NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL Daily 32: Ranking Quarterbacks

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal and Jon Ledyard rank the top 32 quarterbacks heading into the 2026 NFL season. Find out who the guys rank number one, where the likes of Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford are ranked, which teams don't have a quarterback in the top 32 and more! NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to NFL Daily, where the entire offseason's been leading to this very show. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I am joined by our friend John Ledyard from across the country, taking a break from his day job to break down the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Tongue in cheek a little bit that the whole off-s season's been leading to this. But this is our last show, John, before the 4th of July break.

we've been doing our NFL Daily 32, and we've led to quarterbacks, the one I think a lot of people been waiting for, no one I would rather talk about the position than with you. I appreciate you, Greg. Thank you for having me on. I'm excited to talk about this position group.

I feel like this is the position group that you pulled me away from any, like, hot takes I might have. I have a lot of them at other positions. I would be so curious. I think there are a couple quarterbacks that it's like, where are we on these? guys. Are we like full-fledged belief mode, even though we, everyone, most people would agree we haven't seen it to that level yet, or are we kind of like, let's hold the line until we get more

of a sample size of excellence from a couple guys? But other than that, I think we're sort of in a like window where it's not that controversial right now at this position, but maybe I'll be proven wrong today. I think that's right in the sense that I think there's more good to solid starting quarterbacks than any time since I've been covering the league. I mean, it really hits me doing this exercise that you can go 20 deep with guys that are pretty good. And then you can have a number of more promising players after that. It wasn't always like that. There's this idea that there was some golden age of quarterbacks.

No, it used to fall off pretty hard after, you know, five or 12 or 15. And so we'll get into who we think should be atop our list. But just for parameters, for everyone listening, it's similar to the rest of the NFL Daily 32 series. We are drafting based on who we would want for 2020. So it's not a long-term, you know, bet. And also, we can have multiple quarterbacks from the same team. Just guessing? Could be wrong.

There might not be a Cleveland Brown drafted today. So there's some teams that maybe won't have any quarterbacks and some teams that could have two. John, I've been giving our guests the first pick. So I will give that to you. And for people who aren't familiar, John's joined the show before. But he is Ollie Connolly's great co-host on their. podcast together, the read optional. He does great work on substack. So everyone check out John Ledyard there and they combine for one of the best NFL podcasts out there. And now a lot of

pressure on you, John, with the first over. Thanks for the kind words and the kind intro there. Number one pick, this is a lot of pressure. I think what I'm going to do is go a little bit. Maybe this is off script. You tell me. And I don't think, I would say that it's pretty like going away from Patrick Brooms here, like too, too harshly, I think would be a tough move. But I am going to go with Josh Allen first overall, I think here. I think there's a lot of guys in this tier, though. That's how I'd start my preface about this position is that tier one might be a little more crowd and there's more conversation for other guys than there's been in a while. Where I think for a couple years, we've seen it mostly Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen and

Patrick Mahomes. And then perhaps Joe Burrow, if he's a healthy season, it's usually Joe Burrow. If he's not healthy, everybody starts to talk about how he's not on that level. But those guys have typically been like still at the top. And while I still think they're all in that conversation, I think there's probably other names that we can throw on there that we're going to discuss. So it's a little more contentious for this top spot. I think that it's been in the past. The reason I go to Josh Allen, who I know hasn't done it in the playoffs of the level Mahomes has, but I think it's been a little bit better the last couple seasons is I think the team built around him is actually been the least helpful of the top guys, you know,

the consensus top guys, typical top guys. They've certainly had some good things. None of these situations are just absolute disaster. So I don't mean to paint it that. way. But I would say the situation around him, whether you're looking at past catcher, or even if you're looking at just overall offensive dominance, like ability to dominate in lots of different situations their offense has been in which when their team was at their best, they had more of a building that way. They were able to be a team that beat different types of defenses at a higher level. And certainly in the regular season, they've still had their share of success. But I just think if you look at some of their players, like there's some solid players

in their offensive line. Obviously, losing Aaron Kromer as an offensive line coach, I think, is going to affect them a lot too. So there was like enough kind of bastions of the of the bills of of a couple years ago to survive year to year and they still have some good players. But he's not surrounded by a lot of other all world types of players on that offense. And so yet I think he's been as good as any quarterback in the league. And I know in the playoffs that matters too. And I think he's rarely been the reason that they've just kind of fallen off in those moments. They've frankly been pretty unlucky in some moments in the playoffs. And also they've hurt themselves sometimes too. But I think he's clearly in the conference.

And for me, just think I think he might still be closer to the peak of his powers than maybe Mahomes is, although we'll have to see how he comes back from the injury. So we'll have some trends with these rankings. And one thing I got to thinking going through writing these names down is the very top of the league, which I think it's been pretty stable for a while, aren't coming off their best seasons. To me, Josh Allen was an easy number one. I thought, you know, I know MVP votes aren't the most perfect measure of a player. But the fact that he's third, fifth, first, and third over the last four years, that just shows the type of consistency.

You mentioned the playoffs where his play in general has only gone up. Then again, his QBR last year, like was his lowest since 2019. There were some ups and downs during the regular season. He's very often had little dips in the regular season, but the overall picture is great. You know, he's fifth in yards per cent. Some of the numbers were down. He took more sacks, certainly, last year. I do think you can fault the surroundings that he had.

But overall, to me, actually, he was a pretty easy number one. And I think the playoffs are a good microcosm of what he can do. The Jaguars game was just absolutely electric, almost a perfect game. And then the Broncos game had a little bit of everything. There are great scrambles, and then there's a disaster scramble from him doing too much that helped to lead to a turnover. His short game is way better. I think he's matured in terms of how he gets rid of the ball.

and he's so much more accurate. We've obviously talked about that. And he didn't have the weapons deep last year. So he didn't use the weapons deep. It was the lowest air yards for him, you know, per throw for a season by far. But in the end, he puts up all those points on that Broncos defense that should have been good enough to win that game. And it's one of two Bill's playoff trips where I really will look back and think, man, they should have been in the Super Bowl in two of those seasons. And this is one of them.

Yeah, no doubt. they've had a lot of opportunities to look back on that way. And this may be the story of the Buffalo franchise in some ways. But I still feel like with him, don't you feel like they've got kind of as good a shot as anybody in terms of you're, because you're right, all these guys are not coming off, maybe their best season. And even some of their teams, team building wise, there's more questions around the Ravens, the chiefs, the bills. I mean, changes a coach, like changes. Could there be changes above them at some point? Like there's more questions around the structure of the franchise.

and there's been really over the last couple years for all these guys. And yet I think that if you're just saying, okay, which quarterback would I want to go into battle with out of all these guys? There's certainly arguments for all of them. That's why they're in the same tier. But I think Allen's multi-tool skill set would be the way that I would go. Which, by the way, isn't it insane that we're talking about Josh Allen, best quarterback in the league?

I know he's been in that conversation for a while. But like you're saying easy, number one of the league. Not easy. He wasn't even good in college. It's just like what the craziest route. I'll never get over the rise of power. It is absolutely true. and I was slow to accept the new world order we've been living in.

And yet as someone who loves Mahomes, and I'm not taking him with number two because he's coming off of this injury, you're making a face there. But it is strange to feel that. I think just on balance, Alan has been the best guy. He's so good that we didn't even mention that, you know, him running the ball is essentially the most efficient play in football

for five straight season. So my number two pick, and this was very difficult, because, again, I'm with, you that this is a pretty big tier of five, six guys. And because of Mahomes' injury, I actually would take Lamar Jackson as my second pick. He, if I was judging just off last season, you know, he would be much lower. He was a different player in 2025. He was not as elusive. He took a ton of sacks when he was pressured. There weren't as many wow runs. I'm going negative here to start to just build my case. But the thing that really worried me was that there weren't as many wow

throws. Despite all that, he was still a top 10 quarterback in terms of QBR. He was still great against man coverage. It was a lot more play action, which was weird, but was fun to see. Ultimately, he's like the all-time NFL leader in adjusted yards per attempt. I'm not a big QB rating guy, but he is the all-time leader in that. You know, he's been top two MVP three times. The other four seasons, it's worth noting like he didn't get a vote and he missed four games in three of the last five seasons. That's kind of the basic argument. The eyeball test, to me, is he still in the middle of his prime? Last year was a really down year. It's a contract situation, not that he wouldn't be motivated every single season, but I like the direction their

offense is going to take. And I'm looking at the total balance of his career and still considering him smack in the middle of his prime. And the fact that Mahomes is coming off this injury is enough for me to look at the rest of the quarterbacks and think no one's done enough for me to pass Lamar Jackson on my overall list. And so I'm still going to put Lamar number two. What do you think? Yeah, I think it's totally valid.

I mean, he's obviously in that conversation. He was three for me. But I mean, I also went back and forth between he and Mahomes, you know, obviously Mahomes the injury. How do you take that into account? I'm a little bit worried about Lamar and just the, the, how much his body's going to hold up. But I've also been here before in 2021, I believe it was.

We're a little bit, oh, what's it going to look like moving forward with him? Like, is he going to be able to stay healthy the way that he plays. And his adaptability is probably one of the more underrated aspects of who he is as a player, his ability more from one system under Greg Roman to a new system under Todd Monkent and different things that they asked him to do. He's always been a more complete player than he's billed as. And I think his ability to, I mean, for a while, he was like, his rushing was as threatening as his passing.

And then he just moved away from that, not being that type of player anymore. And he's still like a great athlete, but he just changed his style to protect himself more after that season. And you get way less of those moments. So I think that part of it for him, I mean, is a big plus in his favor.

I would say he's, you can make a case also, although I think the coaching situation has been better. Their talents also fallen off a little bit in Baltimore. And he's not necessarily been surrounded by elite guys either. and last year the offensive line play really nosedived. So I'm really curious to see him in the new system. Could be an MVP caliber season again for him.

The way that he, just when you think maybe he's on his downside, the way he bounces back because he is such an adaptable player. Yeah, definitely clearly in this conversation, no doubt. It's partly a hunch that he's got one more great rushing season in him still and that to me he's got another MVP caliber type of season in him still. And I think this season would make a lot of sense for that to happen with that new system. Maybe I'm buying the offseason hype a little too much that he's like into

Declan Doyle and everything. All right, you're up with three. I think you, you telegraph that you're going to go to Mahomes. I did tip my hands to Mahomes. Yeah, and I'm still going to go with him. Maybe I'm a coward. I don't know, but I'm, I am sort of with you in that like, has anybody really done enough to like actually sway me off the top three? Probably not. I mean, you could certainly make an argument, but it's mostly belief based in Drake May. And certainly if we're saying, oh, for 2026, we don't really even know how healthy. Mahomes is going to be like at the beginning. I tend to think he will be, but, you know, just based on the reporting that we do have

out there. But, you know, if he isn't, then, I mean, I think that does open the conversation for Drake May. I still feel like I think the situation around Mahomes really has been devolving for some time. And I think that caught up with them along with his health, obviously. But I think that really caught up with them last season to where they had basically been like Mahom Save Us for a while.

I think in a lot of different directions. And really, they're star players, Kelsey, Chris Jones, Patrick Mahomes. And when those players weren't stars anymore, couldn't be or were injured or fell off a little bit, there was just a lot of flaws revealed that they hadn't actually done this unbelievable job team building, but they just had best quarterback,

maybe the best tight end, one of the best defensive tackles, best head coach or in the conversation, best defensive coordinator in the conversation. Like, they were, their cream of the crop was like as good as it gets, basically. And then after that, the rest of things really fell off. So as soon as there was any type of decrease there, even in terms of ingenuity and creativity for Andy Reid, whatever it might be, I think they all felt the effect of that. To me, Mahomes is the most likely of all those factors to

still be at the peak of his power. So if they can get to the point, I still think it's a huge question mark, by the way, if they can get to the point where they have rebuilt things around him a little bit, I think he's still going to be in all these Super Bowl conversations. I don't think many people are thinking that he's really falling off. So maybe I'm making a case. that doesn't necessarily need to be made, but he would still be my number three guy. But I just think what's really happened in this top tier is you've seen the gap close between those guys and other people entering the conversation. And I also think we're on the precipice of perhaps a big turnover, maybe. We'll see if it's this season or if it's next, but I think we could be on the precipice

of major change. I thought maybe we were going to get there last year. I don't know if we quite got there other than Drake May. I'm sure we'll talk about here soon. But I, I think that we could be on the precipice of that with some of these recent QB drafts. So I struggled with Mahomes in this exercise because for this season, maybe it's just my old thinking. I know ACLs aren't what they used to be, but I saw enough last season before the injury that it does worry me just a little bit that he was playing his worst football of his career or the offense was as bad as it was.

I think he actually played really well the first 9, 10 games of the season. But if you look down the stretch, he had a couple performances against, it was the Texans, Bills, and Broncos, where it was like 10 points, 13 points, 13 points. Even the game that he got hurt against the Chargers, they were lost in that game. So those are four playoff teams he played down the stretch. And like, he was a little lost in those games. Like, you know, 52% completion, one, one touchdown, six interceptions. I know those aren't the end-all-be-all.

He looked better than that. And it was the offense collapsing around it. But it did happen at what felt like his lowest moment as a pro, even when he was out there, healthy. So when you're comparing him, and now it's been a couple years where the numbers have been a little down. I'm curious when you watch on film, like, look, the last two healthy seasons, he was very good. But he finishes like, you know, sixth and seventh in MVP race. It's not quite the same, like, fire starter that he opens his career. Is there anything from him specifically, not his surroundings that you see?

as different or concerning compared to the quarterback you saw when he first got into the league? I think there's still, I think he just evolves to hero mode, I would say, and there is less around him, so that's more frequent. And I think it's just generally a hard way to survive. I mean, we talk about this with Russell Wilson. We talk about his career. And obviously, Mahomes, I think, is a more talented player than Russell Wilson playing within the structure. But when the pieces devolve around you, the way they have Mahomes and you have to go to hero mode more often, the recklessness starts to come out, some of the shots that he's take and start to come out. So whether it's taking sacks or just in general, more pressure

dropbacks, those sorts of things, I think he creates a lot of that stuff by trying to go into hero mode to wake up for the fact that, yeah, they can't play against every type of defense the way that they used to. They don't have guys that separate against top players and coverage the way that they used to. So he doesn't have some of the go-to things that he's had in the past in the structure of the offense, so they've had to adapt. So he's had to adapt by playing more hero ball. And in general, their offense has lacked explosiveness in the past game. And then the biggest thing is the run game, also not being able to do much off of the run game, which now, especially as the leagues evolved, right, the chiefs were at the peak of their powers

and all these RPO's and running this offense from the gun. And like that was really efficient for them. When they go under center, they just have not had a great offense. And that's just a really hard way to live because everybody right now, the last couple of years, is building these really successful offenses for the most part, has this big undercenter game. The chiefs haven't been able to be consistently dominant in that capacity. So some of that's affected him and just the overall ability of him to play within structure. When you think about going under center and pure dropback football, you're thinking a lot about structured passing attack.

And that's just not been where the chiefs just haven't had the talent to be able to do it. I don't think they've even had the coaching, to be honest, to be able to evolve. And I think that can be in there, but it just hasn't been. And he suffered as a result of that. And some of his worst tendencies have come out. He's such an interesting career arc right now. longer it's gone on, I started to think, could he have like a Dan Marino-like career art? Because I've said about Mahomes since the day he entered the league. This is the best player

I've ever seen enter the league. It's the best quarterback I've ever seen enter the league in terms of what he is producing on the field from the minute he started playing. And then I started a thing over the last 20 years. Who's had an arc like this where it's now a three-year period where it is, it's still completely excellent, but it's down a little bit. Like Manning and Brady and Breed, like they didn't really have like, three-year stretches like that. And I started to think, like, could he have a Marino like Arc where Marino is one of if not the greatest quarterbacks of all time in his first five seasons

of his career? And he was still an all-time great the rest of the way, but not at that level. I think Mahomes will bounce back and get to his previous heights in different ways. I don't think this is the year to do it. So I had a handful of guys ahead of him just because of the injury, I was afraid. That leaves us to four. You've been saying Drake May. Nate Tice, I saw two.

took him third overall in his in his QB draft. And maybe I'm just negging myself because I'm a Patriots fan. I've always been a Drake May guy. But I wrote down Joe Burrow ahead of Drake May for this season alone. Just because I want to see May back it up, do it again. And because I'm really high on Burrow this season specifically, I mean, we kind of know who Joe Burrow is at this point. He will kill you if you keep him clean, period.

And he has maybe become, you know, similar to Stafford. Like, he's been better lately when you blitz him. He was holding the ball a little longer. I mean, he has a very specific style of play, although it's been very interesting, John. I just listened to this this morning. During that, they've worked way more on under-center plays this year. We'll see if they actually do it.

But in the off-season, that is what they're telling. Must be the off-season if they're saying. Yeah. I know. look, he was great, like, Capital G great in a couple of those games against the Bills and the Ravens. He also had some stinkers. He killed the bad teams late last year. I think he's going to have a great season. And maybe, I think May's ceiling is higher. But in terms of, like, feeling comfortable that Joe Burrow is going to have a great season as long as he's out there. I'm going to go Joe Burrow forth. I mean, it's totally fair. It's really just a question to me, honestly, of health with Joe Burrow.

I mean, just had these three seasons, you know, waylaid by injury to some extent and consistency aspects. But, you know, you're assuming going to next season, it's all healthy. What's it going to look like? You know, what's his age 30 season, I think? Is that right? So, you know, how much of that? Is there going to be a fall off after all these injuries? But he was, you know, maybe the best quarterback in the league.

And we certainly in that conversation in 2024, I thought he played at that dominant of a level. Statistically, it was obviously awesome. But then when you take into consideration, the tape aspect of this. too, Greg, that he's playing the game on the highest setting of difficulty. Now, he prefers to play it that way. There might be ways for his team to be more successful if they structure things a little differently. You referenced under center, more structured play from under center.

And that would hopefully allow them to lean somewhat on some semblance of a run game and just having more versatility in their offense, having more unpredictability. They just don't run that much. There's not that big of a menu. They are saved by their talent. That's how he prefers to play. So it's not necessarily a shot at the coaching staff. That's how Joe Burrow prefers to play.

He's excellent at it. Would he be as good at a system that was less difficult in some ways? That's a goofy question to ask, but that's sort of where you get to with Burrow. But I think hopefully we learn that. Imagine if he is, by the way, that would be fascinating because the whole offense, the whole team. It is really just Burrow and the passing attack. And then everything else is kind of like, ho-hum or not good somewhere in that range. And I think him individually, I've said for a long time, like I think you absolutely can make the case

that in several given years of his career, he's been the best guy. And he's been great in big moments too, which matter a lot as well. So I'm totally good with this pick. I've considered him underrated sort of, you know, although he's usually in this conversation for some time. It's really just a matter of what you think about physically, where he's going, where you think about the fact that this offense hasn't had a lot of evolution to it. Does he want to evolve? If he doesn't, does that mean that there's just more going to go downhill from here as we've

seen defense evolve more and more and their success sort of tank, even when he's been good. You mentioned him being up on bad teams. Like, I think there's real questions about that part of it in the league. What's the sustainability of it as good as he is at it? So that would be my big question for it. But in terms of the individual player, I absolutely love Joe Burrow. Yeah, it's partly a bet on 2026. And look, if it really was my team, maybe I probably would take Drake May.

And yet, like, I think he'd be a great MVP pick. I'm sure there's not that long odds this year. I do feel that he is set up, and I do feel a little more comfortable that he's at his age 30 season, as long as he stays healthy, which is a big if. I trust him just a little bit more than Drake May still seeing new things. Is Drake May your pick at number five? He is my pick, yeah, and I think there's six guys in this tier,

and we'll see if you pick the six guy to have in this tier. but I think that Drake May, you could make arguments from kind of all over this tier, I would say, to a degree. But he's going to be my pick here. I just felt like poised for him considering the fact that I don't think he was like he had unbelievable protection. And especially because he got pummeled the second half his rookie season. And then to go in and play the way he did to make the amount of throws under duress that he did. And yes, he brings some of that on himself. I think decision making and pocket presence are the areas, the big areas he needs to improve on.

That's not that abnormal, I would say, for a quarterback in his place. And he's already way better at those things than most guys is HR. So I just think downfield accuracy, big play creation, the fact that his legs are a legit asset doesn't probably get talked about enough. There's a lot to talk about. So I get it. Ability to throw to the middle of the field is in there. He can play in different types of offenses and game situations.

That's all really, really appealing to me. I think he just has the skill set of a guy that's going to be an elite quarterback in the league. I think we've been able to see that, frankly, for a while now. ball placement and accuracy to high degree of difficulty locations on the field is a real special, special trait. And I think he has that. So one of the top things I look for in a quarterback is a lot of the stuff that he, a bunch of the top things I look for, a bunch of the things that he has. And so, yeah, it wasn't pretty in the playoffs and it got real ugly in the Super Bowl, obviously.

And that's part of how it goes at this position, especially when you're young. But to get there at all with the type of team they had, he had to be an absolutely special player all season. And so it's just not outside the possibility that we're looking at this is like he's the number one guy going into, you know, coming out of this next season when we do this show again next year. Like that could be where the conversation starts. So yeah, I just, I don't want to go any lower than this on him. Yeah, I'm with you. The part that I wouldn't say worries me, but so many of the things he did felt like they were almost impossible to do. Like he had the highest tight window completion percentage in the league by far.

It was the third highest since 2018. He was insane against the Blitz. He was insane against pressure until the off season where he had, I think, almost more turnovers in the playoffs against pressure than he did all of the regular season. But, you know, completing 70% percent, 72% of his passes while being fourth in average depth of target and just hitting throws at a crazy high rate down the field,

like, it is crazy to combine that all. You could look at that and you could think about, him versus Patrick Mahomes' 2019 season. I would put Mahomes ahead of it. But it's like not that ahead of it. And that's why it wouldn't be that crazy to take May first overall. The problem is the playoffs.

The problem is you suck sort of like his worst stretch of the season right after that. But I'm excited. I'm excited to see this next step. And his value that he brings running the ball is massive. You said, okay, you think it's a six-person tier, which means you're either rude enough to say, The reigning MVP doesn't even belong in the first tier.

Or you just disagree with my pick of Justin Herbert at six, because I'm taking Herbert here. I don't care. Matthew Stafford, he's getting up there. And here, okay. It's, to me, it's all one big tier, the first seven. I would have Stafford in it personally. That playoff game was so bad out of Herbert.

But, man, he was so good in the regular season. I love the combination with Mike McDaniel. I know we're trying to divorce the situation. somewhat. But he went deep more often. He held the ball more often. He was pressured at the highest rate. And because he was trying to make plays, because that's what we've sort of asked him to do. And I think he did a pretty good job of that. And the situation was brutal. He faced the most quick pressures in the league, the most unblocked pressures in the league. He was the first quarterbacks since Deshaun Watson, like eight years ago, to face the most amount of pressure

and actually make the playoffs. And so I give him a lot of credit for that regular season. I think the arrow is just pointing up. And a tiebreaker for these last three for me between, you know, May and Herbert and Stafford was age, was ascendancy, was like worrying about, you know, possibly the back injury for Stafford, but more importantly, like mobility. And so that's enough where I think I'm just kind of splitting hairs between those three. I'm going to take Herbert sixth overall. He's tough for me.

Really tough. I've been a pretty big Herbert sixth overall guy, but actually for me, he went down to ninth that I think you can make a lot of arguments. He kind of starts. He's in the beginning of the next tier for me. There's a couple guys in the next year. He's in that next tier for me, I would say. I have one more guy in this, in my top tier that you referenced Matt Stafford that we'll

talk about here in a second when I pick him. But yeah, just to talk about Herbert, I am really, I'm torn on him because you're right. It was awesome in the regular season. and awesome despite adverse situations in the regular season. And that's been the story of his career, right? The offensive lines have been bad. When they've been good, they've been hurt. Like, it's just over and over and over again.

You're seeing kind of some of the similar trends with him, and yet he survives. He's getting whooped on in the regular season. I mean, it is brutal to watch. And statistically, you're not like necessarily always being wowed in terms of counting stats. But if you watch the games, which I'm always saying, watch the games, and you'll see how good Justin Herbert is.

And then the playoffs happened. And I just, I'm at, at the point, Greg, where I am like not the person at all that's like, oh, let's go with the small sample size. But the three playoff games he's played have been really bad. And I'm just, so I'm sort of at that point where I don't want to move away from, which is why I still in this tier. Like I mean, he's still a top 10 guy for me.

He's still one of the guys that I think is the best in the league. Like obviously you have a conversation with him a lot of places in these rankings, depending on what you think of staff or in health. If you're thinking long term, like he would be a guy that a lot of people would want to start the franchise with. And I see all that. I think it's in there. I just don't know why he doesn't play that way in the playoffs.

I mean, his, this last playoff game was just unbelievably bad. And the situation around him was definitely tough, but it wasn't impossible to figure out. He genuinely looked like, I mean, we're going to talk about CJ Stratt at some point too. And it was like, those guys just had meltdown performances. And with Herbert, it's like, I'm like trying to figure out whether he can ever get to the level of player that he needs to be to carry a team that doesn't have everything right. We're waiting every year for the Chargers to get everything right around him.

And at some point, I have to be like, well, can you have any success in the postseason when that isn't the case? Because, yeah, they haven't had perfect situations in the O line. Neither did Drake May. And neither to the Patriots yet. You find ways. And I think they're well coached. I think all these other things are these other excuses that it may exist in the past aren't there right now. So I'm just waiting for him to prove that he belongs in the tier with these other guys, I think.

I think you can say he's top of the next tier in my mind. And I'm like, yeah, totally get it. I have two guys out of them that I think there's an absolute in that next tier that. that I think there's an absolute argument for. I would just say with him, I think that if he's going to be in the top tier, I have to be able to, I can't point to the postseason and say,

you were one of the worst playoff quarterbacks I've seen. And that's tough, three times, that's tough. Yeah, it's tough. NFL history, players that have shown his level of regular season play, the history of it, it's just like, it'll click at some point. Maybe it was a little bit of a mental thing. He was like over, over-correcting,

trying not to make a mistake and then started to make more mistakes because of that holding on to the ball. It wasn't great. But I would say, yes, I think he'll be able to make things work and well, because I've seen it. To me, to me, it's a better sample size over the 16 games, the winning 11 games repeatedly with a lot of the things that's been going on around him has proven it to me, and it's the mobility. I want a quarterback that can run. And yet, I do feel like we're going to get some angry Rams fans that Stafford here at number seven. Stafford's my next guy. I actually had him at,

I had him fifth. I mean, I had Burrough sixth, but they're all in the same tier. And I think you can certainly make an argument for there anyway, and I won't fight you. The reason for me was Stafford, I didn't think it was unbelievable in the playoffs,

like down the stretch, like as much as he's been, maybe in the past playoffs, but I still think the, great versus the Seahawks. I will not, I will not mark him down at all for that Seahawks. He had more,

he had something like more deep, in that game than any quarterback or one of the biggest ones of the last like eight or nine years. The beginning of that game, I was like, uh-oh, like we might be at the end. And then he just rallied and made like six unreal throws. And it wasn't maybe like the full best game, but the throws you did make for insane. And that's where you get to with him. We're just the accuracy to high degree difficulty parts of the field and the mental stuff. You trust with him. So as long as that's still the case, I worry less about, unless he has an injury that actually keeps him from playing, I worry less about physical drop-off and decline because the physical drop-off and decline doesn't

usually affect the arm strength of a quarterback unless there's an injury involved. You know, you think of Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Ben-Rothspurt, all these guys had injuries that eventually led to some of that fall off. It wasn't necessarily just like, oh, they got old and their arms, they stopped being able to throw the ball hard. Like, I don't think that's going to happen with Matt Stafford. So obviously, you worry some about injuries with anybody court player who gets older, but he really hasn't missed that much time. Like, I mean, you know, he's, I think, still accuracy-wise high degree difficulty throws down the field. The whole field being open to him at any point, play action, pure dropback.

He can play within an offensive system that's proven to be extremely successful in the league and adapt within the system as well. Mental aptitude, leadership. I think all these things are in place. And he's not an unbelievable athlete. And I think, but I think Dave, obviously, he's been in one of the best situations in league his whole entire time. He's been with the Rams.

That's basically been the case. So there's a lot going for him, but also there's a lot of asked of him too. Like this isn't a cookie cutter offense that doesn't ask things of him. They ask tough things of him and he delivers tough things. So to me, he's definitely in that tier one conversation. And I think in a given playoff run, stretch of football, you can really make an argument he's the best guy in the league. I mean, obviously MVP speaks to that as well. So I think because of that, he still remains in this tier, although with him, the downside perhaps is more significant.

and the other guys, even in a one year, because the injury component and just always the back and this and that and the off season, this is happening. And, you know, retirement's looming. And, you know, there's all this kind of chatter that seems to follow him, less so this offseason. But, you know, you would guess that that is going to catch up at some point with him. And so maybe it's a little bit of a risk in that capacity. But if he's healthy, I have very little question that he'll be one of the best quarterbacks in the week. Agree.

And yet I did try to remember, like, what would I have thought last year? coming into this point. What I would I have thought in 2024 coming into this point? And I do think it's okay to understand that there's been ups and downs with Stafford within seasons. And generally, going into seasons, I've never viewed him as like a top five guy. He was always right on that edge. Like I feel like I have him here at six or seventh around where I'd have him most of the last handful of years. And I'm not going crazy changing it because of the MVP season because that was the best I've ever seen him play. And so at 30, years old, is he going to stay at that very high level?

Maybe he will. I mean, Rogers was winning back-to-back MVPs around this age, and Brady's still at about five more elite years left at this age. So it's totally possible, and I'm probably selling him short. And he has replaced Burrow, I think, as the guy that you're just most afraid to Blitz. The numbers against the Blitz last year are just, like, outrageous for Matthew Stafford. He has seen it all. Listen.

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Join the globe. On the road to the July 19th final. 2026, FIFA World Cup. Stream it all live on TSN Radio. Available on IHeard Radio. All right, it's time for the off-season ride-along, presented by Toyota. I'm going to go with Dak Prescott next. I'm sure he was in your group.

He was actually next for me. I mean, he was one of the guys I had ahead of Herbert that I think is just, it's really open for conversation, I think, and I can see the pushback. And yeah, so he was next for me too. I'm glad we kind of see this similarly. Yeah, I just know what you're going to get. And you know you're going to get a guy who is not afraid to throw every

possible route that's on the field. He attempted the most tight window throws in the NFL. The Cowboys actually had the fewest amount of separation on attempts, which is not surprising. They used play action more. I felt like he produced better in part because they gave him a few more easy buttons, but it doesn't change how next level he thinks of the game. He is very much that old, you know, Peyton Manning style of quarterback, which is just great to still see in the league.

I mean, Matthew Stafford is very often that type of. player too. And I just feel like I know who Dak Prescott is. I can go win a Super Bowl with Dak Prescott, certainly if I have the right support around him. If we can win one with Sam Donald, John, you know, we can win a couple with Dak. He just needs the help. And I feel very comfortable when he drops back to pass the decisions that he's going to make. I do too. And I know that it's not always perfect, but I think his accuracy, his timing, when he's locked in, mentally and in the flow. He's a little bit of a rhythm guy, but my gosh, is it good when he's in the rhythm. Like, I've seen him takeover games. I've seen him dominate. I've seen him make

high degree difficulty throws down the field. Everyone's going to say, well, what about in the playoffs? Why isn't he done in the playoffs? And there's lots of reasons and answers for that. At times it has been his play. I don't think he's been anywhere close to as bad as some other guys in the playoffs. I also think that that's the conversation we're in. We're outside of the top tier now for me. And so the conversation we're in is guys that like, yeah, they haven't necessarily been utterly prominent in the playoffs. They haven't won Super Bowls or maybe been the key reason for their team winning a Super Bowl. We get to some guys that have won Super Bowl. But they haven't answered that question. That question exists about their career. So if we're evaluating them within the context of

NFL history, valid. But within the context of this tier, like I just don't see it as a compelling point. I think more about, okay, if I can't have one of these top guys in the elite tier, then what am I getting? What kind of a player do I want? I want someone who's cerebral. I want someone who's accurate. I want someone who makes difficult throws down the field. Now, you can raise questions about DAC in other ways. Like if, you know, when the protection hasn't been great, has he relied on his legs enough? Has he played to his athleticism enough? When he's at his best, he does. He does do those things. So I, again, I have seen those things with him. Is there inconsistencies at times? Sometimes is there, you know, he gets a little bit, I think, risk taking in some of the

throws that he takes and maybe doesn't make always the best decisions in certain ruts again when he gets into his play, that's possible. But I think you don't have many consistently bad habits with that you're just going to, every single game, he's just outside the structure of what you're doing, like some of these other guys who have maybe better peaks than Dak, but like the downside is just so much worse. Dak is going to have you in that thing every year if he's healthy and if the rest of your team is competent. And there's just not a lot of guys that you can say that about. Like he, he individually is that good when he's had been banged up too at times. So, I still feel like as much as we've moved around, I think he's been eight, nine, seven,

somewhere in the seven to ten range for me basically every year since he really got onto the map. So I still feel pretty strongly about him being in this group. Yeah, it is crazy to think how good he was immediately. And he has obviously developed and matured as a player. And look, he was second in the MVP just, what, three seasons ago. And last season he has one of the most productive offenses when he's out there. And I'm excited because I do think he's getting more. help from the coaching staff. I like this marriage with Brian Schottenheimer. And that was the off-season

ride-along presented by Toyota, because when people are the destination, your ride is important. Learn more at Toyota.com and find the vehicle that fits your people. So you said you had like a little group of three. You had a couple guys ahead of Herbert. And I want you to disagree. Don't, don't be happy that you see things the same way with me as Dak. Tell me that I'm an idiot that I got Herbert way too high. Well, I might have needed reassurance on that one because I would I was like, I'm like, this tier, it's hard to sort out, but I just feel better about how Dak's performed in big moments postseason. I think I trust him a little more than I do Herbert.

So I know you have Herbert. I have Jordan Love between Dak and Herbert for me. So he would be, so he'd be eighth for me. And this is one I'm torn on to. I mean, I didn't see it with Dak as a prospect. This quarterback ranking, basically, by the way, when you ask me to do this, it's funny because it's just littered with all the, like, players I was too low on pre-draft. And now they're all elite player like Dak.

I mean, obviously nobody saw that one coming, but Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, like, none of these guys I thought were, like, unbelievable in college. Jordan loves another one of those guys, but I've just really been impressed. I think the poise that he shows, too, I think the fact that he avoids negative plays to the degree that he does is really compelling to me, gives his team a fighting chance, I think, when they've, if they had been able to stay healthy this season, we might be singing even a higher song than this one about his ranking. I really think that because I don't think he individually, like, has been, like,

usually the reason for why they have struggled as a team. I think honestly, they got pretty banged up last year, pretty unlucky they had a window to really do something and it sort of fell apart for them with some of the injuries to craft and Parsons and others. But I think with him, the thing that impresses me the most is you can design an offense, and this is big, I'm going to emphasize this with a lot of these guys

that are in this next group. You can design an offense around them and they consistently play within the structure of the offense and they can make high degree difficulty plays. And between all those things, are there issues at times, are there foibles at times that you have with them? Sometimes do they make questionable decisions and risk taking things to the ball? Yes, there's some of that with all these guys.

But I would rather have the combination of high-end potential, even for a run that you get from guys who can be creators and make high-degree difficulty, throws, and plays within an offense, and that consistently keep their offense on schedule and play within the structure of the offense and are constantly trying to go into hero mode, constantly trying to get away from what their coaches told them to do, constantly trying to create outside,

of what the rest of the team, the other 10 on the field, are doing and just playing in their own world. There's guys who are great talents, but they don't consistently play that way. Jordan loves ability to actually buy into a system, master the system mentally, work to the degree that he does. That has been the thing that's won me over, more so than the arm and the wow throws that everybody talks about. He has those certainly, but I knew those were in there. It's the other stuff, the floor just being way higher.

I actually don't think he's that risky of a quarterback compared to what his reputation sometimes is. I know he's had some bad ones in eye profile moments, but I don't think he's like throwing the ball to the other team 10 times a game kind of reckless in his game. So I just think he's brought the floor up and that hasn't been acknowledged. And maybe the ceiling isn't, you know, elite tier guy in the league. But I think the floor is pretty high and I still think the ceiling's higher than a lot of other guys.

I do have some nits to pick with that argument because to me, the ceiling is that high. I mean, I do think he could put it all together and have an MVP top five type of run. because I think last year he really started to reduce his mistakes. That was where I'm totally on board with you that he was not a risk taker last year. I thought he was a different quarterback in that way.

It shows up in the turnover-worthy play percentage but it just showed up in my watching of his film that I just thought he did not really lose much of his big playmaking while just making much better decisions. and anyone that wants to kill him for the playoffs. I mean, he threw four touchdowns in the playoffs. Like it was like for a bad, relatively bad playoff game.

It was like he was not the reason that they lost to me. He was fine in that playoff game. He was great on big plays last year. He had the best success rate and explosive play rate on third downs. You know, his EPA per play and success rate, all that, QBR, all that would, you would put him right there with Stafford and May as the best like numbers, just pure numbers in the league. And I think context, it's okay to add to that.

Probably the biggest context I would add, and this is what he needs to do, I think to get to that elite tier more than anything is he was a lot worse under pressure last year. Like you think of Jared Goff is kind of the example of the guy whose numbers get significantly worse under pressure. Everyone's pressure numbers get worse, but it's even more dramatic for Goff. Love was probably the most dramatic guy in the entire NFL last season. Not sure why that is exactly.

It's a lot of just holding onto the ball and throwing it away and just hoping something happens. Maybe it's just a tick slower processing than maybe some of the top guys. He wasn't making catastrophic plays. But basically, if you got near him, he turned into a below average quarterback last year. Yeah, the plus with him is that you don't see him take a lot of sacks. The negative with him is that I don't think he's a great creator outside of structure. And I think that's where a lot of people thought the tools would be, oh, he's this great,

but he's not been a great or very willing scrambler. And I have questions about that. And I have questions about just when he does have to go and do a hero mode and sort of make those types of big end plays outside the pocket, things like that. Can he be that guy consistently? I think is a valid question with him. So I agree with you. Now he's pretty good at staying.

I mean, last year's offensive line situation probably is underdiscust in Green Bay. And even this year, moving into the season, I have major questions about that group. There are some real questions in Green Bay that might not be talked about enough. but I would say that just his ability, I mean, the turnover worthy play number going down this past season, the percentage of him, just the fact that he's not throughout any season of his career, been a guy who takes a ton of sacks, or puts his team behind the sticks in a lot of ways, gives his team more of a chance to sustain drives. And I think is a big reason why their offense is always elite. The floor is a big part of that.

Jordan Love is a big part of that. Their offense is always one of the best in the league. Health has been a factor. Lots of other things have been a factor for them. But this range, I feel really comfortable taking Jordan Love here. I never thought that would be the case. when they drafted them. So another success story we didn't see coming.

The top 10 is littered with these, Greg. It's pretty awesome. Yeah, I like the love pick when they made it. And I liked even the process of it. And even then, after watching him in his first couple of preseason, I'm stunned because he was a different player early in his career. And it does show you for some quarterbacks, man, this sort of development path can still help you a lot.

I don't think his career would be the same if he had to play early. he's doing the 1970s, 1980s mold where I think it really helped him out. So to me, I thought it was a very clear top nine, at least for me, that was it. We've taken those nine. And I felt like it was a pretty big drop off and that the draft almost starts at 10. And I just have massive question marks next to the guy I wrote down at number 10. And I feel a little sheepish about it because I have to just come to terms with the fact, John, there's a big statement for me

that I've become a Brock Purdy guy. Oh, wow. I know you're not going to like it. I know plenty of people aren't going to like it. I don't care. I'm going to go with what my heart is telling me right now. I think he's dialed back his mistakes quite a bit. He was holding the ball a lot longer

while taking less sacks. The numbers are obviously ridiculous, and I know that's very scheme dependent. Like he's second in QBR. He's always first or second in EPA per play. Success rate last year was, you know, incredible. I know Jimmy Garapolo had all those numbers, too. My eyes tell me something different.

That something different is happening here and that he's gotten significantly better each season in terms of his processing, his ability to give you a little extra by making plays. And in a different way than Dak Prescott, I feel pretty comfortable, and ultimately that was the tiebreaker between him and the next four or five guys, so I have all very close. I feel good about what he's going to give me on a week-to-week basis, and I don't think we give him the grace because he was a seventh-round pick that he's a young player that's, I think, consistently improved each and every season, and I'm projecting that improvement into this a little bit. like seventh round picks can continue to get better and better and better and better too.

And to me, his floor is high. And I think the ceiling's a little higher than other people want to admit, especially people like myself who I was not buying it in that quote unquote MVP campaign season against Lamar Jackson. I think he's a significantly better player right now than he was even two years ago. I like Brock Purdy. He's not quite this high for me. But I think you can make an argument that he should be maybe a little bit higher than where I have them.

I have them 15th here. It's fine. Here's what I'd say. Why isn't it Jared Goff? And Jared Goff to me is in the tier that you talked about, the tier ending at 9. Why isn't Jared Goff? Yeah, he's next on my list. Okay.

So he's next. So he'd be next for me, obviously. And I don't want to jump ahead too much. But I don't, I don't, we don't know when you talk about Goff, but I just thinking about Goff compared to Purdy and thinking about a couple different factors to me. Like for me, Jared Goff, I love the fact that he does a lot. and take a ton of sacks, right? Like, I love the fact that there's this quick release,

play within the structure of the offense, know your limitations, get out of there when you need to. Yes, the physical tools aren't anything amazing, but the accuracy, the execution for years, the ability to run a high profile, NFL offense that's proven to be successful across the league,

the ability to limit negative plays, I think there's a couple games, one or two games every year where you see some of those pop up, but for the most part, he's limited a lot of the low-end stuff and had a lot of the high-end stuff playing with Instructure. If they don't have one of the unluckiest, none of which was really his fault,

playoff moments, second abs that we've ever seen. He's in the Super Bowl for the second time in his career. Like, he's proven it in the playoffs so that he can play, like, at that same level. And like, the moment isn't too big for him. So I still have him in that tier with the other guys. And I know that he's not sexy. And I know that he's not what a lot of people are looking for necessarily at the history of your scouting.

But I just think when you put on the tape, he gets it, he freaking gets it done. And I really appreciate his game way more than I thought I would a couple years ago when he finished with the Rams. Look, he is exactly who everyone thinks he is. He leads the league and in breaking routes. There's a ton of yak. The numbers when he's clean are just exceptional. I mean, he is going to kill you. Let's talk about them together.

You could throw 11 up for Goff because I think it's an interesting conversation just comparing the two of them. The answer would be that I think Purdy still has levels to go potentially. I'm betting a little on a mystery box where I feel like I know who Goff is. And then it's the creation. You know, it's the idea when things aren't going well and things were not going well for that 49ers team last year. I've really been impressed the last couple of seasons when Purdy's been out there and healthy of his ability to make those around him better. It is very close between those two. And Goff is maybe a little bit of a safer pick.

But that's it. He's what Kyle Shanahan wanted, which is a guy who can also create some plays on his own. And maybe listeners are hearing the stylistic differences may between a little bit of what we gravitate to because you're 100% right. Brock Purdy, obviously way better out of structure than Jared Goff is. And I would say Geri golf way better within the structure. I think I gravitate first toward that guy because I trust that guy to. get it done within the structure without needing to play in this creation mode. And I think with Purdy, he definitely can play in the creation mode more.

I worry that he stays there too often. Last year's time to throw has me really scared just throughout his career in some ways as he's played more. And some of that has been, you know, I think it was a mixed bag a little bit in 2024 last year. He was banged up. And then when he did play, there was obviously really good things about I played in the regular season. I worry about the turnover worthy plays.

Those can come in bunches for him, the percentage of times where he gets the ball the other team. I don't trust him to the degree that I trust Jared Gough. And then he does a great job of avoiding sacks, which I love about him. He really can create, like he is a really fun player to watch in a lot of ways. He's more exciting to watch. And I think because he is this kind of, I don't want to say boring personality, but just kind of like, he's not a like, you don't put the mic in front of him. Like, oh, man, this guy, let's go. But the way he plays is really compelling, I think, from a viewership perspective. But then, I mean, the 3.22 second time to throw.

Like, it's just like, that was where he lived last year. And I worry about the- That's what happens with Jake Tongis is your number one. I mean, I hear you that he gets helped so much by the scheme. But I also think, you know, it should be recognized that, like, Pierce-all was in and out last year. Kit, Kitil, I guess, was in and out. It wasn't until the end of the year that he was out-out-out.

You know, you have Joanne Jennings a little. in and out last year. I mean, for a part of the season, it was really Mac Jones making Kendrick Bourne happen. But I think that was part of the reason why he's holding onto the ball too long. And I think some of the things you can knock him for, like we could talk about with Caleb, who I'm sure is going to come up fairly soon too. And yeah, I think that's it. But the fact that for the most part, I think he's gotten better at being a little safer. But maybe you're right, that he gets a little too much dip on his chip every now and then. And both are really good. I mean, they're probably in these conversations.

of quarterbacks that you're like, well, can they ever, can their good peaks? Are they enough, basically, to get you to the top? And that's been the question with Purdy, because when the Niders have been good. And it'll probably continue to be the question with Jared Gough. Obviously, McVade didn't think so. Moved to Matt Stafford. Certainly in many ways he was right, I have Stafford higher. He's a better player than Gough. But I think the idea that Gough still, like, still where he's gotten to in his career has been pretty unbelievable to me, considering there are these, like, very clear limitations with this game that, like, he can't play all the different ways. And so to me, the accuracy,

but then also the functional execution within the offense. Now, things can fall apart for Jared Gough, too, at times. You know, it usually is one or two games a season rather than just like these rash stretches of play, but I, for like weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks on end. But I would say that when he's at his best, which I think most of the time he's able to play his game in most of formats in the league, you know, he's, again, we're talking about a tier of quarterbacks that probably aren't like carrying your team in the playoffs, but they're guys that you trust that operate the offense that are really,

high level. Obviously, when it's been, it's his best in Detroit, it's been a really good offense. And he operated that at an extremely high and efficient level for several years. And last year, they fell upon hard times just kind of in general. But I give him a lot of credit for his operation of that offense and his ability to maximize that system. It was really such a great marriage with him and Ben Johnson in so many different ways. And now there's questions. And there'll be questions again. I think he's proven kind of who he is as a quarterback. And it's up to if this is your guy and there's, you know, not many guys better than I'm in the league, even if you want to say he's never going to be a top guy. And I think that's fair. He'll never be somebody that we

talk about in tier one, whereas some of these other guys even ahead of him and maybe behind him have a clear chance to be a number, to be in that top tier at some point in their careers that they keep progress. And that's probably off the table for Jared Goff. But who he is is something a lot of teams would have benefited. And there's a lot of teams that could have won and been in Super Bowls if they had a quarterback as clean as him that ended up being postseason disappointments because their guy wasn't up to the up to the, up to par the way that he's been, I think, even in the playoffs. It's all totally fair.

It is still wild to have traded away Matthew Stafford and have a case for, did we win that trade? You know, for everything that it's set up for the Detroit Lions and getting Gough as not a throw-in, but as something that they basically didn't have to give up any value for because of his contract is incredible. I'm struggling here with my next pick. You know,

you have the class of 24 guys and Caleb and Jaden in the mix. For this season and a lot of, I do feel good about Trevor Lawrence. I've never been a Trevor Lawrence guy in general. Even last season where it was kind of a breakout season, how it ended. He was 17th in success rate below average and completion percentage over expected. And QBR, the stat profile wasn't like incredible. But the closing stretch was excellent.

He was under pressure a lot and he takes sacks. I want to see it again. and yet I do have a feeling, and maybe I'm falling a little bit for the offseason, Oki-doke, that year two of Liam Cohen, it's gonna lock in. He's never maybe had the quarterback instincts,

for lack of a better word, that you want to see out of your elite guy that you has to maybe be in the right system. He is now in the right system, and I think this is going to be a really strong 2026 for Trevor Lawrence. Okay, a little bit of a difference here. I have Trevor Lawrence 17th for me.

I am a fan. Last year, the progress was exciting to me. I still have some questions. I still think that he's less than some of his parts, which is kind of been the story of his career so far as like this guy is all the talent in the world, but just doesn't quite,

hasn't quite put it together consistently. What happened for Jacksonville with adding Liam Cohen, adding Jacoby Myers, Breton Stranges breakout, even with Brian Thomas having this down year, and Travis Sunter getting heard and not really, being a huge offensive weapon right away, what's position is he going to play. Even with that, I think that Trevor Lawrence, the ability that they had as an offense to open up the middle of the

field for him. And for the first time in his career, he became a guy that would confidently throw the ball between the numbers between the ashes and the middle of the field and make those throws with anticipation. That is the most interesting thing to me with Trevor Lawrence. I think a lot of the other foibles in his game remain the same. And like he still has some, there's still some recklessness to him at times. There's some panic to him at times, I think, and there's some things I don't necessarily like. But if he becomes a guy who can off the play action, off the systems that Liam Cohn creates, will now throw the ball to every area of the field, my interest in him goes way up as a quarterback, because I think he's going to lock himself into being

a tier two guys, how I put it basically. And then who knows from there, where it'll go, if he can iron out some of the other things in his game. But for most of his career, he just has never been consistent or confident throwing into the middle of the field. throwing with anticipation, throwing in there, throwing accurately, throwing on time, reading defenses there, et cetera, et cetera. It just hasn't happened for him. And that is, I think the area of the field that most quarterback, if you're talking about how do you go from being okay or good to grade

and move up tiers at quarterback play, being able to throw in that area of the field consistently at a high level is a big differentiator. And that wasn't the case for him until that trade for Myers. You can see all the numbers. You can see their success rate as a passing attack. you can see their drop back, their EPA for dropback in the 10 to 19 yard range between the numbers, everything skyrockets and goes up. You can watch the tape and watch him throw the ball there. He finally had a players that he trusted there and that was a big part of it.

But also he bought in. He bought into the system. And I think there were really good things with them. Now, consistency is a big factor. It just hasn't been there for him to really all levels of the field before last year, second half of the season was the best we've ever seen him. I'm a huge Liam Cohen believer. Maybe they can get everything else right around them to where this kind of ends up looking bad for me because like he's just going to play way better within everything finally being right. And he's frankly been, it's been a disaster around him for a lot of his career so far. But I think he's got the best chance of anybody to like rise up this or these ranks pretty much from this range where I have them up higher than this because of the factors around

them. Yeah, I had him 14. So I don't know why I'm reaching even on my own board. But when I looked at him compared to some of the younger guys, I am giving a little bit of an edge to, everything that he's seen in the NFL that they have not, that I think some of the younger quarterbacks are going to go through some ups and downs. And I do think he's going to be in a little bit of a sweet spot of having the right coach to help to navigate everything that defenses are throwing at them

and embedding a little bit on it clicking. Like I've never seen him as some generational prospect because of what you said, because of the inconsistent. I mean, just doesn't hit throws as much as you want him to hit it. It's a little maddening even when he has the right idea of when, when and where to go with it. Like he's often been a tick late. And I really did see that sort of improvement last year to the point where I'm like, okay, I think him next to golf is interesting because I do see them.

They're very different players, but in the same sort of idea that if they are in the right scheme, and I think they both are right now, that you can win a lot of games with him. All right. I'm curious where you go 13th. So for me, this guy was actually 11th on my board and 13th now in our draft. But I had Jayden Daniels. And I know last season, he's a little bit of a hard one to crack because it's like, well, last season, everybody wanted to put him in five or six after the season. And he had this unbelievable season as a rookie.

And it was a little bit of pump the brakes. Like, let's see what it looks like over a larger sample size. We honestly didn't get that big, much bigger of a sample size because he only had 244 dropbacks last season. And really was he healthy for many of those in and out of the lineup? He played week one and two, hurt, played a couple weeks, then hurt, then back for week 14 for reasons that no one understands. And, you know, it just, he was never really healthy last season. And so if that sustains, obviously, this will look bad.

But I'm just going to assume that because there wasn't a major injury that took place here, that he's going to be healthy again. Maybe he just continues to have nagging injuries and that derails his career. And, you know, if that's how it is. But, I mean, this guy is utterly brilliant as a rookie. Like, one of the best quarterbacks in the league, not just doing cookie cutter stuff, lots of difficult throws, lots of difficult plays down the feet. field evolved as a full field player. I thought accurate to all levels of the field, great executor, great decision maker. I thought that was probably an undersold part of it. Maybe is there potential for him to be a guy that takes too many sacks? Maybe, but that's kind of true for these

guys who are like unbelievable athletes of their position that maybe they do that early in their career and then they kind of figure it out as they go. So I have some questions with him, but I also think the ceiling is way higher. So I'm really interested in that guy who I thought was clearly a top 10 guy after his rookie season. I mean, he played at a top 10 level, I should say, that year. And you were like, oh, yeah, he could easily be in this conversation. I just thought last year he was hurt most of the time. And when he, then the situation around him was worse, they had other injuries as well, the stuff in McClellan in the offseason and just like never getting back to where they were as a full offense. There was a lot of stuff. And I still didn't think he was like that bad. Like there were

some things that were definitely concerned. But he wasn't like a disaster as all that happened. And then he was never healthy. So I just, to me, I'm feeling like I'm not that much lower on them than I was coming out of his rookie season. I just want to see him play. I think it was one of the worst parts of last season that we didn't get to see this absolutely brilliant, likable, you've bleeding the commanders back after Snyder, all this stuff. Like, it was just so fun. And then we just didn't get to see it last season really at all. And so they're like top of my league past rankings. Like, I can't wait to watch Washington. I think Jane Daniels is a star. And I hope that he still plays at that level, but he's the guy that I would want.

If I'm getting outside that tier, and I'm just like, who gives me the best chance to, like, get into Tier 2, Tier 1, maybe even after this season, I would still take him over some of the other younger guys that we're probably about to discuss. Yeah, I had him 13, so he ends up landing exactly where I had him in mind. My main issue with him, because you can see the vision. Look, in a perfect world, I mean, incredible accuracy and incredible decision-making is quite a combination. You can see, like, in the highest,

of high outcomes for Jane Daniels. He's got a lot of Joe Burrow plus running to him, which is a league MVP type of player. My problem is I just haven't seen him in a normal offense yet in the NFL. So they're essentially like a no huddle offense. I think he'll be able to adjust, but he's trying to figure out when to run,

when not to, and it's just the injuries. It's the fact that it's not just his size, but that it was a handful of different ones, that it's a hamstring. It's a knee. The elbow, I guess I'm less concerned about, but an elbow on a quarterback is obviously concerning. So that combination with his overall size is really the only reason why,

yeah, for me, like he's at 13 and not in a higher tier, just betting on that ceiling. I'll pair him with Caleb Williams next at 14. I think we probably, I don't want to speak for you, but, you know, I almost don't know what to do with Caleb Williams at this point of his career because, Like, the reason he has to put on the Superman cape is because he's done a ton of frustrating things before that. And I think you can forget that.

Like, among qualified passers, he was dead last. Behind J.J. McCarthy was second to last in completion percentage over expected. Like, his, you know, his accuracy, it really comes and goes. And yet, I don't want to discount the playmaking because, you know, the idea is to win football games and his ability to do. that in the biggest of moments. In his combination, I think PFF stats are helpful here, that he's second in big time throw rate. But, you know, fifth in terms of, you know, his sack rate is an incredible combination of big plays and avoiding negative plays. So even though his best games, like they were a little erratic and he's holding onto the ball forever,

the longest time to throw in the league and the rest of the stats are more middle of the pack, like QBR, all that stuff is a lot of it is middle of the pack. You are, you are betting on a young, extremely talented player who had some things click for mentally last year, just continuing that progression. And he certainly has a chance to make both of us look dumb for even letting him go this far in the draft. He does. Yeah.

I mean, he's one of the guys that I think could be really, you know, a big riser. That's not going to surprise anyone. You know, maybe it'll be surprised somebody who had Daniels higher. But I'm definitely a fan. I thought the progression last year was pretty wild. I mean, what did he go from a pressure to sack rate went from 28.2% in 2024 to 9.6% in 2025. That is insane. And he held the ball 0.20 seconds longer.

So he was just nothing about his, like, is this sustainable? You would say, heck no, there's no way he can sustain this. He is, and all he's made this point, and I think it's absolutely spot on when you watch him. he's the fastest guy to the edge of any quarterback in the league, right? And that's crazy. I don't think people just said, oh, pure speed. He's just so quick. And so he gets out of the pocket so fast.

And basically what he had to be, because I don't think he's ever going to be just like you're a paint-by-numbers quarterback. Like, I don't think he's ever, it's always going to be hard to compare him to everybody else. What you hope with Caleb Williams, I think, is that he gets on this hot streak at the right time because he can do that. He's so special out of structure. He's one of the guys that might be able to live there more often than others,

and still be good. Now, I think he still has to keep getting better within structure. And that was last year he did take steps in that way. That was obvious. But he is probably the top guy in the league right now out of structure on a consistent base. Now he spends more time there. So maybe it's an unfair comparison. And maybe Mahomes and Allen and Jackson at the peak of their powers can still play that way.

But they've learned to play other ways too. And Williams will need to keep evolving there. But he's unbelievably special when it comes to get on the edge of the defense, making throw his plays. We saw that in the playoffs, like just all kinds of unbelievable. stuff from him. So the fact that his style of play after a season where it looked like none of it was going to translate to the NFL because he kept trying to play the same way. It was a complete disaster as a rookie. His style of play from college, going to the NFL and being able to work on a

really successful season for the team, not just him individually, is unbelievably exciting stuff from a viewing perspective because he is appointment viewing, right? I mean, he is all the things that fans on Twitter love to talk about with quarterback play, he is those things. And so because of that, the brand is going to be strong. And that's really good for the league, really good for the Bears, really good for people like you and I who love watching players this exciting play. I think in between that there are still a lot of things that need work. But this is a totally appropriate range for him and a player that I think of those things, you know, to the degree that they already improved last season, if that keeps up, man, like we could really be talking about something, Greg. It would be really,

really fun if he's able to be this unorthodox different than everybody else in the league Zig while everybody else Zag's type of player I would be really excited to kind of be able to compare him year after year to some other players around the league because he's so different at this position I mean bear bears fans are going to be honking this is way too low why why is Caleb Williams at 14 if drake may is at five the it I think it points to what I talked about to start the show that it's a it's a really deep position right now we still have good players remaining to talk about. But there were early moments in

Stafford's career, in Carson Palmer's career, in different young ascending quarterbacks who are like going into a season. You thought, oh, okay, they're six, they're seventh, you know, and that's kind of where Caleb Williams is now, but there's just too many proven players ahead of them.

I have to admit, I am regretting that Trevor Lawrence pick. The Lawrence pick in Herbert over Stafford, like I immediately thought twice about. Listen. And you're there For heart-wrenching knockouts The world's biggest stage And breathtaking triumph

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Available on IHeart Radio I feel pretty good about who I would take 15th. I'm curious if it'll be the same one for you. Let's see. CJ Stroud is the guy that was mine too. He was like a solid 15. I don't know why. Actually, so far, we've gone off.

We've ticked off my top 15 in some order. Wow, there's one guy left of my top 15. We haven't talked about Lawrence just outside of it for me. Yeah, I think C.J. Stroud, who actually have 12th here, by the way, just the way that's fallen for me because I had Jane Daniels higher too. I would say with Stroud, I get into this, I see it both ways, right, where the postseason's been a mess. I mean, this past postseason was, I don't think all of this postseason has been a mess. But this past postseason, it's one of the worst games I've ever seen in my life by a quarterback.

I'm not going to lie, like any level of Greg. That was completely insane. Now, I've always been a Stroud guy. So, you know, this feels like a good range for him. Maybe like there could, you know, there could be arguments for it. You know, some would make arguments that he should be, you know, four or five spots lower maybe than this. because the reasons he bias is strong right with him. And it wasn't this unbelievable year overall with him.

I'm really curious, does he want to be Joe Burrow? And does anybody going to let him be Joe Burrow? And if he can't be Joe Burrow, is he ever going to be good? If he can't be Joe Burrow and the offensive line's terrible, like, will it ever get to a great point? I think there's real questions that I have there, just about like what kind of offense works best for him in the league?

Not to the level. I've always said this by Kyler Murray. I'm like, I think it's extremely difficult to build an offense that this guy can be successful in the league. With Stroud, I don't ask that question, maybe necessarily. I just don't know how many teams want to play the way he might want to play. And that's evidence by looking at Joe Burrow and the way Burrow plays and the way Cincinnati's played where you can say, are they ever going to evolve, they're ever going to change,

they're ever going to do this or that, they're ever going to modernize, all this stuff. But the reality is they're playing the way that they're playing because the quarterback wants to play that way. And that hasn't really happened in Houston. And so I wonder if that is going to just negatively affect his career. and then I wonder if he does get to play that way for a long period of time,

is he consistent enough to be able to do that? Because it is quarterback on difficult, high difficulty mode. And I think he's brilliant. And I think he's a lot of similarities to Burrow in some ways. But it's not that easy to pull off. And we don't see a lot of guys pull it off because it's not that easy. So I just have questions if they have ever found like a symbiotic,

this is what we want to be nature to Stroud and an OC and play caller and system. And so I think because, of that, you're seeing more cracks with him as a player. He hasn't been unbelievable in these other systems. And I think obviously this has been one of the worst offensive lines of football during most of his time there, especially the last couple years. So there's all these factors that sort of collide to get like this maybe picture that isn't, it's just not quite as grandiose as we maybe thought it was going to be after that rookie season. But I still think he's pretty good. And I still think the potential is there for him to be really good. The stuff I've seen him do, the high degree

difficulty stuff I've seen him do. I'm really intrigued by and I'm very high on. So I won't quit him for sure yet after this next season. If it goes kind of similar to last season, I probably will have to slide him down because I understand people's doubt of whether this is even the guy. There's been even the should he get the next contract questions, which I would for sure be given him a next contract. But I understand. I think there is maybe a little downside there, the panicky nature to some things. And the mistake. own ball when he plays that way, which wasn't the case for early in his career and has become a little more of the case, the sacks and all this kind of stuff. It's, it is somewhat concerning.

So I would say for the first time, I'm concerned about CJ Stroud, but not enough to have him lower than this. Same. I believe. I've always been a believer. Last year was way better than people recognize. Even just if you just look at the numbers, he was 11th in QBR, for instance. That was higher than Lawrence and Goff and Herbert and Caleb and Darnel, 11th in EPA. So those are like two different advanced stats that kind of have him in that area. That's ahead of Burrow and Lawrence. He took less sacks. He avoided pressure last year.

And yet, John, I'm at the same point as you where I'm a little more worried right now than I've ever been because I actually thought the tape at times was worse because it previewed what happened in the playoffs, which was. whatever the opposite of, oh, he has a bad play and then he has amnesia and he he forgets about it and moves on. Whatever the opposite of that, like C.J. Stroud might have been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league. When he got in a hole last year, he would stay in a hole. And there's three, four, five games where you can see him getting frustrated, you can see it on his face. And his play just doesn't give them a chance to win

for a couple quarters straight. And that, that to me was new. And that was a, a, streakiness, and I think it came out in the worst possible way in the playoffs. Look, I think he's come out and everything I hear from this offseason sounds great. I'm optimistic that he'll get past that because the type of career I think he can have is very similar to what Dak Prescott is having. I think he can be that level of quarterback and play in a similar way. And if I had to guess, I think he's going to get there. but the streakiness and sort of the holes that he would get in mentally,

that's not why you want out of your quarterback. And so that is concerning. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, the downside stuff is clear. People are not wrong about the aspects of play that they've been concerning recently. But I do think there's a path forward with them. It's better than the one that they've just left behind. I'm just not sure they're going to find it.

And so because of that, I may not look right about this. And, you know, I'll obviously make my excuses. But like at the end of the day, trying to be right. So I understand why people wouldn't want to have a miscar. I had a pretty clear top 15 and that was it. And it's a little bit of a drop off. There's actually not anyone that I'm excited to take next. So I'm struggling with it.

I have a disagreement with that. There's one guy left that I'm excited. Just tell me. Okay. I'm a believer. Give me bo nix. Okay. I mean, I'm next.

So I just, I'm going to take that pick. He was next. I'll show you my board. I mean, he is next, but I'm not as excited to take. It's partly because of the injury, which I shouldn't be that concerned about, that he's coming off of surgery.

He's going to be ready for training camp. I don't love that the injury happened on one of those rollouts. And I do think that he's a stable quarterback, and yet, like, so much of his game is on the move. Like, it feels too much. Can you build the whole plane out of a quarterback that just throws on the move, whether it's designed,

whether it's scrambling, whether it's just, you know, throwing. He is great at it, and yet, you know, you want to see him win from the pocket a little bit. It's a lot of hitch routes. He actually led the league in hitch routes, not Jalen Hertz, which you would have thought. He's better when he's trailing. But ultimately, I had him here. This was my 16th guy, even though I had a tear break. He backed up his rookie year.

I think he built on it. He had more big plays. He had more mistakes, I think, as well. But he does avoid sacks. and even if he's not making a lot of big plays specifically, John, when he gets pressured, NGS had him as the fewest air yards per completion when pressured. He still had enough big plays in the arsenal.

And he was really good in late and close situations, third down situations, third and long situations. Those are the situations you want your quarterback to be nails in. And ultimately, he played great in that game and they could have been going to the Super Bowl, if not for that injury. No doubt. I think that, and I was not, again, another guy was not high on Bodex coming out as a prospect,

didn't get it. You know, I think all these, you know, this offense at Oregon, they kind of like basically made him fake play quarterback after he was pretty bad. I thought at Auburn. I remember watching him early in his college career. I was like, this guy's a hype prospect. Sheesh. Like, hyped high school recruit, I guess I should say.

And it was like, man, I don't see it. And the way he's just kept going. Like, he's smart. of all. I think that's probably undersold and that's a big reason why he took the leap he did. I actually didn't think his rookie year was like okay to me, but I was, I was like a little bit like, I think his rookie year is kind of overrated. And maybe it was or maybe I just didn't see what was coming. But I think there was some rough stuff early in the season with him. And after that, he was pretty much really good for the most part, I think. And I think you're

right about the out of structure play and just like, obviously I've harped on that already. But we're in a range again, where I'm like just looking at like, what's the It's the potential for him. And he got better in structure, got better throwing in the middle of the field. Those were weaknesses as a rookie season. He got better at just making quick decisions and getting the ball out a little bit faster

to the point where I think it's more palatable. And then he just continues to avoid sacks. And after that early stretch in the season, he's not been a high turnover guy either. And then he's made really high degree difficulty throws too. So you get less of the valleys, more of the peaks, and then a little bit better in structure play,

not good enough yet still. I think he's got to continue growing in that regard. And then he's really good athlete. Unbelievable. Like in terms of functional athleticism, he's really, really good. He doesn't get hit very often.

He is not going to get sacked very often. That's been proven through two years of his career playing all these games, all these dropbacks. He's just rarely, that's rarely happening to him. And he's not like he's just like a quick release guy like Jared Gough either. Like he's holding the ball and making plays and not having the downside plays in those situations. Now, one year sample size.

Yeah, okay, I don't know. Two year sample size. I'm starting to become a bo-leaver now. That's long and short of it. Yeah, we both had him at 16, and it's a fair point because he was, I mean, he was pretty thrilling in that, in that playoff game in the second half in such a high leverage moment. And his, his highs have been higher than I would have expected. And you're right.

It was a big step forward. I do worry about like the, you know, surgeries after each of his seasons and some lower body injuries and Sean Peyton and him going at it about the medical stuff. It's a little concerned. All right. We're halfway through this, John. We got to get you back to work. So what we're going to do is we're going to pick up the pace for the second half. We're going to, we're not going to go rapid fire. We're going to give these quarterbacks their love, but we will go a little faster down the stretch. But we're halfway through. You're up with number 17. I actually had Sam Darnold ahead of Brock Purdy and Trevor

Lawrence, even though I think it's a conversation. Those guys are all in the same tier. So he would be, he's 15th for me, what's 17th, I think, for us in our draft. And that would be my top 17, basically. Then we're just a little bit different of an order basically there. I think with Donald with me, I'm just really... Very different if you've got Darnold over Purdy. Lawrence, I can see that. Yeah, I've got...

I feel dumb about Lawrence. I've got Darnold one spot over Purdy, and I've gone back and forth on this. I think there's a lot of different ways to see it. Because Purdy, I think, has been better now for like consistently who he is for longer, which is like a pretty good guy, a guy in this range or like, or a little bit higher, maybe in the best moments of his career for a couple years now. And Donald, there is still like this unpredictability to like, he's great for Minnesota. Then he like falls apart at the end of the season.

And it's like, uh-oh. And, you know, last year, mostly great for Seattle and they obviously win the Super Bowl. But last season, he wasn't just good for Seattle. He was like in the MVP conversation. I think people forget about that. But for most of the season, he was in that conversation and playing at a really, really high level for a team that was among the best in the league that entire time. the operation of the offense, being able to play pure dropback football,

high degree difficulty throws down the field. Like a lot of that stuff's there. Now, he'll take a lot of sacks. He'll get hit some. Like, he makes some boneheaded throws. He throws the other team sometimes. And he,

you know, there's real lows to him where we talked about with Bonnex. Like, there's not really the valleys like as much. There's those with Sam Donald. Like, I don't know that that's ever going to not, that's ever going to completely go away.

But he has a lot of physical and mental tools, ability to play different ways and different systems that give you real fighting chance, I think. You can design some different things. He doesn't have a skill set that's like, oh, there's a lid on it. He can't do all these different things, take everything off the menu. There's obviously he operated this offense specifically play action stuff, but he can throw to the middle of the field. He throws the ball down the field aggressively. He's not going to be scared. So you don't take a ton off the menu with him, which is why I really like him. And so this range, I think I just won a Super Bowl. Maybe he wasn't the number one factor in that. But I also don't think

he was like a forgotten factor in that either. It wasn't like this team was ground, ground and pound football and just great defense, old throwback team. And obviously, the defense was awesome, but it wasn't like that was the style of football that they played. He had to be, he had to make plays in almost all these games. And he consistently made him. And so I think he's more than just to, you know, plug anybody in there and they would have done this last year. I don't think that at all. I think he's a good player. So he probably, this group, I think, going up to maybe one more after Trevor Lawrence will talk about the next guy, 18th on my list. He's the most, I just a hard one to figure out, I think.

But those that probably ends the guys that I'm, like, excited about in the league as being a starting quarterback for me. But I think I'm at the point where, like, I'd feel pretty decent if Sam Darnel was my starting quarterback, compared to what the downside could be, but about half the rest of the league. But, you know, fourth in completion percentage over expected, 19th in QBR, but ninth in PFF.

Even his numbers are all over the place. Yeah, he, his weaknesses are still what they've always been. He led the NFL and interceptions against disguised coverages and turned it over a lot when pressured in general. But the highs, the pluses, you mentioned, the down the field throws really good. And his functional athleticism is really good, I think, too, in terms of what he can do with the rollouts. I have him in this tier of kind of, for me, it's like a 16, 17 to 20 tier of guys you're happy with. You can obviously win with. And yeah, he's right smack in the middle of that tier for me.

I have Hertz next. I don't know if that's who you were. referring to as Jalen Hertz, who's a tough one to deal with. No, you have a much lower. Ultimately, I got to give him. Not much, but yeah. Okay, I got to give him some respect. Look, he's four years now removed from his coming in second in MVP.

The biggest concern I have with him, because his strengths and weaknesses have been talked to death. Look, he's an outside the numbers thrower. He's a good deep ball thrower, but he teams know what he's good at, what he's not good at. I'm just worried that his running ability is not coming back. And that would really make him a much more limited quarterback because his short yardage running straight ahead. He's never been as good side to side as people thought.

But it really added a lot of value and I think opened up things that it worries me. But I'm going to give him some credit for durability and not assume that the athleticism is gone. and obviously, you know, you can perform at a high level with them when things are clicking. We're in that group of quarterbacks now for me. There's three guys left where I think like their highs are good enough to still be in the top 20 for me. But we're in, we've entered 18, 19, 20 range for me of quarterbacks, which is kind of where I see maybe a tear break right now, I'd say,

where these guys I don't trust every week to be good. And maybe they're just straight up a negative for my team. and so Hertz is in that group. He's the second one in this three-person group that I have. But the highs are also, I mean, Jalen Hertz has played two of the best games in a Super Bowl that we've seen. And I struggle to rectify that with the rest of what the player I watch weekly in the league. And I'm just like, man, this offense is so limited. He won't throw to certain areas of the field.

He doesn't play with instructor. He doesn't trust people. He only throws certain types of balls. You have to have a great run game. The protection's amazing. And yet still he holds it and holds it. And he's really not that. unbelievable creator. And I just see all of these limitations show up when I'm watching

him week to week to week. And then he just lights it on fire and two super pulls. And I'm like, look, he played out of his mind. I mean, one of those years, he was pretty great the whole season. And that's when he had the running. I mean, one thing he's not going to do is his throw an interception and turn the ball over. So that combination of just some big plays with being very careful with the ball. But yeah, he can be a frustrating guy to watch. All right, who else is in this tier for you're at 9. So Baker Mayfield's one spot ahead of me and you could make any of those, but he's another one that, again, I love that you don't have to take stuff off the menu with him. He has a physical arm strength. He has enough athleticism. You can do kind of anything you want

with your offense with him hypothetically. You just have to accept the fact that everything you do is going to be inconsistent because he's not a consistent player. He will get super hyped up in the pocket, hold the ball. He won't throw it open people, turn down plays, and you just have all these frustrations with them. So there's a ton on the menu. You can make everything. on the field. He's the moxie, the leadership, all that kind of stuff. I think you have more questions there with Hertz, although some people praise Hertz for it. There's obviously been some drama. There's been enough smoke there where there has to be some fire right over the years. With Baker, I think there obviously there was early in his career when Tampa Bay it's been

nothing but like praise for him in that regard. Like they love the Demito, the player, everybody and the team loves like all that stuff is positives right at this point with him. And the fact that you can operate an offense with him. He's also an unbelievable ball handler, kind of an underrated part about his game is that the run game in Tampa got to be so versatile that you're under Cohen because he was such a good ball handle. They could do all the pony stuff and the fakes. And that was a real compelling part of his game. But there's just some limitations.

He's going to make a lot of mistakes. He's going to miss throws. He's going to miss open guys. He's not going to play within the structure all the time as often as you want him to. He's going to invite his own pressure. And you just have to live with this roller coaster a little bit with him that is clearly better than some of the guys behind him in the last half league spots in this list or whatever. 12, 13 spots, but just not as good as the peak guys.

I think he's like this tier especially is again proving the point that I'm talking about. The fact that Baker Mayfield, who's coming off one of his, you know, worse seasons, I would say, although he's had up and down career, but certainly in Tampa, but still like 19th, and EPA and success rate and 12th in QBR. He scrambled way too much last year. Like he's just taken off. He was making it happen for a while, but the percentage when he was pressured, you know, And that's the thing, you mentioned the streakiness.

But the fact that he's 19th, I mean, I really do believe if you went and looked at some of the years, like there was a really dire period, like at the end of the 2010s where like what Baker is right now would be like the ninth best quarterback in the NFL. So I don't blame the bucks for thinking and really knowing that they can win with Baker. He's just streakier. I have Kyler Murray next at 20. And the numbers have always been kind of. middle of the pack, but how he gets there is frustrating. He doesn't, he reminds me a little bit

of Trevor Lawrence, maybe a better version of him for most of his career, but that there's a part of reading the game and instincts. And by reading the game, I mean when to push doing one thing, when to know, when to take a risk. It's almost like Kyler has to be told like, okay, start running more. Then he starts running more for a little while. Then he pulls back from running more, throw to the middle of the field more than he's, instead of it all just naturally flowing. And yet, at his best, he's incredible and he's talented. And even with the ups and downs,

he's a solid starting quarterback with a real ceiling. There's been streakiness to it. But, I mean, man, he throws a pretty ball and is a hell of a runner. I think at this point of his career, it's going to be figuring out calibrate how to avoid the hits, when to run, one not to, and everything. But I totally get why the Vikings, you know, made that bet and I would have made it even even if you had to pay him much more money and they

didn't have to. Yeah, one of the peak examples of this type of player, right, were just these crazy hot streaks. There's been, what, four or five times in his career where after a three week stretch people like, is Kyle Murray in the MVP conversation? And you question if he's a starting quarterback the next week like it. And so just, yeah, doesn't play consistently within the structure of an offense. I really question the leadership stuff with him. I question some of that, that aspect of the game with him, like the ability to consistently buy no team concept and get up. other people to buy. And I think that's important at this position. I don't know that he's ever done that at a high level. I don't know that he's ever bought it himself. He will love,

loves to play hero mode and out of structure. And obviously, he's great traits, but that's just not led to a lot of consistency in his career. So a guy wouldn't necessarily be excited about my team taking as a quarterback, but he is also 20th for me. So same top 20 different orders for us. My next guy would be huge question mark. I really don't know where to go from here. Yes. Let's go. There's a bunch of cases that can be made. It's for 2026 is when I keep telling myself. Who I'm all over 2026? Yeah.

And I think, I think, and I don't know, but I think the answer is the answer Daniel Jones. It feels so unfun to me, but the answer might be Daniel Jones. It's fine. He's always been better than people thought when he was the worst court, you know, when he was terrible and he is not as good as people thought, certainly in the first half of last year. If you're, if you have healthy Danny Dimes, this is, you know, he deserves to be. here or if you had healthy Danny Dimes, you might even want them, you know, a couple of spots higher. You might, and he played well last season. And, you know, I have to give some credit to that.

I think if he hadn't played well last season, I wouldn't think I'd have him in his tier. But that offense was a really good one. And like the system around him, like, he wasn't like in a mess like he was with the Giants. And so I am a little bit compelled. Like, if he hadn't gotten hurt, like, could he be a guy who like would be maybe more in the Baker tier? Like, would he be in the high teens or, you know, he's 21 from here. So it's not like he's much lower than. that but like you know maybe there's something like that too so maybe he's the safest bet there are guys with way more upside than him though that i'm sure you will pick next so like that's compelling too heavy heavy play action last year it sounds positive the torn Achilles that he'll be ready

for training camp was crazy good unsustainably good avoiding sacks and versus pressure early last season listen and you're there for heart-wrenching knockouts And breathtaking triumph. 2026 FIFA World Cup. The knockout stage. Every match, every moment. Listen on TSN Radio. Join the globe on the road to the July 19th final.

2026 FIFA World Cup. Stream it all live on TSN Radio. Available on IHeard Radio. I don't know. I don't think I'm taking someone that you would take. Here I'll plant another flag that I'm happy to do, which is, after watching Tyler Shuck's tape last year, talk about being wrong about a player.

I was solo on Shuck coming into the draft, just thought he wasn't going to be able to handle pressure. And he did take a lot of sacks that is the number one concern that I have for him. But man, he also hung in there, like Ryan Tannahill style, just getting destroyed and making some really good next-level pros. The only quarterbacks that had a higher pressure to sack ratio

by the way, last year was Gino Smith, who Chuck almost kind of reminds me of sometimes with the way that he can throw the ball into smaller windows and over the middle of the field, and Brady Cook. But I loved how fast he got through his reads. The arm was strong enough, a lot of opposite field. And I just thought he showed more as a rookie. So for 2026, I'd rather have him than Dart or Ward.

I think he showed a lot. He's no Drake May, but in the same way that I felt like I know what I saw from Drake May's rookie year and made me feel good, I feel like I know what I saw from Tyler Shuck. I think he's an NFL quarterback that the health is obviously a bit of a concern, you know, based on college, but I like Tyler Shuck this year. Well, I was just being a coward until you picked one of the second year quarterback. Okay.

Because I just have absolutely no idea what to think coming off of those rookie years where Shuck did look like the best guy down the stretch. He was situation was just frankly way better than the one Cam Ward was in for sure. Jackson Dard looked good at times. He also has hurt all the time. His play is really right. reckless. I just, I don't know that 2026, even though you could say he was

better than Ward and maybe as good as shook last year at some points at least, I don't know that I'd, he would be high on my list, 2026, I just really question whether he's going to stay on the field. I have other questions about Cam Ward, I have questions about Bryce Young. I'm going to go Fernando Mendoza. We can do that, right? We can take rookies. Yes.

Yes, we should have talked about it. I did. I think I did. I pointed out in text. We can take multiple raiders if you want, you know, who knows if Kirkochains gets taken here. He might. I think I'm just like, I mean, what, this is 23rd for me, I think, on my list. Yeah, 23rd. So this range, like, yeah, this is where I'm good.

Like, I would like to go into 2026 with Fernando Mendoza if the other 22 guys ahead of him are off the list. I would just rather shoot that shot and take that chance. I think there's a real chance that he's the guy long term. I don't think he's unbelievable. I don't think this is an unbelievable prospect, but I think he's a pretty good one. I think the floor might be higher than some other guys who've seen at this position, even if you will wrestle with what the ceiling is and how good.

the team around him needs to be to reach that ceiling. I would rather be in that conversation, I think, than some of these more unpredictable. What does it happen week to week, you know, conversations? So if he was not in year one, I would probably have him above Kyler and maybe other guys, but like I need to see it in the league first before. That's too disrespectful, I guess. But I think I think, I mean, I believe in him maybe more than Cam Ward after seeing Cam Ward this year.

And I think Cam Ward's sealing, you know, the potential of what he could be just when you look at some of the high degree difficulty throws with him or like jaw on the floor stuff. I just have no idea if he's ever going to be consistent within the structure of an offense, getting the ball out, that kind of stuff. With Mendoza, I just feel better that you'll be able to create something functional about him. You think about Sam Darno winning a Super Bowl, right? Like, I think he could be that kind of quarterback. And obviously a lot of things were right for Seattle.

But I think that's in the cards for Mendoza to be that kind of a guy. And now he plays with that offense coordinator is his head coach. So I think I'm just more intrigued by him than the guys below him, even though there's certainly arguments for other players. I think it's a good value. He's more athletic than people gave him credit for. Ideal size. If he can pick up the getting through his reads quickly,

and I think there's some good signs that he'll be able to do that. It's just hard as a rookie, so I didn't take him any earlier, but that's absolutely the right spot to take him. Man, we're still talking about the second year, guys. And yet, oh, man. You're going to do it. Take them. What?

Bryce Young, are you going to take him? Yeah. Well, that's, yeah. How did you know? Well, him or Dart, I'm thinking about. Malik Willis is in there. I want to just give Bryce Young some love that. I think he improved on a lot of things a little.

And that's how you get better, you know, as a pro. I think he got to his checkdown quicker and he avoided sacks better. His quick game was really good. And they were able to use it. It was the push and pull of figuring out Canalis's offense. There was more empty formations finally, which I think is going to help him. there was a little more extending plays. He's a good outside the numbers thrower.

There are limitations, but I do think you're seeing the benefit of the experience that he's had at the NFL level. So entering year four here, I do like him a little better than those year two guys because at least I feel like he's kind of built up to where I know what he is and what he isn't. But I feel okay with him at 24. I do too. I still think there's a solid player in here. You could really make an argument that he should be as high. 20 maybe and I think this should be this will be a telling year right there's been like marginal improvement I think each year with him but it's been marginal right it hasn't he went from can he

play in the league questions like that's where I was at when he got benched frandy doll in beginning year two it was will he even make it in the league like will this guy just be out of the league because he's not that functional as a backup you have to design a whole offense around a super unique skill set so like he really is like the ultimate boom bus guy but he's just inching closer to booming but he's just not really there either. So it's funny the space that he's found himself in where he's like one of the players that I would feel most suredly

will not be where he is now. He will either be off this list entirely out of the league, out of the question, like maybe just because of the pedigree, people will keep taking chances that I'm on a roster or he's going to make a jump this year without Dave Canals call him plays. And I don't think Dave Canals is necessarily the problem.

But I'm really curious to see if another approach, the whole thing with Bryce Young has been similar to the Kyleor Murray question, I think. But Kyler Murray, I think he doesn't want to ever buy into any offense because he wants to be his own guy. That's just who he is. I think Bryce Young would buy in. I just think he can't play in that many different offenses.

So the fact that how do we design a run? Canales wants to run the ball. He wants to do all these things. He wants to build this way. Well, Bryce Young wants to spread it around and throw the ball around the yard, like being a point guard type of quarterback. And that's just hard. Like, it's hard to structure a lot of other things offensively off a quarterback who

wants to play that way. And we've mentioned that a couple of times now, but I think that's the quandary the Panthers find themselves in. And Canal is recognizing maybe I'm not the right guy to tap into everything that he is, but it's way easier to replace me than the quarterback. So I'm just going to try that. And if it doesn't work, I'll probably get fired anyway, like if he doesn't progress. So I think making that move, I'm really curious to see what happens this year with Bryce John. I could see a conversation of a way that he gets into the top 15 if it does all just work. And he's this super unique player, unique system. They have enough people. He says now around him, you could see Jalen Coker and Tetra and McMillan and some of these guys like hitting their peak right like this season, just taking off.

But he's going to need to be like really good in that type of a system that's going to put a lot on his shoulders in terms of decision making, you know, knowing where he's going with the ball pre-snap, all that kind of stuff. And there's advantages to it for an offense, but it also probably means your run game menu will be really limited, which puts more on his shoulders again. So it's going to be compelling. He is either that guy to the max or he's not a guy at all. Yeah, Alex Smith has always been my comp, although he's five inches shorter, not exactly as a style, but more of the career that I think Bryce Young can have if everything goes well in the type of ways that he won. All right, you're up with 25. Again, we've got to get you back to the day job. But also, everyone, as I mentioned, should be checking out John on Substack with Ollie when they do their podcast to read optional.

But John also does some great writing. there's a lot of Steelers, there's a lot of bucks. He's got to be the foremost Steelers slash bucks experts in the NFL. There are dozens of us. There are dozens of us. There's like two guys that are more that are compelling still to talk about to me. Maybe three. I mean, Malikwilis is certainly interesting.

I'll take Cam Ward next though, just believed in him or not pre-draft. Wasn't great last year. Still believe he can be better than that. How good can he be? How volatile is he still? Questions there, I think. But I mean, the situation around is so bad. I don't feel like I learned that much from his rookie season.

So just based on that, maybe I should have him higher. The only reason I don't is because it's for 2026. And I'm just not sure that that much better. And so that's why he's not hired to me. I think long-term career-wise, he would be over. He would be in the high teens for me, probably, or maybe even mid-teens for me, probably mid-teens for me because I still do believe there's a really good player in there. For 2026, I don't know if it's going to look great yet.

I think he's in just one of the worst franchise and one of the worst situations in the That's tough. Look, the weapons are better. The coaching hopefully should be better. One concerning to me is he had the lowest mark of completion percentage when receivers were open last year, which you know, you see it on tape. Like, you know, when NGS measures like a guy has three, you know, yards of separation, his completion percentage on those throws were the lowest. And so you want to see him, you know, scramble just like a little bit of. more, but he's got a chance.

The wow plays were wow. Again, a note of how deep the quarterback position is that he would go this late. I'll go to Malik Willis, my top free agent. The offseason report shouldn't bother me about how slow it's going, picking up this offense, but also it does bother me a little and just reminds me of like, oh my God, Malik Washington's like their number one receiver. This is going to be so hard, and Bobby Sloak is his offensive coordinator. but he might be the best running quarterback in the NFL right now.

I think he is. If I had to choose who gives you the most on the ground just as a pure runner, make you miss, it's Malik Willis. That gives you a nice floor. He had a lot of deep throws last year, limited sample size, but the talent is intriguing, Malik Willis at 26. Yeah, got to be fun to watch at the very least. I'm excited for that part of it, I think.

I will go Jackson Dart here. Nobody's taking him right. He's still. That's right. They're still sitting there. I'll take them. You know, just what were we at, 27? Yes.

I'm really torn on him. I thought he was okay as a prospect where I think he got a lot of hate. I was kind of like, I think he's solid. I'd take him in the second round. Like, you know, I think he'd be that kind of a guy. And I don't know if I would have trade up for him or not. But, I mean, take him in the second round for a quarterback. He kind of had like a solid starter type of grade for me in the league,

like where he'd be in this range, probably like maybe in the higher 20, a little bit higher in the 20s and late. late teens type of ceiling. I think that's basically who he is. I'm curious to see what it looks like when he's able to sustain health. I think Giants fans are going to be pretty upset that he's this low. But, you know, and I probably have him ahead of Willis maybe personally. But, you know, I think you could make that argument either way.

Willis is compelling and exciting. And, you know, I think both of these guys have some, you know, leadership tendencies that are going to be really interesting to tap into very different in a lot of ways. And so I think that there's going to be when they're, given sort of like the show to run, what's that going to look like over a longer period of time. I just really question that Dart is going to, like, he seems like he just kind of plays dumb football. And I don't mean like in terms of turnover, he's just like, he's just kind of reckless and doesn't really think through things when he does them. And I, you know, obviously the injuries are a part of that.

But like, even plays where he wasn't injured, there was a lot of just like, yeah, I can take it. I can get hammered. And I just am not sure like, but the upside plays aren't like that. He was like, oh, but he's all the payoff on the other side of this creation. It's just unbelievable. I didn't really see that. So there's definitely more of a ceiling here than some of the guys ahead of him. But I still have questions, I think, is whether he's going to sustain as an NFL starting quarterback to me.

Yeah, even just comparing him and Willis, for instance, like the baseline of Willis is running. And then the experience that Willis had in the Matlifler system for multiple years was kind of the edge for me, whereas I feel like, Darts going to still need more season. I do think the athleticism and the highs were a little higher, better than even expected. But he was a first read quarterback, really. Like, once it was after the first read, he's scrambling around. Things didn't go that well.

That's Jackson DART at 27. Now we're really getting into it. The fact that Jackson Darts 27, again, it's pretty, like, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Jackson Darts a top 10 quarterback at some point in his career. and he's fallen here at 27th. I think I'll take our guy, Mac Jones. Okay, the NFL, you know, every quarterback's a system quarterback, right? What's the most popular system out there in the NFL, John?

What system dominates this league? We know Mac Jones fits in this system. Hell, you can throw him in a Jaguar's weird system a couple years ago and actually you can spin it pretty well for them too. So he is an ideal backup, really. if you're in a pinch, he's a bridge starter 1B. But I liked that he kind of combines understanding what to do with aggressiveness. Not a lot of athleticism, obviously, but that's why he's a backup.

And I feel like he would fit on a lot of teams and just kind of upgrade your team. Yeah, just the ceiling with him because there's not much movement ability and I think just limited tools overall. But yeah, he's definitely a guy that you can get to learn the system, master the system, play within the system. and be solid for you. I think there's absolutely way. His numbers are crazy last year. He's like top five completion over expected, top five success. He lit up the Rams a couple of times.

Lit up is maybe a little strong, but he played well against the Rams in two games. He was in this spot for me too. The other guy that I still, I'll take next year, it was a 29th. Gino Smith, I know that last year was just an absolute disaster. I still think there's some bounce back potential there. Is that going to happen with the Jets?

Probably not. But I still think his year. years of Seattle were legit good. And I don't think you could talk me off his years in Seattle being legit good. Like that happened. That was real. And I don't know. Like I just still think he's not just going to totally fall apart as a player the way that it looked last season. Last season was a complete disaster in every stretch of the imagine. Every semblance of the thing was just a mess with the Raiders. And so I, even with the Jets, which is just a terrible gun for the Raiders to the Jets, this truly should be something that never happens to a player in their career. But it's happened

to Judo Smith now. But even then, I think there's some, more of a chance for competency. And I still think he's talented. So, I mean, we're talking about 29. So it's not any great shakes, a great praise. But at least to be high and back of if not like a solid starter type, I think you could look at the end of this year and be like, okay, yeah, he's back in like the 20 range of quarterbacks.

I don't think that's out of the question. Exactly where I had him. I had these two 28 and 29, Mack and Gino Smith. And the biggest upset of this entire draft is that I didn't take Gino or Drake may. Maybe I'm trying to overcorrect my own biases because I'm the president of Gino Nation. Only 35 years old, you know?

I mean, that's young for quarterbacks these days. The stories that have come out about just the coaching and the offense with the Raiders. If nothing else, he's going to give his receivers a chance. Like the Jets reporters almost sound sad that they're like, it's shocking how much better the quarterback play is in off-season practices. And I'm just like, wow, it was rough there last year.

RAP Justin Field, too, who might not get taken here. I don't know. I'm going to go Kirk. Yeah. I thought he played well at the end of last season. Me too. I think he's just a little bit better version of where Rogers is right now. Like neither one of them want to get hit.

But if you keep him clean. Yeah. Yeah. Kirk is just better playing within the offense, I think, than Rogers is at this point. Neither one I want to get hit. Neither one will get hit much. I just think Kirk's better at actually, like, consistently playing. to all areas of the field within a structure of an offense than Rogers is at this point.

I think he's a little more fearless and a little more capable of going different places with the ball than Rogers is. This might be bucks coded because he, because Kirk Cousins is Todd Bowles' worst nightmare. So you as a as a bucks enthusiast, you know, you've seen the best of Kirk, although he really was moving better and playing better a year or further removed from Achilles. So I think that was big for him and Rogers, but especially for cousins last year.

I think he's a great backup. He's perfect for the role that he's... If I was bucks coding Kirk Cousin's performances, I would have taken him top five because his last three games against Tampa have been unbelievable. Wait, is it my pick next? Yeah. Yeah, is the Steelers guy got to...

Is Rogers finally going off the board? Can't believe you're making me do this. I can't believe. He's next on my list. He's next on mine as well. I really flirted with taking the guy that I have 32nd over him, just to say, I did.

didn't take Aaron Rogers, because... If you don't want to take the other guy, take the other guy, because it'll say... I don't think I can justify it. I'd Steelers fans will. Maybe they'll forgive me to having him to this point, but I don't think they'd forgive my 32nd guy, although I think there's a chance that happens. But Aaron Rogers 31st, yeah, I mean, it feels right. That's about the range for him.

You know, obviously, you know, we have, what, two backups, three backups ahead of him. So, like, there's some... I just think if you're talking about, like, you still have a couple of plays venue. Yeah, sure, he has that in him. But like consistently, sustainably good quarterback play. No. And he's also making more mistakes with the football. He's had some terrible turnover's last year. Fumbles, the sacks that he does take. It's just an absolute car crash in the back. He doesn't defend him. He has no, like, he just is like, it's like he doesn't want to be out there, but then he gets hit. And it's just like a ton of bricks. He's flying all over the place.

The body, every time he gets hit, he looks like he's not going to get back up. And he doesn't want to get it. He's always angry when he gets in. I'm like, that's kind of part of playing the position, buddy. You should retire. you don't want to do that. And so it's just a hard needle to thread. He's mad at young guys all the time, even when he makes mistakes. But that's just part of his leadership. But I think in the locker room, things are probably fine.

It's just if for a team that wants to evolve, he doesn't really help you do that. And he doesn't help you turn the next chapter necessarily. So his place in the league, I think, is a really, like, might not exist if it wasn't for the Steelers. And they're like kind of archaic way of thinking as a franchise a little bit. But we're at 31. And, you know, he can still make a few. throws at times and look good for a quarter or two and, you know, inspire some hope.

Just that arm is still pretty electric. So he's got that going for him. Right. Like Bryce Young, you have to run a very specific type of offense now with Aaron Rogers, but it's not an offense I want to run. I always just, I just keep coming back to the number that stands out to me is when pressured last year, his success rate was worse than the league by a huge margin, like lower than, I think Flacco, Cam Ward and JJ were the, J.J. McCarthy were the next ones. He just, the plays over. essentially. That leaves us at 32. I had Rogers there at 31. I'm curious who you had. I'm going to show you at least how I wrote it down. I'm not sure if I'm going to draft it this way.

But these are the next guys. Tua is there. Jacoby Brissette's there. Michael Penix is there. And I wrote down Mariota, but now we're getting pretty deep. Mariota. That's the guy. That's what I had. Yeah. I mean, we're 32. So it is what it is. But I think Washington's offense last year was actually like by a lot of metrics, if they were like 18 to 20 seconds in a lot of ways. His numbers were great last year. I think he's a good, he's developed into one of the best backups in the league. He was eighth in completion percentage over expected.

Like led the league in downfield attempts. Like he's willing to throw it into tight windows, you know, in terms of our rates that and pretty average and success rate. Like there wasn't a big drop off, Jaden, to him. Yeah. I think he's just, yeah, he doesn't, a lot of things. about his game. It's kind of smoothed that. He's never going to be great. Obviously, he's in 30-second range of career backup. He's 30. It'll be his age 33 season. So, like, obviously a lot

of questions. But if you were just saying, like, does he give you a better chance to win? Would you rather have him than all the guys you mentioned, which are also the other guys that I've written down here? Yeah, I think he does. And I don't know. I do think like with Stefanski, sorry to, I do think with Stefanski, too, could look a little more like to again. He does have some skill set that I'm not totally giving up on. He is an NFL quarterback to me. That was a difficult situation. I think mentally everything he was really just going through it.

And yet my producer, Eric Roberts, knows me well. I mean, Jacoby's my guy. I'm just, you know, I've always been Team Jacoby. It's just a guy. And I can take him here at 32. What the hell? Let's take, let's take Jacoby Brissette. Let's have some fun.

I like Jacoby, too. Let's just sling it. He's next for me. Here are panics were probably next for me. Yeah. It'd be interesting. He just keeps having to learn a new offense

every single season, Jacoby Brissette, and he's going to have to sign that contract and get in and actually learn this offense. I think the leash is going to be very short for him. But for the most part, Patriots era accepted, you know, the 2.0. With two, I think for me. He's got to give you credible play.

Like, you kind of know what you're getting with Jacoby, so I'm going to take it. With Tua for me, just quickly to address him, I don't know when I'd pick him because the odds, if I'm just picking him for 2026, because the odds he'd get hurt are high, I think, and then I'd have to be it with a backup. And then the upside, if he doesn't get hurt,

is not great enough for me to inherit the risk. So that's where I kind of see his career at this point. So maybe I'm overthinking it by looking at it so practically. But I think that's probably why I wouldn't take him maybe for another couple spots. even, but it is possible that there's still a season in there for him and that he ends up being in this 20s range. He was the next one I wrote down because I actually think with with Defansky, he might have the highest ceiling of these guys actually that I, and it's, it's not crazy, but we've seen his

ceiling where you're just like, okay, you know, in rhythm, he does what he does well in the right in the right offense. Like he can, he can get some buckets for you, but I don't trust him in the end. So I'm taking Jacoby. We did it. Don. We've been going a little longer with all these NFL Daily 32s

as we've gone and we have set the record together but it makes sense it's the quarterbacks That's right It's a lot to talk about It really is for this position For sure it's a lot

You're the best John Appreciate like I said Everyone check out his work Audibles and analytics And then the podcast The Read Optional And yeah we wanted to give you A big chunky episode

Because this is going to be Our last one of this week It's going to sit over the long holiday weekend as the NFL Daily crew hit that music. You know, it takes a nice little break. Not much of one. We'll be back next week. Jordan Rodriguez has recovered there.

And, man, it was fun. I don't think we're done with NFL Daily 32, but we did the receivers. We've got the skill positions now taking care of, and the quarterbacks are in the books. We will see you next week. Enjoy the 4th of July. This is an I-Heart podcast.

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