The McShay Show - Behind the Scenes at the Manning Passing Academy

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

Welcome back to The McShay Show! The guys are back to recap Todd’s visit to the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Todd shares some behind-the-scenes nuggets from the trip and reveals what it’s like on the ground for campers, coaches, and spectators. He also dishes on what he learned about the 2026 quarterback class. (0:00) Welcome to The McShay Show! (1:13) Recapping The Manning Passing Academy(4:55) Takeaways from The Manning Passing Academy(18:45) MPA Quarterback Standouts(22:55) MPA Quarterback Standouts: Arch Manning(37:18) MPA QB Standouts: Nussmeier and Klubnik(54:08) MPA QB Standouts: LaNorris Sellers(58:25) Under The Radar MPA QB's  On the next episode, the guys will be back to discuss Clemson’s treasure trove of 2026 NFL draft prospects and get an early peek at what could be the most talented Tigers team in program history. And later this week, we’ll start fielding mailbag questions from premium subscribers of The McShay Report. Subscribe, mail in, and we’ll do our best to answer your questions on the show or in the newsletter. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Todd McShayGuest: Steve MuenchProducers: Tucker Tashjian, Mark Panik, Conor Nevins, and Daniel ComerSocial: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mench, you know me. You've known me a long time. I can't stand leaving New England in the summer. We grind through these winters, right? It's like the payoff. You get three, four months, beautiful weather every day. 75 and sunny it feels like. And I especially can't stand leaving New England to go to Tibido, Louisiana, where it's 93 degrees, 100% humidity, storms every day. But this year I broke the rule. And I decided to go down for the Manning Passing Academy. And I was pleasantly surprised. It was a great experience. I'm excited to share it all today.

And you know what? We get 297 days to the draft. So it feels like a perfect time to talk all about this. Mench, you good? I'm good, man. I know you are. You always are. Hey, play me some of that sweet summer beat that we need, Tucker.

Now, I've been working with Archie Manning for a long time. I don't know, 10, 12 years. Every year he'll text me to the list and we'll go back and forth. I've helped him. And he shared that with the whole camp. And I was honored for him to bring it up. We've got like a lot of. That's pretty cool, huh?

Really cool. Like we're sitting there in the coaches meeting and he's announcing all the people that are there going through all the high school coaches, the college coaches, NFL coaches and scouts that are all there in attendance helping out as you have 1,500 quarterbacks from grade seven through high school, right? Wow. And so that's really the. foundation of the Manning Passing Academy. It started 29 years ago.

And it was, from what I was told, it was Peyton, Eli Cooper, Cooper, the wide receiver, the other two, obviously quarterbacks. And I think whether it was year one or year two, it expanded or it was Philip Rivers. And it grew from that. Basically, the old man, Archie was like, hey, like, my boys are hanging around too much. We know the feeling. Like, I got to get him ready for college. but like we got to so let's bring it a couple coaches and look what's work some drills and they turn from

that into almost 1500 quarterbacks from all around the country first come first serve this is not a you're invited you made the cut it's first come first serve here's registration date whoever signs up now obviously there are probably a handful of guys that are friends of the family that are allowed to come to so it was really cool so the foundation is at manning passing academy which is four days starts on thursday goes through Sunday. You drive onto the campus of Nichols State in Tibbado, Louisiana, and there's there's quarterbacks everywhere, 12 years old, the 18 years old with their backpacks on, with their green Manning Passing Academy, T-shirts, flicking their ball up in the air, walking around, you know, with their stupid haircuts that all the kids, including my son and

AJ, my stepson, they all have it. And they're walking around. They're, You know, their slides and their socks and they're sneaking over to Chick-fil-A on campus when they can. But it went from four family members to 1,500, you know, 12 to 18-year-olds. And so what happened was Archie would check with me and other people, obviously, in the NFL. Like, who are the quarterbacks that people want to see? Who are the best quarterbacks in the country? Who are the guys that I should reach out to, bring them now and so it kind of grew and it kept growing and to the point where almost every quarterback

that we're going to see drafted this year and probably next year was in tibato louisiana this past weekend for four days starts on thursday and sunday um and they were there as camp counselors so i'm just i'm laying all this out so so our audience has an understanding and thank you everyone for joining like subscribe all that stuff you know do what you got to follow mention mention is usually my promo guy but I'm not here for it today. I'm here for MENCH. I'm not here for schedulings and the thank yous and the please join our, like, we'll get to all of that.

I'm just appreciative that everyone is actually taking the time to watch this and hopefully I can share what honestly, I was expecting it to be kind of a cool trip and to get some stuff out of it. It turned out to be one of those like, I'm sitting there on Friday night at this quarterback competition with all those top quarterbacks, like 40 plus quarterbacks who are stars in college football. year who are going to be the vast majority going to be NFL draft picks and it's like the purest

form of football man i literally at one point depends on the part of the country you're in goose bumps if you're from the north and apparently if you're from the south chill bumps is what they call them i'm literally sitting there as the sun's going down it's starting to get dark the lights in the stadium stadium we're on i've got 1500 campers who went through two a days, okay, on the right sitting in the stands. I've got probably three, four thousand parents, but honestly, like people from the community that know about this and have been around this for the last 29 years of the Manning Passing Academy that make it a point, hey, Friday night lights. So we, everyone shows up, okay? So one side's all mostly adults and little kids and

the other side's the campers who are all going to go on, not all a lot of them go on to be the next stars, right? And they're looking down on this field. And I'm literally, I'm getting goosebumps now thinking about it. And I'm standing on the 50 yard line with Archie, Cooper, Peyton, and Eli, and a handful of coaches and the best quarterbacks in the country. And they're warming up. And I'm sitting there. And I'm literally like, it was like a field of dreams moment. You know what I mean? Like that pure, like just playing catch, warming up. Just there's no, there's no scouts and attendance necessarily i mean there's a handful of them but it's not about like putting it's not about winning a game it's not about making my coaches or fan base happy it's like i'm just here

to get better and compete and just play some ball and it was awesome and um so so that's kind of the backdrop of the camp and so i get down there in the first session on the in the afternoon the campers are all checking in getting they're like you know towel and they're betting and getting that all set up And over on the field, Eli and Peyton have made it a tradition before the first coaches meeting was at 5 o'clock central time. And so at 3 o'clock central time. And I was late because the damn flight. And I won't say the airline because I love the airline. I think it's the best airline out there.

But I was late. So I'm racing in there and catch the back half of it. And it's Eli and Peyton just playing catch talking with all the top quarterbacks, Nussmeyer, Lenora Sellers, Cade Clubnick, Archmanning. who's been there since he was four years old. You go down the list, John Mateer, now at Oklahoma, all the guys that we've talked about on the quarterback evaluations, Sam Levitt, Arizona State, Sawyer Robertson, Baylor, we'll get to him in a minute.

Luke Altmeier from Illinois. Demand Williams is going to be a starter at Washington. So they're all down there and they're throwing. And so there was like two facets of this. And I promise we'll get to the quarterbacks in a minute, but I just want to give everyone the feel for it. The first facet is you're there and you're getting to watch in person and talk to and actually stand on the field and listen to Nussmeyer busting balls of sellers and sellers busting Clubnix

balls. You know what I mean? And like, and like missing a throw and getting either down on themselves or like whatever. And like actually getting to know these guys, not in an interview like I did for, you know, a decade and a half with ESPN on a Friday before a game when they're buttoned up and they kind of know what to say, but you get a little bit scratched behind the surface a little bit, actually seeing them in their environment with their people doing the thing they love and just kind of who they are. And that part was awesome, right? Also getting to see them throw in different drills and competitions and all that. But then there's a second part, and it's the foundation of the camp because it's a camp.

The Manning Passing Academy is a camp for those 1,500, 1,500 aspiring college quarterbacks. Watching Clubnik with Eli Manning working on a three, five step drop sequence, sliding with their feet and their base underneath them, keeping their shoulders square, eyes up, right? Like, and drilling that. So what they've learned paying it forward to these young men. and and like just seeing them interact and then seeing Eli and Peyton go from drill to drill and bouncing around just sweating, pouring, but laying it all out there giving these kids an opportunity

not to take a picture, not to sign an autograph to actually impart their wisdom of 30 or so years in the NFL and all the other years in their life onto these like maybe a 12 year old or 16 year old. You know, like, but as I'm doing it, traveling around with John Gruden and Charles Davis and Todd Blackledge and a couple GMs, they're there because they want to be there. They're there. They serve a purpose. They're there to gather information. But, you know, at least one of them I talked to was like, I kind of don't want it, you know,

I'm not trying to publicize this thing, you know. I'm not trying to publicize my presence at the Manning Passing Academy. It's not about that. But there were two NFL GMs there and plenty of scouts. Some of the scouts were drilling. Not a lot of them, but a handful of scouts. And they were coaching and all that. So you're having these conversations with guys who are preparing for the season,

guys that have played the position, coached the position, all of that. And watching guys who are playing the position currently, teaching guys who are trying to learn to play to college. And again, like, I don't know. I went down hoping to get to see these guys throw in a, in a non-game setting and to get that evaluation. And I got like 10 times more than what I expected to get. Right.

Can I interrupt you there real quick? Please do. I was wondering what are you going to take from that portion of it with counselors and the campers. And you sent me a bunch of videos and I'm looking through the videos. And what I took from it, and I was wondering if you did the same thing is some of it's not earth-shattering or eye-opening, but it's a good reminder to focus on what's important to these quarterbacks and we're going through our evaluation process of you can get

caught up in all the off platform and what these guys can do and when you're watching eli talk about keeping his feet under him and moving a little bit not a lot to avoid pressure and making that one step while you're keeping your eyes down field to me that was an interesting part of of reminding me and it's probably a good thing to do annually and as an evaluator you're always evaluating yourself but reminding you of the basics. And what's really at the core of evaluating a quarterback is, are the basics, are that technique, are the fundamentals. And to me, that was a really interesting part of it,

watching what they were stressing. So we make sure, or at least I make sure that I'm stressing the same things when I'm watching a quarterback. Yeah, there were a lot of different elements and a lot of different, like, layers to the onion, as they say, to peel back. From that standpoint, Steve, it was like, it became clear. in the passing sessions, right? Which guys totally

have totally trust. And when things like, when they're doing this, the fourth row competition, right, on Friday night, for example. Now all of a sudden you've got, you got a crowd and you got all, and, and you've got probably more impactful because they're so used to throwing with crowds around, right?

And you can't see any of them. But like, if I'm Garrett Nussmeyer, I got Arch Manning. I got Sam Levitt. I got Lenora Sellers. I got Kate K. Klobnik. I've got all these guys standing right behind me. They either just threw or they're getting ready to throw.

And I'm like, so I get four throws to try to beat them. So now I'm competing. So here we go. But there's kind of a lot of chaos because like everyone's like move back before each throw. So now I get four throws to show. do I, you know, like, where do I stack? So pressure's on. And you're like, honestly, if you and I are thrown into a trash barrel in the back of my office here,

you start like, all right, let's go. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Fuck you. Fuck you, Mitch. I'm better. Right? Yes.

Yes. So in those moments and I heard a couple guys come back and like after that first, after that first throw, my footwork was out the window. And very, but that was the first line. And that was interesting, you know. And so to watch these guys in these different moments, because they spend the off-season drilling, they watch the tape that we watch.

They have coaches, more importantly, that watch the tape we watch. And they're like, we got to keep our base. We've got to keep our footwork. We've got to shorten the stride, all those things. But to see them in those moments, like, which guys really trust their footwork and their technique, if you will? Which guys are, how far along are they in it?

I'll be totally honest. Like Arch Manning grew up in the Manning, family and has every resource in the world his combination of all the things he does from the arm arm strength and the ability to get velocity on the football and drive the ball down the field combined with the mobility and the creativity and kind of that free freedom that he plays the game with is what makes him special right now is he is advanced right now in terms of like the consistency with this footwork and all that no he He's still growing.

Was he 20 years old? He's still growing and physically. And so, like, there's still some throws are a little bit. So there was a lot of that. And there were certain guys where all like, oh, yeah, they don't totally trust it yet. Or they haven't drilled it in. Or maybe they're just a second year player. You know, so that part was interesting.

But like, when covering. Give me a feel for how much time you actually got to see the college guys, the counselors, throw each night. How much time? There was about two hours each each day. Wow, that's better than I thought, actually. I thought it was one of these things that just wrapped at the end of camp. And maybe you saw a 10 to 15 minutes.

You're talking about two hours each day. Maybe maybe it was an hour and a half like it felt like when that's good. Oh, when they were done, I felt like I'm satisfied. Right. Good. That makes sense. Yeah. And again, I didn't make, I flew out Saturday.

Didn't make the last one. But yeah. But honestly, like, this kind of happened last minute. And I think we both need to be there next year. I'd like to talk to Archie. And I always do this on, you know, on the show. But like maybe we do a show down there or maybe we just go down and help out and do whatever we can. But they're even talking, like, I'm catching, now catching the ball from, like,

I was catching the ball and throwing it back 40 yards for like 40 minutes, sweating my tail off. And like, just getting a part. You can't throw 40 yards now. Barely the first one I was like, oh boy, crow hopping. The first group that came out were thrown, they were thrown to a bucket. And I noticed there was one guy. There was one high school coach, I believe, who was behind the bucket, and he had to retrieve.

There were three guys rolling to their right trying to throw in the bucket on the move. And inevitably, they were all missing or like even when they hit it, the bucket would fall, and the balls would go spraying. And I'm standing over watching one group where actually was Peyton and Tyler Shuck, and we'll get to Shuck in a minute. And I'm seeing this guy getting flooded. And one ball kind of came in my direction. So I picked it up and I tossed it back to him.

And then I'm like, I got to help this guy out. This is a disaster, you know. So I came over and I'm like, here, I'll help. So I was grabbing like one or two balls each time the three guys through. And the first group was running. They were like respectful gentlemen. And they were following through on the drill. And they were running towards us.

So it was like a 15-yard throw. as they're kind of circling back to be getting the back of the line and do it again. Then the second group of entitled brats are drifting. And I can all I can think about was my son. Like if he were no, they're not drifting. They're throwing the ball and then they're like, I'm like, no, no, no, the deal is you come. But I didn't say. So now it's now it's 40, you know, and I'm like, and I've a warm and I'm like, all right.

By about the eighth one, I was okay, but the first seven, six or six or six, seven it was a it was a grind anyway so yeah but the other thing too man like going and doing games was always valuable to me because then i felt like i had something like a story i had an understanding of i sat in a room for 40 minutes i talked to them what makes them tick background all that stuff and it's something that i could like it's not just a helmet and a jersey with the name on the back it's a human being that i've gotten to know even just a little but like i got a feel for who that human being is. That took over 15 weeks and traveling thousands and thousands of miles to 15 games. It took all of that to maybe get eight or nine quarterbacks that were applicable for

the draft. This I got, and I actually got to know them just as much by being around and listening to them and the interactions and watching them coached. I got more out of that. I got more out of that. And so now I feel like I on a on a different weird level kind of at least know who they are, how they interact, how they tick. So that was that was valuable to me. Well, let's stay on that for one second. Who had the or you know, you might not want to rank this. I am very interested in Sam Levitt because of how young he was, how young he is. Was there one guy or two guys that stood out in terms of the way they carried themselves and if they walked into the locker and like.

Klupnik and Nussmeyer were the guys were different. Okay. they were the guys um elaborate a little bit on that like just the way like club like legitimately like could coach high school interesting yeah and was like very um beyond like every i want to make this clear every single one of these guys like did awesome and like gave gave of themselves right and like did what was required and beyond every one of them man but there were a few you would get to their drills are like, oh, he's like, he's going to make these kids better today. He's going to show, you know.

And so it wasn't like, well, this guy knows his stuff better than the other. It wasn't that as much as like, I'm going to impart everything I got into this group of kids. They're going to move on in eight minutes and I'm going to do the same thing again to the next group of 10 kids. Clubnik and Nussmeyer were two probably more impressive, you know, when it came to that. Um, but I, yeah, arch is in a different category because arch was kind of bouncing around a little bit. And, and the, the mannings have like a, you know, there's a comfort level there for him. It's not necessarily negative, but there's a comfort level.

This is his, you know, whatever, you know, camp, he's been there a bunch. Yeah, this is not something that's new to him, something like that. Yeah. And not that everyone feels they have something to prove, but he clearly doesn't have anything to prove at this camp. So it's a little bit. Let's get into our. here. Let's go down the line. First of all, I do want to mention, and I'm not here to, like, this is of all positive show, truly. We get 296 more days to start, you know, chipping away

at dudes and doing what scouts do and come up with the negatives and be cynical and all that. It was disappointing that Drew Aller from Penn State. I was going to ask you this. And, and, and, and Mendoza from Indiana now, transfer from Cal, were not there. They weren't there at all, right? Correct. Okay. How do I put... Aller made his choice, and for three years has opted not to come.

Mendoza was there last year and was absolutely awesome, great kid, everyone loves them, Coach Signetti apparently preferred him not going. Interesting. That's interesting. They had a workout or do you want to leave that alone or do you want to go? Yeah, I think we can leave it alone. Okay. Honestly, it's not, I don't want by leaving it alone for people to be like, there's something going on.

There's nothing. It's coach's preference. Right. It's not worth getting into it too much. First year there, they had a work. out, still trying to make sure he's up to speed, transfer him from Cal. Okay? And then, and then, you know, Signetti does it his way and that's it.

And respectful, like, had contact with Archie and talk to, I know, like Blackledge and different people. But at the end of the day, coach made a decision. Mendoza respected it. But the good news for Mendoza is he was here last year. He was there last year. and they just rave about like no, no ill will. I totally understand it. Had made the right decision.

If that's coach's choice, yeah. So that's why you won't hear those two names as guys who we have already done scouting reports on and are projected to be higher, if not first round draft picks next year. Those two were not in attendance, Al and Mendoza. So Arch, like, what a great dude, man. like not a good young man like a great young man comfortable in his skin talk to him for i don't know how many minutes like genuinely curious where i lived stuff about my life you know thanking me for being here means a lot to his family who's grandfather um just you know when you you meet certain

people in the oh this is different and i'm telling you there's something to the quarter position over 20 plus years of doing this dudes that are comfortable in their skin that's important as a 20 year old that's as comfortable in skin as I can ever remember up there with like the top guys that I've been and like there I can think at the top of my head like Mahomes was one of them Russell Wilson I know like people have their thoughts on Russell Wilson his personnel and all that stuff but when I met him when he was 22 years old, Wisconsin, after NC State and all that. Like, I was like, oh, okay, blown away by him. Andrew Luck, like, in that, I put him up there with some of those guys.

And I'm not leaving guys. I'm just the first guys off the top of my head. You have to be, right? You're going to take a lot of shots. Like, you know, at Jane Daniels, when you look at him and all the stuff they went to her at Arizona State, like, you have to be able to say, you have to be able to put that in the past, put that aside and say, I believe in myself enough. Brady. You know, Tom Brady is a terrible athlete coming out, all that. You have to believe in

yourself enough. You have to be comfortable enough in your skin to get through all of that adversity that is most definitely going to come your way as a quarterback. Yeah. And then on the field, like, just a calm, a calm way about him, obviously he's been there. He's been there his whole life since he can remember throwing a football. So like, obviously, it's nothing there is rattling him. He's the Texas quarterback. He's a, you know, a Manning family, all of that. So not surprising. But like, and I kind of just alluded to this before, like, still, still working on, like, consistency of, like, footwork and, and ball placement and all that stuff.

Good. Like, I would say he was good, you know, like, really good. But, like, there's, and it's encouraging to me to be quite honest, like, there's still growth here. So with game experience and more and kind of drilling it in and you know he's working it, like he's going to keep getting better. That like instead of people, they're like, well,

you know, I thought this guy maybe was a little bit more pinpoint and his footwork was a little bit more consistent. Like, yeah, those are like three fifth year players or three year starters or like, I think, I think this guy's going to keep getting better,

which is what you want to see. And we already know what the baseline is and we did a whole show. on it and just you hey by the way if you're listening or watching right now like if you want to go on youtube or spotify or or uh or uh apple or wherever you get your podcasts just look up the the mcshae show and we we've done a breakdown on like i think maybe seven or eight guys already at the quarterback position so a lot of people probably maybe jumping into this maybe they'll be watching this in august but like the reports are there full film breakdowns of all these quarterbacks.

And from Mench and I, we watched it separately and gave it all there. So please go back if you haven't watched or listened to that to get a feel. And Mench will help me through this today in terms of each of these quarterbacks. We're mine. And here's the macro while I'm diving into the micro from the last four days. But, but yeah, but there's stuff to go back on. But I remember finishing his tape, Steve, and being like, this is, he's, You just completed like phase one, but there's probably two or three more phases to go, right?

What's your line again? The repeat. Rinse. I got to repeat. I got to remember it. Rinse repeat, refine. Right. We're on the rinse.

We're the beginning of the rinse probably. Yeah. Rinse refine repeat, I guess. You want to refine before you repeat it. But yeah, rinse, refine, repeat. Here's something interesting. Here we go. Like it when you do this.

I think at the end of this season, Arch Manning's going to have a decision to make. Actually, don't think that. I know that. There's going to be, and everyone's going to want to know, is he going to come out? Is he going to the 2026 draft?

Already sense of a shifting tone from you because I didn't feel like that was even a possibility a little while ago. Something I think we should keep an eye on. Austin is a very small place for a bigger city in a city that's growing rapidly. All eyes of Texas. of Texas are on the quarterback of Texas. Someone I was talking to there said,

it's not, it's not Colt McCoy's Texas anymore. It's different in a couple different ways. And he literally can't go grab a bag of chips or a bottle of water at a convenience store without, without this. So there's going to there might have there might be. Go ahead.

Vince Young if there were, you know, if the social media was the thing that it is now when Vince Young was there. This is kind of what we would say. And if Vince came back after winning that national championship. Yeah. Well, against USC. That's what he is. Right.

So there's going to, I would, I would, I don't know, it's just something I thought about watching him interact and hearing some of the stories about what it's like to be at Texas right now. How exhausting for a young man, by the way. Sorry. And he's, he's wonderful about it. And he's used to it to a certain degree, but I think it's like there. Interesting.

So there, I don't know. This is my own thought and my, just something I put right back here, like, if he were to leave, maybe it would have something to do with. like it's weighing the option of we're the mannings we believe in full development Eli shoot came back for I think his fifth year at Ole Miss I think he did right yeah that's what I was told I remember when he went back I was stunned I was having some of these conversations with different people and they remember Eli was fifth year the manning family is we have covered in great detail on the show and go back to the archmanning full breakdown um They believe fully in the developmental process.

And we're watching it like in front of our eyes the last couple of years. We've talked about the Bo Nix and the Jaden Daniels and like the guys who were coming out with 55, 57, 61 starts. And the success they're having early in their career. Okay. And so it's just reaffirming what we know about like more game experience is critical to your early career. And if things go poorly early in your career, there may not be the second contract that you'd expect. You may have lost your job.

You may have lost your confidence. So they have been from the jump 29 years ago when the Manning Passing Academy started. The family has kind of set the precedent of, we're going to be prepared when we get to the NFL. Now, obviously, money is not the thing that it is for some people in this same position. you can't you have to assume it's not much of a thing for arch and quite honestly he's he'll probably get offered more money from Texas than he will and his rookie did an NFL team is

allowed to pay him for his first year playing rookie quarterback in the NFL so it ain't a money thing it's uh is he developed on one hand is he ready is he ready to step in because you know he's going to be the first overall pick. And when you're the first overall pick, you know you're starting week one. No one's even asked, is Cam Ward going to start week one? You start in week one, okay?

Versus, is it time to just move on to the next step and develop there? So, just a thought. I just, I love the fact, Cooper's one of the all-time guys, man,

his dad and as someone else is telling me and i don't think you may have mentioned it his mom arch's mom is like a track star former track star and so everyone jokes like yeah he was a wide receiver but mom's a track star he got that's where he got it from right um but the thing that and Peyton's got all the commercials and he's hysterical and I really enjoyed my time talking to to Peyton but Peyton's like, you know, more on business and on like getting better, you know, like that. And Eli's the, you know, the youngest of the three and kind of he'll, he's going to get a little shot in here and there. And he's actually like funnier, even though Peyton's got the funniest commercials, maybe of all time for like one recurring type role. But Cooper is like, he had

open Mike on Friday night and in the coaches meetings, like legit could be a. a stand-up comedian. Like, he's, I didn't know it was in the Manning DNA to be that fun. I think I always knew he's funny and this is my first like extended time around Cooper. But I think having that as your dad, even though you're in this Manning family and like the pressures that come with it in the spotlight and all that has kind of kept arch. He's got a really good balance of serious. We're here for business.

Let's work. And like, life's okay. you know and that was interesting to watch i really enjoyed my time with with cooper and and being around him and um yeah it's just it's going to be fascinating to see what happens there okay love it yeah you good with you see the did you see the clip of uh i forget who was asking him and someone asked Peyton about whether or not arch text some questions uh no or call not not text him sorry calls him and there's a mac if well it might have been been i don't know if was on macafee today today's this is monday no this was a while ago oh okay

he doesn't call me or text me as much because he'll get a text or call about the two-minute drill and then i'll call him and say this is what i'm looking for in the two-minute drill a bit that and he'll you know he went on for about three minutes and he's like but then i got to call him back and say well unless they took a time out because you can expect an exotic blitz if they come out after a time out and yada yada and then oh wait are we in the red if we're in the red zone this is what You're going to, you know, and he's like, so sometimes, you know, I think arts is like, yeah, I don't need a book every time I ask you something. But it was interesting to me that, you know, to have that resources is insane. It's insane, but also to have that balance of my dad's actually the clown on the, and I mean that.

And that's nice, but like he's, he's the, he's the jokester. Keeps it light on the mic when like Rocco Beck comes up. He's announcing all the who's coming up to throw. Like, Rocco Beck, he's like, I woke up this morning. and there was a dead horse's head in my bed. You know, he's like, I don't even know if I can get away with that. Like to have that balance, I think is good for Arch. But yeah, it's going to be the number one story up until he makes a decision.

And if the decision is to leave early, then the whole thing's going to explode. And it's all going to be about the art show. If he doesn't, but between now, and when he makes that decision, you know, the number one storyline in the 26th draft is, is Arch coming out. So I just wanted to kind of share that, like, I just wonder. I just wonder. All I'm thinking about right now is when LeBron left Cleveland to go to Miami and, you know, all the fanfare that was around that decision and how that was handled. I mean, it sounds like it could go down that path in terms of how, how, not necessarily how

that was handled, but how many people are watching him to see what he does. Yeah. Um, yeah, and I've got some other interesting stuff. I know I, I, I know I got you, you can tell in my tone. I've got some really interesting good stuff that will be applicable at some point. And if you're watching or listening right now, like, I'm not going to just come in with a Brinks truck and back it up and, you know, and just load, unload all of it. I'm not withholding it on purpose, but I think there are going to be times where it's more applicable. I think there's some interesting stuff with some people and decision makers and connections and there's like a lot of things out there that I gleaned that I've kind of put in my back pocket

that if you continue to watch the show as we get closer to the draft and throughout the season, I'm going to reveal some things as they become pertinent. Let's put it that way. So now I can stop hemming and hauling and we'll move on for March. How many quarterbacks are going through, by the way? How many are we going to go through? I don't know. Let's just rip through some and see where it goes.

I'm already at like 35 minutes on the show. That's fine. Outside of Arch for for obvious reasons, Nuss and Kloz Meyer and Klubnick were the guys. And I mean that in all. Not necessarily they threw the best or they're the most NFL ready. I just mean like they were the guys. Every coach was talking about something they did.

There were stories about them. the way they carried themselves, you put a bunch of alphas in the room and you can always tell in that moment. It doesn't mean they're always going to be and the other guys won't emerge and they're in different. And Clubnick's been there for, this is fourth year at Clemson.

Nussmeyer, this is his fifth year at LSU. They've, then probably their fourth and fifth years respectively at the Manning Passing Academy. So like they know the guys and Nussmeyer's dad is Doug. And Doug has worked with all, with the mannings and their family friends. So like, it's like when you go to that camp,

it's like, well, that's the, that's one of the counselors, you know, nephews or that's the head counselor. So like, they're obviously in more of a comfortable environment for themselves. But aside from any of that, like, they just were kind of the guys. Okay. Nussmeyer is kind of like at that frat thing going, like, looks like he's like up for a good time always kind of cracking jokes and not even crack but like you know just kind of going in one of the guys right and and everyone kind of seems to gravitate towards him a little bit um he's six two

he's a little taller than me like i i always do that thing um he's a full six two well put together but still's got like that college face and kind of the hair and hanging out and all that stuff uh but from like throwing man he threw him a nice deep ball and he's just he's a dog competitive like don't get fooled by like the baby face thing the lights come on we got four throws to make this mother bleeper drills the first three one of them on the roll to his left ball through middle of the target it was a fuck you throw you know what I mean. It was. You know, like it's kind of like, yeah, and rolling to his left, not to his right. Watch this. Yeah. You know, and then he goes back for the fourth row is a deep ball into, like a netted

bucket and hits like the back of it, you know? And so like very easily could have been all four. But the coolest thing happened. Let's call it 50 quarterbacks out of there. There could have been 40. There could have been 55. I don't know. The college quarterbacks. maybe they're 30. I don't even know. It just felt like 40 something. They all, so they finished the first round of this competition. And then there's only like five or seven guys that go into what they call the playoffs.

And then so Nichols-State is there in connection with, I think, Nike and they're, so they're moving the targets around to do round two of the playoffs, right? But in the meantime, they bring out, I don't want to say the sponsor wrong. It might have been Keynes. Whoever it was, they bring out a basketball hoop. the sponsor on it. And so it was kind of like an intermission show. And so all, let's call it 45 quarterbacks, get one shot. You're standing on the 30. It's in the back of the end zone. So a 40-yard throw into a basketball hoop. And I can tell you from standing on the 30-yard line

where they're throwing, it looks like a hole that that's, it's that big. You know, like, we joke around or we mess around the backyard sometimes and there's a basketball hoop there and we'll be playing catching the side yard in the street and every once in a while you try to hit it in like you get one from like 10 yards away 15 yards away you're like so i know like there this time it wasn't you weren't in order by alphabetical and going through where they were grading you it was just like everyone gets a shot at this right so the guys start going and and and some guys were close some guys hit the backboard all that stuff but i noticed one guy's hanging around the back kind of near me and he's kind of flicking his ball and he's looking because there

as I like I can't help I can't shut off my brain with this stuff I'm like you got to start a little left there's not a big win but every ball is starting to do this you know reading a pot right because a lot of throats we're going yes it's reading a putt and it's better like when you're playing in a scramble to be the fourth putter and your group because you got the line by that it's going to break here it's going to yep but it's still a four 40 yard line with a football into a basketball. And the 40th and the 43rd and the 44th guy to throw if there were 45. Yeah, it helped him slightly.

But he's and then the couple guys were like kind of hanging around too. And Nuss like, have you, have you gone yet? And they're like, no, no, no, you're like, you're up. And then he looked around and he's like, you gone yet? All right, go ahead. Go ahead. And he waited until all other 44 or whatever the number was, quarterback's three. through and I didn't videotape any of it.

I'm like, you know, like this isn't, I'm trying. I got some videos of guys dropping back and making certain throws. I just wanted kind of for our show and all that. I'm like, if I miss this and don't record it, I'm going to be pissed at myself because he clearly was waiting to be the last one. He wanted to get a line on it and all that. So I pull my phone out and I'm like, yeah, I'll take it. Who cares?

He'll probably miss it and I'll probably delete it in three minutes. And so I pick it up and you could say, I think I sent it to you in the text and I don't know if we're going to run it here. Hopefully we are. And it's kind of the back of sellers and I'm kind of looking around. And all of a sudden he throws it. And he nailed it. And it wasn't like off the back. He was like, it was pretty cool.

Does that make him a better quarterback than anyone there? No. Like does it, did he get the correct line? Like, no. He got a better feel. for it. It was just something cool about he waited to go last. And I watch all these other guys. And now I'm like, I got a tape just in case. And he hits it, you know? And then he's like, it was pretty cool. I don't think it's not nothing. It's not nothing. It's a, it shows a little bit

of the competitiveness. It's about his, you know, we didn't even talk about. Give me every, give me every little. Give me every little. Well, by the way, we're in the state of. And so there were two, Two players are high. Yep. We're in the state of Louisiana. There were two players that got a like an ovation that was louder than the rest, even when they just came up to do a drill. It was Arch and and Nussmeier.

Nussmeier, yeah. Yeah. It's not nothing, man. It's not. It's all a little bit of something. You know what I mean? It's all a little bit context. Which I actually wanted to talk to you about that is that to me,

there's certain milestones within the direction. process, right? I think there's the regular, when you're looking at tape, there's a regular season, then there's the playoffs, how these guys playing big games, all that. Then you get to the All-Star Games, most notably the Senior Bowl, and you're looking for how they compete against the best. Who shows up, how they're competing against the best.

We get our first measurements. Then you're looking at the combine and look at those numbers, and then you're hearing about more and more interviews as you're going on. It seems to me that this would be kind of the meet and greet in that process for these quarterbacks and just getting to know them a little bit personality-wise. And, you know, when you look at it that way, when you're looking at it from a draft standpoint,

is there anything when you go back next year? Do you be, I might do this slightly different or be like, I have, this is what it is. This is just going down there and getting to know these guys and you don't want to put too much pressure on it in terms of footwork or all of that. It's just a good feel because it seems to me that you feel like this is going to be an important part of the process going forward. I think it's a really good foundation. And it's a just like Nussmeyer waited until the 40, 5th.

throw to throw and studied every other throw. If you're going to do this job and we have an audience that relies on us to give them the best and most complete information, we don't have the medical reports of the psychological team and the character backgrounds, but we get a lot of them to make sure we're covered and we can provide surface level to let people know if a player's going to fall or this is, blah, but blah. But it's our responsibility when we realize that there's good information to be had. If we're going to make this the smartest community, if you will, if that's our mission for this whole show, is to make this the destination.

If you want to be smarter when you talk about the draft, if you want to get insight, if you want to get information that's behind the scenes that people are, like, it's our responsibility to do all the little things. I don't want to get on a plane and go to New Orleans. I absolutely adore New Orleans. I love it for about seven months a year. I think it's an awesome. I love the food. I love the people. Not July necessarily or June.

Yeah. Late June, early July is not the place when you live in the coast of Massachusetts. It's not the place you want to go. But if it can make us better and in turn help us with our mission statement, you better be sure I'm dragging your ass from New Hampshire down to Louisiana next year. Because I just, I went on the recon. mission and i'm reporting back to the to general mensch like here's here there's stuff here to to make our our forces better right so that that's the whole deal here um club nick like central casting

hollywood would you know um six to great shape like clearly been working his ass off you can just tell physically, like ready to go, mentally, ready to go, really comfortable with himself, really confident, but not arrogant, not, like really approachable, really, like, of all the counselors, which are the college quarterbacks, the best. He gets the A plus grade for his job as a camp counselor. What does that mean the big picture? I don't know, but it gave me a glimpse into who he is as a person, his passion for it. And Eli and Peyton don't have to still do this thing, even though it's in their name and for their family. Like, people, Tyler Shuck, and I'll get to him in a minute. First guy in 29 years to come back as an active NFL player.

And in his rookie year, when he's kind of swimming in it, he and his wife just bought a place in New Orleans area. He's talking to me about, he's talking to me about, like he's building furniture and back outdoor patio stuff and his back's hurting him i'm like i'm like i'm like tyler you got to hire people now you can afford it like this is like you're the you're you're the industry you're the business like you got to protect the business but like taking time away from all that stuff because he sees the importance in it and he wants to be around the guys and he wants to give back a little bit so like club knicks kind of got that same vibe to him and just some guys just just appreciate this game, love this game, want to be around this game, and also want to do

their part. That's what this is, this is a big celebration of that, man. Mannings don't have to do shit. They can sit on their fortune, sit on their fame. They can do. And a lot of other people do. But they've grown this thing to help. And Tyler Shuck was there because he saw that and it felt good. And so he's there to help again. club nick is the same way it's a really cool fraternity man it's a college quarterback it is absolutely a fraternity and it's a first and that's why when people choose not to come i'm not as much of were you afraid to compete all it's like man you're missing out on an opportunity because this is a resource and unlike any other position and probably any other sport but i can speak to this one the quarterback position

Like, it is such a tight-knit group. And these guys, the vast majority, not all talk and share. Just like coaches from all over the country, we were flying to Norman when Lincoln Riley was doing different things with the guard tackle pole to combine it with that air raid. Do you know what I mean? Yes, exactly. I mean, just the contact you make, the relationships you could build,

that maybe you can lean on later on, whether you've had a rough game and someone reaches out and says, hey man, like I, you got this, whatever it is. Like, or, you know, maybe it's not during the season. Maybe it's after the year. I saw this or, you know, have you seen this against this team? Or all of these things that could happen 10 years down the road. It's just about building.

It's like anything else in life, man. It's about building relationships. It's about being around people that love to do the same things that you love to do and about how you can help them further themselves and how you can further yourself as well. I mean, it's, it is basic stuff, but really important, fundamental foundation stuff. Everyone I talk to there

kind of sees what I'm seeing to. This is going to be a breakout year for Clubnik. Last year was a steady elevation and improvement. Certain times you just see a guy, you're around a guy, you're around, you see them physically growing, you see the development,

you see the confidence in the comfortable and their skin and all those things. And it wasn't just me. It was other really smart people. there. They would have more information and all that stuff. And it's also a young roster. And we're going to do a show on Thursday on Clemson, right?

Then I'm pumped to do that. Focus heavily on the defensive side. But this is all of a sudden a team that won 12 of their last 14 before that Texas game to win the ACC title, get in the CFP. And now you've got a leader and a general who clearly is putting in the work to get better mentally physically all the different ways so i mean if you're a clemson fan watching this like get excited because this dude like this i mean i'm talking to gms i'm talking to analysts i'm talking to coaches i'm talking to gruden i'm like guys who have been like this is their life

and you know what was gruden like was he a kid in candy shop down there oh man gruden can't help himself that yeah that this is his thing like he must Can't help himself with anything he's doing. And I love it. Whereas I'm standing there was me. I took a picture of it. It was pretty cool. I put it on social.

It was me and Gruden and Todd Blackledge, who I worked with for a handful of years, just like Blackledge and, and CD, Charles Davis, are two of the best human beings in the world, right? They're all dog competitors. They all got like, you know, they'll talk nice and all that. But then, like, you can see glimps, like, but like just hanging out and sharing, notes and talking about life and talking about family and talking about like the quarterback's footwork and all of it.

But Gruden's there, man. He comes over and we hadn't seen each other. I'm with CD and Blackledge. And he comes over. He's like, shit. Right? And then we stand back and we're talking about something else and he's, his wheels are spinning.

And he's like, Todd fucking makes shit. And I'm like, we're all just start looking. laughing like why yeah yeah and then we get going on stuff and he's calling an old friend of his that's friends with blackledge of play was a guard for blacklidge like and then and then three minutes later it's like where's gruden oh he's in there with um whatever quarterback and he's teaching a drill to these high school kids and he's like sweating and you know like here candy store i bet can't i bet that's that's really cool to watch too yeah you know someone who's oh it was awesome yeah it was awesome I threw the ball 40 yards back to some campers.

He's in there like teaching a, but drilling down to the littlest thing. But Klubnik, Nussmeyer and Klubnik, as I said. There were some other guys. Lenora Sellers was really interesting, right? Okay. I'm fascinated. Yeah. Across the board, everyone you talk to just love the guy, like smart.

I was told a story, tried to get out of high, not get out of, tried to leave high school two years early to get to college like what you know what i mean like let's go big enough yeah let's go let's let's you know um and and then you like look at him physically like my goodness not like like we'll get to uh john meteer from oklahoma i legitimately thought that the mannings brought in a couple fullbacks to like and mature was one of them and i was like whole like but i feel like you could say the same thing about baker mayfield by the way Oh, totally. But even thicker.

Oklahoma quarterback, all of that. But sellers really thick, sturdy, strong bill, what you want to see in your quarterback, right? He's probably 6-2 as well. It's interesting. It's his first camp there. Coming off being a first year starter, not as advanced in terms of like drilling home,

the footwork. Which is why this is a great thing for him. Great thing. for him to be around these guys to see not only to pick up from like eli and man and Eli and Peyton um but also to watch the other guys and the guys who have been here like i i remember i went to michigan football camp as a kid now i was there i don't think it was gerba who was it but like i'm watching the guys who are the guys and i'm i hear all the coaches and all the drills and i hear all that stuff but i'm really learning from like the four or five alpha

dogs there what are they doing so i i think i think when we see sellers next year if he's not part of the 26th draft or doesn't pull a tyler shuck and decides he's going to come back to help but if we see him next year i think you're going to see someone who's a little bit more confident in his footwork who's more consistent with it in those moments is going to rely on it more um but i again like and i'm not just saying it to be play nice like some of the throws he made like his deep ball absolutely beautiful. Some on the move stuff. Like, holy smoke, his cat can be different.

He's just not quite there yet. And a little bit more like introverted in the coaches stuff. They will come up. A little bit more reserved, a little bit more, you know, he's not, you could see a difference. You go from club neck to sellers and there's a difference in how they're coaching younger guys and the way they're care. He's kind of feeling it out still in every aspect of it.

but he's smart, great, great kid, hardworking, looks the part, unbelievable athlete, can make special throws. Honestly, I think you and I are the same on this. There are certain guys, I'm just really excited to see his growth over the next two, two, even three years in the NFL. I just want to see how he progresses because he is a special cat in terms of talent. and he's smart and he's hardworking and he's good he's who is more impressive physically when you met them josh allen or lenora sellers oh alan because because sellers is about my height maybe an inch higher all is six five if i remember correctly okay and like and he's not he wasn't as big then he was a little bit more slender he was right now right but he still was like this big i grew up on a farm

in California. I can throw the, like the first time I met, well, the first time I met him was at the Mountain West championship game. Didn't spend a ton of time,

but then the second time where I spent more time with him and I'm standing next to him and talking to him as he's coming, going into workout. And then he goes and just rips the ball effortlessly like 70 something yards. And so there was,

that's different. This is more, it's not Lamar. It's, I don't know. Jalen Hurts, like, you know,

but Josh Yeah, Josh is different too Give me the quarterback who we haven't done Who hasn't been part of our series yet And you're looking back now and saying Man, we got to get to him. Sawyer Robertson, Baylor. Baylor, yep.

Blew me away. Okay. Mobile enough, not a statue, not stuck in sand, but not a running threat, okay? He's listed at 220. Is he that big? Is he?

I think he carries his weight well. He might be too, 15. But he's in the neighborhood. He'll be 220 when he goes in the NFL. But yeah, 6-4-220, looked apart. He won the, he came out and everyone was, and I even heard Peyton go to one of the directors and it's like,

hey, you know, I just think next year, like the target should be a little bit bigger. We're not here to him. It's hard enough, man. The first handful of guys were missing. We're missing a lot. And then he came up and he won the first round. I think he hit all four throws.

He did. If someone was there and correct me if I'm wrong, but like I'm almost positively hit all four throws. But like I had seen him throw earlier in the night before the competition. I'm like, should have done his report. He'd have studied his tape. Just really like pocket passer, a light enough on his feet with his foot.

work, uh, anticipation, getting the ball out, placing it well, good understanding for layering, trajectory. Just I was like,

damn, I like this guy. Now to give the back story on it. Now you're seeing in June, by the way, not later in the process. I love that. You're seeing that in June now instead of,

it may have been October before we're like, we probably need to do. So now I'm like, I'm taking July off, everybody. I'm done. And I'm making men to take July off too. But we're going to be back in August.

But at some point before the season starts, I'm going to get to Sawyer Robertson's tape. So just a back backstory on him. He transferred to Baylor after three seasons at Mississippi State, okay? And it was one year as a starter. And then he started four games in 2023. So it was like this escalation. I haven't done, I haven't done much Baylor tape.

I haven't gotten into like my preseason college, like all of that. But I'm really excited to see because he chose Baylor. for a reason. He transferred to Baylor for a reason. And I'm excited. And yeah, I wrote confident, smooth stroke, trusts his footwork, like in the moments where the pressure was on. Everyone's looking at him.

It was drilled in. You can't escape it once it's drilled in, you know? And I found out, too, his father, Stan, was a first round draft pick of the expos in 1990. And he knows and his cousin is Jared Stidham. No way. Yeah. I didn't know.

Okay. I had no idea. Well, nuggets everywhere, Mitch. You love your nuggets. Let me go rapid fire just to get through a few guys. Yes, go. And jump in wherever you want. Like if I'm going to let you go and then I got a question for you at the end.

I think that would be good. We'll just get your thoughts out. John Matere, I told you it looked like a fullback. I hadn't even gotten there. I haven't gotten in this stadium. him and I already had someone from the staff been like, have you seen this fucking mature guy? I'm like what?

He's like he's built like his lower body of like a guard or something and or linebacker. I think he's a lower body of a linebacker and he just flicks it. It just rips. And you know, and I'm like so I go in and he's throwing. Is he built like that up top? Is he is it,

remember how concerned we are about guys who are a little bit too ripped and they're follow through and their flexibility? Not an issue for him. No, not an issue for him. More baker, but like accentuated than the lower. And like the arm angles, all the stuff we saw on tape. And the footwork is, it works just fine for now. There's going to have to be some improvement, obviously.

But he drills it in. It's not like I'm watching a guy do like three, five step drops and do all the things right there. And then it doesn't translate to practice. It's just kind of who he is. So at some point, there's going to have to be like a coming to Jesus meeting or just, let's refine what you, how you do it. But like, I don't think there's changing what he does. That was an interesting takeaway for me.

It's just who he is. He likes to flick it and kind of bounce away. He like, you know, like, and he's, he's just as comfortable doing that as he is like. So that was interesting. Um, yeah, I wrote football footworks all over the place, but works well enough at this point. He's just ripping it. Oh, the ball. He's just ripping it.

He's just the ball. I love that note. Right. It's just ripping it. It's a bit like, and I'm on my phone typing quickly. It's just ripping it. The ball hums off his hand. You know, I'm not saying he throws the fastest ball, the boats of a lot, but they're just like,

you know, some guys, you're going to hear it hit receiver's hands. You're going to hear that that. Yeah. You're going to hear it coming. you know um i'm excited to see like you put you put uh is it katyn ot uh the running jaden ot jaden ot in the backfield with him is going to be fun to watch oklahoma this year it could be a totally different look it's going to be a totally different look than what we saw with new offensive coordinator coming with uh mater from washington state sam levitt i like this guy man

a Arizona state quarterback it was interesting talking to a couple people including like blackledge covered him when he was at Michigan State and he was like to see the transformation of like tough program things not going well didn't know of any there were like three quarterbacks kind of rotating in and out um really interest like I'm shocked to see where he is now like that fast it happened that fast and he had to win the job last season um I really good zip on the ball moves around well not like sudden twitchy but stuff we saw on tape um everyone I talked just like really liked but encouraged like his tools he's going to keep getting better um had a really like calm cool almost like california vibe to him and he's young yeah until the ball

snapped i told you when we watched tape and we both kind of agreed on this i don't know who coached him in high school or growing up it's the shit's been drilled into him and it's like yeah it's kind of chilling, throwing the ball, everything's good, get up there. But this is like his rep, like, muscle memory, yeah. And like, but with urgency. Right. So it was like this interesting, um, juxtaposition of like cool cat, kind of calm, kind of all that. But like, when it's his rep, it is go.

Luke Altmeier, Illinois, liked him more than I thought. And there's some people there who really support this guy. Apparently, like, like really good, good, good people, good. He's a little bit smaller, right? He's a little bit leaner. Yeah, yeah, not the biggest guy. I wouldn't even, I don't know that I'd say lean, yeah, not physically imposing. I remember watching Pat Brian last year, the receiver.

And he, O'Meer took some shots, man. He took some. I think he's probably thickened up a little bit because I watched that, too, and I do remember what you're saying. I think he's thicker. I'll be interested to see on tape. But I wrote like, throws the pill well, like plus actors. It's not like pinpoint all the, but like, fifth year player, remember first two years at

Ole Miss, transferred to Illinois, completed like 61% of his throws, 22 to 6 touchdown interception ratio last year. So like a good year, but it wouldn't be surprising if he kind of did some things this year. He was at a different, I thought he was kind of here. Like he's a good player, maybe day three. Maybe he will be. Maybe like a late round. But now I'm like, huh, maybe he's up here and I just didn't, I haven't done the tape or I don't know what's going on because I'm hearing a lot of stuff and I'm watching and it's lining up. Um, All right, some other guys, maybe not like, not necessarily prospects right now or whatever. But DeMond Williams, what an impressive athlete.

He started a couple games last year. He was Will Rogers backup. Will Rogers has been in college football for like 14 years now. But Williams took over. I think he started the last two games or played significantly against Oregon and the bowl game versus Louisville. Lost both those games. But he completed like 83% of his throws in those two games. five touchdowns, one interception, eight to one ratio during the season.

Unbelievable athlete, really good arm. Accuracies kind of move, not there yet, but rising. Short, he's five, I said five, ten standing next to him. He's listed five, 11, 187. I think this is going to be a big year for him under Fish, Jed Fish, my buddy. I really think, like, yeah, he grabbed my attention. and grabbed attention of a lot of people there, like, grabbed it. Because there's a lot of other guys there to be focusing on,

and he was like, oh, don't miss his rep. Miller Moss from Louisville. I always kind of like Miller Moss at USC. Never really took off. Mostly good stuff from him at camp is the best way I'd put it. It carries himself like a veteran. His tools don't jump out. He's not the biggest.

He's not the strongest. He's okay mobility, but not, a threat by any stretch average arm average size uh but he now he's in uh now he's in the quarterback incubator in louisville though and he just hit spots every every throw he's yeah like the trajectory anticipating leading receivers come back route balls out before the break it's already along the sideline come come come to me you know what i mean i'm not throwing to you you come to me you come to the ball that kind of stuff and that i wrote here you have brahm brams at louisville can't wait to see the improvement like shuck from a year before um yeah um and then two guys that

kind of remember there's 40 something so if i'm mentioning their name there's a reason okay i know well i honestly believe that if you could you would talk about all 40 yes but i had to pair it down and we're already an hour and 10 minutes in. And I can hear it. I can feel Tucker and Dan and Connor and everyone behind the window right now pissed off at me because it's like, dude, it's June 30. What are we doing? Noah Fafita, Arizona.

Man is he small. Man is he talented. You talk about ball jumping. He's just like a little smaller, leaner version of like mater. But like more refined footwork. but like, foo! And like deep balls and intermediates. Like, he almost threw for 3,000 yards last year and like 61%, but 18 to 12 ratio.

And he just lost the first round wide receiver. But like, I think this guy's going to make some noise. I don't know how good Arizona is going to be. I don't know what the weapons are going to be. I'm just telling you to stand out as one of the most like, whoa, guys there is something. And then I'm excited to see Gio Lopez. Last guy I'll bring up. North Carolina, Bill Belichick's first quarterback.

I had to laugh, man. I had to laugh. Because, you know, Bill. And like, everything buttoned up and blah, blah, blah. He's, it's his signature. I even looked on his bio page. It's the hat backwards sideways, okay? No way.

Right? And so Bill's first quarterback in college. South Alabama transfer and like every drill it's it's not like it didn't swing that way by accident like that's his look no awesome uh but man can this kid rip it like he's short but he's got this big arm and it like it's got like a presence about him because every time he came up everyone's like what's he going to do next and driving it very vertically a beautiful deep ball but also like the intermediate stuff. He's just a natural thrower of the football.

And I could see what Bill saw in him. Because it's like, I don't care about the hat sideways backwards. I don't care that he's shorter than Brady and some of the other guys I've had. This guy, forget all the other parts from ball leaving his hand to where it's going. This guy's awesome. So it's going to be fun to see him at UNC, Bill's first year. According to true media, I looked this up. Lopez's 8.2 yard per passing attempt last year was 26 among all quarterbacks nationally.

He's at South Alabama. Also completed 38 passes of 20 plus yards last fall. More than, yeah, I guess there were only 27 other guys who are in that range or something. So it's going to be fun to watch. Last thing on Chuck. Last thing on Tyler Shuck. Was good to see him. Did he bring up the comments up?

Well, it's funny. He came running over, not running. He came over like with the intention towards me. And I'm like, who it, you know, had the hat down. It was a Saints hat. So I'm like, this is a coach who, you know, because he looks older than the other guys. And yeah, he is, obviously. But he came over and it took me half a second.

I just got close. I was like, I didn't even. I was like, what's up, man? I was like, I didn't know that was you. I was like, I guess I didn't expect you here. Saints, scar, all that. and uh and he was great like you know just and then like we talked it first and then we we talked a lot on the in the sideline couple things that stood out were really cool outside of him

having to build uh patio furniture and me trying to talk him into like how life's going to have to start to look for you yeah we're trying to protect like the franchise here um just raves about kellen more and ed's you but like the details as to why he goes i And he goes, I was like, the Brahms obviously awesome. He's like to see his level of, um, of detail. And he goes, the thing honestly, Todd that stood out the most that stands out the most is the number of answers. There's not one answer to what someone throws at you.

The number of different answers he's providing. He goes, I'm not an idiot. But I know he's only given me this much of the whole catalog. Um, but to see even within, he goes, and, and it. we're spending time watching Dak, his time with him with Dak, spending time watching Jalen Hertz and what they were doing, spending time of him with Herbert. And he's like, and he goes,

there's two things that like, that really like stand out to him. One is what they're now trying to do is kind of a mesh of those things and what we'll put, fits best for Shuck, right? Yeah, Taylor the offense to Shuck. That makes sense. And the other thing in Kellyn's,

It feels like we're in this together because this is his first job as the head coach. And so at every stop, he's not insinuating that he was limited or you have to do what I do because I'm the head coach. But like he never could fully do what he wanted to do. He had to fit the game plan and all those sorts of things. Yep, that's the job. And so to see that excitement in him. The other interesting nugget, too, he's talking about Doug. He kept in Doug.

He's like, and Doug's awesome. Like he's OC and like, he's like the go between and we work together. And I'd finally clicked. I'm like, oh, that's Nuss's dad. And you talk about like the community and the fraternity. And now like Nussmeyer's over there doing all his thing. And his dad is now coaching Tyler Shuck, who's coming back to the Manning camp. And it was like this whole thing.

All in Louisiana, by the way. It's kind of cool. Yeah. It's probably why you want to show up to this and not opt not to. Right. All right. All right. What are you ranking wise?

Was there any shifts? Are you concerned about shifting guys too much based on them off the weekend? You're going to give it a week? Have you made any changes? I'm not shifting anything, man. I'm not shifting anything. I was hoping to make some drastic move. No, no, not off of this.

But I have a much deeper understanding of all of it. And when we go back to the tape this year, it will absolutely. I'll say this, truly. there are parts that I will pull that are the important parts to me as an evaluator that will absolutely shape the evaluation. As they should. Yeah, truly. So it was awesome. And I appreciate everyone who listened and tuned in to hear all of it.

And I know I was ranting today and I went on way too long. And so let's get out of here before I screw it up anymore. We're back on Thursday. Clemson, are they as good as we think? Is the NFL Scouts think? All right, later. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C.

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