I'm embarrassed that I let Bill Polian and others turn me away from Jedrick Wills early.
These guys declared Wills a Right Tackle or a guard, and I was dumb enough to believe them.
After all, these are former NFL Linemen and GMs; legitimate experts. Any competent intelligent analyst defers to the real experts.
My mistake was not listening to the other experts, who disagreed with these guys, and not digging into exactly what was said in these scouting reports with my criticsl thinking cap on.
Joe Thomas picked Wills out of the big 4, and went into some detail on why. Andrew Berry said "Tackles are tackles", and was mostly correct: Modern defenses often put their scariest passrushers on the strong side, Tight Ends are really slot guys who line up everywhere, and Right Tackles have to have to be agile and nimble.
Thomas says that switching from the right side to the left, while very difficult for most guys, is just a matter of practice and repetition.
The nitpicking on this guy is stunning. He should be a guard because he's only 6'4"? Even though he has 34 1/4" arms (that's about par for guys who are 6'6").
Tristan Wirfs is the best athlete, and Becton is Godzilla, but Wills is an athletic mauler with the nastiest attitude out of the bunch, and I strongly suspect that this aggressive mentality was decisive for Andrew Berry and Bill Callahan.
That's infectious. When you see your line-mate snarling and beating the crap out of people, you have to keep up with him yourself.
That's trench warfare. It really is just individuals duking it out face-to-face, and sheer nastiness comes in handy.
And upside? Have you seen Jedrick's arms? Hans and Franz are pointing and laughing "Ooo, look at the gurly-mon!"
There's no denying that this guy wins through power, but he has a lot of room for growth in his upper body (provided it doesn't interfere with his balance).
Big Joe painted a rosy picture of Wills in a wide zone scheme: He can not only beat defenders to the edge in space (*this is a "stretch" play: the playside tackle has to get his shoulder and head outside the edge-setting defender before he can pinch force the running back to go inside. If the tackle can't beat that guy outside, then he uses his own momentum against him and drives him out of bounds*).
Wills can do this, but is extra-forceful on the run and in space. Most zone-blockers will push guys back a little, but mostly wall the defender off, and make him dive off-balance at the running back as he flies by (see Conklin or Joe Thomas tapes).
Wills can drive the defender back and put him on the ground.
When the play goes the other way, the backside tackle cuts off backside pursuit. Think of Myles Garrett or a blitzing OLB. These guys are fast enough to cut the running back off as he turns upfield. Then there are stunts and inside moves the backside tackle has to contend with.
Jedrick Wills stones these guys with powerful punches. Even if they recover quickly, it's too late for them to be a factor in a stretch to the other side.
Big Joe says that the Zone scheme is very "lineman-friendly", and makes so-so blockers look good. Now, the Browns have four elite offensive linemen, and these guys can do a lot more with it.
When I was lobbying for a trade-down (to Jones or Cleveland), the scheme was the main reason, but now, with Wills, they add in some 7-step deep passes, and actually give Baker Mayfield time.
These are neccessary anyway, as every offense finds itself in 3rd and 10 or so (or down by a lot of points with time running out).
I still would have preferred the trade-down (and bet DePodesta did too), but in 2020, Wills instead of Cleveland could make a huge difference in these situations, and gives Stefanski a nice change-up pitch, too.
Short yardage, too! You can't get too fancy in these situations. It's got to be smashmouth, and Jedrick Wills is a certified mauler.
And by the way, here his being an inch shorter (with extra-long arms) gives him better leverage.
More upside: Wills is the least experienced of the big 4, and is not yet a finished product.
The Bengals just got a terrific huge WR. They get Jonah Williams back and are gonna be a huge pain in the ass in 2020.
We can hope their defense sucks. 3 picks down, 5 to go. All the linebackers and safeties are still there.
I can't personally rule out WR Tee Higgins here.
Joe Thomas went into some detail on the Shanahan (Stefanski) offense. This offense benefits more than others from a vertical deep threat WR.
Joe referred to OBJ, but he's only half right. OBJ can get re-routed and lacks an ideal catch-radius in a vertical foot race. Big tall guys are ALWAYS better deep.
This is especially true in an RPO offense, because the ball has to get out in under 2.5 seconds; the QB has to put air under it and trust his target to run under it.
Anyway, the deep threat makes a corner run away from the line of scrimmage and holds a safety deep too. Meanwhile the run-threat has the linebackers moving forward, so a gap opens up for Cooper, Njoku, Landry (or OBJ) to exploit.
The Browns just traded from 41st to 44th with Indi. This makes sense because a lot of good lbs and some good safeties are still on the board.
The Browns got a 5th round pick, really for free here. The Colts needed that stud running back.
It's Safety Grant Delpit. Delpit "regressed" in 2019 after a stellar 2018 season. He had a high ankle sprain, and I completely "get" that. That injury heals slow, and really screws up your ability to drive off that foot.
His issues with tackling are correctable, as are his other more minor flaws, and he'll be 100% again in 2020.
The dude is almost 6'3" (213), which will come in handy vs the Bengals skyscrapers and those Ravens TEs.
He can play anywhere, but is likely a Free Safety first here. He's a capable man and zone corner, and a terrific blitzer.
Joseph, Sendejo, and Redwine are already here, so the Browns can use him at cornerback and move him around in 2020.
Delpit upgrades the whole secondary.
Another trade-down. 74 and 244 for 88 and a 2021 3rd round pick from the Saints.
Some of my peeps are going ballistic. I personally wanted Baun bad right there, but don't hate this move at all.
It's really 2 third round picks for one, and there is a ton of talent still on the board, including several of the top linebackers and some really good guards.
Berry may hit or miss, but clearly has a few players in mind that he feels are as good as these guys, at least one of which will be there at 88.
Some of you guys hate all trade-downs, but this is how you build a long-term, sustainable contender.
Let's see who Andrew's sleeper is...DT Jordan Elliott!
I never even noticed this guy, but he looks to have both a high floor and a high cieling. There's nothing wrong with this guy, and he could become a real disrupter with a little work.
He got double-teamed a lot in college--that won't happen here. He stops the run, stands his ground, and is agile.
DT is well and truly covered; these guys won't wear down like they did in 2019. Richardson and maybe Ogunjobi could move outside situationally to give Garrett and whoever replaces Pegleg some time off.
Speaking of which, it does look like Berry is resigned to finding EDGE guys in free agency.
...unless there's a super-sleeper...
Well Delpit, Elliott, and a 2021 third round pick doesn't suck!
LB Jacob Phillips looks like a special teamer and depth guy. I don't like this one at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment