40's and Free Agents: NFL Draft Review

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to forties and free agents. For the very last time this draft season. I am Greg Rosenthal, joined by the best draft analyst in the business. This post draft recap is brought to you by American Express. We're sponsored DJ And even though it's the last thing you're going to do before you go into hibernation, I want you giving full effort because the scouts, the podcast scouts are out there watching still and they're going to be evaluating this game tape.

00:00:30
Speaker 2: I can guarantee you you're going to get four to five of my best minutes that I have to offer you. And then after that it's just we're just hanging on. We're just hanging on. We're just waiting for the helicopter to come pick us up. We're kind of hanging on to that cliff and then and then we go off into sunset. No, look, I would never mail it in, not for you, not on this show that everybody seems to love, both inside the league and outside the league, inside libraries, outside libraries. It's become a cultural phenomenon. Why I can't cheat those people.

00:00:59
Speaker 1: That's right. If you do happen to catch us on YouTube, you can see the born to referee. My Life on the grid Iron book Now in the Background by Jerry Mark Bright, a suggestion from Daniel Jeremiah. So, look, this is a great opportunity for myself. I feel like this all draft season, I have access to DJ and so this show is going to be simple. I think post draft, I just wanted to ask all the questions that were in my head that I wanted Daniel Jeremiah to answer recapping, and then we'll send them on his way to finally start relaxing. And so I'm going to go specific with some teams and some players first and then we'll get maybe some bigger picture if you had any favorite picks anything like that. I'm going to start with the Eagles because to me, it's really fascinating how they get the two receivers early, and I'm including Eli Stowers from Vanderbilt as a receiver along with Mackay Lemon. And you think about the matting, the offensive coordinator Sean Mannion, you expect AJ Brown's on the way out. I'm just curious when you look at this build, you know, Howie the best. That's why I'm starting here. What do you think it said about this type of offense? That they're trying to build and maybe what it means for Jalen Hurts. It's a different sort of offense. It looks like they're building. What did you make of the Eagles draft?

00:02:19
Speaker 2: Well, definitely investing in the position. I'm just pulling up their depth Shart here to go along with what else they had. You know, I think that one of the things how he does really well is he kind of just realizes where the runs are. And I thought he was sitting there thinking, more than likely, if I don't get one of these top couple tackles, he doesn't see even though there's going to be seven first round tackles. I don't know if he saw enough difference between the back end of those guys versus markl Bell, who they got in the third round. So he decidedn't want to be on the end of a run there, so he ended up pushing that one off. And then they come out and get Makayle Lemon, who can run after the catch. Hollywood Brown, who they had signed free agency, can run after the catch. You get a tight end who's really big, a jumbo receiver Stours who's a big run after catch. So there's a lot of emphasis placed on that of what you do with the ball in your hands, and that speaks So let's get the ball out of here, Let's get the ball out quick, Let's get it out to these athletes, and let's let them go. And you think about the other thing is when you have Manion coming from Green Bay, where it was not a not a to like I know people who just fancy football to their chagar in like, this is not a feature a guy offense. It is going to be a spread at all around, and that A J. Brown is not going to be there.

00:03:30
Speaker 1: Right And look, I know AJ Brown like a slant AJ Brown was one of the most effective plays in football, especially a couple of years ago. But in the past. This is where I'm going with this a little bit too, is like, you know, set every Jalen Hurts offense ended up looking the same in the end. But Ton Midian comes from you know, the Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Matt Lafleur, Tree hitting people in stride on the move over the middle of the field, not necessarily what Jalen Hurts has majored in. But they bring in Dontavian Wicks, they give him an ex dension. He was obviously there with Mannion last year too, And I'm just really fascinating to see how this plays out and what it sets up for Jalen Hurts, because unlike a lot of the teams you know that we talk about the most in the draft, like they have a chance to win the Super Bowl. Yeah, like I know the Giants and the Jets, Like we'll get to how fun the Browns draft was, Like that's all great, but I'm most interested in the teams that have a chance to win the Super Bowl. And it seems like they're really making a change in terms of their offense going into this year with.

00:04:27
Speaker 2: Plus they drafted the guy best equipped to be a tush push substitute and Cole Payton that's what he is, two hundred and thirty pound quarterback who you know has got an extremely strong lower body. Some people thought he'd just transition away from quarterback and you kind of use him as a jack of all trades like Taysom Hill. So interesting, interesting draft for them.

00:04:48
Speaker 1: I loved it. And you mentioned Marquez Bell like a what a perfect landing spot for him as a third round pick to markl Bell rather to develop behind Lane Johnson Company. All right, you had Ty Simpson thirty sixth on your overall board, the Rams take him thirteenth overall, shock of the draft, and was talked about story of the Draft. I mean this from a legitimate yeah perspective. What do you think McVeigh sees that maybe you weren't emphasizing as much when you put him thirty six Like to take a guy that early and kind of put your reputation in the next few years on this kid, Ty Simpson. What do you think he sees at a high end from Ty Simpson?

00:05:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I talked about the ceiling to me for Ty Simpson, and I didn't see him in that same light. Was Purdy? Right? Perty was the absolute That's the most you could hope for if what he would be now. The reason I couldn't get there is because Perdy had just played so much more football. Purdy was a two hundred and twenty five pound guy who cut to get down like he just feels. He's a bigger, stronger, sturdier guy, ties a little more narrow and not not as big, and I don't think he'd had the same durability as him, and he didn't play as much football as him. But that's that's where like if you're looking at that's where I saw the ceiling. So in talking to folks that no McVeigh, you get the sense. And then you know, Drew Brees's name was mentioned, like could he be my Drew Brees. They've always, as you know, they've always in that building, had a healthy respect and rightfully so for Joe Burrow. So they're taking the pretty thing and they think that there's other levels that they can that he maybe has the potential to make that ceiling even higher and get into that neighborhood, which to me is the fascinating thing about this whole thing. I don't think for the most part, there was much disagreement on the player, Like what you saw in the field, I don't I don't think there was much disagreement there. It was really eight good football games and you add that together with the lack of the frame and some durability concerns. So then where do you where do you where? What's your risk tolerance? For me, it was that's a lot going against him, a sect. That's the second round for me. And we said it on the show. If you want to get back into the bottom of the first and take him just you know, to get the extra year for a fourth round pick or what have you. Like, I get it, but I did not view him value wise, risk assessment wise. There's too much risk for me to do that all the way up there in the top fifteen. And then on top of that, another point that I tried to hammer home is like that he didn't play those fourth year at Alabama, and now we're saying potentially he doesn't play those third year with the Rams. So over a seven year period of time, he'll have played fifteen games, eight of which were good. Eight good games over seven years. Like that's there's no there's no history of that. So that's why I said, my biggest takeaway is this is going to be a fascinating case study on sample size. Ko Joel Klas's a golfer, so I asked him about it him like it would be like what if you just said, you just go to the driving range for six years, but you never get to go out on the course and then and now can you maybe you might be the greatest golfer of all time. I don't know, I've never heard of anybody that's done that.

00:08:00
Speaker 1: I totally agree, especially with the sample size, and I did think, you know, it's like, yeah, McVeigh, I worry when you mentioned the Brock party name that there is just a part of McVeigh that wants to show everyone that he could do it, you know, because he inherited Jared Goff that that wasn't his who.

00:08:17
Speaker 2: Was their favorite quarterback? I mean, I know Stafford's the most talented. Kirk, it's Kirk Cousins for all those guys, and you know why, It's because he was their human joystick and it was you remember, I was an Indiana basketball fan, and I remember there was a theory way back in the day, like the in the nineties, that Bob Knight did not want the high profile recruits because if they won, it was the players. If you win with a bunch of guys that weren't as highly recruited, and then he just built this team together and it was in his system, then where does all the credit go when that happens. I'm not saying that that's Sean mcvagh need's credit. He's already regarded as the top coach in the league and the best offensive mine. But it is something to that of like we want to play the game from the sideline as opposed to like a Caleb Williams who can play the game himself without without.

00:09:01
Speaker 1: You and Matthew Stafford. I mean exactly. It's just a shame because seeing his play calling with someone who can get you buckets without necessarily having the right play call was was so fun to watch. Maybe Ty Simpsons becomes that guy, but it's going to be fascinating and as great as Kyle Shannon did with brock perty and Jimmy Grappolo. In the end, he lost to one of.

00:09:19
Speaker 2: Those we'll look at, look at who did he have previously before Stafford? That was a better, souped up version of that was Jared Goff, right, and they deemed that, deemed it that wasn't good enough. And that's that was early on the Procescuse I heard this in January about the Ty Simpson thing and less and the text with the dad and everybody. It was the worst kept secret in football. That was in January. And then they traded the twenty ninth pick, and I just remember thinking, like they didn't. They deemed Jared Goff not good enough, so they went and got Stafford and won a Super Bowl. Now they're going to go back to a guy who's like a smaller version of Jared Goff, not as not as accomplished like that. I couldn't get there.

00:09:54
Speaker 1: I know it's easier to say than to execute it. But yeah, trading back and possibly taking him, what if you're going to take him, what would have been the MOHI which.

00:10:03
Speaker 2: I had in Look, there's no reason to lie to me. They could have done. They could have they could have trade back and taken them, but they didn't want to take the chance. So in some ways I respect it because it's like, if you have this, you have the stones to take him at thirteen, then you should have the stones to say, I'm not going to he's he's so good that I don't want to take a chance to lose.

00:10:19
Speaker 1: Him Bear And they didn't want to lose them to their former coordinator Michael Fleury, where I think he would have ended up with the Cardinals if he wasn't on the Rams. Do you think the Browns Not a lot of people.

00:10:30
Speaker 2: In the league think that in hindsight, by the way.

00:10:32
Speaker 1: What that that would that they just wanted to keep them away.

00:10:35
Speaker 2: A lot of people in the league said the Cardinals would not have taken him at thirty four. That was a scuttle butt behind the scenes, But again, who knows. I thought it was a lot. I thought they would take him for sure, but then I was told I don't know, I'm not and I don't know. I don't know what they said about it, but I will see. I mean, I think there was a decent I think there was a decent chance they had Carson Beck over him as what. That's the that's what's floating around. But this is.

00:10:58
Speaker 1: Why we get DJ on a day after the draft, the secrets start coming out.

00:11:02
Speaker 2: I don't know that that stuff's confirmed. That's that's the scuttle But.

00:11:05
Speaker 1: Just trying not to make news, but I'm not.

00:11:09
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to want to go away and only want nine. Hey, you think that they had I don't know that. I'm just saying there are a lot of people talking about that.

00:11:15
Speaker 1: Just turn it off and enjoy the last couple of days of the season where the Padres are at least tied for first place. You know, right there, the Browns and the Jets two really fun drafts. I will ask you as I recap their two drafts, who you think had the better draft of the two. ID I'm operating at a position of maybe you like them both. I like them both. The Browns backing up to take Spencer Fano with their first pick, casey conception and my favorite receiver in this class later in the first round. Then Denzel Boston, one of your favorites, Emmanuel MacNeil Warren at safety from Toledo. They have a nice developmental tackle in Austin Barber a linebacker. My guy Ali Connolly really liked Justin Jeff Late Taylor Green was kind of as a fun dart throw the Jets. It was more focused early in terms of the highlights to me. But David Bailey number two, Kenyan Sadik at tight end in the first round, you trade back in to get Omar Cooper the receiver, and then DiAngelo Pond's what a Moment for you gets taken fiftieth overall, Darryl Jackson a little later, big big lineman. If you had to choose between one of those, but we can talk about both, which do you go with?

00:12:28
Speaker 2: I love what the Jets did, but I would go to Cleveland. So I think Cleveland in terms of understanding the board and being able to realize that you don't need to take funo at six, which we knew they were going to do, so they were able to get back a few spots, get some extra picks. They still get their guy conception own. You want to know what's funny is that I was talking to one of the things I could literally show you the text messages of talking to people around the league that I was doing that last mock draft that I got to the Browns, and I said, who do you think the Browns would take if it was septs you in Boston? And I sent it around to a bunch of different people, and everybody unanimous said, I think that they would look for more for concepts Young, So I put concepts you on there ended up happening, but Boston was in my mind and they ended up still getting him. They have both of them. And then McNeil Warren, he's my fifteenth player. And I say it every year there should be a you get a trophy for being the safety that falls out that falls down the board every year and it always ends up being a really good player, and they were the recipients of that in this one. So they nailed that one. You talk about Justin Jefferson the linebacker. I liked him too. I mean, he's They told me at the school he was gonna run the four threes. He ran in the four fives, which is still a great time for a linebacker. But he looks like the fastest guy in the field when he's playing, So I like that value. Brailsford is an undersized center, but for teams that really want to move their center around, he can do that really well. He's got a chance to be a starter. Joe Royer from Cincinnati is a real athletic tight end. They add to that to their room. And then they took a shot on Taylor Green the quarterback. So who's you know? Reminded me of Tererell Pryor just as an athlete, He's kind of a mixture of Vince Youngatrell power. How he runs that long stride that's six with six long striding runner. But why not at that point Timemer's value just take take another shot, throw them in there and see what happens.

00:14:12
Speaker 1: I mean, if Taylor Green makes the team, do you have room for Dylan Gabriel. We'll see. Maybe maybe he's on a practice squad special teamer.

00:14:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, That's what I was asking, and I'm sure you were not watching on that portion of the draft, but I did tell Rich that a lot of times you look at quarterbacks like like look at the Eagles. They have a style or a type like Jalen Hurts. So they go out and get Cole Payton, who you can see, you can how they move around or build, how they run. They have a type. And I said the Browns, I mean when you look at Dylan Gabriel and Taylor Green, I mean they are twins, but definitely more than Arnold Schwarzenegger Danny de vito version of twins there. I mean, they're nothing, the absolute polar opposites of each other, kind of like us too next to each other would look like that.

00:14:58
Speaker 1: How about D'Angelo Pond's on more of my size. What a moment for you. I got to give you your flowers. You were saying it back on forties and free agents. D'Angelo Ponds came up once and you gave the Aaron Glenn comp So not only that happens, but then Aaron Glenn like pumping his almost getting emotional watching some highlights that you guys put up an NFL network that was a very cool draft live.

00:15:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was cool that they had a video because you saw Muji like he goes, look, look it says it says Eric Glenn, and then they kind of they lost if he did. He did kind of look like a father, at least a proud uncle when he was when he was watching the highlights in the video there. But yeah, I think I tweeted out that morning and somebody had said something nice about Ponds, and I'm like, I just would love for him to go forty four so I can use my Aron Glenn comp. And then they trade it back to fifty and I thought, oh man, he's got to watch he'll go between forty four and fifty. And then they took him, and then I looked down on my list, I'm like, oh my gosh, he's my fiftieth player with the fiftieth pick, with his comp being the head coach like that. You can't make that up.

00:16:00
Speaker 1: Well, you had a good you had a good mock draft season. We'll get We'll get to that later.

00:16:04
Speaker 2: I'll hit that later.

00:16:05
Speaker 1: You were on Bailey the whole time?

00:16:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, he was on Reese for a minute, but it was a long time. We've only been on Bailey for a while because I talked about maybe it's for twenty seven and you know he's more the long term play. But then it had been a few Yeah.

00:16:19
Speaker 1: You said at least in the in the weeks before the draft, as a lot of people were going over to Reese, you felt steadfast. I the only thing I would push back on on obviously your evaluation. It's coming from a position of watching all this tape more. But to me, he profiles a little more boomer busty than Arval Reese, which I feel like was against what maybe the consensus was. I feel like that could work, but it also could be someone who is tricky on on running downs. What what do you think, like what kept you so steadfast that that was going to happen because you nailed that?

00:16:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I to me, I think there's I didn't think he was a hateful against Roun, especially you watched the or game of the playoff game later on in there, so I didn't have as big of a concern there. And then he just was more. He was just so much further advanced as a pass rusher, and you can get creative and to do a lot of different things with Reese. But just if we're going to line them both up on the edge and ask him to rush the quarterback twenty times, you're going to see a lot more from Bailey. Just he has different ways to get there. He has more policy, he has more feel. So that's why, you know, that's why I put him there. And then other thing I would say is I think this is a real thing in this draft, and I think it's going to be something that people are going to have to get used to going forward. I think there's a severe helmet bias in like the media versus where we are in the league right now. Nil's changed everything. I just think forever your eyes have been trained. If I've got a guy from Ohio State and I've got a kid from Texas Tech, like what are we talking about here? Like this is Ohio State and that's Texas Tech, and it's like those rules don't apply anymore. That kid could have gone anywhere in the country at high school. That kid could would have been the highest paid player in the portal to go anywhere in the country he wanted to. Any transferred. He's he's in a lead elite talent and you're going to start seeing these elite talents show up at places like Texas Tech and some of these other programs that haven't necessarily been thought of, you know, quite like that. It's just a whole new landscape. Man.

00:18:13
Speaker 1: Okay, that that's fair. Maybe it's the lack of the kids would say aura from David Bailey, just the way he does even were gloves right, that's in terms of his uniform. Maybe that's that's the bias.

00:18:24
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe you just you grew up liking uh, you know, what's his name? Who played first? Whom? I thinking of Mark Grace, Just Mark Grace and no batting gloves up there. I love it.

00:18:35
Speaker 1: Look so you mentioned right now, is David Bailey ready to the rush more than r VL Reese? Yes, it's really interesting to me. We had this conversation about r vel Reese about like maybe he really is, like he's so good at linebacker? Are we overlooking that a little bit? And I said, you know, if we're years down the line and he's one of the best linebackers in the league, you will you be prepared to apologize to Ali Connelly on the show because we have that argument here and here are the Giants starting him out at inside linebacker off ball linebacker a little interesting. I'm sure he's going to be part of the rush plane and everything, but it sounds like on that team maybe their vision for him, at least to begin with, will be linebacker. So I'm not saying you got to prepare your apology now, but I feel like we're getting getting ready for it. Maybe it's it's it's a good first step for the reset linebacker believers.

00:19:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's going to be. It's gonna be fun to watch it. He's a great player, man. I had him as a top five guy. But it'll be it'll be interesting to see. I'm not I think you're looking at the wrong comparison. To me, it's not it's not Recee versus Bailey. If they're going to be playing him off the ball, it's reversus Styles, and I thought Styles is more instinctive than rees personally interesting. I'm curious that they were three and four I believe on my list, is that right? Maybe a four and five, but they were. They were right next to each other, so I'm curious. No, it's three and five, I believe. But those are the two guys that travel together for me, same team, apparently right now at least be playing the same position inside the same division. So that's going to be fun.

00:20:05
Speaker 1: And I'm sure, look, Dinnard Wilson, we don't know. And John Harbaugh has a big hand in defense too, so it's going to be about the vision for him. But it's crazy there. Linebackers are back styles, might be playing a little you know, you might back up play a little safety, you know, Reesel play a little pass rusher. And was really cool to see those two guys go high. Let's take a quick break, our last break of the season, and come back and wrap this thing up. Back on forties and free agents. Wrapping up the twenty twenty six NFL Draft. Jeremiah Love to the Cardinals became a thing late in the process. Do you just think that they could not trade down? I love Jeremiah Love, so it's hard to like get too angry about the pick, but I do think it's fair to wonder about the process. There was some whispers ownership gets involved. Could they have like backed off? Was there anything you heard like after the fact of like whether they just decided we're sticking and picking regardless, or do you think there wasn't as much interest in that pick as maybe we thought.

00:21:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know what they've had interest wise. I never found out like what offers would have come their way. But I did talk to somebody in the league who's very close with the head coach and said he would never take a right tackle over an explosive running back m and so that was just just point blank like he thinks that that's going to have way more impact on his team. And they'll find you know, and they'll figure the thing out on the right tackle side, so that you know, I heard that. Actually, that was a conversation I had the morning of the draft, and talking with the was an executive that was tied with him, So that was that was an interesting way of looking at it. And then because the money is the money, I mean, it's the most guaranteed right that that's just that's the side of it. That's you know, you try and navigate around. But it's also a simple, the simple way of looking at things. It's a great Rosenthal approach of just you know, let's not make things complicated, let's just keep it real simple. Who's the better player? And then and they went that.

00:22:09
Speaker 1: Route, who has the best chance to either make an All Pro team or this high in the draft even make it. We wear a gold jacket, and I think Love scores high on that. So again, I can't kill it. It maybe does speak too. Yeah it's a new coach, but he might have had a lot of say in that pick. I wanted to just fire through just a couple of surprise high low picks, like just guys that caught my eye. Caleb Banks ends up going in the first round. Maybe the concerns about his foot not as big at least for the Minnesota Vikings, or they're just taking a swing pretty fascinating because he's landed in the perfect spot to look great.

00:22:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a big swing. I thought that was the He's the quintessential definition of boom or bust. Like there's no world where he's just okay, he could be great, Like we can talk about him multiple Pro Bowls, All Pro player, He's got a tremendous amount of ability. But you got the same foot twice, Okay, you know, only playing three games this year, you go back to the previous year, you can see some real you know, explosive twitchy things there, but that can you know, comes and goes a little bit there's that's been the second round defensive tackle profile forever. Like if you go back and look at the second round dts, it's the six foot six, three hundred plus pound guy who's got something. Either it's a character thing, either it's you know, he's hurt, or it's an up and down like I think Malik McDowell was always kind of like the poster boy for that thing going the wrong way. But there's there's always been guys like that was Haynesworth a second round pick. There's been a boatload of them that come off the board in that round, and it is like, you could hit it huge. Chris Jones obviously being the big the biggest hit.

00:23:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, his best film and then certainly what he did at the combine caalib Banks looks like a top ten to fifteen pick, But there is a reason that he wasn't projected to go there and they just went for it. We mentioned McNeil Warren, but how about Ruben Bain slipping to fifteen? Perfect landing spot. I mean, I think the Bucks nailed this draft in general. What do you think happened there with him just going like a little bit later than expected?

00:24:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think that it was coming down the process to the end of the process. It was not expected he was going to go in the top ten, so I thought that Baltimore would have been the stopping point. I thought, Okay, that's their type of guy. And I did see that there was I think Silver wrote something about it and said that there're three guys that they were keeping an eye on, were Sadiq, Bain and Yaouana. So ended up going with Yuana. And I think they were trying to trade back, which means they you know, trade back three spots would get any of the three would be happy with those guys. So but I just thought that would be the end of the line. And I think, you know, there was a lot of talk that a lot of teams were trying to get up to Tampa's pick before the draft, because everybody was trying to get ahead of the Lions for a tackle. Everybody the Lions were going to take a tackle. So that's where all the trade up chatter was. And they were you know, kind of connected to Mesidor, which was, Okay, we don't need to take him necessarily there, we could trade back a few spots and still get him. But I don't think that they envisioned there'd be a world where Bane would be there. So I mean they just stick a pick. They had to stay and pick.

00:25:07
Speaker 1: Some reports to Lions were trying to get up to the Dolphins spot to take Proctor, and the Dolphins were like, no, We're just gonna take Kaden Proctor ourselves.

00:25:17
Speaker 2: We like him.

00:25:19
Speaker 1: You nailed the mock drafts. I went and looked at the scores. I don't know there was some site that did some sort of scoring system. You're one of the most accurate mock drafts out there for direct hits for most players in the first round. Some of your faves went early too. Malachi Lawrence. You had him going to the Cowboys. You talked about him on this podcast. Chris Johnson went high he goes to the Dolphins. This is just your chance to spike the football. You know, just say I did it. I beat Schrager. I'm I'm the King.

00:25:53
Speaker 2: So I was going on McAfee and and I think it was hone showed me he had probably the same website, but he had like a scorecard out yes, and he was like you you did you know this whatever you placed on this thing? Like how great it was and everything. He like, dude, it'd be like bragging about winning it. Uno, Okay, that's what it'll be like. Yeah, there's so much chance and luck involved in that. But I mean I'm trying to I'd say the thing that I'd always keep track of is I think I had twenty nine of the thirty two players. Yes, so the right guys in there trying it with trades and how things unfold, they can go any other way.

00:26:30
Speaker 1: It was a combination, but you tied for I think the most of the right first rounders, and then you also had a lot of direct hits. I'm just saying, a good job, you got it. You got to celebrate your victories. No, I appreciate it.

00:26:42
Speaker 2: But if you're going to celebrate your victory then you're just gonna hate yourself the next year when you bomb. So it's like, bring that up next year. Trying to stay right here.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: I think I did on this very show last year at this time I mentioned very well.

00:26:54
Speaker 2: But but you couldn't. You couldn't get me down last year. You're not gonna be able to get me up this year. We're gonna just keep it right in the middle.

00:26:59
Speaker 1: I think is the top of the national guys. All right, as we're wrapping up, just a few trendy things. What happened with this tight end run? Because it it got wild.

00:27:10
Speaker 2: We talked about that being an obsession though, and you know, it happened maybe around earlier than I would have anticipated, but everybody said it. I joked about it with all the gyms I talked to. I was like, all right, let's have the Aj Barner conversation. Everybody says the same thing. We got to find our Aj Barner. We're looking for that third fourth round, you know, tight end that we can put his hand in the ground, we can start. Everybody wants to be in twelve thirteen personnel, so we gotta have more tight ends.

00:27:32
Speaker 1: Well, how about Marlon Klein from Germany, he's going to be twenty four. Bor Kircher only at ninety catch.

00:27:39
Speaker 2: Just surprised me the most of where he went of that group.

00:27:42
Speaker 1: That was those are second round picks. And then yeah, the run happened, Sam Raus, Max Clayer, Oscar delp Kazmriki that raared in on the third round. Just from someone who who's played the position court, you know, played quarterback, you understand this stuff schemmatically, So, well, is there any concern? The thing I go to is like, well, if everyone's doing this, are is there a concern it's already going to be too late? You know?

00:28:07
Speaker 2: I just think it's I think it's just a structure of the defense that they want to play against this. For the last few years, I think, in my opinion, there's been kind of a little bit of a stagnant nature to offense from where I think about them. I mean, we go back to watching the Rams and the Chiefs, you know, and that fifty something shootout, you know, and how explosive it it was. First of all, not only is it fun to watch, but if you're an offensive play caller, it was fun to call plays. And then all of a sudden it was like okay. And I remember one of the first games being Buffalo against Kansas City was a home game, I think a Thursday night Amazon game.

00:28:42
Speaker 1: And.

00:28:43
Speaker 2: Buffalo I think they lost the game, but they incorporated that shell coverage and they played their safeties both so deep, and to their credit, Kansas City and Andy Reid and Mahomes are patient enough that they kind of just methodically moved the ball and it wasn't a high scoring game. It was raining, but they ended up winning. And then all of a sudden, it was like, Okay, that's what we're going to do. We're going to everybody in the whole league's going to start playing the shell coverage and if you want to get explosives, you're going to have to catch and run with it, or you're going to have to get them out of your run game. And so now it's like, well, we can use thirteen personnel, and you cannot play that against us. You're going to have to play with a single high safety, and that's going to give us, it looks, and then we're going to be able to expand and run the same exact play as we were running before, but now we're going to run them out of this heavier personnel, and then now we can attack the deeper parts of the field because you don't have one guy back there.

00:29:29
Speaker 1: I just think, how, look, if everyone is doing that, defenses are are going to be thinking about. Everyone's going to be making their plans of all, right, how do we do a better job defending against big there thirteen personnel. That's the answer, right, And so it's just a cyclical nature, and I think some team that wants to just go spread and hurry up heavy. Like the teams that are different are usually the ones ahead. It's not the ones like catching on to the trend a year later.

00:29:57
Speaker 2: So we'll see, Yeah, who's going to go small because everybody now is in a build up. Everybody's building up to go big. So who's going to go small? And then put out the little five foot eight slot receivers out there and make these big nickels who were in the game to be able to force the run and blitz and and you know, play in the flat and now we're gonna make those guys have to cover these little little kids again. Like it does.

00:30:16
Speaker 1: It does remind me a little bit of like when when the Patriots took everyone by surprise with Gronk or Nanaz back then, and then the next season after that they just paid turbo speed and you know, you got to you got to keep mixing it up. Can I get in on your beef with with CD. I mean, you guys went at it. That was that was some serious stuff.

00:30:35
Speaker 2: By the way. People thought they were like, oh, they scripted this thing. I'm like, I didn't even know it was a segment. I didn't even know that we was going to be a topic of conversation. I sure as heck didn't know that Charles was going to feel strong as he did, and then I didn't know it was going to kind of go the way that went down. There was nothing address to me. There was nothing scripted about that at all.

00:30:51
Speaker 1: No, and you guys are so tight. I was funny. It was like, Oh, they're really going at it. It's like this is how people, this is how people talk. For some context, he are and I would be on CDs side of this that, Yeah, we hear all this stuff about Kirk Cousins and they want him to start, and like that's great. I'm sure they sort of believe that. And then by week three or week five whatever, it's going to be like we're going to see Mendoza, so let's not get carried away, like we don't have to do this song and Dan's and you're on the side of like, no, this is Kirk Cousins and it's Mendoza. They really want to play this thing out slowly. I'll remind you in week two when Fernando Mendoz is starting that I was on the right side of history.

00:31:29
Speaker 2: The uh now to me, it's a lot of different factors there, but I just think it's Brady's vision of the right, the way to do right by the quarterback. I do believe he feels that way. I also think that there's a previous history and relationship with Kubiak and Cousins, and Kirk can know that offense inside and out, and there's still a let's see what type of offensive line we have in place here and what type of punishment the quarterback is going to take. We're going to let Kirk absorb some of that. So and again it sounds I think it's weird because it's a seventeen game season out instead of a sixteen gamer. So I wish instead of saying Rich asked me how many games will he start? And I said seven, And then people thought, well, it's just that's a ton of games anyways, And I'm sitting here, well, if you rephrase it and say what week does he play, and I'm like, he'll be out there week ten, week eleven. If you have a buy in there, like, that's a good chunk of the season that he's not starting. So that's why I think will happen. But CD sees it a little differently. But at the end of the game, we're talking about difference of five to five games, you.

00:32:24
Speaker 1: Know, so I'll go more. I'll go over under fifteen. That's about it.

00:32:29
Speaker 2: You think he starts fifteen games, Yeah.

00:32:31
Speaker 1: Maybe they get and it wouldn't shock me if he's healthy. To me, it's all up to the windows. It if he just looks awesome and is great in the preseason in camp, which is possible, maybe maybe that won't happen. That's not easy, and they'll just start from week one on.

00:32:44
Speaker 2: That's just.

00:32:46
Speaker 1: But but I could be wrong. Obviously, I'm some rookies with surprisingly big roles in twenty twenty six. I'll give you my choices if you want to think about it. But just like maybe not like the highest of picks, but really important players. Immediately I thought about two pass rushers are Mason Thomas with the Chiefs, who was a high second round pick, and then this might be a little more of a reach. But Ramelo Height with the forty nine Ers, a third round pick who's got some nice juice off the edge. And the reason I picked them is because again these are teams that I think have Super Bowl aspirations and that just don't have a lot of juice and they could really use them, Like yeah, like you're not counting on Romelo height to be a huge difference maker year one, but it would help. It would really help if he was because they don't have a lot of pass rush juice. And then with the Chiefs, I think more specifically they could really use our Mason Thomas to make a difference early because those those are two spots of good teams that I think kind of big holes. You didn't fill them in the first round and so they're their later picks are going to try.

00:33:45
Speaker 2: To have to fill them. Yeah, I like your thought process there. I thought an interesting side note there is that last year the Niners went big. Look at the guys that they drafted up front defensively for Michael Williams, the big dtackle from Texas, Al Collins right, Alfred Collins, and they went big. And I know they had injuries, but they were dead last in the league in sacks and they have always been. Their front is called a jet front. It's where you're wide nine. It is where your everything is space and attack and speed get off like that is that is the whole thing is predicated on that, and then this year it was like, well, we didn't love the way that worked, so let's go back to get our traditional guys and go get you know, a guy who's two hundred and thirty eight pounds but who can absolutely fly off the edge and romelo height. They go out and get O'diggy Zua to rush inside and go smaller with him. Then they go out and got it. Who was the other d tackle that they drafted in this draft? They drafted another one who was an undersize get up the field player.

00:34:43
Speaker 1: Last year it was CJ. West by the way, but it was Grayson Halton, a fourth round pick in this year's Yeah.

00:34:49
Speaker 2: Exactly, who's like a ran like the four eight. So they went they went with fastballs this year versus a little more of the bigger, stouter guys. So I thought they kind of got I know, they got critsians where they took some guys, but they kind of got back to the type of player that they've had when they've been good defensively.

00:35:06
Speaker 1: Look, I could give you more questions more like, you know, some teams who didn't fill their holes in the draft and they're gonna have to do in free agency or they're just it's just not gonna happen. But you know where you can find that kind of stuff. DJ, let's see different guests.

00:35:22
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, you know who's got a it's a podcast. It's like almost every single day, like daily.

00:35:27
Speaker 1: And there you go, NFL Daily. I mean, I'm not I'm not going away and hibernating. We keep I think, Yeah, now we're we're football only, so what we'll be hitting every single team this week. It's it's time to let DJ off the hook. He He says he has a heart out, and that heart out is just like sitting on the couch.

00:35:47
Speaker 2: And I want to go walk on the beach, is what. That's my heart out. I'm gonna watch Jerry walking on the beach. Can we play us off with some Sir McLoughlin or anything like that.

00:35:59
Speaker 1: It has been an absolute treat to do this show with you, DJ, forties and free agents, and I love all the listeners and people inside and outside of the league that that told us told us they love the show. So it was a good time. Another draft season in the books. You're the best, No, you're the best, buddy. I really do appreciate it. I've enjoyed the heck out of It's been fun. It's been uh. I always I always use this phrase. I use it with me and I've used it with you, like I always enjoy thought scrimmages and it helps me. It helps me when i'm you know, work in the draft and a lot of the conversations and things that come up have been things we've talked.

00:36:34
Speaker 2: About on here elsewhere. So anyways, I appreciate you, appreciate your friendship, buddy.

00:36:38
Speaker 1: Thought scrimmages, except except I'm keeping score and that's fair.

00:36:43
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you're the You're the guy in the gym who's who's flipping over the little the little tabs like at the youth basketball game.

00:36:51
Speaker 1: That's absolutely right for Daniel Jeremiah. I'm Greg Rosenthal.

00:36:55
Speaker 2: We'll see you next time.