Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Trevor Sikkema was shocked by Caleb Banks pick but...

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Trevor Sikkema of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast joins Matthew Coller to talk about the Minnesota Vikings' decision to draft Caleb Banks. Why it surprised him but how he can see the potential upside. Plus why he loved two specific picks the most for the Vikings and teams that changed their fate in the NFC with the draft. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

All right, welcome back to the show. Trevor Sykima, the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. Absolutely crushed your NFL draft coverage, Trevor. Love to see the success of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. If you folks followed Trevor with PFF and you have not gone over and started listening to the Stock Exchange, please do so as soon as possible. Trevor, why don't we just start out with this? What'd you think of the Vikings draft? You guys did a huge, huge show grading all the drafts because you're lunatics.

You graded 32 drafts. What did you guys, what did you guys land on with the Vikings? Because the graders were not pleased by this Vikings draft overall. So I gave the Vikings grade a C plus. And there's, I think pros and cons with how they kind of went about this. The Caleb Banks pick at 18, I was so shocked by, especially with Dillanthianian, who was, I think, the most mocked player to a certain team outside of Fernando Mendoza, maybe a baby player in the draft class.

He's on the board. You don't take him. You take a player in Caleb Banks instead. And obviously, I'm sure that you guys have covered this ad nauseum after the fact. It's a massive home run hit, right? You are taking a swing for the fences. You are up in that bat speed. You are arch in the back a little bit more as that fastball's coming in.

And you are saying, I am striking out here or I am hitting a 500 foot dinger. It's probably one of those two options. And for the biking specifically, having a desire to get more aggressive, more talented, faster on their interior defensive line, I can understand how they ended up at this point. Because what Brian Flores is all about is pressure from everywhere, right? Versatility from everywhere. And Caleb Banks is somebody who I categorize my players in a little bit more of subposition categories.

Like I don't just say defensive tackles. Within defensive tackles, I will say, okay, I will have a nose tackle position ranking. I will have a three technique defensive tackle ranking. And then I even have a three four defensive end ranking, which I kind of think is more of those interior defensive linemen. So I have three subcategories within defensive tackle. And I feel as though I went with Caleb Banks as a three, four defensive end,

simply because I could feel like I felt he could play basically everywhere. And I know that Flores probably loves that about the defensive line. But even if you want to say, who, boy, that's a, that's Rick. and a risk there for Caleb Banks at 18, you do come back and give yourself a little bit of a security blanket at 82 with Dominic Orange. So if you're going to make that Caleb Banks pick, I do like getting a little bit more of a high floor player in Dominic Orange. Because remember, it's not just that Kayla Banks' boom or bust in his play, which I do think that there are some inconsistencies and you want him to be a little bit more consistent with a lot of those highs. It's the injury stuff

as well, right? Multiple foot injuries for him. It's not great to draft, you know, 330-pound dudes with foot injuries in the top 20. That's definitely a big risk. So because they drafted Banks, I like the fact that they drafted Orange a little bit later. Now, I think that those who are playing the other side of the coin or Devil's Advocate was say, well, if we didn't draft Banks at 18, like let's say they took Dylan Thineman, well, then you freeze you up to take whoever you wanted 82. Maybe they take Dominic Orange. Maybe they could take somebody else. but did they feel like they had to take another defensive tackle at 82 because they took bags? So there's a little bit of that give and take and sort of a beauty is in the eye of the beholder,

sort of how they analyze the interior defense line selections there. Jake Golda is a great pick for me. Again, he played a lot in that sort of like apex overhang defender, nickel defender sort of position for Cincinnati, but I think he's got potential to be able to play as an inside backer between the tackles as well. Tiernan gives you a little bit of that guard tackle flexibility is probably a swing. guy in the early parts of his career. Thomas lays the wood over the middle at pick number 98. It gets the draft strategy gets interesting to me though, because I think, again, there's different ways to look at this Vikings draft class where if you just sort of look at the names,

I think you could go, okay, like this is pretty nice from them. And then I sort of look at the overall draft strategy and I go, how did you draft a fullback at 159 and then you get to Moen Claibor at 198. How did we come to that prioritization? Because the fact that you still got Claiborne at 198, genuinely, the scheme fit, the talent fit, all of that, one of the steals of day three. I genuinely believe that. But I can't help but go, okay, you probably should have picked him at 159 and you got, I think pretty lucky the fact that he was available there at 198. Charles Demings, I think is a really good developmental corner for you. Somebody who's got the length and the athleticism to play on the outside.

Maybe he can even play a little bit of safety for you as well. So all that to say, like the names on the list of the draft hall for the Vikings, I don't mind. But there's a little bit of certainly weighing the risk. And then also the prioritization of who you picked where that ended up, I was sort of floating between like a B minus C plus type of a grade. And I ended up going with a C plus there on our show. Well, let's talk a little more about banks.

Then we can talk about board management and that sort of thing. Although, you know, when it gets to day three, I'm like, just take your fullback. It's fine. And he is, he is. I agree. I agree, but not when you might need a starting running back that's still on the board. He's a great scheme fit for you. Yeah, I think they must have had some intel that DeMond Claiborne would not be taken all that high,

even though, I mean, he was Brugler's RB8, which is pretty good. I mean, I know it's not the greatest running back draft. and RB8 may have been like a third round pick or second round pick last year. But still, like, that's a, that's pretty good for the amount of talent. And for whatever reason, he dropped. I also think that people are going to be surprised how much they use the fullback in their new run scheme that they're rolling out after hiring Frank Smith from the Miami Dolphins. So I think that's kind of part of it. But just with with the big ticket here, Caleb Banks, I'm very curious about it because I have two minds.

I mean, number one is you and I know the red flags through history. It's not just injuries, but it's also production. It's playing experience. If someone has played under a thousand college snaps, like that's going to mean there needs to be some development there. And it might take a little while. And if they haven't had unbelievable run stop percentage, unbelievable pass rush win rates, something like that, PFF grade for, you know, against the run, against the pass, usually it hasn't worked out. but also usually the guy is in 6'4.6 and 330 pounds.

And the one thing I feel like the Vikings have been lacking, just as an entire team, is freakishness. They have a lot of high IQ players. Hey man, Aaron Jones is as smart of a football player as you will ever meet in your entire life. But he's not a freak in the backfield. And Josh Mattelis, same thing. Like, that guy is going to be an NFL coach someday.

I guarantee it. But he's not a freak. you need freaks to win the Super Bowl to get through the you know the playoffs and be a difference maker so I think that they looked at it like that as we don't really have anything scary here on our defense how can we go get a scary gentleman but I wonder what you think about though the boomer bust prospect throughout history you've been covering the draft for such a long time like how often does this work out like I mean I just I I'm trying to find some way to contextualize this draft pick.

Yeah, I think that you are viewing it through the right lens because I think that they, you know, you correct me if I'm wrong. You cover the team a lot, obviously a lot closer. But I think that they probably wished Dallas Turner was a little bit more of like that freak of nature type of an edge rusher where I think they drafted him to be that. And I think he's good. And I think he is getting better. But that freak of nature type of edge rusher, I'm not so sure that you would check the box

in that category. You draft Tyrion Ingram Dawkins because he's got crazy athleticism for his size, but he's a later round pick for a reason. So he's a little bit of a development there. Andrew Van Ginkle, I mean, the way that he processes the game, you mentioned how smart he is. I think the same thing for a lot of the guys that are on the interior of the linebacker level as well. Jalen Redbin's a great football player and had a hell of a year last year.

But an athletic freak, okay, probably not. So I agree with you. In that front, they're sort of missing that. And maybe that does go into. I don't know if Caleb Banks even goes in the first round if he doesn't get picked at 18. I don't know. I think that, you know,

I haven't read every quote from, you know, the organization since they picked him because I think every team will try to sell you on the fact that like, oh yeah, he was young. He was getting paid. He was going to get picked in like two picks. Like, let me tell you. You absolutely was.

And you're like, okay, sure, maybe. But just because the injury and the inconsistency is, I'm not so sure that Caleb Banks goes in the first round, but he was the player who his rangers all over the place. So very clearly they just were comfortable taking that swing of the bat. And there's a lot of examples obviously where that does not work. And there are some where, of course, you hit it big. But I think the overall team building perspective is probably the more important part,

where you just have to get guys who, okay, we can scheme you up a certain way. You know, we can have a certain blitz package that we feel good about. But every now and then to win at this level, you've just got to have a guy who makes a play and when you don't even expect And you just go, who, thank God we got that guy. And like it's just Caleb Banks at least gives you that potential to be able to do so. Now, I was looking this up because I couldn't exactly remember what Walter Nolan's stats were when he was coming out of Ole Miss because he looked really good. Now, obviously he was injured and missed a lot of last year, but he looked really good when he was on the field for the Cardinals.

But even Walter Nolan, Walter Nolan in 2023 at Ole Miss had eight and a half tackles for loss and four sacks. Now, obviously these aren't everything. but then the year after that he had 14 tackles for loss and six and a half sacks. Caleb Banks, his best year of his production, looks like Walter Nolan's second best year, that 2023 season, not that 2024 season. Now you could say to yourself, well, if you had a fully healthy 2025 year,

I believe he would have been that 2024 Walter Nolan season. But unfortunately, you have to say what if, because he was not healthy for that. So it is tough. And I think that it's going to be a little bit of a learning curve with Caleb Banks. And it's going to be much more of a, hey, he might really look like a rookie while he is a rookie. And you just got to live with that second year. You're hoping that you're getting really good production out of him for half the year.

And then you're hoping third year, fourth year that rookie contract, he is a major, major difference maker for you there. So it's interesting because I agree like it's kind of a spot where you're betting on just a freak of nature type of a player. but he's already a little bit older of a prospect, if I remember correctly, he's got some of the foot injuries that he's working through and he needs snaps. So it's not like it's this big swing of the bat right away. Like he's more of a, hey, 2027's more of the year that I think that you should think that you're starting to get regular contributions from Caleb Banks as maybe your best

defensive line in that season. I ended up talking out of both sides of my mouth so much with Caleb Banks because I am always in favor of thinking toward two years out when you draft. And it's so funny because every time a team drafts a guy that isn't an immediate fit need, we're all like, you should draft the best player available, the highest player on your board. Wait, that guy wasn't a need. I mean, that was Caleb Tiernan in the third round. Yeah, like, wait a minute, an offensive lineman, what are you doing?

But, you know, in 2027, you know, Brian O'Neill is going to be a free agent and you can sign an extension yet. We don't know what's happening in right guard long term because Will Fries will not have a $21 million cap hit for the Minnesota Vikings in 2027, I promise you. So what are you doing there? And that opens the door for Ternan and his little T-Rex arms to potentially move inside, right? So, like, you can, if you look into the future, you can see it. But the issue a little bit here with Caleb Banks is they don't have other defensive

tackles. He's going to have to play. Like, they drafted Dominique Orange and he's going to have to play. And Redmond, and you mentioned Ingram Dawkins, they have a couple other guys. they like Levi Drake Rodriguez who will definitely play and then Elijah Williams who's kind of a project for them. But that's not like a bunch of veteran guys. That's not like here comes, I don't know, Shelby Harris and DJ Reader or something coming in.

They're going to have to rely a lot on those young players, which I think is a really interesting thing to do when your roster is in a position where if you added Dylan Thieneman and the guy is going to play a thousand snaps, you can just sort of lock it in. you can figure that he's just going to be a solid player right away. It is a very interesting choice for a franchise to say, we're going with something that's going to help us down the road, rather than something that's going to help us right now when Kyler Murray is on a $1.3 million contract and when a bunch of your players are set to be free agents after this year.

Yeah. It's the two years out philosophy is the way that I feel like you should draft, but it always gets sort of mixed reviews sort of on draft night. There's no doubt about it. The Fries appoint with Caleb Tiren and I think is a great one. And just going to exactly what you said a little bit further, that timeline of Caleb Banks, maybe that again is the reason why you drafted Dominic Gorence.

And you said, like, look, we're going to use our first round pick on a massive home run swing. Like we are going to try, where do we want to place a home run swing on this defense? And I think if you would have done that before the draft, it kind of sounds like from the way that you've talked about it, I don't want to put words in your mouth. But if you look at this Vikings roster as a whole,

if there was one spot where you would have said, yeah, take the home run swing, it feels like that was the spot. Like it feels like just the lack of overall difference-making talent, you would have said, yeah, okay, if we can add somebody who's boom or bust, but we get to take the chance on them as a potential first rounder, you do that there.

Now, fundamentally, there's going to be people to say, well, hold, you don't do that with your first round picks. Well, okay, I think that's a, separate conversation that we would have. If you've decided that you are going to do that, defensive tackle for this team seemed like the area where you would do that. So for this draft class, you almost have to like objectively put number 18 away.

Like you almost have to objectively say this was a different draft strategy for us. We did something where we're just, we're trying to hit a lottery ticket, we're trying to hit a home run here. And then you almost have to start the Vikings draft when you consider sort of what their team building and their structure. is like from pick 51 on because then you get okay jake golday who i think raises the talent level of the speed the athleticism the overall size of the inside linebacker and outside linebacker group

dominic orange gives you a higher floor defensive lineman who you mentioned would kind of have to play right away he can play right away because of all his experience uh at iowa state then you talk about tiernan okay that's a little bit into the future you know is it a tackle is it a guard jacobby thomas you get a rotating safety in there because we thought that this team was going to high safety. So they get a little bit bigger and stronger in that category. Brettison, you mentioned Miami's philosophy, which was, man, I can't remember if they were number one or top three or whatever it is in like multi-back personnel that they had the previous season. So that makes a ton of sense. Demings, I think is a great athlete to add to the secondary

to Monclaiborne. He might be the part-time or full-time starter for them at some point this season. You get them at 1-98, which again, I think is hilarious. But if you look at this draft class by taking away number 18. I think of a lot of the positions and how they went about things makes sense. It's just that 18 one is such a curve ball to throw into the mix when it comes to the overall analysis of this class. Yeah, it is because I think that we all had them taking something kind of safe. Although, you know, I mean, by the time we get to the draft, you've thrown out pretty much every single idea. And we kicked around the idea of Caleb Banks at one point. And the reason that I kind of rejected it was just history is not kind of this type of player with.

You know, when you're talking about that production, not getting there, I went through every first round defensive tackle and just looked at run and pass rush grades and who made it and who didn't. And there was definitely some guys that dominated against the run that weren't great pass rushers who made it like the Vita Vaya or whatever, but he's also 347 pounds when he came out and who knows what now. So that's a little bit different. Dexter Lawrence was kind of that way. But there were very few guys that didn't dominate either one of those things.

that turned, yeah, that turned out to be quality starters. So this is going to be a little test case of a coaching staff. Is this how this feels saying we can mold him? We can build him into the player that we want him to be. And Caleb Banks hits, it's going to be so annoying to go through draft cycles because everybody's just going to point to Caleb Banks. I'm obviously, I'm obviously, you know, kidding and being a little bit lighthearted there for Vikings fans. I'm not rooting against your first drop pick to not make it.

But it is going to be funny because of what you just said. you will have a total outlier in production, in snaps, in grades and performance that then would become worthy of a top 20 overall selection that everybody's going to be like, see? What about him? What if he's another Caleb Banks? And that'll just create more very fun pre-draft conversations. Let me ask you about some of the other players and just what you like there that you mentioned. Jake Golda is a really interesting prospect that I had circled going into the draft as, oh, I think, Ryan Flores going to like this.

He plays everywhere. He does a lot of different things really, really well. They did not draft DeAngelo Pons, who was one of my favorite players in the draft, by moving down a couple spots. So that was a tad disappointing. But I don't think you can find better fit for a defense than Jake Olday for the Vikings. Yeah, no, I think that this is an excellent fit for them.

And look, he's a little green when it comes to the true inside linebacker stuff. you know, if he was playing, if he got drafted to a more traditional three, four defense, right, where he had to play as the mic or maybe even more will responsibilities, which in today's game, when you're playing a lot out of nickel, the will and the mic are kind of on the field at the same time anyways, and they're kind of doing split responsibility. So it's, it's not as much of, okay, the Sam is the guy who's rotating down to the line of scrimmage. The will is the player who's always playing in space. the Mike is kind of the middlebacker, obviously, between the tackles.

Will and Mike are the responsibility is just sort of bled together. Not that they don't have little things here and there, but it's closer with those two. All that to say, if he would have been traditionally a Mike linebacker in a four three front, you could sort of poke holes in this. And you could say like, eh, like he, he wasn't really asked to defend the run a ton from between the tackles. Like he was much more of it in space backer. You know, sometimes he'd either get manipulative. by, you know, different pre-snap motion or play action or things like that when he was truly

between the tackles. He could see things a lot better when he was in space. But for Flores, specifically, one, you're playing in what is more of an odd front defense where you have more linebackers on the field, right? More outside linebackers, more inside linebackers. So you kind of get to divvy up the responsibility in a lot more ways, especially once you get your safeties involved as well, which Flores is very diverse and sort of what he does. To me, it just frees up Golda to do a lot of different things. I think the potential to allow him to just hunt the football in space goes up in this sort of structure of a defense. So to me, it's like that's what my drawback of him was as a prospect. Like if you were asking him to just step in and be a mic,

like immediately in the NFL, you, it might be a decent learning curve for him. But I think that in this Flores system, it's one where he can thrive pretty quickly, especially as a blitzer. And you can then develop maybe more of that, okay, maybe he does become a green dot player for you, right? Maybe he is making the calls to the rest of the defense and he's setting up the structure and all that kinds of stuff. But this is a really good place for him to land where you could get something out of him early on and then hopefully develop more of that true inside linebacker responsibility from him in the future. You really have to look at anyone who says linebacker or outside linebacker as they could be anywhere doing anything at any time.

I mean, go look at Eric Wilson's page for pressures, things like that. It's like, wait, he had 37 or something last year just out of nowhere because they started lining him up at outside linebacker at times. And then they would have him blitz on the inside. And this is stuff that Eric Wilson never really did before. And yet here you go. You found a guy who's really tough and has kind of has a lightning first step. and said, why don't, why don't we just put you everywhere and see what happens?

And I think that Gold Day is the one who's qualified in this draft most to do that. Because I always go through specifically, you talk about different positions. I go through specifically looking for guys with no position. Like when they drafted Jay Ward, that was kind of that guy of like, oh, well, he played nickel and he played safety and he played linebacker. And I guarantee you that Brian Flores noticed when he was watching this player. So they kind of have their own category. And I'm very interested to see how that goes.

and how they integrate him right away, but also it's a little bit more 20, 2070 there because Van Ginkle's a free agent, Cashman's a free agent. So that one's down the road. Just in terms of the rest of the draft, you've mentioned Claiborne a couple of times. What is it that you liked so much about him?

Dude, he's a perfect scheme fit for them. Like that's why I just, I'm so shocked that they didn't draft this player earlier. Again, that wasn't not to be like fullback slander because again, I think that that's also a scheme fit of what they want to do. but them being a team that wants to have the ability to hit home runs from mid and outside zone rushing concepts. Like he's perfect for that.

Like I didn't love Claiborne in those like downhill run scheme like between the tackles. It's like he's best because he can get to the outside. He can read his keys. He can follow his blocks. And then he can put his foot in the ground. And it's a one cut back. Boom. He can immediately get up the field.

He can make you miss with some sweet feet when he's in. the open field as well. And just, I think the straight line speed from him is fantastic. I felt like he was a perfect fit. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get to my like team specific top 100s like I did last year. But Claiborne would have been a, probably like in the 90s, like top 100 for me for this team specifically.

And that's why I love this pick so much because Aaron Jones is like, I think they, they looked at this team going into the offseason. They're like, okay, we'd be okay if Aaron Jones came back. back, but we would like to, if we could upgrade somewhere else with running back. But, you know, there's all sorts of pros and cons with pricing, how you acquire them when it comes to running backs, you know, scarcity, obviously like the supply and demand formula, all that kinds of stuff with such a position where you can find these guys all the time. And very clearly, them waiting to get a player like Demone Claiborne and then bring back Aaron Jones,

that's an ideal situation. Because now you have the veteran in the room and you have somebody that Claibor can obviously learn from, talk about him being a very strong. smart running back and somebody that could have could have coaching into his future. And I just think that he is, to me, he's just a perfect scheme fit. And they've got Jordan Mason as well. But I think that this is, this is a player who I really do envision becoming the Viking starting running back either in 2027, 2028, something like that.

I've got a lot of faith in him in this spot. It's weird because I usually have a rule against ever getting excited about a sixth round player. I mean, you just, there's so many that get taken and you, you know, go, oh, this guy's going to be this and look at this. Right. Okay. He's a sixth or a seventh round player. But I'll make an exception here just because watching him, he was another one that I thought this is exactly what they need. There's only probably five guys in this draft who have any real jolt to them. There was a lot of Jonah Coleman's. There's a lot of Emmett Johnson's who I both thought could become solid players become sort of Aaron Jones light for them.

But not too many guys that you hand them the football and they jet through 50 people and just take it to the house. Breakaway speed was not a thing that existed very much in this draft. And I actually liked Claiborne. I had him as a better fit than Mike Washington, who I thought ran very stiff and didn't really have a great history of production. I agree. We got to Arkansas, right?

So I thought the hype over Mike Washington was a 40, not necessarily what you see of him as a prospect. And Claiborne decided to stay at Wake Forest, which I don't think helped him draft stockwise. I think if he had gone from Wake Forest to somewhere else and ran for 1,200 yards for some other team that would have gotten more attention, maybe he ends up much higher on the list.

I didn't want to ask you about just in terms of the rest of the draft, let me just frame it this way, like, because we could just go player by player and have good conversations about all sorts of teams. Who changed their fate? Like that's what I think about maybe on the NFC side because that's the most interesting to me. Like obviously the Raiders, you know, they draft the number one quarterback. Who might have shifted their future with the way that they drafted in either a good or a bad way.

Just go on the on the NFC side. Yeah. So at the NFC, like the Saints are a team that I thought had a really good draft. Yeah. And the Saints, to me, sort of shifted things because they were living in this, you know, post-Shawn-Paeton kind of world. And obviously it's becoming more of a Kellyn Moore world. But even maybe more so than Sean Peyton, it was also like a post-Dennis Allen world as well. And Dennis Allen, you know, anytime that you have like the same coaches for so long, sometimes it's really tough to bounce back from that.

And I felt as though the Saints were sort of at this. And especially like with the Derek Carr stuff as well. Like you, you, you, you acquired Derek Carr, and then all of a sudden he's like, ah, I'm done actually. And you go, okay, now what, right? And you've got these, you know, weird. And I say weird as complimentary as possible, but like, you've got Tase of Hill, like on the roster.

And it's sort of like, all, you know, like, what are we doing here type of a thing? You know, like, you all the different tight end and running back usage and all that kinds of stuff. And I think, I think they found something with Tyler Schuck. And I wasn't a huge Tyler Shuck guy in last year's draft. But when he came in, man, he was able to. command things pretty well. One thing that I'm glad that they did is like they did give Spencer Rattler his shot.

And Rattler just kind of proved it like, yeah, he can do it in small sample sizes, probably not in big sample sizes. So they get Tyler Shuck, and now this offseason, they had an opportunity to look at their roster and they go, okay, we traded away Rashid Shaheed because we didn't want to pay both wide receivers. We've got Chris Olavay, which I think was the right choice, by the way. But their wide receiver room wasn't very good. Now you've got Jordan Tyson to the mix as well, where Jordan Tyson and feel like can run any sort

route. I think he could be a vertical winner for you as well. But he's more of like the intermediate route runner type of a player. And then later in the draft in round four, you go get Bryce Lance. So now you've got Bryce Lance, you've got Chris Oliva, you've got Jordan Tyson. I mean, you've unlocked a big arm in Tyler Shuck to be able to push the ball down the field, however you want. On top of that, I think their offensive line is really good. If they had a weak spot, it was Caesar Ruiz, one of those guard spots. They drafted one of my favorite guards in the fourth round, which is Jeremiah Wright from Auburn, who I think can push Ruiz for maybe that starting guard spot, either early on or maybe in 2027.

Oscar Delp sort of continues to give them that versatility as like a fullback, tight end type of utility player. And then Christian Miller is exactly what they needed on their defensive line. He was my top defensive tackle in the class. And I think they got a lot better from a run defense perspective with him out there. T.J. Hall, I think it's a good scheme fit for them in the seventh round. You mentioned his seventh rounders ad normally you don't really care, but I think it's a really good scheme for them.

Brandon Steeley's defense. So the Saints are one of those teams that, like, I didn't really expect to come away from this draft to say like, oh yeah, like New Orleans on the come up, but like genuinely, I think that New Orleans, Carolina, Tampa Bay, like it's, it's going to be a slug fest there in the NFC South. And I think that for the first time in a little bit here,

the team that wins the NFC South is actually going to be a legitimate playoff team, maybe not just the, okay, well, they won the South because somebody had to win the South. They might beat each other up a little bit throughout the season, but I think it's going to be three better teams at the top than what it was previously. I think New Orleans is a great answer in getting Tyson with Shuck. If there's anything there, you're going to be able to find out because you're going to have the receivers. And if there's not and New Orleans has to go quarterback hunting, at least you have the weapons there.

And I also think Kellan Moore did a low key, very good job coaching that team last year, but no one cared because they were just a bad team. And, you know, they weren't like on the national stage very often. but I think he did a really good job there. The other teams would be the Rams not picking another wide receiver. And the risk that they're taking is, I mean, with Puka Nakua, like, who knows? I mean, things were clearly going on in his life and he played great football last year. But Devante Adams' hamstring has been meaty for like a lot of years. And if that thing snaps, I mean, you're talking about, oh, Sean McVeigh played three times.

He's got to play four tight ends because they don't have really anything else. on that roster. So they take the big risk by going for Ty Simpson, which I think we can all agree that, hey, it's good to draft a quarterback before you need a quarterback. That's always the theory and the Packers have gotten away with it. Several different times it's worked for them. But I think that they may have shifted their fate as in there were receivers

who could be day one contributors with Matthew Stafford in his final years. And they decided to pass on them. And that may impact them throughout the season. And the other team that I would throw out there is just the eagerness. because they got Mackay Lemon, which seems a little unfair. And then they trade for Jonathan Grenard. And my only issue with the Jonathan Grenard trade for the Vikings was, why are you helping a team that's down in the mud at that position?

They were not really strong at the edge rusher spot. And that was their big weakness last year defensively for a very good defense. And you're saying, oh, why don't you have this Pro Bowl player who's really darn good and is super intense and even though he didn't have, you know, huge sack totals was great in terms of win rate and pressures and everything. Don't help them. They don't need any help. How he's fine.

He makes enough good decisions. You don't need to hand him a really good player. So I thought both of those teams potentially change their fate as in Philly seemed to me like a team that was about to slide and now may have buoyed themselves. And the Rams may have kept, I don't know, they could still win the Super Bowl, but they've like, maybe kept themselves from having that extra little security blanket. Right. Yeah, I mean, for Philly, real quick on them, like, it's going to be an interesting year

specifically for Hertz, because Hertz for when Philly was really rolling on all cylinders, fire on all cylinders. It's probably a better way to say that. They were a deep passing team. And I think everybody believes that AJ Brown has played his last down as an eagle. So subtract him off this roster. You added two passing options in McCoy Lemon and. Eli Stowers who do their best work over the middle of the field.

Jaylen Hertz doesn't throw over the middle of the field ever with efficiency or with regularity. So I think it's an very interesting bet here by Hallie Roseman to basically say like, hey, we're paying you all this money. You better be able to do this. And I think that they're just acquiring the best talent possible. They're not trying to baby hurts in any way. And they're basically just saying like, these are our best options to get better. You better be able to throw to these players.

So I think that's a very interesting thing to my. monitor there with the Eagles. And then on the ramp side of things, yeah, I mean, look, I'm not going to sit here and say that it's totally illogical, right? I mean, you're drafting the quarterback of the future. And in fact, like there were three months ago or something, we did a mock draft on NFL stock exchange where I had this very pick. I had Ty Simpson going to the Rams and I was exploring this possibility for the exact reasons that they said after the draft. We're getting ahead of the need. We had a luxury pick here at number 13. We're using it of the biggest luxury possible by hopefully nailing the quarterback after Matthew,

Stafford is done. But I haven't done a mock draft since where I had liked that because that was more of a, hey, let's explore this, the more I thought about it. And especially because as the offseason went on, the Seahawks got worse and the Rams got better. They made great moves in free agency. They acquired Trent McDuffie. They are Super Bowl favorites right now. And the thing about their draft is it's not just that Ty Simpson's not going to play this year. None of them are. Keegan Troes is not going to play for this team this upcoming season. Their offensive linemen, they draft in the top 100. Max Claire is tight end five at best for this team next year.

And I love Max Claire. The player that maybe is going to play the most for them is C.J. Daniels, the wide receiver that they drafted in the sixth round, who I think was good value for them in the sixth round. But it was so strange to me that they would have a draft class where not just number 13 overall, but no one really helps them at all this upcoming season. And it's just strange to me when, I mean, they could have had Ruben Bain at 13. Forget a wide receiver.

They could have Ruben Bain at 13. Waves of pass rushers in a Super Bowl favorite type of a season. Come on. I don't know. I just, and here the, I like Simpson. All right. Like, I think Simpson can win games in this league. But let's be real about what Simpson is.

He's not a Greek god of an NFL prospect. Right. He's not a massive. He's not even like built like Drew Aller, right? Like 6-5, 240, cannon arm, developmental player, all the tools. Like Simpson, I think, can win games in the NFL. But to me, you're drafting a quarterback who, unless you think he is just an assassin between the years, you can kind of get quarterbacks like Ty Simpson a lot.

Like you have, I don't want to say a lot, but like you will have the opportunity to draft players like Ty Simpson with more regularity than players, you know, that are much more physically gifted of guys that go in the top 15 and the top 10 and around where the Rams picked him. So I just thought it was perplexing. And Sean McVeigh is one of if not the best coach in the NFL. And he will make it work. He will be able to get as many drops of juice as possible outside of this orange.

And for whatever that is. So I have full faith in that. It's just, it was that worth not reloading more at wide receiver, not reloading more at defensive tackle in a year where you are Super Bowl favorites. I just, I'm very, very, very surprised that they did not hit the gas pedal more for an immediate playmaker at number 13. To be specific on Fandul plus 700, the Rams are the Super Bowl favorite for next year. So to not make moves to help you right away, very surprising. okay, if it had been Jordan Love, as you said, like a freak who needed refinement, maybe,

but I don't see Ty Simpson that way. That will be interesting to see how it plays out. And if they don't win the Super Bowl, we could say, I told you so. Because that's what we do with the NFL draft. The NFL Stock Exchange is a tremendous podcast. People should go find it. You're doing awesome work, Trevor. I love that when we can get together and that you're going off, doing your own thing and crushing it over there.

So I appreciate all of your time and insight, my friend. And we will definitely do it again soon. I appreciate it, Matthew. Anytime, man.