Green Light with Chris Long - Field Yates! Shedeur Sanders to the Browns, Travis Hunter & the 2025 NFL Draft!

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

ESPN's Field Yates and Chris Long recap the 2025 NFL Draft! Field was on-site in Green Bay taking in the sites from one of the best football towns in the land. The fellas talk Shedeur Sanders and determine why he was a projected first/second round pick but was taken in the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns. They also discuss Travis Hunter's selection by the Jacksonville Jaguars and how he can capitalize contractually as a player playing both offense and defense. The Philadelphia Eagles also came away with great value in Jihaad Ward, the Buffalo Bills had a solid selection in Maxwell Hairston to shore up their secondary, and Field and Chris compare the top tight ends taken in this draft - Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren! (00:00) - Intro (2:15) - 2025 NFL Draft (8:00) - Shedeur Sanders (18:25) - QB in Best Situation (22:45) - Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren (27:05) - Travis Hunter & the Jacksonville Jaguars (33:45) - Vikings Draft Picks (40:05) - Jihaad Campbell to the Eagles (43:50) - Maxwell Hairston Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ In need of sweet threads to vibe like Chris and the fellas? Check out ⁠the website⁠ for everything merch wise and enjoy for 25% off your entire order in celebration of the 2025 NFL Draft! sitewide! Also, check out our paddling partners at ⁠Appomattox River Company ⁠to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. Green Light's ⁠YouTube Channel⁠, where you can catch all the latest GL action: Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The NFL told us, and there's no mincing words here, that they don't think as much of the player as we did on the outside. They don't see Shador as a starting level, high-level starting quarterback, maybe even a starting quarterback at all. Potential starting quarterbacks don't last until round five. On top of that, and this is the part that is admittedly hard to talk about, that they don't want, or they are lower on, or believe that the circle that Shador has is more of a problem than we might have communicated during the pre-draft process. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast presented by BetMGM. If you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code Greenlight, and you will get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetmGM. Here's how it works.

Download the BetmGM app and sign up using bonus code Greenlight. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. If that bet loses, you will receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets. Just make sure you use bonus code greenlight. Greenlight when you sign up. Welcome to the Green Light podcast. ESPN's Field Yates joins Chris to talk about the 2025

NFL draft, the biggest storylines. Shador Sanders ended up going to the Browns in the fifth round, much lower than what anybody predicted. Fields is going to tell us why, what may have precipitated that fall, or was he a fifth rounder all along? Field also gives out his favorite picks, talks about

the Eagles picking Jehog Campbell, and Travis Hunter did the Jacksonville, The Jaguars finally have an identity. Field's going to talk about that. It's a great episode. Use it around the water cooler or in those group chats you've got going on. Enjoy it. All right.

So last week we had Daniel Jeremiah, one of the best in the business. Another one of the best in the business this week, joining Greenlight, Field Yates, fresh off a weekend in Green Bay, which sounds idyllic. It really was. I mean, I tell you, my first time ever going to Green Bay. So I was expecting, I had high hopes. I'd always heard about the lore of Lambo Field and how it's like hallowed ground. My biggest takeaway from being out in Green Bay for a handful of days was it's like the nicest

cross-section of individuals I've ever met in my entire life. Very friendly. We are the person who ran the hotel we were staying at for ESPN was like unbelievably accommodating. I actually lost my AirPods case on one of the first days being out there, which kind of suck because I couldn't use AirPods for the rest of the trip after the batteries died. and she very kindly was like, would you mind if I go out and buy you new AirPods? And I was like,

that's far too kinds. I'm going to bypass that offer. I think I'll take care of it when I get home. But that would be like how I would describe the people in Green Bay. The kind of people that if you lose your AirPods, they don't make fun of you for being an idiot, which I've done this 15 times now with my AirPods, but instead offer to buy you a new pair.

So that was going to be my second question. You seem infinitely more organized than me, and I don't even bother buying headphones because I'm going to lose them. The other thing, is like, would you mind if I do this very non-standard favor for you? Like, that's an incredible way of phrasing like, hey, I'll bail you out on this one. Like, those people down to the phrasing are salt to the earth. Dude, they are unbelievable. They are incredibly kind. That was like across the weekend. It was awesome. Like I think they said, the announced attendance

was close to 600K. Obviously, whether it was that number, a little bit below, a little bit above, It was packed. Friday was crappy weather throughout the day, and the fans were rolling in early. Saturday it was windy to start the day, and they were still there. The last pick is coming up, and people are still at maximum capacity,

which I love going to sporting events, concerts, whatever. But the draft, like, you just sit there, and in the first round, it's like every 10 minutes, you get someone to read a name. Goodell reads the name for, what, five seconds, and then we move on. Like, it's a lot of hurry up and wait throughout three days the NFL draft

and the fans definitely showed out. So are most of these people coming from like all over the place and where, where did they actually have them staying? Because that was one of DJ and I were talking about like, hey, like this city, you know, it can hold a lot of people for a football game, but this is another animal. Yeah, totally. It seemed like there was a decent, like, you know, I don't know, I'm going to make up a percentage. You know, 40 to 50 percent were locals or people that can make it there within a couple

hour drive. Yeah. But, dude, there were a lot of out-of-towners. Like, I remember getting on my flight. I had to connect in Detroit. I don't think Green Bay flies to a lot of places directly. And I live near Hartford. It does not fly to many places directly either.

It's kind of the perfect storm for at least one connecting flight. And I look over and there's like five Arizona Cardinals fans that were heading out to the draft. So tons of jerseys from all over the NFL. It sounded like the Airbnb scene was where it was at because a lot of locals, because the Packers, because Lambeau Field is like kind of a, it is like one of those destination trips that even if you're on a Packers fan people make, there were a lot of people that were renting out their houses for the weekend. As you know, probably even if you weren't parking there yourself when you were playing there, but just haven't been around the stadium, you're pull up and you just park in someone's backyard to go to the game.

It's surreal. It is. It truly is. It's surreal. Yeah. Did they try to put Hollandeau sauce on everything that you ate there? Because that was my experience when we went to Green Bay. They're big on the Hollandees sauce. Oh, I didn't have any Hollandeau sauce.

Probably my funniest food moment was I had a 7-8. flight back home on Sunday morning, but I was with a huge group of ESPNers. So we all got into, it was like the Bristol Express on the way home. We all just got into sort of one fleet of cars. And early, early in the morning, they were just trying to err on the side of caution, wondering if a day after the draft, there'd be a lot of people flying out. So we were there early. And I swear to you, 5.15 in the morning. There's only one terminal at the Green Bay Airport. So the intercom serves every corner of the airport. Someone, this woman announced, hey, just a heads up.

Our ice cream machine has now been opened for the morning. We are also serving cheese curds over at Gate B2. I'm like, ice cream and cheese curbs at 5.15 in the morning. Like, that tells you you're in a rare spot. I settled for, it was a great breakfast sandwich. But I thought about it. I was like, if I hadn't already gotten my coffee and breakfast sandwich, was I about the house, like, you know,

some soft serve ice cream and cheese curts? before a quick flight to Detroit, Chicago, Detroit or Chicago, wherever it was, and then eventually home. Listen, if there's anybody that can stop the tush push somewhere, they're probably in Wisconsin. I'll just take that for which you will. But honestly, they did draft the Tampa drafted the other massive human being. Now they got Vita Vaya and the Florida kid that wears 21. Get the tiniest block letters jersey numbers on his jersey in college football history relative to the side of his torso. So I got weighed in at what at the Combine?

464. Desmond Watson for Florida fans. Yeah, 464 pounds. Yeah, Vita's going to feel like he's, you know, been on like, you know, some slimming diet next to that guy. He's huge. I hope he sticks around for a while. It'd be fun to see, obviously. Like, Florida actually became kind of like,

there was a part of it felt bad because it was like every time he made a play, it all over social media, like, hey, Desmond Watson makes a tackle. And it's like, he's just a defensive tackle making a tackle is ordinary. Tackle, making a tackle. But you dropped that way from 464 to 374. We'll probably not talk about you quite as much. No question. All right, well, so the biggest story of the weekend was Shador Sanders.

Yeah. Like, I've been trying to, I have grappled with how to talk about it because it feels like a situation where the media at large had a different idea of where he was going than the people inside the NFL. And I think this probably happens a lot, but this was a real lightning rod situation because of the problem. profile of Colorado's football program over the past couple years. And obviously, Shador Sanders being legacy and being a highly productive player, where do you land today as the smoke clears as you try to make sense of this whole thing? I'll try to unpack it somewhat briefly, but I think this requires a little bit of time because there are a lot of layers to this.

And in some ways, it feels like the perfect storm. So throughout the pre-draft process, you're constantly in my role, talking to as many people as you can and just gathering their information and their opinions on players. It's just get a sense of where you think players will go off the board and which teams might be interested. And I'll just like entirely transparently. Most of the feedback from people around the NFL was, yeah, I think there's a, you know, the pretty good chance he goes in the first round. Maybe he slides into the second round.

Like that was about as negative of feedback that I got. And not that I asked every single person. And clearly if I had, maybe I would have gotten a different answer. But nobody said to me like, yeah, I think day three, round five, sounds about right for Chodor Sanders. So there are a couple of things that I probably underestimated throughout the process. One is the NFL told us, and there's no mincing words here, that they don't think as much of the player as we did on the outside. They don't see Shadour as a starting level, high-level starting quarterback, maybe even a starting quarterback

at all. Potential starting quarterbacks don't last until round five. On top of that, and this is the part that is admittedly hard to talk about, that they don't want, or they are lower on or believe that the circle that Shador has is more of a problem than we might have communicated during the pre-draft process, right? They made that clear. There's always like the bucket of what can you do on the field and the bucket of what are the intangibles, what comes along with investing in this player and that specter, whatever you want to call all of that, it was too much and the NFL made that abundantly clear. Yeah, the Brown took him in the fifth round. You can say, well, the Browns liked him. They don't like them enough to take him as their first quarterback off the

board. They took Dylan Gabriel about 50 picks prior to Shador Sanders. So I am like, there are a lot of lessons that I have learned during this process specifically about Shador Sanders and just the draft. And, you know, I think it's a reminder. And not that there will be many kids that have anywhere close to the same profile as Shador going forward. As a matter of fact, there's a chance that we don't have anybody like this maybe in your or my lifetime. But the pre-draft process doesn't matter how talented you are, where you're from. what you have around you, if you don't treat it like a four-month job interview where you are doing everything that you can to sell yourself as an individual and a player to the league,

the potential for you to have what I would say is a catastrophic slide is in play. And Chador is going to be the poster child for that going forward. I guess from where I sit, the footing gets a lot more unstable when you pass that, that, hey, starting quarterback realm of the job. draft. Say that's like this year it was probably the first 10 picks right considering the quarterback class and then you know like in a year like last year once you get out of that first round and a half or whatever it is like wherever teams are starting to shop for developmental guys or backups. Once you get into that that area I think what you say and what you do really matters. I think it matters

for the guys at the top of the draft for sure right. Yeah. But we've seen examples in the past where guys had a little bit more leverage than a shadore and maybe sure. or not having an agent, and I am all for the guys that negotiate their own deals and all I'm too dumb to do it, right? I'm just hand up, too dumb to do it, too lazy to do it. That's why I paid an agent. But like if you're representing yourself, like maybe that's a cautionary tale to some kids coming out where it's like, hey, you don't know what kind of leverage you do and don't

have. And maybe you're under the assumption that you have all this leverage. And not to say that you should go into those situations acting the way he allegedly was acting at the combine and interviews and such. But maybe you should just be a little bit more aware. And I think it's a, it is a cautionary tale in today's era of college football where guys have more freedom to act how they want to act and to say what they want to say. Like, these things have repercussions. I think, and not that these prospects are looking for my advice necessarily, but I would just say, like, as a blanket statement, and I'm comfortable saying this,

if I'm a draft prospect, like, I'm hiring an agent because you know this, but like NFL standard rate for an agent is 3%, but like there's no rule that says you have to pay an agent 3% of your salary. And if you're high profile enough, agents would take you on for 1%. They might just do it for a fixed rate because the incentive for them is if they can sign Chodor Sanders, you know, inarguably one of the most high profile players in the entire draft, that's good recruiting for the next potential client. Hire an agent. And it's not because these kids aren't capable of, to your point, like these deals for

rookies now. Like, as we know, the rookie pay scale has fixed these contracts where there's very little for them to negotiate. Gila Williams last year, didn't hire an agent. It took some time to get the deal done, but it's not as complex as if you were, you know, Dak Prescott negotiating his deal whenever that was last year with the Cowboys. But they're a liaison, and they have the relationship with GMs, with anybody in the NFL scouting community, coaches, and they can help get, I think, more honest feedback than Chador probably got if teams were talking to him directly, right? Like, even if you don't like a prospect or his demeanor, how likely is it for an NFL team to say like, hey, after the meeting, you know something, thanks for making the trip out, but that sucked. And you should probably change your way.

Which is not going to happen. Exactly. Yeah. I think there's some value in it. Even I understand the money and the money you got to pay someone. I would look at that as a pretty worthwhile investment. Yeah, I do too. And like, again, as a second generation NFL guy, I'm always rooting for those guys because I think what happens is it's really hard to be sympathetic to those guys because everybody's like, oh, it's easy, yada, yada, yada. Well, I can tell you, not everything about it is easy or great.

Yeah. There are a lot of pressures and there are a lot of people that don't want you to see because of that. One of the things you're supposed to be able to bank on is having the right information. You know, a lot of people you say, hey, Chris, you're going to have all these. advantages genetically yada yada yada okay by the way like i i didn't notice having a big genetic advantage when i got to the nfl the advantage that i had was a dad that could lay the road out for me and say hey this is what it's going to look like realistically these are the things you want to avoid these are the people you might want to avoid like yada yada yada yada whatever the situation is the manifest like my dad

is supposed to be able to give me the roadmap i do feel like ironically he didn't have a road map. And if Dion can miss the boat prime, Coach Prime, respectfully, who I think is a hell of a football coach and a Hall of Famer and knows a hell of a lot more than I do, if he can miss the boat on what is the status quo for this prospect going into the draft and he's my son, then that can tell you that anybody without representation can miss the boat completely. Because if Dion can miss it, so can your camp. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I just think the downside. far, at the cost of having an agent, maybe it sounds steep.

If you're thinking to yourself, like, I'm going to be a first round pick and I'm going to make whatever, $22 million in my first contract. And 3% of that is, whatever number that is, like, I think the cost is actually, like, that money will actually prove to be a discount relative to what you can get. We're not trying to make this into like, hey, you know, like do the PR for agents. It's just having a leadership, a Northern Star during the process, which it seemed like it was lacking. And again, I concede. Like, I missed the boat here, too, right?

My final mock draft, I had him 29th overall. I was only to the Brown. So I guess I had the right team. You were part of the collusion? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it was only 115 picks off, right? 150. Well, I mean, like, have you ever been so wrong on a guy? No, definitely not. Definitely not. I was saying on when I, we got the day three, it was, so 102 picks had been made by that point.

And it was player 16, and I want to say player 73, were the two highest rated leftover. And like a couple of the guys that were left over after the first three rounds of the draft in my top 100, at least a couple of them were injury guys, right? And that process, one of them was also Isaiah Bond from Texas, who after I turned in my final rankings, the guy has some serious, serious accusations, levied against him. So I hope, I hope not to be that wrong on a player going forward.

And there's probably a lesson here, too, about quarterback specifically, is we've seen this in the past couple of drafts, there is not really like that middle tier of quarterbacks anymore. Unless you're a guy who is a true development, like you have to be the JLMilro type, who is clearly and obviously a developmental quarterback. No one's confusing him as a starter right away, but also no one is saying that there is zero to work with there.

So we're not going to see as many guys go from like pick 50 to pick 100. The NFL has told us, hey, you're good enough to go early, a la Cam Ward. and even like the first, let's call it like 35-ish picks, like go back end of round one like Jackson Dart or closer to the top of round two like Tyler Shuck, or he's just going late. And not that this story was covered nearly as much and not that these prospects had the same grade for me coming into it,

but Chador Stanners and Quinn Ewers, like Quinn Ewers went 230th or 234th and seventh round in Miami. Like I didn't think Quinn would go on the seventh. I thought he would go day three. But the NFL saying to us like, hey, if we think the ceiling for the guy is maybe our third quarterback, then I would much rather hunt for a linebacker in the fifth round could become a starter because he's a height,

weight speed guy, but he just, you know, for whatever reason, didn't put it together at the college level. So it's going to be either really early or probably really late for these quarterbacks going forward. Now, which of these quarterbacks do you think is in the best situation? You know, like as far as a chance to develop and possibly see the field, because, I mean, take obviously cam out of it. Yeah.

And, you know, Jackson Dart to a degree because I think he's going to get a real fair shake where he was drafted. And Dayball, who I'm a fan of, he wants more time. He's going to want to roll that out this year. He's going to want to, you know, dangle that out in front of ownership and say, hey, we drafted this kid. Give me some more time. He's pretty good. But like outside of those two guys, who do you think has the best shot to actually see the field and enjoy success? This is going to be a little bit of a wild card because he's a wild card as a player.

But I'm going to go with G.L. Milrow because he landed somewhere where there actually isn't ambiguity with the starter. We can talk about how Sam Darnold's contract is essentially like a year-by-year deal with Seattle. Not that bore people with contract stuff, but it's like that structure is kind of how they do their business. And I don't think that they signed him to that contract with the idea of him being a one and done player. Right. But he's the guy is Sam. And Jalen can just be the change of pace. Maybe that's five snaps a game.

But, you know, Baltimore, and I hate to make this low-hanging fruit of the analogy, but he's the only guy who I think has kind of come into the NFL probably since 2021 when Justin Fields, that class came out where it's like this player, even if he doesn't develop as a thrower, has such good running ability that you could tap into that some way somehow. So that's the case with Jalen, that's like that would be how I would do it. And if you're Seattle, who now is playing the Clint Kubiak system, which is an extension of the McVeigh-Shannahan system,

like I don't think they drafted him with the idea that he is tomorrow going to be ready to be this, like, timing and rhythm passer, which is what that offense is predicated upon it. It struck me as Seattle drafting a player that they want to use as their change pace, the guy that keeps defenses on their heels. You know this, but like, if Jalen Milrow plays eight snaps in week one of the NFL regular season, whoever the defensive coordinator is that the Seahawks face in week two. Yes.

There's going to be four hours of meetings and prep and on-field work just in case Jail Limer sees the field. Dude, I have been a longtime proponent of this. If I coached in the NFL, I would have a package every week that would strain opposing coordinators and take time away from them doing the meat and potatoes the very next week because I've been a player when you have a gadget guy, quote unquote, not saying that's what Milro is going to be, but in this developmental stage, I suppose he is out the gate.

Yeah. Like, that's very valuable to be able to, I mean, Wildcats kind of gone away a little bit. Yeah. But, you know, there are ways to get these guys on the field and waste. I mean, waste, as you just put it as a great point, waste time in NFL buildings

around the league. This is probably, like, this is a wild way back in the day story, but I was in Kansas City working for the Chiefs when man, Michael Vic was returning after being in jail. And so he was suspended, I think, for the first two weeks of the season, but played, he was allowed to play in the preseason. So anyway, it's like, you'd seen enough of him when you're like, well, he still can run like that. He's Michael Vick, right? He's like

one of the most, you know, athletic quarterback, if not the most athletic ever. And we played them in week three, where Kevin Cobb was the starter and it was like, it wasn't like, and Andy was like, Andy was like, yeah, you know, Kevin's our starter, but we expect Mike to play. Just the idea of Michael Vick playing. And I remember that. we can practice. We're running the Vic package, just to make sure guys are ready. You know, these defensive coordinators, they would- Panicked. They would much rather have a meticulous 15-play, 75-yard drive. They can live with that. Hey, they out-executed us. You get burned by one play where you just don't see it coming. That's the kind of stuff that leaves these

defensive coordinators, you know, like, you know, scratching their neck to the point they get like, you know, like red sores because they're so. Yeah, it's just, it's, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's, panic meter. So anyways, I think that will be a factor here for Seattle opponents this year. Because I imagine they drafted him with the idea in mind that he may not be a starter ever. But for a few years, he can be the guy that you have to think about every single week. Was everybody shocked, as I'm just looking up and down the board here, that Tyler Warren went after the kid that Chicago, Colson Loveland, yeah, who seems more of like, I didn't want to be too soon with the comps, but he seems like a little, he's got a little bowers in him after the can. which is a very, very good thing if you didn't watch football last year.

That guy's going to be special. Were people internally surprised that Tyler Warren didn't go first? Not totally surprised. I had the two players, and doing a big board like one to 200 is useful. It's helpful for fans that are consuming content, but it's not totally reflective of how NFL teams build their boards, right? It's much more. Some of it's how do we play?

What do we value? What do we need? What do we already have? You build things horizontally as much. which is building things vertically. But I had these two players, 7th, Warren, and 11th, Loveland overall. So, like, I mean, whether you liked one versus the other,

you're not, you like both of them a lot. And I also know that people get bad in a shape when you use, like, lofty comps for players. And I don't use lofty comps for players because I expect them to become these, you know, guaranteed Hallfamers. What do they kind of remind you of? Well, and it gives people, like, if I told someone like, yeah, you know, this Colston Loveland reminds me

and I like pull like some random saints backup tight end from like 98. It's not going to resonate, right? No. But if I tell you that Colston Loveland plays more like Travis Kelsey and Tyler Warren plays more like Gronk, it gives people an idea. So Kelsey, Brock Bowers, that type of person would be, that type of player would be more where Loveland fits in. And, you know, and maybe I'm overdoing it with like the excitement I have for Ben Johnson. But like obviously he's a mad scientist. And so when you bring a talented player into the.

a fold, you imagine what he can do. And I have some optimism, and I was optimistic last year too. I fully own that. But I have some serious optimism now, but what the Bears' offense will look like this year. Well, it's so funny because I was just saying this to guys the other day. Like, remember when we all thought that, well, many of us thought that Leporta wouldn't go first out of the crop of tight ends that year? And it was the kid from Notre Dame who Yeah, Michael Mayer. We were all obsessed with. Like, obsessed with Mayor. Like, obsessed with mayor and he didn't go first. Laporta went first. Some people scratching their heads a little bit, at least people who aren't in the know like you. And then who was it? Ben Johnson, who turned this

kid into a star. And so now Tyler Warren is the guy who had to wait and Ben Johnson is going to inherit the unexpected TE1 in the draft. So he's in good hands and that's one place. Isn't it funny like Chicago can kind of draft like, like they're they were drafting high in the draft, but it feels like they kind of had some freedom to say, hey, where do we want to go? Yeah. Like, they're close. When they made those trades and signings along the offensive line this offseason, their GM, Ryan Paul said it.

He was like, the good thing about these moves, beyond the obvious, which is that our offensive lines a lot better, is it the board is now wide open at 10. Yeah. They could have gone for another offensive tackle there. If, like, Kelvin Banks hadn't gone ninth in New Orleans, I imagine he would have been a conversation at 10. If there was a pass rusher they really love,

They could have gone that direction at 10. If Ashton Genty had made it there, they could have gone with Genty. And the board opened up in a way that they could take a tight end there. And the last thing I'll say about Loveland is, again, I love Tyler Warren. So I'm not by any stretch. Different. Disappointed for Colts fans. But the Loveland conversation might be different.

If he hadn't been subjected to, and again, this sounds like exaggerating, but it's really not, like amongst the worst quarterback play in all of college football last year. The fact that he had 52 catches, like when I was looking at, up my final notes. I had it as a positive, not a negative. I'm like, I don't know how he got to 52 because they had no quarterback play and nobody else besides Loveland the defenses were afraid of in the passing game. Everything he got was actually pretty well earned. No question. And it's funny that through it all still people, I mean, I was talking Daniel Jeremiah last week about it and he likes Aller. He thinks, you know, which I don't know, it's just as a sidebar here. That guy's still

going to garner a lot of attention. So people don't think it's the quarterback that's broken there. I know. But the passing game's tough. I mean, it's a tough place. That just doesn't seem to be what they want to do up there. Okay. Question. Travis Hunter. If Travis Hunter ends up being a two-way starter and he's pretty good on both sides of the ball, let's hypothetically, he's up for free agency this year. Say he got drafted four years ago. Yep. How much does he make and how do they, like, how do they base that contract? If he's playing both sides of the ball and doing it well, what is the NFL and what is his agent

or what do the Jaguars do when they come to the table? Pretty unique. I was trying to think of an, like, as you were asking the question, who is the best comparison for this? There really isn't anybody like him. So you have to find a player who's like a little bit of two things once and how you might pay him. I think what probably ends up happening is that Hunter

will play both sides of the ball, but there will just be enough of a skill. skew towards one side versus the other, then he leans towards that. Like, he will lean towards wide receiver because wide receivers make a whole lot more. The team, if he's playing close to 50-50 or maybe even a little bit more defense, will say, hey, you know, you're vastly superior on defense, even if he's not vastly superior on defense. It's a, I thought about that.

I thought about whether that could be a motivating factor for him to at some point make that decision. I'm glad it's not right now because I feel like contract. discourse is at like a relatively low point maybe it's always been like that it's always i don't know man just like from where i sit and i think out of all the players in the dream you know how some guys are just like okay that's a hall of famer right there like and if he's not i'll be shocked and i don't throw that around i don't say that about too many people coming in the nfl draft i just like the way he moves he walked out on the stage and danced around and i was like yeah that guy's like triple

jointed. Like you can see he's just he's just different and his spirit the way he carries himself. I love the kid. Like so much respect for him. So I think he's going to be great. But I I wouldn't doubt him on anything but playing 120 snaps a game. That to me is just not it. It's a non-starter to me having gone through it. And back in the day, we played 85 snaps a game. Yeah. And that was like a crazy amount, right? Right. You can't last that way. Yeah. I think he'll like, end up, like, it'll be, I don't know, a pitch count, you know, borrow a baseball analogy, probably will come into play here. Is that, like, hey, if they have a long drive on offense and he plays 14 straight snaps

to start the game, and then when the defense takes the field, he might be only the nickel corner in that first drive or whatever it might be. They'll have to be selective. I also was thinking about this and talked about a little bit on our show earlier today, and it's not something I think about ever, really. So, but I'm curious if you think this is valid or if you think this is overthinking it. The NFL is obviously wildly popular. It's so, so crazy how much love there is for this sport.

But if there was a franchise that's lacked on identity and like some juice for a long time, it's the Jaguars, I had forgotten this, but I wasn't checked it out, what looked it out this morning. The Jaguars didn't play a Monday night football from 2011 to 2023. Like 12 years they went one. And like that's not that recent, that's not that long ago, I should say. They have played, they played 20, 23 and once last year. They got rolled by the Bills early last season, 47 to 10.

Oh, so ugly. Yeah. They need a, like, they needed a face. And Trevor Lawrence will become or reestablish himself as the face of the franchise if he plays at a high level. Quarterbacks do that. But right now, in this moment, I don't think people are like, hey, the Jaguars have Trevor Lawrence. So regardless of how bad it's been, everything's just going to be okay because that guy is going to be a feature hall. the

famous. We're not there right now with Trevor. He can get there, but we're not there. I got a secret for people that don't watch the Jaguars. This fucking guy, Brian Thomas.

Yeah. And the two of them, the two of them in camp practice this year. Oh, there should be a motorcade of NFL media down there watching one-on-ones. Or if they're split out

on different sides of the formation, I want to see that too. Yeah. And yeah, there is an excitement. Nate Collins, who played in the NFL, He works for works with us.

He's on this show. Dr. Fax. They drafted him the other night, and he's a proud Jaguar. Went down there for alumni weekend and everything last last year. He goes, this is going to put us back on the map. This is a ticket selling play.

And as much as it is, I mean, he's going to help them on the field. And the other thing field is, when you're worried about a complete, like, and I hate even using the word, because I don't like using the word bust because it kind of talks bad about the kid.

But if you're worried about busting verb, like you just, you totally miss on the pick. You cut the chances of that happening in half because you have multiple options where you can play this guy. If it turns out that the biggest kept secret in the world is he's not going to be a good pro corner,

well then you just kind of quietly pivot and I'm pretty sure he can get you 800 yards a year. So I think this is a really safe play for a young GM and I like in a draft where there's not a lot of game changers, evidently, going up and getting him. It's hard to also fault someone. one like, this trade obviously happened on the clock. There was not a lot of talk about the very specifics of it,

at least until a few hours before the draft. And there was nothing on it, nothing on it prior to the day of the draft. But if you had talked to a Jaguars fan or alumni, whoever it might be, if you'd ask Nate on Monday, like, dude, what would you do for the Jags to land Travis Hunter? And if you asked him, like, we have to do it for five plus next year's one. my guess is almost anybody would say in a heartbeat, right? So if you're going to take a risk,

it might as well be a calculated one where you can defend it. You know, you've got to go down swinging. So I actually like the deal for Cleveland, too. Like I don't mind. Like Cleveland's taking a risk in their own, right? Yeah. But betting on the downside of Jacksonville,

it's not a terrible play. If the Browns come out next year with a top five pick from the Jaguars in a quarterback heavier, and we'll see, but quarterback heavier draft, no one's going to say, oh, man, well, shoot, we got Mason Graham and a quarterback next year, but we didn't have Travis Hunter.

Like, for as great as Travis Hunter is, we all know, like. It's a quarterback-driven league. No doubt. And if you get one of those. And they are throwing the kitchen sink at it, and I don't blame them. I actually liked them in the second round coming back and getting Shador, if that had been what happened. I thought that might happen. I also thought the Rams might be a good candidate because with Matthew Stafford's age,

you can talk about a soft landing spot for a young kid. Oh, that would be great. Man, what a dream. Okay, I want to talk to you about the Minnesota Vikings. Donovan Jackson, offensive guard, Ohio State, pick 24. Has there been a team over the past couple years that has appropriately reacted more swiftly based off the result of one late season sequence than the Vikings? I mean, that playoff game, I'm pretty sure they were like, yep, tear the fucking big board up.

We're starting over in free agency and in draft. They beefed up. No doubt. So the defensive side of the ball, excuse me, was John Allen and Javon Hargrave for like, something like $35 million combined a year. Big money. Offense, the offense is out of the ball this off season. Signed Will Fries to a five year, something like $90 million deal. I mean, they've been spending big, big and free agency. And then Donovan Jackson, who like I, and I get it. And I understand why Travis Hunter talk is much more appealing than offensive line play. But we're going to get to a point. somewhere in the middle of the season, and we're going to hear about a quarterback who's struggling and playing way below expectation, and then you're going to realize that the guy's under pressure 50% of the time he drops back, and they're going to say, damn it, if only they had some offensive linemen. So this kid, Donovan Jackson, who was a guard for three plus years at Ohio State, and then middle of the season last year, is left tackle Josh Simmons,

tears his patello tendon. And Ohio State, listen, I'm sure they have good backup options, but they needed the best because they had no more margin for error the rest of the season, basically. And they needed somebody. And Ohio State asked him, they were like, can you play tackle? And he was like, sure, I'll play tackle. And by the end of the year, his first game out as a left tackle was against Penn State and Abdul Carter, welcome that's like Baptist and by fire. He struggled.

And then the rest of the way, after that first game where he allowed two sacks and three pressures, he allowed one pressure and zero sacks the rest of the way. I just thought, again, it's not sexy at all. It's probably boring for fans to listen about. But if you care about winning and the Vikings obviously do and they realize the errors of their ways last year, not being strong enough up front on both sides of the ball, then this is the kind of move that is a Viking fan.

You should be enthused by. I don't say he's a no-field prospect. There's no such thing as that. But when you have a guy, you're talking about Travis Hunter, like you've cut your margin in error or you've multiplied your margin for error by two because you have a two-person player. Not exactly the same thing here,

but if the guy's been a great left tackle and been a great guard, makes you feel better about the chances of him settling it at one spot and being really successful in the NFL. Hey, I got a question for you. When was the last time a white defensive tackle was drafted this high in the NFL draft? Oh, man. I think I have the answer. Mason Graham was picked fifth in the first round the other night. Oh, man.

Dude, oh, gosh. I think it's Steve Edmund. Damn. That probably is right. That's a throwback right. I think it's Steve Edmund. I'm trying to think of like, you know, highly, just finding highly drafted defensive tackles in general. Yes, period.

Jerome McCoy 3. Yes. Ah, man. Yeah, that sounds right to me. I want to take it your word right there. Yeah, this isn't a hard-hitting football question, but a bit of trivia, if you listeners want to take this one on the road, you might want to double check it. But the other night, we looked, and I think it was Steve Entman. How do you feel about the Will Campbell, Memboo thing where neither of them feel like sure-fire,

tackles, right? Like, and I'm not taking anything away from these guys. Will Campbell's a beast. He played his ass off. I haven't watched Membu play as much. Obviously, the arm length thing factors in. But like, how do teams feel about, hey, if we end up getting a really good guard in the top 10 who might slide inside at some point in this career, do teams feel like, hey, we got our money's worth? They feel like they got their money's worth much more than where we were 15 years ago. Right. I had guards and guards and guard. Right. Like, I mean, I know he's was on the show and he was great a few weeks ago. Like, Milton Williams was the highest paid player in free agency this year, right? He's a defensive tackle. Like, when you got drafted in the

NFL, I can't imagine it was like, hey, defensive tackle was the money position. It was pass rushers, right? It was like yourself. Like, those were the guys who went really high deservedly in the draft. Now, Milton Williams, $26 million a year. Chris Jones, $30 million a year. Other guys at that spot making a lot of money. I bring that up because who's blocking him? It's guards and centers, right? So if we're acknowledging that defensive tackles are as important as they have become, we need to also acknowledge that the guys who are most responsible for protecting against those guys should also be really important. And I've dug into why these defensive tackles have become so valuable for teams.

And like the most common theory has been this is that I would argue we're in the most athletic era of quarterbacks we've ever seen. And these guys, you know, Lamar, Josh, Jalen, Mahomes, you name it. not that pressure is just easy to get out of, but they've got a guy coming around the edge. You know, they have multiple ways of going. You can either step into the pocket and kind of around him, or you can retreat backwards and just run around.

Like, when you got pressure coming right up the gut, there's just not a lot of places for you to go. Like, there's just not a lot of, you just, where, how do you get out? How do you escape that? So these guys who are coming right up the gut are sitting there, and it's like, like, Mahomes is even, if he's a great athlete or Lamar, even though he was a great athlete. It's like I may be a superlative athlete, but I've nowhere to move.

No, and the guys who aren't athletic, well, respectfully, like a Tom Brady in the traditional sense of the word, like Tom Brady was one of the best at climbing the pocket like in the league. Like take away what happened when he threw the ball. His interior pocket mobility was as good as anybody. And, you know, like the leagues become more timing. you don't have as much time to rush the passer. It's also a passing league, so I think ends and edge players are,

they're not slowed down the way they used to be. And so, yeah, you speak to a really important point, which is that the interior step-up lane is the key to everything. And I think also teams are after getting that three-down defensive tackle. Yeah. You know, because there's a lot of rotating in the NFL going on, but if a big guy can play three downs, that's very valuable. And so you're seeing that and you're seeing the response,

tackles, guards, like whatever it is. Okay, so the one guy in the first round that I was really excited about was the Philadelphia Eagles pick, Jihad Campbell. Yeah. Because when they read his name, they called him a linebacker, but I think you can do more than that. What does this speak to when it comes to the defending world champs? So you know this, because obviously you were with the organization and you know Hallie,

but I mentioned this at some point during the maybe free agency or up to the draft. Like people think that, you know, Howie is like by, like has like, you know, whatever, like the Ten Commandments of roster building, which maybe he does to a degree. But he also is like, I'll zig when the rest of the league is zagging. It's part of why, like he saw a depressed market last year at running back and signs, you know, if not the best, one of the best in the league for a great value contract. Same thing happened here on Thursday night is what do the Eagles? need an inside linebacker? They didn't need one. Did they, like, but would they, would they take one?

Who, and the thing with Campbell is he's coming off of labrum surgery, so we'll see whether he's available at the start of training camp or if he's limited, whatever it might be. But you might have to be more patient on him than other teams were able to be. But Philly is like, so we have Zach Bond, we'll figure out linebacker two and three spot because we're so good. We don't need our roster to be at the peak of its powers in week one, because over the course of the season, we'll get there and we're so talented elsewhere that we can we can give a little bit to gain a lot at a later point uh campbell to your but as you mentioned like while he is a stand-up inside linebacker in some people's eyes he also was an awesome rusher this past year

Alabama every once in a while was like what is it going to kick you down and let you play pin your ears back and go because he's so explosive off the edge you got good length I knew what his listed size was but I was in the green room on Thursday night as part of our ABC coverage And I saw him from a distance at first, and I was like, what defensive lineman is that? Because he's huge. He's a massive. He's a massive. He's cut up, too.

Like, he is, like, that's a well-built linebacker slash pass rusher. And that's, people keep asking, you know, it's like, how do the Eagles keep getting away with this? And I really believe the truth of it is this. It's not getting away with anything. It's that Philadelphia a long time ago made a decision that they were consistently going to be comfortable, drafting for value and not for need. Now, is that mean that you're always going to be a dominant team? No, because it may be that you've got some real roster holes. But if you always draft for value and you worry a lot less about need, you're going to end up stock playing a lot of good players.

And ultimately, no matter how smart coach or the GM are or not, like, you've got to have dudes as well. And the Eagles have consistently had dudes. And it didn't stop this past weekend. I love the Campbell picks. Some of the guys they got on day three. like again, less sexy, but like, Smile Monday, the linebacker from Georgia. If you saw him, like super impressive as well, Drew Kendall, son of Pete Kendall, longtime NFL center in the fifth round.

Like, not that they needed, they just made their center one of the highest paid ever. And it's like, we'll still draft the second best one in the entire class in the fifth round because it's a good value for us. That's just what they do. You make a great point about the value. It's going to be funny to see all those Georgia Bulldogs ganging up on the Bama guy. I'm hoping, you know who is a great Bama line? linebacker who could rush the edge.

One of my favorite players I ever play with, Dante Heitow. He could rush his ass off on the edge. He didn't have to do it all the time, but when he did it, you were like, hey, get back there because I don't want you taking my job. He could do it all. And I'm hoping that's what this guy's like. I think it's a great point on drafting for value. Just period.

It seems to be kind of the way they've done it. And I think most people didn't even realize that's what they were doing. But year after year, that's what they do. Last question for you. Yep. Maxwell Hirsten headed to Buffalo

Corner Brandon Bean got on the radio today I don't know if you saw this I did yeah I love the fire from Brandon Bean me too man

and his argument is very convincing it's I mean like we were scoring 30 points a game last year what more do you want from us how many receivers do you need if you watch that last football game

they could not trot out a secondary specifically like the one they did Talk to me about this pick. So Harrison was in the green room. This guy, he definitely has an infectious personality. I put this video out there on Twitter, because I thought that was a cool moment.

So he was the green room, like there's an alley, there's a hallway that if you watch the broadcast, you can see the players walk up once they heard their names called from the green room. Ironically, they had the fastest player in the draft 428 speed in the closest little section of the green room to the actual draft stage. So he got up and he dapped up every single guy that got called. before him. And I swear to you, like, the first time it happened, I was like, oh, I didn't know him in Camp Ward where boys, like, maybe they go way back. And they just kept happening and happening and

happening. Like, you see him and Travis Hunter, you see it with like all these, I'm like, this guy is like the ultimate hype man. So that part was legitimately very, he's a glue guy for sure. Yeah. 4-840 at the combine, the fastest of any player. Two years ago, he led the SEC with five interceptions. He's a zone corner specialist. At least he was in Kentucky and that fits really well with what Buffalo does. But over 82% of his cover snaps at Kentucky were in zone. He's super instinctive. He's got elite, elite ball skills.

And, you know, the reality of being fast is it allows you to take some gambles, right? Like, you can afford to bite in a double move down the field because you can probably catch up to the guy if he does get you with that. But the upside is if, you know, you jump a route that is not a double move route, then you're probably going the other way. So he had three pick, sixes in college and sticky in coverage. just, Buffalo had a dramatic, I felt like need a cornerback in the first round. And I know Brandon Bean who had traded up in four of the past six drafts probably was sitting

there like itching, like, am I going to get my guy? And he ended up getting this guy. Yeah, it was a five alarm fire there at Corner in Buffalo. And hopefully they put it out. But Field, thank you so much for your time. I know it's been a hectic weekend for you going back on TV. So thanks for spending some time with us here at Greenlight. No doubt, man.

Glad to do it any time.