The 2026 Draft Thread

[Always Commander Never Captain]

Not specifically about the players because you guys know so much more about them and it is great reading so thanks—
But one thing that has frustrated me all year is the nagging feeling that AP did not go BPA in the first this year. I thought it is basic draft science for the smart GMs which I also thought AP was.

I can’t get my head around it. Campbell was - I thought- consensus first rounder, and Josh was not, especially not early/mid. So BPA was clear. Eagles wanted that trade because the value dynamic was there. It made sense. So the double whammy was not trading down (when you knew or should have known this guy you wanted wasn’t consensus at that spot) or not getting BPA.

I guess Campbell had an injury, maybe that is why. So maybe AP has a heavier devalue on injuries but if so, can’t figure Newton since his was worse.

I like Connerly personality and think he has talent, but I feel like it is relatively proven that BPA builds winners more consistently. I can’t shake the feeling that either AP made a single mistake here or his philosophy is broken. I am pretty worried it could be the latter because of other moves (like the Dejean move).

Someone correct me here, but if I recall we had several trade offers. One was for Pearce if he fell, but Atlanta wound up trading up past us anyways. Another was Kansas City looking to take an OT (unclear if we knew which one they wanted), and then there was a team in the 2nd round that wanted to move up but they thought the drop would have been too far.

Does that sound familiar to anyone else?

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Someone correct me here, but if I recall we had several trade offers. One was for Pearce if he fell, but Atlanta wound up trading up past us anyways. Another was Kansas City looking to take an OT (unclear if we knew which one they wanted), and then there was a team in the 2nd round that wanted to move up but they thought the drop would have been too far.

Does that sound familiar to anyone else?

I'm not sure but the 100% trade down that existed was Eagles - it was on their draft video and ours too. They tried to trade down two spots to jump KC and into our spot, and they offered I think a 5th rounder.

With our positioning - it appears we were married to Connerly. It's strange to me, because while I like Connerly, I feel like emotionless drafting with confidence on your board and BPA (sure you can have some variability on it based on some preferences, we're human) - but I feel like in our situation, we badly needed LB. I don't know how anyone could think we couldn't use a young LB with Wagner being our best LB. It's worked out much worse than I expected, but I didn't expect Wagner to be an answer next year for example. So in this case, consensus BPA was a position of need - that is typically a no-brainer unless you are making an obvious mistake (which Cerrato did over and over).

I read your post skinsinparadise and it sounds like you are saying Campbell wasn't a consensus BPA but I thought he pretty much was at that spot. I know consensus doesn't mean anything specific to Adam's board - and you can see some logic on it based on Campbell's injury, but I can't figure that alongside taking the Newton risk.

It just looks to me like a very "rookie GM" kind of move, getting really tied up with one player, your pick gets called, and you can't bear the thought of missing out on that player even though it's not such a huge risk. Of course I could be dead wrong there - KC took a tackle and for all we know, Connerly could have been their first option. That could be to your point Always Commander Never Captain - there could have been legitimate concern that any trade down means no Connerly who they really wanted. I guess at that point it's just opinions and I can't fault them for that. They didn't want to trade down because they wanted Connerly more than the alternatives, they didn't want Campbell because of injury and they liked Connerly a lot - there is a legit concern on KC taking Connerly, that totally does make sense.

Trust me, I was thrilled with the attention OL finally got. Total believer in the LINES' importance. However, I look at overall investment too - and we had invested heavily in Tunsil. So my thinking was, the door was wide open for BPA, and when it looked like we didn't go there I was concerned (along with no trade down). Now I can see why they didn't want to trade down - there were concerns with the tackle KC took (personality), which were non-existent for Connerly. I can subscribe to that philosophy. I just like being able to see some strings of logic to explain the moves - I can kind of see it now; probably disagree, but as long as it's visible, I'm good.

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

I've seen 2 games of Mansoor Delane now, I want to watch his best game to compare, but so far I do not like him at the current consensus value. He's pretty unanimously a mid-1st pick right now, often taken in the low-mid Teens. I don't think he's good enough for that.

I've got his grade range right now (still want to see his best game + Senior Bowl/Combine) between late 1st/early 2nd all the way down to late 2nd. He's a full on negative for effort/tackling in space. If a runner (could be a WR, QB, RB, TE, whoever) isn't his guy he's jogging to it. Screen passes in front of him, he's only back pedaling and then getting blown up by blockers.

He's got a variety of coverage techniques, which is his plus. I've seen some press and press-bail man, but mostly it's Deep Off for zone or Shallow Off for slide-shuffle zone. He's done some mirroring of Nickel guys in motion, but hasn't looked good doing it. He's lined up as a Deep 3rd and Deep Half safety on occasion.

In general he's got some plus scheme ability, plus (but not freakishly fluid ala Christian Gonzalez) mobility, but to put it politely I question his desire to be around the ball.

 

[Conn]

I'm not sure but the 100% trade down that existed was Eagles - it was on their draft video and ours too. They tried to trade down two spots to jump KC and into our spot, and they offered I think a 5th rounder.

With our positioning - it appears we were married to Connerly. It's strange to me, because while I like Connerly, I feel like emotionless drafting with confidence on your board and BPA (sure you can have some variability on it based on some preferences, we're human) - but I feel like in our situation, we badly needed LB. I don't know how anyone could think we couldn't use a young LB with Wagner being our best LB. It's worked out much worse than I expected, but I didn't expect Wagner to be an answer next year for example. So in this case, consensus BPA was a position of need - that is typically a no-brainer unless you are making an obvious mistake (which Cerrato did over and over).

I read your post skinsinparadise and it sounds like you are saying Campbell wasn't a consensus BPA but I thought he pretty much was at that spot. I know consensus doesn't mean anything specific to Adam's board - and you can see some logic on it based on Campbell's injury, but I can't figure that alongside taking the Newton risk.

It just looks to me like a very "rookie GM" kind of move, getting really tied up with one player, your pick gets called, and you can't bear the thought of missing out on that player even though it's not such a huge risk. Of course I could be dead wrong there - KC took a tackle and for all we know, Connerly could have been their first option. That could be to your point Always Commander Never Captain - there could have been legitimate concern that any trade down means no Connerly who they really wanted. I guess at that point it's just opinions and I can't fault them for that. They didn't want to trade down because they wanted Connerly more than the alternatives, they didn't want Campbell because of injury and they liked Connerly a lot - there is a legit concern on KC taking Connerly, that totally does make sense.

Trust me, I was thrilled with the attention OL finally got. Total believer in the LINES' importance. However, I look at overall investment too - and we had invested heavily in Tunsil. So my thinking was, the door was wide open for BPA, and when it looked like we didn't go there I was concerned (along with no trade down). Now I can see why they didn't want to trade down - there were concerns with the tackle KC took (personality), which were non-existent for Connerly. I can subscribe to that philosophy. I just like being able to see some strings of logic to explain the moves - I can kind of see it now; probably disagree, but as long as it's visible, I'm good.

I don’t know if it makes you feel better, but I distinctly remember on draft night the narrative was that the Chiefs would have taken Conerly, and settled for the more red-flaggy OT they took instead. Giving the Chiefs dynasty what they want for a 5th round pick and then having to settle for our next favorite guy would make us fools imo. I think Conerly was clearly BPA for us at that spot. It’s not like OT was our biggest need, didn’t feel like a desperation reach.

Now, were they right? Idk, Newton was supposed to be such an obvious falling BPA target with 1st round talent that we tried trading up for him before he fell to us. Haven’t seen that on the field and it can’t be attributed to his injury concerns.

Same with Sainristil, they were fine passing on Cooper + Kool Aid at DB because they had a high grade on Sainristil and agreed with Saban that he was pound for pound a better football player. That’s not playing out either.

So I think AP is heavily weighting BPA in his decisions. I just don’t think we have enough info yet to know whether our grades will be more on point over a larger sample size.

I’ve had the theory that as a new GM and a real peace maker/collaborator, AP has been listening and incorporating his coaches (and assistant coaches) thoughts on these prospects too much. And that ends up in the final grade that determines BPA. These assistants have no idea how to use the vets on our roster so why should we believe they know what to look for in their 8 weeks or so of college film study?

I personally think AP needs to swing his nuts around a little more in that building and bet more on the talent evaluation of himself and his hand-picked scouts and personnel execs. It’s what made him such a hot GM candidate in the first place, along with his great relationships around the league. His job will live or die on the choices he makes, I personally wouldn’t continue weighting the opinions of the coaches you may need to replace quite so heavily. Bring in talent YOU the GM have conviction about and tell the coaches to build schemes and game plans around that talent or get lost. Drafting for our existing terrible schemes is not working. Be the team that takes the best talent and then amplifies their strengths and hides their weaknesses, and do that all over the roster on both sides of the ball until you’re contending for championships.

I’m not saying AP is being run over roughshod or anything, ultimately he is still setting the board with his guys and making the picks. But I think he’s extremely collaborative with coaches (and position coaches) who may not know what the fuck they’re looking at or what they actually need—or might overlook a real talent bc it’s not what they “think” their rigid schemes need) to the point of hurting himself.

I think AP does this too much because when he was in SF that’s how Lynch did it (Lynch, who didn’t rise through the personnel side conventionally and was an out-of-the-box hire), because Kyle Shanahan is sort of a savant on certain things (and even Kyle would consistently pound the table to trade up for a mid-round RB that he “handpicked” every other year and the dude would be a huge bust! Another random RB on the roster would pop instead bc the scheme is the star, and Kyle is a genius play caller not a genius scout)

So, yeah. AP needs to nut up, ignore coaches who can’t project college talent like a scout, and stop hiding behind “consensus”. Consensus in the building creates a chummy comfortable atmosphere but it will get him fired eventually. You need consensus on a franchise-altering asset like a QB, but you don’t need it everywhere. And being right over time will make people trust you and resist less. Lead this franchise like you were hired to do and draft some fucking studs whether your coaches think they fit the scheme or “role” they envision or not. Then replace those coaches if they don’t get on-board, and hire a staff that builds their schemes around their specific talent each year. Otherwise we’ll sink.

 

[Riggotoni]

The "red-flaggy" OT the Chiefs took was Simmons, who is looking a whole lot better than Conerly. His issue is durability, so I guess the jury is still out, but he's a pro-bowl caliber LT, whereas Conerly was really struggling at RT until Cosmi made a comeback to shore up the right side.

 

[skinsinparadise]

I read your post skinsinparadise and it sounds like you are saying Campbell wasn't a consensus BPA but I thought he pretty much was at that spot. I know consensus doesn't mean anything specific to Adam's board - and you can see some logic on it based on Campbell's injury, but I can't figure that alongside taking the Newton risk.

I didn't even broach the subject of consensus. I don't really care if he were but he wasn't. Early on he was. There was a lot of talk of him dropping to the 2nd round as the draft approached. We even talked about that on the draft thread multiple times. He had to have shoulder surgery and there were red flags over his knee and long term health concerns post his combine medicals.

Unless Campbell switches successfully to edge -- yawn to me taking a LB over a potential cornerstone tackle.

I used to quote a scout on ES all the time who said something like you need to have a good O line to have a good team -- Kiper ironically said something similar on a recent show. It's a mantra for McShay, get your O lineman early its such a harfd position to find. I am in that camp.

An 21 year old athletic left tackle with high intangibles isn't a reach in the late first. I think there is a good shot it ends up a great pick. I'd feel much worse about this team headed to 2026 without this O line.

The Bears gave Caleb plenty of weapons in 2024 but failed to give him an O line. This year he had both and they are headed to the playoffs. This team has the O line but not the weapons -- if they give Jayden weapons this off season I think they are back in the post season.

It just looks to me like a very "rookie GM" kind of move, getting really tied up with one player, your pick gets called, and you can't bear the thought of missing out on that player even though it's not such a huge risk. Of course I could be dead wrong there - KC took a tackle and for all we know, Connerly could have been their first option. That could be to your point Always Commander Never Captain - there could have been legitimate concern that any trade down means no Connerly who they really wanted. I guess at that point it's just opinions and I can't fault them for that. They didn't want to trade down because they wanted Connerly more than the alternatives, they didn't want Campbell because of injury and they liked Connerly a lot - there is a legit concern on KC taking Connerly, that totally does make sense.

Trust me, I was thrilled with the attention OL finally got. Total believer in the LINES' importance. However, I look at overall investment too - and we had invested heavily in Tunsil. So my thinking was, the door was wide open for BPA, and when it looked like we didn't go there I was concerned (along with no trade down). Now I can see why they didn't want to trade down - there were concerns with the tackle KC took (personality), which were non-existent for Connerly. I can subscribe to that philosophy. I just like being able to see some strings of logic to explain the moves - I can kind of see it now; probably disagree, but as long as it's visible, I'm good.

I recall lamenting during the playoff run, look at the Lions with bookend tackles, Tampa, Philly and we were so far off from that.

I have some issues with some of Peters off season moves but I give him kudus for building an O line that likely can rival the best ones in the upcoming years.

I had many issues with Ron Rivera -- and my number 1 beef was how he dismantled a good O line and made it bad.

 

[skinsinparadise]

The "red-flaggy" OT the Chiefs took was Simmons, who is looking a whole lot better than Conerly. His issue is durability, so I guess the jury is still out, but he's a pro-bowl caliber LT, whereas Conerly was really struggling at RT until Cosmi made a comeback to shore up the right side.

The issue with Simmons was durability and character. Both popped up in season 1. Their PFF grades are now almost identical (Conerly and Simmons) after the rough start for Conerly and Simmons is playing his natural position.

Simmons is a really smooth pass protector but is struggiling as a run blocker. But am just wary of any player with character concerns especially when work ethic is part of that soup.

72 PFF grade for Conerly in the last three games. 58 for Simmons. Conerly one year younger with high intangibles and works his ass off from what I've heard.

 

[skinsinparadise]

He's playing much harder now than he did in college. Effort and gritty play is through the roof for him. He doesn't quite have the size to bang like he's doing, but he's putting his hat in there and it's making things happen.

A lot of his plays though are motor + 2nd effort, which is great. Someone needs to clean up plays. But his draft flaws are still there. I'll actually say his bend isn't good, it's just average. He can be steered around the pocket pretty easily with his speed rush. Some of his sacks are from QB's (like his one on Bryce Young) scrambling against other pressure straight into the path the OT is steering Pearce. A nice surprise is a new spin move used by Pearce this season, which I can't really recall as a draft prospect but I may be mistaken.

We would still love him on our team, especially if his high motor is now who he actually is (his motor was a bit hot and cold in college). He'd instantly be our best pass rusher, but that is such a low bar to clear. I still don't think he's got the talent to be what the pass rush is built around. I think he's a great complimentary piece to another.

Been awhile since I watched college Pearce. And I haven't watched every sack of his to define his play this season. But just following the national narrative, he's been getting increasing hype as the season progresses.

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

The issue with Simmons was durability and character. Both popped up in season 1. Their PFF grades are now almost identical (Conerly and Simmons) after the rough start for Conerly and Simmons is playing his natural position.

Simmons is a really smooth pass protector but is struggiling as a run blocker. But am just wary of any player with character concerns especially when work ethic is part of that soup.

72 PFF grade for Conerly in the last three games. 58 for Simmons. Conerly one year younger with high intangibles and works his ass off from what I've heard.



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Wow...I'm wondering if some teams had removed him from their board if these character issues were present in college. I bet the Chiefs trade up offer for us was for Conerly then. Also, not that I like PFF, but a 72 grade for Conerly over the past 3 weeks matches the eye test. He's played well lately.

It was definitely a not sexy draft pick (in my mind), and wasn't what I would have done (Trade Back, Ezeiruaku, or Henderson were my thoughts in the moment), but I am grateful Adam Peters went with something that was not a need. I mean, Brandon Coleman is a solid, young, and developing tackle. But he thought Conerly was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Maybe our OL develops into a Top 5 unit in 2026.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Wow...I'm wondering if some teams had removed him from their board if these character issues were present in college. I bet the Chiefs trade up offer for us was for Conerly then. Also, not that I like PFF, but a 72 grade for Conerly over the past 3 weeks matches the eye test. He's played well lately.

It was definitely a not sexy draft pick (in my mind), and wasn't what I would have done (Trade Back, Ezeiruaku, or Henderson were my thoughts in the moment), but I am grateful Adam Peters went with something that was not a need. I mean, Brandon Coleman is a solid, young, and developing tackle. But he thought Conerly was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Maybe our OL develops into a Top 5 unit in 2026.

Keim has said he heard that there was interest in Conerly after their pick and thus they didn't want to trade back and miss out.

Yeah as to Simmons, i recall Logan Paulsen and Sikkema from PFF loving him, but I didn't really watch him myself in part because he didn't strike me a Peters type. Injury concerns and character concerns and when the character stuff delves into work ethic that red flag some teams can't overlook. But clearly in season 1 both durability and character did manifest for Simmons.

Conversly, Conerly who is younger and a bit more raw, was very durable in college and supposedly his intangibles and work ethic are a 10 out of 10.

Simmons though the smoother pass protector was clearly the riskier pick.

 

[The Chump Bailey]

Hmmm. Thus far I'm liking Jadarian Price better than Jeremiyah Love.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Hmmm. Thus far I'm liking Jadarian Price better than Jeremiyah Love.

why?

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

I didn't even broach the subject of consensus. I don't really care if he were but he wasn't. Early on he was. There was a lot of talk of him dropping to the 2nd round as the draft approached. We even talked about that on the draft thread multiple times. He had to have shoulder surgery and there were red flags over his knee and long term health concerns post his combine medicals.

Unless Campbell switches successfully to edge -- yawn to me taking a LB over a potential cornerstone tackle.

I used to quote a scout on ES all the time who said something like you need to have a good O line to have a good team -- Kiper ironically said something similar on a recent show. It's a mantra for McShay, get your O lineman early its such a harfd position to find. I am in that camp.

An 21 year old athletic left tackle with high intangibles isn't a reach in the late first. I think there is a good shot it ends up a great pick. I'd feel much worse about this team headed to 2026 without this O line.

The Bears gave Caleb plenty of weapons in 2024 but failed to give him an O line. This year he had both and they are headed to the playoffs. This team has the O line but not the weapons -- if they give Jayden weapons this off season I think they are back in the post season.



I recall lamenting during the playoff run, look at the Lions with bookend tackles, Tampa, Philly and we were so far off from that.

I have some issues with some of Peters off season moves but I give him kudus for building an O line that likely can rival the best ones in the upcoming years.

I had many issues with Ron Rivera -- and my number 1 beef was how he dismantled a good O line and made it bad.

I see what you mean - positional value is so much higher for tackles, the value for THIS team is so much higher at that position, and Tunsil alone did not have us in any way in a solid place for that position.

All valid, makes sense. I was already feeling good because I really like Connerly over Simmons for the character issues that I knew about (I saw those Simmons reports during the year as well, and yes it is the panning out of the performance issues on character which is a huge red flag for most, because work ethic matters so much - you don't get a finished product out of college, even the most talented guys out of college will need work ethic to reach high peaks, 100%). My issue was why not trade down but of course - it makes sense- KC would very likely have rated Connerly higher so getting down to the Eagles pick made no sense for them. I believe KC did trade down and took the 5th rounder from PHI, PHI got to move down the one spot and take the LB they coveted so badly.

That LB was a huge position of need for this team, and while I still think that is an issue (because I think maybe you are underselling the need perhaps; we were so easy to gameplan against with our LB situation this year), there is 0 issue with strengthening OL and an eye on the long-term being more solid there. I am not looking to argue an opinion against AP anyway - it's his call - I just want to understand the potential thinking. Again, too, I love Connerly traits, personality and character. We should see some idea of the thinking. Like drafting Malcolm Kelly in the 2nd round in 2008, Fred Sleepy Davis... some of those, it's just obvious that guy was just doing too much you couldn't understand well.

Thanks skinsinparadise for sharing that insight!

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

I don’t know if it makes you feel better, but I distinctly remember on draft night the narrative was that the Chiefs would have taken Conerly, and settled for the more red-flaggy OT they took instead. Giving the Chiefs dynasty what they want for a 5th round pick and then having to settle for our next favorite guy would make us fools imo. I think Conerly was clearly BPA for us at that spot. It’s not like OT was our biggest need, didn’t feel like a desperation reach.

Now, were they right? Idk, Newton was supposed to be such an obvious falling BPA target with 1st round talent that we tried trading up for him before he fell to us. Haven’t seen that on the field and it can’t be attributed to his injury concerns.

Same with Sainristil, they were fine passing on Cooper + Kool Aid at DB because they had a high grade on Sainristil and agreed with Saban that he was pound for pound a better football player. That’s not playing out either.

So I think AP is heavily weighting BPA in his decisions. I just don’t think we have enough info yet to know whether our grades will be more on point over a larger sample size.

I’ve had the theory that as a new GM and a real peace maker/collaborator, AP has been listening and incorporating his coaches (and assistant coaches) thoughts on these prospects too much. And that ends up in the final grade that determines BPA. These assistants have no idea how to use the vets on our roster so why should we believe they know what to look for in their 8 weeks or so of college film study?

I personally think AP needs to swing his nuts around a little more in that building and bet more on the talent evaluation of himself and his hand-picked scouts and personnel execs. It’s what made him such a hot GM candidate in the first place, along with his great relationships around the league. His job will live or die on the choices he makes, I personally wouldn’t continue weighting the opinions of the coaches you may need to replace quite so heavily. Bring in talent YOU the GM have conviction about and tell the coaches to build schemes and game plans around that talent or get lost. Drafting for our existing terrible schemes is not working. Be the team that takes the best talent and then amplifies their strengths and hides their weaknesses, and do that all over the roster on both sides of the ball until you’re contending for championships.

I’m not saying AP is being run over roughshod or anything, ultimately he is still setting the board with his guys and making the picks. But I think he’s extremely collaborative with coaches (and position coaches) who may not know what the fuck they’re looking at or what they actually need—or might overlook a real talent bc it’s not what they “think” their rigid schemes need) to the point of hurting himself.

I think AP does this too much because when he was in SF that’s how Lynch did it (Lynch, who didn’t rise through the personnel side conventionally and was an out-of-the-box hire), because Kyle Shanahan is sort of a savant on certain things (and even Kyle would consistently pound the table to trade up for a mid-round RB that he “handpicked” every other year and the dude would be a huge bust! Another random RB on the roster would pop instead bc the scheme is the star, and Kyle is a genius play caller not a genius scout)

So, yeah. AP needs to nut up, ignore coaches who can’t project college talent like a scout, and stop hiding behind “consensus”. Consensus in the building creates a chummy comfortable atmosphere but it will get him fired eventually. You need consensus on a franchise-altering asset like a QB, but you don’t need it everywhere. And being right over time will make people trust you and resist less. Lead this franchise like you were hired to do and draft some fucking studs whether your coaches think they fit the scheme or “role” they envision or not. Then replace those coaches if they don’t get on-board, and hire a staff that builds their schemes around their specific talent each year. Otherwise we’ll sink.

We have the same theory, 100%.
Hard to know if it's true, but it has some smell for sure. Definitely a few rock solid observables mixed in as well, and solid logic like you said (about history with SF/Lynch).

I also think there were many connections with our ST coach and a few of the kickers we got as well, so that may have played into letting Slye go which was probably a mistake. I get why some thing McManus could have been better, but was it worthwhile even at the time? My feeling was no (even at the time). Kickers being what they are, I would not have gotten rid of Slye; it just has taken us through a horrible kicker mess. Even Zane seems like a mistake to have moved on from.

Your first point - yes it does make me feel better, I had not heard that story. I do like strengthening the lines, and you are right, that likely means for AP Connerly was BPA above Campbell, and as skinsinparadise pointed out, there were arguably stronger injury concerns on Campbell combined with positional value too. Interesting thoughts - I just like looking to see we can see solid strings of logic there and there are plenty.

 

[skinsinparadise]

I see what you mean - positional value is so much higher for tackles, the value for THIS team is so much higher at that position, and Tunsil alone did not have us in any way in a solid place for that position.

All valid, makes sense. I was already feeling good because I really like Connerly over Simmons for the character issues that I knew about (I saw those Simmons reports during the year as well, and yes it is the panning out of the performance issues on character which is a huge red flag for most, because work ethic matters so much - you don't get a finished product out of college, even the most talented guys out of college will need work ethic to reach high peaks, 100%). My issue was why not trade down but of course - it makes sense- KC would very likely have rated Connerly higher so getting down to the Eagles pick made no sense for them. I believe KC did trade down and took the 5th rounder from PHI, PHI got to move down the one spot and take the LB they coveted so badly.

That LB was a huge position of need for this team, and while I still think that is an issue (because I think maybe you are underselling the need perhaps; we were so easy to gameplan against with our LB situation this year), there is 0 issue with strengthening OL and an eye on the long-term being more solid there. I am not looking to argue an opinion against AP anyway - it's his call - I just want to understand the potential thinking. Again, too, I love Connerly traits, personality and character. We should see some idea of the thinking. Like drafting Malcolm Kelly in the 2nd round in 2008, Fred Sleepy Davis... some of those, it's just obvious that guy was just doing too much you couldn't understand well.

Thanks skinsinparadise for sharing that insight!

LB is a need now. But last off season, they had two All Pro LBs, not much of a need compared to other positions. Also, LB isn't really these days a first round position mostly.

Jayden is their most prized asset. Protect him. Coleman at LT, Allegretti at LG, Wylie at RT isn't that hot. Peters IMO screwed up on some fronts this off season -- but O line was well done IMO from him.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Shock the world, Vegas but lol I doubt it. Speaking of the value of bookend tackles...

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

I kind of disagree on LB being a need. Wagner will retire and Magee will take the Green Dot. I think player development from Medrano + Luvu will take the other spot.

Do we need to address it? Of course. Is it a need like other positions...I don't think so. Draft for depth and develop, yes. Adam Peters was part of the 49ers having great success drafting quality LBs on day 3. I don't want to spend a 1st on Sonny Styles for example.

 

[method man]

I kind of disagree on LB being a need. Wagner will retire and Magee will take the Green Dot. I think player development from Medrano + Luvu will take the other spot.

Do we need to address it? Of course. Is it a need like other positions...I don't think so. Draft for depth and develop, yes. Adam Peters was part of the 49ers having great success drafting quality LBs on day 3. I don't want to spend a 1st on Sonny Styles for example.

Who is to say that Magee has the football IQ to wear the green dot? I wish we could find that out rest of the year.

I think the off ball LB class may be the deepest position group in FA and we can go pick up a guy like a Micah McFadden on a 1 year deal as insurance

 

[DWinzit]

There are a number of LB's scheduled to be FA's that have green dot helmet experience. I could easily see the team attempt to sign one of them during the tampering period if they do let Wagner go.

Luvu does have some green dot experience so they could try him out.

I don't see them trusting Magee with the green dot. He has not been on the field enough. Him missing so much time due to injury both in season and preseason has been substantial and a concern as well

And Medrano who? That dude has been nonexistent other than occasions on Teams.

LB's need to be on the field not the sidelines to get a feel the game.

We had the perfect opportunity for Wagner to teach up these young guys, I just hope he has done that and they show up much bigger to end this season.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Keim in his last podcast said this team's intention is for MaGee to become the green dot guy and followed with an interview with Magee talking about how Wagner is teaching him about that role and he's been doing it in practice -- comes off like a bright guy.