1 - Jacksonville Jaguars - Trevor Lawrence, QB, Clemson - At this point, the only way Lawrence wont go first is if the Jags somehow write the wrong name on the card.
2 - New York Jets - Justin Fields, QB, OSU - Zach Wilson vs Justin Field has become a hotter debate in recent times, with mocks seems to split 50/50 on which of the 2 will go before the other. This one will likely end up coming down to preference, but personally I prefer Field’s upside and athleticism. Still, it’ll probably end up being a close call overall.
3 - Carolina Panthers (via MIA via HOU - sends 1.08, 3.73, 2022 CAR 1st, 2022 CAR 2nd, for 1.03) - Zach Wilson, QB, BYU - This seems like a lot at first glance, but I’d bet on the Panthers being much improved next year with the return of a healthy McCaffery and Joe Brady/Matt Rhule having another year to establish their system. What that means is that if the Panthers can improve at QB, they could be a legitimate playoff contender. Teddy Bridgewater is not the answer, and IMO when you have someone as good as CMC, you need to give him a good QB. The Panthers don't want to end up like the Vikings, sticking a bunch of mediocre at best QBs next to their stud RB.
4 - Atlanta Falcons - Trey Lance, QB, NDSU - I know there’s a large portion of Falcons fans who really want to go anywhere but QB here, but how much longer can Matt Ryan play at a high level? With the 2022 QB class still full of question marks, grabbing your guy of the future right now would be a prudent move. Its instant gratification vs long term strategy. And with the success of raw QBs at the next level under proper development, Trey Lance looks like a solid bet. He’s got a great arm, and plays smart enough to only have a single interception in his college career. There’s a serious ceiling here, and he could absolutely benefit from learning from Matt Ryan for a year. Arthur Smith completely revitalized Tannehill as well, so maybe he could turn Lance into a stud.
5 - Cincinnati Bengals - Penei Sewell, OT, Oregon - Seems like it ends up working out for the Bengals, who really need to protect Joe Burrow. There’s been whispers that teams have Rashawn Slater over Sewell currently, but I partially chalk that up to prospect fatigue. IMO Sewell’s the best OT in the class, and although he’s got areas he can improve, his body of work is utterly dominant currently. If he can polish up his technique and stay healthy, he’ll be a godsend to the Bengals OL.
6 - Eagles - Ja’Marr Chase, WR, LSU - DeVonta Smith has been crazy this year, but it seems like people have forgotten Ja’Marr Chase was just as dominant last year too. Honestly, the Eagles really can't go wrong here with either WR, but IMO Chase is more of a sure thing to be dominant in the NFL, as minute of a difference as that is.
7 - Detroit Lions - DeVonta Smith, WR, Alabama - After that insane performance against Ohio State, I don't think the Lions can pass up on Smith here, even as bad as their defense is. With their entire WR corps being possible FAs, they need to find replacements ASAP, especially if they cannot find a way to agree to a deal with Kenny Golladay. As for Smith well, he’s a beast. Plain and simple. Y’all saw what he did to Ohio State in just one half.
8 - Houston Texans (Via MIA via DET - Sends Deshaun Watson, 2022 HOU 3rd for 1.08, 2.50, 2022 MIA first, 2023 MIA first, Tua Tagovailoa, salary fillers) - Kwity Paye, EDGE, Michigan - The Dolphins send away Tua + a ton of picks for a shiny new franchise QB, and the Texans begin their rebuild. First up is addressing the defensive line. JJ Watt is very likely gone, Whitney Mercilus is done, and Jonathan Greenard has disappointed. They need someone who can make a serious impact, now. Kwity Paye has been one of the most dominant players in college football, with an insane pressure rate, and is a supposed athletic freak who runs a sub 6.8 3 cone at 6’4’’, 272, with some claiming it being as low as 6.37. No matter what the time ends up being, it's utterly insane for someone of his size, and he could likely play the same role that Watt does for the Texans.
9 - Denver Broncos - Micah Parsons, LB, Penn State - The Broncos do really need CB, but there’s a pretty big hole in the middle of the defense next to Alexander Johnson. Josey Jewell isnt a 3 down LB, and it's really hard to pass up on Parsons here, an elite LB who can be the tonesetter of the Broncos defense from day one. Pairing up Parsons and Johnson should give Denver two monsters in the middle of the defense.
10 - Dallas Cowboys - Caleb Farley, CB, Virginia Tech - Now that Dan Quinn’s the new DC, meaning that they’ll be running a ton of Cover 3. And with how much Quinn loves his physical/athletic CBs who can play both man and zone, Caleb Farley is the natural pick here IMO. He’s sticky as glue, with fluid hips and a size profile that NFL teams dream of, perfect for pattern-match that should be used a lot in Dallas next season. His zone coverage does need a little work, but the Cowboys will likely be doing mostly spot-drop zone, which is pretty simple to pick up, and outside of injury concerns, Farley should be a huge help for the Dallas defense.
11 - New York Giants - Jaycee Horn, CB, South Carolina - The Giants love their press man coverage, but were forced to run zone a lot last year due to how bad their cornerbacks were outside of James Bradberry. Jaycee Horn fits their preferred scheme, and also shores up that huge hole at CB2 that they have. No CB in the class is as good as disrupting WRs at the LOS as Horn is, and he’ll be a great addition to what was a surprisingly good defense last year.
12 - San Francisco 49ers - Patrick Surtain, CB, Alabama - The 49ers have 0 CBs under contract next year. They need building blocks now, especially with Robert Saleh now gone. Patrick Surtain fits into their zone heavy system perfectly. He’s got elite ball skills, is consistently disruptive, and can stick to WRs like glue. He’d be the perfect guy to replace Richard Sherman if the 49ers cant bring him back, and should be able to slot in at CB1 or CB2 immediately.
13 - LA Chargers - Rashawn Slater, OL, Northwestern - Slater’s a guy who's been getting a ton of hype in recent times, with some even putting him above Sewell. How much of that is real and how much of it is smoke? Hard to say at this point, but I do know that he’ll be an upgrade no matter where he slots in for the Chargers. Protecting Herbert should be there #1 priority right now, especially for the terrible LA OL. Slater should be a fantastic player for the Chargers from day 1.
14 - Miami Dolphins (Via Minnesota Vikings - sends 1.18, 3.82 for 1.14) - Jaylen Waddle, WR, Alabama - Miami goes ALL in here. With Watson now on the roster, their window is now, and they treat it with urgency, giving up some more draft capital to grab the last of the 3 main stud WRs in the class. Jaylen Waddle fits what Miami needs right now, a speed demon joystick who would be what Will Fuller was for Watson in Houston, a connection that was lethal even with Fuller being injured constantly. Watson to Waddle should be one of the deadliest partnerships in the league, turning the Miami offense into a high powered scoring machine.
15 - New England Patriots - Mac Jones, QB, Alabama - Mac Jones is a guy who’s worked his way from fringe QB prospect all the way up to R1 guy. I'm not sure if the NFL likes him as much as most people in the draft community do, but he’s a smart QB who was instrumental in leading the Crimson Tide to a National Championship. I’d say he grades out pretty well at all the important areas of being a QB, like his arm, going through progressions, that kind of thing. This only big flaw IMO is his ability to extend plays, but the Patriots have the OL to shore up that weakness. The main question here is how will Mac Jones play without any solid WRs? The Patriots receiving corps is barren, so that will be something that must be addressed soon.
16 - Arizona Cardinals - Wyatt Davis, OG, Ohio State - The Cardinals offensive line seems to consistently lose at the LOS, something that was a huge part in them not making the playoffs. With that in mind and all of the top 3 CBs long gone, they grab the mauling OG out of Ohio State, an absolute mauler who can hit hard to create space in the run game. He’s a great fit for the Cardinals run game, and should give them some of the nasty they’ve been lacking.
17 - Las Vegas Raiders - Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoah, LB, Notre Dame - It's hard to say what the Raiders will go with, as Mayock has not been on the job that long, but this is a pick that I agree with Daniel Jeremiah on. The Raiders lack that dynamic linebacker who can move around and cover everything, and JOK should be able to line up all over. He’s perfect for an NFL that seems to value positionless players more, and especially for a Raiders defense that’s going to be stuck against Travis Kelce for the near future.
18 - Minnesota Vikings - Gregory Rousseau, DE/DT, Miami - When your sack leader is a guy you traded away half way through the season, there's a problem. That Vikings defense was inexcusably bad this year, even with the loss of Danielle Hunter, and basically cost their offense a shot at the playoffs. They need to add some juice to the pass rush ASAP. Gregory Rousseau would be perfect, a raw and crazy athletic player who can line up all over the defensive line to wreak havoc. Considering Minnesota turned one athletic freak into a stud, they should have confidence that they can make Rousseau great too, and he’d be a wonderful addition, especially considering the fact that the Vikings have moved around their edge rushers to exploit mismatches, most notably against the Saints.
19 - Washington Football Team - Christian Darrisaw, OT, Virginia Tech - There doesn't seem to be a solid answer at QB available here for Washington, so they look to bolster up their trenches in order to replace the departed Trent Williams. Darrisaw has the size and length to be a fantastic NFL tackle, along with an extremely strong anchor and some great agility for his size. His technique needs to be cleaned up a little, but he could easily lock down the LT spot for Washington in the future.
20 - Chicago Bears - Rashod Bateman, WR, Minnesota - Allen Robinson is gone, leaving a huge hole at WR1 for Chicago. Seeing as there’s not really a great way to fix Chicago’s QB situation, they instead look to try and make the most of their closing window. Rashod Bateman should come in and be the WR1 for Chicago, a great route runner with sure hands who can snag a ball and some more yards after the catch. Hopefully Trubisky builds a much better connection with him than he did with Arob.
21 - Detroit Lions (Via IND - sends Matthew Stafford for 1.22, salary filler) - Zaven Collins, LB, Tulsa - The Lions defense really needs help at LB. Jarrad Davis is probably starting again, but Tavai really shouldnt be. Zaven Collins can step in and be the best LB in the Lions from day 1, an absolute freak athlete who can cover, can stop the run, and even has a pass rushing upside. He’s the perfect chess piece for the new Lions defense to build around, and should be an immediate impact player from day 1.
22 - Tennessee Titans - Daviyon Nixon, DT, Iowa - The Titans need pass rush in every capacity, and that includes from the defensive line. Jeffery Simmons is a monster, but he doesn't get much help. He’d pair up great with Daviyon Nixon, a freak athlete out of the B1G who excels most when he gets to pin his ears back and just attack the QB. His ability to cause issues down the middle should help alleviate the Titans pass rush issues somewhat.
23 - New York Jets (Via SEA) - Kyle Pitts, TE/WR, Florida - The Jets just need to add weapons to their team at this point. Their WR corps has little promise outside of maybe Mims, and their TE corps is equally barren. Pitts addresses both of those issues at once. Able to play all over the lineup, Pitts can work as both a huge WR and a TE, able to consistently beat coverages and get catches against defenses. He’ll be a great weapon for Fields to utilize, a truly dynamic threat who could be one of the best receivers on the Jets from day 1.
24 - Pittsburgh Steelers - Liam Eichenburg, OT, Notre Dame - A lot of the Steeler’s tackle depth, most notably starting LT Alejandro Villenueva, will be lost to FA, and Pittsburgh needs to address that ASAP. Liam Eichenburg isnt the most athletic OT with a crazy high ceiling, but he’s a solid technician who should be able to start from day 1, perfect for a contending team like the steelers.
25 - Jacksonville Jaguars (via LAR) - Samuel Cosmi, OT, Texas - The Jaguars need to protect their investment, especially with Cam Robinson a question mark to be back due to his poor play. Protecting a young QB should be the #1 priority after landing one, and Cosmi is a tantalizing prospect to add. He’s got plenty of athleticism and a frame that’s waiting to be filled out, a solid pass blocker who can deal with speed rushers really well. He’s a high ceiling prospect who could become a great LT and lock down Tlaw’s blind side for the future.
26 - Cleveland Browns - Jaelen Phillips, EDGE, Miami - Sometimes it just feels like the Browns defensive line is just Myles Garrett. That can't stand. The Browns need to give Garrett some help in the pass rush, and that's why they pick Jaelen Phillips. There’s a lot of injury concerns here, but if Phillips can stay healthy, he’s an absolute MONSTER in the pass rush, having notched 8 sacks in just 5 games this year. If he can stay on the field, he and Garrett should give opposing offensive lines some serious headaches.
27 - Baltimore Ravens - Alijah Vera-Tucker, iOL, USC - The Ravens need to bolster their offensive line more. After the loss of Marshall Yanda, the Ravens offensive line has taken a notable step back, and Ronnie Stanley’s injury certainly didn't help there. AVT’s easily BPA at this point, an interior beast who is a stone wall with excellent hand usage. He should be able to make the Ravens offensive line even better, and boost their already lethal run game to higher levels.
28 - New Orleans Saints - Kyle Trask, QB, Florida - Im sorry, I don't think Taysom Hill is an NFL level QB. Especially not for a title contender. Drew Brees is retired, and I doubt Winston will be back. That means QB is the most glaring hole in NO. Kyle Trask might never be Patrick Mahomes, but he’s a good solid player who can make accurate passes, adjusts to pressure well, and is willing to extend plays. With the Saints filled with weapons and talent, Trask should be a good enough game manager to help the Saints be contenders for the rest of their window.
29 - Green Bay Packers - Levi Onwuzurike, DT, Washington - Kenny Clark and Keke Kingsley are building blocks along the defensive line, but the Packers could afford to add some depth. Onwuzurike has been mocked in the first by DJ, and he tends to have his ear to most NFL team’s pulse. Onwuzuriki’s calling card is his length and athleticism, which combined with his explosiveness and motor results in him just running over people at times. He does need to improve his power and add more consistently, but the addition of Onwuzurike could make the Packers defensive line a force as good as the Steelers DL.
30 - Buffalo Bills - Travis Etienne, RB, Clemson - The Bills just need playmakers especially in the run game, and Etienne is one of the best pure playmakers in the class. He’s an explosive threat who must be addressed at all times, or else he could break free and gash the defensive for serious yardage. His acceleration and contact balance make him a problem to tackle, and with supposed 4.3 speed, defenders won't be able to catch him once he gets into open space. He’s no slouch in the pass game either, putting up solid production at Clemson and flashing the ability to run a few option routes. The Bills already have their Jim Kelly and Andre Reed in Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs. Time to add the Thurman Thomas of the trio, and turn Buffalo into an offense that can toe to toe with the Chiefs.
31 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Jalen Mayfield, OT, Michigan - Donovan Smith is very likely gone this year, meaning that Tampa would have a hole at one of the tackle spots opposite of Wirfs. No matter if they move Wirfs to LT or keep him at RT, Mayfield would be a great get opposite of him. Mayfield’s a dependable run blocker who has good feet, and although he's not finished just yet, if Tampa can utilize his athletic gifts to the fullest, he’d be a great compliment to their current franchise OT.
32 - Kansas City Chiefs - Joe Tryon, EDGE, Washington - Joe Tryon’s another player who is apparently well regarded according to DJ. He’s shown flashes of being a great pass rusher, but he’s really still a WIP in most areas, especially as a run defender. However, he does fit the mold of what the Chiefs want in their pass rushers, standing at 6’5 262. Kansas City does need the help on the EDGE, and they can afford to take a gamble here, considering the Mahomes led offense should be able to easily cover up any defensive deficiencies for the next few years.

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My Mock Draft 2.0 (Jets trade for Watson and New England trades for Matt Stafford)

1st Round
1. Jacksonville - Trevor Lawrence (QB)
The clear choice
2. Houston Texans (Sam Darnold, 1.02, Giant’s 2021 5th and the Seahawk’s 2022 1st pick for Deshaun Watson) – Zach Wilson (QB)
The Texans acquire future draft capital and enter a rebuild. They have a top pick this draft, and 2 first next year – enough to make a new team and start to erase the errors of BoB. The Jets get their QB of the future. The Texans get Darnold and see if he can produce outside of a Gase offense, but select Zach Wilson as the QB of the future. This will give the Texans a chance to let Wilson get acclimated to the NFL before being thrown into the fire. The Texans also likely decline Darnold’s 5th year option, because he will either be irrelevant by then, or will be good enough to sign to another team for significant money and give a comp pick.
The Jets get a franchise QB while still having a first this year and next year, their future is immediately very bright. The Texans might demand more compensation, but they have a new GM and if Deshaun refuses to play, they may have to settle for a ‘mere’ 2 1st round picks.
3. Miami – Penei Sewell (LT)
A franchise left tackle. While Miami may not need him as much as Cincinnati does, their line isn’t nearly stellar enough to pass on his talent.
4. Detroit (from Atlanta for 1.07 and 2.41 for 1.04) – Justin Fields (QB)
Detroit trades up to get Stafford’s replacement. Atlanta gives Matt Ryan more time.
5. Cincinnati – Micah Parsons (LB)
Parsons has sideline to sideline speed and should be a Pro Bowler quickly at a Cinci position of need. The Bengals OLine has been poor, but it needs more than just 1st round picks being thrown at it. The Bengals can address it later in the draft.
6. Philadelphia – Ja’Marr Chase (WR)
Although it is unclear who Philly’s QB will be, who ever it is will need to have more weapons available to them. Ja’Marr Chase is the best player available here, and fits Philly’s needs. While Zach Wilson and Trey Lance are still available, the Eagles give Wentz and Hurts another go at things with a better supporting cast and different HC before they completely move on.
7. Atlanta – Kwity Paye (DE)
Atlanta’s weakest position group might be their EDGEs, and despite trading back they still get the best one off the board. I personally like Rousseau better tho...
8. Carolina - Trey Lance (QB)
Carolina gets a QB of the future, who will be able to take reps behind their current QB of Teddy Bridgewater while he quickly grows a starter. Lance’s biggest flaw as a prospect is his inexperience with an NFL offense. NDSU’s offense is designed runs against slower LBs and deep balls to open receivers. Lance’s ability to dominate in the FCS is clear, but he needs to learn when to throw a check down before he will be ready for the NFL, and sitting behind Teddy will let him do that. Lance’s athleticism as a runner and capability as a thrower make him a more appealing pick to the Panthers here.
9. Denver – Caleb Farley (CB)
Farley has asserted himself as the best CB in the draft. He can be another piece in a Fangio defense that becomes one of the best in the league. They only need their offensive weapons to play to their potential…
10. Dallas – Patrick Surtain II (CB)
The Cowboys have holes to fix on their much maligned defense from last year, in addition to their offensive line issues. However, the Dallas offense looked acceptable when they had Dak, while their defense did not. They take the next off the board, and hope the Dak can return to form next year.
11. NY Giants – Jaylen Waddle (WR)
The Giants need an elite receiving option and get a number one receiving option. He has the route running skills and ball skills to play on the outside, and the size to be durable. When both Waddle and Smith where heathy at Bama, Waddle actually had more production.
12. San Francisco – Jaycee Horn (CB)
SF will likely be losing Richard Sherman, and Jaycee Horn has all the skills necessary to be a shutdown corner, although he may have some hiccups on the way.
13. LA Chargers – Rashawn Slater (OL)
The Chargers clearly need to improve all over their offensive line, as all 3 positions were rated in the bottom 2 by PFF. Slater has the versatility to move all around the offensive line, and the ability to match. His demonstrated ability against NFL prospects such as Chase Young in college is very enticing and leads the Chargers to select him above fellow prospect Christian Darrisaw
14. Minnesota – Gregory Rousseau (EDGE)
Minnesota’s defensive line struggled without Danielle Hunter. With Rousseau and Hunter back, the DLine may actually become a strong suit.
15. Lions (trade from New England for Matthew Stafford) – DeVonta Smith (WR)
The Lions, in their trade for Stafford, get the last of the big 3 stud receivers. New England effectively drafts Matt Stafford with their first round pick, and hopes to fill the smaller holes on offense and defense in the later
16. Arizona – Kyle Pitts (TE)
The Cardinals get a second option for Kyler to throw to. Pitts is a great fit for the Cardinals because they run 12 personnel the 3rd most often in the NFL and 10 Personnel the most in the NFL, but don’t have a passing option like Pitts on their roster (not like there are many options like Pitts on any roster). Pitts falls to the Cardinals and helps Klif put together a lightning fast scoring machine.
17. Indianapolis (trade from Las Vegas 1.17 for 1.21 and 4.118) – Christian Darrisaw (OT)
Indy selects their next franchise left tackle to compliment Quinton Nelson after the retirement of Anthony Castonzo.
18. Miami – Azeez Ojulari (EDGE)
Ojulari is a good DE prospect who gets to the QB at a very efficient rate. The Dolphins have already invested in their secondary, but you need a pass rush too the get the benefit of it.
19. Washington – Alijah Vera-Tucker (OT)
The Football Team would like to take a QB here, but Mac Jones and Trask are major reaches. Honestly I don’t really know what Washington takes here, but you can never have enough O Line depth. They take Alijah Vera-Tucker, who can play at tackle and guard, and hope that Jones or Trask is available in the 2nd.

Chicago - Sam Cosmi (OT)

Chicago looks to improve their offensive line and selects the 6-7 tackle out of Texas. He has the room to fill out and become an absolute bruiser in both the run and pass game.
21. Las Vegas(trade from Indianapolis 1.17 for 1.21 and 4.118) – Jayson Oweh (EDGE)
The Raiders need help on their OLine. Oweh is yet NFL ready, but he is an absurd prospect. Nonetheless, his wild build will allow the DC in Vegas to get creative. I realize this is a reach, but I think he is the perfect type of freak athlete Gruden and the Raiders would select.
22. Tennessee – Carlos Besham Jr. (EDGE)
The Titans defense needs to be better getting after the passer. Besham has a very high motor to get after the QB, and is the type of player that can really bolster a defense in my opinion.
23. NY Jets via SEA – Wyatt Davis (OG)
The Jets have their QB of the future in Deshaun Watson. Wyatt Davis, along with Mekhi Becton and their other signings will make their offensive line a force as well, in both the pass and running game. An elite QB + elite OLine play should get the Jets most of the way to a great offense, but the Jets will quickly need to get weapons for the run game and the pass game too
24. Pittsburgh – Creed Humphry (C)
Creed Humphry becomes the replacement for longtime center Maurkice Pouncey. While Pouncey has not retired yet (and this assumes he will), the Steelers have clearly been affected by subpar OLine play. The offense never had a run game and relies on quick passes, which failed them down the stretch. The solution is more than just drafting a new HB, it requires an overhaul of the offensive line. Humphry is the first center of the board.
25. Jacksonville via LAR – Christian Barmore (DT)
Having selected Trevor Lawrence, Urban Meyer knows the next step to winning is domination in the trenches. Barmore proved his ability to get to the QB in the National Championship against some of the same Buckeyes that Urban himself recruited. Although Barmore still has questions about his game, namely his ability to help in the run game, his ability to get to the QB is rare and gets him picked in the first round.
26. Cleveland – Zavon Collins (LB/EDGE)
Collins is an athletic freak and his college tape is something else. The Browns are enthused to get a linebacker who can both cover and rush the passer to anchor a poor defense. The Browns will also need to address the DE position because of the Achilles injury to Olivier Vernon. Almost certainly this will be a job for Free Agency, because I don’t see any EDGEs left that will be able to immediately produce, and the Browns are in their championship window with cap money to spend. Look for them to be in play for Leonard Williams or Trey Hendrickson (or whatever other DEs can be found in free agency or trade).
27. Baltimore – Rashod Bateman (WR)
Lamar Jackson gets a large target to throw to, and the offense can finally be the balanced threat that they clearly would like to be.
28. New Orleans – Rodarius Williams (CB)
NO defense is already very formidable, they take a good coverage CB to play across Lattimore.
29. Tampa Bay – Shaun Wade (CB)
Wade played out of position most of the year, but is a very talented nickel corner who can play anywhere in the secondary, as well as help out the run defense. With the return of Vita Vea, and the drafting of Shaun Wade, it becomes very difficult to run against the Bucs, and the Bucs play in shootouts that Bruce Arians loves to win.
30. Buffalo – Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (LB)
Buffalo tries to fill a hole in their defense with BPA Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah out of Notre Dame.
31. Green Bay – Najee Harris (HB)
Green Bay is likely losing Aaron Jones. How do they respond? By possibly upgrading at the position. Najee Harris is a beast at breaking tackles, and can catch balls like a wide receiver, making him dangerous with
32. Kansas City – Rashad Weaver (EDGE)
Kansas City’s DEs are the worst graded DEs in the NFL. Rashad Weaver has the talent to have gone earlier, but his battles with injury make his stock volatile. With that being said, he has the talent to make this group improve, as the Chiefs hope Frank Clark plays like the player he was Seattle.
Second Round
33. Jacksonville – Alex Leatherwood (OT)
34. NY Jets – Rondale Moore (WR)
The Jets’ offense adds Deshaun Watson, Rondale Moore, and Wyatt Davis. Their defense will need work, but the NFL runs through offense, and this should be the best offense New York has seen in awhile, and is set for the long haul.
35. Atlanta – Paulson Adebo (CB)
I love Adebo as a prospect, and feel he would go much higher if didn’t opt out and played his senior year. The Falcons get a high end athlete, though he has to improve his coverage to avoid getting burned.
36. Miami via HOU – Joseph Ossai (LB)
Joseph Ossai is probably the best defensive player on the board, and the Dolphins continue to add talent.
37. Philadelphia – Tyson Campbell (CB)
38. Cincinnati – Jalen Mayfield (OT)
Mayfield likely slots into the RT position, which is what he played in college. The AFC North is deadly for tackles, especially RT, having a slate of Myles Garrett, TJ Watt, and Matt Judon. Mayfield has his faults, but he was able to handle Chase Young in college.
39. Carolina – Jevon Holland (S)
40. Denver - Landon Dickerson (C)
41. Atlanta – Travis Ettienne (HB)
42. NY Giants – Trevon Moehrig (S)
43. San Francisco – Mac Jones (QB)
44. Dallas – Dylan Moses (LB)
45. Jacksonville via Minnesota – Patrick Jones (EDGE)
46. New England – Terrace Marshall Jr. (WR)
47. LA Chargers – Walker Little (OT)
48. Las Vegas – Marvin Wilson (DT)
49. Arizona – Joe Tyron (LB/EDGE)
50. Miami – Baron Browning (LB)
51. Washington – Kyle Trask (QB)
52. Chicago – Asante Samuel Jr. (CB)
53. Tennessee – Jaelan Phillips (EDGE)
Tennessee goes for 2 EDGEs, but pass rush seemed to be a major issue, and you can never enough DLine players.
54. Indianapolis – Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR)
55. Pittsburgh – Monty Rice (ILB)
Steelers were killed by injuries at MLB, Rice will be able to help there while providing help in pass rush on occasion.
56. Seattle – Ronnie Perkins (EDGE)
57. LA Rams – Nick Bolton (LB)
58. Tampa Bay – Daviyon Nixon (DT)
59. Baltimore – Josh Myers (C)
60. Cleveland - Dayo Odeyingbo (EDGE)
61. New Orleans – Jay Tufele (NT)
62. Buffalo – Eric Stokes (CB)
63. Green Bay – Pete Werner (LB)
64. Kansas City – Jordan Smith (LB)

edited: a typo with Ettienne and gave Jacksonville Min's pick from a trade

(RANT and Review) Review after 8 months & Why I Dislike This Laptop

2021 mock draft V4

Draft order was from tankathon
1 - New York Jets - Trevor Lawrence, QB, Clemson - There’s not really much I can say here that hasn't been said. Lawrence is an absolute lock for #1. Dont fuck this up, Jets.
2 - Jacksonville Jaguars - Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State - Fields had a REALLY ugly game against Indiana, but he’s still pretty clearly QB2 in the class, and I still feel like he’s closer to Lawrence than the rest of the field.
3 - Cincinnati Bengals - Penei Sewell, OT, Oregon - Holy shit please protect Burrow. His injury just looks worse and worse. Cincy’s probably going to lose out and that means they’ll have a near guaranteed shot at Sewell, but if they somehow drop out of the top 3, IMO they NEED to take BPA OT. I dont care how good Parsons, Chase, etc might end up being, because Burrow is their franchise savior, and they must 1000% protect him with everything they got. Hell, draft an entire offensive line this year. This class is solid enough to where it might be possible. Also, hire a better OL coach.
4 - Dallas Cowboys - Patrick Surtain II, CB, Alabama - Last time Dallas picked this high, they had to make a hard choice between a game changing RB and the best DB prospect in recent memory. This year, there’s no game changing RB on the level of Zeke, so the choice is pretty easy, especially with how bad the Cowboys secondary is. Outside of the injured Diggs, who else is really a building block for the future? Surtain should give them a solid once.
5 - Washington Football Team - Trey Lance, QB, NDSU - There’s been a lot of hype around Zach Wilson recently, and I won't disagree that Wilson has been fantastic, but Lance is still my QB3 for this class. Some things you just cant teach, like arm strength, and if the success of guys like Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson have shown, its that teams can build around these game breaking QBs successfully. Yes, Wilson might be more of a finished product, but why the hell would Washington want a more pro-ready guy? They aren't even close to contending right now, and sitting Lance behind Alex Smith for a year ala Mahomes could allow for deja vu, or at least Lance to become a pretty good QB once Washington is ready to contend again.
6 - Chicago Bears (via LAC - Sends 1.16, 3.80, 2022 CHI 1st, 2022 CHI 2nd for 1.08, 2022 LAC 4th) - Zach Wilson, QB, BYU - At this point, I think Zach Wilson has raised his stock enough to where it’s very unlikely he’s falling out of the top 10, and that means the really QB needy teams are going to have to pay through the nose to move up to get him. Chicago might not end up being the team that picks him, but I think they’re currently by far the most desperate, for good reason. They’re a contender level team hamstrung by terrible QB and OL play, and Wilson might be the panacea they need for their offensive woes. His reckless brilliance has been exciting to watch at BYU, and if Chicago can hit here, they’ll blow their Super Bowl window right back open.
7 - New York Giants - Ja’Marr Chase, WR, LSU - When you’re a team that’s as bad as the Giants, just take BPA. And BPA here is arguably the single best WR prospect in recent memory. Darius Slayton is a solid WR, but he’s a better fit at WR2 than the main guy, and the rest of the Giants WR corps isnt really worth talking about. With Daniel Jones showing off enough potential to earn another year and all 4 of the top QBs gone, New York grabs themselves a guy who should be an absolute monster coming into the league, considering he was better than current stud and MIN WR Justin Jefferson.
8 - Atlanta Falcons - Gregory Rousseau, EDGE, Miami - Is the third time a charm for Atlanta? Atlanta loves their raw, athletic EDGE, but the last two guys in Vic Beasley and Takk McKinley have not panned out great, to put it lightly. Rousseau is a different beast than them though. Someone who lined up all over the Miami D line, he’s got the versatility to be a great chess piece while possessing enough speed and motor to be a consistent force on the EDGE. There is still some rawness to his technique, but this is a pass rusher who doesnt stop until he’s gotten into the backfield, with an extremely high ceiling. He’d be an integral part of the defense if Atlanta ever wants to return to the SB with Matt Ryan and Julio Jones.
9 - Miami Dolphins - DeVonta Smith, WR, Alabama - I honestly think DeVonta Smith is significantly closer to Chase than the rest of the WR group, enough to where he’s almost WR1B to Chase’s WR1A. And what better spot than back with his old college QB who he dominated with? Dont forget on a loaded roster with 3 other first round WRs including Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, and near lock R1 pick Jaylen Waddle, it was DeVonta Smith who led the team in yards and TDs. With excellent separation, hands as soft as that Minnesota - Purdue OPI call, and great route running along with an established connection to Tua, Smith might help out the Dolphin’s franchise QB by giving him a security blanket.
10 - Carolina Panthers - Micah Parsons, LB, Penn State - And the best LB in the class drops to the Panthers, who just lost Luke Kuechly. It must be fate, I guess. Personally, I’d try to look for a new QB, but Bridgewater is good enough to where no QB available is an immediate improvement, and Parsons is so good to where it’s a perfect fit of BPA and need. He should be the new Kuechly for Carolina for the next decade or so.
11 - Detroit Lions - Jaylen Waddle, WR, Alabama - The Lions CBs havent been great but Amani O and Okudah still have promise, and there’s not really an LB I’d pick this high, barring JOK getting an even more meteoric rise. So onto the last big need, WR. Golladay is a WR1, but Jones is clearly past his prime, and all 3 of the Lions top WRs are free agents this offseason. They need at the very last a new WR2, and Jaylen Waddle is good enough to be both an interesting complement to Golladay, or his own WR1. He’s an electric WR who can stretch the field and pull defenses apart the way the best deep threats can, and even has bonus functionality as a kick/punt returner. Golladay, if he’s back, and Waddle would make for an electric WR duo for Stafford to play with.
12 - Minnesota Vikings - Wyatt Davis, OG, Ohio State - Kirk Cousins has shown that he still has some juice, and although he’s not a Mahomes/Brady type QB who can lead to the SB, he’s certainly good enough to be a QB who wont cost you the SB trip. But if the Vikings want to keep Kirk consistently at his best, they need the OL, and especially the interior OL, to be as good as possible. Thats why they cant pass up on Davis here, who has almost no flaws and might be the best iOL prospect since Quenton Nelson. With Dozier’s return uncertain due to cap issues and Cleveland possibly moving to LT, there are holes in the interior that must be addressed. Worst comes to worst, the Vikings have two great OGs on their team. That’s a problem most teams would kill for.
13 - Arizona Cardinals (via NE - sends 1.20, 3.84, 2022 ARI 2nd for 1.13) - Caleb Fairley, CB, Virginia Tech - The Cardinals have an elite offense with Murray, Hopkins, and Kingsbury calling the shots, but man that pass defense is ugly. With Patrick Peterson aging every day and his contract expiring, they need a replacement for him ASAP. So Steve Keim, who’s no stranger to bold moves, mortgages a bit of the future to grab arguably the second best CB in the class, Caleb Farley. Farley is an outstanding press corner in the same mold as Peterson, someone who mirrors well and sticks to receivers like glue. He should seamlessly replace PPat if they choose to move on from the All-Pro this offseason, or learn greatly next to him if they bring him back.
14 - San Francisco 49ers - Creed Humphrey, C, Oklahoma - The lifeblood of the 49ers is their run game, built on the zone blocking scheme of Kyle Shanahan. Thats why the center position is so important to the 49ers. And its been a bit of an issue the last 2 seasons. Weston Richburg is oft injured and cant be relied on, and I’d be hesitant to rely on Daniel Bruskill for anything more than being a solid replacement iOL. Creed Humphrey here fit the 49ers scheme like a glove, having played a ton in Lincoln Riley’s zone blocking offense. He’d be an instant starter and with his high IQ as well as excellent leadership, should be a great fit for a young, hungry 49ers team that might be losing Richard Sherman this offseason.
15 - Denver Broncos - Shaun Wade, CB, Ohio State - With QB off the table here, the Broncos still really need a better CB1. AJ Bouye is mediocre on the field when he isnt injured. Bryce Callahan has been good but he was injured recently and might not be back this offseason to make room for Bolles and Simmons extensions. Michael Ojemudia showed promise to start the year but was snubbed completely vs the Raiders and Dolphins. There’s no Talib or CHJr anymore in Denver, a CB1 that Denver can rely on to erase opposing WRs. But Shaun Wade could be that. A great slot corner who also can move outside and defend the run at a high level (run defense ala Trae Waynes), he could be the lockdown CB that helps the Broncos defense return to their former glory once Von Miller returns.
16 - Los Angeles Chargers (Via CHI) - Christian Darrisaw, OT, Virginia Tech - The Chargers should heed the Burrow injury as a serious warning of what might happen to their young franchise QB if they don't protect him. So, they grab the rising Christian Darrisaw out of VT, a massive mauling tackle who knows how to use his hands and possesses an excellent anchor. There are still some technique issues he needs to hone out, mainly his footwork, but once those are cleaned up, he can easily be an utterly dominant force on the OL for the chargers.
17 - Miami Dolphins - Jeremiah Owusu-Koramah, LB, Notre Dame - Miami doesnt go Parsons, but they get the next best thing in the class, a stud who's also exploded up the draft boards recently. JOK's ascent reminds me a lot of Devin Bush’s, who also went from a fringe R1-R2 player to a mid first lock. He’s small at 6’1, 215, but utterly explosive and flies around the field in both run stopping and pass coverage. With the Miami defense looking for playmakers, JOK can be that guy who establishes himself as the QB of the defense, and a swarming pest for any offense.
18 - Baltimore Ravens - Alex Leatherwood, OG/OT, Alabama - The Baltimore offense looks almost nothing like it did a year ago. The playcalling has gotten stale, the WRs cant catch and Lamar seems to have regressed, but the biggest problem is the significant step back the OL has taken after the loss of Marshall Yanda. Alex Leatherwood might be an OT at the college level, but he has the ability and anchor to be a mauling guard, something which the Ravens would love for their run game heavy offense.
19 - Philadelphia Eagles - Jaycee Horn, CB, South Carolina - The Eagles secondary has been a thorn in their side for so long now. They just cant seem to get their CBs to play well for some reason, and with WR hopefully fixed after the emergence of Fulgham and the addition of Reagor, CB needs to be addressed. A physical aggressive corner who knows how to properly use his size as leverage against opposing WRs, Jaycee Horn would hopefully shore up CB2 for the Eagles alongside Darius Slay, and be a building block that the Eagles can build around for the future.
20 - New England Patriots (via ARI) - Kyle Pitts, TE, Florida - If there’s two things BB loves, its trading down and versatile players. Well, Pitts is one of the most versatile TEs when it comes to receiving, able to line up all over the field for a team with one of the single worst receiving corps in the league. He’ll be a super versatile weapon for the Patriots, and if anyone knows how to get the best out of a freak TE, its gotta be Belicheck.
21 - Las Vegas Raiders - Kwity Paye, EDGE, Michigan - Paye somehow falls to the Raiders here, and they better run to the stage for this pick. For a team that still needs pass rush inside and out, Paye would be a perfect fit, able to play both DE/EDGE and slide inside to cause problems if necessary. He’s excellent at causing pressure, and Im sure Gruden would love this Gruden Grinder beast of an EDGE.
22 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Samuel Cosmi, OT, Texas - Donovan Smith is not the long term answer at LT. And even if Brady leaves/retires this offseason, they still need to bolster the offensive line. Samuel Cosmi is an athletic specimen of an OT who moves well all over, someone who is smart enough to plan out his attack and possesses a huge mean streak. He should be a great fit at either LT or RT, cementing himself and Wirfs as a great pair of bookends.
23 - Indianapolis Colts - Rashod Bateman, WR, Minnesota - TY Hilton is very done, and although Pittman has shown flashes of promise so far, 2 excellent WRs are almost necessary nowadays in the NFL. Bateman would fit great here as a big play machine and YAC beast, especially if the Colts keep Phillip Rivers for another season.
24 - Cleveland Browns - Jayson Oweh, EDGE, Penn State - Myles Garrett might be a beast, but he cant do it all by himself. The Browns need to find a better compliment to him, someone who can also put pressure on the QB so the opposing offense cant just focus on him. Jayson Oweh could be that. A freak athlete who’s been rising up the draft rankings recently, Oweh has all the tools to be a monster EDGE in the NFL. He does need polishing on his technique, but this is a high ceiling guy who could give the Browns their dominant EDGE duo of the future.
25 - New York Jets (Via SEA) - Terrace Marshall Jr, WR, LSU - Now that the Jets have their QB of the future, they should probably give him better weapons than the Jets currently have. Mims has promise, and Crowder is a solid WR, but it’s hard to picture either becoming the WR1 for New York right now. Terrace Marshall Jr could be that, however. He’s been a monster for LSU after they lost both Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase, and with how bad LSU has been, thats a serious accomplishment. There’s all the physical traits to be elite, and with his ability to break press coverage and grab contested balls, he’ll could be the guy that Lawrence develops an excellent bond with in the future.
26 - Green Bay Packers - Jay Tufele, DT, USC - The Packers have a stud in Kenny Clark and a decent DT in Keke Kingsley, but outside of that, the DT depth is pretty dire. And with the best DT prospect in the class dropping right into their laps, its too hard to pass up Tufele here. Jay Tufele can be a dominant force when he’s on, almost completely unblockable at times, and can play both the 1/3T, allowing for Clark to be able to move around if needed for better matchups. WIth his explosiveness and powerful hands, a defensive line of Clark, Keke, and Tufele could be an absolute nightmare for the OLines of the NFC North.
27 - Tennessee Titans - Joseph Ossai, EDGE, Texas - The Titans pass rush has been anemic, and it’s certainly not going to get better after the likely loss of Jadeveon Clowney this offseason. They need someone to pair with Harold Landry, and Joseph Ossai could be the answer here. A quick trigger pass rusher who has plenty of room for improvement, Ossai presents a tantalizing option for Tennessee as someone who has the ability to become a very dominant pass rusher. He’d be a great fit in the Titans hybrid defense, and could grow into a cornerstone alongside Simmons and Landry on the DL.
28 - Buffalo Bills - Eric Stokes, CB, Georgia - There’s a huge hole in the Bills defense opposite of Tre White, something that has caused their defense to go from elite to horrid in one year. They need someone to help out White, and Eric Stokes could be that guy. No stranger to being paired up with great CBs, Stokes has actually outplayed his more hyped partner in Tyson Campbell this year, and with his excellent agility and great instincts, can be a smothering corner who can lock down WR1s with the help of his FS.
29 - Jacksonville Jaguars (via LAR) - Liam Eichenburg, OT, Notre Dame - As I mentioned before, if you have a young franchise QB, you need to protect him. With serious problems on their OL and Justin Fields coming in as their new savior, the Jaguars look to protect their investment by solidifying one of the tackle spots on the OL. Liam Eichenburg is another product of the Notre Dame OL machine, with an excellent build and great strength to thrive in power blocking schemes. He’s especially effective at clearing the way, which is not only great for James Robinson and the run game, but mobile QBs like Fields if they need to scramble outside the pocket. Whether he’s at LT or RT, Eichenburg should be a solid and well-coached OT for the Jaguars.
30 - Kansas City Chiefs - Dylan Moses, LB, Alabama - The Chiefs overall have been elite once again this year, but there’s one clear flaw in their team, the run defense, which ranks in the bottom 5 in the league. Good thing Dylan Moses is available here. He’s an elite athlete with plenty of range and can hit like a truck. He also knows when to wrap up and is generally a sure tackler, which is a rather underappreciated trait. He does need to improve his ability to diagnose plays and shed blocks, but overall, he’s a force at ILB, and would greatly help out Chiefs ailing run defense.
31 - New Orleans Saints - Paris Ford, S, Pittsburgh - The Saints are hilariously over the cap next year, needs to cut about $95 million in order to become cap compliant. That means that S Marcus Williams is probably gone, as the Saints simply wont have the money to replace him, which leads to a big hole in the NO secondary. Paris Ford should be a seamless replacement for him. With the ability to play anything from single high to a role closer to the LOS, Ford is an instant starter, who excels especially in pass coverage. Interestingly enough, he also seems to try to become a missile too much of the time and needs improvement on his tackling form, so hopefully the Saints teach this safety how to wrap up properly.
32 - Pittsburgh Steelers - Travis Etienne, RB, Clemson - The Steelers dont have a ton of needs, and OT is probably the safest pick here, but James Conner is an FA after this year and there are questions if the Steelers should pay him big money. Travis Etienne is also the best RB in the class and easily BPA here. Etienne is an elite RB, who can break off huge chunks of yardage at a time and rip defenses apart with his burst. He’s also improved his catching ability to where he can be a every down RB. With Pittsburgh still a SB contender for the near future and possibly question marks on James Connor’s future, Etienne seems like a great fit here to both replace Connor’s production and keep Pittsburgh in title contention for the near future.

An Ugly Story for an Ugly PC

Hey everyone. I don't know to what extent "build logs/stories" are allowed here, but I just wanted to share the 5 year long story of my PC - one that I didn't build from scratch, but in the process of transforming it to what it is today, I have at least taken part in just about everything that would go in to building a PC anyways.
I want to share this because, for the longest time, PC building was a hobby that I could only ever interact with through a screen. LinusTechTips, JayzTwoCents and a few others were my only way to engage with the PC world. It felt so out of reach to me, and I had basically just accepted that when it comes to PCs, I will likely just settle for pre-builts.
That was until August of this year, when I got tired of looking at my PC in its sad and dusty state, and wanted to finally do something about it. We'll get to that, but first...

October 2015

I was 17 years old at this time with no income of my own, and the laptop that I had up to that point (an Asus K55N-DS81) suffered a slow and painful death. Shortly after I got it sometime in early 2013, I stepped on the screen like an idiot, and for the next 2.5 years it was basically a desktop, connected to an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor. In its final months, it had become so hot, and I was desperate to extend its life, so I removed the keyboard, sat a desk fan on it, and aimed it straight at the cooling fan's intake. I thought it would make a huge difference, and I guess it was a little better, but with the knowledge I have now, I'm pretty sure I might've made it worse since I believe this laptop's keyboard doubled as a heatsink, and the real culprit was likely dust and crusty thermal paste all along - that wasn't something I had the guts to try and remedy back then, though. In any case, it finally died when trying to upgrade to Windows 10. It restarted and began what I imagined to be the update process, shut down in the middle of it, and would never turn back on again. I was pretty bummed out about it - while this was no gaming laptop, it was my first entry in to playing games on PC. It could handle things like Skyrim, Minecraft, League of Legends, and Sims 3/4, which is all I really needed since everything else was played on my PS3/4 anyways.
This was over the summer, and now, in October, I desperately wanted a new PC, so I had somehow convinced my parents to get me an early Christmas present. They let me choose the one that I wanted as long as it was under $500, and I ended up going for the CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme GXI8000, which was around $460 at the time. Even then I knew this wasn't exactly fit for high-end gaming, but it had a dedicated GPU, a case that at least looked the part, and LED fans that I thought looked cool, so I was satisfied.
Here's a picture I took of the internals shortly after I had gotten it. I quickly discovered that the LED lighting is heavily exaggerated in the online images - they didn't cast anywhere near that much light in real life, but at least they put some effort in to cable management.
As far as specs go, here's what we started with:

CPU: Intel Pentium G3240 @ 3.10GHz
GPU: Nvidia GT 720 1GB DDR3
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1333, Dual Channel
Motherboard: MSI H81-E34
Storage: 1TB 7200RPM Toshiba

While that wasn't going to impress anyone even in 2015, it surely impressed me. Having so much RAM and being able to open so many tabs in Chrome felt liberating. The 7200RPM drive felt so fast coming from the 5400RPM drive of my laptop. The games that I played ran better than they did on the laptop. For everything I used a computer for, this one made it a faster and more enjoyable experience, so I was more than satisfied.

Early 2016

I've had the PC for a few months now, and this is around the time I discovered overclocking. I used Nvidia Inspector to boost my GT720's memory and core clocks by I think 200MHz, or a little bit under. League of Legends was the only game I played at the time that had an in-game FPS counter (can't remember if Steam had this yet, and if it did, I definitely didn't know how to activate it), and I remember my framerate in that game went up by around 20fps with a mix of medium and high settings @ 1080p. Its PassMark score went from the mid 700s to the mid 900s. My laptop's GPU scored in the low 600s IIRC, so I was happy with this.
I also remember being really surprised at how cool the PC ran. My laptop was a fiery inferno of thermal throttling, but even after playing games for hours, I remember the air exhausting out of my PC was barely warm. Later on though, I discovered that my GT 720's overclock was perhaps a bit much. I remember seeing 80C readings after long sessions, and sometimes, it would crash and reset itself back to default speeds. Of course, I'd OC it right back, albeit bringing the MHz down each time.

August 2016

It was my birthday, and I was gonna try something new. At this point, I had challenged my PC with some more demanding games like DiRT 3 and Bioshock Infinite, which definitely ran and looked better than their PS3/360 equivalents, but it was pretty rough, especially with no 30fps lock at the least. I decided to buy a new graphics card and perform my first-ever upgrade. I had just over 90 bucks to spend, and, being afraid of the used market, it looked like the GT 740 was my best option. I chose EVGA's single slot version in particular because I like their card designs and it didn't require any external power, something I didn't trust my "TurboLink Switching Power Supply" with thanks to its notorious reputation.
Here's an image I took just moments after installing the new card. It's so thin you can barely tell it's there. I was amazed by how simple the process was. I simply swapped the cards (giving the GT 720 to my brother for his PC), and because Nvidia drivers were already present on my system, it just worked. I remember one of the first things I did was run it through PassMark, where it scored in the 1100s. Armed with my new overclocking knowledge though, I was able to get that score up to the 1600s.
This totally changed my gaming experience. I was able to play Dirt 3 at 1080p/60 with many of the settings maxed. Bioshock Infinite was also very playable at 1080p, but I'd settle for 900p for a more consistent framerate. Basically, if the game was older than the card itself, I could play it comfortably at higher settings than the PS3/360 versions. Since I had a PS4 for the more modern AAA stuff, I was fine with that.

September 2016-August 2019

With the new card, I tried more demanding games. Dead Island ran great at 1080p, Black Ops 2 (which I mostly only played for Zombies) did too. Later on when I would sell my PS4, I even tried Assassin's Creed: Unity. The audacity right? To my surprise, I was able to get 30fps @ 720p if I kept the settings low. Other than games, I was also big in to Visual Studio, editing things with Sony Vegas, and recording guitar in Fruity Loops, all of which this PC handled acceptably.
Unfortunately, around the beginning of 2017 I believe, the red LEDs on my exhaust fan burned out, but it still worked, so I didn't think much of it. I think it would last another full year before the fan itself gave out too, at which point I removed it. I don't have any pictures of my case from this time, but dust buildup was beginning to become a problem. It was coming close to Winter (2018) at this point, so running my PC without a case exhaust didn't really seem to have a big impact on temperatures. It wasn't until the early summer of 2019 that it became a problem. Under load, my measly Pentium could barely stay under 65C, and its stock cooler whined at RPMs I had never seen it achieve before. My GT 740 wasn't faring much better either, now reaching the high 70s while gaming. I also noticed that my intake grille was pretty much completely blocked thanks to my neglect, so that intake fan wasn't doing much of anything.
One of my biggest complaints about my laptop, especially near its end, was how hot it ran, and now my desktop was starting to do the same.
To solve this, I did something a little drastic.

September 2019

Behold.
It's unsightly. It's trashy, but it solved all my problems. Basically, I removed the intake fan from its compartment up front and taped it to the top of the drive cages, so it now blows air towards the GPU and helps push its hot air out of the vented PCI brackets. Next, I stole the exhaust fan out of my brother's PC (to be fair, he didn't use it anymore at this point) and installed it where my old one used to be. I then mounted the PSU fan upside down, since I felt that the bottom vents were too restrictive, and its dust filter had broken up in to lots of tiny pieces at this point. Clearly, this PSU was designed to be mounted with the fan facing down, so the interior of my PC now looks just atrocious, but boy did it make all the difference in terms of thermals. Both CPU and GPU now ran much cooler and quieter after doing these very Linus-esque modifications.
The victory was short-lived, though. After over 3 years of a frankly brutal overclock, my GT 740 began giving me problems. Freezes mid-game, random black screens, driver failures, artifacting, you name it. I would try inching down my overclocks in steps, and I had to basically settle for stock speeds. Even then, I would still encounter all of the aforementioned problems, just at a much lower frequency.

October 2019

Not a very eventful period, other than tapping in to my PSU's 12v wires to install some horrifically bright LED strips. The motherboard area was lit up in blue, and the drive cage area in white.
Look at this monster. I thought it was cool at first, but looking at my PC's guts for too long would hurt my eyes.
When the PC was under load, the lights would adopt a slight flicker (a testament to the quality - or lack thereof - of this power supply, probably), but I never had any issues with it.

December 2019

Even after sitting at stock speeds, the issues I had with the card now became very frequent again. It was frankly unusable at this point. This card was on its deathbed, and it was going fast. It was time for another GPU upgrade. I bought myself the low profile EVGA GT 1030. I got it for a lower price than what I paid for the 740, so I was happy about that. Of course, the first thing I did was overclock it until I could get ~2500ish on PassMark. Truthfully, it didn't feel like as big of a jump as the GT 740 was from the 720 (though I could now at least run Cities: Skylines at 1080p instead of 720p), but it made up for it by running much cooler, consuming way less power, and being much more stable overall.

January 2020 - July 2020

During this time, my PC saw very little use. While I was pleased with the card I bought, my PC's biggest issue now was its hard drive. Being almost 5 years old now, the speed it had pleasured me with when new had vanished. It was now unbearably slow. We're talking 3 minutes from pressing the power button to getting to the login screen, and then an additional 3-5 minutes for the desktop to finish loading up. Doing something about this involved taking steps that were a little more complex than simply popping in a new graphics card, so I honestly just kind of gave up on it. In March of this year, I got a great deal on an HP laptop with a 10th gen Core i3 and NVME SSD.
It's so fast and responsive that for a while, I had pretty much "retired" my desktop, only keeping it plugged in if I ever wanted to record guitar, while all my gaming needs would now be served by my consoles.
That changed in August.

August 2020

While the laptop was great, it was not at all capable of much gaming and my desktop had five years worth of history that I wanted to keep, so I decided to take action.
My PC's case at this point was just a mess. The front intake grille? Ruined. Random hardened grime in unexplained places? Yep. Dust caked all over the fans thanks to the negative pressure air flow? You already know. In addition, my front IO panel - with the exception of the microphone jack - no longer worked. The headphone jack was broken by my cat a few years ago, and as for the two USB ports? I have no idea, they randomly stopped working one day. My case's side panels also would never fully close. It wouldn't bulge from the sides, but I could never get it to slide all the way in to place anymore, and those godawful LEDs really showcased the gaps. My power and reset buttons felt gross and you had a 50-50 chances as to whether or not they would work. The HDD activity LED was a bust.
So if I was going to do anything, I first needed a new case, and a small one at that. I went with the InWin CE685. I wanted something console-like in size, it's not that expensive, and it has all the front I/O i could ask for, now including USB 3.0, which my motherboard surprisingly supports.
Here's the last picture of my PC in its old case, moments before I would rip everything out.
Three hours and lots of fear later, everything has been transplanted in to the new case.

It was frankly a horrifying experience. I was so scared I'd break something, but in the end, the most difficult part was getting the front I/O connectors plugged in to the right pins.
Only thing that has changed as far as specs are concerned is the power supply. It's a 300W TFX unit, and interestingly enough, its internal PCB is so much more dense than the "500W" PSU in my old case that I'd be surprised if the old one could safely deliver 200W, let alone 500. I also had to remove the fan shroud from the GT 1030 in order to install the low profile bracket. The screws for the shroud are underneath the fan and I just couldn't be bothered putting it back on. Apart from that, it's still the same PC - I even kept the optical drive.
I began brainstorming what upgrades to do next, but I would spend the next few months saving the money for them.

November 2020

Here we are.
First thing's first, I ordered a Samsung 870 QVO SSD to replace the godawful hard drive. Rather than go with a fresh install, I wanted to keep everything, so I opted for cloning the HDD to the SSD instead. This was a painful process. I got winload errors after three separate cloning attempts, and it took me all night and the next morning to finally get it right on my fourth attempt (TLDR, EasyBCD saved my life). The difference was night and day. Pressing the power button and getting to a fully loaded desktop took less than 45 seconds. I know that's not as fast as it probably could be if I went with a fresh install, but it was worth it to keep everything. Applications and games saw an equally massive boost in responsiveness.
Next, I wanted to upgrade the graphics card. The GTX 1650 was a no-brainer, it's the most powerful low profile card you can get, period. Maybe I should've waited for the GDDR6 version to come back in stock, but I was impatient and got the GDDR5 version anyways, particularly Zotac's, since reviews I've read suggest that this variant has the best cooling solution, whereas Gigabyte's and MSI's run hotter.
Here's the 1650 next to the 1030 it's replacing, and here is the 1650 installed.
A couple of things worth noting in that second picture. To the left of the graphics card, you'll notice a small fan. I ordered a pair of 40mm fans because I knew that by the time I was done upgrading this PC, there was going to be a lot of heat in this case, so I purchased these to help exhaust it out. They're USB fans, powered internally via a Molex-USB adapter. Secondly, I couldn't install the card at first because there were two small capacitors literally blocking it from slotting in all the way. I tried and tried for over half an hour, and, out of desperation, resorted to bending the edges of the PCI bracket backwards by 90 degrees so they would just glide right over the capacitors. It's straight-up barbaric, but it's not noticeable on the outside, and it worked, so I won't complain.
When I turned on my PC after installing the card, the new card made its presence immediately known. It's...audible, even at idle. When playing games, it screams like a banshee, but I dealt with it. I worried about how effective my little 40mm fan would be, but when I reached around and felt how much hot air it was pushing out, I figured that it was worth it.
After that, I had a rather tumultuous experience when upgrading the CPU. I decided to stick with this same motherboard, so LGA1150 is my only option. Not wanting to push my PSU too hard, I looked at power-efficient offerings first. I ordered a Core i5-4590T first (for just 35 bucks), but then quickly realized I could do better, so I ordered a Core i7-4765T just a day or so later. The i5 arrived just fine, but I decided to wait on the i7. It was now two or three days past its expected delivery, and I was getting impatient (kind of a common theme, really), so I decided to install the i5 anyways.
While removing the CPU cooler, I had actually broke the little plastic tips that lock the cooler in to place. I was screwed. No CPU upgrade was happening tonight. I was put on pause while I waited for my low profile Silverstone cooler to arrive. It was about time for this anyways, though. Just look at how gross the stock cooler had become.
Installing this new cooler meant that I'd have to remove the motherboard and install a backplate. This whole process was also terrifying. Took me a few tries to get the backplate orientation right, and once I did, I was worried about if I had put on too much or too little thermal paste, and whether or not I had aligned the heatsink properly so I don't end up screwing holes in my motherboard.
Luckily, I made it through, and all was well. Here's a picture taken shortly after the i5 and new cooler install.
With a better CPU (finally leaving dual core behind), GPU, and SSD, this thing already felt like a different beast. Unfortunately though, the i7 I ordered never came. I can only imagine it was stolen, so after a couple weeks of back and forth between myself, my post office, the item seller, and eBay, I finally got refunded for that after filing a police report. Also within this time, I added a 2.5" 1TB 7200RPM drive for game installs to take some load off of the SSD.
While I was satisfied with the i5, after measuring my PC's power consumption under load (barely 120W), I realized that I could probably get away with a lot more. I found a good deal on a Core i7-4790S, and this time, once the tracking had showed it arrived at my post office, I went to pick it up myself that morning.
I installed the 4790S as soon as I got home, and while I was first very excited by its near-10k PassMark score (nearly quadruple the Pentium it replaced), I quickly discovered that the Silverstone cooler was not enough to keep its thermals in check. Given that the 4790S is labelled as a 65W TDP processor, and the Silverstone cooler is rated for exactly that, I was surprised at this. I tried redoing things like the thermal paste and heatsink mounting, but to no avail. I discovered that the CPU is only 65W TDP at base speed (3GHz). Since it spends all of its time turbo'd up to 3.8-4GHz, it's actually more like 82-84W. Temps during an Prime95 torture test quickly exceeded 85C, topping out at around 91-92.
I ordered the Noctua NH-L9i right away. Installing this one was kind of weird. I don't have access to the rear of my motherboard while it's in the case, so I had to take out the board again, get rid of the Silverstone backplate, and then basically install the motherboard to the heatsink instead of the other way around.
Long story short, it made all the difference. Temps at idle are now in the low 30s, gaming keeps it in the high 50s/low 60s, and torture tests will push it to the mid-high 70s, but I mean, in a case like this, I can't ask for much better.
As a final touch, I installed two more 40mm fans. One is right against the main exhaust vent (now occupying both sides of the GPU), and another sits at the front,blowing cool air at the drives (they would get up to 50C because the 1650 just dumps its hot air all over them in this layout), which never go over 35C now. There are now eight fans inside this case, and in case you're wondering, yes, having three 40mm fans in here makes the PC noisy, to say the least. I wouldn't say it's as bad as an old PS4 idling at Modern Warfare 2019's menus, though.

And here is the finished product.

Now, our final specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790S @ mostly 3.9GHz
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1650, 4GB GDDR5
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1333, Dual Channel
Motherboard: MSI H81-E34
Storage: 1TB Samsung QVO, 1TB HGST 7200RPM

Basically, the only things that stayed the same are the RAM, motherboard, optical drive, and OS install. I'll probably upgrade the RAM to 16GB at some point, but other than that, that's as far as I'll take this one.
Killing Floor 2? 1080p, 45-60FPS with near-max settings + Nvidia Flex. Bioshock Infinite? 1440p/60, maxed out. Minecraft with shaders? 1080p, 40-60fps with 16 chunk render distance. Rocket League? 120fps with 1080p and lower settings, but I ran it at 1440p/60 with high settings for a while. COD: Warzone? 1080p/50-60fps with "Normal" settings. That's all I've really tried so far, but these are feats that my PC in its older iterations couldn't even dream of. To so effortlessly chew through the games that I throw at it really blows me away. It really does feel like an entirely different machine, and I couldn't be more happy about it finally being complete.
If you've read this far, I hope you enjoyed the journey, and all that I've done to keep my PC alive and well throughout the years. It's a little ugly and definitely unusual, and I could probably make it look much more pleasing if I got rid of the zip-tied and taped 40mm fans, but I like having any extra cooling I can afford.
If you're a new builder or someone thinking of pulling the trigger, I hope that this post inspired you to do so. I've struggled at pretty much every turn, and ended up spending more money than I originally intended, but me and my PC came out of it alive, and it's running better than ever.
In 2020, it'd probably be difficult to even call this a mid-range PC, but it accomplishes all that I need it to at speeds and settings that were once out of reach, and, considering the specs of this PC at the beginning of its life, it is, again, night and day.
It was fun being able to get this intimate with a hobby I've never been able to enjoy before, and I'm really glad I decided to take this PC to the present and future with me instead of putting it in a closet like I planned to at the beginning of this year. Beyond possibly upgrading the RAM, my next project will be starting over from scratch, but that won't be for some time.
Thanks for reading.

Verum Weekly: Summary of Streamed Games of the Week (February 4th, 2021)

Hail Travelers,
Welcome to Verum Weekly. A weekly post to summarize all the game sessions that happen in the week prior. Hope you like it.

Thursday

The Helix of Fate (Lrret1064)

Azalon, Archmage of Glies, stands before Los, former Archmage of Kalkatesh, and the two prepare to duel. Azolon comments on his old mentor's current status as a Servant of the Enemy. In response, Los tells him he now knows the truth of the universe; there is no end to this because it happened many times before. He believes this is the only way to ease the suffering. Not wanting to waste time chatting, Azolon starts off the fight by firing off a Prismatic Spray, testing what reaction Los will have to it. Los attempts to block, but it scuffs his cloak. In retaliation, he sends Meteors towards Azolon, and the Gliesian gets his robes scuffed in return. Los then pulls out two wands and fires a rain of Violet Magic Missiles. Using the druidic magic in his Staff, Azolon creates a shield that cleanses the Missiles of their Violet energy and sends them back to Los, breaking one of the Servant’s defensive wards.
Los then uses Violet energy to make his arm gigantic in an attempt to crush Azolon, but he sees it coming and Misty Steps right before the arm touches him. Azolon then disparages Los for abandoning his role as Archmage and relying upon the power of the Enemy that so far hasn't even been able to touch him. Los proves him wrong by shooting a laser out of his eyes that hits Azolon across his face, breaking his glasses and scarring him. Los quickly tries to use his arm to crush Azolon again, but he instinctively Vanishes and dashes towards Los while charging a Disintegration Ray through his Staff, which tears open a wound across Los arm. Seeing an opportunity, Los uses the blood from the wound to create Blood Spikes to pierce Azolon, but before they can connect Azolon heals Los’ wound, causing the Blood Spikes to turn into a harmless splash of water.
Azolon attempts to cast a Fireball directly in Los face, but his opponent is faster and grabs Azolon’s wrist, redirecting the Fireball and pulling him in for a headbut. While Azolon is disoriented, Los channels a Vampiric Touch and attempts to strangle him. Azolon drops his Staff to try to break free, but Los is stronger and breaks another of Azolon's wards. Thinking quickly, Azolon summons back his Staff to stab Los. Los uses their position in flight to reorient themselves and make the Staff miss, and he starts to strangle Azolon, draining his energy. Azolon however uses his druidic training to cast Stone Fist and smashes it in Los’ face, breaking free. He then taunts him while casting Mental Prison, baiting Los into meeting his gaze, which breaks through one of the Servant’s wards.
With Los distracted, Azolon flies in close once more to finish the fight by turning Los’ Flesh to Stone. However Los recovers fast enough to use his cloak to block the attack and counters with a fist charged with Violet energy. Remembering his research on the Colors, Azolon attempts to challenge the blow by casting Prismatic Spray, connecting it with Los’ attack. The energy expands and blows them both back. The resulting explosion chars Los arm, and the bit of Violet energy that reached Azolon’s right hand removes it from existence. Azolon keeps his composure and takes the opportunity while Los is still recovering to charge his Staff with druidic power. Los summons a Shield that clashes against the empowered Staff.
Suddenly Alexander flies up through the sphere, wielding a blade made of Negatia, a material that seals magic. With the force of the catapult that sent him flying, Alexander slashes at Los and easily breaks through the magic defenses. Not letting the surprise go to waste, Azolon manipulates the wind to blow Alexander closer to Los, making the slash go up from his chest, across his face, and through his right eye. At the apex of his flight, Alexander apologizes for interrupting and gives Azolon words of encouragement to finish off his foe before falling back down out of the sphere.
Azolon thanks his old friend for his assistance and disses Los, saying that serving the Enemy made him lose any connection to people like that, which makes him a shell of a man. Los admits Azolon is right about those things but wrong in other ways, because “life isn't fair”. He then casts False Torch, creating a Shard of Oblivion and placing it into his empty right eye socket. Now empowered, Los fires an Obliteration Ray. Azolon uses his Staff to block the attack, but Los charges the Ray with even more Violet. Azolon, knowing that he cannot handle the might of that attack, tries to redirect it away from him. However as he turns to redirect it, his Staff breaks and the Ray shreds his back. Azolon asks Los what made him like this, and he answers that he saw the truth. "The wheel must turn, one way or another; this is one is the best way — the only way.” Los fires another Obliteration Ray. Knowing he cannot handle that attack again, Azolon pulls out a ring that Los enchanted and tosses it at the attack. Since Los enchanted the ring, it is soulbound to him, so the Violet energy is absorbed back into the ring. It flies back to Azolon, pulsing with Violet power — power that could be used by him. However, without hesitation Azolon tosses the ring aside, and it instantly evaporates.
Seeing how easily Azolon rejected all that power, Los is dumbfounded. Azolon disparages Los again, asking what worth is there in existing if it means giving into something that doesn't care about him and will only use him as a tool. He asks Los how he could give himself so freely to the lies that spawned from madness of a being that doesn't even belong in their reality. Azolon reminds him of the man he was once before and the man he could have been today. Los begins to weep, remembering who he used to be. He then suddenly grabs his false eye and rips it out. Azolon casts Dominate Person, and the spell cleanses Los of the Violet's control, returning his eye to the shade of blue it was before. Using the hold he has on Los now and his studies regarding the nature of the Violet, Azolon attempts to put a Geas on Los to completely remove the Violet’s enchantment.
However as the magic ripples, Azolon sees the Herald flying in the sky. As he gazes upon the comet, instead of seeing stone and ice, he sees silently screaming faces burning in Violet fire. On top of the comet he sees a silhouette within the Violet light, who begins to speak: "Wise wizard, now you will see the truth, just as he did!" The Herald begins to assault Azolon's mind, but Azolon uses all of his knowledge on the Violet to resist its corruption. Instinctively Azolon uses his signature Color Spray, firing it at the Herald, and he breaks free of its assault on his mind. He returns to the fight, reaches back into the magic over Los’ mind, and pulls out a Violet Shade, giving Los control of his own body once more. Azolon shouts, "Now Los!" Los turns around and fires one last spell, Annihilation Sphere, and grabs the Shade, tackling it into the Sphere. Los gazes back at Azolon with a look that simply says "It's your turn" and disappears along with the Shade.

Friday

The Tearing Veil Ep. 17 (RoyalCaster)

The party leaves the room where they encountered the evil weapon. Eventually they are led to a room with a statue of Vavren. They move the two hands of the statue together in a praying position, and the walls shift, opening an entrance to a room that seems like it serves as a place to help people escape. They enter and hear someone scribbling past the door. They bait the person by creating a sound and putting a flyer of the Unwise Six under the door. While he goes to investigate, the party passes by him under the veil given to them by Falaael.
They decide that they should take care of Falaael’s task first and later deal with freeing the designated prisoners. They head upstairs and find themselves in another room which has another pair of stairs that takes them to a courtyard. Climbing even more stairs they eventually get to the roof and find a dais with statues of the White Pantheon on it. Vim holds the orb given to him amongst the statues. Angorn recites a prayer, and the orb begins to float and dissipate, forming a smaller statue of Falaael that takes its place amongst the others. Nidhogg suggests to Angorn that they should desecrate the other statues in favor of Falaael. After an hour they head out to hopefully find a map of the prison or to get an idea where they can find the prisoners.
They sneak past a multitude of guards, inciting violence within the guards’ ranks to cause a distraction. They take advantage of the situation and get into an office room where they take the prisoner manifest containing the whereabouts of the prisoners. They find prisoner 48; at first he seems quite apprehensive, but he accepts help from the group. He offers his help in getting the other prisoners out; he can conjure a door to teleport him and everyone else out of the prison. They ask him to go to the rooftop and wait for them. They continue to the opposite side of the cell floor and decide to split up. Vim, Angorn, and Wisp see a guard standing in front of the cell of prisoner 34, so they head to prisoner 17 instead. They find a woman covered in the markings of the skinwalkers. Her cell’s bars are especially thick and cross themselves in a lattice-like pattern. She also wears a silver waist belt that she claims is bothering her. They open her doors, but she does not exit. She taps in front of her, revealing an transparent forcefield, but Vim touches and removes it. She exits and transforms, revealing her drider form. Prisoner 17 mentions that they must free another prisoner not on their list: prisoner 19. She leads them to the warden’s chambers where prisoner 19 is being held.
Meanwhile, Nidhogg, Raber, and Flamewrath stay behind to keep watch. Flamewrath slicks the staircase behind them with oil to safeguard the others and eventually guard come by and fall. Other guards come in and they find a note planted by Flamewrath claiming the prank to be the work of the prison’s flower club. The guards become furious and go away to reprimand them.
Back to the other group, they find a small person hanging from the ceiling, encased in bandages. They help her down and free her of the wrappings, revealing a young girl marked with ritualistic markings and her mouth sewn shut. Vim cuts the stitches from the girl’s mouth, and she takes deep greedy breaths. She thanks them, and the room shimmers with magic. They tell the two prisoners of the plans for getting them to escape, and the two women declare they want to help. They explain that the girl they freed was the actual prisoner 17 and that her voice can command anyone to do what she says. Using her ability, they plan to command the guard that was at prisoner 34’s cell.
The group comes across the guard that was patrolling the area. Prisoner 17 commands him to go away, and he magically obeys. They find prisoner 34 and discover that he is an expert forger and promiscuous deviant. They take everyone to the roof where prisoner 48 is waiting for them. The area darkens, and Oloken’Hai speaks to them. Now that the last bit of their quest is upon them, Oloken’Hai will distract those that would stop them and will put them on their way to defeat the corruption that holds the White Pantheon in their grasp. Nidhogg asks Oloken’Hai why he decided to choose him for his divine spark, but Oloken’Hai claims that it was him who chose himself. As the door opens, it is time for them to enact Oloken’hai’s will.

Saturday

Shadow of Tyre Ep. 26 (RoyalCaster)

Raost splits off from the group to find Seren, asking her to come with him for a moment. They walk off together and stop when they get to the rock where Toot first prayed to Hizigori. Roast approaches the rock and exhales. He pulls out his notebook and opens it to take out the Clementia flowers he got from Falcon’s grave in their wing. He untangles them and starts to tell Seren how she remained a constant in his life, which means a lot to him, and no matter what happens to her or him, he wants to be with Seren forever. He offers the flower to her and asks her to marry him. At first Seren is silent, but looking down at him she says that marrying him would make her a hypocrite. However, just this once she will be okay with that title. While hugging, Seren pushes him into her chest to show him that her heart is not beating anymore since her Dephtar transformation. She mentions that she still does not know what happened on Azengolt that made her like this. Raost however starts sweating and recommends that they should probably talk with Toot.
They find Toot and ask him if he could marry them, but they also ask about what exactly happened on Azengolt. As Toot explains the intention of his actions, Seren is seething but contains her feelings. Upon hearing this, Xetor pulls Raost aside for some wisdom. He warns him of the tribulations of being married, even more so with how incompatible their forms are. He recalls his own marriage and mourns the brief stint he had with his wife as she was taken by a sickness, but he also remarks that the bliss of being with your loved one outweighs the sorrow. Xetor asks if they would use the rings of him and his wife, handing him the pair. They are far larger than human-sized rings, so they'll wear them as armbands.
As Seren’s honorary dad, Mad Morc gives Raost the dad talk. Marrying Seren means he becomes family, so Morc wants to indict him into the Tops, and Raost happily agrees. Also, Morc discusses the contingency that comes with being with Seren; one day Raost might have to put her down if she loses control. Raost steels himself, so Morc gives his blessing.
Both Seren’s and Raost’s parties gather, and a few more of the people of the camp come by. With Toot leading the ceremony, they speak their vows. As Toot pronounces them husband and wife, they kiss each other. Seren gives Raost a beaded necklace from before she changed, and he gives her a small mirror he got while exploring the temple where they found Xetor; it has a crude drawing of both Raost and Seren on it.
After receiving their items from the Vega and the Gambler Black, the party catches Zacharias up on what they are supposed to do in the Labyrinth. As they enter the labyrinth again, they appear at the entrance of the third floor, the stairs leading up to the destructed second floor behind them. They venture into the halls until they come across a room with seven statues and a pool of mercurial substance; a gigantic hand statue reaches out from behind it, a faded crystal in its palm. Moe uses his cyclopean eye to discern the secrets and sees various events that take place across the timeline of Kalkatesh. Toot messes with one of the statues and accidentally pops it open. Moe recognizes this as an Angel of Band he saw on Eldar Sharkai; however, it seems more like an imitation, as it misses the moving screens and the spikes around the place where the head goes means it’ll probably kill the controller.
They also find tapestries of the events that Moe saw at the Altar, recreated with thread and needle. Investigating more closely, they seem to depict various accounts of fate, but their falsehood is evident. As they move closer, the composition shifts, and it becomes clear that these tapestries are prototypes of what Tyre was trying to create: artificial fate. To the right of the room, Zacharias examines a portal emanating a purple aura. Getting closer, he begins to feel ill, unable to understand what it is. Though everyone feels the same uneasiness, Raost tosses a pebble into the portal, but nothing seems to happen. They decide to avoid it and walk deeper into the room, finding stone containers containing Dust. Zacharias recognizes it as the purest form of life energy, the runoff of the silver cord that keeps you attached to yourself when one is Astral Projecting. Ahst and Raost pocket a bag each and join Toot and Moe at the southern end of the room. They come across a silver chest; Moe looks inside with Latos Zatar and sees a spectral screaming in silent agony. Ahst casts Silence around the chest, and as Raost opens it and looks at it with his soul vision, he sees it is an experiment, a distilled memory to recreate a soul. They decide to close the chest and leave it be.
Moe sees the Dust the others found and examines it by licking it. The magic of the Dust infuses Moe with magical powers and a crippling addiction. They move on and find an aisle full of sarcophagi. Raost looks at them all with soul vision and sees a soul in each one of them. Further down the hall they find two significant tapestries; the group is unable to discern their meaning, but they feel like they have seen it before. They gather that the one on the left is the old god of luck and that the other was supposed to be the god of portals. Using his cyclopean vision, Moe is able to see the remnants of two lost deities, the result of Tyre’s experiment of stealing a moment from a god.

Sunday

Shattered Crowns S3 Ep. 10 (Lrret1064)

Meena leads the party into the facility. The walls are bloody, flesh is stretched across the walls and ceiling, and there are corpses wrapped in body bags and stuffed in containers. Anthem warns Huck that they should only touch the stuff when needed. Ikkar asks Bethany if she's okay as she is strangely silent, as if she's seeing something the others can’t, but she seems unwilling to share what she sees. Guy asks Meena why they are here and she answers it’s to "save them from Home." However, she doesn't know where the item she needs is, only that it's a big oval made of stone and steel.
They detect a strange noise behind one of the doors. Scrumpo suddenly kicks the door open, awakening the creatures behind it. The undead with giant mouths start attacking the party, but Ikkar is able to Destroy the Undead to clear a large number of them. Iron Pipe uses a Wall of Force to stop the rest from swarming the party, but a large one flanks them from behind. Quick on his feet, Ikkar Banishes it. As the biggest threat is gone, Meena suddenly reappears and instructs everyone to leave the room. As they leave, she tells Iron Pipe to remove the Wall. The creatures flood the room, but Meena flips a lever that ignites a fire through the grating below.
Meena then leads the party quickly around the facility, like she's familiar with the place. She guides them to an office that contains more corpses in body bags and points out a book on top of one of the corpses, saying it belonged to the leader. Iron Pipe reads the book with the help of Drifter Sai’s and Meena's translation; it’s an experiment log on testing methods of movement or transportation, but none of the subjects were able to survive the experiment as something called ‘invitalisation’ caused their death. Meena explains that invitalisation turns the subject’s body inside out. Ikkar expresses his worry that it might happen to them, but Meena says she knows another way. Huck starts to get suspicious of Meena and senses her desperation; she doesn't fully believe what she's saying. Huckleberry then waits for everybody to leave and tells Ikkar what he noticed. Ikkar asks Huck to distract the others so he can cast Augury. Ikkar asks Sekelcuse if they should continue to follow Meena, but another being answers instead: "Woe."
They continue through the facility and approach a strange room. Meena immediately walks in and starts looking in a dresser, as if she knows where to look. Huck takes this chance to inform the others what he saw, and Ikkar tells about his Augury. However, they decide that they don't know who to trust, but that they should stay on guard. While this is happening, Meena pulls out a journal containing sketches and writing of a younger Meena progressing through her life; in the middle is a keycard which Iron Pipe takes. They continue to follow Meena as she approaches a big metal door. Pipe swipes the key card, opening the door. Meena suddenly rushes inside saying “Save you.” The party cautiously walks into the room after Meena.
They see a big metal structure that fits the description of what Meena described. Meena runs up to the metal structure and places her hand on it, repeating “Save you.” Ikkar notices that Meena is looking sickly and asks what the machine does, to which she responds that it “makes people Home better, different, makes door.” She then walks up to a console and enters a code, and a voice greets her as Dr. Jeckin. Ikkar asks Meena if she’s dying. The voice answers that she isn't alive, and Meena confirms it by pulling back her shirt showing that she’s mostly wires. She then points to the back of the machine where they see the letters ‘YU’. She explains that it means Yolnas Unvas, ‘Second Chance’, and that it refers to the machine. Ikkar asks the voice what the purpose is of the machine. It explains that the machine is a last ditch effort to save the Ragdarians by sending embryonic sacks to a different planet to repopulate, but no destination has been given yet. Meena expresses her desire to send the machine to Maltos and makes the party promise to launch it. She then limps toward the machine and pulls out a wire from inside her and puts it into the machine as she starts to lose her light. She thanks the party, and her body falls limp. Everyone realizes that Meena contained the history of the planet and is giving the machine that knowledge to pass on.
Guy asks the voice how to break the Covenant of Death, but it says that information is classified. Trying to fill in the password, they look through the books they took to search for clues; the password ‘Jekin’ let’s them access the files. The voice gives them two options, launching the machine and serum integration. They recognize the serum from one of the books they found; it is able to stave off death. Guy volunteers to go first, thinking it will turn him into a full immortal vampire, and the console injects him with the serum. However, it cures Guy of his dampirism. Ikkar goes next, and it makes him feel younger. When Huck takes it, he feels Anthem’s connection lessen as inside his mind palace Anthem appears as an angry black horse stuck inside a stable. When Scrumpo takes it, he gains a full afro. When Pipe takes it, his augments become more part of him, making him more like a cyborg. While Pipe is distracted, Ikkar lights his pipe and uses Thaumaturgy to burn away the bird suit. When everyone has taken the serum, they ask the voice how it can help them defeat Death. It explains that it injects nano constructs into them that make them immune to instant death effects. The party gets ready to launch the Second Chance to Maltos and asks Drifter Sai if they can follow it. Sai confirms it is possible and that it greatly reduces the fuel required to reach the planet by siphoning the residual energy from the Second Chance.

Monday

Heart of Tyre Ep. 25 (av5hadow)

Shortly after Seren’s marriage, Morc and Neve decide to get married immediately and travel to the Trees of Marriage. Amaris, Braktor, and Vizier Lozenkor show up. Seren starts the Orc wedding as the shaman, and the couple makes their vows. Morc reveals that Neve has shown him that hope is more than just survival, and he expresses his desire to grow old with the changeling. Neve recounts their journey since the beginning; Morc was always there, a pillar of emotional support. She vows to stand and fight alongside the half-orc. After Seren affirms that the two will uphold their marriage responsibilities, the two bite each other's hands. The wedding moves on to the bouquet-tossing event; while Amaris, Ozzie, and Braktor are distracted by each other, the Vizier and Ives reach out. Ives however is quicker than the Vizier whose composure is gone for the first time as he eats the dirt. Ives is confused as he acted on instinct, so he gives the bouquet to the Vizier. As wedding gifts, the Tops receive a lot of gold from Braktor and Amaris. Morc carries Neve to a tent, and they fade into black. Seren thanks the Vizier for his efforts and wishes him happiness with the one who will do the same. He voices his doubts but gathers the courage to tell Azalon the truth.
Derok spots Xetor and Ili’ith next to the Oracle’s Well and greet them. The three talk, revealing that Derok is a first generation Vega and is from the Vegan Isles. After years of not knowing himself, Derok Dranf finally finds a home. The Vega teach him the true pronunciation of his last name and reveal that his clan was known for staff creation. They are also willing to help the party upgrade their gear.
Derok asks the Azengoltians for advice on fighting the Depthar. Alice gives her wrapped silver chalice to him, saying that silver is effective against the Depthar; they could melt it down to coat their weapons with the silver. Braktor tells Derok that the Vega might have materials that are infused with emotion, which are effective against the Depthar as well. However, augmenting gear with this material will forgo any other Vegan upgrades. Seren, Ives, and Derok go to a now disheveled tent to inform the newlyweds about the augmentations. Neve decides to forgo her armor augmentation to receive an anti-Depthar shortsword.
Seren requests an audience with the Eldar and Letol. She offers Depthar samples to Letol, but he immediately refuses. He begins to berate the Brass Queen, but the Azengoltian Eldar stops him. Letol once again gives his warnings about the Depthar, but he accepts the blood samples. He then expresses his wish of being wrong about the creature, but after being in so many similar situations, he doesn’t want to gamble. Letol thanks the creature, stating that he’ll free the pure innocent soul that is controlling its actions if it exists.
Shortly after the Tops leave, Letol addresses the Azengolt group. He asks for their future plans. Azalon asked them for their help to contain and fight the Depthar on Glies. Alice asks if Letol will come, but he says that someone needs to guide Kalkatesh. He then says that no matter where they go, the group is always welcome to wherever Letol calls home, for “together, they survived what Iron and Sorrow could throw at them.”
Alice provides some supplies to the Tops and tells them the Depthar can adapt to anything. Archibald suggests to cycle their attacks and to leave the anti-Depthar weapons for the final blow. Morc then takes off his pilgrim hat he got from Zorikal, wanting to activate the rune. He wishes to test it. Everyone backs away, except for Hackne who identifies the rune as a divine Word of Recall. The destination is anyone’s guess, so Morc doesn’t touch it. Seren walks away as the Tops discuss who should hold the portal stone in case she goes rampant. The current holder, Derok, says that it doesn’t matter as she’ll read his mind. Braktor gives his group’s stone to Neve to be used as a distraction.
The Tops return to the first floor of their wing, finding themselves in their starting location. As they head towards the Flesh Refiner, Seren takes a new nurse’s outfit in her current size, and Neve gives her Breathless Amulet to Morc who is vulnerable to the fog that will be released. On their way, they hear the familiar stomps in the main room behind them. The Tops configure the Refiner. The party waits out in a room as they have undone the seals on 120 creatures. Ives hears sounds of battle, and Seren feels pain and chaos. During this time, Morc attunes to the Amulet.
“Theta protocol initiated. Releasing cleanse.” Green fog fills up the room and affects the now Depthar Seren, so she puts on the nurse’s mask. The party immediately heads off to the main room where the fog is much thinner; they see environmental damage and viscera covering the path. As they enter the main room, FCO walks underneath the archway. It gazes at each Top member, and its sight lands on the Brass Queen.
A horrifying screech marks the start of the fight.
Before the Tops can get into position, FCO rushes down Neve. Its arm barely misses, but FCO poisons Neve with Hypoxia. Derok, Morc, and Illan enter the melee. The Hypoxia spreads among the melee fighters via Life Pulse. FCO banishes Derok with a Maze-like ability, and Illan gets destroyed. FCO reaps the poison in him and places all the stacks on Seren.

Tuesday

Weal and Woe (No Session)

Soul of Tyre Ep. 26

The party uses their newly acquired money to buy better equipment. Alexander gets a Vacuum Edge Sheath which gives the Negatia Blade a chance to destroy spell slots or mental attributes of his enemies. Braktor buys a Weaver Staff augment that empowers its attack and adds thunder damage. Hackne gets an Anointed Court Mage Robes of Temperance which gives her more defense against curse effects and gives her allies advantage against her spells. Ozzie buys the Armor of the Autumn Assassin which gives him more poison damage and can turn him invisible. Belanovan decides to save more money to see if he can get a better item. Braktor also attunes to the Ancient Ring of Regeneration which was taken from Tyre’s Drop. When they’re done shopping, Gailen informs them of the current Wendigo situation. While the party was away, it seemed that the wendigos had united under a king. They are now considered a rising civilization, and Gailen hopes to create diplomatic relations with them. The party agrees to talk to the wendigo ambassador to see what is going on.
As they travel to the contact point at the Rotting Wound, they spot a plateau surrounded by wendigo guards. An ashen guard approaches and leads them to the wendigo ambassador. While walking towards the ambassador, the party sees archaic stones floating around a well of shadow. Eventually, a wendigo speaks to them and introduces themself as Volos. The party walks towards Volos while Alexander looks into the well of shadow, noticing that it is a portal to the Dream Realm; here Inu’s strand should be planted. Volos explains that this portal was already built when they arrived, but the wendigos plan to do a ritual on it so that they can get energy to fuel their kingdom. Belanovan assumes that this energy allowed Volos to speak, but the diplomat corrects him that wendigos have always been able to talk, they just had no reason to.
Volos explains that his nation has been watching Gailen’s Gate and he praises the settlement’s altruism. Belanovan asks who the wendigo king is, but Volos declines his request as people can use the king’s name to harm them and their nation. Belanovan follows up by asking how they can sustain their kingdom and Volos shows them the wendigo’s grand scheme. It is known that wendigos can only gain sustenance from consuming humanoids. However, there is an exploit: If they can use the dreams of humanoids as a spice, they can gain nutrients from livestock and not resort to cannibalism. Belanovan asks how long the king has been in power and Volos replies that they have been the leader for a long time. They and the nation only came into prominence now because they wish to help the fight against the Enemy so that their race can gain tolerance from other nations.
The party contemplates using the strand of Inu; they do not know its exact effect, but they do know it will cause massive changes to the wendigos. Hackne interjects by worrying about the adverse effects of taking other dreams. Belanovan then hypothesizes that Negatia could possibly stop the effects of their curse. They test the hypothesis, but Volos vomits; the Negatia has no effect. As the party studies Volos on his truthfulness, they can see that he is a skilled diplomat, but he’s not lying. However, there is a slight sense of desperation in his tone.
Still unsure, Belanovan asks what the wendigo's plan is. They plan to build settlements in the barren wasteland of the Badlands that will start the foundation of their nation. Belanovan follows up by asking how the wendigos will increase their population. Volos pauses, fear emanating from him. He responds that they are willing to convert the destitute of other nations. This worries Alexander, so he asks Volos if he feels guilty about converting others, as it is guilt that transforms beings into wendigos. Volos does not answer the question, but strain can be seen on his face. He then reveals that he knows that Braktor is a Weaver, a class that counters the undead. Braktor assures Volos that he is not biased against the wendigos because they are still beings. Ozzie proposes to be their ambassador for the Dream realm, but Volos wishes to show the strength of his nation and wants to be the one to talk. Belanovan wishes to talk directly to their king, and Volos accepts this request.
Volos contacts his king and allows them to talk through him. Another voice comes out of Volos’ body and introduces itself as the wendigo king. It is revealed that they are actually a half-wendigo. It was in their search trying to find their origin that they found the well and desired to make a nation for the wendigos. Belanovan wishes to actually meet the king and learn why they are a half-wendigo, and Alexander asks if they even want the curse to be removed. The king responds that he wishes to find a way to remove the curse of wendigos while keeping themselves alive; the current way of removing the curse results in death. The party offers alternatives to the wendigos, such as using their own dreams or living in the Dream Realm, but the king tells them that those paths won’t bear any fruit.

Wednesday

The Herald's Call Ep. 12 (AsAlternateAsItCanBe)

The battle continues. They learn that Nojack is able to Wild Shape into animals using his Ki, that Vida fights with poison that she’s able to strengthen by hurting herself, and that Urien utilizes multiple stances to fight: Commander, Vanguard, and Desperate. It is also revealed that Urien is their leader; if they’re able to deal with him, it seems it will stop the ritual.
Vida gets knocked unconscious by Riku’s double Scorching Ray, followed up by a hit by Zada’s morning star, which brings her close to death. Archael sees that the Violet ritual circle is getting stronger over time and that it is absorbing Vida’s blood; it seems that the more people are killed, the faster the ritual is completed. Despite this revelation, the party decides to finish Vida off as Arienne draws first blood. Boris predicts that the party will attack again the next round, gaining additional damage to his Smite should he be correct. Meanwhile, Urien decides to attack Zada, allowing Archael to hit him with a critical Smite. Analyzing the situation, Urien throws away his two greatswords and pulls the third from his back. The sword starts to glow with unstable Violet energy; Violet Death is possible.
Seeing the desperation of their enemies, the party decides to finish this quickly. Zada uses her Soulfire ability to refresh everyone else’s and uses Apholios to knock Boris unconscious. Archael attempts to disarm Urien with a Clash, and with the power of Glory on his side, he severs Urien’s arm and the sword falls to the ground. Arienne then uses her whip to fling the sword outside the room to prevent Urien from taking it. Midas sees that the sword is the real key to the ritual, not Urien, and he picks up the sword to attempt to stop the ritual completely. However, as he picks up the sword, Violet flames lash out and try to corrupt him, but Midas resists the temptation and holds his ground. He is faced with two choices: either seal the ritual or allow it to continue and summon the Violet Servant. If he chooses the latter, the party will be able to ambush the Violet Servant and deal a massive blow to the Enemy. Midas decides to hold the decision until the combat is over. Azylea summons Asuna to bring the knocked-out Boris away from the battle. Unfortunately, Boris stands up and strikes Asuna with an empowered Smite. The spider gets hit so hard that Azylea sees the statue crack just from that blow. Meanwhile, Urien once again attempts to Clash with Archael using his normal greatswords and aims for his eyes, but once again he fails. With the momentum on his side, Archael uses Shining Assault to knock Urien out. The battle ends with Arienne rushing towards Nojack and Boris, knocking them out in the same turn. Midas then kills them, gaining three Soul Coins, and starts the discussion about what they should do with the ritual.
The party decides that they will ambush the Violet Servant. They’ll be fighting it at their full strength and will know all of its abilities immediately when it spawns. In addition, the party can seal two of its abilities at the start of the fight. But before the final fight of the campaign starts, they are granted level 5.

Steel and Silence Ep. 5

Before the party heads into the ruins, Rev’lis Wisp breaks out from its body and begins to transform. It transforms into a Veld with cracks in its skin and shining with colors. After the familiar introduces himself to the party and Rev’lis names him Shiny, the Lord of Blades teleports them to the ruin.
They arrive at one of the many world roads in Steton. Rev’lis flies ahead and scouts what seems to be an abandoned village. As she looks around the town, Rev’lis finds a stonehenge in the center which glows with a Violet light. She quickly flies back to the party and informs them of what she saw. The party cautiously heads into the town and searches the nearby houses. In one house, Shiny notices that whoever left the village, they left long ago and in a hurry.
At the door of another house, Vaeri finds some dragon scales on the ground. She and Terryn enter the house and find a broken blade on a table. As Vaeri walks closer, she notices draconic writing on the blade, reading “Death to the false serpents.” She identifies it as a dragonslayer weapon. Meanwhile, Terryn searches the house and finds a discarded cloak from the Steton Striders. The more Terryn looks around, the more articles of clothing from the Steton Striders she finds. Vaeri tells Terryn to bring the rest of the party here to show them the Strider clothing. They theorize that the resident of this house was trying to hide from the rest of the town that they were a monster hunter. Vaeri takes the broken blade and the party continues their search in the village.
As they walk by a crossroad leading toward the stonehenge, Zara suddenly feels the call of the warrior. She follows the call, and it takes her to an entrance to the Hall of Heroes. Zara enters the gate and finds herself on a rainbow bridge, but the line of violet is missing. Eventually, Zara enters the Great Hall and is greeted by the Throne of War, a stone chair and the leader of the Hall of Heroes. She explains her quest to the Throne and it respects the flame in her heart. If the red orc wants to succeed in her quest, she needs a mentor to guide her. A dragonborn is summoned behind her; Nox will be Zara’s mentor and teaches her the fighting style Dragon’s Fury. The two finish their training session and Zara comes back to the waking realm.
The party hugs Zara as she comes back, and they finally head to the stonehenge. They find a ritual pulsing with Violet energy. Umi sees that these stones are an anchor point for a portal and the only way to destroy the portal is to destroy the spirit residing in the stone in the center of the stonehenge. Terryn slowly approaches the stone to study it and shoots an acorn towards it. Suddenly, the sky darkens as the Aphotic Indefatigable is summoned. The time for mercy has passed.

Edited by PalladiumDrake
Thanks for reading.

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21 Mock Draft v.1

Draft order was from tankathon
1 - New York Jets - Trevor Lawrence, QB, Clemson - The Jets are terrible in every faucet, but Sam Darnold certainly hasnt inspired any confidence he can be the QBOTF this season even once Adam Gase is removed. Trevor Lawrence has been QB1 for this draft ever since his first game for Clemson and I dont see this changing any time soon.
2 - Atlanta Falcons (via New York Giants - Trades 1.06, 2.37, 2022 2nd for 1.02) - Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State - This move will likely be a bit of a shocker, but I truly believe the Falcons need a reset. Matt Ryan might be a great QB, but he’s 35 at this point, and there isnt much future left in Atlanta. Justin Fields has been electric at Ohio State, and plopping him down into a team with a decent OL and fantastic receivers will make the somewhat murky future of the Falcons that much brighter. Is this a steep price? Yes. Is it worth every penny? Also yes.
3 - Miami Dolphins (via Jacksonville Jaguars - Trades 1.04, 2.49, 4.113 for 1.03, 3.67) - Penei Sewell, OT, Oregon - Assuming Tua is the franchise QB for the Dolphins, the Phins NEED to protect him, especially considering his reputation for frailty. So they offer the Jaguars an offer they can refuse in order to grab Penei Sewell, who might be the best OT prospect since Joe Thomas came out of Wisconsin. Sewell should be an immediate rock at RT for Tua, and fill the hole that Tunsil left when he was traded.
4 - Jacksonville Jaguars (via Miami Dolphins via Houston Texans) - Patrick Surtain II, CB, Alabama - The Jaguars have needs everywhere. The WR corps is good but lacks a true star, the EDGE group has been toothless following Josh Allen’s injury, and Schobert has been atrocious after signing that big contract. But the CB most of all has needed help, considering the Jaguars defense has been torched through the air. Surtain is an elite cover corner in every way, and should provide a nice young CB tandem for the Jaguars to replace the one they lost.
5 - Dallas Cowboys - Gregory Rousseau, EDGE, Miami - Demarcus Lawrence is still pretty good, but Aldon Smith is not a long term solution at EDGE. Rousseau, however, can be. He’s a fantastic athlete with an array of moves, and with Surtain off the board here, Rousseau is my pick for the player who will help beef up the Cowboys defense the most.
6 - New York Giants (via Atlanta Falcons) - Jamarr Chase, WR, LSU - This was a close one here. The Giants really need an inside linebacker and Darius Slayton has been a great player for them. But Jamarr Chase is just that good. And the rest of the Giants receivers outside of Slayton dont exactly inspire any confidence. Daniel Jones might or might not still be the Giants QB of the future, but Jamarr Chase should absolutely be their WR1 going forward.
7 - Washington Football Team - Trey Lance, QB, NDSU - Haskins is probably done. I dont foresee any sort of happy conclusion to his time in Washington, and thus Ron Riveria is probably going to look to install his own guy at QB. Trey Lance might not be a near finished product the top 2 QBs are, but he has gobs of potential and has a ceiling that might even surpass Fields or Lawrence. Will Trey Lance end up being Mahomes/Josh Allen or just another big armed bust? That’ll be up to the Washington coaching staff, but he’s a fantastic prospect for Washington to figure out.
8 - Los Angeles Chargers - Alex Leatherwood, OG/T, Alabama - Herbert looks like a franchise QB so far, so the Chargers look to fix the most glaring issue on their team, their offensive line. Leatherwood has been a starter on the Alabama OL ever since he got on campus, and he’s got plenty of experience protecting Tua, Mac Jones, and all those Bama QBs. He should be a day 1 starter at RT, and if Bulaga and Turner both come back and play at high levels, he can still contribute by sliding inside to RG or LG.
9 - New England Patriots - DeVonta Smith, WR, Alabama - The Patriots desperately need a QB of the future, but even if they did draft one, who exactly would he be throwing to? The receiving corps is more barren than the Sahara, especially thanks to some brutal misses at WR. stares at N’keal Harry. Enter DeVonta Smith, who’s surpassed his teammate Waddle as the #2 WR on my big board. Any concerns he had last year are all gone now, especially with Waddle out. It’s been the DeVonta showdown at Alabama, punctuated with a 200+ yard 4 TD performance against Mississippi State. Smith has Charmin soft hands and fantastic route running, and most importantly, gets fantastic separation. He’s a bit thin at only 175, but his frame should fill out nicely once he gets to the NFL. He should easily be the best receiver on the Patriots, and could be their best WR since Randy Moss and Wes Welker still play for New England.
10 - Minnesota Vikings - Wyatt Davis, iOL, Ohio State - Kirk Cousins isnt the answer in Minnesota, but throwing a rookie QB behind that O-line might as well be throwing them to the wolves. So, the Vikings grab the best iOL prospect in the class and beef up their interior with Wyatt Davis. Davis is an absolute bulldozer up front, and will run over almost anyone in his way. There's very few flaws with his game, and he should be a plug and play guy from day 1. Count this pick as killing 3 birds with one stone. Helping Cousins, helping Dalvin Cook and the run game, and protecting whoever the Vikings pick as the QB of the future.
11 - Chicago Bears (Via Cincinnati Bengals - Sends 1.18, 3.82, 2022 CHI first for 1.11) - Zach Wilson, QB, BYU - Trubisky isn't it, and the Bears pretty much threw away a 4th and cap space trading for Foles. The Bears need an answer at QB, and with the Panthers looking to pounce on the very last of the top tier QB prospects in my eyes, the Bears bite the bullet. With an aging defense and their Super Bowl window closing fast, they jump just over Carolina to draft Zach Wilson. Wilson has been flying up the draft boards recently, torching defenses on his possible Heisman campaign. He’s got great mobility, especially when it comes to extending plays, and solid pocket presence. Most of all, there’s a bit of reckless brilliance that reminds me a little of guys like Stafford, Mahomes and Allen. Its a fine line to balance and Wilson does have his flaws - such as too much aggressiveness and concerns about his shoulder’s durability, but if the Bears can keep Allen Robinson, then I can foresee a very fruitful connection in the future between the two, as well as a chance for Wilson to be the best QB in Bears history (Yes, its that bad).
12 - Carolina Panthers - Micah Parsons, LB, Penn State - Every few years or so, there’s a blue chip prospect that drops too far. Guys like Ceedee Lamb, Derwin James, or Marshon Lattimore that fall out of the top 10 due to no fault of their own, but the needs of the teams before them. This year, that guy is Micah Parsons, who falls into the waiting laps of the ecstatic Panthers. Parsons is a special linebacker, athletic, versatile, rangy and smart. He’s disruptive everywhere, and his ability to slip blocks and penetrate the offensive line definitely shows his background as a defensive end. Outside of perhaps not being the most consistent run defender, something thats barely an issue, the only flaws are nitpicky. A year after losing Luke Kuechly, Carolina has their replacement.
13 - Detroit Lions - Dylan Moses, LB, Alabama - The Lions really need some interior help on the defensive line, but in all honesty, I dont really like much of this iDL class. The #1 guy on my board is only there because everyone above him dropped like a rock. So, I have the Lions addressing another need at Linebacker with Dylan Moses. While it is unfortunate that Parsons didnt drop one more pick, Moses is certainly no consolation prize. He’s a fantastic linebacker in his own right, He’s an elite athlete with plenty of range and can hit like a truck. He also knows when to wrap up and is generally a sure tackler, which is a rather underappreciated trait. He does need to improve his ability to diagnose plays and shed blocks, but overall, he’s a force at ILB, and would be a great replacement for both the uninspiring. Jarrad Davis or Jahlani Tavai.
14 - Denver Broncos - Shaun Wade, CB, Ohio State - From what Ive seen of the Broncos, Drew Lock has shown plenty of promise, and Garrett Bolles has actually been playing at a near elite level all season. That leaves one last problem for the Broncos, their secondary. Bryce Callahan has been fantastic all year and I've heard some praise for Michael Ojemudia, but AJ Bouye has been a disappointment, and that's when he’s on the field. Shaun Wade should be able to be that final piece in the Broncos secondary they need. It was close between Farley and Wade, but with the season the Broncos have had, Wade’s ability to stay on the field was the tiebreaker. Of course, that's only a bonus to Wade’s fantastic coverage ability, especially from the slot, and his run defense reminds me of Trae Waynes’s ability to stop the run at corner. With how complex NFL offenses are now, Wade’s ability to be both a slot and outside corner means he can follow a #1 WR wherever they go, which is surely should help him become an elite CB at the next level.
15 - San Francisco 49ers - Creed Humphrey, iOL, Oklahoma - The 49ers offense depends on their run game, and their run game depends heavily on their offensive line. And although the 49ers OL isn't as bad as it was early in the season, it's still comfortably in the bottom half of the league. Not to mention with Trent Williams becoming an FA as well as almost all their corners, C Weston Richburg is probably gone, and possibly the rest of the interior OL as well. So, the 49ers grab the first replacement in Creed Humphrey. Shanahan has historically run a zone blocking scheme for his OL, and that makes center an extremely important position for the 49ers to address. With plenty of experience in Oklahoma’s zone blocking scheme, Humphrey and the 49ers should be a match made in heaven. Thats not even mentioning his football smarts or his leadership. Humphrey should be a centerpiece in the 49ers offensive line for years to come.
16 - Miami Dolphins - Jaylen Waddle, WR, Alabama - Although EDGE is definitely a more pressing need for the Dolphins, how can anyone pass up reuniting Tua and his old college buddy? Of course, Waddle isnt just Tua’s former WR. He’s an explosive receiver who shreds the turf just like his former teammate Henry Ruggs III, a player with a great catch radius and the ability to dart to the holes in coverages, and a great kick/punt returner. Adding a burner like Waddle who can stretch the field should only help Tua, Parker, Williams, and the rest of the Miami offense.
17 - Las Vegas Raiders - Azeez Ojulari, EDGE, Georgia - The Raiders EDGE corps isnt barren the way it was two years ago, but Maxx Crosby hasnt lived up to the hype he had after a stellar rookie season, and although Clelin Ferrell is an elite run defender, he’s nowhere near as good of a pass rusher. They need to add someone who can GET after the QB, and although there are better EDGEs left, I think Ojulari is the best pure pass rusher on the board. He’s got fantastic hand usage and his low center of gravity lets him bend the corner through contact really well. There’s some work to be done on run defense, but Ojulari does give me flashes of Ngakoue at times, and his versatility would allow for Ferrell to slide inside and be a mismatch there. This might be a little high on his currently, but I dont think Ojulari is someone who will end up rising on draft boards in the future.
18 - Cincinnati Bengals (via Chicago Bears) - Dillion Radunz, OT, NDSU - The Bengals offensive line is injured to hell, but even when they were healthy, it was pretty obvious they were not protecting Joe Burrow all that well. When losing Bobby Hart is an actual problem, then you know the OL is terrible. Thats why I have the Bengals selecting OT Dillion Radunz out of NDSU. There are some question marks about athleticism and competition level, but Radunz’s technique is elite, and his toughness is unquestionable. He should be a welcome addition to the Bengals offensive line, and will provide solid protection for Burrow.
19 - Philadelphia Eagles - Caleb Farley, CB, Virginia Tech - The Eagles WR situation was looking dire, but thanks to the emergence of second year WR Travis Fulgham, they can look to shore up another issue. The Eagles secondary has been pretty terrible for a few years now, and they need to find a solid answer. Farley can be that. He’s an outstanding press corner, and mirrors opposing receivers so well that he might as well be running their routes. He’s long, physical, and impressively sticky. He should be able to lock down the #1 CB position for the Eagles that they have sorely missed.
20 - Cleveland Browns - Kwity Paye, EDGE, Michigan - Myles Garrett is having a DPOY level season, but once again he’s missing someone disruptive on the opposite side of him. Oliver Vernon is gone soon, and Clayborn is no long term solution. They need to grab the compliment to Garrett, who although is a one-man wrecking ball, is still one man. Kwity Paye is a very strong power rusher who can uses his bull rush well to set the LOS. He’s a tank with fantastic explosiveness and a pretty high ceiling, and his ability to cause problems against the opposing offensive line should be welcome on the Browns defense.
21 - Jacksonville Jaguars (Via Los Angeles Rams) - Kyle Pitts, TE, Florida - The Jaguars TE group is pretty weak right now, and Pitts talent should place him much higher than here. He’s an extremely versatile weapon in the way that most modern TEs are, able to line up all over and cause issues for the opposing defense. He’s not an elite blocker, but the effort is there and it's just simply an issue of fixing his technique and making him stronger. As a receiver, he’s a fantastic route runner with soft hands and a huge catch radius, just as good as any TE or even some WRs. Pitts should be a fantastic weapon for Minshew or whoever the Jaguars decide their QBOTF is.
22 - Arizona Cardinals - Jay Tufele, iDL, USC - The Cardinals passing defense is pretty terrible, and corner is a definite need. However, there’s more ways to improve a passing defense than just adding corners, and Tufele is too much value to pass up here for the Cardinals. Tufele can be a dominant force at 1 or 3T, with his explosiveness and powerful hands, which allows him to be utterly unblockable at times. And adding such an interior force would boost the Cardinals pass rush even more, which could also help improve their defense. If Tufele can become more consistent, there’s no good reason why the Cardinals defensive line can’t become one of the best in the NFL.
23 - Indianapolis Colts - Jaycee Horn, CB, South Carolina - Xavier Rhodes has had a resurgence for the Colts, but its hard to say how long that will last, and there have been issues with the other corners getting torched. Jaycee Horn should help with that problem. A physical aggressive corner who knows how to properly use his size as leverage against opposing WRs, Horn would benefit greatly from Rhodes, and could be a great compliment alongside him as well.
24 - Baltimore Ravens - Trey Smith, iOL, Tennessee - With the retirement of Marshall Yanda, the Ravens have had a huge hole at LG that they still haven't been able to fill. And with their offense becoming more and more run heavy due to the addition of JK Dobbins and Lamar Jackson’s rushing abilities, one guy came to mind here. Trey Smith, the OG out of Tennessee, seemed like the natural fit. Smith is an absolute road grader in the run game, absolutely flattening whatever defensive players who are unfortunately enough to get into his way. He’s solid enough in pass protection, but more importantly, his fantastic run blocking paired alongside Orlando Brown Jr should lend itself to an absolutely terrifying run game from the Ravens.
25 - New Orleans Saints - Rashod Bateman, WR, Minnesota - Emmanuel Sanders is a fine WR2, but there’s definitely room for improvement, and with Michael Thomas becoming more erratic in his behavior, it wouldn't hurt to pick up an insurance policy here. Thats why Ive got New Orleans picking Bateman, as he’d provide a great compliment to Thomas, while also being good enough to be a star WR in his own right. Bateman’s a big play machine, someone who not only runs great routes, but gobbles up YAC once he has the ball. He should be a fantastic addition to the potent Saints offense, and would be a great 3rd option after Thomas and Kamara.
26 - Tennessee Titans - Joseph Ossai, EDGE, Texas - The Titans went up against a Bengals Oline that was starting 3rd stringers and recorded 0 sacks. Thats all I need to say about how terrible the Titans pass rush is. Landry is still pretty promising, but at this point Clowney is neither an answer to the pass rush woes nor is he likely staying long term in Tennessee. Joseph Ossai could be the answer to both, though. A quick trigger pass rusher who has plenty of room for improvement, Ossai presents a tantalizing option for Tennessee as someone who has the ability to become a very dominant pass rusher. He’d be a great fit in the Titans hybrid defense, and could grow into a cornerstone alongside Simmons and Landry on the DL.
27 - Green Bay Packers - Travis Etienne, RB, Clemson - Yes, I know the Packers have Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams and that they picked an RB in the second last year. But the thing is that David Bahktiari is also a free agent this year, and considering he’s going to demand a market resetting deal, cuts will need to be made somewhere. And that's not even mentioning Davante Adam’s contract is expiring a year later. With those two thoughts in mind, I dont think either Jones nor Williams will be back due to cap issues. But with Rodgers still wanting to win now, a stud like Etienne will be a great replacement, if not more. Etienne is an elite RB, who can break off huge chunks of yardage at a time and rip defenses apart with his burst. He’s also improved his catching ability to where he can be a every down RB. With Green Bay still a SB contender for the near future, Etienne can be that thing that pushes them into Super Bowl winners.
28 - Jacksonville Jaguars (via Buffalo Bills - sends 2.36, 4.116 for 1.28) - Samuel Cosmi, OT, Texas - With so much drat capital at their hands, the Jaguars part a little with their haul in order to jump into the first round and secure a quality OT. Cosmi is an intriguing prospect with tons of athleticism and excellent smarts, someone who wins via brains and technique rather than pure brawn. With enough practice and proper coaching, Cosmi can be a stonewall OT for whoever the Jaguars decide to ride with in the future.
29 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Quincy Roche, EDGE, Miami - The Buccaneers defensive overall has been absolutely elite this year, but there are some question marks on the future of their defensive line. Both Suh and Barrett are on one year deals, and Gholston certainly isnt the future at EDGE/DE. Grabbing someone young for the future is a definite need, someone like Quincy Roche. Roche is a fluid, explosive and long EDGE with great hands and a ton of moves. He’s got the ability to play both EDGE and rush LB, although he does need to bulk up a little bit at the NFL level. Still, overall Roche should be a great successor on the EDGE position for Tampa Bay.
30 - Kansas City Chiefs - Terrane Marshall Jr, WR, LSU - The Chiefs do have a ton of needs everywhere else, but sometimes talent is just way too much to pass up. Marshall has been fantastic at LSU with Chase out - which is more impressive with how bad LSU has been, and he’s got all the physical traits to be an elite WR. He rarely gets caught in press coverage and with his ball skills and frame, excels in contested catch situations. With a very deep iOL class and Watkins very likely gone in a season or two, adding Marshall Jr to that already deadly Chiefs offense will make nightmare fuel for opposing defensive coordinators.
31 - New York Jets - Josh Myers, iOL, Ohio State - The Jets interior offensive line has been a serious issue for the last few years, which has hamstring the run game and severely hurt their QBs. Replacing one of their iOL with Josh Myers is a good first step to fixing that issue. Myers is a very mobile iOL who is a great anchor and provides stability in both the pass and run game. With Trevor Lawrence now on the team, protecting him should be priority 1, and Myers can be his Jeff Saturday.
32 - Pittsburgh Steelers - Daniel Faalele, OT, Minnesota - Steelers LT Villanueva’s contract will expire soon, and although the Steelers have some great prospect that could replace him, neither is really a sure thing. Adding another OT could better mitigate that risk, just in case Villanueva leaves and neither Banner nor Okorafor end up panning out. Faalele is a very risky but high upside OT, who’s an absolute dancing bear. He might be huge, but his mobility is insane for his size, and he possesses excellent feet as well as a strong anchor against power rushers. There’s definitely technique issues here that need to be ironed out, but Faalele has the tools to be an absolutely dominant OT, and with how good the steelers have been historically at coaching up offensive line, he should definitely become a stalwart on the OL.

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Las Vegas is known as the city where people’s dreams come true. Unlike no deposit bonus casinos in the USA where you can play the best free spins slots machines, land based casinos offer the thrill to play with other players in a social setting.Spin those slot reels and who knows if you could be the next millionaire. Anyone can enjoy this cheap and classic form of Vegas entertainment. We’ve come up with some simple tricks to turn the tides and help you become the next big Vegas winner. Here are the secrets to navigating the 200,000+ slot machines in Las Vegas. We help you understand the odds and point you to the best paying slots in Las Vegas. The best paying slot machines in Nevada are found on the Boulder Strip, with Off-Strip casinos in Las Vegas coming in a close second. Not surprisingly, the penny slots are the worst of all. No matter where you play them, the best average RTP in the reporting period was only 90.88%. Of course, you should keep in mind that only the best slot sites to win offer high payout games from which you can take advantage. The return to player percentage of a game is measured over thousands of game rounds, and it stands to reason that the higher the RTP, the better the deal for the player.With this in mind, I have decided to create a list of the 10 online slots with the highest RTP. Slot machines have an extensive history at having success stories, with everybody that visits Las Vegas trying their luck on at least one slot machine. However, is it as easy as just finding a slot machine that is centrally located and staying there for the whole day? Or, are there certain slot machines that have […] Now, let’s shift focus and look at some of the best slot machines in Las Vegas. 1. Wheel of Fortune. The first Wheel of Fortune slot was released way back in 1966, and they’ve been a player favorite ever since. You’ll find them in most of the top Las Vegas casinos. Megabucks offers some of the best slots in Vegas with the highest winnings. In 2014, a man playing a Megabucks slot machine in Rampart Casino hit a $14 million jackpot after playing for five minutes on a $20 bill when the slot paid off. This payout is not the only one from a Megabucks machine. It’s safe to say they have the most popular slot machines in Las Vegas casinos. Even though it isn’t one of the highest payout slot machines, Cleopatra is the most popular slot machine. Its RTP is just 88.98%, unlike the best paying slot machine with an RTP of 96.60% — Wheel of Fortune . According to LetsPlaySlots.com Vegas slots section when you walk into any Las Vegas based casino you are going to be faced with thousands of different slot machines, and each of them will of

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2021 Mock Draft V6 - Deshaun Watson trade edition