The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Favorites - NFL Combine + Draft Betting Update

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

The annual NFL Combine begins this week in Indianapolis, as top NFL Draft prospects showcase their talents for senior evaluators and decision-makers across the league. Action Network hosts Chad Millman and Simon Hunter welcome friend of the show Matthew Freedman back to discuss the latest happenings from a gambling perspective, including what players stand the most to gain from a show-stopping performance this week. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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1,800 gambler.net in West Virginia. Here we go. 3, 2, 1. Welcome to the favorites, the podcast from the Volume Podcast Network. I am Chad Millman, Chief Content Officer of the Action Network. I am joined as I am for every episode by my BFF, my companion, my compadre. My brother living on the West Coast right now, living his best life. He's got a fresh haircut.

He's looking clean like he just dug out from six months of dirt. Professional better. Simon Hunter. Hello. Simon. Yeah, I am on. hotel Wi-Fi so people have to bear with me if I'm a little choppy. Shaka-bara, dude.

Shock-a-bra. What's my West Coast buddy say, you know? They hang ten. They shock a bra. You know what I'm saying? I know about it, brother. It's a good time, like Cali. There's people in California that are still dressing like Sublime is still a band that still

plays locally. It's great. These dudes are just locked in. They get the little soul patch. I mean, they got the high tube socks. I just love Callie, the vibe. There's just some characters out here. And everyone's got a story.

But yeah, it was a good trip across the country. But a lot of snow, brother. Like I drove through two blizzards. It was pretty insane down here in the southwest, but made it to San Diego. The only thing that matters is when you were driving through the blizzards, did you keep the top of the BMW convertible down? I did. You have to drive so fast the snow doesn't even land inside. So that's my secret, how I drive the top down.

I will tell you, my wife and I, and I want to get to our guest in the most important part of the today show, my wife and I were in Philadelphia this past weekend, the fighting city of Philadelphia, visiting our kid at Drexel. And we met some friends down there. Saturday afternoon, it was about 20 degrees outside, really cold. And we were going to the Philadelphia Museum of Arb. We were walking up to the steps and in the street going around the museum. there was a dude in a Volkswagen convertible, top all the way down, Springsteen at full blast. You would have thought it was 85 and he was on the Jersey Shore. Yeah, no, that's just like, I was joking, by the way, people, I didn't have my top down during a blizzard.

But yeah, I think it's what, one of those, finally one of those storms came through in snowed in the northeast. So I think you guys got the same snow I drove through, Chad, right? Dude, I got a snow day going on right now. There you go. Snow day. Right now. It's about six inches of snow outside my window. Listen, we have a very important show because one of the most important things we do here in the off season is cover the draft.

Betting on the draft has gotten bigger and bigger every year. Anyone who listens to this show cannot forget. A few years ago, the Trey Lance, Mac Jones drama. everyone was saying Mac Jones. Adam Schaefter is out there saying Mac Jones to the Niners. Simon Hunter the entire time was like, I got sources. It's not going to be Mac Jones. You ended up betting significant, like six figures on Trey Lance, to go to Mac Jones not go top three, I believe was the bet.

And in the final 48 hours, the market started to flip and it all started going your way. And I entered up Matt Jones when 15, you want a crap load of money. I got a call from one particular state's division of enforcement, trying to grill me on your sources. And I'm like, dudes, listen to me. We're reporting, just like anybody else. Shefter had his sources. They were wrong.

We had our sources. They were right. Don't come after me. That's the game we're playing now. Anyways, we love betting on the drafts in today's guest. Former Action Network colleague, one of my favorite nemesis in the world. Now the director of content for fantasy pros, for betting pros. He does amazing work.

We tolerate him. Matthew Friedman, my man. Chad, thanks for that introduction. Talk about no having no outline. I can tell there's no outline for the show. I mean, five minutes of banter up at the top. Simon, don't tell Sean Kerner. I think that's his last name.

Don't tell him that sublime still isn't a ban. Chad, I don't remember what phrases you were throwing around at the top of the show, but I don't know if you could sound any older. By the way, happy birthday. And then Simon, Hotel Internet. I'm dealing with Middle of Nowhere, Texas Internet. So I think I might have you beat for that. I'm so old now, Freeman.

Thank you for the birthday wishes. I can't even remember what I said. But do you know what I do remember? I remember how much I love the GameTime app. How's that for a segue? You guys have heard us talk about the GameTime app in the past couple of weeks. It's the fastest growing ticketing app in the U.S. I actually use GameTime a lot.

If you're looking to get out to any NBA or NHL games this week or even a concert, Game Time has amazing last minute deals for all of these. I'm actually going to open Game Time right now. in my area from my house in Connecticut, here's what I can go see right now. Hello, Yukon men's basketball. I can see it tomorrow night for only $24. What do we think of that? That's going to be an amazing experience.

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Friedman, you're back. We're betting. You've already made some very interesting top of the board bets. Give it to me right now. The combine is going on this week. Tell me what you've already bet before we even start getting combined. bys. Yeah, so you can bet on the combine.

That's a separate thing. Talking about just the draft. You know, I know that Simon is already on Anthony Richardson, I believe to go number one overall. Got that at a great number. Simon, did you get that 100 to 1? Was that where you bet it? Yeah, I got a bunch of different numbers. But like we always talk about the book's limit.

So the biggest bag of getting down was 250 at a book I can't name because we're not sponsored by them. But yeah, I think you're about the number. the touch on it. It's like one of these things where you're just betting these now just to get the value for later on, right? I feel like that's we're able to dive into. Yeah. And so even at 10 to 1 at Fandual, I think that that's a book that we can mention here. 10 to 1 at Fandwell, that is still the best number that is in the market for Anthony Richardson. And I think that there's still some value there. You know, he's 5 to 1, 7 to 1 across the market. So there's some line shopping value there. And I got to say, each of these four quarterbacks at the top of the board has a significant

flaw. You look at Bryce Young and he would be hands down the smallest quarterback that we've ever seen taken this high in the NFL draft. CJ Stroud, he's getting some of the Justin Fields, Ohio State based treatment. Will Levis, incredibly raw. And then you look at Anthony Richardson, really raw. But he's got all of the talent. Like he's got the arm strength. He's got the size. He's got that mobility. Out of these quarterbacks, he's the one who looks the most like Josh Allen. And he's going to be participating fully at the combine. And so he's going to have kind of two bites of the apple, right? Bryce Young isn't going to be participating at the combine. If Anthony Richardson goes out there and looks awesome, then he can rest with his pro date, not do anything. And he can say, hey, I did it with

receivers. I don't even know. Or if he doesn't look that great, it's fine. He can say, I didn't know these receivers. What counts as my pro day? So Anthony Richardson at 10 to 1, he's the furthest down the board. I think it's, I mean, he's not likely to be the number one pick. but I think there's still some value there. And it is much more of a toss-up between these four guys than I think the mock draft mix would probably consider to be accurate. This is what's so interesting to me about the draft versus betting on the draft. And we had a similar conversation a couple of years ago around Justin Fields.

And Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson, it makes no sense to me that Anthony Richardson, is in this conversation. It just doesn't. Like the experts become enamored with potential. They become enamored with raw talent. The NFL is not where you go to learn to play quarterback. Okay?

It's just too freaking hard. And we can talk about Josh Allen. Josh Allen is an outlier, okay? Number one. Number two, Josh Allen got good when he finally got a, great receiver in Stefan Diggs. If the bills are not smart enough to trade for Stefan Diggs, Josh Allen is not a guy we're talking about as a paradigm for whatever we think

Anthony Richardson can be. He will be the guy everyone talks about every single year. Oh, he's a Josh Allen type. If you're not taking C.J. Stroud in this draft as the number one pick, then you're not paying attention to history. You're not paying attention to precedent. It's the same reason why we were saying, you take Trevor Lawrence, you take Justin Fields.

He performed on the field at an elite level, in big spots. We have a lot of film. We know what his flaws are. We know what his strengths are. We put him in the right system with the right talent. The guy succeeds. End of the conversation. So this is why I gave out Anthony Richardson, though,

is because all these guys have flaws. Like I could literally pick apart each one of these guys I mean, to me, I just wouldn't, I already talked about Braysharing. I just wouldn't touch him because of his body type. Like, you just saw Tua basically almost die. Like this kid couldn't last the season, basically the same body type. You see smaller guys where, yes, I get the Russell Wilson's Ruby's comparisons. But if you think Josh Allen's a unicorn, so are those guys.

So that's why it's like Bryce Young, I don't really believe in it. Like I love the kid's talent, but I'm looking for, just all these teams, like this is my pitch to the team I'm consulting for is, you're looking for the unicorn. You're not looking for a Kirk Cousins. Like, Kirk Cousins gets you nothing. You have to pay the guy, and he's not winning your games. You guys are going to go out there and be unicorns.

I can win you game. So the Anthony Richardson thing is just the body is there, the arms there. If you can get his mind right and coach him up, I mean, I think the kid's 20. Like that to me, that's why you take him at one, where it's like, I get the C.J. Strauss thing where you're saying,

like that Georgia game was incredible, Chad. His other games, brother, they're not that great. Like you put on some of his tape against the Big Ten competition, he should have been lighting those kids up. And he wasn't doing exactly what he should have been doing. Like Justin Fields, that year he came out, his tape was way better than CJ. So that's, again, that's another thing we talk about at time where I don't want to say that race played a factor in the Justin Fields thing. But how the hell did Zach Wilson go to? And Justin Fields was the fourth quarterback taken.

It will never make sense to me. But it's again, I think these teams build that stuff into it. So the will leave this thing. his Levis thing is interesting where the kid couldn't last the season. His body broke down in college football. Now we got Mel Kuiper and other people I got pitching him to be the first quarterback taken. It's just like, I don't really trust that.

Like a kid couldn't last in college football. The number one thing in NFL is availability. Like Eli Manning, we can talk all this shit we wanted out how good Eli Manning was he was available. That's what made him so important. Brett Farr, we can talk about all of his interceptions. The man was available. So there's certain guys where if they can't last in college,

I just wouldn't touch them. And that's my biggest issue with a couple of these guys where Bryce Young, I love his tape. The kid's incredibly the best player in this draft. I just couldn't do it. The kid's body's not built for this league. And he can take all the weight gainer he wants and goes to this combine and weighs it at 210. I feel like Freeman nailed in the head. If Anthony Richardson goes to this combine and lights it up and he's got the speed in the 40,

he's got the arm in just the, again, they're just nowhere in underwear, Chad. You've seen it. There are no pads. No one's touching them. If Anthony is throwing the ball downfield off one foot like Zach Wilson did and by guys just fall in love with him, I could see him being the number one pick. So if you didn't get it at 40 to 1, I'm with Matt, I'd still grab Anthony Richard 10 to 1, but any one of these quarterbacks could be the first pick because all these guys have such flaws. One more thought here or a couple more thoughts here on the quarterback conversation. Quarterback is such a traits specific position where even if a guy doesn't fit, even if he's not perfect, if he fits within.

a particular offense, a scheme, like specific traits, maybe he's a good runner and a team wants to focus more on the run. They might lean more towards that guy than towards another quarterback who might be a better overall prospect, but who, in terms of how this evaluator looks at him, doesn't fit the system. And so, you know, I think that's another reason why you could see almost any of these guys go number one or be the first quarterback selected because a team is going to be selecting these guys more for their offense or for a particular trait than like the overall grade that they might place on a guy. One thing that I think Anthony Richardson has is that he does have the running capability. And we saw it with Josh Allen early in his career. We saw it with

Jaylon Hertz early in his career. If a guy has that capability that gives him an extended runway to be able to develop as a passer. If a guy can't run, he has to be a really good passer right away. So he doesn't have quite as long of a development. period. One thing with Will Levis is that he isn't a pro-style offense. So at least like evaluators can say, all right, we've seen him theoretically do it in something that can kind of translate to the NFL. And then I think Simon was right. Like, Young, he's got a different body type than Wilson and Kyler. Like those guys are at least muscular, you know, like they're built like second basement. Young isn't built like that at all. He's built like a seventh grade outfielder, you know. So I just,

I don't see him even being able to put on the weight. And even if he does, he's not going to be playing it that weight. I love the way you describe him as a second baseman like Kyler and those guys. That's a really apt description and also an apt description of Bryce Young. It's actually despite all his talent, it's still amazing to me that people would consider someone who's potentially that fragile at the top of the board. Right now, Mel Kuiper just did a new mockery. He's got the Texans trading up to number one overall and taking Bryce Young. And he's got the Colts trading up to number two overall and taking CJ Stroud, which is interesting.

Friedman. The whole, Mitchell, we got to get Jordan Palmer back on the podcast before the draft because obviously he's done such a good job with quarterback coaching and quarterback analysis. and this is a great year to talk about quarterbacks and analysis and the idiocy in trying to scout and predict quarterback success because I'm not buying Anthony Richardson, just not buying it at all. You're a Bears fan, Chad.

You've never seen a good quarterback in your life. Well, the problem is I have seen good quarterbacks. They just always beat the Bears. That's true. That's true. I've had a generation of Brett Favre and Aaron Rogers. We got two rings combined, though. And don't forget, I had all those Scott Mitchell years, which was amazing. Friedman, give me some guys right now who you think with the combine going on,

we should be, you know, putting a couple ducats on because they could come out of the combine with much higher grades. And it could be anything. It could be guys who will make it three overall receivers taken in the, first round. It could be a defensive back who's going to fly high, you know, over under top 10, whatever. Give me some guys you're thinking about from the combine. So you mentioned defensive back there. And the guy who stands out to me is Christian Gonzalez. And right now at Fandual, you can get 60 to 1 odds for him to be the number one defender taken. Now, I'll just say, it's not likely to happen. Like that's implied in the 60 to 1 odds. It is probably not going to happen.

But there isn't a market yet for number one cornerback selected. And so this is a way of kind of trying to get ahead of the skyrocketing that we could see in his draft stock if he does really well at the combine. Christian Gonzalez, he was nobody a year ago. Like no one was thinking about him as the top cornerback in this class, you know, when the season started. But he had a fantastic 2022 campaign and you look at all of the other things and he checks the boxes. He was a four-star recruit. He's going to be super young, 21 years old as a rookie. He had a great breakout campaign this past year, and he's got size.

He's 6-1 over 200 pounds, so he can play with those big-bodied NFL wide receivers. And the thing is, like, he could be a fantastic athlete. Like, you see it on the tape. You see it in what he did as a recruit when he was entering college. And, I mean, people are expecting him to be around the 4-3 range in his 40-time, which is absolutely ridiculous for a guy of that size. Now, if I had to bet on that, I would take the over. I don't think he's going to be exactly that low, but he can still be four, three, five.

And if a guy that big is running four, three-fives and we're already projecting him to be, you know, maybe off the board at number six, it's not all that outrageous to think that if a whole bunch of quarterbacks go up at the top of the draft, then some of these defenders fall down the board and a team likes him. think of Jeff Okuda going number three to the Lions a few years ago. It wouldn't be unreasonable to think that somehow Christian Gonzalez starts getting Jalen Ramsey hype, Patrick Sertan type of hype, and ends up being the number one defender taken if he has an awesome combine. And I think he has a real chance of doing that.

Well, that would imply then that Will Anderson or Jalen Carter are not going to be the first player taken. Simon, do you see any value in betting Will Anderson or Jalen Carter number one overall? No, because I mean, we can even, I would love to your review on it, Chad, just because I like to get a monthly update on your view on this number one pick with the Bears because it is so crazy to me. As a fan, I'd be going crazy. Like, I wouldn't, there isn't enough podcasts for me to listen to when you have the number one pick because you just, your heads all over the place where it's like, this is life-changing

time right now. You can either get five draft picks. You could stay there and just, I mean, again, a lot of really smart people, chat, think you guys should take the quarterback, you rese the contract and you move off field. So it's going to be really crazy here what the bears actually do, where are you going to support fields and move the picks

or are you just going to stay put? Because to me, if you don't, yeah, I take the detack, whatever, if you guys trade the fourth or wherever you get the Colts pick, you get Houston's pick, you take the detack or D-Liman there. But I want to hear from your point of view, Are you still trade the pick, hold on to fields? Are you leaning towards any of these quarterbacks? I'm leaning towards trade the pick, hold on to fields.

Because I'm not a fan of Bryce Young. I think he's too small. Yeah. If I want to get CJ Shroud, why wouldn't I keep Justin Fields, who I've seen develop and has, you know, he's two years ahead. I'm not a buyer on Anthony Richardson. I don't want to go develop someone. I'm not a buyer on Will Levis, to be honest.

I feel like beautiful talent, not enough production. I know it was injured a lot this year, but we've seen quarterbacks who come out of these pro systems and get a lot of hype and then don't develop into what we think they can and we fall in love with their arm. Mel Kuyper right now, I just mentioned. He's got the Bears trading down number one to the Houston Texans and then trading down number two to the Colts

and moving down to four. I know it. And what's that? I mean, that would be the dream scenario and just keep getting more draft picks. Actually, the most interesting take I've heard so far. Credit to our volume colleague, Colin Cowhert.

Trade Justin Fields to the Atlanta Falcons, get the eighth overall pick, get Drake London and Kyle Pitts. There's no way they do that. What's that? There would be no way they'd do that.

Then trade the number one overall pick down to three or four whatever. Get Will Anderson or Jalen Carter. Then take a package of picks, trade it to the Ravens, get Lamar Jackson. That'd be pretty insane. No. I like the first part of that. I like the idea. It's Galaxy Brain, but trading Justin Phil.

Galaxy green trading the 101 and then i think that puts you in perfect position for the 101 next year where it is a much better quarterback class i don't say that don't say that freeman don't be that guy no but it is it is a better quarterback class if you trade fields and you trade the 101 you're putting your team in a much better position to get the 101 next year when it's a better quarterback class and when that guy enters he will have a much better situation around him than justin fields had a couple of years ago or even this year. Here's one thing I will say. The idea of the bears being competent enough, we'll use that word competent, to move down from number one to number two, and then again, to move from two to four. You're putting a lot of faith in a team that just traded

the number 32 overall pick for a wide receiver that they really didn't even use. Like, I don't think that they actually have the ability to maneuver like that through the draft. If they do, I will be impressed. But like, we shouldn't have any faith in their ability to do that. Two things. One, bear down to new era in Chicago. We're the monsters of the midway, not the mistakes by the lake. Okay. That's how that's going to roll. Number two, 101. Is this like new geek terminology for for like first overall what what are you bringing to the table here freeman yes that is the new geek terminology for but this is common for people who actually talk about the draft because each round has its own so you would say 2.01 to differ from

212 right so round two pick 12 this is a common thing chad yeah common thing amongst the geek class sure hey you mentioned that you're just get mel kaiykeye Okay. Listen, remember, by the way, tolerate these insults. Remember we had Mel Kiper on a couple years ago. You could barely keep it together. You were in, like, Mel Kiper referred to your name. And it's almost like, I thought you were going to like just crumble into a dust pan

because you were so overwhelmed with Mel Kiper referencing you on a first name basis and acknowledging your work in the draft. Yes. A highlight moment for me. wouldn't say crumble into dust, I would say melt away into the ether. That's the way I would phrase it. You and I have always differed on how we see things. The NBA season is heating up and now is the perfect time to download Fandual, America's number one sportsbook because new customers get a no-swet first bet up to $1,000. That's bonus bets back if your first

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www-WW-800-Gambler.net in West Virginia. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast. Podcasts Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You mentioned that you have studied Christian Gonzalez and you looked at his tape before he went to Oregon. Explain that to me. Well, I haven't, I didn't look at his tape. I looked at his number. So you can see the numbers, the testing numbers, for a lot of these guys when they were recruits. So you can see how fast they were in 40s back in the day.

Their agility drills, everything like that. So for a number of these guys, we already have a pretty good sense of the range of athleticism they have. Now, every once in a while, you get someone like Justin Jefferson, who just absolutely destroys the expectations. Justin Jefferson, despite being a four-star recruit, had some of the worst athleticism I have ever seen from any, like, highly ranked, highly recruited wide receiver. The guy was 180 pounds entering LSU and ran a 4.88 second 40 time. Like, that is, that is unbelievably bad. And then think of the amount of training and discipline that he had to put into developing his body so that three years after entering LSU, he goes to the combine and he's put on 20. pounds of muscle and shaved off, like, not like half a second from his sporty time, but getting

it down to like a 4-4. I mean, that is some, that is some serious physical training that he did in three years. But I mean, so like, but he's the outlier. Like, we have a general range of like, if a guy ran a 4.4 when he was a recruit, maybe he can do a 4.3, three years later when he's at the combine. So we have a general sense already. of where these guys stack up athletically. All right. Give me some other bets, Simon, that you're thinking about. Are you thinking about wide receiver?

Are you thinking about overall defensive player taken in the Christian Gonzalez, Will Anderson, Jalen Carter range? What are you starting to look at right now? What did you think about on your cross-country trip? I'll let Matt Freeman dive into it here because I think we're on the same page. there's a receiver I've been eyeing up for the first receiver drafted. And I feel like he really nailed him the head in our notes here about why he likes them. And I'm on the same page where last year watching college football, this guy really jumped out to me.

So I mentioned here Freeman's take, why he moved him up his board to be the first wide receiver drafted. You didn't name him. Are you holding back on the reveal for Freeman to get it or did you want me to name him? Yeah, I want Freeman to say it. Okay. I'm hoping this is Jaylon Hyatt or I'm going to be leading in the wrong direction. Yeah, Jalen Hyatt. I mean, he was fantastic last year at Tennessee, kind of coming from nowhere.

Cedra Tillman entering the year looked like the number one wide receiver. He suffered an injury. And then all of a sudden, Hyatt just explodes. And you look at the wide receivers in this class. And there's not a guy who is going to go in the top 10, right? There's not like that kind of marquee wide receiver. And so I think it's a little bit of a toss-up for who goes number one. But Jalen Hyatt, like you can't teach speed.

And he is probably the fastest of these wide receivers. And we have seen over the past five, six years, wide receivers who tear up the combine, they shoot up the draft board. And a number of these guys end up going in the top half of the first round. And it feels like Jaylen Hyatt has a real chance to do that. People are projecting in the 4.3, maybe even 4.2, like 4.25 to 4.28 kind of range for Jalen Hyatt. That feels a little bit aggressive. But if he's in the four threes, I mean, game on. Like he's got a very real chance to go as the number one wide receiver.

He's available at plus 650 at Fandual. I think there's value there for him. And I will say like the combine matters a lot for him. If he's fast, if he's in the four threes, then I think he could be a fantastic NFL receiver. If he's in the four fours, then he's like Paul Richardson, who was like a fantastic college player, but no one remembers him. Like got drafted on day two. That's kind of what's at stake for Jalen Hyatt here.

If he's fast, he could be the first wide receiver drafted. If he's in the four-fours, he could be drafted at the end of the second round. And to me, that's why you make the bet now, though. It's where he's another guy where combine is going to be huge for him. If he goes out and he does run that four-two, I can easily see him go steaming up the draft board because on tape, the kids incredibly, he high points to the ball, which you talk to almost any scout. That's one of the biggest things I look for, kids coming out of college.

Kids who actually attack the ball, he does that. So if he has the speed, I love this kid, chat, especially, I think most people, if they watched Tennessee last year, they kind of came out of nowhere. He was a big part of that. I mean, this kid was uncoverable in a lot of those games. So the fact that you can get him now at plus over 600, a Fandle, I would just take the value before the combine because I do think if he can run in the combine, which we talk all the time. These guys for last two to three months, all they've been doing is training for this combine.

So all he's been doing is working with a track coach to get his speed up. So to me, the value is there when you bet on these kind of, you know, there's a bunch of guys all in the same spot of these positions coming in the combine. you bet the value of the guys who have the tape and you just need to see them do it in the combine. So to me, he's one of those guys. He has the tape. Can he show up with the speed in the combine,

not drop any balls in the passing drills? It's a lot to ask, but it's $6.50. That's good value. All right. I will say on John is that he is not certain that he is going to run at the combine. So I would wait to hear news on whether he's running or not. If they say he's going to run,

then I would bet the $650. If he's not running, I would wait because his odds might drop a little bit as other wide receivers do run at the combine. I know Freeman's got to get out of here. So the last question I want to ask, believe it or not, specifically about the Chicago Bears. So let's say they are smart enough to make some moves.

And Mel Kuyper has already given them the blueprint to trade to two and then trade to three. And let's say that they have the option to draft Will Anderson. from Alabama, the edge rusher or Jalen Carter, the defensive tackle from Georgia. Freeman, you first. Who do you take and why? I take Will Anderson. And I get the Jalen Carter might be the better prospect. But it is very close between them.

And I get that there's this theory that if you have an Aaron Donald type of talent and he's able to get pressure in the middle, that might mean more for, your overall defensive line, but I don't think you can project a Jalen Carter to be Aaron Donald. Like, no one is Aaron Donald, but you can't project Will Anderson to be a pretty good pass rusher. And a pretty good pass rusher off of the edge does make a significant difference to your team. So I would still go with Will Anderson because even last year, he was like a near Heisman type of performer. We've had a sense, strong sense for multiple seasons of who he is.

Jalen Carter's great, but I think in the end, edge. rusher means more to your team than defensive tackle. Simon? I would say it's all about what the GM style is. The Carter is a safer play. You know exactly what he's going to be in this league. He's an eater of blocks. You'll always be double blocked.

He's just such a big body. He pans out, which he will because he's just such a freak. I mean, you can go back and watch him play high school running back, Chad. This kid was an absolute freak. And he put on the weight just to be a detackle of Georgia. So Anderson, you know, that's the hardest, part where I love his tape, but he played at Bama. And it's the same thing with this kid at Georgia,

where it's just like they're surrounded by studs, and it's really hard making a pick. But in your division, Chad, I guess I would go with the D tackle. Just because I get, I know, pass rush is a big deal. It's just your division. You don't really have any quarterbacks anymore. Like Kirk Cousins and Golf are the kind of two staples in your division. I feel like it's probably smarter to just go to safe play where the Bears,

when was your best pass rush? sure you guys drafted chad drafted yes i feel like i went through your guys list richard dent on one 1983 years who richard dent in 1983 i couldn't find one i only looked back 15 years so that's my fear with chicago they should just play it safe teams have just swung and miss and this new regime you hit on a couple really good picks last year in the draft this bears group so um that's the hope all right listen i was leaning towards Will Anderson when Friedman was talking, and now I'm leading towards Jalen Carter after Simon. I guess my feeling on this is there's something really exciting about a dominant pass rush

up the middle and having a dominant defender who can help with the run. Oh my God, you know what? This is so hard. I can't believe I have to make this decision for the entirety of Chicago. And we'll have to decide what it's going to be next time. We're going to leave people in suspense because I just can't decide and I don't have to decide. at Freeman because I don't have all the information yet. That's fair. Don't give me that look. Before we run, though, before you run, Freeman,

give us your favorite long shot we didn't talk about. I would say Christian Gonzalez probably is fair. There aren't enough posted yet. There aren't enough lines posted yet. But I will say if there is a line posted at some point for like number three running back selected, Devon A chain from Texas A&M, if he tears up the combine, like runs in the four-toes, I think he would be a really intriguing guy who ends up going much, much higher than anyone would expect. All right.

Matthew Friedman, director of content for fantasy pros and betting pros. I don't like him, but he brings good information. And that's why we have him come back on the podcast again and again and again. Simon Hunter, thank you so much from the West Coast. Matt Mitchell, producer extraordinaire, great work as always. This has been the favorites podcast from the Volume Podcast Network. I am Chad Noman. Download us from Apple Podcasts from Spotify, wherever you get your podcast.

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