The 2016 NFL Draft

[Arles]

I figure it is time to start the dedicated thread for this spectacle.

Just saw McShay's latest mock and he has Reggie Ragland slipping to Green Bay at 27

[frnk55]

I hate the fact that the draft is at night.

[Arles]

I wish it would start on Friday night and then finish on Saturday and Sunday. Thursday night is both baseball and Boy Scouts for my boys so I'll have to follow on my phone.

[Kodos]

I wish it was Saturday and Sunday, like in the good old days.

[MrBug708]

Myles jack just admitted he may need microfracture surgery in the next few years. Probably scaring the Jags from picking him?

[albionmoonlight]

The question for teams is whether you can get 4 years out of Jack before his knee melts. If so, I think you still go for it.

However, he may decide to sign the contract and then opt for the surgery--figuring that that is better for his long term potential, and there isn't anything you can do to stop him from doing it at that point.

[SteveMax58]

Yeah I think Jack has to slide based on everything I keep hearing.

I just can't see taking him with a #1. I'm guessing I'll be wrong about that but I just wouldn't do it.

[Grover]

Really hoping to see Josh Doctson in stripes by the end of the night.

[SteveMax58]

The Cowboys pick is an interesting one.

Ramsey seems to make a lot of sense for anybody to take. Elliott is awfully tempting to put behind that line. I'm not sold on Bosa being an elite passrush prospect in the NFL....nor am I really sold on any DE with a 1st Rd grade developing into one (Floyd maybe, but not a prototypical DE right now).

Think I'd go Elliott if I'm Dallas. I mean, assuming you think he has can't miss talent that is. And by the time you have to pay him big bucks, Romo is most likely out of the league.

I kinda think the same thing for the Giants if he slips that far. Eli may only have 4 seasons left so probably not a big deal to get the best talent at HB cheap now, and pay up later when you have a transitional QB.

[Senator]

Ramsey at 4 if he is there, if not trade down a few spots (like Chicago) so someone can get Tunsil. Grab Elliott or Doctson with the traded pick.

[albionmoonlight]

I might have missed a stray comment here or there, but other than a few people suggesting that Tennessee should trade back up to grab Tunsil, I have not heard one fan or pundit suggest that a team would benefit by trading up. But I think that I have heard every team in the top 15 linked to a trade down as a good idea.

Makes me wonder why the market hasn't adjusted. If a certain trade down value used to be a third round pick, why hasn't that turned into a fifth or sixth? Why does that Jimmy Johnson chart from back in the 90s have such staying power?

[Thomkal]

I'm thinking my beloved Cardinals will trade out of the 1st round to get a second round pick again after the Chandler Jones trade. Just about every mock I've seen have them taking center Ryan Kelly if they stay at #29, but given their recent history with 1st round OLine picks (Cooper in the Jones trade, Humphries still a question mark, Levi Brown not working out), I kinda hope they go for some other position.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I'm thinking my beloved Cardinals will trade out of the 1st round to get a second round pick again after the Chandler Jones trade. Just about every mock I've seen have them taking center Ryan Kelly if they stay at #29, but given their recent history with 1st round OLine picks (Cooper in the Jones trade, Humphries still a question mark, Levi Brown not working out), I kinda hope they go for some other position.

I think Treadwell would be nice if he falls to them. Groom him under Larry and he'll be a great fit at #2 in the meantime. Though I don't see him falling that far.

Kelly would be a solid pick though. Not sexy but you need those kinds of guys with the likes of Aaron Donald in that division.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I might have missed a stray comment here or there, but other than a few people suggesting that Tennessee should trade back up to grab Tunsil, I have not heard one fan or pundit suggest that a team would benefit by trading up. But I think that I have heard every team in the top 15 linked to a trade down as a good idea.

Makes me wonder why the market hasn't adjusted. If a certain trade down value used to be a third round pick, why hasn't that turned into a fifth or sixth? Why does that Jimmy Johnson chart from back in the 90s have such staying power?

I don't think as many teams use that chart anymore, and teams have adjusted values already (the price to trade up to #2 to draft a QB is much higher than to go up to #2 to get a DE), but to your point...I think it's still about opportunity cost. If the players are thought to be tiered in a way where the cost from moving up from 12 to 8 in 2015 is a 2nd round pick, but from 12 to 8 in 2016 is only a 5th because of the lower level of expected value gained, the team at 8 will be hesitant to pull the trigger and risk losing the player they want if the upside is only a 5th round pick. Better at that point to just take the player you want even if it's early, than risk someone else you weren't expected to move up for your guy.

[frnk55]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I wish it was Saturday and Sunday, like in the good old days.

+1
Yup, just a lazy weekend watching the draft.

[Julio Riddols]

Yeah, there was nothing better than gearing up for the weekend, getting all the guys together, bunking up and spending 2 whole days bathing in football speculation.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

Yeah, there was nothing better than gearing up for the weekend, getting all the guys together, bunking up and spending 2 whole days bathing

Oh, my.

[SteveMax58]

[Julio Riddols]

Well, what good is a bunch of guy friends being together if we all stink?

[SteveMax58]

Cleveland is another interesting pick to contemplate.

They need so much, so BPA seems likely. But I can see some moneyball biasing them to OT assuming either Tunsil, Stanley, or Conklin are there. That would allow them to shop Joe Thomas around and lower the cap while getting more picks.

If none of those 3 are available....maybe they go Elliott or trade back if all 4 are off the board?

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I wish it was Saturday and Sunday, like in the good old days.

Amen to that.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Senator

Ramsey at 4 if he is there, if not trade down a few spots (like Chicago) so someone can get Tunsil. Grab Elliott or Doctson with the traded pick.

I'm with you on Ramsey. I'd rather not take an RB that high though and would prefer Bosa in that case (not that Dallas would listen to me). He may not be Ware, but he'd be productive and he's still got some room to develop being he's so young.

[bulletsponge]

the drafts tonight!?

[Butter]

I don't think the number one team should get Ten minutes. You've had weeks now. Make a pick.

[CU Tiger]

I just got permission from a friend to post this.

Worth the read for everyone. Sorry if someone cuts onions while you read it


.

**New** (Larry) A happy anniversary -- our interview with Shaq Lawson's mother


CLEMSON -– A few months ago, Shaq Lawson’s agent gave Rolitha Oglesby a list of important dates that would come during her son’s preparation for the NFL Draft.

She scanned the list and saw the draft itself would take place on the date her life and her body were torn apart in a car accident that killed Lawson’s father and almost killed her.

So while tonight in Chicago will be the biggest moment of Lawson’s life as he sits with his loved ones in the green room and waits for his name to be called, the significance and the weight of it is far heavier because of that date.

“I know Shaq will be emotional,” Oglesby said. “Because I know I will be. I told Shaq: Look how the Lord works. We didn’t understand when He took his father that day. But I said, ‘Look at it today. Five years later, he is showing you why everything is happening in our lives to get you ready for this day, to see if you’re going to be strong enough for this day before I put this all on you.’”

Oglesby, a 41-year-old mother of five, welcomed this reporter into her Central home three days ago. She was trying to stay calm amid a whirlwind of activity as she prepared to host a cookout staged by the NFL Network later in the day. She was also packing for Tuesday’s trip to Chicago to be with Lawson in the run-up to the draft.

[​IMG]
Shaq Lawson's mother, Rolitha Oglesby, is shown here at her Central home earlier this week during an interview with Tigerillustrated.com.

Until last week, Oglesby was bitter about what happened on that night in late April of 2011. Lawrence Lawson, the father of four of her children, was killed in a head-on collision when a driver swerved over the center line and struck his Chevy Blazer on a two-lane road outside of Central. Lawson died at the scene, and Oglesby spent months recovering from a collapsed lung and other injuries.

According to a collision report provided by the S.C. Highway Patrol, the driver of the truck was cited for driving too fast for conditions (64 in a 45). He was charged almost eight months after the accident and paid an $80 fine. Alcohol tests were not performed on the driver of the truck, who was a minor and a classmate of Shaq’s at Daniel High School.

Oglesby has believed all along that justice was not served after the accident, and it wasn’t until seeing her son discuss the loss of his father in a recent ESPN interview that she resolved to move past the anger and the questions. Just last week, she found the driver of the truck on Facebook and sent him a message telling him she forgives him.

Shaq basically had to become a father to his three younger siblings after Lawrence’s death. Their ages were 6, 5 and 3. Beyond that, his mother struggled performing basic functions and needed his help.

“I remember times I couldn’t sleep at night and he would lay in the bed with me, and when I would go to sleep he would go to his room,” Oglesby said. “Every night he would come back there to my room and lay with me until I went to sleep.

“I couldn’t walk by myself because of my lung. I had to walk bent-over for at least two months. He would help me stand up in the shower, and that’s embarrassing because you don’t want your child to see you like that.”

A year after the accident, Rolitha had to move from the house she shared with Lawrence because there were reminders of him everywhere. She was tortured by the guilt and the wondering why Lawrence was gone and she was still here.

It took a long time before she was able to re-enter society and “deal with people.” She was traumatized at the thought of riding in a car, and she made sure to be back home by dark on Fridays – the day of the accident.

“That house, it seemed like I could see Lawrence everywhere,” she said. “I could smell him. It was like he was right there.”

Oglesby said she received $50,000 in an insurance settlement and used it to buy the three-bedroom mobile home she and her family have lived in since, a few blocks from downtown Central.

A year after the accident, Shaq learned he was not academically eligible to attend Clemson. He reluctantly signed up for Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia, but his mother said he walked into Hargrave a boy and exited a man. He called her every time he received an A on a test. When he’d come home, he’d no longer rely on his mother to make his bed and keep his room neat.

“I thought I would lose him when he had to go to Hargrave, but I didn’t,” Oglesby said. “He maintained. His daddy told him: Always be better than me. Make sure you go to college. Get your education so you can be anything. He told him that the day he died.

“Shaquille’s life really began after he left Hargrave.”

Shaq and his mother never discuss the dark days that followed Lawrence’s death. She’s not sure why. She says certain dates are important to Shaq; on Father’s Day, he will play “Dance With My Father Again” by Luther Vandross.

Oglesby is fully aware that her life is about to change for the better. Her son is going to have millions of dollars in his bank account, and he has said the first thing he will do is build his mother a house.

Oglesby is set on leaving Central when that happens, perhaps moving to Powdersville or Simpsonville. She’s wary of hangers-on who will want a piece of her son’s earnings, and otherwise she’s just ready to experience something new after living here her entire life.

This is the first time she’s discussed the accident and its aftermath with such detail. She says the tragedy has been in the news so she might as well talk about it once and get it over with. In addition, she’s hoping this will provide her with some therapy that she still needs.

Her younger children, now ages 12, 10 and 8, weren’t able to process their father’s death at the time but now they ask questions. They want to see pictures of him. Daughter Leandra, age 10, looks exactly like him. Shaq is “like his twin,” Rolitha says.

“I tell them he’s dead, and he won’t come back here. But he’s with you in spirit.”

Before she squeezed through an opening in the wreckage that night five years ago, Rolitha heard Lawrence speak for the last time. He told her to take care of his kids, then he prayed for salvation.

Five years after their lives were torn apart, tonight their lives change for the better.

After all the pain and all the grief and all the struggles, finally this is a happy anniversary.

“It was a rough time, but we made it by the grace of God,” she says. “That’s all I can say. I can’t explain it, but we did it.”

Go get paid, young man. You have earned it.

[Groundhog]

I have only a passing interest in college football and don't watch nearly as much NFL as I do basketball, but this would be the first draft in a long time where I don't know the name of a single prospect. I'd say usually there's 10-15 guys in the first round who I've heard of in passing... it might just be that I don't visit bleacher report as much I used to.

[NobodyHere]

Jeff Fischer went to Jared's

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by SteveMax58

Cleveland is another interesting pick to contemplate.

They need so much, so BPA seems likely. But I can see some moneyball biasing them to OT assuming either Tunsil, Stanley, or Conklin are there. That would allow them to shop Joe Thomas around and lower the cap while getting more picks.

If none of those 3 are available....maybe they go Elliott or trade back if all 4 are off the board?

They're gonna draft Myles Jack. Jack is going to get injured. Everyone will complain that the Browns wasted yet another pick on an injury prone player.

That's how Cleveland rolls.

[stevew]

Geez, 2 picks in 30 minutes.

[bhlloy]

WTF - that's a horrible pick for a 3-4 team

[stevew]

Bosa seems like a really good pick. I feel like this post will get bumped in 5 years and I'll look dumb.

[murrayyyyy]

Why take bosa when you could trade down for him?

[stevew]

Hard to say who has the worst hair at the ESPN table.

[MrBug708]

Are McFadden and Morris that bad to take Elliot that high?

[bulletsponge]

wow a rb taken with the 4th pick

[stevew]

I love when the ESPN guys get the pick in their ears and then switch who they're talking about

[sabotai]

And instantly I go from hoping the Giants take Ezekiel Elliott to hoping the guy busts big time.

[bhlloy]

I can't believe the Chargers passed on Ramsey. You just got rid of Weddle, you have one smurf and the rest of the secondary is terrible. Seems like the Chargers have picked a billion 3-4 OLB guys who can only rush in the last 10-15 years. So underwhelming.

[albionmoonlight]

Rumor that Tunsil posted a video of himself smoking weed on his twitter. His timing is . . . inauspicious

[SteveMax58]

Man didn't expect Bosa at 3. At all.

What do I know really but figured Ramsey the better prospect.

[stevew]

If you're going a RB at #4 he better be Jim Brown or AP

[bhlloy]

I think there's a decent chance we look back at the top 4 and wonder how in the hell they all passed on Ramsey in 5 years. Both QB's have question marks, Bosa is overhyped and Elliott needs to be an all-time great to justify a top 5 selection in today's NFL.

[albionmoonlight]

Things working out for Jax. Getting a player that could have gone at 3 at 5 is nice.

[SteveMax58]

Great pick for the Jags.

[albionmoonlight]

Stanley comes off really polished. Baltimore probably just got the next Joe Thomas. Such a well-run team.

[digamma]

I'm too lazy to go back to twitter to get PFT Commenter's exact tweet, but it was something like:

"Chip Kelly's draft board is toast now that picks 1, 2 and 3 are all white guys."

[stevew]

Tennessee wins the draft

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by digamma

I'm too lazy to go back to twitter to get PFT Commenter's exact tweet, but it was something like:

"Chip Kelly's draft board is toast now that picks 1, 2 and 3 are all white guys."

The backup plan is to just take an Oregon guy

[Julio Riddols]

I think Elliott is the maximization of Romo's final years. The Cowboys will be incredibly formidable with a back like that behind that line.

The Bosa pick is just confusing for the Chargers.

Tunsil dropping is gonna happen due to that video, but speculation is his stepdad is trying to sabotage his career as retaliation for Tunsil coming to his mothers aid in an abusive relationship. Weird story all around.

[NobodyHere]

So Cleveland moves from 2nd to 15th and gets a 1st, 2 2nds, 2 3rds, and a 4th?

Do I have that right?


ETA: They did trade away a 4th to the Eagles