Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - PFF's Max Chadwick breaks down the 2024 outlook for all 6 QBs picked in the draft

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

PFF college football analyst Max Chadwick talks about JJ McCarrthy's college tape and how he viewed him as a prospect throughout the year and then discusses Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix's outlook for 2024 and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining the show for I believe the second time is Max Chadwick. He is the PFF College Football Analyst, also co-host of the PFF College Football Show on PFF there. And it's great to have you back. We talked for the first time at the NFL Combine. And I believe that a big part of our discussion was hey is this jj mccarthy guy actually a top 10 prospect uh boy that feels like a million years ago doesn't it max it absolutely does man i mean i was telling you then like at the combine i was down bad i was feeling you know long nights of the combine long nights the nfl drive i was telling you right before i caught a

cold right after the draft is over and i'm pretty sure it's my body telling me hey you gotta this has got to be it now. You got to take some time off now. So, yeah, it felt like a million years ago, but it really was only a couple months ago. It just shows you how long draft season is and how many late nights you and I have been putting in. That's for sure, although I got to chill on Friday, and next year I will as well. So I did feel a little bit guilty about that. The rest of the football world was grinding hard on Friday, but in part of the Vikings giving away all of their draft picks was to move from 10 or 11 to 10

to take JJ McCarthy. And I want to go back with you to his college football season, because we've been spending so much time on the draft rumors, going back and trying to look at the old tape and everything else. But you as pff's college football analyst would have followed his ascension from day one of the college football season so take me back to the beginning of last season with jj mccarthy did you view him as a possible first round draft pick at the beginning of the season i did i thought he was you know dave brugler was actually on top of him i think first before anyone else was and obviously dave's one of the best of the season? I did. I thought he was. Dave Brugler was actually on top of him, I think, first before anyone else was. And obviously Dave's one of the best in the business when it comes to evaluating players for NFL potential.

But, yeah, I thought there was a chance. I thought there was a chance that James McCarthy could become a first-round pick. Now, I was lower on him, admittedly, than some other people. I probably would have taken a mid-to-late first round. But I loved getting him at 10. Honestly, I think that's not trading up to 5. That's what I was really worried about with Minnesota or anyone else for that matter was trading up big time

to get J.J. McCarthy. Getting him at 10 is like that's digestible to me. That's fine. So I did view him as a potential first-round pick. I knew he had all the tools in the world, and I knew that some teams are going to love his leadership. He's a terrific guy in the locker room as well. So, yeah, I definitely thought there was a chance that we could hear jason mccarthy get his name called in the first round i didn't

think top 10 uh but he did play really well this season so not too much and then of course all the pre-draft hype was all about jason mccarthy so wasn't surprised to me in fact it was a little more surprising that he wasn't the fourth quarterback taken uh but uh it's not surprising at all that he's a he ended up being a top 10 pick and like i said number 10 overall it's fine for me it's still a little bit higher than where i would have taken him but it's a lot better than the top five stuff that we were hearing for a long time so i think number 10 is definitely more digestible certainly not having to give up extra draft capital beyond just whatever late round picks they moved up one spot but not having to give up the two firsts was big how did you deal with the problem of uh him not having a lot of passes because this

was a a trouble for the vikings it was a trouble for me uh and there was a lot of trying to split to well you know when they asked him to do this on third down and things like that uh the harbaugh offense well they wanted to run first, but also knowing that he was a younger quarterback as well, where we had 24-year-olds, 21-year-olds. Like, how did you sift through, even as you were watching the season, thinking about his draft stock, all of those different factors? Yeah, I keep telling people, whenever I say, you know,

I'm a little bit lower, I'm like, well, why are you lower? Well, the issue isn't quality with J.J. McCarthy. He's shown the quality. He's shown the high-quality stuff that we've seen out of Caleb Williams and Drake May and Jayden Daniels and Michael Penix Jr. and even Bo Nix. He's shown that quality. The problem is quantity. The other five of those guys I just mentioned, they carried their offenses.

J.J. McCarthy was never asked to do that. Now, I'm not saying he can't do that. I'm saying he wasn't asked to do that, which makes it a more difficult evaluation when it's like, okay, can he do it? Or was he just not asked to do it because they had such a dominant run game, a great O-line, and obviously one of the best defenses in America. They didn't need Jason McCarthy to be a hero out there, which is good. You should want that as a football team to not need one player to carry your entire team. But it does make it a little bit more of a muddy projection when you go to the NFL.

And ask this guy to be your franchise quarterback and your savior of your franchise. Now, fortunately, in Minnesota, he also won't be asked probably to carry that offense with how much talent is surrounding him. I think, in fact, out of any team in the NFL, a drafted rookie quarterback, Minnesota is by far the best situation. So that's why I'm very optimistic about the Jason McCarthy transition to the NFL because he got Kevin O'Connell, one of the best offensive minds in the sport. You got the best receiver in the world right now, Justin Jefferson. You got an excellent number two receiver in Jordan Addison, one of the best tight ends in the league in TJ Hawkinson, maybe the best

tackle duo in the league between Christian Derrissaw and Brian O'Neal. So I'm very optimistic about his transition. But again, it is a question because he wasn't asked to be the guy for Michigan. He was a very good quarterback when he was asked to make plays for them, but he wasn't asked to do it that much compared to the other top guys. So very tricky evaluation because I'm not saying he can't do it. In fact, when he's shown is that he can do it, it just hasn't been the volume isn't quite there like it is for the other, you know, five quarterbacks that won in the top 12 picks. One thing that has stuck out to me

that Brian Flores talks about for his scouting philosophy is trying to look at what players can do rather than what they can't do or what they haven't done, for example. So how do you, how would you apply that philosophy to J.J. McCarthy? Yeah, I think that's exactly why he's a top-ten pick, right? I think that's why so many teams were so high on him. In fact, I heard the reports that came out that at number two overall, when the conversation should have been between Drake May and J.J. Daniels, in my opinion, I would have sided with Drake May, by the way.

The conversation was actually, for the commanders, was actually between J.J. Daniels and J.J. McCarthy. Drake May was not even in that conversation for them. They were not even thinking about Drake May, really. So we could have seen J.J. McCarthy as high as number two overall because I think there's some teams out there who just – they see the quality and they see, okay, it's not often. It's not as often as other guys, but we see you can do it,

and we have the coaching staff that we can trust. Hey, we're going to develop this guy into a franchise quarterback. So that's a great point by you. And Brian Flores is like, yeah, you want to see what guys can do. Obviously, weaknesses go into a franchise quarterback so that's a great point by you and that and brian flores like yeah you want to see what guys can do you know i obviously weaknesses go into a scouting report too you can't just be highlight scouting like some people do uh in this industry but uh you also need to understand that like hey if you coach them up enough like you can do this at a high enough level so i am not surprised in fact i would have taken jayden mccarthy as a fourth quarterback off the board because i think the high quality stuff is there the only reason why I'm a little bit lower on him is just because

we haven't seen enough for me to be like, okay, I'm banking on that guy. I've seen it enough where I'm like, okay, I can trust that guy to elevate an offense like Caleb Williams did or like Drake May did. That's why I'm a little bit lower, and that's why he was pretty distant QB4 for me, but him going QB5 and number 10 overall, I mean, Hey, I mean, I'm not gonna hit on that at all. And I do want to talk about with you, the outlooks of the top three quarterbacks, because we've spent so much time focusing on which quarterback the Vikings are getting that now that we have the results.

So let's talk about what's going to happen with these quarterbacks. We'll do just in a second, but with McCarthy, everyone talks about like a pro style offense. Now, uh, I don't cover the college football game on Saturdays. I watch casually. And then I catch up by reading people and listening to people like yourself when it gets to draft season, because I'm so embedded, you know, with the Vikings and in the NFL. But when I hear pro style offense, my eyes roll so hard, my face hurts because I just don't see anything as being that realistically pro offense. But if you were going to sell me that Jim Harbaugh was using the closest thing you could possibly get to a pro style offense in college, I would buy that

considering his entire background in the NFL. But what does that mean? Like within the context where people say like, Oh, it's pro style, there's pro elements to that. Like what am I supposed to take away from that that might, I don't know, help JJ McCarthy here? Yeah, I'm with you, Matt. It was just like you hear pro style and you're like, okay. Because like to me, it's just like more old school a little bit. You know, Jim Harbaugh loves old school football.

Obviously just run up the gut, A gap, B gap, beat you that way. So a lot of under center stuff, which is good because a lot of times these college quarterbacks, they rarely go under center for a lot of these guys. But J.J. McCarthy has extensive experience doing that. So he can do that. But, yeah, I mean, it's always weird talking about pro-style offenses where it's like, okay, NFL is using RPO. They're using spread offenses.

They're using play action. It's not like the college stuff that we see in college also is in the NFL. It's not like it's a completely two different games. So, yes, there is something to be said about a pro-style offense. But like you said, I mean, NFL teams are looking at what college schools are doing and saying, hey, we're going to implement that into our offenses. And you're seeing RPOs are way up higher than they've ever been. Play action is way higher than it's ever been.

Spread offenses are common nowadays in the NFL. You're not seeing just typical 22 know 22 personnel out there I formation like you're not seeing that as often in the NFL they're becoming much more spread out like the college game is now there are some offices in college game like Tennessee where it's not projectable to the NFL who's like okay this is a completely new thing the NFL will never adopt probably but for an office like Michigan yeah it's more more old school than a lot of other offenses. And I think it makes it a little bit of an easier projection to the NFL because of the stuff he was asked to do at Michigan.

But yeah, I'm with you. The whole pro style stuff I think gets wildly overrated nowadays considering how much of the college game is now incorporated to the NFL game too. Yeah, I think that it's like learning to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and then calculus is the difference. Like you're working with a lot of the same ideas, but they are just so much more layered and complicated. And there's this part where they don't have headsets. So you have to figure out how to learn. And the playbooks are

so much deeper and the options at the line of scrimmage are so much deeper it's that's where i don't think there's anything in college that could truly prepare you for that part of it it's not like they don't know what a dagger is or something a concept it's really just that you are so much in command uh which i really liked about michael pennix and the possibility of him going to the NFL was I thought he was the closest thing, even though it was out of the shotgun. I think 70% of Kirk Cousins dropbacks were out of the shotgun under Kevin O'Connell. So that whole thing has definitely been blown up over the years. So give me, before we talk about some of these other quarterbacks and things that happened in the draft just just your projection your outlook for J.J. McCarthy first year second year like what do you think is the

best approach after having seen his college progression to the Vikings handling J.J. McCarthy I think the way to do it now if he comes out it's just the best quarterback in camp obviously start day one but for me I probably lean into Sam Darnold starting for a little bit at least ease JJ in again he's not a guy that I'm comfortable just throwing out there and being all right lead us to the playoffs you know go ahead JJ um so again I don't love Sam Darnold by any means but I think JJ would be it'd be good for him to sit for at least a few weeks honestly to behind Sam Darnold learn the speed of the offense, learn how fast the NFL is. That, to me, sounds a lot better than throwing him out there week one.

Again, like I said, if he's in practice and training camp and he's just beating out Sam Darnold, he's probably the best quarterback because this is a team that should be competing for the playoffs and how good the rest of the roster is. But I would lean towards Darnold for a little bit. I'm not saying the whole season. Maybe if it takes the whole season, fine, fine. It's a situation for a whole year.

I'm sure not a lot of Vikings would like to hear that. But he's a guy that I want to develop more and just get him up to speed and be like, hey, listen, we're giving you the keys to the offense. I know you haven't really been asked to do that even at Michigan. Jim Harbaugh never even gave him the keys to the offense to be like, go win our games. We're going to be doing that with you in the NFL. So instead of us throwing you into the fire,

to the lion's den week one, let's let's take some time and let's, let's get you at speed. That way we can throw you out there. You can feel more comfortable doing it. So I don't think it'll take, you know, a few years like Jordan love did with,

with Aaron Rogers. But I think it could take a few weeks of change McCarthy. And I think that's probably how I would handle it. If I'm the Vikings is, is plan on Sam Darnold being your starter for at take a few weeks with JJ McCarthy. And I think that's probably how I would handle it. If I'm the Vikings is plan on Sam Darnold being your starter for at least a few weeks. And then maybe if JJ could take over or if Donald's really struggling, maybe JJ could take over after that. But I,

unless he's unbelievable in training camp and in the preseason, I would probably lean on him being the backup quarterback for at least a few weeks. I think they have to really take a lot of time to figure out what he's comfortable with. What concepts does he understand? How far along is he? And he has been as well prepared as you could be from childhood to do this. I mean, it seems like just when you're talking about somebody who went to IMG in Florida, that's an entire high school of just athletes who are trying to go division one and pro. So this is the environment that you would want to build this. And I talked to the coach at IMG who said that the way they schedule out their

day is they have football in the morning and then school in the afternoon, which sounds like a lot of fun. So he's showing up and he's watching tape and he's learning about football and everything. This is for the time that the kid was in high school so if there's anybody who is prepared i think mentally to start to handle this stuff and learn this stuff he could be there it's just physically i think there's a lot of work to be done even just throwing the football a heck of a lot more but i wouldn't be shocked if he's in after a few weeks i wouldn't be shocked if he's not in for the entire first year. I think they are probably going to be prepared for both of those things. So let's do the same exercise with the top of the draft as well with Caleb Williams. The outlook for him is quite different. I mean, this is a guy who will start a hundred percent day one. There is no competition whatsoever, but how high should our bar be? He's

got a heck of a group of athletes at wide receiver. And I don't know, is it too high to say that they should compete for the playoffs with Caleb Williams right away when we don't exactly know what he's going to be? What are we thinking for year one for him? I am, admittedly, I am the ultimate Caleb Williams guy. I freaking love that kid. I love him on the field, and I love him off the field. I think he's got that uh he's got that

like kobe bryant mentality a little bit to him he's a killer man i was lucky enough to talk to him actually at the combine a couple weeks a couple a couple years ago i should say after he won the heisman trophy over zoom for an interview and he was like i came away from that was the most competitive kid i've ever talked to ever uh so i love him uh i think again it's not as extreme as the Texans, going from literally one of the worst teams in the league to a divisional round team. But I expect the Bears to be like that too, where it goes,

okay, they're one of the 10 worst teams in the league. Now I think they're going to be a playoff team because you've got Caleb Williams, you've got obviously DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Roma Dunzay. The Bears have done an excellent, excellent job of building around Caleb Williams. And I think out of all the rookie correct spots, besides Minnesota, which I said already is the best, Chicago is probably the next best

in terms of the supporting environment for him in Chicago. So I think they should be a playoff team immediately. And I think a big part of that is because of how high I am on Caleb Williams. I think, honestly, over the last decade and a half, I'd probably say Andrew Luck, Trevor Lawrence, one step down Caleb Williams. I think he's that special. And I think he's going to be a superstar quarterback immediately. And again, a big thing why I'm so high on Kim immediately is because the Bears have done an excellent job supporting him.

If he was going to a situation like New England, which we're talking about a little bit, then I'd be like, okay, we'll see. Maybe he can make some splash plays, but I'm kind of worried about the rest of it. But no, he's going to a great situation in Chicago, and I'm expecting some big things immediately. And I do think they're probably one of my picks to make the playoffs next year if I had to put a bet right now. Folks, we all have smartphones, and we know that they are pretty amazing,

but they can also be amazingly distracting, especially when we're around other people. So U.S. Cellular wants us to reset our relationship with our phones by putting down our phones for five. That's right. A company that sells phones wants us to put down our phones and see what we can find. Learn more at uscellular.com slash built for us. That's uscellular.com slash built for us. Interesting. I mean, that's setting the bar pretty high for a rookie quarterback. The expectations will be that in Chicago that he immediately shows that he's better than Justin Fields.

The NFL giving them Roma dunes is a crime because, so I was talking with a Keenan McCardell who is the Vikings wide receivers coach. And if you're from the nineties, like I am, you go Keenan McCardell. You're like, yeah, he's actually that cool. But anyway, because he was such an awesome player in the NFL that every time I talked to him, like, let's talk, can we talk about like nineties Jaguars guys? But he was, he was telling me that when he evaluates wide receivers in the draft

it's ball tracking over everything and Roma Dunze is as good as it comes at tracking the football and so I've been sort of high on him as a wide receiver throughout this entire thing watch a ton of Michael Penix it's like man this guy that they had for Michael Penix was pretty good um so you're right about Caleb Williams having a lot around him. I think they still need some work on the offensive line. He's a scrambler that, you know, it's just, it comes down to me for Caleb Williams. Can he allow himself to stay in the pocket and check down the football without just always trying to be Mr. Superman hero? Because I felt like last year he was trying to justify, see how generational I am

so many times during that season. And I think that there's always a pressure for a number one pick to do that, especially when you know you have great wide receivers right away. Yeah, I think that's the big question for him is that he played hero ball a lot last year. Now, he's shown the capability to play within the pocket. And when he does play within the pocket, he's actually pretty fantastic. So I have no questions about whether or not he can do that. It's just doing it more often, like you said. The one thing that holds me back from saying, okay, this is a big negative

and this is why I'm lower on him or anything like that, is one thing that makes me think I'm still optimistic about him, that USC defense was so freaking bad that he was out there saying, if I don't score a touchdown every single drive, we're going to lose this game. So there are a lot of times, and you're right, where he was going for the home run instead of taking the single, instead of taking the double, when he shouldn't have taken those plays, because I think in part he was saying to himself, hey, if I don't put up 55 points this game, we're going to lose.

So I think some of that is due to that. So maybe in the NFL, when he can trust his defense a little more, I mean, Chicago actually had a pretty darn good defense last year. If you can trust them more, maybe those tendencies will go away a little bit. He can look more like his Heisman self in his sophomore year. I'd also think the supporting cast at USC was still really good,

but it wasn't nearly as good, obviously with Jordan Hattison, who I'm sure Vikings fans are very familiar with. But yeah, I think it's a little bit of that. I agree with you. There is some part of his, yeah, I think it's a little bit of that. I agree with you. There is some part of his game that you need to tone down a little bit, but that also is what makes him so special.

So it's kind of a double-edged sword, but I think that is the biggest weakness right now is that he does play hero ball a little bit too much. But hopefully with a better defense and a team that he can trust more, maybe that will go away a little bit. Maybe he'll say, okay, I'll just play my game now instead of trying to go for the home run every play. I'll take, like I said, the single and the double when I have them. When I think about college environments that quarterbacks are put into, you think about the NFL, we talk about like, well, you know,

the Vikings have this great environment. Between the Vikings and the worst team is a few percentage points. They all have huge stadiums and coaches and all these things. It is penthouse and outhouse in college. I mean, there are just some environments that now his, I think he had some receivers, but as you mentioned, every game, there's pressure to score 50 points if you're going to win. And here's JJ McCarthy. His team is up by that much in the first quarter.

And then just handing off the rest of the game. And you go like, I'm supposed to evaluate these quarterbacks next to each other and that also speaks to jayden daniels who is going to go from one of the penthouses of college football at lsu where i'm not saying that you could have thrown for 2025 touchdowns but maybe uh with those wide receivers maybe with those wide receivers and that offensive setup but uh jayden daniels no doubt an exciting prospect i think that the learning curve will be tougher for him in washington than it will be for caleb williams in chicago i think it will be too and that's why i prefer we'll talk about drake may i'm sure in a second why i prefer drake may

over him is because Drake May's supporting cast in North Carolina was pretty bad. And Jay Daniels had two first-round receivers to throw to him. Malik Nabors was the number six overall pick, and Brian Thomas Jr. was the top 20 pick in the draft. Also, if you want to do a little future scouting for 2025, might have two first-round offensive tackles protecting him too. And Will Campbell, who we had as the number two overall pick

in our way-too-early mock drafts, and Emery Jones, who a lot of people have as a first-round pick as well. So excellent protection, excellent receivers, and one of the highest. I'm not saying he wasn't the best quarterback in college football. He was last year, but he was in a great environment. So that is a little – and it's also a little different because when he's a fifth-year player, his first year of really playing elite football,

he was really good as a fourth-year player, but before that in Arizona State, he really did struggle. Drake May has been elite in both of his years as a starter, in my opinion, and like I said, in a way worse supporting cast than what LSU had. So that makes it a little different. I think he's still the best runner or quarterback we've seen since Lamar Jackson, I think, and I like his fit in a Cliff Kingsbury offense in Washington,

but again, I would have gone with Drake May at number two overall. I still like Jay Daniels a lot. And I still think he can be a franchise quarterback for them, but not, I don't feel as good about him as I do about Drake May right now. Well, and just that team is not really in a position to compete at this moment. And they are in a very difficult division that has the Cowboys that has the

Eagles and the giants are certainly a football team as well. But I mean, the fact that you have two behemoths of the NFC in your division to start out gets very difficult defenses. I would, if I was Jane Daniels, not be super excited to face Mike Zimmer's defense there. And Philadelphia is putting a lot of effort into there's this off season. Like it's just going to be hard for jayden daniels the running element gives him a floor i think but it's in my opinion just how they build around what they have there and i also feel like there still should be some concerns about whether cliff kingsbury can maximize a quarterback from what happened in arizona where they started out good every year and then it seemed like teams figured them out and they didn't make their adjustments yeah I think so too and I have some concerns with him to the next level I think his arm talent is good not great I don't think his velocity is really

all that great um he's never really thrown over the middle of the field now of course this goes back to James McCarthy conversation where it's like okay was he never asked to do it or can he not do it so that's another thing that's a question mark, at least, going into his rookie season is whether or not he can find guys over the middle of the field. Great touch on the ball. He really progressed as a passer. His development as a passer really reminds me a lot of Jalen Hurts,

where at Alabama Jalen Hurts was pretty bad at throwing the football, goes to Oklahoma, really good year, Heisman runner-up. Then he goes to the NFL. Now he's a really good quarterback. Obviously, he led the Eagles to the Super Bowl a couple years ago. So, yeah, I think his development is going to be really interesting. And to his credit, J.D. Adams has gotten better every single year of his career. So who's to say he won't continue doing that in the NFL?

But I just felt better about a guy like Drake May than him projecting to the NFL right now. That is one thing that if we talk about correlations from college, the NFL and the draft quarterbacks who get better every year, there seems to be a bit of a trend of that, of those guys working out. Lamar Jackson was a guy like that where there were big questions about him. Jalen hurts, even someone like Deshaun Watson. There were questions when he was coming out about that whole thing, but it felt like he was always progressing, always getting better. And like the fact that it took Daniels a long time, I don't think has to be a huge demerit, but I also look at some of the situations he was throwing into.

And there's only about 10% of footballs that travel over 20 yards in the NFL. And I don't know what percentage it was for Jaden Daniels, but it was a lot. A lot of his yards were racked up, throwing it deep down the field. And that's only a very small percentage of playing NFL quarterback. Now with Drake May, this guy, he goes from an offense that I think there's probably some local flag football teams that are 12 years old that run similar stuff to North

Carolina. I was, I was legitimately offended as sometimes watching his offense. We can't do better than this as far as a scheme goes. The tape was messy at times. It was tremendous at times. There's an argument for just tossing him into the walls because he's big enough, he's strong enough, he can throw the ball

and just let it be vibes. If he throws 25 picks and 25 touchdowns, like whatever, man, he's just playing the NFL. There's probably also an argument to wait until they have anyone who's a receiver that we believe in for Drake May. I don't know if I always believe in, oh, this guy could be broken or whatever. I think it's possible. If you're the real deal, though, you should be able to elevate your team or at least show

something right away. It is good. It's going to be one hell of a test for him because there is nothing there to work with in New England. No, that, that, this is the situation I'm most worried about because I love Drake may, but like you said, that, that situation in New England's pretty dire right now. I mean, they don't, first of all,

they don't have an office of head coach and Gerard Mayo. So that that's, you're starting off one leg down already. Cause usually you want that because if your OC is so great, he's going to need to be head coach. So that's something I don't love already. Then the receiving core is pretty terrible, one of the worst in the league. I know they got Dylan Polk. I know they got Javon Baker, two picks I actually really like, but still pretty bad.

Their left tackle situation is still – I mean, like, they drafted Caden Wallace in the third round, which I thought was a huge reach. And he's played right tackle his entire career at Penn State. Now, obviously, you're projecting that left tackle. And he was not even that good of a player at right tackle at Penn State. So that's a big question mark as well. I'm worried about Drake May.

And it's nothing to do with Drake May. It has everything to do with his supporting cast at New England. So I'm worried about that. Now, the thing that makes me a little optimistic and why I'm not completely writing it off is that he did elevate his supporting cast in North Carolina. Now, of course, ACC football is a different animal to the NFL,

obviously, but I still think that Drake may is capable of being a franchise quarterback, but man, they need to continue adding more receivers, adding more office of line help because Drake may something, someone that I think can be like a Justin Herbert type of quarterback in this league but he's not going to do it if you have nothing around him um so that even if Caleb Williams for some god-known reason fell to number three overall and he went to New England I would still come on the show and be like ah Caleb in New England oh

we'll see what we'll see what happens but I'm I'm feeling great I this is the one situation in the NFL draft that I was like man I'm I'm really, really worried about whoever goes there. Cause it is, it's pretty bad right now. And as we've seen time and time again, the environments for rookie quarterbacks is so important. It's not just about how good the prospect is. It also depends on how good your situation is with,

for him. And I think out of all the six spots that we're going to talk about, uh, New England is by far the worst in my opinion. And they just melted a first round quarterback, previously in in mac jones who did show some potential early on and then it was almost like they were pranking him uh as it went you know we're going to bring in joe judge and matt patricia to run an offense when those guys are a special teamer and a defensive coach and then you know the tension builds the receivers oh davante

parker is going to be your top guy throw it up for like what uh that that is a very big difference um that they're going to have to resolve i mean between any of the other teams at least you could say like well terry mcclure and is in washington but kj osborne and kendrick bourne are their top guys and juju smith schuster's instagramming that he wants out of there. So it's not, it's not a good scene for Drake May. If he's really great, he'll overcome it by year two, the same way that maybe Joe Burrow did. They could have a super high draft pick next year. Things can change fast. But you know, the clock is ticking for them. Now, Michael Penix at number eight, there's so many emotions and reactions and things that go into that and so many complications. Let's talk about it just from Michael Penix's perspective, though.

In a way, I feel bad for him because he's a guy that I thought could have started right away in the NFL. Also, I don't know if it's ever really hurt anyone not to and with Kirk Cousins age and injury history recently it would not be the biggest shock of all time if he's starting maybe faster than we actually thought so uh what is your opinion on the outlook for Michael Penix in the strangest draft pick of this year dude it was I think it was the I've tweeted out this is the most shocked I've ever been by a draft pick honestly my draw was everyone at PFS draw was on the floor when they made this selection, which sucks because we talk about Michael Penix Jr.

His story, and the fact that he's a top 10 draft pick in the NFL after what he's gone through in his collegiate career. He's got four season-ending injuries, two torn ACLs, a shoulder injury. We should be celebrating this. We should be like, this is such a cool story. And right after he was picked, the first thing we're talking about is, oh my Kirk Cousins Michael Panik Jr what the heck

are they doing Cousins must be pissed all that we're not we're we never even celebrated him I feel bad for the kid and he never really got his moment of shine that he deserved after six long years of college football for him but at the same time um it is a it's a question we'll pick at best uh Matt because you look at their team right now. This is a team that in the worst division in football is poised to take over. And if they took Roma Dunze, you could make an argument that they have the best offense in football if they took Roma Dunze because you've got Drake London, you've got Kyle Pitts, you've got Roma Dunze, you've got B. John Robinson, you've got Kirk Cousins,

and you have maybe the best offensive line in football with Zach Robinson calling plays, former PFF employee Zach Robinson. So, yeah, I would have loved it. I would have loved it if they took a guy like Roman Dizzi or if they took a guy like Laia Tlalotu. Now it actually came out. I don't know if you saw it on the Jets documentary, but the Falcons were actually trying to get back up to number 10

and take probably a defensive player like Laia Tlalotu with that number 10 overall pick. So they wanted to do kind of the Texans thing, what they did last year where they got CJ Stroud Will Anderson Jr they wanted to take panics at eight and then get back to number 10 and get a defensive player obviously weren't able to do that because it would cost an arm and a leg because they didn't have another first round pick but uh yeah it's a weird pick to say the least I like panics a lot I think and eventually it could be great because you see how great he is with jump ball receivers like Roma Dunze. You get him Drake London, you get him Kyle Pitts and guys like that.

But for now, for a team that's looking to win now and win a division now and compete for championships now, and you just paid $120 million to Kirk Cousins. Yeah, it was questionable to say the least. So yeah, that was definitely the most shocking pick I've ever seen. And I like Maddox a lot. I think eighth overall for him is not that ridiculous. It's just the team fit for him is a little weird, to say the least. Yeah, it's funny because I keep thinking that it could either be the best thing

or the worst thing for him, and we're just going to have to find out. I mean, because it could be the worst thing because he is an older prospect and you're talking about waiting several years to maybe get a chance to play and you don't know when that's going to happen or whatever. And he could waste years of his career and rookie contract and all that, that he could have been playing. And then there's another part of me that says, if Kirk cousins gets hurt this year, and we never thought Kirk was even possible of missing games until he tears his Achilles and has the worst injury you can have in football.

There's a chance he gets hurt again and Penix is on the field and we're going like, oh yeah, we all were freaking out over this, but now he's their guy. And imagine, I was thinking about this. Imagine if Denver had drafted a quarterback after they got Russell Wilson, we would have been like, are you the stupidest team in history? And now, I mean, depending on who it was, they might've looked right. So I kind of love it and think it's crazy and all those things and i'm also kind of for um teams just doing what they think is right even if it's nuts um so i guess we'll find out though when we're gonna see him yeah i was gonna say that they already said it after the the press conference they're trying to explain this pick they're like listen we're trying to find the

packers model here we're just like okay we have aaron rogers we take toward love and then eventually becomes a starting quarterback now in today's day and age of nfl where if you're not winning immediately you're gonna get fired so that is that's what makes it a little tricky for raheem morris raheem morris who's a new head coach for the falcons it's like okay dude yeah it's great for the future but you also got to worry about right now because if you're not winning in three years, you're gone. So that's why it's a little funky because it's like, okay, it's great to plan for the future, but if you're not winning immediately,

you're not going to be here for the future. So that's why it's a little weird to me. And for a team that wants to win the division immediately, and they can for sure, I still think they are the favorites. I just would have loved a player who's going to make an impact immediately like latu latu or roman dunes a uh panics one is nice and all for a future but is that a future that we're humorous we'll even see we'll have to see for that so i think it's a risky pick for sure and when brian gutekunst and matt lafleur picked jordan love they knew they had this other guy at quarterback, Aaron Rodgers,

who would keep them employed and won two MVPs. I did see that. The best spin, there was two all-time great spins. One was Spencer Rattler was picked in the fifth because of a Netflix documentary, which is hysterical to think about because of the amount of research that goes into these picks that the NFL was just being like, I don't know, Netflix? I don't think so. I think they really need a lot of research. Netflix when he was in 17 years old as a high school senior, by the way. Can you imagine if

a Netflix documentary crew is following you around your high school senior year? I would have been undrafted if they did that for me. So yeah, that was a little like, okay, he's a 17-year-old kid. Five years later now, he's matured so much. That report kind of pissed me off a little like, okay, he's a 17-year-old kid. It's five years later now. He's matured so much. That report kind of pissed me off a little bit too. I was like, dude, we're using 17-year-old stuff to, I guess, this kid. I hated that. Yeah, I think that's entirely spin. I don't buy that at all.

I mean, the Vikings did an insane amount of research about their sixth-round kicker. You can bet that every team was hoping that they would meet with Spencer Rattler and think, Oh, we found it just like San Francisco with Brock Purdy or something or Dak Prescott to Dallas, but they didn't. So they didn't draft him high. So that was my spin winner of draft day. But second place was, Hey, remember Aaron Rogers was motivated to win the MVP after they drafted love. So maybe that'll happen with Kirk. And I'm like, was Aaron Rodgers not one of the greatest quarterbacks in history before?

I think that he was. I tend to remember that somewhere up in the old noggin. I don't think that's ever been the case for Kirk, but Atlanta still should be a good team this year, but probably not a contender as is all teams with Kirk. Now, Bo Nix is an intriguing one because a lot of the outside world draft analysts had Bo Nix as significantly outside of the first round realm. A lot of the scouting people, the Daniel Jeremiah's and so forth had him as a potential first round pick. Maybe, you know, Daniel's pretty dialed in. So had a good idea. There were a lot

of Denver people. I had some Denver people on the show who thought Bo Nix is their guy. So it was kind of like a known thing that if he was going in the first, he was going to Denver. I don't, I go back and forth on this, whether I like it for him or not. I mean, I don't think that other teams were drafting him as high as Denver was. I also don't know that Sean Payton has magic potion. I think that magic potion was a short little guy from Purdue who was the most accurate passer in history. And I, I think if you're trying to recreate that, it's going to be tough, but I was also higher on Bo Nix than other people as a first round pick. So I I've been swinging back and forth on whether I like this for him or not. Yeah. It's not a great situation to walk

into. I think Denver still got some major issues on their team, and that's why they're projected as one of the worst teams in the league next year. Now, don't get me wrong. It's not as bad as New England offensively, but it is still pretty bad. I'm not surprised that Bo Nix is the guy. In fact, it's been kind of an open secret for a long time that Sean Payton loves Bo Nix, and it makes sense because you look at Russell Wilson and why it didn't work last year. I think one of the biggest reasons why it didn't work

was Russell Wilson loves to go off script. He loves to improvise. Sean Payton wants a guy who's going to run that offense the way it's designed. And obviously you mentioned Drew Brees did that better than anyone could have. Bo Nix is a guy that you look at, that's what he does at Oregon. He runs the offense. He does it as efficiently as possible. He won't go off script too much.

So Sean Payton probably saw that and goes, finally, that's what I want. That's what I want in my quarterback. So Sean Payton, I think, is going to try to flex his muscles next year as an offensive play caller to show how brilliant of a coach he is. I like Bo Nix. To me, his career arc, I think, will be – I'm not going to say he's going to be this bad, but I think he's a little bit more talented than Mac Jones, but he kind of reminds me a lot of that where Mac at Alabama was just,

you know, running that offense so efficiently. He put up one of the highest, greatest seasons we've ever seen by a college quarterback. But in the NFL, it's just like, okay, like you can do that. Great. But like, are you going to be able to do stuff off script? And Bo Nix is able, is able to do that more than Mac Jones. He did it at Auburn, maybe a little bit too much. That's where he saw a lot of the gunslinger stuff.

And he really, really toned that down at Oregon. So I think he's got a little bit more potential than Mac Jones, but I don't really see him being a top half of the league starter at any point in his career. I think he's just a guy who's going to run that offense really efficiently, but that's exactly what Sean Payton wants. So I am not surprised at all that he fell in love with Bo Nix and wanted him as the next franchise quarterback.

Yeah. I think it makes sense for the ethos of Sean Payton and what he wants. And I had a tough time deciding because everyone talks about Bo Nix as if he's like Colt McCoy or something. And I think he's better than that. I think he's a better athlete than that. Will he be able to scramble and make plays against the NFL? I don't know. I think he does have some speed. It's just what you don't see is holy bleep stuff from Bo Nix. And is that going to work or not?

Can you recreate that when you don't have that freakish talent? And I don't know if they have enough around him to be able to do that because that's what I would have thought. But you move on from Jerry Judy, you've got Cortland Sutton, who's kind of just an okay, top wide receiver, but not a great one. I'm not convinced that's going to go super great right away. And then they've traded draft picks for coaches and stuff, and they don't have a great cap situation. And like, I have a tough time thinking that that's going to work out for them. Uh, just the last thing for you, Max, um, give me the team because we focus so much on the Vikings, the bears, you know, so forth on this show um give me the team because we focus so much on the vikings the bears and so forth on this show give me the team that i wouldn't be thinking about a whole heck of a lot that you

thought had a game-changing draft that could change the trajectory of their team that just you know of course i would not be discussing a whole heck of a lot yet on this show uh i always say the pittsburgh steelers did an a-plus job for the second year in a row. We gave them an A-plus last year as well. They went in with their biggest need being offensive line, specifically finding a left tackle and finding a center. They did exactly that in the first two rounds. They found Troy Fautanu at number 20

overall. Great pick there as their new left tackle. They found their center at number 51 overall in Zach Frazier. Fantastic job. Their offensive line is by far the biggest need. Now they get Russell Wilson slash Justin Fields in protection. They got Roman Wilson in the Frazier. So fantastic job. Their offensive line is by far the biggest need. Now they get Russell Wilson slash Justin Fields and protection. They got Roman Wilson in the third round. Great value there as well. They needed help with their receiving core. And you get Peyton Wilson, who in my opinion is a top linebacker on the board and at number 97 overall. Now I think he should have gone a lot higher than that, but some medicals are huge for him.

There's actually a report that came out that he doesn't even have an ACL on one of his knees. So that's a little concerning, of course. But Peyton Wilson, medicals aside, he's the best linebacker in this draft, and we had him as a first-round prospect on our big board. So even with the injuries, I think getting him at 97 overall is a pretty big steal. So Steward did a great job, and honestly, the other team in Pennsylvania

also had a great draft in Philadelphia. I don't know how Harry Roseman still gets away with it, man. He has some unbelievable drafts. So their biggest need out of Price State going into the draft was corner because he's got some aging veterans in Darius Slay and James Bradbury. Their coverage unit last year is probably the biggest weakness of that defense, and their defense is the biggest reason why they just had a Super Bowl hangover last year. They went out and got the two best corners of the draft,

according to our big board, and Quinion Mitchell in the first round and then Cooper Dijon in the second round. They revolutionized that secondary overnight, and they got some great picks later on. You got Jeremiah Trotter Jr., his dad, Jeremiah Trotter, played for the Eagles, obviously all-pro linebacker for them. Trotter Jr. is a steal in the fifth round. He's not even a feel-good pick, not really a great story in the fifth round.

Got a really good football player that I would take in the third round probably. So that's a great pick there. The Johnny Wilson somehow lasting the sixth round makes no sense to me considering how big and athletic he is. They get him in the sixth round. I would have taken him in the third round as well. So Eagles and Steelers are probably two other teams that I would look at right now as just acing the NFL draft

and just filling their needs with not only filling their needs, but getting really high-quality football players as well. Sofa, I wonder where in my brain things are stored because when you said the guy didn't have an ACL, I immediately almost yelled out DeJuan Blair. I don't know if you remember him, the basketball player from Pitt. He played for the spurs it was just like dewan blair it was like where was that why why is that in there somewhere could

that have been something important that got pushed out so i know that dewan blair didn't have an acl uh very yeah well uh very interesting stuff and philadelphia will be one to watch as they kind of retool from what they had but still very much a contending team. Max Chadwick, PFF college football analyst and host of the PFF college football show. I don't know your Twitter off the top of my head if you'd like to say it. Yeah, at Max Chadwick CFB on Twitter. There you go.

Not that hard to find. Well, you do great stuff and this won't be the last time you're on the show for sure. I really appreciate your time and we'll do it again soon. Thanks, man. No, I really appreciate it, Matt. Thanks for having me on again.