tukafan21

You realize he's not hiding from his speed, he's just not doing the events at the combine like a lot (most?) Top 10 picks generally don't do these days. From what I've seen, he's planning on doing the drills at the Big 12 Combine at the end of the month as well as at his Pro Day.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/why-are-players-slipping-at-the-2025-nfl-combine-behind-the-new-turf-field-pellets-at-lucas-oil-stadium/ Whether it's also slowing down some players times isn't for me to say or not, but they do have a new field that in theory should slow players down ever so slightly based on this article, it makes sense.

I don't know how true this is, but I read there were some concerns from some players over the field at the combine. I guess they recently put in a new turf and some players felt like it was slowing them down and was the reason behind some guys deciding not to do the testing and waiting for their Pro Days (or in the case of Big 12 guys, the Big 12 Combine they're putting on in a few weeks)

You guys realize when he talks about what he's looking for at the combine, he's more than likely NOT talking about our 1st pick where it's already a very limited pool of players they're looking at with that pick. It's more about looking at the other 300+ players and finding the guys they want to take a better look at in the middle rounds to fill out the roster with players we hope can become impact players for us.

I totally get it, but drafting players based on athletic ability and trying to project who they may become as they lose a step is a HORRIBLE way to draft players, it's how you end up with the Mingo's of the world Outside of players with pre-existing health concerns, you can't draft based on who they might become in 5-7 years after they get worn down, you draft them for who you think they can become as a player and you hope they can stay healthy. College Nick Foles is always someone I look back on when talking about practice vs games. When he transferred to Arizona, he lost the starting QB spot in camp/practice, and badly so, to the point where it wasn't even close. After a few games of the starter struggling, he got his shot, ran away with the job, set basically every Arizona passing record, was a 3rd round pick, ended up winning a SB and making a ton of money. But even for his 3 years in college, it was a constant discussion point about how he was terrible in practice, even as a Senior when he was years long entrenched as our starter, it was talked about how bad he was in practice for some reason. I realize that's one extreme example, but it's always stuck with me when talking about how some players are just gamers, and when it's a real game, for whatever reason, they just play differently.

And that's totally fair. But every year, you see fans (and analysts, as well as teams) talk about how their opinions change on players coming out of the combine, and it just bothers me. Again, 30 years ago, before HD cameras and before there was dedicated cameras for every player/position on the field to properly and easily view every snap a player had in college, those things made more sense to me to use when evaluating players. When some players you only had the TV and All 22 angles to go on with crappy pre-HD cameras, then yea, you needed more things like the combine to help evaluate them. So I just get a little ruffled when I see people talking about changing opinions based on combine testing results. If someone wants to say, "I finally got around to watching more film on X player and it changed my opinion because of Y or Z" then I'm totally fine with that of course.

My issue with the RAS score is that it's based on these combine tests, which as I've said numerous times, I despise. Even beyond them not wearing pads or doing actual football drills/skills, players don't practice and play in games the same way. Some guys are just gamers, who won't ever test well for whatever reason, but crush it on the field, just as some are the opposite and are workout warriors who look like 1st ballot HOFers Monday thru Saturday but are replacement level players on game day. So losing a step on your 40 yard dash because of injuries doesn't bother me when that player might just be a gamer, who when the lights are on, the adrenaline takes over and they just play at a different speed. Whether it's actual running speed or even just processing speed, it's a thing that some players translate differently to actual games.

It wasn't a specific statement about this draft or anything Morgan has said, it's that this franchise and fan base has fallen in love with high RAS score athletes for the last decade or so and put far too much weight behind pure athletic ability instead of actual football impact.

And this is why I utterly despise the combine I don't understand changing your opinions on players based on them performing non football drills without pads and that being the differentiator in your opinion of a player over 3-4 years of game tape on them. Like I've said before, the combine made more sense a few decades ago when there weren't a hundred HD cameras at every college game, so you get multiple angles of every snap of every player, over the course of their full career. It allowed you to compare players with each other when you didn't have access to all of that dedicated tape on each player. The only thing the combine is good for these days is the interviews and letting teams interview hundreds of players in person without needing to fly around the country for weeks on end. The actual on field drills are nothing more than TV fodder for fans to watch and networks to sell commercial time to make money.

He's still way too much of a raw project for me to be on board with at #8, he's not likely to be an impact player for at least a year or two, he's Burns 2.0, a tweener who is going to need a couple years to add bulk/strength to be able to play edge full time in the NFL. 1 year of actual playing time, edge rusher in a MLB body, seems like a 3-4 defensive player who if/when we switch back to a 4-3 in a year or two after we move on from Evero, won't have a natural position for us at that point either. We need to stop falling in love with high RAS score guys and thinking we're going to turn them into elite players through coaching.

Even if you ignore that Garrett wants to go to a contender, which in itself eliminates us. There is no world where we can put a trade together for Garrett that doesn't include the #8 pick.

who doesn't regularly clear their cache/history? I also don't bookmark every mock draft I see that supports an opinion on a player I don't want so I can use it later, nor am I going to waste any time finding them when I've even said it's not all or even most, just that I'm still seeing him fall that far in some mocks. And either way, the link you provided had just as many 18th or later (with a bunch in the late 20's or early 30's) mocks than 8th or higher, which still proves the same point about the polarization of him with scouts, which is all I've been trying to say anyways. He's a tweener with a low floor and only one year of good college performance, just not the type of player I'm taking the risk on with our depleted roster right now, not hard to understand. Teams already on the edge of playoff contention are who should be taking those type of risks in the 1st round, that's not us.

lol good one We have maybe a few starting worthy defensive players and still no #1 WR, but you want us to take a RB, a position we currently have a player with a Top 10 contract at the position? I get it, you can point to a team like the Lions who have done something similar recently, but they had such a better built out roster when they pulled that trigger to help put them over the top, it's not the pick you make given a team in our current situation. ONLY way I'm considering Jeanty is if we trade down, pick up an extra future 1st, and then he's still there. If that happens I'd be more open to considering it, but likely still wouldn't do it anyways.

How can you say he's an ILB but not a hybrid, when the reason he's moving up draft boards is because of his pass rushing ability? Maybe he's an ILB in a 4-3 who pass rushes more often than not, but to me, that's more of what a 3-4 OLB is, which is also why so many view him as a hybrid, as he's a pass rusher stuck in a MLB's body, which can work just fine in college, but it doesn't always translate to the NFL, and even when it does, it generally takes a few years for them to find their footing.

If we're taking him as an ILB and not an edge pass rusher, then that's a SUPER hard pass for me, as he's not Kuechly, we can't use #8 on an ILB that isn't in that mold of a player. Like I said a few posts ago, he's a tweener who doesn't currently fit a single NFL position, who doesn't haver a lot of game experience yet either, he's a project draft pick, not a day 1 impact starter.

Did you even look down that page before posting it or just look at the average that is skewed because of how many people are predicting us to take him at 8? On the first page of mock drafts, there are a bunch predicting us, likely due to the rumors of us liking him and our need for a pass rusher. But beyond that, there are only 2 other mocks that have him going to another team in the Top 10 and only 1 more before 15th. There are the same number of mocks (on that first page of results) that have him going 18 or later than going in the Top 8. So again, as I've said, he's a polarizing player who is rising on boards more due to athletic ability than game tape and production. We need a Week 1 starter with that pick, not a developmental player like Walker.

He's Burns 2.0 to me, not a true edge and not an off ball linebacker. Or maybe more accurately and more recent, he's the offensive version of XL, someone who had one year of quality play but tests off the charts so you fall in love with him and think you can coach him up He very well could pan out, but he also very well may be a guy who disappears 75% of the time because he's just not a fit for the position he's being put into, and people focus on the 25% of greatness too much. If we had a more built out roster right now, I'd be much more on board with a risk like that, but we're just not there for me to be okay with that right now at #8.

Not remotely accurate, I very well know that mock drafts aren't rankings. As I've said, Walker wasn't viewed as a consensus 1st rounder 2 months ago, let alone a Top 10 guy. He's an athletic freak who teams/scouts are salivating over because of his potential and what they think they can turn him into, not because he's a blue chip prospect. I don't like those kind of players, I utterly despise taking those late risers on draft boards because it's usually about physical traits, not actual football ability. That viewpoint of mine has nothing to do with Walker other than him being that guy in this position right now, but it's how I've always felt about all players in the draft.

I'm not saying he falls to the 2nd in most, but I do regularly (as in multiple times a week) look at mock drafts that have him falling to the 2nd, even if it's only 15% of the mocks, it shows how drastic the opinions are of him. I don't see any of the other "projected Top 10" guys falling into the 2nd in any mocks, sure maybe some fall into the mid teens or even early 20's, but that's the furthest I think I've seen any of them fall. Walker is the picture perfect example of the prospect who moves up draft boards after the NCAA season has ended, because people fall in love with his physical traits more than what he's shown on the field. Those players scare the living daylights out of me, and we're just not in the position as a franchise right now to take those risks in my very honest opinion.

Well duh, everything is an opinion on here. But I'm not talking about the player (and before anyone says it, no, it's not about T-mac either), I'm talking about risk vs reward and we can't keep taking the massive risks in the first few rounds of the draft. I'd rather reach on a player with a higher floor but lower ceiling, or trade down, than take such a raw prospect who's success is going to be more dependent on how well we'll coach them up vs how good they already are.

Love how the consensus on here is a player I've regularly seen fall into the 2nd round in mock drafts but everyone here is sold on him at #8. I'm not saying he will or should fall to the 2nd, but it shows how drastically different opinions are on him, just not the type of prospect (position/player aside) that I'd like to see us take in the Top 10, we can't keep taking risks on low floor uber high ceiling type of guys, it's how we keep putting ourselves behind the 8 ball in building out our roster

So........ Bryce Young but a better NFL QB skillset?

oh really? Then yea, this is him, no doubt in my mind about it, just the things he's said and how he's reacted to people saying things about Hunter, it's exactly like Cam used to do it, to a T

Any team that looks at him being a better CB than WR, at his size (he's only 185 lbs), and the wear and tear he's already had, and thinks making him a WR is his best chance at having a long healthy career, would only be hurting themselves. I don't think any team would ever consider making him a full time WR only. Why would you play someone at their lesser position when their size makes them more susceptible to injury at that position than their other one which they're already better at? Even if the NFL made him choose one position to be listed at for the combine because he has to be in only one group for going through all the non position specific stuff, he still chose to be a CB, because he knows that's his better side of the ball.

I haven't seen him around in a while, but that account linked there also isn't the one he used the last year or so, there is I think an extra "a" in that one, you can see it says he hasn't been online in almost a year there, which obviously, the person we're talking about has been.