The McShay Show - Scouting Garrett Nussmeier: Is He Baker Mayfield 2.0?

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Welcome back to The McShay Show! Todd and Steve begin their search for the 2026 QB1 by diving into the tape of LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier. They break down Nussmeier’s upside, his best NFL comps, and where they think he needs to improve as a prospect heading into the 2025 college football season. (0:00) Welcome to The McShay Show! (5:57) Summer Scouting Series: Evaluating Garrett Nussmeier (12:58) Garrett Nussmeier Mental Makeup(25:19) Breaking Down Garrett Nussmeier's Tape(34:26) Scouting Nussmeier's Physical Traits(42:42) Expectations for Nussmeier's 2025 Season We’re off for Memorial Day week, but on June 2 we’ll continue our Summer Scouting Series with a report on South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers. Be sure to tune in and subscribe to ‘The McShay Report’ for access to all of our summer scouting content. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Todd McShayGuest: Steve MuenchProducers: Tucker Tashjian, Mark Panik, Conor Nevins, and Daniel ComerSocial: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mench, you know this man. Sometimes the tape just speaks to you. That was the case for me with Garrett Nussmeyer, the LSU quarterback. It should be a fun one today. Our summer scouting series continues next. And we're going to sort up this QB1 situation heading into the 2025 college football season. You know, there's just 336 days until the NFL draft. There he is.

Mench, you good? I'm good, man. All right. Seduce me a little bit. bit, Tucker. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite parts of the year. And I love that big smile on your face, man. Summer scouting series. We've thrilled in. Like, this is where we belong this time of year, because it's where the process is. It's what NFL scouts are doing. So we've got to share that with our audience. And speaking of our audience, like, appreciate the support. The fact that this

number of people are still watching us at this point in the year, in the NFL and college football schedule just shows what we're building here and we just want to say thank you i can speak for steve here we are truly appreciative and meds mech tell the folks how they can continue to support us the way they have uh hit the follow button on spotify go to the youtube channel the mcchey show and hit the subscribe button leave a comment we're reading the comments we appreciate all the comments we really hope you guys are are feeling like you're a part of this thing because we're trying to make you a part of it uh he's at mcshay 13 on his social is Instagram and X. I'm at you good mensch. That's M-U-E-N-C-H and consider subscribing to the McShea report.

I mean, I said it on the last show. I thought the last one. We talked about Arch Manning. I thought it was one of my favorite ones so far. And Garrett and Usmeyer, the breakdown is going to be on the McShay report as well. So Google that, subscribe. And yeah, which is all-encompassing. Let's get you kind of hook, line, and sinker. Let's bring you in and let's continue to build this thing. in the comments, Mitch, I had a great opportunity yesterday. Up at 4.30 in the morning, get up to Logan Airport, fly to DTW, Detroit, and was invited to this, it's called Spotify Sessions. For people who don't know, we teamed up with Bill Simmons and obviously his company, The Ringer. Our good friend, Ryan Rosillo, kind of helped with his career. He helped with my

career. It's kind of come full circle and we're all working together. But the parent company for the ringer is Spotify. And we all know Spotify. Like, who doesn't have Spotify as part of their life, right? And so it's really cool to like take a day away from all this. By the way, is there any better place in the world to watch tape than on an airplane? You love watching tape on an airplane. Oh, my gosh.

You know, I'm not. I'm raw dogging, man. You raw dog it. You are a raw dogger. But so, yeah, I took a day away from. from like being here in the typical grind, but I did watch Nuss Meyer on the way out and on the way back and finished up about one in the morning and sent,

Connor and Dan all of our, all the stuff to get the newsletter going and preparing for the show. But in Detroit, I say it was fun, man. Like normally that's kind of stuff. I'm like, it's cringy. You know, going to talk in front of a hundred bad advertisers.

It was really cool because you know why? Because, and this obviously in Detroit, with the automobile automobile automotive. I can speak. It's a helpful trait to have in this industry. But in their industry, it's all about automotives. And so a lot of advertisers from all different corporations.

And they're excited. And the people at Spotify are excited about what we're doing. And to hear, you know, because we're so, it's just like we're talking to Dan. We're talking to Connor. We got Mark in the background. We got Tucker setting this, all this up. And I think what's lost is like there's this whole thing going on. And there's excitement about what we're doing and to share kind of our passion.

And one of the things I was I was explaining, I'm like, for like 17 years, I was obsessed early on in my career about the comments and all, but it was such a negative environment. And I got here and I was so nervous after the first couple of shows to go back into that comment section that's like poison. It's like, Sabin says rat poison. And I'm like, and so I like winced as I went and started looking through. And I'm like, oh, people are kind of enjoying getting to know us, knowing our process and kind of scrolling up. And I'm like, okay, constructive criticism.

Yeah, yeah, he's right. I do need to, I do need to let Medge talk. He agrees with my daughter, Allaire. So it's just, it was really cool to share all that. And the best part of it, I'm going to be honest. We've been very fortunate in this industry to meet a lot of amazing, highly successful, driven, motivating type of people. So like a lot of times, I'll be, yeah, that's cool.

I'm excited to meet him and get to know him a little bit. But then I found out that I'm co-hosting this thing with a couple of executives, but also DJX. That had to be cool. Spotify. Like I told her, I got up on the stage. I'm like, yo, X, I've already got a, you don't know about it, but I got a relationship with you already.

Like, you start a good playlist for me on my Spotify. When I'm driving in the car, I'm like patting you on the head. You don't even know it. And then I get pissed at you sometimes, too. So it was really cool. It was cool to see that there's support in this company and people are noticing what we're doing and kind of on the forefront with some of the video stuff. And they were sharing all the things from our show. So I'm excited to continue to grow.

All right. Let's get into it. Let's go. Garrett Nussmeyer, LSU quarterback. I'm going to start with this before I get into his profile and bio and background. What a thrill ride, man. What a thrill ride. Like when I open this up and said like certain prospects,

speak to you, like the tape speaks to you. Some guys like you're watching it and you're kind of grinding through it and you're looking at it like, all right, what's he going to do next? And you're hoping to, this was like, I can't wait. All right, this game's over. Every game was telling a story to me. And I'm like, what's next? How's you going to respond next week? And it was, it was so much Baker Mayfield.

Like the thrill ride, like the ups, the downs. It's the best comp you've had, I think, maybe ever. I mean, because I didn't, I saw that, I wish I had seen it after, to be honest to you. I saw that comment on X before I really started to dig in. And then I could, it was, it was, I wonder if it would have been the same way if I hadn't seen it until after. But it was in my mind the entire time. I'm like, God, he looks like Baker. He plays like Baker.

It's very, very familiar if you watch Baker's tape. It's like you have to take, you have to take a deep breath after every game. And he's like, all right, I'm going to need a minute before I go. Like that old Miss game, all right, I'm going to need a minute before I dive into Arkansas. Like I got to kind of. Yeah. We'll get into all of it. Right.

Let's just give it. Sorry, for everyone who's watching and listening, and we appreciate it again. Let's just give a little background on Garrett. He's listed at 6-2, 200 pounds. We'll see what the officials are next spring, right? He is a little light. Not small, but light. Same kind of deal with Baker.

Baker was a little bit thicker in the lower, but he's not lean. I wasn't watching and looking at he's lean, but Baker's just got a real thick trump. Garrett is entering his fifth year, okay, but his second year is a starter. He's played in 31 games, but just 14 starts. So remember all that talk last year? I got all the pun, I call him pundits, whatever you want to call. Everyone was racing to X and racing to Instagram and racing to threads. And it was like, I've had him in QB1 since August.

No, I had him at QB1 since July. And we kept on saying, like, love a lot of the stuff he's putting out there, but he's not ready yet. You know, and really, we were like encouraging him ourselves as we were talking through it, really want to see him come back to school. So here he is. He's 10 and 4 as a starter, engineered three, fourth quarter wins as a starter. One of them was actually that was the bowl game the year before.

Wisconsin in the Reliacquest Bowl at the end of the 2020-season. He started two bowls. He was MVP of both of those bowls. Great nugget. Yep. Yeah. Last year, as a starter, completed 64.2% of his throws over 4,000 passing yards, 29 touchdowns, but 12 interceptions, okay?

Gritty competitor, vocal leader, in charge, tough as nails, missed six plays shoulder injury against Oklahoma. He looked like he was done. I mean, I thought maybe not for the game either. I thought he was, I mean, it did not look good. Oh, he missed six plays, comes back in and they wind up winning that game 37. His father, Doug Nuss Meyer. Hold on really quick.

I got this nugget off his profile. He had statistically the most prolific first year starting quarterback season for LSU. More passing yards, completions, attempts, touchdowns, and total offense than any other first year starter in program history. Think about that. I mean, think about the guys. I mean, yeah, that's impressive. Very. Is dad, Doug?

was a quarterback in the NFL, also NFL quarterback coach. So like growing up around the game, you know, Texas kid, big time, 6A or whatever, you know, the highest level is. He also graduated in May interdisciplinary studies. So he's got his degree already. So going back for graduate school in this last year. That's kind of the backdrop, okay? when we evaluate quarterbacks, every single position has what we call universal traits, where it's production, and we give a grade to it, you know, one being elite, two being good,

three being average, four being below average, five being marginal. And so with every player, at every position, that's why we call it universal traits. You've got production, you've got durability, you've got intangibles and medical, right? So we can get, let's get a more complete picture next spring when we're going into the NFL draft. I would say his production is a one coming into the seat off of one year as a starter. But it's an incomplete picture, right? For quarterback specifically, and every position has its own specific traits, right? For quarterbacks, and there's a lot of sub traits for each of them, okay?

But we try to break it, and this is how we've done it for over 20 years. we've got four quarterback specific traits mental makeup being one okay accuracy being two load to arrival was a term i think trent dilfer kind of created that and it actually speaks to me there's a lot of different terms and buzzwords and all this like arm talent but like essentially we we've always done release release quickness combined with um you know arm arm strength velocity of the ball energy whatever, however you want to phrase it. But that's the third one. How quick can you get it from me to be?

Right. That's why I do like the phrase load, like LTA load to arrival, essentially from when you've made that decision that you're going to separate your two hands to when the ball arrives, how fast is that process? Because some guys have really strong arms, but it's a windmill, you know, down the back shoot takes a little too long. So it slows down the whole process. And then the fourth one is...

mobility, but with an emphasis on pocket mobility too, obviously running then is the second component of it. So that's how we look at it. And since that's how we evaluate, I kind of wanted to go through that process with you and kind of get your feedback on all of it. And let's start with the mental makeup. Okay. Man, I, I freaking love his confidence.

And it's, and it started like the Baker stuff, obviously, you can do the size. and the suddenness in the pocket and all those different things. This guy is absolutely relentless. He's aggressive. He has no fear. Okay? And I do think there are elements of trusting his abilities and trusting his eyes and trusting those things appropriately.

And I'll get to the negative part in a second. But you always say, well, he's a coach's son. You know, he's a three-time captain, coach's son. He's been around ball, all that stuff. Show me. Show me. And he shows me. He shows me with his, with his command pre-snap. He shows me the way he gets to the line of scrimmage. He's, he, like, it has been drilled into him at a very young age and all throughout his, his development. Like, your number one job as a quarterback. I was always taught this. Like, nothing happens unless you got everyone lined up and everyone's where they need to be. And with that comes communication.

Okay. And he's awesome pre-snap. Like he's in complete control, the captain of the ship, and you see it on tape. Fast eyes, decisive, gets through reeds quickly. Like the trigger from when he goes, that's what it is. It's like progression one to two to three, whatever that it is, or if it's just one to two, when he decides it balls out. post snap trust his reads off of that here's where it's it gets wild all right he's got to learn when to not cross the line and as we said the same shit about baker right and when you say all those good things i think

it's important to note that it doesn't mean well people because people look at that and be like well what about the interception he threw against Alabama and he didn't see Deontay Lawson in the red zone or the interception he threw against South Carolina where he didn't see the, I think it was a lineback or maybe it was a safety dropping. Quarterbacks get fooled all the time, man. We're talking about the body of work. This isn't Arch Maining. This guy is a full-time starter for a year.

We have a lot more tape on him more often than not. Consistently he can get through his reads. He makes sound decisions. He has control of the offense. everyone gets fooled sometimes and i think this is what you're kind of getting to he has that with that the plus side of the aggressiveness and the confidence there's the downside of it too right and you and he presses sometimes i say it all the time because i truly believe it's like one of life's great lessons what makes people great is also potentially their fatal flaw yep what makes nussmeyer

great and why it's such a thrill ride is that he believes he knows he is he has lived and like it is baked into his DNA of trusting my eyes trusting my abilities if this is right and i see it it is yeah and if he can bottle that up right and then learn and it only comes from game reps right it only comes from game reps that you learn, oh, I made that mistake last time. I can't, you know, I touched my hand on the stove, but I can't do it again. Fucking hurts when I do that. You know? Yeah. And that's how you learn. And so, and I see it a lot, latent games, trailing, games type. He's a freaking renegade, man, in the, in the positive, positive aspects of that word. and also like he can be a traitor to his own team right look up renegade what it means yeah that's that's

harsh but i get i know what you're saying but i know what you're saying you are you hurt he hurts his team sometimes with it yes right and you like that's how it's drilled in your mind as a quarterback are you are you so good that you're bet that you're better and above the team this isn't a nussmeyer this is more of a bigger picture general discussion yes but that's the mentality we're going to trust you to It's like the perfect storm. We're trusting you, Cap. Where are you taking us? Well, my life's miserable, and I'm dying to prove everyone that I'm a great captain.

I can bring in the greatest hall ever to come back into Gloucester, Massachusetts, the shore into the harbor. Mench married a Gloucester girl. He knows exactly what that life's about. Wonderful, Iris, absolutely lover. Anyone who can put up with you is a saint. That's so true. But my point is that you've got to learn when, you know what, that storm's too big.

The radar's telling me we got to get out. Yeah, man. That's what it is. And that's okay. He's 14 starts, man. He's got a chance to play another 14, 16, 17 this year. And I want to see that development. Listen, it starts and ends with the Ole Miss game for me.

I mean, you look at that. And he'd be like, oh, it 337 yards. He's completed 43.1% of his passes in that game. but what happens at the end when it matters the most they need to score and they need a score to send it to overtime he completes a on the last drive he has a third and ten he converts a fourth and sixth and a fourth and fifth that he throws the game tying touchdown on and then the first chance he gets in the in the very first throw he makes in overtime he calls game see you later we're out forty three percent of his passes man it was a horrible night and they somehow walk out of there with a win i clip reeled like two of like 200 and something plays, right? And so this is just, we can get time stamps later and all that, but they play 81 of my, of my clip reel was the,

it was, um, fourth quarter pressing down four, okay? No, down six, 11 minutes remaining in Ole Miss, okay? Terrible decision, that interception, double coverage, terrible decision, forcing it just, this is the renegade. Trying to make something happen. Yeah.

Yep. Okay, then three plays later. hangs on the ball too long, strip sack. Yeah, we'll get into that. We'll get into that, by the way. Okay. But gives old miss a ball deep in LSU territory, led to a field goal. Now it's 23 to 6. It was down 4.

I wrote 6, or down 3 or whatever it was. Okay. So now it's 7. Now they're down 7, okay? But then, and I got in, you know, asterix everywhere. But like just absolute. Put it behind you. Next play.

Just unconscious. And like everything that you want, everything that you're taught as a quarterback. Get it out of your, it didn't happen. I believe in you and those 10 guys in that huddle believe in you. Go. And that's what he does.

So, you know, too. Yeah. But the third and 10 scramble, the third and 10 scramble, which was play 89 on my list, the third and 10 scramble, to M.T. to Mason Taylor.

Absolute magic. I love it. It was. That was like the Baker stuff. Scambling around. She comes back. She's the receiver. Gets it there.

Mason Taylor was down, but he didn't think he was down, tried to run it in, but they brought it back. Three plays later. Drills a strike, skinny post touchdown. I wrote on my notes,

that fucking throw. Like that, right? I mean. Right. The onions, the moment. And it wasn't a thought. It wasn't like, oh, no, I've already thrown the interception. I had a strip sack. I'm completing to 43% of my throws. It was, that's open. That's what I believe. I'm taking it on them. Yep. Don't give me that because I'll take it. And like you said, the overtime, then they go down and they get the win. So I'm exhausted talking about it. I was exhausted on the planes yesterday.

you know um yeah and m we talk like the infamous play feeling himself oh it's just it's a wild ride but we can get to more so finish up on mental makeup if you want if not i want know what you're great is that's what i want to know where you go i gave him a two because i absolutely i'm right with absolutely adore his aggressiveness his confidence you got to ding him though you got to ding him He is like, in 80% of what you look for in mental makeup, he is the definition of a one. From the control to the pre-snap, to the post-nap, to the reeds, to the fast eyes, to the marrying his feet, to the aggressiveness to all of it. Yeah. But in order to get a pulse when it matters the most and it's not caring.

Yeah. All of it. But if he wants to get that grained out, grade down to like a one, one point five. We got to reel it back in in those moments. We got to understand the circumstances, understand the moment. I did that last year as a first year starter. I'm not doing it again this year. I'm so excited for a lot of reasons.

I'm so excited to see Garrett Nussmeyer next year. Yes. The 2.0 version? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because think about what Brian Kelly did, and I'm not saying it's all Brian. I have a great deal of respect for Brian with quarterbacks. But think about the,

improvement we saw from Jaden. And Jaden had different tools and traits. He's not Jaden as running where he can get the mobility in a little bit. He doesn't have quite the arm. We'll get to the, all that in a little bit. But the improvement we saw from Jaden in year one at LSU after transfer from ASU to year two was like third, fourth, fifth round grades to number two overall pick. I'm really excited to see this development.

One other thing I'll add here is I think people need to. didn't realize how much he had a shoulder in terms of that offense. I think people would be stunned. Maybe your average college football fan would be stunned to realize that LSU ran the ball the fewest times. In the SEC, they had the fewest carries, fewest rushes in the SEC last year. And they averaged fewer rushing yards per game than any other team in the SEC. I mean, I looked it up and I was stunned that that was the case.

But we talked about it last year during the season a lot of they got a to run the ball and help him out a little bit. Run the ball, run the ball, run the ball. And they never really got their running game going. And it was a lot of, we know what we're getting here. We know we're getting nuts dropping back and trying to make plays. And that's what it ended up being. So if they can bring a little more balance for him too and maybe start creating some

windows on play action that I think that he is, we'll get into this in second. He is built to exploit. It would be interesting to see if they can, the offense takes a step in that right direction there and it helps out his overall game agreed accuracy where where were you i'm i'm geeking out about layered throws and he makes some layered throws man and what i mean by that is your ability to drop it over linebackers in front of seat is over the middle throwing in the windows on the outside throwing you know his ability to put touch on the ball and put it where it needs to be in throw to spots i think is impressive he misses some throws uh but not i shouldn't

say he misses some throws. He misses within the strike zone occasionally, especially when he doesn't set his feet. And I think there's times where he throws really well on the move, but there are times or you just wish he has time and space to reset and make a little bit more of an accurate throw. And I wish he would take advantage of that at times. But overall, I mean, I think he's an accurate passer with great touch. And again, that ability to drop the ball into spots, I think that's the difference between good and great quarterbacks, and he's got it. I totally agree. And I totally, let's start with the negative. I think he can complete five to seven percent more of his throws

by doing exactly what you're talking about. He's so damn good at the off balance, off platform, leaning away, fading back because he has to in those moments. He's so good at that that sometimes he gets lazy or complacent. He gets complacent. where it's like, yeah, I can, I'll flip that. And it's like, you don't need to. It's great.

It's a great tool to have in your bag. But it, but if you don't need to use that tool, it's like, you know, it's like if you can unscrew the screwdriver, the screw from the wall with your fingers, like, it's going to be faster or more. Just like get it done. You don't have to go into your bag to get out your big screwdriver every time, you know? Know that it's there if it's, if it's, if you can't get it out. But.

ability to throw off platform off balance on the move is brilliant really really cool stuff here and i wrote in all cap baker it's the same feeling i get when i watch baker everything is urgent you know what i mean it's it's i see it and i'm going to rip it you know and it's urgent and it's it's decisive, it's urgent, it's like, there's no question in my mind. He, it's, he has what, and Baker had a lot of these. I call him body language throws, because if you're a coach, you're on the sideline, like you're, you're bracing, right? You're, you're gritting your teeth.

You're kind of hiding your, you're, you don't look through, you're looking through your hand to watch the play. You're leaning. You're like, oh, oh, that's, don't do that. Don't do that. But he's so decisive, like we talked about with his, with the decision making. and he's timing and then his timing and then his accuracy, he completes those throws.

So it's one of those things you're like, no, no, no, no. Okay, all right, we're good. Let's go. Keep going. Keep the drive going. He has a lot of body language throws where you're like, man, I would not have made that play, but he will rip it in there because he's accurate

and decisive enough and aggressive enough to do it. Let me share a couple things with you. One is there's some quarterbacks, can just tell after enough tape just have like god bless them with like this natural touch and feel right and some quarterbacks don't have that now they can improve and they get better over time and it becomes acceptable and they're so mobile there are all these things that it like it works but some guys just have it like i bet you if he goes and plays darts if he like anything that has to do with that he just has a feel and and with that feel is trajectory

I can remember even playing in college. Like I was terrible like compared to something like Jimmy Miles would come in and and he would just drill these throws and I could never, I could never ever ever make a throw. Like like 10 throws in a practice. I'm like I'm like God did not give me that ability. But then I would watch two or three throws where I'm like, that's so like what's wrong?

Why can't you just take a little bit off understand if you just, and they're the easy ones. Now obviously it's more important to have all that ability. But my point is, he has that, that knack and feeling. And I see it on certain things. You talked about the over the linebacker and the leading the receiver. You can't, you just can't coach it. You either, like, you just, you develop it, but it's in you.

And like, there's so many times where receivers here and the ball's here, and it's like, it's the perfect connection, right? The other thing that I always look at, And I've learned this over time. This came with experience in scouting quarterbacks. Give me a confined area. And I think it's why a lot of coaches, and I mean, I know a lot of coaches work in that drill. You'll see put a, put a trash barrel in the back corner of the end zone, throw it from the five.

Right. Can you get it up over and drop it in? And everyone's drop it in the bucket. Then it's become this thing. He's like, oh, you dropped it. Great job dropping it in the bucket. Where that stemmed from is it's a drill. the quarterbacks work on where there literally is a trash can in the back corner of the end

zone and it's a fucking hard throw to make it is man it's because a lot of guys just want to drill it in because you see it and some guys you most guys when they try to get the trajectory to drop it in you overthrow it right because it's hard to get it up and then land that plane so fast and smooth he has so many throws in that short confined area he had one one I'm want to find it here. Oh, here it is. It was probably 121 in my clip reel, okay? But it was a touch. It was the touch fading. He was fading away. It was to the left end zone. I forget. I didn't even write it down. But to MT again, Mason Taylor, back at the end. When the ball goes up, Mason's on like the two-yard line. Now I want you to picture in your mind. He's dropped back like a quick

three-step. It was like a shock on one step back. And pressure is starting to come. And so he's got to kind of fade back to his right but backwards. And most quarterbacks in that instant would have tried to put it on them or would have gotten it in a line because not only are you now trying to throw it from like the five-yard line and get it in the back corner of the end zone, you're like, and from a normal base, you're doing it leaning back with a rush coming on because you're trying to get more like that split second by that time to get the ball out. most quarterbacks I study

that ball is not it's thrown more of an align maybe they try to back shoulder fade it they do anything but what he did I watched it I watched it at first and I'm like oh he over he overshot that before the ball's coming about oh he overshot that and then the ball goes up and come and leads when the ball and I went back and I rewound it and slow motioned it and paused it when the ball came out of

his hand, Mason Taylor's on the two. Mason Taylor caught it in the back end zone with no room. So it was 12 yards he led him to leaning backwards and dropped it in. And the reason you put that trajectory on is because that DB's chasing down a taller, bigger, tight end. And he had in that split moment, sees him there, doesn't try to just throw it on a line, high point it, something like that. He knew if I get it high enough and drop it into it.

to that spot, he's got 12 yards to run under it. Like of all, and I've got like 12 of them here. I've got like over the linebacker, soft spot his own, sliding left, sliding to his left, fast eyes going through reads, layers it, back shoulder fade, legs chopped out, still smoothly put the place as a bang eight. Exceptional anticipation on deep ball. Like I've got all these things. The one I wrote in all caps was that because that tells me,

he has a different level of understanding and just natural ability. with trajectory, touch, and placement of the football, and that is absolutely going to translate to a lot of success in the NFL. Yeah, anticipation and touch under duress in the red area is, I mean, that's impressive. I gave him a one for accuracy, and I see the flaws, but I think it's correctable.

I gave it two. So, yeah. But I could have, like, yeah, 1.5 was probably the appropriate grade based off of the stuff we talked about. Oh, and he's weirdly inaccurate on a handful, not a ton. When he's moving and like he's down to like his third or fourth, you know, checking down to like a running back in the flat or someone, he's, he has some really bad, just like dumpoffs where he'll throw it and the ball comes out.

Like that's something just, it's a little thing he can work on. But yeah, so maybe 1.5 to 2 was probably better. But I just think he has an ability to throw the ball with accuracy, touch, and to lead receivers and anticipation that very few guys that we study coming out of college have. Yeah, it's the anticipation that keeps standing out, man. It's that that word and how difficult it is, that I'll underrated a trait that is for quarterback. But we keep saying it anticipation, anticipation, anticipation. He knows where to throw the ball to. Like, he throws it to spots where guys are going to be.

He throws guys open. And I think he, when he looks at, he, I think he does a really good job of identifying favorable matchups and understanding man to man and the defender's body position. If a defender's got his back to you, then you're, you know, give your guy a shot. I think he's really good at anticipating in those situations and, you know, just putting a ball where his receivers can go get it. Release arm strength or LTA, load to arrival, however you want to define it. We talked about it earlier.

Where are you on that? I think he's got a good stroke. I think he gets the ball out really well. And I think his arm strength, if he's throwing with a good base, there's no throw he can't make. I think he can make, put, you know, good zip on off platform throws, but doesn't have that elite arm strength to, you know, when he, there's some off platform throws where I think the ball loses a little bit of the energy that you could see with guys who have an elite arm.

Totally agree. I gave him a two. It could have been a two five, two point five. I'm not going to give him a three. The ball, and part of the reason is... I gave him a two, too, too. I thought he was a two. Okay. Meaning good, but not elite, right? Right.

Super quick release. And part of it is just like how fast his eyes work and then the decisiveness from it. Changes arm angles effectively. The ball jumps out of his hand short or like intermediate. The intermediate throws it jumps out of his hand. Good energy at the end, like in the deep out, outside the numbers type things. when with base and driving the ball. Deep ball.

I never saw him truly like having to just grind to get out a deep ball. I saw throws that were 45 to 55 that were, like, he didn't strain, okay? He didn't strain for those. Gets the ball out. The thing with him is, in a similar way, with Baker, we don't need to throw the ball 70 yards down the field in the air because the ball comes out with anticipation that is in like the 1%. It's the 1%tile. I agree. You know what I mean? Great. I mean, we talk about this before. Often I think the best downfield passers aren't the guys

with the strongest arms. I mean, we saw this with Nico at Tennessee. That kid's got a cannon, but he just couldn't the touch and the anticipation weren't there. I mean, he was just overthrowing guys. when you watch these guys who have the touch and the timing, those are the great ones because they put the ball right where the receiver can run under it. They give their guys, I think, you know, they know when to throw the back shoulder, when to lead the guys. And I think I think Nussmeyer's got all of that. He's one of those guys who might be give him a two arm strength,

but say he's a one downfield passer if you wanted to break it down into that kind of a category. Yeah. All right. Last thing, this was a fun one to me, pocket mobility. Interesting. Yep. I gave him a two, and I let me explain. And I'm interested to hear your tape.

You're already defensive about it. I'm actually not. I'm not. And then the beauty. I don't think you should be. I actually feel really good about it because I had a three in the beginning. And I remember watching him thinking he may be closer like a 3.54 because he never takes off and runs. He's not, you know, like he's a, but the more I watch from him, like this dude is sudden.

it's the same stuff with baker right like sudden everything's quick everything's urgent really like i really like his movement skills in the pocket he's not he's never a sitting duck he's he's a moving target it makes it really hard to sack him he is a moving target and he does so with a good base underneath him for the most part it does so with his eyes down the field he's he's at a pro level in terms of movement while maintaining like the appropriate balance and and watching down the field. I think he's agile enough to elude rushers, absolutely fearless, okay? No flinch in this dude.

The Florida, the Florida touchdown pass in the middle, I think, of the second quarter, was late in the first half. He took seven sacks in that game. Yeah. Seven sacks in that game. And I know it's still kind of early. It's the middle of the second quarter, but he gets popped. And he throws an absolute dime to the.

slot receiver down the scene for a touchdown. That was one of the more impressive throws I thought he had all year. Here's the part that's interesting. He can run. Absolutely. This is not. I expected a guy who was going to be more of a stiff. He's not.

He doesn't unless it's necessary, but he can more. I actually want to see Nuss Meyer come back and run more. Here's the fascinating part. And I'm going to reach out to BK, to Brian Kelly. And I want to know. My guess is that an emphasis this offseason is you're not, we're not designing runs. We're not RPO and all that. He's not that guy.

No, right. He's not that guy. But we're going to need you to run more. And here's the other thing. And I'm interested to say, like I looked. I didn't, I couldn't find anywhere in his bio. If I had to guess and audience, find this out for us, I'll reach out and we'll find out. And I didn't do a deep dive in it.

I'm on planes. I'm more worried about the tape. My guess is he doesn't have a baseball background. Okay. I didn't see if he did. But I looked for it. I couldn't find. I even type of like Nussmeyer, high school baseball.

I didn't find anything. And it came to mind because I'm like, you know what part of the thing is? I don't know that this dude knows how to slide effectively. Ah. You watch him at the end of runs. You watch him at the end of runs. And there was a handful of times. I put it just a note down.

He kind of gets to that point where a guy, Baker's great at that. Takes, uh, Mahomes great at that. Yes. Right. And they both have, how good they are. Kyle or Murray great at that. They all have baseball backgrounds. Those three jump to mind when I think of guys who take off.

They run. They get what's there. But like, I'm not, I'm not peddling in that nonsense of like taking on guys or trying to juke at the end. Like, we got seven. I don't need nine. We got seven. Let's get a second and three.

three, I'm more valuable back there on second and three than I am trying to grind out two or three more. I'm not Josh Allen. Okay. LSU's got a pretty good baseball program. It wouldn't shock me. This is where my mind goes. It wouldn't shock me if he spent a little time in the offseason, but it's just a little nugget. I think part of the hesitation at times is he gets to that last point. Go back and watch a little bit of some of his, you can go break it down on the PF Ultimate just to watch his runs. Towards the end, there's a lot where he's like, and just like leans his shoulder

in and kind of goes down. So, I don't know. I thought that was interesting. But yeah, I gave him, I gave him a two, as I said. Would you go higher? I think he's a solid three. I agree with a lot of what you're saying. The one, I'll go,

I'll go with the negatives because I agree with a lot of the positives. He has a really good feel for it. He knows how to create windows. He moves around really well in terms of creating windows and getting into space where he can make throws. I love that stuff. I think he has a tendency for some reason to kind of to spin out to his left at times. I feel like he does it a little more than he needs to.

And more than anything else, the fumbles are killing me, man. He's got to do a better job of taking care of the ball. Five fumbles puts the ball on the ground too much. The ball security's got to be there. He's got to have a better feel of when that's closing in on him and take better care of the football. So easily it could be a two if he cleans that up. He cleans it up. I'm filing with the two.

And again, I'm not going to lie. I really did expect a stiff. I thought he was going to be more like, this guy's just a pocket passer. And that's not the case. I remember I was just watching him. I was like, this guy is never going to be, you know, he's never going to be a threat as a runner.

But if you, if you line up and you have, you play man against him and he gets a lane on third and six, third and seven, he'll burn you. He'll pick that, he'll run for that first down. You've got to be careful about that stuff with him. But yeah, not a stiff. Watch someone from our comments we were talking about earlier.

He was going to come back like, yeah, he was drafted. He's like a second round draft pick in MLB, you know, center field. He stole 90 bases. Right. Yeah, right. High school. Hell are you talking about. All right.

Let's wrap it up. I'm just really excited about this year with Garrett Nussmeyer. Me too. He's not, he's not, he's not Lamar. He's not Josh Allen. not Patty Mahomes, but he's Baker Mayfield. And looking back on it in the right system with the right people, with the right support, Baker Mayfield was one of the, I mean, he's, I don't know, seven, eight best

quarterbacks in the league. Yeah. Probably, yes. I mean, he's not in that elite tier, but he's not that. Top 10. Top 10. Yeah. He's in the top 10.

I believe watching him the last couple of years. He's in the, he has emerged. one of the top 10 best quarterbacks in the league, in my opinion. And you look at all the busts and all the mistakes, the quarterback drafted number one overall. Look at all the issues that have come. Trevor Lawrence was supposed to be like the safest thing since Andrew Luck. There's no such thing as safe.

I just, I believe in what this guy has to offer in the NFL. And so I look at it. My mind is it's somewhere, and like, and I'm not giving them a grade right now. let's go through all the other quarterbacks and kind of rank them and stack them. I want to wrap up with this. For me, unless I see something unearthly that I didn't expect to see,

like that is beyond what I, beyond my expectation with Lenore Sellers or Cape Clubnik or Drew Aller. And I've watched a ton of their balls so far, more so Aller and Clubnick, just based off of the amount of experience they have. But I am ready right this moment on May 21st, 2025 to say, Garrett Nussmeyer is absolutely in the conversation for QB1 in 2026. He is absolutely in the conversation to be the first quarterback off the board

in the 26 NFL draft. I believe in Garrett Nussmeyer's game. I believe that he's going to be, I believe that if he can make improvements in the areas that we've talked about. If he learns how to slide and becomes a little bit more aggressive as a runner. I think running can also take away from some of those moments where he's deciding to hang in the pocket a little too long or trying to force the ball into situations. That could be his secret sauce.

Running the football just a little bit more could be the secret sauce for Garrett Nussmeyer to take his game from a really high level to like, yeah, he's the first quarterback off the board in 2026. Okay? I'm fired up to see that. because I believe that Brian Kelly does develop quarterbacks well. I now know that they have an offseason. I saw it with Jaden Daniels, right?

And now I want to see it with Garrett Nussmeyer. Yeah, I was wondering if you're going to go that far, but because it was in my mind. And I was like, are we, how far we're going to go with this conversation? Because I know it kills you or everyone wants to set the board in May. But I will say that he absolutely has to be in the mix. I think he's got to be in the mix to be the first quarterback off the board. I saw the same things you did.

This is awesome, man. I love this. It's fun. This is a good one. This is the time of year to do what we're doing to actually break, like sit down, focus on one. And you know what? We got coming up.

This is a Thursday show Monday. Lenora Sellers, right? I think we have one week off, right? Because of Memorial Day and then we got Lenore and sales when we get back. Oh, yeah. You're off your game with your scheduling, man. Marissa's not here. Connor's not here to protect me from.

myself. The next time we have a show for you and everyone, happy Memorial Day weekend, enjoy yourselves, be safe, enjoy family, like get on the, get on the barbecue, man, like get creative.

Don't just throw a couple of hot dogs on there. Like, get creative, okay? We're back June 2nd. I want to hear, I want some reports, like,

what'd you grill? What'd you do? Weather looks terrible here in the Northeast. I don't care. My ass is going to be out there on the grill. fires everywhere, smoke everywhere. I know mention you're a better chef than I am. But we appreciate your support.

Appreciate you being here when we're back on June 2nd. It's going to be Lenora Sellers, South Carolina. Kate Klubnick, Clemson, okay, through Aller, Penn State. It's shaping up to be a pretty good quarterback class. We know there's a quarterback out there that we're not even talking about now that's probably going to be a first rounder. Maybe one of these guys won't, like, this is the best, of the year to get this foundation.

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