Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Hawks make history with two TEs drafted in 1st round - Instant reaction and analysis from day one of the 2019 NFL Draft

Episode Date: April 26, 2019

The Iowa Hawkeyes had two tight ends selected in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft last night and we give you our instant reaction and analysis of both of these picks on today's episode.  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. Good morning and welcome to a special edition of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Wade, editor at DearOldGold.com, and we are bringing you a very special Friday morning episode recapping last night's first round of the NFL draft, where we had TJ Hawkinson and Noah Fant go in the top 20 picks from the University of Iowa, which is the first time in history that there have been two tight ends drafted in the first round from the same school, and quite possibly the first time in a long time that there's been two tight ends drafted in the same draft from the first school.

So, incredible night for those two Iowa Hawkeyes. We're going to be talking about that on today's episode. If you did miss the first three episodes of the week, our NFL Draft Trilogy with Nick Kendall and Sarah Bettinger, make sure to tune into those. On Tuesday, we talked about Noah Fant and TJ Hawkinson, but on Wednesday, we talked about Imani Hooker and Anthony Nelson. So make sure you are talking and tuning in to that episode if you're interested in what's going to take place tonight on day two of the NFL Draft. It is a great time to be an Iowa Hawkeye watching all these fun things happen. It's a great time if you are an NFL Draft fan.

I personally love the NFL Draft and really enjoying it, so I want to make sure I give you a short, quick and dirty episode today talking about T.J. Hawkinson and Noah Fant. So we're going to jump right into it after I take care of a few housekeeping items. If you are tuning into the show for the first time, make sure to check on a few of our episodes from the last couple weeks. We've had some great content coming out. We talked to Kevonte Martin-Manley,

Iowa's all-time receptions leader. Had a great conversation with him. We talked to Deuce Hogan, a four-star quarterback from Texas who is committed to the Iowa Hawkeyes. Talked to him about the recruiting process and what it means to be an Iowa Hawkeye. And we've been having Matthew Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United, on the show to talk about the formation process and what it means to be an Iowa Hawkeye. And we've been having Matthew Crawford, the general manager of the Iowa United,

on the show to talk about the formation of that team that's going to bring together the four major schools at the state of Iowa, all together to bring them together and talk to the basketball tournament. So had him on the show as well. And we had Nick Kendall and Sarah Bettinger on the last three days to talk about the NFL draft. So again, make sure you are tuning into our previous episodes if you do like what you're listening to we would love if you liked and subscribed to our podcast wherever you downloaded

this podcast at i'm definitely appreciate that if you are on twitter make sure to follow us okay um that's good to know um so um obviously you took um you know tj hawkinson at number eight uh felt really really good about that pick. He's a guy we targeted early in the process. Really great player, three-down to four-down player. That's going to be a big part of our offense going forward. Really checked every box that we had in terms of the evaluation process from on field to third down to red area to blocking to special teams to culture to intelligence to

work ethic you name it he checked basically every box um throughout the whole process so i'm really excited to have him here um had a good conversation with him when we took him and uh you know you guys will get to meet him tomorrow so uh went a little bit crazy. And Cleland Farrell, that was something that could happen for the Jaguars. So they went and got some edge help, which obviously pushed TJ Hawkinson down the board a little bit more. The Detroit Lions snatched him up. And they've been an interesting team, one that we haven't really been able to predict leading into the NFL draft

just because there's a lot of rumors saying that they wanted to move down. They wanted to move back in the NFL draft. And we weren't really sure what kind of they were valuing. That being said, it's a perfect pick for the Lions. It makes a ton of sense. Matt Patricia is there. He is the former defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. And if you can start making that connection,

the New England Patriots run a very tight end heavy offense. Obviously through Rob Gronkowski. When they had the late Aaron Hernandez, want run a very tight end heavy offense, obviously through Rob Gronkowski. When they had the late Aaron Hernandez, they had a two tight end set. They don't really have any game changing tight ends right now. They drafted Eric Ebron a couple years ago as a first round draft pick didn't work out. They also drafted Brandon Pettigrew a few years ago as a first round draft pick didn't pan out. So this is their opportunity to kind of get that position right, and it'll be a huge opportunity for Matthew Stafford

to have T.J. Hawkinson throwing the ball to him. Excuse me. It'll be a huge opportunity for Matthew Stafford to be able to throw the ball to T.J. Hawkinson. So that'll be really exciting to watch his kind of career unfold in Detroit, a very hardworking city. I think it makes perfect sense for him. He's a very hardworking guy, obviously, coming from a small town in Sheraton, Iowa,

a three-star recruit, working his way up as a redshirt sophomore to become an All-American tight end, the John Mackey Award winner, the Ozzie Newsom Award winner. So just a fantastic night all around for TJ Hawkinson. Like I said, great to see him go to the Detroit Lions. I felt like if he fell past that, he likely would have been selected by the Broncos at 10. He likely could have gone to the Packers at 12, and that would have probably been the floor for him. But the Broncos managed to snag their tight end of the future.

Also, Noah Fant, an Iowa football tight end. So some great stuff obviously going on last night. I'm going to quickly give you a clip of the Detroit Lions press conference as they talked a little bit about TJ Hawkinson. So we're going to tune into that right now. Okay. That's good to know. So obviously you took TJ Hawkinson at number eight. Felt really, really good about that pick. He's a guy we targeted early in the process. Really great player, three down to four down player. That's going to be a big part of our offense going forward. Really checked every box that we had in terms of the evaluation process from on field to

third down to red area to blocking to special teams to culture to intelligence to work ethic. You name it. He, he checked basically every box, um, throughout the whole process. So I'm really excited to have him here. Um, had a good conversation with him when we took him and, uh, you know, you guys will get to meet him tomorrow. So, uh, Right. We are back after that, obviously, um, some,

some great comments from the Detroit lions, Detroit Lions about TJ Hawkinson. They're obviously very infatuated with how awesome of a prospect he is. No red flags, nothing wrong about him. And I think that's what really sold a lot of teams on him. Not only can he do literally everything in an offensive scheme from a tight end position, but his character is off the wall. Just looking at him as he walked down the red carpet, the red carpet is kind of a loose term,

but the carpet to get onto the stage to meet Roger Goodell, you could see the emotion that he was showing throughout that process. Obviously tearing up a little bit as he was getting on there. Everyone wears kind of fancy suits and whatnot, and he wore his Iowa Hawkeye picture suit. That just speaks volumes to what kind of player he is I mean he's an Iowa Hawkeye through and through and I absolutely love the fact that he's going to the Detroit Lions love the fact that he was able to realize his NFL dreams last night so fantastic stuff

can't wait to talk more about TJ Hawkinson in the NFL another great tight end heading to the NFL from the Iowa Hawkeye football program we're going to take a few second break give you a few messages from our sponsors and then we're going to come back and talk to take a few second break, give you a few messages from our sponsors, and then we're going to come back and talk to you about Noah Fant. So stay tuned after a few messages from our sponsors here in just a few seconds.

All right, we are back, and we're going to cover Noah Fant. Obviously, if you've been tuning into the show for a while, you know that I'm a huge Denver Broncos fan, so it was very exciting for me to see Noah Fant and Iowa Hawkeye go to the Denver Broncos. I thought that might be the case when they actually traded back from 10 to 20, which is interesting because I felt like the Steelers were a kind of a off the wall pick for a tight end potentially. If TJ Hawkinson somehow fell that far, I felt like the Steelers would go there. I thought they could be a possible landing spot for Noah Fant. However, they decided to trade up.

They give a second round pick this year and a-round pick next year to go to 10. They take Devin Bush out of Michigan. The Denver Broncos drop back 10 picks. And at that point, you're kind of wondering, are they going to drop completely out? Are they going to go quarterback? Are they going to go tight end? Are they going to go something kind of crazy? Are they going to go cornerback?

Because another option that kind of was thrown around as well. And they ultimately went with the tight end position, taking Noah Fant. You could tell that that was a very high selection on their board. You know, John Elway's been doing a great job as of lately, the last couple of years, of really sticking true to his board and not reaching. He's a very big BPA type of player or coach. He's a general manager, excuse me. He loves taking the best player available.

Noah Fant was obviously that guy on the board at that time I think when they looked at the board at 10 the the main guys they possibly wanted right an Ed Oliver a Devin White HD Hawkinson those guys were gone so at that point you know let's move back a little bit see if we can't get another guy that we really love and that was Noah Fant you could tell when you know they talked to Noah Fant on the phone that they are very very excited to add him to the offense rick scan janello i'm gonna butcher that name rick scan jarello you know he used george kittle in such a great way last year brought george kittle to an incredible season um you know setting records in the nfl for tight end receiving yards all that kind of stuff. You know, George Kittle was a great tight end.

Iowa didn't really have the production that we typically or that we have seen, at least from Noah Fant or TJ Hawkinson, but great career so far in the NFL. And we saw what Rick could do with him in the San Francisco 49ers offense. Imagine what he can do in the Denver Broncos offense. It has significantly more weapons. You have Phillip Lindsey. You have Cortland Sutton. You have Emmanuel Sanders.

And I don't really care for Joe Flacco, but you have Joe Flacco, which is a little bit more of a proven quarterback than Nick Mullins. So imagine that kind of fit for Noah Fant. I think they're going to really do a good job of using him as an inline blocker, splitting him out wide, just making him a mismatch entirely. And for those of you who kind of question or kind of concerned about his blocking abilities, again, just remember when you block next to TJ Hawkinson, you're not going to look as good. TJ Hawkinson is just a fantastic, a tenacious blocker. Noah Fant is not Hawkinson when it comes to blocking, but he has the ability to be.

He has the size, and the athleticism to be a great blocker. Mike Munchak in Denver is going to do a great job of working with him and working on getting that blocking down pat, getting his technique right, so he can be one of the best blocking tight ends in the NFL. So I'm excited about that matchup as well. I'm going to quickly tune you into some of the draft analysts who are talking about Noah Fant, and you can kind of hear some of what they said about Noah Fant just here in a few seconds.

with the 20th pick in the 2019 NFL Draft the Denver Broncos select Noah Vant tight end Iowa tremendous value here Rich to have Noah Vant still available at this point in time and Joe Flacco you go back and watch him when he was at his best Dennis Pitta was his guy he loved throwing the ball to the tight end. Now he's got an explosive tight end who's going to be able to scream down the seam. You're going to use him on those deep over routes, Coach. He's going to be a weapon in the passing game for Flacco. No question. I watched this film.

I thought about Jimmy Graham. I thought about Jerry Cook from the Oakland Raiders. He's now at the New Orleans Saints. This guy is a mismatch. He is an issue. He is tall. He is long. He is fast. He is physical. This guy on little nickelbacks or on safeties or on linebackers, this guy's trouble. Big quarterbacks love this guy down the middle of the field. All right, so obviously very glowing reviews of Noah Fant. It's a fantastic selection for the Denver Broncos to get Noah Fant at 20. There's a chance he may, you know, people talked about him sliding down to 31 or 32 going to,

you know, the Patriots, but I think this is a great value pick for the Broncos taking Noah Fant at pick number 20. I also won a few drinks off of that. I made a couple bets on Noah Fant getting drafted by the Broncos and it worked out very favorably for me. So big fan of that as well. and it worked out very favorably for me. So big fan of that as well. Obviously, it'll be awesome to watch both these tight ends in the NFL next year. I believe both of them will be starting. TJ Hawkinson should be starting day one.

Noah Fant should be starting day one as well. But there's going to be a little bit more competition. He's going to be joining a lot of other Big Ten tight ends with Troy Fumigalli from Wisconsin. You got Jeff Hireman from Ohio State. And you got Jake buff from Michigan. So a big crowded, big 10 tight end room right there, but no offense should stand above the rest.

Obviously a, a freak of a Nate, you know, a freak of an athlete running a four or five 40 at six, five 250 pounds is just absolutely incredible. I saw someone actually post something on Twitter about how his, his combine performance actually was better than Cortland Sutton. So just, just use that as some food for thought as to kind of what Noah Fant can do as a Denver Broncos. So really exciting stuff for the tight ends last night. Tonight's going to be a great

night though. We're going to talk about that in just a few moments, but we're going to go and give you a few more messages from our sponsors before we jump into day two of the NFL draft. from our sponsors before we jump into day two of the NFL draft. All right, we are back, and we're going to be covering day two of the NFL draft. Obviously, the draft is not over, and the draft is not over for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Day two is a very big day for the Hawks. This is the opportunity for Imani Hooker and Anthony Nelson to be drafted. And like we've talked about on the previous shows,

if you didn't have a chance to, make sure to listen to Wednesday's episode specifically. That's the one where Nick and Sarah and I all talked about Imani Hooker and Anthony Nelson and kind of what we expected from them in terms of draft position. And one of the interesting things about that is we actually felt like Imani Hooker might be a good Denver Bronco.

And now the Denver Broncos have two second round draft picks. They also have an early third round draft pick. That could be a landing spot for him. The Chicago Bears making their first pick of the NFL draft could be a good landing spot for a money hooker. So just be on the lookout for him getting drafted sometime, I would say, in the late second round to the early third. Obviously, there hasn't really been a run on safeties as of yet.

Few guys still left on the board you got chauncey you know gardner johnson still there uh you know some other guys that are going to be kind of hanging up a little bit before amani hooker so that run on safety needs to happen before amani hooker i think is going to be drafted but i do expect him to be drafted at the end of the second round or early in the third and then anthony nelson's a really interesting prospect. I've seen big boards with him as the top 10 prospect remaining. I've seen him on big boards where he is the 60th prospect remaining. So it really depends on what teams value in him and where they think he'll be a good

fit at. And also, are there other teams that are interested? So is it going to force someone's hand to go take him earlier? Again, I personally thought he could be probably a mid to late third round draft pick. It looks like he possibly could be a late second, but as we kind of saw it, edges weren't getting drafted as, as highly as we anticipated. Montez Sweat went late in the first round.

So there's, there's still guys available from the edge position that I think might be a little bit more of a tier above Anthony Nelson. So that'll be interesting to see kind of how that all plays out. Obviously the NFL draft is a huge crap shoot. No one knows exactly what's going to happen. Heck I made, you know, pick my own 32 pick mock draft against 32 other or 31 other people. And I got fifth in that. And I I only got I believe five selections out of 32 right and the other points were given to you for being you know close on some other picks so five is not exactly ideal but that's really kind of what we're looking at here so there's a lot of things that could change a lot of variables that could happen on night two of the NFL draft but

we're going to be giving you a special episode tomorrow morning as well, covering day two of the NFL draft and covering what to expect on day three of the NFL draft. Obviously, we love the NFL draft. Big fans here at the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. So if you are a fan of the NFL draft, that's all we're going to be covering the next couple of days. We'll get back to our normal content on Monday, but obviously there's still going to be a little bit of a focus on the NFL draft.

I get it. It just has to happen. So definitely appreciate you tuning in on this special Friday morning episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. If you did like what you're listening to, if you have liked what you're listening to, make sure you do like and subscribe wherever you download this podcast at. And if you are on Twitter,

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Obviously, our big boss loves them. So make sure to do that as well. If you are enjoying the show, that being said though, have a fantastic morning Hawkeye nation. It is a great day to be a Hawkeye beautiful Friday morning. So go out and enjoy it. Be back for the NFL draft later tonight. And we'll talk to you tomorrow morning. So have a great day, Hawkeye Nation, and go Hawks! We'll see you next time.