theinstrumental

He's not close to returning from his injury, per Schefter. So we're just going to have to keep watching Baker for a bit.

That may not be predictive. Pittsburgh also only hires good coaches, and Tepper hasn't done that yet.

Probably because three of the next five picks already look great, including Surtain, who was picked next and plays the same position. Also probably because the Giants just picked twice in the top seven because they were smart enough to say yes to the same deal we were offered. Almost all of the realistic alternatives—picking the other corner, picking the offensive tackle, picking the LB/EDGE, trading down with Chicago, maybe even picking Fields—look better than what we ended up with. Obviously none of this is Horn’s fault, though.

Maybe, but I don’t think that’s the whole picture. We had 53 snaps to the Browns’ 80. Five ended with tipped passes and four featured fumbled snaps. One screen to CMC was called back due to Ian Thomas’ holding call; at least one more got blown up. It was a really low-volume day against an opponent that controlled the clock and in an offense that couldn’t get the basics right. But I don’t think the team’s intentionally avoiding using him.

That is an outside zone distribution vs a gap/power distribution. There’s nothing wrong with either emphasis. The difference on Sunday was in the execution of the teams’ offensive and defensive lines.

He returned two punts in their last pre-season game. He fumbled one. Doubt he's in as an Andre Roberts replacement. Like everyone else, I hope he's here for a Curtis Samuel/Deebo/Cordarrelle Patterson role. Would be a good way to insure against CMC over-use.

Let’s look at it this way: he’s a pass-catching specialist on a team who just used the sixth overall pick on a receiver and then traded the entire farm for another. Do they think he’s that good? Should we?

Pass. He’s a big slot receiver, not really a tight end. Doesn’t make sense with the new offensive line that specializes in the run game.

Wasting Corral’s reps on PJ Walker is really peak Rhule BS. This is the kind of stuff that college coaches need to learn to let go of when they get to the pros, and if they can’t, the stuff that kills them. Stop wasting Baker’s first-team reps on Sam. Stop wasting Corral’s reps on PJ Walker. Stop wasting Bozeman’s reps on Elflein, Brady’s guard reps on Michael Jordan, and Icky’s on Brady. Trust your GM and play the roster like it’s supposed to be played. Jesus.

Yep. Brown's still a theory, Brady actually has to take the spot, and Elflein and Erving are both real, real rough when they actually get PT. If someone gets hurt it's better to be able to throw Elf or Erving into whatever spot opens up than have to re-shuffle the whole line, but it still creates a serious weak spot at whatever position they have to play.

Williams might have passed Duren with his measurements at the combine. Duren didn’t even measure, which teams might take as a red flag. If either falls to us and we can find a defensive-minded wing at 15 and a coach who can instill some toughness, then the roster should be in good shape. I’m not a huge fan of trying to pay a vet center to come in and fix all of our defensive woes. Paying a center creates holes on the wing, which are too important in the playoffs. And defense requires buy-in from everybody; even the Jazz can’t just have Gobert bail them out all the time.

I love this. He’s also mentioned that he thinks the top 15 of every draft is where you get star players, so he’s very unlikely to trade out of 6 this year.

I completely agree with you. I can only hope that the FO gets it right.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if the FO have him above Cross due to his physicality and Cross's lack of run blocking tape. I think the "if you run 28 times a game then you win" thing is pretty dumb but if you're a big believer, I can see how you'd talk yourself into this guy.

Neal gets knocked off by the defensive tackle, not by Walker throwing him, but still a good play by Walker.

Bad logic on this pick. He's only ever played tackle and I don't actually think he'd be a good fit at guard. He's physical but he's tall. Things happen fast inside and defensive tackles might get leverage. I actually don't hate the idea of ending up with him, and don't hold where he went to school against him. But not at 6.

I'm fine with letting the nepotism hires go. Replace them with someone who got in on merit.

Guys the Chiefs traded a sixth round pick for Melvin Ingram at the trade deadline because the Steelers didn't think he was any good and he immediately transformed their defense. Burns and Reddick wouldn't just start on that defense, they'd be two of the four best players.

Neal > Cross > Ekwonu > Hamilton. If somehow all three of those tackles are gone then I guess we'll have to get creative, but Hamilton and Stingley are the two top-five prospects that I wouldn't be excited for at all. I could at least talk myself into Hutchinson and Thibodeaux because of the position.

The defensive secondary was just as big a problem as the offensive was last year. We just got that fixed. We can't set that on fire just because we haven't fixed the other massive hole yet. If we want to be a man-heavy team that can cover well enough to dedicate extra bodies to stopping the run and rushing the passer--which is clearly the blueprint--then we can't just give up both dudes. Every team needs three guys who can cover. We finally have them. Let's keep them.

Hell yeah, let's hire another QB coach/passing game coordinator so that Rhule can get pissed off when we don't run the ball 35 times a game.

It's a vet min for a young QB. Even if he ends up on the PS he still needs to be under contract. I think the powers that be still know that they're toast if they don't fix the QB room, I still expect a big change there.

Cross is pretty good. This team still needs help just about everywhere, though. It would help more if they can move back and grab Trevor Penning, Linderbaum, or Kenyon Green and add some picks to keep building the roster. Even if Cross is great and BC slots in at guard, they'll need one more guard and still be stuck with Elflein at center. This isn't a one player fix.

It's a pretty good unit. Also our entire defensive secondary has been gashed by injuries lately--all defenses look worse when they lose top-ten draft picks (Jaycee Horn) and the defensive backfield is made up entirely of dudes who started this year on the deep bench or on other teams.

Christensen's pretty good. I actually liked the last draft. Terrace Marshall isn't working out yet but everyone liked that pick at the time.