The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Shedeur Sanders’ Slide, Winners from the Draft & Way-Too-Early Top 10 Prospects for 2026 NFL Draft

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt dives into Shedeur Sanders’ slide all the way to the 5th round of the NFL Draft, explaining why it happened to a player many believed would be selected in the Top 10. Klatt shares feedback he heard from people within the league and explains how things went from bad to worse as the picks continued to roll off the board (and why Shedeur landed in the perfect spot to prove people wrong). He also lists which teams were the biggest winners from the Draft before unveiling his Way-Too-Early Top 10 Prospects for next year’s Draft. Klatt wraps up the show by discussing the recent news around Madden Iamaleava - younger brother of Nico - as an NIL collective attempts to reclaim money paid out to him before he decided to transfer from Arkansas. He also points out why Tennessee can't have it both ways with how they've handled the Nico situation. 0:00-2:19 Intro2:20-5:34 Klatt’s 2025 NFL draft recap5:35-18:14 Why did Shedeur Sanders slide to the fifth round?18:15-21:10 Are the Browns the best landing spot for Shedeur Sanders?21:11-25:22 Klatt’s winners from the NFL Draft25:23-29:08 Klatt’s favorite moments from the NFL Draft29:09-34:31Klatt’s way too early top 10 for the 2026 Draft34:32-36:59 Arkansas NIL collective seeking to enforce buyout clause after Madden Iamaleava’s transfer to UCLA37:00-44:10 Tennessee reportedly reached out to several QBs after Iamaleava’s transfer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When the Steelers passed on him and take Derek Harmon, I immediately thought to myself, like, he's not going in this round. Then the Giants trade back in and you think, okay, wow, okay, well, what are they doing here? And they take Jackson Dart. So what really happened to Shador Sanders is that the league viewed him as a backup. I mean, I honestly believe that that's how this went down. He's got the benefit of going through this process and potentially being humbled a little bit. College football has never been better.

Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age. of college football. Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome into the Joel Clatt Show. I am Joel Clatt. This show, as always, is brought to you by Hampton by Hilton. We thank them for their support, as always.

Big show ready for this evening as you listen to it whenever you're listening to it. I'm going to give a full draft recap, some of my favorite picks, favorite moments, the teams that I thought did a really nice job. Obviously, I'll give some thoughts on Chodor and his slide and what went on there. I've got my way too early, Big Board Top 10 for next year. year's draft. So who are the top 10 players draft eligible, of course, for next year's draft that are going to be playing college football next fall? I've got that. Some thoughts on some college football news, NIL related, as the transfer portal closed. By the way, I was texting with a few coaches within college football. During the draft, obviously, about draft related stuff. And when that portal closed, they were all just like, oh, thank God. So portal is now closed, and we can start getting ready for the college football season. That's all coming straight. at you here in a moment. First things first, make sure to go write and review us wherever you're listening. Subscribe to the channel on the YouTube page. That would be awesome. Leave a comment below.

Hit the notification button. You're going to know when all of our content drops. And then wherever you like to social media, we're going to be there. You're going to find a lot of our content there. You can follow us, find us, at Joel Clatio on any social media. So all of that is going on. Okay. Let's get into this. The 2025 NFL draft was a memorable one, shattering ratings, records and the scene was incredible up in Green Bay. Truth be told, it was the first time that I had ever been to Green Bay. Obviously covered Wisconsin several times. I've been to the Milwaukee area, played golf up there, but I'd never been to Green Bay.

So that was awesome just to go to Green Bay. And it is the most college NFL venue I've ever been to. And one of the most, I would say, prominent reasons is that it's oozing with history. And so many times when you go to these NFL venues, it's just very corporate. new and there's not a ton of history. And even though they have renovated Lambeau Field, the history and tradition just kind of seeps through. And because of that, it did feel very collegiate to me. And I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that quite a bit. So the first thing I want to do is just take you through kind of a brief. So this is the sheet that we have right in front of us.

And we're filling through these names as I'm on the desk there with Daniel Jeremiah, who's incredible, and Charles Davis and Rich Eisen on the NFL network. And so, As the picks are coming in, we're kind of filling them out. And obviously, round one on Thursday night is a long night. But I tried to just have like immediate reactions to some of these picks in terms of maybe what the philosophy was from these teams or the guys that I really knew well and liked, in particular, where they went and the fit that they went to. And so I wanted to take you through just a couple of the immediate notes that I had.

This is not hindsight. I don't get to sleep on this. I didn't prepare this for Sunday night's recording. of this podcast. This was in the moment as the picks happened, two, Jaguars go up there. They take Travis Hunter and I just said, big swing. That's a big swing. They traded some picks away. They get all the way up there for Travis Hunter and now Travis Hunter is there to help out their quarterback and solidify their defense. That was a great one. Another one that comes up and all of a sudden in the first 10 picks, I'm seeing this theme and it's organizations

taking care of their young quarterback. So you've got the Patriots getting protection for Drake May with Will Campbell, which, by the way, incredible interview right there at the end or are on stage. Then you've got, let's see, the next one was Carolina at eight. They take Tedroa McMillan. The Bears take Colston Loveland. And so in the first 10 picks right there, I'm just like, this is about young quarterbacks. Granted, sometimes the young quarterbacks are going to be picking in the top 10 in the NFL

draft. But these franchises doing the things that they deem necessary to allow those players to have success. really loved that. 14 and 15, when the Colts and Falcons selected, that was best player available and position of need, all wrapped up into one with Tyler Warren of the Colts, Jalen Walker to the Falcons. Jalen Walker is a hell of a player. I really like him on the edge.

And going to Atlanta, they've needed an edge rusher. Walker is a great team leader. Jalen Walker is the real deal. And them, Atlanta getting him at 15 was one of my favorite picks. Tyler Warren and Jalen Walker right there. best available in position of need. I thought that was really cool. And then later, the Eagles, of course, they get Jahad Campbell.

So those were just some of my like immediate takeaways that I wanted to kind of throw at you as we get started. Now, the main storyline, and I know there are some people that that don't love this, but the main storyline coming out of the draft was the slide of Colorado quarterback, Shador Sanders. Okay. And the question that I kept getting was what happened or what's happening, okay? I got that from some in the Sanders camp, to be quite honest with you. I got that from a lot of college coaches around a lot of texts, friends, everybody, texting like, what's going on? And so I thought I would just try to like take a seat back and evaluate, okay, what did happen? Now that we've got some hindsight and we can kind of clearly evaluate this, what did happen.

So let's go through that just briefly right here. Let's start with this. I think it's pretty clear that the league did not deem the film good enough. Okay, so I think you have to start there because what I was assuming and many of us were assuming was one, that quarterbacks are going to be graded on a curve, not just graded, because the position is such a need position that you've got to take quarterbacks. This is why when you look at the first round, there's always guys overdrafted, overestimated, because the need of a quarterback is always going to trump maybe some of the flaws that you see. So I've always felt like quarterbacks are graded more on a curve than they are just graded. Every other position is just graded.

Are you or aren't you worthy of that selection? Because then they can, if you're not worthy of that selection as a corner, let's say, they'll just take a defensive lineman or a wide receiver or somebody else. See, all the other positions can be kind of thrown in together, which means you're just graded. But at quarterback, the need is so great that a lot of times you're graded against the curve. And this is not disparaging to this class to say that it wasn't last year's class. that's not disparaging.

I loved Cam Ward. I've told you countless times how much I've loved Cam Ward through this process and really understood and knew he was going to go number one. There's no doubt. Now, once you get past Cam, you start evaluating these guys. I had Shador right there, even as kind of right there with Cam Ward. And then the others, for me, were a step back. Okay.

So the league clearly viewed Shador's film a certain way, which is there were a lot of flaws in it. And that's totally fine and fair. And they were there. He does hold the ball too long and took a lot of sacks that he didn't need to take. And part of that, I think from a fear perspective from NFL organizations, was that he wasn't processing information quick enough. This is what I was hearing from some of the guys during the draft as I was sending out text.

I was like, man, you know, you tell me, you know, like what did you see? And they're like, well, you know, processing, holding the ball. so on and so forth. And so it's like, okay, so now you're getting past some of these top picks and you're like, this is what it is. We're expecting him in the first round and I think everybody is. But then he gets down there and the Browns pass on him twice because they went on the clock at two, traded back to five and then didn't draft him. The Giants go on the clock, don't draft him. The Saints go on the clock, don't draft in. So they take Kelvin Banks right there at the nine spot. now you're looking at some of these other teams,

and I'm thinking to myself like, the Steelers are the only one left. 21 is the only one left. When the Steelers pass on him and take Derek Harmon, I immediately thought to myself like, he's not going in this round. Then the Giants trade back in and you think, okay, wow, okay, well, what are they doing here?

And they take Jackson Dart. And at that moment, boom, I was like, he's not going to get picked for a long time. This was not, hey, is someone else going to jump back in there? Because now everybody with a quarterback need had already spoken. And they had spoken loudly. And the other teams at that point are out anyways just because of their quarterback situation. So once the Giants at 25 trade with the Texans, they jump in and they take Jackson Dart,

I immediately thought to myself, this is going to be a while. It's one of those like grab a snickers moments. And so that's when it's a bit. immediately starting to be like, okay, what's really happening here? Well, what's really happening is that they didn't view his film as quite good enough to be like for sure, first rounder, starter, maybe even right away in the National Football League. Now, you can disagree or agree with that assertion, but that's clearly what a lot of these evaluators,

in particular the evaluators with quarterback needs, thought. And once the Giants selected Jackson Dart, I knew the Browns aren't. even going to take him in the second round. We got into the car Thursday night, and our conversation was immediately, I don't know if he goes tomorrow on Friday, because again, all of the teams had already spoken that had quarterback needs. And once you're not getting drafted as a starter, then you're being looked at as a backup. And that's where we really get into the bulk of this story. So what really happened to Shador Sanders is that the league viewed him as a backup in this draft. And once you're viewed as a backup, then there's an entirely different angle that the

teams are going to view and evaluate you with. This is, I think, the most important piece. If your talent is just going to overtake some of the things that they might not like about a personality, a meeting, whatever it is, then your talent is going to overtake that. But if your film doesn't overtake that, then as a backup, they're going to bring into more the intangibles. That's more a part of the equation than maybe even the play. And so the way that you're going to be ranked against the other players that also, they would say are more backup quality,

what they're going to say is like, well, can he be a backup? What does he like as a teammate? What was he like in our meetings? You know, is he going to be fine in the locker room? That's a bigger part of the equation. Why? Why is that? I think that that's pretty self-explanatory because the last thing any organization wants

is for the story to be in the backup quarterback's locker. All right? And I even said this on Friday night, on our desk, we had a pretty robust conversation about what was going on and why. And I brought this point up about this idea of the story. story being in the backup quarterback's locker is not what anyone wants. And, you know, we were having a really good and healthy discussion on the desk, which I really enjoyed.

And Rich Eisen brought up a point like, well, doesn't a strong coach or strong organization squash that? The problem is, is this is not an internal story. This is an external story. This is the same thing that happens with any of the quarterbacks that we've talked about for years, whether it's Tim Tebow or Colin Kaepernick or. any of these guys. What ultimately happens is that franchises say we don't want the story being in the backup quarterback's locker. And what ends up happening is that the story is driven by the outside,

not the inside. So it's the media bringing that question to the locker room. It's the media bringing that camera and that microphone to the locker room. And then that becomes a distraction because everybody has to answer those questions. So there's no amount of of organizational strength or coaching strength or leadership strength within the locker room that can prevent that story from entering the locker room because the media is the one bringing it. And that's not Tim's fault or Collins' fault or Shador's fault

and maybe you can disagree with me on any of that. But that's what the discussion is within these NFL decision makers. You can like it, you can love it, you can hate it, You can disagree with that, but I firmly believe that that's what went on. And that's in particular what I see and will double down on once I saw other quarterbacks go off the board. And I see these other quarterbacks going to teams that are not drafting for a starting quarterback. And I'm immediately thinking to myself, okay, this is 100% about the person. Okay, it's easy to make this feel personal because it is personal.

They didn't like the meetings with Shador Sanders, period. And I started hearing some of the same things that anonymous sources were throwing out there. And I know that I got very frustrated with anonymous sources and still do. But I was hearing some of the same things about, you know, stories of some of these meetings and how he came unprepared and so on and so forth. And that turned some teams off. So at that point, once your film is not good enough, then that's going to matter more. And that's 100% what happened to me. And here's the other part is that at no point during the process,

did Chudor do anything to quiet any of that? He was clearly unconcerned, and he clearly overestimated what his film was and where he was going to go. Because everything that went on, you know, almost perpetuated, I think what some of the NFL concerns were, more concerned with his brand,

thought he was bigger than the team or the franchise, more concerned with off-the-field stuff than on-the-field stuff. Now, do I think that that's accurate? It's easy to make that conclusion if you just watch from afar, but being close to it, I can tell you that he is very much about football. I talk to a lot of the teammates and a lot of the coaches at Colorado, obviously, and they all said he was very much about football,

and he was the reason why they were successful this last year. Yes, Travis was fantastic. There's no doubt in a rightful Heisman trophy winner. But the reason that they were better in a top 25 team and had a chance to go and represent Colorado in the Big 12 championship was because of their quarterback play. He was excellent. He was excellent. I thought his film was starter worthy. The NFL deems that it's not.

And at the end of the day, once they deem that it's not, they're going to ask this question. This question is actually going to play more a part of your draftability than anything, which is, do you love football or do you love being a football player? I mean, I honestly believe that that's how this went down. And, you know, the draft set that he built himself, that doesn't help decision makers. Unfortunately, the number issue comes up. Like, that doesn't help quiet that type of narrative. And I said so when they did that, when they retired his number,

listen, I don't agree with the number retiring. It is what it is. I think he's a remarkable player and he was going to have his name up in the building anyways because any All-American, in particular, a Consensus All-American or any National Award winner is going to get their name on the west side of Folsom Field. There's a lot of guys up there, the Matt Russell and Dion figures and Eric B. Enemies and all of these guys, and they don't have their numbers retired. there's a spot for those accolades and those accomplishments, which is on the west side.

Now, there's a Heisman trophy winner and now two Heisman trophy winners. And the first one has his number retired. And so, yes, Travis was going to get his number retired at some point. There's a couple of other ones there throughout history. But this idea that, you know, it had to happen now and the scope of it, I said at the time that this wasn't going to help the narratives that are building up around him in the draft process. and I will stand by that. I don't think that that helped. I don't think that the draft set helped.

All of those different things. I think he probably should have had an agent. They will all disagree with me on that. That's fine. That's totally fine. I think he's a fabulous player that now is going to a situation in Cleveland, and now we get into this Cleveland situation, where it actually might be the best possible fit for him.

So now I'm excited for Sjadour because through this entire process, he got put into a place where it's kind of chaos now. They drafted Dylan Gabriel. They've got Joe Flacco in there, who's 40 years old. Deshawn has got the Achilles tear, so I don't really even factor him in this. You've got Kenny Pickett. You're telling me that Chodor Sanders can't go in there

and at least compete and win a spot and maybe even start at some point this season with that list of quarterbacks. I believe he can. This is a terrific fit for him. This is a terrific fit. he's got the benefit of going through this process and potentially being humbled a little bit and refocusing what's actually important, which is the football and not all the off-the-field stuff.

It doesn't matter what he says. It doesn't matter what he wears. It doesn't matter what he posts. It doesn't matter what he drives. The only thing that matters from this point on is what he does in the meeting rooms and on the field, period. That's it. And he's either going to create a spot for himself, or he won't. And if you're asking me at the end of the day, that's exactly the type of fit

that is perfect. Because now he can just go out there and let the play speak for itself. I think the Stefansky offense is perfect for him. Staphansky is, you know, it's the San Francisco, it's the Rams, it's the Packers, it's, you know, all these McVeigh, LaFleur, Shanahan, it's that style of offense. And I can tell you right now, like the quarterbacks that succeed in that offense are guys that are point guard driven, that they are more accurate than they are arm strength, you know, that have a mind that can get the ball out quickly, and I think Shadur can do that. And I actually believe that of that list of quarterbacks, he might be the best fit for the offense, which, again, is a really good fit for him. So now he goes there, and this would be my

two cents. And Shadur, you can. can take this or leave or leave it. I think you are an incredible player. I really do. I know what Colorado was before you got there and I know what they were because of you in particular last year. I saw your toughness. I saw your accuracy. I saw everything that you brought to the table. And I would say everything that I saw on the field that you brought to the table, I want you to bring that to the table in Cleveland. Bring that toughness. Bring that focus. Bring that accuracy. Bring that drive. Bring that acumen, that football IQ acumen that I saw at Colorado. And if you leave everything else outside, guess what?

That will come later. You fall in love with football, and then everything that comes with football and being great will come later. The stars with the biggest brands in our sport had to excel first. So do that because you've got the ability to do that. And I know you do. There was a couple of other favorites, favorite moments, favorite picks from this. entire draft, and so I wanted to go through these. Let's go winners from a team perspective. I'm going to start with the Patriots. I really loved what the Patriots did. I thought that they had

an outstanding draft. They surround Drake May with quality players. Will Campbell from LSU. I wish I could have called one of his games because I know I would have fallen in love with meeting with Will Campbell before one of those games. When he gave this quote to Jamie Erdahl, I'm going to fight and die to protect him with everything I've got. I was like, oh, you bet. At first he was crying and I was like, oh, man, they're going to eat, they're going to eat him alive in that locker room. He can't cry like that. He had some snot. And then he wipes his snot. And Jamie asked him an incredible question about, like, what's Drake getting? And he goes, I'm going to fight and die to protect him with everything I got. And I was like, I want that guy on my team. I want that guy in my locker room. I want that guy

on my offensive line. That was awesome. So Will Campbell, you won me over. There's no doubt. And then New England continued to do well throughout the draft. Trayvion Henderson, another one of my favorites. Again, tough every down back with some electricity on the outside. Great in past protection.

They got him in the second round. Kyle Williams, wide receiver that I had in the Holiday Bowl, sneaky good pick in the third. So you get some depth there. So all of a sudden now, that offense is transforming around Drake. May, and he had a pretty good end of the season. So you can protect him now. You've got a play caller in Josh McDaniels.

You've got some playmakers on the outside with Henderson and Williams. So Patriots, I thought that they did a really nice job. Another one. Eagles, man, how about the Super Bowl champs coming out strong when they got Jahad Campbell with their first pick of the first round, their first pick in the first round. What a great value that was. Now, there was some injury concerns. labrum shoulder surgery that from all reports has gone well.

And labrums are going to heal, right? So Jehad Campbell is a versatile linebacker that's going to continue to help their front seven. And again, these guys constantly just fall into these players in the back end of the first round that you're like, oh my gosh, that guy is outstanding. And of course they're going to Philadelphia. I believe they traded up one pick to do that. But they didn't stop there. I love that first pick.

But then you go Andrew McCuba, the safety from Texas. had transferred from Clemson in the second round. I really loved McCuba. He was a ball hawk in the secondary. Traded out of the third round to load up on more picks. And then in, I believe, the fourth, they got a guy that I thought was one of the more underrated players in the entire draft. That's Ty Robinson from Nebraska.

So the Philadelphia Eagles, excellent draft. I think they got some really quality players, and those are the three I wanted to highlight. Another winner, I thought Pittsburgh had a good draft. They didn't have a second round pick, but they did well with what they had. had. When you look at what they were able to get, Derek Harmon at 21, more on him in just a little bit. I think Harmon as a player, fabulous, fabulous. And he's disruptive and he's big and he's exactly

a Pittsburgh style of guy. Then in the third round, so they didn't have a second round pick. And yet, again, I thought that they did really well. They get Caleb Johnson. I'm like, if you could if you could name a running back in an organization that is the best fit, probably because he was wearing the colors in college, but Caleb Johnson from Iowa going to Pittsburgh was a phenomenal selection. That was the third round. Then they get Jack Sawyer in the fourth. I think that's good value. This is a, I mean, you saw what he did in the playoffs.

The strip sack of Quinn Ewers runs for a touchdown. Sawyer's tremendous and a terrific locker room guy. Then in the sixth, Will Howard. And I liked Will. I thought Will was underrated. So I liked what the Steelers did there. So my three winners from the NFL draft from a team perspective, perspective. New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers. Well done.

I want to touch on a few of the memorable moments that I thought occurred during the course of, namely the first night. Let me go to the first one. And this was kind of my favorite selection slash moment of the entire night on Thursday. And that was when Green Bay selects Matthew Golden from Texas at 24. And I'm hoping that the TVs did the environment justice because it was electric. There are a few hundred thousand people right behind us as we're sitting on that set. And you have to understand it, like walking into the set, the Packers fans were screaming like, oh, we better not trade out. Like, Clad, are we taking a wide receiver?

Tell me we're taking a wide receiver. I was like, probably not. It hasn't happened since what was it? 02, you know, and everybody. And everyone was saying the same thing. It's like, they better do something great. And so they come out and they're doing the whole thing and their president comes up and for the first time since 20.

And the whole place, it was loud. And again, I'm just praying that it came across the television because it was a phenomenal scene. And then he comes out with the gold suit and he's got the green and gold. going. And the only thing that happened that I wish would have been just a little bit different is that he gave a one, two, three, go packers. And I'm like, it's go pack, go. Do do, do do do do do. Go pack. Go. If he would have done that, that would have been incredible. But that was a phenomenal moment. I remember it happened in Kansas City. When the chiefs drafted, it happened to Detroit, when Detroit drafts. So now that's becoming kind of my annual favorite thing is when the home host site makes their first round selection. and it's so great when he's actually there. And then as far as just like a special moment, and this one is more on the sad side.

And again, this is not a great moment. This is not my favorite moment. But when you start thinking about a special moment, so Pittsburgh, I touched on this pick a little bit earlier, Pittsburgh selected Derek Harmon at 21. And I loved the selection when it happened. And I knew that his mom, Tiffany Sane, had been struggling health-wise, dating all the way back to when he was a freshman. And she had had a stroke and had several surgeries and had struggled.

He transferred from Michigan State to Oregon. And she was not doing well and was actually on life support. And when he got selected, he was able to go to the hospital and tell her that he had been drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. It makes me really emotional. There's a picture if you're watching on our YouTube again. It's just emotional. Derek Carmen's mom, Tiffany Sane, passed away shortly after that conversation when her son got to walk into her bedside and tell her that

their dreams had been fulfilled. So what a special, special moment. as I try to gather myself here. Derek, I wish you the best. I wish your family the best. And I hope that you have a really successful and long career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. So those were my draft takeaways. I'm not going to get into the negative side.

Everyone's like, well, who did you not think it did well? You know, you guys have heard me say some things about certain organizations and whatever. It is what it is. I did want to get into next year, though. How about we get into a way too early? Top 10, so big board style. This is not obviously like a mock. But my big board style, top 10 players available,

which means any draft eligible player for next year's draft. Let's go 10 to 1. Let's get it started. At number 10. I'm going to go with this guy I really love, Jeremiah Love from Notre Dame, the running back. Home run threat, 6.9 yards per carry last year. Phenomenal player, got great speed.

I think he is, he's going to be in the lineage of all these backs now that are starting to get drafted pretty high. He can catch it out of the backfield. He's strong, he's physical. He's got electricity, man. And I'm telling you, I think that he's tailor made for the next level. He's got good vision, good balance, power, all of it. Speed, I love. Jeremiah, love.

At number nine, and I think he's going to have to have a good year to get here, but I do believe that he will have a good year because I think he's going to have better wide receivers than he's ever had, Drew Aller from Penn State. If you're just talking about the measurables and watching this kid throw a football and the development that I've seen from him from his freshman year all the way until now, Aller is going to have a chance to be a top 10 player. There's no doubt. Again, quarterbacks, I still will assert, will get drafted. more on a curve than rather than just purely evaluated. But he's got a strong arm, and I think he's going to have a better wide receiver core this next year than what he's had

in the past. So Drew Aller is number nine. At eight, Isaiah World from Oregon, the tackle. Watch out for this one. He's a transfer from Nevada. He's already started for three seasons. He was the number one tackle in the portal. He's six, eight, 300 pounds. He's athletic. So he's going to go up to Eugene, and I think he's going to have a monster year and be a top 10 player in next year's NFL draft. And number seven is a guy I really love, even though he's battled some injuries. Ruben Bain Jr. from Miami. Really good player.

Battle injuries again in his sophomore year, but is primed to break out. He was a freshman All-American in 2023. And again, if a guy gets healthy and pops, bam, here he comes. And I think he's got real ability. At number six, another tackle, offensive tackle. I'm going to go Spencer Fano from Utah. I really love Spencer Fano. I love his game.

Started at left tackle as a true freshman. Then he was an All-American at right tackle last season. So he's been in two different spots. The NFL loves that versatility. That's another reason why I've got him in here in my top 10. So Spencer Fonu at number six tackle from Utah. At five, the defensive lineman, defensive tackle, really, Peter Woods from Clemson.

And when I was going through this and making this top 10, man, there was a couple of other Clemson players that I didn't put on this list that I could have put on this list. So like Cade Clubnick was close. Like Clemson's going to be a really good team. Peter Woods is excellent. Freshman All-American in 2023. He's 6'3, 315 pounds right in the middle of that line. They're going to have a much better defensive line than they've had in the last couple of years.

At number four, at offensive tackle, Caden Proctor from Alabama, started as a true freshman, remember, and he was the one that transferred back home to Iowa before returning for his sophomore season at Alabama. He's a former five-star recruit, six, seven, three hundred and sixty pounds, one more year. And I think he's going to be right up there at the top of the draft. Number three, on the edge, defensive end, outside linebacker, T.J. Parker from Clemson. So there's another one of those Clemson guys. 11 sacks this past season as a true sophomore. So he is the returning leader of returning players.

he had the most sacks in the country, and their D-line is going to be scary. So T.J. Parker, watch out for him at three. At two, I'm going to go Arch Manning. Now, truth be told, I don't think Arch is going to come out, but he would be eligible. So based on the rules, I've got to put him on the list. I know he hasn't started a ton, but you see the athleticism and some of the starts that he has had. You see the arm strength, and I really believe Texas is going to take the next step. If they're not in the national championship game, I'm going to be fairly surprised.

This Texas program is excellent. Sarkesian has built an incredible program. They had the number one recruiting class in the country. I'm in on Texas. I'm in on arch. Only two career starts, but he would be right there if he decided to come out. 64-2-20. And then number one is Caleb Downs.

I think he's the really, I would call him the second best player in the country because I think Jeremiah Smith, his teammates, going to be the best player in the country. country. But Smith can't come out. Downs can. So Downs goes at number one. He showed you that he can return against Indiana with that touchdown. He was the best most impactful player on the defense that won the national championship. He's a ballhawk. He is smart. He is physical. He's all over the field. I love Caleb Downs. He is the best defender in the nation. So there's my top 10. best players available for next year's NFL draft. I did want to tidy up a couple of things on college football.

So big story, obviously, that we've been talking about with Nico Iomaleava transferring from Tennessee to now officially UCLA. And then his brother Madden also is going to leave his school. He's going to leave Arkansas and also go to UCLA. First on Madden. So Madden is now going to be in a decision. dispute with Arkansas. Arkansas is actually hiring, I believe it's, what is it, Tom Moore, I believe that's his name, to go after basically like a buyout or a payback from some of the NIL money that he received after going to Arkansas just for a few months and then transferring

and coming back home, really, to Southern California to go to UCLA. People have asked my reaction on that. I say, absolutely, absolutely, go after that money. At that point, If the players want the benefits of being able to be paid and getting NIL dollars, then the team should be able to claw them back. There's not a doubt in my mind. Now, this will be way easier once we get into the RevShare. You see, if it's actually NIL, the legality of getting this back is tough because you're basically going to have to say it was pay for play,

which it is, and I know we all are aware of that, and you're going to have to say, like, well, he didn't. didn't play so we need his pay back. Fair. And again, I'm on Arkansas's side on this point, but you see the sticking point because it's technically NIL. And yes, did you just give it to him without really requiring him to do much from his name, image, and likeness, from your collective? Yes. So it wasn't pure revenue share just yet. But once it is revenue share, now we can have a contract with buyouts and a little bit more rigidity to maybe some of this movement that is so freewheeling that we see with some of these players.

So do I think Arkansas, Arkansas, excuse me, should do this? Yes. Do I think that they should get some of this money back? Absolutely. This is common sense. Let's play in the common sense game. Now, what was also interesting involving the Iamaleavas is that that article from Chris Lowe came out, Max Olson, Adam Rittenberg, what happened with Nico

and Tennessee and how that relationship deteriorated. Now, I think that we talked about that enough. Again, I'm of the belief that there was more than just money at play. Now, that's all that we were going to hear in particular right away because Tennessee, of course, is going to push that narrative. Of course they are. And they're going to try to bury Nico Iamaleava. Of course they are.

But that's not all that was going on. and now in some of this reporting and some of these articles, you are starting to see at least a bit of the other side of the story, a little bit. I would hope that we can get more of that side of the story, and hopefully we can do something here to dig on that and bring you that here on this show. What I did find interesting, though, was this section of this article,

because if this isn't just an indictment of the whole thing. So Tennessee and their fans, and again, I love Vol fans. I have a passionate VAL fan on the staff here at the Joel Clatch show. She's awesome. I want Tennessee to do well. But here's the thing. You can't have it both ways, all right? Remember, remember, these are the rules that we all play by, in part because of the lawsuit you brought against the NCAA,

which, by the way, I defended because the NCAA was trying to pick and shift. choose rules to enforce and schools to enforce them against, and they try to do that against Tennessee, wrongly so, I believe, again, wrongly so, I'm on your side, Tennessee. And Tennessee fought that. But that also did create the vacuum that we're in from a regulations guardrails perspective. We don't have a lot of rules. We certainly don't have a lot of enforcement. Part of that was that lawsuit that Tennessee brought back against the NCAA, which, again,

I supported because the NCAA was not doing their job across the board. You can't pick and choose who you're going to enforce rules against. Okay. So we get that out of the way. Now, so we're now in this void and now Nico Iamaleava, they have a conflict with Tennessee. Again, probably some of it money and probably some of it not money. Okay?

There's more of the story. And so he leaves. But Tennessee immediately jumps on it and just they perpetuate the narrative of like, It was just money. He wanted $4 million, and now he's running out on us. And we're going to pound the table and say, no one's bigger than the block T. I can't remember exactly how Josh put it, but something along those. The power tea. Excuse me. I'm sorry. The power tea.

And yes, like, I agree with that as well. Bob Stoop said the same thing about Oklahoma when Lincoln Riley left to go to USC. He said no one's bigger than the program. I agree with that. I agree with that. So they move on. so they move on. But then this pops up. And it reads,

Tennessee inquired with the agents of several Big 12, Big Ten, and ACC starting quarterbacks about the possibility they would become available in the transfer portal, sources said. You can't complain about the system and then walk into it and tamper. Like, does anyone else see the. ridiculousness of all of this. That's what it's like, Tennessee is not the victim.

Nico is not the victim. Like, everybody is playing by a set of rules that nobody knows. And then no one can enforce. So I'm just not going to cry for Tennessee. I'm not going to cry for Nico. And I'm certainly going to read a line like that and be like, come on. You know, all these people, all of these people complain about tamper. And you know what?

There were reports that a coach up in the northwest from Oregon, maybe Dan Lannning, there were reports again. I'm not, I don't know if that's true or not. So allegedly, Dan Lannning tipped off Tennessee that Nico and his representatives were shopping. More of that, please. More of that. Dion called out Virginia by name in a press conference. I think it was last week, I want to say last week. more of that.

If you don't want tampering to exist, one, don't do it, and then when it does happen in particular against you, call it out. Call it out. Call these guys to the mat. The only way that we're going to get tampering out of college football, which I would love if tampering was out of college football, is if we get phones on the table,

throw your phones down, who have you called, get agents registered. All of these are the guardrails that we need, and I don't want a line like that, just drives me and say, Tennessee inquired with agents of several starting quarterbacks. And it has to go, or maybe, maybe like Luke Altmeyer of Illinois or Josh Hoover of TCU or Avery Johnson at Kansas State. And then they go to Kansas State and get a quote from them.

We build a damn wall around him here at Kansas State. And it's like, you're all part of the problem. You're all part of the problem. So that's why I was never going to just immediately vilify Niko Iimaliyava or even Madden E.M. Malayava. I'm going to defend whoever needs to be defended. And when there's no rules, guess what? There's no rules. So I can't wait

until the football season. So we can stop talking about this. I'm really glad that the spring transfer portal window is shut and done. And we can kind of move forward. I hope you guys all had an amazing week. This was actually our spring break. We have kind of

Easter break at the school for the boys. You know, I have 13, 11, and an 8-year-old. And I was just coming back from today. We had this amazing weekend. And I would just encourage all of you, like, just love on your families, love on your wives, or husbands, your kiddos. We had this incredible weekend. We went down to San Diego after the draft.

I got back from the draft. When we go down to San Diego, we went to the Forest Frank concert, Forrest Frank is awesome. So we went to the San Diego State Arena. We went to Forrest Frank. Our kids are singing. Like, it was fantastic. Faith-based, like modern music. For us is fantastic.

If you don't know his music, go check it out. Then we stayed down there and we go to the Padres game earlier today. I'm recording this on Sunday and then we drove up. So, man, my heart is filled. I hope yours is filled as well moving forward. I know that we all yell and scream and we talk about things and we disagree with each other. And you know what? Sports is fantastic.

I really appreciate you for listening to this program. I'd love it if you would subscribe to the YouTube channel. that would be awesome. But mostly I just hope you're happy. I hope you're filled with joy and I hope you enjoy your family. That being said, have a great week. We will see you next week here on the Joel Class Show.