The NFL Draft Story Lines That Do and Don't Matter

20:53Sheil Kapadia:Now, I'm not saying that this should have him slide from the first pick to, you know, the 15th pick or have a Laramie Tunsil situation where it's like, whoa, major character issues. But his permanent record is not unblemished as far as I'm concerned. And there's lots of questions here as to what exactly went on there and why he felt that it was right to leave one all-boys school and go to the rival all-boys school. So something maybe some people should look into, you know? Is he a foxhole guy? Maybe not. Loyalty. Maybe not. Perseverance, you know, things to microwave society, you know, things don't go your way.

21:36That 60 say you're going to the next thing all of a sudden. So I like that.

21:40Sheil Kapadia:Maybe we've been pronouncing his name wrong the whole time. Maybe it's not Fernando Mendoza. It's Fernando Midoza. Wow. Fernando Midoza. So now I just, before we go to break, just want to make sure, Billy, because I did think you made a valid point about the coach there. You know, you're not playing all due respect to whoever the coach is. Sure. I'm sure he's doing a fine job out there. Fantastic job. But when you're, yeah, I would think when you have the potentially the first round pick in the NFL draft and that I hope whoever he was sitting behind was worthy, but I'm also a little concerned about you.

22:14Now we all know you are, you had a very prolific athletic career as a pole vaulter. both at the high school and the collegiate level. Did you feel that you faced any of that when you were there where they were like, sorry, you're not participating in this meet yet. You got to earn your stripes. Maybe it was a culture thing at your school more so than a one-off thing with Mendoza.

22:35Sheil Kapadia:I didn't face those situations. But also, you know, as a pole vaulter, it's kind of like no one really is paying attention to you anyways. So it was fine. But I will say this in defense of the coach who maybe overlooked Fernando Mendoza. A great number of coaches overlooked Fernando Mendoza. I mean, he went and he played in Cal. He didn't really get many offers out of high school. Yale, I think it was. Yeah, he then goes over. And if I'm going to be honest, and this is another point of contention for me, I had someone look into the two four sevens of the world and see where the offers were made and all that.

23:14Sheil Kapadia:And then we had that wonderful story of, well, he didn't really get any offers that were made to him. And he had to go to Cal and he had to walk on and this and that. And lo and behold, when you do a little bit of digging there, you find out there was a school that did offer him. And that school was FIU, which was my school, which he also spurned. So it seems as though, you know, this is a nice guy, but he seems to be taking, I don't know if he's doing it intentionally or unintentionally, taking these little jabs at me saying, hey, Billy, the life that you live, not good enough for me. I'm going to go this way.

23:46Sheil Kapadia:I'm going to go that way. I'm going to zig where you zag. So this guy, I'm keeping an eye on this Mendoza guy because here's the thing. He went out there, he went to Cal, and then again, Fernando Mendoza said, you know what, Cal, thanks for the memories. I'm now going to go to Indiana and I'm going to head over there. And in terms of like coaches overlooking his talent, if we remember, his father was a teammate of who? Mario Cristobal. Right. He then ended up playing in the national championship. And sure, Mario Cristobal went out there and he threw a lot of money at Carson Beck because that was the diamond in the rough that he thought he was going to get.

24:20Sheil Kapadia:But, you know, Fernando Mendoza would have liked to come home to Miami and play for Mario Cristobal, his father's teammate. And that didn't happen because then again, another coach overlooked him. So, you know, this Fernando Mendoza might not be all that we think that he is. You know, he's a complicated fellow here. He's not just this guy that goes to church on Easter and, you know, goes to, I don't know if you saw the videos in Indiana. He would go to like these, these like Christmas festivals, like craft festivals where like students were like taking pictures, like, oh my God, Fernando Mendoza's here.

24:49Sheil Kapadia:And it's just like all like 80 year old women who have their like gingerbread houses and stuff. Like he's just going around there. So he has this nice guy thing, but I think there's a bad boy in him somewhere, you know? So we've uncovered that, you know, you are older than him. We've uncovered that. Yes, substantially. He saw you go to a school and then he chose to go to another school. I don't know that he was keeping an eye on me. I'm just saying. Listen, as an athletic great of the school and a man of media, as you have named me, it's possible that, you know, he was somewhat familiar with me and he saw the choices that I had made.

25:23Sheil Kapadia:And he said, you know what? I can be better than Billy. And that's what I'm saying. I take offense to this somewhat. You should, as you should, because then he gets offered from your school and he says, not good enough for me. So I think what we've uncovered is there's a little rivalry brewing between our very own Billy Gill and Fernando Mendoza. They might be in the same circles there in the Miami area. But if you are a Miami listener, you're probably going to have to choose a side pretty soon, maybe between now and the first round of the NFL draft. All right, let's take a break. What a deep, wow.

25:58Fernando Mendoza, he says. I like that, you know? All right, let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll get to some more storylines that might work. This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce and some very tasty limited time flavors. New Whole Foods Market Peach Apricot Rose Italian Soda. Perfect for a picnic or brunch, as is their trending mango yuzu chantilly cake. But if you're on the go, new 365 strawberry pretzels make a great sweet snack. That sounds delicious. Get savings with yellow sales signs storewide and everyday low prices on 365 brand items.

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27:27Sheil Kapadia:guidance so you can finish your taxes ahead of the April 15th deadline and get your maximum refund guaranteed. If you get stuck, just add expert assist, get unlimited help from a credentialed US-based tax expert. Visit taxact.com to learn more. Or might not interest Billy Gill. All right, we're back here on the Ringer NFL show. I do want to get to some of your other questions and storylines, Billy, but I was thinking about whether this draft has a lot of juice. Okay. And so like I went to the big board, you know, and there's a lot of big boards out there. You guys have covered this on Ringer Tailgate.

28:04We've got Danny Kelly's big board on the Ringer. We've got Todd McShay's big board on the Ringer. Now Joel Anderson comes out with his own big board. And now speaking about choosing sides, Mendoza or Billy Gill, now us at the Ringer. Well, which big board are we actually going by? What's the official big board? So that's something we can get to as well. But I was going through and I was like, all right, let me see. What are the big storylines here I can ask Billy Gill about? and I went through and I instead, you know, titled this portion of the pod storylines that the average fan probably doesn't find interesting.

28:41Oh, okay. With the NFL draft. Because I was like, these are things, you know, when I'm in my football bubble, it's like, oh, you know? And then I was like, I actually don't know if the everyman fan would care about any of these. So I'm going to give these to you and you tell me, I'll just run through all of them. And then at the end, you tell me, are any of these actually interesting? or do you agree with me that this draft might lack some juice here? Okay, you ready for this? I'm excited.

29:04Sheil Kapadia:I'm going to write this down. I got my pen here. Well, there's going to be a lie. You probably aren't going to be able to. I'm going to forget is the thing, if I'm going to be honest. My memory is not where it used to be. Okay. All right, here are some storylines. Does it make sense to spend a high pick on a running back? That's one storyline. Of course, Jeremiah Love, Notre Dame, some people say he's the best player in the draft. Then nerds like me say you can't spend a top five pick on a running back. What are we doing here? That's one. is Arvel Reese from Ohio State more of a pass rusher or an off-ball linebacker?

29:34Ooh. I mean, I don't know. Does that have juice? We'll see. Does it make sense to spend a top five pick on a safety or a linebacker? So you got Sonny Stiles, you got Caleb Downs, everyone's like, oh, these guys are awesome. College football fans agree. NFL fans agree. And then it's like, well, I don't know. Do you actually spend a top pick on one of those positions? You got that. How scared off should teams be with Jordan Tyson's medical history. I don't even know if Billy's aware of this. Jordan Tyson, great wide receiver, but it's like he hasn't played a lot. He gets injured a lot. No, he had a lot other things.

30:08Maybe he had mono. I don't know. He had other things as well. The kissing disease. Okay. Yeah, college. Yeah. Listen, we were all young once. All right. Would you take Jermod McCoy early, even though he didn't play football last year? This is the cornerback. He got injured at the end of 2024, didn't participate in 2025, and now people are saying maybe he'll be a top 20 pick. All right, a couple more here for you. Wow, seven offensive tackles could go in the first round. Is that moving the needle? Is that getting the downloads and the page views and the social media engagement? Billy will tell us in a second.

30:44And then the last one, you alluded to this one earlier. Ty Simpson. I mean, Billy, I went through the whole thing and I'm like, these are actually the most interesting things in the first round. These don't have a lot of juice. Billy's not going to find any of these interesting. Am I right? Am I wrong? Is there something in any of those storylines that you say you're wrong, Sheel? That actually is interesting.

31:05Sheil Kapadia:Well, okay. So if we're going in order, I guess you don't have to do all of them. Okay, good, good. We won't do all of them then. No, just anything in there. Yeah. The high pick on the running back, right? The running back position is interesting because at one point the running back was very valuable. And then we went through all the years where the running back was very replaceable. and in the last two seasons or so, you had a very strong running back free agent class like two seasons ago. And then slowly we've been seeing more money thrown towards the running backs in free agency. But do you spend a high pick where you guarantee the money to the running back early on or then do you kind of try to get one at value so you don't need to be overpaying the running back?

31:48Sheil Kapadia:The running back has been going up and down in terms of relevance and importance to a team. And I feel like we're trending back up, right? And you could take a running back high if you feel like it's the right pick. How do you feel about the team that just goes after best available? And then they're like, we'll figure it out after. There's no such thing. This is what GMs like to say this time of year. And it's never true. It's like, if you have Patrick Mahomes and you're best available as a quarterback, you're not taking the quarterback. If you have, you know, a great left tackle and right tackle and you're best available as a tackle, you're not taking the tackle.

32:26So GMs like to lie all the time about that. I feel like I've been pretty consistent with the running backs. It's like, I love Jeremiah Love. Looks great. Hope he has a wonderful career. If I were a GM, there's no chance I'm taking him early in the draft. So I think some of the things you said, you know, maybe we can get to a point where there's this idea, Billy, that the offensive line and the scheme, that kind of sets the floor of whether your run game's going to be good or not. But then if you have the dynamic running back and you have those other things in place, now all of a sudden it can elevate it to even a more explosive running game.

32:59So honestly, I feel like we've all said what we need to say about the running back stuff. You know, I don't know that anyone's changing anyone's mind at this point. No one's certainly changing my mind. I don't need to change anyone else's mind. So if that's one of the most interesting things about this draft, it's almost like, it was like last year when it was like, man, the biggest story in the NFL is Daniel Jones. Like, does this season suck? You know?

33:21Sheil Kapadia:Are we possibly, and I don't mean to offend anyone here. I don't want to upset you or any of the listeners, Sheil. Are we getting to a point where we may have pre-draft fatigue? Where we are over covering the draft a little bit? Oh yeah, raising my hand. Here's something that I have seen this year where I was like, come on. Which is, we talked about all the big boards. the godfather of the draft the godfather of the big board mel kuyper jr i've already started seeing this year already the stories of are people finally seeing what mel kuyper saw before everyone else there's something along those lines it's like mel knew what this draft was going to be before anyone else knew what it could be and it's kind of like this is i think the third or fourth year in a row where we're putting out this exact same story.

34:16Sheil Kapadia:Well, Mel Kuyper is the guy who essentially invented the draft and draft coverage and no one believed in it as a TV product and a media product quite like Mel Kuyper did. And it's like, I got it. But we still have two weeks to the draft and we did this last year and we did this the year before. I love Mel. Seems like a great guy. We've had him on different shows that I've been on over the years. Very nice. He goes out there and he has his months that he just goes out on his boats there in Maryland and he loves it, right? But kind of a quirky guy too with his pumpkin pie or whatever it is that he eats.

34:51Right.

34:52Sheil Kapadia:But also, we're two weeks away from the draft. Why are we putting out this story again? We keep doing this every single year. Wait, what's the story? I don't know what you're talking about. Just that the draft is a big thing and Mel Kuyper knew it was going to be a big thing before. Yes, it's basically like... That's the story. I didn't even know what you were talking about. Yeah, I'll send it to you. Every year we have it come out. Please don't. where someone writes a profile on Mel Kiper Jr. And it's basically, he saw what the draft could become before anyone else did. And he put this focus on the draft and made it a year long thing before anyone else.

35:22And I feel like maybe, maybe we've gone a little bit too far

35:27Sheil Kapadia:because we still have two weeks till the draft. And to your point, there's not the huge storylines out there yet. I mean, we have kind of like some breaking news that have come out this week with Ruben Bain that that might impact his draft stock. And there's more news to come on that front. But, you know, it's still a situation where we don't have all the information. So kind of speculating on how that's going to impact his drafts is somewhat reckless at this point with the information that we have. But over the next two weeks, stuff is going to be coming out on different guys that may push them down the slide.

35:57Sheil Kapadia:Or maybe now we look more at tape or someone falls in love with this one or this person. You know, their agent is whispering sweet nothings into this GM's ears. and then all of a sudden they go to our rocket ship and they're flying up people's draft charts. Here's the thing about the mock drafts. There's a 1.0, there's a 2.0, and they go up to like 7, 8, 9.0. And we know the 1.0 and the 2.0. Sometimes if we're going to like reveal the secrets of the audience, those are put out there knowing we got to get to a 7.0. So like my 1.0, my 1.0 is going to be moving up and down. My 2.0 is going to be moving around because we got to get to draft day and 7.0.

36:34Sheil Kapadia:And if this is the same all the way through, no one's kind of coming in and checking on what our 1.0s and our 2.0s are doing. Where's your mock draft, by the way, Shield? Why don't you have a mock draft? We did a combo mock draft on the Ringer NFL show. So if you're yelling at your phone or your Apple car player or whatever, saying, you hypocrite, I just listened to you do four hours on a mock draft, and now you're saying draft content has gotten out of control or whatever it is, I understand, but I actually do tend to agree with you. And I was trying to think about this earlier today, you know, as we prepared for the show that there's so much out there now.

37:13You know, you mentioned Kuyper was ahead of the curve that no, there's a huge interest in the draft. You got to televise it. You got to do all these different things with it. He was right about that. To your point, all right, we get that by now perhaps, but it's a little overwhelming because there's so much out there. And I do feel like there's sort of an echo chamber with a lot of it, you know, whether you're mentioning big boards or mock drafts. And I think my main issue and why I get annoyed every time around this year is that how confident everyone is. Like everyone has total amnesia about how bad they were at it the previous year.

37:47And I don't mean like they're specifically bad at it, just that it's hard. Like it's very difficult to project this guy's going to be. But then we get to this point in the year and like you pull up all these mock drafts, all these, you know, big boards and like the biggest difference will be like, oh, someone has someone at four and someone has someone at nine. Like how does everyone agree on the top 20 prospects in the draft? That seems like it shouldn't be the case. So I was wondering this, Billy, you know, we always, we like to give advice to the young content creators out there. I feel like there needs to be more of an accountability with this, maybe a relegation out there.

38:20Now, listen, I'm open to anyone doing, because like I get stuff wrong all the time, but I feel like at least then I can come on here and be like, oh my God, I thought Sam Darnold was going to stink. I thought the Seahawks are, and then I have to account for it or everyone's yelling at me. I think that's good. But I feel like with the draft, that doesn't happen because you have all your takes one year and then you might be totally wrong on a bunch of them. And then you get to the next year and then we all just assume you're the expert. So is there a way for a young content creator out there? And they don't even have to be young.

38:47I would say anyone with free time who knows how to put together a spreadsheet, let's track everyone. And you say, all right, okay, we have a five-year tracker. This person said this, you know, whatever. And they nailed it with that. I feel like every draft analyst I should have to have like three takes that nobody else has. They're your takes. Like you were mentioning Orlovsky earlier. At least, you know what? Go out on it. You got to go out on a limb with three of them and then we'll track them for five or 10 years and we'll see if anyone actually knows what they're talking about.

39:14Sheil Kapadia:Your thoughts. Okay, here's my question to you in terms of tracking. Why was I yelling? I shouldn't be that fired up about this. Listen, it's draft time. I get it. Everybody is like very energized. Here's the thing about accountability and draft tracking. And I wonder where you fall on this situation. Because to your point, a lot of people are just faking it, if we're going to be perfectly honest with you. The McShays of the world, the Kuypers of the world, they're out there and this is their thing all year long. And they're grinding tape and they're doing all the stuff that they do and they're in their basements and they're neglecting their families or whatever it is that they do to spend all of this time watching all of this stuff, right?

39:53Sheil Kapadia:But for the most part, everyone else is like, I watched last college season. This is what makes sense to me. They're not deep diving. They're not following these kids from second grade, talking to their elementary school teachers, seeing how they were in PE class, none of that stuff. And I'll share with you, Sheil. Last year, I was tasked at my previous job with hosting. The last two years, I was tasked with hosting a draft watch along. So while the draft is going on, I was there somewhat hosting the situation and kind of setting up, here's the stories who we think might be picked by this team, that team.

40:31Sheil Kapadia:And you're kind of, you do the research and it was just for the first round. So you go to the first round and to your point, you look up like the 35 guys that it's gonna be, right? Because you have everyone, like you mentioned, has the same like 30 guys, just slightly, One has them at six, one has them at eight, one of them is at four, one of them is at seven, right? But for the most part, it's like the same 32 guys. And then at the tail end, you'll have like four guys that are different. So you can get away with a first round draft situation where you only really look into like 36 people, maybe 40 if you're feeling crazy, right?

41:07Sheil Kapadia:But I'm not going to go and I'm not going to grind tape. So what do I do? I go out there and for a month, I just start going. and I listen to every episode of Todd McShay and I go and I take my notes on Todd McShay's notes. And I go out there and I hear Kuyper and I take my notes on what Kuyper said. And I go out there to Dane Brugler and I see that he's released The Beast. Brugler, Dane Brugler. Brugler, yeah, it doesn't matter. Listen, the important thing about that is just that his research is called The Beast. And if you're connected, you can get The Beast, not as a PDF, in print. And it's like 600 pages long, right?

41:41Sheil Kapadia:So I go through the beast and I'm taking notes in the margins and I'm highlighting and I'm doing this, I'm doing that. And I'm making sure I know these 40 guys at the beginning of the draft so that when we get through the first round, I at least faked it enough so that you think like, wow, Billy really knows guard playing. It's like, no, I know like four guards and I know it based on my own like combination of research that other people did. If we're going to be honest, that's what most people are doing here, right? They're going out there and they're seeing what's going on and they're kind of making their informed opinions based on what's happening.

42:15Sheil Kapadia:But no one's really doing the deep dives except like four people out there, right? I was going to say 10. Yeah, I was like, how many of you? I feel like if we just needed 10, we've got Danny Kelly and Deontay Lee doing the Ringer Draft Guide. You mentioned McShay. I feel like we should, should I just name? I don't know. I don't want to just name everybody. Just name everyone at the Ringer, yeah. But there are people I like. You know, Dane Brugler does a fantastic job. The Beast is all you care about. The Beast is awesome. The Beast. My friend, Fran Duffy from All City, he does a great job. We had Nick Tyson at the Super Bowl.

42:45He does a great job. So we could, I could probably give you, and I probably left someone out. I apologize, one of my friends, but I don't know who it was, but I'm sure I left someone out. All the Shields friends do a great job. You all do a great job. But I feel like we need 10 people. Yeah. And everyone else, like, I'm good. You know, let's just, these 10 people are really going to get into it and they're going to watch them and they're going to research and they're going to look at historical precedent and they know what they're talking about. Let's go with what those 10 say. And, you know, but see, but then I don't want to discourage people from doing it.

43:15If you love it, you should do it. Just me as a content consumer, me as a consumer, I only need like the 10 is what I'm saying.

43:22Sheil Kapadia:I'm discouraging anyone from doing these things until you and I are out of the game. You know what I mean? I like that. We don't need these young people coming up and the whippersnappers coming up and, you know, coming and taking our jobs. Stay out of the game, okay? We got the 10 that are covering it already. And those are the mama birds. And they are feeding us baby birds the information that we need to know. And then we are consuming the information and we are getting the nutrition. And then we are putting our own little spin on it and putting it out to the masses. Do I then go look at Dan Orlovsky or Danny Kelly's list and say, you know what?

43:58Sheil Kapadia:They have this person. One of them has them at four. One of them has a six. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put them right smack dab in the middle at five. That's what I'm going to do. Well, this is the next thing I wanted to ask you about. I'm glad you brought this up. So what you're doing, and I may or may not do this too. I may or may not have a spreadsheet here to my side. Have you heard of the idea of the consensus board, Billy? Are you familiar with this or not? I like this idea. I think I can piece together based on context. You can piece it together. Yeah. Okay. So I believe Arif Hasan, I think he was the first person to put this together online where He said, I'm going to take every freaking big board out there.

44:36I don't care. Like there's 300 and I'm going to make an average. And so we're going to come up with a composite ranking of whatever the top 100, 150 players. So if one guy had someone at four, another one had one at 11, you know, you're putting that all together. And then they kind of looked at this for a while and it was like, is this sort of outperforming actual some NFL teams, Billy, where they're pouring all these resources, scouting and research and analytics and coaches get involved in gyms. And, you know, sometimes this doesn't happen as often anymore. But remember, like back in the day, remember that when, remember when the Patriots took Cole Strange, you remember that one, that guard?

45:18And then they asked like McVay, you know, McVay afterwards might've had a couple of drinks or whatever at his press conference. He's like, They took Cole Strange in the first. We loved him, but we were going to take him in like the third. So those outlier picks where all of a sudden you're just so shocked on day one that, oh, my gosh, there's this crazy pick here. Those don't happen as often. And teams are incorporating these consensus boards. So they might have their own. All right, here's our rankings of these players based on our scouts, Jim. But then we're also going to use this consensus board just to get kind of capture all the information out there.

45:52What do you think of that idea? I think it's been a great sort of innovation in the draft space.

45:58Sheil Kapadia:I saw not just consensus boards, but I saw articles being written, and I don't want to alarm you or panic you at all. I saw articles being written about how teams are incorporating AI in their draft plans now and how they're going. And like, let's say this guy decided he's not going to run the 40. Well, we have plenty of tape and we can use AI to measure certain things and we can get a more accurate number of what his 40 time might actually be. So influencers out there, content creators out there, just know it's not just us who are rooting against you and your future endeavors. It's also, you know, the NFL teams out there are already saying, you know, we don't even need your thoughts.

46:37Sheil Kapadia:We're gonna go to AI. The last generation of thoughts that we need are Shields and Billies and Nate Tice and Danny Kellys. Their thoughts we're fine with. Everyone after that, forget about it. We're going to AI. We're going to the robots. We don't need you anymore. How do you, can I just, let me ask you a question. Let me take a break. We'll take a break. We come back. You asked me a question. And then I had another question for you on this same topic as someone who knows nothing about AI. I had an AI related question for you. We'll do that when we come back. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show.

47:07All right, Billy, what was your question for me? I mean, what a tease. We kept everyone listening through that.

47:12Sheil Kapadia:So when we're talking about grading people and how they did on the draft predictions, how much i guess how exact is their hit need to be so i asked that meaning let's say they hit the player at a number but that player was taken by another team because the team traded that pick or let's say you have like i don't know the colts taking a wide receiver at 11 or whatever number the colts are picking at right and the colts trade down to 16 and they take the person that you thought, but it's five picks later than you predicted. Do you count that as a hit or not a hit? So I think there's two ways, two things we're looking at.

47:53One is, are you somebody who's out here saying, I'm grinding the film or whatever. I can evaluate talent. I can just look at someone and kind of the cut of their jib. Did I use that right?

48:05Sheil Kapadia:I think so. Okay. I can look at the cut and tell if they're a player or not. Whatever, whatever method you're using, you're saying, I have my own rankings and this is how good I think every player is going to be. So you can do it that way and then you can compare for five years down the road where they write on better than the league average, worse than the league average or whatever. But then the thing you're talking about, I think, is the projections of where guys are going to go, which is more of a, I think, like, do you know the league? Do you have connections in the league? Is there a GM telling you, nope, I know all the media loves that guy, but we have X, Y, and Z concerns about him and he's not going to go.

48:40So I think you have to look at it both ways to determine who we're going to relegate and take away their ability to create content. We have to be cautious and make sure we know what we're actually grading them on. But when you mentioned the AI thing, again, I know nothing about AI, but I was thinking like if you looked at certain cliches you used on players in draft reports, like high floor, low ceiling. Do you remember who they said that about a few years ago? I read a lot. Who's a high floor, low ceiling? Jackson, Smith, and Jigba, who is now like the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL. So you had that.

49:17Then you have plug and play, which I swear if you're a guard, then we just, oh, plug and play. Guard, it's not that hard. You just got to get there in the middle and push guys around. Anyone can do that. If you can do that in college, you're fine. So you have all those. I wonder if teams took draft reports and were like, which players did we say this about over the last 20 years? And how many of those were accurate? How many of those were good players? What is the profile of a guy we said was plug and play? They could probably learn some things, I feel like, doing that. There's got to be a way to do that, right?

49:46Sheil Kapadia:I think so. I saw a commercial. I don't remember what it was for. I think it must have been a technology company or something, right? And they were basically showing how teams were, it seemed like a mock NFL draft situation, right? Where they had them and they had all of their notes on their certain players and like, who is it that we're going to take or whatever? And they were like touting the use of technology and AI or whatever. And it seemed like it was just like an Excel spreadsheet that they were using where they're like, we need a guy with a great motor and a this and a that and whatever.

50:15Sheil Kapadia:And it basically was like taking out like the people that didn't have like the high motor classification on them, whatever. And like, this is your pick. And it's like, I feel like this is just like, this isn't AI, this is just like a keyword search on your notes on like a spreadsheet, right? It might work. Yeah, I guess. It's hard. The point is, it's very hard. Like you were saying, like the baseline, It's about 40 % of the picks in the first round will actually be just quality starters, not like all pros or Hall of Famers. At this time of year, it's just like, this guy's going to be, I'm so sure this guy's going to be incredible.

50:49This guy's going to be incredible. And then I do find it interesting, the scout stuff, Billy. So I'm going to read you this thing I read in The Beast here. Oh, The Beast. A scout said this, because I want to get your take on if someone said this about you or one of your loved ones. how would you feel? So here's what it is. Scouts say, and I'm not going to tell you the player until the end. Scouts say his practice habits have matured and that quote, he is learning to love the process, end quote. When you hear that, is that a positive, a negative, a neutral? Like what's your reaction to that? Do you want me to read?

51:31I'll read it one more time. Scouts say his practice habits have matured and that quote, he is learning to love the process, end quote.

51:41Sheil Kapadia:It's a very backhanded compliment. It seems like it's like, you know, school's not for everyone. It's like, wait, what does that mean? Hold on a second. I don't like that. It's like, yeah, this person has potential. They were a disaster years ago, but now like sides, maybe this person could be company. Now they can tie their shoes. Yeah. Yeah. Like if you tell them to get somewhere, like they might be late, but they will eventually get there. So that was about David Bailey, who is, you know, potentially going to be a top five pick. So even when it feels like they're not ripping the player, and honestly, I read something like that.

52:18And I'm like, man, I actually don't think that sounds great that he's now learning to love the process here.

52:24Sheil Kapadia:How do you feel about the Beast and the PDF version? I'm assuming you're going through the PDF version of the Beast, right? No, I used to, but now I just go on The Athletic and you don't, I, I, I, this is the first year. I just, I'm reading it as it is online. I feel like it's beautiful. Actually, they did a nice job. Yeah. So like a lot of these things that are put out as PDFs instead of like a hard copy. Cause I guess it's like, why are we going to waste all of this time and effort printing out all of this stuff? I don't, the only thing I print is, uh, coaching soccer, the lineup, because I don't want to be looking at my phone the whole time.

52:59Sheil Kapadia:Wait, are you a head coach for soccer? This year for the first time. And how did that go? We're struggling, but you know what? 1-0 loss last weekend, but we're going to bounce back. What age group is this? It's just an intramural. It's 11 to 14. Okay. It's very relaxed. Once a week. That's a wide range there. No practice. Yeah. No practice? No. It's like if you don't want to, if you're not really into soccer, it's like if you don't love travel and all that, but you kind of just want to play a pickup game once a week, that's what it is. So it's very low stakes here. Can I tell you something? and don't take this the wrong way.

53:30Sheil Kapadia:It sounds like the players that come out of this team are going to get the David Bailey assessment a couple of years down the road. Like they're starting to understand the practice and the process, but they didn't really get it at the beginning. They might say that about the coach, if we're being quite honest here. All right, Billy, any other storylines with this draft? We went all over the place, but I'm glad we got to talk about the draft content machine. If our friends at the press box are listening and you want to use some of those clips, you know, because I do feel like there was some media analysis in that they had Mel Kiper Jr.

54:01on recently. Great interview there. They're allowed to use that. But are there any other draft storylines you wanted to hit on before we say goodbye?

54:08Sheil Kapadia:I feel like we're going to get to them, right? I think that it's not time to judge whether or not this is a good draft based on the stories that are out here, what, 10 days away, a week and a half away. As it gets closer, I feel like they're going to present themselves. I'm kind of wondering your thoughts overall on the draft now that we're like, what? But we're like 10 years now removed, I think, from having the draft in different cities out of New York, Radio City, Music Hall, whatever. It became like this touring road show. This year makes its stop at Pittsburgh, which has, I think, the 21st pick in the draft.

54:42Sheil Kapadia:And they have Mike McCarthy as their head coach now. And we still don't know what's going on with their quarterback in Aaron Rodgers. So while it should be like a festive celebration, it doesn't seem like Pittsburgh is all that invested in this draft and hosting. I guess people come from cities all around to celebrate their teams. But how do you feel about like draft day, the live draft process? And what is your draft day and draft experience like? Are you like a party guy? Are you taking notes? Are you checking off your boards and your projections? Billy, I host the Ringer NFL show. So these are work days for me during the draft.

55:17Now, before that, when I was a fan, I wasn't like the biggest draft guy where I'm like, I'm going to sit here, you know, the entire time. I mean, remember it used to be on Saturday and Sunday. You might be too young for that. Do you remember that? I don't know if you remember that or people have told you about that.

55:30Sheil Kapadia:No, I remember that it was a weekend thing. And I remember that there was like the parents of like friends of mine and stuff like that would all get together and watch all the days of the drafts. And they really wanted to see who the dolphins were gonna take. And like a two day affair where everyone would get, just the parents would get together and like get the brats out of here. We don't have time to watch our children. and we need to lock in on the draft today. They did take it seriously. That's why I'm wondering you as a man of football, how you do this. No, yeah, I didn't do that back in the day when I was a fan.

56:03Now, as I've been working in it over the years, now, if you cover a team, you go to the team facility, it's usually pretty relaxed. They sometimes, Billy, don't tell anyone, they'll open up the cafeteria for you, for the media, like the only time. It's kind of fun to do that. And then you watch the draft and then the GM or the scouts come out afterwards or they get the player on the line, you know, and you all gather around the phone and you call him. So that way I always enjoyed covering the draft. Like you said, it used to be Saturday and Sunday. And I wanted to ask you this actually, because we're talking now about NFL games and are they going to be on Thursday and are they going to experiment with Tuesday?

56:42I'm actually shocked, Billy, that they have not done this with the draft yet. And I've pitched this before, but like there's all this lead up to it. And we just talked about it. Pluses and minuses. It might be for you. It might not be for you. But the actual draft is only three days. And is that the best way to actually do it? Like, what if they started the draft every year on April 1st? Oh. And they said, we're going to do one pick a night. Televised. Get your bids out. Everybody who wants a piece of the NFL. We're going to televise it. One pick every single day. And so a player gets picked. We all analyze it.

57:21We start thinking about who's going to get picked second, then the second picket, then the next day. So it's the whole month of April is the NFL draft. And they just kind of want to say own the month of April. We still have, you know, baseball starting and you had the Masters last week. March Madness. Yeah, but it's a little bit. Yeah, in April, the end of it. But it's just sort of like the NFL saying, let's spread this out a little bit more. You know, they can sell it like we wanted to give every prospect their own day. You know, they work really hard for this. So we don't want it to be rushed.

57:50So you do that kind of thing. So you could do that, or you could do just a week and you say every round is a day. So maybe it starts on Monday, Monday, or maybe it's Sunday, whatever, is the first round. See, the next day is the second round. And you do a round a day rather than squeeze everything in to three days here. It's only a matter of time, right? I might be a grandpa or something by the time it actually happens, but that is going to happen eventually, I feel like.

58:17Sheil Kapadia:Well, I was going to ask. So if it's the April plan, is the April just the first round? And then like you have a lightning two through seven rounds or then how do you stagger that? No. Okay. Every. Okay. Okay. Now I see what you're saying. Okay. Cause then yeah, the rounds two through seven, how would, you know, I hadn't gotten that far. What if those are like, okay. So April, like, what is it? I guess you do 32 days. So it carries over into May. Every day is one pick. And then like May 3rd or whatever it is when you would reach round two. It's rounds two through seven all on one day. And it's lightning the rest of the draft.

58:54Sheil Kapadia:That sounds great. I love it. You know, then all your, like you said, all your friends, your friends, parents, they all get together. This is the day. Block this off this day because we're the real draft people. And we're going to do every pick in one day. Yeah. Two through seven. Start it early. Like they usually start at like 11 a.m. Start at 11 a.m. and get going there. You can also. We have the seeds of a plan here. You could also probably skip like, I don't need to watch day 22 of the draft. You know, like I don't need to know who the 22nd pick is. Yeah, I'll find out after. Not a position that we're interested in.

59:29Sheil Kapadia:Like not that important. I could skip around. So it won't be that exhausting because you can kind of like check in and check out as it kind of suits you there. You know? Okay. So you're in on it. It sounds like. You know, here's another thing that I was thinking. Let's say we stick to everything being exactly as it is, right? Okay. But to your point, the NFL is always kind of about good or bad. How do we make an extra buck here or there, right? Of course. What if we get into a situation where we have the NFL draft selling the picks to networks? So you're not watching it all on ESPN or you're not watching it all on NFL Network.

1:00:09Sheil Kapadia:you're watching picks one through three on peacock this year and picks four through seven or on, you know, CBS and then eight and nine are on Apple TV and go to Netflix for pick 11 and 12. And you really confuse everybody because it's hard enough to figure out where the games are now, but you have a draft where you're like, we're going to maximum make money off of this and confuse everyone. So they don't know where they're going to watch these picks. Wait, that's, but you're keeping the draft how it is now. Yeah. Yeah. I would just have to switch. Which channel? No, no, no. Back and forth channels.

1:00:41Sheil Kapadia:You have everybody involved. Like, oh my God, what are we going to do? Oh, look, here's Kay Adams talking about this. And here's, you know, Boomer Esiason's talking about that. And oh, look, Shannon Sharpe's back. And he's talking, you know what I mean? And just we're jumping all over the place, getting people. Unless Netflix wants that, Billy, I don't want that. I think, right? That's how we feel about it, I think. Sure, yeah. Whatever Netflix wants is what Netflix gets. Okay, yeah, that's how I would feel it. But I think with my plan, you could actually do that because you're selling a night, you know?

1:01:09Okay. All right. Yeah. So now you do it for the, I don't want to have to change that. Once I start, I don't want to have to flip the channel, but if I have to flip, if I have to go somewhere else the next day, then maybe I'm willing to do that. So the NFL could sell 32, think about that, 32 different one hour packages in the month of April. I mean, just think of how much money they could just, you know, be, I don't even know, wiping the sweat off their foreheads with a hundred dollar bills. if they can't do that now. So there you go. All right, Billy. I think I got to all my stuff. Did we miss anything?

1:01:41Anything you wanted to get off your chest here as we are 10 days before the NFL draft? Or are you good? You're ready to go.

1:01:48Sheil Kapadia:You're locked in. I feel like 10 days out. We're good for now. We're good. We're patiently waiting. We're not like shutting it down. We're not too excited. We're patiently waiting to see what news comes. We're not going to create the news. I mean, we did go out there, Sheila. Mendoza. I was going to say you were burying Fernando Mendoza earlier. and it's kind of a shame. He seems like such a nice guy, great family, and you're just out there kind of spreading all of these things about him, which is unfortunate. But someone's got to do it, I guess, and you did that earlier today. But aside from that, we're kind of just kind of taking the news as it comes and figuring it out as we get closer.

1:02:21Yeah, I think everybody's excited about their own teams. Who's my team going to pick, like you said? But in terms of the zooming out here, I wonder what storylines will emerge between now and that first pick in Pittsburgh. I do like the live drafts. It was a way to basically get owners to stop complaining because they're like, you're not getting a Super Bowl, but we will give you this. And the cities were like, all right, fine. I guess we'll settle for that. It looks cool on TV. Pittsburgh is a great football city. It'll look cool. Good for them. We'll watch it. It's better than having the same venue every week, I believe.

1:02:54All right, there you go. That was our episode with the great Billy Gill, who will be on seven other podcasts, potentially, by the time you listen to this one. But we're glad he carved out some time for his old buddies here at the Ringer NFL Show. Thank you to Billy. Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing. Stefano Sanchez on video editing and additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna. Ram Gopal, I'm Shil Kapadia. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL Show.

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