2025 NFL Rookie Check-in With Daniel Jeremiah

0:00Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm Sheil Kapadia. Today we are doing a rookie check-in. We are approaching the halfway point of the season. Where are we with guys like Cam Ward? Where would Jackson Dart go in a redraft? What about Emeka Egbuka? So to talk about the 2025 rookie class, we have one of the best in the business, Daniel Jeremiah from NFL Network. He is also the host of the Move the Sticks podcast, along with Bucky Brooks, which is available on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Talked about Travis Hunter, what's going on with his role in Jacksonville. Talked about some of these other big name rookies.

0:42So it was a very fun conversation with DJ. Let's take a break. We'll come back, get to it, talking about the 2025 rookie class. This is the Ringer NFL Show presented by FanDuel. And if you're betting on the NFL, FanDuel is the place to do it. They've got everything. Same game parlays, quick bets for when you want to jump in live, and your way so you can set your own lines. The app's fast, it's easy to use, and best of all, when you win, you get paid out instantly. Download the FanDuel app or go to fanduel.com slash ringer NFL to get started. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details.

1:28Must be 21 plus and present in select states and 18 plus in DC, Kentucky, and Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut.

2:08that you can self-inject Trimphia, proper training is required. Trimphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tremphaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit TremphayaRadio.com.

2:58All right, we are back with Daniel Jeremiah. DJ, let's start at the top. The Cam Ward experience. Where are you right now? Is this just another case of like a rookie quarterback in a bad situation? Do you have concerns now that you didn't have when you were scouting him? How do you kind of size this thing up for Ward and the Titans? Yeah, I'll tell you, I was out there for training camp and went out there and watched him and saw what he had to work with there. And I remember talking to somebody in the building and I used the phrase, look, you know, this is a team last year that was both bad and boring.

3:31and I think they're still bad, but he's not going to be boring. And I think that's the case. You see him get better and better every game. The last couple of weeks, he's looked good. I'm just preparing for him because the Chargers play them this weekend. So I kind of dig in and study his stuff, and I'm going through some of my notes. And when he has the rare times, when he has nice clean pockets to operate from, you see him getting one to two quick, balls gone accurately. But he's under so much duress, and he's having to shuffle reset, he's actually better when he just stays on the move than when he tries to gather and reset and throw.

4:07But the arm is there. The quickness is there. All the stuff that you liked about him in college, you see it here. They've just got to build up around him. So I'm hopeful with some of the rookies they got. Shamir Dike is playing well. Helm, the tight end, is going to be a good player. They've got to get better offensive linemen. They need a true, legit number one. There's been so much talk in the end, rightfully so this year, about the situations quarterbacks are in with Darnold and Daniel Jones, and you can go across the board. If you're the Titans now, you moved on from one coach, you have huge decisions to make in the offseason, both from a personnel standpoint and a coaching standpoint.

4:46What's the blueprint? What's the plan? If you're calling that Titans-Chargers game and they sidle up to you and they say, DJ, give us a little help here. How do we position this guy for success after what might be a rocky rookie season? What do you do? Well, I think the coaching thing, you know, we'll see what happens with that and what they're looking for, you know, in the offseason. Man, it's just been such a, my head's gone so bonkers with all these college jobs. I'm like, are we headed towards the NFL Armageddon as well, where we see a bunch of NFL openings? Who knows? But just from a roster building standpoint, I'll always stand on this mountain, which is, you know, when you have a young quarterback, the first thing you do after you draft a young quarterback is you walk down the hallway and you apologize to your defensive coordinator and say, sorry, bud, you know, for the next couple of years, all of our resources draft wise, free agency wise, we're going to go to get this guy up and running because, you know, you bring in your new coach and you get next year and he's making progress and he's taking strides and you're losing games 30 to 27, you know, versus, hey, we loaded up the defense and we're losing 13 to 10 every week.

5:49it's just a different feeling in the building. It's a different feeling amongst your fan base. Like you've got to get him up and running. And so that to me is why you got to have an aggressive off season. Yeah. It felt like they tried to prepare for that with their, some of their offensive line moves last season. Best that was available. That wasn't. And to me, that's like given Dan more all that money. Okay. He might've been what was the best of their available options, but you know, he's not a great player. So you're better off maybe even packaging picks to go up and try and get yourself some help in that regard.

6:19Yeah. Yeah, it certainly didn't work out. Cam Ward getting sacked on 11 % of his drop back so far this season. A very, very high number. All right, other quarterback we got to talk about, Jackson Dart. And I was thinking about this. If we did a redraft today, let's say they made some weird announcement, DJ, and they just said, hey, rookies, you're going back in the pool. We're doing a draft in the middle of the 2025 season. Where does Jackson Dart go after this five-game sample we've seen with the Giants? I would say no worse than second to Cleveland. That trade happened, the Travis Hunter trade.

6:55They got out. They ended up sliding back to five. Jacksonville comes up. Travis Hunter, to me, they don't trade out in that scenario. They have a quarterback that's worthy of that number two overall pick. He's absolutely proven that. And that's the low end. The other discussion is, well, it's him and Cam Ward. And that's a conversation that would have been a lot more serious having seen what we've seen. And it's not like Jackson Dart's playing with a bunch of world beaters since Malik Neighbors got hurt. And now you've got Skadaboo out, unfortunately, as well. But yeah, he's a top two pick if we redid the draft at this point in time.

7:27That's the thing. It really is not a great situation. I mean, with Neighbors out and you look at it there, it is impressive, the plays he's made. So if you do, not to put you on the spot, but Dart first ward, you're right. It is a conversation now because you look at it and neither is in a great situation. and you have kind of your evaluation of Ward on all the college tape versus this five-game sample. So who would you take right now if you had to choose? Yeah, that's absolutely on the spot. I saw Dart. I was there for his first start against the Chargers. And like I said, I'll see Cam this weekend.

8:01So I'm going to cop out and say I want to just see Sam live. But I'll say this. And I said this after that Giants game, which the Giants won. And that dude, not only the play that he brought, running the ball, some throws that he made, he energized the entire building. That place was on fire when he got in there. And you've seen it in the other games that he's been at. When he came out, man, I almost felt bad. Russell Wilson trots out there after he gets hurt. And they darn near boot him out of the stadium just to come in and run a series. But that's how he completely changed the environment that he was in.

8:37And so that's not something you see often with a rookie quarterback this quickly to have just energized an entire organization. So if I was going to lean, I would lean Dart, but that's because I've been in the building. Let me see Cam Ward in the building this week and I'll give you a better answer. For Dart, what are the next steps for him? We see the scrambling, we see the playmaking, we see the aggressiveness downfield. Let's say we're having this conversation a year from now. What are the things you hope to say, hey, he really developed more in that area and really got to another tier? Yeah, I think just knowing where your answers are.

9:10There's some times where he's held the ball a little bit with some pressures and just needs to play more and figure out where those outlets are, how to get rid of the ball and just survive and move on to the next down. I love how aggressive he is as a runner. I love the temperament of it, but he's going to have to pull that back a little bit to have longevity. So that's just going to be something he learns as he goes along. Man, he's in a pretty good spot. I mean, it's only going to get better. I mean, this is going to be, with the injuries they have now, hopefully in his case, the worst supporting cast he has for the next five to ten years.

9:43I mean, however long his run goes, it's going to be much better than what he's playing with right now. So I think you're going to see another big jump. Yeah, he got out of some sacks last week against the Eagles that were just very, very impressive. that the play's never dead with him. To your point, I think that will be maybe something they coach with him that, hey, you can't be taking all those hits, but it is very entertaining to watch here. All right, next one I have for you. So this draft, I feel like when I was going through, it was like, all right, running back, wide receiver, tight end.

10:12Those guys were kind of jumbled between Chenty and Tyler Warren and the wide receiver. So you're an expansion team. You get your pick of any running back, wide receiver or tight end from the 2025 draft class. We'll include Travis Hunter in this. So Hunter, Agbuka, Ted Arroa, McMillan, Tyler, Warren, Jenty, whoever else. Who's the guy you say, this is the guy right now I would take on my team? So can I do three? Can I do one running back, one receiver, one tight end? Can I get three guys? Okay, but then you got to give me one overall. Okay, yeah, that's fine. Yeah, happy to do that. But I want to do three.

10:50But by the way, I love expansion. How fun is an expansion? It doesn't come around so often, but when it does, I love the whole thing about it. You got to protect a couple guys. You got to expose the rest of your roster. Then they have to decide. If you have two expansion teams, one's going to go with the veteran route, pay a bunch of guys. The other one's going to say, no, we're going to play all these young players. We've got 32 teams. It's kind of a perfect setup, but I love expansion, so I love this conversation. I'll go with you in three positions, and I'll tell you who it would be. My running back might surprise you.

11:21I'll take Amari and Hampton, and I know he's nicked up right now. But I was, you know, call a game when it was the Raiders and the Chargers and you go down there and warm-ups. He is, he's such a physical specimen. He's enormous. He can run it. He can catch it. You know, he's, he had the misfortune of some offensive line injuries with the Chargers and then he got hurt. But when you saw him when he was out there and there was just the smallest bit of room, like he's explosive and dynamic and can pass, protect, catch the ball, everything. So all that together, I would take him as my back. I would take a Buka as my wideout.

11:53I think that's not even a, I don't even think it's close. I mean, and I, McMillan's done some nice things. He's clearly their, their number one option there in Carolina. You know, Travis Hunter, when he's, you know, got his few opportunities down the field, he's shown what he can do. But just as an overall receiver, a Mecca Buka is already, I think he's a top, he's a top eight to 10 wideout in the NFL right now as a rookie, in my opinion. So he would be clearly my choice there, which is going to really give you a little bit of hint of where I'm going with this overall pick. But then my tight end, it was close.

12:22I would go Tyler Warren with all that he's done. But again, seeing a Rondé Gatson every week and what he's done the last three games, he is going to be a very productive player. He's got like Zachert's plus type skills to me. He's that type of mover and he's got a really good feel and space. Herbert clearly trusts him. So he would be my alternate. But Tyler Warren for everything that he does, what he does after the catch, just the big target that he is in the middle of the field. And I love everything that he brings to the table. So those are my three. My number one overall, you can tell by my response, would be Ibuka.

12:57Ibuka, okay. I got you. Let's take a break. I want to talk more about Ibuka. I want to talk more about Travis Hunter, too, and what we've seen from him so far. We'll do that when we come back. The Ringer NFL show is brought to you by FanDuel. Thursday night football continues to deliver, and FanDuel's keeping the energy up with their$2 million Thursday night football jackpot. Place an anytime touchdown score bet using your profit boost. And if your player scores the first or last touchdown of the game, you'll earn a share of$2 million in bonus bets. Head to FanDuel.com slash Ringer NFL to download the app and get started.

13:34FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Opt-in, must apply profit boost token on select market. Prize pool to be split equally among all eligible participants who made the correct first or last TD pick. Bonus issued as anonymous as not. Sorry, I'm going to do this, that again. Bonus 3, 2, 1. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets, which expire 21 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com.

14:13Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. I am one of Mochanui. On July 10th. Maui, you will board my boat and restore the heart of Te Fiti. And here we go. The journey begins. See her light up the night in the sea. She calls me. The ocean chose you. Let's go save the world. I got your back, Chosen One. Disney's Moana. Boots Nick. His name is Hey Hey. His name is Yum Yum. When he goes in my tum-tum. In theaters July 10th. Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. Ekpuk has been unbelievable. And I'm not someone who studies the draft like you do.

15:00So I'm reading your reports. And the sense I have in my head, you know, when you're doing that, it's like, all right, this seems like a polished, reliable, like going to come in and contribute right away. he's got 11 catches at 20 plus yards. That's third in the NFL right now, averaging 16 and a half yards per reception. When you were studying him, did you think he could be that kind of explosive threat? Or what do you think some of the, I mean, he didn't go that far down, but some of the teams that maybe passed on him, what do you think they missed on him? Because it seems so obvious right now how good he is.

15:33He's been awesome. And he is, he's been more dynamic than I thought he would be. And, you know, to be fair, like the comparisons, the two guys that I thought of when I studied him are two guys have been awesome. And that's Amon Ross St. Brown and Jackson Smith and Jigba, like obviously the Ohio State thing there. But those guys were just strong, tough, physical, polished, understand route running, understand leverage, you know, quick in and out of breaks. But like he's getting vertical on posts, you know, week after week after week. And Baker loves throwing that ball. So he's been able to be a little bit more dynamic from that standpoint than maybe I anticipated.

16:13But he's such a pro. I love the fact he's grounded through the catch. He catches the ball on the dead run. He doesn't have any hands issues. So his cleats are in the ground. He's going to catch it, which gives you a lot more opportunity for yards after the catch, which is huge. So, I mean, he's just – the polish, we thought, okay, yeah, the polish, he'll do that. But he can play inside. He can play outside. He can get vertical. He's been a lot more than that. Yeah, he's been incredible for them from day one. All right, let's have the Travis Hunter conversation, DJ. Let's see where we're at with Travis Hunter.

16:45Eight weeks in, he's got 28 catches for 298 yards. He's played 305 offensive snaps, 154 defensive snaps. When they made that trade, I'll be honest, I was like, is Jacksonville, I don't trust them to have a plan. I'm very excited to see what Travis Hunter is going to do in the NFL. I wish he went to a franchise that I looked at and said, I trust that they're going to have a plan for this guy and we're going to see the best of him. What do you make of their plan so far with Travis Hunter? I think it's hard. I think it's hard when there's no blueprint, you know, when there's no map. So I don't want to be overly critical because I'm sure they're trying to figure this thing out as just about anybody would.

17:28I think, you know, he's been more offense than defense. To me, I said coming out, and this is partly because I was told he likes offense more. He wants to play offense. That's where his heart is. So he's really good at corner, but that's offense. So I came to the point of like, okay, let's major him big time in offense and let's just learn all that. And then literally, maybe even if we said the defense can come along once we get through the first quarter, maybe even the first half of the season, but we're just going to lock in on offense, learn everything, be a real wide receiver, not somebody who's a gadgety, gimmicky guy, but let him get down the field.

18:03and then you can start adding on to his plate after that. I think they tried to give him a little bit of everything and I think they kind of watered him down, so to speak. And they haven't used him down the field. When they've given him opportunities, one against Kansas City, one against, I believe, was San Francisco, I want to say, down the seam. But he can go up and make plays. But it's just, if we're just going to pitch him quick screens and bubbles and that kind of stuff, I'm like, I think you're shortchanging him. I remember reading your report and then watching him. And he's a downfield threat.

18:34That's why I looked it up before we started. DJ, his average target is coming eight yards downfield. I know, I hate it. That ranks 94th out of 111 qualifying wide receivers. I mean, that is, yeah, that does not feel like the way you want to use him as a rookie here. When you make such a big swing like that and they trade the future first and they come out and they're not, they weren't, you know, tame with their expectations for Travis Hunter with the press conferences, and everything. Is there a pressure in the building that we, Hey, we got to have him play both sides. We got to, you know, we got to make sure people know we had a plan for this versus like, does that come into play versus let's just play them on offense and let's just kind of change this thing up now that we're halfway through the season.

19:18Yeah. Again, I, I think you probably, and you could tell by their comments afterwards that, you know, they thought they had Shoei Otani and this is going to be the chance to just unleash him. And it's like, I've given him grace because there's never been really a team that's put in this situation. So I think they're learning as they go. And I think if you gave him a little bit of a do-over, just my opinion from the outside, maybe they would more major him one-sided early on. But again, it's hard to sit here and say, oh, you guys are morons. How could you not see this? And why are you doing this out of the other?

19:52When it's like, well, yeah, what do we have to go off of here? It's true. We haven't seen it. So I'm hoping that this year is a year where they kind of figure this thing out. And then, you know, to me, it's a gradual growth for him on, you know, being a two-way player. Okay. You're right. I should give a, I can learn from you. Give a little more. Don't just be ripping everybody. You know, when you have criticism, let them give them some time. It hasn't, but to be fair to your, to your feelings, we thought this was going to be an extremely high fun factor. And it hasn't been. It has. It's been tough.

20:23It's actually been a little. Yeah. I thought he was going to be a must-see TV. It's been a little bit of a tough watch, not getting that excitement. All right. Defensive side of the ball. DJ, five years from now, take Abdul Carter out of the equation because unless you have someone over him, I think he seems like the number one guy. But five years from now, who is the best defensive player from this draft class? I'm going to go Carson Swessinger, the linebacker for the Cleveland Browns. Okay, good one. He's all over the field. You can't watch the Browns' defense. First of all, Miles is going to do his thing, but you can't watch him without seeing this dude just kind of a blur.

21:00He's got tremendous range. He's got instincts. He's not just an undersized guy who can't get off a block. He can thud off blocks and make plays. To me, you're going to look up, and this guy's going to have made a lot of Pro Bowls. He's going to be a stat stuffer, and I think he's got a chance. They've got some good pieces there on defense that they've got a chance. You know, they've got a lot of assets because of the guy we just talked about and Travis Hunter going forward that they could, you know, if they can get the quarterback thing figured out, maybe Cleveland could come around a little bit.

21:30But I think he's going to be a stat stuffing machine on that defense. Carson Schwestinger. Okay. A couple of few other names I had written down. Carry your thoughts on these guys. Jihad Campbell. I'm going to give you my second one. Before you say it, can I give you my second one? I'll see what's on your list. Michael Williams was my next one. Oh, interesting. Okay. I did not have him. What about Nicky Manwari from the Seahawks? Yep. Big fan. I mean, he's had some reps that have been very impressive, right? Looks like he's 11 feet tall, 500 pounds out there in that number three jersey. To me, they kind of know that you put him closer to the line of scrimmage, he can wreck some shop.

22:09Okay. And then where are you at with Mason Graham here? Eight weeks in. I think he's been good. I have a running deal with Greg Rosenthal at NFL Network. He kind of killed him coming out. And I backed him up. So then every time he'd make a tackle for loss, I'd text him. And then he was getting grief from people on Twitter. Look, he hasn't been dominant, top five pick, defensive tackle. Oh my gosh, this is Fletcher Cox, Jeffrey Simmons type player. But he's been really solid, really good. Okay. Yeah, I mean, Mason Graham. Schwestinger, they got the Jags first round pick. Yeah, they got some pieces there for the Browns.

22:49All right, I wanted to finish with just a conversation on, I've seen you tweet about this, and I think it's the story of the season, the QB reclamation projects. I mean, Daniel Jones, Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield. If you are one of these teams, you just mentioned, if the Browns can figure out their quarterback situation, if you're one of these teams that's going into the offseason needing a quarterback, What lessons do you take away from this? Has this opened up maybe a different path that we didn't think about five, 10 years ago? How sold are you that this is actually something that teams can explore more?

23:24Hey, it didn't work out for that guy there, but we believe in X, Y, and Z, and it might not be that expensive that they can go this route. I think what it does is it eliminates the marriage, the marriage of like, you know, like, so you go through the draft process and you're like, I like this quarterback. Yeah, okay. Well, don't take him. Because if you're in the like world, you're not in the love world, then let's go get one of these reclamation projects. It's going to cost a lot less in terms of the opportunity cost. Then we also, gosh, if it doesn't work out, you're not going to get crucified for it.

23:56It's almost somewhat of a flyer. It's like a high reward, low risk maneuver. Now, don't get me wrong. If you'd love a quarterback, or even if it's not the, you don't have the first pick, but you could tell Sean Payton loved Bo Nix. So, yeah, go for it. but we've seen other times where you're up there and it's kind of like, well, this is the next quarterback. We need a quarterback. So I guess we just take him. Um, and now you're going to look up and people are going to say, well, I don't know. Let's see. Like, could it, could we squeeze something more out of, you know, who's this next batch going to be?