Sunday morning buzz: Ridder rising and other stuff … Hard to believe we are now just 18 days until the picks start coming off the board at the 2022 draft. Truth be told, though, it does seem to be rather quiet these days without a whole lot of buzz out there right now. The one rumor that does seem to have legs these days is that Cincinnati QB Desmond Ridder appears to be on the rise. Its not clear yet how high he might go, but one keeps hearing that it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if 4 QBs end going in the first 20 or so picks on the 28th, with Ridder now projected to be third QB off the board after Malik Willis of Liberty and Pitt’s Kenny Pickett; that is if he doesn’t make a run at the second QB off the board slot ahead of Pickett who doesn’t have the same pure arm strength.
In fact, there’s a bit of buzz around the league that no one should be surprised if the top QBs ultimately go earlier than they have been generally projected to date. Indeed, one is starting to see Willis projected to Detroit with the second pick overall more regularly in recent days, although Lions’ head coach Dan Campbell appeared to play down the possibility in a recent interview when he said that he didn’t think that ‘you don’t really need an elite QB.’ Instead the guy Campbell has talked up the most of late is Oregon DE Kayvon Thibodeaux; Thibodeaux, in fact, is generally considered to be the most talented overall prospect for this month’s draft, but hasn’t always played that way.
There is also some muffled buzz that nobody should be surprised if there is a run on WRs earlier than has generally been predicted in mock drafts to date. And that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as all of a sudden around the league elite WRs are starting to be treated like QBs. Indeed, as we have noted on occasion in the recent past it was hard to miss the fact this past season that all of the top teams had at least one Top 10 receiver. Meanwhile, the whispers are that the group that could take a hit on the 28th are the offensive linemen. No question that the OT class including Ickey Ekwonu, Evan Neal, Charles Cross and Trevor Penning among others is also very talented, but no matter how talented offensive linemen don’t impact games in the same fashion as QBs, WRs and pass rushers. Time will tell though so stay tuned.
At the same time, other players who seem to be attracting plenty of attention these days as we get closer to the draft include Boston College C/G Zion Johnson, North Dakota State WR Christian Watson, Georgia FS Lewis Cine and Houston DE Logan Hall, each of whom appears to be starting to received increased potential first-round scrutiny, while Washington State OT Abraham Lucas, CB Zyon McCollum and Kentucky DE Josh Paschal have reportedly made second-day moves.
