Boys signed Dantari Poe. D line looking better in the middle.
Too much money for too much risk.
Panthers will pay him good for a year to play for whoever else, and they can probably get him on a cheap 1-year deal since he'll be double dipping... (see Michael Finley, 2005-06). But he's too much of a drama queen to take a backup role, and the XFL went defunct due to COVID-19, so he's really low on options...
Patriots
Chargers
...Bears? (Yes they got Foles but to me he's not starter level IMO even though he's better than Trubisky)
Jaguars
Dolphins? (Fitzpatrick is old and a mercenary anyway. He wouldn't whine about being the backup. He just does his thing and has made a career of making Bill Belicheat cry in late December.)
Boys signed Dantari Poe. D line looking better in the middle.
McCoy and Poe were together on the Panthers middle last year. Remember when they stood the Packers up at the goal line in the snow?
Fresh outta da slammuh z
cowboys signed Greg Zuerlein... that's pretty nice
Holy . one of the best in the NFL and huge leg and generally CLUTCH (55 and 57 yarders straight down the middle to beat the Saints in the championship game, needed both of them). Had one bad miss last year. Tends to miss a couple games per year or so due to hamstring, though. But that's an enormous improvement on special teams compared to the revolving door crappy kickers we've been through in the past 3 years.
Will the Panthers be the worst team in the NFL in 2020? I can't think of a worse roster honestly.
McCaffrey will make a few plays, but that team is horribly lousy from end to end. Kuechly, Olsen, McCoy, Poe, Bradberry gone. They didn't replace any of them. And they don't have a viable starting QB. In that division with 2 contenders and one Atlanta team that is jeckyll and hyde perennial 8-8 type, I see the Panthers being lucky to get to 2-14 in 2020.
these first few months of the year are the only time i look at college football footage... dont care for NCAA generally, but care quite a bit about the draft
while last year was loaded with edge rushers (nick bosa, clelin ferrell, josh allen, rashan gary, brian burns, montez sweat, and lj collier all going in the first round), this year is the year of the WR (with a strong OL group, at least at the top). jeudy, lamb, ruggs, higgins, reagor, mims, jefferson, shenault, aiyuk could all legitimately go in the first round
the run on receivers will likely start at pick 11... where you've got the jets, followed by the raiders, niners, and two picks later, the broncos, all of whom are in the WR market.
Ceedee Lamb has been picking up a lot of hype recently as the #1 WR of the class, but honestly, the more i watch, the more i'm convinced Jeudy is the clear #1, especially for a team that needs instant production. his route running is already more than NFL ready, and he reminds me quite a bit of Amari Cooper in that regard. on day 1, Cooper was already one of the better route runners in the league. i think Jeudy compares quite a bit to Amari Cooper, but is a bit better at making plays on the deep ball, so i'm looking at a Stefon Diggs type.
Lamb is more of a strider, is much better at making contested catches, and was a YAC monster. one of the common comparisons i've read on him is hopkins because of his body control and 50/50 winning despite not being the most sudden athlete
i think Jeudy has such a high floor and his ability to separate should translate on day 1, whereas i think Lamb will rely on winning contested catches, which will be much harder at the NFL level. he could end up being a late bloomer like devante parker. WR is probably the hardest difficult to draft outside of QB's... but i think Jeudy has a significantly better chance at being a 1000 yard rookie than Lamb, which is why he's my WR1 of the draft.
i wouldn't be mad if the jets took jeudy and we took the remaining lamb, because he's a really strong prospect too, but i think taking Lamb over Jeudy would be a mistake.
i haven't looked too much into Henry Ruggs, who has been exploding post combine. everyone is now calling him the next Tyreek Hill, but we have seen a lot of college burners not translate at the NFL level, and at a surface level, Ruggs wasn't incredibly productive. but i haven't really studied him much at all to make a call. i'm just skeptical of the hype. will update this at some point later
Can’t wait until he blows up at Lamar Jackson for tucking it and running instead of getting Antonio 15 targets every game.
Raiders 1 year 6M deal with Eli Apple falls through... the raiders were already fairly likely to draft at least 1 CB early. unless they sign a replacement like dennard/kirkpatrick/ryan, that becomes even more of a certainty. i also wouldn't hate a 1 year flier on jason verrett
Not official yet. Up in the air. And he'll start the season suspended if he does go anywhere.
the more i watch Ruggs, the less I like him as a top 20 pick. i think i'd take Jalen Reagor over him
hopefully the raiders can nab one of Jeudy or Lamb at 12, and i'll be happy with that. outside of a trade, the only way that doesnt happen is if both Jax and NYJ go WR and take those 2
i find myself going a bit back and forth between lamb and jeudy. i think jeudy just has a higher floor, and is more likely to produce day 1. its why i've leaned that way
then again GM's dont make decisions based solely on who they think will be a safer rookie, and lamb definitely has the upside to become that #1, go-to receiver who you can count on for a tough catch through contact when chips are down
Which one is the fastest? Go with that one.
FALSE
If you break down the quality of 1st Round WR taken, the correlation is Size
lol no
its not JUST size, but the freaks of the league are the guys with size who also move with the fluidity and suddenness of the smaller guys, which obviously is incredibly rare. julio is a great example of that.
there isn't 1 trait that makes or breaks WR success. antonio brown was dominant but didnt run a crazy 40 time, wasnt big. its probably the hardest position to project besides QB.
the bigger receivers are difference makers usually because they can catch contested passes through contact... thats why a lot of the top guys in recent years were bigger. julio, calvin, aj green, fitzgerald, hopkins, demaryius thomas, dez bryant. its not even necessarily the "tallest" guys, as hopkins is 6'1. but he's built bigger than most receivers and plays physical
DK Metcalf in Seattle is the next great one of those
how in the world did he fall to the 2nd round? because he was inexperienced at "route running"? yeah... look at the 2016 class of 1st round receivers and how that turned out.
metcalf has nowhere near the agility of any of the guys i mentioned, let alone julio jones
he's blazing in a straight line and a tackle-breaker after the catch because of his strength
Sure, that's important too. Not as important as speed though.
You can teach WR's pretty much anything: route running, catching, toughness, blocking, etc. You can't teach speed though. You can't teach size either, but speed is more important in a WR, tbh.
Heck, even if the guy doesn't pan out as a WR, you can always turn him into a defensive back or, worst case scenario, a ST specialist. You can't ever go wrong drafting speed.
"Skill positions" in the NFL are so ing overrated is not even funny. Catching a football or running a route isn't really all that difficult. The physical atributes of the players are a lot more important than any "technique" they can be taught.
Last edited by DAF86; 04-08-2020 at 08:12 PM.
straight line running speed is far from the most important trait though... short area quickness/change of direction. body control (both in the air and on the ground to make catches in traffic). catching can only be taught so much. some guys just have more natural hands.
and theres a huge mental component to being a great wide receiver. its not just a matter of running the route in the playbook. you have the read the defender's body language and leverage, figure out what the coverage is, and make subtle rout adjustments accordingly
while you do have your freak athletes like randy moss and calvin johnson that tore it up, you also have more pedestrian athletes like jerry rice, isaac bruce, deandre hopkins, larry fitzgerald who are greats despite not being particularly fast. anquan boldin was legendarily slow but was still a monster receiver, and not just the older, slot/possession receiver he was with baltimore.
if you look at the list of wide receivers with the fastest 40 yard dash times, it doesnt necessarily correlate with greatness
the great misunderstanding of the WR position is that you can just stick a phenomenal athlete there and they'll eventual get good. absolutely not the case.
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