The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - BEST BITE: J.J. McCarthy & Michael Penix Jr in Klatt’s Top 25 players of 2024 draft

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

Joel Klatt reveals players 25-11 of his Top 50 players in the 2024 NFL Draft. He analyzes why Washington Huskies QB Michael Penix Jr. is an elite talent and should be drafted in the first round. He reveals why Michigan Wolverines QB J.J. McCarthy is a Top 10 pick and explains McCarthy’s progression throughout his years at Michigan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At number 25, here we go, top half of my top 50. Latu Latu, Edge from UCLA. Now, listen, the neck injury thing is interesting. Remember, he starts at Washington. He has a neck injury. They say you can't play anymore. It's a career-ending neck injury. He gets a second opinion and a second lease on life

in terms of his football career, finds a home at UCLA, and played amazing. I mean, the guy is productive. You put him on the field and he's, and all my teammates are going to roll their eyes because our coaches used to say this when I was playing. He's just a football playing Jesse. Put him on the field in a uniform, given a helmet and a defensive scheme, and he's going to go produce. That's what I think about lots to. I think he's a heck of a player, and I really love his story.

At number 24 is Cooper DeGine. The corner from Iowa. Cooper is a, I think, more valuable. player than anybody's going to give him credit for because of what he can do all around. Listen, he's dangerous with the football in his hands. It's not going to surprise me at all if he's in the return game early in his career. He can cover in the slot. He can cover on the outside.

If you put him into a defense that plays primarily zone, and there are those defenses out, then he can play man, but he's better in zone. He's got such a good feel for route structure and route combinations, which is one of the reasons why he's so productive in terms of getting interceptions. So DeGine from Iowa, he's at 24. Amarius Mims at 23, the tackle from Georgia.

And this is when we start getting into kind of this offensive tackle rotation. So Mims from Georgia is 23. Tyler Guyton is 22, the offensive tackle from Oklahoma. I like Guyton's game a lot. I like Mims' game a lot. And again, we've got, I think, a great

depth at this position. in the draft. Wide receiver is deep. Offensive tackle is deep. Quarterback is deep. And that's reflected in these rankings. And we get to my next quarterback at 21 and a guy that I've been high on for a long time. Ever since he was a quarterback at Indiana, saw this guy almost beat Ohio State in 2020 in the COVID year.

He took Ty Fry Fogel and the Indiana Hoosiers in there. And in a lot of ways, made Tom Allen a lot of money because he got an extension based on that solid COVID year in 2020. Michael Pennix, Jr., I've been a fan of him for a long time, before he even got to Washington. Everybody wants to take shots at Michael Pennix because of his injury history, and I get it, it's there. Like he had a hard time staying on the field at Indiana. I get it.

He just stayed on the field two years in a row at Washington, and there was nobody in college football that threw the ball better than he did down the field. It was uncanny. His ability to throw with leverage down the field, really pass with leverage, and I've talked about it at length, and we'll have more on that as we get closer to the draft process. But Michael Pinnock's Jr., and again, fit with these quarterbacks makes all the difference in the world. Bo Nix, if he's in with Sean Payton, guy can succeed.

Michael Pinnix, I cannot get Miami out of my head. I get it, I get it. It's probably not going to happen, but whatever, whatever. I think Pinnock would fit perfect in that offense. At number 20, his offensive tackle, Troy Fontenew, a really good player. He wasn't touched for the better part of two years, and that offensive line has a lot to do with that. At number 19, back to the wide receiver ranks, Brian Thomas Jr. from LSU. Brian Thomas Jr. is in any other draft, easily a top three wide receiver in the draft. It just so happens that we have some elite wide receivers up ahead of him so he can be in my top 20, and he's not going to get the accolades or the acclaim as some of these other guys

just because the other guys in some cases are generational. But he's in there at what do we got here? That 19. 18 is another defensive tackle from Texas, Byron Murphy, Ian Devonre Sweat. Big reason why Texas was so good. Byron Murphy is, I think,

the best defensive tackle in the draft. He is a leader. He's strong. He can make plays. And he could be an anchor for an NFL defense for years to come. At 17, from Penn State, Chop Robinson. Now, Chop Robinson, the reason I didn't put him ahead of the guy at 16, and I'll just throw him up right now because they kind of can both be talked about.

Jared Verst, Edge from Florida State. The reason I ranked them like this. I thought verse was a little bit better holistically, also against the run. Not that Chop can't stop the run, but there are times when he would take chances. And when you take chances and leave your gap and try to win with speed, you can get beat. That's what happened against Michigan on Blake Corum's touchdown run over the left side in the second half of that game. He's also the guy that totally changed Michigan's game plan. So Chop Robinson, he beats the right tackle twice in the first two series so fast it makes your head spin.

And Michigan immediately is like, well, we're not going to throw the ball during this game. So what are we going to do? Call 32 straight runs. And again, I've said this many times. It wasn't that Michigan was trying to protect J.J. McCarthy or play away from J.J. McCarthy. It was playing away from Chop Robinson. He's that good with his speed rush. Now, Jared Verst, on the other hand, I think he's a little bit better holistically in every down-edge player.

So I gave him the nod up there. I think he can be a very productive player in the NFL. I love everything about his game. Jared Verst is a phenomenal player, so he's at 16. Tackle from Alabama, J.C. Latham is at 15. And again, now we're getting into all those offensive tackles here. And at 14, a guy that I'm higher on than most, have been for a long time. J.J. McCarthy, another quarterback. So here's my third quarterback in my list, and J.J. McCarthy

lands inside the top 15 at 14. I've seen J.J. McCarthy since he was just a pup. When he comes in as a true freshman, he's getting spot duty with Cade McNamara. And he grew into a guy that was the reason they were able to go win a national championship. They've had teams that did what this team has done in every other facet other than crunch time, fourth, quarter can the quarterback go win the game? You know it's true. Michigan has had really great teams for a long time under Jim Harbaugh, but they didn't always have the quarterback that could raise the level of the team when they needed it most. And guess what? He was able to do that in the Rose Bowl against Alabama. He was able to do that a few times. He did that in some ways against Ohio State.

That touchdown pass to Roman Wilson was out of this world. A lot of times, We watch what's called cut-ups. Okay, so I'll go into my film database, and I'll say, okay, I want to watch just J.J. McCarthy on third downs and seven-plus. And when you do that, basically hardest down to play as a quarterback, when you watch his cut-up at third-down seven-plus, it's like, wow. Wait, why is he not a top-five player? And you know what?

Fair enough. Maybe I'm too low on J.J. McCarthy. They didn't need his ability on first and second down because they were so good up front. But when he had the ability to change the game on third downs, extend plays, make plays on the edge, create, throw on the run, use his leg to move the chains, he did it. He did it. That's why he's going to be great at the next level. And oh, hey, by the way, oh, hey, by the way. totally unselfish, doesn't care who gets the credit, and is just flat a winner. Who doesn't want that in the locker room? I think a lot of people are going to want that in their locker room. Number 13, Corner from Alabama, Terry and Arnold. He was recruited as a safety and just got better and better freshman All-American last year than All-American this year at Corner. And I think this guy's got a bright future, a really bright future. my top edge player in the draft Dallas Turner at 12 from Bama.

And the top of my draft is loaded with offensive players. And in fact, there's only one more defender left. And I think that defender is going to surprise some people that he would be my top defender in the draft. A lot of people are going to have Dallas Turner as their top defender in the draft. And you know what? Yes, I'm on board with that as well. The offensive talent in this draft is just deeper. I think the top end is excellent, but Dallas Turner is going to find a home, and he's going to be productive.

He can play on every single down. He can stop the run. His motor never stops. He can get to the quarterback, and this guy's going to have a fantastic NFL career. Tiles Fulaga, the tackle from Oregon State is number 11. Not a lot of people know him, but this dude is a run grader. Like if Jim Harbaugh gets Fulago, watch out. Like, they're going to run the ball all over everybody.