To me, this is a pretty outstanding draft for QB. It's not your typical good QB draft where there is a Lawrence/Burrow/Luck standing there alone at #1. But I see this draft as having at least 4 Tagovailoa/Herbert level prospects. I'd put Levis/Richardson/Stroud at that level and firmly ahead of Lance/Wilson/Mayfield/Wentz purely as prospects with only college tape to their names.
This class is also largely devoid of star wars stats prospects. Other than Young and Stroud having talent inequity advantages -- most of the guys on the radar are there for more pure prospect qualities. And I would definitely put Young/Stroud in a different class than Mac Jones or Brissett/Haskins/Fields. To me there is less muddying of the waters in this position group than in the majority of draft classes.
I can't really find a draft class similar to this one since 2000. Maybe 2011, but I really felt it was only Newton/Gabbert worthy of 1st round grades. The rest were day two guys in my estimation.
I suspect there will be a run on QBs in this draft. Pushed primarily because there just aren't many, if any, blue chip pass rushers or left tackles in the pool to push them back. If you're picking in the top 10, and you're hoping for something else, you're just kind of getting a 18th to 25th overall quality player. None of the pass rushers on this board would have been rated above Brian Burns/Dexter Lawrence/Jeffery Simmons taken in 2019 at 16th, 17th and 19th respectively.
Very few special players at other positions here in 2023 (Robinson/Mayer). Taking a non QB is fighting the board this year every bit as much at loading up on QBs was in 2011 or taking LJ Collier because we had to come away with a DE after they were all gone in 2019.
You can't draft what isn't there. The value at QB is pretty insane this season. The draft seems to me to be good through R4/R5 otherwise (not unlike most years). But seems like that day 2-3 value is in the secondary, RB and OL. Last year was the LB draft. This year it's kind of filled with BBK types. Seattle has major holes at RB (only Walker and Dallas under contract). OL pretty filled out except for OC. Thin at OG, and if we cut Gabe Jackson for cap space, then it's an outright hole as we only have Lewis signed.
The day 2 value really aligns with our holes. I could really see RB/IOL/NT/S slots being strongly addressed with the day 2s we have.
Other than the spectacle of the Combine, I honestly haven't been this underwhelmed for the event in a long time. There are to me 3 elements to the combine. One to see how the players move. Two, to help direct deeper dives on good testers who have poor production. Third to solidify good producing players who are unicorn athletes as well.
This year seems to be lacking the third category almost completely. Few special players. No LTs at all. No real top 15 overall pass rushers. Pretty awful 6-15 overall landscape. This draft season is going to be a tortuous exercise in qualifying why great testers performed so badly on tape.
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