The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Lessons we learned from teams in the 2022 NFL Draft

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

What lessons can we take from the 2022 NFL Draft? Robert Mays and Nate Tice discuss what happened with the QBs and how a surplus of WRs is impacting teams’ decision making. They also talk about the Eagles’ roster building, the Ravens ability to pivot, the Vikings all-in plan and much more from across the league.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. Today's Monday, May 2nd. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today is my good friend Nate Tice. Nate, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing well. I've gotten spoiled because we've been in person.

So now, like, even prepping for today and, like, getting the pods stuff, right? I was like, oh, my God, I got reset everything up. Like, I actually getting ready, usually I'm like just, I could slot right in. I was like, put my mic ready and everything like that. So I've gotten spoiled the last few days, getting to work and stuff. person with you and Dane. It's been a lot over the last few days. I appreciate you guys pinch it for me yesterday. I had to travel some more for work. So you guys and Lindsay did a fantastic job as I knew you would. We've got a few more draft shows here over the next week or so.

And what we're going to do today is something that I love doing after every draft. We did it last year. I've written a version of this piece many years in the past when I used to write about football for a living. I want to talk about what we learned from the draft. Not necessarily the best classes. The worst class is great. it's all of that stuff. I think there is value and understanding and appreciating the ways the teams go about the draft. But I like figuring out what we can learn from their plans and from how the draft unfolded in

general. So we're going to talk about some team-specific plans here. But we're also going to talk about some overarching lessons that we can take away from the draft. And I want to start with one that I found a tiny bit surprising just because of the history of the position. You guys talked about this a little bit yesterday with Lindsay. But I thought a lesson from this draft, something that we learned, was that Not every quarterback class is going to be overdrafted.

And we can talk about whether this is a one-time thing, whether this is going to continue to happen, the factors that might have driven this. But I will say that I was a little bit surprised that we only saw one quarterback go in the first two rounds and that none of these guys were worth a dice roll earlier than that. Yeah, I'm with you. I personally, and I mentioned this, I said it on my breath a couple times with Dane. I was like, okay, this makes me feel better about my grade. maybe it's teams and this is again, is it just the one lesson? Is it a lesson or is there just a one-time thing like you just said?

But it's, do teams understand that you don't have to inflate the grade to take a quarterback? You know, maybe it's like this is a third round guy, but maybe we don't need it in round one or even early round two. Maybe they understand that the connotations, the optics of when you take a guy, say, in the early second,

which is where I thought really, okay, day two started. Here's the run on quarterbacks. here it comes. Like we, we, I mean, that's what it felt like too. It just felt like prime,

the teams picking there, the move up opportunities. And so like when that was happening, maybe these teams understand now, we're a little smarter. People are getting younger, I guess, or a new age of guys regime and,

uh, execs and decision makers is we don't have to reach on these guys and all of a sudden just start our clock. And all of a sudden it's, we take Willis at pick 33 or pick 38, Malik Willis, then all of a sudden it's like the fan basis. I kind of mentioned this on the live show.

Then the fan basis gets, antsy and all that. Maybe teams have understood all the optics that come and the value and the pedigree that you put on these guys because the clocks are all going to be different based on that draft position. So I don't know if that's a lesson I've learned. Maybe that's just the one-time thing because this was a dire class. Even the amount of quarterbacks that got taken on day three wasn't that extreme. You know, this is just overall. So there might have been a one-time thing for it, but maybe it's also a good snapshot of maybe teams getting maybe a tad smarter with how they view these guys and going maybe we don't have to take the dice roll right now because we really are going to just slid her own throat if it doesn't work out.

This is something I'll try to gather some string on here over the next few weeks. I talk to people. I have a few hunches. I talked to a GM this morning who was not surprised that the quarterback didn't get overdrafted. From his sense, not a lot of them took a lot of visits. Not a lot of them had a lot of workouts. And this is probably something we should have seen coming if I had done a little bit more homework. But some of the factors driving that, the fifth-year option thing, I think has to,

to be included. The idea that it has not been a benefit when it comes to the quarterbacks. And now that they're guaranteed, you're not necessarily saying, oh, we'll just take it because it gives us a little bit more leash when it comes to this decision. And if you look at what the Panthers and the Browns are dealing with right now with Baker and Sam Darnold. And Barnwell tweeted this the other day, the hit rate and how many times those 50-year options has even been exercised since they became a thing, it's not that big of a deal.

So that, I think, is part of it. the other side of this, if you're not going to take him in the first round, I think that allows some more wiggle room as to when they can possibly go. But also, these clocks, especially if you're not going to take a guy in the first round, you only have four years, if you're going to take a guy and understand he has to sit, so much of the value and benefit from taking a quarterback on a rookie deal, you lose 25% of it instantly. So then your decision-making process gets sped up,

if that guy is going to start in the second year. So I think there's just a lot of different factors bleeding into this. And that's why I think you saw so many teams scrambled to fill their seat before the draft happened. The same reason there's not a huge market for Baker and Jimmy Garoppolo in terms of potential landing spots. I think that in part drove the lack of desperation for quarterbacks because if you look at the landscape of the league, for the most part, teams had their guy.

Teams were ready to go. So I think it's coming from a bunch of different directions, but I definitely was surprised based on the expectations we had. I think that none of them went the second round. That's what's a little bit surprised. That's more weird to me than only one going in the first round. Because honestly, none of these guys are first round talents. I mean, you can squint and make a case for a couple of them.

But that is what, that wasn't the shocker. It was the second round that was so shocking to me. But again, it's that pedigree that comes with that draft slot. And sometimes the best decision you can make is avoiding. making a hard decision down the road. It's like, exactly. What makes someone else have that problem? Like, what's, what's, let's let them deal with it.

And now we have a third rounder and no one cares. No one cares. If he works out great, if he ends up a backup, cool. We're fine. That's exactly what I was saying about Atlanta and Detroit when we were getting into day two. If you were the Falcons and you draft Desmond Ritter with the 40th pick instead of in the third round and you're sitting there after this season and he's kind of a guy you invested in, but kind of not.

You have this third overall pick. Like how bad would he have had to have been for you not to want a quarterback with that spot? It just leads to some difficulty and some complexity and complications down the road that maybe you want to avoid. Now he's a third round pick. Yeah. You play out the year.

Let's say he wins the starting job. He has to be really good then for you to say, you know what? We're not going to spend the top three pick if we get one on a quarterback. the levels that you need to hit change because of where you drafted somebody. So that's, I wanted teams to avoid that complication by drafting quarterbacks that high that might be in range to go get one next year. And I'm kind of happy they did because I do think this removes a layer of difficulty from the conversations and the thought processes that are going to have to follow here

over the next 12 months. And also the repercutor the, I would say repercussions, but yeah, kind of repercussions. If say he does play, he plays or Mac Corral plays in the third, in a third round or, you know, not pick it because they took him in the first, but Willis has to play this year with the Titans. You also get that kind of wink, wink, nudge, nudge, add a benefit of we're kind of tanking, but we're not tanking, you know, like it's, you know, we're playing. Oh, we're just, it's a double benefit.

Hey, he gets live bullets, live reps. And also, if you do bad, it's like, well, it's not so bad to have a top five pick in 20, 23. Absolutely. Yeah. You don't mind the guy taking lumps. You learn about him, but also if you're bad, it really doesn't matter. So I think it worked out okay for all of those teams.

I do want to say, I'm actually, all these quarterbacks, I kept getting worried about how high they would go because I was like, man, I don't see any of those, but it'll get inflated. I'm actually kind of happy with where they all ended up. You know, pick it makes sense, whatever, the Pittsburgh connection, also the Matt Canada connection, all that stuff. But then Ritter in Atlanta, that's a great situation for him and the team. And I think Wilson, Tennessee is a great situation for him and team. And even Matt Corral.

Just, I mean, because he goes in the end of the third. I'm not going to talk about the Panthers. I don't want to take another shot at them. They may, might be someone else's problem. But those guys, even Sam Howell going into fifth, like those guys that we all were slotting and squint and maybe sneak into the first round, maybe early second, it's like now it's kind of like it's a nice pressure has been taken off a little bit on them a little bit and the teams.

I actually kind of like how it all ended up for everybody. Much lower stakes. The stakes are all across the board here for all of these teams. All right. The other big picture lesson that I think I learned when we're, especially with round one, the way it unfolded. The AJ Brown trade. It's funny doing the show live because you have to keep talking about everything that's happening.

And I don't think I talked enough about or thought enough about the fact how crazy it was that AJ Brown got traded. Because we like learned about it. The drags pick happened. Well, I kept going back to it. But then like the cheapster drafting George Carloftus and just like all of this other stuff. So, you know, we've talked about this in theory so much over the last couple months after the Devonte Adams trade. after the Tyree Kiltrick. Yeah.

The idea that Debo might get traded, smoke around DK Metcalf. This notion of there being a surplus of receivers and how it might impact team building and how it might force team decision making. It's no longer theoretical. Yeah. The Titans just did an experiment.

And the Vikings did this earlier with Stefan Diggs and Justin Jefferson a little bit. But this is like the supercharged version of it. It's like the same person. Same guy. So the Titans are looking at this and they're saying, you know what? Based on what AJ Brown said, they offered him a deal worth $16 million a year. That seems pretty low.

But let's say it's an under market value. They're not willing to pay up to what the market says right now for receivers. As a result, they trade AJ Brown to the Eagles and they draft an AJ Brown replacement. Somebody who was literally compared to AJ Brown in the process by a ton of different people. So now this thing we've talked about in theory is very real. You have a team that is doing this experiment in real time. And it's not nearly a stark because of how obvious the comparisons are. But the Ravens are just saying, peace, Hollywood, see you.

Which will go up to 23. We'll figure out what our offense looks like. And we'll talk about the Ravens a little bit later. But I just think this now becoming real and something that's happening in practice, it's a lesson that I've learned is that teams are looking at this and saying wide receiver of surplus and where we can find these guys should impact who we pay, how we drive. draft and how we look at this stuff on the long term. Absolutely.

I think it's a lot of, it's kind of cool, interesting, however you want to put it, that the Adams and Hill trades were kind of the bet on the quarterback and the rest of the team being better while this trade with the Titans and Eagles was like, like you said, it was the one to one replacement. Hey, we're going to find this exact guy. Like, that also comes with the picks that they made. It's financial. Like this is a financial decision where the other ones are more like, ah, what can we get?

They're value based decisions outside of the finances. And I just thought about this. There is another example of one-for-one replacement. And it comes from 2005. And honestly, did not have this in my notes. I'm actually kind of really happy. And I can't believe if I'm thought about this. Randy Mosskin traded to the Raiders from the Vikings.

And they replaced them with Troy Williamson, pick seven or eight, which again, two Troy Williamson mentions in this weekend. You're crushing it. Yeah. But that's another one-to-one because at the time, Red McCombs was the owner. Ziggy Wolf took over him for right after. Rema Combs was not paying Randy Moss a new chunk of change, a new contract. So what they did was that they took that money they could have had.

And that's how they signed Antoine Winfield, Pat Williams, Fred Smoot, which I won't mention again. But those guys, but that was the same line to thinking was rather than taking that one guy and having the superstar receiver will just pay the defense and shore up the defense. Because that was another example of that. But yeah, teams are trying to do that. Just the one for one or get another guy that maybe is the 80% value, like the chief's going with Sky Moore. in the second round and getting all these other guys on defense and shore them up those positions and give them a ball. Kind of you're betting on your quarterback to boost the receiver talent and offense align.

And then the defense also shores up just the whole team. So I understand it. Like you said, it's a financial decision. It's an allocation of resources. Everything is, you wish you had unlimited resources. We can break the cap as much as we want. Wish we could get 15 draft picks every year, all of them in the top 100. But it changes year to year.

So might as well just every time your situation is going to change. So let's get ourselves in the best possible situation, rather than hamström. in ourselves. We'll talk about the Titans and how it relates to them specifically a little bit later in the show, but on a broader level, I just thought it was worth approaching. And yeah, the last thing, I don't have anything about the Eagles. I mean, it's just them dropping A.J. Brown into this situation, I'm not sure we learned anything about the Eagles and what they're thinking here and what they're trying to do.

I mean, they're just setting themselves up for whatever. I mean, whenever the next 12 months looks like they have two first round picks next year, I think they're building the best possible team they can around whoever their quarterback is going to end up being over the next couple years. Even drafting Cam Juergens as a ready made replacement for Jason Kelsey next year. That team, that 2023 Eagles offense is going to be set up no matter what happens. And I think that their investment into that, it's very telling in terms of what they want to be, where they think they can go.

I love that Kelsey was part of. That was cool. That Kelsey was part of the process for drafting him. I've never heard about that. I love it. I absolutely love that. That was really cool. I loved how he was like, compared to obviously.

other guys that have come out the last few years that people have been comparing to me. He's like, this is the guy. So that was really, really cool. Yeah. It's kind of like he truly is like, I mean, he's going to be a mentor. Now he has ownership on him a little bit, right? So that's awesome. And that's how you, him coming back and now Cam Driggins getting to sit in that room

with Jason Kelsey for the next year. And if he does take over next season, can you imagine a better education if you're trying to get that job than the guy who's done it at a whole fame level for the past 10 years? It's not, it's not trying to learn lessons from like Jonathan Og. in about how to pass that. You're just like, it's actually stuff you can use. It's like, okay, you're short-armed, but you're quick and everything. So I'm going to use exactly what you have.

But that's real program building is having succession plans. That's what we've complimented the Ravens a whole bunch of times and we're about to do, I'm sure, right now. But that is real program building is having a plan and also you're building depth. And it's a, again, it's a two-way win. It's, you know, just really like amplifies as time goes on because you're just shoring up your floor. I don't know how so you want to put it, but it's like, I really like that. I really like what the Eagles are doing. And like you said, they're really building up.

2022 is a bonus year for them, I think. And then 2023 is like when the real plan kind of comes into fruition as far as their next step. I'm excited to see what they're doing. All right. You have another positional one that you wanted to talk about. Yeah. A little more overarching.

Yeah. I really, and this is the safety's, this safety class kind of clicked. And I think safeties has been a really fun position to watch the last couple of years as we've talked about in the show. But really, I've mentioned this. and this is power slots and slots getting bigger and guys going more vertical from there. Safety is playing the nickel in the slot position, the star position. And this is, we've seen it in the NFL cropping up, but really that safety body type.

And it's just kind of click for me is that we have bigger slots. So let's get bigger bodies on the defensive side in the slot because what do we use the thing of slot receiver? We think Cole Beasley. We think the undersized little shifty guy. Yeah. Now as these guys are becoming more big and blocking types. well, we'll just get the defensive version of that. We have a surplus, like we have a surplus of receivers,

really coming into the NFL or right now in the NFL, there is a little bit of a surplus of safeties. We have more of safety body types than corner body types. We have limited amount of guys that can play the slot as a nickel corner, true 5-9, 185-pound guy that's really quick because there's not a lot of them. There's not a lot of guys that can do that. So we have these playable safeties. And I think with that surplus of that, it's like, why not use them?

They have value on special teams. They don't have to worry about the guy breaking them off on a whip route or a choice route now. They're attacking on sail routes and all those digs and deep stuff and overs. So it's get a bigger body there. And the Dax Hill pick, the Lewis Seen pick, guys that went in the second round, Petrie, getting more of those guys. It's more of becoming a DB body or just that kind of middle body as opposed to just safety or slot nickel. You know, it's kind of interesting. We've talked about it.

It's not like a new thought. but I see it coming up where it's happening in the NFL more that it usually just be like the Patriots would have the big nickel. The Saints would have the big nickel. Okay, that's really about it. But I think more and more teams are just going, let's just get these guys on the field because they're good football players. Now we can get the more versatile looks. And I think you can do that because one of the defenses you have, they're going too high. You need a better run fit guy from the slot as well, a bigger body.

Because if you're not going to have single high, you need that body into the run fit and also just the receivers that they're playing against. I think it's all just kind of coming to fruition. and then more of these guys from the college that have been doing it, it's going to be an easier translation to the NFL. I just think it's really interesting, kind of like this next step that we're seeing with that position. I think that the Chargers is another good example of that, where we thought the Chargers would they go with another corner?

Instead, they draft J.T. Woods in the third round. What does this mean? Does this mean that Derwin's going to get more snaps in the star position? And he's going to play more in the slot, and they feel comfortable putting J.T. Woods out there as a third safety and playing the three safeties more often. I think you're seeing that with a lot of teams. And I think you're seeing it with the team that you just alluded to.

And it's the first team-based lesson I want to talk about. The lesson I learned about the Baltimore Ravens this weekend. And it's a lesson that we've learned over the years, but I think was really driven home over the last few days. They are always ready to pivot. They are always ready for whatever the next phase of their franchises. Think about the Ravens under John Harbaugh. Think about how many different versions of them there have been.

There have been so many different. phases that this team has gone through offensively and defensively. What they are with Lamarer quarterback is so different than what they were with Joe Flackerel quarterback. You've had defensive and offensive coordinators sift in and out of there and have different philosophies and different

approaches. And you know, for the most part, you know, the Patriots have had their guys in there the whole time for the last 20 years. There have been small vacillations on with offensive philosophy and how they've built it. But the coordinators are pretty much stayed the same. The Ravens, I think there's been more variety.

And they've always been willing to say, well, you know, let's just do this instead. And I think you saw it in two different ways. Them just taking Kyle Hamilton and saying, all right, maybe Chuck Clark is potentially expendable. And it sounds like they could trade him if that's how it all turns out. And okay, like we'll just, we'll trade the guy who has been our green dot guy and one of our captains. And we're just comfortable doing that. And then on the other side of this, think about what they did at receiver in their

past catching spots for the last few years where they had all these tiny fast guys. and that's how they were going to build their receiver room. They trade Hollywood Brown. They didn't pick a receiver. Nope. So they have DuBrona and Tylon Wallace, both of whom are undersized. And then they have Rashad Baby. And now they have two more tight ends to throw into the mix with Andrews, with Nick Boyle.

I mean, all of these teams that they have, all these guys that they have. And so they're like, all right, we're just going to pivot back to this tight end-based offense where we're going to run the ball a ton, and that's going to be who we are. And they're totally fine doing that. They're just going to let things come to them and they're going to be flexible as they figure out what is the best way for us to be the team we're supposed to be in this moment. And then they move on from Wink Martindale. Mike McDonald's going to come in. He played a lot of press quarters at Michigan, maybe more zone defense.

You have those two safeties. You're asking less of your corners. So now they're not going to be this corner heavy, man heavy team on defense. It's not huge swings from one end of the spectrum to the other. But it's just these tiny little privates. You turn the knobs one way or the other, and this is just our best way to succeed right now. Do you know how fucking hard it is to be a relevant NFL team for ever? For a decade, for decades.

And this is how you do it. You just have, you have organizational alignment where a lot of the same people are in charge. The dialogue is always healthy. And you understand how you want to get from point A to point B, but you're flexible in the ways that you're willing to do that. And I just am always impressed by that. There's a reason it feels like the draft always comes to them. It's because they're willing to be patient and open-minded with what they want to be and how they're going to get there.

Yeah. And you mentioned the pivoting. And that's what I like what they're, what Harbaal always does with the coaches too. He's willing to bring an outside influence that he has no experience with, which I really like. And he'll, and when they bring in a new quarter, like if they do bring in like a Greg Roman or something like that on the offensive side, it's not a wholesale change. He'll keep a lot of the assistants. Like the other assistants stay or maybe one new guy comes in, but it's not like a wholesale.

Roman's got to bring in all of his guy. But I like that because then you get some continuity. You get sprinkling in new ideas. But so you get the best of both worlds as opposed to, I'm not saying this is better or worse, but like the Patriots, you'll see like a guy's resume with the Patriots. It's like started as a scouting assistant in 2009, 2010, offensive assistant. 2011. Like they slow. It's always Patriots, Patriots, Patriots, which is good in some ways and bad in other ways.

But I have always liked that with the Ravens. And also like the Linderbaum selection, even just these tweaks, same coaches, same everything. But now is having Linderbom at center as opposed to more of a gap heavy guy is now maybe they're working at other influences in their run game. They're looking at the pinpole stuff. Maybe they watch what the Eagles are doing with Kelsey and Jalen Hertz and going, hmm, I think we could throw that in there.

A logical place to steal some ideas, right? Why would we? They had a dynamic run game. They've worked against 2021 defenses. Why? And those aren't going away. Everybody's going to too high. So why don't we do the same things?

So and that comes a lot too is it's just that's, they say in video games a lot, the meta META, but that's the meta too, not the Facebook group. But that that is, that's the thing is now the fronts are changing. So now the runs that you can do against them are changing. So that gap stuff is, yeah, it's still going to be there, the GT counter and all that. But now let's get these other other variations of that. Let's get more center pull stuff. We'd seem like Mitch Morse, who's 6-6, but he's 300 pounds with 32-inch arms for Buffalo.

Buffalo will do center pole stuff with him. So I see they're tweaking the game to, you know, we have a really good player. Let's unlock them. Let's unlock them rather than square peg round hold it. But I like that. I also had the note, too, about moving on from Hollywood and emphasizing tight ends. I think tight ends, just like safeties, those kind of middle body types, those tweener body types. They're just to become more and more prominent as coaches are willing to use them and just spots,

Just get best five players out there. It doesn't matter what the personnel grouping is. I think that's just the Ravens understanding that and understanding where the league's going a little bit. Listen, Devin Du René runs a 434 or 43940. Like they still have some speed. They're going to be able to have that element in their offense. And now they just went a slightly different direction with,

I mean, trading essentially Hollywood Brown for a center, I think is all you really need to know about how the Ravens are willing to change who they want to be and how they're going to get there. As opposed to the AJ Brown for Traylon Berg's. Yeah, exactly, right? This can go any more opposite. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah, that's a great way to put it. So the next one I had, we don't have to spend a ton of time on this. Everyone has talked about the Jets. I think the lesson you learned from the Jets draft, they wanted to hit on a little bit. They've done what they can to make this thing work. Like that's what I've learned. I mean, it's you look at the starting lineup, just the depth chart chart the depth chart the Jets have right now. And what it looked like before free agency and what it looks like after the draft.

It's like, here's the team. Yep. Here's the team. Joe Douglas has done what he can to correct course here from what the Jets were before he got there. The 2000 draft, hopefully Beckton works out. If he doesn't, it's a disaster. But you have a new coaching staff in there last year. There's some alignment there.

It's a coaching staff that he wanted to be a part, like he wanted to partner with. It's different. It's different when you have that arranged marriage and then you actually get to start what you're going to do. And I think what they did over the last two years, hopefully this is the team. We've said it before. We'll say it again. If the quarterback doesn't work out, none of this shit matters. Yes.

But if they have put the rest of the roster in the best possible situation here. Yeah. I see the vision. And that's, yeah, my note on is they're taking away any possible excuse for Zach Wilson. And just how the Eagles are doing for J-1 Hertz, is this our guy? If it is, holy shit, we're great. And if it's not, okay, all right, now we know what the path is for it. But yeah, I even like the, I mentioned, I always like how they sign those two tight ends.

but even it's like getting that Jeremy Ruckert type in the third. Now you like are, it's just a nice, again, having a plan there. You're getting another body type that's useful. We can ease in there. We can move on from these guys once they, you know, their contracts end up. I don't know, just little small things like that. Michael Carter was great last year and it was like, okay, are they going to really maybe get another middle round guy?

Let's get Breece Hall, which is boom, bump up that position even more. And that, again, that's the first steps to a good plan as far as like as team building and everything. I like what they did. I think a lot of us do. And yeah, there really, a lot of pressures on the floor to get the offense going because I really like the pieces they added. I mean, they have so many pass catchers now.

If they, you know what I like about the record thing? It reminds me of the Browns drafting Harrison Bryant a couple years ago. Yeah. Where you already have in Joku and Hooper. It's like, oh man, we really need another tight end. If you feel like you need to live in 13 personnel every once in a while for whatever reason, it helps your run game. There's complexity.

Your screen game opens up. you want to get the ball on those guys' hands, just little tiny things. And it allowed the Browns. Yeah, and it allowed the Browns to move on from Watson Hooper when that contract was getting a little bit more expensive. It builds in flexibility down the line. So I don't mind that at all. And just the types of guys they went after, right?

Yeah. When you're looking at the depth charts, this is the one spot where they really need an impact player. And they played a lot more man coverage last year than you would think with somebody from that coaching tree. But all this stuff is so mixed together now. Jeff Ulbrook, when he was in Atlanta, when he was their co-defensive coordinator, they were running a lot more man coverage. I mean, all of the stuff, none of it is as pure as it used to be. And I think that having a guy at that position with a little bit more of a diverse skill set, somebody who can play press coverage, you can play man coverage,

and how it can unlock you in different ways. I think that fits in most schemes in the NFL amount. Even those teams that have purity to the way they play defense, Gus Bradley having Stefan Gilmore, if Stefan Gilmore wants to play that cover three up in some guys' face mask, he can do that. So I just think that having a guy like that is valuable, really no matter how you're playing defense or who you want to be.

But then you, oh, go ahead. Oh, no, I was going to say, I think with NFL offenses and defenses, because it is so oh, copycat league and everything. But it really, it's everyone operates from the same menu. It's just which one do you want to, which part of the buffet do you really want to eat? So sometimes you're, you know, the chicken doesn't look too good. So all right, I'm going to have steak this time.

Like that's, that's kind of just what it is. Everyone has the same menu and same selection of plays that kind of like get weaned into the NFL. So that's what that's so interesting is the guys that go, no, I'm having chicken every single time, Gus Bradley. I'm having chicken. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's not. But in some like Ulbrick, well, you know, they tweak and they go, oh, man, I like that recipe you had. So, okay, okay, cool.

We'll spice that up a little bit. So I always think that's interesting is what people emphasize based on what they're given. And also, I mean, obviously going to get a receiver, going to get another pass rusher. Yeah. I mean, these are the positions that you would expect. Jermaine Johnson, we thought they could draft a pass rush for at 10. That team and where Sal comes from, that I do believe that he's always going to want more pass rushing talent. So you think about just how many bodies they can cycle through there.

all the moves they made made sense. You can argue with the value of a Breece Hall. Going back up to get a running back, we can talk about that, you know, until we're blue in the face. I'd prefer not to. But you can understand them needing a bigger body and wanting somebody at that position.

The last thing I wanted to mention with the Jets, they, for all the draft capital they came into this draft with, they did not pick after 117. Yep. And I'm wondering, so the Eagles also did not have any late round picks despite how many picks they came into this draft with. where did Joe Douglas come from? Great point.

So I'm wondering if this thought about the value of essentially top 100 picks, like around 120, if as some of these ideas and analytically driven ideas start filtering through the league a little bit more, if teams are going to be devaluing picks outside of that top 120-ish range. Because I've heard that before from multiple teams. that even Quaise said the other day, Adolfo Metso, he was doing a pre-draft press conference and I think it was kind of a commentary on the way the Vikings used to do things. When Rick Spilman was, there was like,

no amount of seventh round picks can ever add up to a first round pick. So even if bites at the apple later in the draft, they're not nearly as valuable. So do you try to use that capital that you're wielding to move up? You don't want to trade back up into the top 10 and trade away future first round picks and all that. That's always bad. That's for a quarterback.

But if you want to be a little bit more flexible and be a little bit more aggressive in that like 100 to 150 range, are we going to be seeing that a little bit more often? That's just something that set off a little alarm bell in my head. Absolutely. And that's the thing. They only picks, they pick seven times. How many picks do you usually start with? Seven picks. Yes.

It just happened that all of them were for 120 and three of them were in the top 26. And actually, four of them were in the top 36. Like it's just, all right, let's just push them up. It's we talk about bites of the apple. Obviously, a top 10 pick is a nice, you know, real, real big bite. Seventh round picks are like just you're licking it. So you get a little flavor of a player, but I don't know if you really get anything out of it. So I know, I totally believe in that.

That's just what's, there's only a certain amount of guys that are real tangible players. But also, like, that's maybe that's why the specialist run came from, like in round four. Yeah. Like maybe it was just teams going like, hey, let's get a guy that can actually affect the game as opposed to, you know, maybe this, you know, sloppy guard or five, seven corner. Like, let's get a guy that's actually going to play. That's actually something I'm interested, too. Is that just because of the year or because like punters, teams are viewing as

more of a draftable position because there's not as volatile as kickers? So that's something I'm very interested in seeing that, hey, that extra first down, that good punter makes the defense or makes the other team do every time. Is that valuable? I'm very curious with that. That's something we could talk about a little bit later. I'd like to do a little bit more research on punter value and how much can actually impact the game.

So I mentioned the Vikings briefly. Now, we don't have to spend a ton of time on this. I, the way they picked, I think, is an extension of this idea that they think they can, they're trying to win right now. If you look at the positions they went for, Andrew Booth, Lewis, Seen, Ed Ingramman, the second round, the three spots they really needed starters are the interior of the offensive line. You can make tight end could be an argument, but the interior of the offensive line, safety

corner. They needed secondary players and they needed somebody on the interior of the offensive line. They got all of that. So that's those spots. They need real impacted players early on. But also, he is not afraid to get weird. That's another thing that really weird. They did not make a pick in this draft that they originally owned.

It's amazing. Every single pick that they made was like someone challenged him. It was like someone challenged him to do it. And it's you, there are a lot of teams. in the league. Guys, GMs, decision makers that we would say are kind of analytically driven people aren't only trade down guys. No.

That's a misconception. I've said that and thought that in the past before actually looking at the data. A lot of those guys, there's an aggressiveness with trading. They're willing to do it. So I think it's more about saying we're willing to move around and try to find pockets of value rather than we're always going to trade down. So I thought them making as many moves as they did up and down. down the board.

It's just fun to see how people that have never done this before are going to go about the process. And see what their ammo is. Yes. And just watching them move all around and saying, oh, we'll go down. We'll go up. We will be proactive in this. And the Eagles used to be the same way.

You know, like, and they still are. Eagles will trade down. They'll accumulate picks. They understand the value of those. But they went up for Jordan Davis. They're willing to do that and use that ammunition that they've accumulated. So just something to keep an eye on. I always like seeing how first-year GMs and first-year front offices approach the process

because I think it's just something that we can learn about. Yeah, like all that surplus that you potentially create with trading down, like that's great. Yeah, you accumulate all the surplus. But sometimes it's like, okay, we already accumulate the equivalent of the third round pick. Okay, so maybe if we trade up and it's like we, you know, losing the equivalent of fourth-round pick or however you want to look at it, the deficiency. But it's, okay, we're still ahead. You're still ahead at the end of the game.

Like each move, that's why you can't look at each move as just a one-ne. one thing or just like a piece small under your viewpoint of all that. But it's like as you take a step back and look at it, it's like over time, they accumulate so much more value by doing all those moves. So yeah, I know it was interesting because it's funny looking at the review of all their picks and every one of their picks is pick 32 from, pick 42 from, pick 59 from every single one says from. So that's really funny.

All right. Next one here. We want to talk about both these teams. A lesson I learned about the Falcons and the Seahawks is that they are pretty much committed to rebuilds. They are committed to their rebills. The running back pick for the Seahawks is a bit of an off ramp from that. But he's a good player, but come on. Chris Carson may never play again.

Rashad Penny might not be there next year. Again, that's a long view pick. I mean, the idea that both of those guys may not even be on the team in 2023. So we may need a running back. It's funny. But other than that, they spent a vast, overwhelming majority of their picks on players at premium positions. Yep.

Going to get tackles, going to get corners, going to get a pass rusher. So that I can totally get on board with. I think the Falcons went about this in the same way. You go get a wide receiver, you'll get two edge guys, a linebacker that might take a little bit of time to come along,

but it has outlandish physical characteristics that you can talk yourself into. So watching both of those teams, a shoe quarterback early, go get guys at premium positions. The Desmond Ritter-dice role, I think, also plays into this. It's like, you know what?

Let's just see how this stuff works out. Let's go get guys that have big upside can potentially be players for us down the road as we figure out this next little stage of who we are. So that's the takeaway I have with both of those teams. I agree. I like both of their draft classes. And yeah, I think Cross is a bona fide left tackle. And that's so hard to find anywhere.

And might as well take it. He's sitting there at 9. Might might as well take him. Lucas with the right tackle. Yeah, I said the same thing. I was like Kenny Walker is a luxury pick. But hell of a player. So whoever, whoever starts for him at quarter.

It's going to love hand it off to them. But also, yeah, those corners they took on day three. I thought the Seahawks, that was really cool to see. You couldn't get two more opposite spectrums as far a type of play. You have Kobe Bryant, the other Cincinnati quarterback that won the cornerback that won the Jim Thorpe Award, more of a tough football IQ guy. And then you got Tarek Wollin, the ultimate height, weight speed, 6-4 converted receiver. Dice rolls. I love it.

Yeah, I know, both ends in the spectrums. I loved it too. Yeah, and I love with the Falcons, sweet spot with the QB, Project. types on defense, getting a weapon with Drake London for whoever plays QB for them down the road. And also, they got a bona fide starting running back with Tower Al Jir, who I love from BYU, sneaky rookie to your bet anyone's looking into that. But also, you know, taking the swing of the bat, Desmond Ritter, I'm agreeing with what you're saying.

I really like, it's a plan for 2023 and beyond as opposed to 2022. I mean, the Falcons right now, they're 2023 offense. If Ritter's the guy, if he's not the guy, that's what remains to be seen. Jake Matthews is going to be there. They just gave Jake Matthews a new contract. Chris Lindstrom is probably going to be there. Right tackle isn't murky. So we'll see what happens there eventually.

But now you have Drake London and Kyle Pitts as your two receiving options. It's a good start for whoever the quarterback is going to end up being what their plan is on offense. And on defense, you got Ebikati and you got AJ Terrell. We'll figure it all out later. And having a corner and a pass rusher as whatever the foundation of your defense is going to look like over the next few years, I can get on board with that.

So the way that both of those teams that probably aren't going to win a ton of games right now approach this draft made sense to me. One just in that same vein, the lesson I learned about the Lions, they're not trying to rebuild forever. Going up and going to get James and Williams and not sitting there in the back half of the first round and being willing to do that, that's a level of aggressiveness that we have not really seen from them at all

over the first two years that Brad Holmes has been there. And understandably so, there's no benefit to them chasing players when they're there. I don't know if this is how I would do it. I'm not necessarily saying that it's a virtue to go do this when you're at the stage they're at right now. But that level of aggressiveness, I think, is we learned something from that. They're trying to tell us something with saying, all right, we need the guys. Eventually, we're going to need these to turn into players. And that's what we're trying to do here.

Yeah, as much as I love Quintas, Cephys, all right, he can't, you know, he's not really going to be our guy. And Shark is only there for a year. Yeah. So they're trying to build up that pass catching core, again, for whoever the quarterback is going to be next season. They have two first round picks. I think they're going to be bad, all that stuff. Yeah. And they weren't getting talent like Jameson Williams, like later in the second round.

You know, I pick 33 or. They were getting Christian Watson. Or yes, exactly. You're moving up two seconds to get Christian Watson. But yeah, no, I completely agree with this is that I think with bumping up there, getting a guy that you usually wouldn't be able to get. and say even next year, if they probably will need a quarterback, you know, or if they're looking at one, then it's, okay, if we got that quarterback, we're still probably not getting that speed guy that we would need for them or that receiver talent. So might as well get it this year if we're not going to move on to a quarterback this year as well. So like what they're doing.

I love all their all their other picks, their defense's picks, especially. Paschal from Kentucky and Hutchison, of course, being the number two pick. Love the culture of their building with Alliance. And yeah, it's going to be fun watching Dan Campbell hard knocks, you know, with some inside drill with those. guys. We talked about this a little bit during the day two show. I don't want to belabor this because it's just going to make me sad. But my lesson that I learned about the Bears is that they are more concerned with digging

themselves out of the hole that was created by the previous regime than they are with leveraging themselves to help Justin Fields. And I can understand that to an extent, even if it's not my favorite. They started this draft with six picks. They made 11. They just kept trading down at the end of the draft. It's like, we just need dice rolls. We need, we need picks because of just how few picks,

how few young, promising, ascending players are on the roster because of how few draft selections were made over the last five years compared to most other teams. They added five picks by the end of the draft that they didn't start with. A lot of O-line projects in rounds five through seven. How many small butts can we make? make to try to piece this group together after not taking any big swings in free agency. So the only thing where I'm sitting there looking at him and like, God, that's frustrating,

is when you made your move at receiver taking a 25-year-old kick returner. That's the only thing where it's like, ah, man, like maybe they see something in him. Maybe there's, it does work out in the end. But the process of that when you consider some of the other guys on the board. Just give me Jalen Tolbert. Just give me somebody who can play. Even David Bell. Just give me somebody who can play.

Even if the upside is much more limited with two guys like that, having somebody who could potentially be a functional receiver for Justin Fields to throw to this year is all I need there. So now we move into a Jarvis Landry conversation or who is still available. Again, it could be a functional receiver on the free agent market. Maybe they can go get somebody there. But that's the lesson I learned is that Ryan Poles understands this is going to be a process. and he's trying to be as patient and meticulous as he can in that process. But while doing that as,

but we've talked about this, he has no obligation to do everything he can to make sure Justin Field succeeds. It's not his pick. And I'm not saying that it means he doesn't believe in him, but that's just the small difference between drafting a quarterback in the first round and inheriting a quarterback that was drafted in the first round. And that difference does matter sometimes. Yeah, it's, it's kind of.

kind of having this cake and eat it too because he can say it feels works out he's like hey you know but if it doesn't he goes oh well i get to take a guy too right wasn't my guy yep so i get it i get it they i mean you just go like on our lads and you look at their depth chart it's just it's funny it's it's rough man it's a lot of you use as an unrestricted free agent and a lot of like 22 5 226 meeting fifth and six round picks that are all littered on the too deep not even in the back end of the roster. So yeah. They don't have any players.

They're going to have to, I mean, I haven't seen how many undrafted free agents they've signed it. I'm sure it's a lot of undrafted free agents that they went out to sign because they need to sign like a couple dozen guys to even get to a roster minimum here by the end of this. Their cash spending was at the bottom of the NFL before the draft started because I think they're trying to be as patient as they can see how this thing unfolds. So there's a long way to go with that roster, but they understood that. And I think that was dictating some of the ways that they've approached this process over the last couple months.

It's a bad football team. And they are not much better than they were before anything started with the offseason. So it's going to be a long, tough road out of here. It really is. On the opposite end of the spectrum, my lesson that I learned from the Saints, we already knew this to an extent, but they really hammered this thing home. The Saints think they can win right now. Oh, yeah.

Like right now in this moment, the Saints think that they are a Super Bowl contender. New head coach, don't matter. We have a quarterback of a like, you know, rental deal basically to your deal. Yeah, don't matter. We're all in, baby. I think they just look at the bucks and they're like, we can beat that, I guess. I guess don't want to worry about the Packers, Rams, I guess. But yeah, I guess that's where they're at.

So it's just so funny because I thought with a new regime, wait, even if it was a promotion, I thought it might be just a little bit of a, like a deep breath season. for the same. Opposites. Nope. Crank it up. Let's get Chris Alaba. Let's get,

you know, like, let's get Trevor padding, all that stuff. So it's, it's interesting. When they made the move, yeah,

to get the extra first, some of the smoke, and I remember Daniel Jeremiah said this and credit to him for getting this right. Yep. They thought this is for two players, because if they can fill those two holes, everything kind of comes together.

It was the two holes we thought. It was wide receiver and offensive tackle. Those were the two guys they got. But beyond that even, they traded a third. and a fourth to go get Chris Lave. I mean, this team is, it's amazing to watch. I honestly appreciate it.

Even if it's not sound, it's hard not to be impressed with the gall. It would be so boring if everyone was trying to trade back. Yes. So you need to tango. It's just called the Saints, call New Orleans. I think you want the team to kind of the culture, like the bills are a little bit, to epitomize the city that they're in. Say it's Marty Grau.

Screw it. Let's go gamble a little bit. You know, Riverbroe gamble this a little bit. So I know. This is, I love Chris Olbe. That's a lot to give up for Crystal Lobby. And I guess that's, if you feel like you can go and make it into the playoffs and make it make some noise at the dance, I guess so. But that's, whoo, that felt like a cherry on top move.

And now the free agency market is going to open back up again, compicks are off the board. It sounds like, based on what Adam Shepter reported this weekend, that they're going to go after Tyra Matthew. And that is a win now move. You dropped Tyron Matthew into that scenario with Marcus May. They re-signed a bunch of corners. Their front seven, even if it's getting a little longer in the tooth, is still very good. This team could be pretty good. I mean, if it all comes together, this team can be pretty good.

James Winston is still their quarterback. James Winston's fine. I mean, that's kind of the wild card in all of this is if they try to put a little bit more on his plate, their offensive line maybe isn't going to be as good as it was early on last season. A lot of different complicating factors. there potentially, but the Saints are telling you that they think they can do this right now. It's going to be fun to watch in any way, shape, form. A couple other teams that I think are in that same conversation.

The bill's going to get the corner they needed and that past catching running back they tried to get in free agency. There was nothing surprising about the directions the bills went with those two picks. And you think that there's another team that is kind of in that same category. Yeah, I thought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that, of course, Tom Brady came back. that was, it was just so funny going from, oh, what are they going to do next? Now Tom Brady comes back and says, oh, yeah, they're, you know, they're trying to contend. And so when you look at their class, I actually really liked it without even having a first round pick.

They had a pick 33. So the first pick in the second, round with the tree with the Jaguars. But all their selections in the second, third, and fourth round, I really like. Logan Hall, I think, is a useful player with some upside. He can move around the defensive line. I compared him on the live show to like a Diet Coke version of Eric Armstead. And yeah, and I like that for what Todd, does with his guys based on base downs and sub downs. It makes a lot of sense.

Luke Kadecki playing on the interior offensive line can slot right in. Adds a little depth with his versatility. Rashad White, who I'm really high on as a running back. And also Kate Otten, they're first picking the fourth round. Really, really, really like Kate Otton. I think he's a true wide tight end. Good blocker, solid hands. A little different, but compared to Jack Doyle a little bit, but just that type of player, just a nice, gritty, useful player, but actually has a little bit of a juice in the passing game. I really liked all those.

And those felt like starters. They might not have like the sexy upside that other guys would have. Like I know he went in the first round, like Tyler Smith is kind of like a whole upside pick, like offensive tackle. Luke and Decky couldn't be any more opposite. Like it's more of like solid. You know what he is.

It's got some limitations, but he's more of a good sound football player. So it's like, yes, cap isn't high. The bucks don't need that. They have good, good football players. They need more kind of those solid types. So along with the bills,

and like you said, I like what the bills were doing. Bill's were really funny. It's like, we want, it was like a kind of funny need and value for the bills. It was like, we need a second corner. Oh, we got one. We need a pass catching runnerback. And we got that guy as well.

It's kind of like they were doing the cherry on top moves because they should because they're very close to winning a Super Bowl. They're contending team. Same with the bucks. They went more of a, we're going to get these solid starters. They're going to play rotational snap for us. So I really, really like what they did. All I wanted was a corner for the bills in the first round.

It's all I wanted. I've been talking about for like two weeks. We wanted a free agency too. Give me whoever it is because I just want to see all the pieces together for that team because I want to see what this. All right, let's push it, baby. Yeah. Where this is it. Like the Chiefs trade, Tyree Kill.

Maybe there's a little bit of uncertainty with what's happened in the AFC, even though there's a bunch of good teams. We can get there. We are right there. And they got your guy Shakir. I know. I loved it. I loved it. You're going to love Ielam, though.

Kyri Elim is like, he's a fun. I'm not a bills fan, by the way. I think the bills are fun. They do a lot of stuff. I'm like, I like that guy. I like that guy. I like what they do.

I know. I know. That's one of those teams for us. I root for the teams that do this thing well. Like I also want to see them succeed. Yeah. I want some aesthetically pleasing things. That's, that's all I want.

That's all I want. But Elon's, he's just cultural fit too. Just a smart sound player. Like he's, he's really fun. Physical. I mean,

he's going to fit right in with the way they play. It's perfect. I know right in. It was like, when he went there. I was like, of course he became a bill. I just keep thinking that. And James Cook, James Cook for me is more of receiver only type.

Well, not receiver only type, but that's where his game is. And that makes sense. They like the Chuck. Good. Yeah, exactly. I love Khalil Shakir for him. I had a mid-late second round grade on Khalil Shakir. I think he was worth a day two pick.

I saw him in an article that wrote for the athletic about best fits for these receivers before the draft. And I had Shakir as a late second round pick for the bills. That was one of them. they got him in the fifth. And again, I'm a higher guy on him. His gray's more universal, more third roundish, some early fourth with him. But God, they need a slot only type of guy.

Boom. This guy is, I think he can win on the outside with some releases, but I think he's going to make it living on the slot because he has a sound chain mover with a little bit of yak afterwards. It's going to be great on passing downs for them, which is really every down for the bills. Speaking of receivers, you liked more than consensus, the lesson I learned about the Colts, and it's not again, something more driven home. This is and will be a traits team.

When they're drafting guys. And you, Alec Pierce went in the second round. You, other people at Alec Pierce in like the fourth round. You loved him. And what I heard was they liked him more than some of the other receivers that went in the back off the first and in the second round. They thought that he was right there within that first tier of guys. And they got him at 53. I mean, when you look at his testing numbers, it does seem to fit what they want.

All the Sky Moore stuff and people like that. that never made sense to me because they're just going to take home run swings at positions like that. And that's what Alex Pierce is. And that's where this is also the thing that we, I do it all the time. Painting guys broadly just based on their size and speed numbers based on how they play. And we had a nice discussion with Dane about this and how it fits with Pittman. It's they might be built very similar. Like they look very similar how they're built.

Play style is so different between those two. This idea of Michael Pittman is like this big. ball winner outside the numbers guy that's not really how he plays you know I know I know and I feel like I'm going crazy I start started seeing that coming up when they were talking about Drake London in him and they're like comparing Drake London to Pittman and I was like I'm not really seeing that guys that's not really their skill sets but Pierce I love love love because I think his arrow's pointing up and on top of that he has so many good traits along with toughness it's not like he doesn't know how to play football and you're just like oh he's a track guy it's he's

an athlete who's learning how to play receiver, but also already shows enough that you can work with. I mean, I just really like him for especially with what they have, especially pairing him with Pittman. But yeah, I just like the path for him. Like as a deep and intermediate guy working on underneath stuff, can play the power slot stuff and block. Man, I think Alec Pierce, that has a traits pick for them. Also, Jolani Woods, the tight end they took as a pure traits home run swing. What are you kind of like, we talked about this one time?

He asked what I look for in tight end scouting. and sometimes I just say, take the biggest athlete and hope it works out. And that's what Johnny Woods is. He's the biggest athlete. And even beyond that, Nick Cross, pure athlete. Bernard Raymond tested off the charts. Yep. I mean, you think of him as a lower upside guy because he's older, but he tested off the charts.

He's going to get a chance to be there starting left tackle. I don't know if it's going to happen, but I think he will get a chance to be there starting left tackle this season. He's funny, he's plenty athletic enough and has enough technique with him. It's just a short arm. That's his biggest knock. It's not so much a like, oh, man, he's a stiff athlete or, man, he doesn't, he has enough to him with some upside even though he's at 25. So, yeah, no, I'd be curious if that works out because he's a good football player. I wanted to ask you this.

What do you think you learned about the Texans? Do you think you learned anything? I was trying to find, like, a through line with them. And it's, I don't know if there was one. It seemed to me that they wanted, like, like, God, it's just a lot of these guys that they selected, I'm just looking at their class. a lot of tougher football players. So maybe it's a culture thing that they're going for as far as like a Petrie, Jalen Petrie from Baylor, Metschie.

Two Alabama guys. Bama guys, some pedigree with their picks. Damien Pierce, the running back they took is a big tough physical guy. Yeah, Christian Harris, you already mentioned the Alabama guy. But maybe those guys are more of like they're just trying to like really set the tone for their whole franchise, I guess. They actually, you know, some decent talent. Like Derek Stingley is a hell of a football player.

And that's actually what I'm work here. about if not really like three lines for the whole franchise. What is Levy Smith going to major in on defense? Because Stingley is unlocked in anything but cover two. So I'm curious what and Levy didn't run just cover two last year. He did it, but it wasn't. We talked about that. We were like, oh, Texas are doing some cool shit on defense.

So I'm, what is, what are they cranking in? What knob are they turning on their defense? Because Stingley is a guy that can live in man can live in zone, but not cover two zone more. The quarters cover three stuff as well. So curious what they do on defense. Yeah, absolutely. I don't think there was a unifying quality to the players that they pick. But when you're thinking about talking about new regimes,

the Texans aren't new. But they didn't really get to pick last year. They're the first two picks from the third round. This is the first time they've had a full arsenal of draft picks and the ways that they went with it. I just thought we're worth watching. What do you make of the Patriots draft as we're staying in that area of the world here when it comes to front offices and thought processes?

Hey, we like our guys and we're going to pick them. That's basically it. I mean, that's, that's, I want to say drafting for need. It's more like they're like, we want these types of players and these are the three guys we're going to take. And if one of them's available at this point in the draft, boom, we're taking them. So I don't know, they got useful, I guess starters, I think is, uh, I don't know. I don't know. Like, because Thornton to me is like, I understand his role and everything, but it's, it's more football player to him.

I said this on the live show is that he's not just a speed guy. He has some catching skills, even though he has some struggles and contested catches. But like, I don't know. It's Marcus Jones. He's smaller. He has some return ability to him. They just got these football players. I'm curious how they're all going to slot in because it's just, even Pierce Strong doesn't

seem like a Patriots running back to me. They usually like more of the thicker build guys, you know, like bruisers, like Stevenson they took last year. And so Pier Strong is more of a gliding slasher type. So I, that was a little different too. I don't know. I have no idea. It's the Patriots.

That's why I keep making that joke because it's just the Patriots. That's what they do. Even a Cole Strange. This is, okay, sorry, it's just gathering notes from other people after or just like press conferences and all that. Oh, we actually like that player. And my Cole Strange seemed to me, everyone really universally was a third round grade seemed like everybody had on them. Okay. But everyone liked them.

So it goes up to the second round. So I think how the Patriots think is just going, well, this is our first round pick. We traded back. All right. Screw it. We'll take them right here. Don't matter what the value of it is. This is our guy.

So I don't know if that's good or bad, but that's what they do. my if we're trying to find a through line with it they were not afraid of specificity when it came to these guys right like they bet on outliers col strange small school guy not afraid to bet on it taekwon thornton is a very specific type of player and they spent the 50th overall pick on him it kind of feels like just the two two at well sort of decision that was made skinny right just skinny When you're that skinny, what else are you going to end up being in the league outside of that speed threat? Like, it's his body type. It's hard to imagine him doing much else. And then with Marcus Jones, same kind of deal.

Even if you're a super productive college player so tiny. So there's a specificity to what you are and how you can approach the game, how you can impact the game. So they're not afraid of that. And I guess that's the lesson that you learned is they're not afraid to bet on some of the outliers here. I think they did get the good, the one quarterback that'll make, you know, Mac Jones's arms seem really strong, though, and Bailey's happy. It's like they're going to have the smartest, most accurate quarterback room.

Like those guys, there's never going to be a ball on the ground in Routes versus Air. Like those guys are just two BB shooters just right next to each other. So that was maybe one of them. They're going to have that. They're going for that in their quarterback room. I had two more. We alluded this a little bit when we were talking about the wider super thing. My lesson from the Titans is they're preparing for what's next.

Yep. by trading Berks for A.J. Brown and then the dice were on Malik Willis, they're comfortable with saying, all right, we're here. Mike Frable and John Robertson got contract extensions two and a half months ago. They're fine saying, all right, you know, we won a bunch of games with the number one seen the AFC last year, but maybe that's a little bit of a mirage. And we have to understand that we have to figure out what the next version of this has to look like.

And that move for A.J. Brown and then the Willis thing. And again, with him going in the third round, there's not a ton of urgency to make sure it works. But I still think it's a nod to, we'll see what happens. I mean, it's 2023 and what our offense looks like. There's no downside, really, to saying, all right, let's just take a chance on this. It's a home run swing. If it works out, incredible. If it doesn't, eh.

So them kind of leaning into, we're transitioning a bit into what the next thing is here. I can understand that and it does feel like they were willing to do that. I think they know at some point they're going to have to hit the button. And I think what they're doing is making sure that they can still hit it. If they sign AJ Brown and all of a sudden they're moving off from, like, they're just making sure they don't handicap themselves in some way, shape, or form. Yep. And so I think that's what that's what the Titans seem to be doing.

It's like, okay, it's not the easiest Band-Aid to rip off, but we have to do it just so that button could stay open when we have to hit it. And they, you know, they took a couple next steps. Who knows what happens with Malik Will. Like that's the home run swing though. And they took them to third round. Who knows? That might hit and that might change the whole landscape for them.

So yeah, I think that's really more for what they're trying to do. It's like they're trying to get some solid players and keep the options open for down the road and seeing how they compete this year and understanding that their team in transition. One more small one that we can end down here. Another lesson I learned from the Steelers is that they are committed to building their wide receiver room like no other organization in the NFL. I have endless conversations about how they found guys a little bit later in the draft, second, third round picks. Do you know what part of that is? They draft more receivers than any other team in the league. Since 2010, the Steelers have drafted nine receivers in the first 100 picks.

No other team in the league is above eight, and the average is about five. So the Steelers, and that happens to be the year where Kevin Colbert took over as the general manager. since that in his kind of 13 years at the helm, they've drafted nine receivers in the first 100 picks. That's the most of any other team in the league. And they went out and got George Pickens this year, while they already have Chase Claypool, Deontay Johnson. I mean, they are always refreshing that group.

And they've hit on a bunch of them, but there have been some Marcus Wheaton's involved in that process too. When you're taking this many chances, it helps you find guys at that spot. So they clearly value that, even if they're not taking them in the top 10, they want to make sure they're constantly adding talent to that room. Well,

we talk about get more draft picks because then you get more bites at the apple of it. But how many times have we said, like when Chase Claypool has rookie year, he had that huge game early on. Steelers found another one. But if you take nine or whatever, say you take 10 over that time period and three of them hit, like then all of a sudden it's like,

hey, look at that. Look how good we're doing right now. But that's, no, that's their philosophy. I would actually, I prefer that philosophy over taking them high. Like I, that's my how I looked. We've talked about as many times. Freaks only in the top 10. Then after that, okay, then we have to make sure the resources are allocated correctly.

But I don't, I don't hate it. And I was actually surprised that. I had Calvin Austin, too, in the fourth round, who was a hell of a football player. He's just small. But that's, but that's exactly where he should have gone as well. He's a better player than Tutu Atwell who went in the second round, even though they're same exact size. Actually, Austin's got like 20 pounds.

on 2-2-at-well. 150 pounds. That's how much 2-2-at-well plays and he got taken in the second round. I'm never going to let that go. But with George Pickens, like, yeah, that's a perfect guy to take in the second round. And he's in a good situation. He still has some development to them as far as a route runner. But that's what they get to do.

Now this guy, if you take a receiver in the first round, when Amari Cooper got taken in top five by the Raiders, guess what? Here's 150 targets. If you're ready for it or you're not, you take these guys and you keep rotating them through, churning them through, they can take 60 targets, 80 targets, however much they can bite off in their first year or two. So I like it. It lets these guys develop how they're supposed to develop.

It's a good plan for the receiver position. If you want to make an argument that Dree Archer was not a receiver, which I can understand, the number goes down to eight. But even with eight, they're tied with the Titans with the most. The reason the Titans have taken so many is the Titans have swung and missed a bunch of different times. Dorian Green Beckham, Justin Hunter. Justin Hunter, yeah.

They needed to keep taking them because they've kept missing on them. And the Titans have had a couple different decision makers over the course of that 12-year stretch. They did hit on one though. Yes. They did hit on one. They hit on one and a half and they traded one of them away. One of the other one walking free agency.

Corey Davis is an okay player. Yeah. But it just took a while for him to come on. They declined his fifth year option and that's why he was in his walk. was so much different than what you're expecting when when you take him that eye. Yes. Yes. So they've taken a bunch, but the Steelers really have committed to that room under Kevin Colbert like no one else.

And this being his last draft, it's almost fitting that they took another receiver in the top 100, even if it didn't seem like a glaring need when you look at the rest of their debt chart. Yep. And they just kept the guy in state or in city, in building. Can you pick it in the first round? That was the last send off. Let's get that Pittsburgh connection going. All right. That's all we got.

Do you have any others you want to talk about? You've talked about the draft for like 15 hours over the last four days. So you've had plenty of time. I started talking about one thing. I don't even know about this point in time. I couldn't remember if I talked to you about that or Dane or Lindsay. And it was just one of those where I was like, I'm just going to keep rolling with this. Sorry listeners, if you heard those couple of those points before.

But it all feels fresh to me, I guess. So we're going to have a few more shows this week. Just as a heads up for you guys. This is out on Monday. We're going to be off tomorrow. It's going to be Dane and Lance on Wednesday doing their last draft show. can't even tell you how much I appreciate everything they did

over the course of the draft process. Watching Dane work this week was wild. I mean, he is a machine. Amazing. Having him on board and just as a resource for our show for our company is such, I'm grateful for it. I'm truly so happy that we get to chat with him all the time.

Me and Lindsay are going to talk about some of the biggest questions that we have now that the draft is over on Thursday, a little bit later this week. And Mitch is going to be back on Friday. It's been a while since we've talked to Mitch Schwartz. There's been so much wild shit that's happened over the last couple months that I wanted a player's perspective on some of this stuff. If you're in the Niners locker room and Debo is

asking for a trade and you got what you did out of him last year and he's so important to who you are, how does that dynamic work? Just all this stuff. I'm asking about the Tyree Kill Trade, what the chiefs have done. So that's going to be our little lineup for the week in the week after the draft. We're going to kind of transition to more of an off-season scale. schedule starting next week. So you guys will be on the lookout for that. I'll be sure to lay out what that is going to look like in practice if we get a little bit closer.

For now, sincerely, I appreciate you guys listening. If you have not, go back and check out our draft shows. We got live breakdowns of every single pick from the first three rounds sitting in your feed. It's seven hours worth of podcast, but it's May. I'm sure it's getting a little warmer some places. If you're going out and doing some yard work, mowing your lawn. I know Dane was looking forward. to that.

The things that Dane was looking forward to now that the draft is over were the purest things that I can imagine. He is just, he is like, the moaned the lawn was so, what a good soul that man is. So if you were doing that, go check that out.

But we got plenty of draft coverage sitting there from the last few days. If you guys want to go, give it a listen. For now, please rate and review the podcast on your podcast platform of choice. This is really the end of the season. When we start in August and we get to the draft, that's really the season.

So now that the season is over, If you liked what amounted to essentially year two of the athletic football show, I can't believe it's only been two years. If you liked year two of the athletic football show, let us know. Go leave us a five-star review. It helps us. I would sincerely appreciate you guys taking the time to do that. Please subscribe to the athletic. Nate writes now.

Nate writes about all things NFL. It's going to do something, I think, a little bit later this week on the 2023 quarterbacks. Early next week. Early next week in the 23 quarterbacks. So be on the lookout for that. We have so much draft coverage. Shield graded every pick. We have so many just specific analyses of the picks for those individual teams that made them available on the Athletic.

Please go check that out. Theathletic.com slash football show. This is the time to get a subscription if you do not have one. We will be back a little bit later this week with Dane and Lance. For now, appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was The Athletic Football Show.