Howie likes smart players

6 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Howie likes smart players

I thought GPAs went up to 4 - did he go to the same school as the guitarist from Spinal Tap?

3 minutes ago, eggs said:

I thought GPAs went up to 4 - did he go to the same school as the guitarist from Spinal Tap?

Or maybe the school isn’t so good at math…

4 hours ago, Alphagrand said:

Kurt Warner did an analysis on Payton about a month ago. Fairly balanced assessment, I think:

Yeah, that was a good analysis.

This was one of my favorite risk adjusted picks. I don’t want to undersell the problems — Warner did a good job of showing how his mechanics, footwork, inexperience, etc. need a LOT of improvement — but the negatives are all things that hypothetically can be fixed. Will they be? Who knows. Probably yes, but also probably not enough to get him to the point of being a starter.

That said, the innate traits of a starter ARE there. He has the raw arm strength. He’s big and fast. He ran a high verbiage offense, so we can assume he’s smart enough. If he can really clean up the mechanics and get dialed in for a couple years of hard work, he has a real chance to become a legitimate starting level QB. In the 5th round, to get a QB with those kinds of physical tools with a clean bill of health and no negative intangibles, is a great opportunity.

It seems like outside of Lemon and maybe Stowers, this is what our whole draft was about. Bring in some guys with the physical traits to become a truly valuable asset rather than a high probability replacement level player. This is going to be an interesting group to watch over the next few years because the expectations are pretty low but all of the guys have the talent to be good players.

If we can somehow hit on 2 of the guys besides Lemon and Stowers this could be a surprisingly good class.

1 hour ago, TEW said:

Yeah, that was a good analysis.

This was one of my favorite risk adjusted picks. I don’t want to undersell the problems — Warner did a good job of showing how his mechanics, footwork, inexperience, etc. need a LOT of improvement — but the negatives are all things that hypothetically can be fixed. Will they be? Who knows. Probably yes, but also probably not enough to get him to the point of being a starter.

That said, the innate traits of a starter ARE there. He has the raw arm strength. He’s big and fast. He ran a high verbiage offense, so we can assume he’s smart enough. If he can really clean up the mechanics and get dialed in for a couple years of hard work, he has a real chance to become a legitimate starting level QB. In the 5th round, to get a QB with those kinds of physical tools with a clean bill of health and no negative intangibles, is a great opportunity.

It seems like outside of Lemon and maybe Stowers, this is what our whole draft was about. Bring in some guys with the physical traits to become a truly valuable asset rather than a high probability replacement level player. This is going to be an interesting group to watch over the next few years because the expectations are pretty low but all of the guys have the talent to be good players.

If we can somehow hit on 2 of the guys besides Lemon and Stowers this could be a surprisingly good class.

Agree on pretty much all points.

He didn’t show much of Payton airing it out deep. I like to watch deep throws and, more importantly, the amount of arm effort exerted to get the ball deep. If a QB can get the ball out there 60 yards without full effort, I consider that plus arm strength. The other trait is being able to complete tight-window throws. From Payton’s tape his deep ball travels 50-55 air yards. Pretty good, but not a plus arm.

Zierlein mentioned in his draft assessment that Payton’s delivery will need to be rebuilt. I’m inclined to agree. I wonder if the Eagles send Payton to the same guys Hurts worked with after the 2021(?) season to work on his throwing mechanics.

13 hours ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

We didn't have a true closer at Edge last season, like Reddick had been. Grenard should be that guy. Also looking for a second-year bump from Campbell, Makuba, and Robinson.

Offense has enough talent. It all depends on the coaching and QB.

Well Robinson can’t get worse. Campbell we will see, curious if they have enough faith in Trotter Jr to go back to the rotation Vic used back half of the season with Dean/Campbell. The DT’s are going to have to massively step it up or we’re going to be wrongly blasting Campbell a lot this year.

13 hours ago, Aerolithe_Lion said:

Has Pavia still not been picked up yet? I get he’s not an ideal prospect but this feels intentionally disrespectful

Last year, Sanders at least had some stuff you can work with as a QB. Pavia…there is basically nothing you can do with him.

4 hours ago, eggs said:

I thought GPAs went up to 4 - did he go to the same school as the guitarist from Spinal Tap?

Probably AP classes. Kids are basically freshman in college by junior year of HS.

7 hours ago, Wentz_Era said:

Well Robinson can’t get worse. Campbell we will see, curious if they have enough faith in Trotter Jr to go back to the rotation Vic used back half of the season with Dean/Campbell. The DT’s are going to have to massively step it up or we’re going to be wrongly blasting Campbell a lot this year.

I am more concerned about the safety support

4 hours ago, Diehardfan said:

Probably AP classes. Kids are basically freshman in college by junior year of HS.

Sure - and they get college credit if they pass those classes (I took them back in the day), but the grading scale is (maybe was) still based on 4.0. Looks like they introduced a S tier rank 🤣

Listening to the pressers both Greenard and Stowers were very impressive. It feels great to mix in dudes with high intelligence and character. It is quite an advantage to have a team of them up and down the roster to mix in with the super freaky athletic types.

6 minutes ago, Waiting4Someday said:

Sure - and they get college credit if they pass those classes (I took them back in the day), but the grading scale is (maybe was) still based on 4.0. Looks like they introduced a S tier rank 🤣

No its weighted in most places now. Kiddo has a 4.3 somethin

50 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

I am more concerned about the safety support

Last year they went into the season with just 3, Blankenship, Sydney Brown, and Mukuba.

I think they are slightly stronger this year, but still lacks depth beyond the top 3.

11 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

If he’s Edge 3 with all the other D-Line guys getting paid plus Mitchell, DeJean, Smith etc. I’d guess it’s picked up but I can see them moving on with a trade

Yeah, his health hasnt allowed him to put a consistent stretch together, but maybe thats just who he is

Yeesh

13 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

Yeesh

I saw some of the post-draft shows about reaches and steals, and they kind of come off as cope. The teams have information and preferences that these guys don't have, the results are what they are.

20 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

Yeesh

Now that i think about it, was anyone able to trade a pick into next year? I cant recall any

• We acquired the Jets' 2026 3rd-round pick for Reddick.

• We received a 2026 3rd-round compensatory pick for Williams.

• We traded away our own 2026 3rd-round pick for Phillips.

• We expect to receive a 2027 3rd-round compensatory pick for Phillips.

• We traded away the 2026 Williams comp pick and 2027 Phillips comp pick for Grenard (most likely).

• We used the 3rd-round pick from the Jets on Markel Bell.

• We still have our own 2027 3rd-round pick (most likely)

EDITED

9 hours ago, Alphagrand said:

Agree on pretty much all points.

He didn’t show much of Payton airing it out deep. I like to watch deep throws and, more importantly, the amount of arm effort exerted to get the ball deep. If a QB can get the ball out there 60 yards without full effort, I consider that plus arm strength. The other trait is being able to complete tight-window throws. From Payton’s tape his deep ball travels 50-55 air yards. Pretty good, but not a plus arm.

Zierlein mentioned in his draft assessment that Payton’s delivery will need to be rebuilt. I’m inclined to agree. I wonder if the Eagles send Payton to the same guys Hurts worked with after the 2021(?) season to work on his throwing mechanics.

His delivery reminds me of Oliver Luck and a couple Detmers.

Funny, the PE.com Twitter feed hasn’t mentioned the mascot race between the Pitt Panther, the Nittany Lions, the Steelers mascot and Swoop. The film is hilarious. Swoop looked the William Hurt character in Body Heat, who jogs to the end of a pier and lights up a cigarette. Needless to say, Swoop was a distant last place finisher.

https://www.axios.com/local/pittsburgh/2026/04/23/nittany-lion-wins-pa-mascot-race-nfl-draft?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=How%20should%20PA%20handle%20voter%20application%20mistakes%3F&utm_campaign=PA%20Post%2004%2024%2026%20%28Copy%29

1 hour ago, BigEFly said:

Probably AP classes. Kids are basically freshman in college by junior year of HS.

Yeh, you can complete HS at our local school here with an associates degree.

17 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

• We acquired the Jets' 2027 3rd-round pick for Reddick.

• We received a 2027 3rd-round compensatory pick for Williams.

• We traded away our own 2027 3rd-round pick for Phillips.

• We expect to receive a 2028 3rd-round compensatory pick for Phillips.

• We traded away the 2027 Williams comp pick and 2028 Phillips comp pick for Grenard (most likely).

• We used the 3rd-round pick from the Jets on Markel Bell.

• We still have our own 2028 3rd-round pick (most likely)

You’re a year ahead on all these 

6 hours ago, Diehardfan said:

Probably AP classes. Kids are basically freshman in college by junior year of HS.

My son is a senior in HS this year. All of his classes are either AP, Honors or IB. AP and IB classes are on a 5.0 scale. Honors are on a 4.5 scale. He will have like up to 20 college credits. Still will not graduate early because he wants to study aerospace engineering.