The forum has some disagreement in regards to the quality of offensive tackles that were available at #34, versus Caedan Wallace.
Obviously none of us can say with full certainty how any of these players career will turn out.
That being said, we all have opinions as on those same players.
So let's look at what the draft results are for picks #2 and #3, versus what they could have been/what we wished they had been.
To keep it simple I'll just use the identical two positions, WR and OT.
Which pair of players looks the best?
Actual Result:
WR Ja'Lynn Polk
OT Caedan Wallace.
Alternative #1:
OT of your choice: Patrick Paul - Blake Fisher - Roger Rosengarten - Kingsley Suamataia
WR of your choice: Jermaine Burton - Roman Wilson - Jalen McMillan - Luke McCaffrey - Troy Franklin - Javon Baker - Malik Washington
Alternative #2:
WR of your choice: Ladd McConkey - Adonai Mitchell - Malachi Corley - plus any of the above WRs
OT of your choice: Kiran Amegadjie - Matt Goncalves - use on another position; take an OT like Garrett Greenfield or Frank Crum later
Personally I would rank Alternative #1 the best option, followed by Alternative #2. The actual result would be a distant third.
On a side note, the consensus of all 200+ big boards and 1500+ mock drafts has
Caedan Wallace listed as the #18 OT. Wallace was the 12th OT selected. Drafting Polk (as opposed to waiting for one of the WRs with the third pick) caused the Patriots to miss out on four superior prospects at OT in the second round.
The 2024 Consensus NFL Big Board from NFL Mock Draft Database. We've compiled all featured big boards into a single board.
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