The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Building the Beast: Team + position matchmaking inside the projected top 10

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

There are still seven weeks remaining in the NFL regular season, but the likely composition of the top 10 in the draft order is starting to take shape. So, if you're a fan of the Titans or the Browns or the Jets, who inside the college football world should be getting you excited for 2026? Dane Brugler and Dave Helman do some team + position/player matchmaking for the worst teams in the NFL and the top prospects in the draft pool on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Connect with The Athletic Football ShowTake our listener survey: https://forms.gle/9CwBVwManjR9froy9X: https://x.com/TA_FootballShowIG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshowYT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshowDiscord: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowCall us: 847-448-0701Email us: [e-mail]: 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. I am Dave Hellman. I'm really excited about today's episode. Dane Bruegler and myself took a little bit of a detour. The usual goal here is to talk about college prospects, the upcoming NFL draft class, who is worth drafting and why, right? That's what we're usually talking about on the show. But this week, we're a little more than halfway through the NFL season.

And for our purposes, not talking about the playoff race, the race for us is the race to the top pick and what the top of the NFL draft order is starting to look like. It is by no means set in stone. But unfortunately, for a handful of NFL teams, you can kind of take an educated guess where they're going to be picking in this 2026 draft. So with it starting to take shape, we wanted to look at who's at the draft order, who's at the top of the draft order, what they might need, where they might be picking, how it influences the politics of trades and.

quarterback discussions and all that type of stuff, how it might influence which players get drafted. Fun early check-in on the top of the draft order this week with Dane Bruegler and myself. Let's get into it. And I am joined now, as always, by my friend, my colleague, Dane Bruegler. And Dane, this week's episode comes well-timed because I'm going to step outside the box a little bit and not force us to revisit Ty Simpson's performance against Oklahoma too much. Like we can we can leave that for another time. But as always, when you pump a guy up, you know it's always going to be the next game where he lets you down a little bit.

Well, and that's the struggle with Ty is we don't really have the body of work, you know? And so when he does have a game that's maybe not what he has shown in the past month or two, you waited a little bit differently because, you know, we just have a small sample size. this is what is 10th start. So yeah, we can, we'll have plenty more to talk about with Ty as we go through in the next few months or next few weeks. But yeah, I mean, these quarterbacks are going to come up with this discussion we're going to have today. Sample size does in fact matter after all, no matter how much I try to hand wave it away. But that's that's not the overall topic of the show. We're going to take a little bit of

the departure here as we move toward shockingly. the end of the college football regular season. We're going to take a deep dive into next week as we get toward rivalry weekend and the end of the 12 game schedule. But I want to take a step back today, Dane, because it's weird. When you start this thing out, it's so ambiguous, right? I mean, we're learning about the prospects. We're trying to figure out which positions are deep.

And we have no idea what any of it means to the landscape of the NFL because the season is just getting started, you know, everybody's oh and oh, all that, all the cliches about hope springing eternal. But the weather's cold. The holidays are on the horizon and the draft order's starting to take shape, bud. We got some stinky teams across the NFL. And I think it's a good time to look at the top of the draft order because, of course, we don't know for sure how it's all going to settle in. There's still plenty of football left to play. But we have. We have. We have. We have. We have. We're a pretty firm looking top 10. We got, what is it?

We got 10, 10 teams exactly with three or fewer wins. And so you can sort of start to see the top 10 of the draft order crystallize. And I think that's important because the teams making this decision at the top of any draft have so much say in what it winds up looking like in addition to just the players that are available and the positions of depth and stuff like that. But who is in what order can have such a drastic impact on the way we view a draft? Right. It's not the order that's crystallized.

It's the teams, right? It's the teams that we feel like are going to. And there's not a lot of shock, right? I mean, I think maybe Atlanta, I thought, would be better than this. You know, like there's a few teams that are surprising. But it's not surprising to see the Titans at the top. Hand up. Hand up, pal.

I thought. Cam Ward, I thought Cam Ward might do something there. And I'm not saying that I thought they were going to have a commander's type of year, but I didn't think the Titans would be cruising toward the number one overall pick. And that's what it looks like is happening right now. I'm a little, I'm a little shocked and sadden to see just how bad it's been there. I thought, I thought they might be frisky and they are not frisky. They are not.

I, I don't know. They have like how many cornerstones on that roster, you know? It's just so few that I guess I'm not that surprised. Now, we'll see. Titans go to Cleveland in a couple weeks. That could be a matchup of the loser is the new favorite for the number one overall pick. And, you know, this is the Titans have an interim head coach. The Browns have a head coach who's fighting for his job.

So this isn't like neither team is going to pack it in. this isn't a tanking type of exercise for either of those teams or any of these teams. So it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Right now the Giants are the number two team in terms of where the draft order is. But they've got at least two more wins, I think. When you look at that schedule, you think about what Jackson Dark can bring to that team. So we're still going to see plenty of fluctuation with this order. But I think that this, you're absolutely right.

This is a good point in the calendar to kind of look at where we are. and take kind of just take the temperature of where we are with the players we think we drafted that high and then the teams that we think will be doing the drafting. I just, before we dive in, I do just want to say to your point that nothing is final, we're in for a little bit of a demolition derby, like a garbage truck demolition derby of just trash teams playing each other. Because like I'm looking at it right now. The Titans get the Browns coming up.

they get the Saints at the end of the season. The Browns play the Raiders this week and the Titans later. The Saints have two games against the Falcons, a game against the Dolphins and a game against the Jets. Like all of these teams that are jockeying for position in the top 10 are playing against each other, which could lead to some very fun games where the fan bases are like rooting for their team to lose, which is always a great place to be in November and December. there are some fascinating examples in the past of this team won in week 17 this team

where it just completely changed the order and you know all of a sudden the titans are now picking number one and take cam ward or i mean there's numerous examples and i'm sure this year will be the same and with so many teams in the top 10 needing a quarterback which we're about to talk about every every pick matters in terms of where these guys are selecting so the purpose of this is not to be a mock draft. Like I'm not interested in identifying a player or deciding which player's going to go first at his position. Like we got all spring to argue about Fernando Mendoza and Ty Simpson or try to sort out

the receiver pecking order, the edge rusher order, all that stuff. I'm not interested in that today. What I want to look at here is, again, the teams that have that look like they're going have these picks and what might be available to them and the situations they find themselves in as well and how that might affect the draft order so it's an interesting place to start with the tennessee titans who at one and nine right now are holding the number one overall pick we'll see if that changes but actually let's just you can go you can just start with a twofer because i do think it's really interesting dane to me the teams that currently sit one and two in the draft order

don't you would think at least need a quarterback. I know it hasn't been great for Cam Ward, but I personally would be pretty surprised to see the Titans pivot off of him after one year. And obviously Jackson Dart, there have been some injury issues, but has showed plenty of promise on a giant's offense that doesn't have a ton of talent. And so it's interesting to think that this could be a year where the quarterback needy teams have to figure out a way past teams that that might have an answer at that position. If you were to put Cam Ward into this year's draft class, I think it'd be fascinating to

hear teams stack the quarterbacks. Because I don't think there'd be any consensus. I think some teams would have Cam at the top. Others might have Cam third among this year's quarterback group. So yeah, that would be really interesting. But I agree with you. I mean, this, it hasn't been a dream rookie season for Cam Ward, but there's been enough good in between the bad for there to be optimism.

And the Titans really feel invested in this quarterback as they should be. And so if the Titans finish with the top pick, they'll be in a power position. This is almost has to be a tradeback situation here. We've talked about this at length. There's no Miles Garrett, no Will Anderson, no Jamar Chase level of prospect at the top of this draft. So we know the Titans need help in multiple spots. And it's interesting because we, I think we always talk about that number one overall pick being traded,

but it almost never happens. It's the last 25 years, it's happened twice. 2023, the Panthers came up to get Bryce Young and then 2016. The Titans went up or excuse me, the Rams went up for the Titans pick. Yeah, with the Titans, yes, thank you.

Which, okay, how funny is that, is like the Titans could be faced with another scenario where they drafted their quarterback the year before they were still very bad and you're in a chance where you can sell the number one overall pick and by the way all right I'm stretching it a little bit but I think it's fun a guy that a team might come up for is a quarterback who played at Cal I know Fernando Mendoza is not a Cal anymore but I don't know I think that's interesting you're not wrong it is definitely interesting I mean it's just interesting that you think of the Cal quarterbacks Jared Goff and Bowler and Aaron Rogers and yet I mean there's a left cow to go to Bloomington

you know like it's just college football's weird it's a new landscape it really is um so I don't know I got this pick has to be a trade if the Titans pick number one I'm not convinced they're going to get like what the Panthers gave up to go up to get Brayshong I mean they gave up two ones two twos and DJ more now the Jets they They have the ammo if they fall in love with one of these quarterbacks. The team that I'm most focused on, though, is the Browns. They have two first-round picks this year, and I would argue are the most motivated of all these teams to draft a quarterback in the top 10.

And we'll talk about the Browns more here in a second. But from a Titans perspective, let's just say they make a deal with Cleveland. Two ones this year and probably a third pick, whatever that ends up being day two pick this year next year. they could end up with the number three and number 20 overall picks in this draft. I could be edge linebacker Arvel Reese and wide receiver Mackay Lemon. I mean, fill in whatever tandem you want there. But that's instant upgrades on both sides of the ball at two key positions. So, you know, I think it's the Titans are, if they finish with the number one overall pick

in a year where there's not that clear number one overall type of prospect, there's still in a good spot because there's a good chance they can move back and get a lot of picks where they can address these needs. Do you think trading down to three from one could realistically net the Titans to first round picks? Like say it was the Browns like number three and number 20. You think it would be worth that much? Well, it just, it all comes down to what the competition is, right? Like, I don't, I don't even think you can look at past trades because it just all depends on what are other offering? You know, what are the Jets offering? What are the Saints offering? Are they offering anything? What, how many underclassmen are in this draft or how many quarterbacks are in

this draft? If the Browns finish, just say the Titans finish first, Browns or second, do the Browns feel good about a couple of these quarterbacks where they don't have to make that trade? And they feel, they feel good about whoever is going to be left for them at pick number two. Or is this going to be another one quarterback draft where they have to go get their guy? It just feels like there's more urgency within that Browns organization to get it done. You know, we've talked about the offseason in terms of a trade or free agency. Like, I mean, you're going to trade a third round pick for Mack Jones? Like, if the Browns don't draft a quarterback in the top five, what else are they doing to upgrade that position?

Because I don't know, if you just, you look at 2027 and, yeah, it does right now looks more appealing in terms of a quarterback draft. But if you're Andrew Barry, if you're Kevin Stefansky, you're just not promised that. And so I think that if you're the Titans, you would feel good about getting two first-round picks and then a kicker, another day two pick this year or next year. I think that's not a bad haul for in this particular draft to get. And I think it's interesting because with, you know, you're going to have a new head coach in Tennessee. GM, Mike Borganzi has only had one draft. And so we don't really have a track record here to know, you know, like which way he might be leaning, at least this early. You know, his background is interesting because he was in Kansas City under Pioli.

He was there under Dorsey and then Veach. And so he was exposed to three pretty different philosophies when it comes to drafting and roster construction. So there's still a lot about the Titans. We are learning and we'll learn as we go. So, but regardless, I don't care what philosophy you are really. trying to apply here. More draft picks are good for a team with as many needs as Tennessee. It's interesting. If you're if you're a Titans or a Giants fan looking for silver linings, those teams sit at the top of the draft order right now. And then and like I said,

don't seem to need a quarterback. And then the next four teams in the top 10 presumably have a need. And then, and that doesn't even include the LA Rams who will get to in a little bit. so the idea that you could be open for business has to be enticing to these teams that are trying to upgrade their roster. One other thing I wanted to hit on here, and I'm with you, this seems like a situation where you will desperately be trying to trade out of this pick. But for the sake of argument, if the Titans or the Giants were picking in this spot and you're not going to take a quarterback, where do you go?

Like I think that is a very interesting idea here. like edge rusher seems to me to be the default option but is there something that I'm not giving enough credence to? Like you just look at it with with Reese potentially being an edge rusher with Ruben Bain. That is where my mind goes. Is there something else I should be thinking about? I mean, if you're the Titans, I think it's pretty easy. If you're stuck at one and you're picking, it's Arvill Reese. I mean, he upgrades a key position for you, uh, gives you a dude.

on the defensive side of the ball in the front seven that you can do a lot of different things with. I think that's pretty easy. Now, if you're the Giants, past rusher is not exactly your top need. I mean, you just drafted one second overall last year. I mean, Brian Burns, what he's doing on that defense now. So it's not as cut and dry. So then things get a little more complicated.

But again, I don't think the Giants are picking that early when it's. all said and done. And that's almost why, I mean, can we skip the Giants for now? Just go right to the Browns since we were talking about them. Yeah, absolutely we can. Which I said, we'll talk about the Giants here at a second. But because we talk so much about the Browns and I really believe they're going to finish with a, if not a top two pick, a top top, top three pick.

I mean, this is, we've talked about it before. They saw last year as a one quarterback draft. And that quarterback went one. So they traded back from two, giving them more ammo in this draft to not let that happen again where they were not going to be left without a quarterback. And I honestly don't know what Haslam is going to do this offseason. There's absolutely a case to bring back both Stefansky at head coach, Andrew Barry, GM, when you consider how hamstrung this organization was the last few years because of the owner forcing that Deshaun Watson trade, but the record is undeniable. And it's

undeniably bad the last few years. And ultimately, maybe Haslam decides a fresh start is needed. And If that's the case, then we're back to square one where this organization maybe isn't as desperate to get a quarterback this year. But let's just say hypothetical, to fancy, Barry, they're back. The pressure's on to win in 2016, or excuse me, 2026. And that means throwing everything you can at finding that quarterback upgrade. And it's going to happen most likely through the draft. And so I think where things get most interesting is to see which or how many of these quarterbacks declare. Because again, if it's only Fernando Mendoza, then all right, we got to be aggressive to go up to one to get them.

If Mendoza, Ty Simpson, and Dante Moore all come out, which is possible. You know, then things get more interesting about what their plan of attack is. I think more will be the most interesting of this group because, again, he's only 20. He has under 20 career starts. Oregon's going to be good next year. Phil Knight's going to cut him a multimillion dollar check. So he could go back, get paid, get better, mature, all that good stuff. But if he sees this as, hey, strike while the iron's hot, let's go in this draft.

It looks like I'm going to be a top three pick. That might be hard to pass up. So Moore's NFL decision, I think, is going to be a major domino here because if he comes out, he's right there in that top five overall mix. And that might change what the Browns are looking to do. And so that's a big domino here. it's wild to me look I know exactly

how bad the Browns are I've watched a fair amount of Cleveland Browns football this year I know what it looks like but the defense is fun at least but it is I don't know how you could go into this season with what you had at quarterback

and if that wasn't bad enough you essentially pull the plug on a quarterback who's going to give you a chance by trading Joe Flacco away. And I know Flacco wasn't good, but like you trade that guy away, you're signing up for a lot of weeks of playing with rookie quarterbacks. And so it seems weird to me that you could head into this season

with that as your plan and then hate what you see so much that it would cause you to pull the plug, especially on a regime that just got extensions last year. I would like to think there's more of a big, picture vision here for Cleveland than to be so I mean that's fair. Your dismissive laugh is totally fair

but like to head into the season knowing that Dylan Gabriel and Shadur Sanders are probably going to have to play a lot of snaps and then be so alarmed by what it looks like that you're cleaning house. That would be kind of crazy to me but the Browns

have done many crazy things to your point. Without going too far into this ownership, group. It's just you can't predict what they're going to do. I mean, I wouldn't be shocked either way. And look, it's, I won't even go as far as to say there's a right or wrong move. Because again, it's, this, this regime has had a lot of, a lot of years to get it right and they haven't been able to. But I think that they did the responsible thing last year by not forcing the quarterback and saying, hey, we're going to load up for next year and find our guy. So, you know, I would like to

I would like to see them get the chance. And we'll see how that plays out. And that's why it's important for more quarterbacks to come out. So they have more bites at the apple. Because if they don't, then theoretically, there's a chance they could be on the outside looking in. Once again, if they do not have that number one overall pick. And say the Jets just love Mendoza,

they've got a little bit more ammo to go get him if they wanted to. So, you know, it's a tricky spot if you're, if you're Cleveland and it will make for a really interesting offseason for them because they have to, they have to make a splash of quarterback and go for an upgrade in a big way. And I think the draft is the way to do that. I think the draft is the way to do that too, but you're so right. I mean, three is about as low as you could stomach being. Like if you're falling, if you're climbing higher in the pecking order than three,

three, it's starting to feel really uncomfortable. And honestly, you'd probably rather be higher. You'd probably rather be one or two. Well, and to your point, this team has a lot of needs. Like, it's not like you drop the quarterback in there and you're ready to go, especially a rookie. They need help badly at offensive tackle. They need, they have the worst.

I think they are 32nd in the league in terms of wide receiver depth. I mean, they, I think they are 32nd. So, you know, I mean, you can, if they don't go quarterback, Say they don't let say Mendoza is the only one that comes out and they don't love Mendoza for whatever reason. Then, you know, then they could address, they go offensive tackle and wide receiver with these two first round picks and theoretically get better and take a big step forward on offense. But the quarterback question is still lingering. And it's it's something that without having an answer at the most important position, it's just, it's tough to see the direction of this franchise and where it's going. Yeah.

totally worth mentioning Joel Betonio Wyatt Teller Ethan Postick and Cam Robinson all free agents in 2026 like this offensive line needs to be rebuilt you can obviously you can do some of that work in free agency but there are- Conklin's on his last legs DeWan Jones coming back from a major injury like yet the offensive line needs to be I mean you'd love to bring back Betonio and Teller you know they're not what they used to be but there's still service serviceable starting players in the NFL. So it's there's a lot of things they need to do that offensive line. And especially this draft, you're not, there's no Joe Walt. Like we're not doing a draft a player in the top 10. He's magically just going to fix a position. But it can take a step forward, you know, Spencer Fano or one of these receivers especially. They just, there's a lot of different ways that you can fix this offense. And so it'll be interesting to see what their plan is to how to do that this off season.

I wonder if the, and I don't think that they would. I like everything about the Travis Hunter trade seems like it was geared at having the ammunition to get a quarterback in the draft. But if you wind up in a spot where you're worried about that, I wonder if they would dip their toe in the acquiring a veteran market. I mean, the Watson trade worked out as poorly as conceivably possible. But like, you know, Kyler Murray looks like he might be playing in a new city in 26 and it would not be remotely as expensive as what you did to get to Sean Watson.

It seems far-fetched to me, but I wonder if where they wind up in this order might force their hand just to make sure that they have more on the roster than they did this year. That is a possible outcome. There's no doubt about it. Because if Dante Moore goes back and say even if Ty Simpson comes out, maybe they don't love the fact that he has 10 starts, you know, and they're not ready to spend the top five pick on him. So, yeah, there could be in a position where they have to go to plan B, whatever that looks like. You know, is that, is that, is that Calor? Is that trading for Mac Jones?

Is it, you know, there's, there's a lot of not great options, but that's kind of what plan B looks like. And that's, you know, I do think we need to say, let's hope we get to see Shadour here at the final month of the season. to see what he looks like and you know you don't want to like i have strong doubts with that especially how that first game went but i mean he he was thrown into a tough situation you know with some first team practice reps with some more experience maybe he will look better as the season goes on and he can finish and with some momentum going into the off season you don't want to completely close the door on that but it's uh it does feel like that's a long shot in terms of okay, we're going to bank on that being our quarterback answer going into next year.

I think that's very fair. It's easy to write off Shadur after what we saw against the Ravens. But I'll give him the grace of saying, yeah, I mean, you're thrown in in the middle of a game without prepping for that opponent. The Ravens defense has been playing much more like we expect them to over the last month. This game coming up this weekend, going to the Raiders, like a very, a dysfunctional Raiders team. We're going to talk about them in a minute. Don't worry. Like, if Shadur looks promising against the Raiders, then maybe I'll revisit this.

But I agree with you right now that it's tempting to client kind of close the book on the options available to the Browns right now. But we shouldn't do that just yet. First and foremost, it's going to be quarterback first round, find the guy. And if that, they need to hope that works out. plenty more to work through in the top 10 of this current draft order. We'll do that right after a break. Dan, we're talking about continuing to evaluate Shadur Sanders. Right now, the New Orleans Saints hold the fourth pick in the NFL draft.

And they are very interesting to me because this is, hey, Shadur, for all the attention that he gets, we're still talking about a fifth round pick. The New Orleans Saints have a month and a half to evaluate a guy that they spent a top top 40 pick on in Tyler Shook before they potentially have to decide what to do with a top five pick. And I don't want to speak too glowingly, but like the first two weeks of the Tyler Shook era were encouraging, I will say, but I'm dubious to think that he could show them enough that they can just write off quarterback heading into a draft where they might hold the top five pick. If Tyler Shuck plays at a similar level the rest of the season, as we did,

as we saw last game against Carolina. Should that change the, I mean, you're Mr. New Orleans. Should that change the Saints goals this offseason? How we played against Carolina, if we see that, that level of play the rest of the season, how should that change the way they attack the position,

this off season? I'll even say this. I know, like, the Saints got their ass kicked by the Rams and everybody saw the ugly pick that he threw to Emmanuel Forbes on 4th, down, but like against one of the league's better defenses and everything Chris Schula's got going on over there. Like I thought he didn't like he did not look hopeless against the LA Rams even though

that was a lopsided game. So like I said, man, it's tough when you're talking about having a top five pick and like organizational DNA matters, right? Like Mickey Loomis A, Mickey Loomis just got a hell of a vote of confidence from Gail Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints. So it doesn't look like that the decision makers in New Orleans are going to change anytime soon. And like Mickey Loomis, it is baked into the Saints DNA. Like they're not tanking. They're not like gutting things and laying down for next year or two years from now. Like the whole time ever since Sean Payton got there, the Saints are wired to try,

even when maybe they shouldn't. So it doesn't feel far fetched to me to think like if Tyler Shook looks good here over what, They still got, they still got seven games to play. If he looks good, it's not a hard sell to me to think Mickey Loomis could do that. And yeah, like, let's, you know, we got him some offensive tackles. Let's, let's add some depth to the receiver core. Maybe we beef up this pass rush to make the defense a little bit better. You can sell me on that completely.

I don't know if you should, though, because even like, like I said, I've been impressed with Tyler shook, but when you're talking about having a top five draft pick, it's it's dicey it's dicey to to say like no we're we're set here with what we saw i mean i don't want to hate on the guy because he it looks like his season is over and that sucks for michael pinnox junior but look at how much optimism was born out of the last three weeks of michael pinnicks's rookie season and look where the atlanta falcons are right now like small hey tie simpson all over again small sample sizes can be deceiving right no doubt about it But I think your point is absolutely correct, though.

Like, this is the same regime that drafted Tyler Shuck in the top 40 picks is the same regime that's going to be doing the drafting this spring. So, and I think it's almost ironic that I don't, I think all the teams in the top 10 might have the same GM. Like, we not, we not see any turnover among the GMs and head decision makers among all these teams in the top 10, which seems rare, seems really strange, but it could play out. that way. But this is also a Saints team that needs a lot of help elsewhere. I mean, I'm looking at their roster and it's like, yeah, they could really use a wide receiver. They could really use interior offensive line help. The defense is getting old. The number of defensive players currently in the NFL who were born in the 80s, I can probably count on one hand. The Saints have two of them. And which is kind of depressing that, I mean, we're getting to that, you and I are both

born in the 80s, right? Yeah, buddy. I, I know, like it's, it's getting sad to see the birth years on the prospects that are coming out. Yeah. But I mean, DeMario Davis, Cameron Jordan. I mean, these, those guys are both 80s kids. So, uh, but that also speaks to, all right, they're time to turn the page at some point here soon. And they, Alante Taylor is a pending free agent after this year. So they're, the saints have a lot of needs where they, if there's not a quarterback sitting there for them when they're drafting that they think is a clear upgrade.

they have plenty of other directions that they can address and feel like they're making their roster better for the future. Here's a silver lining. I was curious for your take on this because like again, after quarterback, I'm looking at edge rusher, especially like in the top five, right? I'm looking at edge rusher. I'm not even really looking at receivers so much. Like it's sometimes you'll like you'll see top five receivers, but like number one receivers, number two, number three receivers. typically don't see that as often. So immediately after edge rusher,

I start looking at offensive tackle. And I think it's a shitty year for some of these teams that need offensive tackle help who like the Titans and the Giants, for example, where it's like, okay, we have our quarterback. Maybe the Titans would love to upgrade their offensive line. It's been rough for Dan Moore. I know they just gave him a ton of money. J.C. Latham has had his struggles.

The Giants are set at left tackle, but maybe they'd like a right tackle. tackle. But like, does that guy exist? Like, I feel, I feel a little bit for teams that are going to be picking highly who want to draft that anchor of their offensive line. And the silver lining for the Saints is, that's probably the one thing you can afford to ignore. Like, you just drafted Kelvin Banks and Talley, Suflauga. Eric McCoy's hurt, but, but he would eventually be back. And also, Luke Fortner's been playing well at center for them. So at least the Saints can look at it and be like, all right, we need receiver, we need edge rusher.

We could probably use some corner help. We're eventually going to need a linebacker. Obviously, we could need a quarterback, but at least we don't have to be worried about this offensive line class. We talked about it last week on the pod when we talked about my top 50 about how like doing a top seven this year was just hard because these guys, I have not studied the 2027 seven class yet. But I think, I mean, I can off the top of my head think of six, seven guys that'll be in 27

class that would be number one in this class. Like, it's just, it's a, it's a rough year at the top of the draft. And I think it's, you know, in most years, some of these guys we're talking about in the top seven wouldn't be going this high. But somebody has to go. And I mean, okay, let's just pivot to the Giants since we skip them at two. right tackle could be a position that, you know, they're looking at hard. Jermaine Illuminaur, he's probably going to get paid this offseason.

And maybe it'll be by the Giants. But if it's not, and it's a position that they need to go after, okay, would you feel comfortable taking Spencer Fano in a top five? You know, I don't, the tape doesn't really support it. But I think he's the best offensive tackle in this class. And he's played right tackle at Utah, which. fits what the Giants would need. So, I mean, I think that even though that's probably earlier than you'd like to take him, you feel like you're getting a starter at a key position that is a building block of your offense,

helping your quarterback, helping everybody else. So even though it's not going to get you super excited, I think that it does make sense in this class. But the Giants are also in a spot where, you know, they could use another receiver, especially with Malik neighbors coming off serious injury. But this is a receiver class that's, again, I don't know that I would draft these guys normally in the top seven, but Jordan Tyson from Arizona State. I think something important with Jordan Tyson,

a factor that doesn't get talked about enough is just the medicals with him. In four years in college, he has missed almost 40% of his team's games due to injuries. Like, that's his first two years, it was a major left injury. I knew it was tough. I don't think I realized. it was that tough. Yeah, I mean, his first two years he missed, I think, a total of 12 games. It was a torn ACL, MCL, PCL in his knee. Last year was a broken collarbone that ended his year.

Now, this year is a hamstring injury. That's sidelined him for the last month. And it might continue. There's a chance he might play this weekend, but it might continue another week or two. So, you know, it's one of those things that how does that, and I'm not saying he's going to fall in the draft, but the medicals will at least be a concern that teams are going to talk about at length, especially when you consider a guy like this in the top 10. And then the other name that I would mention with the Giants is Jeremiah Love, running back Notre Dame.

And look, I get it. Don't do this. Don't do this, Dane. Drafting or running. It's got to be talked about because I put it this way. Okay, drafting running back in the top 10. Like, I get it. It's it's cringe worthy.

It's a cringe worthy topic from a lot of people. And I mean, it's like when I hear six, seven and my kids are in earshot, it's just torture to my ears. Okay. So I get it. But if the giants are drafting in that seven to 12 overall range, like I said, I don't think they're going to be picking top two, top five. I think they're going to win a couple more games. They'll pay, I think they'll be finished somewhere in that seven to 12 range. I think that sounds right.

Love's going to be in play at that point. And I think it's, it is debatable about whether or not it's the right move with the current version of the Giants. But, all right, two things. First, love might be the clear best player available when the Giants pick. That is certainly a scenario if they're picking, say, ninth. You're stressing me out. So, okay, do you draft the best running back or you draft, you know, a B level corner or whatever it may be? So the second thing is it's never a bad thing saying that you left the draft with the most explosive offensive weapon in the class.

So again, I'm not saying that Giants should be drafting a running back, but it's going to be at least part of the conversation here. I mean, I feel like part of this conversation about going over the top 10 teams and the different directions they could go is getting ahead of some of these storylines. and Jeremiah love potentially to the Giants as being, not the pick, but at least someone that is part of that conversation, I think we're kind of getting ahead of that because there could be a scenario where it just, that's how it works out.

Dan, if Joe Shane survives this change in New York, and we don't know that he will, right? It's how it sounds. If he does, he can do whatever he wants. It's like, hey, why not, you know? He's going to, if he survives this and turns around after on TV, because they were on hard knocks that year, after being televised moving on from Saquan Barkley. And all that nonsense. If he turns around and drafts a running back in the top 10 to a to a team that in my opinion is like not ready for that piece, it'll be bad.

It'll be, it'll be really bad. it's like I said I think it's definitely debatable about whether or not they're that the timeline of that roster is ready for that and again I'm not advocating for this to happen I but I do think that it is going to be part of the conversation because again if they're picking ninth and you know they're they don't love their options at right tackle they don't love their options at corner they don't love their options at receiver like it's just it's going to be a weird spot because the top of this draft is very mediocre. And so I think it will be a, they could be find themselves in a situation where they're clear best player available. The most explosive offensive weapon in the draft is sitting right there for them. Or do they go with someone that they graded as, you know, a average level starter at a different position that's maybe, you know, not as important a position as some of these other ways they'd like to go? I mean, I'm just talking through scenarios. here and thinking about different directions I could go, it's, it's, it's going to be something

that's talked about. No, this is, this is important. It's the, the whole point is to examine as many angles as possible, but I'm having an existential crisis. And I get it, man. Just imagine Giants fans listening to this right now. I, if they haven't turned it off by now, you know, like, I, then I get it. Again, I'm not advocating for it.

I'm just, I'm, I'm going through scenarios, because that's what, that's what we're doing. It's scenarios. That's what mock drafts are. It's, and this isn't a mock draft, but we're going through scenarios of what it could look like. If it doesn't play out perfectly, which it often doesn't, they could be in a position where they have to make a hard choice. Hey, let me tell you this. If it comes down to this, and I'm a big, I'm a big believer, like just draft the good football player. I get it.

Just take the good football player. If the giants are in that situation, and if they're, like, if they're picking high enough to draft Jeremiah Love, then they'll probably be drafting high enough to take. Caleb Downs. Just be the team that takes Caleb Downs. And he, first of all, they need help in their back seven anyway. He is a guy that can wear a variety of different hats.

He can raise the floor of your defense. And I like that a hell of a lot better than trying to dump a really good running back onto an offense that might not be ready for it. So I mean, Downs is my third overall player in the draft. I mean, sign me up. You're just getting a real.

really good football player. So I'd be all for that. My dream for the Giants would be whether through tradeback or like you said, maybe they play their way into like the seven to 12 range. But either way, if they came out, if they picked high and came out of this with like downs or the their favorite receiver, whoever that is, if it's Jordan Tyson fine, if it's Carnell Tate, fine, whatever. But drafting the best receiver in this draft to go along with who, a guy who already looks like an all pro caliber player in Malik neighbors, I'd feel pretty good about either of those outcomes. And it's not,

it's really not a knock on Jeremiah, I love. I just don't want to sign up for four more years of, of what we already did with Sequin. Yeah. And especially, I mean, obviously Cam Scataboo looked,

you know, he was a, a good player before the injury. You're going to worry about durability moving forward with him. But I think it gives you a little more confidence that, you know, you can find the Tyrone Tracy's and the Camp Scataboo's and three in the third, fourth, fifth rounds

where you don't have to force that. But again, it's never the worst thing to say you left the draft at the most explosive player, offense a player in the draft. That's all I'm going to say. But hey, let's go to the other New York team because the Jets. I'm going to say, let's let's move on to them

because actually, Dane, all right, I'm recovering from my crisis. But can I, can I, can I sell you a little New York Jets Hopium? Because when I was doing this exercise, considering where Jets football has been in recent memory and the fact that they just had a fire sale at the trade deadline, I came out of this exercise pretty encouraged about what's in front of the New York Jets.

Obviously, it is problematic when you don't have a quarterback of the future. And they just bench Justin Fields. It doesn't look like that experiment is going to work out. But when you look at this, I feel encouraged for a couple of reasons. Number one, for being a bad football team with no quarterback, I actually kind of dig the Jets infrastructure. And most of that comes from having book-in tackles that I feel pretty good about. Like Olu Fashtonu and Armand Membo, they look, they look the part. They look like guys that you can count on. You got a couple nice pieces on your defensive line that figure to be around for.

at least the near future in Jermaine Johnson and Will McDonald. On top of that, I feel good about like what the Jets did in this draft, at least with the important picks, looks solid to me. Like I said, Membo and Mason Taylor both looking like they are living up to their draft billing. And so if Woody Johnson is going to give Darren Mugie and Aaron Glenn the runway to rebuild this thing, which trading away Quinn and Williams and something, Gardner seems to suggest that that's going to happen.

I feel like this, this brain trust seems to have done a good job in the draft already. And you've kind of got the bones of a decent roster starting to take shape. Garrett Wilson, I forgot to mention him, but that's another talented piece that's kicking around. So yeah, they got to find a quarterback,

obviously. But when they do that, they could be putting him into a roster that's not as awful as I think people would have you believe. At least that's my contention. No, I mean, I get it. I mean, with Aaron Glenn, Darren Mugie, I mean, they're, they're not going to rush this process. You don't trade away Quinn Williams and Soss Gardner and then become competitive the next year. You know, this is going to be a process for them.

And so they're in a position where they don't have to force the quarterback pick this year. They have those 2027 picks where they can even trade back this year and get another 2027 pick can load up for for next year and really cash in on a class that we think is going to be pretty strong at the quarterback position um but yeah i mean i think this is that they hit on membu which has been awesome to watch they always say membo even though i know it's membo like every i apologize to armand but thank you i mean he's he was one of my favorite players in the draft so seeing him play well has been awesome to watch this year and yeah gives you a reason mason taylor was awesome too gives you a reason to watch that jet's offense this year um but yeah this is a team that

just it feels like a year away from being a year away and so it's just going to be a process it's going to take time and there's a lot of different directions that they could go in the first round this year if it's not a quarterback um whether that's another weapon at receiver um you know they could upgrade on the defensive line um you know a corner is obviously now a pretty major need with sauce gardener no longer there. You know, there's a lot of different directions they could go, but this feels like a process for this team. So because of the trades that they did also,

they picked twice in the first round and twice in the second round. And so that's a lot of opportunities to add premium type of talents to your team. I like that thought, to be honest with you. I mean, if it works out that you pick high enough to have a shot at a quarterback, that's fine. But I enjoy the idea that you don't have to force it this year. And I don't want to sell you false hope that whoever they add in the off season, I don't know,

maybe they bring back to Rod Taylor when this season's over or you can dabble in the veteran market. But if you have to go that route and you can build up your secondary, add to your offensive line or draft some receiver help, if you can go that route and add four guys with big picks and worry about the quarterback in 2027 I'm as a draft nerd I'm definitely excited about that obviously it's got to work out but that's a real chance to sort of overhaul the DNA of your roster quickly well and okay let's just just let's play it out so they draft carnell tate with their first first round pick avion turell so They have two Ohio State receivers with Garrett Wilson and Carnal Tate.

That'd be fun. Aviont Terrell, corner from Clemson with our second first round pick. And then they have two seconds. So go to the trenches. Get Amari Washington, a defensive tackle from Oregon. Get double up with ducks. Get Emmanuel Pregnan, the guard from Oregon. Your upgrade both sides of the interior offensive and defensive lines.

And that way you can go into next year. And the Jets will probably still be pretty bad where they don't have to trade up. to go get a quarterback, they can, they'll probably still be picking top three, top five. You take Julian Sayan or Dante Moore or Arch Manning or whoever it ends up being, and you still have two more first round picks after that to add other premium positions. So the Jets, with the draft capital they have, things have to play out a certain way, but it's not a stretch to say that they're going to be in a position to really remake this roster.

So going into the 2027 season, it looks completely different than what we're looking at right now. It's hard for me to let go of the idea that you basically can't do better than Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson and Jermaine Johnson in one draft. And the Jets are still here. But hey, it's a new regime. Hopefully ownership stays out of the way long enough to give them a chance, really. That's my hope for the Jets. but I at least, I like the idea that it doesn't feel desperate for the New York Jets right now.

Like you don't have to break your neck trying to solve the quarterback riddle this year. If it works out that way that you can, cool. But otherwise, you can take the low and slow approach to this thing. All right, we're going to take one more break. We'll finish up the back end of the top 10 after this. I'm always trying to avoid recency bias, Dane, but we're recording this the day after Vegas's lost to Dallas on Monday night football in which they just barely looked like an NFL team.

Like that's a harsh thing to say, but the eye test doesn't lie. And so sitting there with the sixth pick at 2 and 8 in a year where I talked about this with Mays after that game, even if you didn't think they were going to be good, you thought that they were going to have some sort of respectable floor with Pete Carroll and Gino Smith. and clearly, clearly that's not the case. And sitting there potentially with a top five pick or at the bare minimum, probably a top 10 pick.

It just, it makes me wonder what's going to happen here. Like, it really kind of feels like all bets are off. Like, I don't know that you can guarantee Pete Carroll gets another year as the head coach. I would, I don't know,

I guess John SpyTech would stay in place as general manager. But other than that, I mean, I don't know if Gino's in the long term. plans here. Yeah, it's an interesting space to be for this team. And then I'm still processing it because even if I didn't think they'd be good, I didn't think we'd be doing this right away. Right. Because exactly to your point, Pete Carroll and Gino Smith were expected to set a certain floor. Even if there were questions about how good they could be, what is that ceiling? The floor

wasn't going to bottom out. Well, we're past that point. So it's, the, the Raiders look like a team that will be drafting top five and a team that will be looking for that quarterback. And again, a lot of the conversations that we had with the Browns, you know, they're in a position where they might be boxed out of one of these quarterbacks. Are they looking to trade up to number one to get a guy? How involves Tom Brady going to be in that decision? you know, if they find themselves on the outside looking in at a quarterback prospect because they're where they're picking in the draft order, what's their plan be?

Are they going to be in the mix for Kyler or, you know, it's just the Raiders have a lot of questions and it just, it doesn't feel like there are as many optimistic answers on the horizon for this team. Best case scenario, I'm putting you on the spot a little bit, but let's just say maximum chaos, maximum intrigue for us, certainly. The maximum number of quarterbacks that you could see declaring for this draft that have a

reasonable chance of being top 10 picks. Is it four? Would it be Mendoza, Simpson, sellers, and more? I guess, yeah. I mean, I still have... I know you hate this. I'm just, I'm trying to game out

what the availability might be. And that's fair. I mean, I, the way sellers has played, like talent-wise, yeah, I think sellers could go that early, but it's just- Sellers is purely a bet on talent. Obviously, we haven't seen that bear out, but I mean, you watch,

you watch that game against A&M where they collapsed in the second half. Which half, yeah. Yeah, well, but it's full, it's fully on display how much more help the guy needs, you know, and I don't know if that's a good enough reason to draft him highly right now. I think if I was, like,

as somebody rooting, for Lenora's sellers and no offense to my Gamecock fans, but I kind of hope he just transfers to a better program in the offseason and gives it one more go on a team with more NFL talent, but he has an undeniable amount of talent. And so if he were to join this draft, I'm tempted to think a team would be willing to take a chance on that type of talent, no matter what it has looked like. All it takes is one team. You know, I mean, if Anthony Richardson didn't go forward to the Colts, does Anthony Richardson still go in the first round? Maybe, I don't know.

We'll never know. But he's going to go down in history as a top five pick. And obviously a bust because of that. With sellers, all it takes is one team. But it's tough because if it's one of those teams picking in the top 10, chances are it's not going to be a good team. It's going to be a team with a lot of holes and similar to college, going to be asking their quarterback to do a lot. And that just, it's going to set them up for. maybe disappointment because the NFL is not a developmental league

and we've seen that time in time out. So hopefully he goes back. I think that if best case, realistically, three quarterbacks come out that have a chance to go top 10, Dante Moore, Fernando Mendoza, Ty Simpson. And I don't think that order is like set in stone. I mean, I think Dante Moore is awesome. If he comes out, I think he's going top five.

Fernando Mendoza probably goes top five. Ty Simpson's more of the wild card where you could easily go top. five. Tape shows an NFL quarterback, but the lack of starts, the lack of, you know, starting experience is something that will be a hang up for a lot of teams and understandably so. So, you know, it will get really interesting, but that's a, it's a big if for all three of those guys to declare. I just, I have a hard time seeing. I think at most we have two of these quarterbacks to clear. The reason I ask is the Raiders have the look of a team that could be the odd man out where it's easy it's easy to say tear it all down and find your quarterback of the future but if two quarterbacks

are worth drafting in that range the raiders have the least amount of ammo of the teams that are like trying to get up there right like the the jets we just talked about all their capital we talked about the browns capital talk about the rams in a minute sitting there somehow with two first round picks as a super bowl contender it could be tough and so like it's it's easy it's easy to want to move on from this era, but the reality might be a lot harder. And I wonder if the Raiders wind up in a situation where you're trying to bolster the offensive line. I mean, you just resign Gino as part of this trade, try to bolster the offensive line, try to add some more weapons. I mean, I doubt any Raiders fan wants to hear that, but that might be the uncomfortable reality of where you are right now, just

with this quarterback class and what you have available to you. And let's just get ahead of this now. unless you're the Titans picking at number one, the odds of you being able to trade back are very, very low in this class. There's not going to be a lot of teams looking to trade up into the top 10 to get any of these players. So I promise you we're going to hear

from a lot of fans saying, all right, well, we'll trade back, we'll get more pick. It's just not realistic to think you're going to have many tradeback opportunities in this class. So I think we just get that out there now. but I think you're right.

The Raiders are in a position where, you know, maybe Mendoza is the first quarterback, say the Browns draft him, the Saints stick with Shuck, the Jets are looking at 2027, and Ty Simpson falls in the lap of the Raiders where they feel like, all right, that's a worthy guy to bet on. Maybe that happens. But, you know, there's a chance where it doesn't. And, you know, they have to go in a different direction and kind of, you know, stick with Gino another year.

I just they feel like they're kind of in in no man's land right now. I agree. And for the record, even if they managed to draft a quarterback, we got to do something about this offensive line. If you won anybody playing quarterback for this team to succeed. That's why they should have drafted a running back last year in the top five. That is a valid point.

Well, let's let's talk about that, Dan, because all right, let's just let's do a two for one here because Washington at seven and Cincinnati at nine are fun wild cards in this thought exercise because we know they're not going to draft a quarterback. They're not like that's impossible. I feel comfortable saying that on the record. And so it's a fun situation where two disappointing teams, I think the commanders and Bengals need to drastically update their,

upgrade their rosters anyway, but I think it's fair to say they would be better teams if their quarterbacks were more available for them this year. And so you roll in. to this year, roll into this draft, getting those guys healthy and hoping to address some of the problem spots. It's funny to think like, and here's a toxic idea for you, both of these teams could stand to use a first round top 10 type of pick on their defense, right? They both need so much help. The commanders pass rush outside of Dorrance Armstrong, who is hurt. They need to add a guy there. That's why like if I'm looking at them in this situation, I'm looking hard at whatever

edge rushers might be available. The Bengals could use help at all three levels of their defense. But it creates an interesting conversation if a Jeremiah Love is head and shoulders better than the guy that's available to you. And I'm sure. Now you're doing it. I'm sure fans of these teams don't want to hear that. Although I will say this. The thing that makes it fun for me is like I like Jeremiah love in a backfield with Jaden Daniels or on an offense with the amount of talent that the Bengals have, that could be like, you know, throwing a match on some gas soaked wood, you know, like that could be a hell of a lot of fun, whereas I don't think the giants are at that place yet. So it's a little more tenable for me to think that Jeremiah could love could land in a situation like

this. And, you know, maybe we just, we finagle the defense another way. May we're, or we'll just score 45 points a game. Who cares? It'll be fun. With the state of both of these defenses, like it's, there will be a lot of hate pieces written about if they went with a running back in the top 10. But I

think, again, just like I said with the Giants, you can cling to the fact that you're drafting the most explosive weapon, offensive weapon in the draft and how that helps everybody else on offense. Helps your quarterback, helps a passing game. Um, it's obviously it helps a running game.

So it's something that should at least be talked about. It'll be part of that conversation. But at the end of the day, I think it's got to be defense. I mean, does Ruben Bain make it to the commanders at this point? Maybe, maybe not. Is this where we see the first corner drafted, uh, you know, Jermar McCoy from Tennessee? How do they feel about Mansour Delane, um, from LSU who, you know,

just continues to be the best cover man in college football weekend. out if this guy doesn't win the Thorpe award. I don't know what we're doing. Clip that out for me, Beller, if you don't mind. Thanks. Bengals too, right? I mean, they, especially with a defense that, you know, we don't know what that the pass rush is going to look like at this point next year. So, you know, you could really address any position. The guy that I keep coming back to with the Bengals is Caleb Downs. I think he'd be such a great addition, just not only day one upgrade over Jordan Battle.

And if I have to watch Jordan Battle tackle anymore, it's just, and Caleb Downs is just the opposite of that. But he's also a big culture guy and he's going to flip things for that defense. Even as a rookie, I have no doubt he can come in and be part of a culture shift on that side of the ball. So Caleb Downs is the guy that I keep coming back to for the Bengals as a guy that just makes perfect sense. it is it's fun for me to think like i get it teams haven't drafted safeties in the top 10 and maybe

that'll continue but there are several landing spots that makes sense primarily just like the commanders and the bengals just they need help any way they can get it and i mentioned the giants needs on the back end too and so like even if the value doesn't line up the way that you would prefer putting a blue chip caliber defender onto a defense with this many holes who's going to second guess that too much. And I mean, I agree with you for the record. It's funny, like, Washington could use some juice on their offense to be clear, like to be fair. They just, they're old and slow. Like, as much as I like Terry McLaurin, that's not his game either. Like, but when you trade away all the picks you did to get Laramie Tunsell,

Debo's not under contract, but you used a pick on that. I just, I don't know how you avoid addressing the defense with the picks that you do have left. That's a good point, though. I mean, Depot, he might be one and done in Washington. And, you know, there's, you just can't rule out a receiver there, especially with McLaurin and the injury issues he's had. They need the help. It's just a matter of, it was like, okay, we spent last offseason committing resources to the offense.

Are we going to do it again? And when you have a young quarterback like Jaden Daniels, maybe the answer should be yes. I mean, shoot, maybe teams with LSU Heisman winners are just going to stockpile offense and ignore defense. I don't know. but it's interesting to think the way that like the best players on the board could line up with what these teams actually look like. I feel like the decisions that ultimately get made there could could definitely make people mad. But that just might be how it falls.

And this obviously shift as we get into free agency and all that. But, you know, one player is not going to be the difference in going, you know, having a season where you're six and 11 compared to. 11 and 6. Like obviously like that's just there's a lot more that the commanders need to do to kind of fix their issues. But it'd be pretty surprising if the commanders and Bengals, they both do not go defense. And the commanders do have almost $100 million in cap space. Like there are many avenues open to them improving this roster. Whereas I think the contracts the Bengals have handed out in recent years, I think you're and because they're the Bengals, I think you're going to be relying a little bit more on the draft to improve your fortunes.

But this is still the lifeblood of roster building. And the commanders are particularly interesting to me just because you only have two picks in the top 100. Like your two is going to Houston as part of the Tunsel trade. So this pick, wherever it winds up being, it's seven right now, wherever it moves, it represents your best chance to add a difference maker in this draft. and what they decide to do with, it'll be interesting. Because I can imagine their fans just screaming defense, defense, defense,

and will it line up that way? I don't know. The ultimate fly in the ointment, and I know we're running out of time here, but we got to talk, we got to talk about the L.A. Ramstein. Currently pick an eighth? We had a lot of opinions about the James Pierce trade when it happened.

And I guess if I'm trying to be, nice to Falcons fans like James Pierce has had a solid rookie season and we just talked about how maybe this is the draft to not miss a top 10 pick you know like maybe maybe it's okay if you just have James Pierce and no top 10 pick in this draft but it's still got a sting knowing that you've lost five straight Kirk Cousins has not looked like a guy who should give you a lot of optimism about the second half of the season. And more importantly for our purposes, you have now opened the door for the L.A. Rams to do some truly wild stuff.

Like this is like Philly having the Jalen Carter pick a couple years ago where it's like, wait, you're going to play in the conference championship. And you have this resource that obviously they could use it to go hunting for their quarterback of the future or you could add somebody sick to a roster that's already great. It's so much fun to think about. Well, and ironically, I mean, speaking of the Falcons, this was kind of their thinking when they drafted Pennix eight overall after signing cousins. It was they weren't planning on picking in the top 10 again.

So we're not going to pass on our chance to get a quarterback while we're here. That may be how the Rams are going to think. Now, obviously, it hasn't worked out well with the Falcons, but that I think was more the contract they gave cousins and the quarter. back they drafted at eight as the reasons why that plan hasn't necessarily worked out so far. But the theory of, hey, let's not pass on a QB early when we don't have a plan for the position beyond a year or two. That's where it, I think it makes perfect sense if Ty Simpson's still on the board at this point,

you know, for the Rams to go ahead and make that move. And with the way the Falcons are playing, like you said, I mean, this might, this right now it's at it might turn into seven, might turn into six. They might be in a more easy position to go get one of these quarterbacks. So, yeah, I think the Rams are going to be really interesting with this pick. And it has this thing if you're the Falcons with the way this season has gone. And you have a lot of questions moving forward. It's, you know, the Falcons, the optimism meter has to be pretty low,

not only for this year, but 2027 or 26, 2027 as well. I don't know what you do there. I guess let's be fair to Kirk and give him seven weeks to show something different. But like it looks like Kirk Cousins might be a guy you have to move on from and just eat that money. We'll see what happens with Pinnock's and his injury. I mean, I'm not giving up on the guy, but he'll be recovering from an injury. And one way or another, I think you've got to cover yourself if you're the Falcons. like whether that's holding on to whether it's Kirk Cousins or whether you bring in somebody else.

It's not a great place for Atlanta to be. This is the fifth season ending injury for Pennix over the last eight years, I think, or something like that. You know, it's just, and not to mention that Pennix is just, he's always been an inconsistent quarterback. I think that's just always who he's going to be. You watch him at Indiana, you watch him out Washington. He would look great one week and then next week he would be all over the place. It's just, it's, it's very inconsistent. And it goes back to his mechanics.

It goes back to, you know, some of the accuracy issues. And that has followed him to, to the NFL where he, some weeks, looks like a very more than serviceable starter. Other weeks, he looks like barely a starter. And it's just, it's a hard to see that getting that much improved. But, you know, I mean, who knows? Maybe he'll show improvement in 2026, stay healthy. but to your point, yeah, they've got some decisions to make. And I wouldn't be surprised if there's a new GM making those decisions

when it went this offseason about that. With everything Terry Fontenow has done to finally get the Falcons back to the playoffs, to have it faceplant this magnificently. Yeah, I can't say that would be super surprising. Can I tell you my half big take about the Rams? Bring it. It's so easy to just be like, well, yeah, like the Rams are going to go. gun for a quarterback at the top of this draft.

And maybe they will. It makes perfect sense. Matthew Stafford is in the, you know, the twilight of his career. He'll be 38 this offseason. Yeah. But I just, I feel like I know coaches, man. And coaches,

they like to think a little bit more outside the box than we give him credit for. Like everybody's going to have Sean McVeigh trying to trade into the top three to get Fernando Mendoza. What if Sean McVeigh and Les Sneed are like, No, let's get Rvel Reese in the top 10. Let's get, let's get Mansour Delane.

Let's get a cover corner because our outside corners could do with some upgrading. Let's draft a tackle because Rob Havenstein and Alarick Jackson are getting older. All that. Like there's a million ways they could go. What if they did that in the top 10? And then they still have their other first round pick where they could get a quarterback. they could even trade up for a quarterback. They could use their one and a two or a future one or whatever to go get

Lenora's sellers if he were to be available or something like that or even draft a guy later on. Like you mean to tell me Sean McVeigh is not going to develop some weird draft crush on like a third round guy that they could get like that's the type of thing coaches love to do, especially play calling head coaches who were like, oh, get them in here. Get them with my playbook and we'll be Gucci. like I can just I can picture this so clearly where they're going to zig where nobody expects them to.

We know they tried two years ago to trade up for Brock Bowers and they just weren't able to make it happen. They are down to do some wacky stuff. That's why that's exactly why this is in my head. I mean, honestly, I don't, I don't think that's crazy at all. I think honestly, it's more, it's probably more likely they don't draft a quarterback than they do just because I don't think there's going to be a lot of quarterbacks to draft in this top 10.

So yeah, I think it's more likely they go with. Francis Mauga, right tackle from Miami, or one of the corners, like you said. Or, I mean, yeah, there's a lot of different ways they could play this. But they're going to get one of the better non-quarterbacks in this draft, a good chance. And that's, who knows, they could be picking eighth and then also 32nd. You know, they could be the Super Bowl winners with a top 10 pick. And they'll be going into the offseason feeling pretty good about that. Very quickly, we can wrap up with the team currently sitting 10th.

Like I said, there's 10 teams with three wins or less. The Arizona Cardinals after their loss to San Francisco, they're three and seven. I don't know. It's hard to formulate an opinion on them. Like right here, right now, I think Jonathan Gannon and Moniasonfort will be back to guide this offseason. Or at the very least, I think Moni Austin Ford probably will be. But what do they do at quarterback? Like it doesn't seem like.

It doesn't seem like Kyler Murray has a future there. But who knows, there's still, there's a lot of season left. Jacoby Brissette has plummeted back to earth since getting that starting job. So like, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that Kyler plays quarterback for the Cardinals again this year. Or and then, but then once you get to the off season, what do you do? Like is his time they're done? Can you mend that fence? Do you want to mend that fence?

so it's hard for me to know how to feel about them other than the fact that in general I feel I feel solid about where their roster is other than the fact that they seem to be at a quarterback crossroads yeah I don't know what to make of the quarterback situation right now it's it's especially with where they're slated to pick right now they're just going to be not going to have a lot of clear cut options at that position so that'll be something to watch you know we got the Jeremiah love discussion here again like this is another team that doesn't feel like they're in the right timeline to make that swing where they're going to be investing in a top 10 running back. But again, if you're looking to help your

quarterback situation, an explosive option like Jeremiah Love, maybe that that's what does it. I think of, I'm Monty Austin Ford. I'm hoping to see Spencer Fano still there. Give me the right tackle. You read my mind. I swear, we didn't talk about this before, but I was, I'm looking at the draft order right now. And I was like, you know, This feels like the perfect spot where like, if I'm drafting five, I'm not excited about taking a tackle. But if I'm the Cardinals sitting at 10, yeah, I can do that. I can draft a tackle.

Jonah Williams is going to be a free agent. You know, Parham opposite Paris Johnson Jr. I mean, that makes a lot of sense. That's the type of building block that this team needs. And you still have questions at quarterback. But I think it's very unlikely you're going to answer those questions in this draft anyways if you're the Cardinals. So adding a building block like that that helps your offense is a step in the right direction. I will say it's a it's a disappointing spot to be obviously

because the Cardinals were at least the optimistic view of the Cardinals were that they were going to take that step and you know they they led the NFC West halfway through last season before they fell off and the hope was that they could maintain that and build on it and be in the mix to if not win the division, then at least make the playoffs. And they are comfortably in last place look and holding a top 10 pick right now. Maybe that won't be the case by the season's end, but it's not where you were supposed to be. And that's why like if there is a change at coach or a change at GM, I can't say it would be super surprising. But my my gut feel on this is just that these guys will get the year to to pivot. Like, you know, they didn't draft Kyler Murray. They

inherited that quarterback contract. So it's a weird spot to be. I'm curious to see what like there's a half a dozen different ways the Cardinals could pivot from where they are right now. Despite the record, is it fair to say the Cardinals are in a better spot now than when they took over this regime?

Oh my God, dude. I'll never stop thinking about the fact that when Gannon took over the Cardinals were the butt of like a thousand tanking jokes. Like they were the team that was tanking. That's how little talent they had. And that's why I'm not trying to sell anybody that this is a great roster, but I just look at it and I'm like, okay, like the bones of a good team are here.

I mean, the Cardinals are 11th in defensive DVOA right now. Like they've got talent on both sides of the ball. You'd like to see Marvin Harrison pick it up a little bit. I think the receiver core could be deeper. Walter Nolan's just coming back. Your first round pit. Walter Nolan, his debut game against Dallas is still in my mind. So there's reasons for optimism here, but it's just it's kind of muddied up by the quarterback situation.

Yeah, no doubt. And like we said, I'm not sure what the answer to that is. We'll see. We'll see if the car, I mean, who knows? Maybe the Cardinals will be picking in a vastly different spot than what we're thinking for better or for worse. That's, I mean, there's still a lot of football left. I'm intrigued to see how this all kind of settles. but the early impression of what the top of this draft could look like is starting to take shape.

And I think it's really interesting. Hopefully y'all enjoys this conversation. It's a little depressing, a little interesting, a little exciting. Like, there are a lot of different emotions with all these teams and some of them having more options than others. But yeah, no, I'm glad we did this because it is a good check-in. And then we'll do it again here, you know, in another month or so. And it'll be interesting to see how much it changes. we'll have plenty of time to do this but yeah i think i think it's just helpful to sort of get the lay of

the land and be like all right these could be the pitfalls when it comes time to actually doing this so we'll be back to regularly scheduled programming it's rivalry week in college football next week heading into thanksgiving weekend we got a lot to talk about with all the big games all the big prospects next week we appreciate it until then uh we'll uh yeah we'll talk to you all soon