Dr LBC

Don't know where you got that, but it's not true. Their Director of College Scouting has been with the team since 2012, and when a new GM comes in they don't just clean house of the entire scouting department. This reads much more as wishful thinking than fact-based. And not to rain on anyone's parade, but you should really have a look at contract numbers before getting your hopes up on potential trades. The Chargers are trying to get out of cap purgatory. Mack just restructured his contract to make him effectively untradeable (they would incur almost $10m in dead money cap penalty trading him). Trading Bosa would only free up $6m after dead money - sure, they could do it feasibly, but it doesn't make a helluvalot of sense.

That was my first thought, but at the same time I've literally never heard of this guy... and that's typically not a good sign. That said, at this money and contract term (with the cap-increase $6.5m/annum is the new $4m/annum), this move doesn't preclude us still investing in a more long-term solution at safety in the draft while having Curl as the 3rd safety that comes on to cover TE's - which God knows we needed help with last season.

Well, just to get facts straight, Alt has played RT so it's not like there would be much "transitioning" involved. Does he give you the flexibility to move back to LT if Slater suffers another injury or in the future if his contract demands exceed what the team is willing to tie themselves to? Absolutely. Also, the tweet makes reference but ignores context - i.e. the fact that the Niners had like 2 picks that were inside the Top 15 in Harbaugh's time there (to my memory both were spent on DL - Aldon Smith, as well as the fact that they had Joe Staley and Anthony Davis under contract for near the entirety of Harbaugh's tenure there, so they would have had little reason to spend a 1RP on OT. Granted, I feel like they've painted themselves into a corner with the KA trade at this point, unless they go Full-Greg-Roman, but if they're dead set on going WR two years in a row,they're probably better set trading back slightly and moving for Odunze over Nabors - mostly because Nabors is a bit wasted in Harbaugh's preferred offensive approach (even with Herbert) whereas Odunze + an additional pick (and potentially more if a team is trying to trade in front of the Giants for a QB) likely brings more on the immediate front to the team - I don't know that I agree with Zierlein's Larry Fitzgerald comp but Odunze is bare minimum a rich man's Michael Pittman and, honestly, probably some of the best parts of both KA and Mike Williams mixed into one.

Pretty sure that was Dwayne Eskeridge, who the Seahawks legit traded one spot in front of us to draft because Snead had telegraphed his moony-eyes far too clearly.

The one thing she has going for her is that she's really good at adjusting on the fly and working with what a situation is giving her (bit ironic because Bianca, who has effectively usurped the essence and put a different spin on the Boss character, that's IMO one of her areas needing work). Thing was, this was a strength that was effectively moot when Vince was the one calling the shots and dictating the show because for all his "grab the brass ring" talk, if someone would call and audible and put their nuts on the table with something they really felt strongly would work and it didn't take - Vince would take it as an affront and bury the talent just for going against his plan. If/when (she's said she does plan to eventually go back) she does matriculate back to the Fed, we'll probably see more of Sasha Classic, the NXT Sasha where she was able to read and react more often and you get the moments like her ripping up Izzy's (Bailey's superfan) sign in front of her and then throwing the pieces on Bailey's body. But I do feel like as Bianca's star gained luster it made losing Sasha an easier pill to swallow - as, for all the talk of Mercedes being a worker second only to Charlotte, there's a strong case that Bianca is a stronger worker or has grown to be. I don't know that we're going to see it terribly soon given the lean-in that WWE is putting on Tez and Bianca with their reality show, but the true test for longevity will be if Bianca can pull off a turn and execute a long heel run that isn't parody or a walking/dancing satire.

This is true. However, the guys that get celebrated for their run-blocking are not often the guys being prioritized to go in the top half of R1. Among the best run-blocking WR's (Kupp, Samuel, Miles Boykin, Lazard) are guys who were had in the middle rounds of the draft. The outliers of guys that did go in R1 that were among the best run-blocking WR's in the league (Julio, Watkins, and - I believe, but I haven't checked the stattech for 2023 - Lamb) didn't come into the league being heralded for their run-blocking prowess but rather developed it via coaching-up and the requirements of the systems they were pressed into.

Based on what logic exactly? BPA is debatable, but BPA is more subjective than people want to let on; in truest context it's "Best-According-to-Staff's-Prioritized-Value Pick Available". Hortiz comes from the Baltimore tree, where yes, their BPA was pure value available regardless of position of need or position premium, but that was also in the context that Baltimore hasn't picked in the Top 10 since 2016 when they took Ronnie Stanley. The thing about waiting for the center in Rd 2 is that you're committing to being OK with coming away with only the 3rd-best center in the class - which, given the relative strength of the upper-depth of this IOL class if you include guard-conversions like Beebe, Guyton, and Haynes - might not be an issue, but this is a center class that I'd liken to that of 2010 while people want to present it as 2009; or in other words, there is one (the RImmington Award winner) clear-and-away top of the class guy. You'd need Beebe or Frazier in addition to Guyton to be likely to sneak into the 1st round to be on the level with 2009 (and even then Alex Mack was the fairly-beyond-question superior prospect to Eric Wood and Max Unger in 2009).

I wouldn't be so sure. Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh are going to prioritize running the ball. You guys also don't have a starting center currently (only a 2nd-year converted-RG from Minnesota-Duluth without a meaningful regular season snap). I'm not suggesting they're going to draft a C at #5, but center is very likely, at least on the path they're on right now, a by-end-of-Day-2 need as it stands right now. You still need investment on the IDL - especially if you're going to run Minter's Amoeba scheme. Investing an early pick in a WR is frankly a luxury Telesco didn't leave you guys with.

Adding a bit more ammo to hit case, in that scenario it does have to be considered that the other two teams the Vikings would be bidding against would be direct divisional rivals of the Chargers - where, at minimum, they're going to be made to pay a heftier premium (and Denver's still pretty strapped for draft capital this year, aren't they?) - and Minnesota's going to know this. Now there's the Super Villain scenario, where Harbaugh undoubtedly did a hefty amount of tape study on Penix going into the NC game, and if he came away from that tape study the same way that Mark Schlereth did, he might be more inclined to let a division rival hitch their wagon and presumed immediate future to Penix (he is, after all, a former QB and QB coach himself). But that's so low probability it's hardly worth discussing. That said, and I realize this is fantasy (but...), I think the multiple trade-backs pushes the envelop a bit much for the Chargers if they're looking at the big picture. If they're able to trade back and still get Alt (and given the strength of Alt and Fuaga's run-blocking over Fashanu's it's pretty clear who Harbaugh and Greg Roman are going to favor) along with a future 1st, you take that and run away with it. You have to look at the bigger picture of what Alt (making the relatively safe assumption he doesn't bust) gives them:. The opportunity to get out from under the moronic extension Tom Telesco gave Trey Pipkins, despite Pipkins being JAG but was "one of TT's guys." Pipkins will only have a year left on his deal in 2025 (his age 29 season), but in 2025 all the guarantees will have already been met, and he's only a $2.5m deap cap to cut and frees up more than $4m more. Looking ahead to 2025, Rashawn Slater will be on his 5th year option, so at minimum approaching extension time and also his cap-hit would jump pretty significantly. This gives them insurance against losing him. Allows them to pop Alt in his rookie year at ROT (where he does have experience), and have some potential flexibility in negotiations with Slater (who isn't without his injury issues in the past). If the Chargers do end up trading back out of the Top 10, while I do get the allure of the "best EDGE in the draft;" it's not exactly the strongest EDGE class so that's a bitter tempered a statement. And they're not likely to cut/trade both of Bosa and Mack, so they'll still have Tuipulotu who effectively started for Bosa a decent chunk of last season. Meanwhile they've got a whopping 1 center on the roster presently (and the longer free agency goes on without them signing a center, the more inclined I am to believe they'll be drafting one early): A 2nd-year converted RG from DII Minnesota-Duluth named Brett Laing. If the Chargers trade back into the Top 15 (or further), I would say the more and more likely they would be to target Powers-Jackson who fills a whole-lotta need. Also, I'd argue the Rams biggest need isn't CB, it's getting another EDGE to help keep teams from consistently tripling Aaron Donald. I don't love this EDGE class, but unless Snead's got a guy he expects to fall into Day 2 or 3 that he's really in love with, they may not have a choice but to invest early on in this class.

Thing is, does the "their 3rd or 4th string TE" argument hold much weight when most Seahawks fans would have struggled to tell you the last couple seasons who their 1st string TE was, aside from who was listed as the starter on a given week. They resigned Fant, which probably tells us something, but there have been numerous TE2's that showed to be standout TE1's that just happened to be behind either an entrenched TE1 (Goedert and Ertz before him on the Eagles, for example). A fully fit Kupp is going to garner more targets and he and Puka tend to run a lot of the same routes and route concepts that move-TE's run in offenses that don't run as much 11-personnel as we do, so you need a TE that can do multi-faceted blocking (rubs, chip-and-go, initial block-disengage-and-delay-route) and not just from in-line. I think the thing that's stood out the most for me about Parkinson about his blocking is his ability to quickly disengage and get clear (he's really good at using his length to achieve that), and that's a key component to one of the major routes Higbee had a lot of success for us on which was the delayed wheel route (ironically, the route he was running the play he got injured on).

Ultimately, I'm not saying there's a tremendous amount of fault on Ospreay, but he needs to at least be aware of what's going on and, if he thinks of himself as a locker room leader, ought to be - even if it comes across egotistical (which I, strangely, don't think he has an issue with) - making a point to other guys on the roster, "If you can't do what I do (as well and as, generally, safe as I do), then don't do it," for both reasons of safety of other guys in the locker room and because it waters down the specialness of the stuff he does. It's about protecting your stuff and what makes you special as a talent; same as in the territory days when a particular move was one guy on the upper card or main event's finish, no one on the card below that match dared do the same move. Even in, for example, ECW, because Sandman used a kendo stick/Singapore cane, nobody else on the roster would use the weapon unless they were in a match against or with Sandman. They were very fortunate that Sting was willing the work the gimmicks that they pitched to him to work (the sheets of glass, the dives off the entranceways) because he has more than enough clout to tell whichever guy was pitching that to him to get stuffed because it didn't add anything to the match. I could be mistaken, and I'm open to being proven wrong, but I believe there's a reason certain veterans aren't willing to work these kind of matches outside of with other vets that they've worked with before (and have a level of trust and understanding), particularly in AEW. For example, Copeland has only worked what would be consider extreme/weapons matches with Sting and Darby also involved, Dustin also involved (and Lance Archer was involved in several of those - and Archer, despite the character, is a pretty extraordinarily safe worker for his opponent, sometimes to his own detriment as I've seen him sacrifice his own body to protect his opponent when a spot veered off plan), or Christian (his best friend). It's all about an individual's comfort level, but that's where, again setting the character's reputation aside, some of these guys are perfectly comfortable working with Suzuki because he's going to lay stuff in stiff, but he doesn't wrestle of perform a style that's much worse than working a guy like Gunther where, yeah, you're going to come out with welts and bruises but your neck, head, and back aren't going to really ever be in any danger that goes beyond taking a flat-back bump. And with regard to Suzuki, much like his mentor Fujiwara - who was trained by Karl Gotch - he throws some of the best working strikes, in that they look brutal but if he wants to he's able to pull them without making them look anymore pulled than if he were just laying them in normal.

Actually, the crux of the blame lies on the promoter and the producers of the match for letting those guys get away on with unsafe work. You're also making inappropriate generalization to support your argument. The majority of injuries that keep wrestlers out for longer periods of time (ligament and soft tissue injuries) come on routine stuff. The injuries that have had permanent or life-threatening consequences have often been avoidable even if they came on a "routine" move. When Owen broke Austin's neck it was because Owen botched the Tombstone and rushed the execution of the move (there's a reason why Taker always paused before execution the piledriver, it was to allow for the opponent to confirm that they had enough clearance - and had their own arms wrapped around Taker's upper legs - so that the impact would go wholly on Taker's knees). Darius Martin's leg break at Super Card of Honor was a mutual botch (because the Canadian/Mexican Destroyer is a move as much powered by the recipient as the "giver") by him and Penta on a patently stupid spot (that producers and the promoter should have flatly told them, "No!" on) because it is virtually impossible for the taker to judge the amount of push-off to ensure clearing the distances necessary to get over the ropes and to a stack of tables set up outside from the top of a ladder set up in the ring. The only truly life-altering injury that I'm aware of happening from a standard move that wasn't the result of a botch from, at minimum, laziness was D'Lo on Droz. I don't think Goldberg intentionally booted Bret so hard he had a stroke, but I do think Bill was careless and more concerned with getting his own stuff in looking stiff over what Bret was expecting (i.e. "snug vs stiff"). Do botches occur semi-regularly? Yes. Do they occur more often in Tony's promotions than many, manyy're others? Also, yes. Is Will at fault for that? He's not the most responsible, but he does bear a degree of responsibility, albeit lower down the list than the wrestlers in the ring, the producers (for however how much they're actually listened to), Tony and management, leaders in the locker room, and (and I'm sure this will be an unpopular opinion) the fans for - let's call a spade a spade - really only caring about the health of the performers in terms of not wanting to see them die (because I don't think there are a huge amount of psychopaths out there) and not wanting to be inconvenienced by having a feud or storyline upended by a long-term injury. It's naive to think that if guys and girls seeing this stuff being performed on the programs that are getting national TV coverage and they're on the indies, they're going to see that as the standard of what needs to be met and benchmarked if they want to even touch that strata, especially when the major internet wrestling journalists rave about the matches that have 2-3 such spots in them on the regular. But hey, don't take my word for it - there are plenty of vets of both wrestling, promoting, and training that have all said the same thing.

You know this how? Whether you mean "protecton" (and no, a lot of the guys that aren't Ospreay are now protecting their opponents - ROH has actually gotten a lot worse at this of late) or "projection" - and I'm not projecting, I'm detailing very much what I've been seeing - the guys trained in Japanese dojos and working strong style are very much trained - mercilessly so - in protecting both themselves and their opponents. But Will isn't guiltless either. That super brainbuster that he - whether intending or not (he failed regardless) to hit the turnbuckle a la Sami/Generico's Brainbustah! - didn't protect either of them and they both took head and neck bumps that narrowly avoided major spinal damage... and then barely sold the damn move. The later part is the more dangerous second edge of the sword because guys are doing more and more of these moves for little more than "holy ****" pops and then go on to do another 15-20 minutes of match. It pushes beyond the realms of suspending disbelief.

Good thing he's got those trademarks. Which is a shame, because I actually really liked one of those trademarks.

He's also something that, frankly, with Higbee down we were seriously lacking which is a height/hops presence - and in Stafford's past that's something he's very accustom to using in the red zone. Parkinson is a legit 6'7", not a rounded-up height. I was more wary about the Parkinson signing because of the money involved than about the caliber of the player (especially considering the TE market and that this current draft class isn't horribly deep with guys ready to step in and be at minimum a 1b, because the guys coming out of the usual TE factories are underwhelming this batch). Since I really can't be confident in the medicals of Irv Smith at this point, given what was available on the market, I'm a shade more comfortable with Parkinson for a bit more time and money than Marcedes Lewis (who, legitimately would have been my next-best-case-scenario) on a 1-year deal and punting a larger TE hole down the road to a future year.

Not wholly, but I feel like this takes the pressure off to commit or overreach this year. I'd say it may well put them out of feeling they have to reach hard in the rookie market for the next two years. Not that I think Minshew is more than a journeyman who can still win you some games as a backup, but I also don't have a ton of faith in next year's QB crop either (as it stands right now), so this is probably insurance both for this season and for. It's also not totally ruling O'Connell out, but giving him someone he'd actually have to beat out in camp to earn another crack at proving he's not the guy.

One thing to consider is that, particularly given Higbee's injury, that 2nd year of the extension he got is very, very likely not gonna happen. His roster bonus this season is guaranteed, but he's not going to get a vast majority of his per-game-active bonus monies in 2024. His 2025 roster bonus isn't guaranteed. But it's not just that he won't be ready for the start of the season; he tore both the ACL and MCL; that's a 6 month to 1 year recovery time and even then, guys don't return to their prior level of performance until closer to the 18-month timeframe - particularly guys in this sport on the wrong side of 30. We were always going to be sinking some kind of tangible investment into the TE position this offseason - either FA spending or a draft pick. And Parkinson is very much in the same mold as Higbee was when he was younger - big-slot, former WR who improved on solid initial run-blocking fundamentals as a pro.

As long as it reflects in his playcalling, too. There were too many occasions last season where the running game was cooking and drove us efficiently into the red zone only for McVay to turn aroudn and call nothing but pass plays and we'd end up having to settle for (hopeful) field goals because of our inconsistencies at kicker. I'm willing to give Sean the benefit of the doubt for maybe not trusting the interior as much, given Shelton, but he's not going to have that excuse anymore.

Especially since, as talented as Ospreay is, he's setting a standard that too many in the industry who are not as gifted and talented as he is (and Will's had some issues protecting guys of late that are pretty noticeable) are trying to replicate and they're legit injuring opponents because they're more concerned with "getting their ish in" or getting hype that's going to be forgotten in a month or two. This style of match is going to, in the most fortunate outcome, put someone in a wheelchair for the rest of their life if not worse at the rate things are going. And, this may be an unpopular opinion, but some of the responsibility for that is going to lay on the fans who continue to mark out for guys continuing to push the envelop more and more with less and less care for the safety of the person they're working with (or themselves).

I'm a little wary on the Parkinson signing, mostly due to the money, but I have to remember that Allen and Long are still on rookie contracts - and I'll be kind of shocked if Long makes it out of camp. I think this is kind of Les reading the room and shoring up a lot of our secondary (as in priority, not the positions) needs to give himself the most flexibility with the first premium pick he's had since we drafted Goff. Allows him to see if an LT they really like (I'm aware we've talked to Fuaga) falls within striking distance of our natural 1st, to trade back and still address needs in the secondary (or even at tackle, since this is a deep class) or EDGE, while picking up additional Day 2/3 ammo for his usual move-arounds or potentially even a future 1st (I highly doubt it, but you have enough teams strapped for Day 1 picks this year, that there might be someone desperate enough to mortgage that future for a falling QB or guy they feel like is the "final piece") in a better EDGE class (I would say QB, but I'm suspect of next year's QB crop as it stands right now - unless things change). But effectively, if/when AD goes, this entire defense is going to need to be largely rebooted in approach and we are either going to need extremely versatile players capable of high scheme-diversity or the tools/assets to build that new AD-less defense.

In fairness, the Atlanta OL is better than any OL Kirk played behind in his entire tenure in Minnesota (save, maybe his first year there). If the Achilles heals (and he had a tear, not a complete rupture) without sapping him of explosiveness in his drive-leg (I'll be honest I don't know whether the injury was in his drive leg or his plant leg, but muscles compensating for opposing muscles is common), it's not a sure-fire matter that he's going to suffer long-term performance negatives from the injury in the same way a skill-position player would.

Very likely center. It's where the majority of his snaps his sophomore and junior years at TCU were logged, so he's not without experience there.

I'll throw a line out there and say Bubba Ray and D'Von. Dreamer's another possibility, since he's still on good terms with the Fed, and despite still techinically being a TNA employee, there was enough of a working relationship to be able to use Jordyn Grace in the Rumble, so getting Dreamer for a HOF induction shouldn't be hard. The other, perhaps, clearer option might be the "Original Paul Heyman Guy" in Punk.

I agree. And it's why I don't have Rakestraw ranked as highly (I have him in a similar vein - not necessarily H/W/S - but in terms of "type") as Xavian Howard when he came out of Baylor. As in having certain deficiencies that could be ironed out, but weren't guarantees to be ironed out. Those guys, IMO, you don't burn 1st round picks on because you can find guys with perhaps a little less in the top-end tools department, but not in such a way that scheme can't makeweight, on the second and third day of the draft. It's a cost/benefit analysis and I'd rather burn the premium pick on either a bigger or more efficient bite of the apple, so to speak. I don't view Rakestraw as having lockdown potential, and those are the guys I swing at with 1st round picks.

The only OT that may be available at that point (and I always tend to expect more than one OT run in the 1st round, so picking where we are isn't reassuing) is Fuaga - and I don't think he makes it to us. So my expectation is EDGE or CB (and I wouldn't put a trade back past Les either). I do believe if he's available to us that Les would roll the dice on LL's health risks. Chop's also a strong possibility where I'm concerned because I think that while he does need some technical refinement, his raw athleticism, first step, and swim move coupled with the (minimum) doubles that AD will draw buy him time to learn and develop on the job while still being productive as a rookie. And then there's CB - which my gut feeling is we either go after in the 1st or wait until Day 3 as we have recently - and I more-than-halfway expect Les to have a totally different preference among the prospects than I do. For example, while I'd take Wiggins if-available in a heartbeat, I could actually see Les taking Rakestraw with Wiggins still on the board, or even Renardo Green if Shula opts for less off-coverage and more press-man than Morris did.