Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - NFL Draft Team Needs and March Madness Hype

Episode Date: March 20, 2024

Geoff is back with another episode of Geoff Schwartz is Smarter than You. This week Geoff is joined by Gabe to share what he noticed from team's approaches to the offseason so far, and how that knowledge can help you predict who they'll draft. Did the Bears make their intentions clear by trading Justin Fields to Pittsburgh? Which teams are angling to trade up for a QB? Exactly how much has Geoff wagered since gambling became legal in North Carolina? All that and more on this week's show.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's tuesday march 19th i'm jeff schwartz is just for to smar and you welcome back to our show we are talking about nfl draft needs based off of the first week and a half ish of free agency there are some moves at the top that are interesting to talk about some mock drafts that are having a bunch of trades early in the draft, maybe four quarterbacks, Gabe, in the first four picks. And we will touch on a little bit of college basketball. We're both college basketball fans. Gabe, by the way, will give you his full breakdown

of the women's college basketball bracket. I will say, though, Gabe, I was doing some research on this last night for my Bear Bets podcast. I can relay this now. In the first round, the one and two seeds win by a lot, like a lot of points. I saw Stanford's favored by 35.5, I believe, against maybe Norfolk State.

I'd take Stanford there. So we'll talk all about everything to do with sports. Gabe, how do you do? I like your background. You got a new background there at the studio? I'm borrowing a background, Jeff. We wanted to start the show a little earlier uh but we had a few technical issues so i'm borrowing a setup that's used for another show some very close watchers and listeners might pick up on who's back up i feel like i know which one that is but you know we

won't we won't out yeah so uh but listen i'm here to talk football because it's march you're doing march um i've read some mock drafts i was off last week so you know i i kept up with the news but not like to the level that you do so there's some yeah there's some important changes like offensive linemen switching teams and you know defensive ends switching teams things that you can make me smarter on that i've missed i have just noticed one team doing a lot of moves and that's the chicago bears yes all right there okay let's talk about the bears um so it's really interesting you have to sort of separate the justin fields deal we'll talk about that in a second with what they're what else they're doing right two things can be true at once.

One is that they might not have given Justin Fields the proper amount of support around him that they could have. The other thing that's also true is that Ryan Poles has done a great job since he got there a couple of years ago. He did not draft Justin Fields, by the way, of getting the roster to a place where it's pretty good for a rookie quarterback, Gabe. The Bears are drafting one overall from a basic level they traded away the number one pick last season to Carolina they got DJ Moore in return the wide receiver they drafted a right tackle and right who's really good

and will be good moving forward and they will turn that pick into Caleb Williams and then at number nine kind of dealer's choice but people haven't mocked Roma Dunzey that would be an incredible upgrade in talent even just from that one move you include Keenan Allen and Swift and Braxton Jones at left tackle and there's other work to be done I think it's like Nate Jones at right guard there's still work to be done the offensive line but the offensive line is much better than it was a couple years ago. And so Caleb Williams is coming into a really great situation. The Bears' defense is good. St. Waldron is the OC now who was in Seattle,

who did a good job with Geno Smith. And so things are looking up for the Bears. Now the Fields thing is interesting, right? So Fields has traded for a sixth-round conditional, sixth-round pick to the Steelers. If he plays more than X amount of snaps, then he turns it into a fourth-round conditional. Six-round pick to the Steelers. If he plays more than X amount of snaps, then he turns it into a fourth-round pick. And look, I follow football for a while, Gabe.

I know you follow it. Maybe not as closely as I do. I have not seen in a while this pro sort of field's take on a quarterback of his likeness in a long time where quarterback wins is not a metric that I think we use very often we talk about him but there's many reasons why quarterbacks win and lose games right there are times Caleb Williams will be the Bears traffic he scored 42 points and lost the

game he scored 45 points and lost game of college not his fault right so quarterback wins is not a thing but fields is playing 38 games a starter. He's 10-28. Not terribly good. I think he's thrown one time in his career for over 300 yards. That's not what quarterbacks do in the National Football League now. And whenever we hear pro Fields take, it's vibes. It's like, ah, I think he could be good. He might be good.

I don't recall talking about a player like this who is, at best, at absolute best, he will become good, average at some point. The outlier of all the outliers in any of these talks, Alex Smith, right, who wasn't good for three, four, five years and became good, he's the outlier. Three years of underperforming as a passer you don't become good in year four five and six the nfl told you this is the weird disconnect game a lot of us will especially former players that have been in the nfl were turned toward the nfl and say okay

if you tell us a value on a player we will maybe disagree with it a little bit but we understand but for some reason all the former players a lot of them and maybe they're just afraid to say mean things about current players they just look well the nfl said he he's valued a six-round pick as a backup i i disagree he's gonna be good at some point when is that some point no one took a chance on him there were teams that had the opportunity to bring him in as a starter and pittsburgh is very clear he's bringing you know brought as a backup to start now he might eventually start at some point this season. But he was available, Gabe, and no one was willing to say, hey, man, come be our starter.

The NFL is telling you how they feel about Fields. In a league, by the way, that is desperate for quarterbacks. They're desperate for this position. And I find it so fascinating how the NFL tells you how things are. And a lot of former players in the media seem to think Fields is going to be good for some reason. And there's sort of the nfl tells you how things are and a lot of former players in the media seem to think field is going to be good for some reason and there's no actual evidence it's just vibes man it's like ah he might be good one day and i i'm i'm very fascinated by this yeah i think the problem is that this time of year every year we all stick our necks out and say big outrageous

things that are meant to hold up over 10 years and the truth is it's bad guesswork a lot of the time we'll get to this with aaron donald this time 10 or 12 years ago nobody was right about aaron donald who's arguably the best ever play his position and so i think the problem is people get committed to a take that they wish they could take back and justin fields a lot of people said oh he's the guy like oh that's the steal remember when the bears got oh he was the best bargain and they don't want to back off that take when in fact it's what you're saying he's probably a good backup maybe he'll be a starter in the right situation in a few years but he's not great no and i and i don't know why

we have a hard time saying that about players again i understand look i make no friends sometimes with things i say i don't need any more friends though i'm fine with the game i got enough friends um so i feel me fields is good and if he if i don't maybe listen to this i'm honored to listen to our podcast but like yeah he's definitely okay he he doesn't schwartz anything i'm good i mean i i don't think he's good and that's okay to say and the NFL tells you he's not good and so the Bears at nine one Caleb Williams absolutely draft Caleb Williams no doubt about it if Washington wants to trade up for Caleb Williams which they might call I think you have to do it to go to two and you take Drake Mayer Jane Daniels because you get so many picks for that but Caleb Williams easy number one and nine go many different

directions let's see about the draft let me let me say this week as you go through the sort of draft needs the top of the draft is a lot of like i need this quarterback we're taking this quarterback and every now and then it's i need a specific position let's take that position but a lot of good teams what they do game right is they do the best player available with a with an eye toward a team need so will say, well, the Bears at nine don't need a wide receiver. They have Keenan Allen, they have Moore, they can look past Rusher, guy on defense, offensive line maybe. But at nine, if Roma Dunzey is there at nine, he might be the highest graded player the Bears have on the board. The offensive lineman might be gone, Dallas Turner might be gone. And like, they're going to draft Romadunze.

So I don't know what the Bears are going to do. I think they can go offensive line. But again, like you have your tackles. So you're not going interior offensive line

at nine unless you're taking a Fuwaga, putting him at guard or a Fatanu, putting him at guard. So I think they're going wide receiver if Romadunze is there

at nine. Otherwise, they might trade back. Uh-oh. One thing, Gabe. Let's be very very clear about this if you tweet me at Jeff Schwartz or you comment some point and you think about this if you say to me this team is trading down you have to provide me with the trade up I don't want to hear about your team trading down I yes everyone should trade down every team should trade down. But who's trading up?

Who's trading up for someone at nine? Anything. You got to give me an answer. Because we're talking about some of these teams coming up here. Like people think Minnesota will trade to four for JJ McCarthy. That's an actual plausible thing that can happen. And so if you say Arizona is going to trade back, then that's an actual example. But just to say the Bears at nine are trading back yeah i'm sure they'd love to who is trading up and for who so

as we think about this exercise moving forward i'm not going to say just trade down i'm going to take the pick as it is in the mock draft and on on draft day if they end up doing it differently we'll discuss it then we do our mock draft is our favorite show of the year mid-april end of april we're not trading back we're not trading back so uh gabe that's the bears uh right now either that's caleb williams and then wide receiver not okay fair enough i will say if caleb williams gets to go to chicago with keenan allen who is literally the best person you could possibly give a rookie quarterback. And DJ Moore, who is, you know, these are basically the two kinds of guys that Caleb Williams has needed most in his two most successful years at USC. Is a guy who runs great routes and doesn't drop the ball.

Brendan Rice was that guy for him. And a guy who can make unbelievably athletic plays with screens and like running weird routes that no one can stay near him. He's had a few guys who can do that. You had a, you had a decent line. And I would say that ninth pick getting, if you know, alter somebody slips to there, why not go there? But you're right. It's a nice situation for the bears. They've handled their front office. Well, let's move to two. And I have to say this, if somebody's going to try to convince me that there's like some meaningful difference between Drake may may and sam howell they're gonna have a hard job on their hands i have absolutely no idea what the difference between those people could be same by the way for jayden daniels and justin fields i'm sure there's some scouting report that makes them

different i don't see it so what what would they do it to well they're taking one of the two quarterbacks i mean not to be a cop-out right i mean they're taking mayor daniels i don't have a great answer for you i think it's daniels uh cliff kingsbury had patrick mahomes he had tyler murray jay daniels skill set looks like those players feels like those players drake may doesn't um but some people have drake may as the number one quarterback uh i don't i don't know. Look, it's very easy. Two and three are quarterback. It's one or the other.

It's Drake May at two, and Jay Daniels at three. Excuse me, Jay Daniels at two, Drake May at three. The question is, and we'll move past two because the Commanders are taking a quarterback. The three game is, is New England taking a quarterback

at three or trading back? I'm going to go kind of against my idea here, but at three, plenty of teams can trade up. Denver could want to trade up. Minnesota could want to trade up for a quarterback. Maybe Raiders want to trade up and get a quarterback at three. But from the other perspective, Gabe, their roster is not good right now. I mean, they have very little playmakers. If they don't view Jaden Daniels or Drakeke may as transcendent players and maybe they have bonics or michael pennix graded roughly the same then trading out of three would be a home run for the

patriots get more draft picks for now in the future and get your quarterback next year they have jacoby brissett on the roster right now he'll get you by you know you'll be competitive each week but i think there's a real possibility that the teams i mentioned that sort of need quarterbacks the vikings the broncos the raiders to an extent could say look we're moving up to three and we're stacking a quarterback right now that we like yeah i i think that this is the year to do kind of what you're getting at with the get yourself a tyra taylor or jacoby versette you know or joe flacco even obviously jimmy g you know just just got signed but like that type of guy a guy who has started and has won

nobody's excited about but also so what and then draft the guy who slips the michael penix feels like that guy this year and then then give yourself a chance you still get what three years of a rookie deal on that quarterback when it's his turn but you don't totally punt on the first season that feels like the move i don't know with new england with the giant massive shift of belichick not overseeing everything there what that means for them and what kind of risks they take but yeah that that feels like the most tradable pick in the first round uh anything worth saying on the Cardinals? Sorry, go ahead. Well, I think four has a chance to be a trade-out too, Gabe. If someone really likes J.J. McCarthy, for example.

J.J. McCarthy is another one where, like the field discussion, where NFL tells you one thing and everyone tells you something else. Because the NFL seems to really like McCarthy. I mean, everyone you talk to that talks to these teams says they like McCarthy. I don't see it. You rolled your eyes. You don't see it. People that I trust who watch film don't see it on the social media side,

but, you know, people that cover the game. And they love McCarthy. I could see Minnesota trading up to four for McCarthy. Remember, they just made a move to acquire another first-round pick. According to the draft charts their first round pick at 11 and 23 together equal equal the third or fourth pick depending on what draft chart you use so moving up to four to get their quarterback in the future is something minnesota can do but i i just trading up for a quarterback has historically

sort of not been fruitful lately it It worked for the Chiefs. They had a good infrastructure in place. But for the other teams, Miss Trubisky was a trade-up, right? The Goff and Wentz were trade-ups, I believe, for both those teams. I'm sure there's other ones I'll talk in my head that were trade-up. The Panthers late even last season trade-up for a quarterback. McCarthy, to me, is not someone you trade up for. It's not.

And so giving up future draft picks to draft McCarthy at four would not be what I would do. I think if Arizona's at four, they take Marvin Harrison Jr. and just move it along. Yeah, every GM out there, take some free advice from J.J. McCarthy, what he's known for, which is not throwing the ball. It's sitting there in a Zen-like position,

listening to 10-minute headspace or ball it's sitting there in a zen-like position listening to 10 minute headspace or whatever he's doing there pre-game do that before you make this pick and come out clear-headed and go get yourself a pass rusher or a giant offensive lineman the kinds of players that are going to land on these next few teams the chargers are a fascinating team to look at at five and a lot of rumors there because they've completely undone all of what excited us over the last few years with all the offensive weapons. Everyone is gone. You know, we already hit on Allen, but also Mike Williams and Austin Eckler. The jokes for the last week have been about Justin Herbert, you know, who he's going to even throw to.

They missed at wide receiver on somebody who seemed like a no-brainer last year in Johnson. Do they go back to wide receiver again? Do they just kind of keep on going with offensive line? They have playmakers on defense, but you can never have enough. What do you think for the Chargers? Well, I had pegged John Ault here, the big tackle from Notre Dame, immediately. But they have to draft wide receiver now, right? Get rid of Mike Williams, get rid of Keenan Allen. You think so? Because Quentin Johnson

was a bust, and do you want to risk it again? I think you have to. What do you do? There's no one left to sign. You've got to give Herbert some help. The offensive tackles are not bad in San Diego. I'll say that forever. In Los Angeles. And I think Ault, you have to draft Ault to move him to right tackle, or move

Slater to right tackle, which I disagree with. He's an all-pro at left tackle. He played well last year. Last year, did he break his hand last year? No, two years ago, I think. He played well last year. Just draft Malik Nabors at five and be done with it. That feels simple to me.

Again, another trade opportunity. If Harrison goes four, the Chargers could certainly move back and get a wide receiver, get Brian Thomas, and then get an extra draft pick for next year. So again, the trades are all Minnesota and Denver and the Raiders trading up for a quarterback. That's what the trade would be.

So I think really the Giants at sixes or next are pretty fun. Because they could go really best player available. They could go with wide receiver game. They can certainly make a play for offensive lineman or right tackle, move Evan Neal inside. And if they love JJ McCarthy, man, if he goes Daniel Jones 2.0-ish,

they could pull the trigger on McCarthy too. Jones has one more year left. And that feels like an option for the Giants. I don't think they're year left, and that feels like an option for the Giants. I don't think they're going to do it, but certainly an option for the Giants. I would say wide receiver, offensive line, and then quarterback. Yeah, I don't know if you can go with like

your third khaki-wearing quarterback in a row. You go Eli to Daniel Jones to J.J. McCarthy. Come on, man. Give me something a little more exciting than that. I'm with you. But I think that's what... I mean, look, I could see them having a really super high grade on Latham

and putting him at right tackle, the kid out of Alabama, and moving even Neal inside. I mean, there's a possibility they have, again, a really high grade on what he's offensive lineman in after they drafted six. Yeah. I don't know.

I think we're into that territory with the coaching staff and the quarterback where everyone's in blame mode and self-preservation mode and come up with a way that it's not your fault and you last another season. That feels like where we are with the Giants. So I think they probably go with something they know they need, like a reliable pass rusher or lineman, and then just let Daniel Jones take the blame for a bad season. That's what I guess, but who knows? Do we have to talk about the Titans, honestly? The draft outfits alignment. Great. Okay, good.

Offensive lineman goes to Tennessee. They'll be nine and eight, and who cares? Falcons are kind of interesting because people love to talk about talking about Kirk Cousins. I don't think anyone actually likes talking about Kirk Cousins. I'm tired of all the Kirk Cousins memes. I get it. Do we have to talk about the Falcons and pretend they're a real team?

They feel like they're made for fantasy football and nothing else okay good i think they have a chance to pass rusher well i think there's so i took the mitchell kid the corner from toledo like plus 380 to go to the first defensive player drafted um the falcons would go past rusher or corner here and mitchell's up there plus three i like that number plus 380 so um i think they go defense here uh defense or again this is a prime trade-out candidate with the teams that want a quarterback if any of those previously mentioned guys slipped to here right yes if somehow jayden it was just hanging around or well it'd be mccarthy yeah okay all right uh my on again off again um team the jets i'm skipping the bears because we hit them so they're sitting there at nine assuming they don't move you think it's roma dunzey if he gets to them yes i don't know i

don't know if he would but whatever we don't need to talk more bears jets all right so they signed tyrant smith which sounds cool, but like, whatever. A friend of mine, Chris Healy, shout out, good follow on Twitter, by the way, works over at Fox. He said he's a very optimistic Jets fan, which I am not. He said, Hall of Fame left tackle, future Hall of Famer running back in Brees Hall, future Hall of Famer receiver in Garrett Wilson, future Hall of Fame quarterback in Aaron Rodgers what's not to like I don't know anyone else on earth who feels that way about the Jets so what do they need right now well they got Morgan Moses to write tackle so you think tackle is set man I won't be sorry to win offensive line here at 10 still um but it does feel like brock bowers could could be a jet at 10 the first

brock bowers mention um i think i wrote that for fox sports a couple weeks ago before the tyron smith and the morgan moses stuff because it seems very anything you read out of new york is that aaron rogers is in charge right game like aaron ro Rodgers, Aaron Rodgers. Wouldn't he advocate for Brock Bowers over an offensive lineman? Like, give me a tight end. Give me something I can throw to. Also, are we certain he's not running for president yet? Are we certain he's not the VP?

Is that put to bed yet? I think that we can rule that out, yes. Looks like someone named Shanahan got the gig. I feel like you would have voted for an rfk rogers ticket maybe just to shake things up a little bit i would like to have that conversation away from these microphones but i'm not going to dig not going to dignify that comment here in a live setting uh i will just say i will just say that i'm gonna see you being i'm gonna

see you being like you know what you know they're they're just different i want different no i will acknowledge that my uh my fu to the system is as a real feeling that i have i'm not sure that exact ticket is the one i'm looking for so do we think aaron rogers is going to play and be healthy for a whole season or do we think he'll get distracted and want to live in darkness halfway through the you know why man i think i said this last year i just don't care yeah you know me too i'm with you. No, I don't care. I just, who cares? Like, they're not winning the AFC. They might not win the division. I don't find this storyline very interesting.

You have an aging quarterback off a killer's injury who has one year left on his deal. That's the story. With a team, with an organization that has routinely underperformed with given opportunities to perform. I don't know, Gabe. That sums it up, right? Yep.

Yep. I'm not the biggest wrestling guy, so my history might be a little off. Maybe you can help me. Aaron Rodgers and the Jets feel like when that point in Hulk Hogan's career where he was like, oh, God, I got to come up with something, and he turned heel. And he joined, what were called like at NWA. But he he like went bad and he tried to like get some relevance back that way.

And I was like, no, man, you're Hulk Hogan. Like, don't do that. Just end it. And let's remember you as what you were. I feel like that's where we are with Aaron Rodgers. And yeah, I'm with you. I just I don't care. They're not going to be a good team.

Even if he plays well, they're not going to be that good. So who cares? Yeah. Minnesota Vikings have come up. The Vikings kind of seem like the Jets of the Midwest. You know, even if they string together a decent regular season, I don't see them going anywhere. So they're most likely going to be starting a rookie quarterback, right?

What are their other options, do we think, at quarterback if they don't draft someone? rookie quarterback right what what are their other options do we think at quarterback if they don't draft someone well the vikings can do the thing where they're like tanking but competitive with sam darnold like look we're in every game game we're close and then take one quarterback next year um the broncos at 12 we thought about about that. The Broncos at 12 are really fascinating because Bo Nix would fit what Sean Payne has wanted in the past. Oh, there you go. You got to bring up Bo Nix. But I don't think he's worth the 12-pick overall.

I feel very strongly. He's not worth the 12-pick overall. But if I were to tell you, you can find your franchise quarterback, he's there at 12. Do you take him at 12? Or do you wait until the second round, hope no one else decides to take Bo Nix? We hear about like, Sean Payton wants a processor,

on time with the ball, accurate. Those are three things Bo Nix does very well. I don't think it's the strongest arm. I think at times he'd be too robotic. But he's not, to me, the 12th best player in the draft either Gabe. So if they go in that direction, I'm not sure that that's like the best draft pick at 12 for them. Yeah.

I saw you mentioned his name already, but I saw, I think it was Daniel Jeremiah's latest mock had Brock Bowers falling to 12. And he made a point, which was Sean Payton could use him the way he used to use michael thomas kind of in that slot big body role technically different positions but you know sean payton has always kind of figured out a way to use wide receivers and tight ends interchangeably it seems and maybe rock bauer is quick enough that he could be that guy uh probably if he's there yeah i i could i could see that um

i mean and by the way an argument against jimmy graham not not just like yeah yeah yeah say that's a that's a better comp you this is also because you said Aaron Rodgers would like a tight end. I just want to point out, I don't ever think of Aaron Rodgers in tight ends. He has always complained about his wide receivers, but he's made – I saw a list, though, that was actually interesting. He's used tight end a lot. It's not something that they talk about often, but the tight end and whatever offense he's been in here is right here um it's uh it's a lot of receptions 53 last in 2022 2020 52 2018 55 it's like every other year

2016 60 58 61 with finley like he has years where he throws a tight end a lot yeah but those are like you know early 2000s tight end numbers now nowadays if you got a an elite tight end is catching 85 balls or more getting 10 touchdowns well yeah but he doesn't but he has not had that guy yet yeah so i don't think he's gonna force them to get one we got the time saver section of the draft here i don't think we need to get into like the meat and potatoes of best player available for the the teams that just missed the playoffs so the teams that got bounced in round one that's fun to play out when we do a mock draft but let's get to a couple teams that are pretty interesting and i bet you have some personal thoughts on so real quick um the miami dolphins who seemed oh so close but yet pretty far any guess as to what they need

obviously people will want to make it a to a storyline do we really think they're replacing the quarterback in the draft just want to make it clear that our producer hank groberg put quarterback in here dolphins fans i didn't put quarterback. He put quarterback. I know. I asked it in a way that I don't think that's real. No, no, no. I think they go, just address center for agency. I could see offensive line here

being a spot for them. Pass rusher being a spot. They could take a pass rusher here. Yeah, I would say that quarterback is probably very low on the list of uh of things that they would go after especially at that position in the draft okay i'm going to skip the cowboys because i don't care because we kind of agreed against all common sense we are not going to talk about the cowboys unless we have to. Correct. The Baltimore Ravens, however, are interesting because I think most listeners of this show

care a little bit more about the Chiefs, and the Ravens are very obviously still a threat there. So what do the Ravens do with the – got to just be the Chiefs in mind right now. Yeah, I think offensive line, they've had some losses this year and for agency. Offensive line feels like a spot they need to address. I wouldn't pass the draft to another wide receiver.

If best player available, Gabe, they're sitting at 28, right? 28 with 29, I should say, with the option of a wide receiver. I could see that where they go. Do you think they learned something through sort of the bad luck of uh you know losing the tight end and then finding out that other guy likely was likely pretty good you know two tight end sets would give likely more reps this year i would have to imagine that would be smart football yeah that feels like a free draft pick like you just found out that a guy you didn't have to spend much on is actually worth starting.

All right. Very quickly, a lot of times the best teams, because they're good at drafting, have these guys that just fall into, right? In rounds four, five, six, seven. You're like, oh, that's pretty good. Chiefs Trey Smith and Isaiah Pacheco I mean bold's a third round pick the middle linebacker they have a bunch of seventh round corners and safeties that have played well that's what championship teams do

yeah I don't think that the Niners are something we need to talk about they're in a fortunate position that they have a young, strong team that's honestly a player or two away from being the Super Bowl champions. I don't think a draft pick is changing that. It feels like luck and health will change their fate, but they can go for the thing a rich team does, a lineman or some specialty player. Niners, I think, would draft.

I think Niners would take Jordan Morgan from Arizona to tackle, is my guess here. Sure. And they slide him right in, and he makes them 5% better, and that might be enough. So let's talk Chiefs for a second. They go get Hollywood, which I think will make for the most polarizing moment in every fantasy football draft this season.

As some people get jealous and other people crack up and point fingers, other people say i didn't know he was on that team what do you think of him in the in that lineup and what do you think they do with that final pick of the first round so i've been thinking they need a big wide receiver because sort of like a mike evans type you know like a bigger possession type of guy but But they never really had that, right? Because Tyreek Hill, when he was there, he was one. Sammy Watkins at times was two, but he's not a big wide receiver. And if he had MVS, he can't catch the ball except for the playoffs. He's great in playoffs. He's gal gone.

He's off the team. Juju was bigger. Juju's a bigger wide receiver. But Rasheed Wright fits that role. Maybe Hollywood Brown fits the role they need. They don't need to get a big guy. receiver but rishi writes fits that role maybe hollywood brown fits the role they need they don't need to get a big guy i mean i i think at 32 we see over the years the chiefs have used this as a luxury pick they drafted claudia roots a layer after the defensive end last year that

was sort of out of nowhere at 32 when they needed one receiver help um i think it's bpa for them man i think they have left tackle set with Wanya Morris from last year, who was a rookie, and then put Taylor Wright tackle. But if there's a left tackle they like, I could see left tackle going here. I could see wide receiver going here. If LeJarrius Sneed is gone, maybe they look at corner. If there's a corner they like. He's not gone, by the way, if he is gone.

Maybe they think corner, Gabe. Those are, I think, all's not gone, by the way. If he is gone, do they think corner, Gabe? Those are all the possibilities for Kansas City at 32. In a couple mock drafts, including the one Hank is doing in his head and in our Google Doc, a couple wide receivers from Texas slide to 32. Yeah, no one likes those guys. Okay, so they're just fast. No one likes Texas guys. Yeah, no one likes Texas guys.

Is there any chance, any chance at all, that the Chiefs say, wait a minute, we're going to trade up because Brock Bowers is the next Travis Kelsey. It'd be nice to put him, teach him how to do what Travis Kelsey does so that we never have a break in the action and Pat has a Travis Kelsey in the lineup for the next six years.

They only have like six picks in the draft. I think I don't, I don't think they're going to do that. I don't think they can put enough together to go get hit. They could, I don't think they're going to, they'll probably give up that. They would give next year's first to move up.

They're not doing that for tight end. Okay. Interesting. I mentioned this earlier, Jeff, any, they would give next year's first to move up but they're not doing that for tight end okay interesting um i mentioned this earlier jeff any any other draft thoughts for now we'll have a few more chances to do this before the actual draft all right no more about episode yeah let's talk about a guy that everybody got wrong i mentioned it earlier uh this time back before he was drafted at a pit, Aaron Donald was given pretty bad grades. Um, I could read it off to you, but essentially his weaknesses were listed and almost every one of them has

been proven very wrong. Uh, but you know, questioning his body type questioning is the, you know, read of certain situations, all this silly stuff. And he was the most dominant player

in his position for a decade. I mean, he's like 5'11", 275. I mean, I understand what people were skeptical about his play in the NFL. Look, two things about Aaron Donald retiring. One is that I've never seen a player who could defeat a double team better than Aaron Donald at that position.

And what's wild about it is sometimes it wasn't even just going through two guys. It was that he beat the guard so fast upside his outside shoulder that the center couldn't even get to help him. It was wild. He was that good. He beat double teams all the time. But secondly, Gabe, I have a lot of respect for players that retire on their own terms.

A lot of us play too long. We try to hold on. We try to just play an extra year or two, and we end up getting cut and having a miserable experience to end our careers. That's how most of it, most of us go out, by the way, like I did, injured, beat up, and overweight. You're like, ah, I should have stopped. When I knew I should have stopped, I tried to continue one more year,

and it was a mistake. That's how most players end. Very rarely do you get to walk off when you want. Very rarely do you get an Andrew Whitworth. You win a championship at Rams, you just walk off in the sunset. John Elway, walk off in the sunset. That doesn't happen quite often in that manner. Aaron Donald's saying, look, man, I've had enough of football.

I made my money. I'm going to leave. I'm going to do what I want to do now. I'm done with football. I admire that game because he could have easily played for five or seven more years, made at least nine figures, and just collected those checks,

played, and he still would have played well to the best of his ability. But he decided, look, man, I'm done. Football's not for me anymore. I respect the heck out of guys' game. They can just make that assessment about their life and their mind about football and just walk away. Yeah, it is great to see.

I'm glad he made enough and feels confident enough to just call it when it's time. I don't have the experience you have of playing in the nfl or maybe playing a little longer than you feel like you should have um but i do have the experience of going to bachelor parties that are scheduled for three nights and they and that after night two you're like that's it this is time this is what we should walk away we've had a lot of fun if we do this again things could go wrong and that that would be my equivalent it's like that's when you walk that's when you get on the plane don't stay the third night you're out of here you're yeah you're you're out of here uh

you haven't had a a podcaster go a little bit too long in your business just like yeah man should retire six months ago no yeah does it happen very often oh yeah that happens in the behind that's happening right now as i continue to babble. But I do have to ask you two more things, Jeff, that are very relevant. Okay. One, are you filling out a women's bracket this year? Because this is the year for the women's bracket. Okay. South Carolina, I wager on them to win.

I think they're going to win. Okay. But USC plus 4,000, I gave out on bare bets. Because it seems like the numbers don't match up. They're the one seed in the West, and they have like the eighth best odds to win the championship. I don't understand that. Now, I think they're not beating South Carolina. I don't think anyone is.

They're not big enough to beat South Carolina, but they got a player that can do it herself, and that's, I think, important in this tournament. People are going to bet Iowa's not beating South Carolina. Sorry. They're not beating them. We saw last year a more physical team, LSU, took it to them. So South Carolina is better. And so I have not felt a women's bracket yet,

but the Pac-12 tends to do pretty well in these games. So I might go Pac-12 heavily on this. The one seeds typically end up being the final four on a women's bracket yet, but the Pac-12 tends to do pretty well in these games. So I might go Pac-12 heavy on this. The one seeds typically end up being the final four on the women's side very often. So it's South Carolina, Iowa, Texas, USC are the four one seeds. And then Stanford, UCLA are two seeds. I forget who else is a two seed. But I'm paying attention, Gabe.

I'm paying attention.abe i i'm paying attention interesting you have uconn and lsu lurking around as three seeds um and you come to two are they at two i thought there were three but lsu lsu is certainly a three seed yeah because they made they might end up playing uh louisville in the second round which is you know where hayley van lift is uh obviously came from yeah well uh sorry don't even know how state are two seats you're right you caused not a two three yeah it took me by surprise and usc would have to go through them and so i i drew usc all the way to the final until i ran into south carolina and i just went with the homer pick and took usc but I think strictly from a numbers perspective because they have a player who I've watched a lot and I've said since the first time I watched her like oh my god this woman is different she's playing the game

differently than anyone else including Caitlin Clark by the way because Juju Watkins can get to the rim easily against anyone and finish. I think she could Steph Curry her way through this whole tournament, but she's got a few other really nice players with her. So I think they could take a lot of people by surprise, and they're red hot right now and just win the whole damn thing. It could happen. It's certainly possible. I'm going to use Juju Watkins as a reason why the pac-12 broke up

all right i'm gonna use her for this example um every week haylen clark is on fox mbc peacock like millions of people are watching her play i think nationally gabe no one knows who juju watkins is because she's on pac-12 network because she's on the Pac-12 network. And that's why the Pac-12 was no longer a thing, right? You can't watch the network, man. How many people do you think, pay attention to college basketball. They have a knowledge of basketball. They know who

Keenan Clark is. They know who Angel Reese is, obviously. They know who South Carolina is, and that might be because they just fought last week, and it was a fun fight for everyone to watch. That brother coming on the court was just absolutely incredible um he he went to the court and looked at the south carolina center was like i'm not doing this um but juju watkins is a legitimate player of the year candidate and no one could ever watch her play gabe no one can watch her play and this is the why the pac-12 it's obviously not the reason why per se, but next year Juju will be on Fox.

She'll be on NBC. She'll be on Peacock. She'll be on, look, I obviously work for Fox Sports. The TikTok stuff they're doing with Kaitlin Clark is getting outrageous numbers. That will be Juju next season, right? That'll be something that we as a company focus on. And that is why USC left the Pac-12 conference. Because they don't get the amount of eyeballs they need

because of the Pac-12 network. That's a great example, in my opinion. Because USC shouldn't be plus 4,000 to win the championship in the eighth best odds. They should have a player that can, to your point, get them all the way there. On the men's side, very quickly, Gabe, now yukon repeats i just i look at the bracket i have i didn't i have it right here in front of me i mean they have a tough they have a tough road in the east don't get me

wrong but i'm not sure north carolina makes it out of the west i'm not even sure in that bracket i have arizona losing early i have uh alabama losing early st mary I don't even know who's going to be. The other side, I mean, is Houston going to do it with their offense? They have lots of lulls. I'm not looking at just that game on Sunday. Marquette, I know they're not beating UConn. They can put up a fight, obviously. They played this season already a couple times.

I don't trust Purdue to beat them either. So I have U you call winning the first back-to-back championships since 07 well that would be cool um i'm in a tourney challenge with a lot of people from connecticut so it stinks because i also think yukon wins it all and i know i'm not differentiating myself from the bulk of the people and usually the only way to win one of these is to pick somebody that nobody else has. Just hope you get lucky. So going with UConn in a thing with a bunch of people in Connecticut

doesn't help you much. I mean, the other option is you take Auburn out of the East because they're a team that Ken Palm has highly rated, even though they have a weird amount of... They're 3-7 in Quad 1. They're 1-7 until two weeks ago.

Excuse me, until last week until they beat two teams in the championship. But you take Auburn, possibly out of that region. I could see Creighton. I have Oregon beating them in round two, but Creighton could be a team who's very hot and very cold. Kentucky plays no defense.

Maybe Kentucky, Gabe, just like they play their best, you know, six games of the season and win a championship. They certainly have four NBA players to do so. So it's possible other teams can do that. Out of the Midwest bracket, I said Creighton, I think, for Midwest, yeah. Kentucky, maybe out of the West, Mississippi State beats Carolina in round two and makes a run.

It's possible. I don't think anyone can match up with UConn in the way that they need to win the championship. I like that you mentioned Auburn and Bruce Pearl. That's our guy. He's your guy? You work with him? He's our guy.

He's our guy. Yeah, I know. I get that part You work with him? He's our guy. Nah, he's our guy. Well, yeah, he's our... Yeah, I know. I get that part of it. I disagree with some of his politics, but I'm with you on that. I don't know his politics. That's a good point.

I guess I don't know his politics. Maybe I shouldn't say he's our guy. All right, last thing. Last thing. But he's our guy. He is a man. He is a Hebrew. He's a part of the tribe, yes.

It's okay to have people disagree with you. So, yeah. Now I got to go. Oh, my Little League? Okay. I want to know what I may or may not disagree with Bruce Perlman. But, yeah, first I need to hear, why are you texting me midweek saying, I know you're on vacation.

I just want to make sure we get to Little League when you're back. Well, so you coach, right? Are you the head coach on your kids teams i am i am the head coach yes okay so if a dad was like okay i know oh i guess you're right about that i keep forgetting they're the same age um if if if if a dad says hey man i'd like to help you out, what would your answer be? Sure. Here's how that works, though. There's some rules.

Okay, let me hear the rules. Well, so I don't want to get into too much of the detail, but essentially in practice, it's kind of up to me. But in a game on the field with other kids field with other kids officially there's like a little you have to you know double check some things with the league you have to make sure that that person is known to be on the field with everyone else so yeah it's there's a little bit of bureaucracy before you just go yeah sure man show up okay so my son's coach my son is playing in the 10 is the minor leagues of for literally he's 10 he's a league 10

it's only nine years old um the coach sent a long email out nice email like the coach is nice don't get me wrong nice email like here's my here's what i'm trying to accomplish for the season he seems very much into like we're giving everyone a chance to pitch everyone gets to hit in this league like we're gonna just have the most fun we might not try to win every game but we're gonna get everyone to play you know what i mean like that type of which i'm fine with i think winning is sort of nice at this age to try to win game but okay fine you want to give everyone a chance to do whatever they can but he said like he's like i could use parent involvement so i emailed him back hey coach i'd love to help out um i can't promise i'll be there every practice or every game um but i coached some high school baseball in the past and i like helping out so uh if you

need me i'm here to help and by the way when i mentioned i coach high school baseball uh i was a pitching coach for in high school here in in really in south carolina um went to the state championship i was the varsity pitching coach we We sent three guys to college that were pitchers. Like, I'm modest schmo. I know what I'm talking about. I'm not going to be a major league manager, but I can help out. The answer was no.

I coach a team by myself was the answer. Wait, what? I thought he asked for help. I don't know, man. He's got no assistant coaches, just him by himself. One dad is out there sort of like helping out. We've only had three practices because of rain. We've rained out two practices.

But, yeah, don't want my help. I mean, it's less for me to do. Don't get me wrong. My son's about to come home from scoring. We're going to throw by ourselves. We're working on some pitching stuff. I chalked out. I measured 46 feet, chalked it out like

we're ready to go when he gets home right where the mound's gonna be he wants to pitch we're working on he's actually dude he's a good kid man he works his tail off um but yeah just didn't want my help gabe like nope well there's a lot to i actually feel more comfortable talking about rfk and aaron rogers on the air than this particular topic where I have a lot of thoughts I'll share with you. But I think that some parents get pretty protective about that. I don't like to be that way. I have a lot of guys who are all called coach. He's also not a parent.

Not a parent. In this league, most of the coaches don't even have kids on the team. They just coach. All right. No. The other coaches on my team are other dads on the team they just coach all right uh no i'm it's a very it's a very coaches on my team are other dads on the team no dude so like the team like the upper league the majors essentially you get drafted on the majors team you stay there till you're old till you leave till you're to you know third a league 13 and so the coaches on those teams have coached those teams for like 20 years like they just like the coach on my son's team last year,

his kid was on the team. He left the league because he couldn't coach his son on the level up because there's no coaching opportunities to coach his kid. So he just went to the Punch Apple Bowl instead to coach his son. Crazy, huh? You might be in a strange league,ff because in my league which is very very intense very intensely yeah in our you coach your kid and obviously at the higher up they get and more serious people take it and obviously some people take it too seriously but fine i'll

probably be that guy so i can't judge but like the expectation is the the best coach for the team with a kid on the team is that's who's in charge and i'm sure you share responsibility more and more as you get older yeah no legitimately um i've always coached teams on my own i went to i went went and found the email. So yeah, I don't know. That's what it is. Well, Jeff, Hank made a good joke. I want to share it. You just said a moment ago, I'm no schmo. And I agree. You're no schmo.

So maybe you should be RFK Junior's running mate. If Aaron Rodgers wants to play football, you are retired. You have time on your hands. You know, you were a former high school pitching coach that's a pretty good qualification i i think rfk and i did this we'll disagree a lot on uh some of our policies here buddy um all right i'm just not conspiracy theorist i just i maybe i'm maybe i'm a sheep i'm a sheep. I'm a sheep. I follow along. I got to know the why.

One of my good friends is a conspiracy guy. And I ask him all the time, like, why, why, why, why? There's never a why, Gabe. Never a why. Or the why is some like obscured, another conspiracy. That's all I want. I'm a why guy. Tell me the reasons why you believe in a conspiracy.

Some I believe in. I believe in some. I don't believe in anything. And then I don't believe in any conspiracies i don't believe any conspiracies but like just give me the why and there's never a why never a why gabe the why is another conspiracy that's my rant on conspiracies all right um i am i know we differ on that yeah a little bit but is that because it entertains you or you or you or you like you i think it's more for you just like to laugh and have entertainment on i have a buddy who like legit like believes in a lot of we go back and forth on it a lot let's put it this way i've never gone down the rabbit holes that it seems like aaron rogers has gone down i have not been to those i've've not been down, but I'll tell you that I'm less judgmental of him for quote unquote doing his own research than some people are.

I don't want to go down those rabbit holes. I'm not sure I believe that there's anything down there, but I'm not like I don't immediately think you're a jackass for believing that something is a little different than it was reported. And I'm not 100% clear. I'm not in any way speaking about Sandy Hook. That was crazy a week or two ago. I'm not even hinting at that. Some of the other weird stuff. Yeah.

No, no, no. I think it's okay to question authority. I think it's okay to question how things are. But I got to know the why, man. That's it. I got to know the why. Tell me the why. Tell me the why.

I could roll with it. All right, buddy. We did it. We we did a show anything else on your mind we survived no i i don't you're trying to get me canceled and i don't want to do that so uh um i think we wrap it up here and we just say fight on and i'm i'm taking the kids to see juju uh if they make the second round which they should so i'll be there where is it in la yeah that's the nice thing about the women's tourney you know some of the top seats local get to house some games yeah yeah um all right guys we'll talk to you next week that's our show hope you enjoyed it and uh join march madness uh lots of uh lots of gambling action gambling legal north carolina

out game always going hard last week. Wish me luck this weekend. Oh, no. That's not a problem. Talk to you guys next week, everyone. Take care. you