NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 42. Final 2022 Big Board Player Rankings

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers take a look at each other's 2022 big boards for the first time ad react to it live on the podcast. The two discuss their differences in top overall player, top 20, and a handful of prospects who stick out that they are either lower or higher on than consensus.

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 gotten 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. On today's show, big boards, baby. It's draft week. Trevor's got his big board. I've got mine. And we're going to look at the consensus big board

and see how our rankings stack up. So a lot of player analysis. We're just a couple of days away from the biggest NFL offseason event of the year. I'm Connor Rogers, joined as always by Trevor Sikama. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. It's Draft Week, baby. I'm Connor Rogers. That is Trevor Sykema. And we are excited to go today because we are doing our big board show. We're taking a little break from the mock drafts.

But before we get into that, got to remind you right now, you can get a 50% off discount off the Elite PFF Elite annual subscription if you use the code DRAFT50. It's draft week. So DRAFT50 will get you where you need to be. PFF's NFL draft guide, a completely unlocked mock draft simulator. That's promo code DRAFT50 for a 50% off off pff elite subscription trevor that sounds pretty good to me how are you feeling dude we are finally finally here man connor the deals and promo codes are flying the picks are in for the final mock drafts if you guys missed our episode yesterday

we did a final predictive mock draft and today i, I'm so excited about this, man. You and I get to take a look at each other's big boards for the first time. I don't think that people realize that. Yes, obviously, we do this draft podcast together, and we talk a lot about the prospects. But you and I don't share big boards because of this very reason. We want to kind of make sure that we have our independent evaluation, that we don't get too much of groupthink with it. And we saved it on purpose until this episode. So today, I'm going to be looking at your final big board for the first time, and you're going to be looking at my final big board for the first time.

I'm excited, man. This is going to be great. Yeah, it's going to be awesome, man. I mean, obviously, we go through 80 different scenarios. We've done multi-round mock drafts where we've seen some of these players that are a little, you know, deeper into the draft, but this is where you start to get into, uh, you know, rounds three, four, five, all of that. So, and of course we were also going to have the consensus big board that our, our friend Arif Hassan opens up at the athletic where you kind of get an idea of the entire draft media landscape, which is going to be interesting to see where you kind of get an idea of the entire draft media landscape

which is going to be interesting to see where you differ i differ uh where not only you and i differ in some places but how the entire landscape looks so this is this is a really really cool exercise yep it's gonna be fun let's dig into it right away but before we get to that we got to tell you guys about our presenting sponsor our friends over at jock market that's jock mkt their whole motto is stop betting and start trading it's a really cool way to get into the betting circle if you're new to it or shoot if you're a veteran it's a nice little change of pace it's a great combination between daily fantasy if you play a lot of that and then regular fantasy football what i think well not just fantasy football fantasy sports whatever you're used to you buy and sell shares of players in real time for real money while games are happening.

All shares have a guaranteed payout at the end of the night. Essentially, if you look at a guy and go, ooh, they had a juicy matchup tonight. I'm going to buy a couple shares of them. I'm going to throw some money their way. Connor, didn't you have a bet that you placed last night on the Mets? Yeah, I think I had stock on Eduardo Escobar. I don't think he had a great game. So, you know, you win some, you lose some. It's true. It's true. Yeah, I think I had stock on Eduardo Escobar. I don't think he had a great game. So, you know, you win some, you lose some.

It's true. Yeah, it happens. It's fun. You know, it's sickening in a hilarious way where the Mets had a pretty good eighth inning that I didn't expect him to get up to bat again. And I was so excited that he got an extra at bat in there. You're watching every pitch of a game on a sunday it's a lot of fun man it makes those sundays that much better it is it's such a cool way to have

some extra skin in the game kind of rooting for individual players just like fantasy football man it's just so fun you've got to check it out check them out on dot com at jock market that shock mk mkt.com backslash pff they also have an app that's how we use uh use our money and use our bets if you deposit right now with the promo code pff you'll get 100 match on whatever your first deposit is up to 100 plus you'll also get a pff edge subscription as well check them out jockmarket.com backslash pff or jock market in the app store to get right to it baby let's do it let's dig into these big boards. Connor, I'll start with you.

You take a look at my board, and we're not going to go line for line. We'll probably spend a little bit more time in a lot of names in the top 20, I would assume. But then we'll kind of bounce around a little bit. We'll scroll down. You got 300 guys ranked. I only have 100

because I was just kind of like honing in on it. PFF didn't require me to do a big board, so I just kind of narrowed it down. Well, you did one anyway, i appreciate it thank you uh but who stands out for you when you look at my initial big board rank i mean where else to start but number one derrick stingley number one i like that you're you're putting it out there you're saying i believe in this guy's 2019. You know what? In this draft class, and I sit here as somebody that has Stingley at 17, and a lot of that is obviously factoring in that I am a deep. A lot of it is criminal. A lot of it is criminal.

That's what it is. The injuries. I think that this is a draft class where there's no consensus guy, right? We all know that there's no player that you sprint the card in and say, this is going to be a building block for us no matter what. Or at least a lot of people think that. I do think there's one. But, yeah, Derek Stingley at number one.

I mean, you putting him there says that you think he's going to find that 2019 form, be this ball hawk at the next level, takes away the football, probably be a top three to five corner, be a man-to-man corner, and wipe out wide receivers. And when Derek Stingley is at his best we've seen him do exactly that and we know the kind of athlete he is so that excited me um you know that you're projecting him that way and also Charles Cross at number three as the top tackle over Neil and Aquano I know you have them at five and six so the gap's not massive. But I know PFF has been very Charles Cross heavy. And I've liked Charles Cross for a long time as well,

while it felt like he was lower on bigger NFL media, more in that 20 to 25 kind of range. And I feel like everyone's come full circle on Charles Cross, and he's going to be a big-time draft pick. Yeah, so I'll start with Stingley. I've got him at number one. You have him at 17. And then on the consensus board, he's at eight. So he's really right in the middle of where we are.

And it feels like we are on the polar opposite ends of the spectrum right here. You know, if you are, if you have more concerns about Derek Stingley and his long-term availability and what his he's going to be able to show on the pros, you probably got him closer to where connor has him between 15 and 20 if you're dropping derrick singly further than 20 i i don't really know what to tell you like his injury prognosis wasn't that dire and he's incredibly good at what he does so i don't think you should really have him any lower than 20 me having him at number one it's it's quite literally as high as you could possibly go

on him and the reason why man is that i went back and i watched some of the tape from the 2020 season which really was not bad and not at all even the tape that he had last year yeah you could tell he wasn't exactly himself but he's he had the injury that he was playing through and still he had moments on his tape which are really good the true for Derek Stingley, when we see him motivated, when we see a decent defense around him, and when we see him fully healthy, is 2019. And that 2019 year, I went back and I watched a couple more games recently over the last couple of weeks. It is so good, man.

This kid is 18, 19 years old during that season. And he is doing that in the SEC, shutting down defenders, the ball skills, the length, the patience, the technique already is an 18 year old dude. It was just, it was insane how talented this player is. I went back and I watched those practice clips that people tweeted out of him versus Jamar chase. And we're all seeing how incredible Jamar chase has been in the NFL and Derek Stingley's out here at 18 years old, just locking him down, locking him down in practice, man. And just to have that kind of ability is crazy.

So I think that in a class you are right, Connor, that has a lot of guys who you could make a case for, for the number one overall pick or the top three, whatever it is. Derek Stingley to me is absolutely in that conversation. And the guy that I would have on the forefront, do we want to, before we do offensive line, because I want to get into that offensive line conversation. Should I,

should I like read off my top 10? Should we read off our top 10 just so people hear that. And then we get into the discussion. And I would recommend, I mean, I'm definitely tweeting this out this morning and it's Monday morning. This show for you guys won't hit you until Tuesday morning. Right.

I would try to have these open as you listen today. i understand some people are working out while listening to this doing things like that that you can't it will help you follow the show a lot but yeah trevor maybe at least for now just read the top 10 for those that can't have these open okay i'll you know what i'll read the top 20 just so we can read out the top 20 and then we'll have you read out your top 20 i get derrick singly at number one number two i got cave on tibido this is obviously how i order these guys and how i think they're going to be pros charles crosses at number three kyle hamilton four evan neal at five icky aquano at six aiden hutchinson at seven which i'm sure we'll talk about uh jameson williams at eight ahmad garner at nine davante wyatt at 10 jordan davis 11 george karloft is at 12 drake london at 13 jermaine johnson 14 trayvon walker all the way

down at 15 george pickens is 16 that's right baby i'm putting my money where my mouth is with george pickens i got dax hill at 17 trent mcduffie at 18 crystal lave at 19 and then i got tyler linderbaum at number 20 so connor why don't you read off your top 20, and then let's get into that O-line offensive tackle, those top three guys, that conversation, because I want to hit that. For sure. Icky Aquanu, number one overall. I do think he's a franchise cornerstone in this draft, and he would be my number one overall pick.

Number two, Kayvon Thibodeau. Number three, Aiden Hutchinson. Number four, Evan Neal. Number five, Tyler Linderbaum. I do think he's a top five player in this draft. Number six, Jermaine Johnson. You can start to see the draft teeter off a little bit after the top five. Jermaine Johnson, number six. Sauce Gardner, number seven. Kyle Hamilton, number eight. Charles Cross, number nine. We get a little bit of a run on wide receivers here. Garrett

Wilson, number 10. Jamison Williams, number 11. Jordan Davis at 12. Devin Lloyd at 13. Traylon Burks at 14. Trent McDuffie at 15. Drake London at 16. Derek Stingley at 17. As you mentioned, Trevor, 18. David Ajabo, I'm still keeping him in the top 20 despite the injury. Number 19, N'Kobe Dean, a player I don't think

goes in the first round, ends up in my top 20. Oh, wow. And 20, Trayvon Walker sneaks right in there at number 20. If you didn't have Trayvon Walker my top 20 oh wow and 20 trayvon walker sneaks right in there at number 20 if you didn't have a trayvon walker in top 20 that would have been a talking point so that's smart on you it's a veteran move did you sneak him in there yeah yeah i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding so your offensive tackle order for the top three guys oh where you had icky at one you've got evan neal at four and you've got charlesal at four, and you've got Charles Cross at nine. Talk to me about each of those guys.

They're all three in your top 10, so clearly you think they're good football players. But how do you come up with the order of Icky at the top, then Evan Neal in the middle, then Charles Cross? Icky separated himself by being a game-changing run blocker. Just the things he can do in the run game, the other guys can't. And not a lot of guys that come into the draft can that it's as simple as that he's the closest I've seen on this level

in the run game especially on the move since Quentin Nelson somebody that he can wipe out anybody that's in front of him and he can get to the second level and take out other guys as well so and I think he's developed so much how he got here Trevor everybody knew he could run block almost on this level he took it to a new level this year he developed so much as a pass protector going from uh 2020 to 2021 that he's on the right trajectory there where I think he's above average right now but he could be really really good if you give him two more years Evan Neal you know obviously skyscraper tackle. I think I like him better on the right side.

Really good drive blocker. Really pro-ready pass protector. Very hard to beat. I do not love his balance. I think he ends up on the ground way too much, and those bigger guys often do. So I hope that's something that can improve at the next level. But his floor is an average to above average starting tackle.

That's his floor, which is insane to say about a guy. So Evan Neal's in really good shape. And then number nine, Charles Cross. I think with him, his ability to recover in pass pro is unbelievable. He's got really good feet and redirection to do that. You know, and I'm trying to bring up the bad on these guys just to show some, I mean, because there's not a lot of bad with top 10 players. It's as simple as that. For Cross, I wrote, as a run blocker, he looks like a cannonball coming off the line of scrimmage into his assignment. I thought he was really, really good north to south, downhill.

I don't think he's as great in zone as Icky was, and not even close. That's a big differentiator. I think he could set a wider base. I think Rushers got his outside shoulder a couple times. And he doesn't use enough force to drive them wide. These are all coachable things with Cross.

He's a really, really good player that a couple of NFL coaching tweaks away are going to get him into being one of the better pass-protecting tackles in the league. I compared him to Joe Staley, a more compact, athletic kind of guy that you put on the left or right side and you forget about him for eight years.

So I got, I have Charles Cross as my number one offense tackle. I got Evan Neal at number two and I got Icky at number three. Now those guys are ranked three, five, and six for me. So obviously I as well think they're both, or think all three of them are very good i'll start from the bottom and work my way up i like icky a lot you mentioned he's got that run blocking mentality where he could just be an eraser in the run game and and i love the finishing that he brings to it i thought the past

blocking definitely improved this past season there's no doubt about it and you look at a guy his that size who is really i mean he was a brute the year before like he was clearly kind of just a run blocker and you go okay is this guy ever going to be more is he going to have that dancing bear kind of a a tag to him and i think that he certainly improved in pass protection but sometimes when i was watching him in pass protection i felt I felt like he was almost like doing what he was told to do, like getting to a landmark or just like kicking a certain way and getting to a certain spot. But then once it was a better pass rusher who was going up against him and they hit a different type of move against him, and I'll specifically talk about, you you know like an inside move on him sometimes he was slow to recover because it's almost like in past protections

there were times when he was doing what he was supposed to do but maybe not knowing exactly why he should do it or like be as in control as he was so that feel for past protection is still something that i was watching with him that i was like okay i need to see a little bit more just natural instincts towards pass protection because he's doing what he's supposed to now but is he so in control with it is it second nature to him to the point where not only is he doing what he was doing he's supposed to be doing initially with a kick and getting to a landmark and walling guys off to the outside or whatever it is but then also once he does that he's in control of the counter as well if he does that man he is going to be a really really good offensive tackle in the nfl he has one problem

in pass pro that i wrote down that is it matters a lot but it's very coachable he sometimes he stops his feet when he starts to throw his hands on outside rushes and if you do that you get caught reaching a lot instead of using this giant girthy wide frame like you said the wall guys off so right if he can stop that one habit and it's got it it was really a big problem in 2020 and then i saw way less of in 2021 yeah you're you're absolutely right and that's kind of my thing right like it almost looks like he's thinking a little too much in his past sets and if it becomes more natural to him then the feet keep moving the hands keep moving you know your body's going one way you're stopping you're you're countering the other way you're to try to mirror the guy once he hits whatever move he's going to hit on you so I think that's certainly you're right all in the cards

for him it just needs to look a little bit more natural but him taking that big leap this past year was really great to see Evan Neal obviously you mentioned it I think the size is his biggest advantage I think he has such a high floor offensive tackle he could be played in the NFL for the next 10 years easy no doubt about it even if he doesn't hit his quote-unquote ceiling I think his feet you know to to quote Colin Cowherd which I saw people talking about this I did think that his feet were somewhat slow compared to Iki Okonu and compared to Charles Cross but that's because he is massive of a human being so I want to give like why might be a right tackle right that's why I want to give like full context to that like I think that's true but I also don't like overblow it like oh he's got slow feet he can't play in the nfl that's not

true he just moves a little slower because he's got so much weight there in the lower half that's why he's able to anchor really well that's why he's able to redirect and you know flush guys out when they're going too far to the outside so i think that that is part of his game but ultimately why i didn't have to as my top offensive tackle. The top guy is Charles Cross. And, you know, I think his base is a little bit narrow. I watch him in the pre-snap, and I watch where his feet are aligned, and I'm like, man, are you going to be balanced with that?

Like, are your feet, like, far enough apart? But then he continually makes it work. He struggles a little bit when it comes to bull rushes and pure strength, but I think he adjusts very well. He gets knocked back a little bit, but I do think that he stands his ground eventually and he could hold guys up, which I liked. It's not like he was getting fully exposed by strength, which I think is important.

Also something to know Connor, when you, not you specifically, I'm talking general. When people say, oh, Charles Cross doesn't play with enough strength. I agree. He needs to get better at playing with strength. However, three years ago when he came to Mississippi State, he weighed 270 pounds. Now he weighs 305.

And so it took him a year to gain about 15 pounds, up to 280, 285. And then it took another year for him to gain up to 300. So he is still getting to that point in his body. So I think the best is yet to come physically in a strength profile with Charles Cross. And then you mentioned it. This guy just blankets people. I watched him versus Texas A&M,

him versus Arkansas, him versus Alabama. And he's like covering these dudes, man. The pass protection ability that he has is amazing for a college player going into the pros and I think that's of course what's important it's a it's a pass protector it's a blindside protector you got to keep the quarterback upright on passing downs it's what it's all about that's the most valuable skill and so that's why I got Charles Cross at number one all right where do we want to go from here because that was heavy on the top 10 and the offensive linemen are an interesting breakdown um i i don't want to spend too much time on the top 10 i did find it interesting

that you had hutchinson outside the top five yep i i got hutchinson outside the top five simply because arm length is so important for edge rushers yeah and he has seventh percentile arm length and that's all it is man so much of the rest of this guy's game is really really great but the arm length i think is is something that does worry me a little bit about him just being this premier edge rusher every single year i think he's gonna be a damn good football player for a long time because of everything that he brings to the table and how high high of a floor i feel like he has as a prospect but reason why he's not in my top five is just because he is not athletically gifted in an area that is really important for the position that he plays

so arm length creating that separation not getting locked up it's a way to create leverage i mean everything there's so much that goes into arm length being used to your advantage it's a big reason why people talk about trayvonon Walker as a potential number one overall pick because of the absolute pterodactyl wings that he has at over 84 inch in a wingspan. So that's really what it comes down to for me. So much to like about his game, but physically, I wonder how limited that he's going to be going into the next level when offensive tackles get bigger, faster, and stronger. And a lot of those things start to, those little X factor parts of measurables really start to matter.

So that's why I had him at seven. All right. Do you have one on my board before I ask you about your next guy? I'm really excited for the next guy to ask about you. But if there's one on my board, fire away over here. You have, so I just, there are two guys. And you can pick whichever one you want to talk about. You've trailed in Berks at 14 on your board uh you also had david ojabo at 18 which you mentioned but

trailing berks for me was 31 and in the consensus he is 20 so i guess he's a lot closer to you but you've got him 14 man you got him in your top 15 so you love him a lot I do and I do understand that there is a risk factor I'm taking here that where he goes matters so much because he's not the kind of player that like Garrett Wilson if Jameson Williams was healthy like Jameson Williams or even like Chris Alave that you you know you put out there and you go okay here's the routes we want you to run. Here's the things you need to know. And we're, you're just going to understand the playbook and you're just going to play out wide. Like he's just not that kind of wide receiver. He's somebody that

you need to have a lot of different things on the platter to get the most out of him. Can he went outside and win the jump ball? Absolutely. I mean, there's plenty of examples of it on tape. Was he used in the slot a decent amount? Absolutely. And that's what he'll have to be moved into at the next level at times is a big slot weapon to get the ball in his hands quickly on catching or on opportunities. Do you need to script touches to him, manufacture gadget touches to him, pitch passes, reverses, bubble screens, everything like that. Yeah, you do. You need to have a plan for this guy. Now, with that being said, one, if you don't have a plan for players like this in the modern NFL, you don't have the right coaching staff. And there's a lot of them out there that don't. If you don't know how to use six foot two, 230 pounds of build

up speed, tackle breaking machine, you're just living in an offense in the NFL that's outdated unless you know you you have a top five passer that can go out there and just carve guy carve teams up that's different not a lot of teams have that luxury right so I look at Burks and I just like the weapon that he is but I also understand if he goes somewhere where a team goes yeah we just want you to be an outside wide receiver and do this. It's not going to, he's not going to perform like a top 15 draft pick. It's as simple as that. So I'm worried that he's just only going to be a big slot at the next level.

And I don't know what it came down to with Arkansas, why he wasn't used more as an outside receiver. Cause so much of his production came from the slot. So many of his reps came from the slot. And so I'm just, I have my worries about his limitations about being this true chess piece. Now, I think that his ability is unique, clearly, but I'm not so sure it's a guarantee, like everybody says, where you can use him as an ax,

you can use him as a flanker, you can use him in a slot, you can use him out of the backfield. I don't know if you're going to be able to do that at all times. He might be a unique mismatch opportunity player for you in the slot as a big slot player that you can consistently play there. But I don't know if he's this true queen on a chessboard that other people maybe believe for him to be.

So that's why I think we probably differ a lot on that. You have him in 14. Again, consensus was 20, was 20 and i had 31 so it was almost right in the middle we were on we were on the opposite poles of that so okay who's the guy that you wanted to bring up oh man i just had it open drake jackson in the top 30 oh let's go baby drake jackson for me um i need to find hold on one sec where is drake jackson drake jackson for me is 71 and on the old consensus board he is 62 yep uh so you're definitely a little high on him now what i liked about drake jackson is the twitch off the line of scrimmage i think he can really stutter step and make tackles life's setting pretty difficult with that change of

direction ability. What I worry about with this guy, Trevor is, and he was a big time recruit. He made a freshman impact at USC and we were waiting for him to take off after that. And he just never did. And that program was not very good. So that's something you have to factor in as well. I just see zero power in this guy's game. And there are a lot of guys that win at the NFL level that are finesse rushers, but every one out of every 10 rushes, they could sneak in a little power or they could find a way. And I just, I have to, I have to wonder, is Drake Jackson going to find that right? Is he going to find a way to develop any kind of power game that his body would suggest he has, but we just have not consistently seen?

The weight is a big thing with Drake Jackson. Finding that comfortable weight for him, because I've said this before, and I've even said this on the show, I think that he is one of the most underrated players in the entire class. And certainly I'm putting my name on that byrated players in the entire class and certainly i'm i'm putting my name on that by having him in the top 30 i think the flashes of what he can bring is a pass rusher with speed with length with bend with flexibility all of that is top of the class i really do i think that he could do some of that better than anybody else you go five best pass rush plays

from drake jackson and i know what this scouting is much more than just the five best plays. But if you, if you do the true, what can he, what can he do for me? Drake Jackson will give you some unbelievable wild plays that you would absolutely love and that you would covet heavily in this class. He's played at two 50. He's played it. I think two 45 at the combine. He weighed in at two 55 at his pro day. He weighed in at two 70. Okay pro day he weighed in at 270 okay well he showed good athleticism he showed good athleticism explosively at the combine with the jumps and he showed really

good agility while still being at 270 pounds when he was at his pro day so he still has that athleticism you're right he just he's got to be bigger he's got to play bigger i think his home weight should be something around 260 pounds. That's what I think. Get stronger. Do whatever he does or whatever. When you go to college and you start lifting for the first time and you just bulk the crap up, and then you just cut a little bit

and you keep the strength, right? It's all tried and true. It's the bulk and cut. It's what you need to do. It's what Drake Jackson needs to do. I think that he needs to find a healthy comfortable strength at 260 pounds and if you get me that i think you are getting a really good edge rusher because he has those traits you can't teach i just talked about hudgson not having that like the the

flexibility the arm length drake jackson has all of those things he just you're right he needs more of a strength profiling he needs to find a home weight, something that makes him really effective. It feels like he just was never coached there. I don't know, man, because I was waiting for him to break out for two straight years. Me too. The flashes kept being there,

but they were just flashes. And so this is a big bet for me. This is a big bet, but I got to say. Yeah, an interesting one. Truly a guy that i just almost became frustrated with because i was watching him every summer and i was like okay he's draft eligible he's going to be in the first round of every preseason mock he's earned that because he's so he's so projectable to have a mammoth year and he was the same exact guy and he's the good thing is he's still young he

just turned 21 yes 966 ras great athlete yep didn't run the 40 but still everything else you factor into that really really good stuff so i i like that you took him in pickings and you really are projecting them in ways that i have not seen on the consensus board and that and that's the draft that is important right like i i don't mean to i don't mean to talk about this to give us a cop out or anything but the point of scouting is to truly talk about what guys are going to be as pros and i i often think that myself included i've been guilty of this certainly plenty of times before you form a big board basically talking about like what these guys were as college players

and you've got to form a big board of what you think they're going to be as pros that's that's what it is to me and i think that i sometimes lose sight of that with guys and drake jackson george pickens these are players where i look at what they were in college and i see so many great building blocks for what they're going to be as pros it's why Derek Stingley is my number one overall prospect because people are going to go oh you only saw the good three years ago yeah but I saw that when he was 18 and he's still only 20 21 years old I still think that's going to be in his pro game I think the best is yet to come for him I think that certainly if he's healthy we're going to see all that so those are a couple of guys where projection definitely went into the equation for him and how i rank them here can i interrupt the big board show for one

second i mean and i know we've done this a million times but peter king's um football morning in america article said the lead of it new peter king just dropped new peter king just dropped babe wake up it's too good it's too good i might have to try that on my girlfriend and she'd look at me and be like i i hate you so much we should have that should be a reoccurring thing on the show we just say like hey babe new peter king just dropped and then we just talk about peter king you know what we need to do is we need to get peter king on the show at point well and i don't know if we say that to him, but we at least enlighten him. No, no, no, no.

We can't embarrass ourselves like that. But the listeners will know. The sex addicts will know. Yeah, they'll know. So he said, expect a surprise I heard out of Jacksonville recently that would eliminate Aiden Hutchinson here. I mean, I know there's so much going on right now and smoke and it's draft week

and I never really buy into things on draft week, but this has been a multi-week lead up with Jacksonville. We did the mock draft episode yesterday, our predicted mock. And we had Trayvon there. We had Trayvon going into number one. I said I was 60-40 on that when we did the show. I would say I'm getting closer to Trevor's 65-35, 70-30 on that. Yeah. I mean, it's now, you know.

How crazy was this when we heard this a couple weeks ago, man? Oh, it's bonkers. Just, oh my gosh. I went on radio shows. I went on radio shows and people asked me about it. They're like, what do you think about this Trayvon Walker stuff? And I said, it's crazy. It's nuts.

He's a guy, where do you have him ranked? Do you have him ranked 20th? I have him ranked 20th ranked 15th yeah i mean which is totally fair of what he what he is right now i would say us having him in the top 20 is still projecting him a lot to be a lot better than what he was at college that's not even saying what he is now oh man and he's going number one he's gonna go number one man i'll say this if If Walker goes number one, doesn't it feel like it makes the rest of the draft

a little easier than what we've been fearing? Yeah. Hutch goes two. We think the Texans take a key. There's no doubt it makes it easier because he's the ultimate wild card. It's basically like, what do teams think of him? Because if Jacksonville was debating at number one

between Trevon Walker and Aiden Hutchinson, there's no guarantee that the Lions were debating between Trayvon Walker and someone else and there's no guarantee that the Houston Texans were debating between Trayvon Walker and somebody else so yeah if if he goes one Hutchinson goes two and then I think it gets a little bit easier after that for sure man it's, it's just interesting to me. This is a lot of excitement around the number one pick. You know what? I have to admit, it's not a lot of excitement around the number one pick. It's a mystery.

I'm not excited at the idea Trayvon Walker can go number one overall. I like the mystery of it. I'm not like, oh, wow, this is sick. Murder mystery. Yeah. I just had to interrupt the mock draft show for that because a surprise could mean one of the tackles. I mean, who knows?

Maybe they take Brees Hall number one overall. Who knows? Okay, all right. I'm just having fun. Back to the big word. Put Buffalo fans in a tizzy out here. Okay, so there are two players that you have in your top 51.

I did not watch enough of to rank appropriately. They are D'Angelo Malone, the edge rusher from Kentucky, Western Kentucky, sorry. And then Troy Anderson, the linebacker from Montana State. I watched Troy Anderson live, but I didn't get to sit down and do a full study on him. So I did not watch enough of either of these guys in a study format. So tell me all about them.

Why are they in the top 51? I'll start with Troy Anderson because he's like my own personal Trayvon Walker. He really has no business being this high unless you're projecting him to be. Where is he in the consensus? Hold on. Good question, actually. 79. You're not that far off.

Not that far off. But a lot of people are just projecting him because of the athlete he is. D malone is 108 so you're you're you're that's the one you are comfortably 60 spots higher yeah i like him a lot all right go ahead go ahead troy anderson you're talking about all an all-conference quarterback a really good college running back um that then got thrown at linebacker and is just figuring it out because he's so athletic. It's insane. His run and chase ability is nuts. He is still kind of figuring out his run fits and will get caught up in traffic a little bit because he's just at a small school level that concerns you a little bit. But man, when you have this kind

of athlete on the field that has barely played this position and looks pretty dang good at it and can run with running backs and can blitz 100 miles an hour and can still you know be adequate against the run I would take my now he's very scheme specific he is a linebacker that you're looking in a cover three scheme that you're asking him to really run around and make plays you're not asking him to come downhill over and over again and right car crash after car crash that was the area that i watched him kind of struggle with that's not him he's a lot like physicality like real like box play if you will yeah this is another trailing burks where the situation is going to make or break him and then when you look at d'angelo malone it's it's a bit of the same

thing where if i was evaluating for a team that values bigger pass rushers on the edge, he probably wouldn't even be on my board. But I'm evaluating for the entire league of what these guys can do. I wrote an athletic standup rusher with an absurd amount of production the last three seasons. He's got about 27 sacks the last three seasons. It's simple. He has burst flexibility, speed as a disrupt disruptor he kind of reminded me of like a shooting guard in basketball and I said this about a job before that he gets guys isolated out in space and they can't touch him they can't touch him they can't get hands on him he's bendy once again he's very explosive he's very quick I thought he had some of the best bend in the

entire class to win on the outside. At that size, there's going to be limitations on the defensive line. Drive blocking is going to hurt him in the run game. He's not this hand-in-the-dirt defensive lineman at 243 pounds, but 6'3", 243, 4'5", 340, 36-inch vertical. I know Vic Beasley didn't work out long term in the NFL, but it felt like there was a lot going on that had nothing to do with his talent with Vic Beasley. I mean, he's somebody we still have a 16 sack season. So it was really about being locked in with Vic Beasley before he walked away from the game. D'Angelo Malone reminded me a lot of the good, the good of Vic Beasley. Okay.

All right. All right. Who you got on mind? You got anybody further down? Yeah, let's dive back in. One that I really liked from you a lot is how low you were on Christian Watson. You had him on 58. I had him at 39.

So I almost felt like I even started to get carried away and then i caught myself and then i just didn't want to start throwing the board around there just is expectations for christian watson that i don't know if it's coming from maybe there's a fantasy community angle of it because he could go to the chiefs or the Packers or something like that. Maybe there is a, well, there's definitely that old 10 card on the RAS helps a lot. There's people that really are all in on athletes. Trevor, he wasn't very productive at the FCS level, and his play strength is not even up to NFL standard. He's an awesome athlete. He's going to be really good if you give him any kind of space.

I think he's going to get stronger. This kid was like pound recruit i believe out of tampa um oh yeah baby plant city yeah and he he grew so much throughout his time you know up at that program but once again there's just it's almost like a giraffe in the stash guy to me like he almost needs not a redshirt year but redshirt expectations where he's going to need a full camp. He's probably going to need a month or two. He needs an NFL weight program where he's got to get in the rookie mini camp and get going right away. And he's getting bigger and stronger.

And he's one of the freakiest athletes we've ever seen in the draft. Yeah. But it's just, there are real football issues with him that do not make him a first round selection. You know, going back to the conversation that we were having a few minutes ago when you're projecting these guys to be pros and not necessarily what they were in college i think that's really key for guys like christian watson

and you have him 39 in the consensus ranking he was 47 and i had him 58 and when i look at him at 58 there were so many times when i looked at him that lower on the rankings and I was like, man, I watched with my own two eyes with this guy's David senior bowl. You know, he's six foot four. He's 210 pounds like this. This dude moves like not many other players his size move. was in college sometimes because of him growing into his own body and his strength and his abilities and other times just because of straight you should usage because it was a run heavy system at North Dakota State so I think that all that's playing to its advantage the thing that I keep going back to is that the natural ball skills are sometimes really glaring at his tape. And I didn't see as much of this at the senior bowl. It's not like it was really sticking out to me at the senior bowl,

which encourages me, but it's hard to naturally just get better at that stuff. You know, and especially when it comes to being deep down the field, 25, 30, 40 yards down the line of scrimmage. That's where they want to use him, right? That's your athleticism. You have field stretching, athleticism, and size. You're going to want to send this guy deep on nine routes, on posts, on deep crossers, on things over the middle, like all of that stuff. stuff and if you don't have the play strength to play through contact or go up and sky up and get

the ball naturally then how much does that ability really even help me if I can't trust you to come down with it so that's my biggest worry with Christian Watson is the areas that people talk about him having a massive impact in the game he's still got to come down with the football. And he didn't do that as naturally as I wanted him to do as I was watching him tape. So maybe it is something that gets better with practice. But I'm just, I'm hesitant to pick a player high whose job it is to catch the football,

who sometimes struggles to catch the football. So that's, yeah. I found the NFL Stock Exchange player. Besides Kayvon Thibodeau, which isn't really that juicy. We both have him at two. And we're... Okay. Are we planting the flag on this guy?

How high are we talking here? Well, we are because it's so funny how you and I have him ranked. And I swear, Trevor and I had no idea about our boards at all. Nope, didn't see it till this point. this player on the consensus is at one Oh five. Okay. On your board, he is 61. And on my board, he is 42. Oh, Cam Juergens. Cam Juergens is a stock exchange uh he's he's got about 60 spots for me and 40 plus spots for you on the consensus well we both have tyra linderbaum in the top 20 yeah this is a center's podcast i never thought i'd say that dude i'm looking at these okay tyra linderbaum dylan parham cam jurgens where do you have cole strange because like i didn't mind cole strange now i don't think

he's a center but like yeah you have a 73rd i had cole strange 89th all of these like athlete zone blocking scheme yeah we're playing small ball out here with our rankings okay so yeah cam jurgens man he represents a lot of the same things that I think Tyler Linderbaum does. He just doesn't do them as elite. But he's bigger. I would, yeah. And like, look, you got to start off by saying that Tyler Linderbaum's concerns already were that he was not playing big enough.

So when you say that Cam Juergens doesn't play as big as Tyler Linderbaum, then you talk about what his limitations are but like he is so quick he is so smart he can move so again if you are running any type of blocking scheme where you are getting your offensive lineman to move either pulling a lot or in unison left or the right wide zone stuff inside zone stuff i think that he can handle those things really really well now i wanted to make sure that i watched his tape against wisconsin because i knew that wisconsin would put some big boys straight in front of him and he was gonna have to handle it and there's no doubt about it that when a bigger more true one technique zero technique nose tackle was up against his body

at the snap he doesn't move him so like that's something that i think it's it's it's a concern it's something that you've just got to be aware of, but you know, when those guys get up into them, it's not like he's straight pushing them or moving them off the ball. He definitely does struggle a little bit with strength, but there's so much of what he does from a quickness profile at that position that you really, really love. So perhaps there's some added weight. There's some added strength that we're going to see at the next level because that athleticism in the love. So perhaps there's some added weight. There's some added strength

that we're going to see at the next level because that athleticism in the middle, those instincts there, and his ability to get on the move, they don't come around too often, it doesn't seem. So I really liked Cam Juergens, yeah. They don't, and I'll say this, not to little insider expectations here,

the stock exchange ranking of Juergens is a lot closer to where he'll be drafted than the athletic consensus board. And that doesn't mean one's right and one's wrong, but prepping people for the draft, Cam Juergens is going in the top 100 picks. I've heard Cam Juergens is going in the top 70 picks. So yeah, the league does value him a lot

just because he is a zone-specific center. There are a lot of teams running zone, and there are a handful that need center, and they don't want to spend the top, you know, they don't want to use that first rounder on Linderbaum when they have Juergens as their, you know, consolation prize, in a sense. So, something interesting. Cole Strange factors into that, too. All right, what do you say?

We'll do one more, you know know kind of pick around the board here before we get out of here maybe move down the board a little bit it's funny we ended up pretty similar you have you have dolchich uh like titan six and like ranked number 96 i traditionally this is something people might catch on that have followed uh how i eval tight ends for a while unless you're a freak freak i don't like guys like this and i haven't been 96 so i think he's a player he's a very role specific player he's that poor man's gaseki role where he's only going to play out in the slot as a move tight end he can be an effective pass catching weapon on very specific downs i would be very surprised with that high-cut body.

That's valuable. I mean, it depends to who. He's not Kyle Pitts, you know what I mean? No, no, no, of course not. I know that's not fair. I've got him. Where do I have Dolchich? I have him as tight end, too.

But I have Trey McBride, Dolchich, and Jeremy Rucker all right next to each other. I got Trey McBride at 53. I have Dolchich at 57. And I have Jeremy Rucker all right next to each other. I got Trey McBride at 53. I have Dolchich at 57. And I have Jeremy Rucker at 67. So they are all right there next to each other. And I think all these guys bring a different little flavor to playing tight end.

But I think they're all decent difference makers at the next level. I like them for what they are. With Dolchich, why he did not crack that early group of tight ends is, you know, at that size, 243 pounds. He was a very average athlete. And I think that sometimes, you know, maybe in the pack, it looked like he was a great athlete and he's a good player. He can be a tight end to as a pass catcher strictly. But I just like the guys that are doing the dirty work that could still catch the ball.

And that was McBride, Rucker, and Otten. Those are the three guys that just, and Ferguson. They kick the crap out of everybody on the line of scrimmage. And they catch the ball all the time. They don't drop the ball. They catch everything right in the middle of the field. And that's very boring of me. But that's kind of the tight end I traditionally gravitate to.

I even saw the same with Daniel Bellinger. And I guess my hot take in all of this, I liked Charlie Kohler as a pass catching tight end better than Greg Dulcich. I saw that. Yeah. I saw. Yeah.

It was a good call out. It was a really good call. I always forget how lower I am. Very interesting how people are going to see this tight end class. I think all three of those guys can play really well. If Jeremy Rucker turns out to be like the best or second best of the bunch i'm gonna be absolutely kicking myself because i had jeremy rucker as uh either tight end one or tight end two for so long and then i was i was going over greg gulch's stuff and i was like i was like you know just like what he does it's just

so many teams want this and they're gonna they're gonna prioritize him and he's gonna get a lot of chances you're probably right he's gonna play well and so i had him at tight end too because i like him now yeah the mock draftable stuff and the ras for for dolchich it maybe wasn't as elite as as you wanted it to be but i still think that it was fine especially i think the explosive scores were great for him i would have liked to see him run a faster 40 but that's okay so if if record ends up being good i'm just gonna i'm gonna be kicking myself dude i'm just gonna be that's okay so if if record ends up being good i'm just gonna i'm gonna be kicking myself dude i'm just gonna be that's gonna be one that i when i finalized the big board i was like i'm comfortable with it but i'm mad at myself yep so i don't know so that was do you have one more

do we got one more one more that you and i were higher on who i i love this player now um i think he's gonna play guard at the next level is jamari sawyer you had him 71st yeah i had him 58th so we were pretty much eye to eye on him the consensus board had him all the way down to 85 i think i think he's a good i don't know i don't know nobody talks about him like ever i'd never hear him hear a piece. He's just good. He's a brute. He's just a pure strength O-lineman. He did everything they asked of him, whether it was at tackle, whether it was at guard. He was on a championship football team that could not really throw the football.

That's how important he was. And he handled it pretty well. Dude, Jamari Sawyer, he is the classic just a really good football player. So that was one that I was really proud to see our podcast is representing. You know, he's short at 6'3". It's funny to call someone 6'3 short. But he's 321 pounds, you know, kind of built like a fire hydrant. Arm length is not bad. He's almost got 34-inch arms.

You know, big hands, strong, 31 bench reps, doesn't miss chest day. Jamar Sely sellier he played his ass off these last couple years i yeah he's one of the safest players to me in the entire draft if you believe he can fit your scheme okay no i i had him up there and i was like damn i guess i'm gonna be a little bit higher on it but i'm glad that you are too because i agree worry about like if you put him on the interior the only thing that you would be worried about is is he an offensive tackle no he's not he's not i hear that you would be worried about is, is he an offensive tackle? No, he's not. I hear you.

I'd be like, okay, he's probably not an offensive tackle, but he's just a good offensive lineman. Kick him inside. Yeah, those guys matter. Tennessee Titans, if you miss out on an offensive lineman in the first round, pick Sawyer somewhere in the second round. Go up and get him. Put him on the interior. Dude, it's hilarious to me. He's going to get drafted in the third round. Nobody cares's it's hilarious to me he's just he's gonna get

drafted in the third round nobody cares he's gonna start for eight years and everyone's like oh that draft that there was like really five misses in the first 120 picks jamari sawyer played really long time that's good so yep yeah it's fun man it's really big boards are always fun uh it really just gets off the rails after the top 50 guys it feels like that's how much wide open territory there is this year so this was a good show it's good to get away from the mock drafts and kind of you know yep your thing and i know a lot of people have been asking like hey can we get some more prospect analysis and you know to everybody out there i definitely heard you i read the comments and we we both did it was with with the podcast launching in january and then it going straight

we went straight into east west shrine we went it going straight – we went straight into East-West Shrine. We went straight into Senior Bowl. We went right into Combine Prep. And then it was like free agency, how that's changing things. We wanted to get to the guest mock draft series, and hopefully you guys enjoyed that. But it definitely took up a lot of our time, so we're sorry we didn't get to as much of the prospect analysis.

As this podcast continues throughout the summer throughout next season we're going to get a lot more into that we promise and and i also want to give you guys the ability to ask some questions that maybe you want the answers to once and for all before the nfl draft so on thursday thursday's episode is going to be the first ever that we've had on this podcast q a fan, whatever you want to call it. We want to hear from you. Check out our big boards, see where we have players ranked, and ask us questions about what we think about a certain player,

where they're ranked on our big board, what we think about a position group overall, what we think your team is going to do in round one, in rounds two and three. Please don't ask us what they're going to do in day three on Thursday. Cause we don't know yet, but ask us what you want to hear from us about your team when it comes to the draft, when it comes to prospects. And I'll set it up like this because this is our first one ever.

And we want to give people as much as a, as much of an ability to get in onto the show as possible. I'll say that there are two ways when, where you can ask questions and we will answer them. If you feel so inclined, you can do so on iTunes between now and Thursday morning. If you want to leave us the five stars, we would really, really appreciate. Priority questions.

And right. If you leave us, if you ask us a question on an itunes review with five stars we are answering your question in the show like first and foremost that that is that is the disney express pass of getting your question answered for this podcast but then also on wednesday either sometime in the afternoon or sometime in the evening i'm going to tweet out hey we're going to have a q a for for Thursday's episode of the podcast, whatever, or actually I'll probably do that Tuesday. Cause we'll be recording sometime late on Wednesday. So either way, look out for that. If you just have a Twitter, if you just see it on Twitter, you can ask it then. But if you want to make sure your question gets answered five stars, ask the question on iTunes. Uh, we love y'all. Thank you

so much for making this draft season unforgettable for us as our first one here on this podcast uh hope you enjoyed the mock draft episode hope you enjoyed the big board episode the next time we speak to you guys it will be day one of the 2022 nfl draft connor i can't wait brother it's gonna be awesome i'm ready to go can't wait for the questions too i know you guys got a lot of questions pent up over the last couple of months. Get in on the show. We want to make this a jam-packed show for you guys. We will see you on Thursday. We'll see you on Thursday. Thank you.