2022 College Prospect Thread

[big_palooka]

43 minutes ago, Cutler06 said:

Your stupidity is you prove my point, you're just over here to troll. I'll still take Shedeur as a top 10 QB, I don't see him waiting on his own injury before entering the draft

He's QB 6-8 in this class and they know that. He'll stay to develop a year as he should. Potential is there, but his hype is not as good as his game yet.

[jsthomp2007]

Caleb looks good.  I hope he is enjoying Boulder.  I did see him rocking a Greatful Dead shirt, he is already fitting into the Colorado culture.  Perhaps someone might find him at Sanchos Broker Arrow this evening?

[Cutler06]

Paton watching Caleb Williams, is the tank on ?

 

 

Edited September 30, 2023 by Cutler06

[broncosfan07]

Got to watch Williams in person today and all I can say is got to find a way to grab him. Did make a couple bad throws but he is the closest prospect to Mahomes. 

[broncos67]

Since I assume Caleb is a lost cause, I'll suggest the following guys should be firmly on our radar (I'm assuming a T10 pick)

QB - Drake Maye

OT - Joe Alt, Fashanu

TE - Brock Bowers

CB - Kool-Aid

Of these guys, honestly wouldn't mind a guy like Bowers or one of the OTs, but it's possible they roll with Bolles and McGlinchey.

Bowers would be ridiculous. He's gonna be insanely good. Kool-Aid makes sense given the CB gap we have, but I wouldn't be shocked if we went the FA route to address that spot.

[AKRNA]

1 hour ago, broncos67 said:

Since I assume Caleb is a lost cause, I'll suggest the following guys should be firmly on our radar (I'm assuming a T10 pick)

QB - Drake Maye

OT - Joe Alt, Fashanu

TE - Brock Bowers

CB - Kool-Aid

Of these guys, honestly wouldn't mind a guy like Bowers or one of the OTs, but it's possible they roll with Bolles and McGlinchey.

Bowers would be ridiculous. He's gonna be insanely good. Kool-Aid makes sense given the CB gap we have, but I wouldn't be shocked if we went the FA route to address that spot.

Personally I think we should trade down, grab another pick or two and then draft the best IDL and IOL guys we can get.

After years of @lomaxgrUK pointing out our IDL deficiencies could we please, pretty please, address them and our OL to boot?

[grizmo78]

20 minutes ago, AKRNA said:

Personally I think we should trade down, grab another pick or two and then draft the best IDL and IOL guys we can get.

After years of @lomaxgrUK pointing out our IDL deficiencies could we please, pretty please, address them and our OL to boot?

I'm always on board with trading down when rebuilding. We need talent all across our roster, why not sacrifice this team to set up tomorrows team for success rather than wait till we're competitive and sacrafice resources in that team's future. Idk if that makes sense in text...

I'd also focus on offense and specifically our line like you're saying. That position tends to take longer to gel, is relatively less expensive to retain, and have longer careers. In regards to defense specifically, the amount of athleticism needed to be successful is a lot higher so ability to keep a group together for long periods of time is harder. I'd rather we build the offense then when competitive, focus on the defense. 

As of now, i'd trade down and aim for Fashanu or Alt. 

[broncos67]

22 minutes ago, AKRNA said:

Personally I think we should trade down, grab another pick or two and then draft the best IDL and IOL guys we can get.

After years of @lomaxgrUK pointing out our IDL deficiencies could we please, pretty please, address them and our OL to boot?

IDL is not great in the draft (at least from rankings right now). Jerzhan Newton is really the only guy at that position worth taking. I agree, a trade down could make a lot of sense for us. There's some extremely high end OL projected T10 though. Olu Fashanu and Joe Alt are both very good prospects and would instantly upgrade Bolles for us.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Denver try and land Bo Nix. He's not as polished as Caleb Williams, but he's mobile and I can absolutely see Payton working with him.

[broncos67]

2 minutes ago, grizmo78 said:

I'm always on board with trading down when rebuilding. We need talent all across our roster, why not sacrifice this team to set up tomorrows team for success rather than wait till we're competitive and sacrafice resources in that team's future. Idk if that makes sense in text...

I'd also focus on offense and specifically our line like you're saying. That position tends to take longer to gel, is relatively less expensive to retain, and have longer careers. In regards to defense specifically, the amount of athleticism needed to be successful is a lot higher so ability to keep a group together for long periods of time is harder. I'd rather we build the offense then when competitive, focus on the defense. 

As of now, i'd trade down and aim for Fashanu or Alt. 

If we're picking T10, we won't be able to trade down for either of those guys. One or both will go Top 7.

[grizmo78]

1 hour ago, broncos67 said:

If we're picking T10, we won't be able to trade down for either of those guys. One or both will go Top 7.

That's probably true. I'm expecting we end up around pick 5-6. If we can trade down to around pick 12 I think that would be enough to pick up an extra 1st next year. I would even be happy with a second this year and second next year. Hopefully that would give us a shot at one of Fashanu and Alt but like you said they'll likely be taken higher. It's still early and I haven't really looked into the draft but on the surface it looks deep at WR and OT so we should have options while picking up some much needed resources. 

That said, this is a Sean Payton led team now and I doubt he'll be on board with trading down. Not really his M.O.

[broncos67]

If we assume we don't get Caleb, which I truthfully don't think we will, I've been doing some research into guys in the Top 5-7 based on what we know today. I think it realistically looks like:

QB- Drake Maye

WR- Marvin Harrison Jr.

TE - Brock Bowers

OL - Olu Fashanu, Joe Alt

OLB - Jared Verse, Dallas Turner

CB - Kool-Aid Man

A lot of these QBs are going to go higher than they should. Caleb and Maye are the top 2 for me by a longshot. I think Nix is intriguing for Payton and what he wants to do. Ewers, maybe, hard to tell. Shedeur if he comes out would be fascinating but for a variety of reasons I don't see that happening. Penix is a hard no based on injury history. JJ McCarthy is lol NO. 

There's a LOT of OL talent atop this draft. Like, a whole lot. Fashanu and Alt are the top 2 IMO, but you also have Adarius Mims from UGA, JC Latham from Bama, Suamataia from BYU (decent trade down candidate), Tyler Guyton from OU. Payton loves OL and OL development. Gotta think an upgrade on Bolles could be in play.

[Broncofan]

1 minute ago, broncos67 said:

If we assume we don't get Caleb, which I truthfully don't think we will, I've been doing some research into guys in the Top 5-7 based on what we know today. I think it realistically looks like:

QB- Drake Maye

WR- Marvin Harrison Jr.

TE - Brock Bowers

OL - Olu Fashanu, Joe Alt

OLB - Jared Verse, Dallas Turner

CB - Kool-Aid Man

A lot of these QBs are going to go higher than they should. Caleb and Maye are the top 2 for me by a longshot. I think Nix is intriguing for Payton and what he wants to do. Ewers, maybe, hard to tell. Shedeur if he comes out would be fascinating but for a variety of reasons I don't see that happening. Penix is a hard no based on injury history. JJ McCarthy is lol NO. 

There's a LOT of OL talent atop this draft. Like, a whole lot. Fashanu and Alt are the top 2 IMO, but you also have Adarius Mims from UGA, JC Latham from Bama, Suamataia from BYU (decent trade down candidate), Tyler Guyton from OU. Payton loves OL and OL development. Gotta think an upgrade on Bolles could be in play.

Maye has me sold on the elite-ceiling, can't-pass QB.    His growth in his ability to move secondary with his eyes, and his footwork & throwing ability, are eye-popping.   One big caveat - Mack Brown is a pretty mediocre HC, not as bad as Mario Cristobal with Oregon & Justin Herbert, but I'm firmly convinced a reason why Sam Howell fell to Day 3 was Brown's awful prep and game management put Howell in spots where he didn't look like he progressed after a great freshman / good sophomore year.    Don't get me wrong, Howell's not some star (I did take him in Day 3 in the GM game that year with @broncosfan_101, hey we get some right every once in a while), but the point being if anything, Maye's eval might be suppressed by Brown's deficiencies.  

The one QB I am interested to see how things go this year is Michael Penix.   Ppl often forget he was a breakout QB in his RS freshman year at Indiana in 2020 - then tore his ACL halfway through.  It's why his 2021 season didn't look great.  He's been great after transferring to WAS in 2022.   The age is a concern, and he's not quite big enough as you'd like to see (but he's not tiny like Bryce Young, either), but the fact he broke out at age 19, in the Big 10, on a bad IND team vs. much better teams, is really noteworthy.  Still, I'm not convinced he belongs as a top-of-R1 guy yet - but much like Joe Burrow (who was RS'd, then sat because of transfer rules), Penix is the one guy who could a lot to elevate his stock - because his young age at breakout, and how polished he looks now, there's room for legit helium.  How he fares against ORE & USC will be a big test to see if he's got big-league game to him.

But yeah, give me Drake Maye all day if you can't get to 1.1 (pipe dream IMO).   And yes, the OL class is very nice, too.  DL, not so much this year. 

[broncos67]

Penix has far too many injury concerns for me and he's a system QB through and through. Don't see him here and don't like the fit personally. Maye is an order of magnitude better than him. If Caleb wasn't in this class, the hype around Maye would be pretty significant IMO. He could end up being a "steal" in a sense of the word.

[Broncofan]

7 minutes ago, broncos67 said:

Penix has far too many injury concerns for me and he's a system QB through and through. Don't see him here and don't like the fit personally. Maye is an order of magnitude better than him. If Caleb wasn't in this class, the hype around Maye would be pretty significant IMO. He could end up being a "steal" in a sense of the word.

Yeah, fair re: injuries.   Maybe he lights the world on fire in the next 3 months (and if they win, 3-4 big competition games), but it's definitely Williams & Maye and then it's everyone else right now.

I definitely think in other years, Maye would be the consensus 1.1 pick.    It's pretty stunning how CJ Stroud got talked down from 1.1 after the college playoffs to 1.2 (although apparently CAR's owner & his wife got involved in the decision-making process - which is pretty wild).    HOU's gain.   Maye could definitely fall into the Stroud 2nd QB-but-looks-best (early I know, but this kind of start is historic for rookie QB's).

Edited October 11, 2023 by Broncofan

[broncos67]

3 hours ago, Broncofan said:

Yeah, fair re: injuries.   Maybe he lights the world on fire in the next 3 months (and if they win, 3-4 big competition games), but it's definitely Williams & Maye and then it's everyone else right now.

I definitely think in other years, Maye would be the consensus 1.1 pick.    It's pretty stunning how CJ Stroud got talked down from 1.1 after the college playoffs to 1.2 (although apparently CAR's owner & his wife got involved in the decision-making process - which is pretty wild).    HOU's gain.   Maye could definitely fall into the Stroud 2nd QB-but-looks-best (early I know, but this kind of start is historic for rookie QB's).

I think what will be most interesting with the draft is a scenario in which CHI is 1/2 and what they would do in that instance. Do they go QB/WR? QB/Defense? Do they trade one or both? Will be a fascinating situation all around.