NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 150. Favorite Defensive Prospects For Rounds 1-5 of 2023 NFL Draft

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers go through round 1-5 and give you their favorite defensive players projected to be picked in each round.

This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place, every game, every Sunday. And you can even watch up to four different games at once with MultiView, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical. And also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year.

It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital only games welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast in this episode we are giving you our favorite players for the first five rounds of the 2023 NFL Draft on the defensive side of things we're starting a mini little series here where we're doing the defensive side of things in the next episode a mini little series here where we're doing the defensive side of things. In the next episode, we'll do offense. So Connor and I are coming to you guys,

giving you five different players each. So 10 total players that we have identified as our favorites, regardless of what team they're going to go to, regardless of how high they're going to go into each round, our favorite players for the first five rounds of the NFL draft on the defensive side of things. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me as always is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. I'm Trevor Sycamore. That is Connor Rogers.

Joining you guys at the beginning of the week to talk about some of our favorite players that we have in this upcoming 2023 NFL draft. Forgive my background at the moment. We're doing a little home improvement. He's not held captive. We're actually, yeah. You guys can probably hear the echo, too. I'm not in an Aaron Rogers darkness retreat room. We're actually doing a little changing to fix the office up a little bit.

So hopefully my background, the next time you guys see me, might be a new and improved, very upgraded, very stylish, professional, if you will. That's what we're going for at least. But Connor, I hope the ugliness of what's behind me to shoot or even right on me is not going to distract you too much from what I think is going to be a fun topic for us today, my friend. No, I don't think so. I think we're going to distract you too much from what I think is going to be a fun topic for us today, my friend. No, I don't think so. I think we're going to have a blast.

We're going to do our, you know, five defensive players, especially our guys on defense. And to make sure this show isn't you and I trading Jalen Carter and Will Anderson back and forth, we're picking one player from each of the first five rounds. And, you know, you and I were going back and forth before this show over text, just wondering, is this realistic? Is this realistic? And you don't ever want to get too caught up before the combine. I think after the combine,

you want to really start to nail it down. So there might be a guy here or there that could be a fringe round off, but we really tried to nail this and I'm excited to get through it. Yeah, we are. We're at the point of the draft cycle where not that you guys don't like

talking about the players who could potentially be first round picks but we've seen in a lot of you guys's comments a lot of you guys's feedback and even just the conversations that we're having amongst ourselves how we're looking to get even further like okay like these are the guys that we're thinking about for round one what about round two round three round four what are those mid-round guys going all the way to that point who can be some high impact players who you might be able to get um somewhere on day two we're just in the middle of the draft so we're going to highlight those guys like connor said we're going to pick one player each and it's going to be a different player we made sure to not double up on these so it's going to be one player each

for the first five rounds of the nfl draft Today we're doing defense and in the next episode that we have, we're going to do offense. So we'll be able to give you guys this full exercise here. These are the two episodes that we'll have for you this week. Actually, as this podcast is releasing, your boy's going to be on a cruise. So I was going to say, you're far away. I'm big chilling right now.

From the Celt captive rooms, literally on all you can eat and drink gigantic boat oh it's gonna be absolutely glorious i'll have to uh i'll have to report back with the food item that i ate the most on the cruise on the pod yeah but just connect as much as you can while on the cruise yeah no no i'm not gonna go live as much as i love you guys i'm not gonna go live um from the cruise when the bucks guys, I'm not going to go live from the cruise. When the Bucs sign Derek Carr, he's not going to go live from the boat. I mean, I might. I might go nuclear.

All of these jokes and the Jets are going to end up with Derek Carr. So that's what I, you know, you reap what you sow. I kind of like that one. Everyone does. Everyone does. I'm just being the villain. I'm just playing the character. Every good movie's got to have a great villain, though. If everybody wants Derek Carr to the Jets, somebody has to play the villain i'm just playing the character every good movie's got to have a great villain though

if everybody wants derrick carter the jets somebody has to play the villain i will i will be that guy even if it's not entirely the smartest play all right so let's jump into it i think you know normally we go backwards when we do these things we start at the lowest and we go to the top but i think this time around we start at the very top and we go all the way into the depth picks of this exercise. So for the first round, who is your favorite defensive player to have? We're not talking about for a specific team. You know, you're not talking about for the Jets. You're just talking about a player that you have watched that you really like. Might not even be number one in your position rankings, shoot it might be i'll just

give you the floor who's the guy that you think is your favorite player um on the defensive side of things for a team to get in round one yeah it's my number one corner in devon witherspoon right and the way i tried the way i tried to do this trevor was i wasn't gonna pick you know jalen carter will anderson um because i think it like you just we've known about those guys before they even draft eligible where it kind of takes the fun out of it. I think Witherspoon has maybe reached the point where it's not the most creative pick, but this is a player that coming into the season was a day three prospect and I think has made himself into a top 10 pick. And I think that is a lot of fun. And he is my top corner. I do think him and Christian Gonzalez are in that tier at the top together. And I think Joey Porter is right near them.

Those three are really, really good players that have separated themselves from the pack of corners. But Witherspoon is my guy because I just love the amount of bark and bite this guy has, right? That's what you think of when you think of Witherspoon,

is that he's not the biggest. I'm not going to go on and say he's not the biggest. I've seen a lot of people have long-speed concerns with Witherspoon. I don't share those. I find it very interesting when I see that being a reason he could be held back from being a top 15 selection. I think what you discuss very often, the weight, is where it gets interesting with him.

He's not one of these corners over 200 pounds. He's going to weigh about 185 186 of the combine which is fine it's definitely not big his ability to mirror and match and stay sticky in coverage and make plays on the football and his infectious personality whether it's his hits in the run game, diagnosing plays, really being the guy on whatever unit he's on. I love this player. It was my favorite watch, I think, out of any prospect I watched over the last three months. The tape's amazing. I think he's going to have a good combine, and I think he'll come in and be, you know, it's crazy to say somebody will come in and be a premier corner, right? And Sauce was a rare, rare, rare rookie season. A lot of corners do go through a big transition period, but this guy will be an instant contributor in a big way as a rookie next year.

Yeah, that's actually a very good point, and I'm glad that you brought it up. I'm talking to everyone out there when I say, do not let what Sauce Garner did this past year become your standard for even top five top 10 drafted cornerbacks no what Sauce did was so rare was so special that it needs to truly just be in a category of appreciation on its own it is much more common that you get guys even the ones who are picked very highly to struggle their first year really bounce back that second year become that shutdown player in their third and fourth years of that rookie contract so that is the timeline that we need to operate under when it comes to cornerbacks and i think that devon witherspoon can absolutely be that because i agree with you. His tape was so much fun.

It was one of the easiest watches that you had. That was one of those, you were talking about this on the last episode. I think you were talking about it for one of the wide receivers where you're 15, 20 minutes into a film watch and you just realize this is going to be so enjoyable for you. You kick back and you just have a good time

and you're watching the tape with a smile on your face. That's Devon Witherspoon. Love that mentality that he brings to the position. He is is a good one i'm gonna stick in the secondary but i'm gonna go a little bit different my favorite first round player is alabama's brian branch i love that in a in a draft where certified studs guys that you know can play at the nfl level it's not nearly as guaranteed or i should say as deep as it has been in drafts past this is one of the guys that i'm confident in that is going to play so well at the nfl level to have the responsibility that he had as a versatile slot defender slash safety a player who knows what he's doing to guard sometimes the best wide receivers on the other team

with two-way go ability to them with how they're lined up, different shapes and sizes and speeds, all that stuff. For him to continually be a slot stud in Nick Saban's defense, to me, it just spoke volumes of the talent that he has. And more importantly, maybe not more importantly than talent, this goes into it, just the IQ that he plays with, more importantly, maybe not more importantly than talent, this goes into it, just the IQ that he plays with, how smart he is as a football player.

You just, I think we underestimate how difficult it is to be a stud slot player. You're going up against guys that could sometimes be six foot five. You're going up against guys that could sometimes be five foot eight. Guys that are winning with short area quickness. Guys that are trying to be yards after the catch players, guys that are trying to go up the seam and be, you know,

skyscraper contested, catch intermediate, deep vertical guys. Brian branch felt like he was up to every challenge at Alabama. And I just feel like the pedigree that he has and that responsibility that he was able to take on at Alabama to me again, just speak so loudly for the kind of player that he is, to take on at Alabama to me again just speak so loudly for the kind of player that he is how smart he is how talented he is and we've talked about the stat many times before I think three total missed tackles like in his career since he'd been a starter at Alabama over 15 just an unbelievably reliable guy when it comes to the ball is getting

to the wide receiver and that player is going down he's not missing tackles he's not whiffing on things he's not looking embarrassed he is a pro and wide receiver and that player is going down. He's not missing tackles. He's not whiffing on things. He's not looking embarrassed. He is a pro. And I think that that's what I saw in his tape at Alabama. He's already a pro. So he's got to be my favorite player to get in the first round, wherever he ends up going. I love that pick.

I dropped my first top 25 on NBC sports edge and I had him at number nine, Trevor in this class. And every time I got that top 10 put together before moving on to the rest, I could not leave Brian Branch out of it because I think he is maybe a top five highest floor player in the draft. I feel pretty confident saying. Sure. I mean, he's the best tackler in the draft. He's one of the smartest players on the back end in the draft.

He's physically very, very well put together. His strength is going to translate. I'm with you all the way. I think planting the flag on Brian Branch is a savvy, savvy move. And man, he might not go in the top 10, but he's worth every bit of a top 10 pick, which brings me to the second round. And this player I had in my top 20, I had him 18th overall, but I don't think he's going to go in the first round. Maybe the back,

back, back end. And that's BJ Ojalary in this edge class, man. Ojalary is such an interesting player. When watching him, I saw some Josh Uche in his game, who has really developed into a nice rusher for new England. I think Ogilari number one he's a young player he will not turn 21 until the month of the draft and this is somebody that has worn the number 18 at LSU so you're talking about not only one of the you know younger prospects in this class but the level his character is at on and off the field is in a pretty special place and then you get into the tape and look what this guy can do as a pass rusher that 17.7 pass rush win rate yep he has burst he has agility he could dip his shoulder he could

turn the corner he can bend um that ghost move is really you know you always talk about trump cards when i watched ojalari i said yeah the ghost move is going to work you always talk about trump cards when i watched ojalari i said yeah the ghost move is going to work at the next level if you have a tackle with bad feet or a soft outside shoulder he's going to eat them alive with that i saw him counter stalemates with a spin move uh he got roger jones a few times in the sec championship the thing with ojalari is he's not a finished product and i think a lot of that is just his physicality or technique against the run right now. And as a 20-year-old in the SEC, that doesn't bother me at all, especially if he's going to be a second-round pick.

I think right now you have a high-tier situational pass rusher that by year three will develop into a complete player. I love Ojalary's game. I'm glad that you brought up Ojalary. And, you know, you and I were glad that you brought up Ojolari and, you know, you and I were texting back and forth, getting our lists together because we wanted to make sure that we gave the people 10 different players. We didn't want to have too many repeats. And I'm going to be honest, when I first thought about this exercise, I had Ojolari as my guy in the second round, because I think that he's getting slept on in this class. You know, we,

we look at a lot of edge rushers and there's not there's not really many that can bend and attack the outside shoulder with speed the way that ojolari can and you know you talk about him already kind of working on things like a ghost move like those are advanced to me especially when you compare it to the rest of the edge rushers in this class that's advanced stuff that's advanced pass rushing so he's already at 20 years old got a really good mind for what it what it means to have a pass rush profile i noted in his film that i wish he would be more comfortable having an out inside calendar move to be able to go to because when he gets that down in the nfl then we're talking about a guy who could consistently win attack of the outside shoulders and once those offensive tackles overset

or get a little bit too far to try to cheat to stop that outside shoulder move, he's already got the fast hands. He's already got the instincts to be able to put his foot on the inside and really get inside on those offensive tackles and get to the quarterback. So that's something that I'm looking forward

to seeing with him because I think that he could be a really nice pass rusher at the NFL level. Glad you highlighted him there. I'm going forward to seeing with him because I think that he could be a really nice pass rusher at the NFL level. Glad you highlighted him there. I'm going to go with Utah cornerback Clark Phillips as my guy in the second round. I don't know where Clark Phillips is going to end up because he's an outside corner, right, who's 5'9", 5'10", 180 pounds. So he's a smaller player, but there's so much to like on his tape.

I feel like he's so good in off coverage, right? His smaller corners, he'd say, all right, you don't really want to put me up in press too much, especially going up against NFL size and strength at the wide receiver position on the outside. But even if you just had him as an outside corner in off coverage, he's so good at it. He's so good at reading quarterback's eyes. He's so good at baiting them to make those throws. And that is evident by his seven forcing completions that he had this past year, the six interceptions that he had this past year, the three interceptions in one game that he had cutting

undercutting a lot of those routes because he was able to get a step on it. He knew exactly when the ball was coming out. He's able to read those quarterbacks so, so well. The stat that I love is he started 31 out of 31 games that he played in at Utah. Like this guy was on the field right away at cornerback, which is a very difficult thing to do. So he has been a starter for this Utah program the entire time that he has been there. He's been a talent that from the moment he got on campus,

they realized they had to get that guy out on the field. And I think he has only progressed into a more and more competent corner in his own abilities is he going to grow to six foot one in the nfl no but like you talked about on the wide receiver ranking episode last week you can only control what you can control and the things that clark phillip can control you know learning the spacing the spatial awareness of how to really bait those quarterbacks knowing exactly when to put his foot in the ground and to go towards uh towards the ball to undercut it to go try to get a turnover as opposed to a forced to completion or as opposed to a tackle

right when the ball's coming to get a catch knowing all of those things and for as smart as instinctual and as aggressive as he plays love this dude man Would love to get him in my secondary somewhere in the second round. So I got Clark Phillips as my second round favorite guy. I'm with you all the way. Clark Phillips just has it. Don't care how small he is. I think he can play inside, outside. I love that you brought up his durability, his tenacity.

He loves to come down and tackle and he finds the football and he's just a feisty dude. It's like he takes his size kind of personally out on the football and he's just a feisty dude it's like he takes his size kind of personally out on the field and it's it's really it's really fun to watch and i mean trevor you have him in round two wouldn't shock me at all i think he's well earned well worthy of a round two grade it wouldn't shock me if he falls to round three and it's one of the better value picks of the entire draft you just never know and that kind of brings me to my next guy that was on that fringe right i think for think for me, he's around two player. But how many times do we see this league let high end off ball linebacker prospects that aren't overly athletic fall to round three?

And that's Jack Campbell and Jack Campbell. You and I really sung his praises on our off ball linebacker podcast. I'm not going to pretend that I can keep up with every draft analyst's rankings and buzz and hype, but I try my best to at least be in tune to the industry. And my sense is the consensus is really higher on Drew Sanders. We both had Trenton Simpson over Campbell, but Drew Sanders gets a lot of hype and a couple other guys. And we both had Jack Campbell at linebacker too.

If I, if I remember correctly because of how pro ready he is and how he does everything the right way and how you could put them on an NFL field today and he'd be fine. And if this kind of guy falls to round three, which I really think could happen, but I don't think should happen. I mean,

I'd be banging the table in the draft room every day to get this guy in my linebacker room. Number one, six foot five, 246 pounds, six foot five. You got to think about that kind of size in the middle of the field. That's long arms to disrupt passing lanes. That helps with your range. If you're not the fastest guy, well, you got better reach and you got better range because of that size. We've talked about the 91.8 defensive grade from pff that's a cross run defense rushing the passer and notably coverage and that's all instinctual team captain had 32 solo stops buckus award winner and i just go back to the thing i said on the linebacker show trevor why i will carry the flag for jack campbell there's no bad tape it's hard to find the bad game of jack campbell sure you

can find a play i get that you can find a series it's hard to find the bad game of jack campbell sure you can find a play i get that you can find a series it's hard to find the game where jack campbell was a liability out on the field and i can't say that about any other off-ball linebacker in this entire class he's awesome and and a bonus 65240 we need to host their co-hosts to host the pod. I actually want to have him on for 10 minutes and just explain to him that bit and be like, you are who we go back to all the time as the third co-host because you are literally listed at 6-5-2-40. It's true. It's true. And then we're going to meet him at the combine and he's going to be like, yo, you guys are short and small.

He's just going to double choke slam us. I think it was Kane or The Undertaker. One of them did it. But just the double choke slam to both of us. I think both of or the undertaker one of them did it but just the double choke slam to both of us i think both of them have done that at some point in their so that's it it's just a solid bet no campbell's awesome man you know we went over this in the linebacker podcast episode if you guys are listening to this on the new channel and you missed that that one's over on the pff channel so you got to go to pff's youtube to see that one

because we switched after the super bowl but when we gave you our linebacker rankings, we talked about how the NFL is moving towards like this hybrid phase of linebackers, like these former safeties, these faster guys. And really specifically in this class, there's just not a lot of true off-ball inside linebackers. Jack Campbell is one of them. And he just performs that job, that inside linebacker job so, so well. So like the shout out for Jack Campbell there, my third rounder, I don't know how, I don't know if this is cheating. You let me know if this is cheating. Cause this is a player that I think some have in the second round. I just did it. So I don't feel bad, but I think that some people also have him in the third round because maybe a little bit smaller of a safety.

Sidney Brown from Illinois. No, I think you're on it. I don't think he goes in the first two rounds. Okay, so third round, though, this is where I'd take this guy. Sidney Brown is awesome, man. He had a fantastic year for Illinois. Man, we got two Illinois players out here. I guess we're just like honorary Illini because you had Devon Witherspoon.

I got Sidney Brown out here. That secondary was was awesome it was a lot of fun to watch Sidney Brown first and foremost the way that he plays both him and his brother Chase they will give you 100 percent of their ability and effort on every single play every every single one, no matter what their responsibility is. And Sidney Brown has had a lot of responsibilities, I think. They have lined him up in the box primarily, or I shouldn't say primarily, maybe just the majority of the time, given his snap counts. He's often used as a linebacker coming down and playing in the box. They'll use him to guard tight ends in the slot

because he played over 100 snaps as a slot defender as well. They'll use him as a free safety. They'll use him to guard tight ends in the slot because he played over 100 snaps as a slot defender as well. They'll use him as a free safety. They'll use him as a strong safety. They use this guy everywhere. And the reason why is because of the effort that he brings to the table every single time. There's no assignment that he has that he is afraid of, or even I would say tentative of.

Now he's a little bit smaller. I think we've got him listed at six foot 205. What are you measuring out at the senior bowl?'s i'll find it while you uh keep breaking him down i thought he was a little bit smaller than that the senior bowl i could be confused um but he is somebody who i noticed that illinois also they give him some freedom too they've got him as this hybrid player because they want him to just roam the middle of the field. And you notice in his tape, while he's kind of moving up from a safety position, maybe up towards the box or maybe retreating a little bit, whatever it is,

he's calling things out. Motion, looks, where wide receivers are, where certain players are. He is constantly communicating with the rest of his defense. So he also had great ball production this year. I believe he had six interceptions. He had six forcing completions. I think he had a touchdown himself as well last year. So this dude does it all to me. I think he's a safety prospect that can bring you so much versatility to what you want.

And he's the type of football player that you want on your defense. I don't know if he's going to be a second round pick. Maybe he will just because almost the same argument as the Brian branch argument, where you just want to get good football players in this class. That to me is something that might vault him up into that second round range. But right now I see a lot of projections for him in the third round. And if he is a third round pick, give me this guy. This is the guy that I want such a versatile player, such a fun player, and the kind of guy that you want on your football team, especially with the effort that he brings to the table

and the kind of communicator that he is. So Sidney Brown is my third round favorite choice as of right now. 5'11", 213 for Sidney Brown. There you go. Oh, so he's a little thicker than I thought. He's a brick shithouse, man. I was one day when we were out there on the field, I was like a couple feet

away from him on the sideline when he came back from a play and i was like this dude's built like a bodybuilder for safety and he's ripped i mean he could be from the amon ross saint brown family of mr universe that kind of that kind of traits and his bloodlines i mean doesn't surprise you his dad played in the cfl for three seasons his mom was a figure skater all these brothers are very athletic as we've seen with his brother Chase that plays running back for the same team. I mean, very, very well-built safety. And like you kind of highlighted, Trevor, definitely a smart guy that,

I mean, I believe he's had starting experience since 2018. So, yeah, he started. I think he's a four- or five-year starter. Yeah, freshman year of 2018, he had seven starts at safety and three at nickel. So he's legitimately a five-year starter, and you see that in every rep that he does. So Sidney Brown, interesting player. Yeah, and the missed tackles, I think,

are probably the biggest thing with Sidney Brown. We had him with four. No, no, no, we had him with four in coverage. So that was, he had 15 missed tackles this year. He had 16 last year. He had nine the year before. He had almost 20 the year before that. So it's just like missed tackles has been an issue for him,

but there's just so much other great versatility that this guy gives to you. Hopefully, we we figure out the tackling you know maybe the tackling has to do with the short arms i'm not sure well i guess we'll get his measurements there because i would like to get an answer to that question because the way this dude plays you wouldn't think that he would have this many missed tackles so that's why it gives me faith that that part of his game will get figured out in the nfl um just because i have so much faith in the the rest of his player profile and just who he is. But anyways, who you got in the fourth round? So this is where it gets a little fun, right?

A little bit more deeper cuts, guys, that we don't get to do on mock drafts as much. And I go with Alabama's Byron Young here. When you look at a well-built defensive lineman, 6'3 and 3'8", 297 pounds, 34-inch arms, 10.5-inch hands, hands 81 and five eights wingspan he's just a big guy he's a big thick sturdy kind of guy and why he's around for player is i've said this before there is no flash in byron young's game there aren't a lot of big splash plays but he is just a you know that junkyard dog in the trenches that will stalemate on any play or funnel the run to somebody else and Alabama always has these guys inserted in between the stars where you get him into your NFL camp and you go pro ready hands pro ready strength we could throw him in a rotation for the defensive line,

and it's going to be hard to run at this guy. And you can't say that about day three rookies a lot. But with Byron, not going to be a big tester, not going to be the guy on film once again that's lighting it up with sacks or TFLs. But if you need somebody that can control his gaps, control his guys in front of him, and do their job for a

defense that requires a lot of read and reacting ability. Byron Young can do that. And I think in a very thin interior defensive line class that has a lot of value on day three. So Byron Young, for me, it's not somebody that we get overly excited about. We don't think he's going to ever turn into this Pro Bowl caliber player. But if you're looking for day three players that I think last in this league for six to eight years, I would gladly put my name behind Byron Young to do that. Yeah, he's just solid, right? I think I went on a Byron Young campaign tour because I like Byron Young from Alabama.

I also like Byron Young from Tennessee. Yeah, this is a page out of your playbook. Right. But no, I love the shout out here. If you weren't going to give him a shout out, I think that I probably would have looking at your list. And I'm glad that you got him there. And I think this projection is pretty on to fourth round. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't think he'll test well enough to go on day two. No. I would be surprised personally. I think that it's probably less to do with the testing and it's more to do with like how teams in this league are going to evaluate high floor versus potential high ceiling players. I don't know. In a thin class.

Yeah, it's just, it's going to be all over the place with this class. Like, are you going to get in the third round or a team's going to get in the third round and say, okay, we, we just want a solid football player. Cause if that's the case, then yeah, you may be drafted a guy like Byron young, because you already know what you're going to get out of him. You've seen his strengths already be able to play at a really high level in college football at Alabama. And so he's been doing it for a little bit now. I think that the projection for him is less than the NFL. Other teams might say no no we need a much better swing at the fence we need a we need to look for a guy who's got a better

passers profile whatever it is so um i think the answer to that question is is more team to team than it is necessarily anything that young would do for his profile at this point but that's just my answer um with that so my fourth round guy is cincinnati linebacker ivan pace jr i love ivan pace jr it's and i love him for a lot of the same reasons i love sydney brown this guy will give you absolutely all of them every single play absolute stud at pass rushing 93 okay first of all let's let me let me talk about why he would probably be an early day three pick he's six feet tall 235 pounds right i mean like he's just a smaller squadier bigger beefy build i mean he is a fire hydrant type of a linebacker he is a bowling ball type linebacker in the middle of that defense but when they asked him to pin his

ears back and attack the a and the b gaps of the middle his dude was awesome he had a 93.3 pass first grade this past year with connor a 30.3 pass first win percentage i mean it's just it's hilarious and it was like that at the senior bowl it's insane it's it's incredible and so look the coverage ability isn't as good as you want like i said like the the arm length the overall size the lateral quickness it's probably not going to be there for him to be a three down linebacker he is going to be like you said a designated pass rusher that is what dpr stands for they will bring him on in situations where you want him to attack the pocket and because of how limited i think he might be rotation wise that's why i ultimately don't see him as a day two pick because i think the teams are really going to want to gravitate towards guys who might be able to cover better um you know henley is an

example um demarion overshown even dorian williams with his athleticism right these are linebackers that can play more of that off ball role in coverage where i've been patient not going to want him to do that but i think he'll be a stud for you on special teams and i think that he is an awesome chess piece to throw out there in obvious pass rushing situations so for a fourth round, you're starting to talk about specialized players anyways, right? When you get into day three, you go, okay, what's this guy do? Okay. He is a speed element player. He is a possession element player. He is a broken tackles, a short yardage situation kind of a player. He's a designated pass rusher. He is a

run stuffer. Like we talked about with Byron Young right you're normally not getting these well-rounded players in day three because if they were that well-rounded and talented guess what they would have gone earlier so you're always going to get these little deficiencies no matter what but in the fourth round a guy who's got this kind of impact as a specialization role Ivan Pace Jr. is my guy so early early day three pick, but one that I would really like. I love it. He was a fun stock up for us, I think back in September maybe, because it was just you go into the PFF database and you're like, who is this guy racking up 10 pressures?

Why is this happening? And then it carried over into the draft season for Ivan Pace. So excited to see where his road goes to the NFL, which brings me to my last one, my round five guy who should test absolutely off the charts, at least in the 40 yard dash. And I think the vertical and that's the freak Owen Papo. And you might be wondering, you know, wondering why he's around five guy. He's just had a tough medical go of it at Auburn. He's, he's missed a lot of time. He's had significant injury before I think he you know I think I I think I

wrote down in our off-ball linebacker he's a middleweight in the heavyweight fight when they play him at Mike linebacker I mean he's just a smaller guy that they're sticking out there and it's not always easy for Papo to navigate through that traffic but I just wonder if you put him with a smart defensive coordinator that tweaks his usage a little bit and says, hey, we're going to have you play outside linebacker a little bit more. We're going to make this scheme for you more run, chase, see ball, get ball. And you're not constantly working through the swamp all the time. He's probably six feet to I mean, maybe he gets up to 230 for the combine.

Auburn lists him 6'1", 225. And that makes me think he's about six feet tall. He carries muscle as well as anybody you'll see in this draft. So I don't think gaining more muscle will be hard for him. He's going to run just off the charts. But I just think his usage and health held him back from being a day two prospect. And this is a perfect time to sneak in my, one of my dumb fun things, Trevor,

I want to see him get a couple of snaps at fullback in the NFL at some point, because this dude can fly. And I think he would knock the crap out of people as a lead blocker. I would just love to see a coach be able to talk him into it as a two-way player. That's the versatility that you love to see baby. That's the versatility you love to see i think he runs like four four five by the way he is so he is he's he's definitely an athlete at the position

for sure when he is fully healthy i remember a good friend of mine who covers auburn um tom green he was telling me about owen papo like his freshman season and he was like hey i know you're an nfl draft guy you got to be on the lookout for this dude because they're already singing his praises. They think he's going to be a monster. So, look, I hope that health is in his favor moving forward because I still think that this is a really talented linebacker who, you're right, probably an early day three guy at this point. But somebody who you take a flyer on because of his potential and his ability here. Fifth, my favorite fifth round selection. I don't know where this player is going to go.

But I really like Keetrell Clark, the cornerback. I haven't watched him yet. When you sent me this one, I was excited to hear about him. So he was at the Shrine Bowl. And you pop on his Shrine Bowl tape, his practice tape, and he just moves different. I mean, it's so precise. It's so confident. It's so aggressive. There were times in practice where he was, he was calling out screens.

And I'm talking like day one, like I'm talking day one of practice. He was calling out screens and he was calling out certain route combinations before the ball was even staffed. And he was almost like ruining plays for the offense because he'd, he'd slip by the wide receiver and he was almost like ruining plays for the offense because he'd he'd slip by the wide receiver and he'd almost like get right to the screen as the ball was arriving and you know you're not going to tackle in full practice and so it's not like you were really playing through that but i just felt like he was smart he was confident he knew what he was doing now he's an interesting player because his measurables at the senior bowl or sorry, shrine bowl, five foot 10, 179 pounds.

Okay. So he's a lighter corner and you would think, all right, maybe he's a slot guy. You know, I watched his tape and I certainly think he can play in the slot. I think that that's probably where he ends up in the NFL because he's got that quick twitch. He's got that change of direction ability. He has that confidence. He's getting people's faces.

He does have that versatility to him but while he was at louisville first and foremost he's been starting since his true freshman season in 2019 um or was it 2018 i think i have his bio up right now 2019 started eight games sorry seven games in 2019 eight games in 2020 and then he started again in 2021 but he tore his acl near the end of the year after another eight games was able to play this past year when this dude's out on the field he just moves different and that was my biggest takeaway from watching his shrine bowl tape he is moving at a different speed than the rest of the players not just that he's going up against it why at wide receiver but also on his defense he just truly stands out in that manner.

Louisville had him at wide corner. Okay. For 600 snaps his freshman season, as opposed to one snap at slot. 483 snaps out wide his second season, just seven snaps in the slot. 480 snaps his third season, just one snap in the slot 480 snaps his third season just one snap in the slot and then 439 snaps this past year out wide with 262 snaps in the slot so he played more in the slot this

past year than he had in any other year and i think that that's because maybe he realized that he needed to get a little bit more versatile he probably wasn't going to be an outside receiver at the nfl level so they're getting him a lot of snap a slot experience i think it's where he ends up but just just pop on the tape of this guy and just tell me you're not gonna love him the way that he moves is so different i don't know where he's gonna go because of his lack of size and the fact that he does have most of his tape playing outside. But I got to think the NFL believes in him enough to be a, at least a fourth, fifth round pick of somebody that you could transition in a slot and get a really, really good slot player out of them. So this is somebody who I just wanted to highlight no matter what, I don't know if he's going to be a fifth round guy. I

don't know if he's going to be a fourth round guy. I don't know where he's going, but in a show where we are highlighting our favorite players at certain rounds of the draft he chose Clark's going to be one of mine and to be honest with you hearing all that it reminds me it makes me miss the days of shrine being the week before the senior bowl because when you hear what you're describing Trevor a guy that goes out there and just looks different than everybody else and is so confident and in control on the field they want to practice, those are the guys that you get to see out of the senior bowl when they get the call up. Now we live in a world where, hey, Marte Mapu, who didn't get a combine invite from

the NFLPA Bowl, made a hell of an impression going up from the NFLPA Bowl to the senior bowl. So I like when you highlight a guy like that because the days of it, I don't want to say the work being done for you, but we both have different travel schedules. I haven't found the common ground to be able to go shrine to Senior Bowl with the overlap yet. And now you got to go back and watch the practice tape, like you said. And I haven't heard a lot of buzz about that guy.

So this is a really good opportunity to get a guy like that on the radar. And I'll be looking forward to watching him. Well, get on him, brother. Get on him. I'm sprinting after this show. Because he's a lot of fun. He is a lot of fun to watch. Before we get out of here, I got to talk to you about our friends over at Mojo.

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and start turning your playmakers into moneymakers. You must be 21 years or older to use Mojo and located in the great state of New Jersey to make trades. If you've got a gambling problem, help is available at 1-800-GAMBLER. Visit Mojo.com for more info. That's it for us on this episode. A little shorter of an episode, but we're keeping it short and sweet for you guys this week hopefully you can digest it no matter how long your commute to work is or whenever you're listening to this podcast but we have another episode for you coming a little bit later and that is the flip side of this we are going to give you our favorite

fits are well not our favorite fits our favorite prospects for the first five rounds of the nfl draft but on the offensive side of things. So today was all about defense. We're going to go to offense next. Shout out to everybody who is already subscribed to the NFL Stock Exchange YouTube channel. We are over 2,000 subscribers and we cannot thank you guys enough. What an incredible start this has been to the new channel. If you are listening on audio only and you haven't subscribed yet,

one, what are you doing? Two, www.youtube.com backslash at NFL Stock Exchange. And that's not AT, it's the at symbol. Come on, grow up. It's 2023. We're using social media out here. At NFL Stock Exchange. That's the way that you can find it.

We got, of course, obviously this episode that you could see our wonderful faces on and my extremely boring darkness retreat background um you can also see our wide receiver ranking episode that we did last week uh we've also got the three round mock drafts for the teams that don't have first round picks we get a lot of good stuff there we're populating the channel we're getting there we're getting there but it's a good time if aaron rogers ends up in chat I will do the first episode after that in pitch black. Fine. Great.

Right. I think I have to. Great. Maybe not. I don't know if the whole episode, but like you will have to do that for part of it. Part of it. Yes.

We'll see it. We'll see it on a lot of screens. The only thing that you could see are your eyes and your and your and your pearly whites that's it just as the whole podcast is going on the rest of it is pure black you know we're like glow-in-the-dark sneakers or something stupid but yes that's that's my that's my big promise it'll be the center of a black hole you and matthew mcconaughey big chillin interstellar one of the goat movies hit us movies. Hit us up in the YouTube comments. Let us know what you thought of our favorite players.

We would love to hear from you guys as well. Tell us who your favorite players are for each of the first five rounds of the NFL Draft. That's always a great way to start some conversation. Just give some shout-outs to some players that aren't getting talked about enough. Let us know in the YouTube comments. You can also hit us up on Twitter, at Tamib Betray, at Connor J. Rogers. On on twitter you can do the same thing on instagram with those same handles there connor anything else before we get out of here no i think we covered it i'm excited

to do this show on the offensive side of the ball as well because i think the uh the old dynasty crowd or even the rookie drafters and redrafts there will be a lot that plays into that and we'll introduce a couple different guys to the show so we keep rolling along here man ready to roll we do indeed well that's coming up next but i'm trevor sycamore with me as always is connor rogers thank you guys so much for watching the nfl stock exchange podcast we'll see you guys next time Thank you.