And not a single TE was selected.

Narrative changed.

For all the second guessing about how risky the Will Anderson trade was, we came away with a QB other teams were reportedly fighting to trade up to the top 3 for, the consensus best defensive player who plays the most valuable defensive position, and still have a pick in every round of the draft next year. Aren't those kind of the exact building blocks you want to start a new coaching regime out with?

If nothing else, we're talking about the Texans again.

It's actually quite funny ESPN keeps Kiper around. His claim to fame was being a "draft guru". Over the last couple of decades multiple people have come through that are infinitely better at the job. Yet they roll him out every year.

Furlock Bones said:

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It's actually quite funny ESPN keeps Kiper around. His claim to fame was being a "draft guru". Over the last couple of decades multiple people have come through that are infinitely better at the job. Yet they roll him out every year.

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Isn't he the one who nailed Josh Allen?

ESPN keeps Kiper around because he's not afraid to give his opinion...right or wrong

and not afraid to call out organizations and front offices

A new feature on the 75 hour Super Bowl pregame show should be to take the top 10 players on each team and show us the high school stars and the footage when they were drafted along with any negatives said back then.

How did Brady last to pick 99 or tyreek Hill last to round 5 or James Harrison and Arian Foster go undrafted. Maybe tell us the worst pick at each first round spot and Mel had to say about them. This would be worth watching.

After this weekend I'm pretty tired of the media narrative that what Houston did was insane. I haven't heard anyone say Carolina is insane for moving up from 9 to 1. Houston still has Cleveland's first rounder next season, Carolina has no extra first round pick and they traded their best WR to Chicago to get the deal done. Regardless of whether Anderson was their highest rated player they couldn't take him at 2 and been able to trade the same assets to get Stroud at 3, it would have cost way more.

Carolina received:
No 1 pick which turned into Bryce Young.

Chicago received:
No 9 pick 2023 (traded back to 10 and drafted OT Darnell Wright)
2023 second round pick (after moving around that became CB Tyrique Stevenson)
2024 first round pick
2025 second round pick
DJ Moore

Houston received:
No 3 pick (Will Anderson Jr)
2023 4th round pick (traded to Philly for 2024 third round pick)

Arizona received:
12th pick (traded up to 6 to take OT Paris Johnson)
33rd pick (traded to TN, took BJ Ojulari at pick 41)
2023 1st round pick
2024 3rd round pick

Houston, Indy, and Tennesse all took their QB's of the future from this draft. It's pretty obvious neither of those teams thought the guys they drafted were worth trading up to 3. All of Irsay's tweeting shows how much of a clown he is, he didn't think Richardson was worth trading up to 1 to take. They tried to play Caserio but he over maneuvered them and got the guys Houston wanted. Team has a QB and DeMeco has the guy he wanted above all others on defense. If Anderson was eligible last year he would have wound up in Jacksonville instead of Travon Walker with the number 1 pick.

I'm also exhausted from the chatter that they should have sat back and sucked another year to have a shot at Caleb Williams, I don't like him. That nonsense he put on his fingernails before playing Utah said everything I need to know about him. I'm optimistic that Stroud is a young man with a higher character than Williams, the more I hear about his story, the more I'm pulling for him to be successful.

I'd rather watch a team that is trying to win games than tank, especially with these guys on the roster. How many seasons are the fans supposed to sit back and wait? They believe in DeMeco and gave him a contract because of that, let him do his thing now.

After watching the last three seasons of Bill O'Brien (including his exploits as GM), David Culley, and Lovie Smith we at least have a team we can start to be optimistic about. We have a new HC that was highly sought after, some nice offseason acquisitions, a good draft, and still have good cap flexibility going forward.

I'm ready for the season to start.

Don't mean to be a negative Nancy... but CJ's story sounds a lot like Deshaun's draft stories. Let's hope it goes a different direction.

LB12Diamond said:

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Texan_Aggie said:

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Don't mean to be a negative Nancy... but CJ's story sounds a lot like Deshaun's draft stories. Let's hope it goes a different direction.

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It's funny you say that. What little I have seen from him I'm not getting any vibe that he has character issues. Appears to be man with true integrity.

I'm not going to become jaded bc of of what we saw from Deshaun. You can't live your life that way.

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I think the point is that nobody had any character concerns about Deshaun when he was drafted or maybe even when he got his big contract. Came from humble beginnings, inspirational story, gave his first paycheck to cafeteria workers after Harvey. It felt good to get behind him while he was ascending because it was a feel good story. Then it became apparent he wasn't that person, or changed after getting a big contract, or a combination of both.

Jaded is too strong of a term, but I do think it's okay to be a bit skeptical and hopeful. We really don't know jack about how these guys live their lives other than what their agents/PR directors put out.

One other reason for optimism that bears repeating, Easterby is gone.

Ok, after taking a few days to digest, I have to say, this draft was still crazy, and reading the grades you can see why. Man, you go from site to site and the grades vary wildly depending on who likes what prospect, no consensus hardly anywhere.

So with that said, here's what we got for draft grades

Round 1: No. 2: C.J. Stroud, QB, Ohio State

Round 1: No. 3 (from Cardinals): Will Anderson Jr., OLB, Alabama

Round 2: No. 62 (from Eagles): Juice Scruggs, C, Penn State

Round 3: No. 69 (from Rams): Tank Dell, WR, Houston

Round 4: No. 109 (from Raiders): Dylan Horton, DE, TCU

Round 5: No. 167 (from Rams): Henry To'oTo'o, LB, Alabama

Round 6: No. 201 (from Vikings): Jarrett Patterson, C, Notre Dame

Round 6: No. 205 (from Bills): Xavier Hutchinson, WR, Iowa State

Round 7: No. 248 (from Eagles): Brandon Hill, S, Pittsburgh

Round 1: after getting over the sticker shock, yeah, I'm fully in support of this move for the franchise. Outside of getting 2 of the best players to improve on the field performance, the amount of excitement this has generated (both inside the fanbase and outside) is a very nice change. Foundational picks for DeMeco on both sides of the ball.
Round Grade A+

Round 2: This was an odd one as we traded back up into the 2nd round, mainly because I think we got caught believing John Michael Schmitz would last longer, and panicked a little bit to make sure we grabbed one of the centers we wanted. It wasn't a bad trade and didn't cost us much, but it was still high for Juice
Round Grade C+

Round 3: This is a very tough one, as this is one of those if you like Tank Dell, this is a great pick, if you don't then the Texans weren't smart for trading up to get someone who would be available later in the 3rd. I don't think Tank is a slam dunk, but I saw multiple publications that had a 2nd round grade on him, so I can't hate the Texans for jumping up (without over paying) and grabbing the guy they wanted. I think again, this was a reflex of making sure they got their guy after the JMS issue in round 2.
Round Grade B-


Round 4: Another controversial round for us, but I think after seeing the rest of the draft it was tempered a lot. I was good with the Eagles trade to reclaim a 3rd next year (and crazy to think we have a full contingent of picks after moving up to the 3rd overall pick). As to the one pick in the 4th round, I honestly didn't know much about Horton, for example I had no clue he lead the Big 12 in sacks. Nor did I know that he was the d-lineman that wrecked Michigan for I think 4 sacks in the quarter final game. He's a former safety who is still learning to play d-line. And was regularly playing end in TCU's 3-3-5 scheme, so seeing him dominate toward the end of the year (again learning to play the position) shows a lot for his upward trajectory potential here under DeMeco. In fact this could be one of those picks in 3 years people look back on and wonder how in the hell this guy went in the 4th round.
Round Grade B+

Round 5: WOW, this is one of the guys I wanted at the beginning of the 4th round, so yeah, how can I knock us trading down to the 5th and still getting the guy I wanted a round and half earlier
Round Grade A+

Round 6: Great value round right here, Love rolling the dice on Patterson, who if we can get healthy could be a starting center or guard in the league. The 6th round is perfect to grab some one like him. Hutchinson was also a steal, crazy production at Iowa State. Regularly dominated in big games for them, where they would just chunk it into the air and he would make a play somehow. Before the combine, probably would have been though of as a high 3rd rounder, maybe 2nd, but had a horrible workout so dropped a lot. But....who cares about workouts if he can continue to just make plays. Again, these are guys that you get and 3-4 years down the road people question how Houston got so lucky in this draft.
Round Grade A+

Round 7: Again, great value, getting a guy in the 7th that had a 5th round grade, means really good special teams and nice depth in the secondary due to speed and explosion capability. And who knows, maybe learning under Jimmy Ward he might turn into a starter at some point.
Round Grade A

Overall we had some reaches, but we didn't get anyone that I questioned after doing some research. So overall I have to give this draft an A-. We reached for some guys, but in the end this is in the A level because we got 2 cornerstones for this team to build around for the foreseeable future.