Signing Kyle Dugger to a long-term contract is a step in the right direction.\u00a0 Dugger received the transition tag, which limited his free agency offers.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The reality was that the contract that Dugger signed made him a top 6 paid Safety in the league.\u00a0 He is not really worth a top six contract based upon his performance, but it is a signal to the other players on the team that you can receive a 2nd<\/sup> contract from the Patriots.\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t the case before this year.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The Patriots had a very bad reputation of not signing their own drafted and developed players.\u00a0 If you wanted your money you had to go to another team.\u00a0 <\/p>\n According to Pro Football Focus, Dugger was ranked 68th among all safeties.\u00a0 Teammate Jabrill Peppers was ranked 5th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Dugger has $32M guaranteed and the possibility of earning a total of $66M.\u00a0 I hope that deal includes performance incentives.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Dugger can be better than the 68th<\/sup> ranked player.\u00a0 He is more of an in the box SS than a Free Safety and needs to improve his pass coverage.\u00a0 If he was strictly a Strong Safety like Peppers, he would have been ranked higher.\u00a0 <\/p>\n I don\u2019t like him as the Free Safety.\u00a0 The coaches like his versatility and disguising him as a SS and then dropping him deep puts pressure on the opposing QB to make the correct read.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n There is a redundancy here with 2nd<\/sup> year player Marte Mapu also playing the SS\/LB position.<\/p>\n I would like to see Peppers, Matt Judon and Christian Barmore get signed to contract extensions.<\/p>\n The Draft<\/strong> is two weeks away starting on Thursday April 24th!<\/p>\n Here is my 5th<\/sup> Mock Draft, with one more coming the Tuesday before the Draft!<\/p>\n I am using NFL Draft Buzz Mock Draft tool for this one.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t have any decent trade offers.\u00a0 The best came from the NY Jets at #10 and included next year\u2019s #1.\u00a0 In the end I didn\u2019t want to help the Jets and it wasn\u2019t enough for the #3 pick so I selected a QB.<\/p>\n The Heisman Trophy winner had a terrific year at LSU.\u00a0 He was surrounded by terrific WR\u2019s, and his overall athleticism reminds scouts of Lamar Jackson.\u00a0 Daniels is a better QB than Jackson was when he was coming out of college.\u00a0 I was a little concerned about Daniels Pro Day performance.\u00a0 One scout ranted that it was the worst Pro Day performance he had ever seen.\u00a0 A Pro Day for a passer is a controlled environment.\u00a0 He is passing to his receivers that he is familiar with, not some strange player he has never worked with before.\u00a0 Daniels missed 5 out of 30 attempts, and those misses were really bad throws.<\/p>\n At his Pro Day, Daniels weighed 210 lbs. at 6\u20193\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0He didn\u2019t perform any field drills but has an estimated 4.52 40-yard dash per NFL Draft Scout. His listed weight at LSU was 193 lbs which is underweight for the NFL.\u00a0 He will grow as he gets older as did Lamar Jackson.\u00a0 Give him a red shirt year behind Jacoby Brissett and he will learn how to be an NFL QB.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think McConkey will get past the KC Chiefs at #32.\u00a0 He cannot be covered and has the speed (4.39) to play on the outside.\u00a0 His 6.72 3-cone drill at the Georgia Pro Day is excellent and indictive of his quick foot speed.\u00a0 His only drawbacks are lack of size (5\u2019 11.6\u201d, 186 lbs.) and small hands.<\/p>\n This was a tough choice between Paul and Kiran Amegadjie OT Yale.\u00a0 The big knock on Amegadjie is his lack of competition playing in the Ivy league.\u00a0 Paul on the other hand has 38 starts under his belt and didn\u2019t give up a sack in 2023.\u00a0 At the combine, Paul ran a 5.13 40-yard dash and Bench Pressed 225#\u2019s 30 times.\u00a0 At 6\u20197, 331 lbs., Paul is a big man and getting around him is a difficult thing to do.\u00a0 However, his run blocking needs some work.<\/p>\n Goncalves started 34 games for the Pitt Panthers.\u00a0 He was named Freshman All American after starting 5 games for Pitt in the 2020 season.\u00a0 Flexibility is a key for Goncalves as he is equally adept at playing Right or Left Tackle, making the perfect swing tackle.\u00a0 The 6\u20196\u201d 327 lb. tackle was selected as a Captain in 2023.\u00a0 His biggest drawback is that he has short arms (33.5\u201d).\u00a0 He is coming off a foot injury which cost him the last 8 games of his Senior season.<\/p>\n Yes, he is the son of former 13-year NFL Wide Receiver Ed McCaffrey and younger brother of SF RB Christian McCaffrey.\u00a0 He was originally a QB at Nebraska for two years and transferred to Rice as a QB.\u00a0 That was 3 years as a backup and Rice suggested that he switch to WR.\u00a0 As a Senior he had 58 catches for 723 yards and 6 TDs.\u00a0 In his 5th year of 2023 he had a spectacular season with 71 catches for 992 yards and 13 TDs, earning All-AAC 1st<\/sup> team honors. \u00a0McCaffrey runs great routes and has good hands.\u00a0 At 6\u20192: 200 lbs., McCaffrey ran a 4.46 40-yard dash at the combine.<\/p>\n All had injuries cut short his Senior season at Michigan and in his 5th<\/sup> Year Senior season at Iowa.\u00a0 As a Junior at Michigan, he had 38 catches for 437 yards and 2 TDs.\u00a0 He transferred to Iowa and played in 7 games while making 21 catches for 299 and 3 TDs. \u00a0\u00a0At 6\u20194\u201d 254 Lbs. he presents a big target.\u00a0 When healthy he is an excellent player.\u00a0 He was invited to the Combine but didn\u2019t work out due to his knee injury.\u00a0 All didn\u2019t participate in the Iowa Pro Day either.\u00a0 His estimated 40 time before the injury was a 4.73.\u00a0 He may be brought in for a Red Shirt year to recoup and recover from the injury.<\/p>\n The Patriots double up at TE with the selection of Reiman.\u00a0 Known more for his blocking the 6\u2019 5\u201d, 271 lbs. TE ran an impressive 4.64 40 at the combine.\u00a0 His 28 reps at #225 and his 7.02 3-cone drill were equally impressive.\u00a0 As a Junior he had 17 catches and had 19 as a Senior.\u00a0 \u00a0He just wasn\u2019t targeted often, but when they did he had an excellent QB rating of 14.5 when targeted.\u00a0 Reiman received an invitation to the East \/ West Shrine game and looked very good in the practices and game.\u00a0 He could improve his blocking, where he doesn\u2019t utilize his size enough.<\/p>\n Ali had terrific seasons in 2021 and 2023 running for 1401 and 1035 yards respectively.\u00a0 His YPC was 5.7 for both seasons.\u00a0 In those two seasons he had 23 and 14 TDs.\u00a0 He had a torn ACL in 2022 wiping out all but two games for Ali.\u00a0 The 5\u201911.5\u201d 196 lb. running back has an estimated 4.4 40-yard dash time.\u00a0 Ali was listed on Bruce Feldman\u2019s Feak List after \u201chaving 36\u201d Vertical Leap, 10\u2019 Broad Jump, Power Cleaned 335 lbs. and Squatted 500 lbs.\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u201cA rising name in this year\u2019s draft process is Rasheen Ali, who Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy recently labeled a future Day 3 steal for whoever picks him.\u00a0 Nagy was an NFL Scout for 18 years. Including time with the Patriots.\u00a0 He got the job as the scouting director of the Senior Bowl in 2018.\u00a0 \u00a0Ali was having a very good Senior Bowl practice week when he tore his bicep muscle.\u00a0 That injury will take 4-6 months recovery time, but Ali should be ready to go for the start of Training Camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Signing Kyle Dugger to a long-term contract is a step in the right direction.\u00a0 Dugger received the transition tag, which limited his free agency offers.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":37405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots-mock-drafts"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
\nReports have come out this week that Daniels interview with the Washington Commanders didn\u2019t go well.\u00a0 This coming from the Daniels camp.\u00a0 It was also reported that he preferred to play for the Patriots.<\/p>\n\n
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