https://preview.redd.it/5r13f0pcnq551.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=0264b58b876ac02f7ab6c8c53b044bb3321b1102 After going through the rosters of all 32 teams and talking about their biggest remaining need, I now want to talk about some young players around the league, who I think will take the next step in their development this upcoming season. Specifically I’m looking at second- and third-year players who haven’t been a Pro Bowl selection, reached a major milestone (1000 yard season, double-digit sacks, etc.) or are just looked at generally as one of the better players at the position already. I also didn’t want to talk about guys I already had on my list last year, like Kemoko Turay for Indianapolis or Justin Reid for Houston – who I believe already is one of the best young safeties in the game – and I ended up with only one former top ten pick, since the few I considered mostly haven’t broken out because they simply haven’t been on the field enough. At the same time I made it a requirement to have played at a least a little. So that excludes guy like Bengals offensive tackle Jonah Williams and a receiver I really liked, who is now on the Cardinals named Hakeem Butler. For this exercise I considered what my evaluation of them was coming out of college, in terms of the development they still needed to make to be effective at the next level, situations they are now, whether it’s a change of scheme on their team or veterans that were let go in order to allow them to take on a bigger role, or just how high I was on them as draft prospects. I’m going to analyze their skill-set, how they fit with their respective teams and why I believe they are bound to break out in 2020. In this version, we are looking at eight offensive players:
Drew Lock
There’s a lot of people talking about the Broncos being a team that can make some noise this season and I have been hyping them up a little myself. But does anybody realize Denver was 3-6 last year before Drew Lock entered the starting lineup? They would go 4-1 the rest of the way, with the rookie signal-caller throwing for just over 1000 yards and seven touchdowns compared to three picks over that stretch. 13 of his 100 completions went for 20+ yards and he was responsible for 59 first downs (including rushing). The focus by the front office this offseason was to put a lot of talent around their QB. In the draft they added a route-running specialist in Jerry Jeudy from Alabama, a bundle of dynamite in Penn State’s K.J. Hamler and Lock’s former tight-end at Missouri in the long-striding, tall Albert Okwuegbunam. Throw a young star like Courtland Sutton, last year’s first-round TE in Noah Fant and a dynamic duo of backs into the mix you have an incredibly talented group of skill-position player. However, the Broncos also secured the interior of the O-line with free agent Graham Glasgow from Detroit and third-round pick Lloyd Cushenberry from LSU, while getting right tackle Ja’Wuan James back from injury. With Pat Shurmur coming in as his new offensive coordinator, Lock will be closer to a spread system he ran in college, as the Giants used 11 personnel on 74 percent of the snaps last season and Denver traded away fullback Andy Janovich. He will be given a lot of free completions off mesh concepts and screens to his backs. Shurmur will also draw up several bootlegs when he does have two tight-ends in there, where he creates targets on multiple levels coming towards the side the QB is rolling. Lock really showed tremendous signs last season and the only quarterbacks in the AFC with more arm talent than him might be Josh Allen and that other guy that is pretty good in his division – Patrick Mahomes. You see him get the ball to his targets without being able to step into some throws and what I like about him is the fact he always keeps his eyes up while finding some creases to slip through within the pocket. In his first start versus the Chargers, Lock immediately gave the offense some much-needed juice after being held to three points at Buffalo the previous game. The following week the Broncos travelled to Houston in a game everybody expected them to lose and Lock led his offense to five straight scoring drives – including four touchdowns – to go into halftime up 31-3, with some help from the defense. The only bad game he really had came in a snow storm at Kansas City. What I think he still needs to improve upon mechanically is being a little more active with his footwork and swinging that back-leg through to maximize rotation, while not getting stuck on my primary receiver as much. If he can do that and understands how to utilize all those new pieces, I expect him to make a big sophomore jump.
Miles Sanders
I wasn’t sure if Sanders would qualify here, since he somewhat broke out already, but he didn’t fit any of the criteria I set for myself and I believe he could go from splash player to superstar this season. As a rookie, Sanders ran for 818 yards on 179 attempts and caught 50 passes for over 500 yards. That gave him an average of 5.8 yards per touch and he reached the end-zone six times. Early on in 2019, he didn’t get the opportunities he should have, with Jordan Howard getting 40 more carries through the first nine weeks, as long as he was healthy. When Sanders finally got the chance to be a bigger part of the offense, he made the most of his opportunities, averaging 1.2 yards more per touch and producing eight compared to the veteran’s two plays of 20+ yards. And don’t get me wrong – Howard is not a bad back by any means. We have seen him be very productive in Chicago before, when he has a pretty good O-line in front of him and he can make good decisions in a zone-based system, showing nice power and feel for the position. But this kid could be special. I thought Sanders was a lot like his former teammate at Penn State in Saquon Barkley. And before anybody goes crazy here – I do realize that Saquon is bigger, stronger and just more freakishly athletic, but in terms of elusiveness and balance, there aren’t a whole lot of guys better than this young man. Sanders showcases good feel for space and setting up blockers, which really shines in the screen game. He is a true threat to the edge on wide zone plays, but at the same time very patient behind the line of scrimmage running inside duo or power plays, where you routinely see defenders end up on the wrong side of blocks. Philly’s offense lacked firepower in 2019, but now they have so much speed on that unit. They do run quite a bit of 12 personnel, but those tight-ends are more than just viable in-line blockers and they can be flexed out wide to possibly take a linebacker with him and indicate coverages for their RPO game. This should present a lot of light boxes for Sanders to run into, especially if you have first-round pick Jalen Reagor and DeSean Jackson on either end of the formation – teams then better keep two safeties high. Going back to my evaluation of Sanders coming into last year’s draft, I had him as my fourth-ranked back and this was my final statement on his analysis: “I think he would benefit from being part of a committee early on, where he can learn some of the subtleties at the position from a veteran and really shine from year two forward.“ That’s exactly the situation he was/is in. He is ready to go and I believe he will be one of the premiere two-way backs in the league this season.
David Montgomery
I had Montgomery as my second-ranked running back coming into last year’s draft behind only Josh Jacobs, because of what he showed at Iowa State in terms of contact balance, the forced missed tackle rate and pass-catching production. In his rookie season in Chicago however, he averaged only 3.7 yards per carry. When you consider Mitch Trubisky did not provide him with any help by threatening the defense as a passer and a lot of penetration in the backfield being allowed, that number looked a lot worse than it would have on most other teams, especially considering 2.33 of those yards came after contact and he had to force 47 missed tackles. The amount of times he was contacted at or behind the line of scrimmage and spin out of the grasp of a defender or find an alternative escape route would not lead to a lot of success for any back. His contributions in the pass game weren’t too shabby either, bringing in 25 of his 35 targets for just under 200 yards and a score. He displayed soft hands with just two drops on the year and he actually averaged 1.6 yards more per catch than teammate scat back Tarik Cohen, who actually let nine passes slip through his hands. Montgomery has the look and game of a workhorse back in my view, with a thick build, the ability to absorb contact and surprising elusiveness. He has really good short area quickness to manipulate secondary defenders by pressing the line of scrimmage and then cutting behind a blocker to burst through a crease. You even see him jump over the feet of his own linemen at times, if he sees a crack. As a receiver, he was often used on swing routes to bind defenders in the flats, but he was also pretty successful on seam routes down the middle. The Bears interior O-line really struggled for large stretches in 2019, with Kyle Long being out for most of the season and James Daniels still adjusting to the guard position. Long has since retired since and I was never huge of Germain Ifedi when he was playing right tackle for the Seahawks, but putting him inside and as a pure run-blocker, I think he can at least be an upgrade at RG over Rashaad Coward. When there was room for Montgomery to run, he did produce. He had a couple of 100-yard games versus the Chargers and Vikings when he was allowed to stay on the field and build momentum, plus some stat-lines didn’t end up looking overly impressive when they wanted to ride him and sulk away games. Obviously you still have Tarik Cohen and his ability as a space-player, but the numbers weren’t super impressive last season and if the Bears want to go back to what they did in 2018, they need to run the ball downhill. They didn’t add a single running back in free agency or the draft – so that tells you their confidence in the second-year player and how he could break out this season.
Darius Slayton
This young man had a very interesting rookie season. In two years as a starter at Auburn, Slayton caught just 65 passes, but averaged over 20 yards per grab and scored ten times over that stretch. That made him just a fifth-round pick and he had a couple of big plays early, but at some point people started realizing that he was not just going to be one of those guys who can come in and give the offense is a boost with a play or two in a game, but he can actually be a full-time contributor at the receiver position. Slayton did kind of disappear in some games, but then he would come back the next week and take a couple of slants to the house from mid-field. 32 of his 48 catches last season went for first downs and 12 of them resulted in 20+ yard gains, as well as scoring eight touchdowns. He earned more trust from the coaching staff through the weeks and played at least 70 percent of the offensive snaps in all but one of the final eleven games of last season, while recording a passer rating right around 100 when targeted over the course of year one. Slayton uses different speeds to his routes and forces defenders to open up their hips with sudden bursts, while being able to snap off in- and out-breaking routes in one step basically. He already runs a beautiful slant route, where he can V-release against inside-shading corners, selling the outside burst and then hitting that violent step and snap of the head to go underneath the defender. Once the ball is in his hands and he reaches the open field, Slayton can cross the face of the deep safety and outrace him to the pylon if given the chance. I also like the way he plucks the ball away from his frame and his feel for finding open space. However, he does need to work on adjusting routes on the feel and setting up some of his deeper routes more effectively. As a junior at Auburn he almost exclusively lined up in the slot and I could see the Giants move the second-year receiver around in 2020, after he was inside on less than five percent of the snaps as a rookie. Slayton Won’t turn 24 until this upcoming season is over and there is still a lot to grow still, number one being eliminating some focus drops (five last season). In the Jets game, when Slayton caught ten balls for 121 yards and two touchdowns, Gregg Williams gave the rookie so much respect that he had Jamal Adams shadowing over the top of the corner Slayton was matched up with and they even tried to play some mind-games with Daniel Jones, showing blitz with the All-Pro safety and then retreating late force the QB to hold onto the ball so the rush could get home.
Marquise Brown
Coming into last year’s draft as my number-two ranked receiver behind only D.K. Metcalf, Brown was the first player at the position to hear his name called and N’Keal Harry was the only other one to be selected in round one. In his debut campaign, the former Oklahoma standout caught 46 passes for just under 600 yards and seven touchdowns in the 14 games he dressed for. However, similar to Darius Slayton there were some valleys and peaks. In the season-opener, Lamar Jackson and Brown dismantled the Dolphins secondary, as the rook went for 147 yards and two touchdowns. The following week he had eight catches, but from that point on he never reached that 100-yard mark or caught more than five passes the rest of the regular season, putting up over 23 yards in only three of his final ten games. However when he Ravens were upset by Tennessee in the Divisional Round of the playoff, he was the only skill-position player to really show up, with seven grabs for 127 yards. Brown had a passer rating of 137.7 when targeted on the season, which ranked number one among all receivers with 50+ targets – so Lamar targeting the rookie led to great results. The young pass-catcher was dealing with a foot injury the entire year and while offseason stories may always be a little overblown, Brown said he had trouble walking normally at times. That adds up with what I saw on film, as I thought he just didn’t quite have that burst off the ball that jumped out to me in college. Think of it almost like an edge rusher trying to jump out of stance and get upfield – if he can’t gain an angle on the quarterback, he needs to convert to power or find other way to adjust in the middle of the plays. For Brown it is about putting his defender at a disadvantage by forcing that guy to open up his hips or shifting his weight too far backwards. Browns’ speed is one of his biggest assets and it’s what can allow him to gain separation out of his breaks. He was actually already much more effective in the red-zone than you would think, with nine receptions from within 20 yards (13th among all NFL receivers), because he has a feel for how to avoid contact and is kind of slippery that way. His releases versus press are much better than a lot of receivers with a bigger frame. He may never be a great blocker simply based on his slender frame, but he does a pretty good job putting it in front of defenders to shield them. Brown will need to add to his route-tree and prove he can stay healthy, but he only turns 23 next week. So the sky is the limit for this kid. His rookie teammate from last year in Miles Boykin could be one of those guys ready to make a jump in his second season as well.
Diontae Johnson
As I have talked about many times already, the Steelers offense was a mess in 2019. Their quarterback play might have ranked 32nd in the entire league without Ben Roethlisberger, James Conner and Juju Smith-Schuster were in and out of the lineup and the concepts were very simplistic because of that situation. However, if there was one glimmer of hope it was their third-round pick out of Toledo. Johnson touched the ball 63 times for 721 yards and five touchdowns. Those numbers may not blow anybody away, but considering the situation he found himself in with an offense that was stagnant for large stretches of games with sub-par passers, they are actually pretty impressive. Johnson had kind of a breakout game in week four versus Cincinnati, catching all of his six targets for 77 yards and a score. After that he played at least two thirds of the snaps in all but two games the rest of the way. Altogether he hauled in 91 percent of the catchable passes his way and his 59 receptions also led all rookies. In addition to his work on offense, Johnson averaged 12.8 yards per punt return and scored on one of his 20 attempts as a rookie, down in Arizona. His ability to see the field and recognize defensive pursuit tests opposing coverage teams as a return man also becomes a problem for defenses trying to corral him. I can’t even count the amount of shallow crossers he caught off mesh concepts, even in third-and-long situations, and he consistently made bigger plays than he should have with the defense knowing what’s coming. His hesitation, start-stop quicks and ability to beat defenders towards the opposite sideline led to some nearly impossible conversions. The Steelers took advantage of how elusive and slippery the rookie was by putting the ball in his hands on end-arounds, pop passes and quick screens as well. Overall he broke 18 tackles after the catch – second among all rookies on the season. With that being said, Johnson is so much more than just a return specialist and gadget player. He is a super skilled route-runner, who easily gets off press and already showed a lot of nuance on deeper developing routes, but with how incapable the two Steelers QBs were last season, he just didn’t get enough opportunities to take advantage of that skill-set. I love how he sets up his opponents off the line with slow-playing the release, head nods and then he catches those guys off guard when he turns on the jets out of nowhere. His eyes don’t give away his route and he really snaps that head around once he comes out of his break. At the same time you also saw him just run right by some corners on vertical patterns, where Johnson continues to fight with his hands as defenders try to pin him into the sideline. Johnson is a very smooth glider and runs some beautiful post-corner or out-and-up routes. The few things I didn’t like about Johnson in year one – he wasn’t not overly interested in getting involved as a blocker, his elbow got a little too far off his body, which gives defenders the opportunity to punch at it and he dropped six passes, because his eyes already moved downfield. It will be interesting to see how Pittsburgh will utilize their young receiving corp, but with Big Ben back under center all those guys should receive a boost.
Hayden Hurst
This is the only player on my list to have been traded while being on his rookie deal. If you want to know how the Falcons feel about Hurst, you just have to look at them basically trading a second-round pick for Baltimore’s number three tight-end. That may be a little bit simplistic way of looking at it, considering Mark Andrews is a young superstar for the Ravens and Nick Boyle might be the best blocker at the position in the league, but Hurst has still only put up just over 500 yards and three touchdowns through his first two years in the league, while Atlanta decided to not pay one of the league’s best receiving TEs in Austin Hooper. Hurst has kind of been forgotten because of his limited production in that Baltimore offense, but I did think he was the best all-around tight-end coming out two years ago and the Ravens believed in him so much that they made him their original first-round pick, before trading back up into round one for Lamar Jackson. The former South Carolina Gamecock was kind of underutilized downfield with the Ravens, since Andrews became the designated route-running and Hurst was used for more simplistic duties as a pass-catcher and executing kick-out blocks in the run game- He was asked to slip into the flats off motion and after faking swift blocks or just running out there from a wing-alignment to create a high-low stretch a receiver on top of him, plus then he turned upfield for wheel routes at times. Coming out in 2018, I thought Hurst was the most natural route-runner among the group, with his ability to sink his hips and create separation against safeties when flexed out wide, while having plenty of experience doing the dirty work as a true Y. Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter will absolutely make people pay attention when hearing his name once again. The tight-end position is a huge factor in that offense, especially as more of a vertical presence down the seams, when you look at what he did in Tampa with that young duo Hooper last year, when he finished with just under 800 yards in 13 games. What I believe will make Hurst successful is the ability to shield the ball from defenders with his body, giving comfort to Matt Ryan attacking the middle of the field and he is very physical after the catch, which he already flashed to some degree in Baltimore. Swap him for Hooper in that system with those kind of receivers around him and he could easily put up 600-800 yards and a few touchdowns. While he didn’t prude at a very high rate in his first two years, Hurst did average 8.9 yards on his 39 targets last season, which was actually 0.2 yards more than former Pro Bowl teammate Andrews. Get him going downfield with a similar target share as his predecessor received and he could easily finish top ten at the position in all the major categories.
Frank Ragnow
I loved both Ragnow and James Daniels of the Bears – who I expect to take the next step as well – coming out together as centers two years ago respectively, while I wasn’t as bullish on Billy Price – which I feel pretty good about right now. I had Daniels slightly ahead among the two because of his agility and the way he could reach defensive linemen or scoop them up, but Ragnow I thought had a little more physicality for gap-schemes and was better at the nuances of the position. As a rookie for the Lions, Ragnow started all 16 games at left guard and already played very well. Last season however he and Graham Glasgow moved over one spot respectively and it had the second-year man at the pivot, where he allowed just two sacks and was called for holding twice. His college coaches called him “as natural a center as you’re gonna find” back in 2018 and I agree that is where he fits best. So entering year three, I believe he will take another step and establish himself as one of the premiere centers in the league. He is such a scrappy, smart player who will be a center(-piece) for what those guys are building in Detroit. What has stood out to me about Ragnow from the first time I saw him play at Arkansas is his excellent snap-to-step quickness. He can get on the move and hook defenders in the zone run game, where he does a great job of setting up his teammates on combo-blocks and then transitioning to the second level, rarely leaving those guards in a situation, where the down-linemen has a chance to still cross their face. And yet, while there are more mobile centers, he is so good with his hand-placement and angles that you just don’t see those linebackers beat him to the spot or he at least creates a cutback lane behind that action. Detroit runs a heavy amount of half-line slides, where Ragnow keeps his eyes up towards the side is responsible for, but always has that help-hand ready to not force his guards to overcompensate against defenders in the A-gaps. He is also excellent at passing on assignments on twists. There are some issues with powerful nose-tackle occasionally, if he can’t shoot those hands first, and he tends to raise up too much, but he should be even better with two more consistent pieces to either side of him with rookies Jonah Jackson (Ohio State) and Logan Stenberg (Kentucky), who I project to make the starting lineup. Now with the Lions selecting D’Andre Swift 35th overall in the draft to go with Kerryon Johnson, this team clearly wants to pound opponents with the run game. Running zone schemes with that O-line and allowing those backs to stick their foot in the ground and get upfield gives them a recipe for success and an identity. Swift and Johnson are also excellent in the screen game, where Ragnow’s ability to choose the appropriate angles and put hands on people in space can really shine.
Biggest winners and losers, steals and reaches from the draft
As I do every year, I wanted to give an extensive recap of what happened over those three days. However, I don’t like handing out grades, because they don’t encapsulate the real value of a pick in my opinion. Instead I wanted to identify some of the biggest winners and losers, steals and reaches coming out of the draft. Yet, I didn’t only look at the different clubs, but I also included certain players and how it affected them.
Biggest winners and losers:
Winner – Drew Lock
Nobody received more help around him over the draft than Denver’s sophomore quarterback. First, the Broncos decided to stay put at number 15 and still got their guy in my number one receiver Jerry Jeudy. The Alabama standout is a perfect complement to Courtland Sutton, as they can move the rookie around and create easy completions for Lock to the savvy route-runner. Then they came back in the second round and added a jitterbug like Penn State’s K.J. Hamler, who can take your breath away with his ability to eat up cushions and is tough to put a hand on with the ball in his hands. Late on day two, the Broncos landed an absolute steal in LSU center Lloyd Cushenberry, who was my 35th overall prospect in the draft and should immediately compete for the starting spot at right guard next to recently acquired Graham Glasgow. And then early in the fourth round they selected Missouri tight-end Albert Okwuegbunam, who can be used in a similar fashion as last year’s first-round pick Noah Fant, as a seam-stretcher and flexed out wide in some capacity. Using an ace set with both those TEs on either end of the O-line and letting them streak downfield with a big-bodied receiver like Sutton breaking inside underneath should be a scary sight. And that red-zone personnel is towering over defenses. Combine that receiving corp with a much-improved offensive line and an excellent duo of running backs with Philip Lindsay and Melvin Gordon and they are pretty close to rivaling the fire power of Kansas City on offense. The Broncos also nailed their other picks with the long and physical Iowa corner Michael Ojemudia, an explosive penetrator on the interior D-line in Arkansas’ McTelvin Agim, a mobile linebacker who is slippery working around blocks and brings some thump at collisions in Wake Forest's Justin Strnad, a technically sound edge rusher in North Dakota STate's Derrek Tuszka and a guy in Fresno State guard Netane Muti, who can add some competition, if he can finally stay healthy, since when he was on the field his natural power and mean-streak really stood out.
Loser – Tyrod Taylor
You could put the L.A. Chargers here altogether, but let’s just talk about Tyrod. His first four years in the league he backed up Joe Flacco in Baltimore, then he was brought in to be Rex Ryan’s starting quarterback in Buffalo, where he did play like an above-average QB for three seasons, really taking care of the ball. In 2017 when Sean McDermott was brought in as the head coach, it became clear that Taylor’s conservative style of play wasn’t even for them, as they (falsely) threw rookie Nathan Peterman out there, who famously tossed five interceptions in the first half of their game against the Chargers. While the veteran signal-caller did start the rest of the season and almost won a playoff game against Jacksonville, the Bills decided to go a different route and ultimately drafted Josh Allen. Tyrod went on to sign with the Browns and earned the starting gig, until he lost his job three weeks into the season to number one overall pick Baker Mayfield – which absolutely was the right move. Last offseason he decided to sign with the Chargers to back up Philip Rivers and with the long-time idol being let go, it finally looked like a team really wanted Taylor, especially with head coach Anthony Lynn saying he is their guy. Well, I think the Chargers had to settle for Justin Herbert with the sixth overall pick because of the top two quarterbacks being off the board and I think he is not ready to start, but you know how things work out with guys being selected in the top ten. Tyrod has one of the best rosters around him, but as soon as the offense stalls – and it will because he tends to take his eyes down when the rush gets to him and L.A. did not select a single offensive lineman – people will be calling for Herbert to get out on the field. I also really like the potential of OU linebacker Kenneth Murray, but I disagree the strategy of trading back up into the first round in exchange for both their picks on day two, which they really need in terms of adding depth.
Winner – New York Jets
There’s only maybe three or four draft classes that I would put ahead of what Joe Douglas and Adam Gase put together. They started things out with the massive Louisville tackle Mekhi Becton, who will immensely upgrade their zone rushing attack and has the agile feet to develop into an excellent pass-protector down the road, and then they came back in the second round and grab Baylor wideout Denzel Mims, after trading down with the Seahawks for a late third-round pick, who should immediately jump in as their starting X receiver and should improve one of the worst red-zone offenses in the league right away. Those two picks should make Sam Darnold very happy as well. With the 68th overall selection they bring in Cal safety Ashtyn Davis, who I had already penciled in as a second-rounder and can legitimately line up at nickel day one because he has the hips and electric change-of-direction skills for it, but also the range for a true single-high free safety in case they want to let Marcus Maye leave in free agency next year. That additional third-rounder they picked up was used on Florida’s Jabari Zuniga, who Gregg Williams can groom into an explosive edge rusher with inside flexibility in sub-packages. I liked some other guys better than Lamical Perine, who they selected with their first pick of day three, but in that zone-heavy rushing attack he is a pretty good fit, and spending number 125 on FIU quarterback James Morgan was somewhat surprising, but people around the league were pretty high on him as a developmental player, who they could swap for some picks down the road. After those two, they grabbed Charlotte OT Cameron Clarke, who actually has some of that Mekhi Becton quality of torqueing pads and finishing defenders on the ground in the run game, who could move inside at the next level, and then Virginia’s Bryce Hall in the fifth round could turn out to be one of the biggest steals in the draft due to some injury concerns, as a smart corner with great ball-skills. Since you spend sixth-round picks on special team contributors anyway, I can’t hate grabbing the best one in punter Braden Mann from Texas A&M either.
Loser – Seattle Seahawks
John Schneider and those guys in the Pacific Northwest do this every year – they take somebody in the first round who nobody values as highly, they pick some guys they like more than others in the middle rounds and then they bail themselves out to some degree later on day three. I thought they overdrafted players with each of their first-round picks. Texas Tech’s Jordyn Brooks is a downhill linebacker who people around the league seemed to like quite a bit and the Hawks see as a free-flowing player, but I had him ranked as a third-rounder because he struggles to deal with blocks and doesn’t show great awareness in zone coverage. Considering the Ravens scooped up LSU’s Patrick Queen a pick later, who I thought was a top-20 prospect, makes matters even worse. Then to trade up 11 spots in the second round and giving up a third-rounder to select Tennessee edge rusher Darrell Taylor, who isn’t very technically sound with his hands and is kind of predictable with his rush, doesn’t make too much sense to me either, since I have their fifth-round pick Alton Robinson from Syracuse a spot ahead of him in my edge rankings actually. And with an early third-round selection they bring in LSU guard Damien Lewis, who is a powerful run-blocker and some of his agility concerns won’t come to light as much in their run-heavy offense, but you just had to look at the guy one spot next to him in center Lloyd Cushenberry, who I think actually is a much better player and I had as my 35th overall prospect. As usual Seattle softens the blow on day three with guys like the big-bodied and sure-handed Stanford tight-end Colby Parkinson, an excellent passing down back in Miami’s DeeJay Dallas, the aforementioned Robinson, a speedster in Florida receiver Freddie Swain, who can contribute for them in the return game, and a seam-stretching big slot/flex tight-end in LSU’s Stephen Sullivan, but some of the picks they make early on are just confusing, no matter how much they seem to value their personal meetings with those guys.
Winner – Tua Tagovailoa
With the way the Dolphins 2019 offseason went and how they built their roster, it didn’t look like they would be in position to compete at a high level, but after getting blown out by the Ravens and trading away left tackle Laremy Tunsil, fans started making those “Tank for Tua” signs and it ultimately materialized. This past week especially, reports started coming out about how the Alabama quarterback could slide leading up to Thursday. In the end however, Tua was the pick at number five overall and while there is obviously a lot of risk due to injury concerns, I think this was the right call, because he can be one of the premiere passers in the league if he can stay healthy. Yes, going one spot later to a talented Chargers roster would have been nice as well, but I believe Miami might be building something special here, because Brian Flores is setting the tone for a culture that is slowly adding the pieces to the puzzle and has already shown a lot of fight in wins over the playoff-seeking Eagles and at New England in week 17 to cost the Patriots a bye week. And after fielding one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, the Dolphins also made it a priority to put protect their new signal-caller whenever he’s ready. While overrated to me, they added a very talented tackle in USC’s Austin Jackson at number 18, one of my favorites in Louisiana’s pancake machine Robert Hunt early in the second round and the massive Georgia guard Solomon Kindley with the fifth pick on day three. Miami also brought in former 49ers running back Matt Breida in exchange for a fifth-round pick. The rest of their picks was invested into defense and a long-snapper, before grabbing Navy QB/RB/WR Malcolm Perry. He should be an interesting gadget player if he makes the roster, who can do some wildcat quarterback stuff and take the pressure off Tua. Ryan Fitzpatzrick will still most likely start and his play should determine when they throw the rookie QB out there, who is still working back to 100 percent. Tua is set up to succeed long-term.
Loser – AFC defenses going up against the Chiefs
Well, you already had to feel kind of sorry for whoever is out there trying to run with all those track stars streaking down the field and the most talented passers I have seen in my life, but this just added a different dimension. The Chiefs only drafted two offensive players over the weekend, with one of them being TCU offensive tackle Lucas Niang, who I like a lot but should be a backup in year one for the most, but like I correctly predicted in my one and only mock draft, they selecting LSU running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire with that final pick in the first round and they might have doomed the entire AFC with that. I know CEH was only my number-five ranked back and he was 51 overall on my board, but as we got closer to the actual draft, I thought about moving him up a few spots because I really like the floor he presents as a player and he is just perfect for that Kansas City offense. The former Tigers’ RB gives the Chiefs a physical presence in the ground game, with the low center of gravity and contact balance to bounce or spin off tacklers for yards after contact, but most importantly runs with an enormous chip on his shoulder. However, he is much more than just a bruiser. Edwards-Helaire probably has the best start-stop quickness in the entire draft to attack one edge of a blocker and force linebackers behind the action to overcommit and he can make guys miss in the backfield with jukes and spins to escape from traffic. He also caught the most passes of any draft-eligible RB and gives them another option in the passing game. Just think about the way defenders have to chase all those speedy receivers down the field or on crossing routes and now when they are already tired, they have to come up and tackle this guy catching a check-down? Nobody will want to get in his way and I can already promise you he will convert some crucial third downs by sheer will to extend drives.
Winner – Jerry Jones
Nobody might have had a better time just sitting back and getting his guys in the draft than the head of America’s Team on his yacht. I did not really study their seventh-round pick in quarterback Ben DiNucci from James Madison other than the FCS Championship game, but every pick before that to me was at or above value for the Cowboys. Wide receiver might not have been the biggest need for this team in the first round, but did you really think Jerry Jones was going to pass on a star receiver from Oklahoma like Ceedee Lamb if he fell to them at 17? Not only did that just create one of the premiere receiver trios in the league, but it also prevented the division rival Eagles from getting my number eight overall prospect, as they reportedly tried to move up one spot ahead of them with Atlanta. Then Jerry selected another standout from the nearby Sooners in defensive tackle Neville Gallimore in the third round, who I had in the 40s and only strengthens an already excellent rotation on the interior and two long, physical press corners in Alabama’s Trevon Diggs and more of a small-school guy like Tulsa’s Reggie Robinson. If the latter reaches his potential, you could have those two guys on the outside and move Chidobe Awuzie into the slot, where he excelled at in college. This makes Anthony Brown and Jourdan Lewis your fourth and fifth CBs respectively and gives you the opportunity of letting them go if you don’t have the money to pay them. With Dallas’ first pick on day three they selected Wisconsin center Tyler Biadasz, who looked like the top interior offensive linemen just a year ago but fell due to injury concerns and the related decline in play last season, which helps with the recent retirement of another former Badger center in Travis Frederick. And then with the final pick of the fifth round to grab Utah’s Bradlee Anae, who I had as my 67th overall prospect is just outstanding. That guy is a man out there on the field, who can set the edge in the run game and give you production as a pass-rusher right away.
Loser – New England Patriots
Who am I to question the madness behind Bill Belichick and that Patriots organization, right? Bill has managed that roster exceptionally well and that’s why that run continued until the one constant in Tom Brady left this offseason. However, you can objectively look at their last three or four draft classes and question some of the selections they have made. In the last four years the first players they have selected are named like this: N’Keal Harry, Isaiah Wynn, Derek Rivers and Cyrus Jones. None of them have made major impacts for the team and there are only three sure-fire starters from that entire stretch. This year once again I would put their draft class near the bottom, even if I like some of the players the selected. As they like to do, they traded out of the first round for the Chargers two picks on the second day, which is something I can definitely get behind, but I’m not sure about what they did with them. At 37th overall they select Lenoir Rhyne safety Kyle Dugger, who is an explosive athlete with the size to drop into the box possibly and I had ranked as a mid-day two prospect, but he doesn’t strike me as the type of anticipatory player BB would covet and I had better players at safety and WILL linebacker ahead of him depending on where they want to play Dugger. I’m a big fan of Joshua Uche, who they selected later in the second, but they had to give up a third-rounder in a trade-up, where that pick they gave away ended up being Ohio State linebacker Malik Harrison, who actually is that kind of big, thumping linebacker they usually like to have on the field. Edge defender Anfernee Jennings from Alabama in the third looks more like your typical Patriot, but he isn’t a very dynamic player and then the Pats invested two more third-rounders into tight-ends Devin Asiasi (UCLA) and Dalton Keene (Virginia Tech). I actually loved Asiasi as a potential target in the 100-range and Keene certainly has upside as an underutilized pass-catcher after putting in good work as a blocker, but once again they traded up for the latter who might have gone in the sixth round if they hadn’t grabbed him. And no, I didn’t study the Marshall kicker from round five or hear his name called – ever.
Winner – The analytics-based Cleveland Browns front office
Man, the Browns just killed the draft. As much fun as you could make of their front office, with some of the talk about how their analytics team overviews the gameplans and after just hiring Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski to take over the head coaching position, who was coming off a ten-point showing versus San Francisco in the Divisional Round and a lot of the offensive success was thanks to Gary Kubiak, you have to applaud them for the draft class they just put together. They selected my number four prospect at tenth overall in Alabama offensive tackle Jedrick Wills Jr., who is an aggressive run-blocker and technically sound pass-protector, and then they brought in my 29th-ranked prospect at 45 overall in LSU safety Grant Delpit, who has incredible range and can do a lot of things for you if you move him into the slot. With those two they complete the transition from a poor offensive last season to one of the top front-fives in the league combined with the signing of former Titans right tackle Jack Conklin and a true single-high free safety to make life easier on their young corners, if Delpit can just clean up his tackling a little bit. I actually don’t love their two third-round picks Jordan Elliott and Jacob Phillips, but I have to acknowledge that the Missouri D-tackle has a lot of talent, even though I thought he was overhyped when watching the tape. However, I really like those day three picks, starting with John Mackey award winner Harrison Bryant (FAU) adding to that tight-end room as a target to pull away from defenders off play-action, slipping underneath the formation into the flats off split zone plays or getting behind linebackers. My favorite one might be Washington’s Nick Harris, who is super-mobile center with excellent lateral agility and is a perfect fit for that zone-heavy rushing attack Stefanski ran in Minnesota last year, who could take over in the middle with a potential out on J.C. Tretter in 2021. And then Michigan receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones in sixth is just crazy. I had a third-round grade on him as well, as a very explosive and talented pass-catcher, who never actually produced the way he is capable of because of quarterback play.
Loser – Aaron Rodgers
There weren’t a lot of mock drafts out there that didn’t have Green Bay selecting a pass-catcher in the first round and I actually had them going with Baylor’s Denzel Mims at 30th overall in my own. However, instead of getting the veteran quarterback some much-needed help at receiver, you draft his replacement in Jordan Love? Rodgers has to be pissed with GM Brian Gutekunst and that front-office. The Packers are coming off a bad loss to the 49ers in the NFC Championship game, but when you look at their two matchups last season, it was Raheem Mostert and those other backs for San Francisco running all over the defense, while all the receivers for the Pack were blanketed on the other side. So even going with an interior D-linemen would have been more towards the liking of Green Bay’s signal-caller. In fact they did not select a single receiver in a historically great draft at the position that had 36 of them hear their names called. In the second round, Green Bay selected Boston College’s A.J. Dillon as massive running back in the mold of what Matt LaFleur had in Derrick Henry as the Titans’ offensive coordinator, but not only was he a definite day three prospect to me, but he also was pretty much a non-factor in the passing game at Boston College. I like Cincinnati’s Josiah Deguara quite a bit – who they selected in the third round – and I see how he could be their version of Kyle Juszczyk since he played that H-back role for the Bearcats, showing great effort as a blocker and ability to put hands on people in space, but once again, I would think Rodgers would have rather had somebody like Liberty wide receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden, who went a full round later. In the sixth round, Green Bay picked up three offensive linemen and I think Michigan’s Jon Runyan can actually make an impact early on if you move him inside, but none of those guys really move the needle in terms of the immediate help for a team looking to compete for the NFC. While I hope this lights a fire under Rodgers and he raises his level of play after what you may call a couple of down-years, this draft does not give their signal-caller a lot of help.
Winner – Jonathan Taylor
I’m sure Taylor would have loved to hear his name called in the first round, but in the end this may be the best situation he could have found himself in. He will be running behind what I think is the best offensive line in football for the Colts. Indy does run quite a bit of zone, where they will allow Taylor to make that one cut and get upfield, but they also run a lot of power schemes, where the running back can really build up momentum exploding through a wide open hole. Insert a 225-pound bowling ball like Taylor with a ton of explosiveness and 4.39 speed and this becomes a scary sight. Marlon Mack is a nice back and he has had a lot of success in that system, but unless Taylor’s fumbling problems remain such a big problem, the rookie should become their true workhorse in 2020. Only four teams ran the ball more than the Colts did last season and while Taylor still has to establish himself as a third-down back – especially with Nyheim Hines already there – with Philip Rivers under center those guys will catch a lot of check-downs when you look at how often the quarterback relied on Austin Ekeler last year. Considering all of that, Taylor is my early favorite for Offensive Rookie of the Year. Add one of my favorite wideouts in the draft USC’s Michael Pittman Jr. earlier in the second round to the mix with one of the better receivers in the league when healthy in T.Y. Hilton, last year’s second-rounder Parris Campbell, who could be used more on jet sweeps, quick screens and slants to bind defenders and the Wisconsin RB has some help around him. He will also love tight-end Jack Doyle as an excellent run-blocker and there are some other solid receivers on the roster. With the selection of Washington’s Jacob Eason, who is in a great situation himself thanks to being able to sit at least a year, they could be set at quarterback for the future as well, if they can develop the strong-armed kid.
Loser – Anybody in that Bears tight-end room
Before Chicago released Trey Burton about a week before the draft, they had the most expensive group of tight-ends in the league after paying Jimmy Graham 16 million dollars over the next two years, despite looking like a shell of himself recently. Adam Shaheen was a second-round pick out of Ashland just three years ago and he has only caught 26 passes since then. Last season it was actually J.P. Holtz who led the Bears tight-ends with 91 receiving yards. So you understand why you would want to upgrade that position, but they just haven’t done it in a way that I would like to see in terms of building a roster. Second-round pick Cole Kmet out of Notre Dame looks like the clear-cut starter and best all-around option, because he can execute a multitude of blocking techniques and has upside as a pass-catcher. So he is the one guy in this conversation that you can classify as a winner. Still, the Bears now have ten(!) tight-ends on the roster currently, when most teams only carry three on gamedays. Kmet is certainly an upgrade and I thought he was the second-best prospect at the position, but staying put at 43 when you actually need more mid-round picks to address a position that you already spent money on is kind of a head-scratcher. When you look at the guys who went a few picks like later, like Minnesota safety Antoine Winfield, who would have been a great fit next to Eddie Jackson, or Penn State receiver K.J. Hamler, who would have given them a true deep threat and could create easy yardage. Then you look at my TE1 Adam Trautman out of Dayton going 105th overall and you really question the value of that selection, when you probably would have gotten Kmet if you had traded back about ten spots. When you look at the other guys in that TE room, Graham won’t get a chance to revive his career probably as more of a red-zone target and even if two of the other guys make the roster, they will likely have to settle for run-down duties in heavy personnel.
Winner – Baltimore Ravens
When Ozzie Newsome – who is not only a Hall of Fame tight-end but also a Hall of Fame executive – decided to retire a couple of years and Eric DeCosta took over the general manager duties, it was fair to assume the quality of their front office might take a small step backwards, but it just hasn’t. No matter who runs their draft, every damn year they knock it out of the park and with pretty much every pick you go like “that’s so Ravens”. Whether it was being patient with their first round pick and seeing three linebackers selected ahead of their selection, until they picked up the dynamic LSU linebacker Patrick Queen, grabbing a physical, explosive running back in Ohio State’s J.K. Dobbins (my RB2) or then trading back with New England to now have four picks in the third round with how much talent they knew would be there. Interior D-line wasn’t an immediate need, but Texas A&M’s Justin Madubuike is a super flexible and explosive kid with a lot of room to grow being part of that group, while he wasn’t rated my best available receiver, Texas’ Devin Duvernay is an excellent addition to that offense, because of what he can do as a slant or bubble option on their RPOs and then Ohio State’s Malik Harrison is another great fit as a downhill MIKE next to first-rounder Queen at WILL. With their first pick on day three, John Harbaugh brought in one of his brother’s standouts in Michigan guard Ben Bredeson, who could immediately replace an all-time great in Marshal Yanda, James Proche in the sixth was of one the best receivers in the country last season at SMU and then in the seventh to grab a really smart and instinctive safety in Iowa’s Geno Stone just puts the cherry at the top. Yeah I wasn’t too high on Tyre Phillips or Broderick Washington, but there’s really nothing that comes to mind for this draft class other than “that’s so Ravens”.
Loser – Anthony Gordon
This is the only actual draft prospect on my list of biggest losers and it’s easy to understand why he made it – he didn’t hear his name called at all. Gordon transferred from junior college in 2018 and lost out to Gardner Minshew in the battle for the starting spot under center, before taking over last season. In his one year as a starter, all he did was complete 493 of 689(!) passes for 5579 yards and 48 touchdowns compared to 16 INTs. Like it is every year (until now when Mike Leach left the program), a lot of the production for the Wazzu quarterbacks is due to that Air Raid system and Gordon doesn’t blow anybody away physically, but when you look at him as a pure player, I think he is pretty good. He might not have a huge arm, but it is more than adequate. He is not a great athlete, but he can really buy time inside the pocket. And he is way too loose with the ball, but that is something that can be corrected. I really like the way he puts the ball to where receivers don’t have to break stride, setting those guys up for nice YAC opportunities. The former Cougars signal-caller was my eight-ranked quarterback and I thought he could be a target early on day three, especially with how weak this class is after the top four – and to me even more the top two. Overall, 13 quarterbacks were selected through three days and Gordon surprisingly wasn’t one of them. I know he only put out one year of tape and he is far from a perfect prospect, but he has to be frustrated to not have anybody call him after finishing second only to number one overall pick Joe Burrow in both passing yards and touchdowns last season. The Seahawks have since then signed him as an undrafted free agent and they should have an excellent backup with no other QB on the roster other than Russ, but I think Gordon deserves a chance to at least compete somewhere.
Winner – Saquon Barkley & Daniel Jones
You know what? Let’s give Dave Gettleman and Joe Judge some credit here. The Giants GM deserves some credit here for doing what he was supposed to after surprising everybody by selecting quarterback Daniel Jones out of Duke a year ago and going against what the analytics say by going with a running second overall in superstar Saquon Barkley – protect his investments. While I did have Georgia's Andrew Thomas as my fourth offensive tackle, I still thought he was a top ten prospect and he can immediately jump in at right tackle (even though I would have preferred them to move back a little and grab one of the OTs). In the third round the G-Men selected in a developmental tackle I really like in UConn’s Matt Peart, who should be ready to take over on the right side when the team ultimately replaces Nate Solder at left tackle with Thomas. And then to come back early on day three and selecting another top 100 prospect for me in a road-grading guard like Oregon’s Shane Lemieux, who was a high-quality starter for 52 games with the Ducks, just put them at another level. If Big Blue can move the rookie or Kevin Zeitler to the center spot, they can put their best five out there – which is now pretty strong all of a sudden. Saquon should have a lot more room to work with a great zone-blocking O-line in front of him, while their quarterback should not get killed back there, if he also learns to get rid of the ball when nothing is there downfield. Gettleman had one of the best overall drafts I can remember from him. While he is still way too stuck in his thoughts about just using the draft picks he has and grabbing whoever is there, instead of operating the board, he did select my top-rated safety in Alabama’s Xavier McKinney and a day-one starter at nickel in UCLA’s Darnay Holmes to upgrade that secondary. He spent four of his final five picks on that poor linebacker group, with two of them having outside flexibility.
Loser – Fantasy football owners
This is somewhat of an off-the-board pick here. For me the draft is always somewhat of a grueling process when I get to watching prospects in the 300-400 range, who probably won’t even be selected, but there are also guys that you get excited about and it gives you an edge in fantasy football, because I have already seen all these guys on tape and can kind of project how they could be used. However, this year more than I can remember in a while, a lot of things have become kind of murky seeing what happened in the draft. So many running back committees have been formed, when you look at Detroit pairing Kerryon Johnson up with D’Andre Swift, Cam Akers now building a one-two punch with Darrell Henderson in L.A. most likely, J.K. Dobbins being thrown in the mix with all those guys in Baltimore, A.J. Dillon joining the backfield with a rising star in Aaron Jones in Green Bay and a few other situations. It will be tough to figure out how all those touches are going to split once the regular season rolls around. We also saw a bunch of receiving corps being upgraded with several weapons to spread the wealth between. Overall there were 36 receivers selected in those three days, with multiple teams selecting more than just one pass-catcher, and there are even some guys I like who didn’t hear their names called. I will have fun going through the depth charts of every team and trying to decipher who is worth a look, but for the casual fan this might be headache. I also think this could lead to some shifts in which positions are being invested in more. I usually don’t draft a quarterback in the single-digit rounds, but could we see the top quarterback rise a little? Or will there be more emphasis on the elite tight-ends? We will see.
Winner – Buffalo Bills
I don’t believe anything the Bills did over the weekend will blow anybody away, but Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott once again had a really solid draft. Before we talk about any of the actual picks they made, we have to look at Stefon Diggs as their first-round pick in a trade with the Vikings. This was a great class of wide receivers, but when you look at LSU’s Justin Jefferson actually being the pick for Minnesota with that 22nd overall selection, Diggs is a better fit for Buffalo as more of a vertical threat. When they actually were on the clock on day two, the Bills selected Iowa's A.J. Epenesa at pick 54, after I thought he would have been a nice target at their original first-round spot. The Iowa defensive linemen was born to play for the Bills it feels like, with the excellent hand-usage and power to give them a piece up front, who can slide inside on sub-packages. Then Utah running back Zack Moss is the perfect bruising type of runner to complement Devin Singletary, UCF receiver Gabriel Davis is a deep ball specialist perfect to pair up with Josh Allen’s big arm while Oregon State's Isaiah Hodgins is more of a big-bodied contested catch guy, who can bail the quarterback out when he puts the ball up for grabs. Fifth-round QB Jake Fromm from Georgia might be the polar opposite of Allen physically and the kind of risk-averse style of play, but he excels in the quick-game, which the Bills quietly have gone more to with that 11 personnel, up-temp offense. He should be a high-quality backup, they might be able to deal for some draft capital down the road. While I don’t necessarily advocate drafting kickers and I didn’t study the class to much, I know that Tyler Bass has a LEG and could immediately replace Stephen Hauschka, who has converted less than 80 percent of his field-goal attempts in each of the last two years. I’m also a fan of the feisty Pitt corner Dane Jackson, who they picked up in the seventh round and he could actually compete for the starting nickel spot with Taron Johnson potentially. So maybe nothing spectacular, but a rock-solid class.
Other drafts I liked:
Arizona Cardinals, Minnesota Vikings and Carolina Panthers
Ok, I think I have done enough testing to know the 99.9% certain formula for doing the Wynn hotel free stay thing. While paying as little as possible and more importantly, waste as little time as possible. This is proven (to the best of my ability) as I have done it myself. Cashed out 6 night and 6 buffets within 1 month of playing. Requirement: A reasonably modern PC. I used this trick on an AMD 200GE with 8 GB ram. That is about as entry-level as it gets. You can use a phone, you can use a tablet, but none of which are optimal. An alternative is using an android phone/tablet that you don't actually use. Instruction:Step one: Download Bluestack, any PC will do, go to setting and set it to use Direct X instead of OpenGL and it will run the game faster. https://www.bluestacks.com/ Step two: Sign in Google play store, download this two apps: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.torpedolabs.wynn.slots&hl=en_US And https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.truedevelopersstudio.automatictap.autoclicker&hl=en_US Step three: Make sure Bluestack and both games/apps are fully updated. Then launch the clicker, and launch the game. Optionally sign into the game for extra starting coin with your Facebook account and have your progress saved on their server. You will need to do that anyway if you want to book a hotel. You can not use more than one account for one person, but you can ask to combine the stay for different people. You are required to use your real name and you can only be able to check-in with matching name. So, you can not give your reservation away. (However, you can use bluestack to run several accounts at the same time to run up your account and give to other people to sign in and essentially "gave" them your account long as you haven't sign in with any account yet. This part might be risky.) Game concept: You have 8 millions of starting chips. Your goal is to increase chips. Each bet you make will earn you gems. Gems can be redeemed for a free hotel stay (up to 4 days max) at Vynn in Las Vegas only, does not work for the one in Marcu. Also, give you a free buffet. You will need something called VIP level 2 (10k VIP point) to start redeeming hotel stays. Currently, it is NOT possible to get to VIP level 2 without pay. However, with optimal playing, you can get to VIP level 2 with roughly $40 CAD (Roughly 3000 VIP point) and about a month's time of playing. How to get VIP point - Two ways, event, and chest How events work: Each day will 4 events, one big event at noon our time, another one at 8:30 PM (PST Time), 12 AM, and 5 AM, and 9 AM. Big event when completed, give you 25 VIP points, another one gives you 9 VIP points. Each event has a set of objectives, they are randomized, but usually 4 out of the 5 following objectives:
300- 500 spins
win 2 - 5 free games
win 3 - 6 million in one spin
win 50 - 250 million in total
Other game-specific objectives
How chest works Just go to the bonus button and open the chest. It is free. The gold one gives you 5 VIP every 4 hours, The wheel gives you 15 VIP point very 12 hours. So, if you only look at the game once a day at around 5 PM, you can complete the big event and get the chest for roughly 45 VIP points. If you look at the game once at 5 and another time at 10 you can get 65 VIP, how soon you want them is up to you. But there is a time limit. You do need to get 4000 points within 90 days if you want to get the level up for free. How to earn coins
1. When Under 50 million bankroll Go to a game called "Lion Kill" and leave it spinning unattended with auto clicker set to click the spin button overnight on the lower bet (12,000 each. Be warned. Only this bet level works). Each day gives you around 2 - 10 million It depends on your luck. This is mostly so you can finish the scratcher objective.
Once you have 500 spins. Go do the event scratcher, they will give you free coin as well between 3 - 12 million each. Opening chests can also net you a couple of million a day depends on your luck and timing. In a couple of days, you should get up to 50 million. It depends on how many events you do and how often you open chests. So you can move to the next step.
2. When over 50 million bankroll
Go to a game called "Firebird" and set the auto clicker to autoplay the Hyper bonus button. It will be 1 million to buy three spins (again, only this bet level works. Another betting amount will consistently lose). The confirmation button should also be in the same place. So you can keep clicking the same spot with the clicker, Leave it overnight and you should net roughly 50 million to 500 million a day. It depends on your luck. For me, even at the worst of time it always break-even. AKA you are still earning gem even if you are not increasing your bankroll significantly. There is no draw back to this trick. How to earn gems: You earn by betting. The Firebird Hyper bonus alone should be enough, but once you have a few billions bankroll, you can go play a game called "Hong Bao" and buy the hyper bonus that can cost pretty much as you can afford without dropping your bankroll below 1 billion. You can also use this to finish the betting requirement for each event quickly. Since Firebird Hyper bonus at 1 million will always win in the long term, and you have to bet anyway to get gems. Losing bankroll is fine long as you don't go completely broke. Earn level decrease gradually as your account "level up" (Not to be confused as VIP level, those are two things) but there is no tactic around this. As the level increase is mandatory. The basic math is that it is around 20 million in betting to earn you one gem. And each night of hotel is roughly 1.5k gems to 7k gems per night (depends on the time of the year. There are very few blackout dates). There is a facebook group around this game https://www.facebook.com/groups/743659396027322/ but joining should not be necessary. This post should have all the information you need to get gems long as you are not trying to earn it in a hurry. And at the maximum, you will be paying $100~ (they do accept google credit) for 4 nights at probably the best base rate hotel in LV (Second to Encore, but Encore is available as an upgrade from your free stay at the manned check-in desk most of the time. Just ask them. No need to tips). To further optimize this pay, you can sign up for Google opinion reward ahead of time and do surveys for Google credit. I have two accounts that I have been doing for years. So I ended up having just enough to top up one account to VIP2 without issue. I would recommend not to tell people about any of these findings publically because what I found might be considered exploits, ie: Using auto clicker, playing games that always have a positive payout, and risk having Wynn change the rule on us. As most of those are against the spirit of their TOS. I understand it is ironic to say this considering that I'm posting this guide. However, I already did this all and don't plan on doing it again. So I'm just passing on my luck and hope this will help the rest of you getting what you need with an easier time. This is really just to give you all an understanding of how this game is played and what kind of effort is needed for what kind of reward. For me, it was just a challenge to see if I can figure it out and get free stuff. ( I started in early October. Already got enough to book in early November. Booked 6 night and redeemed a total of 6 buffets in two accounts) As for anything else like this, YMMV when it comes to how it works for you, whether it is worth it. Or whether they will change the rules/payout/shut down the game at any given time. Which is always a possibility. I also spent a good deal of time reading through Facebook group and other tips and tricks. Feel free to Ask me Anything here. I will answer to the best of my ability.
This guide is meant to help people farm the Wynn Slots app for gems (to get free rooms!) Please note that I have only been using this app for about 4 days, but I already have 658 gems (639 when I started writing this) and I have a day job and other hobbies I participate in daily (working out, writing, playing video games to compete,) so believe me when I say you do not need to play this app 24/7 in order to make good progress, BUT it's important to note that you probably don't want to sit on auto spin either. This guide is based on my experience with the game as well as various reddit posts I have read regarding it. I will not be able to cite anyone in particular, but I'll let you know if something I tell you was learned elsewhere. Also please note that I literally made a reddit account just for this and it's my first guide to anything ever-- I literally just felt I had to share my experience with this game because I am very close to getting a free room and I thought others might like to know ways they can too. Annnd I think it's worth mentioning that all of these are JUST MY OPINION-- especially when it comes to the slots. I have provided in-game indicators that I make my own judgments by, but they are NOT a guarantee that a slot WILL hit. If you have any corrections to make, any comments, tips, or feedback on how I can make this less of a giant chunk of text, please let me know! Anyway, let's get to the point. Oh, and I am assuming that you've already installed the app and linked it to your Facebook. As far as I can tell, that's the only way to get your first free lump sum of gold to start playing with, so make sure you do that if you haven't already. And if you do play this game already, I recommend browsing the Tips and Tricks section. If you want to read the whole thing, I hope you find it useful! ----ROOMS & COST---- Rooms (the only option being a Standard King, not a suite, per another redditor) cost somewhere between 1.5k-6.6k gems, with the cheaper 1.5k usually landing on Sunday-Monday. If you are looking to stay on a Saturday, expect to pay an average of 3.3K , though as of today (5/17/2019) there is a Saturday room for 2.2k on June 15th. Given the time it takes to get gems, I would do myself a favor to consider anything above 4k as a blackout date. It is my understanding, based on other redditors posts, that one of the advantages of the Wynn Slots app (versus MyVegas) is that there are no resort fees, so the room is 100% free. If anyone knows differently, please comment. ----HOW TO GET GEMS---- You need gems in order to buy rooms. You get gems by spinning. Period. That's it. At the end of the day, the app does not care if you have 10k gold or 200 million gold. The purpose of getting gold in this game is so that you can spin so that you can get gems. Do not forget that. ----GUARANTEED WAYS TO LOSE---- Tournaments. Once you get the hang of things, you will begin to place between 200-600th place without even trying. DO NOT try to get to the top of the list, the amount of effort and gold you will put in vs the amount of coins you will get back just doesn't make sense. Furthermore, you would need to play for the full duration of the tournament, or score high toward the end so that there's no time for anyone to bump you down the ranking. Not worth. Battle Mode. This is a joke. Avoid this at all costs, as you must put up 200k gold and unless you win, you will not get any of the gold you earned. You're better off committing to 20 spins on a 10k bet in a game outside of battlemode, at least then you are almost guaranteed to get some of your money back. Yes, sometimes you will win in battle mode, but again, cost > reward. High Roller Room. Although I do not have much experience in this section, my overall strategy is to spin spin spin. According to another redditor, you do not get any extra gem meter for betting more, so keep your bets low so you can spin more. EDIT: (Thanks to redditor aaron8941, we now know that you DO get more gems the higher you bet. "Depending on your level, earning a gem requires betting a certain amount of gold, no matter the number of spins... The amount needed per gem increases with every level you increase.") With that said, the High Roller Room may be beneficial, I am too broke to comfortably play in there with only 1 spin. ----EVENTS---- Your bread and butter. Each event will offer 4 missions that will net you Bronze, Silver, and Gold scratchers. Match 3 amounts on a scratcher and win that amount in gold. These scratchers are very important because they are how you will keep your chip count up-- you need to spin a LOT in order to earn gems. Although you can do the event missions in any order, the first mission will typically require you to play a specific game for X amount of times (most of the time, but not always.) Go ahead and do it-- don't worry about if you're winning or losing because they're going to give you your money back on a scratcher anyway. These silvegold/platinum scratches are giving up 3-8M gold, but even catching 1M from a Bronze scratcher is pretty juicy. The rest of the missions are typically non-game specific and require you to hit insane amounts on the slots. Thanks to another redditor, I find that using the 3x HyperBonus on the Hung Bao game really is the quickest way to do this, and honestly you should just grind this out. Make SURE that you are clicking HyperBonus BUY and selecting the 3x multiplier with 8 free spins, or 2x multiplier with 7 spins if you're broke. If you click the 5x/3x/2x/1x multiplier on the side, you do not get any free spins and you're just upping your bet without a good chance of it paying out. If you do HyperBonus BUY, you should make at least your money back 70% of the time. Other than that, don't worry about if you win or lose-- again, the scratcher will pay you back. But you need to spin quite a bit even with the 3x HyperBonus Hung Bao strat, so just do your best to power through without getting arthritis. This game alone should cover the other 3 missions. Honestly, completing an event should only take about 20-25 minutes if you're focused. ----NON-EVENT SLOT PLAY---- While you're waiting for an event, it IS in your benefit to play the slots if you have free time. Someone else on Reddit said it wasn't worth it, but again the goal here is to get gems so you should want to SPIN AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN. Furthermore, sometimes I make decent gold while spinning the regular slots so I'm going to talk about how you can avoid losing all your money doing so. IF you have a considerable lump sum of money, it is absolutely worth farming Hung Bao with the 3x multiplier + 8 free spins. Each time you select this option, you get a big lump of gems (in my case, at level 30, I get roughly 2 gems for this each time I do it.) There is no secret to winning this, just let it do its thing for as much as you're willing to lose before you move on to a cheaper slot. If you get low on coins, take your little behind to one of the slots mentioned below and bet low. Because you get gems from spinning, every game is worth playing for at least some amount of time. Decide how much money you're willing to lose per round (for me, usually about 100k,) do those spins (usually about 10 spins) and then move on. IF you sense that the game is about to hit (usually signaled by special icons appearing, which I'll talk about below,) then go ahead and spin for another round. If it still hasn't hit but it really looks like its about to, go ahead and give it up to another 3 spins MAX, but that's it!!! MOVE ON. There are 21 games to play and they are all worth playing to some extent. Furthermore, I regularly hit bronze and silver jackpots off of at least 10 of them, so if one isn't hitting move on to find the one that will. Please note that while you may only stay even on these slots or only win 300k, 700k or 1mil, the point is that they will allow you to keep spinning (aka earn gems,) without draining your gold. I have 100mil gold right now. I could have infinity gold-- it still won't get me a free room. You need to spin and that is the only thing you need gold for is to put it back in the machine. PUT THE GOLD BACK IN THE MACHINE. You can absolutely bet higher on these games to get more gems, as mentioned, but if you get low on funds you can bet low and play smart to get your coin count back up. P.S. Mystery Jackpots are basically bait to get you to make higher bets on crappy slots. Don't bother upping your bet for this, it could be 8mil or it could be 800k-- regardless, you can get that gold elsewhere. --------------Special Icons By Game<---------------- [Top Tier Picks] Games worth playing "two rounds" (or up to 200k, as mentioned above.) MAYAN RUBY - Pretty lackluster game in terms of sound/visuals. I say that because it says "New" like I'm supposed to be impressed, but it's not worth turning the game volume on for this one. Look for the ruby to start appearing. If a ruby appears in the top middle position, you will get to spin the Mayan wheel which will give you some gold back, free spins (always welcome,) a multiplier on your next spin, or a jackpot. If you start seeing these show up back to back, definitely stay put for another round. JOKER WHEEL 7's: You'll see a LOT of people hitting platinum jackpot on this, but I don't think it's worth chasing. Look for the Joker Multiplier symbol, which will signal the slot is heating up. You can usually get some good, non-jackpot wins around this time if it keeps appearing. Also look for the Bonus wheel symbol. Three Bonus wheels will let you spin the Joker wheel where you can hit a Silver or Gold Jackpot, or win a lump sum of gold. DRAGON POWER: Another game some redditors mentioned liking. It's pretty fun. Look for gold shells/emblems? I don't know what they are, they look like a cross between a fortune cookie and a paper hat, but they're a very bright gold. If you start seeing 1-2 recurring, give it another round. You'll know you're on the right track when the gold orb at the top center of the machine literally heats up and burns a streak down the middle. MONKEY GOD: This game is OK. Honestly, you should only be betting 1 line on this game. It's pretty expensive, and pays OK with just the one line. You can still make decent money on this game with only 1 line, but it's not a loose slot so don't bother upping your bet unless you want to go broke. I also find it's hard to get free games with the golden money bonus icon on there, so don't bother fishing for it. Monkey God does have a special mini game after you have collected enough jade orbs, where you are guaranteed to get a nice little sum of gold back. MYSTERY MINE: Probably the most fun and underrated game, in my humble opinion. You will know it's heating up when the dynamite starts appearing. The dynamite can turn into gold which can offer re-spins or instant jackpots. If you're playing to enjoy, definitely turn the game sound on for this one if possible. DESERT GEM - The only thing really keeping this game from being on the low-tier list is the fact that you can accumulate chests which will then net a mini game just like Monkey God. However, this slot is pretty tight if you're only playing 1 line-- I think it suffers from the same over-sizing issue that Atlantis Thunder does. MAMMOTH CHASE - This one's kind of loose, imo. Stay for another round if you start hitting mammoths on the first two columns, or if you start seeing 1-2 recurring Wild diamond icons, and definitely if you start seeing the Bonus mountain icons in pairs. She pays, she gives free games, she's an overall fun gal to be around :) TIGER CLAW - Kinda boring game in terms of visuals and sound unless you're in free spin mode. Look for the peacock eye/tiger eye? Again, no idea what it is, but it's an eyeball encased in gold embellishment. If you start seeing those reappear, especially in a pair, expect to get 3 soon for some free spins. Other than that, there's really nothing to look out for in this game. You'll see some multipliers pop around, and a few pennies tossed your way, but nothing to get excited about. ENCHANTED MANOR: Look for the pumpkins to start recurring. I believe these are wild and will net you some decent gold back. This is the main reason for sticking around in this game. Every once in a while, the gates will shut and the game will do its "replicating reels" thing, but that is not a guarantee anything interesting will happen unless you get 3 green gargoyles in a row. If you have multiple green gargoyles, but they're spread out, expect little more than disappointment. If you happen to get 3 green gargoyles in a row, you're guaranteed to win whatever you would win from that by itself, plus whatever spins into the mix. If they reveal to be haunted mansions, you'll win a small jackpot, but most of the time the gargoyle thing isn't a sign that its heating up as it doesn't really happen back to back and even if it were to happen back to back, your total winnings are still likely to be 0. LION KILL: A reddit favorite for some reason. Maybe due to the slight Lion King-esque images? Look for volcano symbols to start showing up often and you'll know you're either close to hitting or getting some free games in. There is also an icon that is a red square with a lion in it, if you start seeing those en masse, you can expect to be winning some money. SHIELDS OF FORTUNE: Another sleeper! This bad boy pays just enough to keep you going, and once you hit free spins it really gets good. If you see the colluseum icons show up by itself or in a pair, frequently, this is a good time to fish for some free spins. Once you're in free spin mode, you'll run across shields that will give you decent money if you collect 1, better money if you collect 2 and they are not scarce. Honestly the game is pretty generous when it's in the giving mood. If you are low on gold, I highly suggest giving this one a whirl to see if it can't pick your spirits back up. [Low-Tier Games] If they're not hitting, don't bother doing more than one round. ATLANTIS THUNDER: This game is just weird. The playing field is too big and off-kilter for it to ever hit anything while playing 1 line only, and it's too expensive to play more than that. It does offer a HyperBonus, but Hung Bao is a looser slot imo. Honestly, this game won't even give you peanuts. For what we're trying to do (bet low, spin a lot,) this game is the absolute worst.WYNN WHEEL: Wack. 20k per spin, which is way too much considering how quickly it will drain your funds/how rarely it hits. Again, we want to bet low and spin a lot. This game will not sustain you whatsoever. TREE OF GOLD: OK Game. If you start seeing the 4x and 5x multiplier, maybe stick around, but otherwise just put your one round in and move on. I don't remember if this has any free games, but I suspect the answer is no it doesn't. BANGKOK DREAMS: Another game that offers a Hyper Bonus. I have not tried to this feature, could be a good alternative to HungBao if necessary (though I think HungBao does great on its own.) The visuals are really intense and while you will see multipliers pop up they're pretty much good for nothing other than making this machine look even more cluttered than it did before. There is a Bonus castle image in a circular icon that, if it appears frequently in a pair, you should try to hit for 3. It also has a little mini game where you collect the lotus flowers, same as Monkey God and Desert Gem. Not enough to hold this game together though. WYNN JACKPOTS - See Wynn Wheel. GATES OF BABYLON: This is a pretty fun game. Visually pleasing, fun to play, and pays out OK. There are three columns in which a gold icon of a ruby spitting man will animate and he spits the gold ruby to the top. If you collect 3, it will turn that entire column wild which is worth at least another few spins until the wild bar goes away. If you start seeing columns of Wild gold bars show up on their own, or the Bonus ruins icon showing up in pairs, try taking it for two rounds. No jackpot. ROYAL ROMANCE: Doesn't hit much and even when it does it's never an amazing amount, but you do accumulate hearts which will eventually just give you the amount (I think somewhere around 50k if you're betting the minimum, not sure what it is if you bet higher.) I can't even tell you what the hell qualifies for a hit on this thing or how to see it coming, and that's because it rarely hits. The only reason to ever take this past one round is if you know you'll get the last few hearts needed to get your payout. It does offer bonus games as well, but I find the free games happening way less than those in the Top Tier list. Also, it's kind of gross to look at in a Barbie dream kind of world, except sometimes it's hilarious to see 20 princes surrounding the 1 princess. No jackpot. GYPSY RICHES: Another cheesy looking game. If you see the red carriage pop up in pairs frequently, feel free to take another round with it-- 3 red carriages will get you some free spins. Just don't waste too much time on this thing, not only is it ugly but it just doesn't pay well. No jackpot. GOLDEN WILD: What can I say about this game? Do not recommend. If you start seeing the cherry blossom temple looking icon show up in pairs, maybe give it a few more spins but this slot is tight and frankly not that fun to look at or play. It also doesn't have a jackpot. Try not to fall asleep at the wheel. CANDY, CATS, AND CASH: Blah. If you're into cats, maybe you will like this. For some reason, these cats are obsessed with strawberries and will throw them at your screen, but rarely does that ever amount to anything. If you start seeing stacks of cash on a platter crop up in pairs, maybe stick around-- three will get you some free spins-- but this is just... not it. There is no special mini game, no jackpot, and the visuals are super simple and boring at best. Plus it pays peanuts. ----DAILY REWARDS----I think this is really what sets Wynn Slots apart from the MyVegas app. These daily rewards are pretty sizable amounts of gold that will sustain you, and the smaller Silver Chest is available every 15 minutes. There is also a Gold Chest and a Wheel Spin, but those are only like 1-2 times a day if you're not chasing them. Between these and the event scratchers, you never need to spend a dime on this game. Meanwhile, MyVegas will give you literal scraps and then badger you to tell all your friends on Facebook about it. ----TIPS AND TRICKS---- Mash the spin button, it's faster than auto spin and easier to stop. Just make sure you're sticking to the rules you've set for when you will move on to the next game. Seriously, don't even bother trying to get excited about where it's gonna land or whatever measly coin you got, and if you get a Big Win, do your best to skip that animation so you can KEEP spinning. You can also mash the PLAY/STOP (spin) button during any Free Spin situations to make that shit move faster too. Do NOT play slow. Spin spin spin! I am hesitant to say this in case it suddenly gets fixed, but as of right now you can PARTIALLY scratch the corners of each space on a scratcher, meaning that you can PEEK at the amounts underneath to make sure that you are selecting the HIGHEST VALUE. This is absolutely bonkers. Honestly, I'm not sure how long I will leave this tip in this guide for the simple fact that I do not want to lose this feature. Keep your phone charged. Nothing is worse than catching the last 30 minutes of an event with only 10% battery life. This ain't MyVegas; there is no browser version to play. Sometimes the main page/home screen gets stuck if there is a tournament starting/ending or an event starting/ending. If you don't want to deal with this, be aware of when those times are and avoid trying to do anything during that 3s transition period. If the game glitches out during a free spin or some other epic occurrence, don't panic; you can close the app and go back to the game and it should still be as you left it. DO NOT go to Vegas the moment you reach your gem goal. Honestly, this game is designed to train you to pull the lever over and over, gamble your life away, feel nothing about losses, and to believe in your heart that the win is right around the corner. Real slots cost real money and they are way tighter than these e-slots. Do yourself a big favor and give yourself at least two weeks of zero gameplay before you actually go to Vegas (unless you trust yourself not to gamble at all.) I mean, I love this game, but I can recognize that I'm being conditioned to behave a certain way. Don't play yourself. DO NOT let this game take over your life, similar to how I have spent the last 2 hours writing this damn guide. Honestly, once you get the hang of things you'll want to grind all the time, and that's fine as long as it's REALLY fine. Playing during non-events can only help if you're smart about it, but real life obligations take priority. If you find yourself consistently putting this game before promises you made to yourself, your boss, or your friends/family, you need to take a big step back. You've been warned. Again, any comments concerns etc are welcome. Enjoy! I will be taking comments/corrections and ammending this. Once there is a sizable amount of corrections to be made (and I have a little more experience under my belt) I will probably rewrite this guide, but for now I will make edits with redditor's names and the info they offer.
QBs 1 Josh Rosen, UCLA Value: Top 5 Games Watched: Washington, USC, Colorado Perfect package of arm strength, accuracy, and mechanics. Played with a shit supporting cast after his freshman year and showed great toughness by staying in the pocket until the last second to make a tight window throw. People dont realize how many hits he took game after game. Proven clutch performer. 2 Sam Darnold, USC Value: Top 10 Games Watched: Colorado, Ohio St, Stanford, Penn St (2016) Playmaker with ability to make incredibly accurate throws on the run, sufficient arm strength but not elite, flashes great accuracy in tight windows, elongated throwing motion, accurate on the move with great touch, good placement on deep ball, ball security issues. 3 Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma Value: Round 1 Games Watched: Ohio St, TCU, Texas, Georgia Russell Wilson like playmaking ability on the move, great toughness in pocket, keeps eyes downfield on the run always looking to throw, accurate deep ball, shrugs off defenders from within the pocket and keeps eyes downfield, offense generated a lot of easy throws which inflated stats. 4 Josh Allen, Wyoming Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Iowa, New Mexico, Central Michigan, Boise St Elite arm, big and mobile in the pocket breaking tackles and extending plays, ability to make extraordinary throws, great on the move, lacks touch and tries to rifle everything, leaves the pocket too early, looks a little slow on his reads, a lot of forced throws due to trying to make a big play when his team was overmatched. 5 Lamar Jackson, Louisville Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Florida St, North Carolina, Purdue, Miss St elite athlete, good arm with solid deep ball accuracy, hits crossing routes with good ball placement, poor mechanics and footwork, misses outside throws, feet will often stop moving while sitting in the pocket, very skinny body type. RBs 1 Saquan Barkely, Penn St Value: Top 5 Games Watched: Iowa, Ohio St, Michigan, Washington Great burst, amazing lateral agility + quickness, can go down too easily on contact but flashes ability to run through arm tackles, incredible patience, elite receiving ability, awesome balance, falls forward when hit. 2 Derrius Guice, LSU Value: Top 20 Games Watched: Tennessee, Florida, Miss St, Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas A&M (2016) Elite power and toughness, good patience, sufficient breakaway speed, runs through arm tackles w/ ease and keeps legs churning upon contact, awesome balance, good lateral agility, potential vision issues, not used as receiver. 3 Ronald Jones, USC Value: Round 1 Games Watched: Stanford, UCLA, Texas, Colorado speed and quickness immediately jumps off screen, explodes through hole, surprising balance, good vision, avoid first contact via lateral cut, quick accelerator, very tough runner despite lean frame. 4 John Kelly, Tennessee Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Georgia Tech, Kentucky (2016) Elite balance and twitch should immediately translate. Awesome lateral mover w/ great jump cut. Excellent receiving ability. LeSean McCoy esque blend of balance and quickness. More explosive than fast. Dances behind the LOS a little too much at times but improved in that area in 2017, showing more decisiveness to immediately hit a hole with power. 5 Mark Walton, Miami Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Florida St, Duke, Toledo, BCU, Florida St (2016), North Carolina (2016), Virginia (2016) Ridiculous lateral agility and twitch, really tough inside runner despite size, solid in pass pro, great receiver, small size and not elite straight line runner, can look to bounce things outside too much, not elite vision. Going under the radar because he injured his ankle vs Toledo and only played two games thereafter while looking like a shell of himself in both. 6 Kerryon Johnson, Auburn Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama, Miss St, UCF Awesome balance and patience, powerful runner, some wiggle but not great laterally, falls forward upon contact, runs downhill once he makes a decision, high-cut frame, more smooth than explosive, patient style can get him in trouble as he'll dance behind the LOS instead of hitting the hole hard once it opens. 7 Sony Michel, Georgia Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Auburn, Notre Dame, Florida, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee Reminds me of Lamar Miller. Strong explosive downhill runner w/ great combo of speed and power, not much wiggle and not great laterally, one cut and explodes up field w/ speed and power, vision needs work. 8 Rashad Penny, San Diego St Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Stanford, New Mexico St Awesome vision, runs too high, smoothly bounces forward off cut & subtle elusiveness, bad in pass pro, falls forward upon contact, runs through arm tackles, not particularly powerful nor is he a great athlete. 9 Jordan Wilkins, Ole Miss Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Alabama, Texas A&M, LSU High recruit who struggled with injuries early in his career but productive whenever he saw the field. Great combination of size and speed. Big and powerful inside runner who runs with great pad level, great jump cut and vision/patience. One cut explosive runner. Older prospect. 10 Royce Freeman, Oregon Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Washington, Arizona, Stanford (2016) Elite vision and great size. Shifty with very quick movements once he finds an open lane. Not a great athlete but sufficient long speed. Might be scheme dependent with a zone running scheme but I can see him easily putting up Alfred Morris esque production if he gets early playing time in a zone scheme. 11 Josh Adams, Notre Dame Value: Round 4 Good size/speed combo, keeps legs churning upon contact, big and tall, poor wiggle + lateral agility, decent balance, good vision, not a great athlete, benefitted from great OL, good job making himself small through creases. 12 Nick Chubb, Georgia Value: Round 4 Big north-south runner, shows great patience and vision, not very creative, lacks lateral agility and wiggle, has the vision to see the right hole but lacks the explosion to take advantage. 13 Bo Scarbrough, Alabama Value: Round 4 Big and tall runner, north-south power. 14 Kalen Ballage, Arizona St Value: Day 3 Reminds me of Latavious Murray. 15 Ito Smith, Southern Miss Value: Day 3 16 Akrum Wadley, Iowa Value: Day 3 WRs 1 Calvin Ridley, Alabama Value: Round 1 Games Watched: Florida St, LSU, Miss St, Clemson, Georgia Stefon Diggs/Amari Cooper comp. Quickness off snap jumps off screen. Very fluid route runner who easily transitions into break. Very good speed and solid YAC. Low production while playing with awful QB but gets separation with ease. Lacks protypical WR1 size and older prospect. 2 Courtland Sutton, SMU Value: Round 2 Games Watched: North Texas, Houston, UConn, TCU, Tulsa, USF (2016), TCU (2016) Elite size/speed combo. Physical specimen w/ raw route running. Unsure if he wasn't asked to run many routes or if he couldn't handle it. Only started playing WR in college so hopefully that offers upside. Great YAC. Doesnt look like a natural WR at the moment as he doesnt explode out of breaks and doesn't attack the ball with his hands. More athlete than football player but tons of potential. 3 Anthony Miller, Memphis Value: Round 2 Games Watched: UCF, UCLA, UConn, Iowa St, Tulane Slower Steve Smith comp. Extremely physical throughout route and at catch point. Quick but not fast. Great vs press and beats CBs off the LOS with physicality. Great YAC, route running, and regularly makes contested catches despite smaller size. 4 Christian Kirk, Texas A&M Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Arkansas, Tennessee, UCLA Randall Cobb comp. Explosive athlete with great speed and YAC. Smallish size but big RB body type. Played mostly from slot. Easy separator. Great KPR. 5 Antonio Callaway, Florida Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Vanderbilt, Iowa, Kentucky Sudden and explosive out of cuts, good hands catcher, easy separator, KPR ability, awesome deep threat and great route runner. 6 Cedrick Wilson, Boise St Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Oregon, Virginia, Washington St, Utah St Reminds me of Carlos Henderson. Explosive off line, good deep speed, deep ball tracking ability, awesome YAC, shows ability to make jump ball catches on sideline. DJ Moore, Maryland Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Minnesotta, Northwestern, Wisconsin Short and thick, twitchy movements, long speed not great, great ball skills, physical on routes, uses exceptional quickness to separate quickly, strong hands and really good YAC. 8 James Washington, OK St Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Texas, TCU, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh Strange build with short torso and long legs, short, great speed and deep ball tracking, makes contested catches, gets off press well, made his money on deep balls and comebacks. Dante Pettis, Washington Value: Round 3/4 Games Watched: Stanford, Utah, UCLA, Oregon St, Penn St, Oregon Disparity b/w his elite PR ability but lack of explosion and speed as a WR. Very smooth route runner and good hands to high point ball. Needs to add strength. Didn't create a ton of YAC despite his PR ability. 10 Equanimeous St Brown, Notre Dame Value: Round 3/4 Games Watched: Stanford, Temple, LSU, Texas (2016), Miami (2016) Marvin Jones comp. Rare height and long arms gives him opportunites to reach balls others cant, ok YAC, adjusts well to ball in the air, good jump ball WR, catches w/ body too often and has some separation issues. 11 Auden Tate, Florida St Value: Round 3/4 Elite ball skills but lacks the speed and route running to separate. Looks like a giant and has the perfect WR frame. Highpoints ball with hands extremely well, uses his body to shield the DB, issues with physical CBs, highlight reel catches. 12 Jaleel Scott, New Mexico St Value: Round 3/4 Jump ball WR with awesome height, body catcher when not thrown fade in endzone, good speed, tall and skinny, attacks ball in air. 13 Simmie Cobbs, Indiana Value: Round 3/4 Games Watched: Wisconsin, Ohio St, Virginia 14 Michael Gallup, Colorado St Value: Round 4 TEs 1 Dallas Goedert, South Dakota St Value: Round 1/2 Games Watched: North Dakota St, Villanova, TCU (2016) Explosive and smooth out of routes and off LOS, awesome hands w/ ability to make circus catches, great leaping ability, ball skills in endzone, routinely makes catches in traffic, fearless over the middle. Performed greatly when he went against top competition (TCU). Potential to be elite TE. 2 Hayden Hurst, South Carolina Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Missouri, USF (2016) Awesome combination of receiving ability and blocking. Really good speed and incredibly strong YAC, running over defenders and using a stiff arm. Extremely hard to tackle and makes contested catches in traffic. Older prospect as he started off in baseball. 3 Mark Andrews, Oklahoma Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Kansas St, UTEP, Georgia Only plays in the slot, little experience blocking in line, big body w/ sure hands and lots of production, great route runner w/ surprising burst, finds open areas in zone. Does not look like a great athlete. 4 Adam Breneman, UMass Value: Round 3 Games Watched: South Carolina (2016) Former 5 star recruit with interest in politics and injury history. Moves well and solid blocker. Strong hands in traffic. 5 Mike Gesicki, Penn St Value: Round 4 Games Watched: Ohio St, Michigan St Good jumping ability, good footwork on sideline catches, solid route runner. Athletically limited although he can beat man coverage vs safeties. 6 Christopher Herndon, Miami Value: Day 3 Games Watched: Syracuse, Florida St 7 Tony Fumagali, Wisconsin Value: Day 3 Bad athlete gives him low upside. OTs 1 Connor Williams, Texas Value: Round 1 Games Watched: West Virginia, Maryland, Notre Dame (2016), Kansas St (2016) Solid all around prospect with nastiness and good feet. Great kickslide, doesn't move people in run game but effectively seals off, nasty attitude, can get pushed backwards in pass pro and beaten around the edge occasionally. Need to watch tape of him vs Round 1 caliber edge rushers. 2 Orlando Brown, Oklahoma Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Texas, Georgia, Auburn (2016), Ohio St (2016) Huge powerful OT but has mirroring issues with his slow feet although his length helps counteract his feet. Will need to lose weight. Lunges at time because of feet but often sufficient because of awesome length. Gets to second level pretty well. Struggles to mirror quickness. People mover in run game. 3 Mike McGlinchey, Notre Dame Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Boston College, Miami, Georgia Solid all around OT but lacks traits to likely ever become elite. Should be instant contributor. Can get pushed back in pass pro. Struggled vs Miami. If beaten to outside shows good recovery to ride defender around the pocket. Generates movement in run game. Good balance and power. 4 Tyrell Crosby, Oregon Value: Round 2/3 Games Watched: Oregon St, Arizona, Boise St Awesome combo of size and athleticism. Easy mover and gets to second level nicely. Mean finisher and nasty demeneor. Generates serious movement in run game. Poor technique where he has no kickslide and has weird habit of using his butt to shield a defender instead of actually blocking him. Can let defender get the edge because of these technique issues. Played well at Senior Bowl and huge upside if he can clean up his technique. 5 Brian O'Neill, Pittsburgh Value: Round 2/3 Games Watched: Virginia Tech, Syracuse, NC St Easily best athlete in the class. Pittsburgh even though him a screen pass in one game which he took 20 yards for a TD. Former TE. Gets to second level easily and has no problem using his quick feet to mirror speed. Poor technique and strength leads to him getting beat quickly. Susceptible to bull rushes and inside counters and struggled at Senior Bowl against top competition. Huge upside but may not be able to contribute right away. Reminds me of the OT from Indiana which Green Bay drafted recently. 6 Jamarco Jones, Ohio St Value: Round 3 Recover well when initially beaten, big and strong, can lose control of defender in run game due to poor hand placement on shoulder instead of chest, good job riding speed rushers around the edge which also makes him susceptible to inside counters, adequate but not great feet. Struggled a bit vs TJ Watt. 7 Martinas Rankin, Miss St Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Georgia, LSU Incredibly strong in the run game. Moves well on pulls, can get beat w/ quickness to the inside. No kickslide. Latches onto DL and loses balance. Could be an excellent OG if OT doesnt work out. 8 Chukwuma Okorafor, Western Michigan Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Wisconsin (2016), Michigan St, Toledo OGs 1 Quenton Nelson, Notre Dame Value: Top 5 Games Watched: Stanford, LSU, Boston College, Miami Embarrases defenders. Pancakes all over the place. Strong base in pass pro and easily seals off DL to open lane. Always finishing. Mover of people. Rare strength. Not elite in space. 2 Isaiah Wynn, Georgia Value: Top 20 Games Watched: Kentucky, Alabama Elite movement skills. Versus Kentucky he kept a block on Josh Allen for 10 yards downfield. Flawless technique: great pad level, hand placement, and always keeping legs churning to generate movement. Speed to get to edge to make block. Strong base in pass pro and generates movement in run game. Best in zone scheme but can play anywhere. 3 Will Hernandez, UTEP Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Oklahoma, Army Elite power. Strong and mean, easily seals off in run game and powerful hands immediately jolt DL back. Generates serious movement. Will struggle at times with quickness inside. Needs technique work: hands can get too wide and pad level can be off. Perfect for power scheme. 4 Braden Smith, Auburn Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Georgia, Clemson, LSU Strength to drive DL off line and pancake. Can lunge and get off balance. Really strong base allows him to recover even when he's initially beaten by a bull rush. Gets to 2nd level easily. Not elite powestrength. Can seem like he's riding the DL instead of controlling him. 5 Martinas Rankin, Miss St Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Georgia, LSU See writeup under OTs. 6 Wyatt Teller, Virginia Tech Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Virginia, Clemson Generate movement in run game. Beaten by quickness across face. Great on pulls and gets to 2nd level nicely. Consistently gets hands inside. Nasty finisher. Really good movement in space but can struggle with quickness off the snap. Good but not great power and can get bull rushed into the QB. OCs 1 Billy Price, Ohio St Value: Round 1/2 Games Watched: Michigan, USC Awesome blend of movement skills and power. Leader of offense. Gets to 2nd level w/ speed and carries a powerful punch. Good base allows him to recover. Not a mauler and can get beaten by quickness at times. Maintains excellent pad level and tenacious attitude. 2 James Daniels, Iowa Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Ohio St, North Texas Elite movement skills and length but struggles with power. Shows at times that he can recover well against a bull rush by re-anchoring but other times he gets pushed into QBs lap. Zone scheme fit. 3 Frank Ragnow, Arkansas Value: Round 2/3 Games Watched: Texas A&M, Auburn Awesome strength and finishing ability. Mean attitude. Not great mover in space which will cause him to miss his blocks on LBs. Strong initial punch. Pad level can get a little high. 4 Coleman Shelton, Washington Value: Round 3/4 Games Watched: Stanford, Penn St Good length and nasty finisher, constantly pancaking defenders. Always looking for someone to block and extremely active. Sufficient speed to get to the edge on pulls. Lacks great strength and elite movement skills. Struggles to control the defender, allowing his man to move laterally down the LOS to the ball carrier. Hard time with Harrison Phillips. DLs 1 Taven Bryan, Florida Value: Top 20 Games Watched: Florida St, Texas A&M, Kentucky, LSU Upside to become one of the elite interior pass rushers in the NFL. Stupid combo of speed/quickness/powestrength. Freaky athlete - he ran down the Texas A&M QB one time 20 yards downfield after ending up on the ground 5 yards behind the LOS due to a hold. Elite explosion off the snap. His aggressiveness can be used against him as he'll be 5 yards in the backfield as the RB is past him. Needs to maintain gap integrity. Can struggle when his initial explosion doesnt work. 2 Vita Vea, Washington Value: Top 20 Games Watched: Penn St, UCLA, Stanford Elite strength and size. Could test like Dontari Poe. Never gets moved backwards. Not explosive due to size but can still generate pressure by pushing the pocket. Sometimes took 3 guys to block him. Has ability to alter an offenses' scheme and take away the entire middle of the line. Elite run stuffing NT with some pass rushing ability but unlikely to ever develop into an elite interior pass rusher due to size. 3 DaRon Payne, Alabama** Value: Top 20 Games Watched: Clemson, Tennessee, Georgia Clemson and Georgia are top 5 overall caliber tape. Long arms and controls blockers, shedding blocks easily to make the tackle. Showed a lot more pass rush in Clemson and Georgia than he did vs Tennessee. Doesnt get pushed back in run game. Wins with great hand usage. Not elite quickness or athleticism but not bad get off. 4 Maurice Hurst, Michigan Value: Round 1/2 Games Watched: Ohio St, Wisconsin, Penn St Elite get off and explosion makes him a great fit as a 3 tech. Bad combination of small size and poor athleticism. Gets off blocks to make tackles in run game. Will struggle to generate pressure if initial explosion is off. You're drafting him for his elite explosion through the gap but big issues w/ size + athleticism. 5 Harrison Phillips, Stanford Value: Round 1/2 Games Watched: Notre Dame, Washington Never moves backwards, controls blockers with ease. Constantly active and awesome motor. Great hand usage and is constantly clubbing and pulling blockers out of his way. Unreal tackle production for a nose guard. Not explosive pass rusher and lacks elite NG size. Strong bull rush makes QBs uncomfortable. Best motor of all the DLs. 6 Justin Jones, NC St Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Arizona St, Lousiville, Florida St Awesome speed for his size. Good hand usage to shed blocks, awesome bull rush, great push/pull move to shed blocks. Inconsistent explosion. Dominated Senior Bowl. 7 DJ McIntosh, Miami Value: Round 2/3 Games Watched: Notre Dame, Duke Looks like a freaky athlete at times. Good hand fighting and spin move. Stacks and sheds to get to RB. Quick off ball. Flashes elite ability. Inconsistent motor and can get overpowered at times. Pass rushing upside. 8 Derrick Nnadi, Florida St Value: Round 3 Games Watched: NC St, Southern Miss Great run stuffing NT with little pass rushing upside. Bowling ball shaped. Needs 2 guys to move him off his spot and is a force to be accounted for every play. Needs to extend arms more to shed blocker. 9 Rasheem Green, USC Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Texas, Notre Dame, Ohio St DT/DE. Former high recruit. Uses length to stack and shed, nice bull rush. All arms and elbows. Explosive from inside. Inconsistent play. Insufficient strength inside. 10 Andrew Brown, Virginia Value: Round 3/4 Games Watched: Boise St, Navy, Miami (2016) Raw gap penetrator with quickness and explosion. Former 5 star recruit with big pass rushing upside. DT/DE. Great burst and strong bull rush. Struggles shedding blockers in run game. Wins with quickness and strength but needs to use hands more and at times can get blown off line in run game. Very raw with little pass rushing moves. Played mostly DE at Virginia but dominated as inside rusher at Senior Bowl. 11 Poona Ford, Texas Value: Round 3/4 Games Watched: USC, West Virginia Run stuffing DT who offers some pass rush. 12 BJ Hill, NC State Value: Day 3 Games Watched: Arizona St, Florida St, Louisville 13 Trenton Thompson, Georgia Value: Day 3 Games Watched: Alabama, Tennessee (2016) Edge 1 Bradley Chubb, NC State Value: Top 5 Games Watched: Louisville, Florida St, Louisville (2016) Gets a little undersold but I think he's a bluechip pass rusher through and through. Perfect size for a 4-3 defense. Explosive off edge and shows great bend. Awesome handfighting. Showed the speed to chase down Lamar Jackson. Nice bull rush and long arm move. Large arsenal of pass rushing moves but needs to work on counters. Sets strong edge in run game. 2 Arden Key, LSU Value: Round 1 Games Watched: Alabama, Auburn, Wisconsin (2016), Florida (2016) Elite get off and twitch. Tall and skinny with long arms, beating OL with speed. Great hands. Struggles to convert speed to power consistently and can get beat up in run game at times. Elite tools and flashes. 3 Marcus Davenport, UTSA Value: Round 1 Games Watched: Baylor, North Texas, Marshall, Texas A&M (2016) Elite size and strength. Dominates OTs with extreme violence in bull rush. Only move is a bull rush but he consistently wins with it, even against Baylor and Texas A&M. Very explosive and shows a little bend at times. Struggled at Senior Bowl and very raw. 4 Harold Landry, Boston College Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Clemson, Notre Dame, Clemson (2016), Virginia Tech (2016) Wins with great explosion + speed to power. Shows good bend at times but not consistently. Good bull rush with long arm move. Bad in running game and easily controlled. Creates consistent pressure on QB. Needs to learn inside counter and improve in run game. 5 Jeff Holland, Auburn Value: Round 2 Games Watched: UCF, Missouri Elite combo of twitch + explosion + bend. Pure speed rusher who could be limited to 3rd downs or 3-4 teams. Needs to develop inside counter. I can see him having a Yannick Ngakoue kind of impact right away as a pure twitched up pass rusher. 6 Duke Ejiofor, Wake Forrest Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Texas A&M, Florida St Not a great athlete but elite hand usage allows him to consistently create pressure and disruption. Array of pass rushing moves. Good size to be a 4-3 base end. Slippery when combining inside move w/ arms and hands. Inconsistent explosion. 7 Sam Hubbard, Ohio St Value: Round 2 Games Watched: USC, Iowa, Michigan, Penn St Run stuffing 4-3 end with sufficient athleticism but low pass rushing upside. Looked terrible vs USC and Iowa but a lot better vs Michigan and Penn St. Elite vs run and good hand usage. Can convert speed to power and beat slower OTs around edge. 8 Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, Oklahoma Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Georgia, Texas, Ohio St Elite motor and explosion. Can get overpowered in run game and lacks flexibility. Gets to edge easily with burst and speed. Uses speed on backside to make plays in running game. May have to move to SAM LB but can be great there. Advanced set up of pass rushing moves. 9 Hercules Mata'afa, Washington St Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Michigan St, USC, Stanford One of the most fun players to watch. Was a 250lb DT. Elite explosion and relentlessness. Huge production and constantly disruptive. Active hands, tough, and violent. Big projection because will need to move to edge and go against quickly OTs instead of OGs and OCs. 10 Uchenna Nwosu, USC Value: Round 3/4 Games Watched: Stanford, Ohio St May need to move to SAM LB. Beats blockers with speed to outside or quickness inside. Lacks pass rushing moves. Active hands and twitched up. Explosive and great motor. Knocks down a ton of passes. 11 Josh Sweat, Florida St Value: Round 4 Games Watched: Alabama, NC St Size/speed specimen. Former top recruit who struggled with significant knee injuries. Awesome size and shows ability to stack and shed in run game and convert speed to power in pass rush. Very stiff and moves awkwardly - not sure if temporary becaues of knee injuries or permanent. Sets a good edge and shows awesome strength in bull rush. Raw rusher with no pass rushing moves. 12 Dorance Armstrong, Kansas Value: Round 4 Games Watched: West Virginia, Ohio, Oklahoma (2016), Texas Tech (2016) Flashes elite explosion and bend but pretty boring. Needs to add strength. Shows ability to convert speed to power. Struggles vs run - trouble stacking and shedding and on his ass too much. Flashes some pass rushing moves. Might test like a freak. 13 Lorenzo Carter, Georgia Value: Day 3 Games Watched: Notre Dame, Alabama, Oklahoma 14 Chad Thomas, Miami Value: Day 3 Games Watched: Wisconsin, Notre Dame Perfect frame for a 4-3 DE. LBs 1 Tremaine Edmunds, Virginia Tech Value: Top 20 Games Watched: Miami, Virginia, Oklahoma St, Pittsburgh All around LB with versatility to play all LB spots. Elite size/speed combo and only 19 years old. Sideline to sideline range. Awesome closing burst. Navigates through traffic and in space with great efficeincy. Never pushed back by OL and stacks and sheds. At times can guess incorrectly and get burned on misdirection. Motor seems cold at times. Solid instincts but not elite and tackles from side at times. 2 Roquan Smith, Georgia Value: Round 1 Games Watched: Auburn x 2, Kentucky, Alabama, Miss St Elite instincts and speed/closing burst but struggles in clutter, likely limiting him to WLB. Sideline to sideline range and explosive closing burst. Awesome instincts and you can see him calling defensive audibles. Always around the ball and times his blitzes perfectly. Struggles in clutter and gets stuck on blocks too much. 3 Rashaan Evans, Alabama Value: Round 1 Games Watched: Clemson, Florida St, Tennessee, Georgia, LSU Best LB in the class in terms of violence and blitzing. Explosive downhill and stands up blockers with force. Showed sufficient coverage ability but not great, although used more as a blitzer on 3rd downs. Not great reaction time and fails to anticipate as much as you would like. 4 Leighton Vander Esch, Boise St Value: Round 1 Games Watched: Wyoming, BYU, Oregon, San Diego St All around great LB but doesnt necesarily have an elite trait like the LBs above him but also doesnt have their weaknesses. Oregon is maybe my favorite game this year. Wears an awesome cowboy collar. Great lateral movement, strength to standup blockers, very good in coverage, awesome size, great instincts and tackling form. Needs to attack LOS faster at times and doesnt have elite sideline to sideline range. 5 Malik Jefferson, Texas Value: Round 2 Games Watched: West Virginia, USC, Oklahoma St Elite measurables. Historically great combine in High School. Will flash elite explosion and violence when filling a gap. Takes on blockers well and works well down LOS. Doesn't show great range despite physical skillset, maybe due to poor instincts. Slow reactor and will fail to anticipate. Possible motoplaying personality issues. 6 Ogbonnia Okoronkwu, Oklahoma 7 Darius Leonard, South Carolina St **Value: Round 3 Games Watched: NC Central Athletic coverage LB who played great at Senior Bowl. Explosive athlete with sideline to sideline range. Speed and fluidity. Shows good instincts and coverage ability. Not a great tackler and can get redirected by blocks too easily. Good blitzer. All over the field. Not a powerful hitter - hits and holds instead of driving through ball carrier. 8 Uchenna Nwosu, USC 9 Micah Kiser, Virginia Value: Round 4 Games Watched: Boise St, Indiana Former 5 star recruit with elite intangibles, instincts, and strength but significant physical limitations. Awesome in the box, absorbing blocks and fighting his way through to the ball. Very powerful. Slow closing burst and gets run by in coverage although his instincts help make up for some of his physical limitations. 10 Skai Moore, South Carolina Value: Round 4 Games Watched: Michigan, La Tech Smaller coverage LB lacking power. Twitchy and easily covers space in pass coverage. Tons of INTs for a LB and lined up at safety at times. Kind of herky jerky movements and needs to explode downfield faster. Struggles in clutter. 11 Josey Jewell, Iowa Value: Early Day 3 Games Watched: Penn St, Ohio St Speed deficient and lacks lateral ability. Good in the box LB. Constantly around the ball and great job at getting off blocks. 12 Lorenzo Carter, Georgia 13 Jerome Baker, Ohio St Value: Early Day 3 Games Watched: USC, Oklahoma CBs 1 Minkah Fitzpatrick, Alabama Value: Top 10 Games Watched: Clemson, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, Washington (2016) He can be either a CB or a S but I'm putting him here because I think he could be best used as a Tyron Matthieu type where he's a slot CB/S. That position would allow him to be close to the ball where he performed best at Alabama. Violent and willing to take on blocks on screens and run game. Amazing instincts and explodes towards ball without hesitation. Shows good mirroring ability when face guarding. I'm trusting the evaluators a little on Minkah because it's hard to project him based of where Saban played him and a lot of his value is based on the intangibles which dont always show up on broadcast footage. A little scary as a prospect because he's not a clean fit. 2 Denzel Ward, Ohio St Value: Round 1 Games Watched: Oklahoma, Indiana, Penn St, Maryland, Michigan Elite speed/feet/hips but small size. Allows no separation but can get beaten over the top by bigger WRs (see Simmie Cobbs on Indiana). Physical in run game. Inconsistent with turing his head around and can get grabby as a result. Plays ball well on breaking routes. 3 Holton Hill, Texas Value: Round 1 Games Watched: USC, Oklahoma St, Oklahoma Big and physical CB with awesome closing burst. Elite and violent in run game. Can get beat out of breaks but has closing burst to catch up and make play on ball. Good job working his way around picks. Physical throughout route. Can be a little stiff out of breaks. 4 Mike Hughes, UCF Value: Round 1/2 Games Watched: Auburn, Memphis Perfect press man CB. Physical tackler and physical with WRs throughout route. Ability to stay in WRs hip pocket. Allows little separation and very fluid hips and feet. Gets head turned around to play ball. 5 Carlton Davis, Auburn Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Missouri, Georgia, Texas A&M, Clemson Suffocating big press man corner with physicality in run game. Difficult to assess because he just beats the shit out of the WRs. Will struggle with quick separation if he misses his initial punch and has some trouble with the ball in the air. 6 Joshua Jackson, Iowa Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Penn St, Wisconsin, Ohio St, Michigan St Zone corner with elite ball skills but not fluid and give up separation as a result. Has an odd habit of spinning when following a WR out of the break. A little overrated due to his INTs. Awful in run game - easily blocked and hates tackling. Good closing burst and elite ball skills, playing the ball like a WR in the air. 7 Isiah Oliver, Colorado Value: Round 2 Games Watched: UCLA, USC, Washington St, Texas St, Utah I could easily be off on him as he's solid all around but nothing stands out as clearly impressive to me, similar to how I felt about Tre White last year who obviously turned out great. Good size, physciality, solid tackler, and solid mirroring ability. Possible speed issue. 8 Nick Nelson, Wisconsin Value: Round 2 Games Watched: Indiana, Miami, Maryland Really solid CB who allows little separation and very fluid and quick. Too handsy at times and can get beaten deep by speed. Good job finding the ball in the air. Can play outside or slot. 9 Isaac Yiadom, Boston College Value: Round 2/3 Games Watched: Clemson, Virginia Tech, Iowa Really good physical tackler. Good awareness in zone of route transitions. Can get beat off line at times but stays in WRs hip pocket. Allows little separation. 10 Donte Jackson, LSU Value: Round 2/3 Games Watched: Notre Dame, Auburn, Ole Miss, Ole Miss (2016), Miss St (2016) Ungodly speed, hip fluidity, and quick feet that rival Denzel Ward. Clear weakness in his strength: incredibly skinny and can get beaten up by bigger WRs off line or at catch point. Rarely gives up separation in trail. May be limited to slot if he cant put on more weight and could even struggle there against the run although he's surprisingly physical against the run for his size. Rare mirroring ability. 11 Jaire Alexander, Louisville Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Syracuse, Purdue, Clemson (2016), LSU (2016), Florida St (2016) Really good INT production but gives up a ton of separation despite his quick feet. For instance, vs Clemson last year he had 2 or 3 INTs but one of them came on a very late throw on a route where Mike Williams had cleanly beat him. Its a bad sign if Mike Williams is creating easy separation vs you. Bites on double moves. Possible speed issue despite great KPR ability. Really physical and great ball skills. 12 Anthony Averett, Alabama Value: Day 3 Games Watched: Georgia, Clemson, Clemson (2016) 13 Quenton Meeks, Stanford Value: Day 3 Games Watched: Notre Dame, Washington Stanford S 1 Minkah Fitzpatrick, Alabama 2 Derwin James, Florida St Value: Top 10 Games Watched: Ole Miss (2016), Alabama, Clemson Reminds me of a slightly worse version of Jamal Adams. Always around the ball. Comes downhill in a hurry and takes on blockers to make the the tackle. Awesome blitzer. Plays a lot of LB. Covers a ton of ground. Instincts seems off at times and can take bad angles. Looks decent in man coverage and can likely guard TEs in NFL. 3 DeShon Elliot, Texas Value: Round 1 Games Watched: USC, Oklahoma St, West Virginia Great all around safety who can play in box or single high. Played shallow zone near LOS, 2 deep, and single high. Strength to stand up FB in run game. Good range and reads QBs eyes to break on ball. Very good ball skills. Sure tackler. 4 Jessie Bates, Wake Forrest Value: Round 2/3 Games Watched: Florida St, Clemson Elite burst puts him in great positions but size an issue in run game. Elite closing burst allows him to recover and make plays on ball that other cannot. Appealing recklessness in run game but with his size he still consitently allows ballcarrier to get YAC. 5 Ronnie Harrison, Alabama Value: Round 3 Games Watched: Georgia, Clemson, Colorado St, Arkansas 2016) If you want a pure SS then his value shoots up but he's very bad in coverage and will not be able to guard anyone in man. Big, fast, explosive, an violent downhill player. Cannot guard anyone out of their break. 6 Armani Watts, Texas A&M Value: Round 4 Games Watched: Tennessee (2016), UCLA, Arkansas Misses tons of tackles. Reads QBs eyes well and twitchy downhill mover. Excellent breaking on balls and ball skills to make play when he gets there. Smooth and fluid in coverage. Bits on route fakes and double moves. Small frame. Awful tackler and looks timid unless he's getting a free shot. 7 Marcus Allen, Penn St Value: Round 4 Games Watched: Washington, Michigan St Played in box, two deep, and single high. Solid tackler. Instincts seem a little off. Decent closing speed. Solid in man but can get too grabby. Not great range. 8 Kyzer White, West Virginia Value: Day 3 Games Watched: Texas, Utah Reminds me of Delano Hill last year. Want to rewatch him after hearing 2nd round grades from others. Huge safety. Slow hips in man vs slot WRs. Plays near LOS a lot. Decent speed for size but not twitchy. Solid tackler who can use size to make big hits. 9 Justin Reid, Stanford Value: Day 3 Games Watched: USC, UCLA
The Offseason Review Series: Day 16: The New York Giants
This post was written by Sexterminator. Unfortunately, he was unavailable to post on this day, so he asked me to post for him. I have made some small formatting changes for readability but have not modified any of the content of the post.
New York Giants
Division: NFC East
Team
Record
Washington Redskins
9-7
Philadelphia Eagles
7-9
New York Giants
6-10
Dallas Cowboys
4-12
Coaching Changes
Position
Previous
New
Head Coach
Tom Coughlin
Ben McAdoo
Offensive Coordinator
Ben McAdoo
Mike Sullivan
Defensive Line
Robert Nunn
Patrick Graham
Offensive Line
Pat Flaherty
Mike Solari
Linebackers
Jim Herrmann
Bill McGovern
Quarterbacks
Mike Sullivan
Frank Cignetti Jr
Wide Receivers
Sean Ryan
Adam Henry
Strength & Conditioning
Jerry Palmieri
Aaron Wellman
Phew, that’s a lot of changes. I won’t pretend to know some of these guys well enough to feel comfortable grading these moves, so I’ll talk about all of them but I’m only going to give grades to some of the major changes. Tom Coughlin out, Ben McAdoo in. Forgive me in advance for this one, gonna be a bit of a rant folks. By far the biggest coaching change of the Giants’ offseason, and one of the more surprising in the league, old man Coughlin finally turned in the towel after his 4th straight season of missing the playoffs. Was he told to retire? Well, we can only speculate, but… there are a lot of signs pointing to yes. Coughlin toyed with the idea of going back into coaching and has said it still interests him. While no Giants fan was happy to see one of our best Head Coaches leave under such circumstances (and I’ll forever miss his beet-red face on the sidelines), it was his time. I still don’t think the game has passed him by, but I do believe both sides needed a fresh start. The Giants were clearly going nowhere fast, in part due to injury but also due to poor coaching (look no further than Week 1 against the Cowboys, there were many other games where this was prevalent as well but this stands out to me), and they were more or less wasting Eli’s prime years. McAdoo is still green, being promoted after just 2 years of Offensive Coordinator tenure, but he’s had an extremely successful 2 seasons implementing his West Coast Offense. Additionally, he brings much of the same “no nonsense” attitude that fans knew and loved Coughlin for. He even kept the clocks 5 minutes ahead! I will say that I was interested in the idea of bringing in Adam Gase or Hue Jackson to be our next HC, but other than those two the options seemed mostly disappointing. Chip Kelly? Doug Pederson? McAdoo is proven, he’s familiar, and he’s young. I think staying in-house was ultimately the right call here and I’d give this move an A. Ben McAdoo out, Mike Sullivan in. With McAdoo’s promotion, a vacancy at OC opened up. The promotion of Sullivan came rather quickly, and the Giants likely only interviewed in-house candidates – with the other potential hire being Joe Philbin. Sullivan wa brought on as the Giants’ WRs Coach with Tom Coughlin in 2004, a position he held for 6 years before changing to QB Coach in 2010. In 2012 he was hired as the Buccaneers’ Offensive Coordinator, but was fired along with Head Coach Greg Schiano. Sullivan returned to the G-Men in 2015 to resume his place as QBs Coach, and after one year was promoted yet again to OC. Now, Sullivan has had 3 years of QB Coaching for the Giants, and all 3 years were some of the best of Eli’s career. Eli had career seasons in 2010-2011, then seemed to drop off substantially in 2012 and then even more in 2013. Obviously I won’t pretend that Sullivan is the only reason for Manning’s success, but it looks like he could be a reason. Eli also had one of the best statistical seasons of his career under Sullivan in 2015. The coach is obviously familiar with his QB, having spent over a decade working with him in some regard. Now, the counter-argument would be his lack of success in Tampa Bay and that this seems like a lazy hire (no real searches, and just promoting in-house). I’d disagree with it being lazy but the Tampa disaster is a valid enough point, even if he didn’t have much to work with. Still a solid signing in my book, and worthy of a B grade. Robert Nunn out, Patrick Graham in. Nunn has been the DL coach of the Giants since 2010, but losing him didn’t come as too much of a surprise to anyone. The Giants’ D-Line has been abysmal over the last few years, and while I think we should attribute some of that to lack of talent, you simply can’t continue to have a poor performance from your position group and expect to maintain a job. I don’t know all too much about Patrick Graham, other than that he’s held various defensive position coaching jobs for the Patriots since 2009. What I do know, however, is that he will have a hell of a lot more talent to work with than Nunn did. Pat Flaherty out, Mike Solari in. I’ve actually met Flaherty a couple times, so I was a bit more upset about the firing of this position coach than I should’ve been. Truth be told, Flaherty has usually put together a damn good OL with the talent he has to work with. Not to mention he’s been with the team since Coughlin’s arrival in 2004. That might actually have had something to do with his firing, though, as the team may have wanted to “clean house” of any vetted Coughlin staff members. Who knows. They went and replaced Flaherty with a guy who’s been an Offensive Line Coach in the NFL since 1997. At 61, Solari is hardly the young blood hire you’d expect from a young HC like McAdoo, but his experience may end up being invaluable to a young OL still learning how to be a cohesive unit. Jim Herrmann out, Bill McGovern in. Not much to say about this one. Giant’s LBs have not been good in a long while, and that didn’t change last season. Maybe, instead of rotating coaches through that position group like a carousel, we should umm.. sign or draft some good LBs? But I digress. Mr. McGovern, good luck with the task of making the middle of our defense look competent. It’s not an easy one. Mike Sullivan out, Frank Cignetti Jr in. Taking Sullivan’s spot as QB Coach is Frank Cignetti Jr, who was initially promoted to OC by the Rams last year and subsequently fired before the season was over. From what I can tell, Cignetti didn’t do much playcalling in that offense anyway, but what is more worrisome is that he previously resided as a QB Coach over some very.. uninspiring quarterbacks. Regardless, Eli’s at the point where I think you could hire me as his QB Coach and nothing would really change. Sean Ryan out, Adam Henry in. This is a very meh hiring for me. Ryan’s been with the team since 2007, but only recently has become our WRs Coach. Henry was WRs Coach for the 49ers last year and their WRs were nothing special. Meh. Jerry Palmieri out, Aaron Wellman in. FINALLY! I don’t know who either of these guys are, in fact neither have a wikipedia page, but this excites me nonetheless. We finally did it, we finally fired our Strength and Conditioning Coach after having one of the most injured teams in the NFL for 4 years running. Palmieri might be an alright guy and even good at his job, but by keeping him on we’d never know for sure. If we do poorly now, we can at least attribute it to the dark voodoo magic Tom Coughlin has been practicing underneath Metlife Stadium.
Free Agency
Players Signed
Player
Position
2015 Team
2016 Team
Contract Details
Jason Pierre-Paul
DE
1 year, $10M (up to $10.5M with incentives)
Jasper Brinkley
LB
1 year, $1,800,000
Janoris Jenkins
CB
5 years, $62.5M ($12.5M/yr)
Damon Harrison
DT
5 years, $46.25M ($9.25M/yr)
Olivier Vernon
DE
5 years, $85M ($17M/yr)
Keenan Robinson
LB
1 year, $2.5M
Will Johnson
FB
2 years, $2.3M ($1.15M/yr)
Ryan Seymour
G
1 year, $600,000
Dillon Farrell
C
1 year, $525,000
Kelvin Sheppard
LB
1 year, $680,000
Bobby Rainey
RB
1 year, $680,000
Jason Pierre-Paul was brought back to the Giants on a sort of “prove-it” type deal, at a discount from his Franchise Tag number of nearly $15 million in 2015. JPP missed almost the entire season, but when he did play he looked really good for a guy missing half of his hand. He led our team in pressures while active and healthy (not a huge achievement, I know) and seemed to still be able to tackle well despite not having the same ability to wrap up as he used to. He even caused a fumble! I really think JPP has a bounceback year, and that’s not just me drinking the blue kool-aid (or is it? It might be). He looked damn impressive in 2014, impressive enough to get franchise tagged, and he didn’t disappoint when he saw the field this year. So there’s no reason to think he can’t get back to playing at least close to the level he was before. I like this re-signing and give it an A- I’m covering re-signings first, so Jasper Brinkley is the next guy on my list. He came in as a camp body when it was clear Jon Beason would not be playing this season, and nobody expected him to be anything more than a mediocre depth player. Brinkley, however, adapted quickly and performed well given his circumstances. I was particularly impressed in his ability to call defensive adjustments a mere 2-3 weeks after being signed. He learned the playbook quick and brought a good run defense and below average pass defense into the MLB spot, which was basically what we were expecting from Beason anyway. All in all, I was happy to see Brinkley re-signed, and he got the high-end depth money he deserved: I’ll give this one a B Janoris Jenkins had a good season in 2015, notching 3 INTs, 16 Pass Defenses and forcing 1 fumble. He’s certainly been a good CB who’s gotten better as time went on, but is a “good” CB worth $12.5M per year? I mean he was often times the #2 behind Trumaine Johnson, who the Rams went out of their way to franchise tag over Jenkins. I don’t know. Jenkins’ risky play can pay off but it can also kill a defense. I’m not sure if our management saw something or if this was the going rate for a guy of Jenkins’ caliber, but that’s a lot to be paying a CB2. I give this signing a D Damon Harrison was probably my favorite signing of the offseason. Is he in all likelihood going to be a 2-down player for the Giants? Yes, you could certainly say that. But even though Harrison is only good at one thing (run defense), he’s really, REALLY good at that one thing. In fact, if you give PFF any credence, he received their top run-defense grade in the entire NFL. Not just DTs, or DL members. The whole league. Harrison will be getting about $9M a year, which might seem a bit expensive for a pure run-stuffing DT, but it’s honestly going to be a huge relief for a unit that has ranked near the bottom of the league in run defense the last two years. I’m going to give this signing the highest grade, an A No Giants fans, myself included, really expected us to sign Olivier Vernon after reeling in Jenkins and Harrison. When we all saw the price tag, it seemed even more ludicrous that we got him. This was a deal I was very skeptical of at first, but it has grown on me. First, for anyone saying the Giants were the only team even thinking of going that high, not true. The Jaguars were reported to be right there until the end, with their offer coming very close to New York’s. Vernon ended the season with only 7.5 sacks, but notched 81 total pressures on opposing QBs, good for 2nd among 4-3 DEs. PFF also graded Vernon highest of all 4-3 ends, for what that’s worth. Still, $85M with over $50M guaranteed is a LOT. It’s basically us saying, we believe he can be even better than he was. Fair enough for a guy who is only 25, but a risky move nonetheless. I grade this move a B Keenan Robinson showed some promise early in his career, but had a pretty dismal 2015 by almost all metrics. He was among the top of the league in missed tackles, something we can’t afford to have on a Giants defense that has suffered from not being able to wrap up well past the DL. Robinson’s signing perplexed me a bit when it happened, because I thought “why bring him in? Why not just bring Jasper Brinkley back? Dude was solid.” And then we did bring Brinkley back. And then I was even more perplexed. This move gets a C- from me, and the only reason it isn’t lower is because it’s on a one year deal with just $1M guaranteed. Why sign Will Johnson to a 2 year deal when we have Nikita Whitlock entrenched at FB? Well… Whitlock isn’t a great FB. He isn’t versatile (well, he is, but in that he can play offense and defense, and not in that he can have multiple roles on offense), and he didn’t do an all too impressive job at the one thing FBs are paid to do: block. Johnson is a proven FB who was the unfortunate casualty of the Steelers moving to a pass-happy offense that didn’t call for his kind anymore. As far as fullbacks go, he’s also a solid receiver. So that’s both areas of improvement over Whitlock. I’m going to stop grading these signings because, come on, what’s the point when we get to this stage? But I did like this one. I know next to nothing about Ryan Seymour and Dillon Farrell, other than that they are both late-round/UDFAs who couldn’t stick to a 53-man roster on another team and signed a futures contract with the Giants. They’re honestly probably nothing more than camp bodies. That being said, if there’s any position group where a guy can show what he’s got and make the roster, it’s our Offensive Line. Did Olivier Vernon vouch for Kelvin Sheppard? Maybe, who knows. Sheppard has to know it’s going to be an uphill battle for him to make the team. Here’s another guy with good athleticism who couldn’t finish on tackles. His best bet is competing for a WLB spot and hoping his contributions on STs are enough to keep him around. Bobby Rainey seems a bit redundant on this team. He can return kicks, but not very well. He isn’t a power back, in fact he’s more of a mini Shane Vereen than anything. I don’t quite see a way in which he sneaks onto the roster barring injury to one or more of the guys ahead of him. There’s just too big a logjam at RB right now. Players Lost
Player
Position
2015 Team
2016 Team
Contract Details
Prince Amukamara
CB
1 year, $5.5M
Robert Ayers
DE
3 years, $21M ($7M/yr)
Rueben Randle
WR
1 year, $3M
Cullen Jenkins
DT
N/A
N/A
Prince Amukamara is a guy I always cheered for, but who could never seem to stay on the field for very long. I thought after a phenomenal 2013 campaign that he might become a shutdown corner, but that vision was never realized, as injuries and poor play continued to plague him thereafter. The poor play aspect really was only this year, and even then I wouldn’t say he was outright bad, but there was certainly a noticeable difference in his performance. Prince isn’t a huge playmaker, not a ballhawk or an amazing coverage guy, but he will play physical and he will do wonders in run support. I was a little sad to see him go, but I do think Janoris Jenkins is an upgrade, and the contract Prince got would back that up. I really wanted us to bring back Robert Ayers, and it wasn’t until we signed OV that I was okay with the prospect of him leaving. FWIW, while I thought the Jags got a good deal on Prince, I think the Bucs got a legitimate steal in Ayers at $7M/yr. He’s a little on the older side as far as DEs go, and he isn’t going to be making any top 100 lists anytime soon, but Ayers will quietly put up great numbers week in and week out. He is okay in run defense but his real contributions came in the passing game, where he will likely elevate a subpar DE group on the Buccaneers. Ask any Giants fan what they think of us not bringing back Rueben Randle, and you’ll hear any number of replies ranging from “eh” to “thank GOD!” Truth be told, he isn’t a bad WR. He’s just infuriating. You see him out there and you know he can make the plays, but instead he does something dumb and then you’re left sitting there scratching your head. His effort levels seemed to reach all-time lows this season, despite being forced the ball most of the year when OBJ was triple covered. At one point he was even benched. At $3M on one year, I guess the Eagles don’t have much to lose, but I don’t think I’ll miss him as much as the previous two players. Cullen Jenkins is still a free agent, which tells you all you need to know about his play in 2015. To be fair, we did try to line him up at DE, which was just a recipe for disaster. Jenkins had some decent and good years with us, but his age started really showing in 2015. We went out and signed Damon Harrison to replace him, a move I would consider nothing less than a massive upgrade. Draft
Round
Pick
Player
School
Description
1
10
Eli Apple
Ohio State
The Giants fanbase collectively shit their pants when the G-Men selected Eli Apple at #10 with Vernon Hargreaves III still on the board. It really seemed like a panic move at the time. After the dust has settled, however, we look to some potential reasoning for this pick: Apple has an air of Richard Sherman about him, that’s not to say he’ll BECOME Richard Sherman of course, but he plays physically and one of his greatest strengths is jarring WRs at the line of scrimmage. This is in stark contrast to VH3, who has never really been a press cover corner. Interesting to note that we lose our one guy who is good at pressing receivers (Prince) then draft a guy who can do the same thing. Now, Apple does have some weaknesses in his game. His tackling is not the best and his overconfidence has gotten him beat. He does have good length though, and the athleticism to stay with receivers downfield. I think he has a bit more upside than VH3 in the long run but is far less polished at this point. Still not the pick I would have made, though, and for that this gets a C
2
40
Sterling Shepard
Oklahoma
We drafted Shepard right around where I had him on my big board, so I was definitely okay with this selection. SS is 5’10” but plays like he’s 6’2”, and that huge catch radius is something he has in common with Odell. Another thing he has in common is that he can absolutely destroy an enemy corner with his footwork and route-running. He doesn’t have blazing sub-4.4 speed, but he has quickness, and he looks nimble as a dancer out on the football field when he’s breaking ankles. Furthermore, Shepard ran a polished route tree in Oklahoma which should help him translate to the NFL quicker. Hard to temper expectations when a guy seems so damn impressive on tape. I give this pick an A-
3
71
Darian Thompson
Boise State
Thompson is a playmaker, plain and simple. He totaled 19 interceptions in his 3 year career, which broke an INT record for the Mountain West Conference previously held by none other than Eric Weddle. Thompson hits hard but his tackling form isn’t always the best. A bigger worry, though, is his speed, with a 4.70 40-time that is reflected in his game tape at times. Thompson’s coverage skills seemed mostly above average, but there were times he simply got beat either by being out of position or just trying to cash in too hard on a play and overcommitting. Seeing a trend here with players the Giants signed/drafted in the secondary and risky play? Good, because I am too. Thompson does have the size and length for the position, and shouldn’t have much in the way of competition for the starting FS spot. I give this pick a B+
4
109
BJ Goodson
Clemson
Goodson is a prototypical Giants LB: Hard-hitting, downhill player with good leadership attributes, that unfortunately lacks the twitch or athleticism to cover well in space. There’s a reason he fell to the 4th round, and I don’t think we’re going to be looking to implement him as a starter anytime soon. This is about as good as it gets for a LB selection from Jerry Reese, though, so I do believe we will start grooming Goodson right away in hopes that he can start in 2017. I give this very Giantsy pick a B-, and I’ll say it filled need more than value.
5
149
Paul Perkins
UCLA
Perkins is a guy who I absolutely couldn’t believe was still around in the 5th, and who had me jumping for joy when we picked him. I had a mid-late 2nd round grade on the guy for crying out loud! Maybe that speaks more to my inability to scout than anything, but I do believe Perkins was a steal nonetheless. He can do juuust about everything well. He won’t absolutely wow you in any one category, but he is more of a jack-of-all-trades. He has the power to push a pile at the goal line and the agility to look Barry Sanders-esque at times in the open field. He does not go down easily, despite his 5’10”, 206 pound frame. His straight line speed is nothing special, but he I wouldn’t categorize him as slow, either. He could use some work in the passing game, both blocking and catching. In the end though, this was IMO our best pick, and I’ll give it a rare A+
6
184
Jerrell Adams
South Carolina
A big bodied guy who was underutilized at SC, Adams had his best season in 2015, hauling in 28 targets for 421 yards. He is athletic enough (former basketball player, get him a HoF ballot now) and big enough (6’5”) to succeed in the NFL, especially in the red zone. But one thing that really stood out to me about Adams while watching him were his soft hands. He seems a natural pass catcher, and as an added bonus, was actually used to block in college and was pretty successful! That will be huge for a team with no true run-blocking TE as of now. I give this pick an A-
Roster Breakdown
Position
# of Players
Player Names
Description
QB
2
Eli Manning, Ryan Nassib
Not much to see here. Eli is Mr. Ironman, so barring pre-season injury there is an infinitesimally small chance that we bring 3 QBs onto the final 53. Nassib has proven himself as a capable backup and pre-season superstar. This is his final year on contract before he likely tries to find a spot on other team where he can compete for a starting gig.
RB
4
Rashad Jennings, Shane Vereen, Andre Williams, Paul Perkins
Putting Andre Williams on this list almost physically hurt me to do. But this isn’t a roster of what I want to see, but rather what I expect to see. And honestly, I think there are a few things pointing towards Williams making the final 53: no other RB on our roster besides Rashad Jennings is a good short yardage back. You know as well as I that Jennings is somewhat injury prone, so it’s a risky move to have no other power backs on the roster. The other thing is that he’s a draft pick, and Jerry Reese seems to give more chances to his draft picks. Although if McAdoo is impressed by Darkwa and he adds weight, its entirely possible he takes Andre’s spot. Rashad is a decent starter and Vereen is a great pass-catching back. The depth here is kind of meh, but I really liked the pick of Paul Perkins.
FB
1
Will Johnson
It’s entirely possible the Giants don’t carry a FB. Under the McAdoo offense, they’ve been running a WCO that relies on FB play very little. The big thing here is we signed Johnson to a 2-year deal for a pretty good chunk of cash (as far as FBs go, anyway). I think he can also be used in sort of a hybrid FB-TE role for us, as he has pretty good hands. Nikita Whitlock’s best chance to make the team now is to add weight and impress at DT.
WR
6
Odell Beckham Jr, Sterling Shepard, Victor Cruz, Dwayne Harris, Geremy Davis, Roger Lewis.
This is a top-heavy position talent-wise, with a lot of question marks beyond OBJ. How will the rookie Shepard perform? I assume he’ll get a fair amount of outside looks as well as lining up in the slot. Speaking of the slot, will Victor Cruz ever be healthy? Dwayne Harris had a better 2015 than anyone expected, but should we really be counting on him if Cruz can’t go? Who the hell are Geremy Davis and Roger Lewis? Alright, so I do think this isn’t a bad position group, and probably one of our strengths on offense. There will be a big battle for the WR5/6 spots that I’ll get to later, but I think our reserve WRs will be big-bodied guys, because our top 3 are all 6” or under. Davis had a disappointing rookie year, moving to the practixe squad with the team favoring Myles White. I do like his size and he played Special Teams in college, so I think if he shows any flashes at all he’ll overtake White. As for Roger Lewis, I thought his play was very underrated at Bowling Green and was excited when we signed him as an UDFA. He’s another guy with size and a good catch radius, but has some decent speed to go with it. No, I’m not on the Anthony Dable hype train just yet. Lets see him in pads before we start drinking the kool-aid, shall we?
TE
3
Will Tye, Larry Donnell, Jerrell Adams
Pretty straightforward stuff here. Jerome Cunningham and Matt Lacosse have an outside shot of making it, but as much as we like to complain about Donnell he’s still a pretty big mismatch size-wise, and a good redzone target for Eli. I expect Tye to return as the starter and for Adams to take the role of “primary blocking TE”, because the 2 guys ahead of him are inept in that category.
OT
3
Ereck Flowers, Marshall Newhouse, Bobby Hart
Ugh. This is by far, like, by FAR, my least favorite position on the Giants. The team seems to be content heading into the season with Marshall Newhouse as a starting RT, and its not like Flowers showed much at LT last year either. Sure, he was a rookie, but its a damn hard position to play. I almost wish the team wasn’t so stubborn about keeping him on the left side, but I kind of understand why. There are talks that Hart may overtake Newhouse or move to RG and replace John Jerry, but I think that’s more of a projection from hopeful fans than anything. The guy played like 100 snaps last year as a 7th round rookie, lets temper those expectations.
G
3
Justin Pugh, John Jerry, Adam Gettis
Pugh is pretty much locked in at LG at this point. Jerry is a fringe level starter but will have to do. He’s above average, in fact dare I even say good, at pass-blocking. His run-blocking, though, has been atrocious. Just awful. Gettis is a veteran who was on our team last year, but really this 3rd spot can go to anyone. We realistically may carry 4 Guards, but I can’t find it in me to put any other of these guys on our final 53. It's like putting my hand in a Scrabble bag, I really don’t know what to expect from any of these depth guys.
C
2
Weston Richburg, Brett Jones
Richburg had a breakout year in 2015, playing at a near-elite level. Brett Jones is, to my knowledge, the only other true Center on the roster. He was a CFL all-star before spending 2015 on the Practice Squad, but I think he gets a promotion this season.
DE
5
Olivier Vernon, Jason Pierre-Paul, Owamagbe Odighizuwa, Kerry Wynn, Romeo Okwara
Look at those names. You could make a new Game of Thrones family with those names. Vernon and JPP are the only true locks, though I’d be shocked if OO doesn’t make it. I see Vernon playing RDE and JPP at LDE because the former is a better pass rusher and the latter a better run defender. Owa was mostly injured last year, which helped explain why he fell to the 3rd round in 2015. Wynn is a depth guy, nothing less and nothing more. Okwara is a guy I had a 6th round grade on in college, but he’s pretty undersized for a 4-3 DE as it stands. He has almost no shot as a LB, though, so his best move would be to pack on some weight and try to make it as a 4-3 end. Stansly Maponga will also be in the mix, as well as Brad Bars.
DT
4
Johnathan Hankins, Damon Harrison, Jay Bromley, Montori Hughes
Big Boy Hankins will be back, this time likely playing 3-tech much more. The Giants will have Damon Harrison in at 1-tech on early/running downs, and I foresee them moving Hankins over to 1t and putting Jay Bromley at 3t for passing situations. Bromley showed some flashes last season, but his biggest asset seems to be run defense, which the Giants also improved heavily in by adding Harrison. Hughes or Nix are a decent bet to fill the 4th slot; neither really got any playing time but Nix is lazy so I’ll give Hughes the spot. What I’d really like to see is Nikita Whitlock put on the weight to convert to DT full-time, his thug nasty spin move would be great for us because we need a good pass rushing DT that can get penetration on 3rd down. However, I’m not gonna get my hopes up quite yet.
SLB
2
Devon Kennard, Mark Herzlich
Nothing new here. Kennard is our best LB, which isn’t saying much, but he’s actually really solid at all 3 phases of the game. I kind of wanted to put someone else over Herzlich, but the guy has become a very good run defender and you can’t ask for much else from a depth Strong-Side LB.
MLB
2
Jasper Brinkley, BJ Goodson
I can’t see Brinkley being dethroned by a 4th round rookie, but it’s entirely possible. Keenan Robinson will also be in the mix here, as will Kelvin Sheppard. Ultimately, I think the Giants continue to carry only 6 LBs, and Brinkley gets the start while we develop Goodson to be the future signal-caller.
WLB
2
JT Thomas III, Keenan Robinson
Now, this is kind of a predicament. We’re giving Robinson $1M guaranteed but I don’t see him making the roster as an ILB, and his tackling is known to be shit, so where can he go? Well, Casillas had a rather unimpressive year at WLB while filling in for JT3, barring a nice INT. Robinson could end up taking his spot, though that would still incur a $1.8M cap hit of dead money.
DRC is a top-15 corner. JJ is one of the better number 2’s in the league. And Apple is a #10 overall pick. I still don’t trust our CB situation, however. The Giants are known to have injuries upon injuries at this position every year. With the Giants spending a lot of time in the nickel, they’re going to need plenty of depth here. Wade gets a lot of flak, but I thought he had some good moments and mostly got better as the year went on. At just 158 pounds, the undersized Deayon is kind of a long shot, but he’s a playmaker who our DC has already started raving about. Resident Free Safety Mykelle Thompson played CB in college, including the slot, and had few snaps at FS last year. I think he’s a good candidate to make the transition.
FS
3
Darian Thompson, Bennett Jackson, Cooper Taylor
Thompson has been impressive so far (as impressive as one can be in OTAs), and was one of my favorite FS in college. He makes plays like it’s no one’s business. He isn’t the fastest guy but he is rangy. Jackson looked like the favorite to take over the starting FS role last year before going down with an ACL tear. Cooper Taylor has been cut and re-signed too many times to count, but I never see him play poorly when he actually IS on the field… so I’m gonna say he keeps his spot this year. I know, 5 safeties and 6 CBs is a lot of secondary players… but if you knew the fortune of Giants’ Secondaries of late, you would understand just how much depth we need.
SS
2
Landon Collins, Nat Berhe
Collins will return as the de facto starter here, and he’s one guy I’m really hopeful for improvement in 2016. If Thompson can take the role of that center fielder, then Collins should be able to play in the box more, which is where he excels. Berhe is a guy I want to see succeed, and one who makes contributions on STs so I think his roster spot is pretty safe.
K
1
Josh Brown
Nothing out of the ordinary here. Old man Brown’s still got it.
P
1
Brad Wing
I like Wing, he’s got sass for a Punter. And he’s Australian. He’s the Sassy Australian. He had an up and down year but is very likely to return.
LS
1
Zak DeOssie
Other than Eli, DeOssie is the only player on the Giants from the 2007 Superbowl team. Yeah, he’s not going anywhere. Probably.
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