The Bill Simmons Podcast - March Madness Takes, NBA Lottery Debates, and Best NFL Draft Story Lines With J. Kyle Mann and Todd McShay

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by J. Kyle Mann to answer some NBA mailbag questions before previewing an exciting Sweet 16 round of March Madness (4:23). Then, Todd McShay joins to break down this year’s NFL draft class and the best draft story lines (01:03:49). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: J. Kyle Mann and Todd McShay Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo Sam’s Club | Join The Club of Yes And This episode is sponsored by State Farm®. Like a good neighbor, State Farm® is there with the Assist. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠⁠ www.rg-help.com⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It was part of CR Month. Me, Chris Ryan, Rob Mahoney. The last one we're doing for CR Month next Monday night, LA confidential, so you have a few days to watch it. People have loved Sierra Month. We had a mailbag as well if you've missed that. I'm not doing baseball today, but I have been really into this baseball preseason.

And I actually think the Red Sox are going to be good. I just want to get some quick stuff down on the record before we hit the podcast. I think the Red Sox are going to be good. I think the overrunner for them on Fandul is 87 and a half. I think they're high 80s, at least. my favorite over in the American League is the Baltimore Orioles, which I think they're 85 and a half. But the 90 plus win, I think is interesting.

That's like plus 170. I just like them. I think they had like the year from hell last year. They did some smart stuff on the offseason. I like the Alonzo signing. I like their pitching. A bunch of young guys ready to go. And I think in general, I think the Red Sox Yankees and Orioles are all going to be really good.

And we'll see with the Blue Jays if they're going to have the year after curse. But in the American League, usually there's three 90 win teams or four. Leans more toward three, sometimes four. But I feel like Red Sox, Orioles, and I think the Mariners are going to be the third 90 plus win team. So one of the bets I was looking at was Red Sox 80 plus wins, Athletics, 70 plus wins, Orioles 90 plus wins, and Seattle 90 plus wins. That's plus 732. Me, Sal Henshin's House.

So I'll jump in and did that as a group bet this morning. But I'm excited to have baseball back. And I think so I'm going to have the Red Sox. And I think I'm going to be rooting for the athletics and the Orioles and the Mariners overs as well. Lots to talk about. I'm really fascinated about the height stuff with baseball too. I want to get Billy Gill in there to do a complete height breakdown because now they

had to measure people for the automatic strike zone, which I thought was very exciting. So anyway, that's probably coming either later the week or next week, but wanted to get that down on the board. Red Sox over the shirt. Red Sox are going to be good. And I think Roman Anthony, there's MVP buzz for him, which scares me. But he has a chance to have a little bit of a Drake Mayish year two. I think that's the hope in Red Sox Nation. But we like this team. This is good starters. I think they have bullpen and they have a lot of bats. They almost have too many bats and in kind of loaded up at different positions. I'm really interested to see what kind of mid-season trade they make. So stay tuned. All right, coming up on this podcast, I'm doing

a mini-mail bag at the top. We're going to talk to Jay Kyleman about the Sweet 16 this weekend. Some of the draft prospects stuff, my love for A-Cuff. As you remember, like a month ago, House and I were raving about A-Cuff, and he's exceeded our expectations. So we're going to do a whole bunch of March Madden of stuff. And then Todd McShay is going to come on to talk about the NFL draft and whether this is the most boring drafts we've had this decade. That's my feeling. maybe he can talk me out of it. So basketball, football, little mailbag next. Take a break.

Pearl Jam and then a mailback. This episode of the Bill Simmons podcast is presented by Sam's Club. It is that time of the year when you just got to get in your car and go somewhere. I've done that plenty of times of my life. Nowhere gets you ready to go quite like Sam's Club. Snacks, the gear, super low prices on gas. They got a bunch of stuff that keep you and the whole crew rolling. And here's what you got to do.

You got to join the club of yes end at samsclub.com slash yes and you must be 18 years or older to purchase membership and membership is subject to qualifications. Visit samsclub.com slash yes and for details. Kyle Manis here from the ringer. You can hear him in the ringer on the ringer on the NBA show. You can read him and Dana Child doing an awesome draft guide for us. This draft is out of control. I mean, we get to watch some of these guys.

actually kick ass in the tournament. Some are gone. Some remain. Some are playing each other. We have a whole guard. We have a top four. And then we have a little guard kind of cluster that you just know five guards in a row

aren't going. So something weird will happen with that. And we have my guy, A-cuff. I feel vindicated. House now we're all in a month plus ago. He's been great. So there's a lot to discuss. I want to start here, though, with the non-basket. with an on March minus thing.

So I was talking about expansion last week. And I got this email from Nathaniel, who like me, wonders why Vegas is automatically the second choice for expansion behind Seattle. He called it the entitled Trust Fund Baby Sports City being handed every team. He doesn't understand it.

And he's like, why would we add two more West teams? So he was like, why wouldn't we consider a Midwestern city, Columbus, Ohio, for example, second biggest city population-wise in the Midwest, but behind Chicago, 300,000 more people than Vegas. They have the pathetic blue jackets

who were actually turned around, two hours from Cleveland, but mentioned Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington. What's your thought about Louisville, Lexington with an NBA team? It's been rumored and whistled around a couple of times,

but is it conceivable that that would happen? It's good. I mean, there are obviously, as you know, a lot of layers to it. In terms of like the first level of is there interest in it, yes. I mean, my God, yes. This place is just consumed with basketball. Granted, it's like we don't have any pro teams here. So, I mean, I tell this story that like some dude with like a like hillbilly like,

that's the wrong way to put it. Just like one of those long gray panhandler beards. This country dude was working on my house. And he, like, caught wind that I was a basketball guy. And he just had this big twang voice. So he goes, you think the Dwan Wagner can shoot the ball? It's just like, it's everywhere. It's like everybody knows everything about high school prospects and things like that.

So, and then there's a history. And the Kentucky colonels killed here, the Huey Brown team. And they won. They were good. And, I mean, you know all about that history. It's like, so, I mean, like, in terms of getting interest in it, I think it probably be pretty similar to Oklahoma City, except Oklahoma City didn't have any other basketball entity competing.

So on that level, I think people would eat it up, man. I don't think that would be any problem. Yeah, I might have to do a special episode with the cases for other teams. Because Seattle should have never had lost their team and should have a team. And I'm all in on either we relocate and give them a team. We have expansion. Like Seattle has to have a team. I don't personally think we should expand.

I think there's other teams. We could move around, whatever. But if we're talking about what the other team should be and you have Kansas City, which I think could potentially have a real case. I think the Louisville, Kentucky area, Nashville versus Memphis, I think it would be weird to have two Tennessee teams. And if anything, it would probably make more sense for the Memphis team to be in Nashville.

But I just think there's other options. And Louisville, I remember a few years ago it was in the mix for a second with rumors and stuff. So I didn't know. So you're pro. You feel like you could support two major college basketball teams and an NBA. I think so. I mean, I would, we came really close.

I mean, I think the Memphis one back in the early 2000s. That's what it was. Yeah. It was a pivot and it came really close. We've got a pro arena. There's a lot of stuff with like controlling the dates that they'd have to figure out. And there's the corporate stuff like UPS is scaling down here. Amazon has a huge, you could figure all that stuff out, I think.

But I don't know, I'm with you. I think Seattle's the one that's just like for the justice of sports. It's an outrage. Yeah. They got it. They got to have it back. I did two Sabarsonics mailbags in 2008 that are actually pretty interesting to reread as this team's just getting taken away from those people.

And that was almost 20 years ago at this point. So I want to say I'd have a team. I don't know if we need to add two more teams to make up for this egregious thing that they did almost 20 years ago. Speaking of that, I had a really good, I was going to do a couple mailback questions with you. But this one was about Durant from Josh and Charlotte. I think KD going back to Seattle to finish off his career with the MBA expands will excuse him from all

his team changes throughout his career. It would just be really cool to see KD throw a super sonic extrusion again to finish it all. I'm really mad I didn't think of this. And maybe I did and mentioned it in the past, but now that we know that Seattle expansion is probably happening unless something goofy happens. But

KD coming full circle and ending in Seattle, it's kind of the best redemption he ever could have had, right? He won the two titles with the Warriors. He doesn't really have a franchise, and then it all comes around, and he becomes like kind of the face of this rejuvenated Sonics thing, and he never should have let, they never should have lost him in the first place. I really like the symmetry of it, Kyle, man. Oh, yeah. I've been, I've been eyeballing this for a while. Like, I think when I was

working on that big Kevin Durant project, like two, three years ago, maybe I forget, it's a time warp. I forget how long ago that was, but that was one of the things I was just thinking about his, the, when I was thinking about the arc of his and the narrative of the off-court stuff with him, I was like, that would just be a really nice mouthwash for all of it. It really would be a mouthwash. It would be like one of those fancy ones, like a $25 mouthwash you get for Christmas from somebody. Got like a lot of alcohol in here. Like, whoa.

You've got fancy $25 mouthwash is for Christmas? My wife's friends will give weird, weird, yeah, those like weird bath kits or weird, weird toiletry kits, all that stuff. Yeah, I think. I'm not in the art. in mouthwash market. I'll have to become familiar with that. Might not have gotten there into the, into the Louisville, Kentucky area. All right, a couple more.

Mike Parsons wants to know, does Danny Hurley take the Lakers job offer if he knows Luca is going to be his franchise player within seven months? Can you imagine those two together? Oh, my God. I mean, JJ's intense enough. Yeah, Danny Hurley quit already. I never believed that Danny Hurley so weird. Did you? No, because, I mean, it was pretty obvious what was happening. I mean, it was a pretty incredible moment where they were trying to rally Yukon to be more like financially invested across the board.

Because I think they were in financial trouble at the time. But those questions have kind of gone away. And then it just never, he flirted with the Kentucky job too. And in a way that was just like, can we just get through this? Right. Can we just get to where this is going to end up? And then he admits it that his agent advised him to just flirt and bat his eyes at him. I mean, when they had all those young players, and that was kind of the path that they were on

before they just pivoted unexpectedly with the Luca thing. You could talk yourself into it. It was like this guy is elevated every player that's played for him. He just had a good thing going and he still has a good thing going. But man, I just don't. Who's the most intense coach in the league that knows that the backstop behind them is so solid that they can really, really get on guys?

I mean, it's Missoula. I'm trying to think of the other guy. I mean, Spolstra will just like, because he knows that he has the top. down support. His pollster doesn't count. He can do whatever he wants because he's like an institution there. Missoula is probably the one that it could go sideways if he handled it wrong, but I think

he handles it really well. I think JJ's up there. JJ will lay into those guys and get pissed off during games and, you know, treat them like adults. But that's like when you watch college, and I think this year especially, and this has been such a good tournament, so much fun to watch and so many storylines. But there's some real major personality coaches in this. None of whom would ever succeed in a million years as NBA coaches.

Like, can you imagine Mick Cronin? Oh, my God. Coaching like Minnesota Timberlaves or something? Like, there's no chance. Even Patino. We saw it fail with Patino. We saw it fail with Calapari. It's just a different kind of breed.

So I don't think Curly style would work. I never thought it would work. I thought it would have been a huge mistake. Yeah. Agree. So, all right, here's a couple more. I had the, talked about the wait, what moments of the 21st century, the Luca trade, Bams 83, and Malice in the palace. Couldn't really come up with the fourth one.

And David from Portland says there's a clear fourth, the Thunder Jazz game getting postponed in March 2020 when Rudy got COVID-19. This was the oh shit moment for us basketball obsessed mouth breathers that made the pandemic real. Mouth breather is a really good choice of words there. Yeah, a pandemic. That's a really good one. and I think it's been lost in history because COVID in general and I barely remember anything

from those first four months of COVID. But that specific day of like, I remember going into my old house going back to watch the basketball and putting it on and it just was clear the game might not happen. And just the tech started and you go on Twitter and it was like,

oh man. We're really doing this now. We've been circled in for two, but now this is now happening. But yeah, I think that would be a worthy fourth. It feels that day I can kind of replay in my mind and like the day before in a way that kind of, I feel like we're going to get, I don't know if we would ever do it from the sports angle, but I mean, it was the, I guess it's the OJ doc, the 30 for 30, right, where they went through chronologically in the day. Yeah.

I feel like that day could, I don't want to watch that because for the reason that you were just talking about, it was just like, anytime I think about it, I just want to fucking vomit. Yeah, I mean, my wife was pregnant, like when that happened, was getting ready to have a kid. So all of that is just kind of like, yeah, that was a dramatic time. But I specifically have a memory of, I went to, this is pretty funny, I perchance just got to go to a Calipari fantasy experience. This is a friend of mine had a ticket to it. I did not buy tickets before people start laughing. I just like, he texted me the morning ago.

But I remember we were, I was talking with all these people I didn't know. And I remember we were hanging out in this hotel bar and this guy was just talked my ear off about COVID. and I was like not taking it seriously at the time. And he was trying to hand wave it away. And he was just like going through. He was like bird flu disappeared and he just rattled them off. And I can hear this guy's voice just reverberating in my head where he was just like, COVID, it's going to go away just like all those.

And it was just kind of like one of those famous rippling, rippling moments of just like, man, I wish he had been right about that. Oh, man. John from Seattle was talking about SGA streak of scoring 20 points, 130 games. right now. You like that streak, ambivalent, sort of like it, where do you stand? All the counting stat things these days,

it's kind of like, it feels like it requires another pass through to like get context just because the volume is so much higher across the board, you know? And it's like even when I hear the counting stat things like with KD passing each other or passing, I don't, you remember

that staff meeting we had a few years ago where they were talking about LeBron was getting ready to pass the scoring title and I just kind of murmured some backhanded comment about Kareem never shot threes and played four years of college. It's like, there's just so many things like that where it's like it's so hard at face value. I mean, to take it just as is. I just think that's my thing. It's like if I hear them, I don't get as riled. I like to kind of like swoop in and kind of see unless it's something that just they put the context in it for you when you hear it initially.

Well, I remember writing about this in my book. Sometimes with these streaks or records, it's almost unfair to the eras or the decades when people didn't know this was going to matter. Because like the 70 wins and when the Bulls got to 72 and 10 and the Warriors beat them, like nobody thought about wins like that really until the 70, the 1967 Sixers, when I think they went 68 and 13, it was the first time like a record was a big deal. And then we had the streak with the Lakers and the Lakers beat them. and I think that went 69 and 13. But all those Russell Celtics teams,

like they're just trying to survive this season, right? They're playing like six games and seven nights. Like nobody ever said like, man, you should try to get 75 wins or whatever. It's just they didn't think that way. So when I think about this 20 points in 130 games or whatever, Will, who is the most number obsessed guy out of any superstar in the history of the league,

who literally led the league and assists one years just to prove that, he wasn't unselfish and was passing up like layup so he could hand the butt like it was just a maniac with this stuff if he had known this was a streak he just would have done it for like 500 games in a row i don't i just think he would have been like whoa this is the thing and he just would have kept doing it so i don't know anyway john from seattle brought up the streak and he said he thinks mike conkney's streak of not getting called for a technical foul is more incredible than the Shea streak. It's over 1,200 games without a technical foul, 19 seasons.

What happens in his last game? Does he just crash out and get ejected? Or does he try to throw a perfect game and just never get a technical? I got to be honest, I forgot that this was a streak that existed. I did not know. An incredible, why aren't we talking about this? Mike Conley, passing the $1,200. Do you think you're just like not doing your due diligence as a person,

standing up for yourself if you don't get at least one. Like, is it an indictment or is it a credit? Are you like a pushover? It's like, but Conley, I love Conley. It's just like, I don't know. I don't really know what to make of that. Who's the top, who's like in the top 10 for that, that stat? I don't know.

I only know the other way where it's like the most technicals in a year. Rashid had over 41 year, I think. Draymond's probably moving toward the career leaders. But yeah, I would love to know more about the Conley streak and whether he cares about it. All right. Next one is this is a great one. Conspiracy Bill really love this. Really jealous. I didn't think of this from Kyle Taylor. The Pacers have a top four protected draft pick thanks to that Zubot trade. If the pick is 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, it goes to the Clippers. This is Kyle Taylor. This basically proves they know the lottery is rigged.

They just forced Adam Silver's hand. Do you really think, Adam Silver is going to let the quippers get a pick in the five to nine range this year with all the aspiration stuff looming. Conspiracy, Bill wonders, if this came up when they were trying to make the Zubach trade with the protections. If anyone in the

Pacer's office was like, hmm, you think there's any world we don't get a top four pick if five through nine would go to the quippers and make them better with all this other stuff going on? I don't know. I really like that one. Obviously, it's ridiculous. But It's like a classic conspiracy one.

There's just enough there. I was like, oh, all right. Sounds like a really good episode of, wait a second, coming up. That would be a good thing. I'll get Concepcion out of it. Pretty funny. That's a two-part episode with you. I feel like that's going to do big numbers.

I can't wait. I mentioned this email earlier from Matt and Charlottesville about Obama did a video with Anthony Edwards to promote the presidential library in Chicago, and there was no one on the Bulls who could make it. And he asked was just the lowest since I've ever gotten for the Bulls. So I actually made a list because I didn't do this, lowest post-Jordan Bulls moments. It's Rose getting hurt

on the first game of the playoffs in 2012 has to be number one. The Jay Williams motorcycle accident. Jay Williams was good. Forgot into history, dude. Jay Williams was, yeah. I remember there was one game when he went toe-to-to-toe

with Jason Kidd where it was like, wow, we might be really doing this with this guy. When they salary dumped Lou Al-Dang in 2014 for Andrew Bynum and then waived them when they had like a 48 win team because it was a tax thing. I forgot about that one.

Yeah. Booming Jerry Krause's family during the Ring of Honor Night for the 96 Bulls. Really bad. And then they tanked for three years after Jordan left. And there was no superstar

in any of those drafts, 99, 2000, 2001. It was just like really bad luck. If you move those three years, two years ahead, now all of a sudden, I'm at least with LeBron and Dwight Howard

and might get a franchise guy. So that would be my top five. Other than that, they're cheap and they never pay the luxury tax and really seem to pay money for a front office and just do dumb things. The 44 point game, wasn't it 44? Wasn't that the lowest point total game they had? I think that was in 99 when they only scored.

I think it was 44 points, like the all-time record. I don't remember that. Jesus. I think that was right after Jordan. But yeah, you're right. I mean, those like falling during that time, there was a there was a convergence of a lot of kind of things that suck for them right there I mean you're in the heat of the shack era where teams are just trying to like load up

we had a lot of overlapping things that I think hurt the skill level in the league where teams were like really overdrafting to kind of get bodies to play shack and then there was the high schooler thing going on so you had the quammies and the Tyson Chandler's and the Eddie Curries and it's like Tyson ended up being a good player but Eddie had all kinds of problems yeah it was a better There was a bad one. So that was tough because they had a lot of high picks during that time. Two great draft questions for you from Brian Noakes. Hypothetically, would you rather have Wembe or the top two picks in this draft?

I mean, Wemby. Wemby by far. Here's a better question. Wemby are the top three picks of this draft. I'd still take Wemby. Wemby. He's on a goad arc. You take the goat arc.

Wembe are the top four picks of the draft. I get all of them. I can even have Caleb Wilson. I still would take Wemby Peterson Boozer DeBanza and and we'll say Wilson is that what kind of a core is that

if you took that four and compared that to the cores and the rest of the league that we really like I'm trying to think where would that rank I mean it'd be up there I mean that would be the best that probably be the best young core

aside from the spurs I'm trying to think of the other ones yeah well the answer is the top top five picks of this draft. Now you have my attention, because now I could have Peterson and A-Cuff, I could have Caleb Wilson, DeBanza, and Boozer. I just have an entire starting five for Wembe.

Now I'm thinking about it. I don't know, man. I mean, the only thing that could creep in is you're just like, all right, there is a little, there is the little voice in the room that's like Wembe's. The 7-4-7 guy might get hurt. You never know. Yeah. Yeah, because we were doing like the redraft for the past few drafts, and I just as an exercise ran them through this like rubric that I've been doing lately where I just say like is they are they a, can you hunt them in switches? Do they fit this play style? Are they a spacer? Are they a room protector? And Wimby got a perfect score other than. And I was going through every other. And I was just like I can't shoulder shrugging it. But I was like the one one thing that I have in there is volatility rating. And I was like, Wimby can't have a perfect volatility rating because.

everywhere else he's good. But it's like there is that little sneaky thing of like you were saying, it's just like durability. You know, he's already encountered some of that. That'd be the only thing, man. Because like otherwise, Wimby's impact is just,

it's been belabored at this point, but it's, it's unbelievable. Another Spurs question. Elliot Gold wants to know. He said he hasn't heard anyone talk about this. And I know we haven't talked about it on the pod. If San Antonio could do it over again,

would they take Kahn or VJ? I don't think VJ is in the conversation over Dylan Harper knowing what they know now. So the question for me would be con because they have Fox and Castle as two ball handlers and then you're just adding this incredible shooter and guy who knows how to play with or without the ball. I think they would run it back with Harper. And I think Harper is that special. But I also don't think they probably thought con was going to be this good right away.

But I think Harper with Wembe, I think, is slightly more interesting. thing, like this incredible physical inside, outside guard who's going to be able to learn out of shoot three soon. And I think that's where you'd want to be with Castle. If that's about those three, I think that I like that three more than Castle Con and Wembe, but slightly, right? Yeah. I mean, it's a no lose, obviously.

I mean, you're going to, con would help them. I remember in the early mocks, I had Con getting drafted, like, picked to the spurs. And I talked myself out of it because I was just like, they just don't really go with guys like that. They love to go with the big switchy physical athletic guys and they're like the skill stuff we think will come around. Yeah, man. I mean, I think Dylan has a chance to be like a

first team all NBA guy. I mean, he could flirt with like he's a two-way player, you know, gets just, yeah, he's a special guy, special talent. I get this email a lot. This one's from E&W. Would you ever consider becoming the GM of the Holy Cross basketball team, especially with Dame

Lillard running Weber State feuding with Woe. Courage. Courage assistant. in GM of Davidson, Wojt. I would not do that because I would get too into it. I think it would ruin all the other stuff I'm doing. I would just become obsessed with trying to find guys.

It sounds like a tap a little bit to Woosh too. But I, no thank you. I would not want to be in the NIL world. One year. One year and we film it. You wouldn't do it? I think that's the only way you would do it if it's like a documentary and a book and you're

because Holy Cross would be the team to do it because there's no there's no reason they couldn't be Gonzaga in the east. Like they really could. There's there's a New England school that should be awesome. That should just be cherry picking awesome New England kids every year and has a killer coach and, you know, good education. But you're just like the school in New England. It doesn't exist.

So you don't count St. John's or is you, I mean, I guess you con. I'm saying like going from like past Connecticut, you're talking about Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont. basically, like that part of the country, but really Massachusetts. Yeah. Where it's like it would be conceivable to build a powerhouse up so DeBanza could be like, I know B.W. is paying me, but I've always dreamed of playing here and playing at home. And that doesn't really exist. I'd love to see it.

Did you watch The White Shadow? No, I never, you know, that feels like core curriculum, but I haven't. All right. I'll end with one goofy one from Ethan from Houston. If the Paul George suspension is actually helping the Sixers avoid the luxury tax is the next logical step for the Kings to plant something in Zach Levine's suitcase. Obviously, no team would do this. I was thinking, though.

Plan something? Well, listen, if there was like a landman type show for the NBA, like a completely insane show where crazy stuff happened, this would be a season one kind of cliffhanger plot, right? where the GM's like, we got to, we got to get under the salary cap. What are we going to do? People start looking at each other.

It's like, we got to put, you got to put something in a suitcase. We got, this is what we at, because that would happen on like a paramount show. Yeah. Or I was going to say the industry guy who gets them back to the apartment,

just keeps turning the stereo up. Industry, yeah. The industry slash paramount version of an NBA show, I think that actually would happen. All right. We're going to take a break and then we're going to talk college. This episode is brought to you by State Farm, upsets, buzzer beaters, game-changing plays.

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Availability amount of discounts and savings and eligibility. Very by state. All right, March Madness. You love it, Kyle, man. It was a really good first weekend with a lot of chalk, but also it checked all my boxes because I got to watch some good players. I got some terrible coaching like always. Bill Self, who's become,

I think my least favorite college coach for some rational reason for it. I just for some reason he annoys me. They blew it again. And we have some great games, including this weekend where we have Arkansas versus Arizona, we have Illinois versus Houston, we have St. John's versus Duke, and we have Bama versus Michigan. I honestly think those are four must watch games. Like even if you're an NBA fan, you're not really watching college, those four are like awesome games.

And in general, I feel like the level. of basketball is just higher than it used to be. And we've talked about that with Tate on Sunday, that we've better guards, we just have more talent. What's your favorite out of those four games? What are the one that, what's the one that you can't wait for? Oh, that is really hard to pick. I was going to say that D.C. Regional is going to be incredible with the Yukon and Michigan State and then Duke and St. John's. I mean, the narratives in Duke St. John's are so great. I mean, Patino talking about, you know, redemption for the lateanor shot. Granted, Patinos played Duke in the tournament before on their way to their 2013 title.

I mean, the two that jumped to me, Arizona, Arkansas, I think, is going to be very fun and athletic. I can't wait. It's going to be very fun. Do you want to just start there? Do you think Burris is going to guard Aikoff? Yeah, I do.

I think that's going to be... I can't remember an actual draft pick spot being on the line for a game. Loser Leaves Town, yeah. As I've told you over and over again, I think those are the two choices. for five. I felt that way for weeks. And I actually

would give a slight edge to Burry's just because I think it's harder to find guys like that. And there's this point is such a point guard draft. A lot of teams already have a point card. And Burry's just like, you just know what he is. And even I liked what he did over the weekend. It was

five for seven. He made the biggest shot of the game. But him trying to guard Aikoff is going to tell us a lot. And then Aikov, who's on just a fucking heater at this point. trying to navigate that, knowing that a team's going to have five days to think about how to stop him.

I can't wait for that game. Yeah, Acuff versus, I think the narrative for that game is going to be, just through the draft lens. I mean, Acuff versus Arizona's length is going to be the story because Arizona has a lot of size and strength. Arkansas is explosive and long and lanky,

but they're not as beefy as Arizona. They have Crevas, who's like 7 foot two. He's gigantic. Coa Pete, who's probably a first rounder, the Tobay O'Waka. I was another guy who's a big strong dude. I think that's going to be the thing to watch. I was pulling up in preparation for this,

just thinking about what to watch for. You know, his finishing is the thing that I'm going to be looking for, him in the paint, because I looked at the teams. I cherry picked it. I mean, they played a great schedule this year. They played a lot of teams with a lot of size. But I filtered for half-court finishes at the rim, and he had a hard time.

On Synergy, it was like 34.8% at the rim. So I want to see him use his left hand in the pane. I want to see him draw contact, get the line, those kinds of things. Because when he plays against bigger players, he kind of has a tendency to just kind of like, you know, pray and throw it over the top of them as opposed to like he's not super creative. But like we talked about, he has all those other pluses. That's like you're nitpicking him, you know. It's like, and I think that's the basis for critiquing whether or not he can be a star is like he's got to get that paint production up, I think, to validate that side of the argument. But man, he's just such a great game manager, shoots the shit out of the ball.

It's going to be a really fun matchup. Yeah, I've noticed the rim stuff too. And that's where, because he really does remind me at Kyrie with a lot of the stuff he does. The one part where it falls apart is Kyrie would have that double clutch ability and that bang off and he would always finish with a good shot.

A cup sometimes doesn't. But I also feel like, you know, he's been at the same college for less than a year. He's got Calipari as his coach. They kind of fall in a ruts with him where he's just like driving right. every time and you kind of know it's coming. They don't mix it up and have him coming out,

getting the ball in different spots. A lot of times it's just, he's just driving right. And then teams overplay him, and then he'll cross over and try get a little floater. I feel like there's more there is my point. I don't, I think when,

if you put him on a really smart team, and they'll be like, look, this is what happens when you do this. This is what we think you should do instead of this. Like, the sky's the limit. And then the defense stuff, I just don't worry about with him. Like, did we talk about Kyrie's defense when he was coming in the league?

Like, we... I worry about the defense. No, I... It's not going to be great. But you can win with guys who are, you know, who are elite offensive guys who aren't that good on defense. We've seen it. Yeah, they're going to be pretty special.

It's tough, man. But I think he's pretty special as my point. Yeah. That can't be the reason not to take them fifth. I think it's not, it's more a worry of how, like, spectacular offensively. You take the rim, you take the rim stuff like I'm talking about, because I think that is going to be an issue if people can run them off the line.

Yeah. I just, I'm not as like ready to say to buy into the superstar talk and go as crazy as some of the people, other people are right now. I find myself on the little more pessimistic side of that because of the things we talk about. And then if you add, you got, you've got to build around protecting him defensively. Granted, I think he, like we were talking about on the last episode, I think he's going to scale into a different type of role in the NBA, because on this Arkansas saw a team man, he's making the food for everybody and nobody. Nobody's making food for him.

Like, he's just making all the meals and it's like there's nothing easy. Like there might be a broken play where it comes to him and he bangs a three or whatever it is. But I think in an NBA offense where he's given more like catch and shoot things, he'll have a lot of opportunities to produce. I'm just like him driving a team as the star. I think there's just a lot of kind of outlying questions, outstanding balance on that conversation for me. I'm glad you made that point because I think he does so much offensively for this team, you have to factor that in the defense. And if your life's easier,

it's a little easier to be a two-way guy. That's true. He could look really bad in this Arizona game. This is the right kind of team, I think, to just throw multiple waves of defenders on him, scout him the right way, and this could be like a six for 21. In the other hand,

he's a pretty special player. And this could be a case of like, despite how good, this Arizona team is, you know, he just goes on another heater. I don't know. Like the stuff he's doing as a freshman, which doesn't have a lot of parallel in the history of the tournament, they were saying like Fox was the last guy who had points like this.

And to me, like worst case scenario, he's in that Fox Garland range as a pro where I think he could be as good as there is Garland. And that's maybe where kind of where the floor is, right? Yeah. And that's, I like Darius Garland. That's a really good outcome for the six pick in the draft, you know? Yeah, absolutely.

And those guys end up being, it's like the conversation kind of flows the same way where we're like, okay, this guy's probably the center of a team. And you think about the warts coming in. A lot of times, I mean, those guys end up going to teams that don't have it going, like the Cavs at the time, the Kings at the time, and this time and any time, obviously. But they get a chance to have their own team. And they do have like a lot of production and output and everything. but the warts kind of come, you know, they come back eventually.

And then we kind of resettle you into like, okay, you're a really good player, but we can't live or die with your ability to sort of like feed everybody all the time and be efficient. And we protect you on defense and things like that. I think you're right about that in terms of what type of player he's going to be. I mean, like the- So I'm higher on him than you are. I would say you're a little higher than me. And I think I'm just in general in the overall conversation,

and I find myself being a little more worried than other people are about some of these things. But you're talking about the Luzer Leads Town thing. The Fox Alonzo thing was the last, that was one of the better ones we've ever had, right? Those two facing off. And an awesome game, too, like an actual memorable March Madness game.

Yeah, I worry about the finishing stuff a little bit with him too. And I worry about that more than the defense just because I saw the same thing you did that it sometimes looks bad and predictable And like we're watching with Scoot right now. The Scoot's as good of an athlete as he is. His finishing just isn't good enough. And I thought he was going to be better as a pro just being like this Derek Rose type.

But the difference between Rose, Westbrook, pick a guy who was awesome in the pros was they were able to finish it at the rim. I mean, going way back, this was the Bassett Telfare thing. He was like, Basset Telfare. Whoa, look at him. And then it's like, yeah, this guy has no chance when he's driving the basket. Like this is not happening. I don't think A-Cucs going to do that, but Arizona will be a good test. So Bama, Michigan?

Oh, man, yeah. This is where our guide, this could be, first of all, I think Bama could absolutely win this game. They could. They're 11 to 1 to make the final 4. I think that's the best bet of all these calls. I don't know if it'll happen, but I know the odds are better than 11 and 1. They could win two games in a row and make the final 4. And our guy, the lost guard in this draft, who might end up falling at 20 and being awesome.

like this is going to be a really good stage for him. Yeah, I've been such a fan of LeBaron Phelon for such a long time. I got to see him play in a showcase near my house for the first time, and that was kind of when the hearts over the eyes kind of popped out. You were texting me about him in like November. I was going to say of like 20, 23 maybe. He's just, he's a winner man. We were talking about Mike Conley earlier.

He has a lot of MFer in him, but he's not as passive as Conley, but he has a lot of the adhesive kind of things that fall. between the wrinkles of a team and this makes it, he just makes things work. He's a little bigger than I think people realize. He's like six three and a half, six four. He's, he's just, he's a lot lower and slinkier than A-cuff. He's not as like solidly built, but he just, he's improved his shooting. He's very, very clever. He has like Rondo-y kind of qualities at times to me where he just picks his spots really well, a good passer. He had like a, he had, you would have, you would have had, I need to send you this clip. He had a touch, a touch pass.

assist off of a rebound where he just lightly tapped it to one of his teammates like extended. And I remember thinking I was like, yeah, that was a one million percent of Larry Bird. Oh my God. I loved it. The problem with it is like Michigan just chokes people out. They just get you in a headlock. I get it. And then you make mistakes.

Yeah. It's going to be tough. Well, you have them 12th on the on your big board right now, which where do we have no, he definitely moved up, right? Was it in the teens? From, from when to win. And that's the first outing. So he hasn't moved this year.

He was on our board last year really high, actually. I don't remember. I'm looking at the thing now because Amet's 14 now. And I'm just, I'm betting on Phylon over A-Met 100 times out of 100. Just, I'll do respect to Amet, but, amen, but, yeah, I just, come on. What are we doing? The Iowa State, Iowa State's going to be a test for AIME. He's been dealing with, like, right-leg soreness and, you know,

but I don't think that forgives some of the things that have been rough all year. It's just a lot of hypotheticals with him. And he's a get a GM fired kind of lottery pick. It's scary. It's scary. Yeah, like Iowa State turns people over and they pressure. And if he has a good showing against them, I mean, that's kind of, you don't want to go too far

of like, you know, somebody has a good game and you draft them based on that. But I don't know. With this one, if he has a good outing against them and show some toughness, I don't know if it's going to swing me dramatically. but I like outside the lottery, I see it. Once we move into the top 12, I'm just not seeing at that point.

Is it weird that I feel like Michigan is by far the most vulnerable out of these four, you know, the four, we got Duke, we have Arizona, we have Houston, Michigan. Like out of like the super teams, something about Michigan makes me feel like somebody could get them. And I don't know what it is. I don't know, man.

Because they control the glass. They weren't playing well, and they've really gotten a lot of stuff together. Yaxel's playing incredible. I mean, they beat a scrappy St. Louis team. We'll see. I mean,

once the teams can kind of like throw punches with them size-wise. Yeah. Alabama can't do that. They only play one guy who's like six foot 10, and he's kind of beefy. So you think they could just get overpowered. That would be the fear with that game. Yeah, I think they just,

I mean, they're center seven-foot three. Morris Johnson's another guy that I think you, would like, he's a real like Isaiah Stewart type energy, muscular. And then Yaxel plays the three. And it's, it's, they're gigantic, man. So then we have Illinois Houston, which is another crazy draft battle. Those are two guys that are going to be somewhere between five and nine, the guards on those

teams. Fleming's people are cooling off on a tiny bit, it feels like. But, uh, we get to see them go against each other. And that's the bracket. Like Houston's the favorite in that bracket. And they're plus one, 10. So that's the bracket that it seems like people feel like anybody could take. But do you have a strong feeling in either of those teams?

Anything you like? I think any other year, I mean, sort of the pedigree and the style that Houston plays year to year is like big physical. Their bigs aren't as good this year. So this is a really interesting juxtaposition of two teams here where Illinois is very finesse. A lot of Europeans on their team, a lot of skill guys. They have this guy Merkovich that I think you would really like for them. he's just this beefy four who can kind of score from all over. But for Wogler in particular,

this is going to challenge him in some areas that are key to kind of like how you see his value because how he deals with the physicality of those guards of Emmanuel Sharp of Milos Usain and of Kingston, I think it's going to color the way people feel about him. If he comes out and plays great, it's going to help him a lot, I think. Yeah. Well, then we have St. John's Duke.

why doesn't Boozer shoot that 12-footer? I knew you were going to ask you that. I haven't texted that to you. I don't think either. You did. You were complaining to me and Tate about it. You were like good-looking the pros. Yeah, yeah.

Boozer, that drives me crazy. I mean, I know, I guess he can add it, but I've never seen anybody take an open 12-footer and try to turn it into a layup into two guys, more than that, dude. Like, it doesn't seem to me like he has his, what you need in the NBA, like that little like,

I always have this foul line jumper. You know, it's a lot of like stuff in traffic that he can do because he's playing against younger guys. I might have him three. Really? Okay. Which I'm still two.

Yeah, I'm two. You've Peterson three? You've Peterson one. Not piece of one. Yeah. Good luck with that one. I'm out. You're totally out?

I'm, I am. I did this. a couple weeks ago, and even what, the band said to me, it has to be number one. This is like, this would be crazy if he doesn't go number one. I'll be just stupefied by this.

I think, I think that Peterson is a vastly more talented shotmaker. I think he's going to be a better playmaker. I think he's a more explosive athlete when he's healthy. I'm a believer. I mean, that's the big argument that's going on in the nerd world versus like,

When you say when he's healthy, we watch this guy scooting around screens, trying to two-hand block layups, you know, two feet over the rim. And he looked plenty healthy to me. I just think he comes and goes during games. And I didn't see any leadership from him at all. You know, and granted, I get it. He's the Kauai. He's just the silent ashton.

Like, I get it. Those guys have succeeded. But I don't know. I watched him a bunch these last two months. and I see it on paper. I see the case, but I also saw some stuff that really worried me. And I don't think it gets better at the next level. And I don't think he looks like he did in the high school tapes last year.

That's a big argument going on right now. Like I was going to say, like the people who watched him coming up, like the grassroots people who were really invested in it, they, and it introduces all these counterpoints where people are just like, well, yeah, he's planning it's better. athletes now. And it's like he only played against great competition. It wasn't like he was playing against like, you know, little sisters of the poor kind of schools. It's like he, I just think he's a super. This has been really odd. And I think his personality probably didn't help. Like him, you know,

it's probably hard for him to be the leader when he's been in and out and the way things have gone and how he fits into their offense. So, but I still, it's not that I don't like DeBanza. It's just like, I think that Peterson's separator skills are really, really, really, really. special. Like I'm not going to come off that. Yeah, but I could be wrong. But yeah. But if this was your job, you're the GM of a team. And if you mess this decision up, you're never going to have a GM job again. I don't think you're taking Peterson. I think it's too risky.

You could talk yourself on all the pluses, but I just think ultimately you're going to be like, DeBance is going to be awesome. Like, he's just the guy's a beast. There's no way he's not going to be good. You're going to pass him up and keep your fingers crossed. The other thing with Peterson, I'm glad you brought up, like, the, how he's quiet and blah, blah, blah. Kauai was really quiet and the Kauai thing worked. Well, where did Kauai go?

He went to the Spurs. Like, you're basically in witness protection when you go with them because nobody, they have that whole family. When he was there, they had that old family atmosphere. They had Duncan, they had Genoble, they had Parker, they had Pop. He didn't have to have a personality. And he kind of had five years to grow into it. But we still don't know what it's. personality was. Then when it blows up there, he goes to Toronto. He's like a hired gun.

Didn't need to have personnel. They had Vinvuit. They had, you know, Kyle Lowry. They had all these big Nick Nurse goes to the clippers and we've seen it kind of come and go. Now he's a veteran respected. But I just wonder if you're a rookie coming in the league with huge expectations and you have the personality Peterson has and you're going to like Brooklyn or I don't know, the wizards. and people are like, this is our savior. And he's just doing the stuff game to game that we watched them do the last two months. I don't think it's going to go well. Do you think your leader has to be your best player?

I don't have an answer. I'm just curious what you think. I don't think it has to be your best player. I think there's a responsibility that comes with being the guy that we've seen people either sink or swim with. And we saw Lamello struggle with it for years. Like he couldn't figure it out, right? And that was for different reasons. and it was finally they had to put the right kind of people around him

and he got matured obviously a little bit but I just think fits so much so like if Peterson went to Indiana I think that would be great I could see them taking him first that would make sense to me but if we're talking like a shitty team I'd get really nervous with that I'd rather have DeBanza you know I think if you were gonna I mean I'm definitely leaning towards the basketball things working

and I think that where you can throw some doubt in there I think that's legitimate is what you're saying. I mean, like the moment that Kauai got away from that, that accountability and structure, it was like that's when granted the injuries started and caused it. But do you hear a lot of complaints about, you know, in Toronto? It's like, was he the leader of the Toronto team? I don't know.

I'm sure somebody will hit me up and let me know, but it doesn't, yeah. Well, the other thing with Peterson is it seemed like he was very well liked by everybody, right? We never heard, and say my teammates like him, coached everybody spoke highly of them. They seemed to think that he probably wasn't completely healthy in the first part of the year. I just didn't think he showed enough other than flashes and potential. But he seemed healthy to me

is where I kind of disagree with people down the stretch. I just thought the stuff he was doing athletically was pretty high level. And he's just kind of floating out of these games. And I did make me nervous. But I do, you know, I would take him over Boozer. Caleb Wilson's the wild card for me Like that's the one I've become more and more fascinated by as I watch

Because I just know what he is I like what I like when guys come in the league It's like I know exactly what you are And I know I know how it's gonna work And I know you're gonna put on 20 pounds of muscle And I just know what this is And he'll end up going forth And it'll be a great pick right

I wouldn't take him ahead of Peterson Right But Peterson's the one that gets you fired it's risky i mean you i mean you just to quickly the you're saying that he was doing high level athletic stuff to me and this is this is this argument i think is one of the major hinge points in the in the whole draft is like our eyes what we're seeing is you saw that as high level and i'm saying i know what i've seen and i'm just you think there's another level beyond that yeah i'm just kind of like can i be disabused of like did i see what i saw i think so it's like zion

playing defense in college i was just i'm just kind of like i'm playing defense in college i was just like great defensive upside. I think that's more of a part, like a choice thing on his part. Yeah. But with Wilson taking it to that, I mean, I think defensive upside in like the top four, I don't really feel like there's much question. I mean, I think that he has the potential to be like a special defender. And I think if you thread that needle and you say if the offensive outcomes in there is there's any

weirdness, like let's say that Boozer bumps his head on like what he's able to expand and do. And it's like, is he a superstar? No, he's like a fulcrum that adds to get off. offense. And then Peter, yeah, and then DeBanza, maybe, let's say he's more of a DeRosen, not super efficient from three. He's just more of like a tough shot maker. And then Wilson's an elite defender who can like, I think he's going to shoot the ball. You can talk yourself into it is what I'm saying. I mean, he does some things athletically build that are like, he's on another level, man. I mean, I have these freeze frames where he would jump from like

the second block line on the lane. And then like the next frame, he's like literally his head is like over the rim. He just does things athletically that are really separator special, like among the top guys. I'm going to create a verb here. Not comparing to Janus. It's a little Janicey. If Janice is a verb, there's some Janicey, like, freak, freak, freak athleticism with him. That, and that's what I mean. He's not, I don't think he's going to have the same. Janus has got to be seven feet tall. And I think he'll probably end up being not as big as him. But he's a little, he's just, he's that special athletically.

And I do wonder, like, if he could pass Boozer when, when teams are working these guys out. The thing I really like about Boozer, and you could see it in the, the game they, that's seeing any game, um, when it was like,

holy shit, are they going to choke? Um, any close game he's in, there's a calmness to him. He's just clearly a guy who's been, he's like a 28 year old, like seven-year NBA veteran, but he's 19. But he's clearly just been in so many games since he was like 10 that he doesn't get nervous,

doesn't get rattled. He'll make like a huge play and he doesn't even like do a fist pump. And he's always like gathering the team. There's like some Dunkin stuff with him that I like. He's just even keeled, super competitive and never rattled. To speak to the, oh, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, that's it. To speak to the Caleb Wilson thing, I think the body type stuff that you're talking about is

is pretty, pretty spot on with, he has that elastic, like, he sits really low at a stance, and then his like zero to 60 explosiveness is crazy. Not to be overly simple, but he dunks a lot. He dunks a lot. I think he was, he's either close to or leading the country in dunks this year. So he gets easy stuff, the easy stuff that's accessible cable is and gets it, you like that. You like to start from a simple premise like that, you know. And then, but he just doesn't quite handle the ball.

It's just like Janice was. a special cross section of that. It's just like he just had guard skills in terms of like getting downhill. So that's yeah, that's kind of the difference there. Yeah. And Janus was playing even you could see in the tapes from the Greece with the Greek YMCA tapes. Like he was handling the ball a lot even back then. This kid is just runner jumper athlete, shop blocker, dunker, finisher. Um, but could be like the best guy in the league at that stuff in five years. Who knows? It's a really good one. Yeah. And then you have all these guards. This is great. And draft's going to get weird because when we get to five, six, seven, eight, you know,

we didn't do a good enough job about talking about actual college basketball, so we'll end on this. The Patino thing, because in college versus pro and in college versus pro, pro you have the players, college football and basketball, the coaches kind of become, you know, the anchors of the sport in a lot of ways, the signature guys. And it was just so funny watching him in that dude. game like basically playing all the hits being a huge asshole um being a motivator being competitive and then they they get this winning this winning play which was just one of the worst defensive

possessions i've ever seen in my life i don't i still don't understand what happened i give up a layup and he just kind of walked over the coach and shook his hand i there's just nobody there's nobody like how compelling he is as a coach well i grew up with bobby knight and those guys he really feels like a throwback to this era when these coaches were these larger than life guys. So him going against Duke, I feel like he's bringing everything in this game. Like this will be it.

This will be his like one battle after another PTA movie where he's like, we're going fucking IMAX. We're doing a giant chase scene. I'm getting Del Toro. I'm getting Penn. Like, I just think he's emptying the chamber in this game. I've gotten it relayed to me that he

is very, very confident that they have a legitimate shot to win it all. I was just thinking about it. And I was like, I mean, this team is really, really, I'll say all that to say, I don't know that that's going to happen. If it does, I think it'll apply to this. What I'm going to say here is that I think he is a legitimate argument for best college coach ever. I think if you think about what he's done and where, I mean, and that spans all levels.

It was like when he was at, like, Boston, I figure he was Boston University. No, he was at BU and UMass. Yeah. Yeah. No, not UMass. Yeah. And then Providence. Providence.

The final four at Providence. He goes to, you know, he wins at Louisville. He could, if he'd stayed at Kentucky, he would have been locked step with Coach K. I don't think there's any question about that. And he leaves and comes back and he wins at Iona. You know, and now he's doing this at St. John's at this stage of his career. I just think that, and then you think about the way that he was a pioneer. He was a forward thinker in terms of college, but his teams were shoot 25-3s in the mid-90s.

Like, he just, he was always ahead. The press stuff in the 90s was, he was probably his. His teams did it the best out of anybody other than maybe Arkansas. Yeah. I mean, this is the stuff like I know when you, you probably had your, your like hooks in you years as a basketball fan.

What were the like the hooks in you years for you Celtics-wise? Like the teams that you remember. Was it like what year were we talking about? Mid-late 70s, like the moment I was going. But yeah, when I first started understanding basketball, which is probably in that somewhere in the 80s,

but college was the best it's ever been during those times, right? And it was so many great athletes and so many, you know, lottery picks staying three, four years in college. And a lot of the coaches, like I remember Guy Lewis was the Houston coach. They had the best athletes and he was just terrible. He was an awful coach. Right. And so when you actually saw a good coach, it really stood out. And Patino was one of those.

It was like, wow, this guy's, this guy's man. And honestly, Coach Kay was a good coach, as much as we like to make fun of him. I would never begrudge him that. coach. I just want to go on record. Yeah. Dean Smith, that was always, that God tastes on here. Dean Smith, that was always a little suspect of. I think there was some, there's some shakiness with him. Like that, that Perkins, Jordan, Kenny Smith team, not, I forget where they, when they got ousted, but that was insane that that team didn't make the final four.

Michael Jordan is junior year. You couldn't make the final four. Had some talent. But yeah. But the Patino, you're right. Like, he's definitely a one one. I wanted Holy Cross to get him when he was, went in career purgatory and he went to Iona. I thought that would have been like an amazing. Yeah, let's ride this dude for three years. Turn it around. He went to Greece and won. He went over. Like, he's just, he's just a dude who has like established process. He went everywhere about Boston. He was terrible the entire time in Boston. He was probably, he's, he's probably looking at the like, you know, the effort era of the NBA and being like, are you fucking kidding me? Right. We're doing this, though. Right.

Yeah, we don't love coach. Like a team like Phoenix would have been his dream. Like Devin Booker and 14 guys who just try it really hard. Yeah. He would have loved that. So you're talking about him going through the game and it's like him just playing the hits of all the things. It's like everybody that I've talked to that's played for him, it really goes on and on about how mellow he is now. Because, you know, you're talking about Bobby Knight.

It's just like he absolutely was Bobby Knight, but just didn't get the same attention because I don't think he did it publicly as much. But, yeah, man, I think he's got an argument for the best ever, aside from the messiness at Louisville that he had that went on. Do you think certainly messiness, say the least, do you think they have a best player in the game possibility for this game? For St. John's? Yeah. I mean, if Zuby, Edge of Four goes wild. I mean, he's a guy that is like a toolsy, like a team could steal him, does a lot of stuff well. I mean, he's the guy who left Kansas because self-foot and play him.

And it was one of the all-time. You should, yeah, I figured he did a big FU game. Yeah, that, I mean, that's in play. Yeah, the Edge 4 is their best player. Because he definitely. He cares himself like the best player. He can't shoot threes. But there's an end of the game wherewithal to him that I just, you just watching and your eyes get drawn to guys when you're watching.

Like if my wife was watching, she would just think he was the best guy in the game watching it, not knowing anybody on either team. He does pass the test. Like I could see him throwing some haymakers at, uh, at Duke. And then, I don't know, I thought the Sienna game was like significant.

Like there's a recipe with Duke where you can see them get a little, little discombobulated. Like, obviously, they're a point guard situation. But I think the Boozer brother's been great.

Like for where, for where, where we thought we were with him a couple months ago. Like, I think that guy's, it could be a first round, first round pick possibly,

maybe if he came out, like late first round? I don't know if I'd go, I don't know if I'd go first round for him. I mean, I could see him coming back another year and playing on the team. They're going to be good. And again, next year. But I think size-wise, yeah, St. John's has a lot to throw at them and athleticism-wise.

I mean, they've got Dylan Mitchell, who's really big and long, that they can throw at Isaiah Evans, the big lanky, like, movement shooter for Duke. I didn't know if your eye was. Dommey Saar is the other dude that I figured that you would like for Duke, the guy who looks like a giraffe. I mean, if he hits threes, I mean, he's going to be like a first round or two. They got a lot of guys. I was shocked the guy I probably liked the most was the Boozer brother. Like just for the guys that I was pleasantly surprised that I liked. I just think he, I could see him being in the NBA for like 10 years.

He's another one right. I know what he is. He's like when Trey Jones just kept landing on teams playing 20 minutes, I think he's one of those. And I do wonder if he comes out if a team thinks like we'll take, like the Pacers, we'll take Cam third and then we'll get his brother in the second round and we'll bring them together because I do think they have something pretty, you know, pretty unique. But that game's going to be great. I can't wait, Kyle, man. This is going to be fantastic. I can't wait to neglect my family and watch basketball all day. It's going to be.

The other thing is NBA's gotten really good too because we have 10 teams that don't try and 20 teams that do. And anytime any of the two 20 teams play, it's like Detroit and the Lakers last land. Like that game was really entertaining, you know? And we have a lot of teams jacket for playoff position. So anyway, all right, Kyle man, don't get divorced. Try to keep it together this week and say hi to everybody over there. Appreciate it, man. Thanks.

So every Wednesday I decided to look through the NBA slate, make an NBA parlay, the rules would be whatever I want. We were doing this because on Fando on Wednesdays, you can use a profit boost token and increase your potential winnings before you place your bet. But it is it is baseball season this week. And we're kicking off opening day, obviously. Love having baseball back.

And me and Salon House and Hensh, we did a little over under Winsparlay. I want to tell you about before the season kicks off where we have the athletics have to win 70 plus games. The Red Sox have to win 80 plus games. The Mariners have to win 90 plus games. And last but not least, the big one, the Orioles, 90 plus games. This is our sleeper team to be a real contender in the American League. So you throw all those together as a four-team futures parlay, and it's plus 732. So I'm foregoing my NBA bet this week, and I'm recommending that as my future.

We'll bring back the NBA next week, but it will be maybe they'll even put it up on the sportsbook app. Either way, don't forget to use a profit boost token for your NBA bets on Wednesday. Fandul, play your game. This episode is brought to by Volkswagen. All right, let's talk about the Volkswagen Atlas. This is a 7-C powerhouse that actually makes sense for real life. It's got cargo space for all your gear, the dogs, even half your rec league soccer team.

And under the hood, a 2-liter turbocharged TSI engine that hauls up to 5,000 pounds. The 7-seat Atlas, you deserve more space. Visit v.w.ca to learn more. Suv-W, German-engineered for all. This episode is brought to you by IG Private Wealth. the thing. Real wealth is not just numbers on a page. It's living life on your terms, running the business, taking care of the family, setting up the grandkids. IG private wealth helps make complex financial decisions more straightforward with integrated plans that connect all the moving

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All right, Todd McShea is here. You can listen and watch the McShea Show, which is now on Netflix as well, or you can watch this video on Spotify. We launched, tell the audience what you launched this week. This is pretty exciting. I'm pumped, man, and I appreciate your support. I've told you that privately, but I also want to share it publicly. The fact that I came to you, I don't know, eight months ago and said there's this project I want to do. We kind of mentioned I fueled the draft tracker for ESPN for a long time.

And I always thought it was good product, but we could do it better. And we're kind of in phase one of what we just launched yesterday, which is the McShay NFL draft board, which is basically a microsite connected to the ringer. It's the ringer.com slash McShay. And it's the initial launch. It's the top 100 prospects, top 50 evaluations. It's got the Mach 3.0 on there. It's just everything housed in one place.

Mench lives there. We forgot to mention MENCH is actually just living inside it virtually. No, I, I, truly. Virtual Munch is in there. He's in there and he's and he's writing, hopefully right this moment is writing a report on a guard from like Iowa State, you know, like that's the vision I have that he's always just kind of grinding in the version of Munch. So we're really excited about it and finally a place to kind of house everything.

I've been doing this 26 years, Bill. I've always kind of dreamed of being able to create a database. Yeah. As I've directly dealt with Catapult used to be Exos, and they had multiple NFL teams, and I've talked to general managers and all the things that go into their database with the comparisons that they pull out,

with the history and kind of the trends for each position, each workout drill. We're going to build that together to make it as... It'll be the only thing in the market that will mirror that of an NFL scouting department and what they use for their drafter. I'm excited. The best thing about the draft, and this is the case for the NBA, too, is being able to then look back and forward and who does this guy remind you of, who does that guy and the comparisons.

The NBA has some great ones right now with this draft that's coming up. And then with football, it's the most fun with quarterbacks. We don't really have as many fun quarterbacks to talk about in this draft, but this does lead to my hot take. Okay. I thought of this this week as ESPN, our old employer, was trying to go. get a, are we sure Ty Simpson is the best quarterback? And I was like, this is the most boring draft we've had this decade. This, the, we're trying to manufacture. That's a direct insult, Bill. No, no. I'm saying like from a storyline standpoint, we just don't have the drama yet.

And I don't think it's going to be Ken Ty Simpson catch Mendoza. But the drama comes. Right now, I feel like it's boring. Where is the drama? What's going to happen? What are you looking at? It's like, oh, this is going to be good. Ooh, this is going to be juicy. Where is it? What's going to happen? I think it's Jeremiah Love. He's the best player in the draft, but he's a running back. And you look at, you know, I don't know that it equates to the NBA, but you look at the money and it doesn't.

There isn't a correlation, an exact correlation. But you look at the running back position. If I take a running back and, you know, like last year, Ashton Genty was a six overall pick. You're now paying him as if he's, he's the eighth best running back in the league by veteran salary. And you could have bought for him and you're paying him like is the eighth best running back in the league. That's the worst case.

Right. And even if you could block for him, you're having to pay him based off of what the running back salary structure is and the annual per or the average average per year of the top five guys, whatever it is. Running back is the second lowest on that chart. Yeah. Where it starts with quarterback. Then it's edge rusher. surprisingly, it's now wide receiver as third, then you get down to the offensive tackle spot.

So if I can get an offensive tackle or an edge rusher and pay them that money, which is eighth in the running back list, but you're talking, you know, $30, 40 million per year for a veteran on their second contract. Right. That's a massive difference. And that's how teams,

you look at the Seahawks, right? JSN still on his rookie deal. Kenneth Walker still on his rookie deal when they win the Super Bowl. they can then take all that extra money in the salary cap and go put it in different places, like a deep defensive line. So that's the struggle with Jeremiah Love.

And you've got a team and the Cardinals that could use them at three. You've got the Titans that would love to pair them with Cam Ward at four, the Giants at five with John Harbaugh, and the commanders at seven. But I don't know that any of those teams in the top five want to spend that capital. It'll be interesting. I think the watch starts at five with the Giants. But everyone I talk to in the league says if he's not the best,

He's the second best player in the draft. And that guy's not going to get out of the top five. But where's he going to go? Yeah, there's no way this can happen in the NBA. The only real way it can happen is what we have this year, where you have the top four. And then basically the next five guys are guards in some order. And a couple of them are point guards.

And there just might be a situation where, like, the fifth, six, seven team already has a point card. They don't need a second point guard. but by the board, it's like, whoa, we're going to pass up A-Cuff. He just dragged his team in the final four and he might be Kyrie Irving. We're not going to take them because we had Daris Garland. That's the only way I can think of it. I was talking to a Giants fan today who is one of the funniest things.

And this is why I think the draft will eventually become way less boring and actually pretty funny. You have the Jets and the Giants, both of whom are like, all their fans are like, you know, the Giants are five, the fans are like, we should probably take love, right? But then everyone who takes a running back in the top five, it's a disaster. Downs is another one.

Nobody wants to take a safety that high. You have them on your big board. You have them fifth. But as you laid out the Seahawks, over and over again, we see these teams. They stack the offensive and the defensive lines and then build out. And if you have the quarterback and the two lines, the rest is a lot easier.

and then over and over again we see these teams in the top seven, eight. They're like, yeah, I'll take a safety. It's like, you can find safeties anywhere. So why don't these teams try to mirror the Seahawks

and actually just try to build out the lines? The Eagles are another example, right? Yes. The last two Super Bowl winners, right? This year's unique. I can't remember you. I've been doing this, like I said, 26 years.

I can't remember a year in which you can make an actual strong argument that the three best players are a running back, a safety, and off-ball linebacker in Sunny Stiles. Oof. Like three of the positions we've learned to save money on over the years.

Right. And then R. Val Reis, who we're calling an edge, was kind of a hybrid edge off-ball linebacker. Yeah. And if you're so, and you're projecting, yeah, he's going to be the next Micah Parsons. But the tape doesn't show that he's there. And Micah didn't, you know, Micah went into the Cowboys locker room as a rookie as an off-ball linebacker.

There was some injuries. He went to Edge, and we know the story, how it played out from there. So it's, that part's fascinating because I talked to GM, but we did six interviews at the Combine,

right? Yeah. With general managers. And every single one of them, and I talked to a bunch of other ones in the league, it's this mantra of, you don't pass up on a Hall of Fame

player in the draft. You take the best players. Are there Hall of Fame players in this draft other than maybe Love? I mean, Sunny Stiles could become a Hall of Fame linebacker. Yeah. Okay.

He is today. And Jeremiah Love could become a Hall of Fame back. And Caleb Downs can become a Hall of Fame safety. They're all that good. But it's kind of talking out of both sides of your mouth that you don't pass up on a Hall of Fame player, a guy that you have that high on your board with that grade. But then you look at the economics of it and you say, this doesn't work.

You look at running back, every running back taken in the top 10, go back to Todd Gurley. We're talking about, you know, Four Nett, Christian McCaffrey. Bijon, Ashton, Sanchin, Zayquan, none of them have won a Super Bowl with the team that they were drafted by. Or made the Super Bowl

with the team they were drafted by. Gurley made a Super Bowl later on. But yeah, not one of them actually won a Super Bowl. And it's been a long time since the running back drafted in the top 10. I think Gurley was 10 overall, too. We wound up even making it to a Super Bowl.

So Peterson was the last, I don't regret this at all, running back, taking that high? I'd have to look at it, but I think you're probably right. And they didn't make this a bro with him. And that was one of my first year. So that was like, what was that? 2001, 2001, 2002.

Yeah, somewhere in the mid-2000s. And I guess Tomlinson would be another one that you don't regret taking him where they took him. Right. But odds are you're going to end the other way. I mean, the gente thing was instructive because this is why we love the draft. The longer you stare at it and stare at, you get seduced. and you're the Raiders and you can't block, you're a complete mess,

you're bringing a new coach, and you have Gentie, and it's like, you know what, this guy might be awesome. And then all of a sudden, you're taking him at six, and he spends the year,

like running for his life and getting tackled by four guys at once. You don't have an offensive line. You don't have a quarterback. You don't have receivers. It's just, it's not the right spot for him. Yeah.

Now, now Washington, you know, the Giants, I feel like they've solidified their offensive line. I like the giant spot for him, even if it seems a little high, because I think they have a lot of talent. Like, they're not a typical top five team with new coach and all the blue chippers and guys coming back from injuries. And they might actually have a quarterback and they're going to have an easier schedule.

And you put him in. And if he's like a superstar right away, that might be like if they were picking ninth, you would say, of course, do it. But fifth, it feels a tiny bit high. But I think the Giants and the Titans are two teams that are going to be a lot better next year. are going to make the biggest jumps. Now, obviously, the chiefs are sitting there at number nine, and we don't know what's going to what's happening with Patrick, and, you know, is he going to be back to form

and everything's going to be fine? But of the, let's say, the top eight teams, I think the two that could make the biggest jumps will be Tennessee and the Giants. I really do. What about Washington at 7? Because in my head, I feel like that's where he's going. How did that happen last year, man?

You know what I mean? Like, I want you to think back to that NFC playoff run with Jayden Daniels. And it was like, oh my gosh. Right. You know, he's better than Caleb. He's better than Drake. New ownership, new staff, new, you know, like everything feels right.

And to see what the product was the end of last season in, what, eight months, nine months, was pretty wild. Hard schedule. Daniels got hurt. They had old guys that, you know, that can be a 50, 50 coin flip. A lot of the old guys. they got old or got hurt. You know, the momentum starts swinging the other way, all of a sudden you're 6 and 11.

Yeah, but they absolutely could make a jump right back up. By the way, my worst case scenario for the Patriots. Yeah, you're down on next year already. I'm noticing that. The schedule is brutal. And I do think they overachieved a little bit. And I didn't love the free agency was fine. It was a lot of sideways stuff.

I don't know if you could say they were better. Now, we'll see the draft. But don't you think AJ Brown's going to be a Patriot? You're doing this to me? Yeah. They have to wait until after June 1st. He loves Rabel. He grew up rooting for the Patriots.

There's only one other suitor. The Rams? The Rams. And it's like if you're, if you're the Eagles, maybe you're talking yourself until I'd rather have next year's paths first because maybe they're not going to be that good. Maybe they know stuff about AJ. an NFC opponent in the playoffs,

AJ Brown? Do we know why he wasn't nearly as good as he normally was last year? I mean, the whole, he, I mean, there's multiple layers. It's not a talent thing. It's, he's, how do I put this kindly? Can flow, can fluctuate a lot. He's a fluctuator.

He's a fluctuator, right? And then, and then you, like, the whole offense was a mess. the timing wasn't right. And the quarterback play got frustrating. And I think it started with the coaching in the system, the scheme and all that. So I think it's, yeah, I will be more surprised if he's not a Patriot by July 1st than I will be if he's somewhere else. So you're looking at that like, so they signed Dobbs.

I just did my mock draft assuming that he's going to be a patriot. Okay. Because that was another thing that made this draft really fun. just really good receivers. And we might have a situation where teams are grabbing players and there's two receivers left and one of them just starts

dropping because everybody has their receiver and now six more picks have gone and nobody needs a receiver and all of a sudden somebody awesome falls to 31. It is one of those drops. We could see a record. We could see two times. I think it was 20, 22 and 2020.

What is the number? I want to say 13 receivers have gone in the first two rounds. That's the most. I went back to 1967, the Common Draft Era. I think there could be 13 again this year and possibly 14. I think in the first two rounds.

In the first two rounds. There's no Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, you know, Larry Fitzgerald, Mar Chase. But when you get to pick, it could start at six with Cleveland, with Carnell Tate from Ohio State.

But from that point on, Like, Mackay Lemon from U.S. C's an absolute dog. Jordan Tyson reminds me of Stefan Diggs coming out of Arizona State. Has some injuries. Could go mid-first, but could be a steal. Omar Cooper Jr. from Indiana, really good. He would be a perfect fit for McVeigh in that system. I look at, even his teammate, Elijah Serrat is a second round pick,

is a big X on the outside. Denzel Boston's another big X out of Washington. Notre Dame's got one in Malachi Fields. I mean, KC. Concepcion's a great after the catch and super quick and fast. There's just, I mean, I could literally sit here and list 13, but I don't think it's really good for podcasting. I've been scouting some of them, by the way. I do have some thoughts. And give me some. I really like Cooper.

I do too. Because he's basically between, if you look at it, and I've looked at all of them, if you, he's usually between like 13. there's been a couple where he's been at the bottom of the round just because people are moving other receivers up. I don't know where he's going to go, but he's just like, there's no way he's not going to be good. That's the one where I'm just like,

what are we doing? I think the Ravens are 14, right? Yeah. I'd be surprised if he gets past, it depends on where the first one goes, right? Because it's going to go Tate and then either Lemon or Tyson. Those three should be the first three off the board. It wouldn't shock me if Omar Cooper Jr. went ahead of one.

of those guys, but... You have them 17th on your board. You have the three guys in front of them. So 17 would probably be the parachute, but I think he could go 13 or 14. I really do. I like him. Some of the other ones,

I'm so scarred with the pads because they've missed on so many receivers, like you go on forever, but there's some other, like, one of the things that I like about this draft if you're going glass half full on this draft being really fun,

there's teams where I'm just like, I look at clear, I'm like, you guys need everything. I don't even know. If they take a receiver at six, like, what's that going to do? You lost every offensive lineman you had in free agency. And then on top of you. But, I mean, you're completely revamped offensive line in this bizarre

quarterback situation with Sanders and Watson. And it's like if they, like, if they took you have, you have Tate ninth on your big board, but if they took him sixth, I would just immediately feel bad for him. It's like, man, that sucks. I know it's nice to be playing home, but what a shady situation. You know, same thing if you get picked by the dolphins.

It's like, cool, I'm not going to have a quarterback. Those are, the dolphins are different because they brought in Malik and then just decided to trash the rest of the roster. Right. They brought him Malik with no anything. It's like, all right, keep your fingers crossed. Yeah, for his safety.

But here's another storyline that I'm kind of fascinated by. Next year's draft. I haven't pitched this to you yet. But I really want to, the Washington, D.C. Lawn, like, Arch and Dante. And I just think we could make a, I want you there in Washington with us. Okay. I want it to be a scene.

Anyway, next year's draft has a chance to be one of, if not the best quarterback drafts of all time. But the thing that kind of is getting overlooked is there's a, ton of other talent too. So you look at this from a, like the Jets for a fact, I know, but they, one of their deals for the first, you know, when they get multiple extra, they dealt Quinn in defensive tackle. They dealt, they dealt sauce gardener and cornerback. Yeah.

Their whole plan was, listen, we don't want the one this year. We'll take a two this year. Give us the one next year. So now they've got two first rounders this year. They've got eight picks in the first two rounds this year and next year combined. but they got the three first rounders next year. They're one of a few teams where it's, we're operating under 2026.

Like, yeah, we want to win some games and we want the fans to be happy and the owners to be happy. We're building for 27. And that's why you bring in a Gino. They're going to win enough games where it doesn't completely implode and Woody doesn't fire everybody,

but they're going to be in a position where they can get their quarterback. Or you bring them in to lose all your games. Did you see them last year? I mean, if you want to be bad, I would start with 2025 Gino repeating it. I promise you the mantra was we want to want enough to keep this job and everything. It doesn't blow up, but not enough where we have to package too many picks to go move up and get our guy. Yeah.

Then you've got Arizona. Everyone's saying Ty Simpson now. Maybe Arizona trades up into the first round. Or maybe they move out of three if a team wants to move up for Jeremiah Love or whoever it would be. Arizona, though, it kind of looks like if it's not Ty Simpson, they're working towards 2027, right? So, and the Cleveland Browns, you just mentioned. That's what got me thinking.

The Cleveland Browns, like, let's get it, let's get a wide receiver. Let's get Carnell Tate at 6. And Caleb Lomu, the offensive tackle at 24. Right. And let's, let's see what Shador does. And if he has this miraculous season and it looks like he's our guy, great, that's a win. But probably we're going to address quarterback in 27 as well. So that's three organizations right there that I think very much are kind of working towards,

not tanking for a couple of them, but working towards 2027 already. Yeah, we don't use tanking in football because there's less games and it's so violent. And these guys aren't, it's not like what we're doing in the NBA, which has been a complete disgrace. But there are things you can do. And we've seen it. We, you know, we saw with Vegas last year where you're shutting down Crosby when he wants to play. Yes. There's a couple of those moments you have.

I think the Browns would have the easiest path to do that because either quarterback choice is going to be pretty bad for them. Miami, I don't really understand why they torpedoed the roster and signed Malik Willis. That didn't make sense. Honestly, it makes sense to me. I get the torpedo in the roster and throwing away the year, but then why are you also making like a pretty sizable bet on this guy

to be a franchise quarterback for you, but then you're just giving him the worst car, possible to drive. What are you going to learn from that next year? Nothing. Yeah. I mean, thankfully for him, he's mobile and hopefully can endure it. I mean, honestly. What does he look like when he's running like this? John Eric Sullivan, the new GM, like I actually believe he, he's doing all the right things. It's almost like you want to put Malik on the shelf and play him in like six, six, eight games and protect him. And so he's ready for 2020. but it is, it's challenging to look at that roster and see where you're getting five, six

wins, you know? Yeah. All right. So other storylines we have, the Sunny Stiles thing, who is the Combine Superhero this year? Was he the big winner of Combine Superhero Cape, the one that got everyone the most excited? Yes. Also a great player, though. Yeah, yeah.

But I mean, everyone came out of that like, holy shit. What is this? Well, he's different, man. Yeah. And he's, and he's like a special human being too. So you're getting, you're getting. you're getting, I got to talk to one, one decision maker, we'll call him, who's like, this guy's going to be CEO of a company.

Like, he's, he's that level. And in this league, it's like, he can play the overhang and cover slot guys. He can, he actually, if you look at his production as a pass rusher, he had about half as many edge rush opportunities as Arvel Reese over the last two years. But he was just, he was on par in terms of sacks, pressures, all that with what Arvel did. And so I'm not saying he's going to be that guy, but I do think his role is not going to be that of your traditional offball linebacker. So I would take him in the top five.

I was going to ask you, would you take him two or three over the other choices? I actually would. Yeah, it seems like you would. I could tell if I'm reading you, it seems like, Reese feels flimsy to me where it's like, best case scenario, Michael Parsons. And we've seen these guys where it's like sometimes the worst case scenario, you're like, I can't believe it turned out like this.

It just seems like he's almost like a coin flip, which I don't want to do it at number two. I'd rather, I want sure things at number two. I mean, he really, he is, he's like a cyborg,

you know? Yeah. Just the power, the speed, the length, all of it. His past, like,

there's a lot of great flashes. And he got, he got a lot of reps as an edge rusher this year. The problem is if he, if he goes full time in the NFL at edge of, at Edgewater and he's not as big as Sunny Stiles. Yeah. If he goes full time at Edge and it works out where he's

just okay, now you're dropping him back to off ball linebacker or having him play this hybrid role. He's not great. I mean, he's good. He's okay, but he's not great dropping into coverage like Sunny is. So what do you have? And so, yeah, there's a lot I want to bet on.

Whereas Sunny, you know. You know what he is. You know what he's going to be. Right. You know he's going to be awesome. Former safety, playing linebacker has shown that he can rush the pastor at times. In this league with all the personnel packages and trying to keep the same 11 on the field and want to be multiple, I think he has more value Sunny Stiles does

than even five years ago in the league. So is it crazy to think if he's there at five, the Giants just say, fuck it. Let's add him to our defense and do it. I would take Sunny Stiles if I was the Giants, even though they brought in Tremaine Edmonds. Their run defense has been atrocious. they want to be a physical team under Harbaugh.

Yeah, you like Jeremiah Love, but maybe you draft another back to go with Scatibu and Tyrone Tracy. I just, I think Sunny Stiles would bring that. And then you think about what they have at edge, right? I think he would take that defense to another level. The Giants are in a good spot. Like, they kind of can't screw it up.

Right. If you take Jeremiah Love, yeah, you deal with the economics of it, but he's the identity of what they want to be. with a mobile quarterback, with a back who took the league by storm and Scataboo. But that can't, that's not sustainable, his running style. One season injured and now he's coming off of an injury.

Yeah. So that would be a, that's a win. Sunny Stiles is a win. Caleb Downs is worth the pick, but I'd be more excited about Sunny Stiles, if I'm being honest. And it's the most fun if Love Goes 7 with Daniels with the rejuvenated commanders team.

and us in mid-September being like, holy shit, Daniels and love the speed and watch these teams, trying to figure out, blah, blah, blah. Yep. That would be fun. Yep. It would be a lot of fun.

I can't think of a real fun jet scenario, unfortunately. It's going to be taking edge rusher. It's going to be Bailey or Rvel is my guess, it too. And then just be bad. It's 16 take wide receiver. Yeah. But the beauty is like, what do they have,

11 overall picks. Again, they're building for 2027. This is about putting pieces in to get ready when you do insert that quarterback next year and hopefully don't have to use all three picks to go get them, that they'll be ready to roll. You know what's going to be fascinating? This is over a year. This is a year and 30 days away.

Yeah. Will Arch go to the Jets if the Jets have the first overall pick? Oh, the repeat of the Eli? Oh, wow. Mm-hmm. Yep. I don't know why it doesn't happen more. Like Ace Bailey kind of passive-aggressively tried, his team tried to do it when he wanted

to go to Washington and Utah picked him. But he just ended up going. But we've never seen, yeah. We've never seen anybody just, especially now with the NIL stuff. I don't know exactly what the rules would be if somebody just being like, yeah, I don't like the team that drafted me. I'm going back. Because I don't know if there are any rules in college sports anymore.

But I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. where a guy's just like, yeah, no thanks. Danny Ferry did it in 1990 with the Clippers. He was just like, I'm out. Francis did it with the Vancouver Grizzlies. And then we had Eli do it and Elway do it. But the number is less than 10 in my lifetime of guys who have just said, yeah, I'm not going there.

No thanks. That will be fascinating because we're tracking towards, you know, maybe it's Miami at one, but the, Jets are very likely to be one of the top. The Jets are likely to have a top five pick. And if they don't own the first pick, then they have the capital to go get that first pick if it's a team that doesn't need a quarterback. So that part's going to be.

If it was like my son or your son and they were in this situation and the two teams looking at them where the Jets or the Browns knowing everything we know, I'd like, you're not playing there. We're holding out. If I had any kind of control. Yeah. We're holding out. You're not going to Cleveland.

No, thank you. It's not happening. Same for the Jets. Like, it's no. Like, we'll wait them out. Eventually they're going to have to trade you. What are they going to do? Just get nothing for the asset.

Let's be patient. Hopefully we'll have a 20-year career. You're not starting your career there. Like, prove to us you can have a competent franchise for a year before we, I send my son there. I'm amazed it doesn't happen more often. Yeah. Next year is going to be, that part will be intriguing to see where the jets wind up in the first round draft order.

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I talked myself way more into this. Just talking to you for a half hour. I'm way more excited. The Chiefs, the Chiefs just being on the board with Mahomes. You know, in July, I'd be like, Mahomes is doing great.

He's running full speed already. We'll be getting those stories around July 10th. Kelsey already resigned. Easier schedule. They brought back the enemy. We're going to have the whole Andy Reid. I had to come to Jesus moment last year. I've got to do better.

I'm not the same guy I was 10 years ago. I got a double down. I can still be a good coach. And then they have this ninth pick that could be a really exciting player. This could be the most impactful offensive player they've drafted since Tyreek, which was nine years ago,

eight years ago, I don't remember. I guess Mahomes was the most. They traded up for him. But yeah, they haven't had a guy, if they got love, if they got one of these receivers, this would be a real thing for them. I actually have heard that

If Jeremiah Love somehow gets to nine, which I don't think he will, but if he gets to nine, even though they sign Kenneth Walker, that they would still entertain drafting him there, which would be fascinating, right? Wow. It would kind of signal a whole new chief's offensive mindset. But more realistic is, are we taking an edge rusher? Are we taking Mansour Delane, the LSU cornerback, who's clearly the best cornerback after we just let our top two corners walk out the building.

Well, they have two firsts, though. So maybe they get the quarterback with the other pick. Yeah, at 29. So Delane would be in play there. If a Ruben Bain were to fall, I think he would be in play there. But if not, is it a wide receiver? I mean, they've missed from Sky Moore, Rashid Rice, Rashid Rice. They need someone reliable.

receiver. They need someone they can trust. Yeah. And is that Carnell Tate? Is that Mackay Lemon? Yeah, it'll be fascinating. They've got those two first first round picks and an opportunity to kind of turn things right back around. So Brett Veach is one of the better talent evaluators out there,

but has not, you know, it hasn't been the best track record with offensive skill guys. You know, yeah. Yeah. Clyde, Clyde Aller, Edward Allaire. That was tough. And then the wide receivers.

So like, do you just go with, Andy Reid's always been really good identifying offensive linemen. They've been good identifying defensive linemen. Are they just going to go at one of those positions, or are they going to try to make a splash and actually hit on one of these offensive weapons for Patrick? So if Love somehow fell to nine and they didn't take them, we just signed Kenneth Walker, we're not taking him.

The next two teams are the Bengals and the Dolphins. And then the Cowboys at 12, ready to do the all-time victory party, if the best guy in the draft told him at 12. This never happens. Usually, if he gets to around 7 to 8, somebody will trade up to take him, I think would be how it plays out. I just don't see him going past 7 or 8.

The other guy that- If the commanders don't want him or don't see the value and get an offer, I think they can move out of that spot. They pick it 7, but they don't pick again until 77 in the third round. Yeah, so maybe they go backwards. So they could try to recoup that. Right.

Yeah. Maybe the Rams. What about the Rams? Wow. Right? He's sitting there at seven. We don't have to give the biggest offer to go from 13 to 7. We put him in the back field.

We get some good backs. You sure that's not the Cowboys just moving up five spots for him? They have two picks. I think the Cowboys got to go defense. But yeah. But you're talking about them like they're a rational franchise. This is Jerry Jones. I know.

Wait, Jeremiah, love's still on the board. We got to get him. Trade up for that guy. He's great. I just felt like that's like the classic splashy, we've won first take the next day kind of draft pick. The kind of move that they make.

Yes. They will definitely win first take and get up, I promise. Regardless of who they take. Well, and that leads to the Ty Simpson thing. You know, he's, He's in like the low 20s. Seems like where people have them, like, around somebody taking a fly at him between like 27 and 35. Isn't it fascinating, man?

The one guy who's never drafted before, right, but has played the position, but is one of the, like, Orlovsky comes out and says, I would take him number one. Now, everyone's pointing to he, they're both represented by CAA and, like, fine. I was texting with Orlovsky like a month ago about what we were seeing on. tape. The funny part is, or the interesting part is, I've probably been the highest, like, even talking like Daniel Jeremiah, like, he and I were kind of going back and forth on, like, I'm clearly higher on Ty Simpson than he is, but we were, but being rational about it, right? With Ty Simpson, here's the problem. If you're a purist, right? And you grew up in Boston, like, think about growing up baseball, like the, it's, it's romantic, right? Yeah.

if you're a purist and you're someone who just like is studied the quarterback position your whole life and you put on the tape for tie simpson it's like watching willie mays or like one of the you know what i mean it's it's it's how the game's supposed to be played it's pre snap it's it's identifying its control at the line of scrimmage it's utilizing the motions pre-snap and and tendencies on the defensive side to identify then post snap it's quick reads it's everything's in rhythm everything's on schedule Balls out on time, throwing with anticipation, hitting spots, leading receivers. It's beautiful. But then you get to game nine or ten, and the play starts to decline. Now, if I'm making excuses for Ty Simpson, it's, well, they had like the 126 best running game in all of college football, which is like mind blowing for Alabama. Yeah. Then you've got the past protection that started to fail because Brent Venables came to town with that Oklahoma defense and kind of showed some weaknesses in how to attack it. From that point on, everyone was kind of doing some of the same things.

Then he's taking a beating, and he's got gastritis. And by the time he gets to a Rose Bowl, he's down to his 212-pound quarterback at the combine. He was down to 190. And then your top-wide receiver, the star playmaker, who came in recruiting class, like 1A and 1B, was he, Ryan Williams and Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State. Yeah. And he just disappears. So all those factors add up.

And so if you're watching the tape into November, Ty Simpson's clearly better than Fernando Mendoza. Fernando Mendoza didn't play well against Iowa or Oregon or Penn State. But the fourth quarter after he made interceptions in all those games, late in those games, after that, when the game was on the line and all the pressure was there, he was perfect. He was awesome. And then you fast forward, I'm telling you,

if you just watch the Ohio State tape of Mendoza, you're like, this guy's generational. The toughness, the decisiveness, he's on the move. They're hitting his ass. They're getting after him, man. He got hit in that very first play. He looked like he should have been knocked out. Then later in the game, no one talks about it.

That same defender, Caden Curry, comes and hits him in the end zone, head hits the turf. And he just never flinched. So as the season progressed, and he got more comfortable with that offense and the reeds and the adjustment. He was phenomenal. Like all those top 10 teams he faced at the time,

and he was like seven or eight teams. He was like 85% completion. So you compare all those things, and then you look at one guy who's 6 foot 5 and 232 pounds and did all those things, but progressed, but in an offense where RPO, stressing defenses, they've got to play honest. He has one read, makes a decision, balls out.

and he's awesome at it, but it's not that easy in the NFL. And he had awesome receivers. Two guys who were going to be drafted. I just told you probably in the first two rounds. And a third one who might be the best of them, Charlie Becker, who came out of nowhere. And two running backs that could be drafted. So all those things.

And now you've got Alabama, right? 6-1, down to 190 pounds, bucked up to 212. Couldn't stay healthy as one year as a starter. 15 starts. It means you are the outlier of outliers. Anyone with fewer than 25 starts, it's been a struggle, anyone with fewer than 20 starts, it's been an outright bust as a first round picket quarterback. So it's this juggling of like, my eyes tell me Ty Simpson's every bit as good, in some ways,

better and more NFL ready than Mendoza. But history and general managers who have to assess risk are saying Mendoza's, Mendoza's the safer pick. He's got more of, he's in that range of starts. He's in that range of size. He can run on a straight line. He won the big games. That's the debate.

And so one person comes out this week, right? Norlofsky. And I don't think he's wrong with what he's saying in a lot of regards. And it's cool if you want him to be your number one, number one quarterback ahead of Mendoza. He's not alone. I've also talked to people in the league who would take Simpson over Mendoza. But A, the Raiders are taking Mendoza. Yeah.

And B, I don't know why it has to be this huge. Like, it is the story. Like, the March Madness is going on. Everything on my timeline, every show I turn on is Orlovsky, CAA. How do you have Ty Simpson? He said that Mendoza didn't play in big games. Like, it's pretty wild, you know, to see how one person can have these opinions, which are not wrong in a lot of regards,

but are not shared by the majority of teams in the league, can now set off this brush fire, you know? See, I think it makes sense because people love the NFL draft and there was no controversy with the NFL draft and it's March 24th. I really think people just love arguing

about the draft and we needed a moment for somebody to say something where everybody's like, wait, what? And then now we're off and now we're going and now we have some Thai sims and stuff. I think that's really it. Because you didn't mention when you were laying out the Mendoza case

like really, really, really, smart, which teams love. They love when guys have like just these fucking crazy brains, which it seems like he has. He'll be able to like remember the entire offense right away. Like they love that shit. And Brady's pulling the strings there, right?

And Brady, I probably sees a lot of a young Tom in Mendoza. He was a two or three star recruit depending on who you talk to. They wouldn't let him walk on at Miami. He had one offer coming out of Christopher Columbia.

High School in Miami. Yeah. And it was to Yale, non-scholarship. He committed to Yale and then wound up getting an offer late from Cal. It was his only scholarship offer and he takes it. Red shirts and kind of grows, you know, incrementally, gets this opportunity at Indiana. And I said in the summer, when we did our show, I said in the summer, this guy's a first rounder if he develops and I think he will under Signity.

And people thought I was crazy then. But I was probably also last to market. it took that Ohio State game for me to go chips all in on Mendoza. So it's an unbelievable story. And I think Tom, you know, having spent a lot of time with Brian Greasy and knowing what Tom was up against at Michigan and seeing, he kind of, he probably relates to what he's been through. And then the mental part and the commitment to the game.

Yeah, I can see why it's a no-brainer for the Raiders that he's going to be picked. And I think he'll do really well in Kuibak system. That's the thing we don't talk about enough. Kubiak's a good fit for him. And we'll hide some of his weaknesses and kind of just like Signetti and that staff did at Indiana, they will know what to do

to protect him from what his weaknesses are while he develops. Well, they had the devastating Max Crosby cancellation trade where they were clearly traded this guy who, I don't want to say he's a bum knee, but I don't think it's a healthy knee. They were going to get two first round picks from him. He's heading into his 30s.

Like, that trade would have been amazing. So now I don't know what the what that is. Speaking of trades, by the way, with Simpson, so we saw this with Dart last year, and you were kind of hinting at it, not quite predicting it, but that somebody was going to get aggressive and maybe try to move up and

try to grab them. What's a realistic range for you with Simpson for somebody to be like, like, what number are we looking at where somebody's like, we got to get this guy, we got to trade up to here? I think back half of the first round, anywhere in there.

Now, depending on what show you watch, and getting ready earlier today and the show in the background, they're talking about like, well, maybe if Arizona moves back from three, they could take them at, you know,

eight, nine, like, I don't know that it's going to be there. 16 is, it seems like the jumping off point. That's the Jets. Yeah. Unless the plan has changed,

I am under, I know the plan is 2027 for the Jets for quarterback. So, yeah, I would say 17, barring something that's completely unforeseen at this point, 17, and I'm not saying that pick,

but like when we get 17 and beyond in the first round is about where I think the range for him would be based off of where I evaluate him, but also like everything I just went through, what he is on tape versus he's an outlier. He's going to be an outlier in a couple regards. So I think that, and if it's Arizona moving in somewhere like the Giants did last year,

I knew the Giants wanted to move up. But the funny part was in talking to Daibuil offline, and really fascinating, having spent a lot of time talking to Brian Daibald recently before he took the Titans job. And then talking to Mike Borganzi, the GM of the Titans, and now they're working together.

But Daibol is sitting there trying to talk him into taking Jalen Carter, move back to three. They offered a boatload to go get Cam Ward. And now Daibu gets fired by the Giants, gets an opportunity to go work with the guy. And he loves Jackson Dart. He talked Joe Shane into moving up to go get him. And he loves Scataboo.

Those were his two picks last year. But now he gets to work with Cam Ward, the guy that they wanted to give away a whole lot to go get him. But the Giants, I kind of knew about two weeks out that this is the plan. The plan is we're going to stick at three and take Abdul. And the Shadour thing blew up. And I knew the behind stories and some of the things that happened. in some of the meetings and it wasn't good.

I didn't know he was going to fall to the fifth. I thought second round is probably where it's going to happen. But then you start to hear people in the league and you understand the why. My point is, the Giants played it perfectly. Let's get our guy here, just like the Cardinals sitting there at three. And then let's move up from, I think, there are 34 in the second round. And let's move into that mid-20s range to get ahead of anyone else who could potentially try to come and get them if the opportunity presents itself.

So I think if the Cardinals, like type since. So Eagles at 23 who are always like thinking ahead of time. Can we turn this into three assets? And then how we move back to 34 and then move back into the first or something. Yeah. Because the other one I was looking at was the Jets at 16 tying into what you were saying

earlier about how they care about 27, not 26. And if you could get Arizona to move up to 16 and get next year's first from them and flip like a second and a third or whatever, but now you have Arizona's first with three firsts you already have. You're thinking about it. If you're Arizona, who scares you from picks?

If the jets are willing to move, that means they're not taking, Ty. Right. And then who scares you? 24 is the next team you look at and say. I'm just saying to multiple teams are trying to trade up to 16. And you're where you're not going to get them if you like them. We don't even know if the Cardinals like them. But yeah, I felt like 16 would be in play.

I'm always prepared for the Eagles. the Browns, because they don't care about next, this upcoming season either. They would probably think about it. I wonder, you mentioned the Titans about Dayball and just, you know, they have a really interesting structure because they're two guys that I didn't like as head coaches, but I do like. Like, I thought Sal did a good job with the Niners. I just think he's a really good defensive.

Even when he left the Jets, like they completely fell apart on defense the moment he left. Oh, totally. Yeah. Dayball is just a great offensive coach, probably had some bad luck. maybe the wrong city for him. Maybe he shouldn't be a head coach. But I like the combo of them together where it's like just...

I love it. You handle the offense. I'm going to do the team and the defense and we're going to work together. And I wonder because Dayball was at Buffalo seeing like how they were able to build around Josh and Cam Ward like I wonder what the lessons

good and bad were for him with how they built the bills, right? Because ultimately like when they got cook I think that made Josh's life a lot easier in a whole bunch of ways and I wonder if they would think that way would love it for Tennessee. Like, let's do this.

This guy's going to, right, now we have the two game breakers and we can build around that. I would be shocked if Brian's not pushing hard with Mike Borganzi, the general manager and Missala to take Jeremiah love it for. I would be shocked. That doesn't mean it's going to happen for all the reasons I laid out earlier

and do we want to make that financial commitment to a running back where we could go get a defensive end here, you know? But I also, the best thing that happened to Cam Ward is Brian Dayball took that job and didn't get a head coaching job

with Buffalo or anywhere else. It's what he does best. It's like McDaniels last year was May. It was a miracle that that guy just wanted to be the offensive coordinator and like commit for a few years. Right. And had it been to anyone else besides, Cam Ward, I don't know how, you know, thrilled he would have been about doing it.

Yeah. He wanted to work with him that badly. So now you, if you throw it. And Schaefter came out last week and said, I don't see it at Tennessee. I don't think it's going to be Tennessee. And I made a couple calls and, you know, I never want to call the source and they're never going to give me the information specifically on that. But I can see it both ways.

I think there's going to be some internal debate, which is healthy, on what we do with that pick. They spent a lot of money, more money on free agency on the defensive side than they did the offensive side, which leads me to believe, like the breadcrumbs, their plan, they've got everything in place with a really good defensive coordinator and a really good head coach as a defensive coach that we can go out and spend that pick on an offensive weapon. And they kept Simmons, which, I mean, their defense might be pretty good next day. And you throw in Salah, you throw in how bad their coaching was last year. you know, and they have an interim coach. It's just a mess, and they were a mess to watch.

That's a team, I don't know if they could win the division, but when you think every year we have the fourth to first team and you're looking at candidates, I think they're definitely a candidate. It's not like... I totally agree. It's not like in the AFC South. Like, do you love any AFC South team? We have no idea with Daniel Jones.

Who knows what Jacksonville is a year after? A pretty good year for them. And then Houston with CJ. I don't know. I could see, I could see. good stuff happen. The last thing I just want to mention quick, because normally teams shoot high on the offensive line, especially in the top 10, but it's a bad offensive line year for like blue chippers. And yet every year, that doesn't stop somebody from being like, look, man, we just need

we just need a tackle. Like this guy's 15th on our board, but it still makes sense for to take them at six because we're not getting a tackle otherwise. Do you see that happening with any of these guys? I think it's almost going to be an exact mirror of what happened last year. It may start a couple picks later or it could start at three with the Cardinals, like Francis Maui Noah coming out of Miami. The problem with this class is Maui Noah is an awesome player, phenomenal athlete around 320 plus pounds, 330 pounds. But he's not your, he's a right tackle. He's been a right tackle. He's going to be a right tackle.

And in worst case, he's a guard. Then you've got Spencer Fano, who's terrific. athlete and plays like smart and he like that energy he has and great zone blocker and all those things but some teams are working them out as a center because he may be an elite center because he's got those both he's got short arms

right and then you've got short arms I got Will Campbell PTSD did you see by the big about the short arms did you see Mench when we sat down with the Patriots GM and

and and I I'm talking about, you know, you grew up a son of a Hall of Fame general manager and watching film in Lambeau Field before, take us through what you develop. And I ask a couple questions, not buttering up, but like, let's get, let's start with the history of it. Yeah. Mench comes in. Oh, no.

grew up in Andover. You know, he's a New England guy, Patriots fan. Everyone is life. Yeah. He comes in with this haymaker off the top rope of, you know, I thought at the time when Will Campbell, when you guys drafted Will Campbell, he'd short arms, and I saw it on tape. And sometimes the short, short arms, like if you don't see it on tape, then I don't get caught up in it.

But I saw it on tape. And then we fast forward to the Super Bowl. Is he going to be your left tackle? And the response is, Will Campbell is our starting left tag. And I'm sitting there. I'm like, oh, my gosh, how do I recover? But it was great. He handled it well.

They've been adamant. This is our left tackle. There's no discussion. There's no debate. And if you look at him pre-injury and he was holding up just fine. And you give him a second year and development and kind of the motivation from that, I think he's actually going to be all right. But that's the problem with how that Patriot season ended among many of the problems,

including getting shellacked in the Super Bowl. We have no idea how healthy Will Campbell was and we have no idea how healthy Drake May was. And they can't really tell us after the fact, right? Because they got to file those injure reports and once you do that. Well, I feel like they've kind of told us. Well, they kind of told us with Campbell. Yeah, and Campbell's even admitted, like I have a torn MCL that I probably shouldn't have played with, but it's the playoffs. Drake May, I don't know if we'll ever get an answer.

Probably not. No. Yeah, it would, yeah. I think the answer lies in the tape and some of the plays they ran and didn't run. I think we know the answer. I think we know the answer, Bill. I mean, you watched it even more closely than I did. Like, that is not, the last few games and the last two games, it just, it wasn't, it wasn't the same.

Yeah, even down to the plays they called for him were not the same. That's what made me the most suspicious, like rolling him out to the right where he could throw. Like, they just didn't want to do it. Right. So that anything where he might get hit, they didn't want to do it. Yeah. And that was such a big part of what they were. Like I told you, I was at that Bill's game when they jumped out to the big lead.

He was every bit of running back early in that game when they got the big lead before they wound up giving, you know, they come back from the bills. and just like his mobility is such a big part of what they do. So my last thing, and then we have to go, I really want the Patriots to get a tight end. My dream for them would be 31, a tight end, but there's no tight end's. There's one guy who's going to go from, the guy from Oregon's going to go before they pick.

Yeah. There's no chance they, there's no chance he fall to the 20s and could they move up? Can I like dream about this for a second? I just did a mock draft where Sadiq fell to 27 to the 49ers, and I went there because of George Kittles' injury. I don't think it's, I'm not banking on it, but I, like, if you're the, I get it. I don't, to me, he's not Tyler Warren, and he's, he's not Colson Loveland.

I think he's a really good player, but I don't think he's at that level. So as we're continuing to build, if you're Patriots fan, it's like, I don't know that I want to give up capital to go get a tight. I also will say this. Maybe get two of them on day three. This class is weirdly, they had 28 tight ends invited to the combine. It's the most in the history of the combine.

There's no elite guys, but like this Marlon Klein from Michigan, they just had them block. And when they threw him the ball, Underwood couldn't throw the ball. And it was a disaster at Michigan. So I like him. I like Sam Roush from Stanford.

There's two SMU guys that can run. They're like, there's a lot of good tight ends. I feel like maybe you double up on tight end on day three and see if you can hit the jackpot with one of these kind of guys. So we'll see how it plays out. My guess with them,

it was interesting that they got Buffalo's fullback. Right? Because I actually liked when they ran out of the eye, they just didn't really have the personnel for it. But it was, I didn't understand why they didn't do it more in the Super Bowl. And with Dobbs, and if we think AJ Brown's a possibility,

that takes receiver off. But I just want them to have tight ends and blocking options and the ability to go big or small, depending on that's what they didn't have last year. And I think the best teams offensively in Seattle was a good example of this. And so it was the Rams, these teams that could go bigger or smaller depending on what the situation was, they had no flexibility to do that.

I would like to be able to see them do that. Yeah, they will this year. They will. It's the evolution. It's, you know, this is the first year. and kind of... It's a brutal schedule. It's not a miracle, but...

Yeah. I mean, you've been out in LA how many years, but you just sound like the people I'm surrounded by here. My whole life, basically. The good news is Miami and the Jets four times. The bad news is basically everybody else

of the schedule. But you do have four games that should be pretty winable. All right. Before you go, give me one completely insane prediction that's not that insane.

A completely insane prediction that would make me go, oh my God, but then we could replay it on April 30th and be like, McShay, fucking called this in the completely insane prediction section. Cole Payton, North Dakota State's quarterback, was a one-year starter at North Dakota State.

He was essentially Tim Tebow. Remember the role Tim Tebow had was a Chris Leak, his freshman year where he kind of came in off the bench and rotate a little bit, would handle the inverse re, inverted veer and the inside running, essentially it was a fullback and would handle short yardage, goal line and some run plays, right? Yeah.

He did that for three years at North Dakota State. He was a runner who was kind of utilizing this gimmicky, not gimmicky, but in a sub-package role, if you will. Yeah. Gets the starting job this year is also a leftist. he's also got a tight upper body. And the first 20 throws I watched of him, and as I'm watching it and it did his background of what he is,

I'm like, oh, Tebow. Tim and I are good after a tumultuous start to our relationship. Yeah. But I just did not see it with Tim Tebow coming out, and it became like this big thing. So I had to get over the Tebow effect, right? Cole Payton from North Dakota State might be the third best prospect. I'm not saying he's there now.

but a guy who come in, kind of like Seattle was trying to use Jalen Milro, short yardage, goal lines, kind of play that role and develop into a starter. He's mobile, he throws the ball well on the run, he's deadly accurate,

and it's the weirdest thing because all of his mechanics look horrible, like tight upper body, south paw, all that. I think he could go ahead of Nussmeyer and Carson Beck. You have him 65th on your big board. Yep.

I think he could wind up going in the second round. And I'll be shocked if he doesn't go in the third. And I'll be, I honestly think he could be the third quarterback off the board. And I don't think anyone's really talking about this guy. Got to say,

great name. Cole Peyton. Just sounds like somebody who would be good. Like, that sounds like a sports movie. Quarterback or NASCAR, right? Channing Tatum plays Cole Payton.

That's a great name. So Carson Beck, even though he's in his mid-20s and had 100 college starts, you have him 100th? Nobody's going to talk to themselves into him in like the late second round or anything? It could be. I don't trust him.

I don't trust him. I don't think he's unique because he's a big pocket passer and you can be accurate and he played his best ball down the stretch. And he outside of two games where he had multiple interceptions, he really protected the ball and did a lot of the things that kind of cursed him. I like this experience. I like the size and I like the toughness and all those things. I just, I don't know.

I call it a bad taste of my mouth, the elbow surgery. Why does Georgia let Carson Beck go? They have plenty of money to bring him back. Like, I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see. I've heard the Steelers are kind of intrigued with him on day two and a couple other organizations. He'll go. He'll go on day two.

But I would take. Cole Payton before him. So it doesn't sound like you have your Tyler Shuck yet. Cole Payton's my Tyler Shuck. So you, but Tyler Shuck, you were like, this guy could actually start next year, watch what happens. Like, you were pretty adamant. This is a different, this is a different kind of type. Yeah, this is like, yeah, this guy could be fun.

With what I got. Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. So it's the ringer.com slash McShay. It's just an NFL draft Schmorgasbord. And also the McShea show, and then you're coming out to LA and you're going to do a bunch of live shows that we're doing on Netflix. Yeah, I'm pumped. And don't forget about the newsletter,

which is indispensable. And we did a second round mock on that. It's going to be a lot of intel coming up. It's going to be the additional bonus stuff. So yeah, between the news site, the newsletter, and the show, we're pumped. We've got exactly what we need, man. And I'm going to have you on one more time

before the draft. I'm sure there will be a million things that change. But this was fun. Thank you for getting me re-energized about this draft. That was kind of like Luke Warma. You're welcome. No, I'm excited. Good to see, McShay. Good. Good to see you, bud.

All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to McShay. Thanks to Kyle and Eduardo as well. Don't forget, rewatchables went up. We did the nice guys. LA Confidential coming next Monday. So you have five days to watch a really,

really great movie before you do a listen for our little four-person podcast, which includes Andy Green. for this one. First time he's been on in a while. It was great to see him. Me, Andy, Sean, and Chris, we had a blast. So there you go. All right. I'm going to be back on this feed on Thursday with a lot of basketball stuff and maybe even a little baseball too. Stay tuned. See you on Thursday. Must be 21 plus in president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in president in D.C. Kentucky or Wyoming. Give him a problem caught 100 gambor or 1-800, My Reset. Call 88879-777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

Hope is here. Visit gambling help line, ma.org or call 800-327-50-50 for 24-7-7-Sported Massachusetts or call 8778778-NY or text Hope NY in New York for Louisiana. Call 8777-7-867. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember, 988, Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada.