The 2026 Draft Thread - 1st Round - 7th overall

[HTTR]

Agreed, they had to deal with the beginning of the salary cap in 1994.

Gibbs left behind an ancient roster that was miles over the cap.

Don't forget that stupid Desmond Howard trade

Good point, he definitely had his work cut out for him. And Casserly for sure had some big whiffs there in the mid 90s. But I’ll give him this… By the time Snyder came along he had done a pretty good job building the roster back up to a playoff caliber team.

 

[Iraolaball]

How excited would you guys be if we came out of this with Lemon?

I’d be okay with it if it were a trade back, and we acquired a 2nd, and a 5th also.

 

[Conn]

 

[Commander Wraith]

Broadly speaking, and this is somewhat a guess on my end, I feel like a big part of this team’s problem with trading back historically has been forcing picks by need - Jamin Davis, Dotson, Doctson, Trent Murphy, etc.

 

[Anselmheifer]

Broadly speaking, and this is somewhat a guess on my end, I feel like a big part of this team’s problem with trading back historically has been forcing picks by need - Jamin Davis, Dotson, Doctson, Trent Murphy, etc.

Yes, but not when we lost the Cooper Dejean trade.

 

[HTTR]

Yes, but not when we lost the Cooper Dejean trade.

No? I would say both Sainristal and Sinnot belong on that list

 

[Anselmheifer]

No? I would say both Sainristal and Sinnot belong on that list

I mean, we had a million needs. We already had Ertz at that point. I don’t think TE was on the list.

 

[KDawg]

Uh. This is how teams pass protect. So… uh, I have no idea what he’s talking about here. But they played classic 6-man protection in this game.

What stood out to me in the Utah game was the lack of hand usage and wrist control from Bailey.

He does hit that spin in the game on Fano and it’s fucking beautiful. But Bailey is all burst and wiggle and very little hand usage. That’s why Fano (and Lomu) did so well with him.

Iheanchor did fantastic as well. If the OT can get off the ball they can really do a good job on Bailey.

Bailey isn’t a bad prospect or player, by the way. But he’s not the next coming of Bruce Smith. If we drafted him in the teens I’d be pretty stoked. Top 10? Not so stoked.

 

[ES1974]

Yes, but not when we lost the Cooper Dejean trade.

But we were never picking him, so we never missed out on Cooper because of the trade back. He probably didn’t have the Commander Tag allocated to him…

 

[ES1974]

I mean, we had a million needs. We already had Ertz at that point. I don’t think TE was on the list.

Interestingly the draft room footage showed Josh Harris make the same point about Ertz 😂

 

[Conn]

Uh. This is how teams pass protect. So… uh, I have no idea what he’s talking about here. But they played classic 6-man protection in this game.

What stood out to me in the Utah game was the lack of hand usage and wrist control from Bailey.

He does hit that spin in the game on Fano and it’s fucking beautiful. But Bailey is all burst and wiggle and very little hand usage. That’s why Fano (and Lomu) did so well with him.

Iheanchor did fantastic as well. If the OT can get off the ball they can really do a good job on Bailey.

Bailey isn’t a bad prospect or player, by the way. But he’s not the next coming of Bruce Smith. If we drafted him in the teens I’d be pretty stoked. Top 10? Not so stoked.

I think what he’s getting at is presenting those plays as 1-on-1 type reps that were either “won” or “lost” by Fano (or Bailey) is not representative of how the positions work, with the way teams pass protect and give RB chip help against guys who deserve the attention. Seemed like he was just adding nuance to a post that gained some traction.

Bailey being so poor against the run, and not having elite bend (more straight-line burst), worries me. And after the Chase Young experience, yeah lack of developed hand usage is a little scary

 

[Conn]

But we were never picking him, so we never missed out on Cooper because of the trade back. He probably didn’t have the Commander Tag allocated to him…

You were right to bring up that they may have loved Sain so much that if they’d stuck and picked, they may have just taken him over Dejean and Kool-aid anyways. But now you go a little too far asserting that we KNOW that’s the case. It’s true that it could be true. We can’t know.

Four CB’s (and five DB’s total) went after we traded back and before Sainristil. So while we know they loved Sainristil, we really don’t know anything else. They were certainly pleased he was there for them and considered it a gamble paid off. Doesn’t mean he was their only or top choice at the original spot the Eagles traded into. They may have traded back because they had 5 guys they really liked there, and we got the 5th one. Who knows.

 

[KDawg]

I think what he’s getting at is presenting those plays as 1-on-1 type reps that were either “won” or “lost” by Fano (or Bailey) is not representative of how the positions work, with the way teams pass protect and give RB chip help against guys who deserve the attention. Seemed like he was just adding nuance to a post that gained some traction.

Bailey being so poor against the run, and not having elite bend (more straight-line burst), worries me. And after the Chase Young experience, yeah lack of developed hand usage is a little scary

But most pass rushers aren’t left entirely on an island. The running backs scan, depending on scheme. That running back being inside is typical.

You can watch film of any of these guys and on 6man protections the back is somewhere.

And Bailey tried inside and outside moves and was stonewalled. The back barely got involved. So it was 1on1. You have to beat the OT for the back to make a difference.

 

[Commander Wraith]

You were right to bring up that they may have loved Sain so much that if they’d stuck and picked, they may have just taken him over Dejean and Kool-aid anyways. But now you go a little too far asserting that we KNOW that’s the case. It’s true that it could be true. We can’t know.

I briefly searched for that big board from our 2024 war room, because it would be a good data point on this front, but struck out. With Rivera we had the benefit (lol) of him talking about team need, telegraphing our picks, etc.

 

[Conn]

But most pass rushers aren’t left entirely on an island. The running backs scan, depending on scheme. That running back being inside is typical.

You can watch film of any of these guys and on 6man protections the back is somewhere.

And Bailey tried inside and outside moves and was stonewalled. The back barely got involved. So it was 1on1. You have to beat the OT for the back to make a difference.

What Schwartz is arguing/implying is that if for instance Bailey may be more likely to win with his speed to the outside, but with the RB over there he goes inside which plays further into Fano’s strengths than his own. So the RB impacted the pass rush plan either way, without having to touch Bailey.

But you’re right that NFL teams are going to do the same thing, all the time, so it’s still a red flag. It’s not like he’s going to get to work around the edge alone with his burst on every OT, and if he did teams would exploit that too.

But to call it essentially a 1-on-1 rep where the RB impacts nothing, Schwartz obviously disagrees and has some experience. I don’t have a clue in comparison to either of you tbh, I just thought it was interesting given his time in the league and his focus on OL prospects over the years. I don’t know if he’s actually a good analyst but figured he’d have some experience on the subject

 

[SkinDeep]

You don't have to "worry" about Bailey's run stopping because there is no way he makes it us at 7, based on everything you hear and see at this point. He is likely pick 2 or 3 and no chance he gets past 4. He's just an excellent, game-wrecking pass rushing prospect with long arms, proven production and really good athleticism.

 

[heisenberg]

But we were never picking him, so we never missed out on Cooper because of the trade back. He probably didn’t have the Commander Tag allocated to him…

Its always going to come down to picking the right players, if you dont do that it doesn't matter if you trade up, trade down or trade sideways.

The point is statistically speaking there are always better players the earlier you pick which increases your odds of getting a good one and we listed a bunch of examples where picking the player who went in our original slot would have been the right decision..

For example you're correct, when we passed on olave to trade back and take Dotson, had we taken devin Lloyd or Tyler linderbaum instead the trade probably would have worked out in our favor but thats using the power of hindsight much more than just suggesting we should have stayed put and took the guy who went in our original slot.

I have no objection to trading back on principle because as you say, if you make the right picks it can work out but historically we haven't been good at that.

 

[Discobob]

How excited would you guys be if we came out of this with Lemon?

I’d be okay with it if it were a trade back, and we acquired a 2nd, and a 5th also.

Yeah, if this is as the result of a trade back, I like it quite a bit, assuming the return was fair. Of course, I'd also be morbidly curious what other players were on the board when we made the pick... that's said, I like the player.

 

[Riggo44]

That's me and Sid just yesterday.

Pfft. That's not her. Boobs are WAY too small...

 

[Dlts20]

I've always felt like Bailey was the number one player on our board but they know that he won't be there so it's not even worth thinking about