Downs, then Delane for me
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The 2026 Draft Thread - 1st Round - 7th overall
- Thread starter Canadian Hog
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HailYeah
The Rookie
Tough. Probably delane or little bit of a reach for lemon at that point. His interview didn’t really bother me all that much after rewatching the full thing. I could see the chiefs drafting him and have him dominate with them.
philibusters
The 1st Round Pick
I agree with you. I have seen a few posters conflate Reese and Styles. I have only heard Styles mentioned as an offball linebacker. He is a fullsize LB, but is a converted safety. He could set an edge for you and he is a fairly physical football player with a decent punch but not to the same degree Reese is.
Reese played a hybrid role (offball LB/Edge) in college so he is the one without a set position. I don't think he is super risky like an Isaiah Simmons because he is very violent/physical. Reese is a guy who attacks blockers and takes the fight to them--so he'll be able to find a role, but there is a risk he is only a good offball linebacker (I'd be surprised if he is not at least good there) or just a rotational edge (the floor is lower at edge for him). But I remember somebody asked why Reese isn't the next Simmons on the TakeCommand podcast and Logan gave the exact same answer I instinctively had. His physicality will protect him. Simmons was 20 pounds smaller and was a hybrid safety/LB rather than hybrid LB/Edge and Simmons did not have the same type of violent mentality that Reese had. Thus he struggled at LB. And while he was fast enough at safety he didn't quite have coverage instincts there. He also may have ended up in the wrong scheme/team too, like in a Mike MacDonald coached defense or type coach, they may have figured out a way to make it work, but he was not on a creative enough defense. Main point being violence and physicality translate more easily to the NFL than finese. Both can work, but if you are a finese only type player your football instincts have to be exceptional.
I Ike Delane but yes, shocked he is that high. Any chance his grade is higher due to the amount teams avoided throwing to his side?
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Yes. Production. The guy was about as productive as a corner can be. I don’t measure that in ball production all the time, but overall production. He literally shut down an entire side of the field.
Makes sense to me, He had been underrated until his recent timed run drew attention to him.
I think it was Matt Miller that posted something that drew my attention that he allowed 10 completions all season for like 120 yards.
I wonder, mocks obviously could be off, but Tate going to Cleveland is becoming the thing over and over again
That's a weekend for our corners. I'm really coming around to Delane.
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He passes every metric. He really is one of the best prospects.
Styles is a physical freak, for instance, but his production and technique is still growing.
I think Styles ceiling is through the roof, though. And I don’t account for that in my current iteration of things.
But Delane from a general sense is probably the first or second best prospect in the draft.
ES1974
The 1st Round Pick
Agree. Wouldn’t be offended at all by us taking a potential stud CB.
So what would a team get when drafting Tate? The clear standout trait is his route running ability. Like the other receivers on the list above, Tate has clearly been extremely well coached by Hartline and has developed a strong understanding of how to run routes to attack leverage and create separation.
This route is a great example of the route running ability from Tate, despite the ball not coming his way. He’s lined up outside to the left and looks to run an in-cut off play-action. The corner is in press so Tate uses a slow release off the snap to get a feel for what the defender is going to do. If he jumps forward to aggressively jam him, Tate could then react accordingly, but on this occasion the corner immediately opens his hips and looks to bail out. After watching the corner begin to bail out, Tate stays slow for another step while the corner begins to turn and run. Tate then changes the tempo and accelerates quickly as he releases inside.
With the tempo change, the corner has to focus on getting to top speed and staying on top of the route, rather than where Tate is going. Tate angles his route vertically but slightly inside. As he gets past the 30 yard line, Tate then makes a strong move with a big jab step outside. He gets extremely close to the defender and nearly steps on his toes as he makes that move. The corner was purely focused on a vertical or inside route, so that sudden jab step outside causes him to panic about a break outside. The corner can’t just flip his hips and get outside, so instead he looks to bail out deeper to make sure he stays on top of any deep route down the sideline.
As the corner sinks back deeper, Tate sharply cuts off his route as he breaks over the middle. This creates a ton of separation from the corner, who continues to sink back deep for a few steps. Unfortunately, the quarterback was pressured and couldn’t find Tate’s route, but it was still a good example of the different parts of Tate’s route running ability. The tempo changes, the angles of his paths, the jab steps, the quickness in and out of his cuts, the sharpness of those cuts all make for an excellent route runner that is capable of creating consistent separation.
It’s those traits that also make Tate a strong deep threat. Some see Tate as primarily a deep threat and were disappointed that he only ran a 4.53 40-yard dash at the combine. When you think of elite deep threats in the NFL, you typically think of 4.3 or low 4.4 speed. 4.5 is by no means slow, but it’s not the type of speed that will enable a receiver to just run by most NFL cornerbacks purely on speed alone. So how is Tate such an effective deep threat without having elite speed? Route running.
Tate’s route running skills translate to those deeper routes. He understands how to set up defenders to create favorable situations for himself. You see it in a lot of his deep touchdowns how he uses subtle moves to cause defenders problems, rather than just purely running by them.
...So that play shows that Tate can be a strong threat down the field despite not having elite speed. He makes up for it with his route running by using things like tempo, angles, jab steps and more to manipulate defenders and beat them. As such, he’s a threat on double moves too.
Delane at 187 pounds, 30 inch arms, 6 foot, on this team relatively speaking he's a giant size wise.
I got to get to watching him, and also digging in to why he wasn't as good at Virginia Tech.
In general with this scheme, i am not excited about a corner and like the depth at that spot in this draft. But considering I think Peters has done a good job but somewhat unbalanced this off season with major holes at CB and WR I am open to it.
For a dude that supposedly is a shut down corner surprised he has like zero buzz to go top 5, and just some as to going top 7.
lol but strike against him for the comments below
I got to get to watching him, and also digging in to why he wasn't as good at Virginia Tech.
In general with this scheme, i am not excited about a corner and like the depth at that spot in this draft. But considering I think Peters has done a good job but somewhat unbalanced this off season with major holes at CB and WR I am open to it.
For a dude that supposedly is a shut down corner surprised he has like zero buzz to go top 5, and just some as to going top 7.
lol but strike against him for the comments below
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This is what I can't figure out. Mocks are just guesses but if you really look at them they may have the teams wrong but the top 10 is usually similar to the mocks. A month ago nobody had Delaney in the top 5. If he was always a shutdown corner why would this be the case?
philibusters
The 1st Round Pick
On Delane the two main concerns about him were that 1) He may lack the athleticism, he was being projected as a 4.5 flat and 2) cornerback has high variability and until this year he had not been elite. He ran a 4.35 and 4.38 at his pro day so that may have answered the concerns about the athleticism. Stats can be a little deceiving, for example KC Concepcion got him a couple times (but the QB was unable to connect), but I do think he is a very good prospect and worhty of a top 10 pick with this forty time. Before the forty time, I thought he may be a really good off coverage player, but limited in press, but those forty times indicate he should be able to play press too.
looking at Delane's PFF grades, his two worst games were Texas A & M and Alabama. I'll try to watch those in the mix.
I admit though it is fun to have a corner who is rarely tested. I was at that game versus New Orleans two seasons ago and the Saints were afraid to test Lattimore. Everything was thrown in the other direction.
Don't know if that carries over to the pros.
Flores' scheme by reputation doesn't need top flight corners, play a lot of cover 4, cover 2, you don't have to cover as much turf as some schemes, you got plenty of safety help, etc.
I admit though it is fun to have a corner who is rarely tested. I was at that game versus New Orleans two seasons ago and the Saints were afraid to test Lattimore. Everything was thrown in the other direction.
Don't know if that carries over to the pros.
Flores' scheme by reputation doesn't need top flight corners, play a lot of cover 4, cover 2, you don't have to cover as much turf as some schemes, you got plenty of safety help, etc.
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A lot of the early mocks also took heavy looks ad focus on what McCoy could be which I believe deflected focus off Delane...plus all the hype all the Ohio State players, Bain and Mendoza were receiving had Delane showing up between 8 -15
I didn't feel like McCoy was stealing much thunder because he was also outside the top 10. Usually shut down corners get a top of buzz -- Delane has very little. Delane is more like the off beat funky pick in mocks -- and again it doesn't mean anything but its just an odd journey for Delane in this process -- typically the Christian Gonzalez, Okudah, Stingley, etc had a ton of buzz. Though Gonzalez's buzz oddly weakened a little as the draft got closer.
That is fair. Deserved or not, to me it felt like McCoy was receiving quite a bit of buzz off his potential. The biggest question with Delane was his speed and he answered that call in aces which led to him moving into more top 8 conversations.
ES1974
The 1st Round Pick
I think he’s just on the outside of the OSU hype train, oh and Love. Do the Edge group really that much hype either, in comparison to previous years.
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