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

[Voice_of_Reason]

Toyota is Lexus.

Yes, I know. Lexus is the luxury brand of Toyota. I goofed though. Acura is the luxury brand of Honda and Infiniti is the luxury brand of Nissan.

So I'm saying Payne is a Lexus, Acura or Infiniti. He's better than a Toyota, Honda or Nissan.

But he's not a top end Mercedes or Bentley.

 

[Chris]

Oh, I think that's being a little unfair. Payne has a lot of strong assets. The first of which is he's remarkably durable. He's an above replacement level player. He's a clear starter at DT in the league.

Most teams would like to have Payne on their team, just not as a projected "star" or blue chip player.

I did pick the base model of the Lexus. I think he's better than a Toyota.

Or to use your brand, better than a Honda, so I'd make him a well appointed Infiniti base model infiniti. Or an Audi vs. VW.

He's good. He's just not great.

He's not a Bentley. Or a Mercedes Maybach 680.

** I really wanted to make him a Ford F250. I think that's a really apt comparison. Solid, dependable, available, and can get the job done. But I know literally squat all about pickup trucks. So I don't know what the Mercedes or Bentley of pickup trucks is....

Would a Super SUV suffice?

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Something isn’t enough and the damage isn’t just this offseason. It’s three. They have turned me around a bit on the defensive side but nothing we’ve done offensively has inspired confidence in me.

I guess I'm just assuming something more is going to happen.

If it doesn't, I'll be in freak out mode.

 

[KDawg]

If we trade down and get one of the names, sounds good. Delane, Downs, Tate… I just don’t see that as realistic. How far would we trade back and who are we trading with? My guess is NO and KC would stand pat, we shouldn’t trade with the Giants and they won’t trade with us. That leaves us with 11 onward.

I don’t love our chances of getting a big name there unless we are secretly coveting Bain.

If we trade down with Love on the board I’m going to drop kick a pillow cushion.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Would a Super SUV suffice?

View attachment 14724

I have literally no idea what that is...

 

[ES1974]

Yeah I don’t get the trading down for Delane line.

Trade down, take a WR, then go CB on day 2 with the acquired pick.

Or bounce back up for Chris Johnson, SD State CB, he’s is a damn good corner.

 

[Chris]

I have literally no idea what that is...

Lambo

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

If we trade down with Love on the board I’m going to drop kick a pillow cushion.

That's weak sauce. Go all in and drop kick an anvil.

 

[KDawg]

I guess I'm just assuming something more is going to happen.

If it doesn't, I'll be in freak out mode.

Can I ask what, besides working towards optimism, has given you confidence we will pull off of a move? I think we’re going to try for sure.

And we might do it. Not saying we won’t. But until we see marked improvement on that it’s just tough for me to believe.

I believe we’ll do right by the defense at this point. The offense is a whole different story.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Lambo

So if Payne is an F250, then Dexter Lawrence is a souped up Lambo SUV. Ok, I can live with that analogy.

 

[DWinzit]

Trading down and getting Delane would be a huge win. But we’ll see. Not sure how far back they can go to accomplish that.

Even they only went down a little only gotta a 4th for him, it would be freaking huge. Pulling a top 7 talent at a premium position and position of need later while adding a pick, sign me up

 

[Skinfanjon]

Yes, I know. Lexus is the luxury brand of Toyota. I goofed though. Acura is the luxury brand of Honda and Infiniti is the luxury brand of Nissan.

So I'm saying Payne is a Lexus, Acura or Infiniti. He's better than a Toyota, Honda or Nissan.

But he's not a top end Mercedes or Bentley.

This analogy is falling apart quickly. Guy has 1 pro bowl in his career three years ago and pro bowls mean fuck all anymore in general. He’s starter level in the league. That’s not worth $28M and certainly not meaningful draft picks for the privilege of paying it. He’s miles and miles behind a guy like Lawrence.

 

[KDawg]

Even they only went down a little only gotta a 4th for him, it would be freaking huge. Pulling a top 7 talent at a premium position and position of need later while adding a pick, sign me up

Don’t think there is a path to doing that, but it would be great if there was.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Can I ask what, besides working towards optimism, has given you confidence we will pull off of a move? I think we’re going to try for sure.

And we might do it. Not saying we won’t. But until we see marked improvement on that it’s just tough for me to believe.

I believe we’ll do right by the defense at this point. The offense is a whole different story.

The optimism is that we tried to do it twice this off season and failed. And in neither case does it seem like it was because of our offer, Pierce chose to stay in Indy when we might have offered him more money, and Doubs chose the Pats on what seems like an even offer.

Acceptance is the first step to recovery, and they have shown they have accepted they have a problem. They tried to fix it. It failed.

My thought is that just because they failed doesn't mean they are going to ignore the problem. What they didn't do is panic and overspend for players who probably couldn't help them at WR2. I appreciate that discipline.

So, I have some optimism.

It might be mis-placed. We'll find out in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Skinfanjon]

I don’t see how you trade down more than a pick or two and snag Delane, and it’s at risk as soon as 8.

If trading down for a CB, McCoy would make sense.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

This analogy is falling apart quickly. Guy has 1 pro bowl in his career three years ago and pro bowls mean fuck all anymore in general. He’s starter level in the league. That’s not worth $28M and certainly not meaningful draft picks for the privilege of paying it. He’s miles and miles behind a guy like Lawrence.

Right. As I said, he's a good player, not a $250k super luxury car player.

You can get a Lexus ES for $65k.

I compared Lawrence to a $250k Mercedes. (And Donald to a Bentley.)

I'm not sure where the analogy is failing.

If you want to say Payne is more of a Honda or Toyota and Lexus or Acura, I mean, fine. I think that's selling him a bit short. But whatever.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I don’t see how you trade down more than a pick or two and snag Delane, and it’s at risk as soon as 8.

If trading down for a CB, McCoy would make sense.

It's actually a risk as soon as 7, because the team moving up might be moving up to grab the best CB on the board...

I would be intrigued by moving down and picking up McCoy. But there's risk to that.

And I want to emphasize, I'm still a "stick and pick" guy.

But if they can move down, I want them to get a really good player with whatever they do moving down.

In the end, I want a blue chip prospect, I don't want a really good prospect and another better than average prospect.

But if they don't believe a blue chipper is there at 7, that changes the dynamic.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Oh, I think that's being a little unfair. Payne has a lot of strong assets. The first of which is he's remarkably durable. He's an above replacement level player. He's a clear starter at DT in the league.

Most teams would like to have Payne on their team, just not as a projected "star" or blue chip player.

I did pick the base model of the Lexus. I think he's better than a Toyota.

Or to use your brand, better than a Honda, so I'd make him a well appointed Acura. Or an Audi vs. VW. Or an Infiniti vs. Nissan.

He's good. He's just not great.

He's not a Bentley. Or a Mercedes Maybach 680.

** I really wanted to make him a Ford F250. I think that's a really apt comparison. Solid, dependable, available, and can get the job done. But I know literally squat all about pickup trucks. So I don't know what the Mercedes or Bentley of pickup trucks is....

EDIT: Post edited because I screwed up the luxury brands of Honda and Nissan.

The remarkable durability is exactly why I picked an Accord. Solid. Good car. Only one season when he was better than good.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Agree. If only KC had good hands

 

[DWinzit]

I don’t see how you trade down more than a pick or two and snag Delane, and it’s at risk as soon as 8.

If trading down for a CB, McCoy would make sense.

Yup depending on who is left. One or two OL go early, or Tyson or Lemon...who knows. The conjecture by everyone and thee lying by the teams, there's no way of telling how this draft goes