NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - NFL Week 1 Rookie Report: Reviewing the BEST and WORST Rookie Performances

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers give you their first ever episode of Rookie Report! We go over our current Offensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Rookie of the Year Rankings after Week 1 of the NFL Regular Season. We also go into our top Rookie Surprises (good and bad) from week 1. We end by taking some burning questions from the addicts!Huge thanks to Amazon Fire TV Stick for supporting today's show as well!Keep up with highlights and game recaps on Fire TV including the latest from Fantasy Life.Watch instantly with no downloads, or sign-ups, or fees, free on Fire TV.Subscribe and help us get to 100k subs -> https://www.youtube.com/@NFLStockExchange! It's 100% free and helps us out a bunch. Thanks!WE HAVE A DISCORD!!!!! JOIN HERE! https://discord.gg/AjqamEUyEWhttps://discord.gg/AjqamEUyEW?feature=descriptionif the link doesn't work for you, just search 'NFLStockExchange' on discord and it'll pop uptimestamps:0:00 Intro 09:48 Rookie Ranking Reveal / Football Starts Here 10:32 Antonio Williams, WR Commanders 13:53 Jeremiyah Love, RB Cardinals 18:50 Francis Mauigoa, OT Giants 25:33 Carnell Tate, WR Titans 28:50 Kaelon Black, RB 49ers 32:10 Caleb Douglas, WR Dolphins 35:09 Jadarian Price, RB Seahawks 38:06 Denzel Boston, WR Browns 42:41 Jacob Rodriguez, LB Dolphins - Amazon Fire TV Can't Miss Player 46:41 Sponsor: Amazon Fire TV 47:34 Gabe Jacas, EDGE Patriots 49:23 Rueben Bain Jr., EDGE Bucs 53:40 David Bailey, EDGE Jets 56:36 Anthony Hill Jr., LB Titans 59:22 Sonny Styles, LB Commanders 1:00:54 Arvell Reese, LB Giants 1:02:49 Treydan Stukes, CB Raiders 1:05:29 Cashius Howell, EDGE Bengals 1:08:32 Josiah Trotter, LB Bucs 1:11:14 Skylar Gill-Howard, DT Lions 1:13:21 A.J. Haulcy, S Colts 1:18:38 Caleb Downs, S Cowboys 1:20:29 Outro Follow us on X:https://x.com/NFLSEshowhttps://x.com/TampaBayTrehttps://x.com/ConnorJRogersWe appreciate each and every one of you ADDICTS :)For business or other inquiries, reach us at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dude, I had to explain to my producers at NFL media what the regular was. You guys spammed all of the comments on some of Brett and I's first shows for NFL Pro. And my producers were like, who isn't the regular? Imagine getting called into HR and they're like, oh, how's the new gig going? Oh, good. You might just take a seat? Do you want to explain this alternate ego you have? No, what did you take a seat?

What is Chris Hanson running me at the HR? I need to talk to you. You understand how this looks, right? You're sitting in there with the top hat. his screenshot card of Ruben Bain going 15th overall. What am I supposed to make of that? I'm just full regular attire. Oh, no.

You're something you need to know. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange show. Trevor Second of Connor Rogers with you guys for a little week one overreaction, underreaction, appropriate reaction. Whatever it is, it's week one of the rookie report. We're going to be going around the NFL taking a look at all these rookies. Because Connor, obviously, we watched every single snap of every single rookie around the league. I've never missed a snap. We've never missed a snap. So we obviously have seen all of these snaps and analyze these rookies as in-depthly as humanly possible over the last 12 hours since they took their start in the NFL. But we are going to go over a lot of these rookies in the league. We're going to talk about some updated offensive and defensive rookie of the year positions. Look at some surprise guys who really stood out for good and bad reasons. And then we're going to take you guys as questions as well because we know that you guys want to get it on the show. Connor, how we doing, my friend?

Feeling good. Week 1 was awesome. That 1 p.m. slate was pretty electric, honestly, and you would think that's where they try to bury some of the matchups that are supposed to be a little lower stakes or lower tier. And then obviously all the primetime games have been pretty thrilling for different reasons. How's Los Angeles over there? The face of the NFL. I've still annoyed you haven't changed the profile picture.

Me? Why would I change your profile picture? I want you to do the rap sheet. Like the logo behind you. you you got to do it i'm not going to do rap sheet i'm not going to do the rap i'm not going to do the rap is one of one of the addicts needs to make one of those for me for me to even consider it but i still don't think i want to do it i don't think i don't think i don't think i don't think i'm not going to get you and the people to bully me into doing that you know that's that's the a rapid port's thing i can't steal that from him but a lot of people have that's the thing and now that

you you work for the nfl you actually can without it being like you know now that i are you know working out of the same building um out of respect for being team coming from the same place kind of feel yeah it was so i walked into the uh NFL LA offices last week for the first or yesterday for the first time. And the facility, as you would expect, is phenomenal. It's massive. And they kind of like take me down like one of these hallways and they're like, and down there, that's where ESPN is now.

It's like, ooh, you know, like that's where, you know, like that's where the main like NFL network set is. Their key card doesn't get through there. No, it actually doesn't. It's security reasons, but over there. Yeah, that's for other reasons. But yeah, their security does not get me over there in that. building but really cool really cool to actually get to meet the team over here in L.A. in person.

I love it. I already saw some people in the chat shouting out the NFL pro show that Brett and I had last night that we actually got to do in person in the studios because I'm out in LA this week doing some game day preview stuff, which by the way, you guys can tune into game day preview as well today as myself and Mike Weam and Bucky Brooks are going to be previewing the Monday in a football game. That's on the NFL Fast channel. So yeah, shameless plug there to just start the show. Dude, what about you though? You're all over the place. Yeah, but I'm more interested in you. All this stuff I do.

Hold on that. You're covering college football now on Saturdays. You're now covering it Jets wins, the undefeated New York Jets this season. Yeah, that's new. Covering a Jets ass kicking was definitely a new feel. My Saturday was interesting because my pregame segment for the Sihawk game, the Corn Sihawk game, I was like, expectation's got to be higher for this Iowa team.

This Iowa team is that they're not a seven-win team. They're going to be better than that. And on and on and on. So then I had the glory of when I got home, just sweating out Iowa not losing that game because I'd look like such an idiot. If they immediately lose a game, they were favored by 14.5 points.

So that's just kind of the stressful life I live. I go look on Instagram and you're at Mussel Beach, you're in Venice, you're hanging out on the sand. you got the suit on next to Nelson Aguilar. Good for you. Good for you. Hey, Nelson Aguilar, fellow Tampa Man, by the way. I did not know that.

So that's why the chemistry was impeccable on the first show. I mean, instantly. You instantly just probably jelled. But yeah, I was, I absolutely know that people tune in the podcast for this. I was going on a run this morning and I passed the Muscle Beach gym. And it was just opening like people were walking into it. And I was like, you have to go. Dude, I got to do it.

You got to do it. And so I paid for a day pass for it. And of course, of course, it had to be chastick. It couldn't have been any. There's no other option. What am I going to be glutes and hats? No, when you're in Muscle Beach, come on. You're going to go do lap pull downs at Muscle Beach.

Absolutely not. I'm parking my ass at the bench press. Good for you. That's the way to do it. You're having yourself a. weekend. My God. You might have to get a membership,

depending how much you're going to be out there. I'm out here. If I'm out here like once a year, and it's still have to get a membership. Just have to get a membership of Muscle Beach because it's Marshall Beach. But anyways, let's get into these rookies. We got a lot of things to talk about.

We got a lot of rookie performances that we want to touch on. Mostly good, but of course some that, you know, we got to get two that weren't so good. Right. You know, in the meantime, we'll obviously talk about some overall team performances and we'll mix all that good stuff in. But the way that Connor and I have it structured here at the beginning of the year is what we're going to do for rookie report is sort of update our offensive and defensive

rookie of the year odds. So obviously there's sometimes not a ton of change at the very top because it's guys that we still think are the front runners to win the award. We're still going to talk about them and what they look like if they played for Nana Medoza. I'm looking at you. And so we'll touch on all of these. but if there starts, if we go through this for the first couple of weeks and it looks like

we're not hitting on as many rookies as we want to, we can sort of switch it up. But we felt like this is a decent structure to sort of start things out. So I don't, I actually don't know what the animation is going to be. Like I don't know if your, before we get there, I don't know either. I didn't take a totally different approach to this because I think as this gets rolling, it'll kind of course correct that a lot of the rookie of the year award. favorites will be on more of my board. But with the one week, so I did this Trevor.

With a one week sample size, I threw away the summer odds where I'm like, oh, so you did. Just because Fernando Mendoza is going to be hovering around. He's not playing yet. So I'm not taking into account his odds. Just because Jeremiah Love is a runaway favorite, whoever it is.

I did this where this is how I saw it week one. And of course, that is going to change a lot by the time we get a month sample size because it's going to course correct and it's going to be more balanced and some guys are going to fade. And a lot of the guys that are really, really good and we're expected to be good are just going to get the volume of touches. And my rankings aren't wild or anything like that. But I did act like, hey, let's do this in a way.

We have a one week sample size. Things get a little weird. And I think that's going to reflect in some areas of mine, even though I know some of these guys are not going to be in the true running to win the award, I'd say. That's a little flawed because we also know the voting for the award often centers in on very specific positions while you're never going to get an offensive lineman winning rookie of the year, right? Well, this is going to be a lot of fun because I did not do this exercise like this. And as, you know, people know, sometimes we don't always, you know, play in the show that we need to beforehand. But I think that

actually makes for the best show. So I think this is going to actually give us a ton of different rookies to talk about, which is actually the whole main point of doing a rookie report. Like that, too, of like, this is also Trevor going to be, there's going to be a handful of guys you see on mine today that this might be the only week they really get a lot of shine on this show. So got to capitalize why you can or maybe I'm wrong. Hopefully they just keep kind of overachieving, I would say. And that's what we're here for, baby.

That is what we are here for. Okay, chef, I don't know what the animation is about to show us. So let's get the big reveal here. Oh, it's just all the whole list. It's like a title wave. Everybody's whole list right here. Okay. So for the audio only people,

so for the audio only people, we will break this up into, let's do offensive rookie of the year first. So let's go through offensive rookie of the year. You have, in your one through five for offensive rookie of the year, which you based off sort of that one game sample size. You have Antonio Williams from the Washington commanders

at number one. You have Jeremiah Love at number two. You have Francis Maui Noah, the guard from the New York Giants number three. You have Caleb Douglas from Miami at number four. And then you have Judarian Price running back from Seattle Seahawks is number five. I have Jeremiah Love at number one. I have Fernando Mendoza at number two because I was still doing this a little bit like, hey, it's still sort of an offensive rookie of the year award. This is sort of my rankings for it.

But then I've got Cardinal Tate at number three. I have Caleb Black, the running back from San Francisco at number four. And then I also have Geron Price. at number five. So let's dig into this because you've got Antonio Williams at number one. And I want to touch on him right away because Williams just missed my list. He was an honorable mention guy. And I know that we said that we wanted to give some honorable mention players. He was the first honorable mention type of player that was next for me that I didn't quite put it in the top five just because again, I'm looking a little bit more long term. But from a one week

sample size, I understand why you have him in your top five. So I'll let you kind of talk about what his week was this week. Yeah, and to think he really didn't play that many snaps. When you look at the stats, go, wow, he had four catches, 64 yards, and a touchdown. And then you look at the actual game. Obviously, they have other pass catchers over him. That's why they went out and got Steph Diggs. It's why they have Terry McLaren.

I think they like their tight ends. But the snaps that he had, I mean, you watch one week and you go, how do you not elevate this guy's wrong? He's got great hands. He knows how to separate. You take him out of a Clemson offense last year that really had a lot of problems. And you put him in an offense with Jaden Daniels against a really good Eagles defense. I thought this guy popped.

And yes, you are right, Trevor. Like on any offensive rookie of the year long-term outlook board, is he going to be one, two, three, or four? And they think he sustains this level of play? No. But off of this week, off of the tape. how much juicy he had, how reliable he was. If he has another week like this,

you have to ask yourself to the commanders. We thought we had our receivers as a clear one and two. And now with Antonio Williams, we look at it and go, man, we should be looking to get this guy the ball more because he really can elevate our passing game. So I loved what he did this week.

And I think he can end up actually really being kind of a steal of a pick in round three because we always know he's had this kind of talent. but I think the situation kind of made everything a little muddy or foggy last year to really get a grasp on what kind of wide receiver prospect he is and was. And I think that his role is only going to expand because when you look at the snap counts and the routes run from the commanders this week, Terry McLaurna at 35, Stefan Diggs had 0.5. And Tony Williams only had 10. He only had 10 routes run. But he had four targets, four catches, 64 yards in a touchdown. And I thought he looked really good when he was out there.

He showcased that nuance that we saw from him when he was at Clemson. That was already apparent and how he's trying to, you know, use his body language and little tells of like, okay, I'm going to sell my shoulders going this way when I know I'm going to go the other way, kind of a thing. We were already seeing that, and that showcase his confidence. So it was a good day on the stat sheet for him. It was a great day, obviously, efficiently. It only run four routes and to get four targets, four catches and lead the team in receiving yards and get a touchdown as well. well, I think that Antonio Williams absolutely will be creeping into those overall long-term odds to potentially win offensive rookie of the year.

So like I said, he was the very first honorable mention player for me because I'm doing it more of a long-term view, but certainly you doing it as a week one type of a thing, having him in the top five makes a ton of sense there for Antonio Williams. Who did you have a number two? Oh, you're a lot of two. Jeremiah Love. I did think it was hard and I understand why you still have love at one. I almost sat there and bent like, man, the workload he's going to get and how good he already looked coming off the high ankle.

Yeah. It was really, really close. And I would be shocked after that, like, this month is over if love doesn't just kind of hold the number one spot. Dude, I thought he was awesome. He looked great. I thought he was fantastic. I was really nervous about him coming off of that high ankle sprain because we know how worrisome that can be for running backs. I mean, actually, Gentile looked great as well coming off of his ankle injury too.

So I was worried about sort of both. those max coming into the season, but Love looked fantastic. 11 carries, 41 yards, had a touchdown. I thought as I was watching this film, he still, he still wanted to bounce things out to the outside a little bit too much, but that's very, very natural for running backs that have a really good athleticism. Because in order to really hit those cutback lanes versus when you're running behind zone or really sort of navigating things in a patient and correct.

tempoed way between the tackles, it takes experience. You really only get to do that when, as they say, the game slows down because there's so much clutter and chaos in the middle of the field. And a lot of times with these younger running backs, if they aren't mentally telling themselves, yes, I'm just going to go forward. I'm a power back. This is what I do. If you have any speed at all whatsoever, you're probably trying to bounce to the outside because

you want to make guys miss. You want to try to beat guys to the angle. and I saw that a handful of times. I felt like which Jeremiah loved on Sunday. But there were times where, okay, sure, I would have liked for you to cut it back here or I thought that the true rush lane from the blocking concepts wasn't necessarily to the outside.

But he's so athletic. He sometimes erased the angle, like you made it work. So it's hard to say that it was too much of a negative there for him. Because overall, even when you're bad plays, quote unquote, even though the plays that I felt like you could have been more efficient on, you still made successful. That is a hell of a way to say, I am talented enough to be a difference maker in this league.

So I like Jeremiah Love, even though he didn't even lead his team in carries or yards because that was Tyler out here in this game. I like how they had him on a little bit of a pitch count, but he still looks fantastic. And hey, heck of a win for the Arizona Cardinals. Awesome win. I'm pretty sure the Cardinals were the biggest underdog of the week.

were. Yeah. And you come into, yeah, man, you, man, you, man, you, man, you, man, go into SOFI and you take care of business. I felt like that line was way too disrespectful for how good that offense was last year. And obviously, we saw enough for them to get a big road when to start the season. So shout to them. I think it was a little reminder to, we kind of, for a while, just kind of looked at the

preseason and go, nothing really matters. And now you're starting to see a little bit translate from the preseason because there's such little football practiced and played over summer in this era. And something that always stood out to me with Arizona was LaFleur had every single quarterback ready to go and play efficiently in his offense. And I think that was a big testament to him as a coach. And it was not surprising to see that carry over to week one because of the kind of camp and preseason he ran out.

I think they'd, I picked them to cover. I didn't think they'd win this game. So I tip my cap to Arizona that has so much. talent on offense and a really, really good play calling head coach. And as love gets healthier, he's only going to be better. And he'll have a much bigger impact in the past game as he gets healthier too. Yeah. I think he's going to be stud.

And I think it was clear to see with that from him in week one, which you love because you invest a very, very high pick in him. A lot of guaranteed money. We talked about sort of the investment that not just you're making when you make the pick and a top five pick of a running back, but also what it means financially for you. he has to be worth it. And it's hard to look at sort of even the baseline,

the very beginnings of what we saw from Jeremiah I love this week and not think, okay, whatever you deemed this pick to be worth it, he's certainly showing a lot of good signs of that. I had Fernand, I have Fernando Mendoza at number two. He obviously didn't play this week. Las Vegas Raiders got the win over the Miami Dolphins. I just have him at number two because I think that's where he would be long term because I think that he is going to start eventually for the Raiders.

Not a ton to say about Fernando Mendoza. Although, hey, very enthusiastic with the clapping, a lot of good pointing, a lot of, you know, a big, big teammate guy already showing that he's there for his teammates, you know? He's wearing the helmet, obviously, the whole time on the sideline. He's ready to go in at any point, doesn't have the helmet off. Real football guy.

Real football guy. Very on brand for Fernando. Yeah. Who did you, who did you have at number three? Because I had Carnot Tate at number three. You afraid to Smalley? know one of the stories of sunday night football and that's francis maui noa c maui noa he just really has changed the look of the giants in the run game to me and the giants have a total

makeover in the run game and i thought it's why they beat dallas because not only did they run the ball well they controlled the clock for so much of that game to keep the ball out of the explosiveness you know the hands of dac prescott george pickens and cd lamb and javante williams and it ended up being the difference in the game. And when you just look at the look he gives them combined with Patrick Card and when Scataboo is healthy, they are a north-south team that could churn out five-yard gain after five-yard gain and put them in. Yeah, and I don't agree with that PFF grade after watching the game. I think PFF, for all the great analytics and stats they do, I think they can be unnecessarily harsh on offensive linemen for what they credit their faults for at times. That's

just an opinion of mine. I think I've said that even when we were partnered with PFF, so that's not a new opinion. Either way, Maui and Noah is a people mover. He changes kind of the identity and the feel of the Giants, one of the guys, because they have a lot of guys, but he's the rookie that does. And I think Trevor, I wanted to give a little love to the offensive lineman because more likely than not knowing they never win this award, I don't think he'll get to hang out on this, this board of mine. He's ranking his mind too long, but definitely a storyline for me from week one for sure. Yeah, maybe You know, maybe we should do these a little bit differently. And maybe next week when we do rookie report,

I will do it a little bit differently to try to give love to any rookie instead of just necessarily the ones that we think are going to win the award. I didn't have Maui Noah on this list. But that's also a little bit of cheating on my side of things because we got a fan question from the Discord asking about Francis Malinoa that we knew that we wanted to answer. I thought he looked really, really good in this game. And I think when you look at the PFF grade and the,

the lower run blocking grade. It's because when I went back to watch, there weren't a ton of moments where, now, there were some, but I felt like when you looked at a lot of his run blocking reps, he wasn't necessarily moving people off the ball super well individually. I think a lot of times when he was really, really moving people off the ball and mawling people off the ball,

it did come from combo blocks. He was only sort of one-on-one, about 50% of the game. And a lot of times, more like, six, 60, 70, 80 percent with some of these offensive linemen. Obviously, when you play offensive tackle, it's going to be a little bit higher. It's more natural that you're getting help when you are in the interior. And so I can understand the run grade being a little bit lower because individually was he moving people off the ball super well.

Okay, maybe not. But he wasn't really losing. And so that's where I think the grade is definitely misleading is even on those reps where he was one-on-one with somebody. And okay, maybe he's not getting that downhill. type of leg drive and really displacing these guys, but he ain't getting knocked back, really? At least I certainly didn't see that.

You can never power rush through him. That was always the number one thing on the scouting report, not even last draft season, summer scouting before his final college season. The thing I always wrote down with Maui Noah was, I never see people generate any power through him. He always stalls out power. And when you see the guy,

not only on tape and person, whatever it is, like, oh, it's going to translate to the NFL because of his size and mentality. And I think it was a really strong night, a really strong NFL debut for him. I think I was so impressed with him in the past blocking game, specifically dealing with stunts

and crashers and loopers and everything. That is where to me, he shined against the Dallas Cowell. The footwork with him was fantastic. And that's why I know you talked about Francis Malinoa as being more of a tackle in the NFL. You believed in him at tackle more than I did. I thought he could do it for sure. Yep. I've, I've been a, I'd love to see him at guard. And what we saw against the Cowboys to me was just the perfect example of, I think that his feet are fast. I don't think he has the longest like strides when it comes to those kickslides to play it off, play off into tackle. But, You put him inside, man, and there's a limit to exactly how much he's shuffling. He's going to shuffle and he's going to shuffle real fast. He is a real good athlete. He has balanced.

Those feet moves super fast. And I just, again, I loved what I saw multiple times against the Cowboys when I was watching on tape this morning, where, you know, he is taking a crashing player on a stunt to his right. And he is, you know, riding them all the way to the offensive tackle who then picks him up. And then the looper, whoever it is, is coming from the lineback. level to his left and he is able to just completely put his foot in the ground and then get in front of that looping player as well. Like that, that is the thing of beauty. That was the pass protection stuff that I loved from him against the Cowboys.

So a really, really good day from him. You know, was he the best Mueller in the run game against the Cowboys specifically? I wouldn't say that, but I do think that that lower run grade is misleading to, I thought he had a high floor as a run defender and I thought he had a high ceiling as a pass protector. last night against Dallas. So I just, I thought he had a really, really good debut. And it's definitely worth the shout out here. I'm glad that we got to talk about the offensive line a little bit.

I don't have Blake Miller as one of my honorable mentions, but I know somebody mentioned Blake Miller and my thoughts on him. I thought Miller had a good day. Now, there are a couple of reps that he got got pretty good. But the majority of the game, I thought Blake Miller had a really steady and strong performance. I think he absolutely looked apart. And for game one in the regular season in the NFL,

I do think that Blake Miller looked really, really good. And I think the bookend tackles of Penn A playing on the left and Miller playing on the right is going to be really, really good for them moving forward. Yeah, I think so. I definitely agreed with you. There was a couple guys like him. And I don't want to jump out because there's going to be a couple that we talk about, where I think the highlight moments had people like,

damn, he looks really, really good. and then on the tape, deeper in the game, there were low lights. It's a rookie. So, like, there's a couple of guys that I'm missing where it's like they had some, or I'm lower on that they had some low light moments. They're like, yeah, there's going to be highs and lows

because of the talent they have and that they are a rookie. Yeah. I want to get to Carnell Tate for you at three because I had Maui, Noah, at three. Okay, so, yeah, I have Carnell Tate at three. And it wasn't a super strong day for Carnell Tate. Had 33 routes run, six targets, four catches. 38 yards. They used him a lot as a motion player,

but they also used him on the line of scrimmage, you know, as an ex as well. You know, sometimes he was the single receiver when he had trips on one side and a single receiver on the other. Sometimes they would let him be that single receiver. They used him in a lot of different ways. I just didn't think it was a very good Cam Ward Day.

And, buddy, honest with you, I didn't think it was going to be a very good Cam Ward day. I picked the Jets to win that game. And I was pretty damn confident in that. I, we, Brett and I for NFL Pro, we not only pick the games, but we do, we rank them in order of confidence. Simpson and I do something similar. See, yes, right.

We use fake money as like how much you'd wager on it with a certain budget. And the Jets was my second highest wager of the entire week. I think the Jets were my third highest. I was really confident in this. Aaron's revamped defensive roster was really going to be able to get after a shaky Titan offensive line, which we've talked about many times on this show. And Cam Ward just, I didn't know what he was going to look like right out of the gate with probably, you know, new offensive philosophy with Brian Dable being there now.

And okay, now you got a new go-to receiver figuring all that stuff out. So I just did not think it was a very good Cam Ward day. I thought Cornell Tate was fine. I think in the long run, just volume opportunity. He's going to have a chance to win this award again. I was more thinking about the award at the end of the year when I was doing these rankings. But I thought all of that to say, Tate was quiet. I thought Tate was fine.

I didn't think he was great. I didn't think he was super overlooked. Oh my gosh, it was a travesty. They didn't get him the ball. But I thought he was fine. He was fine for week one in the NFL, not a super standout, but I think the Cam Ward was struggled against Jets defense. It's going to be a lot better this year than people,

than people give it credit for. Yeah, a lot of Tate's limited production was not entirely his fault and more of the product of the situation he was in yesterday. and hopefully better days ahead for him. By the way, some people are doing the Lord's Work for us. There's your future profile. See, it looks good. It looks solid.

You guys are unbelievable. I'm not making that. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. You can't do it because it's a really fun joke on this show. But there's too many people out there that wouldn't watch or listen to this, that I'd be like, wow, what is this guy doing? They'd be like, what an absolute.

Right. You know who would think that? Rap sheet himself. And then if I see him in the building at any point in time, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. The tension, you're going to be able to cut through it with a knife. Yeah. It's going to be brutal.

That's true. I could do it. I didn't think of that. You could do it. I could do it. See? I like this idea way better. I like this idea way better.

Oh, man. I had Cailin Black at my, at the number four spot. So see, you got a little off the grid here. You didn't just go chalky chalk. Right. It's because I think the guys that are, and I was looking at the odds to win offensive defensive defensive or rookie of the year,

on both sides of the ball, I think the guys that are sort of listed in the top two slash three are the very obvious ones. Right. But you get to four and five. brother, you can put whoever you want there. I mean, that could change from week to week. And that's why Kaelin Black, the reason why I have him here,

I'm not even necessarily going to praise him like he was unbelievable or anything. But dude, 28 snaps. That's nuts. 28 offensive snaps is a rookie in week one while Christian McCaffrey is fully healthy playing well. Kyle Shanahan still got this guy in the game this much. He finished with 14 carries, 65 yards. Look, I've had my reservations with Kaelin Black as a prospect because I've never really thought that he was a super creative runner. Right.

But he's going to run hard. Hell yeah, he is. And if the 49ers offensive line looks like it looked against the Los Angeles Rams, you better believe this guy is going to get a hell of a lot of carries. And he's probably going to make the most of it because he's just sprinting downhill as fast as he possibly can. And that speed to power is no joke because this is a dense dude who really knows how to get through. So I thought that even on the lower end of what you believed with Cailin Black, you absolutely saw it against the, against Los Angeles Rams. And for those people that were super high on Caleb, you have to love the starting point of what you saw in week one.

Of course you do. And it's kind of like they got their Kyle Munungai. They just took them 90th overall. And part of the reason we all love Kyle Menongai so much is he's the perfect example of that day three value back that was so under. appreciated in college because of, like you said, Trevor, it's no nonsense running. So that was why this pick was questioned at the time. It's not that Caleb Black has ever been a bad player. Now, the one thing I will say is, I mean, he's got running back biceps that usually are

a formula for success in the NFL. Running back biceps, you're saying? Yes. He's got, it's not on this level, but shout at Michael Pittman. I was just going to go back to that well, Thomas Jones. I mean, Thomas, two Buccaneer greats. And those two are in the Hall of Fame for arms in running backs. Wait, throw Mike Allstott in there.

Crazy. Do the Buccaneers have the greatest running back arms, Mount Rushmore? I would. I would. I would. I'd be really surprised if somebody can top that. Because you got Doug Martin as well. Right.

So those are probably your. Those are probably your. four and I would like the chat to come up with another team's four that are better than that. Yeah, I don't think we can. I think that might be Tampa's calling card right there. Definitely, though, Kaelin Black looks like he's going to be a part of this offense. It's the best thing for 30-year-old Christian McCaffrey to keep him as fresh as possible, and he looks like a player.

Who's four for you? Four for me was Caleb Douglas, right? Was Caleb Douglas, who. You? Right. I mean, this was actually going to be my. good surprise we'll do that later I have a different player for that I'm not ducking from this at all I did not like Caleb Douglas as a prospect I didn't think for a big wide receiver

he finished enough plays with his size and I didn't think he was a good enough separator which I thought was fine if you finish more plays with your size and you look at what he's been able to do over summer and now in his debut which it's a it's a Raider secondary I definitely have some questions about, but that's not taking away from him. The most impressive thing to me was just how physical of a brand of football he played. He wants to run through people after the catch. But I will say this. There was a first and 10, I think at the top of the third quarter, where Miami is in the

Raiders territory. He snapped off an out route that I was like, I don't remember him doing a lot of that in college where I'm like, maybe he can't generate some separation. and he already had a big day against them where they were kind of trying to respect him a little bit at this point. There was a couple of catches early on where they're playing on the moon and he's just running in free space. But I like that he was physical with the ball in his hands.

This last catch, wait, what does that mean? Playing on the moon? What is they're playing on the moon? When you're like 13 yards off a wide receiver, what do you think is going to happen? What do you think is going to happen? Now, one of them was on, I think, a third and 15. So it's like, yeah, that's why.

but I get frustrated when teams do it and it's, you know, third and eight. And it's like, well, let's give them 10 to 12 yards and see what happens here. Let's watch. So, yeah, that's what playing on the moon is for me. Caleb Douglas, though, he has opportunity in this offense to carve out not only to be their top receiver this year. But, you know, as Miami does this rebuild, the more important thing is he shows he could be a legitimate NFL number two, number three wide receiver. And you see his rankings on our board. It's like you were a little higher on him than me, Trevor,

but he was one of those guys that when they picked him, it was so far away from the consensus. They picked him a 75. 75. And it's not just me or you or anyone. And good for Miami if they found one here. Let's see if he can keep it going. I thought he had a really good day.

Yeah. You know, I said this from a fantasy perspective. I can't remember if it was last week or a couple weeks ago. But Caleb Doug is skinny looks. Like I think that there's a world where, Malik Washington maybe leads the team in targets. I think the first couple of weeks will sort of tell us of how much they really want to lean into. Or who did I say?

Malik Washington sort of. Yeah, you're right. Okay. But Caleb Douglas, they draft him top 75 for a reason. He's going to get the football. And he's going to get the football probably in ways that we didn't see at Texas Tech, just because they, he has to. He has to for that offense.

So it's a good shout out by you. Very good shout out. Judarian Price, we both have him at number five, 10 carries, 52 yards on the day. I just think he'll be pretty perfect for this zone running scheme. You know, I think, especially those mid and outside zone runs, his athleticism is perfect for it. Now, I felt, I didn't think that it was the elite day for him against the New England Patriots. I mean, there were some blunders where he wasn't really seeing the field correctly. But I think in the long run, this is the player whose skill set fits what the Seattle Seahawks want to do. And I fully believe that.

Yeah, when I looked at his tape, which was, you know, obviously a little easier to get to because it was a standalone game. The thing with Judarian Price, and you really hinted at this, is that you watch him and you go, this guy is a chance to be a top five outside zone runner in the league. There's other things that we're watching how it goes, other run schemes and how he continues to develop in the past game. I really liked him in past pro in college. Now it's becoming an effective pass catcher, but just purely on outside zone runs. his gear, his feel, his natural vision. And once again, going back to that natural feel of when to stay on the tracks,

when to bounce it, when to cut. That's what jumped out to me is like, man, in Seattle, he can be a top five outside zone back, you know, in the next two years or whatever it may be. And they're only going to continue to probably increase his workload while Charbonnet is still down. Sometimes you get these athletic running backs behind zone that, the ceiling is there for them,

but sometimes the floor is lower than what you want it to be. And I think that's the only real danger for Judarian Price within this rotation is certainly like when that Charbonnet gets back and he's fully healthy, does Judarian have, sure, he can give you the 25, 30 yard runs,

but is he also losing you yards? You know, is he careless with the football, right? Like I think there's a little bit of that with Trayvion Henderson still, where Henderson's the more explosive back. I know he's hurt, but when they're fully healthy, like Henderson's the more explosive.

the back from Stevenson, no question about it. But Stevenson, when you need three yards, you know that he'll get you three yards. You don't always know that with Trayvion Anderson. And I think that's really the only thing that's sort of standing in Judarian Price's way from really taking this running game by the reins. That's a great call out by you.

And I think it's something that I'm not going to act like on boots on the ground in New England, but there's something that frustrates them with Trayvion. Yes. And that's, I think it's that. It makes a ton of sense, especially when you look at not only who the head coach is, but Josh McDaniels when you look at his history.

So, yeah, that'll be really important for Price. I'm a little more confident in him overcoming that than I am with Trayvion. But, yeah, time will tell. Last guy that I kind of want to shout out, because we went through our top fives there. Honorable mention for me before we got to go to the defense side of the ball. Denzel Boston, Denzel Boston got his first touchdown. Now, look, man, I'm going to be honest with everybody out there. I didn't go back and watch a ton of this Browns-Jags game yet

just because it was never close. I mean, from the very first passage of Sean Watson had, you could tell like, oh, okay, this game's over. How about it's dropbacks? Speaking of the moon, dude, you could tell from the first two series of this game, you were like, oh, the Browns have zero shot to win in this game. So with it being,

only Monday. I haven't had time to dig into that yet. So I haven't seen everybody specifically from the Jags perspective because I know a lot of them played well, but I just haven't been able to get to those guys yet because I was looking at some more other games. But I didn't want to point out Denzel Boston because I think that Munkin is indeed using him the way that he used Mike Evans when he was in Tampa Bay. Now, Boston only ran, well, I'll read out just the regular stats for him. 26 routes run, four targets, two catches, 59 yards, a touchdown. He only played four snaps in the slot, 46 out wide, but a lot of his snaps were in condensed set. So technically, yes, he's the outside receiver, but he might be lined up like on the numbers or even inside

the numbers as the outside wide receiver. And if you look at the touchdown that he had, he was lined up in the slot. They motioned the outside wide receiver back to the inside, but now all of a sudden Boston was technically the outside wide receiver. He's inside the numbers. He's got all of this space to work with. So Munkin is absolutely seeing the vision of what we talked about with Boston before he was drafted and after he was drafted to this specific spot of playing him in this alignment. Now, I think he showed good body control.

The comeback route I thought was really crisp from him. Obviously, the deep route was really nice on the touchdown. Boston needs to be a better blocker when he is condensed. When he is close to the line of scrimmage, he has to be a more reliable blocker. A game where he absolutely got toasted. And then another block that happened a little bit later in the game, he approached,

I can't remember if it was a safety or a linebacker. He approached them with more violence to the buck, but he did so from like, I'm going to throw my shoulder into you, and I'm going to try to shove you as hard as I possibly can. and he he makes contact with the guy and he shoves him and the guy kind of like stumbles back a little bit. But guess what? You didn't control that player.

That player just then ran around him and basically rallied to where the ball was. So that doesn't do you any good either. He's got to be more reliable as a blocker if he's going to play in those consent. But I love the vision for how we're using Denzel Boston already here in week one. Yeah, Munkin is in a tough spot. I mean, he knows what he's doing. It's just that it's insurmountable. with the quarterback situation.

And yes. Obviously, Watson is not going to be their starter all year. We'll see how Shador does when he gets in there. And who knows what was, you know, how that competition was decided and all of that. But I do think it'll be much more fun evaluating the young pass catchers in Cleveland when anybody else is playing quarterback. Yep. I agree. It's an abomination.

Wholeheartedly. Let's go to the defensive rookie of the year. side of things. Can we see them back to back, chef? The full, the full plate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There it is. There's one more time.

There it is. We got it. Okay, so. This was hard. You have. Yeah, because the defensive guys are kind of all over the place. So I'm glad that we're getting to talk about a ton of different guys here. So Gabe Accus, you have at number one.

Again, you're looking at it more of just sort of a week one performance type of thing. Yeah. You got David Bailey at number two. You have Anthony Hill Jr. from Titans at three. You get Caleb Downs at four. And then you got Jacob Rodriguez at number five. I have Ruben Bain Jr. still at number one. It was not a good day for Ruben Bain Jr.

Obviously, we will talk about that. David Bailey, I have him at number two. Jacob Rodriguez, I have all the way at number three. Stuff the stat sheet, man. We'll talk about him in a second. Yes. Sonny Stiles, I have at number four. And then Arvill Reese, I still have at number five.

My list a little bit more of that long-term thing because we did things a little bit differently. But you know what? Can we start with Jacob Rodriguez? Yeah, I think it's a great place to start. Because I want to make him the Fire TV can't miss prospect that we have for this week. So our friends over at Fire TV, they're making sure that she never miss a game. We're here to make sure that she never miss a rising prospect or a player who is playing really well.

Jacob Rodriguez is that player for us this week. Jacob Rodriguez had 14 tackles. This is game one, okay? Jacob Rodriguez had been busy. Tackles. Five solo stops. One solo run stuff. Allowed two targets, two catches, 18 yards.

I thought the instincts were there, man. I thought he was really always near where the ball was going. His feel for things. There was a play where I can't remember how. the Raiders set this up. But it was sort of like a delayed screen type of thing. And if you zoom out and you kind of just view everything from a peripheral, once it becomes clear, well, I don't even say once it becomes clear,

at the very beginning movement stages of, okay, I think this is actually going to be a screen to the running back here, Jacob Rodriguez is moving in on it. He is moving to where the running back is going to catch the football before anybody else on the defense even rotates their body in that direction. And I felt like there were a handful of those plays where he was a half step ahead of where things were going. And so to me, he was the prospect that stuck out the most. He was the can't miss prospect this week because those instincts that we saw at Texas

Tech that made him such a notable player, a notable prospect, a Heisman trophy, potential finalist of a player. Like, we saw those little hints there in week one against the Raiders. Yeah, it was an interesting one for me. It was pretty up for grabs that fifth spot. I almost went with Arville Reese, a couple of linebackers. Trotter. There was a few different guys.

Yeah, Trotter was great. We'll talk about him. I know we're going to talk about him later. And I'm going to talk about Ruben Bain, who's not on my list later. Rodriguez had some big splash plays. I thought his instincts and coverage were awesome. He had a couple run plays that he just ruined. And then not surprisingly still, he also had a couple of those,

Welcome to the NFL moments against the run. Yep. There was a couple times it was like somebody climbed to him and he got pushed about seven yards away from the ball. And he's not the biggest linebacker, right? So he's always got to see it and get to the spot. And he does a lot. But I thought he was one of those guys I mentioned earlier

that the highlights I thought outweighed the low lights. But there were some low lights too where I was like, man, that's called now I'm a linebacker in the NFL and these keys are a little harder and everyone's bigger and faster. So I thought it was more up and down than a lot of people are saying, but good enough to be my number five. I mean, the Raiders ran the shit out of the ball yesterday. He has to get bigger. He has to get bigger and strong. He has to. There's no, out. I mean, I don't think he's maxed out. I mean, I don't think he's totally maxed out. I mean, I don't think he's totally maxed out. I think he could put on a little bit more strength, but you're right.

I mean, we, I was going to bring this up if you didn't, but I'm glad that you didn't because there is two sides of the coin. He was all over the place. I loved the instincts. Even with those moments where he was getting big, big boy a little bit, especially with any of those run concepts where the offensive linemen were really climbing up to the second level. It was very tough for him to get through or around those guys. He, he, I still think that for, for him to still finish the game with 14 tackle showcases the fact that, man, that is still there for him. And he is going to potentially be able to anticipate it a very, very high and still get things done there.

So to me, Jacob Rodriguez and just the overall performance, that was the can't miss prospect that we had for this week. In terms of fire TV, you never miss a game. You ever sit down, ready to watch a game, only to search and scroll endlessly. If so, you guys need a fire TV. It organizes all of your live games from your favorite teams all in one place across all right on the home screen. No more searching.

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including the latest from our friends over at Fantasy Life. You watch instantly with no downloads or sign-ups or fees free on Fire TV. All right. Want to work our way down? Sure. Let's go Gabe Accus for you. Game Backus is funny. Both my number ones did not play a majority snap count in Antonio

Williams on offense. Gay Back is on defense. Boy, did they make the most of it. I thought, we know Accus is big, strong, tough, you know, when the coverage is good on the back end, he can get home and affect the quarterback. But I thought he played a really smart brand of football against the run. It felt like he was seeing it well. The classic New England, Do your job, but he really, he never, there was a couple moments this summer where I thought he, you know, fell for a fake or it was the wrong read or he looked a little out of place. And I thought against Seattle, and we know how good Seattle is, that he really, really settled in. And I love his play strength. But I thought his awareness really caught up.

And that felt a little behind this summer. I thought Akis had a really, really strong weekend. Like Antonio Williams for the commanders on offense, showed his coaching staff that he can handle a lot more on his plate. for a New England front that there's reps to get at the edge group. I don't think it's a loaded with talent kind of edge group. And that's why they took Gabe Accus in the top 60 to really help them in that spot. He 18 total snaps, three tackles. You notice them.

Run stuff. Yeah, I agree. Very physical player, which, you know, we're not surprised about that. We talked about him for the last couple of seasons where he has been draft eligible. and Gabe Backus was in both of our top 50s. And so obviously a player that we were pretty excited about here. So yeah, Gay Backus, love the shout out for him being in his top five. Again, winning defensive rookie of the year long term is why I don't have him here.

But we were absolutely going to talk about him here on the show. We already talked about, oh, I guess we didn't talk about Rubin Maine. You want to talk about Rubin Bain and then we could talk about David Bailey? Yes, Bain ended up being my, you know, not to skip ahead, but it's a good time. He was my, we're doing a good surprise, bad surprise on top of the rookie rankings. And it's not the, obviously, at the end of the world. He was my bad surprise. And I think the thing for Bain is there's two sides of the coin.

One is, well, he was matched up with Amarius Mims a lot. And that's a tough hand to be dealt for your first NFL game. The problem is, because everybody's like, Amerius Mims is really good and he's built in a lab. that's what people are worried about is the measurables. And he ran into a guy with great measurables and he was invisible. He might have been unfortunately a little worse than invisible. So I think Bain's going to be fine. But I do think it's fair that people questioned the measurables because this was kind of the example of what those people are worried about at the next level.

And it's tough because it's his first NFL game, but I did think there's also a point to that. Play speed, I think, was the big issue for him because when you watch him at Miami over the last couple of seasons, he's playing very fast and everything is very precise. And when I watched him against the Bengals, all of what you're saying is completely true. Like Mims is a really bad first assignment for him to get,

and I think there's going to be people out there, understandably so that say, see, this is the issue with the smaller arms type of a thing. But when I was watching Bain, I think that Mims was just a really, I think it was just a really good welcome to the NFL type of a moment for him where he now realizes, oh, that's the strength level that I have to bring every rep. Oh, that's the speed that I have to bring every rep. Because I felt like there were times when Ruben Bain hit it, when he married the footwork with the hands and it was fast. He was able to win. Now, didn't pressure? No, he didn't really get pressures at all in this game.

You had one pressure on 24 reps. It didn't translate very well for him. But there were still moments when I went back and watched the tape where I go, okay, I saw it. The light turned on here for you. You hit that move correctly. You could have gotten by this player. If you would have started the game like this or if every rep looks like this,

I think the pressures are a lot higher for you. But Mims are really tough assignment for him. And in some ways, like you said, this is almost the perfect nightmare of a week one matchup for a player like Rubin Bain. I just feel as though he was not ready for the strength, the consistent strength level at the NFL. Because I think he, I think Ruben Bain is very used to being stronger than everybody that he went up against in college.

And there were times when Drew Sample was handling him one on one as a blocker. Right. Because Bain was just like, wait a second. Tight ends aren't supposed to be this strong. and you can kind of just see it, where it's almost like the first step or two, he goes, wait, what? And then he locks in,

he puts his feet in the ground and he stands his ground. So it's not like the strength isn't there from him. I just don't think he's used to it. So, yeah, it was not a good game from Ruben Ben. I think he got pushed around in the run game, even against tight ends, and Amarius Mims are really, really tough assignment. I think Amarius Mims is going to have a pro bowl type of a season

if he is fully healthy this year. I think he is that good of an offensive lineman. So I think he's going up against one of the better and more talented offensive linemen in the NFL. But I just don't think that he was quite ready. I think this is much more of a learning lesson for him than it wasn't exposing of anything with Rubin Bain. I am not quite there yet.

But it was a bump in the road for him in what was a slower start to a rookie year than I think a lot of people thought from Tampa's defensive line in general. I think Tampa's defensive line in general was not good in this game. Now, on the other side of the coin, I would much rather just give the Bengals offensive line credit because they have not gotten credit that they deserve for, I think, a little over a year now, that this is one of the better offensive lines in the league. But Tampa's D-line, Ruperman, included, we're not good in this game. So just something to monitor moving forward.

I think he will be fine, though. I think he will be fine. It's one week, everybody. Deep breath. David Bailey. David Bailey's number two. On both of our lists, David Bailey had six pressures on 23. rushes for 23.1%

quarterback pressure rate. Connor, I'm curious as to what you thought here because he got a sack as well in this game. So he got his first NFL stack. Shout to force Cam Ward out of balance. I thought that the speed element for him was definitely there. But when I was watching the pressures, I also felt as though, okay, your presence is forcing Cam to move a little bit. but I didn't think that his pressures were,

okay, you were so close to winning that super clean and getting in the backfield for a sack. What did you think about David Bailey's performance? Pretty similar to you. I think the positive was his speed was very noticeable for the Jets. Like his run and chase speed, it was like, oh, man, they don't have somebody like that. So that was a big one.

I do think he's learning what he can and can't get away with as a like that over-caffeinated kind of speed rusher sometimes. There was times where he kind of just. That's a good way to say it. That's what it looked like at times. It was like, oh, man, he got really excited to get home on that one. And it's Cam Ward, who's pretty nimble. For Cam Ward's problems right now, he's nimble.

He can kind of move the pocket. He can slip through if you overrun and beat you with his legs to just pick up the free space. I thought that, you know, he did get the sack credited when he forced Cam Ward out of bounds on one. there was one though where the Titans were backed up that he got close and Cam just got away out of the end zone where I was like damn David Bailey can freaking run he just creates more chaos for the Jets front and a credit to him as well I thought the Titans really respected him going into this game and it did open up a little bit more for everybody else so that was something that that definitely stood out to me but yeah I thought it was an up and down performance and the Jets defense dominated in this game so he didn't have to have that hero moment. But he definitely makes them a lot faster up front, which is something they really, really needed. I think there were a couple of times where he was doing the thing that we saw a Texas Tech where

he was just losing his footing and he was playing on the ground. And it's like, okay, I'd like for him to play a little bit more in control there. But the speed element of sort of why you're here, why you get drafted, that was at least there. So you feel, I mean, the second that David Bailey gets a real nice cross chop or spin move sort of mastery to get back inside, it could be pretty scary for offensive tackles in the NFL with how fast he can get off the ball. So have him at number two in my rankings here. Do we, we hit number one. We hit number two with David Bailey for you. Where, who is number three for you on your list? Three for me is Anthony Hill Jr. who is also in this game.

I didn't see a lot of Anthony Hill, Jr. You obviously did pay an attention to this game, you know, from a Jets perspective covering the Jets. Talk to me about Anthony Hill, because I really did not see him at all this week. He was one of the only guys that showed up for Tennessee yesterday. And it's jarring. The list isn't long.

The list was not long of guys. And think about the spot he was put in as they had Cedric Gray getting to the UTV accident. So he answers, Cushing Protocol, the week of the game. And Anthony Hill is thrown out there. He's just, he played with so much speed and coverage. Now, the Titans were really, really bad against the run as a team yesterday.

I didn't think he looked like the guy where it was like, it's Anthony Hill's fault again. I thought their defensive line was shockingly, not only just blown off the ball, they were bad on the edges. They just, they got outmatched by Frank Wright playing heavy personnel. but Anthony Hill Jr., he was fine in the run for the most part. He is wildly noticeable in space and coverage. And he has this knack. He did this multiple times yesterday. They were drive-changing plays until the game got out of hand.

That he's so fast in coverage, he'd arrive where most guys would just hit the player. He'd punch the ball at the catch point. Nice. He did it like twice. And it was like, that's a real skill. So Titans fans. I feel for them today because I've had a lot of those days where you just look at your team and you're like,

God, where and ironically with Robert Sala and a lot of the guys that are playing for the Titans right now, funny how that works. But this guy looks like he's going to be a player in a scheme that his athleticism can shine. And the spot he was put in was not an easy one. And I think he answered the bell. That was always the question is to me is does Anthony Hill Jr. have the physical profile to be able to stand up at the NFL level. With Sala, he hides that all the time.

Like when the Jets guy, Quincy Williams, off waivers, he's one of the smallest offball linebackers in the league. He's like 5-11, 220. I don't even know if he's that. And Sala turned him into an all-pro because he just asked him to run. Just see, ball, get ball, and run. That's a great point about him about Hill in a perfect spot then. So this is the place for him, man.

I thought it showed right away. I love it. I love it. So I'm going to go back. And with a review like that, I'm going back to the, tape over the next couple of days because I got to see this from from him and I obviously hope he's in a great spot because he's really talented player. Sony Styles and Arville Reese were four and five for me on my rankings.

For a preseason that everybody kind of freaked out about Sonny Stiles, he's going to be fine, guys. Sonny Stiles is going to be absolutely fine. The physical profile, the strength that he plays with, the violence that he plays with. You know, funny enough, I watch Jacob Rodriguez and then I watch Sonny Stiles. And very, very different because Jacob Rodriguez is seeing things a step or a half a step faster, but then struggling sometimes with when he doesn't getting off the blocks and the physical part of things.

Sony Stiles in no way, shape, or form struggles with the physical part of things. I mean, he was taking on pulling offensive linemen. He was coming downhill hard. I mean, he's hitting offensive linemen and immediately getting into a rip move to get off of them. I am not worried about Sony Stiles in the lease. Sure, was he exactly where he needed to be with the perfect feel for

dropping back in zone coverage? No, but I think that that stuff can absolutely come for him. I'm just, I'm not worried about this player at all. I'm genuinely not worried about Sonny Stiles at all. I think he's going to be one of the best defensive players in this draft. And I think that this game

that we saw against Philadelphia to me, there were too many moments where he was such a physical presence for them for me to think otherwise. He's an elite athlete. He wants to play a physical brand of football. Everything else will catch up to think this guy a couple years ago was a safety and the development curve he's been on. I share the same feeling as you that I'm just not very worried about him. And then Arville Reese, I had it number five. Reese, to me, from what I saw, this was the encapsulation of exactly who Arvill Reese is as a player. As a ball carrier hunter,

Boom. He can get on your ass. Like the closing speed that Arville Reese has is dangerous. When he is coming downhill, when he is focused on being truly that box defender and getting after the pocket, getting after the quarterback, chasing running backs out of the backfield, whatever it is, he is excellent at that. When it comes to true coverage reads, coverage feel, hey, you know, I've got to take this guy because he's here because the defender that was behind me.

He's carrying the wide receiver who's going across the fifth. That stuff, he's slow. That stuff, he is still. a step or two even behind at recognizing when that stuff is going to be there. So Ohio State did not ask him to cover very much. They wanted him to be an apex predator. So it makes total sense what we saw against the Dallas Cowboys with Arville Reese. But the talent is still there for him to be such a high impact defender as a pass rusher and as a run defender.

And the coverage stuff, it was always going to be a long work in progress. But I at least thought that this game was the good of Arvel Reese. you saw the good there from him, even though we know that there's going to be some other work to be done in coverage. I thought so, too. He was one of those. There was a couple guys that had this big pool of players that were candidates for number five. He was included in that.

I've seen a lot of love for trade in Stoaks in the comments. Like he was hovering in it to Arvel. Arvel is about that action against the run. And that's what the Giants have been missing at linebacker. And he's not playing behind great defensive tackle talent as a rookie this year. And he didn't look overwhelmed. So this is going to be a. really, really big help for a Giants team that just wants to be physical on both sides of the ball

and kind of play downhill on both sides of the ball. Yeah, we didn't put Trade and Stukes in my top five or my honorable mentions, again, cheating a little bit because we wanted to cover a lot of these guys. You guys asked us about Trade and Stoaks in the Discord, and we were taking a couple of questions from the Discord for this show to touch on Trading Stukes. We can just hit on this now. Perfect. This is a question for the Discord.

My boy, Stukes looked very fast and comfortable. out there playing free safety. What did the numbers say? What did the numbers say? I didn't even gather the numbers for trading Stoog's. But I watched the film of him, though. He was awesome. He had the, yeah, he had the pick on.

He had the interception on Malik, which was, that's the ball skills and the hang time and the hands to finish plays. Like, that's not surprising. A couple times he got a little aggressive in coverage, I think, and just was a half step behind, not often, one or two times. But, I mean, this was one of my favorite defensive backs in the entire draft, honestly. And I wasn't. The thing with Stukes that I think is the biggest compliment to him is that the Raiders didn't look afraid to play him anywhere yesterday.

They're like, you could be a roaming free safety. You could line up in man coverage that we're going to ask you to carry guys down the field. Like, that to me speaks volumes of already what they think of this guy. And I'm looking at the snap counts yesterday, Trevor. So he had... I'm looking at the snap counts now. I'm looking at the snap counts right now. He had 41 snaps at free safety,

but it felt like they were really moving them around. Then he had like one true outside corner snap, a slot corner snap, six snaps in the box, one snap right on the line of scrimmage. I mean, he's that level of athlete that he could do all those things. Yeah, I was so impressed with exactly what you said there, the freedom that they gave him.

right off the bat. And when you give a rookie that freedom in space, you're going to have to take your lumps a couple of times. Where like you said, okay, he was a little too aggressive on this spot, but then he had the pick. He had another coverage where he was in man from the slots, something that he also did a lot when he was at Arizona. It looked great.

I was really, really impressed with how Trade and Succa's playing. And I liked him a lot as a prospect. So to just see him shining, already in so many of those areas where we felt like he was strong as a prospect. I think that that was a, it was great to see. So I love seeing that from Stukes. The future is very bright for him. And it's great to see him already getting a lot of freedom in that defense.

My two honorable mentions that I had for defensive rookie of the years, we were going through our rankings. Cassius Howe, the edge rusher for the Cincinnati Bengals. Yeah, he popped a little. And then Josiah Trotter, the linebacker for the Buccaneers. Cassius Howe was great, man. I thought he was, I got to look up his specific stats, but to me, he was getting after it. And the ways, the ways that you would want to see Cassius Howell win is how he was winning.

Just an explosive first snap, twitchiness, always winning with leverage. He got Tristan Worf's to stumble a couple of times. Now, there are a couple of plays where technically he did beat Tristan Wurst, like Tristan Wurst, like Tristan Wurst surrendered to pressure. but it was weird because the chemistry between Mayfield and the offensive line was bad all day. It's like the offensive line just like never really knew where Mayfield was. He was holding on the ball for a really long time.

So yeah, I think the pressure numbers with Howell and with the Buck's offensive line are a little bit skewed towards what would be the actual truth of watching the tape. But man, I was so impressed with what Howell was able to do right out of the gate. He is going to be a presence on this defense. line. He is going to be that designated pass rush type of a player. He might not be a three down type of a guy for you, but think about the early Nick Benito type of roles for the Denver Broncos. I know everybody likes to go to that, but that's the true success story. And that's

the way that I see cash is how being used for a much better and higher talented Bengals defensive line. He is giving them that juice that they have missed for years as they tried to draft these bigger, longer defensive lineman on every single spot in the defensive line. They finally said, okay, screw it. Let's go get Boy A Mafay. Let's go get, let's go draft Cassius. Al. Let's get some juice. And let me tell you, those two guys were the toughest to handle for that Buccaneers offensive

line. So Cassius Al had a fantastic day against Tampa. And I'm excited to see kind of how they continue to get him in that rotation to let him pin his ears back and get after the quarterback this year. Yeah, me too. I mean, like you said, Trev, he just gives them a little bit of juice. off the edge. And the league is,

it's fascinating because considering how heavier the league wants to play, you're seeing more under center, you're seeing heavier personnel packages. Teams are realizing that you can't completely get away from these closers as pass rushers. Maybe they're not majority snap count kind of guys, but they are getting really valued again. You look at R. Mason Thomas and where he went in this same draft,

and we'll see what he ends up doing for the Chiefs. yesterday in the second half. Will McDonald is really now kind of one of the Jets edge players. He's not a guy that's like, oh, he goes and plays 95% of the snaps, but he had a spin move for a sack on Cam Ward that just was a total, like steal their soul kind of play. These teams have these speedy, lighter edge pass rushers that can disrupt in certain packages to help you close out games in the second half and create chaos.

Yep. Yep. So Josiah Trotter as well, I think. that we've got to talk about him because he was part of really what tried to save the day for the Buccaneers there down the stretch. I mean, Tampa had four turnovers in that game. I mean, you're just never going to win when you have four turnovers or it's just going to be so very rare when you do. Funny enough, the scouting report for Josiah Trotter read, you know, monster and run defense.

Again, come downhill, downhill linebacker type of a player, kind of questionable in coverage, didn't ask him to do it a ton. I thought very questionable. for all his greatness. Yeah, coverage range a little limited. And what does he do here? Well, he's lined up in a mug look, drops beautifully,

interception on Joe Burrow takes to the house. Just a really, really good coverage rep from him there. But that was not the only good coverage rep from him in the game. I thought he was pretty fluid as a coverage type of player. And those mugged looks where you've got to turn your hips and drop in coverage. I mean,

that's a Todd Bulls thing. You've got to do that. Bulls defense and Josiah Trotter looked very at home doing that. Funny enough, I kind of thought that he guessed wrong a handful of times when it came to the run defense work, but we've seen him when he was at Missouri. We know that will come along. So for the coverage stuff to really pop early for Josiah Trotter, that has to make you feel even better than, hey, if he was good in run defense in this game, you'd rather have him be good in coverage than run defense because I think, you know, the run defense stuff is coming. So Trotter, really, really good first game.

game. Unfortunately, Alex Anzolone next to him played really poor, so they really needed it from Trotter. You're hoping that Anzolone is able to play better in the weeks that follow. But it was great to see that from him. And hey, you obviously keep playing like that. You're going to climb the rankings when it comes to defensive rookie of the year. And you know, one thing with the coverage play, it's tough when you're a value, the tape you're watching, you're watching a 20-year-old prospect. And it's like, man, he's going to be so green in some areas. and then you realize, man, he's playing his whole rookie season as a 21-year-old. Some of these guys, understandably, it just clicks, whether it's their rookie year, their second year.

Trotter is such a presence as a run defender that if that really is him starting to turn the corner a little bit, playing in more space and stuff, the Bucks absolutely got one. Yep, I agree. Anybody else in your honorable mentions that we didn't hit before we go to maybe some surprises that we did? We got our surprises and we got a lot of questions, and I think that's going to cover most of it. Okay, okay, okay. My good surprise is basically my honorable mention. Who?

What is it? Skylar Gil Howard. Oh, ho. What the hell? Yes, baby. Yeah. Come on. The Lions had an interesting day because in the second half,

it felt like all those concerns we have about their secondary kind of came to fruition. now they were able to close out the game. But Skylar Gilhauer, the 205th pick in the draft, I thought he was a monster against the run yesterday. Where I'm looking around and going, man, they are already asking him to be a very important player on the line of scrimmage for them right now. And he is handling double teams.

He's holding the point of attack. He just looked really stout. I mean, we know you have to play a certain way when you're on Detroit. But I was, I thought he's way ahead of the curve. Credits him not even just sticking to the roster, but being a real player up front for the lines, I love the run defense tape I watched at him in his debut.

Let us not forget and let us remind the people, Skylar Gil Howard, an alumni of last year's stock up episode when we were doing these episodes in September. Before he got pro for Texas Tech, I remember we saw him. And I, I was like, like, uh, we sure Lee Hunter's the best defensive tackle on this D-line? Because this guy's sick.

And then he got hurt, so we didn't really see him the rest of the year, which was a bummer. But the preseason reports and the training camp reports where the Skyla Gil Howard was really able to stand out. Love that he got drafted. Love that he went to this spot. Love that you're shouting him out as a good surprise here. Because I'm pumped to, uh, to continue to watch him throughout the year. Because again, I was really, really excited after I sort of discovered.

that he existed on Texas Tech's defensive line. I was really excited to see him the rest of the season, and we just didn't get to see that. So great to see him bawling out. What did we? Who did we else? Oh, the good surprise that I had was Cassius. The bad surprise that you had was Ruben Bain.

We've touched on both of those guys. AJ Halsey was a not great surprise for me. He was tough for him in this game. Colts defense had themselves a day. A day you'd like to forget. And, you know, unfortunately for Halsey being a rookie, it felt like he was in the middle of a couple of those big moments. Did you see?

C.J. Allen played zero snaps. What is the deal? Now, he did miss a lot of time this summer, right? But I don't remember. I went. I just saw that he didn't play at all. I was like, whoa, okay. Is he hurt?

I thought he was this summer. I thought he was active and healthy. for this game. So very weird. We'll have to keep an eye on that. We mentioned, you know, how much we really enjoyed seeing Trayton Stukes get the freedom to sort of play in space. And just freedom is, I think, the right word. Just play very fast and free. And it wasn't a perfect day for him, but he was still in that place where he was able to play confident.

I did not feel like the Colts had A.J. Halsey in a position to play his best. But even with that being the case, his low lights were really low. I mean, it was way too overaggressive when it came to, you know, getting to a certain spot or guarding certain defenders, man coverage, zone coverage, coming down and run defense. He just didn't look comfortable. He didn't look comfortable. He didn't look confident. And I loved A.J. Halsey as a, you know, cover two type of, like, middle of the field safety.

Yeah. And I didn't really see him in a lot of those roles. And I think that the roles that he was deployed in week one, at least from a lot of the low lights, were him being put in positions where I would have told you, yeah, it might be a little bit of a learning curve if you're going to ask him to do all this stuff from a safety level. So I still love A.J. Halsey.

I was a big fan of him as a prospect of what he could be, but it was a really rough first game there from him. And honestly, just a rough game for everybody on that Colts defense against the Ravens. I'm with you. As much as we loved him, we also were very adamant on this show that he is a very specific player. And I think we both addressed multiple times. We knew he would be drafted later than where we ranked him. And he was. And yesterday it's one game against freaking Lamar Jackson and a Ravens' offense that looks electric.

But you're absolutely right, Trevor. It's also a reminder of when you take a player like this and then you put them in that kind of position, and things aren't also great around them, it's a harsh reality to live in in that moment. Yep. Yes, it is. So we'll see. I still, obviously, love Halsey's talent,

but also I think we talked about this during the pre-draft process as well. As much as we loved him, he was a prospect that had more of a high-floor low ceiling. And right now we're seeing the low ceiling, so hopefully plays him a role that's a little bit close to what we saw from him when he was at LSU because it was a lot of fun when he was. man i think it's it's probably super chat time at this point super chats and

discord because we hit all the well technically we hit all of the discord questions yeah you're right we got the francis mali no one in we talked about that a little bit earlier we talked about they're burning questions oh sorry burning questions the absolutely on fire questions the infert presented by fire tv that's actually what we should have done that's pretty nice we gotta get the We'll pitch you to fire TV people. Fire TV people on the live for that. So that's the way that we have the show structured. If you guys are watching this live, you can stick around.

We'll answer all of the super chats afterwards, which you know it's going to be a lot more rookie talk. If you're missing it live, don't worry. We're going to be posting this on Friday, as we often do the after the episode portion of the show. We post those on Friday, so you'll be able to see all that good stuff on Friday. We would love to hear from you guys, right? Rookie Report, we watch as much as we can from the time that, these games stop to when this show goes live on a Monday, but we know that you guys are out there watching your teams,

watching your rookies as well. So just let us know. We love to hear for you guys in the comments, what you thought of your team's rookies, how they perform, if you're very excited, if you're disappointed, best we do that,

of course, in the comment section and of the conversation that we have in the Discord. The chef flashed up the number of subscribers, which as of, I think, five days ago, we are officially over 75K subscribers. on the show.

We appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for getting us to 75K. The next milestone to 100K, it's six figures. And when that happens, folks, we get the plaque. YouTube sends us the plaque of officially getting to 100,000 subscribers. So that one's going to be for you guys. I think the rest of the milestones have been really cool for us to celebrate here on this show. But the 100,000, that's definitely going to be for the attic.

so we appreciate you guys. But if you've enjoyed this episode or anything that we've done, we would love for you to subscribe and continue to come back and hang out with us. Connor, anything else before we get to these super chats here.

I think the only thing I skipped over was in the chat reminded me. I had Caleb Downs on the back end of my rankings. Real quick on Caleb Downs, I thought obviously the highlight was the sack fumble where he absolutely crushed Jackson Dar. I really liked his tape against the run. There was multiple plays where I thought

he came downhill aggressively, through his body around, read things well and he had great click and close not a lot of action in coverage i think dallas had a lot of just miscommunications and blown assignment type of plays as a unit as a whole which was a lot of it was in the flat um but i thought downs was rock solid in in his debut for dallas i have not had time to go through the cowboys giants take because we were taping a lot of shows last night while that game was going on. And it felt like the Giants were in control most of the game from, I mean, I was obviously

watching it, you know, when we were going from room to room and stuff. But when the final score was 28 to 20, I was like, oh, okay, yeah, the Giants like just won the game. And the response on social media was that the Cowboys played like the worst game of all time. Like football has never been at a worse place than what the Cowboys played against the Giants. And so I've got to go back and watch that. game because the responses of just anger and unacceptableness, not a word, was just way too,

way too crazy for me to not go back and watch that one. So I got to, obviously, I'll watch the Maui Noah tape because I knew that we were going to talk about it here today, but I got, I got to go watch that full game for what you guys are saying. Yeah, it was just jarring to watch what they allowed. And the Giants said, this looks easy and we're not going to, we're going to make it easy and just kind of spammed them over with some smart football. If you are watching this live, stick around for the after the episode portion of the show where we're going to get into all the super chats here coming up. If not, we just appreciate you guys for listening and watching whenever you do so.

For the chef behind the scenes who every single week seems to elevate this new layout, more graphics, more things on the ticker, incredible, nonstop W is in the chat. As always for the chef. We appreciate the chef making this all. possible for Connor Sikkimus saying thank you guys so much for watching this episode of the NFL Stock Exchange Show. And we'll see you guys on Thursday when we get back to the

college reports, the scouting reports, all of that good stuff. We talk about everything that's happening in college football and the prospect for the 2027 NFL draft. We'll see you then.