PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Jalen Milroe & the Most INTRIGUING Prospects at Senior Bowl

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Fran Duffy is on the All-Star circuit scene, with his review of the East-West Shrine Bowl and preview of the Senior Bowl. Luke Lachey, Jordan Phillips, JJ Pegues and Jalin Conyers were among the standouts at the former, while Jalen Milroe, Tyler Shough, Aireontae Ersery, Grey Zabel and Shemar Stewart are among those with the most to gain in Mobile as the NFL Draft looms in the distance. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the second episode of the P-H-L-Y draft show with Fran Duffy. Bo-Wolf here. Fran Duffy there and there is in Mobile, Alabama for the Senior Bowl just off the heels of the Shrine game. Fran, how you doing? Bo, I'm doing great. It's been a great few days so far. Obviously, a great experience out in Dallas for the Shrine. And Ball, Eric Galco, his staff, did a great job putting on that event, which is still going on as we record this.

but I made my way down here to Mobile Alabama today. I'm excited to talk through some of my takeaways from Dallas and get into what I expect to see on the field here at South Alabama. All right. We are going to do that and get into that, but we do have to start, Fran, because today was the day that you unveiled to the world your draft database. And if you want to get all of that, not just a piece,

you can become a diehard. Now is a great time to do it on all-P-H-L-Y.com. But, friend, having known you as long as I have, I feel like I have been part of the privileged, you who have been able to see the depth of this sickness and just how well and how much you study all of the prospects. And if you become a diehard now, you get to see like a 165 scouting reports and like the continuation of the scouting process as you go through the draft process, Fran. Yeah, it was always for years, it was always like a special invite that I would send out.

There was only a handful of people that had access to my doctor. I don't feel so special anymore. Well, yeah, now it's everybody that becomes a diehard. I can get the look inside my mind at all of these prospects. My unedited notes on, I think it said, 167 so far. And the way I approach it is that I won't do a full write-up on a player until I've done at least two to three games. And so if I haven't done two or three games on a player from the last year or so, then I'm not going to do a write-up until that happens.

And so it is going to be a living and breathing document. I'm going to be updating it as I finish up my notes from the shrine, as I finish up my notes from here in Mobile going out to the combine. Obviously, we're adding more players as we go. So it's going to be a lot of fun over the next few months. All right. Let's get into your takeaways from the Shrine game. Five big takeaways that you had.

And let's start at the top because there was some star power there. I think notably Colorado quarterback Shador Sanders, but he and some of the other guys didn't necessarily practice. Is that what happened? Yeah. So, you know, you had Shadur Sanders who went third overall in my mock draft him a couple weeks ago. You had Chavon Revell, a corner from

ECU, very talented player, another first round quality talent, and then Kenneth Grant, the defensive tackle from the University of Michigan, another very talented player. All three were in attendance, but all three basically just took interviews with teams. They did not go through drills. They didn't weigh in. They didn't do any of that.

And so I think, actually, no, Rebel did weigh in. He did go through his measurements. Now, Reble's the one that's coming off an injury. Shadurr Sanders and Kenneth Grant made the decision not to practice. So Rebel, he had a season-ending injury back in September. So that makes sense. It is, I should note that the NFL basically let All-Star Games know that they didn't really want this to become a normal thing for players to go to All-Star Games and basically not go through,

not do anything on field and just do the interviews. They didn't want to kind of set that standard. But obviously, all three of these players went ahead and did that anyway. And the Shrine Bowl gave them that leeway to be able to do it. The big thing was being able to do those interviews with teams. Tennessee Titans, they had their full staff there. I mean, I saw GM, head coach, assistant GM, office coordinator, defensive coordinator, quarterback's coach, they're all there.

New York Giants, head coach, GM, offensive coordinator, assistant GM, they're all there. So being able to meet with Shador Sanders, obviously a high priority for those two franchises. So, Fran, I think for a long time, it was like the shrine game was sort of the little brother to the Senior Bowl. To get this, like, first round caliber talent is interesting. what is up with the arms race there

and why would a prospect if they're not going to practice go to the shrine game instead of the senior ball? Reason to go is that the senior bowl has done a good job of saying, basically saying, hey, you know what, like if you're going to come down here, you're going to play, you're going to compete, you're going to go through the pace of practice, and that's going to be the normal.

You know, and the shrine bowl and some other all-star games have said, you know what, if you want to come down and just interview, then you have the ability to do that as well. And so I think that that's one of the reason, and that's really the big thing. If you're Shador Sanders, like, why come down here? Well, you don't have to take part in drills. You get to still do the meetings. And also it helped that the shrine bowl is like, oh, like, Shador Sanders, you want to come over. We're going to bring three of your receivers, a couple of your three of your defensive backs.

Your brother's going to be down here. So it was like seven or eight Colorado Buffalo's, they're in attendance down in Dallas as well. All right. Takeaway number two is kind of the flip side to that. Something about the, the kind of players who go to the shrine game. Yeah. And I think that, you know, look, Eric Alco has been in charge of the shrine bowl over the last few years. and they've done a really good job of increasing the number of players drafted from that event over that time, over that span. And you're seeing like every year it's like up a new record, a new record, a new record in terms of players invited to the combine, a new record in terms of who's drafted, who's making rosters. And so there are specific profiles.

I feel like they target, and you could see that in this roster. There are going to be highly athletic players, guys that have unique traits, guys that were on Bruce Feldman's freak list back in the somber, right? So you're going to have those guys that are likely to test well. and the teams are going to take stabs on in the draft, right? So you've got those players. But then you also have, you know, players that had extensive special teams histories. You know, Ricky White comes to mind, the wide receiver from UNLV where played a boatload of special teams. That's going to get you drafted.

If as long as you hit benchmarks in certain traits and you can still do enough on offense and defense, which Ricky White offers. I think if you're going to say, like, is Ricky White going to get drafted? If he's healthy, Ricky White's going to get drafted. Now it's a matter of like where does he get drafted? but I think when you look at that profile, you feel pretty good. You're taking a bet that he's going to make it. And then also, too, if you're like Mike linebackers, you know, there were a couple guys out there at the Shrine Bowl where it's like,

okay, like maybe it's not the highly athletic physical specimen, but, you know, they bring a skill set to the table that teams covet. And it's like, all right, we're going to try and take a gamble on some of those guys and just understand, like even if they don't test all that great, when you get to round six, you get to round seven, you feel good that those guys are going to hear their names called. Well, let's follow up there, Frank, because one of your takeaways was those middle linebackers

at the Shrine game in particular. There were a couple guys who you thought stood out as potentially starting caliber players. Yeah, two that really stood out to me from this standpoint. One was on the field and one was not because he was still coming back off an injury. Jamon Dumas Johnson from Kentucky. He's a transfer from Georgia.

Oh, actually, ironically enough, the person who first bought him up to me was current Eagles pass rush Nolan Smith. I brought him up to him the year down the road. And he was a starter as a sophomore there for Georgia, ended up transferring for his senior and was with Kentucky. And this guy is a pure middle linebacker. He does a great job playing in the box.

You see the instincts, the play recognition skills against the run in the past. I think he really showed up in a nice way during the week of practice. And then Jay Higgins, the lineback from Iowa, another former teammate of an eagle here in Cooper Dijian. He and I had a nice conversation about Cooper Degene. actually Jay Higgins. But when you look at Jay Higgins and what he brings to the table, not only from a physical side,

I mean, this is a guy that can come downhill and play in traffic, but you just, even after like talking to him for a little bit, you feel like, yeah, this is a guy that's going to be a green dot player in the NFL. He's going to be the guy that sets the defense that makes all the, that does all the defensive signal calling, gets everybody lined up. So those two players in particular,

I feel pretty strongly about in terms of projecting them forward to the league in that role. Right, two more takeaways. Let's talk about two position groups that to you, you were able to to sort of feel the depth of this draft class by the guys who were at the shrine game. And let's start at tight end. I was seeing this come across my feed. Oh, guess what? Another Iowa tight end is entering the draft and could be pretty good. Yeah, I think when you look at Luke Lechay from Iowa, another Hawkeyes tight end, he's got good size. And what stood out to me, Bo, is that he is an outstanding route runner. It did an outstanding

job, not just, you know, I posted one where it was a double move where he beat Shiloh. Sanders on a stick nod route and it was that really clean route. That's a double move. Like that's designed obviously to win in those one-on-one situations. But even from the, I mean, from the jump, everything that he did was really sharp and really crisp. And I think that that showed up on film with Lechet as well. He's got really reliable hands. And he's also a good blocker. I mean, there were times in team drills where they left him one-on-one with a defensive end and he did a good job. There was one play where he blocked a defensive tackle one-on-one in pass protection and he held up on a completion down the field. So I think when you look at Lechette,

you feel pretty good that this is a guy, going back to the theme from earlier, he's going to get drafted on day three. If he goes and he tests well at the combine at that size, because he's like 255, 260 pounds. If he goes and tests well, then we're talking like what Tip Ryman was last year out of Illinois, where he went to the Shrine Bowl,

ended up being a second, third round pick by the NFL. I think when you look here at what Luke Lichet did, there's a lot to like there. And then another guy that really stood out to me that I hadn't studied before making the trip down, Jalen Conyers from Texas Tech and very first rep of one-on-ones. I said, this guy is really long.

He's really loose. He's really athletic. He's got the ability to stretch vertically. And this guy caught nearly everything thrown his way over the course of the week of practice. He's someone where it's like, okay, I want to study him as soon as I can here coming up in the next few weeks. That's what gets you going, isn't it?

Is the guys who you haven't studied yet and then you'd be like, ooh, I got some work to do on this guy. And that's like, you know, there were a bunch of guys that I just couldn't get to before that trip and even a few down here in mobile that I didn't get to obviously more so last week but you know it is fun going in and saying like all right like I'm just going to let it wash over me and see who stands out and there were more than a few of those from the shrine bowl for sure and you said also some flashes from from a couple other tight ends or ronde gadston and rvaldo fairweather

great names yeah Rvaldo Fairweather I knew honestly I included him just for you because I knew you would like the name so you know I figured I just put that in there he's from Auburn he's built like a big receiver. He had some nice moments over the week. And then Arronday Gadsden Jr., familiar name. But if you're a longtime NFL fan, his dad was a former Miami Dolphins wide receiver. And he is built like a big receiver, came to Syracuse as a wide receiver. And so it kind of grew into that tight end frame. I was interested to see what he would weigh in at. He was listed by the orange as 225 pounds. And he came in at 243. And he still carried it well and was able to move pretty well. So I thought it was a solid week overall for Gatson as well.

The other position group to discuss from the shrine game that you liked was the defensive tackles. And we've got, we've got Chris in here watching the show, big Maryland fan. He's going to be excited about one of these guys. Yeah, there were three players that really stood out for me. Two of them were on the West team. And then you had another for the East team. So we'll start with Maryland defensive tackle, Jordan Phillips.

This is a guy that stood out one-on-one drills, especially in the run one-on-one. I thought he did a really good job at the point of attack. He got a better, he did a nice job. He's really violent. He's really stout. He does a really good job holding the point of attack in team drills, nine on seven. And in those team run periods, I thought he did a really good job over the course of the week of practice. I'm excited to go through today's film as well and see what he put on tape from Monday. But another guy that would honestly fill the same old is C.J. West from Indiana.

Indiana, one of the best stories in college football this year, what they did, making it to the college football playoff out of nowhere. And C.J. West, he was one of their spark plugs. When you look at him inside, he's built thick from top to bottom. He does a better job again in the run game. But he gives you a little bit of pass rush juice, too. He had some really nice rush reps over the course of the week, not just in one-on-one drills, but in team periods as well. He had a sack in the latter stages of the Sunday session that really stood out to me.

So I think we look at Jordan Phillips and C.J. West, they stand out from that standpoint. Another guy on the other side, JJ Peggis from Ole Miss, who this is a guy that's been built more in like the Milton Williams more of a Jama role, where he's got like that slashing skill set where he can get into the backfield, make plays behind the line of scrimmage. I had a really good conversation with him because that old miss front was really, really good this year

and him just talking about his offensive background. They did a lot of creative things with him on both sides of the ball this year where they lined him up as a fullback in the backfield and did some things with him. So JJ Peggeese, another guy that I thought had some really good flash moments this past week at the shrine.

All right. Let's put the shrine game to bed for now. obviously we're going to hear more about some of the players who were there throughout this draft process, Fran. But let's spin things forward to the Senior Bowl, the week ahead. And what you have done, because you aren't just that good, is giving us one player to watch for each position group for each roster this week. So let's start at quarterback. Give us your national and American quarterbacks, including one guy who you talked about last week as maybe some like first round helium. him. Yeah, we'll start it.

Like you said, a quarterback. I'll go to the national team first. I'll start all these conversations with the national and then move to the American. And I think when you look at the national side, Tyler Shuck from Louisville is a player that to me, like, I like his film a lot, Bo. To me, like he transitions very well as like a high end backup and potentially a starter. He reminds me, if you told me, you know, four years from now that he was like Kirk Cousins where he went like on the third day of the draft and developed into a starter. I thought there were some like Davis Mills there. Davis Mills that had a nice stint as a starter and now is one of the better backups in football as well.

He's got that like pocket passer skill set. He does a really good job of, you know, playing through progressions and being able to get the ball where it needs to go. He's got armed talent. Now, he's an old, as you would say. He's going to be an older rookie. Times are changing on this front. I agree. I have to adjust ourselves a little bit.

At least at this position, right? But look, he came in. He was Justin Herbert's backup at Oregon, right? So we're talking about a guy that, you know, he's been around the block a few times. He's been at three different schools. But I was really impressed with Tyler Shucks film when I went back and watched this year. And then Jalen Milrow is the player that you were alluding to as a guy that certainly could be in the first round round discussion because of the traits to your starter at Alabama and two different systems. You know, we could say like maybe he should have gone back.

But I think at the end of the day with his traits, he certainly can play his way into that round one discussion. Now, I think the big thing is, you know, is he, how. good of a passer is he going to be here early on in the NFL? We know that he can be an extremely dynamic runner. But I think when you look at Millrow, the roller coaster of this past season is one thing that you're going to worry about moving forward into the NFL. So I was really high on some of the things that I saw from him this year. So I think that that's why I'm coming in. I'm excited to see. Everyone's waiting to see who QB3 is in this draft though, man. Jackson Dard is another quarterback that's down here. But I think when you look at Jackson DART, Jalen Miller, Tyler,

Shuck, those three are going to be all vying for that spot behind Cam Ward and behind Shadur Sanders. All right. How about running back? And are we talking pounders or guys with some real juice? I would say both of these guys are juice guys. We'll start on the national side with Ali Gordon, a junior from Oklahoma State who in the 2023 season won the Doke Walker Award as the top running back in college football. He had an extremely productive year out there for Mike Gundy. this past year the numbers weren't there. If memory serves, he failed to crack a thousand yards. The touchdowns got like cut in half.

The production just did not show up here for Gordon. He had an off-field incident just before the season started as well. And so there's a, it was just a messy, you know, last, we'll say, six or seven months for Ali Gordon. That said, he gets the senior ball invite. He's a true junior. They changed that rule last year. So he's an underclassman coming down here to Mobile.

Very easily could come in and just say, hey, you know what? Like remember me guys? I was a guy that everybody thought was one of the top running backs in the country coming into the season. I think there's some shades of like a David Johnson type of player. When he was coming out of Northern Iowa, he goes to the Arizona Cardinals in the fourth round. He was like a big body glider. You know, you want to get him the ball in space and let him make plays, you know, both as a runner and as a receiver. I think Gordon has that same skill set.

I don't love him in traffic. But when you get him in space, I think there's a lot to like there with Ali Gordon. So he would be one player to keep an eye on. And then the other side would be Breschard Smith, a player that I've talked about a little bit so far this draft season. Dynamic athlete, he's got a lot of juice, played receiver at the University of Miami for four years or three or four years and then transferred this year to SMU.

And SMU promptly moved him to running back. And then he took off and he was one of the best running backs in the ACC this year did an outstanding job as a dual as a dual threat for the Mustangs, leading them to the college football playoffs. So those would be two players, certainly, to keep an eye on here this week in Mobile. I feel like Tyrone Tracy, you doing a lot of work for like prospective draft draft prospects he worked let's see what these other guys can do uh you are you are just you're just rolling it's you know we don't there's nothing i don't need to be here

you just slop lobbing it up to you but you are fantastic let's talk wide receivers just teed up and we'll we'll just see if we can keep knocking him down uh jalen noel from virginia tech is a player that i really really liked when i watched him on film and to me i think when you look at him he has got that He was used at Virginia Tech as that pure slot guy. Gadget, shallow crosses, screen game, get in the ball fast and let him work with the ball in his hands. But then you look at when he was at Middle Tennessee before that, and he was an outside-the-numbered vertical threat.

And so this is a guy that can do a lot of different things for you in your offense. I love the yards after catchability. If he can come down here and have a good week of practice, it wouldn't shock me if we start getting the round two buzz. And I think he's got that potential to be that high of a draft pick. We've seen that in recent years here at that position. And I think when you look at Jalen Newell, he's got that kind of skill set. And then over on the American side, one of the more intriguing receivers in this class is

Elyke, Iommaner from Stanford, red shirt sophomore, big bodied kid. He's like 6-2 plus only, but really he had this year and then a chunk of last year after he was coming off of a major knee injury. And that cost him a chunk of last season. you could tell that he wasn't quite right yet. But he had some outstanding moments. I mean, he caught some balls over Travis Hunter in 2023 that had a lot of people excited. This is a guy that's a really good route runner.

He's a really good blocker. I mentioned the size. He's got some vertical abilities. So he's got like that traditional X receiver skill set reminds me a little bit of a Rashad Bateman who ended up going in the first round. Ayu Manor, his his background, it might be, might scare teams off from taking him that high. But I think he's got that type of skill set to be that kind of complimentary piece. for an NFL offense.

All right. You already told us about the depth of this tight end draft class. We talked about some of the guys at the very top on last week's episode with the first round caliber guys. But how about the two guys to watch at the Senior Bowl for you? Yeah, this was a tough one because there's some really talented tight ends down here this year. One of the better tight end groups that I've seen at the Senior Bowl.

We'll go to the national side where it came down to Elijah Arroyo from Miami or Harold Fanon Jr. from Bowling Green. A lot of people are really high on Fanon. I mean, ridiculous. production over 100 catches this year. Just the insane production over the course of his career. But I think when you look at Elijah Arroyo from Miami, he was essentially the number one receiver for Cam Ward this year.

Xavier Restrepo is down here as well. He's like that possession slot receiver. I think he led them in catches. But when you look at like big play, X factor type of impact there for the U, it was Elijah Arroyo. And when I've gone back and studied him, I think that he can be that kind of dynamic playmaker for an NFL offense.

So I am excited to see what he looks like here. And then go over to the other side, LSU tight end, Mason Taylor, his dad, former All of Famer, Jason Taylor, his uncle is for his Hall of Famer and Zach Thomas. So he's got great bloodlines on both sides of his family. And I think when you look at Mason Taylor, catches the ball really smooth,

has the ability to get in and out of breaks, can improve as a blocker, and he'll get some opportunity to do that here this year or this week in Mobile. But what he can do as a pass catcher. There's a lot to be excited about his upside. All right, let's talk tackles or tackles slash guards,

which gives me an opportunity to say my early favorite name in the draft Ariante Ursary. Yeah, that's who we saw that the Eagles took in my mock draft a couple of weeks back. I do think that this is a round one player. And honestly, like I'm going to just say that's for both

players, okay? So it's Arionte Ursary from Minnesota on the national side. And then I want to spotlight Armand Membu over on the American side. I cut and paste for both players. This defensive line group down here in Mobile is outstanding. It's usually one of the stronger groups for the Senior Bowl every year. This week, especially so. There's a lot of round one, round two quality pass rushers here in Mobile at the Senior Bowl this year. And so I would say that

these are two of the top tackle prospects at the event in Ersery and Membo. They come in and just show that if they say like, yeah, like if they come out and dominate, you're not talking about like back end of round one. You're talking potential top 15 type of selections here for both players. So I I think that, and that's, we're talking on the difference of millions of dollars. So a lot on the line for both of those players. It does feel like that is the position, those matchups where, where in the past, we have seen guys really rise from like thought of as late one, early two, to top 15 picks. That's, that's a thing that the senior ball has done.

Lane Johnson comes to mind. You know, he was taught, he was like borderline first round pick and then worked his way all the way up to number four. I mean, Eric Fisher, the same draft. He came and had a great senior ball. Zach Martin with the battles that he had with Aaron Donald down here. I remember those very vividly. He played his way into the top 15.

So, yeah, that is very much on the table for both those players. How about interior offensive linemen? Yeah, one of my favorite players in the draft, honestly, and a guy that I think I'm just higher on than pretty much anybody is Gray Zabel from North Dakota State. Remind me a lot of Graham Barton last year coming out of Duke was a left tackle and everyone was projecting on the inside as a center. I think Zabel's got a very, very similar skill set of the same play personality. Obviously, he played tackle for the bison these last couple years, but he's played, he's bounced around on the interior as well.

So he's got some experience on the inside. From what I understand, he's going to get some inside reps here this weekend practice. I don't know if he's going to be taking snaps. But I think when you look at Zabel, this is a guy that is like just outside the first round for people. People, I think for the most part, see him as like a second round pick could play his way into the first round with a strong week going up against FBS. Some of the best competition in the country. And then for the American squad, let's go with Jackson Slater from Sacramento State. He was initially slated to go to the Shrine Bowl last week, got the call up a couple weeks ago,

and now he's heading here, and now he's here for the Senior Bowl. And we know that, you know, for small school players, you know, you think back in years past, guys like Allie Marpet, you know, they come down here and have that kind of, if they have a strong week, they can solidify themselves as not just round one picks, but potentially day two picks, and that's on the table here for Slater. All right. we flip sides of the ball. Let's talk about those edge guys.

And we will start with someone who would make our colleague and friend Vinnie Curry very happy. Yeah, that's Mike Green from the thundering herd from Marshall. I think when you look at Mike Green, you know, how he measures in, which I think that those numbers are out now as we record this. That's going to be big because as a junior, there's no official measurements on these guys. But the bigger one is like, what does he look like against some of these top tackles? it's kind of the inverse of what we were talking about with ursary and with with membo. Now, Mike Green, they had, they had two FBS teams, two Power 5 teams on their schedule early on, Ohio State and Virginia Tech. He had sacks in both games, and I think he had three sacks between the two.

And so this is a guy that has proven production against top competition. He was a high school wide receiver, showed up in Virginia, didn't play there for two years, transferred to Marshall, and just took off, blew up this year from a production standpoint, and then immediately took off for the NFL. And so if he can come and just kind of carry that same disruptive ability that we saw in the season and carry that here to Mobile, I think that will be big for his stock and solidify him as a first rounder. And then going to the other side, Shamar Stewart from Texas A&M is one of the biggest conundrums in the draft. That's honestly, it's the opposite. I think when you're looking at Mike Green, the traits are solid, but the production's insane. And then when you look at Shamar Stewart, he's never had more than like one and a half sacks in his career in any season for three seasons for Texas A&M. but just the traits out of this world.

He's built like an Adonis. He's tall. He's long. He's thick. He's explosive. He's powerful. He's got all these traits. But the numbers haven't always been there.

And honestly, even when you watch him, the traits don't always show up on film either. And so it's a little bit troublesome when you're seeing a guy that has those God-given talents don't always show up. How he looks this week, I think will be very important for his draft stock. All right.

It's an interesting one. How about the inside guys, the big, the big honkers. Yeah, this is another good group. I think when you look at overall, there's a lot of top end talent in this class at this position. That's reflected by the fact.

I talked about a couple that were down at the Shrine Bowl, but even here in Mobile, there's a lot of guys that have room to elevate their stock into the first round. I went with two guys that are a little bit off the radar, though. I took an opposite approach from what I did on these other positions. So for me, I want to start with nose tackle, Jamari Caldwell from Oregon.

Now, he was a guy that I got a little bit of a heads up, on from one of his former teammates at Houston because he did an outstanding job down there for a couple of years before transferring this year up to the University of Oregon. This is a big, long, thick nose tackle. He's built really, really well for that position. So how he looks, does he have, does it give you any juices

a rusher or is he an early downs player only? That's a guy that I think could play his way from like the middle rounds up into day two with a strong week here in Mobile. And then another one is a guy that, to me, like, I think he's a top 30 talent in this draft. Now, he has been like a role player off the bench his entire career. I think he's got one career start.

Omar Norman Lott from Tennessee, one of the best defensive lines in football this past year for the volunteers. He came off the bench for all but one game this past season. But this was a team that was challenging. That went to the playoff. They lost to Ohio State in the first round. And Norman Lott, he just, he is shot out of a cannon. He's so disruptive.

He's so explosive early in the down. He's violent against the run. All the like the metrics, though the pass rush win rate, all the pressure numbers are all very impressive. And that carries over to the film. This is the guy that has that disruptive ability inside. That gets you drafted early. To me, I watch him and I said, like, this is a guy that's going to tear apart these one-on-one drills.

And I would expect that he's going to be one of the guys that shine brightest in practice this week. And sounds like a guy who then will have to answer the questions throughout the interviews with teams about why, why is it that he was not a bigger player or more than just a role player during his time of Tennessee? Yeah, and so the big thing will be, all right, well, you know, there was a really talented line. You know, maybe he didn't get, always get those opportunities. And so, yeah, that is going to be a big topic of conversation with teams, certainly this week. All right, let's talk linebacker, which is tough because I think you could say arguably like maybe the most difficult position to evaluate in a practice setting like this when they are not live. But what do you look for in linebackers in these settings and who are the guys that you're most excited to watch?

Yeah, you want to see like how they move in space. you know, because you're honestly, they're not tackling to the ground, so you're not going to get a good sense there. Obviously, since it's not live, like what they're doing in the box isn't always going to carry over, right? They're going to have some nine-on-seven periods, but it's more about what they do in space. And honestly, this is, this one is kind of a slam dunk for me that we're looking at the national

team. Colin Oliver is listed by an edge by some people. I probably still think of him as an edge, but some people are just because of his size, they're going to list him as an off-ball backer. Our Eagles fans that are watching will, you know, you think back to like Kiron Johnson coming out of Kansas. think back to like Patrick Johnson coming out of Tulane like that kind of skill set and body type where it's

he might be a little bit of a tweener is he this or is he that I will say like when he showed up to Oklahoma State he was a like a freshman all American all big 12 was it had double digit sacks was extremely productive getting after the quarterback and while he never quite hit that same that the same benchmark I studied them from last year and then the two games he played this year before he got hurt and I was pretty impressed so I think when you look at him he's a certain kind of rusher. You're probably not talking about a pure three-down player as an edge rusher. But if he can make the transition to an off-ball player, I think he could be very intriguing. And what does he look like coming off the injury? As I mentioned, it wasn't like a serious

injury that's going to cost him like months of rehab, but it was enough to keep him out for the majority of the regular season. Obviously, he's good to be down here. So I think Colin Oliver is one name. I'm keeping an eye on. And then Demetrius Knight began his career at Georgia Tech, transferred to the, I think that ended to Coastal Carolina. And then ended up this past year at South Carolina. Going back to the Tyler Shuck conversation, he's an old, he's a little bit older, he'll be a 25-year-old rookie.

But I think when you look at his- Yeah, but he said like with Peyton Wilson, like he was extremely athletic and rangy and was really, really productive. I think when you look at night, the numbers didn't really come until this year, his final year on campus, but how he moves,

because everyone raves about him off the field and what he brings from a mentality standpoint, what he'll bring to his future locker room. You know, He's that adult in the room. What he looks like on the field, I think will be big. And honestly, like, that's why I want to see from him. Because if I've got no questions about the off field,

it's all right, what can you bring between the lines? I think that will be big this week for Demetri's night. All right. Another position where I think similarly to offensive tackle, where you get to see these guys defend in one-on-one settings, see how they move. A real opportunity to rise. Eagles fans familiar with how well Quinnian Mitchell did at the senior bowl last year.

Who were the corners that you're most excited? excited to watch. We'll go to the national team first. And Nebraska's Tommy Hill is a guy I think I'm a little bit higher on than everybody else right now. I was really impressed with what I saw from him early on this season. Now, the big thing with Tommy Hill, he had a foot injury. I want to say like week four, week five, he missed a few weeks, tried to come back and you could just tell. Like it was it was, it was, he couldn't quite move the way that he would like to. He ended up giving up some big plays. And then they shut him down in like late October early November. So how does he look health-wise? If he's healthy, to me, he's one of the best corners here. He reminds me a little bit of like a Trayvon Diggs,

Xavier and Howard. He's a former receiver. He actually, in 2023, he ended up playing both ways for Nebraska, did a little bit of receiver, a little bit of corner. But this is a bigger kid, ball hawking tendencies. He can read routes at the intermediate area. He's physical and competitive coming downhill. I really likes Tommy Hill. So this is a guy that I'm really excited about if he's healthy, what he can put on tape here this week. And then on the other side, Trey Amos is a player that was in first round mocks over the course of the latter stages of this year.

He did a nice job taking the ball away. This is another player that's a little bit older. It's his third stop. He began his career at Louisiana, transferred to play for Nick Sabin at Alabama last year and was a backup. It did not start for the Crimson Tide. Transferred again after the coaching change, went to Ole Miss and was an every game starter. And he did some good things playing in zone coverage.

He's a pure zone corner. The long speed is going to be the question. So the combine, you would argue, it's probably bigger for Trey Amos than this week is. But I still think, I think you were at the senior bowl with me the year that Desmond King came out. And Desmond King was seen as like a first rounder coming out of Iowa.

And then he came and he just could not hold up in those one-on-ones. You could just tell that the speed was just too much for him and ended up falling to day three. That's the thing you worry about with Trey Amos is how does he look in these one-on-one situations? If he holds up, I think you'll still start to hear some like back end of round one buzz.

But if he doesn't, I think that's when people kind of temper it and he's more into the back end, you know, maybe into like day two, day three. All right. Let's close this bad boy out with the safeties. Yeah, we're going to go with one of my favorite safeties in this draft. That's Jonas Sanker from Virginia. I think he's a pure free safety, a top down defender. It's like you just kind of park him back in the deep part of the field and let him be that

ball hawk, let him be a guy that can come downhill, run the alley and finish. Again, I just think at that position, it could be tough to find players that. that have that skill set at his size. A former corner, when he earlier on in his life, hasn't been playing safety all that long. But I think when you look at Jonas Sanker, a lot of reasons to be excited.

He's a guy that, again, you have that ability to take the ball away. People are going to value that from an NFL draft standpoint. So Jonas Sanker would be one for the national team. And then over on the American team, I want to go to the corner, Caleb Ransaw at Tulane, who is listed as a safety.

And honestly, when I watched him at Tulane, I thought this guy's going to have to move to safety. He does not run well. enough to be able to play on the outside of corner. He played a lot of nickel over the course to his career, but even at nickel, I'd be a little bit worried about if he could hold up in man-to-man coverage, but I love the way he plays. When you watch Caleb Ransaw, he's really competitive. He's tough. He's instinctive. It's just a matter of, can he hold up if he's left on an island? I think

when you look at Ransaw, him making that adjustment to safety, and it could be big for his draft stock moving forward. All right. Great stuff, Fran. We look forward to the continuing coverage of the Senior Bowl that you will have on all the diehard platforms. And most importantly, congratulations again on the publication of the diehard draft guide, the Fran Duffy Monster spreadsheet. Make sure that you sign up for that wherever you are a diehard. But all p.hly.com is a good place to start. No question.

It's going to be a lot of fun updating that throughout the course of the next few weeks. Like I said, all my notes from both of these events. I'll be trying to sprinkle those in in the coming days. And so you can stay tuned for more, certainly on the die hard. hard draft guide. And just from me to you, I will miss having some time with you in Mobile, live it up for me. And we'll talk to you later this week, I think. Yep, sounds good, man. We'll be talking soon. All right. Then I'll do it for episode two of the PHLY draft show with Fran Duffy. Much more to come right here on PHLY.