Which Fringe Prospects Will SNEAK Into the First Round?

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1:28Robert Mays: Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. We are finishing off our on the clock series today. We've done five shows. The first round split into five parts, six picks, six picks, seven picks, seven picks, whatever it happens to be. We've had a guest on for each of those five shows and the exercise has gone like this. I give them three options with each team and they make the pick based on what they would do if they were on the clock in that scenario. I've really enjoyed this. It's been fun getting everybody's perspective. We have picks 26 through 32 today. The Buffalo Bills through the Seattle Seahawks finishing off the first round of the draft here to help me work through those picks.

2:07Robert Mays: It is EJ Snyder and Brett Coleman from the bootleg football podcast. Two guys I have known for a very long time. Two guys I'm very excited to have on this show. Really enjoyed this conversation. It was a fun one. These guys are just real drasticos. They are obsessed with this stuff. I think they really liked digging into it. I really loved their insights on pretty much every single way that these teams could go with the different positions. They might be weighing the different considerations between guys at those positions. So really, really enjoyed this conversation. Wanted to mention before we get into the show today, just a quick reminder this Thursday on the athletic football show, YouTube channel, 7 30 PM.

2:45Robert Mays: Eastern are live stream for round one of the 2026 NFL draft. one of my favorite nights of the entire year we've now been doing it this is our sixth one 2021 was the first one we ever did it was me and nate at in a hotel room in river north in chicago with like three iphones one of them died during the recording it was just a complete mess that thing went up on youtube you can go watch it i mean just what it looks like compared to what we're going to be doing in the studio this year is a vastly different world i've loved it as a measure of how far the show has come and how much it's grown but i also just love doing the show each year this year we are trotting out the same group we had last year plus dave hellman so we've got the guy dain brugler for every single pick live analysis for every single pick bruce feldman is going to join us again like he did last year which was absolutely phenomenal derrick classen dave hellman and myself that's night one night two we're doing the same thing all over again bruce is not going to be there but we still got dane we still got dave we still got derrick we We'll be giving you live reactions analysis for every single pick in rounds two and three.

3:52Robert Mays: So put it on your calendar, 7.30 p.m. Eastern, the Athletic Football Show YouTube channel. Every pick in the first round, live reaction analysis with me, Dane, Dave, Bruce, and Derek. For now, let's get to the show with me, EJ, and Brett, breaking down picks 26 through 32 in the first round.

4:19Robert Mays: Finishing out our On the Clock series today with picks 26 through 32. I always enjoy finishing up these shows because at the end of it, you get a 32-pick mock draft. It looks like it was done with five different people, and it goes in a bunch of different directions, but it's still a fun little reward waiting at the end of this exercise. Here to help me with the final seven picks of the first round. The first time either of these guys have been on the show somehow, which it's a mistake on my end, But I'm very excited that I was finally able to make it happen. From the Bootleg Football Podcast, it's Brett Coleman and EJ Snyder.

4:52Robert Mays: Gentlemen, how are you guys doing? We're doing great, man. And I want to thank you for having us on, despite you being a road warrior this week, you know, trying to do a podcast setup in a hotel room across the country. I've lived that life before. Believe me, we know how hard that is. We appreciate you. I am in an Airbnb in Palm Springs. and it has been a while since I've had internet connection that has forced me to be creative in the way that we're handling a podcast. That's why this episode is not on YouTube. A bunch of different things that you have to worry about when you're doing this stuff remotely.

5:22Robert Mays: But Nine Inch Nails is playing at Coachella and what am I supposed to do? I had to be here. You kind of have no choice here. Yeah, exactly. Your hands are tied. You need to go. A man's got to do what he's got to do. Yeah, I mean, you got to see that show. Very excited about having both of you. Everyone who's listened to the first four episodes of this, we know how it goes, right? So I'm going to give you guys three different options for each of these teams when they're on the clock. I want your choices to be what you would do in this scenario. And you guys do not have to come to a consensus opinion.

5:53Robert Mays: I actually think that's a more fun way to do this. If you disagree, that's the better way that this is going to go. I was talking to Brett a little bit yesterday about this. This stretch is fun because when you're getting to the better teams in the league, the teams picking at the end of the first round, In theory, these are some of the teams with fewer glaring holes. And so you could go in several different directions with this pick. And so I feel like I had a little bit of a hard time narrowing down the options for these. But I think that it's going to make it even more interesting. When you guys went through the first 25 picks, because I sent both of them to you.

6:29Robert Mays: Was there anybody among those picks, Brett, that you thought was either A, surprising, or B, you were a little bit disappointed because when you had thought about this range of the draft, you had often paired that player with one of the teams that we were going to talk about? I found your 14-15 of Venga Iwane falling to the Bucs, but more importantly, getting past Baltimore. I found that fascinating. And I understand, okay, Kenyon Sadiq's on the board. We love that. But Baltimore Ravens fans have gone through, let's just say some trials and tribulations with Daniel Falele and to have the potential solution on the board, the first real solution they've had, like high-end solution they've had at the guard spot since like Yanda retired and them going tight end.

7:18I found that fascinating.

7:21Robert Mays: Yeah, I was also a little bit surprised by that one. I think, I'm curious what you think about this, EJ. The idea of Kenyon Sadiq in Baltimore, I think it makes sense when you just consider it from like a macro perspective of if you look at what Deco and Doyle did and you look at the amount of 12 personnel and the fact that Durham Smythe is currently their number two tight end he was literally the number three tight end on the team that Deco Doyle coached last year so in your mind it's like well he'll just bump down to be the number three tight end we need a number two guy to like actually make this go the Bears drafted Colson Loveham last year but when you think about Kenny and Sadiq's skill set with Mark Andrews like is either of them the type of inline tight end that would kind of be one of the pillars of that strategy?

7:59Robert Mays: Or do we feel like there might be a little bit of redundancy with those two guys if that was the way that Baltimore decided to go? Yeah, it's incredibly timely because I had volunteered a couple of weeks ago for an expert mock draft, and they said, what pick do you want? And they gave me the options, and I said, I'll take Ravens. Completely forgot about it because, yep, gestures and everything. And I got pinged last night, and they were like, hey, you're up in that mock draft. And I was like, oh, wait, oh, Ravens, okay. So he sends me the board, just like you did, and both Sadiq and Juana are on there.

8:29And I was like, oh, man, I want to go Sadiq so bad. But if I do it, I'm just going to hurt my own heart. So I picked Vega for the Ravens. And in terms of Sadiq in the offense with Declan Doyle, if you can't fit Sadiq into your offense, I'm not really sure I want your offense because he's a better blocker than most people give him credit for. He bows up. He gives a lot of effort, and these are similar conversations we had to Colson Loveland last year. Everybody's like, oh, he's a great receiver, so he can't block. And I was like, uh-uh, he can block. Go watch the tape. It's not necessarily digging out defensive ends.

9:04But if you look at – everybody says wide receiver for the Ravens. I get it. But Kenny Sadiq brings you a lot of that functionality in the same way that Colson Loveland brought that functionality to Ben. Declan saw all that, and if he can't plug Sadiq into that offense and make it go, I'm kind of I'm not looking at Sadiq is the problem.

9:24Robert Mays: You want to end Sadiq at 14 is like you walk into a food court at lunch and in one spot you can get a salad and at one spot you can get a burger and the burger looks so good and it smells so good. But, you know, if you eat it, you're going to feel so sluggish and tired in like two hours and be unable to finish the day. And so the salad is not more appealing in the moment. But when you eat it, you know that it was the right choice like two hours afterward. that that to me feels like the choice between like a sexy tight end and the best guard in the draft at 14 if you're the ravens i love the analogy a healthy salad in a salad covered with dressing that's actually way more calories than the burger would be all these croutons all over it yeah i love the analogy but the fact that we're comparing a guard to a salad not a burger seems so wrong to me that is true that is insulting all right let's get to all the let's get to the picks here let's start with the buffalo bills at 26 So with some of these guys, I'm going to open the door for you guys to at least fight for other players at the position.

10:25Robert Mays: Because that could be a flavor thing. And so we could talk through the different options at some of the positions specifically. But I think this is more about giving you the positions and then we can work through the players specifically as we go through it. So for the Bills at 26, option one is draft Malachi Lawrence from UCF. So the edge rusher bucket among all the guys that are available there. Dane gave Lawrence to them in his seven round mock. We can talk about the other potential edges here too, because there are still a bunch of them available. Option two is draft Casey Concepcion from Texas A &M.

10:56Robert Mays: Again, there are other receivers here that we can discuss, but Concepcion getting to 26 here, the idea of him playing with Josh Allen, I don't know. It makes me tingly. I'm very excited about that, even after they traded for DJ Moore. Option three, speaking of eating your vegetables, is actually draft Chase Besontes. at 26, which I believe I can't, I think somebody did this. I want to say maybe in Fran's seven round mock that he released today, he did this, but I think I saw somebody put Basontas to the bills at 26. Obviously David Edwards moves on in free agency. This allows you to keep a strength, the strength.

11:35Robert Mays: And, you know, I think if you drop him in there and you can still really rely on that offensive line to be the engine of your team, that's at least a little bit appealing to me. So that's what we got, Brett. We got draft Malachi Lawrence from UCF, draft Casey Concepcion, or draft Chase Passontis, the guard from Texas A &M. You tell me what you are doing if you are the Buffalo Bills at 26. EJ, I don't know about you, but I'm between Casey and Chase on this one. And it's not that I'm anti-Malachi Lawrence. It's just if I was going to go edge, there were other edges on the board that I'd probably be looking at for them.

12:10I'm looking at TJ Parker. I'm looking at Keldrick Fogg. Yeah, let's have that discussion. Yeah, because I didn't have any of those players in my stack, Robert, for the Bills. Interesting. Who would be the top of the list for you? So guard, I would go guard, not center, and I would make an Emmanuel Pregnant because I'm looking at the depth chart and Alec Anderson is there and Alec Anderson is not stopping me in any way from picking an Emmanuel Pregnant. At DT, McDonald, I'm less hot on that pick. At defensive end or edge, Falk and Parker, the power guys, were the guys that Brett brought up, and they were on my list as well.

12:51The possibility of inside linebacker, but I don't love CJ Allen enough to do it at this spot. And then McNeil-Warren because they could use some safety help too, and he's still on the board. So that was my stack, and it didn't include any of the three players that you brought up, so there you go. Well, I'm thinking about McNeil-Warren for big nickel too. That's, you know.

13:09Robert Mays: And that was so here's my thing with Lawrence. And if I were picking for the Bills two years ago, I think Falk would have been the first name and TJ Parker. Those are the names that would have brought up. I'm just wondering, are we looking at a different flavor of past rusher here now that we have Jim Leonard in there versus what we've seen the Bills do at that spot? During the entire Brandon Bean era, just because we're moving to a different defense with potentially different priorities. I don't know, Brett, necessarily how to weigh that at this point. And so I think that's why I was more inclined to throw out a Lawrence versus a Keldrick Falk, who is exactly the player that I would have mentioned, maybe along with TJ Parker, if we had done this exercise a year ago.

13:48i am so another part of the the jim leonard discussion is jim is so good at manufacturing pressure even without having a quote-unquote guy at edge like he he throws all sorts of of crazy pressures or even simulated pressures at you like he will kind of poke and prod throughout the game to understand okay if we show you this look here's the protection we think we're gonna get But he's very famous for how well he charts offenses for down and distance and field position. I trust him to get pass rush out of this group, even though they don't really have any great pass rushers. They sure don't. So it's one of those where it's like, could they dip into the day two edge group here, which there's a bunch of them, and get similar production?

14:45compared to what I think they could get out of the day two receivers, or rather the flavor of day two receivers that are like Casey Concepcion, who, by the way, is like super bilsy as a receiver. Like EJ and I have talked about this on our show. Like out of all the receivers in this class, Casey might be the most bilsy one. Oh, boy, this is tough. Are we sure that's a good thing at this point? Yeah, fair. I do kind of like I do kind of like Besantis just as out of these options I like Besantis just because I'm really worried about the identity of this team shifting too much away from we have a great offensive line we run the ball well we're going to be the python, the boa constrictor we're going to rely on Josh to make five plays for us a game but the rest of it is just we're going to pound you into dust I worry if they get away from that identity on offense they don't really have the personnel to make other styles work that's kind of why i like

15:45Robert Mays: it because it just feels like they've done so many things early in the draft especially in the first round where they've had these like theoretical ideas for what those picks were going to be and the pass catchers are obviously the first place you point to with that where it's just like we're going to draft dalton kincaid and we're going to play this like 11 and a half personnel we're going to be this matchup nightmare. We're going to do this and we're going to do that. And we're going to draft Keon Coleman. And even though he struggles against press coverage is like a true X receiver, we're still going to use him that way because he has the body type and we're going to play this thing where everybody eats and we're going to have all these different kinds of guys.

16:18Robert Mays: And it's just like, you know what? This let's draft the guard who we can drop in the middle of this thing. And just, we know this is going to align with the way we've been in the way we want to be. And you never want to call any picks safe but part of me just feels like this is one where you can pencil it in and just feel good about how it aligns and there's less guesswork involved with how this is supposed to fit into who you want to be as a team than a lot of the directions that this team has gone early in the draft over the last four or five years yeah and you've got a rookie head coach who is an offensive mind and that plays in like it played in with ben last year it plays in with Joe Brady this year.

16:57Yes, he's been with the Bills, but this is his first draft when he is the man. He is in charge. I mean, as much as you might believe that, Bean might say something different, but I think it does matter. And same thing, if I'm going to walk away from day one of the draft as the Bills and sleep well, for me, it's Emmanuel Pregnant. I have him rated higher than Basantes. He fits the tenor of this city, of this team. He's an absolute mauler. He's better in the pass protection than people think he is. He did not give up a lot of pressures at Oregon last year, and he is just an absolute piece of granite as a human being.

17:33Stood next to that guy twice now, the Oregon Pro Dan at the Combine, and there isn't, it's hard for me to think of anybody in this draft that's built better than him. Well, Besantis is also a freak athlete, and while I think Pregnant is better right now, I could see the path where Besantis ends up being even better in the NFL just because he's so untapped, which unfortunately tends to happen with A &M players these days, where it's like they go to A &M and you see the potential and you're like, why are they better in the NFL than in college? Why wasn't Texas A &M national champ last year? I mean, look at all the talent.

18:11They're going to have like 14 guys drafted this year, and it's like, really? They didn't go that far in the playoffs? All right. So, yeah, we'll go besides this. I know some people say safe. I say practical. All right.

18:22Robert Mays: I like it. I, as I, my full throated support of it, as I started talking myself into it more and more. Okay. Uh, the other, you mentioned defensive tackle, I think is a position worth throwing out. I think Dan Walker was promising as a rookie. They love him. Like, I mean, they, they've, they loved him since day one. I think they really want him to work out and be a thing. And so I think he's going to give, get every opportunity to be a really important part of what they're doing. And they drafted TJ Sanders in the second round last year. I mean, you think about all the resources they threw at the interior defensive line.

18:51Robert Mays: so in theory they can probably use another body do they do it early i think is a worthwhile question and then again receiver edge rusher i'm with you a little bit right about the just the idea that they can manufacture pressure that's always a little bit scary to me and i know my crack that i made is partly in jest i know they signed bradley chubb at free agency i'm aware of that i i am aware that bradley chubb is on the roster listen that's a i i think they paid a healthy amount for him i also think if he stays healthy he can be an effective useful player for them I just think there are a lot of questions about the first caveat associated with that.

19:25Robert Mays: All right. So we have Chase Besontas to the Bills at 26. The San Francisco 49ers picking at 27. Option one is draft Keldrick Falk or your best available edge. And if it is not Falk, we can talk about that. But again, we get back to body types. This one is like they drafted Mikkel Williams last year. Let's go with the other young, long guy and just throw him into the mix. You still have Keon White there, but he's in the final year of his rookie deal. Williams is coming off that torn ACL. And so you could absolutely make an argument that edge is still a need for the Niners, even after drafting one in the first last year.

19:58Option two is draft Max Ahonichor. Okay.

20:05Robert Mays: Trent Williams in the final year of his deal, you know, obviously a lot of smoke about that$46 million cap at this year, they've got to find a successor at some point. And I feel like it's easier to do that a year early. This also seems like the draft where you may be able to do it just with the tackle options that might be on the board here. We can also talk about other tackle options. I think Blake Miller is probably the other guy that's still on the board here after some of the ones that just went off the show we did with Mike Reiner last week. Option three, he's back, is draft KC Concepcion.

20:38There are going to be guys at this point that are going to sort of cascade until you pick them. It's like, well, he's an option. Didn't pick them. He's an option. Didn't pick them. And that's going to happen for a bunch of guys here. it was funny i know what i prefer though each i mean i robert you know this better than almost anybody tackles don't hit free agency it's actually kind of a miracle they got trent in the first place well they had to trade for good i mean

21:07Robert Mays: yeah they didn't have to trade and that's only just because they still had to trade for him and i if there was a different owner of that franchise at that time it probably wouldn't have happened in the first place and the niners never would have got trent in the first place which means their offense probably wouldn't have been as good which means they probably wouldn't have gone on these playoff runs to begin with and i can count actually i can count on more than one hand the amount of games especially big games over the last few years that i think colton McKibbitt's has cost this team now was he better in 2025 sure do I care that much not really and to your point you also need a Trent successor and any you're not going to get that Trent successor in free agency because good tackles don't hit free agency or very rarely hit free agency I mean Dan Moore got 20 million dollars what are we doing here so EJ I don't know about you I favor Janitor here just because who better to learn under than Trent he's still new to football and he's already this good absolute freak of nature athlete he's gonna go in the first round like he's not getting past New England in my opinion anyway so this is the perfect range for him if McKivitt beats him out as a rookie fine that's cool with me I I really don't want to look at 2027 for this team in the future for this team, where we're potentially in a post-Trent world anyway, and they have no answers on the roster.

22:44Yeah, I'm not a fan of that approach either. Unlike the Bills, my Niner slate lined up pretty well with the guys you put out there, Robert. Miller and Ahanichor were the two tackles. If I have to choose between them, I'm choosing Max. You mentioned the two bigger edges, Falk and Parker. Again, looking at the roster, this was where I got one of those sort of, oh, huh, moments with a fit that I hadn't had previously. And that's why I love doing these exercises. I think Cassius Howell here is a consideration. Like, if a team knew how to use him, and some of these teams wouldn't because of type or their defensive coordinator or whatever, he doesn't fit in every system.

23:23None of the edges do this year, really. I was like, oh, I really like Ahana Tore here for all the reasons we said. And I would probably lean that way because they do not come available, but neither do premium pass rushers. And if you believe, if John Lynch believes that Cassius Howell is a guy that can get him consistent pressure off the edge, and he's demonstrated that in college, like if they're comfortable with the person and the player, I could see him being a sort of either or here. If it's me, I'd probably take Max because I like him as a player better. I think the raw label has been misapplied.

23:58whenever you have a young athletic tackle who hasn't been in the sport a long time, they go, oh, he's raw. I'm looking at his tape going, look at the top pass rushers again. The age argument is one of my least favorite because I don't know about you guys, but I wasn't aware that if you're starting a 24-year-old player in college, the rule is that the opponent has to start an 18-year-old. I wasn't aware of that, that there was nobody on their side that was 24 or 25 that's been there the same amount of time that they're also going to turn into chopped liver. So anyways, Ahanachor, super high-end ceiling.

24:35And yes, you are getting to the brink here. And I don't want to get to the brink and then be forced to make a move. I would rather have a Max Ahanachor who's been in the system for a year and is ready, maybe wins the job as a rookie outright. That would also be great. But he's nowhere near his ceiling, but he's also not raw. He is technically proficient right now and getting better. And that's a scary thought.

24:55Robert Mays: They paid McKibbitts. and I assume that they're committed to him at least in the near term, right? But this is a scenario where, again, you're getting a year ahead of it. There is no guarantee that Trent doesn't miss time based on how the last couple years have gone and the fact that he's getting a little bit older. So I think the worst case scenario here is you have a swing tackle you feel good about. They signed for Darian Lowe in free agency, and so you have a swing tackle you feel potentially much better about. And every argument we've used about a Hanachor going to a place like Philly, right where he gets to sit and learn for a year the same would be true in a place like san francisco and so i think a lot of the benefits there are the same they would be in any other scenario where he kind of default red shirts for a year so i i agree and the the cash is how thing is interesting because i feel like you can go one of two ways with like an edge you can suggest for the niners you can go with some of the types that they've done before right like last year with mikhail williams or you can say we already have a mikhail williams at home and so why wouldn't we go with somebody who has a little bit more juice as the third person in that address rotation especially as you just lost Bryce Huff to free agency was kind of like a DPR type for you and so I think there are two different thoughts you could apply to what type of address or the Niners might want in a scenario like this but I think I'm with you guys I I don't think they'll do this by the way because I think that they'll do the thing that is fun and appealing and will make them better right now and so the idea of them drafting a receiver i think is more likely than it is them eating their vegetables and taking max a honichur in the first round but we're the ones doing the exercise or you guys are and so i do think this is a very reasonable place to land with a honichur going to the diners like kyle has a soft spot for receivers like he when he can't remember who it was first round receivers and fourth round running backs i can't remember who it was i think it was i think it was ian hartitz the other day joked that i'd like to see and then he listed off all the receivers in the draft and then it said in a shanahan system and my response yeah i i was gonna quote tweet it and and say kyle might take all of them in the first round he might take all 15 even after signing my first round yes i listen they still need one The Christian Kirk's not a one-year deal.

27:19Robert Mays: Like it's them. We joke about it. If they drafted a receiver, they had Concepcionen on a visit this week. If they drafted a receiver in the first round, I wouldn't even blink at it based on their history and based on the way the roster is constructed. But again, I think you can make a really serious argument that it's time. Like we've talked about it for a while when they're going to do this with the tackle. But the way that this lines up, I think you can make a very serious argument that now is the time. I think you could also make a serious argument that Brandon Ayuk nuking the deal to New England ended up hurting the Niners way more than they ever thought it would.

27:55Robert Mays: Absolutely. I mean, we don't talk about that that often. When we think about the sliding doors moments with the Niners, obviously, you think about the Trey Lance stuff and you think about some of the injuries that impacted maybe some of the two or three year team building plans they might have had. We don't really think about the fact that they had at his best, what top 10 receiver in the league based on how he was playing in 2023. And you just remove from the equation and now they have to figure it out again. And they're still like a top 10 offense. It's just all the times where shit like this has happened to this team is absolutely wild.

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31:10Robert Mays: All right, I'm glad I did this. I had four options for the Texans. Option one was draft Chase Besontas if he's available. He is no longer available. Now we're down to three options. Option two, which has become option one for the Houston Texans, is draft your right tackle of choice. That was going to be Max Ahanich or Blake Miller. Now it's probably just Blake Miller. They would save about$2 million if they move on from Braden Smith after this year. So it's not prohibitive by any stretch to do that. I also think there is a world where you could play Braden Smith at guard if you had to. And so I think they're still in a spot, Houston and Brett.

31:46Robert Mays: You have a better insight, more insight on this than I do probably. but I think they're still in a spot where you could argue they're in. Let's find our best five mode, whoever that best five happens to be. So right. Tackle of choice, probably Blake Miller in this spot is option. One option. Two is draft Caden McDonald from Ohio state. We can talk about other defensive linemen here. If you guys like another one better than that, we can talk about the edges here too. Like this is one of those where defense tackle is probably a bigger need right now than edge, but they still need a third edge rusher.

32:18Robert Mays: and this might be the spot to find one. They also have picks 38, 59, and 69 in this draft. And so how they handle that stuff positionally is going to be interesting. Like the idea of them getting Zion Young at 38 and not going edge here, like that is a scenario you could easily see play out, something like that. And so I didn't feel as compelled to put edge rusher as one of the options. So draft Cade McDonald was option two. We can talk through that. As I'd say that, but now draft Keldrick Falk or your best available edge is option three. I forgot that all my caveats with the Cade McDonald thing was if we included Besontas and we didn't.

32:51Robert Mays: So draft Kedrick Falk or your best available edges option three. So we've got right tackle of choice, draft Cade McDonald, or draft Keldrick Falk as your three options for the Texans. EJ, what are you doing here? Well, Besontas was also my top option, again, off the board. Defensive tackle I did list. I know Brett doesn't love McDonald, so I put McDonald on there just to kind of needle him a little bit. I saw him wince. I saw him wince when I mentioned McDonald. We can talk about the other defensive tackles here if that makes you feel better, Brett. No, here's the thing is I love Caden McDonald.

33:22I just know that the Texans are going to draft not Caden McDonald because they want somebody who can be both a three or do like the two-eye, you know, no shade stuff because they move guys all over the place. I love Caden McDonald. They want somebody who I think is more role versatile, which the wince is just me acknowledging that it's just not going to happen, even though I love the player. Go ahead. Say his name. Say the other one. It's Kristen Miller. There you go. It's Kristen Miller. Press the button. They could be a Banks team, but the medicals, I'm not. Can I throw one out at both of you guys?

34:01Because this is something. The Texans always tend to do at least one thing during the draft that nobody sees coming.

34:06Robert Mays: They are weird. They are a weirdly weird drafting team, like a surprisingly weird drafting team that we don't talk about that much. But then you check why they did something. Oh, that actually makes perfect sense. Do people realize that after this season, they have four linebackers whose contracts are expiring? I was going to throw that out as a potential option, off-ball linebacker. Do you think if you were the Texans, that would be one of the top three or four that you'd be thinking about here? I just know D 'Amico, and he's going to watch Jacob Rodriguez and say, oh man that's my guy that's my that's my guy and I think that they are going to retain Aziz because Aziz is going to be 30 or yeah I think he's turning 30 this season but Jake Hansen has one year left on his deal Toto has one year left on his deal like basically the entire linebacking corps including Aziz has one year left and they got to figure out giving Will Anderson like equity in the team because that's what's going to cost to retain him we don't know jay stroud but we know what the going rate for quarterbacks is whether or not he's worthy of that money i don't really think that matters anymore uh the nico collins extension was kind of a baby extension that was a three-year deal so that's coming sooner than you think stingley was the same way that was a three-year extension that's probably going to have to be done in a year or two so uh you know daniel hunter just keeps getting these one year top of market extensions over and over and over again they have a lot of money in this team Lassiter's gonna have to get paid Bullock's gonna have to get paid I don't think that they're gonna pay more than one linebacker and so Jacob Rodriguez who very easily could start for this team anyway even over tooto I was gonna say that like I don't know if Henry tooto even this year is preventing you from picking a linebacker here if you loved one not really and I I would be totally cool with handing the green dot over to him from Aziz, you know, and I know D 'Amico loves Aziz, but like we got some hard decisions to make and I, I could see them doing that and then hitting DT on day two.

36:15EJ, I'm going to, how do you feel about this?

36:18Robert Mays: Would you be comfortable with Jacob Rodriguez being the solution here? The only reason I'm going to let you guys hijack the exercise this way is because Besontas wasn't available. And so we already started in a weird spot with the Texans. If you feel good about Jacob Rodriguez, I will allow you to step outside of the parameters here and put Jacob Rodriguez on the Texans. I'm feeling generous. A, I love the leeway. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It's a wonderful professional courtesy. I love the idea of if I love Jacob Rodriguez. It's like his favorite player in the draft. He's literally my draft crush.

36:54He's one of the first guys I ever mentioned on our show back in November. um weirdly enough this is just an odd one I'm on the field at the combine and I try and stay out everybody's way because it's a job interview like they have this is possibly one of the most important days of their life so I'm just around the edges I'm just observing and moving and you know I'm not interacting with guys for the most part unless I already know them or I talk to them and then you know maybe I met him at shrine or something and I'll say hi and that's it I'm walking around end of the day and the linebackers are doing agility drills after everything else so most people have left cameras are off and you know, Jacob Rodriguez is there and he's cheering all his guys on in his group.

37:33And, and he's hilarious dude. And he's walking between drills and he just literally walks up to me and goes, Hey, I'm Jacob. And I was like, huh? I'm EJ Snyder. I'm from bootleg football. And I said, strangely enough, I did a thing on you in November. And he just starts talking to me like I'm his buddy and great guy. And Hey, I was super surprised because on the field, he's mean and that is complimentary he wants to hit you and off field couldn't be a nicer guy whatever but i i said this to brett immediately after i said man if that guy ends up in navy and orange i'm gonna lose it like he would be so perfect the bears but the problem is he went out and ran times right then at the 11th hour that completely put him out of their range because i think 25 is a little early uh you know but i would have no problem especially with domico because this is going to be catnip for D 'Amico.

38:27He's going to look at Jacob Rodriguez, the person, the player, the leader, the turnover machine, seven forced fumbles, four interceptions just last season, 70 stops for him in 14 games. That's an average of five a game. He had one game with eight. That's more than some guys get in half a season. This is an explosive defensive player who is also a great leader and a great person. Yeah, I can see D 'Amico going, I like my Blake Millers. I love my Jacob Rodriguez's.

38:55Robert Mays: I really haven't thought about linebacker as like a thing that could even further accelerate the Texans defense. But when you just think about the unit overall, we think about like, where are the spots where like, Oh, we can get a little bit better here. And maybe that gives it a slightly different feel like linebacker is one of those spots. And so you guys have talked me into this. I'm allowing it to happen. Jacob Rodriguez to the Texans at 28, uh, as part of our final on the clock show here, let's get to the Kansas city chiefs at 29, a bit of context. They took Caleb downs earlier in this exercise, us, which was a fun pick.

39:26Robert Mays: I think that, again, when we do it this way where the person on the other side gets to do the selecting, sometimes you're going to have options or choices that are maybe a little bit different than what the consensus has been as we're trying to pair players with teams and what they would do. And so Caleb Downs went to the Chiefs at nine. I believe it was Jordan Reed who was on that show. So your three options for the Kansas City Chiefs at number 29. Option A is draft Downs All-Boston. or draft Casey Concepcion if he's available. That response is exactly what I thought and felt the first time I thought about Denzel Boston on the Chiefs after watching him.

40:04Robert Mays: The first thing I did after watching him was like, that's it. All I wanted them to do in free agency was sign Jawan Jennings or sign Mike Evans or just do something to get them a big-bodied receiver. And so I have thought about this a lot, and that's why I'm putting it out there. Denzel Boston to Kansas City at 29. option two is draft TJ Parker after not going edge at nine going potentially going edge here at 29. We can also talk through the other edges available here if you guys want to, but let's put TJ Parker in there for now. Option three is sign Chris Johnson. You traded away one of your corners.

40:41Robert Mays: You let another one go in free agency. So Chris Johnson at corner is option three. We can also talk right tackle here. If you guys want to as a potential option, Obviously, Jalen Moore there now, but this is on the final year of his deal. First round picks is where you often find those players. Do they use one of them on a right tackle in the future, even if it's not as glaring of a need? So three options for the Chiefs. Draft Denzel Boston, draft TJ Parker, draft Chris Johnson. Brett, what do you got for me? So I understand, again, we think about drafting the salad, but boy, I want poutine. and Denzel Boston would just be a delicious, delicious poutine.

41:23That does sound really good right now. Jay, talk me out of this because I know what I want to do. I don't know if I can because this one, Robert, we see exactly the same. Literally my list, Boston or Concepcion. Defensive edge would be Parker or Falk and in that order. I also put Cassius Howell here as an edge if they want more of a fireballer, but Chris Johnson is my other favorite son in this draft. So I could see the fit really well, but the Denzel Boston thing specifically in terms of Pat being back and having that type of receiver on the boundary. And I know a lot of people have said things about Denzel Boston in terms of what he can't do.

42:05And I'm like, you got to go back to the film and watch what he can do because he does a lot of things at a high level. He is not a one trick pony. He is not complete. I don't think any receiver in this draft is truly complete, even all the way up to the top with Carnell Tate. But Boston is and has been, for all the guys that are worried about breakout age and production and whatever, he has been the guy. They focused on it. Everybody knew he was the guy. He still had production. Side note on Boston, I was at the UW Pro Day, and I believe NFL Films was doing little documentaries on four different players.

42:37And I happened to know somebody that knew the producer that was doing it. And I said, who is this? And he said, oh, that's Rachel. You should go meet her. She's great. And so I went up and introduced myself. And I just took the opportunity to say, oh, have you been following Denzel the whole time? Or have you rotated to some of the other players? And they said, no. Basically, since right after the season ended, we've done, you know, almost four weeks with Denzel Boston following family and workouts and everything else. I was like, oh, how's he been? You know, always a good question to ask. And she raved about him, said he is the light in every room that he walks into.

43:08Doesn't matter if it's his high school locker room. Doesn't matter if it's his family's living room. Doesn't matter if it's his locker room at UW. He has been up and down the board, just an ideal guy, which kind of makes him, I don't know, anti-Chiefs. I know some Chiefs fans are going to get mad about that. I was going to say, I'm actually lower him on the Chiefs board a little bit. But in terms of a fit on the football field, I think he is more versatile than a lot of people give him credit for. And he is very, very good at being that dominant outside X, throw it up when you need it, third and seven.

43:37And the Chiefs haven't necessarily had that. They've had it sometimes when Rice is on the field, but that hasn't been a count on. And look, Boston comes in and provides that for them. And I think potentially complementary players.

43:49Robert Mays: I think, again, it's funny because Rice kind of, when Rice came into the draft, it felt like he might be that guy. And then they just never used him that way. That was never what he was in the NFL. It was just like, very few times was there a bigger, and again, I don't do this the way that you guys do, But very few times over the last five or so years, would I say there was a bigger gap between NFL deployment and what I thought a player would be coming into the league than what Rasheed Rice has been for the Kansas City Chiefs during his time there? 100%. It was a hard right. So I love the idea that they are complimentary because I believe they are.

44:22And it's also therefore something the Chiefs have been missing. We thought they were going to get it with Rice. They kind of got it in a different way. But that sort of need is still there. And you can literally just drop Denzel Boston in there. and kind of, I think we're all just shuddering at the thought.

44:37Robert Mays: I'm so glad that you guys support this because as soon as I thought about it for the first time, I was just completely obsessed with it. And to see other people often, or to see other people also have it hit their brains in a way that's pleasing really does make me happy. So let's do that. You're talking about that lead up to the draft, EJ, it's funny. I haven't thought about this in a long time, but the story that essentially started my career, I somehow, when I was 21, I convinced Jeremy McElwain to let me follow him around for four months before the draft and so I like was at all of his workouts I was like what with his family like in those few months I vividly remember uh it was 2009 and American Idol was still big then and they're during they did like a Michael Jackson night on American Idol and I remember being in Jeremy's apartment with him and Sean Weatherspoon watching the Michael Jackson night episode of American Idol and like So I just spent like those months with Jeremy Macklin.

45:34Robert Mays: Like he just let me hang out with him. And I wrote this huge story about it. And I think in part because of that experience, but also just because we don't, I don't do this nearly often enough. Like this is such an incredible moment in these guys' lives to like to build to this place and have your life changed forever. And I always was so interested in that period. And so when I was writing more, I wrote a pre-draft profile of a guy every single year. I spent time with Danny Shelton one year. I spent time with Leighton Van Der Esch one year. I spent time with Brandon Cooks one year. And it really is just such a cool time.

46:07Robert Mays: And so the idea that NFL films would just be like following Denzel Boston around, they're like, we're going to chronicle these few months. And at the end of it, it's going to be this really cool moment. I don't often think enough about how much I appreciate that process for these guys, because it is really fucking cool. Yeah, it's a three month whirlwind, sometimes more than three months. you know if guys shut it down early or if they play for a team that only plays 12 college games sometimes they start in like November but for a lot of guys especially now like some of them don't even really start their process until the last week of January you know when they're done with the natty like all the Indiana guys they basically went straight from the natty to like all-star games and combine prep and you know it's it's been an actual whirlwind for them the entire time and it's it's a blur you know anytime i've ever talked to a prospect about like what they're going through in this time like they can't even remember what day it is and it's like that for two and a half months straight they're truly all the same there's no difference between the days and it's like they all blend together you're on a plane going to all these visits it's like it is a crazy crazy time and i was there on draft day i mean i'll never forget it i was there during 2009 draft i was there in his he had kind of an adoptive family that he lived with in St.

47:24Robert Mays: Louis and we were I was there on draft day and like watching him fall a little bit and just like seeing that process and just like it was a crazy crazy experience and so it is often important and I don't do it nearly often enough to kind of recenter the human aspect of like what this looks like for these guys and again I think that as we play like let's put our GM our GM hats on and like the way that we do and we like to do, sometimes that gets missed. And I think it's important to kind of recenter that as often as we can. You were there on draft night when a receiver went to an Andy Reid team and you probably told him like, hey, man, you went to Andy, you're going to be fine.

47:59Same thing with Denzel Boston. You went to Andy, you're going to be all right.

48:02Robert Mays: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Bring it all back around. All right, let's take one more quick break here and then come back and chat about our last three teams.

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49:44Robert Mays: The Miami Dolphins at 30 are a hard team to do this for because even after taking Spencer Fano with their first first round pick in this exercise, they have needs at every position. So you could go any direction that you want here. At the same time, I still feel pretty good about these three options based on how the board has fallen and who's left option one he's back draft casey concepcion if he's available told you and honestly if you're miami and we can talk through this the idea that there are a lot of people like i will throw mckay lemon to them at 11 if you can come back after drafting spencer final at 11 and casey concepcion is here at 30 i think you'd feel pretty darn good about that outcome if you were the option two is draft TJ Parker.

50:33Robert Mays: We can talk about the other option at edge here too, but edge is a screaming massive need for this team. Like go, go look at the dolphins current edge depth chart other than shop Robinson. Oh, go, go take a look at it and see where we're at right now. They absolutely need some bodies. They're not an Uche fan. Come on. Listen, I, we all had our moment where we were excited about Josh Uche's career, but right now I'm not sure he would be a week one starter for you if you were doing it the right way option three you're the miami dolphins is draft chris johnson the quarterback so those are your three options if you're miami draft casey concepcion draft tj parker slash other edges we can talk about or draft chris johnson brett what are you doing if you're miami you've clearly watched a lot of jeff halfley the fact that you put chris johnson there because you're like okay yes can i find an off zone corner with incredible ball skills and production and instincts and just plop him into a system that's just going to let him do that every single play.

51:37Boy, what a fit. I do have a higher grade on Colton Hood, but as far as fit, like Chris Johnson fits better. But at the same time, I know that this team wants to draft size. Like they want to get bigger. They want to get stronger. Like that's been their mantra the entire offseason. John Eric Sullivan had that quote that I love, and I really do think that he's going to live by it, which is, strong doesn't get weak, but fast gets slow. They want strength. They want power, which would be TJ Parker. But at the same time, how do you feel about Tutu Atwell and Jalen Tolbert being their week one starters or receiver?

52:19That's what I said at the beginning.

52:20Robert Mays: I mean, it's just like in so many positions, you could make an argument that this is the way that they should go. So I think early on in a rebuild, my mind always just defaults to like, let's just take the trench players. Let's just take the trench players. Like if we can go any single direction, let's just take the trench players. But I also really like Casey Concepcio. And I feel like him as like the first receiver that you want to build that room around because you don't have much work in right now. I also compared him to Jalen Waddle. When I was watching him, I was like, he kind of moves like Jalen Waddle.

52:49Robert Mays: He's a little bigger. He's not quite as fast, but I could see the deployment in the NFL, like the right deployment being similar to how a team used Jalen Waddell. And so just drafting him with the pick that you got in trading for Jalen Waddell, there's almost like a weird symmetry there that I appreciate. So I understand all of the arguments here, and I think there's a compelling one for pretty much every single one of them. EJ, where's your head at right now with this? It lines up pretty well, but you said trench player, and I got to remind you, they already took one. So we've already eaten the vegetables.

53:19One of my favorites.

53:21Robert Mays: Listen, this team is at a nutrient deficit, my friend. You don't have to spend, you can have it two straight meals. It is acceptable. Yeah, no, but they, like you said, they can eat in any of these other categories. And honestly, the first reaction for me here with the Dolphins is the board lined up well because we have so many needs and there are great players at every piece. Love Concepcion, love the fit. Like you, I compared him to Waddle. Love Chris Johnson, love the fit. already talked about the player. This would be one of the better situations to drop him into. And we talk about situation being so important for rookie success.

53:57Chris Johnson would be a natural here. TJ Parker, sure, he's got power. They need it badly. I'm going to throw a curveball in. Quick, name the starting safeties for the Dolphins. I dare you. Oh, God. I think Dante Trader is one of them.

54:16Robert Mays: Isn't Lonnie Johnson there right now? Yeah, we did it. You two might be the only ones who could possibly do that ever. I could ask 15 other people today. They wouldn't get one. You got both. Nice job, fellas. I can't describe to you how just warped my brain is. The way that I do that, by the way, is that I literally picture the RLADS page. I could tell you where Lonnie Johnson's name is on the RLADS page, like how far down it is. I think it's in all caps. Isn't it all caps? So you're McVeigh. Yeah, you have an eidetic memory, but just for depth charts. That's it. That's truly it. It's the one thing I can remember that way.

54:58So you're the McVeigh of depth charts. Let's just narrow it down. Terrifying. It's terrifying. Do either of those safeties, going back to Brett's quote about size, keep you from drafting Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, who's on the board here?

55:13Robert Mays: I was going to potentially throw him out as an option, And so I don't hate this at all. Yeah, you don't have a bad option with the Dolphins, right? You need receiver. Concepcion, great fit, awesome player. You need corner. Chris Johnson, great fit, awesome player. You need safety badly. Manuel McMill Warren, great fit, awesome player. That reminds me, quite frankly, of several Green Bay safeties, except maybe a little bit bigger, which is kind of scary. And TJ Parker, you couldn't go wrong, but I think he probably comes in fourth in this conversation for me because of price of those positions outside of safety.

55:49Certainly wide receiver and corner are more expensive or as expensive as edge. And I think they're better players, right? I think Chris Johnson is a better corner than TJ Parker is an edge. I think Concepcion is a better wide receiver than TJ Parker is an edge. McNair Warren, a better safety, safety a less important position, but also just talent-wise, I have him ranked above all of those guys. So in terms of like, just like in general consensus, if we have needs everywhere and we're just literally taking the best player where we can plug him in and he's going to give this impact, you know, that would be purely BPA would be McNeil Warren for me.

56:30Robert Mays: Let me play devil's advocate. This draft, as far as I understand it, there's some depth at safety. I may or may not have thought about this as a team. I got the roots for a team that needs a safety and has two second round picks. so if there is a little bit more depth at safety in this draft and i think that even if you like some of the day two receivers they are all like notably flawed in some way shape or form in a way that i don't think casey concepcion is and so i think the drop off from concepcion to the receiver options after him and the drop off from mcneil warren to the safety options after him there's a bigger gap for concepcion in the fields than there is at safety correct and so that to me is neither another argument for wanting Casey Concepcion here versus an Emmanuel McGill Warren.

57:15Yeah, I think you're correct. And I think it's a similar drop after Chris Johnson. Like there's other corners I like, but Chris Johnson is easily one of the top four corners in this draft for me. But again, it's do you want your quarterback who you just paid a bunch of money to succeed? Like Chris Johnson's not going to help him as much as Casey Concepcion is on the field. So So that piece of the political piece of team building of, hey, what do we want to do and what do we really believe about Malik? Are we going to push the pedal to the floor and stack the board for him? If so, I think it stacks Concepcion, Chris Johnson, Manuel McNeil Warren, and then TJ Parker as sort of a distant fourth.

57:56Robert Mays: You feel good about that, Brett? I'm cool with Casey here. Yeah, I'm cool with Casey here. Plus he gives me special teams value. He's one of the best punt returners in college football. Like just watch the LSU game. He absolutely destroyed them on special teams. It's one of those things. I think sometimes we can get a little bit too enamored with how guys move in the punt return game as a way to extrapolate what they can do in other areas. But if you want to see like what Casey Concepcion looks like with the ball in his hands and that's in like in the open field, the vision, the punt return stuff is where it really does shine through.

58:25Robert Mays: You also see it elsewhere. It's not just there. Like it does translate to what he looks like on offense. But the punt return stuff is absolutely beautiful. the one name that we did not mention at all and I was going to kind of throw him out there as a as like other side of the coin guy to TJ Parker what do we think about Keldrick Falk here as a potential option if I had thrown him out instead of Parker is that more attractive to you Brett than a TJ Parker would be for the Dolphins or less I would I would say it's roughly the same as far as like what they bring at the table right now I think Parker is higher upside as a pass rusher, but I also acknowledge he's not there yet.

59:03And Falk, same thing. Great run defender immediately, not there as a pass rusher. We're still counting on Chop either way to be the guy. And if you're looking at how Halfley ran that defense in Green Bay, he wasn't getting a whole lot of pass rush out of anybody other than Micah. And so on third down, because he didn't just want Micah to live in Chip City every single third down, he would line him up over the center. and basically say like, okay, we're going to do stunts, we're going to do slants, Micah, just go find a seam and mess stuff up. And I feel like he's going to do the same thing with Chop.

59:39He's like, I'm not going to have Chop just get chipped all day. So I think he's going to deploy him very similar to that on third down. And I think the complementary edge to Chop we can find on day two in this class possibly easier than we could find anything that's analogous to KC. So I understand from that point. again mcdell warren i think is the best player but as far as like who's who's gonna help this team the most right now it's it's probably casey when i was a kid and used to go shopping with my

1:00:12Robert Mays: dad and like you know we get like go to like a hardware store or whatever like things you need to fix the house and inevitably there was like one thing in the whole store that like a five-year-old would want be like oh can i can i get this that's what casey concepcion is after drafting spencer Fano. Like he's like the toy that you get in the aisle as you walk out. If you're John Eric Sullivan at the end of the trip to the hardware store, like that, that's what we're doing here for the Miami dolphins. And so I support that. Let's get to the Patriots at 31. Okay. Option one draft, Blake Miller. It was going to be Miller or a Hanachar, Hanachar off the board.

1:00:47Robert Mays: So Blake Miller, the right tackle from Clemson. He is option one here for new England option two. I think you'll like this because you've been trying to push him on me the entire show is draft cash is how oh interesting going away from like the more the longer edges here for new england just because after signing draymond jones and free agency i'm thinking about complementary skill sets like what do they need they need juice and so how to me feel felt like the edge that might make the most sense for them compared to some of the other options option three was going to be draft jacob Rodriguez. I'm open to other off-ball linebacker options here, but because you guys f***ed up my thing, we don't have an option three for the New England Patriots.

1:01:30It's what we do.

1:01:33Robert Mays: Who would you want here if I could give you a third option? Because again, because you guys have hijacked my show, now I have to let you hijack it even more and offer your own third suggestion for New England. I mean, is it crazy to say McNeil Warren? and have him what's the buyer deal is it only one year yeah I think it's I think it's two officially but it's a really one and it would be smart to be one they really like Craig Woodson and rightfully so he played tremendously for them last year oh it's a one year deal for buyer up to one year seven million up to nine so it's only a one year deal for buyer so that's that's worth thinking about I should have looked that up before we started can I interest you in Colton Hood being the future Carlton Davis us i'm gonna throw a wilder wild card in there and it would it completely depends on medicals and it's just kind of one of those at this point of the draft so miller is definitely the tackle i had on there the edges i went for the bigger longer stronger one because rabel likes big dudes so that's your combo platter of fuck tj parker's eye on young is starting to come into the picture at this point.

1:02:41Defensive tackle is still a need for me, specifically in the middle. And I'm going to throw Caleb Banks out there because at this point, if they're comfortable with a foot, we're literally talking about pick 31 here. He is the most talented, big nose in this. And he's more than just a nose, but that's why he is number one. The problem is two foot injuries within the last year for a guy that weighs 330. A lot of teams are very scared about that. Some teams have him off the board because of it. But again, if the Patriots look at him and go, no, we're good with the foot. We're going to drop that guy in the middle.

1:03:17Right now, it's Joshua Farmer, a player I like and is serviceable for nose tackle. You don't have to pay him a lot. He's going to do his role. He's not Caleb Banks. Let's put that on. So you're thinking about him being the Kyrstonga replacement, so when they go into their odd stuff, it's Milton, Banks, Barmore, and they just absolutely annihilate everybody? yeah if he is back to full strength the idea of him rotating in that line in almost any position i mean the interior position for sure because of his size but like it's terrifying if you have barmer and williams and banks as you're like starting three get out of here

1:03:53Robert Mays: the run pluggers among that defensive tackle group that are still available like the kristin millers and guys like that those are not like suited to be the the nose tackles that you're talking about right brett and so that even the skill set replacement is there the body type replacement for a tonga might not be i mean i i look at caden mcdonald it's like okay if we want a nose you think he can be that type of player okay i think i think caden would be my nose over banks especially because there's less medical stuff here and he's just better at that role so if caden's my nose milton and barmore are still my ends and let's be realistic when they're in nickel cadens off the field and it's just barmore and milton anyway because milton is a great two i and barmore also could play two i but he's you know devastating as a three but when we go into our odd front stuff we have caden milton barmore you're not running the ball at all on that so we're just going to get to third and long which means we're going to be a nickel anyway which means we're going to have you know milton and barmore both at three and they're just going to tee off on whatever your worst guard is boy i i would consider kaden here just to get us into those third and longs yeah he's my backup yeah he's my backup they're not happy with a with the bank's injury kaden is the next guy in line the idea of who is you before you mentioned his name brett that was the first place my mind went as crash tango is no longer there and so wanting to have that role within the defense.

1:05:23Robert Mays: If Caden McDonald is our answer there, let's do that. So, three options. Draft Blake Miller, draft Cassius Howell, or draft Caden McDonald. What are you doing if you're the Patriots? I'm good with any of those each. I'm going to lean Miller. Morgan Moses has been working on duct tape and bailing wire for a while, so I'm not sure it's going to hold up one more year. It's a tough league. It's a long season. He's an absolute warrior, no doubt about it, but Are you counting on that? And if you don't, don't love it. We're in the Marcus Bryant territory. So if you're not a big Marcus Bryant believer, Blake Miller, ton of starts in the ACC, very athletic for his size, very experienced, is going to be a player that could.

1:06:08Is he going to win the job over a healthy Morgan Moses? No. Is he completely ready if Morgan Moses gets so much as a hangnail?

1:06:14Robert Mays: Yes. I'm down for eating some Russell sprouts here. I think it's a smart way for them to go I think that again you talk about where Morgan Moses is just like needing to make sure you're fortifying that offensive line moving forward I think that's a totally fair argument okay so Blake Miller going to the Patriots at 31 last one here the Seattle Seahawks at 32 option one is draft Colton Hood Chris Johnson's also available we can talk through that Dane had Colton Hood going to the Seahawks in his mock and so I was like alright if Dane thinks that might make sense for them here let's let's throw colton hood out as an option option two is just draft your best available edge rusher you know this is a team that is comfortable with a lot of different skill sets they could go a lot of different directions here the guy they lose is mafe and so do they want somebody that maybe brings that compared to some of the other bigger bodied guys that they have so just option two wide open draft your best available edge rusher option three was going to be draft chase Besontas option three is now and I'm throwing this out for a specific reason and it's because we were talking about it with Dane and Brandon Thorn earlier this week and at his pro day and throughout this process he's been taking snaps and that's Keelan Rutledge from Georgia Tech and so the idea that he could play guard or center for you potentially is why I'm going to throw Rutledge in there as the third option so for Seattle option one draft Colton Hood Option two, draft your best available edge rusher.

1:07:41Robert Mays: Option three is draft Keewan Rutledge, the interior offensive lineman. EJ, what are you doing? I love all three of those options. I really do. I think Colton Hood is a hand-in-glove fit. I completely understand, again, living up here in the Northwest, why Dane would have put him in the mock. He is the style that they want on one edge of that defense to lock guys down, be super physical, and he would fit their group of absolute assassins in the secondary hand glove. No problem with that. In terms of Keelan Rutledge, it's fascinating because Brett famously fell out of his chair during an earlier mock draft.

1:08:18Was that this week? And it was in... All the days blur together. I know, they all blur together, especially when you hit your head on the desk. No, anyways, it was in reaction to the Seahawks in that draft. We hadn't made pick 32, so we were asking who did they pick. And Trev and Connor let us know that they picked Emmanuel Pregnon and Brett celebrated heartily and fell out of his chair. And I was sharing that moment with a fellow Seattle journalist and he said, I like it, but I would like it even better if it was Rutledge. so that's a fascinating just local connection and I love the versatility and just the meanness he's going to start well he's going to compete there's a lot of folks in the northwest will say Anthony Bradford got better and he did but he's also public enemy number one that's the the two sides of the coin up here and you know Keelan Rutledge would be in competition and I think probably win the right guard spot and hey if your center if Sundell goes down you can slide him over again they've got Oluolo there but it gives you flexibility and that's never a bad thing on the offensive line So I love both Hood and Rutledge.

1:09:19For Edge, I think this one's interesting because there's a player on the board here who we had DJ on earlier this week, and he was talking about having a guy in the room that can really set the example, whether it's the same type of player or not, of just how to do it, and it's Tank Lawrence, right? If you sit Keldrick Falk behind Tank Lawrence, big, athletic, not necessarily fully formed Edge, that's Tank Lawrence, and Tank Lawrence has figured it out. Like he has that dialed and you put Keldrick Falk behind him and say, do what that guy does, no matter what it is, do what that guy does. That's a great fit for them.

1:09:54So again, it's kind of like the Dolphins. I wouldn't be sad with any of these. Ooh, who am I choosing? I just for pure selfishness sakes, it's Hood. Like I want to see Hood in that defense. It's already mean. You throw him in there, it just gets meaner. I like the idea of Hood here just because we know Spoon's going to get a big deal and that just gives us a five-year runway that kind of offsets the Witherspoon money. And I look at the day two guards. Obviously, there's a bunch of day two and day three centers in this class, but the day two guards that they can try to pull from late in the second round, I could see them being like a Jalen Farmer team.

1:10:35I could see them being like a Bo Stevens team. I could even see them being like a Jennings Dunker team if they trade up in the second and convert him from tackle into guard. So I think that there's more options for them at the interior offensive line, and there's definitely more options for them at edge and defensive line on day two. They are not going to get anything approximating Colton Hood on day two. So I'm good with that.

1:11:01Robert Mays: If you bring Colton Hood in and you want to maximize, right now the only move they made in free agency at corner is no agonogamy. That's it. And so if you want to make sure you're maximizing flexibility after losing to a free agency, going out and getting that outside corner that lets you use Spoon in all the ways that you want to, you don't have that guy right now. And so I think it makes all the sense in the world to potentially seek that out. And if you can get one at the back half of the first round, I think you have to feel pretty good about it. All right. So we got Colton Hood going to Seattle with our 32nd and final pick of our 2026 on the clock exercise.

1:11:36Robert Mays: So let's go through this. Buffalo Bills at 26. You know what? We're going through the whole thing. Okay. Let's do it. From 1-32. First overall, Fernando Mendoza goes to the Las Vegas Raiders. Second overall, Reuben Bain to the New York Jets. Third, Sonny Stiles to the Arizona Cardinals. Fourth, Arvel Reese to the Tennessee Titans. Fifth, Francis Maui Noah to the New York Giants. Sixth, Carnell Tate to the Cleveland Browns. Those were Trevor Sycamore, by the way. Seventh, Jordan Reed making the picks here. Jeremiah Love going to the Washington Commanders. Eighth, David Bailey going to the New Orleans Saints.

1:12:15Robert Mays: Ninth, Caleb Downs going to the Kansas City Chiefs. Tenth, Mansour Delane going to the Cincinnati Bengals. Eleventh, Spencer Fano to the Miami Dolphins. Twelfth, Dylan Thienemann going to the Dallas Cowboys. Thirteen, this is Lance Zerline's stretch of the proceedings. Makai Lemon going to the Los Angeles Rams. Kenyon Sadiq going to the Baltimore Ravens at 14. At 15, Vega Ioane goes to the Tampa Bay Bucks. At 16, Jordan Tyson to the Jets. 17, Caden Proctor to the Lions. 18, Jermod McCoy to the Vikings. Mike Runner on the clock, 19 for the Panthers. Omar Cooper Jr. At 20, Avian Terrell goes to the Dallas Cowboys.

1:12:57Robert Mays: At 21, Ty Simpson goes to the Pittsburgh Steelers. At 22, Peter Woods going to the Los Angeles Chargers. 23 Monroe Freeling to the Eagles 24 Caleb Lomu to the Browns and at 25 Akeem Mesidor to the Chicago Bears and then today we got Chase Besontas the guard going to the Bills at 26 Max Ahanichor at tackle going to the Niners at 27 at 28 the Houston Texans pick Jacob Rodriguez I was strong-armed at 29 Denzel Boston going to the Kansas City Chiefs 30 Casey Concepcion to the Miami Dolphins 31 Blake Miller to the Patriots and 32 Colton Hood goes to the Seattle Seahawks. How do you think we did? Boy, Steelers fans in your comments are going to have a ball.

1:13:46I'll say that. I don't know if that part of the mock has gone live yet, but.

1:13:50Robert Mays: Oh, it's, it's that. Oh, it's there. It's up. It's going to be fun. It has happened. I am going to be fun. Listen, I support everything Mike said as part of that conversation. I understand how he got there and he was the one in the chair. so that's a lot to happen. I support everything Mike said in that conversation. How would I feel about taking Ty Simpson in the first round? I'd feel pretty mixed about it is how I'd feel, but I'm not the one making the picks. I can easily distance myself from it. That's right. Prediction was he doesn't go in the top 45. That wouldn't surprise me. Yeah. So we said boldish because we all realized things that we wrote down two weeks ago are now less bold as often happens in the draft, But you said at the top, Robert, that it's going to feel like it was done by five different people.

1:14:35Well, I got another one for you. Every NFL draft is done by like 32 different guys officially, but more like 300. So it can very much end up looking like a restaurant that was designed by a Burger King, a Pizza Hut, and a White Castle architect.

1:14:48Robert Mays: Like it just does not come together very well. I love me. I talk about Burger King or I talk about Pizza Hut. So I'm a big, big fan of being able to knock out a couple different things at one stop. And that's what we were able to do today. Gentlemen, sincerely appreciate the time. Please tell the people where they can check out the excellent draft work that both of you were doing. Yeah, you can find that over on the Bootleg Football Podcast channel over on YouTube, or we also distribute the show on audio, but the majority of our audience is on YouTube. And we do a stream every single day of the draft.

1:15:20We cover every single pick live. We don't take any breaks because we're kind of insane about it on draft week. and we are bad at planning. And so we're like, let's just do it straight through like 18 hours in all three days, no breaks. Surely nothing bad can go, nothing bad can happen. We also do our stream the day before the draft, Drafts Miss Eves, where everybody comes by and they give their hot takes for the draft. We just, well, by the time this show goes live, it will be out already. We launched a show with Daniel Jeremiah talking through like team building philosophy and like macro stuff surrounding the draft.

1:15:54And then our last episode of the Blue Chip Committee, which is our collaboration, with Trev and Connor from the NFL Stock Exchange. That also is probably live by the time this show goes out. So lots to watch and listen to over on the Bootleg Football Podcast channel. Amazing.

1:16:09Robert Mays: Love it. Appreciate your guys' time. I know it's a busy stretch of the calendar, so thanks for hopping on. Appreciate everyone for listening. We will be back tomorrow with one of our last pre-draft podcasts. Tomorrow, I'm really excited about tomorrow's show. So me and Barnwell are going to dig into all of the conventional wisdom that we consistently hear when it comes to running back value. Is it real? Is it not? Are we wrong? What have we been parroting for the last five years that we shouldn't be anymore? What has changed? So I think there's been so much discussion about this. And I've been very open to the idea that some of my positions on this are lightly held.

1:16:51Robert Mays: And I'm ready and open to getting my mind changed. And so we're going to hit this in as many different ways as we possibly can. And I'm very excited about having that conversation with him. So that is coming your guys' way tomorrow. For now, this is all we've got. Appreciate you listening. I'll talk to you very soon. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating. We'll see you next time.

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