Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Breakdown of the 2019 NFL Draft and Hawkeye's UDFA signings

Episode Date: April 29, 2019

We devote the entire episode to discussing the results of the 2019 NFL Draft and where each Hawk was drafted in addition to where the undrafted Hawks have signed.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are listening to the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Locked On Sports Network, hosted by Andrew Wade, editor at DearOldGold.com. Welcome to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I am your host, Andrew Wade. It is a gloomy Monday morning here in Denver, Colorado, and we're going to be giving you kind of a full recap, some analysis of the 2019 NFL Draft weekend. I came to you on Friday morning and gave you some analysis on the TJ Hawkinson and Noah Fant picks, kind of just going off the rails there. Today's episode is again

going to be a little bit more off the rails. Don't have a lot of specifically planned stuff. I have a lot of thoughts on the Iowa Hawkeyes draft, so I want to make sure that I'm just covering all of that. So it might be a little bit shorter of an episode. We'll see. I can get talking and kind of go on for a while. So today's episode is going to be covering entirely the NFL draft. On the future episodes, especially tomorrow's episode, we're going to be doing our weekly Hawkeye Roundup, talking about the Hawkeye sports that are currently in session and kind of how they've done over the past week since our big focus has been the NFL draft. We also have a few real segments coming up about the NFL Draft, talking about some

of our surprises, talking to you about kind of projections for next year, some of the players who could be stars on next year's football team. So we're going to get back to a more structured approach over the coming weeks and coming days. But for today, we're just going to be talking about the NFL Draft this past weekend and kind of the instant analysis of those picks, of those undrafted free agent deals, that kind of thing. So before we jump in, though, if you do like the show, if you do love the podcast and you are not subscribed, please make sure to like and subscribe and review wherever you download this podcast at.

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So again, thank you for tuning in on today's episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, part of the Locked On Sports Network. We're going to jump right into it with the first round. And if you listen to our episode on Friday morning, you heard me talk about TJ Hawkinson and Noah Fant. So I'm not going to touch on it too much. I think the big things here is, first of all, Iowa obviously kind of made history by having two tight ends taken in the first round.

I think both those teams are great fits for them, especially with the Detroit Lions and TJ Hawkinson going to Matt Patricia's team. He's going to be bringing that New England-style offense. He's used to having a solid tight end. Matt Stafford's been wanting a tight end since he's come into the league. They tried Brandon Pettigrew. They tried Eric Ebron. Neither of those guys worked out. TJ Hawkinson is a guy who could though. He's a guy who can block and catch and the other guys are more just receiving threats. So I think not only will he

help in the receiving game and kind of take some of the pressure off of Matt Stafford being that guy underneath and also potentially opening it up, you know, kind of the seam routes and whatnot, especially for a guy like Kenny Galladay, who's going to be on the outside at the wide receiver, but he's also going to be able to clear lanes for carry on Johnson, which I think is going to be really instrumental for the Detroit Lions as they try to get back to that more consistent approach, both passing and rushing the ball. So that'll be a really good fit for TJ Hawkinson. When you looked at Bleacher Reports grades, or when I looked at Bleacher Reports grades,

they gave that grade a B+. And that was Mike Tainier. I might be saying that name wrong, but I do think it was interesting, kind of his analysis of the pick in that he said, TJ Hawkinson doesn't have as good of hands as Travis Kelsey, isn't able to take on contested catches or tough catches. And he also isn't necessarily a technical blocker. He's just a really good running and hitting person, which I think is complete garbage. So if you do follow Mike Tanyer on Bleacher Report, I would just kind of be cognizant of the fact that he probably doesn't watch a lot of Iowa Hawkeye football tape. I think Hawkinson does a great job of taking on contested catches. He didn't get a chance to high point a lot of balls in the Iowa Hawkeye offense, but he does do a really good job of taking on those contested catches. He didn't get a chance to high point a lot of balls in the Iowa Hawkeye offense, but he does do a really good job of taking on those contested catches. And as far as blocking

goes, you do not play football for the Iowa Hawkeyes if you cannot block. I'm sorry, the Noah Fant stuff, is he a great blocker? Not necessarily, but he's still not bad. He's a decent blocker. He still has a lot of work to do, but TJ Hawkinson was a freaking beast at tight end in the blocking roles that he had to fulfill. So that judgment of that was complete garbage. But I digress a little bit. The other pick, Noah Fant, in the first round I think was a great pickup. Going to the Denver Broncos, they have not really had a tight end or receiving threat since Owen Daniels and Julius Thomas a few years back. Joe Flacco loves

to go to his tight ends. He was a big fan of Dennis Pitta in Baltimore. Noah Fant gives him an opportunity to have that big weapon at the tight end position and a mismatch so you can kind of split out wide against small corners. You can beat big linebackers. And Rick Scandrello did a great job in San Francisco last year working with George Kittle. George Kittle had an all-pro season. So I'm really excited to see what Noah Fant can do with the Denver Broncos. That'll be a lot of fun seeing kind of what they do with his versatility. And you can tell Noah was just pumped to be a Denver Bronco. You know, he said that was the place he wanted to be.

He even carried an orange square just in case he did get drafted by the Denver Broncos so he could put that in his pocket square and be up on stage repping the Denver Broncos. So love that pick as well. We're going to go to a few messages from our sponsors. I know this is kind of a quick segment. We're going to jump back into Anthony Nelson and Imani Hooker's picks here in just a few moments. So we're going to give you a few messages

from our sponsors right now. All right, we are back with segment number two for today. And I think we're not going to necessarily do that traditional segment pieces. But as I started talking, you know, I thought we could at least break it out a little bit. So on segment number two, we're going to cover Anthony Nelson and Amani Hooker. Their selections in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Starting with Anthony Nelson. Selected a few picks in the fourth round of the NFL Draft.

I thought he could go potentially late second, mid third, obviously slipped a little bit. And I think a lot of that is because the defensive end class was so deep this year, especially at the top. And then you saw a lot of guys start slipping like Montez Sweat going late in the first round. I'm not really sure kind of what all happened with there. There were some issues potentially with medicals, you know, with his heart condition and whatnot, but I'm not really sure what all happened there. There were some issues potentially with medicals, with his heart condition and whatnot. But I'm not really sure why they all slipped.

But as people start to slip, you're going to push down other guys as well. So there was a run on other players in the middle of the first round that kind of pushed some of those guys down. Six, seven teams got defensive ends in the first round. That leaves just two-thirds of the teams that really need a defensive end. You're not going to invest a high draft pick in the need of defensive end if you don't really have that need. So I thought it was interesting that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the team that actually pounced on Anthony Nelson. Because he doesn't necessarily fit their scheme. At Iowa, they play a 4-3.

Obviously, they're tinkering with a 3-4 today. Just because they're trying to be ever-evolving. But Anthony Nelson is a 4'3 defensive end at 6'7", 272 pounds, whatever it is. He has that weight that you would typically see for a potential 3'4 defensive end. But with that much height, it makes it a little bit more difficult for him to have the ability to take on multiple blockers at a time. I think it's a really interesting pickup. He does kind of fit the bill for what they're going for, I guess, though.

I mean, they have Carl Nassib, the guy off of Hard Knocks last year, the Cleveland Browns defensive end who was drafted out of Penn State, Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year back a few years ago. He's also 6'7", 270-ish pounds, so very similar in size and shape to Anthony Nelson, but not as much of that lateral quickness. I mean, Anthony Nelson exploded on the scene in unreal combine times in the short shuttle and the three cone, that kind of stuff. So that'll be interesting to see how he kind of fits in Tampa Bay, especially in that 3-4 defense. Are they going to ask him to just stay in his lane?

Are they going to ask him to rush the passer on third downs? Or are they going to ask him to try to eat up blockers for the linebackers, which isn't something he had to do at Iowa. So I don't really feel very good about that pick for Anthony Nelson. I feel like there's a lot of other teams he could have gone to that would have made a lot more sense. And maybe if a Chase Winovich would have not been drafted by the Patriots, maybe we see New England take Anthony Nelson in the fourth round. But he is a Tampa Bay Buccaneer now.

I'm not sure how it's going to work out, but we'll see. I do believe that his work ethic is good enough, though, that he'll put in the extra game film and sessions like that to try to make sure that he is capable of playing that 3-4 edge position, but I just don't know if that's the right fit for him. As far as Monty Hooker, though, couldn't have gone to a better situation. Playing with Mike Vraverill's defense, that New England Patriots kind of tier of defense. I'm really excited to see him play there.

He's also going to come into an opportunity where he doesn't necessarily need to start right away. They have Kenny Vaccaro at the strong safety position. They have Logan Ryan down in the slot. I think with Mike Vabrel, though, one of the things he can do is really utilize Imani Hooker's versatility, and that'll be huge. As we saw with Iowa, Hooker was able to be a slot corner. He was able to be a dime backer.

He was able to be a strong safety. In a cover to defense, he could play that strong safety over top. He can also come down on the nickel and play that third linebacker spot that's technically a defensive back. He can also slide over into the slot. So the one thing I think will be really interesting to watch as this season unfolds is kind of what position he ultimately plays in the Tennessee Titans defense. Do they see him as a slot corner?

Do they see him as a third down nickel backer? Or do they see him as a strong safety? And maybe they can get rid of Kenny Vaccaro even after they signed him to a four-year, $26 million deal. So that's kind of an interesting pickup. It's definitely a great depth pickup, and it's a great long-term future pickup. If he can learn from those guys, I think Imani Hooker has the ability to be a very good starting strong safety in the NFL today, but it needs to be with

the right team. And I think going to Mike Vrabel's Tennessee Titans team, that's huge as far as being in a defensive scheme that's going to utilize his skill set. One of the best things about Belichick is the fact that he finds offenses and defenses that works well for his players' skill sets. It's not that he makes the players fit into his offense or defense. He makes his offense or defense work for his players. Just like in the Super Bowl run last year, they started running the ball all the time. Rob Gronkowski wasn't as big of a receiving threat. He was a great blocking tight end by the end of his career. They just pounded the ball all the time. Rob Gronkowski wasn't as big of a receiving threat. He was a great blocking tight end by the end of his career. They just pounded

the ball every single down. That's one of the things you're going to see with the Titans as well, especially with Mike Brable kind of controlling the defense as a head coach. I'm obviously not the defensive coordinator, but he does have a lot of say in having that defensive background. Monty Hooker is going to thrive in that system, so I'm really excited about that.

I do think it's garbage that he fell to the fourth round, especially considering the lack of safety depth up top. I thought Amante Hooker could go in the late second or early third. I really thought he could potentially go to the Denver Broncos with that 71st pick. They ultimately went with Draymond Jones out of Ohio State, a defensive tackle. But interesting enough, Hooker does fall. He does go to the Titans with the fourth round. I do think there's a couple other teams that could utilize his skill set just as well,

but the Titans are a good fit for him. So it'll be interesting to see how that all plays out as the season unfolds. But we're going to take a quick break, give you a few more messages from our sponsors, and then we're going to jump into the undrafted guys. going to jump into the undrafted guys. All right, we are back with our final segment covering the undrafted free agents. We're going to do a quick kind of rundown of where those guys are kind of at right now. A lot of things happening. If you are not familiar with the NFL draft process, as soon as the NFL draft is over, and honestly, even before the NFL draft is over, NFL teams are trying to figure out how are they going to fill out their undrafted free agent pool. Teams like the Denver Broncos, who didn't have a 7th round draft pick,

they start calling guys well early into the 7th round, trying to get them to sign with them when the draft concludes. So a lot of movement comes very quickly. I thought it was interesting that a few guys didn't actually get calls very quickly. We didn't hear very much about them, but we're going to give you a quick rundown of the guys who were not drafted and where they are currently heading and kind of give you some information as to what we think about that. So starting with Nick Easley, he is going to be joining the Buffalo Bills on a actual undrafted free agent contract.

So congratulations to him. Walk on wide receiver. He had to walk on to Juco. Had to walk on to Iowa. And he's now joining the Buffalo Bills. I think it's going to be an interesting fit for him. That team is not overly loaded at any position, per se. Especially at wide receiver.

They have a lot of guys you would recognize. But not a lot of guys who really elevate the play of a josh allen right so one of the guys they signed this year is cole beasley i think that's gonna be a really good opportunity for easily to learn under beasley interesting rhyme there considering cole beasley is also a slot receiver has a similar background you know i believe he was undrafted as well, had some really productive years in Dallas. So Nick Easley has the opportunity to learn under him. They also signed David Sills in undrafted free agency, which I think is a really interesting pickup.

Nick Easley and David Sills don't fit the same kind of wide receiver role as each other, but they are going to be competing with each other as far as special teams, as far as getting on the field goes. So Easley hasn't played special teams since he's been at Iowa. I'm not sure when the last time he did play special teams. He does have that punting background, which will also help. When you get a guy that's an undrafted free agency, unless they come out and are the number one wide receiver on your team at the end of the preseason, you're likely going to need to see that versatility with them, the ability to play special teams, the ability to tackle, the ability to do something extra. And I think Nick Easley's work ethic is going to be able to win him that job.

I think he probably has a very good chance of at least being on that active 53-man roster this year, if not next year if he's on the practice squad. So exciting stuff for him. Ross Reynolds is going to be heading to San Francisco, a great fit under John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan. Shanahan runs that zone blocking scheme that's very familiar to Ross Reynolds, another guy who I thought could have been drafted but ultimately wasn't. I think he could have fit a lot of different offensive schemes, but he'll be a huge benefactor of Kyle Shanahan's zone blocking scheme. He has an opportunity as well to make that 53-man roster.

Keegan Render is going to be taking his talents to the Philadelphia Eagles. Again, another team I think he could probably make that 53-man roster. A very talented guy. I thought he could go in the 6th or 7th round. I even saw him mocked in the 5th round. That's as early as I saw him mocked, but I saw him mocked there. Interesting pickup. I'm kind of bummed to not see either of those three guys get drafted, but neither here nor there. They're going to take their talents to those cities,

and they're going to prove that they deserve to have a spot. So I think those are the three guys who probably have the best chances of being on an active roster come the start of the NFL season. But we're going to jump into a few other guys who are kind of not squirming, but trying to find their foothold in the NFL, starting with Jake Gervais, who I really thought, you know, he put on a great combine performance. He really came on late in his Iowa Hawkeye career, a solid ball hawking safety. He didn't even get, you know, a contract. Right now he has a tryout with the Oakland Raiders next week.

They do have some safety issues. I believe they did draft Nasir Adderley. I'll have to check on that. I believe they did draft a safety, so there's not as much concern about the safety depth as there used to be. But that is a really good opportunity. A team that doesn't have as much talent.

You want to see guys like Jake Travasco to team like the Oakland Raiders who need help everywhere. He can come in. If he can play that special teams role, play a backup safety role, John Gruden loves those guys who work their butt off. So that'll be really exciting to watch him do that. And it wasn't, excuse me, Nasir Adeli.

It was Jonathan Abram. So that'll be interesting to see kind of how the Oakland Raiders defense shapes up as of right now. If even Jake Gervais can manage to take that tryout and turn it into a UDFA contract, similar to what Bo Bowers did a few years ago with the Denver Broncos. The other guys on here, Matt Nelson is going to be joining the Detroit Lions. He's going to be converting from defensive line to offensive line,

so he'll need to be able to make that transition quickly, or at least show that he can make that transition somewhat quickly. He has the requisite size to play offensive line. That'll be a really fun project to watch. He'll also be joining T.J. Hawkinson in Detroit, so that'll be also another opportunity for him to kind of get some familiarity with a guy who he also already knows from the Iowa Hawkeye football program. Parker Hesse hasn't signed a contract yet, but he does have tryouts in place with Kansas City and Detroit. Man, can you imagine if he gets into Detroit, goes there, plays with Matt Nelson and T.J. Hawkinson? They're going to get some of that good Iowa vibes.

And you'll see that New England is one of the teams that has the most Iowa Hawkeyes on the roster. Now you see Matt Patricia kind of bringing in a few Iowa Hawkeyes as well. So you can kind of get that feel for what teams really appreciate the value that Iowa Hawkeyes bring. Kicker Miguel Racinos has not, I've not heard anything as of yet. I haven't heard anything as of yet as Austin Kelly either. Defensive tackle Sam Brinks, interestingly enough, he has a tryout with the Green Bay Packers. They're looking for a replacement for Mike Daniels at some point. Could he be that guy?

I don't necessarily think so, but really cool opportunity. He'll be able to go up to Green Bay, try out for the Packers. Maybe he turns that into a UDFA shot. Who knows at this point? I really didn't foresee him even getting into a camp at all. So exciting news for him. And then late last night, news broke that Kyle Gronowig is going to be going to Minnesota to do a tryout as well. Very Adam Thielen-esque in that sense. You know, a guy who not a lot of people probably have on their radar, but it'd be great if lightning, you know, struck twice for the Minnesota Vikings if Kyle Gronowig can show that, you know, those four or five receptions that he had

in his Iowa Hawkeye career were not, you know, replicable of, or not understanding of what his, you know his talent actually is, I guess is a better word for that. So he'll be able to show his value as a special teamers type person. Hopefully he can turn that tryout into a UDFA contract and then torch it during preseason as a special team, as a punt returner, kick returner, being a gunner. He has that 4-4-2 speed, which will be really great and beneficial for him. So if he can turn that on as a special teams player,

I think he has a chance at either making at least a practice squad, if not the 53-man roster. And if he somehow shows some receiving abilities that we maybe didn't see as Iowa Hawkeye fans, that would be huge as well. Probably not the best scheme for him as an Iowa Hawkeye, but we'll see how that all turns out. But exciting stuff overall for the Iowa Hawkeyes. A lot of guys in camps, a lot of guys getting some opportunities.

We're going to be obviously tracking that as the season progresses, letting you know kind of what players are where, how they're doing, that kind of thing. Obviously, the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast has a lot of stuff to cover over the summer, so as those minicamps go as those rookie minicamps go as teams move players around and we saw Ike Bucker get moved around three times

in the span of a week last year so we'll have all that news we'll be covering all that and giving you the analysis of that right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast but that'll do it for our show today again a little bit more unstructured we're going to get back to a more structured approach going forward

now that the NFL draft is kind of settling down. The dust is kind of going away for the NFL draft. So if you did like the show, if you have liked the show, make sure you do like and subscribe and review wherever you download this podcast at. Follow us on Twitter at Wade underscore Andrew. That's my Twitter. Follow the Locked on Hawkeyes on Twitter at Locked on Iowa.

And follow our Facebook group at Locked on Hawkeyes. That's how you're going to get the most recent updates about what's happening with the podcast. We'll let you know if we're having a special guest on. We'll let you know if shows are going to be delayed or shows are going to be posted for certain days. We try to get you daily 20-minute episodes every single day. But typically, it's more around four out of the five weekdays of the week that we typically get you an episode. So that being said, we'll be back tomorrow. We have a great episode coming at you.

We'll do our weekly Hawkeye Roundup, cover a few more draft things, some things I want to touch on about that. And then we're going to try to get some more guest interviews coming on, especially from the Iowa United, the basketball tournament team that is going to be combining all four of the big universities in the state of Iowa, including Nicholas Baer and Peter Jock. It is Nicholas Baer's week this week on the Iowa United Twitter account, so make sure to check that out on their Twitter account. Ask them any questions you want. They're doing a big feature on Nicholas Baer.

So lots of fun stuff happening in the basketball world. Even though the college basketball season is over, you can still support the Iowa United. If you didn't get an opportunity to check out those interviews, make sure you do. They happened the last couple of weeks with Matt Crawford. They do need our help. So if you haven't voted on thebasketballtournament.com, please do so as well. Make sure you go and support the Iowa United. It'd be really great to see the state of Iowa kind of combine all the universities and put together what I consider to be a pretty strong team, a lot of great shooters. So lots of fun stuff happening right here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast.

I hope you have a fantastic day. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. We'll be back tomorrow on our Tuesday morning episode. Thank you for tuning in on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, part of the Locked On Sports Network. I'm your host, Andrew Wade. I hope you have a great day, and let's go Hawks. I'm out.