The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Which Fringe Prospects Will SNEAK Into the First Round?

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

There's something soothing about finishing a mock draft...even a mock draft done by six different people. With just picks 26 through 32 remaining, EJ Snyder and Brett Kollmann join Robert Mays to discuss who might sneak into the first round. Who will the defending champ Seattle Seahawks add to their war chest? Who goes to the powerhouse Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, and...Miami Dolphins? The guys wrap our On the Clock series on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Host: Robert MaysGuests: EJ Snyder & Brett KollmannExecutive Producer: Michael BellerSenior Producer: Katy DuffySocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @RobertMaysTheme 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 the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. We're finishing off our on the clock series today. We've done five shows. The first round split into five parts, six picks, six picks, seven picks, seven picks, whatever it happens to be. We've had a guest on for each of those five shows, and the exercise has gone like this. I give them three options with each team, and they make the pick based on what they would do

if they were on the clock in that scenario. I've really enjoyed this. It's been fun getting everybody's perspective. We have picks 26. through 32 today. The Buffalo Bills through the Seattle Seahawks finishing off the first round of the draft here to help me work through those picks.

It is E.J. Snyder and Brett Coleman from the Bootleg Football Podcast. Two guys I have known for a very long time. Two guys, I'm very excited to have on this show. Really enjoyed this conversation. It was a fun one. These guys are just real dracicos. They are obsessed with this stuff.

I think they really liked digging into it. I really loved their insights on pretty much every single way that these teams could go with the different positions they might be weighing, the different considerations between guys at those positions. So really, really enjoyed this conversation. Wanted to mention, before we get into the show today, just a quick reminder, this Thursday on the Athletic Football Show,

YouTube channel, 7.30 p.m. Eastern, our live stream for round one of the 2026 NFL draft, one of my favorite nights of the entire year. We've now been doing it. This is our sixth one. 2021 was the first one we ever did. It was me and Nate in a hotel room in River North in Chicago with like three iPhones. One of them died during the recording.

It was just a complete mess. That thing went up on YouTube. You can go watch it. I mean, just what it looks like compared to what we're going to be doing in the studio this year is a vastly different world. I've loved it as a measure of how far the show has come and how much it's grown, but I also just love doing the show each year. This year, we are trotting out the same group we had last year plus Dave Helman. So we've got the guy, Dane Bruegler, for every single pick, live analysis for every single pick.

Bruce Feldman is going to join us again like he did last year, which was absolutely phenomenal. Derek Klaassen, Dave Hellman, and myself. That's night one, night two, we're doing the same thing all over again. Bruce is not going to be there, but we still got Dane, we still got Dave, we still got Derek, we will be giving you live reactions analysis for every single pick in rounds two and three. So put it on your calendar.

7.30 p.m. Eastern, the Athletic Football Show, YouTube channel. Every pick in the first round, live reaction and analysis with me, Dave, Bruce, and Derek. For now, let's get to the show with me, E.J. and Brett, breaking down picks 26 through 32 in the first round. Finishing out our on the clock series today with picks 26 through 32. I always enjoy finishing up these shows because at the end of it, you get a 32 pick mock draft. It looks like it was done with five different people and it goes in a bunch of different directions, but it's still a fun little reward waiting at the end of this exercise. Here to help me with the final seven picks of the first round.

The first time either of these guys have been on the show somehow, which it's a mistake on my end, but I'm very excited that it's finally able to make it happen. From the bootleg football podcast, it's Brett Coleman and EJ. Snyder. Gentlemen, how are you guys doing? We're doing great, man. And I want to thank you for having us on,

despite you being a road warrior this week, you know, try to do a podcast set up and a hotel room, across the country. I've lived that life before. Believe me, we know how hard that is. We appreciate you. I'm in an Airbnb in Palm Springs, and it has been a while

since I've had the internet connection that has forced me to be creative in the way that we're handling a podcast. That's why this episode is not on YouTube, a bunch of different things that you have to worry about when you're doing this stuff remotely. But Nine Inch Natchez-Neh-N-H-N-Hall

is playing at Coachella, and what am I supposed to do? I had to be here. You kind of have no choice here. Yeah, exactly. Your hands are tied. You need to go. But, Amanda's got to do

he's got to do. Yeah, I mean, you got to see that show. Very excited about having both of you. Everyone who's listened to the first four episodes of this, we know how it goes, right? So I'm going to give you guys three different options for each of these teams when they're on the clock. I want your choices to be what you would do in this scenario. And you guys do not have to come to a consensus opinion.

I actually think that's a more fun way to do this. If you disagree, that's the better way that this is going to go. I was talking to Brett a little bit yesterday about this. This stretch is fun because when you're getting. getting to the better teams in the league, the teams picking at the end of the first round, in theory, these are some of the teams with fewer glaring holes.

And so you could go in several different directions with this pick. And so I feel like I had a little bit of a hard time narrowing down the options for these. But I think that it's going to make it even more interesting. When you guys went through the first 25 picks, because I sent both of them to you, was there anybody among those picks, Brett, that you thought was either a surprising or, be you were a little bit disappointed because when you had thought about this range of the draft,

you had often paired that player with one of the teams that we were going to talk about. I found your 1415 of Vega Juana falling to the bucks, but more importantly, getting past Baltimore. I found that fascinating. And I understand, okay, Kenyon Sadeeks on the board, like, we love that. But Baltimore Ravens fans have gone through, let's just say, some trials and tribulations. with Daniel Fla Lele. And to have the potential solution on the board,

the first real solution they've had, like high-end solution they've had at the guard spot since like Yonda retired. And them going tight in. I found that fascinating. Yeah, I was also a little bit surprised by that one. I think, I'm curious what you think about this, E.J. Like the idea of Kenyon Sadiq in Baltimore,

I think it makes sense when you just consider it from like a macro perspective of if you look at what Deco and Doyle did and you look at the amount of 12 personnel and the fact that Durham Smyth is currently their number two tight end. He was literally the number three tight end on the team that Deco Doyle coached last year. So in your mind, it's like, well, he'll just bump down to be the number three tight end. And we need a number two guys like actually make this go. The Bears draft of Colson Loveland last year. But when you think about Kenney and Sadeek's skill set with Mark Andrews, like is either of them the type of inline tight end that would kind of be one of the pillars of that strategy?

Or do we feel like there might be a little bit of redundancy with those two guys if that was the way that Baltimore decided to go. Yeah, it's incredibly timely because I had volunteered a couple of weeks ago for an expert mock draft and they said, what pick do you want? And they gave me the options. And I said, oh, I'll take Ravens. Completely forgot about it because, yep, gestures at everything. And I got pinged last night and they're like, hey, you're up in that mock draft.

And I was like, oh, wait, oh, Ravens, okay. So he sends me the board just like you did. And both Sadiq and Juan Air on there. And I was like, oh, man, I want to go Sadiq so bad. But if I do it, I'm just going to hurt my own heart. So I pick, I pick Vega for for the Ravens. And, you know, in terms of Sadiq in a offense with Declad Doyle, if you can't fit Sadiq into your offense, I'm not really sure I want your offense because he's a better blocker than most people give him credit for. He bows up.

He gives a lot of effort. And these are similar conversations we had to Colson Love him last year. Everybody's like, oh, he's a great receiver. So he can't block. And I was like, he can block. Go watch the tape. It's not necessarily digging out defensive ends. but if you look at everybody says wide receiver for the ravens i get it but keny sadique brings you a lot of

that functionality in the same way that colson level and brought that functionality to ben declins saw all that and if he can't plug sadique into that offense and make it go i'm kind of i'm not looking at sadiq as the problem there you want i and sadeek at 14 is like you walk into a food court at lunch and in one spot you can get a salad and at one spot you can get a burger and the burger looks so good and it smells so good, but you know if you eat it, you're going to feel so sluggish and tired in like two hours and be unable to finish the day. And so the salad is not more appealing in the moment. But when you eat it, you know that it was the right choice like two hours afterward. That, that to me feels like the choice between like a sexy tight end and the best guard

in the draft at 14 if you're the Ravens. I love the analogy. A healthy salad and a salad covered with dressing that's actually way more calories than the burger would be. All these croutons all over it. Kenyon's a deed analogy, the fact that we're comparing a guard to a salad, not a burger, seems so wrong to me. That is true. That is insulting. All right.

Let's get to all, let's get to the picks here. Let's start with the Buffalo bills at 26. So with some of these guys, I'm going to open the door for you guys to at least fight for other players of the position because I just, that could be a flavor thing. And so we could talk through the different options at some of the positions specifically. but I think this is more about giving you the positions and then we can work through the players

specifically as we go through it. So for the bills at 26, option one is draft Malachi Lawrence from UCF. So the edge rusher bucket among all the guys that are available there. Dane gave Lawrence to them in his seven round mock. We can talk about the other potential edges here too because there are still a bunch of them available. Option two is draft Casey Concepcion from Texas A&M.

Again, there are other receivers here that we can discuss, but Concepcion getting to 26 here, the idea of him playing with Josh Allen, I don't know, it makes me tingly. I'm very excited about that, even after they traded for DJ Moore. Option three,

speaking of eating your vegetables, is actually draft Chase Besontas. Hmm. At 26, which I believe, I think somebody did this. I want to say maybe in France, seven round mock that he released today,

he did this, but I think I saw somebody put Bessontas to the, the bills at 26. Obviously, David Edwards moves on in free agency. This allows you to keep a strength to strength. And, you know, I think if you drop him in there and you can still really rely on that offensive line to be the engine of your team, that's at least a little bit appealing to me.

So that's what we got, Brett. We got draft Malachi Lawrence from UCF, draft Casey Concepcion or draft Chase Posontas, the guard from Texas A&M. You tell me what you are doing if you are the Buffalo Bills at 26. E.J, I don't know about you, but I'm between. Casey and Chase on this one. And it's not that like I'm anti-Maliki Lawrence. It's just if I was going to go edge,

there were other edges on the board that I'd probably be looking at for them. I'm looking at T.J. Parker. I was going to say, yeah. Maybe even Cassius Owl. Yeah, because I didn't have any of those players in my stack, Robert.

For the bills. Interesting. Who were the one? Who would be the top of the list for you? So guard? I would go guard. not center and I would make it a manual pregnon because I'm looking at the depth chart and Alec Anderson is there and Alec Anderson is not stopping me in any way from picking an Emanuel pregnon at DT McDonald I'm less hot on that pick at defensive end or edge Falk and Parker the power guys were the guys that you know Brett brought up and they were on my list as well

the possibility of inside linebacker but I don't love C.J. Allen enough to do it at this spot and then McNeil Warren because they could use some safety help too and he's still on the board so That was my stack, and it didn't include any of the three players that you brought up. So there you go. I'm thinking about McAnne for Big Nickel, too. That's, you know. And that was, so here's my thing with Lawrence. And if I were picking for the bills two years ago, I think Falk would have been the first name.

And T.J. Parker, those are the names that would have brought up. I'm just wondering, are we looking at a different flavor of past rusher here now that we have Jim Leonard in there versus what we've seen the bills do at that spot during the entire. Brandon Bean era just because we're moving to a different defense with potentially different priorities. I don't know Brett necessarily how to weigh that at this point. And so I think that's why I was more inclined to throw out a Lawrence versus a Celtric Falk who is exactly the player that I would have mentioned maybe along with T.J. Parker if we had done this exercise a year ago. I am. So part of the the Jim Leonard discussion is Jim is so good at manufacturing pressure even without having a quote unquote,

guy at edge. He throws all sorts of crazy pressures or even simulated pressures at you. He will kind of poke and prod throughout the game to understand, okay, if we show you this look, here's the protection we think we're going to get. He's very famous for how well he charts offenses for down and distance and field position. I trust him to get pass rush out of this group, even though they don't really have any great, like, pass rushers. They sure don't. So it's one of those where it's like, could they, you know, dip into the day two edge group here,

which there's a bunch of them and get similar production compared to what I think they could get out of the day two receivers or rather the flavor of day two receivers that are like Casey Concepcion, who, by the way, is like super billsy as a receiver. like E.J. and I have talked about this on our show. Like out of all the receivers in this class, Casey might be the most Bill Z one. Oh, boy, this is tough. Are we sure that's a good thing at this point? Yeah, fair.

Yeah. I do kind of like, I do kind of like Basantis just as out of these options. I like Basantas just because I'm really worried about the identity of this team shifting too much away from. We have a great offensive line. we run the ball well, you know, we're going to be the python, the boa constrictor. We're going to rely on Josh to make five plays for us a game. But the rest of it is just we're going to pound you into dust. I worry if they get away from that identity on offense, they don't really have the personnel to make other styles.

That's kind of why I like it. Because it just feels like they've done so many things early in the draft, especially in the first round, where they've had these like theoretical ideas for what those picks were going to be. And the past catchers are obviously the first place you point to with that where it's just like, we're going to draft Dalton Kincaid and we're going to play this like 11 and a half personnel. We're going to be this matchup nightmare. We're going to do this and we're going to do that. And we're going to draft Keon Coleman.

And even though he struggles against press coverage is like a true X receiver, we're still going to use him that way because he has the body type. And we're going to play this thing where everybody eats and we're going to have all these different kinds of guys. And it's just like, you know what, fuck this. Let's draft the guard who we can drop in the middle of this thing and just we know this is going to align with the way we've been and the way we want to be. And you never want to call any picks safe. But part of me just feels like this is one where you can pencil it in and just feel good about how it aligns.

And there's less guesswork involved with how this is supposed to fit into who you want to be as a team that a lot of the directions that this team has gone early in the draft over the last four or five years. Yeah. And you've got a rookie head coach who is an offensive mind. And that plays in like it played in with Ben last year. It plays in with Joe Brady this year. Yes, he's been with the Bills, but this is his first draft when he is the man. He is in charge. I mean, as much as you might believe that, Bean might say something different.

But I think it does matter. And same thing. If I'm going to walk away from day one of the draft as the Bills and sleep well, for me, it's Emmanuel Pregnon. I have him rated higher than Bessantes. He fits the tenor of this city, of this team. He's an absolute mauler. He's better in the past protection than people think he is.

He did not give up a lot of pressures at Oregon last year. And he is just an absolute piece of granted as a human being. Stood next to that guy twice now, the Oregon Pro Dan at the Combine. And there isn't, it's hard for me to think of anybody in this draft that's built better than him. Well, Bassanta is also a freak athlete. And while I think Pregnon is better right now, I could see the path where Basantis ends up being even better in the NFL just because he's so untapped, which unfortunately tends to happen with

ANM players these days where it's like they go to A&M and like you see the potential and you're like, why are they better in the NFL than when they're college? Why wasn't Texas A&M national champ last year? I mean, looking at all the talent. They're going to have like 14 guys drafted this year and it's like really? They didn't go

that far in the playoffs? All right. So yeah, we'll go besides this. I know some people say safe. I say practical. All right. I like it. as my full-throat support of it as I started talking myself into it more and more. Okay. You mentioned defensive tackle, I think is a position worth throwing out.

I think Dan Walker was promising as a rookie. They love him. Like, I mean, they loved him since day one. I think they really want him to work out and be a thing. And so I think he's going to give, get every opportunity to be a really important part of what they're doing. And they draft the T.J. Sanders in the second round last year.

I mean, you think about all the resources they threw at the interior defensive line. So in theory, will use another body. Do they do it early, I think is a worthwhile question. And then again, receiver, edge rusher. I'm with you a little bit, Brett, about the, it's the idea that they can manufacture pressure. That's always a little bit scary to me.

And I know my crack that I made is partly ingest. I know they signed Bradley Shub and Free Agency. I'm aware of that. I am aware that Bradley Shep is on the roster. Listen, that's a, I think they paid a healthy amount for him. I also think if he stays healthy, he can be an effective, useful player for them. I just think there are a lot of questions about. the first caveat associated with that all right so we have chase besotis to the bills at 26

the san francisco 49ers picking at 27 option one is draft caldric falk or your best available edge if it is not falk we can talk about that but again we get back to body types this one is like they drafted mccall williams last year let's go let's go with the other young long guy and just throw him into the mix you still have keanu white there but he's in the final year of his rookie deal Williams is coming off that torn ACL. And so you could absolutely make an argument that Edge is still a need for the Niners, even after drafting one in the first last year. Option two is draft Max Ahana Chor.

Trent Williams in the final year of his deal, you know, obviously a lot of smoke about that, $46 million cap at this year. They've got to find a successor at some point. And I feel like it's easier to do that a year early. This also seems like the draft where you may be able to do it just with the tackle options that might be on the board here. We can also talk about other tackle options. I think Blake Miller is probably the other guy that's still on the board here after the other, some of the ones that just went off, the show we did with Mike Reiner last week.

Option three, he's back, is draft KC. Concepcion. There's going to be guys. Yeah. There are going to be guys at this point that are going to sort of cascade until you pick him. It's like, well, he's an option. Didn't pick him. He's an option. Didn't pick him.

And that's going to happen for a bunch of guys here. It was funny. I know what I prefer, though, each. I mean, I, Robert, you know this better than almost anybody. Tackles don't hit free agency. It's actually kind of a miracle they got Trent in the first place. Well, they had to trade for him. Good tackles.

Yeah. They didn't have to trade a lot. And that's only just because of that. They still have to trade for him. And if there was a different owner of that franchise at that time, it probably wouldn't have happened in the first place. And the Niners never would have got Trent in the first place, which means their offense probably wouldn't have been as good, which means they probably wouldn't have

gone on these playoff runs to begin with. And I can count, actually, I can count on more than one hand the amount of games, especially big games over the last few years that I think Colton McKivitz has cost this team. Now, was he better in 2025? Sure. Do I care that much? Not really. And to your point, you also.

into Trent successor. And any, you're not going to get that Trent successor in free agency because good tackles don't hit free agency or very rarely hit free agency. I mean, Dan Moore got $20 million. What are we doing here? So, E.J, I don't know about you. I favor Yanichore here just because who better to learn under than Trent? He's still new to football and he's already this good.

Absolute freak of nature athlete. He's going to go in the first round. He's not getting past New England in my opinion anyway. So this is the perfect range for him. If McEvitz beats him out as a rookie, fine. That's cool with me. I really don't want to look at 2027 for this team, the future for this team, where we're potentially in a post-Trent world anyway,

and they have no answers on the roster. Yeah, I'm not a fan of that approach either. Unlike the bills, my Niners slate lined up pretty well with the guys you put out there, Robert. Miller and Ahanachore were the two tackles. If I have to choose between them, I'm choosing Max. You mentioned the two bigger edges, Falk and Parker. Again, looking at the roster,

this was where I got one of those sort of, oh, huh, moments with a fit that I hadn't had previously, and that's why I love doing these exercises. I think Cassius Howell here is a consideration. Like, if a team knew how to use him, and some of these teams wouldn't because of type or their defensive coordinator or whatever. He doesn't fit in every system.

None of the edges do this year, really. I was like, oh, I really like a Honnatured here for all the reasons we said. And I would probably lean that way because they do not come available, but neither do premium pass rushers. And if you believe, if John Lynch believes that Cassius Howl is a guy that can get him

consistent pressure off the edge, and he's demonstrated that in college. Like, if they're comfortable with the person and the player, I could see him being a sort of either or here. If it's me, I'd probably take Max because I like him as a player better. I think the raw label has been misapplied. Whenever you have a young athletic tackle who hasn't been in the sport a long time, they go, oh, he's raw.

I'm looking at his tape going, look at the top pass rushers again. The age argument is one of my least favorite because I don't know about you guys, but I wasn't aware that if you're starting a 24-year-old player in college, the rule is that the opponent has to start an 18-year-old. I wasn't aware of that, that there was nobody on their side that was 24 or 25 that's been there the same amount of time, that they're also going to turn into chop liver. So anyways, Hanachor, super high-end ceiling, and yes, you are getting to the brink here. And I don't want to get to the brink and then be forced to make a move.

I would rather have a max Ahanachor who's been in the system for a year and is ready. Maybe wins the job as a rookie outright. that would also be great. But he's nowhere near his ceiling, but he's also not raw. He is technically proficient right now and getting better, and that's a scary thought. They paid McKivitts, and I assume that they're committed to him, at least in the near term, right? But this is a scenario where, again, you're getting a year ahead of it. There is no guarantee that Trent doesn't miss time based on how the last couple of years have gone,

the fact that he's getting a little bit older. So I think the worst case scenario here is you have a swing tackle you feel good about. They sign a radarian low and free agency. And so you have a swing tackle you feel potentially much better about. And every argument we've used about a Hanachore going to a place like Philly, right, where he gets to sit and learn for a year. The same would be true in a place like San Francisco. And so I think a lot of the benefits there are the same they would be in any other scenario

where he kind of default red shirts for a year. So I agree. And the Cash's Health thing is interesting because I feel like you can go one of two ways with like an edge you can suggest for the night. You can go with some of the types that they've done before, right? Like last year with McKell Williams, or you can say, we already have a McKell Williams at home. And so why wouldn't we go with somebody who has a little bit more juice as the third person

in that edge rush rotation, especially as you just lost Bryce Huff to free agency, it was kind of like a DPR type for you. And so I think there are two different thoughts you could apply to what type of edge rush or the Niners might want in a scenario like this. But I think I'm with you guys. I don't think they'll do this, by the way. because I think that they'll do the thing that is fun and appealing and will make them better right now.

And so the idea of them drafting a receiver, I think is more likely than it is them eating their vegetables and taking Max a Honachore in the first round. But we're the ones doing the exercise or you guys are. And so I do think this is a very reasonable place to land with the Honichur going to the Niners. We know that Kyle has a soft spot for receivers. Like he, when he can't remember who it was.

It's like first round receivers and fourth round running back. I can't remember who it was. I think it was Ian Hartett's the other day, joked that I'd like to see, and then he listed off all the receivers in the draft, and then it said in a Shanahan system. And my response, I was going to quote tweet it and say,

Kyle might take all of them in the first round. He might take all 15 receivers in the first round. Yes. Listen, they still need one. Christian Kirk's on a one-year deal. Like it's them. We joke about it. If they drafted a receiver,

they had Concepcion and on a visit this week. If they drafted a receiver in the first round, I wouldn't even blink at it based on their history and based on the way the roster is constructed. But again, I think you can make a really serious argument that it's time. Like we've talked about it for a while when they're going to do this with the tackle. But the way that this lines up, I think you can make a very serious argument that now is the time.

I think you could also make a serious argument that Brandon Iuk, nuking the deal to new England ended up hurting the Niners way more than they ever thought it would. Absolutely. I mean, we don't talk about that that often. When we think about the sliding doors moments with the Niners, obviously you think about the Trey Lance stuff and you think about some of the injuries that impacted maybe some of the two or three year team building plans they might have had, we don't really think about the fact that they had at his best.

what? Top 10 receiver in the league based on how he was playing in 2023 and you just remove from the equation and now they have to figure it out again and they're still like a top 10 offense. It's just all the times where shit like this has happened to this team is absolutely wild. Take our first quick break and then come back and chat a little bit about

the Houston Texans at 28. All right, I'm glad I did this. I had four options for the Texans. Option one was draft Chase Posontas if he's available. He is no longer available. Now we're down to three options. Option two, which has become option one for the Houston Texans, is draft your right tackle choice. That was going to be Max Ahanichor or Blake Miller.

Now it's probably just Blake Miller. They would save about $2 million if they move on from Braden Smith after this year. So it's not prohibitive by any stretch to do that. I also think there is a world where you could play Braden Smith at guard if you had to. And so I think they're still in a spot, Houston and Brett, you have a better insight, more insight on this than I do probably. But I think they're still in a spot where you could argue they're in let's find our best five mode,

whoever that best five happens to be. So right tackle of choice, probably Blake Miller in this spot is option one. Option two is draft Caden McDonald's from Ohio State. We can talk about other defensive linemen here. If you guys like another one better than that, we could talk about the edges here too.

This is one of those where defense to tackle is probably a bigger need right now than edge, but they still need a third edge rusher, and this might be the spot to find one. They also have picked 38, 59, and 69 in this draft. And so how they handle that stuff positionally is going to be interesting.

Like the idea of them getting Zion Young at 38 and not going edge here. Like that is a scenario you could easily see play out something like that. And so I didn't feel as compelled to put edge rusher as one of the options. So draft Cade McDonald's option two. We can talk through that.

As I'd say that. But now draft Caldric Falk are your best available edge is option three. I forgot that that all my caveats with the Cade McDonald thing was if we had included Bessontas and we didn't. So draft Kedrick Falk are your best available edges option three. So we've got right tackle of choice,

draft Cade McDonald, or draft Keldrick Falk as your three options for the Texans. E.J., what are you doing here? Well, Bissontas was also my top option. Again, off the board. Defensive tackle I did list. I know Brett doesn't love McDonald's, so I put McDonald's on there just to kind of needle him a little bit. I saw him wince. I saw him wince when I mentioned McDonald. We can talk about the other defensive tackles here if that makes you feel better, Brett.

No, here's the thing is I love Caden MacDonald. I just know that the Texans are going to draft not Caden McDonald because they want somebody who can be both a three or do like the two-eye, you know, no shade stuff because they move guys all over the place. I love Cade McDonnell. They want somebody who I think is more role versatile, which the wince is just me acknowledging that it's just not going to happen

even though I love the player. Go ahead, say his name, say the other one. it's Kristen Miller there you go it's Kristen Miller that's that's press the button they could be a bank's team but I the medicals I'm not here

can I throw one out at both of you guys because this is this is something the Texans always tend to do like at least one thing during the draft that like nobody sees coming they are weird they are a weirdly weird drafting team like a surprisingly weird drafting team that we don't talk about that much but then you you check

why they did something or oh that actually makes perfect sense do people realize that after this season they have four linebackers whose contracts are aspiring? I was going to throw that out as a potential option off ball linebacker. Do you think if you were the Texans

that would be one of the top three or four that you'd be thinking about here? I just know D'Amico and he's going to watch Jacob Rodriguez and say, oh man, that's my guy. That's my guy. and I think that they are going to retain Aziz because Aziz is going to be 30

or yeah I think he's turning 30 this season but Jake Hansen has one year left on his deal Toa Toa has one year left on his deal like basically the entire linebacking court including Aziz has one year left and they got to figure out giving Will Anderson like equity in the team because that's what's going to cost to retain him

we don't know Jay Stroud but we know what the going rate for quarterbacks is whether or not he's worthy of that money. I don't really think that matters anymore. The Nico Collins extension was kind of a baby extension. That was a three-year deal. So that's coming sooner than you think. Stingley was the same way.

That was a three-year extension. That's probably going to have to be done in a year or two. So, you know, Daniel Hunter just keeps getting these one-year top-of-market extensions over and over and over again. They have a lot of money in this team. Lassar's going to have to get paid. Bullock's going to have to get paid. I don't think that they're going to pay more than one linebacker.

And so Jacob Rodriguez, who very easily could start for this team anyway, even over Tooto. I was going to say that. I don't know if Henry Tooto, even this year, is preventing you from picking a linebacker here if you loved one. Not really. And I would be totally cool with handing the green dot over to him from Aziz. You know, and I don't know what Demico loves Aziz, but like we got some hard decisions to make. And I could see them doing that and then hitting DT on day two. EJ, I'm going to, how do you feel about this?

Would you be comfortable with Jacob Rodriguez being the solution here? The only reason I'm going to let you guys hijack the exercise this way is because Bessontas wasn't available. And so we already started in a weird spot with the Texans. If you feel good about Jacob Rodriguez, I will allow you to step outside of the parameters here and put Jacob Rodriguez on the Texans. I'm feeling generous. A, I love the leeway.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It's a wonderful professional courtesy. I love the idea of if I love Jacob Rodriguez. It's like his favorite player in the draft. He's literally my draft crush. It's one of the first guys I ever mentioned on our show back in November. Weirdly enough, this is just an odd one.

I'm on the field at the Combine, and I try and stay out of everybody's way because it's a job interview. Like this is possibly one of the most important days of their life. So I'm just around the edges. I'm just observing and moving. and, you know, I'm not interacting with guys for the most part, unless I already know them or I'd talk to them, and then, you know, maybe I met him at Shrine or something,

and I'll say hi, and that's it. I'm walking around the end of the day, and the linebackers are doing agility drills after everything else. So most people have left, cameras are off, and, you know, Jacob Rodriguez is there, and he's cheering all his guys on in his group, and he's hilarious dude. And he's walking between drills,

and he just literally walks up to me and goes, hey, I'm Jacob. And I was like, huh? I'm E.J. Snyder. I'm for bootleg football. And I said, strangely enough, I did a thing on you in November. And he just starts talking to me like, I'm his buddy. And great guy.

And, hey, I was super surprised because on the field, he's mean. And that is complimentary. He wants to hit you. And off field, couldn't be a nicer guy, whatever. But I said this to Brett immediately after, I said, man, if that guy ends up in Navy and Orange, I'm going to lose it. Like he would be so perfect the bears. But the problem is he went out and ran times right then at the 11th hour

that completely put him out of their range because I think 25's a little early. You know, but I would have no problem, especially with Domeco, because this is going to be catnip for Domingo. He's going to look at Jacob Rodriguez, the person, the player, the leader, the turnover machine, seven force fumbles, four interceptions just last season, 70 stops for him in 14 games. That's an average of five a game. He had one game with eight.

That's more than some guys get in half a season. Like this is a explosive defensive player who is also a great leader and a great person. Yeah, I can see Domeico going, I like my Blake Millers. I love my Jacob Rodriguez's. I really haven't thought about linebacker as like a thing that could even further accelerate the Texans defense. But when you just think about the unit overall, we think about like, where are the spots? We're like, oh, we can get a little bit better here. And maybe that gives it a slightly different feel.

like linebacker is one of those spots and so you guys have talked me into this i'm allowing it to happen jacob rodriguez to the texans at 28 uh as part of our final on the clock show here let's get to the kansas city chiefs at 29 a bit of context they took caleb downs earlier in this exercise which um was a fun pick i i think that again when we do it this way where the person on the other side gets to do the selecting sometimes you're going to have options or choices that are maybe a little bit different than what the consensus has been as we're trying to pair players with teams and what they would do. And so Caleb Downs went to the Chiefs at 9.

I believe it was Jordan Reed who was on that show. So your three options for the Kansas City Chiefs at number 29. Option A is draft Danzo Boston or draft Casey Concepcion if he's available. That response is exactly what I thought and felt the first time I thought about Denzo Boston on the Chiefs after watching him. The first thing I did after watching him was like, that's it. Like all I wanted them do in free agency was sign Joanne Jennings or sign Mike Evans or just do something to get them like a big bodied receiver. And so I have thought about this a lot and that's why I'm putting it out there.

Denzel Boston to Kansas City at 29. Option two is draft T.J. Parker. After not going edge at 9, potentially going edge here at 29. We can also talk through the other edges available here if you guys want to. But let's put T.J. Parker in there for now. option three is sign chris johnson you traded away one of your corners you let another one go in free agency so chris johnson at corner is option three we can also talk right tackle here if you guys want to as a potential option obviously j one more there now but um it's on the final year of his deal first

round picks is where you often find those players do they use one of them on a right tackle the future even if it's not as glaring of a need so three options for the chiefs draft denzil boston draft tj j park Drift Chris Johnson. Brett, what do you got for me? So I understand, again, we think about drafting the salad. But boy, I want putteen. And Denzel Boston would just be a delicious, delicious, delicious poutine. That does sound really good right now.

Jay, talk me out of this because I know what I want to do. I don't know if I can because this one, Robert, we see exactly the same. literally my list, Boston or Concepcion. Defensive Edge would be Parker or Falk and in that order. I also put Cassius Howell here as an edge if they want more of a fireballer, but Chris Johnson is my other favorite son in this draft so I can see the fit really well. But the Denzel Boston thing specifically in terms of Pat being back and having that type of receiver on the boundary.

And I know a lot of people have said things about Denzel Boston in terms of what he can't do. And I'm like, you got to go back to the film and watch what he can do because he does a lot of things at a high level. He is not a one-trick pony. He is not complete. I don't think any receiver in this draft is truly complete, even all the way up to the top with Carnell Tate, right? But Boston is and has been for all the guys that are worried about breakout age and production and whatever, he has been the guy. They focused on it. Everybody knew he was the guy. He still had production. Side note on Boston, I was at the UW Pro Day and I believe that NFL Films was doing little documentaries on four different players.

And I happened to know somebody that knew the producer that was doing it. I said, who is this? And he said, oh, that's Rachel. You should go meet her. She's great. And so I went up and introduced myself. And I just took the opportunity to say, oh, have you been following Denzel the whole time or have you rotated to some of the other players?

And they said, no. Basically since right after the season ended, we've done, you know, almost four weeks with Denzel Boston following family and workouts and everything else. I was like, oh, how's he been? You know, always a good question to ask. And she raved about him, said he is the light in every room that he walks into. Doesn't matter if it's his high school locker room. Doesn't matter if it's his family's living room.

It doesn't matter if it's his locker room at you dub. He has been up and down the board just an ideal guy, which kind of makes him, I don't know, anti-chiefs. I know some chiefs fans are going to get mad about that. Yeah. But in terms of a fit on the football field, I think he is more versatile than a lot of people give him credit for. And he is very, very good at being that dominant.

outside X, throw it up when you need it, third and seven. And the chiefs haven't necessarily had that. They've had it sometimes when Rice is on the field, but that hasn't been a count on. And, look, Boston comes in and provides that for them. And I think potentially complimentary players. I think, again, like, it's funny because Rice kind of, when Rice came into the draft, it felt like he might be that guy.

And then they just never used him that way. That was never what he was in the NFL. It was just like, very few times was there a bigger game. And again, I don't do this the way that you guys do, but very few times over the last five or so years, what I say there was a bigger gap between NFL deployment and what I thought a player would be coming into the league, than what Rishi Rice has been for the Kansas City Chiefs during his time there. 100%. It was a hard right. So I love the idea that they are complimentary because I believe they are. And it's also therefore something that chiefs have been missing. We thought they were going to get it with Rice.

They kind of got it in a different way, but that sort of need is still there. and you can literally just drop Denzel Boston in there and kind of, I think we're all just shuddering at the thought. I'm so glad that you guys support this because as soon as I thought about it for the first time, I was just completely obsessed with it and to see other people often or see to see other people also have it hit their brains in a way that's pleasing really does make me happy. So let's do that. You're talking about that lead up to the draft, EJ is funny.

I haven't thought about this in a long time, but the story that like essentially started my career. Somehow when I was 21, I convinced Jeremy McClain to let me follow him around for four months before the draft. And so I like, was at all of his workouts. I was like with his family, like in those few months. I vividly remember, uh, it was 2009 and American Idol was still big then. And they're during, they did like a Michael Jackson night on American Idol.

And I remember being in Jeremy's apartment with him and Sean Weatherspoon watching the Michael Jackson night episode of American Idol. And so I just spent like those months with Jeremy Macklin. Like he just let me hang out with him. And I wrote this huge story about it. And I think in part because of that experience, but also just because we don't, I don't do this nearly often enough.

Like this is such an incredible moment in these guys' lives to like to build to this place and have your life changed forever. And I always was so interested in that period. And so when I was writing more, I wrote a pre-draft profile of a guy. every single year. I spent time with Danny Shelton one year. I spent time with Layton Van derrash one year.

I spent time with Brandon Cooks one year. And it really is just such a cool time. And so the idea that NFL films would just be like following Denzo Boston around and be like, we're going to chronicle these few months. And at the end of it, it's going to be this really cool moment.

I don't often think enough about how much I appreciate that process for these guys because it is really fucking cool. Yeah, it's a three-month whirlwind, sometimes more than three months. you know, if guys shut it down early or if they play for a team that only plays 12 college games, sometimes they start in like November. But for a lot of guys, especially now, like some of them don't even really start their process

until the last week at January, you know, when they're done with the Natty. Like all the Indiana guys, they basically went straight from the Natty to like All-Star games and Combine Prep and, you know, it's been an actual whirlwind for them the entire time. And it's a blur. You know, anytime I've ever talked to a prospect about like what they're going to, going through in this time. Like, they can't even remember what day it is. And it's like that for two and a half months straight.

They're truly all the same. There's no difference between the days. And it's like they all blend together. You're on a plane going to all these visits. It's like it is a crazy, crazy time. And I was there on draft day. I mean, I'll never forget it. I was there during 2009 draft.

I was there in his, he had kind of an adoptive family that he lived with in St. Louis. And I was there on draft day and like watching him fall a little bit. and just like seeing that process and just like it was a crazy crazy experience and so it is often important and i don't do it nearly often enough to kind of re-center the human aspect of like what this looks like for these guys and uh again i think that as we play like let's put our gm our gm hats on and like the way that we do and we like to do sometimes that gets missed and i think it's important to kind of re-centered that as often as we can well you were there on draft

night when a receiver went to an andy reed team and you probably told him like hey man you went to Andy, you're going to be fine. Same thing with Denzel Boston. You went to Andy. You're going to be all right. That's exactly. That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

Bring it all back around. All right. Let's take one more quick break here and then come back and chat about our last three teams. The Miami Dolphins at 30 are a hard team to do this for because even after taking Spencer Fano with their first first round pick in this exercise, they have needs at every position. So you could go any direction that you want here. At the same time, I still feel pretty good about these three options based on how the board has fallen and who's left.

Option one, he's back. Draft Casey Concepcion if he's available. Told you. And honestly, if you're Miami, and we can talk through this, the idea that there are a lot of people like, I will throw McCoy Lemon to them at 11. If you can come back after drafting Spencer Final at 11 and Casey Concepcion is here at 30, I think you'd feel pretty darn good about that outcome if you were the dolphins. And so him being here at 30, we can talk through that.

option two is draft t j parker we can talk about the other option at edge here too but edge is a screaming massive need for this team like go go look at the dolphins current edge depth shirt other than shop robinson go go take a look at it and see where we're at right now they absolutely need some bodies there not an uche fan come on listen i i we all had our moment where we were excited about josh uce's career but right now i'm not sure he would be a week one starter for you you were doing it the right way. Option three, you're the Miami Dolphins, is draft Chris Johnson, the quarterback.

So those are your three options if you're Miami. Draft Casey Concepcion, draft T.J. Parker slash other edges we can talk about. Or draft Chris Johnson. Brett, what are you doing if you're Miami? You've clearly watched a lot of Jeff Halfley, the fact that you put Chris Johnson there. Because you're like, okay, can I find an off-zone corner with incredible ball skills and production and instincts

and just plop him into a system that's just going to let him do that every single play. Boy, what a fit. I do have a higher grade on Colton Hood, but as far as fit, like Chris Johnson fits better. But at the same time,

I know that this team wants to draft size. Like, they want to get bigger. They want to get stronger. Like, that's been their mantra the entire off season. You know, John Eric Sullivan had that, quote that I love and I really do think that he's going to live by it, which is strong, doesn't get weak, but fast gets slow.

They want strength. They want power, which would be T.J. Parker. But at the same time, how do you feel about Tutu Atwell and Jalen Tolbert being their week one star as a receiver? That's what I said at the beginning. I mean, it's just like, so many positions you could make an argument that this is the way that they should go. I think early on in a rebuild, my mind always just defaults to like, let's just take the trench players.

Let's just take the trench players. Like if we can go any single direction, let's just take the trench players. But I also really like Casey Concepcio. And I feel like him as like the first receiver that you want to build that room around because you don't have much working right now. I also compared him Jalen Waddle. When I was watching him, I was like he kind of moves like Jalen Waddle. He's a little bigger. He's not quite as fast.

But I could see the deployment in the NFL like the right deployment being similar to how a team used Jalen Waddle. And so just drafting him with the pick that you got in trading for Jalen Waddle, there's almost like a weird symmetry there that I appreciate. So I understand all of the arguments here. And I think there's a compelling one for pretty much every single one of them. E.J., where's your head out right now with this? It lines up pretty well.

But you said trench player, and I got to remind you, they already took one. So we've already eaten the vegetables. One of my favorites, Jensufon. Listen, this team is at a nutrient deficit, my friend. You can have it two straight meals. It is acceptable. Yeah, no, but they, like you said, they can eat in any of these other categories. And honestly, the first reaction for me here with the dolphins is the board lined up well because we have so many needs.

And there are great players at every piece. Love Concepcion, love the fit, like you, I compared him to Waddle. Love Chris Johnson, love the fit, already talked about the player. This would be one of the better situations to drop. him into and we talk about situation being so important for rookie success. Chris Johnson would be a natural here. T.J. Parker, sure, he's got power. They need it badly. I'm going to throw a curveball in. Quick, name the starting safeties for the dolphins. I dare you. Oh, God. I think Dantia. Trader is one of them. Is it Lani Johnson there right now?

Yeah, we did it. You two might be the only ones. Who could possibly do that ever? I could ask 15 other people today. They wouldn't get one. You got both. Nice job, fellas. I can't describe to you how just warped my brain is. The way that I do that, by the way, is that I literally picture the R-Lads page.

I could tell you where Lonnie Johnson's name is on the R-Lads page, like how far down it is. I think it's in all caps. Is it all caps? So you're McVeigh. Yeah, you have an idetic memory, but just. depth charts. That's it. That's truly it. It's the one thing I can remember that way. So you're the McVevee of depth charts. Let's just let's narrow it down. Terrifying. It's terrifying. Yeah. Do either of those safeties going back to Brett's quote about size

keep you from drafting Emmanuel McNeill Warren, who's on the board here? I was going to potentially throw him out as an option. So I don't hate this at all. Yeah, you don't have a bad option with the dolphins, right? You need receiver, Concepcion. Great fit. Awesome players. You need corner. Chris Johnson. Great fit. Awesome player. You need safety badly. Manuel McNeill Warren. Great fit. Awesome player. It reminds me, quite frankly, of several Green Bay safeties, except maybe a little bit bigger, which is kind of scary. And T.J. Parker, you couldn't go wrong, but I think he probably comes in forth in this conversation for me because of price of those positions outside of safety. Certainly wide receiver and corner are more expensive or as expensive

as edge. And I think they're better players, right? I think Chris Johnson is a better corner than T.J. Parker is an edge. I think Concepcion is a better wide receiver than T.J. Parker is an edge. Magnet Warner better safety, safety, a less important position. But also, just talent-wise, I have him ranked above all of those guys. Yeah. So in terms of like, just like in general consensus, if we have needs everywhere and we're just

literally taking the best player where we can plug him in. and he's going to give this impact, you know, that would be purely BPA would be McNeil Warren for me. Let me play devil's advocate. This draft, as far as I understand it, there's some depth at safety. I may or may not have thought about this as a team, I got the roots for a team that needs a safety

and has two second round picks. So if there is a little bit more depth at safety in this draft, and I think that even if you like some of the day two receivers, they are all like notably flawed in some way, perform in a way that I don't think Casey Concepcion is. And so I think the drop off from Concepcion to the receiver options after him and the drop

off from McNeil Warren to the safety options after him, there is a bigger gap for Concepcion in the field than there is its safety, correct? And so that to me is neither another argument for one in Casey Concepcion here versus an Emmanuel McNeil Warren. Yeah, I think you're correct. And I think it's a similar drop after Chris Johnson. Like there's other corners I like, but Chris Johnson is easily one of the top four corners in this draft for me. But again, it's do you want your quarterback who you just paid a bunch of money to succeed?

Like Chris Johnson's not going to help him as much as Casey Concepcion is on the field. So that piece of the political piece of team building of, hey, what do we want to do and what do we really believe about Malik? Are we going to push the pedal of the floor and stack the board for him? If so, I think it stacks Concepcion. Chris Johnson, Manuel McNeill Warren, and then T.J. Parker as sort of a distant fourth.

You feel good about that, bro? I'm cool with Casey here. Yeah, I'm cool with Casey here. Plus, he gives me special teams values one of the best punt returners in college football. Like, just watch the LSU game. He absolutely destroyed them on special teams.

It's one of those things. I think sometimes we can get a little bit too enamored with how guys move in the punt return game as a way to extrapolate what they can do in other areas. But if you want to see, like, what Casey Concepcion looks like with the ball in his hands, in the open field, the vision,

the part return stuff is where it really does shine through. You also see it elsewhere. It's not just there. Like, it does translate to what he looks like on offense, but the part return stuff is absolutely beautiful. The one name that we did not mention at all, and I was going to kind of throw him out there as like other side of the coin guy to T.J. Parker.

What do we think about Keldrick Falk here as a potential option if I had thrown him out instead of Parker? Is that more attractive to you, Brett, than a T.J. Parker would be for the Dolphins or less? I would say it's roughly the same as far as like what they bring at the table right now. I think Parker is higher upside as a pass rusher, but I also acknowledge like he's not there yet. And Falk, same thing. Like great run defender immediately, not there as a pass rusher.

Like we're still, we're still counting on chop either way to be the guy. And if you're looking at how Halfley ran that defense in Green Bay, he wasn't getting a whole lot. of pass rush out of anybody other than Micah. And so on third down, because he didn't just want Micah to live in Chip City every single third down, he would line him up over the center and basically say like, okay, we're going to, we're going to do stunts, Micah, just go find a seam and mess stuff up. And I feel like he's going to do the same thing with Chop. He's like, I'm not going to have Chop, just get chipped all day.

So I think he's going to deploy him very similar to that on Third Down. and I think the complementary edge to chop we can find on day two in this class possibly easier than we could find anything that's analogous to KC. So I understand from that point. Again, McDill-Warrant, I think, is the best player. But as far as like who's going to help this team the most right now,

it's probably KC. When I was a kid and used to go shopping with my dad and like, you know, we get like go to like a hardware store or whatever. Like things you need to fix the house. And inevitably there was like one thing in the whole store that like a five year old would want. Be like, oh, can I can I get this? That's what Casey Concepcion is after drafting Spencer Fano. Like he's like the toy that you get in the aisle as you walk out if you're John Eric Sullivan at the end of the trip to the hardware store.

Like that that's what we're doing here for the Miami Dolphins. And so I support that. Let's get to the Patriots at 31. Okay. Option one. draft Blake Miller. It was going to be Miller or Ahanachor. Hanachar off the board.

So Blake Miller, the right tackle from Clemson. He is option one here for New England. Option two. I think you'll like this because you've been trying to push him on me the entire show. Is draft Cash's Howl. Oh. Interesting. Going away from like the more, the longer edges here for New England just because after signing Draymond Jones and free agency,

I'm thinking about complimentary skill sets. Like what do they need? They need juice. and so Howell to me felt like the edge that might make the most sense for them compared to some of the other options. Option three was going to be draft Jacob Rodriguez. I'm open to other offball linebacker options here, but because you guys f*** up my thing, we don't have an option three for the New England Patriots. It's what we do. Who would you want here if I could give you a third option?

Because again, because you guys have hijacked my show, now I have to let you hijack it even more and off. for your own third suggestion for New England. I mean, is it crazy to say McNeil Warren? And have him... What's the buyer deal? Is it only one year? Yeah, I think it is. I think it's too officially, but it's a really won.

And it would be smart to be one. They really like Craig Woodson and rightfully so. He played tremendously for them last year. Oh, it's a one year deal for Byard, up to one year seven million, up to nine. So it's only a one year deal for Byard. So that's what you're thinking about. I should have looked that up before we started. Can I interest you in Colton Hood being the future Carlton Davis?

I'm going to throw a wilder wild card in there, and it completely depends on medicals, and it's just kind of one of those at this point of the draft. So Miller is definitely the tackle I had on there. The edges I went for the bigger, longer, stronger one, because Rable likes big dudes. So that's your combo platter of Falk. T.J. Parker's eye on Young is starting to come into the picture. this point. Defensive tackle is still a need for me, specifically in the middle. And I'm going to throw Caleb Banks out there because at this point, if they're comfortable with a foot, we're

literally talking about pick 31 here. He is the most talented, big nose in this, you know, and he's more than just a nose, but that's why he is number one. The problem is two foot injuries within the last year for a guy that weighs 3.30. A lot of teams are very scared about that. Some teams have him off the board because of it. But again, if the Patriots look at him and go, now we're good with the foot. We're going to drop that guy in the middle. Right now it's Joshua Farmer, a player I like and is serviceable for nose tackle. You don't have to pay him a lot.

He's going to do his role. He's not Caleb Banks. So you're thinking about him being the Kirstanga replacement. So when they go into their odd stuff, it's Milton Banks, Barmore, and they just absolutely annihilate everybody. Yeah. If he is back to full strength, the idea of him, Roe's, in that line in almost any position.

I mean, the interior position for sure because of his size, but like it's terrifying. If you have Barmer and Williams and Banks as you're like starting three, get out of here. Because even the run pluggers among that defensive tackle group that are still available, like the Kristen Millers and guys like that, those are not like suited to be the nose tackles that you're talking about, right, Brett?

And so that even the skill set replacement is there, the body type replacement for, a Tonga might not be. I mean, I look at Caden McDonald is like, okay, if we want a nose you think he can meet that type of player, okay. I think Caden would be my nose over banks, especially

because there's less medical stuff here, and he's just better at that role. So if Caden's my nose, Milton and Barmore are still my ends, and let's be realistic when they're in nickel, Caden's off the field and it's just Barmore and Milton anyway, because Milton is a great two-eye and Barmore also could play two-eye, but he's

devastating as a three. but when we go into our odd front stuff, we have Caden, Milton, Barmore, you're not running the ball at all on that. So we're just going to get to third and long, which means we're going to be a nickel anyway, which means we're going to have, you know, Milton and Barmore both at three,

and they're just going to tee off on whatever your worst guard is. Boy, I would consider Caden here, just to get us into those third and longs. I think that's totally fair. Yeah, he's my backup, if they're not. happy with the bank's injury, Caden is the next guy in line. The idea of who is,

before you mentioned his name, Brett, that was the first place of my mind when is Carish Tango is no longer there. And so wanting to have that role within the defense. If Cade McDonald's our answer there, let's do that.

So, three options. Draft Blake Miller, draft Cache's Howl, or draft Caden McDonald, what are you doing if you're the Patriots? I'm good with any of those each. I'm going to lean Miller. like Morgan Moses has been working on duct tape and bailing wire for a while so I'm not sure it's going to hold up one more year.

It's a tough league. It's a long season. He's an absolute warrior, no doubt about it. But are you counting on that? And if you don't, don't love it. We're in the Marcus Bryant territory. So if you're not a big Marcus Brian believer, Blake Miller, a ton of starts in the ACC, very athletic for his size, you know, very experienced is going to be a player that could. is he going to win the job over a healthy Morgan Moses?

No, is he completely ready if Morgan Moses gets so much as a hangnail? Yes. I think it's a smart. Russell sprouts here. I think it's a smart way for them to go. I think that, again, you talk about where Morgan Moses is and just like needing to make sure you're fortifying that offensive while moving forward. I think that's a totally fair argument. Okay.

So Blake Miller going to the Patriots at 31. Last one here. The Seattle Seahawks at 32. option one is draft colton hood Chris Johnson's also available here we can talk through that Dane had Colton hood going to the Seahawks in his mock and so I was like all right if Dane thinks that might make sense for them here

let's let's throw Colton hood out as an option option two is just draft your best available edge rusher you know this is a team that is comfortable with a lot of different skill sets they go a lot of different directions here the guy they lose is mafay and so do they want somebody that maybe brings that compared to some of the other bigger-bodied guys that they have. So just option two, wide open, draft your best available by Drusher. Option three was going to be draft Chase Posontas.

Option three is now, and I'm throwing this out for a specific reason, and it's because we were talking about it with Dane and Brandon Thorner earlier this week. And at his pro day, and throughout this process, he's been taking snaps, and that's Keelan Rutledge from Georgia Tech. And so the idea that he could play guard or center for you potentially is why I'm going to throw Rutledge in there as the third option. So for Seattle, option one, draft Colton Hood. Option two, draft your best available edge rusher.

Option three is draft Keywood, which is the interior offensive linemen? E.J., what are you doing? I love all three of those options. I really do. I think Colton Hood is a hand-in-glove fit. I completely understand, again, living up here in the Northwest, why Dane would have put him in the mock.

He is the style that they want on one edge of that defense to lock guys down, be super physical, and he would fit their group of absolute assassins in the secondary hand-gloom, no problem with that. In terms of Keelan Rutledge, it's fascinating because Brett famously fell out of his chair during an earlier mock draft. Was that this week?

And it was in... All the days blur together, I know, they all blurt together, especially when you hit your head on the desk. No, anyways, it was in reaction to the Seahawks in that draft. we hadn't made pick 32, so we were asking who did they pick. And Trev and Connor let us know that they picked Manuel Pregnon. And Brett celebrated heartily and fell out of his chair. And I was sharing that moment with a fellow Seattle journalist.

And he said, I like it, but I would like it even better if it was Routledge. So that's a fascinating, just local connection. And I love the versatility and just the meanness. He's going to start, well, he's going to compete. There are a lot of folks in the Northwest. So he'll say, Anthony Bradford got better. And he did. but he's also public enemy number one.

That's the two sides of the coin up here. And, you know, Kieland Rutledge would be in competition. And I think probably win the right guard spot. And hey, if your center, if Sundale goes down, you can slide him over. Again, they've got Oluolo there. But it gives you flexibility, and that's never a bad thing on the offensive line. So I love both Hood and Rutledge. For Edge, I think this one's interesting because there's a player on the board here who we had DJ on earlier this week.

And he was talking about having a guy in the room that can really set the example, whether it's the same type of player or not, of just how to do it. And it's Tank Lawrence, right? If you sit Keldrick Falk behind Tank Lawrence, like big athletic, you know, not necessarily fully formed edge, that's Tank Lawrence. And Tank Lawrence has figured it out.

Like he has that dialed. And you put Keldrick Falk behind him and say, do what that guy does. No matter what it is, do what that guy does. That's a great fit for them. So again, it's kind of like the dolphins. I wouldn't be sad with any of these. who am I choosing?

Just for pure selfishness sake, it's hood. Like, I want to see hood in that defense. It's already mean. You throw him in there. It just gets meaner. I like the idea of hood here just because we know Spoon's going to get a big deal.

And that just gives us a five-year runway that kind of offsets the Witherspoon money. And I look at like the day two guards. Obviously, there's a bunch of day two and day three centers in this class. but the day two guards that they can try to pull from late in the second round. Like I could see them being like a Jalen Farmer team. I could see them being like a Bo Stevens team. I could even see them being like a Jennings Dunker team if they trade up in the second

and convert him from tackle into guard. So I think that there's more options for them at the interior offensive line. And there's definitely more options for them at edge and defensive line on day two. They are not going to get anything approximating Colton. Hood on day two. So I'm good with that. If you bring Colton Hood in and you want to maximize, right now, the only move they made in free agency at corner is no iguanogamy.

That's it. And so if you want to make sure you're maximizing flexibility after losing Tarika 1 and free agency, going out and getting that outside corner that lets you use spoon in all the ways that you want to, you don't have that guy right now. And so I think it makes all the sense in the world to potentially seek that out. And if you can get one, if they had back half of the first try, I think you have to feel pretty good about it. All right.

So we got Colton Hood going to Seattle with our 32nd and final pick of our 2026 on the clock exercise. So let's go through this. Buffalo Bill is at 26. You know what? We're going through the whole thing. Okay. Let's do that. From 1 to 32.

First overall, Fernando Mendoza goes to the Las Vegas Raiders. Second overall, Ruben Bain to the New York Jets. Third, sunny styles to the Arizona Cardinals. Fourth, Arvel Reese to the Tennessee Titans. Fifth, Francis Maui Noah to the New York Giants. Sixth, Carnell Tate to the Cleveland Browns. Those were Trevor Sikkimau, by the way. Seventh, Jordan Reed making the picks here.

Jeremiah Love going to the Washington commanders. Eighth, David Bailey going to the New Orleans Saints. Ninth, Caleb Downs going to Kansas City Chiefs. 10th, Monsor Delane going to the Cincinnati Bengals. 11th, Spencer Fano to the Miami Dolphins. 12th Dylan Thinaman going to the Dallas Cowboys. 13, this is Lance Zerline's stretch of the proceedings. Mackay Lemon going to the Los Angeles Rams.

Kenyon Sadiq going to the Baltimore Ravens at 14. At 15, Vega, Juane goes to the Tampa Bay Bucks. At 16, Jordan Tyson to the Jets. 17, Caden Proctor to the Lions. 18, Jermad McCoy to the Vikings. Mike Runner on the clock, 19 for the Panthers. Omar Cooper Jr. at 20, Avian Terrell goes to the Dallas Cowboys.

At 21, Ty Simpson goes to the Pittsburgh Steelers. At 22, Peter Woods going to the Los Angeles Chargers. 23, Monroe Freeling to the Eagles. 24, Caleb Lomu to the Browns. And at 25, Akeem Mesidor to the Chicago Bears. And then today, we got Chase Posontas, the guard, going to the bills at 26. Max Ahana Chor at tackle, going to the Niners at 27. at 28, the Houston

Texas picked Jacob Rodriguez, I was strong-armed. At 29, Denzel Boston, going to the Kansas City Chiefs. 30, Casey Concepcion to the Miami Dolphins. 31, Blake Miller to the Patriots, and 32, Colton Hood goes to the Seattle Seahawks. How do you think we did? Boy, Steelers fans in your comments are going to have a ball. I'll say that.

I don't know if that part of the mock has gone live yet, but. Oh, it's that. Oh, it's there. It's up. It's going to be fun. It has happened. It's going to be fun. Listen, I support everything Mike said as part of that conversation.

I understand how he got there and he was the one in the chair. So that's a lot to happen. I support everything Mike said in that conversation. What I feel about taking Ty Simpson in the first round? I'd feel pretty mixed about it is how I'd feel. But I'm not the one making the picks. I can easily distance myself from it. That's right.

Prediction was he doesn't go in the top 45. that wouldn't surprise me yeah so we said boldish because we all realized things that we wrote down two weeks ago are now less bold as often happens in the draft but you said at the top robert that it's going to feel like it was done by five different people well i got another one for you every NFL draft is done by like 32 different guys officially but more like 300 so it can very much end up looking like a restaurant that was designed by a burger king of pizza hut and a white castle architect like you just it does not come to together very well. I love me. I talk about Burger King or a taco about Pizza Hut. So I'm a big, big fan of being able to knock out a couple different things at one stop. And that's what we are able to do today. Gentlemen, sincerely appreciate the time. Please tell the people where they can check out the excellent draft work that both of you were doing. Yeah, you can find that over on the bootleg football podcast channel over on YouTube or we also distribute the show and audio, but the majority of our audience is on YouTube. And we do a stream every single day.

of the draft. We cover every single pick live. We don't take any breaks because we're kind of insane about it on draft week. And we are bad at planning. And so we're like, let's just do it straight through like 18 hours in all three days, no breaks. Surely nothing bad can go. Nothing bad can happen. We also do our stream the day before the draft. Drafts receives where everybody comes by and they give their hot takes for the draft. We just, well, by the time this show goes live, it will be out already. We launched a show with Daniel Jeremiah talking. through like team building philosophy and like macro stuff surrounding the draft. And then our last episode of the Blue Chip Committee,

which is our collaboration with Trev and Connor from the NFL Stock Exchange. That also is probably live by the time this show goes out. So lots to watch and listen to over on the Boot League Football Podcast channel. Amazing. Love it. Appreciate your guys this time. I know it's a busy stretch of the calendar. So thanks for hopping on. Appreciate everyone for listening.

We will be back tomorrow. with one of our last pre-draft podcasts. Tomorrow I'm really excited about tomorrow's show. Me and Barnwell are going to dig into all of the conventional wisdom that we consistently hear when it comes to running back value. Is it real? Is it not? Are we wrong?

What have we been parroting for the last five years that we shouldn't be anymore? What has changed? So I think there's been so much discussion about this. And I've been very open to the idea that, some of my positions on this are lightly held, and I'm ready and open to getting my mind changed. And so we're going to hit this in as many different ways as we possibly can. And I'm very excited about having that conversation with him.

So that is coming your guys away tomorrow. For now, this is all we've got. Appreciate you listening. We'll talk to you very soon. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating. We'll see you next time.