MichiganCardinal

If it’s a top five pick I like Travon Walker, even at #2. If it’s outside the top five, I like whoever we have rated highest at WR.

I don't think he will fall further than the 3rd or 4th round. The Lions are becoming Achilles experts, I would definitely consider him at 66. We can afford a redshirt season.

I'm sure it is. If this is as bad as it looks for him though, the damage is likely done. Recovery will likely take him out for at least the first half of the coming season, and he is not likely to have as strong a season coming off of injury and not being across from Hutchinson. He could fall even further if he suffers a setback and misses the entire season. He is likely better off taking his tumble in the draft. A team that can afford to redshirt him will take him, it's not like he'll go undrafted. He could have gone top five though.

Depending on how serious it is, he could lose millions in his rookie deal. I wouldn’t be surprised to see projected first round picks be healthy scratches from the Combine and Pro Days in the future. Why risk it?

I will participate in bracket challenges and fantasy football with friends, but I think the mass commercialization and availability of sports betting and online gambling will be looked on extremely poorly in the next 10-20+ years. Potentially the next global health crisis. Too many people are too easily influenced and hooked. As opposed to making a conscious choice to enter a casino, to go to an ATM, to interact with a cashier, it's just too easy to just keep using that credit card in the dark bedroom or office without any realization for the real impacts you're having. Until you can't afford gas or groceries the next day, or are paying $100s in interest fees. Then the occasional win becomes an opioid-like high, and there is a constant chase, while your thousands of dollars line the pockets of billionaires. It's the wild west right now. The free bets and credits for things that happen every game are just capitalizing on the chase of the high. The radio reads on 97.1 make me sick sometimes, with the books paying to push certain lines.

Heard it here first

Happy now? Not a word about Kentucky. 😂

I don’t think the Raiders are playing this very smart. Carr is decent but he’s the worst QB in that division. They will struggle to finish 3rd in that division next year. They may have been better off launching something of a rebuild in an effort to get a top tier QB who could compete with Mahomes and Herbert over the next decade.

LOL. It could be me. It could be that a bunch of 5’ kids can only compete with 7’ future NBA professionals for so long. Which is true the world may never know.

Gonzaga and *checks notes* Georgia State are tied midway through the 2nd half.

Likewise. Even removing Williams from the equation, I'd be lying if I didn't wince a little at seeing Myles Jack sign with the Steelers for 2/16 and Jordan Whitehead sign with the Jets for 2/14.5. Those are two pretty good players at positions of need that signed for value deals. I appreciate them sticking with the plan though, because at the end of the day, if we pick up Nakobe Dean at 32, or even a sleeper safety at 97 that Glenn and Pleasant see potential in, we could get a starter on a rookie deal way cheaper than Williams or Campbell (or Jack or Whitehead for that matter), for just as long or longer... That money saved can then go towards picking up a playmaker in an offseason when we are preparing to overtake the Packers for the division in 2023 or 2024.

Preparing myself for Murray State to lose tonight.

I think Baker is marginally better than Goff, but any sense to the move stops there.

Say hello to Remi. Not sure I was fully ready, but one of the boys brought him home from a friend the other day without asking, and then did the thing where they just waited until I inevitably became emotionally attached and couldn't say no. LOL.

I much prefer what the Lions are doing in terms of a rebuild compared to like the Jaguars. Not even just in terms of the Jags vastly overpaying for these players, but in terms of having a sort of vision for the future. The Lions are accumulating draft picks, and (though a small sample size) are hitting on those picks. They're keeping the players that can fill a role moving forward, but not over-committing to them (financially or in length). It seems like the Jaguars are just saying "eh, we have the money, f it" and going out and just trying to plug holes in their roster with whatever they can afford, as if it will instantly make them a contender. As Hongbit said, this is a larger than two year rebuild. A year or two from now, I think we might be able to say that we are only one or two pieces from really competing. At that point, I think it's more reasonable to say "let's go out and spend $70M on a guy who can come in here and instantly put us over the top", rather than spending $70M this year on a guy to fill a hole that for all we know could be filled in the draft, at a much cheaper price for just as long. As opposed to the Jaguars, who seem to just be throwing s*** at the wall and seeing if it will stick long enough to win a few games.

I learned my lesson with Reynolds and will wait for the smoke to clear before I comment.

An additional aspect of the Chark signing I like is that it gives us a real chance to better and more fully evaluate Goff. Goff wasn't good for a lot of last season, but in his defense, he really had no one to throw to. As St. Brown developed and we picked up Reynolds, we saw Goff improve by quite a bit. Can he fully utilize a deep threat like Chark? Or will Chark be handicapped in the routes he can run?

I think one thing to bear in mind is that we aren’t necessarily trying to turn the 31st defense into a top 10 defense, and we don’t necessarily have to be a top 10 defense to be successful. Recent playoff teams have demonstrated clearly that an average defense can win a Super Bowl with a good offense.

I think the upgrades are coming, likely mostly through the draft. We couldn't just abandon the entire defense because they were bad though. Harris was decent last year, as was Walker. Above replacement value at least, and those are the only two who have received starting money (and not even playmaking starting money at that). The players who were re-signed at or below replacement level (Anzalone, Dion Hamilton, Elliott, Woods, and Moore) received depth or fringe starting money, which is fair. The hope for them is likely that they won't be put in a starting role unless there are injuries. Guys like Anzalone probably won't be a starter on a playoff team, but can be a very serviceable backup or rotational player.

I thought he would have signed something like 3/27 on the open market, which I also think would have been an overpay. I think $7M is a fair price for an average starting edge rusher, but I like the length a lot. Keep it short and hopefully easy to get out of if he does turn out to be a one-year wonder.

It’s the rebuild that never actually builds.

I don't understand why the Jaguars feel the need to spend all their money in one go. The way that team is trending, Lawrence is going to be looking for a new team by the end of his rookie deal.

Late to the party this morning but excellent move. Draft a WR1 and the wide receiver room goes from ugly to pretty decent looking.

I think Harris is an interesting case because the decision surrounding whether to re-sign him (assuming it is not solely about money) could speak to greater draft and scheme strategy, as well as the confidence the team has in Julian Okwara. With their publicly stated move to a base 4-3, you would assume Romeo Okwara would return to the line, where he's had a great deal of success in his career. Take the edge rusher presumably selected early in the draft and your defensive line actually looks pretty decent as R Okwara, McNeill, Brockers, and (Hutch/Thib/Walker/etc), with Levi rotating in for McNeill and Brockers.... I think it's likely that J Okwara remains an OLB, presumably next to Barnes at ILB, and a second OLB (Harris? Another draft pick?). That said, if there is enough confidence in Levi to take more snaps alongside McNeill in the middle of the line (or if there is a plan to add someone like Jordan Davis - though I don't think there is), you could theoretically keep R Okwara back, leaving either Harris or J Okwara without a starting role. Alternatively, even if there is just more flexibility in the planned defensive packages (i.e., they are basing things more off of the nickel where there are only two LBs on the field), there are going to be situations where you are left with one too many guys between Harris and the two Okwaras. If the team sees Julian Okwara as a cheaper version of Charles Harris, it's understandable that they wouldn't want to pay Harris starting money for an 3+ year contract. I think of everything I just laid out, a 4-3 of R.Okwara/McNeill/Brockers/Rookie - J.Okwara/Barnes/Harris is the most talented option presented on paper, but if Campbell and Glenn envision more nickel looks than would make that scheme worthwhile, far be it for me to argue.