The 2025 Draft Thread

I don't know for sure. But one beat guy forgetting whom said Del Rio really didn't care for Kyle Hamilton. If so his instincts, clearly weren't hot.

The fact that coaches were influening picks to that extent is sad. Shows how bad that process was.
Oh absolutely. Almost as frustrating was the almost ignoring of the LB positions until they backed themselves into such a corner that they felt they had to draft Davis. These two ex LBs ignoring the position they played, effing amazing.
 
To add to my prior post, it is so nice that this regime has put the team in a spot where they can pick the positions they with to based on who falls to them. We never experienced that with the past nincompoops.
 
Oh absolutely. Almost as frustrating was the almost ignoring of the LB positions until they backed themselves into such a corner that they felt they had to draft Davis. These two ex LBs ignoring the position they played, effing amazing.

Among other things the way they dismantled that offensive line was criminal.

Ron would try to sell to the media that this is the place that a QB would want to play because of the top O line he inherited -- yet tore it apart.

Then banked on Sam Howell in Ron's last year and gave him a crap O line to back him up along with a pass happy offensive coordinator. What a disaster of an opertion.

The idea that Ron seems convinced that he's a part of this teams 2024 success is nauseating to me. Though he actually was a big part of it but not in the way he thinks -- he destroyed that roster so bad that it helped position them to get Daniels.
 
Yeah, I doubt even Ron can look at 61% of his prior roster getting replaced and think he had anything to do with what we saw in 2024... Self-delusion can only take you so far...
 
Yeah, I doubt even Ron can look at 61% of his prior roster getting replaced and think he had anything to do with what we saw in 2024... Self-delusion can only take you so far...
I don't get how he still gets street cred from the football world, he deserves none and I don't give a crap if he is a nice guy or has a resume
 
Ron has always been a pretty accomplished self-promoter. He got run out of Carolina after the Cam Newton era magic wore off, and immediately got another head coaching gig. I don't harbor any ill will towards him, as I believe as most of us do that he is a very good guy, but was just an average NFL coach and was in over his head in a HC/GM role.
 
The Rivera era just wasn't good when it came to drafting.

After the draft I always got on board with the picks. But with the Jamin Davis and Jahan Dotson's picks the process was something like: immediate reaction: unhappy and then over time I would become cautiously optimistic. I wanted Darrisaw in 2021 and Hamilton in 2022 (at 11) and Lindenbaum or Devin Lloyd at 16. Even as I became more optimistic about the pick, I still retained my preference. The Forbes pick was different for me. My immediate reaction was that I was unhappy because I wanted Gonzalez, but after further evaluation, I completely bought into that pick rather than just becoming cautiously optimistic. I thought Forbes was a good scheme for what Del Rio was running (and he probably was) and I became excited about how productive Forbes was in his three years of college. I think I vastly underestimated how much technique refinement Forbes needed. I realized his weight would hurt him, but I really believed he was going to become a top 20 corner in the league though he would always be a bit of a high variance player (a bit like Trevon Diggs)
 
I will take that bet. I’ll bet you an unlabeled aluminum can no more then 2 QBs are taken in the top 15 and no more than 4 in the entire first round.

The unlabeled aluminum can is reference to “After Midnight” with my current favorite comedian Taylor Tomlinson. She has C or D list celebrities on and they play these random quiz games for a prize. And the prize is always something completely inane and useless. One was an unlabeled aluminum can. Another was a copy of the fire exit plan from her last hotel. It’s brilliant. Everybody should go watch After Midnight for complete mindless fun.
Love Taylor Tomlinson. Going to see her in Phoenix later in the year.
 

If the McGinn scouts among others are correct among others, the scouting community is higher on him than the draft media. those scouts him him ranked higher than Ezierukau. I get the vibe he's going early 2nd at the latest.

When some in the draft media say they are hearing from some NFL teams that there hasn't been a bigger discrepancy between mocks and what NFL teams are thinking more than this draft -- this player might be one who falls in that discussion.

He seems perfect for this team. Good pass rush production and might be the best run stuffer at the spot.

How would you feel about him at 29? He seems like he’d be a culture fit. Maybe not that speed edge we need, but a youthful Dorrance Armstrong replacement plan with a little more juice.

I wouldn’t love it, but I could live with it.

I think I’d rather grab a top corner if Ezeiraku and Green aren’t there and we don’t want Pearce. Or offensive tackle if Simmons or Conerly are there.
 
Not sure about that take, SIP. I think one of the great things about Peters is his relationship with Quinn and how hard both work to communicate. Peters needs to know the kind of players who excell in Quinn's and Kingsbury's systems and what they need. So listening to coaches who say, I value X over Y feels key. I even like the idea of the scouts sharing tape with the coaches and saying what do you see in this guy. Now, the powers that be should never be influenced by the media or mock drafts, but I absolutely want them influenced by the coaches.
 
Loves Tory Holton and Demetrius Knight.
I am a little surprised Knight isn't discussed more. He seems to be flying under the radar some. Maybe it is just me noticing that here as Commanders fans not putting emphasis on LB (praying McGee works out). I however don't seem to hear or read a lot on him in general. He is a really good LB and if he falls into the 3rd round, he would be a bargain. I can see why Green and the team would like him and have interest.
 
It absolutely floors me that Ron Rivera got a GM job at Cal. Nd it’s a total shit show there too. Donors apparently not donating because somehow they think Rivera should have full control. Tons of players entering the portal. What a disaster. And any commanders fan could have told them.
 
I am a little surprised Knight isn't discussed more. He seems to be flying under the radar some. Maybe it is just me noticing that here as Commanders fans not putting emphasis on LB (praying McGee works out). I however don't seem to hear or read a lot on him in general. He is a really good LB and if he falls into the 3rd round, he would be a bargain. I can see why Green and the team would like him and have interest.
Really like LB Nick Martin from Oklahoma State in the later rounds (6th/7th). He was out most of last season but he blew it up in 2023.
 
I think we absolutely need to add a linebacker in the draft at some point or very least go the UDFA route. While there are several I like, I'd look closely at Auburn's Jalen McLeod plus the pass rush aspect he brings and I also really like Washington's Carson Bruener as a value pick.
 
Not sure about that take, SIP. I think one of the great things about Peters is his relationship with Quinn and how hard both work to communicate. Peters needs to know the kind of players who excell in Quinn's and Kingsbury's systems and what they need. So listening to coaches who say, I value X over Y feels key. I even like the idea of the scouts sharing tape with the coaches and saying what do you see in this guy. Now, the powers that be should never be influenced by the media or mock drafts, but I absolutely want them influenced by the coaches.

I agree. I am not talking about coaches not weighing in as to players that fit schemes. I am talking about coaches flat out doing player scouting and them running with their takes.

I recall that's the impression of how Gibbs approached the drafts when he was here, each coach would give the list of the players they liked for their position. And the scouts were somewhat ancillary. It should be IMO the reverse. The coaches should be ancillary versus driving it.

I don't want Del Rio running the draft board and saying Forbes is the guy. I want it the way we saw with Peters' going to the defensive staff saying here's Sainstrill. You like picks, here's your guy.

Peters referenced the scouts (not the coaches) giving him the list of players they liked per round.

If the coaches are driving scouting what's the use of scouts at all. Just assign Whitt to scout defensive players he likes. Assign Kingsbury to do the offense. The LB coaches to the LBs, etc. So your coaches expertise do not just extend to coaching but they are also master evaluators of college tape, too. That's how Rivera seemed to do it to some extent.

And I don't get the impression at all that's how its being done now. Evaluating players and coaching players is a different skill set. Part of the reason why even the great Bill Belichick, seemed to suck at player evaluation in the draft.
 
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Felt like they want to be funky just to be funky and it blew up in their face. Hey you draft media (especially PFF) thinks that Forbes would be the first ever to succeed at corner at that size. Gonzalez you say is a freak. Well, we will show you we will prove that Forbes is it. Dare to be different. Heck Fred Smoot thinks that dude is the next Darrell Green so we aren't alone on this

Kyle Hamilton you guys all say is a top 5 pick who is falling. Yawn. Heck our D coordinator doesn't even think much of him at all as a player let alone being a stud. Darrisaw at LT, premium position. Yawn. Heck we even dumped Morgan Moses. O line, will just work out no matter who we put out there. Most say if its LB at that spot take JOK. Yawn. We will take that raw LB from Kentucky that most say is a 2nd rounder but heck DJ says he's a stud. Another "outside the box" pick.

Yeah Dotson is small. Yeah just about everyone rates him in the 2nd round. But look he carries his football everywhere with him and what a cool story on multiple levels. Heck when we took him Doug Williams says he screams Terty Mclaurin.

On and on and on.
It is funny because now in some ways I am glad we had Forbes over Gonzalez now.

Anything that led us to JD, I am just going to move forward now because this is truly a player that I like on and off the field from what I see. 1 or 2 wins here and there and we don’t end up in that position. For me, liking a player as much as I like JD is super rare; I can’t remember the last time it happened to this extent. On a personal level (not analytical), the way he works and carries himself as a leader really connects with me. I love his even keel, “just put in the work” - limited talk, limited distraction, mindset. At least, that is what I noticed.

So I like how it ended enough at this point to put a lot of personal angst on the other stuff aside.

The weirdest part of the whole story is RR ending up in a GM like role now with a team, NCAA or not. What he was probably worst at is apparently what he has a job now doing…
 
Ron has always been a pretty accomplished self-promoter. He got run out of Carolina after the Cam Newton era magic wore off, and immediately got another head coaching gig. I don't harbor any ill will towards him, as I believe as most of us do that he is a very good guy, but was just an average NFL coach and was in over his head in a HC/GM role.

Yeah I don't harbor much ill will but I do some. The irony for me is the little ill will I hold towards him is that the self promotion extended to when he left, too. And the fact that he was Dan's defender right to the bitter end even when it didn't matter.

I do think Ron is delusional. But heck he loves to call himself an optimist and part of the process of being one involves at times some self delusion. So it works for him.

I'd like him a lot more if he killed all the self promo and was real. The height of it was when he told Keim heading into his last season, send him his SB ring, if the team wins one with mostly his roster. The whole interview came off like he was trying to sell that he killed it here considering context.

I think he killed it in one way. He was-is a classy dude in a sea of dysfunction and he kept his composure though it all. I'd love Ron if he just owned that, where he goes look it was tough, I did my best, brought some needed class and stability, yes i know some of our roster decisions didn't work, I regret that but I gave it my all.

But instead in an interview after he left he even suggested that he didn't want all that responsibility but it was foisted on him. Really? This is the same dude who bragged about how the coach centric model is the way to go when he took the job. But the spin is just non stop with him. He got Greg Olsen to sell on a broadast that hey it was Ron's roster that helped assist Quinn for the kill. I presume it was Ron who pushing that to Olsen, granted I don't know. then Ron on his own in an interview bragged about how Quinn told him that Ron set the groundwork for him.

lol, I know Voice_of_Reason will hate me for saying this but Jay comes off in my book so much better than Ron post leaving here. I think Jay has won over some of his skeptics by being so self-deprecating. He will freely talk about what he didn't do well. Ron doesn't really do that. Ron seems to be a non-stop PR machine for himself. He's a good guy so i have no beef with him as a dude. But as a football personality, he in my book is almost in obsessive complulsive PR mode for himself. And while it works with some in the national media, it didn't seem to work over time with some of the Carolina and Washington fan base that got tired of it.
 
I am a little surprised Knight isn't discussed more. He seems to be flying under the radar some. Maybe it is just me noticing that here as Commanders fans not putting emphasis on LB (praying McGee works out). I however don't seem to hear or read a lot on him in general. He is a really good LB and if he falls into the 3rd round, he would be a bargain. I can see why Green and the team would like him and have interest.

I got to watch him. PFF loves him. Mcshay talked him up recently.
 

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