NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 244. Collab Mock Draft with Ben Solak & Danny Kelly (The Ringer)

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers team up to go 2v2 with Danny Kelly and Ben Solak of The Ringer for a new "What We Would Do" first round mock draft for the 2024 NFL Draft

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

It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital only games welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast in this episode we are starting the collab mock draft series with two of our very good friends Danny Kelly and Benjamin Solak from the ringer these are two of the best in the business and we're switching it up a little bit we're not doing predictive mocks we're doing what we would

do mock so it's got a lot of really great conversations, a lot of great back and forth with those two guys teaming up, Connor and I teaming up. You get to hear us actually, you know, talk through the strategies of where we would go. And it's great to have those two guys on to see where they have prospects ranked because, you know, selfishly, that's fun for us to do. I'm sure it'll be fun for you guys as well. I'm Trevor Sycamore with me as always is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast.

I'm Trevor Sycamore. That is Connor Rogers joining you guys for a Mock Draft Monday episode of the show. But it's a very special one because we also have two other guests who are here on screen with us. It's Danny Kelly and Benjamin Solak from The Ringer kicking off our CoLab Mock Draft series. Let's go, baby. I'm so excited about this. I'm so pumped up that these two guys are kicking this off with us. We did it last year and you guys absolutely love it. these are two of my favorite draft minds in the game connor i'll get to you in a second but well i gotta start with ben i'm contractually obligated to ask you how is everything my friend how are you everything's delicious uh it's been

it's been a good it's been a good day for a lot of nfl draft because there's like spencer rattler hype going on right now on the internet yeah which means there for a lot of NFL draft because there's Spencer Rattler hype going on right now on the internet, which means there's a lot of people being like, remember that one time Ben and Trev got on the summer preview in 2021? We're like, Spencer Rattler's the next Mahomes. That was like three off seasons ago. It never happened. Only early.

The thing about summer scouting is that it doesn't count. You can say whatever you want. Oh, their final season changed it yeah anyway rattler finally in the draft baby that that arm is still alive danny how are you doing my friend i'm doing great i'm doing great uh i also am excited about rattler he's my favorite uh day two sleeper uh we'll see we'll see why not rattler going 32 overall 32 overall kansas city chiefs i was gonna say connor are we Rattler in the first round of this mock draft? It kind of feels like it's the propaganda here.

This is the beauty of it's not just me and you. Anything can happen now. Everybody knows our tendencies and trends, but you throw in, you know, a couple of sticks of dynamite into this. Spencer Rattler and Michael Pratt could go in the top 20 of this draft. Who the hell cares? I like Ben's, Ben unlocking the secret of summer scouting is that if you find a gem, you're a genius. If you have, you know, a day three player is your number one in the position group. Who the hell cares?

Summer scouting is just traits. It's just traits. I agree. The best part about summer scouting is always number five on the positional ranking group. Because you could throw anybody in there. And if they get way better, you can go, see, I was on it before anybody else. You just want the last name to show up in the Twitter search.

It's just all about the Twitter search. Like, oh, I had a tweet from 2021. There he is. That's how you do it. Oh, man. I'm very excited for this episode. Obviously, you guys can tell we're going to have no fun. There's going to be no jokes.

It's going to be a Denzel Washington version of Remember the Titans. Football is not fun, sir, here on this mock draft. I'm very excited to go through this. It's a first-round mock draft. The way that we're going to set this up, if you guys missed it last year, Connor and I will actually team up. We'll become the dynamic duo, and we will pick for

the odd-numbered selections. Then Danny Kelly and Benjamin Solak will be the sticks of dynamite that we will throw into this mock draft, picking for the odd numbered selections. And then Danny Kelly and Benjamin Solak will be the sticks of dynamite that we will throw into this mock draft picking for the even. So essentially what's going to happen is when we come on the clock, either group,

we're going to talk about what just happened. We're going to talk through who we're going to pick and then we're going to make a selection just for everybody out there. Because Connor and I have been doing a lot of predictive mock drafts, right? What we think these teams are going to do. The reason why we have these great analysts on

is because we want to hear what they think of these prospects. So this is going to be more of a what we would do mock draft and i think that rounds up all of the intros and explanations that i say yeah go ahead please please happy birthday trevor everybody give it up we're not getting into the mock draft without saying happy birthday to Trevor. Light up the comments with happy birthday. I appreciate it. I'm still younger than Bo Nix, obviously.

So that's always good. I'll always have that going for me. But I appreciate that from you and anybody else who wished me happy birthday out there. I appreciate you guys. So with that being said, let's get into it. Let's do what I want to do most here on my birthday, and that is do a mock draft with my good pals. We're going to throw up the mock draft simulator from PFF.

You guys can follow along if you are at a desktop or, shoot, if you want to go mobile tab to tab, you absolutely can like an animal, but we'd respect you for it. Connor, we're up at number one overall, and it's what we would do, mock draft. So obviously we're taking Michael Penix at number one overall and it's what we would do mock job so obviously we're taking michael pennix at number one overall right 100 the fierce debate between pennix and bo nicks number one overall here i think this one's pretty easy for us that's why we uh shamelessly took the odds and didn't give these guys a choice caleb williams should be the number one pick in this

draft he's the best quarterback the bears have traded Justin Fields. This is a no-brainer. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. Caleb Williams off the board at number one overall. So that means that Danny and Ben, we get a first look at you guys in the war room, how you're going to handle things at number two. Good luck, fellas. There was a report today from owners meetings, Tom Palacero, NFL Network,

saying that he asked the league what the commander's going to do at two. And the most common answer is J. mccarthy that's that's that's the uh get out of town and finally he and he knew he was delivered palacero knew he was delivering a line man he was like you ask other executives guys from adam peters and they say what they expect them to do jason mccarthy you're like whoa uh yeah so dk we're taking drake may right right yeah this is one spot where we definitely align. I feel like all the owners and all the people that these reporters talk to these days, they're just in on the bit.

They just want content. They just know that this kind of stuff like plays at this time of year. They're just trying to like shake it up. You know, maybe it's actually a smokescreen. We'll see. But I think all this J.J.arthy talk is just uh it's just for content i'm not gonna say it's will levis all over again because he's not gonna fall to the second round but right this time last year we were having literally the same exact conversations

around will levis well was that was it this time last year it was like it was like because i remember i was buying all the levis hype but that was like a week before the draft the number one or number two pick thing i feel like started a week before the draft levis is a top five pick was in the six week range i remember some people were kind of like on the anthony richardson train at this time last year right they were like oh like i'd take richardson too or like there were a lot of people who were like oh i'd take richardson over bryce since for some people who had bryce going number going number one, it was kind of like a grenade that you were unpinning and throwing onto the timeline. It's always wild. I think over the next three weeks, now with nothing else to look forward to other than just reports and how much somebody can find out about what teams are going on.

There's no combine. Pro days are kind of quieting down. Owners meetings are behind us, all that kinds of stuff. We're just going to hear wild stuff like JJ McCarthy going number two overall. But you guys got Drake May. You got Drake May going number two overall. Unifying there. You're within good company here on this podcast with Drake May being keeping doing this class. Good play.

So Connor, what are we doing at number three, my guy? So I don't think we're doing trades in this mock draft. Well, we can. We can. We can. It would just take a lot. I don't, yeah. I don't love a quarterback here at three.

And I know that's not popular, and I know they still need one. I get it. I like Marvin Harrison Jr. better as a player than any quarterback they can take here. But I know, you know, there's a lot to unpack with a roster, especially offensively, that needs a ton of help. Yeah. I'd be taking a swing at the quarterback. Okay. I really would.

Now, you would go Jaden Daniels here or JJ McCarthy? I'd go Daniels here. I would. It's kind of unfair to the exercise, though, because I understand what you're saying. I've got Marvin Harrison as like player two on my board. Right. And I've got Jaden Daniels as 22.

We're almost eye to eye in the gap. If we're doing like a true what we would, I don't know, though. Quarterback group stinks. gotta you gotta take the swing of the bat right i mean yes but at the same time this quarterback comes into his situation with question marks at wide receiver an okay but not good offensive line yeah it's i mean i know jayden daniels the calling card with him is the running ability and he's going to be doing a lot of that if he's just thrown into this offense although he'll probably sit behind bursette this is this is i i honestly would take marv but i understand we don't have to go that way because it's not the popular

you know selection in this spot for new england let's go daniels just for i think the integrity of the mock right that's very fair I think that it was good that we had this conversation there because it both brings up again we've talked so much about quarterbacks and it's like hey we wouldn't really advise one for New England if they had any sort of feasible option and picking somebody over Marvin Harrison Jr. Ben and Danny, where do you have Marvin Harrison Jr. on big boards, on y'all's big board? Ben, I don't even know if you have one finalized yet,

but I know Danny's got one that's running. I believe I have him either second or third. Let me see here. I got him third, yeah. Okay. So very high. My first skill player. Yeah. Non-coreback, I should say. He's the second highest graded player for me see here. I got him third. Yeah. Okay. So very high. My first skill player. Yeah.

Non-coreback, I should say. He's the second highest graded player for me behind Caleb. Okay. So yeah, I mean, like we're all in the exact same conversation. I'm going to, I think we should go Jaden, but I'm glad that we brought this up. Does that work with you, Connor? Yeah. No, I think the integrity of the mock was a very appropriate line.

All right. We're going Jaden at number three then, since we're all so excited about it, it sounds like, which puts you guys on the floor, on the clock, at number four with the Arizona Cardinals, which this one's a fun one. So I'm excited to hear you guys talk this one out. Yeah, I mean, I don't know where DK's at. I think the Cardinals should stay at four and take Marvin.

I understand that there are ways to manipulate the board. And I think that they could, you know, move down and then move back up, which I mean, they did last year for Paris Johnson, right? Is that they moved back with the Texans out of three and they moved back up

to six to go get Johnson. And so maybe you are able to recoup some draft capital and still get Marvin Harrison. Maybe, you know, the chargers are taking Malik neighbors over Marvin Harrison. So you can play that game a little bit for me, knowing that I have a franchise quarterback in Kyler Murray.

I need to put the pieces around him to be successful, a franchise quarterback. I do think that Marvin Harrison is that sort of wide receiver prospect who is like, you know, one of one to come out in the last few years, obviously like what you got out of Jamar chase, but you've got a Justin Jefferson.

Like those were elite NFL players. Like those guys hit, but in terms of what we expect from these guys, those prospects, Marvin is a sort of guy who I think doesn't come out every so every every few years and so I want that with Kyler like that to me just makes too much sense and I'm not going to mess around with the draft board if I'm not positive that I'm still going to land Marvis and at the end of the manipulation so I respect the Cardinals to take calls for me I'd like Marvin here at four DK yeah I agree I think they're you know obviously when you're a team like the Cardinals,

you have a lot of, you know, depth that you have to fill out on your roster. But at the end of the day, you got to pick someone at some point. I feel like they traded back a whole bunch of times last year, cooped a bunch of picks in this class. I think they have six picks in the first 90. And so, I mean, at some point you should start taking blue chip players i feel like obviously there's a chance i could still trade down and get a guy like neighbors or dunes but um to me it's just don't get too cute take the guy that um you've got highest rated on your board

if that is harrison grab him here i'm guessing that's what they'll do that seems like what everyone is pointing to that being the case um but yeah, I think Harrison to me is such a force multiplier for this offense, a potential force multiplier for this offense. Dropping him in there is only going to make Trey McBride better. It's only going to make guys like Michael Wilson and Greg Dorch, who are better at just playing roles, I think, in this offense than trying to be like go-to guys. And it just, it changes the whole dynamic of that offense potentially.

And so you could see a massive jump from the overall offense and from Kyler just in his efficiency, because obviously his numbers were down a little bit last year coming off of that injury, and they didn't have a ton of playmaking talent. I think Marquise Brown was hurt. So yeah, this to me has the potential to make a big... This gives them the potential to make a big jump next year.

All right, so we're going to go Marvin Harrison Jr. at number four. Here's a question to all three of you that you can answer quickly if you would like to. If Connor and I would have gone with Marvin Harrison Jr. for the Patriots at three, how different is this conversation if it's like Malik neighbors or trade down? What do you, like Connor, What's it like for you? And then I'll go to these guys. I think I actually, in that scenario, would have taken Joe Alt or neighbors.

That's where it would have been between for me. I don't really care that they signed Jonah Williams. I'm kind of shocked how everybody's just reacting to that signing like it's some kind of solution for the next half decade. It's nice bridge signing. And I, you know,

we'll see how their plans are for Paris who played on the right side, but I would have no problem taking neighbors because I think he's a top five player in the draft and extremely explosive wide receiver. But I think the combo for me would have opened up between him and all. What about you guys, Ben DK? I would have wanted to trade back out of the pick without Marvin. And I think that if,

if you're making me stay there, I'd take Neighbors. Neighbors is, I mean, he's speed on wheels, dude. He's so freaking good. But I would love to move back in that instance. I think Marvin is the blue chipper. I'd stay for him. Other than that, I'm bumping back. Yeah, I feel pretty much the same.

I think, obviously, it wouldn't be a bad pick if they pick Neighbors there. But it is a slight teardrop, I think think if Marvin Harrison goes off the board there for me, just because neighbors is super explosive, but not quite as, I think technically nuanced as Harrison in a lot of ways. And so, you know, I think if you,

if you're sitting there, if you're the Cardinals, that's, that's a slight of it. It's a slight teardrop enough to that. You start thinking about trading back. All right, Connor,

what do we think of number five here? Chargers up at number five, so no Marvin Harrison dream, but Malik's still here. I think Malik would still be sick in this offense. You talked about Joel. I mean, is he in this conversation at all for the Chargers? No, I would lean Malik here if I'm looking at a player, and I think it's a pretty tough debate between.

I also would gladly take pick 11 and 23 from Minnesota and walk away with two first rounders. How do you feel about pick 12 and a future first? Probably not as good. It's Sean Payton. I would like a quarterback. I'd like one so freaking bad. How aggressive?

Because this is also the pinch point in the draft right number five because we've got three quarterbacks on the board JJ McCarthy still sitting there uh the Giants are about to come up at number six and there's a chance the Giants could take a quarterback at number six if he's sitting there so Connor do you have any strong feelings one way or another between let's say the Vikings offering 11 and 23 and next year's first, or you're getting Denver's first round picks for the next three years. And then probably day two selections in 2025, 2026 as well. Right. I mean, that's probably what it would take to try to beat out two first round picks this year. Yeah. I'd want the picks in this draft. I, I stack this draft up with, you know,

what the last nine or eight that I've gone through, you know, with somewhat of depth. And I just think this is a really good group in the first round. And I think the kind of player maybe starts to shift when you get closer to 23. It'll start to level off for a while, but man, I'm getting a really good player at 11.

I'm probably going to get a really good player at 11 i'm probably going to get a really good player at 23 okay okay okay but okay but think about just how bad my broncos are about to be i think you're right god awful the broncos you know think about the future top five top 10 picks i'm trying to give you right now i think i think that's that is an element of mock drafts that is not talked about enough like i think we just go i think we just go oh yeah sean payton he'll be desperate but it's like we brush by that too much like the desperation is is like what i can't remember which one's worse defcon 5 defcon 1 i can't do this all the time yeah one's the worst okay defcon we're at defcon 1 for the broncos i'm worried about how quickly

dk knew about the death no because we've talked about this defcon five sounds worse but it's like that's the trick we're fine we're always at defcon five like things are okay the only scale in history where one is worse than five is the most important scale we got a category one defcon out here so that just doesn't that doesn't sound as good we needed we need a category all rightFCON out here. So that just doesn't, that doesn't sound as good. We needed to, we need to cut it. All right. So I agree though. I, I think if the chargers are going to make a deal,

no matter how much the Broncos can put in front of them, they can't put two first round picks in front of them. No, the Vikings already did the legwork. That's why they did this. That's why they did this. Here's the problem. I'm not making that trade for JJ McCarthy. I'm making a trade for

Drake may if he's Oh, right. So this is so we're not playing ourselves. We're we'd be helping our chargers. Well, then hold on. Well, they have picked 12. Let's trade with them. Well, hold on. Do we want to make that bet? Do you actually want, do you think JJ McCarthy is worth that trade? No. Okay, so then we don't want to do that. Yeah, but we don't want the Vikings to get him at 11.

We need him. Yeah, because we got to pick him at 11. We got to call the Jets at 10. You have to call the Jets at 10. That is absolutely right. Now, one thing I will say, like in terms of like the reality of the draft, like we're all now in like crazy headspace.

This is one of the things that the commanders kind of, you know, moving target at two actually does create, right? It's going to be a lot harder for like, think about when the Jets trade up for Sam Donovan in 2018, they traded with the Colts. They did that like a month before the draft. Like St. Patrick's Day or something.

Yeah, they, and okay, we know like there's gonna be a quarterback at three that we like for a lot of these teams vikings at 11 broncos at 12 like they might like a certain number of guys but it's going to be hard to trade with like the chargers at five if you don't know like are the pages taking a guy at three who are the commanders taking that two could someone trade the four and that changes the prices and so the commander's playing this the way that they are where like i think they're playing their cards really close to their vest might create an environment where we don't know who goes to until two goes and then a ton of dominoes fall on draft day and there's there's a pre-existing deals and handshake deals also the price goes up we might see like i the

reason why i brought the broncos into this conversation is because if you told me right now like a tectonic category five defcon one trade happens on draft day i could see like the broncos just paying an insane tax to go move up because the draft doesn't fall the way that they expect right i i agree with that point i also it's as somebody who does mock draft competitions for accuracy it terrifies me the vikings not making a trade before the draft actually starts yeah or before i have to submit said mock draft so but i mean for the reasons that ben mentioned so well all right what do you want to do connor we're sitting here at five you want to just make the

pick i think i would take neighbors after all that which is pretty unbelievable that it you know we it took us that great back there but yeah i just need they need to get young at wide receiver and i'm not feeling great about quentin Johnson, even though it's only one year. I mean, that's not stopping me here. Different regime. Yeah, I'm taking neighbors. You would take neighbors over what? Because, well, if Ben still wants to do the deal with 12,

they're the ones who are trading up for McCarthy. Would you trade five for 12 and two extra first-round picks? I think so. You would? You'd move back? Yeah, I think so. I think with that... In the division. So, Ben, are you doing it? Would you do it for the Broncos? If the Vikings aren't doing it, I'm not doing it.

And then I'm trying to just pop in front of 11. Oh, look at you. Playing the game, baby. I'm in on the calls, all right? I can see them happening live. The lines are tapped. He's listening to our phone conversations. The Broncos already live the the one the lines are tapped he's listening to our phone conversations the broncos already did the trade the first round pick to a team and then have to give them a top five pick thing just recently with the seahawks um they're not wanting

to do that again that wasn't sean all right we're picking the league neighbors if this goes badly for sean i just got to retire again. Okay, he's immortal. He can do whatever he wants. Takes his millions and leave. All right, we're taking the league neighbors at five. It has been decided. Giants are on the clock at six. DK, I know who I want.

I'm pretty sure I know who you want. Rome. Same guy. Yeah, this is Rome for me. Wow. Triple quarterback, triple wide receiver. Welcome to the modern NFL. I feel like I keep coming up with this exact structure in all my mock drafts.

I'm like, I want to try and make it realistic, but also this is what it feels like is going to be realistic. Three quarterbacks at least, maybe four, and then receivers. Okay. In different orders and structures. But obviously you could throw in tackles here and there. But man, it does feel like this is the top of the draft right here.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, especially when it comes to the giants, I feel as though them signing John Runyon, them signing Jermaine Illuminor, like it gives them the flexibility that they needed to say like, Hey,

we'll keep rolling with Evan Neal. And then if it goes wrong, somebody else is stepping in. So I, I, I feel as though what the giants did in free agency, freeze them up to either go quarterback or whichever wide receiver is still left on the board here do you agree

connor completely yeah i think that was savvy by them yeah and i and if they took a tackle here at six i would call it a good pick but for my estimation of the class i think this is a good tackle class and i think the third best receiver is better than the top tackle like i have rome graded above all and like that's just how good neighbors rome and malik uh excuse me marvin harrison uh graded out for me yeah yeah all right roma dunes a to the giants at number six connor were on the board with the titans at seven i joe alt yeah i mean we sleepwalk through this one it's joe alt they're gonna franchise left tackle now this line is starting to come together after signing cushionberry yeah i mean i don, I don't really know any other direction

that they're going to go at this point. With the Calvin Ridley signing, you signed Tony Pollard. I mean, you brought in some guys on the defense side of the ball too. You traded for LeGarious Sneed. It feels like this is only offensive tackle for the Titans. Yep, completely on board. All right, Joel, at offensive tackle for the Titans. Yep. Completely on board. All right. Joel at,

at number seven to the Titans. Y'all are up with the Atlanta Falcons. Number eight, Ben. So there's two positions here that I generally have been looking at edge and corner. Yep. And I feel like the corner prospects, the two top guys for,

at least for me, Aquinia Mitchell and Terry and Arnold, are just safer, higher floor picks than the edge guys in this class. Do you feel the same way? You already know I agree with that. This edge class is not my favorite, not for me. Dallas Turner, the edge out of Alabama, goes here in like eight out of every ten mock drafts I look at,

and I can't stand it. And they certainly have edge rusher needs. I understand that um jimmy lake who's the new defensive coordinator there said that uh uh they want to be a a more of a 3-4 team like that's going to be their base i don't like so like obviously turner like he's a lighter guy like he can be a scheme fit for that like you know uh the body type is correct i just don't see double digit sacks and like as like a consistent thing that's going to be coming from dallas turner's game like maybe he's a year away from getting there and with development and what have you but if i'm spending a top 10 pick on an edge rusher i

better be able to like very clearly see that future for you and i'm just not there with turner i think he's a good player it's too rich for my blood aquinion mitchell what about verse ben you don't you don't see that with verse no and and and this is again like to what you know we would do mock drafts whatever i'm a lot lower in this edge class than than i think the consensus is uh i would take turner before verse verse for me is like a good eddie steady player i view more as like a fourth free end i again like for me like that's the issue yeah he's like a high effort player and i think that he his peak can get there certainly i just don't see that consistently from him if i'm betting on one edge rusher in this class to have multiple years of double digit sacks i'd be betting on layout to lotto at ucla let's go

baby and there's obviously issues with lotto because you're coming up with health concerns right so it's an imperfect class for me uh i i have quinion rated higher than terry arnold i have him higher than all the edges um i do think that corner is a very understated need for the falcons right now where they have clark phillips so i think they drafted more to be a nickel playing on the outside at the end of last season they lose jeff coonan for agency aj trell's only got one year left on that deal too and so they they need an outside corner already and then they also have to you know prepare for those universes as scary as they might be where like you can't get there with terrell and you'll play the franchise tag game what if

he gets hurt and you don't want to put this on that there are worlds where 12 gets outside outside your building you have to acknowledge and prepare for that so i like quinian for them that's the pick i would make dk uh no i like that i i think it just comes down to quinian for me and terry and arnold who i think when you're making this decision it like comes down to like do we trust the guy from toledo over the guy from alabama you know what i mean um but then you watched quinian mitchell play at the senior bowl Senior Bowl and he was the star of the show like almost every single day. Yeah.

Obviously not too big for him. The stage was not too big. The competition was not too good. So I'm totally fine going Quinnian Mitchell. I think in terms of athletic traits, size, ball production, instincts, you know, scheme versatility,

he checks every box and, you know, Terry and Arnold is very, very good but he did not check the athleticism box that Quinnian Mitchell did. So maybe that's the tiebreaker here. All right. So... Quinnian Mitchell.

Quinnian Mitchell. Okay. All right. Good player, man. Quinnian Mitchell, cornerback at Toledo going to the Atlanta Falcons at number eight. Connor on the board with the Bears at number nine. I will remind you, J.J. McCarthy is still on the board.

I will also remind you that the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears are in the same division. I thought you meant they're going to take McCarthy, and I was like, to compete with Caleb? Wait, what? Nothing better than some good old-fashioned competition, baby. You know what the motto is? You good old back to competition, baby. Move JJ to five here. You know what the motto is?

You draft a quarterback until you have one. We're taking him at nine. We're taking Spencer Rattler at whatever their third round pick is. We're taking Michael Pratt in the fourth round. Load up. We're loading up, baby. We're taking Tua's little brother in like the seventh. I don't know.

Okay, so what are we doing here at number nine connor this is tricky right because you know keenan's on there on a one-year deal so i would have been comfortable with the dunes a he didn't make it here you know my love for brian thomas jr but even this feels this feels even a hair really considering how much I really like him. And then you go and do it and go, man, do we just want to take who we think is the best defensive player available here? And it gets it gets you know who the best defensive player available in my eyes is Johnny Newton. And it kind of shocks me that nobody talks about that. I don't know if it's because he's been hurt and he hasn't tested. I mean, he kicked the shit out of everybody in the Big Ten for two years.

I don't know what people were waiting for to be higher on him. But once again, I have him 14th for a team like the Bears where you wanted to come away with another explosive weapon. So this is probably the most difficult spot we've been put in. Why don't we call up Ben, who is now calling the shots for the Denver Broncos? We moved down to 12. Yeah.

Right? I'll give you 20, 24 first. That's 12 overall. And I'll give you 20, 25 second. Oh, is that getting done? I don't know. You're the one running. Three spots?

Come on. You're the one running the trade simulator thing. The Raiders aren't know. Three spots. Three spots. Three spots? Come on. You're the one running the trade simulator thing. The Raiders aren't calling here. The Vikings aren't trying to move. This is also interesting though, because the Bears still have the Panthers second round pick from next year.

So another second round pick from the Broncos means you got three second round picks. Bears. If you're the Bears. You do. but is that is that the appropriate value i made it up off the top of my head i don't think it's insane i think that's i was just looking at the scores i made it up so it's on the jj car chart it's um it's a difference of 150 which is not very much which is not um and and a future fourth

hell let's take it when it comes to quarterbacks the price is always gets jacked up a little bit yeah i think i think i think next year second would do it yes i do too all right let's roll i don't want this pick anyway so fine fine we didn't want it anyways. It's a free pick. Never wanted anything to do with it. All right, 12. Next year's first for nine. This trade is a 73% chance to be accepted. Not when I force the trade, baby. Look at me off the dome, general manager-ing, finding an equal price.

Come on, son. All right, so you guys just traded up to nine, so you're making the pick here. JJ? So I would take JJ. And here's the thing as somebody who like i've been somebody else all right it'd be like a defensive tackle yeah johnny newton it's verse it's verse so payton did say at owners meetings this week he was like it is

realistic that we trade up and i do think that that they're they're on the phones that they just have jared sitter right now obviously they're going to be going through this process now i have said on the ringer nfl draft show and and other places like i don't dislike jayden daniels quarterback at lsu i just want to want to take him for where he's going to go i don't dislike quarterback jayden mccarthy out of michigan i just don't want to take him where he's going to go so like for me like those guys are going to get overdrafted but once you're running a team like the the price is the price right jay just going to go in this range i'm the broncos i really really really don't want to leave this draft without a high caliber gamble at quarterback right and i think mccarthy is that

mccarthy is is young and in my opinion he's like a year away from being a year away he requires development does sean payton really have that time like there's a lot of issues with this but mccarthy more so than than michael pennix more so than bo nicks more so than spencer rattler i could see him becoming a starting quarterback in the nfl pretty reasonably i can see that outcome for him i do think you're probably destining yourself to we have a top 10 to 20 guy instead of like a top 10 guy and so now he gets on a second contract we're paying middle class contract quarterback money we have to make perfect everywhere else like you are kind of painting yourself into a tough corner in the future but if you're the broncos like no even more than the vikings the broncos

have to be desperate for some sort of future at quarterback especially a cheap future at quarterback they'll help them survive the incoming russell wilson dead cap hits like that is a such a boon for this franchise so i think they should be aggressive trying to trade up and certainly if we get past four overall and five overall and a quarterback is still on the board the broncos should be calling every single phone number in front of the Vikings, trying to make sure they're the guys who land McCarthy, not them. So I think this is good general managing,

even if I personally wouldn't love the feeling of taking McCarthy with the ninth overall pick. I love the idea that the Vikings are just asleep at the wheel here. They're just like... They didn't match the offer. They're like, nah, we're fine. We'll go with Sarah Darnell. If it was your second, we could never.

That's the only part of this that doesn't feel super realistic is it feels like the Vikings are in it to win it in terms of they traded up into the first to have that second first round pick so they can move around. And if they have the opportunity to move up two spots or whatever it is, I think they would do it. But that being said, this is what we would do. And so I like this for the Broncos, I i guess i don't like it very much for mccarthy to be honest

because the broncos like offense doesn't have a ton of talent or at least proven talent on it right now um there's some guys there who could be good and marvin mims i think you know i like greg dulcich coming out but he hasn't really done anything because he's had bad hamstring for two straight years. He's like the tight end version of Christian Watson, I think. But yeah, this doesn't seem like the best landing spot for J.J. McCarthy, all things considered. I'd way rather have him land with the Vikings if I was a J.J. McCarthy fan. Yeah, I'm trying to think of like, because you're right. It's like, okay, it's what we would do, Mock, so it's fine. But I'm trying to think of like, cause you're right. It's like, okay, what, what, it's a, what we would do mock.

So it's fine. But I'm trying to think of like, realistically, I guess Minnesota's probably calling the Titans as well. I don't know if the giants wouldn't move out of getting Roma dunes. Hey, maybe they would, maybe they're comfortable.

It's fine. If you stay in there and take in JJ, right? That's true. That's true too. That's true too. So anyways, all right,

well, we can't blend the realities too much. This is what we would do. Ben's got, Ben's got the, and DK have true, too. So, anyways, all right. Well, we can't blend the realities too much. This is what we would do, Mark. Ben's got the – and DK have the Broncos moving up to nine, taking JJ McCarthy. I think – so, you guys are still on the clock now because you're up with the Jets. And then we'll take over for the Bears. So, for the Jets, so, like, I – with the top receivers off the board,

I kind of like tackle here. I think Olufushanu makes a ton of sense for them. Left tackle, drop him in. He's kind of game ready, gives them that bump. I think it would be malpractice if they didn't add at least one offensive lineman in this draft, just in case the 33-year-old tackle tandem that they have doesn't make it through the season um

and obviously you know i i don't know if he's played i can't remember if he's played any other positions but i think for sean who has the body type and like demeanor that he could probably play guard if they needed to just get their five best guys out there so um i go with olu fashano personally what do you think yeah that was the only thing i was thinking is i was like is there a world in which we go talis fuwaga at oregon state over fashanu simply because fuwaga i think it has more right tackle future and has more guard future than uh fashanu does and accordingly like that's a good that's a good point yeah but maybe but at the same time like how much do i want to be planning around 2024 with tyrant smith and morgan moses being like oh my tackle spots are set as opposed to like the future where it's like hey both those guys aren't on contract and they're

both old and they both might get hurt tomorrow um it's like the future planning versus near-sighted planning is the most interesting thing with the jets for me just because like robert sala and joe douglas have to know like they're doing the job for the jobs right now like the seats are hot and the expectations are high so i'm inclined to go for that reason i think there's more worlds where he gets on the field in year one and that would kind of be the what the jets are prioritizing but i'm i'm happy for sean of waga like i'm fine either direction i kind of yeah no actually that's convincing to me because i think this this year really is what matters most for the jets i know that it would be an ideal world for them to plan long term but they

really need a guy who can contribute right away so let's go with huaga i don't mind that actually at all so let's do it i will say just as an aside yeah it would you it would take a full minute in the draft room to actually convince me not to take brock bowers here you would eventually get it done because of positional health and value and tackling whatever but it would just you would have to spend a whole minute being like ben no no like taking the phone away from me and stuff yeah connor how they do really good i i thought very sound arguments for both the other guy throw in there in that combo kind of piggybacking off of there hey you might need a guy that can play inside outside would be fatanu um because i mean this is my argument with Fitanu, as much as I love Olu,

I love Talisa Fuanga, is that you can actually have him go into camp and battle for left guard with John Simpson from day one. And man, this is a perfect world. It's probably not going to happen because of health reasons. But the idea of Tyron Smith, Fitanu, Joe Tippman, Elijah Vera Tucker, and Morgan Moses as your five, that's a really good-looking group next year in front of aaron rogers and then when somebody gets hurt you just kick fatanu around because i think the guy could truly play all five but man it's you're not going to talk me out of

both olu and fuanga i think they're great yeah you can't you can't ask me to go through an explanation where i have to say for shanu fuago and fatanu that many times the only reason i didn't bring him up is because i maxed out my limit i was gonna mess up i included a third name and then ben's right like we say this all the time trevor bowers is you know eating your dessert before your vegetables but yeah goddamn like the sugar rush here's the thing dessert is good right that's the thing okay you cannot say that to ben because he's got the he's like yes of all time i have a very ready fake news stuff this is a normal cheese on cheese appetizer then dessert then you get into the main course and then you finish it

up with some cheese heresy dude i don't know what you're talking about. All right. So you guys are taking Felicia Fuanga, right? Yeah, Fuanga. Conor, that puts us up with the Vikings at 11. Obviously, a little strange that the Vikings are sitting here at 11 because we haven't done a mock draft with them at 11, certainly since the trade. But with them at 11 now, would you cape for Penix at this point?

Easily. In this system? Easily in this system. Easily. Easily. That's too. That's so rich for me. I get it. But, and this is unlikely.

You still have 23 though. Like I'd wait. Ah, the Daniel Jones argument from 2019. Yeah, that is a bad, bad pick at six, but good pick at 12.

They've got to be worried about the Raiders. I know. I think he's in play for the Raiders. I just thought of that. And we pick for the Raiders, so I'm going to ask Connor what he wants for the Raiders. You know what I want. This is the flawed... As much as it's just Gardner Minshew,

I mean, what are the Vikings... Sam Darnold is really going to play the whole year if they don't get a quarterback out of this draft. Are we are we talking ourselves into that? This is what's going to happen. Yeah, right. So this is this goes back to our point of it being a little flawed. The Vikings are sitting here and all the guys went in front of them.

Right. But yeah, if I'm taking a quarterback, I'm taking panics here for sure. And this feels like a team destined to take a quarterback. Well, I took I took Marvin Harrison Jr. away from you at pick number three. So you're going to give me this one? So I'll give you this one. Wow, what a guy. On his own birthday.

Fascinating. Truly selfless. Fascinating. Yeah, I think what Penix can do pre-snap in O'Connell's offense, and I like their offensive line, I think he would surprise a lot of people with this landing spot. And he's a very landing spot-specific player when you look at his pocket-passing skill set,

but this is the one for me, for sure. All right, we'll go Pennix to 11. So Michael Pennix Jr. off the board at number 11 in the Minnesota Vikings, who did not trade up. So this is at least, I think there's going to be some people in the comments who would be like, yeah, this mock wasn't realistic the vikings didn't move up but like here we actually get to explore a world where if right i mean things go wrong we're so we're so sure this is

happening a month outside of the draft like why not have a little fun and see what happens if yeah when was the last time the first round went like you thought it would yeah every year brother haven't had accuracy listen i would say i would say at least once per year something happens during the nfl draft that makes me like slack jawed right like cartoon jaw hits the floor yeah michael panics around one would not clear the bar i would be surprised like i would be like whoa crazy but it would i wouldn't be like oh my god i just be like i'd be like god that's nuts But again, that would not – and it happens every year. When the Texans did the whole 2-3 thing, I was like,

yo, what in God's name is going on? Pennix and Crescent would not do that for me. All right, so Pennix off the board at 11. Chicago is now on the board again because we have them at 9. We have them trading back. What are you thinking here? Defensive line? I'm thinking defensive line.

I'm thinking either one of the two interior defensive linemen or one of the edge rushers. you could also talk yourself into that i mean they're all there which is pretty nice the gang's all here montez sweat looked really good in that defense last year i mean they're hearing him with someone i think gervin dexter was even better than what we expected as a rookie, which gives you some beef up on that front. Gator great. I kind of like the idea.

I actually like Newton a lot. I mean, Newton's my highest ranked defensive player on the board right now. It's Newton or Verce for me. And then Verce is my highest ranked edge. And the thing is with both of them that's beautiful is I like the floor on both of them a lot like you're getting a really good starter in this spot no matter what between those two guys i think i'd pick newton i'm you don't have to get any sign off from me i got i got i got i got yelled at by bears fans when i picked byron murphy at nine i think the last time that a receiver was not available. But dude, like, they've got

Gervin Dexter, they've got Zach Pickens, they have Andrew Billings, but Newton's a dude. Newton's a better pass rusher without question than all of those guys. Without question. In a scheme that held back his pass rushing. Dude, he'd be a monster

for this team. you can't run on this team if you put newton in this front we're going newton we're going newton bears fans get at me in the comments i can ruin my life i'm a man i'm 40 you got noon plus a second for the younger than bonin yeah you got you got the best quarterback in the draft in my opinion the best defensive player in the draft, potentially. And you got an extra second. It's hard to walk away angry in that spot. Heck, the Vikings, too.

The way that Johnny Newton hits quarterbacks, I'm not comparing him to Aaron Donald in other ways, to be clear, because Aaron Donald is a Hall of Famer. No, keep going. But the way that Aaron Donald completely just obliterates quarterates quarterbacks with like forearm shivers to the head like johnny newton i'm not gonna say he's dirty but he hits people very very violent that's why he got thrown out of his best game right yeah yeah speaking of like ben talking about the cartoon jaw hits the floor thing when jerzan newton hits you in like the midsection,

it's like the cartoon where your head and your feet stay in the same spot, but your midsection goes back further, and then the other two shoot the other direction. So, yeah, all right, we're going Johnny Newton here, interior defensive lineman from Illinois at number 12. 13, Raiders around the clock. I'm not going quarterback here. I would go corner.

Yeah, and that's where it's it's kind of wide open right like i think i think i'd go to gene i would go to gene he's my highest ranked corner in this spot oh you guys cooper over arnold and yeah yeah yeah i'm shocked at how were the outliers on that yeah i think arnold's the fourth best corner in this draft nice i think mich it's better i think wiggins is better we get in our little bubble so like and i with like our draft shows i will listen to you i rank i rank cooper as corner three in this class wiggins is 180 pounds i can't do it there's no oh he's pressing brother. Wiggins has mass. He's 170. He's soaking wet. You're overshooting him. If he was 185, I'd take him in the top 15. I can't speak the way I spoke about Emmanuel Forbes last year

as if he were like a second-class citizen. As if he didn't deserve to play football. I killed him. And then turn around and be like, yo, Nate Wiggins cornered too. I know. I get that for sure. When the commanders took Forbes over Gonzalez, I acted like you're in national crime.

Well, it was, and it proved to be. That was tough. All right, so we're going Dijon here? Sure. I love it. All right, Dijon off the board at 13. Y'all are up at 14. All right, here.

What do you... The Saints, right? Yeah. DK, I mean, this feels like edge rusher for sure yeah i was gonna say either edge rusher or defensive tackle um i just feel like with cam like cam jordan's like clearly getting up there they've had such a huge rotation at edge at this point they are i want to say like bottom four bottom five and sacks last season uh this feels like it needs to be past rusher the whom is a there's a question yeah yeah i like in terms of who's their type like versus more

their type than turner uh and i think that like verse also play style wise is the sort of guy they're like like i wouldn't mind this is the sort of team that could like make that verse would work for and i would get it and i think he could he would benefit from playing behind jordan and like honestly like verse has like good explosiveness numbers right because he jumps well he's a good 10 yard and so like there's there is some developmental pass rusher in there like he's not my favorite player but but there is some there's like i'm inclined to go verse you could talk me into any any edge rusher here though if you have a different feeling i mean i i have the exact same feelings with you i've i think i've mocked verse to the saints a couple times in this pre-draft process, simply because he just seems to fit their,

their profile in terms of big, powerful, explosive guys that can, you know, do it, do it all. It's playing all three downs. Um,

like personally, I like layout to a lot to more, but I don't know if the fit is perfect for what they typically go for. So I think going with verse makes a lot of sense just because if we're doing what we would do for these teams, that makes the most sense to me. Yeah, I think it's verse. I like, Latu is very hard to pick

because I just don't know what the medicals look like and I never will. Yeah, I'll take verse here. I think the medicals are all right on Latu. Like, genuinely. Talk to me. Yes. Like, I mean, I think he would have,

I think he would have seriously got flagged at the combine if it was a major issue he's had two years where he's been fully healthy ucla obviously cleared him to transfer there he already had the surgery on the neck all that stuff so like i'm not really worried about his medical history i'm really not like i i would agree with you if i like understood how the human body works i don't and so like josh sweat like josh why don't you take a couple summer classes bud josh why don't you get into just pretend josh sweat has like the traumatic knee injury at high school and then he goes into college and it's just like healthy all the time and then the lead

in the fourth round you know i'm saying like they're like the doctors find things, man. They're wizards. I don't know. Magic, whatever, however, x-rays work. So yeah,

but I love lots of, he's good. All right. So you're going verse. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So you're going verse number 14.

We got the Indianapolis Colts at 15. Connor and I, Connor, I think it's a two horse race here, right? Yeah. It's Brock Bowers or is Terry on Arnold, right?

Yeah. And I would take Bowers by a good stretch. I think that i would too yeah another tight end for the colts yeah when you haven't yet discovered one draft when you have four tight ends you have none yeah yeah well i mean there are four tight ends and jelani woods kylan granson moCox, Will Mallory, Jordan Murray. From a dynasty football perspective, I think Jelani Woods is a high caliber. I think they should be investing more in Jelani Woods.

Jelani Woods is not keeping me from picking Brock Bowers. From a dynasty management perspective, we got Jelani Woods. Tony shares. All right, we going Bowers here? Yeah. Dang it. I wanted a hard decision for the Seahawks. All right, so you're up in seahawks dk you're you're driving this ship what do you want um all right so here so i've mocked layout to lot to the seahawks in the past it was pointed

out to me and fairly so that the seahawks have a recent history with players getting retired because of neck injuries and cam chancellor and cliff averill which in theory could scare them away from a guy like leah to launch even though i think in other in every other way he fits what they're trying to do um i'm gonna i'm still troy fautanu is like the perfect fit for the seahawks because number one he's going to the offensive coordinator that he had in college um and number two he can play in theory like four maybe five positions and so um just getting the best offensive line possible going right now whether that's having uh Fautano at right tackle or at left guard or right guard or

whatever it is um I just think it makes a ton of sense for them he can hit the ground running I really like him I think he uh when i watched all the tackles i kind of went through all of them i and this was like before i kind of had a sense of like the consensus of the top guys where i was like this guy moves better than anybody you know any of the other tackles extremely and we saw that at the combine too i think like when he was doing his his drilling on the field it was like man this guy moves around like he's a tight end or something and so um i think he's just got a really high ceiling and dropping him in you know at any spot really on this offensive line that they need him just makes them better right away so i'm going i

would go with fao tana what do you what's your reaction to that so like uh i i like it i don't mind it i gave them a marius mims in a recent mock where i was like they might like you know yeah help attack you know the the injury concerns abraham lucas and seahawks fans are furious with me and i think that like obviously fatinu has the ability to play guard which i think assuages that but i do think that the seahawks are a much better offensive tackle around one team a lot of people are realizing just because like obviously they've made the base with lucas and cross but there are legit injury concerns i think on both sides and they need protection there and so i i don't mind fatinu at all it's a good pick all right also wild to me that fashanu is still out there am i

getting that wrong he's still he's still there right yeah he's still there yeah that would be i mean that would be another guy i would be very excited to draft if i was a seahawks fan and i am a seahawks fan so um yeah but i think fashanu is a hard guy to find when you're scouting for the teams because you're like okay they might need to tackle they might need a guard so take this dude because fuaga take take fondue because they can play both the teams will know if they want to tackle if they want to guard and i think fashana will end up going higher than people realize yeah yeah i think that's fair i think that's fair all right so you're going for a ton of here for 16 yep yeah all right all right before connor and i

pick gotta shout out our friends over fabric by gerber life you got a family out there you gotta get life insurance to protect them. I mean, it's just plain and simple. It's one of the smartest financial decisions that you can make, and this time of year is the perfect time to get it done so you can focus on whatever else the rest of the year has in store for you. Fabric was designed by parents for parents to give you high quality, surprisingly affordable term life insurance policies in less than 10 minutes.

Fabric's got flexible policies that will fit your family's budget, whatever that is, with quality policies like millions of dollars in coverage for less than a dollar a day. You can get your personalized quote in just minutes. Apply whenever it is convenient for you, all online and to your schedule. You can overstart to cover in less than 10 minutes with no health exam required. You can join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to protect their family and apply today in just minutes at meetfabric.com slash stockcom. M-E-E-T Fabric.com.

Policies issued by Western Southern Life Insurance Company. Not available in certain states. Prices subject to underwriting and health questions. If you go to M-E-A-T Fabric.com. That just takes you to Danny Kelly's draft guide by the ringer. So, you know, just if you want to go there, you can. It's great. You can. It is great. It is great.

It is great. I'll shout out that again when we get to the end of the podcast. But I had to do it there just to get a little fun in. Okay, Connor. So, 17 for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Do you have any? I have like a curveball. Okay.

I have Olufoshanu here here interesting cam robinson's on the last year of his deal this whole line was not good last year he wasn't great are you sure because they extended both guards for some reason right that's okay all right yeah yeah repeat the last couple of words that i said the weirdest reason dude the weirdest moves of the entire free agency cycle they got they got ezra cleveland done asap why and i will say mitch morris is an upgrade over luke fortner who has not been good for them he's you drafted anton harrison at right time yeah i think you're onto something trevor i do i i draft olu fashanu i'd be much more excited about Olufesanu than any tackle they have on the roster for the long term on the left side.

Keep Harrison on the right. I'm completely with you. Tyrion Arnold's still on the board. He's an option for them. Brian Thomas Jr. is on the board. He's an option for them. I'd go trenches, man. I'm very high on Fasciano. He's a top 10 player for me, so I like the value. We're going Fasciano at 17. y'all are up with the bangles at 18

all right what are you thinking select usually i'm always immediately like all right brock bowers and move on they took brock from me oh brock actually went in front of 18 like he should not making you think oh i listen i was trying to take him with the bears dude i i think he should go yeah uh yeah 100 best player in the class um okay do i what's their outside corner situation because cheeto's gone they have cam taylor brett they drafted dj turner hill and like i'm uh turner i think they probably keep they keep turner and then and i'm looking at terry and arnold was my first thought defensive tackle right they lose dj reader right now it's sheldon rankins and bj hill they got rankins on like a good deal but you i could see them going byron murphy here as well

um they did they did a good job of you know the thing that good gms do where you you hedge every position that you have a big hole at you know know, on your roster. So you don't have to go anywhere essentially. So the way that I see the Bengals and that went, the way I did it with my last mock was basically just best player available, you know, and who do you see as the biggest impact player at this spot? I personally had layout to lots of you. Yeah.

Well, I think that, right. I like, I think the one position where they probably do have a need that they didn't get a big ad was at edge rusher right now i think that they expect the combination of sam hubbard and joseph osai to be better this upcoming year than it was and the draft was murphy last year yeah and they drafted murphy they're just like higher on him overall so last

year they had 17 and a half sacks from trey hendrickson their second biggest sack getter was sam hubbard was six right like they are in desperate need of a good second body opposite him i think that hubbard can be better he was coming off a major leg injury i think that miles murphy can be a right guy for them in year two i think that osai they're still developmental traits there so if you draft lotto does make the room crowded i do also think lots is probably the second best player in the room the day that he lands and And so Lato is the clearest path to playing time, I think, between him, Terry and Arnold, and Byron Murphy at defensive tackle. If he's also the best player, then yeah, that should probably be the pick.

Yeah, and I was thinking, if you're the Bengals trying to get over the hump and win the Super Bowl, what are the big things that you always hear about in the playoffs? Like a game-closing pass rush, or a game-changing game field tilting receiver or something like that to to kind of like put them over the edge i i don't i think i i consider talking about uh brian thomas here but i i just kind of think having like too many pass rushers is that's there's no such thing as that you know what i mean so like just weaponize that

lotto's the fact i agree yeah yeah all right a lot to off the board at 18 i have not seen that combination before so i actually really enjoyed that conversation though that was that's but dk makes the right point where that's that's what good teams do is they put themselves yeah the bangles can take 10 000 different positions but also can are fine at all the positions as well which is good team building uh connor we're up with the rams at 19 lots who would have been nice for them but they are losing at all the positions as well. She's good team building. Connor, we're up with the Rams at 19. Latu would have been nice for them, but they are losing Aaron Donald and one Byron Murphy.

The second is still on the board. Dallas Turner is also on the board. That's who I really like here. Oh, okay. Yeah. An explosive athlete in the front seven. They need more pass rush help. I know that the Donald retirement really,

it stinks because this looks a lot prettier when you just throw Dallas Turner into a front that already has Aaron Donald. But I don't think they need to stray away from how important of a need Edge is as well. You're trying to make sure that your boy Kobe Turner stays emphasized. I see what you're doing. Yes. Put respect on Kobe Turner's name. I see what you're doing.

All right. I don't have that big of an objection here because I like Turner a lot, and getting him at 19 I think is really nice. I didn't think he'd be here. I didn't either. Yeah. When they were debating over 18, I was pretty happy that we got to pick between Latu and Dallas Turner.

All right. Let's do Dallas Turner. A good spot for the Rams. It really is. Very good spot. All right. Dallas Turner to the Rams at number 19. Y'all are up with the Steelers at 20.

Why I need a wide receiver really badly uh the steelers signed quez walk-ins today and people were like oh right and i almost lost my mind dude any batman i have a great or no no he's wait which batman is he he's just there he's just also batman to make it a trio. No, what was he, the other Batman? Because he was strong Batman, skinny Batman. Fast Batman. He was fast Batman. Fast Batman, yeah. But he also had like 13 catches that season, all right? So he's not a Batman.

I have a great personal vendetta against Quez Vaca because I'm an Eagles fan and he just doesn't do much. What would you say you do here? With losing Deontay Johnson, I think that this is a great spot for the steelers to start the second round of receivers that should happen in my opinion in the 20s i think brian thomas is a perfect fit for them it's great for george piggins you have two guys who can both go downfield they can they can create explosive plays they have length they can be quarterback

friendly i think that whether you are playing russell wilson or justin fields you are big play hunting you are downfield shot hunting and so the fit makes sense but also you don't really want to build around those two guys that much either because neither one might be the future and thomas is just a good developmental player in general because there's route improvements that can come there's play strength improvements that can come i think it's a little bit bigger on this is the body type of like a three level wide receiver and so thomas for me is very clearly my favorite in the second tier of of receivers and a good fit for the steelers so to me this is no-brainer yeah love love the fit with i know this doesn't matter like you said but with Russell Wilson like just

moonball it up there and let Brian Thomas run under it like that to me is the perfect landing spot for him to kind of get acclimated to the NFL that was why DK Metcalf I think worked out really well with the Seahawks is because like hey go run run go run one route down the field and Russell's gonna throw to you. Over the years, he's developed as a much better route runner, a much more nuanced route runner. I think Brian Thomas is still... He's not, I think, a technician as a route runner.

He's still kind of just super fast and big and has go-go gadget arms, which is perfect for Russell Wilson. Well, he does. And so I love that fit. Opposite pickings. This gives them two big-time playmakers down the field. So, yeah does. And so I love that fit, you know, opposite pickings. This gives them two big time playmakers on the field. So yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

All right. Brian Thomas, Jr. To the Pittsburgh Steelers. Number 20, Miami's on the clock at 21. Connor, they also lost an interior defensive lineman.

They also lost Christian Wilkins, Byron Murphy, again, still here on the board. Also could use interior offensive line. Jackson Powers Johnson is here. Graham Barton is here. I don't know.

What do you think about this one? It's tricky because as much as I agree with that and I like those players a lot, I mean, it felt like we were dangerously close to Teron Armstead retiring this offseason. And just he's kind of become Tyron Smith like where you love him when he's out on the field. But you're kind of playing roulette on the injury report every week. I mean, here's here's the games the last three years, eight, 13 and 10. And this is somebody that was I would actually swing for the fences and take a Marius Mims here. Yes, it's one of my favorite i i put this in every mock i can get way too much sense i love mims i don't

think he's here i want to make that very clear right now the the feedback i heard of mims at the combine was like why is this guy not in the top 15 of mock drafts um yeah he's he's an awesome dude he is incredibly gifted he has not played football yet, but he will at the next level. So Trevor, I would actually, I think Mims could be a top five tackle in the NFL. If it all comes together. I don't feel that way about, you know, maybe the interior players that are here as much as I like JPJ a lot. I, I would feel much better walking out of this draft with Mims.

All right. Look, Marius Mims. All right. Look, Marius Mims carries 340 pounds better than any human probably walking on the planet. Like a small forward. Right. So, I mean, just from body composition alone, I agree like lack of snaps is probably why you're not wanting to play him right away in year one, but that doesn't make his ceiling any lower.

So if you're a team like Miami, you can take a swing for the fence. Obviously, Ben was on board as well. I don't hate't hate this like i said i wasn't thinking about it um when we came on the clock i looked at interior offensive line interior defensive line but i do like this pairing and i like being able to get him in before he has to start immediately and this one makes a ton of sense for me so we'll go mims at 21 ben Ben, you're up. Yeah, the floor is yours. Eagles at 22. If Terry and Arnold was on the board at 22 and the Eagles don't take him, I will do those jersey burning things.

I will unironically. Do the skip Bayless where you walk into your kitchen and throw trash. Like very pouted, like you're pouting. I'll hold the phone for you i'll record it now the only eagles jersey i own is a jake elliott jersey so that will make things more challenging but i will do it you'll see you own yeah heck yeah go birds uh and so yeah uh i think the eagles are like they've never how he's ever taken a corner in the top you know

first round whatever like i i think that's that's true i think that's that's partially like a uh uh how rose in positional value thing it's also been like a little bit of a product of circumstance i do think that the offensive line is on the board here they could get the future guy like a jc latham like there's there's there's guys how he could go for but i don't think he's hard and fast no corner in round one i do think that arnold for me is like a top 10 top 15 pick so this would be a guy falling down the board. They very clearly need help at outside corner right now. It's like if James Bradbury can find his legs again, other than like, you know,

Keely Ringo winning it or whatever, like they so desperately need a Terry and Arnold. So to me, like this is a slam dunk, easy pick send in the card. DK, any objections? Nope.

Love that. All right. Karen, I don't know. 22 to the field of Eagles. I will be tweeting Eagles back. How are we back? So fast. All right. that all right karen nuttle 22 to the field of eagles i will be tweeting eagles back howie back so fast so all right now now i it's it's the yearly tweets it's the yearly he can't keep

getting away with this tweets that how he can't miss after like nolan smith played nine snaps last season no we don't talk about that no one's going to be a good football player, brother. We're not talking about that. Howie season. Vikings at 23. Connor, I've brought his name up now like three times in a row, and he keeps still being on the board. But Byron Murphy II, I feel like, is a Minnesota Viking in this situation.

Yeah, you've been asking for this one, and for good reason. This feels like a good spot man i mean it's clearly a need they got jonathan bullard harrison phillips jerry tillery yeah talk about ghosts of past drafts right there right right jonathan bullard gator great you know it's no we're uh it's murphy for sure we We had to stick with him. An attacking interior D-Lyman. All right. I don't know.

Is there anybody else that's on the board that really pulls in your heartstrings? Because other than that, I'm going with Byron Murphy. I like Graham Barton and JPJ for the interior. I would kick Barton inside, but they're not doing enough where I'm passing on. OK, landing a big need there. All right. So Minnesota, you got Michael Panik, Jr. And you got Byron Murphy, the second. All right.

You could flip those and people would probably be happier. I know. The Lions thing, you know, it's like. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's the Lions draft thing. But hey, they're on the Campbell and Branch.

Yeah. If you reorder it it looks great yeah uh you guys get to go in the mind of jerry jones here at 24 i i let me draw my notepad really quick to get um what was the name yeah there's a name that stands out to me dk i don't know if you have one that stands out not particularly i think um there's a couple positions that i oh yeah i would love that couple of positions that I was like looking at offensive line and receiver kind of came to mind defensive line. What were you thinking?

I think that I'd be surprised if JC Latham is down this far. And if he is at 24, I think that's the pick that you make. Yeah. It's not perfect. Cause I think you have to now figure out the riddle. You have Tyler Smith. You drafted to be a left tackle.

He's played at left guard since for the last couple of seasons he's been excellent at left guard you draft jc latham who who has had time at left tackle but mostly has been a right tackle for alabama you already kind of have your right tackle set just so do you put latham at the latham at the left side first and leave tyler smith at guard do you move tyler smith the left tackles you always planned and see if latham can play guard for you because he's 340 pounds it's like there's it's not perfect but the level of talent that you're getting from an offensive line prospect like this is i think it's like such a freaking good player and you can year one plug and play him he's had so much experience starting in the sec that i think it's very hard to say no to that getting the fact that you just lost two of your

starting offensive linemen like okay you'll figure out who plays where in camp you got a good player in the building and you go from there. I would take Latham if I were here at 24. I'm into that. Yeah, he was the one guy that was kind of standing out on what's left of the big board that was surprising he's still out there. So that makes a lot of sense to me. All right.

Latham at 24 to the Cowboys. Connor, this is the part of the draft that we stress about the most. It's awful. Every time. What are the Green Bay Packers going to do? We don't know. Defense, for sure. They, yeah.

I don't know. I'm just kidding. They have like 12 first round picks on defense. Oh, man. But they kind of need another one. Do you think we need one more this is like the ocean's 11th yeah the ocean's 11th we need one more all right all right cut to linus on the subway in chicago if if they if they draft the defensive lineman in the first round i'm tweeting that

i'm just tweeting that at you i'm just tweeting that clip at you and i will have it at the ready well they got so i'm gonna do a good 800 900900 retweets, baby. We'll be cooking. Let me read it off. I think I got Kenny Clark, Rashawn Gary, Lucas Van Ness, Quay Walker, Eric Stokes, Jair Alexander. Yep.

Devontae Wyatt's got to be in there. I think they've lost a couple of their first rounders. Oh yeah, Devontae Wyatt. Preston Smith was picked 38. Close. Not close. That was also like a decade ago. But yeah, anyways.

I think there was one more in there that they've already gotten rid of, but I can't remember. Connor, do you have, I mean, maybe an offensive line? Here's the thing. Right, I can make the argument for Barton again. I would say Barton. That'd be if I were to pick him. Also, we do have to keep him out of Trevor.

We can pick him at 26. So think about that, Ben. I won't. This is collusion. We can do whatever the hell we want because we're not predicting. When you predict for the Packers is when you get in trouble because the fans are like, no, this threshold exists. Not long enough arms.

Start again. Yeah, there's always a threshold they have. Three cones. Can I just say this? Yeah. Tyler Newbin's a good football player. Yeah, you're going to get that he's not athletic enough for them. Alright, look.

He's a good football player. I don't... I understand the testing wasn't ideal. I get it. It's a weaker safety class. Tyler Newbin's a good football player. He's a very good football player. Whatever. Just had to say that. Good football players run faster than 4-5-6.

The only 4-5-6 bad football player. All offensive linemen, bad. That's the threshold of a good football player, no matter what the position. All right, so Connor, where were you going with that? Probably Barton. I just feel comfortable with Barton anywhere on this offensive line.

You don't love it. No, I mean, it's good pick. Tampa doesn't get him. They hate each other. You can tell. Yeah, but do you think they were taking Barton to Tampa? I don't know. Were you guys taking Graham Barton for Tampa?

I would have considered it, but. Yeah, I'm looking at chop robinson i'm looking at that oh here comes a one step edge rusher trev here we go trevor's face just will he win or will he lose all right pretty great barton 25 you guys are up at 26 ruin his day ruin his birthday i um i mean i i get my wish my birthday is for you to not not pick Chad Robinson at 26. I give Chop to the Buccaneers a lot because he just seems like the sort of player that they're going to lose

in Shaq Barrett, that sort of mold for them. Like, Darius Robinson can also make sense, right? He can land up inside, outside. Todd Bowles can do some weird stuff with him. So I do think that edge rush

is kind of where they want to be as a team. I know that, like, you know, they could go corner, replace the Carlton Davis. I'm not sure they need to do that though. DK, what do you think?

I mean, I love chop Robinson as you will know. So I, I think this is a great pick for them. I think you're doing it as a bit, but I would actually like this. No, do it.

That is true. Actually, this is chop tends to be more of like a, a, what I think the bucks would do as opposed to what I would do. Cause I'm not super high on Chop. That is a good point, DK, but I do think there's some veracity here in terms of what the Bucs are looking for at the position.

Yeah. All right. We'll take Chop at 26 to the Buccaneers. Happy birthday. And literally win against my only birthday wish that I have. And here we are. Okay, Arizona Cardinals at 27. We had them taking Marvin Harrison Jr. at number four,

standing on their values. Connor, what are we doing here now at 27? Looking at maybe the interior of the offensive line with how much talent is there. I mean, this would be an awesome spot for JPJ, in my opinion. It's kind of what I like the most. I don't hate Kool-Aid here. Wiggins is still on the board.

That's your boy. Wiggins is on the board as well. Yeah. I would be between. I kind of like the JPJ fit and just be like, all right, our offense is just going to become a powerhouse. Because now we've got pieces on the line. We've got the best player in the draft in Marv.

These are the next two highest graded players that I have on the big board. Yeah, that's kind of where I default to here. Well, I'm good with either of these picks because these are the top two guys remaining that I have on the board. So if you brought up Jackson Powers Johnson, if you feel more strongly about him then we can go that direction but i also think nate wiggins is cb1 for this team next season i'll leave the the coin flip to you because i'm i'm very happy with both of these additions um

all right nate wiggins nate wiggins it is we're taking nate wiggins 27 somebody's gonna make a video of that oh for sure yeah no it happens all the time just getting clipped to oblivion here on the show um all right we've got five picks left in this draft kind of need to go a little bit of rapid fire here because we've got a time crunch uh y'all are up with the buffalo bills picking for the bills is fun i feel like you can't go wrong with the bills yeah what do you think i haven't i mean i like kool-aid here a lot right they june 1st did trenavious white rasul douglas was a good trade acquisition for them but yeah hey hey stop me for this before corner two might be an issue for the bills whoa you know wonder if christian benford's gonna win the job this year

like no get a real one dude i wish like, like, Benford's a good player. He's a good depth player. We got to stop doing the whole, like, Benford-Kyriellum camp battle. Enough. So I would go Kool-Aid McKinstry here. And I would want to get corner two set. I know that wide receiver is a super sexy pick. I just feel so much better about getting a rotational part of my wide receiver

for round two relative to round one. Go in corner. Go in the position where I think there's a lot more scarcity than the talent at the top is needed so for me this is this is kool-aid yeah when i when you get into like the wide receiver four or five area i think that there's a big tier there of guys and so they could still probably get a good you know starting caliber receiver and end a second round if they if they still want or wherever and on day two um and so i i'm totally into the kool-aid mckinstry thing i think that makes a lot of sense um yeah i'm in let's do it all right kool-aid mckinstry to buffalo at 28 connor at 29 i'm just gonna

throw it out there you know if you don't like it you can throw it right back jackson powers johnson still here he is he feels like their type of player um kevin zeitler is 34 years old right graham glasnow is 31 years old frank ragnall has kind of like been talking about retirement a little bit or at least a little non-committal right like you get jpj in there he's immediately maybe even pushing for a starting job he's your left guard he immediately becomes like a chess piece for them along the offensive line to remain good over the next couple of years. I'm with you all the way.

Zeitler signing kind of makes you at least question this pick now or debate over it. But before it, it was a lock. And the value is too good. The value is too good here. It's way too good. He's too good of a player. And I wonder if he's going to be a little bit further down in the actual draft.

Like we've heard some medical concerns with him that might, you know, hold him up from being like a top 20 pick. Like it felt like he was right after the senior bowl. But so I think late into the first round is actually kind of realistic for him. So Detroit, I think that he is genuinely going to be on their radar or somebody for them to pick there. I'll say from like being in that building a lot over the playoffoff run like frank rhino's held together by duct tape dude they're very cognizant of the fact that they that that rag knows getting really banged up so this is

very realistic in my opinion okay there we go uh you guys are up for the ravens of 30. so i keep circling offensive line with the ravens um yeah what what do you think so like do you think defense would be? I think the Ravens starting tackles right now are Ronnie Stanley, who I had to play in a rotation last season, and Daniel Falele. So, I want a tackle.

Yeah. And I'd like one fast. I think I know who you're thinking here. Is it Kingsley Sumataya? Yeah. So, I prefer Kingsley out of BYU, Sumataya, over Tyler Guyen out of Oklahoma as aatia over tyler guyan out of oklahoma as a developmental player i prefer him over jordan morgan out of arizona as a developmental player

i wouldn't turn my nose up at morgan or or guyan guyan i don't super love guyan that feels really thin and his lower half morgan's morgan's interesting for sure i think sumatia is just the best like you know your prototypical like late first developmental tackle like there's always a kind of one or two of these guys every year. Sumatia, to me, is like that dude in this class. So if you like a different name more than that, you can talk me into it. I would be taking Sumatia here. No, I think that one makes a lot of sense.

In fact, I have that in my upcoming mock, I believe. Oh, a little teaser. A little teaser. It does make sense. And I believe he's played at right tackle. Yeah, he played 12 sets at right tackle 2022. Right. That's because DKk and i were

talking about a couple uh months ago and dk was like dude i'm watching right now and this guy sucks i was like who are you watching and he was like he was like i like he's like i was like he's like i was watching oregon 22 he's on the left side right i'm like no no he was right side in 2022 right side that's amazing i thought i was. It was the first game I was watching of him, and I was like, what? Are people talking about this on a watch list? I was like, dude, other side in 22. Other side. Yeah, he has played right before.

Okay. All right. Kings 2 over Tia going 30 to the Baltimore Ravens. I still like offensive tackle for the Niners at 31. I like Jordan Morgan or Tyler Guyton here. Connor, what do you think? Yeah, I think you're all over it. Guyton's athleticism in that scheme, that's exciting.

I like him also being in the same locker room as Trent Williams. They just get pissed off right before the game. Listen to the same music, I don't know, whatever. Maybe get an apartment together just hang out just the bash brothers left and right side alliance scrimmage you know like this is what i'm talking about here i'm trying to i'm trying to make a netflix documentary i'm trying to write hard knock script for them if tyler guyton ends up going to the san francisco 49ers let's rock and roll with it then that's a that's a great pick at 31 all right uh last pick of the

draft is uh is on you guys here for the Chiefs at 32. DK, you think Keon Coleman would wear a Super Bowl ring on his left hand or his right hand? What sort of guy does he seem like? That would be certainly one of the most fun picks we could make here. So I'm totally into that. Over 80 Mitchell? You guys like Coleman over Mitchell? I personally do.

I am so completely torn about several of the receivers in this class including about Troy Franklin Eddie Mitchell I really like Troy Franklin too um I have a very hard time and and this is something that I've been talking about a little bit lately I have a hard time coming to grips with the delta between the analytical profiles and the physical profiles for Eddie Mitchell and Keon Coleman in other for 80 Mitchell and Keon Coleman. In other words, 80 Mitchell and Keon Coleman's like statistical profiles are terrible. And it worries me,

frankly. And even though I like my first, my first impression. So like, you'll, you'll remember this. I loved 80 Mitchell. He was like maybe one of my favorite receivers in this whole class,

my first pass. And then the more I dig into it, like you look at his statistical profile and it really starts to like nag at you and be really um it just kind of makes me worried but that being said i really loved him on tape so um same with and the same deal with keon coleman essentially like it's just like the stats worry me and i don't know what to do with these guys people ask me all the time they say ben who do you like more keon coleman ad mitchell troy franklin lad mcconkey xavier worthy they say ben who's your favorite of the group and i say i say which everyone ends up with patrick mahomes that's the best prospect

that's what i'm going for i like that so yeah for me like i think i just think i just think if you look chiefs wise like uh keon's got such big play potential he's got i think good yards over the cash potential i don't think people realize how good coleman is with the ball in his hands he was getting like bubble screens dialed up for him from florida state they liked him as an after the catch athlete then he's obviously great down the field making the congested catch adjustment of the football as a big catch radius guy like i think if he he fits the offense he gives them a skill set in terms of the catch radius stuff they don't have right now uh and so to me like uh i would take coleman here as my highest ranked player ladder and make a ton of sense for them because the reliability right given what the offices become

now ad mitchell i think fits a lot of what you what you believe about coleman as well and he's probably better speed wise downfield stuff that i can make an argument for any receiver going to the chiefs at 32 which is coleman's my my preferred taste i think keon coleman would be such a such a change of pace for you know and obviously everything is relative because the Chiefs have won two straight Super Bowls in their dynasty and all that stuff. But, like, the frustration Chiefs fans must have been feeling from the receiver group the last few years in terms of drops and being in the wrong place and, like, all this stuff.

Like, Keon Coleman has such strong hands, and he's such a reliable catcher of the football. It'd be such, like, a refreshing thing, I think, for them after dealing with, like, Canaries Tony and MV and micole hardman and some of these guys all right so keon coleman so we're going with let's do it all right keon coleman there it is folks we got the full results on screen for you right there if you were watching on youtube but that is the first collab mock draft that we have for the 2024 season. Guys, obviously, if you've made it all the way to the end of this podcast, you obviously have been able to hear all

the great insights and everything from Danny and from Ben. These are two of the best in the industry. I mean, what they're doing for the ringer is fantastic. If you love draft work, if you love this channel, please check out all their stuff. Ben approaches the game with a mindset that I feel like is so unique. Everything that he writes is brilliant. He is wonderful. Danny makes one of the best NFL draft guys that you're ever going to find. He is the absolute king when it comes to comps for players.

I mean, the creativity that this guy has to actually – you will read something of Danny's, and he'll have like a crazy out there, like not even football comp for this guy. And you go, oh my gosh, I see how this player plays so much better now because of this outside the box box comp. Danny is so fantastic at that. So please go check out all of their work over at the ringer. They're doing fantastic.

They've got the ringer NFL draft show as well that you guys can go check out and listen to. Let us know what you guys thought of this mock draft, please comment. And if YouTube.com backslash at NFL stock exchange, let us know what you guys thought of this mock draft please comment nfl youtube.com backslash at nfl stock exchange uh let us know what you thought about the discussions all the picks everything we had a lot of different picks in this mock draft so i know you guys are gonna have some takes on it fire them off it's the best way to get in the conversation these guys will be able to see it as well and then connor and i will be able to respond and go back and

forth with you guys as we always do for these mock drafts fellas i appreciate you so much for for joining us for kicking this series off it's fantastic it's year two having you guys on hopefully we get to have it many many more years down the road because you guys are fantastic so i appreciate it guys thanks drive thanks thank you so much guys appreciate it all right connor anything else before we get out of here no big thank you to the guys a lot of fun i like how this got us out of our you know little wormhole we've been in on thoughts on teams and players. And I can't wait to keep this going.

I know. This is fantastic. This is a lot of fun. We'll keep this collab mock draft series going with you up until draft weekend. But for these two guys, for Connor Rogers, I'm Trevor Sikama. Thank you guys so much for watching and listening to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. See you guys later this week.