The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Takeaways from the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Another combine is in the books, and with its closing comes another set of results that will affect the upcoming NFL Draft. Among them? Hello, Sonny Styles and Kenyon Sadiq. Dane Brugler and Dave Helman go a whole lot deeper than that on this episode of The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast.Connect with The Athletic Football ShowYT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShowPodcasts: https://podfollow.com/the-athletic-football-show/viewX: https://x.com/TA_FootballShowIG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshowDiscord: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowBuy our merch! http://theathletic.lnk.to/tafsmerchCall us: 847-448-0701Email us: [e-mail]: Dave HelmanCo-Host: Dane BruglerExecutive Producer: Michael BellerVideo Producer: Katy DuffyAudio Producer: Michael BellerSocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Dave on X: @davehelman_Follow Dane on X: @dpbruglerTheme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to another episode of Building the Beast. I am Dave Hellman. Dane Brugler and I are fresh off the NFL combine. Dane literally drove in on Sunday and was like, I got notes, I got stuff. I am bursting to talk about. We need to talk about these workouts. And that's exactly what we did. We basically went through Thursday all the way through Sunday, talked about the big winners,

maybe the guys that left a little bit out there and the guys who just didn't do anything as participation at the combine, definitely something worth talking about. A really jam-packed episode as we put the combine behind us and the real meat of draft season can get going. Now we know who everybody is. From here on out, we can just argue about how to slot them. But first, let's break down everything we learned at the NFL Combine. Really fun episode with myself and Dane.

Let's do it. I got to tell you, Dane, it's surreal being back with you on Zoom, considering we just spent the week together. but I very much felt like we were ships passing in the night. Like we had dinner together. We had a couple conversations over the course of the week. But by and large, you are the busiest man in Indianapolis with all the people that require your attention. And I'm trying to do the athletic football show things.

I've got shows with Robert and Derek. We're talking like free agency and stuff, whereas you're 100% draft all the time. So it's kind of surreal being back with you after the different rhythms of our. combine week. Yeah, it's funny how, first of all, the week just flies. Like, I don't know. I was there for eight days and I don't know. You blink and it's over.

It's kind of crazy. There's just so much to do throughout the week that it just feels like it goes by really fast. But there's so much to learn. And I feel like we did just that. We learned a lot, whether it's from the interviews, whether it was from getting some tidbits from just talking to scouts. and agents and coaches.

Obviously the on-field stuff, there's plenty to get from what we saw out there. So, yeah, let's try to condense it into a tidy little wrap-up as best we can. We can definitely do that. Before we dive into the prospects, the names, the drills, the groups that were really impressive, maybe just some notes on the actual workouts

and the week that was, which I don't expect anybody in the NFL to care about my advice. This week, and it's been this way for a while, right? But I felt such a disconnect between the fact that we descend on Indy on Monday into Tuesday morning. And then you wait around until Thursday for all of the actual drills to get going. It feels very anticlimactic when people are leaving town just as the workouts are getting going. And then we probably didn't give this enough time prior to the Combine Day. Maybe it was the wishful thinking in me.

I was hoping for better. But my big impression coming out of this other than a dozen impressive names is nobody's doing anything, man. Like there's nowhere near as much to get excited about coming out of this combine when you look and see the huge number of guys that just didn't participate in things or picked and chose what they participated in. I mean, the three cone as a drill that the league does at the combine is on life support coming out of this. And I think not to put a damper on the excitement of the combine, but my big takeaway after four days of watching drills was like, man, the league's got to come up with a creative way to get the participation in this stuff back up if they can. It was literally the fastest, just using the 40-yard dash data, the fastest for every. single position we've ever seen at the combine, except for quarterback. It was second fastest.

And the main reason for that is because the guys that can't run didn't run. But the guys that could run did run, and they ran fast. And so if you eliminate the guys that don't run great, it just pushes the average up. And so, yeah, three cones is my favorite drill by far. Just to change direction and the ability to shorter, not just to get off. the shorty rate quickness and the ability to finish. Like that is something that translates to every position. And it's something that I think translates well to the football field.

And it's not something, you know, you see four guys at this position do it. Five guys at this position. We just don't see a high participation rate. I think only one running back did it. So it's just, and we've been trending that way for a while now. It's just this year felt like a big jump in terms of the, and not in a good way towards a lot of guys not participating. but, you know, scouts, teams pay attention to this stuff.

So I'm not going to call anybody out, but it's like you hear a lot of prospects, you know, it's funny. You listen to these interviews and they stand up there at the podium and say, yeah, man, I'll die for my team out there. I'm a dog. I just, I want to compete. Then they don't do anything. And it's like, all right, I get it. Your agent probably told you not to.

You weren't getting the times you wanted, wait until the pro day, blah, blah, blah. But like, come on. You're going to be a, you're going to tell me, stand up there and tell me you're a competitor and not compete. Kind of weak. But there were, even with that context, I think there were a lot of athletes that went out there and did compete and help themselves because they were really impressive. So I got a shout out my guy, Justice Moskeda, who put this on my radar during the course of testing. But he was outlining exactly what you're talking about. Like pre-COVID, you could count on like a 50% participation rate at the three-class.

cone across all positions. I got the idea to go look specifically at defensive line players because that's what I care the most about. In 2017, D-Lyne, 37 of 50 D-Linmen invited to the combine ran the three cone. That's like 75% of prospects. This week, 11% of defensive linemen ran the three cone. Seven, seven out of 64 prospects. And it goes down the line.

I mean, it's a little bit better. But in 2017, 94% of cornerbacks ran the 40-yard dash. In 2026, it was about 63%. So you got some major discrepancies over the last decade, some major trends going toward doing things at Pro Day and not running all the drills at the kind of line. If at all. Yeah, if at all. And I mean, look, this is how scouts think and teams think.

If you're not doing it, you're hiding something. That's 100% how teams think. think. And so you better be very confident in where you stand as a prospect or just be confident you're going to put in a good time at the pro day because if not, that's that's something that ultimately not going to not going to say it's going to drop you in the draft. But if it's a conversation between you and another player, who knows? Maybe that could be a tiebreaker for a team. It's just it's another data point that's missing. That's pretty important to teams. I did say prior to going to Indy that I was going to try not to hold a.

against guys for not working out. I was just going to be disappointed. But yeah, I was, I was disappointed at the, at the lack of drama, at the lack of data coming out of this. But all right, having whined for a few minutes, let's talk about what actually happened at the combine. I took my notes in order of position groups that went. So like the, the delinman went first, and we moved on to the DBs and the receivers. So it's not in your traditional order. I just went by position that got on the field first. Let's start with defensive line. And ironically, we do have to talk about this. The biggest news item that came out of the defensive line for my money is a guy that didn't do a whole lot. That would be Ruben Bain. But my goodness, you could feel the shock waves going around

Indianapolis when his official arm measurement of 30 inches and 7.8s came out. And I just, I have no choice but to believe it's going to be a talking point for the rest of the draft process. It's funny. I said this to Mays, Dane, you and I have been talking about his arm length since like October, but there is,

I don't know, it feels a little more real when you get a number on it though. And I'm curious, I know that you have been expecting this for quite some time, but when you have a number on it and people are able to be together

in Indianapolis reacting to it, how big of a deal do you think this is for Ruben Bain's draft stock? Only because it was expected, I guess. I guess I wasn't, I don't know, It was kind of, I didn't think it was that big of dope,

be honest with you, just because, you know, like I reported back in, I don't know, November, whenever it was, that scouts had his arm length. They measured him in the fall at 30 and three quarters.

And so it's like, you know, we told people on this podcast, hey, be ready. It's going to be under 31. And so when it came in under 31, I guess I wasn't that surprised or it wasn't that,

you know, I mean, I guess it was a good thing as arm actually grew what an inch or an inch. Or eighth of an inch. So, I mean, every little bit helps. But it's just, that's not his game. He's going to be a short-armed player. Now, again, I wish you would have done workouts.

That was disappointing. We didn't get anything from him. But I think the edge group as a whole, we talked, we've been talking for a long time, how deep it is. A lot of guys did compete and a lot of guys did impress. And are we going to talk about Arval Ries's part of this group? Would we wait for a linebacker? I would call him an edge. Yeah, like, I would talk about him here.

All right. Well, then he was, if not the most impressive, top three in terms of full workout. Both the time drills, the athletic testing, but also the field workout. His field workout was bananas. It was unbelievable. The quickness and violence through the bag drills, the change of direction, the movement skills. He is, he lived up to what. what I would expect from a player who's number one on my board.

And, you know, and I would tell you if it didn't because I, I trust me, like all the guys in my top 10, I'm looking for a reason why you shouldn't be up there. And I want to see you match those high expectations. I thought Arna Reese, he passed with flying colors. He was outstanding. Danny Dennis Sutton from Penn State. The way he tested was really impressive for a guy that's 256 pounds, running 6-9, 3-cone was awesome, his jumps, his runs. So that was awesome to see Malachi Lawrence. He was tremendous with his

explosion drills. So yeah, there were several ed rushers outside of the top guys that I thought helped themselves. Danny Denise Sutton, one of two edges to do the three cone this week in Indy. And yeah, maybe if you know you've got a six nine in your bag, maybe you're a little more willing to do it than some other guys. I'm glad you mentioned Lawrence because you're right. Like some guys help themselves. and it's fair to point out the field workouts are not a thing you can quantify with a tape measure or a stopwatch as much as, as the, you know,

the 40 and the vert and the broad and all that good stuff. Arvel Reese looked absolutely great, but I'm glad you mentioned Malachi Lawrence because very tangibly, this guy is listed at 6-4-253 and Dane, Malachi Lawrence went out there and did a 452, a 40 in the vert, and a 10-10,

in the broad. And look, I get it. It's the underwear Olympics. We're not going to overreact. But that comes on the heels of people you and I know and trust in the scouting industry who have been texting us and being like, oh, this guy's the real deal. Malachi Lawrence is a name that's got not getting enough love. Like we were hearing that well before the combine. So for him to show up, already knowing that insiders are pretty high on his ability and to put on a circus act like that, I definitely thought he was one of the bigger winners of the entire week. Yeah, and he was already in my top 100, you know, that came out right after Senior Bowl week. And part of that was seeing him live at Shrine and seeing him perform during the week of practices.

And, you know, he's not the most bendy guy. And so, you know, like, I don't expect his three cone or shuttles to be great. But he is literally explosive. And that's where you saw the jumps and the get off and the 40-yard dash. And so, you know, just thinking about that Baylor tape and how explosive he was getting to the quarterback. And all of that translated really well to drills. So Lawrence is, he's already in the top 100. And yeah, you're right.

He only helped himself in terms of where he's going to end up on day two. Anybody else you want to hit among edges or can I move on to linebackers? I mean, I think we should mention David Bailey because, again, a player that was already near the top, performed pretty well. And so, you know, I think he just kind of checked the boxes. It wasn't like an amazing workout, but it was good for a player who's probably going to end up being a top seven pick. So that's, that's a really good workout.

Ran in the four or five. I mean, he was lightning in a bottle for what you would expect from a guy whose forte is get off and burst to the ball. That's kind of how I felt about our guy Caleb Banks too. Like you, he worked out. We were looking forward to that. It was not a bad workout by any stretch, but it didn't get me excited to turn the card in the way I was kind of hoping for. Like, maybe, maybe I built it up too high in my mind for a guy coming off of a injury short and season.

I thought it was good. I didn't think it was like otherworldly or anything. Yeah. And the whole, the cleat issue was, that's not what you want to hear. Keldrick Falk was another one who I expected to be a little bit better, you know, for a guy that has these traits. You just kind of expected to see it more out there on the field. So I think he left me wanting a little bit more. I mean, let's just move inside a defensive tackle since you mentioned banks.

So Zane Durant, Penn State, I mentioned Dennis Sutton. Zane Durant, he was outstanding in terms of the athletic testing. I just wish that you could point me in the direction of where that shows on film. Like, it's just the lack of disruption on his film. Isn't that your favorite part of this is you've watched, you've watched plenty of a guy's tape and then this makes you feel like you need to go turn it back on immediately. Oh, and I will because that's that the combine's one big cross-checking exercise. If something matches up, okay, great, that's what the film said, matches up with athletic testing.

Perfect. If it doesn't, all right, we need to go back. And either way, if a guy tests really well but doesn't show on film, okay, we got to figure that out. or vice versa and with Durant. And he's a former running back at high school. Like I think we knew he was going to test pretty well. But this is a guy who had a grand total of four and a half tackles for lost last year. Four and a half.

Like in 12 starts. So yeah, he has this, you know, he looks really good in shorts. He can move really well. I just wish it translated to more football production. And so I think that while on paper, Durant's testing, he should be quote unquote a riser. I, and I'll go back and watch more,

more film just to make sure I'm, I'm not wrong by saying this. I just don't think it's going to be as much of a boost for him when you look at the actual football impact. Can we talk about a guy? Can we do linebacker just so we can just get this out of the way and talk about the guy that I am jumping out of the gym to turn the card in for?

The top five pick. Okay. I'm glad you started there because I want to make life easy on our wonderful producers and the guys and gals who clip the stuff out to put on social media. Dan, in a year where we already know that the top 10 is a little bit lacking in mf and there's not as much of a sure thing at the premium positions in this draft, talk me out of Sunny Stiles as the second overall pick in this draft. Talk talk talk talk me out of thinking that's not stupid. Like tell me why that's dumb. As soon as Mendoza's off the board, you're on Sunny Stiles watch. I think he goes top five.

It's just a matter of is it one of the New York teams? You know, could it be Arizona? Arizona needs a lot of help in a lot of different places. But they also need to get this right. They need to whether if they feel like that's an edge rusher, if they feel like it's Jeremiah Love, they feel like it's an offensive lineman, whatever, get it right. And Sunny Stiles has one of the highest floors in this draft.

There's no such thing as busproof. Sunny Stiles might be the closest thing to busproof in this draft when you talk about just checking every box. It's the athletic testing, it's the movement skills, it's the way his career has gone in terms of trajectory, getting better and better. And it's also the interview process. No other player just talking to scouts throughout,

throughout the week. No other player had more praise from scouts in terms of their interview than Sunny Stiles. I mean, we're talking standing up, getting a round of applause. We're talking just raving about this kid from scouts and how those interviews went. And so all the,

I'll put all that together. And I think teams are going to look at this and say, yeah, he's an off ball linebacker, but this guy's different. And we feel like he, we're getting him on the up. You know,

it's not, it's not like he reached his ceiling yet. So Sonny Stiles did exactly what you would have hoped coming in and even then some. So he was what my number five player in the draft coming in. And now I have to really consider if I have him too low. I couldn't be more impressed for everything that you just said. I mean, the numbers are silly. The measurements are silly.

You look at him and I think you can get in trouble trying to project too much. But with what we know about him as an off ball, linebacker prospect and what you know from just watching his tape, combine that with his measurables and athleticism. And I'm just like, yeah, the right coaching staff could get production out of him as a linebacker, as a guy dropping in coverage, as a pass rusher. Like, there's, yeah, I have a hard time thinking he can't do like whatever he wants. And like I said, I know you can get in trouble projecting too much.

We've definitely seen guys like that fall short of the freakish expectations before. but I don't know, man, he's so impressive. And you're right. Like, obviously, I'm not part of the team meetings, but the time he spent at the podium with the media was very, very impressive. I found out this week that he's nicknamed Sonny after the character from the Godfather, which is just amazing. That's in the Beast.

Of course it is, Dane, but I haven't read the Beast yet. When we're done recording, I will send you the bio I have in the Beast for him. It is probably the longest bio in there. Um, like, I have it in front of me. Um, how about, how about he had coming out of high school? He had division one basketball offers from Akron, Duquesne, Duquesne, Ken State, Toledo. Um, like there's a yeah, there's a lot of good stuff in there about how special this guy is. If I had to guess today, I think Arvel Reese will be the second overall pick in the draft, but I would agree.

I, you could, you could easily sway me that it should be sunny styles. And if he's not the second pick, then I think it'll be quickly after. Quickly after that, we talked about him before the combine. Shout out Jacob Rodriguez, just bawling out. I felt silly when I was watching his workout for questioning whether he could, you know, put up good numbers because he blew my expectations away. And he did the 40, vertical, broad. He did a three cone, 6.9 in the three cone, which was a very impressive number.

It's outstanding. Yeah. Which real quick, like, quick tangent, can you, like, for people that are listening to this, that maybe aren't knee deep in draft stuff. Why is 6.9 a good three cone time? And what are people looking for when they do that? Yeah. And obviously your expectations change in the position

and the size of the player. But for people who don't know what the three cone is, just think of it as an L with cones. And you have to maneuver. You can't be stiff and do the three cone with a good time. And so it really helps expose. that stiffness, which is why we see a lot of guys not do it. But for, and that's why it's a good compliment to the 40.

A 40 shows obvious linear speed and not just, you know, get off, but then also can you carry it and can you stretch it out or do you taper off? But then a three cones list a little bit different. It works a few different muscles. And Rodriguez, we talked after the senior bowl, like seeing him up close in person, just the athlete that he is, gave me a new appreciation. for him as a football player and as an athlete. And that's why in my top 100 after the senior ball came out,

I bumped him up into like the late second round. Just because I had a new appreciation for him as an athlete. And then coming here to the combine, even more so because of that workout and the way he moved. So yeah, good for Jacob Rodriguez. He's crushing the process. Senior Bowl combine after what he did as a senior at Texas Tech. Just I don't, you can't. do the last six months any better than Jacob Rodriguez has done.

Throughout Jack Kelly, too, our BYU linebacker had a really good workout. So yeah, a couple of linebackers did well for themselves. Kyle Lewis, I don't think, is under anybody's radar anymore either day. And if he ever was after a nice combine for him. All right. Going to talk some D.Bs. Let's take a quick break first and we'll do that right after this. All right, Dane, there's two categories of guys here when I was watching the Combine.

You know, your Sunny Stiles, your R. Vell Reese, your Jacob Rodriguez, guys that we've talked a lot about who I had an opinion of for right or for wrong heading into the combine. And then there's what I like to call the Dane special where I see a guy that I don't know anything about. And I'm like, ooh, I got to get Dane to enlighten me. Back in the day, if you've been with us for a long time, we used to do a segment called Tell Me More. And I just, I'm going to, I'm going to throughout this show, I'm going to throw a through name, a few names at you. I would love it after watching cornerback workouts. If you could tell me more about Ticario Davis out of the University of Washington, who ran a 4-4, despite being almost 6'4 with some 34-inch arms dragging down at his ankles. I guess with the amount of time I spent covering the cowboys and their arm length parameters, I zeroed in on this guy immediately. And I was like, I need Dane to tell me more about Takario Davis.

That's a tall drink of water right there. You saw those long strides in the 40, right? You know, he could really stride it out. You know, he now as a prospect, it's a little more inconsistent because, you know, the mirror and match isn't always sound. You know, he has a tough time with that sometimes. The length is great, but the play strength is average. so that's an issue.

But when you have a guy that's that size with that speed, and so you can attach yourself to receivers, and especially when you're working on the perimeter, yeah, that's something that's going to interest a lot of teams, especially those teams that place a premium on length on the outside, you know, whether that's, yeah, the commanders with Dan Quinn, or, you know, you used to think about the old Seattle teams with what they wanted on the outside.

But yeah, Davis is a good one. on the flip side, a guy that doesn't have sides who I thought an outstanding workout, Chandler Rivers from Duke, he was terrific. Avion Terrell, he didn't run, I don't believe, but it wasn't, that wasn't what got my attention. It was the positional workout. Avion Terrell was outstanding during drills. You saw the ball skills, you saw the movement skills. Avion Terrell, he's, I think 18th on my top 100. And if anything, it looked like I had him too low, not too high.

he was terrific. I was going to ask you about that. Do you think we, not you and me, but like we as a collective draft community, you know, we talk plenty about Delane and we talk plenty about Jermad McCoy. I'd say we even talk plenty about Colton Hood. Are we not giving Terrell enough credit or credence for potentially being, I mean, you've got him at 18. So like a top 20 guy, but could he potentially go even higher than that? Like, are we not doing him just? by talking about him on that other level of cornerback prospect. Well, yeah, and I mean, shame on us if we're not talking about him enough. Because that's, yeah, he, he's one of these guys that's once you, like, once you get past the first, what, like 10 picks maybe?

Like anybody's free game at that point, you know, anyone in that 11 to 32 range is kind of in play at that point, including Terrell, who I've said it before, even though he didn't have a ton of interceptions, he just has this. honey badger aura to him with the way he competes the way he goes out there and makes plays even though it doesn't always result in an interception but the forced incompletions the forced fumbles the way that he will hawk down a guy from behind that's not even on his side of the field like he just that that's the way he competes and it shows up on every single tape so avionteau i thought was a winner from the combine. My guy Chris Johnson. If I had to make a list of five my guys, Chris Johnson, absolutely one of them. San Diego State, a guy we've been talking about since September, one of the big questions was speed, could he, you know, as long as he got under that 448,

man, that was like the magic number. And he did well under that 448. Everything else is just, I don't know. I think he, I think he checks every box. Chris Johnson's one of those guys where he did a 4-4 flat twice. And I was like, okay, Mr. Johnson, off you go. Nothing else we really need to see here. And then one more guy I wanted to mention, obviously, when you run the best time, people are going to be talking about you, Toriano Pride Jr. out of Mazoo. Don't know, don't know anything about him.

But if you can run a 4-3-2, I'm going to spend some time watching your tape. That's just how it goes. There are several teams kind of saying the same where, oh, I did not know you had that in you. And so we knew, we thought you were fast. We didn't know you were that fast. And so that's one of those guys that will be fired up, um,

on the tape tomorrow from teams just kind of making sure we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we've got them right with our write up. At safety,

I don't know. Who, who didn't have a nice week at safety? I was so impressed. We got to start with one guy though. We got to start with one guy. Which way do you want to go? Cause like Lorenzo Stiles ran the four.

or is it somebody else? It's got to be Theaneman. I mean, Dylan Deeneman, man. Unbelievable. He crushed it, dude. I mean, I know he's been on everybody's radar as a potential first round pick for a while. But he's one of those guys where all of a sudden it's like,

oh, maybe top 15? Like, what are we talking about here? It's funny because earlier in the week, I was on radio with our buddies at 1053, the fan. And they asked the ideal. scenario for the Dallas Cowboys at 12 and 20. And I said, okay, ideal, like maybe not realistic, but ideal. Okay, all right, let's go Sunny Stiles at 12 and let's go Dylan Theanman at 20.

And that was before they worked out. Now it's like, all right, no chance. Sonny's. Throw that plan in the trash. I mean, just Theanman, hopefully Theanman's there at 12 for them if they wanted to go that direction. But that might be it because holy cow, what a workout. The testing was awesome, obviously.

but the workout was phenomenal. And it was expected. I mean, he's right now in my top 100. He's 22 or something like that. So, you know, it's not like, again, he's going to get this huge bump because of what he did. It just kind of reinforced that, all right, yeah, came. He came in as a kind of a mid first round pick. He's going to leave like that.

And there's fewer questions about him than maybe you had going in. I came away impressed with like half a dozen guys. Thineman for sure. Bud Clark looked the way he was supposed to. Emmanuel McNeil Warren. His workout wasn't as freaky as maybe I was hoping for, but totally fine.

I'm going to take the time to shout out my guy, AJ Halsey. I thought he looked just incredibly smooth in the on-field stuff. And one more, I'll do another tell me more, because this guy was not on my radar at all, but Xavier Wampa out of Iowa seemed to have

a really nice workout as well. Yeah, he's another one. I'll be going back to. I mean, I had a PFA on him just based on tape. like and he was a former five star like he came to iowa with a lot of pub um and i never thought he lived up to it on tape like as a player i just you you could watch i was defense and never really notice him you know that was kind of his issue um i just i want more of an impact but you know i think that he's someone that there's clearly talent there you just have to figure out okay maybe if we use him a little bit different way or you know it's just a matter of making sure we're not just crossing him off the list and because he didn't make enough of an impact based on expectations.

I also wanted to mention trade in Stukes, Arizona. It was fantastic. I mean, he's a nickel who, you know, his secondary positions probably as a safety, but I like him best as a nickel. He ran, I think, 433. He was outstanding. And the ball skills are fantastic. So Stukes, he was already in the top 100, somewhere in the 70s.

But, you know, he's someone that's going to make you think about, all right, maybe we need to give him a little bump. This doesn't even mention Caleb Downs, who was never going to be like a combine warrior. That's not him. But like I came out of this. I think I already knew it, especially when we did the Senior Bowl and you look at the Senior Bowl roster

and there were like 10 exciting safeties on there. And then you watch this weekend, what a year to need a safety. I feel like I don't have a top 100 like you do, but I was just looking at it. And I was like, man, there's like nine guys. I would be pumped to draft on Thursday or Friday.

I think I have 10 of them in my top 100. That sounds about right. Downs, The Annaman, McNeil Warren, Halsey, Keontes Scott, Zaki Wheatley, Bud Clark, Genesis Smith, Jalen Kilgore. I mean, yeah, the list goes on and on. Even day three, there's some guys that, you know, I think are useful players who could maybe even outplay where they're drafted.

So it is a good year to need a safety. All right. Having gushed about safeties, let's move over to the offensive side of the ball. that. We'll just take a break right now and then we'll do all offense together right after this. Well, I think you can say a similar thing about this position as we did about Sunny Stiles, Dane. There's a guy we've talked a lot about. We knew he was really athletic. We knew he was going to go in the first round. But after watching Kenyon Sadiq do his thing at this combine, and I know, look, athletic testing isn't everything. But if you liked the tape enough to have a first

round grade on him coming into the week. And then you see Kenyan Sadiq post two four, four, 40s. Actually, he got to 439, excuse me. And then jump out of the gym. I mean, I don't know. What do you think the realistic ceiling is for Kenyan Sadiq? Because it feels like he's at least got a shot to go top 10 with those sorts of numbers next to his, next to his tape.

Oh, he's a shot, no question. I mean, it was always the, I don't know, if Travis Kelsey retires, you know, drop him into that KC offense or, I mean, they were always talking about teams in that 9, 10, 11, 12 range maybe. Yeah, and that number, I think that 439 doesn't do it justice because I immediately, when that happened, texting some scouts, hey, what'd you have? Would you have?

I heard back from four teams, they all had under 435, all four of them. I mean, it was like 432, 433, 4344, 434. I mean, and yeah, those are hand times. But guess what? That's what teams use. The biggest misnomer is the official combine time when in reality teams just use their own hand times. And they do that for a lot of reasons. I'm going to say, can you illustrate why that matters to teams, why they do their own stuff when there's like laser timing at the combine?

The main one is so they can have consistency between combine and pro days and other workouts where it's the same timer, the same. set up and the way you're doing things, the same operation. So that helps limit, you know, any trial and error type of deal. So that, I mean, that's the main reason. But I think that we can get caught up a little too much in the quote unquote official. Like, that's a made for TV thing. It really is. But it's kind of what everyone runs with as, okay, this is your official time.

Well, that's what you are for life. That's what you'll be known as. Also, Kenyon Sadiq, I think he has. the most bench press reps or second most among tight ends he had 26 so i mean the vert was 43 and a half 11 one broad the only reason that wasn't first is because eli stowers is a i don't he's not human i know that but i don't know what he is um 45 and a half inch vertical for stowers i mean he yeah he came into the combine as my titan two but holy cow like that is just ridiculous Sadiq and Stowers were just doing action figure shit all during the entire tight end workout.

And yeah, if there was a question about the pecking order, I mean, not that there was any question about Sadiq, but I don't know, that seems to put Stowers pretty firmly on the radar. One other tight end, I did want to mention Sam Roush from Stanford, 6-6, 267 pounds. So 267 is very different than 241 or 239, which Sadeke and Stowers. So at that number, 47040 or dash, 38.5 inch vert, 7.08, three cone, 25 reps in the bench press. And I need to double check this. But I believe he's one of only two players talking every position, 319 players at the combine, one of only two that did every single drill. Bench press, testing, positional stuff, everything. So credit to you, Sam Roush, for being one of those guys.

I'm shocked to hear that the Stanford guy was on top of his game like that. That's so surprising. No, I did. I had at least one other guy. Roush was one of mine that I wanted to mention. You've talked about him before. His workout numbers weren't anything mind boggling, but I thought Jaron Kinnacks like on-field stuff, like the drills and stuff. I just, I thought he looked very nice.

And he looked like what I thought he was. And I was like, yes, okay, I can do that. he I mean with what he brings on special teams like that just kind of I don't know yeah Kinnick's going to be a day three pick at some point and be a longtime special teamer and then whatever he gives you on offense is just going to be a bonus I think that's that's going to be the question to answer here is like you know there's plenty of tight ends you feel good about at a discount do you like that as much as you like the idea of Kenyhan Sadiq if you need to use a top 15 pick on him because that feels that feels like the floor to me i can't imagine him going too far past the 15th pick maybe like 18 18 that's the number i keep coming back to yeah running back what a what a cool moment and i know it look we overrate these things all the time they don't necessarily make you a good football player but the moment that mike washington out of Arkansas had after he ran a 433 and essentially just broke down in tears because look,

the 40 yard dash might not translate to football ability, but you run that as a running back who already had good tape, who was already considered somebody worth drafting. That's life changing. Like that's going to change Mike Washington's life, whether it means he gets drafted around higher, whatever. But it was a really, really cool to see him have that moment after running a blazing. 40 time. I really enjoy talking to him at the senior bowl and then talking to him again in Indy, a really thoughtful guy. Just talking about his journey, you know, Buffalo, New Mexico State,

then the Arkansas. You know, he's got, already has his degree working on his master's, like his dad's an investigator, mom got a PhD, like just comes from a really good family. And he's a really thoughtful guy, but also a really big time competitor. And we saw that with the way you go out there, run a 433. What he did this past year at Arkansas, what he did at the Senior Bowl, and then what he did the combine, it's kind of like, all right, yeah, everything you did the last six months, just keep going to boost your draft profile even more. Obviously, we know who the first running back is going to be off the board. But then second, third, fourth running back's drafted. That's up in the air.

I think Price, Judgerian Price will be number two. but Mike Washington is you know he came in as my running back four for me he just made a really big argument for a running back three and I wouldn't be surprised at all for some teams he's even running back too so yeah credit to Mike Washington pretty good bet if that's how we're talking that he's a Friday night draft pick right absolutely has an opportunity because there's just not many running backs that are going to go on day two but he's one of three or four that absolutely could. Just a really cool moment for him. Really cool to see that. Really cool to see Jeremiah step out and look like Jeremiah love. I don't I don't really know what else to say about that.

He's not going to but like you mentioned with Sunny Stiles like how early we need to be talking about him. I mean Arizona, Tennessee three and four they have to take a long look at their roster and say yeah, we need help a tackle. Yeah, we need help here and there. But could adding an impact running back who helps us as a runner as a receiver and just does that like our version of bejohn robinson or however you want to quantify it how does that transform our offense how does that impact the scoreboard for us they they both those two teams need to take a long look at jeremiah love um with that third and fourth pick in the draft obviously that's going to lead to an interesting conversation because through no fault of his own ashton ginty just had a pretty forgettable rookie

year because the Raiders were not ready to drop a top six running back onto their roster. I can imagine Cardinals and Titans fans saying something similar. I don't know. I think both of those teams are probably better suited to draft a running back that highly. I understand it if you have trepidation about doing so, but I don't think those are like apples to apples comparisons, or at least I don't think they will be by the time free agency is over. then that's the key because the Titans have plenty of money to spend. Well, let's see how they attack free agency and then we can revisit because

the last thing I'll say about it, I don't want to hear about position value. I don't. I want to hear about impact value. To me, that's the more important way to frame the conversation, not the position, but the impact that that player makes, what is the value to us? And that's something that I think all those teams need to consider. I'll bet you whatever. I feel very comfortable saying

Jeremiah Love won't be there anymore when the chiefs are done picking at nine. Like he'll be a top nine pick in this draft. I don't think the Saints. I mean, yeah, no, I think the Saints would be a very likely landing spot too, but if you're right there,

nine's, yeah. If for some reason the Saints opt elsewhere, I think the chiefs are the floor for Jeremiah Love. I just, I don't buy he falls any further than that. Anything else on running back? I didn't, it's it's not a position other unless you run a crazy 40 like mike washington did right i'm just i'm not easily moved by what running backs do at the combine sue me yeah those are

two two names i wrote down that i i wanted to talk about so yeah let's talk about another silly season sort of thing actually dane we kind of nailed it uh because we were talking about carnell tates 40 before the combine and i think we set the over under at like four five four and that's exactly what he ran. Or maybe they cut a hundredth off and gave him a four, five, three. But he was right where we were talking about, which unfortunately for him is a little on the slow side or is it? I mean, if we're talking about like a top 12 picket receiver, I guess it's a little

on the slow side, but I'm going to guess you're not putting too much stock in this. No, because he's not a burner. I mean, that's not who he is. Now, those long strides, they eat up grass and he makes plays down the field. I mean, some of the hand times were better, which I know Adam Schaefter tweeted it. You know, like that's true about every player almost. So I'm not worried about it. But obviously you would have liked to see a better time.

But I don't think it's something that's going to hurt him. Teams aren't going to, we're going to drop him around. I mean, it's better that he went out there and ran as opposed to Mackay Lemon, who said he's the most competitive player in the draft and then didn't work out. And so it's like, okay, I mean, it's, you know, and Lemon's a guy that's a four or five athlete. So, no, it's not going to hurt Tate. And especially when we don't, we didn't see Lemon workout. We didn't see obviously Tyson workout. Denzel Boston said he was going to do everything and then didn't run.

That was a little surprising. Casey Concepcion didn't run. So a lot of the guys we think are going to go in the first round didn't run. and Tate went out and did, and he's going to get points for that, whether he should or shouldn't, he's going to. Speaking of making bets, I'll also bet you $5,

he'll run again in Columbus and get like a 4-5-1, and I'm just not, you can't convince me to care about this. Ohio State's got a really fast track, so I bet you, they'll mark it off at 38.5 years. Yeah, hey, mark it off at 38 and a half

and get us to 4-4-9, and we don't ever have to talk about this again. I don't care. I think that'll happen for sure. But it was, there's a lot of receivers. I mean, I mentioned Casey Concepcion didn't run the 40,

but I thought he looked awesome during the gauntlet. Like for a guy where you had more drops than you want, ideally for a first round player, he was fantastic going through the gauntlet. Jeremy Bernard. And how about his three cone? I think best in the, of this draft class,

671 at 206 pounds, which, you know, he's not the, in terms of pure speed. not going to blow anybody away, but that changed the direction was really impressive. I thought Zach Branch was terrific because we talked about his, you know,

screen merchant and a guy that just lived underneath. So how would he do down the field? I thought he tracked the ball really well. I thought Zach Branch had a tremendous workout. Bryce Lance, Tray's little brother, what, 6-3-204, went out there, ran a 4-3-4 in the 40, 41-5-inch vert, 11-1 broad, he did the agility too he was i think 7-0 7 flat in the three cone which is fantastic for anybody

but especially a guy that his size so brice lance uh he was already in the top 100 but he only helped himself um dejohn stribling from from old miss a good size athlete and ran 436 at 207 pounds that was awesome um who else can i tell you can i tell you one more i want to i want to see if if you thought the same thing i love just throwing my dumb opinion at you to see if I'm on to something. So I've known about this guy. We've talked about him. And I don't know, probably because his teammate is one of the top receivers in the class,

he's just sort of been out of sight, out of mind or like in the background for me. You know who blew me away? Jacoby Lane. Yeah. He goes up at 6-4-200 and posts a 4-47 with a 40-inch vert. And more so than that, I just thought, in all of the in all of the on field drills the gauntlet the you know working on air with the quarterbacks i just thought he looked so smooth and his footwork and body control were very

very impressive like i said i've i've watched u sc plenty over the last six months and i knew who he was but watching him at the combine just gave me a completely different impression of what he might be and it made me want to go watch three or four games I struggle with him quite a bit because I agree. I was impressed with his workout. I also think a lot of the reasons why I'm not a huge fan don't show up in those type of drills. Like just very underwhelming play strength. It gets pushed around a lot.

Very predictable route runner. He's very upright in his routes. Gives corners a big target. You know, so like a lot of the reasons why I have my concerns with him translating. at least as a top 100 type draft pick didn't show up in these drills, but credit to him for performing at a high level where he could. And for a guy that's tall, slender, a really flexible mover, I thought he helped himself, no doubt.

I think the bigger thing, even more so than that, the interviews. And I haven't got any feedback on the interview process, but that's something that I know scouts more concerned with how his interviews would go than anything on the field put it that way. So I'm eager to get some feedback on how those went. This is why we come to you, Dan. Real quick, we're probably going long on receiver. We mentioned Dionne Burks. He dominated the combine. That's not surprising at all. The guy that I want to just very quickly mention, Jeff Caldwell out of Cincinnati basically had all the same numbers as Dionne Burks, despite being seven inches taller and 40 pounds heavier.

I mean, you run a 4-3-1 with like a 40-something-inch vert at 6-5-216. I know it doesn't mean you're a good football player, but you're going to pop up on the radar doing that. Yeah, and he wasn't, like, that wasn't expected that 40. Like, he looks like a 4-4 guy on tape. But for him to go out there and do that was really impressive, especially for a guy that I don't think is a lock draft pick. before he ran that time because, you know, more of a more of a body catcher, you know,

the speed was more of like a buildup speed. But man, once he gets going, if he gets, if he has a strong start out of the gate, he builds that up so quickly. The acceleration is so impressive with those long strides. Yeah, I mean, he, well, I think he was more of a borderline traffic going into the week. It's, he's going to get drafted now. And that's, so that's an example of where running that 40 and test. like you did certainly going to help your case.

Shameless self-serving plug. Zavion Thomas, one more guy who just had a ridiculous 40-yard dash. Former Mississippi State great. Yeah, exactly. Thank you for that. His tape is like he's not just a fast guy. Put it that way. I think he's a pretty good football player.

Yeah. And I enjoyed talking to him. He's a very, another very thoughtful guy. Just thinking about his answers and all that kind of stuff telling me how, we just remember playing catch with his dad in the backyard at five years old and stuff like that. So that was cool. I wanted to mention Malachi Fields who didn't run great. He had that 4-6-1 in the 40, but went out in the three cone.

And at 218 pounds, when 698, only eight players in this draft in this draft class at the combine, 319 players, only eight ran a three cone under seven seconds. And Malachi Fields is one of them. So credit him for that. No surprise we spend this much time on the receivers because there's a million of them every year and half of them are going to be good NFL players. I love this is a show for the nerds because we're just burying quarterback like at the very end of the show. But I think that's fair because if we're rewriting what we think of quarterbacks based on the combine, I don't think we're doing this the right way. There's not a lot to talk about. You know what?

I was excited is not the right word. but I was, I was happy with the quarterback workouts. I was very happy that Drew Aller was able to do stuff. I thought, I thought Nussmeyer looked fine. I thought Ty Simpson showed off his arm strength and had some, I hesitate to even call him nice throws because what are we even doing? But like Ty Simpson, I thought his arm just looked very live. Talen Green is an athletic freak.

I don't know what that means for his draft stock, but just absolutely silly numbers. And then my last note was that Cole Payton is freaking jacked, dude. So I had a good time watching the quarterback workouts, even if they don't mean that much at the end of the day. You see those, remember we talked about how before the season he was a tight end convert? Like you see why. Yeah, I sure do.

Yeah, I think that now his workout was kind of like the senior bowl where the ball comes off his hand really well, but the sprays are just all over the place. It's just he's so, so raw that I personally, I couldn't draft him before the fourth round, but that's just me. I mean, I think some other teams would probably be a little more optimistic. Ty Simpson was, I think, clearly the most impressive of the quarterbacks throwing the football, really clean, mechanically. The accuracy was good. I think it was Ty Simpson and then everybody else. And, you know, Drew Aller, I thought, yeah, it was good just to see him out there.

Big arm, showed it off. wasn't perfect but certainly good enough a couple of you mentioned tailing green the 4-3-640 the 43 and a half inch vert awesome Haynes King 689 3-3 cone fantastic 4-4640 or dash which is awesome and then I give Carson Beck a hard time but man he didn't deserve to be booed

like that was weak that was like I get it if it's like a Michigan Ohio State thing or like you know this deep-seated rivalry even if Miami had beaten Indiana, I would understand it, but you won the game. Exactly. Who cares? It was so weird.

Like, I don't know. Beck, Beck didn't deserve that, but to his credit, I don't think it affected him that much. I, yeah, that was like, no, I mean, I completely get it if, like, your school's biggest rival, if their quarterback is working out. But, like, I just don't understand the animosity for Miami from Hoosier fans. But, hey, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

I came out of it. I was just like, yeah, I mean, if you're looking for star power outside of Fernando Mendoza, I don't know if this is the quarterback class for you, but there's like six guys that I could talk myself into drafting like later on in the draft, whether it's, you know, Nussmeyer and Ty Simpson on late like day two or whether it's, you know, Drew Aller as a third or fourth round pick is very intriguing to me. I don't care who rolls their eyes about it. Talen Green as a four. flyer because of his athletic ability. Haynes King is somebody that I'd be happy to use a day three pick on because he's probably going to be more useful to my team over a longer period of time, even if he never starts. Like I can get excited about quite a few of these guys, even if that,

even if that doesn't mean they're going to be like long time NFL starters. All right, let's wrap it up really quickly. This was happening on Sunday right before we recorded. So it's fitting if this is the one we have the least amount to say. Offensive line workouts, I think my number one impression from this dayne is maxi and not sure continuing to just build on climbing into the top of this draft process i mean he runs a four nine one 40 which at one point on sunday was tied for the best uh throw that in with monroe freeling i don't know if his on field workout was quite as strong but he certainly has the measurables at one point sunday i haven't updated this but at one point sunday monroe freeling was top five in 40s

among the offensive linemen top three in the vert top five in the broad so plenty of athletic ability i feel like those two guys are we talked about this last week i don't know if you want to say making a run because they've always been these guys but i think uh public perception is catching up to what the league might feel about them and i'm starting to adjust how high i might i think they might be drafted well and uh yeah the freeling he had a one seven one 10 yard split to put that in perspective, the three tackles that were drafted in the top 10 last year were 175, 174, 178. That's Will Campbell, Membu, Kelvin Banks.

And Freeling was better than all three of those at 171. Athleticism is definitely not the issue there. It's just more inexperience. But if you're looking for that true left tackle skill set, Monroe Freeling is the best in this draft. Spencer Fano was outstanding. Like his workout today was well above average. The only, you know, red flag is that the arm length. It came at 32 and an eighth, which is shorter than I expected.

Just going through the fall, talking to scouts, and they all expected at least 32 and a half, hopefully 33 on a good day. And it was below that. And that's tough. But the couple of things that help him, The wing is not as, you know, the arm length is alarmingly low for a tackle. The wing, still not great, but it's over 80 inches, and that's three inches longer than Will Campbell's wingspan was. So a little bit of a saving grace there.

But then also what Spencer Fano did on the field, it was, if not the best workout of Sunday, top two, top three. Not just the 40, which was great, 491, the vert was awesome. He had a 7343-3 cone, which is phenomenal. but then the onfield stuff was even better than that. They had him taking snaps, which is, I think, understandable. Teams want to see him do it just to see what it looks like. Teams are going to be all over the place with Fano. Is he a tackle?

Is he a guard? Is he a center? All I know is I want him on my team. This is a first round player. It's just a matter of feeling confident about where are you going to play him. Stealing these from our buddy Trevor Sycamah, who does wonderful work for PFF, they're great stats. but Spencer Fano, he measured in the third percentile among tackles for arm length and the 19th percentile among tackles for wingspan.

Francis Maui Noah, another highly regarded offensive tackle coming out of college, 18th percentile among tackles for arm length, 26th percentile wingspan among tackles. So, I mean, we've been talking about this all year, particularly as it pertains to Maui Noah. You got to get your arms around that. you got to decide if you're comfortable with it. I'm curious how Will Campbell affects these guys because, and the irony is, Will Campbell was perfectly good for the vast majority of his rookie season, but those flaws were laid bare in a big way in the postseason. And so our team's going to be willing to turn around and use a big time pick on a smaller offensive tackle or if they're viewed as a guard, how does that affect their stock? I think that's going to be very fun to see.

play out a couple a couple other numbers from these offensive line group um kaden proctor 32 and a half inch vert which i don't know but that might be the best vertical ever for a guy over 350 pounds um just an unreal no and it was kind of expected but still when you see it it's amazing that lower body power that he has is unbelievable um i think emmanuel pregnon having a 35 inch vert was big Brandon Thorne just texted me and said Parker Brailsford, 910 Broad might be the bad. He'd think that might be a record among centers, which is obviously saying something. Keelan Rutledge had a really good workout. He had the best short shot of all of any offensive linemen at 454, which is great to see.

And then a couple of other guys that really jumped out to me watching the positional workout. Sam Hesch, the center, Chase, Chase, Pesontas was awesome. Logan Jones for Iowa Center who you know we didn't see at the combat or at the senior bowl but had a good week here at the combine loamu was very good the other Utah tackle and then vanga Penn State who is one of the best players just full stop in this draft so I think everyone we expected to be good I think was pretty good a lot of these centers like this is not like an amazing center class I don't they're not might not be a center drafted top 75 this year but between 76 and 1.25, 130, we might see six or seven centers drafted.

So it's one of those center positions that we don't, there are center classes where it's not a, there isn't a first round guy. It might not even be a second round guy. But the depth of the position is really intriguing with those guys in that late day two, early day three range. And that doesn't even include Spencer Fano working out at center on Sunday afternoon. so I don't know. Maybe you have to update those rankings. For some teams, sure, it might be.

Really happy you mentioned my guy Byzantus. Demetrius crown over too. I'm weirdly invested in the A&M offensive line. I think they can play. Yeah. Trey Zune also had a good week. Yeah, this is a good offensive tackle class, I think. Or offensive line class, period.

Even if we're missing the Joe Alt at the top, I think it's still a really good group. I think that's what I want to impart to people over the next two months is like, yes, the top 15 is not the sexiest draft you're ever going to watch. But from there on out, I'm really excited about a lot of the players here. Like I think, I think Friday of this draft is going to be a hell of a lot of fun. No doubt. But until then, we got we got so much more to do. That does it for this week.

We've got a lot of free agency content coming your way as the week goes along. obviously with the league year starting free agency is going to dominate the next little bit. But Dana and I will be back next week. We got plenty to talk about pro days will be getting underway. We can revisit some guys that work out later. And we got a few more tricks up our sleeve. Until then, we appreciate y'all so much. We will talk to you soon.