🔥 Pick #70 is in: Byron Young, DT, Alabama

[reddevil]

And one other thing with him is that he has always had his snaps limited due to the players in past years that have been in front of him - Raekwon Davis, Christian Barmore, Mathis…

It was interesting to hear his interview where he talked about only being given the opportunity to pass rush later on in his time there. So the more he was allowed to do his thing, then better his production.

[big_palooka]

Like this pick. He was a glue guy at Alabama. Did a lot of the dirty work and opened things up for their pass rusher. 

Day 1 starter on run downs. Potential to grow as a pass rusher. Good value vs. projections. 

Building inside out with these picks, which is what everyone has wanted. 

[Darbsk]

1 hour ago, jimkelly02 said:

I said he wasn’t even the best Byron Young still available… I really liked the Tennessee one.  He’s got a great story, and I think he’s going to be very solid.

Yeh, I really liked Tennessee Byron Young very athletic and as you say, good story.

[Jeremy408]

3 hours ago, big_palooka said:

Like this pick. He was a glue guy at Alabama. Did a lot of the dirty work and opened things up for their pass rusher. 

Day 1 starter on run downs. Potential to grow as a pass rusher. Good value vs. projections. 

Building inside out with these picks, which is what everyone has wanted. 

I don't disagree with building inside out but to be honest I don't think he needed to be drafted with one of the thirds.

[Humble_Beast]

8 hours ago, Jeremy408 said:

I don't disagree with building inside out but to be honest I don't think he needed to be drafted with one of the thirds.

I had Young and Tucker as 5th round options.... reminds me of Muse, Bowden 3rd round reaches. 

[raidr4life]

He could end up starting, most likely will get replaced on 3rd downs but if he wins the 2 down role this pick is a success. 

[Humble_Beast]

if it was Madden, I feel like we have like 6-7 DTs that are like 69 overall. lol 

[Humble_Beast]

LOL

[101Raider]

21 hours ago, Humble_Beast said:

LOL

Meh, doesn’t move the needle for me for either player.  Looks like a simple down block taking advantage of Young’s momentum. Saying he was “putting down” Young is rather sensationalized. 

[jimkelly02]

59 minutes ago, 101Raider said:

Meh, doesn’t move the needle for me for either player.  Looks like a simple down block taking advantage of Young’s momentum. Saying he was “putting down” Young is rather sensationalized. 

He caught Young off balance and moving in the direction he was shoved… it was a good block and all but all it really was a 75% full power shove.  It was more about what Young did wrong then what Wagner did right.  Calling it “putting down” Young is definitely sensationalizing the clip.  
 

I like Sanjit a lot…. He just seems like a really good hearted person and I appreciate the time and effort he puts into his videos.  I totally get the vibe he doesn’t do it to make money or clout/status in the Raider fan community, and he just wants to share his passion with other Raider fans … but sometimes he’s too optimistic for me.  He overhypes our players and transactions a bit too much at points, at least for me.  Thus, I don’t think he did the sensationalizing of the clip to get views and probably was just overly excited and optimistic about the team getting Wagner and his potential.

[Jeremy408]

2 hours ago, 101Raider said:

Meh, doesn’t move the needle for me for either player.  Looks like a simple down block taking advantage of Young’s momentum. Saying he was “putting down” Young is rather sensationalized. 

Thats Sanjit for you

[jimkelly02]

On 4/30/2023 at 12:43 AM, Humble_Beast said:

if it was Madden, I feel like we have like 6-7 DTs that are like 69 overall. lol 

I really like the idea of us building up depth at the position and creating a solid rotation of players.  

Instead of spending a 1st round pick on a DT OR signing a high end FA to 20m+ apy or above average Starters costing 10-12m APY going with a deep unit made up of 3rd-5th round picks and value FA signings who all have their own unique skillset seems like a good idea IMO.  At DE/edge we’ve got large contracts given out to Crosby and Chandler Jones plus have invested large amounts of draft capital in Wilson and Koonce.  There’s only so much cap space you can put into the DL, so I like the deep platoon at DT idea.

 We have run stuffing NTs in John Jenkins and Neil Farrell plus Nichols, Tillery, Matthew Butler, Adam Butler*1, and now Byron Young playing the 3T-5T.  
Tillery and Butler bring more pass rushing, Young is more of a run defender at the moment, Adam Butler and Nichols are a bit of both.  This should allow us to constantly be rotating the players and able to use pairings of players for different situations.  By this I mean, we don’t necessarily have to go with Jenkins/Farrell at NT and Young/Nichols / A.Butler at 3T DT on running downs.  We could see Young and Butler/Nichols together on running down situations without sacrificing anything and having more options as to their alignments.

I’m not Knowledgeable about Madden rankings and what a 69 overall means exactly, but I assume it’s average to slightly below average.  That said I don’t disagree with your reference/ assessment.  It would be nice to have one player who is more talented.   Having a higher end DT playing alongside Crosby would make it hard to stop them both.  Hopefully Chandler Jones and Bilal Nichols rebound and play up to their contracts. I think that’s less likely then likely to happen though, but if it did we’d have a very deep and talented DL unit.  Given we have so much money tied up there and didn’t see the results we paid and hoped for on the field last year, we kind of have our hands tied financially and had to go the route of drafting DE and DT’s (Wilson and Young plus Farrell and Matthew Butler) and dirt cheap signings like Adam Butler and Jenkins.  Hopefully next year we’re in a position where we have more money to spend on DL and can add a higher end piece.  
While we may have 6 “68 rating” DTs on the roster I do think there is a real opportunity for the group as a whole to be greater then the sum of its parts.  This all depends on how the young players develop and how the coaching staff uses them. It really could go anywhere from horrible to surprisingly solid with long term potential.

The most important thing IMO is that we successfully develop the draft picks we’ve made at DL.  If we can do that we’ll have starters and depth pieces on rookie deals, which would allow us to sign a decently priced FA if we wanted.  I really hope Malcolm Koonce is able to take a big step this season.  He reportedly has put on weight.  I loved his agility and bend in college and he was very productive in the very limited snaps  at the end of his rookie season but it seemed like the new regime were not high on him.  He played only 68 defensive snaps last season and from the moment the new regime took over they signed and seemed to favor much less talented players like Tashawn Bower.  I got the vibe that his signing wasn’t just camp competition to push Koonce but rather he was never in favor with them from the beginning.  Hopefully in training camp Koonce both steps up and is backed by the coaching staff.  Koonce has the ability to be a very good pass rushing specialist for us.  He could be a 6-8 sack a year player.  However, he could very well be cut and not make the team After training camp.  He wasn’t drafted by the Current regime and we have enough depth at DE with Wilson and the signing of Willis that we could just move on from Him.  I hope that because he brings something to the table drastically different then Wilson, Willis, etc in terms of being a speed rusher who can beat OTs around the edge with his bend that he’ll be able to establish a rotational role on this team.

*1:  we shouldn’t sleep on Adam Butler.  He played really well in NE before signing a 2yr, 9.5M deal with Miami, where he played well in his first year before being waived with an injury designation.  It seem like there’s more to the story about his injury and why he was released.  See the link below… I found it interesting how McDaniel mentioned the CBA there was the hint of there being some sort of technicality for them releasing him with the injury designation.  It seems like the coach would have preferred he was healthy and on the team, as he mentioned having his hand tied in the situation.  With zero dead money left on his deal, I’m guessing the team didn’t want to pay him a decently high salary given the fact he would be out for at least the beginning of the season, if not mid-season (he didn’t participate in training camp).  Plus, the Dolphins had solid depth at the position so the loss wasn’t going to crush the team.

I think there’s real potential for this signing to end up being very similar to Andrew Billings.  Both players were street UFA signings before the start of Free Agency after they sat out the previous season due to injury.  Billings went on to start all 14 of the games he played in and put together a very solid season.  I believe Butler is more likely to be an occasional starter or backup but could easily give us 400-475 snaps and 30-40 tackles + 3-5 sacks.  

https://dolphinswire.usatoday.com/2022/08/05/dolphins-mike-mcdaniel-adam-butler-release/

Edited May 1, 2023 by jimkelly02

[jimkelly02]

1 hour ago, Jeremy408 said:

Thats Sanjit for you

It’s hard to criticize him too hard because he’s a nice guy who tries to contribute for the fanbase but he does remind me of myself as a child, being blissfully ignorant with hope.  It’s liken he only sees the upside/good and then projects it forward.  It’s like how the fanbase (myself included albeit much younger at the time) would get a sliver of production from Chaz Schilens or countless other players and convince ourselves he would turn out to be something.

Sanjit became a fan of football and the Raiders rather late in his life and I think he just hasn’t become jaded to the harsh  realities of being a Raiders fan just yet.

[Jeremy408]

6 hours ago, jimkelly02 said:

It’s hard to criticize him too hard because he’s a nice guy who tries to contribute for the fanbase but he does remind me of myself as a child, being blissfully ignorant with hope.  It’s liken he only sees the upside/good and then projects it forward.  It’s like how the fanbase (myself included albeit much younger at the time) would get a sliver of production from Chaz Schilens or countless other players and convince ourselves he would turn out to be something.

Sanjit became a fan of football and the Raiders rather late in his life and I think he just hasn’t become jaded to the harsh  realities of being a Raiders fan just yet.

He used to put up tape titled "Clelin Ferrell is a future hall of famer"

[SodakRaiders]

I didn't know much about THIS Byron Young.  But I just watched some Youtube and man, this guy moves really well.  I don't know that he will end up being anything but as far as 300 pounders go he has fairly excellent lateral quickness.  Could be something.