NFL Draft Triple Take (Mock Draft 3.0), April 4, 2024

Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the NFL Draft Triple Take, presented by up MC. I'm Mike Pursuita, joined us always by Matt Williamson and Dale Lawley. We are here to give it a third try at forecasting Round one of the NFL Draft next month in Detroit, Mock three point zero as it is, and Dale, I know you probably agree with me. The only thing better

Here. I want to remind everyone.

Before we get started that these are the opinions expressed.

By Matt Williamson, Dale Lawlly and yours.

Truly.

Nothing official here, but hey, we're pretty into this stuff and we feel like you ought to know what we're thinking as we continue counting down the days to.

The NFL Draft.

If you're new to this type of program, I'll just give you a quick review of the parameters. We go through the first round individually, but we break it up into thirds. So we're gonna lead off today with Matt Williamson and then I'll give my take, and then Dale will come in with his picks one through ten, and then we'll repeat till we get to the end of the first round. So Matt, you're ready to kick us off.

Yeah, And I went with four quarterbacks in a row to lead off. I mean, that's starting to be something you see a lot of. I think the Patriots taking a quarterback at three, considering the state of their offense right now, is dropping a player into a bad situation. So they get out accumulate picks. We know the Vikings are not.

Really even hiding it. They're actively pursuing a.

Quarterback, which makes all the sense in the world. They go up and get Drake May, who I think he's my second favorite quarterback in this draft, but it's a.

Good situation for him.

The Raiders are sort of in quarterback no man's land, so they kind of sell the farm to go up to four with the Cardinals. In my situation, the Cardinals were very active trading last year in the first round.

More to come on that later.

Got this, but then coach Harbass a third five and probably gets the best player in the whole draft, and it just falls right in his lap. So I think the top of this draft is interesting, but you're gonna see a lot of the same names, of course, And I also went with a doonsay over Neighbors, maybe just because I was sick of seeing the top.

Eight be so chocky.

But he's a little more possession based, a little more Daniel Jones friendly, in my opinion.

I'm not resisting the temptation to forecast trades yet, so I'm just taking the draft as chalk. But the one pick that I've really got my own is number five. I think the first four I could easily see the first four playing out that way. You guys were at the NFL annual meeting in Orlandover. Did you hear live and in person or see the tape of Jim Harbaugh talking about offensive line and how it's the only position group on the field that depends on no one else.

I almost didn't give them, Harrison. I'm an Ohio State guy and not alignment.

You know. I know you're joking, but maybe not cross my mind.

Right as I said the other day though on the drive.

If they take an offensive lineman and pass on Marvin Harrison Junior or one of these top receivers, justin Herbert might walk into his office, into Harbaugh's office and punch him in the face.

Well, I don't know that he would.

Maybe they get out, you know, down to eight.

Maybe he's thinking there are plenty of receivers to get down the line, and.

They don't have.

A guy that he's probably pretty familiar with in the second round. But I did switch out the tackle going at number five. The rest of it pretty much as it had been Dale. Yeah, I mean, you know, the names are the names.

I mean that that's just it's a matter of figuring out who goes where, and you know, I can't argue with it with any of that.

For me, I do have a trade up as well.

You'll also see I have Washington now taking JJ McCarthy. There's starting to be some murmurings about that happening.

Got JJ McCarthy. Second.

Overall, I don't agree with that.

It's not what I would do, But there are some rumors out there that Washington is enamor with him, and I spoke to some people who are at his codating and they said his pro day was very impressive. He threw the ball as well as any quarterback in this draft, maybe better than some others.

So probably more frequently than he threw it during the season.

I can't argue with that.

I can't all that, but I'm just telling you that's what I'm hearing then, and there's some there's some momentum building that that you know that.

Could be the pick there.

But I have four quarterbacks going in a row there. I have Minnesota trading up to that number four spot.

I think if the Patriots had their choice of.

Drake May or if Jayden Daniels is there, I think you take him. I think he is a a he's my number two quarterback in this draft, and he's dynamic. He's very Lamar Jackson like you can build your offense around that guy. The Vikings come up and get Drake May again, leaving the Chargers with Marvin Harrison Junior, and

Take a look at the next third of picks, starting at eleventh overall ment.

Yeah, we got four offensive tackles going in this neighborhood, starting to get into.

That wide receiver range wide receiver four range two.

I mean, I thought Thomas the Cincinnati made a lot of sense with Higgins contract kind of looming at the moment. And you might notice at the very bottom trade with the Steelers. I mentioned the Cardinals earlier. They get out of the early picks and then they come back up to twenty to grab a corner that they desperately need and Terry and Arnold. So you'll notice the Steelers are not on in the twentieth spot here. There be something to come later here.

So that's a little tease they are going to still they are.

They went back to twenty seven, picked up a little goodies in between.

I'm probably a lot like you guys.

And then I look at the tackle position and the wide receiver position as way deep and personal preference. Right, there's not that much separation between number one and number eight.

What are you looking for?

Number seven? What are you looking for?

I do like the Vikings waiting to get their cornerback quarterback.

Excuse me.

Now we start to see some defensive players hitting the board. Here Latham is the guy. I had him previously going to the Chargers at five Seattle sixteen. You know, same kind of theory, that right guy, right place, right time, depending on how you view it.

And I went back.

To see number twenty the Steelers Jackson Powers Johnson. I had a tackle the last time we did this, Mims of Georgia, But I don't know today. I'm thinking, get the center, get that solidified, then move on with your draft. I might I might think something different next week, but that's where I'm going today.

Saw Yeah, I mean, I can't argue that position.

It's just you know, more recently in our latest triple takes, as we're going back through this again, a bump Graham Barton ahead of Jackson Powers Johnson.

Wow, his pro day was unbelievable. Unbelievable.

In my eleven through twenty, here you see again I have the Steelers going tackle. Here, Talisi Flaga falls to the Steelers. Here at twenty, I have them taking him. I'm with you, though, I think lay two to the Rams. It just makes a lot of sense. I mean, he is a Rams type player. You keep him in LA. That would make a ton of sense there.

I think there's three four guys, maybe more.

Alf Is one to Tennessee, bauerst Indianapolis late two to the Some of this just feels right.

They just make sense.

And you know, same thing with Denver taking bo Nicks. I mean, that just makes a lot of sense. Maybe they could get him in round two, but they don't take the chance.

They take him here.

They really don't have a quarterback.

Option right now, and he would be an immediate starter for them.

Matt.

I can't wait to see where you go with the Steelers pick and who the Steelers.

They go all the way back to twenty seven, pick up some picks in between.

It gives them the ability to trade up later.

They've got a lot of extra picks through the Deontae Johnson trade, et cetera.

Pick a trade.

But I haven't taken Mims at twenty seven. Still gets he's a project. I mean, he hasn't played a lot of football, but he's immensely talented. Did pretty well with the Georgia tackle a year ago. Maybe they're a bookend for the next decade. Cooper dejene is another guy that he hasn't worked out yet, but everyone seems to be kind of forgetting about him, which I think is insane.

Well.

He's one of my favorite guys in the staffs. I really have a lot of respect for Robinson. Here's my twenty one through thirty two, and I've got Cooper dejene at twenty five. But I'll do my own little tease here. As we continue to do our review of the top five at each position on Steelers dot Com, We're gonna get to cornerback in safety eventually, and I'm gonna move Cooper Degit.

Out of corner and put him into safety.

I think it just I've seen this guy play a lot. I don't know if you guys know, I've watched some Big ten football. Really, I just think he's a more effective guy looking at the ball and going and getting.

It than he is chasing somebody around.

But he's he's like a chess piece.

He can play in the slot, you can play corner, you can play him in safe.

That's the beauty of a Cooper Degene. And he takes the ball away. There's a lot of things there.

He's now scheduled his workout for April eighth, which that will that's gonna be key for him. I mean I expect him to run in the four to four somewhere.

Oh.

I think he's gonna test great. His tape's great, his return skills are elite. I just I want him kind of being that guy Seaball, go get ball or go get guy with ball.

He's really good at that.

He's very good at that.

Look like a packer to me too.

Take us home with your bottom third here.

Yeah, I get the Cardinals with their trade back. They get jerse On Newton or Johnny Newton as he's now known there.

They could use a little bit of everything.

And I get Dejene going at twenty two.

To the to the Eagles there. San Francisco gets Nate Wiggins.

They could really use that and another you know, you see that tackle run continue in that first round with the Kansas City Chiefs taking Kingsley Suamattaya at thirty two.

They don't have a left.

Tackle right now.

You know, I don't know if he's plugging play, but he's pretty close to I think he could.

Certainly work with it.

He can't be any worse than what they lined up with last year at left tackle, and it.

Just makes a lot of sense.

All right, that's gonna do it for our third look at round one. But that might not necessarily be the last look at round one, but at least for today as we speak, that's how Matt sees it, that's how Dale sees it, and that's how I see it, at least until next time. I want to remind everybody that you can find quality programming such as what you've just witnessed on all of the Steelers' social media platforms. Thanks for finding us this time, wherever and however you found us,