Mock Draft Pt. 3! Who Goes Off the Board From Picks 22 to 32?

22:31Diante Lee:And if I, and then, you know, Shiel Kapati is getting really annoyed to read every single day what time Max Crosby got to the facility. He doesn't really care anymore. He understands Max Crosby works hard. That's great. But let's just call and see if he wants to show up at our facility at 6 a.m. every morning. So let's offer him this pick 25th overall and let's offer a 2027 second for Max Crosby. So first this year, 25 overall and a 20, 27 second. And you know what? They're not getting those two firsts that they got from Baltimore, but still, if you're Spitech, you can say, I got a first and a second after that complete disaster of a situation.

23:11Diante Lee:I think most people would be saying you did pretty well after the concerns there with Max Crosby's knee. So Deontay, that trade, 25 and a 20, 27 second for Max Crosby. Who's saying no to that deal? I think, I mean, first of all, again, in my mock draft, this is exactly where I have Max Trosby going. So you're already kind of pushing the right buttons for me. I think that if you're the Raiders, you would like to say no, right? I think you want to believe in your heart of hearts that those two first round picks that were on the table, you can gin that back up, especially on draft day as you're starting to see these names come off the board.

23:49And hey, would you rather take a shot on a TJ Parker at this spot? or do you want to go get a sure thing in Max Crosby while your quarterback looks like he's kind of becoming the franchise player that you hope that he might be? So I think if you're the Raiders, you might want to say no, but frankly for me, I was looking at just different ways you can do a first-round pick in a player, right? Like, could I interest the Raiders in a first-round pick and a DeAndre Swift to be Ashton Jensie's, you know, another player in Ashton Jensie's running back rotation, right? Can I interest you in a Montez Sweat, right, As another player to add to that pass rush rotation you were attacking this offseason.

24:28That, to me, I think is something that if I'm the Bears, that's really what I'm laying out. I'm going to say, hey, I can give you 2026 first. It's all you. We do think this guy is worth it, especially in his prime, how productive he has been. We're willing to take that chance that his knee is going to be okay. But we're not going to give you additional draft capital after this year. I'll give you a player to kind of consummate this trade. That to me, I think is something that I would probably lay on the table. And I think whether it's your trade package or mine, I think that ultimately that should be the kind of thing that gets it done if you're after Max Crosby.

25:00Diante Lee:All right. Something to keep an eye on if a Crosby trade happens on draft night. Again, I mentioned the Lions in our last episode. Bears would be another team to watch here. And Parker, Deontay, we actually had a surprise pick with Parker and sent him to the Cowboys already. So he's actually going to be off the board for this. So you look at edge rusher and it's, I don't think it's... It's getting tight now. Yeah. It's getting really tight. It's not a great spot. I actually looked at the Bears here and let's assume that they keep the pick. I settled, you know, it took me a while, but then I got to a place where I'm like, they should take a left tackle here.

25:34Diante Lee:When you look at the way the board has fallen, when you still have Lomu, you still have Ihanachor on the board here at this spot. Remember the Bears left tackle from last year. Ozzie Trapillo suffered the serious patellar injury. And they've kind of band-aided it with Braxton Jones and Jedrick Wills out there. But right now, it's like competition at left tackle for next year because Trapillo could miss the entire year. And you look at how the Bears have operated since Ben Johnson got there, and they're like, we are fixing this offensive line. We will trade for Vets. We will do whatever it takes to address offensive lines.

26:11Diante Lee:So I'm like, that would be a smart move for them. You can figure it out next year. If you have too many good offensive tackles, guess what? You can figure that out. But you are trying to win right now. You have Caleb Williams on a rookie deal. You had a good team last year. You're trying not to have that regression year like the commanders had last year. And I actually thought that, you know, if you end up in a draft with the 25th pick and you feel like you can get a starting caliber left tackle, that's a really nice use of resources. So some of the other options there intrigued me, but I ultimately settled on, hey, I wonder who Deontay's favorite left tackle is here.

26:47Diante Lee:Let's go ahead and give him to the Bears. Yeah, I think Maxi Onishore is probably your best swing here if you're looking for a left tackle. I think that all these guys would kind of be projects or crossing your fingers, even if it is like a Caleb Lomu, right, who has played left tackle more than, you know, a Blake Miller or Maxi Onishore has, but you're still kind of projecting out and hoping that he turns into, you know, a high-level player. I think that when you look at the physical traits of a Max Yonichor, man. Like he checks off all the boxes. I think by size, you look at the way the Detroit's offensive line operated a couple years ago and you think about what they were able to do on the ground in Chicago this past year.

27:25I think that Max can be an absolute body mover. And you think about the combination of what he and a Darnell Wright could be as your bookends. I mean, those are two great athletes that you can do a whole lot with. I really like making a move for a guy like Yonichor if you're the Bears.

27:41Diante Lee:All right, let's go with that. 6 '6", 321, long arms, athletic, started for two and a half years. Yeah. So was a hooper, didn't play football until Juco. So like you say, you know, it doesn't have, you know, big time experience, but does have upside when you consider how late he started playing the sport. So that is an interesting fit there. And I think if you're a Bears fan, you should be pretty excited about that type of outcome there, getting an offensive tackle prospect at 25. All right, 26, we go to the Buffalo Bills. They traded for DJ Moore a year after Brandon Bean just chastised the radio host saying, stop talking about our wide receiver room.

28:25Diante Lee:They fired Sean McDermott with a lot of politics that sounded like happening there in Buffalo. They promoted Brandon Bean. They promoted Joe Brady to head coach. and now what direction do they go in as they say, let's finally get over the hump here and get Josh Allen to the Super Bowl. This might've been my toughest one, Deontay. Was it for you too? I mean, I was looking at this going like, the way the board has fallen here, I'm not really sure. In a perfect world, I think you say, hey, is there a great edge rusher? You love it, this spot. I think the edge rushers you'd probably look at here would feel like reaches.

29:05Diante Lee:Maybe you'll tell me I'm wrong about that, but that's kind of where I landed. I looked at the wider, you know, is there a wider receiver here who would be interested? Well, you traded for DJ Moore already. You've got Khalil Shakir. Does that make a lot of sense? I don't know. Interior offensive line is certainly a spot, you know, guard. They lose David Edwards in free agency. I didn't know if there was a player there that I loved and said that would be worthy of the 26th pick. You know, there's some defensive tackles that are now becoming intriguing. I think at this point in the first round. there's this Toledo safety, Emmanuel McNeil Warren, who I would say, ooh, I don't know.

29:41Diante Lee:Push comes to shove. That might be a guy I actually look at. Where did you land with some of the guys maybe you're looking at for the Bills here at 26? Heart of hearts. I cannot watch the Bills safety's room continue on the way that it has over the last couple of years because it has just felt like such a limiting factor at different points in time against high-level competition. I think things kind of started to clean up for Buffalo's defense towards the back half, back six weeks of the season. I felt like they were playing a little bit better. You definitely started to see some of the creativity that they were trying to apply last year start to come to fruition.

30:14But that staff is out of the building now. You're going to be running a different style of scheme with the Jim Leonard. And I'm really fascinated to know what does Jim Leonard actually think about NFL defense as a play caller? I don't know if he's going to bring over the Vance Joseph, we're totally fearless, man coverage, We blitz you all the time. We're telling our edges should just tear off up the field and we're going to create a bunch of havoc and that's going to be the way that we live because they don't have that kind of player or players, period, but that kind of coverage profile to be able to play that aggressively on the back end.

30:48So to me, I think the two or three names that I was most interested in at this spot was Chris Johnson, DB from San Diego State, Colton Hood from Tennessee, and Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. Those are the three for me where I'm like, I feel like if those three are on the board, you're probably okay in either direction. And I think that for me, I'm trying to open up my mind beyond what we've seen of Buffalo. Because my thought was Chris Johnson, right? Because he can fill the Teron Johnson role. You can put him in the slot. Good tackler, physical guy. He's got some versatility. You'd be happy with that.

31:20But man, I look at CJ Gardner, Johnson and Colt, ship as your safeties. And I'm like, and Geno Stone is a backup behind that. I'm like, man, we've got to do something a little bit better at that spot. So I'm going with Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. I think that of the DBs that are left here, maybe outside of a Colton Hood, I think the upside's the highest. You see the ranginess on the back end. You see the aggression. If you're Buffalo, you're going to sit at the press conference and say, hey, everything you saw from Kalen Bullock over the last two to three years, we think that Emmanuel McNeil-Warren can be just like that.

31:51Tall guy, long arms, good instincts when the ball's in the air, and we'll teach him how to be a better tackler. I think that that's the sales pitch. And to me, that's good enough at this spot where if you are able to find a difference maker to play safety for you, given what we've seen from this defensive front seven, as things kind of started to coalesce last year, if you believe that a Deone Walker is going to be on the upswing, if you think you're going to get a healthy Ed Oliver, if you believe, which I guess you just kind of have to, that Greg Russo and Bradley Chubb will be healthy for you as your edges, yeah, really the only spot to attack is probably the slot and safety spot.

32:24And I think that McNeil Warren is probably the best guy for you here.

32:27Diante Lee:Yeah, I think this would be a good spot for him. You know, for all the reasons you laid out there, I think there's the area of the draft where he'll probably end up going. Looks like he can be an impactful starter. You add another defensive back there. Again, it's hard to know, like you said, not knowing specifically what kind of scheme are they running there with Jim Leonard. What's it going to look like? We always just make assumptions. Well, this guy came from here. This guy came from here. But like, until you get the job and get to call it, we don't know exactly what you want to do. You might be coaching for somebody and being like, I can't believe they're doing it that way.

32:59Diante Lee:I'm going to do it totally differently when I start. So I think he would be a good pick. I like that one. Is Clemson's Peter Woods interesting to you at all at this spot? I am interested. I don't know if I'd do it here because I do think you'd do it here if you really had questions about Ed Oliver's durability or what you saw from Deontay Walker in terms of flashes is not going to be sustained, right? And I would like to believe that what you saw from Walker and what Oliver can be at his healthiest, I think you want to give that another shot, right? I would be okay with this defensive interior as far as first round picks go.

33:39Maybe later rounds, right, you might be able to take some swings, right? I had like a Caleb Banks was in my mock draft. Obviously the foot injuries now probably knock him totally out of first round consideration, probably out of top 40 to top 45 consideration until we get some clarity on what his recovery from these multiple foot injuries are going to look like. But if I needed depth, I would much rather go get a guy like that and maybe we can catch him, get him healthy, and he's not going to be asked to do much for us. And when he is on the field, he can give us plus value. I think that that would probably be a better approach to maybe go on with the Peter Woods for this team specifically, at least.

34:14Diante Lee:Yeah, it's not necessarily a need. If you do look at Bean's history, I mean, he just dumps resources into the defensive line in the pass rush. which is not a bad thing to do. But as we've talked about a bunch of times, they've been a bunch of sort of singles and a double here and there, but they haven't had the guy who you're facing the Bills in a playoff game. And you're like, how are we going to game plan for this guy? Like we need a plan or he's going to wreck this game. They haven't found that guy. And so I just wondered if they would look at it and say, all right, we like our defensive tackles, but you can never have enough pass rush.

34:47Diante Lee:And Peter Woods, if we did this exercise in October or something, He'd be way off the board and he's only 21 years old. Didn't have a great end to the season. Didn't have a great season last year, but has high upside. And let's go ahead and bring him in at this point in the draft and swing for a home run. But ultimately, I'm with you. Toledo is Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. I think that makes sense. Gives you length, playmaking ability, good tackler, versatility on the back end and fills a need there. So let's go with him for the Buffalo Bills. Sadiq stays on the board. The biggest now, the broadcasts are going crazy.

35:25Diante Lee:It's not quite like when the quarterback gets left on the board. But for me personally, I'm going, oh my gosh, when is someone going to take this guy? We get to the San Francisco 49ers. I see a little smirk. I don't know if it's a smirk or slight smile. The name is already written on the card. I'm just trying to do my due diligence to allow the draft broadcast to get the time they need before we put the pick in. All right. So the draft broadcast is saying they could always consider offensive line. Trent Williams, another year older there. They could always add the best defensive player, that defensive front seven.

36:00Diante Lee:You certainly could add some talent there. Sure, they added Mike Evans, but Kyle Shanahan, is there just a wide receiver who he loves here? Or is there an edge guy who maybe they would reach for a little bit? I don't think I said anything there. that convinced Deontay to go in a direction other than saying, we lost Debo. Ayuk's not going to be a part of this team. Kittle's older. Evans is an older player. McCaffrey's an older player. We need a young player with some juice. And it sounds like Deontay Lee slash Kyle Shanahan slash John Lynch is saying that player is Kenyon Sadiq. It's absolutely Kenyon Sadiq.

36:44I think if Kyle Shanahan had had it his way, He would go walk out instead of Goodell to go announce his pick himself if he could, right? And that's assuming that a guy like Sadiq would fall to this point in the draft. But absolutely. I mean, if we're to take the signaling from this offseason that the 49ers are absolutely trying to maximize the last little bit of this offensive window, which you'd have to believe if you go out to get a Mike Evans instead of keeping Jawan Jennings, right? Or at least paying Jawan Jennings what he was asking for. You go get another veteran and a Christian Kirk, right?

37:14You're going to have this offensive line, which could use a little bit more, especially whether you want to talk about maybe making an upgrade at left guard or maybe you want to get a succession plan in place for Trent Williams. All those things are there. And that's not even mentioning what you talked about as far as defense, because you could convince me that maybe you can make an upgrade in the slot in terms of getting a nickel type guy. You could convince me that finding another edge rusher to compete with Michael Williams and using Michael Williams more as a flexible kind of inside out ball of clay piece in Raheem Morris' defense would be a good idea.

37:48All that sounds great. And then I'm just going to turn on the Kenyon City highlights and say, what are we talking about, guys? Nobody that you just named can do what this guy is doing on the field, right? And I think that if you're the 49ers and you look at the way you really want to build out this offense, trying to imagine how flexible you can be in 12 personnel when you've got a healthy George Kittle, you've got Mike Evans out on the outside, you've got Christian McCaffrey in the backfield, and now you've got this freaky athlete in Kenyon Sadiq that's going to be running in motion, flying from one side of the formation to the other, out in the flat, running up the seam, all of that.

38:21That's the kind of player that I think that Kyle Shanahan designs this offense around. And I think that he would be very pleased to get him in there and have Kittle kind of teach him how to be the best blocker that he can be to really round out his game.

38:33Diante Lee:They would set an NFL record for 12th person. I mean, I don't know what the percentage of snaps would be of 12th personnel that they would play, assuming those guys are healthy. But man, and then you can just see it that they kind of would complement each other pretty nicely there. Kittle, Sadiq, McCaffrey, Evans, Pearsall. as your 12 personnel. I mean, if you would have told 49ers fans beginning of the offseason, you're going to get Mike Evans, Kenyon Sadiq, and even Christian Kirk for wide receiver depth. I think you'd be like, oh, that's pretty exciting. Maybe they can extend that window a little bit.

39:09Diante Lee:Obviously, you have to get healthy on defense and you're going to have to nail some of those picks defensively later in the draft. They did trade for Oso Digizua, so it's not like they haven't done anything there. But I'm with you. The fit here between player and offensive scheme Lord is just too good to go in a different direction. This is one of those moments, right? Where if you're a fan of a rival team, you're going to say, oh man, you guys engineered the whole mock draft to try to land this guy on my rival team, right? Right. But I don't know. I mean, I do think Sadiq is a very, I'm with you.

39:41Diante Lee:I was pushing him for the Rams to Austin. He made a pretty strong case that maybe they would go with one of the wide receivers. I think we gave him Makai Lemon was the guy we gave them there, which I was like, all right, I could see that, but I think he could go that early to a team like the Rams. Or maybe, as we just showed in this exercise, maybe he lasts a little bit longer than everyone is expecting and lasts to the San Francisco 49ers at number 27. All right, one more break, then we come back. Houston Texans are on the board. All right, we're back here on the Ringer NFL show. So Houston Texans, you know, I'm looking at their roster going, they could go O-line, but they have upgraded the O-line over the years.

40:24Diante Lee:It's not like, you know, previous years where like they have to go O-line. They could just go, hey, D 'Amico Ryans, who do you want? You know, we already have a top five defense pretty much every year you're here. But is there a guy on defense where you say, no, this guy could be a real difference maker for us? I think probably tackle here might be a little more likely than edge, just when you look at the prospects who are available. But I thought this one was pretty difficult too, Deontay, where I wrote down a couple of different names. I thought maybe this is a Peter Wood spot. Is there Ohio State's Caden McDonald, who's more of like a run-stopping?

41:01Yeah, a true run-stuffer.

41:02Diante Lee:Yeah, and see somebody who goes around this point in the draft. What do you think for Houston here at 28? It is tricky. Again, we're talking about a collection of tackles that aren't perfect, right? And you got to ask, is this really the best use of our first-round pick for a team that's trying to win a championship? Also in the balance, you're going to be asking yourself, is Ariane Territory a starting left tackle on a Super Bowl winning team? If those are genuinely your aspirations. If you're Houston, I think that it's fair to wonder if you're going to get maximum offensive value, especially what we've seen from CJ Stroud when he's pressured.

41:39you're going to have to ask some very frank questions about can we really afford to wager our future as a team with a quarterback that has come unraveled under pressure or under duress in the playoffs and against top competition over the last couple of years. I think that it would be fair to wonder. But I do think to me this is two Clemson guys that I kind of have pegged for this spot. It's either Blake Miller as a project to move over from right to left tackle or Peter Woods to bring in as a disruptive interior defensive guy. And I ultimately went with Blake Miller because I just feel like, again, after watching the reasons why this team gets eliminated in the playoffs and considering when this team does kind of stall out in the regular season for these stretches that they have over the last couple seasons, it's almost always been tied to protection breakdowns and inability to sustain the run game and putting too much on your young quarterback shoulders.

42:34I think I would much rather take a guy like Miller and say, we know this is not your natural spot. Take the time. Or you could go with a Caleb Lomu and say, hey, man, we're going to give this to you. It's your gig. If you feel really comfortable about what he is athletically and what he can be as a pass protector, I wouldn't hate that either. But I just think I really like Blake Miller's athletic profile. And frankly, I'm not the GM. My job's not on the line. I can make a right tackle or left tackle in this exercise because it costs me none.

43:00Diante Lee:Yeah, I was going to ask you, Miller or Lomu here, It seems like you are a Miller fan, 6 '7", 317, long arms, 22 years old. Like you said, four-year starter at right tackle. Did have some snaps at left tackle, but kind of an athletic zone blocker there. But it seems like the preference there would be to play him at right tackle. And then you have Lomu, two-year starter at left tackle for Utah, 6 '6", 313. High-level traits, great athlete, hasn't quite put it together here. So I think you have stronger offensive tackle takes than I do, Deontay. And so I'm not going to fight you and be like, how could you?

43:39Diante Lee:I'm a big Lomu guy. No, I think, you know, you know me well. Both are fine, honestly. Flip a coin. These two guys project out very similarly to me, which is why they've kind of, every time I brought up Blake Miller, I brought up Caleb Lomu, kind of right, because I kind of have these guys tied together in terms of my projection. Okay, I like that. Let's give them Blake Miller here with the 28th overall pick. What a weird draft where these teams in the 20s are like, let's get, we can get a tackle here who might be really good. Might be the best tackle. Yeah. I don't remember a draft like this where it's just like, and it's a bunch of them.

44:14Diante Lee:I mean, I don't know how many tackles are going to go in the first round. It's like interior offensive line is not strong here. Defensive tackle is certainly not strong. edge after you get through maybe the first four guys or however many guys you like is not strong. Once you get to the 20s, it's like, hopefully you need a tackle because a lot of those guys are going to be available. Maybe you could go for a wide receiver or maybe you're like, hey, you know, maybe one of these defensive backs looks pretty good, but it feels unusual that these teams in the 20s would be able to have so many options here at offensive tackle.

44:48Diante Lee:All right, We go to the 29th pick, the Kansas City Chiefs, their second pick in the first round. We gave them Carnell Tate at number nine. You gave them Carnell Tate, Deontay in the first round, which I thought that would be a pretty exciting pick if you're a Chiefs fan, the Ohio State wide receiver. But now they get this pick from the Los Angeles Rams in that Trent McDuffie trade. I think this is really a spot to look at. is this the Ty Simpson spot where a team would say, we like him, let's trade in. And the Chiefs say, we already spent, you know, we got our hour wide receiver at nine. Let's get another pick here.

45:29Diante Lee:Now the Chiefs, you know, got a lot of picks for Trent McDuffie. So maybe they're like, nope, we like a player. We're just taking them. But I do think it's kind of this area of the draft. I even thought with the Bills a couple of picks ago, I don't know if that's too early or not at 26, but that's one where they could say, we traded a second for DJ. more, let's trade from 26. We do have, you know, then maybe we do end up taking a defensive tackle and a defensive back with a couple of those picks. So I think this is the area to just keep an eye on if Ty Simpson, if a team ends up trading for Ty Simpson.

46:04Diante Lee:But if the Chiefs stay here, what do they do? You know, would they, is there a right tackle on the board that they would say, all right, We know we made that big play for the jail. I was going to say Jalen Naylor. That's not his name. Jalen Moore at Wright's Ackle. We're going to throw him out there, replace Jawan Taylor. They could do something like that. Is there a wide receiver? There's like, we love this guy. We know he drafted one. Could that be a story in the first round? Chiefs take two wide receivers in the first round. I don't think so, but I don't think so. But would be interesting. Would have some juice.

46:42Diante Lee:I felt like this seemed like a defensive tackle spot to me or a pass rusher spot. Because if you're thinking about the Chiefs and you're like, all right, they're trading away Trent McDuffie and they're letting Jalen Watson walk. And they moved LeJarius Sneed last year where they're clearly telling us that Spags has this, we'll identify guys in the later rounds. He'll make it work. but up front is kind of where they invest with guys like George Karloftis and other guys that haven't quite worked out for them. So I thought that potentially this could be a Peter Woods spot. Although, you know, if they like someone, you mentioned Colton Hood, the Tennessee corner earlier, I thought that could be an option for them as well.

47:24Diante Lee:What do you think for the Chiefs in this spot? I'm going Peter Woods here. Like, I just think that this is too big of a priority ready to pass up on, right? They need more help, more explosiveness, more juice in the defensive trenches. And we needed to address wide receiver at some point. And I think that this is probably the best way to balance out the needs for both, right? I don't know if where they're drafting at nine, if you would be happy taking a big reach or a big swing on either a DB or an edge rusher. And I think that, you know, conversely, if you waited until this point to take a wide receiver, given the way that the board is played out.

47:59And I would say most consensus boards would tell you that by the time the Chiefs get to pick 29, you're not going to have access to somebody that you would be very happy with. It would be someone like Chris Bell, who I think is lower on boards because of his ACL injury. It's kind of some things that are up in the air about whether his production is going to translate directly to the next level. You have a guy like Chris Brazell, second, who comes from an offense where you don't run the most defined route tree. I don't know if that's going to be Kansas City's cup of tea after having some rough patches with wide receiver development and wide receiver consistency across the board.

48:35So to me, I think the best move to make here is to address the defensive trenches, get in somebody who can play alongside a Chris Jones that can take some pressure off of Chris Jones to always have to be both an anchor and a disruptor. And now you've got these two who can really combine to allow Steve Spagnuolo to kind of get the most out of what's going to be a young and relatively unproven defensive backfield.

48:57Diante Lee:I mean, this is pretty close to best case scenario for the Chiefs, I feel like. If you told them right now you can sign up for Carnell Tate and Peter Woods in the first round with those two picks, I mean, I would be pretty excited about that. I think they'd jump for joy for that. Yeah. You know, it's like somebody like Woods is just an intriguing player to me when it's like, all right, I don't know exactly why last season didn't go great or the end of last season didn't go great, but he's still young. He's been productive. He plays a premium position. He still had a pretty high run stop rate last year.

49:30Diante Lee:So if nothing else. And like, if you get the high end outcome of a player like that, it's, you know, that, that guy would go top 10 potentially. So he is a high variance player. You're taking a swing. It doesn't mean it's going to work out, but I think he seems like the right type of player to take a swing on. Specifically, if you're a team like the Chiefs, where you're just like, we need more guys up front that can be difference makers now. And also when Chris Jones isn't still doing Chris Jones things, whenever that would be. I'm not going to predict when that would be, because he's still, I think is certainly capable of doing Chris Jones things.

50:04Diante Lee:But whenever that happens, now you have another guy there. So I like it. I mean, you know, I wrote down, This feels like defensive tackle to me was the last thing I wrote down when I was doing my prep and getting ready for this Chiefs pick. So I like that one a lot. All right, we go to the final three picks of the first round. The Miami Dolphins at 30. So the Dolphins trade Jalen Waddell to the Broncos. So they get the Broncos pick here at number 30. They took in our earlier pick for them, Mansoor Delane at 11. The LSU corner. That was Austin. Dolphins fans, don't yell at me. I was trying to get him an offensive tackle.

50:45Diante Lee:And he said, no, look at this depth chart. At cornerback, he started reading out the corners. And I'm like, yeah, it is bleak, but I don't know. But listen, we settled on Delane. So they got the corner with their first pick. Certainly, they can use as many corners, you know, as possible. They could take a corner with every pick in this draft. I don't think they can make a bad pick, honestly, in the top 100. Everything is a need right now. Everything is a need. wide receiver, big time need. You could go best player available. You know, I had Boston here when I was initially doing prep, but we gave Boston, we already have Boston off the board here.

51:22Diante Lee:So maybe it works out for them. And maybe this is Caleb Lomu, Deontay at this spot. What do you think? So I want to kind of position something to you because right now I have Caleb Lomu written, but it's not in bold, right? Because the phone's ringing and Pittsburgh's calling and they're saying, hey, for a two, a three, and a four in this draft, can we have the number 30 pick? Because I don't want to wait for the Jets to have the first pick in the second round and them take a shot at Ty Simpson. I want to get sure I get in front of other teams that might have quarterback needs, and I want to go get this fifth-year option just in the event that someone like Simpson actually can be a difference maker for us.

52:03So is that something, if you were running the Dolphins, that you'd be interested in?

52:07Diante Lee:If I'm running the Dolphins, I'm saying, call it in, call it in. Yes, yes, yeah, of course. Of course. If I'm the Steelers, you know that the Steelers are, there's been so many times in these drafts where I'm like, they should be the team. Like the Jalen Hirsch, they should be the team. And they haven't done it. Are they going to give up that kind of draft capital? Are they that convicted on Ty Simpson? Now it's very interesting because this is the first year post Mike Tomlin. So Omar Khan, the GM, can say like, Like, listen, I was, yes, I was running the draft, but I'm not saying no, you know, we know whose organization this was.

52:41Diante Lee:And now this is my time to put a stamp on it and let's go ahead. And Simpson's got all the traits and going coach's son and all the moxie and he's going to be our guy. Maybe they would consider it. He would not be the guy I'm taking a swing on. I get that. If he just fell to me, sure, but I would not be willing to give up that draft capital. But to answer your question, the Dolphins, absolutely. Their roster, I mean, I am entertaining every tradeback scenario here because my roster needs a lot of work. It's funny. I was thinking, if I'm Omar Khan, would I do this given just the general inertia that exists in Pittsburgh?

53:25and I think that if you're Omar Khan and you want, if you wanted to spend this, you would say, you know, maybe you kind of change up the draft compensation or say like, oh, this is the equivalent of us basically losing a third round pick because kind of the package that I was really laying out would be kind of like a mid second rounder in terms of like the over the cap trade calculator in terms of equivalent value. But if you're Omar Khan, you get to say, hey, I stuck to my guns. I said, we don't trade away first round picks in Pittsburgh. I didn't trade away a first round pick to get this deal done, right?

53:55And we had multiple thirds to go get this deal done if we needed to. We have multiple fourth round picks to play around as well. So we're really not impacting what we're walking away with, especially if you're telling me I get to get a first round defensive backup, which I believe you guys did. I think you guys gave it maybe on Terrell, if I remember right. Yes. And we're going to walk out with a quarterback that may not even have to start for us in year one. And he's going to go to the Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy school of quarterback play. And when he comes out of the back end of it, we're going to have, you know, a rookie or a young guy that we really trust playing alongside Michael Pittman and DK Metcalf in this young offensive line.

54:36And we're going to give that guy some runway to see if he can be the kind of quarterback that we believe he can be.

54:41Diante Lee:You know what? I got carried away. I feel like I overreacted, Deontay, because in my head, see, this is why I should be. Now, I'm not going to give the GM's grace. You know, I'll be on here after the draft. We're ripping on that for the first round. This was a good exercise because I was like, what? A second, third, and a fourth. But like, all right, it is, you're moving up. You're moving up 23 spots. So that one, it's like, all right, 53 to 30. So to move from 53 to 30, you are then giving up a third and a fourth, let's say 76 and 121. So it's not as crazy as I initially thought there. You already made your first round pick.

55:19Diante Lee:You're moving up from 53 to 30 and you're then giving up. And so you're basically giving up a third and a fourth to move up 23 spots. And for the Dolphins, it's not quite as enticing. You're moving down 23 spots and you're getting a third and a fourth. I think I would still do that without, you know, I'm just trusting you with like, like you said, the draft calculator there. This is a reasonable move. I like the idea of the Dolphins moving back in this spot. and it's certainly not as crazy now when you think about what the Steelers would be giving up here. I don't know. I don't know. Is it sort of similar to that Jackson Dart trade from last year?

55:56Diante Lee:I would say that's probably the closest corollary. Yeah, so it's like when that happened, I was like, I don't know if I would do that for Dart, but it's not, you know, I really can't fault teams for taking swings on quarterbacks at this stage in the draft that don't have quarterbacks if they're not giving up something crazy. And I don't think this is something crazy that they're giving up there. All right. So that's an interesting spot to watch. 30, that trade, Ty Simpson. But let's assume that the Dolphins say, for the purpose of our exercises, they got to make a pick. And so I think if they have to make a pick, Lomu seems like...

56:29Yeah, this will be the clearest Lomu spot to me.

56:32Diante Lee:Yeah, premium position. And honestly, if you wanted to flip it and say Lomu goes to the Texans, this will be a great Blake Miller spot to get an upgrade over Austin Jackson. I think that those two teams should be leaving the first round with a tackle option of one or the other. I got to give our Austin Gale credit because he said take the corner and they still end up getting a pretty good tackle prospect, Caleb Lomu from Utah here with the 30th overall pick. All right, last two picks on the board, the New England Patriots. Now, what's interesting about this, Deontay, I know people are sick of A.J.

57:05Diante Lee:Brown trade rumors. However, if the board falls this way, it feels like the A.J. Brown post-June 1st trade is very much in play. It would be like a near certainty at this point. Yes, there's not a wide receiver here who they would take, right? Yeah. Yeah, so now if it falls a different way and Denzel Boston or another wide receiver that they love is available at 31, maybe we say we wasted our time with all that A.J. Brown trade. Not wasted our time, but it's like, no, that actually isn't going to happen because the Patriots got themselves a wide receiver. But I think the way we had it play out here, there's not a wide receiver they would take at this spot.

57:45Diante Lee:So obviously, I think offensive line, I think pass rush, those would be two areas that you would certainly look at here if you're the Patriots. Or you just say, who's the best guy on our board if you have sort of a tear break and you don't want to force a position? What are you looking at here for the New England Patriots? they were honestly like, I just had like a list of names and was like, let's just see how it plays out. And then I'll just kind of deal with pick 31 and 32 as we get to it, right? Because this could go in a lot of different directions. To your point, if they, this will be probably the worst, this will be the worst outcome in terms of AJ Brown trade leverage, like you were saying, because now you don't have anything to backstop against, right?

58:27Where you can play the, hey, will we or won't we game with, are we going to take a Denzel Boston? Are we going to take a Casey Concepcion? Are we going to take, maybe if a guy like Makai Lemon slips, maybe we take him and make him a slot-only guy. And then we can, even if we're not telling the entire truth, we can go out and say, hey, we're really happy with what our wide receiver room is right now. We don't necessarily feel an impetus to have to take a big swing at the position. Right now, this feels very much like, all right, 2027 first is what it's going to take to go get an A.J. Brown or some kind of package that's an equivalent of a first round pick to go get an AJ Brown.

59:03For me here, I think because that's the case, because of what we're dealing with in terms of the board, the next best move is pass rush. And I'm going to Cassius Howell here. He's a really fascinating prospect. I think this is very much a, you know, is this your flavor of guy or not type of player? Because he does have shorter arms. He's not some 275 pound, you know, major defensive end. I think that you would be debating Cassius Howell's repertoire as kind of like your more finesse rusher against an Akeem Mesidor as a late breakout, but bigger body type of edge rusher. And I think for them, having Draymond Jones in the building already would tell me that opposite him, you might want to have a guy that can go be, you know, their new Calevon chase on.

59:45Or maybe you can kind of get some combination of that production out of both Harold Landry and someone like Akashis Howell. So that was kind of my thought in making that pick here.

59:54Diante Lee:Other edge guys available at this spot R. Mason Thomas from Oklahoma 6 '2", 241, good athlete, productive, might be more of a designated pass rusher type than a guy who can play every down. And this is where personal preference, I'll just cut you off. This is where personal preference becomes such a big thing for me because the designated pass rush guy automatically, I'm like, I need to see high-end speed, like high-end speed, high-end tricks. That doesn't feel like a Patriots move. That doesn't feel like a Patriots pick, not a Brable pick to me. Yeah, I'm with you. Zion Young did feel a little Patriots-ishy.

1:00:31Diante Lee:To me, 6 '6", 262, long arms, just kind of a strong run defender. Now, doesn't look like a great athlete, doesn't look like a guy who's just going to come in and get you a ton of pass rush, get you a bunch of sacks, but maybe he swings inside on pass rushing down. So those were a couple names I wrote down. Then I wrote down this name, Deontay, and I'm curious what you think. Georgia linebacker C.J. Allen at this spot. He's a fascinating one, man. Now, ideally, I want to go lines of scrimmage. I want to get an offensive lineman or defensive lineman. But with the way the board fell, I was like, you know, he's 21 years old, three-year starter.

1:01:08Diante Lee:Like, you know, when I'm looking at linebackers, there are certain words I'm looking for. Tough, smart, character, leader. I'm like, I want the guy who knows how to play football versus just the crazy athlete when I'm looking at linebacker. And it feels like that's exactly who he is. little undersized, I guess, at 230, 21 years old. But he was another name I wrote down potentially for the Patriots at this spot. That's an inspired pick. I don't know if I would do it at 31, but I like that player fit with their system. And I do think if you're trying to find a guy that's going to give you dependability, that's a kind of sure tackler, whether he's out in space or in the box.

1:01:43I think CJ Allen has kind of showed that. And he's got a versatile enough skill set where you can play him as a downhill guy. You can play him kind of as you're roaming, you know, go attack the quarterback type. He can kind of match. I do think that he has just enough athleticism to be able to match up at times with running backs and tight ends out in coverage too. But to me, again, I think that this is for a team. In spite of the fact that they went to the Super Bowl, I think that they have to be hyper-focused on potential difference-making talent at premier positions. And to me, that's the only reason why a guy like Allen can't be on the board here.

1:02:17I think you go Howell. maybe if you want to go kind of be duplicitous you go get a Chris Johnson and just say hey we'd rather have no holes at all in our defensive secondary you know but even then I'm like for where this team is at I think you'd probably rather attack the trenches and because there is no Caleb Lomu here there is no Blake Miller here there is no Max Eonichor here that you can go take or Caden Proctor that you could take and go drop in at a bunch of different spots and see if they make it work to me I feel like going edge rush is the next best move here and to me Cassius Howell is probably my favorite guy that's left on the board.

1:02:51Diante Lee:Yeah, it's like there are corners here that are really interesting, but I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, I don't know that the Patriots would take a corner here given the sort of state of their roster. It doesn't make a lot of sense unless they were just in love with one of these guys and said, we'll figure it out. This is the best player on the board. All right, we give them Cassius Howell, the edge from Texas A &M, and we finish with the Seattle Seahawks. Now, interior offensive line, that right guard spot is probably an area that you would like to address. I don't know that there's a guy at this spot where you say that would make a lot of sense.

1:03:23Diante Lee:Maybe I'm wrong there. Maybe you just say, hey, Mikey Mack, who's your favorite defensive guy at this spot? Who do you want? We trust you. You know, John Schneider's just cracking a cold one being like, yeah, you know, here, call it in. Who's your favorite defensive player? They could go in a number of different directions there as well. Rosters in good shape. Obviously, they just won the Super Bowl, Deontay. Was there a player here that you said, this guy feels Seahawks-y to me? There are so many guys in terms of play style that feel like they could be Mike McDonald, defensive backs. It's really just a question of, are they worth the 32nd pick, right?

1:04:01I think you're going to have to ask that question of Colton Hood, who I think has all of the athletic markers to tell you that he can be a very physical, tight coverage type of defender, right? Maybe not as versatile, though, as Chris Johnson, who I feel like I've brought up five or six times today on the podcast. I mean, hey, man, that's DSU, you know? I got to talk. The defensive coordinator was in our office right at the start of the offseason, man, and he was just talking about how much he enjoyed having a guy like that in the defensive secondary. Okay, good intel. You know, I think Brandon Cissé, that's another guy I'm thinking about, right?

1:04:33You think about tough, got the length, got the athleticism, play the right kind of play style to fit in a Mike McDonald defensive backfield. And this might be the biggest reach, and maybe I am being a San Diego homer. But I think about Keontae Scott, and I don't know if he's a first-round pick, right? Because you are talking about an older prospect. And I think that they've got enough guys like Keontae Scott in terms of these balls of clay. Maybe you play him in the slot. Maybe you play him at safety or at outside corner where he's not needed. But those are the kind of guys I look at, and I'm like, I feel like, to your point, John Schneider can go crack a cold one and say, Hey, man, I'm about to go make some phone calls.

1:05:07You go write the name on the piece of paper. whoever you get I trust that you I trust that you know what you've got going on right but I think that I'll ultimately land here at Brandon Cissé that's who I had mocked to them at the end of the first round of my mock draft having him available here I think that there's a lot of good upside for him to play on as an outside corner you know push Josh Joe give them some competition at that other outside corner spot and really continue to allow them to move guys like Devin Witherspoon inside and out Nick him and Worry both deep and in the slot I think a guy like Cissé has a high level upside that I think if you're Seattle, you should feel like, man, we might end up having the best secondary of football again because we added a player like Cissé after winning a Super Bowl.

1:05:47Diante Lee:All right. Listen, that makes sense to me. Cissé, I did wonder about if they're going defensive line. We mentioned Zion Young for the Patriots. That's another interesting one. You lost Foye Mafe. Right? Maybe it's just like, all right, let's add depth there up front. He could be the guy, but I don't know. Deontay spoke with so much passion. Gabe Jocko is another one who I might be interested in after losing. and Mafe might be a little bit of a reach, right? But I think that that's another interesting player. But yeah, this is a pick your flavor of edge rusher or defensive back. And also John Schneider has a history of trading out of the first round, had a long stretch there where he was not making first round picks.

1:06:24Diante Lee:And if Ty Simpson's still on the board, maybe that happens here again at 32. But I'm going to stick with Deontay. He knows those corners well. He went Brandon Cisse, the corner from South Carolina, And it goes to the Seattle Seahawks here at number 32. And that concludes our first round mock draft. A three-parter if you missed the earlier exercise. It was a lot of fun to talk through these with Deontay and Austin Gale. I think we'll probably need to do one more mock draft exercise. Maybe the week of the draft we'll come up with something. Maybe we get a bunch of us in here at once, split up all the teams and just say, all right, let each of us get eight teams or something.

1:07:04Diante Lee:We'll figure that out in the weeks ahead. but we are into draft mode here as we enter April later this week. All right, thank you to Deontay Lee. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing. Thank you to Stefano Sanchez on video and additional production supervision by Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal. I'm Shiel Kapadia. We will talk to you next time on The Ringer NFL Show.

1:07:36Diante Lee:21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd, or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in.

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