Ranking the 2026 NFL Draft: Edge Rushers and Cornerbacks

23:01Well, I don't know. It could happen. Where would you like, like, where do you think he would fit best? If you're David Bailey's agent, obviously you want to make the most amount of money, but also just thinking about the fit, the team and everything. Do you think there's a best outcome for him where he could fit well?

23:20Ollie Connolly:Honestly, I think he's completely scheme independent because it's just that skill set. And do you value the skill set? How much do you value get off and burst? And I think he can convert some speed to power as well. There's a really nasty spin move that he has, but he's kind of a pretty simple defined player that I think every team in the league would be able to find a way to weaponize that. It would be really fun to have him in more of a moving, morphing defensive front where you could mug up a whole bunch of players. You're not sure what to do with David Bailey. I do get a little bit concerned if he's just in one of these four down and go teams, if he went to the Titans, if he went to a team who just wants to say it's four pass rushes and it's waves of pass rushes.

23:59Ollie Connolly:Does he have the nuance in his game to be able to beat up on good tackles over and over again, the way the likes of Will Anderson, Daniel Hunter do. But if you've got him to one side of a tackle and someone mugged up inside and it's this kind of two-on-one conflict and if you're wrong, it's lights out. I mean, no one's getting off the ball as quick as the guy. So that is where I think you could really get to one of those can you get 12, 13 special type sack production situations. Ian, it sounds strange to say about an edge, but the times when he was in space, you can imagine him taking down some mobile quarterbacks that most edges just could not.

24:40I was impressed by that. I could just imagine like a very simple-minded scout, which I guess I would be just being like, wow, you don't see that too much, that like he is athletic enough to like bring down some guys in space in a pretty special way.

24:54Ollie Connolly:Yeah, I mean, he is just a different caliber of athlete. He's not the smoothest and he doesn't have true dip and bend, I think is where people would look at him and be lower on him. He is a straight line ripper. And then once he's kind of out of the stance and the play breaks down, and he again can just kind of turn, rotate, and rip it once again. So I think the Nick Benito one is the high-end upside, and he played in a system where early on it's a lot of mugged up attack-based looks and he's just one of the guys with the crazy speed off the ball. Then he refined his game and his craft over time.

25:25Ollie Connolly:There is some concern about how invested is he in that side of it. Does he really want to refine and work on the game, or is this just who he'll be for six, seven, eight years? And he winds up being this kind of pass rush mercenary who's on your 101 list to every single season at like 48 or something like that. But even that to me is a pretty solid outcome. He has one of the most difficult to find commodities in all of the league, right? Which is just get off the ball as a pass rusher. Right. I mentioned on our mailbag episode, they asked for some of the favorite prospects we ever scouted. Robert Quinn was one of them.

25:57And like that's a guy just was fun to watch get off the ball. All right, let's get to like the next, maybe it's not the next tier of your guys, But I guess my question to you is like, are Akeem Mesidor and Cassius Howell just like the weirdest prospects in the draft? They're both so unique to me and really fascinating to see where they go.

26:21Ollie Connolly:What is it that you find unique about Cassius Howell? Well, he just seems like a pass rush savant. I mean, he's got a lot of juice. You said teams want to draft a pass rusher. Like if that's what gets you drafted high, I feel like I don't know where he's going to get drafted, but he could be very high. But he's got the arm length problem. He might not be an every down player, but man, he's got a lot of talent. I think he's as talented a pass rusher, just pure, like the pure package as anyone else. A straight pass rush. He's the best in the class. OK, I truly believe that he is a pass rush genius in terms of tying the moves together, setting things up over the course of a game, how he's able to get guys off balance then attack once there's an opening i think there's just nobody quite moves like him with the speed bend and burst off the ball in this class it really is just is he a specialist and that's what he does and how valuable is that to you versus can he live and survive on some of the early down stuff at least with david bailey there is real effort and compete it's just not a skill set for him cash is hell it's a little bit more i'm not as invested in having to throw my face into the fire to play against the run.

27:30Ollie Connolly:I'll try and backdoor things. I'll try and undercut. There'll be some splash play TFL stuff, but you can just run him off the ball when he's lined up on the line of scrimmage. Maybe that explains why the consensus board has him at 33. I guess that's why I put him in one of the more fascinating players because you just said you think he's the best pass rusher in the draft and he's not in the top 30 in the consensus board. So that immediately to me is intriguing. What do you do with a player like that? it's tough. It's with where the league is trending right now, I do think people are going to be caught in between.

28:05Ollie Connolly:Are we kind of chasing the trend of where we're heading of heavier personnel? There's more rundowns. Everyone's running the ball more consistently. Where do we find a way to get this guy on the field to hide him in the run game so that we can uncork this pass rush potential later in the down? He strikes me as those teams who just let four pass rushes fly off the ball over and over again, and they bring these guys in waves and rotations, that he's just the first one off the bench that everyone's fired up about. You kick someone else inside, he plays off the edge, and he just beats up on people one-on-one in the perimeter.

28:37Yeah, maybe, well, we always think how Nick Herbig should play more for those Steelers. But maybe similar to that, I was going to say, do you have someone that's making his NFL career work but never really got over the run game deficiencies that you think Howell might have?

28:55Ollie Connolly:I'm glad you mentioned Herbig. Herbig was the guy who came to mind for me with him too, where it's like, not just like good pass rush, but like there's truly like an operating system that is the streaks ahead of where you should be in college. Being able to win inside, outside, competitive enough to win through someone's face as all the different moves you'd have won. At times just seems like he's toying and having fun. He's like, I'm just going to try this because I can do stuff no one else can even consider. A bit of Daniel Hunter in that sense of the inventiveness of how he wins um but there is such a downside in the run game herbig i think is more in that bailey mold of this competitiveness he competes he just didn't fit what tomlin wanted howls is a bit more i'm not about that life i get i get that and i and i think it's a good question to ask how do teams value that but adafe oe just got a hundred million dollars like i feel like in this draft if like a pass rush genius with some big deficiencies is more interesting as a top 15 20 player than a lot of the other players that are getting taken then it is i think the question is whether the genius translates when a lot of alignment of geniuses too in the league you got to go against lane johnson you've got how much can your genius take over if you lack some of the physical tools to enact some of the way that your brain is thinking he really does have shorter arms and his show up on film a lot more than reuben baines does because he's doing a lot of the hand fighting a lot of the creativity it's not just full throttle you know launching yourself into the frame of the lineman so when you're playing that style and you're playing more the intelligent way you also have to have the ability to go and win the initial phase of the rep and as that goes up to the next level and you're seeing laramie tunsell then truant williams then lane johnson that gets offset a little bit where i think those concerns could show up okay akeem Mesidor.

30:45So he is 21st on the consensus board. Although I don't know about the consensus this year. I feel like after the top 15 or so, I just wouldn't be surprised by a lot that's going to go on. And Mesidor was in that bucket to me with Howell just as a weird prospect because he's, because he's older, because he was playing defensive tackle, weighed a ton more before he was as an edge for Miami. He has a lot of moves. I've fallen for these guys in the past. Aziraku, Leatu Latu, you know, who I think are both going to be good pros. I don't think they're misses in either way, and I think they're getting better, where he's just got a lot going on.

31:30He's kind of a funky player to me.

31:32Ollie Connolly:He is a funky player. He's also got a number of injuries, all of them around his feet. So you've got the health concerns plus the age concerns is where you start to worry about what would you invest in. Is 15 too high? Is it more in the 20s type range? That's fair. Did you, in the end, put Mesidor and Howell in that same group with Bailey? Where did you land on Mesidor especially? I have Howell a tier below just because I do worry that he's a sub package type specialist. This Mesidor I have in that same tier is a good starter. With Bayley and Bane, I think that he is as good as it gets in kind of stacking and shedding the point of attack.

32:13Ollie Connolly:The pass rush moves are absolutely off the scale. I mean, he has every single thing in the bag you could ever want. It's not quite as inventive as Cassius Howell we were describing before. It's a little bit more slotted in and mundane in what he's doing, but it's every single tool you could ever want. He's definitely got better dip and burst than the majority of the guys in the class. he really can crank it around the corner. And so you've got first step quick, you've got speed, bend, burst type pass rusher. I think the question for teams is going to be, well, was he an overdeveloped player for the age and the volume of plays he'd played before compared to the competition he was facing?

32:46Ollie Connolly:Does this stuff really translate to the next level? Also, was he getting, I know he's an edge, but maybe it doesn't make as much sense. But man, they just seemed well coached. We're going to talk about Keontae Scott in a minute, who's also an older prospect at slot. It's just, do you almost take off a little juice from the whole Miami team? Because they seem like they were just like a well-coached group. It is interesting because I would say with Bain and Mesidor, they both have very good first step springs. I wouldn't say it's truly elite, but their snap timing is as dialed in as you'll ever find a group.

33:22Ollie Connolly:And then their understanding of like what they're going to face, how teams are going to set up, what the best move is at a certain moment. It's rare. I can't think of a combination like that. Maybe Shane Ray and Michael Sam a few years back where they styled in as a tandem on how to attack people. But Jason Taylor, I mean, I know he probably never wants to leave Miami, but if I was a head coach in the league right now, I would just pick up the phone and drop whatever bag was necessary to Jason Taylor. He can tell me whether to draft the guys or not. They were so well coached. It's not even funny.

33:52Ollie Connolly:Taking away the speed on the back end, the overall talent, the team, just how it was kind of pieced together as a puzzle, as a collective, and then that individual stuff too. It was a remarkable coaching job. So he is their defensive line coach at Miami, right? Just for perspective for everyone, the Hall of Fame player with the Dolphins. I mean, it always doesn't translate like that, but man, he was such an intelligent player and he has turned apparently into a really intelligent coach. That's a really nice wrinkle. You know how it's never really about where you're going? It's about who you're going with.

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37:57Keldrick Falk from Auburn, who might be more of an interior player, but we'll put him in this bucket. We didn't put him with the defensive tackles. His consensus board is around 20th. TJ Parker from Clemson. I've seen him mock to the Patriots a little bit. He's 28th on the consensus board. Malachi Lawrence from UCF, 43 on the consensus board. Not a ton of snaps there, but I feel like getting a little buzz. R. Mason Thomas is another guy. Out of this class, are there guys that you liked versus consensus?

38:28Ollie Connolly:Yeah, Malachi Lawrence I really like. I understand what you're saying about the limited number of snaps, but within those snaps, I think I have him graded out similar to Bailey and Bain. and he's got he's got the plus length he's got crazy juice off the ball for the size that he plays at he can really slink and fire around the arc so he's got more dip than bailey the getoff is not quite at bailey's level but it's pretty damn elite for the league levels he's got a lot of like technical failings and he can be slow to get off sometimes because the technical side but the actual burst when it's timed up well is extraordinary he's got better feel in terms of the hand-to-hand combat than David Bailey does.

39:06Ollie Connolly:He's just kind of a one move, two move type player. Lawrence has got way more in the bag and he was asked to play around the formation and play some inside. So it wasn't given the freedom, just kind of fly off the ball the way the Texas Tech players were. So there was some kind of schematic confines into him being able to just say, here's 300 reps in the season, just fly off from a wider alignment and go beat up on people one-on-one. I think in three, four years, I really do think he's going to be the guy who was the most impactful from the group. Ooh, so that's bold. And look, the lack of snaps at edge didn't really hurt Jalen Walker.

39:42I know it's a different profile from UCF. For Malachi Lawrence, he's 6 '4", 253. So yes, similar size to Bailey. I mean, Bailey looks big too, but both of them, but especially Lawrence, like he just looks bigger than his size. He looks like a guy who will hold up fine at the NFL level and is more than athletic enough despite playing at a lower level at college.

40:04Ollie Connolly:Yeah, I would say that Bailey is blurrier. It's just all happens so quick. You can't even keep up with how fast he's moving. Lawrence, I think, plays a little bit more in control. He reminds me a lot of Matthew Judom, where it's both his explosiveness, his bend, but really the secret sauce is what he can do in being able to navigate and move through space, throw guys off kilter, then snap back inside. He is by far the best chase down guy in the scramble drill in this class. and the volume of sacks in the league now that uh it's a second phase someone's bouncing around you got to go make a play he has the best pass rush radar to me of anyone in this group so if he had played for that texas tech team i think the production would have been pretty similar that that's a fascinating one you talk to a lot of people in the league do you think others share this opinion and that he'll go a little higher i i think what teams are trying to figure out is they want him so desperately i think 15 is where it starts and they're trying to piece together can they move back and get picks while still getting the guy they want or are they going to be forced to decide they're going to take a guy earlier than maybe they would have wanted to but really they would struggle to sleep that night if they didn't come away from the first round with malachi lawrence wow and so you're saying that specifically about lawrence if i'm if i'm listening to this because i'm not i'm not into this but you know they you know they do those they do the uh over-unders and where guys are getting taken.

41:25Like, you know, you heard it. You heard it here before Schrager is saying this, like the day before the draft, you heard it on NFL Daily first. Keldrick Falk is an interesting guy. I know enough to know that he might answer the question, like a guy you were lowered on consensus then of the rest of these prospects. Like, why are you not a fan? Because he was a guy that came into the year with like a lot of hype, big, big player, not necessarily a pass rusher. I guess he would, in a perfect world, he'd be kind of, I don't know, what would he be, like a 3-4 end in a perfect world?

42:02Ollie Connolly:Yeah, 3-4 end or playing outside heavy end on early downs for those four down teams. Then you put him inside to kind of beat up on guards on the passing downs. He'd just really slow off the ball. In fact, everything he does is pretty slow. Now, there are flashes. You'll show some in the clips here when it's really all timed together and you see the real special talent. And he's incredibly young. And so if you're looking through the draft board, in that middle band range, it's a lot of the specialists we talked about. It's Cassius Howell. It's our Mason Thomas. This is just pure pass for a sizzle.

42:33Ollie Connolly:Falk does have the potential, I think, over time to be more of that every down player, just being able to find a spot anywhere in the front where he can maybe go and cook someone. So if you're betting on long-term upside, I can see why teams would buy into the fact they can kind of refine some of the skillset. I just think everything he does is too slow. I think too slow off the ball, too slow to decide what to happen when he's about to engage with someone. And for a height, weight, speed guy, you would just love every once in a while to take over a game with sheer ferocity, run through someone's face.

43:03Ollie Connolly:You're playing Missouri. It's a bad tackle. I'm just going to go dominate this quarter until they've got to send extra help. And it just doesn't happen. Yeah, that to me is such a test. when you're watching the all 22 during the season of these teams and some team is on their third tackle I I do when I'm watching those games I do like to watch who's facing them because sometimes it's like a mid-tier starter it's their job to win that matchup you know consistently and they usually do and it's like okay that kind of helps to make me feel like you are worthy of being the mid-tier starter because you have to take advantage when you have those mismatches and maybe you're saying Falk isn't necessarily going to do that yeah and in his defense he played in specific techniques which didn't really allow him to play at the speed and tempo you would want him to do and there are glimpses of him doing that kind of stuff just purely on the edge and winning with some speed and aggression into contact it's just really flashes compared to where he was considered one coming into the end and then two at the start of the draft cycle I mean this is a guy who was mocked going in the top five top 10 and i think it's slowly come down i think schrager in the recent mock draft he put out was like he's not in the first round conversation schrager's pretty damn good at targeting who's going in the first and who's not whether the teams are correct or not and i think that lateness off the ball a guy who wants to play as a technician when they have the profile of just taking over as a physical type player i think gives teams a lot of pause I always feel bad for the guys that kind of the draft net community kind of got wrong in the end, because I don't know if the NFL was ever that high on him or not.

44:44And then you're on draft day and he's viewed as some huge faller. Whereas like if he had just been in the low 40s the whole time, you know, we wouldn't have to spend all our time doing that. Give me a later round beloved, I'll call it, before we move on to the cornerbacks, if you have an edge that you like and just want to say. I know you probably could go on a bunch of guys. And you could go on a third round pick. Just anyone that you want to talk about that we haven't hit so far.

45:09Ollie Connolly:There are so many in this class. Okay, just rip them off quick then before you get to your favorite. Jay Sean Barham, I adore. More of a joker type move piece. Play around all the formation. Play some linebacker. Play some edge. I adore Jay Sean Barham. The other guy I would highlight is Kieron Crawford, who was Keldrick Fultz's teammate at Auburn, who was the guy making all the plays. And as the guy that they built, it's a really exotic, aggressive type defense. And everything that they built was around Kieron Crawford, who's only played for, I believe, five years of football. They did not build their kind of creative stuff around Keldrick Fultz, who at that time was projected to be the second or third overall pick in the draft.

45:48Ollie Connolly:And he has real juice off the ball. another guy where there are questions about what can you do in the run game can you kind of stand and clang and bang down the trenches but as a move piece kind of a mugged up threat playing all over the formation I think he can be really impactful he is excellent in coverage and most of these guys who are more of the move pieces are really just kind of attack based players it's all forward movement it's hey they can play over a guard they can play outside the tackle and really get after it in the pass rush game very few of them have shown real coverage chops and Kieron Crawford has So if you told me he was playing for Brian Flores next season, I would have a sneaky feeling for like the highest volume of rookie splash plays from the edge group would come from Kieran Crawford.

46:30I love that. He's projected to be about a third round pick. We'll see. Yeah, maybe maybe he'll be out there like him and Van Ginkle just ripping off screen passes for for touchdowns and coverage. That would be fun to watch. All right, let's go to the cornerbacks. It's a class where some consensus has formed around Mansoor Delane and Jermon McCoy as the top two guys. Everyone should check out our 40s and Free Agents episode from this week. It was me, Mina Kimes, and Daniel Jeremiah. And she had McCoy as one of her, Mina did, as one of her favorite players in the draft. Awesome 2024 tape, missed 2025 with a torn ACL.

47:09Let's say you're the GM, Ali. And this is, I think, where it's all leading to. That's why we're, you know, you're on short-term contracts here with NFL Daily because we might just lose you. You're like Doc Rivers when he joined the Bill Simmons podcast. An owner, you tried to scout it out, but ultimately you did a bad job and it's not a good owner. He is putting his thumb on the scale in a way that you didn't think was going to happen. And he barges into the draft room a couple picks ahead of where you're going to go. and he's just sick of you guys getting killed in the secondary. He says, you have to take a cornerback.

47:46You have like the ninth or 10th pick. It's maybe even too early compared to where you want, but you have to take a cornerback. Who are you taking?

47:54Ollie Connolly:It depends on the flavor that I like. Well, it's your team. In this world, they're kind of, in theory, running a scheme that you like. There's some good synchronicity with the coaches. Manso Delane is more of my vibe of player. Okay. but I think Jamob McCoy is slightly more talented and it would be really hard to sleep having passed on Jamob McCoy. So that's your answer? Because you got to make a decision. I would take Mansoor Delaney. There's some kind of like help with the risk and the injury concerns, but it might wind up getting me fired in three years where Jamob McCoy is the most explosive playmaker on the back end in the NFL and I've got a pretty like solid player.

48:35Valuable context. And I'm glad you did answer, but you gave the context. Okay, then why do you see McCoy as that exciting? Like, what is the potential for him, assuming he comes back and he's looking healthy? He did do some workouts. You know, he missed the season at Tennessee, but got healthy enough to run a 40 and work out at the pro day.

48:57Ollie Connolly:Yeah, he's incredibly explosive, really physical when he's up in press man coverage. I think his best work, though, comes off the ball, triggering and closing from depth. it's a zone heavy league now and his best stuff is just scanning it off coverage breaking underneath and then he has really rare ball skills it's just tough to find guys who can go and play the ball in the air the way that he does and so if you're looking for one of those more playmaker-y types where they could be a little bit more volatile McCoy is just a guy who makes plays that he has no business making so Mina comped him a little bit to or unless I'm mixing it up to Stefan Gilmore yep um but with maybe even i mean not not like stefan gimler didn't have good ball skills i mean he helped win a super bowl with him but do you have do you have someone that he he kind of reminds you of a little bit i think gilmore one's pretty good i would say where it's a tough physical press man corner who will kind of batter guys up throughout the rep i think mccoy is just more athletic in the air he can really go up and get it and twist and contour um his eyes work at a ridiculous speed when he's in off coverage.

50:03Ollie Connolly:I think Gilmore was more of a press only type player. There's a bit more versatility with McCoy's game. People, I think, prefer him as a truly bump and run type guy, follow people all over the formation. I kind of prefer him playing off, being instinctual, going and driving down the ball from depth. But he has that versatility and it's usually you get one or the other. It's usually you get Stefan Gilmore. It's like, what a great press cover corner we have zone off coverage reading and reacting to the game he's not quite on that level so that to me is really the special thing about Jamal McCoy and I would be pretty stunned if he was not the first one of these corners taken interesting so and you're saying all that and everyone is is just expecting Jets to go uh like edge receiver maybe even trading up for receiver but I don't know I can just imagine the Jets taking taking a cornerback or trading up for a cornerback not a two they would and i don't know it would be very very jetty to pass on aval reese for a corner who didn't i don't know i don't mean number two but and but maybe he falls to 16 potentially or they they i really doubt he falls to 16 okay um your your type of player though is delane though that why why does he fit kind of the mold of the types of guys you like he's just really smooth he really reminds me of kamari luster you know i adore he's just quicker than Kamari Laster is.

51:24Ollie Connolly:It's everything is really polished. He didn't give up a reception last season to the same receiver twice in a game. So once a guy caught a ball, and that was usually some kind of bubble screen pre-design thing that was logged against Mansoor Delaney, no one caught another ball in him all game. Incredibly fluid, incredibly intelligent, excellent up in press and in off coverage. He's not quite, I would say, the playmaker that McCoy is. He's more of a forced turndown, shadow the number one receiver all over the formation. But what he did in LSU's defense, it was a really pro-style defense. He's playing inside, outside.

51:58Ollie Connolly:He's playing tight to the formation. He's playing in space a whole bunch. It just looked like Sunday football being played on Saturday. And so he might not have the high wattage plays that like a McCoy would have, but I value, I think, turn downs are ball disruption. It's a way of elongating the play to allow the pass rush to come home. And he's a little bit more in the Satan vein. No one is as good as Patrick Satan, but it's that style of player as opposed to more of the explosive big time playmaker. Yeah. And just fluid. I love what you said. It just looked like Sunday football. He was someone that rewarded watching the all 22 because it's not as flashy, but you can just see that his footwork, the way that he moves, it looks like how the guys are moving on Sunday.

52:43So do you think this is like a big two? Do you think there is a separation between the top two? or do you think it's kind of a big four where Colton Hood from Tennessee, Avion Terrell maybe from Clemson would potentially be in that four or is there a difference?

52:59Ollie Connolly:No I think there's a pretty significant distinction between those two and the next two guys and I would say with both Delane and McCoy so much of the the league now has played 15 yards and in it's a lot to the flat it's a lot in the run game it's a lot in run support both of these guys get after it at a crazy level i mean they compete like nuts and then they're both really talented shadow cover corners again usually you got to do a trade-off is either you've got the the talented cover corner guy you're looking at sauce gardener or you have guys who just get after and help you in the run game and a passable in coverage it's pretty rare to find guys who can do both this work in man coverage in zone and help you in the run game to get two in one classes it's pretty unorthodox You're making me more excited about this class and especially the cornerback class, premier position and making me think that's another team that you can look at the Cowboys at 12.

53:50Do they end up with one of these guys? Feels possible. So then if they're the top two, are Terrell and Hood your next two? Or like what is your next tier look like?

54:03Ollie Connolly:I prefer Chris Johnson from San Diego State. You and Mina, another one of her favorites. I know they're a really aggressive guy. I think Meader and I both have the type of, like if there's a corner who's willing to come in and get involved in the action, that's my kind of guy. Yeah, and we had a pretty lengthy conversation, and I feel like he's been one of Jeremiah's guys as well as just a complete player from San Diego State and makes me think, I don't know, when all the smart people like you guys are all talking him up, then he's another guy. If you're looking at that, where he's getting projected and the desert and whatever that at least right now, one week out, like you might do well if you find a Chris Johnson number out there.

54:45Ollie Connolly:Where is he currently projected? I don't know. I mean, I never look at any of this stuff. We're not allowed to. We're not even allowed to give advice. So we're right on the edge. On the consensus board, do you know where he is? The consensus board, he is 39. Now, whether that reflects much, I don't know. But it feels like between him and I would throw Brandon Cisse of South Carolina in the mix too. 41 on the consensus board maybe not similar as players you can tell me what you think of cc but just as guys that the insiders as we get closer to the process seem to be talking about more as potential first round picks yeah johnson i would i think the floor with johnson is san francisco which is what 26 somewhere around there that to me would be the floor and i think that'd be a pretty good fit too if the diners were interested okay i like that avion terrell is is a guy who maybe is going to play at slot corner in the league.

55:39What do you think about him? And am I being too simplistic by saying, actually it's okay to just say he moves like his brother. We overthought, we overthought Dalvin cook the cooks in general by thinking like, Oh, he's like, he's like 75 % of Dalvin cook, James cook. And it was like, no, he kind of looks exactly the same. Just like a little lighter. he should have been taken earlier

56:05Ollie Connolly:I don't think he moves quite as well as his brother he is really smooth I don't think he's very explosive and like the sudden burst to me is lacking I understand when a guy runs a 4-6 at a pro day and then he says that he pulled his hamstring when he ran a second time which would imply to me the hamstring wasn't that hurt that there's like a natural instinct to say oh we'll just move him inside it doesn't make a ton of sense to me you really do need quick fire quick twitch reactions of all the quick stuff that's happening in the slot. And so to me, there's an easy way to protect someone like that by just playing them on the outside at depth in a really zone-heavy system.

56:42Ollie Connolly:Someone like the Panthers, where you could play 12 yards and in. You can actually hide that better if they can kind of read it and react and flip pretty well on the move, which you can do. And they've got some kind of natural depth built in to try and match stuff vertically down the field. It's a pretty small percentage of plays now where there's true one-on-one coverage of the ball that's traveling 20 or more yards in the air. it's a lot more quick fire it's a lot more in out twitch work he just doesn't really have that knack he is a smooth player he's not an explosive player yeah that's that's sort of what i was getting at too when you talked about sundays maybe that's more my type i've always really liked aj terrell um watching avion terrell he he looks smooth i'm like that looks like sundays too now it might be sundays where he's just average and he's getting cooked by the good players and playing pretty well against the other players but those guys get get taken highly and those guys maybe have a season where they pop off and they get a nice second contract.

57:35So that's sort of what I meant with him, where when I watched him, I was like, yeah, he kind of looks like a guy that probably won't kill you, that will play a lot in the NFL.

57:44Ollie Connolly:He's going to give up explosive plays. So it's going to be a bit more of a roller coaster for a guy who profiles as more of a steady player. He's probably going to actually get caught a fair bit more than that. Although a lot of the steady guys in the league do get caught for some explosive plays. so just the idea of pushing him into the slot which I know is like a common narrative that just doesn't really work for me I do think you need to be more of a fluid type twitchy type player which he is not he is though a really impressive blitzer and rundown blitzing is a massive part of a cornerbacks work these days and he's probably the best in the class at timing it seeing it and reacting it in the blitz game so depending on the defensive style I just keep circling the Panthers of.

58:25Ollie Connolly:He makes so much sense what they do defensively that if he can be a plus starter, it would be in that kind of system. If you're a man coverage heavy system, if you're the Jets early on day two, that would be a bit of a stretch. So you think he's a better blitzer than Chianti Scott from Miami. Let's have the conversation about the potential slot cornerbacks. He's another interesting prospect we talked about. I'm curious for your take on him because he is someone where, look, cornerback tape depends what you're into. But, you know, sometimes it's not as exciting as a play to play basis as other positions.

59:00But Keontae Scott, like you can find the highlights in any game tape you want. Like there are splash plays from Keontae Scott, who's who's yeah, like I mentioned, an older prospect didn't produce that much until his age 24 season, I think, at Miami's sixth year. But he was awesome last year. Really fun to watch. and I think could be a fun player. A little bit of Chauncey Gardner-Johnson vibes, maybe. I don't know. Something in that mold. Something in that mold.

59:27Ollie Connolly:Yeah, I mean, he's an absolute savage. He wants to run through everyone's face over and over and over again. He does fit this mold of these big nickel type players, I think, who are impactful and kind of walling things off in zone as opposed to being matchup threat guys. He can get cooked out in the route, second level, big explosive plays. he's more of a rundown enforcer on the edge which is if you go look at the best teams in the league the best defense in the league they all have that it's cooper de jean it's kyle hamilton it's nikki monwari like that is the player model you're chasing for and with the volume of split safety coverage and two deep safeties you can hide guys pretty well than being caught on an island as those kind of traditional smaller inside out type nickel players so i'm a huge believer in scott um And I probably based on the age, that profile, the league does kind of suppress the value on those type of guys.

1:00:19Ollie Connolly:But he is a guy I would stand on the table for and would be pretty delighted to have as a defensive coordinator. Oh, I love that. And yeah, like I'm not saying he's going to, he's not someone where I have any feel where he's going to get drafted higher than expected. He might be a late second, he might be third, who knows. But he just looks like one of those guys that you're like, oh, that's a good third round pick that's still playing like six years into the league and playing at a pretty high level. Are there any other guys kind of in the mid rounds, early, mid, late rounds that you want to give a shout out some some Molly Connolly beloveds?

1:00:52Ollie Connolly:Beloved is maybe a tough stretch. I really do think this class drops off pretty significantly. Honestly, after the top two guys, I have concerns about almost everyone that middle band that the slot group is up and down outside of Scott, I would say. Lower round, probably the most interesting one that I'm just intrigued by what the league will make of them is Devin Moore out of Florida. He's 6 '3", 198, was a massive recruit, has kind of the frame of those old Seattle corners. So it's like the long and lean and explosive athlete. He's just been decimated by injuries throughout his career. So he's not played a whole bunch of football, but it does feel like the value, if Pete Carroll was still in the league, if he was still running those Raiders, you can just feel this would be his third round gamble.

1:01:36Ollie Connolly:Bring me the athlete who's 6 '3", with the long arms, who's crazy smooth for someone that size. and we'll just kind of figure out the traits and we'll figure out the football player afterwards. And then after the season, you'd read the ESPN article that's burying Pete for making them take him if he just gets hurt again. Poor Pete. Is there a guy, as we wrap up here, that you're a little lower than consensus on? Someone that people are familiar with maybe if they're into the draft process, like a first, second round type that you're not really feeling. not feeling would probably be harsh, but Cissé, I do have a tough time with.

1:02:17Ollie Connolly:He is quite comfortably, I'd say the most technically flawed player where it would almost feel painful to throw him out in year one with where he's at right now. Technically he's an Uber athlete, crazy explosive fluid for the kind of Twitch he can develop too. So I understand the athletic profile. I just think that technically he is a complete mess at the moment, particularly in man coverage, which is what he's kind of tabbed as is a bigger, longer press style corner. I think if you threw him out there in year one and you've got to go against Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase and all the great plays in the league, he's just so far behind being able to keep a matchup with real speed off the ball.

1:02:59Ollie Connolly:He got fried by Casey Concepcion. It was a bloodbath in that game. The Vanderbilt game, they don't have first round caliber receivers in that game. He is just completely lost all the time. So he's a guy where you are really drafting the talent and the traits and hoping you can kind of bring it on over time. I'm not sure if teams even have the life cycle to do that now. It's like a two-year situation or you're out. Do you really have the time to develop these corners that you take in the second round? Except for Spags. Spags has the time. I was going to say, Spags, are they just good at drafting the right guy that fits the system, or are they good at developing?

1:03:33Because when you're talking about Cissé, like i immediately was thinking well who are the best defensive back development teams the chiefs the chiefs come to mind i'm trying to think of some others it's such a volatile position that

1:03:45Ollie Connolly:it's tough to find anyone who consistently nails it it was pete and now it might be mike mcdonald it might be the charges guys the charges go and find guys in the fourth sixth round they start in the rookie season and go and play in i think they focus and they're really good at seeing what a player does well and just having them do that and that's how you get josh joe being an afterthought uh on one defense to a guy who's starting the super bowl playing more than requel and being valuable and that that's just having a vision so yeah it's a lot of it is about how you land where you land ollie's landed with us we're making him work over time uh this week we're gonna go back and finish our prospect evaluation rankings whatever we want to call them later in the week We're going to talk about the quarterbacks, the running backs, and the tight ends.

1:04:31We already hit the wide receiver. Hit that button. Thank you, Ali. Again, everyone, check out the read optional because most of it's the X's and O's stuff. It's the podcast with John Ledyard. It's the diving deep. If you want to hear way more about all these prospects, you can go there. If you want to hear from me and Jordan doing a mock draft back and forth, we're going to be in your feed next. See you then.

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