NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 96. 2023 NFL Draft Stock Up, Stock Down: Week 6

Episode Date: October 12, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers highlight some of the best performances from Week 6 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 market update. We're going back to college football this past Saturday and evaluating some of our favorite performances from the guys that are draft eligible for the 2023 NFL draft. Whether it's

quarterbacks, skill position players, defensive guys, it doesn't matter. We're telling you who really stood out to us. And in this episode, we might have a new potential first rounder to bring to the table. Somebody that I'm really excited about. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me, as always, 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 joining you guys on a Wednesday, which means it is a stock watch day here on the podcast. Connor and I are going to turn back the clock, go back to saturday slate of games in college football and give you some up and down performances that we thought for

the guys that are draft eligible for the 2023 nfl draft connor how we feeling today my man good man stock watch show always uh one of the best days of the week of course some some are whispering it's the best show of the week although fix yourise has given it a good run for its money. So if you did not listen to Monday's show, if you're not a Panthers fan, there's more there for you. There is a welcome to what the coaching search is going to look like for teams this year. There's a little bit of a mini mock draft in there.

There's a lot of background info on what it's like to have a very financial, flexible owner and the good and bad things that come with that. So it's a fun show, but I'm looking forward today, Trevor, as we dive back into the college football world in the middle of the week. Yeah, the Fix Your Franchise episode was a lot of fun. Hopefully you guys enjoyed that. We're going to be doing that for, I feel like a handful of teams.

We won't do it for all of them them but we will do it for a handful that I think are really going to tell the tale of what's at least going to be the top 10 in the 2023 NFL draft so if you enjoyed that thumbnail there's uh dude we did have a sweet thumbnail shout out to our incredible producer Ryan Richman who did it up man you and I were texting in the morning we were you you said you said this and it made me laugh. We're so close to the YouTube thumbnail of just, you won't believe what the Detroit Lions did. And it's just

like people are like... The Panthers can do what? It's crazy. We have flames and stuff in the background. That's going to be the pod. And I promise you guys, I'm not clowning on anybody who does those things. They get me bills for a lot of people who click i can't tell you how many how many videos i've clicked on just because of thumbnails like that but connor obviously you bringing that up was uh was very funny man we've had a lot of fun bits early on this show the show

is not even a year old not even close actually and it was uh i i had to bring this to the show the the bingo card that is all over the internet it is truly unbelievable and i will pull up and mention the the person that made it i feel bad that i don't have it up right now we will mention his name on the show basically one of the sex addicts made a stock exchange bingo card and it is so on point and it has so many niche jokes from the show that it was one of the first things i saw shortly after the mets lost and i think it was the only thing for 48 hours that made me smile and laugh so thank you so much for making that and if you're ever bored and have an evening where you're listening to the pod and want to have a couple drinks or play bingo or whatever it is it is the game for you uh g funk jimmy i just pulled it up is the

one who made this i'm gonna send this image to ryan the producer of the show so if you're watching on youtube you can see the bingo board as we're probably talking over it right now but like some of these spaces made me laugh so hard. The Eric Gilbert sighting just killed me because we brought up a re-gover and he's not even going to be a prospect in this draft. It feels like the quote, you keep talking and I'll look it up. It's so good.

It's so on point. It scared me. Somebody said the PFF app comes to android that's not gonna happen but uh well it is gonna happen but i don't know how soon it's gonna happen by the way if you have an apple device you can get the very best pff.com by going to the apple store and uh looking up pff pro football focus you get great fantasy football analysis you get the betting dashboard you get all the great articles that you love so much about pff.com right in the palm of your hand thanks for that easy ad read transition there but i don't know if my favorite one is eight different things that matter most or just skyline chili skyline chili makes its way onto the show like

once every two weeks at this point. There is so much. Steph Curry can't shoot. Steph Curry can't shoot. Oh, man. It's good. It's really good. The fact free space is in the middle had me in tears, and I don't know why. Just the fact that free space made its way in there is so good.

There's a space that says mock draft rules get established during the podcast i don't always happen i hate you guys for being this exposing to our flaws as co-hosts but at least i know that you guys are paying attention t gives c first pick in the draft i mean it's a guaranteed space i'm a gentleman a lot of good stuff a lot of good stuff on the big oh so thank you G Funk Jimmy uh we love stuff that makes this show a community uh one of the one of the spaces is obligatory hockey talk so right before before we sit here we dive into this Rangers actually open up the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning baby that's happening tonight so look that is happening uh good scheduling by the nhl a really good scheduling by the nhl the lightning go to the garden i was surprised that my boys didn't

have to go down to tampa for this but man hockey's back which is great perfect timing as baseball heartbreak starts to set in hockey's back uh you jump from one thing that'll let you down to another which is awesome i am excited i am really really excited you know it's so funny to me people always say that people like anti you probably heard this trevor because you have a dog anti-dog people that are very snarky like whenever you want a dog you're gonna get a dog they're like you know you're just signing up for heartbreak right and it's like do you realize i do that every year with the mets over and over again i buy a dog that is the new york mets every single year and i get really excited about it in february or march and

then i go to opening day and i get the puppy and then when september or october rolls around i deal with the death of an animal every single time so well that was morbid but i mean you're also not wrong you're not you're not wrong about it to quote steven a smith i mean you didn't have to say it you didn't have to say it but uh you're not wrong there i'm excited for our teams to uh to kick off the hockey season hockey season off season is the shortest off season of any it's insane i feel like this series the rangers lightning series just ended and i know wild uh you You and I were texting about it, and you were like, oh, we should have planned this better,

so we could have met up to go to the game. I wish. Football schedule is wild, and a big reason why it's wild is because we got a podcast to give you guys three times a week, and in this episode, we're obviously talking about some stock up, stock down, or just overall stock market watch when it comes to the 2023 NFL draft prospects.

Connor, I don't know if this counts for the bingo space, but my friend, I will let you go first. I will let you talk about the guy that you want to talk about the most, whether it's good, bad, up, down, who we talking about to kick off this StockWatch episode. Let's start with a kind of familiar name. I don't think he got an overwhelming amount of love in the summer show, but it was absolutely discussed,

and that's got to be Zach Charbonnet from UCLA. Ooh, nice. I mean, Monster Week, this is going to start to happen where the guys that just have these killer performances, he's stacked quite a few together, and we have not had him on a Stockwatch show, so it was kind of time as he stacks a few together and we have not had him on a stock watch show. So it was kind of time as he stacks a few together. He's coming off a week against Utah where he went UCLA, by the way,

how about UCLA season so far undefeated? That's a little subplot there is they have beaten Washington and Utah in back-to-back weeks. I don't think anybody expected that. And in those games, the game against Washington, 22 carries, 124 yards, a touchdown, the game against Washington, 22 carries, 124 yards, a touchdown. The game against Utah, 22 carries, 198 yards, and a touchdown. He averaged nine carries in that one.

So when you look at Charbonnet right now, he's got 87 carries for 615 yards. He's averaging over seven yards a carry. He was somebody that I thought had a shot to be in last year's draft. He comes back to school. He comes back to a program that's really turned things around and is finding a lot of success. 158 of his yards this weekend were after contact. I bet.

I mean, he's a big-bodied back that has such good feet at that size. That's what I look at with him is the ability when you're that big and you run that hard hard it really opens up your toolbox of how to set up tacklers in the open field and a lot of guys hesitate when breaking down to tackle him because of that frame and because of that tough running style and now he's starting to work in the ability to stop and start to cut back he's he's really mixing up finesse and power and it's it makes him look like a complete back right now. So, I mean, he had six missed tackles forced in this game,

six explosive runs. Those are runs of 10 or more yards. Just a monster, monster performance from him. And, you know, there's a couple good running backs in this class. We've talked about that the wide receiver class has been a little bit of a letdown. B. John Robinson gets a lot of hype, but a lot of guys are looking to try to be, you know,

the premium skill guys of this draft. And while UCLA has this success and Charbonnet has such a good season and big wins, he's just had a killer year where he's legitimately increased his stock as we're already sitting here in October. Yeah, I mean, if you like bigger backs, if you like the guys who have more size to them or a little bit taller, pack on a little bit more pounds, punch a contact, Zach Charbonnet is going to be your cup of tea, it feels like. If you are somebody who wants to get faster out of the backfield, if you want to get shiftier, quicker, he's not going to be that mold of a player but if you understand what Charbonnet is and I feel like

he's probably going to be a committee back in the NFL you are going to love his motor first and foremost I think the two biggest areas that I really liked about his game when we were going through him with summer scouting are balance through contact and just just what he is able to do when those legs get churning man not. Not only does he stay up, he gets yards after contact. He continues to move on. And those two abilities paired together, given his size, and he's about 6'1", 6'2", 220 pounds, that's a power back, man. That's a power back that you're going to love to have in a system,

one that you can lean on in short yardage situations. Manny, I think that he's even maybe becoming more of that. He's only got one game this year out of the five that they've played that he does not have a hundred yards rushing. He is somebody that I think UCLA loves to use in all sorts of situations. I think he's probably more of a committee back in the NFL, but dude, for what he is, he's getting a lot of production for that UCLA team this year.

He really is. I mean, he's kind of, you know, a bit of the heart and soul right there. When you can turn around and hand a ball to a guy like that, it's really, really impressive. All right, first guy that I want to bring to the table. This is another player that we talked a lot about during summer scouting.

You and I had some back and forth about it because it was the tight end position. I'm bringing up a Reed Gilbert's name. I'm not saying a Reed Gilbert here for this. A Reed Gilbert sighting. You can check off of the space on the bingo board. I'm talking about Michael Mayer. And you and I went back and forth about who tight end one was going to be. Whether I said it could be a Reed Gilbert.

You said that it was going to be Michael Mayer. Well, I'm waving the white flag officially on that. You're going to win the little back and forth of who's going to get drafted higher. Michael Mayer had a fantastic day this past Saturday in the Shamrock Series when Notre Dame faced off against BYU. He had 11 catches, 118 yards, two touchdowns. But even more than just the stats connor he's just a complete player man yeah he totally look he's not the greatest athlete that you're ever going to see

at the tight end position but he's plenty of an athlete to be successful he's incredible at contest to catch situations he run blocks his ass off he's fantastic it's so many different routes feeling where space is going to be, getting open versus zone, getting separation in subtle ways, outside of leaning on athleticism to just be the main reason why you get separation. He understands the position so, so well. He has those instincts and he plays it at a dominant level.

You see it week in and week out. He's going to be the first tight end off the board. And look, I'll just be honest. It's not like we are overflowing with guys that we can't wait to put in a first round of a mock draft at this point in time in october i don't know what this class is going to shape up to be when we get to april i think it's still going to be plenty good but i do think that in some classes michael mayer would maybe be a late first round pick in this class. It feels like it's shaping up to for Michael Mayer to be a top 15 pick, maybe something closer to pick 1112. Who

knows depends where the teams end up falling when the season is over. But the more I watch him, the more it just goes, his guy's so reliable. He's so reliable in whatever you ask him to do from the tight end position. And because of that, the more I watch the rest of this class, the more I think that Michael Mayer is going to find himself right in the smackdown middle of this first round coming up. He's a great player. And he, like you said, Trevor, he's so well-rounded. And when I watch him play, I think, man,

his calling card amongst many that he possesses is that there will be a team picking in the top 15 that has a young quarterback that needs help, that needs a safety blanket, but can also really help your run game and your versatility, whether you want to flex him as a big slot, move tight end, whether you want him to play in line, that they'll look at the floor of him in a class that's going to have a lot of question marks in the top 15 picks and just wave their hands and say yes. And I applaud that. And I want to get this out of the way. A lot of people, which is crazy we're already having this combo, but I feel like I have to bring it up. A lot of people are going to say, how early do you draft a tight end?

Because Kyle Pitts hasn't been dominating in Atlanta's offense this year. Kyle Pitts was great as a rookie. And I don't really think it's Kyle Pitts' fault, to be honest with you. But that's going to be the common argument. But if you really do need to come up with an answer that specifically supports Mayer, is that he is just so extremely well-rounded at the position. So I love him. He will be a top 15 player for me.

I would be very surprised if he's not at the end of the day. I feel so confident in his floor and think that he could easily be a top five tight end in the NFL in a couple of years. I mean, I think that when you look at how consistent that he has been it feels like not that there's potential top end talent with a lot of guys in this class but even for those players that you would say would be in a first round or a top 50 consistency is not an adjective that i would use to be a theme of this class thus far. A lot of these guys are still figuring it out. And that makes it very easy for a player of Michael Mayer,

who is consistently just really damn good, to stand out in a really positive way. So I think that that's why it's definitely helping his stock, even though we're not learning anything necessarily from Michael Mayer. Him continuing to put things on tape and where he's just going about his business, being one of the best tight ends, if not the best tight end of the country. Well, Brock Bowers does exist. I should say draft eligible tight ends in the country.

I think that's certainly helping him in the long run for this current draft class. And I think it's hard to be a college tight end and go into the season with big expectations because it's traditionally not a big producing position all the time or if you have those expectations teams will take you away and force the team to go elsewhere and he's risen above all those things so i'm i'm with you it's you know probably the last time he'll be on the stock up show because he is maxing out. Right.

How much further are we going with him? Yeah. No, it was a good time to revisit, though, because I think he, at a minimum, met ridiculous, not ridiculous, very high expectations coming out of summer. And that in itself is a big time accomplishment. And no matter what happens at the combine, because maybe he'll be an average tester, it won't move anything for me. So, all right. Next won't move anything for me.

So, all right, next one for me here, Trevor. This is a player that, you know, obviously you're going to be familiar with. Jaden Hill, the cornerback from Florida. Ah, yes. Yeah, you know, a big weekend. He had two interceptions, two really good interceptions, too. It wasn't that he was catching his tip passes or first one, he jumped a route. Second one, he just played his man with a lot of physicality and came up with the ball. And this, he just showed me eyes in off coverage that were very, very impressive, very impressive eyes off

coverage, way to read the quarterback, way to make a play on the football on top of the two interceptions, which jump out in the box score he was targeted six times he only allowed three catches for 25 yards i think he plays very patient i was really impressed this was kind of my introduction to him as a prospect because when you watch a guy have big plays in a game right you always ask yourself okay is he eligible and you know classic with all these different years on flor Florida's website he's a redshirt sophomore but he's been on the team since 2019 so he's not a true redshirt sophomore technically he's been with the program this is his fourth year with the program now where if he continues this stretch run and has a big year maybe he's a guy that opts to declare a little bit of a slender guy six feet tall 181 pounds so definitely a slender guy but I think he declare a little bit of a slender guy six feet tall 181 pounds so definitely

a slender guy but i think he plays a physical brand of football and coverage i like the energy he plays with and he just made huge plays for florida this week yeah i mean i i it there's not often that i don't have immediate thoughts and a player from florida but hill is somebody who i've been waiting to kind of become this starter this regular starter and he really hasn't so i haven't put him under the microscope. Yeah, he got some decent time as a fill-in corner in that 2019 season. 2020, I think he played sparingly. He played.

He had five starts in 2020. Yeah, I was going to say he had a couple of starts. And then he injured his knee before the 2021 season. So I think if the COVID year didn't exist, he'd technically be listed as a redshirt junior this year. That's correct. Yeah, because he finished his sophomore season. So technically he'd be a redshirt junior.

So I think the redshirt sophomore label, the COVID label just keeps throwing me off with ages and everything like that. But somebody who's been around the game for a while, somebody who's been sporadically a starter, label the covet label just is keeps throwing me off with like ages and everything like that but somebody who's been around the game for a while somebody who's been sporadically a star you want them to be able to read the quarterback size and be able to play well and off coverage and just have a good feel for space and when you you could break on the ball so i look i love i'm a skater fan obviously i loved seeing it but um i don't have too many scouting thoughts necessarily on hill myself right now because i gotta i gotta

certainly watch him as he begins to play more as he kind of comes back from that injury so um glad you pointed him out though he did a total introduction yeah for him big introduction uh somebody that i will keep an eye on that i mean i'm i've been very honest on the show i'm looking for risers at corner right now i'm looking for risers at corner and you know when you have that kind of ball production that's legit it at least gets you under the radar a little bit throwing darts to the dartboard if you will i want to bring out i want to bring up max dugan the quarterback from tcu because this is speaking to somebody who's been around for a while max dugan's also been around since 2019 but he has been starting for TCU since 2019. Okay.

He's a senior now stands about six foot two, 210 pounds. Like I said, he's been TCU starter since 2019. He set a school record in passing when he was a freshman in 2019, dude, he's improved every single year. And, and that's what you love to see whether it's been total passing yards, completion percentage, touchdown to interception ratio, QBR, completion percentage. If I didn't say that, I can't remember. I've said too many words.

But he has gone up in all of these categories to where he is now truly playing his best football right now. He's got 14 touchdowns and just one interception. He's got a career low and turnover worthy play percentage a career high without a doubt a career high in adjusted completion percentage almost 80 percent and dcu's undefeated they're playing really well and i think the reason why they're playing well is because of the way that dugan is playing as a quarterback a dual threat quarterback i must say who can also uh add some assets with his legs as well i like the the arm strength on the short to intermediate man. I think he shows some decent zip,

and I also feel like that's because he's constantly throwing off of his back foot. And when I say off of his back foot, I don't mean leaning back. I mean driving through his back foot is probably the better way that I should have said it. He's constantly thinking about those mechanics and the way to get as much velocity as he can on the football. The other thing that really impressed me this past weekend when when they were playing kansas is kansas had a lot of pressure in his face and he was calm throughout whenever there were guys that were coming up into his face he was still making sure to put his feet on the ground fire off that

back foot get the ball where it needs to out of his hand where it needs to be and he'd take the hit he would understand that he would not brace for contact before the ball left his hand he would do what he needed to do to make sure that he had the mechanics right to get the ball where it needed to be on time and then he would take the hit in the chest or at the hips or whatever it was and that was super impressive to me and that showed somebody who's been playing quarterback for a long time he's not skittish he's not gun shy i i will say the ball placement is still it still needs work and uh ball placement's tough man ball placement's tough to get a lot better at and unfortunately there are just a handful of times even just in that kansas game that i watched when i went back and watched the all 22 where he's throwing a tick behind receivers. And, you know, he's not putting the ball exactly where it needs to be with placement, whether it's a low placement or a high placement.

Sometimes he did. But again, that word consistency was not there with Dugan the way that I needed to with total ball placement. Obviously, the completion percentage numbers are up there so he has the raw accuracy ball placement's a different story that's when you really take accuracy to another level when projecting guys to the pros so i do like the skill set i think he's a decent athlete and i think he's got a decent arm i really do but that ball placement still got to get better he's still got to continue to be a little bit more pinpoint and where that ball is going but as of right now he's a fun college quarterback to watch i'm going to continue to watch him and have fun watching him because tcu is having a hell of a season this season with uh um keandre miller who i talked about last week and then quentin johnson as well who we love as their wide receiver on the receiving end of a lot of

those dugan passes so that was my overall thoughts on him you said it last week connor we love to talk about quarterbacks when we can so he had a good week i felt like i would uh break him down a little bit here for the people it's a great time to bring him into the equation and you know i was going to piggyback real quickly before i get to my next guy that quentin johnston was the you know uh the he benefited highly from that performance from him it's interesting to watch them play in a close game right they blew out Colorado first game of the season they really have blown out everybody besides SMU they beat by eight points the third game of the season so this game against Kansas was one where it's like okay we're in a little bit of a dogfight here and no coincidence that Quentin Johnson by far is involved and a big reason of winning a huge game

when they needed him most. I mean, before this, Trevor, he had around, let's see, 7, 10, 12 catches for a little over 100 yards the entire season. It was not ideal. There was nothing going on, no touchdowns. Where if you're in the red, like, I was getting nervous.

I was getting nervous. I was sitting there like, what is going on? Yeah. Like, Trevor and I watched this guy over summer separately. And when we came to the table for wide receivers, we looked at each other. We're like, Quinton Johnson? Like, this dude is amazing. And then now this week, 14 catches, 206 yards.

It's like they remembered they had him. Back on track. They're like, we're in trouble. Can anybody get us out of here? Like, oh, Quinton Johnson's not available. Right of here big game us versus undefeated kansas in kansas let's finally lean on the guy who can deliver us it's hard to kill him because they've been such a good team this year but man they went to him when they needed him he had a 53 yard catch he had the big touchdown but just that target share that he he commanded and thrived with to me it was great and dugan

needs to continue that because they're going to play in big games and they should look his way because he's such a physically imposing player so good to see quentin johnson look like the guy that we expect him to be uh but my last stock up for the week is byron young the edge pass rusher from tennessee that that enforced sacks. Yes! You know, we've always told people, you and I text before this show to make sure we don't crossover, and this was the guy that we did the crossover on. You had Byron Young on your list. I had Byron Young on mine. Senior pass rusher from Tennessee.

He's an edge defender that's about 6'3", 245, but they'll let him rush as a true defensive end, hand in the dirt sometimes, while also being a stand-up rusher, which is going to be his home at the NFL level. We talked about it off the air, Trevor. This guy is just relentless, and it was what I really liked about Byron Young's weekend, his game against LSU, is that this was somebody that finally got rewarded for a lot of hard work and coming close his first four games of the season uh he was racking up pressures and quarterback hits but he only had one sack he had three games in a row weeks two through four where he had six quarterback hits combined and nine hurries separate hurries

not counting the hits so he was getting home a lot and he just couldn't close and then he plays against he plays at lsu has the four sacks, has an additional quarterback hit, had a really nice outside rush with the long arm, got going on a, on a stunt, had a really good interior rush where he just, he was very slender through the gap with good explosiveness off the ball. And he gets sacks that, you know, he has a really good pass rush arsenal, but he also adds to his sack totals because he just never stops. He never stops on plays. So when teammates force the quarterback out of the pocket

or in an uncomfortable situation his direction, he's just going, going, going. And the offensive line is like, I can only block this guy for so long every play. It's not just one play here, one play there. So he's somebody that i think can actually be a star during the all-star circuit that's what i'm when i went into his background which i know you're going to talk about a little bit i was like i love that he's a senior i love

that he's he should be every bit in mobile alabama this dude can play he can rush um and it was great to see it all come together with his best game of the season at LSU. Dude, the way that I watch college football now that obviously you and I do this show, knowing that we're going to have this stock market episode that we do every week is I'll watch college football and I will write down the names of guys that I'm watching live that really stand out to me. The very first name that I wrote down on the day was, in all caps,

I didn't even know Byron Young's name at this point. I just said, number six for Tennessee, in all caps. It was at the very top of the screen on my notes because he immediately stands out with the kind of athlete he is and how explosive he was this past weekend. I will say, you brought up the All-Star Circuit. Our good friend Jim Nagy is already tweeting about Byron. There you go.

So we figure that he's probably going to be a candidate to be in Mobile, Alabama. His story is awesome. You know, this is a guy who was not always at Tennessee, came to Tennessee in the 2021 season after the 2020 COVID season because he was at a junior college. And he was at the Georgia Military College, which is where he first played football. And when I say first played football,

I'm pretty sure Byron Young didn't play high school football. I can't find that anywhere. And the story goes, what people have reported, is that Young was working his part-time job as a manager at dollar general when he saw a flyer for tryouts at georgia military college it's insane and he's like all right always wanted to play football so i think that i did the way the way that i just read uh the story and a couple versions of it coming into this podcast is that he literally just went to this open tryout. And he played for them for, I think, two seasons, became the number one weak side edge rusher in the JUCO transfer portal that year. But COVID really messed that up. The COVID abbreviated season made it so they didn't have a college football season that year but kovid really messed that up the kovid abbreviated season made it so they didn't have a college football season that year in 2020 he only got one power five offer and that was

tennessee he took with it and he ran with it last year he played kind of sparingly now he's a full time starter and um let me tell you he has gifts he truly does he is a gifted pass rusher man and he's starting to figure it all out now. He's starting to understand how it works. That relentlessness never quits. That explosion that he has off of the edge is really impressive, and I am not afraid to say that this dude could threaten to be a first-round prospect. He really could not. The natural ability that this guy has to me was so impressive,

so I cannot wait to watch him throughout the rest of the year he stood out to me immediately in a way that we just kind of talked about it not a lot of prospects are totally standing out yet this far into the season and byron young was one of those that absolutely did right off the bat and i think that carries a lot of weight when you're weighing it against your potential classmates for a draft class i was super impressed with the man so impressed with his story his perseverance where he has come from how he's worked to get to this point and the success that he's now having this season for tennessee it's an awesome story and somebody that like you said is doing his part on the field i mean when i watched him i was i always say this when we do these shows and i'm very honest about

it when you're going through film especially this time of year, well, maybe more so in the winter. This time of year, there's so much going on. And here's a bingo checkpoint. Connor and Trevor talk about their other gigs, but you guys know how much we both do. That when you take a little break for the day that you're going to do college before, you know, November, December, whenever we transition fully into draft where you're just always watching college prospects every day, every hour. Sometimes it can be, you know, you're going through a checklist or you're, there's, when a guy gets you revved up or you're like, this dude can play, this dude's exciting,

how have I not seen him, what am I missing? What more film is there on him? And that's how it kind of felt with Byron Young, who, like you said, the story's fascinating. He's going to be 25 on draft night, I believe. Yeah. And you know what? He is. Everybody's got a different road. And I'll say this about pass rushers.

Notoriously, pass rushers really don't find their way to being super productive in the NFL until 25 or 26 anyway well yeah go ahead go ahead I didn't know it's I just think people are whenever we talk about a prospect like I feel like the bounce back is always well he's old and like it's in the equation I get it but I I just think everybody's road is different and And this dude, like Trevor said, was an assistant manager at a Dollar General and just picked up football. And that's a better reason than a lot of other reasons. A guy got, you know, has a horrible injury history

or just wasn't good for five years. Like, that's a different road where when you factor in the age, you're like, okay, that's a unique road, and it's fine. You said he was an assistant manager. I think he was just a manager i gotta give him his props can't say assistant manager connor i gotta Tennessee football page serve as an assistant manager okay all right approximately 18 months assistant to the dollar general manager no okay so obviously samantha i was just giving you crap there but look this is a great this is

a great way to bring up another example about age. We talked about age on this podcast. It was last week, the week before or whatever, because somebody had asked us, hey, why does age matter? Why do you guys keep bringing up age? Well, you want guys to be able to stand out at a younger level, because that shows you how different they are amongst their peers. That is often a telltale sign when you can get on the field when you produce at a younger age, when you can best players who are a little bit older than you, when you thrive as a freshman and a sophomore against upperclassmen, juniors, seniors, redshirt seniors, that just shows how ahead of the curve you are, likely because of your natural God-given talent. And those are the things that you want to go out and find. Those are the things that you're trying to look for in scouting. Byron Young is different though right you because saying that Byron Young is 25 isn't the same as saying somebody who got into college football when they were 17

or 18 and is still trying to figure it out when they're 25 Byron Young was not playing football four years ago he then picked it up it felt like for the first time at a junior college level, he is only two years into playing in the SEC. And in his second year, he is standing out already. So the number of age itself, and I think that this is where people kind of get lost with the age metric and why we bring up age all the time. The age itself does not matter.

It's not like you are washed as an athlete when you turn 24 or 25. That's not what we're saying. You have to look at it as a journey. How long did it take you to stand out? Now, for some guys, it doesn't matter. They get to that point where they're a little bit older. They're 24 years old, and they've hit a really elite, great point to where they could be a difference maker at the pro level.

But for other people, if it takes you that long to really even stand out amongst your other peers, sometimes that is a telltale sign that you maybe just don't have the same sort of God-given athletic ability, certainly, that other players do. Byron Young is not that's kind of a story so think about byron young's timeline differently don't just go oh he's 25 you got to think about his story where he's coming from this is only his second year playing full-time in the sec so i think that's what you really have to think about that matters most trevor you got um you got more

you got one more i do i have one more but before we get to that, got to ask the people this question. What if you could have invested in Tom Brady's stock as a rookie? Your investment would be worth over 4,000% today. Now it's not even a what if, but more of a who's next. Thanks to our friends at Mojo. Mojo is the all new sports stock market

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That's all I'm saying. New Jersey, man. I mean, what's it called? It's just the symbol chaos. Yeah, I know. Jets won again, dude. Yeah, they did. I can't believe you're still on the show. I thought you would have just

got a retirement home in Florida. Our symbol ad read is actually tomorrow, but'm looking at it i totally screwed that up i'm giving no i'd look they sponsored the pod we love them i'm giving them a little bit extra here the jets did win my jet stock is through the roof baby i'm retiring early i am i mean these payouts are just hitting they're hitting real different absolutely hitting different okay last guy i want to talk about pittsburgh running back israel abedekonda he pretty good weekend off 36 carries 320 rushing yards six touchdowns. I'm going to say it for you one more time, okay? Because now I'm sure you're sitting down.

You're like, wait, what happened? You don't have to rewind the podcast. I'll say it again for you. 36 carries, 320 rushing yards, and six touchdowns. He broke 20-door set single-game rushing record this past Saturday for the 320 yards and six touchdowns. He also joined LaDainian Tomlinson and Ricky Williams, I've heard of them, as the only members of teams currently in the Power Five to rush for 300 yards and six scores

in the past 25 seasons. Not bad company. Three-star running back from Brooklyn, New York, stands at 5'11", 215 pounds. He is a junior, led Pitt in rushing last year, but only had one 100-yard game before this season. Now he's got four, including this 300-yard game that he had this past week. So obviously, if you rush for 300 yards, you have my full attention. I have to go back and watch some of your film. And you know what? He's a fun back and, and something I really enjoyed a lot about him. Now I looked at some of the PFF analytics before I dove into the all 22 and the forced missed tackles per attempt rate was under 0.2 was 0.19.

So I'm like, okay, well, he's probably not the shiftiest dude. He's probably not like making guys miss in the open field. And he doesn't, that's not really his game, but he's a patient runner. He's a smart runner. He understands blocking concepts in front of them. He understands the timing of pullers, whether it's counter counter tray, you know, whether it's running behind split zone and he gets the chaos and the clutter of, of inside zone runs, outside zone runs.

He knows the aiming points. He knows the fields for cutbacks. He just has a really good set of eyes for watching what's happening in front of him. And the best part about it is is that when he reads the offensive line correctly, he's also got the speed to take it the distance. This is a guy who ran the a hundred meter dash in high school and a 10, six, nine, which is pretty damn fast.

I know he – I don't know, like, the titles of races. It said, like, he won, like – it said, like, he won gold, but it was, like, he won gold in, like, the New York Cup. So, like, I don't know. I don't really know how to explain that correctly. Is this New York slander right now? No, no, no, no, no. I'm not, like – but, like, to say you won gold and then be, like,

oh, you won gold in New York, It's like, okay, that doesn't. What does that mean? What does this mean? What does this mean? Like, so like Olympics or what happens? So anyways, he won a bunch of hundred yard meter dashes when he was in high school. So you see the long speed there. He's kind of an upright runner.

Reminds me a little bit of Wayne Gallman. You remember Wayne Gallman's running style where it was just this upright style. I thought Gallman was a little bit more shifty than Abinaconda was. He is more of a bounce off of tackles and kind of take it after that, be able to stay up. But that was kind of what the running style reminded me of. And like I said, he's a little stiff. You know, if you're looking for a Bijan Robinson type

where you love these guys that have the quick, fancy footwork that can change direction, that can go east to west immediately and stop on a dime, he's not going to be your type of running back. But I like the long speed, and I do, man. I really like the way that he is patient behind his offensive line because often you see a lot of guys in college football who have that long speed, and they know they're on the field because of that speed. So they're thinking, you know,

they're pressing down the sprint button in Madden the whole time. They're like, let me just get to exactly where I need to go, and let me just run as fast as I can. He knows how to gear down when he needs to, set up the block, stay behind his blockers, and that's when he realizes that he really gets all of that open space so izzy israel um that's his nickname so i'll just probably call him that every time i mentioned him here unreal day historic day this past weekend there are some things and some skill

sets to like in his game but that's ultimately what i saw when i went back and i watched that historic performance of his man it was special i mean obviously when you see those kind of numbers it kind of took over the timeline for a bit there everybody's like this is this is unprecedented so yeah it completely nuts great can't not do this show without having it that's the thing like there are just players that we have to talk about on this show because they have earned that with these monster performances and whether it feels like every that we have to talk about on this show because they have earned that with these monster performances. It feels like every show we have a guy that had three to four sacks. We have a running back that went over 200 yards.

Today we had two. And, you know, it's fun because plenty of guys have days like that that we didn't talk about them over the summer. We didn't see those kinds of performances coming, and that's what makes the stock show so important week after week. Yep right that's it for me you got anybody else no that is the list um oh can i say can i say a futures guy can i say a futures guy please oh of course jalen mccowan so i was at i was at vanderbilt this past weekend because my fiance, Alyssa, was on the sideline. Oh, you guys took a nice picture together.

Yeah, thank you. Did you sneak on the field? Oh, I didn't sneak on the field, my guy. Come on. What do you think? I'm that big of a rebel? I'm not. I'd be scared shitless if I snuck in.

At Vanderbilt, they don't tackle you, though. It's not like Bobby Wagner comes out of nowhere and tackles you. They're just like, sir, who are you? And you're like, it's my wife. I'm not going to get Devontae Adams on. No, I can't use that as shorthand for Devontae Adams. I can't do that. No, but I was at Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt was playing Ole Miss this past weekend. Vanderbilt, athletes on the team know kind of hard to come by but jl mccowan was a sprinter in high school and they have him as a wide receiver he's number 16 he's a true freshman this year and like major difference maker when the ball touches that guy's hands you can tell things are different for vanderbilt's offense so not draft eligible this year not even draft eligible next year but a very fun player to hopefully as vanderbilt gets better here yeah jaylen mccallan gets to be on espn a little bit more the highlights get to be shown on the timeline a little bit more because i really do

think that he has a potential next level athleticism and ability so i wanted to shout him out too because that was great to uh get to see him in person and no matter what that's just a great trip it's a great trip going out in nashville i mean it's so funny like it took me embarrassingly long to realize fully realize the proximity of vanderbilt and nashville i knew it was in the general same no it's like it there. I didn't realize that until I actually went to Nashville. And I was like, how does anybody go to school here? And it's obviously a lot of really smart people go to school there. I think that's why they go to school. I guess that's why.

Like you have to be smart and very disciplined to go to Vanderbilt because of all of the incredible distractions that lie basically down the street. So that's an incredible trip. And I'm glad to hear that they're getting some talent in there because it's just better for everybody if it trends that way. You know Belmont's in Nashville too? Belmont? Yeah, Belmont. Like when I say Belmont, do you have any, like no, no?

No, I, wait, no. Like NCAA, March Madness, sometimes Belmont's a 14 seed and you pick them because they're fun and they can shoot threes. Belmont Bruins men's basketball. I'm sure I've written this down on a bracket in my life. You have. When I hear Belmont, I think of the racetrack. No, no, no, no, no.

Belmont University. They're in Nashville. Also in Nashville. Yes,, no. Belmont University. They're in Nashville. Also in Nashville. Yes, they are. Yes. Wow. I admittedly, I really need to do more research when I was applying for colleges. Like, I had a great time at Albany.

I met some of my best friends of my life. Sure. But, like, you ever just, like, well, because I know you deal with the same thing for work. The more I started to travel, especially when I did two years of traveling for college football every other week at a minimum, you go places and you're just like, what is this? Right. This isn't right. I lived in the ghetto when I went to college.

Why didn't anybody tell me about this? Yeah. Nobody told me about this. You know, I mean, like experience, experiences or moments I had like that. I'm like, I went to Stanford. I'm like, I remember I went to Stanford. I'm like some of the most beautiful places I've been. Like, this is unbelievable. You go to Wisconsin, you're like, this is not real life.

LSU, apparently Belmont is in Nashville. Belmont. I could have went to Belmont. I couldn't play basketball, but I could have went to the school. Yeah, I have no idea about their academics. Yeah, I don't know how difficult it is to get into school, but I have faith in you. You could have gotten to Belmont.

Yeah. We should do a bit where I just go back to school. And I just try different schools each semester. Forget the bid. Just do it. Well, I need. Yeah, I know. I'm still going to have to do the show

because I'm going to need some kind of money to be able to pull this off. That's true. We'll think about it. All right. We'll work out the bid. There we go. That's the show because i'm gonna need some kind of money to be able to pull this off that's true we'll think about it all right we'll work out the bit there we go that's the uh that's the show that's the stock watch episode that's that's the show everybody hopefully you enjoyed it we do that every single week here on wednesday on the show as always we want to hear from you guys let us know youtube comments twitter instagram hit us up let us know who you want us to get some eyes on, who you want us to talk about.

A lot of you guys really hone in on your teams across the country. And although Connor and I watch as much college football as possible, we are still only two human beings. And sometimes you guys are definitely going to know your team, your diamonds in the rough, and your guys who are really standing out before we can get eyes on them. So we would love to hear from you, as always. Let us know.

Again, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, any way that you like to communicate best on social media, we will hit you up there. All right, buddy. Well, that's it for us. I was about to say this week, but we actually have another show coming up on Thursday. We have a massive show coming up on Thursday.

I don't know if we tease it. Do we leave it as a surprise and you can tease it you want to tease it i yeah sure i'm gonna check the bingo card one more time i'm pretty sure there's a reference um in here about us doing this exact thing we're doing right now teasing the show or not teasing the show yeah we're saying that we're gonna tease the show and then not tease the show trevor forgets when the next pod is is one of them okay it's supposed to be trevor forgets what the next pod is we do do that a lot we're gonna do after the first five five weeks of the season the current all rookie team in the nfl and the reason we're doing that now is not to overreact to five weeks of football

but to see what it looks like one more time when we do it again towards the end of the season so and maybe it'll change a lot maybe Sam Howell gets freed maybe Desmond Ritter gets freed maybe who knows who knows who's going to be freed down the stretch but right now a lot of rookies have played a lot of rookies have been really good actually where it's a it's an awesome time to check back in on the early returns of the 2022 nfl draft that's what it is it is going to be an excuse for us to give some props to some young guys who are already standing out in the nfl and we're going to do so in a format that everybody is familiar with by doing a early season all-rookie team for the 2022 NFL Draft. I am Trevor Sycamore. That is Connor Rogers. We will see you guys tomorrow. Thanks

for listening to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. Thank you.