The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Which second-year player will become an x factor in 2026?

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

We know it's not very humble to say, "I told you so." But...we told you so! At this time last year, we highlighted Cole Bishop and Kris Jenkins - among others - as potential x-factors. And for better or worse, both Bishop and Jenkins were x-factors during the 2025 season. So, we're running it back. Robert Mays, Dave Helman, and Derrik Klassen bring you 15 more players that could be x-factors for their teams in 2026.0:00 Welcome to the show2:21 Vita Vea & Jalen Carter news15:00 Jared Wilson18:30 Will Campbell21:21 Barrett Carter & Demetrius Knight28:52 Anthony Belton34:54 Terrance Ferguson40:35 Matthew Golden47:11 Travis Hunter51:25 Tyleik Williams55:05 Tate Ratledge59:45 TJ Sanders1:00:12 Pat Bryant1:00:38 Lathan Ransom1:02:50 Donovan Ezeiruaku1:03:32 Several 49ersJoin The Athletic Football Show Discord Server: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowHost: Robert MaysCo-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave HelmanExecutive Producer: Michael BellerSenior Producer: Katy DuffySocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @RobertMaysFollow Dave on X: @DaveHelman_Theme 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. Did this show last summer during training camp, early in training camp. I really enjoyed it. We're running it back. Second year X-factors for teams around the NFL, guys that either need to take a step forward in their second season after what they were as a rookie, guys that we were excited about, that maybe even have a more prominent role heading into year two.

We talked about almost a dozen guys on this show that for whatever reason, they could swing the unit that they're a part of this season in a manner that's really important for some of these teams. We talked about first round picks, second round picks. Guys drafted a little bit deeper into last year's draft. Really enjoyed digging into this conversation with Dave and Derek. Let's get to it right now. We spend so much time each year fixating on the rookies and what they're going to do.

And then we have an entire rookie class that I just don't think we spend enough time considering each offseason. heading into their second year. We did the show last year, and I really liked it. I thought it was a good way to think about second year players, certain units, how they'll affect them. And so we're going to run it back this season. Today we're going to talk about some second year guys that we feel like are X factors for

their given position group, they're given side of the ball, and their given team heading into year two. So I enjoyed this conversation a year ago. I think that some of the outcomes actually did determine how some of those units felt, Derek. and I think we have a chance to kind of feel that way again with a lot of the players that we're going to talk about today. I think absolutely. Like I remember,

I want to say last year we brought up Cole Bishop and that ended up being a player who like turned it on down the stretch for the bills last year. Chris Jenkins didn't become that guy. I think you felt that for the Bengals defense. Yeah, and they maintained being one of the worst defenses in the entire league because again, their front,

like the linebacker play was bad, but the front was not helping them and that definitely hurt. So I feel like you have a good. play today. Don't worry about it. I feel like in this group I have a good mix of like some big fish. Some players I think are good, but maybe can take the next step. And then some players that I don't think are good and need to take the next step where their unit is like completely doomed.

Before we dig into those guys, we do have some news that we wanted to hit off the top of the show. David, it's been a big day, a big 24 hours for defensive tackles around the NFL stealing the headlines. Yesterday we get Vita Vaya requesting a trade from the bucks, frustrated with the state of his contract negotiations with them. Understandably so, on the eve of Jalen Carter breaking the defensive tackle market and getting $38 million a year with $106 million guaranteed on his extension, where do you want to start the day in defensive tackle news that we've had over the last 24 hours

or so? I don't really think Vita Vaya needed to know about the Jalen Carter news to be frustrated and probably put a call into the Bucks front office. but I wouldn't be surprised if that had leaked through agent and player back channels. And he was like, enough is enough because Vita Vaya officially makes less than half of the top of the interior defensive line market, which say what you will about Vita. He's he's an older player. I think he's 31 or 32. I'm not saying he should be paid at the top of the defensive tackle market.

But it just speaks to how this position has exploded in the last, I would say, two. years to where a guy of his ability is making $17, $18 million, and now you've got Jalen Carter at 38. And the Jeffrey Simmons deal is worth mentioning as well because that happened during the slower part of the offseason. But I think NFL teams are identifying these sorts of players and what they can mean. I mean, Robert, it was a week ago, you were talking to Clayton Adams and he was talking about building your team from the inside out. He thinks is the most efficient way to win a championships in 2026. I think NFL teams are identifying that in these rare sorts of players who can do that.

Jalen Carter, when he's healthy, is that caliber of player. And, you know, this seems like a vote of confidence from the Eagles in the health of his shoulders if you're willing to pay him this sort of deal. But I can't say I'm terribly surprised when you see the effect that these sorts of guys can have on game plans and on teams. The fact that it hadn't happened yet and that there was some. back and forth because Jordan Davis did get paid. Jordan Davis was the first one of those guys to get paid.

And, I mean, there was chatter this off season. Like, do the Eagles want to give him this sort of contract? Is he somebody that might be available via trade for the right price? And so to see him get this number and reset the market in more than one way, which we can talk about, that was my first thought, Dave, is that the Eagles are clearly comfortable with where he's at physically if they're going to give him this sort of deal, which is exciting. Like, watching him last year was a bummer. you have this guy who was a dominant force for stretches when they won the Super Bowl

and that Bears game just sticks in my mind where you're watching him play and he's like he's clearly not right. There's something going on right now. And so for the Eagles to commit to him in this way, I think speaks to how comfortable they are with the health stuff. And if you look at the number, so the defense of tackle market was interesting because you had two guys over the last decade that were in their own zip code in terms of how they were getting paid at that position, Aaron Donald and then Chris Jones, even the

Jeffrey Simmons contract, even if the AAV quote unquote reset the position, if you look at it as a percentage of the cap, it was actually considerably less than what Chris Jones got on his most recent extension. But this deal for Jalen Carter from both a pure average annual value perspective and percentage of the cap now resets the market for real. Like this actually tops the contract that Chris Jones got. And Derek, I think really for the first time, becomes a step in the direction of the gap between the top edge rushers and the top defensive tackles, not only shrinking for one outlier player in the way that it has at the position over the last 10 years.

This is an actual resetting of the market for more than one guy that we're not treating as an anomaly. Yeah, and I think we've already been heading there, but I think obviously seeing what the Seahawks did last year where you could argue that like two of the five best players on the roster are the two defensive tackles that they're playing. And when the Eagles won the Super Bowl. And when the Eagles won the exactly.

The last two teams that have done it are teams that have had stars at defensive tackle and also been deep at defensive tackle in a lot of ways. And so these teams being clearly ones. And I think I'm glad you brought up the health thing because I think with Jalen Carter, it's very easy for when the contract gets like stalled out to be like, oh, remember some of the pre-draft stuff and all that jazz. But like I really do feel like him like both of his shoulders having issues. it does feel like they were taking as much time in the offseason being like getting as much information as what that means long term,

trying to see where he's going to be at heading into camp. Like it does feel like in hindsight, that was all it was. And so again, I'm glad to see a player like him back on a defense that I've said it before. They might be the best defense in the league if things break right for them. I just really love that the Eagles continue to buck conventional roster building trends. Because for most NFL teams, when you do the Jordan Davis deal, it sends out a signal where it's like, whoa, maybe there's not money in the banana stand for Jalen Carter after all. And the Eagles just say, bet, no, we got it.

Like, we're paying two D-Tackles. There's always money in the Eagles banana stand. When you have mob accountants, there's always money available somewhere. They do this all the time. Like, they did it with, they did it with AJ and Devante. They've got two tackles making crazy money. They've just signed two D-Tackles. I would imagine they're going to do something similar with,

Quineon Mitchell and Cooper de Gene when the time comes to extend those guys. Like the typical logic of roster building just doesn't seem to apply to the Philadelphia Eagles. And I admire it deeply. We'll see what happens with the Vida Valleza stuff. I can understand him being frustrated because like you said, Dave, even without the Jalen Carter contract, he's still making half of what Jeffrey Simmons makes. And I understand they play different positions.

And I understand that Vidavera is in his age 31 season. But you look at some of the moves that teams have made for bigger body, players, which that is part of the reservation I think I would have if I were the bucks or anybody else. These guys that are 330, 340, how are they ultimately going to age? But Dexter Lawrence got a $28 million a year extension this offseason if it was only for one year. And the guy that I would say, if I were Vita Vaya's people, who I'd be pointing to as somebody that kept getting paid even as he went into his 30s as a defensive tackle, is Cam Hayward. And I think Cam Hayward has played at a higher level than Vita Vita Vaya has, even as he's gotten a little bit deeper into his career. But

I think Vita Valle, if you know, look at the pass rush numbers last year, he was a man alone in terms of how he was affecting the quarterback from that position specifically. It's still not on the same level as the Jeffrey Simmons Jalen Carter types and how they can affect the game. But I still think as both a run defender and is kind of a unique pass rushing entity in the league, Derek, Vita Vaya would have some real value to a team. I just don't know what the trade compensation would or should look like if you were in the market for his services. I don't know either, especially given his age, but I do feel like he's in a good position to be fighting against Tampa for his value there because the Todd Bulls defense does not work if Vidavea is not there. Like they are a we're load in the box, we're defending the run on first down.

This thing needs to work. If you pull Vita Vaya out of that group, I just don't really see how you accomplish that. So he's in a pretty like powerful bargaining position, I feel. If Dexter Lawrence is worth the 10th overall pick, second and change for Vita Vaya, Dave? that's what I said yesterday. Yeah, like, and I think our buddy Ben Solac said he heard something like a two and a five or like a two and throw something into sweeten the deal. I lean more toward what Derek is saying, though, in the sense that, I mean, we just outlined where defensive tackle salaries have been going and what Vita Vaya has meant to the Buccaneers defense over his time there. This is not a guess.

The bucks are not surprised that Vita is dissatisfied with his contract. Like this didn't catch them off guard. Like, you know, I know that's shocking that the very, very good detackle who's entering the end of his deal and is paid less than half of the market might not be satisfied with that. My question now is like, yeah, is it like, is it worth getting the trade compensation if you're a team that is trying to get over the hump? I mean, we just talked about the bucks, Todd Bulls in particular, as a team and a coach. with a lot at stake. Like, what are you accomplishing by trading Vita Vio away? And the other news coming out of Tampa today from the wonderful beatwriters down there is that it's over with Baker Mayfield as far as preseason negotiations. Like, it sounds like he's going to play out this deal and

they'll figure it out depending on how the year goes. So if you're no longer worried about making that make sense right now, maybe you just do some sort of extension with Vita and kind of sweep this under the rug before the season starts. I don't think that would be terribly surprising. Go the other way on it. I think because you're not sure what the quarterback situation is going to look like, you're actually set up to kind of reset this thing and get a little bit younger next year and maintain a bunch of flexibility if you want to.

Because we talked about this when we were talking about Todd Bowles. I think that Jason Light and Todd Bowles are in different positions right now. I think Jason Light is probably in a spot where if he wanted to say, hey, we're not going to over-extend ourselves here. Like, we aren't at a point where we should be leveraging our future to maximize this year based on the current roster. I mean, you look at how young they are at some of these positions, even in positions of strength.

Like, their offensive line is a lot of guys that are under 30. Their secondary is completely reset with young players. They've got a decent amount of young guys on the defensive line now after kind of resetting that group and drafting a couple of guys there. I think that this team is potentially in a place to have a decent amount. have a soft reset after this season if things don't go well. And if you start committing big, big money to 31-year-old defensive tackles, that gets harder to do.

Does it cut your legs off from under you a little bit for this year? Maybe. But I don't think Jason Light necessarily needs to be in a position where he's saying, I have to do everything I can to maximize the 2026 season. I don't think he's in that sort of spot. The other part, and I completely hear where you're coming from, and I guess maybe something that could be coloring the buck's decision making is, they know everything you just said and are taking it into account.

And everything we just said about Vita, remember if a team wants to trade for him, so let's just say it's a two and a five, you're giving that up and then paying Vita a contract that's going to make him happy in his age 31 season. And mind you, we're on the cusp of the season. Like the draft is done.

Teams have addressed this in the ways that they feel comfortable doing so. I know trades happen in the preseason on a somewhat regular basis. I'm not saying it's impossible, but maybe the Bucks did some calculus there and said, ah, we feel good about being able to retain this guy because there just might not be that much demand for a 31-year-old defensive tackle. And if there is, then we'll get something for it. $17 million-dollar-based salary, which like you just said, teams, they're accounting and their finances and how they were going to account, like allocate those resources.

That's pretty much done. And so that's a lot of money to take on at this stage if you were trying to trade for a player that you weren't planning on having. And so it does seem like he'll probably stay in Tampa this year, even if they, if they figure out a contractor, they don't. But I can understand from his perspective, why he's frustrated, I can also understand from the Buck's perspective saying, we'll wait to see what sort of market emerges for you. Because I wonder at this stage who can actually absorb something like that. If you guys want to, like Dave alluded to talk to the Baker Mayfield situation, he's not going to get that extension heading into the season. We talked a lot about Baker

Mayfield on yesterday's most at stake show. Everything. thing said on that show, Holtz. He didn't get the deal. And so now he's probably going to be a free agent. And so I think you can make an argument that it's even more true now that Baker's not going to get that deal that he maybe has more a stake than anybody in the NFL this year. So go check out that discussion if you want some Baker Mayfield thoughts as we as that, we get

some clarity on what that contract situation looks like. All right, let's get into this. Let's talk about some second year X factor players. Derek, I'm curious who you want to start with. Who's the first guy on your list that you wanted to break down among the second year guys? Like I said, I've got a good mix of players here, but I want to talk about a player that I think is good and I'm excited to talk about him. And that's Jared Wilson of the New England Patriots, moving from Guard to Center. Now, I think with some of these players, the uncertainty is like, can they play?

I don't really think there's uncertainty there with Jared Wilson. He was really good last year at Guard. And I think good in a lot of ways. Like, I don't think that he's a like Mall you just come. completely move you off the ball sort of player. But he has NFL strength. He moves exceptionally well, I think, at the second level. And I think when you watch his eyes, like in pass protection,

he does such a good job of just always being aware of stuff. Like if somebody is sitting in front of him in like a mug look, like a linebacker and drops out, he's immediately like eyes to the next guy and looking to help. Or if he's just doing like an easy double team with the center, he's always eyes outside making sure that if somebody loops back in, he's ready to help. Like he just does a really good job of always finding.

work, which is why I kind of believe that him moving to center, where a big part of that is like, it is mental, it is your eyes, it is being able to move in space. I think he's going to handle that. I just think that this New England system in the way that the offensive line is going to have to work, I think if he's an upgrade even over what Garrett Bradbury was from them last year being just like a solid functional center, I do think that that can kind of like turbocharge a little bit what this offense looks like. You're saying that he's not like a mover type of play? Well, he was a center, right? I mean, he has a center body. That's the position he was supposed to play.

But he's still so much bigger than Garrett Bradbury was that you are getting bigger at the position by moving him over to center. And that offensive line in general, you know, we're going to talk so much about how reshape that receiver core is with Romeo Dobbs in there now, with A.J. Brown in there now. They're going to have two, at least two new starters along the offensive line when it comes to the position those guys are going to be playing. And then if Morgan Moses gets hurt at any point or gets dinged up, Caleb Lone was sitting there. And so there is a decent chance. We see three new guys and three new spots for New England's offensive line this year. And I just think for a team that went to the Super Bowl last year and won the AFC,

there are so many new considerations about what the personnel is going to look like on that offense. And Jared Wilson is a very good example of it. And I think too, now an interesting part of, and I think that they'll be able to handle this, by the way, but mentally you're going into now a Josh McDaniels offense, which asks a lot of players. and you have a third year quarterback and a second year center. And I think part of the value in having Garrett Bradbury last year, even if he's not, you know, like doing everything for the quarterback or whatever,

just having a veteran at that spot helps you. And so I do now, I think that's really the only question I have here. Like in terms of the physical, can he move? Can he play the position? Can he do all these blocks? I have zero questions about Jared Wilson. It's about what is it going to look like mentally in a very taxing offense. And so, again, I think he's going to handle it.

But I do think that that is a slight change from what we got from last year. offense potentially. That's a quarterback show, baby. It is. He does a lot of it. That's year three, that's, I think that's,

there's, it's less to worry about in this offense than it might be in others because this is really one of the last systems where the quarterback is in charge of everything. It's all on the quarterback. He gets to make every check, every, every point,

all of that stuff. And so the quarterback going from year two to year three and year one to year two of this system, I think this is one of the rare cases in the NFL right now where the center actually gets a lot taken off of. his mental plate and in this specific scenario i think that's a good thing probably wouldn't have started here with my guys but i'll just throw it in here because all of a sudden i'm a lot more hype about the patriots ecosystem than i might have been just

hearing the totality of derrick just outlined that really excellently you remember that kaleb loamu is there and can potentially play some sort of role even if he's not a starter And then a guy that I wanted to highlight is Will Campbell. I know that's an obvious place to go because he was a top five pick. But and Derek, you can vouch for this. I was pretty down on my guy Will as a prospect going into the NFL. I do think people have course corrected to just thinking he's a trash football player. And I think that's that's a little extreme.

It's a classic case of when a team makes a deep run in the playoffs and like screw it up, the only thing that you remember is them screwing it up in the playout. Like the Texans, like all, all anybody remembers is what C.J. Stride did in the playoffs. All anybody remembers is what Will Campbell and Drake May did in the playoffs. Will Campbell surrendered per PFF, 42% of his pressures on the year and four of the nine sacks that he allowed on the year in those playoff games. That's obviously a problem, but we talked about it on a previous show. You were going against Houston, Denver, and Seattle. And by the way, Will Campbell sprained his MCL in like,

December, it was bad enough to go on IR and all of that happens coming off of an injury. He's got a lot of room to grow. I'm not saying he's going to be an all pro in year two, but I think the backlash is a little intense relative to what his rookie season actually looked like. And Patriot fans should have optimism that he's going to be a much better year two player, especially with AVT there. And if Jared Wilson plays the way you're outlining that he could at guard, I mean, you should be optimistic that this could be a pretty kickass offensive line across the board.

Almost thought about Will Campbell as is one of the guys I wanted to talk about. But again, as a top five pick, it's like I kind of want to talk about some guys that maybe, or we didn't talk as much about, but he's a good choice. Like how he plays this year and whether it looks like an improvement from last year or whether it looks like an extension of the playoffs, that could be the thing that swings how good the Patriots offense feels this season. So I'm totally on board with that. I think it's a really good thing to bring up.

We add, it's one of the reasons I kind of love modern sports media is that there are so many people who can kind of add to the discourse in a positive way. It also exists on the other side, more often than not. But when the Will Campbell stuff was happening in the playoffs, you'd so many guys who played offensive line in the league get into the conversation about what actually was going on. They're like, this is not an arm-length thing. This is a technique thing.

These are things that he just needs to clean up. And so whether he can clean some of that stuff up coming into this season healthy, I think it's a really good thing to point out, Dave. So I'm glad that you mentioned him. Let's talk about the guy I sort of alluded to at the beginning. I'm going with, you pick your Bengals second year linebacker. I'll go with Demetrius Knight because he was the higher drafted player. But there's justifiably, I think people are looking at all the moves that Bengals made this

offseason, Dexter Lawrence, multiple big free agent acquisitions, and saying, all right, here we go. Like, it is time for this group to take a step forward. And I think that there's reason to believe that can happen. DJ Turner played really well last year at corner. You know, Dax Hill had been moved around a ton, but I think him staying healthy and kind of settling into that outside corner spot along with adding Brian Cook, all the things they did along the defensive line.

There's plenty of reason to believe that this group will be significantly better than it was a year ago. If the linebacker play from both of those guys does, not take a step forward. And it looks close to what it did last year, even marginally close to what it did last year, Derek. That could be enough to sink this unit when it comes to them actually achieving what their goals are for this year. We could be sitting there in December and January if the Bengals on a last play schedule sneak into the playoffs and be saying these teams are just going to pick on those players. Like when you get to the big games, when you get to January, your weaknesses are as important as your strengths. And I think that,

is the position group on this team where they did nothing to upgrade at this offseason. They're rolling with those guys again. And what their development looks like, in my opinion, is going to go a long way and determining how we feel about this group overall when we get to the most important stretches of the season. It will. Because like you said, the secondary, I think is talented and you can just tell yourself the story that if the front is better, that's going to help them play better.

And I think it's easy to tell yourself the story that the front is going to be better because they've added a bunch of different pieces. But the linebacker core, like it's, they're running it back with. these two young guys. And like, I think I would probably lean more towards pinning this on Demetrius Knight needing to take a step. I don't, I don't think I would say that Barrett Carter was good last year, but I did like a little bit of like a rookie review. He was like a replacement level linebacker, which given that nobody else on the defense was that good, that was like, it still looks pretty bad. But he at least like gives you some functional snaps, I think,

especially in run defense right now. Demetrius Knight, it just head was spinning. I thought in almost every way. He looked a little bit better down the stretch, but very clearly a player, I think, early on, that unless he was able to wield his physical tools immediately and, like, in a very streamlined way, like, they're sending him on blitzes or they're putting him on the edge to set the edge, or they're putting him in like a choke front in front of the tight end and just like jamming him up the seam, he kind of struggled a little bit, but you just hope that year two in the same system. Obviously now playing behind a front that should make the reeds a little bit cleaner for him, because I'll say that for him too, like him and Carter sometimes maybe not confident in what they're triggering on.

Well, yeah, like I don't think they could trust that the guys in front of them were necessarily going to be where they needed to be. And so if that can get a little bit better, you can sell yourself the story that those guys might take a step. Love you framing it that way. I was going back, I went back and watched some games in the second half of the season this morning because my, at the exact same thought. I was like, how much better was it down the stretch? Did we see some steps from him? The answer is sort of not really. I'm going back and watching the Bill's game, which is in the second half,

half of the season and you see him just again feeling a little bit unsettled and there was one play that sticks out and it's exactly what you're talking about where he is responsible for the playside B gap where there's and there's a nose to his side in the A gap the nose gets moved so much that where the A and B gap actually are becomes so muddy that it's hard for him to know exactly where he's supposed to fill and so he picks the wrong one James Cook hits it into the B gap it's like a 10-yard game it's like yes, the linebacker makes the wrong decision on that play. That's not the gap he's responsible for, but the gap he is responsible for ceased to exist

because of what happened to the defensive tackle on that play. And so it all plays into each other, but at the end of the day, I think it's still pretty safe to say that those two guys need to be better than they were last year for us to feel good about where the Bengals defense is by the end of this season. Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter are the essence of what makes training camp content so good or preseason content so good because you could come down on it on the side of well the Bengals added so much to their defense they brought in Dexter Lawrence they signed Brian Cook boy a mafei they upgraded everything in front of them and I think it's worth arguing they

upgraded the stuff behind them I mean hopefully with better secondary play mistakes that your linebackers make might not be amplified like maybe you give up a 12 yard explosive instead of a 65-yard touchdown with better safety play behind you. And you say, that's the whole reason Brian Cook is there, by the way. Is to turn the 12-yard gains into six-yard gains.

It's so, but so it's perfectly understandable if you're like, we just need these two guys to raise their level of play with a better cast around them. And we think that they can do that. And clearly the Bengals do because they did nothing at linebacker. They're just going with these guys.

Al Golden was speaking very compliment of them sometime within the last week. Or on the flip side, you could say the Bengals did nothing to one of the worst linebacker rooms in the NFL last year. What the hell are we doing? And somebody has to be right. I can't wait to find out who, but they were on my list as well. In fairness to both of those guys, this is a famously difficult position to play early

in your career. Like the development curve and just a learning curve at that spot specifically for young players is famously high, is famously hard. So them looking like more put together, settled versions of themselves this year, I'm not ruling that out whatsoever, but I think that happening is really important overall for this Spangles defense. Do you think if they're just guys and not special is that good enough? Great.

I think that's good enough. Yes. Just stop ruining guys. this this to me is far is far more about the floor than it is the ceiling like this is solely about the floor if you can get to a certain acceptable level of play at that position and again if if we get we've done a lot of this over the last couple days but i i think it can be useful framing if we get to a place where this is a playoff team they're playing against who do i want to piss off by saying they're going to be a playoff team they're playing against the chiefs on wildcard

weekend, right? Let's just throw that out there. Is Andy Reid and that offensive staff going into that first day of meetings being like 44 is circled? Like that is the guy I am circling. If that's not happening, win. That's like a perfectly fine place to land if you're the Bengals defense. I've been trying to figure out who's going to be mad that I put the chiefs in the playoffs over some other team. I feel like on either end of saying stuff on the chiefs you're going to make people mad. That's right. I feel like it was the safest choice. All right, let's take our first quick break and then come back and talk about a few more of these guys.

All right, Derek, you're up again, buddy. Who is the second player on your second year players list that you wanted to talk about? So I'm going to go more in the direction, kind of like you just did with the Bengals guys, of a player who I think struggled a little bit last year and I think really needs to step up. And that's going to be Anthony Belton of the Green Bay Packers.

He played, he was natively a tackle in college and then ended up playing guard for them last year. And where I want to give him a little bit of grace, I think he started in week 13 or maybe 12 was his first start. They were like not repping him at guard. He like walked into that week and started at guard. And so like he, I don't think was really ready for it. And I think you clearly saw that.

And he did look a little bit later. He looked a little bit better later in the season. Just eyes got a little bit cleaner. You could see in the run game, he was a little bit smoother. But I think generally when you watch him, part of why he had to move from tackle to guard, or at least I think a lot of people thought he was going to coming out of college. He's a bigger guy.

You see some of the heavy feet issues. Some of the hands are a little bit wide in the run game. And he doesn't always, he's not able to like really bend at the hips and the knees and really get under people. And so he's got this size and the strength, but isn't always able to weaponize it. And so I just think that there's a lot of little mechanical things that he needs to iron out in his game to really weaponize what he has in terms of

strength and power. And I think, again, for a Green Bay offensive line that was not that good last year and is mostly running it back outside of just shuffling a couple of the guys around, a player like him really needs to step up, I think. And I think another point in his defense, I'm pretty sure that Sean Ryan was playing for a couple games at center before Anthony Belton got put into the starting lineup, but it wasn't a lot of games. Like Sean Ryan was still pretty new to being their starting center when Anthony Belton got put in there. Belton's first game, I think, might have been the Detroit game. And I think Sean Ryan had played a couple games before that.

And so you've got an entire new interior, including a center who hasn't taken a lot of live reps at that position in the NFL. So there was just a lot of change midstream for that unit. Derek, you and I talked about this group when we were going over the supporting casts. And I will fully admit that I probably waved it away a little bit too quickly just because we have so much evidence. And this is where offensive line rankings

and how you feel about offensive lines is difficult. I was talking to Brandon Thorne a lot about this over the last couple weeks. He put out his all 32 ranking on establish the run, which he does every single year. And it's weighted toward pass protection and it's supposed to be like scheme agnostic. Like if we just try to remove

how easy the offense makes it for these players, what is the offensive line? And for the Packer specifically, if you just do it in those terms, it's a group that you should be really worried about. But so often that scheme does enough to get that group to a place where it's like, they'll be fine. Like they will, you can survive with this group. And I think that's why I treated it the way that I did in the moment. But if you're trying to isolate the talent itself, they are in a more precarious spot than they have been in a very long time. And I think guys like Belton that could go either way, going the right way, that's going to go, that's going to be really important and like how this ends up shaking out in part because even if the scheme has done a great job of providing a floor for a pass protection group in Green Bay consistently, their inability to make to establish themselves on the ground last year, I think is one of the reasons that offense felt as volatile as it did.

And so that at a certain point, like the scheme can do some lifting there. It's not going to do as much lifting as it is lifting the floor of the past protection of that group overall. And so we hadn't talked about it since we had that conversation and I've been thinking a lot about it. And so I wanted to at least bring it up again as to why I was talking about it in the nose terms when we hit it a couple months ago. This is the least willing I can remember being to just give the Packers offensive line the benefit of the doubt. and I know Jordan Morgan doesn't qualify for this exercise but how he does

and how Anthony Belton do could go a long way toward proving that they do or don't deserve that benefit of the doubt. We should have made Jordan Morgan an honorable second year player just for this conversation. Right. He would have been like the perfect make a little exception for.

Because yeah, like you've got him. They really need to work out. Belton like we've mentioned. And then like I think Sean Ryan has been good for the Packers off the bench the last couple of years. Being a good player off the bench is different than being like a good week one starter type. And so I think even that

you need to see a little bit more from him to really make this all worthwhile. And so it just, I think I mostly agree that like in past protection, like Lefleur is going to scheme it up. Like I was obviously watching some of their offense in preparation for this watching Belton. Some of the stuff Lafleur does is like it was a reminder that he's really, really good at this.

But the run game is a little bit more like you kind of got to have the dudes or you don't. And I think right now I'm just a little bit worried whether or not they do. It's funny because I think some people look at the run-pass splits that we get from the Packers consistently year over year, where they are this run-heavy team. And they treat it as an indictment of Jordan Love. And I actually think it's more an indictment of the offensive line talent. Yeah.

Yes, they need to be able to protect them with running. Yes. Yes. Yes. You're playing that way in order to insulate them from a bunch of pure past situations. You want to be this under-center. run-heavy play action team because it lifts the floor of that group and just masks the issues that they have there.

I think that's, we haven't really discussed the Packers' offensive line as an Achilles heel at all, even when there have been questions about how much high-end talent that they have because the scheme papers over so much of it. And I think the scheme papers over so much of it because of how it's structured. I think it says way more about us making sure we can get by with whoever's playing up front than it does about how we feel about the capable of. abilities of the quarterback. Dave, who's your next one here?

I'm ready to get dog cussed for finding a year two X factor for a team that just freaking doesn't need it. I don't care. Because when we talk about the Rams tight ends, we think about them as a monolith. You know, and understandably so. They had four last year. They had three that caught like 25 plus balls. And then they drafted Max Claire, by the way.

So like it's easy to just to convey your belt. Lump the RAM tight end room as as just this this monolith good room of tight ends. But what if Terrence Ferguson unlocks a little bit more as what I think is the most unique skill set in that room? Like if you're talking about guys who can become like an explosive element of your offense, I would that's why the Rams drafted him and that's what he brings and I think you saw a little bit of that I know that I mean the guy only caught 11 passes last year but uh what he averaged 9.2 yards per target as a rookie which was top 10 among tight ends like when the Rams went to him they went to him as a 16 20 plus yard field yards downfield kind of guy and that was as a rookie obviously opportunity is going to be a big problem with this because because they do have so many capable tight ends. But Terrence Ferguson is probably your best bet to become basically wide receiver three in that offense. And if he does, it could be really, really fun.

Not that the Rams need the help, but I would enjoy watching it. Love this on so many different levels. One, yeah, they don't need the help in the sense that they were the best offense in the league last year. This is how you stay the best offense in the league. where you stave off regression by becoming a slightly different version of yourself year over year where you have guys that, you know,

rise and fall in terms of their overall importance to who you are defensively. Or that was a Freudian slip. The staving off regression is dead because I'm thinking about defense more often than offense, but you have to iterate, you have to change, it has to feel slightly different for X, Y, and Z reasons,

for you to stay good on either side of the ball in the NFL. And so I absolutely love this. I asked somebody in L.A. yesterday. I was with the Rams yesterday. All right. Give me a couple guys where even if a lot of the ideas on the offense are going to stay the same, it's about tinkering more than it is about full-scale evolution. Who are you turning up the volume on from last year?

That is, we're going to just feel a little bit more in terms of how central they are to the plan. First name, Terrence Ferguson, second name Blake Corum. Those are the two guys where I think both of those guys. And why I really like this is that the Rams have been. been consistently explosive as an offense without a lot of speed. You know, their speed that they've had over the last few years has mostly been like, we're going to sprinkle in a two to at well every once in a while on some of these like design shot plays.

It's more about space creation than it is about playmaking with our fast players. Coram and Ferguson are explosive players compared to the guys who have filled those roles previously. And so that's why the idea of an offense where they are more central figures than they were last year. To me, that's a cool wrinkle when you think about why the Rams might feel a little bit different this season. He only caught 11 passes last year, which I, like, I knew that he didn't have this crazy big role, but I would have, I don't know, I would have guessed it was more because that athleticism gives him such a explosive element. And when he did make a play, like I said, it was usually an explosive, you know, the big touchdown he had against the Jags comes to mind when I

think about the season that he had or, you know, I went back and watched some, I went back and watched all of his receptions today because there's only 11 of them. It takes you three minutes. He's the guy that you're going to flex out wide to, you know, go in the slot against the safety and posterize somebody 25 yards downfield. Seven of his 11 catches came 16 plus yards downfield. The rest of the Rams tied in. Yeah.

And the rest of their tight ends combined for eight of those. You know, like, think about Higbee and Parkinson and Davis Allen. Like those guys are doing the vast majority of their work, six, seven yards and in for the most part. And so to have this guy that can legitimately stretch the field. And by the way, you've got two receivers to take all of the attention off of him. I'm very encouraged to hear that you heard that, Robert, because it makes a lot of sense if they dial him up and he has a much larger role. I also love the Terrence Ferguson shout here. I mean, I just thought he was like an awesome player coming out of college.

And obviously didn't get used to a ton last year. But it's a really hard offense. And they had a number of other valuable tight ends, like worthwhile tight ends anyway. So they didn't necessarily need to force him into it. But I think part of why it's so exciting is one, like you mentioned, he has a very unique skill set for tight end in terms of like there's just not that many guys who can run like that. Like he can actually separate from you on like deep crossers and seam routes and stuff like that. And I think the seam ball specifically, Stafford, one of his first. prettiest throws in the bag is what he does down the seam.

And I think him, Terrence Ferguson, being able to potentially unlock that a little bit more or at least like make teams respect that in a different way, that does feel like the way that you start to, again, it's just these minor shifts of like, hey, defenses maybe want to play slightly different coverages against us because we're scared of this now. And I do think that that's how you stay on top. All right. Derek mentioned a Packer. Let's do another one. I think you can make an argument that the Packers have two second year X-Factor.

on their offense. You have one along the offensive line. We have to talk about Matthew Golden. We didn't really talk about him in the breakout player show. But Matthew Golden is going from a rotational piece last year to now being, hey, when we're an 11 personnel, he is, I'm going to say, the most important piece

among the receiving core. Here's what I mean by that. I think that Christian Watson was really good last year. And I think that Jaden Reed is very good for. the role that he plays. But when you look at what Romeo Dobbs did for the Packers' offense last season, Romeo Dobbs filled the role last year for the Packers, that the Packers drafted Matthew Golden to fill.

This was a team in 2024 that really struggled when teams played man coverage against them. They just did not have a man coverage separator. And Dobbs was so good in that role last year that they went from being one of the worst teams in the league against man coverage to one of the best teams in the league against man coverage. Well, now, if you remove Dobbs, you still need somebody to fill that role and provide that skill set within the offense in order for all the other pieces to sing together. And Matthew Golden becomes that player. And so if he can give you something similar, again, in the one-on-one separator world to what Dobbs did get last year, plus the fact that you have a guy who runs in the four-toos, I just think that he is such a central piece to the Packer's offense coming together. all across the board in a way that isn't very normal for a guy who caught how many balls last year.

It's a unique situation when you think about how central he is compared to a guy who caught 29 passes as a rookie. Yeah, he's replacing a huge role and just like a bunch of targets in general because obviously like, you know, Wix is out of the building now. Like there's just a lot more targets to go around. And I think that Golden is obviously going to have to step up and do that. And I also think, you know, Dobbs could win down the field because he's, obviously good at going up and finding the ball.

Like, I think there was a deep comeback that or a deep out route that Jordan Love through in the Denver game where he just like plucks it out of the air. It did just incredible fashion. I, Golden is a little bit less. There were a lot of those last year. The contested catchability is not going to be where it was with Dobbs. That's not Golden's game. But the one-on-one, I need you to be a winner here.

However that happens, that is still very, very important as just an ingredient within the offense. For being 5-11 and 191, though, I am impressed with his physicality. And like, yeah, I don't know if you want to make contested catches his bread and butter, but there's a willingness and an ability to do it that defies his frame, in my opinion. I'll say this. It's a different sort of contested catch ability because in college, and you see this with him, it reminds me a little bit of what Steph Diggs was as a contested catch guy, where you're a little bit undersized, but the ball tracking and your ability to win the ball in the air, you know, whether it's, I just think of plays even at Texas where it's a little bit underthrown, he has to

turn his body back to the line of scrimmage and go up and get it. That's the type of stuff he can do. Dobbs was so good at shielding off guys and almost like boxing out guys at the catch point and winning contested catches that way, that will never be Matthew Golden's game. Even if he can win contested balls in the air, being able to kind of, again, just the, it's physicality manifests in different ways. I guess that's what I would say. And I think the way that Dobbs has manifested last year was really important to how he was able

to be successful within the offense. I think that that's a really good point that Dave brings up, though, because like Golden can win the ball in the air. And so I think here the calculus that you're hoping for is that if Golden is, let's say, 10 to 15% less dynamic in terms of going up and just snagging the ball in the air outside the numbers, but 25% more dynamic in terms of the speed and downfield stuff that he really gives you with a quarterback and offense that really wants to do that, that I think is how this offense can look a little bit different because I do think he has a different gear

of explosiveness than Romeo Dobbs did. This can be pure coat. If that thing comes together, there's some- Giddy-up. There's some electricity among that group. This could be pure cope because it sounds good now. And remember, Jaden Reed missed a lot of time last year. And Christian Watson has had durability issues his whole career.

And so maybe you're up shit creek a month into the season because of that, because you don't have six receivers the way that they did for the last two years. But man, if this works out, I love the point you make, Robert, where it's just the roles for these receivers just make more sense now to me. Instead of just having five guys that can do a bunch of shit at varying levels, it just, it just clicks in my brain in a really nice way where Watson is this electric downfield guy. Reed is a slot who can do a lot of stuff around the line of scrimmage and Golden's explosiveness speaks for itself. And the stat that I wanted to share on him, because we're overlapping a lot today. You've taken, you've done two of my guys.

but the stat that I had for Matthew Golden, 17 of his 29 catches traveled five or fewer air yards and another six traveled 20 plus yards downfield. So do the math on that. Like the overwhelming amount of his touches in this offense were either at the line of scrimmage or as a deep guy. And so with Dobbs gone and Don Tavian Wicks as well, if you want to throw him in,

there's just so much, there's so much, there's a gap. in the offense for like intermediate targets. And a guy with that type of speed filling that in could be so, so exciting. And yeah, it's funny. It meant like those targets almost didn't exist in the intermediate area of the field for Matthew Golden last year. Romeo Dobbs, more than 33% of his targets came in the intermediate area of the field last year. It was 32 of his 85 targets came exactly in that stretch.

And so that is the area of the field because the underneath stuff, that's where Tucker Kreflips. Right. So you have that kind of yak underneath. the option, the intermediate part of the field is where you're going to need some help this year. And I think that's exactly the step you want to see and the area you want to see kind of Matthew Golden take hold of. All right.

Let's take one more quick break and then come back and hit a few more guys. All right, Derek, who's your next one? I mean, I'll stick with the big fish if we're going to really quickly. I feel like we have to more seriously talk about what Travis Hunter is actually going to be at cornerback for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Yes. Because I feel like we've done a lot of like, oh, you know, it's Travis Hunter will get to a blah, blah, blah.

We're getting to it. And I think- We keep talking about him as an idea. Like, that's all we're talking about is him as an idea. And I think talking about him in practical terms as a football player is very important for a team that made the playoffs last year and wants to make the playoffs again. Yes, I want to get like nuts and bolts. And not even like, I don't want to talk about his receiver stuff at all.

Because I feel like with the room construction right now, like it's almost cherry on top. Like, like the room is good. They'll be fine. The cornerback room, if Travis Hunter, struggles or is banged up or whatever it's going to be. Their backup cornerbacks right now are Dan Jackson, who is on the tail end of his career and Christian Braswell. Like I just don't know that that's going to be good enough for them.

And even on the other side, like Monterec Brown played really, really well last year, but it was like generally kind of like a lower tier player until last year had a breakout season. I think with corners sometimes that can just be volatile. Hunter, I think when you go back and watch some of his plays, some of the stuff that you saw in college and really liked about him, you absolutely saw. Like he, again, I think in zone specifically, he is, can be like a special player. There was a play against Cincinnati with about 10 minutes left in the second quarter. He actually bails to like a deep half.

They're playing like an invert coverage. And Burrow tries to throw this like deep outbreaking route to Andrei Yoshavaz. And sometimes the greedy corner thing to do is like undercut it, try to play near shoulder and go for the pick. he does the smart corner thing already where he's like playing high corner and knows that he's always going to be able to get a hand on the ball punches it as soon as the the wide receiver gets a hand on it and it's a breakup and just you see the speed you see the vision all that stuff i think in man-to-man coverage you sometimes see that he just does not have like the physicality in the arm length to hold up the way that you would always want and so this is not necessarily a

defense that asks you to do that a lot but i do think if he's going to go from like pretty good coverage corner, he can be a guy who can click and close to like, oh, this is one of those cornerbacks. I do think that he needs to get a little bit short up in that position. I wonder what the plan is on third down. Like on third down, do you think it's potentially worth moving him inside and having somebody like Jerry and Jones as the other outside corner because of that? Like, this is not going to be a man heavy team. This team is going to, I mean, if you look at the rates on it last year, what were they? I bet they were 80% at least zoned. and I expect them to live that way again.

And so how they handle some of those man-covered situations, if that's the area where they feel like there's a little bit of a gap, I'll be curious to see what that looks like if he's going to be closer to a full-time corner. I actually think that that's a good call if on third downs, you just, if it's, you know, third and eight, and especially if it's against a team that you know does not have like a big slot type, absolutely just move him into the slot and kind of like just let him run with guys. Because he still runs with guys, well, like he's a phenomenal athlete.

It's just some of the guys that can bully him, around like I think almost I think it was either like the play after or shortly after the play I just talked about in the Cincinnati game. T. Higgins runs a crow rat on him and just like throws him off at the top and he's like five yards off of him. And like that's some of that stuff is just going to happen if he's an outside player right now. But like you said, if you protect him a little bit put him into the slot on some of those third downs, which I would also say I wouldn't want to do with him on early downs because again, he's just a little bit smaller. But if you're doing that just on passing downs, I do think that that is a good way to weaponize him.

Jones is only 511 too. I mean, they don't really have another big outside corner. But just if you want to try to be creative with it, I wonder if that's one of the areas you could be. Dave, who's your next one here? So when I was doing this, I was basically just going through teams. And teams at all levels obviously are going to have these sorts of guys. But I'm looking at teams with playoff aspirations.

And what, like, what is your biggest fear, your biggest doubt about them? achieving the success that they want for themselves. And so looking at various teams like that, I come to the Detroit Lions and I say to myself, what can they do to make me feel better about the problems that they have? And that's how I wound up landing on Tileak Williams, which is, you can call it a big fish because he's a first round pick, but I don't know how much league-wide narrative and conversation

a year or two nose tackle, defensive tackle is garnering. But for a team that already has a host of problems on defense, and we talked about it in a summer show about whether they should be favored to win the NFC North, the defense is going to be what kills them if they don't, you know, achieve what they're after. And Tyleek Williams represents probably their best realistic chance to upgrade who they are is if he makes a leap into being a difference-making sort of defensive tackle. And I think it's interesting to note, according to him,

I know it's best shape of my life season all over the NFL, but he said on social media that he's down 50 pounds, which suggests. Yeah, dude. Two things about that. One, when you put a number on it, that feels more real than I'm in the best shape of my life. Yes, yes, it does. I wonder how the lions feel about it.

this. I assume that they were looped in as he decided to do this, but losing 50 pounds, it makes you a different person. Like, that's like a six-year-old. If your D.T. is down 50 pounds. I hope to hell that it was part of your plan for who he is, which is why I wanted to highlight him, because if your DT is down 50 pounds, you're going to be asking different stuff of him in year two than you were in year one. I hope that this is like cheap math in the sense that like the season ended and he put on 30 pounds, like, just like offseason chilling and then lost 50. You know what I mean? Like, I hope it's just like fake math somewhere somehow.

We've all been there. I mean, that's how every single offseason goes for me. You tell yourself what you have to to make the number sound as good as possible. Exactly. I like this because I almost did Tiley-League Williams. He was very close to being one of my. I was choosing between the Lions first and second round pick from last year. I chose the lion's second round pick, which we can talk about in a second.

So the weight loss stuff aside, I mean, if Tyleek Williams can do that, you have, and we've talked about it before, like the lack of a true proven pass rusher outside of Aden Hutchinson is something that gives you pause. It's only complicated by what's going on with their safeties. Brian Branch will see. And Kirby Joseph, by the way, is on PUP to start camp. I'm not going to speculate too much, but it's just you can't say the vibes are good with Kirby Joseph's knee issue and where that is where that's sitting

as camp gets underway. But if Ty Leake Williams can develop into a steady presence in both facets of the game, I mean, if Liam McNeil and Tyleague Williams is like a really badass one-two punch of guys that can give you juice as pass rushers in addition to being really, really good against the run,

That's probably Detroit's best realistic path toward being a defense that can get their offense where it wants to go. Tadley-Lew Williams taking a step and at Lee McNeil coming back and looking healthier than he did last season. Like I think those are crucial and necessary parts of that defense getting to a place where they're not torpedoing those that team's chances to get deeper into the season. Tyler Williams is a great shout. I went with Tate Ratlatch because that offensive line for the Lions, I mean, there are reasons to believe they will be better. You upgrade at center, you get bigger at center specifically, right? You get much bigger and more physical at center than you were last year.

You dropped Blake Miller in the first round. I keep confusing him in Monroe Freeling. I have no idea why. They're just drafted in the exact same range of that draft. Both tackles, like, they're both monstrous. They played like 100 miles away from each other in college. And they all play 100 miles away from each other in college, though. That shouldn't be a reason that I get that I'm getting them confused.

So, but you, you, you draft. have to right tackle in the first round. We know what Pentee Sewell is. You upgraded center. I still think we saw enough from Christian Mahogany last year, even if he was banged up where you could imagine him being a slightly more refined player. And then you have Tate Routledge. And I think if Routledge can clean some stuff up from last year, in addition to all the other

things that we're talking about, I think those questions on defense, Dave, almost get us to a place where the offense being hyper-elite is necessary for the Lions to be a dangerous team as we get deep into the season. And the offensive line playing better than it did last year is a non-negotiable aspect of that. And so what happens with Ratledge and whether that group can again feel like a real strength becomes incredibly important. And you watched him last year. You saw it. You saw the reasons that he was a second round pick.

He is powerful. He's explosive. But there are times where he's a little bit rigid where he can get a little bit uneven. The balance is a little bit off. He ends up on the ground a little bit too much. she falls off of guys a little bit too much. But you see why he was drafted where he was. Like the physical tools are apparent.

And I think with him and Mahogany, and Mahogany was on this list last year, if those guys can just clean some stuff up, the physical ability is there. And if it's all just a little bit more refined in conjunction with all the moves they made this offseason, then you get to a place where we're looking at the lion's offense as potentially the best unit in the league this year.

And I think that, again, and the offensive wine coming together is a necessary component of that. Site unseen vibes only. Training camp has barely started. Are you more willing to believe the Lions' offense will be elite or that the Lions' defense will be good?

Lions' offense. Yeah. I mean, that's just way easier to believe, which is, that's how I landed on Ty League Williams because I, like, yeah, it's pretty easy to imagine a world where lion's offense is incredible. And it's a little bit harder to imagine the lion's defense being like a top 10, top 12

unit. And I think they need more stuff to go their way for that to happen. You're probably right in the sense of like the ultimate X factor for how good the lions are going to be as a team. Tiley Williams being a part of the defense shoring itself up is probably more important than whatever the offensive line is going to look like. I agree with you there. But I do think like if Ratledge goes from functional to like a.

B plus level player potentially. That gets, and like Blake Miller is solid in his rookie season, that actually probably gets the lines back to being like a kickass unit that can actually define what the offense is. And like you said, you saw it. Like Ratledge can move people, man. And move. Yes, and move.

Yes, he's a very good athlete. He's just like you mentioned, some of the balance and some of the just getting into himself into weird position stuff. He's a six, he is six, six and a half. He's a very tall guard. There's just not a lot of guys like that. And I think it's probably just more likely that it's going to take him a year, two, maybe three to figure out how to make that work within an NFL constraint.

But he's a player that I'm kind of bought in on. I think he's got it. The change of direction and the recovery stuff is where that's going to be what needs to kind of come into focus. And because when he's moving in a straight line, he can move in a straight line. You see that. And so I think that's a great way to frame it to Eric where it's like, if that comes together and they become a kick-ass unit again, then we get closer to a place where when you combine that with the past catchers

and I think a reasonable amount of faith that petting and Kafka and all the guys on that side of the ball with Campbell can get it all moving in the right direction. And again, if this can be the best offense in the league, which I think if the offensive line can be really good, they have the capacity to be, then to me, even with some questions on the defense, it reframes what we think the Lions are potentially capable of. All right, let's do some rapid fire.

Just some guys that we don't have a ton of time to talk about at length, but guys that were on your lists as you were building them. Derek, just give me a couple more guys you were thinking about. Yeah, I've got two more. One, T.J. Sanders for the Buffalo Bills last year. Like, he's going to be starting this year for them. Obviously, they missed Ed Oliver last year, and so their front was just weird.

But Sanders was a guy, came into the league. I think a lot of his thing was he's supposed to be explosive, supposed to get into the backfield. I just don't think you saw a ton of that last year. I think he looks a little bit stiff in the hips. But if he can take a step, And just be a functional starter. And Ed Oliver is who we think he is.

I think that goes a long way. And then an underrated one I had, we've done a lot of talking about what Jalen Waddle was going to do for the Denver Broncos offense. Pat Bryant potentially taking a step and them having like three real receivers. And he's a guy who they move around the entire formation. Like he's the guy who kind of unmox you being able to put Waddle where you want him. I do think Pat Bryant potentially going from useful to good could kind of kick this Denver Broncos offense into overdrive. Like both of those.

Dave, any others that you had before we get out of here? How about Lathen Ransom in Carolina? Oh, great one. Yeah. I like that. I mean, Marig is there, but you could stand to upgrade the safety spot, and he showed some flashes as a rookie. It's always tough, and I landed on so many big names,

because for a show like this, you want to have some degree of confidence that there's a path toward meaningful snaps. but I think when you talk about the number of different roles you can find in the secondary, I think there's plenty of snaps to go around there. I wonder what that group is going to look like. That was a question I had when I went there last week. I think this is a situation sometimes this happens where, especially at that position, where you're more worried about the bad plays than you are about the good place.

somebody like Nick Scott, who has been in that system for years and years and years is a very smart player. I think from a ceiling perspective, he's somebody that fans, whoever is invested in the Panthers, would probably want to eject out of that spot. And it's like, let's just get to Key Wheatley and Lathoransom in there and let's just see what the young guys can do. I don't think that happens. I think even with Merrick moving down and playing the slot in the way that he does for them, Nick Scott is probably still going to be a featured part as one of those two safety spots just to protect them a little bit. Whether it's Wheatley or Ransom that kind of wrestles away the snaps at that other spot, I think it's probably going to be one of the other and not both of them.

And I don't think it's settled which one of those two guys is necessarily going to be. Probably worth mentioning princely, Umami Elin as well, especially now that we know Nick Scorton is out, which is, I mean, it's devastating for Carolina. but a guy that showed flashes that I think people there are optimistic about. It obviously changes the calculus not to have Squarton there, but that's definitely a name that I think is worth having on the radar, especially now. Two second round picks for me. We talked a little bit about Will Johnson earlier this week

when we were talking about Monty Austin Ford having a lot at stake this year. I think he's worth mentioning again. Walter No one's like a given. Both of those guys are hugely important. And the other second round pick, Donovan Azaraku. The Cowboys, tons of additions defensively this year, but him taking a step, I think he had 30-something pressures last year,

a couple sacks. Looks like he's going to be full go from the start of training camp, which is good news, but him really taking a step forward and being a centerpiece of that defense in year two. And with Quinn and Williams becoming like the most important pieces

along that defensive line, huge for what that Christian Parker group is going to look like this year. That's a good one. I think the quick thing I would say there too is like he he's a little Nolan Smithish not maybe not quite as unhinged as Nolan Smith but there's a little bit of that same quality to him and so again perfect for a defense that's where the play college is coming from. There's probably four players that got meaningful snaps in 25 that could go a long way toward improving the 49ers defense like yes the benefit of all those guys playing so much last year is hopefully they're primed to be that much better in year two now that I mean they're. they had to jump in the deep end last year. You'd like to think that, you know, take your pick.

Michael Williams coming off of injury. Alfred Collins, Upton Stout. I'll throw in C.J. West because I like him. Marcus Siegel, the safety. Like, they were playing so many rookies last year. You would like to think that that could pay off this year. Almost through Michael Williams on there. Derek and I talked a lot about him on the lingering question show.

We did about the Niners. If you guys want to go back and listen to that, both him and Alfred Collins starting on the publicist. So not the best. start. Obviously, Michael Williams, we knew that would happen after the injury last year. But if he can get back up to speak quickly, hugely important for a team that's not overly deep

at edge rusher. All right. That is all we've got for today. I will not be here tomorrow. You guys are holding it down as my training camp travels pulls me away from a recording. But there's still plenty of great stuff coming. Our first training camp notebook

in terms of the skill position players. In terms of the beat writers, having the beat writers, having the beatwriters on. That'll be Saturday. We will have those running on Saturday throughout the season. And then I'm also doing video notebooks from all 21 stops on the training camp tour. The Panthers one is already on our YouTube channel.

If you guys want to check that out, by the time you're listening to this, the Cardinals one will be up. I say 21. I think I'm going to try to sneak in another one. I think I might try to do 22 before we get out of here. There's one more team I think I can get in there. So it'll be at least 21, maybe more. but encourage you guys to go check those out on the YouTube channel,

something different this year that we're doing that we're excited about. A lot of fun stuff coming this week. Be on the lookout for it for now. That's all we got. Appreciate you guys 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.

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