The McShay Show - Scouting the Loaded Running Back Class + Is Tyler Shough a 1st Round Pick?

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Welcome back to ‘The McShay Show”! The guys open by breaking down the tape of Louisville QB Tyler Shough, what surprised them the most about his play, and how he stacks against the rest of the QB class. Then, they dive deep into this year’s loaded RB class and their favorite players so far. Finally, Todd shares the latest rumblings he’s hearing around the league about the tight end and defensive line class. (0:00) Welcome to The McShay Show! (0:54) Evaluating Louisville QB Tyler Shough [QB #4] (24:40) Breaking Down The Historic 2025 RB Draft Class (29:02) Omarion Hampton has Emerged as RB #2 (30:28) Comparing the 2025 RB Class to 2017's Prospects (36:17) Who's Drafting a RB? (43:12) Most Intriguing RB Prospects (58:51) What Todd's Hearing Around The League (01:12:52) Thanks For Watching! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's just that time of year. There's not going to be a lot of structure to the show. So apologies in advance. Uh-oh, here we go. But here's some of what we might get to today, all right? There's a quarterback that caught me completely off guard, a running back class that we're going to need to start really digging down into, and conversations that I've had with NFL scouts in the past 48 hours that I will try to frame.

And absolutely no predetermined structure to this show at all. So wish us luck. And 70 days to the draft. Metsch, you good? I'm good, man. Let's hear those horns. This doesn't happen very often, Mitch, right? Like, call it, it's like a myriad of things, a perfect storm.

We started the show in late October, October 22nd, didn't even know if we'd be working this year and doing this together. Kind of got a late jump, starting a show, trying to understand the workings of it. And so I don't even think it's like getting behind on prospects, but had to prioritize prospects, right? So we got the senior bowl coming up, saw the rosters come out,

Jim Nagy, you know, did us a solid, sent him in advance to that we could kind of prepare. Had done like 10 quarterbacks, eight or 10 quarterbacks, right? And remember, a few of them went back, like Garrett Nussmeyer went back to school. Carson Beck went back to school. So when I saw Tyler Shuck from Louisville on there,

I said, not shocking, but haven't done as much work on him as some of the other quarterbacks have, you know, I've obviously seen him play. But this past year, then you had another part of the perfect storm. This guy's had a journey, man. Yeah. So like I did a little bit of tape before, but it was kind of watching a bunch of players at the same time. Saw him at the senior bowl.

And I remember turning to you multiple times as we're watching on the field and in the stands and being like, because you had just taught me how to pronounce it. I was like, show, Tyler's show, right? And you're like, shock. Okay, got it. And I would like nudge you and be like, like, Like, shock, shock. Yeah.

You know, like, he had a great week. Right. It was kind of overshadowed again because, like, the quarterbacks, I just felt like we didn't see the whole, the whole gamut from them. We're looking at Jalen Milro and his struggles and Jackson Dart and what he's doing and Dylan Gabriel. And so I feel like we didn't give him his due. Okay. So we come back from the senior bowl, trying to get into a bunch of different players. And I made the decision because, like I said in the last show, it's so.

important this time of year to start stacking and watching tape after tape so that you're comparing apples to apples. And I even went back and I told you, I watched a little bit of of Jaden Daniels and Drake May to just kind of frame that, you know, compared not because sometimes we get so caught up in this class and start to bump guys up and you lose perspective. Okay. So I did all that work and we talked about Jackson Dart last time comparing him to Shador Sanders. And so the next. Next in line, I was like, I've got to really do finally my deep dive on Tyler's show. Okay.

So it starts with this conversation I'm having with one of the NFL scouts. And we'll get to some of the conversations I had and just try to kind of frame some of it. I'm not going to sit here and, you know, talk through every bit and the players we talked about. But I do want to provide some insight because there's, there was a lot of interesting insight, especially this time of year. We started going through Shuck's history. Right. And he reminded me, I don't know if you're aware of this.

you probably are, but I don't know that most of our audience will know this. Tyler Shuck in his first year in college football, do you know he was the backup to Justin Herbert at Oregon? I did know that. That's how long this guy's been playing college ball. That's fascinating to me. All right. So he's got this long journey, if you will.

Starts at Oregon, backup. Herbert goes to the league. He's the starter. Hits a couple bumps in the road late in his first season as a starter. And so he's in a competition. Mario Cristobal, I think, takes off. He transfers to Texas Tech, okay? And I've got the notes here from the Scout.

He went through his, you know, they have the database and he's just going through to make sure it was accurate on the medical stuff. And so going back to 2021, right? This is when he's at Texas Tech. He's the starter again, okay? 925, September 25th that year, clavicle injury misses the rest of the season. Comes back, earns the starting job again at Texas Tech. Six games into that year, another broken clavicle, and that's 2022, misses six games. Then final year, 2023, on 923, September 23, breaks his left fibula.

He's out for the rest of that season. Transfers to Louisville, Jeff and Brian Brom, excellent quarterback developers. Like, don't get enough due. Two of the best in the country at development. helping quarterbacks and puts together this year and stays healthy and gets invited to the Senior Bowl and has a great week. And so with that is kind of the backdrop, he turns 25 years old on draft weekend, ironically, turns 25 years old. And I'm watching his tape, Munch, and I'll give you a quick overview, but I want you to understand this. The hard part is, and I'm not going to get

too caught up on an age, right? Quarterbacks are playing long. Quarterbacks are being protected. 25 years old. Got it. I'm more, it's more fascinating and a positive, like all he's been through, the wars he's been through, the fight he's been through. And to see where he, see like the resiliency, the maturity that everyone in the league talks about with this young man, okay? But I also, now we've got to compare him. I'll get back to all the traits and everything in second, but it becomes a little bit more difficult because I'm looking at a guy who's bigger than the top three quarterbacks in Cam Ward, Chodor Sanders, Jackson Dart, more mobile, he's a better runner. He's a better runner. Now, the dart? Yes. I think when he takes off to run,

he's got a little more juice. Now, I don't know that he's a slip. He's not. He's not as like that quick agility to make that defender who breaks, breaks through and gets, at the last second. He's not as good as Ward and as Shador, but he's a better, like when he decides to run or he's rolling outside the, he's got, he takes off faster, okay?

So bigger, faster. I'm not saying more extending better than, but faster. And as strong an arm is Cam Ward, similar Cam Ward, stronger arm than the other two, slightly stronger than Dart. Okay, that's the back.

Okay. Now you're comparing it and you're saying, okay, Jackson Dart. We just talked about Jackson Dart. QB3, like not a big gap between Shador and Jackson on tape. It is interesting. I just read this. I'm not sure where I got it. But since 2010, only nine quarterbacks have received combine invites

while being younger than 22, playing 30 plus games in college and a QBR of at least 80 in their final season. Jackson Dart is the ninth guy, right? The other guys, Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Trevor Lawrence, Jared Goff, Jalen Hertz, Deshawn Watson. Wow. Marioita and Bridgewater. So, like, on one side for Dart, it's a real positive. Still being young, success in college, and started a lot of games. On the other side, you got this guy who's more physically gifted in some ways, a few ways,

than the top three quarterbacks in this class, but is 25. and so like it should be more developed at this point. And he is in a lot of ways. And I think a lot of it had to do with the experience he's been through and also the year that he had with with the Brahms in Louisville. Okay. It's a lot to get out there. I was just going to let you go.

You're on a roll. Yeah. Let me just rip through this and we'll take it where we go. Okay. So I watch a bunch of tapes. And I could give you a bunch of plays. I don't want to do that today. If you're interested in some of the plays to kind of showcase what he can do,

I put a few of them out there on X, okay? It's at McShay 13. If you're looking for M-M-C-S-S-U-M-E-N-C-H-U-G-E-N-C-H, U-Good-M-C-O-U, on X. So if you're looking for our draft stuff leading up to, appreciate you checking it out. And, again, I appreciate you watching the show. hang with us here today. I know I know I'm all over the place, but we're going to get there. And I know I read some of the comments to make sure I'm in touch with what everyone's saying.

I know I'm doing it again. Munch has been here for for 11 minutes and he hasn't talked much. He can talk the rest of the show after this. Athletically gifted with prototypical size and hand span. Really impressed with quick feet. This guy at 6, 6.047, almost 6.5. He moves well, man. Like the suddenness with his feet. And I love how his feet are tied to his feet. eyes a lot of times these long levered quarterbacks it's hard like when they go from progression read one to two to three their feet don't travel with them quickly his does that's important he's got a live arm good velocity in the ball jumps out of his hands these are all my notes drives it without strain okay then shows ability he's got some magic in him man like arm angles you know that Notre Dame

throw if you want to go check out my check out my the Notre Dame throw then that Miami throw right play of that game. 309 left in the second quarter, Eduardo. I know our clipmaster is back there weaving and spinning things up if you want to get that clip. He's rolling to his left, the arm angle, the wrist flick, and on the line, the left rail receiver coming back, beautiful throw, okay? Knows when to layer it too. Not just all fastballs and crazy stuff. Knows when to layer it. Very impressed with overall ball placement. He's just naturally accurate, it, okay? Wide receivers do not help. I don't know what, I don't even care about the completion percentages and all that stuff. Like, there's a lot of plays on tape where the receiver, again,

we said that with Jackson Dart too, whether it's drops or not being in the right place or flattening out routes when they shouldn't, those sorts of things. Eyes, feet trigger. I kept writing that, like just his eyes with his feet, quick trigger when he decides really like that. and then he gets to top gear in a hurry. Most dangerous runner. I'm not saying most elusive. I'm not saying he creates the most because I don't believe that. I think Ward does it very well.

I think Shador does it very well. Dart does it pretty well as well. But when he takes off to run, he scoots faster than Ward Sanders and Dart. Now, can be a little bit careless with the football. Okay. I think putting a governor on his decisions is going to be important. for him to the next level. But for the most part, I thought processing quickly and going through his reads and doing

the right things. And also, you've got the age and the durability and the medical check for the combine and maybe a recheck or going to be really important for him because you had three season ending injuries, two clavicles, one fibula. All right. Go ahead. A little bit of pushback to start off with. I still think darts a little bit of a better runner.

I'll take him as a runner. And I will say that, and I guess this isn't really pushback because I do agree a lot with what you're saying. But one of the things you love about him is one of the things that should scare the hell out of you. And you saw it on Notre Dame throw, which is he is fearless. And he will, he seems to have no regard for personal safety. He could care less. And when you have that injury history, there are times I'm like, man, you cannot take that kind of a shot. Yeah, the flip side of it is the talent is obvious.

And I also, one other thing I will say, I get at what you're saying about the receivers. There was times that they didn't help. He had, to Corey Books, Brooks, and Colin Lacey are pretty good dudes, man. And they've made some big plays for him. So I think, I thought his supporting cast was all right. All of that said, big picture. I'm nitpicking because I like to nitpick with you. I just like to pick at you a little bit.

That's the beauty of how our process works. Honestly, God, like we joke about it. lot, but like there's got to be checks and balances. And sometimes I'm like fully admit I get I get crazy and I like go all in on a guy for a minute, then have some time to like refocus, refram it. We have these conversations. It's helpful. Right. And we come to a, I think a very solid ground at the end of the process. But this is the first time we've ever done this. Right. Normally I'm doing TV in December for a mock draft in the in the past in my previous career. And then I'm, we're watching tape.

And I do a few days at the senior bowl. Then I come back and watching tape in the shadows, which I've loved. But now we're doing, we're providing for our audience like real time. This is like, you're getting to see the process. The good, the bad, the ugly, the crazy brain, all the stuff. And so people love it or they'll hate it and they can move on. Yeah, these are the conversations we normally have over the phone. I'm telling you to look something up.

I'm writing down notes. We're talking about tape, all that. So I think it's the beauty of our process, to be honest with you, even though it can feel disjointed or it can feel argumentative at times. Yeah, one of the things I did like, and it correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember talking to you when we got down to Mobile, and I was like keep an eye on him because I like the way he throws the ball and I like the way he moves.

But I like you, like same boat as you need to do more work on him. But from what I've seen, I'm intrigued. And I remember you in the first day seeing, I don't know. Like not bad. Didn't have a bad day. I don't know. And then day two, it was, oh, okay. Now I'm starting to see more.

Day three, he seemed like he was one of those players that progressed over the week in Mobile, which is always a good sign to me that this is a guy consistently getting better with each practice. Again, I can't argue with on the talent, but you know where I'm going with us. You know, what am I to ask you is, are you, what are we looking at here? You know, we just talked about Dart is in the conversation with Sanders for quarterback two. I'm not asking you to put, has he entered the chat? Is Tyler Shuck entered the chat as a potential

quarterback three? Obviously, listen to, I'll say this while you're thinking. The Combine Medical is important for every player. That's what I'm processing right now. So you want, do you want to wait? I'm not pausing because I'm not pausing because I don't have a strong answer on it because I do. Right.

The age less so, but when comparing to a situation like, Jackson Dart, it needs to be kept into consideration. Because you got one guy who's turning 22 on, who's turned, who's going to be under 22, younger than 22 at the combine, 30 plus starts and a QBR, this final season of 80 or above, right? And then you got another guy who's turning 25 on draft weekend. And who's had three season ending injuries.

So here's my, here, like here's my. here's my straight up answer. Going off of last year's tape, dark versus last year's tape, Shuck, I don't think there's much of a difference between the two. And I think in argument, honest to God, yep, honest to God could be made

that Shuck might be slightly better. Interesting. Okay. Now, like the medical and the age are factors. Here's the thing. We spend so much time, on QB1, QB2, QB3, QB4, what round are they going?

Let's have real conversations. If you tell me he's going to go play for McVeigh or O'Connell, even though that's not a realistic situation with J.J. McCarthy. Right. Or, I mean, we know that we all know the names. There's five, six places in the league, maybe seven, eight now. where if one of these two end up or throw Shador in there, throw all of these guys.

This is not Jaden Daniels. This is not Caleb Williams, despite what happened as a rookie. This is not Drake May. Okay. Agree. Drake May did not have a good supporting cast. Drake May did not have great coaching.

You can argue that, right? Van Pelt. But he still had success and you still see the brilliance. Now, Chicago did a number on Caleb, but Caleb, we knew who was going to need certain things in order to succeed. He needed a Patrick Mahomes-type early career path to have that kind of quick arc in year two. And hopefully he'll get that with Ben Johnson. We're about to find out, okay? So this is not that class, all right?

It's just not. Michael Pennix had most of the year. J.J. sat out with an injury. Pennix had most the year to, to, to, to. to sit back and learn and develop behind the scenes before he was put in there and look pretty good, but like no one's ready to stamp anything, good, bad, or, you know, anything around those. And Bo Nix had a great situation, right? So like, these conversations are more equivalent in my mind to JJ, Pennix, and Bo than they are to the first three last year. Okay. So so much of it matters

where these guys go. So I'm not that worried about, like, is, is Shadour going to come off the board before Dart, before Shuck? Like, it's, it's where do they land? Is it, is it the right environment for them? Is it the right system for them? I'd love to see DART and Shuck with a guy like McVeigh. I mean, all of them, but like, I just think that they would fit that system. I think, like, the West Coast principles that, I don't know, I just, I can envision it with a Kevin O'Connell. like look at what we saw Sam Darnold last year. So that's where I am more. We can throw up the quarterback rankings.

I played with them a little bit and they're going to continue to fluctuate. And we've got to find out the medical and all that stuff. But I've got them squarely at four, significantly better grade than the rest of the guys. Jalen Milrow, I still like, it's the hardest evaluation in this class. But there's talent there. But ahead of Will Howard, Quinn Ewers, Kyle McCourt, Dylan, Dylan Gabriel and Riley Leonard. Like, that's a big jump for us to make, for me to make.

So, so like it's less about, would you take DART? Would you take Chuck at this point? It's more about where they wind up landing. And also that I am, I am now firmly in the camp that that's the top four. And there's nothing unless it's catastrophic or completely unforeseen that will change those four quarterbacks, Ward Sam. Sanders, Dart and Chuck being the top four quarterbacks on my board when we get to the last week in April. I don't disagree.

I mean, just watch the Notre Dame tape. If you're out there and you want to see what kind of player this kid is, just watch the Notre Dame tape. To me, there's a couple throws that you'll see. You'll see the one that he gets hit right in the teeth and he drops the arm and makes the play in the red zone. There's another one. He drops the ball over the top on a fade. He moves around really well in that game. Again, killed the senior ball process in my mind.

I don't disagree with that. I, you know, just some arguments I have further down the board. And I think at some point, I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. Is a guy worth it? Well, if he goes to McVeigh, I get it. But in my mind, what I'm thinking is how high is that third quarterback going to go? You know, you start with the two.

So if Tennessee and Cleveland take a quarterback or Tennessee and the Giants take a quarterback, and two are off the board, and let's just say for now, because of the way the discussions has evolved, those two are Ward and Sanders. Are you comfortable taking a dart or a shock if you're the Raiders? Is it that early? Because now we're talking about maybe this quarterback class, I think what we're essentially saying at this point in the last couple of weeks. And really, I think it's been going this way for a longer time,

maybe not as weak as we thought it was. Maybe it's not, when you're in the shadow of that class last year, it affects perception. And I think that it's good and it's healthy to sit here and say instead of sitting here and saying, oh, this class is just as good as last year. It's just not as good. Okay. We understand.

That doesn't mean that it's a bad class. It just means that it's not as good as last year. And maybe there's some players in here that are worth, you know, taking a longer look at. In a perfect world, and we'll wrap it up on this, in a perfect world, these quarterbacks would all wind up, I don't know, mid, late first to like early mid-second. And again, it's not about like, I don't, I don't and you don't. We weren't raised on grading for round. We're raised on grading for pro potential.

What do they project to be? And in some instances, how quickly do they project to be there, right? Yeah. And then, you know, as we worked through our grading scale and had to make it easy for people, like, you know, we don't have six threes and six ones like most teams in the league. We had to make it more, you know, easily understood by by an audience at ESPN for so many years, right? That we did a, they asked for a top, you know, one, you know, 30 to 100 scale.

And so like, yeah, 90s would, for us, it was a 95, 96 is a perennial pro bowl type, you know, player projects as that. For them, it's like, that's early first round, you know? So, but to me, all these guys are, are mid to late for. to early to mid-second. Because you're drafting them without as much pressure. You're drafting them knowing that they all in different ways need a little bit of work. We know that you don't feel as certain that they're ready to start right away

or that they're absolutely in your mind going to be that starter. So that's where the draft grading comes in. When I talk to a scout, he says it's a, you know, 6-3 and talking about like, you know, solid starter, all that, whatever the range is, I'd have to look at it again. I've got it in my notes. But it's graded on that. And that has it built in, like we don't think he's ready right away. Or he projects his, you know, as developmental, or he's going to be a DPR as a rookie

as a pass rusher, designated pass rusher. Or he's going to be a sub-packaged corner or those sorts of things, special teams guy. All those are built and cooked in to a grade. And so when we get here and the audience wants to know, like, who's QB1, QB2? Where are they going? I get it. That's what we do. But I also am saying, like, for the benefit of all these guys, and it's probably not going to happen with Cam Ward.

It's probably not going to happen with Shador by the sounds of things. They're probably going to go in the top 10 picks. But I think you might be better off getting them late first. The team like, I don't know if it's Pittsburgh or not, or early second where the pressure's not on. and you got a year to develop and see where they are, right? So that's where I am with that. All right, let's transition. Running backs.

Let's go. Yeah. You mentioned I did a lot of tape work in the last 40. I mean, we've been doing it and building it up, but trying to like, the assignment was, let's, we're not going to have all the answers tomorrow. We still have the combine workouts. We still have pro days. So have medical, all the character stuff.

We still have a lot of tape still to watch. but I wanted for you and I to do as much tape on the running backs and start to stack our boards a little bit more correctly and also get a feel of like, what's this back going to provide in the NFL? Not everyone is the workhorse every down back. There's a lot of productive damn good running backs in the NFL who do one or two things really well and work in a rotation.

That's where the league is gone. In a lot of cases, not all. But this year's running back class has been talked about since we started this show on October 22nd. And it's been talked about throughout the process. It's been talked about by just about everyone I've heard. We're all in agreement. Finally, everyone's in agreement.

NFL's from NFL scouts to us to social media. Everyone's in agreement is one of the best running back classes ever. Right? It's stacking up to be. And so I wanted to do a quick history lesson. Okay. Let's go. 2017 was considered the best running back class.

I was going to bring up this class too. Yep. Right? Yeah. 2011, 2017 had 30 running backs taken. 2011 was also pretty darn good. 29 backs taken. If you want to go old school, if you're an old school person watching, you know,

watching or listening on YouTube watching, Spotify watching or listening, Apple for the podcast and more, and we appreciate all your support. I can't say it enough. But please, please support us any way you can with subscribing, liking, spreading the word. If you're old school, though, 1998 was pretty damn good, too. I'll rip through them. 2017, 2017, 30 running backs were taken, recognized by most people as the best running back class ever, debatable. It had Leonard Fornett.

Leonard Fornett, Christian McCaffrey. But it's also important to note, most of these guys were. second, third, and beyond, okay? Cook, Delvin Cook, second round pick. Joe Mixen's second round pick. Alvin Kamara was a third round pick. Kareem Hunt, third round pick. Deonté Foreman, James Connor, Samaje P. Ryan, all the way down to Chris Carson.

Remember Chris Carson's seventh round pick? Yeah. That's really good run for a little while. Paul Williams was a fourth round pick in that class. Yeah, and I didn't want to write down everyone, but yes. 29, sorry, 2011. had Ingram. Remember Mark Ingram?

The Saints traded up for him, right? Like big time. If my memory serves me. But Ingram was the only first round pick there. But 28 other running backs got taken in the first round. And the reason I say this is because I think there's going to be some similarities with this year's class. But that year, beyond the first round, DeMarco Murray, Stephen Ridley, or Stefan Ridley, Verene, Powell, Jekwiz. Right. But there were also a lot of non-factors in that class.

Right. And you go back to that old school class, I just want to, I just love mentioning some of these old names. Curtis Enis. Fred Taylor, Robert Edwards, John Avery, John Ritchie, Amon Green, Robert Holcomb, Michael Pittman, Curtis Alexander, Fuamatu Ma'Afala, Fred Beasley. That was a damn good class, too. All right. I wonder how many listeners are like, who are those guys? I know, I know. But that's the backdrop. And here's why I wanted to talk about 2017. And I got some, I'm going to make you really happy, Mitch.

I didn't even preface this or I didn't even send you a text or let you know. When you're right, you're right. You're right. You're absolutely right. About everything? I've watched Omar and Hampton. I've watched Trayvion Henderson. I've watched Caleb Johnson.

I've watched Ashton Jinty. I've watched Judkins and Scataboo and Harvey and James, all those guys. but I haven't. This is the first time I took the time to go and go back to back to back and rotate. O'Mary and Hampton is absolutely without question, undoubtedly, undoubtedly, the second best running back in this class. Thank you. And there probably should be a little bit more of a discussion about he's not that far off.

I'm not, Ginty's the number one guy. I get, O'Mary and Hampton is an absolute freak. And I want to get into all that with you. So my rankings have changed, but my point is on this. Yes. And they will not change back, again, unless something catastrophic or unforeseen occurs. Henderson may be the second best,

the second back taken in the draft. I don't care. I think Omari and Hampton is special. When I start stacking the tape, there's a difference. He does it all. We'll get into it. But the reason I bring this up is I'd go back to 2017. I think Ashton Jinty can be something similar in the same ballpark as Christian McCaffrey.

Yep. Their versatility, their run style, their body types. There's not a big difference between the two. Okay. So he's the Christian McCaffrey of the class, if you will. I think Omari and Hampton is a better, I don't want to say better. How do I frame this? I think he's lighter on his feet and he doesn't need the runway than FourNet needed.

Yeah. Okay. Here we go. So we've got our four-net McCaffrey of the crew. Then you got cook and mixing and Kamara. Travion Henderson can provide that, you know. I think I look at guys down the line, like R.J. Harvey.

Caleb Johnson. So I'm just saying there's some similarities in that class. Okay. Where are you? Where did you run back to take you? But I wanted to start with just saying, when you're right, I'm happy to admit it. And you were right.

And I love Caleb Johnson. Travian Henderson. I envision him perfectly in a scenario like Jamir Gibbs had. Like Devon A. Chan has had, you know, a little bit. Swift. Gendry Swift. I envision that perfectly for Trayvian Henderson. And so his value as a top 40-ish pick will be there.

But when you're talking about guys who will transcend, who will just work, who can be the workhorse, I think Ginty and Hampton are clearly the most complete backs in this class. I agree. I mean, I've said it before. I think Hampton's Joe Mixon, which is interesting because he was in that 2017 class. Yeah. He's not the weapon.

I mean, Joe Mixon was an absolute weapon in the passing game when he was at Oklahoma. I don't think Hampton has been quite that level, but I think he has the tools to get there. I think he's going to be great. I think that for me, Genti is more of a Kamara. I see him more of as a Kamara than a McAfrey, but again, splitting hairs. Actually, it's very interesting that some of the comps that I came up with, Cam Scadaboo, James Connor.

I see Cam Scadaboo when I see James Connor. Kind of flipping the script on that one is that James Connor wasn't a great receiver at Pitt, but really developed into one once he got to the pro level. Big backs, tough to tackle, versatile. I think Cam Scadaboo reminds me of James Connor. I mean, it's interesting that you can go into. of these and start comparing these players. And then again, I'm kind of all over the place.

I'm trying to figure out how many of these guys. I don't think more than one goes in the first, but I think as many as we could. I don't disagree. That's that is perfectly stated. If I had like, if fan, well, just real quickly, quickly, if Fandle is probably going to set it at one. Right.

Right. Maybe one and a half. So you're forced to take the under with just one being genty, the over if either Hampton or. And what's interesting here now going into the conversations, it's not that I don't get a lot of love about Omar and Hampton. I just haven't talked to people who have like asked me about it or it has come up. So I'm going to have to start throwing it out there and getting feelers as we get a little closer. But the conversations have been about some of these other backs, like Scataboo. the Harvys, the Martinez's, like guys from area scouts who had that area or cross-checking.

Those are the conversations I'm having with scouts. And then I told you like a personnel director we talked to. He just like wanted to talk about Henderson and Junkins, but Henderson. So, but Hampton's kind of like flying under the radar a little bit. And I don't know why. I don't know why. And maybe he's not was. And a lot of times when guys are flying under the radar and no one's talking about it,

It's because they just don't want a lot of attention on it. Yeah. And that's not like, this isn't a big trade secret. But it's just interesting how we like talk about Gentie so much and Henderson and Judkin so much and Scataboo. And I get it. They were playing in the college football playoff and there was attention on them. But Hampton is just kind of not catching that same love and drive nationally. And I'm interested to see how this plays out.

To answer your question, I think absolutely, based off the talent, it wouldn't shock me at all if two or three running backs came off the board with Henderson and or Judkins. Right. Henderson and or Hampton. But I also look at this defensive front class, like the edges, the interior defensive linemen. The offensive line class isn't great, but there's still a handful of them. You got a couple interior guys. You got like three or maybe four tackles. You got two or three quarterbacks.

Like, I just don't know because we keep talking about this. And I'm principled, man. Don't do it. I wouldn't do it. Like, I'm taking these defensive linemen. Premium picks on premium positions. However, it won't shock me. Right.

I mean, you're looking at Dallas to Genty to Dallas seems like a very popular pick, right? You're thinking Minnesota, does Minnesota maybe take one? Does Kansas City get there and say, man, if we had an Amarion Hampton in this offense, you know, I know we have other needs, and I know there's other places we could go right here. Does Kansas City maybe? Do the Raiders or Browns trade back into the end of the first round and maybe get one? I wrote down this list because I figured there's going to be a lot of people,

a lot of people tuning into the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts, that are fans of different NFL teams now. I feel like the vast majority of our audience was college football for a long time. And now just like we're transitioning, I think our audiences, hopefully the numbers would concur. We're adding more of an NFL audience now. So I came up with a list of these teams. And again, I think more than 20 teams, maybe 25 teams could wind up drafting a running back in the seven-round process. Yes.

could have around 30 running backs taken if it's anything like 2017, 2011, 1998. So I'm not limiting it to this. But what I'm saying is these are the teams that I won't be surprised that I think are probably going to draft a running back in the first three, certainly four rounds. Cowboys with Rico Dowell as a free agent, Deuce Vaughn's their backup, Bears, DeAndre Swift and Rocheon. Johnson, Vikings, UFAs, Aaron Jones, and cammakers, okay? Browns, Nick Chub, Jerome Ford, Patriots, Remandre Stevenson, and Antonio Gibson, trying to like take, just, there needs an upgrade. That whole offense just needs a kick in terms of playmakers and difference makers, okay?

Then most of the AFC West, maybe all of it, if you're right on Kansas City, but the other teams in the AFC West, you get the Broncos with Chavante Williams and Adric Estimate, both UFAs, both undrafted, undrafted. UFAs, right? unrestricted free agents. Sincere McCormick and UFAs,

Amir Abdullah and Alex Madison for the Raiders. The Chargers, Unrestricted free agent, J.K. Dobbins. That's my list. So that's the Cowboys, Bears, Vikings, Browns, Patriots, Broncos, Raiders, Chargers are all teams that could be in that market in the first three rounds for a lot of these guys. Okay?

Correct. No, I'm not saying that by any stretch. You're sitting there and you're like, hey, you know, we can get Dylan Samson on day two. What are we doing? Totally agree. You know, like, and I know Dylan Samson's not Hampton, but if you watch Dylan Samson, he's pretty damn good, man. I wouldn't mind getting a Dylan Samson or, you know, Damien Martinez or, you know,

whoever, whoever you like. I'm watching DJ Giddens, and I'm texting you, a clips of him last night, and I'm like, they're all so good. They're just all so good. They're just all so good. The Combine's going to be very important for this class, how these guys work out, how they check out medically, what we hear about interviews. This is going to be, I mean, anytime you're part of the draft process, it's competitive.

This is going to be a competitive group. And I want people to understand. Like, at cornerback, it's hugely important what you run and what your arm length is. That combination, like, it's more important. The 40 time and arm length combination is more important, probably than any two traits that are measured or timed for any position. And there are other positions, like wide receiver, obviously, and different. Well, when we get to the combine, we have the measurements that matter lists that

mentioned I've spent years developing and crafting for each position. We'll walk through all of it and we'll have a lot of fun with it. But my point is at running back, like, there's no make. or break. We all know, like, Emmett Smith didn't run a good 40, like, all that stuff. There's no make or break number. There's no, like, critical factor that you have to be for the most part, right? But when you got so many running backs, and let's throw up this list, I had, I had 36 guys with draftable grades last night, Mensch, and I haven't, we haven't even gotten the combine list. I'm sure there's a, there's always two or three that we just don't, you know, we haven't done the tape on yet.

but I've got 36 guys with a 32 grade or higher, meaning late 7th round, okay? When you've got that number of guys, and if you're watching on YouTube or on Spotify, you can see our list of the top 10 running backs there, and I'll get to in a second, but I just want to have that as a backdrop. When you've got all these guys,

after Gentie and Hampton and Henderson and Johnson, and to a certain degree maybe Judkins or, I'd say after maybe Judkins, but you might even want to include him in the list. we talked to and i like the the phrasing put them into buckets we talked to eric de costa the gm of the ravens that's how he their phraseology if you will let's get them into buckets meaning what what's our grade and then we got to sort them out within buckets and he even admitted readily admitted his his his cocktail as he called it where like a hundred and twenty four

140 whatever it was ingredients go into this cocktail that they stir up and spits out information he's He told us that, you know, he told us some stuff off, off air that I don't want to disclose. But essentially, there's a process and they feel comfortable with certain, you know, getting guys in the buckets. And then they use assistance inside that bucket. So this year, inside of a grade bucket could be four or five, six running backs. Okay. Yeah. Now what you do.

And a lot of those things that go into those ingredients. And I know fans got all worked up and excited about or disgruntled by or whatever. to me just fascinated, like even the Madden ratings. Well, guess what the matting ratings are based off of, off of speed and workout numbers. And also they have their own evaluation. So there's just so many different things, but the Combine produces a lot of those official numbers. And so when you're creating a cocktail of information that goes into helping sort out guys on your board that you're going to wind up drafting that are within a grade spot in that bucket, if you will, it's critically important. Yeah, by the way, that that cocktail, that recipe, DeCost is always fine-tuning it.

And when you look at their record, you could, anyone who's upset about the Madden ratings or saying anything about that, the way they pick players speaks for itself, man. I mean, he's, he's saying after doing this for years, there's a hundred and twenty-five, hundred-40, whatever it was, cocta, that means it's, it's less than like a half, it's like a half a percent. Like, right. And there, it's like any, anytime you make a drink at home or you make a dish at home or you're cooking you like you know what drop like a little bitters into it i'm going to do a little more salt a little less garlic whatever you're whatever you're doing that's what they've done they've fine-tune that process and you only you only can fine tune it over years of data right and and and the projection

you know and going back and looking three years later than five years later and seven years later and second contracts and success in the league and all those things you know you know and and as players change and body types change and people getting faster and bigger and stronger like It's always going to be fine-tuning. But with all that said, after looking at that board and knowing that Gentie, Hampton, Henderson, Johnson are likely to be the top fourbacks taken, in whatever order people have them.

Take me through some guys that are intriguing to you. Let's just talk through some guys. I feel like we haven't hit on Johnson enough. I've got plenty, by the way. I just want to talk about Johnson really quickly because watching him, what I love about him, is how instinctive he is as his own runner. his ability.

If he ends up on a team like San Francisco, one of these teams runs a stretch zone, watch out because he's got the speed, the burst to get outside, but he's also got, he knows exactly when to stick his foot in the ground and get outfield as his own runner. And he doesn't need much of a gap.

He gets through quickly. He's one of those dudes is so quick. I like him as an inside zone runner too. Yeah, no, he's so quick through the hole between the tackles that you'll see a lineback or maybe a safety closing on him and he splits him and he's gone. Dave, Dave, you better take the right angle. man, you better be gap sound because if you're not, Caleb Johnson will burn you. And I also like

the way he runs behind his pads and finishes runs. You better make you earn it. When you tackle him, he's going to make you feel it. I mean, there's a bunch of guys. We'll talk about Giddens real quick. I call him the human glitch. His change of direction is his is his superpower, right? You see him in one spot. DJ Giddins from Kansas State. We've got kind of a bit of a bit of I got to get better about. You're here to help me on pronunciation. and be my checks and balances. I'm here to frame it for you. Good.

So he's the human glitch. I mean, you blink. You look at him in one spot. You blink, he's in another spot. And that's, you know, that's his super power. But one of the other things that I love, and I love this about backs. There's a lot of good backs in terms of vision and instincts in this class.

Really good vision and instincts overall in this class. But he makes late cuts. And why that's important is the guys who press the line of scripts and make late cuts, make it very difficult for defenders to shed in the crux. correct direction. And he does a great job. If he sees that a defender's in the A gap, and he knows he's going into the B gap, he doesn't just run to the B gap. He will press like he's going to hit the A gap so the defender doesn't try to fight over that block and then late cut into the B gap. He's excellent at doing that. In terms of a pure runner, he's one of the better backs

in this class. I do want to see some development as a receiver and a pass blocker. What's his, do you have his measurables on you? I don't. I think it's, I think he's around 6-1, 2, 12. Yeah, he's, that's the thing. Remember the, on, what, Thursday? So Tuesday, I was saying Giddens is one of the guys, like, yeah, keep, I've got, I've got my eye on him because I'm catching, like, I watched another tape of him. And the thing that stood out to me is you look at the way he moves and you wouldn't think

that size. And that's why I wanted to get. He's 612. Also, one of the things I'll say to get into the weeds a little bit, how, how I watch tape, you tell me if you do it differently. Obviously, the tight copy when you're watching running backs is great because you're seeing how blocks set up. You're seeing how they're setting up their blocks and all that stuff.

It's so much better. It's so much better when it's behind the two out of the four quarters when it's behind the back. 100%. I will tell you that it's important to watch the wide copy. And I'm sure you agree to get a feeling for burst and speed, especially when you get between the 40s because now that angle, you're looking, the cameras usually set up at the 50. So you're getting a better

angle of how they accelerate. Same thing with defensive linemen, same thing with tight end, same thing with wide receivers. So between the 40s, make sure you get the wide copy. Both Johnson and Giddens, when I watch those, that wide copy, I'll be interesting to see what their 10-yard splits are because they look explosive.

They look really quick. Yeah, same thing. I'm a freaking Hampton. When he go, when he... Yeah, at 220. I know. Yeah, the problem with Giddens is I love the guy. Okay.

And I, and I've got to, I've got to finish up. I've got, who do you move ahead of? I got him at 14. Right. And I love him. And I, and I, and I, and I previewed this last week saying like, Giddens is, is one of my guys. And I got him at 14, you know, that's the fun part of this class.

And it, and it's the unbelievably challenging part of this class. If you're watching on YouTube and, um, and Spotify, I'll see the graphic coming up right now. It's running back rankings 11 through 28. Look at that list, man. We already gave you Gentie and Hanton and Henderson, Judkins and Johnson and Scataboo and Harvey and James and all those guys. And now I'm providing a list for you of Richard Smith,

who had an unbelievable breakout year. It's a great pass catcher, former receiver, Damien Martinez, I'll get to him a minute, Devin Neal, who have bragged on his run style and instincts and feel. DJ Giddins, we just gave. Mence just gave you more on just how quick and agile and the cutting ability for his size. Woody Marks had a really good week at the senior bowl. Trevor E.T.N. I think everyone knows E.T.N.

Marcus Yarns a great week at the senior ball. Moved him up because he catches the ball well and he's an absolute burner. I can't wait to see what he runs at the Combine. I mean, the list goes on and on. You got you got, you got Tooting from Virginia Tech, Kelle Mullings from Michigan. and Jaden blew some of the big plays that he had for Texas and his explosiveness as a rotating back who can help in the past game. So it's just loaded, man. It's loaded.

A couple other guys I want to get to. And just keep rotating in whoever you want to talk to if you want to jump on this. R.J. Harvey. I think R.J. Harvey is in that second tier. And that second tier for me includes if we're talking Jinty, then again, you can break up the tier within. move the buckets around, if you want two buckets for Gentie, and then Hampton, Henderson, Johnson,

or however you want to phrase it. But after those four, let's just call it that. I think Harvey's kind of in that next tier. I've got Judkins, Scataboo, Harvey, ahead of Jordan James, who I also love,

and LeQuint Allen, who's unbelievable catching the football of the backfield for his size and I rocked up he is. and Dylan Samson, how great of a back he is, right? I've got him kind of in that second tier. Here's why. Team captain, unbelievable leader.

I just talked to one of the two scouts I talked to, just raving about this guy, okay? Shorter, yeah, he came into five, seven, and three quarters, but tightly packed frame. His run style and traits, I absolutely adore this guy's feet. That just sounds disgusting. I apologize, but he's electric. He is electric.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. He's got that quick pick and slide, really good patience and vision. Like, you can have all the quickness and all the cutting ability and that lateral quicks and all that stuff. But if you don't sense it and you don't have the patience to wait for it, it gets. Yeah, where are you going? You got to go in the right direction, man. Right? Just excellent jump cut, acceleration.

off the cut. Stop, start quickness. He's not overpowering. He's just not. Just average contact balance, undersized back. He's not going to be that guy. I think he's a little stronger than that. I like him. I like his,

I think he's got some pop. Yeah, but when we're talking contact balance, I'm comparing it to like Gentie, Hampton. Yeah, not. Okay. Johnson, Judkins, Scataboo. You know what I mean?

So by comparison, you're not getting that. I'm saying. I don't know. I just... You said Aaron Jones on X, right? You thought Aaron's... I see a lot of Aaron Jones.

I even went back and popped in some tape of Aaron Jones. And it's the same stuff. It's the vision, the patience. When he senses it, he's gone in a flash. And then the ability to make quick cuts. Now, both with Aaron Jones and this guy and Harvey. unbelievable quickness and first level burst. But there's a second gear that's missing.

And I've heard that he's going to run 4, 4, 4, 5 somewhere in that range on tape. I think he's 448, 450. I went back and looked. I think Aaron Jones was 456. You got to double check that, but he wasn't a 4-4 guy. I looked at that. I looked at that last night. It is 4-5-6.

So I was trying to compare him to other guys. There's never a perfect cop, but it's a day. damn good comp, man. It really is. He, I love, I, I kind of looked at Maurice Jones Drew because he's got that build. But again, he's not that powerful as Jones Drew was. I don't think he's, Jones Drew ran a 4-3-9. And I don't think this kid's going to run a 4-3-9. But it's that same, same build.

And I do think he has a little bit more pop than you're talking about, but I get it. Okay. Damien Martinez. He's, he's this, to me, is like a slow burn, right? Yeah. She is so efficient. There's nothing. I don't, when I look at him, I don't see one, like, dominating, overwhelming trait.

I just see a bunch of really good traits. Again, the vision, the patience. What I like most about him is he senses a crease and shows the lateral agility, that body control, and then quick burst to explode through the first level. He's another guy, picks like. He's not as quick, and he doesn't have that foot agility that, that RJ has. but but i see that just that that quick slide the quick lateral stuff that he's able to do i now he hits it hard man he's not over he's not overpowering necessarily like those bigger but like but he's got

the contact balance he's going to wear you down he's just like he's just a damn good runner where i i feel like the more at least for me the more i watched the more i gain appreciation for this cat right just does all the right things, hits the right creases, doesn't dance a lot, gets what's there and maybe a couple yards more. Yeah. Remember we saw him in Mobile and he weighed 226 pounds?

And this is a compliment. We're like, how was he 226 pounds? He looks like a 215 back. He cares. I don't know where he keeps the way. Carries it well. And he,

I mean, he's not soft in any way. I mean, he carries that weight super well. And again, I just keep, you know, I look at him as a gladiator. He just absolutely wants, he wants the ball late in the game. He wants to be the guy that's going to suffocate you with that 10-minute drive at the end of the game. Give me 12 carries, 10 carries, whatever it takes. I'm going to end this game right now. Anyone else you want to get to here?

I think I got to go for my guy, talk. I got to represent Cam Scataboo for Tucker. Every time we talk about a running back, Tucker's on there like, Scataboo, Scataboo, Scataboo. Are we low on Scataboo? Scatibu second most, I'm digging into the PFF stats now. Okay, watch out. This could be a good thing. Yeah, I'm going to have to be your governor now.

Scadaboo, top, he's top six for backs after contact. He's higher than that. I don't remember the exact one, but second most mistackles. And he had 45 explosive runs, 10 yards or longer. You look at that tax performance, how good he is as a receiver, the strength, the power. I know how good this class is, and I know that we have Scataboo,

or I have Scataboo pretty high, you have him pretty high. I still feel like maybe we're low on him. I don't know how. He might be in that closer to that second bucket. I moved him up slightly as I'm starting to watch everybody else. Yeah. I can tell you this.

I talked to a scout this week who's bullish on him. Yeah. And loves a lot of other guys. And yet, again, the second tier, starting to kind of stack within that tier or bucket or whatever you want to call it. Bullish on him. Loves Jordan James.

Just looking at the note. He loves Jordan James. Loves Dylan Samson. He had cross-check and had the running back. So like a perfect person to talk to. Loves Harvey. Loves Martinez. Loves all those guys.

But Scataboo was like he was bullish on him. Here. I'm going to give you a what I. I think it's a sleeper. I don't know. For NFL teams, are probably like, yeah,

we know who the kid is. But the Texas Tech running back, Taj Brooks, is he's 229 pounds. He was at the East West game, I think. I love his feet. Highly productive player.

Highly productive player. We ran for 1,500 yards and 11 games this year. He's got, it's a dangerous line to walk, right? He's got the patience of a, he doesn't catch the ball as well as a Levi-on-Bell,

but he's got that patience. He's got that patient running. style. And that's a fine line because that could turn into dancing real quick. But when you look at him as a guy you can get in the late round, there's a size of the production, the feet for that kind of size, he's a guy to keep an eye on too. I like it. There's just a lot of good backs, man. There's so many. Yeah. It's going to be fun to see. I think you're right. And we we predict this every year with certain positions. And we're generally like within five, seven, ten picks of when a run's going to happen you can always tell by like we do the three year tally study trends on positions

not only like overall how many how many players at a position are taken but each round there's a trend bellichick turned me on to this years and years and years ago told you the first dinner i had he and and and scott peoli myself bellichick and gary horton who got got us into this business right who had worked with bill and previously at cleveland i told you the first thing you told me is is make You've got to watch the matchups. Scouting's all about the matchups. Don't bog down on all these different tapes. Make sure you're watching the tapes that correlate against guys who have the talent level in the NFL.

And then the second thing that he mentioned in that dinner of many things, but one other thing he mentioned that dinner that led me to do this three-year tally and to stick with it, is that if you go back and look at the past three years, because trends change, positions change, emphasis changes, the game changes. you'll get a feel when you're stacking a board of generally where guys you're going to start coming off the board. Long-winded reason for this response, I truly believe we'll see four backs in the top 50.

I think it's going to be like, hold, hold, hold. And then all of a sudden, we're going to see just a massive run, kind of middle third round, right? The holding is going to occur early in the third. Where does that first one go? And all of a sudden, you're going to be like, I thought this running back class was so good. We've only had five backs taken in 80 picks, you know?

All of a sudden, it's going to be like running back, running back corner, running back, running. It's just going to be a run of all, a bunch of these guys from LaQuint Allen to Jordan James to Scadaboo to Dylan Samson. And there's going to be a huge run on this position. All right. We're at an hour. We always do this.

Let's kind of, let's rip through a couple things in conversations that I've had recently. I just, I think it's important when we have conversations to obviously protect sources, but also I just, we get too much information not to give feelers, kind of tease it a little bit as in our process and for us to talk about it real quickly. Couple things that jumped out from conversations. The tight end group is beloved, and we knew that. But Warren's going real early. Colston Loveland's going earlier than maybe even people think. I think top 15, okay? Wow.

Yeah, just saying it. I could be wrong, but I'm just saying, based off of information I'm having. Mason Taylor probably gets to round two, but like going to come off early Friday night. Arroyo from Elijah Royo from Miami is going to be shortly thereafter. Gunner Helm from Texas has a lot of love in the league. Yeah. Going to be a better pro. We said it.

I mean, we literally said it, I think, in one of our first two or three shows, and we've seen it all along. But getting reinforcement from talking to people in the league, I think Helm's kind of in that next, is that next tier. I was going to say, you love your tears. But this third tier is the one that's really. interesting to me because there's still a lot of good tight ends when you're getting And I think so, so to that, if the first tier is Warren and Loveland, the second tier is Taylor and Arroyo, the third tier, and we're starting to talk maybe late second. I thought it was going to be third, but it may be late second, okay? That third tier, I think it might start

with Gunner Helm from Texas. And I think the two other names that I feel strongly about that I've gotten no pushback on, let's put it that way, that are in that, I'm not saying limited to. I'm saying along with Helm, Gunner Helm from Texas, in that third tier, is Harold Fanon Jr. from Bowling Green and our guy Terrence Ferguson from Oregon. What say you?

I like it. The Notre Dame tight end, Mitchell Evans, I'm interested to see if he's maybe in that group too. He obviously had the knee injury, but I thought he came on strong at the end of the year. He's a guy that are keeping there. But I have all those guys, that's my next tier is Ferguson, Helm, Evans, Fanon.

so it doesn't surprise me. I do have them a little bit lower. I'm like you. I had them end of third, maybe for a couple of them early fourth. But in terms of the top of the group, I think the Loveland news is good news because it's just a tough evaluation this year, right? I mean, when you go from JJ McCarthy, and I know they ran the ball a lot in 2023, don't at me. I get it. but it was a different passing attack.

At you good munch. At you good munch. Tough for him to really kind of show what he does, but when you watch his tape and you watch the way he moves, I mean, there's a lot of NFL teams that can use a tight end like that, and especially if you're looking at it, and I'm not saying he's Brock Bowers, here we go again,

but he's that kind of a playmaker in the passing game. I think it's intriguing that he's moving up because he's that kind of a talent. So a couple other things. Go ahead. Sorry. No, I got no problems with those, that grouping whatsoever. Defensive line, let's dig in a little bit.

Let's use this honestly as kind of a preview, a tease for next show. I think we're going to, it's time. Like we just, we made a lot of headway with the running backs. I feel good about the top of the quarterback board at this point. I want to shift our focus next show. if it works out, where we really dive into these defensive alignment, talking to edge guys and interior defensive linemen. I've got right now, geez, 13 and I get 30 guys in the top 80.

Now that's not right. 30 guys in the top 100, but I don't know if the defensive class goes deeper. Yeah, 30 guys in the top 100. 30 guys in the top 100. 17 for edge rushers and 13 for interior defensive line. Here's some, I'm going to throw out. Okay.

I'm going to throw out, so we're in the same neighborhood. I'm going to throw out some nuggets here. And I'll start with the edges. And I want to get your response on some things. Then we'll go to inside defensive linemen and get your response. And then we'll be prepared next show to dive into it. Okay. Edge guys, some things of note.

everyone agrees, Abdul Carter. Some have more love for Jalen Walker than Michael Williams. Others don't. Williams isn't kind of interesting to get some different feedback, but I think we all agree on the talent. Shemar Stewart, who I just love his power. I mean, we talked about it a lot. I don't have to, we'll get into it in more detail.

I see a lot of potential there. Not all love, some love, not all love. where's the production been? Yeah. Right? And some interesting, like, yeah, for every, for every this guy, and I don't want to spend, say, specific names, because then I'm kind of ratting out. But for every this guy, there's 10 other guys that come in the league with similar

backgrounds, production, but, blah, blah. Ios, yeah. So it's easy, yeah, you're going to sit in a draft meeting and throw out this name and that name. Those are the two names that always come up with guys like this. But like, what about the 20 other guys that didn't that were similar? Okay. So just keep that in mind. Mike Green, everyone's good on James Pierce from, from Tennessee. A couple things that were interesting.

Not nearly as much Captain Jack Sawyer love as I know as I thought from inside, from just a couple people I'm talking to. JTT more so. A couple names. Everyone agrees all the day. Oladdejo, is that right? Yeah. He's moving up fast.

Keep an eye on that. The LSU guys are getting more love than I think publicly. I'll just leave it at that. We'll get into it. We'll dive deeper. We'll give our own evaluations. I don't want to get into specifics or where this person's saying that. I'm just saying the LSU guys, Savion Jones, okay,

is absolutely getting more love than expected. and Braden Swinson, probably even slightly more love, okay? Jones had a nice senior bowl. Very good senior bowl. That was discussed. Very good senior ball. But Swenson, and they're different players. One's a base, you know, a base defensive line.

And the other is a true edge. Swinson is more three, four outside backer traditionally if you're going to, but that was very interesting to me. It was driven home to me. Oh, as a Ruku. B.C. Yeah. For the right scheme, right? He's not for everybody, but if he's right for your scheme, yeah. Of course. A lot of love. Like, a lot of love, like maybe late first love. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Just throwing out there. What do you thoughts? I will say that listening to you and kind of looking around and seeing things, I'm almost certain that James Pierce is going to go later than it than he should.

I have him as he's the third best James Pierce Jr. from Tennessee. We'll go later than he should. Yeah. I think he's a top 10 pick. I think he's the third best edge rusher in this class. I think he's that good. And I think that people, if you start looking at the analytics and the win rate, instead of looking at the sack numbers,

and then you look at the versatility and what he can do. And then the tools, I think he's going to get a little bit of boost depending on what happens at the combine. I just don't get why people aren't higher on him. I mean, I like Shamar Stewart. but I like Pierce better. I like Pierce better than Walker because I think he's got a little bit better build. So that's all interesting to me.

Jared Ivy is a guy, the Ole Miss Edge, Jared Ivy, who I just can't stop loving. And I get it. The tape isn't always as good as it should be. But I look at him and I'm like, you're an NFL edge. He's an early second round guy or I think an early day two guy that people should keep an eye on that maybe isn't getting as much love as the other as the other edges. And then Josiah Stewart, I thought you were going to mention it from Michigan. He's a, I mean, this is, I mean, here we go again, right?

These groups that we're talking about, we can talk about how this class isn't great at quarterback and it's not great at Y receiver. I get news for you. The more tape we're diving into, the more conversations I'm having, this is actually a damn good NFL draft class. It's just not, it's just not top loaded a quarterback, and it's not top loaded with like five, six other guys that normally are in a class. like an Aden Hutchinson or like Joe All, you know, like, we're missing that.

We're absolutely missing that. I got it. We got three guys at the top. I think everyone kind of agrees on, right? I mean, certainly the top two, I think, obviously with Abdul Carter, the edge from Penn State, Travis Hunter, corner wide receiver from Colorado. I look at it and I think Mason Graham, they start like he's kind of, to me, planted himself with his tape.

this year different up there. And you're normally, you've got four or five other guys kind of there. But outside of that, man, the depth because of like NIL and transfer portal and still the repercussions of COVID, this class is so deep. Scouts are like literally like having conversations in their eyelids are closing. These poor guys, man. The most underpaid people in the entire NFL, billions and billions of dollars in this industry. And we got an area scout leaving for three, four months from his family for the vast majority of it and doing 30 players.

One scout we talked to on the field at Senior Bowl, 30 players at Ole Miss. It used to be like eight, nine, ten. And to get the backgrounds, the medicals, the tape, like, and a bunch of those guys wind up going back. But this class is absolutely loaded. And it's going to be, you're getting damn good football players. And we say it every year and all that. But like legitimately deeper than most class. And like, third, fourth, fifth round range.

Don't tell me you can't get better with this group. I mean, your team can get significantly better with this group. Inside defensive lineman. We'll kind of end with this. Mason Graham is the obvious. There's more love for Kenneth Grant in the league based off of people I'm talking to than Walter Nolan, but Walter Nolan is still a first rounder. A lot of mixed opinions on Derek Harmon, but still mostly first round love.

After that, it was interesting. You know who's getting a lot of love? and doesn't have a lot of like when you do your analytics studies and you're in the PFF ultimate like his numbers for as a pass rusher are not great but Joshua farmer Florida state defensive tackle is getting a lot of love t.J sanders the three technique like his tape a lot but he in mixed bag and it could just be scheme wise and all of that but make a little bit mixed bag on him because there's been talk about maybe late first or i think he's more mid-second based off the conversations,

if you're going down in tiers, but clearly the top, I mean, the top tier is Mason Graham in of himself. The second tier is kind of Kenneth Grant, Nolan, Harmon, but Harmon's kind of lower on that tier than I would have been,

maybe thought based off my tape study this year. But you and I watched Harmon too. There's, for as many great plays as there are, there's some stuff where you're like, is this guy truly elite elite, you know? We can get into that next week.

Uh, T.J. Sanders, I said inconsistent. The guy, two guys that I, that my conversations, they're getting a lot of love when we're talking about day two. And earlier, three guys, sorry, three. A lot of love. It's, um, Alfred Collins, Texas.

Yep. A lot of love. Farmer, Florida State, who I just mentioned and Darius Alexander, Toledo coming off that senior bowl and his tape. But Darius Alexander, I'm thinking more maybe second. round than third, late second than third, but we'll see how that all plays out. I will, I don't want to save some of the bullets for our talk, but I'll save this right now. I don't think Derek Harmon is the top five defensive tackle in this class.

I love it. I just, I don't see it. And there's other, there's other, I've got a bunch. This will be interesting. I mean, if the Kenneth Grant versus Walter Nolan is Tools versus Tape, in my opinion, I think that Grant's got some good tape, but it's tools. He is, the people don't know, Kenneth Grant is a freak. He is an absolute freak.

And as a defensive line coach, I'd like to work with that. I would very much like for my team to draft that player. But if I'm watching the tape, I got Walter Nolan all day, every day. I just think he's a better player when you watch the tape. So that's an interesting one. But there is a, between those two groups, that might be, it might be a two-hour pod. I mean, there's a lot to talk about. I know.

It's a good problem to have, by the way. My quick teaser, I recognize he's not going to go into the third round. I'm going to plant my flag that the defensive tackle that may wind up providing the best value in the NFL for where he was drafted is Omar Norman Lott. I knew it. I just like the guy. Mention I earned the thick of it right now. Like this is my favorite time. I'm literally, I'm getting ready to like,

all right, it's time to go to bed. I want to get up early. And then it's like, all right, one more tape. Like, this is my favorite. It's crazy. It's chaotic. I walk around and Marissa will be like, where are you or like my kids?

It's not normal, but it's my God, I love it. It's like the energy every single day waking up, ripping through tape, putting these rankings together, preparing for the show. like this is like I just feed off this energy we hope everyone watching and listening is appreciating it shaking their heads at us a little bit that's fine but but we appreciate your support and we need your support if this thing's going to take off and continue to do the things that we are working our asses off to make sure it does and so please subscribe take a half a second click the

buttons subscribe like pass the word on if you can and we will be back on Tuesday we got two shows we talked about last week, Tuesday and Thursday next week, then at the combine, we're there, Wednesday show, Thursday show, Friday show, and Saturday show. Flying back on Sunday, they'll have offensive line workouts on Sunday. We're flying back that night, be back on Monday to do a full combine recap, okay? And probably produce another mock draft at that point, but we'll get there. But again, we appreciate you. Sorry that we're a mess this time of year, but it's part of the fun, right?

I thought it will well. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We'll see you on Tuesday. Thanks. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino. Or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com.

Call 1-888-78-8-9-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. or visit MD gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helplinema.m.m.a.org or call 1-800-327-50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts. Or call 1877-8-Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York.