The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Klatt’s Final 2023 NFL Mock Draft and the Coach Prime Effect

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt reveals his final Mock Draft ahead of this week’s NFL Draft. Joel weighs in on the controversy surrounding the #2 pick and whether Ohio State QB C.J. Stroud should be selected by the Houston Texans. He also answers the questions of where Florida QB Anthony Richardson will land in the Top 10 and how high Texas RB Bijan Robinson will go. Later in his Mock, Klatt has the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys both picking up offensive weapons and the Kansas City Chiefs finding a way to surround Patrick Mahomes with another dynamic playmaker.Then Joel breaks down the impact of Colorado selling out their nationally televised Spring Game and how the hiring of Deion Sanders has already had a huge effect not only on the team on the field but the university as a whole. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome into the program, everybody. It is the Joel Klatt Show, and I am Joel Klatt. Thank you for joining us, as always. And remember, subscribe to the show, and then you can rate and review us, but then you'll know when all these new episodes drops. You can subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast, and then you can follow us on social media. You can follow the show on any of the social media platforms that you please at Joel Klatt Show. That's where you find us. You get all of our content there all week long. It's going to be a big week because we've finally arrived here. here at draft week. So what did I decide? Well, Monday of draft week, we should do one of my final mock drafts. Now, I'll deliver some things on my social media before the draft, probably draft day, kind of the final things that I'm hearing. You can follow me on Twitter at Joel Klap for that information. But as far as this show and an actual audio podcast or video podcast, this is going to be my final version of a mock draft leading into this 2023 NFL draft. So 2.0, here we go. We're going to go one through 31 and let's get right into it. All right, with the first pick in the NFL draft here in 2023, Carolina traded with Chicago. They move up to number one. And I think we all know at this

point they're going to take Bryce Young. Okay. And this is a pick that I agree with because Bryce is my top quarterback available. The quarterback at Alabama is a sensational player. You know how I feel about him. He processes information on the field so quickly. He is a magician in a lot of ways in terms of the ways that he eludes the rush, manipulates the pocket, can continue to throw the ball accurately down the field. This guy is a sensational player. I get it. He's not that tall. But I will say this, that rules have been broken and the anomalies have succeeded over the last five years more so than ever before in the history of the league. And we've seen projects work out. And I'm not saying he's a project because this guy is a polished player. There's not a doubt in my mind. And I think that

he can be a face of the franchise and the type of guy that I would want leading my franchise as well. All right, let's move to number two. And this is really where the drafts is going to start on Thursday night. I can't wait. I'll be there in Kansas City. And I'll be on the NFL network coverage with Rich Eisen hosting, Daniel Jeremiah, of course, the lead draft analyst for the NFL network. And then myself and Charles Davis will be on the desk there on night one and night two. and we've all talked about, we've been on conference calls all week, and we've all been talking about this second pick. There's so much going on right now with information surrounding what Houston may or may not do at number two.

A lot of that information is surrounding the fact that we thought it was going to be C.J. Stroud for a long time. And now there's a lot of smoke in the air that it's not going to be C.J. Stroud. There was this report about the S2 C.J. Codd. cognitive test and how CJ did not score all that well. Well, let me tell you something that I did see with my eyes. Listen, I don't know. I've never taken the S2 test. Maybe I would bomb it. I don't know. Maybe I would do really well. I have no idea. Got its fame really in baseball circles because they figured that it was a good way to measure the cognitive ability of hitters, to diagnose pitching, their reaction time, things of that nature.

And now it's drifted into the NFL, and it's really been prevalent in the draft process for about the last seven years. And what they'll say is that nobody who has ever bombed or gotten below right around like that 75%, 70%, 70%, 72%, no one that's gotten below that mark, that threshold, has ever succeeded in the NFL. And while guys have scored high,

and failed, we've never seen a guy succeed that scored low. Well, the report is that C.J. Stroud got a score of 18 on this S2 cognitive test. Remember, it used to be the Wonderlick, and now it's different. This is a different type of test. It's not an intelligence test. It's more of a cognitive test. And to be honest, I can't, I don't know a better way to describe it. Well, long story short, here's what I will tell you.

I was closer to C.J. Stroud than any analyst in football over the last two years. Closer probably to his coach than any analysts in football over the last two years. And I don't see what the test is trying to get me to see. This test is trying to tell me that Will Levis processes information, reacts to that information, and makes better decisions because of that information better than C.J. Strout. That's not what I see on tape.

So this test is trying to get me to not believe my own eyes. I'm not going to buy it. I'm not going to buy it. Now, whether Houston takes C.J. Stroud or not, I think that they should. This guy is a bona fide franchise quarterback. C.J. Stroud's going to be my number two pick in the draft. He should be. He is the number two quarterback in my estimation.

This guy is really dangerous as a passer, really dangerous, in a good way, from an offensive. standpoint, hyper-accurate arm, elite arm talent. I talked with several defensive coordinators over the last two years. Several. Think about how many games I've done, right? What did I do? Eight of his games? And every one of those meetings with the opposing defensive

coordinator, they all said the exact same thing. When this guy knows what you're in, he will shred you, he will kill you. You have to change up the looks. You have to change up the looks post snap. And even then, he might still hurt you. But man, if he gets to change up the looks, he will kill you. But man, if he gets a beat on what's going on, it's over. So how, I mean, you tell me what I should do with that.

Some guy releases a bunch of test scores and says, hey, C.J. Stroud, he's going to be a bust. You scored 18 on the S2. Well, I did eight of his games. I was closer to him than any analyst in football over the last two years. I'm just telling you what I see. And what I see is an elite player at the quarterback position, a guy that overcame a lot of adversity in his life and his personal life ever since he was a child to get to this point. I saw him overcome a lot of adversity and in particular a lot of adversity when it comes to what his fan base thought of him going into the Georgia game,

what analysts thought of him going into the Georgia game, oh, he should use his legs more. And guess what? He put together his best performance of his entire career against Georgia, the best defense in college football, a team that we all thought was totally untouchable, and Ohio State really should have beat him. They didn't. And kudos to Georgia because of that, back-to-back national champions and absolutely the class of college football. I'm sitting for a long time on this pick because I'm here to tell you, like, I'm planting a flag in the ground that I think C.J. Stroud should be the number two selection in the draft. I don't know if that's going to happen, but if Houston doesn't take him, it's a mistake. It's a mistake. So I'm going to keep him at two in my mock draft. All right, from here on out, I'll go a little bit faster. But that's a big one, right? Because that's where the draft is going to start.

Let's go to number three. In this scenario, I'm going to leave the Cardinals where they're at, and I think it's because the Colts are going to be fine with where they're at and what their needs are. So Arizona at number three, they're going to take the best defender, my best player overall in the draft, and the best edge defender in the draft, Will Anderson from Alabama. I could easily trade this pick, I think, and maybe the Cardinals will. It might get really crazy after that number two pick, but I'm going to go with Will Anderson to the Cardinals, and that's a good fit. Indianapolis, I think Anthony Richardson makes some sense to Indianapolis. So Anthony Richardson

can provide a lot of value to a team that really wants to run the ball and feature a running back. Okay, so Jonathan Taylor is there. He's had a couple of thousand yards seasons. This guy is a really good back. Covered him a lot when he was at Wisconsin. If you can develop Anthony Richardson and then put his dynamic athleticism on the field along with Jonathan Taylor, what you get as a quarterback that can help the run game, not because he runs it, but because he holds edges. And when you hold edges, what you do is that you create seams, in particular in the interior of a defense. And so Richardson, with a run game with Jonathan Taylor, can help him out. Then you can get downhill in the play action and utilize that big arm to get down the field

and throw the ball down the field. So I like Richardson there to Indianapolis. All right, the Seattle Seahawks via the Russell Wilson trade. This is where Denver should be. Jalen Carter, you kind of hear a lot of things all over the map. I'm starting to begin, well, I'm starting to believe that people are going to overlook the off-field issues with Jalen Carter, the overweight pro day, the out-of-shap pro day. And I think Pete Carroll is that guy. He's not afraid of guys like this, okay? And so I think Pete's going to think that his environment and his culture is going to allow Jalen Carter to flourish. Carter's one of the best players in this draft.

When you turn it on and you actually see the plays that he's dominant, it's like, wow, he can be a dominant force in the interior of the defensive line, so I'm going to have him at five to the Seattle Seahawks. Okay, now it gets interesting, at least in my estimation, because the Lions need a lot of defensive help. Now, this is via the Rams, obviously, the Stafford deal and everything along those lines. The Lions have a lot of draft capital. Four picks in the top 55, and they have a lot of the top 55,

and they have a chance if, I think, if is the right word, if Aaron Rogers is to move from Green Bay, now all of a sudden that division seems to be up in the air. Chicago's still in a rebuild. Minnesota, do we really think that they're going to win that many one possession games? Probably not. And then if Aaron Rogers is all of a sudden out of the division,

Detroit could very easily be the best team in the division next season. And in particular, if they're able to hit some home runs in this draft, and it starts right here at number six, I'm going to go with the lengthy corner from Oregon, Christian Gonzalez. Really like Christian Gonzalez. This is a past defense that needs some length. They need some aggressiveness. And with Jeff Okuda moving on out of that deal with Detroit,

now you can get some of that length back with Christian Gonzalez. Great bloodlines. His dad was a 6-9 basketball player from UTEP. He's aggressive, good ball skills. I think four interceptions last year. And a guy that I think is the best corner in the draft, and I think the Lions take him. That leaves Las Vegas there.

They have a corner need as well. And there's a really good one in Devin Witherspoon, the corner from Illinois. They need the help outside. I like Witherspoon a lot. He's the type of guy I was talking with some people around Illinois. And they said, like, Witherspoon is one of those rare guys that his attention to detail, his execution, and his overall play go way up when the pressure gets ratcheted up in game. and practice, and in particular when he starts talking a little bit of trash. He's a very tough-minded

player, and he's a type of guy that I think can excel at the NFL level. So Witherspoon right there, the seventh pick to Vegas. That leaves Atlanta on the clock, and the Falcons are 31st in sacks. They are 31st on third down. They need to get to the quarterback. Defensively, they've got to put some pressure on the quarterback. Tyree Wilson is sitting there, at least in this mock draft. And the edge player from Texas Tech, Tyree Wilson, has a tremendous amount of upside. Great length in athleticism. He's tough against the run. I think that he's going to only get better. Maybe he's even got a higher ceiling than a guy like Will Anderson. That's why I think that there's some smoke about Houston maybe taking Tyree Wilson up there with the number two pick.

Now, I wouldn't do that. I would go with Stroud. But Wilson, to me, if he's there for Atlanta, I think that that's a no-brainer pick. All right, number nine, the Bears, via that Carolina trade. So the Carolina Panthers move up. They're going to get Bryce Young at the top of the draft. And now here the Bears are. And what do they need to do? They need to protect what now they have deemed their franchise quarterback.

Why have they deemed him the franchise quarterback? Well, they just moved from the number one pick. So if you're going to put your chips in the middle of the table and you're going to say, okay, we're riding with Justin Fields, guess what you're going to do? You've got to protect him. And that's something that they can do with this pick. I think that the best offensive linemen in the draft is also the best past protecting offensive

linemen in the draft, and that's Parris Johnson, the offensive tackle at Ohio State. Fields' former teammate there at Ohio State. Now, granted, they didn't play a ton together because it's been a couple of years, but when you look at the number of sacks that they took, 29th in the NFL, they need help up front, they get it with Parris Johnson, the tackle for the Buckeyes. That leaves the Eagles on the clock at number 10. Now, I've had this pick in my first mock, and I'm going to keep it there. Bejean Robinson.

Let's just put it up, and then let me explain a little bit further. I think that the Eagles have the best roster in football. They have the most complete roster in football. Now, they've gotten to that point because they've been very disciplined and have not taken a lot of vanity picks in the draft. I understand that. But at this point, I believe that they have the luxury of maybe taking a vanity pick. The best offensive player that's not a quarterback available in the 2023 draft is Bejohn Robinson.

He's the most versatile and dangerous offensive player available. He's also the style of player that can specifically help Jalen Hertz. Now, they've gotten to this point being one of the best teams in the NFC, the best team in the NFC, going to the Super Bowl, by drafting trenches, getting better up front, dominating at the line of scrimmage. could do that here. And maybe they will. I'm not sure. Maybe they take Peter Skoronsky, you know who I think is going to move down to guard. He played tackle at Northwestern. Maybe they take Skoronsky. I'm not sure. But if they take Bejohn Robinson, they can take hits away from Jalen Hertz by getting the ball out of his hand quickly. They take one of the most versatile and

dynamic offensive players available and they put them on the field in that RPO style of system. And now you're really putting a lot of pressure on the opposing defense. and to me, they've got to make a decision, along with some of these other teams in the AFC, which I'll get to at the back end of the first round, their decision has to be like, it's the Patrick Mahomes decision. Are we going to defend against Mahomes or are we going to go outscore him? Like, that's the decision that they have to make. I think it's a, now the Bucks were able to do it, but I think it's a fool's errand to say that

you're going to go out there and just defend against Patrick Mahomes. He's learned too much. He's learned from the failures against the bucks in that Super Bowl, right? He's learned how to deal with the drop aeton coverage and the soft coverage. How has he learned how to deal with that? He checks the ball down more. He doesn't look for the home run as much. So guess what you're going to have to do? You're going to have to go outscore him. So if you're Philadelphia, give Jalen Hertz the most dynamic offensive player in the draft, Bejohn Robinson. All right. Tennessee number 11. Now, this is more about what I think is going to happen versus what I think should have.

happen right here. I think Tennessee is going to really like Will Levis, and I do think Will Levis is going to be drafted fairly early in this draft. So with those two things in mind, I think that Tennessee, or I'm going to give them Will Levis right here. Now, I've not been as high on Levis as others. Now, partly because of what I do for a living, I'm not a scout. I am not seeing these players for the first time during this process. Now, maybe that makes my evaluation a tainted evaluation. That's fine. That's totally fine.

But I can't get out of my head the fact that Will Levis couldn't beat out Sean Clifford at Penn State. This is not a situation where Joe Burrow loses a quarterback battle to a guy like Dwayne Haskins, who's clearly a first-round player. This is Sean Clifford. And all due respect to Sean Clifford, I sat with him twice this year when he was like, you know what, I don't know if I want to play football after this. I'm probably just going to go into the business world. And partly because it's like, that's his best option, is going to the business world.

Now, Levis is a great kid. Comes from a great family. He's got great athletic traits. He's got a good arm. All of those things. But it never really translates. If you talk with people up in the New England area, they'll tell you that he wasn't really even a dominant play.

in high school. He wasn't a dominant player in college at his first location. He wasn't even a dominant player in college at his second location. Saying a lot of negative things here about Will Levis when I still have him rated as one of my top 40 players, one top 33 players in the draft. I love his athleticism. I hope he has a lot of success. I have questions about his decision making on the field because he turns the ball over too much. And that's something that I think can can linger when you get into the NFL. So Titans fans are sitting there like, thanks a lot, but we'll love us to the Titans. All right. 12th, Texans. I gave them Stroud earlier. They need more help on offense. This is via Cleveland, by the way. I think Jackson Smith and Jigba makes a lot of sense.

You give these two players, college teammates, the opportunity to play together here at the NFL level. I think we forget how dominant and dynamic this guy was on the field when he was healthy. I get it. His hamstring wasn't ready. He didn't contribute last year nearly at all. I understand that. When he was on the field in 2020, was it, one, with Garrett Wilson, who just won the rookie of the year, with Chris Olavé, who was just tremendous as a rookie, all of those guys will tell you to a man that the best player on the field was Jackson Smith and Jigba. If he goes to the right place, and hopefully this is the right place, with the right quarterback and hopefully Stroud is the right quarterback, I think Jackson Smith and Jigba is the type of talent that could lead the league in receptions in his first. three, four years. I think he's going to be one of the better players than the entire national football league.

All right, let's move to the Jets. I can't wait to sit here on Draft Night and actually, like, with these Jets picks. Now, I don't think it'll be this pick. It'll probably be in the second round where it gets really interesting, but it's like, when does the Rogers trade actually happen? Does it happen?

I mean, do the Jets move up and take a quarterback? Does that put to bed the Rogers saga? I'm not sure. it's all very interesting. I'm going to give them Peter Skoronsky, who I just mentioned before, terrific player. Me and Pat Fitzgerald have been talking about this guy since he was a true freshman. Roshan Slater was their excellent draft prospect a couple of years ago, and Pat and I were talking about Rishon, and he said to me, hey, I got a guy that's going to be his equal in a couple of years. And I was like, really, please, let me write this down. Who is it? His name's Peter.

Skoronsky. You're going to want to watch him and immediately he was one of the best linemen in the entire Big Ten as a true freshman and has been that over the last three years. So I like this pick for the Jets. They need some help up front. Why not? Right. But again, the saga with the Packers and Air Rogers there is going to be pretty good. Patriots at 14. I could easily see them trading out of this pick. But if you start to see now, now there's been a couple of offensive linemen taking. And I think that they'll start to view their offensive line board and say, okay, now our top end prospects on the offensive line are dwindling. I think that we should sit tight and take one of those guys. I think that they could use some help

on the offensive line. And so Broderick Jones, the offensive tackle for Georgia from Georgia makes a lot of sense for me. We know that Bill Belichick likes those Georgia guys. And Jones is a really good player, a really good player. And I think that he can help them right away. So now the Packers are up at 15. And for my money, the Packers have the option. They need a tight end. They have the option here to take my best tight end off the board. And that's Michael Maher, the tied in from Notre Dame. This is the type of guy that can be very versatile for you because he can flex out and be a dynamic wide receiver, win a mismatch. But he can also be in line and help your run game out because he's a terrific blocker and a willing blocker. Excellent character,

football character, good in the locker room, can be a captain for 12, 13 years. So to me, the Packers have the chance to take one of the better players in the entire draft and get them right there in the middle of the first round at the 15th pick. Commanders then would be up at 16, and they need a lot of help. I think that they need a lot of help on their defense. Joey Porter Jr. right there. The other corners were taken above him. I think that they could sit there and wait for Joey Porter Jr., the corner out of Penn State, good lineage, good length, great with his hands. I thought about giving him to the Patriots there, but I decided that Joey Porter Jr. was going to fall right there to the commanders. Wouldn't surprise me if they went offense there either,

but I think that that's a good value pick with Joey Porter Jr., the corner from Penn State to the commanders at 16. All right, 17 now the Steelers would be on the clock, and unfortunately for the Steelers, Joey Porter Jr. wasn't there for them at that pick. But I think they need offensive line even more so than a corner. And there's already been all those offensive line been taken. So this just, what does it do? It kicks over that domino of the run on offensive tackle. So Darnell Wright, the tackle from Tennessee, I like him going to the Steelers, maybe overdrafted a little bit, but the fact that the other offensive linemen were already taken, then you get a run on the position. And I think that the Steelers will feel like, you know what, we've got to get one of

those guys. Maybe they have him as, you know, a group of four that they feel like are elite or first round grades. And so they can get that guy. Listen, he didn't have a lot of success in his first few years, highly recruited. But then this last year, he moves over to the right tackle, and I thought he was tremendous. So I like Darnell Wright. I like his game and I think the Steelers could use him right there. Lyons second selection of the first round. How about the lions sitting there, a chance to get a couple of good players. And they in this position have a chance. at least the way that my draft board has broken down to get a really productive and dominant defensive tackle. They already have a good rush. Aidan Hutchinson has been really good, obviously.

Great rookie season. They're going to get Christian Gonzalez with the sixth pick, and now they can get Colizia Cancy, the defensive tackle from Pitt. Super productive. When you talk about this guy, he's played well over 30 games in his career at Pitt, and he's got a TFL per game in his career. Behind the line of scrimmage production from the tackle spot is very rare, and he gives it to you. He's sudden, he's explosive, and Detroit could all of a sudden have one of these fronts

that is highly productive, forcing a lot of pressure on the quarterback, and giving young corners like Christian Gonzalez the opportunity to put their hands on the football. I think that that defense could be really good, and the Lions could be looking very good here in the next couple of years. All right, at 19, Tampa is sitting there. And so candidly, I don't love any picks for Tampa right there.

And I'm like, I think Tampa is going to be desperately trying to trade. And in this scenario, I looked down a few picks later and I was like, I got it. I got it. And the reason is, is because there's only been two edge players so far. So there's an edge player that's on the board. that I think that the Ravens would see a lot of similarities in, a guy that just feels like a raven. And so I think that the Ravens trade with Tampa

to get ahead of like the Seahawks there that could go edge, maybe even the Chargers, you know, could go edge right there. Like they're going to have to jump a couple of teams that could potentially look at an edge player. And they're going to take Nolan Smith, the edge player from Georgia. So this makes a lot of, almost, too much sense because Nolan, I think there's a good scheme fit for Mike McDonald, the defense coordinator at Baltimore because of the defense that Nolan ran at Georgia.

He is a born leader, born captain. You will not hear one negative thing about Nolan Smith. Now, you do about Jalen Carter. Now, one thing about Nolan Smith. He has been an anchor and a cornerstone of the best defense in college football for two straight years. He just feels like that's the type of pick that the Ravens always make in the first round and you're like, oh, of course, of course. So Nolan Smith, there are the Ravens. That leaves Seattle on the clock for the 20th pick and they could then say, all right, now these edge players are going.

The top three now are off the board in this scenario. Now let's go out and get Miles Murphy, the edge player from Clemson, highly recruited, very active, good athlete. This is a guy, By the way, when he was 14 years old, he could throw the ball 90 miles an hour as a pitcher. Can you imagine a 14-year-old trying to hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball? There's a lot of 18-year-old seniors that can't hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball. Heck, I know a lot of minor league baseball players that can't hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball. Miles Murphy, immediately, they become a better defense if they're able to put two players on their defensive front. Seattle with Jalen Carter on the interior, Miles Murphy on the edge, on that front seven,

you put some dynamic players on the field right away, some young players in their first contract. I really like that pick. All right, the Chargers at 21. I think that they need an outside wide receiver, not an inside. There's definitely a distinction in this draft between outside and inside receivers. There's a lot of guys that are slot specialists,

Jackson Smith and Jigba being one of them, Jordan Addison being another. And then there's some guys that you would say they're clearly outside receivers. So Quentin Johnston. He's my best outside receiver available. So I'm going to go with Quentin Johnston to the Chargers thing.

They need an outside threat, kind of a number one, and a guy that can go down the field and become a deep threat for Justin Herbert. Herbert's got one of the best arms in the entire national football league, and Johnston, he excels down the field in the contested catch area, those combat catches. Now, can he make mundane catches look hard, right? Can he make the easy catch look hard underneath? Yeah, sometimes he does, and he's going to work on that and hopefully develop that. But when it comes to the sensational catch, touchdown catches, downfield catch. catches, 50-50 balls. This guy generally comes down with them. And I think that the Chargers would be better if he was on the outside. All right, so Tampa now is selecting because I traded with Baltimore. So Tampa is there. And I'll be very candid with you. I could see them trading out

altogether and just trying to get out because I think that they're in the middle of a complete rebuild. They chased the Super Bowl. They got it. And good for them. If you've got a Super Bowl window, then you take it and you try to take advantage. And they did that with Tom Brady. And now they're sitting there and I think that they're going to need a total revamp. I could see them moving out of the first round altogether. They traded with Baltimore here in my first scenario with 19. They're sitting there with 22 and I'm kind of stuck and guess what? They might, if they get stuck and don't have a trade partner, just take best player available. This is where the run on edge players ends because the best player available is Lucas VanS from Iowa. Now, is this exactly what the bucks need? I don't know.

I don't know. But I will tell you that I think VanS is an excellent. excellent player. If they get caught and can't trade out of the first round, I don't, I wouldn't, well, let's just say I wouldn't be mad if I was a Bucks fan if they got Lucas Van S. This is a guy that, while he wasn't a starter that's very misleading, because he actually played more snaps than any of the defensive ends at Iowa. And they do more things out of hierarchy and things of that nature. And by the way, they play a very different structure on first and second down under Phil Parker, their defensive coordinator, than they do on third down. He's a very different structure. He's a very different structure. He's not a third down specialist and he played a lot of plays on first and second down, but there was

also an element of trying to keep him fresh, which is why he didn't have the number of starts that some of the other guys did. Lucas Van Ness, he's athletic. I like him as a pass rusher. Maybe the bucks take a flyer on the best available right there. Vikings are up at number 23. I love Jordan Addison. I think that that's a good spot for him. I love his game. I think the thing that he specializes in is that from a slot perspective, and I do think he's more of a slot player. Now, can he play outside? Sure. Is he going to be dominant outside at the NFL level? Probably not. But from the slot, he runs excellent routes in the short areas of the field, but also vertically. And that's not always the case with slot players. And so he provides a lot of value in that regard.

I think this is a good sweet spot for Jordan Addison, kind of that 23 range. And I think you might go to Minnesota. Jags are up now. They've got a lot to improve on. And yet, I like where they're sitting, right? I think they've fallen in love with their quarterback. And there's a player, it's not a great safety draft. But the Jags who have some needs in their secondary, what if they took Brian Branch?

Brian Branch played that versatile hybrid safety position that Mika Fitzpatrick played at Alabama, and he did it really well for Nick Saban. Start as a true freshman and Nick Sabin's secondary. If you talk to the people around the program, they would say he was our best defensive back, and we understand that, all-American-style player. But he was also one of the best leaders and workers, very smart, very smart. In fact, I've been told that I wouldn't put it past him that he would know the defense even better than some of the second and third year players right away in camp because

he's so smart on the whiteboard understanding the schematics. Tough near the line of scrimmage, can play the whole safety. Makes a lot of sense. He's kind of a nickel corner in there as well. He's a Swiss Army knife defender and I think he could help the Jaguars in that respect. Now the Giants are up and the Giants really need a number one outside threat. I told you I I think Quentin Johnston's my number one outside threat in terms of a wide receiver. That leaves Jalen Hyatt available. And with his season that he just had, the Blitnikoff Award winner, I think the Giants could take Jalen Hyatt right there. The Tennessee wide receiver is excellent down the field.

And he does a great job of reading coverage. So the Tennessee offense is all about the wide receiver read route. They run half field reads, which is not a great omen for Hinden Hooker, their quarterback. But it's half field reads. and everything is predicated on this vertical route and read by the wide receiver. He can take it vertical, he can hitch it up based on the coverage. Hooker and Jalen Hyatt were on the same page all year long. They shredded Alabama with this.

I love Hyatt. I really like his game. When you talk with the people around Alabama, they would mention guys like Jalen Carter, Jalen Hyatt, Bejohn Robinson, as the toughest players they faced last year during the course of season. All right, 26, Cowboys. Now, this is always an interesting pick, right? And some people are like, is Bijon going to be right? Bejon, I don't think is going to be there. All these Cowboys fans are like, oh, we should take Bejohn Robinson. Bejohn Robinson's too good to be available at 26.

So the Cowboys would have to move up if they want the running back, and I don't think they're going to do that. I like Dalton Kincaid, the tied in from Utah. He's the type of guy that can fill that Witten style position. Now, he's not as good as Michael Mayer in line as a blocker, but boy, he's good as a flex tied end. He really burst on the scene when Brant Keithy got injured for Utah. He and Cam Rising had a tremendous impact on the game offensively. They had a great rapport. And because of that, Kincaid led the country, FBS, in terms of production from a tied end. Really good player, love his hands, tough player. And I think he could go to the Cowboys and really help them out. Remember,

they got to get Dax some help, and I think that they can get that with Dalton Kincaid. The Bills, oh, these are some good picks down the stretch. Bills, Bengals, Eagles, Chiefs, these teams all, well, except for the Chiefs, these teams have to deal with Patrick Mahomes. And that question that I brought up earlier, are you going to defend him or are you going to try to outscore him? If I'm the Buffalo Bills with what's available on the board at this moment, I think it's really easy to go hand in the card that says,

is Jemir Gibbs, the running back from Alabama. When I evaluate Bijon Robinson, I'm blown away with his versatility, his ability to catch it, his explosiveness outside in space, similar with Jamir Gibbs. This is the type of guy that would make Buffalo better right away. They would give Josh Allen more threats on that offensive side. Gibbs is a home run hitter. He is excellent catching the ball out of the backfield. Excellent. He could easily have 30, 40 catches out of the back field. Once the ball is in his hands, he is elusive and tough and physical and space.

He's not quite the runner that Bijan is between the tackles, but he can do it. It's not a knock on him. He can definitely do it. And then he has got absolute home run ability once he gets just a sliver of daylight. I just love the bills kind of leaning in on that offensive side and going Jamir Gibbs. Then the Bengals have the same question to ask. themselves. And there's another guy. It's a good tight-end draft. We had a couple of tight-ins taken already. Cincades off the board, and here's Darnel Washington. Here's why I like Darnel Washington

to Cincinnati, is that he can help you in the run game and the passing game. Now, he's athletic enough to produce as a tight-end. He just didn't because they had one of the best tight-ins in America, if not the best tight-end in America at Georgia. So Brock Bowers stole all the tight-in production from Darnell Washington. He would have had better numbers, folks, Brock Bowers, who would have been the top tight end in this draft, was on his team in college. So he stole that production. Darnell Washington, when you talk with teams around the SEC and even the people around Georgia, they'll tell you he was basically our sixth offensive lineman because he was that good

in-line blocking. But that's not to say that he's just an in-line blocking specialist. He can flex out. He can give you clean routes. He's athletic. I like that pick to the Bengals. Joe Burrow, more threats, let's go. Saints are in here.

This is via what San Francisco, Miami, Denver, a bunch of people. There's a best player available on the board, defensive tackle from Clemson, Brian Brise. Now, Brzei is a guy that was the best player, according to Dabo, on his team as a true freshman, highly recruited, number one player in the country. And then life got in the way, if we're really honest with ourselves, Torres ACL, sister passed, sister L.A., 15-year-old from cancer, tragic, heartbreaking, gets sick, gets a kidney infection. And his production over the last couple of years wasn't what it was when he was a freshman. It's going to return. I think Brian Brzee is going to be an excellent pro.

And we're going to look up in two or three years and be like, why didn't we see that? Of course, he wasn't the player that we thought he was going to be in those last. last two years. Look at what life dealt him. And I hope he succeeds. And so I'm going to take the defensive tackle from Clemson right there with New Orleans. Philly's back up at 30 here. I think that they can go outside. I know that I talked about the trenches and they got to this point by being disciplined and drafting in the trenches. But Deonté Banks is a guy that can absolutely fly. He can play corner. You could always use another corner. So they got the offensive player, a dynamic offensive player earlier in the first round at the 10th pick with Bijjan Robinson. Now you get a guy that

can cover that Patrick Mahomes offense if you face him in the Super Bowl with Deonté Banks. Now, he had a shoulder injury when 2021. And early this last season, I felt like he's not really returning full speed. But as the season went along, he became tougher and a more willing tackler. And you could see his production pick up. So I like Deontay Banks. He's a corner from Maryland. That leaves the last pick. And I got to tell you, I got an amazing email about this last pick in the first round. And this email comes to us from Griffin on the mailbag. Remember, the Joel Clatshow Mailbag at gmail.com, I believe is the email address.

And I saw this one and I was like, I've got to get to it. I know it's not a mailbag episode, but Griffin writes in fourth grader. Hope you're doing well this week. do you think it's possible for the Kansas City Chiefs to draft a wide receiver in the first round instead of Bijon Robinson, etc., and re-signed Jerich McKinnon? You've said that the Chiefs need a versatile running back that can break a few tackles and get a first down off of a checkdown. McKinnon had nine receiving touchdowns mostly on checkdowns last season and also excelled in pass protection. He signs it, regards Griffin. I love it. Griffin, I love the question. You're spot on. You're on it, man. Listen, you've got a future in this,

and this is what I would say. I'm going to give you your wide receiver. I'm giving Patrick Mahomes his wide receiver, and I think you're absolutely right because Zay Flowers is available, and that's going to be my last pick in the first round. The slot wide receiver from Boston College, Zay Flowers. I love Zay Flowers. He's a loyal player. He's an excellent. He had an opportunity to go make a lot of money in NIL at a different school and he chose to stay at Boston College. If you talk with their coaching staff, Jeff Hathley will tell you that this guy is an elite player. He's going to the NFL probably in the first round and he would be out there in games in which they had no business, him being on the field late because they were down multiple scores and he's blocking his butt off for run plays.

He's got tears in his eyes in the locker room after losses. Like the guy cares and I love that about him. He's also, by the way, one of the best route runners. He's very smooth. He's explosive. And you put him on that Kansas City team with a creative play caller and offensive play designer like Andy Reid. And you've got something. So Zay Flowers, Griffin, I'm giving him to the Kansas City Chiefs as the last pick in the first round at 31.

So there you have it. There's my mock draft 2.0. And we'll see how that holds up. Who knows? Might get thrown out the window with that second pick in the draft come Thursday night. I'm looking forward to Thursday night. Okay, I could not get out of this episode without touching on this last weekend. There was a lot of spring games throughout college football.

Now we've kind of seen spring for the most part wrap up. But there was one that was, let's just say, more hyped than others. I think you know the one I'm talking about. How about Dion Sanders and the Colorado Buffalo's Coach Prime selling out his first spring game. Now, the weather didn't cooperate, but I got to tell you, I was all in. ESPN was all in. I loved it. Chris Fowler, by the way, who's a Colorado alum. He was there, Robert Griffin III, Quinn Kessnick. They did a great job. I was watching that thing. I kept looking at my boys and my wife, Sarah, and I was like, hey, look at this. It's sold out.

Look at it. Look how amazing this is. And they were tweeting it out, Colorado, from their account, pictures, you know, sellout 47,277 in attendance. It was electric. It was electric. There's no doubt. And even I tweeted out. You look at what's going on so far. And I just said, like, this has been a major success. Spring game was an incredible to watch. Wish I could have been there. I really wish. Hopefully Gus and Ginny and I have a chance to call one of those first two games or maybe both of the first two games. Wink, wink. I mean, I don't know anything to be official yet. And I don't know. I don't even think that the draft has taken place. I'm hoping that we can get those games, though.

I would love to call those games. I'm so excited for what Coach Prime is doing there in Boulder. And by the way, from what I saw on the field, I think that they're going to win six plus games, six plus games. Two takeaways from this spring game for Colorado and Coach Prime. The first being, this guy has already paid off in a huge way, huge way, for the program and for the university. The profile of the university has risen exponentially.

No one was talking about Colorado. Nobody. And now, imagine all the applications that are starting to go to Colorado for just out-of-state students. Do you know what type of revenue boost that is? Do you? I don't think you actually do. Let me put it into terms that you can understand. Just from a profile of the university for out-of-state students,

Just applications. When Nick Saban got the job at Alabama in what was it, 2007, 2008, right there. Their enrollment, I believe, was right around, I'm going to get these numbers wrong, but I know the margin. I believe it was right around 20,000 at Alabama. Well, anyways, from the time he got there until now, their student body has grown by 13,000 students. 13,000. If you just give rough numbers of, let's say, on average, those students are paying somewhere between, you know, $16,000 to $20,000 in tuition a year, which I actually think is on the low end-state tuition is and what out-of-state tuition is at Alabama. But let's just take conservative numbers. Those 13,000 students, all right? Their profile as a university has risen exponentially because of Nick Sabin. We would all argue that. those 13,000 students mean a cool what quarter billion in annual revenue so when people always

say, oh, these coaches get paid too much. No, they don't. No, they don't. Not even close. Nick Saban making $11 million is the biggest steal in all of higher education for the University of Alabama. Well, you're going to start to see that effect at Colorado because of all of those applications that are going to go to the university. All right. By the way, meanwhile, you look at what he's meaning, what he means, just to the bottom line of the athletic department specifically. They sold out the spring game at $10 a ticket. They couldn't give away those tickets last year.

I think they put a thousand people in the stands for free. They would give him free rides on Ralphie. Not actually. I mean, that would Pita would probably be upset. But you get what I'm saying. You can come pet Ralphie, you know, take a picture with all these people. And guess what? Free tickets, you know, all that bouncy castles for the kids.

A thousand people showed up. Then they hired Dion Sanders and they say like, hey, $10 a pop, 10 bucks ahead, come to the spring game. What do they do? They sell 50,000 tickets. And then it comes out this last week. They've already sold out their season tickets for next season. Do you know that that means $20 million in revenue as opposed to the previous season? Growth I'm talking about, just growth. They're going to make about $20 million more dollars as an athletic department just in ticket sales because of Dion Sanders. Tell me that's not worth it. I know that there was pushback among some of their Board of Regents,

whom I disagree with vehemently on almost every subject under the sun. But that pushback was totally unwarranted and short-sighted because he's paying for himself and then some for your university, both on the academic side and on the athletic program side. That doesn't even put into picture what's going to actually happen on the field. That's just the business side of Deon Sanders. You talk about a guy paying off. I saw players that belong on the field in the PAC 12.

I saw a quarterback specifically that belongs on the field in the PAC 12. Just Shadur Sanders alone is going to make them a better team. I think that they can win six plus games. I really do. And I think it's going to be one of the most interesting, covered, exciting, exciting, stories in all of college football next year. and all of college football. And hopefully we're there to cover it.

All right, that'll do it for this edition of the Joel Clashio. Thank you for listening. Remember, go follow us, subscribe, rate, review us, wherever you find your podcast. Follow us on all the social medias, wherever you get your social media, at Joel Clatio. You can follow me personal this week on Twitter at Joel Clat. Don't have my blue badge anymore, but that's because I'm cheap.

Yeah, that'll do it. Folks, thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. I'm going to have a special edition, insider edition for the NFL draft coming up later this week. I'm going to sit down with Peter Schrager, and we're going to talk about all things NFL draft leading in the first round on Thursday night. So make sure to come back and check this week when that episode drops. Have a great week, and we'll see you next time.