The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Klatt's Favorite Landing Spots for the top NFL Draft prospects

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt reveals his favorite landing spots for some of the top NFL Draft prospects. Joel explains which prospect should land in the Big Apple to team up with (potential) Jets QB Aaron Rodgers. Then Joel also gives his perfect match for Jerry Jones and the Cowboys. Joel believes Will Anderson Jr. is the best available player in the NFL Draft and would be a perfect fit for an NFC West team in need of a great pass rusher. Next, Joel shares the perfect fit for the Las Vegas Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs, Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Detroit Lions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome into the program, everybody. I'm Joel Clatt. This is the Joel Clatt Show. And thank you for joining us. Thrilled that you're here, obviously, as we are getting really close to the draft. This draft is coming up quickly. We are now kind of hurtling towards Kansas City and the draft extravaganza. And it's an exciting draft, obviously, because we've got a lot of quarterbacks. It's really deep with defensive players, in particular on the edges, both in the secondary at corner and up front at edge rusher. But today, here's what I wanted to do is I wanted to go into kind of my favorite fits of where some players that we've been talking about for a long time, some of the guys that I'm going to talk about we haven't been talking about. But I want to start placing some guys and my favorite locations that these guys will land coming up later this month in Kansas City at the NFL draft. Now, before we get into that, just remember, as always, please subscribe to the show, rate, review us, wherever you're going.

getting this podcast. We're very thankful that you've been a part of it since the get-go. We just kind of turned it on after the first week of the season, what, second week of the season in the fall, and it's become very successful, and we appreciate all of your help. So remember, share it with a friend, and you can follow us on any of the social media's at Joel Clat Show. You can find us there. All the clips go up all week long, and you can interact with us there as well. Okay, let's get into these best fits, favorite fits is more what I want to talk about. And some of these players that I just think like there's no-brainer locations. Let me start with one that is, I think, pretty obvious to most.

So I just wanted to get it out of the way kind of off the jump. And before I do, I'm not going to talk about the top two quarterbacks. That's somewhat obvious to me as well. So C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young, they're going to fit up there one and two. I think we all kind of understand that. Maybe Richardson jumps in there as well. more on that in just a little bit. But where I start with my favorite fits is after those two guys get taken off the border, or at least the way that we think that this draft is going to happen.

And then you're sitting there with the third pick in the draft, and there's the Arizona Cardinals. Now, the Arizona Cardinals are sitting there and they need defensive help. We all know that. Look at what they were a year ago. 28th on third down. That means you can't stop the run on first and second. Then you can't get after the quarterback on third. And when it comes to getting after the quarterback, they were 23rd in the league. So they're not providing pressure on the opposition's quarterback like they need to. J.J. Watt, retires. What are they going to do?

Will Anderson is there. Will Anderson is my best player available in the entire draft. And Arizona's likely going to have a chance to draft him with the third overall pick. Now, here's where it gets interesting, is that that pick is going to be very valuable because of where they sit. and there's going to be a lot of teams that are offering them up some trade value to jump up there and jump the Indianapolis Colts for the third quarterback. I think that that's going to be a very valuable pick. But if they were to make a selection, the Arizona Cardinals taking Will Anderson fits.

It fits a need. It's obviously best player available. If he's my best player available overall and they can get him at three. So it makes a lot of sense right there. That's my favorite fit for Will Anderson is with the Arizona Cardinals. All right. So now let's move on to some better ones because that one's again a little bit obvious. So let's go into this next one.

And this is one that I'm like, I'm really excited about. Okay. You know I'm very high on a certain wide receiver that didn't play a lot of football last season. Jackson Smith and Jigba. Where does Jackson Smith and Jigba fit? Now, if you've listened to any of the previous episodes of this show, you know that DJ, Daniel Jeremiah and I discussed Jackson Smith and Jigba, and he threw out Tennessee. And you know what?

I don't mind that at all. But I've got a better one. I've got one that I get more excited about. And that is the New York Jets. I think that that 13th pick could be in play for Jackson Smith and Jigba right there with the New York Jets. Think about it for a moment now. You could pair him back up with Gigb. Garrett Wilson. When those two were on the field together, that was just gangbusters already at Ohio State.

The Jets got a second round pick when they traded Elijah Moore to Cleveland, so they now have back-to-back picks at the 42-43 range. So they've got ammunition and compensation if they need to give that up for Aaron Rogers. I don't think this pick is going to be the compensation. So they're likely going to make a selection there. And while I understand, like, they probably need some defensive help, look, if you're going all in for Aaron Rogers, go all in for Aaron Rogers. Give him what he never got with the Green Bay Packers. What did he always want and never got with the Green Bay Packers, a first round wide receiver? This guy works really hard, he's very smart, and with a guy who is aging in Aaron Rogers, what do you give him the ability to get the ball out of his hand quickly?

This is what I think lengthened the career of Tom Brady for so long, is that he always had, whether it was running backs or slot receivers, where he could act as his own protection. You see, I think that the quarterback is always the sixth man in the protection. Always. So if he can protect himself, why not give him that ability versus drafting like some young offensive tackle to help protect him? He doesn't want to sit there and hold the ball while some young offensive tackle learns the ropes in the National Football League.

Give him somebody that can create space and get open quickly. and then boom, he can protect himself. So there's a lot of reasons why I like this pick. You know, it makes a lot of sense for me to give Jackson Smith and Jigba to the New York Jets. You go all in. You've got this small championship window. And we've seen it work before in recent vintage. You know, Peyton Manning went to Denver, and we didn't know exactly how effective he was going to be if you remember this after the next surgery.

And he was effective right away. Remember who he got? Wes Welker, right? a guy that could go out there and help him protect himself in the slot. That's Jackson Smith and Jigba. So for my money, this makes a lot of sense and I get excited about it because you don't draft him to be a true number one. I think you've got a true number one and potentially Garrett Wilson, but you do draft him

to be a guy that could potentially lead the league in receptions, own the middle of the field, create one-on-ones for Garrett Wilson, in particular when you get into the red zone. Am I talking you into it yet? I love this pick. 13th, give me Jackson Smith and Jigba to the New York Jets. I think that that would be so good. Okay, let's go back to the quarterbacks. Not the top two, but I want to get back into that scenario that we were just talking about

with Arizona being on the clock. Let's just say for the sake of argument, it goes as we expect, and C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young are off the board. Okay? So they're off the board. And there's Arizona and they're sitting there with a third pick. And now all of a sudden, all the teams that may have a quarterback need or may really love Anthony Richardson are sitting there. And they're looking at the Colts at four and they're thinking to themselves, this is my only chance.

If I really think Anthony Richardson is as good or has the potential that I believe, I've got to go get. get him right now. I've got to go get him. So Anthony Richardson, who's my ninth best prospect in the overall draft, my third best quarterback, and a guy that I have said on this show could be the best player in the league if you really refine his ability. What the Raiders traded up there? Like, doesn't that seem like an interesting landing spot? I just keep looking at this and I think that they could trade up from seven. You get this factor, and I can't get this one out of my head, is one is like, the Raiders have always drafted traits over production, guys that can run fast, guys that can

throw hard. And I know that at times that has burned them in the past, but this guy is a superior player to Jamarcus Russell. So I don't want to hear those comparisons because he's got so much more in his toolkit as a quarterback. Again, there are times when he's throwing some of those passes and he is right on the money. Does it need to be refined? Yeah, sure. It needs to be refined. Not unlike a lot of these players, but a team that generally falls into traits and a head coach and Josh McDaniels who was groomed under the Patriot Way for basically his entire career, say for those few years with the Denver Broncos.

and McDaniels, one of the things that he undoubtedly learned from Bill Belichick was that you always focus on what a player can do versus what a player can't do. Don't tell me what he can't do. Tell me what he can do and then let's build a team around that. They're a team that loves to focus on a player's strengths, and then they build habits around those strengths, and that's what makes them successful. That's why they can bring in guys late in their career to do something very specific, whether it's cover the slot, rush on third down,

Maybe it's cover on second down or defend the run on second down. So they're a traits organization. The Raiders are a traits organization. You've got this head coach who has taken flyers in the past on quarterbacks. Maybe he's willing to do that again. And they're going to go up there and trade with the Arizona Cardinals. And then you get this. Outside of just all those team reasons, what about the fact that look at that division?

How many times do we see in the NFL a team win the division, without the best quarterback in the division. Rarely happens. Almost never. Almost never. And so what are you supposed to do in the AFC West? What are you supposed to do? Because Patrick Mahomes, you're going to deal with him for another decade, probably at least.

Herbert's not going anywhere. Let's not throw Russell Wilson in there just yet, although I do think Sean Payton is going to help Russell Wilson. So if you're the Raiders, like, do you think Jimmy Garoppolo? is going to be that guy for any length of time that's going to help you win the division in the AFC West? Probably not. Okay, probably not. Remember, well, let's just put it this way. You know, you've seen now a few quarterbacks leave the Shanahan tree, the trust tree, and sometimes it doesn't go all that well. And so I don't know how effective Jimmy Garoppolo is going to be. The important part about having Jimmy Garapolo is that you don't have to start Anthony

Richardson right away. good at starter at least for some period of time. And yet, you give this guy time under a creative offensive coordinator to potentially become a guy who could rival Patrick Mahomes. Because at his best, at his ceiling, I've even said, like, hey, he could be the best player on the field. And if you're looking in that division and you want to really roll the dice and you want to really gamble and you want to really shoot for the stars, you don't try to go up and get C.J. Stroud or Bryce Young, because quite frankly, they're not in Patrick Mahomes. Him is sphere. Okay? And you know what? That's not a knock. Mahomes is just one of the best players we've

ever seen. But the traits for Richardson at least allow you to dream that he could potentially get there. So he's the closest thing as far as ceiling goes that we've seen to Mahomes in quite some time. Maybe the Raiders take that flyer and they move up from seven. And that's why that's one of my favorite fits right there is Richardson at 9. My ninth best player, moving up Raiders moving up from 7 to 3 to draft Richardson right in front of the Colts. Oh man, I got excited about that one. I'm going to get excited about this next one too. You can tell that these are like my favorite fits, right?

Because I'm trying to hard to talk to you into this. Trying very hard. Okay. This one was almost too easy. And you might even roll your eyes when I give it to you. You probably will. Let's try it out. Let's try it out.

Cowboys at 20, what are they, 26? Schottenheimer's coming in at OC. Zeke obviously gone. You know Dak Prescott is best when he's got a running game. Threats around him on offense. Although I don't think that we can just think about a running back as traditional as Zique because their offensive line is not nearly what it was when Zique was the best player in the NFL. So how do you return Dak to form without an offensive.

line that can just be leaned on in the running game? Well, give him more offensive threats. Who's a better offensive threat in the state of Texas than Bejohn Robinson? Bejon to the Cowboys. I love this selection, right? Like, Bejon Robinson is probably going to slide from where he should get drafted. He's one of the five best players, football players, in the draft. if for whatever reason the Cowboys got him at 26, maybe that's just way too big of a slide. And you might be thinking to yourself like, that's crazy. Well, guess what? Jerry Jones might just trade up and get this guy.

And I don't think that that's out of the question. And it's for all the reasons that I just talked about. They have to give Dak Prescott the ability to return to what his best form was. But his best form was when Zeke Elliott was the best player in the league. okay, the best running back, certainly in the league. And guess when they had that? They had that ability when he was on his first contract, not his second contract. Speaking of Zeke Elliott, okay, you're paying a lot of people, a lot of money. You need cheap offensive weapons, and this guy gives you all sorts of creativity in terms of the ability to throw it to him,

hand it to him. He's electric, and I think that he can help the offense. He can help them run the football. He can help them in the passing game. And I think that's exactly what they need to give, Dak Press. Scott. Tony Pollard coming off that fractured leg. He was franchise tag. Franchise tag, Zeke Elliott, he's gone. That was just kind of running its course. So I love this selection. And I love the fact that if Jerry Jones falls in love with a guy, which he might, he might fall in love with the Texas running back, Bejohn Robinson, who's been kind of right under his nose, he might move up and get him. They probably don't get him if they wait until

26, but I love the fit of Bijan in Dallas because of all the things he can provide not only to DAC, but to the organization and the offense as a whole. So I like that fit. That's one of my favorite fits. I've got another running back. In fact, I'm going to do a couple of more running backs right here because some of these fits are really, really quite good. You've got a couple of young quarterbacks, one of them I just talked about in Dak Prescott, losing his kind of Belkow back and Zeke Elliott. There's another really good quarterback. on a team that I think is one of the best teams in the AFC and will be for the foreseeable future because of that quarterback, the Cincinnati Bengals, that just lost one of their

running backs in Samaj-P-Rine. So who would be a better offensive threat for the Bengals than Zach Charbonne at 60? And I skipped one. Let me go backwards here. I went out of order for my people. They're scrambling right now. Let me go back. Okay, let me go back to this.

Let me go back to who I think is the second best running back in the draft. For all the same reasons that I love Bijan, I also love Jemir Gibbs. Okay. And Jemir Gibbs gives you all sorts, all sorts of options. And as I've said before, he's probably best suited to go to a team that has a really creative, offensive play caller and has a quarterback that would understand how to utilize him. Okay. So one of the things that I looked at was Kansas City. Kansas City is kind of middle of the road on defense, and I think it's probably a fool's errand to think that they're going to improve their defense much

or even have to lean on that defense when you're right in the middle of Patrick Mahomes Prime. So if you're the Kansas City Chiefs, I think that your best bet in the draft would be get cheap, versatile, dynamic offensive weapons. I think that that sounds like a really good blueprint if you're the Kansas City Chiefs, and that's Jamir Gibbs. So Jamir Gibbs with Kansas City, I think makes a whole lot of sense. I know that the Edwards-A-Layer thing, it just kind of hasn't really worked out, but Gibbs is better. than Edwards Allaire. He's more versatile. He's more explosive. I think he's better in almost every single area. I know Isaiah Pacheco was a great find in the seventh round last year, but Gives would give them just a totally different dimension as far as a dynamic player. Mahomes has shown, by the way,

the ability, like, he can move the ball down the field. We all know that. He's dangerous when he gets out of the pocket. But what teams have done to slow him down and slow the chiefs down at times is drop a bunch of guys into coverage. And Tampa Bay did this in the Super Bowl, and they dare them to run the football. And they haven't been able to run the football. And you've seen Mahomes start to have some success when he's able to be patient against those types of defensive plans and check the ball down. Well, what if he's checking the ball down to a weapon like Jemir Gibbs, right?

You talk about moving the chains a couple of times. You give this guy a checkdown. There's a good chance he's going to break a tackle or two and get you a first down. So there's a lot of good fits right there with Jamir Gibbs in Kansas City. He makes him a better and more dynamic offensive team than what they already are, which is one of the best offensive teams in the league. And you're leaning right into what the strength is going to be and what your identity is going to be if you're going to continue to go to and win Super Bowls.

Give the guy all the weapons that he can get. And this is a different type of weapon, and specifically the type of weapon that's going to help him against some of these defenses and defensive game plans that he's seeing of late in particular, these safe umbrella style of defenses that drop a lot of guys into coverage. Okay. So Jemir Gibbs, Kansas City, 31st pick. That one makes a lot of sense to me and I really like it.

Now we get to the one that I already have alluded to. And since I already alluded to it, Zach Charbonnet 60 to the Cincinnati Bengals. This is a team that needs a running back with Samadjap Ryan, letting him go. and you look at what they do offensively, and Joe Burrow is going to be there, that wide receiver core is going to be there, and they need kind of a backup running back. Well, you don't need to get one of the starters, but Zach Charbonnet is a guy that could easily replace what Somaget-P-Rine was able to give you on that offensive side. Remember, this guy also very versatile, but he's a little bit bigger.

He's a little bit more sturdy. I think that he's really good in pass protection as well, which is an area where Somaget P. Ryan had to be good because he was better than Joe Mixon in that area. So he can step in and be and play that role. This makes a lot of sense. If you spend any time around Zach Charbonnet, you know that he is just a wonderful kid. He's got a great family, a great story with his sister. If you haven't seen the story about him and his sister, it's phenomenal. Go check that out. She's a special needs individual. He transferred from Michigan back to UCLA closer to his home, in part to be closer to her and to be closer to their family. And this dude is wise beyond his years. And this is the type of

player that can be inserted into a locker room and play a role for a team that's clearly going be thinking they can make deep pushes into the playoffs and potentially get into the Super Bowl soon. He fits exactly what they need, in particular with P. Rhine out of there after this season. So they need to get a little run game. He can do that. They need to give Joe Burrell a little bit of help. They can do that. And I like that pick at 60 with the Cincinnati Bengals with Zach Charbonnet. All right.

A couple more, a few more here before we get out of here. This one is just kind of, this one's more of just like, this makes too much sense. And this might be a bit of recency bias for me because I cover this team a lot. The colors are the same. His head coach talks about this organization quite frequently. In fact, this college program and this NFL organization have a lot of similarities in terms of lack of turnover at the coach's spot, toughness, the ability to play smart, having the identity on the defensive side, being tough and physical. I really think I love the pick Jack Campbell, linebacker for Iowa, going to the pick. Pittsburgh Steelers around 49. They have first rounder, two second round picks, 32 and 49. And I'm looking

at Jack Campbell and I'm like, Captain Jack in a Steelers uniform makes a lot of sense. This guy is big. Listen, I would love if he ran a little bit better. But when you watch the tape, he moves better on tape than what he would do in a 40-yard dash. Okay, so he plays fairly fast. He's a really smart player. He makes he makes every play that you need him to make. He's a sure tackler. He's the type of guy that can come in and eventually be the captain of year defense. Captain Jack. Jack Campbell with the Pittsburgh Steelers, to me, makes a lot of sense.

They need linebacker help after Devin Bush signed a one-year deal with Seattle. And I don't think that this is too high. And this is the type of guy that plays a really aggressive style of defense that fits in Pittsburgh. And those fans will love him. and that coaching staff will love him. Again, at times I would love if he ran a little faster, but he plays faster than when he runs a 40. He makes plays in past protection,

or excuse me, in past defense like you saw in that last clip. And I like Jack Campbell, Captain Jack, to the Pittsburgh Steelers right there in the second round of the 49th pick. Okay. Now, rather than individuals, I was looking at this and I was starting to play some guys, and there were multiple guys that I loved in this one organization, and I thought was a fit.

And then you do some digging and obviously you know the draft selection and you know the makeup of what this draft is going to look like. And I started to think to myself, boy, these two organizations have a lot of draft capital early. Seattle and Detroit both have four picks within the first 55 picks in the draft. Okay. So four picks in the first couple of rounds. And I started looking at Detroit, what they need. what they just signed in free agency, you know,

they kind of attacked that poor secondary, and they needed to. Their defense was not up to par, not up to par, to say the least. And they need help in past defense. They need help in run defense. They need help rushing the quarterback.

And I'm going to give them all of that, and then a little bit of a kicker right in here, a little bit of a kicker. And it's a guy that I already talked about, but if I were to tell Lions fans that you got these four players with your first four picks, I think you would be ecstatic. Static. Let's start with the sixth pick.

Detroit selects Texas Tech Edge Rusher Tyree Wilson. Okay, now I know Wilson has a foot issue right now, and he's not going to work out. I think he just got a fixed here this last week, if I'm not mistaken. They have two first round picks, they have two second round picks, they need defensive help. I think Wilson would pair up beautifully with Aidan Hutchinson on the other end. And now all of the sudden, you've got some bookends now, guys that are versatile that play the run and pass, that are long, that are strong, they have good motors. And now you're building a really great pass rush. Okay, so Tyree Wilson at number six, the edge rusher out of Texas Tech.

At 18, this is when it gets interesting because for me, you could definitely look at corner, but they already addressed corner through free agency. They spent some money there. And I know it's not great. Like, listen, they could go corner right there. But for this exercise, I'm not going to go corner. In fact, I'm going to give them a player that I've already given somebody else even in this exercise. I'm going to give them at 18, Bejohn Robinson.

You throw in Bejon, who's like one of the most dynamic offensive players in the draft, and maybe you could steal him right there at 18. So now in the first round, with your first two picks, you've gone Tyree Wilson and Bejohn Robinson. And you're thinking to yourself, but we need defensive help. Here's the beauty in selecting Bejohn there at 18. There's so many different corners in this draft.

You could clearly wait until the second round to select corners, or you could continue to strengthen the interior of your defense, get better stopping the run, in particular on first and second down, by strengthening the middle. of your defense on day two. You can do that and you can wait. That's why I think it's almost like a flyer with 18. Take Bejean at 18 and then here you go. You got 48 and you got 55 in round two. And what if they came out and they were like, you know what? We saw a guy play just down the road not only last year but the year before like Mazzie Smith. Mazzie Smith was an absolute

run stuffer and he was a big reason why Michigan played such good defense. last year. Mazzie Smith goes down the road, joins his old college teammate and Aidan Hutchinson on that front seven, and now he's plugged in at defensive tackle. There's not going to be an organization in the NFL that knows Mazzie Smith better than the Detroit Lions. Okay, that worked out with Aden Hutchinson, and I think that re-pearing him with Hutchinson on that front seven makes a lot of sense. And then at 55, I think that Drew Sanders for Arkansas is a guy that could be there. I love him. He's a linebacker from Arkansas, and this guy can run a little bit. I love his game, and now you're really strengthening the middle of that defense.

So you spent money in the offseason looking at the secondary. So you've addressed, at least in your mind, the past defense. Now you've got to address that front seven. So in the four picks that they have in the first two rounds, I gave them the most dynamic offensive player, non-quarterback in the draft, and I gave them three of my top 50 players available, all on the defensive side, all to strengthen clear areas of need, the pass rush, and then right down the middle, stopping the run, in particular on first and second down,

with Mazzis Smith and Drew Sanders. Now all of a sudden, you're building this defense, and you look around and you're the Detroit Lions, if you get those four players, Tyree Wilson, Bejohn Robinson, Mazzie Smith, and Drew Sanders, you've got something. You're feeling pretty good about your draft. And guess what? You're feeling pretty good about your standing in your division. What's that division going to look like?

Let's be honest. Is Minnesota going to win that many one-score games? Probably not, again, right? Aaron Rogers is no longer there. The Bears are clearly in a rebuild, and they're trying to build around Justin Fields. Just got all those picks. Why can't Detroit go in there and win the division?

They're probably on paper as good as any of those teams. Again, do we really think that Kirk Cousins in Minnesota are going to win that many one-score games? I don't. Just law of averages are going to bring them back down. So Detroit's right there. With the way that they played in the back half of the season, with their ability to address and get better on the clear area of need, which is the defensive side,

and maybe steal the most dynamic non-courdeback in the draft on the offensive side, that could be an absolute home run for the Detroit Lions and their first four picks. And if the Lions did that, man, I think that they would be absolutely thrilled. All right. there we go. Those are my favorite landing spots in the draft. We want to open back up the mailbag as we're getting in here towards the tail end of our draft coverage as we're leading into the draft. We're going to have a couple of mock drafts. I'll have my last top 50 available before the draft. Hopefully we'll run down my good friend, Peter Schrager, for kind of the latest on what's

going on in the NFL circles as far as all the information out there. That's all coming. That's all coming up this month. But we also want to get some mailbag questions. So if you will email us, please, any question that you have about the draft, even college football, and we'll get to that a little bit after the draft time, but you can email us at the Joel Clatshow Mailbag at gmail.com. It's right there on the screen if you're watching our program. If you're listening, I'll repeat it, the Joel Clatshow Mailbag at gmail.com. Send us your questions about the draft. If you want some life advice, you can definitely chime in. We've gotten some great questions about that. If you're looking for things to do in the summer, whatever it is, golf tips,

I'm here for you. I'm here for you. That's all I'm going to say. We're going through this together. This has been fun. I really like, this is more of my favorite thing. I don't love just the straight evaluation standpoint or side of the draft because inevitably you move a guy behind another guy and everyone's like, you're a hater, you don't like him. And you're like, no, I do like him. We've gone through that. If you've listened to this show over the last couple of weeks, you know how I feel. But this is really fun. You get to just kind of sit there and dream and think of fits, think of possible scenarios, landing spots, teams that could use a guy. And I think that that's a really fun exercise. So I hope you enjoyed this program as much as I did. We'll be back

next week, folks. And I can't wait. Have a great week. And we'll talk to you then.