2024 NFL Draft Discussion

[HighCalebR]

I've been negative so long on Walker around here just feel like I gotta say something nice about the guy.

Think his demeanor won the job for him over Nijman, Walker's a rat, a guy you want on your side but despise playing against. Blurs the line of dirty player. I love it. I think he's pretty damn athletic, can get moving pretty well and some of his zone reaches are textbook, those are fun to watch. Strong upper body to get movement in the power game and gets shots in on doubles at times. 

 

Every negative I have him comes from a lack of bend in the knees. And you just don't fix that.

[vegas492]

53 minutes ago, HighCalebR said:

He's routinely pushed in the pocket. If Love's bailing it's 75% of the time because his left is caving in. 1st down to Kraft at the end of the game? Loves bailing right and can't just sit in the pocket because Walker's dying. He dies slow, most of the time. He's a good backup, ive said hes a good backup this whole time.

Tall athletes can bend, Walker cant. Look at Darrisaw pre snap, then look at Walker. He's got 2 inches on Tom. Walker basically stands straight up the whole time. I think we just 100% disagree with what we see. Walker has a strong core/upper body.  His wins always come because he's able to grab the guy before he gets in his cheese. His losses always come when the rusher has momentum coming in and his legs can't keep up because his base is narrow and his pads too high.

It just is NOTHING like young bakhtiari. LIS I went back and watched young bakh, I invite you to refresh that memory as well.

Most teams have a Walker. Braxton Jones last night,  very Walker like. They aren't bad players they're just not good players. I agree you can plan around them and make it work that's fine. But if I can get Talliese Fuaga is sitting there after DeJeans picked, I'm trading up.

Adding weight to Walker's knees isn't going to help them bend.

The similarity between 1st and 2nd year Bakh to Walker is that they both need/needed more power in their base.  To me that is all Walker needs.  He's got the feet already.  You know he can bend those knees.  If he was standing upright, with a weak base, Nijman would have been playing in front of him, because he'd be a turnstyle.  And he isn't.

But...I feel like you do.  He's passable.  Also?  One can do better at that position.

I'm just thrilled that we have a 7th rounder who can hold his own right now.

[HighCalebR]

2 minutes ago, vegas492 said:

The similarity between 1st and 2nd year Bakh to Walker is that they both need/needed more power in their base.  To me that is all Walker needs.  He's got the feet already.  You know he can bend those knees.  If he was standing upright, with a weak base, Nijman would have been playing in front of him, because he'd be a turnstyle.  And he isn't.

But...I feel like you do.  He's passable.  Also?  One can do better at that position.

I'm just thrilled that we have a 7th rounder who can hold his own right now.

I don't know he can bend the knees. because he doesn't, not at NFL tackle quality; I mean his joints aren't fused together but he's a waist bender all day long. He's not a turnstile because Love is playing within the offense and the balls coming out in 3 seconds or less, when there's a play we expect to go past that marker, we give him some help to keep his guy in front of him. He still proffers a soft inside shoulder because he's so upright it's tough to change direction, havent seen many guys try to bend the arc on him all the guys he's been facing have just been choosing the bull. 

I agree he's got good enough feet to ward off guys just trying the speed around the edge.

Not every tackle is going to have the path to elite guy, I don't think Walker ever will. Usable surely, problem contract? Never. It's just like RG for me, we can win with what we got but we should be looking for better. But LT is a little more important, really want a guy you feel confident in 1v1 on the most important plays. Walker isnt him. And for real this is the last post I'll do on him for awhile because I've basically owned the draft thread talking about a guy already on our team.

Nijman has his own problems, namely just speed around the edge and the lack of run game demeanor. But he sinks into a bull much better.

[pgwingman]

24 minutes ago, HighCalebR said:

I don't know he can bend the knees. because he doesn't, not at NFL tackle quality; I mean his joints aren't fused together but he's a waist bender all day long. He's not a turnstile because Love is playing within the offense and the balls coming out in 3 seconds or less, when there's a play we expect to go past that marker, we give him some help to keep his guy in front of him. He still proffers a soft inside shoulder because he's so upright it's tough to change direction, havent seen many guys try to bend the arc on him all the guys he's been facing have just been choosing the bull. 

I agree he's got good enough feet to ward off guys just trying the speed around the edge.

Not every tackle is going to have the path to elite guy, I don't think Walker ever will. Usable surely, problem contract? Never. It's just like RG for me, we can win with what we got but we should be looking for better. But LT is a little more important, really want a guy you feel confident in 1v1 on the most important plays. Walker isnt him. And for real this is the last post I'll do on him for awhile because I've basically owned the draft thread talking about a guy already on our team.

Nijman has his own problems, namely just speed around the edge and the lack of run game demeanor. But he sinks into a bull much better.

Assuming a perfectly efficient draft, how soon would you be targeting an LT in the draft? Are you moving up in the first round? Spending a 2nd rounder? Going mid round-later round and taking a few swings?

[HighCalebR]

38 minutes ago, pgwingman said:

Assuming a perfectly efficient draft, how soon would you be targeting an LT in the draft? Are you moving up in the first round? Spending a 2nd rounder? Going mid round-later round and taking a few swings?

I'd say Nixons our biggest problem starter on the team. If we don't address that in FA, that'd be my first on the wishlist.

I haven't watched a ton yet, but with the capital we have I sure wouldn't mind a trade up if that 2nd tier of dudes starts going. Fuaga is at the top of my early "realistic" gets. 

If we wait til after the 2nd I'd start looking for the T/G bodies and see if he/they just can't find a home somewhere.

[vegas492]

1 hour ago, pgwingman said:

Assuming a perfectly efficient draft, how soon would you be targeting an LT in the draft? Are you moving up in the first round? Spending a 2nd rounder? Going mid round-later round and taking a few swings?

I'm looking at LT with every pick.  Every single one.  I'm not trading up, though.

When that LT meets value on the board, I'll take him.

Also?  That could be a RT and then I'm just moving Tom.  Easy.  Done.

But I'm not wasting draft capital (trade up) to fix something that is simply not broken at LT.  Our very young 7'th round pick has proven that he can play.  

[HeresAGuy]

This could also be an excellent trade up year.  I very much think we are now in quality over quantity territory now, and we have 11 picks.  If we got a guy we are infatuated with, package the 2nd and 3rd rounders and go get a nice toy if it makes sense.  

[Mazrimiv]

Let the board come to us on days 1 & 2.  There are plenty of places on the roster to spend those picks.

[HighCalebR]

28 minutes ago, Mazrimiv said:

Let the board come to us on days 1 & 2.  There are plenty of places on the roster to spend those picks.

I dont necessarily disagree either, it depends. we got ammo to move up in a spot back in a spot. Plenty of time to play the board and if that tier starts flying off I dont think we should be afraid to move around. Gute has shown a propensity for it as well. Move to find the value.

[Mazrimiv]

30 minutes ago, HighCalebR said:

I dont necessarily disagree either, it depends. we got ammo to move up in a spot back in a spot. Plenty of time to play the board and if that tier starts flying off I dont think we should be afraid to move around. Gute has shown a propensity for it as well. Move to find the value.

Gute hasn't been shy about moving to get his guy.  I'm sure he'll try to do that if that's the way the board falls.

[CWood21]

5 hours ago, pgwingman said:

Assuming a perfectly efficient draft, how soon would you be targeting an LT in the draft? Are you moving up in the first round? Spending a 2nd rounder? Going mid round-later round and taking a few swings?

Anything more than a meager trade up (think what it cost to move up for Jordan Love), I'm not really interested in moving up the board.  It's just not a great class overall, so I think you need to be towards the bottom of a tier and not like the depth in the class.

[CWood21]

2 hours ago, Mazrimiv said:

Let the board come to us on days 1 & 2.  There are plenty of places on the roster to spend those picks.

That's where I'm at with this class.  There's not a whole lot of difference once you get past the top 6 to 8 picks.

[pgwingman]

4 hours ago, HighCalebR said:

I'd say Nixons our biggest problem starter on the team. If we don't address that in FA, that'd be my first on the wishlist.

I haven't watched a ton yet, but with the capital we have I sure wouldn't mind a trade up if that 2nd tier of dudes starts going. Fuaga is at the top of my early "realistic" gets. 

If we wait til after the 2nd I'd start looking for the T/G bodies and see if he/they just can't find a home somewhere.

Agree with Nixon. I just can't convince myself that Stokes will be anything until I see it. So if Rasul , Ballentine, Savage, and Nixon are all gone, I'd almost rate DB as our top 3 needs.

My only issue with Fuaga is that he played RT. Have we (or any other teams for that matter) ever drafted a RT and had them pan out at LT? Just doing a quick check, we almost always take LTs, with notable exceptions like Myers and Linsley.

I think I agree most on targeting in the second round. Fantanau, Barton, and Morgan all played LT in college but apparently project better inside.

[CWood21]

7 hours ago, HighCalebR said:

I've been negative so long on Walker around here just feel like I gotta say something nice about the guy.

Think his demeanor won the job for him over Nijman, Walker's a rat, a guy you want on your side but despise playing against. Blurs the line of dirty player. I love it. I think he's pretty damn athletic, can get moving pretty well and some of his zone reaches are textbook, those are fun to watch. Strong upper body to get movement in the power game and gets shots in on doubles at times. 

 

Every negative I have him comes from a lack of bend in the knees. And you just don't fix that.

I don't think it's a demeanor thing if we're being honest.  The Packers invested a 7th round pick, and effectively RS him his entire rookie season.  They knew he was at least a year away from being playable.  And he struggled badly early on in the year.  But long-term wise, he had more of a future in Green Bay than Yosh Njiman.  Njiman was always a guy who was more of a swing tackle, but the upside wasn't there.  Don't get me wrong, he's shown more as an UDFA than what you could reasonable expect for an UDFA OT.

[HighCalebR]

4 minutes ago, CWood21 said:

I don't think it's a demeanor thing if we're being honest.  The Packers invested a 7th round pick, and effectively RS him his entire rookie season.  They knew he was at least a year away from being playable.  And he struggled badly early on in the year.  But long-term wise, he had more of a future in Green Bay than Yosh Njiman.  Njiman was always a guy who was more of a swing tackle, but the upside wasn't there.  Don't get me wrong, he's shown more as an UDFA than what you could reasonable expect for an UDFA OT.

That's a fair take.