NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 187. 2024 NFL Draft Summer Scouting: Safeties

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers continue their Summer Scouting Series with their safety rankings. The two talk about the names to know for the potential 2024 class, where they stand heading into the 2023 college football season, and give you their Top 5 pre-season rankings for the position.

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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 the final chapter of the summer scouting series. We're hitting the safety position, giving you our top fives for the position heading into the college football season. A lot of guys have talked

about safeties like linebackers, A lot of different shapes and sizes. A lot of different roles. Single high guys. Two deep safeties. You're a box safety. You're coming down. You're really defending the run. There's a lot to get to.

A lot of different talents to sift through. And we'll see how they stack up. I'm Trevor Sink. Come up 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 for the final time. Okay, not the final time ever. That was way too dramatic. It's the last episode of Summer Scouting though. This is it. It's the safety position. If you guys have been rocking with us the whole summer you know what we're gonna do here on the show we're gonna give

you our top fives going into the season for this position an interesting one too by the way like i got some of my guys split up into you know the free safeties to strong safeties you got a lot of guys that are built in very different ways so it's gonna be a great conversation we'll give you our top fives and kind of giving you an overview of this safety class to put summer scouting uh put a bow on summer scouting i should say connor how you feeling my man i'm good dude this is an interesting group because over summer i try to get a baseline with these guys and i group them just as safeties but when i get closer to the draft i try to truly break down right the strong safeties and free safeties and the nickels and especially the usage. And now's a good time. I'll say this about this group.

He's got a lot of his ass of these guys, right? I'll say that I'm used to seeing a lot over college football, like the student safety, but he really just plays linebacker. This dude or like he's an overhang kind of guy. This dude's a safety, but he's a corner, a slot corner. A lot of these guys we're going to talk about today, they are asked to play single high. They are asked to play in the box. They are asked to play at the line of scrimmage. They're asked to cover one-on-one out of the slot.

It's a lot to put on a 19, 20, 21, and 22-year-old's play, especially from a mental standpoint. So that is something that has really creeped into the evaluations. What is asked of the safety position in today's game? Yeah, you have to be so much more versatile as a safety today, right? Because offenses are doing whatever they can,

not only in their original alignment, especially with how they use tight ends, but also, you know, you've seen this in the NFL, the pre-snap motion right i mean like you could have the strong side on the right side of the line of scrimmage and have it loaded on the right side and before the ball is even snapped like they're flipping completely and then you know for a lot of these guys if you're especially in college if you're playing like field or boundary side and you're used to either having more space or having the

sideline to help you you've got to be able to rotate down or rotate back and things like that so i i agree i have these i'm doing summer scouting more detailed than i ever have before um since i'm i've taken over pff's uh big preseason big board which you guys can go see now i think it's up on the site uh you can see it so you can get a sneak preview of that before we do it on this episode over pff.com you could also use the updated mock draft simulator but the reason why i'm breaking it up into free safety strong safety and then some labels for these players because i'm trying to be as detailed as possible because we want to give you guys that in the mock draft simulator as well but all that

to say i went through this exercise watched about 14 of these safeties and there's so many that i'm like i mean he's a free safety by traits but he does both things you know you see reps of him coming down playing strong safety playing in the box so it it's all a versatile thing and a lot i think these guys are are really versatile by nature in today's league but it's the traits that i'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say about some of these guys that that's really where you can see okay he's gonna be better when he's coming downhill when he's in man coverage when he's against tight ends or he's gonna be better when he's on the back end

all sorts of range that kind of good stuff so i'll let you kick it off man who's your number five guy in this class going into the season? Number five for me, I would say, is the guy on this list that I'm the second most excited to watch this year to see what he could do from a growth standpoint because he's such a young player. And that is Jaden Hicks from Washington State. This is someone who started last year as a redshirt freshman. He obviously he's going into

his redshirt sophomore year. He's six to listed six to his 215 pounds. This is a player that, in my opinion, has a really interesting background because when I watched him played, watched his tape and watched him play. He was one of the last guys I watched, which usually means my expectations might not be as high as some of the guys that you watch first. This is generally how these exercises go. I think anybody scouting will tell you they're not going to save Marvin Harrison for their eighth or ninth watch at wide receiver or Drake May, things like that. And I was, you know, it's interesting to watch him coming out of nevada jayden hicks this is someone that was the 69th ranked safety in his recruiting class

and his senior season was canceled due to covid so not a massive recruit a three star on most recruiting services and he gets there and and he really carves out a role so quickly. Started 11 games in 2022. He played 267 snaps in the box, 98 in the slot, 317 at free safety, played some special teams as well. I love his build, but more importantly, and this is something that really matters, I think when I'm watching this group this year, the build he has also matches his physical mindset and a tough guy demeanor of like, I'm big, I'm fearless. I can hang with the big boys down in the box and at the line of scrimmage.

But I also have enough athleticism as a defensive back to hang in coverage. I think that when you watch him play, he charges the line of scrimmage hard with very, very little fear. I think he anticipates against the run. He sees the run. He understands how to take out the outside run. But on the inside run, there was a couple of times where I saw guards trying to climb to him and there was no hesitation. There wasn't the constant, let me duck around this guy. He's pretty adept at slipping blocks. Very reliable tackler in my eyes. He only missed five against the run 2022 I saw an ideal understanding of when to wrap versus when to lay a big hit once again yes this is a very young

player but somebody that likes to throw his weight around I thought his overall range against the run was phenomenal you really see him fly around in all kinds of different against all different kinds of rushing attack you know different, different schemes, different concepts. I think in coverage, he's a guy that's still getting comfortable. I thought everything was better when things were in front of him, using his eyes, using some balance, understanding when to click and close. I saw a couple of times when things got over his head, you know, that he kind of maybe hesitated or I saw him get beat in the slot for a long

play once where he wasn't overall just comfortable transitioning into that back pedal and and flipping his hips as much. So this is far from a perfect player. But for a redshirt sophomore guy going into his redshirt sophomore year, holding down the five spot. this, Trevor, this is one where I'm kind of betting on the trajectory of the player a little bit because I saw things that were wildly promising for a redshirt freshman. I think he has the mentality of an old school player. I think he's also a very smart player and a trustworthy player against the run. And this is just somebody to me that will translate at the next level with that play style in a class that I saw a lot of guys lacking strength, physicality, ideal tackling, run fits. I thought this guy checked the boxes at

all of those things. So I have Hicks as my eight, my safety eight in my rankings, but we do see him pretty similarly. And I agree with you 100%. He is somebody who I was not really familiar with, to quote the Shaq meme. I'm sorry. I apologize. I was not familiar with your game. That was kind of Jaden Hicks for the safeties for me. I didn't really know anything about him.

And with good reason, right? He redshirted his first year. Even in a couple of snaps that he was able to play in his first year, he struggled. And then last year he looked like a really solid player as a redshirt freshman and i did a little bit more digging on him um because i kind of wanted to get a background for him you obviously highlighted a lot of his high school stuff but i also read an article where um you know his coach was talking about went out of

his way to talk about how much work hicks put in in the film room and how like he realized very quickly last year not well not last year the year before so as a redshirt freshman he was not going to win like off talent alone and he even says i think hicks even said in the article that first year that he was at washington, he questioned whether or not he was even a college football player, like whether he had the talent to be able to play college football. And he's like, okay, if I really want to do this, which he did, I've got to commit to really being a student of the game. And the coaches praised how much effort and how much time and work ethic he put in to become that. And I think you absolutely see that certainly in run defense. Um,

you see it in pre-snap communication. He's just a redshirt freshman. He's calling all sorts of things out, whether he's at the second level, whether he's in, um, deeper in the secondary, I have him as a strong safety because of his size. You mentioned it six foot, two 215 pounds. That's in the 86th and 81st percentile for the safety position. But I have him with a versatile strong safety label so for strong safeties right now i have two different labels you could either be a

versatile strong safety where i have faith in you still playing on the back end maybe some single high snaps but really just i've got faith in you to be a too deep cover guy but also really like what you could do coming downhill to defend the run. So when you can do both of those things, you get the versatile strong safety label for me, as opposed to just the box strong safety label for me. So he definitely has that versatile label. And he is somebody who I'm really looking forward to seeing what he is able to do in the last year of the Pac-12 salute, out, uh, see how much he could stand out with Washington state because, uh, I did like him a lot and I liked a lot of, I was very encouraged by a lot of the quotes that I read about who he is as a football player. Those are the guys that

you always love that kind of gravitate towards. So yeah, brother, uh, was a two-year starter at safety for Hawaii. So, I mean, this is, this is the family genes. He's playing safety out west. You know, and the thing is with Hicks, Jaden Hicks, is that, I mean, he played at Bishop Gorman High School, which if you know anything about Bishop Gorman, like it's good football. Bishop Gorman's a great football program. Good program.

I'm just really perplexed at how much of an afterthought he was throughout the recruiting process and considering how good of a young player he already is. You know, freshman All-America third team I'm seeing by college football news. This guy had accolades last year and I'm with you. I definitely think he's more of a downhill player that can maybe give you some zone coverage, versatility, keep an eye on the flats. You know, like you said said cover to shell he's athletic enough and long enough uh i don't think he'll be a you know blazing 40 at the combine or anything no i don't think so either i think he's a little i think he's a little stiff you know like

when changing direction which is why i don't want to give him the free safety tab because sometimes you're on the opposite hash and you got to flip the hips you got to take off you know there's a couple of guys that we'll talk about a little higher on this list, I would assume, that can do that. And Hicks, where I do like him going in a straight line if his hips are pointing in the right direction, you don't want him trying to flip the hips all the time. I think that went into why he wasn't really highly recruited, because he actually played corner in high school and so i think a lot of people looked at him as a bigger corner and they went you're not athlete enough to be able to play corner you don't have the flexibility to play corner um so he's probably

a little bit of an afterthought but this move to safety i think has turned out to be really great for him so um i do i like him that's a great shout out i'm glad they have him at five so we got to talk about him i had him at safety eight in his class number five for me i'm gonna go with clemson's andrew mabuka or makuba sorry i was gonna say i think you flipped a letter i did i did i went i went full dyslexic on it now i i like makuba but there is a there's some context that you need to know about him because for anybody out there that's got a pff subscription if you guys can see like the college grades and what he was able to grade out at last year you'd go hold on a second this

guy played 14 games last year and had a 50.2 overall grade, 50.7 coverage grade, 51.2 run defense grade. And Trev, you're going to look me directly in the audio eyes, listening to this podcast and tell me he's number five on the safety list. Is the safety group that bad? The context here is that last year, if you watched Makuba's tape, you got to understand he played 12 of those 14 games while dealing with multiple injuries most of which were at the same time

he dislocated his elbow which you could see early on in the season he's wearing like a full wrap and when you're a safety trying to tackle people in the open field with a dislocated elbow i mean you you've got no confidence in half your body so that's a tough ask and then probably protect the kid i'm sure he wanted to play and that's the thing he really wanted to gut it out and play but that's not dude had a sprained mcl for like half the season so not only did his upper body not work like 40 percent of his body oh my god yeah but sweeney's like we can rebuild him you know and it's just like he's just letting him they put him in the land that they put the mountain in man oh my god i hope i hope i mean oh my goodness he's just got the red eyes you just zombie yeah zombie macuba yeah so zombie macuba last year wasn't

great but freshman year andrew macuba was really nice because as a true freshman he had he had a 77.1 overall grade a 74.5 coverage grade and an 80.4 run defense grade. He also had one interception and three dropped interceptions, actually, as a true freshman and 10 forced incompletions. So it's a lot of really great. I mean, the run defense grade, it's a very stable metric when it comes to PFF. If you're a good run defense guy in college, damn good chance that's going to continue because that's going to be a stable part of your game that you can see year in and year out, especially if you are playing the same position. The same can be said

with forced incompletions. If you were somebody who makes an impact on the ball, interceptions are tough because there's timing. There's certainly luck involved. Sometimes it's a lot of bouncing here and there. But forced incompletions, plays on the ball, that is something that is relatively stable. And he had all of those things. So he actually grew up, was in Zimbabwe, I believe. Well, he was born and initially grew up in Zimbabwe. Parents and older siblings were actually refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo. And they immigrated to Austin, Texas when he was nine years old. So a lot of his early childhood was spent overseas

then he moved to austin texas now he plays obviously for clemson and i'm excited to see him this year because i think he has really good free safety ability i've got him labeled as a free safety because his athleticism but also like i think you could play single high and anytime you could play single high that to me is the most valuable role of a safety if you are really great at being a single high player you change the math of a defense when you don't have to put two safeties deep in coverage to really be able to put a ceiling on what the offense can do deep you're changing the math in a major way with how many guys you could put in the box how do deep you're changing the math in a major way with how many guys you can put in the box how many guys you bring towards the line scrimmage what you're doing with the strong safety next year if they're playing in a robber role or shower role whatever

it is so i think mccuba gives you that athleticism he had really good plays on the ball um i think he's a smart run defender truly he needs some extra strength what is he he was 195 so he's listed at six feet tall 195 which is the height is 34th percentile weight is 11th percentile so i'd love to see him get you know i guess to 200 a little five more pounds just give me the 200 i'll be pretty happy with it but it's it's really hard to judge last year's tape. And I think for anybody who maybe watched college football, maybe you'd focus in on Clemson, maybe it's just the ACC overall, or maybe you were just a big draft head last year taking a look at Makuba. You probably noticed that his play was not stellar, but fully healthy now.

He is somebody who I really think could be in for a big time year. And I think somebody that we're going to talk about a lot more here in this draft class. So I liked him and I wanted to give him the shot at a five. And it's great context, what you broke down of what he was dealing with last year. Right. And you and I. Although different projections started off at number five with projections, right? You're looking at the talent that Makuba has and his flash as a freshman and looking at the injuries he dealt with last year and saying, I think this guy is going to build off what was a really good freshman tape. And I'm looking at a guy in Hicks that you

highlighted might have had a slow start his first year he got to the program, but then his second year and dealing with a position change in college just took off drastically. And you and I are projecting both of those players to take significant jumps going into this year. And that's how they end up at safety five for us. The fifth spot in the rankings you could have some fun with, right? It feels like you can, you know, not swing for the fences, but definitely do a little bit more projecting. You get to put a little stamp on your guys, you know?

Yeah. That's what it feels like. A hundred percent, 100%. So number four, now we got to talk about the good players though. Can you talk about the guys? Now we need to talk about the good players.

Now we need to talk about the players that everybody's probably read about and every generic, you know, summer draft article or whatever it is. I mean, we're already starting there. Number four on my list, and maybe this will surprise some people because I know he's gotten, you know, summer draft article or whatever it is. I mean, we're already starting there. Number four on my list, and maybe this will surprise some people

because I know he's gotten, you know, a lot of hype, understandably, for the ball production he had last year and the program he plays for is Kalen Bullock, the safety out of USC, who is 6'3", 180 pounds. And yeah, that's an interesting build, right? I mean, 6'3", 180 is an interesting build, right? I mean, six, three,

one 80 is what you might expect for a wide receiver. Um, even a really light and long corner. He's a six foot three, 180 pounds safety. You had him at one 80. I haven't, I haven't one 90.

Okay. Did he gain? That would be, hold on. Let me, that would be, uh, a big positive for me if he's 190 this year.

So USC has him listed at 190. Okay. That would shock me. I don't believe what you want to believe. Yeah. The truth is out there. I don't know. Yeah.

So I put him at 190, but even 190 is the third percentile okay for safeties so right you're you're barely you're barely scratching the surface of like okay you have the weight to play safety if he's 190 if he's 180 which i'm sure you'll talk about here yeah so he graduated high school early and enrolled in usc in spring of 2021 made starts at free safety nickel and corner as a true freshman and um he started so he started all of 2022 which was last year at safety. And he led the team with five interceptions. A lot of ball production for this guy. The good with Bullock? Tall and long with strides that eat up a lot of turf quickly.

He's got range for days on the back end and can handle single high coverage responsibilities. As Trevor was pointing out, the last breakdown, you know, it's all about math. Having a guy that could play single high just helps you in a lot of different ways. I put true center fielder style. Anticipates throws and drives on them

to make plays on the ball. Quick trigger to get downhill against screens. Looks for six after securing interceptions. Averaged over 34 yards per interception return. He had 172 interception return yards on five total INTs. I believe only one of the five he was tackled after catching the ball immediately. The rest he had at least 10 yards. One was over 90. I think one was over 50. And all that sounds amazing, right? I mean, this is a guy with legitimate coverage skills, legitimate athleticism, range, length, ball ball skills the cons right now are the difference of him being the top safety

and not in the top three yeah vision and overall run support is not nfl caliber right now it's not it is it's i would call it a liability uh wiped out of plays consistently by tight ends getting hands up on them often lunges low as a tackler rather than cleanly wrapping up and and you can go low and wrap i actually think hicks did that a lot the guy just talked about it by yes you can go low and still wrap with grip strength and ankle wrapping and the difference with Bullock is it's lunging. It's like one motion lunge too low where it's a lot of full misses, like full whiffs. Failed as the last line of defense against Utah's ground game.

And I think it was both games. I mean, you just watch him against utah and they were like okay how do we get our back to the second level of against this kid the utah game is bad the utah game's bad it's really bad in run defense they well i don't even know if it was run defense it might have been yards after the catch opportunities it was both they went they went after him and were like your tackling is going to be the difference between whether or not we score or not and way too often they scored 100 it's eye-opening uh he had a so i watched the four touchdowns that pff credited him with surrendering in 2022 and he absolutely had a hand in surrendering all of them

i'm not saying it's like him on an island just getting toasted every time but he certainly i thought had fair responsibility on them he he's really a feast or famine safety right now and there was a lot of bad plays with this safety class like there's a lot of guys that are not in my top five that are probably going to be viewed as you know or well liked in the industry and i saw a lot of bad plays from them the highlight reel if you go on youtube and search blah blah highlights you probably love the dude but on a down by down basis a lot of bad and bullock is almost let me look at my rankings no not almost he is the pinnacle example of highlights and bad plays. And he's the only guy in my top five.

You could notice the players I gravitate towards. I didn't see this with Hicks. I didn't see this with my top three. Guys that don't make a lot of mistakes. He's the one guy in my top five that made a lot of mistakes. But to be fair to him, he possesses some ability that just not a lot of safety prospects are going to possess with his ability to be a center fielder with insane range, long strides, ball skills, and ball skills once he secures the interception.

So the good thing is about Summer, I could sit here and say, I don't know what to do with this kid right now as a prospect, because 2023 is going to dictate that 100%. If he doesn't grow as a player against the run, he can't play safety in the NFL, in my opinion, like that. I know it's harsh. It's really harsh, but it's very important to contextualize these things on the podcast. But if he becomes a mediocre run defender while keeping up that coverage ability and gets stronger and bigger because he's a young player. Let's be fair to him. He could be taken in the top 75. Like that's the difference

we're talking about here. And that's really, really drastic. So I'm rooting for him because the exciting high end plays make him a really, really fun player. But you've got to clean up the baseline against the run and being the last line of defense.

I mean, I'll go further than you even. You were saying that if he cleans up run defense, he could go 75. Is that what you said? Top 75, yeah. Dude, I mean, if he cleans up run defense, I mean, he's going in the first round. I said if he becomes a mediocre run defense. If he becomes an average to good, yeah, he's going in the top 40 picks. Malik Hooker went 15.

Malik Hooker is one of my favorite prospects I've ever watched because Malik at Ohio State had insane range. Bullock reminds, the highs of Bullock remind me very much of Malik Hooker. There is no player in the country that I am going to watch more with an NFL draft eye than Kalen Bullitt, because I agree with you completely. If he puts out the same lack of effectiveness, I almost said effectiveness, but honestly, it's lack of effectiveness in the run game and in tackling, he will probably end up being like a third round pick just because you can't pass on the range ability that he has for so long.

But if he gets better in that area, he's going in the first round. I have him as safety too. So we can talk about it because I've got him in the top five. I have him as safety too because one, I am an absolute sucker for somebody who truly brings you single high ability. And this guy brings you single high ability about as good as you could possibly ask. The hips are so fluid. When he puts his foot in the ground, he is immediately going top speed. And his top speed is fantastic.

There is a rep, I can't remember what school it was against. He's on the opposite hash and he sees it. He sees that the slot receiver from the opposite side of the formation is running a corner route and he puts his foot in the ground. He flips his hips from the opposite hash. He takes off and he gets the interception because he beats the wide receiver to where the ball is going. That is the stuff that you simply cannot teach. That is the stuff that, honestly, even if he is as bad of a run defender as he was last year,

I think the third round is his floor because some team in the NFL is going to, like you mentioned, take a guy that has the potential to change the math. Anytime you have that type of player, whether it's a linebacker like Fred Warner, who could sit in the middle by himself and allow you to use a, maybe a third linebacker elsewhere, be in die more people, whatever,

or it's a single high safety that allows you to put a strong safety somewhere else. Maybe it's an outside lockdown, man coverage, single coverage corner, that allows you to just take away the best receiver on the field no matter what the guys that change the math for you are the ones that are going to get drafted high and to me that is Bullock but I'll counter and say on the flip side Trev not to cut you off he also changes the math in a negative way if i if i sent 12 personnel out there and get a tight end on this kid and i can get my back on outside zone to the second level it's daylight 100 100 it's such a odd it's an odd game that that's why there is not a player in this class that i will watch more attentively this upcoming season than Kalen Bullock because I

think the range and what he could be for this class or for an NFL team is huge my little spark notes version on him that I wrote up Bullock brings so much potential as a game-changing single high safety he has the movement skills of a cornerback who can flip his hips change direction and open up for great long speed like the best of them that you will see as a safety position. He also has great instincts for zone coverage and the ball skills to match. He's a little too careful right now because he's a little too far back

because he trusts his athleticism, so he's not making plays towards the line of scrimmage, but that goes into his bad run defense grade. Above all, he must gain weight and strength or he will not be able to succeed in the NFL. You, this is, I love this prospect because it's just, it's the most, it's just the most polarizing scouting report that you could possibly have. And he's going to be a lot of fun.

If you guys haven't watched Caelan Bullock yet, you can just go watch the highlights. You can go on YouTube and like Connor said, go watch the highlights, get excited about this guy. And then usc games are on this year when you get to catch usc games watch them see the rest of it see the snap by snap stuff focus in on him but uh yeah i i have him i have him at number two because of the potential of what he could be but yeah so who do you have it for so i have i have rod moore from michigan at number four is he in your top five that's amazing because i have met three okay so i assume the rest of the way we're gonna be stride for stride then in this conversation i don't think so

you dog okay close close but no cigar rod moore if you don't have kinjis at one i swear to god all right so rod moore rod moore from michigan i'll quit the pod do you know i could never do that never so he's all right rob moore from michigan six foot tall 198 pounds makuba take notes get the 198 yeah do a rob moore's dude so today protein it hit some creatine so uh 34th percentile 18th percentile it's not much better than makuba but it is a little bit bigger i man more is awesome i mean his his overall grades are just as steady as they come 83.8 overall overall grade, 81.6 coverage grade, 84.2 run defense grade. He had four interceptions.

He had four forced incompletions. Really great production on the ball. Played 401 snaps of free safety, 154 in the box, 164 in the slot. So this is a free safety player with free safety athleticism. Yep. Who has that versatility to him they can do a lot of different things um i the number one thing that i have on him because you still got to be able to defend the run as a safety first talking point that i have on our strength lower weight but that

doesn't stop him from sticking his nose in there against guys that are much bigger than him and i love to see that right because a lot of times as a safety, you can come downhill and you can gang tackle some guys, or you could just get in guys' way. It doesn't always have to be solo tackles, right? There's a good chance that a lot of these safety players are probably going to be floating around 200, 205 pounds anyways. So you're going to be going up against receivers

that are sometimes way bigger than you. Sometimes it's tight ends. Sometimes it's running backs. So you just got to see that willingness to want to go get them. And you definitely see that from Moore. He's got adequate range, good change of direction ability. I think he's got great middle of the field instincts. That's where I liked him the most.

When he was in a too deep safety shell where he'd rotate, you know, okay, I'm playing more deep on this snap. I'm playing a little bit more of a robber role on another. When he was able to really roam the middle of the field as a true robber at the intermediate level, I thought he had great instincts and great recognition on those on, on like post routes, dig routes, things that were coming over the middle, whatever it was. He was to me a big time presence over the middle of the field.

He didn't pack a big punch at contact, and you kind of would expect that for a guy who's 198, but that might be something that he could work on, especially getting into the NFL level, getting to use his body a little bit more, having more strength that way. So really solid football player, really versatile football player. I think he could use him in a lot of different areas, and I just think that he's got a great nose for impacting the middle of the field whether

it's in run defense or uh or in coverage so i like him more quite a bit we see him eye to eye i'm with you he's a sound football player um not the biggest guy you know obviously somebody that we'd like to gain a little bit more weight, not the most hyped up kind of guy, but so responsible. I mean, 13 starts last year as a true sophomore, four picks, seven PBUs. Ironically, from Ohio and ends up at Michigan. Damn. Like you said, Trevor, he handled a lot of single high responsibilities. I saw him sink his hips cleanly to break on middle of the field throws.

I think he understands how the defense is trying to attack the secondary in regards to route combinations. And that was the number one thing I saw these young DB struggle with is how to pass off, how to pick up certain areas of zone, how to understand what the route combination was trying to do them to create space. And when you have close plus closing speed, like Rod Moore does, and you also have the IQ to understand what the route combinations are in front of you, you're going to make a lot of plays on the ball.

They're not fluky plays. Like he's not finding tip passes for interceptions all the time. He's not sink, you know, capitalizing five of his PBUs will be against the worst team they played that year. I saw a really consistent high-end play. I saw it against Ohio State.

We know how good those wide receivers are. Yep. So, yeah. Rod Moore is like the steady Eddie of the group, right? That's kind of how I looked at it. It's like, yeah, I'll take him on my team. I'm excited to have him on my team. But I also, like, I didn't want to just, because I feel you 100%,

but I didn't even want to write that in my little summary of him. Cause he's, he's a little bit more of an athlete than that. You know, he's true. He's very quick. When you say not like you in particular generalizing here, like when a lot of people go like, Oh, he's just a steady football player. A lot of people would naturally go, Oh, okay. So he's not a great athlete. Like he's just somebody who's at like right place all the time. Won't be out of position, things like that. Rob Moore is right place, rarely out of position, but he's more, too. He has really good instincts.

And like you mentioned, he's got really good athleticism, too, good flexibility. He's got some decent athleticism, too. Still really young. True junior. Right, yeah. So, all right. So I had Moore at three.

Three. You had Moore at four. So who do you have at three? So... Because I know you had Bullock at two, right? Yes. Okay, so I know who you have at three. I have Tyler Newman at three.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you have Tyler Newman at one? I do. Oh! All right. We're going to fight. No, we're not.

Tyler Newman, redshirt senior from Minnesota. Not going to lie to you folks. When I see redshirt senior. Yeah, it's. And I see a secondary player. I go, all right. Feels like an ankle weight, doesn't it? You're probably going to be a slow.

Coach's pet team leader just all grit you know will defend the run yeah but he's got to open up he's going to be bad no it's not tyler newman no sir no sir six foot one and a half 208 pounds so that's the 78th percentile and 56th percentile for the position i have him labeled as a free safety but a like a too deep free safety because sure i don't want him playing single high very much but i'm certainly okay with this dude playing too deep i mean he really knows how to cover half the field he's got great instincts for where the ball is going um i think so he. So he's somebody who was a lot of fun. Four-star cornerback recruit. I saw this coming out of the state of Illinois.

His brother Jordan also plays defensive back for the Gophers. His father Rodney played college football at Eastern Michigan, so football family here. Played cornerback, wide receiver, and wildcat quarterback in high school so over pff grades overall grade 76.4 coverage grade 72.6 run defense grade 83.4 he had four interceptions and he had another one that was dropped that he could have had i felt like uh four forced incompletions as well the number one thing that i have in my scouting report, the very first bullet point that I have, a highly competitive football player. In fact, the first sentence that I have in his summary is Tyler Newman wants to make the play.

Whether that's a tackle, an interception, a PBU, he wants to make it. And I think that that passion, mentality for playing the safety position as a player on the back end that can see the entire field is truly something that a defense gravitates towards. You know, you hear, I've heard players talk about like Darrell Revis or Richard Sherman or these corners that you ask the other defensive players, they go, what's it like playing with like a shutdown corner? And they go, oh, you wouldn't believe it. We don't even have to think about that side of the field. The other players just got it. And the confidence that it breeds to the rest of the team is palpable. It's contagious.

And for Tyler Newman to be that type of a competitive player, for the defensive line, for the linebackers, for the corners to know that they got this dude behind them, I can only think is a major motivating factor for the rest of the events playing really, really well. I think he anticipates really well as a redshirt senior. He's seen a lot of ball. He's a little bit limited athletically but it's not like it's not terrible again i i'm fully confident in this dude playing in a two-by system so even

though he's not going to be this major difference making single high guy i'm totally cool with him playing as a versatile uh free safety guy who you're playing in the back end of coverage because he sees things he anticipates things really really well so um tyler new newman uh one of my favorite watches no doubt about it a pleasant surprise as a redshirt senior um here in this uh here in this summer scouting exercise so um i liked him a lot i got him at safety three but clearly you liked him even more with having him at safety one yeah he was safety one for me. I mean, this is someone I'll flat out tell you there is another guy that we're going to get to who has the highest ceiling of any safety in this class, in my opinion.

Although Bullock is, we talked about his, the ends of his spectrum. But still, I still think the other safety, that's safety two for me, has the highest ceiling. But Newman probably should be in the NFL right now, to be honest with you, as we sit here. There's... Him and Josh Newton, man. Yeah, I don't... From TCU.

Like, how did this happen? And that... Newman is even more surprising because he's a sixth-year player. So... Dude, I'm going to have... I think I have... he's a sixth year player so dude i think i have a fifth i think to give a sneak peek at my big board i've got newton as the as a top 25 player right and he's a 60 year he's a 60 year college corner come on my, my guy. What are we doing? You're getting bad advice. I feel like that's unheard of.

So anyway, and then Newman, who I thought had the highest floor coming into this season as the safety prospects. He just like you said, Trev, he does so many things right at a at a pro level right now. I mean, listen, I wrote down excellent backpedal and eyes to watch and react to the quarterback in zone coverage. His catch radius is, in my opinion, on a wide receiver level. Some of the interceptions he had, excellent catch radius to grab the ball. Really good ball skills. Experienced and comfortable playing a variety of roles.

You see him rotate. Yeah, go ahead. I just want to say, I feel like this safety class overall, way better ball skills than I remember like groups of the past having. Like if you take Makuba's freshman year and all those forcing completions and potential interceptions that he had,

Rob Moore, Cameron Kitchens, Kalen Bullock, what he could do as a single high dude, Tyler Newbin, like these safeties, they got ball production, man.

This is a, this is a really fun group. You, you talked about this, like they rotate their safeties like crazy, Minnesota. And he, you see him rotate down into the box.

You see him play over the top. He'll go. My favorite thing about this dude's game that I didn't see anybody else do like him in this class, his ability to go. And I know you said maybe not a single high guy, but a really, you know,

too high kind of guy ability in that his ability to go to the sideline, sideline to sideline, to wipe out wide receivers, trying to get vertical, but from a legal standpoint, not a targeting standpoint, like a clean shoulder wipe you out to the sideline hit it's beautiful thing to watch with this guy's game

i saw him do it multiple times a quick trigger in the run game violent striker i wrote to some overall instinctual instinctual well-rounded safety with plus size and a high floor i i loved this dude i thought he was awesome i'm really surprised he wasn't in the draft last year after watching him this summer and i i'm rooting for him this year to have a healthy year because he'll be uh he'll be a top 75 pick very very easily very very easily once he gets the draft I don't care if he doesn't run sub four or five. Like he doesn't need to be this athletic freak. He's got good size. He's got instincts.

Instincts make up for average athleticism. And it'll bring us though. I want to make sure we didn't jump one for you, right? You had Newman at three. Yeah, you had Bullock at two. I did. Yeah. I was just going to say before we.

Yeah. Actually, we got to, you know, we got to we got to say a word from our friends over drafting. Literally before our lights go out behind us. We have to do this. I'm sorry. The mics will cut off the electric power. The power company will turn it off. We literally have to do this before talking about a fun player. My family is starving. Please do not press the 30 second button. Newman had the second highest film grade of any safety that i watched so i have him at three and i have bullock higher than him but that is simply because of what bullock could be newbin right now

off of film had the second highest grade um outside of the guy they were going to talk about. In a second, after I give you a word from our friends over at DraftKings. This season, DraftKings has launched the largest best ball tournament in DraftKings history. Right now, you can enter into DraftKings best ball tournament for a shot at over $10 million in cold hard cash guaranteed prizes. Make your entry into the draft today sit back relax and enjoy the nfl season without having to worry about managing your roster waiver wires or anything like that to start playing best ball download the draft kings app and use the promo code pff when you sign up enter draft kings best ball millionaire contest and snake draft your team for the entire season each week you will automatically rack up points from your

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Sign up using the promo code PFF. Start playing best ball today. Join the DraftKings $10 million best ball tournament only on DraftKings with the promo code PFF. Start playing best ball today. Join the DraftKings $10 million best ball tournament only on DraftKings with the promo code PFF. Game load problem call win 100 gambler. Agent eligibility restrictions apply. Voidware prohibited. See DraftKings.com for details. So before we do mention the guy who I have at number one, the guy who you have at number two.

Full disclosure to everybody at home, I would have Cooper Dejean as like safety two or safety three if he switches positions. No doubt, dude. Like if you, because if you look at Cooper Dejean, which is the corner from IO who we talked about on last week's show, he's six foot one,7 pounds and those numbers are 90th percentile for corner their 60th percentile and 51st percentile for safety so like this guy's above the 50th percentile already like as a guy playing corner for the safety position so he's

good enough of a ball player where i would have had him as safety two or safety three in this class um but you know i wanted to name five safeties actually so that brings us to our last guy cameron kinshans from miami oh man this guy's fun junior six feet tall 205 pounds so built very well although i was kind of surprised that both those numbers are below the 50th percentile 34th percentile and um 205 is the 43rd percentile but shoot man you watch this guy play you don't have any worries about no no about the size you really don't so funny enough there's another safety from miami who is in this class james williams who was a five star like he was the crown jewel i believe of their class two years ago i mean he was the

guy where was he he was oh i think i have this uh james williams by the way people james williams is a safety six foot five 215 pounds yeah he's like a cam chancellor looks like college camp chancellor he's defensive end playing single high it's stupid james williams was the five-star safety rate is the number one safety in the country number four player in the state of florida at the time so huge recruit they get him they're going wild in coral gables they're going crazy they're thinking they got this incredible safety and you know a little bit lower on the recruiting rankings they signed this guy named cameron kitchens a three-star safety from miami himself dude he was like the 16th guy

in the recruiting class that year dude he and it's like oh whatever maybe he'll cover kicks this dude's fucking awesome it is it's just so funny how things work out from recruiting rankings last year as just a true sophomore remember remember people, 90 overall grade, 90.7 coverage grade, 71.3 run defense grade, six interceptions, I believe three in one game, three forced incompletions, 418 snaps at free safety, 179 in the box, and then 118 in the slot. This dude does it all, I think. He brings top-notch free safety ability to all the deep parts of the field, whether he's the lone deep man or whether it's a too-deep safety shell. The range is very nice, thanks to a really good pairing of great long speed and acceleration. When he sees it, the hips can flip.

He puts his foot in the ground, and he is going. Also, phenomenal ball skills skills as you would expect from guy who has six interceptions but it's not just like the six interceptions you go watch the interceptions he is leaping he is diving he is full extension it's really great hand-eye coordination he has a knack for going up to get these takeaways it is not just right place one time with him i think he's got more room in the tank to even be an enforcer over the middle like he's fantastic in coverage right now tank to even be an enforcer over the middle. He's fantastic in coverage right now,

but I think in those split safety responsibilities where he's maybe the robber, he's coming down a little bit more, he's monitoring the middle of the field, there's times when tight ends are coming over the middle where he'll wrap up, he'll go in and tackle. Obviously, he'll put a shoulder into you, but I think he could be an enforcer too. I think this guy's got the size, he's got the strength, he's got that athleticism to him. He just lacks that intensity when it comes to tackling.

And I think that that's still there within him. Like we said, he's a true sophomore. So that could all still be coming for him more confidence going into his junior year. Maybe we do get that, but the rest of it, man, it is there. He plays too high safety responsibilities. He'll play robber safety responsibilities he can match up against tight ends he can be a single high player for you with impressive range for as much size as he has so he's um he can do it all man i think he's a jack-of-all-trades kind of a safety prospect again another one of my favorites in this class. I feel like it's been a while since we've had a safety class that was this exciting. And Kenshin's being at the very top of it.

Well, close to the very top if you're Connor Rogers, is one that makes it a really fun one to get excited about going into the year. It is. It's got high-end talent. It's got huge projections. Like I look at my top five and I tear it like this. I would put Bullock and Hicks at Hicks and Bullock five and four together. Rod Moore, my safety three in his own tier. And then Kitchens and Nubin in tier one.

And, you know, I'm sure some people are wondering, well, why isn't Kitchens safety one? If you love him, I think that there are still things to clean up in his game. I do. I think that he missed some tackles. He missed seven against the run 2022 due to bad angles. He'll gamble for the big play on throws he reads. I saw him get burned a couple of times by just peeking underneath and somebody will fly over the top of him.

It's just, it just happens. I mean, he's a young player and if he eliminates some of the bad plays, going back to that whole theme, the good is just happens. I mean, he's a young player, and if he eliminates some of the bad plays, going back to that whole theme, the good is just incredible. Like you said, Trevor, he's explosive lower half. He's got a muscular build. He's fearless going into the box. He's so good at slipping blockers,

and he's great against screens and quick throws. So much of the college game is quick throws and screens, and he is an eraser of that. He covers a lot of ground on the back end. The diving interception, I don't care that it's against Bethune-Cookman, right? The range and tracking on that play was pure athleticism, was really high-end athleticism. Zero fear of the big collision.

Plant and drive on underneath throws was plus yeah he's just he's a really good player he's a really good player that could be a first round safety and he's not the longest guy in the world but he has really good mass on the frame he has carries it well he'll only even get stronger he's listen to people one, I'm not going to bark at them. I'll say that right now because a baby leap or two and this year and he's going to lock himself into the first round. Yeah, I think what's so encouraging for Kinchins is you saw, we've seen everything already.

Like it's just a matter of being more consistent with it, right? Like I have in my notes, okay, there are a couple of times where I noticed that he was reacting instead of anticipating. But then I can pull plenty of other plays where he clearly was anticipating instead of reacting. And he was able to see things before they were able to unfold. So it's like, okay, just a little bit more consistency in that area.

We know the run defense. He's got really nice run defense snaps. But then there's other times where he takes, okay, he takes some bad angles. But there's other times where he's okay he takes some bad angles um but there's other times where he's coming downhill he's wrapping up hard he's getting you at the line of scrimmage i think the middle of the field stuff is also a great note by you because there i did note this is an area of concern sometimes he'll take the bait for a middle of the field route when there's something that's about to come over the top on him um from another zone normally when a guy's crossing over into zones and he's not paying attention to it so we've seen really good reps in zone defense from him but other times he's a little bit over aggressive so

it's just fun to think about the possibilities of what is this guy if he really puts it all together and becomes a fully consistent safety because I think the rest of the talent is there. Athletically, strength-wise, height, weight, IQ, how he processes things, all of that is there for him. He just needs to be more consistent, which is totally, totally understandable for a true sophomore going into his true. Right. And that goes into the evaluation for sure. You got to be fair in these.

And a dude at that age. I mean, this is probably a good time to talk about his teammate, too, right? Because people probably I'm picturing people listening to the pod and going, well, you said he had a teammate that's a five star. He's built like Cam Chancellor. He's like, boy, he's an alien. Why wasn't in your top five, you idiot? I think it's a good time to talk about James Williams a little bit.

Sure. Yeah. Open it up. Go ahead. All right. So let me pull up my notes on him. I think he's somebody that it just feels like he needs time, right? The things I wrote down about him that needs to work on. I'll say this for a size. I thought he didn't strike with a lot of force. It was a lot of reaching tackle

attempts rather than like, I'm like, dude, you are six'4", maybe 220. Throw that weight around like your teammate does who's probably given up 5 inches and 20 pounds compared to you. The weird thing is that he just didn't line up guys as well as he could. He's always reaching. It's as if he was taking off for the tackle before he needed to, 100%. Yes. Like a step before he needed to. And he's 6'5", so obviously the length he'll get there, he'll wrap you up. Cause you've got a

massive wingspan and a massive frame, but it's almost like, I'd rather you take that next year, that extra next step and put your freaking shoulder into him. Like just absolutely buried the guy. And I think that he can't, he uh I don't know it was like he was yeah diving at some of those tackles he had a really tough time in the red zone he just he would lose sight of his assignment all the time and and team's got a couple couple touchdowns against him because of that he he he peaks in the backfield for about a second or two too long and yep that's the difference between a long completion and no completion in the nfl so those things are mental aspects of the game for a dude that was a five-star freak that's going

into his junior year i i think james williams plays himself into the top 100 this year with the talent that he has he just needs time to grow and he might need another year after this year he might not be ready after this year and i think to be fair also trevor is you know what probably weighed into this a little bit watching kitchens in the same defense this dude is just like out of his mind good so you're then you're watching williams and you're just left wanting more with a guy with more physical tools so i think that played into it and i hope he has a big growth year because it's all there for him yeah and and he is somebody who i wrote down his he he's playing more off of physicality than feel and i think that that's the thing that i want to see more from him is i i want more just

feel from him in zone coverage so i'm glad that you mentioned him. Who's somebody else who we want to bring up outside of the top five? I watched another big safety that wasn't in my top five. Okay. But I just like when I saw 6'3", 225, I like to look for guys like that to see if they can convert to being a flex linebacker at the next level, you know, a recent example for me getting to see a lot of it over a long year

stretch. I remember evaluating Jamie and Sherwood safety out of Auburn. And when Robert solid drafted him, he just converted him to linebacker and Sherwood's going to start this year. He had two years to fully develop while watching guys like Kwan Alexander and guys like that. So I try to look for some of those guys because that happens a lot in today's NFL.

And one guy watching, he's got a little bit of a ways to go. But Jalen Carley's from Missouri. He's a senior. He's 6'3", 225. Massive build for the position. A big body that can really bang around in the box. Like I watched him take on tight ends and really unfazed by it. Forceful hands into the chest of blockers,

long strides to get sideline to sideline. I think he doesn't come to balance extremely efficiently right now. Misses some tacklers, not much route anticipation. And all of those things I just said, good and bad, kind of equate to a guy

that might be an NFL linebacker instead. I think the position change is always something that you've got to think about with safeties because the game is going to that. It's getting smaller. It's getting smaller in a lot of ways. There's no doubt. But faster. Latham Ransom from Ohio State. We didn't mention him and I think that some people are going to have him hovering around their top fives for this. We both watched him.

So anybody that follows me on Twitter, the guy that I immediately wrote down in the strength category said elite crop top aesthetic. That was Latham Ransom. So that was the very first thing that I noticed for him. He's wearing number 12. He's wearing a bunch of different armbands. And he's tucking the jersey in like an old school safety. So I kind of, I definitely love that. He is somebody I also would say possesses good ability,

but it's not consistent right now. Like when he sees something confidently, I love the play, man. I love the confidence that he's just putting the foot in the ground going exactly where it needs to be he's coming fast he's being as physical as he possibly can be but he's either over aggressive too often or just or or doesn't anticipate things the way that it needs to and then all of a sudden he's taking a bad angle of the ball whether it's in run defense or whether it's pass coverage so it's he just needs more feel for the game when you're a safety playing in space and truly calculating how long it's it's basically like a super fast game of

geometry because you've got to understand angles of how you're getting to the ball or the ball carrier and you normally you don't have to run through people it's just a matter of am i taking the right angle given how fast i can run versus how fast they are running or how fast the ball is getting there and with robinson he just i i don't think he was consistent enough in that geometry yet and and that's something that there's too many inconsistencies on his tape for a player who has as well-rounded of ability as he has for me to put in the top five because it's just not there for him yet the other guys that i've listed in my top five are more consistent so good athletic potential um he just needs to get that he just needs to get more fuel i'm with you on that i think if you want to look for the things he needs to clean if

you're somebody that really likes him and you're going, well, I'm surprised Connor and Trevor didn't have him in their top five. I would start with the college football playoff, especially the Georgia game. I think you'll, I mean, the Georgia game to get a real feel,

but I was also thinking of the, the Michigan game as well. Like some of the things he really struggles with play strength. He needs to add play strength. And, you know, it's just like you said it too, understanding zoning of the field and angles and everything like that. So, but definitely a guy that'll be, you know,

on this radar without a doubt. I'm trying to look through who else. The true pod favorite, Jalen Catalan. Oh, Jalen Catalan, of course. I mean, there's nobody we'll root harder for, right? There's no change. I mean, actually, there is change. It's just for the worst, unfortunately.

So Jalen Catalan, wonderful safety prospect. I'm out here this offseason watching the 2020 Ole Miss game for like the third year in a row. And I wish I wasn't because I wish that he was in the NFL and I wish that things would have gone differently for him. Here is his timeline. He tore his ACL in high school in 2018. And then 2020, so he goes to arkansas red shirts his first season after that

after after the torn acl so he was recovering from that and he was you know getting used to college football and all that kinds of good stuff so they're making sure he's good redshirt freshman season was that 2020 year he was an sec first teamer uh he was an all-american across the country 99 total tackles three interceptions, four forced incompletions. I mean, he was a monster. He was an incredible, versatile safety. He could play free safety for you. He could play strong safety.

He was extremely impactful back in 2020. Played in just seven games in 2021 before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. In 2022, he played just one game where he injured his shoulder again. I don't know if it's the same shoulder because it's. All the reports are really lacking details on that, but. Yeah, welcome to college injuries. You're right. He's you want to be a draft analyst. Get ready to sort through 89 articles on one player to find out if a torn rotator cuff was the same one from the two years before.

Since 2020, he has played in seven and a half games. And within those seven games, he also suffered a broken hand. So was playing with a broken hand for some of it. This dude since 2018. So we're talking about five years now. He has had season ending ACL surgery. He has broken his hand. He has season-ending shoulder surgery once and then season-ending shoulder surgery again which needed reconstructive surgery when you have shoulder um if there's so many tongue twisters i'm gonna jump off but you got safety and you have shoulder surgery, boom, it's not good because you need to tackle. Your job is to put your shoulder in the gut of some ball carrier.

And you need to do that a lot. So when you're already beat up in that area, I don't know if it was the same shoulder he hurt but i honestly connor i don't i don't even know what's better i don't even know what would be better at this point at this point i kind of think that injuring the same shoulder might be better because the way that they talk the way that they talked about it the second time was that he had to have reconstructive surgery. So like maybe they didn't do a full surgery or maybe they didn't do it right the first time.

So, cause that actually happened, dude. I remember this and this is wild. Gerald McCoy, when he was with the bucks, he had, I think torn biceps and he had them repaired but then he like had them repaired like

wrong and then he tore them again and it wasn't until he got another surgery where they went oh they didn't do your surgery right can i not do your surgery right i'm not gonna pretend to sit here and be a doctor but like repair the bicep like what happens a lot it's scary so i i don't even know what would be better for catalan at this point i i think maybe it being on the same shoulder and us being able to tell ourselves that the surgery that he just went underwent was the one that he needed all along because now he's not at arkansas anymore now he's at texas which holy cow texas loaded right he's been killing it in their fall camp from everything i keep up with out there killing yours right queen yours jatavian sanders uh ad mitchell

wide receivers xavier worthy um isaiah nailer uh jordan whittington jordan whittington's great jalen catalan tavondre Sweat, Jalen Ford. Like, Texas is loaded with guys to watch for this upcoming draft class. And Jalen Catalan's absolutely one of them. I hope he plays

a fully healthy season because if he does, I'm going to shoot him so far up these safety rankings you won't even believe it. You can't stop me. Oh, man. He might be the college version

of Bob Sanders, but I hope not because he's. He's a hell of a player. There we go. Anybody maybe pull up and maybe pull up Bob Sanders career. Do you just Bob Sanders has the most fascinating career of all time or not? Maybe all time, but it's up there. Rookie season. And for those that,

there might be kids young enough listening to this show that didn't even watch Bob Sanders play. Yeah, if that's you, pause the podcast. Go immediately watch Bob Sanders highlights because all of you need this in your life. You need this in your life. So Bob Sanders was a second round pick in the 2004 NFL Draft for the Colts.

He was taken 44th overall rookie season. He only plays in six games. He probably got hurt that year, 2005. He's first team, all pro 14 games, the interception. He's just all over the field making crazy tackles.

And then the year after that, 2006, he only plays four games. He's totally injured again, totally banged up 2007. He's totally injured again. Totally banged up. 2007, he's all pro again. Defensive player of the year. Defensive player of the year.

Defensive player of the year. He plays 15 games. He has two picks. Breaks up six passes. I mean, he's just blowing up every single play around him. The dude was a madman. It was awesome. It was freaking awesome to watch.

Yeah. him the dude was a madman it was awesome it was freaking awesome to watch yeah and then bob sanders in the next four years only played in 11 games so um it's a it's a sad nfl story but these guys at the safety position that are not the biggest in the world that run around like Palomalu that we love. It just it catches up to him. And it's so. It's so tough, man, because it's our favorite. I mean, you have liked Catalan for three years, literally, Trevor, three years. You and I have like Jalen Catalan. But it's the nature of the game.

And I always whenever a safety comes out like this or a DB, I just always think of Bob Sanders. And now I feel old. And now I feel sad. If you guys feel sad too, can we get some sad boys in the chat, please? No, okay. But yeah, let us know what you think of these safety rankings.

Let us know what you thought of my rankings, of Connor's rankings, or of players that we didn't have in our top five, or that we didn't mention at all. This handful of other guys that we watched here that we just didn't have time to get to for the safety episode. We're going to talk about a lot of these players, though, when we get to the big board episode,

which is going to be coming to you guys not next Monday, because we're giving the summer scouting episodes a little bit of time to breathe we got a little bit of busy work as we're kind of getting into college football season we're gonna get in the lab we do have to get in the lab because we've got to finalize our big boards so that we can have an official combined nflse pre preseason top 50 for y'all next Thursday. So not this coming Thursday, not the 24th of August, the 31st of August. We will have an episode for you guys, and that will be the Thursday of week one of the college football season. So that'll be a great way for you guys to have that big board for you guys to reference it throughout the college football season, if you want. And then, man,

we're going to hit the ground running after that because the next week is week one of the NFL, which means on September 4th, we're going to be giving you our preseason first NFL SE 2024 mock draft. So we're going, we're going big board that Thursday mock draft that Wednesday. Y'all better be ready for it. Yeah. Get your ears well-oiled, ready to roll. going big board that thursday mock draft that wednesday y'all better be ready for it yeah get your ears well oiled ready to roll is that something does that work i mean i guess it can work sure uh we appreciate everybody uh listening and watching the entire summer scouting series

this is a ton of fun for us to do i think that if you guys have watched the whole thing you've heard us say a couple of times now this is the most prospects I have certainly watched heading into a season. Is that the same for you? Oh my God. Not even, it's yeah. I used to always tell people it because I was like, what do you do after the draft?

And I was like, ah, I kind of recap the draft for the first half of May. And then I try to breathe for two weeks. And then sometime in between vacationing and you know june and july i'll watch you know 50 to 100 of the best players the trap that you gotta know right i mean we're not even in that stratosphere anymore i mean we're we're easily over 150 guys come on easily easily so um yeah it's gonna be a lot of fun getting to go over that i'm gonna

have my big board because it's one thing to have these little differences of opinions when it comes to like positional rankings because a lot of times we'll see you guys you know the same way she's okay i think he's got higher of a ceiling i think this guy's a little bit more uh consistent i'll have him at number five connor will have him at like number three or whatever it is when you get to a big board that's when we have some real fun like right last year is when i had isaiah foskey at 11 to start the year and connor's your reaction to me having foskey at 11 and then we just had this shouting match i was like who else are you going to put there you know what do you mean so don't miss out on great moments like that that's going to be coming for you on thursday the best part is and all of it you had him i guess 11 i didn't have him in the top 50

yeah and he goes 40th in the draft or just probably right in the middle of where we both had him like literally right in the middle oh man no it's gonna be classic moments it's good you guys don't want to miss it. Again, it's coming next Thursday. In between now and then, we would love to hear from you guys because we are putting together our regular season schedule. We're going back to two podcasts a week. So we're going to be talking about when we want to go live with those and the things that we're going to talk about.

We've already talked about like, okay, we're going to keep tabs on some of the rookies. We're going to devote a segment to that during the week. We definitely want to do that. You guys seem to be excited about that. But let us know what else you want to see from this channel. We've got a lot of flexibility here, and we'll try to make it happen. If you guys are like, we would love episodes like Sunday night, immediately afterwards, early Monday morning for the first episode of the week.

We could try to do that. And then those mid to late week pods, we're always wondering what you guys want to hear do you want look ahead stuff do you want recap stuff do you want more college football stuff do you want more nfl stuff so please let us know we're all ears this is obviously y'all's podcast just as much as it is ours we always want it to be a really cool conversation and a community for you guys to get in of course the best way to do that youtube.com backslash at nfl stock exchange get in on the comments we'll be reading all those so we can see it there. If your audio only hit us

up on Twitter, on sorry, X on Instagram, whatever, fire off your ideas there of the things that you would like to see during the season at Tampa Bay Trey at Conner J Rogers. That is the way to do that. Connor, you got anything else before we get out of here? Summed it up quite well, my friend, we are, um, that time of year where we get to debut our consensus board we get to do the first mock and then before you know it we're talking about college football player movement every single week of the season it's gonna be a blast man i'm excited we're really logging on to ultimate and just seeing like what what is ivan pace doing with a 98.7 grade and had 14 pressures?

Then you click the film and you go, oh, he's murdering people on the football field. That's exactly what he's doing. I'm excited about it. We are really going to truly pedal to the metal once next Thursday gets here. So y'all better subscribe. Y'all better get in on it now because it's going to be a fun football season. I'm Trevor Sycamore. That is Connor Rogers.

Thank you guys so much for listening to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. We'll see you next time. Bye.