All Things 2018 NFL Draft

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MaxyJR1

MaxyJR1

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Thought I would throw out some notes on the first round of the draft.

1. First time 4 QB's went in top 10
2. Two Notre Dame OL's in top 10 (Wonder if ND will be pushing that stat at a MN recruit)
3. Walk-on QB taken with the first pick of the draft
4. Shazier walked out on stage to announce Pittsburgh pick (seems odd that NFL, with all backlash about safety, would spotlight someone that lost full function of their legs in a game)
5. MN Native Frank Ragnow taken with the 20th pick by Lions out of Arkansas. Word is Vikings had a lot of interest, but couldn't move up.
6. Edmundses are first ever brothers taken in the first round. DB's from Virginia Tech whose dad also played in the NFL.
 

Good pick for the Vikes, getting a guy from the National Champions UCF Golden Knights.
 

Would have liked to see Vikings to Hernandez, James Daniels or Connor Williams. I don't think any of those guys will be there when we pick again and we'd need to trade up to get one of them.

Orlando Brown, Austin Corbett, Braden Smith, Tyrell Crosby are some O-line name to watch in the second. Fleck recruit Chukwuma Orkorafor, Jamarco Jones, Bryan O'Neil, Martinas Rankin, Gereon Christian in the third if we take one that round.

I have a feeling Spielman will go DL in the third which I would disagree with .
 

I agree. I was hoping for Hernandez. I think Spielman and Zimmer feel that they can find O-lineman deeper in the draft, but CB is a position where it is necessary to get early talent.
 

I wish things would have played differently so it would have made sense to trade back and grab an OL, but I think it was a smart pick.

You don't pick your 5th highest rated interior OL with a first round pick. There was run on offensive lineman which I think caused the pivot in rationale, and they got a steal in Hughes - - although not a position of as much need as OL.
 


Of the 32 players picked in the first round, 14 were 3* players or less, including three walk ons.
 

Hey, why draft a position of need when you can grab a guy that got booted out of his first school for getting in a fight, and being accused of sexual misconduct (although not charged.)

Of course, the sycophants at KFAN love the pick. Friday morning, Paul Allen was actually comparing Hughes to Dion Sanders.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Hey, why draft a position of need when you can grab a guy that got booted out of his first school for getting in a fight, and being accused of sexual misconduct (although not charged.)

Of course, the sycophants at KFAN love the pick. Friday morning, Paul Allen was actually comparing Hughes to Dion Sanders.
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Do you believe in second chances?

Well,...... let's see... there was a guy named Randy Moss. His notoriety allowed the Vikings to draft him 21st overall in the 1998 NFL Draft after so many teams passed up on him not wanting to take a chance.

I am not saying Mike Hughes is a Randy Moss because Randy Moss is a rare gem of a Hall Of Fame NFL player.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/randy-moss-finds-redemption-coming-home-to-marshall-from-fsu/
 

Biggest news for the Vikes in the first round was Green Bay's ability to get an instant starter and pick up another first round pick for next year...new GM making his mark.

I am not a Packer fan.
 



HoustonTXGopher said:
Of the 32 players picked in the first round, 14 were 3* players or less, including three walk ons.
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Despite quotes like this over and over, people still get bent out of shape as to what their college is getting. What you rather have, a player at a 3 or less who will produce or a 4 or a 5 player who won't produce as much. I'd be curious as to what does happen to the majority of the 4's and 5's in the end.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I wish things would have played differently so it would have made sense to trade back and grab an OL, but I think it was a smart pick.

You don't pick your 5th highest rated interior OL with a first round pick. There was run on offensive lineman which I think caused the pivot in rationale, and they got a steal in Hughes - - although not a position of as much need as OL.
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Hernandez, Daniels and Williams all have the appropriate value to take them at #30 or even a little earlier than that. None of them would have been a reach. Most guys had them projected to go before Ragnow and Price who I felt would have been more of a reach had they been available and we took them.
 


There appears to be a glut of Offensive linemen (C, G, T) in this year's draft.

Picking OLs in the 1st round means dolling out Rd 1 money to sign draft picks whereas you can get serviceable or even good quality linemen available in the latter rounds.
 




#2Gopher said:
Despite quotes like this over and over, people still get bent out of shape as to what their college is getting. What you rather have, a player at a 3 or less who will produce or a 4 or a 5 player who won't produce as much. I'd be curious as to what does happen to the majority of the 4's and 5's in the end.
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The numbers he posted actually proves that being a higher rated recruit means there is a significantly higher chance of being drafted in the first round over someone that is a 3-star or less.
 

GophersInIowa said:
The numbers he posted actually proves that being a higher rated recruit means there is a significantly higher chance of being drafted in the first round over someone that is a 3-star or less.
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Exactly. In any given year, there are about 3 times as many 3-stars as 4- and 5-stars combined. It would be odd if there weren't a lot of 3-star prospects drafted in the first round every year.
 

die hard gopher said:
Hernandez, Daniels and Williams all have the appropriate value to take them at #30 or even a little earlier than that. None of them would have been a reach. Most guys had them projected to go before Ragnow and Price who I felt would have been more of a reach had they been available and we took them.
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I get that a lot of people wanted an interior lineman here, but I think the 3rd/4th best CB in the draft has more value than the 5th best interior lineman, in the first round.

I think there is a much better chance that Hernandez (terrible fit in our offense), Daniels, or Williams is available in the mid second than Hughes. IMO, there would be virtually zero chance for Hughes to make it into the 2nd round.

I guess, I am just saying that Hughes is a better rated (or equally rated) prospect at a much more important position in the NFL.
 

The story that stuck with me for the night was about the dad of a drafted player...don't know who... Dad went to Auburn a highly acclaimed running back. He expected to be a star and certainly move onto the NFL. But Bo Jackson showed up and he barely ever played.

Life: think about that...the decisions we make. What if he chose school X instead? What if he transferred? Maybe he met his wife at Auburn as a result, they had their son and he was drafted in the first round. Maybe he didn't meet her there. My overall point is: decisions. The decisions we make chart the course of our lives. And sometimes we need to alter the course.

Just interesting.

Mayfield at number one when they absolutely could have gone Barkley at one and Mayfield four, 100%. The twitter revelation about Josh Allen and his reality. Josh Rosen indignant and Lamar Jackson at 32 were all interesting. Darnold at 3 seemed like the only natural slot.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
The majority of college football players are ranked 3* or less, yet half of the 1st rounders were 4* and higher.
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Yah, I could have stated it the other way too. I heard a guy from Rivals say that they only rate 32 players as 5* to reflect those players going in the first round, quite a crapshoot indeed. Not sure how many 4* they give out, but I think it reflects the second, third and possibly fourth round picks.

I would love to know of the 3* and less ranked players, how much they grew and how much weight they put on.
 


Ski U Mah Gopher said:
Including the #1 overall pick.
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Mayfield did get a scholarship to Texas Tech out of HS so while he was technically a walk-on, he was still a P5 caliber recruit out of HS, different than most walk-ons and a bit misleading. Same with Watt at CMU.
 

#2Gopher said:
Despite quotes like this over and over, people still get bent out of shape as to what their college is getting. What you rather have, a player at a 3 or less who will produce or a 4 or a 5 player who won't produce as much. I'd be curious as to what does happen to the majority of the 4's and 5's in the end.
Click to expand...

I would rather have a five-star player who will produce. Call me crazy.
 

die hard gopher said:
Mayfield did get a scholarship to Texas Tech out of HS so while he was technically a walk-on, he was still a P5 caliber recruit out of HS, different than most walk-ons and a bit misleading. Same with Watt at CMU.
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Baker Mayfield walked on Texas Tech. He started as a walk-on true freshman. He is the only person at a P5 school that I can think of, in the history of college football, to do that.
 

Urbandale said:
I would rather have a five-star player who will produce. Call me crazy.
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Why would you care about the star ranking if both produce? The 5 star is more likely to produce, but if the production is the same, why would star rankings matter at all to you?
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Why would you care about the star ranking if both produce? The 5 star is more likely to produce, but if the production is the same, why would star rankings matter at all to you?
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That's not at all what the question was. The question was whether I would rather have an unheralded recruit who would produce or a heralded recruit who would not produce. That's a nonsensical question, because of course we want a player who will produce. So I posed a third alternative - a heralded player who produces. Isn't that what we would all prefer?
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Baker Mayfield walked on Texas Tech. He started as a walk-on true freshman. He is the only person at a P5 school that I can think of, in the history of college football, to do that.
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The problem is that there is such a wide range of what are technically walk-ons. Mayfield was a mid-level 3 star who felt that he was worthy of a Power 5 scholarship (and he turned out to be right), so he turned down multiple FBS scholarship offers to walk on at Texas Tech. Zach Annexstad would fit into this profile as well - though he turned down even better scholarship offers. And then you have people like J.J. Watt and Kim Royston, who had to walk-on to their new schools in order to transfer. All of them are dramatically different than someone like, say, Graham Glasgow, who had no reported DI offers of any kind and walked on to Michigan (instead of here:mad:) and is now starting for the Detroit Lions. I guess the appropriate distinction would be voluntary vs. involuntary walk-ons. An involuntary walk-on (i.e., a guy who walked on because had no scholarship offers) like Glasgow making it to the NFL and sticking on a roster is exceedingly rare.
 

Free Press sports writer Carlos Monarrez grades the Detroit Lions' first-round pick: Arkansas center Frank Ragnow.

Grade: F.

Why: Terrible pick. This is way down the need list, after running back, defensive tackle and edge rusher. And Ohio State’s Billy Price, who went to the Cincinnati Bengals with the next pick, was widely considered a better center. Completely underwhelming and not good value at No. 20.
 

#2Gopher said:
Free Press sports writer Carlos Monarrez grades the Detroit Lions' first-round pick: Arkansas center Frank Ragnow.

Grade: F.

Why: Terrible pick. This is way down the need list, after running back, defensive tackle and edge rusher. And Ohio State’s Billy Price, who went to the Cincinnati Bengals with the next pick, was widely considered a better center. Completely underwhelming and not good value at No. 20.
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I agree that the value wasn't great, many had him in the middle of the second, however he was Pro football Focus's highest graded center in the country the last two years. Not very accurate to say Price was widely considered to be better.
 

Urbandale said:
That's not at all what the question was. The question was whether I would rather have an unheralded recruit who would produce or a heralded recruit who would not produce. That's a nonsensical question, because of course we want a player who will produce. So I posed a third alternative - a heralded player who produces. Isn't that what we would all prefer?
Click to expand...

I wrote my question poorly and am still struggling with the right words. Guess what I was trying to say is that we get hung up on 3 stars or less wanting 4 or 5's all the time. Grant it here in Minnesota a 4 or 5 calls for champagne when someone signs. I would like to think that we are getting high 3's and we'll continue to move up the ladder to more 4's and hopefully 5's in a short time as the time produces more wins. We've got a couple guys out there that could really make things jump should they come on board.

So all over the board. I probably should have just trashed my post. I'll let you guys do it for me.
 

Another hmmmm question... I think it was 7 of the first round picks played in the National Championship game. Are there better players on lesser and in some cases, much lesser teams who don't get rated/ranked as high because they didn't have the publicity, exposure, notoriety playing on losing teams? Imo absolutely, yes!

For instance, in 2014 we went 8 and 5 and played in a New Years Day bowl game. We had four guys drafted the following draft and two the next draft who benefited from that team. Do those 6 guys get drafted if we go 5 and 7... miss a bowl?

I know this...you win, kids make all state and all conference. You lose it's a major struggle to get your one real good/better player recognition. Even one clearly, who is better than some award winning players on a winning team.
Ex: Gopher basketball post season honors for Murphy....if his teammates are present...he hauls in awards. Lose bad, become the entire focus for the opponent...not so much for accolades.

Just another overall draft thought and evaluation factors.
 

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