NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 53. Drafting Dueling U-25 Teams

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers go head-to-head drafting the best starting rosters they can from players who will be under the age of 25 at the beginning of the upcoming NFL season. The two have the freedom to set up their teams for their own styles of play, and in the end ask the listeners to choose which team would win

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

It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. In this episode, we're going back and forth, snake draft style, drafting the best rosters we can, offense and defense, under 25 players in the NFL. It is going to be such a fun exercise. Giving some kudos, some love, some respect

to those young guns who are playing really, really well. Myself and Connor, man, we go head-to-head in this one. This is such a fun episode where we're going toe-to-toe, pick-to-pick, so much strategy involved in what positions you take first. Do you go for talent? Do you go for position scarcity? And ultimately, we are trying to build the best under 25 team that we can

to face off against one another. And you guys got to tell us who wins. I'm Trevor Sykema. With me is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. After a long hiatus, it was like seven days, but it feels like it was forever. I am Trevor Sikama. That is Connor Rogers. We are back in front of the mic and the camera for you guys. Say we missed you. We missed you right before I hit record on this podcast. Connor and I were chit-chatting a little bit, and Connor was like, dude, I was on vacation, and I genuinely missed the podcast.

And I felt the exact same way, man. There were times when I was like, you know what? I could go for some talking football right now. And, buddy, I'm glad to be back in front of the microphone with you. First of all, how was your vacation, my friend? You did a little little northern trip so i want to hear about it how was it it was great i think vermont is truly one of the most underrated states in the entire country beautiful trip great beer great mountains so much to do good food and coffee it was awesome man but there is no other way to start the show other than congratulating you and alissa for getting engaged on your vacation I think you made the most of the NFL Stock Exchange week off. If anyone was upset that we took a week off, Trevor has come back an engaged man. So the comment section, please congratulate him and Alyssa. I'm so happy for you guys. That made my week honestly even better. When I saw that post, it was awesome, dude. And

we're going to have a lot of fun today because we are doing the under 25 draft. So kicking off with an engagement, we're doing the under 25 draft. I have a question of the day that you are going to absolutely love, man. I am so excited to be back right now. Dude, first of all, thank you. Thank you so much. And to everybody out there who listens to the podcast, who responded to my tweet or reached out to me, DM'd me already saying congratulations.

Thank you guys so much. It really means the world all i can say is i am very happy that my stress level is a lot lower with the ring on her finger and no longer in my pocket because i will tell the story of kind of how that went and nothing went wrong i think everything went fine but i had the ring in my pocket for a couple of days and it's just like my eye it's just like you're putting your hand in your pocket what if I lose my pants like it was a beach trip and I didn't take it out to the beach but it was also like a we didn't have a photographer so it wasn't like a okay we're gonna be right here this is where we're doing it it was kind of a feel it

out thing and I think good man I like that I think I did it. I like that. I think I did a pretty good job of it, but it also meant the ring was in my pocket a lot longer than I wanted it to be. And so it was just, I was freaking out about it, but thankfully she said, yes, thankfully the ring is no longer in my possession, but dude, I am, I'm very excited about today's episode this is going to be a blast we are drafting against each other yes under 25 teams in the nfl so essentially what the rules are is when the season begins the upcoming 2022 nfl season begins these players have to still be 24 years old or younger so that means so that means no aj brown no kyler murray no max crosby who is going to turn 25 right before the deadline uh no josh allen the jags defensive end

josh allen no montez sweat right these are all guys who are going to turn 25 right before that deadline so outside of those big heavy hitters, we're going to draft starting 22, 11 guys on offense, 11 guys on defense. And then actually we're going to have some fun and get to some reserve players as well for reserve players each. Buddy, it's going to be a blast,

man. I know that you and I have both done this exercise before, but never against each other. And it's always good to update it every single year. So this is going to be a blast. Yeah. We're building teams too. Like you said,

like there is going to be some, you're not going to be drafting that maybe, maybe you are, but there's a good chance. Maybe you're not drafting the same kind of defensive lineman or the same kind of receiver over and over again. You said it best before we kick things off that you're pitting these teams against each other. You're picturing them playing against each other in a real game. So there's actually, besides the fact you're going through all the talent and this exercise was incredible to do before the show, were both saying uh it's going to be really cool to visualize it after as well to see these teams matched up so i want to get to your question today but before i do got to talk to you about our friends over at manscaped who have the greatest

ad copies in the world and i got a brand new ad copy for the summer. So I have to read it for you guys. Okay, you ready? Sweaty sack summer is approaching. That's right, folks. And it is time to prioritize the comfort in your crotch. That's why the kings of crotch comfort, Manscaped, have spent nearly two years designing the most comfortable boxer briefs out there. These things are the softest fabric, any underwear, of anything that you cans out there. These things are the softest fabric, any underwear of anything that you can get out there. So breathable that it's just like gills for your groin. I told you guys this copy is good. It gets even better. They even trademarked the jewel pouch. They truly did.

They trademarked the words jewel pouch. So you guys know that it's serious i think it's time that you guys invested in your family jewel so let your bulge breathe a little bit get 20 off and free shipping by using the promo code pff at manscape.com dad you can buy this for yourself sons you can get it for yourself for your dad ladies buy it for your man dog dads y'all deserve the treat as well get 20 off plus free shipping using the promo code pff at manscape.com that is 20 off and free shipping using the promo code pff manscape.com once the boxers 2.0 touch your sack you'll never go back what i mean it's just it's brilliance it's brilliance it's unbelievable golf clap because i don't want to clap too loud. No, well done.

Is it time? Is it time for the question of the day? Look, I want to tell the people out there. I want to be very transparent. Yeah. We had a question of the day from the fans, which we are going to get to at some point, because we got plenty of things to get over.

But Connor interrupted me as I was telling him about it, and he went, no, I got one. Yeah. All right. I have it. Hands off. All right. Let's hear it. I and he went, no, I got one. Yeah. All right. I have it. Hands off. All right. Let's hear it. I haven't heard this yet.

I haven't heard it. The reason I had to hijack from the sex addicts suggestion, which we are going to do, and I don't want to spoil that either, but it's been a, it's one that's filled the comments. The reason we are not doing that today is because the one I have, this is the only day we can do it. The question of the day, Trevor, is, is it okay to propose at sporting events? I know there's going to be mixed opinions on this. I could never.

First, do you like it? The question, not the idea. No, no, no, it is good, because there are so many people who do this, right? There's so many people who propose. It's on the timeline every day. Correct. And like social media accounts love it because then they get to repost it and everything.

Jumbotrons can't get enough of it. You know, it kind of goes back to what we've said before. Whatever makes you happy, just do it, especially when it's something as harmless and as celebratory as this. But it's not my cup of tea. I wouldn't do it especially when it's something as harmless and as celebratory as this but it's not my cup of tea i wouldn't do it i was as a as a man who recently proposed to his now fiance as a man i can't i can't speak to this i call myself an expert now um i let you say i wouldn't do it are you very passionate about this i feel like you are for me you know what after you said that i don't want to be like really mean and be like go for it go for the jugular take him out it's a nightmare it gives me it freaks me out every time i see it i

get anxiety i get like when i the idea of that going wrong is terrifying it's terrifying you're right oh wait you're saying like if she's like if they say no well yeah number one if they say no there's so many things that can go wrong even beyond that like one like what if it's a big game and the team that you both root for because i hope both of you root for the team if you're doing it at the game like they lose and then like part of your memory is like yeah we got engaged but like they got knocked out of the playoffs or like or we were on the jumbo okay i think it's hard for me to to sign off on this one because maybe i don't understand couples that are as passionate about here's an example me and my girlfriend are huge Mets fans like we watch every game together I could not fathom proposing to her at Citi Field like I couldn't even she would she's a giant Mets fan and I think she'd be like are you kidding like like here and like the jumbotron

throwing a home run ball back she'd throw the ring back at you. That's what you might do. It's a tough sell for me, personally. And I'm sure there's going to be some – maybe there's some people that listen that have done that. And if that makes you happy, that's okay. But I think it's tough, man. You're right, man. There's a lot of logistics here.

If anybody in the comments either has done this themselves or knows somebody who has done it, I would love to hear from you. Because, like, if you're doing it at a hockey game, can you do it at a playoff game? There's already a lot of emotion. What about the metal detectors? Are you doing it in between? I'm serious. Does it go off?

It's still adjusting. No, I don't think it does. Okay. I don't think it does okay i don't think it does because like nor like you know like if you're wearing like a like a necklace or something or like ring like normal rings on your finger like on other other fingers i don't think it goes off but imagine if it did and you just blew it like like hey what's in your pocket and you look at the security guy and he looks at you and he's like what's in your pocket and you're like i can't tell you and then again

girlfriend's next to you and they're like well can't tell you and then again your girlfriend's next to you and they're like well you have to tell me because what if it's a weapon right and then next thing you know you're on the ground you're in cups and then you're getting you know or you're on the ground proposing at the metal detector not in the stadium because you have no other choice i know this might be a stupid scenario so people are like i would never go off there's a lot of issues there's a lot of issues i it's a no for me all right so i'm you know i'm i'm generally not a fan but if that is what is going to make the two of you most happy and make a great story great for you good for you

good for you i couldn't do it obviously connor could not do it we would love to hear from you guys again if whether you have done this before, whether a friend of yours, family member has done this before or not, or just if you have opinions on us, let us know. Is it cool to propose at a sporting event? Are you for it or against? There's other ways to get on the Jumbotron. There are. There are.

A lot. All right. I'm curious to see the reactions to this one. I think it'll be an overwhelming no with some very passionate people leaning towards the yes. I don't want to hear about it. Which I love. All right. All right, my friend, the time is now.

It is me versus you, snake draft style, assembling the best offense and defense we can with players that will be under the age of 25 by the time the 2022 NFL regular season rolls around now as we said at the beginning the way that we want to judge whose team is better here is it's gonna be my team versus your team at the end of it now I guess when we get towards the end of the draft maybe we can get a little bit of a specialist and see where somebody might be a little bit weaker maybe get the advantage on you there but essentially this is just an exercise for us to recognize,

shout out everything, some of the best young players in the game and put a little friendly competition on the line too. So as it is a snake draft, my friend, do you want to go first? Have the first crack at these players? Or do you want to be the 2-3 going back to back? How do you want to start this draft? You're giving me the choice. Uh-huh.

You are in a giving mood as a ring to alissa first pick if i want it on the draft here we go uh i will take the first pick i'll have you go with the two three okay and this is this thing man there are so many mini conversations layered in this as i know you built your your draft sheet i built my draft sheet and there's times where I'm like oh man better better attack that position while you can certain things and I think you know what I'm gonna do here number one overall I'm gonna take Justin Herbert you should have begun that's why like I couldn't believe you offered me the first pick I thought you were gonna do like a random drawing or I thought you'd be tempted no i thought you'd be tempted somewhere else yeah so i'll explain the other two ideas i had that i think you can argue here the only other two players i

could justify and what i would have probably done at two and three would have been jamar chase and nick bosa um with maybe micah parsons as like the one B to the Bosa pick. I just think those guys are on a totally different planet than where they should be for their age. It's crazy. Now with Jamar, obviously the counter is the wide receiver depth at the, at the a under 25 is pretty good, but that was my thought here.

But man, Herbert's the guy out of the under 25 quarterbacks. There's some other guys that you can project to be good. I know you're going to get there eventually. You have that conversation. But Herbert's just, you look at it, the elite quarterbacks. Like Joe Burrow's 25 already. When I started this research, Trevor, I started with quarterback.

And I was like, man, quarterback might be really simple. Like it might just be somebody takes Herbert, somebody takes Burrow. I think they're pretty close. And we just, whoever takes the other one first, the other one goes eventually later. And it's kind of boring. It's not boring at all because Herbert's the guy. Herbert's elite right now.

He has everything you want in a quarterback. Insane traits. They've transferred. They developed at the next level in an incredible way. And he's going to be the face of my offense. And honestly, dude, I'm really jacked up that I was able to get him here really jacked up he's already one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL yeah he really is arm talent wise there's there's few that are better than him and it's been so much fun to see him honestly overcome a lot of weird draft narrative that it had they had around him where there were

so many people who were like oh you know is he too quiet is he really a leader is he have what it takes to be an alpha at this position and what he has done over the last certainly year has been silenced any kind of criticism of that whatsoever and he is even if he leads more with his actions on the field than he does as a vocal guy in the locker room who gives a damn now i mean the things that he was able to do last year were simply special so I missed on him I mean I thought he was a top around two developmental guy that you know coming out of I loved him when he was a sophomore liked him as a junior senior year I was like what is going on and he's exceeded expectations in my eyes he he is outperforming any draft evaluation I had of him and I'll take that miss because he's awesome, man. He's awesome.

And he's a perfect, he's the poster boy, him and Josh Allen, of why teams do not reach, but, or kind of reach for traits often. Because when they hit, there's nothing like it at the quarterback position. Yeah. And, you know, it's funny. I've done this exercise before with Ben Solak. Some people will remember we did this last year on Locked On NFL Draft. And it is kind of what you said. I think neither of us picked quarterback

until the last two picks of the draft because it didn't matter. Like one of us was getting Burrow. One of us is getting like Lamar Jackson. And I think Ben picked Lamar Jackson first, which is fine. And then I picked like Joe Burrow as my last pick in the draft here.

But with this age cut off the way that we have it here and with no Kyler Murray in this this draft it's basically justin herbert and now i'm obviously not going to take quarterback until my last pick but uh so i can't wait to see what you do though right i don't think it's as cut and dried as i thought so i'm really excited to see what you do my first two picks i'm going with one player who was on your uh initial back-to-back list and then another player who was not i'm going with micah parsons and i'm going with kyle pitts yep it makes a ton of sense because i'm doing i gotta do the scarcity thing man when you look at tight ends we're also taking t.j hawkins is not available because t.j hawkinson will be 25 years old when this upcoming season rolls around and so i kind of have to go the scarcity

angle here you you hit me you hit me hard with this scarcity angle at quarterback because now i don't get justin herbert and even though there's a lot of really great players on the board I am fascinated to hear what the comment section what the listeners are like who who they would have picked here at the two three hole because this really determines the entire draft but I gotta go with Parsons and I gotta go with Kyle Pitts Kyle Pace is an absolute alien he had the quietest 1,000 yard season I think of I've ever seen because I don't know people wanted him to have like 2,000 yards in his first year as a rookie. Obviously not having the touchdowns kind of hurt his overall recognition last year, but dude's going to be an absolute star.

Dude's an absolute stud. He's an alien of a player. And the same can be said with Micah Parsons, who just had an unthinkable year last year as a rookie being used as an off-ball linebacker, as an edge player, as a guy who was even used with his hand in the dirt going to rush the passer on the edge of the middle everything man he was he was unbelievable and I think that when you look at those two positions the linebacker and tight end I'm taking the cream of the crop of both of them getting Michael Parsons

and Kyle Pitts so those are my two back-to-backs I love it I mean Pitts is in a unicorn in this draft in a sense of he can change the look of your offense. You can't get anything remotely comparable to him at the position. He's that Herbert of the tight end group where it's like when he's gone. Now I will sit back on tight end for as long as I need to. Right, right. He's gone. Now tight end is going to be your last pick.

Yeah, he's long gone. So, OK, this is really tricky for me. And it's it's it's really gone. So, okay. This is really tricky for me. And it's really... I got options. I got options. And it's... Oh, man, it's so tricky. But I think I have to do it like this.

Dude, there's so many ways you could go here. I'm going to take Bosa because I'm worried about not getting an elite defender okay i'm gonna take bosa okay now where it gets tricky for me is really hard is the i'm gonna look at the wide receiver group right here oh man dude you can it's so this exercise is so much fun if y'all have podcasts out there and you have flexibility during the summer and you still record do this it is so much fun to do i know your listeners are gonna love it i'm gonna take jamar chase and i i'm gonna go with what i said i would have done

at two and three i'm gonna take jamar chase i love the depth of the wide receiver group but i'm gonna stick with my draft evaluation of him being the best wide receiver i've ever scouted and him having a monster rookie year uh that changed that entire franchise in my opinion i think i think him and burrow are the next matt ryan and julio jones for the next seven years i really believe that so i'm gonna go with jamar chase i think he's special okay so you took bosa and you're going Jamar Chase. I think that's strong. I think that's very strong. Nick.

They're anchors. There's so many ways you can go in this. It's fun. It's so much fun. I was about to say very confidently that Nick Bosa would have been one of my next two picks here. And I think he would have, but maybe not, man. I'm looking at a couple of other areas, and the direction that I'm going to go now with my back-to-backs,

I think, especially with Bosa off the board, is going to be a little bit different. But I'd even be tempted to go this direction before him. But, I mean, let's just talk about it. Bosa came onto the scene, burst onto the scene as a rookie played very very well uh and then had the acl injury bounces back with 15 15 and a half seconds saying exactly what it was saying dude's a freak i mean the dude if there let's just face it bosa stays healthy he's gonna be a hall of famer yeah absolutely and like it's it and it's wild that i know people are probably yelling at me

saying it then why didn't you just pick a hall of famer at the two to three spot well i've got a little bit different of a strategy i'm trying to build the full team here but look it's it there's no doubt about it he is so unbelievable what he does the size speed bend overall athleticism the hand usage the violence man the understanding of the pass rush plan how to beat people to the inside the outside bosa has absolutely all of it and then jamar chase look i thought jamar chase was a very very good prospect as a wide receiver i didn't have him wide receiver one i had jaylen waddle wide receiver one and that's because when i watched jamar chase in college i went okay he had an unbelievable year with burrow as his quarterback throwing him pinpoint accuracy passes with him being primarily a guy who wins off the line of scrimmage who i don't think is an uber athlete

like i don't think he's just crazy athlete and i was like how much is that going to translate to the next level over what i know is going to translate to the next level which is jalen waddle speed which is truly world class jamar chase shut me up i mean it happens i watched that bangles chiefs game in person because pff said quarters in cincinnati sometimes you get tickets to this game i was able to go with a couple of buddies uh from pff to that game and that was the game that jamar chase had what was it 235 yards and three touchdowns or something yeah very julio game it was one of the most unbelievable performances i've ever seen because every single person in the stadium knew where the ball was going kansas city couldn't stop it yep and that just goes to show you how good jamar chase is well as for my next two picks here

i'm gonna go offensive line i'm gonna go back to back wow offensive tackles wow i'm gonna go tristan wirfs and ray sean slater i love it man i gotta do it i'm building through the big boys. I got to get these. So good. They're so, they're incredible, man. What Tristan Wirfs has been able to do over the last two years

to set himself up as not just one of the best young offensive tackles in the game, not just one of the best right tackles in the game, one of the best offensive linemen in the game. Already, Tristan Wirfs. Now, I know that's high praise but he has played up to that kind of caliber man he's got to have that continued success but he has shown that this level of football is exactly where he belongs and the same thing can be said with Rayshon Slater incredible season last year as a rookie at

left tackle for the Los Angeles Chargers blocking for Justin Herbert and you got to remember this about Rayshon Slater too. This guy didn't play football his final year. He opted out. He was one of the opt-outs that we saw from the COVID adjusted season. So he completely opted out, didn't play football for an entire year. And he comes on and he steps in right away, plays left tackle day one for the Los Angeles Chargers and plays unbelievably well.

So I got gotta set up my book and offensive tackles there especially with you taking Nick Bosa I gotta get somebody to block him so I'm gonna go Tristan Wirfs and Ray Sean Slater I love the strategy I was really thinking I would get one of those guys and you know there was a part of me that was like do I go back to back because one can play the left side the other can play the right side and this is true team building is there a part of me that that can take both of them back to back swing you had the cojones to do it had to do it and it's a it's a great move it's a great move it's um it's bookends on each side for whoever your quarterback is going to be so it's it's smart so okay i'm kind

of ecstatic right now because i get to pair Jamar chase with Justin Jefferson. Yeah. I just like, it's insane. That was where I was, by the way, while I was freaking out last time, I didn't know whether to take chase or Jefferson. Yeah.

I have them both. So Justin Herbert is now throwing to Jamar chase and Justin Jefferson in my offense. We have no offensive line protecting them. We're going to get there. Maybe in a little bit, this is where it's the meme, the meme of the Joe burrow. I meanrow meme the sewell the sewell and jamar

chase so good so it just and the way it was recreated 8 000 times well because if jamar chase had a good game then it was then the football would be complete at the end and if jamar chase had a bad game then it was so just Joe Pearl on his ass. It's so good. All right, so I'm going to go a little – this might surprise some people here, but I'm going to take A.J. Terrell. I think that – Oh, damn. Okay, you're doing this to me.

I'm going to take A.J. Terrell because I'm looking at my defense right now, and I'm excited about Nick Bosa up front, but I'm a little worried how I'm going to build the back end of it. So I'd like to get just a true number one corner, a guy that I think it's a shame that, you know, he's played on a bad Atlanta team that a lot of people don't realize how good AJ Terrell is. I mean, I would say last year he was a top three corner in the NFL. Yeah, he was awesome, man. Yeah, he was awesome.

This dude is not even 24 years old yet. I think when he enters his prime, he's going to be every bit as good as Jalen Ramsey. He's awesome. So I get a true number one corner here to at least get some kind of cornerstone on the back end of my defense. And, you know, after him, I thought the corner group was kind of interesting. There's a lot of guys I like, but I think the pool evened out a little bit. I thought he was the clear-cut, far-and-away guy in that defense. And, you know, after him, I thought the corner group was kind of interesting. There's a lot of guys I like, but I think the pool evened out a little bit. I thought he was the clear cut far and away guy in that group. This is good,

man. I would have, I'll just let you know. I would have absolutely taken AJ Terrell next. Wow. Okay. So I'm not saying I thought it was a little off the rails, but I mean,

especially with you taking Justin Jefferson, when you took Justin Jefferson, I was like, like okay I have to take AJ next I have to because there are other good corners which I will hopefully get to cover your receivers but he's the most established that one he he had an unbelievable year kind of solidified himself as a guy who has the potential to play as a top five guy so So I think that that makes the most sense here. I think for my next couple of picks, I'm going to go back to the scarcity well here really quick. And I have to check an age.

I'm pretty sure I'm well within. Okay, okay. I'm good there. I'm good there. Please let me be good here, because if so,'m gonna be very happy ma'am oh no that's the heartbreak when you see that they're gonna turn 25 in camp or they just turned 25 or they were a late rookie an older rookie it's for people listening i know some there's gonna be some instincts to, how did you guys miss this guy? I promise you, maybe there will be one or two we miss, but just Google it.

It'll blow your mind how hard this exercise actually was because it is under 25 before the start of the regular season. And there's not a lot of stars or above average players that fit that criteria where you're building two teams. You know who just broke my heart? Yeah, I'm actually really curious. Tell me. I'll put that on my list. Jeffrey Simmons.

That was one that crushed me when I was doing my pre-draft. D-Line sucks, by the way. He turns 25. D-Line sucks. When you take Jeffrey Simmons out of it, the group stinks. And that was going to be my, like... Like, checkmate. Right. Like, i have no alternative

dude i would have taken i would have taken him uh in my in our second round that's how high i was on him it's bad it i should be it's not a bad group that we're gonna take but it's gonna look a lot different than the other groups it's definitely gonna definitely okay so you've got one d lineman off the board you can still pick a wide receiver okay we do have the flex okay one of my picks here is going to be jonathan taylor one of my one of my picks is going to be jonathan taylor because say whatever you want about running backs and value. Oh, he's awesome. This dude's unbelievable.

This guy almost averaged 2,000 yards per season at Wisconsin. Started three years, freshman, sophomore, junior year, almost averaged 2,000 yards a season in each of those seasons. Comes in the NFL, what does he do? Rookie year, over 1,000 yards. This past year past year two thousand yards scrimmage he's nuts he's he's he is so supremely talented he's everything that you could possibly want I think from the running back position he's an unbelievable athlete he's gonna be he's gonna be one of my picks here I have to get Jonathan Taylor because I think that he is just that good of a running back talent. I can't.

This is hard, dude. Yeah, it's a brutal exercise. Because you're trying to. CeeDee Lamb, I have to do it. CeeDee Lamb, okay. I have to do it. I have to do it cd lamb okay i have to do it i have to do it because if i had to physically look at your roster having jamar chase justin jefferson and cd lamb with aj terrell as your number one corner i would have thrown up i would have i would have pressed

i would have pressed start on the controller i would have hit and rage restart rage we would have we would have restarted so I have to go with CD lamb here that's my wide receiver one uh along with Jonathan Taylor yeah it's it's tough um it's really I wanted to kind of do that I was curious like where do I try to really back him into a corner like you did to me with pits which which was really smart. Yeah. Like I'm not, my tight end group is, there's just no, it's not going to look any different. I can't believe Jeffrey Simmons turns 25. How, first of all, how dare he?

It's crazy. How can Jeffrey Simmons have the audacity to turn 25 this summer? Yeah, that kind of, that hurt you there. So you took Taylor and Lamb. I did, I did. I mean, that, your offense looks a lot different with those two. You got two awesome tackles. Now you have JT running behind them.

All right. My next pick is a guy that one reason I love him so much, besides the fact that I think he's one of the most underappreciated players in the NFL, is that I can play him anywhere. And that's Michael On way new from new England. Okay. All right. He has quietly played both guard spots as a rookie.

He played a lot of right tackle. He's played left tackle last year. He's played every position besides center and he's done it at a really high level. He's, he's been one of belichick's best picks ever sixth rounder and he can play any position on the line guard and tackle and he's he's he's a he's built like a fire hydrant uh he's so good he's so so good so for me i'm curious where he's

going to ultimately slot in at the end of this exercise right now, I'm going to put him at one of the tackle spots. It'd be a little chess piece for you. It opens up my drafting. It was really weird to me that the Patriots kind of like benched him this year. Right. That was, it was very,

it was, I didn't understand what it was like. I know he's been hurt before. Yeah. And it was just like, he became like this weird odd man out on their office. Yes. So, and then they dumped like he became like this weird odd man out on their offensive line. And then they dumped Shaq Mason.

Dumped him. So what is it? Do they not believe in him? Do they believe? We salute you. Yeah, good for you. So this is an interesting pick because, yeah, you're 100% right, Trevor. It's a weird situation.

What was strange? What was strange? I know here at PFF, I like saying that sometimes. that sometimes oh there you go i think he's been one of the highest graded offensive linemen since he got into the league he is very highly graded yeah so i i like that i got a little bit of a chess piece there because and i'll tell you this when you took warps and slater i like kind of panicked where i'm like how am i going to make up for this and the answer is you're not you're never going to make it like you're not going to make up for me picking herbert i'm not going to make up for you picking pits or the two

tackles i just have to find a way to get capability at those spots um so i take him and we'll see where he ultimately slots in for me now it gets interesting it does get very because we're starting to have the door a little bit more wide open here but i'm gonna go back to the offensive line well and take creed humphrey you suck he's the best center in football that's twice now you've sniped me yeah he's the best center in football okay um it's it's really simple it's really simple he's so good and there was nobody else at that position in my eyes that I could get like him. As much as I think Linderbaum is going to get there,

it's just, you know, it's taking the established player. And Humphrey is established. Yeah. No, I think that you're right. I probably would have taken Creed Humphrey here. I'm looking at my board, and there's a lot of guys that I'd like. There's a lot of guys to pick from, but ultimately, I think the Creed Humphrey would have been up next for me.

I think he's just so good. God, this exercise is hard. It's like, I'm getting to this spot where I was like, okay, let me pair these two guys. Ooh, but who's Connor going to take? And then I scroll down. That's what I think all the time. I scroll down a little bit of my big board i'm like wait a minute wait what if i take these

two guys instead then who is he gonna take so this is all right this is a fun exercise we're already very deep into this bad boy gotta read a quick little ad for you guys the nfl stock exchange podcast is brought to you by our friends over at cash app cash app is the easiest way to send spend and save your money. You can send or request money from your friends when they owe you dinner, drinks, literally anything. Besides just sending money back and forth with Cash App, you can also invest in stocks with as little as $1 to buy, sell Bitcoin too. Well, you can't get Bitcoin for $1, but you know what I'm saying. You can invest stocks for $1. Bitcoin probably costs you a little bit more,

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You know what? You mentioned it. Defensive line, it's not ideal. It's not super deep. So let me check the ages. Hold on. Age check, folks. Let me make sure.

He's going to be disappointed again, whoever he's thinking of. No, no, no, no, no, no. We're good to go on that one. Good to go on that one. Hold on. Hold. All right, we're good to go on this one too. All right, I'm going to take your boy.

I'm going to go Quinn and williams i'm gonna go dexter lawrence back-to-back defense good picks i had them both right on the top of my board for that yeah i i had to do it because it gets it's gross it gets thin yeah it's gross very thin dexter lawrence uh one of the best nose tackles especially i guess if you consider his age one of the best young nose tackles in the game man he's got a lot of flexibility. He doesn't just have to play that zero technique, one technique. I think if you flex him out and he's got the athleticism, he'll be able to play a little bit of three technique for you too. Quentin Williams, we know the size, the speed, how he's able to penetrate.

You can play him along the defensive line in a variety of different techniques as well. So I think that those two guys, I have my eye on those. There are some that you could like, that you could buy into, that are down further on the list of players to choose from but i had a chance to get the top two interior defensive linemen on my board so i'm gonna go with it can't argue that i mean those guys are a little different than what's left so i mean once again can't argue that um okay so now once again we're kind of playing this game of i'm feeling good i'm feeling good i'm feeling good i'm pumping

myself up. I got to give myself a pep talk right now because this is such a stressful exercise. It is. So I'm going to take Iki Ikuonu here. And I had a fear that you would take him and play him on the interior. Okay.

So I had to do it here. If people are thinking I'm reaching here, you could have really kind of went full checkmate on me. I was wondering if we were going to get a rookie in this draft. Yeah, me too. Yeah, I'm going to go. I mean, Nicky was my best player in the last draft. You loved him, so it makes total sense.

Yeah, I think he's awesome. You can kind of see the identity of my offensive line I'm building. Beef. We're beefy. We're going to have a little bit of pass pro. We're not going to be perfect in pass pro, but we're so beefy. We're going to have a little bit of pass pro. We're not going to be perfect in pass pro, but we're so beefy. We're going to be able to run the ball. These are my kind of guys.

So, so beefy. So, Iquanu, off the board, love him. Man, this is where the door is just so wide open. It is. Now, where you go here will heavily determine, I think, where I absolutely attack. If you haven't noticed yet, I love pairing things. Yes, it's the way to do it. This is how I draft in Madden.

This is how I drafted fantasy football. Make a strength of strength. I just, yes, I like go for all outs. I bring my team and identity immediately. So I'm very curious to see where you go with this bit yeah make a strength of strength i'm torn between two players right now and it's just really tough because it's one of those that neither pick is sexy at all but it's also like man can't really go wrong here either i'm gonna take antoine winfield safety, which is such a dagger to Trevor.

The safety group is... My son! The safety group is not very promising in terms of established players. There's so many projecting players. Yeah. He's the guy. He's so established. There's one other guy that I had written down that I think is not him,

but close enough where you take him and you feel good about him. But I kind of want to solve each level of the defense here. And now that I got Bosa, AJ Terrell, and Antoine Winfield on the back end there with Bosa up front, at least it's looking like a capable unit. Yep. You know what? I can't even be mad at you.

I really can't. I'm showing respect. And I didn't pick him yet honestly and like that is an area you were right sir safety was one of those areas where you go okay like d-line a little thin after the first couple of guys especially the guy at the top right there so i yeah it's on me it's on me you know what he i hope i just hope he's happy that's that's all i want i just i just hope anton Winfield Jr. is happy on your team when he's midway through the game losing to my team.

All right, we have a couple of different options we can go with here. All right, so you're spreading out on defense, and so it's not like I can lock out any spot here. You could go anywhere. Interior offensive line, you've still got two spots. I've got three spots. that's an area that i could hit here or do i have two spots or do you question i have two i got two tackles that could also play guard so i don't we'll see we'll see where it goes you know and there's some decent

tackles that are still left on the board there are so you could get really creative here you know what okay all right this just helped me make my decision i'm gonna go back to back wide receivers here i'm gonna go with dk metcalf can't argue that and i'm gonna go with jaylen waddle can't argue that boom baby cd lamb dk metcalf jaylen waddleell, Kyle Pitts, get at me. I could play quarterback. I'm drafting myself as the last pick, and we're going to make it happen. I got Jonathan Taylor standing next to me. I got Tristan Wirth and Rayshon Slater in front of me.

I'm going to play quarterback on this team. So I'm kind of rounding out the skill positions right there with DK. Wait, DK is – Yeah, you're good. You're good and uh wait dk is oh yeah you're good you're good i checked that one okay we're good he's close he's close december december yeah he's a december birthday we're good we're good so you're good there's a couple of those on here all right back to the well here offense is shape you currently have not drafted a secondary player no they're not needed. Which is interesting.

Secondary player is not important. Not important. Screw it. I mean, it is hard to play DB in this league, where I kind of thought that at one point. I was like, am I going to draft guys early? And I did. Man.

I'm going to go back to my edge position here. I have an ace up my sleeve with second. You do. I do. I do. Okay. All right. We'll see about that. I do.

I am going to take, this is so tricky. I'm actually going to go back to safety. Oh, okay. I was going to say, well, if you name the guy that I was just thinking about that I had as my ace,

I'm going to laugh so hard right here. I'm going to take Javon Holland. Okay. That wasn't who he was on my list. Very high on my list. Not the name that I was thinking thinking about that i had as my ace i'm gonna laugh so hard right here i'm gonna take jevon holland okay that wasn't who he was on my list very high on my list not the name that i was thinking of but that's okay it would have been really funny if i did that that would have just been cruel at this point really really cool so i'm looking at your board you have filled your offense besides quarterback understandably no need to rush a quarterback i've done the same thing with tight end i I'll stare at that. You could have done something funny in your flex spot and took the other acceptable tight end, and then I would have had literally a bad, bad, bad tight end.

But that would have just been overthinking this thing so much. Oh, man. I'm torn right now at the edge spot. That's where I am right now. For people wondering why i'm going to take somebody that has had more production rather than a more projectable player i'm going to take brian burns here damn and people might be surprised that i took brian burns over chase young but dude brian burns is great brian burns is awesome. He's awesome. I know he had a career year with Nine Sacks last year.

I think the film's better than the Nine Sacks. He is awesome. Yes. Yeah, so Nick Bosa and Brian Burns are my rush ends. And I'm excited about that. It's a good front. That's a front that gets home with no interior D-line at the moment. Okay.

All right. Okay. Write those into the sheet. I'm looking up. Yeah, they're in. in okay i'm looking up um never mind nope nope nope nope plays different position plays different i'm looking at panicking folks no i'm looking at snaps right now because you took i thought i was gonna get one of at least juvan holland or antoine winfield jr and you taking both of them means that i now need to kind of make sure that my safeties are

aligned correctly yeah that's something you got to watch oh yeah okay all right all right we might be all right here i think you're gonna be the i have four guys left and if i'm looking at them correctly, you're going to be fine. Okay. I can't pick Darnell Savage cause he turns 25. You really hate to see that. You do hate to see that part. I don't need to go safety though. Cause you just picked two of them. So that can leave that for a later date. All right. There's only one group left that you and I have not even sniffed. Oh, no.

Well, kind of. You took a guy that's like a hybrid. Oh, Parsons? Yeah, he's a hybrid linebacker rusher. Right, right, right. We have not touched the off-ball linebackers. No, no need. Just no need.

No need. Don't play any of them. Don't need them. Don't think there's a difference on it. I'm playing dime. Mike is the only linebacker on the field. I wouldn't even blame you for it when you got go up against justin jefferson and jim marches okay against justin herbert my first pick is gonna be patrick sirtan i like that i had my

eyes on him for a couple rounds now and i just i just didn't just didn't pull the trigger he is going to be very good in this league yeah Yeah, I think he already is, right? I would agree. Yeah, I would agree with you. Man, then for my next pick, for my next trick. God, I hate the fact that you're so flexible in the offensive line. It was a sneaky move. It doesn't help, dude. It was a sneaky move, not going to lie.

It was a sneaky, sneaky move that I didn't even plan at all. It was an emergency into it because you took Wirfs and Slater. All right. I'm going to pick Trey Smith next. Okay. I had him on my list. The interior offensive lineman from Kansas City. I can't let you get both young Kansas City interior offensive lineman I

can't I can't let that happen so that means I got Tristan Wirfs I got Ray Sean Slater I got Trey Smith Trey Smith had an unbelievable season this past year now the thing about Trey Smith is that highly talented recruit right like the dude was a five star the dude was on a path coming out of high school to be a future NFLer but dealt with a lot of health issues maybe wasn't even going to play the game of football again you know some people were like okay you're not really going to medically clear this guy he ends up playing his last year at tennessee comes into kansas city starts right away plays one of the most snaps of any rookie him and uh him and creed humphrey right there for the most snaps of any rookie offensive lineman he played really well

graded out very very well in our system so i think that he's a fantastic interior offensive line pick and then pat chertan he went he didn't grade as high as i thought that he was going to for us at pff but yeah i mean dude he like i said he's gonna be a star i mean i know i know he's got the name the nfl name right the exact name in fact of of a former pro bowler with his dad um playing as long as he did in the league. And he just, you could just tell. I mean, even back from the Alabama days, man, he gets it. He is a future CB1. He's going to be incredible as long as he stays healthy. So Patrick Sertan, my first pick.

Trey Smith, my second pick. Can't argue with those at all. We're kind of just, you know, now we're in the phase of like kind of looking for starters here, looking for guys that, you know, might not be the star names you're used to hearing over and over again all right so Sertan was a guy I definitely would have taken here so I like that pick a lot for you I think he's the one that when you watch the film of the young corners besides Terrell who's from a different draft class he was very consistent last year and now it's a little

bit more open-ended there's one there's a couple interesting guys still in the corner I am gonna kind of surprise you here and build a weird really weird front I'm gonna take Chase Young here and oh you're doing it to me the reason why I think I could do that here is we have the hybrid spot of D-line linebacker and I'm gonna move Brian Burns to that, who I know the best aspect of his game is rushing, but I think he's athletic enough that we can ask him to do a lot of different things. So Bosa and Chase Young reunited as true pass rushers up front, Brian Burns. But the problem is,

now we are really, really light up there, so I'm going to take Jordan Davis and put him right in the middle of everyone i didn't even think of that yeah so now i feel good that i can i can play a little lighter you capitalized you capitalized the v and davis i saw you yeah davis davis jordan davis davis so this is matches my beef theme uh jordan davis in the middle i do have two rookies on on the roster which is you know you don't want to get too ahead of yourself but there were two of the higher floor guys I

evaluated in this draft in Icky and Jordan Davis I know exactly what they're good at and this was a thin d-line group I was hoping I'd get one of Dexter Lawrence or Quinn and Williams for my d-line I have a depth guy in mind um that hopefully I get an opportunity at to mix into the rotation when we go to the reserve section. But I'm going to roll the dice and take Jordan Davis to play up with those three rushers. All right. I'm going to take a page out of your book here. Wait. Now I got to hold on.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. I'm going to take a page out of your book, but I'm just not sure which book it's going to be yet. You got to give me like 10 seconds. No worries. You have all the time in the world here. As we start to round out our rosters,

because the spots we waited on are going to go really quick here at the end. I've waited really a long time, obviously, on tight end. Trevor waited on quarterback, running back for me. So i think the people listening that have kept that in track it's going to be pretty obvious who we're taking there where is trevor at right now dude um dude the brain are you melting no the brain is turning dude the brain is turning. Okay. I'm going to take Mekhi Becton to play guard. Wow. Okay. I did not know if that was a name we'd hear today.

I'm going to take Mekhi Becton to play guard. He's young enough, right? Yeah, he's young enough. Mekhi Becton and Trey Smith on the same offensive line. Right, right. Just absolutely. Truly hilarious. I'm just putting an absolute curtain on people.

I think they train together, too. It makes it really fun. And then I'm going to pick Eric McCoy as my center. Because I need to pick a good center. And Landon Dickerson is still here. He could be an option. I'm going to go with McCoy. So you passed on Linderbaum?

Yeah, I did pass passed on linderbaum yeah yeah i did yeah i did i did pass on tyler linderbaum i felt really weird about picking a player who hasn't even played yet it's tough it's really tough i try not to make a habit of it i'm not gonna i'm not gonna do that so yep i'm gonna i'm gonna pick beckton instead i'm going to go Makai Becton as one of my offensive guards. He didn't play last year either. Okay. All right. Fair. We believe, Connor.

We believe. We believe he's going to be good, and he's going to be better. I freaking hope so. So I'm going to go Makai Becton, and then I'm going to go Eric McCoy to round out my offensive line. Okay. Looking at my defense again, I'm going to go... This one is such a weird one because I'm so mixed,

but I think it fits the spot. I'm going to go with Trevon Diggs at corner here. Nice. And the Feast or Famine I can live with on my secondary because I have Terrell on the other side. So Diggs is going to get targeted in this defense. Winfield and Holland playing behind him. It's a good group.

It's a really good group. Diggs is a sneaky 23 years old, a really young player. So I'm pretty happy. I'm for a guy that doesn't traditionally value secondary very highly all the time. I really like this group. I really like those four players and I'm excited about them. Um, so Terrell and Diggs on the outside. All right. I'm probably going to stick with defense here. It's tricky. It's really, really tricky. There's so many different directions I want to go right now. You know what?

What? I'm going to get a little crazy here. Look, we are at the portion of the draft where you can get crazy, where you are encouraged to get a little crazy. I just mckay beckton for god's sake i think i lied honestly i don't think i'm getting that crazy i think i'm just gonna take devin white at linebacker maybe i'll get crazy next round there's just no need to right now i'm gonna take devin white who ironically and i want to know your thoughts on this show, I think is a little overrated sometimes,

but he's still really good for his age. So I think he's a good player. He's incredibly overrated. Okay. I didn't know if that was fair or not. After they won the Super Bowl, people were talking about Devin White being a top five linebacker in the NFL. That's where I...

You're high. I think Devin is being a top five linebacker. That's where I like you. You're you're high. I think Devin is incredibly talented. And it's so funny because whatever I say about Devin White, people on both sides will think that I'm wrong. People on both sides of Devin White being incredibly elite or Devin White being absolute trash will tell me I'm wrong. Yeah. And I'm not,

I want to clarify that. I didn't think I got like, I didn't think I got highway robbery there. I took him because I think he's maybe the best combination of promising and established of the linebacker group that is not great in this group. So that's why they went. Me and Trevor, we each have one off-ball linebacker right now.

Yep. One off-ball linebacker. Okay, so I don't have to pick a corner is there anywhere else we overlap i guess linebacker because we both need at least one more of those yeah if you feel strongly about a guy in that group i don't um hold on i'm aggressively typing which I'm sure you guys can hear because I type like the loudest person. I slam on the keys as well.

Dude, it's awful. You ever pop a key off? That's how hard you type. I've done that before. You ever pop a key off? Pop a key off? I don't know why. Like I'm a Bostoner while I'm playing Rangers hat.

Okay. All right. Are you ready for these next two picks? Yeah, let's do it. I'm ready for these next two picks. I probably am. The board's pretty underwhelming. At linebacker, we're going Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoa.

Nice pick. Thought about it. All right. So we've got Parsons and Owusu-Koromoa, okay? Nickel corner. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson. Wow, sneaky one on the H. That was my ace. That was my ace.

That was my ace, baby. Didn't have him on my board. And I love him. I was so high on him in that draft that year. He fell so far. He's been really good. Wow. Good pick.

Did not have him. Dude, that was my ace. I told you that was my ace. I told you I had an ace. And I figured that you weren't going to think about him Connor and I were texting earlier today and I was like hey like I can create kind of like a pool of names or we could both just individually do our own it was more fun this way maybe forget a player and there's one that's the moment that's the moment that I wanted right it was good it was really good all right so I'm gonna go back to linebacker just because we're

for anyone wondering why I've ignored positions of much better players, Trevor's filled out his roster, so I could just sit on those. Right, so we don't have any overlaps now. Oh, you don't even have the linebacker one still. No, no, no. You could pick whoever you want at this point.

We don't have any players overlapping. You're right. Unless you're about to pick an edge rusher who you're going to classify as a linebacker, which I'll come to your house and beat you up. That would be such a scumbag move. You already have Nick Bosa, Chase Young, and Brian Burns. That would be such a scumbag move. I'd take like a Dopey O-Way right now and go, oh, yeah, he's going to play.

No, I'm not going to do that. So I'm going to take JC Horn as my third corner. Dude, you're killing me. Oh, you still needed a corner. I didn't even know that. I swear. Who's going to play in the slot? What are you doing?

It doesn't matter. What are you doing? It doesn't matter. We'll throw Horn in there. So Horn, Terrell, and Diggs are my three corners. That's a lot of fun. Brother, I thought I had a steal. No, and Diggs are my three corners. That's a lot of fun. Brother, I thought I had his steal. No, you didn't.

He's mine. That's great. That is truly phenomenal. And then I'm going to take, I'm going to just finish the defense here and go with Nick Bolton as my other linebacker to play next to Devin White. So you can see where I'm weak. My linebacker group is just okay. And you're back on the clock.

If you've recovered over me just can see where I'm weak. My linebacker group's just okay. And you're back on the clock. If you've recovered over me just sniping from eight miles away. I really didn't even think I was either. I was like, I'll take JC. JC Horn was easily my next pick just for fun. I'm really curious what you do now. There's only one

other guy I had on my corner board that has played. The rest would be rookies, which I know you're not a fan of. And I agree. I would really like to avoid rookies. I did it twice out of necessity. I'm not going to name too many names because after we pick our starting 22, we do have reserve players. So I'm not going to name too many names.

But I guess my next corner will be, I guess I'll pick Eric Stokes. Sick. No, he's fine. No, no, no. I think Eric Stokes is good. I'm just, I'm literally heartbroken over here. I don't know how this happened. I don't know how we got here.

I don't know what life choices I made for you to just casually say J.C. Horn to play in the frigging slot. Well, I could slide Winfield down there too. That's another reason. Or Holland. Holland's played in the slot too. I have could slide winfield down there too that's another reason or holland holland's played in the slot too i'm the most interchangeable defense known to man with no run stuffing tackles besides jordan davis who's never played it down the nfl okay i uh i guess against the run heavy team that team with no quarterback and jonathan taylor uh my next my next pick is xavier mckinney xavier mckinney i like him a lot play my free safety

spot i like him a lot all right so i moved man with all due respect to xavier mckinney who i absolutely love i really do but i just i'm i'm just i'm drained with all due respect i'm pissed with all due respect so i moved on when who to interior offensive lineman after i drafted him as a flex tackle um because i'm to take Penn a soul in that spot. And I really like projecting him forward. I know he had ups and downs as a rookie, but he was also moved around a lot more than I would have liked. I think Sewell's going to be a really,

really good player in this league. So mind you, there is some projection in these picks. They are under 25 years old. Not every guy's an established star in two years. Um, so, so I like Sewell at the tackle spot for me.

Pretty excited about that pick. And then I'll make this easy at running back. I'm taking Najee Harris. You took Jonathan Taylor, so the other guy for me was Najee Harris. Yeah. Now we still have some – I'm kind of intrigued to play – to talk about this a little bit more once we get past the reserves because there's a lot of running backs that could have been on the board,

but you might, I don't know. You might pick them as a playmaker. I'm not really sure for my other safety spot. There's a couple of different options. I can go here. I think I'm going to go Jeremy chin though, because I liked him better when he was playing safety and could come down as

more of like a box player. He's a nice player so i just think that he's a really good athlete overall he allows my defense get really creative it might be a little redundant here because i've got like jeremiah usu koromoa i've got chauncey garner johnson but i'm okay with a crap ton of versatility here especially when it is with athletes so i've got michael parsons as a chess piece to be kind of that flexible piece to go towards the line scrimmage now i'm gonna have jeremy chin because i've got faith in xavier mckinney to play as a single high guy as a free safety so i'm gonna go with that maybe it makes the most sense there defensive

line i got two defensive line spots left i picked extra lawrence i picked quinn and williams i have michael parsons who can be this kind of pseudo edge player as well rashaun gary has to be one of the picks okay without a doubt so rashaun gary is going to be one of my picks there and then i have two picks left i got quarterback and then i got one edge rusher but dude rashaun gary i did not realize this now he didn't he didn't play a ton before this season he had an unbelievable year with the opportunity whereas darius smith goes down he's able to come into a starting role he played he played really really

well what do you have like i think nine and a half yeah nine nine and a half sacks didn't hit quite quite hit 10 i don't believe but dude his past rush win rate since 2019 since coming in the league is 21 like that's more than brian burns that's more than max crosby he's really developed dude he is consistently winning on the edge so this was his best year yet he almost had an elite pff grade unless we count high 89s as elite grades for edge rushers which is kind of different for everybody normally I just put the cut off at 90 I should probably ask somebody about that but he was a great edge rusher and graded out very very well for us so got a lot of faith in that very happy to get a player of Rashawn Gary's caliber this late in the draft so I'll go Gary here before

my last two picks really nice value all right for me at tight end no surprise I'm going with Pat Fryermuth um who got to, who was excellent as a rookie. I don't think there's any other way to state it. It's, you know, any other year where Kyle Pitts is not in your draft class. People would talk more about Fryermuth having 60 catches, about 500 yards and seven touchdowns. I think he's poised for a really big time career playing with Kenny Pickett. I think he'll, you know, with really good wide receivers

on the outside and a good running back. So Fryer Muth I can live with at tight end there. And then I'm going to look back at offensive tackle. So I'm going to kick Icky to guard now that this door opened up. I'm actually going to take Andrew Thomas at tackle, which some people listening to this that are not Giants fans might think that's insane after a Zerky year.

Andrew Thomas was really good last year. I like, I can't emphasize enough, whatever your narrative or idea of Andrew Thomas was after a disappointing rookie year, he was such a great bounce back player in his second year at a position that is so hard to play at the NFL level. I'm so excited about Andrew Thomas playing on the same offensive line with Evan Neal. Uh, and, and and I I think it's good value for what I saw last year I think he's he's a reliable right tackle in this situation I know he's been solid on the left side and I've Sewell as well so my offensive line is weaker than yours there's no way around it but that's what happens when you wait that is what happens when you wait defense line speaking of what happens when you wait you pick Nick Bosa

Chase Young and Brian Burns so that was sick. I'm going to go with Odafe Owe as my other edge rusher here. Just a ton of athleticism with Owe, with Rashaun Gary, with Micah Parsons as well. Owusu Koromoa certainly can come on blitzes too. So I just got a lot of speed in the field or on the field, especially if you consider Quinton Williams as well and how good of a one-gap penetrator he is. can come on blitzes too so i just got i got a lot of speed in the field or on the field especially if you consider quinn and williams as well and how good of a one gap penetrator he is

dexter lawrence is kind of the anchor right in the middle but uh yeah i'm gonna go with oda feyoe there and then my final pick which you have won after this right i have won on the roster yeah you have you have won on the roster before we get to the reserves my last pick is my quarterback pick yeah and i'm going with trevor lawrence i had a feeling i have to i have to go with trevor lawrence this is this is to me still the most talented player under the age of 25 not named justin did you think about jalen hurts no really i wrote him down because i was nervous if you got Herbert. I don't, again, I don't want that to sound too insulting. I agree with what you did, by the way. Hurts is on my

list. Like, I have Jalen Hurts. I think he is next, actually. I think he is QB3. But given the fact that one of us is picking Justin Herbert, one of us is picking the other guy, I had it Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence. There's not really a debate there. I'd take Trevor Lawrence over Jalen Hurts. Dude, I felt like I was the biggest Jalen Hurts fan in that entire draft class. I remember mocking him at the back end of the first round in January and February when it kind of became clear, like, okay, he's not going to be a first-rounder. You bring him down a little bit.

But, dude, I have loved what I've seen from Jalen Hurts. Do I think he'll be a prolific passer? No. But I think he's great at operating an offense. Guys clearly believe in him. He gives you a ton of confidence, whether he is passing the ball or rushing the ball. I think he does a lot of different stuff because of how smart he is as a quarterback.

I just don't think he's deadly accurate. And to really succeed in the NFL, you just have to naturally be pretty deadly accurate. And so that's kind of where I land on Jalen Hurts. He was QB three on my list here, but I'm just, I wouldn't consider him over Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence is clearly the guy to me. I'm totally with you on process.

When you're in a hole in this draft, you'd have to go down the projection well. And I did it multiple times. Penny Sewell is still a projection pick here for me. Andrew Thomas really turned it on last year, still projecting. With Trevor Lawrence, you're projecting, but he was such a good prospect that it makes sense.

So my last pick for the main roster is Devontae Smith. Yeah, you got the flex? Okay. Devontae Smith's my flex. I thought I had a really nice group to pick from that were pretty similar. I'm going to go with Devontae Smith. Yeah, you got the flex. Okay, all right. Devontae Smith's my flex. I thought I had a really nice group to pick from that were pretty similar. I'm going to go with Devontae Smith. And, you know, him and Friar Muth

are a little bit of a step down, but I started off with Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson, so I can live with that. And with that, we are on to our reserves. So how do you want to do this? Do I go once, or how do you want to do this one? It should probably still be a snake again, right again right yeah so if we do it that way do you want to go one pick at a time though for reserves or we could still do two you go you start with the reserve since i start with

the regular draft and you have two picks okay all right so i have two picks here is there anybody that's really standing out uh okay you took thomas he's okay so i'm gonna pick as my offensive line reserve i'm gonna take i'm gonna take jedrick wills i have nice i have to like even even if you look at jedrick wills and go okay he's got versatility the offensive tackle spots do you think you'd be able to play guard? I don't care. He's a damn good offensive lineman. He's by far the best one that's still left. And so I'll go Jedrick Wills here as my reserve offensive lineman. Okay.

And you still have a second pick. Oh, so I'm going back to back here. You can go. Yeah. You can go back to back here. It's fair. It's only fair.

Oh, cause you're, I'm an idiot. I get what you're saying. Yeah. Okay. So you got the one. All right.

So now I get to go back to back. Correct. I'm real brilliant sometimes I get what you're saying. Yeah, we're sneaking. Okay, so you got the one. All right, so now I get to go back-to-back. Correct. I'm real brilliant sometimes. You're doing great. You're doing terrific. For me, I'm going to go. I was torn here. I'm going to go with T. Higgins.

Ah, nice. Man, your wide receivers are good. Yeah, he was going to be my flex, but I went with Devontae Smith. I'm going to go with T. Higgins as my skill guy. And then it gets kind of tricky because it's not really pretty, to be honest with you. But I'm going to go – actually, really, this was the depth defensive lineman I hinted at earlier on the show that I was really hoping I can get.

I'm going to go Christian Barmore. Ah, okay. I was wondering if he was going to get picked. Barmore quietly was a really, really good player as a rookie. He wasn't either. And the big-time player we expected from Alabama that never had that great final season. He had a good college football playoff.

He's developed nicely under New England. I like Barmore as my depth box player here. Okay, so you got Barmore there. And we needed the help up front. Because all we have is Jordan Davis. Okay, so then... You know, I'm going to take a risk here on my coverage player. I'm going to go with Jeffrey Okuda.

I like the ceiling idea. I'm going to have some faith in Jeffrey Okuda because you already sniped me, you son of a—on getting J.C. Horn. And so I like what I have with Patrick Chartan, Eric Stokes, and Charles C. Garner Johnson. But if you give me Okuda as well that I'm throwing into that mix, coming back from the Achilles injury,

former number three overall pick, was the top corner in his class when he was coming out. I really do believe that. Struggled with the confidence early on. Played well before he got hurt with the Achilles, but I'm going to have faith in that. The ceiling is there for him. So I got to go with Jeffrey Okuda as my pick there. killies but i'm gonna have faith in that the ceiling is there for him so i gotta do it i gotta

go with jeffrey okuda as my pick there and then i think i mean i might as well just go skill player i'm going with shod bateman i think that this is going to be a massive season so noah monroe i mean if you are if you are asking me look i, Amon Ross St. Brown had an unreal, what was it, last six games, last month? You're right. It was a monster last second half of the year. It was an incredible second half of the season, and I think he's a really good slot receiver.

I'd take Rashad Bateman 10 out of 10. Sorry. I had him ranked a lot higher, so you're not looking at somebody who's going to bark back at you right now. I think that Rashad Bateman is in for a major season this upcoming year. I think it's going to be his coming out party in a major way. So I'm going to go Rashad Bateman as my skill player. All right, I'm going to close this thing out.

My coverage player is going to be Greg Newsome. I got one guy left. Oh, do you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I went first, remember? That's how it works. Math. I'm going to close out my reserves. There it is.

That was my bad. I misspoke. So I got Greg Newsome as my coverage player. Obviously, we're a little thin on secondary players that have played. I could have rolled the dice on a rookie. Oh, Newsome's a good pick. Newsome's a really good player. When Newsome's healthy, Newsome's a really good player.

I did well at corner. I will say I did really well at corner. That's the one that I didn't think of. And then offensive line, you took Wills, who I almost drafted well at corner. That's the one that I didn't think of. And then offensive line, you took Wills, who I almost drafted as a starter. So I'm going to draft another classic Connor flex guy who's played. He's only played guard in the NFL, but he was a really good tackle in college.

I'm going to go to Elijah Vera Tucker from the good old New York Jets. AVT was awesome as a rookie. I know the Jets stink, so most of you listening haven't watched him play. He was freaking awesome. Very well justified as a rookie. I know the Jets stink, so most of you listening haven't watched him play. He was freaking awesome. Very well justified as a top 20 pick and somebody that I think is going to be a Pro Bowl guard in the future. So I'm actually really happy with my reserves. I think all four of these guys are going to be high-level starters. I almost picked Elijah Vera Tucker over Mekhi Becton. I'm sure that people listening to the podcast are probably screaming at me, telling me that I should have picked him over Mekhi beckton uh but i can't you know look folks

you can't teach girth you know i've been i've been i've been doing this scouting process for a long time now 395 pounds you just you just can't teach girth okay for my final pick it is a box player so it could either be a defensive lineman or a linebacker. I think I'm going to go with pass rusher here. Man, there's a couple of different guys I could go with. I'm going to go with a little bit of a homer pick and a guy who I think is going to have an incredible season. Not an incredible season. I just think he's going to have a really great season.

I'm going to go with Joe try and show you the pass rusher down in Tampa. No, Jason Pierre, Paul, Jason Pierre, Paul, no longer on the roster. I think that this is going to be a big year for him to be able to step into a starting role and play really, really well. He has played really well in flashes over the last couple of years.

Shaq Barrett on one side, obviously you've got an incredible, incredibly talented interior defensive line there as well. Logan, Logan, all you throw into the mix. I think now McKinsey is going to be back. Vita Bay speaks for himself.

Will Golson's really steady on the inside as well and so that kind of is going to allow and free up Joe Tryon and Joe Yinka to be a really nice stand-up outside pass rusher for them so given the versatility of what he can do as a guy with his hand in the dirt and a player who can succeed from a stand-up position I'll go Joe Tryon and Joe Yinka to round this thing out fun exercise man I mean truly um I'm really excited to see the discourse the conversation around our rosters and you want to you want to list yours off yeah i'll read mine then you read yours all right so my quarterback is justin herbert my running back is naji harris my wide receivers are jamar chase and justin jefferson with davante smith my flex player. My tight end was Pat Fryer. Muth.

My offensive tackles are Penny Sula and Andrew Thomas. My interior offensive line is made up of Creed Humphrey in the middle, Michael on Wenu and Iki at Kwanu at guards. My defensive front is Nick Bosa and chase young as my rushers with Jordan Davis in the middle. Brian Burns as my flex player, Devin white and Nick Bolton in the middle as my linebackers. My three starting corners are J.C. Horn,

A.J. Terrell, and Trevon Diggs. My safeties are Antoine Winfield Jr. and Javon Holland. My reserve players are T. Higgins as my skill reserve. My offensive line reserve is Elijah Vera Tucker. My box player is Christian Barmore, and my coverage player is Greg Newsome II. Greg Newsome's gonna haunt me he really is that I did that I did not have him on my list and I absolutely should have

because I think he's gonna be a damn good corner if you wouldn't consider him one already okay my lineup I had Trevor I got Trevor Lawrence a quarterback my final pick of the draft I got Jonathan Taylor running back wide receivers like a CD lamb DK Metcalf and Jalen Waddle tight end I got Kyle Pitts. Offensive tackles, Tristan Wirfs and Rayshon Slater. Interior offensive line, Trey Smith and Mekhi Becton as the guards. Eric McCoy as the center. Defensive line, playing a 4-3,

unless, you know, Rashawn Gary wants to run from a two-point stance. Odafe Owe and Rashawn Gary on the edges. Dexter Lawrence, Quinn Williams in the middle. I got Micah Parsons at the linebacker spot next to Jeremiah Uwusu-Koromoa. Three corners, Patrick Chetan, Eric Stokes on the outside, Chauncey Garner-Johnson as my nickel player. Xavier McKinney playing free safety, Jeremy Chin playing strong safety. And then as my reserves, I got Rashad Bateman, a wide receiver, Jedrick Wills at offensive line, box player, I got Joe Tryon,

Joe Yinka, and then Jeff Okuda as my reserve coverage player y'all gotta let us know who won if these two teams went up against each other who's winning who do you think won this draft who do you think won about it the best way and then whose team would win on the field is it my team or is it Connor's team I'm very interested to hear what you guys think as well as some of the players that we did not name that we didn't get a chance to pick here of course the quarterbacks we had zach wilson justin fields j uh jalen hertz mac jones loa mac jones running backs there was a lot now i didn't think either of us were going to double up on running backs and i figured that jonathan taylor and naji harris were going to be the top two guys but like Javante Williams Josh Jacobs I didn't think of Javante another projectable guy right JK Dobbins

Antonio Gibson like there were a lot of good players wide receivers we still had Darnell Mooney we had a Monteros St. Brown um Michael Pittman Jr. uh Rondale Moore Jerry Judy a lot of those guys offensive tackle I think that we – We cleaned that group. Yeah, we cleaned that. We pretty much cleaned that group up. Edge rushers, Josh Huche, Quitty Pay, Jalen Phillips. Again, we pretty much got a lot of the really good guys there.

Ed Oliver and Derek Brown are the only interior defensive linemen that I had on my list that I did not pick. Linebackers, nobody picked Jordan Brooks. I thought somebody was going to pick him. Last guy on my list. Same. Did not pick. Linebackers, nobody picked Jordan Brooks. I thought somebody was going to pick him. Last guy on my list. Jordan Brooks had a pretty good year. Tremaine Edmonds, I also wanted to shout out, is somehow, some way, still not 25 years old.

Nuts. 20 years old when he was drafted. Dude's been playing for forever. Corners, Jalen Johnson's still on the board. Sean Murphy bunting.ante Samuel do you have anybody else in that group those are the only three that I know corner corner thinned out really quick and scared me that's why I I told you I don't really like value the position that way and clearly the way I drafted I did I really put a premium on it uh Cam Crow and Jordan Fuller the

only two uh safety did you say Imani Hooker for defensive no I didn't and I should have you're right he should be on the list I think Imani Hooker for defensive? No, I didn't. And I should have. You're right. He should be on the list. I think Imani Hooker is a really nice safety too. Yep. And that's it. There we go, brother. That was fun, man. That was good.

That was, that was. Don't propose at sports games. Okay. Well, hopefully, hopefully. It makes you happy. Hopefully I don't have to. Trevor's already done. I'm not, I'm not doing that again, but yeah.

Let us know who wins. Let us know in the comments what you think of the sporting event proposals, whether you're for it, whether you're against it, whether you think that we should shut the hell up. Tell us who's won. Of course, in the comments section as well, we've got our summer schedule built out, but we'd love to hear from you guys too.

If there's a Mock Draft Monday format or just a fun show format, you'd love to hear from us. We there's a mock draft monday format or just a fun show format you'd love to hear from us we're all ears the schedule is very flexible folks we can get to all kinds of stuff speaking of which summer scouting is right around the corner baby we are getting right to it hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode this was the nfl stock exchange i'm trevor that's connor we'll see you guys on Thursday. Bye.