ones that are available aren't worth it.

They had to have valued someone if they entertained the idea in the first place. What derailed them was the additional cost of trading up that far. From the article... “I had the card in my hand, and he looks at me and says, What do you want to do?” Fitterer said. “And we both just kind of took a moment, and we looked at the board, and we decided the right thing to do was to be patient. Let’s not overpay. Let’s be smart about this. Let’s not dig ourselves in a hole for next year. Let’s inch back on trading with these quarterbacks.” At that point, he, Rhule and the group resolved to wait a little longer and, since they had enough conviction on a couple of the guys left, take another look when another quarterback came off the board. It didn’t happen for a while. But eventually, 10 picks into the third round, the Falcons pulled Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder off the board. Twelve picks after that, the Titans drafted Liberty’s Malik Willis. And, stunned again by how guys at a certain position fell, the Panthers got aggressive and started making calls—very comfortable with the idea of taking either Ole Miss’s Matt Corral or North Carolina’s Sam Howell.

New Orleans I somewhat get because they like Winston. Seattle I don't get at all. Lock? Smith? Eason? Yikes! I suppose they could still go after Mayfield but they still seem lukewarm on that idea.

We did. Breer confirmed we had a deal in place to trade into the second but backed off.

Don't know about other GMs, but Fitterer has talked more than once about not necessarily having to use a high pick to get a great quarterback though. And heck, you might naturally expect him to have that outlook given where he came from.

Apparently their advisors did too.

Is that what NFL teams really think though or is that just what we fans think they think? Fitterer has said more than once that Matt Corral is the future. And no, that's not something you "have to say" about a third round pick.

Yeah, that part stings. I'd agree that we as fans do tend to overvalue what media analysts tell us when in reality their evaluations tend not to match up with what NFL teams think.

Actually I think most of the needy teams traded for somebody this year, or last. A lot of them, us included, also drafted someone this year. They just waited till the later rounds to do it.

I'd put that one under the "anything can happen" category. (or under the "monkeys might fly out of my butt" category, whichever you prefer) Yeah it's possible, but I don't think it's likely.

I posted a general discussion on it in another thread. The reasons will be mostly individual, but it is still a collective event. And I'd add one that surprised a fair number of people. (me included)

Just for the record, I wasn't a huge fan of OL Coach John Matsko myself, but I know some were (Ellis is one).

I feel like when this year's draft is discussed in the future, one of the big topics is going to be how the quarterbacks outside of Pickett fell so far. One of the questions of course will be did they really "fall" or was this where they were supposed to be and we just didn't know it? Here are some perspectives regarding individual quarterbacks, although the discussion could apply to a few of them. One of the fallers fell to us, of course. Obviously, there are a number of factors that contribute to something like this. I'm wondering though what people think of either the slide in general or what happened to their particular favorite.

Thing is, Willis isn't the only one who dropped.

Think that was Ricky.

Just to be clear, I don't have a problem with this. It's just kinda odd to see. The NIL era is definitely different.

It's been suggested in the past that he might be better as a 3-4 OLB than a 4-3 DE

Word is they're still looking to trade him, and honestly it sounds like it wouldn't take a huge offer.

Also reuniting with Rivera, of course...

I definitely wouldn't beat Fitterer in a staring contest.

Well to be fair, I don't think anybody foresaw the massive drops all the quarterbacks made in this draft. Kudos to Verge for correctly predicting Strong might go undrafted though...

Same. You can tell having to sit and wait without second and third round picks didn't sit well with Fitterer.

Yeah, that comparison occurred to me.