One Week Out: 2024 Draft

[Fletch59]

 It's been a week, and all of the potentialities have turned to realities.   Possibility from across hundreds of college athletes has turned into a select few players. Carolina absolutely put the early effort into the offense, which then gave way to bodies for defense and special teams.   I personally got plenty wrong - figuring C was critical, figuring CB would be early-only.   Watching the yoyo of two costly trades-up when I didn't want them, to go with a very lucrative trade down. Anybody could've guessed on Xavier Legette, and taking him ~10 players early means not losing him, I suppose.   With both he and (101) Ja'Tavion Sanders I remain confused that they didn't take a better route runner, but with both you get some vertical stretch and some box-out.  If you take shots, you have to be willing to see what happens as the ball lands, and even a 4.21 40 guy (i.e., the other Xavier) can struggle to get deeper than a safety that has 15 yards of head start. But the route running remains a little bit of a concern.  I don't care that Sanders didn't run a 4.50, he's experienced, I just don't see crisp enough routes in he or Legette. I don't know if Bryce is the type to uncork a ball to 40 and 5 just because he trusts the guy getting to that spot.  I didn't see a lot of it last year.  But the talent, I can't complain with that, if the ball gets placed In Legette and Jonathon Brooks, on paper, they have long term guys who can be focal points, in concept.  Both have been, though for one year only.  That's clearly what they're hoping; they're obviously also hoping those single years aren't outliers (and that Brooks is healthy). I also underestimated the LB want.  After a RB, an LB pick?  I think the player is fine, if also in need of sculpting, and you don't force a CB pick in 3 just to do it, but yet again it's a place where I expected the thinking to be more outside-in but it's come inside-out (i.e., guard, DL). It's a hard one to have seen so many exceptional players at 39, having traded up to 46, and not gotten any of those exceptional players.  Doesn't mean Brooks isn't, but I absolutely had CB a bigger concern than RB, certainly thought there were impact corners on the board, certainly have worry about what that room looks like. Anyway that's the strategy of the draft itself, isn't it?  It can break your heart in some situations and there are ample reasons to have the worries now that you can see looking back on 2021, 2022 for instance.  There's plenty in which to be excited, too.  And for now, I'll leave it at that.

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