NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 40s and Free Agents: Texas' Comeback Win, "Bust-Proof" Rookies & What We Learned in NFL Week 1

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

On this episode of 40s and Free Agents, Bucky Brooks and Lance Zierlein recap Week 2 in the College Football season and takeaways from Texas' improbable comeback vs. Ohio State. Then, they talk about some surprise outcomes from Week 1 in the NFL, and discuss rookies that have outperformed expectations so far.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fanag, or a die-hard fan. NFL Pro will help you analyze the game like a pro. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up for World? I'm Bucky Brooks. That's my man LZ, the one and only.

Welcome to Fortycent Free agents, and we are talking about a little bit of everything today. My man LZ was in the building. The great Arch Manning pulled off an improbable comeback. Look, this did a lot. You're in the building. Like, first one, how are you doing? And then let's talk about Arch.

Good. Yeah, we're good. I got some not great news on a bunch of foundation work I have to have on my house. But, you know, that's grown people like. Tell your daughter, I know your daughter's at University of Texas. I know she went to the game. Tell her to take her time in college land.

Take all the time she needs. Spend Bucky's money as much as you can because when you get out here in the grown folks world, it's a whole lot different. Yes, a whole lot different. And man, she was sending pictures and videos from the thing. It looked like quite the atmosphere. And it certainly wasn't. I think, Lance, you notice as a scout, like just being able to see

so many great players on one big field in an environment that kind of had like a playoff atmosphere. Man, what was it like? Well, I've gone to plenty of University of Texas games. My wife went to school there. And so, you know, dating back even pre-vents young times. And the atmosphere is fantastic. It was great. Before the game, I was on the field looking at the players.

And there were Woody Harrelson. Of course, Matthew McDonaghey was there. Woody Harrelson was there. And I went over and talked to Mac Brown for a little. bit because I've known Mac for a little bit. Kevin Durant just comes over and actually Greg Sankey comes over and interrupts us for a second to say hi to Mac. I introduce myself to Greg. Then Kevin Durant jumps in and interrupts them to tap up Mac Brown and introduce himself to Greg Sankey. And meanwhile, everyone's ignoring me, Buck. I can't get anyone to say hi to your boy.

No, it was a lot of people, Mo Obama on the sidelines. they had. There was a lot of former Longhorn players were there. I couldn't I'm sure there were some Ohio State players there as well. I didn't say C.J. Stroud. Thought he might show up just because you know that's a drive, drive there, drive back.

But day before his first game coming off to playoffs from last year, probably thought it was best to keep it tight to the crib. But no, the atmosphere was great. It felt like a game that that could be a boat race

if Ohio State just stuck with the run game, if they just, you know, handled their business. But honestly, I thought Texas did a good job. And Arch did do a good job of managing the game, getting the checkdowns, maybe a few too many checkdowns there in the third quarter. The fans started to boo a little bit. They weren't real happy with how things were going.

But they stuck it out. That was a signature win for Archman. It's a signature win for Steve Sarkeesian. And I was a Longhorn fan said that I spoke with, said, you think this is the biggest win for him? And I thought, well, the win over Clemson elevated him to the next step of the playoffs. Yeah. But really, down like he was, down 20 points to Ohio State, who's a number one team in the nation. And a highly anticipated night game on ESPN, this probably was his signature win.

It probably was. And, you know, there's a few things we could say about it. I thought, Arch, you know, like I said, did a nice job. It didn't really move my needle in terms of an evaluator so much. But, you know, and it didn't move my one. Jeremiah Smith didn't move my needle either because, like we talked about last week, he just showed who he was. I mean, we already knew who he was.

That was just a show and prove game. But Brandon Baker, I think that's his name, the right guard for Texas 73. I thought had a terrific game. I'm like, this is the kind of game when all the scouts are watching, you know, three, four, five different players that if you put on a big performance, if you look good on tape, you're elevated. Like, this is a great stage for offensive linemen, defensive tackles, linebackers and safeties who are kind of off the radar a little bit. Yeah, you know, it's funny because you talked about Jeremiah Smith. I thought this game would have been huge for Cam Coleman, right? So at a time where we like to manufacture debates

about who's number one, I wanted to see Kim Coleman had a big game so we could have that discussion like, hey, maybe it's not just Jeremiah Smith. And then the game is played and you're like, yeah, no, it's not going to be a debate that we can't have. Later on, like, he's a good player, but there's a difference between him and Jeremy Smith. And it was clear and apparent.

But what I love from Texas and talking about the game for so long, going all the way back to the Mac Brown era, there was always this hint of softness that scouts would talk about with the team. Like, hey, if it got hard, would they collapse? They always had really good players, but you want to know, did they have, like, the grit and grind to be able to get it? And in this game, I saw those two running backs. I mean, Hollywood brothers, Brown, they kind of put it down in the fourth quarter. And that physicality that you saw from the offensive line, that showed up. people are talking about Arch, but to me, I was more impressed with the way that they stuck

with the running game in the late stages of the game, as opposed to like, hey, Arch throw it all over the yard. We're going to lead you, we're going to need you to throw for 300 yards to bring us back. That's not really what happened in that game. No, I'm glad you brought that up because that's been a running theme for, you know, Mac Brown took over 98. This has been a running theme in the scouting world because I've, even before I started doing this job, you know, I've been friends with NFL.

evaluators for a while. And that has been a common theme. And Longhorn fans don't like it. They get mad when you bring it up. But it really is behind the scenes. Texas is soft. That's what it is. This coach coddles the players. It's not as competitive. Like once you get the job, this is back before all the transfer portal stuff, but once you get the job, a lot of times they won't recruit behind you because they don't, you know, they want to make sure that you're comfortable in your job and there's not as much competition. And so, that's been out there for a while on Texas. And I totally agree with you. I'm glad you brought this up because Texas, the physicality up front is unlike anything I had seen. And I was talking about this

with the guys in the Joe Moore Award texturing we have. I'm in the selection committee. It's for the top offensive line in college football. And we're on tape the very next day after these college games. And I got to tell you, Aaron Taylor saw it the way I did. Like this is the most physical Texas has been since I've been studying them. And, you know, know, as closely as I have, which has been like 12, 13, 14 years. And I've watched them a lot longer than that. This was as physical as they were. Sark didn't get away from the run.

And then you had two running backs. You know, Indiana had two running backs last year, Bucky, that were hammerheads. And they were physical. And Texas has that same kind of dual mentality where we want both of these guys to be yards after contact, physical guys, not slashers. We want guys who are going to pound and wear teams down. And they finally have an offensive line that is built for something. like that. So that was my big takeaway, too, was the physicality of Texas was something I wasn't

used to up front. No, not at all. And the way they've matured and the way they've grown. And I think everyone understood with Ohio State that, look, they had to plug a lot of new pieces into it, but they're so talented that you expect them to continue to operate at a high level. And look, you're up 20 points or whatever they were up in the fourth quarter. They got to close that out. Like, that has to be a thing where they're going to blame Ryan Day. I don't know who you blind. but Ohio State needs to win that game. What were your thoughts on the Ohio State squad? What did you think about Julian Sam?

What do you think about that young? So from the stands, I was a little, you know, first half looked good. Then when Texas was really, they were throwing a lot of double teams. I mean, everything was shaded to Jeremiah Smith as it should be. And it seemed like San had a hard time getting away from that read. And when you do that in college football, it's easy. I remember watching Deshaun Watson do it with DeAndre Hopkins. And you can still be successful.

It wouldn't be the first guy that's locked in on a primary target a lot. Matthew Stafford did it with Megatron all the time. But it concerns me in college because I need to know that you can get through the construct of the route designs, of the route combinations. And you've got to be able to read and take what the defense gives you. And I didn't think Julian Sand did a very good job, especially the second half, or take them what the defense gave them.

There were other opportunities on the field out there that I could see from the stands. But he was so dialed into number four that he had a hard time. Everything was about, okay, if it goes off structure, I want to see if number four can get open on a scramble play. And I'm going to make something happen. Now, interestingly, he was doing that when he got out of the pocket and made that throw all the way across the field to the tight end, who had leaked out, barely to quarterback C across the field like that. So I give him credit. But after that happened, I thought, okay, this game's a.

officially over now and they couldn't kill the game off after they got that first down. But I thought saying, you know, down on the field, he's a, I mean, he's a true baby face. This guy. Yeah, he's a young. He's from out of this. Maybe he looks like he's 18 years old. But he throws a nice ball, you know, good tight spiral, good catchable ball. But I didn't think he did a very good job in the second half of really feeling the Texas defense and beating them where they were there to be beat.

he just wanted to let four win the game. And sometimes he will, but in this game, he didn't. And I thought San really did a disservice to his offense by not finding other options available. Yeah, you know, that's really interesting because going back to the summertime, doing my work on him, I was really impressed with the way that he looked. I thought he threw the ball all over the yard. Well, I thought he was one of those, I won't say Baker Mayfield tights, but an undersized gunslinger that could have a lot of success that you could set him up

and go. And in this game, what you're hoping for is that you see those flashes that kind of confirm some of the positive thoughts that you have. And I think for both quarterbacks, Arch and Julian, like we're still not quite getting that. And it speaks to a larger thing. Like through two, three weeks of the college football season, this Ballyhoo quarterback class has kind of been,

won, won, won't, won. It has not been what we thought or what we built it to be. We needed Dante Moore upset by a team who got beat by Tulsa last week. Double-digit favorite. They lose the Tulsa by double-digit to Oklahoma State. Then they come in and beat, you know, I mean, they handle Oregon. That was hammered. And Dante Moore had a bad game.

Bad game. Did you hear about the tail that came out about him in his footwork? No. So Oklahoma State said they had a tail. on Oregon, how they knew it was run past. Now, they said the offensive lineman, but people dug a little deeper, and they're looking at Dante Moore's stance.

He staggered when it's a pass. It's a little more level when it's a run, those things, and people are calling it out. Now, it's not a 100% till, but it's something that people are beginning to look at. And for a high caliber quarterback prospect, and a program that is a top five, top 10 program, man, to have a tail that go,

unnoticed like that, man, really significant. Yeah, it's the concern because you allow people to fire up the field on you. I mean, that's the big differences. When they feel like they have a tell on your pass, you may think, well, they don't know the routes. Well, it's about getting up the field. You know, it's about getting off the ball and you're no longer read, react. You are literally attacking.

And it's a completely different energy in the first half snap. You know, in the first one step, the first step, first two steps, it's different if they know a pass. coming. That's why you, you know, that's why you want to keep things manageable. When you talk about being, you know, when you hear the phrase, you know, stay in front of the chains. You don't want to get behind the chains. That's because when you're predictable, you'll pin their ears back phrase comes out. And that's, that shows up. Yeah, the quarterback, the quarterback position, um, it is not shown up yet. There's still a long way to go,

but we still have a lot of work that needs to be done, uh, on the college level before. I'm very excited about, you know, I'm excited about who these quarterbacks could be, but we're not seeing it just yet. Now, Julian's saying, I will say, I liked his field on the field. I liked his feet, like he doesn't strike me as a guy that's easily wrapped. Yeah. There's something about his composure and the way he handles games and the way he handles his teams, his team, the huddle, just every.

I liked him on the sideline when I was paying it. attention to them. And that is something. I mean, that that is something. That is something you want to look for because you can get better in terms of, all right, I'm not going to lock it on this receiver. I need to do a better job at getting through my progressions, et cetera, et cetera. If you don't have poise or if you don't have command or if you don't have the confidence of teammates on the field, that's stuff that's really hard. A lot of times, Bucky, I think that's innate. Like you're either that guy or you're not that guy. Now, maybe you're that guy and you just need to be pushed to be more vocal, but I think it's in you or it's not in you personally.

100%. Either you have it or you don't. And there's a way to be able to do it. Like, and I'll say this, like with Trevor Lawrence, like watching his maturation as a player and the way that he's descending. He is a guy that that's not his, it's not his thing per se, but he's grown and become more vocal, more demonstrative, more demanding of his teammates. And so a lot of it is digging down. down deep and kind of trying to find out, do they have that capacity to kind of bark when

they need to bark or to challenge their guys when they need to challenge them? Because that's really important. And it's really important in this era when we're talking about number one receivers, being more vocal about wanting to get the ball. Is he bold enough to shut that down and be like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to the open guy. Like, you've got to have some bark. And I hate to say this, but the best quarterback's that I'm not.

saying they got a little jerk in them you know what i mean they got a little jerk they don't mind kind of being however they are they don't mind confrontation yeah they don't mind confrontation and you kind of you think about the best pitchers the best quarterbacks some of the best basketball players they got that a-hole gene and it's kind of you know it's it's it's kind of in there it's who they are now you know they may they may still be good personality and all that but when when it comes nutcutting time there's a there's a switch they can hit where they get a little nasty and I think that is something that you have to have you know I had somebody Cleveland told me that Baker kind of had a hard time dealing with the in Cleveland with you know OBJ juice landry there was there was a lot of energy in that in that locker room once a OBJ came in and and I think he had a hard time you know dealing with that like he wasn't able to keep up with that and and that that is a big part of it too is how do you handle a wide receiver that's going to have a big personality. You have to have some of that, whether it's learning how to,

I don't want to say manipulate, Buck, you know how it is. Like sometimes you just have to know how to talk to a guy to keep him under wraps. You know, you don't have to necessarily be yelling at the guy, you know, something like that. But you have to know, he has to respect you enough that when it's time to get down, it's time to get down. And that's the way it is. And you got to, you know, everyone has to manage their role. Eventually, like with Hertz and A.J. Brown, eventually, if it is,

what it is, it's going to break up, you know, but they kept it together long enough to win a Super Bowl. Yeah, and that's it. And that's one of the things. And we talk about leadership and the quarterback position being a relational position. You've got to be able to relate to all the people in the hurdle, the people on the other side of the ball, the people in the building. So communication skills, leadership skills are coveted at a premium on top of the other stuff that you look for, intelligence, toughness, and then the playing ability. Look, we're going to take a break right now, but when we come back, Lance, I want to talk about some of these young rookies that are popping.

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Fantasy season is upon us. Are you ready to dominate your league? Because if you aren't locked in with us on the NFL Fantasy Football Show, you're already playing from behind. Every episode, we're going to dive into the biggest fantasy headlines. Injury updates that you'll need before kickoff. The best starts to be. sits across every position. And matchups, you can exploit to destroy your league mates. You know, we're talking sleepers, breakout stars, and the guys you cannot afford to bench.

From rookies on the rise to longtime stars still at it, we cover it all. Whether you're a first-time player or a grizzled vet chasing another championship, we give you the advantage and the confidence you need to make every move count. Weekly analysis, hot takes, and unique insider knowledge all in one place. Does fantasy dominance sound appealing to you? Listen to the NFL fantasy football show on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The new NFL season is here, and you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 61. Last year, we had Mike McDonald, Sam Darnel, on the field after the game.

But that was last year. If you're a football sicko like me, NFL Daily is your kind of show. It is in the name NFL. daily, fresh content in your feed every day all season long. Matthew Stafford coming off his MVP season. On a dazzling darts from Matthew Stafford. Big time trades that shake up the NFL. AJ Brown is loose.

And of course, those Seahawks trying to run it back and win another Lombardi trophy. The Seahawks win Super Bowl 60. They are bringing the Lombardi back to the northwest. If it's happening on a football field, NFL Daily will cover it. Listen to NFL Daily on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, OZ, look, exciting weekend. Like, we love kickoff weekend. And I'm not saying that we are sitting here keeping score on our draft race or whatever,

but there were some young dudes that really showed up. I got a chance to see Jacob Rodriguez do what he did at Texas Tech. He's all over the place. And I'm like, oh, mind this. Someone that has a lot of production in college. Someone who blows up the combine. Oh, he goes to the pros and plays at a high level. And he's just like Carson Schwessinger, I mean, he's very instinctive, smart in coverage.

Like there's so many comparisons with Schweringer. I think Schwerner is a better, a little better athlete. Actually, he tested better. Jacob Rodriguez tested better than a lot of us expected. But he's a green dot linebacker already as a rookie. And here he was with 14 tackles. Now, five of them were solo, but he's 14 tackles. there's a good chance that he's going to be right there in the mix for defensive

rookie of the year. I mean, like Carson-Schwessinger, and I think that may have been my comp on him because he's smart and he's all over everything. Like wherever the ball gets to, he's going to get to. And it's going to be like that all year as long as he stays healthy. And let's face it, on that team, he's going to have a lot of work to do. So he's going to get a lot of tackle opportunities unless that defense really, you know, bucks up and gets really stout because the offense, I think, is going to struggle to maintain possession of the ball.

So same thing with Carson Swessinger last year. He had a lot of opportunities because the offense didn't do much in Cleveland. No, offense didn't do much in Cleveland. But yeah, like he was showing and proven. And, you know, Jacob Rodriguez is interesting because, like, everyone loved the instincts, the awareness, the ball skills. He made a ton of splash plays. You see that.

And sometimes as an evaluator, you got to trust the tape more than you trust the tape measure. And he certainly had all that, even though he did. have the tape measure skills. But let's go to running backs. And so there were three guys that stood out, Kalyn Black, Judarian Price, and Jeremiah Love. None of them went over 100 yards, but they certainly flashed in week one. Who was the most impressed? Who caught your eye? I thought Janarian Price caught my eye. I felt like in that game, Seattle was given New England a pass every time they rushed with George Halani. And that's, there's nothing wrong with George Chalani, but Price could feel, and even when they had, you know, they were kind of mugged up to the front.

Price felt it. I thought Seattle did a good job up front. He had 10 carries for 52 yards. Yeah, there were somewhere he got stopped when they got real tight to the front with Sam Darnold out. But I felt like you could have given him 14, 15 carries and he was going to keep hitting yards. Like it just felt like whether they were running inside, whether they were running outside. I thought he had a good feel for the blocking schemes that did a nice job to elude or break initial tackles. Jeremiah Love looked good in the first half of that game. Didn't do a whole lot in the second half. At 11 carries for 41 yards, got the first touchdown of the game.

In a super impressive upset win, I never saw Arizona coming in and punking the Chargers like that. I mean, they punked the Chargers offense out. The Chargers' offense did nothing under Mike McGaier. relative to expectations. No, it was, that was not on my bingo card. Not the Cardinals winning. Now the Cardinals winning the battle of physicality and toughness and violence and all that. I did not see that.

I thought what was interesting is their ability to squat on the ball. They control the ball, control the game, time of possession and those things. I think that is a thing that showed up over the course of the weekend. Teams able to run the ball. Teams going back to the physical approach, more under center work, more emphasis on the bigs being on the field, the offense. line and that stuff. Speaking of the offensive line play, anybody that kind of caught your eye that stood out

to you when you had a chance to check out something again? No. Well, I mean, I thought Vanga Iwani was really good. I liked what he did. I can tell you from watching closely, because I still got to go back and see Blake Miller and Kate and Proctor. Keelan Rutledge was in there just, he's a pig pin, man. This guy is a dirt diver, dirt dog.

Everything about him is he wants to make it, he wants to make it a fist fight every single time. He's got some of the Clinton Nelson mentality where he wants to dominate every time. And what was interesting is that Texans have been very bad and short yardage carries over the last few years. And it starts with up front. And they actually converted three different times on short yardage, including fourth and one. And he was a big part of two out of those three. So I think Keelan Rutledge is going to, the, Texans have already hinted, not even hinted, Nick Casario even admitted, he thinks Rutledge is their best offensive line.

This is a rookie who had never played. And before he even played, Nick Casero, the GM is saying he's the best offensive line we have right now. And that was with Braden Smith, Wyatt Teller, Ed Ingram, Arionte Erasuri, Trenton Brown. You had all those guys there, and he liked Rutledge the best. Vanga Iwani, I think, boy, they blasted, I mean, just blasted the cold. and they ran the ball well. You had a great game by Lamar Jackson. I felt like Declan Doyle was in his bag there against Indianapolis.

But he did what they do well. He didn't try to get too tricky with it. He said, I'm going to step in here, and they already do what they do well. Let me just kind of supercharge it. And that's what they did with that offensive line. And he is going to be, Iwane is going to be a multi-time. pro bowler. I mean, he's just so rock solid. I think he's going to have a good year. You know what's so funny about that, right? Like, I felt like he was unheralded in the draft

process, even though everybody loved what you saw on tape. You know what I mean? I feel like sometimes when we get to this point of the process, like we're looking for something and oh, we can't rate him as a top 10 guy and this and that. But to me, it was kind of clear and apparent that he was, man, he was one of the best, if not the best, if not the best guy that was on the board. And then you put him in a situation where he goes to a team that fits his personality. And then you see the Baltimore Ravens do what the Baltimore Ravens do, which is bludging people at the point of attack. Derek Henry having a hundred-yard game, putting the ball in the paint, Lamar Jackson,

throwing it all over the year. All of those things show up. And I'm like, man, this dude is exactly who we thought he was. And I knew this early. He is exactly who we thought he would be in a system that was going to showcase his skills. And we had him in the draft, all of our mock draft. The only way you change is if you just wanted to come up with something different, because it was almost too perfect. It's just like, well, I'm going to plug him in here.

Okay, I can't just give them this team. I got to do something different. It was, and as soon as he was drafted, the first thing I think is he won't bust. Like, he can't bust. And if you go into a draft knowing a guy can't bust, because of course anyone can bust, I get it. But it felt so confident saying he's not going to bust. Then you're right, Bucky. maybe maybe the draft grade's not high enough on them.

I know there's a certain value for a guard and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. What about a guy who's going to play for you for three contracts and who's going to, you know, who's going to get multiple pro bowls? If that's the guy, what's that worth the top five pick? Not that you'd take them there, but that's the value of a player like that top three, top four pick, multi-time pro bowl or three contracts in the trenches. I mean, that's tremendous value.

Yeah, tremendous value. And we saw it at the time of time. time again, just really stood out. Some guys did sit out to me, the wide receiver position. We got a chance to see those guys. They didn't go crazy, but you got to say, I loved Antonio Williams. I had wire receiver coaches go crazy about him. I saw him have a chance to put the ball into paint. We saw some other guys kind of step up and make some plays. Any past catchers? Anybody kind of ticker your fancy a little bit? Oh, man, Caleb Douglas. He had 94 yards by the third quarter, I think, out of Texas Tech. And he had some heat in the preseason. There was some real

heat coming out of Miami, the people who followed the team, some of the national people who went in and visited Miami, said Caleb Douglas was a big conversation point. You still have Chris Bell, who's going to make it back to that team. Yeah, that's Chris over there, right? So, you know, Caleb Douglas was one of those guys that I know in the fantasy football world, a lot of people were excited about his his prospects and right out of the gate really really impressive. Now, it's not a great Raider defense. So you can you can take it with if you want with a grain of salt. But anytime a rookie goes five for 94, I'm paying attention, especially after he had hype in the preseason for how he was playing. You know, a guy who in case he

concept he don't have four catches, 43 yards. But if the quarterback is better there, he's going to really have a strong year. I just, he's just so. hard to cover. He's so slippery. The guy, and you referenced it before we went to break, and you got to watch it up close in person. I, you know, studied it, obviously, wrote his scouting profile up. Nate Borkature from Jacksonville. So the talk on Jacksonville's draft, and it started with Nate in the second round was, what are they doing? And what they did was they triggered a run on tight ends. Marlon Klein with the text on the second round. Everyone, One went early in the second round once Berkcher went off the board.

But the thought was, what are the Jaguars doing? They're nowhere near the consensus board. Now, this is one game in, but it's really not going to change. Nate Berkenture is he was a really good run blocker coming into the NFL draft. He was a good one when he was drafted. He was a good one in preseason. He is a good one right now. And then that's not going to change.

He is a dog. He plays with good hands, inside hands. He plays with technique, strain and finish. Bucky, I get that he's not where the consensus board was. And we've had this conversation. That's one of those things where Jacksonville said, we need somebody nasty because we're going to start running more 12 and 13. And this is our guy. This is what a Jaguar looks like. They circled them. And in game one and week one, granted, and he was up against Jared verse. He was going against Jared verse, who is strong and tough at the point of attack.

And he was getting wins. He was getting dubs against Jared Verst. Yeah, they were dog walking him. And they said they were going to run right at verse. And they felt really good about burkature. And I think this is why it's so hard to do some of the things that we're asked to do on this side when it comes to like mock drafting and those things. Because the one thing that you don't have privy to is the plan. What is the plan for the player?

And for the Jaguars, the reason they rated him so high is because they had a plan that he was going to be their traditional wide. in, it was going to free up Brenton Strange to be the mover, and it was going to allow them to do more 12 personnel, run the ball on the edges, and do those things. And even there was another guy who had a lot of heat coming out of the preseason where all that noise quieted down, Deshaas stripling. Like, one was talking about, oh, what are the Niners doing? And then you get into the preseason. You're like, oh, oh, he's really a dude. And so I say this just from the scouting perspective, because so many scouts can't say it. Hey, man, sometimes you've got to wait and see how the pieces of the puzzle

come together when the real ball starts to be able to have an appreciation, those instant reactions and those things. Sometimes we just don't know. And I'm saying that as someone who sometimes has to put grades on guys or whatever, you never really know what the plan is. And so sometimes you have to wait until the plan is revealed. And then at that point, you can criticize and chastise people for what it is. But certainly.

Yeah, but even then, It takes time. Like, you know, there was so much heat before the, or during draft season with Rubman Bay. And we talked about arm length and all that stuff. They own them. They're on them. Right. And look, I got to visit with Jamarco Jones, former tackle.

It was kind of weird showing Jamarco Jones, my scouting profile of him when he came out. And now he's scouting with the Detroit Lions. But he was a good dude. And we talked for a little while. I asked him, I said, what do you think about arm length? He said, really important. Really important. if you've got linked advantage, which a lot of us believe it's really important.

And I bring that up because Amarius Mims went up against Ruben Bain, and it was a shutout. It was a shutout. Like, no pressures. Mims is really good. I think Mims is one of the ascending tackles in pro football. But it was a great learning experience for Ruben Bain, and that's how I look at this. This shouldn't be some referendum on, see, you guys on Twitter were wrong about Ruben Bain when you got all excited. That's not what this is. is a great learning experience that Ruben Bain is like, okay, I got to get on top of guys a lot quicker. These long guys, they probably need to play him tighter in alignment so he can explode and get into the.

It's like Mike Tyson, you don't want, you don't want smaller fighters for shorter arms fighting from distance. You want to get him in close. Yeah, you got to do. Boom, boom, boom, boom. That's what. Yeah, that's what Ruben's got to do. Ruben's got to get in on guys. But it is a learning experience for a lot of these guys.

guys, pre-seasons, that's fine when you're in preseason, but when the, when the bullets start flying in real game action, like you said, things change, things change, especially depending on that matchup you have. And Ruben Bain will learn. This would be a great learning experience for him. But when you see people like Nate Berkenture get after people, that's not going to change. That's not, you know, he caught a bunch of balls because he went up against a soft defense. No, he went up against the physical, uh, um, explosive player on the edge, a couple of them. And he did his job.

So, you know, shout out to. And Josh Cameron, another rookie caught a touchdown from Trevor Lawrence. One of the best throws I've ever seen. I don't know how he fit that in. To be honest with you, but. Look, I'm in the end zone. And I'm looking at it. But you don't even get an appreciation for it until you see the replay, like, NFL put on their social media channel.

And I'm like, one, what led Trevor to throw her? So Liam talked to me after the game. So what they had is like a, it's like a pole concept, right? Like you run the fake. It's a cover four beater, right? You run to play action. You bring that safety down and you're going to throw it right behind his head. That's what it should be.

They did it on both sides. Jacobi Myers on the left. And then Trevor has Cameron on the right. And he can go either way. Now, Liam said, hey, he peaked left and went whatever. He turned his back and he just fired a dart. And even though I'm like, man, that's an impressive throw to get it all through that, I am trying to figure out how Josh Cameron saw it and caught it with his hand.

I don't know how you saw it. I don't know how he saw it. Like, it's one of the best catches that I see because there is no way he could have saw that all the way to his hands. You had hands here. You had a body here. And he's going into that little tunnel without being. being able to see the ball. I have no idea how Josh got it there, how Trevor got it through there,

or how Josh saw it to make the catch. I have no idea. So shout out to the rookie Josh Cameron for making that, for making that catch. And that was one of the most bananas throws that I've seen in a long time. Defensively, my guy, Anthony Hill, so I saw you at 16 tackles, right? And I'm like, I told y'all, I told you all. Everyone was sleeping on Anthony Hill. Everyone was sleeping on Anthony Hill. I got him in the first. And then I went to the, look, but then I went to the, I went to the stat sheet, two solos,

14 assists. I'm like, damn. JOPs. Two solos out of 16. Hold on. We had two solos and 14 assists. Like, no, we can't have that kind of ratio going on. We got to get some more solos in here, Anthony.

You can't just jump on piles and pat, you know, pad the stats. But Hill is a guy that I like, but only two solo tackles out of 16 is like, I'm not used to seeing that stand. Mansoor Delane, ball hawking corner ended up with an interception in the Monday night game before he left with a shoulder injury. Trade on Stukes, another absolute ballhawk, one of the really instinctive nickel, big nickel corners in this draft, had an interception there for Las Vegas. That's worth noting. Sonny Stiles came in and just ran smooth over. Who was that running back? He ran over.

Is that Sequin? I don't know. He ran over somebody for a sack and it was nasty. Yeah. Bro. Yeah. Man, like this is a fun part. Even got a chance to see Arvall Reese play a little bit with the Giants.

I get to see put together. How about Deonté Banks showing back up under the new regime and those things? I think this is fascinating, Lance. Like one man's trash is another man's treasure. He couldn't play for the previous staff. But now he gets with a new staff, Denard Wilson. I think knows Deonté Banks from their Maryland connection kind of pours into them a little bit. And lo and behold, the guy that was a, like Max was a first round pick, right?

Because the fight, like, I mean. Yeah, he was a first. Yeah, first round pick at the bottom of it. And so, man, we always talk about fit and scheme. And when I mean fit and scheme, it's not just the scheme. It's the coaching environment. Man, some players play really well when they got the right coach that knows how to unlock them. And sometimes it's schematic.

Sometimes it might just be temperament. But I love it. One weekend is great. You're great. This is 40s and free agents. Make sure you come back next week and check us out all for free game. Hit subscribe. Hit subscribe. That's how you're supposed to do it, bud. Oh, my bet. Mash the like button, hit subscribe, whatever you're supposed to do. Let's do it. Hey, I'm Mike Yam. And I'm Trevor Sykima, and together we host the NFL fantasy football show. Are you ready to dominate your fantasy league this season?

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