As a draft guy, this doesn't feel like a draft smokescreen, as you would be doing a smoke screen at one of the most important positions, not Center. Drafting a Center in the 1st round is a surprise on its own, you don't need a smoke screen for that.
In fact, this would probably hurt draft wise, as if your moving Tom to Center, that means you need OT, the more valuable positions more, and more likely to be drafted in the 1st.
Unless maybe you wanted teams to think you're going OL and you have desire of going OL high. But that's assuming the teams will buy the BS to start with...
To me, this seems more like a smokescreen to get the media distracted and off your back, give them some red meat to focus on, shut up and leave you alone...
Originally Posted by: beast
I mean, I assumed teams try to use smokescreens and misinformation regardless of who they plan on taking to either get the guy they want or to drive up trade value. And in Barton and Powers-Johnson case, if you think they can come in and start at either G or C immediately, then taking one late in the 1st doesn't seem like a far fetched idea. (and in Barton's case, possibly play OT in an emergency).
On paper, moving a OT to an interior position does create a need. But in Green Bays case is it an unreasonable idea? The franchise has struggled to draft and develop interior offensive lineman for a decade now. Gutes drafted Jenkins and Runyan and that's the short list. To find quality interior guys, you gotta go back to Linsley (drafted in 2014) and Tretter (drafted in 2013). In contrast, going back over a decade they've found OTs at a steady clip from the top of the draft in Bulaga to UDFA in Nijman. Had Turnstile Newhouse not been such an albatross at LT during his time in GB, Sherrod probably would have been a soild RT. Hell, even Jenkins when pressed into LT played really well. If you're good at drafting OTs, trust your process and think ZT can be Hall of Fame good at C, why not make the move?
Edit: I forgot about Lucas Patrick and Layne Taylor at the interior. But both were pre-Gute with Patrick in 2016 and Taylor in 2013.
Of course, creating a need at RT and GBs struggles at finding interior guys is why I thought it might be a sign they're trying to throw people off: they REALLY want the top guy at either OG or C to eliminate the guess work/potential pitfalls of waiting until a later round. Of course, no one would believe the story at face value but more in a "you know that I know that you that I know etc" type of thing (basically that conversation from the Princess Bride applied to the NFL draft).
To me this does nothing to distract the media but instead just raises potential questions and unnecessary drama. If ZT has that high of a ceiling at C, why not make the move immediately? If you're going to wait until next year after grabbing an OT this year, why even let this out this year? If you're not going to move ZT now or in the future, why even let this out? Moreover, by letting this out, you're not just throwing Myers under the bus, you're throwing him under bus and running him over several times.
I kind of wonder what they saw through 2023 that made them think, hey, let's move our RT to C. Granted, that's a lot less crazy than let's make our RT a LT.
For whatever reason it seems plausible to me to see G and C being interchanged. It even makes sense to bump RG to RT or LG or LT. But going from T to C? Nope. It just doesn't compute.
Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool
If this bit of information is accurate, it might be that they're not high on Cs in this draft or next years (or don't think a good one will be available at their picks) and that they think they can find a OT that can come in, hold his own this year and develop in the future. In other words, ZTs ceiling at C is far, far higher than anything in this years draft or next years and GB thinks the potential bumps in the road with a new RT are minimal this year and the long term development means the drop off between the new RT and ZT is at worst marginal and worth the tradeoff in positions.
Sorry as much as the fans hate Myers, neither Toms nor Jenkins will be moving to center. The Packers can pick up someone in the 5th round to push Myers.
I realize people hate PFF grades but they had Myers at 19th before 2023 and 11th afterwards. He is not the greatest of all time but he is solid.
Originally Posted by: wpr
So Myers went from actively sucking to mediocre? That's reassuring.
Personally, I hate moving guys around, but what else is there to chat about? haha
Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool
Well, I am working on a Packers related project that I wanted to post here but I doubt I'll get it done before the draft.