Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Prospect Chat with Senior Bowl Director Jim Nagy

Episode Date: April 7, 2022

Scott Barrett (@ScottBarrettDFB) welcomes in Director of the Senior Bowl Jim Nagy to talk about some of the top 2022 rookie prospects. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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to help you score more fantasy points. Ladies and gentlemen, you are listening to the Fantasy Points podcast. I'm your host, Scott Barrett, and today I will be joined by a very special guest, none other than Jim Nagy, who has worked as an NFL scout for Washington, New England, Kansas City. He was a part of six Super Bowl teams and four Super Bowl teams. Super Bowl winning teams. He now works as the executive director of the Senior Bowl. So he's responsible for the identification, evaluation, and selection of all players who are invited, which is to say

he's already scouting the 2024 class and will be doing so from now until maybe January of next year. You can expect some content from him on the 2023 class in early May. This makes him the ultimate follow for Devi and Dynasty players. In his own words, the best way to learn these players is to start tracking them as soon as possible in college. And I could not agree more. For instance, Nagy was hyping certain players like Terry McLaren and Antonio Gibson as should be day two picks for months long before they started shooting up draft boards. For degenerates like myself, who have dynasty leagues which draft before the NFL draft, he's been a total godsend,

helping me draft a number of key late-round sleepers who went on to become borderline league winners. McLaren, Gibson, those were just two of many names. Last season was a unique year without an NFL combine. Analytics Twitter was like the Wild West when it came to pro day numbers. A ton of discrepancies, depending on where you looked, Nagy was putting out NFL pro day numbers officially sourced from NFL teams. That's another key part of what he brings to the table given his 20 plus years working with

NFL teams and the connections that come with that. When he told me, Karias Tony wasn't slipping out of round one, I took that as fact. So I'm really excited to hear what he has to say, looking for this year's Terry McLaurin, this year's Antonio Gibson. So without further ado, here's the interview. Hey, Jim, thanks so much for coming on. My first question, before I get into that, I just wanted to congratulate you on a tremendous hit rate. Last year, 106 players from the Senior Bowl heard their names called in the NFL draft.

That was over 40% of all players invited. Over the last three years, nearly 90% made an NFL roster. as a rookie. This is sort of a self-serving interview because I'm in a number of dynasty leagues. And a lot of those leagues draft before the NFL draft. So one of my great edges was I kept your Twitter account on notifications year round. And you always seem to be hyping up future studs before anyone else, before the honor radar, Debo Samuel, Cooper Cup, Brandon IU, Terry McLaurin, Antonio Gibson, Michael Pittman. The list goes on and on. So congratulations on that. And I don't know, can you can you take a few minutes to talk a little bit about your scouting process? Is that all film? Is it is, is it anything numbers based, which is kind of my forte?

Yeah, Scott, we appreciate the intro, man. No, it's very kind of you to say all that. No, it's it's tape based, man. It's nothing really numbers based. I mean, we do do some some stuff with data when it comes to testing. stuff going back to high school. Got a partner tracking football who has done a really nice job, helping us build some gaps. You know, my predecessor, Phil Savage, the old GM of the Cleveland Browns when I took the job. I mean, his one thing he said was Jim, your drafts in November, not April. So there's just, you know, before we pick our rosters, we don't have any of the combine numbers or pro day numbers. And that's, that plays a role.

Obviously where these guys get picked. So, you know, kind of trying to fill that hole with. with some high school testing data stuff that it's been very reliable. It's been a big help. They've been a great partner. But no, it's mostly tape-based. So, you know, part of our process, we get the tape all year round. We download it from the NFL Dub Center, which the league was great enough to give us access to four years ago.

You know, All-Star Games had never had taped before. So, again, that was really the first hurdle we had to clear. Once we got that, you know, we start watching the tape in this. spring where here we are and early April and our staff has already done a really nice job of working through almost the entire Power 5 already. We're finished up some big, some big 10 stuff right now. And then we'll work to, you know, the group of five level and then down FCS, D2s through the summer. So yeah, we do that. We do that in-house in the off season. I usually don't jump on that stuff until get through the current draft cycle. So I'm still kind of hanging with this year's

class and then I'll jump on here in May and June, July and start cross-checking the guys that we have draftable grades on. And then when we get into the fall is when we'll have our scouting staff in the mix, you know, we don't, I don't typically put the scouting staff together until the summer. It has been with fully guys that have worked in the NFL, guys with NFL experience. This year we had seven scouts with 120 years of experience. So it's just great having a, you know, proven set of eyes and set of contacts, you know, and there are different parts of the country that they live in and, you know, watch tape in the fall. We'll go to games every Saturday and, you know, Thursdays, what might have you, our Midwest guy, I'll hit like, you know, 50 Mac games

during the week. But so, so, yeah, we're trying to build this thing as close to an NFL personnel department as we can on the budget that we have. So that's kind of it. You know, like you said, we'll start posting stuff on next year's class as soon as this year's draft is over. A couple of players a day, really, through the summer. So, yeah, if you, if you appreciate you kept putting those notifications on, you know, and again, I'm only posting about guys that we think have a, you know, really legitimate chance of playing in the senior bowl. Like, I'm not about filling players with false hope of, you know, playing in our game.

So try to stay away from any of that. Like, we're really focusing on guys that will have a good chance of it and up here the following February. So, yeah, that's our process. and it's like I said, mostly tape-based. And then when we get in the fall, again, we're building these rosters for the NFL. So that goes back to my relationships

of a couple decades in the NFL. And, you know, talking to those guys and trying to get a feel for where we're at in relation to them in terms of our grading and, you know, use their input as well. So just trying to, you know, bounce ideas off guys and bounce players off each other. And it's been a really good back and forth

with guys in the league the last four years. So realistically, what can NFL teams learn on the field from the senior ball process that you haven't already seen from three to four years of tape? Well, it's best on the best. So you're seeing, you know, I'm watching some George Carl Loftus tape right now that, you know, the edge rusher from Purdue. And I'm like eight games in and I haven't seen him go against a legit NFL tackle yet. So, you know, and he's a good player. but you know you come down here and it's it's the next wave of the league like you talked about 41% of last year's draft played in senior bowl so you know this is this is good on good i mean when you're a scout in the fall i mean you dig for tape like this you're you're trying to find you know guys that it doesn't matter what the production is if they're not going against an NFL caliber player so um you know that's all our week is so it's a really good evaluative tool for these guys and then you know beyond the skill set and the tools it's just the competitive nature of these guys the mental toughness the the adaptability, the ability to take coaching.

So, yeah, there's a, there's a ton of takeaways, man. It's if you come down here as a scouting staff and you're ready to attack it and really have your eyes open and your ears open, you can learn a lot about these players. Yeah, certainly, you know, some players might be stuck in a scheme that's not well adapted to their specific skill set. Maybe, you know, Malik Willis, let's see him in a more pro-style offense or, you know, or even Antonio Gibson, like, hey, maybe this guy is a workhorse running back instead of a wide receiver. Yeah, that one was, when I reached out to Antonio, he was kind of a late ad in the process for us.

Because he was below the line as a wide receiver. And the more I watched him, I was like, you know, what makes this guy great is his strength with the ball in his hands. So he had a handful of carries there. Is that you? The first person to plant that seed in the minds of NFL teams because I own him in every dynasty league. And so I have to thank you for that if that's the case. Yeah. I mean, again, I don't know.

I'm like taking credit for stuff. But I just saw him as a running back. I called him. I said, Antonio, white receivers, a dime a dozen position. Every school's got two or three guys that catch 50, 60 balls. So, and I just thought what he did best. was, you know, just his instincts and his strength with the ball in his hands. And so I said, Antonio, if you're going to come, we got a whole lot running back right now.

We just lost a guy. That's where you will be and that's where you will stay all week. And you're a 225-pound guy that I just think that's where your future is. If you're going to make it at the next level, and you've got a chance to be really good. So he understood. He's like, yes, sir, I'll be there. And he had a great week. And now, you know, whatever that is, three years later, he's shown that he is.

He's an upper echelon NFL running back. So all the credit to Antonio, he embraced it. A lot of players would have probably told me to take a hike and dug in their heels and wanted to stay at their position they'd been in their whole college career. So he got to jump on it down here and then worked out at Combine and Pro Day as a running back. And it's great that the Washington football team kind of took that next leap of faith and drafted him in the third round. And now they're getting the benefit of it. Yeah, that NFL combine was.

was really interesting. He kind of, he was interesting as a wide receiver prospect, but then you compare him to the running backs. And he was almost like a Jonathan Taylor clone in terms of their, the measurements and, and different events he ran. And that's saying something, because, you know, Taylor's an all-time freak athlete. So, yeah, so we just talked about Antonio Gibson. Who were some players from the Senior Bowl last year that you're really excited about as the enter their sophomore season players like cadarius tony michael carter hunter long i know uh you were a josh palmer guy anyone jump out to you uh yeah you're you're asking me to go off the top of my head i like some of those names though cadarius is really unique um i think the thing with cadarius

and he showed it in a couple games this year i think he had that one game where he's up around 190 yards before he got booted out of that game um i think the key with cadarius is just staying hell healthy, really. I mean, that's the bottom, that's the bottom line and, and just matured and growing with the talents off the charts. I mean, and again, that goes back to before I took the senior bowl job. I was at a Florida practice one day in a position group at the time when Cadarious was a true freshman. I was still with the Seahawks. And that position group at Van Jefferson and Tyree Cleveland, a couple future senior bowl guys and Swain, who's with the Seahawks now. I mean, there was a bunch of NFL guys in that group.

And I walked up to their recruiting guys' office afterwards, Drew Hughes, who works for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now I'm like, Drew, and I knew about Cadarious because I saw him play high school football here in Mobile. I'm like, man, you got something special there. Like, his change of direction and his suddenness is just different. I think I wrote up that like his ACLs were made of adamantium because just like the way he moved, it just seemed impossible. Yeah, it's different, man. Like he's he's a different type of player. If he can stay healthy and get a report,

Daniel Jones and, you know, this new staff. And they, I really believe Brian Dable will, I mean, I've worked on two different staffs with Brian Dable and New England and Kansas City. I think he's a great coach. And he does a great job of using his personnel. I think they're going to end up really developing Cadarious this year. So I think he's got a chance to, and there's no reason talent-wise,

why that guy should be, you know, a pro-ball level type of receiver. right right and yeah i'd like to thank you again for being one of the first guys to to really pump him up you were saying cadarius tony is going to be a first round pick when a lot of other people you know had him maybe late day two or something like that and so i just took your word as gospel and loaded up on a bunch of cadarius tony shares in dynasty leagues yeah and you like you brought you brought up josh palmer um i really like josh is telling a lot He had a great week down here.

You know, he was kind of, you know, set back with some of the quarterback issues at Tennessee, but just big, fast, fluid, can get in and out of breaks, makes a ton of contested plays. He's tough. Again, I had a great week down here. I think with Justin Herbert in year two, I would expect him to be a really good player for that Chargers team. I know they like him internally. I know they're fired up about his future.

I think Amari Rogers is a guy in Green Bay to keep an eye on. I know they were fired up to draft him. I mean, they had him pegged going into the draft was the guy they wanted to take. And I think what kind of sidetracked Amari last year was them bringing in Randall Cobb. You know, they're trying to appease their quarterback. And they kind of were in a position where they had to do that last year. And it was a unique relationship where Randall and Amari knew each other from, you know, Amari's dad is T. Martin.

And so there was some pass there where T was on a staff at Kentucky with Randall Cobb. So there's familiarity. There's a good mentorship there between the two guys. But it kind of stunted Amari's growth. I think Amari's could be a breakout guy for him this year. I think D. Eskridge, the guys in Seattle, are really high on and they should be. He's an explosive playmaker. Injuries just kind of derailed him a little bit last year.

So I think if they can get him on the field, he'll make a really nice jump in year two. And then, you know, guys like, I think Nico Collins in Houston has a chance to make a nice jump, you know, and Devante Smith's a no-brainer. That guy's going to be a pro bowl player for a long time in Philly. So yeah, just a side note to those of us who play fantasy and bestball. Marri Rogers is currently the wide receiver 119 in drafts. And I mean, you know, no Devante Adams, target competition tied to one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, must draft player, especially based on Jim's recommendation here. So let's talk about this year's class of senior bowl participants. Who do you think were some of the biggest winners or standouts from

practices this year? Oh, yeah. I guess I'd start with another Florida guy, Damien Pierce. He was a favorite of ours going back to last spring. Again, kind of a low mileage guy, which is, which is great, you know, going into the next level. And again, these college coaches, I mean, it's easy to sit there and take shots at that Florida staff that they didn't play them enough. I see a lot of that from Florida fans on social media. But this is a different beast that they're dealing with. You got to look at from a coach's perspective. You got all these high recruit running backs and they all want touches and you're trying to manage that. And guys can just hop in the portal if they're not happy. So they're really trying to manage that. Again, from an NFL's perspective,

that's great. Now you've got a guy that doesn't have a lot of wear and tear and he's really talented. So I think, I think Damien's a guy that's going to be an NFL starter. Just a big believer in him. I love his vision. I love his power in his lower half, his burst. He can catch it. He can pass protect. I think he's a true three down back. So, you know, probably start with him. I mean, you go back. You asked about last year's class. I mean, last year, can I, can I, can I, can I, can I, can I, Can I ask you something else about Damien Pierce, like loved his tape. He seemed magnetically pulled towards the end zone, just a, you know, rare unwillingness to go down, just shrugging off defenders. My model was very torn on him. Lance Zeerline said basically that the fact that he only had 115

touches last year was a fireable offense for the coaching staff and the head coach did get fired at the tail end there. And so if I just double his volume and production metrics, his final season. He's my RB3. But if I stay true to the production we saw, you know, stuck in that committee, maybe undeservingly, he would be like my RB15. So he was a tricky one for my rankings. And I saw Brian Robinson on the American team beat him out as voted by the linebackers on the opposing team. What do you think went on there with the lack of touches? Do you think that's a talent issue? Do you think that's like scheme stubbornness? at Florida?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, this is, you get, you get caught up in that stuff. You got to evaluate the whole thing. And I got friends on that Florida staff, so I'm not taking any shots at those guys. I don't know what it was. I just know he's talented. It's similar to like when Amari, I'm sorry, Alvin Camaro was the backup at Tennessee.

Right, right. You know, I mean, there were factors at play there that I won't get into. But, again, I was scouting for the Seahawks at the time. and Alvin Camaro was like my favorite player in that draft, you know, from the schools I went into. And it was a tough sell trying to sell some of our coaches that, you know, sometimes coaches screw up guys. Sometimes they, sometimes they don't play the right guys. So, yeah, I wouldn't look into too far on that on Damien, man. You just got to look at the talent alone.

Again, there's, you never know, you know, maybe there's another guy in the running back room that's going to be a problem for you. if he doesn't, you know, get the touches or he doesn't start. Whereas Damien's a team player and he's, you know, just a team guy. And you can, you can kind of appease the other guy by putting Damien more in a supportive role. So you just, you just, and that's as a scout, those are the questions you go in and ask, right? I mean, you hit the running backs coach up. You hit the coordinator up. You know, you try to get to the bottom of why it is because the talent's the talent.

Guys that are NFL starters shouldn't be backups in college, you know, like Elvin Cameras, you know, could go down as one of the best running backs in NFL history when it's all said and done. He wasn't a starter in college. So you got you got to look beyond beyond that and just refocus on the talent. Right, right. That's what I wrote up in my article. Just like I'm worried this is an Alvin Kumar situation, which was one of my models all time biggest misses just because, you know, you only had 33% of the touches out of the

backfield. But everything else, hyper efficiency, really elite hyper efficiency in the metrics that matter most and I did love his tape. But I mean, you look at another guy from last year's game like Chris Evans at Michigan. I took a lot of crap on social media for extended an invite to Chris Evans. He had like 17 carries the senior year at Michigan. You know, they had Blake Corum. They had Hassan Haskins.

They had other talent there, you know, go back. But you had to go way back in his career and look at the whole body of work. And then just based your evaluation off the talent. And here he is. he's, you know, essentially the number two back in Cincinnati is a rookie, and I know they've got plans for a bigger role for him next year, and Chris is going to play in the league a long, long time. So, yeah, again, you just, things happen at the college level, you know,

especially now with all the movement, coaching movement, player movement. You know, you got a new coaching staff comes into a place, and there's a player that they didn't recruit, and they're more invested in the players that did recruit. So there's just a lot of politics involved, and that's why you just got to keep going back to the tape and watch the talent. Yeah, so any other big time risers from the senior bowl process, I'll throw a name out there. Christian Watson was voted as the top wide receiver on the national team ahead of Alec Pierce and Boe Melton.

My buddy Brett Whitefield left the senior bowl and he said this is a top five wide receiver in this class. I had barely ever heard his name. And then of course he had one of the best combines in recent memory. how high do you think he could go? Would you say he's another big riser? Yeah, he certainly was. I mean, even for us. Like Christian was the guy, we didn't invite until later in the process.

And again, it's because I just couldn't get comfortable with his hands. You know, there's a lot of drops if you go through the targets. There's been a lot of drops. So he's working through that. I mean, I just going back in my experience, I mean, I've seen guys really improve their hands. David Givens is a guy that comes to mind. I mean, we drafted David in New England in the seventh row, not in Notre Dame. We knew he'd be an immediate special teams player.

You know, I was assigned to wide receivers, his rookie year in camp, and just going through all his training camp stuff at the end, he was literally a 50-50 catcher, whether that was contested. And that's not 50-50 contested balls. That's all balls thrown at him. He had 18 catches and 18 drops. And then, David, you know, to David's credit, He stayed on that jugs for a couple years and, you know, just kept working his hands.

And then, you know, by the time it was all sudden done, I think at one point he hold, he held the all-time playoff record scoring touchdown, touchdown catches in seven, seven consecutive NFL playoff games. So it can be done. But what you can't, what you can't really improve is, is the size speed combo. I mean, we, we sent us out to see him play Towson this fall and posted a video in the fall from that game of just a pre-game. route that he ran a comeback route. And to see a guy that's 6-4, 210 pounds dropping his weight and get in and out of a break

as easily as Christian did. I mean, that's hard to find. He's a big fluid guy. And he can really roll. And it was great to see, you know, he looked like he was playing at a different speed at the FCS level. And even when I went up to Northern Iowa to invite Trevor Penning, Mark Farley, the Northern Iowa coach, you know, pulled me aside.

He said, have you invited North Dakota State kid yet? And I said, well, coach, Trevor's our first. first invite, so no, we haven't. And he's like, you know, I haven't seen speed on a field like that. Granted, I've been at FCS this time, but you haven't seen anything like that since Randy Moss. And that's back when Marshall was in the FCS. So the cool thing down here was to see the speed carryover and see it against,

against guys, corners that can really run. You look at our corner group, Tari-Wallin and, you know, Damari Mathis and, you know, Castro Fields and Jalen Watson. and we had a bunch of guys that ran in the four threes, and he was separating down the field from him. So, yeah, certainly a big riser. I think he's safely going to go in the top 50. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that Christian could sneak into the late first, but I do think he's going to be a top 50 pick.

Anyone else spring to mind, Alec Pierce, borderline Martavis Bryant clone, athletically, Trey McBride. I mean, I'm a huge, Trey McBride guy. He had a much better pro day than I think anyone anticipated. Brian Robinson, I mentioned before, beat out Damien Pierce to be the top running back of the week on the American team. Yeah, yeah, I'll hit on a couple of those guys. So, yeah, Brian Robinson, we've been big believers in B-Rob for a while now. And this goes back to like August of 2019, being at August.

two-a-day practice up in Tuscaloosa. And, you know, I've got a lot of great context in that building. I've been going in and out of there for, you know, a lot of years now. And there was some feeling in the building that Brian Robinson was more talented than Naji Harris. And I kind of felt the same way. Wow. The reason I know that is because, I mean, it was asking people the question point blank.

I'm like, you know, Naji's scheduled be the starter. He's the five-star guy. But, like, to me, B-Rob, you watch B-Rob's 10. tape. You know, I just, I liked him a little more. Now that, then give Naji credit. He went on and had a huge 19 and had a huge 20, you know, 2020 and had a phenomenal college career. So, but there were people in the building back then up there that are around the, we're around those guys every day that felt the same way I did. And then it, it was just weird, the whole narrative on Brian Robinson because he, you know, was a backup for a couple of years. I think that the thing

that people automatically do with Alabama running backs is that you got the next five star coming in. So you, you know, everyone's itching to see that next young guy, right? So I think a lot, just living down here in the state of Alabama, I think a lot of people thought, well, Brian, you know, Coach Saban's going to play Brian for a couple games and then, you know, move on to the next young guy and give Brian credit. Like, he took that job and just ran with it. And, you know, going back over watching these Georgia defenders and what he did to them.

He's just a big, strong, violent guy. Good and past protection. and can catch it out of the backfield, had a bunch of catches. They used him a bunch out of the back field this year. So again, I think he could be a three-down starter at the next level. He's what the NFL wants. He's a violent 225-pound running back that's good after contact. So, you know, Alec Pierce, like you said, I think his best football is in front of him.

He and Desmond Ritter, you know, had a nice, cool connection this year. They really, they really, they really gelled together. Desmond started trusting him, taking more shots down the field to him. All right could go up and get it. Again, you talked about the athletic profile, the guy, really a high-end athlete. He's springy, he can roll, he's got a deep gear. So, you know, I think his best ball is in front of him. I think he could, you know, I think he's going to go somewhere on day two.

He's certainly not getting out of day two. Has a chance to go in the second round. Bow Melton, again, you look at a guy that's maybe held back by the supporting cast at Rutgers, super quick and explosive. And what I like most about Bo was that what drew me to him was, again, like you talked about Antonio Gibson, obviously a different size package. But Bo's strength and toughness with the ball in his hands, everyone's kind of looking for the next Debo now.

And I wouldn't put that on Bo that he's going to be that level of player. But certainly a guy who gets the ball to him, he's going to make stuff happen. And, you know, the problem was it Rutgers? They didn't get the ball in his hands, you know, like they probably want, like the staff probably wanted to. But yeah, I thought he showed really well during the week just separating and getting open. And then the last guy you brought up, Trey McBride has been our number one right at tight end going back to last spring. We've never, that's never fluctuated for us.

It's funny. I was at the Alabama Pro Day was the same day. He ran a sporty up in Colorado. And I was surprised there were some teams at the Pro Day that day that I talked to that had a speed concern. I never did. So when I was getting a bunch of scouting buddies hitting me back with four or five times, that did not surprise me. I mean, maybe I was one of the only ones because there were certainly teams that questioned how fast he was going to run. So just a really good athlete, kind of a do-it-all guy, not the biggest, but he's scrappy.

He'll get into you. He'll fight his ass off, blocking you. And then in the past game, he's just a guy that understands how to get open, plays with tempo, and good with the ball. fans. He just, you know, it's out on cover. So I just, I think Tray's going to be a good starter for somebody. All of that is music to my ears. The Bow Melton name drop as a Rutgers alum, Tray McBride, my model said, really rare tight end prospect, maybe one of the five best to come out over the past eight seasons. Of course, that's from a fantasy perspective. So I overweight receiving production and things like that. And then Brian Robinson, my R.B.

the Greg Cassell draft guides available on our site now for only 25 bucks. He got some heat on Twitter because when we posted this blurb, he said ideal feature back size and traits, and it would not surprise me at all if some teams had him as the number one back on their board. Again, that's my RB3. So absolutely love you placating my confirmation bias here. So let's reframe this. Who do you think Twitter is overthinking this year?

A name that comes to mind is Traylon Burks. He didn't have a bad combine. It was just a little underwhelming. I had him as a 66th percentile athlete, but I mean, just turn on the tape. And it's clear this guy has some special traits. But he was the unanimous wide receiver one heading into this year, you know, mock drafts from last year and then fell to like wide receiver three.

And then after the combine, he's fallen to like wide receiver six. So that's just one name that comes to my mind. Anyone in particular for you, you think, you know, maybe the community or Twitter is, is overthinking this year. I actually struggle with Birx, you know, going back and watching his tape, I do. I struggle. The hard part for me in this job now, when you work in the league and your scout and, I mean, the worst thing you can do is let outside noise in before you really,

until you really come up to your own evaluation on the player and you feel comfortable with where you're at, then it's okay to read stuff and, you know, see whatever other people are thinking. But you got to get to a point where you're comfortable with your own evaluation. And with this job, you know, a big part of my job is being on social media, so it's impossible to block all that out. And when I watched Berks, I was surprised where people were talking about this guy through the season as a.

is a first round pick. I just didn't see that. I just didn't see that kind of talent. I don't see his game carrying over to the next level. Not not like first round. Like he can be a contributing player. I don't see him as a front line starting player on a good roster. Yeah.

So I come from PFF and I was talking my PFF guys and like just the numbers really jump off. and they were saying the problem why like you shouldn't overrate the combine but in burke's case you should I thought this is the best counter I heard it was because he's so raw everywhere else as a route runner you know the Leviska Chanel comps things of that nature and so like the one thing he had going for him was he was an elite and then the combine was an elite so in this case that matters but this is like almost still the consensus dynasty wide receiver one so you know maybe it's worth going back back and double checking that because you're not the first, you know, film expert to, you know, you know, kind of counteract that. Yeah, I just don't see it. Like compared to Chanel,

I thought Chanel's tape was was considerably better coming out. Well, is there someone you think of Twitter's overthinking this year? It's clearly not Burgs. Gosh, you know, maybe some of these quarterbacks, you know, like Desmond Ritter maybe is a guy that, you know, he, again, you start to hear stuff this late in the process and, you know, I think there is a little bit of smokescreen stuff, you know, coming out, but Ritter is the guy's name, just talking to friends around the league. Like, he is a guy that's gaining steam in buildings right now because I think the coaches are part of the process.

You know, I started to hear it during our work. week, you know, just asking teams like, okay, who's, who's interviewing well for you guys? And Desmond's name came up consistently. He's, I think he's blowing, he's blowing coaches away when, when they get him on the board and, you know, really go through past game stuff with him. So I think that there's, there's a higher level of buy-in, maybe with the coaches than even the scouts in the fall. There's just, there's something to the guy, man, he's won a ton of games, and he's lifted a program. And you don't, you don't hear that talked about a lot these days in terms of guys did they elevate a program. I'm still, you know, when I got into scouting,

like to me, there's something to that, you know, like I, like Brett Farv, I use this example all the time, but like Brett Farv took a Southern Miss team and went in and beat Bobby Bowden's Florida State teams when, when that was like the heyday of Bobby Bowden's Florida State. So, like guys that can do that. And Desmond Ritter, you talk to, you talk to Coach Vic and the guys up there at Cincinnati, like he took that program to the next level. And to me, there's something to be said for that and won a bunch of games and got better every year. Like there was no plateauing. He worked on his weaknesses.

He got better. Just a mature guy, really level-headed guy. And guy ran 4-4, you know, touched in the 4-4s in the 40. That's rare. We're talking about rare athleticism. You get in the 4-4 as a quarterback. Like, it's not very good. It's not excellent.

Like when we talk in terms of a scale for scouting, you know, there's different levels. Like, it's rare. Like, you know, quarterbacks don't run four-fours. So he's got that. He's, and then he's not just a run guy. You know, like he's a true dual threat guy. I think that he's going to put a lot of stress on defenses. So I think, you know, I've seen a lot of people kind of discount Desmond Ritter.

And I just think, I think people are overthinking out, you know, what this guy is. Yeah, for the folks at home, too, you know, in fantasy, hyper mobility from a quarterback is so. massively valuable. And like you said, you know, that was an elite, elite 40 times. So I think he has underrated rushing upside from a fantasy standpoint. Like I said from the jump, this is a self-serving podcast. You know, I'm in a lot of drafts right now. So I'm going to ask the question everyone at home wants me to ask. And I understand you're short on time. Really appreciating you coming on and doing this. So this will be the last question I asked.

Are there any players you think should be in the late first, early second consideration that aren't currently getting that hype? Like we said, you know, you were way early on, you know, Josh Palmer saying he was a day two pick, Amari Rogers. Who are some players in this year's class that will surprise the layman with where they're drafted? Oh, that's a good question. think that Jalen Tolbert from South Alabama has a chance to go in the second round. He is, he can really do everything.

You know, he's got good size. He's a good route runner. He's got a really big catch radius. He's used to being the guy. He has been South Alabama's offense for three years. He's used to be in doubled. He's used to draw an extra attention. Major Applewhite came in this year as the,

is the new OC with Kane Womack on that staff and moved him around a ton like they used Devante Smith, you know, Maj was up at Alabama the year before. They did a lot of things concept-wise to get jail in the football. He proved he could move around and do that and, you know, has that mental capability. So I think he's ready to play. And we're talking about next year, a guy that could come in depending on the depth of a place and contribute right away. I think Jalen's, I mean, he's a really mature guy. I think he's ready to do that. I think, again, guy that might be a year away who's got a really high ceiling who's really kind of, you know, been off the radar through the redraft process as Danny Gray from SMU came down here and

practiced one day and got a heel injury and practiced really half a practice and was the fastest offensive player in the senior bowl this year just in half a practice. So his speed. That's GPS tracking? Yeah, that's our zebra technology stuff. So he can roll. And we had Bayless Jones in the game who ran 4-3-1 at the Combine was the second fastest wide out.

You know, Bo Mountain was in the 4-3s at Indy. Alec Pierce was in the 4-3s. Christian Watson was in the 4-3s. And Danny Gray was faster than all those guys. And he was in the 4-3s at Indy-2. But on the field, you know, play speed, Danny was the fastest. And he was the guy we were really excited about last spring. You can go back and look at the post from about a year ago now on Danny Gray.

just an explosive playmaker. Really, you know, a raw kid coming out of Juko, not had, you know, coming off COVID off season where he couldn't get with the team, really showed up there in August at SMU in, you know, 2020 and made a ton of plays. So we were, and then he comes in this year, he had, you know, Grant Kelsa Terra, the tight end,

who I'm really high on, think he has the chance to be a really productive guy at tight end right away. In the NFL, that's another guy. Keep an eye on at tight end. I think Grant's got that skill set to come in and play. right away and do a lot of things in the past game. But they had him and Reggie Robinson, Reggie Roberson. I mean, there was also a senior bowl guy.

So they had to move the ball around a lot. You know, if Danny were at a place where he could have been showcased, I think his numbers would have been through the roof. But he had two NFL level skill players playing with him. And then getting injured here, I think, kind of derailed his process a little bit. You didn't quite hear about him. I think you would have had an awesome week. So again, like the transition next year, get on the field next year.

Yeah, I can't say that with conviction. a guy, you know, two years from now that you want to keep an eye and that could be a breakout guys is Danny Gray from SMU. Beautiful. You can draft Jalen Tolbert early round four. You can draft Danny Gray late round four in dynasty rookie drafts. So if this podcast is, we're recording on the seventh. If this podcast doesn't come out for a few more days, that's because I'm loading up on

shares of those guys and don't want my competitors to hear this. But Jim, thank you so much. Somehow this lived up to my lofty expectations for the folks at home again, put Jim on notifications. You can follow him on Twitter at Jim Nagy Naggy, N-A-G-Y underscore S-B. Jim, thank you so much. Anything you want to say before we go? No, I just say thank you to you, Scott, for him. Yeah, like this is kind of refreshing talking about these guys in a different vein other than, I mean, it's football, right? Like I always say that. Like, real football turns into fantasy football. So if you want to be good at fantasy, you've got to know real football too. But no, it's great coming out with you. I appreciate the platform. And this was a lot of fun. I'd love to do it again. My pleasure. We'll

have to do that. Thanks again, Jim. Thanks, Scott. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the Foster at FantasyPoints.com.