Sorting the Boffo 2026 NFL Draft Wide Receiver Class!

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Speaker 1: It's a tough sports, not for everybody.

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Speaker 2: You gotta be a little sick to love this game, and we've got some stickos.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we are standing tall on our Brian Thomas Junior Draft evaluation from a couple of years ago.

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Speaker 1: I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm in my garage.

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Speaker 3: I'm talking to Ali Connelly, who does great work every week on our show and also for his own Read Optional podcast where he's already broken down the receivers. That's what we're talking about on this show. And you spent twelve hours talking just receivers, Alli, do you think we can do it in less time today?

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Speaker 2: I think we can do it. That was light compared to linebacker group, the safety group, but this is an incredibly fun receiver a draft. You can just keep digging and digging and digging, and John and I did, and we were able to crank out twelve hours.

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Speaker 3: And I've held off listening because I wanted to kind of hear things fresh and just throw things off of you. But I am, now that I've gotten through the receivers, really looking forward to hearing what you say on your show at more depth than we'll do in today's show. But why I thought, especially receivers made sense for their own show. We could do different skill positions. Those are always going to be fun, but they're the class that kind of deserves all the time. This year, it's just not that deep of a running back, tight end or quarterback class specifically, And it does just feel like if you appeel beneath the layers of this class, as you keep going, there's just good player after good player, and I feel like there's not as much of a difference.

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Speaker 1: And maybe I'm crazy.

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Speaker 3: We can start here between like some of the first round talents and some of the third round talents as I personally would want, because it's like I feel like it's just you pick the flavor that you like, and you could almost make an argument for a lot.

00:01:48
Speaker 1: Of these guys.

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Speaker 2: No, I agree with you. I think in my top tier, which in this class is the traditional third tier, so that quality start to book it. I have seven guys in there, there's not usually that caliber of debt in the quality start to book it. And I think once you get out the first round and kind of the top three or four names that have become the consensus, it really is a pick your flavor between guys who kind of do the professional stuff and maybe don't have the high wattage upside, and then these kind of height weight speed burners, and they are in the either beholder and they could be whatever you want them to be. And yet the depth just keeps going beyond that. So you get this little cluster of guys who could be anything you want them to be. You can talk yourselves into them, guys who could just plug and play and start on a Sunday next season. And then as you keep going and keep going, even down into the seventies and eighties of this draft order, there are viable slot starts as boundary starts, as they are just everywhere in this draft class.

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Speaker 3: And I'm really looking forward to that. I'm curious what those that tier comprises, like what seven players they are. But I'm actually gonna start at number two. First, I'm gonna ask, like, do you have Cardinal Tait as your first receiver? Yes, if you're ranking them, I know you put them in tiers and whatnot. I do want to talk about Cardinal Tate. But Okay, now that I know that, I actually want to start at the number two argument, and I know it's different flavors and schemes all this stuff. But I think it's a fascinating starting point because of what I just said about this receiver class where it is hard to kind of separate all these guys. So we're going to do superlatives today, and I'll start with kind of just a very basic superlative, which is complete the sentence.

00:03:23
Speaker 1: My wide receiver too is.

00:03:27
Speaker 2: Mckaye Lemon.

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Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, Now convince me why MacKaye Levin mckaye Lemon from USC stands apart among a really good group.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really close.

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Speaker 3: Tod.

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Speaker 2: I think after Connelt and even he I think is a similar strand to kind of all the guys we're going to talk about mostly today. I just think with Lemon there is a different degree of kind of fluidity and explosivity and a mobile round as to his game, fewer obvious flaws and even the things will maybe concerns at USC. I think play a lot into the play a lot into the system, play a lot into the quality of the quarterback. Play even just go and look at the Note to Dame game. You see everything you want to see it in an all around three level receiving threat, the ball doesn't come as way anywhere near as often as it should do. He's playing some of the best dbs in the country, the guys who will go in the first round and high in next year's class, and he's just frying guys all over the place. Sure area, speed, toughness after the catch, at the catch point. Everything you want to see. I think he can do. And I just think he fits more of the modern brand of offense where you can move them around the formation. He can play tight and attached. I think he's got enough separation skills to go and play outside. And then he has that that yak threat.

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Speaker 1: Too, right, and that all makes sense.

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Speaker 3: And I struggled with like him and Jordan Tyson, who will get to specifically, although they're they're quite different in that like, all right, what is separating them from me? When I think, like, what's what's the best thing that I saw about Lemon? Who can do it all? Like natural hands, he's very smooth, he's very tough to take down, and I thought, like, wow, it's crazy, like a top twelve pick or whatever, he's going to be top fifteen pick. And the best trade I can think about him is balance, Like that really stands out that he is tough to take down. But it's not necessarily the profile that you always see out of a guy getting taken that high. And maybe it's just because you know, you bring the baggage of some hype that you here ahead of time into it. But I just wanted I wanted him to make me feel a little more. But it sounds like he makes you feel plenty.

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Speaker 2: He does make me feel plenty. I think the balance is important for one, and then two, it's a position to stop start speed. That is just the name of the game of the position. It's change of direction, it's deceleration, it's how quick can you accelerate, how quick can you hit the brakes and kind of rip out of the break. And I don't think he's as explosive as some of the other guys in the class wherever it's CONCEPTSI on even Tyson a bigger size. I think he's just more explosive about the break. I just think he's got more soul, change of direction, more fluidity, more natural kind of one step one way than jab back step across the face of it. And so I think you can already picture him and the NFL doesn't play an awful lot this way in twenty twenty six, but he could stand in the slot third down for your life. It's a two way, go inside outside break. We're playing Julian Lerman football, and I would feel the most comfortable that he would find a way to get open and stay open and then go and cray after the catch. And then if you want to play him close to the formation, more of the d crosses, a lot of the deep in breakers, more of the DJ Moore style Ben Johnson football. I think he's really comfortable in that vein too, And I don't think you can underestimate the toughness the kind of linebacker mentality brings the position in an era where you have to go inside, you have to blog, you have to be willing to dig out linebackers and safeties at the position, and you go through the rest of the class and that's just not a standout factor on their film or in their profile compared to the Lemon.

00:06:46
Speaker 1: So there's some like Pooka comparisons you feel in that you like that.

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Speaker 2: I like that, Yeah, that sounds so bad.

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Speaker 3: I like when you and Jeremiah are on the same page. And in general, mackay. Lemon has lightly settled into like a consensus wide receiver too, but it's not really that much of a consensus. But initially DJ had him first, even ahead of Carneltay. He ended up backing him off, but he has him in his top ten overall players.

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Speaker 2: I think I understand that because with Tait you have more of the just the true boundary traditional receiver. Could he carry the heavy workload kind of outside the formation where usually the superstar alpha dogs play. I think with Lemon, to me, it's is he going to fall into a Khalil Shakir bucket where it's a lot of manufactured production, you kind of force feeding the touches, which was a lot at USC, Or will he become more in the Lad mcconni stat style where it's a smaller type body type who's traditionally plays in the slot but can actually move around the formation. You can desive a big chunk of the offense around him, but when it is third and must have it against man coverage, he can just get open really quickly and then go and create.

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Speaker 3: It's funny that Khalil Sekre is now turning into one of those players that gets cut calmped to a lot. I've seen like seven different players in this draft get compared to Khalil secure, but that shows he is an archetype and he's a good one. And yeah, it's tough to like a guy getting compared to Puka is tough because his instincts are ultimately what makes him so special and that's the hardest thing to evaluate going from one level, I think, to the next. And yet, if you were going to say who has who has great instincts in this class, mackay Lemon would be a great choice. I wanted to start at two partly because you know, I'm not ready to drop, Like, I don't know, I still want to watch a little more, you know, I I feel like you could always watch more, but you really get rewarded going through you know, the All twenty two and the guy who made me feel the most, and I think ultimately where I settled on as my second favorite receiver was Casey Concepts You on, Yes, because like that's one where it really rewards you to watch him not getting targeted because he's just always open. He's so freaking open, and the burst is just crazy. His ability to tempo in and out is crazy, and I know he's had a lot of drops, but he's the guy where I see it and I think, just okay, that's special. I feel like that's going to translate, and it's in a very different way than I mentioned at the top of the show. I thought Brian Thomas Junior just moves different. And George Pickens, for instance, I had as my wide receiver to in that class because I just thought he moves different, and Conceptcion is a much much smaller player and a different type of player.

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Speaker 1: And you can be wrong here, but I'm though scout.

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Speaker 3: I don't have the time also to go through seven eight git, but I can see that Casey Conceptsion moves different, and I do think that will translate, and I do think he'll get drafted a little higher, maybe than he's getting projected out there as sort of a borderline first round pick.

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Speaker 2: Oh, he's definitely gonna I think twenty three around there is the complete flow, and I would not watch sound if he go significantly higher. I think as teams put the bullet together, there'll be plenty of teams you have him as the second guy. Some teams might not be fully in love with Connell t and just that profile of more smooth glide you play it than as you are saying sudden, explosive separate to I love conceptsion. I think the speed leaps off the film, as you mentioned instantly, the way. I think he's more nuanced than that normal style of players given credit for. He was put into an ideal offense to give him a ton of movement rounds. They create a bunch of separation for in pre snap with formation and motion and movement, but he just moves differently. You mentioned it, and I think he's one of the guys where if a GM does pass because there are concerns about the catches and maybe we can get into that and concerns about the drops. He is going to break your heart in week nine when you look up and he's just frying people all over the place. I mentioned before about how Notre Dame's got these three unbelievable dbs. One of them is going to be a top five pick next season. He completely cooked every single one he went up against. It would have been a four hundred yard game if his quarterback Marcel Reid could throw the ball and find him down the field. I mean, every single level of the rout, he just torches people over and over again.

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Speaker 3: That's the tape that really put it over. So that makes sense to me that you put that out because it's the deceleration I think he has to be the best at, like slowing down Texas A and M. I should have mentioned from Concepcion he started and then once they started doing some digging at NC State and that that helped put it over the top for me because he lit up the ACC as a true eighteen year old freshman and there are a lot of numbers that suggest like the guys who can break out and like I like having a couple of seasons in their college career where they did dominate even if there's issues, because that's what an NFL career is like. It's not all going to be like your last year in college, and for you to just have that sort of I'm better than everyone else on the field ability when you're eighteen, you know, joining a new league and new level makes me think, okay, I think he can do that and still look as different at the NFL level. Occasionally you'll be wrong with guys like this. Kadarius Tony was was sort of in this mix for me, But I think he's a much better route runner and real receiver than a Kadarius Tony was.

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Speaker 2: Tony was more Lucy Goosey. He could kind of levitate to places, and he was kind of unnerving the way he could move his body and ConTroll in different.

00:12:01
Speaker 1: He got say more at the NFL level.

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Speaker 3: It was really his rookie year for the Giants that was like, Wow, he makes these other NFL players look like fools.

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Speaker 1: Where's conceptio?

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Speaker 3: And I think has done that pretty consistently at the college level, even as a freshman.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and at NC State he was more of a true slot where it is that Edelman type football what you take three steps forward and you break inside or outside and it's all sudden burst off the bounce at A and M. They really designed the vertical passing game around him, and it is all this breakout deep in the route and then snap off and just go and find grass, go chase Grass down the field. And I think you get a good sense with him of reading coverages on the fly, knowing how to attack individual defenders, knowing how to attack the coverage on its own, And so I get there are concerns about the catching technique there are concerns about just the drops in general, but I do think he's got a different speed of football brain. And then he's flying compared to everyone else. And you mentioned no one decelerates snaps out the break bed in this guy, and he will have three four five yards of separation. You go and put on the Miami film. That's the best dB room in the country, the most connected dB room in the country, does fighters and scrappers and athletes everywhere, and he creates chasms of space against the best players.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's extremely sudden, And I was trying to think of comps and I'm like, you know, is it a more polished Zay Flowers, which is like a great great player.

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Speaker 2: It's a Flowers usage because he hasn't faced a ton of press coverage. I think there are some concerns with guys with length, if he's playing outside and guys just getting his frame and kind of slow the feet down. I think that's a legitimate concern. But with Jay Flowers in Baltimore, as with him at A and M, you see them doing all the creative stuff you can do with formation and movement to get him free access out in the route. And if he gets out free, you're not catching up to the guy. So I think it's it's that, and I also think it's with some of the subtlety wants he's out in the route. It's a little bit like Kishan Booty, but if you added like jetbacks to him, if he's like a supercharge Kishan Bhooti. So I think it's somewhere between those two players. And I think the play style and how you would adapt her offense around him, I think would be a bit in the Flowers Mold.

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Speaker 3: You mentioned the return of Bill and if you're watching on YouTube, we do have some nice clips and showed that, and I think that'll be a great value add early in his career. Especially the drops were considerable in his last year in college.

00:14:13
Speaker 1: I mean he had a lot of drops.

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Speaker 3: I'm talking myself out of it because I think there's a lot of plays where he looks like he has great hands, so that like it doesn't.

00:14:24
Speaker 1: I'm not a technique guy, but there's some.

00:14:26
Speaker 3: Guys that have a lot of drops where it just looks like they're not comfortable catching the football and like it's consistent among every catch, whereas conceptcy owned don't. I don't necessarily see that. It seems like more of a concentration thing. It hasn't been like every season as bad in his college career either, And we've also just seen a lot of great college receivers and NFL receivers who who drop a decent amount of passes. And the harder thing is to find everything else that the concepts and has.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I would rather bad the separation than the drops alone. I think the catching technique is a real thing. I think he's a clap catcher and that's a problem, particularly down the field, even though he tracks it well. I think that the clapping is bad there, but that drops to me the where there's okay, this could be a problem with the next level. I think it's more anticipation and when the site line is blurred. I ont to bore people too much, but those second level throws where you're ripping in front of a safety, over the top of the linebacker and it's hit this landmark and as you fire out the break, the ball is going to be on your numbers. That's what's happening. I just don't know if he's reading the game as quickly and so it takes him by surprise. The ball is there. In part that could be the quarterback who does not play with anticipation. Maybe he's not expecting the ball all the time, but when it's a bit blurry in the middle of the field, I think is where you see the ball well does fire off him and it seems like it got onto him too quick, and because he's doing a clap rather than kind of putting his body weight behind the ball, the ball was ping up in the air. So I think that is a genuine problem, and I think the technique is something that can be worked on. But I would so much rather bet on a guy who has five six yards of separation comfortably often and bet that well, so he puts two down, We'll live with that. We got one hundred and twenty odds every couple of weeks.

00:16:05
Speaker 3: I mean, he he is always open and so yeah, that's if it's not obvious enough.

00:16:10
Speaker 2: Those He's also a tier one troll who loves going one to one with corners and laughing in their face and embarrassing them. And if you get him on one rete people fry you for the next seven and giggle at you as he goes past.

00:16:21
Speaker 1: I like that a lot.

00:16:23
Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that up because that is something I wrote down in a corny way, which is just like, he's a he has athletic arrogance is another way to put it. He's a football player, like so just there's something about that that I like, he's a he's a sir. So okay, he's a guy that he's in motion so much, and I just you just get the sense. And I could just see it at the NFL level, and you can see it at the college level over like when he's in motion.

00:16:47
Speaker 1: It's just oh, oh, no, oh, what's happening.

00:16:51
Speaker 3: The defense is just like, oh man, he's going And you just can imagine a lot of different ocs in the in the NFL thinking, Okay, I can use that.

00:17:00
Speaker 1: All right, let's keep going. Let's get back to Tate.

00:17:03
Speaker 3: So you have him first, you have these seven guys in a first round ish bucket, and is he just in that bucket with you with all the other guys, but like at the top a kind of in the same tier. And if so, why do you like him ahead of the rest of the guys.

00:17:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's at the top of the quality started to where I don't see kind of the true blue alphord In. What would be my impact start to to that is your elite neighbors, Juma Chase. It's just so special coming out of college. I think he's a he's a tiar below that, where it's more to do with just the route prowess, the intellect, the understanding, the suddenness, how he gets open, how he gets open through all three phases of the route, which is just different compared to most college players. There's just a way he moves, the way he feels the game that I think separates him from a lot of other players. But he doesn't quite have that top end twitch and explosiveness out of the break where when you get that kind of intellectual smart package in the body type of molike Neighbors, that's when you move into all the specialty.

00:18:01
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:18:01
Speaker 3: He he was a guy who when I went through it, I loved him and I could see why he would just be the guy you has really great traits and has has the fewest holes and would be the top guy. But then as I like took like a step back, I thought about that he's not like he's a little lighter, you know, he's not super fast, He's not is he He's not really like a great YAK guy.

00:18:32
Speaker 1: And so if you.

00:18:33
Speaker 3: Add all that up, that's not normally the profile of a guy who's like kind of the locked in wide receiver one. And yet I wouldn't push back from anyone. The body control, everything that he can do. He looks like a guy who's going to make a lot of sense in today's NFL. It's just not normally the profile of the guy who kind of gets put number one consensus wide receiver in a good class.

00:18:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just think that the the football intellect is a step above some other players in the class, and it's wrapped in a really good athlete packaging. So I think that's what gets you the reliability that pushes you above some more of the maybe boom or Bush traits and elements of other guys games. And so it kind of artificially pushes the grade up to put him as the top guy in the class. You look at from the release package you mentioned the body control, he catches absolutely everything. I do think there's way more Yack potential in there. Not a huge part of the game at Ohio State, and he's not the most explosive athlete with the ball in his hands, but he's really quick transitioning from catch to rum. I think he's tough. I think he can do more in that element of the game if it's designed and it's these kind of crosses and drags and you get him a free runway out there, and then he's just the best blocking receiver in the class too. And the way the game is played at the moment, I think it's really important to have guys who can play tight and congested to the formation. They will leave him one on one against an end, asking to kick the end out and hold the point until the back is through. He will do that no problem. He will go and dig out linebackers, he will go and dig out safeties. Just with the way the game is played. And if you're looking full that ideal number two, I think that's why he fits. And he's kind of like the best possible number two you could add into a team and has some elements of being I think a three level threat. I think the double moose stuff, the smoothness, how he sets guys up down the field. I think he can create big separation down the field and then cook in the middle of the field.

00:20:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wrote that down a few times, just how fluid he is to change directions and in control. And his contested catch numbers are a joke, so it like they're it's tough to just bet on contested catch is your main thing, but if that's part of an overall package that you're a very complete player and you're good at that, he reminded me a little. And it's absolutely uniform and number. Scouting and thinking about this draft and I was like, well, maybe he could land with another Ohio state number, seventeen, Terry McLaurin.

00:20:52
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're really similar players.

00:20:53
Speaker 3: But they're just both like smart, complete football players, and that would be a that would be a fun cambo if Washington wanted to go there.

00:21:02
Speaker 2: I think his skill set, to me, is a little Romeo Dobbs like, and I think it just depends on how you value that. It's not his fault that he's in this draft class where he becomes kind of the number one guy by consensus. If Romo Dobbs in the draft today, knowing his skills, would he be the number one guy. I think that's how you have to kind of view him. And the position is so important. He's gonna go Hi. He's going to go in the top ten. But if he was in a class with you know, true elite athletes, would he be the number one guy? Probably not. Would you want as the commanders or whoever? Would you want to have Romo Dobbs and your team? He just got paid a bucket of money to go and be a valuable piece for a good offense.

00:21:38
Speaker 3: You are more than Romeo Dobbs, I think from Carnel Tait. If you're taking him that high.

00:21:42
Speaker 2: No, and I would expect that from him. I think he's more talented than Romeo Dobbs. But that's the kind of general overall skill set where it's not this a plus trait coming out of your ears. It's more about the intelligence. It's more about the subtlety. It's about understanding how to attack Dbs and create some late separation in the row.

00:21:58
Speaker 3: Do you have any concern about him versus press and any concern that just the numbers were quiet the last you know, suddenly the Ohio State team, which it's hard to believe, you know, didn't win the title. They just lose too straight at the end, and he was relatively quiet, wasn't targeted.

00:22:14
Speaker 1: A ton in those games.

00:22:15
Speaker 3: So I don't know if anything stood out to you in those two final tapes.

00:22:18
Speaker 2: Take the press thing I think is a problem. He's fortunate the league is seventy eighty percent zone coverage, so there's not a whole bunch of third field life type situations in pressman coverage. That's that's why he's not in that kind of elite impact starter tier Brackett is that he doesn't just destroy people off the snap. I think he can get swallowed up. He wants to play kind of shrink the frame and one swipe and that's kind of all that's in the bag. And so I think he's gotta find more release patterns with the feet and with the hands to clean a lot of that stuff up. What I do love, though, is he takes that stuff really personally, and so when someone just like kind of mothballs him. You see this in the Penn State game. He will just get got and get put to the floor in press coverage. When he's then given a chance to go and give some back. In the blocking game, he kills people he wants to get after it. He takes it really personally, and I think in the modern league where it's a lot of condensed sets and you're not seeing an awful lot of Hey, everyone's split outside the numbers. It's press coverage all the time. I think you can live with five or six SOSO reps against press coverage while the play design is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. If he can just feast against zone.

00:23:19
Speaker 3: It also can't hurt that we heard Jackson Smith and Jigba was a relatively low ceiling prospect. When I go back and look and that even Abuca last year, that was like the idea was like, well, yeah, he's gonna be consistent, he's gonna be great, but he's not like a real you know, in early last season, all he was was hitting big plays and looking like a big playmaker. So Carnal Tay, I don't want to focus on the negatives just because he's wide receiver one.

00:23:44
Speaker 1: He is our wide receiver one.

00:23:47
Speaker 3: Look, we hit three players in like twenty five minutes, so that's a much faster pace than your twelve hour show. Let's take a break and we'll come back on the other side. Keep breaking down these receivers back on NFL Daily, where we're timing up this show with Matt Harmon, Big fan of over at Yahoo and perception, perception, and I noticed that he was a big conceptci O and fan the other you know. Yesterday too, I was like, I wish we had already taped the show. I was already on this corner. But I think it's going to be a popular corner.

00:24:24
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for me. Who wants to just have a special take.

00:24:28
Speaker 3: Let's talk about the hardest evaluation and this. I'll let you go first on this one. Just who is the player significant player that you maybe just struggled with. Doesn't mean it's like negative or positive, but you just you think it was the hardest one to kind of come to a final decision on.

00:24:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, even booking, even setting it to one player is difficult. I think I have Chris Bresil, Chris Bell, and Zachariah Briant just got into three finalists.

00:24:53
Speaker 1: That's good. We can talk about them all here. It doesn't matter. Let's do it. Let's go why Why Why Brazil?

00:25:00
Speaker 3: To start out, who is a long striding receiver from Tennessee.

00:25:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he plays in the goofy Tennessee offense, which already makes things really difficult where it's these really detached receiver sets where he's playing on the sideline. There's about three routes in the route pree. They run these sleeper routes for half the game where you just don't run a route by design, so that you can sleep on your side of the field, can serve some energy, and then you can run really fast down the field the next snap going at tempo. So that makes it pretty difficult to begin with. And then just his effort ebbs and flows during the game anyway, and if you dig through even more of the detail of it, he's tipping plays constantly, so he's either sleeping or not playing with urgency or based on what he's doing with his gloves, based on what he's doing with his stance. He lets you know if it's run passing, whether he's getting the ball or not. So that is already difficult to throw into the evaluation. Then it's just jaw dropping stuff from there. The movie skills are absolutely out of control. It is size, speed, fluidity, short area twitch. He is not, to me, just a straight line burner in the style they've sent to the league recently, right, whether it's Jalen Hyatt, Dante Thornton, on and on the go, Cedric Tillman. I think he's got more nuanced to his game. I think he's a bit more subtle than the guys they've said in recent years. So it makes it very tricky to fall in love with a guy again because of just the pure movement skills are different to pretty much anyone in the class at the size he's playing at when you have to factor in all the elements of the offense, then just how engaged he is in the game as well.

00:26:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, he is six five, two hundred pounds and he ran a sub four four forty I believe.

00:26:36
Speaker 1: Like a four to three five or something like that.

00:26:37
Speaker 3: The long speed's crazy, a two lane guy who actually put up some pretty good numbers with Michael Pratt. I went back and looked at some of that tape too, because they they didn't use him as the same way that Tennessee did. So, uh, he gets caught, you know when you watch him like sometimes and again there's not a ton of press covers, but it was almost fun sometimes like he literally got stuck. It look it looked like it was velcrow and just the play is over, and that's a concern. But if you just flipped on the Georgia game and we saw one of the long touchdowns there, and there are a handful of long touchdowns from this last season where to use your words is just a joke. Like you would have thought, oh, this guy's a top twelve pick. He is just making corner like cornerbacks are bouncing off of him as he like scores and dances seventy yards down the field.

00:27:26
Speaker 1: And it was like, Okay, well that looks like an NFL player. That looks pretty good.

00:27:29
Speaker 2: It looks pretty I mean, val Davis was alive, he'd be the first pick in the draft. That's the kind of like athlete that we're talking about here. And he is the full gas off the ball. Well, I think he's got compared to some of the other long, striding, explosive guys down the field, is he can really sink and get out the break. When it is a comeback, a curl or return to the quarterback type situation, he can really sink and get out of there. Now, he's not shown an awful lot of that just because of the route packages they ask him to play in. There's barely anything playing to the middle of the field. Sometimes when it is the middlefield, he asks out the play. He doesn't want to stick his nose in there. There's not much in the blocking game. There's willingness, there's some tenacity, the technique is pretty dire, and it's just not a key part of their offense. They just ask him to take plays off. So it's difficult to see how that just fits day one into an NFL system. But the talent and just the germal athleticism is undeniable.

00:28:19
Speaker 1: I'm checking as you're talking. I believe he was the guy that Chris Simms.

00:28:27
Speaker 3: No, he didn't put him first, but he did put him third overall, so it's fair. I mean, look, he if it's a if it's a choose your flavor type of draft, someone's flavor is gonna be Brazil, who on the consensus board is fifty. But if you told me like he ends up going thirty one or something like it, that wouldn't be surprising at all.

00:28:48
Speaker 2: No, I mean, you can't teach the height and speed, and he is the ultimate gas off the ball guy in an actual sizable package rather than just being one of the pocket rocket guys.

00:28:57
Speaker 3: So you said, Zacharya Branch is in your look this group of hardest evaluations, which is which is interesting spent time at UC and then he was at Georgia last year. I find that interesting that you find him hard to value because he's certainly a type, but like what about him gives you trouble?

00:29:15
Speaker 2: So for the audience, he's the five eight one seventy seven seventy eight something like that pounds. I think he's built like a running back. He's got this kind of short guy, he's completely stacked. He looks more like a back eye field than a receiver. And just the way he was used both the USC, where it's pure gadget than at Georgia, where all they're trying to do is create pump return right, pump return left. It's just pure screen, screen screen, the odd crossing route. Not being able to see him run a more diverse tree, I think just makes it difficult to try and figure out where he is in the NFL. Is he does Nicole Hartman, Jimmy Horn, Trayvon Austin. Is there any more to the game than just can he be more? In the one Dale Robinson bucket where he has real serious speed off the and you can be a vertical threat from the slow and that is a valuable commodity to have if you can get out on the field, or is he just a package player you're got to take in the second round and in three years you're going to look up and say, we should have just took a less exciting, less explosive player, and i'd had a professional in the offense.

00:30:15
Speaker 3: Snuck into Daniel Jeremiah's top fifty. He's a little lower than that on the consensus board. Look, he's exciting. Steve Smith had him as the number five receiver. I started to look around the day of the r taping at other evaluations which I felt like I was done with these guys, because I mean, he has track speed and the way he runs it is interesting, you say, like as a running back, Like I know he's small and he's not running over guys, but just his footwork is violent, Like has change of direction is violent. He is someone you could I mean, I guess he's much more athletic than a Khalioshak here, but like he in a perfect world, could he could do that. You can find a couple of little slot fades on the tape, but I guess right, it's not a ton of them.

00:31:01
Speaker 1: It's not like a ton of volume.

00:31:03
Speaker 2: It's not a ton of volume, and I do. I think sometimes when we get into draft season you get the really electric guys. You do get caught up in the design touch world, and it's a really small part of an NFL actual offensive game plan where you're just washing out reps, washing out reps, and once you start sending in the design package guy, the defensive coorit has eyes as well, They have all hurts as well. They know he's coming in. They can prepare for what they believe the package is going to be. Everyone's on hire alert. So I think he has to have a real vertical presence to his game as well. He's got to be able to blow the top off a defense or at least rip the coverage apart into deep shells to create big void of space underneath for everyone else to go cook. And because he just wasn't used in that role at either spot, it's hard to get a real feel for what is necessary that in that.

00:31:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he had five I was adjusted him last I remember. I think he had five like downfield throws that he caught, Like I guess it doesn't sound like a lot like twenty plus, but there was a little bit of that. Ye, definitely some juice like if it's a player like this who's fitting into it like a very specific bucket, and you're comparing him to Wandale, which which is an interesting one. It's like, man, he better have that juice, he better have that extra stuff that is a difference making quality. And I do think he has that. So I think he's going to be a fun player to watch. And then your your third player in your hardest evaluation was.

00:32:24
Speaker 2: Chris Bell out of Louisville.

00:32:26
Speaker 3: Yes, I don't know if it's that hard, just give me some Chris Bell. I mean, that's an NFL player. It might not work at all, but that's a player I can imagine on an NFL field.

00:32:36
Speaker 1: I mean he is big, strong and fast.

00:32:39
Speaker 3: He's coming off of torn acl which is part of the hardest evaluation I would imagine. But what is it more about, like the way that he plays that that you find tough, because man, he is intriguing.

00:32:50
Speaker 2: Oh he's incredible. The upside is completely through the roof of the upside is aj Brown, a Bully Bowl receiver who was incredibly explosive after the catch, an explosive of like the second and third step kind of Mianda's into routes sometimes doesn't seem to be that interested completely hate his own quote the back. I get it. I understand what Chris Bell is thinking. But snap by snap, he is losing his mind. Waitady, how do you know that he hates his because he's leaping up and down in the middle of plays that the ball was not thrown in his direction. You see that normally every couple of plays, kind of premium look maybe two three times over the course of a season with receiver, the heads will go to the sky, the heads will drop. He is leaping up and down in the end mid route, frustrated that the ball didn't arrive.

00:33:34
Speaker 3: Then well, I happen to watch Branch right after Chris Bell, and they had that frustration with their quarterback in common because Miller Moss was the USC quarterback. It is very confusing watching college tape now when you're not like that big of a fan like me, and I'm like, oh wait, that's the same guy who was kind of ruining the zach Rya Branch tape a second ago is now starting to ruin the Chris Bell tape. But yeah, the Louisville prospect and he got the ACL injury right towards the end of the regular college season, got surgery early December.

00:34:07
Speaker 1: It's in.

00:34:08
Speaker 3: It's you know, an ACL and there just aren't many guys built like him that can catch the ball in stride.

00:34:14
Speaker 1: There was a couple of the.

00:34:15
Speaker 3: Slants that he caught and went now and that's where you think a J.

00:34:20
Speaker 1: Brown or DK Metcalf for something.

00:34:21
Speaker 3: You're just like, holy cow, if he had not torn the ACL, like, where where is he in this mix? Because I just feel like the NFL would fall in love with him.

00:34:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's multi do with a consistency. If you just put in the Miami game, and I said, I think that that's the best most athletic kind of pro development, so to watch it and say what look like on Sunday. So I think you've got to watch these guys against Miami. He put the team on the back of that game. He was fully engaged for a full game. And you mentioned some of the bursts with the ball in his hands. I mean he rips through two linebackers come to crush him, rips through both of them. The safeties have no shot. He's completely gone doing that that size, with the bully ball physique, with the power that he has. It's just not normal. I mean, so if he was, if he was fully healthy, I do think over the course of the draft processes he tested, he would have been right up there. I do think there's an element of he's the I can fix him boyfriend that there's an awful lot. He's so ill disciplined. He's got so many penalties season after season, every game, every drive, every of the play. It's just a different prospect from snap to snap. Both the effort, the technique, no route ever looks the same. So the talent is just so off the table good it's unbelievable. But the consistency and trying to understand how engages he was was that the situation. Why did Louisville have this unbelievable AJ Brown DK metcalf type athlete and they never thought to design their offense around him. Jeff Brum is an unbelievable football coach. He never thought that I'm going to game plan around having this really special athlete. Would's going to have him on drags and sits and just kind of have him returned to the quarterback as a big bodied, kind of power will forward type lay.

00:36:01
Speaker 3: Well, that's why you have scouts to go figure that out. That's why we have analysts like Ali to help me out, because I'm I'm grading the flashes here.

00:36:10
Speaker 1: I would be the ones falling in love.

00:36:12
Speaker 3: Because you know, there are a lot of back shoulder catches like he he doesn't look like he has I would say, good hands. It's a plot like he he looks like a football player. And then and the yeah, you think about it, cheap brown and thinky Metcalf. That's it's a silly thing to compare. They didn't really plan their offense around them in college either. I don't know what was happening back back then. How did those guys go so late? By the way, Ali, what was up with that?

00:36:36
Speaker 2: If you remember DK, people thought you couldn't turn. You have no flexibility?

00:36:40
Speaker 1: I mean there, yeah, I mean he's not the complete player at the NFL level. I love that, all right.

00:36:45
Speaker 3: My hardest evaluation, and you can take me off of it, is Jordan Tyson. I did want a little more out of uh, the prospect who you know is expected to go pretty early Arizona State. His quarterback, I think complicated his evaluation a little bit. Certainly in his last season, I was getting frustrated, you know, in the backups in and he's on the consensus board at number fourteen. Daniel Jeremiah I believe has him in his top what fifteen? Where did you have him kind of in your pecking order with the other receivers.

00:37:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had him lower than consensus. He's still in the star to Tiffany, but he's behind CONCEPTSIO and he's behind Omar Coopy, He's behind makay Lemon.

00:37:30
Speaker 3: Okay, well then yeah that makes sense to me. DJ, by the way, had him seventeenth, which is very strong. He does have him behind Omar Cooper but solidly in the mix. I like him, but I just wanted him to be like a little a little more for the profile in terms of the athleticism, and like I saw comparison. This is probably unfair, but it was from Ben Fennel, who does good, good stuff at NFL Films, and he was like, he reminds me so much of Tyler Boyd coming out of college. And I'm like, yeah, I kind.

00:38:08
Speaker 1: Of see that.

00:38:09
Speaker 3: It's like I want a little more than that from a high level prospect that has these injury concerns where the hamstring got him at the end of his last year in college, he had a complete torn knee ligaments. Earlier, he broke his collar bone at one point. That does add up like a little bit more So, what do you think I'm missing? Because you still have him very solidly ranked, and he is he is very good, But I just I felt like I wanted a little more.

00:38:34
Speaker 2: I think he's he's really smooth for the size. I think he tempos the route really well. I think when he's fully looked in and engaged and he's another guy web, when he's the primary tall get there is a different level of urgency than when he's just kind of a part of the offense, he can really explode out the break and he can hang in the air like nobody. I think he's a true acrobat. And they're in the style that he runs and the way he texts the ball in the air. They are are kind of just like flashes, just glimpses of Odell that's truly in there. That kind of special player exists in Tyson. It's just to me far too infrequent, which is where I have a hard time having him as high up the board as most people do. I think the flashes are really exciting, but the flashes are offset by me by the durability concerns. It's not like conceptsion, where he's open time after time after time, you're just hoping that the ball will find its weight him. I think he does get lockdown more often than you would want. I think his technique comes and goes. I think is he gets disengaged in the game from drive to drive if things aren't going well, and then when you stack on top of that. The concerns about the durability are more the soft tissue stuff I think you mentioned with the hamstrings than the knee and the collar bone. I think there's real reasons to be worried. If you're a GM going to try and draft him, and you've got to sort through all both the effort and the injury concerns, I think that'd be a tough call.

00:39:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wondered watching some of the tapes that I'm really glad you pointed that. First of all, his tough grat like his great catches are in credible. He does have some really high level, outstanding contested catch grabs and just acrobatic body all that stuff.

00:40:08
Speaker 1: It's awesome.

00:40:09
Speaker 3: There were some games You're right where it just didn't look the same and you're like, is he playing through an injury?

00:40:14
Speaker 1: Was what I thought?

00:40:15
Speaker 3: And then there's reporting that he still hasn't worked out. I mean, it's it's public knowledge. He still hasn't been able to work out from a hamstring injury that was back at the end of the season and he played most of this season after that collar bone and the ACL which was now I think what four years ago almost three and a half years ago now, and that it's still preventing him from working out from teams and that is unfortunate timing, but it's definitely a red flag.

00:40:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:40:44
Speaker 2: At the like I said, the kullabone one was free kish the ACL one, well, he recovered from that. We got to see the athlete and he's like an extraordinarily athlete when he's fully reved up. The hamstring stuff, I mean during games that you really do watch, like where is Jordan tyson o that that's the number? Why is he not moving at the speed to expect him and elite prospect? His hamstring goes in game regularly. You can see him pull it, you can see him tweak it, and then he comes back into the game. So he's trying to tough it out, but it will just go on him on a random go route where they're trying to clear out the coverage and he really tries to get after it, it will just go. Then he comes back into the game and keeps trying. It's really hard to get a feel of a way he's at healthwise, just even in the season, let alone where he's at now.

00:41:23
Speaker 1: Right.

00:41:24
Speaker 3: So that's that's why I think for me it was I struggled a little bit because I guess if I'm gonna deal with all that, I just want the great stuff to pop, to pop next level. And I don't know, I don't know if he did that for me personally. All right, let's go to the Let's go to another evaluation or a superlative here. Let's go to the player most likely to get his GM fired.

00:41:48
Speaker 1: OLLI, it's rough.

00:41:52
Speaker 2: Would that not just be Tyson?

00:41:54
Speaker 3: I mean it could have been. It could have been depending on the injury. I don't know, if you have it to me, this is sort of like a boom er bust, a boom er bust type of pick.

00:42:04
Speaker 2: But I think Tyson is boom and bust, and say it's not just the injuries. I think his ten best plays. You just put the compilation together, the ten best plays, you can squint your eyes hard enough to convince yourself you're gonna get Odell Beckham Jr. I just think if you put on the other two hundred and fifty plays, you start saying, why is this guy so erratic? Why is he so loosey goosey?

00:42:23
Speaker 1: In the routes?

00:42:24
Speaker 2: The balance doesn't seem there all the time. It's just hard to get a sense of him down by down on who he's going to be as a prospect, but where he's going to go in the draft is going to be a valuable enough pick that you will be in trouble if there's durability questions, and then even when he's playing, you don't get the cop out of the durability. If he actually just plays and it was a bad evil and you don't get the soft tissue injuries and him being ruled out, that is when I think it starts to cush your job.

00:42:48
Speaker 1: Why.

00:42:49
Speaker 3: That's why, because this class is so deep, it just wouldn't surprise me. Like if he went where everyone expects it, you know, thirteen fourteen, whatever it is, or if he's just falls and ends up being the six to seventh receiver, and it's at the end of the first round, which is a totally fine outcome for him. I think if I had a choice here, and this might be my own bias, it would probably be Denzel Boston. And maybe it's because it's a type that I at. You know, he's a he is a contested catch guy, but maybe maybe it's unfair to just group him as that guy like he you know, he hasn't run the forty, his speed doesn't pot he is not necessarily open, uh that that much. And I think he was a little sloppy when I watched sometime. But you know, some also incredible contested catches. Am I just getting? Am I overcorrecting to the Nikhil Harry's of draft of Draft Times and thinking that this guy could be kind of in that mold where it might not totally work at the next level.

00:43:52
Speaker 2: Now I agree with you, and I share the same bias. That archetype of receiver just isn't for me that the guys who are purely vertical elevation type receivers who are a contested catch dollings. It just doesn't translate to the league. We've been through Loquan Treadwell with being through jj O, Sega Whiteside like this just a long history. Now, if you can't separate in college, you're not gonna have hope of separating in the NFL. The contested catch rads almost inevitably drop in the NFL. If anything, the guys who want contested catch dollings who do separate at a high clip wind up being good contested catch guys in the NFL.

00:44:22
Speaker 3: So like T Higgins was a guy I loved coming out of Clunton. It's it's convenient that I remember all my correct evaluations. But cause I even though he sort of could have got you put in that in that bucket, I just thought you saw more fluidity and that his and his like verticality was just special in a way that Yeah, there's like a lot of like one on one and one handed catches and it is it is cool to watch. He's gonna be a red zone guy for sure, But yeah, I just don't know if the ball winning stuff is gonna is gonna translate as well.

00:44:57
Speaker 1: What are the things you liked about Boston though?

00:44:59
Speaker 2: It the ball tracking? I mean, he dunks on people. I think he is specially in the air. He really has an ability to hold himself in the air for like three seconds, look around, check out what's going on, and just the ball in flight, and then just slam it on the head of the corner like that is where he wins. And it reminds me a little bit of Kenny Golladay, where you maybe will get the one season spike, and that's a certain brand of receiver that I think works for some offenses. It's not really how teams are playing anymore with all the condensed and congested stuff. I just think you gotta be way more nimble, and I just don't think he's truly an NFL athlete in short area. I think that he cannot sink his hips. He struggles to deceller and get out of breaks. And even if you are that vertical stretch guy and we're gonna try and play back shoulder fade game and then we're gonna try and play ghost shot game, you really have to be able to snap back to the quarterback out at the top of the step. You've got to be able to be in the curls and the comebacks that you can get the breaks that you need on the fade routes. He just can't really sink and get out of it. And if you watch him against the better athletes against Michigan and Oregon, it really starts to show up that he just cannot separate snapping back to the quarterback and breaking out the route.

00:46:02
Speaker 3: There was another game maybe versus Rutgers, I don't remember who it was, but you're right at this short area of quickness, and that is maybe a type that I like. But that's why I think there will be a little more surprise in terms of where these guys go, because I just don't know if it's like that huge of a gap between the Tyson and Denzel Boston, who have pretty high things, and the brazil and even Chris Bell, who teams could just look at as these high ceiling guys. I don't know. I don't know if it's like a huge gap. Different teams, I think, could see it very, very differently.

00:46:37
Speaker 2: I think it depends on what you need in the room one and what the draft philosophy is. Some teams just gather the receivers, we'll figure the room out afterwards. I think some teams a kind of more pinpoints on we're lacking this kind of skill set. Let's go get it. Boston is a guy who I think if you put him with a veteran if he was just catching passes from Dak Prescott or Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love, someone who's willing to just rip it. If someone is even they are open, I'll just put it on the inside number. That's open enough for me. Guys who are willing to thread that kind of needle hits, the ability to kind of just play late off the snap, play late out of press, and just twist ever so slight to create a throwing lade. I think that will work and VET quarterbacks will love playing with him. I just wouldn't want to use the draft capital in the air he's going out to be like a foundational piece of an offense. I think he's more of a package based player for skill. So that's actually pretty limited in the league.

00:47:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I should have mentioned the product of Washington and just thinking about like quarterback wide receiver combos, going back to Chris Bell, Let's bring back the Tyler shuck Chris Bell Combo. I would be in for that. This is like a second round pick. I think that would be fun let's get let's get positive. Let's make it time for charging into the offseason. Presented by Apple Card for all your game day purchases. Let's get some flowers. A guy you think is way better than his consensus board ranking. We've hit most of the top guys so far, although not all of them.

00:47:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really like Elijah Surrat, Omar Cooper's running me Indiana, Fernando Mendoza's go to target and must have it situations on most key third downs, and he I think will fall into the bucket of Malachi Fields. Of Denzel Boston, we just talked about where people will view him as more of his vertical presence, can tested catch jump ball type guy. I just think he's more of a professional well rund of receiver in terms of getting off press, in terms of winning early in the route. I think he's got a little bit more short area of fluidity than he's given credit for us. Just a pure vertical guy, and I think he can just step in. If you're saying to me tomorrow we're playing a playoff game, who's going to be the third receiver in the lineup? And I'm the Rams. I'm a team who really has a must get it game. He's the guy whould have the most confidence in this kind of second bucket that we're talking about, where from the real top part of the class to this real meat section where there's like eight nine guys and you're picking different flavors if you prefer. The guy who would trust the most is Elijah Surrat.

00:48:57
Speaker 3: I like that he's right now seventy seventh and the can Censis board, and yeah, there is a cluster of guys late second and then into the third round, whether it's Jeremy Bernard, the kind of solid receiver from Alabama. We mentioned brands, Malachi Fields, a receiver from Notre Dame, Antonio Williams who I know, Daniel Jeremiah likes from Clemson, Bryce Lance, Trey Lance's brother from North Dakota States in the mix there as like a third round pick, Danny Kelly from the Ringer likes him a lot. And so okay, I like that. You're you're planting your your flag on to rot right there. And look that was charging into the offseason presented by Apple Card. Apply for the Apple Cart in the Wallet app today, start earning daily cash back on all your game day purchases from tickets to tailgate, mounchies to merch subject to credit approval. I was going to ask you for like a favorite comp complimentary. This could this could be anyone. We haven't Omar Cooper yet if you've got one, but it could just be a favorite comp that you've got in the entire class and we can save cou If he's not the perfect one.

00:50:02
Speaker 2: I can give you the Cooper one. I would say conceptsi onto Z Flowers is probably I think the most crystal clear one in my mind. My surrut one is Keenan Allen, which I think that he's not gonna quite be that car or a player, but it's in that Mike Williams Keenan Allen type mold. I think Omar Cooper is slightly less of Brandan ayuk U get the peak of his spouse.

00:50:23
Speaker 3: Okay, it's funny because uh, I feel like, yeah, ayuk is always like a popular comp in general. Cooper is a guy that I look at and I just think that's gonna work. I I I I could be wrong, but he just looks like an NFL player.

00:50:44
Speaker 1: Now.

00:50:45
Speaker 3: Is like what that means production wise is going to depend on you know what, what system he's gonna land and he's not like a number one type of receiver. H I like dk uh Danny Kelly's comp which was Josh Downs with the power Up Mushroom Boost, which which like sounds like my favorite player ever. I just feel like he he is gonna figure it out at the next level, that he's versatile, and like there's that famous, you know touchdown obviously that he had to to kind of save Indiana's undefeated season that gave us Gus Johnson's greatest call.

00:51:23
Speaker 1: Of all time.

00:51:24
Speaker 3: But what I remember about that too, it's like he got that separation from the little wiggle that he had at the start of the route which just froze the defender.

00:51:35
Speaker 1: And you see that all over his tape.

00:51:37
Speaker 3: And so he's just a fun player to watch, Like if my team took him in the late first round or wherever it's gonna be, I'm I really like Omar Cooper too.

00:51:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you.

00:51:46
Speaker 2: I mean, he is failess, he is tough, He texts the middle of the field like a few other people in the class. I think he's probably slippery rather than truly explosive and fast, and he is unbelievable after the catch, I mean the mistackle rate, the toughness, the creativity, the balance. He's not a high fly. He's going to be a true vertical threat outside the numbers, even from the slot. I think it's more of the deep overs and the crosses and can you do some damage for us in space. But that is a type that works in the league, that has when everybody's chasing over and over again. If you cannot find Justin Jefferson and it's a once in a franchise situation where you get Justin Jefferson, the next rung down is trying to find the maximum type of this player, and I think Oman Kooper fits in that bucket.

00:52:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, shout out to our guy Daniel Jeremiah, who had him very high right off the bat when he was just not too high. In the overall consensus, he has him in the top twenty. He's twenty sixth right now on the consensus board. And I see that. It just seems it just no players are safe exactly come into the NFL. But to me, he is a safe player and I like that comp Who do you think is just like the best route runner if that's just like.

00:52:56
Speaker 1: A big bucket.

00:52:58
Speaker 2: I think that's Connell. If you talk about the all around, do they win in all three parts? Can they win quick off the snap? Can they Can they kind of shake someone out of their cleats with a little shimmy shaik or by reving up and templing down that's him? And then can they just kind of get the push off and the dirty work and the late hands to separate late in the route. I always go back to Michael Lovin saying, you're winning the NFL by winning late. There's no recovery time. You do whatever you gotta do to win late in the rent, and I think Cornell tat in terms of efficiency doing it in all three phases. I think it's in.

00:53:25
Speaker 3: We had a couple others that you suggested. I don't know if this has already been ticked off you you had a superlative that you would be you would be quitting as the coach if the GM did not get him on your team. I don't know if Sarat already filled that bucket or you got another Surat four.

00:53:40
Speaker 2: If I was the Raiders, I would not break up the Fernando Mendoza Serat chemistry. Maybe it's not as viable for the teams, but they have such unbelievable wink wink chemistry, and he's gonna go in the seventies. It's not gonna be. You could go maybe early in the second round if a really good guy falls to you, but other than that, I would just wait out, and I would make sure that you don't break a couple of Mendoza Serrat and you would talk yourselves into hey, he's not Jamal Chase. No one's Jamal Chase, but that Jamal Chase Joe borrow thing, translating it from college to the NFL. Let's make life as comfortable as possible for the first overall pick.

00:54:12
Speaker 3: Okay, I think we did it. I who is there? Is there like a player that we have not mentioned? I think we've we've hit the consensus first and second round picks. You know, I mentioned Jeremy Bernard and Malokai Fields you know certainly could be in that mix. I don't know if there's any other like deep Deep Deep Day three guy.

00:54:30
Speaker 1: That you love.

00:54:30
Speaker 3: There was some guy last year I had never heard of that you wrote like a thirty minute love song too.

00:54:36
Speaker 1: I don't know whatever happened to him.

00:54:37
Speaker 2: That just anyone's who was its?

00:54:40
Speaker 1: Was it?

00:54:43
Speaker 3: That was his origin story? You made it happen. Maybe the Patriots were listening. Uh, you know some NFL teams are listening to the read Optional. Check out Ali's podcast with John Ledyard. They do great stuff. But yeah, give me your Day three guy.

00:54:57
Speaker 2: If you got one Day three guy would be Eric Rivers from Georgia Tech, who is an absolute speeds to He is tiny. I think we would both tower over him, and that may be a problem playing football on Sundays, but.

00:55:08
Speaker 1: I would not. I would not be towering over him.

00:55:11
Speaker 2: It's possible for Eric.

00:55:12
Speaker 1: I'm six.

00:55:13
Speaker 3: If you round up, it was like I always overcorrected. It was like five, five and three quarters, but I listed five to five because I was like, I'm standing up for the short guys. I'm not trying to look taller on my license.

00:55:26
Speaker 2: You know.

00:55:26
Speaker 1: Let's let's equality. You know, I don't know, That's all I got to say.

00:55:32
Speaker 2: He can fly, he moves at a different speed to pretty much anyone else. Whether he can actually get in the field or he's just special teams or something like that, I think is a bit of an open question. The other guy that we haven't hit on I think is ted Hurst out of Georgia State, who is gonna go probably early in the second round. I would guess based on the physical profile. The thing that is wild about watching ted Hurst when you just kind of block out all the noise, it's Georgia State, they got the field whatever, the style of running, just the pure style, and he's not the body type, and he's not the size, and he doesn't have the same level change of direction. And I'm going to compiment it to one of the greatest blasts ever played the position. But just the running, pure speed, maintaining the speed, running like a sprinter as opposed to a wide receiver. He has a little bit of Julio Jones in just a pure style of running. And I just cannot imagine the league will watch that, a guy of his size exploding down the field, ripping apart four deep coverage and not decide we'll go in for that early. If Brezol goes and kind of the heighth weight speed guys go earlyer than maybe they're expected by the consensus board, I imagine ted Hurst will be pushed.

00:56:39
Speaker 1: For the draft. I love that.

00:56:41
Speaker 3: One of the yeah categories we skipped here just for time was the type of player the NFL can't quit and he would absolutely fit that. I got to put him on my watch list because I can just see Julio running through the secondary just that. I don't know how to describe it, but it's It was a thing of beauty, and so is this show. As I mentioned, check out the read optional with Ali. Thank you Alli. As I mentioned, we're going to be going through the entire draft with Ali helping us out on these shows. And yes, he's going to be joining me and Daniel Jeremiah for an upcoming show. I think that's going to drop next month, but I'm really looking forward to that as well. Also looking forward to get back in the studio me Jordan, Colleen Patrick Fullhouse bringing back our NFL First Date show from a year ago. We'll see you on Thursday.