Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - PFF's Mike Renner would still give the Vikings' draft an A grade

Episode Date: October 21, 2021

Pro Football Focus draft analyst Mike Renner joins Matthew Coller to talk about why Christian Darrisaw's strong debut points toward good things for the Minnesota Vikings' draft class. Why he believes we should be patient with Wyatt Davis, Kene Nwangwu's amazing explosiveness and how the draft class still deserves to be considered very strong. Renner also gives his breakdown of the rookie quarterbacks. How Mac Jones has looked the most NFL ready, what's wrong with Zach Wilson, why Trey Lance is like Josh Allen and what to make of Justin Fields's up and down start. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether you own a bustling hair salon or a hot new bakery, you need business insurance that can keep up with your evolving needs. With flexible coverage options from TD Insurance, you only pay for what you need. TD. Ready for you. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider as we continue our bi-week bonanza. Joining me on the show is Mike Renner from Pro Football Focus. Do you want to sing it? I don't. You did it way better than I do.

I don't have a great singing voice, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed that for sure. I killed it. Yeah. That's why people listen to the show. Mostly is the singing. So your podcast now,

it used to be two for one drafts, but now you and Austin Gale talk drafts still, of course, but also the entire NFL and the tailgate podcast, which is very cool. A nice rebrand. And you guys are,

you guys are traveling you're going to football contests on saturdays now that's a cool twist yeah so that was the reason we rebranded the first place for why i wanted to rebrand so we can go to it's called tailgate because we go tailgate a different college football game every week last week we're at lsu we got to see ed orgeron's uh farewell tour um this week we'll be in tuscaloosa we've been to ohio state we've been to happy valley for the whiteosa we've been to Ohio State we've been to Happy Valley for the whiteout we've been to a bunch of cool games this year so uh going to one every single week up through Big Ten championships so it's a lot so I want to get into draft class

with you the Vikings uh actually a drafted player played for the Vikings last week an incredible twist um but uh let me comment first on uh happy valley that stadium is the biggest thing i've ever seen right it's so it's so wide too it's uh yeah it's so like a lot most stadiums kind of go vertical at least at least like nfl stadiums are very vertical but most even college stadiums like start to climb that one just like spreads like we're in the press box and i'm like damn i can't i can barely see the field it and it's uh insane atmosphere and the way the lighting is there they have four light stanchions i'm guessing it was like built before there were night games and so the crowd is dark like if you're in the crowd most of the crowd is dark because the lights only hit

the field so it's a really interesting like it's a bucket list atmosphere for sure i'd recommend it to anyone it was a really cool it was the best sort of atmosphere we've been at all year. So when I was calling minor league baseball games, the state college spikes play right next to the footballs team, like in the shadow of it. So, uh, I was calling a state college spikes game, uh, the week that Joe Paterno, like, uh, whatever was, got fired with the Jerry Sandusky thing, like it all went down. So there were all these news trucks, like from CNN, Fox news, like all lined up. And one of my first tweets ever is like, wow, this,

this state college spikes game. People are really excited for it. It's very on-ramp here. That's good. It's going. Yeah. I saw that they have a huge complex there of just like every sports facility is within like three blocks. Like it's all just one massive block there. And that, and it's in the middle of nowhere in the woods in Pennsylvania. And then like,

it just pops up and there it is. And then you're there and there's nothing else around. So it's, it's a cool place. So I'm glad that you guys are doing that. That's a great twist. So let's talk about the vikings draft class then you had a tweet a couple of weeks ago where you laid out the draft the

snaps from different draft classes and i believe the vikings at the time had nine well now they have a lot more mike they've had two games out of uh christian derisaw but they've been two good games out of christian derisaw and that's where I wanted to start with you is just how much we should set our expectations based on what he's shown in the first couple of games, based on what you saw during draft season and what he potentially can be. I think for offensive line, you can, you can get a much better handle than say, you know, cornerback, some other positions, wide receiver early on in that they're going one-on-one a lot.

And especially this past week, he's going up against Brian Burns a lot, who is a top 10 to 15 edge rusher and is a unique edge rusher, the kind of edge rusher you don't see in college football mostly. And now obviously Darryl saw his first career start was against Brian Burns,

but Brian Burns was a different player back then too. So he's a speed rusher. He ran a four four five coming out he is very just difficult as a difficult move set uh you have to be able to match his athleticism so seeing derisaw being able to do that outside of that one rep i think it was in the two minute drill towards the end of the game uh where he almost got her cousin sacked being up seeing able to do that for the you know majority of that game against him and or hasan reddick who is an athletic edge rusher in his own right.

You can't fake that. Rashad Hill doesn't go out in that game and all of a sudden shut down Brian Burns. That just doesn't happen. A guy like Rashad Hill needs help. De'Arsa didn't really need help in that game. So I think, yeah, he'll take lumps at times. Every rookie does. He's not going to be shut down in pass protection.

But I think you can tell that he is NFL ready he is like I said a massive upgrade over at least Rashad Hill which is a sight for sore eyes for Vikings fans that is for sure 53 pass blocking snaps in a single football game for a guy who missed training camp in preseason and to not be falling over passed out at the end of that game and be able to still perform is really impressive too I think it speaks to work ethic there because I mean that's a hard thing to do if you miss training camp as a rookie we saw some of the rookies struggle last year very early in the season because of that but also you know a good number of true pass sets which is a stat that you

guys get out there now that I really like because that takes the play action out of it takes the quick passes out of it uh what is it about his skill set in your mind that I don't know like makes his ceiling high and I have wondered too before you answer that uh why you think he slipped a little bit in the draft so I'll tell you why I think he's high and then try to come up with the reason why he slipped a little bit because I didn't know during draft season I didn't know why he was getting kind of poo-pooed as not a top tier tackle because he was the highest graded power five tackle in college football last year what I loved about him was his core strength his anchor like you never saw a guy you never saw him getting moved backwards you never even like bull rushes he would anchor immediately you never saw

him getting walked back and flat backed that was was, that just never happened on his tape, effort to attack. And yeah, again, college edge rushers are a little different than NFL, but you see it against going up against Brian Burns, Hassan Reddick, when they tried to bull rush and when they tried to go through Derriss on that game, they didn't move them.

They didn't move them an inch. So that's what I loved about them. And that's a massive sort of starting point when you get to being tackling the NFL is that if you can shut down the power game for guys, uh, it helps you a lot, uh, with being able to then mirror and shut down other moves because you're not afraid of guys, uh, going through you. It just helps with, like I said, a lot of different things in pass protection. And so I love that about him. Now he wasn't the most fleet of foot offensive tackle. He kind of, he was not a finisher. He's not a punisher.

Like you didn't see a lot of reps on his tape where he's bullying, you know, rolling over guys and doesn't have that nasty mentality, but he still plays with insane power. Like the power in his hands is ridiculous. And I, I do think it was why we said, you know, early on when they drafted him, when they made the move back, that it was one of the best moves of the draft to go back 10 spots and get a guy that you would have drafted. I would have drafted at that 14th overall pick.

It was a massive win. Yeah. I mean, I remember, I mean, the draft simulator, my gosh, it just gets worn out through draft season, but I don't know how many times I'd be going through and think 14th there. So it just makes so much sense for them without a future franchise left tackle. And I don't want to jump the gun, but like you said, when you get a decent sample against a really great player, you could see where the ceiling is and potentially transform the offensive

line. My other observation about him from having seen him up close, he's like the widest dude like if you're talking about you know your job is to keep people away his build is just like really impressive i i think just in general to stand near yeah that's that also helps like a wide base is it makes guys run like i said you have to run around you have to go again you have to go around him because you're not going through him and when you you're wide like that, you've got to go really far around. I do think that, like I said, he was a top 15 player on the PFF draft board. What we've seen from him in the first start is as

good as what we've seen from Penny Sewell at times during his rookie year. I think Vikings fans have a lot of reasons to be encouraged. You didn't see performances like this from like Garrett Bradbury year one, you know, you didn't see performance like this from gosh, who's the guard there, Samia or whatever year you didn't, you don't see that those it's not every day that you see a rookie just look like that. And it wasn't, you know, pure dominance, but it's just like even for rookies the bar is above average play for a rookie to offense tackle is rare to come by yeah drew samia is one where immediately within the first quarter of his first game you go oh no oh no nope no no not gonna work uh so let's

continue our bi-week bonanza state of the draft class here. The rest of the draft class, though, not great. You look at the weekly inactives and most of the third round appears. Wyatt Davis has not gotten on the field and didn't get a first team rep the entire time through training camp. Kellen Mond is QB three behind Sean Mannion, a journeyman backup quarterback. You have Chaz Surratt, who's inactive. Patrick Jones is inactive behind Stephen Weatherly, who is a former seventh rounder who had zero sacks for the Panthers last year. Not great in that third round, Mike. Yeah, I wasn't super high on a lot of those guys.

Surratt's probably the only one, and he's at the position where it's probably the deepest where just him seeing the field would be difficult. I can't blame that one too much. I will say the Wyatt Davis one is a little head-scratching. I thought he was a little more NFL ready. Obviously, he had the knee issues last year at Ohio State, but I thought he could come in and obviously with the state of the guard position for the Vikings, at least compete for a job. Like I said, not any first team reps. A little surprising there, but again,

rookie offensive lineman, there's no telling the learning curve. Like Andrew Thomas was a awful NFL offense tackle last year and a good one this year. You never know. Like guys struggle. You just, when you're at the collegiate level, you see a handful of guys a year

that will play at the next level. And even those guys don't compare to the physicality you see from NFL defensive tackles. So there's no sort of, there's no guy. I'd be super worried about six weeks in to their NFL career. Yeah. I think the only thing that was a little concerning with Wyatt Davis is that Mike Zimmer in his very candid way mentioned conditioning on multiple occasions. And that one right there, you go, I mean,

there's really no excuse for not being NFL ready in terms of your body, which we were just complimenting there. So, but I think it's a big criticism for Davis of just like, dude, how much do you want this though? I think might be a question. I think those are the two things. So the two things I would genuinely worry about for rookies is not on field performance. It's, you know, what the coaching staff says about how hard he's working behind the scenes and

then injuries. If a guy has a, you know, a big injury early on his rookie year, not a lot of guys come back. Like that's a difficult hill to overcome. So the Wyatt Davis, notis not you know getting ready for view smith's coaches that would be the thing that concerns me so yeah chesarat is totally a project type of player um he is like a missile but he has no idea where the missile is aimed that's okay though like you said they've got depth at that position we'll see what happens with anthony bar in the future if that ends up being a thing or or not, Patrick Jones is just a long list of defensive linemen that they draft in the third or fourth that just, you go, I don't know what exactly,

there wasn't really signs there. Yeah. Just the nameless faceless six foot four defensive end that they draft every year. Now he, I was, that was the one pick of the Vikings where I was like, I didn't see it. I never saw Patrick Jones at pit. He, yeah, he that was the one pick of the Vikings where I was like, I didn't see it. I never saw Patrick Jones at Pitt.

He, yeah, he's 6'4", but he had very short arms for a guy that size. Wasn't terribly productive as a pass rusher. And I think he was on the old side too. I want to say he was a redshirt senior coming out to where if you're a redshirt senior and your third round pick, you should be at least playing at a high level in college football. And I don't think we ever really saw that from him. Get went to the senior ball. I think he had the lowest win rate in the one-on-ones at the senior ball,

which like not a great combination. So that one was the one where I was like, I didn't necessarily agree with that pick out, but I was like last year with DJ Wanham. I was like, I didn't, I didn't see it with one of them either. So maybe they can work some magic there,

but yeah, I'm not holding my breath for either. And Wanham, they've bought into the point that they started him at the beginning of the season, and then he immediately lost his job to Everson Griffin, which they said, oh, no, no, no, has nothing to do with his play. And you're like, really, though? I think they would play him more if he was dominating out there. But now there is some very interesting players at the bottom of this draft from the fourth round on, starting with Kenny Wong, who's coming off.

I have to say, Mike, of all the players that I have seen practice on NFL football fields, Kenny Wong who goes into one of the most explosive that I've just ever witnessed up close. And I think for him coming off, I are that there's an opportunity there to use him somehow some way to enhance this offense because this guy is blazing fast yeah I mean you can't teach for two and he's legitimately in that range I remember flipping on his tape last year in the spring because I mean who's who's doing too much scouting on Iowa State backup running back uh and I heard someone be like oh yeah yeah. And Wong was a sleeper. And I could not believe, you know, when you saw him explode through a hole to get to the second level,

I was like, Oh my Lord, that is how, how was this guy not playing more? And it's like, yeah, he was behind Dave Montgomery, behind Brees Hall, two guys who are going to be top three in their respective classes at the running back position. But this guy has a different level of speed than even dalvin cook has which is saying something because he's you know very exposed to running back his own right so i think there is a role that he can fill and just a like i said speed can be utilized more and more in the spread offenses today than ever before

in just the threat of it because that guy coming out of the backfield one-on-one with a linebacker, I don't care who it is running like a wheel route. I like my chances with Nwango. I think give him five plays a game to start and see if he breaks off something big and maybe you've got something there, but just incredibly explosive and a tough break for him with the injury early on. And you do worry about that, the faster guys and the injuries, it seems to correlate. The other guy that's sort of interesting here is Amir Smith-Marset, who certain people on draft Twitter were crazy high on. But the NFL clearly was not. Now he

hasn't carved out any type of role as a receiver, got hurt as a kick returner, but there's at least this little shade of when he gets the ball in his hands, he can do something. And I wonder even just when you're like looking at these guys and trying to make your, you know, rankings and everything, like, do you factor kick returning? Uh, because I think that I wouldn't in terms of value, but I would in terms of like, is the guy a baller? Uh, I look at it. I mean, if a guy really is a plus kick returner, it's something that you do look at now with Amir Smith, Marcella, I think the biggest worrier, the biggest reason I wasn't, you know, with like you said, some of the draft Twitter who was crazy high in them was

he's a stick. I mean, it was he 170 something coming out and it wasn't really a Devante Smith 170 where he's not shifted. He's straight line fast. And I worry with those guys because you can run a four, four flat in a straight line with no one on you. But as soon as a hand gets on you when you're 175 and that hand is coming from a guy who's a 205 pound cornerback, you're running a 40 and whatever that cornerback wants you to run. And so that's what I worry about with guys like that. But again, like I said, speed can still play. It still can have a role. And you can scheme free releases for guys like that better than ever in the NFL with spread formation. So I do think it's a different element to this offense that they haven't had when he does see the field that can still have value. But I'm not holding my breath for him to be the Adam Thielen-era parent that often.

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That is S O T A S T I soda stick.com that is s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k check that out today use the promo code purple insider for free shipping and also follow myself and soda stick on twitter for our giveaways yeah totally agree um that if he develops into somebody who eventually plays any role then you've done well for yourself. Now I'm told by certain elements of, of not necessarily draft Twitter, but let's say stodgy old football writer, Twitter that would say, you can't,

you cannot judge a draft class, Mike for three years. Maybe it's 11 years. Actually, I think, I think right now I want to take a look at that. Oh, seven last class guy. Last guy from that class goes in the hall of fame.

Then we can say which one, you know what? I think I've decided. Every player has to be retired. So what, so we can't judge Brady's draft class. Yeah. 2000 still up, up for grabs. But if you were to, if you were to grade it right now for the Vikings, how would you have it at this moment? I don't think it drops too much further from my initial take on it, which I believe was in the A range, A or A minus, because of how massive that trade was or how the return on investment for that

trade to turn the number 14 overall pick. And to two guys who I believe can be starters down the line for you on the offensive line. And not just like, you know, Drew Samia starters starters guys who can actually uh you know start at a quality level and i think you're already seeing that with christian derisaw and hopefully you'll start to see that in wyatt davis in time like i said probably year two year three would be the timeline for him then at this point but that's that's still i think it's still right around that grade. And especially with Darasaw playing well out the gate, I think it's a good draft class and like a much needed. Yeah. Not a lot of these guys are seeing the field, but you still need cheap talent. You still need cheap guys in the pipeline with all the big contracts having that roster.

So draft night was really interesting for us because they passed on Mac Jones, who's played well so far. I'm going to ask about him. But when they trade down and still get Christian Dersaw, it was sort of a conflict of saying, well, you eventually got Kellen Mond, you're, who knows, just not anything probably. And drafting a QB in the third round, that's not aiming for a future quarterback. That's not legitimately trying to get that quarterback

on a rookie contract, which is the golden ticket. ticket but at the same time he did a great job getting value and guys who i think you guys have discovered this the guys who fall there's a better chance of succeeding than when you reach up and try to get like say alex leatherwood way before you should or something like that so it's sort of a conflict for me it's like the guy they didn't draft in the quarterback if they eventually want to change that position, it took away a little bit for me, but in terms of getting Daris, it was a home run pick that night. Yeah. The, the Mon selection, I didn't, I didn't love, I would say that, I mean, I wasn't super high in mind, but it was just, if you're really trying to address the quarterback

position in the future address the quarterback position like it's too valuable to just say ah you know maybe kellen mon develops into that guy it's like if you really want to move on from kirk cousins and the massive contracts that he's going to continue to demand with his play, obviously being at a high level. Well, do that with a guy who's you believe can do it at a high level on that rookie contract. Don't just throw it away. And then because they're going to be at a crossroads next time, Kirk Cousins deals up and they're going to have to resign. You know, that's what they're going to end up doing because in the NFL today, no one's willing to really just let that guy walk away and say, we're going to tank

or just have a bad year with this roster. So I think that was the other thing is like, if you do draft Mac Jones, they're a 14 overall, you're kind of saying, Hey, we're not really trying to improve this roster right now to the fan base signaling that maybe you're not all in for this season. And so I think a lot of those factors come into play, but I mean, Kirk's playing exceptionally well. I'm not, I'm not going to hate on him too much. He's definitely earning that deal. It's just, they need, you know, they need the guys that they have drafted to start playing well is another problem.

Right. And that's why the dare saw thing could kind of swing this, because if he does play well in the first year, you know, I thought, I don't know if this is a statistically great play to say, Oh, we're going to fix this position in the draft, but sometimes it works. Let's talk about the rookie quarterbacks because the Vikings will eventually someday on their schedule face Justin Fields a couple of times. It's not until I think week 15 that they actually see him. Mac Jones just played incredibly well against Dallas. Justin Fields has shown signs, but also not consistently been very good. Trey Lance just getting his feet wet.

I, Mike, cannot talk enough about this rookie class because it's just so interesting. Zach Wilson just threw, well, I just caught an interception from Zach Wilson. Incredible. Somehow he found me here. But I mean, just give me the rundown of sort of like how you're assessing where these guys have started their careers. Yeah, I do think like what you said about Zach Wilson. He's been the one that I haven't seen too much encouraging. It's just been too much of a

roller coaster. The game out in London was, I mean, there wasn't, there was inaccuracies, there was bad decisions, there was nothing really to write home about. And that's not a good Falcons defense. You know, of all the defenses, he should have had a good game against them. And then you see guys like Trevor Lawrence go to London and play out of his mind against the dolphins. You know, he was under pressure, almost 40% of his or over 40% of his dropbacks in that game and still goes for over 300 yards leads them to that game winning score. I thought he was very impressive. Mac Jones, you know,

only missed like two or three throws in that entire game against the Cowboys was really efficient. Yeah. He looks like a game manager of sorts. He does still struggle to push the ball down the football field. He does not have the arm strength that is going to wow you, but man, he's accurate with the ball underneath. He's made some great throws under pressure. He's the most sort of quickest adjustment to the NFL game in terms of the little things about running an NFL offense. And I can see why a lot of teams pass on them.

I do still think there are limitations to his game, but I think a lot of teams are also regretting passing on him after seeing what he did, because he's cheap. Like I said, the 15th overall pick is not costing you a lot at the quarterback position. And you can spend that money elsewhere and improve your roster and so i think the patriots are very happy with that trey lance is the one where it's like he was never going it was never going to be great out the gate he's played one game in a year and a half and it was against central arkansas like going to up against nfl defenses there's

going to be a learning curve that's very steep and so with him you see the talent it reminds me a lot of kind of josh allen's rookie year at least like the start where it's like man plays that are just wow other guys don't make those plays arm throws this arm that are just special but still too inaccurate to really lead a consistent offense um but is very you know very talented as a runner you already see that for him fields is the one where still kind of TBD. I do think that first game against the Browns, like they didn't put them in a good situation to succeed. They've done a lot better the past couple of weeks in terms of max

protections, just giving them time. Even if it is two man routes and saying, Hey, you know, if it's not there, run it, throw it away, whatever. Cause that's, that's his biggest sort of add on right now is he can scramble. That guy's still runs a four, four. He can make plays with his legs. You see the arm talent, the accuracy, like that's all there. He's just kind of not getting to that second guy, not getting to the check down and still taking bad sacks, rookie mistakes, some stuff like that. So I think his learning curve was always going to be a little steep with the fact that Ohio

state's offense, the office line he had there, the receivers he had there, he didn't have to go to a second read. The first read wasn't there. Well, the second read was. There was no everything looks bad. I have to create a nice throw or do something with my arm or even go to a check down that isn't necessarily the first or second read in that offense. So I think you're kind of seeing that him struggle with those things with Chicago. Cause there's the NFL windows, the guys getting open, aren't there, but I do think he is still a super

talented dude and you've seen the flashes from him. That's what's so interesting about just the way that the Viking schedule plays out and not seeing Justin field till the end of the year, because I think if they played him right now, Mike Zimmer would just toy with him and he would throw for 87 yards. Yeah. Oh, you, the, as a Packers fan, uh, I am very glad to get that one out of the way. I did not feel too worried going into that game outside of the fact that the line was banged up, but I didn't think just feels about to go cart them up. Right. And now I want to know what you think about the circumstances with Zach Wilson and Trevor Lawrence, because I think Trevor Lawrence looking like a competent NFL quarterback with a snake oil salesman head coach who has no idea what he's doing is actually more impressive to me. Like the fact that he doesn't

look like Zach Wilson says like, wow, I mean, you're, you're having to do everything out there. His offensive line is bad. Um, his coach is not an NFL coach. It's, it's crazy. Uh, and yet, Hey, you can go out and not get killed every week where Zach Wilson, I don't know. Like, I don't know if Robert Sala knows how to coach. I don't know if their offensive coordinator knows what he's doing, but it should look better than that. I think with Zach Wilson. Yeah. I mean, Lawrence has what you'd probably put their offensive line in the bottom 10 of the NFL, put their wide receiving core in the bottom 10 of the NFL, and he went out and just beat one of the top five defenses from a year ago. And now, obviously, they've struggled a little bit more this year, but it's a Brian Flores coach defense. They throw a lot at you,

and he's hitting these windows down the football field. So that was probably, given the competition level, given the situation, probably the most impressive performance I've seen from rookie quarterback all season. But then Zach Wilson, like you have Matt LaFleur, and I think everyone just kind of assumes he's going to be like Shanahan, like his brother.

And yeah, maybe he's not, but at least that offense does look stylistically similar. And he's still kind of, you know, very inconsistent with getting the ball where it needs to go and even like accuracy hasn't been there uh for him which is kind of concerning because like he was pretty accurate at byu but again like holes get the windows you're thrown to get different different in the nfl uh and yeah the offensive line is probably bottom 10 office line. Yeah.

The receiving core is also probably a bottom 10 receiving core, but he's done nothing to, you know, overcome that. He's done nothing to lead them to look like it looks better than it is. Whereas I think Lawrence has. I think in that circumstance, you should sign a McCown and play him for that year and then just let Zach Wilson sit.

But I do think it's a little concerning when somebody looks Joshua Rosen, like, you know, when Joshua, I'm not going to put that on him. I'm not going to put that on him. Rosen was Rosen was like not at games where it was a miracle, even completed passes. So I wouldn't go that far with him, but it's not, it's not good. I'll just, I'll say that.

Okay. Fair enough. But the Josh Rosen point is just that I used to think like, I don't care what they do rookie year. I'm just not going to judge, but there is the sign sometimes when the guy can't operate anything competently and Mack Jones is doing that. Justin Fields is in spurts and Trevor Lawrence, I think he's doing it very well. And so I guess that that's kind of my point not necessarily calling him the next josh rosa i mean honestly he looks you know he looks more like the he looks more like sam darnold did as a rookie where it's just like oh you know that's a nice throw like there's there's throws on tape that are nice there's not stretches of performance that are like oh that's a good

stretch that's a good drive that he puts together there's like oh wow that that play of him breaking outside the pocket throwing a deep core. Awesome throw, but there's no quarterback play for stretches that you're like, that is what an NFL QB looks like. And that's kind of the worrisome thing. And like I said, I would not be opposed to letting him just sit and kind of learn. Because he's another guy. He came from BYU. He didn't play this Frankenstein schedule last year of all these group of five teams because of COVID.

It was going to be a big learning curve. And it was a one-year wonder type of guy. So I do think that his transition to the NFL game is just like, he's getting in some bad habits. Okay, last thing for the bi-week bonanza. I'll sing it at the end again. Give me one first-round pick who you have been really surprised at how quickly they've adapted.

And you've been like, whoa, okay. Didn't know if that was going to happen. And one that you've just been disappointed in. Ooh. Okay. Let's see one first round pick that I'm surprised how they adapted.

I'll say Jason. Oh, way. And now he hasn't been dominant by any means. I think the splash plays he had, the fumble at the end of the KC game, or obviously Fluky aren't going to happen every week. But even you see him winning one-on-one at times, which I thought coming in, he might just not even be a complete wash as a rookie with how kind of behind the eight ball.

He was a developmental curve. Everyone talked about didn't have a sack last year. You know, get strapped in the first round. Didn't have a sack. But he's a freak athlete. He's only been playing football for like four years. He only started his junior year of high school. So I'm surprised that he's actually been making plays outside of just, you know, the unblocked stuff that you would expect him to do at that level of athleticism. One guy I'm disappointed in, let's see. I mean, Zach Wilson, a little

disappointed. I can do a better position though than Zach Wilson. I think Patrick Sertan, and now he's had some splash plays on his tape, but he's also been exposed a little bit the past few weeks. I mean, the big reason why they've gotten blown out the past couple of weeks is because he's given up some big plays. So I do, I do think he, I called him one of the most NFL ready corners. I was hoping he'd be a little bit more just like that guy from day one sort of performance. And we really haven't quite seen that from him yet. I think more than anything for me, it's just some of the injuries that have happened have been just disappointing. You know, like JC Horn getting hurt. Yeah. You know, so when you, when you have a couple of guys hurt, you can't really get a sample size on them. I would say

Jalen Waddle for me. I don't know if it's how he's played or it's just their offense. It's probably just their offense. It's the offense. Yeah. That one's just the offense. They look like they have him run in drags whip routes and yeah i mean he's awesome after the catch but he also runs a 4-3 like he also can get open deep uh and that was you know his mo at alabama he's not a limited dude so their usage of him has been comical of sorts i was thinking in college he sort of was like percy harvin-esque in terms of just like everything he could do and his downfield ability too. And they have done nothing with it.

So if you're going to trade up and you're going to draft that guy, why don't you just, you know, lean into it? But it's the Miami Dolphins. The tailgate. They have two offensive coordinators. If you have two offensive coordinators, they don't have any. Yeah, that's what John Madden said back in the day, right? Yeah. I mean, is that not like if you're doing franchise rankings,

Jacksonville is just always last. But like those two London teams, you might be at the very bottom. I don't. Yeah. The decision making. Now I love the trades they've been making and like the wheeling and dealing and the draft stuff they've done. I mean, paying off, just fleecing the Texans the way they did.

But it just seems like the roster turnover every year is so ridiculous there. Like you can't keep signing and then cutting for agents and then trading. And then like, you just need some cohesiveness at some point for that team. Yeah. And it's a, it's very a Raiders ask of like, you got a bunch of draft capital and then what did you do with it? Like you have to drafted Austin Jackson. Yeahson yeah well that's not working out very well um the tailgate podcast is phenomenal i am better at my job because i listened to you and austin gale um so i thank you for all of your hard work there and of course it's not draft season yet but there are mocks coming i saw there's a mock on pf so they're

mocks it's happening i just came out with the. I will be coming out with one in a couple of weeks. We've got the draft board updated position ranks live on the site right now. So a lot of people, a lot of people, you know, when you go one in five, when you start out oh and oh and six, you start looking towards the draft. So we got to cover. And we were that close to that. So for now, for now we wait, but I'll still look at your mock. Mike Renner, you do the best work on the NFL draft and now much more on your tailgate podcast. So really appreciate

coming on. Great to catch up with you, man. No, thanks for all the kind words, Matthew. Thanks for having me, man.