NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 303. Everything You Need To Know For 2025 Senior Bowl (w/ Jim Nagy)

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers are joined by the Executive Director for the Senior Bowl, Jim Nagy to preview the 2025 Senior Bowl roster. The two chop it up with Jim get you hyped for everything tha...t could happen in Mobile.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. Trevor Sickleman, Connor Rogers here with you guys for a very special episode as we have a third guest here on the show, Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl and it's that time of year, folks. It is time to talk about these all-star events the senior bowl event is a a plus top tier event that we get to go to every single year for the draft season i'm very excited about it jim thank you so much for joining us man we really appreciate it yeah good to be on guys good to see you again it's been a while yeah i
Starting point is 00:00:40 know it has it's been too long honestly i'm very excited to get down to Mobile. You know, fingers crossed. I've been checking the weather over the last couple of days. It looks absolutely beautiful. So I'm really hoping that we get all of that for all three days of the practices. And then, of course, the game as well. That's when it's at its best. But, Jim, this draft class is loaded in so many ways. And I think there's a lot of different position groups that you could talk about of like,
Starting point is 00:01:04 all right, this is the strength of the class. This is the strength of the class. You and your staff have been doing homework on this class for a long, long time. So when it came to sending out those first invitations and really building out what was this senior bowl roster, my first question to you is, was there a position group that was the toughest to narrow down? Like you just had so many names on the list where you go, we'd love to have all of these guys, but obviously there's only so many spots that you have on the roster. What was that toughest position to narrow down to the invites that you have this year? God, you started with an easy one, Trevor.
Starting point is 00:01:41 It was defensive line. It was defensive line. It's a really good group. We're excited about the guys we got coming down here. And it's because we got a lot of buy-in from the junior class. We had the 10 first-round picks last year. All those guys were seniors. And we've got a number of juniors that I think are going to be first-rounders this year.
Starting point is 00:01:59 So I think our cut line on the D-line, our lowest graded player that we brought was in the fourth round. Wow. And that's pretty high on the board. You know, some positions you get down there in the sixth round. And some years when it was just all senior running backs, you're picking guys in the seventh round. So, no, that was good. The D-line class is by far the toughest cuts.
Starting point is 00:02:21 Jim, I feel like you have a good handle, for better or for worse on these Twitter streets with the draft right now. And you just, it's, we're in the world where there's no sleepers anymore. It feels like everybody is aware of basically every prospect in the world right now. But in terms of buzz, who's a player on each side of the ball that it surprises you how little conversation you see around them so far now that we're already at
Starting point is 00:02:45 january oh that's a good one um let me get some water here i just got i've been doing a few of these today i figure i figure you're doing a lot of it i'm honestly surprised that we've got you just for this show because your phone's probably running off the hook to make sure this event runs the way that it needs to next week so you can can take all the water you want. And really guys, what set us back was we had a blizzard down here all the time, but we had seven inches of snow, which is, it broke the record from 1895. And it absolutely crippled Mobile.
Starting point is 00:03:17 I mean, it was apocalyptic the other night, my wife and I went for a walk on streets that are usually heavily trafficked. We're walking right down the middle of the street. I mean, nothing was open, no cars on the street. So we're behind a little bit. We lost two full days in the office as a staff, which isn't ideal when you're trying to operationalize a game. I know this would have been a nightmare for you,
Starting point is 00:03:40 but for one of the days at practice to be just an absolute snowstorm and as people say real football i mean that would have been one of the most memorable if not the most memorable senior bowl practice that i will ever attend and so i know that would have been a nightmare for you so in that respect i'm glad that it snowed earlier from the yeah i don't think the agent community would have been real happy with us. So back to your question, guys, that maybe aren't getting enough buzz, I would say like at tight end Maliki Matavo from UCLA. I feel like sometimes we just forget about these West coast prospects a little bit. This guy's like almost, I mean, he's over six, six.
Starting point is 00:04:21 He's two, he was 267 pounds in the spring. And he moves like a guy that's 6'4", 240. Really fluid, great adjuster. I'm frankly shocked that more people aren't talking about him. I'm going to cheat a little bit. I don't do a lot of these podcasts in my office, but because downstairs looks like a locker room right now with all the equipment, I'm back up here and i would say uh you know on the defensive side of the ball of guys that aren't getting talked about wow that's a really good one um like i love upton stout from western kentucky let's go yeah you know he's just
Starting point is 00:04:57 an easy guy to like you put on the tape and he's super urgent he's flying around and uh we've got a scouting assistant um here on the staff that played on the really good Alabama teams back in 2017, 2018. Upton Stout would have fit on those defenses with his play style. I mean, he's a dog. He flies around. He played outside corner mostly on junior tape this year. He's more as a nickel. He reminds me of LaMarcus Joyner when LaMarcus came out of Florida State.
Starting point is 00:05:23 I thought LaMarcus could play anywhere. I was with the Seahawks at the time and we had really strict size parameters at DB. You know, we liked our big corners in Seattle, but you know, he was the one guy that I really wanted to, like, I thought he was the exception. You know, you don't want to go to bat for too many exceptions in a draft room. Lamarcus was one of the few guys that I did. And Upton Stout kind of reminds me of him. I love that shout-out because I've watched a little bit of Upton. You know, you get him on the MDS and the PFF big board, and I felt the same, man.
Starting point is 00:05:52 It just felt like he wanted to be out there every single snap, the energy that he played with, all that. And I love the LaMarcus Joyner shout-out as well because that's when he was great. You talked about some of the juniors and really having the opportunity now to add some of these juniors to the game. are a couple of those guys who is like it's a little bit later in the process you know you have your initial invites that go out and then you obviously you get to invite some of those juniors but they're just some huge names that can take the
Starting point is 00:06:18 interest in the game and just elevate the game overall when it comes to the overall draft class who are a couple of those guys who you talked about having some potential first rounders within there that you were just so stoked to be able to get and you're excited to see there yeah and you know we had to wait on those guys the league office wanted us to hold off on announcing juniors until the january 7th date and i trust me i wasn't happy with it i let my uh feelings be known on park avenue but uh but it really worked out honestly it worked out great i texted those guys after i was like well you know because we we did we just kind of on january 7th we pushed out i think all the offensive juniors in the morning and the defensive at night or vice
Starting point is 00:06:54 versa and it created a huge uh huge storm on social media that day so um no i mean all those guys we're excited about all those guys it's hard hard to single anyone out. But, you know, Josh Connerly, the left tackle at Oregon, was a good late add. You know, and he's a guy, we didn't get Kelvin Banks from Texas and Will Campbell from LSU. And Josh Connerly's coming because he wants to be the top tackle taken. And you know what? Like, I love that mindset.
Starting point is 00:07:20 He could have easily sat it out as well. He knew those other two guys weren't coming. And he's like, you know what, I'm'm coming down there so he would be one of them and then uh you know on the d line i mean there's a bunch of those guys walter nolan shamar stewart from texas a&m i think has a chance to uh make as much money as anybody um he's got crazy tools and talent has it has it pretty you know has it resulted in a lot of production on paper yet? No. But he is disruptive on tape, and he's another guy at 280-some pounds. He moves like he's 260.
Starting point is 00:07:55 And so he could make a lot of money in these one-on-ones. We see it every year. There's guys that come down and really make a mark. Like Braden Fisk last year was a guy that now in hindsight, he went from the teams when we did our calls in November, most teams had Braden Fisk as a fourth or fifth rounder. He ended up going 39 overall to the Rams. And now that that looks like a gross underdraft, you know, like if we, if we redrafted last year's draft today, Braden Fisk could be a top 15 pick,
Starting point is 00:08:19 maybe a top 10 pick. So I think Stewart's got a chance to have that kind of week. Yeah. I was just going to say him, him talking about competing too with fisk last year he practiced with all he did all practice one week with one team and then didn't you guys just because of injuries and some guys weren't able to participate in the game yeah you asked him like hey can you flip over and can you play d-line with a team and a game plan that you've never played with before? And he was like, yeah, absolutely. I mean, that was that's that's a total competitor, like you mentioned there, too.
Starting point is 00:08:49 And that's why that's why we asked Braden to do it, because I knew he wouldn't balk at it. You know, I mean, again, all the line stuff are the same calls for both teams. So and that's all he that's all he cared about when we called him up to do the move. It was me and the two defensive line coaches standing there by the escalators. And he was like, you know, is what we're stuff we're doing up front the same and they said exactly these two d-line coaches worked together in miami years ago so they call the same stuff and uh he's like all right let's go so um and so that's it was no surprise man it was no surprise what he did for the for the rams this year that kid's an animal it's funny to look
Starting point is 00:09:24 back on that one because like you said, Jim, where he was taken, people reacted not only to that, but the bounty the Rams gave up to go get him. And then he had eight and a half sacks as a rookie and everybody's like, OK, maybe we overthought this one
Starting point is 00:09:36 and the Rams are right. So big picture question, Jim, because I'm fascinated by just the entire process of this. You were a scout for a long time and now you have a lot of years under your belt running the Senior Bowl. What would you say was the biggest adjustment from that transition in your career that maybe you didn't expect when you took the job?
Starting point is 00:09:57 Well, there's just more to this job in terms of the hats you need to wear. So that's one thing. I mean, I've said it a lot. I was drinking out of a fire hose the first year on the job my wife refers to refers to it as the year on the couch because i was waking up in the middle of the night and i couldn't sleep so i just go downstairs and turn on the tv and try to fall back asleep um so there's just a lot more to this to this job and then uh i would say like as an evaluator i just i don't have time i'm running a business too so right i don't have time. I'm running a business too. So I don't have time to sit here and watch like seven games on a player. I got to rip through some stuff.
Starting point is 00:10:30 And, you know, so I've had to become a lot more efficient as an evaluator than I was as a scout. And I think probably it's probably speaks to you building out a staff too, because every year, I mean, you guys have so much on, on everybody. I mean, obviously we talked about, uh, up and stout as one of them a couple of minutes ago, but just like through all of it, being able to build out that full scouting staff has been really cool to see, uh, the fruits of that labor for sure. You know, you've talked about, you know, some of these players that, uh, are kind of like favorites one way or another. One thing I always
Starting point is 00:11:02 love about the senior bowl in particular is it's about that time of the year when we start to really learn player stories right where okay we can watch them on tape we've seen them in college football you know draft analysts you know we get some more all 22 and we get the pff statistics and all that kinds of stuff but who are maybe one or two players who you've got on this and i'm sure that there are there are plenty not that you're like singling out or playing favorites or anything but somebody who their background makes you want to bet on whether it's a guy who was a walk-on or a college football journeyman or just you know like the upbringing whatever they've been through it
Starting point is 00:11:40 they've earned this opportunity and so just one or two guys that might pop into your head of like man this guy's been through a lot you know that you could bet on this player because any situation and how he's had to climb up the ladder to get to this point in mobile that makes you feel good about betting on him going to the nfl sure um i would start with jack besh at tcu um and just what he said what he had to go through recently with losing his brother. Yeah. The tragedy on Bourbon Street. And we Jack and I have been in close contact ever since that. So I'm rooting for I'm rooting for all our guys, but I'm really rooting for Jack when he goes to the next level, what he said to overcome just this last month. And then I would say like another really cool backstory is Khalil Mullings from Michigan.
Starting point is 00:12:25 I mean, I think by now, I mean, I've even spoken about it a lot. But just love a guy that, you know, went to Michigan as a linebacker and played 22 games or whatever it was on the defensive side of the ball. And then transitions to fullback and, you know, does that last year mostly as a fullback. And then, you know, drops a little bit of weight. I think he dropped about five pounds uh trimmed up this year and became the primary ball carrier uh you know on a football team that that had one of the ea sports cover boys donovan edwards uh you know in the same backfield and uh so that's so mullings is is a cool story too uh but there's there's a ton um you know one of the cool things we've done this year um to to really help the teams out these players out but
Starting point is 00:13:05 one thing we try to we try to change it up every year right we sit back okay what can we do better what worked what didn't work and um one of the things we did this year we've interviewed almost our entire roster so far um before they get to mobile and they're taped with our scouting staff does it um it's 15 to 20 minutes. They're icebreaker-type questions that, you know, the teams only get the guys for 15 minutes here anyway, you know, and then they can pick some other players they get more time with. But every player gets 15 minutes with a club one-on-one. But to give them more, you know, you sit down with a player,
Starting point is 00:13:40 it's the typical, hey, Connor, hey, Trevor, where are you from? Talk to me about your family. We've got that on tape for them now. So the teams have been sent all those videos. There's a link they can access and watch those videos. So now when they come down to Mobile, they can get down to Brass Tacks. And what's been cool for me, I've watched them all myself. So now when the guys, you know i i try to learn their
Starting point is 00:14:05 faces before they come to mobile so when they get off the bus i'm not like trying to figure out who they are um and this has been a great project for me personally because now i know some of these kids back stories and then you know like going back to last year with ray davis from you know who's had an awesome run here through the playoffs for buffalo great rookie season yeah former kentucky running back living in his car for a couple of years being homeless. Like, so there's been some really cool stuff and, and, and, and more will come out through the draft process. We're going to, we're going to post some of these videos online, but some really good stuff. Jim, it feels like we're now in a world where wide receiver classes are just stacked year after year, but something that I particularly really like
Starting point is 00:14:45 about this class is a lot of the top guys are bigger targets. There's physical wide receivers. A lot of these guys can block. They can play above the rim. What about this group that you have on this roster from Jaden Higgins from Iowa State, Pat Bryant from Illinois,
Starting point is 00:14:59 who I got to talk to a Big Ten media last year, and I just thought he had a tremendous year for them. You know, you look at Alec Io Manor. Do you see it the same way, that this just feels like a more physically imposing? You brought up Jack Besh already, a physically imposing wide receiver group. Yeah, it's a big group, you know, and it's a senior-heavy group. There's not a lot of juniors came out. There's only about four or five junior wide receivers.
Starting point is 00:15:21 So, yeah, I like this group. Brew McCoy is another guy from tennessee big physical player um so yeah it's you know i don't know if this group is quite on par with maybe the last couple years it seems like the last three or four years have been just stellar wide receiver classes and this is a good group don't get me wrong there's a lot of really good players and i think like you bring up pat bryan i mean there's some guys that that i think are going to build a lot of traction through the spring but uh but yeah it's a it's a nice big physical group i mean i gotta stick along those lines for my next question everybody loves the one-on-ones right especially as social media is blown up everybody
Starting point is 00:15:54 loves to see those practice clips so i'm curious of the wide receiver or db room i'll give you the flexibility to go either side of the ball if you want is there somebody that you think is going to become social media's favorite prospect when it comes to those wide receiver db one-on-one drills because it felt like it was lab mcconkey last year with right how he was able to cook a lot of those dbs in those one-on-one drills because it was just his bread and butter of how he wins and now we're seeing that with the chargers but you know you got guys like xavier restrepo and and and tez johnson and jaylen royals and like so many, Jack Besch as well, certainly.
Starting point is 00:16:27 Is there anybody that really stands out that you go, all right, this is going to be social media's favorite player in these one-on-one drills? Yeah, you know, we had Michael Wilson in the game a couple years ago from Stanford who made a big jump coming out of the week. He was really uncoverable, really good separator. I think Jaden Higgins could have a similar type of week um down here and then flipping it over to uh the defensive backfield max harrison at kentucky is a guy that that i've really liked the last couple years he was an easy guy to invite i actually didn't even
Starting point is 00:16:53 watch a ton of tape from this year because i liked the previous year stuff so much he was kind of a no-brainer um going back to when we started watching drew phillips last year yeah uh you know drew had a great rookie year for the Giants. I was just talking to Brian Dayball yesterday about Drew and the season he had for those guys, you know, fired up there about his future. And there's something about that Kentucky team. We've had a Kentucky guy in the game all my seven years here at the Senior Bowl. I got a ton of respect for Coach Stoops and what they do up there and the staff
Starting point is 00:17:22 and just the way the style of DBs they look for him. They're always aggressive they're tough um so i think harrison could have a great week so obviously senior bowl week is a great opportunity for the players but what's been really cool jim is now it's a growth opportunity for coaches who are some rising names on this year's staff that are going to get a chance to do something because they obviously all get bumped up at the senior bowl from their current position that'll get a chance to do something with a little bit more on their plate that fans should know about yeah it's a you know it's a coach up format now so our our head coaches our coordinators our coordinators are full-time position coaches and our position coaches are quality control guys or assistant position
Starting point is 00:18:03 coaches so yeah it's it's a cool format it's different um what's really cool tomorrow mike kafka who's one of our head coaches for the national team is going to be interviewing for his second round interview at the new orleans saints for their head coaching job so that that's cool i mean bubba ventrone uh special teams coordinator of the browns that's a personal one for me because i was with the patriots when we drafted bubba um out of college and it's been cool to watch been you know go up and then you know again just personally for me to have three guys that I was in Seattle with two guys from that Legion of Boom defense KJ Wright a great senior bowl alum and then Deshaun Shedd both those guys off that Legion of Boom defense down here coaching and they're on the same group. They're coaching together this week.
Starting point is 00:18:46 Kind of a full circle moment. So cool to have those guys as well. That's awesome. That is really cool. Got a couple more questions here for Jim Maggie, but before we continue this interview, got to ask you guys out there, have you guys played pick six by DraftKings yet?
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Starting point is 00:20:19 jim one of the things that i love about the Senior Bowl and the All-Star Circuit in general is the versatility for some of these prospects. I'm looking at the Senior Bowl list, and for and it feels like those guys can be, all right, well, maybe they played tackle in college. We're going to kick them into the inside. We're going to see what they're like at guard. We're going to see what they're like at center. I remember watching Dominic Cooney last year play a bunch of different spots on the interior and at the tackle spots last year during practices.
Starting point is 00:20:58 Cody Mock is somebody that's been in this game before where you guys have moved him all around, tackle, guard, center, and we've seen that he's settled in very nicely at guard for the Buccaneers. Who's a couple of players along the offensive line specifically who you think are going to have a really good opportunity to showcase that versatility, maybe play tackle in college,
Starting point is 00:21:19 but you feel like the NFL, they're more of an interior guy because it feels like there's a lot of guys on that tackle list, but a lot of them could end up being starters maybe along the interior that's a great point yeah that's a great point like I brought up Connerly from Oregon earlier he's he's really one of the only left tackles most of these guys played on the right side but usually you know those guys are right tackles for a reason this group whether it's you know Armand Membu from Missouri or Marcus Bowe from Purdue or you know Big Jonah at Arizona, those guys could all play on the left side. Those guys are left tackle athletes.
Starting point is 00:21:51 It's similar. Last year, Tyler Guyton from Oklahoma came down here. He was a right tackle at Oklahoma. We played him on the left side a little bit just to let teams see it. I think he started the entire season for the Dallas Cowboys that left tackle. And so, yeah, we're going to do that. All those names you brought up.
Starting point is 00:22:09 Like, Marcus Bowe, I was talking to his agent the other day, he might snap down here. I mean, there's some teams that – Let's go. We like that a lot. Yeah. He could – I mean, Cody Malk played all five spots. You might see Gray Zabel from North Dakota State, fellow Bison.
Starting point is 00:22:23 He might play all five spots. He's ready to snap. Big Joan is going to kick inside and play guard and absolutely mall people um membu's probably going to move in and play some guards so um you're go over to the left side and play tackle so we're you know we talked to the offensive line coach we talked to all these coaches so as soon as they come on board i get on in a zoom with the offensive and defensive, you know, offense from American, defense American. And same thing on the national side. We go over a position flex and where we can play guys and kind of showcase a little bit. So, yeah, there'll be some fun ones.
Starting point is 00:22:56 There'll be some guys on the offensive line doing some things you haven't seen them do in college. It feels like this is the rare year that quarterback rankings are just going to be all over the place, opinions-wise, Jim. And I've been going to the Senior Bowl long enough. Like, I remember Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen out there. And then you go to last year. You had Penix and Bo Nix, Jordan Love and Justin Herbert once upon a time. It feels like this year's group is just so wide open. Is this going to be the most competitive competitive environment you've had at the
Starting point is 00:23:25 quarterback position since you've been doing this because i mean this is the type of week that the the outlook for one of these guys compete totally different after six days compared to how they went in yeah i like this group from top to bottom as much as any group we've had um it is it is a competitive group i think there's uh you know there's there's a variance on a few of these guys when you talk to people in the league like there's there's a variance on on jaylen milrow i've been i've been asked a lot by people down here in the state of alabama when i've done some local media stuff i will say this um and i've said it on a couple other national things like he he's higher right now for teams than Jalen Hurts was.
Starting point is 00:24:06 Hurts was part of that crew with Justin Herbert and Jordan Love. Now in hindsight, that was a ridiculous quarterback class. But he was like a fourth or fifth round pick, Jalen Hurts was, for most teams. And right now, I think Milrow's probably like late one to late day two. But he is higher. He's got an opportunity to really kind of take this process and run with it. I'm excited for him.
Starting point is 00:24:32 I'm excited for Jackson Dart. I mean, I think Jackson Dart's a guy the league is really excited to see here. I'm a fan of Dylan Gabriel, man. The more I go back and watch Dylan Gabrielriel like this guy's played a ton of football he's you know i heard uh i heard some nfl i heard a gm doing a press conference the other day talking about how this position's a neck up position nobody plays it from the neck up in this class better than dylan gabriel so uh you know i think we all made mistakes on on brock purdy and you know he was mr irrelevant for a reason so you go back and you try to figure out like what did what what did i discount with this guy and and again it's experience and and uh the intelligence
Starting point is 00:25:09 part of it so um you know even the guys like seth hennigan you know like seth hennigan from memphis is a guy i'm seeing nothing about online and all he's done is win 11 games four-year starter coach's kid his dad's a great high school you know coaching the high school coach in the state of texas so he really has a lot of parallels to Bo Nix. I'm not saying they're the same player, but like the wiring of the guy and like growing up around football and being serious. And man, you win 11 games at Memphis. You're playing your butt off, man. Like quarterbacks, good quarterbacks should elevate programs. In my opinion, they should win games that people don't think they should win. And that people don't think they should
Starting point is 00:25:45 win um and they should take their programs to places the programs haven't been before and that's what Seth Hennigan's done at Memphis so you know he's a guy that a lot of people aren't talking about that I'm excited about I love that shout out and going back to what you said about Dylan Gabriel Connor and I um what was it Connor like a couple of weeks ago three weeks ago or something we did our quarterback ranking episode and Dylan Gabriel it's just he's he's tough to quit you know it's it's hard when you play that position so well between the ears under the helmet however you want to say it he just plays a clean brand of football and he understands how to win at the position so I agree I feel like he's gonna stand out a little bit in his play more than people are giving him
Starting point is 00:26:24 credit for I do want to stick a quarterback because there was a recent announcement here about taylor elgzerman and i hope i said that right but laurel guy from canada won the canadian heisman over 4 000 passing yards 40 touchdowns i just sort of looked up stuff because i'd never heard of this guy before but it feels a lot like when tyson bagent was at the event right and tyson bagent was sort of this nobody really knew about him quarterback and now he's an nfl or and i'm actually so i i talked to me about him because i don't think a lot of people out there know a lot about him and i don't know a lot about him um he's uh no he's a guy that I'll give his quarterback coach a lot of credit. So he's with this group, QB Country.
Starting point is 00:27:10 It's based out of Mobile, Alabama here, and they've got branches all over really the southeast part of the country. And he went down and worked with the guys in Birmingham. And they've got a guy, a coach there named Ben Neal, who played quarterback at Samford back in the day. And Ben's been hitting me up about this kid for at least since October. And, you know, he's like, Jim, I know you're the senior bowl. I know this is probably a stretch.
Starting point is 00:27:35 But, you know, if you have a spot opened up, you know, he can throw it through a brick wall. I don't know if you've seen this guy's headshot, fellas. Like, he looks like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV. Oh, I'm in oh i'm in i'm in he's like six four he's like six four six five 230 pounds he really does steel chin yeah got a great chin yeah but uh no i you know i had some i've had some friends around the league that saw him at the you know the cgs and the tropical bowl and um they're like man we'd love to see this guy down there. So we had,
Starting point is 00:28:05 we had a quarterback spot open and, and let's do it. He's got a cool backstory too. Like he's been in training camps with the Hamilton tiger cats and the Toronto organauts. And again, like another full circle, full, full circle moment for me. We announced that last night and I get a, I get a, I get a text from a core, a former Georgia state quarterback, Nick Arbuckle, who I was recruiting to come to the Seattle Seahawks way back in the day.
Starting point is 00:28:32 And he had a Nick ended up playing up in Canada for a long time. And he's up there coaching now. And he was like, dude, you just ripped my quarterback from me. What are you doing? So he's fired up for the kid. He was just getting ready to start working with him and now he's coming to mobile so um that should be that should be fun i'm looking forward to seeing him i mean i've seen a ton of video on him yeah but he's like the only guy we have that i've never met he's never been at the manning camp i don't know this kid at all had a really
Starting point is 00:28:58 cool phone call with him last night though he is fired up to get down here i love it i absolutely love it the last question that i have for you j Jim sort of kind of goes along the lines of you know you're talking about a little bit there where people have been hitting you up for a long time but sometimes you guys go so deep on this class and every class that I feel there are always players that maybe you'll watch during the summer that you go okay well you know if this guy ends up you know declaring and it feels though over the last couple of years, guys have been getting eligibility out of nowhere, whether it's been an injury or just transferring or whatever.
Starting point is 00:29:31 Is there a player, maybe two players or whatever, that you have on this roster currently that you've been scouting a long time, that you have, whether it's been this past summer scouting or the one before or whatever it was, where a guy's been on your radar for a couple years now maybe the longest whatever it is that you finally get to see in mobile this year is there one or two guys that stand out in that regard well certainly dylan gabriel guys i mean going back i mean guy was at ucf it feels like you know with scott frost yeah i mean i i don't know if he was or not but I mean you go back to
Starting point is 00:30:06 UCF and then the Oklahoma stuff and now Oregon so I mean just it feels like we've been watching Dylan a long time and again I think all that experience is going to help him we're seeing what it's doing at Bo Nix so I think that's going to help him when he gets to the next level and then again just to cheat and kind of peek over at the board a little bit I don't know I mean certain certainly Dylan Gabriel stands out. And then, you know, and then on the defensive side of the ball, Malachi Moore from Alabama. Sure.
Starting point is 00:30:32 You know, a fifth-year player. We invited him last year. He accepted the invite. They got him to go back to school. And he's one of the few guys that stepped foot in Tuscaloosa and stepped on the field right away and was a factor. That doesn't happen very often. So, I mean mean we've seen five full years of of Malachi Moore which is which is crazy so I I can't remember the last Alabama defense that didn't have Malachi Moore
Starting point is 00:30:55 on it maybe it's back when like I don't know Tim Smith and those guys are uh yeah not Tim Smith but uh uh who's the pass rusher? Tim Williams. Tim Williams. Oh, wow. Tim Williams. Back on those Tim Williams, Duran Payne defenses. I don't know. But both those two guys, I feel like we've been watching forever. Man, Tim Williams is a terror at Alabama.
Starting point is 00:31:18 That was like early in my scouting days. I remember watching Tim Williams. I was like, this guy's going to be the greatest NFL player ever. Obviously he wasn't, but I remember doing that. Jim, thank you so much for your time here. This was fantastic. It was great to ask you a couple of questions and get all of our listeners and our community just to – you fired up about the Senior Bowl because it's a great group this year.
Starting point is 00:31:37 We're really excited to get down there. Can't wait to cover it as best we possibly can. So thank you. I appreciate it. No, thanks for having me on, guys. Look forward to getting you down here. Bye.

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