So, downside always lurks here - I worked on a stage file, wasn't finished, and apparently left my desktop before submitting it. So, I missed a stage. (Now looking at website) Not a huge miss... I managed to sign a veteran DL who provides an alternative leader for our D7 group. He was intended to serve as a Plan B in case we couldn't sign DE Don Shields, but he also re-signed this stage, lessening that urgency. In the never-sent file, I also put in offers on a couple decent veterans who would have clicked with the new guy, rather than Shields. Alas, the plan failed to come together, and I will have to decide fairly soon which way we go here (Shields is a 7-8 guy, Musterer is an 8-9 guy... so same group, but a different mix if hit/neutral among the 7-8 and 8-9 crowd)
In the draft, I end up dealing down a few clicks in round 2 to grab an extra 4th rounder. So, our top three picks are on the books:
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C Ezekiel Castillo - big bars guy, with two apparent flaws, a below-cutoff bench and a med static bar in blocking strength... I guess that points to him fading, but for a late 2nd rounder, and a potential affinity fit, I'm rolling the dice.. I posted a query about him in the draft thread but to no avail... mysteries abound
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CB Oliver Herndon - a "do-it-all" DB we hope can graduate into a role as CB3/4 and KR
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TE Diego McKnight - major need position at receiving TE and both free agency and the draft are really thin... he looks like a no-block guy with legit receiving skills, and I'd take that for the short term, could get quick action in multi-WR sets right away if he pans out
From here, I would like to add some depth at DE, but that is sooooo hard to find later in the draft. More likely we continue to grab the fairly interesting guys at DB, LB, WR, RB per usual.