The McShay Show - Brendan Sorsby to the NFL?! Breaking Down Every Angle With Albert Breer.

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Welcome to The McShay Show! Todd, Steve, and special guest Albert Breer are back early from vacation to react to the news that Texas Tech and Brendan Sorsby have mutually parted ways. The guys break down the NFL’s supplemental draft process, discuss Sorsby’s tape, and evaluate his complicated prospect status.(00:00) Welcome to The McShay Show!(01:15) Brendan Sorsby to enter the NFL Supplemental Draft(07:00) Albert Breer joins the show(09:50) Breaking down the logistics of Sorsby entering the Supplemental Draft(25:10) Breaking down Sorsby's tape and traits(36:45) Do you trust him?(48:45) Potential landing spots for Brendan SorsbyThe Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Host: Todd McShayGuests: Steve Muench and Albert BreerProducers: Tucker Tashjian, Conor Nevins, and Daniel ComerSocial: Abou Kamara Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bonjour no. Mench loves when I go into the Italian. Stop. We had to cut our trip early. Come back and we're excited to be here. There's good reason. Breaking news. Brandon Sorosby's going to the supplemental draft.

All sorts of legal and procedural elements to get to today. We want to revisit Sorbsby as a prospect, the supplemental draft. Albert Breer is going to join us briefly to walk through everything that is coming up for Sorsby. Pro Day workout at a high school. we've got individual meetings all in a one week span. It's a wild situation. It's unprecedented.

And we're here for all of it, okay? And there's 317 days of the NFL draft, and we don't even know it around 40 days until the supplemental draft. You good, Mitch? I'm great, man. Roll that thing, Tuck. Minch, what do you think? We're back, man.

I'm excited, man. I need this. I need structure. I know, you've been kind of struggling. I've been off in Italy. I was on the Amalfi Coast. Overlooking the, you know, the Tyranian Sea up in Ravela that I made up my way up to the other coast. And I'm the Adriatic Sea.

Puglia, visiting Manapali. Okay, here we go. Mooney, Salvatri. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only.

Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMGEMG operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. And we weren't supposed to be on the air today. That's the deal. I mean, I'm still doing like the re-entry depression coming back from.

Italy for a couple weeks in my honeymoon. But just about the only breaking story, breaking news that could have gotten us back this morning is what's going on with Brendan Sorsby. We all went to bed a couple nights ago with the firm belief that this was a done deal. The local judge had come in in Lubbock, Texas, had overruled essentially the NCAA, saying that Brendan Sorsby was ineligible to play. He was denied his appeal, and then the local judges. It varies different, very different circumstances, but similar in the procedural aspect of,

okay, let's just go to the local court. Let's get a guy with a Texas tie on behind his robe. I think it was a federal court, but a local guy. Like, yeah. Thank you. And get it overturned. And by the time they want to file appeal, this season will be over,

and it'll all be known void. It'll be a moot point. Right. So that's where we were. And we're like, okay, so Sorsby's going to be back playing college football. And then all of a sudden, two nights ago, like overnight in like the dark of night. And I'm going to read this from Ross Dillinger. You're so dramatic.

Here we go. But I am, but like this, it's factual information. This is from Ross Dillinger from Yahoo Sports, okay? It's one of the, I just ripped off a couple lines from his recent article that I thought, was really revealing. And we're going to bring on our good friend Albert Breer. Normally, Bert's like family, basically, as far as we work with, we usually bring them on for like an hour and a half. He'll go with us and we'll talk about your trip to Vegas and anything else. Today, we're breaking news, urgency. We're going to go 10, 15 minutes with Bert, talk about the

procedural aspects of the supplemental draft. But how did we get here? Just told you the back story. Now, this is what's happened in the last 48 hours. This is from Ross Dillinger, again, from Yahoo. sports. While declining to reveal much else during a brief interview, Brett Yorkman, the Big 12 commissioner, expressed gratitude for the league's outside counsel. The global firm, this, man, this is, this is like, this is Hollywood stuff. This is John, this is John Grisham stuff, right? The global law firm from Sydney, of Sidley Austin, which helped orchestrate the Big 12's groundbreaking legal complaint filed Monday morning in federal court. By the way, the same law firm that helped USC, UCLA, PAC 12, Big 10, all of that.

Powerhouse. I'm told one of the most influential, powerful law firms in this country. A threat that, presumably, helped usher, Sorgeby, towards the NFL supplemental draft. Natalie Weissen, a partner at that firm, quote unquote, provided the legal guidance and executed the Big 12 strategy, Yorkman said, in filing a complaint against Texas Tech. it's school officials and the Texas Attorney General's office. Okay. In fact, it was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's letter last week that,

oddly enough, paved the way for the schools filing Monday, according to legal experts who spoke to Yahoo Sports. Paxton's letter threatened legal action against the Big 12 if it were to sanction Texas Tech. So had he not done that, everything would remain the same, it sounds like. It opened a lane for the Big 12 suit. The league filing on Monday asked a federal judge to Barr-Paxon's office from preventing the conference from exercising its rights under the bylaws to sanction tech.

The conference sought no damages in the filing and did not challenge a state court ruling that deemed Sorsby eligible, but instead requested a judge to permit it to take out. action in light of Paxton's legal threats, a lawsuit that many within the legal community expected the Big 12 to win. Quite literally, Dillinger goes on to say, quite literally, here you go, in the dark of night, maybe I'm not the only drama king here. Sidley Austin attorneys made the filing on behalf of the Big 12 in the northern district of Texas federal court in Dallas.

The lawsuit was filed around 1 a.m. Eastern time, according to the law, to court documents. On Monday at or around 7 a.m. Yorkman, again, Big 12 Commissioner Yorkman, informed Texas Tech President Lawrence Chavonic of the complaint in a courtesy phone call. The call started a whirlwind of a day that ended with Sorsby out of college football.

This all happened yesterday from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. And throughout the day, Soresby meets with his people, and decides it doesn't look good. This law firm is one of the most powerful in the country. It's time to look at option B. Option B, plan B here, is the supplemental draft. And that's where we bring in our good friend, Bert Breer.

Bert, what's up, man? What's happening, guys? I hope Italy was good. This is something to come back to for sure. Right, right? I mean, I... There's a lot of jargon you guys just read there for sure. Yeah, yeah.

There was a lot of jargon, but I thought it was important to kind of give the back story so people understood. You know, not everyone is kind of hanging in the balance on every element of this. It's been a legal story, I think. This is so far, like it's been a really, like a, if you're into law, this has been a big time story more than sports, right? I mean, and now it will shift, but up until now, this has been an interesting case. Yeah, I think that's like the backdrop, you know, I think part of the reason why he's, you know, I think part of the reason why he's, he had to go forward with this is because that date was coming, June 22nd. And if he misses that date, there's the possibility that he is subsequently ruled ineligible.

And if he subsequently ruled ineligible, well, now the NFL has an out. And the NFL doesn't want to take this on. You know what I mean? Like the NFL would rather just have this handled at the NCAA level and see in 2027, Brendan Soorsby. They don't want this to be their problem, you know? So, you know, I think for Sorgeby himself, it was basically looking at it and saying, like, can I trust that this is going to work out in my favor? And like, is it going to happen fast enough that I'm going to have any sort of resolution when the NCAA and Big 12 certainly look like they're out for blood right now?

And I think the determination that he and his team came to was there's just too much risk that we're going to wind up losing the case. we wind up losing the case or he's deemed ineligible, then he's just sitting out the entire year. And, you know, it's interesting because there's like a lot of like moving parts here too when you look at, okay, on one end, if he did have a chance to play himself into the top five picks, we could be talking about him losing $50 million guaranteed here. He loses the $6 million he would get from tech. On the flip side, if he's a second round pick, well, now all of a sudden.

sudden, you know, if he hits it big somewhere, he's eligible for a second contract in 29. And he would be going into a contract year, which would mean he'd have a team motivated to re-sign him and sign him to a deal that would dwarf the numbers that he's looking at now. So there's a lot of moving parts for sure. So I want to ask you this, Bert, because the way I view this, right, there's kind of four elements. Yeah.

The first is like the legal procedural element, which we, kind of covered there, but I think there's more to that. Then there's the Sorsby future, him as a prospect element. Then there's the NFL market element, like which teams, where would they take him? And then there's the Texas Tech college football element that maybe Steve and I can get to a little bit on the back end. Sticking with the procedural element, okay? Yep.

The first one. You mentioned June 22nd, which is a week away, right? when you have to declare. Where are we, what is your information telling you in terms of, is there going to be any problem? Because right now he's kind of at the, he's beholden to the NFL allowing him to enter into the supplemental draft, which remember we haven't had, I believe it's been three years

since we had even had a supplemental draft. So what are you hearing on the possibilities, the probabilities of him, of the NFL allowing him to enter the supplemental draft? Yeah, I don't think the NFL, is going to bar him. And the reason why is because, I mean, legally it'd be tough for them to do that. He is not a member of the NFL Players Association. He is not an employee with one of the teams. And the NFL is a trade association. So can a trade association prevent somebody for trying to pursue a career or does that trade association, in this case, the NFL, have to leave that up to the companies,

which are the teams? Again, it's different if you're talking about. about a guy who was in the NFLPA, then they're playing by their rules and they can set their rules and negotiate their rules and all that. So in this case, like legally, I think it'd be very difficult for them to keep him out. And his plan is later today to withdraw the lawsuit, which would again make him ineligible. And being ineligible in college makes him eligible for the supplemental draft based on those rules. And then he'll apply, I think it will happen by the end of the day. the actual application will go in with the league. So I think the NFL is going to have to let him in.

Now, like the bigger question becomes, do they try to sanction him? And this could go a couple of different ways. Like, I think the Sorsby's camp, which has hired Jeffrey Kessler, who's a thorn in the NFL side, he's their boogeyman, right? He's been the one who's, you know,

represented the NFLPA in a lot of the labor disputes over the years. And so, like, does the NFL, just try to unilaterally sanction him and say, okay, like, we're not even going to negotiate this with you. We're going to go forward with it. And then is there a legal challenge to whatever those sanctions are? Or do they negotiate something? You know, where they say, okay, like, we don't want this to turn into a protract a legal battle. So can we work something out where maybe he serves a suspension?

And, you know, the Terrell-Pryor thing is sort of the precedent, but that's not apples for apples either. You know, like, because that one, if you remember, Trell Pryor actually didn't lose his college eligibility. He was just suspended by the NCAA for five games. And when the NFL brought him in, they were negotiating with Pryor's camp off of that and saying, okay, we're going to match the suspension. Now, Pryor went back and actually appealed it later,

but he had initially agreed to the five-game suspension. So it's got, so that part of it's complicated, you know, and the NFL's obviously going to be a lot of it. So let me jump in real quick because, it's my understanding and talking to some GMs before I left for the trip and even some texts last night. The hope is,

I can tell you this much, and you can expand upon it. The hope from NFL teams that are interested in Sorsby is that there will be some sort of clarity. There's not an expectation, was what I got from some general managers. There's not an expectation of full clarity,

but some clarity in that, okay, June 20, second, we're going to allow, we're going to, you know, by that point, we will officially state that he is allowed to be in the supplemental draft. A date will be set in late July. I think that we have all heard the same thing.

And then between then, obviously there could be some private workouts. There can be my understanding is it'll be a one week window. Okay, perfect. So a one week window where teams that are interested can, I know. That's quick, man.

Well, not right away. No, no, no. I'm saying like somewhere in that time, what I'm saying, Munch, is like it'll be sometime between June 22nd and the supplemental draft. So, okay. But that's a small window. It's still one week window. Yeah. And that'll be like after the fourth at some point.

We're talking about like, I mean, I put together a little. We're talking about potentially that the, the Browns, the Steelers, dolphins, jets, cardinals, falcons, panthers, Vikings, maybe even like longshucks, eagles, buccaneers, cowboys. Like, that's a lot of teams to try to get that work. in one week. When we talk about the NFL draft, we're talking over a couple of months of this. So that part's fascinating to me.

But going back to talking with some general managers, there's hope that there's enough clarity in that you understand, okay, he's going to miss part or all of the season. Expect if you put in the bid and NFL teams

will go and put in it, we'll take him if he's available with our second round pick. And so we're signing up for. You know what you're signing up for. So talk to us through that process, but also are you hearing the same in that NFL teams are kind of, I would say, expecting the league to at least alert them that there will be punishment. It could be significant. It could be portion of the season. Yeah. What kind of clarity are you hearing that NFL team? Yeah. And I think like part of it for, I mean, that was part of why, you know, Soresby's camp loaded up the way that they did was they

wanted to accelerate everything. Because as you know, like, things can meander or around courts for years, like literally years, you know? So, like, they really wanted, like, in hiring Jeffrey Kessler, like, the whole idea was, like, let's get the eligibility issue, like, cleared up fast. Let's see if we can, they tried to negotiate a suspension at one point with the NCAA, which the NCAA wasn't willing to do. And it's going to be the same thing with the way they handle things with the NFL in that, all right, like, let's see where this goes. Now, my understanding was that there was radio silence after he won the injunction last week from the NFL. So the NFL didn't really communicate with them after that.

But I, you know, Swordsby's camp is going to engage the NFL and try to get this thing accelerated. I mean, for their own good and for the good of the teams, too, because I think the best thing for the teams, the best thing for Swargeby. Probably the best thing for the league, too, is to get clarity on this. For the league, I'd say the benefit is you're during a dead period in the calendar. Yes, there's going to be a lot of discussion around it. But by the time you get to training camp, this is sort of out of the way. Right. And everybody's had their discussion about the gambling issue.

Everybody's had their discussion about the problems that it could cause for the NFL. And by the time we get to training camp, like, it's not a non-issue, of course, but it's something that we've at least kind of gone through already. So, yeah, my expectation would be, Like I would, you would hope you get it sooner than that. So teams can kind of like look at this, you know, as they're going into why, he's going to have a pro day, you know, which I think that's going to be at South Lake Carroll in Dallas. Okay. And he's going to have, you know, any sort of private workouts after that.

Like, I would think the teams going into that would want to know, okay, like what exactly are we dealing with? And it's beyond just a suspension too, guys, right? Like, even if he's suspended, is this treated like a drug case where if, if, you're, you're, That was exactly what I was going to ask you is how do they approach it from an addiction standpoint? Right. So for people who don't know, if this is treated like a drug case, that's different than like personal conduct, right? So personal conduct, when you get suspended, you're out of the building. You can't come to work, right?

Right. If this is treated like a drug case, then he can come in and he can be in the building and he can be in meetings and he can do all that different stuff. So the team can work. And that's huge. Like, right? Right. So like, let's say they negotiated a six or eight game suspension. Well, if he can be in the building,

they're still getting a chance to work with him and figure out what they have in him, which, of course, is going to inform how a team, you know, handles his quarterback situation going forward. So all of this stuff, I think, is stuff that's worth talking about. Would there be requirements, too? Because some of the things I was reading was that Texas Tech was monitoring his electronic devices. That, to me, would be a privacy law. issue. I don't know how open that he would

beat all of that. Like, is there going to be, is this going to be kind of a groundbreaking program for the NFL with dealing with this kind of situation? Because if it's a drug case, you have to be tested a certain amount of times, right? There's other things. You have to go into a program. Are they going to make him do something like that? I think like

so I think you'd have to like dig into, and I don't know this full disclosure, like what the monitoring is on like say Jameson Williams or or Calvin Ridley or one of the guys who's already, you know, been busted. I think it would, I think you'd probably be looking at something similar to that.

But again, that's something that would have to be negotiated. Yeah. Because he's not in the players association, you know, like, so all this stuff happened previous to him entering the league. Kishon Booty would probably be the, and Kishon, and, you know, Booty admitted to a bunch of stuff in the aftermath and that he had a problem. You know, but I think like that stuff would have to be negotiated. Again, like, it makes it trickier that all this stuff happened.

before he joined the players union, you know, because there's certain things that they can do with players who are in the union that they can't with players who are coming in from the outside. And, like, again, that would have to be something that would be negotiated. Now, I would think, in order to show how serious they are

about nipping this in the bud and show how serious he is about nipping this in the bud, my guess would be that Sorsby, his agent, his legal team. Like, I think they would be amenable to some of the things you're talking about when it comes to monitoring and that sort of thing. Yeah, it might make a team more comfortable with the trigger, I would think.

I mean, if you, if you're like willing to kind of, it's like anything else. You know what I mean? Like, if, like, I remember when, when Aaron Hernandez came in the league, this is like a, I mean, this is obviously the biggest outlier example, but I, like, he had failed a bunch drug test at Florida and they wrote a letter and like I think he if I remember right he agreed to like submit to like additional drug testing right and like obviously it's not the same but the same idea it's like if you're willing to submit to like hey I'm going to do X, Y and Z to show you that I'm serious about dealing with this that I'm past it. You know I'm going to show you like how

serious I am but that's going to help him you know like that's going to help him you know like that's going to help him with some of these teams. And this is just like the regular draft in that like how high he goes is going to determine how much he gets paid. You know, so, you know, getting that team to put in a second round bid instead of a third round bid on him, there's going to be real monetary value to something like that. At Albert, Albert Breer is where you can find him on X. Monday morning quarterback continues to be the great read in all the NFL, the best weekly information. piece out there and we appreciate

Birch taking some time this morning. I texted him late last night. He's been amazing for us on the show and we really appreciate you, man. Before we let you go, I just want to throw this back at you. Anything else information-wise you've gotten, whether it's in the last 24 hours

or over the last few weeks since we've talked to you about what's coming up, what we should expect, something that you've heard. I mean, I just give people like the idea of the way a supplemental draft works. I think this is misunderstood at times. It is a lottery system, believe it or not. And that lottery works. There are three pods. So like if your team had six or fewer wins last year, you're in one pool. If your team had

seven or more wins but missed the playoffs year or another pool, and then the third pool is playoff teams. And so they have a weighted lottery that sets the order for all those teams. And then if you give up a pick, as I'm sure a lot of listeners here know, if you if you bid a pick and you get the player, you give up the corresponding pick the next year. Todd, one thing that was interesting that I think we should probably point out here, right, is like what we had, I didn't know the answer to this before, so I went and figured it out. So the Jets would be the example.

Jets have three first round picks. They have the Cowboys pick, the Packers pick, and their own pick. No, no, no. Is it the Colts pick? They have the Colts pick, and then they have either of the Cowboys or the Packers, whichever one of those, I think it's like they have the higher one of the two. Anyway, they can bid any of those, any three of those picks. They have to specify which one, though.

Okay. So, like, if they don't want to give up their own pick, but they're willing to give up, say, the Cowboy slash Packer pick, then they can do that. So you can, you know, you can bid some, you can bid any pick that you have possession of. And yeah, man, I think, like, you guys can cover the tape stuff here, right? Like, I, I think there are a lot of teams that view them as, like, having had the potential to play his way into being a top five pick next year. and I think like some of the teams viewed him similar to Arch Manning or C.J. Carr. I think Dante Moore is in a little bit of a separate category because he's a little more proven than the other guys. But like I think he was in that category of quarterback that was viewed as if he has a really big year,

if he shows that he's refined his game, if he cuts out some of the mental mistakes, like has a chance to play his way into the top five picks of the draft. Based off of everyone you've talked to, and I'll share in a moment what I'm hearing. where do you suspect first, second, third? I think a second. And I think the benefit for the teams looking at that, right? Like say you're like the Jets or the Cardinals or the Browns, if you bid a second on him and you hit,

then that frees you up with what could be a high first rounder next year to take Jeremiah Smith, Colin Simmons, or Dylan Stewart, or one of those guys, which to me is like a pretty enticing thing. I agree. We appreciate you, man. And I know this was last minute and the fact that you're able to jump on with us this morning, we are grateful. So get back to your summering.

You still have a few hours before the kids get out of school. I can't believe the kids are still in school. They're in school until next Tuesday, thanks to all the snow. Next Tuesday, wow. It's crazy. It's crazy. I see that tan on you, man. You're not going to school.

I have used lacrosse all weekend, not the beach. So I have used lacrosse four out of five weekends now. We're in the middle of that stretch. Oh, wow. still going on too. All right, brother. We'll talk to you soon. Maybe I'll see you at M2QB this Saturday.

Absolutely, absolutely. Thanks, Todd. Thanks, man. This episode is brought to you by Activia. You might already be eating yogurt, but not all yogurts are created equal. Activia contains over one billion probiotics per serving to survive and reach the gut alive. When it comes to gut health, Activia is the number one family doctor-recommended probiotic yogurt brand.

Choose Activia. feel good from the inside out. Visit activia.ca for more details. Thanks, man. That's fascinating stuff, man. And like I said, there are kind of four elements to this. And that part between what I read with Ross Dillinger from Yahoo and what Bert provided context on is the first part,

the procedural, the legal element of it. This next part is our sweet spot, right? Right. Who is Brendan Sorsby? And we did a show just a few weeks ago on this. Right. When we kind of were, it was prior to him getting the injunction and prior to him being ruled eligible to play the season.

And so that kind of was like, all right, we'll move on. And here's an interesting part. Talking to a general manager last night was mostly disappointed in this aspect of it. he wanted to see with Sorsby. How do he handle this year? It was going to be unbelievable the pressure and the eyeballs, the cameras, the disdain every stadium he walked into,

the national, go ahead. I get it. I get as an evaluator what that could reveal about a young man. To me, I almost felt it. Iron sharpens iron, right? Or it doesn't. It feels unfair, though. I mean, it would have been unlike, I don't know if we've seen anything like that what this young man was going to go through.

It was going to be a gauntlet of, you know, and not only that, if he didn't play well, how quickly does the Texas Tech fan base turn on him? And how quickly does that become a PR nightmare for the school that we've kept this kid and fought this. I get it. I understand it. I understand like that will help you as an evaluator figure out how a kid handles stress. That seems to me to be a whole other level, a whole different thing. And on a human level, I don't know, it concerned me. Yeah, because you're a dad and you're a good guy.

Yeah. And you're not investing $50 plus million on the next four years. We don't ask other kids you're going to invest $50 million to go through something like that, especially if we know that they might have a problem. But we ask every kid not to bet on sports. And we ask every kid not to certainly not to bet on his own team. So that is fair. I hear you.

Yeah, there is a human. element. And there's an addiction element. And we can get to some of that in a little while if you want. And I think it's worth at least mentioning and kind of throwing some ideas and thoughts out on all of this. Because there's so many layers to this onion, right? But I think we'd be remiss for our audience because some people, even a few weeks ago, we're like, yeah, we'll deal with Sourgeby later. But like, here we are. At June 22nd is next week. And then we just heard Bert say, you got a one week window and there's going to be a pro day. Like this shit is going to happen fast, man.

Like buckle up, right? And I just told you, you got the Browns, you got the Steelers, you got the dolphins, you got the Jets, Carolina potentially, Atlanta potentially, Vikings, Cardinals, if I didn't mention, cowboys, buccaneers with Baker. Like, there's a lot of teams, a lot of teams. A lot of teams. That's almost part of the league that I ripped through right there. I think you can throw the lions in there, too.

They're a sneaky team to keep an eye on. I think they're another potential team that could do it. So there's a lot of teams that are looking at this and saying, we're interested. I'm not sure how interested yet, because my gosh, we got a lot of work to work through. We've got a lot, like our security team, our team psychologists. We've got a lot to work through. But let's talk about Sordsby first, for those of you who,

maybe didn't watch the the last show and i don't want to do a whole 30 minutes right now on him um swordsby is a six foot three 235 pound dual threat quarterback right i mentioned the last like he's trying to major in in pocket passing um he's he's getting like a c plus b minus grade in that regard and shows flashes of a lot of intelligence and the ability to become an in a a minus b plus student in that regard uh but what he's minoring in is creating in is creating play extension, running the ball when, when available, and he's an A-plus student in that regard. He's a 4.0 GPA, okay?

That's who he is. I personally, when we got done with our tape study, he said, I'm drafting this guy in the first round, okay? Talent-wise, I stand on that. Are you saying supplemental you draft him in the first round? Are you saying in a normal draft you draft him in the first round? I'm saying if this was a shoe incident, if this was something that was not to this level, and I want to get to this in just a bit, talent-wise, I mean, talent-wise, he does some things.

And I told you, I learned my best lesson in all of scouting, 26 years now from Patrick Mahomes. Ironically, same school that Sorsby was getting ready to play this season. And Sorsby, it's also worth mentioning is, transferred a couple of times, started Indiana where all this trouble began, betting on the Indiana team, then transferred to Cincinnati, had a great season last year,

especially early in the season, started to tail off a little bit towards the end. The team did as well, but that's worth mentioning. And had subsequently transferred to Texas Tech, $6 million was getting ready to have what everyone presumed was going to be a monster season

with that program, where it's headed, what it's doing, the transfer portal, the money, the backing that it has. My understanding is that he chose Texas Tech over LSU. He had a chance to go to LSU. It seemed like they were very interested and he went to Texas Tech. Like, just to give you an idea of how,

what the market was for Soresby coming out of Cincinnati. Well, I do think it's important to point out. NFL teams view this guy as someone who, building on last year, showing improvement, was going to be in the conversation. Yeah. There's, with,

with Dante Moore, with Arch Manning, with Lenora Sellers. And I think, quite frankly, talking to teams in the league, and just from my own film study, this is a guy very similar to sellers.

Like, yeah, everyone's talking, Arch versus Dante, Dante versus Arch, right? But Sellers and Sorsby were absolutely capable

with a huge seat. Look at what we've talked. about with Mendoza's tape last year coming out of Cal. This guy's got a lot of potential. He ain't there yet. The turnover worthy plays forcing it. He's got to learn how to play within the structure, all that. But if he gets with Signetti and he refines what he's doing, his eyes get faster, he understands

the system, plays within it, all those sorts of things, he could be an early first round pick. We said that at the same point last summer. And he did. And quite frankly, he exceeded my expectations and what that could have looked like. And I absolutely loved Mendoza coming out of Cal. And that's where people and talking to folks in the league.

And I think that's where you and I, I know certainly was Sellers and maybe not quite as much with Sorgeby for you. But for me, the answer is yes. I held both of those guys in the same regard. Give them another year. And what was interesting with Sellers is coming back to South Carolina with a new coordinator.

So it's not a transfer, but it's a new opportunity. Sorsby's going from Cincinnati to Texas Tech, new opportunity, new coordinator, new offense, new weapons. He's got the similar chance from Mendoza from Cal to Indiana to really take that next step. Yeah, we've seen that with several quarterbacks. I mean, back going from Georgia to Miami, and I know it didn't go as early, I get that. But this has been a path for quarterbacks to get a fresh start and really boost their stock. Yeah, Cam Ward. Yeah, we've seen this, Jaden Daniels, all of it.

Yeah. But Bo Nix. Yep. So you've got all those elements and talking to GMs and a couple scouts slash like personnel front office people. He was one of the four with some teams. Yeah, I don't, saying, Julian's saying it might be another year at Ohio State after this upcoming season.

CJ Carr might be the same, but those don't rule those guys out, super talented, love the way they play the game. But for a lot of teams, it was these four quarterbacks, Arch, Dante, Sellers, Sorgeby, in different orders

based off the team you talk to. Also interesting, the National Emblesto scouting grades are out. And again, a lot of times it's just one area scout, usually early in their career, but then they all meet

and they talk and discuss and they try to, but I think Soresby was, was like tied with a bunch of people in the, in the 20s in that class. And this year different than ever, than I've ever seen before, underclass, everyone who's eligible appears to be on that national list. And I got it when I was in Italy.

I shared it with you. But he was, he has a grade of that, typically you go play another good season of college, you're going to be in the first round. I think he was listed as like number 30 on the list, but with a grade that was similar, he could have been like in,

the mid-20s, right? So, like Jeremiah Smith was on that list. Usually we don't have some of those underclassmen there. So typically when you're talking about the 25th to 30th player on the national, it might be a second, you know, mid, late second round in terms of what they're viewing the player coming into the year. So everyone involved in this with Sorsby because of the mobility, the creativity, the arm, some of the off, you know, arm angle throws, the frame, the tough.

Like all those things. Viewed this young man as a top four quarterback in this class, which is setting up to be the greatest class potentially in the history of the NFL draft. So excited. Me too. And viewed him as someone, if he takes that next step, like we could legitimately be talking about top five pick. Okay.

But here's the element that's now fascinating to me. And I think this is the element that's different when you talk to a coach versus a general manager. And there's no better example than what we've already heard recently from the Brown's organization, which is one of the teams that's very much you would think interested in Sorsby. Head coach, Todd Munkin, comes out recently and says, there's a slippery slope there. Yeah, I saw that. He was on the golf course, I think, saying that.

And then within that week, I think it was just a day or two later, Andrew Berry, general manager was asked about it. And he said, we haven't, we're not out of the market, man. Okay. What about the owner element too? I mean, you have owners who are like, man, this kid, or they might be on the other end of it and saying, I, you know, we partner with this company or that company.

And this may not be the best for us. Do you trust them? Yeah. And you've got to find that out very quickly. Because I can tell you right now, I can tell you 21 big time throws against just three turnover worthy plays last year. Just a number to back up what I gave you on tape three weeks ago. You and I talked about on tape three weeks ago. This is the guy who is limiting some of the big, you know, debilitating mistakes while still showing special, special traits. Also among quarterbacks that we would put in that top 12.

and we're going to, just a preview, the next seven shows are going to be quarterback-driven on the McShea show, okay? And we're excited, we're branding the whole thing. We're going to do, we're going to put head-to-head, and we're going to start with Arch and Dante on Monday. So we were supposed to come back on Monday. This news breaks. We had to get involved, and we had to get our good friend Bert involved, and we wanted to share our, kind of remind everyone, refresh our thoughts on what we saw on tape, and talk about all these different elements. But of all those quarterbacks, let's say the top 12,

Sorsby's pressure to sack rate last year was the lowest at 6.1%. But then you asked this element. And here's the part that we didn't get to talk about because I wasn't necessarily, I wasn't aware of it and hadn't had the conversations with some people in the league who now subsequently have started to do some digging. And it's a question I don't have an answer to. And I usually don't like to bring up questions I don't have an answer to, but I think it's important to share with our audience.

When I say, do you trust him? The first thing that comes to everyone's mind is with the gambling, right? Right. Over 9,000 bets. There's all sorts of dollar figures thrown out there. The types of bets, the frequency of the bets, it feels very much like an addiction. Okay? Yep.

And that element is fascinating to me. and I do want to get to it in a little bit. But you don't cure an addiction permanently, and you're never cured of an addiction. But certainly in 30 days of a rehab program, no one's out of the woods. Let's put it that way, okay? No.

No. And so, yes, part of when I say, do you trust them, is the major part is that aspect of it, right? And so parameters will be put in the contract. And there will be certain things that guidelines, but that doesn't mean they're guardrails, right, to protect the organization. But there's guardrails that can be,

it's like playing, you know, bumper, playing bowling with the bumper lanes with your kids. Yeah. And can still pick up the ball and throw it to the next lane over the bumper. Like, Swordsby could do that. The other element, though, that I will say this too really quickly. I think some teams probably already do this,

but you make sure you have the right mental health, in your building to support someone like that who's going through that. You make sure that you have the right supporting cast and Team Smart area have that in place. But if they don't, if you're going to draft someone like this, you better make sure that you have the right support system around him to put him in the best position to succeed. I mean, I've been around addiction for most of my not gambling addiction, but drug and alcohol most of my adult life. And it is not a, it is a daily decision to not pick up a job.

drink or to use a drug. It is not one day it's over. It is a daily thing that you go through. And I've lost friends and I've lost family. And I'm assuming gambling addiction is very much the same based on how the brain works. And so you need someone who's going to work with him to make sure that every day he's making the right decision and putting himself in the best position, not only as a football player, but as a human being. And one thing I've learned very much about addiction is it is yes it's always present um it it takes a long time and there's there's no there's no fix there's no on-off switch that you get to just keep off if you want you know so so to your point with the mental health and the support it's critical and and it's not just like hey i'm

checking in, it's like a very, not dissimilar, right, from a strength and conditioning plan, structure with tape study. Like, this is actually going to have to be a part of his everyday working life so that there's no veering. And all it takes is one time picking up his phone in a weak moment where he's overtired or he's this or he's feeling something different and saying, you know what, I'm going to put it, just one bed on UFC isn't going to change anything. Yep. And the brain, there's a lot of beautiful mountains out there.

The Colorado Rockies, all the sorts of places, right? And I was just out, I was in Italy, right? But there are some that are beautiful mountains and a beautiful backdrop overlooking the Amalfi coast and overlooking the Tyranian Sea. And Mount Vesuvius is absolutely beautiful. It's stunning, right? And it's a wonderful mountain. but it's but inside of that has this like this boiling lava that that makes it a danger and it's

unfortunate because some of us are born with that and some of us are not right um and so he has he's he's volcanic and he has it's it's in him and so working with him as an organization to help in any in all the ways that anyone with addiction needs help and needs guidance and needs structure and needs to stay busy and needs you know the idle line idle time is a devil's workshop and with someone battling addiction that the devil it becomes that that addiction right so there's that element of it right and then you get back to the football element of it and this is what I'm starting to now here not like I don't want to overplay it but But there is an element in NFL circles right now of we're also concerned, does he love the game?

Like, oh, really? And it's, you try to separate the two because one is addiction and then the other is, is this gambling on your app, which everyone's doing now, right? It seems, and so, but where's his time being spent? What is his true focus on? and if we can keep the volcanic action activity, you know, what's the word? Like it's, when it's not active. Managed. Yeah.

Yeah. Dormant. Like dormant. Will that, and a lot of time what you see with addiction, here's another thing I know for a fact, you replace that addiction with something else. And you hope. And you try to manage it. And there's all sorts of programs and different.

structures so that you don't replace some people go on to to run these like extreme triathlons and some people bear take their addiction and and replace or uh or you know move it to work and some move it to to sex and some move it to you know like so there's all sorts of different places where you take this it's almost like an oCD this obsessive behavior and you move it to something else um and i i know this is some deep level stuff and i'm not like and i'm certainly not an expert in this field, neither are you, but we have enough, we have enough experience around it. Yeah, it's all personal stuff, yeah. To understand it, right? Um, but there's this like within league circles and a lot of people who, who maybe aren't addicts, um, don't totally understand it,

but they're also trying to figure out like, every team does this digging on, does he love the game? Is he obsessive about it? Is he, is he going to wind up when he gets in the, the league, putting in the time and doing all the things. Now, Kyler Murray is a public example of, we even have to put in his contract. You know, less video games, more time in the film room. And so there's kind of some of that that's stirring around in the league. And I think it's important to share that. And it will be interesting to see how that plays into because you can see it a little bit

on his tape. And I, listen, one of the smartest, brightest football minds we've ever been around is Patrick Mahomes. Right. You didn't know it watching his tape in college because it was turning down easy throws. It wasn't just taking too many risks, challenging things he shouldn't have,

sometimes overlooking some things because he was trying to force some things. And you see those same elements on. So that's how you was, I would push back a little bit there because I would say you're seeing it manifesting and maybe the reads he makes that he's not doing the work in the film room.

I will say this, the way he runs, the way he makes play with his feet looks like he loves the game. That to me, you're saying it's more of is he willing, he likes to get out there and sling it, but he may not like to show him the film room on Tuesday, Tuesday night at 9 o'clock

and put in two hours. I'm not saying football brain. I'm not saying unbelievable competitor burning in his heart. I don't question, I don't question those two things on tape. And when I talk to people in the league, and we're being excited. accelerated right now. Information is coming in text.

Yeah. Boom, boom, boom. It's not, it's neither of those two things. I'm glad you brought that up because that's an important distinction to make. It's Peyton Manning, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, I mean, list all of them, all of the great ones, you know, starting our career, Brady, Drew Breeze. You saw it on the tape, the, the, right? anticipating the option routes where the ball goes based off the coverage the looks pre-snap to post-snap

you don't you're not just born with that because like Arch wasn't born with it because he's a manning maybe some individuals are a little smarter and pick things up and some have better peripheral and there are certain elements of it that are their DNA aspect but the vast majority it's this

obsess like Peyton Manning is a different cat Tom Brady's, they have a level of obsessiveness that, like, is bordering on, like, you know? But as I always say, like, your greatest, you know, your greatest strength sometimes can be your fatal flaw. Like, it's so overwhelming that drive and that obsessive behavior and mindset. And teams are wondering, like, is he, is that, is that him? You know? I just, I figure.

That is interesting. Right. And what does he replace the gambling? Because you have to understand 9,000 bets or whatever the number is. He was using a lot of his free time of that obsessive behavior with his thumbs on his phone placing bets. And does that get? An accelerated timeline. Just to go back, we cannot hit on this point enough. This is all under an accelerated timeline. You have a complicated player here off the field.

Like the accelerated timeline makes it's it's tough man. I'm figuring out exactly what you got. And do you trust him on not only about the like about all of the concerns you might have about any player in addition to the gambling issues? It's it's unique. It's difficult. So with all that said, where do we expect him to go? I believe in this young man from a tell. Like I love his tape because because we've seen.

guys like Lamar, Jalen Hertz, especially Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen. Like, we've seen these guys in this league today. And it's why Sellers is so fascinating to me. I love them. And I know how much you love them. But these kind of guys, they don't have to be ready in terms of making the reeds and pocket passing precision, all that. They don't in this league.

In fact, I'd much rather have a young man coming into the league who has this capability when you don't have the answers at the line of scrimmage that he can get himself out of it. And that's what Soresby does. With the mobility, the creativity, the strength. I want to remind people, too, when we were going through a scouting report, it's this combination of some unbelievable, right? That might be a first ch-cha-cha of the season, but yeah. Right.

It's a good lateral, like, but then, like, but when he decides to go, it's like, shit, you can almost see him, and defenders, like, whoa, because he has this. He catches him off guard, yeah. Catches him off guard. And then at the end, there's this, like, almost Tebow element, right? He's a big duty, 235 pounds. Josh Allen, like, he's a bitch to bring down. Yeah.

He's got all those things. and Arch has some of them, but I would argue not quite to that level. Sellers has those things. Sellers a little more, but Dante doesn't. But Dante processes, Dante's precision, you know?

Different dudes, yeah. Right. And here's the other part, the experience element of it, how important that has been, and he wanted to come back. He was supposed to play another season. and it was all supposed to come together this year.

Now you bring him in, and it's like, he doesn't have necessarily as much experience as you'd love. He's not where he needs to be in his career, but we kind of get this gray shirt, red shirt year with him, where we weren't expecting to draft him until 2027 anyway. And now he's in the building. He's learning from the veterans. He's picking up the offense.

We get to work with him. Even if he doesn't step on the field as a rookie, we're able to get a really good sense of him, and he's able to get prepared. I talk to you about Patrick Mahomes. I always go back to the same story, and I'm sure people are bored with it. But sitting with Patrick after his first year in the summer

when I was doing the preseason games, and I'm sitting in there with Andy and Patrick. And Patrick's like, yeah, man, I couldn't identify the mic more than maybe 30, 40% of the time. I was less than 50-50 on identifying the mic, my rookie year. But being around Alex, and having a year to sit and watch and learn, like I'm caught up now, I'm ready to go, sure enough, right?

So Soores begets that, which I think is important for a quarterback of his style with his lack of ideal experience to be able to come in. But I mentioned all those teams, right? And I didn't, Bert said second round, I have about, I think probably five times. I was that, my, immediately my antenna went up that one, by the way.

Because I was like, what does he know? That surprised me. Every text I got back last night was second round. Really? Yep. Here's what scares me. If you're, or here's why I think that I think, I think it's going to be first round.

I wouldn't do it, by the way. I think it's the right move on paper to not spend a first round. But if you are the Minnesota Vikings, this is the team that keeps jumping out to me. You have Kyler Mariana one. your deal. J.J. McCarthy doesn't seem to be the long-term answer. You are so well-coached and your roster is so strong other than quarterback, you're going to be competitive, right? You know I don't see them picking early. I don't see them being in a position. As deep as this quarterback

class is, I don't see them being in a position to get one of the guys unless they move up, right? So why not? Why not throw it out there that you're going to end up using a late first round or middle of the first round pick on a guy that you normally get early first round and you bring them in now. And look how aggressive they were. They just took a shot on Caleb Banks. Are we going to be aggressive?

Is this what they're going to be now? Are they going to be the aggressive team that's going to take shots and get talented players in the building? I mean, and the flip side of that is this. If you're one of those teams that thinks that you're going to be one of the early second round guys, we might get them, oh, we got an early second round.

We might get them. I'd be terrified that a Minnesota or a Detroit or a Pittsburgh. You know that Pittsburgh. That's the one. Yeah. I'd be terrified that one of them are going to do it. Pittsburgh has tried so long to find their guy at quarterback.

You can't wait until the second round because you got the, you got the Jets, you got the Cardinals, you got the Browns. They're all picking before you. You got the dolphins. You get the, um, yeah. Those teams all picking in front of you. He's not, you have to work under the assumption that he's not getting to you in the second round where you are in this three-tiered lottery system. Right.

That's what, that's my thought process that he's not going to get there. Someone. If Mike Tomlin were still the head coach of the Steelers, I'd say book it that they put in a bid late one. I don't know with Mike McCarthy, although I'm not ruling it out. Mike McCarthy had a gun slinging young, young quarterback, you know, and Aaron Ross. that they sat and developed and, you know, why wouldn't? I shouldn't say why wouldn't.

I know the reasons why they wouldn't. I just, I can't rule out Pittsburgh. If there's a team to take them in round one, and it's not the Jets who have three picks in round one and can say, because the Jets theoretically could take Sorsby with the third of their, what they could do potentially as the third of their first round picks,

okay? and they get him in the building for a year and it doesn't go well. They still could use one of those other two on an arch or a Dante or package those two and move up and go get them or sellers. They still could. Yeah, remember I advocated for this? I said, just play them. Just take them late.

Use that pick to get him and just play him from day one. See what you got. And if you don't have him, then you're still in a position to take a guy early next year. And Aaron Rogers doesn't care. Aaron Rogers is like, fine, use next year's first round pick. I don't need it. He's not coming back. He's already said he's not coming back.

This is a unique situation where Aaron's like, okay, fine. I don't care. Yeah, bring him in. I'll help him. I'm at that point. It's my last year. I'll even like show him a couple things.

Hopefully doesn't take him out of Costa Rica or anything like that. Can't you see the Steelers do it? Because the Steelers have been milded in this. We're good enough every year. We're right on the free. We're either in the playoffs getting knocked out early or we just missed the playoffs. And so we're always picking around 21 or 23 or 25, right?

And so we can't get that guy. We try to Kenny Pickett. We're bringing in Aaron Rogers, right? You're not going to be able to get this guy in a goal. This is a unique opportunity for the Steelers. I'm just throwing it out there. I hear you. I think it makes so much sense.

And again, I think Minnesota, Detroit is, I think Detroit is more of a long shot. But listen, Jared Goffs, I think, got two more years on his deal before they can void that deal. He's an older guy. Like, I mean, they don't have a young backup that they're grooming. Like, they're, Detroit is going to be another one of those teams. It's just super competitive every year. You're not going to, it's going to be tough to get a shot at this kind of a player for some of these teams. That's why I was surprised that he said second, maybe third.

But again, all of this was the, all of this and we just to quickly say it again with the absolute monster caveat. of are you comfortable with this? Do you trust him? Monster. I mean, it's just, you can't have a conversation. And the amount of resources that go into these kinds of decisions, the most of football is the, and having spending to spend time in Europe,

like their football is king. Our football is king too. And it is a multi-billion, billion-billion-dollar industry. and there is no more important individual in one of those 32 organizations than this quarterback, meaning there's no more important decision. And you now have just over a month, five weeks to make this decision. And only a week of an open window is Bert Breer shared with us.

You got like a pro day at a high school. And now you've got your team psychologist. You've got your security. you've got like there are so many people now that are being deployed in a short period of time during the off season people are supposed to be taking their breaks right now right some o't some o'ta some minicamp some of these guys like oh come on man uh-huh uh-huh um and there is the texas tech element and we'll get to more of that we will be back on monday as i said um and we're excited we have a seven-part quarterback series we're having the branding we're like we've had meetings on it We're fired up. We're going to go head to head.

We're going to start with Arch and Dante Moore. Metsch and I are going to dive into the tape. We're getting everything ready. And then we're going to follow it up, interestingly enough. And we're not going to veer from it. Sellers versus Sorsby is going to be the second one we did. Let's just stick with it. Just gives us context.

Yes, I love it. It gives us context. And there's similar styles and situations. One just now is going to enter the draft immediately. The other is going to be around for school for the next year. So I want to do that. There is the Texas tech element that we'll get to maybe later in the summer. Will Hammond, we both love him.

Let's go. We both love the young man. Eight games he played last year as a true freshman, but he tore his ACL. He's just a pure pastor. He's got some mobility. We really liked him. 73.6 QBR last year compared to Kirk Francis, who comes in from Tulane, 37.6 career QBR against FBS competition.

Tulane, he transferred in Kirk Francis, but Francis has thrown for over 3,000 yards. We'll get to Texas Tech later on. And Francis, come on. And Francis may wind up taking the first snaps of the season. But this is a massive story. We're talking about a Texas Tech program that is in the elite elite right now.

So there's a lot to get to for the rest of the summer. But today was an important day. We came back early, in fact, from our vacation. We're glad we did. This is a fun show. We'll be back Monday with Arch versus Dante. Congrats on the wedding. I'm way to close.

I didn't know if we're going to be able to get over the finish line or if she's going to figure out maybe she should run, but congrats. And I do want to hear about Italy. We'll just do it another time because. Today wasn't the day. Yeah. Buena note.

Oh, God. And I don't know how to say five stars in Italian, but five stars, Mitch. 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., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem?

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