MST becomes a GM and it is an experience

I had a wonderful opportunity this weekend to sit in the chair of NFL GMs and run a full seven round mock draft. It was a privilege that I greatly appreciate and I wanted to shout out Bill Carroll for giving me the job. I was the GM for the Titans and the Bucs. Tennessee is having a normal draft but my work as the Bucs GM has garnered some controversy and hate.

In my bedroom, I worked with a friend of mine to develop the perfect draft. We had pick 27 and wanted an interior offensive lineman. Unfortunately Tyler Linderbaum, Zion Johnson and Kenyon Green were off the board and I felt we lacked the amount of capital to trade up for a higher pick. We were given a choice. Two Georgia boys. Nakobe Dean or Lewis Cine. Excellent players and I have no issue with either. Many wanted Cine, I wanted Dean and my friend agreed. Here’s how I saw the board.

Cine is a Day One starter and Tampa Bay needs help in their secondary. However they still have Antoine Winfield Jr and recently signed Logan Ryan, Mike Edwards and Keanu Neal to one year deals. The Bucs have two All-Pro linebackers in Devin White and Lavonte David. Here’s why I made my decision. The Bucs have two excellent starters and two decent backups at safety. I’m not sure Cine is going to be a phenomenal safety and the market is fairly deep. Winfield will get his extension and the 2023 Free Agency class is filled with top talent. The Bucs don’t have great depth at linebacker and Lavonte David is already 32 years of age. He’s only got two years left on his deal and I have the belief that Dean will be an All-Pro linebacker. I also don’t think he would’ve been there by the time our second round pick came around. I see Dean as a player who has the desire, skill and intelligence to play linebacker. He’s only 21, won the Butkus Award and was both First Team All-SEC and an Unanimous All-American. He has the ability to play in the Southern heat, an underrated skill as well. Dean was also the signal caller at Georgia and in high school, having a desire to do so in the NFL as well and I believe he would be an invaluable asset to new HC Todd Bowles. A lot of people questioned this call as he would be a backup in his first year..

The way I see it. If someone gets injured, he can get the job done. Excellent rotational guy and has one to two years to grow physically and mentally underneath two generational talents. I also made a move that some didn’t like. I traded my 2023 first round pick, pick 91 and pick 133 for Cleveland’s 44th, 78th, 188th and 246th. Now I had two second round picks, a third and both an additional sixth and seventh. I then selected Kenneth Walker out of Michigan State and Khalil Shakir out of Boise. Then Greg Dulcich in the third. I will finish up tomorrow with the sixth and seventh rounds.

I’ve received some hate for my picks. Here’s my thinking. Tampa has one year left of Brady so it’s now or never. Walker and Fournette automatically elevate Tampa to having one of the best one-two punches in football. Walker has shown he can perform in multiple situations and environments and you can never have enough running backs. The Bucs were hampered by injuries to receivers at the back half of the season. Shakir is an incredible slot talent that is able to both excel at route running and body contortion. His ability to catch the ball at all angles is second to none and will be an excellent piece for Brady to go to. Many wanted Treylon Burks from Arkansas but he would’ve had to be a first round pick and I thought Dean was the better option. Dulcich is a product of Chip Kelly’s spread offense and he has nice hands, good route running and is able to stack blocks at the second level. Rob Gronkowski isn’t confirmed to return and Cameron Brate remains the Bucs best option. For trading my 2023 first round pick, the Bucs are gonna be picked in the bottom anyway. They can easily trade up and if their going for a QB, the 2023 draft will be filled with talent. Prospects include Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, Tyler Van Dyke, Spencer Rattler, Grayson McCall, Will Levis, Anthony Richardson, DJ Uiagalelei, Jake Haener, Sam Hartman and more.

I am very happy with my picks but if you disagree with my decision, I respect it. What I don’t condone is disrespect. I’m all for debate and disagreement. We all see things differently but in a post draft twitter space, I was called upon to defend my picks. I did such. There is a person who disagreed with my picks. Fair enough. He then said, “you suck.” A childish comment that shouldn’t have fazed me…but it did. Now I felt as though my intelligence, my decision making skills and my manhood was being attacked. It made me so angry and what made me more infuriated is that this person was a voice through a phone, not a person face to face. Someone behind a screen could insult me without ramification. I remained respectful but that comment kept irking me into the night. Perhaps because I couldn’t confront the situation because it was over twitter or because this person lives in another state. I think what made me mad is that this is a mock draft and I am expressing an opinion. An opinion I defended with words but lacked the ability to do so face to face. Now what I mean by that is if you are going to insult someone, would you do it to their face? I don’t know but this situation got me thinking. How do actual GMs handle the opinions of the public. How did Howie Roseman deal with the backlash of selecting Jalen Reagor? How did Ryan Pace handle the hate he got for selecting Mitch Trubisky? Once this draft is over, I will resume my life without the glory or consequences of such decisions. How do people who do this for a living handle the noise? It gave me a newfound respect for the profession and the criticisms that come with it. All I know is that I would still love an opportunity to do so for a living, I am so grateful to be a part of it and I have the utmost confidence in my decisions. My friend and I made informed decisions to the best of our abilities, I will defend my selections forever and I hope I have some supporters on the other side. In this instance and this instance only, go Bucs and go Titans.