Hoosierdaddy's final mock (4/24/21)

[hoosierdaddy]

Who know what the heck we're doing this year. This is more about what I want than what I think as we don't have the intel (combine,  plethora of in-person interviews & visits, etc) so I really have no clue.

Round 1: Patrick Surtain II, CB Alabama

A lot of buzz around Jaycee Horn, but at the end of the day I think the best CB in the draft falls to us at 12 and we select him. He'll be a great #2 outside CB opposite Slay early in his career and will grow into our #1 lockdown CB after a few seasons. Addresses a major area of need with a premium talent.

TRADE!!! -- not sure who we trade with, but we trade our 2nd rounder and our second 3rd rounder to move into the late 1st round.

Round 1b: Azeez Ojulari, DE Georgia

We double-dip into the SEC to add another blue-chip premium talent to our defense. He's a bit small and I know some people will have PTSD of Andy's "fastballs" back in the day. And he is a bit small at 240 lbs. But make no mistake about it, this dude can play football. Watch the tape on him and you'll immediately fall in love with him (I did, almost as fast as I fell in love with Margot Robbie in Wolf of Wall Street). He can play his rookie year as a rotational DE with a focus on pass rushing downs. And with Barnett most likely not back next year + Sweat's long-term injury concerns + Graham's age, and we'll find ourselves with possibly our best DE on the roster in 2022.

Round 3: Aaron Banks, OG Notre Dame

A season interior offensive lineman who has the size and talent to potentially become our Brand Brooks 2.0 (in a best-case scenario). And he provides one solution to our long-term issues on the offensive line as Brandon Brooks is still talented but unreliable from a health perspective. And we don't know how much longer Kelce plans to play (we could move Seumalo to C and slide Banks in at OG if we lose Kelce for any reason).

Round 4: Khalil Herbert, RB Virginia Tech

I absolutely love this dude. I know Youtube highlights can be misleading and they're not the be-all end-all when it comes to scouting a prospect. But I dare you to watch a few of his and not fall in love with the guy. Add in the fact that Sanders has yet to play a full 16-game season and I think adding an uber-talented RB to the roster to give us a formidable 1-2 punch at that position.

Round 5: Keith Taylor, CB Washington

We double-dip at a major position of need. Taylor will be a nice compliment to Surtain. He's a very physical CB who lacks a bit of athleticism, but is a good solid football player.

TRADE!!! -- not sure the details, but I'm predicting we trade Ertz for something near a 5th round selection.

Round 5b: Mustafa Johnson, DT Colorado

We REALLY need to start adding some young depth to the DT position. Cox and Hargrave are playing too many snaps, particularly when we get a couple of games into the season and most of our decent backup DTs have hit injured reserve.

Round 6: Josh Imatorbhebhe, WR Illinois

A super-athletic developmental X receiver. Something we're seriously lacking on our roster right now.

Round 6b: Cary Angeline, TE NC State

With Ertz gone, we need a receiving-first TE to compliment Goedert. Angeline has good hands and can run solid seam routes. And should be able to develop his route tree and blocking with NFL coaching and experience.

Round 6c: Jonathan Adams Jr, WR Arkansas State

Another potential strong X WR in the making. Strong production in college, albeit at a smaller school.

Round 7: Carlo Kemp, DT Michigan

Let's double-dip on disruptive interior pass rushers late in this draft.

Round 7b: Erroll Thompson, MLB Mississippi State

Let's add some size to our LB corp. Will probably be nothing more than a 2-down 'backer. But with guys like Singleton, Taylor and Edwards projecting to get the most snaps next year, adding a guy like Thompson to the mix will diversify our potential skill set at LB.

**Free agents

If the daft plays out like this, I think we pick up a few low-cost (vet minimum) FA's to fill out the roster.

* DT Hassan Ridgeway & TE Richard Rodgers are brought back to add depth

*WR Kenny Stills -- we'll have a lot of young WRs on the roster, and hopefully a couple of them force their way into the starting lineup. But let's bring in Stills to give us a little bit of experience at the WR position. I don't have Quez Watkins making the final 53 below. But if he forces his way onto the roster, then we potentially cut Stills or one of the other youngsters (Hightower/Imatorbhebhe/Adams Jr) if they don't step up in training camp.

 

QB: Hurts, Flacco, URFA (3)

RB: Sanders, Herbert, Scott (3)

TE: Goedert, DickRod, Angeline (3)

WR: Stills, Reagor, Ward, Fulgham, Hightower, Imatorbhebhe, Adams Jr (7)

OT: Johnson, Dillard, Mailata, Driscoll (4)

OG: Brooks, Seumalo, Banks, Herbig (4)

OC: Kelce (1)

-----

DE: Graham, Barnett, Sweat, Ojulari, Ostman (5)

DT: Cox, Hargrave, Ridgeway, M Johnson, Kemp (5)

LB: Singleton, Edwards, Taylor, Thompson, Bradley (5)

S: Harris, McLeod, Epps, Wallace, undrafted rookie/veteran minimum player (5)

CB: Slay, Surtain II, Maddox, Taylor, Jacquett (5)

ST: Elliott, Lovato, some random punter (3)

 

[Cheesteakitis]

Don’t like this at all! A number of teams ahead of us have needs at cb so he will be gone before we pick.. if he happens to be there not a bad pick.

you follow that up with some bad decisions in my opinion.. using 2 high picks this year on a small de (though we do have somewhat of a need at the position) OG, and Rb as your next 3 selections while not adding a Wr, lb, safety (at all) till late day 3 is a major disappointment.

Sudfeld has been signed by the 49ers he isn’t coming back. 
 

TATE would be going crazy knowing you waited till found 6 to draft a wr and then mention him as one of the first players you could cut if another wr steps up. 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

I don't love it but I don't hate it either. 

I'd be concerned about the WR position after this draft but that's going to be the case of any position really. 

If we go WR in the first then DE and CB are going to be a worry coming out of the draft. If we go DE in the first then WR or CB may be a concern coming out of the draft. 

So many holes that we can't fill them all. My only comment would be, we need to give this offense more weapons. If we want to truly evaluate Hurts and Sirianni then they are going to need more to work with. 

[hoosierdaddy]

Thanks for the takes guys. Yeah, we have so many holes to fill, and I'm a firm believe that you build a good football team from the trenches first, so I was willing to put WR on the back burner a bit. Feels like once we get our lines on both sides of the ball set again, we could start to build our the WR core. 

But who knows what we'll do? Either way I'm excited to watch the draft unfold. I can't remember the last time we had this much draft capital to play with. Hope Howie doesn't F it up too bad.

[BuckroeEagle]

This is really a two year draft and we need to get both of them right.  We need at least 5 starters out of this year's picks and 5 more next year.  In a perfect world, this year I'd take players for positions that take a year or so to figure out while next year I'd go for more plug and play.  So, this year:  OC, TE, LB, Edge, and DB.  Next year: OG, WR, RB, and IDL.  Who do we pick in 2021?  IOL Dickerson/Humphrey, TE Tremble/Davidson, LB Moses/Davis/Cox, DE Rousseau/Oweh, and DB Newsome/Samuel/Adebo.  Filling out the remaining slots are players like WR Smith, QB Newman, DL Twyman/Stills, and RB Gainwell/Sermon.  Next year with 4 picks in the Top 50 we fill out the rest of the roster.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

15 hours ago, BuckroeEagle said:

We need at least 5 starters out of this year's picks and 5 more next year.

5 starters out of this year's draft? I mean sure that's what they need but they aren't going to get that. Not with Howie making the picks and even a top top GM would struggle I think. 

I think they need 2 really really good starters, a pro Bowler eventually would be nice. And then they need a couple of guys they can develop and then some young guys to give them depth and rotation. 

The way they are building up picks for next year that's going to be the big one I think. 

[BuckroeEagle]

If a team doesn't get between 4 to 6 starters out of every draft then they are falling behind the replacement rate.  The typical NFL team has between 37 to 40 "starters" on their roster.  How do I get that number?  Simple, look at who plays every week.  Let's break it down.  First, what is a "starter"?  Short answer; any player that plays approximately 50% of the plays every week or is ready, in case of an injury, to play 80% to 90% of the plays for weeks, or possibly longer.  We know that there are 11 players on both offense and defense, plus the 3 special teams players.  That's 25.  On offense, add in your 2nd TE, 4th IOL, swing OT, 3rd and 4th WR, backup QB, and 2nd RB.  On defense, add rotational DE and DT, 3rd LB, 3rd and 4th CB, and 3rd S.  That's 13 ... plus 25, thats 38.  Divide that by an optimistic 7 year NFL career and you're looking at 5 to 6 replacements a year, just for "starters".  Add in back of the roster players and you're looking at 7 to 9 per year.  Only get 2 really good starters per year and you're looking at last place.