The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Prospects to Pros: Bryce Young’s shoulder injury, top college RB’s to watch & early NFL All-Rookie team

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

Andy Staples and Dane Brugler discuss Bryce Young’s shoulder injury and how it will impact the QB’s stock. Then, they examine what they’ve seen from the top running backs in college football as well as Ohio State’s draft prospects. Plus, The Athletic’s Nick Baumgardner joins the show to talk about the NFL All-Rookie team through Week 4. They break down each position, who has impressed them most and which rookie they are looking to see more from as the season continues.Subscribe to the TAFS YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6gWjMSDj7-8j3iCc2ZGo3g0:50-10:31 Bryce Young’s shoulder injury10:32-24:15 Top RBs to watch (Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs, Devon Achane)24:16-31:57 Ohio State prospects (Miyan Williams, Dawand Jones, Zach Harrison, Steele Chambers)32:20-54:24 NFL All-Rookie team through Week 454:28-58:21 What to watch this weekend Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to Prospects to Pros. I'm Andy Staples here with Dane Bruegler, the Athletics Draft Guru. We're talking college guys that are about to be drafted, NFL guys that just got drafted, and what we are watching for all week as we move through the football season. Later in the show, we're going to have Nick Baumgartner talking about the quarter of the way all rookie team, the guys that just got drafted. but now we're going to talk about the guys that are getting drafted in 2023.

And Dane, this was one to make the coaches who may have picks at the top of the draft a little bit nervous because there's some star power that we don't know how they're going to be doing health-wise. You saw Jalen Carter, the defense tackle from Georgia, who everybody thinks is a top five type pick, limping off the field. He's going to be out for a couple weeks. You also saw Bryce Young, the reigning Heisman trophy winner, one of the guys vying for the QB1 spot in the draft. He came off.

He gets hit along the sideline. You can tell he hurts his shoulder, but he stays in. The next pass he throws, he instantly grabs his shoulder, walks off, slams his helmet to the ground as he goes in the injury tent. He knew something was up. It's an AC joint issue. Nick Saban says it's not particularly serious, but they're taking him day to day. and he's not going to let us know if he's going to be playing his Texas A&M this week or not. So those NFL teams that are that are drafting high, when they see somebody that is somebody they like and somebody they think might be on their board go down like that, how do they react to that?

Well, and it's especially interesting with Bryce Young because, I mean, listen, there are quarterbacks that are 6-4, 230 pounds who are dealing with ACJ. joint injuries. But when we're talking about Bryce Young, who the knock on him, it's going to be the size. It's going to be durability concerns. And so any injury is just going to mean a little bit more for Bryce Young, even though it's, I wouldn't say that this injury, this type of injury is specific to his frame and his body type. Right. It's the way he went down, basically. When you brace your arm like that as you fall, you put your AC joint in danger. It happens. Right. And, you know, The good news is considered day to day. We'll see, obviously, Alabama, they've got a big game coming up this weekend against Texas A&M, you know, in Tuscaloosa.

The way A&M's playing, I don't think they need Brace Young to win that game. So I don't know that this is necessarily going to be a game where they feel like they need a rush Young back. So it'll be interesting. And Bryce Young had his helmet in the second half of that game. It seemed like in an emergency situation, they could have put them back out there. But, you know, it was that never got to that point, even though Arkansas tried to make a game of it in the second half. But, yeah, it's with Bryce Young, he's, even in the first half of that game, he was so impressive. I mean, watching the tape, there was another play earlier in that game where Drew Sanders from Arkansas, the Alabama transfer was right in his face and pressure.

he's so good with his pocket presence, with his ability to buy time, get outside the pocket through a perfect dart down the field. His receiver, Jacori Brooks, dropped it. I mean, that shows up over and over. We talked about it in the Texas game. But Bryce Young, even though the numbers won't be as impressive this year as they were last year, he's still doing this amazing stuff out there. But it goes back to the size and the durability questions.

That's something that if teams have a similar grade with Bryce Young and Will Levis, C.J. Stroud, the lack of size, the fact that he's an outlier in that respect, and then maybe an injury like this, it could end up maybe moving the needle for some of these teams. Yeah, probably you default to the bigger guy if everything feels equal. But it's strange to me because watching Bryce Young and watching Will Levis, and obviously they have different talent around them. But if you said pick one of those two to win you a game right now, I'm picking Bryce Young. Like he's, oh, yeah.

There's no quarterback in college football who is cooler, for lack of a better term, in the pocket, no matter what is happening around him. And I think that's, that's one of those things. Like I was watching Levis against Solmiss, and they got a lot of pressure on him. And, you know, his footwork, when he's under pressure, it can get a little janky. And you never worry about that with Bryce Young. He just, he's, he's always operating at maximum. capacity no matter what is happening around him. So hopefully he gets well soon. Hopefully he can play. And I think you're right. It sounded like they could have put him in against Arkansas, but Jalen

Milrow had come in and they'd scored 35 points with Jalen Milrow in the game. Anybody looking for the next Jalen Hertz, by the way, yet another really fast, big quarterback from Texas playing for Alabama, Jalen Milrow. So keep your eyes on him as we go down the line. He is not draft eligible. Yeah. And real quick on Will Levis, who, you know, had that really tough game against Ole Miss where you saw some good things. There are also some, you know, two fumbles that were key parts of that game that, you know,

kept Kentucky from the comeback. But, you also on that game, I think you saw a lot of promising things, why there will be some teams that have Will Levis higher on the draft board than Brayshong. It's going to happen. And with his toughness, his durability, his ability to take. these hits, but then just keep on going. And the biggest thing with Will Levis is being able to see things quickly. The defense pre-unpost snap and then the trigger, just get the ball out and it hits your man.

And he did the one touchdown he had to the tight end down in the red zone towards the red zone. It was exactly what he needed to do because if he takes a half tick longer, the linebacker or safety is breaking that play up. So, you know, credit to him for making progress. but he's still, now the question will be, okay, if you wanted a quarterback right now to go win you a game, 100% I agree, it's Bryce Young. If we're talking three years from now, who's that guy going to be? And there's going to be some teams that say we'll take the upside of Will Levis and what he could be, as opposed to what we think we already know Brace Young is.

So it's going to be an interesting discussion that goes throughout the year. Some teams are going to be betting on a guy that maybe, perhaps possibly could be Josh Allen or the guy that, you brought his name up before I could. It could be Bryce John. No, and that's, and look, this isn't a recent thing, a Josh Allen thing. You know, Blake Bordels went third overall because teams chased this. It worked out for Josh Allen, and I feel like that's going to empower more people to think it can happen. When if you look at the history of it, Josh Allen's the outlier.

Yes. It's the, the hit rate is very low on those types of guys that, still need a lot of development. You know, it's, look, quarterback is a very inexact science. Okay. We can talk over and over and over again about certain metrics and this. And it's, it's, it's not, it's not a science. It's, it never will be.

Part of that is college football is a very different sport than the NFL. You know, it's just there's so many factors that go into this that none of these guys are, are easy to project. even a CJ Stroud. These guys are tough. And so it's something that I imagine we'll be talking about almost every show here until the end. Yeah. And this is, listen, this is what people want. They're looking for that next Josh Allen.

Because look at what Josh Allen does for an offense. You know, and Will is that kind of athlete. He's a big jumbo athlete. And he's actually more accurate than Josh was that last year at Wyoming. In a tougher conference. Exactly. We can talk all about quarterback wins and whether or not it's a stat. You know what?

It doesn't matter what anybody, if we think it's a quarterback wins is a stat, if anybody listening, if they believe quarterback wins is a stat, do you know who does? A lot of NFL teams. So, quarterback's record in college, it's relevant because NFL teams think is relevant. So we look at Will Levis. Since he became a starter in the SEC, 18 starts, it's 14 and 4.

That will matter quite a bit to NFL teams as they look over the resumes. Well, and the thing is, I think all of these quarterbacks that we're talking about at the very top of the draft, C.J. Stroud, Will Levis, Bryce Young. They're guys that when NFL teams get them in and interview them, they will like them more. They will not find reasons to not like them because of that. And that's not always the case. Sometimes there are guys, you know, Josh Rosen, the jury was kind of out on him. And you see how that went.

But these guys will come in and they will not raise red flags in their interviews. In fact, teams will be like, oh, I like you even better now. So I think that's really interesting to me in this class because you don't often have that where the intangible pieces are there on all those guys. And you don't really have to question it. If you talk to people around Kentucky, Will Levis, since the moment he set foot on campus as a transfer from Penn State, has been that guy. The teammates has gravitated toward, has been a good teammate to them, is a leader naturally. And so that's the part I'm interested to see because it real, I don't think intangibles are

going to be the issue with any of these three. So it's going to come down to production, potential, all that. So it's going to be a very interesting rest of the season because I think Kentucky's going to win a lot more games. So Will Levisis' QB wins total is going up. But I did want to move to another position. We have not talked about this position much. And it's one of those that in the draft, it has been devalued just because of the sheer violence of the position. It's running back. You've got to take so many hits and, you know, do you devote a high draft pick to a running back? How special does that running back have to be? And there's,

a big game this week. Texas, Oklahoma. Oklahoma's playing terribly, but for Texas, you kind of want to see them get over the hump against them. Bejan Robinson, at least just watching college football, feels like maybe the most special back in college football. But what does that mean from an NFL evaluation standpoint? Yeah, and when you look at it, for the last how many years, we've had a receiver, probably going back to Sequin Barclay, we've had a receiver, we've had a receiver, drafted ahead of a running back in the draft, the last three, four years, that probably changes this year with Bejan Robinson. I don't think there's a receiver that you say he's definitely going to be drafted ahead of him. Now, maybe when it comes, you know, when draft time finally gets here, that'll switch.

But right now, there's not a receiver that you can confidently say should be drafted ahead of Bejan Robinson with what he offers a team. Now, not every team's going to be interested in drafting a running back top 15, which is where his talent says he should be drafted. but for a team that's, you know, think they're an all-around running back away. And that's the thing. If you're going to be drafted in the top 20, top 25, you better be an all-around running back. And Bison absolutely is. He could be on the field in any situation.

You know, past pro, catching the football. He's got his body type. Everything points to being a workload back in the NFL. His balance is incredible. Oh, it's. You can hit him. It's crazy. And it'll.

feel like his knee is an inch off the ground and he will find a way to move a foot out and put a hand down and he stays up and gains like six more yards. It's crazy. It's, and he's very instinctive with his ability to string some of those moves together. It's almost like he's not even worried about that first guy because he knows he can make that first guy, whether it's making a miss or just running right through him because of that balance, like you said, he's already focused on that second level to set up those moves. So he's very twitchy with his lower body. He can make those sharp cuts, physical, powerful.

His balance through contact, yeah, like you said, it's just, it's something that's really, really impressive. It just, he makes it a chore for defenders to get him down. I think he's scheme diverse, his own heavy scheme, but I don't, there's no reason why he can't be in any scheme in the NFL. And I really appreciate how he runs the full. full running back route tree. So, you know, you see, he'll line up in the slide. He'll run angle routes. He'll run hitches. He'll do a lot of things that NFL teams are going to want him to do

pretty quickly. Honestly, we're going to be talking about Bajon Robinson similar to how we talked about Zee coming out of Ohio State where he could just on the field, any situation, line him up across on the formation, whatever you wanted to do, he can do that. He's not as special athletically as like, say, Sequin Barkley. But he's going to be. be pretty good, kind of like a Zeke. And he can do anything in those situations. And Steve Sarkesian using him in ways similar to how he used an Nigerist at Alabama. I think people are looking at that and going, okay, I can see

how this translates very easily. And it will be very interesting to see what he does against Oklahoma. This is one I think the folks in Texas has been waiting for for quite a while. They feel like this is a little bit of vindication, but you got to go out there and do it in the Cotton Bull, surrounded by fried Snickers bars and fried Oreos and pretty much fried. Oklahoma defense, they reel in a little bit. I mean, at Brent Venables, you know, it just kills him to see his defense playing like that. But, I mean, really.

Oh, he can make it better, though. Some of that is not, it's not all ability. It's not, you can lay some of it at the feet of Lincoln Riley and Alex Roach, the former DC, but not all of it. The coverage busts against TCU were horrendous and also avoidable. Like when you have a safety passing off a receiver to a zone where there is no player in that zone, no defender, that's bad. It's really bad when it happens twice. And you see the quarter, the second time Max Duggan's eyes were so big, it's a 62-yard pass to Gunter Henderson.

He's just like, I cannot believe they did that again. Right, right. Well, and honestly, when another, you know, part of this is they don't really have any big name prospects on that defense. And, you know, part of that is the previous coaching staff, not, I don't think bringing in a lot of those guys in developing them. So we'll have to see that. I don't come a defense. I mean, I like Jalen Redmond on the defensive line. I think he could be a day three pick.

But after that, it's at least for this upcoming draft, it's hard to get excited about too many of those Oklahoma defenders. Yeah, that is Brit Vitable's mandate is going. find some people that you're going to be excited about in the next few years on defense. Yeah. And let's be perfectly honest, that's been Oklahoma's issue since Gerald McCoy. You know, they just, they've had some, they've had some linebackers, but they've not had those really good interior defensive. There's no Tommy Harris walking through that door.

So that's, that's what they need to do. And I said to, I'm dating myself saying Tommy Harris. Like, that was a long time ago. Oh, yeah. Well, I thought you were going to say maybe Roy Will. Williams, Teddy Lehman. So, you know, it, you know, Teddy makes me come on his podcast. So I'm going to, you know, oh yeah, yeah. Hey, can you come on my show, man? But, yeah. No, if you haven't listened to the, the Oklahoma breakdown with Teddy Lehman and Gabe Eikers, it's fantastic. Oh, they, they do a good job.

But I wanted to expand this talk of backs. There's a bunch in the Big Ten right now, but I do want to hit on one in the SEC, and that's Jamir Gibbs at Alabama. We mentioned him before. He's a Georgia tech transfer, but you were talking about Bijon Robinson and the diversity of his skill set and what he can do for you in the past game. Jamir Gibbs seems like that type of back as well that can give you a lot of things. And it was really weird how they were using him the first few games of this season. He didn't have double-digit carries until this past Saturday when they didn't have Bryce Young and they really relied on that run game. So they used him more as a past catcher than they did as a running back.

But when they gave him chances at running back, all these good things happened against Arkansas. In a three-place span, he had, what, a 72-yarder touchdown, a negative one-yard loss, and then a 76-yard touchdown run. So a lot of that give the offensive line credit, they were opening some huge holes. But the speed that Jemir Gibbs plays with, the vision, his ability to cut and go is really impressive. another guy that just there's a lot of ability there. And we're, you know, he's only 200 pounds, just over 200 pounds. So not as big as ideally you'd want or NFL back to be.

So instead of maybe an Alvin Kamara, he's a mini Kamara. But there's a lot in terms of making guys miss that contact balance, the lower body agility. There's a lot of things that are really impressive with Jemir gives. And I think it speaks to, you know, running back class, we could have three or four running backs drafted in the top 40 or 50 picks. And usually we don't see that. That many guys drafted that high.

But when you look at Bejohn Robinson, who we just talked about, he's a first round talent all day. And then I think there's a little bit of a conversation about, okay, who should be that next running back drafted. You've got, you know, Devin A.C. from Texas A&M, who's fascinating because he's listed at 185 pounds. So how much bigger can he get? Because, you know, there have been some lighter running backs in the past.

You think of, you know, C.J. Spiller was a top 10 draft pick coming out of Clemson. He was 196 pounds at the Combine that year. Chris Johnson coming out of East Carolina. He had that blazing 40 at the Combine, became a first round pick. These are all incredible speakers. The Money Chain is an elite track athlete. Well, and that's the thing. If you're going to be under 200 pounds, you better be, you better have speed.

And look, Chris Johnson had over 2,000 all-purpose yards, you know, that one amazing year. And he had a pretty solid career. So, you know, I think with a Devon A chain, if he can get to 190, 195, we start to run out of reasons. Okay, why shouldn't this guy be in that first round top 40 conversation? And then I think also along with Jamir Gibbs and then Zach Evans, who transferred to Ole Miss. And, you know, it's been okay. He's been good, but I don't, it hasn't been amazing. That's because Quinn.

When Sean Jenkins has been very good as a freshman and taking a lot of carries. Right. The, the, the A chain conversation is interesting. I think the Texas A&M Alabama game will help you get a sense of what he can do because they've just been handing it to him. You know, before they would kind of scheme it up where you get him in space. A lot of times now they've realized just hand it to him because he's the best, playmaker they have, and it's not close.

And once Anaya Smith went down for the season, they really had to rely on A-Chane. The question is, can he do it against NFL talent? Well, guess what? He's going to be playing against the defense loaded with NFL talent this week. If they limit him, because I always go back to when Urban Meyer was at Florida, and he always had those tiny lightning fast guys like Chris Rainey, Jeff Demps. Jeff Demp's was also an elite track guy like A-chain is. And you'd see them, and this is back when Kentucky was bad,

you'd see them, they just tear up Kentucky and they tear up some non-conference team. And then they'd have to play LSU, and it's like, where'd they go? And that's the thing with A-Chane. Now, if I were an NFL team considering A-Chane, I would be thinking about all the different things I can do with him. I would not be thinking about this is a guy I'm just going to hand the ball to. I would be, you know, go to the Mike Mart's Marshall Falk playbook and let's figure out a bunch of ways to get this guy the ball in space.

But A&M's offense at this point is so limited by its own scheme and injuries to quarterback, best receiver, you name it. They just got to give him the ball however they can. Well, and that was one of the questions coming in on A-Chane was because he hadn't done much as a pass catcher up to that point. But the last two weeks against Arkansas and then Mississippi State, Not only did he go over 100 yards rushing, but they also started to feed him the football more. He had 10 targets combined between those two games, which is exactly what NFL teams want to see.

They want to see him be a factor aside from just, you know, handoffs. And so that Arkansas tape really, I mean, Jemir Gibbs, the way he terrorized them. Maybe Arkansas's defense just isn't, you know, one of the one of their calling cards this year. And everybody's going to run all over him. But A chain, the way he would string together his cuts was so impressive. But usually when you have sprinters, track guys, it takes them a second to gear down, read, make a cut. Like, they're just, they're so used to just sprinting and going as fast as they can. A chain, he's one of those guys that he's able to make these split second cuts on a dime.

And it really puts defenders in conflict. So there's just no wasted motion. And that's something that you don't see a lot with track guys. And that's really impressive. A-Chane is a straight-up football player. That's the thing. You rarely see that good of a track star be that instinctive of a football player. But he is.

He absolutely is. Another guy I want to talk about is Mayan Williams at Ohio State because I think we came into the year thinking Trey Henderson was going to be the guy who really carried the load for them. And he still is kind of the home run threat. But Mayan Williams is their workhorse back. And he's been outstanding. 7.8 yards of carry. Yeah, he just, he's a bowling ball of butcher knives just running, running at you.

I mean, he, and he looks like a locomotive off the tracks, which could be a good thing and a bad thing. I mean, he's a guy that will run over you, but he's got a little bit of wiggle to him. You know, there are sometimes where, especially when you watch the tape and you see the end zone view, he's passing up some holes that he should be hitting. And, you know, so there's some things he's still working through. But, man, he's a guy that is a tough to bring down. And the offensive line, the Ohio State offensive line, they just, they moved Ruckers wherever they wanted. Especially that, that long run, Mayan Williams had is like a 70 plus yarder.

You know, they're blocking duo. I mean, Paris Johnson takes, I don't know if it's a linebacker or a defensive end, he moved them across the field. Whippler at center, goes to the second level, takes out the linebacker, makes him non-factor. That offensive line is doing work. And so Mayan Williams certainly taking advantage of it, credit to him. But yeah, I think Ohio State Offensive Line deserves a ton of credit for what they're doing as well. While we're on that subject, DeWan Jones, he is massive. And obviously you want your offensive tackles to be big, but you know, you talk to NFL people and they're like, well, it's possible to be too big. And so with Jones, it seems like at 6, 8, 3, 3,000, you know, at 6,

360, he is a phenomenal athlete. Like, he moves really well. A lot of times you think, okay, this guy might just, he might be too long, too tall. I mean, Dan Skipper's getting starts in the NFL now at 610. So it's, and then obviously Jonathan Ogden is sort of the ideal offensive tackle, but he was a freak of nature. But could DeWan Jones at his size be able to play effectively in the NFL? Yeah, we had this conversation a little bit last year.

with Falulele from Minnesota. You know, a guy just massive human being. But how does that translate in terms of movements and being able to be a functional blocker against NFL athletes? And with Duan Jones, watching his junior tape and then watching his senior tape this year, there's a big difference. I mean, I give him a ton of credit for making the necessary improvements with his body posture, with his body control.

He's very high cut. He has such long legs. His official measurements, 6.8 and a half, 370 pounds. The arm length is 36 and an 8, which is bizarre. Hand size, 11 and 5ths,

which is the biggest hands maybe we've ever seen. And then his wingspan is almost 90 inches, which is crazy. Just absolutely crazy. So, I mean, the size right there is, impressive. It makes it tough for blockers to get around him. And it also makes him a really difficult guy in the run game, because once he gets his hands on you, he can drive you out of the play. But, you know, he's a guy that he's playing a lot with a lot more control this year.

He's never going to be a guy that covers a ton of ground with his athleticism, but because he's so wide and he's got this wide base, he can cover a lot of ground. And so he's just, he's playing with a lot more control this season than he did last year, which is a great thing to see from him. And he's moving his way up. You know, we were talking about him as maybe a mid-round guy before the season. Now, I mean, he's putting himself squarely in that day two range. Let's flip to the other side of the ball at Ohio State because that was their Achilles

heel last year. They defensively just struggled. Now that defense under Jim Knowles, the new coordinator, who, by the way, coached Malcolm Rodriguez at Oklahoma State last year. They have really turned things around. And it looks like some of these players are showing up as the kind of prospects maybe we thought they'd be in recruiting. Zach Harrison is one for me.

It's the old arrested development line. There's always money in the banana stand. Ohio State always has some sort of 6-6-265-pound edge guy. They're just, they find them where no one else can get them. They get them all, but they don't always play like Chase Young. They don't always show up. Sometimes they just look great. Zach Harrison looks like that, and now he's playing like that.

And just, I mean, the traits alone are remarkable because he's a guy that's going to measure 6-6-265, and he's going to run into 4-5s. Wow. I mean, it's just a freak of nature. My guess would be 4-5-7. I'll put that out there right now as for what he's going to run at the Combine. We'll make a bet where I have to eat some sort of weird thing. That's what we do on my show. Okay.

Well, and if you're going to be in Indianapolis, maybe we go to San Elmo's and maybe so. Yeah, I just have to, like, shoot a cup of San Elmo. There you go. There you go. Exactly. Well, I'm enjoying my cowboy ribeye. But, yeah, Zach Harrison, look, this guy is a freak of nature. And, no, you don't always see it on the field.

But the game against Rutgers, I think it was a great example. They're playing him a lot more. inside as more of like a three technique where he's just bullying those guys. He doesn't necessarily need a runway because he's so long, he's so high cut, that it almost looks a little awkward at times as he tries to run the arc and get around the tackle. Move him inside. Let him use that length that he has, that natural power, and he can create movement. He can beat guys up. And we saw that on the Rutgers tape where he finished with two tackles. So maybe he's not a guy you heard a lot on the broadcast, but

he forced a fumble, which if his arms aren't 35 and three-quarter inch long, if they're just 34 inches, he's not making that force fumble because he's so long he can get his hands in there. And then later in the game, he's able to push the guard into the quarterback, get his hands on the quarterback, force a tip, which steel chambers then intercept. So two turnovers caused because of Zach Harrison, even though, again, only two tackles. I think he only has like nine tackles on the year in five games. So it's not necessarily showing up in terms of the production and the stat sheet, but on the field, you see how impactful he can be.

And that's why Zach Harrison, even though he won't have the stats to back it up, he'll still be talked about as a top 50 type of guy because the traits are just so special. Well, you mentioned Steel Chambers, who had a great game. We got to talk about him. He's either going to be a linebacker in the NFL or a CIA agent with that name. steel chambers. But he, again, the thing about the Ohio State guys,

they were all big recruits. Every one of them was pegged to be a superstar, potential first rounder. No. But they don't always grow into that. Steel chambers seems to be growing into, to fit that hype that he came in high school with. Wasn't Steel Chambers, wasn't he in Boogie Knights?

If I remember right, I can't, I can't remember. Those are great names. Yeah. There's some great names. But you mentioned Malcolm Rodriguez. Maybe this is his version of Malcolm Rodriguez with the Buckeyes. I mean, still Chambers. He played outstanding against Rutgers on this past weekend,

really physical in the run game. But his reactionary burst, that Twitch and then that chase speed, he's able to make plays that just chase him down at the line of scrimmage. It's really impressive to watch. So there are times he's a little undersized. so there are times where he can get sucked up and blockers will cover him up. But as long as he stays free, he will go make plays. And it's a really good thing to see.

I mean, Steel Chambers was more of an athlete. They played him at running back, made the move to linebacker, kind of the opposite of Cade Stover. Cade Stover goes from linebacker to offense. Still Chambers goes from running back to linebacker. And he's turned himself into a legitimate prospect. And NFL teams are looking for. He's only a redshirt junior.

So, you know, might not be in this draft class. but whenever he is, you know, he's a guy we'll be talking about as a draft football player. Finance major. Very smart guy, too. So this is, he's one that it'll be fun to watch as he goes forward because he is coming into his own now. And you're right. He was rated as an athlete as a recruit, which means, we don't know where he's going to play. We just, we just know he's good at stuff.

And it took, it took him a little while to figure out what, what they wanted to. do with them. So this has been a lot of fun, but we need to talk about the guys that just got drafted. To do that, Dane, we're going to bring on our friend Nick Baumgartner because the quarter of the way all-rooky team is out on the athletic. And we got to talk about these guys. So we will be right back with Nick Baumgartner. We are joined now by Nick Baumgartner, one of the foremost experts on everything, Michigan. I'm holding up hand here. Nick, do you want to point where you are? In the, like in the pocket of the thumb a little bit. I don't know. You have to flip it. That's true. You have to flip it, yes. You do know how West Virginia does that, right? Have you seen how West Virginia is shaped? I mean, I know

how it shaped. You just shoot the bird and then you can point to where you are. Oh, okay. Shoot the bird, stick your thumb out and you can point to where you are. Perfect, yes. So we are talking the quarter season all rookie team. And I tell you what, there's some names on here that when the draft happened, I'm like, these names will definitely be on here. I did not expect to see Bailey Zappy's name on here, Dan. Well, I mean, the quarterbacks, we weren't sure we were going to have anybody to put in the all-rooky team.

You know, we just haven't seen these guys. Yeah, Desmond Ritter hasn't had many chances to get out there. Malik Willis. Kenny Pickett finally got out there, but I don't know if his performance was exactly worthy, right? But Bailey Zappy, hey, he threw a touchdown pass. He at least helped the Patriots take the Packers to overtime in that game. So, yeah, who had Bailey Zappi is throwing the first touchdown pass among this rookie class?

He didn't cost them the game, which I think at the end of the day was kind of like, that's how I looked at it. It was like you threw him into a horrible situation and he didn't. Patricia's the offensive coordinator, right? And he didn't cost you the game. Also, it was a classic Key and Peel East West Bowl matchup. Because you could just imagine, you know, Aeron Rodgers Cal, he actually was on the East West Bowl. That's right.

And then Bailey Zappy, Western Kentucky. It's perfect. And Houston Baptist mixed in. And Houston Baptist, let's not forget. So, but let's talk about some of these folks that we probably expect. The offensive line, it really looks like the teams that drafted offensive linemen in the first round kind of know what they were doing. Tyler Linderbaum, Kenyon-Gron, Johnson, Tyler Smith. It looks like they evaluated quite well.

I think the one thing that stands out is Smith. Dana, I don't know if you would agree, but I mean, a lot of people pointed to him out of camp. Tyler Smith looked like they were going to play him at guard. And then, of course, they had the injury situation. They moved him out to tackle. and it's been a little up and down, I guess, but it's also been pretty good. And, like, better than I think a lot of people thought it would be Linderbaum and Kenyon, I think both had injuries that they shook off and they've been a little up and down, too.

But, like, they're hanging in and playing. But Smith, I think, is maybe the most impressive one that I thought of the whole thing. The other guy, Spencer Berfer, Buford, Buford, Berford, whatever. I always forgot how to say his name, but the other one that maybe could have a mention there. No, I agree 100%. I mean, there were, what, five offensive attacks? tackles drafted in the first round and several top 10, you know, the Evan Neal and Ikemaquanoo, Charles Cross, and those guys have been, you know, I think Aquanu's playing a lot better since his,

you know, debut against Miles Garrett. That was a disaster. You know, these guys would get better throughout the season. But of those five offensive tackles drafted in the first round, you would point to, I think everyone would have pointed to Tyler Smith as maybe, okay, this is going to be the biggest adjustment period required. And they drafted him to be the starting left guard, the left tackle and waiting, like you said, and then Tyrant goes down. Maybe for the final time, you know, there's a good chance we never see Tyron Smith in the NFL again.

But the way Tyler Smith has stepped up has really been impressive. You look back at Tulsa, he had 12 holding penalties last year alone. He's only had one accepted holding penalty in four games. You see the play strength. You see the movements. and that raw play style that we saw at Tulsa, it's really been accelerated, that development. So he's definitely been one of the biggest surprises.

I did not expect him to be on this list, a quarter way into the season. Well, Nick, I imagine this guy, because of his hard knocks fame, is not a surprise to people. But, I mean, Rodrigo, Malcolm Rodriguez, out of Oklahoma State, the linebacker for the Lions,

how much of a revelation has he been in Detroit? I think for some people he has been and for others he hasn't. Because he was a guy that I know Dane liked him too there in the six. He was one of our favorite six-round picks or day three picks really of any team. Just because he had those little things about him with the size and everything that you could ding. But I think Gundy just said the other day or a couple months ago. Like Malcolm was individually one of the most valuable players in college football last year.

But what he did. 100%. his whole team. And so when he walks in the door in Detroit and knows everything they're doing and has that ability to just like, okay, I made a mistake. I'm not making it again. It's pretty simple what, you know, Aaron Glenn S. and the do in the middle there. It really hasn't been that shocking when you sort of unpack it. But it's also like, he's the classic example right now team's trying to figure out what they want to do with linebacker, I think, in general. You got Devin Lloyd on there, too, was a guy who drafted early. And then you're looking at Malcolm,

who's a guy in a six who's playing just as well. And it's kind of like, that's the thing with linebacker right now. He fits so well with that coaching staff, right? I mean, the perfect. The toughness, the grit, you know, I mean, he, he played at 60 consecutive games at Oklahoma State. He's one of their all-time leading tacklers. There's so much about him that fits that defense and that identity that they're going for. So, yeah, that he'll definitely, he already has outplayed his draft position. He's no doubt. He's been their best defender probably. Yeah. That's, I mean, no, no, no. No. Another kind of thing has given up more points, right?

I mean, it's been, they've also scored the most points, I think. So, you know, it's, it's been up and down. But so among these rookies, looking at our all rookie team, which, you know, you can find on the athletic right now, what position took you the longest in terms of, okay, there's a lot of candidates, or maybe not enough candidates? Well, quarterback, I think, goes, is not enough candidates. But what position maybe there are too many guys to sort through? Okay, there's, oh, there's this guy.

And this guy, what position took you the longest to whittle it down and say, okay, these are the guys that I'm going with for this initial all-looky team? Well, we were just talking about it actually before we got on. The offensive line would be one, but receiver is probably the other. And that, you know, we don't have Garrett Wilson on the list. He was a receiving votes. And we have Dotson, Dotson, Drake, London, and Olavé, who are all, you know, all three of those guys are making plays. You could argue, you know, in all three cases, they're not exactly playing with Wilson, too. great quarterbacks or whatever else's situation.

But Wilson's been more productive. Dotson has scored more touchdowns. All of them, though, are making plays. And I think, again, this is more evidence that we talk about every year in the winter and spring that these rookie receivers, these young guys come out of college, are ready to go, like way more than they, you know, probably used to be. But also, you know, these are top plate guys here. I think all four of those guys that, you know, we have listed there are really good.

And that would have been the tougher one that I thought. I don't know. Would you agree on that one or something else? Oh, yeah, no, I 100%. It's, what, there were six receivers draft the top 20. You know, a guy like Garrett Wilson, who's had a really good, you know,

the first four games, had that breakout game against the Browns, you know, dealing with, you know, Joe Flacco and then Zach Wilson, you know, up and down quarterback play. So, and he was really expected to be the guy. That's why they drafted him 10th overall. And, I mean, he's responded.

He's played well. He's also been banged up a little bit. He's played through some bumps and bruises. but yeah, it's, I mean, Drake London, how do you, you know, based off of what he's done for the Falcons so far, based on what Johan Dawson's done, based off of Chris Lava is, he's top 10 in the NFL and receiving here right now. So, yeah, and, you know, you know, got like Trailing Burks, he's been banged up and maybe he can sneak in there at some point during the season. Jameson Williams, we hope to see before this season is over. And then there were a host of day two wide receivers that I think could make some noise down to strikes.

So yeah, I think that not only for this first edition that the quarter way mark, but halfway through three quarters away through receiver should be one of the tougher positions to parse and really figure out. I thought running back was very interesting. It's probably because I live in Gainesville, Florida, and the idea of Damien Pierce being on this list only makes people who live in Gainesville, Florida more mad at Dan Mullen. But I did want to ask Dane about this because Damien Pierce, he was sort of a cause celebrity among the fans at Florida because they felt like he didn't get enough carries, that he was great.

And how do NFL evaluators handle that? Because I would imagine it probably throws up a red flag when you see somebody who, like Damian Pierce says that run against Florida State where his helmet pops off, he finishes a run anyway. He's not supposed to do that, but that's kind of who he is. and you go, oh, this guy when he gets the ball, it looks great, but what's the problem?

Like, why are they not giving him the ball? And sometimes it's just the coaching staff doesn't give him the ball. That's it. I learned, I was taught this that when I started in this business, but never assumed just because someone has a certain title that they know what they're doing.

Just because they're head coach in the SEC, that doesn't mean they know what they're doing. And, you know, Damien Pierce, He actually had, he led the team in carries, even though he had one start last year. So even though he didn't officially start the game, he wasn't the first running back on the field, they actually, throughout the course of a game, they gave him more carries because they realized in game that, hey, this guy is our best chance with our offense. But it seems like to start, they were like, no, let's get the other guy's shot. So, no, Damien Pierce, he was my running back six.

And he went to a perfect situation. Perfect. Let's be honest. When it comes to running backs, it's all about where you go. It's all about opportunity. And he goes to the Texans where they had an opportunity there. Kudos to Pierce who was able to secure the job. And it was a little up and down the first three weeks.

But this past Sunday, he was at that long 70 plus yard run. But he's played well. And he's very reliable. You know, that's a pass pro catching the ball, ball security. Like he's not a big play creator. I think of the last two years, he had over 200 carries at Florida. Only two carries were over 25 yards. So not a guy that has a lot of these big plays.

But at the same time, he's very reliable. And so I think teams really clued in on that and helped him get drafted a lot higher than maybe his resume said he should have. The efficiency. He's so efficient. And that's what happens, Andy. I think sometimes when we watch those dudes in colleges get lost, it's like, if you're just efficient, and that's it, well, maybe you're not shiny enough, right? And I guess that you fall through the cracks.

But like he's in an offense now with Pep Hamilton and everything else that's like, it's perfect. I mean, they're not going to ask him to do things he can't do. And he's really efficient. And that's not, it doesn't have to be harder sometimes than that. Exactly. So I'm curious how often this happens because it should happen every year where the guys drafted number one and number two wind up on this list. but it doesn't always happen. But this year it feels like

maybe the two biggest no-brainers were the guys drafted at number one and number two. That's Tramon Walker with the Jags and Aidan Hutchinson with the Lions. So I'm just curious how rare is this that we're seeing the two guys one and two in the draft

being basically everything those teams wanted out of them. Well, I mean, I think Trouin Walker, you look at the Jags and their success on defense. It all starts with a defensive line. Trayvon Walker has been a big part of that, right? And Nick, I'll be interested. I mean, you're so clued in on both Michigan and the Lions.

So I'm interested with Aiden Hutchinson. He had that one three-sac game. The other games, I think, I think, been a little more up and down. What do you think through four games, yeah, has he really been, I don't know that he's necessarily been the guy that has. He hasn't, he hasn't, he hasn't been everything. He hasn't been everything. And I think Trayvon's the same way.

I think, and this was, this spoke to sort of the evaluation that, you know, Dane had and everybody sort of landed on with these guys before the draft, which was like, there's going to be a curve with their pass rush. There's going to be an adjustment and all that. But at the end of the day, you know, they're rookies and they play with great effort and Hutchinson from an effort standpoint and from an all that has been what they, what they want. However, most of his pressures and he has been, I think the most productive guy amongst

the rookie edges in terms of pressures. I don't think Carl Loftus has a sack yet, although he's close to up there. But, you know, he's been inconsistent. He's worn out some. His pressures have mostly been inside against guards and, you know, inside a tackle. He hasn't won outside. He struggled with length at times. I think there's adjustments that he has to make.

But I don't think I would say he's playing bad. I don't think I'd say he's playing poorly. And I don't think Trayvon, you know, same thing with him. I mean, he's certainly not either. It's just life in the NFL right now, I think, for a rookie at that spot. is hard. Yeah, I just, I can't imagine the jump, especially when you're dealing with NFL offensive tackles. Because you're going to see, even in a good league like the Big Ten, you might see two of those guys. Yeah, right. During the season. Once a year. And it's a totally different

vibe when you, that's all you're seeing every day, every week. So the other position I wanted to talk about because it's got a couple of guys that Dane and I, we seem to talk about every week on this show because these were two of my favorites last year in college and love watching them succeed in the NFL and that's a safety. You got Jaquan Brisker for the Bears, Jalen Petrie for the Texans, Bristair out of Penn State, Petri out of Baylor, just guys that are always around the ball. I think with Brisker, you know, he's a guy that went maybe a little bit later than we thought. I thought he could have gone easily in the top 40. And, you know, he slipped a little bit more towards pick 50. But he's been a guy that I think you just think of a bear safety. That's

that's a great big. And so that makes a lot of sense. And with Petrie, a guy that, you know, is so versatile. We talked about him a lot in the lead up to the draft and then after the draft, what he's been for that Texas defense has been really important. So, I mean, was there even a question for you, Nick, with these safeties? Was it just those two guys and then everybody else? Or would you think I mean, I think Hamilton, I think Kyle Hamilton, you know, all they ask him to do. And it's been, you know, I'm up and down like all these guys are going to be as a rookie. But I think all they ask Hamilton to do and what he's been able to sort of, I guess, adjust to as he kind of goes forward here. I would say he's, he was in our other receiving votes. But really, Brisker and Petriech were the dudes.

And Bristker has been the guy, I think, that we've looked at the most and said, like, that was really good pick. Probably the best pick the bear's made. Maybe the only so far. I don't know. Yeah, but pretty good. Kyler Gordon, I think, has been, he was, I think, a little overdraft. Never made sense to me why he was talked about in first round conversation, top 25. And so far, he's not played well. Now, maybe he'll be able to turn that around. We'll see. Give me one guy that did not make this, maybe even a guy that didn't receive votes for this quartermark that you think will show up either halfway through,

three quarters way through. Give me a rookie that we didn't talk about yet that you think is going to have maybe a better second half the first half. One guy that he did receive votes, but I think he probably maybe should have been on the team was Dylan Parham with Vegas, Raiders Center, who I believe is,

is he playing Garter Center? He's playing, I don't know what he's playing right now, but he has been, it's center, right? He's been inside. He's been good. He's steady. He came off the bench. I don't think he started this season. I think they've had injuries, all that sort of thing.

I haven't watched a ton of his, but the few things I have seen, I haven't watched every game yet, but he's been solid. And he was really good in college. And I think he's a guy that the more time he gets, you know, the better that could look in time. Well, I will tell you, the Michael Clemens and DeMarvin Leal being on the others receiving votes on the D-line, explaining a lot about what I'm writing about in the college space right now, Texas A&M and some of their struggles. those guys maybe weren't as productive in college as they could have been. And now you're seeing their play very well in the NFL.

Yeah. And they couldn't play quarterback either. So that also hurt me. That's exactly right. Have you guys talked about Jimbo's $86 million buyout yet? Once or twice? It's been a little here and there and maybe an entire show yesterday. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, one other. rookie, I think we do need to mention too. Jamari Selyer. Yeah, yeah. He had the biggest gap from where, for me, where I had him ranked and then where he is actually drafted. There's a hundred and like 41 picks between those two.

He didn't play the first three weeks. Rishon Slater gets hurt at, you know, season ending injury, bicept injury. The sky is falling for Chargers fans. Jamari Sallier comes in at left tackle where he started at. Georgia. Now, I graded him as a guard. I think that's his best long-term position, but he steps in at left tackle. It doesn't give up a pressure. I mean, it pitches a shutout against the Texans. And I mean, give a lot of credit to Jamari Salier for the way he stepped in like that. And it's not going to be that pretty every week. But, I mean, he had maybe the best rookie debut of any offensive

linemen since maybe Rassan Slater last year for the Chargers. So we put him on the list, we have him on the list. Yeah, I think we did. We were like, screw it, put him on there because that was amazing. Like he was told what he did last week. And it's interesting because so many guys on the Georgia defense got so much attention last year. And we talk about them winning a national title because of that defense. And the defense was amazing. But Jamari Salier was maybe the most important player on that offense last year. He was like there's a, there's a great clip of Kirby Smart talking to the team at halftime at the Florida game. Just, you know, just lighten them. up and like and he's trying to you know get him going to just beat floor his ass in the second

half and he's talking to jimari the entire time like you get these guys up you do this and it it was uh it was great to see him get in there and do that because he was one of those that he was a big time recruit you know he got into a starting role but was not really a star on george's offensive line until toward the end of the career he had to earn it yeah And so that was vindication right there. So, I mean, the ability to go in and play without fear. I think that speaks to what he went through in college a little bit. Yeah.

Because that's what it was. I mean, no fear. And that's impressive. Well, and you think about who he's dealing with at practice. Like, Jermaine Johnson was at Georgia for a couple years. Right. You know, he's got. All those dudes.

Yeah. Right. Jordan Davis is there. They're not, he'll play him in one-on-ones and stuff like that. So you've dealt with. everything you're going to deal with in the NFL there. Oh, yeah. Jesus. And just the SEC in general.

I mean, he gave up one sack in his entire college career, and that was to Will Anderson, who, you know, you're not ashamed of that. Right. So he's a classic case of maybe just guys, a scouts, maybe overthinking it a little bit. You know, I checked around, and the teams that I talked to didn't say there was a major injury concern. It was just, you know, he's 6-3, squatty body, 3-20, you know, looks like a guard, but, you know, there's some questions there.

So he's Isaiah win is what you're saying. Yeah, right. But, yeah, he's just, he's effective, you know? Yeah. It's like, even if at some point, listen, I'm guilty of this as well, but, you know, at some point, you just have to say, okay, can he play football? You know, we can break down the individual parts and the traits and does he hit this benchmark? does he hit exactly what you're looking for, arm lengthwise, and this and that. But at the same time, especially playing, now, if you're, it's harder to do that when you're

talking about maybe a small school player or whatever. But when you're going up against top-tier competition week in, week out, a guy like Jamari Sawyer, when all he is is productive and getting the job done, I mean, at the very worst, you're talking about a guy that goes in the mid-round's fourth, fifth round, how he felt with the six just doesn't make any sense. Yeah, that's crazy. I agree. Well, it's going to be fun.

see these guys develop and I cannot wait for the halfway mark all rookie team. I can't believe a quarter of the season is gone. I feel like he just started. But we got a lot to talk about. Nick, I appreciate it. Are you going to get Dan Campbell a Starbucks on the way to Lions practice? Dan Campbell's got like all sorts of heat coming his way for the first time. The folks are furious here after last Sunday's.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. They're not lovable almost winners. 48 at home and lost. Yeah, so no coffee for Dan yet. They've got to get a win here, I think. It's amazing how fast that comes at you once you start showing some confidence. I know, right. Nick Baumgartner, thank you so much.

You back, guys. Thank you to Nick Baumgartner for joining us and go check out the quarter of the way all-rookie team at the athletic. Dane, we've got to talk about what games we are looking for to this week. There are some big ones in college football. A couple quarterbacks I want to see against the particular competition that they are facing. Tennessee's Henan Hooker, they're going to LSU. Probably still not going to have Cedric Tillman, their best receiver, because he had that ankle tightrope surgery a couple weeks ago.

They're trying to get him back and want to have him back when they play Alabama and Georgia. Don't think they're going to have him back this week. But Hennon Hooker can make a lot of hay here against an LSU defense that just terrorize Mississippi State's Will Rogers a couple weeks ago. If Hennon Hooker can stand up to that pass rush and deliver the ball to Brue McCoy and his other receivers, I think it'll go a long way to help him. Yeah, no doubt. And we talked about it last week how Hennon Hooker was, you know, really helping himself in terms of being, you know,

who's going to be that second senior quarterback drafted after Will Levis. And Hooker's the way he played against Florida, the way he's played all year. He's going back to last year. not turning the ball over, playing smart football, getting the ball in the end zone, you know, doing that at LSU, who, you know, coming off a comeback win over Auburn, D.J. Adjolary can get after the quarterback. So if Tennessee can block Audulary, I think Henan Hooker could have a good, nice, nice night. I think Henan Hooker might have to get away from BJOJelary himself a few times.

So we'll find out. The other quarterback I'm excited to see is Cam Ward at Washington State. They're playing USC. USC's defense has been a turnover producing machine this season. So Cam Ward will need to protect the football, but I think you've seen Oregon State pushed USC to the brink. It was because of four interceptions that USC won that game. Protect the ball, and some of these Pac-12 teams can beat USC.

And so we'll see what happens when Cam Ward gets a shot at that defense. Yeah, and Cam Ward's a guy that I think the buzz is, there's definitely, a buzz with what he could be as a prospect. He's still turning the ball over way too much. I think he's already has like seven interceptions this year. And like you mentioned, that USC defense likes to, if you're going to give them opportunities, they're going to make you pay for it. So this would be a good test for him taking that next step.

All right. So there was a matchup in the Big Ten that you were interested in because there's a running back putting up massive numbers. And now he's got to face a defense that just does not let you run at all. I mean, you look at Chase Brown. Look, interesting story is he's from Canada. He started at Western Michigan. Then he transfers to Illinois to be with his twin brother.

And this is, you know, his final year. He's a fifth year senior. And he's leading all of college football on rushing. And so, you know, like you said, you know, it's one thing to do it against Wisconsin. Okay, but what can he do going up against this Iowa defense that, you know, they really pride themselves on stopping the run. Jack Campbell right there in the middle. It'll be a really good test for Chase Brown, who has turned himself into a late round pit, PFA into, hey, moving them up, moving them up.

There's a lot of things to like about him as a runner. Yeah, a lot of volume from him. I know they played a week zero game, but he's already got 120 carries. So he has been a workforce for them. But it's, that one's going to be good. Because the Iowa defense feels like a good litmus test. You got to see Blake quorum against them last week. And I thought Blake did all right.

But the Iowa defense did kind of buckle up after that first drive where they got a little pushed around. And so excited about that. This is going to be a fun week of college football day. A lot of eating for me. I am bringing. So Ari Wasserman, my co-host on the Andy Staples show, has not done, he's not covered an on-campus big SEC football game. And so we we circled the Alabama, Texas, A&M game early this year. And it was because of the Nick Sabin Jimbo Fisher feud.

We figured, oh, we've got this whole W.W.E. style thing going on. Nobody's talking about that right now because Bryce Young's hurt and A&M's offense stinks. And so the A&M people are just like, we're just talking, just tell us when the buyout is $85 million. Just please, please make it work. And so that's all anybody is talking about. But we're introducing R.A. to the culture of the SEC. So he got to hang out with a Texas A&M yell leader, which you can listen to that on my show. I took him to Republic Steakhouse and College Station.

You can see on my Twitter feed the comparison of our steaks. It looks like my steak is his steak's daddy. What do you get, a filet? He got a filet and I got a 30-ounce rabbi. Oh, yeah. Bone in? No, is bone out? I was a little surprised by that.

It was that heavy with no bone. No bone. And four in the morning, I was meat sweating and regretting just a little bit. Just a tiny bit. Not a ton. You ate it all in one sitting? Oh, yeah. Sides?

I had a couple fries. We had a cherry bourbon bacon appetizer. I had that. And then I had a couple bites of this peanut butter chocolate cake for dessert. Not the whole thing, just a couple bites. Wow. So what a champ. It's not good.

Since I lost all this weight, I, it's been a while because I still think I can do these things that I used to do. Like I used to bounce back from that, no problem. This is a struggle because the plan for this day, we were recording here on a Tuesday, the plan for this day is to pick up barbecue on our way out of town because we've got to drive to Mississippi now. And there's a good new barbecue place that a lot of folks have told me. about called 1775 and I want to try it, I just don't know when I'm going to be ready to eat it.

That's the problem. Right. It kind of sounds like my five-year-old asking me to go on the trampoline with her. Things that you used to be able to do, not quite as easy these days. But I mean, look, it's good that you're introducing them to all these different foods because it's living in Texas for 10 years like I did, finding out that there's more to barbecue than just hot dogs and hamburgers, like that. I mean, that really opened my eyes and it just expanded my horizons in a big way. Well, and you went native, right? I mean, you were smoking briskets and learning.

No, I got, I, I'm born and raised. No, I'm born and raised in Ohio. So, like, I did not know, did not know, you know, just how big barbecue you could be until I moved there and, you know, really got engulfed in the culture. But it's, you know, it's something that I brought with me back. to Ohio because it is that important to me. Well, so later in the week, we're going to be in Tuscaloosa for the game. There's a place in Tuscaloos, my favorite ribs in America. It's actually in Northport, which is the one town over.

It's about two miles from Bryant any stadium. It's called Archibald's ribs. It's on MLK in Northport. It looks like some guy's house. And it's been there since the 60s, and they just make incredible ribs. It's one of those places, you know, they'll run out and be like, well, we'll reopen an eight hours. And that's, yeah, yeah, it's hit or miss. You got to make sure you actually get some, but that's one I, I'm excited for him to get to try. Well, that's the mark of a good barbecue place

is, you know, they close when they're out, they run out of food. You know, that's just, yeah, that's how it works. Uh, sauce or no sauce guy for your ribs? I am, I am no sauce. I think sauce is, is just used to cover mistakes in cooking. So, thank you. Exactly. Now, if you want to, if, If you pass the test. If you want to do this glaze, like if you want to do like a candy-coated glaze where you sauce them during the cook and you want that candy crust, I'm okay with that. But I also think it can be done without it. Yeah, 100%. And that will help it keep it moist and it's not, you know, not going to dry out.

That'll help it at the time. So, yeah, there's, I like that. But yeah, there's no need to, like my wife is a big sauce. You love sauce. And so, but I refuse on our ribs. When I put the smoker, there's, there's. there's no sauce. And then, okay, afterwards, here's a couple of sauce. If you want to, if you want to do it afterwards, uh, at your plate, that's fine. But when it's on the smoker,

no, no sauce. So, well, that's what when, when I went to Tennessee for my first job and was introduced to, to Memphis style ribs where the, it's dry rub and, and that's pretty much it. That's where I was like, oh, this is so much better. Like, you don't, you don't need to drown these things in sauce. If, if, if you do it at home and, and it, you didn't have the best cook in the world, yeah, I, I can see Duncan and a little. little sauce, but no. The meat can stand on its own, especially if you got a good rub. So we're going to introduce Ari to all that.

I will send you some pictures, Dane, make you very jealous. And we just need to do this. Like before the draft, why don't we dip into the Robert Mays budget? There we go. I know it exists. There's a Robert Mays Slush Fund. Pro-day road trip where we just hit up on the pro-days. Pro-day tour that.

is ostensibly about you and I going to pro days, but really we go to barbecue places? Yeah, done. I love it. All right. All right. So our producer Marissa, I know she knows some folks at the football show can get us some access to that Robert Mays slush fund. So let's make this happen. Perfect.

This was the athletic football show.