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

I would hope Styles would come with a trade down. But yes, Love would be the preference between the two.
How far back do you think we can move back? I’d say no further than 9. And I’m not sure NO or KC will want to play ball
 
He's the mike lb so he'd of course be directing the defense not Reese. Hence I presume hence the comments about smarts.

I am somewhat in the J. Love crowd. I love the player. I am not though in the we have to take him crowd. But if its between Styles and Love, I think its Love by a mile.
Love by a mile in this scenario.
 
7 is good 😁

He’s going to be there and will be BPA when we pick.

I will be so pumped if we get Love at 7. We would have a top 5 offense for 5+ years and if you pair that with an average defense and you have a SB contender.
 
How far back do you think we can move back? I’d say no further than 9. And I’m not sure NO or KC will want to play ball
In this draft, I have no idea. Last draft was all over the place in terms of projections. This one is worse
 
They spoke of being more Leary of bringing in players with injury history. It stems from some of the many players who were injured last year already had injury concerns and history. They wish to avoid at all cost what occurred to the team last season.
Yeah, they made it quite clear about injury history for sure. I would think he is off our board.
 
I love Love but I'm not 100 percent sold on him over Styles by a mile. Styles is everywhere. He does have a, lot of Warner in him and is an underrated rusher. Having him command the defense could change everything.

You guys are saying Love over Styles by a mile but is that because you don't believe that he is Warner or because you would take Love over Warner by a mile? That sounds crazy to me because I've seen Warner control games and we just watched a SB led by 2 killler defenses. Warner is special and on a defense with Downs and Reese, Styles more than stood out and led them in tackles.

Our defense and LBs especially looked so slow trying to keep up with teams while our Offense was owned against the same. He's got safety speed at Lb. Putting him next to Magee has our speed on defense looking night and day from last season.

I love Offense but I think a lot of us are forgetting when we had Greg Williams, Sean Taylor, Fletcher, Springs, etc. It was a beauty to watch them shutting people down. Bill averaged 4.6ypc and had almost 900 yards in a limited role. He's capable of going for 1200 this year and CRod is good also.

I can't watch Wagner trying to keep up this year, being even a year older. With a WR and TE upgrade, the O will be fine. This D is trash and Styles has great potential. I'm not saying that I am picking him over Love for us but it is much closer than some are acting, especially when gauging the current guys we have at those positions.
 
I love Love but I'm not 100 percent sold on him over Styles by a mile. Styles is everywhere. He does have a, lot of Warner in him and is an underrated rusher. Having him command the defense could change everything.

You guys are saying Love over Styles by a mile but is that because you don't believe that he is Warner or because you would take Love over Warner by a mile? That sounds crazy to me because I've seen Warner control games and we just watched a SB led by 2 killler defenses. Warner is special and on a defense with Downs and Reese, Styles more than stood out and led them in tackles.

Our defense and LBs especially looked so slow trying to keep up with teams while our Offense was owned against the same. He's got safety speed at Lb. Putting him next to Magee has our speed on defense looking night and day from last season.

I love Offense but I think a lot of us are forgetting when we had Greg Williams, Sean Taylor, Fletcher, Springs, etc. It was a beauty to watch them shutting people down. Bill averaged 4.6ypc and had almost 900 yards in a limited role. He's capable of going for 1200 this year and CRod is good also.

I can't watch Wagner trying to keep up this year, being even a year older. With a WR and TE upgrade, the O will be fine. This D is trash and Styles has great potential. I'm not saying that I am picking him over Love for us but it is much closer than some are acting, especially when gauging the current guys we have at those positions.
I would take Love over Styles. And I like Styles a lot. Been talking about him for months. I think Love is more of a sure thing though. I would take Downs over both of them. I think he would give us a leader on the back end of the defense that we are sorely lacking. If we trade back Styles would be my target.
 
I love Love but I'm not 100 percent sold on him over Styles by a mile. Styles is everywhere. He does have a, lot of Warner in him and is an underrated rusher. Having him command the defense could change everything.

You guys are saying Love over Styles by a mile but is that because you don't believe that he is Warner or because you would take Love over Warner by a mile? That sounds crazy to me because I've seen Warner control games and we just watched a SB led by 2 killler defenses. Warner is special and on a defense with Downs and Reese, Styles more than stood out and led them in tackles.

Our defense and LBs especially looked so slow trying to keep up with teams while our Offense was owned against the same. He's got safety speed at Lb. Putting him next to Magee has our speed on defense looking night and day from last season.

I love Offense but I think a lot of us are forgetting when we had Greg Williams, Sean Taylor, Fletcher, Springs, etc. It was a beauty to watch them shutting people down. Bill averaged 4.6ypc and had almost 900 yards in a limited role. He's capable of going for 1200 this year and CRod is good also.

I can't watch Wagner trying to keep up this year, being even a year older. With a WR and TE upgrade, the O will be fine. This D is trash and Styles has great potential. I'm not saying that I am picking him over Love for us but it is much closer than some are acting, especially when gauging the current guys we have at those positions.

This means nothing to us now, but notably, Warner was a 3rd round pick. Will be cool when we can start drafting our own studs with less premium picks so we can stop dreaming that we’re able to draft similar players with our 1st.

On topic, Love would act as a force multiplier for Daniels, touching the ball maybe 20 times per game and super-charging the PA pass game even on plays without the ball.

I like Styles (more than Reese, I think, the more I get into these guys) and think he’ll develop into a good ILB. But I think it’s a less impactful position and his addition along with a good FA class MAY result in us having a league average defense. I think a FA LB can do the same. Whereas I think Love with this OL and Daniels can make this offense special in the right circumstances if Blough isn’t a dope. And help offset the fact that we won’t be able to add the sort of WR talent we wish we could, most likely. I value that more highly than taking a swing at an ILB, personally.

They are both technically “non-premium” positions but I think Love is more talented, on the whole, and can take over games himself with big plays in the running and receiving game. I think no matter how good Styles is in his first couple years, we won’t be able to add quite enough surrounding talent to the rest of that defense to let him shine as the sort of player who can take over a game. Teams will inevitably attack elsewhere until we load up that D with talent, if we’re ever able to.

So Love is a quicker and more efficient path to giving opposing coaches something to be afraid of in game prep, while assisting our highest value asset in Jayden.
 
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With the skim pickings at WR in FA, I am def warming to Tate at 7.

Love is the better player, but there are quality RBs in FA .
 
This means nothing to us now, but notably, Warner was a 3rd round pick. Will be cool when we can start drafting our own studs with less premium picks so we can stop dreaming that we’re able to draft similar players with our 1st.
Amen! It's going to take a hell of an off-season full of excellent personnel and coaching decisions but we can get there. It just feels like a long way off right now. I get jealous watching Roseman making so many moves around the draft to get the players they identify as best for their needs.
 
Unless he runs in his proday, I am guessing this almost guaranteed he drops out of the top 10

 
Even I am warming to Tate a bit more. I do not expect him to get out of the top 5 though, especially if Tyson can't show being totally healthy on his proday or private workouts

Itt however isn't totally uncommon for a player to make the decision Tyson made regarding the combine.
 
I love Love but I'm not 100 percent sold on him over Styles by a mile. Styles is everywhere. He does have a, lot of Warner in him and is an underrated rusher. Having him command the defense could change everything.

You guys are saying Love over Styles by a mile but is that because you don't believe that he is Warner or because you would take Love over Warner by a mile? That sounds crazy to me because I've seen Warner control games and we just watched a SB led by 2 killler defenses. Warner is special and on a defense with Downs and Reese, Styles more than stood out and led them in tackles.

Our defense and LBs especially looked so slow trying to keep up with teams while our Offense was owned against the same. He's got safety speed at Lb. Putting him next to Magee has our speed on defense looking night and day from last season.

I love Offense but I think a lot of us are forgetting when we had Greg Williams, Sean Taylor, Fletcher, Springs, etc. It was a beauty to watch them shutting people down. Bill averaged 4.6ypc and had almost 900 yards in a limited role. He's capable of going for 1200 this year and CRod is good also.

I can't watch Wagner trying to keep up this year, being even a year older. With a WR and TE upgrade, the O will be fine. This D is trash and Styles has great potential. I'm not saying that I am picking him over Love for us but it is much closer than some are acting, especially when gauging the current guys we have at those positions.

Over the years, its somewhat changed as to how certain positions develop. LB isn't typically a fast developing spot. Guys like Devin Lloyd, Jack Campbell, weren't great their rookie seasons. Heck Lloyd really took three seasons. Some of this years FA's like Leo Chenal, Nakobe Dean didn't start their careers red hot.

It's a tough positon -- Logan Paulsen gets into well in one of his podcasts about how much LBs have on their plate, and learn offenses and how to diagnose plays and call plays if you play Mike, etc -- it's more complex than some other spots.

And the idea that recently converted safety, Sonny Styles, will be the exception and hit the ground running from the jump while possible is unlikely.

Styles is a really good player and I've mentioned for months he's my top trade down player. But taking ANY LB in the top 10 is very rare.

RBs don't go top 10 often, but a Bijan Robinson, Barkley do. And Love arguably is in this class.

The Lions broke the mode one recent draft of course and drafted both a RB and LB early. But the RB they took at 12, the LB at 18.

Running backs unlike LBs do tend to kill it right away if they are good. And in the rookie QB window and considering its only two more years left of it, I am not high on taking a player who might not make a major impact in year 1 versus a dude who can transform the offense.

And the fact that Love IMO is a better player than Styles, factoring the rest of my point, its a no brainer for me. If they don't take Love, the one explanation I'll accept is going for a premium position instead of nonpremium. But no way for me I'd endorse taking another nonpremium position player over Love.
 
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Even I am warming to Tate a bit more. I do not expect him to get out of the top 5 though, especially if Tyson can't show being totally healthy on his proday or private workouts

Itt however isn't totally uncommon for a player to make the decision Tyson made regarding the combine.

The idea that a player with both a serious injury in his career and constant nagging injuries can't get over a nagging injury in time for the combine IMO isn't a good look.

And IMHO people hit him so much for the injuries and say so much he'd be ranked higher without them -- that there is this false narrative that some extrapolate from that point which is if healthy he's the best WR in this group -- IMO he isn't the best Wr when healthy and I know I got plenty of company with that opinion.

Right now, I wouldn't be surprised if he's the 4th WR taken.
 
The idea that a player with both a serious injury in his career and constant nagging injuries can't get over a nagging injury in time for the combine IMO isn't a good look.

And IMHO people hit him so much for the injuries and say so much he'd be ranked higher without them -- that there is this false narrative that healthy he's the best WR in this group -- IMO he isn't the best Wr when healthy and I know I got plenty of company with that opinion.

Right now, I wouldn't be surprised if he's the 4th WR taken.
Yeah I know Boston is hovering with these other to WR's. I have seen projections of up to 6 or 7 WR's sliding into the 1st round. That seems nuts to me but it is about supply and demand in FA and the draft.
 

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