Christian Darrisaw was taken at pick 23 and would have been an easy trade up target. He’s quickly turning into one of the better left tackles in the NFL. There are guys out there, don’t necessarily have to take someone too 10.

O.City is always talking about Brian Burns.

I'll bet bedtime stories at the City house have really gotten tedious.

"Daddy, we don't want to hear about the big kitty who traded his tail for a tomahawk and saved the magical kingdom again...."

I just don't see him having any trade value, especially given his contract demands. I honestly don't think anybody will want him.

Nah - he's just a sailor with shore leave and combat pay.

It's vitally important that he figures out a way to deal like 13 picks for 3 players. Give him a young veteran who needs gobs of money, an old guy who may still have some gas in the tank and a trade up into the top 10 and he can just jerk off for daaaaaaays and daaaaays and days to it.

Sure but it's partly about who is popping up there and available any time soon, and how much cap space we have compared to other teams to capitalise. Obviously we can free up some room and a lot of guys should want to come here, but next year's best LT FA looks like a 40 year old Jason Peters. Maybe Tunsil the year after? We're going to need to draft tackles, soon and probably more than once.

Yep.

15 picks to get half vs the entire rest of the draft to get the other half.

That would mean the odds are you're gonna have to get up there to get that. I dont' think you have to get to the top 10 per say. But you're probably gonna have to get up around 20 at least.

Just stop.

You act like it's impossible to find talent outside the top of the 1st. You're wrong.

That’s a pretty big gamble heading into your generational QB’s prime years.

Terron Armstead and David Bakhtiari are the outliers, not the norm. We literally had this convo the year we traded for Brown Jr. it was a great tackle class that was deep. But those guys available weren’t LT’s.

I think they’re gonna end up paying Brown Jr but at a fungible contract that won’t hurt the team. They know how hard it is to find even decent LT’s like Brown Jr.

I think they stick with him due to pride and the knowledge that even with his struggles he’s an acceptable LT that isn’t a full blown disaster. I think they also stick with him bc they don’t want to use resources to fix something they traded a first rd pick for; they’d rather use resources to make the team stronger overall.

The numbers are the numbers.

If you want a LT, the odds are, you're gonna have to use a first rounder on one. Probably trade up a bit to get him.

Unless we get lucky.

Great LT's are hard to find. Never disputed that. But to act like it's IMPOSSIBLE, like City does, is just disingenuous.

In the end, you're probably right. I just hope they get a good deal.

Or we have good scouts.

We put a LOT of eggs into that OBJ basket. Because the time to draft his replacement was probably last spring.

I worry that they've left themselves without a net a bit. Like you said, the FA tackle class is looking pretty rough.

I mean if Brown's not the route you take, you may end up having to accept someone at Browns level who just comes cheap. You okay replacing Brown with someone that may actually be a hair worse if he costs 1/2 as much? Because that's George Fant. McGlinchy is probably in a similar tier.

I wonder who the Jags have as pending FAs. JaWaan Taylor is still only 24 and he'll be a FA at the end of the year. I really liked him coming out of Florida and he's developed into a pretty good tackle.

The problem is that I can't think of anyone on that team that would be a tag consideration. Even money says they'll tag Taylor if they can't get a deal done. He's a talented young OT who's just coming into his own - those guys get 'surprise' tags all the time. The last one, ironically, being Taylor's opposite number when the Jags tagged Cam Robinson.

The Jags drafted Walker Little in the 2nd round in 2021 - do they really want to spend that kind of money on Taylor to bury Little for another year?

Taylor may honestly be the best we could hope for and he's gonna cost a little bit. And you'd want to be pretty confident he could transition over to LT.

And in the 2021 draft they said "there's not a LT we like here where we're drafting and/or in range to trade up for, OBJ it is".

It's not as easy as "just scout and find one"

I disagree.

I think Brown is living in a fantasy world, and I don't think Veach is.

And two cost controlled seasons for the equivalent of a #2, picking up a #3 in comp return is still a pretty good value deal.