Official 2019 Pre Draft Discussion

[Shock&Awe]

What does everyone think of Erik McCoy at #28. I liked him against Clemson. He can play guard and take over for Pouncey eventually.

I still see the same things in Wilkins that i didn't like last year.

I think 28 is too high for him, as I've seen him as a 2nd/3rd round guy. I'm convinced that there's going to be a very strong crop of DTs on the board at 28. If we pass, I fear that by the time our second pick rolls around we're gonna be left with scraps.

[Steve]

Say....what did you see in Wilkins that you didn't like? To me, very talented prospect, locker room leader, and one of the safer picks in the draft...kid could have come out and made a ton of money last year, but went back to Clemson to try and win a championship with his bros. Whats not to like?

Not that it speaks to his skill as a football player, but Wilkins also got his BS and MS degrees in 3.5 years in Clemson. It is becoming increasingly difficult to just get a BS degree in 4 years, but he got 2 degrees in less than 4 years. A few 5th-year seniors do end up taking some graduate level classes to maintain eligibility, and one or two I have heard of get close to finishing, but he is the only one I have heard of actually finishing, and he did it in less time than the traditional 4 years.

Since so much of the NFL is learning in meetings, studying outside of work and good time management to get everything you need for preparation, I think it says a lot about Wilkins.

I think McCoy is one of those guys that the draftniks warm on slowly, but teams rank very highly. OL play is about developing good fundamentals. McCoy has them, and the things he needs work on are the things all players need to work on coming out of college. He needs to do a bit better job of hand placement and anchoring, but otherwise is pretty good.

[beachcomber]

the most glowing report of Taylor Rapp that I've seen to date:

Where He Wins: More often than any player in this draft he is the one who starts plays off camera and ends up flying in and making the tackle. Gives you exposures from all safety alignments, including single high. Rapp can blitz, he can cover in man, he's a fantastic tackler in space and he will time his hits to disrupt at the catch point.

Forecast: I'm not going to call him Derwin James, but Rapp can succeed with practically any responsibility and any alignment.

http://www.rotoworld.com/article/rankings/norris-nfl-draft-prospect-rankings-top-50

[wu-dai clan]

the most glowing report of Taylor Rapp that I've seen to date:



http://www.rotoworld.com/article/rankings/norris-nfl-draft-prospect-rankings-top-50

Let's see what happens at WA ProDay April 1st.

[Lone Bolt]

the most glowing report of Taylor Rapp that I've seen to date:



http://www.rotoworld.com/article/rankings/norris-nfl-draft-prospect-rankings-top-50

Nice piece...already high on Rapp...sadly, if he has a good pro day, we may never get a shot at one of my favs in the draft.

[Boltjolt]

That link also has Boykin and Ozigbo ranked 40 and 49 so I'll take it with a grain of salt. When I watch other RBs they look better than Ozigbo to me in elusiveness .....and I like Ozigbo but as a later round guy. I like Boykin too but I'm thinking that ranking is more from his combine results than his talent. He don't play as fast as he showed at the combine

[Xenos]

Duffman, who used to post at our old board, actually was going back and forth with another poster about potential DTs that I thought was interesting and wanted to share.
https://forums.footballsfuture.com/t...n-2019/?page=7

I think Tillery makes more and more sense here. He's not perfect character wise (missing the bowl game for unknown reasons), but makes a lot of sense as Gus has loved those length and strength guys at DT, especially manning that hybrid 3T/sub DE spot (you mentioned Odrick, Jackson, McDonald role). Jones fits more of the hybrid 1T, 2T/3T role. Dexter Lawrence would be interesting in that jumbo 3T role if that's what we want to do, as he has a little bit of that Ngata, Red Bryant, Branch type of game to him, where he's a big guy who's long and way more athletic than he should be, but the problem is that this is the old Gus Bradley scheme that doesn't have that 1 gapping look, since he ran a pure 2 gapping scheme which had those guys at the 5T position (really 4T), and that's not a position in this defense because of Bosa. So it's kind of new territory for Bradley, but I'd base it more off of what Dan Quinn (and Richard Smith) has done in Atlanta and Seattle. That position has been a mix of length and strength guys and block holders between McDaniel, Adhitya Rubin (who kind of interchanged with Mebane as you said), and then Hageman with a short stint of Dontari Poe (Babineaux was a carry over who was on his way/got pushed out with Hageman/Poe). So I think that position tends to really lend itself to more explosive length and strength guys which is something we're seriously missing on our DL. So it makes sense why we went so hard after Taven Bryan last year, and Tillery kind of follows the same mold this year. Other guys that would be interesting are more developmental. John Cominski, Rennell Wren, Armani Watts, and a few others (maybe Byron Coward fits into that mold too). This scheme also lends itself to having a quicker, penetrating NT (Jarrett, Mebane and they just drafted Senat). So it'll be interesting to see. Jones is the rotational dirty work type guy right now, which is pretty similar to what Rubin brought to the table. So it wouldn't surprise me if they doubled up on DT, and brought in someone like Saunders early, and then one of those developmental length and strength guys like Watts (who I like based on limited tape) later to rotate with Jones at the 3T/2T spot.
Also something I noted when looking at snap counts for Philon was that there was a few games where McGill played a big role with 30% snap counts. I could see him being a guy that's absoultely in the rotation, and when I watched some of the Pittsburgh game again, he played a lot of 1T, so I think they're trying to find someone with some juice that can play that position (or thinking that McGill can). That is where Saunders fits in really well (and would make sense with Mebane coming back for a year or two to tutor him).

[blueman]

Wow, thanks for that, good read.

[wu-dai clan]

Duffman is awesome.
However, I must ask are we overthinking it ?
Talent level should be emphasized over body type.

[Lone Bolt]

Late in Duffman's piece, where he talks about doubling down on DTs....makes the most sense. To me, I think you annointed Jones the 3 tech when you let Philon go, and Mebane is your alpha in the middle...but he is probably on his last deal...I definitely see a guy for Mebane to mentor...and we could also add a guy to rotate in with Jones...but I no longer think we go DT in the first. Tillery, for example, who I have seen in many mocks, is unlikely in my opinion...

[Fleet]

Im sort of expecting a drafted DT as well as a Free Agent value deal for someone. Possibly Liuget.

[Fleet]