ESPN’s Matt Miller on Big Time Value Picks in NFL Draft’s Top Ten

Matt Miller is walking Rich through a mock draft top ten where the value is hiding in plain sight. The premise is simple. If Jeremiah Love goes to Tennessee, every other Ohio State player is on the board for the Giants at five. Miller has them taking Caleb Downs.

His case is built on the head coach. With John Harbaugh now in New York, Miller leans on history. Harbaugh has had elite safeties his whole career, from Ed Reed to Kyle Hamilton. He values a quarterback on the back end. Downs may not have the Derwin James physical measurables, but the football character, IQ, instincts, and versatility are elite. He won at Alabama and at Ohio State. He played under Nick Saban and Matt Patricia. He can line up anywhere across the defense. Miller drops a tell from college offensive coaches. They taught their quarterbacks to find number two before the snap, identify Downs, and go away from him. The Giants no longer need a middle linebacker after signing Tremaine Edmunds, but they do need a safety. The board lines up.

Next on the clock are the Browns at the spot where Carnell Tate is sitting. Miller's logic is direct. You do not have a quarterback, so go get someone who can catch the ball. Do not reach. If you do not love Ty Simpson out of Alabama, do not draft him this early. Tate had one drop last year. Great hands, professional route running, and the kind of separation skills the league is moving toward in receivers like Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The 4.53 forty does not matter when the timing and footwork are this clean and the 6'1, 200-pound frame plays bigger on contested catches.

Then Miller stacks the back half of his top ten with Mansoor Delane to Washington and Bailey, Bain, and Styles to the Saints, Chiefs, and Bengals. He notes you could have run a mock with Bailey, Bain, and Styles all going inside the top five and nobody would have flinched. The fun of mock drafts is who slips through, and every year someone in Pittsburgh on Thursday night makes the room ask how this guy is still on the board.

For Miller, the slider is Sonny Styles at ten to the Bengals. Elite athlete, converted safety now playing linebacker, who can rush the quarterback. Back in August and September, before Ar'vellius emerged, the names everybody was on were Styles and Downs. Rich closes with the visual. The Venn diagram of Bengals fans and Ohio State fans stacking on a Sonny Styles pick. That circle in the middle is going to be very, very happy.