With a night of sleep for final reflection, here are my thoughts on this year’s draft.

Everyone hated the generals so much

This year’s soldier category had a long history – everything was bad. The lone general selected in the first two rounds was Kenny Pickett, who finished 20th overall in the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is the longest time we have expected to see the first general leave the board since 1997. A second general was selected up to 74th overall when the Atlanta Falcons selected Desmond Ridder. This is the longest time we have waited to see the second general leave the board since 1996. We had not gone to the first two rounds with only one general selected since 2000. In the modern NFL, it seemed inconceivable – legally impossible – that a class of generals could be so bad that some teams would not smoke in the top 50. The position is too important – and the competitive advantage gained with a winning general in a rookie deal so valuable – to believe that the teams could ignore it as they did this weekend. The entire QB 2022 class, with the exception of Pickett, went after Kyle Trask (64), Kellen Mond (66) and Davis Mills (67) from last year and then Christian Hackenberg, Mike Glennon and Brock Osweiler from classes. the last decade. The teams were not just scared or impressed by this category. They hated it. This was especially evident when we saw it through the lens of Baker Mayfield’s commercial fame. The Browns have had to trade Mayfield since they acquired Deshaun Watson a month ago. But they failed to find a suitor with the soldiers’ market largely settled. There seemed to be some movement on this front after Thursday’s first round. The Panthers, who passed by choosing fourth with no. Option 6 (instead they chose the offensive tackle Ikem Ekwonu), reportedly discussed an exchange in Mayfield with the Browns, but these talks broke up due to the details of Mayfield’s compensation. Carolina eventually defeated Ole Miss QB Matt Corral in the 94th selection. The Texans are reported to be exploring the Mayfield and Jimmy Garoppolo trading markets in the coming days – a sensible choice, as they are currently launching Second General Davis Mills. But that report came after the first round, when only Pickett left the board – a player with whom the Texans were tied just hours before the first round. The Texans, of course, had the opportunity to picket Picket twice in the draft, including no. 15, five options before the Steelers. They also had two second round options at no. 37 and 44 when Desmond Ridder, Malik Willis and Corral were available. However, they refused to take a general and reportedly asked about the availability of Mayfield and Garoppolo. It is an indicative sequence of events from two groups in need. There seemed to be little movement in the Mayfield trade talks before the draft. That changed when Pickett, often described as the most “prepared” draft general, was off the board. Apart from Pickett, the league did not want any part of this category of generals. But if so, why not lay the groundwork for a possible Mayfield deal sooner? I’m not sure. A truly challenging weekend in the world of quarters. The league is probably wrong about this category of generals for no other reason than that the league is usually wrong about the categories of generals. He co-authored Mitchell Trubisky with Patrick Mahomes, Sam Darnold with Josh Allen, and Tua Tagovailoa with Justin Herbert. He selected Brandon Weeden two rounds before Russell Wilson and Jared Goff three rounds before Dak Prescott. This is good news for this category of generals, because most of the league would rather have an outdoor swing at Baker Mayfield than anyone in the non-Kenny category. And if the league really makes a mistake in this category and one or two of those last-round QBs continue to be key, then these players will be the biggest looters in the draft – and I’m not sure we’ll see a quarter in the class faced this level of contempt again.

Good morning at the Office

The Titans of Tennessee I am very impressed with the draft of the Titans. Not just for the players they chose – although they did get some good ones, as we will discuss. But for the honest evaluation of their roster. Last season, the Titans were the no. 1 seed in the AFC, winners of the lonely first round farewell to a highly competitive conference. In 2020 they won the AFC South. In 2019, it was a wild team that reached the conference championship game. Mike Vrabel’s tenure is four years and the Titans have three consecutive playoff appearances – only the Chiefs have the most active streak after the season. But the Titans did not behave like an eternal candidate on the day of the draft. During Round 1, they traded the asteroid AJ Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles for the 18th overall selection. The Eagles immediately gave Brown a four-year, $ 100 million extension. The Titans immediately drafted the Arkansas WR Treylon Burks — a player that many competed with Brown for his thick build and dangerous ability at YAC. The message was clear: the Titans need to get younger and cheaper. GM Jon Robinson made these motives clear to his presser after Round 1, saying: “We had discussions back and forth and realized that we had reached a point where it would be difficult to reach an agreement.” Brown told ESPN’s Turron Davenport that the Titans’ best offer exceeded $ 16 million a year, with incentives that could push the deal to $ 20 million. “I would have stayed if they had offered me $ 22 million,” he said. The Titans could have offered that amount with some clever accounting – they only have $ 5 million at the top this season and $ 2.2 million at the top next year, as the numbers currently stand. It would only be possible with the commitment to the current body of Titans players. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who has the biggest success in the league this year at $ 38.6 million, could have restructured his contract and pushed more than the money owed to him in the coming years, but that would have locked the Titans in Tannehill’s contract after 2023. which is when the deal expires right now. The same could have been done to overturn the Derrick Henry deal – which has a ceiling of $ 15 million this year on a deal expiring in 2023 – or leave the tackle on the Taylor Lewan deal, which has a ceiling of 14.7 million dollars this year, with two years left. Instead, they wrote a Round 2 developmental tackle on Nicholas Petit-Frere, a Round 3 development general on Malik Willis, and a rotational running back on Round 4 on Hassan Haskins. In no case do the Titans play in the 2022 season and admit defeat in a loaded AFC. They still have a strong core and beginners like Burks, who has huge shoes to fill replacing Brown, and Petit-Frere, who can compete for the right job in Taklin, which can have an impact in the first year. . This team of the Titans has proved time and time again, in many close games, that it should not be counted. But with every AFC nominee having a short-term view of this crazy convention trip to the top, the Titans have very quietly taken a step back and invested in the long-term health of their franchise. After all-in last season with Bud Dupree and Julio Jones, the Titans are about to let their big money contracts run while developing youth insurance in key positions. This is a mature, responsible team building. It’s not fun or sexy. It’s a lot more exciting to fool yourself into believing you are a candidate (what I call Mickey Loomising). But Tennessee understands how to create a perpetual contender and maintain that post-season streak. The Baltimore Ravens It’s an old hat at this point, but it’s worth mentioning: the Baltimore Ravens draft is fine. Former GM Ozzie Newsome did it for two decades and his successor, Eric DeCosta, did not lose a single step. Baltimore lessons are always at least compact and are sometimes home games (like in 2018 when they got Lamar Jackson, Orlando Brown Jr., Mark Andrews and Bradley Bozeman). This year, the Ravens did the same thing they always do: be patient and take advantage of the mistakes of the other teams. Even when the Eagles jumped to no. 13 Before Baltimore to take on Georgia DT Jordan Davis, who many had identified as the Ravens’ ideal choice (Davis himself thought he would become a Raven), Baltimore calmly grabbed Kyle’s other elite sporting defensive perspective Hamilton, the 6-foot safety 4 from Notre Dame de Paris, combined with the safety of star Marcus Williams. Several teams were worried about the size and strength of Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum – not the Ravens, who traded Marquis Brown to return to the first round and put Linderbaum to replace Bozeman and become the newcomer. aggressive interior. In the second round, the Ravens got a possible choice in the top-20 to Michigan coach David Ojabo, who had fallen in the mid-40s only due to a tear he suffered during his professional training session in March. In the third lap, they took the UConn DT Travis Jones, who was a long way off in the first lap given his impressive athleticism (4.92 seconds 40 yards, 7.33 seconds 3 cones, 9 feet, 2 inches wide jump) in his huge size (6 feet-4, 325 pounds). The Ravens lost Davis in the first round and got the discount version in Jones two rounds later. And then, they had six options in the fourth round. Six. Why; Because…