NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 176. 2023 Defensive Rookie of the Year Draft

Episode Date: May 25, 2023

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers revisit their annual tradition of drafting against one another their top defensive rookie of the year candidates for the 2023 season

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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, it is part two of our series, drafting Rookie of the Year candidates. This time, we are looking at the defensive side of the ball. So we're having a conversation about who we think is poised to win Defensive

Rookie of the Year, but we're putting a little skin in the game. We're drafting against one another. So we're going back and forth, a little competition style to go along with the conversation. 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 Sikma. That is Connor Rogers.

Joining you guys for a second time this week to finish part two of our little series here, drafting Rookie of the Year candidates. The first episode that we had earlier in the week, we drafted Offensive Rookie of the today we are drafting defensive rookie of the year candidates connor my friend how the hell are you i'm good dude listen uh rocking the same shirt from the offensive rookie of the year laundry dude we're definitely not recording this episode back to back we're definitely of course no we would we would never do that uh we would never just do one giant block of episodes all together and then release them throughout the week. I'm excited, man.

We were talking off air about how this group, unlike Offensive Rookie of the Year, it doesn't have the same hype effect, and it also makes it a little bit more difficult in a sense. And I think the odds kind of dictate that. I mean, there's this big cluster of guys grouped together right in the middle here. So there'll be

a lot of strategy to this side. And as we saw last year, Trevor, when you selected the winner in Sauce Gardner, you took him as your last pick. So defensive rookie of the year can be really, really tough. I gotta pull this up. I didn't have the tab

open for last year. Bad on me. Should have been a better podcast host. Okay, so the draft last year. Bad on me. Should have been a better podcast. Okay, so the draft last year. If you guys remember, if you were rocking with us last year, one salute to you. You guys were year one addicts. In awe at the size of that dub. And what we'll do is we go back and forth

and we snake draft against one another. Did I go first? I had to have gone first in this one. Yeah, this one I think you did. You went first in the offensive rookie one i think you did you went first in the offensive rookie of the year draft i went first in the defensive rookie of the year draft i took aiden hutchinson first overall then you took cave on tibideau and kyle hamilton cave on tibideau obviously that makes sense we went back to back with the pass rushers that we thought were going to get the most sacks and that often wins the award he took the wild card and kyle hamilton then i went back to back oh wow i went trayvon walker and george

karloftis i was loading up one defensive lineman then you went nicobe dean and devin lloyd i got stingley and then i got sauce sauce is my fifth pick i was surprised you let me get sauce i don't know i was i was not confident in a corner being able to win this award last year. And not only did Sauce win, Tyreek Woolen was a finalist. So two of the three guys at the ceremony as finalists, the other was Aiden Hutchinson, the number one overall pick here, were corners. So very odd year.

I know Marshawn L latimore won this award a couple years ago but i mean you it takes two things right it takes one a special year from that player and two it takes the pass rushers to not have a really really good year full honesty i'm looking do you have something other than pro football reference up to see what the voting was last year? No. Because I have pro football reference up. Okay. And it has six players that received at least one vote

for defensive player of the year. Sauce Garner, overwhelming favorite. He got 242 votes aiden hutchinson got 129 points voting points tarik woolen got 73 so that was the big one fourth was cave on tibideau who only got three voting points so nobody really voted for cave on but then there are two players players on here who received one point jaylen petrie and sam williams what does the voting goes by ballot right yes so you would have do you go first second third or do you go first second third fourth fifth because that would be crazy to me you must only you must only be able to go first second third for about yes yes so somebody voted for

one person voted for jalen petrie as their number three right person and then somebody else voted for sam williams sam williams sam williams who had shout out to your brand though yeah you like sam williams right situationally yeah i did i i had him i thought in the top 60 maybe that year he had four sacks wow big win for you some nice fumble lucky recovered three fumbles like weird yeah no that uh that's odd i know petrie is somebody that texans fans and media are really high on and had some big moments he also missed a ton of tackles yes yeah a very hot and cold year a crazy amount of tackles so listen it wasn't a as this i look at this group that we drafted it wasn't a great year for the defensive rookies i think sauce was exceptional i thought hutchinson and tibideau had

some moments obviously tarik woolen was a was an incredible surprise yeah yeah that's really all that really jumps out to me yeah um i felt last year when we did this exercise the way that you felt earlier this week about bijan robinson is honestly how I felt about Aiden. Like I knew that Kayvon could certainly win defensive rookie of the year. And you taking him with the second overall pick totally made sense. It was those guys that wanted to. But I wasn't sure we would get a totally unlocked Kayvon Thibodeau right off the bat. And I felt like we were going to get that pretty quickly from Aiden.

And I also thought that Aiden was going to play immediately right away. So I was pretty confident that Aiden Hutchinson was going to win defensive rookie of the year. And then sauce Garner was the best corner in football. It's just like wild, Crazy wild. Crazy, crazy. Truly wild. And I know as the person who drafted him, I knew all along. You just wanted to show

off and be like, I don't even need to use the top four pick on him. I'll take him fifth. Take him with my last pick. All right. So brings us to this year. So that means you won. So like I got to do for offensive rookie of the year, you get to select if you want to go first or if you don't which is kind of fascinating here to me i'm gonna go first because i think there is a clear one and then who freaking knows like i think that i am very curious do you have these guys ranked do you have them in order like a group of guys that you would pick yeah so i also have them

ranked i would like to go over these at the end of the episode because i bet they are all over the place but i am gonna go i'm gonna i'm gonna pick number one overall. Okay. And I'm going to take Will Anderson. Okay. I have to take Will Anderson. Will Anderson has the best odds right now. He's plus 350 to win defensive rookie of the year. Where I was looking when I was doing some research on this, the next closest is a two-way tie for plus 800 was the list that I was looking at.

So there's not really anybody close to Anderson right now. And you're talking about a player who, sure, maybe he did. I want to say maybe. He won off athleticism a lot at the college level. He was simply a better football player and a better athlete than a lot of the players that he was going up against. And that won't, that level of dominance and level of success relying on athleticism as a primary is not going to be the same at the NFL. It's just not, not right away. He's got to really round out his pass rush profile and his pass rush moves to allow that athleticism to

continue to shine. So I think it's going to be a little bit of time for him. I don't think he's going to come in and just light the world on fire. But this is a guy who lived in the backfield, right? Nobody in college football over the last two years had anywhere close to as many pressures as Will Anderson, especially two years ago. That season where he should have been a Heisman Trophy finalist with how many pressures that he was racking up the backfield production that he got as just a true sophomore. So with that being the case, we know that he's been able to step on the field at a young age at Alabama at a very high level and produce.

I think that's going to be the same at the NFL, even though I am worried a little bit about what his pass rush plan is going to be in his rookie season. Volume and opportunity alone experience as well. I should throw that in there is why I got to take him number one. It's interesting. I totally get it. I actually wouldn't have taken him number one, which is I know is a surprise. And so my fears here,

obviously odds don't matter here because we're just drafting who we think is going to win it. I messed up. I got bad Intel. I thought you were also going to take Anderson, so I felt like I had to swoop him. I threw a smoke screen at you. I got to talk to my intel guys.

I told all the insiders the wrong information. Dude, I got to talk to my intel department. That's not good. It was close. Really close. Rightly so. Willie Anderson is a great player. He is going to be a franchise cornerstone for the Texans. I do worry about year one in the fact that I don't know how many games the Texans are

going to be leading that lets him constantly pin his ears back and go. And I do worry about if he's even good out of the gate, not great. Teams just try to wipe him out and say, have somebody else beat us. Like we don't fear really a lot of people in this front right now. We'll double Will Anderson. We don't care. We don't care. That's my fear. All due respect to Roy Lopez. All due respect to the GOAT.

Now everybody's unverified. So it's actually really funny. You're right. We went full circle. We were like, please verify Roy Lopez. And now it's not cool at all to be verified anymore. Oh, I'm... Hold on. I'm verified. What do you mean? No, you're not. I am.

Go check it. I did. Do you... Oh, this account is verified because it's an affiliate of PFF on Twitter. Wow. Okay. I, I take it back. What's up? It can be cool. It's not this account. Subscribe to Twitter blue. This is cool. I like this. You even have a little PFF tag next to your name. No brother. And you didn't have to put that on there. It's just automated. No,

it's just automated in there. Our social guy, Zach Tantillo hooked me up with it. One day he was just like, he was just like, hey, you're verified now. And I was like, all right, cool. I'm going to get absolutely roasted. And I just tried to, I tried to get ahead of it. And like in all the football group chats, I, I myself, I myself typed in the football group chats.

I was like, I'm verified now, please roast me. And I just like for the next couple of hours, was just you know look at this dude so dude that is i like that you needed to put out a pr statement like your publicist was like we we gotta explain ourselves this is not twitter blue i'm not an absolute dweeb no no wow okay so this is a cool way to be verified yeah this is this is because it because it's a really bad look nowadays. Like, you go to a tweet that you're interested in, whether it's a highlight or whatever it is, and you see, like, five replies underneath it of, like,

Jabroni Central, like, 31 followers verified, and they're just spamming, like, follow my content, or, like, hire me to make you a graphic. Twitter is truly, never been more of a disaster. Roy Lopez. Roy Lopez. Yeah, I was just about to say, Roy Lopez, still not verified, though.

Still not verified. Oh, man. Wow. Shout out to Roy Lopez. That's a good trip down memory lane. So, Trevor, you are verified and the only cool way to be verified. Anyways,

I'm taking Jalen Carter with my first pick here. Okay. Not really a shock. He has the second best odds, although right now you could still get Jalen Carter at plus 700 man. If he's locked in with the Eagles, he has an opportunity to play a lot. He's got so much talent around him. They're going to be winning a shitload of football games that they're just going to be like, Hey, Jalen Carter, do no thinking, just use your talent and, and rush the passer. It's very hard for a defensive tackle, obviously to post big time stats, especially as a rookie, but man, Jalen Carter, what a situation, all the talent

around him. He is so good. I don't know, Trev. There's always a lot of risk with Carter. I mean, is he going to be ready to roll? Is he going to keep his head screwed on and, you know, really be the player that we know he could be? And that's why the odds are all the way down to plus 700, because until he has that first sack in the preseason, everybody's going to have this fear factor with him. But I have to take him here. And I would have taken him number one overall with all of the risk, which is a little crazy. But I think this dude's going to have a really big tie.

He fell into a situation just tailor-made for him to have success in the NFL level. See, I do not disagree with the opportunity that he has in the situation with the Eagles. But the reason why I was very intrigued to hear what your ranking was going into this exercise, which we're going to talk about at the end of the Eagles but the reason why I was very intrigued to hear what your ranking was going into this exercise which we're going to talk about at the end of the episode is because Jalen was ninth on my big board okay because I don't think he'll play enough I just I don't think he'll play enough even if he was a specialized dude I don't just, I don't think he'll play enough. Even if he was a specialized dude, I don't know if the, I don't know if there's going to be enough reps there. Now I am not saying that Carter is not worthy of as many reps as they can possibly give him, but on a defensive interior alone that has Fletcher Cox coming back. I get it. I know he's older. He's going to be in

a rotation anyways. But Milton Williams, who they like. Jordan Davis, who they obviously like. Then you throw Jalen Carter in there. You also have Brandon Graham. You got Josh Swett. You got Derek Barnett. There are so many. And that's not to mention kind of the outside linebacker type of like

Ahsan Reddick. And then you're throwing Nolan Smith in there as well. There's just so many players. Now, on one hand, that could open things up for carter but on another is he gonna get enough snaps to get enough stats to win defense forgive you i didn't believe in it but i can't remember who's the who's the player that we were just talking about on the last episode that you were super high on that i wasn't with opportunity who was it who was it who was it who was it it was uh kate yes it was kinkade it's the same exact thing

you believe the other side of the coin of the opportunity being there and i'm just a little uh i'm just a little scared of it so all right it makes sense to me i I get it. Willie Anderson, Jalen Carter. Right there. All right. So I get to pick again. Yep. This for me is Devin Witherspoon. And we just saw a corner win this award. We saw Witherspoon's teammate, Tariq Woolen, as a runner-up for this award. One of the runner-ups.

He's so talented. He is so, so talented. I think now we are in an era where tracking cornerback success is more available to the public and very important. And we are not in the era of, did you have six to eight interceptions or did you not? Did you break up 15 passes or did you not?

We're in this era of yards per route a lot of different coverage metric ratings um and it matters a lot and it can really illustrate the kind of impact a player is making on the field without the ball coming their way and i think when you look at sauce gardner last year, he only had two interceptions, right? I mean, but everybody knew how good sauce Gardner was not just Jets fans, not just Jets media. It really has changed. Um, to put it in perspective, Marshawn Lattimore, when he won defensive rookie of the year, he had five interceptions. He broke up 18 passes. That's why, that's why he won ball production is why he won 100%. Now sauce did break up 20 passes, but he only had two picks, but he was so good. And I think Witherspoon,

I've, I liked Witherspoon. He was my top corner. I think he could, I've said before, I think he'd be the best defensive player to come out of this draft. I don't know if he's sauce. It's been nonstop. Good God. So nothing nothing's happening it's like nothing's ever happening by the way you would think i live in god knows where you're in gotham city right seriously that's what it would feel like and it's probably like somebody went through a traffic light or something like that anyways so devin witherspoon here trev i love the player he's gonna start he's gonna start on a good football team yeah this is a this is a weird this is a little factor here he's very brash he's very loud he's gonna have a brand that matters here for

national recognition it really does i don't know i don't know how much early hype sauce garner gets if his name's not sauce of course everybody's like oh this this dude his name's so i know that's not his actual name but like the name the name was sauce garner you know like i i genuinely think as silly as it is that goes into it we talked about who we were talking about last episode i had a terrible memory where um bijan i was talking i was talking about bijan robinson when i was saying because of his hype and who he is if he starts out hot this guy could basically coast to the award just because he started out first four or five weeks i did was, I felt like not that sauce only started off hot, but like those little things can sometimes be the reason why you become

either a favorite or runaway favorite. And I agree with you that Devon Witherspoon is going to be in that category of, of guys who are notable like that. Yeah. Just a different kind of mentality on the field. And, and he shows that he there's,

he's got a little flair to his game, like a little showman attitude on the field. And he shows it. He there's, he's got a little flair to his game, like a little showman attitude on the field. And I think that matters here. So Witherspoon, who you can get for plus 1000 right now is my second pick in this draft. Yeah. What did I have for Witherspoon? Oh yeah.

On the site that I was looking at, I had plus 900. So he was the, he was the fourth best odds. So definitely understand that. And his dynamic of being opposite tarik woolen is very fascinating as well right do teams go away great point reek woolen so is the ball going to be coming his way no matter what is he going to have a chance to get his hands on those

interceptions uh forces and completions it feels like it might be a little bit of a boomer bus situation because the ball might come to him a lot but that's also a reason why he could be a massive favorite because if the ball come in his way, if the production is there, just like it was for Tariq Wollin, right? They kept throwing it his way. He kept either breaking it up or picking it off. So that's the way that it goes to corners. I'll talk a little bit more about that when I get to one of my next guys. I'm hesitant to take this next guys. What's he doing?

I'm hesitant to take this next guy. All right. I'm going to, I'm going to go with the player that I'm going to pick no matter what here on this go around. And I'm going to pick Emmanuel Forbes. Um, I think,

I think Forbes is going to start for Washington. They clearly liked him a lot. So I think that that path to playing time is going to be there for him. And you just mentioned it with Marshawn Lattimore when he won defensive rookie of the year. We talked about it a little bit with Tariq Woolen and how many interceptions that he had. Shoot, two years ago, we were talking about this a little bit with Trayvon Diggs, right? All the interceptions that he was getting. Is he a defensive player of the year candidate simply because of the takeaways, because they mean that much? Emmanuel Forbes, nobody's had more interceptions.

Nobody's had more ball production. You and I talked about, okay, some of that's a little opportunistic. I'll definitely admit that. But this guy's also just a really good ball skills type of a player. He's a former wide receiver i'll definitely admit that but this guy's also just a really good ball skills type of a player he's a former wide receiver he's played both sides of the ball he's not one of those guys that plays corner just because he can't catch if he is getting targeted a lot and he's coming away with takeaways right if we get four or five six takeaways from this guy which you can make a case that could happen given right given why he was

picked so high in this past draft i think that could be a major differentiator for him versus other guys is the amount of takeaways that he could get so uh i'm i'm going i'm going with forbes here as my second overall pick for defensive rookie of the year and he's got a good pass rush in front of him where yes yes yes, yes. There'll be some there'll be some questionable throws or decisions. And Forbes is a guy with ball skills that you think capitalizes on those. So I get where you're thinking right there. If people listening by now, if you've made it through offensive rookie of the year episode, now you're halfway or almost halfway into this one. Obviously, Trevor and i doing this as a draft we focus on how the award system

works we're not necessarily saying the best career or anything like that right it's just this year situation matters so much and and that really alters how we draft here so all right so you take forbes and you have another pick yeah i so this is the guy that I was debating. I think I have to take Tyree Wilson here. Anybody who's listened to this podcast knows that I... You despise Tyree Wilson. No, I'm just kidding. You dropped to your knees and screamed curses.

I think he's a USFL backup. No, I don't, I don't, I don't. But I'm just, I'm cautious I'm cautious of a CFL roster. I'm cautious of what his impact is going to be given his path to production during his time in college, whether it was leaving Texas A&M or taking until his fifth year to really break out like we saw this past year. Does he really know what he's doing as a pass rusher or is he just big is he just uniquely big can activate that speed to power very very well and overwhelm people sometimes he could really shoot the gap and obviously those long arms those that long wingspan um goes into what makes a good backfield disruptor but is it going to turn out to backfield production in his rookie season i'm not

so sure i'm also a little bit worried about the foot injury right you and i heard around draft time that his foot might not be healthy by the time the season rolls around now i haven't really heard anything to follow that up but that was something that seems seemed to be a concern so we'll have to monitor whether or not that continues to be a concern as we get into training camp. But all that to say, they pick him top 10 for a reason, really struggled to get after the passer. Chandler Jones was not the Chandler Jones of old last year. Max Crosby was once again a man alone on that defensive line. And Tyree Wilson's just straight up going to play.

Whether they want to kick him inside during third down opportunities or pass rushing opportunities or play him as a full-time edge, use Chandler Jones more as the rotational guy who's playing on the left and right side of the line of scrimmage, and Tyree Wilson's the starter. I don't know how it's going to be, but I know that he's going to have plenty of opportunities to get backfield production. And like we mentioned before, the last three winners of this award, or sorry, before Sauce Garner, the last three winners of this award, or sorry, before Sauce Garner, the last three winners of this award

were Michael Parsons, Chase Young, Nick Bosa, Saks, it's backfield production. It's basically how you win this award. So volume alone, opportunity alone, even with me being lower on him than the consensus, I got to go with Tyree Wilson here as my third pick. Listen, I've said before, he's so strong, long and powerful that he might figure out nothing this year in terms of developing into a pass rusher and he'll walk into six X. Right. Right. It's like it's wild. It's wild to say that about someone at the nfl level where everybody's

big and strong and fast but this dude is just on a different category of that i've been laughing at that video of him at the rookie premiere in the elevator i mean i don't think you've seen this he's with he's with jsn he's in he's in the elevator with a couple of the guys and he's just like the kid on the pop warner field that're like, this kid is 17 playing with the 12 year olds. Like what is going on, dude? He's just so hilariously big and he looks like kind of harmless, right? Like he doesn't have like, he has like a happy face, but you know, he could just run right through you on the field. So I like your Tyree Wilson pick a lot. Obviously the variable with him that you highlighted is the foot. So we'll see, we'll see what happens with that and hope he has a healthy rookie season.

All right. So I'm on the clock for my third overall pickup, taking Jalen Carter and Devin Witherspoon. I'm going to take Jack Campbell here. And I'm really, really happy to get him here. I thought I was going to get him. No, you are not. I almost took him number two. No, good pick. Yeah, he is my favorite value bet for defensive rookie of the year. There are multiple sports books that you can get him at plus 1,800. I think the public has moved.

Dude, I got him at plus 2,500 on the book that I was looking at. That is pretty special territory. I put in actually a real ticket on him. I think it was at plus 2,000. It started to move because of the public. He's been a value bet. He is somebody that was taken earlier than people expected. He's going to start.

He's a really good football player. He's a fundamentally sound football player. I think he'd quietly even reel in a few interceptions. That'll help fill up that stat sheet with the tackles, the TFLs. I have no idea if they're going to give him any chance to blitz because chipping in a couple sacks here or there would really, really help and go a long way for this one. I think the Lions are going to be pretty good.

I think the NFL expects the Lions to be good. When you look at how they've been propelled on their schedule, it's a division that is theirs for the taking finally. I like Jack Campbell a lot. There was no way I couldn't take him here at three. He is a stat sheet filler, and that does matter for this award. And Trevor is sick to his stomach. No, I don't know why I thought I was going to get him,

but I did. I thought that I was going to get him at the turn. There's a, I should have left. You know what? I should have, I should have left you Tyree Wilson. Cause then I was actually like a very surprised. I'm like, he's just by brand. He's not going to touch Tyree Wilson.

No, I had to do it. I got it. I got it. Watch. He wins you the award. That's not funny how that works. Like I remember last year I was like, I can't just take all the Jets. And I hesitated on sauce.

My corner won't win the award. He's a great player, but he won't be that good right away. Yeah, that's how it goes. You did take Jermaine Johnson, though. I did take Jermaine Johnson. So I stuck to my guns and took almost all of the Jets' first rounders and second rounders last year. All right, number four.

I was just going to say, I'm with you. I'm with you on Campbell, man. They were raving about this dude. And the more we learn, the more it seemed like multiple teams had first round grades, or at least first round eyes on this dude to make him a potential first round pick for them this past draft on the Buccaneers.

They released their behind the scenes video of them talking about okay well they're kind of kind of coming up on the clock they had two guys that they really liked and todd bowles if you can kind of read between the lines of what he was talking about he said we had two players on the board and when detroit went with the linebacker then we we were going to get collegiate games right then he like, then we had our other guy on the board. So it seemed like the Buccaneers were, were in on Jack Campbell as well at pick 19. Right after that,

I'd heard the Buffalo bills were interested as well. At the back end of the first round, if he was going to make it at that point. So they're going to play him. He's Jack Campbell is going to play. I think that he's going to have plenty of volume as well. Him and, and,

and Malcolm rubber, you guys are going to be a fun linebacker duo for, for Detroit. I think that he's going to have plenty of volume as well. Him and, and, and Malcolm rubber, you guys are going to be a fun linebacker duo for, for Detroit. I think so too. And we know the kind of pass rush talent they have around him. So back on the clock, this field right now is just hilariously wide open. I mean,

it really is. There are obviously plenty of pass rushers here i am going to go with christian gonzalez okay and all right it's one of those weird ones right where you look at it and go okay back to corner again which it's it's obviously gotten better for corners to win this award as the reasons i stated when i talked about sauce and Witherspoon Gonzalez goes to a place where he's going to be coached up extremely well at the position I think this is a great landing spot for him I think he's going to be given a true outside corner spot that he's going to be very comfortable in and it's tricky right it's when you look at it and by the way, he is, uh, his best odds are plus

1200, but his odds are also as low as plus nine 50 on a notable sports book. So pretty big range for him. That's, that's not a ton of value for a guy. I do consider a long shot, but I like taking the swing here. He's going to have to have a couple interceptions. He did get a lot better at Oregon, finding the football and making those plays. And I do believe in New England's development at this position. And I really like the player. I thought he was a top 10 player in the draft. I didn't think he deserved a slide. And I, it's one of those ones where you ask after the draft, like why did Gonzalez slide? No team was like, we had bad medical on him. We had bad character on him. It was none of that. Some guys just fall. He was just fall in love with other players so i'll take

gonzalez here um right after jack campbell yeah not bad right and you figure he's gonna get on the field pretty quickly because he is that different style of corner right he is the taller bigger corner who has the athleticism to move really well as well but when you look at the rest of that new england secondary it's a lot of short players you know it's 5 10 it's 5 9 it's 5 it's five, nine, it's five, eight. And you got Christian Gonzalez sitting there above six feet. So you know that they're going to get him in the game plan and you know, that he's going to have a chance to get some ball production too. Problem is one hell of a division to be a rookie cornerback in. Yeah. You got to deal with Josh Allen and that cast of characters, you know, the Tyree killed Jalen Waddle combo under Mike McDaniel,

and Aaron Rodgers, if you have to cover Garrett Wilson. But I'll take the swing here. Yep, yep. So I don't hate that one. He was definitely in that group. So for my two picks to round out my draft, I think I just got to go pass rusher heavy. I'm going to go Lucas Van Ness with my first selection here.

He's plus 1,200. He had the sixth best odds where I was looking. And then my next pick is going to be Will McDonald, who was plus 2,000. He was tied for the ninth best odds. And I think Van Ness has an easier path to playing time, right? I know that Preston Smith and Rashawn Gary are going to be the starters there at the edge spots in Green Bay but we know that Lucas Van Ness has the interior defensive line background we know that he can get on the field in a variety of different ways he can play as a odd front defensive end because he's got that power

profile to him you know he's not going to shy away from that he's got a motor that runs hot he could be a stand-up outside linebacker for them when they're in the three down front uh if they go four down he could play defensive end i think they'll move him into three technique defensive tackle sometimes he get creative on obvious passing situations so the versatility part of his scouting report that people use as a positive are reasons why i'd pick him here because I just feel like he's going to get on the field a lot you don't have to just say oh Preston Smith and Rashawn Gary are there Lucas Van Ness isn't going to play I don't think that's necessarily the case I think that they're going to get creative with how they use him and how they get him on the field

especially like I said just because the motor's running hot at all times you want guys along your front seven and your defensive front who just are playing with their hair on fire. And that's who Lucas Van Ness does. So he's going to get on the field there. And then Will McDonald, even though I don't fully believe the Jets when they're like, oh, yeah, Will McDonald was our guy all along. Yeah, okay.

Even though I don't fully – Sal's a pretty good politician. Even though I don't fully agree with that, they do clearly like the player. And I think that it's easy to like the player when you watch what he was able to do at Iowa State, how you say, okay, he wasn't even really put in a position to succeed as a explosive pass rusher during his time at Iowa State. You saw him in those positions at the senior bowl and he played very, very well. He was one of the most dominant players there all week long. So I that the jets are going to use him more as that specialized pass rusher if bryce huff wasn't on this team i'd feel better about this like when i good point when i was

thinking about who to pick at my last turn and i ended up going with Tyree Wilson it was between Will McDonald and Tyree Wilson and I just I went back and I looked again at the depth Jets depth chart and like yes I think that Will McDonald's gonna get on the field yes I think he's gonna get a handful of sacks in his rookie season but Bryce Huff was so good at that specialized pass rush role for them that you know both of those guys are going to play. And I think they're going to take away from each other's playing time a little bit. Will that make a great scenario for the Jets? Yes.

That's what you want when you're building a team. Not when you're trying to win an award. Especially when you are talking about a team that's trying to make a deep run into the postseason. You want as many of these pass rushers as possible. But when it comes to winning awards, it's not the best scenario so I'll take a little bit of a long shot here because I believe in how much

the Jets like this guy and how they are going to play him but I am a little bit reserved about how many opportunities he's gonna have it's a great point it's one of those things where one unfortunate injury over summer and you're like well now he's he's going from 30% of the snaps to 60. That's true too. Yeah. And you're like, okay, this is a little different. I think you nailed it with the point of the McDonald pick feels like he's a nice luxury this year,

but he is really there to replace Bryce Huff in 2024. Right. That's, that's going to be the tricky part. So we'll see. But to be fair, Bryce Huff and Carl Law Right. That's, that's going to be the tricky part. So we'll see. But to be fair, Bryce Huff and Carl Lawson have had significant injuries throughout their NFL career that you never know what could happen. I'll close this thing out with Kalijah can't see.

And I love the player. I think he is just a total, you know, undersized D line that just wreaks havoc in the best possible way. A unique athlete at the position. He's playing next to Vita Vea, which I absolutely adore. Like, I think that's just such a great situation for him to have a little protection next to him where the Bucs can look at Canty and go, man, we're going to maximize your athleticism against interior matchups that make sense for you so i thought can't see was a top 15 player in the draft i think he'll end up being a

star for the bucks and once again it's it's kind of tough to expect significant sack production from defensive tackles as rookies it really takes a while for the green lights come on look at all the guys that just got paid right deron pain dexter lawrence jeffrey simmons who was pretty good right away but he got even a lot better quinn williams is about to get paid it took him a couple years for the green light to come on it is a very hard position to get your feet wet but i just think can't see is so good that i'll still take my dart throw it with him at number five you know it it definitely makes sense getting him at the tail end of this draft and taking a flyer on him.

I don't know what the Bucs defensive line rotation is going to be this year. Great question. I really don't know. Vitave is obviously going to play. Shaq Barrett, when he's healthy, is going to play. But Shaq's coming off of an Achilles injury. So that takes a while.

It's always really tough to come back from because it's such a big part of the flexibility that you have to turn the corner and play the speed game. So if you take Shaq Barrett out of this, you have Vita Vea who you know is either going to play three technique or zero tech, what or anything in between really is going to be that interior defensive lineman who plays that.

Then you have can't see you have Greg Gaines who they brought over to bring the beef from the Los Angeles Rams to make up for a team Hicks. You have Logan Hall, who they drafted very highly the year before he got Yaya Diaby. You got Anthony Nelson, who they've been getting more and more in the rotation. You get Joe try and show Yanka,

who you're still kind of waiting for that big breakout year. They got Jose Ramirez, who I know that they liked as well, who they drafted a little bit later this year. You got Pat O'Connor, who's just a very, very solid like depth player for them. But how much is he going to play? How much does he go into that rotation?

So there's just a ton of names and you can look at it one of two ways, right? We've talked about there being two sides of the coin for a lot of these players. You can look at it and say, OK, there's nobody really proven in front of Clyde Jekansi. The opportunity is going to be he has the opportunity to earn those pass rushing snaps, earn those snaps as a rookie. And I think that that's totally true. But then also there's the big, well, how much time might be quote unquote wasted this year, figuring out which position he's best. Cause a lot of people say, okay, well well he's too small to play as a three tech all right well is he built the way that you want him to be to play as an edge you know he's got

the weight he doesn't have the arm length and so there's a lot of this wiener what could be for collide you can't see that it's like how do you look at this do you say he's going to earn a spot on that defensive line because there aren't a lot of spots that are already claimed or are you going to go man they're going to take this whole year to really just figure out where he's going to earn a spot on that defensive line. Cause there aren't a lot of spots that are already claimed, or are you going to go, man, they're going to take this whole year to really just figure out where he's best and let year two, year three, be kind of that springboard for him to get the most out of his talents.

I'm not sure, but Tampa, Tampa likes him a lot and they're going to, they're going to get him on the field. I just don't know in what capacity and what rotation. That was the thing, right? It was a,

what dart do I want to throw here? Like I could have went with Felix Anadike Uzama because he should be in advantageous situations. Deontay Banks from the Giants. He's going to have a lot on his plate, but if he passes the test, he'll be in the mix. Yeah. And then, I mean, then really like once again, I like Nolan Smith, but that rotation is insanely deep. Ins, insanely deep. I really like Brian branch, the player. I don't know what

kind of production Brian branch has as a rookie. I agree right away. The other guy was Miles Murphy. Right. Just because I think he's got the body type to say, Hey, if you need to step in somewhere, we can expect something from you so i mean he's he's going to play well against the run right away and what you get from him in terms of an effort power rusher early on is a bonus and the bangles defense really good really well coached he's playing with talent yeah that's a sneaky one that really is and so it's funny how we talk about miles murphy now compared to how we talked about Miles Murphy this time last year, where it was like this time last year with Summer Scouting,

it was like, man, this dude has a full toolbox where if he figures it out, like he's going to be pretty special. And he didn't take that step. But that doesn't mean at 21 years old, he still can't take that step. Right. Yeah, we do often forget how young some of these guys are. OK, do you have your ranking i do okay what was your what was your what was your ranking can you go one to ten for me

yep jalen carter at number one at number two will anderson at number three devin witherspoon at number four jack campbell number five tyree wilson six christian gonzalez seven lucas van ness eight kalijah cancey nine will mcdonald and 10 deontay banks okay so mine is very different than yours i had will anderson at one i had i have tyree wilson at two but obviously like i you you heard the way that i talked about it you were disgusted it was. You threw up in your mouth when you made the pick. It was Will Anderson and then a big giant, I don't know, throw a dart at the dartboard. So I had Tyree

Wilson at two. I had Emmanuel Forbes at three. I had Will McDonald at four, but again, I looked back at the depth chart and I was like, okay, I need to be probably a little bit lower on him. I had Jack Campbell after him at five. I had Lucas Van Ness um christian gonzalez then devon witherspoon then jalen carter then miles murphy at 10 okay i like the miles murphy call out i feel like i

missed on him i saw so you had carter you had carter one and you had witherspoon three i had carter nine and witherspoon eight so we were just we that was a big difference for us yeah i just yeah yeah i had campbell at four i honestly i mean i would yeah i was taking him early no matter what i no matter jack i looked at jack campbell at plus 2500 on this list and i was like oh connor's not gonna take them oh no i i feel like they're just those odds are just wrong it's it's you always can find a couple if the sports book will let you bet on it and don't get me going um they're trying to keep our boy down they are our boys out here cashing checks i was trying to try to keep them down did that work

well i did big casino is trying to keep our boy down big casino is after me in the worst way and i'm not doing anything obviously illegal no you just i just just win it it's just you get you get a couple wins here or there apparently that's still illegal in this country didn't know that so they they can limit you i wasn't gonna bring it up you brought it up though no it's funny it's funny it's it's not like every it's not like i'm gonna catch me if you can every sports book is like do not let this man travel in there is a sports book and i will never name which it is um they're just totally totally zapped like i'm just sitting here trying to bet on a five dollar home run and they're like sir we'll let you bet 30 cents on that because if you hit if you hit a couple bets uh you can't really can't really be

a big player anymore trevor very so very very interesting the more you know from but the more you know to a big casino big is big casino onto the pod people are saying no yeah we gotta we gotta saying that big casino is onto the nfl stock exchange yeah 100 it absolutely is it absolutely is um utterly ridiculous recapping the draft uh i got will the defensive rookie of the year obviously i got will anderson emmanuel forbes tyree wilson lucas van ness and uh will mcdonald connor got gianalen Carter, Devon Witherspoon, Jack Hamble, Christian Gonzalez, and Kalijah Kansey. As always, we want to hear from you guys. Let us know whose list that you thought was better, and we want to hear from you as well. Give us your list, your top three, your top five defensive rookie of the year

candidates. And if you just want to throw out one name, it doesn't have to be the guy at the very top. It doesn't have to be the will Anderson. It could be anybody. You might want to shout out a long shot bet. Maybe it's the Jack Campbell bet. Maybe it's collage can't see. Maybe it's miles Murphy, whoever it is. We'd love to hear from you guys. Best way to get in on the conversation and get into the attic community is to do so with the YouTube comments, youtube.com backslash at NFL stock exchange. Um, if you are there, please like the video, subscribe to the channel. We would very much appreciate it. If you are there, please like the video,

subscribe to the channel. We would very much appreciate it. If you are audio only, you can hit us up on Twitter and Instagram at Tampa Bay Trey or at Connor J. Rogers. That's a great way to let your voice be heard. And we'll obviously try to get those into the show and into the comments as much as possible as well. Connor, anything else before we get out of here?

I'm just always fascinated by the the plus there's just like a giant cluster of guys that are available at plus 10 000 and i'm looking like if i who do we had like a five dollar bill in my pocket that it was just burning a hole in my pocket i wanted to get rid of at the kiosk who would i put my five dollars yeah just say at the kiosk is big casino big casino will not let me bet on my phone um man i love big casino it's so good it's so freaking good oh man who's who's plus 10 000 who's i mean nobody like phenomenal obviously obviously they're plus 10 000 but who would like give me Give me some names. Like what if Marte Mapu just like goes bananas? Goes full Belichick disciple.

Yeah, yeah. Get six sacks, four interceptions, forces four fumbles. Yep. Which is in his ballpark. Right. That's what I'm saying. That would be my plus 10,000. I wish Counting Benton was plus 10,000.

He is plus 8,000. Oh, I mean, okay. That man is, that man is quite good at football and behind a lot of players. He shouldn't be behind, but yeah, it's a, it's a fun one, man.

I'm, I'm, I'm excited for us to go back and review these. It was fun that we split last year. We each got one of them and hopefully, hopefully we don't miss like, that's the only thing we like. We got to get it.

Whoever wins the award, we have, they have to be drafted we both got in the fifth round last year but i know sweaty real sweaty but damn it we got it it's tough yeah if if we had 10 swings of the bat and we didn't get it that's uh that's not good oh by the way um just like we said for the episode on monday let us know what you guys think the stipulation could be connor and i are going to do a better job of keeping score of how we do against each other when it comes to these like face-off kind of shows like offensive and defensive rookie of the year you know we'll probably do the same at some point for like wide receiver champion again

mvp awards like uh offensive and defensive player of the year we're going to do a lot of those episodes when we get closer to the season uh like the combine draft that we do and we want to tally all of those up and whoever gets the most wins in a draft season i think that someone should have to do something for the other and we don't want it to be punishment based it's not like oh the loser has to do this no no we want it to be about supposed to be a good thing like i've got to buy con again like connor like a vintage jersey or like so like some sort of like award thing or like whatever or vice versa whatever it have like whoever wins we want to hear from you guys you guys are incredibly creative we know you guys are

doing all sorts of bets when it comes to like fantasy football for their winners and things like that so maybe you guys got some great ideas that we would uh love to hear from anything else before we get out of here no this is a fun one man and we like i say at the end of every show we're knocking down the door for summer scouting so if you're just if you're just itching for more scouting talk which some of you are which is very impressive to me by the way i always feel like people have fatigue after the draft but with our listeners it's like hey when are we getting the quarterback right because it's it's really really cool to see so we are just excited as you guys are and that will be coming but we got to get the rookie of the year talking man it's you can't

talk about this class for an entire year and then just dump them off and be like we're never talking about you again so I think Trevor that's why you had planned and I'm a big fan of this because we did it last year and I'm looking at our rosters and it's just like a really cool exercise. We are going to do the under 25 draft again, which is just phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. That's the episode that's coming up on Monday. So if you liked this draft format,

we're opening it up even more. Connor and I are going to draft against each other. The all under 25 teams. We're going to have full starting lineups, full offenses, full defenses. And then you guys got to choose whose team is better between the pool or from the pool of guys who will be under the age of 25. By the time week one starts is a great way to shout out some of the best

young players in the game. And it's of course, another opportunity for one of us to get a point towards winning something remember the madden simulation of it yeah didn't my team like absolutely to me it was like 61 to like 32 going for the repeat baby we got justin herbert through like eight interceptions for me and his receivers were like jamar Chase and someone else and I'm like yes because my defense was that was locked down that's a reminder it's a reminder of the state of Madden by the way right now folks oh okay sure yeah all right in the game now now blame the game it's never the player big Madden's against you as big Madden and Big Casino are

totally on to me I'm running out of hobbies we will we will recap our draft from last year before we get into the one this year but that's coming on Monday we're super excited about it I'm running out of hobbies. We will recap our draft from last year before we get into the one this year, but that's coming on Monday. We're super excited about it. I'm Trevor Sikma. That's Connor Rogers. Thank you guys so much for listening to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. We'll see you next time. Thank you.