DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk 2025 NFL Draft Draft IV

I keep saying 32.....I mean 33.

Let's be honest, the draft is a crap shoot with a 50% hit ratio in the first round being excellent and less successful in the later rounds still. Berry and Stefanski have to take the crap out of the shoot because let's be honest here - their jobs are on the line.

Pick #2 - the most impactful pick here is Carter. Pairing Carter with Garrett is just plain scary for opponents and upgrades the defense immediately. A feared pass rush anchored by Carter and Garrett makes your DB's and LB's instantly better in the pass game because the time window narrows. Nothing against Hunter, defensively, he does not provide that type of impact. To be trueful, it doesn't matter how good your CB's and safeties are if the QB has extra time to throw - even an average QB will carve you up. Speaking of QB, outside of Ward, the consensus is none of the other QB's are NFL ready. Even Ward has question marks, investing in a project player in the 1st or early 2nd round would be a reach and the Browns can't afford to be reaching. Hunter at WR is an interesting upgrade but with LT being a question mark, the other 4 OL men on the final year of their contracts, your TE in the final year of his deal and RB being a question mark; is upgrading at WR when you already have a #1WR really the best impact move for the team? Outside of Carter, the 2nd best move for the Browns would be to trade down with an emphasis on packing 2026 picks.

Pick #33 - this pick has to be traded - Berry has to find a suitor to trade with so the Browns can get back into the 1st round with this pick. Whether it's a QB, RB, WR, or OL; getting back into the 1st round to pick up that 5th year option is critical for a player taken so high in the draft. 32nd, 31st, 30th, and 29th would be easily attainable and could save millions down the road. Staying at 33 is a missed opportunity if the player is a potential hit. Again, not a pick that should be reaching under any circumstance. Berry and Stefanski needs hits on both of these picks, and they can't be projects - the Browns need upgrades and starters with these picks.

Apparently, you have to click the link to view, but it's a Milroe breakdown.

j/c:

Not to take anything away from Hunter if we draft him, but perhaps one reason why we wouldn't take Abdul Carter is because of the potential trajectory of Isaiah McGuire. It's just one source but according to PFF:

Overall edge defender grade: 83.3 (11th of 211)
Pass rush grade: 67.1 (60th of 211)
Run defense grade: 86.1 (4th of 211)

Only 23 years old heading into his third season.

I agree, and one thing the Schwartz D needs is an edge setter. The D was missing that once Clowney left town.

At #2 the Browns really have 2 choices only 1) Trade down to acquire another 1st in 2026 or 2) draft Travis Hunter he is the best player in this draft and unless your blown away with a trade he must be the pick. This team needs to score points. Putting points on the board will cover a variety of misses from the past. Hunter will require a double team from defenses and allow Juedy to work one on one.

at #33 there are more options available 1) Trade back into 1st round and draft a QB. 2) Trade back and acquire more picks. The 1st 2nd round pick allows them all day to get a great offer and secure extra picks in this draft and next year. 2) Draft a Running back or Offensive tackle or best player that falls out of the 1st round they may not have expected to be there.

Either way the offense is where this draft should be focused. Finding players that can get into the end zone and fixing the run game. RB, TE, OL, and QB. These positions need upgraded during draft. RB, TE, and OG are deep in this draft, so it is a good draft to get better in those areas.

Now it's +120.

j/c…

j/k

I have dithered and changed my mind so many times, my brain has fogged over. The problem as I see it with this draft is that there are no clear truly elite players. I am not sold on either Carter or Hunter and I have finally arrived (via a very circuitous route) at my desired pick. I can't believe that I am saying this but: trade down to 6th (?) and select an RB ....Jeanty. I believe he will have more impact than anyone. There, I said it...lol.

I have to admit that my nightmare scenario is for the Steelers to take Milroe.

Steelers drafting Milroe is my dream scenario. I try daily to speak it into existence!

I'll die on the "Milroe is just a fast athlete pretending to play QB" hill.

Many of us said the same about guys like Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts too.

Jackson was a Heisman Trophy candidate. Hurts led his team to a Championship before Saban benched him for Tua mid game. It's an insult to compare Milroe to these two. Particularly, Lamar.

Alabama fans begged Milroe not to return.

To quote the legendary Browns O.C., Todd Haley, "You can't live in your fears."

On a side note, Milroe being as polarizing as he is, at least makes for some entertaining draft talk.

Jackson was drafted with the last pick in the 1st, (IIRC) and was the 5th QB drafted. IIRC, only Swish was all in on Jackson. Hurts was drafted in the 2nd. (5th overall QB) Both needed development to succeed in the NFL. So will Milroe.

The only similarity between Milroe, Hurts, and Jackson is they all run well with the football. I'm with YTown. I hate to see another good running quarterback in the AFCN.

Cleveland's defense will need one or two specialty players to counterattack Baltimore's and Pittsburgh's run game.

I want Cleveland to draft Milroe. If anything, he can always play a similar role to Taysom Hill for the Saints.

quoted for accuracy.

By all accounts Milroe is a very smart kid that works extremely hard. I think when all is said in done, he will be the most successful of this year's QB draft class. I would hate for him to be drafted by the Steelers, but I think it is going to happen. He was a bad snap away vs Michigan from leading Bama to a National Championship. In the same year he was benched vs Central Florida. Folks talk about the benching but not the humble way he accepted the benching. Then improved to the point he almost led his team to a Natty. Then last year Bama had 39 players transfer after Saban left. While they were still talented in a lot of areas the same talent level was not there overall. Milroe did not complain, he did not throw teammates under the bus, he even competed in the bowl game when other starters for Bama sat out. That game made him look worse. He is going to be good in the NFL with the right coach and right situation.

Are the Browns really in a position right now to be taking on a huge project player as their potential franchise QB? After dumping Mayfield and then having the biggest swing and miss in recent NFL history with Watson, is Berry and Stefanski ready to put their careers in the hands of a player who might have the highest ceiling of all the prospects but also the lowest floor? Are the Browns and their fans ready to accept a 2-3 year development window with such a large uncertainty?

An analyst wrote:

"Milroe might have the greatest upside of any quarterback in this class. Yet he’s also a definite “boom or bust” prospect who may never reach his lofty ceiling. That’s a major reason why Milroe has drawn comparisons to players like Anthony Richardson or Trey Lance.

And therein lies the biggest rub with Milroe; that teams will need to be honest with themselves about themselves.

Every team could use the player that Milroe could be. But not every team has the right environment to foster his development. Teams will need to decide if they have the patience for Milroe’s development timeline. Likewise, they need to be honest with themselves as to whether they can bring out his best.

Jalen Milroe might be this class’ best chance to produce a “cyborg” quarterback who can put defenses in impossible positions. He could also be a flop who gets a coach fired if a team isn’t able to develop him.

Ultimately, Milroe’s draft stock will hinge on how teams assess their appetite for risk against the potential reward."

j/c:



Hayden:
5. Shough
4. Sanders
3. Milroe
2. Dart
1. Ward

Josh:
5. Shough
4. Sanders
3. Dart
2. Milroe
1. Ward

I agree with this take. Milroe has by far the highest upside of any player in this draft. I do think he is better than Richardson of Indy. The Browns are not in a position to take such a risk at this time. They finally have adults in the QB room with Flacco and Pickett. They need to allow those veterans build the culture and add someone like Shough, Howard, or McCord as developmental guys. Then add a QB like Drew Allar next year. Between the QB taken this year and the 1st round QB taken next year with a culture of adults in the room the Browns should finally be able to have competent play from the QB position.

Let me preface what I'm going to say by pointing out that I'm the farthest thing from a draftnik. Nobody is looking at me for my thoughts/opinions on ANY draftee.


Milroe strikes me as a poor-man's version of Justin Fields (an offense could make use of his feet, but his throwing always seems to come up lacking). If the Steelers couldn't make Fields work, hard to imagine them making Milroe work.

I'm all for drafting boom/bust QBs... at the right spot.

Schefter's Browns Take - Version 27.0

It would be kind of funny to see us bring Milroe in for special packages with Flacco as our starter. Then you gradually see Milroe take over more and more as the season progresses.

Flacco would be sitting there thinking "Man, this seems familiar...."

If we do end up with him, may things go exactly the same for us as they did for the Ratbirds in 2018.

j/c

I think by reading all the draft analysts combined with the fans on this board as well as across the league, one thing is strikingly obvious. This draft class at QB is a mess. Some mock drafts have Sanders as the second QB drafted high in the first. Some have him dropping to the second round. How these QB's are ranked is all over the map after Ward. It's obvious that at least to some degree that many of these QB's are lumped into a group to the point there's very little separation between them beyond Ward.

To a great degree it appears it's little more than a crap shoot in regards to drafting a QB in this draft.

Here’s my take on the QBs:

There are no Franchise QBs in this draft. I doubt anyone but Ward sniffs a big payday from the team drafting them at the end of their rookie deal.

Ward - potential to be a quality starter.
Sanders - potential to be a quality starter. Daddy is an issue.
Milroe - potential to be a starter with at least one year sitting the bench. I think his ceiling (think Geno Smith) is too low to be a franchise QB.

Everybody else is a career backup waiting to happen. With exceptions for Dart and Howard being potential long term projects and having success down the road. Milroe fits this too but is more ready than not to contribute now. Howard and Dart would be ruined by playing them too early.

Next years class will be markedly better.

Does anyone on this board know how these 2025 QBs rank vs QBs from other years? For instance, where would they rank in the Baker draft, the Burrow draft etc.

About a month ago I saw a tweet from one of the talking heads that ranked Ward, Sanders, and all the QBs taken in the 1st round since 2020, out of the 21 QBs they had Ward ranked like 18th or 19th and Sanders was ranked dead last.

I don't think most Bama "fans" know what they are looking at with Milroe. I think it was more his WRs were fast athletes pretending they knew how to play the position, but were frequently not doing it how they were supposed to. Also think Bama tried to transition their OL blocking like we did with similar results. I don't think Milroe was the problem. I think he's more Josh Allen coming out as a passer than Lamar, and similarly has some cleaning up to do, but, personally, I think he's further along than the public perception appears to be. I'm with YTown on this. I don't want to see him in Pittsburgh.

I think with a little runway he could be a great fit for this team.

Current draft bet status on DK:

1. Pick #3 will be Abdul Carter (+300). The line has since moved to -300 since making my bet. It was -270 when I last adjusted this post.
2. Pick #4 will be Will Campbell (+250). The line has since moved to -225 since making my bet. It was -155 when I last adjusted this post.
3. Pick #5 will be Mason Graham (-125). The line has since moved to -130. It was -110 when I last adjusted this post.
4. Pick #6 will be Ashton Jeanty (-150). The line has since moved to -125.
5. Pick #7 will be Armand Membou (-115). No line movement.
6. PIck #8 will be Jalon Walker (+150). No line movement.
7. Shedeur Sanders Over 8.5 draft position (-300). The line has since moved -310.

New bets I made:
- Browns to draft BOTH Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders (+850). Small chance of hitting but good value and he could continue to fall if reports are true. Honestly, I don't see Sanders going past the Steelers so we'll see.
- Jaxon Dart Under 24.5 draft position (-155). I should have jumped on this when it was -140 a few days ago and this correlates with my next bet.
- Jaxon Dart is Pick #9 (+550). I would have guessed Sanders to potentially go here, but a NO beat writer said they never had a visit with Sanders and don't think team often drafts a QB they never met with in their 30 allocated visits. I think the Saints go w/ QB here and the selection could cause a bit of a surprise. Plus, it's pretty good value at +550.

I'm showing these bets in case anyone wants to track all of my "wealth" evaporating in real time next Thursday.

I totally agree. In 2023 he was throwing to Isaiah Bond and Jermaine Burton (3rd round pick of Bengals). 39 Alabama players transferred after Saban left and his top target in 2024 was a true freshman receiver Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard who was a backup receiver in 2022 and 2023 and will return to that role in 2025 with another freshman receiver likely to take his spot. Bottom line is Milroe did not have usual Bama talent around him in skill positions. he is better than people give him credit for.

Thanks. I really appreciate the information. That's what I somewhat expected. This is one of the reasons that I completely disagree with teams needing a QB all the time to keep drafting one with their first pick. As i have stated on here before, a team needing a certain position player desperately does not suddenly make that year's draft position worth using the pick.


For an unusual analogy, if I want a fast sports car and I "need" it now, and all the dealerships are out typical makes like Maserati etc, buying the fastest Kia doesn't satisfy my wishes.

Based on this press conference it seems like Berry has no qualms with Hunter eventually playing both sides of the ball if we draft him.