Money

Hell I’d consider Anthony Miller RD2. He’s like an AB clone. Just gimme good players

Josh Jackson would be the number one player on my board here. But I think I’ll go Ronnie Harrison here. He’s not overly flashy but gives me more upside than Reid. Good blitzer and not too shabby in coverage. 6’3” 218 and if he’s anywhere near Adrian Wilson the Steelers did very well for themselves Love Jessie Bates the more I watch him. Harrison Smith without the hitting ability. Then I’d look at Tim Settle, Arden Key, Jessie Bates, or JC Jackson RD2

20 years old. RS SOPH. Three down player. He can play all over the defensive line as a 3-tech DT or as a nose. Scheme versatile for a 4-3 or a 3-4. This guy is gonna be a star and has upside so that's what I'm looking for in my 1st rd pick. I was trying to look at Taven Bryan and BJ Hill and I felt he's far more explosive and disruptive and is the best DL I've seen. The three comps I've seen is Vince Wilfork, Dontari Poe, and Brandon Williams. Pretty good company. The Steelers had the #13 rush defense last year and he'll improve that and impact the pass game more so than an ILB or safety.

The number one problem with the defense is pass rush. I'd like an EDGE and an interior DL presence to help sub-package situations. We had a lot of sacks but that was largely a byproduct of the coverage and Mike Hilton blitzes. There's some ridiculous stat "In the nine games he (@joehaden23) started, the Steelers gave up an average of 181.8 passing yards and eight touchdown passes. In the five games he missed, they gave up 251.6 passing yards and nine touchdown passes.. I guarantee sacks were down when Haden was out bc WRs were more open. What we need is to get to the QB without blitzing. And that will help the pass defense. We need to slay the dragon that is Brady and the best way to do that is get up in his face or collapse the pocket from the outside. The more we blitz, the faster the QB goes hot or checks it down. When you got Hilton blitzing it's harder to check it down bc he gets there so fast, but you can't do that every play because then it becomes predicatable. When the chips are down we need to get there without blitzing. The Jags game showed the lack of pass rush in sub-package situations. I'm gonna go with someone that no one has talked about throughout this entire draft process. Tim Settle. He gives us two things. He gives us a dynamic NT as Hargrave was not really good this year. That will help the rush defense. And he also will help pass defense as he has excellent movement skills for someone 6'3" 335. This will also improve the DL rotation and Hargrave can go back to what he does best - rushing the passer. I'm looking at a DL rotation of Heyward, Tuitt, Hargrave, Settle, and Alualu and suddenly I think we have one of the best DL rooms in the league. 1) Tim Settle DL VA TECH Settle will occupy blockers freeing up the ILB position and is the rare "NT" that will make plays in the backfield either in the form of TFL or sacks. They got him as Vince WIlfork over at NFL.com and I love the comp. 2) Arden Key EDGE LSU What I don't get caught up with this guy is the 40. What I'm more interested is his quickness in short spaces. He's long and lean at 6'6" 245. He gets around the tackle with a quick jump off the ball and is long and lean like an Aldon Smith and that will help in the nickel defense, which is run about 70% of the plays nowadays. He might fall this far due to off-the-field concerns but at this juncture he might be the best EDGE guy still on the board. I'd love Josh Sweat here but he might be off the board. Willing to take a risk on Key as he might end up being the Key to the defense. Probably looking at Heyward and Settle on the interior DL with Tuitt as the strongside DE in the nickel. Tuitt has some freakish tools and I'd like to see what he can do singled up. Key would play the RE rush role and with Key, Heyward, Settle, and Tuitt that will require more than 5 guys to block on every play. We have Hargrave and Alualu as well helping our DL rotation keeping guys fresh. Then I'd plug TJ Watt in as one of the ILB's in the nickel (with Burnett) because he offers pass coverage skills, athleticism, and a better rush option from that position as opposed to rushing off the EDGE. I don't think Watt can consistently beat the OT from that spot. There's too many stalemates. He needs to use his athleticism in spaces as he's got some good agility and him swooping around in stunts and coming up the middle will lead to more sacks. They'll collapse more pockets and that will lead to more turnovers. We had good sacks but not enough turnovers. Just outside the top 10. When you add Hilton blitzes it's game over. Night night. 3) JC Jackson CB MARYLAND This is a BPA pick for me. JC Jackson offers #1/#2 CB potential as a press-man cover CB that has good tackling ability. He has decent ball skills and the CB room is starting to get pretty crowded but that's what you want guys fighting for positions. No more Sensabaugh. Suddenly I feel we have a pretty good CB room with Haden, Burns, Jackson, Hilton, Sutton, and Allen. 5) Troy Fumagali TE WISCONSIN I really love Fumagali. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. He's a big target and has some of the best hands in the class. Giving Ben another target and he won't wow you with athleticism but he's giving me a Heath Miller type reliable pass catcher that will help move the chains. McDonald dropped some balls and I'm really thinking of the Bears game. He got better as the year went on but I think we now have three good TE's. Nothing flashy but that's not really the Steelers way with this position. Heathhhhhhhhhhh 5) Andre Smith LB UNC or Jack Cichy LB WISCONSIN This is where I feel the steals will be had for the ILB position. Smith has been all over the board. I've seen him anywhere from the 3rd-7th round. Jack Cichy will go anywhere from the 4th-7th round. Both are coming off injuries. These are your read and react type ILB's that just make plays. Smith offers a little more straight line speed but this position isn't really about straight line speed. It's more about reading the play and change of direction. I like Genard Avery as well but when I watch him he gets himself out of position by running up into the pile before reading the play and getting caught in the wash. That can be taught to just sit there and shuffle. Bottom line this is where I value the ILB need and when I look at the ILB's available at this juncture this is where I want to grab one. You can take ILB with the first 5th rd pick but I like Fumagali and I feel you might be able to still get one of these guys at this pick. The Steelers have brought in 1st rd guys and they've brought in 7th rd guys with this position. They'll take a guy 1st rd if he's the best guy on the board but they're more than happy to wait and get like a Vince Williams (6th rd) later in the draft. 7) Riley Ferguson QB MEMPHIS Really I'd like to grab Justin Jackson RB Northwestern with this pick I just don't feel he'll be there. Ferguson has great athletic ability for a man his size and has a strong arm. This is a wait and see developmental QB and in terms of arm talent would be 2nd behind Ben 7) Jordan Thomas CB OKLAHOMA One of my favorite prospects this draft. 5 INT's his Sophomore year. He is a tall rangy CB at 6' and has some outstanding tag skills. CB is NOT a straight line speed game. The Steelers do well at drafting WRs because they target straight line speed. You are running to get open. CB is more stop and start as you mirror the WR. The reason they do poorly drafting CBs is because they always go with the "Emmanuel Sanders" type prospect at CB and that just doesn't play. Look at Seattle. They target the 3 cone and short shuttle. I want you stopping and starting and popping the WR in the mouth off the jam. Thomas has the best 3 cone I've ever seen in my entire life. 6.5 3 cone is the elite of the elite. Jordan Thomas has a 6.28 3 cone. When you watch him the first thing you notice is the spring in his legs. He'll make it down this far because he hasn't done much the past two years and they cited "confidence" - probably thought he was hot **** and got lazy. Also had off-the-field issues. This is my Vontaze Burfict or Legarrette Blount UDFA that you grab and he ends up being a player that contributes on the team. Wasn't able to address the safety position this draft but that's why you still have Wilcox. He's an insurance policy. Not a very good one but still a NFL capable safety. They have Davis, Burnett, Wilcox, and Berhe as the safeties that will make the team. If you want to improve the safety position, you are saying I'm targeting a replacement for JJ Wilcox. It just didn't work out this time. I'd be interested in seeing what Artie Burns could do from the free safety position as he has range and ball skills. Brian Allen would be another guy I feel could fill this role. Switch Davis to strong safety and Burnett is still my ILB on 3rd down situations. Or in dime looks just Watt in the middle with Hilton and Davis and Burnett as safeties. Oren Burks is a guy I'd target as an UDFA as he is a former safety that played ILB that could fill the nickel role as an ILB in the nickel and then Burnett plays strong safety. A different way of looking at things from the draft a safety or ILB. Those are the positions we signed in UFA so I feel we can get away with them for the time being. What we need to do is get to the QB and cause pressure to force more turnovers.

What about this guy? He offers flexibility as a 3-4 NT or 4-3 DT. He's got great agility for a big man. They got Vince Wilfork as a comp over at NFL.com.

And Bud Dupree goes for the most value of all trades this offseason. Not sure you get a 2nd and 3rd for Bell. All I can really add here is check out Kate Beckinsale’s Instagram unless you’re old talent and don’t have any idea what I’m talking about. She’s kinky as hell

I just want to make sure you know that Philip Rivers is a top 20 QB. He's nothing special. When I say Josh Allen is Rivers with a Stafford arm I'm saying he has the potential to be a top 15 QB but he could easily flame out. And when he flames out he'll be a Ryan Tannehill. Albeit, a bust. When Baker flames out, he'll be out of the league. Like Johnny Manziel. His chances of success are small and his chances of failing are high. See the Senior Bowl. Playing against all NFL caliber players. It's a little different playing Big XII where only one guy on the team goes NFL and playing in the Senior Bowl where these are all NFL or borderline NFL players. Darnold. My boy Sam. Listening to Browns fans talk QBs is funny. Do you even know what a good QB looks like? Because I'm quite certain you don't have a damn clue. So, we give Sam the pass. All this guy did was play a few good games as a RS Freshman and that started the meteoric rise. All because he's a Freshman. This is the consensus #1 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. And that was last June. He plays this year and it's the OL fault. It's the OL fault he holds the ball too long. You can audible, son. You can hot route. You can change the play. It's never Sam's fault. It's blame the OL. It's blame the Offensive Coordinator Tee Martin and the Head Coach. Why isn't it Sam's fault? The man has poor pocket presence. You'll never confuse this guy with Tom Brady. Shuffle, shuffle, with the eyes downfield and find your man. That's not him at all. And then we got the INT's. I watch some of these DB highlights and I keep seeing Sam Darnold INT's on their highlight films. You guys are just so pro-Darnold it's sick. Why? Because someone else told you he was good? This potential talk is dog ****. He is what he is. An average arm QB with poor pocket presence that gets by because he is a USC QB. Like I said earlier, if he went to Wyoming and Josh Allen went to USC would Josh Allen be the consensus #1 pick and Sam Darnold now a 3rd rd sleeper pick. I think so. Sam Darnold will never be anything more than another #14. Andy Dalton. They talk about this guy being a good athlete. He's the same athlete as Dalton. He's the same passer as Dalton. He's the same player as Dalton. The only thing that separates them is their University. Dalton went to TCU and went 2nd round and Darnold will go top 5 because he went to USC. Bottom line you're looking at Andy Dalton here. Sam Darnold is just another Matt Leinart or Mark Sanchez. Another USC disappointment.

You calling LaMar Jackson Teddy Bridgewater? I got LaMar as Randall Cunningham.

These are my views of the QBs Darnold - low ceiling, high floor. See Andy Dalton Josh Rosen - top 15 starter. Safe. See Matt Ryan Baker Mayfield - lowest floor. See Jeff Garcia Josh Allen - boom or bust. I like him - maybe the best QB. But still so much risk. See Philip Rivers with Matt Stafford arm strength LaMar Jackson - developmental QB. See Randall Cunningham Mason Rudolph - boom or bust When I look at the Browns QB situation, you're gonna hate this but in terms of stats Tyrod Taylor is top 10 in QBR over the past three seasons. In the Bills offense. With Barkley now he's got a running game and weapons and a line and he'll do quite well. The GM even said he loved Tyrod back in college. This is his guy. He'll add another guy without a doubt but it doesn't necessarily have to be the top pick or 4th pick. Because check this - he said he would do what is best for the Browns franchise. SaQuon Barkley is the best for the Browns franchise and every other franchise in the league. Then I look at Drew Stanton and think OK the Browns brought in a #2 QB and completely cleaned house. A NFL capable backup. They are reducing the likelihood of a rookie QB playing to nearly zero percent. So, cool your jets over there. They are looking for a developmental QB. Someone they can develop. There's no one better than LaMar Jackson. You're thinking we need a pocket passer as you pound the table for QB. No - you don't. There's more than one way to play this game. LaMar Jackson and SaQuon Barkley is how you turn around the Browns.

Where have you been? Did you not see 20+ turnovers last season? Just bc the media hypes up a player doesn't mean he's good. C'mon man. You're better than that

The first thing is I love Le'Veon Bell and money is just an evil thing. What's the answer to 99/100 questions? Money. Since I am money, I thought I'd present a new idea of thinking of how to somehow get this Le'Veon Bell deal over the line. If the Steelers want to sign Le'Veon Bell, they'll have to think outside the box of their normal contract negotiations. Of course they might be hesitant to that idea, as it might open Pandora's box with negotiations. Bottom line - you either sign him or trade him. It's that simple. This not coming to offseason camp hurts the team - citing the start of last year. IMO if you take Guice outright that's a luxury pick, and we can't afford that on the luxury pick-need-BPA scale in the dwindling time of the Ben era. If you trade Bell for a 2nd and take Guice in the 1st, and he might not even be there, that's like trading down with no return. Steelers Depot posted earlier today about how a former NFL agent suggested that if the Steelers "transition-tagged" Bell in 2019 it would only be $17.5M. I posted earlier about how the $12m last year, $14.5M this year, and $17.5M next year is roughly the $42m guaranteed they offered him last June. Thank you former NFL agent to catching up to the thought process of the Steelers contract negotiations. My thinking is the salary cap is high enough where you can FULLY GUARANTEE a deal with Le'Veon Bell. If he's a washed up prune in a few years he can still help catching passes out of the backfield. He's young enough, 26 is 26, where I don't even have a problem with this thinking. The problem with this negotiation is you got this hard-nosed Steelers brass that's not trying to low ball him, but give him a fair value deal in comparison to other NFL RB's, and their opportunity cost of just taking the next best RB. You got Le'Veon Bell camp saying I want 5 years, $85m as this is my best shot at this getting paid life. I'm thinking a middle ground is something like a Le'Veon Bell deal mixed in with a Steelers deal with a twist. Money offers Le'Veon Bell 5 years, $68.5m FULLY GUARANTEED with incentives that bring the total package up to 5 years, $85m They break this up into NLTBE incentives and LTBE incentives. You can categorize them however you want, but they have different salary cap implications. NLTBE incentives don't count towards the cap figure in the initial calculation before the season and LTBE incentives do. If he hits the NLTBE at the end of the season, then you need to have some cap room available to account for him hitting his incentive. My thinking would be LTBE incentives that are not reached would mean you get that money back and can roll it over into next year. This is what I'd be looking at in terms of incentives on a Le'Veon Bell deal. The way I'm doing this is he can earn up to $3.3m a year in incentives and they are available every year of his five year deal. If you want your $85m - you're gonna have to earn it. Prove to me you're worth it. NLTBE Super Bowl - $500k each year 2,000 Scrimmage yards - $500,000 per year 1st team All-Pro - $250,000 per year 1,000 rushing and 1,000 receiving - $500,000 per year Lead league in rushing - $500,000 per year Lead RBs in scrimmage yards & total TDs - $200,000 per year LTBE 1,000 rushing yards - $100,000 per year Steelers win division - $250,000 per year 10 total TDs - $500,000 per year

Any ILB. Evans should be gone barring any fluke **** and Vander Esch reminds of of Thadland from Blue Mountain State. Jefferson I’d be okay with but I feel I can get value at ILB later on so this is more “need” than BPA. I’ll be rooting so hard for these guys to come off the board like Jarvis Jones and Karl Joseph from years past. The damn Lions - had Ansah not fallen we wouldn’t have gotten Jarvi’ Mason Rudolph. Safety. These picks gotta be HRs. Justin Reid just doesn’t scream 1st rd HR to me. Now Ronnie Harrison would be funny. They have so many meh 1st rd picks lately and that’d be another one. Sony Michel. Nick Chubb. Ronald Jones. Mostly because of value and if you lose Bell this is still a 2019 need for me - same as WR Vita Vea - I could see him falling once he gets past the Redskins Hayden Hurst. Could see TE _____________________________________ Who I’d like 1) EDGE - Harold Landry, Marcus Davenport, Josh Sweat, Arden Key Another pass rushing threat is Key for this defense. Hell I could play Burnett and Watt in my nickel as my ILB. Watt can’t get the edge. These guys all can get the edge. Watt is a 4-3 OLB. Better in space and rushing further away which doesn’t require as much explosion/strength. 2) Pipedreams - Roquan Smith, Tremaine Edmunds, or Derwin James. Top 10 picks but you never know 3) Da’Ron Payne or Taven Bryan. DL isn’t a need unless you switch to a 4-3, which is a way to eliminate taking ILB altogether. We need more pressure on the QB without blitzing. And I’d love to see Tuitt as a DE with two dominant DT’s 4) Dallas Goedert. Your Gronk/Kelce type. Nice piece for Ben and really the final piece for the offense 5) Some kind of Jackson. LaMar Jackson. I wouldn’t be pissed. He can help with sub package in short-term and I’d love to see him run read-option, RPO, easy screens, in like a West Coast/Spread type offense. I think he can be a dynamic playmaker Josh Jackson is a perfect fit here. Well, he’s a perfect fit anywhere. He’s got a Marcus Peters type effect on the defense and is great at reading the QB and then doing something about and getting the INT 6) Derrius Guice. If we trade Bell, I’d love this guy. At this point, I’d take a 2nd for Bell. It’s a luxury pick if you don’t take Bell. We’re not in a position to take luxury picks with Ben so close to the finish line 7) Jaire Alexander. Nice blend of coverage and hitting. Think JC Jackson gives me something similar but he’d play more than an ILB. It’s very possible all of the 14 guys I want are gone when we pick (Sweat and Key most likely not picked) and all the guys I don’t want are available. Might need some help on this one. They don’t do very well when it’s not a no brainer. You get Mendenhall, Hood, Jones, Dupree, Burns

So you guys are set on QB? Why? What QB screams safe, All-Pro, with the 1st pick? Not a bust - lead you to Super Bowls for years to come. Who is to say who you think is the top QB is exactly the same as what the Jets think is the top QB? Bc I'm sure it's different. You think the 20 turnover machine Sam Darnold is the pick? Rosen is better than Darnold. And I only think Rosen is a Matt Ryan. Solid top 15 QB. There's no one here that screams John Elway or Peyton Manning classic pocket passer. Rosen is the closest to that and he has a low ceiling. Since that's the case, I'd prefer to build a team differently. With a QB that is mobile and gives me a great running game with Barkley. Surround him with two TE's, an OL, and the WR's I got in Landry and Gordon and I have a top 5 offense for years to come. Sam Darnold will be just like Sanchez and Leinart in the NFL. If he went to Wyoming, he'd be a 3rd rd pick

My thinking is the Browns and Jets are the only teams taking QB in the top four picks. I don't know who the Browns top QB is and if it's Allen you can still get him at #4. If I want to guarantee RB and QB, I have to take Barkley first. Since I got the 1st and 4th picks, I can control who these other teams will take. If I take Barkley, it will then go Chubb and QB - most likely Sam Darnold to the Jets. QB at 4th pick or trade down and to me it's better to take the picks. Because I'm not really in love with any of these QBs at the top of the draft. If there was a slam dunk QB then I'd take him. I'm sure there are 6 QBs all ranked #1 on team's boards. If I take QB, then it will go Barkley, and then QB, and I get Chubb. Ideally, I'd like Barkley and Chubb, but the Giants will take either Barkley or Chubb so they're not gonna let me get both. I don't think I'm getting blindsided by another team trading up for a QB with NYG because teams can wait because of the number of QBs who are all the same with no slam dunks and the price would be too high. Maybe someone would come up for Darnold if he's available 2nd overall but the Giants still might turn down a kings ransom to take Barkley. If the Jets are the only team taking QB in the top 3, the trade value for the 4th pick increases, because now the price is lower, and teams will want "their guy". To me the best realistic scenario, is get Barkley with the 1st pick and then flip the 4th pick. As for my selections, Roquan Smith transforms my defense. I'd consider Landry there, but I felt that Roquan Smith gives me someone at the 2nd level of the defense and suddenly the Browns have a solid LB core with Smith, Kirksey, and Schobert. Two Pro Bowlers there and Kirksey is a really good player. Top 5 LB core. Jamie Collins saves $9m if you cut him next year. The tackle position sucks this year so teams will overdraft this position. Kolton Miller is the only guy that has a 1st rd grade and teams like NE or teams picking late 1st rd will take him before he gets to the Browns 2nd rd picks. OT is a big need for the Browns with Joe Thomas retiring. Then I'm looking at Brian O'Neill, Orlando Brown, or Conor Williams and there's no guarantee Brown or WIlliams will be there and they're all pretty uninspiring. As for Goedert, he's basically a WR. Your classic "Y" position and to go with Njoku gives me what the Patriots had with Gronk and Hernandez. I'm just looking at him as an offensive weapon and we'll find ways to get him the ball. LaMar Jackson fits what I would want to do if I take Barkley and complements the rest of the offense. Read-option and RPO until the cows come home. Jarvis Landry screens and Josh Gordon deep balls. Njoku and Goedert for the underneath stuff.