Yup.

Use free agency for the places that this draft isn’t great.

Play to the strengths of the draft.

Give me Jackson, a pass catcher (probably Hollywood), and a DB in free agency.

Load up that DL and grab a RB in the draft.

You can bargain hunt for the rest.

I’m game. Assuming we do find a quality LT in FA and my preference would be to keep Smith, if so, then the draft is wide open for BPA.

Gotta get cheaper at RG. Can’t have a massively expensive IOL with two expensive tackles too.

Thuney will probably be extended to help. One more year of Taylor, so we’ll see some relief.

I just can’t see undoing to the relief with another expensive guard contract.

Drafted Nourzad, Kingsley, and Wanya. One of them needs to be the answer to get a rookie contract starting.

if you hit on the DL picks, you can even splurge on Robinson if the floor of Jackson concerns you.

The answer to LT is free agency.

While we hope that we can use FA for LT, that doesn't mean it will be a reality.

The draft also has good LT prospects, it just doesn't have many of them.

I also understand not wanting to blow capital to move up for one because of the value there will be at other positions in the 2nd and 3rd round but that doesn't mean you dismiss LT.

No matter what, LT is the 2nd most important position in the sport

Sure, and I know there's a couple of them that you particularly like, but I don't see a guy that's a definite answer. I see question marks. We already have question marks and if we're giving up on Morris after two years and Kingsley after one year then we're not patient enough to develop OT's, period.

If you stop-gap to buy time, fine. But the difference is likely to be a few million per and that's just not really a big enough savings to bother, imo.

From a TEAM BUILDING perspective, you could really build a dominant defensive front four with relative ease out of this draft, and be set for quite a while. All while likely adding a significant upgrade at RB and probably a TE or WR addition as well.

So you want another Kingsley. That's not going to be popular around here.

Respectfully, who gives a ****? We've seen this way too many times now with Mahomes where he plays significantly worse than his usual standard because of bad OL play, LT in particular. If we have to over invest resources to fix this ****ing shit then so be it.

You miss on draft picks, you gotta go spend to cover that.

It happens.

I guess the GOAT QB needs alot more help than we thought.

You could also sign Josh Sweat, draft a DT in Round 2, and still have your dominant DL. It doesn't matter how it's done.

I'm not signing on for Cam Robinson or some other pile of shit just to say we addressed LT with a vet in FA. That's as bad as trotting out Morris again, literally.

LMAO No shit? You mean to tell me you can't just put a bunch of scrubs around your QB and expect success year over year?!? Who ****ing knew.

How did you interpret that?

I'd trade up for a LT prospect in round 1, not blow another 2nd or 3rd on a significant project.

I'd rather keep trying to develop Kingsley over trading up for one of the guys we'd have available I think.

A prospect is a prospect. You're trading up for a chance at getting a contributor. Do you pay $10 for a $5 scratcher?

It just feels like awfully spotty roster and resource management.

I don't like to look at anything over a 1 year timeline (though I get it with Jones/Mahomes).

And over a 2-3 year timeline, hammering the DL this draft, focusing on LT in FA and then if necessary approaching the LT position in a better LT year is going to better situate us.

A concern I have with the overarching roster construction is that the 2023 and 2024 drafts may end up being little more than Rice and Worthy over a meaningful timeline. What that will do is FORCE us into the FA marketplace.

Now you can probably be fine with a 2 year period of relatively average returns on your draft and be okay. But if you have 3, you're going to start to see some frayed edges on the roster and you're going to have to be more aggressive in FA. And by its very nature, you're going to overspend doing it.

I think it's really important that we get this draft right. Not just for the players we'd add, but because 3 years of merely average returns from the draft will end up forcing us to make risker decisions in FA that may have really gnarly long-term consequences for us. Because if it's not FA where you decide to do that, it's going to be through re-stocking additional draft capital and that could end up being by trading Karlaftis (I don't see any way we trade McDuffie).

We'd start to have to weigh a fair bit of spooky shit.

I think easily the best path to 'getting this draft right' is attacking the DL -- very possibly in rounds 1 AND 2. Then maybe you see if there's a trade down at the top of 3 that can get you a little more capital in the 4th and/or through the 5th-6th rounds where we don't have anything.

Then again, maybe Hicks takes a step forward, Wiley proves a starting TE and Kingsley/Nourzad end up our starting guards going forward and everything I said is largely rendered moot.

But I'd rather let the draft come to us. The best, most sustainable teams in the league typically make their bones doing exactly that.