PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - 2026 NFL Mock Draft: Fran Duffy breaks down Garrett Nussmeier, Arch Manning & more

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

The 2025 NFL Draft is soooooo last month, so Fran Duffy is here for the temporary finale of the PHLY Draft Show with Fran Duffy as he spins things forward to next offseason when a slew of intriguing quarterbacks could go in the first round, with Garrett Nussmeier, LaNorris Sellers, Drew Allar and Cade Klubnik among them, not to mention the intrigue surrounding Arch Manning. And yet it’s not a quarterback who tops Fran’s early 2026 NFL Mock Draft. Find out who does as we bid draft season adieu. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

and welcome to the PHLY draft show with Fran Duffy in what will be the conclusion of our 2025 season. We'll see what happens next year. But Fran, you have put this year's draft class to bed. We're going to talk all about the 2006 class and how you go about turning the page. But how you doing? Have you put it all behind you? No. The part of what happens in like May and June for me is like kind of tying the ribbon on the previous draft and it's more just like kind of collecting my thoughts. You know, I do so much work on the... I know you do a lot of work.

The tendencies, well, you don't even know, there's so much way in terms of the tendencies of each team. You know, so I don't want to quickly breeze through and just jump right into the next year's class. A lot of what happens in the next few weeks is kind of going team by team and not just looking at like what they did, but the tendencies of the players that they selected, the information I collected over the course of the spring. How much of that turned to be fruitful?

How much of that was people leading me as strong? you know, just kind of looking team by team, and that does take a little bit of time. Yeah. How much do you vet your sources looking back? Oh, I keep every receipt. Yeah. Keep every receipt. Because look, and so, you know.

It doesn't mean that they were leading you with stray on purpose necessarily. Exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I kind of keep a track record. Hey, you know what? Like this person has pretty good info when it comes to the Arizona Cardinals. But, you know, maybe when I talk to them about the Atlanta Falcons, you know, not so much.

So it feels like a very specific example that you're giving. I literally just went like the first two teams alphabetical. I am going alphabetical on this. So that goes hand in hand with rewatching all the press conferences, watching the behind the scenes videos, reading the behind the scenes articles. You know, as much as much content as I could take in from all 32 teams,

that's what happens over these next few weeks. All right. You have your first 2006 mock draft on all PHLY or any other all city channels where you are at diehard. You can check that out. You have done five guys. from this class so far. So we're going to talk about that.

I want to ask you a big picture about the quarterback class and sort of big takeaways. But before we get to the nitty-gritty of the players, I do want to talk a little process here for you. So what goes into you turning the page to 2026? What are you doing right now for next year's draft class? So I have a number of sheets that I work through over the course of the entire year. Like workable documents when it comes to not just like my notes on players,

but then also, you know, like anytime, you know, I've got a number, let's say it's a 40-yard dash time, or maybe it's a drop rate for a wide receiver, a pass-rush win rate for a pass-rusher, whatever it is. I've got a number of metrics that I track, and I always refer to the 10-year sample. I'll refer by, hey, you know, this is where this tallies

compared to all pass-rushers drafted in the last decade. Well, it takes time to kind of get all that data and contextualize it, right? So that's what happens now over these next several weeks, is that it's going to be a lot of, all right, you know, every player that got drafted at every single position, all of those data points that I track. Let me make sure that that goes into next year's sheet and just trying to get that ready.

So I'm working on that. I'm going to do something I've never done before. Okay. I'm going to lean back in this chair. Give it a little relaxed. My back is hurting a little bit, so I'm just going to, this way I can really listen to you. Oh, I like this.

It's the new you. It's the new me. I don't like leaning back in these chairs. I neither do I. Neither do I. I prefer to get to. to the front, but yeah, you know, I got a little, little crick in there. Yeah, got to work it out. So much bending over for the baby. Uh, anyway, go ahead. Well, uh, the other big one is obviously,

look, jumping ahead into next year's class. And so honestly, it's like, all right, I wake up one morning and it's, what do I feel like doing? Do I feel like, you know, doing some guys for next year? Do I feel like, uh, getting into some statistical stuff? Do I feel like, uh, looking back at last year's class? Since there's no deadlines, it's just kind of, uh, just kind of follow, where the wind takes me. But, um, yeah, I have jumped ahead into a few players for next year. Uh, But that's been a fun process. In the past, we have talked about by the time the draft comes, you have reached, like, I just want to be done with this draft class.

And it wasn't like that for you this year because you were still playing a little bit of catch up. Generally speaking, the turning of the page. It's, you know, it's thematic. It's spring. This is rebirth. Do you get excited about having a whole new crop of guys to learn about and unearth? Honestly, like the watching players in the summer is my favorite time to watch players.

Fun. Yeah, because the narratives haven't been built on players for the most part. I mean, really the only thing that's out there on gut is these like two early mock drafts. And, you know, what our feelings are on players, you know, just based off the college football season. But, yeah, watching players in the summer before, like, there's a widespread narrative. Yeah, that's definitely my favorite part. It is also, it must be fun because it's then informing at such a different level when you're just watching on TV college football on Sunday. She's like, oh, I have done this guy.

And even if it's the TV copy, I'm seeing him do something that I was hoping to see him do or I didn't know that he. he could do, that must be a nice extra liar as well. It absolutely is. And it goes, it can go the other way as well. I don't take enjoyment from seeing like, oh, like, everyone had this guy as a top 10 pick and mock drafts. And I'm like, yeah, like, I don't quite see it. And you kind of see a play out and you're like, okay, like, I feel validated from that standpoint. Now, did you do just for your own purposes, like way too early mock drafts in the past? Or was this one the first one you've done? This was the first one I've ever done. Okay. So you can't really look at look back and say, I did well or didn't do well here. Yeah. I think I, oh, no, actually, there have been years. I've done basically Ben Fennell and I you know when we worked together with the Eagles we would

say like all right it would be like May or June we're like oh let's just do let's just do one but I didn't it wasn't not in every year occurrence I'd have to look back and see the some of the ones I've done in the past and so one thing I'm curious about how did you go about doing the draft order? Did you just go off Super Bowl odds? Super Bowl odds. I think you got to go for a little bit of a like drum up some outrage right and do some stuff on your own like yeah make the I don't know, make the Colts have the number one overall pick or something. But more of a fan base that you could easily rile up. Well, that's the thing is that in some of these mock drafts that happened for, you know,

and I've only looked at a handful just from, you know, from people are friends with is the idea of like, oh, well, look, the number one pick next year, like they just took a quarterback. So I'm just going to have somebody to trade up. I'm like, I can't do trades for a two early 2026 mock. So I didn't have any quarterbacks going in the top two of this mock that I did. But yeah, this quarterback class should be a little bit more fun. Let's get into that then. Because this year, obviously, we spent so much time in this draft, you know, and downplaying

the quality of the class in general. What is the way too early vibe check on how strong next year's draft class is going to be? Yeah. Because it is also all of the, this extra year of COVID guys have gone, right? So now we're back to what is sort of like the new normal of NIL parity, right? Yes. And that's, so I still think we'll have plenty of players going. going back to school.

And so it should be a thinner class than what we expected three, four, five years ago from that standpoint. This one, and then maybe one or two more years and then it will be fully filled out? Yeah, I think then we'll start to see that it starts to level out that way.

But I would say like, yeah, more excitement about this quarterback class going into the summer than certainly last years. Now, will that play out in terms of, you know, players getting drafted in the first round a year from now? Like that remains to be seen. But I've got a little bit more juice from a volume of stand where there's more excitement for Archmanning,

Lenora Sellers, Garrett Nussmeier, you know, you go down that, Cade Clubnick, Drew Aller, like there's more names to kind of go home through. And so I think I had five or six quarterbacks going in that mock draft. And again, I have not, the only player, when I did that

mock draft, the only player that I had done a deep dive on was Nussmire because there was a chance that he was going to come out last year. So I did his film. And you were helping out Zach who wrote a story on of his own. Of course. Yeah, so that was part of it as well. But I was like, I was genuinely excited to watch him. And I liked what I saw. Like, this was a guy that to me, like

looked like he had top five pick quality play. And yeah, finishing out, we'll get into it. Well, let's get into it now. What do you see that makes him look like that? Yeah, I mean, to me, when I see Nussmeyer, this is the LSU quarterback. Yes, thank you. But anybody doesn't know. LSU quarterback took over for Jaden Daniels, was the backup to Jaden Daniels the previous

two years. So step right in, you saw like flashes of playing time, but, you know, was not the starter until this past year. the first start actually of his career was Jaden Daniels opted out of the bowl game so he started that game he won MVP of the bowl game and so then he comes back for last year

and this is a guy that's got toughness in the pocket the pocket mobility he looked like a vet playing early on in his career last year but then also I mean the willingness to attack all three levels he's very aggressive he's willing to push the limits

with tight window throws and the touch was outstanding the accuracy really showed up he's not like a wow physical talent, I would say it's better, like he's got more physical talent than Shudor Sanders, Jackson Dart, like the guys that we were talking about like in that second tier in this past class. When you say that, are you talking about athletically or arm strength? Athletically and like the velocity is a thrower.

You know, I think that the overall arm talent is pretty good. Like he's got the ability to throw a fastball and change up. The anticipation I thought was pretty strong. He just had to like some games late in the year where like, oh, that was a tough interception to throw late in the middle of the field in crunch time. right and so I was glad to see him go back I'm excited for what he can be I remember when I was finishing

up my study this is back in the fall I watched three games in like October of last year and Dane and I were texting back and forth and he was like he can't really flex uh he came up with his comp so I'm not taking credit for it he kind of reminds me a Tony Romo that's what I was gonna say yeah and I was like yeah I was like

Dane I was like you're exactly right now his dad is the long time quarterback's coach spent some time in Dallas and you know it stands the reason maybe that was a player that he kind of emulated a little bit, but he does have some Romo-ish kind of qualities there. Yeah, I like Garrett Nussmeyer. Like, to me, he looks like a future top five quality pick. So the book on Nuss-Myers that one day he will become a great broadcaster early

and then just sort of not get better. Zach might have a little bit more insight into his future plans there, you know, post-playing career, having done the piece of him. He was like one of the few guys in college football last year who I paid a lot of attention to because Zach, was doing that story and obviously his dad was on the Eagle staff. And I do, you could tell just from watching then, like comfort in the pocket. Yeah. To me, you tell me if you disagree, I'm not so sure that that's a thing that just gets a lot better. It's like you have it or you don't.

Yeah. And it looked like he was very comfortable moving around in the pocket in those tight spaces keeping his eyes down field. Yeah, with guys bearing down, you know, he'll deliver a throw, eyes down the field, very comfortable navigating a pocket. This is another thing as well. He's only started what he has started. He's started 14 games. He's already got three fourth quarter comebacks coming into this year.

I mean, there's like an unflappability about him that is as impressive for an inexperienced player. So let's think big picture, if you're evaluating a quarterback, knowing that there's at least another full season to come. What are the things that like you want to know you either have it or you don't? and what are the things where you believe that this can improve?

Yeah, I think that, look, I think optimism reigns supreme in the summer. That's one of the other reasons why I like watching. It's like, you're kind of betting on the cum a little bit. And you say, like, all right, he can get better here. But what you want to see, like, just prerequisites is like, all right, like, arm talent. Is that, is that there, check? Like, then you start getting into things like what's coachable and what's not. To your point, like, I want to see the comfort in the pocket, the ability to operate with bodies around you,

ball placement and touch is pretty important. I want to be able to see, like, all right, do you have that ability to be able to hit receivers in stride? Decision making can improve, right? You know, like the sack avoidance, like that's something that can get a little bit better. That's something that he really excelled at.

And there's data that suggests that interceptions are actually a good thing early on for a quarterback because it proves that they're willing to make the tough throws. Yeah, I think that that's one of the things that stood out to me and we'll get into another player as well at that position where it's like, yeah, like he's willing to push the limits there. and especially like not even just, you know, like he's rolling out of the pocket

and he just kind of chucked it up. It's the, all right, it's, you know, third and long, step up into the teeth of the rush and deliver an in-breaking route and the middle of the field. Like he's willing to make those kinds of throws. Okay, so that's Nussmeyer. Now let's talk about the guy who I think

even the casuals know. And this is like the guy that everybody knows and he's not even in your mock draft because he probably won't come out next year. But there's a possibility that he will. He's one of the five guys you've done. tell us about Arch Manning. So yeah, I didn't put him in the mock.

Number one, it was kind of like an easy to be like, all right, I can squeeze one more player into the mock because I'm not, I genuinely don't think he's going to come out. I think that it stands to reason when you look at the history of the Manning family, this has been talked about elsewhere. So it's not like, you know, riveting analysis. But I think that when you're looking at Arch Manning, yeah, you look at Peyton, you look at Eli,

those guys stayed in school longer than people anticipated. I think Manning, yeah, he's going to be a redshirt sophomore. he is eligible, but he's got two starts under his belt. I don't think he's going to come into. Now, yeah, he could play 16 games this year, you know, with the extended, with the college football playoff, the extended regular season.

And yeah, maybe 18 starts enough. My gut tells me he wants to be like at least a two-year starter. That's my gut. And Dane put it best was that the one thing that could lure him out would be if his hometown New Orleans Saints had the number one pick, where his grandfather was drove, was the last first round quarterback by the Saints,

like being able to live into that, like that could be fun. But also like I don't, I kind of think that, you know, these mannings too, like they all haven't followed the same path. You know,

Eli went to Ole Miss, didn't go to Tennessee. You know, all those guys, you know, have kind of charted their own course. So my gut tells me he will stay in school for the 2026 season as well.

Okay, so he had those two starts. Yeah. From last year. It crunched the film on those. What did you see? Yeah, I watched all 230 snaps,

23, snaps from last year. He's awesome. He is so, so good. I'm a big fan of Steve Sarkesian's offense in general, just in terms of like philosophically what they do. I think that they do a lot to help the quarterback and just that it's a very efficient pass game. So it's a lot of screen and RPO's like, all right, quick rhythm throws. So what can you do on top of that? That was one of the the knocks that I had on Quinn Ewers was that, yeah, like he will execute all of that. But then like what else can you do? He's going to push the limits down the field.

When like the timing and rhythm for a lot of their vertical concepts that he showed as a backup, like, because a lot of times you see a backup come in and it's like, all right, we're going to go out, like, just go execute the scheme.

Yeah, yeah, and it's like, get the ball out fast. It was one of the first plays in his first start against Louisiana Monroe to play action boot, roll out to the right. And it's like,

all right, like, yeah, flat's like, throw the flat. No, he holds on to it. He's like,

yeah, I know I've got the deep crosser coming from the backside. He gets his eyes back to the middle of field and throws the deep crosser for like an 18-yard completion in the first down. It's like, oh, yeah. Look at the smile on your face right now. He's, he's really, really talented. And just the, I mean, they ran numerous like vertical big play, like the downfield concepts where, yeah, like you could see what the upside is going to be with this offense next year with him at the helm versus Quinn yours who like did a nice job executing that offense. but I think it goes to another level with you think they should have made the switch

you think they should let him be the guy I get honestly like when I posted I posted a couple clips of Arch on social media yesterday and that was some of the blowback was like all right well if he's so good like how come they just didn't they did we see that all the time

in college football though like we there are so many instances especially a quarterback where it's like yeah like oh we have a we have a vet already yeah he's going he's going to be the guy scared might don't make money yeah like you know like Tyler Palco got you know got reps over Joe Flack

Like, again, there are like endless examples of this. Or Tyler Paco taking astray. Just watching draft coverage. Tyler, hello. Good to see you. Thanks for watching. So Louisiana Monroe, who is the other game? Mississippi State.

Okay. So jump in competition. Yep. And he's, there were instances where you were like had to bow out of a game because of injury or, you know, there were times where they just like kind of mixed manning in at times as well. Or maybe they were blowing an opponent out. So there were like drives here and there where you got the chance to see him. And again, like the ability,

you talk about like the ability to like operate in a pocket that's there. He's making throws with defenders coming at him. The poise really, really flashed. The arm talent is outstanding. He's a great athlete.

He had like two, 250 plus yard runs last year where he like takes off and it makes plays down the sideline. Yeah, it's really, really impressive. So Peyton Manning, but athletic is the book on him.

Sure. Yeah. Honestly, it's like, All the reasons people get excited about like Justin Herbert and like Trevor Lawrence. Like you think like of like those guys like coming out of school and in the NFL where like the film bros like get all excited about those guys. He is all of that with the great athleticism. Plus dead boy. With the pedigree.

Yeah. Like it's there's a lot to be excited about. He's he honestly like he is going to play like a Heisman front runner this year. Like I to me like he's going to post numbers and like look. excellent from a film standpoint like projecting forward there there's a lot of reason to be excited about it how are his comedic jobs uh i don't know yet i'm excited yeah well i don't know if he's quite too uh patin and eli's standard there well that's good to know something to work on yeah the summer you get a bet on the come i would say like the areas where i do want to see him improve uh overall sack avoidance there were sometimes where he was

like um like locked on to that primary read like he was waiting for it to open up where it was like all right, so just like eliminate faster so that, you know, you don't get the rush to get there. There were times where, like, you could see him go like one to two to three to four, but a little bit too, too often where he held onto it and took some sacks there. All the pre-snap direction did come from the sideline this year. My guess is is now as the guy, he'll have a little bit more pre-snap authority. There were times where like the accuracy, like he got a little bit too rushed and, you know, the ball placement suffered.

But again, like outside of that, it's these are things where I'm really excited for what he's going to look like. Okay. of the top of the quarterback class guys who you haven't done your full deep dive on yet but you have just sort of watched a little bit and gotten a feel for them. Lenora Sellers from South Carolina Drew Aller from Penn State

and Cade Clubnick from Clemson. What's the book on those guys? Who is the most interesting to you? Yeah, Sellers. Because you've got them all in your top 10. Yes. So Sellers is a guy, all the South Carolina guys

that I talked to this offseason raved about him. He was the first freshman captain in school history. The physical talent pops off. He's a red shirt freshman this past year, but athleticism, physical, like, armed talent, like velocity, the ability to kind of put it wherever he needs it. Really, really impressive.

So I'm excited to do the deep dive into Lenora Sellers. Obviously, like, kind of carried into the brink of the playoff. They had some losses early on that it just proved to be too much for them to overcome. But a lot of people felt like they should have been in the playoff over, like, SMU or some of those teams that kind of sneaked in there in the back end. So when I look at Sellers, I'm really excited for that. Do you worry with a guy like him that? Josh Simon's so good that he's pulling him along with him?

Yeah, that's something I will be keeping an eye on. Like, all, on the non-Josh Simon targets, how else? What is he like athletically? He looks, again, like without doing this, he looks to be like a plus athlete. Like some of the explosive runs that I saw, he looks like a guy that I'm excited to see. So this is a guy who's physical tools out the wazoo? Yes, I think so. So I'm excited to do the deep dive there.

You mentioned Drew Aller from Penn State. this is a guy, look, we get hung up on, sometimes with prospects, we get hung up on like, all right, the lasting image. And there was that interception late in the loss of Notre Dame where it's like, oh, I was a terrible decision. What is he thinking there? For the most part, Drell is in an excellent job of taking care of the football. I actually want to the earlier point you made,

I actually want to see him push the limits more often, moving forward. Just again, in the small study that I have done with that, he's like your classic, like caretaker, ball distributor, ball out fast. Now, they did not have a wide variety of weapons in that in that past game. It's a run-oriented offense just based on the skill set there, highly schemed offense. They did a lot of creative things with that offense this past season. So like cool screen game, you know, they're moving people around, you know, Wildcat with Tyler Warren, you know, Nick Singleton taking direct snap. So they do a lot of

funky stuff, which you kind of have to like throw that out with projecting him forward. But I would say like purely as a quarterback, he looks like he's got all the sky. skills required is just more like I want to see him kind of push the limit and kind of shoulder the load a little bit more often. So I'm excited to see what that looks like. I have to do a little bit of a deeper dive on him before I put that concrete. What are we talking about? This is more of a pocket passer. More pocket passer for sure. Again, kind of like low A dot. There was a lot of like ball out fast, taking care of the ball, not going to put the ball in harm's way type of profile. Tall bow nicks. Sure. Yeah,

again, without having. Yeah. Stylistically. Yeah. Stylistically. Yeah. I feel like that's the knock, or the, uh, the rap. Okay. Then what about Clubnik? So Clubnik, I've done probably the least amount on the, on this group, but he is another one. Like everybody raves about him from a, not just like the teammates, but multiple defensive players brought him up to me this year as like, hey, who was the toughest like, the, not

like the, the most talented or like, who was the toughest player you went up against this year? And Clubnik came up like three times, uh, with opposing defensive players this year. which I thought was not. I thought that was kind of interesting, because you don't usually, you don't usually see that. Yeah. You don't want to give,

you don't want to give a, give pop to the quarterback. And an underclassman quarterback that wasn't in this class. Like sometimes it would be like, oh yeah, like Cam Ward. You know what I mean?

But like for an underclassman quarterback, I thought that was unusual. And everybody raves about him. So I'm, I'm excited to dive into his film. I know that there were some that are really happy with how he ascended. Because he was a,

he was a big time recruit, you know, came in, took over, Diji Yu O Yongola, at Clemson, and it was like, all right, like, he's going to be the next guy. And it was a little bit of a rocky start. But then this year in 2024,

ascended to be, you know, kind of matched that recruiting profile. So I'm excited to dive into the film there. When you are watching guys and somebody else keeps sort of taking your attention away and popping, do you make a note of that? Oh, always. Yeah. I mean, that's, I mean, that's, we talked about it when,

when the Eagles selected McCuba, you know, Andrew McCuba from Clemson, that was a guy with that, yeah, I was watching other players and he popped as a true freshman. So I'm all with that. As soon as that happens, like immediately like, all right,

let me add that to the sheet. Let me find his draft here. Make sure that he's, he's in the hopper. That must be such a treat to then get to. Okay, now I get to sit down with this guy who have written down like six times. Oh,

that must be so fun. And sometimes those guys turn out to be nothing. Right, but like, but just to open this present that you've known about. Yes. That is very fine. And it gives me,

it's like, oh man, like especially when, all you have, let's say it's McCu, right so all right he popped as a freshman and then I go to the combine the next year and like two of his former teammates say like oh yeah like do we have this guy coming up I'm like oh yeah he was already in my sheet now I'm really excited to to kind of unwrap that later that sounds that sounds like a

lot of fun that's fine I lost that guine doing doing film in the summer is so again one of my favorite times now are is there a guy who you are who like you have circled as like you can't wait to get to him you're most excited about um um buzzing through really fast I mean, there are probably a handful of guys that I could say there. I would say, wasn't through these names, probably, you know, the safety from Purdue, Dylan Thineman, I believe is the pronunciation there. He's going to be a true junior, so a rising junior. I did sneak him into the mock draft.

He was a guy as a true freshman, was like an All-American. And I remember why it was crossover film. I was watching somebody in the Big Ten. I don't have it in front of me, but I was watching an offensive player in the Big Ten. and you see the safety flying around. I'm like, oh, like, who's this guy? And then the accolades come out. And I was like, oh, he's got All-American as a freshman.

So, like, yeah, yeah, he's a guy. I'm excited to watch. One more quarterback to talk about. Yep. Another guy who you have done the full dive on because there was a chance he would come out this year. Yes. That's Carson Beck, who transferred from Georgia to Miami,

a Sean Syed favorite. Yeah, I was here. I was interested to watch him because I was, I was relatively high on Beck coming into the year where the physical talent, wasn't necessarily like awe-inspiring. Like I think that he's got a quick release. He's really tough.

He'll, the accuracy really stood out. But I would say with him, it's kind of like the Quinn Ewer's conversation where it's like, the highly schemed offense, a lot of screens and like, like, all right,

just RPO, like get the ball out quickly. What else can you do on top of that? Two years ago, 2023, he capitalized on a lot of those throws where it's like, all right, let's remove the frills from the offense and say like, all right, like pure dropbacks, like how do you look?

I thought he excelled last year, less so, where he threw more interceptions, he took more sacks, just like there was more like just kind of head scratching plays. Now he's transferring, goes to Miami, what is it going to look like in this new offense, in this new environment? I would say like the departure from Georgia wasn't super clean. Obviously, he also had the elbow injury at the end of the year,

required surgery, so he missed this whole spring. What is that going to look like, you know, when he comes back fully healthy? So yeah, I would say, like, he didn't make it into my mock draft for a reason. My guess, you know, my expectations are going in. Like, this is probably more like early day three. And we'll see if he can play his way into a higher slot than that. Now, expecting you to predict who's going to be the next Cam Ward is a ridiculous thing

because he made such an, it was unexpected for a reason. But is there anybody else who was sort of on your radar as, you know, might have the tools or just you've been aware of them that they could make some kind of leap into round one conversation? Yeah, I would say, again, without having. studied those guys. Two names that kind of stand out would be Tailing Green from Arkansas, who's going to be a red shirt senior, uh, 6-6-224, so a bigger kid than Cam Ward, but athletic traits, uh, the flashes are really, really strong. I'm excited to study his film. Uh, and then another one would be, uh, Mark Grunowski at Iowa now. So that's the, that's the thing is it like, what is it

going to look like at Iowa? Is he going to put up big numbers? But he transferred, man, I loved Brad Banks back in the day. Oh, I mean, you know, who, who didn't love a, uh, what was the kid that went in the third round of San Francisco? I can't even make the joke. I'm not going to land. Connor Cook? No, that's Michigan State. I'm not even going to bother.

But Mark Kornowski was at South Dakota State, led them to two national titles of the FCS. It could have come out in this past year's class. Similar to Cam Ward was accepted to go to the Shrine Bowl and was like, all right, he'd probably be a day three guy. Transfers and we'll see what he can make of them. himself here this year. Okay. Now, two more guys you've done before we get into where else this draft looks like it might be strong or weak. Both running backs, Nicholas Singleton, who you mentioned

from Penn State. Yep. And then Jeremiah Love from Notre Dame, who you liked quite a bit. Jeremiah Love is a first round player. So I would say this is like in the, he's, he's different. I was actually asked like, how does he compare to Gentie? They are different players, different like archetype of running back. Gentie was your like shorter, squattier, like more of your belcow. the knock that you will have that you will, I think you're going to, honestly, the only knock that I've got on Jeremiah Love coming in, he is more of like your slender, explosive slasher type, you know, like four three speed, big play threat. Only had one game where he had more than 15 carries last year. So like that is going to be that is like, all right, can he be that full time back? Some teams won't care about that. You know, like, hey, he could be our Jemir Gibbs. Other teams that will matter and that's going to affect the evaluation. But Jeremiah Love's awesome. He is such a good player. Why? But about him.

Creates yardage in basically every way imaginable. You know, he's got the ability to kind of burst through the hole in a race angle. So like, you know, safety linebacker, like he can outrun you at the second and third level. But he's got wiggle. He can jump cut you.

He's also got better contact balance and the ability to kind of play through tackle attempts than most guys that are six foot, he came in. Yeah, he's listed six foot two 12. Like so not the biggest guy, not super physically imposing,

but like just consistently, made people miss. You know, and when I'm watching him, I'm like, who does he remind me of? He looks like Travis Etyn. I did not like Travis Etym

when he was coming out of Clemson. He is, he, in all the ways that he is, that, like, Travis ETM was like weak where he was like, oh, like,

I don't know if I like him between the tackles. I don't know if I like him, like creating yards for himself and playing through contact. This guy's excellent. He can pass, he can pass protect.

He'll play on special teams. He's a gunner on special teams as starting running back. Like, legit four three speed. Again, just like checked all the boxes. Like, and then he does, you know, he got hurt down the season finale against USC. He hurt his knee.

It was like an MCL sprain. Uh, you could say like, all right, like what, you know, probably going to bow out. Got it out. Didn't miss a game. Uh, now, was clearly not 100% for the, for the college football playoff. Uh, had fewer than 10 carries in all of those games. But he's back there with Riley Leonard. And Riley Leonard became the lead ball carrier.

He's the fullback on, he's quarterback runs. And like, just going like inserting and blocking linebackers, you know, on a bum leg. I just, I love Jeremy. Yeah, like Jeremy I love and he's,

he'll be a 21 year old next year. Like that? Yeah, there's, there's a lot to like with this profile. First round of running back then. I mean,

he better be, he better be awesome. Yeah, I, my anticipation is that he will be one of the most productive running backs in college football this year. That's my guess.

C.J. Bethard. Thank you. That is it. Yes. That was who I was, that's the Iowa running, the Iowa quarterback that I was referring to earlier.

Yes. Okay. So, we've talked about the quarterback. obviously you don't have a running back going number one overall. You have a non-quarterback going number one overall. Who is that? T.J. Parker is a player that, so basically what I did,

I'm going through all these names. I'm talking about first round. I haven't done the deep dives on them, but before I do the mock draft, let me quickly, I'll just, hey, let me watch all T.J. Parker sacks. How do they happen? He's a power rusher. He's big. He's physical.

He can kind of unearth offensive tackles, his ability to just kind of put his foot in the ground and go right through their chest. That's where he wins. now I'm excited. Like is he a first round like that top five caliber athlete? That's what when I start to watch him, I'll have a better sense.

But that's how he was able to get home to the quarterback last year was a lot of power rushes. Okay. Who, yeah, like remind you of anybody body typewise? I don't think of a power rusher who went one overall. I guess Trayvon Walker is not.

Yeah, he would say like Trayvon Walker. And that's the thing like, all right, like Trayvon Walker, freak athlete. Like you kind of need him to be that type of player. he let me see if I've got

measurables I don't have measurables on Parker yet but I mean again I saw I sampled like the two early mocks yeah all right let me so we went through Dane had him at four Todd McShay had him at nine Nate Tice had him at six on his big board

Jordan Reed had him at nine PFF had him at seven Rob rang from Fox Sports had him at four so like all right like consensus top ten type of talent so I just kind of buzzed through and like all right let me let me take a look here and it's the power that won me over and then on the other side of the line of scrimmage you have an offensive lineman going to overall.

Yeah, so that one would have been Caden Proctor from Alabama. I will say like Proctor is a guy that popped early on when he was there, true freshman starter at left tackle for Alabama. And he's another one where it's like the power and play strength really stands out. Now, I have him going higher in this mock than all of the other mocks that I sampled. Got me, good for you. But it's not like a, like I have, since I haven't studied them, I'm not like saying like, oh yeah, I feel really good.

He's going to go this high. It's just the fact like he has been popping to me on film since his freshman year, just blowing people off the ball. Alabama offensive linemen. I mean, it's a safe bet. Yeah, like, all right. So is he, is he Evan Neal or, you know, is he, you know, one of the other guys we've seen going to have NFL success?

But, uh, yeah, Van Neal went in the top 10. He did, yes. So, but so like, uh, Proctor, what was interesting was after Sabin left, he entered the portal, went to Iowa. So I was like, oh, he's going to go to Iowa. He spent. spring ball there and then it was like I'm just gonna go back to Alabama

I entered the portal again went back to Alabama and played there last year I mean interesting I was not for everybody I think that's true yeah that's very very true and so yeah but I will say like Proctor like that Alabama offensive line was a bunch of bullies like over the last two years and he was like

the biggest bully on that with with Tyler Booker that's the thing it's like watching Booker I was also noticing Proctor back in the fall how excited do you get when Bruce Feldman's freak list drops Oh, that's like Circle the date on the calendar

Yeah There are been times where he's done it And then like spurts But that's because what that does Is number one It's great to have like some more data To put in right But then also that's like

What that usually means? Because it usually comes out end of August It's come out later every single year Because of transfer portal Okay He's talked about this It's like yeah like Coaches were afraid to give me names

early in the summer that makes sense. Because if I put it out in June, they can get poached. Yeah. So he was like, I have to put it out later now. Interesting. But over the last few years, that'll be like late August and that'll come out. And that's like, oh.

That's your day. Oh, yeah. Shavon Revel, like, who's this guy? Like, I got to watch him. I'm like, oh, this guy's awesome. So yeah, that's always a fun day. That's fun. That's exciting.

Yeah. All right. So big picture, like, strengths of the class, stuff like that. Is it too early or are there indications that it might be good in certain areas? Yeah. I mean, it's just, again, based off of these names that I'm pulling, a lot of defensive linemen. And I will say, like, a lot of these defensive linemen that I pulled were, like,

interesting, like, combo, like big edges or, like, athletic interior players, but guys that lined up up and down the front, like Peter Woods from Clemson looks awesome. He looks really, really strong, really, really athletic for an interior player. We mentioned T.J. Parker, his ability to push the coin. By the way, like, Clemson had, like, five guys on this mock. So Clemson should be good this coming year. But then you go down the list a little bit further, and it's like, Keldrick Falk from Auburn,

some people have him as an interior rusher, some people have him as an edge. Like he was able to win up and down the line of scrimmage. Yeah, there were a couple guys, you know, Mattayo Ouyangalale from Oregon, Ruben Bain from Miami. He was another guy that had that combo skill set. Tyreek Sapp from Florida,

another guy that has that combo skill set. So that was one thing that stood out was a lot of defensive linemen again, but more importantly, guys that had that multiple, you know, versatile skill set. So will Terry Fontenot regret trading away his pick, I guess is the big question. Yeah, I mean, so what's funny is before this, I went and just like, all right, let me look at one 22 early 2025 early mock draft. James Pierce was the number one pick in that mock.

And that's what's interesting about these mock drafts is like, you know. That's what you should have done. You should have made the Falcons pick the number one pick. Yeah, that's actually. That's a good point. But yeah, I mean, my guess is he's probably going to regret that. I think so. We'll see.

How about wide receivers? A lot of names have not done the deep dive on any of them yet. But what was interesting is there's not like one guy. I would say the one guy that consistently showed up was Carnell Tate from Ohio State, which I had another Ohio State guy. The bigger one is... And like the two best receivers in college football are going to be out in 27. Yes, that's the thing.

So Ryan Williams from Alabama and Jeremiah Smith from Ohio State. but Carnell Tate consistently in all these mocks and then it's like, I'm not kidding, like 12 other guys spread across five different mcks. So a lot of names, I'm excited to kind of go through. I mean, there's a kid from South Carolina that's like height, weight speed. I included him in the mock.

Evan Stewart from Oregon, he was getting a lot of fluff last year, had a little bit of a down year, so it didn't come out. I will say, like, of the past catchers, the guy that when I went through and I watched and I was like, oh, like this guy looks, looks legit is Kenyan Sadiq, the tight end from Oregon, who I ended up giving to the Eagles just because like,

all right, tight ends in first round are tough. You watch like three catches and you're like, this guy's got real juice. I went through and like, that's fun. Seems like he checked the box as a blocker, not like a killer at the point of attack or anything, but. And wasn't their number one, right? Right.

And that's, I'm fascinated to do the deep dive on him. Okay. So that was a fun pass catcher. So yeah, how do you decide, like, who to watch next? It's literally what? You spin a wheel or what do you got? So because I, so I mentioned that I do like the, you know, position by position, like the 10-year contextual stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have finished quarterback and I have finished running back. So like literally like if I go into my 2026 sheet now, those sheets are like ready, updated, ready to roll. So that's why those are the positions that I've studied so far. Basically with whatever positions I open up next. So you haven't finished going through all the numbers on 25 yet? Yes. Was there anything that jumped? I know you tweeted about like.

the guys who went relative to 10 years. Yep. Like in terms of volume standpoint. Yeah. You know, so like more defensive tackles went this year. Right. Yeah.

So that kind of thing. Yeah. I mean, nothing that we didn't, nothing that we didn't really necessarily talk about. It's always interesting though. Like, it's like wide receivers is a good one where there were a bunch of players

that went at wide receiver in this class at corner in this class where, yeah, like we didn't talk about, you know, there was a, Micah Abraham. a corner from Tulane who went in the sixth round. It's like, I don't think I uttered the words,

Mike Abraham, like non-com, but it goes to show that those are positions that are just going to get drafted. Yes. Like if you're going to, like, place a bet on who are the non-combite? It's going to be at wide receiver. It's going to be a corner.

It's going to be a pass rush. It's going to be a tackle. Because you've got to fill out your rosters. Yeah. And so it's just, you know, finding the guys. And honestly, like, in this class, they weren't even like, Traitzy. They weren't even like productive.

So it's just like, it's interesting. that you're kind of following those profiles to see like, all right, like, who were the guys that got drafted at those positions late that can kind of tell you, you know, a story for later.

What did you make of there being more quarterbacks who went on like day three this year than in past years? I think it's, we talked about that in the lead-up that this class was not a great class for starting quarterbacks, but it was a nice class for backups

that I think that played out from a number standpoint where it's like, yeah, like, you know, maybe we weren't too excited about the group that went high, but there were a lot of guys and like,

yeah, like, to number two, number three, and I think the numbers played out that way. Okay. Speaking of the quarterbacks, given the Derek Carr news, a player that you and I disagree on a little bit,

how do you feel about the prospect of Tyler Shuck NFL starting quarterback? My guess is he's going to get first crack at it, right? I mean, Spencer Rattler, you know, got some starts for them. I mean, they want to get Drew Arch Manning, don't they? Yeah, well, that's, yeah, to me, like trying to say, because people have said that when I know there were reports after the Rams, traded with Fontonaut to pick up that future first round pick for the Falcons are like, oh,

less needs playing for Arch Manning. No, I don't think anybody is like put another eggs in Archmanning basket just because they know the likelihood that he is to go back for 2026. Okay. What else you need to do for this? I mean, this is we're just like,

it's like I'm interviewing you about the marathon that you're running like a hundred feet in. Yeah. I'm going to be taking in like, all right, what are ways we can make the draft guide better for next year, the diehard draft guide. So I'll have, I'm having those conversations

honestly starting this week. You know, I've got my ideas on like, how can we expand that? So that, that'll be fun. Okay. Anything, anything you can tease?

Like, like, honestly, it's the, it's like the little bit more bio info on players. You know, maybe make it a little bit easier to find through.

Yeah, that's the big thing. That's the thing. If you are a diehard, which you can become on all pHly.com, you get access to this living breathing document

all year long. It's going to be available by the time the season starts. Like last year that it was, I think we rolled it out. I'm pretty sure we hit publish when I was flying from Shrine Bowl to Senior Bowl.

That thing will be available before the first college football game this year. So how much movement do you usually see from how you think of a guy the summer study versus then revisiting what he's done in that last year?

I would say, so every year I have this conversation, I don't think Greg would mind. I have this conversation with Greg every year Because Greg will usually, Greg Cosell will usually watch a lot of, a lot of film in the summer, and then we'll pick back up as soon as the college or the NFL season ends. Because as we know, he watches all 32 teams every single week.

So he's got a lot of teams that he's got to watch during the season, but he gets a lot of work done in the summer. And we have this conversation every year where it's like, do you think a lot of guys get better? And it's like, yeah, like maybe 5%, 10%, like there are going to be changes. Like guys are going to get subtly better. There are little things like, you know, Michael Williams, he got better at, you know, with his hands, the top of the rush. That to me took him from like what I would envision to be like a top 30, top 35, top 40 type player to like, oh yeah, like I'm comfortable taking this guy in the top 15. Like that. So you see that for a player that's up high, like those margins mean a lot.

Well, and you also want to see, it's not even that, okay, now he can use his hands. it's that, okay, he took the time to improve something about his game. You can bet on that trait that this is a guy is going to work to improve himself. Right. But like, you know, if I'm watching a guy

and it's like, yeah, like, he's not going to get a lot more power. Like, I'm not expecting when I turn on T.J. Parker in the fall. Or it's like, oh, like he's not a power rusher anymore. You know, like, you kind of get the book on what the player is. It's just a matter of like, all right, like,

how did he perform in his final season? What are the areas where he did get better? You know, you kind of get the bones of the, evaluation or done. Luther Burton comes to mind for me for this conversation. Because you loved him last summer, but he did have this drop in production,

his junior year. And so how do you explain that away? Those are the kinds of evaluations. No question. And so, you know, I'm going to do, honestly,

I will do another mock draft in like late August, like right before the season starts. That mock draft will be much more informative than the one I did this, the one I did last week or the week before, because now it'll be rooted in film study. And I'm hoping that a lot of the guys that I put in that mock draft

that should be more, you know, that should be closer to what we can expect to see as we get through into January, February, and on. Obviously, there will be a lot of data that will be accumulated before that point. But yeah, to me, like, there won't be a player in that mock draft that will go undrafted, you know,

barring, like, medical or, like, character, you know, something like that. Who was the earliest guy drafted this year who you hadn't done? That I had, like, nothing on. Yeah. I want to say it was like round five that had happened where it was like I yeah like I couldn't

where we were on our draft show and like his name goes across the ticket I'm like yeah I probably couldn't tell you now there were guys where it was like hey like when the bears took Ruben Hippolyte the linebacker from Maryland in the fourth round he was not in the diehard draft guy and of course it had to be an all city team

that made that selection but I can say like yeah I would be like all right well hey like I know like he was wasn't in the guide because basically like anyone I talked about was like yeah he's he's not going to get drafted he's only being talked about because he ran fast at the pro day and so like but he went in the fourth round and who draft oh yeah the bears yeah interesting yeah yeah after like the day after the draft like on that Monday he was one of the first players I watched just to do my write up for the right for all CHGO and like yeah I'm like didn't love it didn't love his tape okay

how about this show how do we make this show better I mean I think that the fact that we will start it and we'll have more details to come. We don't know what we don't know what's going to be. Yeah, that's the thing. It's the iteration of this show will take shape much sooner in the process

than what we saw last year. That's the cliffhanger. That's right. What happens here? Anyone that watches the PHOI Eagle show knows that you don't believe that shows should have a season two. That's not true.

I believe that the shows should go on. The writers need to work. like all the people behind the scenes. We need to keep the people employed. Right. It's good for the business. I just lose interest after season one. So maybe I'll stop watching.

So let me ask. There's a, I talked last week on the, on the Eagle show about Andor. People love Andor. Andor's excellent. So let me take you, I'm gonna get,

can I start Andor in season two? Do I need to watch season one? I think you should probably watch season one. Okay. Yeah, just because it lays the groundwork for you. Okay. What's interesting about this. So when the writer,

I'm a big believer in like, all right, like the writers, like let the, whatever they think the story is, like let the writers make the call on how long that should play out. Right. So most times, what you think... But it's hard to turn off the money hose. Yeah, and most times what you see is like,

hey, we think we have a three season arc, but then people are like, oh, can we make it five? Can we make it seven? You know, that kind of thing. With Andor, they... So season one came out and it was like, everyone really liked season one, but the ratings were just okay.

The ratings weren't as not as high as some of the other shows on Disney. So while they said they had, have a five-season arc, Disney was like, yeah, can you make it into two seasons? Like, can we make this season the final season? Yeah, that's way better because you've got to tell your story. So this season, so basically what they did is they, and they did the same thing in season one, but it was like, they release it in chunks where it's like three episode arcs at a time. So like, all right, it's, and tonight is the finale I've heard, right? It's the, it's like a two or three

episode finale, but all the other, all the other, each week, it's been three episodes at a time. And it's almost like, hey, it's like a movie being released each week. You know, three, you know, two and a half to three hours of story each week. Each of these arcs would have been an entire season. Okay. So it's very, it's interesting when you look at it from that standpoint. So what you're basically, they've reinvented the movie. Have you heard about movies?

Right. Right. Now, there are times where I'm watching and I'm like, man, like this, the last week's arc was phenomenal. And like, one of the best. episodes of TV I've watched in the last calendar year. I couldn't help but think like, man, like, what if this, this arc was an entire set? Like, there's like certain, certain like, uh, storylines from like, man, like, I wish we could have seen a little bit more here had they been able to expand, like, you know, what that,

I'm not complete because it has been phenomenal is, is, is everybody needs an editor. Yeah. And, you know, as a show that we do a show every single day, sometimes less is more. You got to cut, you got to cut the stuff. You got to, you know, make what would be a longer story, a shorter, tighter story. Like, sometimes that's in best service of the story. I agree. That's why I was interested to kind of get your thoughts on just knowing what the background was.

But it is. And they couldn't have known it because of when the story, when it got produced and everything, like how topical it would be. Yeah, that's what I've heard. It's excellent. It's so, so good. Okay. How do you balance? you know, catching up on your,

on your, on your, on your, on your, pop culture versus catching up on all these guys. Uh, so a lot of the data entry stuff, that's easy.

Like, all right, like I can, I can sit here literally, like with the laptop, you know, sit and watch and have, like I finished up Yellowstone on Friday,

which was terrible. Uh, and, like, like, and or laptop shut. I'm watching. Sure. Um,

you know, it depends on the show. Uh, like last of us, I think I've had it open for some and not for others. Uh, just depending on the episode. Severance was like, oh no, like that's, you know, that's laptop close for that.

But yeah. How did Severance deliver for you? That landed. Yeah. I thought I was happy. I was happy. Yeah. I thought it was really good.

I spent it like, yeah, I think you need to watch it. I would strongly recommend. It's slow. It's like, I mean, you're up with the baby. Like it's 2 a.m. Well, yeah, but it's a show I need to pay attention to. It's not a show I can like have fun. asleep to.

Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah. Meanwhile, the pit has been great. Yeah, I have to. I know. As a 2 a.m. with a baby on my chest. I haven't done the pit yet. It's been very good.

Yeah. Okay. Not like, you know, not like the best TV I've ever watched, but just, you know, a nice little shot of adrenaline. Yeah, I've been trying to decide. I know why it's fantastic. I ended up because I started watching the boys last year. That was one of my off season shows.

It's fine. Like, it's good. It's not great. But I got reached a point because they did a spin-off show. And so, like, oh, yeah, you want to watch the spinoff because it, like, informs that what's going to happen in season five. So I started watching that last night. It's just, it's okay. And or do you need to be a Star Wars guy?

No. You can be completely devoid. You can be divorced from the entire world. Some context helps, but you get the gist. Like, there's no lightsabers. There's no, like, you know, talk about, like, the force and like stuff like that. It's very, yeah, it's good. I mean, I don't mind some force.

but yeah okay yeah it's it's good what like when in when in the chronology of the star wars story does it take place uh so there's a movie that came out a few years ago uh rogue one which happens that leads you right into the original trilogy got it this show is about like the main character in the show or i should say like one of the main characters in the show was one of the main characters in that movie and it's like a leader of like the rebel so it's basically it takes you through like the creation and the formulation of the rebellion and motivations behind that Okay. People are very excited about the skin that you're showing on this episode.

I figured, look, we have a four-person show coming up in an hour. Yeah. I knew we were going to be in here. That's a wider shot. We're not behind the desk. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. That's exactly right.

It's that time of year. All right. Any final thoughts on putting a bow on the 2025 draft class? What will be your fondest memories of this year's version? Covering it with you guys? I would say it'll be special. that way. What a tour

to force you were during draft weekend. I know you don't want to be gazzed up. I don't want to be gassed up. Unbelievable. And to me, it is

such a perfect example of like the advice you want to give somebody in the beginning of their career or whatever is like do the job that you want to do,

not the job that you have. And you have been doing this job for like a decade. Yep. it's just now that you're getting to to show that you're doing the job. And so you, like,

to say you hit the ground running is such an understatement. Like, you were unbelievable. Thank you. Last time, I will allow you to gas me up in that way. That's fine. But thank you.

No, it was, so that's when you asked me, like, what is it going to stand out about 2025? It will be that primarily. Then after that, yeah, like, lackluster class at the top, good players in every draft,

couch it with that. and I'm a big believer in that because I feel like every year we say like oh it's not a great class this year was just a lesser class but it's up to the teams to find where the talent is. And I do think there were talented players

they were flawed but they were talented. I'm excited to see how it turns out. Yeah. Anybody around the league team-wise that like you didn't do for All-City that you thought came out with a good draft? I mean Seattle was one that definitely stood out. I know She'll he posted about that on social

as the draft was going on. I was like Seattle's going to have because just looking at their class. We pull it up in the dress. Sheel Capadia. Okay. From the ringer. So they took Gray Zabel who.

Yeah, who you invented, right? And who Sam Monson had reached out from the 33rd team. They did a thing where it was like, oh, we're asking every draft town is who their favorite player is in the draft. Who's my favorite player? And I'm like, all right, I'm going through it. I'm like, you know what, it might be Gray Zabel.

Yeah. So, yeah, like Zabel was my favorite player in the draft. then they took Imanwari your second favorite player in the draft who was up there he's definitely up there then they took Elijah Royo oh wow

they took Jalen Milrow who I had in my top 50 then they took Riley Mills Torrey Horton was a great vet he was a top 100 player for me so then it took Damian Martinez

who I he you know talent he should have gone later I mean and then it took your boy Ricky White what a class Seahawks had a very strong class in my opinion so yeah that's fun

yeah all right I guess that's all we got I think that's all we got Do we have to do like, are you doing overtime? Do we hang out for four more minutes? Julia says no. No.

All right. We're good. All right. Let's do it. Well, thanks to everybody who watched throughout the entire draft season on the PHOI draft show

with Fran Duffy. Thank you to Julia for making it happen. Most of all, thank you to Fran for teaching us throughout this time. Stay tuned. Who knows what we will come back with? But for now,

11 shot. So this is the cliffhanger. the clip. I might die. Stay tuned for season two maybe of the, uh, the PHOI draft show. Close it.