Matt Derrick

Can you do that if you're taking what is probably going to be a backup with the number nine pick overall?

I mean, I get the, you know, like I said, doubling down on it and everything.

But that's just the potential that you've got a guy that might end up just being your backup for three years.

Yeah, and hey, this time of year, I get it.

We talk about this.

Sometimes general managers are straightforward, and sometimes they say things that are true from a certain point of view.

I've always considered Brett Veach to be pretty straightforward.

I don't think that he goes out there and just says things that he wants to say to throw us off the loop or anything like that or figure out what's going on.

But one thing he has consistently said over the past and everything like that, and his actions have backed it up for the most part, has been that you have to get value and you have to get premium positions when they're available early in the draft.

For a guy with Brett Veach's philosophy, having the number nine pick overall and taking a position of low premium value when you've got potentially maybe a number one receiver or you've got some edges out there or you've got even, God forbid, an offensive tackle in this year's draft, if you're not taking corner, edge, tackle, receiver positions,

At nine, I mean, you're just throwing away the value of your 6-11 season.

I mean, you've done that to be able to get a player.

And, hey, if you feel like Jeremiah Love's a generational player, you feel like Caleb Downs is a generational player, they're available at nine, I guess those are the exceptions to the rule.

But it still feels like with everything that Brett Veach has accomplished,

kind of believed in the past that if you've got a pick of this value, you have to get true value for it.

And taking a non-premium position just doesn't – I mean, especially one that you're going to be paying top-of-the-market money to.

I mean, if you're drafting a running back, you're making them one of the highest-paid running backs in the league if you take them at nine.

That's not true with these other premium positions.

You're talking about being able to get really, really good players, maybe the best.

one of the best players at their position, and paying them a fraction of what you'd pay on the free agent market.