Official 2016 NFL Draft Thread

NFL radio guys were talking about him at Senior Bowl practice, which piqued my interest. He & Green from TCU are two speed guys that I like, although Green was not used as a receiver nearly as much as Ervin was.  

Ervins hands don't look very natural in the video. Not bad, but he doesn't snatch the ball fluidly either.  

The guy who kind of intrigues me as a TT-type pick is Braxton Miller, but his stock has taken him above the Packers' second-round pick. 

Braxton Miller is an interesting one to me.  I live close to Columbus and I unfortunately have seen every game of Braxton's career and I just don't see a body of work that shows a 2nd round pick  Fast yes but he really wasn't used much outside of the occasional running play that did nothing.  He did have some nice TD catches though. 

Hungry5 posted:

Thompson will take him the 3rd. Packers fans will kvetch.

 

And Thompson will chortle.

FLPACKER posted:

I see Ervin as smaller, more elusive , & more explosive than Starks. 

Is Crockett a player?

Dream scenario would be Ragland in the first, Henry in the 2nd 

and trust Ted on the rest. 

Pikes Peak posted:

FLPACKER posted:

I see Ervin as smaller, more elusive , & more explosive than Starks. 

Is Crockett a player?

I really like Crockett, he runs like his hairs on fire. However he does not have the speed that these two have, which I think our offense is in dire need of.

Braxton is a fantastic athlete, but where does he fit in GB? Unless the injuries to Jordy, Adams or Monty are worse than expected I can't imagine they look at Miller. If they hadn't just taken Monty I would buy it or if there wasn't real promise from Abby and Janis displayed. 

Miller is very raw, but he's almost an Odell Beckham-type athlete. He gets compared to Cobb, which I think is more because of his position history, but I think he ends up playing outside and I think someone jumps on him pretty early. He'd be a heck of a piece in Oakland, for example. 

Of course the Browns could take Wentz and maybe get him at the top of Round 2 and ruin them both.

It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out between now and draft day.  But if the draft where today, I don't think things fall all that well for Big Ted in round one.

My gut feeling is that with the first round pick he'll want to grab an impact pass-rusher (DL or OLB) or an elite pass-catching tight end.  It's possible that only one tight end (Hunter Henry) will carry a first or second round grade and chances are better than 50% that he will be gone when the Packer's first rounder comes up.  The pass-rusher with easily the most upside likely to be available when the Packers pick is Noah Spence but I don't think Ted would pick him because of significant character issues.  All the defensive linemen with top pass-rush upside are likely to be gone when the Packer's pick comes up.  I think the best player that would make sense for Green Bay is Kansas State offensive lineman Cody Whitehair.  He fits what Ted looks for in offensive linemen perfectly, but I don't think Ted will want to take an offensive lineman that early. 

I still think it will be Shilique Calhoun, for some reason. He has size to set the edge, good pass rush skills and is reportedly a good locker room/leadership guy. He's a lot like Nick Perry, in my mind, though probably a bit more agile. Late first to early second seems to be where he'll land also. 

Using the Draftek board: 

And here's where BPA runs in to redundancy (Fanspeak board):

I would trust TT's evaluation of BPA better than anyone else's.  If Helmet Hair or McShay were any good they would be on a NFL staff and not blathering on ESPN. 

What about the Matt Millen board?

1. WR

2 .WR

3. WR

4. WR

I just don't see TT taking a TE in RD1.  Not a valuable enough position for him to see any TE in this year's crop as BPA at 27.

I don't see anyway that Henry goes in first round.

FLPACKER posted:

I don't see anyway that Henry goes in first round.

Disagree. It's possible.

As long as Jerry Jones is calling the shots in Dallas, anything is possible.

Disagree.  Anything is not possible.  

IMHO, the only way he goes in First round is if runs sub 4.65 at combine. 

"$hilique" twitter handle, not TT material?

If Anything is not possible then not possible is possible.

Maybe.

Definitely maybe, or not.

WWYD

ammo posted:

I would trust TT's evaluation of BPA better than anyone else's.  If Helmet Hair or McShay were any good they would be on a NFL staff and not blathering on ESPN. 

Guys like Pat Kirwin, Daniel Jeremiah, Greg Gabriel, etc. all have done the job, and support many of the other guys who now do the same thing. The first thing they'll tell you is that the biggest difference between what they did then and now is they now don't have access to all the personal interviews and information actual scouts do. They don't get to dig in to the personal lives of all the kids they're scouting. People with understanding and a discerning eye can do film study, it's the info about the guy's attitude and aptitude that they don't have access to. 

But the point was that when you say "Best Player Available" (which isn't exactly true anyway) if you truly follow that mantra, it's a fool's errand to count on talent matching your need at every turn. That's where prudent free agent spending comes in.   

TT takes the BPA on his board every time. Why would anyone take the 2nd or 4th or 10th best player on their board? TT's board doesn't match anyone else's though, it's why it's his board. Also I think he uses Bonger's consensus board as a reference, but only the 11th version...any fewer than that and it's not truly and up-to-date consensus and any more would just be over analyzing.

Which is a big part of the reason why they end up with gaping holes at certain positions. When the guys in the value tier simply don't match the team's needs, do you grab a guy who can play, or just say "**** it, we still have Aaron Rodgers for a few more years and maybe we'll get lucky along the way"?

Draft and ???

Posted by PackerJoe:

"I think the best player that would make sense for Green Bay is Kansas State offensive lineman Cody Whitehair.  He fits what Ted looks for in offensive linemen perfectly",

Disagree, Ted likes white hair

Hungry5 posted:

Draft and ???

Even if development only took a single training camp, how to you develop what you don't draft? 

That's what UDFAs are for. 

Because we know TT isn't going the free agency route to get those players.

So undrafted free agents should be developed in to productive players in training camp their rookie year? 

So you're advocating drafting for need and signing free agents? A proven strategy in the league for sure. Tampa must be polishing their 6th Super Bowl trophy at this point and the probably adding additional space for this year!

I think he is saying they have 100% turnover of the roster every season.

Grave Digger posted:

So you're advocating drafting for need and signing free agents? A proven strategy in the league for sure. Tampa must be polishing their 6th Super Bowl trophy at this point and the probably adding additional space for this year!

Yeah, except that's the exact opposite of what I said. 

But if you think having a Hall-of-Fame QB with a mostly solid roster racking up participation trophies is good enough, that's on you. 

I think that's generally how the NFL goes. There's a reason we end up with a different SB winner every year. That's why some players and coaches go careers without winning any SBs. It should be an expectation every year, but the reality is that's not going to happen. We aren't squandering Aaron Rodgers career, Peyton Manning has had to hang on until 40 just to get another shot to win another one. I will take McCarthy/Thompson and chance to win every year over one chance and mediocrity.