The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Combine recap with Dane Brugler

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

Dane Brugler, The Athletic's NFL Draft expert, spent a long month in Indianapolis last week, and we are all the beneficiaries of his dedication. Dane sits down with Robert Mays on this episode of The Athletic Football Show to share his big takeaways from the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine.Host: Robert MaysCo-Host: Derrik KlassenWith: Dane BruglerExecutive Producer: Michael BellerProducer: Michael BellerSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassFollow 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 the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. It is the Combine Recap Show with our guy, Dane Bruegler. Dane just spent a very long time in Indianapolis talking to just an unfathomable amount of people looking at watching all the workouts. He was there until Sunday. So this is Dane's full post-combine download. We started talking about the Matthew Stafford News, D'Bos Samuel, that had happened since the last time that we recorded,

then started digging into just the... buzz around the top of the draft. What we're potentially hearing with the Titans at 1, the Browns of 2, how that could affect the Giants at 3. So just how the top of the draft might shake out. And then got into Dane's most impressive performers in Indy, the guys that we thought would test well that ended up testing well. You guys who really owned the combine from a measurable's perspective.

Talked about some guys who maybe didn't live up to expectations, some of the bigger questions that maybe arose from Indy with the workouts. and then just did a rapid fire breakdown every single position, the guys that were top of mind from Dane, who performed well or maybe disappointed a little bit in Indianapolis. So this is Dane's full breakdown about what he saw in Indy, what mattered, what didn't. Let's get to that conversation with Dane Bruegler right now.

All right, Dane, we're in full-scale combine recap mode now. You just spent 17 days in Indianapolis. You are now home, finally getting a little. little bit of rest. How was this combine compared to, I don't know, the previous 10 of them that you've done? Yeah, each one is a little bit different. And so, okay, every year, I leave the combine on Sunday. I have a five-hour drive back home. Good old Warren, Ohio. It's, it's really an easy drive and enjoy a drive I enjoy because the whole time I'm either on the phone or I'm mentally cataloging all the information from the week.

It's a chance to just try to focus on that and try to sort it all out, the data, the rumors, any buzz. And usually the problem I have is just the astounding amount of information that I have to weed through, figure out, okay, is this real? Maybe this isn't real. Or, you know, I heard this the most, so there must be smoke there. one of my first combines 12, 13 years ago, I remember I was talking with Seahawks GM, John Schneider, in a bar. And he summed up the combine so succinctly. And I was a relative newbie at the time.

So, you know, I'm still kind of figuring things out. But he described it as the entire week's about two things. Access and excess. And I think about that every single year, how the access is so critical to the process. my process, teams process. They figure a lot of things out, but also the excess in terms of

partly the nightlife and then partly the amount of information of all the different data points that we have to sift through, right? But honestly, with that said, this was probably the least buzzy combine I've been to.

And I think a big part of that is the unique quarterback class, just how different it is, how unique this top 10 is, the limited amount of true blue chip talent at the top. And so after the combine every year, I do a mock draft. And I try to throw out some interesting trade scenarios in that post-combine mock. But for this year, I have one trade and that's it.

And I don't, because I want to keep it realistic. And I just think it's hard to justify some of these teams giving up day two picks to move up in this class. And so in terms of just the overall buzz and the rumors and stuff, this year was much lighter than I think usually we have. I feel the same way. I almost felt less compelled to be a part of the excess side of things this year because there are just there are some years where it's just like I feel like I just kind of got to be around and just hear what people are talking about. And this year, maybe it was some of the conversations I had set up previously. We've talked about this. Like there were there were times in my 20s where I convinced myself that I'd be working from like 10 people.

to 2 a.m. And now I just do like a lot of coffees and lunches because it fits my lifestyle a little bit more than it used to. But I think a lot of that stuff, I feel like I left Indianapolis feeling pretty decent about what teams at the top were thinking at this point in the process. And so I just felt less compelled to be like, I wonder what so-and-so thinks about the Browns or so-and-so thinks about the Titans. I think there is a bit that partially driven by that lack of buzz. We're going to talk about that. And we're going to talk about just maybe what the chatter is around the top of the draft. Before we dig into that stuff, though,

I wanted to just hit the news items that came out since the last time we recorded, in part because a couple of these have huge implications on what that conversation is going to look like at the top of the draft. It was funny. We were talking before we started recording. There's a bar at the JW Marriott, Indianapolis. It's kind of where my night starts every night at the combine, and then you can kind of choose your own adventure from there, depending on how ambitious you want your night to be.

And so I always say like the 10.30 p.m. conversation at high velocity, that's like the surface level conversation. It's like what is the biggest storyline at the combine? And when I was sitting there on Thursday talking to some people, it was still this idea of what the Matthew Stafford Domino was going to look like and how it was going to affect the rest of the offseason. This is the conversation you and I and other people were having at dinner on Wednesday night. That felt like the most important discussion in Indianapolis because it affected so many other things. You know, how will the Stafford market, how the Stafford trade affect the Darnold market? How will the Darnold market affect what the Titans might do at number one?

So that had to happen before everything else got set into motion. Well, now we have our answer. Well, I was driving back from India on Friday. Adam Schaefter reports that Matthew Stafford will be back in Los Angeles as the Rams quarterback. You can attest to this. There were moments when we were talking to people in the note. about this last week when it felt like it was a little bit murky, weren't sure which direction it was going to go. Really did seem like it was a possibility that he might get

traded, that the Rams are willing to dig in a little bit. But in the end, cooler heads prevail here. I still think this is the best outcome for both sides, considering where Matthew Stafford is in his career, considering where the Rams are with their window to contend, still pretty open right now. So how did you see how did you feel when you saw that news that Stafford would be back in LA? Um, I mean, just selfishly part, partly disappointed because I want, I wanted something to shake up this, uh, it feels like chaotic. Yeah, if you just feel this whole quarterback off season feels very, uh, uneventful. I don't know. And, you know, we'll talk about as it as it pertains to the draft too. So, but, um, yeah, it always felt like it was the no brainer move. And then

the more and more we talked to, like you said, people in the know, it was like, okay, well, maybe, maybe they do go in a different, do we need to have a Jimmy Garoppel conversation with, for the Rams? Like, you know, it was getting interesting. But like you said, cooler heads prevailed. I mean, it just seems like the right move for both sides, the Rams and Stafford. I'm sure plenty of Raiders fans, Giants fans, you know, disappointed by that news. And so now it's, okay, what's plan B, C, D, trying to figure out, okay, Russell, Wilson, Justin Fields. You know, how did the quarterbacks look this week at the combine? Like, the backup plans behind Stafford aren't exactly the most appealing, but we deal in reality.

And that's just how, what this off season is going to give us. Yeah. And I do think that even if the Rams eventually have to find an off ramp from here, they're still a competitive team right now. I mean, they still looked good in the playoffs. They gave the Eagles a little bit of a run. So Jordan and I talked about this last week when we were just discussing their team construct and their two to three-year outlook here. This is a young team really outside of Matthew Stafford, especially because they'll likely be moving on from Cooper Cup this off season. So how they balance these two timelines will be really interesting to watch over the next couple of years, but I still feel like this was probably the best outcome. The other quieter bit of news about the Rams that came out shortly after

the Matthew Stafford News did, Alaric Jackson, their pending free agent left tackle will be back with the Rams before even hitting free agency. He agrees to a new deal. I think it was three years 51. So his $19 million AAV is 10th in the NFL. It's 11th in practical guarantees at $35 million among all left tackles. The funny part about this is for the last like two or three weeks, I keep raising my hand and we're talking about free agents being like, this left tackle group is actually kind of interesting in a way that free agent left tackle pools never are. You can almost never find a playable left tackle in free agency. But before that sign, happened, you had Alaric Jackson, you had Dan Moore, you had Ronnie Stanley, and outside of

Stanley, Jackson and Moore are big-name players, but this is the market we're talking about here. We're talking about $16 to $20 million for those two guys, and that made, it's those types of tackles, those playable left tackles are just very rarely available in free agency. Well, guess what? Now one of them's gone, and there's a chance Ronnie Stanley is just back in Baltimore. So again, we're going to walk into free agency with potentially one starting left tackle option left on the table. So history repeating itself here at that position specifically. And I shouldn't be surprised, but it has left me a little bit disappointed because I was actually excited to see what that would look like in practice.

And it's amazing thinking back just watching those Iowa teams, scouting those teams with Tristan Wirth's on the right side, Alaric Jackson on the left side. And it was obvious, you know, the better tackle who that was. But it was just, Lerick Jackson at times looked like an NFL player, but at times he didn't. He didn't look anything close. And so give all the credit to him that he was able to,

because he was a day three pick. It's not like he came in with a ton of expectations, but he was able to play well enough. And, you know, he might be the epitome of, you know, losing slowly and just getting enough done where it's passable.

It's, and you know what? That's fine. It's workable. And that's going to give you $51 million. dollars over three years. All right. I mean, let your kids be big enough where you can groom them to be tackles because that's good work if you can find it. I actually think it's $57 million. I actually think I got that wrong. It's 19 a year. So doing my quick math there. And it makes sense.

If you're bringing Stafford back a solution at left tackle so you know what you're walking into offensively this year, I think makes a lot of sense. You want that certainty. And now they're starting five is set. We'll see what happens with Jonah Jackson. I assume he'll get dealt or cut at some point in the process. But now left to right, you've got Jackson, Steve Avila at left guard, Bo Limmer at center, which this is another one of those. If they don't hit on Bo Limmer, the Jonah Jackson thing looks very different. But the fact that they can pay Bo Limer $17 next year against the cap makes it all come together. You still have Kevin Dotson and Rob Haventstein is back. So you figure out that other receiver spot somewhere along the way here,

whether you take one in round one or you find a relatively middle tier price guy in free agency. And very suddenly, the Rams offense gets pretty interesting. You go in with that young defense, and that's the rationale for bringing Stafford back. You can pretty quickly talk yourself into what this team is capable of in the NFC. Speaking of the NFC West and some moves that happened over the last few days, Debo Samuel traded to the Washington professional football team for a fifth round pick. Washington will be taking on all of his salary. We bought $17-ish million against the cap.

in 2024. It's a $31 million dead cap hit for the Niners. There was some speculation on whether or not they would cut him or trade him. Cutting him would allow them to make him a post-June 1st, so financially they would have saved some money this year. But they take the draft pick back instead. They now have a bunch of cap space in 2026, which becomes important as you think about the Purdy extension, etc. Now, Washington has a secondary option to go along with Terry McLaurin. We talked about this last week with a couple different people. the Debo market, I wanted to see him land in a place where it made sense, where you're not trying to miscast him as your number one receiver or make him the focal point of your passing game. If you can put him across from a true number one that can be your man beter and he can just be your, not gadget player, but truly a secondary piece within your offense, it fills a specific role. That's what made the most sense to me. So I thought Houston made sense and they were apparently in the running.

And then Washington is another one of those teams where they do a good job spitting the ball out to their receivers. They throw a lot of screens. So this just makes sense in terms of what their construction is. It's not cheap. You know, he's a declining player. He's on the wrong side of 30 now. It's $17 million against the cap. So this is a fairly aggressive move from Washington, but they had a ton of space.

And this is a way to wield that flexibility rather than just overpaying guys in free agency. So I understand why you would do it. I also think that it's a little bit more aggressive than you might think at first glance because of the price tag. But when you consider that and the cap hit, this is a sign that I think this team has some real ambitions as early as this season. I think you're right. And it kind of gives me vibes of Houston last year when they traded for days. You know, just like, okay, we have this rookie quarter, or going into year two quarterback who is, you know, ready. he can lead us to the playoffs.

Proofs in the pudding. He did that. So what do we do to get him to that next level, that next step? And part of that is giving him more weapons around on the offense. And we have with Debo, you know, I look at that Washington offense. And forever it feels like we've wanted to give them size, give them more size at receiver on the outside. This is not in that category. We're going with more of a versatile option.

But it's interesting, okay, do they bring back Zakias? How does he fit in all this? Like their wide receiver room is really, really diverse. But at the same time, they also do a lot of things similar, and they do it well with, you know, McLaurin with his speed, vertically, horizontally, you know, the ability to win deep, but also be part of the quick game and screen game and be a threat after the catch. And we know Debo can do that. So it's an interesting mix of wide receiver talent for, you know, one of the bright young

quarterbacks in the league. And so obviously they have a plan for him. And yeah, I'd be interested to hear Kingsbury how he would envision a guy like Debo in that offense. Obviously, Adam Peters, a ton of history with Debo helped draft Debo in San Francisco. So you make that connection. And I'm actually with you. That's kind of the direction I thought that they would go. Here's my concern if you're Washington. We get to the end of this season. And the takeaway is, man, they could really use some size and speed or receiver and they just didn't end up doing it. Here's the difference to me between this situation and I would say the Houston situation from last year and then the other comparison that I would make is the Chicago situation from last year with Keen and out.

In both of those scenarios, and I actually talked to a coach about that this week. We were talking about Bears receiver usage last year. And he said, three is tough. When you have three guys who you feel like you need to get the ball to, it can be difficult to figure out with the way those roll shake out, the way that the workload shakes out. In Washington, now you still only have two. And so I think beyond Sakeas, the guy that I would be interested in, do you bring back a guy like Noah Brown, who fits much more of a role player kind of skill set within your offense? So you have a dirty work guy, you have a true kind of number one in McLaren, and then you have Debo, who is this Yack zone beater type with a more specific skill set. That sort of trio, I think, does make sense.

you can make a real argument that you're still lacking a little bit of size overall. And so is that the right three? But if they end up landing in a space like that, I do think that makes sense for where Washington's offense probably wants to be, even if you can kind of quibble with the fact that they might be missing a small skill set as part of that equation. Yeah. And obviously, you factor in debos, can he say healthy? And, you know, it's not cheap.

And so I think aggressive is the right way to put it. If everything goes right, I think we'll look back at this and say, okay, they were absolutely right to make this aggressive move. But there are certainly different ways this could play out. And yeah, we'll have to see once they get on the field how it works. All right. Before we move on, we're going to take a quick break. Let's get to the actual draft chatter that we were hearing in Indy and that you were talking to people about an indie. Let's just start at the top.

Anything about the Titans that you were going to leave Indianapolis. when you're making that drive home, what about the Titans is kind of rattling around in your brain after spending a week in Indy? Well, I think it's what I thought going into the week was Cam Ward was going to be the first pick overall. It's just a matter of where. And that thought only strengthened throughout the week

and then leaving Indianapolis. It's just a matter of, okay, what do the Titans want to do? Do they love the quarterback enough to take him? I think there's, you could absolutely make the case that that would be the right direction for them to go. So, you know, Will Levis is a fine player, but certainly not someone that you're passing on a quarterback at the top of the draft. You know, who knows? Titans might have the eighth pick next year. Who knows? So if you love a guy like Cam Ward, can you pass on him? Even if you're a first year general manager, you know, there's a lot of different factors in here.

If they are not head over heels, then you trade the pick. You, okay, you open the phone lines, the Browns at two, the Giants at three, the Raiders at six, the Jets at seven. It certainly feels like you will get an offer somewhere in that range to go up and get the quarterback or to move back so a team can go up and get the quarterback. And I always remember with the Titans, they don't have that third round pick. So you know, you're drafting early in the 30s and then you don't have like what, 35 and they don't have another pick until the fourth or whatever it is. So it's it's a long cavernous gap to just sit there and wait. So the idea of picking up additional day two picks, especially in this draft where it's a pretty decent group of day two prospects, I think that's going to be extremely appealing.

And it's just a matter of, you know, how far do you want to move back from one? And, you know, what's the best offer that teams you're putting out there? It's so interesting because there's so many different things to weigh as part of this process. And they do have a couple other mid-round picks. They traded Ernest Jones. They traded DeAndre Hopkins. So they tried to recoup some of that in the back half of last year. but it would be so nice to have like the 66th pick if you were the Titans considering where you are in the team building process.

We talked about this a little bit last week with Dan Graziano and just digging up stuff over the course of last week. There are two realistic options for me at quarterback for the Titans. I think it's going with somebody like Sam Darnold who can be a multi-year solution for you. It doesn't seem to me like they're looking at bridge quarterback. I don't think that's what they want. I think they either want, maybe that paired with a Cam Ward, but not solely a one-year solution at quarterback. So I feel like they want to come out of this offseason one way or the other with a multi-year

answer at the position, whether or not that's Sam Darnold on a mid-tier free agent contract or taking Cam Ward number one overall. I think it's probably one of those two avenues. So I think part of the thing, something that needs to change here is we need to figure out Sam Darnold's market. If he's available for that middle-class quarterback contract, if it's the Baker-Mayfield sort of deal, and then if you're the Titans, do you think we can get the best of both worlds here? We can still build around him because we're not paying him $55 million a year, but there's also a little bit of certainty.

And that brings me to just the interesting dynamics at play with this Titans team. You have a front office now pretty much in year one, right? Like Chad Brinker has been there, but Mike Borganzi is a first-year GM. You have more of a Green Bay mindset where I think that they're going to be a little bit more meticulous, a little bit more methodical in how they're building this, especially when you compare it to last year. But you have a coaching staff that won three games last year. So is there a little bit more urgency on that side where, well, we want a little bit more certainty at quarterback. A guy we've seen play in the lead, we knew what Sam Donald could do last year. Even if you like Cam Ward, there's always going to be a question about what's going to happen if you draft a Ricky quarterback.

So is getting Darnold at $35 million a year, trading back to number three, getting Carter or Hunter, getting Carter or Hunter as part of that and getting kind of the best of both worlds, is that the best answer? Or like you said, do they say, we're picking number one. We like the quarterback. Why wouldn't we just take this guy here? I kind of understand both sides, but I think that where the Darnold market shakes out will help determine how this ends up sorting itself out for Tennessee. Yeah, and another, you know, domino of the Stafford deal staying put is, okay, Darnold, does that expand the market for him? Are the Raiders going to be interested? The Titans are her, I think you, you laid it out well because, yeah, yes, you have a first year general manager, but the coaching staff has been in place.

And I think they, after watching the quarterback play they got over the last year, that first season, I think they're ready to, okay, we need to figure. out some way, somehow to upgrade this. And it's just a matter of which, what is the direction to do that? They are in a power position, having that number one pick. Cam Ward as, you know, I think, you've been saying it all season. I think he's the favorite to be the first quarterback. I think he's, if you had a bet on any of these quarterbacks, he is the guy that has the most to him.

But this isn't a Jane Daniels situation where you're going to expect him to come in and completely change the way, you know, your franchise runs and the way that you can score points. I think it'd be similar to kind of, you know, the ways that things went in Chicago with Caleb Williams and just, you know, I was a little bit up and down. And the way that he plays, there's going to be a learning curve. So, you know, I think the Titans have to factor that in. Are they ready for that type of process where ideally, Cam Ward's not your starter from day one? You know, ideally you are bringing him along at his own pace.

And, you know, it's, you don't, you don't dictate when to start him. You know, you don't throw too much at him early, but once he proves he can get on the field, okay, then you put him out there and see what happens. But if, you know, you draft them number one, you're going to expect to put them out there pretty quickly. And I think that's something that has to factor it into decision making if you're, if you're tendency. That's why I think at the end of the day, I think the odds are they trade that pick, move back. And, yeah, they go a different route. And I think Darnold would make a lot of sense for where they are and what they think they could be. You think about Mike Borgonzi's history.

He was in Kansas City when they traded for Alex Smith, and they used Alex Smith as kind of that mid-tier bridge option in the first years of the N.D. Reed era where you can stay competitive, but kind of understanding maybe we'll need to do something along the line to raise our ceiling. That's a really tough needle to thread. Like trying to replicate the Patrick Mahomes timeline, if you're the Titans, may send you down an inefficient and. potentially fruitless road. But again, when you consider his history, I can understand potentially going that direction. One of the other takeaways is part of this conversation, I think is just worth mentioning right now. I don't know how you felt. When I walked away from conversations in Indianapolis last week, I felt a very, very big gap

between the way that people were talking about Cam Ward and the way that people were talking about Shredor Sanders. And I feel like it's probably worth getting in front of that a little bit. Do you feel the same way? I feel like we've been in front of that for months. I mean, I think that's how we've been talking about these guys. And I remember the first time you and I talked about Shador back in the fall on the pod. Like I mentioned to you how it's, for whatever reason, it's either you think Shadur is a number one pick or you hate them.

There's no in between. And it made it really difficult to talk about Shador Sanders as a prospect because of the context that's needed with any player, but especially at Galeck Shadur. You know, there's, he has fans around the league, but the context is we like them, but not as a top five guy. And that's always been the case. And I think as we leave the combine, more and more people are understanding that this isn't necessarily like a one two type of thing or a battle for quarterback one. It's cam war at the top.

Then you have a gap. And then some teams will have Chador's quarterback too, not all teams. Shador will not be a top three quarterback for some teams. That's just how this quarterback class is. And I think once people kind of accept that, like I think that they'll be able to look at this draft, you know, a little more clear just with the way that things are going to play out. But, you know, at the same time, you know, I, Shador,

so talking to teams that met with him in Indianapolis, I think that it's not that the feedback was very mixed. It was, it's not that he is a good guy or a bad guy or anything like that. He's a not for everyone guy. And if you spend any more than 15 seconds around him, I think you get that. You can understand why the boldness, the brashness, it's not going to be for every coach. And I can hear some Giants fans and Raiders fans listening to this saying, well, who cares? Can he win?

I get that. Because at the end of the day, it's all that matters. But just talking to teams, you don't get the sense that they're all that excited about making a pick like that in the top six. I'll never say never because we know when it comes to drafting a quarterback in the top 10, it's basically an ownership decision. And if Mark Davis and Tom Brady really wants Chador, well, guess what? That'll be the pick at six. But there are a lot more scouts who think Chador falls out of the top 10 than goes into top 10.

But obviously, scouts aren't making the picks. And so that's where there's still a little bit of unknown in terms of trying to figure out, okay, if K and Ward goes one, could Chador go two? three, six, seven. Like, it's still up in the air, but I think people are kind of catching on that teams aren't as excited about Shador Sanders as maybe the media buzz would lead you to believe. And I think that's why it's worth bringing up here. And I also think that the interview part of this and what teams got out of the combine is

also worth mentioning. Because with Shadur, we've discussed this. You've discussed this. His physical skill set is not overwhelming, right? Like, he has limitations in that area. So if that's going to be the case, I kind of. want to be blown away by the other stuff if I'm going to take somebody in the top 10. And from what I understand, and this is one team's opinion of what happened at his interview,

they weren't blown away by that stuff. They were more impressed by the intangible qualities, the leadership stuff, the on the board work from Cam Ward than they were from Shadour. Well, so if you're not an overwhelming physical talent and you weren't that impressive in interviews, I think we're running out of avenues or reasons for you to be a top 10 pick in some of these scenarios. So that's kind of why I wanted to bring it up because there are some areas where you think he needed to do well in Indy to justify that sort of draft capital. And I'm just not sure that happened with some of the teams drafting near the top. Yeah, I think that that's

absolutely the right way to look at it. Because yeah, if you do not have the top tier trade. Now, he came in bigger. He was actually 20 pounds bigger than what he was in the spring when scouts weighed him. But still, the way he moves, the arm, it's not the top tier traits. And so it, the, the, The question with Chador has always been, can he lift a franchise? We think he could probably start in the league. You know, he has requisite traits in terms of accuracy, the way he sees the field. You know, he can manage an offense, but can he lift a franchise. And ideally, when you're talking about drafting a quarterback, top five, top 10,

you want a guy that can really help everybody around you. And it's tough to get there with Chador right now. The Brown's at two. You live in Cleveland. You spend a lot of time thinking about this team. What is your sense of which direction the Browns might go, obviously dependent on which direction the Titans might go? We know they want a quarterback, right?

I mean, they absolutely want a quarterback. It's just a matter of what's the best option that they see. I wouldn't be surprised if they got in on the Cam Ward talks in terms of moving up one spot to get him. You know, this is a, this is an organization that had, I think, a lot of goodwill with the fan base. and then Deshaun Watson happened. And all that all that gear will went away to the point where, you know, season ticket holders are saying, nope, no thanks. I want my money.

You know, it's there is a lot of uproar with the fan base. And I mean, Browns fans are so loyal that it's, you know, there will always be fans clamoring for, for them, this team to get better. But does the ownership feel like, okay, we need to make another move? if we need to make another splash and drafting a quarterback in the third round is just not going to do it. So the Browns are tough to figure out because we know they want a quarterback. It's just I don't know what the right answer for them is.

Drafting should work too is to me not the right answer. You know, there's stopgap options and then you take a Travis Hunter or an Abdul Carter. You think about Miles Garrett and Abdul Carter, those two edge rushers. I mean, that's something that you can at least get fans excited about. But, you know, it's still not going to be a quarterback. And I mean, the Miles Garris situation totally, that's something we can talk about too. But that's something that's tough to figure out, you know, talking to people in Indianapolis, some people say, absolutely, they have to trade it.

They have to. There's no doubt. Other people say, well, they can't. They won't get enough in terms of the compensation and just the contract and the money part of it. It's not going to work. So you really have. a divide throughout the league about what people think will happen with the Miles Garrett situation. And I don't think that what happens with Miles Garrett shouldn't affect who you draft it to or your

overall quarterback decision. But it's just an interesting part of this Browns offseason that feels more like a mess than ideally you want from a team that still has talent on the roster. Let's handle these individually. Let's talk about Miles Garrett first. We hit this a little bit last Friday when I talked to Dan Graziano. Here is my sense of the situation with Miles Garrett. The Browns are going to give themselves every opportunity to sort this out. They are going to give themselves every opportunity to mend the fence with Miles Garrett and have this workout by the end of next season, or the beginning of next season. I think that involves waiting to see if he will actually take this to distance and just not show up for training camp. He doesn't, he's not a part of

their offseason program typically anyway for the most part until the mandatory stuff starts. it's if he walks into the building on Labor Day weekend, I think that's okay for the Browns. So I feel like they're incentivized to take this all the way to that point. Because like you said, they're just not going to get enough for him to justify moving off of him. In this league, you are one draft away from potentially being competitive. If they do get Cam Ward and they do hit, this is the first time they've had a full arsenal of draft picks and what feels like a very long time, if they do go on a little bit of a run here, And you have Denzel Ward, you have Miles Garrett, you have Jerry Judy now, you have some other pieces on defense.

In their minds, I think their best path to competing in 2027 involves Miles Garrett. It doesn't involve the two back half of the first round picks you're going to get for Miles Garrett. So I think on multiple, and it's also beyond that, just the optics of it. Moving off of Miles Garrett, that is an incredibly tough sell to your fan base, to the rest of the locker room, etc. So I think they'll give themselves every chance for this to start. sort itself out. The Abdul Carter part of this, you and I haven't talked about this at all after the news about his foot came out, is this going to affect anything? Do we expect him to still get drafted in the same range? What have you heard about this in the last few days? So it's tough to talk about

because I'm not a doctor, you know, and we don't know. You might be at this point. If you wanted to go take the MCATs, I think you might be able to do okay considering how much time you spent thinking about this stuff. You're not lying. But like, Like, okay, think about like a 40-yard dash, we can dissect that to death, right? But with something like this, like with a medical situation, especially one like this where it's a foot and, you know, a stress reaction that could potentially lead to more. Like right now, I think his camp is very optimistic. Just talking to them, they, you know, no surgeries needed.

The doctors gave us, quote unquote, great news. So they're very optimistic. But we were talking about drafting a player top two. top three, is there some, is there, uh, some, some concern about will that lead to more issues with the foot? That is something that teams are talking about. I can't say definitively that yes, it will affect where he's drafted or no, it won't. Um, but I do know that it's, it's not a simple hand wave. Like, oh, he'll be fine, you know, from teams. They are, it's something that we will be talking about between now and his pro day when he's expected to be a full, full participant. So

So it's just another, if we wanted more something else to cloud the top of this draft, we got it with this Abdul Carter injury. The thing that this reminds me of, and you can correct me if I'm wrong about this because you obviously know way more about the history of the stuff than I do. It reminds me a little bit of like Julio in 2011 where he had the foot injury. He ended up running at the combine, but he had a foot problem coming in. And it didn't seem to matter. He was still the sixth overall pick. The Falcon still gave away an unconscionable amount of draft capital trade up for Julio. Like sometimes when these guys are different, I think teams are probably willing to talk themselves into the risk associated with something like this.

Well, and the team they traded with the Browns, who the Browns did have concerns about the foot. So yeah, I mean, I think it's every team, you know, every doctor has their own opinion about this kind of stuff. You know, because it is more of a, you know, a science, but there's, we're still projecting out in terms of how this is going to look a year from now, two years from now. And so doctors, you know, with their prognosis, it's, it's tough. And every team has a different, uh, appetite for risk. And so other teams who, especially teams that might be closer, you know, like that Atlanta team felt like they were closer to, uh, competing if you add a Julio Jones of that offense.

The teams at the top of the draft might not feel that way where they feel like, okay, we add this pass rusher and we are competing for the division tomorrow, you know, so they might be a little more weary of, uh, adding a guy like that. So, yeah, I think it's, the appetite for risk is really interesting talking to team to team when it comes to injuries. Some are more than happy to bet on guys like that. Others are going to stay away. So that's just another, you know, part to, another detail to add to the top of this draft. And hitting the Browns quarterback question, I think I'm with you in that they need a quarterback.

They want a quarterback. I think at the end of this process, when we, it's a May 1st and the draft is over, I think the Browns, have a veteran quarterback that they've added to the roster and a rookie quarterback that they've added to the roster. Where those two players come from and how much of the 2025 plan is taken up by those two players. If it's Kirk Cousins and Tyler Shuck, I think we see a lot of Kirk Cousins this season. If it's Kirk Cousins and Cam Ward, that conversation changes a little bit. But I think at the end of the day, we will see a quarterback from both of those buckets end up on the Cleveland Browns. It just depends on where they come from. If Ward is a bit of the end up, we're

available at two or they can get up to one for the right price, I expect Cam Ward to be the quarterback or a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns next season. It just depends on what happens around them, whether the Giants are more aggressive or if the Titans just say, you know what, we're good. We're going to take them. We're not going to throw any more uncertainty into the mix here. So how that shakes out will determine what happens with Cleveland. But I do think that the Browns are incentivized to come away with a quarterback from each of those buckets. I think that's absolutely the right read. I think that, yeah, Kirk Cousins, I think, is the name that keep coming back to as the one that makes the most sense.

If they go, that veteran market, it's not going to cost much. Obviously, he's older coming off an injury. Like, there's reasons to be skeptical about adding a quarterback like that. But then this is the type of draft where you don't have to get one. If you can't get one early, you can still get one later that you can, you know, whether it's Jackson Dard or Tyler Shuck or Kyle McCourt, whoever it may be, that you can. put back there and he might give you something. He might, you know, spark something. It's not a complete waste of a draft pick, someone that can help you on offense. But yeah, if we had a guess right now, my guess is they find a way to get out of two and move back. I think that's what they want to do.

If they can't get Cam Ward, I think they'd love to get out of two. Even though, you know, you're moving away from Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter, I think they would love to add more draft capital and move back a little bit. It's just, can you find a trade partner? someone that would want to move up to number two. I think that that's more of the hurdle for them at that point. Where are we at on the Giants now that Stafford is back in Los Angeles? I keep coming back to it. It makes the most sense.

If a team's going to trade up to one, it's going to be the Giants. And I've said, you call the Titans and you start with two threes. To move up two spots to go to one. And if you're the Giants, you have a little bit of a, you have a little bit of a leverage here because the Titans only have to move back two spots. So, you know, you're not trading away from Travis Hunter, Abdul Carter, where that would be the case if you trade back with the Raiders or the Jets or the Saints or whoever else. So there is a little bit of, you know, where the Giants have a little bit of an

advantage. But at the same time, it's the Titans still hold the cards and you are, and they know the giants have a little more desperation than you do. So, you know, what's it going to take? Is it going to end up being two twos, a two this year, two next year? We'll have to see how that plays out. But the Giants, they always made the most sense about going up from three to one. You get Cam Ward. You get the quarterback. And, you know, I, like I said, I'm not convinced Cam Ward's going to be ready to go right out of the box. But I think at some point this year, a good chance we would see Cam Ward on the field in a Giants uniform. And, you know, you kind of, you know, it's tough when you talk about a general manager and head coach that are on the hot seat.

Everybody knows it. You know, there's no secret. There's no mystery here. You know, I mean, you know, Pace, drafting Justin Fields, you know, a couple of years ago, like, and how that work out. Like, it's just, there's a lot of ways this could go wrong. But if you're the Giants, this, you have to try something. And this is probably your next best option after coming up a little bit short with Stafford. We should have mentioned this when we're talking about the Titans before.

I would be surprised if the Titans moved down more than two spots in this draft. because outside of the quarterback, it's a two-player draft. And I think they know that. And so I don't think they'd want to move back much further. So that's the range. The Giants range is probably what I would have my eye on. For the Giants specifically, I find this fascinating. Because I understood the Stafford move because it's a move of self-preservation.

You're just trying to reinvigorate some interest in the franchise if you're a John mayor and you're trying to save your jobs if you're Brian Dable and Joe Shane. So the way that I could see this playing out is now that Stafford's off the table, Do they sign Aaron Rogers and draft a quarterback? That's not optimized in terms of how you're spending your capital. You're burning the first year of the rookie quarterback deal. We've talked about this a lot. But if you're Joe Shane, it actually makes all the sense in the world.

If I can sign Aaron Rogers and we can win eight games this year, you know, we can show tangible growth. Look at this. We have Aaron Rogers. We have a Hall of Fame quarterback. We're competent every single week. We're competitive every single week. Now we have this guy waiting in the wing.

like why wouldn't you give us another year here? The arrow is definitively pointed up. So if you're trying to save your job, if you're these guys, and you're trying to make the best case to ownership, doing something like the Rogers Cam Ward double dip is probably the best path for you, even if you're doing this in a vacuum, it's probably not the best way to use your resources as a quarterback. And especially because this is a team that it needs resources in terms of draft capital. So if you trade away that 34th overall pick this year, that's so you're not picking again until the third. Like that's a big, that's a big missed opportunity for you to draft a, whether it's, you know, a defensive lineman, a corner, somebody, another cornerstone that you can build around. because they have some cornerstones on this team, but not enough to the point where you feel like,

all right, we're really going to, you know, compete with the Washington or the Eagles or even the Cowboys and that division. So it would be hard to give up those that day two picks and trade away from that. But if you don't get the quarterback right, then, you know,

if you don't sell the quarterback, the idea of where the quarterback position is headed, then you're dead in the water. So, yeah, I think that I'm with you, you know, pairing Aaron Rogers with a rookie quarterback is always an interesting plan. I want to be clear about this.

I don't love it. As a plan, I don't love it. But I understand the appeal if you're that. And obviously, Aaron Rogers is in a different place now than when he was in Green Bay, when they drafted Jordan Love and, you know, like that, there's a little bit of a frostiness to that relationship. This is a, you know, Aaron Rogers knows what the situation is.

is. And, you know, I don't think the Giants, I would assume if they did sign Aaron Rogers would be up front with him from the start and be like, yeah, we're in the quarterback market, the draft one. And, you know, that shouldn't surprise you. Like, that's, that's how we're going to operate. And, you know, Aaron Rogers, well, it's something that he wore out as welcome in the other New York team. It's, it's a, it feels like you're grasping for, for something. If you're the Giants, a little bit of desperation. But you know what? That's where they are. They are desperate. It's pure desperation. So, you know, I, nothing would surprise me at this point. But yeah, if I had a bet, I would say the Giants move up from three to one. They draft Cam Ward. And then, yeah, they, they add a veteran free agent, a quarterback like an Aaron Rogers. Yeah, I don't mean, do you think Russell Wilson would fit there? Like, what other, if it's not Aaron Rogers, what other quarterback outside of the draft could you see them going after? that might make sense. I think somebody that is like a proven veteran,

even if you have issues with what Russell Wilson is at this point in his career, I think having someone in there so you have competency in year one, because this is the problem is that these teams that draft quarterbacks, and they play those guys early, these groups on the hot seat, we know that they're going to be fits and starts with developing that quarterback for the most part. Like, Jaden Daniels isn't walking through that door most years when you're looking at some of these rookies. So again, I think if you're trying to save your job,

trying to find the right balance of we're selling hope for the future while also making sure we have a big boy competent NFL offense in 2025. That makes sense. Again, it's not optimized, but if you're talking about their motivations and what they need, I think that's, I understand going that route. Russell would probably be the other answer there. I still think that even at this stage, what Aaron Rogers showed in the back half of last season, I would rather bet on that than Russell Wilson. And I'm not sure how robust Aaron Rogers market is going to be. So there's a chance they're able to sell him on this. So we'll see what happens.

I mean, when free agency opens here in a couple weeks, we'll have a much better understanding of what that plan looks like for the giants and what these plans look like for the rest of the teams. Let's get to what happened on the field and I guess I was going to say in the measuring room. Let's get to what happened on the field and what happened with the tape measure and the scale when it comes to these guys who the prospects in Indianapolis. I want to start on the good side of this. Let's talk about the workouts in Indy that in your mind lived up to expectations.

So when you're thinking about that drive home to Cleveland and the positive stuff rolling around in your head, who are the first names that are going to come to mind for you? Yeah, and plenty of standouts, no doubt. And going back to our Combine preview, we talked about who the freaks were going to be. At the top of the list was Nick Emond Worry, the safety from South Carolina. And boy, he did not disappoint. 6.3 and an eighth, 220 pounds. Ran a 4-40-yard dash, 43-inch vert, 11-6 broad.

Just an unbelievable physical specimen. And I was talking to Joshua Simon, who's the Gamecox tight end. He's in this draft. He has a chance to be a day three pick. And I asked him, what was it like facing Emin Worry in practice? And he started out by saying, yeah, he's big. He closes fast. But it's his intelligence.

the way he reads things, the way that he just, the more the mental game is what makes him such a challenge to go up against. And so this is a guy that looks like Tarzan, plays like Tarzan. And that's what you want. You know, ideally, you want a guy that has that ability to see the field well, and he also has the athleticism to do something about it. So the comparison is a bigger, more athletic Derwin James. I mean, that's not bad.

I think a lot of teams will sign up for that. So the buzz is in the top 20 for Emini, no doubt. I think I look at a team like the dolphins at 13, and I really like that fit. I think both impact potential and then also what the dolphins need on defense. So I like that. On the offensive line, Armand Membu made a really strong case to be that first offensive lineman drafted. I hate this, by the way.

I want him to be around a tent so bad. I wish that he would have tanked it last week. I'm really getting annoyed about this. I think a lot of people are catching up because, you know, Membu, I think, was being talked about, I don't pay attention how everybody talks about these players, but I think the vibe I got was a lot of other people were talking about Membu as, oh, he'll be a top 20 guy, maybe sneakie top 15. And I mean, he's one of the top 10 players in this draft, based just on the tape. In my top 100 last month, he was number eight overall.

And so he, and Will Campbell was six in my top 100. So their tags were touching. They're already duking it out to be that first offensive lineman drafted. And Membue at 332 pounds ripped off a 491, 40 yard dash, 174 10-yard split. That 491 in the 40 was the fastest among all offensive linemen at least 6,4 and 330 pounds, the fastest since 2003. So it's been a while since we've seen a guy this size move like that. We're talking decades. led all offensive linemen this year in the broad.

He was 9-7. 34-inch vert was up there too. So, you know, he's in that conversation to be the first offensive lineman drafted. I think this is where we can kind of pivot to the Will Campbell conversation. And that's where, you know, he had a big workout, a big-time workout.

He really impressed with the way he moved. The positional drills were outstanding. His 40 was also sub-5 seconds. And he's 319 pounds. He's not, you know, 290 pounds. This is a big guy. But the elephant in the room, arms come in 32, 5 eighths inches. And it was interesting reaching out to teams on Sunday and just asking about the measurement.

Okay, does this change anything for you? The responses were very split. Some 100% believe he's still a tackle and he will be on their board. Others said, well, I think we can do both. But the easier projections can be inside at guard. the common thread with Will Campbell is teams just love this guy. They think he's one of the most well respected prospects in this draft because of the tape, because of the way he carries himself.

So I think, you know, the next two months, the internet's going to be consumed about arm length and is he a tackle, is he a guard? Teams are just saying this is, this is an awesome player we want on our team. And I think this is also, don't be surprised if his arms are longer at the pro day. teams are really perplexed with some of the measurements over the weekend. Can you explain this? I can't. I really, and I tried to reach out to, or I'm asking scouts about it.

They can't explain it either. So for example, Marcus Boe, the Purdue offensive tackle, offensive lineman. At the senior ball, he was 33 inches even. At the combine, 32 even. Ersery from Minnesota, chance to be a top 40 pick. In Mobile, 34 inches. back or at the combine 33 and an eighth so almost a full inch we're not talking about eights of an inch here we're talking about full inches uh difference that's a big deal when we're talking about you uh they're picking apart these guys about arm length and in these little minute little details in talking to scouts it's perplexing because nfs uh they run the combine they also do the measurements at the shrine bowl senior bowl now they might have the rookie scouts doing it you know, I think, but it's still, it should not be a number that fluctuates that much.

And so I think it's, it's going to be really interesting now at the pro day. Because teams are going to be split on how they, which number they use. Usually, okay, if a player is 34 inches at the senior bowl and then 34 and an eighth at the combine, they're just going to take the better number. That's just how they'll operate. But if there's such a discrepancy, do they take the average? Do they, okay, if it's a, do they, do they, do they, do they, do they, let the pro day measurements be kind of like the tiebreaker.

Teams I talked to weren't sure how they were going to handle that. And so that's something else that's part of this conversation with Will Campbell that it wouldn't be surprising if he goes to the pro day at LSU and all of a sudden he's 33 and an eighth. And I, you know, that that's a really interesting part of this. You answered every question that I had. I was like, did you average them? Is there like a tiebreaker part of this?

So you hit all of that. It was so funny watching that roll out. It was like these are inch differences. Like how do you square this? So I think that talking about what those conversations are like in buildings is a very good way to handle it. I'm going to put you on the spot right now. Okay, as part of this Armambu, Will Campbell conversation. You're New England at four.

Yeah. That guy that you draft needs to play left tackle for you. There is no wiggle room here. Right. Who do you take it for? I mean, this sounds like I'm passing the buck, but, you know, I have to. have the advice of my or the opinion of my offensive line coach. I have to, you know, because you're going to go work them out at the pro day or individually,

have a private workout. And you're going to see, okay, how does he line up in a left tackle stance? How does, you know, has kick slide look. How does he, the footwork look, the body control. There's, I can't say that he can or can't play left tackle because just we haven't seen him do it. I'm not going to assume that he can't. When he, because Membo's a young player coming out of high school, he'd only play the position, or he would only play football, really, offensive line for two years, a really young, young player when he got to Missouri.

But when he got there, the coaches were like, oh, man, this guy is good. But they already had a left tackle in place. And so they put him at right tackle. And it was just a natural thing for him. He was just so good there that he stayed there. He became a starter like midway through his freshman year. and then sophomore year, junior year, starting at right tackle. It wasn't a case of he can't play left tackle, so we're going to keep him on the right side.

It was just they had a left tackle entrenched, so they put him on the right side. And so it's, you know, every situation like this is different. Like when Tristan Wirfs was at Iowa, he played right tackle because Alaric Jackson was bad at right tackle. They could not trust him at right tackle. He was a left tackle only. Worf's could do both, so they put him at right tackle. So it'll be a fact-finding mission for teams. as they go work out Membu and have these talks about, okay, do we think he can move to left tackle?

That's a big projection to make, especially if you're talking about the fourth overall pick, but that's going to be part of the scouting process here the next two months. With New England specifically, I mean, they can move, they can put on Wenu at Red Guard and play him at right tackle if they thought that that was his best position. So I think that's going to be an ongoing conversation. But what's going to happen with Will Campbell? What's going to happen with Membo is going to be fascinating here over the next couple months? Talking to a scout.

yesterday about this. Like this is the type of draft where we have to do away with well, you can't draft this early. You know, you can't draft a guard, you know, top five in this. You know, you can't draft, you know, Mason Graham

is not your ideal defensive tackle 32 inch arms. You can't draft that top five. Like, this is just one of those classes where you have to throw that out. Because it's, you know, because Will Campbell is the prime example. If, if you think he's a guard and not a tackle, then I think most people think, oh, well, okay, drop them 10 spots down

the board because you can't, that's where you draft tackles, not top five, not top seven. But you just can't do that in this class because we don't have the high end talent. And so especially a guy like Will Campbell who is so well respected for his talent and what he brings to your team, I'm thinking about a team like the Jaguars of five. And, you know, ironically, Brandon Shurf, who they need to probably replace a guard, the last guard to be drafted in the top five way back when. And so, you know, a guy like Will Campbell, yeah, even if they view him as a guard, I could absolutely see that being the pick at five.

Because again, you can't, in this draft, you just simply can't say, oh, he's a guard and you don't draft guards that early. Well, in this class, you do. It's interesting with guards, though. And part of the reason that you don't draft X early is about other avenues to players of that position. It's not about impact necessarily. It's at what other ways can you find those guys?

And if you look at guards, well, guards are making $25 million a year now, and teams are willing to franchise the best guard in free agency because they feel like they can get a pick for him at the end of this process, does the conversation around guards change? Are there fewer avenues to finding players at that position? And then do we soften our stance on how high those guys can go in the draft? So this is always kind of a moving target. And I think guards specifically, we may be seeing a little bit of a shift there.

Other guys that you felt like impressed you in Indy, if we want to get back to that. Yeah, Gray Zabel, the North Dakota State interior offensive linemen. You know, when I did my top 50 back right after, right after Halloween, I had Zabel just sneaking in there at 47. And the feedback was kind of mixed. Like, okay, you know, maybe he goes that high, but that seems pretty high for him. And then he crushed the senior bowl. Combine was great. and now we're talking about him as, all right, how early in the first round are we talking?

You know, is he going to go top 25? I think that in terms of the on-field workouts, the way he moved and his vert was like 36 and a half, which is crazy. And then also what helps him is this is not a great center class at all. And he's left tackling college who, you know, we've been saying all year, he's probably going to be the best center in this class. And he has absolutely lived up to that. And so, you know, look at the Texans at 25.

I think the Texans, you know, they would love to move up for a guy like Will Campbell, move up for one of those guys. I don't know that they'd be able to pull that off. But if they stay at 25, a guy like Zabel would, I think, make a lot of sense for them. Sticking with centers, Jared Wilson, the Georgia Center was moving. He looked outstanding. I talk about an athlete. And it's always iffy with centers that were one-year starters.

in college. He came out early as a junior, one year as a starter, but man, the athletic traits are off the charts. I really enjoyed my conversation with him. He's a really personable guy. You know, because when we get to the combine, I've talked with most of these guys, Jared Wilson was one of the few that I had not talked to yet. Just, you know, being a younger guy, I wasn't 100% sure he's going to declare, but talking to

him, he connects well with people. And I think that's something that will come through during the interview process and help him. He was in my top 100 in a couple weeks ago, but I think he's moving up, especially again, because the center class is so thin and teams will be easily, I think about like Cam Juergens. You know, he was a guy that moved up, he just inched up a little bit throughout the process. Every step of the process, Cam Jurgens from coming out of Nebraska, more of an athlete than maybe a finished product. The Eagles ended up taking him, you know, right around. pick 50 and I think it's turned out okay.

I think Jared Wilson, we could see a similar type of trajectory for him. It's interesting. Last year, I was talking to a coach about this this week, but last year was the year to get your center. The fact that we have four starting centers from the 2024 season from last year's rookie class, it's kind of wild, actually, because you have Frazier and Barton at the top, those were no-brainer throughout the entire process. We always kind of assume that Cooper B.B.

would move inside. He does after being drafted in the third round, immediate day one starter for Dallas and then Bo Limmer is the starting center for the Rams. So four of the starting centers in the league. Yes. And he made. Absolutely. Yeah.

So last year was the year to do it. No doubt. It was a loaded group. And it's so far so good. It's lived up to that. Yeah. And this drafts a little bit of the opposite. But I think that's only, but if you're Zabel, if you're Jared Wilson, you're

feeling pretty good about that because you know the, there's more demand. and that'll help you go earlier than maybe you would even in last year's draft. Because it got like Zach Frazier fell out of the top 50 picks, which is crazy. But I mean, he was coming off an injury too. But still, you know, if Zach Frazier's in this draft, no way he's getting out of the top 40. It also is effective by the free agent class because there just aren't a lot of free centers available in this class. Dahlman is the prize. Dolman's undersized.

He's not that scheme versatile. I like Drew Dahlman. I think he's a good player. I think he brings attitude. But he's not somebody where you're like. like, oh man, we're paying Frank Ragnow in free agency. Like, that's just not the case. And so I feel like if you

need a center coming out of this, which I don't know, there may be a team that I root for that does need a center coming out of this process, how you end up getting one, I'm paying a lot of attention to that. Any other guys you want to hit from a testing perspective? Receivers, corners, guys that ran well, like, who else do we want to hit here?

Definitely have to hit on Shmar Stewart. I mean, 65, 267, which is interesting. He was down 14 pounds from the Senior Bowl. But he ripped, still, he's a big guy. 267 pounds is, it's pretty big. He ripped off a 45, yeah, 459 in the 40, 158, 10-yard split. To put that 10-yard split in the context, Von Miller had a 159. And so Stewart was a little bit better.

He's also 20 pounds heavier. So not bad. That 158 is the second fastest we've seen the last 15 years for anybody, for any defender over 265 pounds. So just and then you take us other testing of all the front seven defenders. He was number one in the broad jump 1011, number two in the vertical with a 40 inch vert. Freaky, freaky stuff from Smar Stewart.

And again, we talked about this in the preview. Why he was so high in my top 100 is because this was baked into that, knowing that he is different, knowing he is a different type of dude just as a mover. And your project, yes, one and a half sacks. That is tough to overlook. But, you know, I think we need to measure production more than just sacks. And that he's a little more, it's a little more forgiving when you factor in his pressures.

You factor in different ways he was used and then different way he affected the quarterback and the backfield. So, and that's all part of, you know, the tape and all that. So when you factor everything in, it's a lot more forgiving. And then you see those numbers. And it's like, all right, yeah, this guy's going top 15. It's just a matter of how high could he go? Could he go, you know, seven to the Jets? Could he go eight?

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised at all if, yeah, we're talking about him as being the Panthers pick at number eight when it's all said and done. I feel like you said this throughout the process. And it's important to it shows up on tape. He's affecting the game on tape even if the sacks aren't there. And the fact that that box is getting checked along with just the crazy athleticism, that's a package that I feel like is probably worth buying into. even if the sack production is not there. And there are teams that, you know, think a certain way, like, oh, I need the sacks. I need you to be a finisher.

And I get that. Totally. I get that. Other teams to look at it and say, hey, you're making the quarterback move his feet. And that's something we can work with. We'll make you a better finisher because we know you can get there. Switching to offense. Matthew Golden, the Texas wide receiver.

When you watch his film, you don't see a 4-2 athlete. I mean, you just don't. But that's what he ran a 4-2-9. during through at his 40 and I thought he did well through the other drills. Matthew Golden, I thought made a strong case why he should be, you know, if we're going to say the top four receivers are T-MAC from Arizona and Mecca, Abuka, Matthew Golden, and then Luther Burden in whatever order, those four receivers, Golden made a strong case why he should be one or two on that list.

And, you know, with that type of 40 and the way he competed. So Golden helped himself. And then the other receiver I want to talk about Jail and Nuel, Iowa State, just checking the boxes, man. I mean, it was so much fun watching him in September, October, him and Jaden Higgins, the other receiver from Iowa State. But watching Jail and Noel, so he had a day two grade just based on the tape, goes to the Senior Bowl, best wide receiver that, you know, I saw in Mobile. And then he goes to the Combine and just has a day, 439 and the 40, 1,5, 1,10,000, yard split, 41 and a half inch vert, 11-2 broad, 6-8-2 in a three-cone. And oh, yeah, it just threw up 23

reps on the bench press. Like, just a full performance from Jalen Newell. And, you know, I mentioned those four receivers that have a chance to go in the first round. That next tier, I think is interesting. Talking about Noel, who I think is at the top of that tier, his teammate, Jayden Higgins, who is more of that size guy. Jalen Royals from Utah States in that mix, Trey Harris from Ole Miss, Jack Bash from TCU. So it's a really diverse second tier of receivers that there's some talent there. Even though this receiver class is not as deep as we're used to,

it may be a little bit tougher to get excited about some of these guys. That next tier has some guys that I think teams will be excited about. Higgins ran pretty well for a guy of his size and skill set, correct? He did. Absolutely, no doubt. And I don't think speed wasn't, I think, a big question mark. You know, he ran well enough, but it was still good to see. Like, watching him in person in Mobile, I was like, okay, yeah, this guy can move for as big as he is.

He's a former basketball player. He didn't really fully commit to football until late in high school. And that's why he started at Eastern Kentucky for two years before moving over to Iowa State. but yeah, he just continued to help himself as well. Just maybe not quite as much as Jalen Newell. But I think it's all through the season, Scouts said Higgins is going to go first. He's bigger, pro-style type of profile.

But now I think it's much more of a conversation about which Iowa State receiver. And sticking with Iowa State on defense, the corner, Darian Porter, he locked himself into, and he's a guy we talked about last week on our Combine preview, big-time track guy.

He locked himself into, a day two pick. With that size, when you're over 6.3 and you are, have that type of speed and you're moving like that, I mean, I think teams learn their lesson with Tyreek Woolen when they let him fall to the fifth round somehow. Porter's kind of in that similar vein where the production, you know, there's things about his profile that his resume that maybe you don't love. But when you think about the athlete at that size, yeah, it's not hard to talk yourself into him. And then, I'll just have to mention Maxwell Harrison, the Kentucky corner, the fastest 40-yard dash 428. He also reached 24.25 miles per hour, which is one of the fastest times we've ever seen from a corner.

He's definitely getting pulled over in a school zone. It's crazy the speed he was reaching. So he was already kind of in that first round conversation, but now it's more like Andrew Wiggins from last year, you know, watching, you know, coming out of Clemson. goes first round to the Ravens, maybe a little slight. But when you have 4-2 speed, you know, it's just the chances you falling out of the first round are not very high. And so I think Harrison's kind of put himself into a similar conversation. With so many of these positions, we try to tell ourselves every year, like the tape is what

matters, the tape is what matters, the tape is what matters, with corner and receiver. Stop watch positions. And inevitably, if you hit that number, somebody is going to be like, eh, fuck it. Like, like, how am I going to do better? than 4 to 5 with the 27th pick in the draft. I think is ultimately where a team lands as part of this every single year, it feels like. I think I've done a better job over the years of, you know, our friend, Josh Norris coined this 15 years ago about not counting it twice.

You know, like you have them, you put a big grade on him on the tape because he's a good athlete. Okay, so we're going to bump him up even more after he shows us, just confirms what we already knew. So not counting it twice is something that we all need to be cognizant for when you're scouting these guys. But sometimes it's hard when these athletes go out there and just are peak, peak physical specimens for their size and the way they move. Before we move on, we're going to take one more quick break. Let's talk about things on the other end of the spectrum here. Who are the workouts or what are the workouts that were disappointing to you in Indy?

So yeah, I don't want to harp on these guys too much, but there are definitely some notable players that I think maybe were less than what we thought. Tyler Booker, the offensive guard from Alabama, you don't watch Tyler Booker's tape and come away saying, oh, phenomenal athlete. You know, that's not his game. And I think, especially when you look at, if you just watch his positional work, you would have said, okay, terrific. I don't like he's he's really clean in the way he moves he's really controlled um he had made probably the best sound bite of the combine when he said it's legal assault he how his goal playing football is to make the other guy stop loving football just a first round top 10 quote um I love that so I think that um even though the the numbers the numbers are rough vertical is bad um you know the the the the agility

drills, the speed drills were not great. But the positional drills were good enough that I don't think it's going to affect him that much. And then this is another guy that teams just love Booker. Just talking about how the interviews went. I think that's something that he's not going to, teams seem as a future pro bowler. So I don't think he's going to necessarily follow that much. And one of the reasons is the intangibles. And one scout gave me this nugget.

He said he's a better teammate than Roland Steele. And so I'm thinking, I'm like, okay, I'm going through my mental rolodex. I've studied so many players the last 20 years thinking, okay, all right, Roland, Rolling Steel. And I'm like, and then it hit me after like five minutes. That was the name of the character in Rudy, who first put his jersey on the head coach's desk and said, I want Rudy to start in my, or dress in my place. One of the more unrealistic scenes in a good movie.

But yeah, so Booker is a better teammate than Roland Steel, which I think says a lot. That's fantastic. All right. Anybody else that you feel like maybe fell a little? little bit short of what you were hoping to see. Two more guys, Malachi Stark's, the safety from Georgia, who had a weird combine. So his three cone, 726, the worst among the safeties. And to put that 726 in the context, his Georgia teammate, Tyron Ingram Dawkins, is a defensive tackle. He's almost 80 pounds heavier. He had a 728. So 726, 728, almost identical three cone times, which is just weird to

understand what that means. So he had the worst short shuttle, worst three cone, his 40 was average, is right around 4.50. The vert was only 33 inches. So this guy that you watch and he plays fast is, you know, you like what you see on tape, but then, okay, the athleticism doesn't match up.

And then during the drills, he looks fantastic. And he actually had the highest miles per hour of all the safeties during the drills. So the W drill, the gauntlet. Malachi Stark's, was moving at a better play speed. So this is a guy that's not going to test well,

but the play speed is impressive. And so I think that's something that. How do you square that? It's tough. It is. Especially because Malachi Starks, he ran track in high school. So I thought,

I expected him to run pretty well, just being, having that track background. But the play speed that he has, the way he moves in space with when it comes to more, not that some of these drills aren't exactly football drills, but they're closer to football drills than just a simple three cone. So I hate to say this,

but it's probably one of those things where if you liked Malachi Starks coming in, you're going to point to the positional work and say, see, see, look how we look, see, I know he could do it. And if you didn't like Malachi Starks as much, you're looking at the 40 and you're looking at the vert and say, and see, those are my issues. I'm worried about that. And I think there will be plenty of debate about Malachi Starks about,

okay, should he go in the first round? Is he going to get branched and fall into the mid-second? There's going to be a lot of debate with Malachi Stark's how that plays out. And then one more guy, watching the quarterbacks is always interesting. I thought a couple of quarterbacks looked really good. Tyler Shuck was awesome. Quinn Ewers, I thought he held himself well. Kyle McCord.

Those three guys really stood out the most. The rest were up and down, especially Will Howard. just he was the most inconsistent and too many misses. The delivery was really tight and rigid. It just looked like he was pushing the football instead of driving it. And so I thought Will Howard was not a great performance from him. I mean, it's weird to say that he needs a bounce back at the pro day, but just to maybe help himself in the minds of some coaches and scouts,

that's what's going to need to happen. The last thing I want to ask you in this bucket here, what didn't happen in Indy that you wanted to see? Who didn't work out? What questions do you still have coming out of last week that you are hoping to have answered at least to a degree by the time the Combine was over? I would have loved to see T-Mack, McMillan, the wide receiver from Arizona. I would love to have seen him run and just get it over with.

Like, we know you're not a fast guy. We know. But, you know, train for it. Try to get a four or five two and then just never run a 48. again. This might be a Drake London situation where we just never see him run a 40. And obviously that worked out fine for Drake London. His top 10 pick and he's having a fine NFL career. And I think that's probably what the path is for McMillan. Maybe never runs that 40 and but I still think he's a really good player. And probably the same thing. I talked about

Will Johnson, the corner from Michigan, another potential top 15 pick. I was hoping he would run the forward. I was hoping to do something, whether it was the agility's, the, uh, three cone, the vert, but he decided to do none of that, we're going to wait until the pro day, which I think is a, is a mistake. But we'll see. I mean, I, I, the 40 is going to be the question mark if he ever runs a 40 ever again in his life. It might be a Michigan thing too. No Mason Graham, no Kenneth Grant. Mason Grant being the, there's a lot more divide on Mason Graham than I think I expect it, because the tape is awesome. But he doesn't have the ideal body type. His body type's a little weird. He doesn't have long arms. I don't think he's going to test well whenever he does test if he does test. So I don't

think he's going to test poorly. I just don't think he's going to test like you would expect a top five, top seven pick the test. So the Michigan guys not being not working out, not performing was a little bit of it was expected, but still a little bit of a disappointment. Do you think we're going to get to a tipping point here in the next four or five years where we see more and more of these guys just not working out. And if that happens, what does that mean for somebody like you and also just for the people in the scouting community who kind of do still rely on this stuff as a benchmark? Yeah. And it's teams, there's a reason all 32 teams were very well represented there. You know, like this still matters the teams. It's a big cross-checking exercise to make sure that,

hey any data point we can get on these guys let's let's do it let's add the data point to the mix and make sure that we are we have conviction and what we're seeing out there um i was talking about about this with a scout at lunch and you know i threw out there what have you know do you think we get to a point where they incentivize um guys that work out of the combine um i don't know how you do it like you know if you hit top 10% at your position in the 40 you get x amount or like I don't know how you do it, but I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually get to that point, because we know the NFL. They think in dollars.

That's how they view everything. And so if the top quarterbacks, if the top receivers, if they're not working out and it's taking the eyeballs away from an event like the combine, would they try to do something like that, which I think would be opening a can of worms? And, you know, I don't know that you can go back after that. but at some time in the next five to seven years, I wouldn't be completely shocked if we got to that point. Yeah, that makes sense. And it's good to hear you say that because my first thought,

seeing this is just like, man, it just does feel like this is different than it was in years past, where all the top guys just aren't going to be doing it. And so the fact that that's springing a conversation with you and other people in the community, that's not surprising based on kind of the trend of where the stuff is headed. And a lot of guys, they want to work out. A lot of guys want to, you know, I don't want to make it sound like the sky is falling.

And, you know, because there are a lot of guys that are excited to go out there and just show out and just, you know, show what type of athletes they are. And, you know, we saw that this year with some, you know, the guys that ran and the guys that worked out. But, yeah, to get a more more guys, especially the first round guys to work out, yeah, I think that we might get to a point where at least having more of that conversation. Let's just do some rapid fire here. I want to go position by position and just talk about some other takeaways, both good or. or bad from last week. Let's start with quarterbacks. Just any other stray thoughts about this quarterback group and who stood out maybe in a good

or bad way. Yeah, I mentioned Shuck. Uers and McCord were the three that really stood out to me, just watching them throw at Lucas Oil Stadium. I heard good things about all those guys to just in the interview portion. Milro teams are still very, even though like the senior bowl was rough. It was, I'll just say bad. even though it was bad, I think teams are still optimistic for him just because he's so,

and Milro is another guy that I was really disappointed, didn't run. I think he needed that positive momentum after the senior bowl was so rough. You know, he's just so raw as a passer. By the way, his arms grew. He's now over nine inch hands, which is awesome for him after being eight and three quarters at the senior bowl. So I don't know. But I thought, you know, we could see some positive momentum from him if he runs,

because that, you know, over 220 pounds, he should run in, you know, low four fours, high four threes. But I think that there's still plenty of positive momentum from him because teams look at it. He's got the athleticism. He's got the arm. And the very worst case, we have a supreme athlete. We can move to running back or something else. And so teams are still very much excited about Jalen Milrow and what potentially he could be. Let's talk about running back because my understanding is that that group,

actually performed pretty well. And you got a lot of 200 plus pound guys, a lot of guys moving well. What were your main takeaways from the running backs in Indianapolis? Yeah, I mean, Bayshul Tutin from Virginia Tech. It's a real name.

What a name. What a fact that we got Baytial Tutin and Quinshot Junkins in the same draft here. I'm loving this running back group. And both were, had good days. Tutin is, you know,

both his parents, were high level track track athletes. And he definitely got that DNA. He ran, what, a 432. So he was moving. And, you know, he's a good size guy. He runs with balance. He runs with toughness.

There's a lot to like about him. He came out, yeah, he was 59, 206. So 206 might look like a big number, but being only 5.9, I mean, he is, he's well put together. He's a guy that has the athleticism, but he also, he does some of the, the running back specific stuff that you like, you know, the balance, the vision. And he's got promise on third downs being a pass catcher. He'll show up. He was a kick returner when he first got to Virginia Tech.

He was a transfer from North Carolina A&T. So, yeah, he's a guy that can create before contact and then create after contact. He averaged, I think it was 4.4 yards per carry after contact this year, which is a very high number. So, yeah, Tooten definitely helped himself. And we could talk for an hour just on the running backs because there are so many of these guys. There's, you know, I said I've over 30 that have draftable grades. And a lot of them, I think, played up to their, what was expected from them.

You know, throughout there, both Ohio State guys, you mentioned Quinn Jodgans, ran well was in the four fours. Trayvion Henderson ran well, as expected. He's more of that speedback, home run threat, did not disappoint. Trevor Eton, Travis's younger brother, who's different. body type, kind of shorter, squattyer. But in terms of speed, he also got that. He was a 4-4-2, which is awesome.

Omerian Hampton, talking about a guy that has a chance to go in the first round, who was expected to run well, did not disappoint. He was a 4-4-6. I don't think we're going to get to the point where, I don't know, draft season's long. Who knows? Maybe we'll get to the point where people are starting to say Marion Hampton's running back one, or there's a conversation between him and Ash and Gentie. I don't think we'll get there, but we're at least to the point where

Hampton's being talked about as a top 25 pick. And so you think about the team, you know, Denver in that mix. Yeah, there's a couple of teams that we could potentially see go with a difference making running back there. Marion Hampton could be what so many people wanted JVON Williams to be coming out of North Carolina going to Denver. So that's definitely one to watch. Yeah, I mean, all these running backs, I'm just looking at these times, man.

I mean, they're crazy. And I thought during the drills, they caught the ball well, they moved well. This is just going to be historic running back class. And it's going to start at the top with Ashen Genti. And then all the way through every single round, we're going to see three, four, five running backs come off the board. And teams will double up. There will be teams that double up at running back in this class because it is so deep.

And you just feel like a good chunk of those guys are going to be starting caliber players potentially that are drafted in the middle rounds even in this year's class. If not starter, they're impacting. You know, they're part of a backfield committee that will directly influence how a team runs the offense, no doubt. Let's get to receivers. Names of the top of your list here that you felt like either helped or hurt themselves this week. So, Jonte Thornton from Tennessee is fascinating. He is, first of all, he's huge. He's, I think, six, four and five eighths, so almost six five, two hundred and five pounds.

long lean receiver. He was a big time recruit, went to Oregon before transferring to Tennessee. For a guy that size, I'm 165, 205 pounds. He ripped off a 430 40-yard dash. This guy is, his strides are so long and they glide. And it's really impressive to watch. I saw him up close and personal at the Shrine Bowl. Seeing him run was impressive.

So the time isn't necessarily shocking. I think it's, you know, when you, watch him on film. That's what he does. He led all of FBS in yards per catch this year. Is it like 25.4 yards per catch? So this is what he did at Tennessee. And you know that offense. Like it's wide splits. They spread them out. You're only going to ask him to run three or four routes. But you know what? It works because teams have trouble stopping it. And at the very least, you're going to be running a vertical and be a decoy and open up things underneath. So seeing him run as well as we expected. It's just hard to find guys that size that are going to run that well. And he was elite

on film in terms of down the field. He had 10 targets this year down over 20 yards. He caught seven of them. So that's a high, high success rate that teams are going to look at and say, yeah, he might never ascend past the fourth receiver on our depth chart. But so, you know, yeah, he's a one trick pony. But if he's really good at that one trick, we've got something there. And so I think Thornton helped himself definitely. And then Tess Johnson, the 155 pound receivers fascinating from Oregon because his 40 was 455. And that's that's bizarre because he is, you don't watch him and say, that's, he's slow.

You don't look at Tess Johnson move and say, okay, that's a guy that's not fast. So his second 40 is 451, but still, okay, so anything in the four fives, that's not, that's not really acceptable for a 155 pound receiver. Right. So how do you, what do you do with that? Okay, well, then you look at this three comb, six, six, five, best among the receivers, best among, you know, anybody in this class. And then you look at, it was similar to Malachi Stark's. You look at the MPH numbers during the drills.

And he is, he had the highest MPH number during the vertical route portion of the positional drills at the combine. So it's like, okay, he's moving fast when he's running a route, but it just didn't show up in the 40-yard dash. is this a guy that just isn't going to test well? So teams trying to reconcile that with Tess Johnson. That's an interesting one. It's just not as cut and dry because of the weight because of the 40 time. But again, you watch his film and just teams have a tough time keeping track of him in coverage and then after the catch. It's interesting that the NPH numbers are now publicly available, by the way.

If you guys want to go look at those, you can. Next Gen Stass has done a really good job of making all of this stuff available on their website. So the fact that now we can, this idea of he moves fast on tape is now translatable to the drills at the combine. And so we have numbers that we can put on it. It makes it a little bit easier to understand. And actually, I kind of think lays bare the dialogue and the debate that's probably happening in some of these buildings. It's like, it's no longer just, ah, well, he plays so fast. Like, we should probably weigh that more. It's, no, he was fast during the drills. Like, we saw that he was still fast. So the fact that this keeps happening,

multiple guys is hilarious. And it helps because we got to a point a couple of years ago where, because obviously they do so much combine prep before they come to Indianapolis that when guys would go through like, say the gauntlet, for example, they would just coast. They wouldn't be running full speed because I'm going to focus on making the catch and, you know, staying on that on that white line. But now that we have the MPH numbers for it and it matters that these guys need to be moving fast, uh, team,

going through routes, doing all these drills, you have to do it at full speed. That's how teams want to see you. And now that we have the numbers to back it up, there's no more coasting. When you train for this, you better be going full speed. Tight ends.

Any tight ends that stood out to you, either positively or negatively last week? I was hoping to see Elijah Arroyo test, but he's banged up. We'll see him at the pro day. One thing I'll say about the tight ends, Mason Taylor from LSU has a universal approval rating. I just can't find anybody that says anything bad about him.

He's just a really well-liked player who is to steal a Nate Tice line. He's going to be very, very useful for a very long time. That's how he plays. That's just who he is. And so, you know, he's, Mason Taylor is a guy that I wouldn't be shocked if he snuck into, like, if he was a pick 31 or 30, you know, snuck in there into that first round. If he doesn't go there, he's going to go early in that second. around and be a good player for a long time.

Offensive lineman. Yeah, we touched on a good portion of them. I would say the offensive line was probably the cleanest of the positional drills of all the positions. It just seemed like, I don't know, maybe it was the last day and everybody was ready to get out of there. But, you know, I think the most positive buzz was from the offensive line. And the way they were moving.

Do you have Josh Connerly, the Oregon tackle, some love? he was kind of viewed as a top 40 guy, but now the way he was moving out there, which confirms what he put on film, I think is going to get him into that first round. He just, he moves too well. He didn't have maybe the best season compared to,

I asked to scout about this, and he said it's funny, watching him in 2023 really liked him, put a high grade on him. 2024 wasn't as impressed. What was the big difference? Well, Oregon in 2023, they're playing Pac-12 competition.

2024, you're playing Big Ten competition. And just that little bit, that type of context is important for a guy like that. But the traits are impressive enough, and I think he showed that during the drills that Connerley will, I think, getting that first round on the defensive side of the ball, defensive line, Ty Robinson

from Nebraska. He was, I'm not as high, like, there's a wide variance on Ty Robinson, I would say, between, you know, like the late second to the mid-finding. fifth like there are grades all over on tie robinson in that range among scouts and i would say i'm more on the back end i'm like fourth round on him um just because he doesn't affect the quarterback as much uh but he moved i think even better than i expected um 40 was great his mpsh he had the high the best miles per hour number among all the defensive tackles um my big question is you know unless

if you don't have a free lane can you get off the block that's that's where i struggle with him because when he has a free lane, he can get there. But can he set up the block? Can he get off contact? That's where I have my question. But seeing the energy and the way he moved, I thought was really impressive, seeing that up close. At linebacker,

Kane Madrano from UCLA, you know, everything, Carson Schweringer, the other UCLA linebacker, he's going to get most of the love and with good reason. I mean, he's a top 40 guy in this draft. but Madrano, I think, made a strong case to be not too far after that. Ran a 4-4-6 in the 40-yard dash. He's a track guy. I mean, he's got a diverse background.

It took a while for him to get on the field at UCLA, but he became a starter last year in 2023, this year at 2024, had his best season. But for a guy, 6-3-22, just a phenomenal athlete. And I think that's something that teams are going to look at. at and say, okay, at the very least, he's going to be a big time special teamers for us. I think, I don't think you'll get top 100, but anywhere early on day three, fourth round, fifth round.

I think Madrano will come off the board. And then in the secondary, Caleb Ransaw, give him some love out of Tulane, had a 40-inch vert, moved really well. He's got inside, outside versatility, played safety at the senior bowl. So Ransaw is a guy that has, I think, the versatility in the back end. Plus he showed he has the athleticism. He might be the mid-round version of Jedi Baron from Texas, who's going to be a first-round pick, who I'm remiss.

I didn't mention him. He had a great combine as well with the way he ran. And really the only wart with him is the lack of length. He's got under 30-inch arms. And that's going to be a no-go for a lot of teams. But the teams that can overlook that, they're going to get a really good player in Barron. But Ransaw from Tulane might be the mid-round version of that. All right.

that is your 2025 Recap. If there's somebody we didn't hit, which I can't imagine there is. I'm sure we will get to them at some point in the process here. We are going to allow you to, we're going to put you back in cryosleep for like the next 10 days here. We are going full free agency all the time here over the next two weeks as Dane now post-combine. And as we start these pro days, is going to be knee-deep in beast prep here over the next time. two weeks. Pro Day start tomorrow.

I mean, it's, it's pro day season. It does not sleep. It does not rest. Yeah, it's going to be April before we know it, man.

It's crazy. So over the next couple weeks, we got Pro Day stuff that Dan's focusing on. We're going to let him really chip away at the B-Ster over the next two weeks as we dig into free agency.

We're going to be doing a free agency mailbag tomorrow. So for the most part, if you haven't gotten your questions in, it's probably too late. But we appreciate everyone who sent in questions. And then we have two free agency

previews, show is coming later this week, followed by a full slate of free agency coverage into next week. We got something special plan for you guys on day one of free agency. I don't want to give away too much right now because we're still figuring out some of the details, but we're really blowing out the free agency recap coverage this year specifically. So that's what we got coming your way here over the next couple weeks on the athletic football show. Dane will be back the week of the 17th for us to really start our draft.

coverage in earnest when free agency starts to wind down. So sincerely appreciate you guys listening. We will be back later this week with the free agency mailbag and the free agency previews. Until then, really appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon.