Hour 2: Raiders’ Cousins vs Mendoza Debate, plus Dane Brugler Previews the NFL Draft

23:22Rich Eisen:i appreciate you catering to me i appreciate that dane you know what you're the you're the beast so um i've been perfect um got asked then i've been asking this uh over the last few days of anybody that's come on the program news and information or talent evaluation albert breer sports illustrated on uh wednesday on monday uh from the ringer todd mcshay so i'll start with you since you mentioned this is a year-round process the beast and that you're already working on 2027 how is the 2027 quarterback draft class in your estimation looming over the 2026 first round of the NFL draft and beyond Dane there's no doubt it's um gonna play a factor uh man part of it is this draft class is just light um it just it is what it is uh but going back to the combine and talking to teams and scouts.

24:15And it's funny how often the 2027 quarterback class was brought up organically. Just teams already have their eye on next year's class. And that's not unusual. I think teams are always advanced scouting. I remember having a conversation with Phil Savage back in the day, how when they traded up for Brady Quinn, I was at 2007, you know they looked at the 2008 NFL draft and Matt Ryan had yet to really announce himself as a first round player and so they felt that was one of the reasons they felt good trading up for Brady Quinn and giving up a future one because they had done that advanced scouting and so if you're a team like the Cardinals or the Jets you know potentially the Browns where you have an option here to maybe go tie Simpson whether in the first round or second round how much of next year are you looking at and saying okay well I think let's just get our pass rusher here let's get our tackle here and let's worry about let's just we'll kick the can one year because we feel that good about Arch Manning, Lenora Sellers, Dante Moore and the rest of that group that are going to come down the pike a year from now.

25:25Rich Eisen:Yeah and I guess with the Jets and the Cardinals kicking off night two atop the second round of the draft if Ty Simpson drops he could go there or either one of those teams if they like him could pop up in the end of the first round or he could go somewhere um in the first round i do want to put a pin in that for the moment and start our conversation here in terms of looking at how you broke down some of the position groups um in the beast with the overall look your top 10 players you don't have i mean i've seen fernando mendoza not being a top people's boards just in terms of top 10 players but usually jeremiah love is one and he's two.

26:02Rich Eisen:You've got Love two and Mendoza three behind Arvel Reese. And I'll ask you why to kick off the conversation here, Dane. Yeah, I think Arvel Reese is the best player in the draft. I think his hybrid nature of how he can impact the game is something you just don't find very often. It's not a direct apples to apples comparison to say a Micah Parsons, but stylistically, that's the type of impact that you're looking to add to your front seven. And I think, you know, box score scouts, they won't love Arvel Reese, 10 tackles for loss, six and a half sacks. But when you watch the tape and you see him setting an edge or spying and doing exactly what he was asked to do in that Matt Patricia defense, not just athletically, but how smart he is as a player and the instincts, the violence.

26:50I think it gives you a lot of optimism about what he can be at the next level. So if you want to just put his hand on the ground and make him a full-time edge rusher, I think you could do that. But on third downs, you can also stand him up and you can let him rush from the A-gap. You can let him spy and let him show off that speed once the quarterback gets flushed from the pocket. There's just so many things you can do with this player. And so for me, he's a top player in the draft, but I don't think it's just wide margin. Jeremiah loves right there as well what he has done, what he did the last two years at Notre Dame, 6.9 yards per carry, 49 plays of 10 plus yards just last year alone.

27:28And it's not just what he does carrying the football between the tackles. It's what he does as a receiver and a pass catcher. So it's, I think, four with the Titans, five the Giants, seven the Commanders. I'll be pretty surprised if Jeremiah Love doesn't end up at one of those spots. And then, of course, Mendoza. It's pretty funny. My top five players, they all played their college football in Ohio or Indiana. which did not expect that to be the case when we started this process.

27:55Rich Eisen:Yeah, I know. Well, I mean, it's the Big Ten world, as you pointed out at the beginning of this conversation. So I guess not to turn this into a full mock draft, you think Arvel Reese is going to go two to the Jets. That's what you think. I would say he's the favorite right now. It really seems like him or Bailey, Texas Tech pass rusher, make the most sense. Aaron Glenn has talked this offseason about how he wants to have more of a hybrid nature to his defense. And to me, that speaks to Arvel Reese because of all the different things that you can trust him to do. But I understand why Bailey certainly in that conversation as well, that first step burst his ability to get after the quarterback.

28:33And the big knock on Bailey was what can he be as a run defender? Back to 2024 at Stanford, he was more of a sub down player because they didn't entirely trust him as a run defender. But fast forward to this past year, 2025 at Texas Tech, I thought he showed some pretty promising strides as being an every down three down player. And so but you're drafting him for that juice off the edge. And that's why Bailey, he's going to be a top five pick in this draft.

29:01Rich Eisen:Yeah, I mean, so when you say the draft is light, do you think it's light on can't miss, surefire, blue chip prospects at the positions that evaluators and front office executives are comfortable spending a top 10 draft pick on? or it's just light in general? Because I do see Styles. I do see Downs. I do see, as you mentioned, Fano is there as well. I don't see Maui Noah in your top 10. He's 11. He might be third overall. All right, so he's just there at 11. You see what I'm saying? Styles is incredible. Downs is incredible. But they're also off the ball, and they're also on the back end of a defense.

29:50Rich Eisen:And normally you don't see those guys go top five, even though their talent just screams it, right? That's the, to me, the story of this draft is the quote unquote non-premium positions and how teams reconcile that, where you don't usually think about drafting a safety in the top 10, but Caleb Downs is that good. I mean, talking to teams about his interview process and how Caleb Downs is sitting down and basically telling them, this is exactly how you guys run your scheme. This is exactly how I would do it. He's talking their language, unlike most college players are able to do. So Caleb Downs is just different.

30:27And, of course, you wish you were a little bit bigger. You wish maybe you had some of the testing information. He didn't do any testing at the Combine or Pro Day. But you're going to trust the tape. And nowhere on the tape does it say he's a deficient athlete or anything like that. The intelligence is what sets him apart. And then with Sonny Stiles, a linebacker, there's gonna be several teams that are gonna be i i'm looking at the cowboys uh in specific specifically as a team they're gonna be tempted to move up uh right now the cowboys don't have a player they feel comfortable wearing that green dot um sunny styles would be perfect for that christian parker defense exactly what they're looking for uh they have two first round picks could they be tempted to move up you know we know the browns are always willing to move back

31:09Rich Eisen:maybe six could be that sweet spot for them wow okay keep that one uh put a pin in that one dane brugler's beast the beast on the athletic new york times 2700 prospects it's as deep dive as you can possibly get on over 400 prospects um right here on the rich eisen show let's look at your top 10 quarterback rankings obviously mendoza a top then you got ty simpson nussmeyer drew our Cole Payton of North Dakota State before we finally see Carson Beck's name why do you have it listed all this way if you can boil it down for me sir yeah and obviously Mendoza one who you know we thought would be a first round pick coming into the year I think in August he was my 19th overall player so um you know we we didn't necessarily see him as a top five pick but credit to him just throughout the year whenever Indiana needed to play he made it and so I don't think there's any mystery about why Mendoza is going to be the number one overall pick.

32:09Ty Simpson, you know, it's funny. You watch the first six games of the year and what he did at Alabama. You throw on the Georgia tape. He looked like an NFL starter. He looked like a guy that was going to come in, help your team win games. But then the back half of the year when the run game was struggling, the offensive line was up and down. Moore was put on the quarterback to go make plays, and he wasn't always able to do that. It was a little up and down. And I think you just come back to the experience factor with Ty Simpson, who has 15 career starts at the college level. He threw his first or he graduated from Alabama before he threw his first touchdown pass.

32:45That's just it's a rare example of a quarterback to be put in that situation. Anthony Richardson, he had under 15 starts. Dwayne Haskins, Mitchell Trubisky. It's just it's not a great track record of those guys. So, you know, just back to our earlier conversation, it'll be interesting if he's still on the board as we go into Friday night and then say Ty Simpson is that second quarterback drafted. Who will be the third quarterback and when will it happen? You know, will it be Garrett Nussmeier, who I think has the ability, the talent to start? He has the command. Obviously, his dad, Doug Nussmeier, been in the game a long time, current offensive coordinator with the Saints.

33:22Would it be Carson Beck? I think Carson Beck has more of a ceiling as a backup. but maybe that's exactly what a team is looking for at that point. Does a team believe in Drew Aller, the developmental ceiling and the potential that he has is such a bummer. He missed that second half of the year. And we, he didn't get a chance to really show what he could do down the stretch, but it's, it's a light quarterback class, no question about it. But, you know, history tells us that maybe one or two of these guys will, will at least get a chance. And it'll be interesting to see where these guys end up and see who gets on the field.

33:56Rich Eisen:Dane Brugler, a few minutes left with The Athletic right here on the Rich Eisen Show. The wide receiver board. Now, this is this, would you say the deepest position in the draft? I think I'd go edge rusher, but wide receivers are close, close two. All right. So Tate won. I mean, if Makai Lemon's there for the Dolphins, right? Shaderway, Jalen Waddell, they're sitting there at 11. Do we Sharpie that one in there, bud? What do you think? What do you think? The fact that they have so many picks, 11 picks. I mean, they have a lot of opportunities because like we said, this is a deep receiver class and it feels like they're starting over from scratch.

34:34And so if they opted for the offensive lineman at 11, I wouldn't be surprised. And then come back at what pick 29 and you can get maybe a Denzel Boston or in the second round, a Chris Bell from Louisville. So I think wide receiver certainly makes sense for this team, but so does about 10 other positions. That's just kind of where the Dolphins are right now in their roster construction. But it'll be interesting to see where Carnell Tate goes. There's a few teams in the top 10. We know the Browns desperately want a playmaker on the outside. The Chiefs have been kind of looking for that guy on the outside.

35:10The Saints rarely turn down an Ohio State pass catcher, right? So don't rule out the Saints here at eight. But yeah, where that first receiver comes off the board is going to be interesting.

35:22Rich Eisen:All right. Before I let you go, of the 2 ,700 prospects or the 400 deep dives that you've done for the beast, give me one or two that we don't talk about enough on shows like this one and my colleagues who are on every day chopping this up. Who do you like that you'd pound the table for? Dane? going back to Indiana you know Fernando Mendoza was obviously the igniter of that offense but he didn't do it alone Riley Nowakowski the tight end who was part fullback part H back they needed a couple yards on third down get past the sticks he could do it they needed someone to block he could do it they even gave him some goal line carries as a fullback and he had a couple touchdowns and so he'll come in play special teams for you former walk on he's wired the right way.

36:11Wisconsin transfer. I think he's just one of the most underrated players in the draft. And he'll come off the board probably in the fifth round. And he'll play for the next 10 years and just be a solid contributor.

36:20Rich Eisen:Look at that one. Dude, you just pulled that one. I mean, you're the beast. He's not even in your top 10 tight ends. I'm looking at your top 10. He's not even there. It's a deep tight end class. You just went deep cut. You want to give me one on defense? Let's test it out. Let's take that one for a spin. Someone on defense. Sure. Let's go southeastern Louisiana. Caleb Proctor. I don't know if he's going to dump the trunk. Throw on the LSU tape against Southeastern Louisiana, and you see this three technique. He's a high school linebacker, and they bulked him up. He's up to 290 now, but he didn't lose that athleticism.

36:53He got after Garrett Nussmeyer a few times, and so somewhere in that early day three range, I think Proctor is going to be one of the first FCS players drafted,

37:01Rich Eisen:and he's going to make some noise. Have you ever met anybody who's sat down, read the beast in its entirety in one sitting? I don't think so, but that's part of the beauty of the beast, right? Beauty of the beast. Beauty of the beast. This is Disney Plus, right? You got to lock somebody down in the basement and not let them out until they're done? Is that how it works, the beauty of the beast? This is where I give credit to my editors who had to actually go through all of this and double check everything. So a lot of good people behind the scenes make sure this is a presentable project. Of course.

37:35Rich Eisen:And all the spellings, right, and everything. So then what do you think somebody with a regular average reading speed, how long would it take to get through the beast start to finish? Dane? Maybe by next draft. I don't know. It's tough. I know it comes out late. I understand that. But if you have this by your side for all three nights of the draft, you'll be steered in the right direction when your team drafts a player and you'll know everything about them from their family to their stats in college to all their background. It's a great resource to have. And I hear from fans all the time who dig it up in four years when their team signs a free agent.

38:17And, oh, what was he like coming out of college? And so it really is a resource guide for fans. Awesome. Do you know how many words it is, Dane? Just over 300 ,000. Jeez. So quite a bit, yeah.

38:30Rich Eisen:Oh, man. 600 pages of information. I took the under on the words. Damn it. Okay. Thanks, Dane. Really appreciate your time. Congrats on this. What a work that you provide and a resource. Perfect word for you. Thanks, Matt. Thank you so much, Rich. You got it. That's Dane Brugler, everybody, right here on the Rich Eisen Show. You can check out The Beast on The Athletic and, of course, through the New York Times portal as well. Get it. Let me just say this to you, just out of everything you just mentioned. I know you don't draft for the fans, right? Not supposed to. But if you can draft for the fans and check a major box and fill a massive need, that's the triple play, right?

39:15Rich Eisen:Mm-hmm. If the Cleveland Browns take Carnell Tate and tell all those Buckeye nuts, you know, and tell all of them in their fan base, we have Carnell Tate now, okay? and their new head coach Todd Monken comes from the offensive mindset you know because they did they did draft some I just went higher register a little bit Fannin right and and they got Judkins yeah and they've got some really good young players on offense over the last couple of years i know they just lost in joku but you add carnell tate to this mix and you're telling the browns fans we know you you know this guy come on out and watch cleveland browns football don't you think that would get people excited yes right however but who's the quarterback it's Sean Watson.

40:18Rich Eisen:I didn't stutter. It's going to be him. It's not going to be anybody else. Yes. Period. They didn't get anybody. They didn't get anybody in free agency. They're not going to go higher like Jimmy G. You know, you know what I mean? Like that's not going to happen. I get it. But is that exciting for fans? It will be if he shows up like the guy that they spent all that draft capital on years ago. Pretty big if. or that's their and you know how I feel about Shador I mean honestly I'm the lead I put on a cape for that kid more than anybody else in the national media I think for good reason I think I'd be curious who Browns fans want I didn't stutter when you listen to them it sounds like Shador's the one guess who's going to start the guy who they owe all this money to and have paid all that money to watch him sit, it's going to be him.

41:17Rich Eisen:It's going to be him. 100 % it's going to be him. And if Browns fans need to reconcile, spend the months doing it. It's going to be him. And if he shows up as him, it would be nice to give him Cornell Tate to throw to. Sure would. And I think fans in Cleveland would be like, uh-huh. You can check the box. tate fan and judkins dude pretty good yeah yeah it sure is and certainly judkins and and um and tate you know one of them beat michigan just look it up i don't know why we needed that we have to i saw these radio hosts one saying that ohio state had a better year than michigan had to apologize for it apparently somebody sent me those videos okay let's take a break we're ahead and walk it back i don't know if you apologized scotty scheffler in the rough on one okay scotty scheffler's on the course everybody will give you updates nate bergetzi's coming in studio the rich eisen show the podcast

42:33Rich Eisen:rich eisen here i've traveled all over for some of the biggest nfl moments you can imagine conference championships, Super Bowls, draft weekends, and everywhere I go, the city just feels different. It's buzzing, packed, electric. Now, take that energy and multiply it by the entire world. That's what's coming this summer with the FIFA World Cup. Fans from every corner of the globe are going to be traveling to experience it live. And when that many people come to town, they're all looking for a place to stay. That got me thinking. If you live in or near a host city, this is one of those rare moments.

43:07Rich Eisen:You already have a space. This summer, you could list your space on Airbnb while fans are in town for the FIFA World Cup, not as a full-time thing, not as some huge lifestyle change, just during an event when demand is naturally high. When I travel for big games, I just want a comfortable place in a real neighborhood, and that's exactly what so many visiting fans will be looking for. If you've ever thought about listing your space. This summer is a great time as we welcome FIFA World Cup fans. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. Quick time out.

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44:24Rich Eisen:They're the ones with the bear on the box. A SoFi personal loan is here to help you achieve something once thought impossible, and that's overcoming high-interest credit card debt. Walk the tightrope of your finances with one low fixed-rate monthly payment, no fees required, and as soon as the same-day funding. That's right. Pull off your own debt-defying stunt with a SoFi personal loan. Visit SoFi.com slash trick to learn more. Loans originated by SoFi Bank and a member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891. We'll take phone calls in a moment before Nate Bergetzi joins us in Studio Hour 3.

45:09Rich Eisen:I'll give you a couple of updates from the masters that I've seen. Let's go. Reportedly, Mark Kalkovecchi, a 13-time PGA Tour champ, got the gate, got ejected off the grounds of Augusta National because he somehow, someway was using his cell phone. yeah that was that was making the rounds yesterday uh during i don't know if it was during the par three or somebody's practice round wasn't today it wasn't today okay yesterday i thought they take the phone from you you're supposed to like that you you're supposed to lock it up they tell you to leave in the car right if you do bring it uh through the gate right you lock it up right and then you can get it after the round or after when you leave i don't know how he got it through no idea yeah because i know some people who are like hey uh if if you need me i'm i'm i'm off the grid for like seven hours yeah because i'm i'm not even taking my phone to the course it's why risk it no biscuit um and then here's a shot i'm seeing who was it was it shawfly's had a uh a t-shot on the eighth landed in a patron's bag from the merchandise store yeah i just i just saw the i just saw the picture of it yeah i'm watching the like someone had their bag right next to the edge of the fairway right and and it dropped right into the the bag so what what is that like a a free drop i think you get a free drop on that one but you pluck it from the bag and then drop it you don't just like turn the bag over yeah but she's just got to like dump all of her stuff out they should make them do that and then wherever the ball ends up that's that's it i'm just wondering that would be great you can't touch the ball right like that you can't touch it if it's if it's been a rules official comes over and goes, I see what's going on.

46:52Rich Eisen:It's definitely unplayable if it's wrapped in like a master's shirt. It's stuck in the garden gnome box. Shooter McGavin. Do you think Augusta National sells a garden gnome? Rich, it is the most popular item each year at the Masters. They only make a limited number of these things, and they are the first item to sell out at the merch store. So I'm watching the video right here and, and, and they're coming up to the ball and they like Shoffley's like looking around the ball and then a rules official is like, it's in the bag. They're pointing to the bag and, and they just make the decision and they clear a space next to the, right next to the bag.

47:37Rich Eisen:Like it's put down right next to the bag and then they lift the bag up and Shoffley gives it back to the patron. That's the ruling. Like they took it out. And I guess you can't have it any closer to the hole. Right, so it's just backing in. I guess they saw where it was in the bag and placed it just outside the bag's environment and as close as they could to where they found it in the bag. That's what they're doing. Every year there's a first thing. Holy crap. For everything. And then they lift the bag and Shoffley's the one who actually hands it back to the Patriots. That's very nice of him. Yeah, that's very lovely.

48:12Rich Eisen:Happy Gilmore 3 going on? Yeah, that's right. Now, usually, you know, does he now sign the bag? Sure. I would think so. Do you have the temerity to ask for? Because you're the one who left it so close to the fairway. Nate Breggetti coming up. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. From 30 for 30 Podcasts. I'm in the air. He's on fire. Did you think I'm on that shot? Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami. gunned down. The key to this case, it's Brian. Boy, he's ripped him. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction.

48:55Rich Eisen:They can place him to arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now.