The Fumblerooski Podcast - Field Generals -Ep 263 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

In this edition of The Fumblerooski Podcast, we go over the top QB prospects strengths and weaknesses; does Caleb Williams have a character issue? Does Bo Nix going from the SEC to being a Heisman candidate in the PAC-12 raise the biggest red flag? Is Jayden Daniels' mechanics coachable enough to make it big? Also making headlines, Kraft reportedly told Falcons owner Arthur Blank to not trust Belichick, thus making it a reason why he wasn't hired to Atlanta and also making Kraft be even more of a bad guy than he already was after the Dynasty docu-series. Chris Costich and Draft Guy CJ Medeiros go through all of this and more!

the PR battle continues between Kraft and Belichick with reports that Kraft allegedly warned Falcons or Falcons owner, Arthur blank to not hire Bill Belichick. So some crazy stuff going on in new England still. And along with that, we'll go over the quarterback prospects. You are listening to the fumble ruski podcast it may not have always showed it in the staff sheet but you can see him making throws

when he needs to make the throws back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns someone's got to get that six or seven spot he's an elite wide receiver as a rookie truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. You are listening to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 Dean Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting. Chris Kostic alongside me, the draft guy, CJ Medeiros. Good evening and welcome. And we're sorry for postponing to tonight, Wednesday, April 17th, as we are now eight days away from the NFL draft. As coming up later, we'll go over our quarterback prospects as we have all the other positions in the recent weeks.

But first, some news out of New England. And as New England fans, we thought that we were getting away from the drama, but it just keeps on coming and it really started from the beginning of last season you knew that tensions were a little bit high and then the reports came out that uh during the Germany week between the Patriots and the Colts that that week was really going to decide if Belichick or it was going to decide Belichick's fate and then among other things more and more rumors came out especially regarding outside of Belichick and Kraft that ended up tying in

Gerard Mayo the now head coach of the New England Patriots. And for how well the last press conference that Bill Belichick had as a Patriot, how well it actually seemed like it went, it just seems like it was all for show. As new reports have come out that Robert Kraft allegedly warned Falcons owner Arthur Blank to not hire Bill Belichick as to not trust him. And reasons being, obviously, I mean, if you were to watch the Patriots Dynasty documentary, there are a lot of reasons why Kraft would potentially not trust Belichick or to say that to Art Blank, such as Theron Hernandez situation, Spygate, hell, even Deflategate.

If I'm missing anything else, you can throw it out there. But those are probably three that come to mind pretty quickly for a lot of people. But, uh, well, CJ, you and I were discussing this earlier it cut this also comes from a low-level espn writer that is not um is very familiar with writing books and articles about

uh negative things about the Patriots. Yeah. Now, of course, this leak, as it were, is coming from Seth Wicker, the sham. And honestly, if it came from like Ian Rappaport or Adam Schefter or anyone else, I would be like, ah, crap, there's merit to this. But wait, everybody, it's coming from Seth Wickersham. Totally has no hidden agenda, totally is a fair and balanced reporter,

and totally just for some reason doesn't hate New England. I'm kidding, he does all those things. And for me as a sports fan, all of his credibility went out the window when he wrote this book. It was probably better to be feared inside the Patriots dynasty where all of his information was, to put it nicely, unverifiable. And some of his quotes from Belichick, I myself call into question, especially when Bill said, that's funny. I've never met him. So I don't know why ESPN hasn't kicked this blatant liar to the curb,

but whatever. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why, because it generates clicks. That's why. Yeah, that's fair. Also,

by the way, our podcast Instagram page is more followers than his Instagram page does. Does it actually? Is that what you will? No, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm being dead serious.

That's awesome. It's off topic, but like, hold on. I'm going to go to this. All right. Seth Wickersham, right, has right has 2 550 instagram followers as a sports reporter and the fumbler whiskey podcast has just under 10k at 9949 be sure to hit that follow button we would like to get to 10k thank you very much but uh regardless of the facts, yeah. It's, if we're, even if, regardless if this is a true article or not, which it most likely is not a true article from what we've seen in the past, Robert Kraft has really lost the PR war. If we're going to call this a PR war, he has ultimately just lost it by a landslide to say the least like we're talking

nixon winning 49 out of 50 states in the 72 or 70 election or whatever the hell he won that election type of thing it it couldn't be more one-sided that people are starting to really turn on robert crafts at least in the public sphere or the public eye and whatnot and it really generated from the patriots documentary and look where we are now it's now gone completely south for him. Like I said, regardless of how true this article is, it's just Robert Kraft is not in a very good light of public eye right now. Yeah. It's just the thing, though, with Kraft is I don't know. As a Pats fan, I'm just tired of the drama.

Like every week there's just new drama that's pouring out. It's like we're becoming the Steelers basically with how much toxicity there is now. And I'm hoping that now it's over. But ugh. Will it ever actually be over? No, at least one of them does and

I just, I don't know, so I don't get it, so Seth Wickersham is like a notorious Bill Belichick hater, right? That's why he wrote his hit piece, you know, Better to be Feared, so now why is he going after Kraft? Because he made it very clear that it was all

bill's fault and craft was innocent and now and now he's doing his hit piece on craft so it's like so or does he just hate the patriots or like i don't get it like like what's his deal it's a little bit of everything honestly i i honestly don't know i think that it definitely that Belichick leaving definitely helps this dude's case in his Patriots hate. I mean, it is a little weird that he went from being a Belichick hater to now being a Belichick sympathizer. Yeah. It's kind of like he's riding the wave of what everyone else is riding, you know? Yeah, no, I hear you. The thing is, though,

this mostly goes for Wickersham. This happens a lot with some of these lower-level, like, bottom-rung sports reporters. I am so sick and tired of saying an anonymous source told me, and look, I know it's journalism. I know people can request to remain anonymous, but me, and look, I know it's journalism. I know people can request to remain anonymous, but Seth Wickersham, I went back and I looked at his body of work. All of his big breaking stories, you know, like this, rely a lot on anonymous sources, don't they?

And I'm not saying it's not true. I'm just saying that you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide. If you cannot name your source, I'm just going to assume you're lying. Because a lot of the source told me, it's like, yeah, no, I'm going to need a name. And in fact, it just disgusts me how often wicker the sham is allowed to get away with this in fact to any of our listeners at home i would say start hitting them up on social media like start sending them emails obviously don't do anything stupid don't threaten don't do that just be like hey buddy would it kill you just like i'm not i am not suggesting that don't do it obviously but i But I'm just saying, ask them questions. Start asking questions. Just say, hey, would it kill you to perhaps, I don't know, cite your sources? The thing that we're taught when we're in middle school, basically.

Like, can you maybe tell us we're getting this information? Because if you keep pulling the anonymous source trope, I'm just going gonna assume you're lying especially from that one from 2018 29 the 20 from around 2018 where it was what was it was like multiple unnamed patriot staffers or something like that and it's like really like yeah and you don't know who they are and i just think that we the people we the football fans are owed an explanation and i think that the best way to confront this is to have an open dialogue like just like i said go find his email like dm him like i said don't do anything stupid like don't do not i cannot stress enough don't do that just like ask him stuff be like hey where are you getting your

information hey why are you saying this like let's just have an open discussion. Like I said, he has nothing to fear if he has nothing to hide. Like if he is truly talking to anonymous people, not just making this up, then he should have no problem saying, all right, my source is this. And that's, that's going to be the sad thing, though, is it's the journalistic integrity and whatnot, and we'll never know anything about these sources, but one thing's for certain is that you already have Bill Belichick saying he doesn't even know who the hell this guy is

and has never had a conversation with this guy. So if that tells you anything, then that gives you an idea of who this guy is yeah and even though as a pats fan i hope it's not true right i mean there's a small part of me that just for wickersham's sake i hope he's telling the truth because if you're willing to lie just to like smear a team that you blatantly don't like just for clicks, then I don't know what to tell you. Now, once again, I did not say he is. I'm just saying that his body of work, especially that book he wrote in the past, is very sketchy. And I mean, no one reputable believes it's true.

I mean, no one's like, oh, look at his hit new book. It's like, yeah, no, no, no. Like I've never seen, or I myself have never seen anybody like go around and just say, oh yeah, this is some good stuff. This is peak journalism it is. You know what I mean? Like nobody's that I know has said that. So I'm not obviously saying that he's wrong,

but given his track record of, I'm not going to say slander, but yeah, kind of slander. I wouldn't exactly trust him. Once again, I'm not saying anything. I'm not making any accusations.

I'm just saying if then, you know, yeah. So let's go away from this jackass reporter for a second and let's just go away from them all together. Cause he's irrelevant. He's just irrelevant. But we,

at this point we should just look at the bigger story itself because regardless if this is true or not not this is such a bad look for craft at this point because it's like yeah if it's one thing if arthur blank goes to craft is like is this worth it like yeah it's the greatest coach of all time, and it just makes it seem more and more like Kraft is trying to take all the credit or most of the credit at the very least to the dynasty documentary where craft basically took, seemed like he was trying to take a lot of credit for the dynasty that happened for the last 20 years or for those that 20 years span. So it, like I said,

if we want to call this a PR war, craft has ultimately lost the pr war yeah and i mean you hope this isn't true but there's just been some interesting stuff that we now know is like actually true like you know the whole and honestly at the end of the day i just think that uh there's no innocent sides in this. You know what I mean? Because it is true that Kraft wants to, you know, he does want to take credit for this, right? And it's not even just that.

It's that that docuseries that the Kraft Group may or may not have had a hand in making was an anti-Belichick hit piece. And also what we know about Bill Belichick is, yes, he did have an ego that could orbit the earth as a second moon. Yes, he did try to trade Tom Brady out of spite. My point is like, there's no parties that were innocent. Actually, outside of maybe Brady. Brady was just kind of playing the game. You know what I mean?

Yeah. But I mean, I don't know. This whole thing is just, I feel like all sides need a reset. And once again, just want to quickly touch on Wickersham. Like I said, for his sake, I hope this is true. I mean, it would suck for New England if it's true, but like, if this

actually is true, let's just say it's true, right? Yeah. If it's true, then, oh God god then think about the ramifications right that would happen right no free agent's gonna want to come here like it's just i just really hope it's not true but it is hell hell even a coach probably won't even want to come here because they don't want to risk crafts going to other owners or gms and being like don't trust this guy this guy did some bad stuff don't trust him he did me wrong and like by not paying me back a dollar or whatever yeah i mean once again i truly believe that there are just

no winners in this situation there's really not And there's no party that's completely innocent. Truth be told, though, regardless of what we said about Wickersham, I wouldn't be shocked if this was actually true. But like I said, we got to consider the source. Yeah, and on top of the fact that now you got Kraft going on the Pat McAfee show, which is one of the most popular shows. I thought Bill was going on the McAfee show. Yeah, Bill was on the McAfee show, which is one of the most popular shows. I thought Bill was going on the McAfee show.

Yeah, Bill was on the McAfee show. Oh, did I say Kraft? Well, regardless, Bill being on the Pat McAfee show today and seeing Bill's personality come out, let's just say that it is really swaying more to

Bill's side at this point. And, and what we'll call the PR war. All right, let's get the hell away from this topic. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll go over the quarterback prospects as we are eight days away from the NFL

draft. You're listening to the Fumble Rooski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the staff sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back to back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie, truly a lose lose scenario for both sides.

You're listening to the Fumble Rooski podcast by power. 18 radio secret weapon consulting chris kostich cj medeiros as we move on to our second and final topic of the evening our quarterback prospects coming into the 2024 nfl draft and this is probably one of the more hyped up draft classes that we have seen in a while. And a lot of big names too. I mean, obviously, I'm just going to read off the list and every single name you have either heard once or too many times. Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels, Drake May, Michael Penix, J.J. McCarthy, Bo Nix, Spencer Radler, Michael Pratt, Jordan Travis, Joe Milton, Sam Hartman. And that's that's just the top 11 guys right there.

Just the top 11 guys right there. problem that at least that i've seen with this class is that it's so hyped up that it just seems maybe it's too good to be true that like these guys are so hyped up to be the next big thing but now it's that wave of concern of are these guys being too hyped up and we're gonna see a bunch of underachieving motherfuckers now yeah let's be real all right the thing with these quarterbacks just hear me out all right I mean you name the top 11 but in reality and we only care about the top six caleb williams jayden daniels drake may michael pennix jr j.j mccarthy and beau nix these are the only ones that i think actually have a solid shot to start in

this league barring somebody goes on some nutty kind of like tom brady journey right where it's like a million to one but if we're going to start accounting for that, then why even bother? So we all know the consensus number one, right? That's Caleb Williams, at least as far as quarterbacks go. I wouldn't call the best prospect. He's probably number two behind the Ohio State Whiteout, Marvin Harrison Jr., as far as overall prospects.

But Williams is still QB one, right? And I have a take. I want to see if you agree with this, Chris, though. I like guys like may Daniels, Pennix, all those others that, you know, even like McCarthy and Nick's, they all need to sit. Not one of them should be starting week one. That's been, I think that's been a take that we've said a few times. I think Adam's pointed it out.

Yeah, and I'm going to keep saying it because that is literally just how it is. I like all these guys, but none of them have any, except for Williams, no one except for Williams has any business starting week one. And that's just the truth. And I think this is very indicative of the way that the NFL is going these days because we're seeing fewer and fewer truly polished prospects coming out of the draft. And it seems like every quarterback on the first round is like a project. They're all projects, but they're high, upside, flashy projects.

And I really don't like the way the league's going. Like, we're getting to the point where, like I said, where this is a stacked quarterback class, and five out of the six top dogs are going to have to sit if an organization knows what's good for them. Yep. So, for me personally, we all know williams is number one but my number two personally is the unc man drake may my three is jayden daniels my four is jj mccarthy and then i

would say now that's tough between pennix and nix you can go either which way I would lean Penix over Knicks, but that's just me. Yeah. It's the Knicks thing is weird for me just because he wasn't a Heisman candidate until he went to Oregon. And then all of a sudden he got all this hype once he got out of the SEC. And now granted, like the SEC isn't necessarily like you could make the case that the SEC isn't really the same

conferences what it was five years ago with ben because obviously you got georgia and dama running the show and lsu wreaking havoc but really it's just mainly georgia that's kind of been running things and whatnot for the last however many years for the sec um sorry about the dog if you can hear um oh well we have our atom replacement you know because there's a dog zone was going off in the back oh yeah but regardless it's like so yeah yeah, Bo Nix to me is just a weird one because of that. JJ McCarthy is a weird one because like Jim Harbaugh at Michigan really focused on the running game and it was very reliant on making sure that McCarthy wasn't doing too much.

And like, he like, yeah, you can make the case that JJ McCarthy wasn't the sole reason that they won it all and whatnot. I mean, he was a reason, but he was also kind of, you can also make the case he was really just piggybacking off the defense in the run game. And I mean, for good reason. I mean, Washington couldn't stop a nosebleed to save their life in that game, in that championship game. But in terms of your other guys here, like I like Penix, but he's another guy that also garnered a lot of hype from last year.

And that's kind of the case with a lot of these guys, it seems right. Like Jaden Daniels is a guy that wasn't considered a Heisman candidate until he had a 700 yard game. Yeah. And that's the thing with Daniels going into this college football season, they did their, their way too early draft projections. And he was considered like a late fifth and onward round pick.

Like, so when you take a flyer on and develop, but then, you know now he's the heisman winner you know you have guys that i usually tend to be a little wary of guys that don't do jack and or crapple there in college and then their final season they just dazzle you and it's like i mean i know there are some people who've bucked that trend, but I have to raise my eyebrow a bit. Yeah. A hundred percent.

Cause you already know what you had and guys like Williams and may. So speaking of which you want to get into breaking down some of these quarterbacks. Yeah. Go right ahead, my friend. So we're going to start off with the top dog himself. USC is Caleb Williams who let's it, is a future Chicago Bear.

Can we all agree on that? Yeah, I think that's pretty self-explanatory right there. Because if the Bears don't take him, then Ryan Poles needs to have his head examined stat. So, I mean, this guy, his arm is elite, all right? Even when he's, like, getting like getting knocked you know kind of like in the words of Tony Romo it's so kind of a homie I mean like he's in midair and he's just like yeeting the ball downfield and it's just his big playability is insane and he keeps a cool head under pressure and what i like the most is how he stuffs the

stat sheet wherever he goes and he always you know he won the heisman last season right but he doesn't have like elite elite like top of the line talent you know like marvin he didn't play with marvin harrison jr you know he didn't play with malik neighbors he didn't play with Marvin Harrison Jr. He didn't play with Malik Neighbors. He didn't play with Roma Dunze. He didn't play with Brock Bowers. He hit Jordan Addison last season. That was pretty much it. And his O-line's not really that good.

And the running game wasn't super great either. Aside from maybe Marshawn Lloyd, but that's pretty much it. And one of the biggest concerns about Caleb Williams, too, is every time that they played a top 25 team, the stat differential for averages for yards, touchdowns, completion percentage would go down. It would drastically go down compared to outside of top 25 teams, especially last year. So that was a lot of concern for a lot of people, but it can also go back to

what you just said. He's not necessarily playing with the Marvin Harrisons or the Dunsies and neighbors of the game. So it's kind of hard to really say, oh, Caleb Williams doesn't perform well against good competition. Well, does the talent around his team live up to that, though? Did the talent around him help him be able to do, to actually be able to perform at a higher level if not then yeah you have the case that or if so that the talent level is up to par for what he needed to compete against top 25 team then yeah you can make the case that he doesn't perform well against good teams and how

is that going to translate to the nfl when he playing against, say, the San Francisco 49ers or the Kansas City Chiefs or whatever, or the Cleveland Browns? I'm just spinning off good defenses right now. I don't know. But regardless, I mean, even a terrible defense, like how is he going to play against them? Yeah. So, like I said, we know he's going to Chicago So you know that he's going to have Keenan Allen

And DJ Moore and Cole Komet to throw to so it's not like he's going to be Hurting for weapons And so long as he doesn't hold the ball as long As Fields does he should be fine I mean granted the O-line is something to write home about But there's nothing as bad as the Bears brass Make it out to me.

Because, yes, I'm sorry our Lord and Savior Fields didn't work. I'm also sorry that Justin Fields holds the ball literally longer than any other quarterback. Like, this is like out of the 38 quarterbacks who qualified, he held the ball the longest. That is just the truth. The truth. And the thing is with Williams, right?

We all know what he is, but for some of his weaknesses, yes, I know he's 6'1". We're just going to gloss over that because I don't care. It doesn't really matter. So when people think about the offense that he played in, right, if you go in and break it down these are one read concepts you know what i mean these are shotgun formation plays he plays exclusively in the shotgun and he plays one read concepts so i mean that's also learning curve that's also like the majority of college teams though too like majority of the college

I understand that I do but if that's the case then you explain to me why Drake made into that why Jane Daniels didn't do that why JJ McCarthy didn't do that I mean that's just a different system at that point I mean yeah it's like the majority of the college teams that you see nowadays will run out of that spread formation and whatnot.

And yeah, sometimes that doesn't translate well to the league, obviously. But I mean, you do have to mix it in every now and then. And that, I mean, if you want to give JJ McCarthy and Jaden Daniels and Drake made the edge on that, then by all means. But I don't think that we can necessarily say that it hinders him. I mean, what do you run in high school? No, I mean, it's not going to hinder him, but what's going to happen

like when he has to like do more in the nfl do i think it's going to hinder him that much no i don't do i expect there'd be a learning curve maybe a little while but that's not even a big issue for me it's really not he does have a few red flags and And that's right, sports fans, I'm going to say it. There are character problems. There are. For starters, his father. Oh, my God. His father is something else.

Obviously, you know, he's been one of those dads that's been trying to get his kid in the NFL since the early times. And, you know, fine, whatever. I'm not a parent, i wouldn't know but he's contacted agents to see if caleb could get a minority ownership stake per the athletic and carl's already controversial because he's like already doing the talking for his kid it's like like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You are not on the field. You are a father. I don't care what you think. And we better pray that Carl Williams does not have as much influence as he appears to be, because that could be scared. And, you know,

Caleb, as you know, as it sits now, i don't believe has an agent and that is directly because his father carl williams and oh my god and then you know he's always spouting off some sound bites about the draft and then like some of his kids even business holdings like oh and not to mention we all were i was gonna say not to mention there was those rumors where his dad was like i don't want you playing here here and here like carl williams who are you again no no because everyone's like caleb we think caleb william, the arm strength, the dazzling throws, the mobility. Wow. And we're not talking about that little, that ball and chain on his ankle that's called Carl Williams. Okay. We're not talking about that. And on top of that, there's some, well, you know, some weird character stuff, too, about, you know, not having an agent, which, you know, a lot of players don't do that.

So it's not that big of a deal, at least not to me. But that whole thing about not providing his medical information during the combine, you know, was a bit of a red flag. I get it. I understand how he wasn't going to withhold it entirely he's just not gonna make it public to all the 32 teams he's like well they all can't draft me which i get but i mean that's kind of weird if you're gonna be the number one overall pick and everyone knows it like i feel like the bears are the only ones that really need to see the medical information at that point though no no i i do i do but it's just yeah you know the other thing i was gonna point out too is how is he gonna handle all the media attention as well

never mind being the number one overall pick but just his outlandish lifestyle right you know seeing him with the pink with the pink iphone the lip gloss painted fingernails he's doing photo shoots and dresses and i saw i saw a great take about in a comment section that actually made me start thinking you know we're you know we're actually seeing the first like actual gen z athletes and society doesn't really know how the hell to act which honestly i don't blame them i didn't know how the hell to act when i first saw it i mean it makes sense but dude you're wearing lip gloss. Honestly, I can get past the whole fingernail painting thing for one thing, but like lip gloss, really?

Like, like I can, I can deal with Harry Styles and Caleb Williams wearing dresses and whatnot, but lip gloss, dude, come on. Honestly, this might shock you given everything I've just said. I really don't care, you know, because I don't know if that's indicative of a character problem. Broders might have a non-conventional fashion sense.

I mean, that doesn't really matter to me, but the thing is though. That's basically what I was saying. Like, sorry, that's basically what I was saying though. You sorry, that's basically what I was saying though. You know,

you got your first like real Gen Z athlete. I mean, there's another one on Duke right now. Basketball. I can't think of his name for the life of me, but he's another one that like paints his fingernails and yada, yada. And we're seeing Gen Z athletes at play here and society doesn't know how

the hell to act yeah so the thing is though my issue is not with williams it's like they kind of will get there but it's about the media yeah because like you said media doesn't know how to act regarding that and i think you're right it's just like so you're going to chic, which is, you know, a tough sports city, kind of like, you know, L.A., Dallas, Boston, Miami, you know, those places where, you know, New York, where medias will chew you up and spit you out. Chicago is no exception. And I hate to say it because it's not something he can control. But they're going to they're going to be characters. You know, I mean, they're going to behave in the same way that it can't like a real character yeah so how do you deal with that can he deal with that

i guess it's just something now that's just something that we obviously don't have the answer to right now but what do you say we move on to drake may yeah yeah let's get to some of the other quarterbacks too so um obviously the top the rest of the top three um pretty much already decided it's kind of just depends on which way you want to take it is drake may and jayden daniels um i'll let you decide who you want to really go after first here on this one. Yeah, I'd say we'll go after May because May is my number two quarterback. Let's run it. So May is like an insane athlete because he runs a 4-6-40.

He's 6-4 and 2-23. That's pretty good, I dare say. And not to mention, as it sits now, he's 21 years old because a lot of these quarterbacks are a wee bit on the older side. So, you know, just take your wedge where you can get it. So he's a good mobile guy, you know, got that pocket. But it's his arm that's the real highlight. He has a cannon where his throwing arm should be his throws have great velocity he can throw under pressure he steps up in the pocket he can throw

off platform he hits all three levels the touch is great just you know he's got like i said the pro-technical quarterback build just just the fluidity, the flexibility. It's all what you would want. But he does have some weaknesses. However, it's good because these weaknesses are coachable. Does that make sense? It's always made sense. I mean, we've've been hammering that

we've all been hammering that point for the last few episodes yeah good yeah yeah which yeah said in now i don't know what to tell you i hope that they're coachable yeah so here's the thing right a lot of it's just in his head. You know, sometimes he can be a little – even though he runs more of a complex offense, it could – he can be slow in his progressions. Sometimes the defensive disguises can trick him. And, you know, I know that young quarterbacks are going to take the bait a lot of times in the NFL. Like, you know, how a corner will play off and you think the receiver's open, then he jumps the route for a pick.

Yeah, that's going to happen. We know it will. But the footwork is also inconsistent. He gets kind of selfish sometimes. And he is prone when he's under pressure to just say, F it, my receiver is down there somewhere as he just launches the ball so like i said these are things you can coach out of him you know i mean if you can develop them then that's just going to be fine yeah so his upside is extremely

high one of if not the highest ceiling in the draft but these issues the only saving grace that they're all in his head and that they're all coachable jayden daniels from lsu he has a similar build to meg in terms of height but then there's weight where he's just 210 that's gonna get you folded in the next level especially when you're 6'4 you know so you're a bit of a twig right kid so once again great athlete he's a good he's a good scrambler i believe runs a 4 5 40 he's good in the pocket his arm is just fine you know he can hit all three levels as need be his decision making ability is pretty solid as well. His footwork is smooth.

And he's a good locker room guy, and he's a good leader. But this is also something that worries me. And this is coachable, but the mechanics. Oh, the mechanics need to fix it so it's weird so think about the basic way of throwing a ball right you know you step into your throw you get your feet set you get your shoulders square and boom you got yourself a spiral don't you but it's weird because his lower body is doing just something else. Because if you look at how he throws, his upper body and lower body, like waist down, are just not in sync. And you can get away with that in college, but you cannot get away with that and the pros and it can sometimes hamper things like his timing and his

accuracy and in the nfl where you're probably going to play more from the pocket jayden daniels is kind of like an aaron rogers type where his first instinct isn't scramble you know aaron rogers gets out of pocket and he's a good east west kind of guy you know what i mean we can get out of the pocket, and he's a good east-west kind of guy. You know what I mean? He can get out of the pocket. He can go either way. But in the NFL, and Aaron Rodgers showed that, you can't really get away with that because the turf monster will get you. Once again, that's a joke. I'm sorry, but you can't be doing that.

You're not wrong. You're not wrong. Yeah. So, like I said, a lot of these with Daniels and May, these are things that are coachable. I cannot stress enough. These are coachable. So don't panic.

But now let's go to quarterback four, or as I like to call him, the mystery man, the elephant in the room, as it were. And believe me, it were. J.J. McCarthy, Adam, Michigan. I don't know what to tell you. I really don't. Everyone loves him or everybody hates him. You either think that he's secretly going to be the best quarterback in the league

or you think he's going to be Zach Wilsonson 2.0 but let me explain something to you so as bill isn't what you would want per se he's like 6-2-2-19 that's fine he is also i think he's like one of the i think he's like the youngest of the top six quarterbacks and that's all good, right? That's cool. You know, it's all good there. But the thing with McCarthy is that his arm is slept on. All right, let's get that out of the way right now. I've seen him in college. This guy's got a mean deep ball. Don't get twisted.

And even though he does tend to come for a run to heavy offenses, he can take over games as needed. He's not really a simple game manager. He can make plays, all right? And he's clutch. He's got that clutch gene. I mean, we've seen him in college. We've seen how he is. He doesn't stuff the stat sheet, but he puts his head down. Just because he doesn't have that flash doesn't mean that he can't get things done. And just his reads are good, like six inches between his ears. That's just fine. That is the gray matter, the brain. That's fine.

And he's a good leader. He lives in the film room. Good locker room guy. But weaknesses. You can make an argument that he's a bit of a system guy, which is weird in college, but it makes you wonder that if you gave him a coach not named John Harbaugh, what would he do? How would he perform? Well, not well. Your guess is as good as mine, but I hesitate. I'm one of the few that

hesitate to use the system label on them because I don't hate them, but we'll see. Jim Harbaugh, by the way. Jim Harbaugh. You said John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh You said John Harbaugh Jim Harbaugh Jim Harbaugh thank you there is no lore reason And yes I'm stupid now But yeah I appreciate it thank you So the thing is Like I said He is a good arm but The ball placement

Just like the touch Might need a little bit of work Because you can't be doing that In the NFL having your receivers like Adjust mid route placement, just like the touch, might need a little bit of work. Because you can't be doing that in the NFL, having your receivers, like, adjust mid-route, like, every time. Because it's good that you can get the ball in the general vicinity, but can you get the ball directly there? Because you don't want your guys to just readjust,

because that's going to make you look bad. And just like the touch and the loft on the ball, those need work. And his frame, like I said, is only average. And his football IQ, like I said, in the film room, you know, it's promising. But I wonder how it's going to translate to the NFL. I mean, where you're going to be reading some really complex defenses with some really, to put it nicely, elite defenders. And you know who he kind of reminds me of? Remember Matt Corral out of old miss back in the day

well how can i not forget it's kind of like because every throw huh how can i forget about matt corral that's a good question i wouldn't know so the thing is with matt corral and now JJ McCarthy, they have good arms, but it kind of goes back to touch, which, you know, that's coachable. But every throw is a laser. Every throw is just a straight line, just heat seeker. But the thing, and I liken that to, Chris, you play golf, right? Well, of course yeah that's like going to the golf course and only bringing your driver you're on the green just kidding driver you're just in the fairway about to get to the green driver that's his thing and you need he

needs to put a little more arc on it he needs to know just when to take it off the gas a bit so you mentioned and mackerel but i would say he's got like the will levis problem because that's a big will levis problem too much of a gunslinger and not enough touch and will levis has gone on to say that he admits that he has that problem. And he's working on that problem. And in the last few weeks, we've mentioned how J.J. McCarthy and Will Levis both are very similar in that aspect. And that's going to be a big concern because if you don't have touch, then what the hell are you doing?

You've got to be able to let your receivers be able to high point the ball. You've got to be able to float that ball out to the sideline on a deep out route and put it high and outside so that only the receiver can get it you can't and statistically wise completion percentage jj mccarthy is great when it comes to lasering throws over the middle because you have to if you're going to throw over the middle you have to laser that sucker in but throws to the outside yeah not so much yeah those out routes that he looks at they need work and honestly just the overall i mean look the quarterbacks practice the route tree just as much as the receivers obviously one's throwing one's running same you know same thing

basically you know it's the same thing, just different aspects. Yeah. And it's just that's something he needs to work on, just like anticipating the variety of routes. So we have two more quarterbacks to get to. Next we're going to do my number five. That's Michael Penix Jr. out of Washington. Now let's just get the elephant in the room right now. He's 23 years old.

And if I recall correctly, I believe that he might be 24 by the time the season kicks off. Chris, can you confirm or deny? I can neither confirm nor deny at the moment, but if you give me two seconds, then I can get it. Hold on, I just found it. He will be 24. He will be 24.

Yeah. Oh, boy. So his frame is not the best, you know, 6'2", 216, but he's got a great vertical, great 40, good wingspan. As far as the actual arm itself goes, no problems there. That man, his arm's pretty solid, I dare say. And that might be a bit of an understatement because his arm, oh, he can just laser it downfield. He's got a top three arm in the class.

And I think that despite his booming arm and good running ability, he can already be a good game manager. His deep ball percentage is good. His mechanics are solid. His pocket mobility, overall ability are good but this is something his weakness his biggest one is something that even though i want to like him it's something that you can't look past and it's not something you can coach out of him his injury history is horror movie scary. He has multiple ACL tears and multiple shoulder injuries. And as a running quarterback, that for me as the quote-unquote draft guy,

that's got to raise an eyebrow a bit. Especially when you look at the national championship game between washington michigan he was getting the living hell beat out of him that game and he i mean his o-line wasn't doing him any favors which is a reason why he looked so beaten up by the time the clock hit triple zero but now you're going to be dealing with a bunch of bigger boys and they're going to be coming at you a lot faster pause. And yeah, you, you get what I'm saying though.

Like it's, if he's not able to hang in there for the full 60 minutes for a college game, then it's going to be tough pickings for him for a full 60 minutes of an NFL game. Yeah, I think you're right. Also, this is another thing that he can't help. Just, all right, I'm going to say, I know we like to fawn over them as football fans, but he's a lefty. That could prove difficult for quite a few coaches.

And I would say, oh, the lefty quarterback's coming. And I don't know. The game has just been geared around the righty and, you know, say what you will about it. But these lefties, man, you know, everybody wants to be the next like steve young but i don't know so some offenses might actually have to adjust because it doesn't seem like a big deal but it actually kind of is because you know like you know when you talk about how you turn which way you run like that's all that all affects uh the actual in-game performance.

You could also say that about righties, though, at the same time. You just got to play call based off of that. Yeah, except righties make up the majority of the league. Still got to play call based off of your quarterback's dominant arm there so we're going to move on to the last quarterback that is oregon's so the thing with bonix you know 6-2-2-14 another one with like an average frame not the most mobile guy but he can actually get out the pocket and he's a decent threat when it comes to scrambling he is the oldest quarterback in this

draft he's 24 right now and i think he's still going to be like 24 by the time the season starts but yeah he's he's up there in age as far as draft prospects go. And I feel like his arm doesn't get enough love because his arm's actually probably one of his bigger upsides. He's a pure pocket guy, though. His pocket ability is insane. He can break containment if need be. He can evade pass rush he can extend the plays you know like a good heady kind of uh like just pure pocket passer you know his release is good his

arm mechanics by and large are fine the footwork is immaculate and he holds on to the ball so what can be his weaknesses rather than his age well the competition wasn't really that great these playing and like i said it's weird like how when he goes from the sec which is a big scary division to the pack 12 in oregon you know it's really no shock that he was as good as he actually became, you know? And he just, the way he processes things, even though, like I said, he's a good pocket pastor guy, it's, I mean, it's a double-edged sword because he's like a game manager, right?

But when he's asked to put the team on his back, especially in the league, I don't think it's going to hold up. And just when he's forced to get off his read and when he's – I'm trying to think. When he's actually under pressure, he does tend to force plays if that makes sense not to mention when the pressure is right in front of his face you know he can obviously see it but it's when his blind sides attacked because there are times especially if you go back and look at his tape, where he's just oblivious. And it impacts his pocket discipline when he can't perceive really the rush.

I mean, but I definitely think in like the second or third round, he is worth taking a flyer on. Yeah, I think that's the thing. You're going to expect Bo Nix to be a second or third round pick. And same thing with Pennix. You're probably gonna expect him to probably be a second round, maybe even late first round pick, um, to kind of backtrack, uh,

between the two, uh, and even to backtrack to JJ McCarthy, for some reason, everyone thinks he's the third best player in the draft, which he's not. And he's probably gonna be a late first rounder, even though he really isn't.

He's probably going to be a top 10 pick for all I know. But yeah, it's really weird for Bo Nix, and obviously one of the biggest things is his age. And it's funny that you bring up like he's just like, if the first read isn't there, then forget about it type of guy. And you said the same and you kind of said the same thing about Caleb Williams and like the type of offense that he was in. Right. So maybe at that point you go to the NFL. So I'll use Cam Newton as an example, right? One of the big things that they did with Cam Newton when he first got to the Panthers his first year

was they just simplified the offense for him. They didn't try to have him do too much. They had him just read one thing. If it's not there, then just freaking go. And they simplified the offense so that he's only worried about one thing, and if it's not there, then forget about it type of thing and cam newman ended up doing pretty well out of it granted he turned the ball over a lot his for his rookie year i don't know how many i can't think of how many interceptions he had off the

top of my head but he had a lot but he still was rookie of the year. And it helped with his progress. So maybe we see NFL teams kind of take that same route if they were to do that for Caleb Williams or McCarthy or Bo Nix or Penix. Maybe we see that go on for these rookie quarterbacks. And they kind of take that Cam Newton approach where they simplify the offense their first year. So it gives them a good baseline to develop into more of the, um, it's a more of the intricate,

uh, intricate level offensive stuff. Yeah, I dare say. Hit the nail right on the head. Yeah. One last question before we end the show. Who's your favorite quarterback out of all the quarterbacks we just named off?

Well, obviously, Williams is the favorite. Who's your favorite? I don't give a fuck who everyone's favorite is. I want to know who your favorite is. For me, it's a tie between Daniels and May. I like Williams. I do. But his father better not have as much power as he's built to have

because that could be scary. And I really hope he's able to handle the media. But Daniels and May, if he had to make me choose, I might lean towards Drake May. And on one condition, though, Daniels and May should not start. They should not. You hear that, Scott Zolak? You hear that?

Yeah, Scott Zolak, you and I've heard. I know what you're referencing, and Scott Zolak you hear that yeah scott zolak you and oh yeah i i've heard oh yeah i know what you're referencing and scott zolak well you know remind me how many uh remind what he did in the league again i backed up drew bledsoe for most of his career from what i remember that's correct but yeah i just there's just some there's just a lot of cases where sitting your guy for a year works out look at patrick mahomes he sat for a year and he's the best quarterback is on his way to being a top two quarterback of all time if not already um baker mayfield he wasn't a week one starter and tyrod taylor got hurt took over almost took the browns to the playoffs his first year and then they were a playoff team the next year it's i'm just hell even look at tom

brady he sat for a year took over when blood so got hurt and he ended up being the greatest quarterback of all time yeah there's a good amount of examples where sitting your guy for a year. I mean, granted, Brady wasn't meant to be the guy, but there are a lot of instances where you sit your guy for a year and he ends up doing great. And now you look at some of the quarterbacks from the past classes like you could look at. You could look at Trevor Lawrence start started immediately his first year didn't do well and he's still kind of playing pretty average but who knows if that's really his fault or not and mac jones he started his first year he had a great rookie year and then completely fell off after that so i mean even even uh what's his freaking name oh bryce young even bryce young he started his first year and he got the living hell beat out of him

so and lord knows how his career is going to turn out now after that piss poor rookie season i mean granted it's not his fault but regardless there's just a lot of examples where starting or benching your guy for a year works out works out well you know i'm inclined to agree just like i said earlier in the show that's what we're seeing more and more of in the league we We're seeing fewer polished prospects, and we're seeing more projects with high upside. Yeah. Well, with that being said, we'll call it a day with that one. Thank you for tuning in to us tonight. New episodes coming out Tuesdays at 7.30 p.m.

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