04-11-2025, 03:26 PM
I hate to say this, but I think the team is fairly comfortable with the DE, DT, LB, and CB groups. And with fairly good reason.
At DE, Hendrickson is a stud and under contract. Tyey paid Ossai $6.5 mil, that's screams starter $$ to me. They are not giving up on Murphy. Sample was a perfectly fine rotational DE/DT prior to injury. And Johnson played pretty well in linited snaps last year. That's 5. Thomas & R. Johnson are PS level guys or pissible cover for Sample if he is not recovered.
I think there is certainly room for 1 more. But I think they think Hendrickson, Ossai, Murphy, Sample, & C. Johnson is workable if they whiff at the draft.
Speaking of, there is not really a HR DE type likely at #17. Stewart has the traits but no production. Green, Pearce, & Williams are not true DE's and have personal or production flags. Ezeiruaku also is sub 250, and not really a true DE or surefire top 20 guy. Once you get into roynd 2 guy (Scourton, JTT, Sawyer, Jackson), are they that much better than round 3-4 types (Gillotte ,Burch, Ivey, Jones). Same thing with Pearce/Green & the 2nd wave of Ezeiruaku, Kennard, Stewart, Umanmielen.
It is easy to talk yourself into waiting a round (or two) at DE/Edge because it is thin at the top and deep in the middle. If a roughly equivalent player is available later, why not pounce on a thinner spot first?
Especially when 3/4 of your rotational spots are already spoken for. Unless the player is gonna walk in and be DE2 and better than Ossai & Murphy, why waste a premium pick on a rotational guy when we are in win now mode?
The same thing happens at DT. Hill & Slaton are your starters. Jenkins and Jackson are both gonna play and should both improve, though both are more run stoppers than pass rushers. Do we need interior pass rush? Yes. But I do not see a surefire fix. Nolen has flags and grades out better vs the run. Harmon looks like more of a rotational guy who can help in pass rush. And Grant benefitted from playing next to Graham and is a NT besides. After those 3, who are legit mid/late first/early 2nd, and maybe Alexander & Williams (also a better run stopper), you get into Rd3/4/5 pretty quick.
If I can nab a surefire starter/upgrade at S (Emmanwori, Starks), G (Booker, Zabel, Jackson), LB (J. Campbell), or a stud at another position drops to us (Walker, Warren, Loveland, W. Campbell, Membou, Johnson, Barron), I like that more at #17.
And the same thing happens at #49: Watts, Savaiinaea, Ratledge, and some of the CBs with CB1 potential like Porter, Revel, Thomas, Morrison, etc. all seem more appealing to me than a DT/DE guy who is relatively the same as the guy I can get at #81.
It is EASY to get to R3 without having taken a DL guy yet: S, OG, DB, LB, TE all make sense too, depending on how it falls.
It is not a super strong LB class. And I can see us shifting away from 5 MLB types to more Vyper/Edge guys and 4-3 OLB types. More speed, less thump. But Wilson, Pratt,,Burks is a decent top 3. Good enough to go on with. Heyward is pretty athletic. Njongmeta a thumper type and the most likely to not be on the roster if we take a LB, unless Pratt is dealt.
Even at CB, we have 3 above average guys. CTB, Turner, & Hill are OK, though there is no CB1 there. Fig is adequate depth but in trouble as a starter. We could use one more, but could also live with what we have + Ivey & Wilson.
Safety is another thing. The starters we have are both worse than any of our other defensive starters: Trey/Ossai, Hill/Slaton, Wilson/Pratt, and CTB/Turner/Hill. AND the backups are worse/totally unproven. Certainly worse than Murphy/Sample & Burks. And I'd say Jenkins/Jackson & Fig/Ivey/Wilson as well.
At DE, Hendrickson is a stud and under contract. Tyey paid Ossai $6.5 mil, that's screams starter $$ to me. They are not giving up on Murphy. Sample was a perfectly fine rotational DE/DT prior to injury. And Johnson played pretty well in linited snaps last year. That's 5. Thomas & R. Johnson are PS level guys or pissible cover for Sample if he is not recovered.
I think there is certainly room for 1 more. But I think they think Hendrickson, Ossai, Murphy, Sample, & C. Johnson is workable if they whiff at the draft.
Speaking of, there is not really a HR DE type likely at #17. Stewart has the traits but no production. Green, Pearce, & Williams are not true DE's and have personal or production flags. Ezeiruaku also is sub 250, and not really a true DE or surefire top 20 guy. Once you get into roynd 2 guy (Scourton, JTT, Sawyer, Jackson), are they that much better than round 3-4 types (Gillotte ,Burch, Ivey, Jones). Same thing with Pearce/Green & the 2nd wave of Ezeiruaku, Kennard, Stewart, Umanmielen.
It is easy to talk yourself into waiting a round (or two) at DE/Edge because it is thin at the top and deep in the middle. If a roughly equivalent player is available later, why not pounce on a thinner spot first?
Especially when 3/4 of your rotational spots are already spoken for. Unless the player is gonna walk in and be DE2 and better than Ossai & Murphy, why waste a premium pick on a rotational guy when we are in win now mode?
The same thing happens at DT. Hill & Slaton are your starters. Jenkins and Jackson are both gonna play and should both improve, though both are more run stoppers than pass rushers. Do we need interior pass rush? Yes. But I do not see a surefire fix. Nolen has flags and grades out better vs the run. Harmon looks like more of a rotational guy who can help in pass rush. And Grant benefitted from playing next to Graham and is a NT besides. After those 3, who are legit mid/late first/early 2nd, and maybe Alexander & Williams (also a better run stopper), you get into Rd3/4/5 pretty quick.
If I can nab a surefire starter/upgrade at S (Emmanwori, Starks), G (Booker, Zabel, Jackson), LB (J. Campbell), or a stud at another position drops to us (Walker, Warren, Loveland, W. Campbell, Membou, Johnson, Barron), I like that more at #17.
And the same thing happens at #49: Watts, Savaiinaea, Ratledge, and some of the CBs with CB1 potential like Porter, Revel, Thomas, Morrison, etc. all seem more appealing to me than a DT/DE guy who is relatively the same as the guy I can get at #81.
It is EASY to get to R3 without having taken a DL guy yet: S, OG, DB, LB, TE all make sense too, depending on how it falls.
It is not a super strong LB class. And I can see us shifting away from 5 MLB types to more Vyper/Edge guys and 4-3 OLB types. More speed, less thump. But Wilson, Pratt,,Burks is a decent top 3. Good enough to go on with. Heyward is pretty athletic. Njongmeta a thumper type and the most likely to not be on the roster if we take a LB, unless Pratt is dealt.
Even at CB, we have 3 above average guys. CTB, Turner, & Hill are OK, though there is no CB1 there. Fig is adequate depth but in trouble as a starter. We could use one more, but could also live with what we have + Ivey & Wilson.
Safety is another thing. The starters we have are both worse than any of our other defensive starters: Trey/Ossai, Hill/Slaton, Wilson/Pratt, and CTB/Turner/Hill. AND the backups are worse/totally unproven. Certainly worse than Murphy/Sample & Burks. And I'd say Jenkins/Jackson & Fig/Ivey/Wilson as well.
