Fantasy Football Daily - AFC South and NFC South Draft Grades | On the Clock! NFL Draft Podcast

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) and Chris Wecht (@ChrisWechtFF) grade the 2023 NFL Draft classes of the AFC South and NFC South: Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. BRETT WHITEFIELD'S 2023 NFL DRAFT PROSPECT GUIDE IS FREE TO READ WITH A NO-CHARGE LOGIN AT FANTASY POINTS. Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. Use our code FANTASYPTS to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. We are back with another episode of On the Clock. I did not mess up the intro today, Chris. So we are flying high, coming out of the gates hot. Today I am joined by Christopher Wecht. I'm your host, Brett Whitefield.

We are breaking down draft results. Today we're looking at the NFC South in the ASC South. Chris, how are you, sir? I'm doing good. Let's talk about some more draft stuff. Yes, I like that you're all about your business. Just, you know, screw the intros and the, you know. The people want to hear the football talk.

You want to hear the football. That's what they're here for. They're not here for anything else. All right, we'll dive right in. Let's start with the NFC South. Let's take a look at the Atlanta Falcons draft, Chris. This one's highly scrutinized because they took a running back in the top 10, which, you know, not great, Bob.

No, probably not being as scrutinized as much. The Gibbs cover is giving them a lot of cover, but it is equally as bad. You just, yeah, Bijan has to be in an absolute elite prospect from day one for them to get any kind of value out of this pick. that being said this is the way they like to run their team although you already have you've already made investments in your passing offense with drake london and kyle pits and now you're making a massive investment into your running game so it doesn't seem like the best use of resources

at the end of the day yeah arthur smith noted unicorn chaser he gets one in be jean you know that it is a bad pick that's a running back i'd be interested to see how much they dial up for him in the past game. If they are going to use him as like the mismatch weapon that he can be, then it takes a little bit of this thing off, but really not that much. It just seems like a really weird pick for a guy heading into year three of his coaching career when you have a quarterback named Desmond Ritter and who's the backup, Tyler Heineke? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what are we doing here, Arthur? He's like just so clearly not on the hot seat at all. Like he is. It makes you wonder, but what if they come out and they win four or five games?

It sounds like they, there was a, they did a press conference and they, he was mentioning how the, you know, when he took this job, he talked to the owner, um,

Arthur Blank and he was like, yeah, this is going to take, you know, a few years. We have this option. We can go this route. Maybe it's a little quicker.

Basically they said they took the longer route because they wanted to do it right. And they seem very, so Arthur Blank seems on board with building this thing out, how Arthur Smith views it. but I don't really know where they go with having all these, like you said, unicorns at offensive positions, but not drafting, not having a QB to work with whatsoever. And also their offseason moves don't re-give a team taking the long route. Yeah.

They signed a bunch of guys that won your deals. Callais Campbell, David Anymetta, Bud Dupree. They traded for Jeff Akuta, who's on an expiring deal. I mean, they're clearly trying to get that defense ramped up so they can win games, which tells me maybe he is. secretly on the hot seat to be honest they made some big offensive line investments too did they signed um well they re-signed uh caleb mary right i don't they didn't give jacthews a long-term deal i don't think no not him he's also not good well anyways further out in their draft

they went matthew burgeron in the second round i actually i thought this pick was decent um i'm not sure how our model viewed it actually i can i guess i can look at that before i open my mouth yeah 58th percentile pick, which I get. He was like 90th on my big board. However, the tackles go. Yeah, but he went where tackles go.

He was getting rumored to go in the first round. We saw the war room video of Jerry Jones and his guys talking Mazi Smith or Birdgeron at 26. And they got him, what, like 15 picks after that. So a lot of people are going to say this was value. He does slide in at left guard for them. He's going to play guard for them.

They officially declared that, basically. So left guard for, now if Jake Matthews moves on after this year, maybe he slides back out to left tackle. But, I mean, I like, you know, the investment into the offensive line, it's nice. They have a sneaky good offensive line to go with Bijan and those skill players. They just need a quarterback, and this offense should go. Maybe when Ryan Tadahill loses his job to Will Levis, they'll trade for him. That would be a nice fit.

And then to round out their meaningful picks, they took Zach Harrison in that, was that the third round? Yeah, I. tough edge rushers were basically off the board yeah that's why it feels like a reach like you you missed the wave on ed rushers and is harrison a bad player no he's got a cap ceiling he's got a kind of a funky body type i just don't love are you going to stand him up too like is he going to play the bud dupre role i don't know weird but their fourth round pick was good i really like clark phillips this was a hundredth percentile pick for us um obviously we value corners very high in the model it's a premium position. They get a guy who I had, where do I have Phillips on my board? 75 on my board. They got

him at 113. Kind of makes up for it. I rounded this out with a C plus grade. You agree on that? Are you buying or that or selling it? That sounds right. Yeah. Yeah, I like the Clark Phillips pick is good. That gives them some combo of corners with AJ Terrell, Jeff Fukuda, and now Phillips. They've got some other guys too as deaf feces. They might not be as terrible in the secondary as they've been. Plus they added Jesse Bates in the offseason. That's another big move. That's what I was going to say. When you look at the completion of what they've done,

that secondary was really bad last year. And now they've basically kicked out the three worst starters. And they've replaced them with Jesse Bates, Jeff Akuta, and Clark Phillips. And all of those guys are still on the roster. So it's similar to what Detroit did in a way where they replace the starters, but the starters are now reserved guys. So everyone kind of leveled up there. Their bench players are better.

so if injuries do happen, they're a little bit more covered. So from that standpoint, I like what they've done with the secondary this offseason. But draft class C plus for me. All right, the Bucks. Let's go Tampa Bay. They only really had three meaningful picks because of lack of draft capital. They went Colisey Cancy at pick 19. How did you feel about that pick?

I like the pick. They just need big hits. And I like taking the swing at a superout. athletic defensive tackle. You know, maybe he's the next Aaron Donald. Maybe he's, you know, not much of anything. But they just need a new identity. They need star players at basically any position that they can find him.

So yeah, go take a swing at a super athletic guy that, you know, had a good college career and see where he can take it. Yeah, I agree. I like Colisea. I love what he brings at the table next to Vita Vaya. Yeah, it's super unique pairing. Yeah, like just a monster space eater, pocket pusher, and then a guy who's just going to create a ton of, you know, pressure and penetration.

And it's, it is a really unique pairing. And I think it could work. I think if, you know, you basically want to ensure that a guy with, with Kansi's quickness, gets one-on-one looks. So Vaya is going to take on a double team on pretty much every snap. I mean, that's a good way to do that. So I definitely like that pick. The Cody mock pick, you know, our model didn't love this pick, basically because of where he was on my big board.

But in a vacuum, I like the idea of getting a versatile offensive lineman who can play left guard or left tackle for you. They just needed an upgrade there. You know, the thing you worry about with him, and the reason he was a little lower on my board than maybe consensus board was the developmental curve needed for him. He's a little unpolished. He needs a little, add a little more size to his frame. He's coming from the FCS. And we've seen that those guys can work out in the NFL, but it takes a year or two. The Bucks have done it before, though.

They drafted Ali Marpet, obviously, and turned him into an all-pro caliber player. So Cody Mock coming in, you know, does he play right away? That's the frustrating part. It's like they seemed like they needed a left tackle right now. I think he's going to play right away. I mean, a question is where, like, he could probably play guard for them right away. Their guard starters are nothing special. They've got Matt Filer, John Moulk Chin, Nick Leverett.

None of those guys are, you know, what the offensive lines they've had in the past. And probably in the perfect world, Cody Mock eventually plays left tackle and they kick Tristan Worf's to right tackle or something like that. You see they, so it looks like, according to our lads, it looks like Tristan Wirfs is going to play left tackle. And Luke Godkeem moved out to right tackle. I don't know if they've confirmed. frame that with the team. That would be interesting. Not the way I saw them doing that, but if that is true, then yeah, Cody Mock slides probably right guard in that scenario.

Playing next to Jensen and Godki there. So overall, though, I like the idea of probably, I like the idea of getting Cody Mock more than the model likes the idea of getting Cody Mock. And then they rounded out that last meaningful pick with Yaya Diabi, Edge Offender from LSU. You know, I like, they like powerful. athletic guys and he brings at the table. It's just, it seemed like a reach, similar to the Zach Harrison discussions. Like they missed the wave on edge. So they kind of just took next best guy. So we probably should talk. So they passed on Levis at 18.

They, you know, they never tried to take hooker or anything. Clearly a team that seems comfortable going into the air with Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask being their QB. Are they just out on this year and playing for the QBs next year? I don't think so. I mean, you look at their offseason moves. They've made moves to suggest they're trying to win right now. They aren't in bad division.

They brought back Levanti David. They brought back Jamel Dean. They still have, like, their secondary is still very good. The only guy they lost on defense was the slot corner. Sean Murphy Bunting, yeah. Everyone else came back. They, I mean, you don't bring those, especially like a Levanti David. Why are you bringing him back if you're not trying to win?

They signed Greg Gaines. from L.A. That's a low-key underrated pick. So now they're running a trio of Vita Vaya, Greg Gaines, and Collijah Cancy there. I mean... And the entire offense is intact, minus the QB from last year.

Yeah, exactly. And arguably potentially upgraded with... Donovan Smith was just an average to below average player, and you're potentially upgrading it with Cody Mock here. So I don't know. I think they're trying to win, man. I think they're trying to win. And they do play in a rough division.

So I gave this draft class of B. I didn't think it was bad, but I definitely didn't think it was great either. Yeah, we could be here. Saints next. This is what I had trouble with because they kind of fumbled in a couple spots. The Isaiah Foskey pick really sticks out to me as a bad one. That was a 54th percentile grade. He was, we had him lower on my board than even Dio.

B, and Zach Harrison, two other guys we talked about. Common trend here in all four teams in this division is they all took unnecessary risk at edge. All four of them did, which is funny. Foskey, though, just I don't see it with him. There's a reason he, you know, consensus board was pretty low, I think. And most guys I know don't really like him unless they were Notre Dame homers. And then Kendry Miller in the third, I like Kendra a lot. Not for this team, not for the team, though.

It just seemed unnecessary, right? Yeah, you take, you still, I know Camara might miss in games this year with suspension, but you still have him. You bring in Jamal Williams. You've, you know, they've gotten running back production out of a number of guys over the years. Yeah, I'm actually kind of leaning towards Camer is probably done. Really? In New Orleans anyways.

Yeah, you don't do this unless there's something going on there. I mean. Well, then that makes it more acceptable of a pick? It does. It does. We've got to kind of wait and see. on that but Nick

Seldevere was another pick you guy he's from a small school I watched limited tape on him you know this is a this is a quintessential New Orleans pick interior offensive lineman they didn't pick up the fifth year option on

yeah they don't have deep car yeah they're right guy interior line they need a depth potentially he slides in it as a starter in 24 then two picks I did like though were Jake Hainer. I think that was a phenomenal pick. Probably a little early by your standards for backup quarterback, right? Oh yeah. There's never going to be anything.

It is funny that all the Jake Hainer comps were Drew Brees light. Yeah, that's definitely the closest probably, you know, the highest ceiling comparison anyway. Yeah, and then they took A.T. Perry in the sixth round or fifth? Yes, six round. Yeah, and I'm a huge A.T. guy. Now, obviously, he lasted forever. for some reason. I want to know what teams saw or what they,

maybe they know something I don't. It's just a deep wide receiver room. It's going to be just tough for him to really. They've got... He has a different skill set, though. They don't have his skill set. They've got 12 receivers on the roster right now. Yeah.

They like their receivers for sure. Yeah, he's definitely different. He's just going to have a tough time getting on the field. Yeah. All in all, I went D plus with this class. There's just, not really an impact guy. Yeah, I'd go.

Brisei is their best pick and he was their first round pick. Yeah, I'd give C minus. I think C minus. Pending the Camara, what happens with Camara, like you said. Like, the Kendri pick becomes a lot better because Camer is not on the team anymore. Yeah, and that is about the range. You want to take a running back that you think can start is about the third round. All right, Panthers.

obviously they traded up to number one overall and grabbed up Bryce Young the pick love the pick I don't know that I love the trade up for an outlier in Bryce I probably want Richardson here to be honest so I'll ding him a little bit for that and then you kind of have to factor the capital they gave up to move to that spot so not great but you know at least it was for your franchise quarterback yeah it's better than uh lowell Anderson or like you know what the Texans did but yeah not not great to trade up everything they did for what's going to have to be an outlier at the most important position but at least it is for a qb but it doesn't it's not great for sure yeah and then they went john mingo in the second round um percentile was this was only an 80th

percentile pick but i i like it i like i love immediately coming back a receiver to quarterback like those guys are going to grow together one thing i wrote up on mingo in my profile was out of all of these weirdly casted receivers in this class of the small slot variety like Mingo has like legit chance to be a wide receiver one for a team with a little bit of development

and when you look at the other collection of parts the Panthers have they don't have another guy like that on the roster like Thelan's over the hill Charks coming off two brutal injuries Terrace Marshall I don't I think we would have seen it by now I'm not saying he's a bad player, but I don't think he's going to be more than a two or a three. So Mingo gives them that.

I don't think they were getting another receiver with that kind of upside at that pick, I guess is what I'm saying. Like everyone else higher than Mingo on my board. You're looking at Tyler Scott. Well, like, yeah, he's probably a better player than Mingo, but he's not a wide receiver one. He's a deep threat guy. He's like a Jalen Hyatt light.

I know Hyatt went after Mingo as well. Same thing, though. Who? I'm blanking. Blanking on who. Rishie Rice. Yeah, pretty much everybody but the big four went out, right?

Mingo was the fifth. Yeah, Mingo was five. So there were some guys that were higher on my board than Mingo, but I think for what the Panthers were trying to accomplish with that pick, it made sense, getting a guy who can develop into that wide receiver one, and he's going to grow with Bryce. After that, the pick was DJ Johnson,

and that's a terrible pick. I hated it. His film was just okay. I know they're betting on the traits with him, like freak athlete. I know they had some success with undersized guys like him and Brian Burns and then even Hassan Reddick before Reddick went to Philly. I just don't, I don't love it.

Now, they know how to use those guys, so maybe they get the most out of him converting him from a full off-the-ball role to an edge defender role, but I don't know. They've got a solid defense as it is too. They probably could have invested it. Like a tight end would have been awesome. I know they kind of like Tommy Trembl and Ian Thomas for some reason. Hayden Hurst.

Yeah, he just got there But who knows what they really think of him Like just keep giving Bryce Young ways to succeed Yeah, for sure They made up for the DJ Johnson pick though With the Chandler Savala pick Yeah Big time Savala guy

He was what 89 in my board they get him at 114 So About 30 picks after where I thought he should go And he's You know he's got starter potential in year one for them. So again, you're just supporting your rookie quarterback, and I like that.

Jamie Robinson, I don't see a score in here for Robinson. Is there a reason for that? It's just a fifth round pick. Oh, good. Yeah, we can't stop scoring after the fifth to kind of alleviate the need to call player steals. Yeah. So everybody that goes later that the tire on breadth board is going to give a good score,

but really just team fit and whatnot. Yeah. So, but Jamie Robinson's a good, he's a good safety. And, you know, the Panthers do a really good job with these defensive backs and making them work. I think he's a good compliment to, um. So they've got Von Bell and Xavier Woods, right? Jeremy Chin doesn't really play safety.

I was talking about. He's a good compliment to Chin, but. Yeah. They like to move those safeties around. So overall, I gave this a B plus. Yeah, I go, I go B. just trading for what they gave up for the outlier

QB is a little questionable but it's the right mindset anyway yeah all right let's move over to the AFC South start with the Jags the Jags

what? Not great not great not great one of my least favorite drafts of the draft I really felt like they reached pretty much at every single spot

It's kind of crazy. When you look at a draft class and you identify a running back as a team's best pick, you know, that was not a good draft. Yeah. And that's, I think, true for the Jaguars. And what's frustrating about that is they drafted a running back in the first round two years ago. So ideally that that wouldn't be their best pick. But they started with Anton Harrison, tackle out of Oklahoma.

Now, typically, we like tackles. We like the investment there. but it just felt reachy you know i'm not a big it clearly was we don't have a tackle now because of cam robinson suspension we have to you know do something yeah i think i said on the live stream that that pick felt forced to me you know yeah it is crazy though you we did see um who what was it the bills more room was considering harrison at 25 i don't fully remember but one of those teams was but he was definitely a lock to go in the first round. It felt like by the time we got to draft night.

Yeah, I would just hate to come away with the draft. Like, hey, we got the seventh best offensive tackle in the draft class in the first round. Yeah. Chances are you didn't make your team that much better. And Harrison was just not a guy that I loved. So that pick bad. Tyreek Stevenson. They actually, that, he was not drafted by the Jags.

He was at the Bears. I'm not sure how he. got into the Jags in our system. Oh, really? Who was their second round pick? Brent and Strange. Oh, God. This draft has even worse than I thought then. Yeah, exactly. I thought something, I was like, I don't remember the Jaggs having two picks, and then

I checked real quick. I was like, that's right. Oh, my God. So Brenton's strange, this was a, this was an awful pick. I mean, do you, do you agree? Yeah, I mean, what tight ends were off the board at this point? I'm looking right now. So there was a Porta Mayor Musgrave go

And then Kincaid I think he might have been next He definitely went before Darnel Washington He went before Tucker Kraft Schoonmaker was before Brent and Strange Yep

Scumaker was before Brent and Strange Which I like that pick Way more than freaking Brent and Strange Yeah But yeah they passed on Darnel Washington And then they passed on

Tucker Kraft That's the one that really makes no sense Why pass on Tucker Kraft here? Because you're clearly going for that move tight end That run after catch threat So a little bit of age back to him Yeah Tucker does the same thing Just at a way higher level than Brenton Strange

You know who he is for the he is I can't remember the guy's name now The tight end that was on the Eagle Super Bowl roster For Doug Peterson That threw the Philly special pass Oh my gosh, I can't believe Oh, played in Chicago for a few years after? I think the Colts.

But yeah, I think also Chicago. Trey Burton. Trey Burton. That's what it is. Yeah, that's what this guy is to Doug Peterson. Oh, God, that's gross. Well, they already have that guy in Evan Ingram. Ingram's basically a wide receiver, but I get what you're saying.

So was Trey Burton. The guy was like 230 pounds. Yeah, but like Ingram, they can't line up in the back. field and stuff really effectively anyway. Anyway, this is an egregious it's not a good pick either way. Tank Bigsby

um and you know what actually real quick they needed a legit tight end too they don't have real tight ends on the roster which makes it even like Luke Farrell and Garrett Prince are the other two on the roster right now

oh my gosh so I thought Darnell Washington would have been a slam dunk for them I even had a mock where I put him on the Jags because he's a perfect compliment implement to Ingram. And if you're worried about that foot, what's the best way to mitigate that is not like not put him in a situation where he's got to be a full-time player, right? Yeah. Put him on the field of Ingram. You run a lot of 12 personnel, but even in your, on your run downs,

you have Washington in the game. Like I just, I don't understand why you go with a Brent and Strange here. It just made no sense. No. Yeah. So then they take tank big to be in the third, which is like you said, probably the best pick they made. And it's still not that awesome because you made high investment into ETN. They brought in Deerness Johnson, who's had some success with the Browns.

Just feels like a force, again, like, why? Yeah. I really don't know. I mean, Bigsby gives them three down potential. I think, oh, you know, one thing to consider, too, is this regime isn't the regime

that brought in Etienne? Yep. So, it's definitely a thing. It's like maybe they, don't love what he's bringing to the table. I do think he might be a little overrated as a pass catcher having watched him the last couple years.

Oh, they know that too. They hate throwing him the ball. They just don't do it. Right, and Bigsby might offer that skill set a little bit more. So, and then Ventral Miller, linebacker from Florida they picked. I just really did not like this pick either.

So, I mean, they had a draft similar to the lines and that they attacked a lot of positions that aren't super valuable. Tight end. Well, backup tight end for them, which is even worse. Running back and linebacker, but they just did it with just manned players. Yeah. They also took Edge, Tyler Lacey from Oklahoma State in the fourth round.

I'm good. Yeah. And then tons of late round picks, but nothing really of note that is like, I can't believe they got them where they did. Yeah. So I went D minus on this class. Yeah. I'd go D.

Yeah. Yeah. Here's where it gets better, though. Indianapolis Colts. One of my favorite graphs. Yeah, we talked about them the other day, a decent amount. But yeah, just grab value everywhere, I felt like. Yeah, and they attacked premium positions and premium athletes.

You know, they got great athletes at every spot. Started with Anthony Richardson. This was my quarterback one in the class. I get them at four. This automatically makes me love to pick. I love Richardson. I love pairing him with Shane Steichen. I think that is a slam dunk.

Probably the best pick in the whole draft, if I'm being honest. Just because Stuyken's success with Hertz, it's like you needed Richardson to land in an environment like that with a guy who's done it. Yeah. And it sounds like he'll play almost right away. Stuyken's made comments about guys don't learn watching. They learn by playing.

He's not wrong, especially when you have less than 500 career dropbacks. Yeah. Or 600, whatever it is. Yeah, so they're going to roll him out probably sooner rather than later. Yeah, then they went Julius Brent's with their second round pick. Now, this was, was this after a tradeback, Chris? It was.

Yeah. Atlanta and Indy, right? Yeah, they traded back a few times. So, I know we had corners higher than Brent's on the board at this spot, but like I've said before, my big board is a generic big board. It's trying to accommodate how I feel in a vacuum of each player. If we were to individually stack the board for every team, certain players would fall off, certain players would get moved up,

certain players would move down. Brent's in the Colts scheme is a slam dunk. If I were to reshuffle my board just for the Colts, I think Brent would be a top five corner for me for them because the way they play zone, the way they like length at corner, the way they play off the ball and like instincts

and length and ball skills. Brent brings all that to the table. They're not going to play a ton of man where they're asking guys to flip their hips. That was true before this regime came in. And now Stuyken came in and is probably bringing the Philly defense with him, I presume, which is even more zone heavy.

So it's like Brent's is such a matchmate in heaven there. They're going to play a lot of cover three. And Brent's is, he should eat and cover three with you know very similar to like a tyreek woolen skill set from a year ago except he's he's a little bit more polished right now than woolen was um in college coming from a power five school obviously really helps so um i i love brentz for them then they went josh downs receiver you know how i feel about receivers and quarterbacks pairing those guys up so yeah don't love joss down never liked josh downs as a second round receiver love him a lot as a third round receiver

in this offense with Alec Pierce and Michael Pittman already on the roster. It just fits so perfectly. Yeah, and you know, if you look at the receivers that came off the board between, let's see, we had what Mingo. I'm going to quickly go through. Mingo. Rashi Rice. Rish. Jaden Reed.

Marvin Mims. And then, is there anyone else between Mims and him? Let's see. I know. Yeah, Tink Dell. Yeah, Teng. Jalen Hyatt. Cedric Tillman.

So there you go. Like all those guys I just named minus Tankdell I had ahead of Downs on my board. So it's not like they went crazy and reached for him, you know, at wide receiver. They actually kind of took him where he should go in that order. So no issues with it. I mentioned it. I think on the Monday pod, Downs especially works for them because they needed that dedicated slot guy.

Tank Dell would have been the other guy that really would have worked here. But he obviously went earlier than Downs. But they have Pierce. and Michael Pittman, who are both just towers and need to play on the boundaries. Those guys just don't do well in the middle. I know they tried it with Pittman a little bit playing that big slot. Just yikes. Big yikes.

They need to get his ADOT stretched out a little bit because he's not a yards after catch guy. And I think Downs will help with that underneath. He'll also give Richardson a lot of easy throws underneath. Yep. One constant theme, too, Chris, through this draft, I noticed. my player comps were so spot on this year. You know who my player comp was for Josh Downs? No.

Ty Hilton. T.I. Hilt. Yeah. And this happened so many times. My comp for a player, the guy, the team that drafted him ended up just being the team that the previous player had played for. So weird. Yeah, Chris Ballard probably saw the same thing. He's watching.

I know I've seen this guy before. And Downs even has a little bit more underneath run-after catchability than T.Y did. T.Y. brought the vertical element. to the slot. I think Downs will bring that but it'll also be more of that security blanket for Richardson. So then they finished out their impact picks with Blake Freeland, offensive tackle

BYU, and Atta Tamawa, Atabare, the edge slash detackle from Northwestern. I really like both these picks. One, they're both freak athletes. So if you're taking darts on guys in the late third and fourth rounds,

yes, bet on traits, bet on physical trade, things you can't teach. those guys, you know, have a shot to develop. Freeland needs to add bulk and mass to his frame and get a little bit stronger with an ability to drop anchor. But he's got all of the past protection chops. They need to do invest in that offensive line because it's kind of depreciated the last couple years.

And then at Aborei, I don't understand why he lasted as long as he did, Chris. There has to be medicals there, right? You would think. I heard some people that didn't love his tape as well. So maybe teams didn't know if he could transition. to the NFL and whatnot, but like you said, athletic freak though. So if you can mold him and get his technique to where you like it, you can definitely be a good player. The thing with his tape, I agree, there's elements to his tape you do not like, but Northwestern did him no favors.

He played in a really wonky defensive line setup. They had a lot of three-man rush type stuff where he's lined up head over a tackle, basically two-gapping in the run game. And then, so basically he's tackle reading as a pass rusher. So he's going to be slow out of his stance. He's reading what the tackles do. Then after he diagnoses pass, he's allowed to pass rush. So a lot of his reps are that. He has a lot of reps at three technique inside at 280 pounds.

A lot of reps at one technique, nose tackle at 280 pounds. And then he's got a lot of reps at wide nine from a two-point stance. Like they used this guy everywhere. He didn't really have a position. He just played a ton of snaps. And, you know, I think that slowed down some of the development. But also, like, yeah, he's getting washed down. out in the run game when he's playing one technique. He's

280 pounds. The tape's going to look bad, but you have to contextualize it, right? Same conversation with Tyree Wilson and Texas Tech. There's a lot of bad reps on tape because they were playing him out of position. You have to figure out what traits are translatable. I thought Edibwari had a lot of

translatable traits to the NFL that will make him a really good edge setter. I don't see him as a detackle. I see him as a guy who's going to be your close-side edge and then maybe kick inside on pass-downs. And they don't have to force him anywhere. They've got solid starters on the D-line as it is and can figure out where he plays best.

They don't have to force him to play anything. Yeah. And GMs always have their types, by the way. I don't think a GM drafted based on type more than Ballard did this year. Like if you look at the guys they've drafted on the edge lately, it's been Deo, I don't even know how to say his name from Vanderbilt a couple years ago. who's the other guy they just drafted recently for you pay tyquin lewis like we're talking long athletic edge defenders edibari kind of just fits right in with those guys so yeah and then they nailed the the back half of the draft like they take their non-premian positions tight end will

mary running back evan hall uh safety daniel scott that's how you that's when you want to take these late round guys especially when you have guys there that also can play and you don't need them like this compared to the Jacksonville team or draft is just so opposite and you can just see how much better it works this way. It really is and that's bulky versus Ballard for you. I mean, the Will Mallory pick is super sneaky.

You don't want to give a team a ton of praise for a fifth round pick, but I do think time will bear out that that was a great pick. Mallory is an elite pass catching option as a tight end as far as a prospect goes. And he just his skill set pairs really well with a Jalani Woods or a Moe Allie Cox who are big in-line-type tight ends.

They do have a little vertical juice because they're athletic guys, but they're not going to be out there running crisp routes and being a mismatch weapon for you where Will Mallory is. So I love the compliment in the contrast Will Mallory brings. And again, we're talking about giving Anthony Richardson easy throws, right? Because we want to get that accuracy on track. Will Mallory is going to do that. Put them in the slot, give them a mismatch, let them win.

Yep, I think it's an A-plus draft. Yeah, I won't A-plus. Houston. People are going to be mad at my grade for Houston because they're going to say, well, they came out of the draft with C.J. Stroud, Will Anderson and Nathan Dell. You think that's a great draft, right? On paper, sure. But when you, you know, factor in.

What it took to do. Yeah, what it took to get back to three to take Will Anderson, Jr. That you should, I'm sorry, there's no rookie prospect that's not a quarterback that is worth that. Yeah. What would Will Anderson have to be to be worth that? He'd have to be what, like, ranging white.

Yeah, well, Joey Bosa, I would say, like a healthy Joey Bosa. I think he's got to be better than Joey Bosa. He's got to be... T.J. Watt. More like his brother. Nick, I mean, Nick said a lot more... Nick has a lot better teammates to play next to it as well, though. Yeah, I think Joey, like, 2018,

when he was peaking and not hurt. Yeah. I think he was better than Nick. but to your point, Nick's been more consistent the last few years. Yeah, so like what TJ is. Yeah, he's got to be a game record. Like,

a defensive player of the year candidate year over year. Yeah. Like, he's got to be that kind of player. And the consensus on Anderson was that he, well,

he is an awesome talent, good player. Nobody really ever said, you know, this is Miles Garrett. Like, you take him first overall every time. Exactly.

Exactly. And then, so after they did that whole debacle, they took juice scrugs. That was the worst pick in the draft at the time, and I think probably still is according to our model. I mean, our social media team at Fantasy Points

was meming this pick because it was so embarrassing. Yeah, it was a 37th percentile pick. He was 164 on my board. They took him 102 picks before that. What are we doing? Wait, didn't they also trade up? to get him to. They didn't naturally have pick 62, did they?

I don't think they did. I don't think they did. No, they traded with the Eagles. Yeah, they traded like three spots. So they trade, yeah, but still, you traded up to reach on a guy like Juice Scruggs. I don't know. Maybe I'm going to have to go back and rewatch the tape on him.

I did not see a second round talent there at all. And they left. You talk for a second so I can look up who they left on the board. Yeah, and he, I mean, he might be. He's pencil. On ESPN, he's currently penciled in as their starting center, which is, you know, they didn't have an awesome center, but not great for your rookie QB to be playing with a potentially very below average center in his first year. It does have awesome talents surrounding him. I mean, Kenyon Green, Laramie Tunsell, Shaq Mason, Titus Howard, he might be the only, like, not great player on the offensive line.

Did you see who else they left? Yeah. Am I? Savala. Yeah. Of Cyrus Torrance was there? Am I seeing that right? Torrance went to Buffalo.

Yeah. You were better. Savala, Anthony Bradford, even Ricky Stromberg. No, Torrance went 59. So three picks before. Right on. Yeah. And that was just, those are just interior offensive linemen.

better interior off and the line on the board by a lot than juice scrugs. Luke Weipler. I don't know why he lasted so long. So maybe we should have mypler, but, um, and then just the next few picks after that were all good picks. Zach Pickens, Tyler Steen,

Sidney Brown, Drew Sanders, Henan Hooker, Tank Dell, Byron Young, Alabama, Byron Young, Henry Miller, Garrett Williams, Jalen Hyatt, Cedrick Tillman, Zach Harrison. So like, you just left a ton of value on the board by reaching for a guy that he just really didn't need to reach for, I felt like. Yeah.

And then Tink L in the third. I don't, I know this isn't a terrible pick, but I don't love the pick. You just, they have no clear wide receiver one on that team right now. I don't, who knows what Metschie or Nico Collins is. But, and so theoretically maybe Tent, which although, did you see their, Metschie's going to play the slot. And they said Tengt L is playing on the outside. Well, I mean, Stroud's used to playing with diminutive receivers out there.

Like Garrett Wilson's tiny. that doesn't mean that doesn't mean tank dial's going to get open yeah they're the drafted Xavier Hutchinson too right yeah when you when you when you're a wide receiver room is what the Texas is drafting a 22 year old right or is even older than that he's he's he's old he's like 23 or 24 I think a wide receiver with only one amazing breakout season for Utah not even a Power 5 team just not doesn't seem like the best landing spot. Yeah, he's he's 24 years old. Yeah, that receiver room is got an interesting.

It's like a it's like going through the grocery store and you're just grabbing everything that looks nice off the shelf. Then you get home and you realize, well, what? I can't make anything with this. Yeah, this doesn't, I can't make a meal out of this. This is what is this? I feel like that's what they did at ride receiver this offseason. Yeah. Now, they definitely upgraded the talent there.

Like, if Woods still has a pulse, you know, adding Hutchinson and Dell, Noah Brown, like, they definitely added some talent. Dalton Schultz, you know, pass catcher. I just don't know. I just don't know what they're going to do with all these guys. No. So, very, very interesting. Ultimately, I scored this draft as a C-plus. Yeah, that sounds fair.

I mean, taking the KBIA 2 was the smart decision, whether you believe in Stroud or not. They don't have one. Take your shot and try to, you know, build something. Yes. All right, we'll close it out with the Tennessee Titans. I actually liked their draft quite a bit, Chris, even though I don't like one of the players they drafted very highly. But I felt like they got really good value on said player, so I liked it. and they started with Peter Skoranski at 11.

This was almost predictable. There were a lot of mocks coming out where, shoot, I had this team player match. I had Scaronski going 11 of the Titans, and my mock draft was terrible. So tells you all you need to know. But just sitting pad at 11, watching the chaos unfold in front of you,

and then getting a player like Skironski, you know, Day 1 started for them. Yeah, Day 1 started the best offensive lineman in the draft. Maybe not the best offensive tackle, but the best offensive lineman for sure. He's going to start somewhere on that offensive line. And he's going to be really good from day one.

I'm pretty confident in that. So I did like that. They desperately needed an injection of talent into their O line. And then they make the move in the second round to come up for Will Levis. I thought that was, I think I've stated the breaking point for me on Levis was like pick 15 in the first round. Anytime after that, I think it's a good value. And they got him, what, pick 33, 34? Yeah, 33.

Yeah, so good pick. Yeah, potentially hit your QB of the future in the second round. I mean, that's a win to me. Yeah, they do need to decide what they want to do with Tannhill. Like, are they going to try to win that? They just have so many holes across there, particularly the offense. I mean, other than Skoransky, like the offensive line is in shambles. They have very little to know wide receiver talent.

Derek Henry is an older. They take Taiji Spears in the third, who's a player we both like, but how does he really fit with Henry on the team? The, yeah, and the more we find out about Spears as a medical situation, that makes that pick even more strange. Yeah, it sounds like he has a short career ahead of him, potentially. Yeah, basically it came out that he's missing an ACL in his left knee. I mean, even our own doctor, Edwin Pryas, said that that's,

Based on what he's seen, this is, this is a guy who's like two, two to three years, max. Now you wonder if they acknowledge that and they're like, well, that's cool. We'll just use him and Henry together and they'll both together. They'll elongate each other's career. You know, Spears will take a little pressure off Henry, but he'll never get a full workload, so he'll last a few years longer. I still don't know why you'd take that guy in the third round.

Yeah. He's definitely a third round talent. Like, no question about that. It's just. If this team, if they trade Tanahill, is this team finishing in last or is the Texans finishing in last in this division? So I think Tanahill can get them with some wins if he's the starter for the whole year. One thing working in the Texans favor is they presumably have a very good offensive line.

Yes, they definitely do. That's why I'm saying. I think this might be a worst team. But although Vrabel does some, you know, beats the chiefs randomly. He's a wizard coach. Yeah, that's tough. They definitely be in a battle for it, though. I almost want them to do it.

Just tank, get a high pick, play Levis this year, trade Tana Hill to the Falcons. So we can get some more capital. Yeah. Yeah, get a little more capital and then just play for the draft next year and then kind of retool, reboot. I mean, their offseason decisions kind of implicate that that's what they're doing to an extent, right? Yeah. I mean, they move on from Robert Woods. They don't really bring in any.

They brought in Andre Diller from the Eagles to play left tackle. Not great. Well, it's never too late to invest in the offensive line, though, or too early, I should say. Right. Yeah. Other than that, though, they had no big moves. Yeah, and they let Bud Dupree walk.

They did resign Jeffrey Simmons to a big deal. But he's kind of a cornerstone player for them, so that's okay. absolutely he is they just need players at a lot of spots if some of these corners they've drawn oh Sean Murphy and bunting

they brought in like if Christian Fulton could take a step forward that would be awesome for them yeah they've got to be frustrated with their secondary they've invested so a lot of picks yeah

I mean just going through like Elijah Molden third round he's supposed to be their slot corner that was just two years ago and they had to bring in Sean Murphy Button to compete there for that starting job Roger McCreary, a second round pick last year.

Caleb Farley. Caleb Farley, a first round pick two years ago. Christian Fulton, a second round pick three years ago. Amani Hooker, a fourth round pick. They paid Kevin B.R. A truckload of money. On paper, this secondary should be way better than it is. For what they've invested in.

Absolutely. Yeah. So you've got to wonder what's going on there. But, huh. Anyways, I scored this draft class as a B-plus, even though they limited capital and they wait. to pick on spears. I just felt like the value on Skorontzian-Levis really carried this draft class. And, you know, even if those are the only two guys that hit, like, they should, they should be all right.

Yeah, I think B-B-plus is good. Yeah. All right. Sweet. Let's go do it. A little faster than yesterday. We got through two whole divisions. We'll do two more tomorrow. You want to pick them now, Chris, so the people can get excited. Let's do... the NFC AFC North. NFC

North. Okay. NFC AFC North coming at you tomorrow. We will be back. Thanks for listening.

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