Dane Brugler: The Beast -2021 Ed.
 

Released this morning on the Athletic... I know there are a couple Brugler fans on the board. Has anyone taken a deep dive yet? Any surprises? Adding to my weekend reading list.

Link here

Are his OT rankings the same as the “OT Ranking” thread?

Nope - looks like some variation (relatively)

1st
1. PENEI SEWELL
2. RASHAWN SLATER
3. CHRISTIAN DARRISAW

1st-2nd
4. TEVEN JENKINS

2nd
5. SAMUEL COSMI
6. LIAM EICHENBERG

2nd-3rd
7. WALKER LITTLE
8. BRADY CHRISTENSEN
9. DILLON RADUNZ

3rd
10. JAMES HUDSON
11. D’ANTE SMITH
12. STONE FORSYTHE

(Not copying full list, formatting headache to retype)

Interesting. Thanks.

This is much closer to reality. So many are wanting 2nd and 3rd and later (brown & Forsythe) in the 1st. It’s crazy. What is gonna be funny is if we don’t take a lineman in the 1st and a bunch of these guys are there in the 2nd and we pass on them again. This place will go nuts. I could see it happening if we take DE in the first and wr in the second. And then draft LT in the third. All the posts after that 2nd pick will be hilarious!

I think that's exactly what's going to happen.

Or Veach moves way up in the draft (unlikely) and takes a LT has few other picks to make in the draft (which I don't like)

The thing is, most people think DE and WR are needs as well.

Imagine if they take a CB in the 1st? I'm actually convinced right now that they are going to.

I could see Asante Samuel Jr happening, tbh.

Maybe it's the Reid connection with his dad, ala Jason & Travis Kelce.

I wouldn't mind it; he has the alpha mentality like Clark, Jones, Sneed & Matheiu. Plus, if Thornhill takes a leap like he did at the end of last year, and Reed gets some push while freeing up Jones, it would start getting pretty hard for opposing offenses to throw the ball to catch up to our Offense.



<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xOFhjzy61cI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

No way.

I’d wager nearly anything against that with the way Veach has handled CBs.

I don't disagree, but why have we been meeting with all of the potential round 1 CBs? Are they hoping Newsome or Samuels Jr. Fall to #63? That seems very unlikely. I'd be shocked, but there is smoke there.

Edit: I also saw a tweet that we had talked with Farley who is dropping due to his recent surgery. I can't find it now though...

Exactly. They've been sniffing around the guys with round 1 grades for a reason. I'm not saying it's likely, it's just a gut feeling. I think all these people assuming it's going to be a LT or WR are looking past something, I just don't quite know what it is.

I would be unexcited by a CB addition in Round 1.

Meeting with that many CBs could also be a smokescreen.

Why? Drafting CB's high is a good way to cost control a position that has gotten kind of out of hand in recent years.

Could be, for sure.

I just don’t think the position is as important to the Chiefs, as currently constructed, as WR, T, or DE. Unless the draft falls really weirdly, there would be a player at one of those positions I’d take over any of the CB likely to be available.

Given what they've done the last few years, do we really know though?

I mean they took a RB in the 1st last year.

I'd have to think Brugler wrote and put together a good portion of this months ago and made very minor tweaks up to publication.

I'm not an Athletic subscriber anyhow, but I would put more stock into his day-to-day now than this thing.

My take: The write ups yes, the rankings no. I follow Dane closely, and can tell you the Rankings in the Beast are significantly changed (30-40%) from his rankings in February and March. I think there was a lot of reslotting that took place based on his “day-to-day” evaluation and ongoing pro day results. To your point though, you don’t write paragraph long write ups on 650 players between March 15th and April 1st... even with an army of interns from the parent corporation.

Now, he and any other evaluator certainly has the rights to continue refining their opinion/rankings all the way up to the draft. Obviously anything he publishes or says between now and then supersedes the Beast, but I do think the report fairly well captures his thinking as of early April and is one of the best comprehensive draft guides out there.

One of my friends was arguing with Brugler about Fields. Told Dane, after another brutal Fields performance this is not QB2. Dane objected and said you can't jump the gun.

A few weeks later Brugler moved Fields down and my friend messaged him, "Told you. Now you see it too."

He really does put in the work. You have to respect that and these ratings are fluid as we get access to games during the year.

Brugler released a new top 300 today (generally aligns with his rankings in the beast). He ran an article highlighting 9 key prospects where he disagrees with the “consensus ranking” which is the average of more than 50 big boards. I won’t copy & paste the entire article... but a couple prospects that the Chiefs might be considering...

DE - Joe Tryon (53 on consensus board, Brugler has him at #34)
OT - Dillon Radinz (47 on the consensus board, Brugler has him #74)
OT - Walker Little (94 on the consensus board, Brugler has him #59)
OC - Drew Dalman (192 on the consensus board, Brugler has him #106)
CB - Zach McPhearson (246 on the consensus board, Brugler has him #122)

Increasingly, Dalman has been growing on me and I think he could be a good fit for the Chiefs sitting for a few years.

I’ve always been high on Zech as an under rated prospect, I think his versatility could be a good fit for the Chiefs if they wait to address CB until day 3.

Brugler hinted on Twitter that the 2022 Edition comes out Wednesday.

He’s posted less rankings and mocks this year than in years past… I’m thinking he may be trying to emphasize “the Beast” as his primary rankings for the year as opposed to just a big check-in (per Crows comment last year). He hasn’t shared any positional rankings since before the combine. Last year, he was posting new articles for each position every other week.