The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Prospects to Pros: NFL Draft order, Stetson Bennett’s rise, players who have not declared & more

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

Andy Staples and Dane Brugler discuss their biggest takeaways from the CFP National Championship including Stetson Bennett’s rise and what’s next for the QB. They also examine the NFL Draft order and what teams could do in the top 10. Finally, they talk about the players that have not declared or are still undecided about returning to college next season. Follow Andy on Twitter: @Andy_StaplesFollow Dane on Twitter: @dpbruglerSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube1:45 Stetson Bennett10:54 NFL Draft order23:56 Players who are not declaring for the draft or still undecided (Jared Verse, Blake Corum)36:03 East West Shrine Bowl coaches 39:10 Players excited to watch in all-star games Today's show is brought to you by...Peloton: Try Peloton risk free with a 30-Day Home Trial, New Members only at onepeloton.com/home-trialPhilo: Sign up today at philo.tv and use promo code MAYS to get 50% off your first monthBetter Help: Visit BetterHelp.com/MAYS today to get 10% off your first monthPenrose Hill: Get your first 6 bottles for $39.95 plus FREE shipping. Go to TryFirstleaf.com/MAYS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to Prospects to Pros, where we talk about the guys who are about to get drafted, the guys who just got drafted and everything in between. And we have a lot to talk about. I'm Andy Staples. He's Dane Bruegler. The National Championship game is over. The college football season is done.

All-Star game season is upon us. And also, we know the draft order, at least some of it, most of them, in the NFL right now. Dane, let's start with the championship game. George and TCU, we said we thought Georgia had a significant talent advantage. It was overwhelmingly significant. Jalen Carter is still good, it turns out. Yeah, imagine that. And I want to say something nice about TCU.

I'm just trying to come up with it. But I do think that Steve Avila, the left guard, who has a chance to be a top winner pick, I thought he played well, considering the competition. But, yeah, this was a Georgia game. And credit to Sets of Bennett, that offense for removing the football like they did, the defense showed up. Yeah, I think that most of us thought it would be a Georgia type of, okay, because they played catch-up the entire game against Ohio State.

Yeah. We had a feeling that they weren't going to let that happen. They were going to jump out to a lead, and then they were just going to pull away as the game went on. just didn't think they'd pull away in the first quarter like they did. But credit to that offense, that staff, Sethson Bennett, we've talked about it, not a ton, but we've mentioned it how Seths and Bennett is a guy that needs to be considered a legitimate prospect, has a chance to be drafted.

And look, he has started four playoff games. He has been the MVP of four playoff games. that's a remarkable stat right there I mean that's and that that will not go unnoticed by NFL teams because when and obviously he's playing with an all-star cast around him but you still need to play at a high level

to win those games and you know win the MVP like he has so and he did it in this game where it showed off his legs you know showed the composure the awareness understand everything going on around him he's there to really the main thing working against him. He's small. Just like Bryce Young, he's, you know, right around 5-11,

190 pounds. He's also, you know, older than a lot of current NFL quarterbacks. He's going to be 26 in October, I believe. So how every team will look at that a little bit differently. I don't think it's as big of a deal just because we're talking about a backup quarterback who, you know, you're going to draft in the later rounds. So I don't think the age is as much of a factor. But yeah, for him to go out like he did, Pretty, pretty impressive. Yeah. And so this conversation has been going on for a while in college circles about what Stets and Bennett's football future is.

And I remember the drunk interview with Michael Strayhan on Good Morning America after the national title game last year where he said, oh, you know, I'm an economics major. I'd like to go to law school. Well, his attitude on this has changed. We talked to him before the Peach Bowl and he said, my football career, if it's going to end early, it's because somebody cut my life. leg off. He said, I'm going to keep playing as long as somebody let me play. And I talked to Todd Munkin about him. Munkin's Georgia's offensive coordinator. And obviously he is a big fan of Stetson Bennett. But he also was the Bucks offensive coordinator, early James era Bucks and then worked with the Browns before he came to Georgia. So he's been around some NFL quarterbacks and

understands how that system worked. What he said about Stetson, why he thinks Stetson could be a longtime NFL backup is Stetson can perform without reps. And that's the thing that, like, that's, that's actually how Stetson got the job. In 2020, they thought Jamie Newman was going to be the quarterback, the Wake Forest transfer. He opts out during camp. And they're like, oh, crap, what are we going to do? And so the next step is DeWan Mathis, who's a scholarship guy.

They brought him in after Justin Fields transferred. and they're like, okay, it's your job. Well, Dwan Mathis goes out against Arkansas, and they can't do squat. They can't move the ball at all. Stetson Bennett, who's not really been taking reps at all, comes in. All of a sudden, the offense works. That's how he got the job. And then, but they still wouldn't give him the job.

And so he was in competition for it. He lost it again to J.T. Daniels. At the end of the, he got hurt in the Florida game in 2020. J.T. Daniels comes in. J.T. Daniels is the guy for the entire offseason before the 2021 season. Stetson Bennett, not getting reps. J.T. Daniels gets hurt. They do a legitimate quarterback competition week two of 2021,

which doesn't happen ever, where there's 50-50 reps with the first team, Carson Beck and Stetson Bennett. Bennett wins the job, starts against UAB. It has like a ridiculous stat line, like 10 of 12, 288, 5 touchdowns, and that was that was that the rest is history but as munkin says he's he's the type of guy chase daniel he mentioned jim sorgie back in the day who they don't need reps you just show them what they need to do they'll know how to do it they'll do the work in the in their spare time to make sure they have it down and if you need them to come into a game they can perform and that's that's what

sets and bennett's going to be yeah that makes a lot of sense and this is a guy that uh walked on redshirted, went to junior college, returned to Georgia, was put on scholarship, and never really cried about it. And Pouda, he just worked. He just competed. And it's a guy that basically played two and a half seasons for Georgia, and he finishes top five in school history,

in completions, passing yards, touchdown passes. So more than just being a game manager out there, he was putting up points. a guy that moved the offense. And so, yeah, that's really interesting. And so when you look at it, this quarterback class, I'm a little surprised he is not, I do not know this for a fact, but I'm guessing he has a senior bowl invite. It has not been announced yet. He has not accepted it yet. But this is a guy that when you look at his career starts, he's 29 and 3. And anybody listening to this podcast might tell you, well, quarterback wins is not a stat.

And you're welcome to think of that. But you know what? A lot of NFL teams think it is a stat. And so going 29 and three in your career as an SEC quarterback, that matters. And so the guy's a winner. He goes out there and, you know, it helps his team win. And that's something that you want in your quarterback room. And so I think a lot of teams will be interested in those later rounds.

Yeah. And the thing about Stetson, you can say, oh, he had an overwhelming talent advantage in most games. And that's completely true. but he played really well in the games where they didn't have an overwhelming talent advantage as well. So, yeah, I'm very interested to see where he goes, what he winds up doing. I mean, really, a lot of that is situational. Do you wind up in the right situation for you a place where maybe they've got an established young starting quarterback who's going to be there a while? And you can just be that guy behind him.

Yeah. And even if you're the third string to start and you're a guy that's on the practice squad or a guy that teams are going to put at the bottom of the rosters because they don't want to lose them because you're so valuable with what you bring to the quarterback room in terms of practice, in terms of the meetings and having that extra voice in there. That matters a ton in terms of preparation and executing the game plan. So it's almost like being a part coach, part coordinate or part quarterback. He can figure out. Trying to figure out who he matches stylistically. Because like Trace McSorley's value is that he's a great backup if your starters, Lamar Jackson or Kyler-Murray.

Yeah. Because he could come in and run your offense. Who was the quarterback before McSorley at Penn State? Oh, gosh. McGloin, right? Yes, Matt McLean. That's a guy. That's a guy I never thought would have it.

a chance at the NFL. And he went in and played for a couple of years. And I think, I think Setson Bennett is better than McLeon was at Penn State. You know, but the intangible factor, the intelligence factor, that, that really helped to send him. And quarterback, we talk so much about the physical traits. Quarterback is, it's a mentality. It's something that, you know, is more than just how far can you throw the football, you know, how big are you? And so with what you bring to the equation with your mind, that, that, that's, you know, that's, you're a lot. You know, It's a big factor. Yeah.

It'll be fun to see where he goes. He's been fun to watch. He's also very smart and understands kind of the business of all this. You go back, again, I keep bringing up the drunk interview. One, because it was amazing that he was on Good Morning America just hammered. And two, because he was so lucid on Good Morning America while hammered in ways I could never be sober. And one of the things he said, and this was after he'd won the national. title. They beat in Alabama the night before is I'm going to play college football next year.

I don't know where. I got to see if I can trust this coaching staff. Like he put Georgia's staff on blast because they kept trying to recruit over him and essentially made sure he was going to be the starting quarterback before he made any further decisions. It was incredible. He's been down this road before, right? I mean, his dad was a walk-on quarterback. I think George's Southern. Um, like, I mean, he's, when he was fighting to get, uh, get recruited, he flew across the country, going to every single camp, the elite 11. Yeah. Uh, that's how he got the, the mailman, uh, nickname because he wore a U.S. Postal Service hat as a way to just stand out. And so he gets this mailman, uh, you know, so he's used to being happy, you know, being, uh, market yourself.

Right. Thought of less and, okay, how am I going to stand out? Um, and so. I have no doubt that he's going to be able to do that, you know, at the next level as well. Let's talk about a little further up in the draft. In fact, the top of the draft because we know what the draft order is going to be for the top 18 picks now. And what a, what a finish in the Texans Colts game. Davis Mills, man, fighting for his jobs. Like, hey, I ain't going out like this.

And I was that a Lovie Smith middle finger to the organization knowing he's going to get fired? 100%. This is my parting gift to you. You're going to keep paying me for the next three, four years, and I'm going to make sure you do not get that number one pick. Just, I mean, selfishly, I was, I kind of wanted to see Houston get it just because it'd make mock drafts a lot easier.

Now, you've got to figure out, okay, bears, they have the number one pick, what's going to happen with that number one pick? It's going to be fascinating to see how it all plays out. I think it will be a process. This isn't going to be, you know, a trade's not happening next week. You know, this is something that, you know, the next three months we'll be talking about. So it's now with the bear is not picking number one. And you're Ryan Poles, the second year general manager, you've got over $125 million in cap space,

which is almost double what the next highest team has. So you've got money to spend. you've got I think eight total draft picks. Now you wish you had that 32nd pick, that first pick in the second round. But you traded that for Chase Claypool, which maybe you don't do again, but you've got the number one pick now.

And the phone lines are open. It's a really fascinating conversation about, okay, do you stick and pick and take one of these defensive guys? Do you just trade to the highest bidder? do you even consider a quarterback? It's something where if you're the general manager, every single option should be on the table.

You examine each one and you figure out, okay, long term, what is the best decision for us? And it'll be really fun to tie. It's great for draft content, that's for sure. Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out. So of the teams beneath the bears that need a quarterback, obviously the Texans, and if the bears stick with that pick,

they're not going to take a quarterback. The Texans will be able to choose the quarterback they want. But you have the Colts. Four. At four. You have the Seahawks at five. Yep. Because that's Denver's pick in the Russell Wilson trade.

You have the Raiders at seven. You have Atlanta at eight. That's a lot of people who could trade up for that number one pick. Carolina at nine. Yeah. And I even include Detroit at six in there. even you know i think true because golf they have another year or two and you you yeah draft for the future goth has been fine but yeah i think he this year was probably peak golf and he didn't make the playoffs

so it's like okay maybe this is the year we go for a younger guy and he can play behind you know and so Detroit has two first round picks uh six and 18 so they have the the draft capital to go make a move if that's what they want to do um and but I think it's interesting for Chicago at one, because you have the, you have the chance to draft whoever you want. And so Jalen Carter, Will Anderson, who we think are the top two defensive players, maybe even the top two players overall in this draft. If you're the Bears, I think you're almost hoping that the Colts call you at number four because you still want to stay within range of, those two players. And I think it depends. The more I watch these guys, I think there's a pretty big drop off from Will Anderson, Jalen Carter, to that next tier of players. And so I think there's

some good players, but I think it's a drop off. And so if you're the Bears and you really don't want to trade away from, you know, those two guys, maybe you don't take the best offer. Just sitting there at number one. Maybe you take what the Colts are going to give you because, you know, you want to stay within striking distance of one of those two guys and you don't want to lose them. So it's a really interesting situation that it's not as simple as, okay, well, what's the best tradeoff are going to be? I think there's a lot of factors that go into this. Well, that's the thing. And you're going to get something from the Colts if that's the scenario.

And you're still going to get what you want from this first pick. Because let's say the Colts did trade with the Bears. I imagine the Colts are going to have to give the Bears quite a bit. bit to do that, even if it's not the best deal. So you're going to get more picks, which you can turn into other picks or just pick people, depending on how you feel. You go down to four. The Colts are going to take whatever QB they want, Stroud or Young.

The Texans will take the other one. Most likely. The Cardinals are going to take one of Anderson or Carter. Right. And then you get the other one. Yeah. You can't really lose there. Yeah.

I mean, we're assuming Houston takes a quarter. Houston's just such a wild card. You just don't know with the head coach. But I think that if we had to put a percentage on it, I think the best odds would say that they would draft a quarterback there. I mean, you've punted on the head coach now the last few years. You've punted on your quarterback the last few years. At some point, you've got to take a swing.

I mean, Nick Casario, he's not promised another year. If you're Nick Casario, you've got to take a swing at some point. So, yeah, I think that the best odds would say Houston's taking a quarterback there at number two. And so, yeah, I think that would be the best outcome if you're the Bears. And it might not be your best offer. You might get more draft ammo from, you know, say the Raiders at 7 or, you know, the Panthers at 9, whoever it ends up may be. but you know what's a chance to stay within range of one of those two studs on the defense that matters in the equation yeah it is just going to be fascinating and if you're the bears you're in a

good spot they've polls said basically that they that feels is their guy yeah i mean clif kingsbury said that i about josh that's true he literally said josh is our guy so i mean i mean i i if you you had to put a percentage chance on what the bears are going to do. I'm not putting it at 100% in trade. I would put it at very high and probably like 90% that this is going to be a trade. But I think that you have to leave a little bit of that pie chart for the chance that maybe they just don't get. Maybe the Colts aren't interested in moving up. Maybe they say, you know what, we feel good about Will Levis.

We feel good at it. So we're going to stay picking four. Keep our draft picks. And we're still going to get a quarterback we like. And maybe the bears don't want to move down to nine with the Panthers or whoever. You know, maybe it's just they don't want to move down that far because they're not getting the offer. So maybe they stay put at number one and they take Will Anderson. So there's at least a chance that that happens in this.

And then I would leave at least the littlest chance that maybe they look at quarterback. But obviously the number one, the best odds of what's going to happen at number one is a tradeback for a team looking to go up and get that quarterback. Well, okay. So you talk about it. It's little odds. But would you take Justin Fields over every quarterback available in this draft? Because I think I would. You know, it's really tough.

Honestly, I can't fully answer that without like going back and really studying what he did this year. I just watching the Bears on TV, he's still very much a work in progress as a passer. I mean, what he does with his athleticism and his legs is special. And then it seems like every game he had, you know, three, four, five throws. that were just like, oh, wow, okay. Yeah, like he's showing progress. It's also hard to tell because they started tanking. 100%.

That's part of the offensive line. You've played a lot of young guys. You know, Braxton Jones looks like he might be part of the future there. But, you know, who he's throwing to. And, you know, the supporting cast was not equipped to help him. But he still did show progress. And that's very promising. And so I'm not, I can't say with conviction that I would clearly take him

over any quarterback in this class. And mostly that's just because I think Bryce Young is special. And there's so much about Bryce Young that I'm willing to bet on. But I also think that if you're the Bears, I don't know that with considering who you have in your building and all that, you want to necessarily move on from fields. But Ryan Poles did not draft him. That's part of this as well. And then there's also a smaller section of this conversation about

this has never been done before, but do you put any, I'd be interested to get your thoughts, any stock in the notion of drafting a quarterback and having a true competition. Because we've never seen it at a quarterback, but we've seen it in other positions where you're loaded at receiver and hey, let's keep strengthening our strength.

Let's get better. Let's create competition. The most important position in all of sports, let's draft another really good one, let these guys compete, And we'll cream rises to the top. We'll figure out who the best one is. That's our guy moving forward.

And then the guy we don't, that doesn't win the job, he's still going to have value out there. And we can, you know, make it. So it's crazy. It's never had me before. So I sound crazy right now even talking about it. I realize that. Happens in college all the time.

Take as many five stars as you can. Exactly. So I don't think it's as crazy as some people are thinking it is. listening to me talk right now, but it's at least something I want to throw out there as something, if you're Ryan Poles, you at least discuss it, you at least have it on the table because every option should be examined. So here's where I am with that. Because I understand what you're saying. And again, this happens in college at the top level schools every year. Ohio State has two or three, five stars that will compete in spring practice for the job. Georgia has four and five star guys who all got

beaten out by Stetson Bennett. And they will now compete for the job. So I understand where you're coming from here. And let's say they draft Bryce Young, because I'm with you, I think he's, he's the potentially special one in this draft. So if Bryce Young beats out Justin Fields, I do think there would be enough teams in the league that would go, Justin Fields is an upgrade over who we have. We will trade you significant capital for that. We'll trade you, you know, picks, players, whatever you want for that. If Fields is better than Young, though, then the other teams are like, well, we don't know what he is.

We know he just got beat out. And then I don't know what your value is. Are you going to get enough value out of that to justify missing or skipping Will Anderson or Jalen Carter at that point? I think it comes down to what you think of Young. If you really think that he is special, and part of this is being a little, you're kind of hedging your bet with fields. We don't, we're not in that Chicago Bears building every day. So we don't know, you know, how he is in meetings and how his progress is from a game plan standpoint, from a playbook standpoint.

So that's part of, you know, that's missing from, you know, what we're talking about here. But if you're not 100% sold on fields, regardless of what he said, what Ryan Poles has said in the media, then, you know, I think that helps your chances of doing something like that. But, you know, it's at least something that I think the bear should look at. It's not something that I said they should do. But it's at least something that, you know, you just don't have this opportunity very often where you have a chance to bring in, you know, you almost look at these guys as assets as, you know, this is an. a big-time asset I'm adding to my team, and he will make more of an impact than who, no matter who else I could draft here.

And I still think Bryce Young would command a significant, you know, trade package, even if Fields does beat him out at some point and Fields is your guy moving forward. So it's interesting. Yeah, it is. Speaking of interesting developments, this is the period where we get more draft declaration. from guys whose seasons just ended. Parris Johnson Jr., the Ohio State offensive tackle,

who you think will be the first offensive tackle off the board. He's officially declared. Jalen Carter has officially declared no surprises there. But there was one big surprise over the weekend, and it's a guy who did not declare. Jared Verse, the Florida State edge rusher who had transferred from Albany, who was on the Germain Johnson plan, did not declare.

He is going back to Florida State. that's a big one because usually you don't see somebody who is a potential top 20 pick come back especially he's a fourth year guy so it's not like he's 20 years old and just still very young and you know wants more life experience before he becomes a pro he's an older guy he's going to be a 50 year senior next year but only one year at the fBS level it just sounds like he really enjoys being at Florida State. And I have no doubt that NIL plays a factor in this. And NIL just, it changes things now. We've seen more top 100 picks go back than past years. Every year we see guys go back and make these decisions. But NIL is making it more and more common

because, you know, I say, okay, I could be a third round pick or I'm going to get, you know, $750K from Clemson for me to stay. I'll do that. You know, like I'm having to good time here. You know, I'm not going to be competing for a job with a 35-year-old. Like, let's just, you know, let's slow down a little bit. I'm still going to be making good money. I can help my family out. So, and with Jared Verse, I don't know how much he's making, but I'm sure he's making a good amount of money. And you know what? He's got a chance to get better too. He's a, he's a guy that has a ton of talent. I think he plays the right position, and he has the talent that you feel like he's going to get better and better. So there's no doubt in my mind.

he was going top 20 in this draft. But going back, maybe it could help him in the long run. It's certainly possible. So I talked to Adam Fuller, defensive coordinator over the weekend. And he said that one thing with Jared is he felt like, and this is Jared talking to his coach saying, I think there are things I can do a lot better, that I can clean up, that I was pretty raw this year, and that I can be a more polished product coming out next year, which if you can go from top 15 pick to a top five pick, then suddenly, financially, that's worth it too.

There's NIL money in this, and Florida State's NIL philosophy, I think, is a good one because they are much more interested in making sure their best players on the roster get taken care of than going too far into front in NIL deals for recruits, who they don't know if they're going to be any good or not. Like Florida State has said, you guys go spend all this money on recruits that may or may not pan out, we are going to do it with our best players now or people in the transfer portal who we've evaluated very carefully and understand how they fit at this level. That's common sense.

Yeah. Which is how they've improved that team, because that team was in bad shape a couple years ago. They are much better now than they were. Are they going to be the ACC favorites next year? I mean, they've got a lot of guys coming back. I think Clemson still will be the favorite, but Florida State will be the trendy pick. They will be the trendy pick to win the ACC.

The end of ACC divisions this year. So, like, Florida State doesn't necessarily have to beat Clemson to get to the ACC title game. They just, they play, you know, three set opponents every year, and then the rest of the schedule rotates through, and then they just take the top two teams in the title game. So that's big for Florida State. That's big for Louisville, which is going to have. really good talent under Jeff Brom. Like he's going to be able to bring in quite a few good players. And so that'll make it interesting.

But first coming back is huge for them. One other guy coming back, Dane, that really shocked me, mostly for positional reasons, not for sentimental reasons or anything like that. Blake Corum, the running back, coming back to Michigan. Because my feeling on running backs is, go start your clock. Like, I don't care how good a time you're having in college. Go start your clock.

Especially coming from that Michigan offense where you know they're just going to grind you out and get every carry possible in that Jim Harbaugh offense. You know, and I was talking to someone last week and he was saying how they were, Michigan was passing the hat around to basically, okay, how much NIL money can be raised here to keep them? And that's definitely a part of it. part of this is the injury. You know, not being able to work out before the draft, which seemed like that was a possibility

for Blake as he's kind of rehabbing his knee injury. That's something that probably played a factor. Based off a tape, he's a top 75 pick in this draft. But this is a loaded running back class. And if you're not able to work out during the process, that might knock you down a little bit. And so I think that at least played a factor in his decision to come back. Yeah, I do two. I just, I still.

I agree. And I agree with you. If you're not going to be a first round pick, that means your clock starts even early. That means you've got four years still the next contract instead of five. Like, as a running back, the only goal should be to get this, to get to the second contract. Yeah. No, I do think that's fair. And again, with that Michigan offense.

Now, they do have Donovan Edwards coming back. So it'll be, Michigan, they have the best backfield in college football. I have to, right? with J.J. McCarthy and then there's two running backs. I mean, that's good luck. So, I mean, it's big for Michigan. That offense is going to be, you know, humming next year. But, yeah, I agree with you.

It's, especially at that position, it's something where, you know, you want to maximize, you know, your ability, your shelf life. And there'll be no doubt he'll go into next year as the top senior running back prospect among the senior class. We see him this year with Zach Charbonnet, who could have came out last year. Would have been third, fourth round pick. He comes back to school. I don't know that he's improved to stock really at all. I think he's the same guy who's still going to be probably a day two pick. But, you know, it's interesting with NIL and how much, if NIL is not a factor,

late quorum is probably in this draft class. Yeah. Yeah. And it's interesting how this works because it is a factor in all of these. Michael Pinnock's, it's a factor. Bo Nix. Yeah, Bo Nix coming back. Several of the quarterbacks, Spencer Rattler.

You know, before Spencer Rattler announced that he was coming back to South Carolina on Tuesday, several days earlier, he was tweeting about, hey, guys, support the South Carolina collected. Basically like, hey, give the money that they are going to then give me. Exactly. But like the Jared Bursing, things. interesting because there's no amount of NIL money that FSU collective could come up with that's going to match what he would have made his first year in the NFL. Part part of it is, and just from talking to the guys on that staff and watching that team,

those guys actually seem to really like playing together. Yeah. Which I think is an underrated factor. And you were talking about that earlier. Like sometimes guys just like being in college. They like the environment or they like the people they're playing with or the people they're playing. for and they're like you know what i may not make as much money coming back as i'm going to make if i go pro but i'm going to make a good amount that changes the the math on that quite a bit there are so many factors why guys will go pro or come back to school like i mean some guys just aren't they're not mature enough to go to the nfl yet in terms of just their their mentality and you know if they're having fun with their teammates and

you know, it's, there are so many factors that go into this. And for a lot of these guys in the past, the motivating factor was just, uh, money to, and if you're, but if you're making $750,000 from NIL, all of a sudden that, you know, yes, you could make maybe a little bit more in the NFL and, you know, if your number one goal is to maximize every cent, then probably go. That's probably the best, uh, your best odds of doing that. But for a lot of these guys, they're not thinking. about, you know, I need to maximize every single cent. It's about, okay, can I make a living right now and do I still feel, you know, good about what my future is going to be, then they're willing to take that chance. So, you know, I don't, Twitter and, you know, they get on these

guys and they decide to go back to school, but I think there's just a lot of factors that go into this. It's more than just the financial. And, you know, where we, where we are right now, and this might change by the time you're listening to this. We're still waiting on a few key underclassmen to declare the deadlines on Monday. CJ Stroud, Ohio State quarterback, obviously, has not yet, as of this recording, officially declared. We expect him to. It'd be a shock if he did not.

And a big reason why, four-fifths of his offensive line looked like they're gone with Paris Johnson, who you mentioned, Luke Whippler, the center declared. I do think Whippler makes his center class better, although I wasn't blown away with him as a prospect. He's more of a mid-round guy than a top-100 guy. guy. And so I have yet to watch a center this year that I feel very confident will be a top 100 pick. Now, maybe there's a team that really needs a center and they end up taking one top

100, but there's not a single center in this draft that screams, oh, I'm definitely a day two pick. And, you know, Lipler, uh, Whippler is part of that. A couple of Georgia players, you know, you mentioned, uh, Jalen Carter announced him and Kili Ringo right after the national championship game. They said they were going pro. A couple other guys we have got to hear from, Broderick Jones, who is most likely gone, the left tackle. He'll be one of the first tackles drafted. Darnell, Washington is a little more interesting because he's coming off the injury, you know, and just, you know, tight ends are a little different,

but I still think he's going to declare. He should be part of this draft class. I don't think he wants to compete with Brock Bowers in the draft class. Yeah, that's true. Quentin Johnston also played the National Championship game, TC wide receiver. We have get to hear from him. He has a chance to be one of the first wide receivers. technically Jordan Addison hasn't declared yet, but that's done.

He's going to be in this draft. Tommy Eichenberg, another Ohio State underclassman, has yet to make a decision. He is very well-liked. He has a chance to be a day-two linebacker. If he comes out, Arkansas State defense event, I'm not very good of pronouncing his name. Felix Enerdike Uzama.

Perfect. He sounds like he's really on the fence, about what he's going to do. He's a talented player, but he's still young, could get better by going back. He's not a top 60, top 70 lock. So if he does go back to school, he has a chance to make some money.

So that one, I certainly understand why he would be 50-50. Yeah, yeah, I think that would be, you know, that would be interesting. If Verse and Anadiki Azama both came back to school, because that does change the, the edge class a little bit.

But, man, it is, it is going to be a fascinating next few weeks. The All-Star Games are upon us. Shrine game coaches have been announced as the Falcons and the Patriots. Yeah, that's interesting. Usually it's, you start at the draft order, you know, all the years that's the coaching staffs have been at the Senior Bowl. You start at the top of the draft order and where there was a coaching staff that was in place for longer than, you know, a full season.

that's usually who went and coached the senior bowl this year. We had to go way down the list. So, you know, a lot of coaches are getting passed over for these two. And it's just interesting that, you know, Bill Belichick going. So that'll be, that adds another wrinkle to that shrine game activity. So that'll be a lot of fun. Well, and I kind of wonder, you know, because the scuttle butt in college football is that maybe Bill O'Brien will leave Alabama as the O.C., well, the scuttle button in college football is that Bill O'Brien is going to leave. of Alabama as the O.C.

And wind up back in the NFL, the question is where the obvious spot everyone was thinking is the Patriots because he's worked there before. And Pat Patricia is not an offensive coordinator, as we saw this year. And Bill O'Brien very much is one. So I'm curious to see what the staff looks like when they get there. Yeah, that's good. And Gerard Mayo is very well liked in that. Could be a D.C. somewhere else.

Yeah. Yep. He has a very good chance to land somewhere else. And so, yeah, 100%. That'll be, that'll be. And this is, the Patriots are coming off a season where it just, it seemed like it was doomed from the start, you know, with the coaching staff was, you know, there were a lot of questions there.

I weren't sure what the offense was going to look like. And the defense can only be so good. So next year, this will be a much different looking Patriots team with some older guys moving on. And, you know, they need to do something with that offense in terms of getting more playmakers in there, especially at the wide receiver position. So, you know, maybe that it'll start at the shrine practices where A.T. Perry, Zay Flowers, are supposed to be Zay Flowers. He's a Boston college guy.

Maybe just keep him up there in the Northeast. That would make some sense for New England. Well, I'm sure they've had their eye on Zay Flowers for a while. Oh, yeah. But A.T. Perry is another good one from Wake Forest. He's one, I think, that if you didn't watch a lot of Wake Forest, you're not very familiar with him, but he is a very productive receiver. He could be the first senior receiver drafted. It's possible. I mean, Rishi Rice from

SMU, A.T. Perry, Cedric Tillman, Zay Flowers. I mean, those four guys, I think probably the first senior receiver drafted comes out of that group of four. And A.T. Perry is, yeah, he's right there in the mig. He's six, three and a half, two and five pounds. going to run well probably in the high or the low 4 4 4 is 448 around there really a long player and that shows at the catch point with that huge wingspan in his so yeah I'm a big AT Perry fan so we should have full basically full rosters for these games by next week who who has not declared for one of these all-star games do you most want to see in one of those practices

Well, we mentioned how Setson Bennett. I just want to see him throw compared to... Right. When the talent's equal. Yeah, exactly. I just want to see what it looks like. Size-wise, the ball coming off his hand, you know, that type of thing. So that would definitely be one of those guys.

And honestly, I don't think Will Levis has officially turned down his invite yet. Maybe he did and I missed it. But he has not accepted. And I don't think he will. but I don't think he's officially said no, or at least it hasn't been reported yet that he said no. So that's just something to watch here as we get closer. I don't, I mean, most of the guys have already been announced.

Maybe the thing I'm most interested in is to see, because this happens every year. Guys drop out. The roster, the guy, everyone that accepts, it looks great, and then, you know, a bunch of guys drop out. So this year, all right, Tyree Wilson, Texas Tech, has a chance to be a top 10 pick. He's been hurt.

Coming off the injury, exactly. So what does he do? Does he feel up to it to play? Or as he say, you know what, I'm just going to back off a little bit, get ready, get my mind and body right for the combine. My guess is the latter, but hopefully I'm wrong. Rishie Rice. He also, he skipped the ball game because of his toe issue.

Another thing where he might say, you know what? Yeah, I could go, but I'm going to just get myself back to 100% health, get ready for the combine, start that training. So those two guys really stand out as that type of decision where they have a chance to be first-round picks, but might be those dropouts. So hopefully we don't see as many dropouts this year, but there's always going to be some. Yeah. This will be a really interesting season, you know, all-star game season.

Let me ask you real quick. Back to the underclassmen. Have there been any underclassmen that have done? declared maybe that surprised you, where you thought, you know what, he really should have gone back? No. I didn't thought about that, but no. NIL, I think, is the reason for that. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, I did have a coach tell me something very interesting that this was, this is a head coach. He said, and he mentioned some players that he had that were lower round draft picks. And he said, when those players left, they had agents in their ear telling them, that they could be first-round draft picks when they were clearly like fifth-round draft picks. But the agents would lie to them. The new agent lie instead of you'll be a first-rounder

is you won't be drafted at all, even though you might be a fourth or a fifth rounder. And here's the reason why. Because the NIL deal commission is 10 to 20%. the contract commission for an agent is 4%. Yeah. So is this a bad thing for, I mean, no, it's good for college football.

Not the getting lied to part. Right. But when players who would have been lower round draft picks or undrafted free agents that would have been signed to teams, when they come back, they have a much bigger impact on the college football. football team they're coming back to than the NFL team they would have been going to. Like, those people matter.

Like, if let's, I'll give you an example. Brett Bilema, when he was at Arkansas, complained about this because he lost his two, I believe it was his two guards off his offensive line. And they both went, and that one was like a seventh rounder, one was an undrafted player. And he's like, why can't those guys come back? Clearly they got bad information. Why can't they just come back? And the difference between having two veteran, like, third-year starter guards versus having to go find somebody in the transfer portal or play a redshirt freshman is massive.

Oh, yeah. Massive. So, yeah, that's what. And I used to talk when Manny Diaz was the head coach at Miami, I talked about this because Miami was like the poster child of a team where guys would leave early to go be seventh round picks. If they could just keep those guys, they'd be a little more veteran heavy. It might mean a game or two more wins on the back end. Yeah. And I feel like teams like that now are going to keep those guys.

Well, and it's funny you brought up Beelma because Kirby Joseph, the standout safety. Last year he told me what Beelma told him about when he told the coach that, hey, I think about coming out. He was a fourth year guy, fourth year senior, but he had the COVID year if you want to come back. And Beelma told him, like, hey, you're going to be a seventh rounder. Like, if you get drafted at all, come back, you'll get better. And I was like, I mean, Kirby, you're like, you know, teams think you could go third round, the fourth round at the latest. Like, you know, it's, you do what you want to do.

But, you know, it is what it is. And so he came out and he was drafted third round. He's got a pretty good rookie year. So, you know, these coaches are put in a compromised position because they get burned. See, Bilema, that's a bad idea. That's bad business for Bilemon. Like Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, those guys understand the value of the draft in recruiting. If you've got a player you think is a third rounder and you think coming back will not help him at all in the draft, you tell him to go.

Because a third round draft pick who becomes an NFL starter is good for your recruiting. Like if you can't help him get better and get drafted, higher than tell him to go. If he's a third round grade and you think he give a first rounder, then by all means put the full court, show him the math of what being a first rounder could mean and how he could actually make more money that way. But yeah, the draft is your best recruiting tool as a college football coach. And not sure every college coach understands that.

That's a great point. Yeah, not every coach really embraces. And I get it because they're looking at their not. They're looking at their own depth chart. And, you know, so I get it. But, yeah, lean into it. And that's why, you know, why I am just flummox. But, you know, when we see or I hear from some of my agent or scout friends about, hey, you know, I went to this campus and they totally locked me out.

Or, you know, like they don't give me any access. They don't give me any information. Like, and I'm like, this isn't like the media. This isn't like agents. This is scouts. Like, it's guys that want to, they want the information. so they can help get your guys the next level. Like, it just blows my mind.

It is completely mind-blowing. Before I left Sports Illustrated, I did a story because Albert Breer had suggested this. He's like, he called me, he goes, why do the scouts love Alabama so much? And I said, because if you show up in Tuscaloose at 4 a.m., someone is opening the complex for you, giving you whatever video you need and making you coffee. Sabin gets it. Yeah, they want you to like their players. Yeah. And Clemson's like that.

George's like that. Ohio State's like that. They want you to like their players. They want you to take their players. But there are other schools that are complete lockdown mode. The coaches are paranoid. They think the scouts are going to call their alma mater's coach and be like, I saw them running this at practice.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's the dumbest thing you can do. The smartest thing you can do is a college football coach is help your players get drafted as high as possible because that's all recruits care about. You can say they care about NIL, and they do to an extent.

But like Alabama and Georgia don't have to pay as much on the front end because they can say look how many first rounders we make. That's it, yeah, exactly. I was talking about this the other day with a scout about Ohio State. Like you just look at, you know, Nick Bose as a defensive player of the year. Garrett Wilson is the offensive rookie of the year. Like, I mean, it's just, it's easy. We will develop you and we have a track record.

And if you would like to call Abosa Brother or Chase Young or Garrett Wilson or Jeff Okuda or whoever, call them. And they'll tell you. That's it. And that's the best recruiting pitch you can make. It's unbelievable. So dear college coaches, don't treat scouts like dirt. Be nice to them. It might help your player get drafted like three spots higher.

And trust me, that matters. Yeah. Sooner or later, I think all coaches figure that out. It just might take them a few years before they really leaned into it. So, yeah. It's unbelievable. Well, Dane, it has been a pleasure. I'm on vacation for a little bit, but we will be back next week about a day late.

No. Sorry, my fault. With our latest, or with our co-host back with us, which will be fun. That's right. Lance Zerline coming back. He will be deep in the process. of writing up prospects. Next week, I've got a mock draft coming out.

I've got my top, my positional rankings coming out, so we'll have a lot to talk about, a lot to debate and kind of, you know, it'll be a set-to-stage type of podcast for the rest of the draft process. I cannot wait. Getting ready for the combine in Indianapolis, getting ready for our draft recorder combine, trying to get my bench press reps up.

Oh, man. My 40 times going to suck, though. I'm warning you right now. So we will be ready, though. We will be prepared. Yeah, next week. Big week. Cannot wait to see that in mock draft.

We'll talk to you later. This was the athletic football show.