40s and Free Agents: NFL Scouting Combine Preview!

18:36Gregg Rosenthal:It's weird. I 100%, especially if you're foreign to the sports environment, from the outside, it does not have a great look to it. I readily admit that. But there's also the fact that these are multi-million dollar investments that people are making in these bodies. But it is, I get it. I understand the people that get cringed, a little cringy by it.

18:59Daniel Jeremiah:Or just like when it's like a headline and everything. Of course, you're all talking about it, but it's just like it's leading the broadcaster or leading like a podcast. All right, I'll let you fly on defense. What overall big picture stands out to you from what you want to see this week?

19:13Gregg Rosenthal:Edge rusher and corner. I think it's a really, really good group of edge rushers and corners. And there's a lot of guys clumped in together. So I think there's opportunities here. If you look at it historically, or look at it from this last year, I should say, with the numbers that Jack pulled for me, the edge rushers, the athleticism is almost a necessity there. Like the top 10 guys in sacks last year and edge rushers, I want to say they on average ran four, five, five, and jumped like 37 inches. Like this is a traits position. Like you've got to have some juice and some explosiveness. So that can help separate some guys.

19:48Gregg Rosenthal:And like there's Cassius Howell. This will be the roller coaster ride of the combine. Cassius Howell from Texas A &M is going to check in and he's going to have probably 31-inch arms. He's going to have really short arms. He's not like Reuben Bain from Miami is going to have short arms. Reuben Bain is almost 280 pounds. He's 275 pounds. Cassius Howell is in the low 250s with really, really short arms, which teams and talking to teams, it bothers them. I think there's a good chance he could crack 4.5 and run in the high 4.4s. And you're going to have the arms people and then the speed people. And you're going to look in those boxes at the combine and you're going to see some discussion going on between the arms folks and the speed folks.

20:30Gregg Rosenthal:or what are you uh i am a little more forgiving on the length for the defensive ends if they've got a special trait so if you've got special power you've got special speed i think there's

20:42Daniel Jeremiah:ways you can overcome that a little bit and look last year's class was supposed to be incredible up front it's not it's not an easy position to adapt to i think abdul carter is going to be great still and i think your numbers were good yeah jalen carter i mean not jalen carter uh jalen walker is right on schedule i think um james pierce was productive before now you know who knows when and if he's going to play football again and that was something maybe that caused him to fall in the draft but i think overall it was kind of a disappointing uh class if you go into the depth there wasn't a lot of production there or from defensive tackle so you've been telling us these big guys are going to produce.

21:22Daniel Jeremiah:You got to deliver. It's on you. If I tell you about the talent,

21:26Gregg Rosenthal:the talent dictates where they get picked and then it turns into development thing. That's another podcast for us, by the way, is the baseballization of football personnel departments. That's taking place where they're starting to realize we need to invest more in development. Development's been a baseball thing and football. It's been identification. and then now it's about development component where you have the smart teams have a position coach and then you could call it like almost like a caddy for every position coach where I'm at a coach the guys get ready to win the game and then my assistant position coach has got to be working to develop the younger players that aren't getting all those opportunities but

22:05Daniel Jeremiah:they're getting better throughout the year that makes sense and I think that was always part of Belichick's secret sauce was he was still trying to coach and teach fundamentals I think and you would always hear players that would come to that team it's like oh they actually kind of coach us fundamentals instead of just assuming they're going to know what we're doing because yeah you don't you don't see that that development always at the pro level I I was curious like Jermon McCoy's coming off uh a torn ACL for Tennessee and yet you've got him sky high he he could be one of

22:39Gregg Rosenthal:He could be the first corner to go. Not a surprise at all. I know teams that I've talked to that see him that way. So is that a big week for him to see where he's at? Yeah, just where he is health-wise. His tape is really, really good. So that'll be interesting to see. Mansoor Delane, I don't know if he'll run or not, but I think the expectation is he's probably high 4-4. It's not going to be like some crazy, crazy low 4-3. Maybe he does, and that'll get rolling. But those are the top two corners for me. then there's a little bit of a gap. And then, you know, to say I got to remember how to pronounce his name, I'll look at the pronunciation when I get to Indy, but the corner from South Carolina is supposed to absolutely fly.

23:20Gregg Rosenthal:So he's going to run really, really well. I love, you know, this is another debate we'll have and talking with Rich throughout the broadcast, but Keontae Scott from Miami is, you know, 25 years old. He's a great player. I love him. He's one of my favorite players I've watched this whole cycle. but we've got, you know, man, uh, we've got, uh, uh, uh, Mesidor, the edge rusher from Miami. And maybe there's a reason why these teams, you know, are playing the national championship. He's 25 years old. Like they've got some, there's a lot of 24 and 25 year olds in this draft. So when you're comparing, you know, a Mesidor who I like better as a player than a Keldrick Falk from Auburn, Keldrick Falk's like 20 years old, 21 years old.

24:01Gregg Rosenthal:So you've got a four year age difference. How do you factor that in as you're going through it? And if you look at recent history, not just the quarterbacks, because we could talk about Shuck and Bo Nix as being older, but Peyton Wilson came in as an older player, has been really, really good for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Craig Woodson was one of my favorites from last year's draft, 24 years old, I believe, who went to the Patriots and played great. So I think teams are a little less worried about that as they would have been maybe some years past.

24:31Daniel Jeremiah:I mean, Craig Woodson has to be one of the best day three picks from this last draft in terms of how he produced. Yeah, it's maybe it's a ceiling floor debate and it feels like front offices would do well to get players that can play. And so the floor is higher for some of these older players, maybe that you know that they're going to be good. Look, I think that the players who the teams that have taken the older quarterbacks aren't aren't feeling bad about it. I think they have Jaden and Bo Nix.

24:59Gregg Rosenthal:At the college level, I mean, that's what Signetti has said. We've had him on our show, and he's talked about, everybody else deals with potential. I'm not dealing with potential. I want guys who are productive, like who've done it. And so it's the age-old question, right? You want the guy with the high floor or the high ceiling and the production versus the potential.

25:20Daniel Jeremiah:Then again, the second the walls started caving in on Drake May and the playoffs went extremely south, the first thing I went to defensively was like, yeah, he's younger than Cam Ward. You know, he's two years younger than when Burrow made it to his Super Bowl in his second year. And I do think if you're a Patriots fan or a believer in Drake, I mean, that is a factor. Like, where is he going to be when he's 25 years old? So with someone like him or some of these prospects, hopefully you can get a little bit of both. What about Caleb Downs? Does he have a little something to prove? I'm curious if he runs.

25:55Gregg Rosenthal:I'm curious if he runs. I think he's a really, really good player, but I don't get the sense when I watch him that he's somebody that's going to run in the 4-3s or low 4-4s. I'd be curious to see if he does run. I mean, he's a great player, consistent, off the charts with the intangibles and stuff off the field, reliable, dependable, but I didn't think he was a freaky, traits-y guy. so and and i trust me there's been times where i've thought that before and guys have gone out there and absolutely blown it up and and and surprised me so maybe he would but i'd be curious to see what he actually does there hey it's carissa thompson everything these days is fighting for your attention work family social media and it makes it tough to figure out what should really come first but here's something that absolutely deserves to be at the top of your list your breast health.

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30:33Daniel Jeremiah:not a lot of like premier defensive tackles necessarily by the way quick quick on the

30:39Gregg Rosenthal:safety thing uh dylan thenaman from oregon i think is gonna run really well and uh and i really love emmanuel mcneil warren the safety from toledo i think those three safeties are excellent players so i'm curious to see what he does as well there's there'll be uh there'll be some guys that role in this in this DB group. Do you want to talk about linebackers, Greg, since you deemed them the most important position in football on the last episode?

31:01Daniel Jeremiah:Well, I mean, I just want you to allow guys who look like elite linebacker prospects to even play linebacker like you're putting Arvel reset on the edge or whatever. It seems like, you know, he could be your LB one.

31:15Gregg Rosenthal:Yeah, and look, there'll be discussion about that. You know, he played off the ball, played on the ball. We've seen that a lot with players over the last few years. I think he's most valuable off the edge. I said the same thing about Parsons when he came out. I've said the same thing about all these guys. Jalen Walker, to me, I think that's where his value kicks in, just because I think he's got tons of upside off the edge. But we'll see how he's utilized once he gets picked. Sonny Stiles is going to be a freak. He's way up there on my – he's one of those ones, probably the distance between where I have him ranked on my list versus where I put him in mock drafts, maybe the most disparity.

31:51Gregg Rosenthal:just because I don't know how teams are going to value it. But he's going to be 6 '4 and change. He's going to be close to 240 pounds. He's going to jump out of the gym. His basketball highlights, if you want to have some fun, go watch those. It's ridiculous how explosive he is. So he's going to be a fun one to watch work out. But it's a really good linebacker group. There's lots of depth. Again, day two, second, third round group. It's really, really good.

32:20Daniel Jeremiah:I'm trying to think, has there ever been a case where like two linebackers from the same team? In this case, yeah, it would be Stiles and Reese. What about – who was it with Simeon Rice?

32:32Gregg Rosenthal:Oh, that's – There was another linebacker. It was Illinois, right? They were in the same – Well, Rice, you know, more of an edge rusher, right? Yeah, but the same type of a thing where, you know, you got those two front seven players, and Reese does play off the edge some.

32:47Daniel Jeremiah:So I'm sure there was two of them. Miles Jack and Eric Kendricks I came up with.

32:52Gregg Rosenthal:Oh, okay. Miles Jack fell to the second round because of his knee. Kevin Hardy. Thank you, Gavin. Kevin Hardy and Simeon Rice. How about that? How about that poll right there? Simeon Rice, just an all-time great. Oh, you know what other one? Co-wearer, yes. What about the Miami guys with Vilma and DJ Williams? Were they in the same draft?

33:12Daniel Jeremiah:I kind of forgot about DJ Williams. That's a good call. Yeah, they played together. They played together. Miami was always stacking them up. There will be pro stuff, by the way, you know, something to keep an eye on. Just some teams I'm just going to throw out that this week, fascinating. Eagles, I mean, they got everything is going on with the Eagles. Everything feels on the board. Who's going to retire? Who's not? What are the trades going to be? I just think they're going to be crazy. The Chiefs are going to be fascinating to see this week. I'm just throwing this out there. Your team, the Chargers, they got a lot of decisions on both lines.

33:41Daniel Jeremiah:and they're like the best team that has way too much cap space. Like there's no point in having$85 million in cap space.

33:49Gregg Rosenthal:Well, they got to do a lot to their own guys.

33:51Daniel Jeremiah:Yeah, most of it is our bad teams right now, but the Chargers are a good team that has a lot of cap space. And then the Bears are kind of on the flip side where they have some tough decisions to make, but they're also intriguing. It's go time for them. I think it's go time for the 49ers too. They now have gotten out of their little cap jail and they're trying to win right now. So those are just some teams I'm saying to watch this week in terms of off the field, what's going on.

34:13Gregg Rosenthal:Can I give you one idea what we should probably do right now? Well, because we're recording this a little bit ahead of when you're listening to it.

34:20Daniel Jeremiah:Yeah.

34:21Gregg Rosenthal:So something, it's the NFL. Crazy stuff happens all the time. So let's just, let's just right now real quick so we can just insert this, okay? So you just go about how you're surprised you are. You can't believe what just happened. And we don't have to talk about it specifically, but then we're covered. Okay, go ahead.

34:36Daniel Jeremiah:This is bad podcasting, DJ, because it's probably not going to happen. You go ahead. Because you don't want to point out that we're taking it ahead of time. I didn't see it coming.

34:44Gregg Rosenthal:I didn't see it coming. I guess we shouldn't be surprised. I mean, it's a crazy league. It's a crazy league. And we'll see. Look, I have my doubts about how this whole thing is going to work out. But we'll see how it all goes. Oh, you're not even giving the take.

34:58Daniel Jeremiah:I thought you were going to say something. I can't believe that AJ Brown is now a member of the 49ers or something like that.

35:07Gregg Rosenthal:It's just a professional move. You just have that in the can, drop that in, keep the episode alive. We don't have to record again. Keep the train moving.

35:15Daniel Jeremiah:This is where DJ's at. He's just phoning in. What is your year doing?

35:21Gregg Rosenthal:I think it's my 14th draft combine with the network here.

35:26Daniel Jeremiah:A youngin. although he's had that Move the Sticks Twitter handle for a long time How many years have you been here Greg? I mean I've been at the NFL for 13 years but I've been covering the NFL for 22 or so now

35:41Gregg Rosenthal:How sad is it going to be when we go back and listen to this episode and then they've put in the song on the back end in the arms of the angels and they're just playing that over this whole conversation and then it just says a little dash with our start and end dates

35:56Daniel Jeremiah:I love a little gallows humor here on 40s and free agents. Hopefully we'll be back next week. No, I fully expect we will. And we'll be really cranking up just a week before free agency. Good luck with everything at the combine. I will be watching. Our listeners will be watching. This is the Super Bowl for Daniel Jeremiah.

36:16Gregg Rosenthal:Caleb on chase on and Patrick Queen as well. There you go.

36:18Daniel Jeremiah:Oh, that's a good one. First round pick Caleb on chase on back in the day. Now I've got to go make some money in free agency. We'll see you next week.

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