The McShay Show - Our 2027 Big Board, NFL Week 1 Rookie Reactions, and the SEC Is BACK! Plus, Are Oregon and Oklahoma Cooked?

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Todd and Steve put their first 2027 NFL draft top 50 under the microscope, debating which prospects they’re willing to fight for, which quarterbacks could go ahead of Jeremiah Smith, and who outside the top 10 could crash the top five. Plus, they diagnose Oregon and Oklahoma, ask whether the SEC is back, and reassess the 2026 rookie class after Week 1. Check out Todd and Steve’s top 50 Big Board at TheRinger.com/McShay. (00:00) Welcome to The McShay Show!(02:51) Top 50 Prospects Revealed(04:15) Prospect you're willing to fight for(09:38) Preseason favorites that have us scared after week 2(16:58) #1 Overall Pick: Jeremiah Smith or the QB field?(25:44) Prospect most likely to finish inside the Top 5(29:22) Top 50 prospects that missed the cut(34:22) Is Oregon this year's Clemson?(46:40) Is it a Mateer problem or OU offense problem?(58:41) Is the SEC back?!(1:04:04) NFL debut takeaways(1:05:39) Best Defensive Rookie: Sonny Styles, David Bailey, or the field?(1:10:04) Worried about Rueben Bain Jr.?(1:13:07) Caleb Douglas: 5 REC, 94 YDS(1:14:56) Francis Maugioa: 36 pass-blocking snaps, 0 pressures(1:17:28) Jadarian Price: 52 YDS, 2 REC(1:19:41) Antonio Williams: 4 REC, 64 YDS, 1 TD The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines.Host: Todd McShayGuest: Steve MuenchProducers: Tucker Tashjian, Conor Nevins, and Daniel ComerSocial: Abou Kamara Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our first top 50 for the 2027 NFL draft is live. And today we're trying to blow it up. Is there a player in the top 50 that we're already concerned about? Are there three quarterbacks that you're willing to stamp as players you'd want to take over Jeremiah Smith? Plus, is Oregon in trouble like Clemson 2025 trouble? And finally, we're going to get to the rookies. Is there one that already has us concerned? Just 227 days until the NFL draft.

Mench, you good? I'm good, man. Hold that beat, Tuck. The McShea show is presented by Fandul. College Football Saturdays are here, and it's your most rewarding season ever on Fandul. With the all-new Fandual Rewards Club, every eligible bet can earn you points, win or lose.

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Sign up now at DeZone.com. Limited time offer see website for details. This is exciting, man. We get a lot to get to, but I'm going to ask you some declarations off the top here. You get to say yes or no. I want a yes or no answer from you. and we have the rest of the show to litigate, if you will. Okay.

Number one, Oregon is this year's Clemson. No. Number two, the SEC is the best conference in college football this year. Yes. Number three, Sunny Stiles is going to be the best defensive player from the 2026 draft class. Maybe, but I'll take the field. Number four, this quarterback class is good enough to produce three picks, that are going to go one, two, three

ahead of Jeremiah Smith, despite his presence in what we saw last week, even in a loss. No. Number five, final question. At least one player outside of our top 10 will eventually become a top five pick in the NFL draft.

No. All right, let's get to it. The top 50 is, up. This is exciting, man. It's great. It looks awesome. It looks awesome. It looks awesome. As you can see here, this is just kind of a screen grab, if you will. It's the McShea

big board. And by McShay, we mean it's the McShay show, if you will. It's Mention and I, we collaborate on all of this. It's all of his reports with my reports. And we have some really tough war room, draft room type meetings to come to a consensus on the rankings.

We also have the beautiful scouting reports that we're thrilled to present for the top five prospects and top 50 prospects in this class. You can see Jeremiah Smith there and that beautiful report. You can scroll through it, have some fun. It's the ringer.com slash McShay. The ringer.com slash McShay. Top 50's out, right?

Let's be transparent. It's a lot of summer work, summer tape. Did come back over the last two weeks and tweak a little, a couple things here and there with quarterbacks. There's a lot to get to now that we've seen two weeks. And every week that passes, there's going to be more reports that we're diving into and we'll have releases that follow, right? But I just want to get right into it. I've got a few questions that I want to ask and get your answer and I'll follow up with my answer,

but let's give the folks what they want on the day we finally release our top 50 prospects for what could be the greatest draft in NFL draft history. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be amazing. Amazing. All right. First question on my mind, who's the player that you're willing to fight the internet on in this top 50, Mench? Iowa defensive back, Zach Lutmer, just had three pass breakups in the three-point win over Iowa State. Playing a lot of safety right now,

the first two games, he's been basically playing free safety. In the past, he's played in the box a lot. He still plays in the box of Fairmount, but he's played in the box over the slot. He's just a really versatile dude, 6-1, 203 pounds.

There's not a lot that he can't do for you. And if that doesn't grab you enough, I'll go with, I'm going to come out with a statement here. Florida running back Chaden Ball is one of the 10 best. players in this draft. I will fight the internet on that. Say that again. Florida running back, Jaden Baugh, is one of the 10 best players in this draft. A draft that includes Jeremiah Smith, a draft that includes Leonard Moore cornerback.

Not putting over those guys, but yes. A draft that includes Colin Simmons at Edge, Dylan Stewart at Edge. Right? It's a really good quarterbacks. I will fight the internet on that one. Just the talent is. Dante Moore, he won't go there. He won't go there.

Delors. Darren Mentsa. C.J. Carr. 100%. We're going to get into the quarterbacks a lot today. And I don't want to, like, Dan will always tell me not to empty the clip too early. And don't, you know, like save some stuff.

And there's some things I want to say right now. But Jane Baugh, if he, like, he won't go because that, all the players and the names you just mentioned, And running backs don't go that early generally. But I think if you're looking at the big board, I would make an argument that Jaden Ball is one of the 10 best players in the country. I love them too. But it's rich for me when you talk about this class.

But I like it. And you pull the page out of my playbook and I always pull one out of Kuyper's. Give two answers with one answer. Yonse Pierre is going to be my guy. and listen, I get it. You know, everyone looks at this guy and he's, I think the internet sees a good edge prospect, a guy who shows up with some big sacks.

I think he had eight of them a year ago, right? I see a three-down, versatile wolf. And that's the position he plays in that Alabama defense, wolf. It's exactly what he is. He's a human coaching clinic. He'll play just as disciplined, violent and tough versus the run as he will as a pass rusher.

And he'll also drop into coverage. He can play all over that defensive front seven. I saw him on tape this summer do a little bit of everything. And so it didn't surprise me in that first game that he has a 27-yard pick six for a touchdown. Now, you're like, McShay, the production, it's not matching up last year, eight sacks, 14 and a half tackles for loss, nine quarterback hurries. This year, four tackles, one sack so far, two games. Watch the tape.

Watch what he does to set everybody else up. Watch how important he is, that versatile role as a wolf. He's a freaking wolf, man. I love this guy. So people are going to push back on him because he's not going to be the fastest. He's not the biggest. He's 6 foot 3. He's 250 pounds.

I think he's a special player. I'm not saying he's going to go ahead, nor should he maybe go ahead of Dylan Stewart or Colin Simmons. I think those guys are special too. But I think the guy that kind of always gets overlooked when we're talking about, top 10, 15 best players in this draft is Jansai Pierre, and I'm here to try to change that narrative this year, you know, provided that he puts up similar and expected better tape this year as the season progresses.

So that would be, that'll be where I go on that one. I can already sense you get a rebuttal. Well, I just think it's interesting. I don't have a rebuttal. I like the player. I think it's interesting that you have three edge players before the first offensive tackle. And just so people know how this works,

I get a ton of say. Like I am not, I don't walk out of our, our conversations feeling like I'm not listened to or my grades don't. There's a butt come. Don't have a, well, the butt is that you do have final say. Like someone's got to have final say. We can't just, you know, divide and like come in between and do like a consensus ranking. At the end of the day, it's your name on the board. Right, right.

Yeah, you can't do it, right? So in fairness, like, you do have to make calls. I do find it interesting that you have three edge players before the first offense. to tackle. And I think it's a good offensive tackle group. Just tells me that you need to fight and fight harder in our draft meetings. Yeah, maybe that's what it is, man. Don't care what you ask for. Number two is it pertains to our top 50.

Just released. Fresh off the presses. The ringer.com slash McShay is where you find it. We're so proud of this website and we appreciate all the hard work that's gone into it. Dan is kind of overseeing the whole project. Matt with the art and the graphics. Mal, like supporting it from the dot-com side.

And obviously up to the top with Bill Simmons, like when I came to him and said, hey, this is something we want to do. This is a passion project. This is my baby that I've been dreaming of doing and the fact that they put the resources into it and have supported that, we appreciate. Number two, which preseason favorite of yours already has you a little scared?

You ready for this one? South Carolina quarterback, Lenora Sellers. And look, let's be very clear about something. I'm not selling stock. I'm not dumping stock on Lenora's sellers, okay? 10 for 23, let me get this right. 10 for 23, 96 yards, and an interception versus Towson. Now I throw on the tape and I'm like, what's going on here?

What am I walking into? I kid you not, according to PFF, and this backs up everything you see, there were seven drops in this game. I would have been losing my mind if I was. I'm actually glad I didn't watch the tape. I've been studied. I did nine different tapes in the last week. You didn't get to the Taus and tape.

Yeah, there's a lot going on here. But I'm glad to hear that, to be honest with you, because it was something that jumps out. And the interception was popped off the receiver's hands. I mean, he hit the receiver right in his hands, off his hands into the DB's hands bad. Also, let's remember that he ran for 119 yards in a touchdown, and he still is going to do that all day.

He is an unbelievable runner. But both of these things can be true. There is some concerning stuff on that tape. And I see a quarterback who made some nice throws, but often isn't throwing with a lot of conviction and confidence. He is, there are a couple times you could see it with his footwork where he kind of did this thing where he's going to, like, he started his throwing motion with his lower body and then was like,

I don't know, and had to reset. And it looks funky. You could see that it looks funky. right and there's a couple more so this happened more often to be honest with you is you know what guys like kind of look like they're trying to just guide the ball in and they're not just like letting it rip and i don't mean like letting it rip like throwing it a hundred miles an hour like he does sometimes i mean just like going through your throwing motion and throwing again with conviction i'm seeing i'm seeing some issues with that and this is a guy has a strong arm this is a player with a strong arm there's a lot of floaters in this game there was a lot of just i'm going to try and maybe it was the drops that were getting to him. And he said, he was thinking to himself, I just got to like kind of lay the ball in for these guys. I don't know what it was.

It was unusual for me to see for him, but it's also concerning. And that's a thing that I do worry about. We had worries about coming into the season is the supporting cast. He's been running for his life last year. There were some protections of issues in this game. I do think it's a little bit better. Now you have all these drops.

Where is he in terms of his mindset? And that's what's going to be concerning for me, because quarterbacks that could go out there and play confident, play better. We just know that to be true. This kid has all the talent in the world. My concern is that this season doesn't go, just doesn't go well and really kind of derails them. It gives me a better feel.

Wait till you see it. Wait to see it. Yeah, and I have to now, now I'm intrigued and I'm going to watch the towels and tape. I would have at some point anyway. But is it a byproduct of he's starting to already lose faith in his targets or second guessing himself? Confidence is a brittle. Or is he just not used to the new system yet?

Is it just going to click for him in two weeks? I don't know. I don't know yet, but I'm concerned. Well, I'll stick it with quarterback, and it's not the guy that you maybe think that maybe you're a better man than me, but I'm not ready to go Levitt yet. Like, it's fine. He threw a few picks.

I got it. But I do have concern for DeMond Williams in the Washington quarterback, who I kind of went on a limb putting him in the top 50 towards the very end, number 44 overall, than 88 grade. I saw last year in addition to the obvious. He is sensational. It's funny, I heard somebody, and you know who you are. Talk about scumbags, right?

I heard somebody. I literally in my career of 26 years have never called, have never tried to convey the athleticism I see in a quarterback by calling him slot receiver like Twitch. and then I turn on one of the networks at a halftime show. Like, think of all the different ways you could describe. I didn't even write it down.

It wasn't in my scouting report. It just, I was, as I was about to say it, I was like, how can I explain to the audience what kind of twitch he has and what kind of athlete he is? He's not like a vertical receiver. He's not a sprinter. He's not this. To me, he's like, what kind of the prototype for that twitchy quick slot receiver?

Right. If he wasn't a quarterback, he'd be on your all satellite team. That's the kind of guy he is. Yeah, and he might even make it. Yeah. But yeah, so that was my point. And anyway, so we know that about his traits, but I heard you, whoever you are. That one didn't come out of the blue.

Anyway, I love his quick release. I saw last year, even though it's work in progress, a quarterback who can lead receivers, throw with anticipation, can make some big time throws. and I'm talking like the intermediate stuff, a 20, even 25-yard stuff, one side of the field to the other. I saw more in his passing than I expected to see,

ball out early, like hitting spots. And I'm not saying I'm not seeing it, but I'm seeing less of it so far when I was hoping coming into the year, I would see more. Now let me give it some context, right? Washington has now played two games. They're two and up.

He's running all, over the place, man. But they scored, like, they're only averaging 20 points per game in the first two games. And it was Utah State gave him all they could handle, right? Utah State gave him all he can handle. He's produced 517 passing yards, but only one passing touchdown. Just 6.5 yards per attempt. They're missing this vertical element.

And so it's me as much, I'm as worried about. like, is he going to be able to take that next step with this supporting cast as I am, like, more so. It's really about that. But I don't want to sit here and be like, I just needed to see him come out this year. And even though Denzel Boston's off to the, off to the NFL, and had that long touchdown catch as a rookie debut. And for the Cleveland Browns, probably the only highlight of that game. But he misses Denzel Boston, who was a big dependable, like, bound.

target, right, that he could take some chances to. I don't see that this year. Yeah, he's rushed for 117 yards for two games. Like, he's got all those things. But at his size, I think he's got to do more proving than maybe some of the other quarterbacks do. And I was counting on him coming out and kind of proving taking that next step. I'm worried about, and now they lose Quaid Carr and Jaden Leimer or Leamer,

their top two running backs to injury. for an extended period of time, and it's like, it's going to be interesting. I'm worried for him, not about him, is the best way I can put it right now. But let's keep an eye on that. Yeah. All right, here's the third question. And this is, I alluded to this off the top. What was your answer when I said, are there three quarterbacks that are worth passing on Jeremiah Smith?

Do you think they're going to be? No. As we sit here now, and that's the best that I can do, no. So let me transition this to I want to give some context to this question because the question was going to be if you're going to pass on Jeremiah Smith, generational type talent wide receiver. Like going back to Calvin Johnson for me, right? Who would be the three quarterbacks you do it for? If you're saying no, let me tweak the question. sure and albeit if there's a quarterback if there's a team up there drafting in the top three

they probably need a quarterback but not definitively like there have been correct times maybe you just drafted one last year you know Tennessee um was was an example um there's there's always the possibility of someone trading up to get one i get that right but all things equal if there if there's a team in the top three that like maybe they could take a quarterback they certainly could use one, but they also could use a wide receiver and who couldn't use Jeremiah Smith, and he's got that kind of grade for an organization. Who would be the two, are there two quarterbacks? No.

Is there one? Yes. Who? It's Arch. Ooh. I've kind of had, and I think it's the start of watching all these NFL games yesterday, a little bit of epiphany and realizing and starting to ask my question is, the question is, is this guy

an elite college quarterback or an elite NFL prospect or both? And I am starting to look at Dante Moore out of Oregon and Darien Mensa out of Miami as elite college quarterbacks who may not be elite NFL draft prospects. And what

I mean by that is the mobility and the size. You know, they're not small. Don't get me wrong with Moore and Mensa. They're not small. So that's a little bit, that's a little bit of a lesser thing. But in order for you to be a guy that goes that early. I think you've got to be able to do more with your feet and make more plays in terms of your mobility. So for me, Ken Lenora Sellers, who I just talked about how I'm

nervous about, I'm not sure that I'm confident taking him in the top three as we sit here now. I was earlier before, and I may be again, but right now I don't feel like that. And then you got other guys. Can Sam Levitt play his way into that conversation, that great mobility? Drew Mestemaker had an outrageous game against Oregon. Could he play his way into that conversation? Sorsby are somehow teams going to fall in love with him after the season. I don't see that happening. So if you're asking me that question and I'm looking at Jeremiah Smith go absolutely bananas over the first two games of the season, I mean, just outrageously good.

I can't, I just can't do it. I think that that's a guy that you have to consider taking above those quarterbacks. Points all well taken. And people are probably watching and be like, well, how? And I'll be honest, I bumped Arch up for. from our preseason. And I'm glad I did without talking to you. This is a change for me, by the way.

This is new. I know. And interestingly enough, Dan text me yesterday. Give me your comp on Arch. I don't know why. I've done cops like C.J. Stroud for Dante Moore. Like, we did cops throughout the whole. And I don't know if we did a comp for Art for Arch, but like I sat down.

I'm like, huh, right now, who is it? And I kind of what, I don't know it's full Drake May for Arch. And the tricky part, honestly, I think the closest thing to it is the Trevor Lawrence you're seeing now. Okay. The Trevor Lawrence you saw last year or this year. But I also think there's this bias or stereotype that Trevor Lawrence is one of the, like he'd never played up to what he was supposed to be generation. Trevor Lawrence was average at best for like three years, and then he started it, you know. But it's like, okay, but Jacksonville has an outstanding quarterback.

And I don't know if you want to put him in the top 10 in the league right now or top seven or top 12, wherever you want to put them. Like, I'm going to win some games with that sucker right now. Yeah. He was dealing last year and through one week he's dealing again. I get it. It was Cleveland. But my gosh, is he looked.

good. Yeah, I feel like Trevor was a little more consistent in college, but I get it. I see. Not pinpoint accuracy. Really? Yeah. Okay. He wasn't.

He wasn't. And there was the legs that would get him out of trouble in college. If you remember. Oh, I remember that. I mean, he could move. He used to say it was big time throws, big time, big time moments delivering, right? It was kind of a lot of that same stuff. But I wanted to throw in a Drake May with it because Drake wasn't.

coming out of college, it was that system run-pass option. Chip Lindsay, I think. Missed some throws, man. Missed some throws, and he's been more accurate. He was more accurate last year as a full-year starter. Now, you obviously, you're throwing in the three interceptions last week. That doesn't change in evaluation.

Anyway, my point is, and it's one-half of football, and it's amazing what one-half can do, but one-half can also remind you of what he can be. And also remind you of there was, K.M. Coleman dropping or fumbling, throwing, up, chucking the ball for an interception. And there was, there was, what's his name on the other side, dropping, dropping a wingo on the other side, dropping a touchdown. So like, and I constantly am asking myself, and I'm just playing off of what you're saying, because I'm in a lot of ways agreeing. What wins on Sundays?

Right. And it doesn't always have to be. precision, clean, best passer, mechanics, all that stuff. It's like third downs, fourth downs, red zone, two minute. Does my guy bigger, stronger, little mobile enough to, can drill it, drive it, and make two throws that ultimately change the course of an entire game? Arch has got that. And the things that Arch has got to get better at, which is so fucked up to me, by the way, that he's a manning.

It's all coachable. It's all coachable stuff. Yes. But he just needs to keep drilling home, right? So I'm not totally disagreeing with you. Now, the Dante Moore piece is, this guy's kind of a better CJ Stroud. Right. And if you get CJ Stroud as a rookie and CJ Stroud majority, not all of what we saw yesterday

and like maybe maybe Strauss coming back to what he was as a rookie a little bit. I'm like, yeah, give me that. Even though, even though Jeremiah Smith's absolutely sensational. And then MENSA, I want to see it against better competition. I want to see how this year plays out. But Mence is kind of a more mobile version of Dante Moore. And so my- Yeah, more mobile, like the tallest leprecha-on.

Like, I get that. No, Menta can extend more. But he's not going to, He's not going to threaten you as a runner. I hear you. And then there's the seller's component, the car component, the Chambliss component. Oh, car. I'll be honest with you.

Yep. I'll be honest with you. Chamblis is the guy. If he keeps doing what he's doing, he's got more magic in him than some of these other guys I just mentioned. So where I sit right now, it would be Dante and Arch that I feel really good about. Right. But I want to see Dante, and we'll get to Oregon in a little bit. I want to see Dante pick everybody up by the, by the coattails or by the, honestly, by their hair and their head.

Whatever. Yeah. Whatever it's like, find a way to pick them up. Let's go. Not gently, not like a pat on the, like, let's go. That's an interesting question and a great answer by you. And I think you're all just makes it super interesting because most, most years, I'd be like, yeah, take the quarterback. These guys are all, these guys all have the potential to be franchise guys.

but you mean Jeremiah Smith is is a different kind of prospect which player outside of the top 10 Tucker you throw up the top 10 real quickly for us if you're watching on Netflix Spotify you can see the it's basically a screen grab of what you can find at the ringer.com slash McShay this is our top 10 Jeremiah Smith as we alluded to number one cornerback Leonard Moore 2

out of Notre Dame. We got we got quarterbacks and edges and wide receivers really the rest of the way with Dylan Stewart, Edge from South Carolina, Dante Moore and Arch Manning and Darian Mensa right there, four, five, and six on the board. Cam Coleman, another wide receiver, Colin Simmons, Edge, both guys from Texas, then Lenora Sellers, as we just talked about, a little bit of an early crossroads, and Yonsei Pierre, my guy, who mentioned very subtly, who's been, Why is he ahead of my top offensive tackle in Goosby?

So with that is the backdrop, which player outside the top 10 is most likely to finish inside of the top five when we get a Texas offensive tackle Trevor Goosby? He's the best tackle in the draft right now. I thought he played really well against Ohio State. He is a, I mean, he's excellent in the run game, and I think he's excellent in past protection. And just look, you know,

to the last three drafts, we've had an offensive tackle go on the top five. They go early. There's one that's going to go in the top 10, if not two that go in the top 10, I think, just because these guys go early. And so two years ago was Will Campbell. The Patriots took him at four. And three years ago was Joel, and the Chargers took him at five. I do think it's tough to ignore Goosby as a potential guy to go in there.

Now, look, if you're going to make the argument for me that it's not going to be an offense tackle, I think we will get into this later on. I get that because of all the talent at other positions. This draft is awesome. But I think you have to consider an offensive tackle sneaking in there, and Trevor Goosby is the best of the group. Noted. You and the Goosby, love, noted.

Okay. I'm going Trinidad Chambleau. Love it. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, man, this guy keeps doing what we saw him do in the second half of that opener against Louisville. And then we have that Georgia. tape to go off of last year in addition to all the other tapes.

And even the Miami tape or the offense didn't have great production, but what he did in moments in that game. And he starts stacking more and more of these things. There were two quarterbacks I didn't mention there that I think have top five potential. And that's that's CJ Carr from Notre Dame and Chambleau. But I'm highlighting Chambleau here because, A, we've had the opportunity to see more than Carr. This early schedule for Notre Dame doesn't provide Carr that opportunity.

B, Carr's got a chance to go back to school for another year, should you choose. This is, Chamble's had to fight in the court of law to get this final year. So I'm saying Chambliss, like from the processing to the anticipation to when he rips the football, to the creation, the extension of plays, and then the proven, like, multi-time, big game moments and performances. I think this is a guy, you know, 5161 passing yards, five touchdowns, one pick in the first couple of games. But that Louisville game's second half was something special. And Chambliss is already moving up,

and I can see him vault in the top five. All right, last one, for the last one as it pertains to the top 50, then we get college football and rookies to get to. Who's the player outside the top 50 right now? So when you go to the ringer.com slash McShay, you're not going to find his name in there yet. Right, but you better be damn sure you're going to find them when we launch the next 25 or 50 prospects in the next several weeks. Who's going to be that guy for you, Mitch?

Want to make sure I pronounce this right. I wrote it down. Hopefully I don't get it wrong. It's Miami left tackle. Samson Okulola. You said, you asked me. I mean, you sent me a text. If you heard about this guy, I heard he can move.

He is 330 pounds, 6.6. He's got sweet feet. He's quick, man. He doesn't. He's one of those big-ass ballerinas, man. He can move a little bit. And I haven't seen enough to put a grade on him, but I've seen enough to get excited about the potential for this kid.

I can't wait. I know he played, he started against Ohio State in the playoff last year, by the way. And I know he primarily played guard last year. I cannot wait to throw on the tape, especially as the competition starts to elevate for Miami, excited about the upside with this guy. I'm going to revert back to my old ways.

I'm going to give you two, but I'm going to keep it brief. And you're going to find him in the next drop. KJ. Duff, wide receiver Rutgers. I think he's gotten a lot of internet love and rightfully so. But I don't know that the average fan of college football or the NFL will know who KJ. Duff is on a miserable Rutgers football team. This guy is 6'5. He's 225 pounds.

He runs a 4-5. He's not a great separator. I will admit to that. he is a outside possession receiver with an unbelievable catch radius his ball skills and acrobatic body adjustment ability and the ability to make contested catches which is necessary when you're not separating great is special and i think he's going to be a guy that like if it's not first round it's going to be top 50 when it's all said and done read harris is another one omarian miller got a lot of a love.

Amarian Miller, the other receiver, transfer from Colorado, got a lot of love coming into the season. Scouts were kind of torn behind the scenes on like which one's going to be better, higher prospect, all that stuff. Miller, I want to say the internet kind of fell in love with Omarian Miller. That was like, he watched his Colorado transfer. And he's a really good player. And he could be a day two pick. Watch out for Reid Harris.

Six foot four, 220 pounds. He's estimated, that's verified, by the way. in the spring at least by a scout estimated 4-4-5 and i see it 17 catches 333 yards and five touchdowns through two games okay no that was that was sorry that was kj duff you talk about two similar guys 6 465 220 225 it's almost like you like big receivers now we're a little slut guys huh so you heard the 17 for 333 with duff read harris 15 15 for 326 and four touchdowns, including nine for 189 and two against Texas A&M's defense. A&M, by the way, not Arkansas Pine Bluff, Texas A&M, man.

He's got some fluidity to him. He's got some run after catch to him. He had a 58-yard run-after catch this weekend. I'm excited to see those. You better believe these two guys are going to be included in a wide receiver class that was damn good. I would argue quarterback one, wide receiver two, edge three, if you were asking me, strength of positions in this year's draft class early on. And wide receiver is starting to get better as the season progresses and some of these guys emerge.

I think the offensive tackle and I think the corner glass class are going to be up there too. And safety, by the way. I mean, there's talent everywhere. The McShay Show is brought to you by Fanduel. College football Saturdays are already packed with reasons to get excited. And this season, Fan Duel is giving you even more. Make this your most rewarding college football season ever with Fan Duel. From the first kickoff of the day to the final whistle at night,

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It's order now. Order minimum of $30 required, valid on grocery, convenience, retail, specialty foods, or flower delivery orders only. Terms and conditions apply. All right, we got a transition now. Please check it out. Theringer.com slash McShay. We're pumped to to share it and hopefully you guys can enjoy it. It's going to be all year long of what was shaping up to be an unbelievable class. And you can follow it throughout this year leading up to the draft right there. And within that is the newsletter as well. Straight to your inbox.

You can locate it there on that page or Google it, the McShay report. And we're pumping out content left and right. So much so that Dan Comer, who edits the thing, he hasn't been able to find sleeves and like two weeks. He's been so busy working around the clock because I'm just pumping stuff out to him. I love you, Dan. All right, college football. A couple burning questions coming off last week. Texas, Ohio State was the story.

We covered it ad nauseum Saturday night, and you can still go back and watch that show. Oregon, though, is it's kind of sitting, like, I was struggling with it, so I wanted to get to it. Here's the first question. I have two questions I want answered on college football that we went back inside the tape. Oregon.

Can it be fixed? or is this the 2025 Clemson experience we're about to witness? All right. Here's the case for that matter. That's the team I like a little bit better. Clemson's not in this conversation, to be honest with you. Shame on us for making Clemson ranked as high as they were last year because they had a collection of NFL talent and they had a head coach who won a couple

championships. That team had won four games the year before, four games the year before that. They had backdoored their way into the playoffs by, beating SMU and the AC championship team, and they were quickly disposed of by Texas when they got into the playoff. That Clemson team wasn't that good. And the preseason rankings, they lost four games,

you're saying, lost four games. Yeah. Did I say when? Okay. You said one. No, I'm sorry. Because I know Clemson fans are, they lost four games.

It doesn't need to get any worse. You're on the edge with Clemson fans. So I just want to make sure we didn't get any more backlash. I got news for Clemson. They haven't been a serious national championship contenders since Trevor Lawrence was there. Sorry. You have. There you go.

There you go. There just haven't been. So I can't, and if this is, Oregon is potentially way worse. I mean, this Oregon team, you look at the preseason rankings this year. We had so many more answers to the test than we did a year ago. There were so many new quarterbacks last year. This year was a lot clearer picture of who the contenders should have been. And Oregon, I think, was still second in the AP poll coming into the year.

Look, talent all over the place. So this is going to either be Penn State from last year or I think it could be the 2024 Notre Dame team that lost the Northern Illinois at home. and then went on a run. It's going to be a harder route for them. Look, this is the Big Ten. It's not that Notre Dame schedule, but I think they can do it,

and I think it can be fixed. Will they? I don't know, because let me tell you something. This isn't one of those fixer uppers where you're like, you walk into the house, and you're like,

oh, it needs to do cabinets. Right now, looking at the state of that program, like they need a, this is a full gut job. They need to get everything fixed. And it starts with the coaching. I mean, they are one of the most penalized teams

in the country in terms of yards per game. And I know it's two games in. I get it. They are one of the worst scoring defenses in the country. They can't run the ball consistently. They have an offensive line. They can't win one-on-one and then it's struggling with any kind of gap exchange from the defense.

They can't pick guys up. They can't pass protect that well. You could say that Dante Moore is an issue and I'll get to him in a second, but there's a lot of stuff going on with that offense. I think the receivers, there's some stuff to talk about with those receivers in terms of, like, running clear-out routes and creating space for the quarterback that I think there's some of that stuff not going on. The safety play for Oregon has been atrocious, especially in the Oklahoma State game.

The safety play has got to get fixed soon. And I know those guys are young and there's two transfers. So it's three red church sophomores and two transfers in the secondary. But those sophomores played last. It's so fucking bad, man. It is so bad. I expect more of that. So look, there's a lot that's got to go on.

And you need, and when you're, I'll say this too, when you have all these struggles going on, you need your stars to play at their best, and they haven't. The defensive line hasn't played up to its ability. It hasn't been great. It's been okay. But they're not, you know, the guys are getting caught out of gaps. They're, like, they're getting gashed.

And then in top of that, Dante Moore has not been as bad. I'm not here for the bash fest on Dante Moore. I'm here for a nuanced conversation about how he hasn't played as well as we've seen him play at times. I'm not going to bash the guy, but he hasn't been special and they've needed him to be special. But the preseason analysis is sound, and I stand by it. This is a team that's lost three games in the last two seasons. That's why the Clemsons is not in the conversation. They've lost to Indiana twice last year.

Indiana went on to win the national championship. They lost to Ohio State two years ago after beating Ohio State in the regular season. Ohio State wins a national championship. This was a team that looked very much like it was building towards a national championship and making that march and getting better with each year. And it's not looked anything like that. So the question now is, can they regroup? Can they do what Notre Dame did two years ago, focus on what they needed to do going forward, and get into the playoff and then maybe make some noise and make a run?

That's the question. It won't be as easy as it was for Notre Dame because they got a tougher schedule. But they have the talent. They have the coaches. I think they're able to do it. Look, the offensive line play could get better. The coordinators could get better with more experience. It's got to happen fast.

It's got to happen fast. But yeah, it can't happen. Do they have the coaches? I think they do. I think they would have been, by the way, I think they would have been smarter by following the Ryan Day model and going out and getting guys like Chip Kelly

and getting guys like Matt Patricia and getting guys like Arthur Smith instead of saying we're just going to promote within because they know what we've done in the past. I don't think that's worked out for them so far, but I do think this team can get better. Look, you look at that Oklahoma State, game, if they somehow win that game, right?

We're like, wow, it hasn't looked good, but they're two and oh, and they survived. Drew Mustemaker had the game of his life, despite all of the breakdowns, despite how bad Oregon played. He had the game, he made a couple runs and throws in that game where you're like, dear God, that was unbelievable. And they still, they needed him to make every one of those. So yeah, I do think, I understand the sky is falling with these coordinators. I understand that.

I think they can get better, and I think they have enough talent on that team to get over the hump. He did make a few throws that were pretty awesome. He did have a couple runs that were like, damn, this guy can run a little. I'm not, this isn't the mess to make your segment, so I'm not.

I know the internet is in love. Bud, you got to admit. You watch the tape. I love the story. I love the progression. I hope that he continues to, but he came a day two grade. I gave him a day two grade. Let's be honest about it.

I gave him a day two grade. When I say, but I'm honestly more talking to the internet. I know. I loved what he did. So I don't even want to get into that now. Listen, Chris Hampton, the new, he was co-defensive coordinator with Tosh LaPoy, but we all know what that was.

Chris Hampton may become the next Nick Saban Bill Belichick for all I know. I don't know them. All I can go. And I want to say this, the first few series compared to, or the first two series, I think it was, compared to what happened. That picks, that picks six by number nine, Devon Jackson. Oh, my God. It seemed to spark them. And I saw a much more violent group.

First couple series, I'm like, what, like, wake up. It looked like, it was, it was a Friday night lights or when they go out to the, to the strip club the night before, like, yeah, like running into each other. And there was some talk about that because they're, they're playing that game, I think, was in a, like, for their bodies, they said, like they basically felt like they had to get up at 4 a.m. I don't want to hear. This is Oregon.

They have, like, you know what you had to do. You knew what was coming. They're, yes. Anyway, long short, like my notes earlier, I discipline, ball awareness, nightmare, secondary, repeatedly turned like routine plays into explosives. Perimeter run discipline was horrible. These safeties have no business being on the field with an Oregon Ducks uniform at times. Yikes. They have no business being a duck and playing on that field with the Oregon Ducks of 2025, 2026, the years prior.

like you a got a have got to study understand tendencies read keys discipline that is your job you're actually being paid for it now number two when you do fuck up you better get back into position oh my god you better bust it to get there the mess to make your touchdown run the mess to make her touchdown run man tells you there was another in-cutting catch um in-cutter a couple series later for the cornerback, who's the better cornerback of the two, you know, resume-wise, Brandon Finney.

Yep. Gave up a little separation. It wasn't horrible, but then missed the tackle after. But where's the help, bro? Yeah, the safety ran with the guy, they had three guys running down the scene. Awareness. It's like they're playing scared or they didn't study or not checked in.

I don't know what it was. But if those guys, it's got to be next up. There's got to be other guys in the program that at least will read their keys, be where they need to be, and hustle to the ball. Did you see Greg Olson, his pregame speech for his middle school team talking about what the expectations were? I expect physicality. I expect energy. If you guys, you can go get the water. And by the way, there's openings on the kickoff team because on the right side guys aren't getting it done.

I kept thinking about that speech. And I was like, dude, the game, one of the great things about football. is. Yes, talent matters. Yes, depth matters. But the game don't give a shit, man. If you're not willing to need a dude in the A gap, if you're not willing to execute when you're supposed to execute, make plays in the open field, tackle, get into the right and play within the structure of your defense. The game don't care, man. That's how good teams lose football games. And that's what we're seeing with Oregon. Talent, depth, everywhere. But they're not making plays. Yeah, there's got to be like Tosh. Tos Lopoy is missed.

as much if not. Like everyone's talking about Will Stein on the offensive side. My early takeaway is their flashes. It's there, but something's got to give with this group, especially in the back end. Like cornerbacks can't allow outside leverage. Safety is have to have to be safety nets.

We've got to all rally to the football. So like I can, I've got two pages, like two pages of notes that I wrote. Same. Same. it's there and this team's not going to fall apart

but I don't know that it's going to wind up being it's going to have to turn around fast and the other, I'm going to do a newsletter later in the week where I'm going to do, I want to save some of that with the Dante Moore stuff versus Mestamaker and I'm going to, in addition to releasing our top 50 and a mock draft by the way

we're doing later this week I should probably plug mock 1.0 is coming out. Dan signed me up for a mess to maker versus Dante Moore evaluation. So you get that too. He's a guy, he'll make jokes about the sleeves. That's fine. Guess what's coming down the bike?

In addition to not having sleeves, Dan doesn't have kids. So, like, it's hard for him to understand that, yeah. All right. Next question. Last one on college football for today. Oklahoma, is it a matured-tier problem or an OU offense problem coming off of that loss in Ann Arbor to Michigan. Big time flip-plopper on this one, man.

I went from here to here to here. I went from it's an offensive problem to it's a material problem, and I'm now back on to the fact that it's an offense problem. Look, the high throws are killing me. They are absolutely killing me, and he's just so inconsistent in the throw angles, and he's not seeing some of these things,

and he's forcing throws. But you know what? That same guy played for them last year, and they went 10 and 3 when they went to the playoff. And wouldn't it be nice if he had a running game that was a little bit better than 90 second in the country in yards per carry? Now, if that offensive line can get healthy,

maybe they can get a little bit better, and then I'll come back to you and be like, you know what, they can run the ball a little bit more and the offensive of the line's playing better, and he still is killing me. Then I'll say it's mature. But we haven't really seen him be able to do his best since he's been there, to be honest with you.

And yes, the thumb injury was a big part of it last year, but the office of line play and the running back play, like their running backs aren't hitting the hole, like the way that they should be hitting the hole. They're not really competing in past protection the way they could be competing in past protection. And I love Isaiah Satania. Like every time he gets the ball,

it's like, ooh, who are we going to get? Whether it's a return, whether he gets at the ball in space, I'm like, this guy's dangerous. Like, what is he going to do right now? But like the tight end beers, great name. I just don't know. I just don't know how. how great the talent is around him outside of Isaiah Satania.

I don't think the offensive lines played well. I know it's banged up. And again, the running game's not there. So how can we blame John Mateer for that? Because he's inconsistent. Yeah, I get it. I can blame John Mateer. Here we go.

If John Mateer, if John Mateer makes plays that a good starting quarterback makes in the passing game, they beat Michigan. So I'm going to blame John Matier. That doesn't, listen, that, I'll, tell you a few things because if you thought I had notes on on Oregon, I got three full pages of notes. Then they all look like this. Like deep. I, listen, I get it. Look, I told you I went back and forth with it. I know, I understand, but I'm telling you, quarterback gets blamed too much. Quarterback gets too much credit. This case, like, quarterback's going to get exactly what he

deserves. And if it's 55, 45, 65, 60, 40, or if it's 51, 49, I don't care. I'm putting more on mature. I do want people to understand this, though. And I'm going to come, scorched earth a little bit. Ben Arbuckle got applauded by Joel Clatt, I think it was, when I was watching the game. And Joel Clatt made great points, and Ben Arbuckle should have been applauded. For the adjustments, he made it half time, going against a man-to-man defense. Here's what Michigan was doing. It was Rush 3, drop a spy, man-to-man-man across, cover-too-high.

So two safeties are playing. You hear cover 1, right? it's cover two man you got two safeties up at the top half field responsibility and zone protect against the vertical right man to man across the board with by the way the best three cornerback

the best cornerback trio in man to man coverage I've seen so far I'm not saying they're the best in the country but a full game man to man the way they held up pretty damn good man so those three guys were impressive but there are man beaters and then

And the other part of it is you got a center who's getting his ass kicked. You got a center who was getting walked back. I'm not going to give his name. I'll give you his number, 69. You can look it up if you care that much. Getting walked back into Mateer, who's not the tallest quarterback and gets affected by interior pressure in his face. Why did it take us to halftime to start spreading out going stacked receivers one over the other, two by twos, three by twos, switch releases, man beaters.

Right. And why did it take us until halftime? Even though they're rushing three, our centers get in their ass kicked. And I keep watching the center, Mano A Mano, against 95 and 17, I think, were the two defensive tackles that we're getting push. And then the edge guys are awesome players. What is it? I believe.

Three, three name name. John Henry Daly. John Henry Daly. By the way, the name's perfect for the player and the player style. Like, he's a John Henry. He's a power. all physical pass rusher. Paul Bunyan.

And then the other side, you've got, you got Dom Nichols, who's awesome. He's not, he's, spin moves, you know. He's a violent player too, though. So they're great players. And I got, we got a double, we got a double at times and be conscientious of it.

But we're staring at a guy who's just walking our center right back into the face of, we got to make that adjustment after the first series. and then figure out how we're going to handle. Maybe we keep tight end chip, whatever it is. I feel you're making my point. I know. It took the half time to figure that part of.

So he did, Arbuckle did, and Oklahoma did make adjustments. You're Oklahoma. They've got a front office like an NFL front office. Jim Nagy runs the program, the front office, the general manager on top of organization, that everyone else in the country is trying to. emulate. That tells me they have the staff the way, like we know what they have. We've got to figure. If I can figure that out after a series and then two series, like, why is it taking us a half?

That's the first part. The run game, absolutely. You mentioned it. I don't need to double down on it. I'll just say that that was an issue as well. But John Matier, this is why Manning Passing Academy, I mean, when everyone was writing and taking videos, I got this one fly that loves the hang out. It's cool when my dog hangs out in here, Tilly. But it's not cool when I have one fly going back and forth. I love it. Two things with Mateer.

He tried to fix his mechanics in the offseason, and there are throws where you say, that looks better. Synchronization, eyes, feet, short, compact, we've talked about, right? it's just like pulling the strain, ripping it, but it's with the hips, with the hips. Yeah.

Okay? You see some of that. But only when he's synchronizing it all with his eye. He goes through progressions fast. This son of a gun studies the tape. And I want everyone to realize off the top, he is one of the greatest fucking competitors I've ever seen. He's up there with the T-Bos and the Haynes Kings

and the guys like that who will literally, lay his life on the line to win that one game, don't matter what. So I love John Mateer, and the reason I get passionate about it is, I want more from them. And I know he spent the offseason doing it, but I also said, I don't want to oversell what he did and how we looked at Manning Passing Academy until the bullets start flying. Well, they were flying against Michigan. Man to man coverage, sticky NFL guys, pass rush coming, center can't block.

They were coming. And when they started to come, two problems Matier has. And I finally nailed it down. One is he will revert back to, if the progression is so fast and he's so fast with his eyes, he will keep his feet. He'll start to move him. But the second he sees him and wants to rip it,

you can't just outcoach that of yourself. You can't coach it out of yourself in a couple months in the off season. This is going to have to be a two, three year grinding away, right? Because his feet are still going to wind up here. And he's throwing, this is the line of scrimmed. He's throwing body parallel. And what happens when you do that? Your plant foot, this foot, and your dry foot's back here.

But your plant foot's here, and I'm trying to throw to the right half. Some of them were closer to the right numbers. I'm trying to throw the right numbers. What happens in my throwing motion? I go, this. Where's my elbow? It's back. Where's the ball going to go?

Hi. Yeah. That's what happened. on almost all of those throws. Yeah. And then the other part with him is the touch throws. It's just not natural for him. He is such a leaf and he's ripped.

Yeah, he's a flamethrower. He's a flamethrower. So those are the two things. I don't know that we're fixing that. And yeah, the receivers aren't getting great separation. 81 can play. I take that back. Rocky Beers has got the best name in college football.

It's so good. He's a weapon. after the catch. Anyway, that's my takeaway. But here's my thing with this. It's both. But ultimately it comes down to the quarterback and he's got to learn how to slide his feet,

take an extra second. It's going to be okay. Get your feet underneath you. Be committed to that golf swing. And if you care so deeply about not letting your team down that you're willing to literally throw your body in front of a train. Care so deeply to slide a little bit and not get lazy.

And I hate to use the word lazy, but not to get careless. Careless with your feet because you're affecting your team when you're doing that. You've got to get it right. And I want it so badly for him. Go ahead. I want to push back a little bit here because everything you're saying is accurate, especially when we're talking about him as a pro prospect, right? As a pro prospect, these are all concerns that I share.

with you. I'm seeing the exact thing in film. I get it. I'm watching them fail Oklahoma, too, as a college quarterback. The college football teams and championships and contenders have been littered with this kind of quarterback. With this kind of quarterback who's not the most act, not the, hold on, not the most accurate passer, but is an absolute warrior and could kill you with his feet. So I get it. But how many other programs? I mean, I think. Tim Tebow is the name that keeps coming up to mine right now. Yeah, but Tim Tebow had, they had a run game.

They had Aaron Hernandez. So is that, is it a mature problem or is it that he doesn't have to be Tebow's supporting cast? Yeah, I hear you. I hear you, but that's, that's my pushback. Oklahoma as currently constructed needs more out of its quarterback. And I told you. 100% agree. It might be 5149.

And I'm going to always give the edge of the quarterback because he had plays. I'm not saying it's a land. This is all on my tier. I'm not saying that. I'm rational. I started the whole conversation out with what R buckles roll. It is. You talked about the running backs.

I'm stamping that. You talked about the wide receivers, not separating it. I'm stamping that. We got to be smarter, quicker with our coaching decisions and our adjustments. Can't wait till half time. I said it off the top. So 51, 49, 55, whatever you want, percentage-wise. But this guy's going to have to learn on the fly.

during the year, and I know it's damn near impossible, he's got to recognize that those sorts of throws, especially over the middle, throwing high, can't happen. And the only way he's going to solve it, he knows it. It's just reflex. It's muscle memory. He's going to have to slow down his whole clock a little bit

when it comes to making those throws in order to not put his team in a position to have to fight, you know, backs to wall. Right? I hear you. I hear you. All right. All right, moving on. The NFL kicked off.

You had one more, though. And I wanted to get to you on this one. You said, is the SEC back? Oh, yeah, you're right. Is the SEC back? Hell yeah. Hell, hap. Hell no.

The SEC is back. How? The SEC is back. How? And I grew up going to Michigan games. I grew up a Big Ten guy. Marshall Brown is rolling. over in his grave and my grandfather and he was a second dad to me.

But I kind of wanted Penn State to get beaten by that Miami team. I've just always had a little bit more of that rebel in me. I love SEC football. You heard it here, Big Ten folks. Listen, the Big Ten's been the best. They've won the national championship the last three years. SEC hasn't been in the damn game. I get it.

All those things. But we can't have a world in which the SEC isn't in the national championship. and isn't at least going head to head. Now, the draft picks didn't change last year. It's more SEC than Big Ten. And people are quipping and saying, well, you know, and people from the SEC side wrote, the middle is not as good.

And now the Big Ten coming in this year is like, well, there's more depth. There's more depth. All that stuff. Is there? I just saw Camarra. I mean, Oregon fading is definitely going to hurt that argument. Let me say this, okay?

This is why I say hell no. Okay. I answered your question. I think the SEC is the best conference in the country this year. Okay, I believe that. I think they are. I think it's still a little bit neck and neck with the Big Ten. When the SEC was the SEC from 2006 to 2012,

Alabama had three, Florida had two, LSU had one, Auburn had one. That was the SEC. Sabin v. Urban Meyer, K.M. Newton at Auburn. Tim Tebow when he was at Florida. That was the SEC. That was the golden era of the SEC.

I got Laine. I got Sark. Maybe. I hear you. I hear you. I got Chambliss. I got Leavitt. I got drama.

Awesome. What have they won? It's just different. What have they won yet? The SEC's just different. What have they won yet? The question is, is the SEC back? I can't, I can't replicate a decade.

This might be the start of it. I can't replicate a decade. in two weeks of a college football season. Correct, you prick. But you can't. But what I can do, what I can do is come out on the field and go eight and two versus power four, while the big tens three and seven.

What I can do is send our middle, and it might be bottom team, but they look more middle. Our mid, our mid Mississippi State up to Minnesota with Superman. Camario Taylor and shove it down your throat. Just could be the start of something. Big 10's going three and seven. What I can do is tease you and give you a half in Austin, Texas,

where the Ohio State's so big and bad, and they're so burly. And they came down here and they played loose, and they got Ferraris on the outside and Mack trucks in the middle, and we can run it down Texas's throat. And walk out of here. We're Ohio State. We're the Buckeyes.

or the Big Ten and fly on home to Columbus. And then all of a sudden, Arch comes in. And we out physical you. Yeah. Who's being the guys up front? And the defensive line starts affecting the quarterback. So now we're getting a little more physical with four on the perimeter. So TBD is what you're saying.

FCC in 2026 is back now. TBD. Can the cannibalization of it concerns me because now we start entering into where Oh, no, fuck that. Fuck that. I'm tired of hearing that. Like, I'm tired of that. But every time I hear, Penn State only plays two of the best five,

and Oregon only has to play here and there, and they get a tough one against Washington. Like, they're playing nine good on goods, man. I hear you. Great on great. But iron is sharp and iron, and the team that comes out should be the one that went to national. I implore the committee that is not watching or listening to this show probably. And that's fundamentally their first fault.

I implore the committee. This is a year with the nine conference games in the SEC. We better watch the tape, study, bring analytics in, but study the analytics on the effects of playing this level, caliber, strength of schedule, week in, week out. It should be a different, I mean, strength of schedule, strength of schedule, strength of record, I should say, is the best indicator to me.

And it's not the only thing. But at the end of the year, we have all the data points in there of who's good, who beat who, when, where, all of it. And then at the end of the year, I'll be shocked if the strength of schedule doesn't show six teams that belong in the top 12. Maybe.

This could be the start of it. I'll go TBD. I'll give you TBD. All right. Rookies. We had some unbelievable rookies. It was cool watching these guys. It's almost like when you have a baby, you know?

I guess maybe you're a surrogate. I don't know. You're some kind of family member and you're passing on the child. Maybe you're sending your kid off at college. You're still rooting. You're still pulling for them, but you're empty nesting a little.

Whatever it is. It's always fun to watch. And I'll be honest, like watching Jackson Dart. That progress from year one, year two. And now all of a sudden, I'm like, you stay healthy. Like, we've got a guy. And I knew, but I was higher on Jackson Dart than everybody. By the way, am I crazy, or did I hear that, like, Malik Neighbors was never going to play football again?

And then all of a sudden I throw on the first game of the season and he's out there making plays for him. Six catches. Six and seven yards. Like, what do we, what was that? Like, wasn't it like he may not ever be the same player? I mean, that, that Giants team looks real good, man. By the way, that Carter cat who went number two over

he's kind of fast off the edge. Anyway, it was fun to watch a lot of those guys. But the rookies, they're fresh out of the playpen. Right? We've turned them over to the NFL. I got a few questions I want to answer on this. Based solely off of week one in the NFL, rookie debuts, based solely, Mench,

off of that debut. Who are you taking? when we look back on it and say from this 2026 class the best defensive player was or three years from now the best defensive player is from this 2026 class and i'm giving you three options a b or c sunny styles david bailey the field oh the field oh now it gets interesting i'll get her into this first i didn't know the field was going to be an option i didn't know to check you check your text i I checked. Look, I looked. Did you change it?

Oh, is that part of the change? I thought I had the change. But let me just say this. Stiles over Bailey. I, give you Stiles over Bailey. I thought Bailey had a really nice start. I think he's going to be a solid starter. I love the motor.

He's going to be good for them. Sunny Stiles already looks like a different cat. And there's a difference between doing against Tennessee, like Bailey was doing it and doing it against Dallas. Philadelphia. No, Philadelphia.

Yeah, Philadelphia. Yeah, Philadelphia. Sorry. I had rainfall for a second, but Philadelphia, like, Stiles was doing it. Like, would you see Sunny Stiles taking on Lane Johnson

and getting off the block? You're like, huh. And you see Sunny Stiles, more importantly, I mean, it was the, I mean, it was the highlight of the weekend. Sunny Stiles just rooting out Sequan Barkley and sacking J.

Yeah, no, but I thought Sonny Stiles wasn't that physical. Oh, my God. Scouts were saying that you can't have him the top five. He's not, he's not a hitter. He's not, he's not physical. He's just a great athlete. He's just a combine guy who can, who can cover a little bit. I thought he couldn't, but I couldn't, he can't do that, right? Yeah. Fuck out of here.

Get out of here. Also the coverage, some of the stuff that he's doing in coverage. I think he's got to get better in coverage. He does. But you see it. You're like, holy, like the things that he can do, you're like, holy shit. So styles over Bailey. I haven't seen Monster Delania a plan. You know how much I feel about Monster to land the corner of Kansas City? Let's see. Let's let's let's hold Monday night. Yeah. But I'll take the field.

And here's why. I love the Sunny Stiles coming out party. I also like what R.V.L. Reese did last night. And I think that maybe not as splashy, not as a coming out party as Sunny styles, but this could, I mean, it's going to be, I just want to have that conversation.

These two Ohio State guys that are very similar in the terms of their height, weight, speeds, their versatility. By the way, Sunny Styles coming off the edge a little bit in that game, too. Seeing a lot, like a little versatility. I was encouraged, but I saw from Arvel Reese, so I'm going to say I'll take the field.

A Reese or a Delane could be the guy. Man, Sunny Styles was awesome, awesome. I'm going to take the field. You are! I thought you were going to stick styles for sure. I just want one guy. Gabe Accus. Oh, stop.

Get, get. Come on, bro. It was a good start. It's a good start. Two tackles for loss. Just baiting. Just baiting. Why can't it be Gabbacus?

Wrestling background, Trey Hendrickson, I told you, I'm telling you, people are like, Trey Hendricks is the worst comp I've ever. Yeah, but the wrestling background, the way when he engages, I'm not saying they're perfect. I'm actually not taking the field. I'm actually going to take Sunny Stiles, but I wanted to bring awareness to Gabe Accus is, like I love that he made that impact. After holding out, too, by the way,

didn't have the training camp and the work that, but we should mention with David Bailey. That's not just brush over it, that it was Tennessee. Like, oh, David Bailey. He played well, man. 34 of 49 snaps, four tackles, six pressures, team high, and a sack.

Same number of sacks as Gabe Acis, but that's still a great day, you know? Jesus. All right. Next question, rookies. This one, we just did a whole,

not a whole show. We did a portion of a show last week on, on guys were fired up to watch in week one. And beyond, but week one. Let's see what's. So maddy right now. And you did,

and you gave the quote that I loved, and I was with you. I was vibing on it, man. I was feeling it in like my, I was like, you know, let's fucking go scorched earth on the, on the NFL. Take my hat, put it on. Let's go. Ruben Bain.

Are we concerned already about Bain after that first game? I hate you. Couldn't just let it go for a week, see how he bounces back. I'm a little concerned. And I don't want to be a little concerned. I don't want to be a little concerned. I want to say it's only been a week. Let's not get concerned.

But, I mean, he, I didn't see the violent hands. I didn't see the explosive speed to power overpowering. I mean, Amarius Mims, the right tackle from Cincinnati had his number all day. I mean, just, and it feels like all day,

38 pass blocking snaps for Mims, zero pressures allowed all day. Good to see Mims finally developing into that guy. Yeah. Or is he? I don't know. That's terrifying too. Also,

um, it feels like length was a part of it. It feels like he was having a hard time getting, and like, yes, I hate this conversation. I don't want to have this conversation. I don't, this is the, like, don't make me say it.

But that's what I'm seeing. That's what I saw in that game. What I saw on tape. A little concerned. The concerning part isn't the zero sacks. It's the zero wins that I saw. He didn't win. He was a non-factor in this game.

He didn't win one. His power stalled. Didn't see like counters. He was controlled. with length. It's one game. But Mims is one of the longest, like I remember Mims coming out.

It was all talent, no experience, no, like he's a project, all that stuff and some, all of it. There was a lot of stuff there. But he is long and big, like, you know,

so, but here's my counter to that. It's one game. You got to play it in order to refine it and to keep work, like, you know, yeah, there's no question he's going to be a high-impact player in the league,

but there's also no question that he's going to run into some dudes where he's going to have to have a better plan and he's not ready to, he can't physically just win battles like Bailey can with his length and speed and those sorts of things. He's got to find ways and he's going to overtime. I think it could take a year before we see Bain become a true, but it also could take three weeks. We'll see.

But yeah, there's some, There's some concern where it's like, oh, not what I was hoping to see the first time I saw it against a long, big offensive tackle. No, it doesn't help the burrow gets the ball out, but that wasn't it, man. It wasn't the borough was just getting the ball out so quickly. It was a problem. All right, last question for you. Last one.

Which two rookie debuts demand an encore in week two? Meaning fish has an awesome concert, man. They're making you feel it so hard. You need an encore. You're dying. Feeling it so hard. You're dying to get a second look to be like, is this real? Because what I saw, I'm excited about.

I keep looking down because, first of all, I'm going to go with two guys who I thought were drafted too early. Because I'm going to be wrong about guys that I like, and I'm being wrong about guys that I don't like. going to happen. I'd rather be wrong about the guys that I didn't like coming into the process and are now doing well. And I'm fine with that. Okay. I'm also peeking down on my phone if anyone's watching us on Netflix for a reason. One of our listeners, Ryan Ashley, reached out to me. And he said, you realize that Caleb Douglas, the wide receiver, the third round pick out of Texas Tech,

had the most receiving yards by a rookie in a, in a debut. He had 94, five catches for 94 yards since Puka Nakuwa. And I was like, you know what? Thanks for the heads up, man. And then I watched the tape. And he is, look, he's 6-3, he is 6-3-200, I think, 205 pounds. And he's a slot receiver, but not really a traditional slot receiver. We were thinking about this, I can't do what McShade's does, but the, he's a guy who's going to win with physicality and toughness over the middle. And that's what he was doing in this game. Caught the ball well, he would take a hit, bounce off of it. And then you add in 4-3-9 speed. He could threaten you vertically. He can make plays on the outside. He can line up on the outside for you. I mean, as far as far as,

As far as starts go, it's going to, listen, Miami fans, it's going to be a tough year. It can be some, probably going to be a lot more Ls than Ws. They know. You don't have to whisper. They know. But they've got some rookies that you're going to want to watch because in a couple of years, guys like Caleb Douglas, Jacob Rodriguez, had 14 tackles, 14 tackles all over the place. Some of the guys that they got, these young cats, keep an eye on them because they're going to be

difference makers in a couple years. It's going to be worth watching them this year. Will we go the second one right away? Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Actually, you know what? Let's go back and forth. That way everyone can breathe. I'm going to surprise you with this one. I'm going to go offensive line, man.

I got a glimpse today as I'm ripping through and doing all this other tape, and I had to plug in the tape. And you're right, the NFL Pro. That's a good product, man. We've used in the past, but now it's synchronized with the next channel. But Sissy, Maui Noah. Such a weird name for him, yeah.

Francis Maui Noah. But Sissy, right, it's perfect. It's perfect for him because he's a monster. Right guard kicked in from tackle at Miami. We talked about the conversion that's likely to happen. Eventually he might kick back out to right tackle, but he's the right guard for the New York Giants. He comes in, and we knew all along the process.

The Giants wanted him. There's a few names that we knew they wanted, and Maui Noah was one of. of them. Caleb Downs is another one. But anyway, Maui Noah comes in has 36 pass blocking snaps, zero pressures, zero quarterback hits, and absolutely dominated in the run game for a rookie in his first start. He became the first, you ready for this nugget? First rookie since 2018 with at least 35 pass blocking snaps in week one without surrendering a pressure. Impressive. Impressive. Cool. And by the way, behind him and four other offensive linemen and others who were blocking, 165 yards, 4.5 yards per carry. And he didn't do it against, you know, you could list off. You're talking like Quinn and Williams and a defensive line. Kenny Clark. You know, those are grown ass men.

So it was pretty cool to see there. So hats off to Maui Noah and kind of. A, protecting the investment, protecting the franchise and Jackson Dart, because he stays healthy and keeps playing on this trajectory. The Giants could be one of the surprise teams in the league. And number two, like opening it up for Scatibou, physicality, first game, the efficiency, down in, down, out, consistency, not having a bus. Like, that's pretty hard to do. Yeah, pretty awesome. I'm excited about just a tone setter for that team. Again, that giant team looked awesome.

I live in, as you do, we live in New England. I live in New Hampshire. We're watching the Patriots play the Seahawks last Wednesday. And my steps on Tyler starts blowing up my phone about Seattle running back Judarian Price. First text I get, price. And then the greater than sign, love. Price greater than love. then you really blew it with this guy.

What didn't you see? Like just on and on, like just relentless, hitting me up with how could you have not? Like, this guy is awesome. He might be one of the best running backs in the league and he's a rookie. Look, he had 10 carries for 50 yards. He didn't like, I mean,

it wasn't the craziest stat line ever. But man, the kid looked explosive. He looked, I mean, they're going to be, they're going to attack the perimeter with this guy. I'll say this. I'll say this. One thing in your report was absolutely true. he has a bad habit of bouncing outside when he doesn't need to.

But he was better. He was better against New England. He was. There were a couple times where I was like, you know, he was right on that. Yeah, but he doesn't look good.

He was more aggressive about getting North South in this game than he has it in the past. He did do it. He did revert to it bad habits a couple of times. But I also thought he had a really good feel for the cup back lean. And I also thought that when he got North South, he squared up and there was some explosive finishing power. he ran with an edge. Look, Sam Donald's going to be out.

He's going to miss some time. This kid's going to have to step up and play a bigger role for Seattle. I'm excited to see what he can do with it. I'll tell you what running back report we were both on, but you nailed the nuance of it. And it's why the 49ers took them in the fourth round and maybe in other schemes it wouldn't.

But you watch the 49ers with how many times they pull backside guards, tackles, the counters, the different things they do. you better be able to read, feel, and hug, as you said. And the way he hugs, man. The way he hugs, blocks is different. And look at his production. That's a nice, that's a nice piece that San Francisco got that everyone is kind of banging on.

And even I was like, I love the pick. I felt early. I love the player. It felt early. Maybe we could get him in the fifth. Maybe there was somebody else. But like, if you love a guy, go take him. And John Lynch did that.

And early returns are really good. I'm going to pick one of my guys here. And I have to. I fought so damn hard for Antonio Williams. Oh, yeah. Yep. There's your little slot. There you go.

My little slot. Let's go back to my roots. I will kill you. Hey, Jalen Noel. Do you watch him for the Texans? Dude, we both love him. Tough, dude. I know.

I'm just saying every year I'm taking on water with this McShay loves his little slots. Quarterback snaps and little slots. And Tony, all you need to know is he's the 71st pick in the NFL draft. 71st. He was the leading receiver of the commanders. He had four targets, caught all four, not surprising considering he had a 1.8% drop rate last year. Aggressiveness after the catch, ability to uncover quickly. We saw it all on display. It wasn't awesome. It wasn't the spectacular, but 30% of the past attempt downs from what I read, I didn't chart it myself, but it had,

up. He was only on the field for 30% of the past attempts. Yet he led the team with 64 receiving yards and a touchdown. And I also had one down to the one. And by the way, the one that he caught the 15, 16 yard catch, I think it was, where he got down to the one yard line, almost got in. He kind of turned Cooper DeGine around. I don't know. It's good to see a guy that you, we had a, I had a top 50 grade, I believe, on him. I would have to go back in and looks fendively. I love the guy. And to see him come out and have that production as the 70,

there's now two bugs. Seventy first pick is pretty cool. And by the way, his, I got to believe his, his share is going to start to increase, not just the targets, but being on the field too after that performance.

Yeah. Love it. Yeah. I mean, there's, look, Eli Raritan caught a touchdown, the Notre Dame tight end,

former Notre Dame tied in caught a touchdown for New England. He looked good. Ken and Sadeek made a couple plays for the Jets. He looked, I mean, there was rookies. It felt like every game I threw on. Did I get to your second or did I just jump you with my second? Did I Jeterian Price? Oh, you did Jeterian Price.

Oh, you did. All right, sorry. Yeah. We have got to a lot of stuff. It was. I got a lot of stuff. Can't wait to hear about the Dan comments after this one. I mean, I like the show. I hope everyone else liked the show.

The ringer. It was fun. Slash-Mixie is where you can go get it. Top 50 is up right now. All of our valuations. We've got a spider charts. We've got all this stuff. And as the process goes on with the combine numbers and everything else, it'll be just as beautiful.

It's just as beautiful. It will be just as filled out and informative with everything that we get from the process. We'll be there at your thumbs or your mouse. And the mock draft is real. It's this week. And by the way, if you subscribe to the McShay report, Google it, subscribe, go to the ringer.com slash McShay and subscribe. I sound like an infomercial, but I just got to give you the information.

You can't say McShay, why didn't you tell me? I could get the mock draft two days early before it gets released and go get it. If you subscribe, we're going to get, there's going to be reasons and incentives to subscribe beyond all of the other great content that we provide, including every Sunday morning you wake up and you get your prospect notes. Literally, it's like you're sitting on the couch. We're just talking about prospects and all the things that are jumping out. So it's all there in the McShea report.

And the mock draft will come out. You'll get it on Wednesday, I believe. And it's in your inbox, too. Nice and easy. You know, if you go looking for it because there's a lot of shit that we're all scrolling through these days. Mench, this was fun. Five stars.

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