This was an excellent discussion. Assuming Ragland, Lee and Rankins were gone, Brian and his guest went 1) Conklin and Jaylon Smith; 2) Billings and Nkemdiche; 3) Reed and Dodd (as a DE not an OLB); 4) Clark and Billings; 5) Doctson and Robinson over Kenny Clark. I note that your guest went with Jaylon Smith as his first choice if the medicals check out that he would miss 2016, but would be recovered for 2017.

I deduce that Brian is into safer choices. Feels Conklin will be a starter in 2017, without stating exactly where. I assume that Brian feels maybe LT, but should be able to be a RT or an OG. Billings at least should be a good NT. Reed should be able to play a lot of snaps at various places on the line. Clark should be able to play NT and push the pocket, maybe with some pass rush down the road. Doctson is the best outside featured WR prospect.

McKenna is more of a risk taker. Jaylon Smith and Nkemdiche have medical and character issues. Dodd is a question due to size as a 3-4 DE (I think he could be an elephant OLB like Peppers, and able to drop into zone only coverage). Billings, Robinson and Clark are pretty conventional choices. I note that he loves Darron Lee who was not discussed since it was assumed he'd be off the board. My concern on Lee is that he is a great athlete who happens to play football rather than a football player who happens to be a great athlete. Fun stuff!

The best true NT's in this draft are Billings, Butler, and Reed. If any of those guys are there at #27 I think it would be very difficult to pass any of them up. I personally think Vernon Butler would be a great choice but I'm sure he won't be there at #57. As much as I like Jaylon Smith, there is no way that you could risk an r1 pick on such a huge unknown. Even assuming the medical eval. is not as negative as anticipated, we have no idea what kind of talent this guy will have on the other side of this injury. Too much risk IMO. I would start thinking about him in r3 but he may very well be gone by then. Darron Lee is another great solution for a WILL but curiously is listed as an OLB in this draft. I'm not at all concerned about his ability to play football. I think he's certainly demonstrated that he loves the game and can play at an elite level. Raggland isn't the WILL that we really need but is a great player. We have to many Mikes and no Wills. Raggland doesn't really do anything to change that IMO and is really the only true ILB that has even an r1 grade. I don't think it makes sense as I can think we are much more likely to find a true Will in the later rounds where value more accurately coincides with need. I would consider trading up to get jack or Lee but otherwise would not target any other LB's until the later rounds. Coklin is an interesting question as we are facing a shakeup of the OL after year.I would not be shocked to see TT take Conklin but I would suggest that a true 3-4 NT would be a more pressing need. I guess it depends on how GB's board looks like which always seems to be the case. We shall see in a few short weeks but I'm really hoping that we get either Billings, Butler, or Reed. The other DL mentioned are not really large enough or suited to play NT in a 3-4. As always I am sure TT will surprise us as usual;)