Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - The Only 2020 NFL Mock Draft That Matters

Episode Date: April 21, 2020

The gang got together to preview every first-round pick of this week's NFL Draft. Look out for mid-round surprises and some questionable decisions. 1. Cincinnati (1:48) 2. Washington (3:43) 3. Detroit (5:44) 4. NY Giants (7:43) 5. Miami (8:52) 6. LA Chargers (10:26) 7. Carolina (12:46) 8. Arizona (14:29) 9. Jacksonville (15:23) 10. Cleveland (17:25) 11. NY Jets (19:08) 12. Las Vegas (22:57) 13. San Francisco (24:53) 14. Tampa Bay (26:08) 15. Denver (29:08) 16. Atlanta (30:17) 17. Dallas (31:15) 18. Miami (33:02) 19. Las Vegas (34:53) 20. Jacksonville (36:20) 21. Philadelphia (37:33) 22. Minnesota (38:18) 23. New England (40:15) 24. New Orleans (44:40) 25. Minnesota (45:30) 26. Miami (46:25) 27. Seattle (47:44) 28. Baltimore (49:10) 29. Tennessee (49:57) 30. Green Bay (50:36) 31. San Francisco (52:55) 32. Kansas City (54:09) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

from the athletic i'm jeff schwartz and today is the day it is tuesday before the draft it is time for the jeff schwartz is smarter than you mock draft with the whole gang everyone's here gabe matt and zuri we're gonna have a lot of fun with this today is tuesday the 21st and i'm so excited for this we've been playing this for a couple weeks now. They have the whole gang here doing a mock draft. If you guys want to go and find all your mock draft information, your big boards, your value picks, everything, go to athletic.com, Dane Brugler, Arif Asana put together big boards, 300 prospects strong. There's mock drafts on there.

There's team information as we get toward Thursday night. But let's kick this whole thing off. Gabe, how are we doing today? Oh, I'm doing wonderful. The Chargers have new uniforms. I'm talking to three of my favorite people. We're going to get a little Jets talk in today. This is going to be great. Matt, you have the second pick and we'll get to the mock draft. You have the Redskins today, and I know you're going to screw this pick up already. Wow. Just because I follow the Redskins doesn't mean I am the Redskins Jeff I'm glad to have you back on and Zuri making his first appearance I believe

yeah on the podcast the man behind the scenes welcome in buddy it's good to be in front of the scenes and uh don't get used to my voice because I won't be talking much but uh ready to go all right so here's how this is going to work we're going to go 1 through 32 we're not doing trades we talked about doing trades it's not going to work we're snake drafting this we'll give you our pick I'll talk about whether or not I think it's a good pick or not um and again no trades we'll see the shenanigans happen I assume assume they will happen. I will start us off. It is my podcast.

It's the easiest pick of all. Bengals number one. Joe Burrow out of LSU, the quarterback. Historic season last year in college football. While not the number one graded player on most big boards, that is Chase Young. He is a quarterback. He's the most valuable position He is a quarterback. He's the most valuable position in all of sports. He's intense competitor. He's accurate as can be.

He's a playmaker. Everything that you want a quarterback. He had that last year going to Bengals, even though he doesn't appear to want to be a Bengal. Nonetheless, he's going there. Number one, that's what I'm picking with the first pick. When was the last time anyone appeared to want to be a Bengal, Jeff? And is there any chance that they surprise us? No one wants to be a Bengal. I can't see it. Look, I am obviously more of a Justin Herbert stand than most, having played at Oregon and watched all his snaps.

I can't see that happening. Tua, possibly, but the hip is a concern. I can't see him doing anything but taking Burrow, even though he doesn't want to play there too bad. I got to think it's Burrow no matter what. And no Eli forced trade situation, no Elway holdout type thing. This is just football time. I mean, it's possible that Burrow does that, but I'm looking at the teams.

I mean, who is – I don't know if he's able to force that. And if that was the case, the Bengals could already be working on some sort of trade. So, yes, it's possible that someone trades up. I mean, maybe the Patriots have saved all these draft picks for all the years to get themselves a quarterback that they love in Burrow or someone else. I can't really see a lot of teams spending all this draft capital to move up and get Burrow. And a lot of them have quarterbacks. There are too many quarterbacks.

We've talked about this on the pod. There's too many quarterbacks that are available, right? Cam Newton is still available. Jameis Winston, Andy Dahl will be available on Thursday night. There's too many quarterbacks. I cannot see a team trading up with all their assets for Burrow outside of maybe the Patriots. with all their assets for borough outside of maybe the patriots that is the sound of the number two pick to my favorite team the washington redskins they're relieved that the bangles didn't do anything weird and they're gonna go with chase young here

here are the main two reasons first of all new, new defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, coach Von Miller, coach Khalil Mack, and now with a new coach and a new GM in the building, they're going to go with the sure thing here, especially with the big second factor, which is the Redskins did not get a chance really to spend the amount of time they would need to spend to take a risk on drafting Tua. The doctors didn't get a chance to really evaluate him. They didn't even really get a chance to get to know Dwayne Haskins. They don't have an advantage here. Let's go with the sure thing. Let's get Chase Young at the second pick. We feel great about it. This has to be the pick here. I know that there is talk about them trading out of this

pick. I can only imagine they do this if they still get to pick in the top 10. I'll tell you why. They could use a left tackle. You know this, Matt. Trent Williams wants out, and I think with Dwayne Haskins being so young, they could use a left tackle. It's a draft for them. So they can't move below 10, in my opinion, if they trade out of this, because you still need to get yourself a day one impact starter at that position. So if you want to trade back, I'm okay with it. I guess if you end up getting, you know, three starters instead of one Chase Young, in theory, that actually makes your team probably better. But if you're dropping past 10, you just can't do it. So Chase Young is an easy pick here. He's everyone's highest rated player.

He's so impressive. The amount of, at his age, the pass rush ability to have multiple moves, to have counter moves, his strength, the way he finishes on his pass rushes, it's incredible. Easy number two pick for the Redskins. All right. That means the Lions are on the clock and they are using every single second of it to receive as many texts and phone calls as they can to possibly shop this pick. Now, we already know, or at least it's reported that they're thinking about trading this pick. They know they got a

valuable one and they're the Lions, so they're weird. In the end, I don's reported that they're thinking about trading this pick. They know they got a valuable one and they're the Lions, so they're weird. In the end, I don't think that they're going to get the offer they need to move out of this position. And then they will resist the urge to draft a wide receiver because we know they love doing that early in the first round. Instead, they're going to make the very safe choice, arguably the best player, the most NFL ready player available. They're going with Jeff Okuda from best player, the most NFL ready player available. They're going with Jeff Okuda from Ohio State, the cornerback. He will be there to save Matt Patricia's job.

He's a play now guy. He can help that Lions defense. They lost Darius Slay in a deal. They need some help there. This will be the one that makes the fans happy. It's not a quarterback, but it's the right decision. It probably is the only way Matt Patricia keeps things going in Detroit is helping that defense. Yeah, with Darius Slay gone and Jeff Okuda coming in, you're able to run maybe the defense you want, right? You need, if we've seen what he did in New England, what he wants to do in Detroit, a lot of man coverage. Okuda's that guy out of Ohio State. Ohio State goes 2-3 here.

Makes a ton of sense for this to be the pick here. Okuda 6-1, 2-0-5. And you mentioned they could trade out. I mean, there's possibility to talk of Tua coming up to 3 if someone wants to trade for him. This is the easy pick right here. I'm all for this. They've also, by the way, or we, I should say, we also have eight other picks in the draft.

We're loaded with picks. So we're hearing all calls, and we could package, you know, bundle up a few picks if people are interested. But I think in the end, the three, it comes down to whether or not Tua is in play, and I think they stick with it and they go with Akuta like you said. All right, the Giants on the clock. First of all, I want to applaud our cohorts in Detroit for the pronunciation on Jeff Okuda there. We really do enjoy that here in New York. We took Daniel Jones

with a six pick last year. A lot of people thought we might have grabbed him a little too early, so we're going to keep him upright and we're going to go to the offensive line. We're going to take Jedrick Wills out of Alabama. Wills is the most ready player right now to play offensive line, in my opinion. He is physical. He has really good technique to play. He'll be a multiple-year starter at Alabama at the power that he had to face each and every week, the speed at that defensive end position.

This is a great pick for the Giants. You put him at right tackle. You know you have Nate Soldier over there at left. I think you just leave him at right tackle. You let him play. We know, guys, that the right tackle position is supremely important in the NFL. It is hugely important to keep your quarterback upright, having a right and left tackle.

It's okay to draft a right tackle fourth. I love this pick. Good job, Giants. For once, good job, Dave Gettleman. All right, Miami's on the clock. I know a lot of people in the media want us to take two. I know a lot of people in our fan base want them. But we were dead last in rushing yards last year,

and our longest completed pass went for 51 yards. So we want a big arm. And we're going to the Pacific Northwest, and we're getting your boy, Jeff. Justin Herbert, welcome to Miami. Oh, Herbert, I love it. People will be fired up on this pick. So the thing about Herbert, and I'll just say this.

I wrote about him. If you want to go to SBNation.com and look it up go to my Twitter whatever you want to do go ahead and look for it because I've talked about him all the time profusely here's the thing with with with Herbert he has flaws obviously but for some reason we don't talk about him like he has upside which is surprising because we talk about other quarterbacks in in the same way we act like Herbert can't get better because he went to Oregon well guys he didn't play with pro wide receivers at Oregon he wasn't in an offense that suited him every person who talks about Oregon's offense Mina Kimes just tweeted about it the other day

she said ew Oregon's offense is not very good. Like, ugh, disgusting. It was something along those lines. If you read the stuff about Herbert, everything is copulated with the Oregon offense did not suit him. The Oregon offense wasn't good. So I don't understand why there's no thought at all that he can't get better in the NFL.

He's not a sure thing. Of course, no one is. But I'm rooting for Herbert and I hope he does well. Wow. Okay. So the Chargers are on the clock and suddenly their mind starts racing. They had a plan, but Tua just got to the sixth and they're thinking, oh boy, this is potentially our franchise quarterback our fan base would like this they are tempted they're also listening to that phone ring and reading all those texts or hopefully tapping other people's zooms they're they're they're interested this

pick could move but in the end they remind themselves cooler heads prevail and they say guys we had a plan don Don't reach for Tua. Draft an offensive lineman. We'll go sign Cam later. Some guy named Schwartz has been talking about this on a podcast for weeks. He's right. Let's go with the best lineman we can find. Let's put some big fat guy in our brand new jerseys.

And they go with, obviously, Tristan werfs out of iowa tristan um all right so werfs is going to be a great pro uh but i think this pick would have been better spent on mckay beckton from louisville. It was a close call. Werfs is not really going to play left tackle in the NFL. The Chargers need specifically a left tackle. And Becton's going to play left tackle in the NFL. And that's the thing about Werfs. Whoever drafts Werfs, I don't think you put him at left tackle.

He can be an all-pro guard. He can be a right tackle. But I think Werfs or Andrew Thomas are the two true, true left tackles in this draft. Nonetheless, it's not a bad pick. He can play guard or you can play left tackle.

You just saw Brian Belaga. Now, here's the thing about the no-trade situation we talked about earlier, guys, is that with Tua dropping past six, and I think in the actual draft, someone will trade up and grab him soon. Now, we're not doing that here, so it's going to throw the draft off a little bit maybe. But there's a real possibility, in my opinion, that right now, if this breaks this way, with the Chargers taking off at the tackle, we're going to get a trade up for Tua. But we're not doing that here. So, Matt, you're up next

all right so picking seventh are the carolina panthers who can't believe the two is still here i think this is probably a slot where with a new head coach you would see a trade if two is here in this scenario but let's we're not doing trades so let's go with the most obvious pick here uh the Panthers had a terrible defense last year so why not get a defender who can play every defensive position give me Isaiah Simmons out of Clemson uh when asked at the combine what position he plays he said defense uh when he was at clemson he played corner linebacker defensive end and safety uh the panthers lost luke keekly dantari poe gerald mccoy and they already had a terrible defense last year so this is a huge upgrade for them uh if they don't trade this

one i would give them isaiah simmons? So the one thing I will say, and I've said this before about Isaiah Simmons, maybe not here, but I've mentioned this before. I think you have to have an exact plan for him because you need to make sure that you don't spend like a couple years figuring out what position he's going to play in the NFL. I think in my opinion, you need to know,

okay, if I draft him, he's playing outside linebacker for us. He's playing safety. Now, he can move in the defense by game plan, but if you have the idea of what's going to draft him and figure it out, I think you could waste a couple of years figuring that out, and the value in that pick is not there. So if the Panthers draft him or anyone else,

make sure you have an actual plan for Simmons when he is drafted so you can go ahead and do that. All right. The Cardinals have a need, in my opinion, at offensive line. They have a need to edge rusher. They have a need kind of a couple places. But right now, the value is in offensive linemen. And the offensive linemen that they need, in my opinion,

is Mekhi Becton out of Louisville. He dropped here in our draft. He'll probably go maybe a little higher than this. But nonetheless, Becton is a kid who is powerful. He is strong. He is quick. He's a giant human. You can't teach the type of finish that he has in his game at any level.

And so you bring that to the Cardinals. You put him at left or right tackle. You can move Humphreys over if you want. He has the highest potential, in my opinion, of this offensive line class to be a great. And I would put him right here on the Cardinals. I'm Jacksonville right now at nine. I see that two Otonga Valoa has dropped here. And again, I'm assuming that someone trades up

if he drops past six to grab him. Possibly the Patriots. Who knows? Right now, the Jaguars have Gardner Minshew as their quarterback. He's an okay quarterback. He's okay. He's not going to be a superstar. He's not a guy that you can really my opinion build your entire team around there are other needs that you have but in my opinion if Tua's here at nine you cannot pass him up if

you're Jacksonville you're gonna draft Tua that's my pick let's unpack that a little bit like let's say that what we're guessing at is actually like really what happens. Let's just say that. And this is a real thing that maybe all the technology is kind of funky and like everyone's heads are spinning and maybe there are no draft day trades. And you probably tell me that wouldn't make any damn difference, but phones work either way. But let's just imagine there are no trades.

Really, though, he does slip to this point right like jacksonville is thrilled i got to imagine this is this this is a scenario that we could see they would be unbelievably excited so what what what makes you sure that it won't happen well i think that i think that someone if he slipped past six that someone would trade up with carolina who can use as many draft picks as possible to kind of rebuild their team. And they would take that trade at seven and you would have someone draft Tua. So 7-8-9 would be like the obvious pee break period of time in this draft under normal circumstances. There's nothing to watch there.

But if Tua slips, this becomes like thrilling. There's going to be all kinds of trades in this area. This is going to be big, big movement if Tua hasn't already gone off the board. Agreed. It's going to be wild. If this scenario happens, it's going to be absolutely insane. Everyone's going to explain it. There's going to be a rush. There's going to be a rush to call Carolina to trade up, in my opinion, to get that pick.

All right, so the Browns here are a little disappointed that there was a run on tackles because it seems pretty obvious that they're going to pick one of them. They've missed out on three already in the top 10. uh they've missed out on three already in the top 10 uh so they're gonna go with the fourth tackle on the board who i have is andrew thomas i'm curious what jeff thinks about that uh he was he looks like he could play at multiple positions on the line he was uh he was he's a big dude six foot five out of georgia i'm having a hard time distinguishing between tackles, but I'm pretty sure the Browns are going to take one if they stay in this slot. Jeff, is that the right one?

Yes, this is great. Andrew Thomas, tackle out of Georgia. Inconsistent hand usage, but really good feet. Really good base, really good power. The Browns have an outstanding offensive line coach in Bill Callahan, who works wonders. You saw last year in Washington, he made Eric Flowers a good player, right? I mean, like, he is a very good offensive – everywhere he's been,

he's been a great offensive line coach. This would be a great, great pick for the Browns because he is a day-one starter right now at left tackle, which is what you need if you're the Browns. And if you decide the Browns here to go with a wide receiver, you can go try to trade for Trent Williams or pick up Jason Peters. But nonetheless, Matt, great pick here with the Browns. Can I add one thing here? Last year, the Browns starting tackles were Greg Robinson and Chris Hubbard. Now they could have Andrew

Thomas and Jack Conklin with Bill Callahan. That's a pretty huge upgrade. It's a giant upgrade. I mean, their current left tackle is in federal prison. So this is a huge upgrade. Anything would be a better upgrade. All right. The Jets are on the clock. Listen, I am actually having like a real panic attack here as a Jets fan because this was not supposed to happen.

Okay. The Jets had one game plan going into this draft first of all they're idiots for getting themselves to the 11 they should be drafting like third overall but they accidentally won half the games in the last half of the season so now they're drafting at 11 there should be a top three of offensive tackle slipping to them at 11 but in this mock draft that hasn't happened okay so now here they are the jets who have basically said all we care about is rebuilding our offensive line that's what the new gm is all about they were the worst at blocking for the run and the pass they suck bad and their quarterback

can't do anything unless he's blocked for all they need is offensive line and there are no offensive linemen left anymore so the jets are going to start to panic the way i am and they're going to get totally out of whack and they're going to do what they keep on doing it seems like every year since rex turned up and they're going to go for a defensive line guy to clog up the middle when they've already got a few of those guys so now all of a sudden der Derek Brown is coming off the board. I don't think the Jets need this guy. They need alignment.

Maybe they can teach him how to block and switch him to the other side of the ball. But Derek Brown for the Jets. Help me God. Jeff, what is happening? Okay, so I think he's the best player probably on the board. So if you go best player available, he's your guy right now. probably on the board. So if you go best player available, he's your guy right now. If the draft unfolds like this, and we see Wills, Wirfs, and Becton gone at eight.

You know, Jacksonville at nine, who I took with Tua, could be open for a trade. The Jets trade up to nine, grab yourself an offensive tackle. But the Jaguars, if they don't want to, could use offensive tackle too. You have to hope if you're the Jets, and I agree, you need offensive alignment, that the Giants go with Simmons, the Panthers are surely going to draft defense, so they'll draft Derrick Brown, and you'll have one of the guys left to pick from. So, Derrick Brown's not ideal for the Jets, but he's the best player still on the board. I can also see a scenario here where the Jets trade out of this pick. I mean, I think if they're at 11 and there's not enough for the tackle here,

you could trade back in the back end of the first round and get yourself Josh Jones from Houston, who I think is the next one up in line. It'd be too early to draft at 11. So they would have to do some maneuvering here at 11 if this scenario unfolded this feels like every second round pick i always make in fantasy where like i had all these i had all these dreams of guys making it to me and none of them did because all my friends read the same stuff i do and now i'm just freaked out and i'm like slamming beers and i don't know what to do and i take some guy i instantly hate that's what Jets are going to do if they don't figure out a way to trade this.

Just a stat that I'd like you guys to know that Joe Douglas certainly knows, the GM in New York. The Jets averaged 0.7 yards prior to contact per running play last year. That's the worst in the NFL. That means Le'Veon Bell is praying they get him a lineman, assuming he's going to show up this year. And they also allowed pressure in two and a half seconds or less on pass plays over a quarter of the time. That was second worst in the league. They suck at blocking.

This is the only thing that they can do. Sam Darnold isn't good, and he looks much worse because of that line. So please, please yeah please please figure something out jets i was looking forward to darnold i thought he'd be better in the nfl i don't i don't think he is i think he's just he's not he stinks yeah um on that note uh the the las vegas raiders are on the clock for the first time ever. This draft is supposed to be in Vegas, so I feel like we're owed a compensation pick or something, but we won't hold our breath.

We gave away Amari Cooper basically a couple years ago. We have a big hole to fill at wide receiver. Let's go back to Alabama. Let's grab Jerry Judy. Let's cash in in Vegas, and let's win a Super Bowl. Love the pick. It's the right pick to make in my opinion here. Um, Oh, Raiders fans, you guys, I've got to get better arguing on Twitter, by the way, you all are, you're all bad at it. It's just FYI. Um, but nonetheless, um, look,

I think you could choose between the CD lamb or Jerry Judy. There's no wrong pick here. It depends on kind of what you like in your wide receiver. You know, Judy is just kind of a quick strike guy. You know, if you look, he doesn't have kind of the ideal body for a big play wide receiver. But nonetheless, who cares, man? He just makes plays. And that's all that matters here. So I like the picks there. Good job.

Hey, Jeff, I do have one actual question. Is there any chance that tight ends can take wide receivers under their wing in the NFL? For instance, Jason Witten, how much impact can he have on a young wide receiver and how much carryover does he have? So it's a good question. I would say that the way he can help him is just teaching him how to –

what to look for in film. Like, hey, man, this is what they're doing to you. This is what they're trying to do to you. Here's what they're – you know, like that type of – he's not going to help him with probably his route tree and the concept of the plays. But he'll be able to help him, I think, with learning how to watch film, learning what to look for, learning what you need to do to be the best player you can be.

That's where I think the veteran leadership of Wynn will pay off. All right, Niners on the clock. You know who we are. We just played in the Super Bowl. A lot of people wanted to take a wide receiver, but we don't really care about offense. We care about defense. Trayvon Diggs out of Alabama, he's still there.

We only had 12 picks on defense last year. Yeah, I know he's not exactly a ball hawk, but we might be able to coach him up here in San Francisco. Bring us another corner. We want Trayvon Diggs out of Alabama. Wow, this is surprising. There's other corners, I think, ahead of him. But there's going to be someone who decides to make a surprise pick here.

And it feels like you've just done it, Zuri. Hey, on accident maybe. I talked about in an article yesterday, like surprise picks. I was wondering who would be the first one. Dane Brugger has him 33rd, um, on his, on his big board. Um, but you know, he, he makes plays, which is, uh, he says here is reader react skills and athleticism flow, uh, allows you to flow, allow them to get away with some techniques.

So you're to your point, you have great coaching San Francisco. You let them grow into that role. Um, I trust you here. GM knows defensive backs in San Franciscoisco i i like this he does he does all right with the 14 the tampa bay buccaneers are on the clock boo this pick is being made uh via facetime from a park somewhere in Tampa Bay where Tom Brady is sitting isolated, not following rules because why does he need to? He's different than the rest of us. Listen, this pick is obviously all about proving to Tom Brady that they're serious about him being in town. The problem is the same problem the Jets just had.

There are no offensive linemen left right now because there was a big run on them in the top 10. That's all Tom Brady wanted. They know they can't please him by dropping all the way down to some guy from Houston who belongs at the end of the first round. So they're going to have to go ahead and convince Tom that they need a wide receiver, even though they've already got two good ones. They got to do anything to try to show Tom

they're serious about making tampa better so they go ahead and make a reach here and pick up cc lamb knowing he's the best player out there and praying that tom will be happy about all his new weapons cc lamb that's the pick yeah um that this is this is tough because just like the jets you kind of been stuck it's by the way cd lamb um yeah exactly and and uh for the record tom brady is not learning his name ever okay he's calling him whatever his jersey number is so from now until the end of his career so his so his his uh he has his name is not obviously his first name is not cd it's like uh i gotta i heard it the other day his coach said his name was like – was too hard – was too long to pronounce.

So they just shortened it because he was so – he was going to be so good. It's like a great story. Oh, it's Sedarian. So his coach – this is on a podcast. I heard this. I assume it's true. I don't know. Maybe not.

That his first name is Sedarian. And his coach is a youth football coach said hey man you're gonna be so good people will know your name you have to shorn Sedarian it's like too long for people to say so he went with CD yeah okay Tom Brady isn't gonna bother learning Sedarian or CD he's just gonna call him like 82 or whatever his number is do you think that this could actually happen that they go wide receiver here because that's the best player on the board by far. Yeah, it's interesting because just like you, I think they would reach for Josh Jones here or try to trade down or possibly go like Javon Kinlaw

from South Carolina, the D-tackle, who people kind of think he's kind of a raw Chris Jones. They could go chase on the D the DN from LSU as well. We know last year they rushed a passer okay with – well, actually better than okay with Shaq Barrett and JPP. They need Offen to tackle in the worst way here. They're kind of stuck. I mean, just like the Jets are.

I don't know what they would do here. I think just you add more weapons for Brady is never a bad thing, and this is the spot to do it. And so, yeah, Lamb is the best player left to add as a weapon I do it all right well one team that's not happy about this run at wide receiver are the Denver Broncos John Elway this week said this exact quote we do need a wide out so i don't think there's a ton of suspense for what they're going to be looking at in the first round but the guy that they wanted this whole time is still there they're going with henry ruggs the third out of alabama who ran a 4.27 40 uh they've already

got a big wide receiver in courtland sutton he's going to be your number one guy and they just have nightmares of watching Tyreek Hill scorch them over and over and over so let's get the next best thing let's go with the fastest receiver in the draft give the Broncos rugs like this pick you need to continue to have players that can help Drew Locke. And this is a guy that can do it. He can absolutely fly. He can absolutely fly. I think this is a good pick for the Denver Broncos. I like it. I believe that is my turn to draft for the Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta has a couple options here. They could go with a defensive lineman, an edge rusher here, a defensive tackle. They could go with a cornerback here as well. I'm going to go edge rusher.

I'm going to choose Chase On from Louisville. He's raw. Raw is the wrong word. He's not refined as a rusher yet. He's a little bit undersized, but he's very twitchy. He's very athletic. I think he could do multiple things with them in their scheme, and they need just some edge rusher.

I would argue maybe C.J. Henderson here, the defensive back, is a possibility depending on where they have him on the board. This is a straight, in my opinion, for Dan Quinn and Thomas Amitra. This is a straight best player available situation. I'll go with Chase on. I don't know where they're ranked at. I could see C.J. Henderson here as well for this pick. I have the next pick with the Dallas Cowboys.

Their edge rusher's gone, who they need. So they continue to need cornerback. Byron Jones is gone. Best cornerback still left on the board. C.J. Henderson out of Florida. Most people have him anywhere between like 10th and 15th. Best player, Dane Bluger from the Athletic has him 13th right now. I would use this pick right now to pick up a player who can fill in right now because Byron Jones left. C.J. Henderson from Florida is the pick. Is there any chance the Cowboys do something weird?

Obviously, they've got every player they could possibly need on offense except figuring out that quarterback situation. But is there any chance that we see them making headlines? This spot, I mean, there always is the chance that happens. I just don't know who that guy would be. Maybe they take a different defensive back. Maybe they reach for an edge rusher. How about Justin Jefferson?

Maybe they take Justin Jefferson. There's other options. I just think that for them, defense is more important right now than his offense. We're getting in the best player available territory where it's just kind of where your draft board sits. Because right now, all these teams, they're typically winning teams, and they have little holes here and there. But also, that player might not be available, so just take the next guy.

It's so interesting to me how, and can go find examples actual examples but how often someone takes the best player available in the situation it's already in a position that sort of you have covered and then that guy gets hurt or that guy leaves and boom you slide the rookie it happens all the time so best player available at this point in the draft is the way I think most teams will go. All right. So the next pick at 18 is the Miami Dolphins. It's their second of three first round picks. Here's the thing with the Dolphins. We just drafted with another GM. We had a GM switch from pick five to 18. Another GM picked us, Justin Herbert. So that's great for us. We've got our quarterback of the future. But last year, we were last in sacks allowed and last in rushing. So we neither threw nor passed well. We need help on the offensive line. I know that everyone's talked

about how there's been a run on offensive linemen, and maybe it's because our boss is a former offensive lineman. but you know what? The dolphins guy is still there. They're going to pick Isaiah Wilson out of Georgia, who is, uh, he's six foot six. He was a top 10 projected pick coming into this season. But the real reason that the dolphins like him is because he went to the

same high school as Brian Flores, the head coach. How about that for a draft nugget? Out of, what is it, Brooklyn? Somewhere in Brooklyn. Poly Prep. So a hometown tie for the coach and the offensive tackle. The Dolphins get their guy at number 18, Isaiah Wilson.

Very interesting here. Isaiah Wilson might have the most boom or bust potential for offensive linemen. So I've talked about this. I'll just repeat it really shortly, quickly. He is a raw player with a little bit of technique issues, and I always worry in the NFL it's hard to develop those guys because you just don't have practice time. He fits in that mold, but need offensive linemen.

I'm okay with this pick. I think the Jones kid is better, can play right now. But the upside here is quite high. That guy just didn't go to the right high school. That's what it was. You're right. All right. The Raiders are now on the clock, thanks to that trade with Chicago.

I think it was the MAAC trade. That's how the Raiders are sitting at 19 here instead of the Bears. However we got here, here's what's interesting. The Raiders are set up to draft remotely like the rest of us. Coach is fired up. Here's the problem. He does his classic line, right? Knock twice if you're with me.

Dislodges the USB port, okay? Can no longer be heard oh no he wants a what he wants another wide receiver he's so fired up about the jerry judy pick earlier in the first round he wants another wide receiver he's just yelling he can't like does anyone hear me am i on mute he's banging on his keyboard nobody's listening in fact they're pleased not to have to listen to coach because of course they don't need more help on offense right now they need the best defensive player available uh so they just ignore coach they don't worry about the usb they ignore his phone calls and they just do the right thing which is javon kinlaw out of south carolina lineman jeff, right? I think it's the right pick here because it's the best player, in my opinion, still on the board.

If you look at who's been taken, makes a ton of sense here. Interior pass rusher. You need all the help you can get on defense on that side. I like this pick. Good job, Raiders. Good job, Raiders. No one ever says that. All right.

Judge on the clock. We have our quarterback. our quarterback we have tua very excited about that um we kind of just want a guy that wants to play in london because we know we're going to be there every year and maybe even more so going forward um so we're just we're just screening guys who have passports at this point but um one well you know it's a bit of curveballs we might we might zig when other guys are sagging. We want a running back. And I see a big name on the board here still. We're going Jonathan Taylor out of Wisconsin. No!

We don't know Fournette. We don't really know where Fournette's going to be. We got a young quarterback. We want a young tailback. We're going to just go with this youth movement. And that's my pick, and I'm sticking with it. Sorry. What are you doing?

What are you doing? Why? You're just trying to trade for next. Sometimes you got to go with your gut, guys. And this is what it's telling me. Oh, my God. I'm laughing so hard because Matt's laughing so hard in the background. It's just a bad pick.

I don't know what to say. This is just not – it's not – Are there – Hopefully you redeem yourself with the Eagles pick. Okay. Well, we'll see. All right. Eagles are on the clock. We just won a Super Bowl and all of our fans still hate us.

We don't really know what to do here. I'm talking to Lurie. Roseman's to my left. You know, it doesn't really matter who we pick here because you guys are going to hate him anyways. I heard Justin Jefferson a minute ago. And that's exactly who we had our eye on. We want the next wideout that fans are going to denigrate after we win the Super Bowl. I'm looking at you, Nelson Aguilar.

Justin Jefferson. Welcome to Philadelphia. This is the pick you have to make. I'm with you here. This one. I like good, good job here. I'll take this devastating for the Vikings picking next.

Oh boy. Someone didn't mute on the, the league zoom zoom and they just said exactly what we're feeling um yeah that is devastating because remember we got rid of stefan diggs our whole mindset going into this draft was a pro bowl wide receiver is going to slide to us even though we have a good team and we're drafting way down in the first round like a top 10 wide receiver is available to us this year except apparently no it isn't so we're freaking out and just like has happened in the past with the vikings we run out of time we don't even get a pick in but roger goodell roger goodell being the evil genius that he is cooks up some scheme to blame it on the technology fails, which, by the way, to this point in the draft, haven't even happened.

Weirdly enough, the ESPN and NFL guys keep everything on the tracks. There's been no technical glitches until this pick. And then Goodell says, uh-oh, technical glitch to buy the Vikings a little more time. As they scan their board and try to figure out what the hell to do with no wide receivers left, they just do the only thing they can think, which is make an already good defense even better as they scan their board and try to figure out what the hell to do with no wide receivers left. They just do the only thing they can think, which is make an already good defense even better for the reasons Jeff described. Best player available by their assumptions right now, Kenneth Murray from Oklahoma, linebacker. I don't even know if this pick honestly fits what they need or not.

They're freaking out in Minnesota. Nothing's working. I mean, they're probably over the moon for a linebacker, I guess. But I would cornerback. You got to find your way to get yourself a cornerback. Jalen Johnson from Utah would be, I think, the pick here. But now Jalen Johnson will be somewhere else. So, um, they, they, this is a very panic pick. So it is on, it is on par with, uh,

if you're panicking, this is how you do it. All right. This is going to be a momentous pick here guys, because the new England Patriots are up at number 23. Now, even if the time had elapsed on the Vikings, which would probably be Kirk Cousins' fault somehow, right? The Patriots would likely trade down because that's what they do here. But they're not going to trade down. But I can tell you that even if they do trade down, their first pick is going to be a quarterback. And their first pick isn't going to be any quarterback it's going to be jalen hurts from oklahoma and alabama so here's my thinking here you don't move on from tom brady to go draft a project which would be jordan love or jacob easason who's just like a big dopey version of you know his best

case scenario would be a big dopey version of Tom Brady. Bill Belichick likes guys from winning programs. He likes quarterbacks that don't turn it over. Last year Jalen Hurts 3,850 yards 32 touchdowns 8 picks. He's also a completely different quarterback from Tom Brady. He played some wide receiver. He is very adaptable, which are all things that Bill Belichick likes. He's also a winner. He started at Alabama as a true freshman. Think about what that means when you have Nick Saban as a head coach. He's played in national championships games. He has Patriot written all over him. If they picked him here, I think everyone would say what a great pick it was. I'm assuming they'll slide down and pick him at some point.

But that's who I think the Patriots are going to take. What do you guys think? Well, the issue I have with doing this so early is that he's probably not going to be a great starting quarterback in the NFL, in my opinion. I think the team is going to use him more like Taysom Hill. Maybe they use him like an extreme Taysom Hill where he gets more plays at quarterback than does Taysom Hill. I cannot see Bellatrack drafting a player to play quarterback in this spot who is not going to be, in my opinion,

a bona fide star at that position in the NFL. I can't see him drafting kind of like a Swiss army knife with 23 when there's, you could, you could, you could get a quarter. You could get Jordan loves at some other point in the draft, maybe even,

you can even get hurts. I think in the second round, like, I don't think you need to get him right here to make that pick. Well, I did, I did disclaimer this and say that I do think they'll move back, but I will say this,

this is the same criticism you had of Lamar Jackson last year. Well, I did disclaimer this and say that I do think they'll move back. But I will say this. This is the same criticism you had of Lamar Jackson last year. And here's Jalen Hurts, who last year had 1,300 rushing yards, 20 rushing touchdowns. He is a very, very good dual threat quarterback. They're not the same quarterback, though. I want to say one thing about – they're not even close, by the way. I want to say one thing about this. Everyone says,

and I don't really know where this comes from, because there's no evidence to back it up. Everyone always says that the Patriots want something different at quarterback. They want this mobile quarterback, this guy who can move, and this guy can do more stuff. I need to

see evidence of that. Where is the evidence? Because they have drafted, and you could say that, look, they've drafted the guy that fits the system they have. That's a fair argument. But they draft the same pocket passer every three years to back up Tom Brady. They have shown no creativity whatsoever at that position. They don't take out Brady to run a wildcat.

They don't do anything. And I'm supposed to be convinced that Bill belichick wants to do something like different i i i have not seen like they just they just signed brian hoyer they want to do something different they want to sign a quarterback that can move so i don't believe that they want to do this hybrid offense i have seen zero proof ever of them ever wanted to do this ever they've never shown exactly why they're gonna do it jeff you know that this whole season is just to spite tom brady that's their that's the only thing that matters in new england is can we do better than the tampa bay bucks can we make our fans realize that it was belichick and craft this whole time

and not that old guy who's playing in parks down in florida i think that this would be such a statement move to go in a completely different direction you don't think josh mcdaniels can draw up a read option like come on uh you can't i just i don't see it so all right we'll move on from here because we got a lot we got a lot more to go the saints don't have a ton of needs but linebacker is one of them and the best player left on the board is patrick queen live from lsu uh he is fast he can run he fits kind of the overall identity of what a linebacker needs to be now which is a mobile guy that can move and this just kind of best player available and it's position you

need Patrick Queen right in there perfect pick for me does he have a good comp Jeff New Orleans LSU I like it fans will know him another LSU kid I don't know who's I don't I don't have a great comp for him Jeff hates comps Zuri you're triggering him every chance you get you drafted a running back now you're telling him to make comps. I mean, Ford is picking Jalen Hurts. Jeff's probably going to jump off. All right, moving on. Minnesota needs a defensive back in the worst way. The best guy available is Jalen Johnson.

He is a prototypical lockdown man coverage corner in the NFL. He is from a well coached organization in Utah. He is going to be a star in the NFL. It's a perfect spot for him here. Jalen Johnson, who now, so now the Vikings have drafted Kenneth Murray and Jalen Johnson in this draft. Two great pieces to add to their defense. They've done a good job. No love for Antoine Winfield Jr. there? No, Jalen Johnson's better. I know the connection there. I know the connection's there, but not this early in the draft.

Fans could just reuse their old jerseys. Sure enough. I don't know how many fans still have Antoine Winfield jerseys. sure enough i don't know how many fans will have antoine winfield jerseys all right so the dolphins are back they i feel like every pick is the dolphins uh so again the dolphins have just the worst offensive line of all time they have uh their offensive tackles before this draft were julianvenport and Jesse Davis. Now they have Isaiah Wilson. And let's throw in Austin Jackson.

He's out of USC. The reason I like him is for the Dolphins. The thing with the Dolphins, they're not going to be good anytime soon. So they're going to take the best guy who is, he's 20 years old. So he's got a lot of time to grow he missed a whole offseason because he was donating bone marrow to his sister sounds like a good guy uh he's got a lot of like he's got a lot of room to grow but so do the dolphins i like them going uh with austin jackson here matt you chose the two offensive line with the

most work to get ready to play in austin Jackson and in Isaiah Wilson for your Dolphins. I mean, look, the same point stands for Jackson as Wilson. He needs time to develop. Is there time in the NFL now to develop these guys? I'm not quite sure. But you improve the offensive line, which is a big need of yours coming into this draft. So I'm not going to knock you for it.

All right. line which is a big need of yours coming to this draft so i'm not going to knock you for it all right the seahawks are on the clock that yell heard over the uh nfl zoom during the previous pick was them specifically pete carroll reacting to the guy he wanted off the board he wanted austin jackson he wanted a trojan for the same reasons jeff is dumping on the trojan pete likes trojans he would have made that guy into a lineman to prove to his quarterback russell wilson there's still a few good years of standing upright in this town left for you but with very few offensive linemen available they're scrambling in seattle they need to go with a replacement for jadevian clowny in case that doesn't get done between now and thursday so unfortunately for their gm they have to try to pronounce this player's name and they do their best when they take yator gross

matos out of penn state edge Edge rusher. He nailed it. Okay. Good job. All right. That's their pick. I might have just taken the Jones kid from Houston. I do not know why he has not been drafted yet. Would have been easier for them to say, but they went with Yator Grosmatos.

Is he from Lithuania? What's his deal? NBA draft? Yeah, he's from somewhere else. So I guess they need a defensive end. He's probably the best one there. You know, I was thinking Patrick Queen here for the Ravens. We have a nice history of scary linebackers here in Baltimore. We want to continue that.

But more importantly, we want to give our quarterback another threat downfield because we think that he still has some doubters out there and um we're gonna go we're looking at t higgins and clemson we know they make great players and um we think t higgins is gonna put us over the top and actually get us to the super bowl next year i like this pick because he is a big player and i feel like just I'm talking about size and I feel like the size is something that you need on this team like you don't have that big wide receiver you have fast wide receivers but you kind of need that big red zone wide receiver so this I think would be a great pick to help the offense all right Tennessee Titans on the clock here we're gonna we're gonna make this one quick you know that we re-signed our quarterback.

You know that we brought our running back on a franchise tag. And you know we need help on the D-line. So we're going to go with A.J. Epines at Iowa. There's no way that this is a bad pick. There's no way. No. This is a very good pick. You need any sort of pass rush.

You trade away Casey. I like this pick here. It's much better than going with jordan love who i think people are considered in this spot maybe someone on the show maybe not nonetheless um i like this pick good job all right same page all right at the 30th pick the Green Bay Packers are on the clock. And you just heard Jeff mention a name that the viewers have been looking at all night long. That's right. In the virtual green room. borough we've been staring at one guy sitting in his living room that's jordan love and he's been sweating on mute and he's been wondering i thought i heard i was going to be a top five pick i heard i might be the number one guy on some people's board i heard i was the future what happened and he watched a few teams that need quarterback not take him and he slid and he slid and he slid and he got to the 30th pick and the Packers 15 years later looked at each other and they said wait a second let's repeat history let's go for the Pac-12 guy who's got everything we need let's bring him in here

let's let him tutor be tutored by the Hall of Famer. Of course he'll play nice. Just the way Favre did. Let's get Jordan Love with the 30th pick. Let's rebuild for another 15-year run. He's the future in Green Bay. He goes at 30. So we have another Favre-Rogers situation. Yes. I don't hate this pick.

I don't hate this pick. So I would be okay with this. It would definitely light up Aaron Rodgers. Oh, boy. It would be okay with this. It would definitely light up Aaron Rodgers. Oh, boy. It would be incredible. I'm for this. Kind of fun. I think that the new GM, it's the exact same scenario.

Literally, it's the same exact thing. It's a new GM who realizes he's at the end of a run with a hall of famer the coach is going to realize hey if i win another couple years with rogers they're going to keep me on around here and i'm going to need a guy rogers has been through it he theoretically you know will do unto love what farve didn't do unto him he should be a good guy about this like they have a chance they could get a guy who should have been a top 10 pick why not aaron rogers is actually older than brett farve was when the park when the packers drafted rogers so this is the time wow all right so the second last pick of the first round is the san francisco 49ers uh spoiler alert they are

probably trading this pick because they don't have a second third or fourth round pick uh due to some trades emmanuel sanders being one of them but if they do stick around there is talk of joe staley retiring and even if he's not going to retire this year it probably means it's happening soon so they're going to put an end to the josh jones slide uh he was a four-year starter at houston at left tackle uh like him a lot here to the 49ers and if they are to stick around it would probably be to pick a guy like this i think the value in in this pick is great. It makes sense where they are right now to maybe need this guy because you look at a wide receiver. I mean, look,

Brandon Ayuk, I think, could be a possibility here at Arizona State if they stay, but I think the best value of staying in this spot would be to take your left tackle of the future. So I'm with you here. I like this pick. And it also would make the next pick, the last pick of the first round, I'm with you here. I like this pick. And also would make the next pick,

the last pick of the first round, more interesting in my opinion. I think the Chiefs are in the market for an offensive lineman. They stay at this position. I think there's many, there's a high probability they try to trade out. We know this pick can be very valuable. Let's say Jordan Love, Jalen Hurts, someone takes a slide into the – and they're not picked up now. We can see them trading out of this play. But I'll go with a position of need, in my opinion, and there's no one – maybe there's a cornerback out of TCU, Jeff Gladney, who might be drafted here.

But I'm going with Cesar Ruiz, interior offensive lineman from Michigan. He's the best interior offensive lineman. It might be a stretch, a little bit of a stretch to take him right now, but you're probably not getting him at the end of the second round. And this is a position where they need to get younger and better. So I'll go with Cesar Ruiz here, pick 32, world champion, Kansas City Chiefs. Going to the right place. He is going to the right place.

So I think – how do you – I'll go with Gabe. Gabe, how do you feel you did in this draft? Well, you know, it was a rocky road for me because I was – after the third pick of the Lions where I had an easy choice to make with Jeff Okuda. It was pretty much all nightmares for me. It was never what I was prepared for as a GM for any team. I got emotional with the Jets pick and seeing all these offensive linemen go early really threw off, I think, a lot of teams' plans.

The only thing that I really gained any pleasure from in this whole process was drafting jordan love 30th for the packers because i think that would be a very likely real headline for us to be scanning on friday morning i could easily seeing that being the second topic on first take is uh-oh another farve rogers situation in green bay other than that i don't think there's that many weird surprises in our mock draft um zuri drafting a running back after four net leaves jacksonville kind of stuck out to me uh to a sliding as he did sort of stuck out to me but i don't know jeff where did you see our headlines coming from this mock draft well jordan love to green bay would definitely fuel a lot of these shows for at least a month straight i mean to a dropping to nine is the surprise, in my opinion, of the draft.

And the guy that was a consensus number one pick heading into the season, now Burrow outplayed him. But if Tua was healthy, I think the Bengals would have an interesting choice to make between Burrow and Tua. That's where I find, I think, the most interesting part of the draft. I think that, Matt, your Hurts pick is interesting to New England. Matt, what's your take on our draft here? I think, you know, I made a joke earlier about how many offensive linemen went early, but I really do think that's very possible. I, you know, I think

without the trades, like it's obvious that this isn't going to be exactly what happens, but, you know, i do think that there are some things that we could see that could easily happen here like the tua thing i could see him sliding much further down than people realize for the simple reason that this covet 19 situation doctors not being able to examine him and him i mean one of the big appeals with tua is his character his leadership his personal dynamic like you can't maybe get that over Skype the same way that you would if you put him in a you know room with all the coaches like they did with Baker Mayfield a few years ago

in Cleveland and he just wowed everyone I could see him sliding pretty far because I think that people are going to be feeling pretty risk averse so I don't know if he slides out of the top 10. I think someone would move up to get him if he got all the way down to like the Cardinals pick at number eight. But I see a lot of this playing out pretty similarly to what we have here with the exception of Jonathan Taylor at 20. This is why the draft is fantastic. Zuri, your first time chiming in.

How did we do? I think you did good. I mean, we had one pick that was a little questionable, but we got that remedied. That's the fun part of not being live. That's right. I had a lot of fun. I'm glad I could turn some heads and turn some ears during the draft

because, you know, it's not going to go all chalk. You know, it doesn't always go all chalk. And, yeah, I think there's going to go all chalk or, you know, it doesn't always go all chalk. And yeah, I, I just think there's gonna be a lot of whiteouts that we look back to and say, wow, there was, this is a great class for wide receivers that maybe we looked to the quarterbacks first, but, and then the linemen, but the whiteouts are gonna be great. Hey Jeff, I think, yeah. One, one quick question, Jeff.

And this sort of dovetails off what, what these guys are saying with wild cards and Matt mentioning doctors. Do you think, and this is a real question, do you think that given the circumstances that we're all human beings, that all the folks drafting are picking under, is it possible that guys who come with a certain element of risk, I mean like character risk, like just guys who are kind of acting like dummies, immature guys will slide because right now you need people who get it. You don't want people in your organization who are going to screw up and do something stupid, put their health at risk, disobey rules. And we're adding more and more rules in society every day. Is it possible that guys who don't haven't proven that they get it in life are just going to slide because of that?

I know that's a hard thing to measure, but do you think that that could have an impact this draft? 100%. I think that high character guys, guys that have full, complete backgrounds on them will be drafted higher. We might not know exactly where that falls out of me. A guy might go in the second round and we might think because we might not know the exact reason why. But yes, I definitely think that this time you want guys you can obviously trust, you know are ready to play. Also, remember, with a shorter

offseason, if you're drafting on the first round, you have to make sure that he's able to grasp what you're telling him and be able to play week one knowing that you're going to have a condensed offseason. So yeah, I'm 100% agreeing with you there. I think it's going to be an interesting draft. It's pretty unique. I think we made it to end the podcast.

We did a mock draft. It went well. I feel very good about where my picks are. Look, the best part about that draft, in my opinion, and maybe you guys will disagree with me, is the unpredictability of it. And also that the NFL teams tested their technology yesterday. It was a spectacular failure. It's just incredible.

It's no surprise whatsoever. I will be doing recaps of the draft on my Periscope. So just go to my Twitter at Jeff Schwartz. I'll do them probably in the middle of the draft, the end of the draft. You can find all my thoughts on draft night at my Twitter, at Jeff Schwartz. Looking forward to the only sporting event we've had in a long, long time. And something we prepare for months.

Thank you guys for joining me today. Thank you, Gabe. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Zuri. Hope you guys enjoyed our mock draft. And we'll talk to you guys next week.