The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Scouting the top-four QBs in the 2023 NFL Draft

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

After a one-year hiatus, quarterbacks are back at the top of the NFL Draft. In fact, four quarterbacks could hear their names called among the first 10 picks. Robert Mays and Nate Tice dig into the top four—C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson and Will Levis—on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceThis episode is brought to you by Betterhelp, Visit betterhelp.com/mays today to get 10% off your first month.Subscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube4:50 Lamar Jackson's trade request7:39 C.J. Stroud33:47 Bryce Young55:30 Anthony Richardson74:31 Will Levis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays, joining me today. It's my good friend Nate Tyson. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing very well. It feels like after we did the free agency, I don't know, onslaught that only doing one show last week, I missed you. I really did.

It was like late in the week, and I'm like, oh. You're the only one. Yeah, I just need another athletic football show, always on. But it's always on. It's always on. But no, I'm doing very well. I actually went to the Taylor Swift concert on Friday. Wow.

How was that? It was phenomenal. And I'm not like I'm okay with Taylor Swift. I like her. I wouldn't say I'm like a huge fan or anything. But she put on a show, man. I think it was 40 something songs, 44 songs. I knew about a quarter of them where I just knew them.

And I would say I knew the words to about three of them. But I mean, I've been to. games at the Metro Dome, the Kingdom my whole life. I've been to the Super Dome. I've been to a lot of loud stadiums in my lifetime. That was the loudest cheering and noise I've ever heard in my entire life. Was that a legion? It was a legion. Yeah. Peck to the Gills. Takes a lot for me to get to a stadium show. My first ever stadium show. And yeah, it was good. The performances and the everything she did because she was trying to cover all the eras and everything. So I think I was a good show to see. You know, It's one I'm going to remember because I don't really do stadium shows.

I don't really do concerts. So it took a page out of your book. It was great. Sounds wonderful. I mean, yeah, I, we're putting together the,

uh, no playlist and the, and the, and the must playlist, yeah, for our wedding right now, which is a, just a torturous experience.

It's hard. It has not been easy. We've been putting our heads together about it. Uh, I think Taylor Swift's going to be on the, uh, on the, uh, on the no fly list.

That's fine. You're not, insulting me. That's a Casey's dance. That's not a me stance. That's a Casey stance. My wife had the No Bruno Mars. Also on ours.

Yeah, that was a big one for her. Yep. Which a few of my aunts weren't happy about because I didn't tell them that. And they were just wondering the whole time waiting for, you know, one of the songs that come on, but they never came on. They never came. Yeah, it's been to be a lot of pressure here over the next couple of months as we put it together.

But I have faith that we can knock it out. I also have faith that we can knock this out. We are doing the quarterbacks today. We've done the show for the last two years. I remember the first one. when we did vividly because it was in my old apartment, you know, doing those shows from like the kitchen table in my old apartment. And the quarterback show sticks with me.

It feels like an early athletic football show episode when we did the 20, it wasn't that early. It was after our first season together. But it was like in that first off season, when we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do draft wise, we just did the top five quarterbacks. And we're like, all right, this is what we see from them. This is what the outlook might be. and I don't think there's a need to reinvent the wheel. I loved doing that show.

Last year was obviously a very strange year because there were no quarterbacks really worth selecting in the first round. But we're just going to run back the same sort of idea. We're going to talk about the top four quarterbacks in this year's draft just because we could talk about Henn and Hooker, but it feels like there's such a fall off after Will Levis when those top four guys who are considered kind of top 10 type talents. That's where we're going to do the cutoff. We can have a post script at the end. Yeah. Just a little appendix at the end.

So we're going to dig into those four guys. Before we do that, though, earlier today, Lamar Jackson tweeted, I guess a statement of sorts about him requesting a trade away from the Ravens on March 2nd, which would have been about five days before they put the non-exclusive franchise tag on him on March 7th, which is the deadline day. I don't know if there's a ton to get into here because I don't know if it materially changes the conversation or the discourse around Lamar Jackson. But does this in your mind shift anything about how much teams should be interested in Lamar and how available he might be?

I don't think it's changed much. It's more that we now see a bit from his perspective. Yeah. I think we have seen so much from the Raven side. And this is where some of the discussions that we've had and other people I've seen that talk about, oh, this is why maybe Lamar having a benefit of having an agent. know, sometimes to help with your narrative. And I think Lamar just does everything his own way and took into his own hands to kind of go, well, this is my side of the story. A couple of weeks ago or a week

ago, he had the quote tweet on Schefter, you know, the three years, 133 guaranteed or whatever it was. And so he's kind of started to trickle out some parts from his side and how he's viewing things. So I don't think much has changed. It's stuff that we maybe have pieced together and but maybe now that we have a little bit more of like actual detail or actual data points to talk about with this. But overall, it doesn't change much, I don't think. I mean, there's a chance that this shows a little bit more of a fracturing between him and the organization that he just doesn't want to be there anymore. If they did decide to either match or keep him on the tag this year, is he willing to play

hardball with them, hold out all of those things? But it doesn't really move the needle that much because the Ravens still have a lot of leverage. I mean, the Ravens still can kind of win that staring. contest with him if he doesn't choose to sit out the entire year because he's playing on the tag. And I think the same the same consideration still probably hold for the teams that are worried about them just matching whatever contract that they're going to sign. So I don't think this really changes much, but it felt like it was one of those news ripple events

this morning and probably something that we should address at least a little bit. And it's also another reminder like, oh yeah, this is going on. Yes. That we just, I believe you and Greg talked about it. It's like, it's kind of gotten, the story's kind of gotten underrated a little bit. that we're not like, you know, we, of course, everybody talked about when at first, you know, stuff was starting to happen, the non-exclusive tag, yada, yada, but then so much happens in the new cycle. And then it's like, oh, yeah, this young former MVP is still on the trade market

potentially. And there's still maybe more of a fracture than we thought with the Ravens. So I think that's more just, it was like a reminder, a nudge that this thing is happening in the middle of draft season. I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to continue talking about this as it plays out as we get closer to the draft. But let's talk about some of those draft eligible quarter. And let's start, you want to start with CJ Stroud? Let's start with CJ Stroud. Let's start with CJ Stroud. I like that. CJ Stroud from Ohio State. I want to be better about this is I'm the one who doesn't know anything about the draft prospects, actually saying where they went to college. So we're going to break this down kind of into like four unofficial categories. And the first one I wanted to hit for all these guys is let's put

you back into your scouting days. Yeah. And you're writing up a report of one of these guys as a pre-draft prospect. What does your report about C.J. Stroud look like? First and foremost, it's just accuracy and a clean release is what you first see with C.J. Stroud. This doesn't overall matter too much, but I do have to mention it. It throws a very pretty spiral and consistently throws a very pretty spiral. That might not matter a ton. I've seen Peyton Maning throw some wounded ducks for years and years. And that didn't matter.

The ball is on point every single time. But, you know, it's notable, and I do have to say it. But underrated arm strength, maybe not to that elite tier or even a tier down from that. I would rate it as good on the tier that I usually work off of, which is good, very good would be the next to an excellent or elite would be the one after that. So more of a six on the two to eight scale. But strong enough to make every single type of throw. There is nothing that is unavailable to what he wants to throw or what the offense wants to run. And he's willing to push it at all three levels.

He's not just taking the easy ones. He's willing to whip that ball down the field. He's willing to throw over intermediate. He's willing to throw over the middle. But also a strongly built, or I would say solidly built player and athlete with a frame to grow into. I believe he measured in around 2.15, 218. That seems to be the weight he sits at. But got to remember, this guy's fairly, fairly young, coming out as a Richard sophomore and has a frame to grow into.

I don't think that he has maxed out as far as what he's at. I think this guy could get up to about 2.30 by time his career is over with. Really just clean. That is the best way I can describe C.J. Stroud. Clean. Operates, throws every type of throw that you want, can throw screens, can throw, you know, quick game. He can throw overrouts. All the throws that you see on the NFL, at the NFL level, he can do and has proof of concept of doing it. It's not theory.

It's not just what you're trying to. It's easy to translate his game, especially how Ohio State throws the ball. better athlete than giving credit for. He prefers to operate from the pocket, but he can. And we'll talk about this, I know. But as the season goes along in games that he had to create and be the playmaker, he can do it. The game that I know the Georgia game is probably the one that stood up in a lot of people's minds, but even the game against Northwestern last year, which was one that really stood out to me and how he performed, especially in the second half.

there was a really windy day. Northwestern was on all of Ohio State shit. They were running the routes for them. I mean, seriously, it was Northwestern's coaches were on them. It was really impressive to watch. And he took the game into his own hands, especially in the second half as a runner. And it made some huge plays with his legs. And also that was the game that made me more optimistic about his arm strength.

Because in that game, there was a couple of crow routes he threw. He really drove the ball. Not like over exaggerated Baker Mayfield style where he's really throwing it in, but you could see him pushing it. And that made me more optimistic about his arm that he can really drive these throws when he needs to. It's not bad. I mean,

it's not like you shouldn't knock the guy because he has, he throws the ball to Marvin Harrison Jr. And has a pretty decent old line to keep the pockets clean. But it's good to see him be able to do those tight windows throws when he needs to and when it comes into a really tight clutch time. So those are just laying out all the positives of what this guy can do. Because that's what you want to focus on the scouting is what a guy can do. And we can get to the negatives of the sec.

other just kind of on a on a surface level what are the things that maybe you're a little bit worried about? There is a, and this is a byproduct of the Ohio State offense. He takes an extra hitch sometimes where it's there's a lot of quarterback, especially in the NFL, and you'll hear me talk about this all the time. And this is where I get negative on some guys is they'll take one, two, three, hitch, throw the ball. He'll take sometimes that extra hitch, hitch, and then throw the ball. And some of that is because Ohio State's offense is very vertical. and how they push the ball over and over. And also they have their receivers read some routes.

Not all the time, but it's a part of their system. And this is the same discussion that I had with Justin Fields is just because I think that sometimes he's waiting for the receiver to declare what they're about to do. Are you running the fade here? Are you stopping your route? Are you breaking in? So that's where the extra hitch comes from. That he's like waiting to see exactly when that comes. So I think that is one thing that I see come up, crop up sometimes.

But this dude, God, he knows how to drive it, but he also knows how to layer these throws and throw out the anticipation and throw a guy open, which is a huge compliment for the quarterback. He can throw a guy to an open spot and it makes it look easier than it actually is. That's really the best way I can sum up Stroud. He makes things look easy. And not a lot of quarterbacks do that, especially at the college level. It's almost boring at times, watching him because he does make it look so easy. And I watched him. And it's funny for me.

We always talk about this, you and I. I come into this process with almost no background knowledge about these guys. I don't watch a lot of college football. I come to the draft conversation late just because it happens after free agency. It's always going to happen that way. So my priorities and who I'm watching and what I'm planning for, the draft is always going to come a little bit later in the process for me than it does for other guys. So I obviously know the guy's names. I have a sense of what the narrative is around them.

I read the stuff that Dane has written. And, you know, those are really kind of capsules about these guys that are typically pretty short. So I come to it with, again, very little baseline knowledge. And when I was watching him play, the few games that I watched, probably three or four of them, it's just how consistent he is with ball placement, accuracy, all these aspects of playing the position that are just like the baseline of what you want. he checks so many of those boxes. And we can get into some of the negatives and some of the concerns, but he was just so much more solid across the board than even I had read about

before I started actually watching him. Right. And I think that dinks him sometimes that sometimes those, it doesn't always look sexy, but we talk about this all the time with NFL quarterbacks. There's a lot of plays, like as much as like a guy like Mahomes with all the flash plays he does, what makes Mahomes, my homes. I'm not compared to CJ Straub with Mahomes. I'm just talking about high-end quarterback play is all the in-between place.

It's nickel and diming when you need to. It's when that guy is wide open or going to come open, it's getting the ball there no matter what. And Stroud does that time and time again. And it sometimes is boring. Like you say, sometimes it's just that consistency. It's like, well, there's another 12-yard gain. There's another 18-yard gain. Just ball on the money.

Receiver didn't even have to reach for it. And sometimes that it leads to kind of like, oh, I forgot what happened for 17 of those plays. because it doesn't seem like it's outstanding, but that's good. Sometimes it's very good to be boring as a quarterback because that's what quarterback play is. You don't want to stand out for highs and lows at the position. You want to just stand out for the highs, but it's okay to be boring sometimes. A quarterback is going to go with the number one pick.

We do not know who that quarterback is going to be. So I wanted to try to approximate the discussions that may be happening in the Panthers building in some of these other buildings about these guys. So I want to hear from you if you're trying to make the case in Carolina for why C.J. Stroud deserves to be the number one pick. What does that case look like to you? It's that poison polish that he'll step in day one. And with a lot of talent that they have around, the Panthers with their offensive line and a talented defense. And they signed DJ Chark and Adam Thieland and Hayden Hurst. So they got a couple B level receivers around him that he can come in and hit the ground running. And that being. a day one contributor, not just, you don't have to be a star day one. We don't have to chase the Justin Herbert rookie year all the time, but just being a positive player, a winning player right away, that's why you take this guy with room to grow. With that, I think his baseline is so high

and that that's what people have knocked him, but I think his upside is higher than people have given him credit for. So I think that's exactly why you take this guy number one. It's so funny that you say that because I think that the fact that his floor is high has caused some people to convey him or to like talk about him just like as a high floor prospect. That's it. Just because his floor is high, everyone kind of labels him a high floor guy. And then you watch him and the two, two games that I watch, obviously the Georgia game is the one that everyone is going to talk about.

And there have been concerns and discussions about what he can kind of do outside of structure. When things break down, he has to make something happen. Is that playmaking gene there? And you go back and you watch that Georgia game. I mean, there are so many plays in that game where he's making J. Owen Carter miss in the pocket and then escaping and delivering a strike on the run. He has a touchdown pass in the first quarter where he's making it on the move outside

of structure. He does it often enough where I feel like he's shown that he can do it. He has the requisite athleticism to make those plays. even against Michigan, which there aren't that many games in the Big Ten schedule where you're going to play against teams that are kind of laden with high-level defense and talent. Michigan and Georgia are two defenses that are pretty damn good. And the third drive of the Michigan game, they have a sprint out designed to the right. And he makes a guy miss in space while on the move and he just delivers like a strike to number four for a first down. It's not the craziest play.

But he consistently shows that he can do this when asked to do it. He's not asked to do it very often, which is something that we can get into. But I think that when I watch him, the high floor is combined with still room to grow and a ceiling that we've seen in flashes, but maybe haven't necessarily seen overall. And that's why he's so intriguing to me. If I had the number one pick in this draft, if I were the Carolina Panthers, I would take CJ's draft. That is the guy that I would take with that pick because of the floor ceiling combination. We've seen what he can be in really good circumstances because that's what the circumstances are at Ohio State. But even when forced to play outside of structure a little bit, he's been able to do it.

He was fourth among the 130 quarterbacks with at least 25 attempts outside the pocket this season in Big Time College football in Division 1. He was fourth in adjusted net yards per attempt outside the pocket. He was third in the pocket. I mean, that is where he operates. But I just when I watch him, I see that floor ceiling. combination that I find really intriguing. And again, because he's been kind of described as this high floor guy, I was surprised to see what those flash moments looked like because he has more than you'd think. Yeah. And this is a guy, he's only started for two years. Again, Richard

sophomore. It's a young dude coming into the league. He's improved tremendously. There's last two games I was just talking about. Yes. Even in his first year starting, the first game I watched him was against Oregon. And I was like, oh, man, this guy's got a long way to go. this, you know, and then by the time he was playing in the Rose Bowl against Utah, holy crap, him and JSN, the receiver, it was just, he was shredding him left and right. And that was, okay. And then this year, same thing. It got better as a week's little long.

It seems like he does so well that it's so easy for him, especially like when throwing a ball to Marvin Harrison Jr. is a lot of fun. Trust me. That guy's best receiver ever scouted in 10 years. Like he's incredible. But is that you throw into him and it's like, okay, well, this is boring. And then you watch games when it gets tough, Northwestern. game I brought up. The Iowa game, he had a sequence of three throws there. That was like,

oh, hell yeah, dude. He has a no-step seam throw as a guy's about to hit him in the chin, throws it on the seam, puts it on a line, no-steps it. So it's all upper body, whips it, perfect, 16 yards, like right in the cushion before the safety can get there. The next one, he layers the throw to Marvers Harrison Jr. drops it in between three guys. I think the term I used on Twitter was plopped it in because that's exactly how he threw it. So he drives the seam throw and plops like a looping liner over the middle of the field, like perfect ball placement. And the third one was a double move for a touchdown that he just,

and this one had touch over the corner that was trailing. And it was like, boom, boom. It looked so easy that, but when you watch it, when you kind of think, even for me, I watched it and I rewatch the sequence again. And I'm like,

that's awesome. That's like elite, that's elite shit. Like that is what you want your guy to do. That looks like a number one pick. And of course, the creation stuff we've talked about, man,

it's just, it's an intriguing package, man. And that's why it's a guy last year when I first watched these guys. He was my number one guy. Midway through the year, he was my number one guy. And I got tempted by other guys, but I just kept watching him. It's like, this is kind of, I don't know, not one's like easy, but it's like he's just so clean. Yeah.

And his tools are better than he gets credit for. He's bigger. He's more athletic. He does have the right frame. You know, sometimes when we talk about these guys where accuracy is their superpower, it's at the expense of other things. You know, it's Mac Jones who can't. He doesn't have the frame.

He doesn't have the movement skills. And Stroud has some of that stuff along with the accuracy. He threw a corner route to Marvin Harrison in the Michigan game that the placement on that ball was just like, holy shit, that's a good throw. I tweeted out. It's just like that that is an incredible throw. And then the touch, the other throw in that Michigan game to Marvin Harrison, he steps up in the pocket and throws like a go ball missile for a long, long touchdown. It's a beautiful ball. He will.

He has no qualms about doing that. But then there was a touchdown in the draw. Georgia game where he kind of lairs that throw to the running back for a long touchdown that the safety wasn't there. But if he was, he would have been able to layer it over the linebacker in front of the safety. He just is clearly thinking about that type of stuff. So it's the arm talent thing more than the arm strength thing, right? To be able to have that touch and kind of layer those different sorts of throws. He shows that consistently. And get let's for a second, let's pretend that the ceiling is more of a concern than you and I think it is.

And let's get back to the high floor part of this. I think we underrate how important it is and how useful it is to have a high floor quarterback on that sort of rookie deal. And because they haven't really worked out on the second contracts, the first run, the first several years they had in the league, I think are kind of warped right now. Jared Goff is somebody whose name has been mentioned in connection with C.J. Stroud a little bit. Somebody who can really throw it, but maybe isn't as much of a creator. I think he's much better athlete than Jared Goff. I think he's a much better creator. But even if we're being pessimistic, Jared Goff went to a Super Bowl in 2018 and almost one-one.

Those teams were winning 10, 11 games a year consistently with top five offenses built around Jared golf because of what you can do with that rookie quarterback contract. Trevor Lawrence was the number one overall pick in the draft. Okay, this is 2021. Trevor Lawrence's contract was four years, $37 million. Okay. So that's about $9 million a year. Daniel Jones is on a deal right now that's paying him $40.

Right. So you get $30 million worth of wiggle room a season to build around a guy like C.J. Stroud while the Giants are paying Daniel Jones 40 or while the Saints are paying Derek Carr 40. or a bunch of these different examples, right? So even if there's some concerns about the ceiling, what he can do for you in those four or five seasons when he's relatively cheap, you can win with a guy like that. And so I don't think that the number one pick in the draft or somebody that you're

taken in the top five has to be this guy with an unstoppable ceiling. Is it going to make it a little bit more complicated when you get to the end of that deal and you have to worry about whether or not you're going to give him a second contract? Absolutely. And you gave up multiple first round picks to go get him. So maybe you should be shooting for those ceiling outcomes. But if you're Frank Reich and you're these guys and you're worried about what the next four or five years looks like, the length of your contract, I think that somebody like C.J. Stroud is a very good solution

for what you're going to try to do over those four or five years because of how reliable I think he's going to be pretty quickly. Reliable. That's it. And this is the comment I had about Jacoby Perci was that he, you know, like a good jockey is that so they might not win you to the race, but they're not going to lose it. And if you have a talented roster, like, again, I think the Panthers do have, it's kind of perfect situation for that. And like you said, even if it's above average quarterback play, like you say 12th best, oh my God, you're still paying what, $30 million less? Yeah. For that same level of play with upside. We talk about outplaying the contract. Well, it's easy to outplay. $9 million a year or $10 million a year, whatever it's going to be, 11. But easy to outplay that. If that's what you're getting paid and he plays at that level or better. And that's, I mean, that's just what it is. It's the star-starter bench bust, you know, breakdown for this.

Like, I think his starter threshold is huge. I do too. And then his star threshold is bigger than people realize. And, but it's just that bench bus. I just, it's, I think it's tiny, it's tinier than any of these other guys that we're going to talk about. And I think that's very, very important to keep. in mind.

So the next one I want to get into for all of these guys, if you take him with the number one overall pick, what is the thing that's keeping you up at night? What are you most worried about as you hand in that card and think about what the next four years are going to bring you? Is, okay, can we make sure that we unlock the creation ability and make him comfortable in doing that and being a playmaker? But the thing is, he showed that in the freaking biggest moments of his entire life against Georgia.

It wasn't like he did that against Purdue or Indiana. And it's like, well, yeah, you could do that at 11 a.m. You know, a noon game in the Big Ten. But in the brightest lights is when he stepped up the most. That's great to see. I would say the other thing as far as more of a, like as a quarterback coach type background is how he handles stuff pre-snap. Just Ohio State's offense makes it a little simpler on the quarterback.

They don't have to, you know, handle anything. I think Stroud has shown enough post-snap as far as the mental side that I think the transition will be okay. But that would be my one thing, especially if we were planning on him being an early, early contributor and trying to be that plus player early on, that's something that, you know, he'll have to hone in on. Granted, I do think the Carolina staff has really set up well to do that, whatever quarterback they do decide to take.

So I think that the ceiling question is a legitimate one with this, where it's like, okay, if we're going to have to give this guy a second contract at some point, is he going to be somebody that we can win because of ever in his career? Again, I have more confidence that he can get to that place with a physical skill set on a physical skill set level than maybe other people do based on what I've read and listened to. But I think that absolutely is a worthwhile concern. The other thing for me is he was not put in situations where he had to do a lot of creating in college because of the talent advantage that Ohio State had week in and week out. He was pressured on 23.4% of his dropbacks last

season, according to PFF. That was 123rd in the country. That's pretty nice. You feel that, right? He doesn't have to navigate a lot of muddy pockets. He doesn't have to create a lot. And I think that this year, his performance under pressure was fairly concerning in some moments, where he doesn't necessarily have that ability to escape and kind of navigate those less than ideal circumstances consistently. And that would be the other thing is that when he's forced into that more often, what does that end up looking like? And that's honestly why I think that the Panthers are an intriguing destination for him because he would land in a situation with a team that has the number one overall pick whose offensive line is vastly better than most teams who typically are picking first overall vastly better. And I think that would be really important. Yes, it will be.

No, and that's a very good call. I mean, they have, Ohio State's got a potential lottery pick left tackle and they have another potential. potential first round of our right tackle the Paris Johnson DeWan Jones. So those are of course you have to mention it. And honestly, no, that is a negative too because there's times where sometimes I wanted to be him be a little more aggressive and how he stepped up in the pocket. This was kind of not even on my notes, but now I'm just kind of recalling it. You don't see it very often. No, no. There's not that aggressive step up and then throw. But it's he flashed it a couple times. But there's times where he was a detriment because he was waiting for something to unfold and he was going to throw it.

So sometimes pairing that together, the feet and the arm together, the movement and the arm together. And it's plenty of, he's athletic enough. He has the foot quickness to do it and the arm talent to do it. But again, you just have to prove it. In the NFL, you have to prove it about, I don't know, 15 times a game that you have to do that. You get about six, seven clean pockets in the NFL.

Like you truly, that's a true, true number right there. So, yes, it's more the, the. The ratio of tight pockets is going to change once he gets to the NFL. What is the best case scenario in your mind for C.J. Stroud? Dack with a better arm. Like a stronger arm, stronger arm dact. Because I think his frame's going to grow into it. A DAC is huge.

You know, he's 235, whatever. And I think he might be a little smaller than that. But wants to operate from the pocket can create, but doesn't really want to. But he can if he needs to. And it can be used on design runs when he needs. too, but accurate, willing to push the ball wherever he wants to, control the offense. I just think at Dak with a slightly stronger arm, I think that is his ideal best case scenario. Is it crazy to think that in 10% of outcomes, 15% of outcomes, he's as good as Joe Burrow?

That's not crazy. He's got stronger arm to Burrow. They're both accurate. That's not the craziest thing. I think Burrow has a better sense for how to. navigate those muddy situations. That's great. That is where he's truly special.

No, that's not crazy though. We have not seen as much of that from Stroud, but like the accuracy, the frame, some of the things he can do that way, again, we saw that George. I can't get that George game out of my mind. And I'm probably overrating it because I've only seen three or four games. And I came to it with pretty clear eyes. But like that or gets Georgia than a lot of other teams to be taken away from. That's just that that's the thing I keep going back to is that like he can be,

that that's obviously a very, very optimistic outcome. But can he be that sort of player in the best case scenario? But the fact that we're throwing that out there makes him worthy of that number one pick as opposed to the people saying, well, he's going to be golf. And it's like, well, maybe. Like, yeah, there's a likelihood of that. But this makes it a lot more tolerable that we're throwing out better armed DAC and burrow as comparisons or maybe high end comparisons that I actually do think he has a chance

are reaching. Yeah, I was much more optimistic about him and much more impressed with him than I anticipated being. It's always fun. It's one of those guys. Just don't overthink him. Yeah. It's, you want to and you want the sexiness. And it's, there's nothing wrong with being boring. Trust me. I just, I really do think that because it's a little bit safer, it's just not as exciting. And that's why he's gotten a little bit less steam as part of this process. But again, if I had the number one pick, he is the guy that I would take because I just think the floor ceiling and combination is exactly where you'd want it to be. I'm with here all the way.

He's still my QB1. The one year of the process never wavered, even if there's another guy that tempted me a little bit. All right. Next one here. Let's talk about Bryce Young. You are writing the scouting report about Bryce Young. You're in the Texans building right now. What does the Bryce Young scouting report look like?

Talk about a playmaker at the position, but also underrated as far as being able to be a game manager, like aspects of handling protections, handling checks, throwing from the pocket and not just always being a creator mode, even though he does that often. Fantastic throwing on the move and off platform. Like honestly, can remain accurate, can push the ball. I would say he's a good, but not excellent athlete. I think he's actually been slightly overrated as an athlete. I think he's just, he looks like he's an excellent athlete, but I've seen the comparisons to

Kyler, and I think Cal is a much better athlete. but and also has good but not excellent arm strength or even very good arm strength. But honestly, a guy that can function from crappy pockets, crappy situations, has the mental side down. Like I think that he is, you know, there's been now been stories about him like, oh, man, you know, he's up there with all the testing and all the coaches love him. And you can see that on the film pre snap and post snap. He finds answers and it's not him lucking into it all the time.

You know, sometimes you see a guy, this was my knock on. Malik Willis last year and Bryce Young and Malik Willis couldn't be any more different, actually, even if even if they are both athletic types, is that Malik Willis would guess when a route was coming into his vision. Bryce Young, like, looks chaotic, but it's kind of organized chaos. Like, he knows what's coming into his vision. So I think this guy does a lot of those quarterback aspects well. Have to mention the size, but we'll talk about negatives in a second.

But have to mention that, you know, he's a historical outliers size-wise. Screw it, I'll talk about right now. He'd be the first quarterback, you want me to just talk about right now? Okay, he'd be the first quarterback to go in the first round that had weigh under 200 pounds since Jim McMahon in 1980. And you're going off of what he was listed at Alabama. Not the weight that he managed to throw on for a week long stretch at the combine. Yeah, notice that he didn't weigh as pro day. That made me think that that water weight didn't sustain.

He might have peeed that out right after the weigh in at the combine. But Jim McMahon was weighed 1-95, first round pick for the Bears in 1982. the last quarterback that they're playing weight in the NFL that was under 200 pounds to go in the first three rounds was Pat White in 2009. He's actually built a lot like Doug Flutie in a funny way. Like that's my only historical comparison. I have to Bryce Young. But just a playmaker. And honestly, I just know I list off the size negatives.

This guy is a football player. He's a baller. It's just that you have to mention the size, even as much as I like how much he plays and stuff. and that he does throw over the middle. A lot of shorter guys have that issue. He's willing to throw it over the middle. He is able to find throws over the middle in the actual progression, which is half to note because that is such a negative that has come up with some of these shorter guys

that we try to make exceptions for. But time and time again, it's been shown that, like, in the NFL, if you can't live over the middle or at least do something over the middle, you can't thrive as a quarterback. In terms of both anticipation and the way he finds, throwing lanes for himself subtly. He does a very good job of, I'm going to slide left, I'm going to slide right, I'm just going to feel this space, and I'm going to find a lane for myself, even if I'm a little bit smaller.

That's a good way to put it. He does it consistently. And one of my questions is, are you going to be able to do that as often in the NFL when the pockets are more condensed, where you're going to have less space to work with? Because he's doing that a lot where he's finding space, sometimes to an exaggerated degree. And that is, so again, coming to this when I did and having some preconceived notions about who these guys are, the Bryce Young experience in the few games that I watched was far more chaotic than I expected it to be. You know, I know he had that playmaking gene and he certainly does and we can talk about that. But the number that really stuck out to me, his average time to throw this season was 3.02 seconds.

That was 20th in FBS. is up near the top of all quarterbacks in big-time college football this year. It's how long he was holding onto the ball. And you see that. You feel that. It is a lot more chaotic and a lot more just get into playmaking mode with him over the course of a game than you might expect from someone who's had as much success as he has and operates as well from the pocket as he does. It's not because he can't do it. It's either because he was forced to do it with Alabama's offensive line, maybe not being as good as it's been in previous years,

or he just kind of gets into that to find space for himself. So I just did not anticipate it being as chaotic as it was when I went back and I watched some of these games. He makes the chaos work for him. Let's be clear. He turns it into a positive for himself. But it's just a different viewing experience than the one that I anticipated. And it's those hits add up when you are creating out of the pocket and you got a guy free running at you and you throw the ball. Like, yeah, it might not be a sack, but you're still taking the hit.

And it's not. And this is something I always go about. And it's my NFL snootiness sometimes or NFL-centric snootiness as people go, well, he played in the SEC. So, you know, he's going against NFL caliber defenders or all that. No, they're SEC defenders. You're getting way too ahead of yourself with this stuff. They're not NFL level caliber defenders. So let's, you know, let's keep that, keep that in mind.

Before we get into that, though. Oh, I'm sorry, sorry. Argument for the number one, argument for why he should be the number one pick. When you watch this, this Bama's offense has been, is not, like you alluded to, has not been to the level it's been in maybe the past decade. Carrying a team, truly carrying a team and being the best player on the field, that playmaking ability is why you want this guy as the number one pick. And like you said, handling with a leaky old line, truly that playmaking ability to make all of his teammates better, play after play after play and giving yourself a chance. That's what you want with the number one pick. He can be a needle mover when he's on and it going.

And that's his case right there and has more to his mental side than he's been underrated as far as the mental side and handling all the game managing aspects, the changing the protections, all that type of stuff. All the precepts up, you see it. You see how communicative he is, see how much control he has. And then I think the argument is he has a superpower, right? Like among everyone in this class, his ability to move in the pocket, to find space for himself, that playmaking gene that he truly has is maybe the most special trait of anyone

in this group. Obviously, Anthony Richardson has the physical traits, but in terms of like to their game, his ability to do that is consistently. Consistently. He does it all the time. It's not just a one-off thing. He sees the game and sees how things are operating, even when things get muddy and diluted in a way that very, very few guys do. His feel for the position is remarkable. And watching it happen over and over and over again, you just don't watch that many guys who have that innate ability to them. So if I'm making the bet, this guy was arguably the best player in college football over the

last two years. What he did on the biggest stage consistently and how central he was to that team's success, this version of who Alabama is, it's hard not to bet on the. results when you look at what those were. And we talked about Stroud's game against Georgia last year, the 2021 season. Bryce Young had some performance against Georgia as well, where it was, oh, my God, look at this guy carrying the team as he's going against all these first round picks on the defense. And he's getting no help.

You know, he had James and William's and Metchy and all that, but just not getting any help up front. And that has to be like just alluded to a lot. And I know we've already talked about a lot. But that interior offensive line just made sometimes forced. I thought young sometimes at first, like you said, the chaos stuff. When I watched it on TV, I'd be like, man, he just keeps bailing from the pocket. He can't see.

He does it once in a while. But a lot of those times it was because he had to. It was because one of his guards or his center or they're sliding the wrong way or, I don't know, it's just sloppy at times, which always surprised me, especially in Alabama. And so that that has to be noted, that he was able to overcome that when a lot of other quarterbacks would just been, you know, sit and ducks back there. All right. Now let's get to it.

The flaw that you are most worried about, the thing that is keeping you up at night if you draft Bryce Young with the first overall pick. He's built like Doug Flutty. That is, I mean, it has to be noted. And we're not being mean. It just has to be noted. It is incredibly relevant. Don't apologize.

Do you not have an apologetic tone with this? It is really important. It is really important. And God, and he is tough as all get out. It's just physics, though. And that that's what it is. I have qualms with quarterbacks under 210. And now we're talking about 200 and a kind of a tinier frame.

And he's already been injured. He's built like me. He's 5.10 and an 8th and probably weighs like 187 pounds. Yeah. Like in his day to day life. I am 5.10 and a half. I also weigh 187 pounds on a bad day. And I, the imagining what it would be like for me.

me in an NFL game with dudes who are built like, I'm trying to think of the right, I would have said JJ Watt a year ago. Like a defensive end who weighs 300 pounds. Like, let's say he does go to Houston and, you know, he has to play against Jeffrey Simmons, you know,

guys like that. Every guy looks like that. Every guy is the best player that was on LSU's defense. The biggest, strongest player that was on LSU's defense or whoever. Like, that is very real. Okay.

Trayvon Walker is just another guy in the AFC South. Yep. And that guy was mauling dudes. I mean, his projection anyways. But and every team's got them. Like you just said and that you're going against them all the time. Or even though like you just mentioned Jeffrey Simmons, Jeffrey Simmons is running mate.

Tier Tartt weighs 320. Yeah. Imagine Tierra Tart jumping on him. You know, or Grover Stewart or DeForest Buckner. All those guys just, DeForest Buckner with his terror. pyractal reach. Like, that's the thing is Bryce Young's coming out of a lot of would-be tacklers and making plays. That's not going to happen as often. That is my biggest

question, right? That is not going to happen as often. So who is somebody else that has a superpower that is similar to Bryce Young's? We already mentioned him earlier on the show. It's Joe Burrow. Oh, Burrow. I was going to say Kyle. Joe Burrough's ability to navigate pockets and to make guys miss and kind of extend plays while maintaining his stature as a passer. I think is, similar in ways to what Bryce Young can do. Joe Burrow is 6-3 and weighs 220 pounds. Those arm tackles... 240 at this point.

But he's a big boy. Those arm tackles that Bryce Young is breaking in the SEC, and he does it all the time. Can that continue to happen? I'm not saying that it can't, but I think it is a legitimate question. So his play style and that superpower that we're talking about, does that sustain when the players are bigger and more importantly, much stronger than they were at the college level. I think that's the biggest concern to me. The other thing is, we have seen smaller guys consistently get hurt recently. Kyler can't finish a season. Lamarri keeps getting

banged up every single year. I mean, these guys, Zach Wilson could stay on the field over the last couple of years. Matt Corral got hurt before preseason was ending and he was 200 pounds. This, this concern about being able to hold up in the pocket when you were this size, I think is a legitimate concern based on what we've seen and based on what history can tell. us. There's precedent. There's so many data points. This is one of those, don't overthink. Sometimes these old scouting adages, like kind of you're like, oh, that's some old, they exist for a reason. There's, there's size benchmarks for a reason. And weight is so much more important than height in the NFL. Length, length, obviously, for a lot of positions, but weight, because it's just,

it's a long season. You take a lot of hits at quarterback, not even just the hard hits, just those other hits that just add up. Like you said with the Lamar thing. And honestly, the play that sticks out to me, and this, it's kind of a two-parter here. But I was going to talk about this with Anthony Richardson as a positive way, but I'm going to talk about this a negative way with Bryce Young. There's a play in the Super Bowl. And it's not fair to compare these guys to Patrick Mahomes and how Jaylon Hertz played too. But there's a one play in the Super Bowl that is burned into my brain for the rest of my life. And that was when Mahomes threw the little sidearm throw, going the other way from where we were sitting.

So it must have been the second quarter. And Jordan Davis jumps on him, throws the ball like underhand and Travis Kelsey catches it and goes for her first. down. It was some point in the second quarter, got him near the red zone. They ended up scoring on the drive. Jordan Davis at 340 in change. And Mahomes is holding him off with one hand as he's getting tackled and still gets the ball off. I just don't see Young be able to do that a lot, if at all.

It's a legitimate thing, especially when. It's a prerequisite now. If playmaking is your strength, being strong enough to extend plays, I think is an important part of that consideration. Because the guys who do it consistently, go watch Justin Herbert and how little Justin Herbert gets sacked in part because he's doing like a little brother thing. The guy's in the pocket because he can hold them off with one arm while he makes the throw with the other. And again, we talk about how strong burrow is. Mahomes weighs 225.

That's what he was at the combine at 6-2. Like I do think Jalen Hertz is another very good example. Jalen Hertz squatting 600 pounds. Like this strength. Josh Allen, 245. If that's going to be who you are where you need those second reaction plays to fully realize the best version of yourself and be worthy of the number one overall pick or top five picks, I think whether that strength can translate and allow you to tap into that potential, it's absolutely worth considering and mentioning. Absolutely. And I talked about his mental processing and sometimes it's organized chaos and how he plays and he will operate on time.

There's times, and I've seen clips of people post where everyone's like, man, look how freaking tough he is. He's standing in the pocket and throwing that ball over the middle. There's so many times where this guy could have made his life easier, this guy being Bryce Young, and getting rid of the ball a half second earlier, throwing with just a hair more anticipation. Just that's the stuff that he could have saved himself hits. And it's only going to get faster, tighter, and harder in the NFL.

It doesn't matter how good your team is around you. It's just every week, it's really, really hard to do this stuff. And so that the fact that sometimes he would get hair late on something and not throw with the anticipation to save himself the hits, he's willing to take those shots, which is awesome. I love the toughness. It have to be tough to be an NFL quarterback. But it's scary. It's scary to see him getting a hit like that at the college level, and it's only going to get tougher at the NFL level.

The last thing I want to mention about the size, Stefan, we alluded to it a little bit before. He's very good at finding space for himself, where he'll like, all right, it's going to slide a little bit to the left, slide a little bit to the right. slide up and out, are you going to be able to do that when the pockets are tighter and there's more traffic? And the Titans are the team that I come back to. When you're playing against the team where there's just nothing but pocket pushers and they're just constraining that space, can you find those throwing lanes and kind of transcend those height concerns to be able to throw over the middle of the field when there's not as much room to move around? That's a valid thing. Drew Breeze was so good at just playing on his tiptoes and

finding that space. And listen, I think the Texans did a very conscious job this off season of going and getting some stout guards and kind of saying, all right, we're going to operate this way. If we have to have a shorter quarterback, I think they are set up to do it. But again, I just think it's important to continue mentioning because it is such an outlier based on what we've seen from guys at the position. And even not even just with the guys we consider the tiny guys. And this is just my experience with the player with Derek Carr is sometimes that even though he was a fairly good athlete, that he would take a lot of sacks that were kind of unnecessary because he just didn't have that weight and strength to pull out of himself out of the arms. So it's not just the tiny guys that we're talking about. It's even these guys that we consider average size that have this issue where they're just getting yanked down.

Late career Aaron Rogers, this is happening to him right now because he just doesn't have that, well, that's a whole different discussion. But now that he's a little, you know, kind of the skinnier side, he gets yanked down. It's a very real thing is be able to, we talk, everyone thinks off platforms, the trick shots and throwing everything outside the pocket. Off platform is that throw I talked about with Stroud, where he's not stepping into it and the guy's barreling down. He's still getting rid of the ball and throwing it accurately.

Off platform is not using your legs. It's changing your arm angle. Young can do this, but it's going to be a huge question of whether he can do that at the NFL level. When there's traffic, he does struggle to drive the ball sometimes just because he's not as big. Stroud, on the other hand, Stroud made like four or five throws I saw where somebody's bearing down on him and he's putting like touch on a corner route. And the ball is getting dropped there. I mean, it's that ability, it's kind of still maintain stature and maintain a platform to throw in those situations. I like that.

Maint stature is a great phrase. I really like that, Robert. I'm dead serious. I'm compliment you on air now because I really like that because that's exactly what it is. It's maintaining stature. It's not shrinking. It's being able to drive on a throw even when it's a tight spot. All right.

Best case scenario in your mind with Bryce Young. This is a fascinating discussion to me. I mean, he's one of a kind. He's the outlier. no comparison point. I said he's the Devante Smith of quarterbacks. Yeah. Like that's, he's the outlier that ends up becoming a plus player. Don't, and I already said this phrase before, Bryce Young is a baller.

Like, he is a fun football player. It's just that you're betting on a lot of outliers here if you are making this bet. Do I think, like this is automatic negative? He has no chance. Not at all. I think this guy definitely has a chance to make it in the NFL, but it would be an outlier. So that's what it is. I guess like a better Doug Flutty.

Doug Flutty in a modern game is like the only guy can compare this to. It's so hard. He's one of a kind. It really is not, I mean, because Kyle is such a different player. The way that Tyler wins is so different. And here's why, again, contrasting him with Kyle Murray, here's why I would bet on Bryce Young. Obviously, the college production is out of this world good. The guy has a Heisman trophy.

He was one of the best players in college football for two years. Everything you'd want to see from the on-field production is there. also one of the reasons I think that Kyler is probably struggled in the NFL is that there are very real concerns about how Kyler handles the building and what sort of presence Kyler is in the organization. I don't think those concerns are going to extend to Bryce Young. And so I feel like we talk about why he doesn't have the physical tools that Kyler does and whether that might be a concern. If he has some of those other aspects that Kyler doesn't have, what chance does that give him to succeed in ways that Kyler has fallen? and short. That's why I would be willing to bet on him because I know if he's going to be the face

of the franchise. If I'm resting my chance as a head coach if you're D'Amico Ryans or my tenure as a GM if I'm Nick Aserio on this guy, I just know I'm putting it on the right type of guy. You know, somebody where it's like I can feel good about that decision based on everything that we've heard about Bryce Young and based on everything he was in. college. And I think that's why I can talk myself into it. The fact that he has a superpower, the fact that the playmaking ability is so out of this world that that you can talk yourself into and the fact that this is the right type of guy to put my faith in and to build something

around. That to me is the case for why. Even if the physical stuff is an outlier, I'd be willing to spend a top five pick on that guy and hitch my wagon to him. Dude, that's an outstanding point. And that's Alabama and Nick Saban recruits. He recruits a certain type of player at every position. As far as just the mental side, the makeup, those guys all go there to play into play in the NFL. And so they act like it as far as how they work. Their work ethic is ridiculous. They're usually, you know, once they get to the NFL level, being the first one in and last one to leave is not like a outlier for them.

That's not a weird thing for them to do. And that's a very good point that this guy is going to be a pro. And there is something to be said about even if he's scary that he takes all those hits. Toughness resonates, especially when you're a quarterback. If you're a quarterback and you take a shot and you still throw a laser or you still make a big play, like that resonates with your teammates and your coaching or your coaching staff. So like those things that he does in spades, well, they'll really, like you said, it's a guy that you're willing to take a bet on because it's like he has that makeup to be that face of the franchise type.

Yeah. And that that's a really important consideration when you're making a bet like this. Santa Feather. Like a really, really important consideration. I think that it would just make me feel better no matter how it went than I made the right sort of bet. And that's kind of how I feel about why I would take Stroud number one, just because when it all said and done, I would be able to look at the process and say, you know what? This was the right guy for this moment. And this is the right guy for this situation.

Like even if the ceiling isn't as high as a guy that we're about to talk about, I just understand the bet that I just made. And I think that Bryce Young, if C.J. Stroud is off the board, I can understand the bet that I'm making. And I think that that's really important. All right. Let's talk about Anthony Richardson. You're writing up Anthony Richardson, who's from Florida, by the way, which I keep forgetting to do. Anthony Richardson from Florida. You're writing up the scouting report for him. Let's say you're in the Colts building. What does the Anthony Richardson scouting report look like? A truly special talent in terms of traits, like arm strength and athleticism. The most athletic quarterback we have ever seen at the combine in terms of his testing.

Like that is not an exaggeration. He is the most athletic player we've ever seen at the position. He is, when we talk about one of a kind, I know, well, there's some other guys in the league right now that might be up there, maybe historically. But man, he's one truly, truly a special talent in those terms. Um, honestly, 2424, 4, 4, 340, a 40 and a half inch vertical jump and a 10, 9 broad jump. And we could probably legitimately throw it 80 yards. Yeah. Like, at least 75.

Like, as far as, easy. Easy. Off, we're talking about off platform. Can throw it like that. Not as big of a project as people have made them out to be. All right. Explain yourself on that. Oh, I love this.

Uh, he's more of a real quarterback. He's more of a, he's a real boy, uh, than just an athlete that I think he's been typecast. as he handles protections he gets everybody lined up the Tennessee game there's a play against Tennessee that is really really turned me on to Richardson where I was like this guy this guy gets it was a fourth and short I want to say a fourth and three they're backed up tight game I want to say they're down nine they're on their own side of the field like their own 30 he sends a guy in motion fixes a guy who's misaligned comes up you know gives a false cadence sees the safety walk down,

changes the protection, gets a protection right, by the way, gets a runnerback at the right spot as well, snaps the ball, throws a freaking like 50-yard go ball,

drops it in for a huge game, fork down. You can just, you know, when you're watching coaches film, you can't hear the crowd. Yeah.

But you can tell how loud the crowd is by how the camera's moving. The camera's shaking on the all 22. And I was like, yeah, this was not an easy situation against the volunteers.

And he does that time and time again. He can hold defenders with his eyes. I've seen plenty of, of clips, even in a game that I was considered one of his negative games, South Florida. He's holding his safety before driving a throw to a corner. He progresses on concepts. I've seen him do a mesh concept. He's finding the number three read on concepts. It's, this guy's a, he's a quarterback. It's not just an athlete, toolsy athlete project.

This guy is a quarterback who also happens to have just rare traits. I think the accuracy concerns are overblown. I think there was the aggressive nature of Florida's offense. And also because past catchers are just straight garbage for Florida. It was, which is... Consistently showed up to me. Consistently showed up. There was... Wrong routes.

There was a play in the Kentucky game where there was a deep curl on the left side that he just missiles in there. And again, reads it out well. It's on time. And the ball just bounces off of a guy's shoulder pad. It's just like, I need more out of you. I just, I need more out of you consistently. It was my thought about the Florida.

supporting cast. We'll talk about another offensive infrastructure situation here in a second with Kentucky. But that showed up. Here are my other, you want to hear my grapes watching college tape with someone who never does? I can't wait. So here's, here are my issues. One, what the fuck is that umpire doing in there? Get him out of there.

He's in the way all of the time. There's guys always goes going past them all the time. Multiple times I'm watching Florida. And he's either hitting the umpire with the ball or a guy is running in. to him. I was watching the Georgia Ohio State game. Number two for Ohio State's got to dodge the umpire mid route because he's standing in the way. It's so jarring when you're not used to it. It's like, why is that guy there? He does not need to be there. We don't have to deal with that in the NFL. It is insane. The other thing. I said this to you, but it's like, I always is so refreshed when I

go back to watching NFL film in May. And I'm like, oh, yeah, here we go. Back back into my snugly warm bed of competency. That's insane. The past protection. rules are just a nightmare so often. Kentucky multiple times, and we'll shit all over Kentucky here in a second. But they're doing full slides and leaving the running back on defensive ends, like over and over again. I'm like, guys, there's got to be a better solution here. There's got to be a better way here.

And the last thing, the supporting cast are just rough at times. I'm watching Florida. I'm just like, guys, I need so much more from you. And that's why when I watch him, I just see. the best outcome and I see why you can talk yourself into it. Oh yeah. Because you're watching him play and it's like imagine him with really good players, like guys that can handle some of these throws and guys that are getting open and winning

and playing on time and like he just looks like a guy who is like the biggest kid at recess that's just better than everybody else. And like I just need him to be with players who are actually on his level to see what he looks like. I'm 100% okay with talking yourself into that with him. I am too. I'll just get ahead myself real quick, is that Stroud is my QB1, and if my job we're not on the line, I totally understand taking a home run swing on this guy on Anthony Richardson. All right, let's do it. You're making the case. Let's say you're in the Panthers

building for Anthony Richardson being the number one pick in the draft. What does that case look like? Everything we just laid out, he's the home run swing. He is, when you watch what happens in the biggest games in the NFL and how the quarterbacks play in those games, I already mentioned that play with Mahomes in the Super Bowl and even hurts how he played in the Super Bowl. He's the one that looks like that. He is the guy that looks like one of those elite guys. Strout has some of those traits as well that, you know, like because of his boringness, you don't always see.

But this guy, as far as his movement, his traits, his, what I think is mental, already higher mentally than people have given him credit for with more room to grow because. Yes. 13 games. And I understand why that would make you worried. but that to me is the argument for why you can just see him getting better and improving. It's 13 games. Like he's barely played the position.

I know. And playing, like you said, with the offensive line was well coached, I did think, and they gave him some nice pockets. But playing an aggressive offensive system to ask them to push the ball over and over and over and over. Throwing to guys that, I mean, 2011 Wisconsin had more talented receivers than these guys, or at least guys that knew what they were doing. Like these guys, they looked apart, but just running the, too many times they're running the wrong routes where guys are squeezed together and he has to like try and drops, already hard throw turns into a, this is only get completed one out 20 times.

It doesn't matter who's throwing it because it's just so tight where everybody's next to each other. I think there's the one thing. And if I want to do to talk about the accuracy stuff is that sometimes he, his pocket movement is already advanced. He has a feel for the pocket already. It's not like he's just a stat. you back there and it's like, whoa, use some of those gifts. He's almost too bouncy sometimes. And I think that sometimes is where the accuracy comes from is or sometimes he sprays balls underneath is because he's

so bouncy, he ends up being a little bit late and then he tries to drive a throw in as hard as he can. That is so fixable. This guy is such a good athlete. That's just more just like, hey, chill. Hey, just relax. Just relax. That's all you need. Or just tighten it down just a little bit. Again, this guy's a baby. This guy has barely any starts. There's so much more easy. room for growth and progression with this guy that it's so, so easy to talk yourself into it. This guy looks like the Allens and the Mahomes and the Burroughs and the Hursts and the Herberts. This guy looks like one of those guys more than he looks like the other types. On a very simple level, there just aren't many people walking the earth that look and move,

they look like Anthony Richardson and move like Anthony Richardson. There just aren't. He is a total one-of-one athlete at the position. So that, to me, is the baseline of how you start the argument. But then I think the second kind of point in that argument is that you've seen enough where it's not just a projection based off those traits. You've seen him deliver some of these throws. I agree with the accuracy stuff. Meal spray things every once in a while.

But I think that you really drill down on some of this stuff. We're talking, you know, 25 starts into his quarterbacking career with like real NFL coaching, another offseason, all that stuff. I think there absolutely is room to grow and room to kind of refine those sorts of things. So you have the physical skill set and then you have little flashes of quarterback development and what he could drill down into as we think about his projection moving forward. It's not hard. I just think to me that, again, the argument for Stroud is that the floor is so high that it'd be hard for me to risk my job by not drafting him.

but if I'm a team in the top five, and especially if I'm a team that doesn't need him to play right away, okay, like you're the Raiders. The way that the draft is unfolding, the Cardinals don't have another caller. Okay,

who would it be that really needs to go up and get that guy that isn't within striking range of doing it? Maybe there aren't that many. And you feel like you can give up a modest amount and go up to three to get him and sit him on the bench behind Jimmy Garopolo for a year. or if you were the Seahawks or if you were the Lions and you think, oh man, we just, it's right there. We can just sit him down.

It can be this long-term project that we work on. It is a bet that I would be more than comfortable taking in the top 10 based on all of the different factors involved. Yeah. Watching him against LSU, I texted somebody. I really want to figure out who I texted because I did think, I thought it was you. And now I'm like, who did I text? Because I watched that game and I went, that's number one pick tape. That was not, there's not even, and we're talking about projection and project and all that.

Like you said, he doesn't have to play right away. That would be the ideal situation. There's more to him right now than he's been given credit for. Like I think he can hit the ground running earlier than people think. It's not all theory. This is, I've seen people that are negative about him, especially a lot of Florida fans, saying you guys said this about Malik Willis last year. Malick Willis didn't do any of this that Richardson was doing in the two years of tape I watched of him.

Even Josh Allen at Wyoming had more accuracy sprays that I was a little more worried about than anything Richardson has done. There's so much to it. When you're saying you want to take a guy high in the draft, a first round, a true top five, top 10 quarterback, you want the needle movers. Our argument for Stroud was that he has more needle moving to him than people have given him credit for with Richardson. Yeah, this is why you have these picks. This is why you take these guys because this guy can be a franchise changer and a truly elite guy that carries your team week in and week out. It was playing against Kentucky. Kentucky dropped eight.

And Florida ran like a little high low on the left side. And he just delivered a missile to the high of the high low. I didn't see Malik Willis do anything like that in three or four games that I watched Malik Willis. Mike Willis is six foot tall. Like his ability to place balls outside the numbers. And Malik Willis led the country in big time throw rate his last year. college when he was at Liberty because that's all they were doing. It was just, it was like,

two-man routes. Cirque de Soleil offense where he's just like, it's like a high wire act the entire time. That's not what this is. And also you're combining it with truly elite physical traits and a frame. So I definitely, I get it, man. I totally understand it. And the biggest thing, though, and I think this is really important to acknowledge,

when we're talking about how some of these guys, guys went from unfinished products, guys with question marks, imperfect prospects to some of the best players in the league. Josh Allen, J-1-Hertz, the makeup is the thing that you cannot overlook. I'm not in the interviews. I don't know what he was like in college. I don't know how important football is to him, all of those things. It may be the most important thing in the world. I mean, he may have every single intangible box that you want checked. But I think that if you're going to make this sort of bet, and you're saying, look at Josh Allen, it's important to understand why Josh Allen now is Josh Allen now based on where he was when he was at Wyoming.

And all of those underlying intangible aspects for him, for Jalen Hertz, for these guys that we've seen get better than the guys they were in college, it is a non-negotiable part of that process. Yeah, they have to be junkies. Yeah, you just have to. And I, even before the combine, I think we did a write-up on it. And there's like, who has the most to gain and lose in the combine or whatever we did for the roundtable. And I think people, when I said Richardson as one, and I didn't mean it because of the athletic traits. It's one of those things you watch this guy.

It's like, yeah, no shit, this guy's athletic. This guy could, like, it doesn't matter how fast he ran. Like, you knew this guy's fast and big and could throw up. He was 245. He ripped off a 50 yard touchdown against Utah. Yeah. It's like a 50 yard touchdown rose, no problem. A long one against LSU that was remarkable up the sideline.

He's running through guys and just. running into the yeah just remarkable stuff and i what i was saying was interviews will make or break him and i think he i think he did well from what i've gathered but it's that will make or break him because then people go well if he's going to work that hard like you or if he's going to if he's going to have those answers and show what he can do holy crap this is worth batting on so that's such a such an importance part and i'm glad he brought it up again best case scenario is like a league guy he's one of the best players in the league i mean i mean i don't think that's overstating it there's some projection involved in that obviously like that is the band of outcomes is somewhat narrow but it's there and i think

that is important to consider when you're thinking about making a bet like this yes all the tools will be josh allen and once you want a josh allen on your team that would be a lot of fun my historical comparison for him is donvin mcnab if you watch early career donvin vn mcnab and i only just came across this because i watched a highlight thing one time at syracuse there's a lot of comparisons with these guys as far as like some of the accuracy concerns, how they throw. But if you watch McDiam in college, there actually some comparisons there. But that's a legit pro bowler every year who can fight for an all pro vote. Like, you know, can actually be an MVP Cowover player.

That's the high end with this guy. This sounds so stupid. I talked about progressing to the third guy. There's one throw against Tennessee. It was mesh. Mesh always has the two crossers and then intermediate route behind it. This is against Tennessee, who is a top 10 team this entire year. he reads the alert, which is the wheel.

Then he reads both crossers. So that's one, two, three. And then the dig, it was a middle sit dig kind of thing, fourth route on the concept. He throws the ball away from the closing safety who's coming from the opposite side. So he throws a guy open. If he threw it right down the center and hit the guy in the jersey numbers, then that would have been, it would be incomplete. The safety would have broke on it. And it would be incomplete.

Boom, fourth down. But he threw it away. And it's on purpose. You can tell it's on purpose because it's just like right over the left shoulder. That play was those, he does that, like often. And so that's why I know that accuracy stuff is as concerning as it as for other people. And I just think that he has that advanced play already to him outside of just the traits. It's a really fun package.

It really is. It's really, this guy's a really exciting player. I'm really excited to see him in the league. All right. Next one. Will Levis from Kentucky. You're writing up Will Levis. You are on the, I don't know, let's say Seahawks coaching staff.

You're studying the quarterbacks. What does the will? It's alliance with Anthony Richardson, by the way. I mean, those, and again, those are really, those are unique situations where you can, you can draft them, you can stash him, and you can say, all right, we're going to compete right now, but we understand that this guy gives us a higher ceiling that our current quarterback does, and we need to chase that ceiling, you know, and it's, we're talking earlier about how you can win with a guy who is maybe that 10 to 12 best quarterback in the league

sort of thing. but that's when he's making $9 million a year, not when he's making $30. It is just so much more difficult to thread the needle with that sort of guy. And I think that Richardson, for both of those teams, specifically the Lions, he lifts the ceiling off of view. Everything else is in place. You've built this thing in such the right way,

but I think eventually the phrase I've used is you need the dismount from the win-with quarterback unless you're going to try to thread the needle every single year like the Niners do, which I think is really, really difficult. And I think that Anthony Richardson is the best looking discobower helps. Yes, an all-time play caller, the third best defense in the league every single year. I mean, it's very, very, very hard to thread that needle. And a guy like Anthony Richardson, if he's sitting there at six, for example, the margin for error that he creates for you is just so much wider.

and you're starting over than the financial clock. And if you have Jared. There's a lot of pluses here. It's just so many things where it's just like, oh, if you can just kind of hand off the baton here, mixing so many metaphors to this guy who has this sort of physical skill set to him. You're speaking my language. It's just,

it's so, so hard not to think about it. But also remember the Panthers signed Andy Dalton. It's not like they're off the Anthony Richardson train either. You know, like that's like another setup. You know what I mean? Like that's another setup that might be.

I think it's so hard. I think it's so hard to trade all of that to move up for number one and then not play the guy. Not play, right? It's hard to do. Especially how they, I think how they view their team too. Will Levis. Yeah. Scound report.

Ah, great size. I would say good size. Tough, athletic. He's viable threat and design runs, even if he has terrible vision. That dude is a magnet for contact. He's blind as a Batman. Well, as a runner. I mean, I have.

had one career rush and I showed more vision than he ever did. You're starting. Like truly pretty release, like lightning fast. Like really one of the fastest releases I've seen in a while. Ball actually pops out of his hand. You know who he reminds me of in terms of aesthetics throwing the football? I have a guy in my head, but I don't think it's who you're going to say. I think there are shades to watching Zach Wilson throw when I watch him throw, except he's six

four weighs about 230 pounds and actually. has the arm strength that people talked about Zach Wilson having coming into the process. You're not just pure. They do both have the trick shots to them too. That's what I'm saying. They got that trick shot feel to them. And it looks very pretty when Will Levis throws a football.

It does. My first, my first came across Levis was when I was watching the receiver, Wendell Robinson last year, who went to the Giants. And I'm watching Levis. I'm like, what the hell is this? Like, no one's talking about this. Like, this guy throws.

throws it like, what the hell? Like, it pops. When people say it pops out of their hand, it's not like just, you know, it's not like a sonic boom or something like that. It's you see the ball just travel differently. When you watch a lot of these guys, especially we watch a lot of shitty quarterbacks, like last year's class ad, all of a sudden seeing a guy just throw like that. It was, why isn't this guy declaring for the draft?

But also, when we're going to talk about it, I know we can't wait to talk about Kentucky's offense, more than any of these other quarterbacks had to navigate like real tight pockets, like real, that's the most translatable thing with Levis is a lot of those pockets looked like NFL pockets when you were playing with backup offense alignment in the NFL, where you're throwing off platform, as we talked about, and throwing under pressure, throwing under awkward angles. And I just made fun of the trick shot aspect. But Levis has that in his back where he can actually throw a ball and get it there when he is,

has no feet, he's getting tackled. He has, you know, can barely follow through on the throw. his hand is hitting the defender's helmet as he closes in on him. It's that Patrick Mahomes throw that I'm talking about in the Super Bowl, where he's falling down and still checking the ball down, turning negative plays into positive ones. Those things add up. Can legit throw the ball all over the yard.

He's thrown field, whole shots on college hashes, and he's doing on a weekly basis. Not how I'd want to live if I were an offense coordinator, but it's cool that he can do it. And the fact that he can legit throw those. you know, we're going to hold off on the negatives for a sec, but just he, he does a lot of things that look the part that makes it exciting when you watch him as a quarterback. All right.

You talk about him navigating the money pockets. Here's my counter to that, okay? Get the ball off. Okay. Yes. That's what I'm saying. Get the ball off. I'm not saying navigating.

Getting the ball off is impressive. This year, okay, among the schools with at least 300 pass attempts, Kentucky was second in the country in sack percentage. 10.8%. Okay. This is the stat I loved. Will Levis and Anthony Richardson last season were pressured at about the same rate. It was about 37.5% of their dropbacks, according to PFF. It was like 25th in the country.

It was high. Okay. Anthony Richardson was sacked on 9.2% of those pressures, which was 14th, which was 14th among 160 quarterbacks. Will Levis was sacked on 26.8% of those pressures, which was 14th in the country. So same exact pressure percentage all about. Richardson was sacked less than half as often, about a third as often, as Will Levis was at the same pressure percentage. And it shows up.

You what? That's another, sorry. He gets tattooed back there. Oh, my God. He said, I talk about Bryce Young taking hits. Levis takes some that I truly felt bad. You ever hear about like Archie Manning and what he was playing for the 80s Saints teams? Other teams defenders would say, I felt bad and I'd stop hitting him as hard.

That's how I feel like SEC defenders were playing against Will Levis. It's like, man, again, I'm hitting you under the chin again. Sorry, bud. Like, hope you're going to be okay next to the tomorrow. But that's another feather in Anthony Richardson's cap, though, is, and we talk about this, turning negative plays into positive one, Justin Herbert, not taking sacks, Burrow. Well, Burroughs got better this year. Mahomes, Trevor Lawrence, Dak, those guys that get rid of the ball, stay strong. Even if it's not a completion, the ball's out.

And it's second and 10 as opposed to first and 18, you know, or checking the ball down. And now it's second and two as opposed to third and 14. Those really do matter. They really do add up. So that's important noting. So if you're, let's say, do you, could you make an argument for why Will Lovish to be the number one pick? Or is that to bridge too far.

All right. So I have a first round grade on him. I will say that. But top 10 would be, or really top, I will say top eight is really, I'm squinting a little bit, even if there's inflation. So let's say. you're the Raiders. Okay.

Yeah. And you have the seventh pick. Okay. And he's sitting there. What is the argument in your mind for why Will Levis should be a top 10 pick? All that those throwing things I talked about and how he can quickly get rid of the ball. More than any of the quarterback had to work with the worst talent around him, not only this year, but last year as well, which matters. You know, because then it's like, whoa, maybe if we get Devante Adams with him, let's see how he can do.

The crumbling pockets part is being able to operate and that does matter. He worked from under center a lot in that Kentucky offense. He worked doing play action a lot where he turned his back to the defense and did okay in it. And it was comfortable navigating. His footwork got a lot better over the two years. I think that a lot of those things are feathers in his cap of why you be optimistic about him. I actually do think in the mock draft, me and Deonté wrote, I had the Raiders taking Levis.

I think a few people have had that. I actually like that fit as far as how they operate on offense and what he can do, just operating and play action offense like that and doing it well because he's willing to push the ball. That's my concern with him, though, is that when you put him in that sort of structure, it can look pretty, man. He threw a ball to Wondale against Mizzou in 2021 because I went back and I watched the 2021 season a little bit because of how different it was. Yeah, well, we can talk about why. But it's very easy to figure out why it was that different. They had a second round receiver that they had in 2021 season.

Dylan Parham, they had a day two offensive lineman on that team. And the talent around him was better. So he lets a ball go off of a moved kind of shot play against Missouri. It's a 60-yard throw. He does that consistently where it's just like, all right, I'm taking this shot. And he looks beautiful when he's doing that sort of stuff. But when he has to play on time, he has to read stuff out, he has to play quarterback. it looks less beautiful to me.

So I think that's what you'd be talking yourself into with him is that the frame is there, the release is there. He looks really good throwing a football. But all the other aspects of the feel about playing the position and operating when it's not tailored to you in those play action situations, I have a lot of concerns. It seems he's streaky. Yeah. There's times where he puts together a series and you're like, oh, no shit, this guy's going to top 10. And there's times where he, it looks like he shouldn't be playing. And there is just a little, there's just too many negative plays with him that that's what it's like, oh, man, and he's older.

He's going to be 24. Give me 24. He's only three months younger than Justin Fields. And that, and for what we talk about, say if he goes to the Raiders, that is, okay, he'd be behind Jimmy G. Probably for most of the year. Okay. Now he's starting at 25 as his first year as a starter, which doesn't damn him. But for a guy that we're saying is an unfinished product, all these guys are unfinished product.

But this guy has a little more project to him. Okay, that's a little dicey as the clock's ticking. And he's now getting older. And it's like, how much upside is there truly to tap into? So if we're making the argument for him, a couple of notes about Kentucky's offense. Okay. They had a new offensive coordinator this year, Rich Gangarella, who was an NFL assistant. They were trying to tap into that again.

They had Liam Cohen two years ago. Liam Cohen leaves to be the Rams offensive coordinator. they hire Rich Gangarello as their offensive coordinator who was the quarterbacks coach for the Niners. So that's like the type of offense that they want and it worked for them in the past. So let's run it back. It did not go well. It did not. Okay.

Kentucky this year averaged 3.3 yards per attempt on the ground, which is 157th nationally. Oh, boy. They were 150th in EPA per rush, which they were 26th in 2021. They ran the ball so much and they were so bad at it that they ranked 192nd. in total EPA on their rushes. In 2021, 32.1% of their runs went for a first down,

which is 14th in the country. How many? 22% of their runs went for first downs in 2021, which is 14th in the country. Okay. This year it was 20.6, which was 154th. 20%.

Okay. Oh my God. That's worse than the ramps. If you can imagine, the offensive coordinator was relieved of his duties after the season was over. And Liam Cohen, I think by all counts,

is heading back to Kentucky to reclaim his status there. The king of Lexington. Okay. Also, Will Levis was hurt. He had a foot injury for most of the season. So if you're trying to make a case for why this guy is worth taking a risk out high in the draft, the idea that he looks beautiful throwing a football and all of these shitty circumstances were heaped onto him this year.

And that in reality, he is a much closer player, much closer to the player he was two years ago than he is to this guy, I think that is where you can really kind of make the case. Yeah. And again, like, I brought a lot of negatives with him. And I still had a first round. Like, this guy was QB1 if he came out last year. Like, he was better than the guy. As much as I like Desmond Ritter, I would have taken a chance on this guy, but

on Levis more than Ritter, just because size and toughness and all those things. It's, you're grading to the flash with him. You certainly are. And that's what you're grading to. And I know he's, I know he has fans in the NFL. there's multiple people I've talked of that. Of course he does. Have you ever had a conversation with an NFL coach?

Oh my God. Right? Like, yeah. Because it's so translatable for him. Oh my God. I brought up all the undercenter play action stuff. Now imagine NFL coaches there are so wired into that brain. And they love traits.

And they love the guy who just really spin it. Toughness. Yep. Love toughness. Thanks. I'm not surprised to know that there are a couple of guys around the league that are in his corner. Oh yeah. They like him.

So, but it's just you are grading to the flash. and he's an older player. If this guy was a one-year wonder and coming out, then it's like, wow, look how young he is and oh, my God, we can do this. But, you know, now he has some experience, even if it was in the best experience and best surroundings and best situations. So that's the thing. I just got to say this, too, is he can almost be as such of a good athlete he is.

He doesn't always show it. He can almost be a little too robotic when he's a passer. Yes, as a runner, he can run. He can run. He already talked about his vision, and he's tough and he's trying to hurdle guys and all that. But it seems so many times that he's so mechanical. mechanical and his movement. Like he,

he takes the drills to literally that he went through. And sometimes you just want him to be a football player, which is so weird because he will run. But I'm just saying as a quarterback, you sometimes want him to just be, just let it loose. He feels uptight when I watch him sometimes, not because he's muscled up,

but just truly just plays uptight. And again, that could be a situation. I know interviews are going to be huge for this guy, as all these guys are. But that's something I'm just like, I'd want to see more and just how he operates in that situation. Before we talk about the best case scenario, I just want to reiterate that the least enjoyable part of this experience for me was watching the Kentucky offense.

And that it was outside of Will Levis. Guys going in motion and running into each other. The snap almost hitting guys going in motion, them sending a guy in motion and then doing a split zone when they're asking the tight end to seal off the backside. But he doesn't get there in time. Receiver screens every other play. Receiver screens every other play. They're doing full slides and having the back pick up the defense event multiple times. in a game, just giving the guy no shot whatsoever.

It's just like watching the offense was not fun. So again, if we're trying to give Willeves a break, that is where the break begins. And I'm glad you're bringing up the full slide stuff. And then this is like, once you get experienced with the NFL protection schemes and what they do. And then all soon you watch these college teams and 90% of them, you're like, what's the offensive line coach get paid to do? Like, what are they doing? I really want to know what you guys are teaching all day because I got spoiled at

college in Wisconsin. We ran a pro scheme. So like, you know, we actually worked at this stuff. So that's why I appreciate the Florida offense a little bit. But sometimes with that Kentucky offense, like you said, the full slide stuff and the receiver screen is like, man, this is rough. Best case scenario for Will Evans. Guy make all the throws.

I think he does have that pro bowl talent, but that star starter percentage is smaller than I I think. Then I went into the process thinking. I think he has less of that percentage than, then I was really hoping. being to watch. I thought maybe this year would be a little more a plus year from him than last year was, even if there was some glimpses there. I think best case,

I don't know if there's a good comparison. I've seen the Tanna Hill and the Stafford comparisons. I don't know. To me, it's an amalgam of those two guys. Yeah. It's the Tanna Hill toughness and like the ball jumping out of his hand like it does with Stafford where like you have like those two guys combined,

like a diet version of whatever that player is. That to me is like the best case scenario for Willavis. best case is he has Tannenhill's career like that like that to reach that level like where it's like okay this guy's like you know a pro bowl or two and wow in a right situation with that play action where he could be tough like yeah that makes sense no but the Stafford tannhill stuff I see the comparison it's so I never thought I'd see a guy that could trick shot like Stafford and it's kind of like or have that arm talent it's kind of that's why it's worth noting when you watch this guy throw it's like wow it jumps off it pops off the screen when you watch this guy throw an important distinction though before we wrap this up when I the arms strength with him is there. The ball explodes out of his hand. You don't see nearly, in my opinion, the nuance to how he can layer throws and the touch that he, the guy like C.J. Stroud can put on the ball. So you're going to sit there and you're going to look at like, man, he just throws it 60 yards so easy. And like he's ripping field outs, no problem. Like that happens consistently. But we've talked about this. The trajectory on the ball and like the levels that you can make those throws on,

they matter. And you watch a guy like C.J. Stroud, who's consistently, like, has so many different clubs in his bag where Will Elvis is just sitting there and he'll pipe it 3.30 off the T. But I don't know where it's going. And that's really all there is. And that's where that's where a little bit of that Tannhill comparison comes through.

Because Tannel is such a line drive thrower that, but like Tainthal has a little more touch to him. But no, that matter. Even Richardson can layer, this laring throws in. Like, we just watch Richardson throw a corner and an overball. And it's like, Paul Chris had the line. It's looping liner just like in baseball. You hit it over the shortstop's head.

You know, you just, it just gets over there and goes into the gap. You need to throw those. You know, like you need to be able to throw those at the NFL because otherwise they'll just get their hands up and bat the ball down left and right. All right. All right. We just did 90 yards on four players. I know. Listen, you only get one of these a year.

I know. It's great. You only get one of these a year. I'm sure we will talk about Hennon Hooker and some of these other guys a little bit later in the process. But Tanner McKee is my fifth, if anyone cares. I have like a third round grade on him, but it's a huge drop off after these four guys. And that's why we limit it to these four guys. Correct.

So, correct. Always love doing the show. Always fun to kick off the draft conversation. I think a little bit later this week, we're going to talk about the circumstances around these quarterbacks and what these quarter, what young quarterbacks need to succeed. I think it's a natural kind of act to the discussion we just had because we could talk about these guys and their scouting reports and what they are kind of as a vacuum as prospects, but the situation you drop these guys into is often as important as what type of prospects

they are. So we're going to chat a little bit about that on Friday's show. That's a long way from right now because you guys should be listening to prospects to pros on Wednesday with Andy Staples, Dane Bruegler, and our guy, Lance Erline. That's coming your way on Wednesday, so please make sure to check that out. Football GM, with

Mike Sando and Randy Mueller, is coming on Thursday and will all the way through the draft. If you've not listened to last week's episode, they also talked about the quarterbacks. Shockingly, when you're in the content game, it's hard not to talk about the quarterbacks too much. It's hard to talk about the quarterbacks too much. So we're very okay with having

two quarterback shows and back-to-back week. So please go check that out. Maybe it's a little like shot chaser to the show that you just listened to. And then we will be back on Friday chatting a little bit about supporting cast infrastructure, all those important things that you're putting around the quarterbacks. In the meantime, please rate and review the podcast on your podcast platform of choice. Go to Apple Podcast. Let us know if you like the show.

We'd really appreciate that. Subscribe to The Athletic. Theathletic.com slash football show. It's a dollar a month for the next 12 months right now. It's where you can read the mock draft that Nate is just talking about. All of our other fantastic NFL draft. coverage that we're putting out right now. For now, that's all we got.

Appreciate it, guys, listen. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.