Green Light with Chris Long - NFL Draft Round 1 RoundUp! Ryan McGee on Trey Lance, Bama's Big Night, Biggest Winners & Losers & Justin Fields' Upside.

Episode Date: April 30, 2021

(01:00) - Welcome and Chris' Draft Thoughts. (23:00) - Ryan McGee and Chris Recap 2021 NFL Draft. Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 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. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I say this reluctantly because it's the Jets, but I think they got a great pick. But now I'm curious to see what the Jets do to screw that up because that's what they do, right? Happy Monday afternoon, everybody. Sorry, the pod's taken so late to get out. I've been all around the world. I know I said on my Instagram story that I might not come back and podcast anymore. I was only 30% telling the truth. Here I am.

Can't get rid of me just yet. I'm going to be solo today until I'm. going to be joined by Ryan McGee in about 15 minutes. But we had the draft last night. The NFL did a really good job of stretching that thing to its limits. I mean, it was a feature film, including having to sit through the Jaguars war room for 10 minutes when everybody knew who was getting picked there. So they do a great job of stretching that thing out. Roger Goodell's couch.

Actually, I like the concept. I'm going to do something in this podcast that nobody's going to like, and that's compliment Roger Goodell on that concept of bringing his couch out there on stage. And it was cool to see the fans and that sort of thing. It was like, really, let me take off my cynical hat for a second. It was really cool to see some of the people that were recognized by the NFL and cool to see like fans. Okay, like we saw it with some of the fights, the UFC fights recently. I don't know that those are as safe as maybe the NFL was making it.

I saw that that handshake line at the Masters that, you know, nobody batted an eye at. But yeah, I mean, like COVID notwithstanding, it was nice to see people at an event involving the NFL. And the buzz was great, although it did take a while. And I was fresh off of part one of my vacation down in the islands. And here we are last night, get in, and I watched that three-hour draft. So wake up this morning, get Ryan McGee on the books. and we're going to talk to draft. You know Ryan McGee from Marty and McGee with Marty Smith.

You know him from talking college football. You know him from writing about college football. Ryan McGee is a guy who actually wrote a feature on me way back in 2008, which it felt like last night because I saw our friends of the Kings of Leon playing at the draft. I was like I felt like I was about to get my number called. When I tell you the Kings of Leon, Kings of Leon had a phenomenal run. phenomenal run. And they're really good guys, too.

They're from Oklahoma. They're good, good dudes. And, like, their first three albums, I stack that three album run against anybody. But it blew my mind seeing them up on stage. I had, like, flashbacks when I used to drink an inordinate amount of whiskey. I mean, when you think about bands for me

that remind me of being a little bit blackout drunk with regularity, it's Kings of Leon, and it's probably Deer Tick, if you guys know Deer Tick. So I almost tasted. some Jack Daniels in a but light. Like automatically I hear Kings of Leon, I taste a shot of Jack Daniels followed by a bud light. Those guys were on TV.

It was an interesting setup, but I enjoyed it. And, you know, Ryan McGee is a guy who knows many of the players who went in the first round, six of the first 24 Bama guys. So we're going to talk a lot about the SEC, but that happens to be the best conference in football right now.

And has been for some time. So get used to it. The biggest story of the draft for me, probably, yeah, the Bears trying to get this quarterback thing right. Moving up nine spots to go get Justin Fields, who was the talk of the draft for the last month. And people were freaking out pro Justin Fields, anti-justin Fields. Justin Fields became just south of politics in this country.

So I just stayed out of it. I don't have an opinion on him as a quarterback. He seems like he's pretty damn good. But you never know with these guys. But Chicago seems like they do know. And they moved up nine spots to 10. And, you know, like, good morning to everybody, but Andy Dalton. So, I mean, like, if you're him, imagine hearing you're the starter earlier this offseason,

which means nothing in the NFL. No promises mean anything in the NFL. Your contract means everything. Like, how protected are you? when it comes to what's written on that contract. That's how you know how much they have invested in you and how much you can believe them. Whether or not they want to start you,

that's another story. But presumably, you know, it's his job. And I don't blame him for thinking that to a degree, but you know how this stuff goes. Now, Ryan Pace says he's still the starter. So we'll see what happens with that. I actually don't mind the idea of, and I'll talk about this with McGee,

I don't mind the idea of working Justin Fields in. And Andy Dalton's probably a perfect guy to help him along that journey, his first year, and it buys them more time. Because presumably if you're going to move up nine spots, this is the guy you've been obsessed with for a while, unless you don't believe Ryan Pace and the Bears, who are on their fifth quarterback in the current GM setup. I got to believe they're happy.

I got to believe they're probably relatively surprised he felt to them. but this is the move you had to make. It's the burn the ships move. I tweeted this last night. You have to make this move. And I wonder why you don't see more coaches and GMs make moves like these. Because what does it matter for you individually? You're going to be out of a job if you let Andy Dalton ride this thing out.

I truly believe that next year. I don't think they're a good enough team for Andy Dalton to carry them to the postseason. unless Aaron Rogers is going somewhere. But if this was your guy, you had to go get him. And I don't care what they gave up for him. I don't care about the first. If he fails, you're going to be unemployed. And if you don't make the move, you're going to be unemployed in the near future.

So at least one of those options has upside. And that's you being a hero, a savior in Chicago. I mean, Ryan Pace, we can forget about all the other stuff if he hits on this guy. because as we know, the bears have absolutely sucked at getting this stuff right from the beginning of time. And another thing that, you know, and sure they went for it all in one fell swoop. And I'm excited about one thing here is Chicago, rich football tradition, rich football history. Now, at this point, before Justin Fields takes a snap, I can only think of like one black quarterback they've had. So, and that's Jason Campbell.

Justin Fields is a big deal. And if he's the guy, Nagy, naggy, however you want to say it, make, who's not here with us today, sitting back in Virginia, slinging real estate, he's usually my resident name pronunciation guy.

Matt Nagy's going to be the man. And he's actually kind of the perfect Matt Nagy type quarterback, too, by the way. Ryan Pace is going to be the man. They'll be heroes if this thing works out. So the upside was in option two, which was we got to take a shot at this thing because if we don't, option A only ends one way. And, you know, interestingly, now Chicago has a Pro Bowl starter in Andy Dalton, guy who's been to the playoffs multiple times.

You got a Super Bowl MVP. And you've got a top 10 pick in one QB room. I mean, so that's a pretty damn interesting room. What does it mean? Absolutely nothing to me. I still don't know anything about any of these guys. I don't know anything about Trevor Lawrence as a pro. I don't know anything about Zach Wilson as a pro.

Trey Lance down the line. Obviously, I have guys that I think are pretty good. I don't know enough about Justin Fields yet. I don't know enough about Justin Fields yet. I think he's justified to be taken in the top five, 10, 15, but it's a crapshoot. And so everything they've done to build that room, which is like, It's like a Star Wars bar. Like, I don't know anything about that room.

I don't know what that room's going to do for them as a franchise. But for Matt Nagy and for Ryan Pace, it was your one shot. By the way, Justin Fields draft set up was, I mean, like, get some curtains, man. Gets really bright in that room early in the morning. Nothing on the wall. Get some curtains, is all I'm saying. And then they panned out. and like nobody was home when they were about to make the pick and I was like shit the entire family

just walked out they've had enough of this um and I would like listen I think the whole thing's awkward let me put a zoom camera in your room I don't tell this story a lot I said this to my parents last night I was watching the draft because we're together now here in Arizona I wish I didn't go to the NFL draft I've said this before my plan was when I heard Joe Thomas went fishing I was like I just want to go there's this horse race back home it's like the same day as the draft everybody has a good time. And at that juncture in my life, I was, I was going to have a really good time at a horse race.

I wanted to stay and go to the horse race. I wanted to stay and hang out with my friends. I didn't want to be on TV. It's just like, just in case you're a huge bust, like, why give them the B-roll? That's how I feel about any of those setups. That's how I feel about going to the draft. Sure, the suit thing's great. But in 2008, here's what I got.

I got a shitty picture. with Roger Goodell. I got no beard. My face looks all fucked up. I got a baggy suit on and those old Reebok ram jerseys. Like, there's nothing about that picture that makes me happy. And I kind of wish I skipped the draft and went fishing or went to a horse racer just sat on the back porch. That's just me.

And every time I look at a Zoom room, I'm like, damn, dude, you're just opting into giving the NFL B roll. there's going to be plenty of time for you to be on TV. I get it, and it's a big moment for families, but in a situation like Justin Fields where I'm rooting for the kid, and you're looking up at 9 and 10, and you're like, damn, is he going to be the guy sitting there? I always wonder why guys opt into giving the NFL the B-roll,

because they're going to use it. They're going to use it. Anyways, he had the worst setup. Get some curtains, man. But you can get plenty of curtains now. You get, the whole house is going to have, like, there's going to be curtains everywhere. I want to talk about a little defense before I get to Ryan McGee.

Two teams did really interesting things from where I sit yesterday. Surface level, I thought it was very interesting seeing the Cardinals draft to like really unorthodox guys at the second level defensively year to year with Isaiah Simmons last year who is kind of a tweener. You know, like was he a safety? Is he a backer? It took them some time to figure out what to do with them. And that's fine because like, you know, draft picks need time to settle in.

And especially when you're trying to, you know, kind of dictate a scheme fit that was not necessarily a natural thing. Isaiah Simmons one year, Zaving Collins the next year. I mean, I did not watch a lot of Tulsa. Okay. I've heard the name. I've seen the accolades. I did not know there were six foot four, 260 pound backers in the year of our Lord, 2,021, other than Dante Hightower anywhere at the major collegiate.

agent level or the pro level. But I really like this guy's tape in the little bit I looked at. I think he's going to be very, very good for them in the box. I don't know how good he is running down the seam with, you know, Kyle Pitts. Okay. So one guy last year is, you know, the future of the NFL, kind of the beefed-up, supersized version of, you know, like we talked about this on the pod. those tweener second level players that started out as like nickels the more you can do.

He's like the one they made in a lab and he's the future. And I don't know when we get there where more guys look like guys here Simmons than not. But eventually, at least from a scheme fit standpoint, you want guys that can do more. And the body types don't look like they used to. Zavin Collins is a throwback. So it's very interesting to me that like from one year to the next and I really like Steve Tom and I like the Cardinals a lot, especially a big fan of their ticket office. Shout out to Redact it down there, Arizona ticket office for putting up with us.

But also shout out to Steve Kahn. I believe in him. I think he knows what he's doing defensively at the second level. Those are two pretty unorthodox body types in the NFL. So very interesting. And, you know, the bills as well, to me on paper, you're like, what, they drafted 2D Lyman year after year. Okay.

And I know that they're, you know, on TV, it's a layup to say, well, they're trying to beat my homes. They're trying to get pressure on my homes. I think the scary thing is that neither of those guys are like pure edge guys. And I don't say that disparagingly. You know, I look at AJ Epinessa, who they drafted out of Iowa last year late in the first. And I thought there was a solid value. But, you know, he's more of a left end. He's like a real NFL left end, which is a dying breed, a guy you can put in a six,

head up with a tight end, beat up the tight end. Maybe you got to reduce him to a four, four eye inside the tackle. Like not a three technique outside the guard, but like playing inside the tackle. You can do more things with him. He can probably rush inside. He's going to set the edge, but he's not like a pure edge rusher. And so they do that last year. And then this year, Rousseau, the kid from Miami, who's about six, eight, okay?

So again, like not a prototypical edge rush packaging, but they've done. that two years in a row, evidently with the aim of getting at Patrick Mahomes. I look at Rousseau last week. I don't love him. I remember him, you know, from two years ago playing Virginia and obviously the gaudy numbers, which you can't ignore. But the first time I watched him last week, I didn't love him. But the more I got to thinking about it, okay, you got the Carlos Dunlap comp a little bit. People were throwing out Calleus Campbell, which is purely height to me. Calais Campbell is incredibly twitchy, and that's an outlier at that height. I thought him having a great career is more provocative because Carlos Dunlap exists,

the possibility of Rousseau going out there and getting buckets in the NFL, which I think he will. It helps that there's a Carlos Dunlap running around out there. He's way more Dunlap than Campbell to me. But I talked to a scout over the weekend who also played D-Line in the NFL. I trust him. And we were talking shop about these. rushers. And, you know, he didn't like quitty pay as much. I like quitty pay. Probably why he gets

paid to do it and I don't. But he said, I'm not so down on Rousseau. And he made a really, really interesting point. And it's true. Big, long, tall guys in the NFL, when they get around the quarterback, they make plays. They don't necessarily have to be the best rushers in the world. They don't have to be the bendiest. They don't have to be, you know, the most explosive, which Rousseau is more bendy than he is explosive to me, especially for his height. I'm not saying he's bendy, going to touch his elbow to the ground at seven yards and then like, you know, Von Miller quarterback. But you can move him around. He's got good feet for a big guy. He's got good hips for a big guy. And he's going to be around the quarterback. And I can guarantee you that,

listen, if my arms were six inches longer in the NFL, I'm pretty sure I'd have had 100 sacks. Okay. There are so many rushes that you are inches away from making a play. Those inches add up. How many times have you seen Carlos Dunlap just reach out and pull a quarterback by the side of his jersey? Or a big tall player who gets in the pocket and the B gap and can almost kind of bypass the tackle who's stonewalled him at a yard away from the quarterback and just reach over the shoulder and hold on to a guy and collect a half a sack. I think he's the type that as he develops, he's going to fall into a lot of sacks that are going to justify him being taken in the first round. I like the kid. I like where I think his heads at. I think he played hard.

And I like the Dunlap comp. So I'm a little higher on Rousseau than I was five days ago before I went on vacation. I'm a little lower on quiddy pay than I was five days ago when I went on vacation. But when it comes to Buffalo, Lewis Riddick said it last night. I think about the Cardinals needing to hurry up and figure these guys that you're drafting out. Like their body types, who they are. same thing with these edge rushers in Buffalo. You need to start, if you did this to beat Mahomes,

you need to see it this year. You need to see it against other teams too. And again, I mentioned Quitty Pay, who fell to the Colts, not a surprise that he was on the board that long because he's not a complete day one kind of guy, but I'm just saying this year, the rushers are down.

There's not a lot of great rushes. So when I'm talking about Quitty Pay as being one of the most exciting, I'm just not moved by the guys so much. Now, O'Jolari from Georgia, who's an exciting prospect, honestly, I was talking to George Foster, who played a Georgia, and watched a lot of him and says, relax the way he sets the edge, thinks he's explosive. I would agree, you know, how about the bucks?

They're so good. They signed everybody back there. Like, oh, fuck it. 32 will take a developmental guy out of Washington, who very well may end up being a really good player, but O'Jolari wasn't the guy there. So very interesting at the, you know, in the tail end of the top four or five.

five edge guys how this is going to play out. But Quitty Pay to me, he's got some really good movement. I worry about his length. You know, I could just Google his arm length, but that would make a less fun breaking down the tape. He's got to learn how to get sideways. And by getting sideways, I mean, you, the listener, I'm trying to give you a physical illustration of what, getting sideways as a rush or what that means. If you walked up to somebody and you put two hands on them to power rush them or just push them back, your arms are as long as they are. Like, that's it. One arm is always longer than two. You can manipulate when you go to the long arm. You can manipulate the timing. You can manipulate your length by going to one arm. You can get sideways.

If you can rush sideways, it sounds crazy. If you can rush sideways with one hand in somebody's chest and you can still create that power and that timing that a one arm bowl often does when you watch the NFL, like a lot of the best bull rushes are done with one arm. Quitty pay needs to like, needs to because if he goes two hands to go to power and he's going to need power in his game, he's going to get, you know, gobbled up. You know, he's going to have tackles with their fingers on his nameplate. And I wasn't the longest arm guy. So at times, you know, you have to go to long arm. And you go to long arm to control people and you go to long arm to get that length that you don't have naturally. You go to the one arm for that. And I think quidipa, adding something like that in

his game could really help him. Now, I also am not crazy about him in the run game yet, but, you know, maybe he learns to be a little bit more to hold the point of attack a little bit better when he gets in the league. I say all that. It doesn't matter what I think because it's not unimportant that he's got one of the best D-line coaches in the entire country right there in his backyard. Okay, Robert Mathis, who by the way, was also a little undersized. I mean, if you're looking at Quitty Payne, you're saying, well, he's not a huge guy, you know, who else wasn't a huge guys, Robert Mathis, and you know who has like 150 sacks and as a Hall of Fame or Robert Mathis. So you've got access to a guy like that. Let me not understate how important it is to have a

mentor like that. And, you know, I said this last week with Quitty Pay. I do think and I echoed some of that, you know, that sentiment right here. I think he's got to work on his hands more. When he does that, he will get people's edges. Like he'll walk up and go nose to nose with the tackle. be on his edge a quarter second later because he's got good feet he's got good hips he's sudden he's quick i can't coach that the stuff with the hands you can coach and i think he'll have those opportunities in indy and he's going to be in a good situation so i think quiddy pay is going to pay off um no pun intended guys these things just they roll off the tongue and if i'm going to be wrong about a kid i'd rather be wrong with chris ballard okay chris ballard one of the best in the game so a little bit of

offense there, a little bit of defense there as well. Let's talk about everything else in between with Ryan McGee. Fresh. With Hello Fresh, you get fresh. Pre-measured ingredients and mouth-watering seasonal recipes delivered right to your door. Skip trips to the grocery store and count on Hello Fresh to make home cooking easy, fun, and affordable. And that's why it's America's number one meal kit. Hello Fresh has a wide variety of easy, delicious options for all three meals a day, plus, and this is very important for yours truly, snacks and special treats in between. Beyond all that, it's easier on your wallet. HelloFresh is 28% cheaper than shopping at your local grocery store and 72% cheaper than a restaurant meal without sacrificing the quality.

And if you caught our Greenlight Combine show, you know I became the first 6'4 person to weigh in at 162 pounds. My goal is to make gains, and HelloFresh is going to. to help me do it. Whether you're adding weight, dropping weight, maintaining weight, or simply into delicious affordable foods, HelloFresh is for you. Know the ingredients, know the calorie count, and get more balance into your diet. Here's what to do. Go to hellofresh.com slash greenlight 12 and use code Greenlight 12 for 12 free meals, including free shipping. That's hellofresh.com slash greenlight 12 and use code green light 12 and get yourself hooked up with America's number one meal kit. So I got the perfect guy to pop on. I mean, I feel like Ryan McGee knows Alabama football pretty well. He

knows the SEC really well. And six of the 24 first picks in the NFL draft last night were represented by Bama players. This is getting boring. Yeah. Is it boring for you? No, it sounds ridiculous, right? I mean, that's the thing is. But here's the thing, and you know this. The most underreported, underappreciated part of all this is that, I mean, quite frankly, because of SEC Network and because I've covered Alabama nonstop for more than a decade now, no matter what conference you're in, but just because they're so damn good, is they're all good guys.

I mean, that's the part of it that, you know, when Marty Smith and I, when we find out we're going to have Mack Jones on. or we're going to have Devontown or we're going to have Dickerson. These are all good kids. And that's the part of it that I think, you know, I mean, you know the deal. One guy gets busted for smoking weed and all of a sudden, everybody in college football is terrible. And the reality is that these kids, particularly everything they've had to deal with

over the last 12 months and still play football and still play at the level they've played at. That's my, my favorite part was hearing from these guys at two o'clock in the morning, and they're so excited. But they're just, it's genuine, you know, there's no, there's nothing fake about all these guys. And so, you know, I got my Tennessee hat on right now. So there's still that part of my DNA that's like, I can't believe I'm saying this. But Alabama's a great place, man. And saving, Sabin does it right.

You want to talk about a commitment. And, you know, like I said this, the UVA guys many times because Bronco runs a tough program and those guys work hard, but all college football players bust their ass. And last year, you know, I know this draft was fun for a lot of reasons, but I'm glad you brought that up. It's fun because these kids in particular really, really went out of a limb for us and played college football last year. And obviously it paid off for them.

And there's a lot of guys who didn't get drafted and maybe he'll get drafted in the next couple of nights. But hats off to them. And Bama, you talk about commitment. I mean, and a lot of the reason I think so many of them are mentally ready for the NFL is they've been in the NFL. has they've been in the NFL for four years. Yeah. And you talk about good guys. I mean, I texted Barrett Jones last night.

I still talked to Barrett Jones. I love Barrett. You know, Dante High Towers is as good, you know, a teammate as there could be. There are good dudes that come out of that school. So, you know, like as bad as you want to make it like the evil empire, it's hard to, when you get to know through interviews and that sort of thing at Devante Smith. For me, it seems like a great kid. So Bama obviously had a great night.

Which NFL team had a great night? So I covered the, for my debut as a sideline reporter. And this is how you know it was COVID because they ran out of sideline reporters if they called NASCAR to be a sidelaw before. But I worked the BYU Coastal Carolina game, which was one of the best games, if not the best regular season game of the year. It came down the last play of the game and interception at the goal line, the whole thing. But ever since I spent, you know, cram studied for 48 hours on BYU, anybody that has, anybody that has, a problem with that quarterback did not pay any attention than what he was doing. And there's this

built-in there's built-in bias against BYU because they're BYU and they don't play anybody and, you know, it wasn't their fault that their schedule got bombed down to two, three games and they had to rebuild it. But, but I'm, I say this reluctantly because it's the Jets.

But I think they got a great pick. But, you know, now I'm curious to see what the Jets do to screw that up because, So that's what they do, right? I like to believe it's over, man, because, you know, I got, I really am rooting for Joe Douglas up there. I think Robert Sala, although, like, listen, the quarterback thing, you know, he's going to have to delegate and the offensive stuff, he's going to have to delegate.

But, you know, I've tried to find reasons to not bite the cheese on Zach Wilson. And for my untrained eye, you know, I hit them. I don't analyze them as much, but I like the kid. It's hard not to like the kid. The thing I don't like about the kid is he looks 16. Well, and that's just it. And what's crazy is that because of, you know, in a normal year, I would have gone to Provo and gone to practice and talk to guys in person.

But everything we did was on Zoom. And the night before that coastal game, you know, he was in his hotel, Mortal Beach, and I was five minutes away, but I interviewed him on Zoom. And same thing, he looked 16. And then in pregame, he walks over. Hey, Mr. McGee, is great to chat with you. you know, excited to be here and can't believe we're playing a game. He's giant.

So he's really actually a tall guy. Yeah, yeah. And he's got this broad, like swimmer's shoulders. I mean, he's a big dude and smart. I mean, that's the thing is, you know, Tom Homo, who's AD at BYU, was a coach forever. And, you know, say what you want about BYU. They know offensive football and have for 40 years. And so they all, when I saw how excited they were, they've tried to sell me on guys before

when I was like, okay, you know the deal that when they're like, all right, no. But you could see they weren't faking it with him at all. So yeah. But we'll see. I mean, you know, again, it's the Jets. And I would love all my long suffering friends in the Northeast who are Jets fans, I would love for this to work out. And also I would love for it to work out because then, you know, it would make me look smart.

Because I've been. I also think that like when you couple their night with the Giants night, which we'll get to in a second. I mean, they're looking pretty. There's a new energy up there. Why did it take so long for damn Trevor Lawrence come off the board? Right. I was like, what are we doing, man?

I was watching with somebody that was like, I think they want the spotlight on them for 10 minutes. They want people talking about the Jaguars for 10 minutes. It is the first time that any of us, even including people in Jacksonville, have talked about, you know, the Jaguars in forever. So, yeah. No, it was cool. They had people in the pool. last night, I think. Yeah.

Well, and Marty was down at Trevor Lawrence's, I'm actually working on a story for next week about Trevor Lawrence's hair. I've done some serious journalism. This is not one of those stories. But he, Marty was down there. And I was like, hey, what's he doing with his hair? You know, does it smell like head and shoulders? You know, what's the deal?

And now sat soon. Yeah, that's it. He says he's a Pantene guy. Oh, Pantene ProV? Well, they're going to pay him a lot. a lot of money. Oh, yeah. Best hair deal of all times.

When we were kids... When we were kids... When we were kids, remember the panting commercials were all the supermodels. Oh, yeah. The flowing hair and all that's exactly what looks like.

But yeah, but again, a good kid. And, um, but I'm excited for the people in Jacksonville, but man, they have so much work. And I love Gardner, Menshoe. You know, I covered him at Washington State. And there's just, it's, it's such a mess.

And, uh, and, you know, Urban Meyer, my feelings on him. I know he knows football. My feelings on him as a person or well documented, which is why I can't ever go to Columbus without somebody throwing something at me.

But he got off on the wrong foot by hiring how many strength coaches are there in the world and he hired the one guy with red flags. Hey, you talk about, hey, welcome to the Jacksonville Jaguars, new veterans, or nice to meet you. I'm Urban Meyer, you know, like a 10-year vet in the league. Like you're starting in a hole after them.

Yeah. I don't know what you, y'all may have heard that I harbor fugitives on my staff, but that's not true. But by the way, here's our new strength coach. False reporting. Yeah.

So, but I'm curious to see how it's going to go. I love Trevor. He's smart. He can play. I mean, the performance he had against Alabama in the national championship game out in San Jose is one of the best I've ever seen in person,

the second half of that game anyway. And so, yeah, as a college football writer, and I put you in this category because I wrote that story about you before the draft when you were coming out of UVA. You know, I kind of, I interview guys and I follow guys. And, you know, I don't really do recruiting, but I do cover signing day. And then I kind of usher them off to the pros. And, you know, and so on pro day, I kind of tell my wife,

I saw on the draft day, I'm just like, well, I'll see you guys later. You know, we'll see if they still stay in touch with. or not, but it's, but it's, it's fun for me to just kind of sit back and watch. It's also fun for me to see the NFL guys suddenly discover guys. Right. Oh, man, he's really good. I'm like, hell yeah, I've been, I've been telling you that for three years, but it's, I had a few of those moments getting ready for this draft.

And, you know, I actually had one with, with Jalen Waddle. I paid so much attention to Devante Smith. And by the way, you know, I think Miami, you talk about a Florida team here in Jacksonville. I think Miami, I think they had a killer, killer for, I mean, you talk about picking up Waddle at 6, like everybody loved that pick. And also Jalen Phillips, who I talked about earlier, I think that was the perfect place for him. You know, because I don't think he's a pure rusher, not saying he can't get there, but I don't see like 4-4-6 when I turn on the tape of him rushing. I see a kid who's got range.

I see a kid who's going to be able to make the layup plays that guys like me miss in the backfield because they're so athletes. athletic, he's perfect for that scheme. They don't ask guys to win rushes in Miami. He's going to be sideline to sideline. So I think they had a really good first round. Yeah. Well, and it doesn't hurt that Toa and Waddle already know how to read each other's minds. Exactly.

That's not going to hurt when you're trying to rant things up. Well, so who did you prefer? I hadn't seen your take on this, Devante Smith or Jalen Waddle, if you were sitting there looking for a receiver at 6, 7, 8. Well, I think that, I mean, going into the season, we were all talking about Waddle. And, and, Vante, who we all knew was good, had the catch that won the national championship as a freshman with Tua. We all knew he was, but he's just, he's so skinny. And that's kind of the knock on him.

And you know, he'll, by the time we get to the fall, he'll suddenly bulk up as everyone does when they get to the training table, right? in the league. But I went in as a Waddle guy. And then obviously, I mean, my husband ballot was what it was. And obviously my vote went to who it went to. But I've always felt like Waddle felt like an NFL guy. But that being said,

every game we went into, he's too skinny, he's too skinny, Devonty's too skinny. And the game's over with. And, you know, every single game, he's got 170. yards and he's hanging it on everyone from LSU to Clemson. So it's, I don't think you could miss with one of those guys.

No, it's exciting. And honestly, it's funny because the Eagles ended up with their guy. But I'm not sure if they had a guy. I think, you know, for them, they traded back to draft one of those corners. And they weren't there. And, you know, actually, they were given a gift. We talked about, you know, earlier the Jets. We'll talk about the Giants right now because the shot at Devante Smith, only to watch

that shot delivered. to the Eagles from a division rival and the Cowboys and then later reach, in my estimation, for the Tony kid, at the same position you could have had Devante Smith. So Giants fans not only are probably pissed about that, they're also pissed about the fact that Justin Fields, who was there,

and your quarterback Danny Dimes, who's on a short leash, will be inextricably linked for the next five to seven years. Yeah. Fields, so every year there's guy, right? And again, what I said earlier about the guys I've covered forever. And he Fields was always so high profile. He did that Netflix show, his senior high school and went to

Georgia and transferred to Ohio State and the whole thing. And I kind of had, I had admittedly some, an opinion on him without having to really talk to him. Right. And then I went to Columbus and I spent the day with him, I think there were maybe two weeks into the season. And him talking to me about the transfer to Ohio State and how literally his parents dropped him off and left, and it snowed that night, and he was like, the hell with this.

I'm going back to Georgia. Right. And his parents were like, we're not coming back to get you. So, you know, you're staying. And then how his teammates eventually, you know, took him under his wing, let's go play basketball, whatever.

But talking to him about, his decision to go there talking to his dad about it. And then they called it a business decision. But he's also, I mean, he got his degree. I mean, he's worked his house off. But then to hear the things I've heard about him suddenly over the last three weeks, and it's, is he motivated? Is he a team guy?

Is he coachable? And I always think back on, I remember I was on a plane with a now retired NFL personnel guy that happened to be sitting across the offer. We're in fact, we're coming from a pro day. And we start talking and we're talking about Deshawn Watson at the time. And he starts throwing the same kind of

things at me. Well, is he coachable? And Deshawn's current legal Yeah, not with standards. It lines aside. I'm just talking about football. Yeah. It was, yeah, but is he coachable and does he have the right attitude? And I had the

exact same conversation with this guy about Dak Prescott. And I told him, I said, you know, you said the same thing about Dak. And I said, you said the same thing about Russell Wilson. And he goes, well, he goes, you know, that's just what those guys all have in common. I go, yeah, that's what they all have in common. And I kind of felt like that with Justin Fields, which is, you know, because Justin Fields is black, I really think that his haircut and the look on his face

and his body language. I just, I get comments, got comments from him over the last three weeks from NFL people that I didn't get about anyone else. And I'm like, spend an hour with the guy. Because if you spend an hour with him, you don't question his motivation.

I'm not saying that he's going to be a great NFL quarterback, but I'm saying that if you have ever spent any time with him or watched him at practice, then all of this other stuff, I just, it's, it's the most fascinating and frustrating thing for me. Well, there's the stereotypes and then there's also, you know, you pile on the fact that a lot of people that work in the NFL are sheep.

Yeah. Well, that's a fact. And listen, a lot of people are sheep. So I'm not saying that the NFL, like there's a lot of great like football minds up there picking and profiling quarterbacks and players. But a number of people just repeat information. We do in the media. Yeah. And if you're not careful about the information you repeat, you know, and where that information is coming from.

And I've learned my lesson on that, not in the same lane because I know to handle those stereotypes with care. But I've repeated something before that ended up being just kind of hearsay. And I trusted the person that told me, you got to consider this source, man. It's pretty simple. Ask his teammates. Yeah. No, I mean, ask his teammates, watch him interact with his teammates. That's the biggest.

That's the big, like, just watch the guy interact. You know what I mean? Like, and I watched him, you know, intermittently. I don't know if he's going to be a good quarterback or not, but nothing about him screamed, bad attitude, watching him. It certainly didn't scream lack of work. At the opposite. Right. That's the stuff I started hearing was lack of work ethic and lack of drive and all that. And I'm like, you know, if you really know his story, then you know, but it takes, you know, to your point. And I've made these mistakes too, assumptions about people. I did it with him until I went and spent time with him.

It took an hour for me to realize, you know, and it took me standing on the sideline for half of one practice to go, all, I was wrong. And so that part of it, the thing gets so intense and so much BS starts flooding these reports. And some of it too is, you know, guys putting bad info out there because they're hoping it. Yeah, I was wondering if a lot of it came from the Bears. Yeah, yeah, right, yeah. Who's a guy that's kind of on the spot, but that you've been really wrong about? You know, maybe it had nothing to do with, you know, anything as inflammatory as the Justin Fields conversation.

but from a work ethic standpoint, any player that you were an attitude standpoint that you were like, Ed, I should have took my time with this one. I can't think of a guy that got in the league and flamed out because he didn't do the work. Now, there have been plenty of guys I missed on just talent scout wise. I mean, I went to college with Heath Shuler. And he's one of the greatest natural athletes. I've ever seen. I'm not just saying that because I went to school with him and he's a Tennessee guy or whatever

else. But, but, you know, I'm friends with Heath. He lives here in Charlotte not too far from me. And, you know, the thing that I think he'll tell you is, and I think this has changed dramatically about football, particularly over the last 15 years, is, you know, he used, he really believed he could just out-athleticize his way out of trouble, you know? And you've always been the best athlete. on the field your whole life, including in the SEC.

And if it's a bust of play and you get run into a corner, you can probably knock that guy down or outrun him or you can certainly throw it by him. Right. And when you get to the league, you can't do that. And I think that's one of the things that's changed a lot. And maybe I'm wrong. You tell me because you saw it because you played during this era. But everything's so much more sophisticated in college that guys go into the league better

prepared as far as just under not necessarily knowing the playbook but knowing what it takes to digest the playbook you you can't be a caveman and play college football at the highest level anymore when i don't think so i don't think so this game has changed so much the multitude of things that people are doing has changed so much and they're getting to plays in the run game different ways and everything has to have layers to it so i think like naturally you're going to have more volume And I think being able to handle that amount of volume now, there's arguments to be made about, hey, certain quarterbacks aren't going to be ready for the pro game because the college game is different now and everything's easier and things are more one read and the RPO's and that sort of thing. Like, well, there are trends, but also look at the NFL. The NFL game's changing.

So I do think, I do think some of that's overblown at quarterback because I had somebody on the other day. I believe it was Matt Bowen and he was talking about it. I made a great point. he goes, how many non-scheme throwers are there really in the NFL? Yeah. Everybody's a scheme quarterback to a degree. And ones that you're not, you didn't think were actually scheme quarterbacks or scheme quarterbacks.

So I think actually where people have more trouble now is probably up front. I don't think that's as exaggerated as maybe the quarterback thing because it is harder to, I think about Greg Robinson. He's a perfect example. and he's a guy that you probably watched a lot. You know, he wasn't asked to do a lot at Auburn, right? So when you get to the NFL, things change. And, you know, I think that's an example of offensive alignment

that maybe now I've never been to a three-point stance. You know, maybe now I've never done XYZ. And there's less time in the NFL to develop these guys, padded practice and that sort of thing. So I think that's a position where I want to go back, Netflix show. It was QB1. QB1. Have most people seen this?

Well, they did a full disclosure. I had not watched it because, you know, I got a, at the time when it came out, I had a, my daughter would have been like 11. So, you know, we were just watching Hannah Montana all the time. But, but QB1 was, it ran for a couple of seasons and it would focus on a handful of a blue chip five star, you know, prep quarterbacks. And their senior years and their process to decide whether we're going to school. and Justin Fields,

and in fact, Jake Fromm, who ended up competing with the Georgia, was one of those guys too, and it's fascinating. And the level of access that they gave those guys. Well, it's also fascinating the level of coaching that they get. I mean, the game is changing completely where now, like you're going to get to the league and you're going to have a guy,

like, that's my guy, QB coach. Like, we're going to work together. I'll be cool. But there's also a level at the pro game where coaches have to not be deferential to these. like side coaches, but you got to have a relationship, I feel like at this point, because there's always that tug of war and coaches don't do the ego thing well with like, hey, there's another guy over there that, you know, is going to coach my guy up.

I think that, you know, teams have to be better about this guy's going to get to the pros and he's going to have a guy he's been working with for four years. Yeah. So it was fascinating to me too is all those guys know each other. Like, you know, we've had this with the transfer stuff, you know, you know, we had the with the Heism ceremony a couple years ago,

and it was Justin Fields, and it was Jalen Hertz, and it was, it was like, what, three of the top five finalists were transfers. And what's interesting is, they all know each other.

And it goes back to, I saw him to Peyton Manning about this, about how, you know, they have the Manning Passing Academy, and that's one of like eight of these big quarterback camps. So by the time Justin Fields got to Georgia,

he already knew, Trevor Lawrence, and he already knew, you know, all these other guys that he was competing with for championships and Heism, Baker Mayfield told me that. He said, yeah, he said, everybody thinks that we're all big rivals fighting for Heism.

He goes, we've all known each other's for 12. And that's, that's fascinating to me because I think that's, again, I don't follow recruiting. Yeah. And I don't follow, I don't follow prep football too closely because honestly, I think it's a little creepy. It is creepy. Yeah, but we have people that do that.

Thank goodness. And they can tell me about it when we talk about TV. But that part of it fascinates. me too. And again, but that's preparation. If by the time Justin Fields got to college, he'd already received one-on-one instruction at these camps from NFL coaches, from Peyton Manning, from all of these guys. And so that part of it is, again, he's shoulder showed up in the NFL and held out on the contracts. So he missed camp and walked in cold and never recovered. His career never recovered. And

And these guys are so prepared now versus what it was. You know what I always go back to? Your dad, NFL crunch course was the VHS tape you used to get when you subscribe to Sports Illustrated. Yeah. And there was a big section in there about your dad and your dad telling this hilarious story about his first day, like watching film in the position room with the Raiders and him looking around a room and realizing he's like, Am I the only guy in here that doesn't get this? He realized he didn't because he came for what?

There was the first day, you know, in an Oklahoma drill with Art Shell. You know, there was, I've heard so many like great first rate. And actually, it's funny you brought my dad up. I was about to bring my dad up. You know, you're talking about this coaching thing. You know, talk about a guy who didn't get it when he got on, you know, on campus in Villanova and definitely didn't get it relative to the guys he was suit. up with in 1983 or whatever. But by the end of his career, he knew he knew football well. And like,

I have this guy who knows football well. There's another example. I used to tiptoe around my dad giving me notes for game or like, you know, like building a habit early in my career that he was trying to get me to build because you also have a position coach in there. Yeah. And like, where'd you start? Where'd you learn that? Why are you working on that? Why are you not doing this? And, you know, you can't be like, well, my dad, because position coaches are not created equally. No. Like literally, yeah, I have a lot of respect for football coaches, but even good position coaches will tell you there's not a lot of great ones out there.

And at the quarterback position is one of the most overlooked positions. You don't pay attention to who that QB coach is until your Carson Wentz falls apart. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, and then you're like, where's D. Philippa or where's this guy? But where's Frank Reich? And you start peeling the, you know, the onion back. And so I think quarterback coaches are going to have to have the thickest skin.

of any coaches on football fields for the next 10, 15 years, because we don't know where it's going. With Trey Lance, because that was the one we were texting about last night. I mean, everybody was freaking out, and I was laughing my ass off because I feel like at most people were screaming each other last month, calling each other names, and nobody got it right. Like 10% of people got it right.

Yeah. How many people got it right that you saw? I saw McShay got it right. Yeah, Todd was it, as far as I could tell. It didn't surprise me because I knew McShay had been up to North Dakota State a couple of times. You know, game day when it's been up there, they were just playing, right?

I mean, North Dakota State, FCS playoffs are happening. And so that part of it was, but I love, my favorite part, though, is watching, there were kind of two camps. And one camp was much larger than the other one. When the first of that,

that was the camp of who the hell is this guy? Yeah. And then there was the camp of the people who were offended. Like, we've been trying to tell you about this guy. And why are you, somebody tweeted out, why is ESPN making such a big deal out of this?

I'm like, we're making a big deal out of it because FCS players don't go third. It just doesn't happen. They don't go in the first round. They don't get drafted. Unless they're, unless they're bison.

Yeah, exactly right. And so what they have up there is a machine. And so, no, it's, and I'm rooting for them. At heart, I will always be a small college guy,

because of how I grew up. My dad was a small college administrator. And so I grew up on my dad worked at Furman when they were a, back then we called it a one double A machine in the late 80s and early 90s. And he was president of a D2 school. And when I was a little kid, he was a referee and was working games at Carson Newman and Elon and these places that are legendary small college programs.

And so I love the fact that FCS has kind of had the spring to themselves on television in football. And I love the fact that, you know, because of, because of the world's gotten smaller. Yeah. These guys get more eyeballs on them. Is that it? I mean, is that it? Because I do feel like we're seeing, well, there's two things that, that, you know, are kind of trend breakers with, with Tray Lance. Well, three. Number one, which isn't so much of a trend breaker. Nobody knew what the hell was going on. Number two, he's a small school guy, which we discussed. Number three, not lot of tape. Yeah.

So I guess are we starting to push the limit of how much do we really need to see these kids? Because my take on it is, and I don't know quarterbacks like this, but just using my brain. Habits, okay, like you have to be careful with your habits and not all coaches that we just talked about or created equal. And, you know, if you're building habits through your college career, chances are you going to have to unlearn some of those habits. You talk about throwing most.

You talk about, like, how you go through your progression, progressions, that sort of thing. A kid who hadn't played as much football, if I know he's the guy, how much do I really need to see? Do I really need to wait for him to play another 20 games and build those bad habits? Do you worry about guys who haven't played a lot? I worry about it with quarterbacks. You know, that's for me, and this is just based on what I've talked with coaches about, with NFL guys about whatever, is that you almost would rather a quarterback stay for another. year because, you know, reps for him, you know, because the quarterback position is such a high-risk deal.

Even with the rules today, it's still such a high-risk deal. And it's not just physical, it's mental. You know, it's, I've talked to Steven Strassberg about this, about the pitcher, you know, if they pull you up through the minor, through the minors too fast, and they just want to get you on a major league mound to see how it goes and, and they blast you, you know, your first five outings. you might not ever recover from that mentally. And so when I've talked to personnel people, what they've said is they just assume like a great safety can play a year of college football and come on.

We'll see in the league. With the quarterback, a lot of times they would almost rather they stay in the incubator for a little bit longer. That's interesting because, I mean, maybe the reason I look at this is, and by the way, one of the Eagles, take Tray Lance, if they were going to take a quarterback. I said that a couple months ago. So when they traded back, I said, okay, they're not drafting a quarterback anymore. The kid to me in San Francisco is perfect because, as you said, like, there is that chance always of getting shells shocked. We'll talk about Joe Burrow in a second. You know, I play with Sam, Bradford, who I just, you know, spent a week with still hanging out with my boy Sammy B.

Sammy Sleeves, but Sam got hit so much he never had a chance. Okay. And if you're investing that much money in. guy. I think it is, it's provocative to always look to protect your quarterback, but I just, I never thought about it that way that like guys were wanting college quarterbacks to play the four years. I just, you know, like guys in the league, it's that big of a deal of them. Probably for the most part because their offense and is dialed in as Kyle Shanahan's and they, and they're not sure what's going to happen. But I really do think an athletic quarterback like that

and Trey Lance and a sideline to sideline offense with playmakers, who can get on the edge. And now, like, when you got nothing, you know, on the boot and they're in, man, I can pick up 25 yards. Yeah. I mean, like, that sucks. That sucks to play against. And it's the most QB friendly offense in the draft.

So maybe there's something to Kyle saying he might agree with you, but their offense is the right one. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, I'm always curious to watch. And again, I don't cover the NFL on a weekly basis, but I'm always curious to watch how teams approach patience. Right.

You know, and some teams are just never going to do it. And some coaches are certainly never going to do it. And that's understandable because you're fighting for your job and just trying to stay in the league or whatever. But I'm always curious to see who's willing to take the route of patience and do what you need to do to get a trail ants up to speed as opposed to, or are you just going to freak out and throw them out there and hope for the best? Well, and here you go. I mean, Jimmy's probably not headed to New England anymore. Right.

Yeah. So Jimmy G. Out of all the people was like, damn it, somebody take Mac Jones. Yeah. Yeah. You know,

and it just didn't happen. And so I think you might get what, you know, like, I think we would both prefer. It's like, okay, Chicago's saying they're going to,

they're going to take their time with Justin. It's also pretty hot a kitchen in Chicago not to, trot him out there when Andy Dalton starts getting booed. But I do think that in San Francisco, and I haven't read the takes this morning, I haven't tracked it. Jimmy G was like kind of an afterthought last night. He was collateral damage when it come to that draft.

But he's probably going to be there. I mean, there's a chance he's going to be there. They could release him and save a bunch of money, which they might do. But he's definitely not going to New England. No, no, New England suddenly has gotten very crowded. And again, it's fascinating because Cam is a guy that I covered in the pros. Because I live in Charlotte and I wrote a big cover story on them in the magazine,

a couple of them. And Cam's a fascinating guy. But then Mac Jones is a guy I've gotten to know very well during his time in Alabama. And so I'm really curious to see how that deal goes down to it. And I think sometimes the QB battles, we have a tendency to. overblown, like in college football, QB battles in spring practice are a joke. That's all just something for us to talk about.

They're not going to determine anything until we get to August. Right. But in the NFL, just the chemistry of it is, I felt like I know Cam sort of well. Yeah. And so I'm really curious to see what his reaction of this is going to be. Well, I think, Lee, last year I've said this over and over again. I think Cam showed me so much about his, like,

personality and what he has in him because, you know, at times I thought he was a frontrunner in Carolina. I've always respected his game. I'm not questioning his toughness, his work ethic, his heart. But you can be a, you know, a good teammate and still be a front runner. And that's not necessarily what you want, always out of a quarterback. But he was far from at New England. I mean, you know, when the chips are down, that's when I learned a lot about you. And the chips were down last year for him. And I thought he really was a team guy. I think he went back to New England because I think him and Bill have a real bond. I think they're both trying to, you know,

scratch and claw in Act 2. And I think one's going to be more successful than the other, unfortunately. And that's Bill, because I think Cam's going to be their package guy. I really do believe that. Unless Mac is really underwhelming out the gate, I think by the end of the season, you're going to see Cam coming in for really, like, interesting, fun, Taysam Hill kind of packages.

And that's not to say, I don't believe in Cam or anything like, like that, but your guy fell to you at 15. I mean, as only could happen to the Pats. And so you got, you got to get something out of him this year. That roster is loaded. And Cam wasn't throwing the ball while last year. I thought he was banged up. I hear he was banged up.

Now you can head your bets. And if it works out for Mack Jones, you make Cam the package guy. Auburn, Auburn, Alabama, quarterback room, by the way. Yeah, Cam and Mac. I mean, you flip their names right now. The whole thing is that some of the stuff on. Twitter. And you know, I mean, I have a love-hate relationship with Twitter, but some of the stuff on Twitter last night was people talking about the first conversation between Cam and Mac, and it was,

no, it was good. There's that one commercial, right? There was that one commercial where Cam is like helping the little bitty kid, little bitty white kid with those quarterback skills and someone was like, was that Mac Jones? It's funny. And I love the Mac Jones. Speaking of, and by the way, if you didn't have a love slash something relationship with Twitter and it was just love. Yeah. I wouldn't trust you. Yeah.

That's a good point. If you just like Twitter, I don't trust you. But I mean, like the Mack Jones and Bill Belichick, did you see them both walking like the Bill walking out of the point tunnel? They got the same walk. The Tom Brady shirtless stuff. The Mac Jones shirtless stuff. No, Mac walks like Brady. Like he walks.

He walks like he's got one of those resistance bands tie between his knees, right? Like almost like a duck wall. No, it's, oh yeah, well, he's drawing comparisons physically to Bill and Tom, which isn't a good thing. But if he can play football, and the guys like him. And one thing that stuck out to me about him was, you know, when they interviewed those receivers back earlier this spring, they kind of said outright that they like catching the ball from Mac Jones more than Tua. Now, I'm not starting any shit because they said it. Oh, yeah, no, no, no, they said it to me too. And it wasn't a knock on Tua at all.

It just was a completely different, like when you play with Mac, when you play with Tua, you're following the playbook, but it's to us. So there's also going to be, you know, you're going to get some stuff coming out of nowhere and balls coming in at 75 miles an hour off. With Mac, it's like Madden. However it's drawn up is exactly how it's going to run. And wherever you are is where the ball is going to be.

And there's not any question of what the play is going to be. And so if the play is busted, the plays busted, Max's going to take a knee and you're going on the next play. So I think there's a comfort level of that. But listen, those guys made Mac look great. But they were the first ones to tell you that Mac also made them look. The spectacular plays, the one-handed catches that we all saw that won Heism and Trophies, you know, those got the headlines, but the reality was that was about five catches.

The other 1,500, you know, were balls that were perfectly placed. Perfect. Those guys love him. And I think this is the great thing about it for Mac Jones is he's not overdrafted. Like, he's not going to be, like, if somebody early had, if San Francisco pick Mack Jones, the whole country hates Mac Jones. Sure. Yeah. So this was the, you know, this was the right place for him.

Like, from pressure standpoint, it's the right place for him from like a coach standpoint, a scheme standpoint. It's basically a Bama pod. I want to ask about Patrick Sertain in the corners. Okay, we've got two great ones that win the top 15. By the way, it always cracks me up. Fans at like Radio City down to Cleveland or Nashville, where they have the draft these days. they never know what to do when their team drafts the lock down corner.

It's like the most like curious clap in the whole draft. Yeah, yeah. But the two guys you got in the top 15 are really good. Yeah. One's polished. Yeah, one's more, you know, like, hey, the ceiling's high with this kid horn.

Would you agree with that assessment? No, I agree with it 100%. And it is funny because I guess it's just not sexy. Yeah. But, but, but we know that that's where it starts. and I got bad news for anyone who doesn't like defensive heavy drafts because next year that's what's going to be. And I mean, we're going to have a,

you're probably going to have a lockdown corner, and Derek Stingley is the number one pick. And so that's just, that's, but you know that teams are built on those corners, particularly, you know, in these days. And so, yeah, now I think it's a great pick. The perfect example of the not sexy pick that is so sexy, to the football people is, did you see

the war room footage of the lions when they got Penae Soule? They got Penae Soule out of Oregon. It was like almost not safe for work. Like with those guys were doing each other and it was, they jumped up sort of screaming. It was awesome. But, and he.

Bite each other's kneecows. Talk about an old, all-time kid. Penae Soule's amazing. And I was so bummed. Yeah, you know, he, he and I, and I thought it was a wise decision, but he decided him, not to play last fall when everything was getting sideways and all that.

But I hated it because I'm quite honestly, I was working on a story about him. And I'm crazy about that guy. And so, but anyhow, the point is, is that I love it when it's the non-sexy pick, especially in a quarterback heavy year like we were having this year or a wide receiver, you know, wide receiver quarterback draft like this one was. But I love those picks because, you're right. It's the, is that good?

And you know, you just feeling. to the phone, right? Yeah. Let me Google this kid. I didn't watch South Carolina play, understandably this year. I, like, so I guess then the follow-up question would be, are any of them better than Caleb Farley?

And I hate to say that. Oh, wow. You know, I hate to say it. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's, I don't think you can lose. But are better, I don't know. No, no. I like all three of them, man.

And, you know, like as a pass rusher, it makes my heart smile when I think about, Russia's getting a couple extra tenths of the second because that's what those guys do. That's all it takes, right? And that's all it. And that's, again, that's the part that people who watch football and just follow the ball. That's the part that I don't understand is, is that layering of, man, if that guy's good back there, it makes my life. It's a domino effect. A split second easier up front. And that's all you need. Yeah. Yeah. Talking about up front, Orlando Brown leaves town. And I can't remember which pick

it ended. I believe they got the kid from Penn State off this pick. Yeah, you, that's what you're confirming that. Jason, yeah, yeah, he was, it was, it was like the 31st pick. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I'm wondering, here I am, you know, I've been told my whole life, production, you know, like production gets you paid. That's, I saw Clownie, no sacks, $10 million this off season. Right. And then I see this kid, no sacks,

bottom of the first round. Yeah. I mean, just a great landing spot for him because they produce rushes. What do you think of them? I like him, and he's the perfect,

and I saw him in person several times at Penn State. Penn State, by the way, had a great draft. It had a long time, but they had a great draft. Yeah, and we'll continue to have a great draft.

But he's good, but he is the, he's the perfect example of if you see him in person, you understand, Like Clowny, you know, I cover Clowning college, you know, a little bit when we got into the league. And, yeah, it's production. But I don't know.

You tell me, do you get credit for production you create for the other guy? Depends on who you are. Right, right, right. But I felt like it was like that with. No, no, Clowny, when he was rolling, he would, I had no qualms about him getting paid. Really, like, I have no qualms about anybody getting paid because at the end of the day. I mean, like, and I've been one. one of Clowny's biggest supporters because I think when people use that B word about him,

they're just looking at the sacks, which have been underwhelming. I totally agree. But he creates so many things for other people. He didn't do it so much last year in Tennessee. We'll see if he does it this year in Cleveland. But I mean, I'm looking at that. And I'm saying to myself, does this kid going to create enough havoc to justify this pick at the bottom of the first round?

Yeah, you know, he is the perfect example of it. And again, if you saw him in person, you understood. but he's good and he creates things, you know, just by being on the field because he creates a hole over here because he's over here. But he is also the perfect example of the importance of the underwear Olympics. Yeah. Because he ran like a 4-3, 4-3, something like that, just under a 4-4, and all of a sudden, like it was, again, when a guy has that moment, all of a sudden, everybody's talking about him. And so, yeah, the underwear Olympics are still the most fascinating part of the whole thing to me. I heard a rumor that I could run a four nine right now in Happy Valley.

Yeah, there again. I mean, I heard the field is, I hear it's 39 yards there. So what about Lamar? Did he get his guy in Bateman, the Minnesota kit? Yeah, no, he's good. I didn't watch Minnesota a lot. Yeah. Only anybody did.

But, right? But they're good. and they're high profile now because of the coach and the row the boat and all that stuff. But my friends that, I texted my friends that covered the Big Ten last night and they're all like, no, no, no, this is a good late first round pick.

And I, you know, honestly, selfishly, I was focused on my people down here in the Sunbelt and I didn't see a lot of him. Yeah, no, no, no. I mean, like, there's no reason to watch Minnesota, no offense in Minnesota. I mean, no, it's a great stadium. I love going to Minneapolis.

I love going to Minneapolis before Halloween. after that. You turn into Justin Fields. You don't like the snow. They play outdoors. I covered a Michigan, Minnesota game. I was actually doing a story on the Metro Dome because the twins played a huge game that morning,

like at 11 o'clock in the morning. And then they flipped the stadium and play the Michigan, Minnesota game there that night. And that day they broke ground Minnesota did on their new football stadium. And they don't play where the Vikings play. They play in their own stadium. I just remember standing there thinking, Dan, we're really going to build an outdoor stadium in Minneapolis?

Nobody seemed to think that was a problem, but that was, uh, yeah, that's what happens when the only people you have working on the whole project are from Minnesota. Have somebody from out of town come in and give it a second set of eyes. I'm like, really? You're like, you're like, don't know. You're like, domes are expensive. I'm like, yeah, so is hypothermia. Yeah, hypothermia gets expensive as well.

We touched on Penn A, Sewell. We touched on the tackles. One thing, you know, I wanted to hit with the guys up front was your, you're, you're a Joe Burrow fan, you're just a football fan, like the Venn diagram is probably a circle with that. But like you're sitting there and it's protection or it's a guy to throw to. Where are you going? And did that shock you?

I think you've got to go with protection these days because, I mean, there's so much talent at wide receiver. And all these guys that we've talked about, these first rounders, you know, they all have the potential to, be, you know, a franchise guy. But the reality is that, you know, I don't care. My daughter's high school season, high school football team, they just finished their season.

And the quarterback, I've known that kids, literally since he was born. And he came up to me big old tears in his eyes. He goes, man, what a terrible year. I go, brother, I go, I've covered the greatest quarterbacks in history football. Not on one of them can complete a pass laying on their back. And so, yeah, it's, it's, I tend to go with protection over a receiver because I can find a lot guys catch football. I wonder this this year if they thought because I I'm the same way as you. I mean, I mentioned I've seen it with a ton of quarterbacks before and Joe Burrow, had he

finished the season on his feet, I still would have been saying like he needs some protection. I got to figure for people that are mad on his behalf that they asked him how he felt. And maybe they looked at things and they said, hey, this class is so deep at wide receiver. It's also deep at offensive line. Like, but maybe Slater and the Chargers was a better situation because they can honestly justify that a little bit better at 13. If they didn't think Penae Sewell was Tristan Worf's from last year. I don't think he's Tristan Worf's. I'm very,

I'm enamored with the kid, and I really like him, but I don't think he's Tristan Worf's. Maybe they thought, hey, Joe likes Jamar, and that would be their job to protect Joe from himself, being a personnel evaluator.

He says, get me one in the second round. That's the only thing I can think of, because, again, if you're the Chargers at 13, like all the good skill guys are gone and you've got skill guys, you got Justin Herbert. It's easier to just say, like, let's protect Justin Herbert, you know? Yeah.

No, it's a good point. And I just, there's, there's, like with Joe, I mean, Joe's their guy. Yeah. And, and, you know, I'm not, I'm not silly enough to think that there's a lot of jams. And, and, you know, Jerry Jones isn't going down to the quarterback's room and asking, hey, guys, who should we pick? Yeah. But I think that in certain situations, those conversations are taking place. And also, it's Joe.

If you've ever spent any time with him, then you know. And that's a coach's son, all these coaches know him. I mean, they're not a coach on any coach's staff who doesn't know either know Joe or know his dad. And so I think that he's that rare guy, well, you will go to him and say. Yeah. And you might not go there, but he's so smart that, you know, you can have that conversation with him and you know that it's going to come from a place of what we can do. to make us better, not just, you know, keep me from getting my butt in.

And that's the future of quarterback in the NFL. They're going to be like front office people as well. Two Bama questions before I let you go, Robin Gie against. Thanks for the time. We got two guys from Bama. I want to ask you about Alex Leatherwood on the offensive line side of things. You like him? Was he a reach?

Because if you talked about reach, as he was probably the guy that people are bringing up. Yeah, I mean, I love him. And I wrote a story back, when there was no football going on last fall, I wrote a story about like the all-time saving team. He came to NFL guys and, you know, guys who were just insanely great in college.

I don't think I had Leatherwood on the team and I got hate mail because he's that good. And I got calls from coaches at Alabama going, what are you talking about? He's the guy. Like, why are you not giving him enough credit? Because Landon Dickerson, and rightfully so, received most of the national attention.

But within the conference, they would tell you Leatherwell was the guy. guy and this guy that's moved all over the line during his time. Saban considers him an all-timer. I don't know if he's his number 17 pick. But it's, you know, John, that was clearly John Gruden's call. And it felt like a John Gruden move. But I like him a lot.

I don't know that he's a 17. I'm putting my money on Mayak in there, sizing up his posterior chair. Yeah. Well, and also too. I want this big son of vision in my middle day. And I think he'll play in the league for a decade. Like I think he'll play in a league for, I think he'll be an anchor for a long time.

Oh, yeah, yeah. But, but, but it just, in this particular skill position draft, it wasn't very sexy at 17th. Yeah, it wasn't sexy and then you know you got to outscore Kansas City. I mean, like,

that's, that's kind of your thing. But also on the other end of things, like, okay, if you're not looking at firepower, I personally, me the GM, you got a lot of work to do on defense. You said in the offseason, and where you were, I don't know who was left, but if you were in love with anybody. But sure, you've got to outscore Kansas City.

You've proved that you can do that even with your poorest defense, but can you beat everybody else? And that's, you need some defense to do that. Najee Harris, was he wasted? Will he be wasted in Pittsburgh? Well, man, I hope not. I tweeted this last night. Nausea Harris, I felt like I was saying this a lot, but I wouldn't tell you this if I didn't believe it.

Again, great kid, great kid. And so funny, it's all about moving from California to Tuscaloosa and Culture Shock and all that stuff. But he, I tweeted last night, he would fit in anywhere. Pittsburgh just feels right because it's Pittsburgh, and I know the kind of player that Naji Harris is. but man, they got nothing up front. And it's the craziest thing to talk about the Steelers having nothing up front.

But I think everybody on that offense is trying to handle a football is going to get punished. And he's certainly going to be one of those guys. But long term, I think if he could survive the first couple of years while they're trying to get bodies in the trench, if he can get through those first couple years, okay, then I think he can. could be, I think he could be there for a long time. Oh, he's incredible. You just don't want the Sakewan thing to happen. And maybe like along the lines of, I don't want to

put thoughts in Cincinnati's head, but maybe along the lines of it's a deep offensive line class is deeper than most people are thinking. Maybe we see guard tackle, guard center coming off the board for the Steelers here coming up. So Ryan McGee talking a lot of SEC, it's

not our fault. They're just good. Yeah, that's the thing too. You catch flack, but I'm like, dude, They had six number one picks Alabama did. And then just throw in a few Florida guys and LSU guys away. It's just, listen, it is, the numbers are what they are. And the league is full of what it is. And so, you know, if I work for the Pact 12 network,

we'd still be talking about these Alabama guys. That's just how it works. Next year we'll be talking about some Virginia guys or next year or two. So, all right. Ryan McGee. Bronco, baby. I appreciate you, man. Thanks for the time.

Always great talking to you. You're the man. Thanks a lot, man. See you.