Who’s the guy you want in the first.

[CJD]

(03-19-2023, 07:06 PM)Whatever Wrote: Again, Jonah has no leverage.  He can't sit for the year, as we would retain his rights.  He is under contract, so he is subject to fines for missing mandatory OTA's and he has been a good/not great player playing for a starter level contract next year.  Players request trades and report every year.  

That's well and good, but you can't fixate on one position group and neglect all of the others.  

Even in a Defcon 5 scenario where Jonah somehow sits out and Carman and/or Ford don't work out, Collins will be back off of the PUP before playoff time.  If he was being cut, he would have been by now.  Much of his cap savings would have come from his roster bonus, which usually comes in the first few days of the league year.  You easily be spending a 1st on a 3rd string T that won't even dress on game days come the end of the year.  We have needs at TE, RB, CB, and S.  If Jonah gets traded and we have extra picks to fill some of those other gaps, then maybe you can look at a T in 1 if they're the BPA.  Until that time, it's not a realistic option.  

My second choice would be at CB.

CB is in a similar position as OT is for us right now (assuming Jonah plays RT). We'd be drafting for the future because CTB and Awuzie are the clear starters next season with Hilton in the slot, so the draft pick would only come in for injuries or in super sub packages.

Safety as well. Our starters are set and we have an uber athletic back up that could develop behind the two starters so any safety drafted would only come in due to injuries or super sub packages. The difference with the safety position is our 2 starters are signed on for 3 more seasons (as opposed to Awuzie and Jonah who are in their final years), so I wouldn't even call safety a need at this point.

TE and RB are needs but they're also non- premium positions so spending premium picks on them is a hard sell when you have needs at premium positions like OT and CB. Rookie TEs rarely make a large impact and their breakout years are as late as their 3rd or 4th season in the NFL and RBs, well, the degree to which running back has been devalued as a position has been discussed at length. Unless it's Bijan, I wouldn't spend a first on a RB.

That's why I keep coming back to OT. You call it a fixation, but I see it as ensuring depth. Even at CB, Apple played well enough to win the Super Bowl coming in as a back up to Awuzie. We don't have that kind of depth at OT. Collins is coming off of injury and honestly was pretty horrible when he was in the game anyway. Jonah is on his final year and is obviously not going to re-sign with us. And everyone else is either a huge question mark (is Carman actually any good or did he just have a good 2 game stretch?) Or is outright bad (Adeniji, Ford). Considering Oline is the explicit reason we are not back to back Super Bowl champions right now, I think a little fixation may be warranted.