gabefergy

NE Patriots WR Marvin Jones 5 stars

NE Patriots RB LeGarrette Blount 0.5 stars

NE Patriots Vernon Davis 1 star

Yes, I agree. The way you previously worded it made it sound like Gurley's injury did affect his draft which seemed confusing.

The Big 10 is odd because they consider ecstasy a performance enhancer for some reason, and under their rules two positive performance enhancer tests = disqualification from the conference, so it's not because he lied about it, it's because of the choice in drug he chose to abuse. That's fine for you to think like that, but NFL teams do a lot more investigation and they have a lot more on the line than we do. If he comes out clean and reformed and has no signs of future drug use, that's great. Maybe the Ravens will draft him, it just doesn't seem likely given everything we know about him. It's not like this happened years ago either, his second negative test, was in 2014. He knew testing positive for ecstasy would result in a dismissal yet he still did it just months after his first suspension. Maybe getting kicked out of the conference was a wake up call, and maybe in the past 18 months he has grown up. It's just very risky to use a first round pick on a player with his history.

2 drug tests that we know of. He was suspended for 3 games for his first failure, or maybe he had priors that haven't come to light as well. With complete knowledge that another failed test likely results in a min year long suspension and likely being kicked out of the program, he still continued to abuse substances. Maybe he has been reformed in the past year, but who knows? You can't deny it would be unprecedented to draft a player with his history. We are looking at these two players in different lenses as well. One with everything that comes out through the draft process and the other where the interviews haven't happened yet.

Bosa is a monster. He's a rare prospect and fits a huge need for the Ravens. I have zero concerns about his ability to play OLB in our scheme. It's a silly reason not to draft an elite player like him if he were to fall. Buckner is a fine back-up plan at #6 if the likes of Jack, Ramsey, Tunsil and Bosa are all gone. Those are the 4 blue chip prospects in this class imo.

Yeah, just saw a tweet today saying a GM didn't believe reports saying Smith would be ready for the season. Considering the timing and extent of the injury a September return never seemed likely. Very similar scenario as Gurley and he could still go top 10 as well.

Yeah they aren't close.

Gurley was a top 10 pick as a RB even though he was expected to miss some time. I don't think the injury had any influence on his stock. Plus Jack should be able to have a pro day unlike Gurley.

That's too bad. I was looking forward to seeing him tear it up. I'm sure he will get a Pro Day in though.

Patriots winners

Patriots are going to match this bid

I don't think there were anything outside of substance abuse issues for Spence, but I also don't think you can just lump together "character concerns" like they are all created equal. Honestly, the public is only privy to a small fraction of the info teams uncover on these prospects so drawing comparisons of one player to another doesn't work for me. Each one is a unique case. Of course it's possible the Ravens will draft Spence, but they have never drafted a player with his kind of indiscretions and associated ramifications previously. I guess there is a first time for everything. The point I made before I believe still rings true. There are a lot of players the Ravens will be considering throughout the draft process, and I would imagine there will be a number of players they will consider as viable targets at #6. Is it really worth taking a risk on a player with Spence's baggage? To be honest, we don't even know if they like him as a top 10 player regardless of the concerns.

Minor similarities at best. One scenario is a player from an old regime that didn't get along with his new coach. The other is massive errors in judgement and significantly larger penalties, in addition to entry into the substance abuse program.

I'm talking in a hypothetical that Spence falls to the back end of the first round because he has a history of bad choices resulting in a major penalty and following that up with a failure to reconcile his errors when given the opportunity in team interviews. This scenario is vastly different in nature from alleged poor interviews by Williams and Davis who did not have failed drug tests, suspensions, and a conference ban.

Jack will be a beast in any scheme. Another poster did raise a valid point about whether or not Pees will take advantage of his abilities, and I think it's a fair question. He's shown a willingness to move around OLBs and DL in unique ways, but the back end stays relatively vanilla. How Jack would fit in is an interesting question, but at a minimum I would expect more 4-3 looks even in traditional sub-package scenarios. He can do so much more than your average LB.

New England Patriots LS John Denney 0.5 stars

confirmed

I think he will still go top 10. He's lightyears more athletic than Jernigan, but he has issues with run defense.

This would be my ideal 1 and 2 as well, but seems unlikely for both. My more realistic draft would be Jack and Will Fuller which is why I mocked them to us haha.

Maybe we wanted them, maybe not, but neither had the kind of violations that Spence had. Anyone could end up being a bust, players with off the field issues are more worrisome that's all. There are most likely a couple players at #6 that could be great players in a Ravens uniform.

Bottomline it's a super risky move and the Ravens have never been a team that takes risks on players that have his history. Whether it was over a year ago makes no difference in how dumb it was. Even if he owns everything and comes off like a choir boy, he will still have a black mark on his record. You have to consider the possibility that he messes up again. For a team in the Ravens position, that would be disastrous.

so does NO have any players left?

You have to be joking right? Failing two drug tests and getting kicked out of the Big 10 doesn't sound like something the Ravens would avoid? Better players have fallen out of the top 2 rounds for lesser offenses.