The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Building the Beast: The 2026 WR draft class is taking shape

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

As we get to the final Saturday in October, certain elements of what will be come the 2026 NFL Draft picture are at least approaching a degree of focus. Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, for example, is certainly climbing up the quarterback ranks. Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love is cementing himself as RB1. Jordyn Tyson and Chris Bell are leading a deep group of top-50 wide receivers. Dane Brugler and Dave Helman set the draft table, with Week 8's games freshly in mind, on this episode of The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast.Connect with The Athletic Football ShowX: 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: Michael AyaubAudio Producer: Katy DuffySocial 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 your host, Dave Hellman, and each week during the college football season, we are here to build the beast. Dane Bruegler's comprehensive, exhaustive, NFL draft guide. Every single weekend, the 2026 edition is being built prospect by prospect. And that's what we're here to do. We are looking through this year's college football season, identifying the best, the most intriguing prospects that might be part of this. year's 2026 NFL draft class. Another fun episode with Dane Bruegler and myself.

Let's get into it. And I am joined now as always by my guy, my friend, my co-host, my draft Sherpa, Dane Bruegler. And buddy, I'm excited for this show because I think I think I'm going to get some takes out of you as we inch into the second half of this college football season. How are we doing? Good. I mean, yeah, we're getting to that point, right?

Where it's, uh, you got to stand on something. Right. No, you can't ride the fence. A man's got to have a code. Exactly. There you go. So, like, we still got a lot of time. You know, things change.

But as we get to middle October and then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, like, haze in the barn for a lot of these players, you know, like they put everything you want to see on tape. Like, you should have a really firm opinion on who these guys are. And so we're getting to that point with some of these guys. It is, it's wild to think, like, because. Because, and I mean, I know playoff teams play. I mean, if you're on a playoff team, you're going to wind up playing a ton of football games. But there aren't that many opportunities left for a lot of these college football players.

I mean, you have four, maybe five if you've had the right amount of buy weeks games. And so there, I mean, there is still time to make a different impression. But yeah, like from a scouting perspective, would you say it's fair to think that opinions on these guys? are maybe if they're not set in stone, they're just kind of starting to firm up. Like the concrete is firming up a little bit on these evaluations. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, and we have to, so often we look at scouting through our own perspective where we're watching college football every week and, you know, we're, but the area scouts,

they're on the road. They're not really sitting in front of their TVs, just watching game after game after game. They're focused on, in a lot of cases, a singular game. game, two teams, the prospects, and then they might not see that team again the rest of the way, or they might go back for a recheck. Or, you know, like, so it's, scouting in the NFL is very different than the way we perceive scouting, you know, the way we do it.

And so that makes it really interesting because if you're in a certain place on a certain campus on a certain weekend where maybe a player doesn't have the best week, doesn't have a great game, doesn't have a great week of practice. or maybe they're coming off a rough game. And so the vibes aren't great in the facility. You know, like all that stuff kind of matters. And that's why, you know, there's not only area scouts, but national scouts. And the whole process is, you know, we could talk for hours just on how NFL scouting works.

But, you know, it's, it definitely makes things interesting with when teams go to see certain players, what's going on in that situation. and but I mean to your point like there's we are running out of games for a team like LSU for example Oh low blow no no low blow but it's topical because like a quarterback like Garrett Nussmeyer

like in all intents of purposes like he is running out of starts here for him to really put a flag on hey I'm an NFL starter this is why right I mean I thought he's played okay the last two games you know since he's came back from that injury.

I don't think he is the reason they have been losing. But at the same time, you still need to show more if you want to be a top 50 pick. And so how he performs this weekend, how he performs against Alabama, like, that's going to go a long way to kind of determining things. And so you're just, you're just running out of, and I chose LSU for Nussmeyer, not not because of you, but it's, it is what it is at this point in the schedule, right? No, that's completely fair. I would agree on the long list of reasons why LSU is disappointing.

Garrett Nussmeyer is definitely one of them. But he's not at the top of the list right now, I guess is what I would say there. I am, it's so, it's interesting to think how that works from a scouting perspective where, you know, like where where people's opinions and narratives meet. And I'm talking about like within the organizations themselves, like what we're doing, that's, that's a lot less. important, but where like a guy who has had eyes on a prospect or had eyes on a team, been to a game, been to those practices, seen the good. Now you're going up against somebody who's watched from afar or has been in a different area. And when those two perspectives meet, I think that's very interesting in terms of like how teams come to a consensus evaluation of these guys. And obviously that's still a long ways off inside the buildings. But. Like I said, it's, but it is, it is starting to be more informed, right?

Like it's less of like, oh, well, there's still so much season to go. Like, like I said, I think people's opinions, while still subject to change, are becoming at least a little firmer than they were. Well, I mean, I texted a scout this week about a certain player and just, what do you think about him? He's, I don't know. I don't go there until November. And it's like, oh, okay. Like, you know, he just hasn't got eyes on him since July. So, you know, that's, that's common with how schedules work out and, you know, how they determine some schools are restrictive about when they want scouts on campus.

I've heard a few things about that in the last few days over the course of this week. I'm not going to bring up Wisconsin. But the truth is it's just that's, you know, scouting with from an NFL perspective and how they operate and then how colleges and how they receive scouts. it's different everywhere. So yeah, it's definitely part of this process to get it as every team tries to figure it out and get it all right. So in the vein of that, in the vein of having a little bit firmer of an opinion, I said what I said at the top of the show for a reason. We're going to go back to our tried but true format for this week. We're going to hand out some game balls at the top of the show.

And I got really excited when I heard where you wanted to start this thing off. because we're handing out a game ball to a guy we've talked a good bit about, but Ty Simpson starting to become less of like a novelty and like an eyebrow razor and more of like a serious conversation about what this guy's doing. He goes 19 to 29 for 253, two touchdowns. Alabama beats Tennessee pretty convincingly. I think the pick six at the end of the first half kind of changed the dynamic of this game, but still a very convincing win for Alabama and another very, very impressive game for Ty Simpson, who we should be talking about a lot in this quarterback class if we haven't already.

And I think we have. We've brought him up. I make really sense, maybe the Wisconsin game. We've been kind of talking about him as, all right, there's something here. And he just continues to stack good game after good game, putting good stuff on tape, zero interceptions. I think he only has one on the year. It was that one against Vanderbilt.

So he's just been very efficient. And the tape was even more impressive than just the stat line. I tweeted yesterday what I thought were was three best throws from the game against Tennessee. And each one shows you poise the stones to decisively attack a tight window. And then just a ball placement where I'm going to put the ball where my guy can attack it. And it's out of reach of the defender. And so I think that's so key when you scout quarterbacks. I mean, the biggest difference between quarterbacks transitioning to the NFL is just truly understanding there's college open and NFL open, right?

And I feel like every game Simpson's anticipating. He's making those tight window throws, throws that aren't just wide open, but they're true NFL level throws. And so I don't know if you saw, but Dan Orlovsky, he quote tweeted my tweet about Simpson. and it was three best plays and I said he belongs in the QB1 conversation. Orlovsky quote tweeted it and said clearly, quote, clearly quarterback number one and it's not close. And I,

look, I love Dan, but he's known to be hyperbolic at times. But I think he just gets, I think he gets impressed at which like I, I identify with Dan because I get very impressed and very excited by, by what I'm seeing. So I get it even like yeah, maybe we should stick to a more scientific method, but I get his excitement.

100% no doubt. And I mean, that's not something I haven't told Dan, you know, in our conversation. So I think the thing, the elephant in the evaluation with Ty Simpson is the resume. It's seven career starts right now. Let's say he finishes, say 14 starts. You know, maybe Alabama goes the SEC title game. Maybe they win one playoff game. I don't.

We'll see. time will tell. Let's just say he finishes with 14 starts. There is not a starting quarterback in the NFL right now who has had less than 15 starts in college in his career. So we don't, there's no track record. Like it's happened in the past. I mean, go back to Cam Newton and like, I mean, we've seen it before where it's like one and done type of guy type of season, but it is rare and we don't see it very often. So and we've talked about this before with Simpson. It's, it's a unique situation. He's a fourth year guy, 23 years. He's going to be 23 years old here in a month.

Waited his turn behind Bryce Young, Jalen Milro. Despite the lack of starts, he's truly playing like a veteran. You factor in that he grew up in a Division I program. His dad being head coach at Tennessee Martin since Simpson was three years old. This is what he's been preparing for. And he has absolutely stepped up for the moment. But there's no substitute for experience, plan simple. And so I think it'll be interesting.

with Simpson, do you trust what the tape says strictly or the precedent of what history has told us about the correlation of college starts and NFL success? And so for me, I know, like, I'm just, I'm keeping an open mind. Like, he's doing enough on tape for me to feel very comfortable saying he belongs in the quarterback one conversation, but so few starts, it's tough. It's not a disqualifier, but it's tough. Now, I think it helps that he's facing an SEC schedule. The fact that it doesn't, this doesn't look fluky. Like, he's, he is putting really good stuff on film. I just, you cannot ignore the lack of starts and the lack of things that he has experienced that maybe he'll see it for the first time in the NFL and how tough that can be. So Dante Moore from Oregon, you know, throw him in this kind of a similar boat. He'll finish with maybe 20 career starts if he declares after this year. So I think this is a topic that will continue to talk about and debate and, you know, as we go through it, especially if these quarterbacks declare.

I feel like the stakes are higher now as the, I mean, the NFL season is starting to take shape to the point where we can at least take a guess at teams that are going to care about this. I mean, if you're a New York Jets fan, you probably have a close eye on the quarterback class right now. The New Orleans Saints obviously, I don't know how that would work, but even if I'm a Miami Dolphins fan, I've probably got a close eye on the quarterback situation in college football right now. Let me ask you this, man. let's yeah okay let's just assume let's just assume bama plays more than 13 games you know like whether they go on a run through the playoffs or they make the sies title game don't really care knowing that that will be the sample size is there anything he can do to take you off of that concern or like alleviate and i mean he's alleviating a alleviating it every week in the way that he plays

but is there a mark that he can hit where you're just like, all right, he's got it. I don't care if it's one season. I mean, I feel like we did this, like Anthony Richardson was this type of guy. Anthony Richardson, that's the guy I wanted to bring up. Yeah, 13 career starts in college. And it was like, yeah, you wish he had more of a resume, but man, you just, you don't find these physical traits. And what have we seen from Anthony Richardson in the NFL is just, you know, he, the NFL is not a developmental league. And that's really what he needs.

He needs development. With Simpson, it's, he's definitely doing more as a pure dropback quarterback that will translate to the next level in terms of his reads, his ball placement, things what we talked about. The poise is outstanding. So like all those things are great. But there's still, there's, again, there's no substitute for experience. And so I think it's always going to be a concern.

Now, can that concern, you know, it can be less of a concern depending on how we finish this here? Sure. I mean, if he goes. out and, you know, they win the SEC and they don't have to win a national title. But as long as he's the reason they don't lose in the playoffs, you know, like that's, that's something that it would be hard to just dismiss in the draft process. Like you don't having a, say, 14 starts, it shouldn't be a disqualifier.

It shouldn't. But it, that's maybe is that the difference between if you grade him and Fernando Mendoza very closely? Is that the difference why you would lean Mendoza over Ty Simpson? maybe. I think I think the answer to that that will be different for just about everybody. I'm keeping an open mind too. And we'll see. I mean, maybe maybe somebody can make him look like a guy who hasn't played a lot of football. There's still a couple big games left on the regular season schedule. And one way or another, Bama looks like a team that's going to play some type of postseason game. But I'm buying it, dude. I really, what I'm trying to say is I really don't care. Like if you watch, this guy play quarterback. The way that he's doing it, it just looks for real, dude. Like he, he throws over the middle of the field fearlessly. He throws with anticipation. He, we've talked

about it before. Like, he's, he's a better athlete than you might expect, like his maneuverability, the way that he can escape pressure while still looking downfield. Like one of the most impressive plays he made. I don't know if it was in your clip, but it was like the first third down to the game. he's backed up in his own end zone. He gets, he gets pressure from multiple spots. He buys time against SEC edge rushers and works through his progression

and finds the tight end sitting over the middle of the field. It's like a checkdown, but like the process and the cool, like the calm of not panicking in that situation, it just jumps out at you. And then you add in like the layered throws and the touch that he can put on the ball and the way he drops it in the bucket.

he just looks like he's been doing this forever and and maybe somebody will make him look like he hasn't but like anthony richardson that's what i wanted to bring him up because he's a guy where it's like okay i see the flashes but are you doing it on a down in and down out basis this guy's been doing it on a down in down out basis for seven weeks now no doubt and you know i think the maybe the closest um comparison in terms of resume um it might be a guy we've mentioned before in the Thai Simpson conversation. That's Mack Jones, who was really just a one-year guy. I think he finished with 17 starts at Alabama total.

Now he won a national title and, you know, did some good things. And he was a first-round pick. Things didn't go so great with his first spot. But he's kind of having a little bit of career resurgence now with the 49ers. And who knows what that means for his future. but it's just the track record of quarterbacks with under 20 starts is just, it's abysmal. The only one who is starting in the NFL right now who had under 20 starts in college

is Kyla Murray. Yeah, I think he was at 17 too. And that's been a very volatile situation for the Cardinals offense. So, you know, it's something that we haven't seen. Now, again, you can't paint. with a broad brush. Each one of these guys are very unique with their circumstances. And with Ty Simpson, just growing up

in a Division I program, like he learned from a very young age what it takes to play quarterback at a high level. And so being in that locker room, being on that practice field, like that, that's at least something. And so if he continues to play at this level where he's being efficient, he's as kind of, I'm talking to one scout

about him playing really boring ball, but in the best way possible. Like if he continues to do that and does it against LSU, does it against Auburn, does it in the SEC title game, does it in the playoffs. Yeah, you start to run out of reasons why he should not be the, if not quarterback one, still a top 10 pick. I'll say this right now. If that's where this season is going for Bama, like if they make a run through the playoff, maybe even win the national title and it's largely because he's playing this way,

it's a rock and that just yeah absolutely and that's I wanted to and obviously I'm getting ahead of myself but that's kind of what I do whatever um I did want to say this too like and Ty Simpson did not play poorly in the loss to Florida State like he was not bad in that game even if he wasn't at his best you know this first career start ever like yeah that's if they don't lose that game I think the dialogue around this guy would be even different than it already is and people are talking about him as QB1 right now. Like that's if if they're undefeated and he's playing this way, I don't think it would have taken as many people a month to catch up to what's going on in Tuscaloosa right now.

I, but at the same time, I do think it's fair that like we're talking about a guy with single digit starts. So it is fair. If you want to take a more cautious approach, patient approach with, with a quarterback with single digit starts, I get it, 100%. Don't, I'm not going to. blame you at all, not you, but just you in general, anybody out there, if you're going to be a little more hesitant to get on this bandwagon, I understand completely.

But at a certain point, he might force you to get on because the way they've been playing and the way this thing might be headed, it's looking like it could be, you know, with the way Alabama could SEC title game playoffs, maybe, I don't know, we'll see. Time will tell, but it could force people to get on that bandwagon. when I think there maybe there's some of their senses tell them, hey, I just, I wish I had more, which I wish, I wish we had more. But it is what it is. And him being already 23 years old and a graduate and all that,

I wouldn't be surprised to see him declare and go to the next level. All I'm saying, if you're, if you're a Jets fan, Browns fan, Saints fan, go go pull up some clips and decide for yourself. Go go watch and play against Georgia and Missouri and Tennessee. see what you think. I think it is fair to talk about him as QB1. I like Fernando Mendoza and Dante more

as well, but his resume, even if it is smaller than you would prefer, is starting to look very impressive. Really quickly, before we go to break, and I'm don't want to gloss over this because he beat my school's ass, but I do think, and he's not,

I don't think he's in the conversation for QB1, but this does feel like a good spot to just talk about Diego Pavia. if we're handing out game balls, he definitely gets 160 passing yards, 86 rushing yards, three total touchdowns to beat LSU on Saturday, uncharted territory for the Vanderbilt program. I just wanted to get your thoughts on what we think his NFL future could look like because, I mean, we've been pretty clear. This is not a guy that's going to go in the first round, but I don't know, man,

between his attitude and his athleticism and his, his mock. see I got a I wouldn't be I got to believe an NFL team is is going to fall in love with him as a guy that they might want to have around even if he's not a big time pick I mean we're still October

where we are right now I'd be shocked if he was drafted I mean just shocked now if he takes Vanderbilt on a run and they win the SEC or they go to the playoff or you know I don't who knows maybe things could change but I just don't

think he has, I mean, obviously he's a undersized guy, but I just don't think he has the arm either to really, he's not going to test defenses down the field, at least where I think you're going to spend a draft pick on him. Now, he'll go to, he'll go to a camp, he'll be a PFA and have a chance to make some noise once he get into an NFL training camp. But at this point, I'd still be surprised if he was drafted. And look, I do want to give Vanderbilt their props because, you know, the way they're playing is just they're a fun watch and they are they are absolute contenders in the SEC which is something I've never said in my lifetime um but you look at their their their team Eli Stowers at tight end he is he's the one guy that's a lock draft pick I think he has a chance

to go somewhere in round three and then they have a few uh few guys that are in that late round conversation borderline draft picks um Jordan white I think he's a he can be a backup center in the League. Corday, Cynor, a defense event's got traits. Colby Taylor is almost 6-3 at Corner. He's going to test well. So Vanderbilt has guys. I just, I would be very surprised that Pavia is

one of them. And hey, I hope he hears this and puts it up on the bulletin board and proves me wrong because, I mean, he's an easy guy to, he's an very entertaining guy to watch and it's fun to watch and play football. From what I've gleaned about him over the course of the last two years, I bet he will. He just, he screams to me wherever, whether he gets drafted late or not at all or

anywhere in between, he's going to be a guy where the fan base is like excited that he's there. Just like, oh shit. Like did you see what this guy did at Vanderbilt? And, you know, he can, you know, maybe we can find some creative ways to use him, whatever. He just, he has that written all over him for me. I do want to give you props because, uh, you early on wanted to talk about Trinidad Chamblest, the Ole Miss quarterback who was up and down against Georgia over the weekend. But this is a guy that talking to scouts, he's getting draftable grades. You know, some of us just have a natural eye, Dane. I didn't want to talk about him initially.

You know, he's undersized D2 guy. Like he's, you know, I don't know. I think he'll probably come in at 510 and change, 190 pounds. But watching more of him, I get it. Like he has an arm where he's going to challenge all three. levels. There's touch to what he's doing out there. And so I think Ole Miss is hoping they can get him back one more year. But yeah, he's receiving draftable grades from scouts and has a, has somewhat of a floor that I think scouts can get on board with. Similar to Ty Simpson, and I'm not talking about QB1,

I just mean the way that they play, but like, it's not gimmicky. Like the way, the way that he plays is not gimmicky. Like he's got an arm. He's willing to rip the ball into windows and over the middle of the field. His athleticism is a huge plus too. He is a, as an LSU fan, I can say, Diego Pavia and Trinidad Chameless are both very frustrating players to go against, which is what you want your quarterback to be. All right, we do have a couple more game balls to hand out. We'll do that on the other side of this break.

All right, Dane, another game ball I wanted to hand out. I don't know how in depth we have to go. We know he's incredible, but you at least got to mention what Jeremiah loved at the USC on Saturday night. 24 totes, 228 yards and a touchdown. Five receptions for 37 yards for good measure. He can really do it all. I guess my only real question for you is how high do you think Jeremiah Love could go?

Like is this another year where a running back is worthy of top 10 consideration? Or is Jeremiah Love more of a normal first round running back type of prospect? Can I sell you on a comp of James? Cook with a lead foot. Like I think he's more explosive than Cook. And sometimes it was on detriment. He's always attacking full speed. You want to see maybe some more consistent patience in his run style.

Man, this is an athlete that you bet on. And so, yeah, his ability to catch his balance through contact is really unique. Major weapon in the passing game. And I think that is part of what's going to make him a very high first round pick. is he similar to like Jemir Gibbs and the other he he's a true weapon that you have to count for and every single time he's out there not as just getting the handoff but okay is he going to motion out what is he doing after you know is he going to run uh you know a route is it going to be a simple screen is it going to be a checkdown you have to be aware as a defense where jeremiah

love is every single snap and so this is the type of team the type of explosive weapon teams want is I don't think he's on me personally. I don't think he's on the Bijon Robinson level as a prospect myself, but I think he's right below it. I mean, I think he's kind of right there. And especially in this draft where we've talked about this is not, we'll see what happens with the quarterbacks, who declares who goes back,

but just the non-quarterbacks, how many of these non-quarterbacks do you feel great about drafting the top 10? It's not a long list. It's definitely not a list of 10. So a guy like Love who you feel good about the player you're getting. Now, I don't think that every team, especially in the top 10, should be drafting a running back that high. Like the Raiders might be having some. I'm going to say, we're seeing how we're seeing how that's playing out in Vegas right now.

It's not that Ashton Genties is a bad player or a bad pick. Or it's just as a organization as an offense, you better. be in a certain spot with the current makeup of your roster to just invest in a running back that early. Now, we've seen it work out great for the Falcons, work out for the Lions with Jamir Gibbs, and I think it could absolutely work with Love as a top 10 pick for the right offense. But I think that the fact that this class is what it is will help Love go into those top 10 picks because, again, this is the type of weapon teams want explosive. and take it to the house anytime he touches the ball,

the type of player that defenses have to really account for. It's so wild. Now, we've played enough games in the NFL season where you can sort of look at the draft order and have an idea. And I'm, so I'm just mentally plugging Jeremiah Love into situations like, oh,

that would be really fun. Give me one or two. I mean, and look, I know, I know that they have a future need at quarterback. I understand. that but like the Rams have Atlanta's pick so the Rams are like the Rams would be drafting in the top

15 right now that's really fun we all love Kyron Williams but to Notre Dame backs in that backfield adding some real deal explosiveness to the Rams running game could be a lot of fun I get it you probably want to draft a quarterback whatever uh same thing like I just Cincinnati is blinking at me and I'm like oh man that would piss a lot of people off because they have so many needs on defense but but I would I'd be excited about it. Yeah. I mean, I,

heck, Titans, I mean, you help. I mean, the whole, the whole thing for the Titans this off season should be, how do we help our young quarterback?

And you add a guy like this into that backfield, that'd be a ton of fun. So yeah, I think it would not be a hard sell. I think to a lot of fan bases picking in a top 15. It's just a matter of, you know, again,

I think I keep going back to, and here, I'm sorry to put, on the spot, but non-quarterbacks, who are you excited about, who would you be excited about drafting in the top 10? Like, it's not a long list for you, right? It's not for me. I mean, off the top of my head, I'd be excited about Ruben Bain. I'd be excited about Caleb Downs. Arvel. I know that, yeah, Arvel Reese. That's, that's kind of the list. It is. I mean, that's, like, Peter Woods maybe if he has more of an impact on games here in the second half of the season.

But it's that's that's kind of my list. Like it's not long. And so I think that will certainly help a guy like Love where a team picking seventh overall is looking at their options and being like, yeah, I mean, do we really take a, a player we project as a, you know, a B level pass rusher? I mean, we could use one. But do we take the B level pass rusher? Or do we take the A explosive weapon that's going to help our offense immediately?

Like it's that that's the conversation that probably the Raiders had last year, but it's a conversation I think teams are going to have in this year's top 10. We're just going to do this until the end of time. We're just going to argue about whether it's too early to take a running back every year. And this is a year. This is a year where maybe, yeah, you have to weigh that and be like, hey, you want the best running back there is? or do you want a pass rusher that you're not in love with just because it's a more valuable position?

I can't wait is what I'm trying to say. That doesn't sound toxic at all. We can't talk about love without also mentioning Judarian Price too. He was awesome. This year, he's averaging 6.7 yards per carry. The vision that he's playing with, the balance. I wish they featured him more in the passing game. He only has three targets this year.

But we've talked about since August. how running back two is wide open. Love has got running back one locked up. That's been true since last year. But running back two wide open. And we've talked about Jonah Coleman from Washington, Justice Haynes, from Michigan. Judarian Price is right there in that mix. And we have never seen the first two running backs drafted in a single draft be from the same school.

We've seen two of the first three, going back to Ronnie Brown, Cadillac Williams, Darren McFadden and Felix Jones did that, but we've never seen the first two. And at least this year, Price is a fourth year guy, so I don't think it'd be a surprise if he came out. It's at least possible that we could see it this year with those two guys. I don't think we've mentioned this when we've brought up Price either,

but a very useful kick returner. Yes. He has two on the year now. He did it against Purdue, huge in the kick return game against USC, totally changed the complexion of that game. so and and I know you're typically not asking like your top running back to be a kick returner in the NFL. But if he winds up on a team where he's the backup or if he's got a fight for more playing time,

I think that is definitely worth bringing up. No doubt. Yeah. And I just will between now and the draft, I think we will continue to talk about that running back two spot. And, you know, just it'll be different for every team. And price at least we deserve, he deserve. serves to have more people talking about them. One other guy I'm going to shout out,

you typically don't give out game balls in losing efforts, but Ketron Allen, we did a whole spiel last week about what's the rest of this season going to be like for these Penn State players. And they wind up losing to Iowa in a heartbreaker, like the quintessential Big Ten game, honestly. But Ketron Allen, 28 carries, 145 yards, two touchdowns.

he had like one explosive but the vast majority of it was just working through trash bullying guys just playing big 10 football and I saw he had a quote afterward where he was basically like well I would never quit on my team like whatever the NFL will be there later but I would never do that and I'm just like okay that is it's exactly the type of stuff we said we wanted to see from a team that's had a disappointing year and it was really a 50-50 split in terms of snaps carries between Nicholas Singleton and Ketron Allen for most of the season. And then really the last few games, we've seen it kind of shift towards Allen to beat that bell cow. And against Iowa, Singleton, six carries, 2.5 yards per carry.

Alan 28 carries 5.2 yards per carry. So like I think we mentioned it. It was the last show where you should show before that. Singleton's the better athlete, no doubt. He's six, he's over six foot, he's 220 pounds. He's going to run probably in the four threes. So he's the better freaky or athlete. Alan is the better running back, pure and simple.

And Terry Smith, the interim head coach, he made sure the better running back was seeing most of the action. Now again, like you said, they still lost. But that was because the quarterback that's filling in for Drew Aller was pretty terrible. Did you see the numbers for Penn State's leading receiver against Iowa? how many receiving yards do you think their leading receiver head? I mean, just watching the game back earlier this week, gosh. I mean, it couldn't have been more than 50.

19. Yeah, I gave them too much credit. They had six players over 10 yards, none over 20. Just a ridiculous showing from that passing. I mean, that game was Checkdown City and like throw to the tight end in the flat. Yeah, all that type of stuff. Yeah. So just, it, Penn State, they've got Ohio State coming up here.

So it's not going to get much better. But I think that they're, we're going to see them, especially with this quarterback situation, we're going to see them rely on Allen in that backfield more and more. So he's going to get plenty of opportunities to, to show why he's an NFL guy. All right. Let's move on to our top 50 stock watch. And we were, we were going through this in the pre-production meeting, Dane. And it just sounded like something we could.

flesh out into a fuller conversation. And if you're on social or watching college football this weekend, maybe you noticed, uh, the top receivers in this receiving class went off. I mean, across college football, the guys that we have talked about as the cream of the crop in this class really rose up all at the same time. I mean, it started Friday night with Chris Bell going off in the upset that Louisville had against Miami. Jordan Tyson had another great week. Carnel, Tate is averaging a circus catch a week at this point. Mackay Lemon, maybe not his craziest game of the year, but still a productive game against Notre Dame.

Credit to Leonard Moore. Man, that guy is so good. Corner for the Irish. He's only a sophomore, so we're not talking about him for a reason. But at this time next year, yeah, we'll be talking about him quite a bit. Whenever, and, you know, him covering Lemon made things tough and forced the offense to go away from Lemon, which, you know, a lot of those, Chicago. Kobe Lane stepped up and but at the same time, if Moore can have that type of impact against

Lemon, man, it says a lot about him as a player. So yeah, it's just, sorry, didn't want to interrupt you, but wanted to give Leonard more credit because he is awesome. So the question I want to pose to you is to go back to August. We kind of framed this receiver class as, well, Jordan Tyson is probably wide receiver one and there, there are guys worth being excited about here. But we just need to see it. We need to see these guys take the next step and put their best foot forward toward being in that conversation. And here we are in late October.

And it kind of feels like that's happening, man. Like I think I don't want to speak for you, but it feels fair to be a lot more excited about the receiver class than we were before the season started. Absolutely. I mean, it's not that we didn't like these receivers over the summer, but it was maybe a little bit of a, eh, we like them, but wish we loved them, which we were more excited about this group. And the way they've played this year, yeah, absolutely. I think there's a lot more optimism about what they put on tape, about their futures.

Some guys have really stepped up. And some of the preseason rankings were based off of traits, based off of, hey, I think this guy could be something, you know, Chris Bell, perfect example. I think he could be something. And so far, he has lived up to it. doubt. Jordan Tyson's been wide receiver one since the summer and man, he is now he sees a ton of targets. You know, Arizona State knows, you know, who is the guy in that offense and they feed him, but he answers. And you could tell in that Texas Tech game, he was not healthy. It was hamstring,

but he did not look 100%. And yet they still peppered the ball to him because he's getting open and making plays. Even on that last drive, it was with the fourth down that, you know, he was the to get open and Levitt hit him for a big gain and then they had the pass interference because the Texas Tech tried to hold him to slow him down because he was going to get open in the corner of the end zone. So the way that Jordan Tyson impacts that game is why Arizona State won and why he is, or one of the reasons why he's wide receiver one in this class. He leads all of college football in catches of or first down catches this year or

catches that resulted in first down or a touchdown. So he is absolutely lived up to all the praise that we put on them coming into the year. So let me ask you this. It's my turn to put you on the spot. We look at these top guys. And we'll throw in Denzel Boston as well up at Washington having a really nice season. Where are you stacking these guys up? I mean, we just said that there aren't a ton of guys that you're super excited about draft.

like the thought of drafting them in the top 10. Right. But from where I'm sitting, it looks like you've got four or five guys that are at least worthy of being talked about as like first round considerations. Like are all of these guys like back half of the first round type of guys? Or are we still trying to see if they're more top 50 guys? Like how do you see this shaking out?

So yeah, coming into the year and my top 50, I had Tyson, was, let me look at it up, 12th. So he was already kind of like right there. And I think Tyson has been as advertised. I kind of feel perfect about him right there. Chris Bell was wide receiver two for me at 25 overall.

I'm kind of still, Bell has played really well this year, but that was kind of, I baked that into my ranking of having him 25 overall. So I'm kind of still right there with Chris Bell. now carnell tate he was at 31 he's played better than i expected i mean obviously he was 31 so i knew he was someone that was talented and there's a lot to like about him but he's even more detailed than i think i gave him credit for and last year he had some drops that were really uh frustrating and just

wasn't as consistent now this year third year is a junior becoming a full-time starter you don't see those mistakes. You don't see a guy that's making any type of miscues. He is buttoned up. He's finishing. And I mean, the way you set it up, he's making some highlight plays that are just ridiculous down the field. And yes,

part of that is what Jeremiah Smith is doing, drawing coverage to him. But it's not like this is some big secret with Carnell Tate. I mean, he is making plays. He is creating his own separation because of the detailed routes. He is winning down the field because he is better

at attacking the football. And so he is a guy that is moving up. I mean, he would be probably, yeah, somewhere in the top 25 ahead of Chris Bell for me. And then Mikey Lemon is also ahead of Chris Bell somewhere in the top 25 for me. And so these are guys that are, I don't know that I feel great about them in the top 10, like I did, like Malik Neighbors and those guys. But in this draft especially, yeah, these are top 25 picks. And Chris Bell would be the most interesting, I think.

he's it's funny this happens every year where coming into the year chris bell was one of quote unquote my guys you know like i i'm betting on this guy absolutely there's talent you planted your flag absolutely sure it's going to get to the point where people pass me you know like they they pass my opinion of him and that's fine like if you really are hyped up enough on this guy that you want to take him top 15 top 20 you know that's that's great but trust what your eyes tell you i just i think that's going to happen with him. The trick will be with him is on the spectrum of A.J. Brown to Traylin Berks, Brown obviously being best case scenario, Burks being worst case.

Where do you see Chris Bell? I think that's the question that evaluators need to ask themselves. I don't think, you know, I tweeted, I mentioned A.J. Brown's name in my tweet about Chris Bell on Saturday morning from what he did Friday night. It's more for the acceleration that he plays with for a guy that's 6-2-22. I think they're different players. You know, and I don't think he's necessarily A.J. Brown, but he's on that spectrum. And I think it's up to evaluators to determine how close is he to A.J. Brown?

Is he in the middle of those two? And that'll kind of determine how high you rank him. But, yeah, I think of if we're going to list those four players, I think he's clearly fourth for me. I have been guilty of getting too enamored with that type of receiver where like just this, the blend of size and explosiveness is intoxicating, especially when you see a guy, like when you see what a guy like AJ Brown is capable of or Des Bryant to take it back to the beginning of my time covering the NFL.

I get it, but it's, it's something you got to watch out for, I guess, not to say that he will or won't meet any of those expectations, but. Yeah, and he's awesome. Like he's easy, he's so much fun to watch because of how, gifted he is and we like the last three games he's been over 100 yards every time and he's made a big they don't win that game against miami without chris bell it play after catch is just disgusting

it's crazy the way that he uh just tore through that defense without i mean if it was two hand touch i'm not sure that they get them i that type of acceleration at that size is is crazy so yeah um i i had a second round grade on him uh coming into the year i'm sticking with the second round grade on him. And I hope he, but I hope he goes as goes earlier. That'd be awesome for him. But I'm glad you mentioned Denzel Boston. He, he had a sick catch down the field against Michigan, even though it wasn't a great showing for that offense. Michigan really shut him down. But Denzel Boston, he's your traditional ex receiver. Line him up in the outside. He can line up in the slot too. But, you know, he's not going to run a blazing 40, but he still has, you know,

decent down the field skills because he tracks the ball well. His catch radius is huge. So I'm glad you mentioned him. He's also in this mix as a top 50 guy. And I want to also mention Jeremy Bernard from Alabama, who is not. If you hadn't, I was going to. Yeah, he's not exceptional on anything, but he's just good at everything across the board. He is going to help an NFL offense. He's a good football player.

And I think you'll be a good pro for a long time. Several of Bama's biggest plays were just pure like run after catchability from Jeremy Bernard the other night. They're getting him involved a lot more with, you know, jet sweeps and I mean he was lining him in the backfield at times. Yeah, they get him a lot of screens where it's, you know, let him catch it. Let him go create. Let him go do something.

And they get him involved in the blocking as well where he's, they're asking him to go up against linebackers and D.Ns. Like they really rely on Jeremy Bernard to do a lot in that offense. So what I'm hearing is this could be a similar draft to 2023 where. maybe there's not like a top 10, top 12, even top 15 wide receiver. But that was the year that four of them went in a row, starting with Jackson Smith and Jigba. Zay Flowers and Jordan Edison.

Yeah. Quinn Johnston, Zayflowers, Jordan Addison. I think a lot of guys that I would be excited to draft at some point in the first round. And then, yeah, Jeremy Bernard, is there real quickly, like, is there, if we're talking about guys that you're not really sure. they're on that level of the of the main guys we've mentioned the top four or five guys is there anybody else besides jeremy bernard you've got an eye on um yeah i mean a lot of these underclassmen um like c c concepcion at texas an m i think will be in that day two conversation um Antonio williams at clemson now that he's back and healthy i think we'll see more out of him scouts still like him on day two um yeah i think there's there's a lot of underclassmen that are are talented and that could work themselves into this mix yeah no doubt A couple more things to get to, but let's take our second break first.

All right, Dan, a couple more items of business. We're going to move on to our prospect snapshot. Do you mind if I start? Because this was a really exciting one for me. Absolutely. So I'm watching college football on Saturday. I took a break in the afternoon to go meet us with some friends. And I come back and I'm catching up on everything.

And I'm watching the late games. And Auburn, Missouri goes to overtime. And we, if you listen to this show, we know all about Mizzou's defense. We know all about Zion Young, the defensive end out of Missouri. But we get to overtime and they do the kickoff or the coin flip, excuse me. And you've probably seen this going around social, but Mizzou wins the toss and chooses to go on defense because that's typically what you do in college football. And Zion Young just loses his shit. He's just like, let's go.

You know what time it is. He is like, he is barking at all of the Auburn captain. Auburn, the Auburn players and the ref are like, holy crap, what's going on? Like, this dude's like ready to brawl right there at midfield. And if that wasn't like cool enough, Auburn gets the ball. And on the second play, Zion Young sacks Jackson Arnold and ruins Auburn's drive. They miss a, they wind up missing a field goal. Missouri goes on to win in double overtime.

But if I'm, if we're talking about a snapshot, like one moment that tells you all about Zion Young. talking mad shit and being like way too amped up and then delivering on it with a sack that feels like a pretty good snapshot of Zion Young to me so no no joke this is what I have from in my notes from my scout big loud personality you hear him before you see him and I like that exactly the way that he comes off that that that hype that energy um it probably seems a little too much at times, but you know coaches love that. You know this is exactly the type of hype man they want in their room.

And I mean, even better than that is this dude's playing up to that level where, okay, 6-5, 255, 80-inch wingspan. I put him in my top 50 because of the flashes you put on last year's tape. He's absolutely taking that next step in terms of on-field play, on-field impact, 28 pressures this year. That's more than he had all of last year. so he has intriguing traits and now we're seeing more of an impact on on tape

and so right now he is second in the SEC and pressures second in tackles for loss second in force fumbles and so I do this with my top 50 where I tend to my summer top 50 I tend to put some toolsy guys in there and you know because I think they'll take that next step and a lot of times that doesn't work out a lot of times

I regret putting some of those toolsy guys on there because it just doesn't come to fruition but guys like Chris Bell, Zion Young, those are examples of guys that kind of, they not only have the tools and the traits, but now all of a sudden they develop into guys that are making, having impacts on Saturdays during the games.

So yeah, it's been really fun to see him show out. I will say it's probably something teams are going to look into because I think it's something you still have to harness, right? Like, Zion Young, he drew, a huge taunting flag against Alabama that it kept a Bama touchdown drive going. And then when he was at Michigan State, this is one of the guys that was involved in that incident in the tunnel between Michigan and Michigan State. So football coaches love this type of juice, but you got to be able to count on it to not

screw you over too. And so I'm sure that's something teams are going to be digging into. No doubt. And he's still a young guy relatively for a senior. I think he's he's 21 right now. So like he is still a relative young guy. And I think that as long as teams feel comfortable that they can keep a lid on it, then I, yeah, there's nothing else, at least to my knowledge, off the field like criminal that you worry about. It's more just making sure that, you know, everything I've heard is he's the type of loud that you like being around.

You know, like the guys in the building, the guys in that locker room. it's not the obnoxious loud where it's like you know like let's let's talk about something else here but no i'm glad you brought him up because that that was a fun he's a fun player he's been good all season and yeah he was a big part of why missouri was able to close that game out i got i got fired up it was that was awesome who you got um i'm going to go with uh well two guys real quick first of all kaden proctor um had a ridiculous seal block on the edge where he literally launched one guy into another to take them out and help them score six. I put the clip on my Twitter.

So check that out if you haven't. And then I wanted to talk about Derek Moore from Michigan as well. I mean, watching that Washington, Michigan tape from this past weekend, Moore just kept jumping out. He leads Michigan in sacks. He leads him in pressures against the Huskies. He had two sacks. He had a force fumble late in that game. He's a little stiff.

His physical, physicality tends to run a little hot cold. And that that's something that you worry about with him. But I think he's shown better maturity with his hands this year. So he looks the party, six three and a half, 265 pounds, 34 inch arms. I don't necessarily see a starter with him or I haven't seen enough of an impact from him to say he's definite starter. But he's the type of prospect you draft on day two. And because at worst, he's part of your rotation. And then hopefully you can continue developing him and turn him into more than that.

I'll admit I rolled my eyes pretty heavily at at Sharon Moore up at Michigan wearing his blue collar jacket to the press conference last week. But it looks like it worked. 24-7 against Washington just in time. Speaking of Michigan, Michigan State, just in time to go up and play the Spartans. So we'll see if they can keep that rolling. Speaking of which, I didn't leave a lot of time in the episode to talk week nine. not a great week. I mean, there's definitely, there's intrigue there if you look for it, but this is, this is not a loaded schedule.

I guess, uh, I mean, from a narrative standpoint, it's just wild that Missouri at Vanderbilt is one of the biggest games of the week. Crazy. We just, we talked about Vandy and Mazuz D line. I don't know if that's like an NFL, a loaded NFL type of game. Like, what, what stands out to you this weekend? Yeah. Well, we mentioned Eli Stowers for Van Gogh. Vanderbilt and Zion Young from Missouri.

And so, I mean, these two guys, these two teams have prospects to watch. Yeah, I mean, Mississippi and Oklahoma, John Mateer, what can, you know, he bounced back from that Texas loss. And he didn't have an amazing game last week, but he was, he was solid. Can he build off of that and, you know, stack some good tapes here? Baylor at Cincinnati, Brendan Sorsby, the quarterback for the Bearcats. Anytime I have a chance to watch him, I'm going to because he's very, very talented. And there's something there. We just have to figure out, you know, what the ceiling is, what's the floor, but clearly talented.

And I really enjoy watching him. Low key. I think that's my favorite game of the day is Baylor at Cincinnati. And I mean, we've we've talked about Sawyer Robertson and the talent on Baylor's offense going up there. We just, we highlighted. Yeah, we highlighted all of Cincinnati's guys. I think like, this has the potential to be the most entertaining game of the weekend. That's a good point because both these quarterbacks are really interesting and both tight ends are fighting to be the first senior tight end drafted.

Michael Trigg for Baylor and Joe Royer for Cincinnati. So that that's a good shout. I also wanted to add Stanford at Miami to the list. And I know what you're thinking. Stanford's not very good. Miami really good. Maybe not as interesting after losing the Louisville last week. Main reason to watch this game.

I, Stanford left tackle, Nikki Prongos, one of my favorite underrated mid-round guys this year. He's a fourth year junior, so he might go back. But UCLA transfer, light-footed, can get himself out of compromise situations. One of the reasons why I hope he goes back to school is so he can get stronger. And that's why this matchup would be really interesting because he'll be going up against Rubin Bain and, you know, one of the strongest ends in the country. And Mesdor on the other side is no slouch either. So a great test for for prongos at left tackle and just to kind of see where he is in his development. But one of the reason to watch Stanford on Miami.

That's why we call it Building the Beast, buddy. Because anybody can tell you about Rubin Bain and Akeem Mesidor. But we're here to tell you about Nikki Prongus number 66 for the Stanford Cardinal with a big test coming up this weekend. Big win for Stanford. I don't know how many people saw it at 1 a.m. out on the West Coast. but a big win over FSU, so we'll see if they can keep it going. That does it for this week. Dane will not be back next week.

He's got an obligation, but yeah, Dane's on assignment, but we will have another episode of building the beast for you next week. We're with you all college football season and into the draft cycle. We appreciate it. We'll talk to you all real soon.