The TSF Consensus 2024 Mock Draft: With No Time To Spare!!!
April 25, 2024
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The Cardinals had some big needs in this draft, but with their first pick, they drafted a TE. I get that he is the best TE in this draft class, but when you already extended Zach Ertz this offseason, the TE postion was not a need. Even before D-Hop was suspended, they still needed a WR and failed to draft one at all. Now D-Hop is suspended and they are likely kicking themselves for not doing so, but thank god they traded for Hollywood Brown draft night. They did draft 2 Edge players in Thomas and Sanders, which was a need after the departure of Chandler Jones, so you have to give them props there. Other than that, there were no other picks that really stood out to me, but Ingram will compete with Eno Benjamin for the backup role behind James Conner.
After years of making the wrong picks, the Lions took all of 3 seconds to lock this pick in once Hutchinson fell to them. Easy selection for a team who likely thought they had no shot at the guy. He should slide in on day one of training camp and look to make an impact for Detroit. Great pick, hopefully the first of many on the Lions road back to NFC North relevancy.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but check my mock draft (Dows' Mock) and you'll see I am one of the people who is still super high on Stingley, despite his best season coming in 2019. But remember, a college standout has a massive year and thinks they run the world and tend to let off the gas pedal a bit.... this won't happen in the NFL and certainly won't happen under Lovie Smith, a defensive mind for the ages. The Texans fill a need and if Lovie thinks he's the guy, I tend to agree.
The evidence that we are living in the Upside-Down is piling up, as both NY teams had great drafts. Off the bat, the Jets secure their dominant lockdown CB of the future in Gardner, and shore up one of the areas that has been a concern for them over the past few seasons. Hard to find any fault with drafting a DB who didn't allow a TD in his entire college career. Great pick that should pay dividends if they can win enough to keep him happy and under contract long term.
I think this pick shows the Giants didn't have a preference between Ekwonu or Neal, so they took the EDGE rusher they know they needed. The Giants have always been a team that scouts edge rush talent well, and they develop them at a high level, so if they see Thibs as the guy, who am I to disagree. He should immediately bring a presence to the DL and to the locker room, let's just hope he remains a positive presence.
No doubt about it, CMC needs room to operate if they are going to keep him healthy and keep him playing at a dominant level. Also, whoever winds up under center will be sending a big thank you to Big Ickey. He is a mauler who can also operate in pass protection, and should be an impact blocker on their OL as soon as he shows up at the facility. Great pick for Carolina where a lot of people had them reaching for a QB.
There was very little to separate Neal and Ekwonu, so the Giants let Carolina make that choice for them and they were going to take whoever was left over. Fine strategy for them, for as good as they've been at drafting edge rushers, they've been equally bad historically drafting OL (with the exception of Andrew Thomas, who seems to be on the road to stardom). So they pair Neal with Thomas and should have two bookends for their OL for years to come. Now Barkley and Daniel Jones might actually stand a fighting chance!
Look, this is a weird one for me. On the one hand, I love London. And the Falcons need a WR to actually play football this year, Olamide Zaccheus can't do it all alone. And Mariota will surely be thankful for the additional big bodied WR who can go win a jump ball. BUT, I truly think there were better options on the board at this point, and the Falcs may have missed on a superstar talent like Jameson Williams or Garrett Wilson. Nonetheless, it's not a bad pick, it fills a need, and if history tells us anything, Atlanta has an eye for WR talent. So maybe this will all work out. But one thing is for sure, London will look DAMN good in the black and red, and could be an instant contributor with some big value in both dynasty and redraft leagues.
This is a great pick, and exactly how rebuilding franchises should start their drafts. Duane Brown is still unsigned, so they add a guy who can play both Tackle positions and play from day one. They also help their new QB in Drew Lock to have some time to throw, and theoretically should aid whoever ends up running the ball there as well. All around a great pick, taking the best Tackle still on the board. After Cross there is a marked drop-off in talent level, so securing him now was the right call.
This is a great pick, as Wilson could end up being the best WR in this draft class a year from now. But, he's still tied to Zach Wilson, and ZW still has zero time to throw the ball as he runs for his life. Yes, you want to secure the WR talent and get personnel on the field who can be dynamic in their playmaking ability, and maybe had Cross still been on the board they may have gone OL, but I would have liked to see them do something for their OL with these two top 10 picks. But overall, leaving the top 10 with arguably the best WR and CB is nothing to be upset about if you're a Jets fan. The annual Kool-Aid sale for Jets fans starts right now and should run through about Week 4 when they get brought back to reality after playing Buffalo or Miami.
At the end of the day, this is a fine pick. But the Saints moved up twice to get into this #11 position. Most people saw that as a move to secure a QB. Guess not. Is Olave just really THAT MUCH of their guy? Could be. Nothing wrong with that. And he has a lot in his game that Michael Thomas does not, so they could work very well together with Winston under center. But again, I think a lot of people are enamored by his 40 time at the combine and letting that shift the narrative on him a little too much. He should be a fine, above average even, player in a solid Saints offense, but I am unsure of his ceiling and that gives me hesitation to grade him out any higher.
Here's the problem with this pick, the Lions have now created a mess in their WR room. But here's the upside, Williams is an absolute stud that could be a new Julio Jones. Can Goff get him the ball? Time will tell. But the pick alone is phenomenal... in a vacuum. Great talent, rehabbing fast enough from the ACL tear that he's expected back in training camp (which speaks volumes to his work ethic), and a guy that may have been the top WR off the board if not for the knee injury gets secured with pick #12. Good on you, Detroit. Now go sort out what to do with Amon-Ra St. Brown, Quintez Cephus, and Josh Reynolds, plus all the receiving work Swift expects as part of his game. Lotta mouths to feed, but that's a good problem to have.
If you read Dows' mock and his writeup on Davis, this should be no surprise. A bit surprising to see them move up to take him, but with the way the Eagles have always prioritized their interior DL, it's not hard to believe. Fletcher Cox signed a one year deal to stay with Philly, and this should be the beginning of him being phased out as the young buck moves in. Davis has some effort issues, but Philly clearly believes those can be coached/trained out of him, so they nab the guy who could be one of the most dominant physical specimens we've seen in recent memory.
No surprise to see the Ravens go for a DB, but I truly thought it would be a CB, given the injuries we saw plague them last year and then the guys we saw leave in FA this offseason. In any case, they draft Hamilton, and secure the services of likely their next Ed Reed style Safety. He got dragged after the slow 40 at the combine, but we've seen him be a menace on the field and run down some of the fastest WRs in this draft, so maybe his straight line 40 speed isn't as important as his on field product, in the eyes of the Ravens. If there's one thing I won't do, it's second guess a Ravens defensive side draft pick.
I don't mind the positional selection, but there are better guards available. Zion Johnson being the one that immediately springs to mind. Green was a liability on the line in college when it came to poorly timed penalties, and we aren't going to see that go away in the even more strict NFL game. He will need significant coaching to be a viable option on the Houston line. Sucks to see them bungle a previously solid draft.
I really thought they would be the ones to take Hamilton at #11, but they moved back and land Dotson. The pick makes sense with McLaurin asking for a new contract and those negotiations up in the air. It also follows logically that Dyami Brown, their pick from last year hasn't done much, and the whichever Sims guy is still on the roster hasn't been a solution in their passing attack either. If you can trot out Dotson, Terry, and Dyami, you may be able to give Wentz the guys he needs to get his career back on track and win the Commanders some football games. Lotta maybes/ifs there, but if you're a Washington fan, you're used to that.
No issue with this pick, the Chargers are a team without a ton of needs, and OL is always helpful for a team with a young franchise QB. Plus, they nailed the Rashawn Slater pick last year, so two young studs on the line is a great recipe for long term success.
Not sure how anyone could hate this pick, especially with the news of the AJ Brown trade breaking, but I'm seeing a lot of people on Twitter, Facebook, etc whining that this is a bust. I don't see it. They replace AJB with a very similar style WR who can play instantly opposite Woods and should benefit from the strong play action game TEN has developed off the back of Derrick Henry. Home run pick, and gives you cheap rookie contract WR you need to succeed in the NFL, rather than paying AJB 25M/year.
The Saints get their Terron Armstead replacement, a much needed position, and Penning should be a guy to watch. He isn't from a huge school, but neither was Armstead and that seemed to work out just fine. He will take some coaching to be an elite Tackle in the league, but the Saints, of all teams, should have no problem coaching him up.
This pick is nothing to me. Doesn't move the needle at all. They get a QB without moving up, so that's good, but they take Pickett, who doesn't wow me. On the bright side for him, he should compete with Mitch Trubisky for the starting job early on, so he has a good shot at live reps within a couple weeks of the start of the season.
The rich get richer. The Chiefs trade with New England (who I will get to in a bit) to secure the last remaining ultra-elite graded CB in the draft at pick #21. The Chiefs fill a huge need with a player everyone expects to be ready to play in the NFL very early on. Great pick for a team that already seems to have everything.
Now I still think this pick should have been either Devin Lloyd or Nakobe Dean, but the Packers fill an area of massive need at LB so there's not too much to be upset about with the selection. There isn't much else to say on Walker, but he's a raw talent who, with the right coaching, could be a dynamic player on the GB defense for the long haul.
Hard to hate anything about this pick. The Bills moved up a couple spots to lock up their guy, but it was well worth it. At the beginning of the season, Elam was projected around the top of the draft in the same conversation as Gardner and Stingley. He dipped a bit, but on a Bills team where he will have Tre'Davious White taking away the top receiver, he should find a lot of success as he locks up the team's #2 guy. Being eased in like this on a solid team should be great for his confidence and will make the pick shine even brighter. The Bills also fill one of their very few holes with a late first round pick, well done all around.
Look, he's a project and then some. We all know that. But the Cowboys lost La'el Collins and needed to replace him. Tyron Smith has also struggled to stay healthy in the last couple seasons, and Smith is a guy who has played both Tackle and Guard in his collegiate career. So while he might not have been the next guy off most our boards, it does make sense for Them Boyz. That being said, his propensity for taking ill-advised penalties in college was a major concern for most teams, and unless they can coach that out of him in camp, that's only going to grow at the next level.
Lindy is definitely going to bolster the Ravens OL in the trenches the moment he shows up in Baltimore. And for a team that wants to run the ball as much as they do, it makes perfect sense. He brings that traditional hard-nose Raven attitude that we've seen for decades, and will be a natural fit. Also, he's no slouch in pass pro, so Lamar and the passing attack (now minus Hollywood Brown), will likely thank him as well.
I think the lowest any of us had Johnson falling was Scott at #18. For him to make it all the way down to the #26 slot, it makes perfect sense for the Jets to slide in and nab an elite edge rusher who should be able to make plays from the moment he dons the Green and White. It wouldn't have shocked me to see him go in the top 10, and now here he is with a gargantuan fall. Good for the Jets, bad for the rest of the league.
As much as I hated the Jags first overall pick, I love this one. Lloyd instantly fills the void left by Myles Jack, and should be able to chase down RBs in the flat, match up with TEs in both coverage and blowing up their blocks at the line, as well as get after the QB when asked. He is an overall dominant prospect that I can't believe lasted to pick 27. Great pick to anchor the Jags second level for years.
This grade is no knock on the player. Not at all. It's a knock on the Packers. Another year and another chance for the Packers to ignore Rodgers and his needs. To leave the first round without a WR is wild, even if you think there's talent later in the draft left. Didn't we learn this lesson with Amari Rogers last year? Is the plan really to lean on Sammy Watkins, Allen Lazard, and Randall Cobb? Come on. And for a team that already has Kenny Clark, Preston Smith, Dean Lowry, Rashan Gary, and De'Vondre Campbell, they really didn't need anything for their front seven, never mind a true DT with Kenny Clark filling that hole at a high level. Another senseless pick from GB. Wish I was more surprised. Wyatt, however, is a stud and should contribute, albeit in likely very limited snaps.
You can make the case that the Patriots needed an interior lineman after the departure of Shaq Mason this offseason. And I'll listen to it. But, by all accounts other than Bill Belichick's, this guy was going to be available well into the third round. So the Patriots leave the first round without a desperately needed CB or LB, when they had multiple shots at elite tier prospects at both positions. Seems like a massive miss to me, no matter how good Strange may end up. It doesn't answer the question of "how do we stop Buffalo" at all...and if they can't do that, what's even the point? Are they playing for second place in the AFC East? FIGURE IT OUT.
This is kind of an uneventful pick, but it fills a need for KC that should help them keep pace in an ultra competitive AFC West. It doesn't really move the needle for me a ton, but Karlaftis should be a solid player for them to get pressure on the QB, something that they've struggled to do consistently over the last couple seasons.
The versatility of Hill is what bumps this a bit higher for me, he can play some safety if needed, but can also play corner at a high level for a defense that has needed help/depth in the secondary for a while. I would have liked to see them go for a LB personally, feel like that was just as big of a need, if not bigger. But nonetheless, the Bengals continue to self-assess well and fill the few remaining holes they have. Day 2 should be interesting, I still think guy like Njabo could be a huge discount but long term investment for a team like Cincy.
This is just a flat out solid pick. It gives them someone to bolster the back end and play alongside Harrison Smith, and a guy with athleticism like Cine should be able to cover almost the whole field. I had him mocked in this slot at #32, but had him going to the Lions... close enough. He deserved to be a first round pick, even if he doesn't play the sexiest position in the NFL anymore. The Vikings still have a need at corner, but they can address that in the next couple rounds, and were smart to nab Cine here, who would not have lasted long in the second round.
