Fantasy Football Daily - The 2024 NFL Draft WR Class with Fran Duffy | On the Clock! NFL Draft Podcast

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) brings in the fantastic Fran Duffy (@EaglesXOs) of the Eagle Eye in the Sky Podcast to thorougly break down one of the best groups of players in the 2024 NFL Draft, the incoming wide receiver class. SIGN UP FOR FANTASY POINTS IN 2024 AT OUR EARLY-BIRD RATE, INCLUDING OUR NEW ALL-IN PACKAGE. ALL NFL SUBSCRIBERS WILL GET BRETT'S NFL DRAFT PROSPECT GUIDE: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the clock with fantasy points. I'm your host, Brett Whitefield. We got Fran Duffy. The premium guests continue to just stroll in on this podcast. It's a great thing we're providing for you guys. Thank you, Fran, for joining the show. You are, the fans can find you on Eagles XOs at EaglesXOs. You work for Philadelphia Eagles.com.

You have a podcast called host of the eagle eye, eagle eye in the sky. I hosted, you host, sorry. I host the eagle eye in the sky podcast. Yes, there we go. I'm rumbling over my words. Host of the eagle eye in the sky podcast. So, Fran, you are, we're kind of like a developing relationship here. You were on the podcast last year.

We've kind of, you know, stayed in touch through the year. And I got to meet you down in Mobile for the senior bowl. Now, that's been pretty fun. So thank you again for joining the show. Yeah, absolutely, man. No, it's, I loved our conversation last year at this time. And we got to take in practice. have a dinner together down in Mobile. So excited to talk shop with you today.

Heck yeah, man. So this, you know, it's no surprise or no secret at this point. This receiver class is absolutely stacked. It was stacked last year. It's been stacked most years lately. Let's talk a little bit about just an overview of the receiver class and why do you think every year now we're just getting just loaded receiver group after load receiver group. Yeah, I don't think it's going to be a riveting contribution to the analysis on my end for this one. I just think that, you know, as it's been talked about with the proliferation of seven-on-seven and it being the passing game, the space game that it is, not just in college, but, you know, in high school and middle school for all these guys.

These guys are running thousands of routes on a consistent basis year after year after year. These guys come in and they are ready to roll. So, you know, I don't think that, look, there are going to be some years that are stronger than others. Not every single year are we going to see, you know, four receivers potentially being talked about as top 10 picks. We didn't have that a year ago. Probably won't have that next year.

But I think when you look at the overall scope of the NFL draft, I would imagine that every single year, we're going to be looking at like, yeah, like if you need a receiver, like you're going to find some. Yeah. So kind of, I know we talked about it a little bit last year, but kind of walk me through again, just for the people listening.

What is your process like when you're scouting receivers? I know you have a lot of all 22 access, but what is ultimately your process? Yeah. So typically what I do, I guess we'll start in the summer. In the summer, you know, going into the college football season, I'll try and watch like a four game sample of a player. Sometimes, depending on the player in the system, I might just watch all of his targets

along with like a game or two just to get a sense of like overall route running and blocking and things like that. But I would say for most players, I'm trying to watch like a three or four game sample going into the season. And then as the season goes on, I might get to the point where I get to like, you know, late September, October, November. and now I'm getting ready for Senior Bowl, Shrine Bowl, and I'm going to watch guys in two game chunks.

So, you know, if it's Marvin Harrison Jr., all right, I've got a game from September and a game from October. Let's watch those two games. And I'll watch a few receivers that day back to back to back or that week back to back to back. I do try and watch guys in position group chunks just to, you know, if I kind of like have apples to apples comparisons. And I typically try and do it by like archetypes. So, you know, a short, shifty slot receiver.

I'm not going to watch him back to back with. the six foot four perimeter guy, right? I want to try and watch guys similarly back to back. And then after we get through Combine and around there, so really around this time, I'll go back through and just make one final pass through on players. You know, that might be a thing where, hey, you know, I've watched three or four Marvin Harrison game,

Marvin Harrison Jr. games from this year. Let me just watch all of his targets from the other games that I didn't watch yet, right? And so I'll just make like one final pass through from each position. And that, because again, you know this, right? like we're only one person. And so people, I think on the outside, a lot of fans will say like, oh, like, you know, this guy rose up your board or this guy did that. Well, yeah, like, you know, we haven't.

We have, we have, we're not like NFL scouts where we've made our final reports on guys in December. We haven't watched every single snap of every single player up until this point. And so, you know, as the work continues, like things are going to shift and change. But I try and watch guys in bunches and I try and watch them at different stages of process because I know you know this too, like for doing it as long as you have, that, you know, sometimes I. I watch a guy and it'll be like three or four months later.

I'm like, man, like I'm much higher on this guy than everybody else. Did I just have like a great cup of coffee that morning? Like did I not hit any traffic going into the office? Like, well, I was just a great mood. I'll go back and watch it. I'm like, oh, no, I still feel pretty good about it. Or no, I don't know what I was thinking that day. You know, so it's good to kind of space out the evaluation sometimes as well.

Yeah, for sure. And especially the process can feel so long. So like I use a numeric scoring system and I score guys, you know, I have certain buckets I'm scoring, certain traits I'm looking for. and every once in a while it's been three or four months since I've watched a guy and then I'll get a text from you know Scott Barrett like hey man I just noticed you have so-and-so number five in your receiver rankings I'm like oh I do I didn't even realize that and I go back like oh shoot well I guess I need a refresh on why I have him that eye I go look at

the notes look at the scores yeah that makes sense turn on some you know turn on some tape make sure I'm was seeing things correctly that day so oh yeah look it would be different if I had like you know If I had to put out a big board that people, you know, the public was looking at every single week, my process would probably be different, right? I would have to make sure that, you know, during the college football season, I was getting eyes on the top players that are going to be in that big board throughout the course of the year. So I could really, you know, honestly and truly give you like rising and falling. This is how I view them.

But, you know, if I go four months at a time, as you mentioned, without watching Keon Coleman, like if I only watched them in September, and then, you know, you might look at my ranking in December and say like, oh, man, you're way higher on him now than everybody else. Well, yeah, that's because my exposures were early in the year. So you're going to have those kind of discussions internally and all depends on what you're required to do. Yeah, for sure. How much do you weigh like new information too? Like the combine's a big one, right?

So like you'll have a lot of people claiming there's guys double counting traits. A guy runs fast, me expect him to run fast. All of a sudden, he's getting towed a lot higher. Like my system's pretty insulated for massive jumps. But if a guy checks maybe a couple boxes, I didn't think he was going to. the checks. Maybe he goes up a few spots. So how do you, how do you kind of weigh new information like that? I do a similar thing as you. And I think the, the big thing is just knowing, you know, don't count a guy, don't, don't give them, you know, don't double count a good or a bad thing,

you know, and that's why typically when I've done like Combine previews in the past or ProDay previews in the past, you do the guys, all right, this is who you expect to test well. And then who are like the, you know, the quote unquote, like trust the tape guys that, you know, it's like, I'm not expecting Leatu Latu to blow the doors off testing. Like I'm not expecting Jared Verst to blow the doors off. You know, I'm trying to think of who a receiver would be in this group. But, you know, like a guy where I'm like, okay, like I expect a solid performance. You know, maybe he runs four or seven, right?

It's like, okay. Like that's not going to, you know, win a ton of races. But, you know, I'm not, that's not going to kill me. It's a, I think a great example would be Amman Raus St. Brown, right? I love Amman Raus St. Brown coming out of USC. And I believe, I believe. I believe you and I talked about this last year. I think you said you did as well.

And, you know, when he went to the combine and didn't run well, I'm like, okay, like that, that's kind of what I saw on tape. I didn't see a guy that was going to run four or three. So I'm not going to count that against him because it's kind of, I already knew that was that was table stakes coming into the eval. So the big ones, and again, this is what everybody says, but there's a reason for it, are the guys that you expect to run fast or the guys that you expect to run slow, or the guys that you expect to run fast, then that causes you to kind of readdress and maybe

have to go back. And that's why I like to make that final pass through when I get into March and April. But those are the things that really kind of move the needle for me as the ones that kind of go against what the expectation is. Yeah. And last question, just right in line with what you said. Amuner, I was a great example. I had a top 40 grade on him that year, by the way. I didn't expect him to run fast. I was still disappointed. I think was he like a 4-6 guy at the combine. Sure. Yep. Then he goes to his pro day and then runs 451. Right. He's this very, very, significant discrepancy there. It's like, can we, do you, can you trust pro day times or is there some, some, you know,

dude propping going on there? Yeah, I mean, there's, there's, it depends on the on the pro day, right? But I think that, you know, and there certainly there can be some, some home cooking there. But I think at the end of the day, like, you have to go by what the times we have, right? And so, you know, I think that if, if pro day times are good enough for NFL teams, which they are, you know, and that's why, you know, there's all the talk about like, oh, like, why do NFL scouts, like still use hand times. It's like, well, because for pro days, like, that's what you have for the majority of pro days. Like, not every single school has the ability to do the electronic time 40.

So, you know, you're still going to rely on those hand times just so you have like apples to apples ish comparisons, not just for this class, but from five years ago, 10 years ago, 12 years ago, whatever sample size you want to be able to use. And so I do trust pro day times, you know, look, if they have a downhill track, you know, yeah, like that can be, that can be, fudged a little bit if they're running on if they're running on dirt or concrete as opposed to uh you know the the nicest turf imaginable uh that's going to impact things but you know things like jumps right like things like shuttles like there's only so much that can be fudge and at the end of the day like if we're talking like uh you know milliseconds of a difference uh at the you know it's not going to like

completely waver on me one way or the other yeah i remember jordan addison running his 40 in the rain last year and I'm like bro why why would you do that? It didn't really hurt him that much but it's just still like you're mean why are you doing that so all right with all that said let's jump into this receiver class if we have time maybe we'll touch the tight ends I don't know how that will work out yet let's see how this conversation goes but so pretty clear for everybody I think just about that does this for a living there's a there's a top three receivers in this this year's class you got Marvin harrison Jr. Some people say, obviously, he's in his own class. Some people are a little warmed up to neighbors.

I'm a Rome, a Dunezay guy, but kind of break down those top three guys for me. Tell me what you see, kind of how you're feeling about him. Yeah, I mean, Harrison's an easy eval. Just because you're talking about just checking all of the boxes, right? I mean, he's tall, he's long, he's a good athlete, he's a long strider. He can attack all three levels. He can beat press. He can create separation, outstanding route runner, but really excellent ball skills, ball tracking, finishing at the catch point. You know, there's just, there's not much you can say about his game or you say like, okay, like, this is going to be a negative. And that's the thing is I remember watching him for the first time, like doing my first deep dive back last May and watching him, I'm like, okay, like, not a superb athlete, but like he's a good athlete. He's a fine athlete.

And then the freaks list comes out and you see the numbers that Bruce Feldman put on him. And he's going to break 4-4-394 in the short shuttle is like a stupid, stupid, good time. that's like, I think like three receivers drafted the last 10 years, about a better time than that. 129 inches in the broad is a really good number too. So, you know, it's like, okay, like if he tests that way next week in Indianapolis, then, okay, like you're just, again, adding something else onto the resume where it's like, okay, this guy's got outstanding size, athleticism, and the tape is great.

There's not much else you can say and add to it. So I think Harrison, you know, putting him outside of number one is almost like, You're really going out of the limb with that one. Go ahead. Especially when you consider the bloodlines too. Yeah, exactly. He's been groomed to play football's entire life. You know, like this is who he is.

No question. You know, I think with neighbors in a dunzae, look, both guys are being put in that, like, you know, we've seen them both appear in top fives of mock drafts. And from not just like from, you know, Joe Smith down the street, but from like a well-accredited draft media. So I think that there's something to be said, like both guys have legitimate chances to go that high in this draft. I prefer neighbors to Adunze. I can see it going the other way. And to me, there are knocks on both guys that you can make.

And I think both, to me, the way I almost look at it with both players, because I would say I'd probably not as high on them as a duo as everybody else is. But I think they're both really good players and are going to be starting NFL receivers. I think with neighbors, the upside is a little bit higher than Adunzee. I think Adunze, the floor is a little bit higher. I think when you look at neighbors, I love the twitchiness. I love the closiveness. I love the yards after catchability. I love the ability to impact all three levels.

I think the way that he was used schematically in the structure of that offense and what he kind of faced defensively is a little bit troublesome. So many of his big plays came when he was lined up inside and he had free access up to the safety and just did work on those guys. And look, by the way, like that's okay. Like, you know, there are a lot of guys that have come out that, you know, I really liked that were used that same way in an offense and face that same, you know, low amount of friction from a defense. But I think when you look at neighbors, because that's the thing is that you can, and you know this from PFF, right, from your history there is that we can look at numbers and we can look at metrics and all that stuff. But at the end of the day, like, it comes down to what is what a guy can or can't do versus what he was asked to or asked not to do, right? And so with neighbors, like, I'm not going to kill him because so much. of his production came in that way. I could still look at the skill set and say like, man, look at this guy.

Look at this guy's Twitch. Look at how explosive he is in and out of breaks. Looking at with the ball in his hands. Like that is stuff that translates. And so, you know, I think that that kind of, you can kind of say like, all right, well, a lot of the production came against this. That's fine. But if he was going up against legitimate, like, slot corners,

I feel like he'd have that ability to separate. And so I'm a little bit not, I'm not as worried about projecting him as others would be with that scenario. Yeah, I had a Mike Renner on the podcast. What, Monday? And I asked him that very question about neighbors because, as you know, most college defenses deploy some type of quarters, too high looks. If they're playing single high, the slot corners normally 10 yards off the ball.

So the free access you mentioned is a thing. I think legitimately 90% of neighbors big plays came in those scenarios. Yeah, right. And you just don't have a ton of reps of him winning tight coverage where he doesn't get free access. Now, it doesn't mean he can't do it. Obviously, he has the physical traits to do it. I just for the people really propping him up because of that production profile, like I have paused because the production profile is a little bit fraudulent.

And I think that's where we get into those discussions, right? And I know some of the other guys we talk about, you will have similar types of debates about, right? Is that, you know, if you're getting into traits, all right, like neighbors has traits. If you want to talk about like profile and production, all right, well, this is why you saw the production be what it is. And, you know, I think, look, the, if you look at Ryan Grub and that offense at Washington, right, I love, I mean, I'm sure you studied them thoroughly. Like, that scheme is awesome. I'm really excited to see what he brings to the Seattle Seahawks and the, you know,

and that offense this year because they did so much with stacks and bunches and getting guys free. Now, Adunze didn't benefit as much from that because he was kind of like the, the ISO guy at times. And so he didn't benefit as much from that as some others in that offense. But I think when you look at Roma Dunzee, like, I don't think he's as like twitchy and sudden and explosive. As neighbors, obviously he comes with a bigger frame. I don't know that he's, because he was on the freaks list, too, and some of the numbers that Bruce Feldman had put out with the Dunezay,

I didn't quite see that on tape. So I'm excited to see what he tests like in Indianapolis at the Combine, because I didn't see like that top shelf athlete. If he goes out there and test that way at that size with the success that he had this year, I think that that's, you're talking about a lock for the top 10, top 12. Yeah, I know he was a high school track star. So I do, I see probably more explosiveness than you do with Rome, but I definitely don't think he's, you know, he's not the most athletic.

I think he's more explosive than Drake London when he was coming. I wanted to add that's, I was exactly going to ask you about London because London was, I mean, he went eighth overall. And I think it's comparable. To me, like, I think Adunzee like can do a little bit more than London, from a, from a, from a use of standpoint. And that's what I do like Adunzee like as a player. Like, I love him as a blocker.

He's a, he's a, I think he's a pretty good. route runner. He catches damn near everything. He was really good in contested situations this year, which is good. The last two years, he was actually really poor in contested situations. And that was one of my knocks on him when I did him in the summer was that he did not consistently play to that size. Now, that got corrected. I would think that history shows that contested situations are not sticky year to year and from college to the NFL. And so that can be a little bit worrisome. But I do think that his floor is really high. A lot of it's QB driven too, right? Like, if, what I look for in the contestant contested situations are when they're intentionally contested, how do you perform?

Right. Yeah. Versus like, you know, a throw like two yards behind you on a slant route and it ends up being contested. You know, that's a different type of play. So, yeah, let's move on to some of these other guys. Speaking of contested catches, Keon Coleman, I mean, this is a guy I know you're pretty high on compared to, I think, the rest. But yeah, talk to me about Keon. Yeah, I mean, legitimate NFL size, you know, listed 64, 215.

We'll see what that number is next week when we get the official measurements. But a lot of people are worried, like, what is he going to run? Dude, I don't know. Like when I watched him against LSU, like the opener this year, I see a guy at that size fly off the ball. You see like a suddenness that is not present with a lot of guys that size. And so to me, when you're looking at like height weight speed profiles, I think he's going to be one of the most intriguing guys from this class.

So I'm really excited about what that looks like next week in Indianapolis. The hand-eye coordination, like that basketball background really, really shows up. So many of the downfield targets, he just makes things look really easy. Now, the production just was not there on a consistent basis this year. And I think that that's, you know, that's going to be worse. And I think my guess is that a lot of like the profile work that has done on him from like an analytical standpoint is not going to be particularly positive because of that. But look, I mean, this is a guy that from a, again, like purely from traits, he's not a polished route running right now. But at that size,

guys that big don't typically move that way, and he's got outstanding ball skills. So if you're talking about, all right, as a wide receiver, like, you know, D.K. Metcalf, right? You know, coming out of, out of Ole Miss was not a polished rot runner at all. I think Coleman might even have a little bit more than Metcalf had coming out. You know, I could see a similar type of playing here for Kean Coleman to come in and have NFL success. And again, I think he's got a little bit more looseness in his lower half to be able to create that separation than I think DK had.

So I'm interested to see how he tests. If he goes and he like completely tanks the combine, then obviously that I think that's going to change the discussion a little bit. But if he goes and test the way that I expect, my guess is that we're going to get to come back around to him being talked about like top 20, top 25 as opposed to what I think he's now that a lot of people are kind of viewing him more as like round one, round two turn. I think we'll come back the other way here by this time in two weeks from now.

I completely agree with every word you just said. I think I think he's an absolute freak out. athlete, I'm surprised that people have questioned this. Like just, yeah, I don't get it, man. Yeah, I don't get it off. If you want to, if you want to like really check that box, go watch his punt return reps. Yeah. Like his suddenness and change a direction for a guy that size is weird. It's weird.

You know, he's a lot. I've seen people competent him to Quentin Johnson last year, totally different players. Keon Coleman plays every bit of his size where Quentin did not. Quentin also didn't have the best hands in the world. Keon's hands that look really, really nice to me. So, Dude, like, he, he wasn't just like, oh, yeah, like he was a bench warrant. Like, he played basketball at Michigan State. Right, right.

He played basketball at Michigan. This guy is a legitimate, like, all-around athlete. I'm very, very excited about Keon Coleman. Yep. Another guy that's kind of, I would say, firmly in that round one to turn right now is Brian Thomas Jr. from LSU. Another guy, like, I felt like he really benefited from skiing stuff at LSU. But, you know, big.

kind of lean but fast, explosive ball skills. Another one of these guys you can play on the perimeter. What do you think of Brian? Another guy who had offers to play D1 basketball coming out of high school. It shows. I think he's that kind of athlete, you know, 6-4-205. And honestly, it's a lot of the same stuff we just talk about with Coleman. And, you know, when I look at the wide receiver position, you know,

you can find guys that, you know, can play inside and can, you know, we'll talk about plenty of those guys. Like there are a role, there's all kinds of roles for receivers. It is really hard to find like that like alpha big body great athlete ball winner outside. You know, right? It's tough to find those guys. They've been missing the last few drafts too. Yeah.

And no, no question. Like last year, that was what was missing certainly from last year's group. So I think when you look at Coleman, you look at Brian Thomas here at 6.4205, you know, he had 17 touchdowns this year and led the country. But I think when you look at, and some guys like didn't sniff 10 touchdowns in their entire career. He had 17 just last year. The basketball background shows up. And he's got the tools to be a really useful player as well. They used him tight to the formation. He had some really good flashes as a blocker. He's not just like a finesse, like line him up outside and just let him run. They used him in a lot of

different ways in that offense. And so again, that kind of gives me hope too. Yeah, that's why I always look at like special teams backgrounds with receivers and stuff like that too, because that kind of shows, okay does this guy want to embrace like doing some of the dirty work that will be required of him going into the NFL is he going or is he just like hey you know what I'm just here to catch passes and that's it like I just think that that like kind of makes that needle that you kind of makes it a little bit tighter for him to have to thread it with Brian Thomas I don't have as much of that concern so I'm excited to watch him test next week too yeah for sure um I have a a comp for him then I'm like nervous to say it because people are going to call me um you know

helmet scout guy but I see a lot of DJ Chark I did I think You could say, I know, no question. And it's funny, I almost brought it up when I, when I was talking about him. Because you could see a little bit of that. He's got that same kind of frame. Yeah, I think, I think Thomas might have a little bit more ability to play above the rim than Charc did, but chart body control, ball tracking, elite speed, like, similar build as well, the 6-4-205-ish.

I mean, it's eerily similar. Yes. Okay, Ladd-McConkie, the senior bowl guy, we both loved. I know that for sure. We doubted on him quite a bit. He's very different than anyone we've talked about. far and so I think we should spend some time on him. Yeah, I think that, you know, you were talking about a player that is just a really

savvy route runner. He pushes really hard vertically. It can drop his weight at the top and get in and out of breaks with ease. You know, he gets in blind spots well on vertical routes. He's a good NFL route runner right now out of the box. Like say, he sells double moves really well. He just consistently creates his own separation. Everything's done with a purpose. You know, I think the release package is there. He consistently pulls in passes outside of his frame. I know he had drops issues earlier in his career, but that was not something I saw this year on film. He's a little bit of a more slender build. He's not the biggest guy.

He's got more of a compact frame. So, like, from a body type standpoint, I think he can play both inside and outside. But I think a lot of people kind of pigeonhole him to two more of the inside. That said, dude, like, I think he's going to shock people with how he tests next week. I don't think he's going to be one of the best testers in Indy at the wider Cere position. But I think he's got more vertical juice than a lot of people think, you know, kind of give him credit for. I saw him gear up and down on command.

He governs his speed really well as a route runner. And so I do think that this is a guy that can line up inside and outside. Dude, there's not a ton more to say. I think that at the end of the day, like, I watch him. The only knock I had on him was that he wasn't the biggest guy. But outside of that, I didn't really have any qualms with his game at all. Yep. I tweeted the other night a video compilation of him, and I said,

Ladd McConkey has more juiced than you think he does. generally speaking to everybody out there. And I think he does. I think that's very true. So I like him. I think him landing in a spot with one of these modern offensive coordinators that don't, like I hate to say the lions just because I talk about the lions too much. But, you know, the way they use Amun Ra, he's like 50% outside, 50% on the slot.

They get creative with the splits and they get him enough reps at both. I could see Lad falling into an offense like that and really becoming like a focal point, even though he's not like a traditional X or anything like that. So let's move down a little bit. Let's go Jermaine Burton. I know this is a guy I really like. I feel like nobody, literally nobody's talking about this guy.

And I have, it's really surprised. It's really weird though, what's talking about him. Yeah. Because you typically don't see players from Alabama, like kind of fly under the radar. You know,

look, he had 39 catches this year. So it's not like he was, you know, extremely productive. He never had more than 40 in a season. And so he's another player, kind of like McCanky,

where I think some of the analytical profiles are not going to paint him with the brightest brush. But Jermaine Burton at 6 foot, 194 pounds. That's what he's listed at with the tide. He's going to be one of the fastest players at the position. He's a sudden, explosive, he's twitchy. He's a little bit straight line. So I'm interested to see what the shuttles look like, but he's got big time speed.

He cooks guys off the ball, explosive athlete, instant vertical stretch weapon in the NFL. I mean, his A dot was just under 17 over the course of his entire career. And with that, his drop rate was under 3%. So like, all right, he's getting targeted down the field, but he never puts the ball on the ground. And he's also like a pretty good route runner. Like he'll mess with his pacing and his pad level while pushing vertically. He can throw DBs off his scent on those vertical routes. So like this is a guy that has an understanding of like he has a plan as a route runner.

He doesn't put the ball on the ground and he can run. And he doesn't have like terrible size at 6 foot 195. Like I don't know what like there's not a lot of issues there. Now there's like some, you know, what is he like off the field and things like that? I think there are going to be questions there. He's not a guy that has excelled as like a blocker. He's not like a dirty work guy from that standpoint. He has made some nice catches over the middle of the field.

But I think that there's going to be like some questions about like the ultimate usage. But if you're just saying like, okay, like you know, we need a deep threat. Who are some of the best deep threats? Jermaine Burton, I think is an NFL deep threat. Yes. And I agree. He kind of like basically what you described is Jameson Williams with the ability to track a ball down field. Like that's, if Jamo could do that, he would be an elite deep threat.

But Jermaine Burton, man, like one of my favorite things about him is they were starting to give him 10, 11, 12 yard cushions. And he was still cooking the cornerback deep. I don't just like, and that speaks to a technical prowess too. It's not just speed. Like you said, altering those tempos, knowing how to threaten the outside shoulder to then hit a post or cross face. Like, he's really good at stuff like that. I kind of view him as like a souped up Tyler Scott from a year ago. Or if you really liked Jalen Hyatt, you should be all over

Germain Burton because Burton did it in a more traditional offensive setting where he wasn't getting those super favorable stacks and ultra wide splits. So I think Jermaine Burton is going to lock day two guy. I can't believe no one else is there with us, Fran, but it is what it is. Yeah, to me, like I see a guy that's an NFL starting caliber receiver. And now you get into like volume of target and what impact level. But to me, like he looks like an NFL deep threat all day.

Yep, exactly. And if you're a team that needs like a legit deep caliber and you've got the other positions covered, like the charges in the second round, why not go with Jermaine Burton or a guy like that to really maximize Herbert and get that field stretcher in your offense? I mentioned earlier though, again, I kind of look at like what does the guy do as a blocker and on special teams. He's played over 2,000 snaps on offense. He's got 39 starts in his career. Started at Georgia. He's like a four to five star recruit, top 10 receiver in the country when he's coming out of high school, goes to the SEC. He's played six snaps on special teams his entire career.

That to me is like that's one of those like like like red flags for me. Or I'm like, all right, like there might be some issues here. Just because typically, especially at those programs because those guys, they want their blue chip guys. Remember James and as a gunner. Like they want their guys playing on teams, him not playing on teams. That is something honestly like when I talk to him about the next week of Combine, like I'm going to ask him about it. Awesome. Please do.

And let me know what he says. All right. get you out of here, but there's one more guy I wanted to talk about because you did, you bring them up in the show prep, and I have not spent one single second talking about them on any media I've done. That is Washington wide receiver, Jalen McMillan. Talk to me about him. I'm desperate to know your thoughts. You know, I think with McMillan, he's similar in ways to like McConkey from a, like a skill set standpoint, from a size standpoint. I think there's a similar archetype of receiver in that I think they can be inside outside. I think.

I think McMillan probably more of a slot only. What stands out about McMillan, though, number one, I think he really benefited from the scheme. But again, I think he's a really purposeful route runner. Like he's one of the better route runners in this group that I've studied. He does not put the football on the ground, which I love. I wish he was a little bit better through contact overall. And honestly, that was an issue with a couple of the Washington players that I watched. But, you know, one thing that stands out, and again, you know, I look at metrics, you know, a lot of different numbers, you know, from PFF and other sources.

And I think everybody's always looking for like that magic bullet with a number with a with a with a metric. It's like, oh, like this is a predict predictor of NFL success. I look at everything as descriptors, right? So it's like, okay, like it describes the way this guy plays, the way the impact that he can have, the usage, right? Jalen McMillen last year, 1.5% of his targets were contested. One point five percent were contested. That is the lowest of any receiver in their final year drafted in the last decade. because that's kind of how I chart all that stuff is like, all,

that tenure sample, all players drafted. Let's look at that sample. McMillons, that's lower than anybody. And a big reason for that, stacks, bunches, they do a great job from a formation standpoint to get him free. But then also, like, he's a really good route runner. He finds soft spots and zones really well. He works the middle of the field really well.

So to me, like, he is that kind of a player where it's like, okay, like, if you're going to work him in the middle of field and kind of keep him on that plane and, you know, allow him to work zones that way. I think he can have that kind of an impact on an offense. Him and Jalen Polk are those are the other two receivers for Washington, aside from Adunze, all three of them in this draft. I kind of like McMillan a little bit better than Polk, but I think Polk might get draft a little bit earlier because I think the traits are a little bit better.

He's a little bit of a different body type. He's more like a Josh Palmer type of player. Whereas McMillan, I just think he's more of like an NFL ready talent, if that makes sense. Do you think McMillan will be slot only in the NFL? Phil. I think he can play outside. I do think I like him more in the slot. And that's where he's, I mean, he was, I'm pretty sure it was like 90% of his slots of his reps last week or last year came out of the slide. Yeah, it was 89% last year, 92 and a half the year before. So he has been primarily slot over the last two seasons in Washington. Previously was an outside guy before that and his first year as a starter. But I think ultimately he's probably more of an inside guy. My working comp for him right now is Tyler Boyd. Oh, I like that. And I was, I was, I was, I was, really big. I know John can attest. I was really big on Tyler Boyd coming out. I just saw a guy that

to me, again, like screamed like longtime NFL player. One guy I wrote that again, like sometimes, you know, you watch it comps. It's like, are you talking like body type and skill set or usage? With McMillan, with McMillan, I was watching when I was like, it was weird because they're not the same body type at all, but I wrote like smaller puka. And that's one of those things like, because now everyone wants puka, right? Everyone wants puka, Nakua. But to me, like I, I, I see that kind of a player. He just has a feel for, like, finding soft spots in zone coverage. He was automatic at the catch point, like I said.

So he's a fun player. Yeah, I wish he had the, you know, play with your hair on fire mentality, pukahad, because I would be. Yep. I wish he was better through contact. No quite that. I think that matches up well. Awesome.

Well, Fran, thank you so much for joining the show. We got to get out of here. The people can find you at. At Eagles Exos on Twitter. And I host the Eagle Line the Sky podcast. I've got a combine preview coming out going position by position. And I'll have some recaps. I've got some articles coming up on every single position.

So you can check me out on my Twitter feed as well. Just getting you ready for Indy. Awesome. Thanks, guys. We'll be back tomorrow. Out.