The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Building the Beast: the NFL prospects you should know in 2026

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Accompanied reading: Arch Manning's potential, https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7510943/2026/08/18/arch-manning-nfl-draft-film-study/The full set of preseason ranking articles, https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/dane-brugler/The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and Building the Beast is BACK! Dane Brugler joins Dave Helman to dig into the top prospects at every position for the 2026 season. Arch Manning, Leonard Moore, Xavier Atkins, and so much more.Join The Athletic Football Show Discord Server: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowCo-Hosts: Dane Brugler and Dave HelmanExecutive Producer: Michael BellerSenior Producer: Katy DuffySocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Dave on X: @DaveHelman_Follow Dane on X: @DPBrulgerTheme 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.

Very excited to say, welcome to a new episode, a new season of Building the Beast. The much anticipated 2027 NFL draft cycle is finally upon us. And Dame Bruegler and myself are back to talk about all of it. A couple weeks till college football season, Dan and I spent the day previewing the landscape of this NFL draft class. Very quarterback heavy. A lot of guys we've talked a lot about over the last two years. It is a loaded looking draft class. Dan and I had a ball previewing all of it as we get set for the start of college football season.

We're back. Let's get right to it. I cannot think of a better sign that summer is winding down and football is almost here than the fact that I'm back on with my friend, my co-host, my partner on this draft journey, my draft Sherpa. Dane Bruegler, been a minute, buddy. How are you? I'm good. Yeah, last time we recorded a Building the Beast episode. Well, let's say since then, you got married.

It was a busy summer. Like, there's a lot that's happened. But yeah, like you, I'm excited to get back into this. We got a lot of things to talk about. We had a great summer. Yeah, the wedding was great. I saw you took some much needed vacation time. I tried not to bother you until recently where I was like,

I'm going to be bothering Dane for nine months. Let's leave it alone until then. But we're here now, man. And I think we got to really hammer this at the start of this show because we get excited for every draft and every draft is good in its own way. But this is the one, man. This is the one where for at least two years now, we've been saying, okay, but wait for 2027.

Okay, but this guy is not draft eligible until 2027. And we're here now. This is an absolutely loaded draft class. We're going to get into it. Quick, quick plug for all of you listening. Dane, your preliminary top 50 is coming out. If this is airing on Thursday, it's coming out next week. Am I right?

That's it. I think next Wednesday. Yeah. And obviously throughout the summer, I've been doing all my position by position previews. So, you know, we want to see my top 30 linebackers. so you can check that out. So I don't think the top 50 will maybe be too surprising if you've been following along with those position previews.

But it was kind of tough to squeeze everybody I wanted to in that top 50. And especially the quarterbacks, right? And something tells me we'll be talking about quarterbacks quite a bit over the next eight months. I was going to say, it might not be surprising, but I bet it's agonizing to put a top 50 together in a class like this, especially at certain positions. Well, and it's always tough when you do one in August because it's you factor in projection. It's not just what you know, these guys have put on tape up to this point.

Because summer is a big tape study phase of the year for me. Because you have to be able to go into the year with some sort of expectations for these players. That way you know, okay, are they getting better? Are they regressing? Are they kind of staying the same? maybe this is just who this guy is. So having a really firm understanding of the player, his skill set, the talent, the traits,

that's a big part of what my summer is. So thousands of thousands of players, that's what I've been working on all summer, is a lot of film, talking to people around the league, getting that base foundation down. And that way we can go into the year, really having these expectations. But doing a top 50, doing rankings,

you do bake in some of that projection in there where a guy like Derry Mensa going to Miami, there's a good chance he really tears it up this year as being part of that offense, with the talent around him. So some of the issues I had with him on the Duke tape, I'm going to factor in that I think some of that will get better this year. And so, you know, and that goes for a lot of different players where I think that they have a chance to,

the stage will be there for them to really ascend. And so, yeah, this is going to be a fun group to really talk about all year as we kind of track the progress. You're getting ahead of me, and that's okay because it's very exciting. But that's what I love about this show is it's like a live journal. You know, at this time last year, we previewed the 26th class. Peter Woods was your number one guy, had what we would call relative to those expectations, a disappointing year, still winds up, winds up being a first round pick to the Kansas City Chiefs,

and he's generating a lot of buzz and training camp. We brought up Trinidad Chambleas almost, almost as a joke in like September of last year. You get credit for that one. That was you. I might have done that on purpose. Thank you very much. But we're going to be talking about him this season and right here today as a very

exciting piece of this class. So I basically, we don't have time to mention every name in your summer preview series. If you really want to go look at it, please do. It's so informative. It's so great. But I just, I want to work through as many positions as we can and really get a lay of land for who we're excited about, why we're excited about certain position groups, what you should be excited about if your team needs a certain player or a certain position in the upcoming draft.

And like you alluded to, we absolutely have to start with quarterback because this could age terribly. We were kind of excited about the quarterbacks last year and it very quickly nosedived, but this really feels like a year where we can count on there being at least two, if not four, or five quarterbacks worth really talking about during this draft process. I think it's very telling in your preview series. Most of your positions, you previewed five guys in depth. At quarterback, you snuck in seven. You were like, no, I got to talk about seven guys.

So let's just get into it. And I don't think there is a better place to start than a guy you wrote about on his own earlier this week. And that's, you know, all eyes were on Archmanning, a year. year ago, and now as he comes back for year number two as Texas's starter, the hype machine is going to be in full effect and the anticipation for what he looks like in year two, I'm already really pumped to see it. And we'll find out quickly, right, with Ohio State going down to Austin week two, you look at the Texas schedule.

It's tough. I mean, we know the SEC is, it's loaded every year and not just, it's not top heavy. playing a team like Missouri mid-season, that's a team that could surprise you and give you everything that they've got and maybe an upset. So, I mean, every single week, we're going to see and learn something about Archmanning.

And it's all going to be, can he build on what he did over the second half of last year, right? Because we did this in depth last year at this time where Arch Manning, okay, we're betting he's going to be this, I don't know how we, frame him as a prospect. I'm not going to use the word generational. I'm not going to use like it's but we were just really excited for him. And then he goes out in that first game, his first road start ever in Columbus and he didn't have a lot of help around him and he didn't play great either.

And I think the disappointment of how that first few games went, that September went, the shine started to come off a little bit. The hype started to die down. And I think we kind of resigned him to being part of the 2027 class and really stopped talking about him as a serious prospect for 26. But then I was really pleasantly surprised when I went back and watched the second half of last year when really after that Florida game. So whether you're watching A&M or like Georgia, if you look at the box score, it's not really great for Arch Manning, but you watch the tape and is a lot more forgiving with what he was doing out there. Arkansas, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Michigan. I mean, there's some good programs in there and good defenses that he faced,

and he played really well. I was really impressed with the athleticism first and foremost for a guy that's 6-4-2-30, he moves really well, and not just with, you know, taking the yards when they're there, but the pocket movement. He has a real instinct for it. That and then the passing anticipation I was really, really impressed with. You know, you look at that Texas offense. It's a progression-based offense. And so he has a, I thought he did a really improved job from the opener to the end of the year marrying his feet with his eyes and understanding how to come off one read, hitch, two read, and just going through that process. And I'm looking at my strengths and weaknesses. And I'm like, okay, all my weaknesses are things that you would expect from a young quarterback

who's just learning and getting better and stacking good games, good tapes. And, It's like, all right, I think we were being a little too hard on this guy because the way that he progressed throughout the year, it's pretty exciting because he did some NFL things. And then he didn't turn the ball over. Over the last eight games, I think he had three turnovers. And two were interceptions. One of those was really a drop. And then his fumble, I think it was on the Georgia tape. Like, he got, he got hitting a junk where it's kind of like, all right, I can give you a half pass for that because it was tough.

So I think that just- One in a million shot, Doc. Yeah, the promise he showed the second half of the year, I think it's fair to be excited about what to expect this year, what we're going to see. Hopefully he stays healthy and builds off of what he showed down the stretch. If you want to see more for March, that's totally understandable. If you're not ready to anoint him, I get it.

If you like some of these other quarterbacks better, we can talk about Dante more. That's all fine. if you outright dismiss the idea that Arch is growing and is worth being excited about heading into this year and we're only talking about him because his name is Manning, I just got to assume you checked out after the Florida game. Like there's no way you watched some of the stuff he was doing in the last seven weeks and you don't see it at all. And so I'm excited to see what this year looks like. We can talk about it a little bit later, but he added some massive firepower to his receiver core, which he should only, stand to make him look a little bit better.

Every reason to be excited about that. I had one quick question and let's do it quickly, but you said in your story, and I get it, if the 2027 draft was today, Arch would have a shot to go number one overall. Where do you think he would have gone last year just as like a baseline? Like, was that, do you think that was encouraging enough

over the second half of last year to get him drafted highly? We would have had bloody, bloody discussions about who goes one. Mendoza or Manning. I mean, I, absolutely. I think that there would have been a really big debate about which quarterback should go one. And then whoever didn't go one was going to, to the Jets, slam dunk. Now, obviously, I can say that without, you know, because it's a hypothetical, we don't know, but just based off of what the tape says and how some scouts talk about them and, you know,

GMs talk about them. And look, I get it. Some people are going to look and say, oh, it's the last name. It's the lineage. It's, I think it's a lot more than that. And yeah, I mean, you said that the article that I had on The Athletic this week, hopefully people read it and check it out because, I mean, I included seven, eight clips to just illustrate what I'm talking about,

about why there's optimism, why there's promise. And it has nothing to do with his last name. And so I think your point is spot on. If you watch Ohio State, if you watch Florida, if you watch some of those early games and got discouraged, I understand. But he's a young quarterback. Let's, you know, get the full body of work and understand where he's, he is. And so I think Arch Manning is polarizing to a degree for several reasons. But when you go in,

just wipe your mind clean with a clean slate and just try to give him a clear evaluation. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. But I'm glad you mentioned Dante Moore because I don't think it's a slam dunk that it's like Arch Manning and then everybody else. Dante Moore did so many good things last year for Oregon that I think he belongs in this discussion when we're talking about the top quarterbacks because he's a very loose passer. He's very quick with everything that he does. And so you see that in the screen game. His release, everything's out quickly.

But he's also very good down the field. His touch is really, really impressive. And I'm excited to see him with, you know, tight end with Johnson. You know, no more Sadiq, but Johnson's, he's going to be a, he has a good chance to be a first round pick next year. The receivers are awesome. some the offensive line we'll see because that was a little bit of a problem last year for Oregon and just like it was at Texas you watch that Texas tech tape and man I mean

David Bailey and that group just got after and Indiana as well Oregon could not block Indiana and now Dante Moore made several mistakes of his own but he wasn't getting a lot of help from the offensive line either so I was really impressed with Dante Moore if you tell me that he's the top quarterback coming into this year I'm not going to if I'm not going to you want to because I think Moore is a good player and something to keep in mind too last year one of my concerns was he just looked small at times especially in the pocket and he he was around 205 talking to a scout who just saw him a couple weeks ago said he's up to 215 and expects to play this year this season at 218 in that range so I think that's a good sign for him and one of the reasons he went back

is to grow and mature not just mentally but also physically Dante Moore on the peanut butter sandwiches at night diet during training camp. It's Jamari Johnson, tight end at Oregon, has a chance to be the heir apparent to Kenyon Sadiq. Evan Stewart, probably a receiver worth knowing. Yeah, I think, you know, for as hard as it is to keep track of everything in the NIL transfer portal era, one cool thing about it is that Oregon can pay a guy like Dante Moore well enough for him to go back to school. And I just, I think that's incredibly exciting that he gets another year in this offense. We talked about last, we talked last year about how just throw UCLA out.

Just throw that experience out when you're trying to evaluate him. So now we get a second full real season of him as a starting quarterback, spending more time in a college strength and conditioning program. I'm, I'm incredibly excited for Dante Moore. It would have been exciting if he had been part of last year's class, but I just think. we'll have a more a more rock solid opinion of what he is when this season's over with. Yeah. Oregon should be, you said their talent, right? The Oregon should be, if not one of the favorites, I mean, close to it in terms of just

being one of the best teams this year. So whether it's Ohio State or Oregon or Texas or Miami, Georgia, like it's, I don't think there's a clear favorite this year, but there's a handful of teams that are in that mixed, have a, you know, be part of that conversation. And Oregon, absolutely, is there. But I think it's, it's, so it's interesting if, as we move on from those two guys, because I think the theme of this year's draft, well, actually, not the, not the theme, but the question that will determine the theme is can these quarterbacks live up to the massive hype that's already attached to this draft class? And so those are the top two guys,

in my opinion, and I think on a lot of different people's opinions. If the draft for tomorrow, both Manning, more, their top five picks. Very good chance they go one, two. But I think the intrigue of this class is that next tier or the second and third tiers. The list of talented college quarterbacks is a long, long list. But who is, so when you think about it, the quantities there, but the first round quality and future NFL quality, that's the question mark.

How many from those next tiers can make a jump this year and join Arch and Dante Moore in that top tier or at least get very close? And that's where the list is long, where, you know, Notre Dame C.J. Carr, Oklahoma States, Drew Mestamaker, South Carolina's Lenora Sellers, Miami's Darien Mentsza, Trinidad Chambliss, who you mentioned at Ole Miss. And I mean, the list goes on and on with UCLA, Ohio State, Sam Levitt, now at LSU, Jade Maya at USC. I mean, it's crazy the talent that we have right now in college football, but who's going to ascend, who's going to maybe stumble, who maybe just stay steady and kind of where they are. I think that's going to be, to me,

the biggest question of this draft class in this college football season, and that will determine what the main theme is for the 2027 class. Some of these storylines with the rest of these quarterbacks are incredible. I mean, CJ Carr wound up as your number three guy in your preview. Grandson of Lloyd Carr had a very promising first year as Notre Dame starter. How do you build on that? We saw last year that growth isn't always linear. Mestamaker's just an incredible story.

Like, didn't play much quarterback or any at all in high school, right? You didn't, the last time he started a game at quarterback before last season, well, I guess he started one as a red, as a, his first year at UNT, but he didn't start a game in high school. He had to go back to middle school the last time he started a game at quarterback, which is I don't think we've ever seen anything like that, right?

I mean, we've, like, Matt, Matt Castle was a backup in college. Like, we've seen that maybe a few times, but it's just so rare to have a guy that didn't play quarterback in high school, walked on, and for him to be this good, this quickly, it's, it's really a unique situation. led the number one scoring offense in college football last year as a former walk-on.

He's at Oklahoma State now. His coach, Eric Morris, took the Oki State job. He goes with him. That's going to be fascinating to watch. Oregon goes to Stillwater week two. So that'll be, you know, we can quibble about the Big 12 and how much defense they play. Oregon will get after Oklahoma State in week two. So that'll be a great opportunity to evaluate the quarterback.

good early season matchup, which we will sorely need because glancing over the early season schedule, it looks a little lifeless. It's a little bit, but we can get to that. Trinidad, Shameless, like we said, back for year two at Ole Miss. Lenora Sellers, I got re-excited when I saw some of the additions that South Carolina made this off season. They upgraded their left tackle spot. I'm holding out, I'm holding out hope for some more consistency, maybe if Lenora Sellers has a better, supporting cast. You mentioned Mensa. I has he's shown flashes everywhere he's gone,

obviously Duke last year, but Tulane before that. And now landing on a Miami team with as much talent as they have, I'm very curious about the narrative that's going to surround Darien Mensa, basically how good is this really? Because I'm guessing it's going to look really, really good. But parsing Miami's on-field results from his NFL potential, I think is going to be an interesting conversation. No doubt.

Like you just mentioned Lenora Sellers, the rare physical tools that he has being a guy that's 6-3, 240 pounds, but he'll run in the 4-4s. It has an explosive arm. Mensa doesn't have any of that. He's a little bit smaller. He doesn't have, the ball doesn't explode off his hand like that,

but he's more consistent in the areas that Sellers has not been. And so you get into that conversation where, maybe you don't love the ceiling because the physical tools aren't amazing with MENSA, but he is going to go, the stage is set for him to have a really big year. In the ACC, with that offense, with the talent around them, they have to rebuild the offensive line. But Mark Fletcher's back at running back. Tony at receiver, who's not draft eligible,

but he's one of the best playmakers in college football. So MENSA will have every opportunity to show why he belongs somewhere in that. that top 50 mix. I think we said a lot of these names worth pointing out. I know it wasn't, it wasn't good when he came back from injury, but John Mateer is back at Oklahoma for another go-around. Indiana replaced Fernando Mendoza with Josh Hoover, who threw for 10,000 yards at TCU.

So I'm interested to see what that looks like with some receiver firepower at Indiana. You mentioned Sam Levitt. Julian Sayan is back, less we forget, a guy who was a high, candidate for most of last year. And then I would, the last guy that I really wanted to highlight, just because he, in this day and age, he's kind of outlandish, Drake Lindsay at Minnesota, just being a six, five, 230 pound guy.

Like there is a, there's an option for every type of quarterback you might like in this class. I can't wait. And I think several of these guys are probably going to be better 2028 prospects, if we're being honest. I mean, Drew Mestamaker, as crazy as. the story is it just it feels like one more year after this one probably makes the most sense for him maybe even cj car as well so that'll be part of this you know conversation throughout the year as well who really needs another year um maybe that's the biggest threat to this draft class is the

quarterbacks that say hey i can go back get paid four or five million dollars and get better with one more year of college you know similar to how dante more did that probably the biggest threat to what we think this quarterback class could be. Still, and God, I hope this isn't the sports announcer jinx, but I think it's going to be a more robust class than the last couple that we've seen. But cannot wait to see how that prediction ages. So, so many guys who could take the ball and run with it. And that's, I'm just assuming Arch and Dante Moore are going to be part of the conversation

like you alluded to, but whether it's two or three or four or, God knows, maybe more than that. I can't wait to see. All right, that, we went long on quarterback on purpose. We wanted to make sure we hit as many guys as many guys as possible. But we're going to take a quick break. We're going to try our best to hit every other position heading into this 2026 college football season. We'll be right back.

All right, Dane. My goal here is just to bounce around to as many positions as possible. I didn't prep you for this because I wanted your honest answer. If I say to you, not counting quarterback, which position feels the deepest or the most exciting heading into the season, where are you going first? It's probably receiver just because I think you look at the top of the class. I think I do have questions about whether this receiver class is as deep as we've seen it in the past few years.

But when you have a Jeremiah Smith from Ohio State at the top, who is as special of a prospect as we, seen at receiver since maybe Calvin Johnson. It's just he's got rare stuff. He's six three, 225. I bet he run, if you tell me the over under on his 40 is 440, I'll take the under. I bet you he gets in the four threes. He is as explosive as any receiver in the country. And he's so big and physical. But I think the best thing that he does is at the catch point. Because he, the way he can win at the catch point is so unique. So Jeremiah Smith is, just a cheat code. And I think he will be the rare prospect that makes teams think about,

okay, yeah, we could use a quarterback, but man, you add a talent like this. And, you know, we've got our Andre Johnson. We've got our, you know, however, the outlandish comps that we're going to hear over the next eight months, they all kind of fit Jeremiah Smith. So you're going to see what that looks like this year in Ohio State. No more Carnell Tate. And, you know, they do have talent, obviously, at Ohio State. I'm sure the depth charts just fine. They do, but if I'm a defense facing Ohio State, I'm triple teaming Jeremiah Smith and making everybody else beat me.

If they beat me, so be it. But I'm not going to let number four beat me because if you leave him one-on-one, he's going to win. It's over. So I think it'll be just fascinating how defenses choose to defend the Buckeyes this year. But after Jeremiah Smith, Cam Coleman from Texas, who was, at Auburn, big five-star recruit, kind of overlooked, went overlooked in that offense

because the passing attack was just dreadful the last two years at Auburn. So he moves on to Texas where I think he's going to get plenty of targets. As long as he stays on the field, stays healthy, he's going to get plenty of chances to show how special he can be. He's another guy, 6-3, he's over 210 pounds, probably going to run in the 4-4s, special kid. Charlie Becker from Indiana, he's all.

also a guy that I think is in that top tier of wide receivers. We saw what he did down the stretch last year for Indiana. Another guy that's 6-3, 210 pounds, probably runs in the low 4-4s, maybe even the 4-3s. He can really stride it out. But he was, without Charlie Becker and the way he emerged last year, Indiana might not win the national championship. They might not win the Big 10. I had you said that because if you watched Fernando Mendoza last year, you know exactly what we're talking about. but looking at the stats is so striking.

Charlie Becker had seven catches on November 1st. And from week 11 until the national title game, he caught 27 balls for 522 yards. Elijah Serrat got hurt. And so they needed him to step up. And it was like, okay, we need to create more opportunities for this guy, even after Sorat came back because he was such a difference maker. It's not just Charlie Becker, though.

Nick Marsh transferring in from Michigan State. I guess he would be the other side of Indiana's one-two punch, having lost not just Sarat, but Omar Cooper Jr. as well. So it's Marsh and Charlie Becker that kind of step into those vacancies. Right, which very eager to see that. How does Marsh look in that offense? I think everything about Indiana is going to look maybe a little different from last year just because so many of those key members of the national title team moved on, specifically Mendoza. So what does that offense look like this upcoming year? That'll be, I mean, look at Indiana's schedule.

It doesn't, I wish there was maybe a little, a few more hard, harder tests on there. But they do have to face Ohio State. And there are some good matchups to watch, but we just have to wait a little bit on those. But the rest of these receivers, I think, are more wait and see. Like they show a ton of promise, but kind of want to wait and just hopefully, kind of hope that the traits take over and they ascend. Guys like Bryant Westcoe at Clemson or Mario Craver at Texas A&M who's undersized but can be electric. Ryan Coleman Williams at Alabama who had such a phenomenal freshman year and then the issues kind of caught up with him.

The lack of size really showed up. The lack of play strength really showed up. The drops were so frustrating. But the talent that he has, he can be a top 50 guy, compete. for the first round. He just has to be more consistent. And he's a young player who, you know, I think it'll be interesting this year with Alabama breaking in a new quarterback

and in a very new look Alabama offense. What can we see out of Coleman Williams? And then similar things with the senior class. You mentioned Evan Stewart from Oregon. He's coming back from the knee injury. You know, he's in the mid-170s. Like, he's a smaller guy, but it's very slender. But he can run.

I mean, he should be in the low four-fours. not the four-threes. I think there's a lot of talent at the position. It's just I want to see who can ascend and take that next step. My eyes bugged out of my head when I saw another big receiver transferred from Colorado to Arizona State. So Amarian Miller is my name to watch heading into the season. All right. So if receiver is the one you like most, I got to assume that makes edge number two.

Yes. That would be probably where I'd go next. And that's, again, starts with the. really fun players at the top. And I think it starts with Dylan Stewart for me from South Carolina who just burst on the scene immediately as a freshman. He's a five-star kid who came in and nobody could block him. He shows some special stuff. And that comes from the burst, the athletic twitch that he rushes with.

He also shows up versus the run. Now, the box score doesn't look great. Last year as a sophomore, the sack number doesn't blow you away, but you watch the film and it's just he's got it he's got the traits he's got the talent just want to see it a little more consistently this year not very far behind him is colin simmons from tex so both those two guys belong in the top 10 mix um and then even after that i don't think it slows down um yonze pierre at alabama he's kind of to me in that top 20 the conversation uh to start the year um i'm a big fan of Quintavius Johnson at Georgia, who I think is ready to ascend.

And in the senior class with Will Helt at Clemson, Keny out of Jackson and Ohio State, Oregon's got two guys. So I think that it's a edge class that you have guys at the top and then you have a little bit of a drop off and then you still have some promising depth in the first round, second round, guys that you think could be NFL starters.

I'm really intrigued by how the, remaining guys at Ohio State live up to last year. I mean, what was it? Seven guys off that defense got drafted in the top 40, I think. And Kenyatta Jackson decided to stay behind.

So he's one of the big names that's left over. Jalen McLean is one of your big safeties to watch in this year's class. And if anybody recruits at a high enough level to not miss a beat, it's probably Ohio State. So, you know, it's probably not

fair to expect similar results to last year's demon unit, but I just, I can't wait to see how these guys potentially elevate a new cast of characters on that side of the ball for the Buckeyes. And a lot's going to be on Kenyatta Jackson's shoulders because he's, he's the rare fifth year senior for an Ohio state defense, right? He's the returner. And he is, a reason why he's so high is, I mean, he, the way he came on last year late in the year, you watch that Michigan tape and he was just bullying guys both as a past rusher and the run game. He's massive. He's 65 260, but his hands are almost 11 inches. His wingspans almost 83 inches, which I think is the most longest of, I think last year's edge rusher class would have been the second longest out of

everybody. So he has the physical measurables. And then towards the end of last year, he really started to figure things out, which I think you would expect for a guy that was a highly recruited coming in and just kind of incrementally got better and better and better. But a lot's going to be on his shoulders to take Ohio State's defense. And they're going to be a lot different than last year. But I still think maybe not as talented, but still pretty close. I'm really excited by the thought that so many of these edge rushers are playing for programs that are going to give them a chance to shine.

I mean, Colin Simmons is a big part of the reason why people are projecting Texas to go far in addition to Cam Coleman and Archmanning, Kenyatta Jackson and Ohio State. Janze Pierre is the new edge to know at Alabama, which that's a great track record to be following. I don't know about South Carolina. I know they made a lot of additions to their roster. I don't know if that means we should be putting them in the college football playoff conversation. but a lot of these guys are going to be playing on on really big stages. I don't have to go digging through my my YouTube TV subscription to find where a lot of these guys are going to be playing their games.

Well, and I think in the in the opener, like Will Helt for Clemson, I can't wait to see him go up against Jordan Seton at LSU, the left tackle. Like that'll be right week, week one, an opportunity to see NFL versus NFL type of matchup. And so, yeah, it's going to be fun to watch these edge rushers. as they go out throughout the year. You know what? Beautiful segue, Dane, because let's talk about Jordan Seton and the offensive tackles, which,

you know, heading into the season, you said maybe this is a thinner group than we've gotten used to. And by the way, amazing stat in your offensive tackle preview, 28 tackles taken in the first round dating back to 2021, which if you do some rounding, that's about six per year going in the first round.

Like the NFL's telling. you how much they value guys that they think can do this. And so it's an interesting year to potentially be thin. And it sounds like we dodged a bullet for starters. I think the word I saw on Trevor Gooseby at Texas, who is your best bet to be OT1 right now. I heard bone bruise suffered at practice, which not ideal, but the early prognosis is a few weeks and maybe he doesn't miss any regular season time. I would hope so. I'm rooting for the guy because oh my God

he was fun to watch last year. Yeah, and I think that his play strength is what stands out more than anything. It's just really impressive. And to your point about the injury, it sounds like a couple weeks it could go linger longer than that.

It's just a matter of how he heals, but hopefully we get to see him on the field in week two against Ohio State talking about Kenyatta Jackson and that that'd be a heck of a matchup. The offensive line was, it's in so many ways failed Arch Manning in that or in that Texas offense last year. Guseby was the one of the few bright spots.

So if they get more stability on the interior, you have a stud at left tackle who could be a top 10 pick. That's something they sorely need for that Sarkesian offense to get going. To your point, great scheduling quirk this year. You get a, you get Texas. state to open instead of starting with Ohio State, which I mean, I want as many sexy games as possible on the schedule, but I'd rather give teams a week to get ready for the big game. You know, like I'm okay with a tune-up considering we don't have preseason games.

So nice for Trevor Gooseby hoping he can stay healthy. Trevor Laugh at Iowa, is it Laugh? Yeah, I was always got a guy, right? Well, they had a couple guys. I'm going to say, buddy, I always got two offensive linemen and a, a tight end in your preview series, which is just what the good Lord intended. Well, and the starting five from last year, three of them got drafted, offensive linemen, and the two that are left are both going to be in my top 50.

So, yeah, Iowa knows a thing or two about finding offensive linemen, developing them. And then, yeah, I'm glad you mentioned tight end, too, because they just got a pipeline going over there. But then, like I mentioned, with Jordan Seton, he's also in that mix. a former five star went to Colorado. He was, you know, one of the big gets for Dion Sanders there. He entered the portal late. LSU paid him in a big way. And so I'm eager to see, because the talent's there,

it's just a matter of can he be more consistent and iron out some of those issues because he has a chance to be a top 10 pick if he's able to take some really important steps this year. I also am eagerly anticipating Jordan Seton's debut at Tiger Stadium. I mentioned Jacarius Peak is the left tackle that South Carolina added to their roster. He was at North Carolina State, and now they're hoping he can improve the blindside protection on Lenora's sellers. Yeah, he's light. This spring, he was $2.92 for scouts, but the tools are awesome. And you look at the length.

He's has almost 35-inch arms. I think it was 34 and 3 quarters. So I think the tools are there for him to be an NFL starter. It's just he needs to show that he can hold up, the anchor can hold up, he can win one-on-one matchups. But it's an upgrade over what South Carolina had there last year. So that'll help sellers. Nicky Prongos from Stanford behind him just in terms of the top seniors

at tackle going into the year. He's a guy that I really like as a right now, he's probably a top 60, top 75 type of prospect, but absolutely could work himself into the top 40, top 30 with a big season. So yeah, this offensive tackle class, really the whole offensive line, it's thinner this year, I think, at least right now. But hopefully we end up being wrong about that as guys get better in a sense.

To your point, one thing I wanted to highlight that I thought was interesting, one of your highlighted guards on this series is Austin Sireveld at Ohio State, who played left tackle last year out of necessity. And we are currently waiting to find out how Ohio State's going to put their offensive line together. And a down the line guy in the tackle position is Ian Moore, who could potentially play left tackle. I mean, we don't know the answer to these questions right now.

But a lot of options for Ohio State and not surprisingly, they're all guys with NFL potential. Right. And that's part of, you know, Carter Smith in Indiana. right, the left tackle who one of the, one of the guys that chose to, or, you know, bypass the NFL would have been a day two pick, but chose to come back and play for Indiana one more year. You know, he's a left tackle, but going to be probably a guard or even a center. He's on some teams like him best, maybe as a center.

He's a rock solid player. I don't know if the ceiling's super high, that's why he, I don't know that he's, I wouldn't call him a slam dunk first round pick by any means. but I think that he just looks like a solid player who will end up having a long NFL career. I guess as long as we're doing Interior and yeah, that's the story for a lot of your guys. But we mentioned it, we're talking about Iowa.

Cade Piper, is it Piper? Your number one guard? I don't know. Center. Yeah. Sorry, he played guard. He's moving to center this year, correct? Yep.

I'm not going to overthink the Iowa guys. I'm okay with that. Yeah, I don't. I think that's a, a proven way to go about it. And then really, honestly, the theme of the interior offensive lineman that I was looking at was the Big Ten.

You talked about Ohio State, talked about Indiana, you just mentioned Iowa. Greg Johnson at Minnesota, he's my top guard coming into the year. Six, six and a half, 327 pounds, big muller who will just erase you from the play, but he's not a slug either.

He can move a little bit. So Greg Johnson, absolutely a player to watch. And we don't get a ton of first round guards. I think Greg Johnson could be one of them. My favorite bit from that preview is, yeah, I had the same conclusion where I was like, my God, the Big Ten boys are just going to road grade everybody. And then I noticed Anthony Knapp, who you are projecting as an interior guy who plays

left tackle for Notre Dame. He's from Athens, Georgia, Bulldogs. What the hell are we doing? How did we let this happen? because it sounds like he's in line for a big season at Notre Dame. Yeah, I think Notre Dame, with that schedule and the talent they have, they're absolutely going to be in the mix for the national title. And we talked about CJ Carr, how that offense with no Gedarian Price, no Jeremiah

I love, it's probably, and obviously they're not just going to give up on the run. They've got running backs coming up. But there's going to be more of an emphasis on the pass. And with CJ Carr going into year two, they need that offensive line. to hold up. And so they've mixed and matched over the last two years. I mean, I think we all remember the opener last year against Miami and Ruben Bain and Mesador just teeing off on the edges, especially late in that game. Well, I think the offensive line should be better this year for the Irish and not moving inside, I think, is a big part of that. Speaking of Notre Dame, we are deep into this show without having mentioned one of the best prospects in this class. We're going to do that on the other side of our second. It's no slight against him, Dan. It's just the way the conversation went,

because if you're just listing guys with sky-high NFL potential that I'm excited to watch this year, let's talk about cornerbacks because watching tape of receivers last year, if they played Notre Dame, Leonard Moore kicked their ass. And Leonard Moore comes into this season as one of the best, most complete-looking prospects. I wrote in my notes,

my only question is how high can he go? Well, yeah, I mean, I think that besides Jeremiah Smith, you could make an easy argument. He's the best prospect in the country for the 2027 class. Maybe 6-2, 200 pounds, probably going to run the four-threes. But the physical traits are impressive, but I was really impressed with just his understanding of the offense and what receivers want to do.

So he's running better routes than the receivers are, he understands situations and tendencies and what, okay, in this look, he knows that he's going to get, you know, an inside stem. He knows that this combination route is going to leave. Like, he just, he works through all of this pre-snap, and then he puts himself in position to make a play. And so he was an outside corner primarily, but then you watch USC and Mackay Lemon being a slot receiver, they just, okay, let's put you inside for this game. He, again, primarily an outside guy. They moved him inside to cover Mikhail Lemon, and he did it.

He's just a really impressive player who I think that it's fair to, because we're going to do this with Jeremiah Smith, where we're going to say, well, he's the best receiver since, or, you know, we're going to rank him among the best receivers prospects we've seen in the last couple of decades. I think it's fair to do the same thing with Leonard Moore, where if you want to talk about, you know, Soss Gardner and Stingley and, you know,

however you ranked the corners coming out in terms of the highest grades you've ever given, Leonard Moore is going to be somewhere in that conversation. And I think that, yeah, the success that Notre Dame has this year, more will be a big part of that. And really, I was really impressed with Notre Dame's secondary as a whole. There are other corners, you know, whether it's talking about Christian Gray or DJ McCannes,

Penny who comes over from Colorado. Both are really good players. They're senior prospects who will get drafted. And then even at safety, I think they're loaded. One of my top safeties in this class is Tay Johnson, who is a really rangy player who is, at least in the mix, to be, if not the top safety, one of the first safeties off the board. And then Aidan Schuller as well, who's a good underclassman safety to watch.

So Notre Dame's secondary is just. remarkable and a big reason for their success this year. If you think your team might need a DB, if you want to watch some secondary play, Notre Dame, I think is a solid bet. The other one I would mention Georgia. Georgia. K.J. Bolden is your top safety heading into the season and Ellis Robinson, the fourth, the cornerback is behind Leonard Moore in your cornerbacks rankings right now.

So anytime a secondary has two like top tier sorts of NFL prospects, I'm be lining for those teams. Yeah, no, and I think that's a good shout because, I mean, Ellis Robinson was, I think the number two recruit in a nation coming out a couple years ago behind only Jeremiah Smith. So, like, he's kind of been up there as a guy that is super talented and just waiting from the breakout. And he did at times last year.

The town's remarkable with him. K.J. Bolton was a guy that from day one that he showed up in Athens, he kind of was the guy. and he showed it the last two years. So yeah, he wish he would maybe a little bit bigger. You know, I think he, I don't have officials or verified on him, but he's listed, I think, at 6 foot 190. So you wish he was a little bit bigger, but he plays big.

And I think that's all you care about. But yeah, this, the secondary, the safe, it's a good safety class. I think it's a good corner class. It's also a good safety class. We mentioned KJ. Bolden. We mentioned Tay Johnson. You shouted out Jalen McLean from Ohio State. He's also in that top 50 mix.

Zach Lutmer from Iowa is up there as well. Jelani McDonald from Texas. Ty Benefield comes over from Boise State to LSU. He is one of those physical freaks. He was over 6-2, 200. He was 208 in the spring talking to somebody just recently. He's up to 218 now. He's expected to run the 4-4s.

The testing numbers are off the charts. So Ty Benafield from LSU, this should be a big year for him. He's a little inconsistent at Boise State. I think it was a smart move by him coming back for a senior year. Very eager to see what he can do in the SEC this season. Two guys I want to check in on this year. Bray Hubbard got dogged so badly for that Florida State game at the beginning of last year when Alabama lost FSU. I thought he rebounded nicely from it.

I'm interested to watch him this year. Wisconsin tape was awesome. Yeah. If you're going to watch Bray Hubbard from last year, Wisconsin tape was the one to watch. That's a good show. Speaking of the FSU Alabama game from last year, Earl Little Jr. is in Columbus with Ohio State now. So that is somebody else I want to keep an eye on.

Linebacker. Okay, I'm just going to go to the guy I want to talk about. Georgia's got a guy, Chris Cole, Clemson's got a guy, Sammy Brown. But the guy I was drawn to is honestly the one with the least NFL profile because I saw Xavier Atkins, who's at Auburn now. he's six flat 210 which like I said he doesn't have an ideal NFL build but you said his best trait is his rabid pursuit skill and I want a guy with rabid pursuit skill on my team yeah because I try to

sum these guys up in like just three or four words and that was the best I had for Atkins because I don't know where you play him exactly he's not you're not playing him on the edge as a six foot 210 pounder and maybe he gets up to 220 or you know like is this are we going to run in the the harold perkins issues with atkins um you know can he be a true off ball linebacker do you need him working downhill so there's things we got to work out with zavier atkins i just know he's somebody i want on my team because that guy gets after it all right quickly we don't want to go too long in august uh jumping to i think running back we have i

No, we haven't. Yeah, I was going to, we haven't hit two, the last two offensive skill positions. It is, it's a fun, it's a fun group at running back, particularly at the top. I mean, these are guys, again, it's a theme for the 2027 class, guys that we've been waiting on to be pro eligible. I mean, how many times last year did you watch Ahmed Hardy at Missouri or Kiwan Lacey at Ole Miss and say like, yes, let's talk about this guy and you're like, oh, he's not eligible. Well, it's not our problem this year, man. Yeah. Well, and the problem last year was we had a superstar at the top with Jeremiah Love,

but then it just wasn't a deep class at all at the running back position. This year, it is deeper. We just don't have a love at the top, but we could have as many as three first rounders with Kwan Lacey, Jaden Baugh from Florida, and then hard hit Missouri. I have Lacey at the top going into the year just because he's the most explosive of the group. Jaden Baugh, for a guy that's almost 230 pounds, his ability to make guys miss, but then also use power when he needs to. It's really impressive. He just doesn't have the ability to create

these big chunk plays. Last year, he had one carry over 25 yards, and it was 26 yards. So he's just, he's not that big explosive, big play maker, but he still averaged over five yards of carry, close to six yards of carry, because he's a really talented player. And then, yeah, Matt Hardy, he's, he's more of a guy that will run through you. And the strength that he plays with is awesome. So, but even behind them, whether it's Nate Frazier, at Georgia, or, I'm eager to see at Texas with Relique Brown and Hollywood Smothers both transferring in, what does that timeshare look like?

Both are NFL guys. I mentioned Mark Fletcher earlier at Miami. He surprised some people by going back. he's 6-2-226, bigger running back. Justice Haynes, who we thought could be in last year's draft class at Michigan, he transfers to Georgia Tech. So an LJ Martin at BYU, he would have been a top five running back if he came out. He goes back to BYU.

And so he'll be somebody who's watching closely this year. Tight end is fun because it's so predictable and then so unpredictable because we said Jamari Johnson is following Kenyansadikido. Oregon makes perfect sense. Benjamin Brommer at Penn State is a quintessential Big Ten tight end following Matt Campbell over from Iowa State. That makes total sense. We brought up Iowa's tight-in DJ, DJ Vonum or Voname, how are we saying this?

I think the second one sounded right. Yeah, I don't know. I don't hear their names on tape. So sometimes I'm late to catch up too, yeah. We got all season to figure it out. Apologies, DJ, but, okay, Iowa tight-end makes perfect sense. And then we have my guy, Trades Green, who, okay, I mean, he's a basketball player. He's 6-6-2-38.

The red zone potential is enticing is an understatement. But when you're talking about a tight end, I have a lot of questions about how well-rounded he is heading into this season. And similarly, Terrence Carter Jr. at Texas Tech is 6-2. So like you have two very outside the box prospects on either side of three very, very inside the box prospects. Green is just a, he's a rare, rare, dude. I mean, to be six, six and a half, 240-ish pounds and to run probably in the four-fives, like he is so elastic with the moves. He has speed and he wins in contested situations. And so he's not just a.

jump ball threat, but he can do that. We saw him do that multiple times, especially in the red zone. If you want, I'm very eager to see what his usage is in the Lane Kiffin offense, right? You know, are they going to have them mainly in the slot? Are they, you know, they kind of used them all over last year. What does it look like this year in that new offense? And so Green is just just a phenomenal talent. And so I'm very curious to see what it looks like this season.

very excited in particular that trade as green gets to play for lane kiffin because i don't trust every coach to maximize a guy like this but i think i think lane kiffin's going to know what to do with a six six two hundred thirty eight pound power slot basically i think it's going to be very fun uh i think that leaves us real quickly before we get out of here i don't think we brought up defensive tackle and i see your guy amari washington who you loved during last year draft cycle. And then, you know, I'm sure Miami would love to have Akeem Mesidor and Rubin Bain back, but the nice consolation prize is that Justin Scott and Ahmad Moten, Sr.

are two of the top interior defensive linemen in this class, and they both play for the hurricanes. Yeah, I mean, anybody who watched the national championship game against Indiana, they know Ahmad Motton, number 99. He plays way too tall, but he gets after it as both a pass rusher and a run defender. It's the underclassmen that are really intriguing to me. Will Echols from Ole Miss is kind of my top guy going into the year because he shows up in all facets of the game. But Justin Scott from Miami right behind him.

David Stone from Oklahoma right behind them. There's a few more guys. So I think defensive tackle could end up being a strength to this draft based off of how these underclassmen, how some of them develop. and what they show this year. It could be a strong group. It all technically gets started next week because week zero is still a thing. North Carolina, Bill Belichick playing DCU in Dublin. Jaden Mayava is in early action against San Jose State with USC.

Not the not the fullest week zero schedule, but a couple games worth having an eye on. And then we start in earnest over Labor Day. Full, full weekend of action. and that is actually when we will be back, Dane. So we got Miami-Stanford, LSU playing Clemson is the big highlight. Plenty of stuff to react to. And Dane, you and I will be back on Labor Day night for our week one recap heading into the meat of the season.

So in about two, three weeks, look for us again on your feed as we react to everything that happened in the first two weeks of the college football season. And we're sending a scout to LSU. Clemson to give us a first-hand account. So I'm looking forward to that. I will have eyes on Jordan Seton and Trade As Green. I promise. Until then, buddy, so happy to be back, man. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back soon. Talk to you all next time. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating. We'll see you next time.