Khyber53

It's not the franchise changing pick we were all hoping for, myself included. It was, on longer consideration, a wise pick that could change the W-L column for us. Better DB play means our rushers get home more often. Means we get their offense off the field more. And it means we can take great advantage of playing INT-machine Jameis Winston twice a season.

After Aaron Hernandez and Patrick Chung, I don't think Belichick cares what happens off the field with his players. Heck even Mike Vrabel got arrested. Me, I think character counts, but Bill hoists trophies.

Look, I had no inkling this was going to be our guy. I didn't think we'd address secondary until much later in the draft. I felt we needed O-line more than anything and I still think we do. That being said... Horn is our guy now and a Panther. I'm going to cheer for him and I hope he has an outstanding, HoF career here. We did have massive problems with the defense last season. We just could not get the opposing team off the field in so many of our games. I think there were four or five games (maybe more) where the other team never had to punt a single time. And we lost a lot of those games by a single score. If our offense can continue to improve and this CB can just break up a few passes per game, then we could win some simple as that. If he becomes the guy that other teams just hate to see roll out into coverage against their WR1 then we're golden. I'm trusting that there's a plan in the works here. It took 2016-2019 to ruin the team, it might take more than a single season to rebuild it. Congrats Jaycee, do us proud!

Worked for him the last time.

Right now there are cheers in Detroit, Minnesota and Chicago.

I remember. Karma can be very, very slow. Or she might just have a really, really big bag to fill for them. Sooner or later that swamp juju they've been relying on will extract its price.

Rodgers wants a team with a great o-line, top end receivers, first rate running back and an owner wanting to shell out the bucks with no worries about future caps. I'm thinking but... oh sh!t! Dak Prescott is gonna be a Packer.

Someday...

Rent might not come, but mortgages come like clockwork.

I see no reason to do anything that favors the Patriots or Bill Belichick. Screw 'em. Let 'em pick 15th or trade back their own danged selves.

The Saints, always finding some way to mortgage tomorrow for today.

Look, most of the knocks against him deal with his athleticism. Personally, I don't think it's what they are making of it. He can throw, he can process the game, he wins. Hell, I'd be happy with Len Dawson smoking a cigarette and drinking a Fresca at the half-time of the Super Bowl kind of guy. Just as long as he wins. And I think he can.

I said early on that we'd take Mac Jones but a lot, and I mean a lot, has changed since then. Something, though, tells me that things are going to work out in just such a way that Jones is still available at #8. And I think we take him. Darnold can compete for the spot. If he wants it bad enough, he just has to beat out a rookie QB to be the starter. And I don't think we take the option on Darnold's fifth year, but instead see how this plays out. If Darnold plays great then we negotiate out a longer deal at competitive rates and Jones sits on the bench and learns the game, gets more athletic and plays the traditional role of rookie QB2. If Darnold falters, then Jones comes in and we negotiate with Darnold as if he is a back-up QB, which we still actually need (Grier will never see the field in regular season again with us). If Jones isn't there, I think we grab Slater and solidify our line. And we double down in the second, picking up Creed Humphrey for guard/center and take Quinn Meinerz in the fourth for guard. Third rounder will be Jevon Holland as a safety. The guy is a good deep center fielder. Less Eric Reed more Ed Reed .. smart, strategic player who relies more on film study and anticipation than speed and hitting power. After that it's just guess work.

Glad we did it, it bodes well for our future plans. He's a dynamite player and the rare non-diva starting WR -- that's priceless in this league.

Cam's body of work stands for itself. In his prime, there was no one, and has been no one, like him.

You make some good points but you eventually lose support in that last paragraph. The truth is there aren't 32 franchise QBs out there. Right now we're at a strong point in the QB game with maybe 1/3 of the league having what you could call "franchise" QBs. Rodgers, Mahomes, Brady, Ryan, Roethlisberger, Mayfield, Allen, Watson, Wilson, Stafford, Jackson. A few that could count as good and the rest holding place, developing or sliding out the last of their career. The success rate is low, in general, for top end QBs coming right out of the draft, but we're also in a time when these guys have been given more coaching for a longer part of their lives than ever before. Some won't be able to transition into the big game and others will finally be failed by coaching after spending their lives growing from it. It's tough, but I think we'll see more than one of these top 5 make it. Two, maybe even three. But a few of them will be going to teams that have huge underlying problems and no QB could sort those things out, much less some kid straight out of college.

Otto Graham, just killed opposing defenses, through the air or on the ground. Fran Tarkenton, if they measured how far he ran in total rather than just yardage gained, he'd have about 120,000 yards rushing. Had a heck of an arm, too. Steve Young, that guy just won. Great arm and moved better than you'd think and better than most defenders thought before they faced him. Randal Cunningham was like a ghost out there, gliding through defenses. Good, good arm and a student of the game. Had he had the protections QBs have today he'd have had 10 more years of career. Cam was great, Vick was great, Mahomes is great, but there's some trailblazers that paved the way for them.

Good for us, good for Teddy. Hope the best for him and we move onward.

I'm betting it's going to be at least 5 picks offense, heavy on the line. We may see a safety in the fourth.

No one does. Lawrence will, however, be going to the Jags (barring some crazy idea getting into their new coach) and history says he's set up to fail there. Not his fault, but bad organization fault. Lawrence is by all accounts a great player, but he's going to suffer what most #1 draft picks suffer through. Jones, on the other hand, will be picked later, either going to a team with a bit more organizational strength or to a team like the 49ers that is pretty much a good QB short of a championship. If he goes there, his play style and pro readiness put him on a better and somewhat easier track to success in the NFL.

As much as we need help with our DBs, we've got to spend our first two, maybe three, picks on OL.

What a great story. Thanks for sharing.

Are we talking about the same guy? The guy had massive numbers last year, showed poise and control in all of his games, including the National Championship one. Yes, he had great receivers but it wasn't like those receivers were constantly having to make massive adjustments to make the catches. He made throws to all parts of the field, showed touch on short, medium and long throws and didn't put his receivers inn danger to make the catches (really important when one of your best receivers has the size of a high school sophomore). Really, I've defended the guy again and again, feel free to look it up on the forum here. He's good, really good, and the most polished of the QB prospects out there. A team like the 49ers can snag him, give him the play book and send him out to start on opening day. He'll do just fine and will win right out of the gate. Playoffs first year. Put him on a team like the Jags or Jets and he gets killed and ends up with no career. Just like every QB drafted by those guys for the last 15 years. And I pity the QBs those two will draft, they are walking into their dooms.

When you are Belichick, though, you have the idea that you can turn anyone into a multi-ringed Super Bowl champ. History is beginning to show that it might not have been Bill that was ringing the bell, though. Still, if he sees something or someone he wants, there's no GM in his way to stop him from making that trade. At least no GM in his office that'd do it, there are some GMs out there that'd do anything they could to stymie him.

I have every reason to believe that the Patriots will be trying to move up and take one of the top 5 QBs out there. There's no way they are looking at Cam for a long-term answer (love ya Cam but let's realize there's more good football behind ya than in front of ya). And there are too many QB hungry teams out there to not be aggressive in their pursuit -- it's likely that all of the top five will be gone before 15.