Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What draft takes is CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso confident in?

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Matthew Coller and CBS Sports' Chris Trapasso talk about their confidence levels in things that are going to happen in the draft and then make 1990s and early 2000s comparisons to current draft picks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here along with CPS Sports Trap Analyst Chris Trapasso. Chris, we're almost there, man. We're getting there. Like we are marching down to the final moments here. And we are, what, a week and a half away from actual draft time. How are you feeling, buddy? I wish the draft was like this upcoming Thursday.

Like I'm ready for it to be here. But I get it. Like teams do need to do these top 30 visits to get to know these players. I guess. But yes, I'm excited. As we get inside two weeks, we start to get the speculation that a lot of which ultimately becomes true, especially that final week of the draft is like every second you're on Twitter, like looking for a Jay Glazer or a Adam Schefter,

of course, Ian Rappaport nugget about a team is obsessed with this prospect and they're going to trade up. So we're nearing that really, really fun week. So for that, I'm very excited. Okay. Let's start with that because it feels like there has been enough from some old school reporters about Bryce Young being number one overall which I have always felt like was not going to change that he was going to be the guy that he was at the end of the college football season the guy he was going to remain the guy even if other people tried to say somebody else was the guy uh that's how I felt about it I could be wrong of course but the number one overall pick are the Panthers taking Bryce Young in your mind I think they are I think the fact that Bryce that

their head coach Frank Reich came out about Bryce Young I believe at the owners meetings and just said like hey height's not a big deal like for us which Frank Reich being a 80s and 90s quarterback himself and they have a veteran staff there that he's assembled in Carolina that we've discussed on this podcast. It wouldn't have been crazy for him to come out and kind of bring those tea leaves to the forefront to say, yeah, you know, we really like to have a quarterback that's like 6'2 or bigger. And he didn't say that.

He actually said that to the contrary. Then there was the report from the ESPN reporter. I believe his name is David Newton there for the Panthers who said like, Hey, it's pretty much down to Bryce Young and CJ Stroud. Now I wouldn't bet my mortgage that it's Bryce Young because I do think Stroud has a pretty good case. And I don't think we're not talking about a Joe Burrow final season or a Trevor Lawrence prospect that certainly checks all the traditional boxes and has been hyped for multiple seasons like Trevor Lawrence in Bryce Young, but it does feel like he'll ultimately be the selection. And I'll say this, and maybe this can kind of segue in

to something else that we can discuss. I'm confident that Bryce Young will be one of the more, I don't want to say controversial, I don't want to say shaky number one overall picks, but I think there's a lot more risk with him. I just rattled off Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence, number one overall picks, especially at the quarterback spot that we've seen in the last couple of years. Okay, well, let us expound on that because what I wanted to ask you is, you know, now that we're really close and the hay is in the barn more or less, I mean, what do you feel confident in? You've been working on this thing for months and months and months, and you watched all the college football and you watched all the tape. And then

you, you went to the combine, we were there together and you heard all the buzz and you spent time at whatever that restaurant is called, where everybody is, Nitro, whatever, something. High Velocity, I think it's called. It's got a cool name like that. That's right. The High Velocity. Yes. Whatever.

But that's the place to be. So we hung out there. We talked to all the people and everything else. I mean, what do you feel? What do you feel good about? This is kind of a broad question, but you feel like, okay, I, I don't know everything, but I sure know blank. Well, I just said that I think Bryce Young will be one of the more, I guess I like, I didn't want to use the word shaky, but I'm going to use it like unsteady number one, overall picks. Um, now that's not going to be the case on draft night. If the Panthers pick him at one or he goes to NFL network ESPN, they're all going to say, Oh, this is a great pick. This guy's drew breeze.

I'll say this. And I don't want to be someone that's like just pointing out one game, anyone listening, go on YouTube. It will take you 10 minutes. Watch Bryce young against LSU and tell me that that is like the no questions asked, number one overall pick that was there at the beginning, maybe dealt with some Anthony Richardson buzz that moved the odds and now is back to being the odds on favorite. Because against LSU, I thought all of the warts with Bryce Young's game were on full display.

And this is not like an LSU defense that has like Derek Stingley and the number one edge rusher and Devin White playing linebacker. It wasn't that great of an LSU defense this past year. The lack of arm strength, the kind of crazy improvisation at times. There were still some good plays and he brought them back in that game. But that game to me, that was one of the first that I watched and I was a little bit like, oh man, like I think he's still really good plays and he brought them back in that game but that game to me that was one of the first that I watched and I was a little bit like oh man like I think he's still really good but that was a little bit scary beyond that I still think we're gonna see a bunch of wide receivers

go in the first round and this is no disrespect to Jim Nagy the executive director of the senior bowl but he kind of created some buzz early this week when he tweeted that hey you know teams I've talked to really only have one first round grade at wide receiver and that's Jackson Smith the jig but I just feel like there are so many teams in the back half of the first round including the Vikings that like have kind of a clear need at wide receiver now that doesn't mean that I think seven are going to go in the first round, but there's just too many where I still think Zay Flowers is going to go in the first round. I'll be really surprised if Jordan Addison is not a first round pick. And Quentin Johnston, like, I'll be the first to say, even though he is my wide receiver one, that he probably doesn't play to his frame like he's not Mike Evans in contested catch situations

but 41 inch vertical a broad jump through the roof at that size with all that production and he's clearly very talented after the catch just seems like those traits he wide receivers even if they ultimately don't work out usually go in the first round so those two things Bryce Young me being a little unsteady with him and just very generally that we still will see kind of a normal collection three to four wide receivers go in the first round it's funny you bring that up because just on a podcast i did the other day with eric edholm of nfl.com i was saying the same exact thing about receivers the positional value matters here and not just even if teams don't have a first round grade on them i think that they will look around and say look at san francisco look at philadelphia like

these teams support their quarterbacks with more and more weapons even when you could say oh we need a guard oh we need a safety whatever but they will still go back to that well and i think that teams probably will even if this isn't some sort of spectacular draft now i guess with the quarterback situation i'm feeling like do i want to do i want to be bold is this confident or is this like bold i almost feel like i want to say that there's going to be a huge gap between the third quarterback drafted and the next quarterback. Is that confident or is that bold? Or is it like being too hard on Will Levis maybe?

No, I like that. I think I've done so many mock drafts. I'm like forgetting which iteration of my latest mock this was, but I think it's one that's out today that has Anthony Richardson going a little bit later. I've definitely done mock drafts where Will Levis is the one who falls quite a bit. It feels like, I think almost because we talk about these quarterbacks so much that we just ultimately push them up the board and just feel like they're going to go one, two, three, four, which I think I've done a mock that's had them one, two, three, four. The next week I was like, that's crazy. That's never happened. This is not the quarterback class

to do that. It's a good class, certainly better than last year's class. But I almost think last year we all, and you mentioned, I certainly did it, but we all, even Daniel Jeremiah talked ourselves into, all right, Malik Willis is going to go for Kenny Pickett's going to go 14. Desmond Ritter's going to go 22. And that certainly did not happen. So I feel like with Young and Stroud and the upside of Anthony Richardson, I think those will be the first three quarterbacks off the board. But it wouldn't surprise me if the unsteady final season for Will Levis and like really the fact that he was selling himself as this, I'm the athletic arm talent specimen, and then was blown out of the water by, by Anthony Richardson in that regard,

that could lead to him falling a little bit. And then you have Hendon hooker, like maybe the first three or four go early. And then Hendon hooker is ultimately picked way later in the first round. See, I'm feeling more confident in Anthony Richardson than ever, which may be totally bogus and wrong. Like you said, I mean, this has happened many times, although I did a little bit of research here.

It's very hit or miss on how accurate the mock community is with the quarterbacks. So last year was as absurd as it was to be that far off from what the NFL actually did, that usually doesn't happen. So last year was weird. Nobody believed Daniel Jones was going to get taken as high as he was taken. So there are surprises, but you know, usually they at least have in the ballpark, unlike last year, which was, you know, just weird because nobody seemed to want to put their name on any of those quarterbacks. But I feel like Anthony Richardson has had one of the best end of the season to present of anybody that I can remember. I mean, just like going to the combine and crushing it,

having an excellent pro day, which does matter a lot to these people. As Rick Spielman showed us on Twitter when he was dunking on Pete Prisco, you know, of course, Vikings fans had a little sarcasm for Rick Spielman when it comes to evaluating and things like that. But, you know, these NFL teams matter a lot. And Spielman did a video talking about for the 33rd team, how he wasn't that impressed with some of the passing from Will Levis at his pro day. And so that's kind of got my wheels turning a little bit. Like, I think he might drop and again, could be completely wrong, but that I feel a little bit more confident in. I feel confident that there is going to actually be some good corners in this draft. There have been a lot of drafts and Jeff Okuda just got

traded today. Like there have been a lot of drafts where we are like, oh man, look at this corner. He's going to be spectacular. And then, you know, even Derek Stingley last year, just like wasn't even good and sauce gardener blew him out of the water. But you know, intern Haley who works with me here, she did a study on this and found that a lot of corners have gone bust recently.

I just feel like this is a spectacular class. I mean, even when we're talking about if the Vikings take the fourth or fifth corner and it could still be really good, I think that this group has a lot to offer. Yeah, that's a good general prediction because it's different than the last couple of cornerback classes

where a couple of years ago, it was like Patrick Sertan, JC Horn. Like those are the guys. JC Horn hasn't been nearly as good as Patrick Sertan. Not terrible. Last year, it was all about Stingley and all about Sauce Gardner. This year's cornerback class, I think it's the second best group behind the edge rushers because I think in other classes, Deontay Banks would be the number one corner.

In other classes, Joey Porter would be the number one corner. Cam Smith, Devin Witherspoon. Like, it's deep, but not like, oh, hey, in the fourth round, you can maybe get Deontay Banks. These are first-round caliber corners, most of which who tested like big-time first-round caliber corners. And I'm a firm believer that that is one position. You might be able to be, I don't know, a linebacker,

and you're really good with your instincts, and you can be a London Fletcher type that's not crazy fast and still make plays. At corner in off the board so yes I think we're not going to necessarily see all five or all six that go in the first round become all pros but just because of the numbers the law of probability says that probably like half of them at least will be good and based on recent history like you mentioned that Haley researched if we get three quality corners from the first round that are like number one corners that's a really good class and a really good showing for that position yeah and i just feel like there is sometimes as you mentioned there's no middle class of corners it's either like the absolute top and then there's this huge gap and then they get taken in the second round but this year i think we could see that and if

somebody drops like joey porter then i mean that might end up working out great for the Vikings. And then, you know, I'm also confident in this, that at the end of draft night, that the team that gets an A will be the Detroit Lions. And here's how I know. Here's how I know. One thing that I believe in, and there's a connection here is that when people power rank stuff, it's just the standings, right? It's just some version of the standings, right? Yeah. When draft graders, and I'm not pointing any fingers here when they grade, they tend to grade whoever had the most draft picks, like getting A's. And this happened, this happened in the WNBA draft

just yesterday. So the Lynx drafted number two overall and then had three other picks and everyone gave them an A plus. You're like, yeah, they drafted number two overall. There's two good prospects in this draft. A, like it's not, you know, it's not, it's not rocket science. A lot of times I looked up the Jimmy Johnson chart. The Vikings have 1000 points on that chart, which is difficult to be that low the lions have 3 000 points they have literally three times the draft capital of the minnesota vikings and i think no matter what they do that the next day especially since there's been so much lion buzz everyone's going to be like restore the roar that team crushed the draft yeah that's a really good point that does happen a lot

and i feel like maybe we've talked about this before. And I think because of the fact that we have talked about it, when I'm grading and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be doing this again from rounds two until all the way to the end of the draft, I'm just going to give them an A. Last year, to kind of defend myself here and to kind of prove it, that last year I did not like Jermaine Johnson and when the Jets picked him with their third first round pick, I think they, did they trade back into the first or something? Everyone was like, oh my God, saw Skarner, Garrett Wilson, loved those picks, gave those A's, but I was like, I just was not on the Jermaine Johnson train whatsoever. And everyone's like, they got someone that should have been a top 10 pick at 27. And I was like, I just was not on the Jermaine Johnson train whatsoever. And everyone's like, they got someone that should have been a top 10 pick at 27. And I'm like, no, he was there at 27. There was a bunch of teams, including the Jets, that already passed on him twice. So, yes, that probably will happen because the Lions have those two first-round picks.

Especially, this will be kind of like an oxymoron because especially if they pick B.J. and Robinson because of all the buzz for him. Like, oh, look, they lost Jamal Jamal Williams like they get their feature back they have DeAndre Swift but they really need that number one guy in the backfield when in reality that would actually be a bad allocation of course of a first round pick regardless of how good Bijan Robinson can be early in his NFL career so you're right the teams with the multiple picks maybe the Seahawks too because they were such a feel good story last year. And they have two first round picks in this draft.

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with your purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com slash insider. That's athleticgreens.com slash insider to check it out today. Yeah. I mean, it's hard. It's hard not to value like how many picks they got, because even if you didn't like jermaine johnson even if he becomes a halfway decent player and he's one of a bunch of picks like he's going to be on a rookie contract and even if he's okay uh that was that is the sort of when we talk about draft rationalization that is one of my favorites of like well look he should have been a or the other one that's become a recent favorite is well the Dallas Cowboys tweeted out their draft board and they had our guy higher than he was taken you know like okay and he went a medal for that I mean there's like one team that

was Lewis seen last year like one team also liked him other than your team like okay he's a first round draft pick uh the other one is that people will talk themselves into late draft picks as being people who can immediately impact their team and it just it doesn't it doesn't matter how many times they see it play out in real life that those people do not impact your team right away it'll still be like well you know we shored up that uh safety group with a fifth round pick like nope no you didn't you didn't shore up anything but the analysis i am confident that the analysis right after the draft will be this team filled this need this team filled this need and then by the second week of the season we'll realize that most

of the teams didn't actually do that yeah and i think to what uh i guess i would urge purple insider listeners the first round is not the entirety of the draft. It's the biggest spectacle, and most casual fans maybe watch the first couple hours, then it gets too late and they turn it off if their team already picked or whatever. Or even if you are a Vikings fan and you are going to stay up and obviously watch when they go on the clock at 23, that the draft day two is vitally important. And that a lot of times I think the analysis is like, Hey, they didn't fill their most glaring need. There's not a rule that you have to fill your most glaring need in round one.

And I like tweeted, like, I don't know if this is galaxy brain, but I tweeted late recently that your biggest need is not always your most important need. Like right now, the Buffalo bills do not have a middle linebacker. Tremaine Edmonds signed with the Chicago Bears. They have a bunch of who, you know, guys who you just mentioned, like seventh rounders, they have a third rounder, smaller guy that's not going to play next to Matt Milano. So that's their biggest need. Is linebacker the most important need for them? No, they could get by with whoever they have, add another receiver,

add an offensive lineman. You need to keep up with the Chiefs and the Bengals in the AFC. So that's another bit of analysis that I think needs to be kind of ironed out a little bit that the first round is not like the draft isn't done after the first round. And I think that's important as we move into what I start to to kind of call it draft weekend because those picks are very important especially on day two we're getting so close to the draft that you are literally pounding the table as we speak breaking this stuff down um yeah and i and i don't mean to sound like draft scrooge i just have been uh present for many day threes and the expectations of those players are always oh i love where this

guy is going to fit and he's going to become this and it's like let's all be reasonable but we're not like that we're not reasonable about the draft no one really is it would be half as fun if we were two points on that um that if i've said this on the podcast then you can stop me but i i think it's important that with the idea that you mentioned earlier about like, hey, you're not filling a need with a sixth round wide receiver. I think that is almost always true. It's mostly true. But a big reason why I think is as a sixth round wide receiver,

your reps are going to be limited. And I know you, Matt, being at practice, being at training camp, you see it. If you're a sixth round pick pick and those first couple reps, you don't run the route perfectly or you have a drop, like, good luck, man. Like, good luck getting those reps then in the preseason game to then show that you can play. So that is – it's kind of baked into, hey, you're a six-rounder and for as much as – and I used to fall into this trap early in my scouting career

that I was like, hey, I love this guy. He was a seventh-rounder, but I had him great in the third round. Just the fact that he's picked in the seventh round, even if he truly is this amazing football player that somehow fell through the cracks of the NFL, it's going to be hard for him to make an impact because his reps are going to be so limited, and he has that seventh round label basically on his forehead. The second point that I wanted to mention is the whole Dallas Cowboys

showing their draft board thing. If that happens, it probably will. It happens every year. I can't overstate, and this is not like I've talked to every team about this, but draft boards are drastically different in the NFL. I've probably told this story in the past where in 2017, the Bills were ready to draft Zay Jones at 27 overall after they traded back with the Chiefs, kind of a fateful trade, Patrick Mahomes trade. They said, if Tredavious White is not there, we're going to pick Zay

Jones. Tredavious White was there. They picked him all pro corner. Zay Jones was available all the way in the second round so like I think there is a wide disparity not just like oh hey for like wide receiver 10 to wide receiver 11 I think some teams will have Nolan Smith let's say as a top 10 overall pick and some teams are like oh he's kind of like a third rounder so we shouldn't be too married to like the value that a team got because I think there is a big disparity in these evaluations, which makes sense. There's a bunch of different guys and girls and different teams that are

going to obviously have different opinions of all these players. Oh, that's yeah, completely right. And I mean, there have been stories of, you know, teams that wanted to draft a player in a certain round and what, for whatever reason, it didn't happen. And the guy ends up undrafted and they get like, well, we were going to draft him in the third,

but you know, then he kept falling. So we didn't take him. And then nobody took him. I mean, it's a, it's a completely inexact science that makes it super entertaining. Yeah.

And hopefully for everybody's sake, the, and this would be my last one to put confidence on is that I am confident the Vikings will have more picks than they have right now. Because if they only end up with the amount of picks they have right now, it is not going to be a long show for us when we break down the picks. We're going to have to really drag it out if we're only talking about five players. And I feel like with this regime, with Quasey, his analytical background, he understands like the, I guess, value is the word

or the proper way to navigate a draft is getting as many picks as you can. They traded back last year. His first move as the Vikings GM was, oh, let's trade back, like maybe a little bit too far, didn't get the correct value back. But I think he understands it. And I thought it was interesting to go back to the combine quickly eric da costa i think we were both standing there uh during his gm press conference maybe it was right before kevin o'connell or right after him um and the

ravens gm like i think they only have like six picks for like the first time like they usually are loaded with picks they usually get a lot of compensatories. And he was like hammering home, like, oh, we want more picks. Like he basically was saying like, we're going to trade down because we understand the value in getting more of that. And I feel like Kweisi at his age with his analytical background, they will make more picks. So we will have a lot to talk about, which that's better than like it. Like if they trade up and they only have four selections,

like that would be boring, not fun. We're going to pull out every draft chart they have if they end up with three or four picks at some point. So something that we've done every year that is a lot of fun is we have made 90s and early 2000s comparison. This is for Hendon Hooker. Maybe he even goes back to the 80s he's so old but uh we we make these we make these comparisons both to shot i mean have fun with our

you know childhood watching of football and playing madden but also to shine some light because we look at these prospects over and over and over and we talk about them repeatedly how can we look at them in a little different way so we make 90s comparisons so you've written down a couple i've written down a couple and uh i don't know where you want to begin if you just want to start at the top of your list but this is something i get excited about for us to do every year is do 90s comps yes before we start i realized that that i love nfl comparisons and i do spend a lot of time on them because i think they're enlightening they're stylistic i've gone over that a lot you're like the king of comps though because you gave me the idea for the bust comps

that that article like blows up on cbs every year and people freak out and now this one is super fun for the podcast um okay i will start we can just rattle through these because i think we have about four or five each i'm gonna go with not exactly 90s. I did a little bit into the 2000s. This is a number seven overall pick in the 2000 draft. Bijan Robinson for Thomas Jones. I feel like they're both like between the tackles. Thomas Jones' biceps were like as big as his head.

He was his power back who was pretty athletic. Wasn't like a 4'3 guy, I don't believe, that was like hitting home runs, but was just a quality, like classic early 2000s workhorse. And I feel like running style-wise and just how he's going to be utilized, that's B. John Robinson to me. I love that. And, you know, I was trying to think about bijan robinson comps and you all yeah i mean you have to set the bar very high because he's being talked about as sort of like one of

those elite top prospect and this is not our bust so i won't go like curtis enos or something but you know i was thinking about like the crazy thing about him is that his size is unspectacular. Like it's regular size for a running back, but it isn't like, okay, so he's getting this Adrian Peterson comp. Like, I don't really know about that. I couldn't go there. I don't think anyone, I mean, I don't want to ever say like you shouldn't come to a, to a hall of famer because eventually there's going to be new hall of

famers, but Adrian Peterson, I didn't see it with BGN Robinson. But, but especially like, I mean, we can, for this get, you know, for this bit, like compare them to nineties hall of famers. If you want to, I just thought like Adrian Peterson is so spectacularly large for a running back, like that fat, just like so lanky and these freakishly long arms and legs that I don't really see that. And then I was thinking like, is he a Sean Alexander? And you know,

Sean Alexander was not as big as I actually remember him being, but it was just kind of this like straightforward rusher that could really like juke people. I think Sean Alexander was a little bit taller, but I kind of like that. And I liked, you know, B. John Robinson could catch the ball,

but I don't think he's some spectacular like downfield threat like a marshall falk or something so i think i'm gonna stick with that sean alexander a dude who you could see if he had played in the early 2000s that he'd be rushing for like 1800 yards i had yeah i had that on my list i'm gonna i'm gonna look how big sean alexander was he seemed like he big. He seemed like at the time when a lot of backs were like two 30 plus, like he was one of the bigger guys. I feel like, didn't he like lead the NFL and rushing a couple of years or touchdowns? Like he was a early,

like my earliest days of fantasy. It was like Sean Alexander was one of like the dudes that you would draft early in fantasy drafts. So Sean Alexander, like I think of him as being a fat guy but he he was 5 11 to 25 so no okay not not crazy his career though was nuts like he won the mvp and scored 27 touchdowns and ran for 1800 yards and then the next year under a thousand yards because he carried the ball 380 times so uh yeah such was life in the year let me see here 2005 uh luckily we've changed that so i think

bjorn robinson is not quite as large but i will still uh what's he listed at he's close to that i think oh yeah no 215 okay i love it i actually love it more those are two really good running backs in the 2000s and i think those are two apt comparisons all right i'm gonna go into the 90s now zay flowers my comparison i know you're gonna love this one as a here hakeem st lou. Louis Rams round four pick 1998, part of the greatest show on turf. There was Torrey hole. There was Isaac Bruce.

And then all of a sudden with Kurt Warner, there was this San Diego state guy. That was a kick returner. That was little. He was like five, nine, one 85 kind of felt like, I don't want to say he was like the reason why that Rams offense or those

Rams offenses were so good, but he was like that extra gear that they needed. And I kind of feel similarly with Zay Flowers that if my team's drafting Zay Flowers and they're like, Hey, you're our wide receiver one instantly, I'd be a little bit like, Oh really? This is our wide receiver one. But if he's a wide receiver two or three right away, can return some kicks. He's good in the end around game. The screen game can get down the field a little bit. As a here, Hakeem,

I thought was not an amazing player. And if you look at his stats, like he wasn't an all pro type, but he was in his prime in that offense, a very electric playmaker. And I kind of feel similarly about Zay Flowers. I love the poll. I i mean the pull is spectacular the one thing i remember about azir hakim is that he was like a 99 speed on madden and he was so fast you're right i don't know if zay flowers is he a 99 speed on

madden like that's that's gonna make a difference here um but like this is but that is just a spectacular pull uh that is where i'm most impressed you know i've really i was really struggling with wide receivers because so many of them are small and it's like hard to think of small yeah this class is weird this is tough because they're so light okay so i was thinking about um let me make sure i have the right guy because i wrote down okay i do have the right guy deon branch is who i had for josh downs like this undersized kind of a slot dude like five foot nine i don't see him as some unbelievable playmaker but he really like snatches the ball. And you know,

like if you throw it and he's kind of in traffic a little bit, he's going to grab that football. That's Deon branch. Deon branch is underrated, man. Let me look at his catches here. He was like, you know,

2005, 78 catches, almost a thousand yards played with Tom Brady. Nice little, nice little playmaker, Josh balance. And then didn't he go? And this is I I believe he was Sean Alexander's teammate in Seattle too I think he went to Seattle and he was

actually like still pretty good there that people kind of thought he was just like the by the byproduct of Tom Brady and that he was actually still a good player beyond that that's a good good comparison for Josh Jones yeah and he was a second round pick actually Deion Branch okay which that's probably where josh johns is gonna go uh let me throw a quarterback at you because we haven't gotten any quarterbacks i'm gonna go cj stroud mark brunel so here's what i like now i know it's a lefty righty comp so you gotta bear with me but this isn't baseball so this doesn't matter mark brunel was a good athlete

and for a time was actually like one of the better runners he was yeah just a phenomenal thrower of the football super accurate got the ball like in rhythm to kena mccardell to jimmy smith if he could drop back set his feet and this is back in the day when you just put your wide receivers out wide and had them run like deep pitches and stuff. It was ridiculous. It was like, if you go back and watch, you'll lose your mind. You're like, what are you doing? You have Jimmy Smith and Keenan McCardell and Fred Taylor. And you're like loading up with a fullback and whatever. It doesn't matter. But, but one thing that Mark Brunel was a little iffy on, he could do it at times, but he wasn't like this outrageous playmaker. He wasn't like Steve Young or something for another lefty quarterback.

He wasn't, you know, Randall Cunningham. He was a good athlete that if you gave him time, I mean, in space, he would make you pay and was just a tremendous thrower of the football. C.J. Stroud, Mark Brunel. Well done. I think what's good about that, too, is that you're definitely right that, from my recollection, when Brunel played at the time, like you're saying, obviously the quarterbacks were not as athletic as they are today. He was a more mobile quarterback, and he did like to take off more than,

I would say, probably 90% of the starting quarterbacks in the league then. But there were times where he would look like awkward trying to like elude a defensive end or a linebacker. And I think that's going to happen with C.J. Stroud. Like we've all talked about that Georgia game where he kind of turned on the athleticism kind of out of nowhere. But if you watch like the rest of the Ohio State film over the last two years, it's like, oh, he tried to get away from that edge rusher

and that looked super awkward. His feet looked really heavy. I feel like I just have like glimpses of that for Mark Brunel. That's a good one of lefty righty cop from the nineties from Matt. That's fantastic. I mean, we're going deep in the bag here. 480 yards was Mark Brunel's top rushing season. I feel like that's about where I put CJ Stroud.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and for the whole era adjusted, i feel like 486 yards then was a lot oh yeah no for sure because there was like two real running quarterbacks and that was it so 480 yards definitely would have been a lot okay now from here i'm gonna go all vikings theme because like when i was researching this i was like why am i not doing vikings guys like there's plenty of vikings comps that I could probably sneak in without

going Adrian Peterson or Randy Moss. We're going to go a little later, but it's still a ways ago. Quentin Johnston to 2007 second round pick Sydney rice. I don't know if it's just the long hair or the single digit number in college. Sydney rice was number four at South Carolina. Johnson was one at TCU.

I feel like they're just really similar players, similar body types. There are times where they both would look a little uncomfortable in those contested catch situations, and then there's times where they look like Randy Moss, just 40-inch vertical over the corner, over the safety, plucking the football, deceptively good after the catch too. And I think that's part of the reason why I'm so high on Quentin Johnston. And in his prime, Sidney Rice was like that matchup nightmare where you're like, he's big, he's fast,

he can beat you over the top. Or if you just throw him a slant, he can stiff arm a linebacker and then take it to the house. That's kind of how I view Quentin Johnston in this class. Even though he's not like the perfect receiver, he reminds me a lot of Sidney Rice. I think that is a brilliant comp. I mean, I think that's like right on. That's because I don't think that Sidney Rice was some megastar. Like he was good. And especially with Favre,

everyone is probably going to be better with Brett Favre. But, you know, I mean, he wasn't like this unbelievable snatch it out of the air, go up over people, but very solid and good yards after catch. Like I, I like that. I like that. And maybe, maybe there is hair bias there, but I don't know, like they do it, but they do have a similar kind of a aesthetic. I like that. So I have a deep in the weeds one for the vikings comp and i'm not even sure you'll really remember this guy but i know vikings fans will so uh is it is it pronounced jameer gibbs is that is it jameer gibbs jameer gibbs okay uh i've got and then this guy also went to alabama david palmer to jameer gibbs because gibbs is flexible like catches the ball out of the backfield

he is not super big at all five foot nine 200 pounds i think he could be a returner as well kind of a lightning player david palmer was mostly a returner and split between the backfield and receiver but had he played in the year 2023 he would have been used a lot more like back in the day he was like a little scat back kind of thing coming out of the backfield popular player in minnesota why did he play i don't remember him which i'm mad at myself for not remembering this is a deep in the weeds one i mean is it like robert smith era um yes let's see was he like the number two or number three then yes so he was mostly a returner from 94 to 2000. He rushed, he only rushed for 630 yards in his career and caught 34 passes, but he, or wait, no, no, he was more of a receiver and caught 73 passes

and only rushed 34 times. So he was kind of like this receiver slash running back. Just wrong era. Yeah, he wore the number 22, but he was a great returner, and he would have been more of a playmaker in today's game, like Jameer Gibbs will probably be for an NFL team. Okay. Yeah, I mean, if that's, again, I don't remember him, but if that's how you're describing him, that is a lot of how I view Jameer Gibbs.

I think, again, I have to really think about the era because if it was 94 I think that's how teams would have probably viewed Jameer Gibbs because he was 199 at the combine and it's like oh he's can he really hold up between the tackles only one big time year at Alabama he was good at Georgia Tech before that but yes he is a get him in space type of guy that has enough juice to hit some home runs in the NFL. So if that's how David Palmer was, I could see that with Jameer Gibson. I'm not surprised.

You know these 90s cops. I knew you were going to pull one out of the weeds. I went way deep on that because what I used to do is on video games, because David Palmer had such amazing speed, I would just put him in as the running back all the time. And you you're right he would be paired with robert smith you could put in just to go completely stupid because everyone who played video games in the 90s knows that you can hack these games that's why games are less fun now because you can't hack them so you put

robert smith and david palmer in the backfield one place fullback you run it to the left one time you run it to the right i mean you're just're just absolutely unstoppable. So I'm just saying that if anybody still has those games, they should do that. Let me throw another one at you real quick. How about, how about Derek Thomas for Will Anderson? I love Will Anderson's lightning quickness, his strength, his violence. This dude is a beast. It's almost like he is so beastly, so consistently beastly, that we're like, ah, yeah, that guy. Like we've gotten bored of Will Anderson.

Yeah, we don't even talk about him. I was on a radio show last week here in Buffalo, and they, I mean, we talked about Bill's stuff, obviously, but they're like, you know who we haven't talked about at all this whole draft cycle is Will Anderson. Cause he's just so good. He's from Alabama. He, you know, had 17 and a half sacks as a true sophomore in 2021. Like he's just very, uh, obviously going to be good.

I wouldn't go as far to say Derek Thomas, from what I remember, he had more like Von Miller-esque explosiveness and I don't I think Will Anderson is quick I don't think he's like shot out of a cannon like Derek Thomas was and Von Miller like that's kind of how I view them I I've gone with the Khalil Mack comp with Will Anderson this whole time and I think anyone that's watched khalil mac you know you understand that like he's not winning with his sheer explosion he's strong he knows how to leverage blockers get off blocks that's kind of how i view will anderson a little bit more so derrick uh i think derrick thomas is kind of in his own realm with like the super duper smaller more explosive and bendier edge rushers you are right about that yeah the the quickness is probably hard to match almost historically for derrick thomas laurence

yeah like lawrence taylor and von lawrence taylor von william yeah that's probably about it sort of league of their own i guess i was thinking of just somebody who on a play-to-play basis was so terrifying for the other yeah like i guess just can do absolutely everything is a complete monster but maybe there's more of like a greg lloyd to him where it is the quickness but it's also the strength and the violence of the player as well but uh it is funny like he's the least controversial prospect oh he's great someone's gonna take him whatever yeah and and it's probably going to be like, like the Arizona Cardinals will have the chance to pick him at three. And then there'll be like, no, we're going to trade back,

which I'm the biggest advocate for trading back in the Cardinals roster. I think we talked about it last week is garbage. They definitely need a lot more picks, a lot more players, but whichever team picks will Anderson they're getting, I think, very high floor and a high upside player because he's not very old as a true junior we saw it from the get go as a true freshman in 2020 like we're like hey let's chalk this guy up to being a top five pick when he ultimately enters the draft all right so uh you got any more yes i i have two i'll go quick

okay i'll kind of all. We got all day. We got all day to do that. I'll kind of break the rules with this one because this is from 2011. It's still 12 years ago. Darnell Washington, I went with 2011 second-round pick Kyle Rudolph, who was big, 6'6", over 260 pounds, was a pretty good blocker coming out of Notre Dame. From what I recall, I was not scouting then, but I was kind of getting into it a little bit. I was

writing here and there, Bleacher Report, any site that would let me write for them. And just watching college football, I was like, hey, this guy's huge. He can do everything on all three downs. That's kind of how I view Darnell Washington. And I could see Darnell Washington having a similar career to Kyle Rudolph, where at times, like me, he could make a Pro Bowl, but he's never the guy. He's never a Travis Kelsey or a Rob Gronkowski, but just a very good player that will play on a couple teams and be a, I guess, higher-ish end, tight end number one,

because of his size, his physicality, and just kind of his underrated ability as a receiver. I think that watching Darnell Washington play football is hilarious because it is just, it's like, how does it even happen? I mean, what,

what is his list? Six, six to 60 is what he's listed at, but two 64 at the combine. I think he was six, was 264 at the combine. I think he was 6'7", 264 at the combine. A couple of hamburgers away from being like 275 pounds. I mean, this guy, right? Like this guy is unreal.

And I haven't really done any work on the tight end class because the Vikings have just, you know, got it locked down with Josh Oliver coming here and everything else. But having met Joshosh oliver who is like 6'6 maybe 260 i don't even imagine what this guy look he must look like an offensive tackle this is absurd so i like that i like that and uh you know kyle rudolph wasn't running away from anyone but you put it anywhere in his ballpark he was gonna catch it um i got one more for a quarterback okay i want to go will levis with jim everett remember jim

everett yes i mean this is going back this is this is throwing way back just this like big armed big strong dude is probably not doing a whole lot of running uh just just firing bullets left and right and people i mean he was like a prototypical quarterback. And I feel like that's the same way we talk about Will Levis, just this, like, if he was a draft pick way back in the day, he'd probably go number one. Cause they would just love everything about all of the muscles and everything else. And that's how I remember Jim Everett, just this giant dude with huge muscles everywhere. Yeah. So it's funny that you just ended with that. It's a perfect segue that this is like kind of my, how should I say this?

My off the beaten path analysis of Will Levis that it kind of feels like he likes the whole like, hey, I'm gonna wear a cutoff shirt. I'm gonna show my muscles. I'm gonna do the mirror selfie to show that I was already ripped. And now I'm like bodybuilder rip. I'm going to have my hair perfectly clothed for my pro day.

Talk about it during my combine interview. And then I'm just going to chuck the ball really hard. Kind of like uncle Rico. Like he kind of gives me that vibe a little bit. So I don't remember the super specifics of Jim Everett. I do remember that he did have a big arm. I don't know if he was like that off the field or in interviews, but for as much as I'm this like last four months been giving this hardcore football nerdy analysis on Will Levis, kind of getting to know him, quote unquote,

just from watching him on TV during interviews, it kind of feels like he is kind of that old school, like wannabe gunslinger. That's just like, Hey, there's the check down over there. That gets us the first down. No, I'm throwing the 30 yard deep out with all my might at 70 miles an hour across the field. Like he wants to be that kind of quarterback in the NFL. You know, I watched Napoleon dynamite back a few weeks ago, just because it was on. It was funnier when we were in high school

it was definitely just maybe you know maybe maybe the football was better too the offenses that are we remember them better than they were when i you go back and watch the jaguars the napoleon dynamite was uncle rico is still hilarious throwing a steak at someone is super funny but like it was not i did not laugh as much as i did in like 11th grade so uh anyway well this is super fun as always and uh next week i feel like is is hardcore mock time like let's go yeah we gotta do some sims yeah we gotta we gotta get back into some sims and like really dive deep and be very serious about football and drafts. So Chris Trapasso. Wait, wait, wait. Maybe we should do a sim next week where the Vikings trade back. Like we have to trade back.

Because a lot of those mocks you can do that, right? The simulators. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Let's do that. This is a good idea of maybe, and it was like a little just show meeting here.

But, I mean, I'm thinking of like different draft sim challenges. Like if you ever watch that show that like car show where they give each other different challenges to do with cars it's like us only with draft sims so that is going to be must listen um chris uh your work of course is spectacular cbssports.com people should check that out if they're already not following you on twitter and we will talk again soon thank you my friend thanks matt