Payne has been resigned to nice lucrative deal. He earned it imo. Not in the least bit mad at this. They appear to have front loaded this deal as well I’m not fro certain but I read about the bonus. Bill is the cap guy tbh. He nails that stuff. I know this move alone cleared us with a bit of wiggle room entering FA. With a few more tweaks to contracts we need, we should I be good to go to sign a couple of lower end guys, resign our guys, and field a more complete team this year. Everyone wants a DB in the draft, one of the top ones. I want two DBs out of the deep draft class, and I think after addressing gaping holes in FA, OL should be a look, preferably RT, IOL, this draft appears stocked. And I’ve come to the conclusion that making as many picks in the top 100 should net us a nice haul. My guys in FA were discovered by Kyle and Bills right ups. I’m leaning towards the bargain with upside, the younger guys, and trying to tap into them. We’ve done this with Flowers, etc. In FA, one T, one G, (Dillard, Wylie, as example), we roll with what we’ve got. Develop the guys we draft on strength and tech. On the defense, I want to keep our ED just in case one of this pulls a Forest. I want a DB and Two LBs….we need an outside guy and this is where my money would go because depth in FA is great. Now, tech all lines are drawn. We’ve addressed huge needs. All hands on deck. Cap is also going to have to do some dances in following years I’d assume.

Draft:

My approach: trade back. I don’t think in reality a top player will be there. So I’m approaching mock this way. I know this isn’t how they really do things. I traded at the top trying to secure my targets. My first was Jones/Wright T at beginning of second round. I ended up with Jones. My second target was IOL, either Schmitz or Avila. I ended up with Avila. So top two picks were T Wright and G Avila PFF grades were good for Avila but B+ for Jones recap trades: AZ I received their picks up til the fifth and a future 3rd for 16, and I also moved down from the second a couple of spots with Hawks sending my last 7th for their second and a third. This secures a lot of picks in the top 100. These guys have a higher probability of making a season one impact imo. So Jones, T, Avila, G. 39,47. I then took strictly a C in Wypler at 66. This should shore up our already shored up OL (from FA remember one G, one T, keeping who we got for now). Now we have three young top 100 prospects to throw into the mix. I like this idea!

The rest: at this point I wanted to start thinking other needs like LB, DB, I really want a TE, but it appears by now all the guys I really like are gone (Kraft, Washington, Kincaid). I went Garrett Williams at DB. I like a couple of DBs but he was BPA. Brents was my preferred but he was gone. Now, this is where I’m going to get killed. Here I took Tanner, QB. My thought here is Howell is not sure thing. Hedge bets. With my next pick I took an ED, Brooks Bowling Green. We need some high upside guys here. This guy has some tools. So to recap, no trades, went Williams, DB with injury, talented, Tanner, QB Stanford, played in pro style, and Brooks. These are my top 100 haul:

Jones, T

Avila, G

Wypler, C

Williams, DB

Tanner, QB

Brooks, ED.

If two of these guys hit, successful, 2/6, better odds than 2/3. Now the back half I began to trade again to secure more picks to secure more guys. There’s value at the end of these drafts too. More so than in middle if two of these guys pan out. I figure later, it’s much harder to pin a guy down. I want guys who can have upside to play but man special teams as well. I’m not going to go into trades. I just went for later picks while moving back for my targets. I had guys in mind.

This is my haul:

123. Dorian Williams, LB. He’s a top 100 imo. Great value!

124. McQuire, ED, another top 100 imo

127. KK Henry, ED, you seeing the trend here? There is value at ED in 4-5 rounds. We may not freak this many picks, but even to just get two of these guys on top of what we got, that would be really smart. This is even if the BB is right which it’s not. Lol.

Those were my major steals imo. Those guys can be impact day one players as they are top 100 guys. So right as is, this haul is none top 100 prospects entering the NFL. Do you see my point. If we approached it this way, who knows how many times we’d hit more, or maybe less. I’d like to see.

The rest: I wanted guys who could have upside but run and tackle. I also wanted another QB (Bagent, QB flavor sleeper)

Hickman, S, OSU

MCBride, RB, UAB, I think this guy is a beast too, day one guy, top 100. But he’s a RB lol

Fehoko, ED San Diego ST

Blackmon, DB USC

Miller, LB, FLA

Diabiate, LB

Bagent, QB

16 is a lot. If this happened I wonder who would. I tried to trade picks for future but wasn’t worth it. So I made selections. I really would be thrilled with this haul. I did miss TE big WR targets. I also missed my C target and settled. I’m my final note, I want to add, while this would never happen, do you not see the advantages to targeting top 100 prospects. You can even stack later prospects because after outside that 100 (and even in it but less so) it is a relative crap shoot. That is why I practiced this. I have preached this now for years. I feel like this is the way to go. Maybe not this many selections, but rn, I don’t see why we have anything to lose. The only person who would lose if these guys don’t develop fast is Ron. That is why I doubt this. Last years draft, he targeted older more experienced prospects, I believe, he was targeting guys, he felt could help faster.