The 2019 Post Draft Discussion - Rookie Discussion

[bolts4lyfe]

Are you sure they want Lamp at RT? Or do you mean RG to replace Schofield?

I can't find either video or article clip but bot Telesco and Lynn have said they plan on letting Lamp compete at Tackle

[Formula 21]

If Stick could play some wr, it would open up some interesting options for pre snap shifts to qb.

[sonorajim]

I'm ready for OTAs, Mini-camps. Everybody is a star until proven otherwise!
I'm really jacked about our D. C'mon Aug 8 @ Ari ! I want to see some LAC D in action!

[Fleet]

NFL DRAFT SNAP GRADES


BY THOR NYSTROM
Updated on April 28, 2019, 1:27 pm ET
FacebookTwitterRedditEmailPrint Los Angeles Chargers | Snap grade: A

1.28	Jerry Tillery	DeForest Buckner	11	DL3	84.2	9.72
2.60	Nasir Adderley	Jessie Bates	37	S1	65.0	7.11
3.91	Trey Pipkins	TJ Clemmings	111	OT13	79.4	8.85
4.130	Drue Tranquill	Fred Warner	86	LB7	88.8	9.87
5.166	Easton Stick	Taysom Trubisky	118	QB6	92.2	9.45
6.200	Emeke Egbule	Christian Kirksey	178	LB16	44.2	7.28
7.242	Cortez Broughton	Javon Hargrave	214	DL22	49.9	8.13

Making one pick late in each round, the Chargers sat back patiently waiting as the NFL slid value pick after value pick into their slot. This was less a pillaging of talent and more of an audit on the NFL, and I loved it. Tillery is a triumphant pick at 1.28, for reasons you can read about in my defensive line deep dive (links to my position reports and top-500 board are on the bottom of page 2).

https://www.rotoworld.com/article/rankings/thor-500-nystroms-big-board?page=0

Adderley was my S1, Tranquill fits where the NFL is going at LB, and Easton Stick is a Taysom Hill-level sub-package offensive weapon option in the short-term who could turn into Phillip Rivers' heir apparent in the long-term. I think this is what people miss about Stick: Even if he never becomes a starting-caliber quarterback, he's still at minimum a decent backup NFL quarterback who can do Taysom Hill things as a sub-package and special teams player.

So let me ask you another question, reader: Where does Taysom Hill go if you redraft the 2017 NFL Draft? What round? Okay, whatever you just answered, you need to bump it up a round to account for the possibility that Stick can develop enough as a passer to become a viable starter (he's objectively superior to Hill in this phase)

Remember: Stick's going to bring elite athleticism to the position (with a frame to take hits, unlike Lamar and Kyler), so he just needs to become, say, 85% of Mitch Trubisky as a thrower to provide 100% of the value that Trubisky does, due to the value of Stick's legs. He isn't seen as a steal of a fifth-rounder, but he is. Because his floor is Taysom Hill, and Taysom Hill would have been a fifth-rounder minimum in 2017, yes?

[Formula 21]

I think the help is there in the 2nd half of the season. Day 1, not so much. I just don't see an opening day starter here. But they can always surprise. Or injuries could make a starter out of one of them, like at mlb.

[moneyisevil]

This draft is maybe a C.
we drafted 2 players who can help us get rivers a ring now. The rest are players who might help in like 3 years.
least favorite draft in recent years. Its a C for me

I agree, C at best, I don't think we have any immediate help for our team, that got taken apart by good coaching in the playoffs, I feel sorry for Rivers !

[EnglishBolt]

Anthony Johnson was signed with the Bucs

https://www.bucsnation.com/2019/4/27/18520306/2019-nfl-draft-results-udfa-thread-buccaneers

[La Costa Boy]

Did we sign Anything Johnson as a UDFA? Didn't catch that if we did.

I just saw a list that shows him unsigned. I would LIKE to see us sign him TBT........

[Boltjolt]

Wow I see in your sig you had Johnson mocked to us at 4....so big value there as a UDFA. You nailed Cortez, congrats. I saw on CBS I think, that only 2 players taken in the 7th got an A grade. Cortez was one.

Did we sign Anythony Johnson as a UDFA? Didn't catch that if we did.

[La Costa Boy]

Coney went to the Raiders. They signed and drafted many that were in the Senior bowl. Even from the other team in the Senior bowl. They had a pretty good draft I think. But picking top in every round, you better

Wow I see in your sig you had Johnson mocked to us at 4....so big value there as a UDFA. You nailed Cortez, congrats. I saw on CBS I think, that only 2 players taken in the 7th got an A grade. Cortez was one.

[Boltjolt]

I was tied up most of yesterday, but when your daughter is headed to the prom you take a break from everything. Anyway, I have looked at several UDFA lists this morning and can't find that anyone has signed Prescod fron NC State, Beau B from Wisconsin, Bell from Fresno State or Anthony J from Buffalo. Are they still unsigned???

I am a bit sad we missed on Holyfield, Hanks, Herbig, Gant, Granderson and even Coney. Some pretty good players there for el cheapo.

Any news? Bueller???

Coney went to the Raiders. They signed and drafted many that were in the Senior bowl. Even from the other team in the Senior bowl. They had a pretty good draft I think. But picking top in every round, you better

[Formula 21]

Devin Bush and Devin White are perfect examples of the NFL's linebacker evolution

4 College football's influence on the NFL now includes a significant shift in priorities at linebacker.

By Alex Kirshner@alex_kirshner Updated Apr 25, 2019, 9:28pm EDT
SHARE Devin Bush at the NFL Combine. Original image: USA TODAY Sports.
Two linebackers -- LSU's Devin White No. 5 overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Michigan's Devin Bush No. 10 to the Pittsburgh Steelers -- were selected very early in the 2019 NFL Draft, as mock draft consensus projected.

They're in addition to Kentucky defensive end Josh Allen, who played a standup outside linebacker role on a bunch of his college downs and might wind up there in the pros, too.

It stacks up as one of the better linebacker years in draft history. Only 15 LBs have been top-10 picks since 2000, and only four times in that span have two gone in the top 10. Among middle linebackers, White and Bush could be the highest-picked tandem of the century (Patrick Willis went 11th and Lawrence Timmons 15th in 2007).

White and Bush were really high picks not just because they're good, but because they perfectly fit an NFL linebacker evolution that's been underway for years, all part of the ongoing chess match between offense and defense filtering up from college football. As NFL offenses have spread out over the last decade or so, defenses have responded by being more open to small linebackers.

In the early 2000s, it was radical to have a linebacker like Brian Urlacher who covered deep passing lanes in the middle of the field.

That's now a requirement for anyone at the position, as more NFL offenses demand defenses cover horizontal ground.

"It's not the days of the 6'4, 250 linebackers as much," Ben Burr-Kirven, a 6', 230-pound ILB prospect out of Washington, told me. "You see safeties who are converting to linebacker, that kind of stuff. I definitely think I'm coming to the league at the right time, where there really is a place for me to play and a position that is now being filled with guys that look more like me, rather than the old monsters of the olden days."

Spread offenses came into vogue in college a few years before they did in the NFL, and college defenses are even more designed to stop them. Average LB prospect size has dipped before, but the spread's popularity at every level of football suggests this trend will be long-term:
The average weight at the combine for linebackers at the beginning of this decade was 244 pounds. Now it's 236, the lightest on record.

• In 2000, 11 of 36 linebackers were "old monsters" of 249 pounds or more.
• In 2009, nine of 35 were 248 pounds or more.
• In 2019, two of 37 were 245 pounds or more.

What's the point of getting smaller? Getting faster.


The average linebacker at the 2019 combine ran a 4.63-second 40-yard dash, the fastest in history. Four of the 16 fastest linebacker 40s ever recorded at the combine were in 2019:

• 4.42 by LSU's Devin White (237 pounds)
• 4.43 by Michigan's Devin Bush (234 pounds)
• 4.43 by Texas' Gary Johnson
• 4.45 by West Virginia's David Long

Including Minnesota's Blake Cashman, the 2019 class has five of the 33 linebackers to ever run 4.5 or better at the combine -- out of more than 700 linebackers all time.

Those numbers were posted in tights, but that speed shows up in pads, too.

As shown here by White ...

Derrik Klassen@QBKlass
Devin White's 4.42s 40-yard dash checks out.
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12:35 PM - Apr 6, 2019

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... and here by Bush: Everything comes with a tradeoff. Linebackers aren't as strong as they were before.

Combine linebackers are benching fewer reps at 225 pounds than at any time since 2000. Most players can't be everything at once, and the jump in linebacker speed and drop in weight appear to have come with a general decline in upper-body power.
You can see some of that in even the best 2019 linebackers. For instance, the biggest question about Bush is how he'll hold up against the run, given the clips of him getting blocked pretty thoroughly while coming downhill: Modern offenses make it worth it to sacrifice some heft.

NFL offenses have never used more of the width of the field than they do now. They've never thrown so much, allowing the ball to get from sideline to sideline at rates that used to be unheard of. And they've never been better at throwing, period.

The last eight years rank among the nine pass-happiest years in league history by average attempts per game. In 2018, the average pass went for 7.4 yards, longer than any other season not between 1961 and '64, when the league had 14 teams.

The league's aerial shift required a bunch of defensive changes. Nickel corners are now basically starters for every team in the league. A pass rusher is now often the highest-paid non-quarterback on a given team. The ultra-fast players at the top of the 2019 linebacker class are another stark illustration of the shift toward playing the pass. And there's never been a better time for these burners to enter the league.

"It plays right into my strengths," Bush told me. "I'm a twitchy guy. I'm quick, I'm fast, I'm strong, I can go sideline to sideline. So it's just playing into my favor."