2021 NFL Draft Day!!

I want Quinn Meinerz. Beef up those Hogs. Depth depth depth. Quality fuckin depth. And when Scherrff bolts we got our Guard

Good, we have other needs.



Totally agree.

Cox (LB), Molden (CB), Surratt (LB), or Long (TE). As a Carolina fan, I love Surratt.

Get Fitz another weapon here

Hunter Long, TE Boston College is my guess for our next pick.

Initially felt strange seeing these third-day qb's overvalued. But there isn't any other position in sports that's overvalued like qb.

Samuel Cosmi – T – C grade

This pick is a great example of the conundrum BPA vs. need and how you should scout players and set your board. Our FO is clearly drafting for need, despite all the claims otherwise.

First, JOK was sitting there. You draft him, you put our D over the top. He was hands down BPA, and aligned with what is still a significant need, LB. Barring some character flag no one knows about, lots of teams passed on him probably because tweener status scares them. We put him a WLB, teams will run at that side ALL DAY. Most tweeners bust. Some become elite players and overcome size deficits. Clearly a whole bunch of GMs and FOs thought the former, or shunned the risk. The point: there are perhaps valid reasons to pass on JOK, but you think of him and Davis, we basically only need one more LB, CB, and FS and every position on our defense has a stud.

Longer term questions. After paying our DL the national GDP of Liberia, could we then resign both Davis and JOK off rookie deals, to second deals? Maybe not. Good FOs think about such things, though they perhaps don’t let them trump all else. But if JOK pans, we don’t resign, he signs monster deal elsewhere, we get 3rd round comp.

Cosmi is the right kind of T to draft at this point. He is not a mauler in the run, but has serious athleticism moving in space. He’s not the second coming of Trent Williams, but flashes serious athleticism in pass blocking. He also seems to lack a mean streak and is HORRIBLY inconsistent in technique despite starting like 3 years or whatever. Maybe he’s unmotivated, maybe he didn’t have top-notch coaching, maybe he simply isn’t capable of improving technique as lots of guys with talent can’t cut it in NFL. So you run into a draft and scouting philosophy here. There were a lot of Ts in the 2nd round range, 6-8 depending how you rate them. Some were good run and pass blockers, but without Cosmi’s natural movement skills in space. Some had solid technique, much better than Cosmi, but less athleticism. Higher floor lowering ceiling in other words. Who do you rate higher as a prospect and on your board when scouting and/or ranking? The guy with less chance of bust, but less athleticism, or the guy like Cosmi with more athleticism who could be a solid long-term LT if coached up, but is little more than RT and maybe a total bust if light doesn’t come on? I’m not here to tell you which should be done, most FOs mix the two, but we clearly emphasized potential in this case. I like it. I like trying to actually find a starting LT. I also like emphasizing pass blocking almost exclusively, the reason you pick a LT high is because he protects QB in passing, not because he is a run blocker. So Cosmi is a great pick in terms of choosing a LT to roll dice on at this point, despite risk.

Rivera said Davis was highest D player on board. We could assume a perhaps higher rated player was at WR, less a need, or similar position. How much higher rated? Even Davis seems a need pick. So you end up with questions about who is setting board and what prioritizing. You have dozens of teams that passed on JOK. You have us taking a player at 19 most teams had rated 35 or later. This exemplifies what a crap shoot draft actually is, how wide opinions of even seasoned pro scouts diverge, why no one really knows, and why maximizing picks best philosophy.

Choosing Cosmi over other LTs is not the problem. Pigeonholing need is the problem. The Browns pounced on JOK after us, adding more talent to a roster already loaded with it because they have often drafted BPA and rounded out roster with FAs. I still don’t think Mayfield leads them to promised land, but their roster is sickly talented. If over the next five years, we have a prospect which virtually every serious scout ranks top-20 overall, fall to us in second round, and pass on that prospect to draft for need and pick a solid second round prospect, we are MUCH less talented. And some team that actually sticks to BPA will be much MORE talented than us, like the Browns, Bucs, etc.

T a serious need with Moses and Lucas both older, not elite, and coming to end of deals, especially with the GPD of Guinea tied up on G and C. Cosmi at minimum should be a starting RT, you coach him up a year, and let him and Charles compete at LT, and the loser slides to RT. So you could look at roster with Cosmi filling a need long term and think we did well. We did. But we’ll never beat the elite teams who consistently draft BPA when we fill our roster with 2nd round talents (or X round talents), and they fill their roster with round X-1 talents by drafting BPA. This is why you have a GM running things, not a coach. Even if Cosmi becomes solid starting RT, or middling LT, this was still not the right choice. If he becomes an elite LT, FO made right choice, but nothing suggests that, or he wouldn’t have been there in 2nd round.

Viewing in the vacuum of drafting for need, Cosmi would be a solid B pick. Factoring in BPA, pick drops to C. JOK would have been an A, not A+ because of tweener risk, don’t like that risk middle 1st round, love it middle of 2nd. Though again, we could be looking back in three years with JOK only a situational player or tweener without a role, and Cosmi a solid starting LT. You find a starting LT second round, you did well. Even if you find long term starting RT second round, you did okay. If you let Lucas and Moses walk next year or two, you need four Ts, we have Charles and Cosmi, so are just getting started. None of us has a crystal ball, so you grade on what you know at the time. We are in the process of building a solid perennial playoff team, but a team that will not contend for SB. Decisions like this, at QB, etc., reaching for need, ensure we will be respectable, but never a SB contender.

This C grade is less about Cosmi than the opportunity cost of players forsaken, and the ruinous philosophy of pigeonholing need when drafting.

QBs rolling off board. Hoping one we like still there in 3rd or 4th.

TE, LB, or CB

I want Ifeatu Melifonwu CB outta Syracuse or Quinn Meinerz the G.

Good corner. Ok with this pick.