NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 40's and Free Agents: NFL Draft Review

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

On this episode of 40s and Free Agents, Daniel Jeremiah and Gregg Rosenthal review the most interesting outcomes of last week's NFL draft. The guys discuss the Rams drafting Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson in the first round, Rueben Bain Jr. going to Tampa Bay, how soon Fernando Mendoza will start for the Raiders, and much more! Tune in to find out what DJ and Gregg predict for this draft class going into the 2026 season. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to 40s and free agents. For the very last time this draft season, I am Greg Rosenthal joined by the best draft analyst in the business. This post-draft recap is brought to you by American Express. We're sponsored, DJ, and even though it's the last thing you're going to do before you go into hibernation, I want you giving full effort because the scouts,

the podcast scouts, are out there watching still, and they're going to be a lot of, evaluating this game tape. I can guarantee you. You're going to get four to five of my best minutes that I have to offer you. And then after that, it's just, we're just hanging on. We're just hanging on. We're just waiting for the helicopter to come pick us up. We're kind of hanging on to that cliff. And then we, and then we go off into sunset. No, look, I would never mail it in. Not for you, not on this show that everybody seems to love, both inside the league and outside the league, inside libraries, it's become a cultural phenomenon. Why? I can't cheat those people. That's absolutely right. If you do happen to catch us on YouTube, you can see the Born to Referee,

my life on the Gridiron Book, now in the background by Jerry Mark Bright, a suggestion from Daniel Jeremiah. So look, this is a great opportunity for myself. I feel like this all draft season. I have access to DJ. And so this show is going to be simple. I think post draft, I just wanted to ask all the questions that were in my head that I wanted Daniel Jeremiah to answer, recapping, and then we'll send them on his way to finally start relaxing. And so I'm going to go specific with some teams and some players first, and then we'll get maybe some bigger picture if you had any favorite picks, anything like that.

I'm going to start with the Eagles, because to me, it's really fascinating how they get the two receivers early, and I'm including Eli Stowers from Vanderbill as a receiver, along with Mackay Lemon. and you think about the matting, the offensive coordinator, Sean Mannion, you expect AJ Brown's on the way out. I'm just curious, when you look at this build, you know Howie the best. That's why I'm starting here. What do you think it's said about this type of offense that they're trying to build

and maybe what it means for Jalen Hertz? It's a different sort of offense. It looks like they're building. What did you make of the Eagles draft? Well, definitely investing in the position. I'm just pulling up their depth chart here to go along with. what else they had. You know, I think that one of the things how he does really well is he kind of just realizes

where the runs are. And I thought he was sitting there thinking more than likely if I don't get one of these top couple tackles, he doesn't see. Even though there's going to be seven first round tackles, I don't know if he saw enough difference between the back end of those guys versus Markell Bell, who they got in a third round. So he decided to want to be on the end of a run there. So he ended up pushing that one off.

And then they come out and get Mackay Lemon, who can run. after the catch. Hollywood Brown, who they had signed in for agency, can run after the catch. You get a tight end who's really basically a jumbo receiver, Stowers, who's a big run after catch. So there's a lot of emphasis placed on that of what you do with the ball in your hands. And that speaks. So let's get the ball out of your, let's get the ball out quick. Let's get it out to these athletes and let's let them go. And you think about the other thing is when you have Mannion coming from Green Bay, where it was not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, to, like, I know people do fancy football to their chagrin. like this is not a feature guy offense.

It is going to be a spread at all around. And that AJ Brown is not going to be there. Right. And look, I know AJ Brown, like a slant to AJ Brown, was one of the most effective plays in football, especially a couple years ago. But in the past, this is where I'm going with this a little bit, too. It's like, you know,

every Jalen Hurts offense ended up looking the same in the end. But Sean Manian comes from, you know, the Sean McVeigh, Kyle Shanahan, Matt Lafleur, tree hitting people. in stride, on the move, over the middle of the field. Not necessarily what Jalen Hertz has majored in, but they bring in Don Tavian Wicks. They give him an extension.

He was obviously there with Mannion last year, too. And I'm just really fascinating to see how this plays out and what it sets up for Jalen Hertz. Because unlike a lot of the teams, you know, that we talk about the most in the draft, like they have a chance to win the Super Bowl. Yeah. Like, I know the Giants and the Jets, like, we'll get to how fun the Brown's draft was. Like, that's all great.

But I'm most interested in the teams that have a chance. to win the Super Bowl. And it seems like they're really making a change in terms of their offense going into this year with J. Plus, they drafted the guy best equipped to be a tush push substitute and Cole Payton. That's what he is. It's a 230-pound quarterback who, you know, has got an extremely strong lower body. Some people thought he'd just transition away from quarterback and you kind of use

him as a jack-of-all-trades like Taysam Hill. So interesting, interesting draft for them. I loved it. And you mentioned Marquez Bell, like what a perfectly. planning spot for him as a third round pick to Markell Bell, rather, to develop behind Lane Johnson and company. All right, you had Ty Simpson 36th on your overall board. The Rams take him 13th overall. Shock of the draft. Most talked about story of the draft. I mean this from a legitimate perspective. What do you think McVeigh sees that maybe you weren't emphasizing as much

when you put him 36. Like, to take a guy that early and kind of put your reputation in the next few years on this kid, Ty Simpson, what do you think he sees at a high end from Ty Simpson? Yeah, I mean, I talked about the ceiling to me for Ty Simpson, and I didn't see him in that same light was Purdy, right? Pretty was the absolute, that's the most you could hope for if what he would be. Now, the reason I couldn't get there is because Purdy had just played so much more football. Hurdy was a 225-pound guy who cut to get down. Like he just feels he's a bigger, stronger, sturdier guy.

Ties a little more narrow and not as big. So I didn't think he'd have the same durability as him. He didn't play as much football as him. But that's where, like if you're looking at, that's where I saw the ceiling. So in talking to folks that know McVeigh, you get the sense. And then, you know, Drew Breeze's name was mentioned like, could he beat my Drew Breeze? They've always, as you know, they've always in that building had a healthy respect

and rightfully so for Joe Burrow. So they're taking the Purdy thing and they think that there's other levels that he maybe has the potential to make that ceiling even higher and get into that neighborhood, which to me is the fascinating thing about this whole thing,

I don't think for the most part there was much disagreement on the player, like what you saw in the field. I don't think there was much disagreement there. It was really eight good football games. And you add that together with the lack of the frame and some durability concerns. So then where do you, where do you, where, what's your risk tolerance?

For me, it was, that's, that's a lot going against him historically. That's a sec. That's the second round for me. And we said it on, on the show. If you want to get back into the bottom of the first and take him just, you know, to get the extra year for a fourth round pick or what have you. Like, I get it. But I did not view him value wise, risk assessment wise.

There's too much risk for me to do that all the way up there in the top 15. And then on top of that, the other point that I, I tried to hammer home. It's like, did he didn't play to his fourth year at Alabama? And now we're saying potentially he doesn't play to his third year with the Rams. So over a seven year period of time, he'll have played 15 games, eight of which were good, eight good games over seven years. Like that's, there's no, there's no history of that.

So that's why I said the, my biggest takeaway is this is going to be a fascinating case study on sample size. Joe Klaz is a golfer. So I asked him about it. I'm like, it would be like, what if you just said, you, you just go to the drive range for six years, but you never get to go out on the course. And then now can you maybe, you might be the greatest golfer of all time. I don't know.

I've never heard of anybody that's done that. I totally agree, especially with the sample size. And I did think, you know, it's like, yeah, McVeigh, I worry when you mentioned the Brock Purdy name that there is just a part of McVeigh that wants to show everyone that he could do it, you know, because he inherited Jared Goff. That wasn't his graphic. Who's their favorite quarterback? I mean, I know Stafford's the most talented.

It's Kirk. It's Kirk cousins for all those guys. And you know why? It's because he was their human joystick. And it was, you remember I was an Indiana basketball fan. And I remember there was a theory way back in the day, like in the 90s, that Bob Knight did not want the high profile recruits. Because if they won, it was the players. If you win with a bunch of guys that weren't as highly recruited and then he just built this team together and it was in his system, then where does all the credit go when that happens?

So I'm not saying that that's Sean McVeigh needs credit. He's already regarded as the top coach in the league and the best offensive mind. But it is something to that of like we want to play the game from the sideline as opposed to like a Caleb Williams who can play game himself without without you. And Matthew Saford. I mean, it's just a shame because seeing his play calling with someone who can get you buckets without necessarily having the right play call was so fun to watch. Maybe Ty Simpson becomes that guy, but it's going to be fascinating. And as great as Kyle Shannon did with Brock Purdy and Jimmy Garapolo, in the end, he lost to one of those side works. Well, look at who did he have previously before Stafford that was a better souped up version of that was Jared Gough.

Right. And they deemed that that wasn't good enough. That was early on the process. Because I heard this in January about the Ty Simpson thing and Les and the texts with the dad and all. Everybody, it was the worst kept secret in football. That was in January. And then they traded the 29th pick. And I just remember thinking, like, they didn't.

they deemed Jared Goff not good enough. So they went and got Stafford and won a Super Bowl. Now they're going to go back to a guy who's like a smaller version of Jared golf, not as accomplished like that. I couldn't get there. I know it's easier to say than to execute it. But yeah, trading back and possibly taking him, if you're going to take him, would have been the move.

And look, there's no reason for anybody to lie to me. They could have done. They could have, they could have trade back and taken him, but they didn't want to take the chance. So in some ways, I respect it because it's like if you have this, you have the stones to take him at 13, then you should have the stones to say, he's so good that I don't want to take a chance to lose him. Fair.

And they didn't want to lose him to their former coordinator, Michael Fleur, where I think he would have ended up with the Cardinals if he wasn't on the ramps. Do you think the Browns? Not a lot of people in the league think that in hindsight, by the way. What? That they just wanted to keep him away.

A lot of people in the league said the Cardinals would not have taken him at 34. That was a scuttle butt behind the scenes. But again, who knows? I thought it was a lock I thought they would take him for sure but then I was told I don't know I don't know I don't know what they said about it

but I we'll see I mean I think there was a decent chance he took Carson Beck in the top of the third round I think there was a decent chance that had Carson Beck over him as what that's what's flowing around but this is why we get DJ on the day after the draft the secrets start coming out

I don't know that stuff's confirmed but that's the scuttle butt DJ's trying to not to make news but I don't know I'm not trying to make it I'm just trying to want to go away and I don't know I want 9,000 people Hey, you think that they had done it. I don't know that.

I'm just saying there are a lot of people talking about that. Just turn it off and enjoy the last couple days of the season where the Padres are at least tied for first place. I think we're having back, actually. Right there. The Browns and the Jets, two really fun drafts. I will ask you, as I recap their two drafts, who you think had the better draft of the two.

I mean, I'm operating in a position of maybe you like them both. I like them both. I did. The Browns backing up to take Spencer Fanon with their first pick. Casey Concepcion, my favorite receiver in this class later in the first round. Then Denzel Boston, one of your favorites, Emmanuel Warren at safety from Toledo. They have a nice developmental tackle in Austin Barber, a linebacker, my guy Ali Connolly really like, Justin Jefferson late, Taylin Green is kind of a fun dart throw.

The Jets, it was more focused early in terms of the highlights to me. but David Bailey number two, Kenyon, Sadiq at tight end in the first round. You trade back in to get Omar Cooper, the receiver, and then DeAngelo Ponds. What a moment for you. Gets taken 50th overall. Daryl Jackson a little later, big lineman. If you had to choose between one of those, but we can talk about both. Which do you go with?

I love what the Jets did, but I would go to Cleveland. So I think Cleveland in terms of understanding the board and being able to realize you don't need to take final at six, which we knew they were going to do. So they were able to get back a few spots, get some extra picks. They still get their guy. Concepcion, you want to know what's funny is that I was talking to. One of the things, I could literally, I could show you the text messages of talking to people around the league. And I was doing that last mock draft that I got to the Browns and I said,

who do you think the Browns would take if it was Concepcion in Boston? And I sent it around to a bunch of different people. And everybody unanimous said, I think that they would look for more for Concepcion. So I put Concepcion there. It ended up happening. But Boston was in my mind. And they ended up still getting him. They got both of them.

And then McNeil Warren, he's my 15th player. And I say it every year, there should be a, you get a trophy for being the safety that falls out, that falls down the board. And it always ended up being a really good player. And they were the recipients of that in this one. So they nailed that one. You talk about Justin Jefferson, the linebacker. I liked him too. I mean, they told me at the school he was going to run the four threes.

He ran in the four-fives, which is still a great. time for a linebacker, but he looks like the fastest guy in the field when he's playing. So I like that value. Brailsford is an undersized center, but for teams that really want to move their center around, he can do that really well. He's got a chance to be a starter. Joe Royer from Cincinnati is a real athletic tight end. They added that to their room.

And then they took a shot on tail and green, the quarterback. So who's, you know, reminded me to Terrell Prior, just as an athlete. Like he's kind of a mixture of Vince Young and Terrell Prior, how he runs, that long stride, that 6'6, long striding run. But why not? At that point in time, there's value. Just take another shot, throw him in there and see what happens. I mean, if Tailing Green makes the team, do you have room for Dylan Gabriel?

We'll see. Maybe he's on a practice squad special teamer. Yeah, that's what I was asking. And I'm sure you were not watching on that portion of the draft. But I did tell Rich that a lot of times you look at quarterbacks. Like look at the Eagles. They have a style or a type like Jalen Hertz. So they go out and get Cole Payton.

who you can see, you can, how they move around, their build, how they run. They have a type. And I said, the Browns, I mean, when you look at Dylan Gabriel and tailing green, I mean, they are twins, but definitely more the Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, version of twins there. I mean, there are nothing, absolute polar opposites of each other. Kind of like us, too, next to each other would look like that.

How about DeAngelo Ponds? Someone more my size. What a moment for you. I got to give you your flowers. You were saying it back on 40s and free agents. DeAngel Pons came up once and you gave the Aaron Glenn comp. So not only that happens, but then Aaron Glenn like pumping his, almost getting emotional, watching some highlights that you guys put up at NFL Network.

That was a very cool draft moment. I was cool that they had a video because you saw Mugi likely goes, look, look, it says Aaron Glenn. And then they kind of lost. He did. He did kind of look like a father, at least a proud uncle when he was watching the highlights. in the video there. But yeah,

I think I tweeted out that morning and somebody said something nice about Ponds and I'm like, I just would love for him to go 44 so I can use my Aaron Glenn comp. And then they traded back to 50 and I thought, oh man, he's got to watch. He'll go between 44 and 50.

And then they took him and then I looked down on my list. I'm like, oh my gosh, he's my 50th player with the 50th pick with his comp being the head coach like that. You can't make that up. Well, you had a good mock draft season. We'll get to that later.

I'll hit that later. You were on Bailey the whole time. Yeah. Well, I was on Reese for a minute, but it was a long time ago. Really? I've been on Bailey for a while. Because I talked about maybe it's for 27 and, you know, he's more the long-term play. But then it had been a few, yeah.

You said at least in the weeks before the draft, as a lot of people were going over to Reese, you felt steadfast. The only thing I would push back on obviously your evaluation, it's coming from a position of watching. all this tape more. But to me, he profiles a little more boomer busty than Arville Reese, which I feel like was against what maybe the consensus was. I feel like that could work, but it also could be someone who is tricky on running downs. What do you think, like, what kept you so steadfast that that was going to happen because you nailed that? Yeah, to me, I think there's, I didn't think he was a hateful against the run, especially when you watch the Oregon game of the playoff game later on in the year. So I didn't have as big of a concern there.

And then he just was more, he was just so much further advance as a pass rusher. And you can get creative and do a lot of different things with Reese. But just if we're going to line them both up on the edge and ask him to rush the quarterback 20 times, you're going to see a lot more from Bailey. Just he has different ways to get there. He has more polished. He has more feel. So that's why, you know, that's why I put him there.

And the other thing I would say is I think this is a real thing in this draft. And I think it's going to be something that people are going to have to get used to going forward. I think there's a severe helmet bias. in like the media versus where we are in the league right now. NILs changed everything. I just think forever your eyes have been trained. If I've got a guy from Ohio State and I've got a kid from Texas Tech, like, what are we talking about here? Like this is Ohio State and that's Texas Tech.

And it's like those rules don't apply anymore. That kid could have gone anywhere in the country at high school. That kid could would have been the highest paid player in the portal to go anywhere in the country he wanted to when he transferred. He's using an elite elite elite talent. and you're going to start seeing these elite talents show up at places like Texas Tech and some of these other programs that haven't necessarily been thought of, you know, quite like that. It's just a whole new landscape, man. Okay, that's fair.

Maybe it's the lack of the kids would say aura from David Bailey, just the way he plays with him. He doesn't even wear gloves. Right. That's in terms of his uniform. Maybe that's the bias we have. Maybe you just, maybe you just, you grew up liking, you know, what's his name? Who played first? Who am I thinking of it?

Mark Grace. Like just Mark Grace. some little batting gloves up there. I love it. Look, so you mentioned right now, is David Bailey ready to rush more than Arvel Reese? Yes, it's really interesting to me. We had this conversation about Arvel Reese,

about like, maybe he really is. Like, he's so good at linebacker. Are we overlooking that a little bit? And I said, you know, four years down the line and he's one of the best linebackers in league, will you be prepared to apologize to Ollie Connolly on the show because we have that argument here. And here are the Giants starting them out at inside linebacker,

off ball linebacker. A little interesting. I'm sure he's going to be part of the rush plane and everything, but it sounds like on that team, maybe their vision for him, at least to begin with, will be linebacker. So I'm not saying you've got to prepare your apology now,

but I feel like we're getting ready for it, maybe. It's a good first step for the reset linebacker believers. Yeah, no, it's going to be fun to watch it. He's a great player, man. I had him as a top five guy. I know. But it'll be, it'll be interesting to see. I'm not, I think you're looking at the wrong comparison.

To me, it's not, it's not Reese versus Bailey. If they're going to be playing him off the ball, it's Reese versus Stiles. And I thought styles was more instinctive than Reese personally. Interesting. I'm curious. They were three and four, I believe, on my list. Is that right? Maybe four and five.

But they were right next to each other. So I'm curious. No, it's three and five, I believe. But those are the two guys that travel together for me. Same team, you're going to apparently right now at least be playing the same position. inside the same division. So that's going to be fun. And I'm sure, look,

Dynard Wilson, we don't know. And John Harbaugh has a big hand in defense too. So it's going to be about the vision for him. But it's crazy. Linebackers are back. Stiles might be playing a little, you know, he might back up, play a little safety. You know, Reese will play a little pass rusher.

And it's really cool to see those two guys go high. Let's take a quick break. Our last break of the season, come back and wrap this thing up. Back on 40s and free agents. wrapping up the 2026 NFL draft. Jeremiah Love to the Cardinals became a thing late in the process. Do you just think that they could not trade down?

I love Jeremiah Love, so it's hard to get too angry about the pick, but I do think it's fair to wonder about the process. There was some whisper's ownership gets involved. Could they have backed off? Was there anything you heard after the fact of like whether they just decided we're sticking and picking regardless or do you think there wasn't as much interest in that pick as maybe we thought. Yeah, I don't know what they've had interest-wise. I never found out like what offers would have come their way. But I did talk to somebody in the league who's very

close with the head coach and said he would never take a right tackle over an explosive running back. And so that was just point blank. Like he thinks that that's going to have way more impact on his team and they'll find, you know, and they'll figure the thing out on the right tackle side. So, that that you know I heard that actually that was a conversation had the morning of the draft talking with the with an executive that was tight with him so that was that was an interesting way of looking at it and then because the money is the money I mean it's the most guaranteed right that that that's just that's the side of it that's you know you try and navigate around but it's also a simple it's a simple way of looking at things it's a great Rosenthal approach of

just you know it's not make things complicated let's just keep it real simple who's the better player and then right and they went that route who has the best chance to either make an all-pro team or this high in the draft even make it wear a gold jacket. And I think Love scores high on that. So again, I can't kill it. It maybe does speak to. Yeah, it's a new coach, but he might have had a lot of say in that pick. I wanted to just fire through just a couple surprise, high, low picks, like just guys that caught my eye.

Caleb Banks ends up going in the first round. Maybe the concerns about his foot not as big, at least for the Minnesota. Or they're just taking a swing. Pretty fascinating because he's landed in the perfect spot to look great. Yeah, it's a big swing. I thought that was the, he's the quintessential definition of boom or bust. Like there's no world where he's just, okay. He could be great.

Like he could be, we can talk about him, multiple pro bowl is all pro player. He's got a tremendous amount of ability, but you got the same foot twice, okay. You know, only playing three games this year. You go back to the previous year, you can see some real, you know, explosive, twitchy things there. But that comes and goes a little bit. That's been the second round defensive tackle profile forever. Like if you go back and look at the second round DTs, it's the 6'5-300-plus pound guy who's got something.

Either it's a character thing, either it's, you know, he's hurt or it's an up and down. Like I think Malik McDowell was always kind of like the poster boy for that thing going the wrong way. But there's always been guys like that. Was Haynesworth's a second round pick? There's been a boatload of them that come off the board in that round. it is like you could hit it huge. Chris Jones obviously being the big the biggest hit. Yeah, his best film and then certainly what he did at the Combine, Caleb Banks,

uh, looks like a top 10 to 15 pick, but there is a reason that he wasn't projected to go there and they, they just went for it. We mentioned McNeil Warren, but how about Ruben Bain slipping to 15? Perfect landing spot. I mean, I think the Bucks nailed this draft in general.

What, what do you think happened there with him just going like a little bit, later than expected. Yeah. I mean, I think that it was coming down the process, to the end of the process, it was not expected he was going to go in the top 10. So I thought that Baltimore would have been the stopping point. I thought, okay, that's their type of guy.

And I did see that there was, I think Silver wrote something about it and said that there are three guys that they were keeping an eye on were Sadiq, Bain and Yawane. So ended up going with Yawane. And I think they were trying to trade back, which means they, you know, trade back three spots we get any of the three, we'd be happy with those guys. But I just thought that would be the end of the line. And I think, you know, there was a lot of talk that a lot of teams were trying to get up to Tampa's pick before the draft because everybody was trying to get ahead of the

lions for a tackle. Everybody knew the Lions were going to take a tackle. So that's where all the trade-up chatter was. And they were, you know, kind of connected to Mezzador, which was, okay, we don't need to take him necessarily there. We could trade back a few spots and still get them. But I don't think that they envisioned there'd be a world where Bain would be there. So, I mean, they just took and pick.

They had a stand pick. Some reports, too, Lions were trying to get up to the Dolphins spot to take Proctor. And the dolphins were like, no, we're just going to take Caden Proctor ourselves. We like them. You nailed the mock drafts. I went and looked at the scores. I don't know. There was some site that did some sort of scoring system.

You're one of the most accurate mock drafts out there for direct hits for most players in the first round. Some of your faves went early to Malachi Lawrence. You had him going to the Cowboys. You talked about him on this podcast. Chris Johnson went high. He goes to the dolphins. This is just your chance to spike the football, you know? Just say, I did it.

I beat Shrager. I'm the king. So I was going on McAfee. And I think it was tone showed me he had probably the same website, but he had like a scorecard out. Yes. And he was like, you did, you know, this, whatever. you placed on this thing, like how great it was and everything. And I said, dude, it'd be like

bragging about winning at Uno. Okay. That's what it would be like. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's so much chance and luck involved in that. But I mean, I'm trying to, I'd say the thing that I'd always keep track of is I think I had 29 of the 32 players. Yes. So the right guys in there are trying with trades and how things unfold, they can go any other way. It was a combination. But you tied for, I think, the most of the right first rounders. And then you all, also had a lot of direct hits. I'm just saying, good job. You got to celebrate your victories. No, I appreciate it. But if you're going to celebrate your victory, then you're just going to hate yourself the next year when you bomb. So it's like, I'll bring that up next year.

Trying to stay right here. I think I did on this very show last year at this time. Very well. But you couldn't get me down last year. You're not going to be able to get me up this year. We're going to just keep it right in the middle. I think it was the top of the national guys. All right. As we're wrapping up, just a few trendy things. What, what? What, what? What happen with this tight end run because it it got wild we talked about that being an obsession though and i you know it happened maybe a round earlier than i would have anticipated but everybody said it i joked about it with all the jms i talked to i was like all right let's have the a j barner conversation everybody says the same thing we got to find our j barner we're looking for that third fourth round

you know tight end that we can put his hand in the ground we can start everybody wants to be in 12 13 personnel so we got to have more tight ends well how about marlin klein uh from germany he's going to be 24. Bore Kircher only had 19 catches. Borghurture surprised me the most of where he went of that group. Those were second round picks. And then, yeah, the run happened, Sam Rausch, Max Clare, Oscar Delp, Casmeric, Eli Rared, and all in the third round. Yeah.

Just from someone who's played the position court, you know, played quarterback, you understand this stuff schematically so well, is there any concern? The thing I go to is like, well, if everyone's doing this, are you, is there a concern and it's already going to be too late, you know? I just think it's just the structure of the defense that they want to play against. For the last few years, I think, in my opinion, there's been kind of a little bit of a stagnant nature to offense. From where, think about the, I mean, we go back to watching the Rams and the Chiefs,

you know, and that 50-something shootout, you know, and how explosive it was, first of all, not only it's it fun to watch, but if you're an offensive play caller, it was fun to call plays. and then all of a sudden it was like, okay, and I remember one of the first games being Buffalo against Kansas City was a home game, I think a Thursday night Amazon game. And Buffalo, I think they lost the game,

but they incorporated that shell coverage and they played their safeties both so deep. And to their credit, Kansas City and Andy Reed and Mahalms were patient enough that they kind of just methodically move the ball. And it wasn't a high-scoring game. Maybe it was raining, but they ended up winning. And then all of a sudden it was like, okay,

that's what we're going to do. We're going to everybody in the whole league's going to start playing this shell coverage. And if you want to get explosives, you're going to have to catch and run with it or you're going to have to get them out of your run game. And so now it's like, well, we can use 13 personnel and you cannot play that against us. You're going to have to play with a single high safety. And that's going to give us the looks. And then we're going to be able to expand and run the same exact play as we were running before. But now we're going to run them out of this heavier personnel. And then now we can attack the deeper parts of the field because you only

have one guy back there. I just think how, look, often. If everyone is doing that, defenses are going to be thinking about, everyone's going to be making their plans of, all right, how do we do a better job defending against 12, 13 personnel. That's the answer. Right. And so it's just a cyclical nature. And I think some team that wants to just go spread and hurry up heavy, like the teams that are different are usually the ones ahead. It's not the ones like catching on to the trend a year later. So we'll see.

Yeah, who's going to go small? Because everybody now is in a buildup. everybody's building up to go big. So who's going to go small and then put out the little five foot eight slot receivers out there and make these big nickels who are in the game to be able to force the run

and blitz and play in the flat. Now we're going to make those guys have to cover these little kids again. It does remind me a little bit of like when the Patriots took everyone by surprise with Gronk and Hernandez back then and then the next season after that they just played turbo speed.

And you got to keep mixing it up. Can I get in on your beef with C. You mean, you guys went at it. That was some serious stuff. By the way, people thought they were like, oh, they scripted this thing. I'm like, I didn't even know it was a segment. I didn't even know that we was going to be a topic of conversation.

I sure as heck didn't know that Charles was going to feel as strong as he did. And then I didn't know it was going to kind of go the way that went down. There was nothing, trust me, there was nothing scripted about that at all. No, and you guys are so tight. I was funny. It was like, oh, they're really going at it. It's like, this is how people, this is how people talk. For some context, he argued, and I would be on CD's side of this,

that yeah we hear all this stuff about Kirk Cousins and and they want him to start and like that's great I'm sure they sort of believe that and then by week three or week five whatever it's going to be like we're going to see Mendoza so let's not get carried away like we don't have to do this song and dancing and you're on the the side of like no this is Kirk Cousins and um and it's Mendoza they really want to play this thing out slowly I'll remind you in week two when Fernando Mendoza is starting that that I was on the right side of history the uh now to me it's a lot of factors there. But I just think it's Brady's vision of the way to do right by the quarterback.

I do believe he feels that way. I also think that there's a previous history and relationship with Kubiak and Cousins. And Kirk could know that offense inside and out. And there's still a let's see what type of offensive line we have in place here and what type of punishment the quarterback's going to take.

We're going to let Kirk absorb some of that. So, and again, it sounds I think it's weird because it's a 17 game season now instead of a 16 gamer. So I wish instead of saying, Rich asked me how many games will he start? And I said seven. And then people thought, well, that's a ton of games anyways.

And I'm sitting here, well, if you rephrase it and say, what week does he play? And I'm like, he'll be out there week 10, week 11 if you have a buy in there. Like, that's a good chunk of the season that he's not starting. So that's what I think will happen. But CDC sees it a little differently. But at the end of the game, we're talking about a difference of five, five games. I'll go more. I'll go over under 15.

That's about it. You think he starts 15 games? Yeah. maybe they get and it wouldn't shock me if he's healthy to me it's all up to Mendoza if he just looks awesome and is great in the preseason in camp which is possible maybe maybe that won't happen that's not easy then it'll just start from week one on

that's just okay that's just but I could be wrong obviously um some rookies with surprisingly big roles in 2026 I'll give you my choices if you want to think about but just like maybe not like the highest of picks but really important players immediately I thought about two pass rushers. Our Mason Thomas with the Chiefs, who was a high second round pick. And then this might be a little more of a reach. But Romello height with the 49ers, a third round pick who's got some nice juice off the edge. And the reason I pick them is because, again,

these are teams that I think have Super Bowl aspirations and that just don't have a lot of juice. And they could really use them. Like, yeah, like you're not counting on Romello height to be a huge difference maker year one. But it would help, it would really help if he was because they don't have a lot of pass rush juice. And then with the Chiefs, I think more specifically, they could really use our Mason Thomas to make a difference early. Because those are two spots of good teams that I think kind of big holes. You didn't fill them in the first round.

And so their later picks are going to try to have to fill them. Yeah. I like your thought process there. I thought an interesting side note there is that last year, the Niners went big. Look at the guys that they drafted up front defensively from Mikel Williams, the big detackle from Texas. Al Collins, right?

Alfred Collins. Yes. And they went big. And I know they had injuries, but they were dead last in the league in sacks. And they have always been a, their front is called a jet front. It's where you're wide nine. It is where everything is space and attack and speed get off. Like that is, the whole thing is predicated on that.

And then this year it was like, well, we didn't love the way that work. So let's go back to get our traditional guys and go get, you know, a guy who's 238 pounds, but who can absolutely fly off the edge and Ramello height. They go out and get O'Di Zua to rush inside and go smaller with him. Then they go out and got it. Who was the other D tackle

that they drafted in this draft? They drafted another one who was an undersized, get up to field player. Last year it was C.J. West, by the way, but it was Grayson Haltin, a fourth round pick in this year. Yeah, exactly. Who's like a run like the 4-8.

So they went with fastballs this year versus a little more of the bigger stouter guys. So I thought they kind of got, I know they got criticism where they took some guys, but they kind of got back to the type of player that they've had when they've been good defensively. Look, I could give you more questions, more like some teams who didn't fill their holes in the draft

and they're going to have to do it in free agency or it's just not going to happen. But you know where you can find that kind of stuff, DJ? Let's see. Defe and guess. Oh, gosh. You know who's got a, it's a podcast. It's like almost every single day, like daily.

And there you go. NFL daily. I mean, I'm not going away and hibernating. Harding my take. I think it was in a bit. No, no. We're football only. So we'll be hitting every single team this week.

It's time to let DJ off the hook. He says he has a hard out. And that hard out is just like sitting on the couch. I want to go walk in the beach is what I'm going to. That's my heart out. I'm watching Jerry Springer shows or something. Walk on the beach. Can we play us off with some Sir McLaughlin or anything like that?

No, what are we got? It has been an absolute treat to do this show with you, DJ 40s and free agents. And I love all the listeners and people inside and outside of the league that told us they loved the show. So it was a good time. Another draft season in the books. You're the best. No, you're the best, buddy. I really do appreciate it.

I've enjoyed the heck out of it. It's been fun. It's been, I always use this phrase. I use it with Mina. I've used it with you. Like, I always enjoy thought scrimmages. And it helps me. me. It helps me when I'm, you know, working the draft that a lot of the conversations and things

that come up have been things we've talked about on here or elsewhere. So anyways, I appreciate you, appreciate your friendship, buddy. Thought scrimmages, except I'm keeping score. And that's fair. Yeah, you're the guy in a gym who's like, who's flipping over the little tabs like at the youth basketball game. That's absolutely right. For Dan to Jerbaya, I'm Greg Rosenthal. We'll see you next time. Guaranteed human