7 round

[matt]

It's still too early to tell but here are my thoughts

1 Sedrick Ellis DT
2 Martin Rucker TE
3 Shawn Crable LB or Marcus Howard LB
4 Charles Godfrey CB
5 Chris Harrington DE
6 Ben Moffitt LB
7 Adam Kraus LG

[rorschach1979]

If this was our draft, you'd better pray they signed a DE in free agency. We lost 2 starters in Robinson and Smith at DE. A fifth rounde DE cannot be anything but a project that should not be starting. At this point, not taking a DE #1 (or at least in the first 2 rounds)would be potentially crippling to our pass rush and D-line.

I like throwing out ideas about players, but mock drafts at this point of the season are nothing but fluff. Still, until the DE position is addressed, that has to be the #1 area of need addressed.

Not sure about a TE in round 2 - it's good and bad. It's good if he's a weapon to develop and maybe change our offensive schemes with. It's bad if you're neglecting a poor defense at a critical position to address a player on offense that may or may not even be used to full potential.

Also, instead of a guard last, you should be maybe looking to special teams players - that's who mostly goes in the later rounds. So I'd say WR, LB, S, or TE would be the pick here - someone that can play well at teams and maybe do something with returns.

[NATI BENGALS]

I would rather get Owen Schmitt before any TE honestly. Coates is young and has loads of potential and Reggie is one of the best blocking TE in the league. Brat fails to fully utilize the TE and quite frankly we still dont know how talented the ones we already have are. Schmitt could capably replace Rudi and Jeremi enabling us to be much more creative with our offense. Not to mention he can line up as a TE as well.

There are a lot of offensive players I would take in the 2nd rd before Owen Schmitt but a TE isnt one of them. If one of the top tier WR falls to us in the 2nd say Malcolm Kelly, James Hardy, Desean Jackson, Mario Manningham, or even that bum from LSU. And I think there is a good possibility that one of these guys slips into the middle of the 2nd. I would still prefer taking defense in the first 2 rounds.

Given that you didnt even attempt to guess what compensatory picks we may add, i figured that was the reasoning for only adding 2 D-linemen.

I would really like to have about 3 players drafted for our front 7, preferably 2 D-linemen, before we attempt to address our CB depth. But if a CB happens to be the best player available we cant say we are set at CB and it would definitely have to be considered.

[franchise]

or even that bum from LSU.

Bitter OSU fan?

[franchise]

I like the draft overall, not sure we will look at Rucker because he never really blocked at Missouri, but I like him.

Good Job, though I'd give some reasoning for your picks.

[NATI BENGALS]

Bitter OSU fan?
You nailed it.

[Broken1]

I would rather get Owen Schmitt before any TE honestly. Coates is young and has loads of potential and Reggie is one of the best blocking TE in the league. Brat fails to fully utilize the TE and quite frankly we still dont know how talented the ones we already have are. Schmitt could capably replace Rudi and Jeremi enabling us to be much more creative with our offense. Not to mention he can line up as a TE as well.

There are a lot of offensive players I would take in the 2nd rd before Owen Schmitt but a TE isnt one of them. If one of the top tier WR falls to us in the 2nd say Malcolm Kelly, James Hardy, Desean Jackson, Mario Manningham, or even that bum from LSU. And I think there is a good possibility that one of these guys slips into the middle of the 2nd. I would still prefer taking defense in the first 2 rounds.

Given that you didnt even attempt to guess what compensatory picks we may add, i figured that was the reasoning for only adding 2 D-linemen.

I would really like to have about 3 players drafted for our front 7, preferably 2 D-linemen, before we attempt to address our CB depth. But if a CB happens to be the best player available we cant say we are set at CB and it would definitely have to be considered.

No way do we draft Schmitt...

We have our backfield situation is already going to be crowded enough. Adding players to the situation isn't going to help anything...

[rkellydugan20]

Yeah I think at the time the contract Jeremi Johnson signed was the biggest total contract ever given to a fullback. So I dont know about Schmidt either.

[NATI BENGALS]

No way do we draft Schmitt...

We have our backfield situation is already going to be crowded enough. Adding players to the situation isn't going to help anything...


Schmitt could capably replace Rudi and Jeremi enabling us to be much more creative with our offense. Not to mention he can line up as a TE as well.

I wrote that earlier. That is why I wouldnt be concerned with the over crowding.

I think he would be a tremendous addition along with addition by subtraction. Jeremi and Rudi are a big part of what was stale on this offense. They are very 1 dimensional, and a FB with Jeremi's skill set shouldnt be much of a loss. Instead of carrying 4 RB's and 3 TE like last year we could carry 5 RB's and 2 TE's on our 53 man roster. I would rather not cut anyone from the group of Irons, Watson, Perry, and 3D. They are the playmaking big play threat you want playing HB. It would make our O a whole lot less predictable.

Not to mention Watson and 3D could both play special teams since that was what we primarily used the 3rd TE for.

[palmer_garnett_95]

I just don't see us using a 3rd for Schmitt. Part of me would love to see us draft Schmitt, but I just don't see it(then again I didn't see Jeff Rowe being drafter either).

I also don't see us going TE in the 2nd round. We need defensive help too much to spend a 2nd on TE. Maybe if we made an impact in free agency picking up some d-line help. Otherwise, I just don't see it.

I could almost see picking up Mario Manningham if he falls to us as insurance against a Chris Henry being an idiot. Although, I think I would rather take a chance with Rivers from Hawaii or someone else like that in the later rounds.

[matt]

I would rather get Owen Schmitt before any TE honestly. Coates is young and has loads of potential and Reggie is one of the best blocking TE in the league. Brat fails to fully utilize the TE and quite frankly we still dont know how talented the ones we already have are. Schmitt could capably replace Rudi and Jeremi enabling us to be much more creative with our offense. Not to mention he can line up as a TE as well.

There are a lot of offensive players I would take in the 2nd rd before Owen Schmitt but a TE isnt one of them. If one of the top tier WR falls to us in the 2nd say Malcolm Kelly, James Hardy, Desean Jackson, Mario Manningham, or even that bum from LSU. And I think there is a good possibility that one of these guys slips into the middle of the 2nd. I would still prefer taking defense in the first 2 rounds.

Given that you didnt even attempt to guess what compensatory picks we may add, i figured that was the reasoning for only adding 2 D-linemen.

I would really like to have about 3 players drafted for our front 7, preferably 2 D-linemen, before we attempt to address our CB depth. But if a CB happens to be the best player available we cant say we are set at CB and it would definitely have to be considered.

I didn't pick any fullbacks because I think that JJ is fine. I think that he could be more versitile if he had more breaks during a given drive. I think that he's out there on just about every play. I also think that that was due to the o-line injuries.

The TE pick is because I haven't seen a whole lot receiver wise from the two that we have. Coates could end up being great but I'd have to see him on the field a bit more. Also, as much as I like Reggie, he isn't getting any younger.

If Mario is there god yes we should take him but I will be surprised if he isn't gone in the first round. Otherwise just keep the receivers that we have and resign Holt and Chatman. (assuming Chad stays)

I'm also assuming that we find a way to resign Smith. I know that alot of people don't like him but he's solid and we have 2 young DEs to back him up. Our future at DT is a little more scary to me. Myers and Thornton are near the end of their careers. However, if we don't keep Smith I would gladly take Gholston there. After all, he did make short work of Jake Long.

I picked Kraus in the 7th because I think that he would be a steal if he's still there. And I don't have much faith in Kieft and Kooistra.

These are just some early thoughts.

[NATI BENGALS]

If you were to keep Justin Smith then that draft would be pretty sweet. I would still rather grab a DE before a CB and TE though, Rucker and Fanene havent proven a thing and Fanene could be gone. Plus Fanene was playing part time at DT last year. Do we keep him and go with a DT rotation of Peko, Ellis, Myers, and Fanene? Or add a FA DT? But then again we could get lucky and Pollack makes his comeback. I like starting with Smith, Geathers, and Rucker as our DE foundation I just want to add a player who is able to make more of an impact in the game and get more snaps than Rucker did his first 2 years.

I would like to see Sedrick Ellis in the first rd and Phillip Merling in the 2nd. I havent been hearing much about Phillip Merling but I think he is a guy we will hear a lot about after the combine. That would a huge upgrade for our D-line, and as long as we keep Smith and Fanene we would be good to go.

http://clemsontigers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/merling_phillip00.html

Or we could go Gholston 1st and Pat Simms 2nd.

Or my favorite if it was possible would be Ellis 1st, Pat Simms 2nd, and Phillip Merling 3rd. Boy would we have a new and improved D line with that draft. Two beasty DT's and possibly one of the best value picks of the draft. I doubt this is possible though because Merling has much greater size than a lot of the currently top rated DE prospects. Harvey, Gholston, and Groves in particular. And if he runs a 4.6 or 4.7 in the combine with a good showing he could shoot up boards.

[palmer_garnett_95]

I really would like to see us grab Simms. Honestly, grabbing Simms and Ellis would be awesome, if nothing else we would have a good young core of DTs that could rotate with those two and Peko. I still want to get a good DE though. I would prefer Gholston, Campbell, or Harvey right now.

The ideas mentioned about a hard hitting safety would be fine, but I would prefer we use one of our late picks for one of Marvin's diamond in the rough specialties.