NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 90. 2023 NFL Draft Stock Up, Stock Down: Week 4

Episode Date: September 27, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers highlight some of the best performances from Week 4 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 is our weekly stock watch. So we're talking about some college football players who are making noise in the 2023 NFL draft world. We're each bringing you three new players to the table.

Well, more than three players. We're giving you a couple extra just because we love you. But we're talking about players who are really on the rise that you need to know that if you haven't been getting some eyes on them yet, you really need to. We're shaping out this class. If you put summer scouting together with some of the players that we've already done in the Stock Watch, man, you're getting a good view of what the 2023 NFL Draft can be all about. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me is 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. Connor, I don't know if you know, or maybe the good people. I'm talking to good people. If you see the boxes behind me here, we've got some moving supplies as well. This is the last day in the crib, man. Last day before moving day for your boy. I have to admit, my first thought I got excited is that you got like a free hookup of something. Someone shipped something to you that is ridiculous the size of that box.

And you were like, all right, I got to sneak it into the show somehow. But just as exciting, you are moving. For all that watch on YouTube, and I know it's a pretty split audience. For all that watch on YouTube, say goodbye to Trevor's Kitchen as the backdrop. It had one hell of a run on the NFL Stock Exchange box. This is where it was born, buddy. This is where it was born, buddy. This is where it was born.

I'm sad. I'm sad to see it leave, but I feel weird. It is going to feel weird next time. I'm going to be like in an actual room. I don't have an office. So I feel like my background is going to suck. So you guys are going to have to tune in for Thursday's episode to see if

it's just a complete disappointment, but I've got some posters. Like I've got some things that I think I could throw in the background to spice it up a little bit. Yeah, you'll build it as it goes. I mean, I try to add something new every once in a while. After this hockey season, I threw in a Rangers goalie mask. You just have fun with it.

So you'll make it your own, but Trevor on the move, not leaving Cincinnati is the rumor that I hear. Got to warn the people. Don't send them into a panic, Trevor. No, no, no. We're not moving to Cincinnati. In fact, if you guys like the chemistry that me and Mike Renner have on the

It's Just Football show every day, boy, is it about to get drastically better or drastically worse because I'm actually going to be roommates with Renner for the next couple of months for the rest of the season. I feel like I'm doing that, like people think I'm doing that

for like content purposes. Like I'm going to have a camera strapped to me at all season. I feel like I'm doing that. Like people think I'm doing that for like content purposes. Like I'm going to have a camera strapped to me at all times. So here's my question to you. When you live with a co-host, because I never have. When you live with a co-host and you guys both work at the same place during the day, it's not like you just do a podcast at night or something. You do a daily morning show for those of you that don't know right you like wake up and walk to work together like you have to wait for the other person no i'm

not right no i'm not doing that i'm not doing that the walk's way too long we talk to each other too much anyways yeah i'm probably gonna be out the door before renner is anyways so uh yeah i mean yeah i would i would assume that you are an early riser so so is mike though i think that mike is are an early riser. So is Mike, though. I think that Mike is also an early riser. But I'm going to get out of the door to make sure that we don't have to walk together because that's too much. That's too much. Personally, I don't go outside without my headphones on. I don't interact when I usually leave the apartment unless it's a social event.

I won't wear my headphones to the bar. But, yeah, I get it, especially in the morning, man. I need a good ramp-up period in the morning. We've got to find our quiet time, and I think it's probably going to be in the morning for me and Mike. So yeah, everybody say goodbye to the kitchen. You guys got to tune in on Thursday to see what the first look setup is like and roast what my room is going to be there.

But we're not here to just talk HGTV about what my living situation is. We're talking some stock up. We're talking some stock up stock down here on a Tuesday. We're looking back on college football that was, and as we have every single Tuesday so far this season, give you some guys that really stood out to us. It might be some guys that we've talked about in summer scouting, but something that we love to do on this show is we love to give you guys new names. We love to give you new

names to the process as college football is evolving and as it is going on throughout the season there are new players that are really standing out so connor if you want to uh if you want to start this bad boy off i will give you the floor here to bring up whoever your first guy is for stock up and stock down we got always a good idea to kick it off with a with a quarterback when you can. And I'm going to bring someone to the show that we didn't talk about over summer at the position, and that is Michael Penix Jr., the transfer from Indiana to Washington. An interesting road.

We've always seen the talent with Penix. We know about the season-ending torn ACL at Indiana at one point and now at Washington. Twice, I believe. Twice. Yeah, so the injury history is very long. torn ACL at Indiana at one point and now twice, twice, twice. Yeah. So the injury history is very long. But man, just off of raw traits, six foot three. I think he can carry 220 pretty easily. A big effortless arm. He's having a great season for Washington. He's thrown 12 touchdowns to one interception.

He's already thrown almost 1400 yards every single week in the pff ultimate database there are big time throws that is a phrase that trevor and i utter a lot on this podcast and i think when evaluating quarterback prospects you always want to see what those big time throws look like and the more they have the better and pennix has a lot even the ones that aren't caught this is somebody trevor that when's right, can fit the ball in tight windows. He can throw it in the bucket down the sideline. He can throw it on the move. And I just love his velocity outside the numbers,

those deep outs that are considered NFL throws Penix can make. And he's somebody that I've actually surprisingly heard already a lot of buzz about in the NFL scouting community. And I don't want people to get mixed up this isn't he's not entering like the Stroud and Bryce Young combo or even the first round combo that we've talked about that guys like hopefully Van Dyke Richardson or Levis were trying to find their way in McKee not even that but looking at a potential day two developmental quarterback Penix is on that radar right now and I don't think anybody really was looking at him as a legit NFL prospect going into this year after the

transfer. I think they were expecting two years at Washington and see what he could do to build that up. At this point, I'm not expecting him to have to stay at Washington for another season after this. I think he can declare and be a classic traits quarterback that goes on day two with his kind of talent. I don't know if you saw this but somebody actually in the comments the youtube comments for the show last week said hey what do you guys think about michael pennix and i actually responded to that person i was like look i've fallen for michael pennix two years in a row that's how i fell and damn it i'll do it again i will do it again you had me once once. You had me twice. As long as this guy is healthy, man, he's so much fun. Yeah, he's good.

The arm strength is there. This is somebody who I think, and I thought this two years ago, has legit NFL arm talent. When I say that, I don't just mean with deep ball, how far you can throw it down the field. A lot of times when we talk about arm strength on this podcast, what we're really talking about is velocity, how quickly you can get a ball from point a to point b in the short to intermediate as well firing that ball in there on a low trajectory on a rope as you will hear a lot

of people call it and i think pennix has that ability man you look at the injury history though i just wanted to remind people if they if they don't know michael pennick's uh injury history two torn acls 2018 and 2020 he had a um connection to the clavicle to the sternum injury i think that he broke a bone there in 2019 and he had an ac shoulder joint issue in 2021 he has been hurt connor every single year every part of his body for the last four years we've got a clavicle we've got a shoulder we've got two acl injuries the man is unfortunately damaged goods but the word goods is still in there because he still has it and i really do believe that and i i just hope that we get a fully healthy year from pennix i don't know what his nfl future is going to be right i don't know how much teams are obviously going to take into stock

an injury history that feels like it is dripping with red and red circles and red marks and all of that. But when you see this guy out on the field, when he was thrown to DJ Matthews, when he was thrown to Ty Fry Fogle at Indiana, I loved what I saw. He wasn't a perfect prospect. Man, the tools were there.

He reminded me of Colin Kaepernick in a lot of ways. Just kind of like a guy who's got these kind of like strange intangibles and the build, like the arms are long and the legs are long, and it's just like he's very limbed out with his arms and his legs. And in the motion, too. The motion. The Kaepernick thing he he brought up like it all just clicked in my head like yeah they especially when they roll out it's the same kind of motion

he reminds me a ton of Kaepernick and I just I hope he gets to stay healthy because he is a ton of fun dude he's a lot of fun to watch he is and it's I mean this is his intro to me from me to the draft world of like hey no matter where a quarterback is going, if a guy is expected to get drafted, he's going to be discussed a lot and people need to be ready. And you know what, Trevor, that's that might help Pennix and it's September, but could it really come to fruition by November? A lot of those fringe round one guys have not been great so far. Richardson was really impressive week one. Levis has been obviously up and down, but Richardson has had a really tough couple of weeks.

McKee's kind of been whatever. Van Dyke's kind of struggled. No, I'm not kind of struggled. Yeah, I'm being nice there. Yeah, I'm being nice there. I mean, Stroud has been really good by the way but we don't work this isn't the this isn't the show that you and i are going to sit here and be like hey stroud stock up your stock can't really go anywhere when you're you know qb1 or two right but the point is the

door is wide open for the tier two or tier three quarterbacks in this draft and i just want penix his name to at least be out there at the moment i think it'll be there if he If he's healthy, man, he's going to have a big hive, if you will, on Twitter of people who watch his tape and they go, dude, if you want an arm talent guy and he's able to play a fully healthy year this year, I think that people are going to gravitate towards him for sure. You mentioned we're not really going to sit here and pump up C.J. Stroud or Bryce Young, guys who we already have at the very top. It's funny, I had somebody reach out to me on Saturday because Blake Corum had another

incredible day for Michigan. And somebody tweeted at me. It was like, we got to talk about Blake Corum stock up. And I'm like, I had him as RB3 going into the year. I think Connor might've had him. Oh no, you didn't watch Blake Corum, right? You ruined the surprise. I told Trevor before this show show because we each pick three players

then we have a ton that like will shout out this was going to be my show that i go man i should have watched blake quorum over the summer great job trevor you had him as a top three running back because this was my weekend where i was like okay blake quorum is not good. Blake Corham is awesome. Obviously, he had the game for 236 rushing yards, 78 after contact. He had six explosive runs, five missed tackles forced. I mean, just a really insane game. And you saw how explosive and shifty Blake Corham is at 5'8", 210 pounds, that compact build. I told Trevor before the show, we always tell each other, the players,

for lack of overlap, not for planning the show. Trust me, folks, we're not that prepared over here. We don't write out every aspect of the show. And I was like, the last one I'm going to leave for you is a surprise because I got to come clean on somebody that you loved over the summer. And it's Blake Corham. I guess we will talk about him a little bit,

not as much as the rest of the guys on the show because everybody that's listening is aware of him by now. But, man, Trevor, he looked incredible. He was maybe the best player in college football this weekend. Dude, I mean, when I got eyes on him this summer, and a lot of it was from what I saw last year as well. He was splitting time with Hassan Haskins in a really good backfield for

Michigan Wolverines. And when I looked at things this year, yeah, of course, it's not like Blake Corham was going to get every carry, but he was I thought going to be that feature back at Michigan and he is. And there are other, some other players, there's an underclassman they have there. I think Edwards is his name. He looks awesome as well, but he's not draft eligible yet. But the thing with Corham is I think this guy brings you three down ability and you're gonna look at his measurables and you're gonna go okay he's five foot nine what is he 200 pounds

and i go ah don't 10 right like don't don't don't be shy on that 200 210 whatever he ends up being because that's in the lower body and man does that give him a lot of strength yes he is not afraid to stick his nose in there when it comes to pass protection yes of course he's not the biggest back in the world and so he's not going to just stone everybody but he gives a ton of effort he's got a great target point i feel like when he's going in for blocks of guys coming up the a gap or wherever he's trying to block and help i think he's got really soft hands as well he's nice as a receiver out of the backfield and then of course you saw the production on the ground this past weekend, which we've seen throughout the entire year.

Love the vision, love the footwork, love the agility. He's got decent long speed as well for a player that doesn't have really long legs. When you talk about a guy who's 5'9", sometimes he just doesn't have the strides to be a burner down the field. But I just think that Blake Corum is so much closer to a full-time offensive weapon, kind of a threat than people were giving him credit for going into the season. And I I'm not giving you crap on it. We can't watch it.

I didn't watch him. There were guys that, right. And there were guys that you watched on your list that I didn't have on my list, but I also think that's what kind of made summer scouting really fun. And it's just, it's been great to see Michigan lean on Blake quorum as much as I felt like they could have, because he is somebody who no matter where you have him in the game, whether it's in receiving, whether it's in pass blocking,

whether it's of course on the ground, I feel like he's got a lot to give. I think he's got, he has a high return on investment player. And I think he's going to continue to light up college football this year. By the end of the year, I think he's absolutely going to be in that conversation for doke walker to win running back of the year and potentially lead the ncaa in rushing yards and um i'm excited i'm glad that you got eyes on him i'm glad that he made this list it's so funny that he was that uh mystery player that you were telling me about before the pod i think when a guy no

matter and you know quorum wasn't even it wasn't a top two running back so it wasn't like it wasn't like we were talking about a summer blue chipper as a stock up here when a guy like that has that kind of week it's you know there it's worth discussing in a sense and i'll close that on this i'll post this play by the time you're listening you might be able to find it he had a stop and start in the second quarter like a stop on a dime for somebody coming downhill trying to get an angle it's unbelievable an unbelievable just pure ability at the second and third level of the field so i'm i'm really really excited to see what kind of prospect that he's going to be in the end a lot of people are really obsessed with potential home run speed when it comes to running backs right we want that running back where when all the blocks line up for

you you can hit a running lane you could hit a hole you could hit a cut back and you could take it the distance you could take to the house you could hit a home run if you will but the opportunities for that to happen so few and far between so few and far between especially in the nfl right it is much more likely that you are going to have instances where someone whose skill set like blake quorum helps you out where instead of getting tackled at the line of scrimmage you have so much body control so good of footwork such a high amount of agility that you can stop on a dime make that guy miss right in the trenches between the tackles, and all of a sudden you're turning a zero-yard gain

into a three- or four-yard gain. That may not be as flashy as the 40, 50-yard touchdown, but I'm telling you what Corum is doing in that instance will happen a lot more than the former. So that's why I really do love his skill set. That's why I had him so high on my running back rankings, and that's why I think that he can really be a damn good pro. The first guy that I want to bring to the former. So that's why I really do love his skill set. That's why I had him so high on my running back rankings. And that's why I think that he can really be a damn good pro. The first guy that I want to bring to the table.

Well, go to the show, Trevor. Yeah, thank you. No, we go back and forth. We go back and forth, Lenny. Oh, man. I've already done two of the three players I was going to talk about. I have an honorable mention, but I'm just laughing. Yeah, get on in here.

You can go back to back here. I'm going to stick with quarterbacks. I'm going to stick with a quarterback that's been around for a while here, a guy who absolutely deserves our attention and some praise here on this show, and that is Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker. Six-year senior, guy who started his career at Virginia Tech, was a two-year starter while he was at Virginia Tech, I believe after a redshirt year.

This is his second year in tennessee he transferred after um starting for two years attended at virginia tech wanted to go to a better offense so it's his second year in josh heupel's offense there in knoxville listed at six foot four 215 pounds not sure if he's six four although he is tall maybe he is six four i won't be a hater you know what i won't be a hater yeah You know what? I won't be a hater. Yeah, come on, dude. Put 6'4 on the dating profile. Do whatever. Do whatever you want, Hendon. Man, he is killing it so far this season. He's been really good. Elite 92.5 overall grade in our system.

Elite 90.1 passing grade and an 88.5 rushing grade. This guy is a true dual threat in college football right now. Eight touchdowns passing zero interceptions eight big time throws only one turnover worthy plays also got an average step to target over 10 it's at 11 it's at a 11 and a half 11.5 brother he's playing the position so well and it was so much confidence the very first thing that i watched and obviously i watched a ton of them this past weekend because he was playing my alma mater in in florida and i didn't think we were going to win and the big reason why is because of hendon hooker and what he's able to do and how

he can orchestrate that offense he's got so much confidence and i think in how he sees the field pre-snap there was a specific play uh very early in the game where Florida originally, when they broke the huddle or when the offense broke the huddle, they were in a too high shell. But then one of the safeties was walking down towards the line of scrimmage before the ball was snapped. And so Hooker, you could see him. You look up and he sees the safety kind of creeping down a little bit.

So he goes, okay, safety's coming up. He's either playing robber or he's going against a running back, whatever it is, but he's not going to play deep. So thereber or he's he's going against the running back whatever it is but he's not going to play deep so there's only one safety that's going to be deep and you see hooker hike the ball and he looks he looks to his right and he's looking at the outside wide receiver but the outside wide receiver is getting bullied he's getting absolutely bullied by the corner he's got no separation There is then somebody who is running a post who was right next to him in the slot, and he was going right behind where that safety was creeping up to be.

He knew where that safety was going to be. He immediately turns and looks off that first read to the outside, and he fires it right past where that safety was because he wasn't deep enough because he knew that he was creeping up in coverage from what he saw in the pre-snap he wasted no time he didn't have to boom go to his second read think about it see the field go oh yeah that safety is not playing deep he's playing up so i can hit it past him he already knew that as he was going to that second read and the second that his feet hit the floor his arm was already in motion he hit the receiver in stride it was a big game i then saw

throughout the entire rest of the game him manipulating the safeties with his eyes there were a couple of other instances where he would hike the football he'd look to his left he'd keep the single high safety on that side of the field and then he'd be able to hit somebody i'm thinking in my head it was a it was a long over route. It was an extended over route that he was able to hit over the middle. And that was because of what he was looking at with the safeties,

how he led the safety off of where he knew he was eventually going to go because he understands these coverages, how they're working. He's playing the position so well, I think. One thing that I really need to see better from him is with footwork there are times when he just feet straight in the ground and it's it's just like he it's it's not a natural instinct for him to always just be on the toes always be on

so he does it sometimes but there are other times where he will hike the ball and you will just see his feet just planted and i'm like ah stay on the toes come on because there was a specific throw i remember this was in the red zone they got the coverage they wanted he made the right read he knew exactly where he wanted to go with the football but the throw was late over the middle that would have got him right to the one yard line or maybe it would have been a touchdown if the guy could have extended things but he was late on the throw because of where his feet were pointed. And they were behind the wide receiver. It ends up getting knocked down.

And I think they ended up having to either kick a field goal. It was a long third down because of it. He's got to clean up the footwork. He has to clean up the footwork, but there's so much else that you love to look at with the rest of his game. Everything is going so well for him. I'll say this about the arm strength.

Cause I know a lot of people are going to ask about the arm strength i i don't think that it's like crazy nfl talent i don't think that he's going to be zipping footballs into super tight windows in the nfl but he's got really nice touch on deep balls anywhere from 40 to 55 yards he has shown a lot of confidence on the trajectory that you put on it the timing of his receivers getting under it that has been super impressive so it is somebody who likes to take deep shots but it's not like crazy arm strength talent pushing the ball down the field and over the middle with that arm strength so that was all encompassing there kind of what I've seen from a really really good player who is putting his mark on this college football season already man he he really has and it's you know what's really impressive to me is

how little uh how rarely this guy ever puts him himself in a situation to turn the ball over right through the air yeah i mean you're looking at this right now he's throwing eight touchdowns and no picks this year coming off a year where he threw 31 touchdowns and three picks at some point it speaks to like i understand that numbers aren't everything and you have to look into turnover worthy plays in the database to really see what the luck is on that but with hooker it's it's legit man like he really does understand how to take care of the football and what he lacks maybe in some of those high-end physical tools that you're alluding to Trevor he might be able to make up for in up top in the brain and that's going to be really key to him now what I want to throw to you that I am

bracing myself for in this process is we already know the number one topic with this guy is going to be that he's going to be 25 years old in the draft process. And that's all we're going to hear about. And I think it's going to be a really fascinating process personally for me. And I know you feel the same way evaluating what he can do right now with the understanding that physically he might be a little fully tapped. Because quarterbacks are definitely a position that they always tell you that, you know, if a guy's 20, 21, even 22, like there's some arm strength, there's some meat on the bone with the arm. This is guy that's still growing, getting stronger mechanically. There's usually things we could tweak, uh, getting stronger in your base, throwing with your base, which is

interesting because you did highlight a little bit of concerns about the footwork. So maybe this is a situation that there is a little bit of room here hookers process or evaluation process a player that is his sixth year in college and it was transfer obviously from tech man it's it's going to be poked and prodded like crazy and we're really going to have to brace ourselves for how to differentiate the things that matter because sometimes age doesn't matter in the context in terms of what they you know what kind of player they are now and what the narratives are going to be around him it just depends where you're drafting him too right like i

don't think that i don't think hennon hooker is going to be a first round pick no i'd be surprised because uh and a major reason why is because of that age right i mean like if he had a crazy arm okay maybe make an exception at the back end of the first round if he continues to have an unbelievable season but i don't think he's going to be a first round pick because of that but you know age definitely goes into it but man i keep going back to that draft a couple years ago when kyle trask davis mills and kellen mond all went like right borderline round two, round three, right in the middle of day two. And I'm like, if those guys can go in that point, what you're seeing from Hendon Hooker,

like that he can go at that point in the draft. But do teams want to draft a guy who's 25? I think when you're an older prospect, what you want to see the most is you want to see a maturity in your game. You want to have that experience in your game you want to have that experience show in how you process things you don't want to still have to learn a lot of the finer points of your position and i really don't think that's the case with hooker right now i mean it's early so we've got a long season to go but i mentioned the footwork could get a little bit

better but and when it comes to evaluating the field and seeing the field i feel like he does see things really well he is taking that experience and turning it into results and when you're an older prospect when you're a veteran in college football that is definitely something that you want to see if you're going to take a chance on somebody who's older maybe not as physically gifted you want them to be ahead of the curve if you will and you don't want to be wasting years teaching them their position teaching them the game when they get to the nfl you want them to be decently ready and i do think that hendon hooker is so i think that we are looking at somebody who could potentially be a day two quarterback or really do depending on how the class goes

and boy do we need it right now i mean this the depth of this quarterback class kind of fell off a cliff fast. Like, reality sinks in quick. We are not recording this podcast in the month of October yet. And we are looking at a lot of guys that Guilty raised his hand. I was excited about probably being in this quarterback class, and I don't even know if they're in a position to declare anymore. I mean, we're going to do our first mock draft, in-season mock draft soon.

I don't know exactly when we'll do it, but how many quarterbacks are we going to have going the first round if we had to do one today? Three? Two, right? I mean, Bryce and CJ for sure. Sure. I mean, I'd still put Levis in there.

I would still put Levis in there the i would still put levis in there i would still put levis yeah and i i wouldn't but it's i get you're right at least we're having the conversation right and you're weird you're clearly like saying he's gonna sneak in you're not putting him in the top five or ten no i'm not taking him in the top five of the top ten but yeah i mean what was it when did we do it three weeks ago a? A month ago? Where we had Levis, Anthony Richardson, Tyler Van Dyke. I think I put McKee in it. Right. We just put all of these guys in the first round.

So maybe a little bit of back to reality, but it is exciting to see a quarterback kind of climb the ladder when some of them have been a little bit disappointing. Who's another guy that you got on your radar? We'll still go back and forth a little bit. Yeah, for sure. This was the player I was the most excited to bring to the show today okay and that is jabari taylor the defensive lineman for cincinnati this is a school that

does a really nice job developing defensive linemen up front really a nice job developing defenders at this point when you look across the board taylor is a grad student. He has a very strange build for a defensive lineman. Really an edge. They move them all over. He is listed 6'1", 280. I'm going to put on my honesty cap and say he's probably six feet tall. He is a fire hydrant. He is pretty thick kind of guy.

Okay. Trevor, this guy just is so polished at getting after the quarterback and playing the run. I just don't care what he looks like, what size he is. There's going to be a front somewhere in the NFL that finds a place for this guy to rotate in. And as I always tell you guys on this show, and I usually do this with the last player, this doesn't have to be somebody that's going in the top 50 or even on day two but more of a day three rotational edge player i guess we can say jabari taylor had nine pressures this week jesus nine pressures now he didn't have a sack and he didn't have a quarterback hit they were all quarterback hurries but it felt like the opposition knew that, and it was Indiana, knew

that this dude was coming and the ball had to be out. And I saw a dip and rip. I saw the ability to win inside. I saw a good burst. He's a bigger guy, but he's kind of shifty. I saw speed to power to drive the tackle back into his lap and the quarterback would have to throw the ball short. He's a really fun watch because it just doesn't really make sense in a way. You know, there's always a guy like this every couple years, and plenty of them don't hit, and everybody goes back to thinking of the Grady Jarrett's of the world and players like that, who's the ultimate pinnacle of a fire hydrant, stouty, doesn't make sense why this guy is so good, but he's just so good. But Taylor, I really think, can stick as a fire hydrant, stouty, doesn't make sense why this guy is so good, but he's just so good. But Taylor, I really think can stick as a day three pick and just how active he is. He's so

dang active. He was a big part of that rotation with all those guys in that great defense in 2021. Obviously now a little bit more on the table for him to produce with how many guys have left. But I think Taylor is somebody who's going to, whether a trine or senior bowl, I don't know. I haven't seen much buzz on him where I'm expecting a guaranteed senior bowl invite at the moment, but I really enjoyed finding this guy. He was somebody I had not watched it besides Cincinnati tape last year. And I wasn't focusing on him at all. So it was a really fun watch.

I have not watched him. So I to i need i need to get on it i will also shout out while we are here you're talking about bowling ball type defensive lineman i was gonna shout this guy out at the end of the show but now it's topical so i'll do it thor griffith does that name mean anything that is just where is that name going thor griffith from harvard baby oh six foot two we got brains and brawn six foot two 300 pounds where's number 50 sitting in the middle he's a junior this year actually they got him listed six three three ten oh so they just sit his ass at the zero and say, don't get moved from this spot.

It's your recliner for the day, kid. No, it's not even don't get moved. Oh, they let him rush? They say to this dude, pin your ears back and get after it. Oh, let's go. And he does, man. I don't know anything about him, but when I was looking at grades, he's one of our highest graded players overall.

And he just, I watched a couple of his snaps. Like I watched a little bit his snaps like i watched a little bit i didn't do a full deep dive but it's like this dude's clearly way better than everybody that he's playing against so might have a live one here i just wanted to shout him out i haven't done a full study on him yet but with the name thor griffith i had to you know i had to get him into the show i had to let people. When I started doing this pod with you and eventually got on the Ultimate Database, I thought in my head that the buffet of all 22

would be my favorite thing or that I can go watch a guy's best throws in a quick pinch or I can watch this or that. My favorite thing, Trevor, is going to a category. It could be pass rushes. And looking at these guys out of nowhere that I've never heard of that I don't know anybody scouting in this area that have like 12 pressures in a game.

And you're like, what are you doing? Then you watch him and you're like, this guy can play. I'm not saying he's going to be a third round pick. But even if he's a UDFA for somebody that cuts it in camp and makes his way on the field because of a couple injuries, that is my favorite thing about this process, and that is the most beautiful thing about Ultimate, honestly. It is wonderful.

Realistically, you and I have been doing this, shockingly, for a much longer time than I remember sometimes. You and I have always joked about the Google Drives we would get of the big schools or watching as many games as we can. In this day and age, one-man scouting departments, like, we can find guys like this now. It's unbelievable. I know. It's so much fun, man. It's so much fun.

And I do that. Every single week, I will do that. I will sort like our highest graded defensive and offensive players just to see if anybody's just like a super outlier. And Thor Griffith was like two weeks ago. And so I wrote him down and I didn't get him into the show that last week, but had to give him to the show this week. So when Thor Griffith shows up on your team's training camp roster, remember where you heard here first where you

heard him first that's all i've got to say uh fellas what if you could have invested in tom brady stock as a rookie your investment would be worth up to four thousand percent now it's not a what if. It's a who's next. Mojo is the all-new sports stock market that lets you invest in your favorite athletes and cash in on your passion. Sign up right now, the Apple Store, and get your first stock for free, worth up to $10,000. That's right, you heard it right.

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Unfortunately for everybody, it's not in New Jersey. If you have a gambling problem, help us at 1-800-GAMBLER. Visit Mojo.com for more info. Connor, that means that you could do it. I was going to Samson here with a grin on my face. Like, let's get rich. Dude, so it's like Mojo is like the stock market. It's like what Symbol has.

Yep. But like players, like just players. So like both of those are cool. If you want to invest in a team, you could do so at Symbol. If you want to invest in a team, you could do so at Symbol. If you want to invest in specific players, you could do so at Mojo. If you live in New Jersey. And if you live in New Jersey. Let's get rich.

It's called Taylor Ham, not pork roll. Good lad. Good lad. North Jersey stand up. Go check it out. Go check it out at Mojo. Next guy that I want to bring to the table. Beyond Thor Griffith. Could have just ended the podcast there i literally entered these guys in to the database as we do this show yeah you got the word griffith yeah uh we've got a sixth year

senior we got another one we got another wily vet here charlie nursing home edition of stock up this is the 55 or older the senior citizen community. Charlie Jones, the wide receiver from Purdue, six feet tall, 188 pounds, soaking wet. I don't know if that's true or not. I just love saying that at the end of people's weights because it's for emphasis. It's great. He started his career at Buffalo.

He was at Buffalo for two years, and he transfers over to Iowa. He's like, okay, I'm up in the competition. I got to get in the Big Ten. I'm going to it for didn't get a single target in his first year at iowa and he was only fifth on the team in receptions in 2021 for the hawkeyes so what did he do he transferred over to purdue he he transferred to purdue but he said this offseason to simply join this offense because he saw what it is made out of people like david bell out of rondale moore right these guys that they have been heavy target hogs for them

if they've really been able to show that they know their craft well. And Charlie Jones absolutely does. He already has more catches and more touchdowns this year than he has his entire college career before now. He's got a 51.7, sorry, 57.1 contested catch percentage, only playing 8% in the slot so think about it that means that a six foot tall 188 pound wide receiver is winning on the outside consistently he has a target share of 34.9 which as we've referenced in this show anything above 30

you're the focal point of the passing attack so he's's up to 34.9%. Average depth of target is 12.6. He is tied for the lead in college football in receiving touchdowns with seven. He may not look physically imposing when he stands on the line of scrimmage, but Connor, this dude knows how to play wide receiver. I love the footwork of this dude. When the ball is snapped, he is sometimes putting these corners in hell off the line of scrimmage, getting them to flip their hips one way, and then, boom, putting his foot in the ground, setting them up, going to where the open space is.

He's a master, I think, of a lot of different ways to run routes. He's not a burner deep down the field. He's just not. So he's never going to be this major threat vertically. But I really do think that his route tree is super diverse. I think he's really in control when he's making his cuts whether it's putting one foot in the ground and changing direction or chopping the feet spinning the hips getting around to where he wants in a comeback

route or something similar to that he's very nuanced he understands the position so so well he's a lot of fun to watch because of that you just you're gonna see really good wide receiver play when you turn on the film and you watch charlie jones again not the most athletic dude in the world but there are so many times when especially in the in the the most recent weeks after the start of the season where defenses are keying in on this guy like they'll bracket him in coverage they'll put two sets of eyes on him and it doesn't matter like he'll find that open space he'll round the route the way that he needs to, to keep the space, keep the separation,

allow Aiden O'Connell to get that football to him when he does, he delivers. He's got really soft hands, really reliable hands. And man, I just love the way that he plays the game. I think that he knows the position so, so well. And going back to what you were saying about Hendon Hooker and some of these older prospects, what do you do with these guys who are older? What do you want to see? Well, I want to see that you know your position.

I want to see the fact that if we are drafting you as an older player, how much do we have to teach you? And honestly, for Charlie Jones, what you see is what you get. That probably means he's not going to ever be a top 50 pick because, Connor, you and I both know that if there's anything that scouts and general managers don't like, it's when they can't have imagination. It's when we,

it's truly like what you see is what in front of you, but those mid round picks those day three picks. That's what a guy like Charlie Jones absolutely made out of. And that's what somebody who can be a late round pick that can make the roster. Somebody who really, really understands how the position is played and can really be productive that way.

So like, I like Jones a lot lot for that that's kind of the category that i see him in but good wide receiver man well and here's the thing trevor going back to your point of what can he do for me right now this guy was a key special teams player for iowa he was their reggie robey special teams award uh player in 2021 he was a kick returner punt returner and a pretty reliable one at that so that's a huge thing to have on his resume and he you know like you said he went to purdue to go be a part of the offense right to develop as a player away from just being a specialist and really get a chance of being a true wide receiver. And last thing, in his headshot, he wears a choker necklace with his number on it. This guy looks like ready for a dating show ASAP.

So if it doesn't work out as a day three special teams player trying to be a backup wide receiver, he's got the, I feel like the 90s swag going. Yeah, you see it. We all see it. He does. It's a choker with a number. and it's not like it's not like the next like so big that it makes a normal necklace he's not a fullback you know like he's not takio spikes trying to put

on a normal like jackson chain or no no it looks like he's actually just like choking him out no that's a that's a tight one that's a hey that's a charlie jones do you have another name you want to throw out there? I got one more because I know we went out of order with Blake Corum. Yeah, I'll let you close it out because we'll each do three. Okay, so Akeem Mesidor, the defensive lineman from Miami. Another transfer player, but he's not super old. So he's a redshirt sophomore.

It's only his third year in college football, but he's transferred over from West Virginia. Now this is his first year at Miami. Bit of's transferred over from west virginia now this is his first year at miami bit of a tweener six foot three 280 pounds and he'll play as a five tech player he'll play as a four eye he'll play as a three tech so they'll move them kind of anywhere from a three to a five i like him the best as a three but like a lot of guys in his situation how much are you going to be able to play a guy who's 280 as a three tack so that's why i think they kick him outside a little bit they let him play um on the

edge they're born in ontario canada ended up playing high school football at clearwater international academy a program that they have down in florida he was pretty good with wvu he really does last season he had 38 tackles eight tackles for loss four and a half sacks uh and then on his career he totaled 70 tackles 14 and a half tackles for loss and nine and a half sacks in his two seasons there connor this is an explosive player i love the way he gets off the ball he is violent miami does a lot of fun things with stunts and twists and having guys go all the way across the line of scrimmage to then try to collapse the pocket on the other side and when they do they often use messador as their focal point because he will fire off the ball he's got so much explosiveness and he'll give you a lot of energy

when he ends up getting to contact i think the hands are very violent you see a lot of different hand moves from him he can push pull you and he can rip you straight to his side. I was watching that Texas A&M game, and honestly, he was giving Leighton Robinson some battles. Now, I'll say Robinson got the better of him a handful of times as well, but it was fun to see those guys get to go back and forth a little bit when they were lined up against each other. I feel like the biggest area of concern with him, and he's just a redshirt sophomore, so this makes sense.

He doesn't pass rush with as much of a plan as i would like for him to i think the hands are heavy i think they're violent i've seen him hit a swim move on players i love when he gets to go across the face of an offensive lineman because they often are grasping at air because he's moving so fast off the line scrimmage but it just doesn't seem like he knows exactly what he wants to do when interior offensive lineman either tries to get his hands on him or when he's trying to go inside or outside, whatever it is. It's almost like he's just trying to figure it out.

Like you're saying, I'm trying to fire off the ball super quick. That's going to be my calling card. That's going to be my bread and butter. And then I'll kind of figure it out after that. I'd love to see him get a little bit more reps in there. Maybe it could happen at the end of this year, although I think it might be something that we'll probably be talking about this guy in next year's draft,

depending on how much he catches fire this year. But that's really what I'm looking for. The athletic ability is there. I like the build. He's got production already as a good player. It's just how much of a pass rush repertoire can you get before you declare if he gets it quickly if we see a lot more of it as the year goes on maybe he could be in this year's class but a fun player to watch if you guys haven't watched him already keep a key messador on your radar the miami defensive lineman

finally some good news for the hurricanes man indeed you know what Trevor? If there's anything anyone in this world can constantly rely on you for, it is absolutely to find a gleam of light in a brutal situation. And I truly mean that. You always have. You can pull some optimism. And, you know, honestly, real talk. I'm glad you brought him up because I kind of forgot about him as a transfer, and now it's somebody that I want to go back and see I'm glad you brought him up because I kind of forgot about him as a transfer,

and now it's somebody that I want to go back and see and not get caught up in the LOL Miami trend. Because I feel like that, my honorable mention, I'll bring that to, Ricky Stromberg, the center for Arkansas, is somebody that I feel like a lot of people might walk away from this week and remember the bad snap he had towards the end of the game. But when you turn on the tape with this guy, what he's able to do, especially as a run blocker in the middle of the offensive line, the grip strength,

the pure power, the pure anchor power, and to move and redirect gigantic nose tackles, I was wildly impressed. So it's, it's funny what we do and you bringing in Miami player to the stock show made me think of that. Like what we do is so different from the college football world because we are evaluating things in such a vacuum sometimes in such tight quarters,

rather than the narrative of what actually can be going on game wide. No. And, and I think that that's what we're trying to do always here on this podcast. We're trying to give people full context. We're trying to – you mentioned one bad snap that your guy had, and you didn't want him to be remembered for that, and I feel like a lot of people might. And really, there's a lot more snaps that go before and after that that you need to analyze as well. So that's what we're always trying to do.

And that's what these Tuesday shows are all about. Kind of giving you guys a full scope into some players that maybe you never heard of, or give some love to some players that you have as always. We'd love to hear from you guys. Tell us who you think is standing out in college football right now. You know, as much as Connor and I love to consume as much as we possibly can, we only got two sets of eyes, and there's only 24 hours in a day. We know that you guys are watching college football like crazy as well.

If there's somebody that you want us to give our thoughts on, or shoot, we'd always love to hear you guys' thoughts as well. When you comment on YouTube, that's the best way to do it, or you can tweet at us as well, Connor J. Rogers, Tampa Bay Trey on Twitter. If you've got takes on a player, fire we'd always love to hear him but if not if you just say hey i've been watching this guy lately i feel like he's standing out we'd love to hear your thoughts on him we'd love to do that too that's how we build this show out that's how we make it a uh a draft community here at nflsc not just connor and i talking about a handful of prospects you

got anybody else before we get out of here? I think that wraps up my week. I think that going forward, we should probably tease that this show will be moving. Yeah. It's a good time to remind that. So this show strategically, and for the benefit of you, the listener, will be moving to Wednesdays now because for a lot of reasons the obvious reason is i think everybody can't catch their breath on mondays coming out of the nfl weekend we are much aware that you guys consume a ton of nfl content that might not always be stock exchange specific that by the time

tuesday morning rolls around i mean let's be real that's a lie but no it's the only podcast yeah this is the only podcast and if you cheat on us we hate you no i'm just kidding but it just gives you a little bit more time and honestly i think we'll bring more players to the show now because we're you and i are sprinting and then we record this full transparency duh monday nights and we have a lot of tape we've gone through but doing it on wednesdays i think we'll make this a more dense show, the amount of players we can go through. And Trevor and I kind of realized that needs to start soon because it's almost October. We are dangerously close to a lot of other people caring or diving into the draft. There are going to be NFL teams that are unfortunately out of it.

Trust me, I know the feeling, pals, that are out of it by the end of October, early November, and people are just going to be all in on the draft. So we went full throttle on this class over summer, and we're going to get September. We didn't take a break, but we definitely went on cruise control in terms of the amount of people. Going forward now, we're going to get back into, you're going to know 400 names by the end of this draft.

Wow, that's a promise. That is a promise right there. I didn't i said it i agree with you and and we also know that there's so much content that comes out on mondays that we know that you guys listen to on mondays and tuesdays as well you care about the nfl a lot so letting you do that so the way that we will have this podcast scheduled moving forward is it'll be a Monday show. And then it'd be a Wednesday show on a Thursday show. We're also not doing Thursday lives anymore. And the reason why is because we've got a lot of really cool projects that we want to dedicate for the Thursday show. And in order to bring them to you guys in it from a visual sense for y'all who watch it on YouTube, it kind of just needs to be a pre-recorded one.

So we'll do a handful of live shows, especially when it comes to draft season, we'll be able to have a lot more freedom to throw out some live shows with you guys because we did love doing those on Thursday. But we do think that these changes are going to be better. We've thought about it a lot. We want to get more creative. We want to give you guys more information,

better information, and just bring you the best podcast possible. So this is what we're going to have moving forward. Monday shows, Wednesday shows, Thursday shows, they're all going to be prerecorded. The Thursday one, we're going to start getting into some fun series. We'll still do mailbag stuff, but we're going to get into like fix your team stuff.

And a lot of that creativity that you remember from the summer, we want to bring that in-season content as well. So that's what we will be doing. Did I hit it all? Did I get them all? Or I just want to make sure I double check before we get out of here. I think you did.

I think I still don't remember our new schedule, but hopefully the listeners can run that back. And it's better for them. It's better for them. I think the delivery of the podcast is better for everybody and better for us in terms of the kind of shows we can deliver that make this show very, very unique as a lot of you saw in June and July. I'll send you a calendar invite so you make sure that you show up for the recordings.

Thank you. I will admit I've been a little bit of a mess. I was on Gmail for almost a decade. You're not gmail anymore i am on my personal but my full-time job we have migrated elsewhere and uh my calendar just was gone one day so i basically was just like drunk stumbling for like a week like where am i supposed to be right now what am i doing but we're back we're back on track everything's good all right well i'll uh i'll have my people talk to your people so yeah please yes mondays wednesdays thursdays for everybody that needed a reminder

connor but that's what we're going to be having moving forward we think it's going to yield some really great podcasts and uh that's of course because you guys are going to yield some really great podcasts. And that's, of course, because you guys are going to be- Yield big dividends, as they say on the stock market, right? Oh, they do. Yep. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange, people. I am Trevor Sycamore.

That is Connor Rogers. Thank you guys so much for listening. Make sure you let us know who we need to watch for next week on the Stock Watch episode. We will see you guys on Thursday. Thanks for listening to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. Bye.