Cwood is a nerd and so are all the Packer Favorite Prospects: 2023 Draft Discussion Thread

[Arthur Penske]

21 hours ago, beekay414 said:

Is Christian Gonzalez going to be on the board at 15? 😉 

Might not get past 13 😉 

[ThatJerkDave]

20 hours ago, Packerraymond said:

Nolan Smith needs to be used like Micah Parsons.

Nolan Smith is smaller than Nick Barnett.

[packfanfb]

On 3/25/2023 at 1:39 PM, CWood21 said:

Christian Gonzalez is a stud.  He's not quite that Sauce Gardner level, but he's easily in that next tier.

Honestly Witherspoon is my favorite CB but is a probably a little small for our liking. Dude absolutely brings the boom though. Love the attitude he plays with on the field.

[NFLGURU]

On 3/25/2023 at 11:37 AM, Packerraymond said:

Nolan Smith needs to be used like Micah Parsons.

Agree, you'll have to utilize his speed.  I'm a little concerned about his ability against the run.  

I wouldn't be surprised if it's Smith or Van Ness.  I have those 2 earmarked if they go defense in the first round.

Edited March 26, 2023 by NFLGURU

[ThatJerkDave]

4 hours ago, packfanfb said:

Honestly Witherspoon is my favorite CB but is a probably a little small for our liking. Dude absolutely brings the boom though. Love the attitude he plays with on the field.

I like him too.  I would be concerned with running both him and Jaire out there, they are both pretty small.  And while it is cool for him to pop the future car salesman from Indiana, in his highlights, in the NFL that is Allen Lazard shaking him off.

[thrILL!]

10 hours ago, Arthur Penske said:

Might not get past 13 😉 

I don’t think JSN makes it to 13 or 15 either. There’s a couple teams like TEN who desperately need a WR.  While I’m sure they have other pressing needs, I'm also preparing myself for the unlikelihood that we draft him lol.  

Edited March 27, 2023 by thrILL!

[CWood21]

1 hour ago, thrILL! said:

I don’t think JSN makes it to 13 or 15 either. There’s a couple teams like TEN who desperately need a WR.  While I’m sure they have other pressing needs, I'm also preparing myself for the unlikelihood that we draft him lol.  

Tennessee just took Treylon Burks in the first round last year.  I'm not sure they're keen on taking another WR in the first round.

[CWood21]

Did PFF just lock their draft simulator?  That's stupid.

[ThatJerkDave]

39 minutes ago, CWood21 said:

Did PFF just lock their draft simulator?  That's stupid.

Pay wall a couple of days ago, I believe. 

I like to run each different site through a couple of times, to see what I can probably expect.  Though sometimes they make really dumb moves, I think one of the sims I got player ranked in the top 10 at 15, and like number 15 at 45.  I also hate the trades.  I had one that offered me more or less the entire Seahawks 2024 draft for pick 15.  

2 hours ago, thrILL! said:

I don’t think JSN makes it to 13 or 15 either. There’s a couple teams like TEN who desperately need a WR.  While I’m sure they have other pressing needs, I'm also preparing myself for the unlikelihood that we draft him lol.  

In said above sims, JSN usually was between picks 13 and 17, for what that is worth.  I really like JSN, but I don't think I will be breaking stuff if we don't get him, whether we pass or he is drafted earlier.

[ThatJerkDave]

Somebody sell me on Jordan Addison.  When I watch his cutups I see Mecole Hardman, but not as fast.  And I don't care if Hardman ran a 4.45 and Addison ran a 2.10, he doesn't play as fast.  I don't get the first round rankings that the sites seem to have.  I am seeing a good WR, but at one point I saw him ranked as the top WR.  Looking at TDN, he is still their 22nd overall prospect.  I just don't get it.

[thrILL!]

2 hours ago, ThatJerkDave said:

In said above sims, JSN usually was between picks 13 and 17, for what that is worth.  I really like JSN, but I don't think I will be breaking stuff if we don't get him, whether we pass or he is drafted earlier.

Yeah who knows how it will unfold. I just have a feeling a WR will go before then.  It may not even be JSN.  There’s going to be plenty of good options when we do pick.  Looking fwd to seeing how the draft board falls and who it will be. 

[thrILL!]

3 hours ago, ThatJerkDave said:

Somebody sell me on Jordan Addison.  When I watch his cutups I see Mecole Hardman, but not as fast.  And I don't care if Hardman ran a 4.45 and Addison ran a 2.10, he doesn't play as fast.  I don't get the first round rankings that the sites seem to have.  I am seeing a good WR, but at one point I saw him ranked as the top WR.  Looking at TDN, he is still their 22nd overall prospect.  I just don't get it.

My wife and her family are all USC fans so I’ve seen a ton of their games and Addison is legit. I saw him play at Pitt a little bit and he visited Bama after he entered the transfer portal before ultimately choosing USC. He was a lot of fun to watch.  The kid is so natural that it looks effortless at times.  Reminds me of Olave in that way. 

Who’s to say how Addison’s NFL career goes but i didn’t see Hardman’s play at Georgia ever come close to what Addison did at Pitt and USC. I think Addison will be a better NFL WR than Hardman too. 

Edited March 27, 2023 by thrILL!
Yoda speak edit

[ThatJerkDave]

8 hours ago, thrILL! said:

My wife and her family are all USC fans so I’ve seen a ton of their games and Addison is legit. I saw him play at Pitt a little bit and he visited Bama after he entered the transfer portal before ultimately choosing USC. He was a lot of fun to watch.  The kid is so natural that it looks effortless at times.  Reminds me of Olave in that way. 

Who’s to say how Addison’s NFL career goes but i didn’t see Hardman’s play at Georgia ever come close to what Addison did at Pitt and USC. I think Addison will be a better NFL WR than Hardman too. 

Must just be a style thing, I didn't like Olave nearly as much as everyone else either.  

[MrBobGray]

On 3/25/2023 at 11:22 AM, incognito_man said:

I can't quite figure out if he's Von Miller or a bust. All of his good plays his opponents look comically bad at times. I can't figure out if that's a great thing of a bad thing. Is he getting lucky or is he creating those comically bad attempts to block him?

I've seen him bullrush pancake and SEC OT that has 100 lbs on him. I've seen him violently shed hands and toss giant OTs. I've seen him win on inside moves where the OT literally doesn't get a hand on him. 

He's either a top 3 talent in this class or a nothing-burger I feel. I'm curious what others see who have watched more on him. It seems like the gym numbers back up the idea that he's really really ******* good and he makes opponents look ridiculous at times because he's dangerous.

@MrBobGray have you watched him this year yet?

So with the caveat that there's no real way to get the proper sense of a player without going through the breadth of their tape with a fine toothed comb, which I do not have time to do -

On this team, pending the fronts you want to run, I would have a hard time taking Smith.  He's a real roller-coaster of a prospect, in terms of the good and bad. On one hand, he's absurdly explosive and I love his ability to slip blockers with bend and suddenness.  He isn't afraid to fire into inside gaps too, which is important in an undersized speed rusher; guys who just want to run the arc can sometimes be tentative about throwing their body around inside the tackles.  There's just so much instant speed in his game and he's instinctive with it, so he gets a lot of mileage out of it.

At the same time though, man is he small on the field.  He's not at all afraid to scrap and he does play with great body lean, but he gets engulfed not infrequently and pro tackles are just so much better at getting their weight on you with leverage.  His hands don't jump at me; he seems capable with them at times, but too often seems to treat them as an afterthought rather than a weapon he can combine with his burst.  Partly as a result of that, his speed to power is unreliable and he gets stale-mated too often for his talent.  While he can shed blocks with violence at times, he lets guys get their hands into his frame too much and it results in being blocked out of plays he should have been in on.

I just think he's further away from being ready than his talent level would suggest, and that's hard for me to take that high.  Micah was an All-Pro caliber prospect as an off-ball LBer even if he hadn't worked out as an edge, but Smith needs to be a stud from day one in the rush game or you're probably regretting that pick.  And as to that comparison, Parsons is violent with the hands and plays through contact like an interior DL in a way I don't feel like I've seen much from Smith.

If you take Nolan you need to have a plan for how to take advantage of that ridiculous burst until you can bulk him up a little and teach him to consistently keep guys off his pads.  He makes your pressure package better immediately, but there's a real chance that might be all he ever does.  And frankly, the fact that they have Walker on the team really amplifies this, because even if Barry wants to run more defenses with a hybrid SLB/Star type role Walker is the guy who gets those reps, not Smith.

[incognito_man]

12 minutes ago, MrBobGray said:

So with the caveat that there's no real way to get the proper sense of a player without going through the breadth of their tape with a fine toothed comb, which I do not have time to do -

On this team, pending the fronts you want to run, I would have a hard time taking Smith.  He's a real roller-coaster of a prospect, in terms of the good and bad. On one hand, he's absurdly explosive and I love his ability to slip blockers with bend and suddenness.  He isn't afraid to fire into inside gaps too, which is important in an undersized speed rusher; guys who just want to run the arc can sometimes be tentative about throwing their body around inside the tackles.  There's just so much instant speed in his game and he's instinctive with it, so he gets a lot of mileage out of it.

At the same time though, man is he small on the field.  He's not at all afraid to scrap and he does play with great body lean, but he gets engulfed not infrequently and pro tackles are just so much better at getting their weight on you with leverage.  His hands don't jump at me; he seems capable with them at times, but too often seems to treat them as an afterthought rather than a weapon he can combine with his burst.  Partly as a result of that, his speed to power is unreliable and he gets stale-mated too often for his talent.  While he can shed blocks with violence at times, he lets guys get their hands into his frame too much and it results in being blocked out of plays he should have been in on.

I just think he's further away from being ready than his talent level would suggest, and that's hard for me to take that high.  Micah was an All-Pro caliber prospect as an off-ball LBer even if he hadn't worked out as an edge, but Smith needs to be a stud from day one in the rush game or you're probably regretting that pick.  And as to that comparison, Parsons is violent with the hands and plays through contact like an interior DL in a way I don't feel like I've seen much from Smith.

If you take Nolan you need to have a plan for how to take advantage of that ridiculous burst until you can bulk him up a little and teach him to consistently keep guys off his pads.  He makes your pressure package better immediately, but there's a real chance that might be all he ever does.  And frankly, the fact that they have Walker on the team really amplifies this, because even if Barry wants to run more defenses with a hybrid SLB/Star type role Walker is the guy who gets those reps, not Smith.

Good stuff. He definitely flashes some eliteness on the field. Seems like he should be more highly regarded by his "highs", so your take makes sense to me.

I'm always a sucker for high ceiling guys, he seems to have a great attitude as well from everything I could find so he's a type I'd place a bet on if the value lines up.