NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 81. 2023 NFL Draft Stock Up, Stock Down: Week 1

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers highlight some of the best performances from Week 1 of college football and talk about what they could mean for the 2023 NFL Draft class

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, it's our first stock watch of the season. Basically, what we do is we look at the last couple of weeks of college football, and we talk about some players that moving up and down on our rankings. That's why we gave you guys the show Big Boards. That's why we had the rankings during the summer for this very purpose. We're

highlighting 10 different names, guys who have had fantastic starts to the year, who are already trending upward when it comes to the 2023 NFL Draft. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me, as always, is my co-host, Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. I'm Trevor Sikama. That is Connor Rogers on, Connor, the very first stock watch of the season. We got real film, my guy. we're going over college football and we are telling you what prospects had a really great week one some stock up players and some guys that

okay didn't have the best start to the season maybe a little bit of stock down although we're not going to be too hard on them because it was week one but connor how are we feeling today my man feels good to be back on a tuesday three shows a week, we are officially back. This is traditionally going to be our stock-up show, our more draft-dedicated show. I know everybody got the mock draft yesterday, but obviously Trevor and I will do a lot of NFL coverage, typically,

on many Monday shows. Tuesday, we will really get to zone in on the draft and where everything stands. And dude, I know it's one week, if you don't count week zero. Which we don't. It feels like so much happened. So much happened in the draft world.

And it's really exciting. And it's not just the quarterbacks, but the pass rushers, the O-line play. So you and I each have five stock up, guys. We're going to touch on some stock down, guys. It's kind of insane to just crush a guy after one week. No, we're not gonna do that maybe some things that were like hopefully this isn't a trend for the season so i'm really

pumped for today's show dude this is the best this is this is what this show this is what the show is was made for right it's called the nfl stock exchange for a reason and that's because we wanted this center around a lot of segments where we're talking stock up stock down on plenty of things and this one is straight to the heart this is straight to the grassroots of exactly what this podcast is about and it's stock up stock down for nfl prospects so my friend i will i will give you the floor i will allow you to start you've got your five i've got my five now just to be transparent we did talk about this beforehand we were not surprising each other but that's because yeah i we wanted to make sure that we were giving you 10

names we didn't want to have a cheating three or four of the same names so that we felt like we would be cheating you there more than cheating you on the emotion of the element of surprise so who you got first who you want to bring to the table first i appreciate you allowing me to take this one it's anthony richardson the quarterback from florida now i promise this show today you're going to hear some names that you might not know much about or you might have never heard or uh we haven't seen much of in the college football world although richardson fits that we have not seen much of him thanks to dan mullen trevor i just this was so exciting to me and i'll be honest with you and you and i were texting about this Saturday.

The way the day started was a little uneventful for the most part. It's one week. You don't care. Besides App State, UNC, the games weren't overwhelmingly crazy. There wasn't necessarily a performance like this where a guy that has so much to gain, a guy that we've heard about from the recruiting ranks for so long it just does it all it's not even just the upset beating utah but with his legs with his arm the big plays the clutch plays he's fun to watch man and he he's very different i think from the rest of this quarterback class where he's 6'4".

He's at least 230 pounds. He looks massive. I mean, he's jacked. He could take hits. He's rocked up. He's rocked off of hits. Yeah, he's a big guy. He's exciting, man.

I want the Anthony Richardson rocket ship to take off this season right into the top five of the draft. He's got the big arm. I think the mechanics are clean. The way he threatens the defense with his legs, not as a take what's there, but I'll take what's there and then get more, make guys miss, run through guys. He's the whole package,

and it's got to be put together on a consistent basis week after week, but we're judging off of one week of the season, and he did everything you could have asked him to in that one week and i was really really excited watching this guy so much that he was in the first round of our mock draft yesterday i was a great start of the campaign for anthony richardson and uh you brought up you brought up dan mullen which was the one time that you're allowed to bring up dan mullen yeah never again in a week you only get one a week you only get one week so uh so so you see if you do two then there's going to be some sort of punishment here on the podcast because uh i can't my my heart can't

take that but you know this guy was sitting on the bench last year dan moan was opting to play for the more veteran emory jones okay i maybe i understand him running the offense a little bit better anthony richard was still very green and we even see it this this week right he's still very green at what he is doing. So those things make sense, but there's so much promise to what he brings to the table. We've said this already on this podcast before, but people keep bringing the name Cam Newton to the table.

Out of respect for what Cam Newton became as the Heisman Trophy winner, national champion, NFL MVP. You and I kind of shot that one down, but- We just got to calm down here. But that tells you the kind of ability that this dude has over 100 rushing yards this past weekend over 100 passing yards and you know i'm looking at the pff stats for him he did have a turnover worthy play it was the third down he was kind of just trying to make something out of nothing should have been intercepted honestly but

it ended up not so you don't see that on the common stat sheet didn't have a big time throw something that categorized a pff but i will say as somebody who watched every snap of this game live there were plenty of really nice throws over the middle that he was making to move the chains right getting four times in this situation where their backs kind of against the wall and he's got to make a play with his arm and he did those things so even though we didn't at pff categorize that as a big time throw he was taking steps in the right direction to be that kind of passer i think he gave you that rushing ability again which you know that he's always going to do but it's of course what he does with his arm that's going to hold the key to where he goes uh in the 2023 nfl

drafts and honestly how far flor Florida goes as a team this year. Without a doubt. I mean, let's be real. It's kind of a dual storyline. And you and I are more on the draft lens. But there's a college football element to this where if he blossoms into being a superstar, that's going to take Florida places

that not many people were projecting them to go this year. And man, it was just cool. You guys know I don't really have any kind of bias across college football. that not many people were projecting them to go this year. And, man, it was just cool. I mean, you guys know I don't really have any kind of bias across college football. I just find myself gravitating towards liking what Billy Napier does wherever he goes. It's just, and this is the next stop. And once again, it's one week, but early returns are phenomenal. And I could not turn away from that game. I know you're a sick hat guy. People in the comments on the YouTube comments

have given you their praise on a lot of the hats that you wear. I'm going to get you a sick Florida hat, and you could be an honorary Florida fan while they have Anthony Richardson. I love it. I love it. First guy that I want to bring to the table, since you got Richardson out of the way, Jacob Cowling, the wide receiver from Arizona, man man hell of a day this past week for arizona had a 91 receiving grade uh nine catches no eight catches sorry 152 yards and three touchdowns my guy was absolutely on fire so a

little bit of background for cowling because we didn't really go over him when we had summer scouting redshirt junior transferred to arizona from utep where he played the first three seasons he had 1300 receiving yards last year so this guy was kind of coming into his own and we were hoping for big things for him he's about 5 foot 11 180 pounds kind of that slot wide receiver type but man i loved what i saw from him outside of the box score outside of the big grades when i watched a lot of his key plays watching when i got my hands on the all 22 dude he just he's so smart he's so spacing the the more space you put this guy in it feels like the more he is going to thrive there is truly something to guys who know how to operate in space and especially

with a player like cowling who when you give him those two-way goes right when you get put him in the slot give him enough space to where he can go left or right he can go in or out man he can make defenders look silly i love the way that he ran his routes as well very rounded wasn't necessarily a put my foot in the ground boom like a jagged cut to the route now sometimes guys do that and it's very effective for separation but cowling was just so smooth he kept his momentum throughout all of his routes whether they were short intermediate deep whatever it was and he was rounding out his routes it felt like to get the most separation out of defenders no matter where he was in the stem so it just

from watching him this past weekend you could tell such a smart wide receiver if he's healthy for this entire year he's going to have a crap ton and that is a scientific measurement there a crap ton of yards and stats all around and he's going to be one of the highest graded wide receivers that we have at pff so look out for jacob cow If you guys haven't looked, if you guys haven't seen him yet, we were light on him in summer scouting. I think we did mention him, but he wasn't in either of our top five. So this is a player that's definitely on the rise

already in this early season. And I think that's going to be a little bit of a theme, especially today's show, but some early stock watch shows is you and I kind of laid off of overreacting to transfer players before seeing them play at their new school. And this is the age we're living in, folks, where it's a really good thing. Guys that were under-recruited or developed late that explode at a small school are now taking

advantage of the opportunity to play against a higher level of competition. And you and I had a lot of those guys on our list this summer. We were more waiting to see what they do with that opportunity this season rather than trying to evaluate them to that next step. And Cowling absolutely fits that bill. What a start for him. And I'll throw one right back at you, Trevor. Jared Verse, the edge rusher on Florida State.

He transferred from Albany. That is, I am an alumni of Albany. So I've known a lot about this guy. Yeah, there we go. Great day to be a great Dane but seriously dude whoa whoa whoa hold on what a motto yeah it's a great day to be a great Dane yeah we kind of like you it was more became a joke by the end of my tenure there but yeah but you could put that on some merch you could sell that phrase 100 that's a deal yeah they got a newer logo. It's more of a fierce-looking Great Dane than a happy Great Dane,

and they still got rocked by Baylor 69-10. We don't got to bring that part up. We could just stop at them having a cool slogan. So Jared Verse, as a redshirt freshman last year, has double-digit sacks for Albany, was unblockable at that level, was one of the more high-profile guys in the portal this offseason. He goes to Florida State. You've heard this story before. You ever hear of Jermaine Johnson? A guy that transferred to Florida State to rush the

passer. Heard of him. But Burst now, obviously there's a big projection here coming from that level of competition. So Trevorvor his week one game he did have a week zero game but looking at the week one game against lsu five hurries two sacks seven total pressures winning 27 of his pass rush snaps out of having 37 that's very high very high the week before he was winning at a 42 percent clip okay that's that's that's unsustainably stupid high but yeah for people that have been riding with us for a while we went over these with kayvon tibideau aiden hutchinson if you're even sniffing 20 percent like that's a lead it's a little winning a lot you're winning so verse and it's crazy, the buzz I've heard about this guy,

not only after the LSU game, but before the LSU game, the buzz in the scouting community, whether it's teams opening their eyes to him or agents that have to be all over this because they need to design these guys and project. They're doing the same thing, scouts and agents. They're projecting who the top guys are going to be. This dude is going to be a big tester he's got length he knows how to rush and he's got a big motor he's still learning

nuances like read and react against the run setting a hard edge getting to a program and putting on more and more strength but he's got pass rush tools and he's got a pass rush motor and it just felt like trevor so much of that lsu game he took over he blocked a kick i mean one of one of what felt like a handful because lsu wouldn't play special teams last night i don't know why but truly truly wild that's coaching that's coaching yeah and then the coach runs the whole team over the bus brian kelly unbelievable press guy we don't have to go there today but you know how we feel on this pod, but Jared verse, man, I can't wait to see what he can do because the conversation for

him was constantly, what is he going to do against a, you know, a real power five team. And he whooped the crap out of LSU. And if he just does this all year, he was somebody as a red shirt sophomore this year, I was like, okay, 2024, he might be a big time prospect if he's this far ahead on his trajectory of development at florida state he's going to be in the draft this year and he's going to be a name in this edge class everybody's going to be well aware of hey it's a great day to be a great dane you know that's all that's all i have to say about that that's all i have to say about that he was awesome he was awesome last night uh i saw you tweeting a little bit about him before the game obviously makes a ton of sense because you know his background very well with him yeah coming from albany but

i'm even impressed though like i wasn't expecting that i want to be clear he was good he was good he was really a couple of nice clean uh nice clean wins that i saw when i was watching that game live haven't seen the all 22 of him yet but certainly now that you mentioned him i'll definitely get yeah my next guy a very familiar name one joey porter jr that's right the name is exactly what you think it is son of joey porter the longtime pittsburgh sealers linebacker joey porter jr if you missed it last week he plays cornerback for penn state penn state uh went up against purdue last week when college football was beginning what was that thursday night was that friday night what was that one of the? Was that Friday night? What was that?

One of the two. Can't remember. It was one of the early games. Lines up six foot two. He's an outside cornerback. Six foot two, 200 pounds. So already, right off the bat, you love the measurables. He's checking the boxes there.

Redshirt junior, so he's draft eligible. 86.3 coverage grade this past week, which was shocking to me because I knew he gave up some catches. He ended up giving up six catches for 66 yards i'm like how in the world did he grade out an 86.3 86.3 coverage grades really great i know a lot of people look at pff and they they try to they try to break up pff grades into like the grading system that you had in like high school or college or something where you go like okay 90 to 90 to 100 is an A, which is an elite grade, like 80 through 89 is not an elite grade, but it's very good. It's not exactly that cut and dry for every position, you could use that as a base. But coverage grades are tough. Like it's really hard to grade well in coverage, just because the assignment the job is so difficult

so for porter to have an 86.3 grade that's a damn near elite coverage grade while giving up six catches the reason why six forced incompletions seven if you count plays that were no plays that whether it's a jump off sides or something that didn't count a holding play or whatever it is so you had six forced incompletions that were actually counted on the books for plays that matter. Now, when I went back and I watched his tape, it's great because what I wanted to see more from him this year was that confidence with him playing with that length and that bigger size.

Be able to dominate dudes, get hands on guys, suffocate dudes, overwhelm them. I didn't see enough of that last year. It just didn't feel like he was confident and comfortable enough at the gifts that he had, which are his length. Now, I will say something that I loved in the Purdue game is very early on, he gave up a catch pretty easily to an inside move, a little slant play, where it was just a little quick cut guy got inside of him boom there it is quick catch i think it was a for for a first down

i don't think he gave up a slant catch the rest of the night i think he highly competitive i think you adjusted very well to it and if he did it was one it was one and they targeted him a lot on that because you could tell that was purdue. They were like, this guy's big, but he can't flip the hips. Let's hit him with a quick inside move all the time. And they tried that early on. It worked. And then it really didn't because Joey Porter jr.

Was able to adjust from it. He had a really clean, beautiful picturesque textbook pass breakup on one of those routes to where he was able to anticipate flip those hips. Keep one hand just like barely on the back of the wide receiver and then when the ball was coming in he swipes the other hand over right in front of the body knocks it away it was beautiful it was a thing of beauty so you love to see joey porter jr playing with that kind of a kind of confidence he's going to go up against some

really nice receivers in the big 10 playing at penn state and so this was a really really good first test for him he's a guy that did not make my top five when we were doing summer scouting but a player who is definitely stock up after the way that I watched him play against Purdue to start college from all season he had multiple teach tape plays of just staying in phase and breaking on the ball at the perfect time and and Trevor I was shocked that they just kept going at him over and over. Dude, I think it was 14 targets. I knew it was double digits.

It's crazy. Actually, now that I'm saying that right now, I'm going to look to see if that was the most targets any corner faced this week. That has to be up there. I put it in the top three of the week. It's got to be. It's crazy how often he was targeted. It's going to take me a second to get this.

So if you want to go on to your next guy. No, when you look at him, though, he's somebody that people knew about. So it was surprising for me to see them come into that game and think that he was the guy to go after. And when you live up to that test, it's highly impressive. So, all right, I will move on in that case because I'm going to be quick on this one.

We talked a decent about this guy on the Mock Draft show without actually picking him. It's Georgia tight end Darnell Washington, and it's not for the highlight that everybody saw. The catch and run, bowl through everybody, and then jump over somebody. That was awesome. Don't get me wrong.

When you're 6'7", 270, and you do things like that, you're from outer space. But the all 22 of him blocking is tremendous, and it can be off the line of scrimmage. It can be off the line of scrimmage it can be on the line of scrimmage they play him as a big slot he is a good blocker on the move he's a good blocker in the trenches um it's this guy really is a rare tight end that can do any role and there's there's just not really tight ends like that anymore for the most part in this league you know to find a guy that really doesn't give any ground in the line of scrimmage,

but also is a legitimate threat as a big slot, more of that H kind of tight end. It's huge for him that they have trust in him to do that for a program that is top class right now. Darnell Washington is somebody that almost became an afterthought because of how much talent is in that room at this program and he's somebody that in his own way is carving out just a huge role in this draft to be you know not he's not Michael Mayer okay but can he be a top five tight end easily easily can be a top five tight end because of how rounded his game is the size and athleticism he possesses with it as well 14 targets for joy absurd absurd number number one in uh in college football i don't think he'll see double digits the rest of the year not a chance in hell do i think that he's gonna see double digit targets the rest of the year you're

totally right but getting back to darn on washington it was going to see double-digit targets the rest of the year? You're totally right. But getting back to Darnell Washington, it was great to see him get in the passing game. And that's something that Todd Munkin, the offensive coordinator at Georgia, really likes to do. I remember when I was covering – Oh, Munkin's fun, man. I know you know all about him. Yeah, I was covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in 2017, 2018, 2019 when he was the offensive coordinator there,

when Dirk Cutter was the head coach. And they love their tight end offense man they had Cam Brayton OJ Howard and even Anthony Auclair was a third tight end that they love to bring in the game they played a ton of 12 personnel some 13 personnel as well Todd Munkin is not afraid to run an offense through the tight ends when he has those big boys there he loves the versatility he loves being able to play a lot of different sets with those kinds of guys on the field and so withnell Washington, when we talked about him during summer scouting, my big thing was, yeah, I love the player for what he is, but I thought that he was just being used

exclusively as a blocker for a reason. Now we saw him get a little bit more attention in the receiving game in week one than I feel like we did at any point last year. So it'd be very interesting to watch the development of Darnell Washington and how much he continues to be a potential emphasis point in the passing game. Because we know he's going to be on the field, right? He does the little things well. He blocks very well in order to be on the field at all times.

So they can check all those boxes. Now it's just a matter of, okay, do we have him start blocking and then have him slip out off the line of scrimmage late? How's Stetson Bennett? You have his little security blanket right there. Maybe he's a split zone kind of a player where he's coming behind the line of scrimmage before or after the snap. So I think there's a lot of different things that you can do

with Darnell Washington once he becomes that receiving threat. So I'll stick with Georgia. I actually have two Georgia players. I'm glad you are because I have a Todd Munkin quote I want to read. But it has to do with what you're going to say, so go ahead. Okay, I'm going to go with Kenny McIntosh, the running back from Georgia. Senior running back, 6'1", 210 pounds. Career highs, I looked this up.

Career highs before this year, just 328 rushing yards and 242 receiving yards. Both of them were last year year so he was kind of coming into his own a little bit last year but it was still a crowded running back room in georgia as it always is i think georgia's got a strong claim at the rbu title that everybody likes to throw around there but in this game mcintosh nine receptions out of the backfield for 117 yards 125 yards after the catch which means he was catching a lot of swing passes behind the line of camera game right there still getting a ton of yards there uh when he was rushing the ball only 66.3 rushing grade he only had 18 yards on the

ground but he was more of that receiving type 91.9 grade which was extremely impressive georgia loved getting this guy involved in the receiving game. They even, I watched a couple of plays where they would motion him out from the backfield into the slot. Now that's something that we talked about and praised Bijan Robinson for, right? A guy who we have as RB1 in this class and Kenny McIntosh, they weren't afraid to do the same thing. Take him out of the backfield, move him in the slot, especially when you know that he's going to be matched up maybe against a slower linebacker, maybe a smaller safety or slot defender that might be in that area, whatever it is. They certainly weren't afraid to do that. And he continued to give them a heavy, healthy return on

investment every time they got him the ball. So really high PFF receiving grade. He clearly is going to be that guy out of the backfield who they could just dump the ball so really high pff receiving grade he clearly is going to be that guy out of the backfield who they could just dump the ball off to and he can make magic happen because he made magic happen a lot this past weekend against oregon i think there was one play where he he broke like three tackles or had like three three missed tackles on one single play which was extremely impressive it was his best play of the day the one that he gained the most yards so very very impressed by a senior running back. We don't often say a lot of praise

for these upperclassmen running backs because it feels like the good ones leave the second they get draft eligible. But very happy that Kenny McIntosh getting involved and we're seeing some really good skill sets from him. Tough place though to get on the field. So if a guy stays around, it's like, okay, he still might be very talented.

And that was huge for him. Another guy that was generating a lot of buzz. You might have been here when this quote was spoken. That's what makes me laugh. From Todd Munkin a couple years ago. I like having fun. I don't know why it has to feel like such drudgery all the time. Who needs more five-yard plays?

How can we be explosive? That's what the game is about, man. People like big plays. I like big plays. That's a beauty. That's what you guys what you gotta say when jamis winch is your quarterback baby you just gotta steer all the way into it uh why it has to feel like such drudgery all the time hey that was i'll tell you though for as much as uh todd munkin and i would say more so Cutter just because I think both sides of the ball he

couldn't get things figured out and that's ultimately why he was he was he was out in Tampa they had offense man with those receivers they had those tight ends they had Jameis Winston Mike Evans Chris Godwin OJ Howard Cam Brate they put up serious stat that was also when like Deshaun Jackson was on the team for a little bit oh man it was crazy to watch they put up serious stat that was also when like deshaun jackson was on the team for a little bit oh man it was crazy to watch they put up some serious stats on that team so uh i am also a big todd monkey fan before we get to uh your next guy that you want to shout out with a little stock up gotta talk to the people about our friends over at draft king sports book the official sports betting partner of the nfl bet just five dollars on any football game and you can get 200 free bets instantly. Now everyone can also experience

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Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. In Tennessee, call or text the Tennessee red line at 1-800-889-9789. In New York, call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY. One per new customer, $5 minimum wager. The $200 are issued in 825 free bets. So you get to play around a little bit more when you get the eight free bets. Connor, who's next for you? All right, this one, he was briefly mentioned on our Edge Pass Rush show, but not in our rankings. He's had a long road since being a five-star recruit.

This is his fourth stop in college football, Trevor. And I want to make sure I'm pronouncing this right. This is how the Michigan page is telling me. Yabby Anoma. Yeah. Yabby Anoma. I mean, Trevor, I feel like he got to michigan like three days ago did you see this he this was announced so late first off and when did he get to michigan i thought it sounded like in august wow so much i'm pretty sure when we

did the pastoral show he was not at michigan i want to make that very clear i'm i'm positive on that i'm gonna look it up you keep talking about it i'm gonna look it up five-star recruit that was originally at alabama i believe he had some trouble there and ultimately either left the team or was dismissed from the team. Went to Houston. August 28? No, August 8. That's very late.

That is very late. That is extreme. They literally just stuck a jersey on this dude. Yes. And he played. Boy, did he play really well. Wow. So, okay, I finally pulled him up in my Asheville doc for notes.

Dismissed from Alabama program after freshman season for violation of team rules. He was the fourth overall ranked player in the 2018 recruiting class. Fourth. Dismissed from Houston program after sitting out the 2019 season due to violation of team rules. Then he ends up at UT Martin. Now he is at Michigan. And my goodness, what a debut against Colorado State.

Very talented guy. He had a sack. He had two other hurries. The film is legit. He explodes off the ball. A very, very explosive player. He has power. He has burst.

I was, you know, I know Jim Nagy tweeted out the clip of him, uh, the sack he got that the senior bowl is really watching him. This is someone that, you know, I wanted him on the show because stock up is real. We, I mean, 2018, this dude was supposed to be a, like, why couldn't he be a, you know, if not Will Anderson, a top 50 kind of pick a year ago or something like that that's the kind of talent he's always had and he was recruited by alabama because he's the fourth overall player in the country it's been a long road i wonder what now he has the chance to make up for he has the chance to make up for all that right now and it was a

hell of a start for michigan they showed that he's going to be a big part of that front seven rushing the passer and i think that i i kind of wanted to put him on the show because I want people to know like this guy isn't like a small school out of nowhere, under-recruited guy. This guy was supposed to be a premium future NFL talent, and it has not worked out in a couple of places, but his debut on the field for michigan was big time and if it works out there he is going to skyrocket aborts and into fringe round one versions of mock drafts i'm looking this up on 24 7 because sometimes for like the really big players they'll do full scouting reports out of high school i don't think they have one. I was hoping it would say, like,

who's this cop? Miles Garrett. Or just, like, something stupid. Which 24-7 normally does not do that. They are decently realistic with the things that they say. So they don't have one up there, so we don't have it up for them. His grade is a.9987 for them. So damn near.

I mean, he was almost considered like the perfect recruit in terms of just that defensive end talent. Extremely talented. I mean, we saw the flash to that if you watch the Michigan game at all. I only watched it live, didn't watch the All-22, but I saw the sack live. I was actually watching it with a Michigan fan who works for PFF, David Solfaro, big shout out to him.

He is Mr. Michigan right there. He loves him. Diehard Michigan fan. michigan fan who works for pff david solfaro big shout out to him he is mr michigan right there he he he loves him diehard michigan fan and so he was telling me all about um he was telling me all about the time i got but yeah every time okay to play so i knew a little bit about him but now i got to know a lot more about him especially if he stays at michigan and he becomes a serious draft eligible prospect i'm gonna go back to i'm gonna stay on defense i'm gonna go back to to georgia because i feel like I had to. If we got out of the show without mentioning Chris Smith,

the safety from Georgia, it would have been an absolute travesty. Sure. Fifth year senior from Georgia. So you would think, okay, Georgia's an NFL draft factory out here. If you're making it to your fifth year as a senior, you're probably not that great. But that's not the case for chris smith okay he started he started opposite lewis scene last year lewis scene got a lot of the buzz but man this first game chris smith might have been the most impressive player there five foot 11 195 defensive grades during the oregon game 92.2 overall defensive grade, which is an elite grade,

an elite coverage grade of 91.0, which crosses that 90 threshold, and a 71.8 run defense grade. This dude had some of the best plays that we're going to see from a safety this season. I'm not kidding. And it started with an unbelievable run fit that he had where the running back was handed the ball so much space in front of him. And Smith had to close down from about 17 yards out, comes in like an absolute missile so fast that you would think this player is running recklessly at the running back. He's going to dive at the ankles and he's going to miss the tackle. And instead he is running full speedlessly at the running back he's going to dive at the ankles and he's going to miss the tackle and instead he is running full speed puts the running back between the shoulders and buries him in the backfield for a tackle for loss an extremely impressive run fit

for a player as small as he is a defensive back you see some plays like that from linebackers that are fearless to have a lot more meat on him. But this dude just went straight in between the shoulders, stopped the running back cold. Really impressive play there that it only goes on the stat sheet as one tackle. But that tackle, I think, holds so much weight because of what he was able to do there. He also had the interception on Bo Nix, where it was a cover seven play. They're dropping back in his zone. Nix is staring at the seam pass looking that way all the

way lets it fly chris smith breaks on it immediately picks it off takes it deep so he had those two massive plays there and he also had a third mass he had a third huge play and it was the play where all hope looked lost for o. Bo Nix lets it fly. It's probably incredible sentence. It's probably his best deep ball that he had all day goes to an Oregon wide receiver that you think is wide open, but Chris Smith is playing his single high role so well that he comes in and meets the wide receiver at the exact point that the ball is coming to him

right there for the catch, knocks it, knocks it loose to the wide receiver. And so it that the ball was coming to him right there for the catch knocks it knocks it loose to the wide receiver and so it's not even the one good play it felt like Bo Nix had all day Chris Smith was there to stop it this dude was all over the field playing a robber role playing a single high roll coming downhill he was so impressive and I am moving him up big on my safety boards already i don't want to overreact too much but like he checked so many boxes for me in that one singular game so if this guy has even close to that same consistency over the next couple of games we're going to be talking about him as one of the best safeties in this uh in this draft because this game is is one of the

best that we'll see from a safety no doubt that's a great shout out because that's one that, you know, obviously somebody that wasn't insanely productive or anything last year where we were all over him. And when you evaluate a prospect this early in the year, like a player like Chris Smith that is playing so deep on the back end, you really do need that all 22 to go back and look at the kind of range he had, the things he was doing. So last year, you know, you look at it, he played, he did play 420 snaps to that championship defense, but this year, it just looks like a totally different player.

Right. You know, it kind of looks like he was part of the ride last year. Yeah. You're right, Trevor, that this week one, it was like, no, I'm out here to, like you said, we saw Louis seen do that a lot last year where it's like, no, I'm out here to like you said, we saw Louis seen do that a lot last year. It's like, no, I'm going to go make plays. I'm going to actually change the tone of this game.

So pretty awesome. Love that shout out. All right. Last stock up for me before we get into a couple of stock downs. Minnesota center John Michael Schmitz, who your guy? I mean, this dude just I know it's New Mexico State, but I'm evaluating traits in this, not level of competition. He dominated. He dominated. And he had really good film, you know, before this season, so it's not like he's out of nowhere.

But I just look at a lot of the centers we've evaluated over the last couple years. This dude's a little different, where he's 6'4", 320. He's a big center. He's more that Frank Ragnos style Center than the more compact lighter guys whether it's linder bomb um whether it's cam Juergens this dude's a unit but he moves really well the grip strength is is incredible he had a couple finishing blocks that uh just he destroyed people. He can get to the second level. He can pull, he can factor the game wide, downhill. He's going to be one of the best centers

in this draft this year. And I think that he's someone that probably could have declared last year. But if he takes his game to a new level this year, goes through that all-star game process, there's going to be a lot more buzz about him where there wasn't much pre-draft buzz or pre-draft declaration day buzz for him last year maybe that's why he stayed

so when you turn on that run blocking film from the new mexico state game you see a center that can execute in any run scheme and just the size he plays with but the ability to also still have the movement skills was really really impressive i didn't get an o-lineman in here so i'm glad that you did i'm glad we got an o-line i had to get one i was gonna do broderick but i didn't want to go too chalk broderick looked he looked really good did he look really good he did he didn't he didn't completely uh destroy in the run game like i think he will over time but he was so clean in pass pro so clean in pass pro that he looked good but but john michael schmitz looked great looked phenomenal

in this game love to see it love to hear it last one for you last guy for me this one i i know that this will make uh some people happy because they were i read more than one comment of people who wanted to see this guy on one of our top fives when it came to our running back list. Auburn running back, Tank Bixby. Tank Bixby, lining up at six feet tall, about 215 pounds. He's going up against Mercer, okay?

I get it, it's Mercer. But he played really well. 147 rushing yards on 16 carries. 91.7 rush grade, which was the best in the FBS this past weekend. He was the highest graded rusher that we had in the FBS in our grading system. And the reason is 13 forced missed tackles in a single game. Absolutely bonkers nuts that is wild statistics that he would have 13 forced missed tackles on 16 runs okay remember the ratio that's that's somewhat near averaging a forced missed tackle per carry, right?

B. John Robinson had like a.42 last year, and that was the highest mark in all of the FBS. So that just puts into context how incredible that performance was from Tanks Bigsby. After watching the film of him getting to see all the plays that went into this grade, man, when he gets daylight, he's shot out of a cannon. His athleticism really is special. If you give this dude a running lane, he is putting his foot in the ground and he is going up and he is going up fast.

He looked clearly more athletic than basically everybody on the field, including the rest of his teammates that were at Auburn. So you love to see that. Just such an explosive player. The balance looked better. That was a big area of concern that I had when we went over the running backs for summer scouting as I said I like tanks bigsby I just feel like he didn't play within his balance he plays a little bit out of control at times and then another area that he needs to get better at

playing between the tackles right a lot of his biggest and best runs the best plays come from when they're tossing him out way towards the line or towards the um towards the sidelines excuse me and when he had to play between the tackles was not nearly as effective there were a couple of times when the initial hole was was clogged up and he didn't exactly know where to go he didn't exactly know where to pivot and they'd be like ah okay i'm just gonna i gotta bounce it all the way outside and you don't always have to do that it just feels like he he just he needs to still be more effective between the tackles. And when I say that, I understand that between the tackles play

has a lot to do with the offensive line as well. It's about the offensive line getting to their keys and opening up the run lanes and all of that. But still, there are plenty of running backs that you see. I'll use Bijan Robinson as the example. There were a couple of plays this past weekend that i remember seeing from bijan where the initial hole ain't there and he's able to put his feet in the ground and hop to the left a couple of times and he finds where that hole then opens up and he has that kind of patience he has that kind of vision i don't see that level of vision yet from tanks bigsby if we continue to see really great play

for him and it becomes in in between the tackles as well then we're checking a lot of different boxes for this guy is one of the most explosive backs uh in college football so it was great to see him doing what he does best i just want to see it between the tackles and of course i'm going to want to see it against a better opponent too but really great we started the season for tank bigsby no that's awesome i remember over summer you and i were lower on him than a lot of people expected us to be and the things you and i were looking for improvement was that consistency in between the tackles and ball security did have four fumbles in 2021 that's right yeah yeah so that i pulled up my notes to be like why were we low on him um and like you said

now it's monitoring it against better level of competition all right is it time to move into the uh the not fun part of the show yeah let's do the honest part of the show i feel i feel bad calling it stock down maybe maybe we don't call it stock down quite yet but it's just uh we're stock trading water we're we're monitoring these players stocks uh as for what they are here. So who's the first guy that you want to bring up? We'll call it Overreaction Tuesday. My first one here is Devin Leary, the quarterback from NC State.

And, you know, they had a sweaty game against East Carolina, who, let's give credit to East Carolina. I thought their secondary played very well. They're a team that traditionally does have good talent in their secondary. They really almost stole this game. It was 21-20 was the final. NC State wins. Leary threw for 211 yards, one touchdown, one pick.

He only completed 51.5% of his passes. On the film for me, Trevor, there's just bad decisions. A couple of times he did throw the interception. He had another play where he scrambled around and he fumbled the ball. And then he did have three other passes that were broken up that easily could have been intercepted. And he's somebody to me that when you watch the film does not have a power arm. And to make up for that, he's going to have to be a brilliant, accurate decision maker. And I think a lot of the times in his career, we have seen him be that guy. In this game, he didn't look like that guy.

He was just forcing passes. He was staring down throws. It was a tough game. It was a tough game. And it's not, you know, like you said, we're not calling the stock down. Like, Devin Leary wasn't a top five quarterback for either of us over the summer. But it's very hard to make it in the NFL when you don't have a big arm. You have to be more of a flawless IQ guy.

And this game didn't really have any of those things for me where, you know, if Devin Leary wants to be things for me where, you know, definitely, definitely wants to be drafted in the fourth, fifth round, carve out a long-term backup career, develop into this game managing type guy. It's gotta be better than it was week one. And I'm saying this because I have seen some significant hype for him in

other places. And unfortunately I, I don't evaluate him that way so far. Yeah. Uh, had to turn over, turn over worthy plays. Um, had two turnover-worthy plays, according to our grades.

Hey, he had that interception as well. The stat that sticks out to me, though, you're right, with him not having a crazy elite NFL arm, he's got to be pinpoint accurate. And I think Devin Leary throws such a quick, beautiful, tight, spiraled release that everybody is very enamored by the passes when they fire off of his hand. And for good reason.

I mean, they look beautiful. So a lot of those intermediate passes you just see come off of his hand, and you go, ooh, that was a nice spiral. He does that often, but you look at the accuracy stats from this past weekend, 51% completion percentage and an adjusted completion percentage of only 57.6. That's a more important stat. Having an adjusted completion percentage under 60 is not good, man. It's just not good enough.

It's got to be better from Devin Leary. It means that it is your fault. It was a shaky first game for him. He had a 60.5 passing grade this past week, and so it's just got to be better. And we know that it can be better, but we're just monitoring it. We would have liked to see Devin Leary come out and make a little bit more of a statement against ECU,

but hell, that ECU team was playing with their hair on fire. Dude, credit to them. Hard out, tough place to play. They should have won that game. I'm not going to bring up the kicker. I'm not going to do it. Yeah. I'm not going to do it yeah i'm not going to do it no well now we did but it was sorry but it's tough but it's tough okay uh another guy that i'm monitoring i think everybody's monitoring at this point maybe even lsu as well as their wide receiver kashon butte we watched

the game versus florida state last night uh kashon butte he got an early target but then that target was a catch in the end zone that was broken up at the very end when he was kind of coming to the ground so it didn't end up counting as a touchdown he didn't register his first catch believe until the fourth quarter it's like five minutes to go in the fourth quarter that can't happen i think he ended with what was it? It was two receptions for 20 yards. That's it. No touchdowns, no nothing. And this is, I mean, like your go-to guy.

Now, the reason why it's, I don't want to say it's totally stocked down on Keishon Butte, but it's definitely something worth monitoring is, you remember when Brian Kelly got there and they were like asking him about Keishon Butte and he was like, yeah, I don't know who that is. He was like, oh, is it okay? Kind of like a weird response, but it was almost like- He's one of your best players, Brian Kelly.rian kelly yeah but it was like this okay like i haven't met him yet he hasn't been

around the facility it was almost that was the line it was kind of like calling him out like he was like oh like i haven't met him yet because he hasn't been around the facility even beyond him not getting a ton of targets kayshaun did not look interested in that game against Florida State. He didn't. There was a pass that Jaden Daniels had. And if you want to sit here and say, okay, Jaden Daniels is never going to be a great passer. Okay, maybe we could have that conversation.

I know he's more of a running quarterback than a passing quarterback, although I did think that Jaden Daniels played decently well in the passing game against Florida State. There was one play where Jaden puts played decently well in the passing game against Florida State there was one play where Jaden put it straight on the money and Kayshaun was just running a simple one cut uh almost like a skinny post right near the end zone and Kayshaun didn't even look for the ball like he didn't even have his hands up and maybe I guess it was a little bit earlier than Kayshaun thought it was coming to him or actually what I think it looked like is Kayshaon thought the coverage was too tight and he just didn't even look for the ball because

he didn't think the ball was coming his way it's not a that's not great that's not great you're on the field you're running a route you gotta be in it man you've gotta be in it and there was there was footage of of jayden daniels on the sideline having to put his arm around Kayshaun because Kayshaun was looking like he was about to pull an Antonio Brown and leave the field. And it's just like, man, this is not good. After the game, not to get too TMZ with it, but... Classic.

Deletes all of LSU from all of his social media stuff, unfollows LSU on Instagram. Like, is this dude even going to play for Brian Kelly again? Because if this game's the last that we see of Keishon Butte before he declares for the NFL draft because he's pissed at LSU, Connor, that's not good. No. That's not good.

And I know some people would be like, no, no, no. He's got good tape that he's got in his past. He can lean on it. I promise you he can't. I just don't think it's going i just don't think it's gonna work like work out like that for him so this isn't a stock down because i don't know everything that's going on in this situation but it is certainly worth monitoring as a guy who was a hopeful top 15 pick in the upcoming draft so had to mention him it was fascinating to me to watch how two

teams that lost, but in my opinion, lost in totally different ways. I agree a hundred percent Notre Dame and LSU. And one to me went into a brutal situation going into the shoe and really looked the part for a lot of the game until the end. And a lot of people were like, wow, this Notre Dame team under Marcus Freeman, they're prepared. Sure, they're not Ohio State level yet. They still lost the game. Brian Kelly and LSU, there was so much chaos going on. Kelly's post-presser after the game.

Listen, I've been to Baton Rouge, some of my favorite college football fans I've ever interacted with, and that is not just buttering them up. Some of the nicest people, incredible time. The Brian Kelly era does just not inspire me, to be completely honest with you. I think they deserve better.

It's one week, but I thought it spoke volumes, and I hate to be this guy. I'm staying right there for my last stock down. The Allie Gay headbutt is just inexcusable. Bro, what was that? This is a team captain. This is somebody that only played four games last year, obviously got hurt,

but there was big expectations for him last year to be a guy that goes in, has a big season for LSU, declares to the draft. Only plays four weeks, obviously doesn't get to do that, so now the bounce back story. Can you as a big season for LSU declares to the draft only plays four weeks obviously doesn't get to do that so now the bounce back story can you have a big year team captain LSU go through the senior circuit all those things you come out and you make somehow one of the dumbest plays and that we've seen the entire week I mean I just you watch the play a million times

and you just can't wrap your head around it, what the plan was, right? He's unblocked through the gap. I believe the tackle took the wide rusher and the guard, I believe, looked to help the center. Or he had, I think, Jaqueline Roy in front of him. So he's unblocked. He puts his hands down, Trevor.

He puts his hands down. He puts the quarterback and goes head first it looked like a it looked like a super smash brothers move yes like he just like he turned himself into a missile and yes the head the helmet was quite literally the weapon it was that was the in a in an era where all of us hate what targeting has done to college football that was it universally everybody was like yeah you can get him out for that yeah oh everybody was like hey what else was he thinking other than i'm gonna hurt jordan travis on this play and i i hope that that's not the case because i i i know that the game is fast. I know it's a bang-bang thing.

I get that. And I'm trying not to oversimplify putting myself in these players' shoes. But there was no technique with that other than just launching with this helmet. It was a mind-boggling play. So I'm glad that you brought this up. Yeah, and besides the play that was so dumb, so dumb, he didn't have a good game. He didn't have a good game. There's supposed to be big expectations for this guy. He had four pressures. Two of them were

unblocked. Two of them were unblocked. The two times he got to the quarterback, because the other two were hurries. The two quarterback hits he had, one where he turned himself into a missile headfirst. The other, he was unblocked as well. He wasn't that good against the run. He just, he wasn't very good. But when you cap it off, you're a team captain. If you have a bad game, so what? We're not going to get on this show and kill you. When you do things like that to cost your team, that's the definition of stock down.

That is one where I will definitively say here, that is stock down. And this edge rush group, good luck surviving because there's 10 guys already that I'm excited for for this draft that are loaded with talent that burst on the scene week one. That was not good uh you and i had fun going back and forth about this player my last guy in the stock down and it is a stock down and it is a reed kilbert the tight end from george wow guy who i had a lot of high i don't think you have to do that yet no no no okay but but here's the thing and this this is

this was this is the reason why it's a stock down it's not a stock down because i don't think that he has potential anymore it's a stock down because with as little experience as he already had coming into this season yeah he did not play until late in the third quarter of a blowout and most of his snaps were blocking snaps i also when i watched him thought looked a little heavy like he did and there were reports that he came into camp and he was a little overweight and they had to get the weight down and so I thought he looked a little heavy there too so this is a stock down for me not because I don't think that he is I no longer think he's he has the potential of a premier talent I definitely do but if he's still a little bit heavy and he's still clearly not going to beat out Darnell Washington or Brock Bowers for playing time,

all of a sudden, he's probably not going to play a ton this year unless something drastically changes. And if that's going to be the case, well, then what are we doing if he declares for the NFL draft? Are we seriously betting on what we saw from LSU? Right. So that's why it's a stock down for me. It's more of like an outlook thing with the Reed Gilbert than it is a potential thing. But for somebody

who I had in my top 30, can't remember exactly where he was. He might've been barely top 25, but for somebody who I had very, very high hopes for, if he's not going to get on the field, then we're not going to see that no matter what. so it's more of a situational stock down that it is a player stock down but it is something to monitor and i wanted to bring him up to be fair about it and also because this is a player who is going to be in conversations for the first round that you kind of got to be able to monitor a little bit here no it's a good call it's you're evaluating the situation and i think the situation is for reet gilbert he's gonna have a really fascinating decision to make at the end of this year because barring an injury, which we pray does not happen,

he is the third tight end on the team. And this is a team that has plenty of room to play two tight ends and pivotal roles, but not to play three. And I think they want him to, it's clear to me, and I know it's one game, but it's clear to me they want him to buy into what they do with their tight ends right where they're probably looking at it going man you can be a star in 2023 you can step into darnell washington you know his role but this year it's it's going to be tough and and if he that's not good enough for him where he's like i'm going to

go to the draft then he's going to be one of the more polarizing evaluations we have to do if he's like, I'm going to go to the draft. Then he's going to be one of the more polarizing evaluations we have to do. If he's going to declare for the NFL draft, no matter what at the end of the year, I don't know why he went to Georgia. Great. I don't know why he went to Georgia. Now, if he, if he says to himself, okay, don't know Washington's probably gone after this year, Brock Bowers can't, but has a chance to get in the program for a year he's seen what Georgia has done for recruits getting them to the NFL level over the last couple of years

they will compete for national championships any if he has that mindset where we're probably going to get him for another year then I get why he went to Georgia Todd Munkin might still be there obviously the rest of that group is going to be be there. Right. So, loves his tight ends. He's going to get them involved. And it's so funny watching the tape of these players researching for this podcast episode. Because Georgia is just different, man. Georgia, Alabama, when they're playing at their best they are bigger they are faster they are stronger and every and they're deep play it looked like that against oregon oregon had no idea what was about

to come to them georgia won that game before they even stepped on the field and you can tell it immediately because every player was playing as hard as they could and as fast as they could from the second that ball was snapped. And that's just the way that Georgia goes. So if we get that mentality in a Reed Gilbert for the next couple of years, still love him. But that's definitely something that we've got to monitor. Before we get out of here,

got to talk to you guys about our newest partner, revolutionizing the world of sports betting and engagement by making sports fandom profitable. That is our friends over at Symbol, the stock market for sports. Symbol, S-I-M-B-U-L-L, was a PFF sponsor last year. They're back with football season this year. Symbol lets you trade pro and college teams like stocks to earn cash dividend payouts when your teams win.

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Can we spoil that now? I did want to get that in before we sign off. Yeah. I mean, this is a perfect place to do it. Yeah, go ahead. The Thursday shows this year are going to be live. And that's, we were trying to think of what is the best way to get y'all in the show with us and we feel like doing doing a live show on uh for monday's episode of tuesday's episode unfortunately for connor and

i it's just not really plausible with our schedules but thursday right before thursday night football we want to go live we want you guys to hang out with us right before thursday night football we'll get you ready for the game we could all hang out out. We want to be your pregame for Thursday night. Yes, we do. Live on that podcast, you and I can buy and sell some teams. When you guys are watching and listening to the podcast, you can do that as well. Download the app, create

a free account, enter the promo code NFLSC to get you a free stock valued up to $150 and compete against the NFL Stock Exchange podcast this season on Symbol. Well, that was going to be my exit. It was saying that we're going live on Thursday. So now what?

No, it'll be awesome, man. I can't wait to get the chat really involved. You know, for those that don't care about Thursday Night Football, it's not a show for Thursday Night Football. It's a show for all of football. So, yeah. We're going to be covering the league as a whole on Thursday. Like the Thursday episode is still going to be our big weekend preview.

So Connor and I are going to go through our favorite games of the week, our favorite bets of the week, who's got the most on the line, what we're looking forward to the most. And then we're going to try to finagle in like a half mailbag in there or like a live mailbag which you guys can get in on the show but we've loved interacting with you guys so much on twitter and on instagram and the youtube comments that uh we really wanted to dedicate a full episode to hopefully get you guys invested involved in the show so i'm very excited about that dude i can't wait a fun first stock up it'll be fun to track this year you know at some point when we get a couple of these in the show. So I'm very excited about that. Dude, I can't wait. A fun first stock up. It'll be fun to track this year. You know, at some point when we get a couple of

these in the book, you and I will use this platform, I think, to update our big board. Now we're going to let that breathe for a little bit, but so people can track where that changes throughout the year. So I'm excited, man. It's week one. This is awesome. This is what it's all for. We got through the summer pretty smoothly. I must say. First Tuesday podcast of the season in the books. First stock watch episode of the podcast in the books. You love to see it Thursday, seven o'clock, seven o'clock, seven o'clock Eastern. We will see you guys. Then make sure you tune in.

We want to hang out with you before uh the kickoff of the 2022 nfl season i'm trevor that's connor this has been the nfl stock exchange podcast we'll see you next time.