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2022 NFL Draft Notes
Welcome back to the Grayson McCall show, I’m your host, Grayson McCall’s biggest fan. Today, I’ll just be doing a links dump featuring stories about the 2022 NFL Draft.
Bengals take cornerback Derek Stingley fourth overall in 2022 mock draft. If Cincinnati is drafting in the top-five, we need to throw out the “Zac Taylor playbook” and so it all would depend on who the Bengals hired to replace him. I was turned against Stingley a little bit by a reddit post that I shared here recently.
Daniel Jeremiah compares Alabama offensive tackle Evan Neal to former Chargers tackle Marcus McNeill, a two-time Pro Bowler. Jeremiah sees Neal as a future right tackle, not left. Neal could be the first tackle off the board. DraftWire has him going third overall to the Bengals. It would be tough to swallow the idea of drafting your franchise right tackle third overall, but the Eagles did take Lane Johnson with the number four pick.
The Lions take quarterback Malik Willis with the number two overall pick. I think Detroit legitimately wants to be able to roll with Jared Goff for at least another two or three years, hope that he’s a Derek Carr, and to not address quarterback until the team is already talented. They’re making all the moves of a franchise that is not going to be overly-concerned about the quarterback position. I’m sure Brad Holmes wouldn’t pass on a consensus great quarterback prospect if one is available to him and that player could be Willis. There is no leader yet.
Stingley goes fourth
Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton goes fifth overall to the Jets. Do you remember the last Kyle to be drafted in the first round by the Jets? It was another defensive back: Kyle Wilson, 29th overall out of Boise State.
Back then, Wilson lasted five seasons with New York, playing in 16 games in each of them, but getting benched after year three. Today, he probably would have played four years in the NFL. Get cut by the Jets in year three, another team gives you a shot for one season because of draft pedigree, get cut, another team gives you a shot, don’t make it out of camp. It seems like the league has a lot less patience given the value of rookie deals and kind of getting discounts on the veterans. While a few players are playing at more advanced ages than ever before, I actually feel as though the league is getting younger every year. Maybe it’s just the running backs and receivers, but it makes sense why it would be the whole league. It saves teams the money they need to meet the rising cost of stars.
Miami offensive tackle Zion Nelson goes eighth in that mock draft. Wait, this stopped being a “link dump” a while ago, didn’t it?
At 247 Sports, Spencer Rattler went first overall to the Lions. I’m not attempting to criticize these mock drafts for the sake of criticism. The Lions taking Rattler sounds fine to me. Any of these teams taking any quarterback seems fine to me. These are completely understandable. It does feel a bit like “Okay, the Lions are bad, the Lions will likely draft high, the Lions don’t have their quarterback yet, just fill in (QUARTERBACK) after Lions and call it another mock draft.” I am just getting the feeling that (HIGH DRAFT PICK) LIONS - (QUARTERBACK) is going to be repeated on every mock draft from here until then. And maybe that’s absolutely what happens. But that’s all it ever is when I see it: Fine.
And I still think that the team is fully invested in a future with Jared Goff. Even if you or I disagree with that as a plan, I completely believe that they believe that is the plan.
This 247 mock draft has bad formatting and I wouldn’t recommend it unless it looks better on your screen than mine.
The two-round mock draft at USA Today had the 49ers taking safety Brandon Joseph in the second round. The 49ers don’t have a first in 2022 and 2023 because of Trey Lance.
PFN’s scouting report of Coastal Carolina tight end Isaiah Likely. You know what “Coastal Carolina” means … Grayson-der pressure. Grayson McCall’s potential top target, Likely is 6’4, 245 lbs and he played receiver as a two-star recruit out of the northeast. Though he was productive in high school, teams seemed unsure of his position and the only college that believed he could be an NFL prospect was Coastal Carolina, according to Likely’s coach at the time. I mentioned Coastal Carolina head coach Jamey Chadwell during my evaluation of McCall, and he’s another person at that school who I had to cite (and am now repeating) as special. I think they’re both bound for the NFL.
PFN’s Oliver Hodgkinson praises Likely’s athleticism, route running, broken tackles ability, hand strength, and versatility. They gave Likely a fringe third round grade because he may need to improve his blocking, however that seems to be a fairly common negative for college players these days so maybe he can rise up the boards if all that other stuff is true.
2022 NFL Mock Draft from SI.com: Debating the best defensive end. In this draft, Carson Strong goes first overall to the Texans. I don’t see that as impossible. Strong has really high upside, from what little I know so far. This draft also has George Karlaftis going second and Kayvon Thibodeaux going third. Though many people will find this to be “offensive” to the beliefs they have about Thibodeaux, it is realistic that anything could happen in the next 10 months. Here’s the write-up on Karlaftis:
General manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell want to build from the trenches. The quarterback position remains a mystery, but Karlaftis is too good to pass up. As a prospect, Karlaftis is the complete package. His overall quickness and athleticism at 270 pounds are hard to find. Not only that, Karlaftis is fantastic against the run. In a full season next year, expect him to put up All-America numbers for the Boilermakers. The Big Ten has a history of edge rushers being selected in the top five and Karlaftis has the talent to be the next one selected there.
PFF 2022 draft rankings. So far PFF has rankings for QB, RB, WR, OL, iDL, Edge.
PFF’s QB rankings: Spencer Rattler, Sam Howell, Malik Willis, Kedon Slovis, Carson Strong, Emory Jones.
RB rankings: Breece Hall, Jerrion Ealy, Isaiah Spiller, Zonovan Knight, Chris Rodriguez, Jr., Kenny McIntosh.
WR rankings: Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Drake London, Treylon Burks, Romeo Doubs, Ainias Smith.
OL rankings: Evan Neal, Tyler Linderbaum, Jaxson Kirkland, Kenyon Green, Ikem Ekwonu, Daniel Faalele.
iDL rankings: DeMarvin Leal, Jordan Davis, Jermayne Lole, Perrion Winfrey, Haskell Garrett, Calijah Kancey.
EDGE rankings: Kayvon Thibodeaux, Kingsley Enagbare, Nik Bonitto, Zach Harrison, Aidan Hutchinson, Adam Anderson. (Karlaftis was only mentioned in the “names to watch” section)
Okay, that’s it for today, see you with more 2022 draft stuff soon.
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