The Jadarian Price is Right? 20 Intriguing Draft Picks

28:33They're doing things the way that they believe. And I think they're trying to think beyond the consensus. They're trying to beat the consensus. So this is going to be a very interesting watch for me. Jalen Husky went way earlier than I would have guessed. I think than a lot of people would have thought. And you had Nate Berkenshire going way earlier. They drafted a couple of guys in the back end that I'd even have scouting reports for, which doesn't matter. It doesn't mean I'm going to be right on Husky at all. I'm wrong plenty of times. But what he's done is he's basically bucked the trend of what people think he should be doing.

29:08And what that does, it opens you up for great victory or a great defeat. And so you're going to have people, I think, Mina, really looking at him and judging and saying, why aren't you doing what everyone else is doing? Why are you stepping out? You understand what I'm saying? He's putting himself in the line. When you go off consensus like that and you're not a long-tenured GM or someone who's already had success in the league, it puts your secret egg out a little bit. I think the Berger pick, I was shocked. I was too. It was pick 56, so that's an important thing. They weren't picking until not just even the second round, but late in the second round, which so it's not like, you know, there were obvious immediate contributors on the board.

29:59This is a team that was also pretty stacked. I have to say, like when I stacked, but they didn't have like super glaring needs to me. So if there was a team that might go a little bit off, they were someone I had trouble figuring out what they would do in the draft. I'm not going to lie. I would have liked Anthony Hill, who went, I don't think, that long after that, right? Like one, two, three, four, five, six picks later to the Titans. And that's a player I think they could have really used personally. But I think to your point, this is a team that, like the rest of the league, clearly blocking Titans is something that a lot of teams coveted.

30:38They have Brent Strange, who's a very good player. But I think, you know, the run game really struggled last year without him. so it's not surprising to me necessarily that this is the direction that they went in but it was undoubtedly a surprising pick so just put that in intriguing yeah yeah um okay i have indianapolis another team that didn't pick in the first round uh and i'm gonna pick a player that i just really liked watching and i'm excited to see how he fits into luana ramo's defense and that's ag halsey the safety out of lsu um so they went defense back to back first two picks and cj allen um obvious that was a pretty like okay need player makes sense we all get it uh holsey's he's a fun one um really fun he so i you know i watched a lot of lsu just watching delaine in particular i wasn't even intending to watch house i was focused on delaine and there were always just two or three times a game where he just impacted the game in a real like he just is he's a playmaker um he has high highs i that's how i would put it uh he's got he's very aggressive sometimes that gets him in trouble and he's gonna have to work on that but he is rangy and athletic and i think an interesting fit for this defense because you have cam bynum back there you got warden gardner we'll see what It happens with Kenny Moore.

32:02I think so right now, Wanda Thomas is the other safety. So there's a path for him to play quickly. I'm interested in seeing how Anarumo leans into his versatility. He's got a really good track record with safeties. And I think I wouldn't be surprised if even though he wasn't taken until it was the third round, right? Third round, he ends up being a starter pretty quickly. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. his tape was so much fun because he's so instinctive you can see very frequently he's getting the jump so he so with safeties you like to see safeties who will play the quarterback instead of just the wide receiver the routes I mean you want to have eye balance he's always aware of the routes but he's playing the quarterback so if you give a ball pat he's already starting he if you got tells if you're a quarterback like at a poker table and he sees a pitch or he sees your eyes start staring too long and you're not going through progressions he just instinctively starts to jump and he's going to he knows where you're going and he's going to beat you there and there's a reason he had high takeover totals I mean like I think it's it's eight interceptions and 26 pass defenses or 20 pass defenses over the last two years It's like really impressive ball production.

33:27And it's because his instincts, and that's either something you have or you don't have. I don't really think instincts can be developed. But he's got ball skills to take away. He's got great instincts. Like you mentioned, the underrated facet is he'll get downhill and run through you. And he's thickly built. He's under six foot. He's very compact. But he is a slugger. I do want to see how Ballard does on this because Nick Cross was not a hit. and Malik Hooker, who I loved, just had too many injuries and he wasn't a hit. Ballard needs to get this right with this safety. And I happen to be a big fan.

34:01I thought A.J. Halsey, to me, is a second-round pick. So to get him where they got him in the third round, I think they benefited from that big tight end run because there wasn't wide receiver. There wasn't running backs in this year's draft other than two, really. And there just wasn't a great quarterback draft. So, you know, you had tight ends jumping up. And then for Halsey to be there in the third and for them to take him, I loved it. It's one of my favorite picks of the third round. Yeah. But Clark going over before him was a little bit surprising. Okay. Houston hometown team gave to you.

34:34Yeah. So I'm going to say Marlon Klein and I'm going to go in a couple of directions with this. Marlon Klein. It doesn't stop. German born tight end. I know I hate to do this, but I'm going to, I'm going to go in a different direction because I could go with some other players. I mean, And if you wanted, I could talk about Kalen Rutledge. Let me just, as one B, and then I'll go up to one A. For the first time, the Houston Texans, in my opinion, this offseason, finally are figuring out an identity on offense. It was very easy for D 'Amico Reins to figure out his identity and what it was supposed to look like on defense.

35:08But on offense, it's been just mismatched parts. And they haven't made – they got rid of one coordinator after two years. And then Nick Kaley, people felt like he was on the rocks. and C.J. Stroud's been up and down. And it's like just an amalgamation of just players that didn't have any flow or continuity or cohesion. And then they went and got Braden Smith, and they got Wyatt Teller. They got ass kickers is what they got, and very good run blockers. And then they got David Montgomery, who's a hammerhead. And then you went and got probably the toughest offensive lineman in the draft. So I like the way that Nick Casario said, no, this is who we're going to be.

35:48And I'm going to start with free agency, and then we're going to go to the draft. And not just first pick, but also the second pick are big-time trench picks, and I loved it. I thought they were great. However, I am a little concerned about the Marlon Klein pick, and I'll tell you why. I know he's a little late to the game, and I even said in my scouting report, you know, whatever you see on tape is incomplete. He's still learning the game. I think Marlon Klein can end up being a pretty good player. He does have some Y ability. He's got some combo tight end ability. And I know there were a couple teams who like him more than me.

36:24I thought he's typically a fourth. And in some old school drafts, more of a fifth. But nowadays, probably more of a fourth. But he's an ascending player. It's just how long it's going to take. But when you look at tight ends, so Nick Cassara has done a bang-up job on the secondary. His secondary picks, outrageously good. And I'm sure with some help from D 'Amico Rines, obviously. And they work in conjunction on all this stuff. I want to talk about his tight end selections because this is going to be fascinating to watch. So when he first came in, he drafted Brevin Jordan in the fifth round. He flashes here and there.

36:59Not a major win. It was a fifth round pick. Teagan Cotoriano was a fifth round pick in 2022. Kind of a why, true why. They wanted a run blocker. He was injured, never really ended up doing anything for him. 2024, Cade Stover. His battled injuries hasn't really done anything. Now, those are three Nick picks. Then you go to his last year in New England. They had two tight end picks. Devin Asiasi, who was a third-round pick, had a grand total of seven targets in two years at New England before getting four targets in Cincinnati. He was out of the league in three years. Dalton Keene, third-round pick, tight end, Nick's last draft, along with Belichick.

37:41and he played a grand total of 148 snaps in offensive snaps in football. He had, what, one year in New England, and then he had 2023 was his last year of football in Houston. Nick brought him over. So, I mean, you can go to 2010, Gronk and Aaron Hernandez, great draft, obviously. So I'm curious to see how Nick's going to do on this tight end pick because I'd say the track record, I always keep track of general managers and their track records for certain positions because certain GMs are like, because if they're really good and they end up picking up a player that I didn't have a very good rating on, I always immediately question myself like, ooh, I need to see if I miss this because somebody I really respect who drafts this position, like less need in the middle rounds.

38:31Forget about it. Les kills the medal rounds. So I'm curious. I'm intrigued to see how this tight end does for the Texans because it is a need. It is a need for them. This was another surprising tight end pick. I didn't think that – I'm looking at the order of the tight ends now. I didn't think he would go before Max Clare or Rausch, and he did. So you're a little bit sticking your neck out, you know, if you're Houston with that selection. um yeah i i like what you said earlier about the emphasis on physicality in the trenches with the first two picks um you know mcdonald pick i loved and i you know i think to get him where they got him was tremendous value and not many areas in need on that defense but that's going to help in a big way so remember they traded up so another good look this is i'm not attacking nick i'm saying nick did it i thought a brilliant job but you were picking picks that intrigue us and it is I think you make a great point.

39:25That was definitely one of the ones where I was like, oh, okay. I definitely didn't think you would go for Claire, who went not long after that, I believe. I didn't even realize I'm looking at all these tight ends. I'm like, subconsciously, I had no idea I'm listing a bunch of tight ends from this draft as intriguing picks because they were just that shocking. I promise I have, oh my God, I have one more. You have one next. You're going to get to after I do Tennessee, so you will not pick a tight end because they didn't draft a tight end. Okay, so Tennessee, look, the Titans, I just want to talk about Carnell Tate here because I haven't talked about him.

39:57And we talked about surprises. I was shocked. Maybe shocked is too strong because early in the process, I talked about this possibility because of the need, the importance of helping young quarterback. I thought he was the best receiver in the draft. I thought he had the high and a high floor that would be valued. I would say the Titans would put a premium on given the importance of helping preppy Cam Ward. But then I got away from it because literally the entire world was like, they're not taking Carnell Day. They're taking first of those Jeremiah Love. Then it was Sonny Stiles, maybe Arville Reese.

40:33So when this happened, I gasped. We were watching with Dan. I broke the news to the room and everybody was surprised. But the surprise, I want to say, is more about just the lack of smoke. frankly, and the Titans, I think, did a pretty damn good job of hiding this from insiders and reporters and all of that. So as far as the pick goes to, look, I understand some of the skepticism about Tate's upside and is he a true top, is he going to be a top 10, 15 receiver in this league? Because that's what you want when you draft a player there. I don't know. But I will say, if I'm a Titans fan, I am a lot happier today that they did something to help their young receiver after this offseason, which I did not love the way they approached free agency at the position.

41:25And I think this receiver in particular is going to be immediately impactful in this offense. So now you're looking at a group, Tate, Wanda Robinson, thank God is no longer the wide receiver one, Calvin Ridley. They fit together decently well. well, Robinson's a real volume eater. He works underneath, gets you yards after the catch. But we know what he's being brought in to do, which is big plays, right? Like I was just looking at the top teams in explosive pass differential. So how many they had versus how many were on them. And it's all the best teams in the NFL. The Rams, the Seahawks, the Bills, the Pats, the Packers.

42:02And then the Titans were 30th. Cam Ward on 20-yard throws was actually eighth in precision pass rate, which is the true media staffer. Is it hitting the receiver in stride? And on 20-yard throws, the Titans were 26th in drop rate. We know he can throw the ball deep. But they did not have someone I trusted, and now they do. Because if there's one thing Cardinal Tite is going to do, he's going to catch a 20-yard throw. He's going to catch it perfectly, and he's not going to drop it. So tell me what you think about the pick. I want to hear if you were surprised, but I just want to start there. Like, this is the best.

42:40I genuinely believe this is the best thing they could have done for Cam Ward. Well, I didn't hate it at all. Was I surprised? Yeah, I was surprised. Mock one and even mock two, I considered Carnell Tate at four. And the reason was simple. Number one, I liked him a lot on tape. Number two, obviously, the wide receiver quarterback connection. You have to find somebody. And then, you know, I didn't have styles. To this day, I don't have styles, doesn't have as high a grade for me as Carnell Tate. And I think the reason's simple here. And why I like this pick for them, why I don't have a problem with it, you could have gone in a variety of directions.

43:20But how do you go wrong when Ohio State wide receivers, right, just working backwards, early picks, Emeka Okobu, Marvin Harrison Jr., you know, still need to see more from him. But you've got Jackson Smith and Jigba. And I'm literally going year by year. Like every year they're cranking somebody out. Chris Alave and Garrett Wilson.

43:46Then you have to go back. Well, that's primarily the biggest run that they had. Then you go to Paris Campbell, which was not a hit. Yeah, I mean, it's an embarrassment of riches. And what you see coming out of there is really well-schooled wide receivers who run routes well, who are consistent with their ball skills. They've all got good ball skills because I think that's who they recruit. I think they have a good feel for it's not just development. They're already getting guys out of high school who they recognize these are Buckeyes. This is what Buckeyes look like. And so everyone who's coming out, good route runner, great when the ball's in the air.

44:26They're really good at winning the catch base, making contested catches, finding ways to get past defenders, whether it's off press or with double moves, whatever the case may be. And so Carnell Tate, while I don't think he's a wide receiver one in the league, I think he's a hell of a wide receiver two. And I think he's going to – I know he's going to be a really impactful player early on because it's someone who Cam Ward is going to trust. He needs someone he can trust. You talk about those drops. You get trust issues between your quarterback and your wide receivers, and you're cooked. And so this is somebody who really doesn't drop the ball.

45:02And even when he's covered, he makes plays when the ball's in the air. So I totally understand why they made this pick, and I don't have a problem with it at all. All right. I think I'm going to guess who you're going to pick for Washington. Oh, sorry. All right, so talked about the Giants at length on Monday. They were one of my winners in the draft. See if you can pick it. I bet you do, actually. Oh, sorry. I just scrolled back up. Are you going to go? I think you're going to go either Antonio Williams or Kate Ron Allen. Antonio Williams. Antonio Williams. Okay, so Washington took Sonny Stiles.

45:39Not very surprising. Obvious how he's going to be used. Makes a ton of sense. But their third round draft pick, because they didn't have a second, was Antonio Williams, the wide receiver out of Clemson. Why are you intrigued by him? Run pass catch. So I like the fact that, let me start by their new offensive coordinator, David Blau, who is a former quarterback. So he's taking over. They want to go to more under center looks. It's one of the things they want to do. When you're under center, it gives you a chance to run a more effective jet sweep package. It gives you a better chance to run some play action stuff because your mesh point takes longer to develop and outside zone runs.

46:14And so linebackers have longer time to flow, and they typically will start to overflow if you can run it and you can sell it. Antonio Williams, so he has a great potential to be a really fun gadget guy. He's 4-4-4 with two touchdown passes in his career over there. He has real running back vision when the ball is in his hands, whether it's on design run plays or it's run after catch, which he does plenty of run after catch. When he's in the open field, he sees the field like a running back. And then I think the route running, you know, that part of it, like he's such an excitable player that he doesn't really tempo his routes as well as he should.

46:58That will be something they work on to maybe alter tempo because he plays fast all the time. But changing speeds, altering tempos, you know, throwing some off-speed pitches every once in a while really sets up the fastball. So that's what he's going to have to learn to do. But we're getting to a point, Mina, in the league where it's so impactful when you have somebody you can just throw to real quick and they can go get a first down for you. And he's got a lot of that. He can do it on the ground. He's got the gadget throwing stuff. He's only throwing four passes, but it's worth mentioning. He has been a punt returner.

47:32But I like the fact that you can just get him the ball. And on third and five, you may make a little two-yard hitch and he turns it into a first down. And like there's just so much value in extending and having a drive extender underneath. Bucky Brooks would always tell me you want to have a team full of basketball players with different positions, different traits. And I love that idea. I love that idea that you can have. I was thinking of Malik Washington also when you talked about Malik Willis with Chris Bell, how Malik Washington gives you totally different looks underneath than what Chris Bell is going to give you when he's healthy.

48:07And I think that's very impactful. When the Texans were really good or when C.J. Stroud was at his best, he had Nico Collins with a lot of the intermediate and deep routes, and then you had Tank Dell was a jitterbug underneath that was like, you know, you can just get open. It feels like they never really recovered from losing Tank Bell. No, the offense really hasn't. Tank Dell, pardon me. Yeah, no, I love your points about Williams. I also love his fit with McLaurin, and I like his fit, I love his fit also with Jane Daniels because Daniels, it's so funny because we think of him, he's so athletic, push the ball downfield, he likes throwing the go balls, he's like a slot fade king, but he will play small ball.

48:45And I think that's one of the things that made him so successful in the NFL immediately is his intelligence and efficiency as a quarterback and is willing to just get to the right answer right away. And also, he is perfectly happy to take those eight yards on first down. And so I think having an underneath option who's got a little bit of twitch, get you yards after the catch, makes a ton of sense. So I liked this pick as well. Also, it was a very thin receiver group behind Terry McLaurin. They needed a receiver. So to me, this was good value. All right. Let's do Makai Lemon here for the Eagles.

49:22I mean, you know, like they took UR Bernard, the crazy athletic guy out of Nigeria. That's really interesting. Stowers, the tight end out of Vanderbilt, is really more like a big slot, is a fascinating player. But Lemon to me is just, I think, one of the more interesting draft picks in the entire first round. the fact that they moved up ahead of Pittsburgh for him and then thinking about what he means for the evolution of this offense, right? This was not... I don't think folks thought about Lemon for Philadelphia because his skill set, which is working over the middle of the field, working from the slot, it felt like a mismatch with the quarterback.

50:14But the Eagles, everything the Eagles have done this offseason, suggests that this offense is going in a different direction and the quarterback's got to get on board, right? So I think it's just Sean Mannion's their new offensive coordinator. And we were talking about all the ways they can use Lemon. And like one of the things I thought of immediately was some of the ways that Jaden Reed was used in Green Bay. And, you know, I think Devontae Smith becomes your number one. They're going to line him up outside more. But if Jalen isn't willing, able, willing, question mark, which those is the predominant thing, to throw over the middle of the field, then I'm not going to say Makai Lemon's a wasted draft pick.

50:55He's nice on little out cuts and things like that. But you're really not getting the most out of this player. So I just found this intriguing, Lance, because it just felt like a real like, no, this is happening, guys. And quarterbacks are getting on board. That's a really good point. That's a really good point. I hadn't really thought of it that way. That it is. Like I talked about Darren Mugey has to make picks for the Jets. This is a pick for the Eagles. It's not a pick for Jalen Hurts. And I always feel like, you know, Jeremy Fowler is very respected. When he writes something and puts that kind of work into it, I listen.

51:31I read and I. It's the ESPN reporter who wrote the piece on Jalen Hurts and some of the tensions between him and the coaches. Right. And so I kind of think where there's smoke, there's fire. And I'd heard some of that a couple before the 25 draft. I had heard that and I was like, what? Jalen doesn't get on. He's not. Everyone's not on board with like there's some dissension there or some. This is after they won a Super Bowl. So I was a little surprised at the timing of it. I kind of put it away and then it popped back up. And so now I got to pay close attention to it because the second time I've heard this in consecutive seasons.

52:06And so it does feel like a move where they say, you know, honestly, I was kind of interested to see if Ty Simpson, if he slipped into the second round, if the Eagles would have been in play, because that would have been, you know, you want to talk about T there would have been some T there. If you had made that pick in the second round, which obviously we have a Philadelphia sports radio would never recover. They would not recover. So yeah, I don't know that Philadelphia is looking to replace Jalen anytime soon, but they clearly want things to go in a certain direction. and this will be he's a good player makai lemon's a good player makai lemon reminds me of let's see if you get you see if this if you get any of this he reminds me of heinz ward in the sense that whatever he needs to do he's going to do and there's like a level of intensity that is unmatched and usually it's look when the ball's in the air i don't care who's around me and I don't care how hard you're going to hit me, I'm going to catch it.

53:07And that's how Hines played. I had a thought about that, which is, you know, I was thinking about Jalen in the middle of the field and vision. Is it vision related and whatnot? But sometimes when you want a quarterback to access that part of the field more, just having a guy who you know will catch everything might go. Because, you know, some of it is like if he doesn't see it, he doesn't want to throw it, right? And I think that's part of the reason also, like they don't even like turn his back to the defense. And he's not that tall. He's a shorter guy as well as far as quarterbacks go. But I do think like just like Mekhi Lemon catches everything.

53:37That is why that is his calling card. So bringing in a player who not only works that part of the field, but is just exceptional contested catch ability, catch radius is helpful. But, you know, we got to see it play out. All right. Dallas is yours. Let's do Dallas and then take a break. Dallas we go Caleb Downs Malachi Lawrence Jay Sean Barham the edge out of Michigan Drew Sheldon the tackle out of Penn State who's the next one Devin Moore yeah Devin Moore there it is yeah believe it or not well I mean this is where you go into draft geek mode for me so Christian Parker is the new defensive coordinator and he's worked with Pat Sertan was one of the guys he's worked with you know Devin Moore is six foot three.

54:27And when you watch him, he's 6 '3", 198. And when I watched him on tape, I wasn't watching him. I was watching a wide receiver he was guarding. And I kept saying, golly, who is this guy? Who is this tall, long cornerback? He is giving this receiver. I don't remember the receiver anymore because it made me stop. And I went and looked up Devin Moore and realized, oh, I've got to write him up too. This is a player I've got to write up. And so from that point forward, I was really intrigued by watching Devin Moore. So you watch plenty of Seahawks football. We all did. So tall cornerbacks are always intriguing to me because you just never know.

55:05It's like really tall tackles. Do they have enough change of direction, quickness to matter? And with cornerbacks, there's just so much, you know, you're playing backwards, you're playing forwards, you're playing laterally. You got to transition if you're in man to man. And if not, You end up being covered three corners and you're long and you just play deep zone coverages and you're part of a scheme and your job is just to stay inside that scheme and do your job. Devin Moore is intriguing to me because there are flashes where I think he's like a second round type cornerback in the right scheme.

55:38And there are other times where I say, OK, I could see him going in the fifth. Injuries have been a big problem. 22, 23, 24. He was injured in all three years. with the uh with uh florida so that's you know that's a concern he's missed time for three straight years he's only started 17 games because of his injuries so we haven't seen him a ton but when he played i thought there were some real pro flashes with size and movement skills he's not the fastest he's he's like a low four five um 40 player which is okay for a you know a six foot three corner but I feel like Dallas I like the I like the new defensive coordinator and his background with some of the players he's worked with and then I look at this moldable piece of clay at six foot three 200 almost 200 pounds and I'm intrigued to see how they how they fit him into the defense does he compete early on for a spot which I think he's got a chance to compete within the first couple of years for one of the spots inside the first three corners.

56:48And how a new 34-year-old defensive coordinator really can maybe look at him. Like, I wonder how much input Parker had in saying, that's my kind of guy. This is the kind of guy that I think is a great value for us on day three. So for a lot of reasons, I think he's truly an intriguing selection for me. I like your point about Christian Parker, who coached defensive backs in Philadelphia. Pretty good. Yeah, Quinnian Mitchell. Pretty good. Now those are first round picks, him and him to Gene. But, you know, I'm just saying, like, I find the composition of the Cowboys secondary to be fascinating now.

57:27Because Deron Bland's your one, but they signed Kobe Durant, who I think is going to play maybe outside more. And then you drafted Devin Moore. You had the third round draft pick, Siobhan Reville Jr., did play last year. And then with their first pick, they took Caleb Downs, which we're not talking about because everyone on earth said this is a home run. It's obvious. Great. We love it for Dallas. But how they utilize Downs, I think, is going to be really fascinating. Like, do they use him at the nickel? Right. Like a lot. I mentioned that Brian Branch was the comp that I had leading up to the draft.

58:00Do they find do they play? Is there like do they prefer to play like a big nickel look where he's almost like the gene was in Philadelphia? I just find it really interesting. And I think for Parker, I mean, this feels like a trampoline to being a head coach if he pulls this off and gets the turnaround going. So they threw a lot. You know, they also added Malachi Lawrence as a pass rusher. But we'll see. I like their draft. I personally liked what they did. And just really quickly, I want to add, I see them as a big nickel. and I think the third safety is the next big thing. We're in the midst of it anyway.

58:41But it's a natural progression from 12 and 13 getting bigger and bigger is you just say, because to me, trade on Stooks is listed as a safety. He can play big nickel. Keontae Scott, fourth-round pick, he was a big nickel who was highly impactful against the run. And the same thing was this is a big nickel role. Jalen Petrie in Houston is a big nickel who basically their former safeties who just play near the line of scrimmage. Branch has a lot of similarities to Petrie too. Yeah. Downstool. They all do, but Caleb Downstool does. All right, let's take a quick break and let's get to the NFC South.

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1:01:56But I also like a lot of the Panthers did. I start here. The player that I want to talk about is Lee Hunter, the nose tackle, the defensive tackle out of Texas Tech. Monroe Freeling. The only thing that surprised me was just like, oh, you know, they've got a lot of offensive tackles. But then I looked again and I was like, oh, Tanner Moten's kind of getting up in the years. I think they don't know what they've exactly got to do with the Quanu. So and also I think the talent was just too good to pass up for them. So great player. Love it. Hunter to me. So we know he's being brought in to do. There's no doubt about that.

1:02:37The Panthers knows was Bobby Brown that, you know, as part of their three, four. But they were they were still they were they weren't as abysmal against the run as they were in 2024 when Derek Brown was out. But they were still not great. 24th in DVOA against the run. I thought interesting decision to go with a nose over a pass rusher potentially or a safety. But to me, this felt like them saying we need someone who can come in and contribute immediately in this regard because we lost games because of our inability to stop the run. So I think it makes sense. And I think he is intriguing because I think he will play immediately.

1:03:27Yeah, right off the bat. I know some teams I talk to think he's got a little more rush potential than some of the other bigs. I think it's okay. He was really, really good against Oregon, and Oregon had a pretty good offensive line this year. Yeah. But I was intrigued by this when I saw it. I said, ooh, they're going to pair Derek Brown and Lee Hunter. You really – they're going to have A gaps and B gaps taken care of here. This is going to be really tough to run on them. And if you can shut down one part of the field, either with a lockdown corner with two big hogs in the middle, you know, however, however you want to do it philosophically and schematically.

1:04:06It is always intriguing to me, we're just going to keep using that word, because it really forces the chess match of DC versus OC. Once you take something away, and this feels like we're going to take this away from you move, once you take it away, then you force offensive coordinators and play callers into different aspects of their game. So it's a little easier for a defensive coordinator to potentially manipulate those aspects as well, especially if you have two guys who are handling the entire interior front. So I thought schematically this could end up really benefiting the defense as a whole because it allows defensive coordinators a chance to maybe become the defensive coordinator to attack more aggressively other aspects that he's trying to force you into.

1:04:58It's a good point when you think about Giro Evero and what he wants to do, the style that he wants the defense to play in. I also, I think, reflects the fact that because they attacked Edge and linebacker aggressively in free agency, it's almost like, okay, we can take a run-stuffing defensive tackle because we did these other things. They weren't forced to reach in the draft, which is the benefits of having a lot of money in free agency. Another intriguing pick, Chris Brazel, the tall, incredibly fast receiver out of Tennessee who's a bit of a mystery box. Kind of an odd destination for him. I felt like, oh, they already have, you know, LeGette, and there's a little bit of redundancy there, but I don't think they're super tied to LeGette.

1:05:41I don't think so. Let's see what they got. Oh, I also really like Sam Hecht, who they added in the fifth round. I thought that was great value to have him as the center. Okay. You've got Atlanta, the other team we didn't talk about today. This was easy for me. Avion Terrell. I don't even have to spend a ton of time on this one. You got Terrell brothers playing together. What was fascinating to me is Avion Terrell is the best nickel in the, I mean, true nickel, old school nickel in the, in the draft. His tape's fantastic. He can play outside. He can play inside. He's aggressive against the run.

1:06:14So he's not a shrinking violet against the run. A slower 40 time, you know, he had some injuries. They ran a really puzzlingly slow 40 time, which I don't buy into. He ran a 4.6540. So that kind of 40 for a lesser corner would force you to go undrafted. I mean, it's really slow, but the tape is so good and you really don't buy into it. I had a GM tell me that, you know, he was speaking with the agent for Avion Terrell who said, look, you think I would have had him run if he would have ran, if I thought he was going to run a 4.65? We just wouldn't have run him. He said he was training much faster.

1:06:52So I tend to believe it. And you maybe have had this conversation before. You know, they have the league has a lot of computer vision at their, you know, at their beck and call. I think it's built into the telemetry platform that is now owned by Teamworks. And it already picks up acceleration, max speed, change of direction, things like this. So you kind of from tape, either you have it through their catapult wearable numbers or you're able to get that through your own technology off of all 22. So the 40 time maybe was less impactful than some people thought it was going to be. His tape is just really good.

1:07:37I don't know what you thought about him, but I love his aggression. and he reminds me of his brother when he played. But I feel like he's even a more instinctive player at times than his brother was coming out. Yeah, I mean, it was a great moment, first of all. I'll start there when they took him, right, because of his brother and thinking about also the need. It just felt like the stars aligned for Atlanta. I really liked his tape. I actually, it's funny because I didn't watch him and feel worried about the speed. I worried a little bit about the play strength and the frame. I saw him get bullied a little bit.

1:08:13That's fair. But it's funny because, though I say that, but he's a very good run defender and tackler and just a very technically sound corner and somebody who I do think will see the field pretty quickly given the need. I do wonder about him in man cover. It's a pretty man-heavy defense, and they kept Jeff Ulbrich, their defensive coordinator. And so that is a little bit of a concern of mine. And I'll be interested. I think they envisioned him playing outside. They've got Bowman in the slot. But part of me thought maybe I would play him inside in the NFL. So we'll see where they go. But yeah, it was just like, oh, you know, I actually, I don't know, back at the list of the corners and the order in which they were taken.

1:08:57And I actually had him above Hood who went 11 slots above him. It was close. I went back and forth a few times. hood i liked the feistiness in the frame but i thought this was good value for atlanta to get him where they did given their need and then also the drop off at corner after that in my opinion so uh i love that pick all right nfc west we've talked about most of the nfc west talked about the rams the cardinals and the niners weirdly on monday um so i'm gonna talk about seattle so bud clark very fun i want to talk about him but the reality is like jadarian price if this was any team but the team that won the super bowl i feel like this would have been a much bigger story because not only you have a running back being taken in the first round obviously very late it's a running back who had zero starts in college and this is i Like, Dane had this in The Beast.

1:10:01He only had 15 offensive touches once in 41 games played. Yeah. Lance, like, what is, before we get to the player and the fit, and I'm not even saying I don't like the pick, I'm just talking about the outlier aspect of this. Historically, like, we're in pretty unusual territory here when it comes to a back with this little tread on his tires, is this little experience going this early in the draft? So you start with the draft itself, and there were two primary backs, Jadarian Love, I mean, Jeremiah Love and Jadarian Price, and they happen to play on the same team, which is in and of itself going to create the storyline that you're talking about.

1:10:43After that, it falls way off. Yes. I mean, I had Mike Washington next. Some people like Emma Johnson, Kalen Black went earlier than I thought he was going to go. So I looked at it like this. So when you look at free agency this year, it was a pretty good free agency crop of running backs this year relative to what we see in most years. And some teams went heavy into it, but I was having this conversation with some other draft people and a few different teams. And clearly if you knew what the draft board was going to kind of look like at running back, you knew that you had two front runners, and then it was going to fall off.

1:11:23And so I think some teams were very aggressive in free agency. He said, let's go get it now because this is not going to be a great running back draft. And that's what happened was – and Seattle was sitting there, and they clearly had a massive need. Now, I know John Schneider told everyone we want to move back, we want to move back, we want to move back. I just kept plugging in Janarian Price in my mock drafts, 32, 32, 32, because to me, he's clearly the second best back in this draft. I think he's a really good player. What you're talking about is absolutely true, but it's also a function of him staying at Notre Dame and playing behind a special running back.

1:12:02Any place else, he could have been a 210 carry back with 14, 15 rushing touchdowns. I think he sees and feels the run lane development at a really high level. He feels the contours develop. There's a real skill to feeling – the run lane is like a – it's like a living entity where it changes its shape based on, you know, if you have read and react defenders who can just shed quickly. And so you're constantly having to have the instincts to recognize the way the shape of the run lane may develop. And Janarian Price has that. He has that home run speed. He didn't have home run speed. And he hasn't had a chance to be impactful on third downs because Love was so good.

1:12:49Right. He just hasn't had the opportunity. Yeah. No, I mean the same thing as a pass catcher. He's very – there's very little on tape. I've got to ask you this. I've been dying to ask you this. I've been dying to ask anybody who buys into the analytics argument on running backs this. So I don't love second contracts for running backs. It doesn't work out. It frequently fails or infrequently succeeds. I should say. I love the idea of if you have a running back that you think is pretty good and you've got either two picks in the first round or you have a late pick in the first round, the idea of having a fifth year option and then a franchise year and frankly, two franchise years, if you've got the ability to keep a running back for six years rather than four or potentially seven, but let's just call it six years.

1:13:41So fifth year option and a franchise option. You've extended the life of that running back two more years on your team without having to give them a second contract. And you're kind of pushing up against the typical norm for how effective a running back is. So I've always kind of felt like the argument about, no, I get the idea that you can find other running backs, but if you have one you really like, I love the idea of having six years with that back and no second contract. Especially if you're talking about pick 32 and not pick three. Thank you. Like that contract discrepancy is real. I pulled up running back contracts because we all know, you know, Jeremiah Love comes in instantly and he's already one of the top paid running backs in the NFL because of the way the rookie scale is structured.

1:14:27Jerry and Bryce is, I mean, I'm just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Obviously Pat. Yeah. It's, it's not, it's, it's, I think the bigger thing with the running back in the first round is like what you said can you get similar production later and i think in this draft the drop off is real that's important and then it's like the opportunity cost right like because if you have a chance to get let's say chris johnson was still there if you can get a plus starter at that position the surplus value is just so much more significant but chris johnson wasn't there i think that had to affect i don't know i haven't done any reporting on that but like i i would be a little bit more like I wish he had taken the corner if the corner was still there um so you know it I'm not as to put a pin on it I'm not as worked up as I know I had so many conversations about Jeremy I love this is a little it's a different conversation here for Seattle um and also you know with the needs and the players available and the fit is great like you talked about his vision um I think it's a great scheme fit I think also you could make a case and I promise to stop here the tread your tires thing i you know i talked about like how unprecedented it is it could be a benefit the dude has barely run like you you know what i mean like that's for this position that kind of matters and the other thing i'll add is um dan pazuda did a great piece on this on his newsletter which you guys should check out um he's a guest on this show sometimes but it feels like the nfl teams are still undervaluing the importance of geek returns uh given how much it's affecting the league it's the dynamic kickoff and field position being more dramatic than ever in terms of benefiting the offense.

1:16:10And Janarian Price is a hell of a returner. Phenomenal. So that, to me, adds as well to a Seattle – you saw the Evershid Shahid, but Seattle's special teams, I think, them caring about that is really a big deal. You bringing that up, and we're not doing this team today, but Xavier Thomas was the third-round pick and was like, As a wide receiver, no business being in the third. As a returner, special return talent. It's an Iowa returner. And so it kind of speaks to exactly what you're talking about, is the Bears are just saying, hey, we're drafting a weapon here for the third phase, is basically what we're doing.

1:16:47So I totally got it. At first I was thinking, what are we doing here, Ryan Poles? And then as I remembered, oh, yeah, he's that big-time returner, it starts to really sink in. Caden Wetjen also. Wetjen. You know, he's a monster. 10 touchdowns in his career. He is crazy productive. I feel like there's a conversation we had about how teams that don't value special teams right now are really falling behind. All right. Let's get out of the NFC West. We got to roll. AFC West, you go first with the Chargers. I don't know who you're going to pick here. I didn't love some of their draft picks. so I'm going to go with a couple I'm just going to mention Jake Slaughter so this is going to be me versus the league and I'm always intrigued by this when it's me versus the league because it helps me with my process if I'm wrong I like to go back and say okay where did I miss so I always love going back and when the league or even if a team has someone way higher than I have them but I had enough conversations to know the Chargers were not alone so I feel like okay hey, I may have missed something here on my evaluation of Jake Slaughter.

1:18:01So I want to see how it plays out and see, was I right on him or was everyone else right? And where was my blind spot? Like what happened? Was there a game I didn't like and it was confirmation bias after that? So this is what's intriguing to me is I want to watch. His strength is very average, but he's a two-time team captain. Very, very smart. He played in the SEC where he faced loads of competition. He's a better zone scheme blocker than he is a gap scheme blocker, which matters now because you went from the heavy gap scheme type stuff that Harbaugh loved to run when he was at Michigan and did some of that with the Chargers.

1:18:43Now you're going Mike McDaniel, and I'm expecting to see a lot more outside zone. So it makes some sense from a schematic standpoint that you go get Jake Slaughter, who is better in zone, the gap. but I'm just, I just never saw a third round pick. I've got him behind Hecht. I've got him behind Trey Zune. I've got him behind a lot of the safeties or a lot of the centers in this draft. Connor Liu. I had him behind Riley, not Riley, Logan Jones. So for me, Slaughter was back like at number five. And I want to find out, I'm intrigued to see, is he way better than I think he's going to be? Like, why am I missing on this?

1:19:27And the other one I want to mention is it's kind of a philosophical argument. Genesis Smith. So this is a real ball hawking safety out of Arizona, but he is a bad tackler. And I'm not even – that's not even hyperbole. Like, he is a very bad tackler. Tackle technique, aggression across the board. So it's a battle. I had this conversation with Dane. I said – Dane Brugler, I said – he asked me, Have you seen Genesis Smith yet? I said, not yet. He goes, that's going to test you on your, because we had just had a conversation about tackling versus ball production. And he said, this is going to be your test.

1:20:04It's going to test, it's going to be a litmus test for you on how much, how many issues with run support you're willing to accept for high-end ball production. So he's another one that intrigues me because can this guy play Charger football the way they They wanted to, can they get him to improve, greatly improve his aggression as a tackler? And does that have any impact on his ball production? Can he still be just as ball hawkish on the back end? So those are both of my guys for different reasons. Yeah, I feel like not enough attention has been paid to the Chargers defense post-Jesse Minter, right?

1:20:44Like they, Chris O 'Leary is the new defensive coordinator. The assumption is it's going to be very similar schematically to a defense that really kind of likes – what's the word I'm looking for? Maybe played a bit above the talent level over the last couple of years because they were so well coached and schematically, I think, had an edge. I mean, the first pick was Mesidor, which was – I think everybody assumed – Did you like him on tape? yeah i did i you didn't convince me there it was well i i thought people were getting a little bit over their skis with him saying he was as good as bane and you know i didn't see that personally i know he came up really big in some big moments and at the end in particular but like i if the thing about the age right is like is if this is it i do i i it's an interesting comp with keldrick falk who went uh you know near the end of the first round because i think those are the two players who were kind of tiered together and it's kind of like do you want the player that mesador is now or the player that fall could be and the Chargers went with we want the player that Mesidor is now.

1:22:03And I get it, right? The Chargers are competing now. It's such a need for them at edge, you know, max on a one-year deal. But we remember last year too, like the way they would use O-Way, where they would get the three pass rushers on the field. It made sense that they would go pass rush here. I just think asked me in three years. Yeah, because Falk is a player two and three years from now. All right. Well, I went with the edge rusher for my next team. And that's the Kansas City Chiefs. Very defense-heavy draft. Yeah. Delaying is really nothing to talk about other than the trade part was the most interesting part.

1:22:41I thought this was like a very obvious team, need, player. All of it made perfect sense. Woods was a bit surprising at 29, Peter Woods. But when they took Peter Woods and then they took R. Mason Thomas 11 picks later, the pass rusher out in oklahoma pardon me i thought oh they recognized that they are slow like that they needed speed up front because those two players both are twitched up right like this was brett veach saying we got to get faster on at the line of scrimmage and i want to talk about our mason thomas because um you know i i i there was i i had i had even thought maybe the chiefs are a trade-up team for Bailey or Reese, and ultimately they trade up for the corner.

1:23:27But I think it's easy for me to see why they coveted his skill set because he's so different from their existing roster. So I don't think I talked about him much. R. Mason Thomas, for those who haven't watched him, undersized was like 6 '2"-ish. He's small. super super sudden explosive pass rusher um not incredibly productive decently but not incredibly at oklahoma uh very very different from george carloftis so i this felt like let's try to get like a different skill set in the room from the guys that we've drafted I think it's a very important pick for them. I think all of these, those two picks, Woods and Thomas, are both very important because if this, if they can't get more pass rush shoes, particularly outside of blitzing, I don't think, I think that this turnaround isn't going to happen the way that they hope they will.

1:24:37Slow teams go away. That's the nature of you. You made a really good point because I don't often look at it that way when I'm trying to anticipate the way, the direction the team will go. A lot of times I say, who is this type of player? Like, what is their type? What is this player's type? And so their type has never been – they've had Nick Bolton. They've had Drew Tranquil. They've had Karloftis. They've had kind of bullies and bruisers and guys who don't – they don't pop for their speed. So it's an interesting point. you make because our Mason is totally different. He's not real. He's not real committed in the run game.

1:25:17He's like 240 some odd pounds. You mentioned, you got to keep them away from tackles and play them in space, but his get off me. It's a former running back. His get off is sick. He can really, if he beats any shorter and can bend. So tall tackles, it's one of the hardest thing for a tall tackle to do is redirect a small edge. It's interesting. Oh, so sorry. So that's like if he gets off the ball really well, it's it's almost an automatic pressure on the quarterback, almost automatic. But if they get their hands on him. Yeah. Problem. He's actually has decent speed to power because of in part because he's able to get low and under these tackles pads so quickly.

1:26:01And then he uses leverage to his advantage, but he can also get locked up. So he's got to win early. Did you like it? Did you like the pick for them? You know, the Woods one. You said it's an important pick. Yes. I think I liked it a little bit more than the Woods one, to be honest, just because of the draft slot. And I really wanted them to take Denzel Boston, where they took Peter Woods personally. I just thought that would be awesome. But, yeah, I like that they threw resources at it. I do. And I liked the Delane pick. draft capital, notwithstanding, that's just a dream. But Woods is another one where it's like, well, he's not, him is less about size and it's more just about the lack of finishing that drove me insane.

1:26:47But he's another guy who wins so fast. Yeah. And then it's like, can he finish? You know, that's the question. I think that's why he ended up going 29 and not earlier. So I don't know. We'll see. This is a pivotal draft for Brad Veach. And I think I would say like two of those three picks have to be, have to work out for Kansas city. So, and I feel very good about Delane. I think that's one of those Delane, Ioane, those were like the group of like, this will be fine. Like easy ones. I thought, I think they're, I think I'm with you. Like though, to me, those are check marks and you move on because they're going to, they're, they're not going to bust.

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1:28:58Okay, so I'll be quick. I accidentally, I screwed up the order. I gave myself the Broncos, which was the other team in the AFC West. He talked about the Raiders. I'll be quick here. I chose Jonah Coleman, who my little husky. I just love him, man. And I actually think he's going to be really useful for them. And first of all, they took him in the fourth round. So great, you know good value um you know i talked about him when i talked about the backs but uh he is a smaller super but he's you know he's very compact very powerful i i think he will be seen as just like you know a bruiser runs between the tackles goal line but i think he's got a little bit more wiggle a little bit more to his game than that um i think he can also help them as a pass protector He, to me, feels a real need because they have Dobbins back, but he's coming off the injury.

1:29:58R.J. Harvey had ups and downs rookie season. So I just like the idea of them continuing to invest in this running back room because it was still a little bit underwhelming last year in Denver. And I do think he is – I just felt like a very underrated in terms of the complete list of his game running back. Yeah. Yeah, I was not the biggest Jonah Coleman fan because I don't see the suddenness that I like. But there's a certain style of running backs I like. And so one of the things I've become very aware of is we all have biases about certain types of corners. We typically prefer and we have a bias that can change our, you know, push our grades for certain type of linebackers, certain type of running backs.

1:30:41And so, you know, he's not as sudden and fast. But then when I saw that I saw Denver drafted him, I thought, well, this actually makes a lot of sense. because he's built like J.K. Dobbins. J.K. has better speed. J.K. is also always hurt. So finding a running back was, I thought, essential. You had to find another running back. And then you compare him to how R.J. Harvey runs, and there's some similarities. And so I started to realize, all right, this is an example of Peyton having a type. There's a type of running back we want. He's tough. He's very tough, and he's very physical. And I think Sean Peyton wanted some replication of, if we get leads, we want tough runners.

1:31:21We want guys who can move the chains, and we want to beat you up and keep you off the field. So I felt like he made some sense. That's where he might have made maybe the most sense because for the team, they got J.K. Dobbins, who's often injured. And then when you look at R.J. Harvey, this is a similar running style to R.J. Harvey, so it gives you a little bit of replication. And, you know, I think Jonah is kind of what you see is what you get. I don't think there's any surprises with Jonah Coleman. His running style and how he performs is exactly how on tape is exactly the same, game in, game out.

1:31:58Like there's no real inconsistencies. And that, to me, is one of the big benefits with him is you're going to get the same thing every game, every single game. I also really did like Emmitt Johnson going to the Chiefs. I was just looking at the order of the bags because Coleman went before Mike Washington, who's the super tall fastback who went to the Raiders. And then Johnson ended up going in the fifth round, which I thought was great value for Kansas City as a change of pace back for Kenneth Walker. I love that they added a back, too, because I just think you don't want to give Walker a massive workload from the jump.

1:32:35so I think he was so good last year in Seattle when he was able to split carries with Charbonnet early on so I wouldn't be surprised if Johnson gets some some run there in Casey okay we're out of the AFC West and the AFC North ended up talking about three of the teams last week the Ravens were one of my winners the Browns were actually I think the number one winner I think literally everybody on earth had them as the winning team. And then we talked about the Steelers. It did not talk about the Bengals. And you have the Bengals. So I'm looking at this. I missed some of these picks when they happened.

1:33:12I didn't see that they took Jack Endries, for example. Who did you pick for the Cincinnati? Well, Endries was, I'm not doing another tight end. I could easily do Endries because the league missed on him. He's going to be a good, I think he's going to be a good pass catcher. I'm going to go really super geek draft and go with the seventh round pick, Landon Robinson. and I'll tell you why. I haven't watched a lick, so. Well, let me explain them to you. Good. This is how my scouting reports are supposed to, are they're meant to paint a picture for someone you haven't watched? So he's late in the process.

1:33:45So I start chasing my ghost list players after the combine. So I'll have about 370, 380 players written up by the combine, and then I've got to start filling in the rest of them because anybody who gets drafted, I've got to have a scouting report for NFL.com. and his protesting day jumped off and it was really good and i said all right well i need to take a closer look at him and this is this i'm going to read just a short brief overview segment so let me tell you how big he is first he's five foot eleven 293 pounds out of navy so right off the bat you think oh so he's undersized and from the naval academy five foot eleven not not a great chance of making his team.

1:34:30But I said he may not possess ideal measurables, but do not ignore his game tape. He's small by NFL standards, but he's strong. It takes a low pad level to neutralize his leverage and move him at the point of attack. He's typically quicker than his opponents when activated and slanting stemming fronts. While sack production may not translate, because by the way, he had plenty of pressures and sacks. He's disruptive when active. Robinson has the talent to grab a roster spot as a one technique in the right scheme. I mentioned him because here's why he's intriguing. And this is truly like draft Nick type stuff.

1:35:09So he's Navy. He's small strike one, strike two typically. But then when I turn the tape on, I've got to let the tape talk and guys can't get them blocked. Like they can't move them around and he's 293 pounds. I'm like, this doesn't make any sense. And then I start thinking of, and this is not a comparison, But I started thinking of Aaron Donald when he was coming out, and he was 280-some pounds, and he was a low, strong, leveraged player. And it's like a door jam. When you get that door jam and you can't move it, when you get just the right angle, that's what I was thinking of with Landon Robinson, is that he gets underneath the pass.

1:35:46So he's quick, so he's into the blocker first. He's always lower. He's always lower. And then he's very strong. He's stronger than 293 pounds in his lower half. And I just and what's intriguing to me and I could have talked about Jack Andrews. I could have talked about Connor Liu at center. They have a lot of picks. I actually I actually love the Bengals draft. I thought they just let it come to him. But Landon Robinson's intriguing because this is going to be the battle of small school undersized with really good tape. And can we you know, we've seen this with Kalijah Kansi was an early pick and he was massively disruptive, but he was an early pick.

1:36:25Ed Oliver, first-round pick, undersized, and we wrote him all, you know. They didn't write him off, but he was an outlier when he was picked. This is a seventh-round pick. Nobody's really thinking about him or talking about him. But I'm going to keep an eye on him because it basically, I want to see, is somebody who's fast, who plays with tremendous determination, Naval Academy, as you can expect, and then has great leverage and some physical advantages and athletic advantages that work beyond his size disadvantage, I'm very curious to see if he's a guy that not only makes the team, but gets on the field.

1:37:05I'm actually not going to be surprised if he ends up seeing the field for the Bengals. I just want to see him stand next to Dexter Lawrence. I mean, they say Dexter's weighing like in the 380s, I think, right now. and yeah man is in the 290s i'm like yeah that's going to look way way different uh it'll be very interesting well first of all it's kind of interesting now that you put that in perspective they started with an undersized defensive lineman cassius howell and we talked about you know the chiefs deviating from some of their norms with their picks i mean the bangles have been drafting athletic freaks and striking out year after year so maybe there's something to be said about trying something new which is like so cassius howell is the the pass rusher out of a and m i talked about him more a little bit in detail um with dominique but you know he he was one of the short arm guys with bane smaller but a more technically refined pass rusher than some of your bigger athletes so So it's definitely a deviation from who they've gone after.

1:38:11That's for sure. And continues to be a need, a desperate need for the Cincinnati team. All right, let's wrap with the NFC North. I think actually we have to do the entire. No, we talked about the Bears. I've got two of them. You've got two. I've got one. You can go first with the Packers, who did not have a first round pick. uh i have no idea you're gonna talk about here actually this was a very interesting they they i thought this was a lot of surprising picks for them yeah um so this is this guy's is an interesting pick i didn't love their whole draft this one is really interesting because he fits the kicker no i'm not gonna say trey smack um although they got a good kicker in the sixth I like that pick, but it's Danny Dennis Sutton from Kentucky.

1:39:07I mean, I mean, from Penn State. Yeah, yeah. From Penn State. And so he, I had this conversation on the draft broadcast that we did. So it's always interesting when you have the Ron Wolfe. So Goodenkiss came from the Ron Wolfe school. So there has been some replication and continuity of type when it comes to positions. and Kingsley and Igbari was actually my comp for Danny Dennis Sutton because they're similar body types. Their playing style is similar. Their physicality is similar. I didn't like Igbari when he came out really. I just didn't think he had enough juice. Danny Dennis Sutton is a little bit different.

1:39:49So this is what I'm intrigued by is, number one, we're going to keep drafting Z'Darrius Smith, like the same type of rugged, physical edge guys, similar to what Baltimore drafts, frankly. And so this is a battle of power and will and force versus finesse. And I'm interested to see how he's going to rush the quarterback. Is he going to be able to convert power and force? And will he pick up maybe one or two go-to moves and learn to be one of those bruising power rushers that can translate it to the NFL? or is this going to be another situation where we just have someone, you know, beating and banging on the blocker in front of them, but not really, you know, being as disruptive as you need to be?

1:40:35Because he's very violent and he's very physical, but is that the direction the NFL is going if you don't have rush? I mean, it's a fourth-round pick, but I almost feel like if you don't have rush and you're at an end with no rush, because Zion Young had first-round run stuff easily, First round size, but he still didn't have enough rush to make it in the first round. Fourth round, this is no big deal. It's not a bad pick in the fourth round. That's not what I'm saying. But I am curious if you can ever turn a bruising phone booth battler on the edge. Can you ever get those guys to really crank up enough rush where you're saying this is a second contract player?

1:41:14I would say also, even though he's in the fourth round, because of his landing spot, there's a pathway for him to get on the field. with Micah Parsons being injured at the start of the season. Lots of spots out there right now. A lot of spots. Yeah, I did watch him a little bit. The first thing that you noticed, he's a very, very large man. You talked about, I think he used the word violent. That would be the word that comes to my mind, particularly against the run. Didn't see quite the bend. It's interesting because he was pretty productive, but mostly got to it with just power. So I think whether or not he can continue developing as a rusher will determine whether or not he can be more like any bar, perhaps, or some of the other similar prototypes in the league.

1:42:05They also took Brandon Cisse. That was their first pick, pick 52, the cornerback out of South Carolina. Very strong need for them. He's a fun watch. He is super athletic. I actually don't even know how he tested, but I just remember watching his tape. That was the first thing that jumped out was just the speed and the movement skills and the suddenness. But there's a lot of mistakes, missed tackles. So I think coaching, it's a high variance pick is what I'll say. The upside is very high. He reminded me of Caleb Fairley when he came out of Virginia Tech. Oh, yeah. And everyone had him in the first night.

1:42:49He had injury issues. But I remember watching tape and like, yeah, I see the traits and I see the potential. But it was just very – it was bumpy in coverage. And when I watched Brandon Cissé, he's got a lot of the same stuff where the coverage is not always as clean as it needs to be. Like, I'd prefer it to be a little bit stickier than it is right now. So watching that development is going to be interesting to me on Cissé to see how quickly can they get him coached up from a footwork standpoint, route anticipation standpoint. And then are they just going to let him try to beat up on people and press coverage?

1:43:24We're just going to, hey, we're just bumping around. We're going to we're going to get after it from the snap and use your size and athleticism and physicality to disrupt the routes early on. I'm curious to see how to use them. I thought he would go before Ponce. now I'm looking at the corners. Yeah, so that was, I think, decent value for them, and obviously it was an area of need. Okay, two more teams. I've got the Vikings. Listen, I'm not going to get hipster on you here. There were three moments in the draft where I was like, whoa. One was Tate going forward, the second was Ty Simpson at 13, and the third was Caleb Banks to the Vikings.

1:44:00I didn't see it coming. I didn't see that coming at all. Falling the reach, too, by the way, if we're not going to talk about it, can we just... did you just draft need and just like, it felt like they drafted need with a guy who's got foot issues. Like I felt, well, but a hundred percent, but cause I didn't think he would, I think he would have been, they had picked 51. I don't know. Maybe he would have gone before then Texans could have been an interesting, but you know, I, this is, it's interesting, right? Because there's no GM in Minnesota. this felt like a very Brian Flores influence draft and pick.

1:44:39Because this is, you talk about need, they have been chasing a pass rush, pass rushing defensive tackle for some time in Minnesota. And Flores has won with scheme. And they've been able to get a lot of really good play out of, you know, like Van Ginkle, Grenard, who they just traded. But they haven't been successful. They've paid up. Remember Jonathan Allen, Javon Hargrave. They've tried to bring in veterans, and it just hasn't worked out. Redmond's been okay for them, but it's sort of been a need in Minnesota for a minute. And the thing I'll say about Banks, and you and I talked about this on the phone, if he's healthy.

1:45:22Freaky. Yeah. Yeah. That's rushing, that's rushing defensive tackle on the draft. And it's not even close. And I know, like you said, there, every need. So when I've got to do my research on needs and so I'll go to beat writers, I go to fan sites because a lot of fan sites are pretty good. I mean, they're, they're, they're pretty well run. And so they have a better idea of needs and that I'm going to, and everything was pass rushing defensive tackle. And I just thought in this, in this economy, in this draft, I mean, good luck. There's like Grayson, there's Grayson Halton in the third or fourth round.

1:45:58At the time I thought third or fourth round from, and then you got Caleb Banks and Caleb Banks is injured. So I'd never plugged him in with, with Minnesota. Now, did I think he was a fit with Minnesota? Sure. I just didn't think where they got him, but I don't think he's Chris Jones, but if he's healthy, his flashes will remind you, at times of maybe a young Chris Jones. He looks like Chris Jones in the LSU 2020-04 game. If you're a Vikings fan and you want to get excited about this pick, go watch that game. That was a crazy game where he reached out and grabbed – who was the running back? Grabbed him with one hand and just threw him to the ground immediately.

1:46:37It's funny you say that game because that was a moment where I said, I think this guy's really good. I need him like – His movement abilities at his size are just not something you see. No, you just don't see that. However, foot injury at his size is also a very alarming thing. This is ultimately going to come down to, I think, not how he's utilized, but whether or not their medical staff made the right call here, because I don't know. Yeah, but if he hits, he could be defensive rookie of the year. I mean, he feels like probably the ultimate boom or bust prospect in the first round, because he has real boom.

1:47:17I don't use the phrase boom or bust that often because most guys don't have a boom. They don't have all pro. He's got all pro potential. But the bust stuff is a little scarier with him because of the injuries that he's had over the years. All right. The last team, the Detroit Lions. Who did you pick? I have no idea. I have a guess. Abney? I could have said him. I've got three names on the card. Abney, Jimmy Rolder, and Derek Moore, because I find all of them to be fascinating picks for different reasons. Dealer's Choice. You pick one and I'll go. Talk to me about Derek Moore. That's an interesting one because they need him to be good.

1:48:00Derek Moore is... It's not like a dumb thing to say, but they actually do. So Derek Moore has great size. He has exactly the kind of size you want. He's got long arms. He's got a tremendous... His traits are really, really high end. And he's also got a nasty long arm rush. So when he hits you either with the two-hand speed to power or the one-hand long arm rush, he wrecks people. He and TJ Parker, they're in classes by themselves when it comes to that type of rush. But I'm just pulling up his stats. I've got to see if I can find his pro day. I don't have his pro day with me. But he's 6 '3 and 7 '8.

1:48:39So he's 6 '4, 255 with about 33 1⁄2-inch arms. but he is, he has had some real production in the past. He can crank up some production. He's got a lot of rush and a lot of ability as a rusher. He takes some plays off, which I think is one of the concerns I have with him is that he takes plays off and he doesn't dominate like he's capable of because when he flashes, there are flashes where I'm like, wow, he can really, he can really be dominant in both the run game and the pass game. because he's so strong with his hands that he can shed tight ends and he also can beat tackles with it. And then as a pass rusher, when he really cranks it up, he's got some ability as a pass rusher.

1:49:22I thought he has second-round talent, and that's where he went in the second, right? Second or third? Yeah, second round, yeah. It was – here, let me look at the – I was interested in him because he went above Zion Young, Yakis? Yeah, Gabe Yakis, yeah. Yeah, so he went after. Second round was an interesting edge rusher order. It went TJ Parker, R. Mason Thomas, Cassius Howell. I thought those three could go in any order. And then more before Young and Yakis. That was a little bit surprising to me. So I was interested in that choice. It's all pass rush, getting back to what we said, because his pressure count, if you go look up his pressure count, it's pretty high over the last two years at Michigan.

1:50:03And I think that's ultimately why he went ahead of Zion Young. Now, Zion Young to me is a safer player. Gabe Ackes is probably a safer player. It's Ackes. But it's – with Derek Moore, I see all these tools and I see all these flashes. But – and I'm interested to see if playing with Aiden Hutchinson, right? This is what fascinates me. When you have – I've seen this with the Texans. They've got Will Anderson on the field and this is the standard and you better live up to the standard. They also happen to have Aziz Alshair and Kamari Lassner, and they have a bunch of guys like that. Well, you've got Dan Campbell, and you, as your head coach, you've got Aiden Hutchinson on the other side.

1:50:48My guess is Panay Sewell. He's not a defensive player, but there's a certain level of intensity that is expected. So you have Derek Moore coming from Michigan over to Detroit to the Lions, so he stays in state. With all those flashes and all those traits, I'm really fascinated to see if he can crank up the fire on all three downs. Because if he stays hungry and stays active and keeps the motor churning, I think he has a lot of potential to be a good starter and a frequent visitor into the passing pocket. Because he's got the tools to do it. It's just sometimes the motor turns off a little bit.

1:51:27So that's what's fascinating about this pick. He has second-round talent. I just figured he'd go on to third for some of the things that I brought up to you. But clearly, rush wins out. If you've got a chance to rush, we're pushing you ahead of the run defenders. Well, I mean, I talked about, you know, I've been talking about, like, who's got a pathway to be impactful. I mean, they need him. I mean, you're looking at outside of Hutchinson, it's DJ Wanham, Peyton Turner out of Dallas. Like, he's going to play. It can be his job. Whereas, like, I like Keith Abney. uh who's the kind of undersized but very i find shifty corner very fun fun to watch um i don't know if it's like outside or inside the nfl but in the lions cornerback room i look at it and they seem to have you know i'm like oh they got a lot of players but they seem to run out of them in a hurry every year so i thought that was great value for them to grab him in the fifth round when they did um and i think by the way have you watched are you familiar with keith abney's um speed skating No.

1:52:29Okay. Because you said you didn't know about one of the other stories. Go ahead and as soon as we're done, go Google Keith Abney skating. He was a set U.S. records as an inline skater for speed skating. And when you see his body and his build and his lower half is, you know, the thickness of his legs, Julia, I totally get it now. he's got a different kind of build but it's going to make total sense when you see him dominating as a speed skater when he was young he ended up i think he figured out there's only so far i can go with inline speed skating and i can be a really good football player in the nfl yeah so check that film out if you get a chance it's pretty good i'm looking at the list of corners and there were a lot of guys not a lot but a few guys taken before him that i didn't like nearly as much as he did he's he's really like he's safe to me i like him um all right well that's it uh i this is long but you do hours and hours of radio every day so you're used to the yep and uh lance thank you so much for joining me this was such a blast i really appreciate you coming on yeah i had a good time sorry i pushed so long i just get excited about this stuff where else are you gonna hear the in in-depth Navy defensive.

1:53:47I'm not going to lie to say that I even know. Let me do Jack Henry's. I love it. I love it. Jack Henry's is another tight end. I can't come with four tight ends. You have a lot of tight ends. For that, if there was one theme of the draft, that would be it. Like the tight ends and the blight. That's going to be a continued theme. That and I think the big nickel. Where can folks check out your work? You can find all the scouting reports I did this year at NFL.com. sometimes have me write offensive and defensive rookie of the year articles I've hit three straight defensive rookies of the year so if they have me write it this year check in I've had Will Anderson Jared Verse and Carson Schwestinger who was a big long shot I didn't get it I put that on Twitter I wasn't they didn't have me write the article so you can go find the tweet but I'm I've already got my eyes on Bain Bain and Styles right now we're battling it out I think Bain is going to be my a rookie of the year choice, but I haven't made that official yet.

1:54:42For defense rookie of the year. We talked a lot about Bain on Monday's pod in the Bucs draft, which I thought was maybe next to Cleveland's my favorite. Yeah, he's a Todd Bowles fit too. Like Todd Bowles is going to love him. Dream landing spot for him and for, I mean, it just makes a ton of sense. That's a good one. Yeah, I think that's a good pick. I'm looking at now the offensive players and thinking who I would go with. All right, we'll check that out. I will be back next week. We are going back to once a week. The usual cadence will be coming out on Wednesdays until we get back to Power Ranks and Divisional Previews later in the summer.

1:55:20Thank you, as always, to everyone at Omaha Productions. Kirsten Sebecki, Owen Saylor, Tucker Tashin, Jack Foster. And I'll see you guys next week.

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