The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Building the Beast: Dane Brugler's updated Top 100

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Seahawks are Super Bowl LX Champions, that's cool. It's also old news. It's 2026 NFL Draft time! And what better way to kick off the beginning of draft season than with a freshly updated edition of Dane Brugler's Top 100. He and Dave Helman dive deep into the new big board on this episode of The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast.Host: Dave HelmanCo-Host: Dane BruglerExecutive Producer: Michael BellerVideo Producer: Katy DuffyAudio Producer: Michael BellerSocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Dave on X: @davehelman_Follow Dane on X: @dpbruglerTheme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to another episode of Building the Beast. And if you're listening to this, your team is officially undefeated. The Seattle Seahawks triumph in Super Bowl 60 means the season is officially in the books. And it's really real deal draft season now. And what better way to ring that in than an updated top 100 big board from Dane Bruegler? While we were at the Super Bowl, Dane was hard at work putting together his top 100 players in this 2020. NFL draft class. Plenty of names we've covered.

Plenty of guys we've known are going to go at the top of this draft. We talked about the top 10. We talked about the deep positions, which guys might hear their names called early, which position groups might have a lot of guys go in the top 30, top 40 of the draft. Plenty of talk about receivers and edge rushers. Also made a concerted effort to talk about the names.

Maybe you haven't heard yet. We call this Building the Beast. So the goal is to talk about as many prospects as possible. possible. We made sure to do that as well. Really fun episode. Let's get to it right now. Well, Dane, it doesn't happen very often, but I established some common ground with an NFL coach here over the last 24 hours because I saw NFL network had Mike McDonald on after his Seahawks championship on Monday. And they pointed out to him that the NFL combine is a mere two weeks away and he laughed very hard and said that's unbelievable and that is exactly how

I feel the whip around from Super Bowl week to diving right into draft season is always a fun one but I'm really excited for if we had the unofficial start of draft season in January it's full bore now man yeah full speed ahead and I mean you guys did great it was so fun listening to shows you You guys were pumping out. Radio Row looked like it was fun. What was the best thing you ate during the week in the San Francisco area? Oh, my God, dude. I'm sure you had a lot of good contenders. The night we went, the night we got there, we had, we went to Chinatown for Chinese food. And I think it was the best Chinese meal of my life. Place called Z and Y restaurant. Highly recommend it. They had like this spiked. dungeness crab with fried rice and we got a like a Chinese style duck that I am still dreaming about and then throw a rock anywhere in the Mission District and you'll hit one of the best burritos you've ever had in your life. I went to Takaria Cancun. I went to at least one or two

others. Can't say enough about the burritos and the Chinese food in San Francisco. Nice. It's only a lot first round quality establishments. I came away really impressed with San Francisco. And I'd been there before, but funny thing is Levi's Stadium is down in Santa Clara.

And most of the time when you go for an NFL game, you're there for like a night. So you're not getting a whole hell of a lot of time to see the whole Bay Area. And definitely not San Francisco because it's 50 miles away. So I hadn't spent a ton of time in the actual city

of San Francisco. Very, very impressed, highly recommend it if you're looking for a place to check out here in the continental U.S. But I also got to tell you how much I appreciate you, my friend, because I get home from the Bay and you immediately have your top 100 dropped, your first update of your big board since November. And I can't tell you how much it means to me to have some ready-made content to dive into how long how long did it take you to piece this thing together how stressful was it we're definitely i mean we've got a few things to hit but just in terms of getting to a hundred names because during the season it's been 50 so you're doubling that i mean you keep your hair short anyway but how much were you pulling out pulling it out here over the last couple weeks it's never a problem to

come up with names you know i could do a top 1,000 if we needed to it's the issue is getting these guys in the right buckets and tearing them out and feeling good about where those break points are. And it gets, there is some struggle with that when you're doing it from a generalized point of view. If we were scouting for a team with an established culture, established scheme, established way of, this is the way we want to build this thing out, it would be a lot easier because it's a yes or no, like, there's a lot less gray. where with this, we're doing this,

I'm stacking these guys from a very generalized point of view. And so it gets a little bit tougher doing that. But it's all about getting these guys in the kind of the right areas. We think, all right, he's going to be a top 75 pick. He's going to be a top 50 pick. And then there will be little tweaks

between now and the draft. Not necessarily because things have changed all that much. But maybe seeing a guy up close at the combine, seeing a move, maybe getting some more character information feedback from teams might change things a little bit. But I think this is a good kind of top 100 resource pre-combine, you know, to go into Indianapolis. This is where kind of a lot of these guys stand.

Some guys will, they'll fluctuate a little bit. But yeah, it was interesting. There's what, I think 17 receivers, the most of any position. You know, the top 10 is interesting. The top five all played in Ohio or played in Ohio. Iowa or Indiana in college. Don't think anyone's ever said that before. So, yeah, just a really interesting top 100.

What I'm hearing from you, and we'll get into this, but every year there's going to be a player or players who maybe their skill set or their measurables take them off a third of the draft boards in the league or maybe they play a position that people don't value highly. And what I'm hearing is the balance between those. factors and how good of a football player the guy is, is, uh, it's an annual source of frustration when you're putting stuff like this together. Yeah.

And I mean, that's kind of how the NFL works where one team's value system. Because I think a lot of these teams and a lot of evaluators, they see the same things on film. It's less about seeing different things and more about valuing different things where, you know, you take a guy like, uh, Josiah Trotter, the linebacker from Missouri. If you're looking for a true Mike who's going to come downhill and hit you, a hammer looking for a nail, that's Trotter. He makes his dad proud with that competitive toughness that he plays with. And that's something that certainly has value in the right role. But he's also struggles mightily in coverage.

And that's going to be an issue for a lot of teams that put more value on linebackers that can play any down. And you don't have to worry about making sure they're subbed in, subbed out. You know, what are the sub-downs, what sub-packages look like. So it just that value system is different from team to team. It's not about right or wrong necessarily. You know, Lee Hunter, the big nose tackle, big noseguard from Texas Tech. This guy is every bit of 320 pounds, long arms. You know, he's really good against the run.

He just, the pass rush skill set really isn't there. And, you know, I don't know that he's ever going to get there. essentially. And so that type of value is different for every team. And so certainly a lot of those types of guys in this draft. So there's about a half dozen things that I want to quiz you about in regard to your top 100. I figure we can start at the top. And the fun thing for our show, we've been talking about this since August. A lot of it is what you would expect. Arvel Reese is in the top spot Fernando Mendoza, top quarterback, number two prospect overall, very, very, very easy guess that he's going to be the Raiders number one overall pick when this is all said

and done. Jeremiah Love, Caleb Downs, round out the top four. I did briefly want to hit on your number five guy. We love Sonny Stiles. We've talked about him a lot, but it is interesting and fun for me as an unabashed fan to see his name in the top five. I don't think particularly surprising, but when you consider positional value, the strength. of the defensive players at the top of this draft, I think it says a lot for him to crash the top five here, even though we know he's a hell of a player. 6-4-2-40.

He's going to run 4-5. The thing that I don't think we appreciate enough is just the jump he took this year. We have to remember last year was his first year playing linebacker. He was a safety at Ohio State, made the move to the linebacker last year, and the improvements he made throughout the course of this season, just so impressive. a big time athlete like that I'm eager to see him at the combine I mean he had he had basketball offers coming out to Kent State you know Toledo Duquesne like a lot of basketball programs wanted this guy which speaks to just a level of athlete mover that he is at that size especially but the season that he had this year was just just really really impressive the only reason I don't have him higher to be honest is in the next step for him is just just you know the next step for him is just just to become a better playmaker in coverage.

You know, he's not a, it's not a weakness to his game necessarily because of the athlete that he is, but I want to see him go make some more plays. But there's just a lot that you look at. He's a very high floor player because we were just talking about what do you do on sub-downs with some of these guys? There's no question about what are you doing on sub-downs. Like he can play any role you want, a true four-down player. And this is a draft where we've been talking about since August, it's a little light

at the top in terms of true blue-chip, high-end, end talent. So I think there's going to be a lot of teams that look at it and say, hey, there's nothing wrong with taking a really high floor player here. And that's Caleb Downs. That's Sunny Stiles. These guys are high floor. You know what you're getting. Maybe he makes a pro bowl or two in his career, but you're getting him more for the understanding that is not bust proof, but the percentage chance that he's going to not work out is fairly low, especially when you compare him to some of these other guys. I'm looking back through it. You got to go to 2019 would be the last time an off ball linebacker was drafted that highly. It was Devin White. And then the year the year before that, Roquan Smith was

drafted eighth overall. And that's, you know, I don't think people fixate on linebacker as much as they do on safety and running back. But I do still think an off ball linebacker is a position where people would rather, quote unquote, get more bang for their buck. You know, you hear edge rusher, cornerback, quarterback, wide receiver. But especially in a draft like this where we've talked all through the process about how the top of it is a little bit thinner than you would prefer probably. And then just what a prospect this guy is. I don't have a ton of reservations if that's the way it winds up going.

And I think with what we've seen. seen in the NFL recently with the value that these guys have, like run defense, being adaptable, being flexible. That doesn't trouble me at all. And yeah, you could say very similar things about Caleb Downs. And I'm really hoping this is a year where both of those guys don't see themselves slide over positional value. I think that's overthinking it.

Well, I mean, there are plenty of teams. I hope you're wrong. Cowboys would love to see both these guys at 12. There's plenty of teams in the teens that would. love the bucks sitting there like hey sunny styles come on come to us you know like that that that is something that a lot of teams are hoping for but i i don't know i have a hard time seeing it just because again this the top 10 of this draft is just there's good players don't get me wrong it's just i i think some teams are going to look at it and say hey let's let's let's go for the really

good player who is maybe not a position that we value in the top 10 normally but he's high floor we know what we're getting um yeah i i i i i i don't know what we're getting um yeah i i i i not saying Sunny Stiles is going to be a top five pick, but I mean, I think that when we look back at this class, we're going to look at him as one of the better players that come out of this class. Very chalky at the top. David Bailey's in the top 10. Ruben Bain is in the top 10. One guy I wanted to ask you about, we've known about Mendoza and Jeremiah Love forever. And we have talked about this guy, but at number eight, your first offensive player in this top 100 who is not Mendoza and who is not Jeremiah Love is Spencer Fano out of Utah.

And we've talked about him plenty. He's been in the mix to be the top offensive tackle in this draft class. But when you were putting this together, and I think there's a few receivers that could have been the first guy listed, Francis Maui Noah is not far away from here at number 11. But when you're talking about the first offensive player who is neither Mendoza nor love, how did you wind, how did you land on Spencer Fano? And I think Vega Yawane is in that mix as well. The Penn State.

All the way up to number 13, by the way. I mean, when I did my mock back in, I don't remember a while ago, I mean, I had about 14 to the Ravens. You know, I just love that fit. And it's, he's just one of the best players in this draft, no doubt. But yeah, I think Fano is a player that when you watch a Utah tape and, you know, they needed a yard, they ran behind number 55. You see the footwork.

You see the demeanor that he plays with. The mobility is awesome. Some of those power play skip pulls in the way that he's, how efficient he moves and gets out in space is awesome. So the feet, the temperament, the recovery balance. He just has a knack for losing slowly. And that's absolutely a skill that NFL teams want in their offensive linemen. And so doesn't have that elite body type, doesn't have that elite length necessarily.

I'm very eager to see what he comes in at the combine, just the raw measurables, height, weight, and arm length. But this is a guy that is, I think you plug and play on your offensive line, and he's just going to be a reliable starter for you. And then, as I said, right there at number 11, Francis Maui, Noah, you've been in the camp that at least give the guy a shot at tackle before you move. move him to guard. I know people have disparate opinions on him, but to be at that slot at number 11, primarily at tackle, at least to start, you would guess. I think so. I mean, I do think that, you know, it's almost like a Zach Martin discussion where if you really want to maximize what he is, yeah, move him inside to guard and, you know, he could be a really, really good guard. But the value of what he can bring as a quality starting tackle.

Yeah, I think that's, and he's supposed to come in right at 33-inch arms. You know, there's just not a lot of bad tape on film, you know, him playing right tackle. I mean, it's always been playing. You know, since he showed up at Miami, he started every single game at right tackle. So I think when you talk about Fano, Yuanay, and Maui, Noah, those three guys, those three offensive linemen, you could really make a case for either of them, why they should be the first offensive lineman drafted. I think it really comes down to, and it's kind of similar to these receivers, the three

receivers that we'll talk about. Like, it's just what type of player you're looking for? Because these guys are all pretty closely rated. And, you know, I'm not going to stand here and, you know, say anybody's wrong. If you prefer you Juanae first or Maui Noah, like, I totally get it. These are good players. Let's talk about those receivers that you just alluded to. You've said it at the top.

17 wide receivers in this top 100 of yours. And six of those are in the top 30. And let me, yeah, let's just start at the top. We've talked plenty about Carnell Tate, Jordan Tyson, and Mackay Lemon. I think most people see those as the consensus top three. But I expect there is going to be no consensus about the order of those three.

And illustrating that is the fact, that you have Tate coming in at 10, Tyson coming in at 12, and Mackay Lemon at 14. So again, this is why I'm wondering how frustrating this is for you to put together when you've got three guys slotted within four or five places of each other. Well, and when you have guys that are ranked so closely together, yeah, it's, again, if we need, if you're looking for more of a true slot player, obviously you're going to prefer Mackay Lemon over the other two guys. But I don't have any of any of these three players graded as highly as I had

Tederoa McMillan last year. So, you know, and certainly not close to, you know, the huge grades I had on Malik neighbors and Marvin Harrison Jr. So this is a good receiver class, but I like the depth more than I like the options in the top 10. You know, I don't think it's a very top heavy draft. I like these three players, but I don't know that any of the fifth. three or true legit number ones in the NFL.

So, I mean, that factors into this as well. Lemon to me is the most interesting because, and I was talking about this with a scout, just how 1% of Lemon's contract should go to Alman Ra, St. Brown. Because what that has done for what St. Brown has done in the league, and the boost that's going to give to Lemon, I think, is something that's really going to help help. him come draft time.

And now it's certainly possible that Lemon turns out to be a very, have a very similar career because they're very similar players. So it's very easy and easy player to like. And it's very possibly turns out to be very much worth a top 15 pick. But are we over correcting a little bit with Lemon because of we don't want to miss on the next St. Brown? And I say that with full confidence and saying,

I think Lemon's going to be a very good player. It's just a small needle of the thread when we're talking about undersized not an elite athletic profile someone that works I think you can play outside but he does some of his best work

inside and work in the middle of the field how strong he is especially through contact so I like Mackay Lemon a ton but I do think what we've seen Alman Ross St. Brown do and even JSN to a degree is going to help Mackay Lemon

come draft time let me ask you a philosophical question about that. And I get your point and you're looking at the top of the draft. You want the premium athletes, the guys with the highest ceiling, totally understand. But you talk about is this guy going to be a number one receiver? I'm not trying to suggest that doesn't matter. But with the way offenses are built and the way we're trying to get yards in the modern NFL, is it more palatable to draft a wide receiver to considering the options that are already available?

Like for example, I mean, the Las Vegas Raiders already have Brock Bowers. The New York Jets already have Garrett Wilson under contract. The New York Giants have Malik neighbors coming back from injury. And I'm just looking at the top of the draft order. I mean, the Saints got Chris Olive back on track this year. if you already have that guy on your team, do you think it makes organizations more willing to draft the guy? Especially again, in a year where, I mean,

they're like we're just, we're not talking about Marv Harrison and Malik neighbors. We've known that this entire time. So do you think teams will be more willing to take a Mackay Limin or a Carnell Tate and say, hey, he doesn't need to be a wide receiver one on our roster. That guy, that role is already filled. I mean, yeah, I think so. And they don't have a choice, right?

Because there isn't a wide receiver one in this class. And so if you want to get better at receiver, you're going to, this is what this draft has to offer. And we just got done saying with Sonny Stiles and Caleb Downs and Jeremiah Love how, you know what, take the good football player over prioritizing this position over that position. My Kyle Lemon is a good football player. And so if you have, if you don't have an established slot and that's the type of weapon you're looking for, take him at six, take him at eight. I mean, I think that's fine. You know, and so I do think that because in my rankings,

Lemons like, what, 14th? I think that's the line for me, like where the like 14 true first round grades. And so, you know, Lemon's right in there in that mix where I think this is a first round player. And, you know, we can talk all we want about that profile and how that usually translates to the next level. But, you know, you can watch this tape. And it's hard to come away with saying that, look, this is not going to be an impactful player in the right role. Just working through these other 17 receivers.

Like I said, three other guys in your top 30. Casey Concepcion, Denzel Boston. Omar Cooper all the way up at number 27. I mean, we are familiar with his game. I was not surprised, happy. I was happy to see how. high he wound up here because I feel like he's he's sort of taken second billing to some of these other names and even for a period there uh even Elijah Surratt on his own team I feel like got

more pub when you were talking about the Hoosiers at least for the first two-thirds of the season and maybe maybe it was the Penn State catch that flipped everything around but I was I was pretty pumped to see Omar Cooper land this highly yeah I mean he's guy we've liked all all year as because his run after catch, that is what separates him. And I just, when you watch him play, it's like, okay, what don't you like about him? You know, like what is there not to like about this player? The play strength is awesome. The how coordinated he is.

Both of his parents were big time basketball players and his mom played at Michigan State. And, you know, he has that DNA in him where the coordination, the competitiveness at the catch point is awesome. And what he does after the catch. To me, I think that's what separates him. him as a real playmaker in this draft. So I just think he's going to be an attractive, attractive prospect for a lot of teams. I think he's not, again, another play that's not a slot only, but best in the slot where

you can really weaponize him. So I just, when you start stacking these guys, you just, why shouldn't Omar Cooper be this high? Or why shouldn't he be higher? Why shouldn't he be top 25? I think you run out of reasons why he shouldn't be that high, especially when you get to that point in the draft, where things start to thin out a little bit.

And it's easier to make a case for him. So, yeah, to me, Cooper looks like a player that belongs in that first round discussion. Of the 17 receivers, I was really proud of us. I'm confident we've talked about 14 of them at length. But if it's cool with you, I wanted to hit the three that maybe we're not as familiar with on this show. The first one of those would be your 61st overall player, Antonio Williams, out of Clemson. Yeah, and who came in with a lot of pub this season and I didn't really live up to it.

You know, he's another best, or not, can play outside, but best in the slot. That's how he works. I think he's a really good athlete. he's more of a glider in space. I think he does his best on some of those option routes where he can create his own separation, get open, give the quarterback a target. Just didn't have the season,

he was a redshirt junior, but didn't have the 2025 season that I think a lot of people thought he would. Just a really controlled, fluid athlete. Didn't have a ton of explosive plays on his tape. And that's why I couldn't really go higher than where I did. I expected to see more explosive plays out of him.

But really competitive. The player I did write down in my notes with him was Khalil Shakur. Just that style of player. And I don't think he's going to maybe get to that level. But just stylistically, I think that's the type of player you could expect with him. Quarterback's best friend. I mean, I'm okay. I can I can live with that.

At number 74, Brennan Thompson, I'm really confident we haven't talked a lot of Mississippi State football this year on the show. Yeah, so my pick for the fastest 40 at this year at the combine, which, you know, I think that's not going to be a, I won't be alone in that sentiment. You know, he was running, what, like 10-4s and I think it was faster than that, like 10-2s in high school and 100 meters. He led the SEC in receiving this year. So this isn't like some gem I'm mining out of nowhere. You know, he's, he is a good player who when you watch that Mississippi State offense, you feel his speed. Like, it's, it's different. Small.

That's, you have to get past the size. He's a smaller guy. 5-9-170 and that's on his school bio. So I will have an eye on the combine. I'll have an eye on the combine check in. It was supposed to be at the senior bowl. Was that one of those late dropouts? And so, yeah, getting the, how is he over?

172. Is he lower than, you know, that'll be interesting. But again, that's why he's in the 70s and we're not talking about him in the first two rounds. But the speed is impressive. Impressive. Like it just looks like he has a jetpack underneath his jersey with the way that he's pulling away from dudes. And it's not just a lot of gadget plays and manufactured touches. He's tracking the ball downfield. If he had a more accurate quarterback, he would have had 2,000 yards this year. I mean, It was rare to see this type of speed. I think he led the FBS and catches at 50 plus yards. Just a really impressive athlete who has receiving talent to him,

not an athlete who's trying to go out there and, you know, play wide receiver for Halloween. So this is a good player who I think is maybe being slept on a little bit. But I think once he runs at 40 in Indianapolis, I think it'll open some more eyes. I'm laughing because I'm imagining. Andy Reed licking his chops and Chiefs fans saying like, no, no, we need, we need a bigger receiver. No, not again.

All right. Last receiver before we take a break. Number 99 right at the end, Trey Lance's brother, Bryce Lance at a North Dakota state in this draft class. We got between Josiah Trotter and Bryce Lance, very NFL brothers heavy draft class here. I love it. Yeah. And, you know, kind of Bryce followed the same. path going to North Dakota State and he had offers like lucrative seven figure offers to go play up in the

Big Ten and he turned it down for considerably less money to stay in North Dakota State and he with a first year quarterback Cole Payton the stats did dip a little bit but he still had over a thousand yards receiving still made some big plays you know he's a good size he's six three two hundred and ten pounds freaks list guys a 40 inch vertical. So, I mean, I think that we're not talking about a slug here, has some explosion. I'll be interested to see what his long speed is, you know, over under like a four or five, two. You know, does he have that necessary long speed?

He didn't get caught on on tape, but again, FCS competition. So like the way he's a hands catcher, doesn't drop the football. So you're talking about an athlete that size with those hands and just a A plus human being and, you know, a type of guy that character wise is going to change. checkout in a big way. Yeah, I think he's someone teams are going to be interested in when we get to that third, fourth round area. All right. There are plenty of other things I want to pepper Dane with questions about, but we're going to take a first break real quick. All right, Dan, you said receivers lead the way with 17 in your top 100, but I did the math. If you include

Arvell Reese as an edge, which I do, even if he plays off ball. He's an edge. Yeah. I agree. If you think of Arvel Reese as an edge, there are six. edge rushers in your top 100. And even more interesting than that, there are nine in your top 40, six in your top 32. So this is not a mock draft. Obviously, we have no idea where these guys are going to go. Anything is possible. But just for reference, there were four edges drafted in the top 40 last year and five in 2024. It's been a couple years since the edge. class looked this loaded where you might have nine guys ranked in the top 40s. So we've talked about it. We said it about the senior bowl crop as well, but really looks like there's a lot of

options for edge talent in this class. Watching the Super Bowl on Sunday night, all I could think about was, yeah, you think having like five amazing edge rushers comes in handy? Yeah. All I could think about was, yeah, this edge class and how much, like it was already a good class. But watching, and this happens every year. We talked about it with, okay, we got to find that next Nick Em and Worry and, you know, like the team that wins a Super Bowl, it's like, okay, let's dissect this. What do we learn? What can we, you know, what's repeatable for our team that they did?

And it's never one thing. But it's something that, it's not like this is a novel idea, but it turns out. the more pass rush depth you have, the better situation you were in to go wreck havoc on the quarterback. And, you know, the Seahawks are loaded on the defensive line inside it out. And it's, yeah, they have some potential stars on that defensive line. But the depth is what really stands out in a big way. And that's what happens when you spend second round picks, third round picks on past rushers, and you hit on those guys. And so I think we're going to see plenty of those, you know, the Gabe Accus and the Derek Moors and, you know, those types where you're not quite good enough to be maybe a top 32 pick,

but you're going to be more than happy to add them to the mix on somewhere on day two where it just add more bullets to the gun. And, you know, we're going to figure out how to affect the quarterback. And we do it with these big, strong, twitchy athletes. And this class has quite a few of them. I am, and this is just me. I'm not it can definitely be flawed reasoning. I mean, shoot, I would have voted for Derek Hall to win Super Bowl MVP if I had a vote. And he was, I think he was pick 37 in his draft class.

I typically think there's like a cutoff for where I get excited to draft an edge. Like I just, I operate with the idea. Like if you're not good enough to go top 20, top 30, then am I getting enough R.O.I. for my pick. I don't feel that way this year. I am amending my attitude because just rolling through there are there are so many guys and and like it's it's different roles. It's different, you know, different archetypes, but I love our Mason Thomas who is 35th on your on your board. T.J. Parker right behind him had an amazing senior bowl. I don't need to talk about Zion Young for an 18th time. he's your number 39 guy.

And even further down the line, you just mentioned Gabe Accus. He is here at number 57. Like I just feel like throughout day two, it feels like there are edge. And I guess I should, I should disclaimer again. We don't know for sure where these guys are going to get drafted. But if I'm using your board, I'm liking a lot of my options here among like, you know, picks 40 to pick 60, 70, et cetera. Speaking of Derek Hall, stick with the Auburn theme,

Kearron Crawford. You know, teams watch that Auburn offensive or defensive line for Keldrick Falk, but you come away buzzing about Crawford and what he could be at the next level. So, yeah, this is a, you know, even like a guy like Danny Dennis, Dennis Sutton from Penn State, who I would say underperformed compared to some expectations this year as a senior, he's still a good player, still a quality player who can give you some real solid reps at the next level. this is a edge class that we can debate about the top and how many are true first round guys. You know, and there'll be plenty of debates about David Bailey and Ruben Bain, especially with the arm length and all that kind of stuff.

It's just, it's a good edge class where there's a lot of names and a lot of guys that are going to help their teams as, even if it's in a rotational role. So, yeah, that's going to be a theme this year in this class. Let me ask you this. if you can't say Arvel Reese and obviously I mean the top 100 kind of speaks for itself

in terms of how you have these guys slotted but do you have a favorite you bring up Derek more a lot like do you just have a who's your guy who's your pet cat among this group if you can't say Reese

yeah no it's a good question I mean it is hard to say Reese especially because it was like since day one or since that first game it was like yeah this is the guy um no I like a little about a lot of these guys. You know, like Akeem Mezzador is a guy that I've really come around on just how different he looked from the 24 tape to 25 tape.

There will be some teams that have Mezzador higher on their board than Bain. You know, that's that that will happen. And that's less about Bain and more about Mezzador. It's more about the way he played this year, especially in the playoffs. Watch that Texas A&M tape. He was the best pass rusher. Bain had more sacks against Texas A&M. Mizzador was the better pass rusher in that game.

And so I think that it's easy to overlook Mezador because of Bain and some of the, you know, big plays that he had, especially in the playoff. But Mezedor's a dude. And, you know, he's a, he's someone that is going to be wrecking NFL backfields next year. I don't want to hear any bullshit about the fact that Mezedor is turning 25. I really don't. I could not care less. He's 25. Okay, cool.

He's also, the whole point is that he's coming into the NFL with a little bit more polished. Like, that's, everybody gets all excited about 20 and 21-year-old players. Odds are they're going to need some time. If I'm drafting Akim Mesidor, I'm relatively confident, at least, that you're getting a guy who's closer to being in his final form. I get it. That's the tradeoff. Yeah. There's maybe not ideal.

required, open out of the box, ready to play. Like, that's exactly what. And maybe that's not what every team is looking for, but for some teams, absolutely. That's what, you know, they could be looking for. And, I mean, how many GMs in the NFL will still be GMs of their respective teams in five years? You know, like when it's time to be talking about extension with him. You know, it's, I think most NFL GMs are thinking about the next two to three years,

not necessarily the next five to six years. So if he's going to give me quality. pass rush the next three years and give us a chance to win. Yeah, that's something that I will be perfectly fine betting on. It's also a position that you can play at a relatively high level deep into your career. I mean, we were in. We were in the room when Tank got drafted forever ago. He turns 34 this year, by the way. I will never forget that because I think that was the first year I was doing stuff with you guys at the Cowboys. And Tank was my pet cat that year. Like, absolutely. loved him. I was kind of worried. I was a little too high on him. He was like, I don't know,

my 21st best player or something. And then the Cowboys traded up to pick like, what, 33 or 34 or something early in the second round. It took him and just loved it because that was a perfect fit for them. And yeah, it turns out he's been a pretty solid player. I liked Tank as a player, but I remember being aggravated that they traded a third round pick to get him because that just felt expensive. and he's still awesome 10 years later. So the draft will humble you and make you question your convictions. There's no hard and fast rules for me because you do it long enough. You'll be dead wrong.

Oh, 100%. That's the beauty of the draft is, and even an exercise like this, this top 100, people will read it and see something completely different with a player than I do. But like I said, I think it's less about seeing things differently and more about value and just, you know, and like the safeties this year. I was about to bring that up. It's like you read my notes. Yes, we're on the same wavelength here because the safety class is a fun one.

But they're all just a little bit different. And so depending on what you want, you're going to value someone maybe a little bit differently. I mean, let's just take Caleb Downs out of it. He's one of the best players in this draft. But after that, and we've talked about this with Nick Em and Warre. Like how is that going to affect maybe some of these safeties and how high they could go? I think that when teams look for maybe who could be that next nickel, Dylan Theanaman from Oregon is someone that I think is going to be a really popular player with teams because of how good he is in coverage.

He is going to test off the charts and just the football character that he brings. I think he just checks a lot of boxes that what teams are looking for. He's not amazing in the box, but as a nickel, as someone that can wear a lot of different hats from single high to post and doing these different things that you want safeties to do, he brings that versatility. And so if we're looking for, you know,

who could be this year's and when worry, I wouldn't be surprised if teams look at the end of minute and say, hey, let's bet on this guy as being that nickel for us. And so, and to get him, the price tag is probably going to be somewhere in the 20s. And I think that McNeil Warren from Toledo is not far behind him. I got a question for you, which real quick, I'm pulling up Dylan Dineman's measurables. Six foot 205. Okay, so this is what I was wondering.

And I'm obsessed with what Emin Worry did for Seattle this year. I think a lot of people are. This might sound stupid. I had a, I had like a light bulb moment while I was at the Super Bowl where I was like, okay, Nick Iman Worry is this big nickel that lets Seattle stay in that personnel and they can defend the run against it and it opens up a lot of cool options for them. At the end of the day, isn't it fair to say Emin Worry is just a linebacker that doesn't get exposed as easily as a lot of linebackers would in past coverage? And he is a big nickel, but you could also think of him as an undersized linebacker that lets you play base more adequately in the modern NFL. So I think a lot of people are going to be looking for big safeties. But I also wonder if maybe undersized linebackers benefit from this as well.

Because at the end of the day, you're asking for similar skill sets. The thing, yeah, it's all about a hybrid skill set. Because the thing that you want is you want to be mismatch proof. That's what you're looking for as a defense. It gives you that flexibility. Because that's what offenses are trying to get you in a disadvantageous position with your personnel. And a guy like him in worry, the value he brings as being mismatch proof, whether you call him a lineback or whether you call him a safety, a nickel, whatever, that type of value is just, it changes things. And I think that it's hard to find those guys.

It's not like, you know, there's a reason why an Emin Worry had such a special season and what it meant for that team. Like it's just, it's rare to find those guys. But I think a guy like Theanamin, he could at least fill some of that role. Whether, and we watch Oregon tape, he's doing a lot of it, whether it's deep middle, cover two, you know, as a robber playing a true nickel position. He is a hybrid safety with what he did at Oregon. And so I do think that a lot of that will translate. Kind of reminds me a lot of Justin Reed. You know, with...

I'm listening. Yeah, exactly. And I don't think we think of Reed as maybe like an Emin Worry type of player. But he does a lot of different things. And he's a good-sized athlete who has been a good player in this league for a long time. And I think The Anamans kind of been a similar conversation. Nick Emin Worry ruined it for everybody. We're just going to be hunting.

hunting this guy. Hopefully somebody can live up to it. All right, we got one more break and then we're going to hit some other positions and some I want to hit on some lesser known names that maybe we haven't talked as much about on the show right after this. All right, Dave, before we get out of here, as I said, I just want to, I want to try to hit on as many names as possible. We call this Building the Beast. Obviously, there's going to be plenty of focus on the top 10, top 20 players in the draft. But at this point, I feel like we've talked to. about a lot of those guys. And I'd rather focus on maybe some names you haven't heard before if you're listening to this show. One of the first things that jumped out at me when I was

looking at your top 100, two members of the Arizona Wildcats secondary in your top 100, safety, Genesis Smith at 72, cornerback trade and Stukes at number 77. I'm perfectly comfortable, just admitting I don't know a lot about these guys and I would like to know more. So Genesis Smith is a, he's going to be a really polarizing player. He's a true center field type of safety where you see the range. He can cover a ton of ground. Really good cover defender from deep. He's also a very finesse run defender or just defender in general.

Like there are times where he just lets up before contact. He's a below average tackler. those things are really bothersome when you are scouting a safety. Now, I had some of the similar concerns with Kalin Bullock when he was coming out of USC, and he's been a good player for the Texans. But, you know, Bullock was also drafted in the 70s, you know, that year in the mid-third round because of those concerns. So I think Genesis Smith probably drafted in the same range. But if someone is really looking for that center field type and think that they can get more aggressiveness out of him,

I wouldn't be surprised if he's drafted earlier just because of the athlete that he is and the cover talent. It's really impressive. It's just can you get him to be a little more, not even a little more, a lot more aggressive? I was really floored with some of the lack of aggression in the run game and just tackling overall. It's such a catch-22 because going back, as long as I've known you, we always say it's really hard to find safety's really back seven players in general. general, but safeties who are good moving away from the line of scrimmage and don't feel like liabilities. But at the same time, you start to get nervous when you hear that about a lack of aggression and the inability to tackle because teams are going to exploit that if you don't prove

you can shore it up. And so I get excited when I hear that a guy's strength is coverage, but I wonder how you balance those two things because there are there are a ton of guys that can tackle and come up to the line of scrimmage. Like most college players are good at that. But no matter how good at coverage you are, is it enough to set you apart if that's like a liability in your game? And I think there's going to be different schools of thought. You know, some teams will be more okay with it.

Other teams, it's non-negotiable. I mean, look at the Seahawks and how good, that's secondary, how good tacklers that group is. Like, not saying that that's the key to their success, but I think for some teams, it's a non-negotiable aspect of the way they play. And I get it. As the last line of defense,

I need to be able to trust you out there. While other teams might look at it and say, can you at least just get them on the ground? Can you at least hold them up until help gets there? You know, like we'll sacrifice a little bit there if it means we're going to, you know, get that deep coverage we've been looking for.

So I really think it's a different school of thought from team to team, coach to coach. Some teams are just being more willing to, sacrifice than others. The other Arizona player, Trading Stukes, he's been around a while. He's a, I think he's a six-year guy because he was a former walk-on, kind of a self-made player.

He's going to be 25 as an NFL rookie, so another one of those older guys. But he was really good in the nickel. I mean, one of the best interceptions that I saw all year. What was that, Arizona State tape? I can't remember. But he just reached over to the defender deep, made the play. There's a lot to like about his coverage of

and what he brings. He was productive. I think the on-ball production. It was like four interceptions this past year. So has a frame that you can work with, has the versatility where play the nickel, but can also play outside, can also play as safety a little bit. So I just think he's a guy that stays connected in coverage. And that's the type of safety, type of nickel type of player that I'm looking for as a back-end player.

Let's just keep it in the territorial cup because. another guy that is pretty highly ranked in your on your board that I don't remember talking about much over the course of the year would be Keith Abney the second who is over at Arizona State another DB so plenty of DBs coming out of Arizona this year and I I can't remember if I told you about have I told you about ADME before if you it's possible that you have but we've been doing this since August and maybe some guys slipped through the cracks I I I don't I don't vividly remember talking about him. It's possible that we could have.

I say that because he is one of the cooler backgrounds. And I feel like it's something I would have done is, oh, I got to tell Dave about this. But there's a chance I didn't. So he was a competitive inline skater growing up. Like five years old on the skating team. I feel like I would have remembered this. So seventh grade, he actually won the national championship in the inline skating

National Championship in Nebraska won it with a U.S. record in the 300 meters. He also held a 200 meter record. So this is a guy that was thinking USA Junior World and beyond. Like he wanted to take it far. And then football kind of took over COVID sidetracked things for him. But it's interesting when you talk about former wrestlers and offensive line or, you know, hoopers and receivers and things like that. It's interesting because you can't tell me that his balance, his lower body core strength,

some of the endurance that you see on the field when you watch his tape, you can't tell me some of that doesn't come from his entire life being this competitive inline skater and how cool of a transition that is to take some of those traits that he picked up in that sport and bring it to the football field. And so he's a little bit undersized, but he's a really good cover athlete, love his demeanor. He's just a good player that I think is going to be end up being a steel probably in the second round. I am going to find Keith Abney at the Combine

and he's going to think I want to talk to him about football and I'm going to be like, absolutely not. Let's talk about the Olympics. What's going on in Milan right now? How do you feel about the medalists in the speed skating? He nerds out about it. Like he, like the... Excellent.

You figure he did it for such a long time in his life that, you know, all the techniques and all the things like that. Like, yeah, I bet you. he will have a lot of insight into that sport and how that's probably helped him on the football field. We really just don't know, well, not we. And that was going to be my point. People in general don't know as much about players as people as I think would be fair. And that is why the beast is so amazing.

Because I will have these guys life stories available to me at the click of a finger in just a couple months. unbelievable. The anxiety thinking about how it. No, I didn't mean to stress you out. I didn't mean to stress you out. You got plenty of time. You got plenty of time, but. The top rated guy that I see on your list that I just,

I don't remember talking about. And it's probably fair. Because look, I've, I've busted Auburn's chops a lot on this show. Clemson is another one where we know how many good players they have. We've talked plenty about Peter Woods. and T.J. Parker, and they just did not have the type of season that the talent would indicate. And so that is probably why I don't think we've talked much about Blake Miller, their offensive

tackle who comes in at 42nd overall, which, look, the season did not go the way that they want, but I would still expect to hear a lot of Clemson players get their names called over the, over draft weekend. Well, that's got to make Dobu and Clemson fans sick that they're going to have, what, like five players drafted top two rounds and you know that things went as sideways as they did this year for for the tigers but yeah Miller he was a big recruiting win for clumson they took him out of cleveland um and he has been like in terms of football character he if you're going to just rank every player in this draft in terms of football character he might be in the top five um just

based off of what scouts have told me talking to his coaches talking to his teammates like Like, they just rave about this guy. Captain, he doesn't cheat himself. He doesn't cheat his teammates. Plays through any type of ailment. Like, he suffered. In four years at Clemson, he missed a grand total of one practice. And that's because he broke his wrist.

He just, he doesn't miss time. And he, that type of endurance and toughness along with good tape, maybe not amazing tape, but good tape. That's going to help him get drafted pretty high. So I think there's some things about his profile that worry me. He's very upright in his posture. He's not a great bender. And I do think NFL, like savvy NFL rushers are going to be able to kind of break him down.

But I just think that the foot quickness, the physical demeanor, he's a big dude. Like he's a long player, has the physical dimensions you want. So I just think those physical traits, the football IQ, the competitor. of toughness. That's what NFL teams bet on. And so somewhere in the top 50, top 60, I think Miller's going to come off the board and a team's going to feel good about him being a starting right tackle for them. Did you say he broke his wrist and missed one practice? Yeah. It was during spring. So it's not like it was mid-season, but still, he had surgery and he missed one practice. So I mean, even if it was just spring, I assume there were more practices after that. Yeah, he had, he had

the surgery. So, you know, he gets a pass for missing the practice for surgery. And then he's right back out there with, you know, the cast on and ready to go. Like that, that's the way this guy's wired. And I, that is something. It's not as if you don't need your wrist to play tackle. Like, you're immediately like punching guys with that thing, like a day later. That sounds fun. His, his hands are a big part of his success. I mean, he's got those big thudding hands. And that's, that's the way he plays. So I, he is wired in the way that will endear him to, uh, NFL coach. especially offensive line coaches. Football players, psychopaths.

Yeah, they are. And sometimes you've got to be to compensate from other areas. And that's what this guy is. He's not a perfect player. But the way he plays, the demeanor of the temperament, that helps mask some of those other issues that every player has. Is there anybody else who you feel like we haven't highlighted that you would like to talk about? I got one or two others, but I might as well throw it to you.

Um, you know, I think I gave a nice little bump to Kyle Lewis, the pit linebacker who I went into senior bowl week really curious about because you like the athlete. Another guy where football characters off the charts was really productive in 2024, 2025, a little bit of a drop off, but still a productive guy. But what was he? And we talked about him, you know, in our senior bowl preview and our wrap up. what was he going to be and I just feel better about his coverage ability after seeing him up close and personal at the senior bowl

so gave him a nice little bump you know a couple of guards that I think are being a little underrated right now Jalen Farmer from Kentucky a Florida transfer who started every game the last two years

at guard for the Wildcats big physical he loves to finish I think that he's a good athlete for that size, really long player. So Jalen Farmer's in there. And then Billy Shroth from Notre Dame, who was a big recruiting win for the Irish. He was actually like Marcus Freeman was announced his head coach, had his press conference. And that same day, he got on a plane to go make sure he had Billy locked up in that recruiting class.

And he's, I think he's overlooked a little bit because he missed the second half of this year with I think it was an MCL sprain in his knee. But if Notre Dame made the playoff, he was coming back for it. And so I don't think that we're worried long term about durability. It's just, okay, I need you to stay on the field. And I think last year was an ankle or 2024 is an ankle. He missed four games. This year was the knee.

So, but Billy Schroath, when he's on the field, it looks the way it's supposed to look. There's some Wyatt Teller there with Billy Shroth. Speaking of Notre Dame, I met Jeremiah Love at the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah. I mean, I was already really impressed with him, but it came away even more so. And he also, on top of just being awesome in his own right and seems like a super cool guy, he gave me an awesome scouting report of Judarian Price as well. I'm sure we'll have that up on the athletic YouTube channel at some point.

But he could he could probably go into scouting if he wanted to. He had it all hammered down. Well, I'm glad you brought up the running backs. There's only three on here. That's why I was going to ask you about this. So you've got Love 3 and Judarian Price 51, which is not surprising at all. I don't see my guy Jonah Coleman on here, which hurt my feelings. Couldn't do it.

So your third guy comes in at 92 overall, and that's Emmett Johnson out of Nebraska, which I would love to know more. Yeah, I mean, he was the Big 10 running back of the year. had almost 1,500 rushing yards. You know, he was, he kind of waited his turn in that offense. And so it was like very little, very little. And then this year he just exploded, kind of emerged as the guy. And he's explosive laterally. You see the footwork and the vision, how he ties it together.

He's really good at pressing the line, setting up those open field defenders. And I just, what he offers as a pass catcher as well, I think that's going to help him. So if you're looking for, you know, like I, whether it's a Tony Pollard or, you know, like I don't think he's going to be a true bell cow type of back, but you add him to the mix. And he's going to give you that versatility as a change of pace option, but a valuable change of pace option. Because he's, he's quick, he's balanced, and he catches the ball well. So he's going to stack cuts on cuts, on cuts, and be a productive player. So, yeah, I was glad that, you know, when I finished stacking the top 100, that he was in there.

Because I think that, first of all, it would be pretty shocking if only two running backs, especially two from the same program went in the top 100. But I think with what he did this year, what he put on tape, he deserves to be in that top 100 conversation. 46 catches on top of 1,400 rushing yards, which is a not an unusual amount of receiving production, but an impressive amount. Like if you're looking to see if a guy can work as a receiver. Yeah. All FBS running backs this year.

Number two and catches. So yeah, it's it is a lot for sure. And he didn't. There weren't many drops. He only had one fumble. So he handles the ball really well. I'm curious how much like if you're making a top 100, like how much further did you go? Like how many guys were on the cusp when it was all set and done?

there were probably 15, 20 guys like Tyler O'Needom from Texas A&M. I hated leaving him off the defensive tackle. I think he's a good player. Dionne Burks from Oklahoma was one that some people are high on. I just, I struggle with him. He's small.

He's going to blaze in the 40 at the combine. He might be like low four threes, like four three, one. He's got that type of juice in him. why didn't we see better production on the field? And part of it is at Oklahoma offense, what we've talked about with Mateer and just the way that things went. But I struggled to get him in the top 100. I see him more as an early day three type of player.

So I think that might be surprising for some. Jalen Kilgore, you know, who we talked about as kind of that next guy out of South Carolina. I've got more of a fourth round grade on him. Aidan Fisher, the Indiana linebacker. I hated leaving him off. A lot of Indiana players made it. He just missed for me. Sam Hesch, the center from Kansas State.

So, yeah, I mean, there's, could have easily just stretched this out and done a top 150 or 200, but got to cut it off at some point. And, yeah, this, I won't be surprised if, you know, if I update this in a month after the combine. you know, maybe looks a little bit different. I was going to say, you got plenty of time to revise it or add to it or agonize and, yeah. Agonize is a good word. I can see the stress that it puts on you. But we do appreciate it.

The NFL Combine in Indianapolis is the next milestone. I'm sure you'll have plenty of data points to tweak when we get out of that. Before we get to it, though, we will have a preview. We'll be back in your feed in two weeks looking at the combine who's going, who to know during the workouts. Dane's always really good at letting you know who got snubbed. I'm sure we can go over that as well. Plenty coming your way. We're taking next week off. But yes, we will have another episode for y'all heading into the NFL Combine and plenty more content coming out of that as we move closer toward the NFL draft. Until then, thanks, Dane, for all the hard work you put in. You

made my life very easy and we will talk to you all soon.