Way Too Early Pan Me Mock December 16

[Whatever]

(12-18-2024, 03:37 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Spending that much draft capital at DB makes sense because you have 4-5 starter spots at general DB.
DT there are only 2 starter spots.
If you generalized it to DL to include DEs, I would be more into that approach.

I'll somewhat disagree on Jackson.
Had they used their regular 3rd, I would have felt it was a reach, but I had seen him across multiple sites as a 4th, so jumping up a bit by using a 3rd round comp isn't a big deal if they didn't think he'd have fallen to their 4th round pick.

To me, this wasn't Drew Sample-esque where they took a prospect 3 rounds too early (5th rounder taken in Rd 2).

My draft philosophy (right or wrong) is you use your 1st and 2nd rounders for planned starters. They can be backups for first year, maybe 2, but those are guys you have pegged for soon-to-be-starters.
3rd-4th rounders are for rotational players who may be starters but you aren't counting on that to happen.
5th round and later are purely for backup, ST, and gamble picks.

Bengals didn't invest a 1st in CB when they made the Dax Hill selection. He was the planned future starter for FS. He just didn't work out there so they tried him at CB and it seems to maybe be a better fit.
Turner and CTB, IMO, were likely the planned future starters along with Dax Hill at FS and potentially Battle at SS after the veterans departed.

At DT though, there are only 2 spots.
Jenkins should cover 1 of those spots next year, or at least have that as the long term plan.
It would not have been wise to use a 2nd round pick on a long-term rotational player, especially one who needed work as a pass rusher.
If you wanna relegate Jackson to backup NT, that's fine, but investing another 1st and 2nd round pick at DT feels like overdoing it, to me.
One/both of those guys would end up being a backup or Jenkins, which to me means they overreached on one of them.


I realize not everyone agrees or follows the same draft philosophy I have though, and that's fine.

While I understand your sentiment, largely because I felt that way at one point, I think we need to be realistic.  Jenkins has a 51.8 PFF grade and has played 50% of the snaps in the games he's played.  Jackson grades at 44.8.  Neither has really shown that they have their respective positions on lock or will ever be more than rotation players..  And DT's rotate a lot, so you're still getting value out of them even if they aren't starters, as opposed to other position groups.  If this was OL, WR, DB, or another position where you don't rotate much, I'd agree.