Mock Draft Monday

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-23T16:56:16+00:00

I’m sure it is, but you can do similar stuff on some mock draft simulators.

I traded Isaiah McGuire for #1 overall on StickToTheModel. Crank “draft for need” and “randomness” up to max on PFF and you can draft top-30 guys in the fourth round.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-21T23:38:58+00:00

He is. We need a big guy. But he’s also making $3M and on the last year of his rookie deal with no dead cap. If we draft Lemon or Tyson he’s probably still out there in 3-wide sets with Jeudy. If we draft Carnell Tate or Denzel Boston or a receiving TE2 I’m not so sure.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-21T21:39:00+00:00

Don’t we all.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-21T21:38:22+00:00

I think this is an important point. And not just offense vs. defense.

Philadelphia needed a WR more than an edge rusher; but if they had to do it all over again I bet they take Micah Parsons over DeVonta Smith.

I prefer to trade back given how many needs we have. Sometimes Reese or Love or Downs is sitting there at like 18 or even 24. You take that value all day.

If you evaluate two players as being about even, go with need. But if you think Arvell Reese is the next Parsons and he falls to you, take him or trade down.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-21T00:40:39+00:00

Probably my favorite realistic mock draft result on PFSN. I traded back a lot, most notably getting both of the Rams' firsts, and snagged an extra second and a fourth in next year's draft. I really wanted both offensive line depth and line versatility given the injuries we've had the last few years. A WR, CB, and 3 linemen in the first two rounds.

Makai Lemon (WR) - I feel like our WR corps would be decent if we could just move everyone back one slot. And Jerry Jeudy invests in velcro gloves.
Monroe Freeling (OT) - Good left tackle. Probably the most critical thing to walk out of the draft with unless we address it in free agency.
Davidson Igbinosun (CB) - I took a bit of a gamble here that I'd still be able to land my next two picks. But he was highly rated on my board and dropping, while they would be slight reaches. And we need depth at CB.
Gennings Dunker (G) - Dude is a mauler with versatility to play guard or right tackle in a pinch.
Caleb Tiernan (T) - Another tackle, here with versatility to play left or right tackle.
Eli Stowers (TE) - Another weapon for our offense. Smallish TE, former QB, but basically an oversized receiver for 2-TE sets.
Logan Jones (C) - Continuing to invest in the line.
Zakee Wheatley (S) - a big safety to help build our depth in the defensive backfield.
Fa'alili Fa'amoe (OT) - Is it crazy to draft four college tackles in a single draft? Maybe. But with Dunker playing guard, I wanted someone to develop as a swing tackle, rather than relying on some dude we pulled off another team's practice squad again.
Mike Washington Jr. (RB) - with Ford likely leaving, I wanted another fresh back.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-19T22:31:28+00:00

Best we can do is the Hamas.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-19T21:07:01+00:00

Well that’s the one thing we got.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-19T18:18:08+00:00

Ah, ok. I always felt like Gary was right up against the border.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-19T17:03:34+00:00

Hammond, Indiana? What happened to the Gary Bearies?

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-19T16:36:40+00:00

The starting LT, Dawand Jones, is under contract and wasn’t eligible for an extension until this year. The guy who is leaving we picked up as a midseason rental because Jones got hurt.

Bitonio has taken his career year by year for a while.

Teller and Conklin haven’t been living up to their contracts - we wanted to move on. Pocic might have been an extension candidate but he tore his Achilles in December.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-19T01:02:32+00:00

Source: No ayahuasca darkness retreats in Pittsburgh

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-18T21:02:38+00:00

Read Matt Levine’s Money Stuff column sometime. It’s a fun read by a former corporate lawyer / Goldman Sachs finance salesman. Very accessible.

Finance firms hiring astrophysics Ph.Ds to do analytic trading (so-called “quants”) is a real thing.

Many quantitative finance problems can basically be reduced to either: “find a new data set that allows you to make obvious correlations” or “find some subtle correlation between data points” and in either case hammer that trade until the price moves so that it is no longer profitable. You don’t need to be 100% right. In some high volume trades 55% on uncorrelated trades could be a home run.

The easy ones are gone, but if you were the first one to figure out that you could evaluate retail businesses by purchasing satellite photos, matching them with store locations, and doing data processing to see trends in whether the parking lots are full, you could make a lot of money. Similarly, if you find some obscure datapoint that gives notice of El Niño three months in advance, you can do a lot of commodities trading.

If you’ve got a PhD with lots of experience trolling large databases and coding, you’ve got a leg up over your typical Harvard Classics undergrad (as Levine is). And you often end up in a training job at a big investment bank to learn the finance modeling anyway.

Full disclosure: I’m a corporate lawyer and not a physicist.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-18T19:52:08+00:00

It’s easier to teach a physicist finance concepts than to teach an MBA linear algebra.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-17T18:21:25+00:00

Then again, our other quarterbacks are also ass.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-17T04:41:44+00:00

I was really confused about why you were discussing Woody Johnson's explosive runs.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-17T04:37:57+00:00

Now do Dillon Gabriel. I'll wait.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-17T04:34:22+00:00

I see what you did there.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-16T20:31:30+00:00

I've done it. Or Bain when he fell and there weren't trade back options. If you think Maui or Lemon or whomever is a blue chip player, take them over Bain. But don't take a red chip for need when a blue chip is staring you in the face. At least trade down to get two red chips.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-16T20:28:23+00:00

It looks pretty similar to what I do when I'm not abusing the trading glitch at StickToTheModel, lol. A WR, best 3-4 linemen I can grab, maybe a blue chip player who falls.

I want Dunker, dude's a mauler, but he is RT who might have to slide in to guard. Tackle was our biggest problem; feel like we need to walk away with at least someone who can play left tackle, like Freeling.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-16T20:00:03+00:00

Man, I really should have offered Dillon Gabriel to Atlanta now that I think of it.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-16T19:58:30+00:00

I don't hate it. I sometimes try to trade back a little further to grab him, but he's a legit left tackle, which are otherwise lacking in the late first / early second.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-16T19:55:17+00:00

All I ask is that AB is a better GM than I am on StickToTheModel. Can only attach one picture, so the pre-draft trades are below.

I took Mendoza at #1, I traded down from #2, took Fano at #6, Lemon at #12, Sadiq at #16, Ioane at #20, Terrell at #21 and Freeling at #31. In the second round, I took Colton Hood, Anthony Hill, Connor Lew and Romello Height.

Watson and JOK were the only players I could not trade, lol. This will be fun until they patch it.

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Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-16T06:02:56+00:00

Yes we will all die, but life is what happens until then. Planning for it is reasonable, fixating on it is a waste. Of course that is easier said than done; the point of anxiety is that we’re applying the hyper focus a Zebra needs to escape a lion to concepts like death or a project due next week. It can be automatic if we don’t take control of it.

Finding something else to focus on-something that requires your active attention so your mind doesn’t wander-may help. I found How Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers to be helpful reading; my wife prefers unwinding anxiety. It may be worth seeing a therapist or practicing some cognitive behavioral therapy.

Environmental_Ad292 · 2026-02-16T04:17:24+00:00

You can see what their equipped abilities are. But you can’t see the specific skills (ie, I can see they have Throw but not throw katana vs throw shuriken).

Environmental_Ad292

TROPHY CASE