The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Michael Penix to the Falcons!?! J.J. McCarthy get his wish & look out for Caleb Williams & the Bears

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt is back after covering the NFL Draft from Detroit and starts the show by discussing the most surprising pick: the Falcons taking Michael Penix Jr with the 8th pick. He breaks down why Atlanta’s decision-making this offseason has put both Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr in a bad spot. Klatt also discusses the Giants’ decision to pass on J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings ultimately landing the Michigan QB. The Bears landed two elite talents in the Top 10 in Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze and look poised for a potential playoff run next season. The Broncos have received criticism for where they drafted Bo Nix but Klatt explains why they made the right choice. Finally, Joel discusses why the Cowboys could regret not drafting a Running Back and why Washington had a great draft selecting Illinois DT Jer’Zhan Newton and Michigan DB Mike Sainristil along with the 2nd overall pick in the Draft, LSU QB Jayden Daniels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First time Kirk Cousins has a bad game in particular in a big spot, which he's prone to do during the course of his career. Guess what everybody is going to be clamoring for in Atlanta? We want Michael Pinnock's. We want Michael Pinnock. So you're submarining the locker room right there because Kirk Cousins is not going to be on solid footing from day from day. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. I believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football.

It was an epic day of college football. It was one of those days where you fall in love with the sports. all over again. What's going on, everybody? Welcome into the program. I am Joel Clatt. This is the Joel Clat Show, and we are reacting to the NFL draft here on a Monday morning.

First of all, thank you for joining us. And remember, wherever you're listening to this podcast, go ahead and follow us, subscribe to it. If you're watching on YouTube, all the more, go ahead and subscribe to the channel. We got lots of stuff headed your way on the YouTube channel. And then you can follow us on social media wherever you like. to social media at Joel Clachio. Let's dive into this thing right away because there was a lot

to get into with this draft. It was one of the more interesting drafts that I can remember. Big thanks to the NFL network for always affording me the opportunity to come cover the draft. Really enjoyed being with you on night one and night two, Thursday night for round one, Friday night for round two and three. Love working with DJ. He's a dear friend. CD is a dear friend, Charles Davis and obviously Rich Eisen, who's also a good friend of mine, a dear friend, love being on the desk with each of those gentlemen. I will say just quickly a quick story about being there in Detroit. Wild scene.

I mean, hundreds of thousands of people, lots of Michigan fans. There was a lot of go blue going on as we were walking up in particular with Rich there, who's obviously a big Michigan fan. I would also just quickly tell there was a lot of stuff being smoked right around our set. I mean, like, it was like, wow. And on Thursday night, it hung around for at least a couple hours. We're on air for like two hours. And it was heavy for at least two hours of the show.

And at one point, I look over and Charles Davis is housing Pringles and just housing them. And I'm like, in a commercial, I'm like, are you okay? And he looks at me. And he was like, I never knew these Prinkles were so good. So that's how night one went. And then there was so much stuff that I want to react to from the actual draft. It was in a lot of ways unprecedented. We had the six quarterbacks go in the first, you know, what was it, 12 picks of the first round.

We're never going to see that again, by the way. I kept trying to say, and I don't think people really understood it. Like, oh, this is a crazy year. Yeah, it's also going to be the most unique in a draft that is unlike any other draft that we've ever seen. Because of that COVID year specifically, and then when you couple the COVID year with the transfer portal and what happened, you saw three guys that got opportunities late in their career and then increased their stock in order to become first round draft picks. when they first transferred, Jaden Daniels, Michael Pinnock and Bo Nix, they were not first round draft picks. They get extra eligibility because of the COVID year. They get the opportunity to transfer.

And then they play out the string. They all have, you know, 50 plus starts and they all become first round draft picks. And when you combine them with the traditional three and done first round draft picks from the quarterback position like Caleb Williams, Drake May and J.J. McCarthy, you get this perfect storm where you get six quarterbacks in the first round. It's also a year, happens to be a year in which there are six, seven, eight teams with genuine quarterback needs. So this is not a trend. This is an anomaly. We're never going to see that again. Never. It's never going to happen. Let's talk about one of those quarterbacks because I don't think you can even start talking about this draft without talking about the Falcons taking Michael Pinnock's. at number eight. And before I go into everything that I'm going to say here about this draft

pick, I want to say Michael Pinnock is absolutely a top 10 pick. Nothing about his game suggests that you should not take Michael Pinnock. He's an awesome quarterback. If you've been listening to this show for any amount of time, you will know that I've been a giant fan of Pinnock for a long time, all the way back to his days at Indiana, really, but even before this last season when he blew up with Washington. Really, the last season. too, but really before the last one, I said back in September that Washington's not only a top five team, but he's a dark horse Heisman candidate because of the way that he can throw the ball. It's beautiful. The ball comes out of his hand as well as anybody in this draft. He throws it down

the field so well, you've heard me talk constantly about his ability to pass the football with leverage down the field. I'm sure the entire staff here at the Joel Klaz show just rolled their eyes because they've heard that description at least a million times because it's accurate. So what I'm trying to say is Michael Pinnock's deserved to be selected where he got selected. This is not a case of an overdrafted player. This is a case of an organization with zero plan. My problem is that he went to Atlanta. Atlanta is 7 and 10.

They, I don't think, have a stacked roster, at least as much as this. They think they have a stacked, stacked roster. They missed the playoffs last season and the five prior to that. So six straight years without a playoff birth, they need players now, which is why they went chips in the middle of the table for Kirk Cousins. Remember, this is a year after they decided to say, you know what, we're good. We don't need to be in the Lamar Jackson sweepstakes. And then the next year they say, no, we definitely need a quarterback.

we should go get that 30, what, six-year-old with a torn Achilles, and they gave Kurt Cousins $100 million in free agency, guaranteed, 100, guaranteed, more than that in the full contract, 100 guaranteed. Then they decide, man, we really like Michael Pennix. Like some bozo who gets engaged and then goes to spring break and falls in love with the first girly season of bikini on the beach. Like, what are you doing? So they fall in love with Michael Pinnock's and then decide that they're going to draft them,

but don't give Kirk Cousins a heads up during the process that they're starting to fall in love with Michael Pinnix. And the first time he hears about it is when they're on the clock, what are we doing? What are we doing? Make it make sense. When that pick came across, I was shocked, DJ was shocked, CD was shocked, CD was shocked, we were all. shocked. And it's one thing to have a succession plan. Okay, and I understand that. Okay, I really do. I understand this succession plan thing. It's entirely a different thing to submarine your locker room before the players are even in the locker room. And this is what I feel like they did. You know, you can claim that

this is injury insurance for Kirk Cousins, but if you need injury insurance, then you shouldn't have signed them to a $100 million guaranteed contract. Everything about this, the fact that they felt like they needed to give him that contract in free agency, the fact that they still were looking in terms of a quarterback, the fact that they knew it was wrong, which is why they didn't bring in Michael Pinnock for an in-person visit. Like if they fell in love with Michael Pinnock's during this process, you would have brought him in for an in-person visit, but they knew that they couldn't because they just gave a guy $100 million. So therein lies the truth that they even knew was backwards.

Or else, they would have brought him in. They would have brought him in. I understand even that teams are going to have multiple quarterbacks start. I understand that. But if you're worried about Kirk Cousins, then you don't sign him to that contract. If anything, now I'm starting to wonder like,

whoa, what really was the plan and free agency? Everything about this reeks of ready fire aim. Again, you just have to have a better plan than this. This is a team that needs players now. If you're going to assign Kirk Cousins, you need players now. You only have 53 spots on your roster. There's a salary cap. You need players now.

The opportunity cost of basically foregoing that pick and shoving that pick onto the sidelines is far-reaching. They don't even get the benefit of drafting a young quarterback in the top 10 that they feel like they could win with and then building the team around a quarterback in their first contract. So, and then the explanation starts coming out, which wasn't very solid from their standpoint, but even some in the media, we're starting to be like, well, I kind of understand it because listen, you know, you're going to have to have a plan in the

future and they feel like they're never going to pick this high in the draft, so they better get their guy in particular if they fell in love with them. And now they feel like they're built for the next 10 years and not just for the next two or three. All of that sounds really good. but my point would be, great, now you're a spec home builder because you're not going to enjoy the fruits of your labor. I just, I don't see how this makes your team better right now to make the playoffs with Kirk Cousins and builds it for the future. You can't do two things at once. You're not good enough to do two things at once right now. You've got to do first things first, which is become a good team now, which is why they signed Kurt Cousins in the first place.

if they didn't love the defensive players, which, by the way, they're terrible on defense and had their pick of any defender in the draft. None had been taken yet. None had been taken yet. Fine. Tell me you don't love any of those players right there at the eighth pick. Trade it back and get more assets so that you can do what? When now they need assets on the team on the field currently. They're not a team that can just shove the eighth pick onto the sideline and say, don't worry in four years we're going to play them. I also will just say from a locker room standpoint, and I mentioned this a little bit earlier, you submarine the locker room right away. How does Kurt Cousins feel right away? He feels like every mistake that he makes, he's going to be looking over his shoulder. I don't care how many times you tell him, don't look over your shoulder, Kirk.

Okay, that's like me telling you at home right now, hey, don't think of the color red. Don't you do it! Don't think of that color red. Like, come on. I'm going to think of the color red because you brought it up. You brought it up. and they brought up the succession plan by taking Michael Pinnock. So now the first time Kirk Cousins has a bad game in particular in a big spot, which he's prone to do during the course of his career, guess what everybody is going to be clamoring for in Atlanta?

We want Michael Pinnock's. We want Michael Pinnock's. So you're submarining the locker room right there because Kirk Cousins is not going to be on solid footing from day one. And he doesn't trust you as an organization. And you've created a distraction. because everybody's going to be asked about it. Every wide receiver, every player is going to be asked about like, whoa, how are Kurt and Michael getting along in the quarterback room?

The quickest way to be defeated is to be distracted. And they've created a distraction, excuse me. They've created distrust within the locker room. And they have created a situation where Kirk Cousins cannot feel comfortable to go out and play freely. All of that suggests that they're not ready to win right away. That all being said, and I want everybody to make sure that you clip what I'm about to say right here to anything that I've just said. I pray this works out for everybody involved.

I don't want it to work out poorly for Atlanta. I'd love to see Atlanta win. And everybody there, I'd love to see Kirk Cousins get a legitimate shot to go and prove that he can win on the top level. I've loved Michael Pinnock's for a long time. My heart hurts for Michael Pinnock's because now he's shoved to the sideline and put into a position where, it's going to be hard to succeed. I want all of these guys to succeed. And I pray that in 10 years,

Michael Pinnock is the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons. This all worked out swimmingly, and everybody has a Super Bowl ring. I'm hoping that that's what works. We'll see if it does. I have my doubts. J.J. McCarthy was taken by the Minnesota Vikings. A little backstory on this.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Michigan to do the spring football game. And they were going to have the morning of the spring football game. they were going to have their ring ceremony to get all their rings. And apparently now they give out like, it's like equal parts national championship ring ceremony and ribbon ceremony because it's kind of the modern day ribbons for everyone. They got four rings. Four.

They won the Big Ten. That's one. The Rose Bowl gives you a ring. The CFP gives you a ring just for going to the CFP. And then they obviously won the national championship. By the way, the Rose Bowl ring looked incredible. Looked incredible. Regardless, I digress.

J.J. McCarthy was in town. So we talked with Sharon Moore. That's coming up on Big Noon Conversations this summer. Quick tease right there. Sharon Moore is going to be on Big Noon Conversations. We're sitting there talking with him on Friday. We're talking with a lot of the players on Friday. And JJ and some of the past players were also there getting ready for their ring ceremony on Saturday morning.

And I got to talk with JJ a little bit. And we were chatting. And I just asked him, I was like, listen, where is the place that is your dream? Where do you want to go? And he goes, oh, Minnesota. I would love to go to Minnesota. And lo and behold, their Minnesota is and they're able to select J.J. McCarthy. Now, some backstory of what was going on.

As the texts are coming in and I'm sitting with DJ and CD, I was texting with Jay Glazer a little bit as well. Here's what was happening during all of this is that both Minnesota and New York, at some point had at least inquired about what it would take to trade up to number three in the New England slot and potentially draft Drake May. Okay. Didn't work out. New England stuck. They picked.

So now it becomes a good old-fashioned stare-down game of chicken between the Giants and Minnesota. So here's the Vikings and they're sitting there at 11 or 10, excuse me. and here's the Giants sitting there at 6. And the Vikings are thinking to themselves, do we need to go to the Arizona spot at 4? Do we need to go to the Chargers spot at 5 to beat them to this place to get our guy in J.J. McCarthy? And they called their bluff.

They called their bluff and they were right. So the Giants pass on quarterback. They go Malik neighbors. They're going to run it back with Daniel Jones. And now Minnesota is in a position where as long as Vegas doesn't jump up or Denver doesn't jump up, they're going to be in position to draft J.J. McCarthy.

I think that that is fascinating. Now, the Pinnock's deal threw a whole wrench into things because I'm sure everyone was like, hold on a second. Do we need to go now to nine? They didn't and the Vikings get selected. And now I think J.J. McCarthy is in the best situation of any of the rookie quarterbacks to go and succeed right away. There was some debate on our desk, both on the air and off, about whether J.J. should or could play early in his career.

I believe that he can and he will for Kevin O'Connell. I just know him well enough to know like he's hyper-competitive and he's really skilled. And what they're going to see is a guy that can help them win football games, partly because of what he does on the field, but also just as a leader. The guy wins, man. He's 27 and 1. You know, there's a reason why they were able to make the plays when they needed to make the plays this last year, when Michigan has habitually not been able to make those plays in previous seasons.

They had a really good deep team. And the difference was this year they had a quarterback that could take them above the X's nose, in particular in crucial moments like third down. His third down tape was as good as any of the quarterbacks. In fact, when you look at just like if you piece it together and you looked at all the quarterbacks and the way that they threw the ball from 10 to 19 yards down the field or 10 to 20 yards down the field, I had a buddy, Jake Butt, actually, kind of clued me into this stat. He was like, hey, take a look at McCarthy in the intermediate zones.

And I was like, okay, that's interesting. So I went back and I kind of did a deep dive. I watched the film cut up of it and I looked at some of the statistics. And what you'll see is of all the quarterbacks in the draft, he was basically the best one when throwing the ball between 10 and 20 yards down the field. A lot of these guys made their bones throwing the ball at the line of scrimmage, at the line of scrimmage. Now, the only one that could exceed McCarthy was what

Michael Pennix did down the field, past 20 yards, but that's another story. So I think that his skill set is probably even better than some people realize. Speaking of McCarthy, I think that he'll play early in his career in Minnesota, and he's got the best weapons by a long shot. Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hawkinson, Aaron Jones, they got in free agency. I know Hawkinson's coming off of that injury. He might miss the first, I mean, they're hoping like a month, maybe a month of the season.

but that's a situation where you can have a lot of success. Defense made a step forward last year for Brian Flores when he was a defensive coordinator. Now they're a middle of the pack defense. They might even get better. And now J. Jim McCarthy is in a position to really succeed early, kind of similar to C.J. Stroud with the Houston Texans. I love that they were able to trade back up, get Dallas Turner in the first round. Back to back years, by the way, we've had a team that has had the offensive and defensive of rookie of the year on their team.

We saw it with the New York Jets with Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner. Then last year in Houston with C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson, there's a chance that we're going to get that with Minnesota. If JJ plays early enough to put up the numbers necessary to win that award, then you could get a Dallas Turner, JJ McCarthy rookie of the year next year in the National Football League. That's how good of a situation I think McCarthy is in. And again, I've been a McCarthy believer for a long time.

Again, I've done 16 Michigan games in the last three years. So that was a really good situation. I'd love to go up to the top of the draft as well because what Chicago did, I felt, was special. It was always going to be Caleb Williams. It was always going to be Caleb Williams. It was always going to be Caleb Williams. And we knew that as the draft got even closer.

But that was solidified with even the way that he carried himself at the draft. I thought his answer to Kay Lee Hartong, who was conducting our interviews on the NFL network was really good and strong after he got selected and he was on the stage. I can't remember exactly how she worded the question. But it was along the lines of like, why is this going to work?

I believe was kind of the vein of the question. And he said something, you know, normally what I'm expecting, I'm just geared to expect, because I'm going to work hard. And I want to win. And you're going to get a guy. No one's going to work harder.

And he just looked at her and kind of like snapped over in the microphone and was like, because I care. And I was like, that's a unique answer. And I really enjoyed the answer. He says, I care about winning. I care about being great. I care about my teammates. I care about my coaches.

I even care about the janitors in the building. You can think what you want to think about Caleb Williams. I've spent some time around this. guy. His teammates generally really like him. He tried to get other guys paid around him in NIL, namely the offensive line. He was on a team that was underachieving. I don't believe that was his fault. A lot of that to me was a poor offensive line and a subpar, at least for Lincoln Riley's tenure, subpar wide receiver room. Because that, I felt like he tried. to put a cape on his back too much, hold the ball too much. So this last year wasn't great.

The year before, unbelievable. And this answer, I care because I care. It's going to work because I care. I love that answer. You can you can hate Caleb Williams if you want. I think it's going to succeed. And they are in a better position than anybody but Minnesota in terms of a rookie quarterback to succeed. They get Caleb Williams, Romo Dunzee. You betcha. I can't wait to see those two on the field together. They get Keenan Allen. They have DeAndre Swift. They got DJ Moore, Cole Komet. That's all the sudden a really good offense, folks. There you see Caleb Williams, if you're watching on YouTube, Caleb Williams and Rome O'Donzee, after Odunzee was selected with the ninth pick. This duo formed a good positive relationship before the draft, and then

they end up being drafted to the same location. And all of a sudden, this is a far cry from what Chicago was when they drafted Justin Fields, and here they are and they have weapons around it. I think the defense can get better. They drafted Tori Taylor in the fourth round. So you know that at least when they have to punt, it's going to be an incredible punt, Tori Taylor of Iowa. I think they could possibly be this season's Houston Texans. I really do. I'm a big fan of Chicago's draft, and it's not all the time that you look at the team with the number one draft. or the number one draft pick, and you say like, man, they killed it throughout the draft. And they did two top 10 picks.

And I think that the NFC North is going to be an incredible division to watch. You've got two rookie quarterbacks there with the Vikings and the Bears. You've got the lions with everything they've got going on. And they went to the NFC championship game. And that's become a division that I'm all in for. Let's talk about another one of the quarterbacks, Bo Nix. If you've listened to this show for any amount of time, you will know that, and I'm going to, I'll say it because I know it's true.

We were the first right here to say this, and then it came to fruition. I believed it when I said it, and I believed it throughout the process. Bo Nix was a perfect fit in Denver because of his style of play, the offense that Sean Peyton runs. I said it way back at the beginning of this process. I believe it was still January, and I said Denver's going to draft Bo Nix. And lo and behold, here's exactly what happened. By the way, our social team probably going to be pulling up that clip and then they'll interstitial it

and then that'll get released on social, which you can follow at Joel Clatchew, any of the social media is. So Nix gets selected by the Broncos. Was he overdrafted? I think that's a fair question. Even though I thought that this was going to be the pick for months, it was all based on fit and not necessarily value. This is not a knock against Bo Nix.

I just think Bo Nix was probably more of a mid-20s draft pick than he was. was a 12th pick in the draft. But is what it is. All the quarterbacks are off the board at that time. And Denver's got to get their man. They can't allow the Raiders to get on the clock and potentially take Bo Nix. They can't just say, hey, we're going to take them in the second round because they don't have a second round draft pick. And no one was in a position right there to fill a need significant enough to want to trade up.

So yeah, Denver could have traded back. I just don't think that they would have gotten the value. then you're also rolling the dice with the Raiders. Maybe they love Bow-Nicks. Can't do that in their own division. So at that moment, you take the pick. You take the pick. He fits Sean Payton.

When I say fits, let me just explain that briefly. Sean Payton's offense relies on, generally speaking, and kind of for the most part in the passing game, what I would call scat protection. When I say scat protection, that means five offensive linemen protecting and nobody check releasing. So you have all five potential pass catchers out immediately. They've got no responsibility in the pass protection and just the five up front protecting.

They run that quite often. Well, Oregon ran that quite often. Now, why do you like that? Okay, why would that be your M.O.? Wouldn't you want to protect the quarterback? Well, because you protect the quarterback through the quarterback's intelligence. and his ability to get the ball out quickly as a point guard. It's actually a better way to protect the quarterback sometimes than holding the sixth guy

in protection or the seventh guy in protection or even Max protecting and sitting in there with eight and trying to block everybody. Just let the quarterback protect himself, protect himself with his mind first, and then his feet and his accuracy. And Nix does that really well. Oregon does that really well. Now, he can do other things. There's no doubt.

But that point guard style of play and cerebral approach to the game is why this is a fit. It's why Russell Wilson was oil and water. Russell wants to hold the ball, throw it down the field, max protect, big play action. That's not what Sean Payton wants to do. Sean Payton wants to release everybody. And regardless of pressure, you get that sixth blitzer, boom, you replace them with the ball. You have answers in the past concept and not necessarily in the protection. That's why Bo Nix fits the Denver Broncos.

That's why I think he can have a lot of success early, although that's still a roster that's going to need some pieces. They did pick up one of those pieces in Nix's teammate in the fourth round when they got Troy Franklin, a wide receiver that I thought was even a fringe first round pick, but they took him in the fourth round. He was a heck of a player at times. I thought he was even like the third best receiver in college football last year. All right, let's get to some surprises,

you will, outside of the quarterbacks. In hindsight, and as a generalization, when I'm sitting there covering the draft and all of us are sitting there covering the draft, I do feel at times that it gets lost on me. Everything is going so quickly. And granted, we're doing TV, so we're trying to talk about every pick. And we're not these teams that are just evaluating pick by pick and staring at a big board. But I've got my boards in front of me, and I'm crossing them off as we go and I'm reading everything. I think that it goes and moves quick enough where we can lose sight of an obvious oversight in the moment. And I think that there was one in the third round.

And I didn't really pick up on it right when the pick was made. But then a couple of picks later, I'm looking down at my list as, I wrote them all down. I'm like, hold on a second. They passed that up, and then that was the pick right after them. And I'm talking about the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas needs to replace Tony Pollard. They let Zeke walk a couple of years ago. Pollard, he's out, went to Tennessee and free agency to replace Derek Henry.

And the Cowboys need a running back. Now, they have been apparently in talks to potentially bring back Zeke Elliott, who's going to be 29 and has over 2,000 carries in the National Football League. So that's not a long-term option. And you can argue that there are no long-term options at running back in this league. And you know what? Fair enough. But 29, 2,000 carries. I think Dallas needs a running back.

I thought that there were about four really good running backs that you could potentially take, and really three that I loved in this draft. Four, fringe four, three that I really loved. The three that I really loved, Jonathan Brooks, Blake Corum, and Marchon Lloyd. And the other guy that I also liked Trey Benson at Florida State. You can say Jalen Wright from Tennessee, but I felt like he felt. just behind those guys. Okay, so second round comes up,

and none of them have been taken, and then all of a sudden Jonathan Brooks goes off the board, and I'm thinking to myself, you know what, that's probably good for Dallas. Go ahead and be patient, because now you still have those two or three guys in the third round that you can select. So we get to the third round.

They had two picks in the third round. At the time of the first pick in the third round, only Brooks and Trey Benson were off the board. So Benson is selected, and you're still sitting there with Coram and Marshawn Lloyd. Again, there's fringe four, but really three guys that I love. One of them is off the board. Two of them are left. We're at the start of the third round.

They take guard Cooper Beebe at a Kansas state. Okay. Interesting, in particular because there's not a consensus at the top of the interior offensive line, although Cooper is a good player. I don't want to disparage Cooper Beebebe, but that's Dallas's selection. At the time of the second pick in the third round, Brooks, Trey Benson, and Blake Corum are now off the board. So Corum is selected. So now there's only one left, at least in my estimation, and a lot of people's estimation.

And some would argue that he was at times the best of the bunch, not coming off of injury, has home run ability, didn't get the carries that he needed to. And I'm talking about Marshawn Lloyd. So now the Cowboys are taking their second pick in the third round. They need a running back. And they take Morris Lufau from Notre Dame, a linebacker, an off-the-ball linebacker, an off-the-ball linebacker. I get it, Van der Esch, the whole situation, they need that too. And then the next pick, the Green Bay Packers, who you will likely have to play at some point in the playoffs, take Marshaun Lloyd. And two picks later, I'm like, hold on a second.

Did that just happen? because to me, this is one of those picks that you look back on with hindsight in a year or two years or three years, and you say to yourselves, do you remember when Dallas passed on Marshawn Lloyd in the third round? And now look at it. Like, Marshawn Lloyd could be a back that goes for 100 or 125 against Dallas in a big moment, while Dallas doesn't have an answer at running back. So that one was one of those where I'm like, man, that was wild. The Cowboys didn't have a fourth round pick due to trading.

the trade for Tray Lance last summer. Six running backs came off the board in the fourth round, and now they're in talks to potentially bring back Zeke Elliott. So that was just an interesting one, and I found it to be one that we may be paying attention to or talking about in subsequent years. One of my favorite picks, and really one of my favorite drafts, was Washington.

I thought that the commanders had a great draft. If you listened to this episode or the episode of our show, the flag players where I listed a bunch of guys that I'm like, man, these are guys that I just, I'm going to plan a flag and say they will work out. They are football playing jesse's. They know how to do this. They're instinctual. They're going to succeed at the next level.

And Mikey Sain Rissil went to Washington as well as Johnny Newton. I love that. 50th pick. Mike Sain Ristil goes to Washington in the second round. I knew that I felt really strongly about Mike Sainer Sincol. And to be honest, I'm not in coaching circles. I talk to coaches, but I'm not a coach.

I know what they will say. But to be honest, it was incredibly, I don't know what the word is. It wasn't relieving. It just felt good that Nick Saban had the same opinion that I did about Mike San Francisco. Right? If you saw Nick Saban gushing about Mike St. Russell, I'm like, yep, it's exactly why I love this guy.

They also got Johnny Newton, the defensive tackle for Illinois. Some other interesting or surprise picks, Harbaugh taking a wide receiver, Ladd-McConkie with the 34th pick. That was interesting. Maybe the surprise of the draft is that Harbaugh didn't take 10 Michigan players. He did get Junior Colson in the third round, Cornelius Johnson, the wide receiver in the seventh. Did sign Carson Barnard, by the way, off the offensive.

line. He was an undrafted free agents, a agent. 13 Michigan players were picked, so they did not get that all-time record, too short of Georgia's all-time record in a single draft. So those are my reactions of the 2024 NFL draft. Quick housekeeping note. I see you weightlifters who bench pressed 225, 20 times. You are getting a hat. Just please relax.

Please relax. Stop badgering, Catherine, with emails. I see you. are in the works. You are getting a custom hat. I am designing a hat just for you. If you sent us a video of bench pressing 225 pounds 20 times, you're getting a hat. I'm paying for it out of my own pocket. I'm designing it with a good friend of mine from crafted MFG hats. You can check them out on Twitter at crafted MFG. You will get a hat. Don't worry. Stop bothering Catherine. She's lovely. She's going on our honeymoon in a couple of weeks.

You're going to get a hat. Just relax. You'll be fine. You know what? Go to the waiting room. That's what you do anyways. All right. That's going to do it for our show.

We'll be back with another episode of the Joel Clatt show next week. Thanks for listening, everybody.