The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Why we're planting our flags for these day 2 & 3 prospects

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Jalon Kilgore, Riley Nowakowski, Reggie Virgil, Peter Woods...what do these guys have in common? They're OUR guys. A week ahead of the draft, we're officially planting the flags for our favorite players in the 2026 NFL Draft. Dave Helman, Dane Brugler, and Derrik Klassen call their shot on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Host: Dave HelmanCo-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dane BruglerExecutive Producer: Michael BellerSenior Producer: Katy DuffySocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Dane on X: @DPBruglerFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassFollow 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 am Dave Helman. Robert Mays is out today, but never fear. We've got a loaded draft show for y'all today. I'm usually joined to talk draft by the one and only Dane Bruegler, and he joins me today. But in addition, we're bringing in Derek Classen to round out the crew. An episode I'm really excited about. I think it fits Derek's skill set very, very well because we wanted to talk about our guys in this 2026 draft class, not the best players, not the players.

not the players that'll be taken first or at the top of the draft order. We just wanted to talk about the guys that we really love. And we figured, you know, we could probably bypass the top 10, the top 15 types of prospects. Let's get into the little, the nitty gritty of it a little bit more. Talk about some day two prospects, some back of the draft prospects, not the best players, not the players that are going to land in a specific place, just the guys that we love. an opportunity for us one week before the NFL draft to plant our flag on the guys that we just enjoy the most really fun conversation myself, Dane Bruegler, Derek Klessen, talking football

players. Let's get to it. Well, fellas, I'm really excited for this show because at this point, Dane and I have been talking prospects since August. Dane, obviously the amount of man hours are incredible what you've put into the beast and what you've been doing from, a publicity standpoint going on to shows and talking about it over the last two weeks. I'm sure you're ready for this thing to start next week. But until then, the draft was tomorrow. We mean next week. No, it's next week.

You're not quite over the finish line yet. But that's why I'm happy for a little bit of a curveball because we've been doing this so long. I'm always, I always want to guard against group think because you do such a good job of this. And it's, it's easy to go along with. each other's thought process and the work that you put into it. What better way to mix things up than to bring on Derek who is just never afraid to be an agent of chaos as we're talking about our favorite guys in this 2026 draft class, the guys that we like the most. Derek, I'm,

I'm counting on you to like break up the group think a little bit. I'm jazzed for it because we people probably only know my takes on what we did the receivers and then you and I Dane did the edges with Robert. And that's, I think that's most of what I've gotten out there in terms of like public draft takes outside of like a couple of social media posts here and there. Which before we get into the nitty gritty of it, Derek, and understanding, you know, nobody has watched as many prospects as day, and at least nobody that's not part of an NFL organization. But having had a chance to look through all this and do a couple of shows and really get into it,

what, what's your impression of this draft class and people talk about how unsexy the top of it is? or, you know, it's not a great year in the first round. However you want to take it, good or bad, what's your impression of this thing as we get this much closer to the draft? So I think I'm actually a little bit closer to something that you said a few weeks ago where it's like the draft class isn't really that bad. I just think that so often we judge draft classes based purely on quarterback, edge, and then often wide receiver.

And wide receiver, there's no Jamar Chase. There's not even like a Jalen Waldrow type. It's guys who are probably like a tier below that. in terms of got there's good players but there's no that guy is clearly going to be my number one NFL receiver there's good edge rushers but there's no miles garrett it's not nick bosa joey bosa any of those guys um and then the quarterback gets a one qb class and like mendoza is good but again even he's not like Trevor lawrence like he's not like up in that tier of prospect for a lot of people and so i think when people look at like the premium positions it gets knocked down but

there are tier one prospects at a number of other positions like um obviously the the linebacker, like top of the linebacker class is really good. Arvel Reese, I know I said the edge class is weird, but he again is a unicorn, which you've kind of talked about. Caleb Downs is a special safety prospect. Like, I think some of the D tackles and offensive tackles are actually really good, even if there's not like a superstar there. So like I, the more I've filled out my draft work, I actually think it's like a pretty

nice class. Good depth, right? I mean, and it's, it's hard to judge an entire draft class. I think, but when you look at it position by position, you're, Okay, yeah, quarterback and running back are light, but receivers deep, edge is deep, tight end is ridiculously deep. Safety's, there's some good safeties in this class. And so I was just talking about this with Nate on a different pod, but like, I think that there's going to be a lot of, like, that top tier of players in this draft might be a little bit light, especially compared to other top tens. but that second and third tier are pretty robust with just quality players.

And that's going to make, I think, for some interesting moments on draft night in like the 20s, like the playoff teams in round one. And then especially on day two where like, you know, we've been mocking guys at certain points throughout the, you know, the last few months. But obviously teams have their own grades and their own projections. And I won't be. I think we're going to have some surprises. late first round, early second round, into the third round,

just because there's just a big pool of players in that range and teams are going to be all over the map in terms of how they grade them. I've been looking a lot at previous drafts for various shows that we're doing, various conversations that we want to have, just going back over how things fell and who went in what order. And the more I do it, the more I'm convinced, this probably won't be remembered as a generational draft or a, crazy, you know, star-studded,

Hall of Famer draft, like 2011 is the one that always comes to my mind when I talk about this. But the more I look at it, the more I feel like hindsight colors a lot of these conversations. And I just, I don't think we're going to look back on this as an abysmal draft overall. Maybe the top 10 won't be as robust as some years that we've seen. But I really, I believe the quality is out there. And the purpose of this show is to plan our flags on a few guys we really, really like an early flag plant from me is I just, I think this draft is is going to be just fine slash good. I just, I really don't think it's going to be as easy to make fun of as as it is right now. It's, it's kind of been, it's been a pet peeve of mine over the last two months

where people parachute in and they're just like, oh, this sucks. I'm like, no, it doesn't suck. It might not be 2011, but it's perfectly fine. That's fair. I mean, especially at those key positions too like edge like receiver like if you if you need those those positions in the draft you're obviously going to have a little more favorable view as opposed to a team that's looking for a running back and a quarterback right so I do think that colors it a little bit but yeah no I think you're I think we're all kind of an agreement there where this might not be an amazing draft but it's far from a subpar draft so in the purpose of that we're calling this my guys and I charged everyone to just find a short list of guys that you really love.

I think the one qualifier here is on this show, we're not really trying to talk about slam dunk top of the draft guys. Like we've done enough of the guys that are going to go top 10, even like top 15, 20. So I'm trying to limit the amount of conversations about guys that we know we're going to hear a call on Thursday night. But it's fair game after that. I didn't give any parameters.

you can do as many day three guys as you want to or top 50 guys whatever. So let's start. If we're doing my guys and we're not doing slam dunk picks, slam dunk picks, let's start with fringe guys. Like if you've got a guy on your list that's somewhere in the like 25 to 40 range, maybe a fringe day one pick, who's your guy? And Derek, you're the newcomer here, so I'll start with you. Yeah, I've got two guys that I think fit into.

to that exact range. And the first one to me is, is Peter Woods at Clemson. Like I know, this is why I wanted you on the show. Yeah. Like he likes Peter Woods anymore. I, dude,

I think his balance is like genuinely special. Like I think it is unbelievable. And obviously it was a little bit better in 2024 than it was in 2025. They made him cut a little bit of weight. But I just think the way that he can like, to me, how you kind of a very good window into how well an NFL defensive linemen is going to hold up,

especially in run defense is like when he's got to get low and like almost to a knee or he gets knocked onto only one leg how well can he hold his balance i don't know if anyone in this class does it as well as peter woods like pound for pound and i know that he's like you can kind of see the explosive traits but then it doesn't always show up as much as you want as a pass rusher and i think that that can be pretty frustrating with him and that's probably why he's fallen off boards the way that people thought he was going to be compared coming into the year when he was like a slam dunk top five top 10 pick but to me I just look at somebody with with his traits and think if he gets to the right team like I think he can be an absolute superstar and to me there was a little bit of like

every now and then we get really good prospects who their program overall kind of falls apart in their given year and it hurts their draft stock and then they end up being a very good player once they finally come out I kind of think both Woods and tj parker who I talked about on the edge show as a guy that I really like I think both of them kind of suffered from that I think that's fair. One thing that I liked about watching Clemson late in the year was T.J. Parker kept, even though the season didn't live up to the hype and what we expected for T.J. Parker, he kept popping for me.

You know, just making plays and just being a presence where I just wanted to see that from Peter Woods more consistently. But because, yeah, coming into the year, he was my number one player in the draft. Like I was I think this guy can be based on the talent that he put on the 2024 team and thinking okay if he takes another step in 2025 where this this guy could be 80%

Jalen Carter. He can be something that is truly you know how we talk even more impressive how we talked about you know Byron Murphy when he was coming out of Texas but those guys like I think of Byron Murphy and I think of him like ascending and just feeling good about where he was headed

now with Woods it's kind of the opposite where, I mean, he had 14 pressures this year, 14. And it's just, it's hard for me because I don't, I don't disagree with you. He's still in the 30s for me because the traits, I'm not just totally going to give up. But it's just hard for me to get there with him totally as a first round pick when it just, he left me wanting so much more on tape in terms of production. The testing, there's nothing about the testing that, that wowes you. and part of that's injury related.

So I won't be surprised when Peter Woods is the, you know, 25th pick or go somewhere in the late first round because I don't think you're alone, Derek, in terms of there's too much talent in this body for me to just totally pass on him at this point in the draft. I just personally couldn't get there. And I get that. Like if he, because of the production,

because of the not ascending, like I totally get that. I think there are just sometimes where you choose to believe that whatever I saw from his best is what he can be. And I just, I think with a player like Woods, given how good some of the traits are, like, I think he can be that. Like, again, I know I'm hired on him than a lot of other people, but like if I'm Minnesota sitting there at like 18, like I'm, I'm thinking about it. Because I just think that he, one, they'd need that position. But in two, like, I think he fits what they do. Like, I just, that's kind of to me the range where I really started thinking about a guy like Woods. Dan, can you map out for me how serious the injury issues are?

Because that's, I would, I want to fall back on the traits, but we don't even have that much to go off of. Like he didn't do all that much during the pre-draft process. Yeah. And I don't think it's anything serious. It was, what, a hamstring or something. It was like a soft tissue thing. So, you know, not something that I feel like is going to linger. It's not like jeopardizing his availability.

Yeah. Yeah, nothing like that. But he is tough because this is, and this is a defensive tackle class where, I mean, I think a lot of teams need defensive tackles. They want those guys. But this draft doesn't have, in my opinion,

it's like a slam dunk lock first round pick. You know, some teams really like Cade McDonald. Peter Woods has, has the talent. It just, you know, he leaves you wanting more. And so, but sometimes it makes sense to grade to the flashes. And when you grade to the flashes, with Peter Woods, I get it 100%. It's just, I think some teams will, other teams won't,

when it comes to this player. This is not the purpose of this show, but it makes perfect sense if a team wants to trade for Dexter Lawrence between now and the end of the draft, considering the top like five guys in this class kind of scare the bejesus out of you for one reason or another, whether it's injury, scheme, production. and I think I'm colored by doing this through the whole process with Dane.

I think Peter Woods was the first guy we talked about, Derek. Like when we did our first show about like, hey, who's good this year? Peter Woods started that show. And ever since, you just, I don't know, you just add another reason to not like the guy. And so for you to stand firm on it, maybe it's a classic case of like not overthinking it. and like, hey, the traits and the, you know, the potential at a position this important, I could see why it's worth taking a gamble on. And I think to me sometimes it's like, why were the lows what they were?

And I think with Woods, it's a lot of kind of like you were saying, Dane, he kind of just leaves you wanting. To me, I don't think he makes that many mistakes. Like when I think of like a mistake making defensive tackle who had really good flashes, it's like Robert Kim Dice was this way. I think Javon Kinlaw was this way where it's like the explosiveness and their ability to get in the backfield was insane. They were also kind of guessing or a little bit slow at times mentally.

And that is not to me the issue with Peter Woods. It's a lot of you just don't see the juice that he clearly has, like actually show up in the backfield. But I feel like when he's getting, you know, down blocked, he sees it really well. Like he understands like what types of like run concepts that he's getting. Like he, to me, it's not like a mistakes thing. It's just like a why are you not tapping into your athletic ability thing, which that to me is a little bit more fixable, which maybe is like.

like rose colored glasses being a little bit optimistic, but I just do think that that stuff is a little bit more fixable. I don't know. It just, it kind of bothers me that he has more rushing yards. He had more rushing yards last year than pressures. Like, I don't know.

That is on its face a bad stat for anybody. Yeah. So just wanted to throw it out there. I feel like when I throw out one of my guys on this show, it's just going to be Dane saying, oh my God, this guy again. Because he's heard me get excited about all these. guys at one point or another. But if I'm talking about like a fringe first round, maybe early

second round guy, I'll keep going back to him. We don't have to spend a lot of time on it if we don't want to. I love Denzel Boston, man. And I'm, I'm happy to plant my flag because I'm, I've, I've been sick of the slander this entire time. He's not Keon Coleman. He's not. He's, and he's a perfectly good athlete. I know he didn't run. I don't care. He had a six, eight three cone at his size, which is almost 6'4. He put up a 37 and a half inch vert at his pro day. Like he is a good athlete and when you watch him, he moves well. Like he might not be a blazer, but he's not a slow guy.

He's got strong hands. He catches away from his body. He's a willing blocker. I just, I don't really, I don't really understand the hate to be honest with you. And I think people are reluctant to believe in the bigger receiver because, and I, and I get it. Sometimes the cool high point red zone plays are they're not as valuable as they look on a highlight reel, but I just, I think he's a better football player than that. And I don't think he's a bad athlete. And I think, uh, I think he's been not getting his due credit for most

of this draft process. So what you're saying is he's, you're LeQuine Treadwell. Shut up. Hey, we don't have to do that. All time. I only said it. My greatest, my greatest albatross ever. You and I both. We both like Lequan Treadwell. But no, I mean, I agree. I think he's... Laquant Treadwell, who's still in the NFL, by the way. Definitely did not have the career I was envisioning, but like, he's still playing pro football. Like, I like Boston a lot more than I like Nikiel Harry or like, you know, like some of these other guys that have come through that just really struggle to separate.

And not that Boston's going to be this top tier separator in the NFL. But there's a lot more about his profile I feel more comfortable with. He's got that my ball mentality. He plays with physicality. The play strength shows so he will use his body and shield the defender from the ball. I want to see him get a little bit better in terms of tracking the ball over his shoulder. But I think when the ball's in front of him, he can snare the ball away from his body and put it away. And I think it's fair to call him an underrated athlete.

I think that not having that data point at the 40-yard dash, people will throw well, just the word slow or whatever. I don't think that's the case. I just, I think he's an underrated athlete at this point. It feels like with those guys, the 6-4, 210, 2-15, anytime that they're not Andre Johnson or Julio Jones, it's like, oh, they're not a good athlete. And it's like, there's middle ground, like you can be Cortland Sutton, right? Which to me, like, that's kind of a pretty good, that to me would be like a good outcome

for a guy like Denzel Boston where it's like, Sutton is not like an exceptional athlete, but he runs well enough for that size. he can get in and out of his breaks well enough. And again, like you guys have mentioned, goes up and attacks the ball really well. So I think Boston was a guy I liked more than loved, but like he really is the only big-bodied X receiver, like inside the top 40 that you probably want to take in this class.

And if you wanted to play him as a big slot, I think you could do that. I mean, I just, yeah, I think that it'll be interesting to see how these receivers come off the board. Probably see five or six of them going the first round. And if Boston's the six, of six that gets drafted I won't be surprised

but at the same time if he goes to the Chiefs at 29 like that can get me excited about what that could look like this year you don't have to love him as much as I do but I can't do the Keon Coleman stuff anymore it's just not true

and I'll yeah that's that's where I come down on it I think he's a good player if he falls out of the first round I don't think that would be terribly surprising but I mean I'm right there with you day And if he goes to one of these late, late first round teams that has a quarterback,

obviously I'm all in on that. All right, Dan, I think I know who your answer for this is going to be. But let's just let's put it out there one more time. There's only a week until the draft. I think there is. So most of my answers are day three guys and late round guys. But I did have two guys that would qualify for this bucket. They're both corners.

Chris Johnson, San Diego. State and DeAngel Ponds from Indiana. Just both these players, I think, are going to be really good pros. And Chris Johnson's a guy liked over the summer. And then in September, watching his tape against, was it the Cal tape. And there were a few other ones where it's just, okay, I'm running out of reasons why this guy is not going to hit and be a good pro. And I know talking to scouts, they always mention his speed.

You know, he might run in the four-fives. It might be a four-five-five guy. And that was kind of the big knock on him. and I don't like he made he didn't look like a burner on film but I also don't think he looked like he was slow and then he goes to the combine rips off a 440 and it's like okay like now we're out of reasons why this guy can't be a really solid starter just a smooth player the ball instincts are there played inside outside in college but he's a little slender so like not the most physical in terms of as a run defender but he's good enough he's going to get his guy on the ground so I'm just a big fan of Chris Johnson he's my he's my my corner three in this draft. And if McCoy's knees that much of an issue, wouldn't be surprised if he's corner two. But I think he should be in that first round mix.

And then DeAngelo Ponds, who the size is the size. But since he was at James Madison as a freshman, freshman All-American, this guy just produces. And I think, you know, we tend to push these guys inside because of their size. But his play style to me says he can stay outside. I have no problem with that. Now there will be times where going up against the Denzel Boston style of receiver, there's an obvious mismatch and just in terms of size.

But he's been undersized his entire life. And so I think that just accentuates his other strengths as a player. His read react, his ability to click and close and make plays at the catch point, how physical and tough that he is. I'm just, I'm going to bet on the player. And there will be times where the size will show in coverage, but it's every other play that. I think he's going to be able to make up for that.

Do you think, and obviously it would depend on the quality of player, but like, I mean, what I'm hearing from you in the case of DeAngelo Pons is like, if you can make peace with the size, like the coverage ability, the ability to mirror the ability to make it difficult to get open on this guy, is, is it possible for that to override the length? Because like, I can understand the logic of, hey, one to three times again. game the length might be an issue but 80% of the time this is going to be okay and like that kind of bucks conventional wisdom but the tape would tell you that maybe it's it's worth betting on in the case of a guy like this 80% of the time it works every time i mean that's like pawns is he's just

competitor and every single snap he just as a receiver you just know you're in for a long day and really the only tape that you could really see the size disadvantage was against Jeremiah Smith, which, but he does that to, Jeremiah Smith does that to everybody. And I think with pawns, there's just a confidence, a swagger to the way he plays, that it's just, sometimes it doesn't always show up in maybe the testing or, you know, something you can quantify, but when you see it on tape, you just point to it and say, yeah, that's it.

I know it. But he also has the production. That's the thing is the testing, okay, ran on the four threes. The production, he had multiple interceptions. each of his three years in college double digit pass is defended each of his three years in college the tackle numbers are high he gets busy as a run defender so there's just enough where he's a top 40 player in my opinion and if he's stuck into the late first round i wouldn't be shocked at all i think like you said dane my favorite trade about him is like he makes you earn it and so he might have these limitations he might have you know he can't get his hands on you as quickly as he wants but every single rep he's going to make you earn it and that's just not true of even some of the other really good corners in this class And so I think that like that is a nice feather in his cap. One last question on this before we take a break, Dane, but mentioning and you've been on Chris Johnson this whole time, that's the guy that I was joking. I was confident you were going to say.

If there's consideration for him as CB2, like if teams just aren't comfortable with Jermod McCoy's medicals, what do you think the potential ceiling is? Like, I mean, we're talking about him as a fringe first round guy, and I take that to mean somewhere in the 20s. Is it possible he could go in the teens somewhere if teams really view him as CB2? I mentioned this earlier how I think the back half of round one, I'm excited because, like, I think we're going to have some pretty surprising picks. just because this is a draft where that second tier and that third tier are all over the place. You know, that first tier, say there's, I don't know, nine to 12 guys just on an average from team to team.

But that second tier, say it's 25 guys. The order is going to look so much different from team to team and what you usually see in mock drafts. So Chris Johnson, sure, if he went, I don't know, you know, 19th to the Panthers or 18th to the Vikings, would that be all that shocking? To me, I don't think so. But if you also went, you know, 31st or 32nd to the Seahawks,

like I think that's in the realm of possibility. So I'm just, I'm kind of open for anything at this point in the back half of round one. I think it's going to make for a really exciting as we are talking through it in live, live time during our live show. I think it's going to be a lot of fun just seeing how it, plays out. I cannot wait and I cannot wait to plant our flag on some more of our guys. We'll do that right after our first break. All right. In my imaginary my guys group, I'm calling this like the firm day two guys. Like let's call this the sweet spot between far enough from from pick 32 to not

be fringe, but still comfortably like top 100 players. Derek again, I'm, I talked to day and every week. I'm excited to hear from you. I want to hear what you have to say about this. Who's your number one guy in this category? There's a few I've got in this tier, but I think the one that I like the most relative to like looking at consensus boards or Dane's boards or whatever it is. Jalen Kilgore, the nickel safety, whatever you want to call him out of South Carolina. Remarkable. This is remarkable. You just you just watch 2025 tape and say, I don't, I don't care about this. I like this guy. His 20-25 tape is good.

Like, I think that I want to be, I want to be clear in case I'm aggravating anybody. It's not that his tape was bad. Dan and I had a whole conversation about this where he just played so much slot. I didn't know what to do with it. So I actually think that if he had to play slot 12 years ago, I don't know if he really fit like the mold for what the NFL was doing where it was guys who were a little bit smaller, a little bit quicker, really guys who were like pure coverage guys. Um, that's not always kill Gore.

Like I think there are a couple of times when he's got to like turn up the field. He can be a little bit stiff. I think he's a good athlete, but not probably as explosive as you want. But I just think when we're getting to an NFL that is a little bit more willing to play these guys who are bigger bodies who are really good with zone eyes, who can be good tacklers who are really smooth in space. To me, he checks all those boxes. Like I think his trigger is phenomenal.

And I also think with him, you see some DBs take risks based pure. on the quarterback's eyes. Like they'll be just be jumping early just based on where the quarterback is and they'll end up out of position or whatever. And Kilgore will end up at a position sometimes. But to me when I'm watching it, he's clearly guessing based off of like formation and tendency and what he's thinking he's getting with film study, which sometimes you're going to end up in the wrong spot.

Sometimes you're also going to get to the spot before the receiver does and get your hands on a football. And I think that he does that enough times that I thought that that was was pretty encouraging. Athletically, again, I don't know if he's super. but I think he's like pretty smooth in terms of his footwork, his hips when he needs to be. So like I liked the way that he moved around. So he's just the guy where I don't know if you can see like superstar potential at any, you know, at any level, whether it's at safety or nickel the way that, you know, we've seen some of these other bigger guys be able to do that. But I feel pretty good about him being able to like play pretty solid football across the board and just be like a really, really solid zone defender for you.

where where ideally are you playing him in the NFL? I don't mind playing him in the nickel. And like if you need to make him more of a box like, you know, down in the down safety, I think that that's probably fine too. But like I would be comfortable using him as as not exclusively a nickel, but like I'd be comfortable playing him that way. Like he to me is like, I think a guy who played safety and then transitioned down to

the nickel and it worked for him. And obviously he plays with a little bit more of his hair on fire. So it's different was Jalen Petrie. I think that. that like that is something that like kill gore is capable of like being that level of of of a nickel he's a really impressive like just heightweed speed athlete um he's 210 pounds ran a 440 like the testing is awesome and i i think you're really encouraged by the fact that he uh stepped in from day one as a freshman uh i think it's actually because nick m and worry got hurt and so they kind of adjusted

things kill gore gets thrown in there he starts double digit games as a freshman and was a freshman an All-American. And you look at the ball production, and it's like, okay, the last three years, he has eight combined interceptions and the ball kind of finds him. And so there's a lot to like about his profile, no doubt. My struggle with him is I guess I see him more as, like, he is a good athlete, but I think the functional athleticism I don't love in terms of him playing man to man and being a nickel guy.

I see him more as, in just my opinion, I see him more as a guy that I want ranging over the top in coverage where, you know, you know, he's a guy. where you were going to play him deep. And like I just, there's no tape of that though where I can throw it on and say, okay, this is what he does. So the lack of functional control and his movements, I thought gave some separation opportunities to receivers. And I think that it would only be highlighted more against NFL level,

tight ends and receivers that he goes up against. But I say that while also saying this is, I think this is a good football player. Like I want to find a spot for him. I just think it's more going to be off the ball because I do like his trigger, like you said, where he can kind of read the field and use that speed, go and attack. I just, there's no film of him doing it from kind of that deep alignment that I want to see. So I struggle with Kilgore a little bit.

But, I mean, ultimately he ended up as like, I think a top 75, top 80 prospect for me. But I won't be surprised at all if he goes a little bit sooner because you're betting on the ball production, the athleticism, and just the idea that maybe he does have a little bit. more versatility than I'm leading on. And like you mentioned earlier, like one thing that will play for me, especially at linebacker and safety, um, is like experience.

Like if you can get on the field early at those positions, that to me says that like, all right, you're, you're pretty sharp and like, you kind of know what's going on, especially if you're around other NFL players. And so,

um, like, it is like a weird projection trying to feel like fully comfortable projecting what he did onto what he might do in the NFL. But it, to me, he just like in every other way checked all the boxes that I want.

And I was like, I'll take that risk. Jalen Kilgore is an attempt for me to learn my lesson as somebody who covers this stuff. Because the tape, the tape's not bad, but I agree with Dane. Like there's just, it's a lot of tape of him doing stuff that I don't know if I'm going to ask him to do it in

the NFL. And specifically, the Texas A&M game is the one that we highlighted when we talked about it, where it's like, ah, Casey Concepcion in the slot is probably a mismatch for you. And that's okay. That's normal. That's what's supposed to happen. And so you watch his tape and you're like, I don't know if this is what I want you to be doing down in and down out in the NFL, but you're almost 6-2 and you ran a 4-4.

And the fact that you can do some of that stuff is very encouraging. So I'm comfortable making a bet that you can flourish in a different role and maybe with a more varied ask at the NFL level. Like I don't think I would have liked him as much as I do two, three years ago, but I'm trying to learn my lesson that just because you don't see a guy do it on tape in college doesn't always mean like he's, like he's clearly a good football player, even if I would draft him to do something different in the NFL. My guys, I'm going to do a two for and I'm cheating a little bit because one of these guys is fringe, but whatever, Dan, two of my two of my favorite players in this entire draft class, I think. are going to go early Friday. They play the same position, not very far away from each other.

Zion Young and Gabe Backus. I love these guys, both of them. I think they're just like when you talk about having fun watching tape, these are just two of the most fun guys in this draft class, in my opinion. And it's what I think it's what excites me about this edge class is, yeah, like Arvel Reese is a little bit of a projection. There's not a ton of like high end edge talent at the top of the draft, but there's just three or four guys like back into the first round

into like the top 50, 60 picks where I'm like, don't tell tell me this guy can't be a meaningful part of a productive pass rush. And wherever you want to start with it, I mean, Zion Young is just a menace against the run. I love the attitude that he plays with and the like the violence that he plays with. And Accus is just his motor never stops. He's always active. He uses his hands really well.

And I just, what? I think Zion was, did he lead the SEC in tackles for lost, Dane? If not, he was up there. I mean, geez, he had a ton. Yeah, I think he led the SEC in tackles for loss and he was third in pressures. And Gabe Accus led the Big Ten in Sacks. And he led Illinois in all pass rush production for the last like two years. Like the body of work.

is there. They're fun to watch right now. I don't know if either one of these guys is ever going to be like a 10 plus sack player, but I don't really care. You want the ass kickers, right? Give me the ass kickers. And I will say I talk about Zion Young all the time. It's worth mentioning, you know, the DWI in December and the inter, the altercation when he was at Michigan State. Like, these are things that NFL teams are going to have to evaluate and decide how much of a risk it is. I'm not blind to that. but day like if you're talking about a day two value and just watching the guy play football he's he's a blast Zion young is a warrior man like he has one of my favorite plays in this class where against bama they were trying to like pull a guard into him and the way that he's fumble yes where he just dents right into the dude's chest like opens up the guy I was just like oh my god if you could do that I listen to y'all's edge pod and I like you were going on about eye on and I was like yes Derek welcome to the movement it's just so good I mean you just watch all of

his run game reps against Caden Proctor and you're like all right yeah he can hold up um not not a ton of deception to either of these guys as as pass rushers like you kind of know what you're getting but um yeah and especially with acus he he's I remember watching uh Johnny Newton back in the day uh back in a day. It was only a couple years ago, but like as a freshman, Akis was standing out. He was announcing himself as the next guy on that Illinois front. And so the fact that his production got better every year, you know, the hand usage is really impressive to me. And so obviously not a surprise. He was a former wrestler, high profile wrestler coming up in high school. And yeah, both these guys are just easy. Just feel like guys you want on your team. Like maybe you

don't draft them in the top 25, but you hopefully can find a spot for him in the early second round or you just you just want them on your roster. Can I actually, another quick my guy to like kind of segue off of this a little bit, same team, Josiah Trotter is like my kind of linebacker. We talked about him earlier this week. Yeah, he's fun. He's, I mean, I guess my only issue is the coverage, but if you're looking for a hammer, looking for a nail, I mean, that's exactly what you want.

That's the thing. like you got to know what he is and like he's just the space that he concedes in coverage he's not going to run with guys on like option routes and stuff like that that's not really his game but when i say my kind of linebacker like juan bentley is my favorite kind of linebacker when he was playing really well i think josiah trotter can be exactly that was like you said dan like hammer looking for a nail i think the fact that it's not just that he has that style which i obviously love the fact that he can hit as hard as he does and see it as well as he does at 20 years old I'm like, man, the ceiling is, at least purely as a run defender,

is pretty damn high if that's where you're starting at. I think I just had an epiphany about why I like day two prospects so much. And it's just because it's like, oh, well, his coverage isn't great. And I'm like, yeah, no shit, he's going to go 75th overall. Like, so what? It's just, it's easier to let go of a guy's flaws if I'm picking him in the third round. Right. There's flaws, but there's something about them that you just like, yeah, I want this guy on my team.

And I mean, Josiah Trotter is the type of player and competitor that his dad, I'm sure, is very proud of, right? I mean, just the way Jeremiah Triter played in the league. And that is something that he was because he started at West Virginia, goes to Missouri and one year at Missouri. But he impressed enough where he's a first team all SEC player. And so, yeah, I think it's easy to like him. It's just you have to understand that on passing downs, you have to hide him a little bit or you have to be comfortable with what you're asking him to do. It's a good blitzer.

So you can kind of hide him in that way. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think as long as you have a plan for that without just completely taking him off the field in those situations, yeah, I mean, I would totally understand taking him. I graded him as like a top 70, borderline top 75 guy. No, he was like 70 on my board, something like that. So I'm right there with you.

It's just you have to be okay with the coverage stuff. So one of my day two guys along the lines of the edge rushers who were talking about, Kearron Crawford from Auburn, who is, again, you turn on the Auburn tape to watch Keldrick Falk and then you come away talking about number 24. I wish they gave him more opportunities to get after the quarterback. He's clearly explosive. We don't have testing numbers for him, but he plays with the explosiveness that I think is going to translate well.

He moves well in space. And I was always taught that to judge an athlete on the football field is to really study him in space. How does he move? What's a change of direction like? What's the Twitch? And I think with Keion Crawford, to me, I think that he checks a lot of those boxes that I'm looking for.

So I had a lot of problems with that Auburn defense and the way they kind of deployed their best players. I wish Crawford had more opportunities to get after the quarterback, because when he did, I thought it looked pretty appealing. Keirang Crawford is like the video game that's mocking you when you should be studying, because you're watching Keldrick Falk, and like you have to, you're like, I got to dial in. Like he doesn't really have the sack numbers. Auburn's scheme is weird.

I got to figure out how I feel about Keldrick Falk. and then Kieran Crawford's over on the other side. Just like, wouldn't you rather just watch all this fun shit instead? This is cool, right? Which actually, here's what they call a tease, guys. When we get to our day three guys, Kieran Crawford factored heavily for one of my day three prospects on the offensive line, who we can get to right after this break.

I won't leave you in suspense, guys. I'll just start off with our day three prospects. My guy, a guy that I've loved probably since November. And Dana, I'm honestly, I'm curious. if you can help me out with why he's not talked about more, maybe because we just don't have that many snaps of him playing his NFL position. But I mentioned Kieran Crawford because one of the only, one of the two sacks allowed last season by Trey Zune was to Kieran Crawford.

And I get it. He's a college left tackle. There's 125 snaps of him playing center. So maybe people are just low on him because there's not that big of a body of work. But Trey Zune was an awesome. left tackle for Texas A&M. And you tell me he's going to move to center. I'm really excited about that.

And I think he's going to be very successful as an NFL center. Yeah, I don't think you're wrong at all. I mean, I think he's just kind of stuck in that third, fourth round range where there's several centers. It kind of feels like they all are. That's where the whole center class is. That's what I'm saying. So, like, he's stuck with Jake Slaughter and, um, uh, he shh, he shed from, uh,

Kansas State and Logan Jones from Iowa. And it's just kind of which one do you prefer. But Zun's absolutely. He's in that mix right there. I had an NFL scout tell me that the coaching staff told him that Zune is the most pro-ready linemen they've ever had. That staff going back to, I think probably going back to Duke and, you know, before they were at A&M. But he's just somebody that can handle, realistically handle multiple positions. So he's going to help you get the five best out there.

Center is probably going to be his best position, but teams really believe he has five position flexibility. So in a pinch, he can go out and play tackle. He can play guard. That type of versatility is key. And so I, yeah, I think he's right there on the borderline. Like in my final top 100, or my final top 300, he's somewhere high up there. He's like 102.

So like right on the border for me. I feel like you're not drafting him to be a full-time. tackle, but I really love that that's probably an option if you draft him. Like if Tray Zoon just needed to handle right tackle for you for an afternoon, it might not be amazing, but you could ask him to do it, which is incredible. I mean, he was, he was an ass kicker in one of the toughest conferences in America. And I think the two guys that gave him problems were probably Keerun Crawford and then very famously, Rubin Bain and Akeem Mesidor,

gave that whole Texas A&M line fits. But guess what? Those guys rock. Like, that's okay if you struggle with those guys, especially out on the edge where you're probably not going to spend as much time in the NFL. I just, I don't know, plug and play is dangerous when you're talking about like a potential day three prospect. But I think his upside is so high moving inside. And like I said, I expect this guy to have a pretty long NFL career.

And that's not totally unheard of, too. right like the packers all the time used to just take purely left tackles and then move them all over the line including into center obviously barton uh did you know barton was a different caliber of a prospect but like there's some proof of concept that if you can do it like NFL teams will give you a chance to go and do it all right Derek what about you let's talk some day three guys we can actually funny enough stay at texas a and i have two here one of them i think more realistically body type wise actually has a chance to like and be pretty good. The other one, I just adore him. The first is the cornerback, Will Lee, number four. Anytime I am watching some sort of other offensive prospect, I'm just like, man,

number four is just on these guys. And there are a couple of times where you can see some stiffness in his hips and he'll be a little bit high trying to transition in and out of breaks. But he's a guy who has like, he's like six foot. He's really long. He ran pretty well, jumped out of the gym. Like he's just, to me, has a lot of the traits that you're looking for and is consistently a guy who to me had like pretty good reps when I was watching a lot of other offensive players or obviously some of the other defensive prospects that were on Texas A&M, which speaking of, the player that I know what he is and he probably won't be very good in the NFL, I think Tori and York's film is fun. Unbelievable.

Like he's, listen, he's, he's, and here's, I'll start with why it probably won't work. He's like, he's 511, 226 pounds, obviously pretty small. the other guys that are like 510 511 usually they're thicker so it's like michael kendricks was this way but he was 240 like cashman was a little bit thicker chris borland if we remember who was really good for a minute he was 240 drake greenlaw is 511 but he's 240 um but even the guys who maybe didn't quite get to like 240 in terms of weight they're usually longer like denzel perimen is two full inches longer in terms of arm length uh nick bolton in that same uh boat uh nicobi dean even though he's a guy who's a little bit shorter and like not that thick, he's got longer arms than a guy like Tori and York.

And so he's limited by all these things and he's not like an exceptional athlete. But when I watch the film in terms of linebacker know-how, like the learnable skills of the position, I think he's second only to Sunny Stiles. Like he truly understands the position at an extremely high level. It's just he's just not probably built to be a pro. And so he's a guy that like I want on my roster. I just, it's probably going to be purely as your fourth linebacker. He's so easy to like. I mean, just and watching him at Shrainball practices and then really appreciating his tape,

I agree. I mean, he knows how to play the position. He knows how to play it at a high level. He's a future coach, right? Like, that's a guy that's going to be, and it might be sooner than he probably wants it to be. Like, I don't know that he's going to get drafted because of those limitations, but the tape says he should be drafted. The, the, the, the, his mentality and the know-how says he should be drafted.

It's just the lack of, like of inches at certain parts. Like, that's just, it's going to hurt them. And I had far more strengths. Like, the bullet points under a strengths are probably triple the number of negatives I have. The bullet points under the weaknesses. It's just some of those weaknesses are pretty important. Exactly. That's the thing.

Like, there's not that many. It's just they are so pronounced that it's like, what can you do? And he's also a player that, you know, I mentioned all those other similar comparisons. The only guys who you can find who are very similar height, weight, and arm length are like David Long, who, you know, was a very specific type of player. Malcolm Rodriguez, who never was a really able to crack like starting rosters. Ivan Pace, Jr. who has been like kind of a fringe starting level player, but also in a very specific role.

Landon Roberts maybe, but even he was a little bit heavier. Like it's, it really is hard to find like analogous cases for a player built like him. But I just, you watch him and it's like, man, if you could put him in Anthony Hill's body or something like that, it's a top 15 pick. But it's just that's not where we're at. Ivan Pace is who we brought him up right when we did. Yeah, we absolutely. To me, like that's the most like he went undrafted. And then he goes to the Vikings and he was an impact starter for them.

Now, you know, we'll see York hopefully goes to the right spot and gets an opportunity. Hopefully he's got some staying power. But it's just, yes, these guys tend to get overlooked by teams. Talking to scouts about Tori and York was like finding out the tooth fairy is not real, you know, where they're just like, ah, yeah, sorry, man. That's, that's probably not a thing, unfortunately. But I absolutely see him as the type of guy where, you know, he hears his name called very, very late. has to sign undrafted and he is immediately going to have so many fans among the fan base of the team that adds him you know where they're like oh my god we got this guy an undrafted free agency our scouting department kicks ass this is great and hopefully he makes the most of that opportunity uh okay i'll go now um so day three guys i'm gonna go with a couple of those hosiers a lot of indiana players are going to get drafted um my guy riley now a count Got to talk about him.

You got to bring him up on a my guys show. Got to. He's just so useful. And I think that'll continue in the NFL. Former walk-on, former linebacker, Wisconsin didn't know what to do with him. Goes to Indiana and he becomes this unsung hero of the offense where he's not getting any headlines. But he executes every single play, whether he's asked to be a blocker. He's asked to just, you know, work underneath and help move the chains.

Goal line. they gave him a couple of goal line carries. He has two touchdowns as a fullback. So just the ability. And there's only so many landing spots in the NFL for a guy like this who's more of that hback role. But I don't know. I just, I think he has staying power.

I think he's going to be in this league for a long time and be just someone that's too useful to get rid of. Do you have like a potential comparison, Dane? Would it be somebody like Reggie Gilliam kind of like in that mold? Yeah. Right. I think that's like he's not quite. check, but similar in terms of role and Gilliam's a good one.

But like how many teams realistically use that type of, that have that role as part of their offense? It's just, it's not many. And so fit and finding the right situation is going to be paramount for a guy like this. But I just think there's too much there. Special teams as well. So even if he's not a premier player on offense, I think special teams will keep him around.

So I wanted to, Riley and Iwikowski, someone I wanted to highlight and then stick with Indiana. Kalin Black, the running back who my highest ranked combine snub at running back. He's a top 10 running back in this class for me. At the pro day, tested really well, 445 and the 40, 37.5 inch vert. And he's somebody that just the legs just keep churning,

the feet, turning it over, turning it over. Talk to multiple safeties in this class who specifically pointed out black as the toughest guy that they had to tackle all year just because of how the motor keeps going and he makes it a chore on defenders to get him to the ground. And so he's a no nonsense runner, but good decision making. Pass Pro shows up. This is, I don't, some of the backs in this class, I think really struggle in pass pro. Jeremiah Love might actually be the best pass protecting back in this class, which is kind of weird to say because usually the top guy that's maybe that's one spot where he's where he's missing,

but love top pass catcher, top pass protector. Kaelin Black's the other guy that finds a lot of success because that same thing I was talking about with him as a runner, that same effort, that same physicality, it shows with him and pass protection as well. I'm glad we're taking some time to highlight Hoosiers who are not Fernando and the receivers because there are plenty of them. Like Pat Coogan is another guy worth mentioning

who we haven't talked a ton about in this draft cycle. We have talked plenty about Aden Fisher, but another good player who's probably going to get drafted on day three. There's more to it than just the who's your passing game, for sure. No doubt.

Can we go around maybe do some like honorable mentions? I want to hear more of your guys' I do have at least one more day three guys, so I would love to do that. I still got, I got plenty. I mean, we could do two hours if you want to. Yeah, Derek, throw one out there. So one that we, I already talked about

this guy in the receiver show, but I really just think like once you get outside of the top 100, this is the guy that I want. Reggie Virgil out of Texas Tech, I think it's just, I just think that he's sweet. Like the route running and the pluckiness that he has in terms of just finding the ball away from his body, I said it on that show, but like it reminds me very much of like Cardinal Tate. And obviously that's just a different caliber of athlete, but just it looks like that when he's doing it. He's also a guy that like he's played mostly on the outside. He was 83% outside, according to SIS and some of their draft data. He's a guy who ran a lot of vertical routes so he can kind of be your like,

Devontas Smith could be this way on the outside. Crystal Lave is a little bit this way just in terms of that like skinnier guy who helps you clear vertically. I think that he can do that. He didn't run very well, but I think he like strides well enough that he can do it. And then again, I think just his ability to like get in and out of zones when he has to, I thought was impressive. And then he's also not that old.

Like, Dan, you have this in the beast. He's newer to wide receiver, which usually guys who are like newer to a position. it takes him an extra year or two in college, but he's a four-year senior, only 22 years old, like not a guy who's super old. And so I just, for a lot of those reasons, I really liked him. He to me feels like this is going to not sound like the sexiest comparison,

but from 2015 to 2018, Seth Roberts was like a really nice wide receiver three for the Raiders at a very similar build, like 6-2-195, and then the COVID seasons happened and he kind of like his career fizzled out. But if you can find, like, a really solid 400, 500, you know, wide receiver 3, 400, 500 yard wide receiver 3 in the fourth, fifth round, he to me is like a pretty good bet to be that guy.

I like that. Seth Roberts caught 183 balls over the course of his NFL career. Like I did like obviously the, the hope is you find Puka Nakua in the fifth round, but like that is a perfectly good way to use a day three draft pick. Absolutely. And there are two bigger receivers, I think in that fifth round round round. range that I really like. It's Reggie Virgil and Colby Young from Georgia. Both those guys, I think are good, good values at that point in the draft. Roll your eyes all you want, Dane,

but I have to put it on the record a week before the draft for talking about my guys. Here you got. You already brought up black out of Indiana, but let's talk Jonah Coleman briefly. Let's just do it. I like it more than you do, and that's okay. But I'm sick of, I'm sick of him being overlooked. And I assume it's because he's short and slow, which is a big, you know, it's a bad combination for a running back. You love the Washington guys. You know, I was thinking that this morning. A, number one, I went back and watched like two Jonah Coleman cutups this morning just to refresh myself because I haven't needed to look at him recently.

And number one, I was like, damn, what, yeah, like, what's my thing with Washington this year? And then the other thing I was like, oh, look, there's Denzel Boston again. and something badass. But I just, I think Jonah Coleman's awesome. And yeah, like his speed is problematic. That's why he's probably going to be drafted on Saturday. We're not talking about a top 50 picket running back. But I just love guys with good contact balance who like don't go down on the first

tackle attempt. And every time I watch Jonah Coleman, that's what he does. He's just a little bowling ball. He's got fantastic balance. He's, he's either going to make the first. guy miss because I think he's got good change of direction. Or he's just going to stay on his feet when that first guy dives at his ankles. On top of that, for how small he is, he is a good blocker.

You can find plenty of reps of him stonewalling guys in the hole. And I think what goes underrated with him, it's easy to look at college running backs and be like, oh, he needs to work on his abilities as a receiver. Jonah Coleman caught 87 passes in college. and one funny thing that I noticed while I was rewatching him. DeMond Williams did not always make life easy on him. Like he was, he's firing lasers at this guy from like point blank range.

And like just, just not a whole lot of touch to speak of. And he's catching it anyway and usually doing something with it after the catch. So he's undersized. He's kind of slow. I understand why he's going to get drafted where he gets drafted. But I think he's a good football player. Yeah, I mean, he is.

is. It just, the lack of juice bothers me, and that's why he's a four, five, fourth round pick, fifth round pick for me as opposed to, would you take him top 100? Like, probably not, but you influenced me so heavily, I have to admit, you know? Like, I spend eight months talking to you. Don't, don't let that be a case. I mean, shoot, I'm wrong plenty. If I was, if I was the Seahawks and I still needed a running back when I had, like, at pick number 96, absolutely. I would take him. For sure I would. And like and Mike Washington's more exciting because he is so fast. But like if if yeah like fringe top 100, I'd pull the trigger for sure. I gave you one of my another running back.

Yeah, sure. We'll call him a running back. But Eli Hydenreich from Navy who you're drafting him because what he does is a pass catcher. He his his ball skills are so impressive. You know, six foot 200 pounds. He's grouped with the receiver with the running backs. But really he's more. of a weapon with how you're going to use him out of the backfield. You think of that Navy offense and it's, you know, that option offense, but he's the most prolific pass catcher in that program's history. So I just, then the testing was phenomenal. He ran in 4444 in the 40. Then at the pro day, 655 in the three cone, which is just blows my mind.

Pretty gnarly. Yeah. So I just, to me, this is a guy that's going, if you, hopefully it lands in the right spot where they're going to use them the right way he's not a full time he's not a quite a full time running back not quite a full time slot receiver somewhere in the middle some some some type of tweener but i just i don't know i'm going to find a way to really use this guy's strengths i i actually do have one more and this is not a player that i studied by himself but i was watching his teammate it kind of like you were talking about like you go in to watch

keljerk falc and then kiron crawford pops for me it was watching emmanuel mcneill warren and watching both of the Toledo corners, I think are like, you know, they're guys that are probably not going to go before the fifth round or whatever. And one of them, I think number three is a little bit stubbier. And so he's probably going to be a little bit not going to, you know, make it in the NFL as much. But Andre Fuller, he's six foot, 200 pounds, ran a 449. Like, he to me was consistently sticky in coverage tackled really well, which I think especially if you're going to be a late round corner, like to be able to stick on the field. That's like a potential run defender, I think is really helpful. So he was just the guy where, again, you're watching all these like star first round top 50 prospects and then you notice their teammate.

It's like, okay, that that says something. And Fuller to me was one of the guys who popped. Delito, I don't know. They just find those DBs. It's just they've got a history of it. And yeah, it's going to continue in this draft. It's possible they're going to have three defensive backs drafted and probably another one that's going to be a free agent. So it's pretty impressive.

We don't have to plan out future shows. right now, Dane. I know you're ready to be done with this draft, but we got to talk over the summer about, like, identifying the next Toledo guy or the G5 guys that are hanging around. Well, Jason Candles at Yukon now, so maybe we shift to Yukon or, you know, I don't know, because that's, that's a big loss for Toledo.

But the magical keep going. Can I mention a few more here? Yeah, of course, Dane. Michael Helden from Central Michigan. Now, he's a seventh round guy, combine snub, but the way he played this year for Central Michigan, he just beat up on some Mack tackles in a big way. And he tested really well, 6-4, 270, 40-inch vert, 4-70 in the 40.

So I think Michael Heldman is one of those guys that is easy to overlook, but in the late rounds, I'm definitely rolling the dice on him. who a wide receiver um Cyrus Allen Cincinnati he's my top combine snub at at wide receiver 511 183 Texas A&M transfer who I think

there's a lot more talent there than what we had a chance to see at A&M or Cincinnati so I like his chances Lance Mason from Wisconsin another late round borderline guy from you know a transfer up from FCS, but he's just kind of solid all the way around. Like, not the biggest, not the most explosive player, not the strongest,

but he's kind of good across the board. And so I don't know, I just feel like if he sticks and makes a final roster, I won't be surprised. So I like him quite a bit. I do want to throw out for the record a couple more, just so that I have them for my own satisfaction. but I love Jacoby Thomas. I continue to love Jacobi Thomas.

Dane, if he's your 11th safety, I mean, and it is a loaded safety class, but like if that's the caliber of player, I can find at like the 11th safety somewhere on day three. I just, I love a safety who hates the other team. It's, it's my favorite. And Dallan, Dallin, like among the day three tight ends,

he was probably my, he was probably my favorite, like, day three tight end. at the University of Utah. And let me throw in, oh, I gave this one to, I gave this one to Derek when we did Receivers Day, but you weren't on that show. My, my gigantic running back looking receiver, Josh Cameron down at Baylor,

I just love a receiver who wears 34 and posterizes people. I can't wait to see where he goes. Yeah, all 220 pounds of him. It's awesome. I just, I love a weird football player. Yeah. I struggle with him a little bit just because obviously there's a for a guy that's 220 pounds, he runs like he's 220 pounds.

And that always worries me a little bit in terms of separating and things like that. But yeah, on day three of the draft, yeah, I'd love to take a swing on him. That makes sense. One guy that I, two guys I didn't mention in the day two category, but I just want to mention him, Kiante Scott from Miami. I mean, since you said you call me Thomas, guys say Kianti. I mean, the way, right after that Louisville game, we talked about him on Building the Beast the next week. Just, he's a linebacker and a corner body.

And there's some, there's some holes in his game when you're talking about going in reverse and being a true nickel. But as a downhill player, man, he's, he's so much fun, so explosive. One of the best blitzers in this class, just regardless of position. So really like him. And then at linebacker, Kishon Elliott, who I don't know why he's not liked more. He tested well. He's a good athlete. He's a former quarterback in high school.

He was part of the same recruiting class as Diego Pavia, New Mexico State. Then he transfers to Arizona State. And to me, this is a, he's got starts, NFL starts in his future. I just think he's a really well-rounded linebacker. Arizona State with a just sneaky under the radar draft class. I feel like Maxi and Notchor is getting some pub as we get closer to this thing. but Elliot Keith Abney flying under the radar a little bit

and I would argue I understand it because of the injuries but like Jordan Tyson flying under the radar a little bit for my money as well working out today for teams not going to test but he's running routes so hey that's something something to keep an eye on until Thursday which Dane I believe is this your last

show until you join us in Chicago it is and we got a whole week planned. I mean, we've got a live get together on Tuesday with fans, which is going to be fun. I think we're doing a show Wednesday. Like, it's going to be a crazy week. And the week of, you always start hearing more and more things.

And it's like, okay, we got to weed through this. What's the BS? What's actually, am I believing? So the knowledge we have now compared to a few days from now is going to be really interesting. Which we will be able to parse through it all together. really looking forward to that. Dane mentioned the meeting greet, and yes, we will be live Thursday

and Friday during the NFL draft, not to mention a recap on Saturday. Dane, myself, Derek, Robert Mays, the great Bruce Feldman. We're going to have a loaded show. Cannot wait to finally get into this, but for now, that's all we got. We appreciate y'all,

and we'll talk to you 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 lever rating. We'll see you next time.