The Kevin Sheehan Show - Caleb's Pro Day + Smoot

Episode Date: March 20, 2024

Kevin opened the show discussing the Washington contingent at Caleb Williams' USC Pro Day along with something Williams said about one of the attendees that indicates he's just fine with the Bears taking him #1 overall. Kevin also gave his NCAA Tournament formula short-list of teams that can win it all and had a "Smell Test" pick for tonight's "First Four" games. Fred Smoot jumped on and gave his thoughts on the Commanders' free agent additions along with what he would like to see them do with the 2nd overall pick in next month's draft. Download the PrizePicks app today and use code Sheehan for a first deposit match up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, I'm really pleased to have a new sponsor to the podcast. Prize picks is the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. They're the easiest and the most exciting way to play DFS. It's just you against the numbers rather than you battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks. Football season's over, but Hoops Action is heating up, whether it's tournament season right through the end of this month or the fight for playoff home court advantage heading. into the postseason, there's no shortage of high-stakes basketball moments this time of year. Get in on the excitement with prize picks, America's number one fantasy sports app where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code Sheehan, S-H-E-E-H-A-N for a first deposit match of up to $100. You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin show. Here's Kevin. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Windonation.

Call them at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. Mention my name for a free, no-obligation quote. Fred Smoot on the show today. We haven't had Fred on, I think, for a month and a half, two months. I love it when Fred's on. Most of you do as well. We will cover the first nine days of Washington's 16 new face free agency class, and of course we'll talk about what they should do in the draft with number two overall.

Fred Smoot coming up. USC had their pro-day today, Caleb Williams, the center of attention, of course. Washington had a sizable contingent there, and they will have a sizable contingent, according to all of the beat reporters, for Michigan's pro day on Friday, J.J. McCarthy, LSU's Pro Day a week from today, Jaden Daniels, and North Carolina's Pro Day a week from tomorrow, Drake May. But Adam Peters, Dan Quinn, Cliff Kingsbury, and Lance Newmark were among those from Washington in attendance for Caleb Williams' pro day. Newmark, of course, is the new assistant GM to Adam Peters.

Keenan Allen was at Caleb Williams's Pro Day today. Maybe you've seen this on social media. Keenan Allen just recently traded to Chicago from the Chargers for a fourth round pick, and there is video of the two of them embracing. So Keenan Allen's in attendance for Caleb Williams' Pro Day, being a Chicago bear, of course, Williams was asked about Keenan Allen afterwards, and he said, quote, that was great. I've known Keenan for a little bit now. We've hung out. He was with the Chargers, now he's at the Bears. He's here, as in Chicago, even though that's not where he was, he's here for a fourth round pick, which is crazy.

He's a beast, a good guy, and he can give you a lot of knowledge, closed quote. Look, there's been no pushback from Caleb Williams or anybody around Caleb Williams regarding Chicago drafting him number one overall. There was nothing at the combine. There hasn't been anything publicly anyway. for a while. It sure feels like he's going to be drafted by Chicago. And for him, you know, we talked about this on yesterday's show, Tommy and I did, despite what RG3 thinks, it's a pretty good situation for a number one overall pick.

You know, typically that team is terrible. They're not 7 and 10. They're usually 2 and 15 or 3 and 14. Keenan Allen is joining DJ Moore and Cole Komet and D'Andre Swift. They had a pretty good defense that improved. during the course of the year last year. They were playing really well at the end of the season. It's a good fit. It's probably as good a fit as you could possibly want if you're the number one overall pick in a draft as a quarterback.

Anyway, this may be too early to say, maybe too premature to say, but man, it feels like Caleb Williams to Chicago is an absolute lock. You know, the night of April 25th first round commissioner steps to the podium with the number one overall pick the Chicago Bears select Caleb Williams' quarterback USC. Washington is on the clock. It really feels that way. Anyway, did you see the details of the Chase Young contract in New Orleans? Turns out it was not fully guaranteed. I was surprised when the report

came out that he'd gotten one year 13 million fully guaranteed. Not surprised by the one year, somewhat surprised by the 13 million, very surprised that it was fully guaranteed. Well, there's reporting from Jonathan Jones at CBS Sports that says 5 million of it roughly is guaranteed, 8 million of it is not. It's going to have to be earned out on a per game basis as long as he's on the roster and available to play over 17 games. He'll get the rest of that. But 5 million guaranteed, 8 million, not so much. And one of the reasons for that is, I'm sure you saw this. Chase Young has

to have neck surgery. You know, this stems from the stinger that he got back in the preseason. It was the first preseason game of the summer in Cleveland, the first series. He went out with a stinger. They referred to it as a stinger. It was some nerve-related damage or an injury that he had to be cleared. Remember, I think by a neurosurgeon before he could actually play. He missed week one against Arizona. Man, he's had it tough. I mean, trust me, I know enough, and a lot of people know enough to know that a lot of where Chase Young is right now in his career is on Chase Young, but a lot of it is on these injuries. He had a devastating knee injury. He then follows it up coming back at the end of 2022 and not being completely sure of that knee,

you know, the way he played and the way he talked about it. In fact, by the time he played in that game against the 49ers at the end of 2022, it was two or three weeks after he had been cleared. He had to get his mind right around that knee. And then, you know, it seems pretty obvious. that he was playing 2023, not at 100% either. Albert Breer reported in SI, SI.com, that the Titans and the Panthers were interested as well, but he wasn't cleared by the physical, that he failed the physical with those two teams. He didn't pass the physical with New Orleans either, but players do get free agent contracts coming off injuries, failing physicals, because they're not done.

done with their rehab, or in this case, he's got to have neck surgery. But the Saints went ahead anyway. But that's why the deal structure is the way it is. He's going to have to play, you know, in those games to earn out $8 million of the $13 million deal. You know, I feel for him from that standpoint, because he hasn't been right for, you know, almost since that injury in. in the Tampa game, week nine, right, of the 2021 season. Man, you talk about Montez Sweat and Chase Young post-2020 going on different paths. Chase Young, multiple injuries becomes available for free agency, and he gets a one-year, $13 million deal that is primarily an earn-out,

an incentive-laden deal. Montez Sweat gets traded, signs a 98 million four-year deal with the Bears. Anyway, Sam 48 in the Post, wrote a story today that I just wanted to read a quote from. It deals with Cameron Curl. The story was essentially a recap of the Adam Peters free agency strategy, the roster building strategy as it relates to agency and then the draft. And really the way Sam categorizes it or describes it with some of the sources that he talked to is kind of the way we've talked about it. This is, you know, more of a bridge to the roster that he wants to build. You know, a lot of these players that he has signed to very short-term contracts are not really going to be a part of the long term. Yes, to sign 16 new players is a lot in the first week of free agency.

or the first eight or nine days, but there just hasn't been really a blockbuster deal of note. Again, Frankie Louvo, I think's got a chance to be around, obviously, Tyler Beaudish. You know, they're a Jeremy Chin. And it's the Chin signing that I wanted to talk about because he had some information on Cameron Curl. You know, he writes, Curl ends up signing a two-year deal worth a base value of $9 million and a maximum of $13 million with the Los Angeles Rams. The low figure surprised at least a few league executives and prompted questions about why the commanders hadn't resigned him for that price.

In the end, it turns out, Sam 48 from the Washington Post writes, Washington never made a formal offer to curl, according to two people with knowledge of the negotiations. Washington didn't offer a deal to curl because it believed veteran Jeremy Chin would be a better fit at box safety for its new defensive scheme. Chin signed a one-year deal worth base value of $4.1 million up to $5 million would be the aggregate value of the deal if he earns it out. But anyway, you know, the Jeremy Chin signing, I like. I like Chin, I like Louvue, I love Wagner, I like Beaudish. You know, in terms of thinking about, you know, the players signed in this free agency class

that could potentially be a part of a contending team in 2025 at the earliest, 26, hopefully no later than that. Now, Wagner, as an older player, who knows, but he's going to have an impact, I think, certainly in this upcoming season. But Sam Fortier concludes his story by writing, it's probably not accurate to call the 2024 commanders Adam Peters's team. He used free agency to bring in short-term stopgaps as he transitions the roster and tries to nail the all-important position of quarterback. He's building a bridge between Rivera's roster and the one that someday will be his own. I think that's exactly what has happened here in the first eight or nine days. And it's not that there's not a reason to be excited about the measured approach and about some of these players.

It's just not what I think a lot of you, not a lot of you, some of you thought it was, which was, you know, a massive indictment on the roster that was here and an attempt to rid itself of everything and to, you know, bring in, you know, essentially a whole new starting lineup on offense and defense. There will be new starters from this free agency class. There's no doubt about it. And they will fill some of the holes of what wasn't a very good roster for sure.

Not suggesting that it was. A couple of other things that I want to get to before we, get too smooth. The Virginia lost last night in the NCAA tournament. My God, that was hideous. They were down 27, 14 at halftime. They didn't break the 30

point mark until there were eight and a half minutes left in the game and they lost by 25 to Colorado State, 67 to 42. You know, Tony Bennett acknowledged that he may have to look at some system changes. You know, the way

Virginia plays, very few possessions. You know, they were the 362nd ranked team in America in possessions per game. It's the way they played. It's the way he's coached. It's the way his dad coached. And he's had great success with it. I mean, this idea that after last night, Tony Bennett can't coach anymore, stop it. But, you know, surrounding that national championship run in 2019 are, you know,

four early round, first round exits. And none of them have been super pretty last night, the ugliest. And in this era of NIL and Transfer Portal, and players looking to get paid and players looking to find that one stop that can get them to the next level, the NBA, the style of play is a problem. You know, it's the same thing people said about JT3's style of play, and he had tremendous success with it.

The truth was it wasn't purely Princeton basketball at Georgetown when he was there. But, you know, I've said this before as it relates to, you know, the team that I root for, the school that I root for. Maryland, you know, be careful what you wish for. Georgetown hasn't been the same since JT3 was runoff, you know, and you try to run Tony Bennett off. There's no guarantee you'll have what you've had with him, Virginia fans, which is an incredible run. You know, he has won or shared the ACC regular season title six times, and he got you the all-important missing national championship that you thought you should have had with Ralph Samson.

I like Tony Bennett as a coach. I don't understand, by the way, how when you're down as much as they were down last night, how you continue to run the same offense where you're whittling the shot clock down to, you know, less than six seconds before taking a shot. At some point, your season's about to end. You've got to full court press and you've got to get shots up quickly because there aren't enough possessions left in the game

to overcome the deficit. That was a bad loss, 67 to 42, but Tony Bennett's been a really good coach over the course of his career. So I do have a smell test pick coming up for tonight's first four action. I'm going to do a smell test throughout the tournament. I've done it the last two years, so I will have a pick coming up here in just a few minutes. But before I get to that, I'm going to do something that I've done for the last six years on the show and on the radio show,

and that is use a formula that narrows down the 68 teams, the tournament to a short list of teams that can actually win the tournament. It's based on four criteria. It has in six years produced a short list of teams in which the champion has come from that list. Two years it did not. Yukon last year was not on my final list. And Virginia was not on my final list in 2019.

It's based off of four sets of criteria. You've got to be a top 15% scoring team in the country. You've got to be a top 10 Ken Palm adjusted offensive efficiency team. Now, these two numbers are numbers that a lot of people use to kind of whittle down the teams from 68 to a much smaller list. I've added in two sets of criteria, one of which is very subjective. The first is you've got to have two of your top three scorers be guards in a tournament where guard play is so important. You've got to be a guard or a wing. And then the final criteria is you've got to have a really good coach.

And that is really super subjective. And it's super subjective from my standpoint. It's my opinion on whether or not the teams have really good coaches or not. Last year, I had Yukon fit the first three categories, and then I took them out because I was not a believer in Danny Hurley. So let's get started, all right? This is my 2024 NCAA tournament formula for the creation of a short list of teams that can win it all. So number one, 16 of the last 19 NCAA champions have been top 15% scoring teams. Now, top 15% is roughly the top 55 teams out of 362 Division 1 team.

So you've got to be a top 15% scoring team for me to advance you to the next criteria. So out of 68 teams in the field, 28 of them finished in the top 15% in offensive scoring. Alabama, Kentucky, Arizona, Florida, Illinois. Samford, Gonzaga, Purdue, Auburn, James Madison, Florida, Atlantic, and BYU, New Mexico, North Carolina, Yukon, Creighton, Drake, Baylor, Charleston, Duke, Tennessee, Colorado, TCU, Utah State, McNeese State, Grand Canyon, Marquette, and Nebraska. So 28 teams survive the first criteria, which is you've got to be a top 15% scoring team. So out of those 28, we move on to the second metric. You've got to be a top 10 Ken Palm, adjusted offensive efficiency team. What does that mean?

Well, Ken Palm is an advanced statistical, you know, site for college basketball. and they've got a stat called adjusted offensive efficiency, which measures points scored per 100 possessions adjusted for the opponent. Well, 16 of the last 19 NCAA champions, just like with the top 15% scoring, 16 of the last 19 NCAA champions have finished top 10 in Ken Palm adjusted offensive efficiency. So of the 28 teams that we still have alive for this list, because they were top 15% scoring teams, 10 of those 28 were top 10 Ken Palm adjusted offensive efficiency teams. They were the top 10.

All of the top 10 in Ken Palm were in that list of 28 offensive scoring teams. Look, you've got to be able to score in the NCAA team. tournament and you have to be able to score efficiently. What got me thinking about this, and I'm not the only person that's been thinking about offense and scoring and adjusted offensive efficiency when it comes to this tournament, but Gary Williams told me, you know, 10 years ago, if you're really good defensively and not that great offensively, you can win two or three games in the tournament, but you can't win six.

You've got to be able to score and score efficiently to win six games. games in a row and win the national championship. So the 10 top 10 teams in Ken Palm's adjusted offensive efficiency happened to be 10 teams that were also among the top 15% in offensive scoring teams. They are Yukon, who was number one in this category, Illinois was two, Alabama three, Purdue was four, Kentucky was five, Baylor was six, Duke was seven, Arizona was eight. Gonzaga was nine and Auburn was 10. So we're left with 10 teams that can win the national championship according to this formula. As we move to the third criteria, which is two of the top three scorers have to be guards or wings, perimeter players. That's what typically impacts

tournament games more than anything else. Great guard play. Great perimeter play. Eight of the last 11 champions have had two of their three top scores be guards or wings. You know, you can have an F forward next to your name, but you've got to be able to shoot threes. You've got to play a lot on the perimeter to qualify. Well, nine of the remaining 10 teams make the cut. UCon, Illinois, Alabama, Purdue, Kentucky, Baylor, Duke, Arizona, and Auburn. Which leads me to the last super subjective, you know, category of criteria that I use,

which is Sheehan's, you know, opinion as to whether or not it's a really good head coach. So for me, it narrows the list from nine down to five. For me, Yukon, I'm putting on this list, Danny Hurley won a national championship last year. I've always believed in Matt Painter, despite his lack of tournament success. They went to the elite eight, the year that Virginia won it, and they were really close to winning that game. I think Matt Painter is an outstanding coach. Purdue's on the list. Kentucky with Calipari, Baylor with Scott Drew because he's won a title, and definitely Auburn with Bruce Pearl are on that list. Five of the final nine. Now Tommy

Lloyd hasn't done anything in the tournament with Arizona, and they've been beaten by, you know, lower-seeded teams each year. John Chires in his second year, he hasn't done anything in the tournament. He hasn't done anything to prove that he's Coach K at this. point. Nate Oates has just had one earlier than expected based on seating exit after another. I'm not a big Nate Oats fan in terms of X's and O's. Does he fill up that roster with athletes and potential NBA, you know, a lot of NBA talent? Yeah. But he hasn't done it done it. He hasn't done it, excuse me, in the tournament. Not a big Nate Oates fan. And Brad Underwood, you know, I love the pace in which Brad's teams play.

I don't think they ever guard anybody. And they in early games have gotten slowed down like Loyola did a few years ago. So I don't have Brad on this list. I actually think Brad's a decent coach. I don't put them in the category of really good coaches. So the winner comes from the list of five teams that went through these four sets of criteria and emerged as I think. from this list, the champion will come from.

Yukon, Purdue, Kentucky, Baylor, and Auburn. Of course, what's completely in conflict with this is that in my bracket with Tommy yesterday, I picked Houston to win it all. I did that the year that Virginia wanted. I had Virginia in the bracket, and it didn't fit this formula. Part of it is because I picked the bracket yesterday, and I went through and did the work on narrowing down the list after I picked the bracket.

I should have done it before. Yukon, Purdue, Kentucky, Baylor, Auburn, your national champion, there is at least a two-thirds chance that your national champion will come from that list based on the six years that I've done it so far. All right. One smell test pick, and the smell test is presented, as always, by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they'll take good care of you with a cash bonus on your initial deposit.

Two games tonight in the first four. Last night, by the way, and I didn't mention this, Howard lost by three. They had a really good comeback and had multiple three-point attempts to take Wagner into overtime. Wagner, by the way, was playing with just seven players healthy in the game. Tonight, the first game, Grambling in Montana State. There is a lot of Montana State action. I actually thought about making grambling part of the smell test, but I passed on that because there is some sharp money on Montana State as well. But the pick tonight is Boise State plus three against Colorado in the second of the two first four games.

games tonight. Boise has played really well. Colorado, I love Tad Boyle as a coach. I think he does a great job. They've got a pro on that team. The public is pounding Colorado tonight. There is some sharp money on Boise. I like Boise plus the three as the first smell test pick of the 2024 NCAA tournament. We'll do a smell test every show that there are tournament games, including tomorrow. and I will try to get the show out early tomorrow, as early as possible. And if not, I'll tweet out the picks prior to the 12 noon tip-off to the tournament. But last year went 17 and 13, the year before that, I couldn't find the record. I do know that it was a winning record in 2022, but let's see if we can make some money this year.

Boise State plus three is the pick. MyBooky.ag is the sponsor. They've got everything you need for the NCAA tournament for both men's and women's action. Lots of contests, lots of prop bets, all of the points, spreads, money lines, and totals, fair pricing, go to mybooky.orgie.org, use my promo code, Kevin, DC.

All right, let's get to Fred Smoot next, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. March is a time. of change and a time to embrace the warmth creeping back into our lives. But as the season's shift, is your home ready? Are your windows cracked leaking or refusing to let in the fresh spring air? Say goodbye to those frigid drafts and sky-high heating bills with wind donation. For a limited time only, buy to get too free, no money down, no interest, and no payments for 24 months. Their professional installation teams have over 10 years of experience. They'll be in and out of

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All right now, jumping on with me right now, always by popular demand, is number 21, Fred Smoot. That was your number number here. you a different number in other places? No, I was actually, I wore only two numbers. I wrote 21 when I was here when I was drafted. And of course, Sean Taylor put it on when I went to Minnesota for those two years. Then when I came back, I was going to put on his three six, but somebody had it, so I didn't put on 27 because I had Ward a year in Minnesota.

So, yeah. And then the last couple of people to wear 27 was Brad Edwards, the great Brad Edwards. Right. And Walt Harris And nobody else wore it Yes, yes And nobody else has well the number of it That's, you know what, God, that's nuts

27 Has probably been one of the least worn Redskin football team commanders' Numbers of all time. You're right. Like I immediately thought of Brad Edwards. Walt Harris was only here for a little bit. Actually, you played with Walt Harris.

And I was wearing 21 at the time. Right. He was, he actually, that, you and I have talked about the 2004 and 2000, you know, the 2004 defense in particular, the Gibbs first team. You guys had it going at the end of the year that year. And Walt Harris was a big part of the secondary, along with you in Springs, right? Yep, me Springs and Walt Harris. And we had a, we had a squad at the time. I think we finished with the top five defense that year under Greg Williams. So we really had it rolling at that time and didn't have what we call a lot of Dominic Pass rushes, but Greg was drawing it up, man, and we played fast. Yeah, Greg really did draw it up, didn't he? He was a hell of a defensive coordinator.

First of all, one of the most intelligent football minds I have ever been around and so direct of what he wanted from us individually. And telling us and demanding from us, we all play as 11. can't be a part of their posse and play inside of the defense and make your plays, he's not going to play you. He don't care. So I really love that. And there's no time that I ever hit the field and questioned his game plan.

And there's no time I ever got on the field and doubted his game plan. That was one of my better years because I could just relax and play fast. And he put a lot on me, Sean, and while Harris, when it came to playing a lot of man-and-man coverage, and we excelled at it. We enjoyed it. What was it? You've told me the stories before, but you really liked Marty, too, who drafted you. Yeah, I did. I love Marty, man. You know what? Think about it. Professor, I had, I hadn't, he was my first coach. I know. So I had nothing to compare him to father's other pro coaches, very nurturing, yet very demanding, which I'm fine with hard coaching. I do well with it.

But also a DB guru. That was his thing. He loved cornerbacks. Like, that were his. thing. If you look at us in 2001, we started out terribly. But boy, did we start to crank it out at the end of that season when we started to get a groove? Do you remember this? Jeff George was my first starting quarterback.

Even Tony Bank ended the season. Stephen Davis was running the ball on the outfit. We had Michael Reds, Brooke, Rod, Gordon on the outside out there. We had some guys. Dunnell Bennett that four-back. Could Johna Carter had a big game or two?

Yeah, that's the funny thing about it. My 2001 team, I played with two, I mean, with five number one picks. Bruce Smith was the number one pick of his draft. Cajonna Carter, Jeff George, Big Daddy Wilkinson. We had one knee number one pick somewhere in there. Like, it was a crazy team. Who would have been, so you got four of them. Who would have been, you don't remember offhand who the fifth number one overall pick would have been?

I'm trying to remember. I mean, it wasn't LeVar. Lovar was number two. Went number two. The barbway number two. Chris Samuels went number three. I'm trying to see where it had been. I'm trying to pull up right now from Pro Football reference that team. It wasn't Irvin Friar. It was a... Whatever. We'll figure it out a little bit later. You know, that, I've said this to you before, and we've talked about this before, but we haven't gotten into that season very much before.

still to this day in terms of football decisions. It was the worst decision of the Dan Snyder era, letting Marty go at the end of that year. You guys won eight of your final 11 games with Tony Banks and Kent Graham at quarterback and were just turning into a nasty defensive team. That game, one of my favorite games from that year, Fred, was the game in Denver. And that may have been the to get back to 500 or maybe it was at Philadelphia. But you guys went out to Denver. You were a big underdog. It was like cold.

It was sleeting. Oh, yes. I don't remember that game because it literally snowed the first quarter. Yeah. Rained the second quarter and it was sunny in the second half. And it was a bronze fest out there. I do remember what you're talking about for a festival. It was one of those games.

But we just reached in and said, we're going to go win this games by any means necessary. LeVar made a couple of plays in that game. Like, we had some guys really stick their head out there and make some plays. Even the great Keith Mitchell made some plays out there day. So, like I said, we had a different team. I had Marco Coleman on that defensive line. Marco made some plays that they brews. So it was just a lot of us, man.

Like, I had a lot of OGs. It was an older team that I came onto when I was drafted. But a team full of guys that had played a lot of football, man. And Darryan was still on that team. At the beginning of the season, Mark Carrier was on that team. had a damn shade on that team. Champ Bailey. So it was just, it would feel with characters, man.

Well, you described the Denver weather, by the way, in just a couple of hours. It's like that all the time in Denver. Snow, rain, sun, all within three hours. But the thing that I remember from that game is that Tony Banks started the game,

but he looked like he was far too cold to be playing. He looked, he looked, he looked, he looked, so uncomfortable. And then Kent Graham came in and really played well. And you guys won that game 17 to 10. And I'm looking at it right now. That got you, that got you back to 4 and 5 after starting 0 and 5. And then the next week, you went and beat Philadelphia on the road holding that Donovan,

you know, that McNabb team to three points. That's all they scored. I mean, at 5 and 5, we were right back in the playoff picture. And then we lost it home to Dallas with the guy from Georgia. Quincy Carter. Yeah. Quincy Carter, because I picked Quincy Carter off that day, if I remember, right, on the sideline. Yeah, so I remember that guy, and they snuck that game at the end because it was a tight game for a long time. Yeah, no, we, and Washington was a big favorite.

Like at that point, it looked like we might go to the playoffs after starting 0-15, and that was a disappointing loss because Carter wasn't that good. I'm looking to see if you're right about it. Yeah, I know you're right because you have a great memory on this stuff. But hold on. Yeah, you had a pick. No yards on the return, but you had a pick. On the sideline.

I had to tiptoe and kicking on the sideline. It's going to drive me nuts trying to figure out that other number one. overall pick that was on that team. Here's a question for you that I don't think I've ever asked you. I've asked, I think, other people on that team. I mean, how long, why didn't Marty clearly didn't want Jeff George on that team? Remember, by the way, the backdrop of this for everybody's memory is 9-11. You know, you open the season with a loss to San Diego on the road.

It was horrific. It was 30 to 3. couldn't score, and then 9-11 happened two days later. The season, the next week's games were canceled, and then the first game. That was my first career game, my first career starting San Diego. The Padre still played on their field. I literally now, I remember I actually got a player other week that week. I got a former recovery, my first interception off of Doug Flutty,

and I have around 6-7 tackles. So I had a great game out there, and I'd never forget this. I was on the sideline because I was always one of no players. I like to watch the other team's defense against our offense. And I, you know you say I made so many plays, Professor. I thought it was three of him out there. Like he was everywhere, and they had Tim DeWite on their team, Doug Flutie, Conway.

So in LaDanyan Thomas, we was rookies that year. So he had a hell of a game, too. So it was a good game. But we let that one get away from him. also. We could have won that game. Oh, come on. It was 30 to three. No, it started off. What are you talking about? It was even bad. It was 20 to nothing at halftime. It was 20 to nothing at half time. You did it. Great memory. You had a pick and a fumble recovery in the game. How many tackles did you say you had?

Six or seven. It says, okay, it says four solo tackles. Whatever. Yeah. What about the other one? I know. You know, it's somewhere around there. So what I wanted to ask you, though, was how, I mean, why, obviously, Jeff George was Dan's guy. We knew that from the year before. I mean, Norv didn't want him. Dan wanted him.

And Marty. Oh, wait, did I think Jeff George was a number one pick because he was? Wait, say that again. I missed that. Say that again. Was Jeff George the fifth number one pick? you've already you mentioned him you mentioned him oh all right all right all right yeah i think you already mentioned him but why did marty basically you know he booted viny sarado out of the building

he was in charge and why did he keep george he didn't like him why did he keep him on that roster I don't know because i was such a rookie at the time trying to feel my own way out and i just knew Jeff was a lovable prick. So I love Jeff. He was one of those guys. It's my way of the highway type of guys. And a lot of coaches don't like that. And I knew it wasn't going to be too long before Tony got put in the game.

And when we started out so slow, it validated what Coach Schindheimer wanted. And he really wanted to run the ball with Stephen Davis and take big shots in the play action game. And that was right up Tony Banks real well. Because people could say a lot about Tom. he could push that ball down field. Right, he could. Do you remember the play that season that turned it all around at O and 5? LeVar Eric's Carolina Parenthood game, Interception, takes it to the house,

and the season starts to shake in a whole different way. Isn't that crazy? Like, football, the NFL is so interesting. And I've talked about this for years, and everybody that's listening knows it. It's not a revelation. But there's such a fine line in these games and in these seasons because really teams are pretty close, you know, talent-wise. That's the way the system is designed. You're 0-N-5 and you're down 14 to nothing in the fourth quarter at home.

And it's going to be 0-6. And LeVar picks off a pass, returns it for a touchdown. The next drive, Tony Banks throws an 85-yard touchdown pass to 50-50. Rod Gardner. And the game goes to overtime. We win it, and it's the beginning of a five-game win streak. It's crazy. Because Owen six, you're never going to recover from.

You're never going to recover from it. And you're right. Like, the talent level is never too far unless a team gets rock bottom. Coaching is so much part of the game, and people don't talk about that. Poorly coached teams play poorly. I tell people like this, it ain't a lot of bad. kids in his world, but they'll show a lot of bad parenting. So at the end of the day, we can only do what we're taught to do.

And if a coach is by far as superior over my coach, we will be dominated. In no time that we ever hit the field with Marty Schenheimer, and we were undercoach. Our team just had a better coach than us. Marty was, I love Marty. He was kind of military, but we'll talk to you. And, boy, he was very emotional about the game of football. He could press that cry button. He didn't mean it, because he loved the game that much.

And I adore the man, always. I think he should be in the Hall of Fame personally. But because of the lack of playoff success, he's not in it, and he probably won't go in it. You know, you look at his playoff teams. They were conservative. And his teams in general were conservative. But, man, the bad luck.

I mean, Elway goes 99-year. yards on the drive when he's in Cleveland. Ernest Beiner fumbles as he's going in for the game winning touchdown. One of the all-timers is when he was in San Diego, the game was over. They picked off Brady at the end of the game. And then whoever, and I'm forgetting who picked him off, fumbles the return. Instead of getting down, the game would have been over. He fumbles the return.

And then Brady stays on the field and they go down and beat him. He had a kicker miss a short kick that would have won a game. and then they lost in overtime. It just had so much bad luck. Indeed, I realized how to playoff games he played in Kansas City Chief. I know. With all those guys with Steve DeBerg and Chris McCoyer and Neil Smith and Derek Thomas, like you're talking about a guy that had teams that you're right.

It's like playing in the NBA while Michael Jordan was playing. It ain't that you're not good. It says you're not going to win. Yeah, I mean, but it was there was just so much bad luck. happened to him in those playoff games. Now, some people will argue, people that argue against Marty for the Hall of Fame will say, well, the reason that luck was an option there is because he played the games so conservatively, so they were so close, you know, at the end.

And they were better teams if they had played more. You know, George Allen, who you don't remember, you're not old enough, but you know the franchise history. You know the franchise history, but George Allen was criticized for the same. same thing, that when they got into the playoffs, he was so conservative that his teams were too tight, the games were too close, but he was a true innovator, which is why he's in the Hall of Fame. He created the nickel defense. He created, he was the first to have a special teams coach in the NFL. So there's some game changing innovation that Alan had, which is why

he's in the Hall of Fame, but Marty isn't. I mean, Marty's win percentage is, tithing. It's top five, top six all time in the regular season. That should simply get him there. You're talking about somebody that played decades. He played the game and watched it suddenly change. You're talking about a guy that was coaching in the 80s and was coaching. I got to play with Darrell Green. I was in the building another day, and we was looking at the pictures on the wall, going through the 92 team, looking at guys that was on the team. And I got to play with Ray Brown. Dale Green. Can you believe you that? I know what the, I mean, Ray Brown was around forever.

But yeah, I mean, you also got to play with Bruce Smith at the end of his career. Yes, I did. And by the way, Bruce Steele owes me a champ Bailey money, but him getting that sack record. He always said it. You know, I'm going to take care of y'all guys. He got the sack record, put the yellow jacket on, sat on the bitch, never to play a game. I know. You know, a lot of us as fans didn't like that because it was, you know why? Because it was all about Bruce, you know. And remember, in 2000, you know, in 2001, we're still within a decade from the last Super Bowl. So we're still expecting big things every year.

And none of those Super Bowl teams had players that focused more on individual accomplishment. And he came here to get that record. And I mean, I think a lot of fans didn't love that. But anyway, what was the last thing I was going to say about 2001? Oh, when Marty got fired, when Marty got fired and left, like, did you guys know that that was the wrong decision? He felt it was the wrong decision because I was like, man, we just scratching the surface. Like, we're a couple, we're a quarterback away from actually contending with Scray Hand and New York and Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia and everything they got going with the Cowboys. if we literally keep Marty going into the 2002 season and give him a chance to get the quarterback

that he needs, somebody probably very Brock Purdy-like, don't matter, somebody that won't lose you the game. I think we turn into a playoff team eventually. If not 2002, 2003. No doubt. No doubt. There were playoff games, division titles, many of them to come if Marty stays. There's no doubt. As long as he's given control, you know, if he had control the team. He had control. Yeah, Dan would have been fine with keeping Marty as a coach, but Dan wanted the control back. He wanted to bring Vinny back and help pick players and do a lot of that, which is why, you know, the only mistake that I think Shaddenheimer did, coach did, was me and Santana was talking before the draft because we all came out together, Santana

and LeDaney and Vic all of came out together. And we was talking. and Santana was convinced that Washington was going to draft right all right yeah now we're realizing we had Michael Redsbrook there go your big receiver we got Calvin locket in that inside as your slide if you simply trade not trade but substitute Santana moss for a rod gardener we are even more a more dangerous team than we already were you know who went at the end of that first round reggie wayne oh yeah oh yeah Santana Moss was the, Santana's told me that story before. He was the pick right after Rod Gardner.

The Jets had 16. We had 15 and picked Gardner. And obviously the two careers were completely, completely different. Yeah. All right. Let's talk more about the current. All right. So I haven't talked to you in a while.

Just give me your overall impressions of the last week of free agency. the 16 new players, four of their own that they've kept. What did you think of the last seven, eight days? I just loved us running this machine and running this company like an NFL team. Like, I think he, like, this was the best clean slate protocol a GM could ever have. I got $90 million to spend. I got a roster that only has 25 people on it. I don't have to fire anybody.

All I have to do is handpick and cherry pick. Now, as I study him and see what he's trying to do, because I listen to people when they talk. And he said, I'm going to build my team through the draft. I understand it. This wasn't a year you could do it. We can't drive 25 players. All right.

So what he's doing is between these one-year contracts and these three-year contracts, tell me who he's investing in him, the tape the Tyler Bioticists of the world. That's a double whammy. You hurt your division rival, and you sprinting your attention. team because no matter what young quarterback we bring in here, he can't be making a protection calls. Now we got a guy that can do that. So I see what he's doing in free agency.

He's getting these guys in here, and I think he's doing it. He's peeling his thing like an onion. He's going to have 35, 40 free agents this year, I mean this year, start to building the draft, and if the year's goals, he substitutes draft picks for these free agents until he gets to the point where we are past Russia away from being a champion team. We are locked down corner away. We are tight-in away. So I see what he's trying to build here, but he also got a lot of players that I see

in free agency that used to have that C on their chest. Used to be captains. He got a lot of leaders in here. And he got some guys that haven't, how should I say, have it peaked out yet besides Bobby Wagner, which he brought him in here so he can bring a culture and a winning culture and let these guys know how this defense should be and how it should be played. So I am great with it. And think about test the offensive line, which was a weak point last year.

Taylor Biodish at center. Sam Cosme, and I'm going to say it right now. One of the best guards in football, said it when he got drafted. If you move on the guard, he'll be a pro bowler. One of the best guards in football. Yeah, I said it. All right, Dean, you got Nick Algrady that you bring in. Your inside interior is solidified.

solidified. Now you only had to go get tackled and you want to get them with youth. Because your quarterback got used. So I see what's going on and I'm enjoying watching the process because, you know, I love GM and then one day I want to be one. I know that. So I want to ask you something because of the 20, 12 of the guys have one year deals. So a lot of these are rotational players, you know, depth. Obviously there's some special teams ads like the long snapper and the kicker and Jeremy Reeves. coming back, et cetera. Of the players that they have signed so far, who are you most excited in terms of the impact on the field? I'm not talking about leadership.

Like clearly Bobby Wagner, you know, we're bringing a Hall of Famer into the building who's been a first-class guy, you know, in Seattle and the Rams the year they won the Super Bowl. But who are you excited to see on the field? I'm very excited that, like I say, but be honest, I'm very excited to see him play because I know you're only good as the trench warfare you can do.

And I think he's going to be the guy that leaves his office of line for the next six, seven, eight, nine years. So very excited to him, but Frank, Frankie Louvo, I am. I don't know if you watch film on this guy, but if you don't love the way this guy plays, if you don't love how smartly he plays the game, and the more and more I keep watching it, I'm like, this dude is a copy of Fred Warner. If you watch him and study him, he is very Fred Warner-ish can do a little bit of does nothing great, does everything good. I call him a rental son to me.

I can't wait to see him play. Jeremy Chin, you talk about one of these guys with one-year prove-y contract that I think going to end up with a longer contract. Jeremy Chin, he's a guy that I think hasn't peaked out. And all the DBs, I want everybody to understand this, all the DBs will instantly look better than they did last year because of Joe Wick. I'm telling you now, like I told you, it's my analogy. Bad parents, bad kids. These guys will actually get coached.

And Jeremy Chin is a guy that's not only going to play in the middle of the field. He's going to play strong safety. He's going to play big nickels. He plays linebackers. He's a very versatile chance piece that you can use out there. And then you want to talk about just, like, when I look at this group, I don't see guys that underachee. I see guys that are just scratching the surface. And then nobody's looking at this.

Everybody's looking at the free agencies, I mean, free agents we brought in here. But we're putting them in a group of core guys that we already got this good. The world's pain? Good. John Allen? Good. Terry McLuhan. Good.

We have guys already, like, so the core was not there. So that's what I want people to win. Like, this team is not going to be a 3 and 13 team. It's going to be a team that get better week in and week out. I think that's a really good point. And it's kind of what I've danced around here the last couple of days in talking about those that think that, you know, the entire roster has been overhauled. Like everybody, you know, they hated everybody in the roster.

Even if you just look at free agency, you're still only talking about perhaps three to four, maybe five new starters. Like you said, McLaurin, Dotson hopefully will benefit from better quarterback playing an offensive coordinator. Cosmey, Payne, Allen, the corners. I want to ask you specifically about the corners. Do you think Forbes from what we saw the rookie year? I'm curious. This is more than just about Forbes. What do you see Dan Quinn and Joe Witt, Jr.

Doing defensively scheme-wise. Because Louvo's, I think, a pass rusher. Wagner's a run-stopper. Chin, to me, is in the box more than free. You know, what are the... He was a cover three guy in Seattle. Then they started playing a lot more man in Dallas. He's talked about how he's evolved from one place to another.

Based on the players that they're adding or maybe things you're hearing, what are we going to be defensively? I think they're going to be a very versatile defense. You look at the players, you said it, Frankie Louvre will play all over the place. He can cover. He can pass rush. He can play middle linebacker. He can play outside backer.

They've got a lot of versatile guys, and that's what they want to do. And then you look at the defensive back. But the one thing that they do, they make defensive back play, one. easy, too fast and fun. Look at this. This is what happened. I only look at patterns. You're talking about a coordinator there. If I go back and I go and look at the history of Dan Quinn and Joe Wick, this is what I get. All the years in Green Bay, they had a 159 interceptions, Charles Woodson, Al Harris. These guys are dominating. You're talking about Super Bowl. With which you and Green Bay, yeah.

Yes. You talk about three years in Dallas. Fifty-nine interceptions. Fivety-nine interceptions. We watched Trayvon Diggs get double digits. We watched the next year him get hurt. His replacement plan. Come in and lead the interceptions. This is not luck. They are manufacturing this. Remember we talked about Greg Williams?

I knew what pass I was going to pick off when I went into the game with Greg Williams. It's going to be this third and long, and they're going to run this deep out, and I'm going to jump it because we've been jumping it all week. He's been telling us we're going to jump this route. This is the one. They're going to get that. same similar tutelage. They're going to get that same

people believing in what they do. I mark my word. What we saw from Emmanuel Ford was what we saw when you get a high school coach and you tell him to coach pros, a pro rookie against pro veterans. That's what you

get. When you leave somebody on an island, it's not ready to be on that island. At no time that they protect him, at no time did even a veteran quarterback. And I was disappointed in that. Step up there and say, let me handle a.J. Brown today. Like, do you think my rookie year,

I mean, Champ Bailey and Dale Green would have just let me get shredded for four quarters going against Joy Galloway? Do you think they would have that happened? No. No, physically, mentally nothing about them would have left me hanging like that. So it's things like that that really got up under my skin, but I'm going to tell the fan base, this, everybody in that defensive backfield will be 100%.

times better. And Emmanuel Ford will get a chance this year to show what he can really do in his league. And I'm very excited to see that. All right. I think we've covered it all on free agencies. So let's get to the draft and find out what you want to do at number two overall. And we will do that with Fred Smoot right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, if you're into DFS Daily Fantasy Sports, listen closely. Prize Picks is a new sponsor and I recommend them. They're the largest daily platform for DFS in North America. They're the easiest and the most exciting way to play DFS because it's just you against the numbers instead of battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks. You can now win up to a hundred times your

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And subscribing to the podcast is a tremendous help as well. We continue with Fred. We'll get to the draft here in a moment. But real quickly, did you have pro days back in 2000? 2001? Yeah, yeah, that's what we did. I didn't do anything that to come by, but my medical and what's not? Yeah. So what was your pro day like? Because today we've got pro days with, USC and Caleb Williams and everybody out working out there. Michigan's is Friday. And then you got LSU's and Carolina's next week. What was what was a pro day like for, you know, a young

Fred Smoot at 22 years old? Actually, I was 20. You were 20? You were 20, okay? You were 20. It was 20. All right. So it was exciting. It was so scary, man. Professor, you know, I think you play that long. You live that dream of just playing in the NFL one day, and now you're at the cusp of it.

And I can remember before I ran my 40, as I walked up to the line, and I'm like, everything you didn't work for, it's either going to be glorified in this four-point, whatever second, all tore down in this 4.1 every second. Pressure. And it just pressure packed.

So a ram of 40, rins blazingly fast. I knew I was going to do that. But the last thing that they really, I think, took away from my pro day was when I did the bench press. I was 175 pounds. All right?

I knew I couldn't do 225 more than two, three times. But I got under there, and I tried. And I remember Pittsburgh coach at the time, because he had already had me at Provo. Yeah. He, Cal was like, you know what? The one thing I like about you, you don't look afraid of nothing because I have watched DBs and wire receiver go out there waiting not to do this bench press when we don't even care

high scorn y'all when it comes to a bit of press. But you got right up under that deed, it, laughed, did not care. He's like, they're going to take you a long way in this game because you're not afraid. So I just think between that and talk. talking to the coaches, and you just want to test well. And that's the thing. You know this is your last time to really leave your name in their head. And just leave impression on them to let them know that I'm a pro player and not just a pro player.

And I think that's what people need to understand about this draft. I hate to break the news to y'all. All 230-plus players will not be good in the NFL. Most of these first round of that we sent up. their salivating over won't last in the league three years. So at the end of the day, it's a difference between a long-term fixed professionally and a guy that got a lot of upside. I think you've told me this before.

You thought you might get taken in the first round, right? No, I would fly it to be a first round. Right. But young French, running around campus, you know, you got to pay the pipe for some time when you're wild and loose. So that's what dropped you to the second round was just the questions about what Fred would do with some big-time cash? Yes, because before the end, I was slotted to go to Seattle-wise.

I was supposed to be a Seahawk at, I think, at 15. No, Washington took Gardner at 15. By the way, Seattle at 17, Seattle at 9 took Corrin Robinson. Seattle at 17 took Steve Hutchinson Hall of Fame. Yes. And you look at our draft class. We had almost a Hall of Fame at every position.

At every position, my class, headlined by Michael Vick and Drew Brees and the rest of these guys, at almost every position with Richard Seymour and the rest of those guys, we almost got a Hall of Fame at every position. Is Vic in the Hall of Fame? I don't think Vick's in the Hall of Fame. No, no.

Vic is not, but Drew Brees will be. You Drew Brees will be, right. And Lidanean Thomas is already in the Hall of Fame. Correct. Yeah. Yep. All right. So let's talk about number two overall.

What do you want them to do with it? You know what? I was looking at the quarterback classes. And we have that Joe Burrow class, Tula, Justin Herbert, Jalen Hertz, they had a class with a lot of good quarterbacks, and that usually don't happen that way. You're saying that 20, you're pointing to the 2020 class, just to be clear. Burroughs, Herbert, Love, Hertz, right. Nothing after that, just so you know.

But guess what? That's usually two, three drafts worth of star and quarterback. That's fair. You're right. So what I'm saying is, I don't want to go. out here and say all of these guys won't be good, but the facts point that they want, because football is

not just about how good you are as a player. It's about what company you get drafted to and what do they have. I feel like whoever go to Chicago, usually the number one pick team doesn't have all the players that Chicago have.

Now what I'm afraid of is that this quarterback is only going to have met evil flutes for one year. Now, they go to the down part of it. out there. Now, the second pick here, everybody here is a fresh starter and we'll be here for a while.

So when I look at it, I'm being on Drake May. Like, it's something about that kid, and I love quarterbacks that don't play with a lot of five stars. I love quarterbacks that have to carry their team and have to be the reason why.

And I think that builds care of and it does a lot for the quarterback position. And when I look at Drake May, I get glimpsed. is a sprinkle of Josh Allen and a sprinkling of Justin Herbert. And I'm asking myself, are we going to have a number two pick again? And we don't pass on Justin Herbert again? So, you know, that makes me want to gravitate towards him.

Then, Chayin Daniels and people with the Lamar Jackson comparisons, I don't quite see Lamar because even though Daniels might be very fast and athletic, I don't. I do not see the ability to stop and start. Like Lamar Jackson, I think that ability to not stop reminds me of RG3, and that's when you're straight line fast and can't stop. And if you look at Jane Daniel's film, he takes a lot of bad hits because he can't stop. But he can't, his film is undeniable. Now, the one thing that I don't like is he threw outside the number to two top 20 picks,

and Monique neighbors and Brian Thomas and he never threw cross the middle well in the NFL he's going to have to make his money across the middle so I don't think you can lose

with either of those guys is what's your flavor which one which style of football fits better so this is really going to be an offensive coordinator's a cup of tea

when it comes to this and then I ask myself because I'm falling in love with J.J. McCawty number one he got quarterback face He's got a quarterback face? No, he got what I call quarterback face.

Like, it ain't like, I can always tell a quarterback by looking at them. You know, from the playground at nine years old, the coach always go pick the prettiest guy and say, hey, you're the quarterback. You're a quarterback. You're a quarterback. It just happened. And Jay-J McCartney wasn't X to do as much as the other guys,

but everything he did was pro-style. He was talked by one of the best. other quarterback gurus ever around and Coach Harbaugh. He made pro throws all the time. I'm watching him throw to the back of the helmet of little linebackers with crossing routes with tight end. I'm watching

him come hit that back foot, let that ball go. I'm watching him quarterback when his, he didn't have a lot of leeway to make mistakes because he wasn't going to get to throw the ball 40 times a game like the rest of them. So Jay J.J. McCartney is one of them quarterback that

he's very intriguing. And Then I'm saying, okay, if I wanted, let's just think for instance that I wanted J.J. McCarthy, and that's the quarterback I was targeting. JJ actually comes with pluses because now I get to get another first round pick and get him. Let's say somebody want to get up the two, and I know I can't get no farther than behind Arizona because Arizona don't need a quarterback. So now I've got to do a deal with the charges to get back up to five. Now I can not only get J.J. McCarty, I can get one of these taxes.

Like I love Guyton from Oklahoma. It's got them out there. This is a deep tackle draft. And the Jay-J. McCarthy pads get you a first-round quarterback and a first-round tackle. So I think it's which quarterback do you like, which style do you like, and who do you believe you can take your franchise to the next level? And with us playing in Cold Weather, too, I think that kind of leans me towards Drake Mayer just a tad bit. But, you know, like I said, Santana loves Jane Daniels, Logan Paulston.

He loves somebody every other day. He fought an end-in and I love with him. We all debate against this a lot. But, you know, at number two, besides Caleb, you've got your picket a little. So you can make decisions. All right. So I'm going to come back to Jaden Daniels here in a moment because he's the guy that I've liked all along. But I want to ask you about Drake May because it sounds to me like at number two,

if they take a quarterback, you want it to be Drake May. If they really like, you know, J.J. McCarthy, you like him too. You'd love a tradeback two spots, pick up some, you know, extra capital. You know, maybe a later first rounder in a three-team deal. I saw Ben Standing suggests like a three-teamer with Arizona and Minnesota. Who knows how it would all play out. But if they stick it to, you like Drake May. You didn't mention any negatives or any flaws or any concerns with Drake May.

Do you have any? Yes. I have a lot of them. When he's good, he's good. When he's bad, he's bad. And the thing about it is, that's what coaches are paid to do. All of these prospects are flawed in some fashion, from Caleb to the last pick of the trail. Now the question is, who's going to learn from their teacher, who's going to be taught by great teachers?

I did think with Drake made his feet. Every quarterback from North Carolina feet need to be cleaned up. Sam, that's why he didn't start his first year because they had to clean his footwork up. We'll have to do the same thing with Drake May. Also, sometimes with Drake, he gets caught up in the place and he tries to play hero ball. And I think when he plays hero ball, that's when his mistakes come when he tries to do too much. But that's why I'm glad that if he came here, he got Terry McLuhan on the outside, Dodson on the outside, Austin Ecclough, a guy that could catch out the backfield,

a trussed tight end. He got people that can help him get out of trouble. Believe me, he's not a perfect prospect. None of them are. I just think with him I have a lot to work with. Plus, he has youth on his side also. He's the younger out of all of these guys. I just, I see his pluses.

I see his minuses, and I think I'm willing to work with all of these. Like, I don't think it's a consolation prize here. I think whoever you get can be a star. I think Jane Dan can be a legit star in his league. Don't get me confused, Professor. Ain't no consolation prize with these guys. You don't lose if you get Jayden. You don't lose if you get Drake.

You don't lose, period. I even think you don't lose with Jay McCarthy. But at the end of the day, they still got to be coached right, and all of them have flaws. If Caleb Williams were available, would he be your number one? No, hands down. He would be my number one. You're talking about a player that can come in here from the door

and not only play amazing football, but represent the DMV like nobody to quarterback could in his trap. Would you trade up for him if Chicago was willing? Yes, I would. Here's the deal. You flip one and two, and you've got to give up one of those second round picks. Just call it 36, and you've got to give up number one. next year. All right, so be it. Number one next year, not guaranteed anyway. Yes. I always go

for the thing that the most guaranteed thing is what I want, and Caleb would be the closest thing to it. So yeah, I give up whatever I got to give up. Like all billionaires say, most of their best investment, they had to overpay for it. Well, I mean, if you had bought an NFL team at any point over the last 50 years and people thought in the moment you overpaid for it, you didn't. So one other thing. I like Pennix Jr. I think he looks, I think he processes quickly. He's got a quick release. I think he sees it. I think he's smart. He can make every throw. I know the injury history. I get it. That was all at Indiana, by the way. That wasn't at Washington. I mean, if somehow they fell in love with him and traded back and selected him, that wouldn't bother me. What do you think of Penix Jr.? I actually like Pinnock Jr. I think he got a lot of good things that he does well. His ball placement is well. He could push the ball down the field. He's a left-handler. They can throw back across his body. Most of the left-handers don't do that well.

Huge hands, man. It can really like, you don't see him from with the ball much. I think what people, the red flags come up with him, I think age, so they're asking themselves. Was he just the old guy on campus or was he just getting better? each and every year. He played high-level ball this year. I would be afraid of there, but I think Michael Pennix is going to be one of those dudes that actually going to end up playing a long time,

but he's going to take the Aaron Rogers-Lamar Jackson route where he will get drafted by a later team that's not his quarterback hungry, but also a team that's ready to win. So he would probably get drafted to the best situation out of the quarterbacks because he would probably be not Bo Nixon drafted to Denver, not one of these other guys. So he will probably be drafted to the best predicament for all quarterbacks. But I don't see no reason why he cannot be a good quarterback in his league. Like he can do everything good enough to be great in this league.

All right. You said two things about Jaden Daniels that I just want to address real quickly. First of all, on the over-the-middle throws, I did a lot of looking into, some of the knocks, the advanced, you know, analytics knocks against Daniels. One is his, you know, pressure to sack percentage. Well, a lot of those sacks really weren't sacks. They were him kind of escaping the pocket and getting out of bounds, a yard short of the sticks. That counts as a sack. His average yards per sack were like four yards. That's half of what McCarthy's were. He had the lowest yards per sack number. So I think that's a bit. There's some context around that. But the

over the middle throws, there's a real easy explanation why they didn't throw over the middle that much. They had the fewest third downs of any team in America, and it wasn't even close. They were so productive on first and second down. They had the fewest number of third downs of all Division I teams, and where do you see a lot of over the middle throws? Third and six, third and seven, third and nine. So I think that is maybe a little bit overrated, too. But here's the thing that you said that I don't understand because I disagree with you and people that say this. RG3 was truly a straight line track athlete.

He had no peripheral, no wiggle. This dude has Vic-like vision in the open field. No, you're not going to do that. Like, sit here for the last three minutes and listen to the case you're making in court on why you're crying. It's so legit. That's why you heard me snickering and laughing because I was like, let's hear you just defend it. Well, I really like them. Let me tell you what I don't like.

And this is why, and I'm fine with May if they take May. I'm fine. I like Caleb Williams actually a little bit more than Daniels, but I got Daniels really close to. to Caleb Williams. The thing that concerns me, the frame definitely concerns me. And it's not about in the open field where I think a lot of the shots he took were actually in 22, not in 23, but I think he's got really good vision as a runner. I mean, the number of times he completely, you know, wiggled somebody out of their shoes in the open field. That's not what RG3 was. His frame bothers me from a pocket standpoint.

because that's where you take most of the shots. And then secondly, what you didn't see him do a lot, and I think it's just because they were so productive, is you didn't see one, two, three, four. You saw one, two, and then it was, go make a play. And I don't know if that was the way it was coached or not. They didn't have a lot of third downs for a lot of that process. It has nothing to do with third down.

down and second down, you could throw across the field, too. You just said he wasn't going through, he wasn't going through his regressions. He wasn't going through his regressions because he had first round on the left, first round on the right. If he's not open, he's not open. I'd do it myself. He did. Yes, and by doing that, now you can't do that in the NFL, not at 215, and think you're going to last.

You know, I was high on Anthony Richardson last year, and you see, you saw the template, but at 2.40, He still ended up injured. So when I say this, do you think from the day one of him starting here in the NFL that he's going to, A, learn to get through progressions. Two, learn to throw at the hardest part of the field, which is the middle of the field. It's paramount that your quarterback is able to throw across the middle of the field. If he cannot do that at a high clip, it's traffic there.

That's where interceptions happen. At the end of the day, if you can't get it to the outlet, tight-in. Tight-ins keep quarterbacks higher. You understand that? Quarterbacks get them fired. So at the end of the day, if you cannot be safe at constantly, if you cannot throw at the back of the head of the linebackers

and put their ball there constantly, you cannot keep drives alive. That scares me. Just like the thing about Drake May that scares me, it's sometimes he gets erratic in the pocket. Right. Scares me. But some scares me about all of these dudes, but we know this. They all have to work on something, but you've got to tell me what there's something is.

And now if I've got to teach you one progression, if I have to teach you two how to throw cross the middle at a high clip, I have a lot of schooling to do here. I like, you're not the perfect prospect that people are trying to build you out to be. No one is. Let me just say one thing. LSU wasn't taken off the field very much. They scored pretty much on every drive they had. Nobody feared LSU like they feared Georgia.

They was never the cream of the crop of the SEC, if that's what you're trying to say. They were by far and away the best offensive team in college football last year. Their defense was terrible. They didn't win in. Like, still, quarterback's going to win games. Yeah, but they were giving up 40 plus a game. Their defense couldn't get off the field. They got us go 41.

I'm with you. Look, the frame part is the biggest concern. I think we all understand. There's so much about these people we don't know, and the team has access to that. They're going to have to figure out whether or not these guys are, you know, have the character, have the work ethic, have the intelligence, all of that stuff.

I just thought, look, people have heard me say it for months now. I'm going to be okay with Drake May. I'm going to be okay if they fall in love with somebody else. The McCarthy thing, I still don't see. Just like I would love, just like I would love to have Jane Dangers. Do not get me twisted, okay? Yeah. I'm not saying I want Jane Dangers, like I said, these are not.

Neither one of these guys will be a constellation prize. Neither one of these guys would be okay. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you. All right. By the way, I wanted to just get your quick opinion on why, look, contract had a lot to do with the Justin Fields compensation.

I think most people understand that. But a big part of it was there's not a lot of belief in Justin Fields. Why not? I think it is belief. I thought the front office of the Bears blew it, man. You don't tell people you got clothes to say, you're not. That's true. I thought they blew it.

And once the free agency start to move, he started to run out of stock. Like, actually was in the back of my head. Like, hey, if I could get Justin Fields, and now I, I can still got the number two pick. I could trade down, still get one of the two best tackles, and now still have another first round pick to get a pass rush and probably have a first round. That's the first round pick next year. I would not have been mad at that.

I would not have been mad with that. Especially talking about a guy that had three different offenses, a couple of fell head coaches, Kent's got a number one receiver. It's the NFL, man. like, this is the bad thing about it. When you're great at what you're doing college, you get chosen by the worst companies. It's not like kids. Yeah, this is a good situation in Chicago. I mean, it's usually the worst team. They were seven and ten, and I pointed out the other day, they won four out of their final, five out of their final eight. And the three games they lost,

they had double, or two of them, they had double digit leads in. They were a good team at the end of the, at the end of the season. And I think his career is just been to start when it comes to big games, I think they do have a big plan for Justin Fields in Pittsburgh. I do too. And I think that's the best franchise he could have landed to. I think they got rushed there as a Band-Aid. And I think their Band-Aid will come off around week seven. And I think it'll be the Justin Field show probably for the next 10 years in Pittsburgh.

I think that's, I think 100%. I think he's going to end up starting. And it'll end up being a fourth round pick because he'll start, you know, more than 50% of the games. So I went and looked at what we were talking about before, Young Wolf. Was Irving Friar on the team when you got to training camp? Irvin Friar was not on the team at training camp. He came around week three?

He did. Okay, well then that's it. That's the answer. It's Smith, Big Daddy, Jeff George, Cajana Carter, and Irving Friar. Those are the five number one, number one overalls that were on the 2001 roster. And they tell you how cringy the number one pick is. They tell you how cringy the draft is in itself. It's so true.

Yeah, I mean, it's just completely, it's just every year it's a crap shoot. One out of three basically is a good hit rate for a team's draft every year. Like kind of look at it three years down the road. Did we get 33% contributors, then we did okay? Man, it says Irving Friars' career ended after the 2000 season, but you said that he came week three. He was on that roster. I wouldn't have never met him if it wasn't. Well, that was it.

That was number five. That's who we were missing. He was the number one pick overall. All right. Great job. Appreciate it, as always. Anytime, professional. Anytime, old wolf.

Yeah. Fred Smoot, everybody. Always love it when Fred's on. The perspective on everything that's going on with the team now is always excellent. And I love how much Fred knows about the history of the franchise. You know, you have to have a certain level of being interested to be interesting. And he's curious. He's always interested.

And, you know, he's not from here, you know. And he played here for, you know, a period in the 2000s, but he's stuck around long enough. And he's, you know, obviously spent time thinking about what this franchise was before he got here, which was pretty special for a long period of time. Fred Smoot, everybody. We are done for the day. I'll be back tomorrow with Tommy.