Official day 3 of the 2023 NFL draft thread

[Fritz]

It's the lack of bodies a positions that bothers me. We could all see holes coming at WR, and that they haven't had a good TE in forever. Yet instead of picking for the future in those positions in previous drafts, Gute waited until the situation was desperate. Very few players make a splash in their first year, so Gute should be drafting where the holes will be in 1-2 years from now to keep the team performing at a high level. Hopefully they won't have a gaping hole somewhere (OL perhaps) in a year or two.

The obvious problem is that if you draft for two to three years down the road, you've still got the current giant holes to fill. So he more or less had to draft a couple players at positions of need - a couple DT's, a few wide receivers, a couple of tight ends. But that's his fault in a way for having drafted turds like Jace Sternberger, Amari Rodgers, and the like.

I am not sold on Gute. At all. But now that his co-GM is gone, the team really is his - no more Rodgers to mollify, but also no more Rodgers to make the team look better than maybe it was. So let's see what he can do.

Same with MLF. I'm excited to see his offense now, but he also better have a much better defense, given the resources invested in that defense. It's ridiculous how many first round picks are out there on the field, and despite that they've mostly been lousy or mediocre.

I think Special Teams is actually going to be the strongest of the three units this year, though that kid Carlson looks terribly inaccurate. I read that he's been hurt, and maybe the Pack thinks that's why his percentage was not very good at all.

[run pMc]

I agree with drafting for areas a year ahead and not having to start a lot of rookies, but let's remember this team was basically all-in the last 2-3 years. That probably impacted their draft strategy somewhat and definitely impacted their FA/cap work.

I think they will be much more upside and long-term with their picks, the general idea is draft best players available and fill in the remaining holes in free agency. They can't really do that because of their cap situation.
As for pass catchers, they drafted a lot which is good because some will have to play and they need better talent than the Juwann Winfrees of the world. You can't realistically expect a rookie WR to catch more than 30-40 passes, but with the lack of veterans at WR/TE you never know.

I don't want the team to stink and don't think they will, they actually have some pretty good talent on the roster and I think MLF is at least an ok coach. Between where they and the Jets probably end the season, i suspect they could package both R1's (I assume Ar plays 65%+) to move up into the top 5 if they really wanted to.

[Fritz]

One thing I think Guter has learned from TT, who learned from Wolf, is that if you have a deep hole at a particular position, you are really taking a risk if you draft one guy from a draft to fill that hole. You draft at least two, and see if one pans out. Sometimes, like Wolf did with corners in '99 when he was trying to combat Randy Moss, you draft three in a row - in the first three rounds. In that draft, the third round guy proved to be the best of the bunch (Mike Mckenzie), and the second-round guy got traded for some fumble-prone running back named Green.

Thompson did it with great success in 2017 with Jamaal Williams (fourth round) and Aaron Jones (fifth round). He did it with a modicum of success in 2018 with J'Mon Moore, Equanimeous St. Brown, and Marquez Valdez-Scantling. He did it and completely bombed with Damarious Randall and Quentin Rollins in 2015.

Mike Sherman pooped the bed twice in 2004 with Admad Carroll and Joey Thomas.

So I think Guter went down that same road this year with tight ends and receivers, and even DL (didn't he draft two guys - in the fourth and sixth?).

Not a bad strategy. Maybe next year he'll do the same with safeties.

[smuggler]

The majority of those pass catchers won’t amount to much of anything in 2023. Helping Love 3 years from now isn’t much of a help.

Pretty important to help Love in 2-3 years because ideally that is the start of our championship window. We are not contenders in 2023 short of a miracle. If Love ends up being a whiff, we will need help in 2024 for when we sign Garoppolo anyway.

[run pMc]

Was there any rookie receiver likely to make a huge impact right away? JSN was the most highly touted and he's a slot who went #20. It was a bad year for WR.
i don't think anyone is going to amount to a ton right now.

Fritz- agree with your point. Gute has loaded up on WR two years in a row now (Watson, Doubs, Toure and now Reed, Wicks, DuBose). It's a nice group of young athletic potential, I'd expect a few to pan out and be very good by 2024/5.