The McShay Show - Senior Bowl Day One Takeaways: Could Jaxson Dart Rise? Plus, Azareye'h Thomas Shines

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

Welcome back to ‘The McShay Show’! The guys are in Mobile, Alabama, for the first day of practices at the Senior Bowl! They start with their day-one impressions of the quarterbacks (01:37) and offensive and defensive line groups (29:13) before discussing the skill-position players that stood out (40:34) and why Azareye'h Thomas was the standout player of the day (42:25). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Todd McShay Guest: Steve Muench Producers: Dan Comer, T Cruz, Conor Nevins, Tucker Tashjian, and Mark Panik Additional Production Support: Tony Perry Jr. Social: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It must be 21 and older and present in select states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-HELD-HEL Help.com. Can Ole Miss quarterback Jackson Dart work his way into QB2 with a great week here at the Senior Bowl? Also, Tess Johnson, wide receiver from Oregon. Is he the most uncoverable wide receiver at the Senior Bowl this week?

Also, get ready for this name. Azaree Thomas, a cornerback from Florida State. Could he be a top 20 pick? We got a lot to get into. It's just Tuesday here at the Senior Bowl in only 86 days until the NFL draft. Look who I got here. good? I'm good, man. All right. Tickle that sweet music for me, please. Well, you heard it in the open. There's a lot going on. And this is exciting, man. You know, it's Tuesday. It's the first day of

practice. We have three days of practice here at the Senior Bowl. And Mitch, I don't know about you. Like, it was exciting. There was a lot coming out. There was a lot of information. There was a lot of conversations we had. And also on the field, there was a lot of good things to gleam. I do always laugh when you start to get on the social media feeds. It's like, oh, this player worked his way into first round. Like, if you're listening, Matt, like, you're not listening to the right people or places. So we'll try to keep perspective. But I certainly, like, there's a lot of urgency in what we just saw.

And the beauty is we're literally, like, off the practice field, in the car, driving here to our set. And this is just going to be free-flowing information. If you were sitting next to us in the stands today, if you were peeking over our shoulders and our notes, essentially, like, you're going to have the experience of what we were able to see for practice today. I'm going to start here, Mitch. The quarterbacks. Of course.

Okay. Because everyone has to start the quarterbacks. You know, I broke free from the chains, but I'm still, like, it's still a bad habits where we always have to be talking about the quarterbacks. There are, what, six or seven quarterbacks here today. So let's break it down. We've got on one time, in the morning session, we saw. Tyler Shuck, we saw from Louisville, the quarterback, Dylan Gabriel from Oregon.

We have the Canadian quarterback, Taylor L.Gersma, right? On the opposite side this afternoon is Jackson Dart, kind of the headlining group, okay? Jackson Dart from Ole Miss, Jalen Milrode from Alabama, Riley Leonard from Notre Dame, by the way, we applaud you, Riley. Like the fact that you're coming off the national championship game in a loss, after that first drive and like the exhaustion he must have had.

And right here to Mobile to compete, it shows how important he realizes this process is, you know, this part of the process is for his NFL draft stock. And finally Seth Hennigan from Memphis. I've got a lot to get into here, but I'm going to start with you mentioned. First reactions and things that you saw from the field today. I thought it was a slow start for the groups overall.

I thought Jackson Dart didn't wow. I thought he was okay. I thought it could have been a little bit more. more consistent. I thought Jalen Milrow had a, from Alabama, had a tougher start, some issues with accuracy holding on to the ball, wanted him to get the ball out a little bit quicker. Those are the two big names that we were looking at. And honestly, not, I wouldn't use the word disappointed, but it wasn't the start that I was hoping that they would have. It is always the story. I mean, just being here, we got here on Sunday night. Today's Tuesday.

We've got practice on, the Wednesday practice is arguably the most important because the installs are in. It's more physical. But then Thursday, we've got a lot of some special team stuff, some other installs. The red zone periods are hugely important. But the conversations and the people we saw and some of the talk, it really always centers around the quarterbacks. I even had a head coach, right? Yeah, I mean, this is going to say. I want people to understand this is very much unsettled.

When Todd says that Jackson Dart could be the number two quarterback or the number three quarterback, he had a head coach approach him today and ask him kind of where do you see the guys at this point in the process. I mean, it's still January. I know people are like, oh, we just had the college football season, and they think they know where everyone is on the board. Some of these coaches are just digging into this tape and figuring out the guys that they like and maybe dislike. And someone pulled Todd aside and said, what are you seeing?

Yeah, it was interesting. And you got to remember head coach in the NFL is coming off of coaching a season. Probably took a minute to breathe and then it's probably just delved it. And this is a coach who, by the way, a team that needs a quarterback. So very much interested in just starting to get into this process, right? And there's a general manager. There's scouts and everyone is doing their job in the personnel department. But you're not drafting a quarterback unless the most important people in your organization are signing off of it.

Ownership to start, general manager and your head coach. Especially when the head coach has a history of developing quarterbacks and coaches that side of the football for the most part. So to see like the urgency being pulled aside in a hallway, like what do you got? You've spent all season. I'm just starting in this. It shows like, all right, here we are. Like, the draft is starting, and we've got to start figuring things out with these guys.

I mentioned in the open, can Jackson dart work his way to QB2 in this year's class? I did that not to get a shock and awe and, like, you know, to get ratings and clicks and all that stuff. My attention. I did it because there's a little bit of an underswell, if you will. People are talking about Cam Ward probably is the number. one quarterback in this class.

Talking about Shador Sanders as a guy who certainly is a first round pick in this class, but there are some people in the league that believe Jackson Dart could be QB2. And will it be decided here in Mobile? No, not necessarily. You've got to remember you've got a career of tape for both of these guys. You've got this week. Shadur was at the East West Shrine game, we should mention, but Shadur did not participate. That was all part of the design.

Just full disclosure, he accepted the invitation from the East West Shrine game, went, participated in, I'm sure, in interviews, but he never put on pads, never practiced. There was never any idea that he would. He did it so he could help other players on his team get opportunities to be in front of all 32 teams and NFL scouts. And I applaud him for that. You know, he'd be a good teammate to the very end. But for Jackson Dart to be here and playing with the possibility to impress people and especially coaches that are just starting the process, it's a great opportunity. And I told you, I don't even

put it on X this week. Two more tapes I studied this week of Jackson's D'R. I still have three more to go. The more I watch, the more I like of this guy. And I'll say this. He is, he processes things better than I expected. When I say expected, it's because of what I, the tape I studied from a year ago. He's processing things better this year. right? He's got more command at the line of scrimmage. You see Jackson Dark this year on tape versus last year checking out of plays, setting protections, doing more at the line of scrimmage, okay? Then when the play, you know, after the snap, post-snap, I'm seeing a guy that is like making harder NFL-type throws in cutting routes with anticipation, pressure in his face. I mean,

there was a series of plays. There were three plays from the, I think it was the opening drive, against South Carolina. It wasn't his best game. But there were three, I think all three, one was a drag, two were in-cutting routes, two of the three had pressure in his face. And I'm seeing a guy that's been through a lot of wars and is now throwing with confidence, knows where he wants to go with the ball, is hanging on to the ball to the last second

because he needs his receiver to get to a point where he trusts that that's going to be open. So I'm seeing advancements in his game. The arm is there, the mobility's there, the toughness is there, The competitiveness is there, and people will point to late in the season, the Florida game. I think, yeah, the Florida game, the intercept, three interceptions, two of which they count, counted in clutch moments. Yeah, that's on tape. And he's got to live with that, and that's part of his evaluation, but there's so much good from his game.

And I think this is going to be a week. And to your point, today was interesting because there was a lot of install early. It was a lot of half speed for the first half of practice, right? A little sloppy. All around, by the way, not just him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, all around. And there was also Mench, I thought, a lot of plays where receiver and quarterbacks were, and this is, again, not just him with all of the quarterbacks, tucking the ball and running

in team drills, checking down because nothing's open. They're learning. You've got to understand a quarterback's head is swimming, and wide receiver's heads are swimming, and trying to get on the same page with guys you've never thrown to before in a system you've never played in. NFL ball, like it's all new, right? And so today is always a day where you see growth as practice goes on, but you expect the biggest growth to come from today to tomorrow.

And so I'm excited to see Jackson Dart. I'm excited to see Jalen Milrow, all of these quarterbacks, where they get. But for Jackson himself, I thought he showed a lot of poise. I thought today he was kind of in control. I do think we're going to see more of like that alpha, come out in him the next couple days. Once he gets command, then he'll start taking command

and demanding things from his teammates. You're not there yet on the first day. So that was the first thing that jumped out to me. But in terms of just throwing the ball the way it came off his hand, above average, good accuracy, overall, good zip on the ball. Wasn't a throw he made, gave me any concern. Overall, I thought for what today offered,

it was a solid day from Dart. Jaylen Milrow was a different deal, though. I mean, I'm just going to be honest. My biggest concern with Jalen, and I should mention, and we're not going to do the whole thing. Like, I've done enough of the sports centers and the get-ups and Kenny Pickett's and under nine-inch hands. And, like, it absolutely is a factor in the evaluation, okay?

The hand span from here to here. That's how they measure it, from the end of your thumb to the end of your pinky, right? And it's important, obviously, for wet conditions. and poor conditions, how can you throw the football? And we've seen it like, Jerry Goff had smaller hands.

And I remember, I'll never forget being at the Cal Pro Day, right? And we got to, I think it was a Cleveland Brown's quarterback coach, had him dipping the ball and a bucket of water. So like, sometimes we get a little crazy with all this, but... Did you picket wear gloves?

Can you picket wore gloves? We've had all sorts of crazy stories. We're not going to harp on this a lot, but it is a factor. It's one small piece of the evaluation that Jalen Milrow, six one and a half, 220 pounds when they did the measurements on Sunday afternoon, I believe.

He had eight and three quarter inch hand span. Kind of the cutoff for acceptable, and when I say acceptable, cut off for where you, like you can live with it and feel like it's not going to be a factor as nine inches. So eight and three quarters is, you would say, oh, it's not the big difference,

but it's concerning for some teams. It's a red flag. It's a red flag. So that's that. Much bigger concern or much bigger part of the evaluation for most, though, is it, when it comes to ball placement and accuracy, here's the question I have. Is it a, we're not naturally accurate? Or is it a game circumstance, things are happening too fat, bullets are flying, I've got zone read out, all these different things that I'm responsible for.

What I saw today from Jalen Milrow, and we're going to, we're going to leave it at this and table it, okay? Because part of the process is, all right, here's where he was in day one, where does he improve? on day two? Is he getting better on Thursday? In the game on Saturday, all sorts of things. You've got to remember with a player like Jalen Milrow, whose greatest strength, his two biggest assets, right? First one is his mobility. His greatest strength is his mobility. And that is put on the side in practice at the senior bowl, because quarterbacks, they're not going to let them get hurt. So they're not going to run them in team drills. They're going to protect them. So the mobility aspect of playing quarterback is not a factor during the week of practice,

takes away his greatest asset. So we're not going to see some of that brilliance here. Okay. What it also does is it puts all the spotlight on you as a passer in the pocket, timing, anticipation, ball placement, your ability to layer the football, your ability to hit spots when you're throwing before a receiver gets out of break, your ability to show finesse on throws that require finesse, okay? I thought Millrow, I mentioned the two assets he has, the first one's the mobility. Second is, my goodness. It is one of the most beautiful deep balls you'll ever see.

It's almost like it's two different individuals inside that Alabama helmet. You know, like the short to intermediate stuff, and then you watch him throw the ball vertically, and it's like, wow. You know, it comes off perfectly, the rotation, the trajectory, the way he drops the ball in. He is a phenomenal deep ball pass. So he's got those two beautiful assets. to his game. The problem is the short to intermediate passing is very concerning. And so what

you want to see here in this environment is, is it something that's game action that's causing the misplaced balls, if you will, the misplaced throws, the errand throws? Or is it something where some guys just aren't overly naturally accurate? Today, if you were just going to evaluate based off of one practice, which would be the dumbest thing in the world, but if you were, you'd say maybe he's just not naturally accurate. There were throws today that other quarterbacks weren't making in terms of five, seven yards off target. I saw a quarterback that really wanted his receiver to be open rather than throwing them open, throwing with anticipation. I saw a quarterback that everything's a 95 mile an hour fastball, even on the short, he's making

his receivers work for. Remember he talked about Carson Beck? Right. Carson Beck made his, made his receivers work for it a lot at Georgia. But that wasn't because he was throwing, he was rearing back and throwing as hard as he could. It was just a natural accuracy thing and footwork and tying it all together. Jalen, he does, he's not taking the ball, taking miles per hour off the fastball. He's not making it easy on receivers. And so today was a struggle. I mean, that's the easiest way I can put it. The first day of practice at the senior bowl for Jalen Milrow was an absolute struggle with his accuracy. And we're going to have to see improvement in that area.

we're going to see on Saturday the mobility comes in and he's going to be dynamic. I fully expect him. He's got a chance to win senior ball MVP. And it would be a great story. The Alabama quarterback comes to the senior ball and he's a senior ball MVP because he's going to run around. He's going to make big plays. Probably throw one or two deep balls. Maybe he hits on one of them, right?

But what scouts and general managers and head coaches want to see is he's showing improvement and where's the natural accuracy. And today added to the concern for me, that he's just not there yet. Right. Listen, it's day one, and you want to keep that in perspective, but I'm going to be honest, I see some of the same things on tape, which is what's concerning to me.

So you want to be optimistic that he's going to get more comfortable with his receivers, he's going to be more comfortable with his receivers, but to be honest, these are similar issues that we see on tape. So this is an opportunity for him to step it up, elevate his game, show us that maybe he's a little more accurate, He could be a little bit quicker getting the ball out, and he didn't take advantage of that opportunity today. But again, you try to be optimistic that he will be able to do so tomorrow. Yeah.

And so, but honestly, it was unfortunately one of my biggest takeaways of the day, so I wanted to kind of start with. I think it's one of the, it's like, look behind. I mean, it's a big thing. It is. I thought Riley Leonard looked good. I was curious to get your thoughts. You know, for a guy who's coming off of, what, 15, 16, I think 16 games for Notre Dame this year, that first drive, I referenced the exhaustion that he must have been dealing with in that game.

And I don't know that he ever fully recovered from it, maybe late in the game he did. Carrying that team was 15 plays, like nine carries or something crazy. Yeah, an absolute warrior performance in the national championship game. And to turn right around and come compete here, he looked like fresh and like the weight of the world was off of him. The ball was coming out smooth. He's got a lot of work to do as a passer. he's not there yet, but my goodness, he's got the frame, he's athletic, stronger than you would think, given his frame kind of that linear frame. He checked in at, his official measurements were

6-3 and 3-8s, so almost 6.3 and a half, 210 pounds. So this is the difference in expectations, though, right? Yeah. When you come, Jalen Milrow, when you're coming in as a possible number three quarterback, maybe number four quarterback, people thought you would be an early first round pick, the difference of expectations. I thought Riley and Leonard had to good day to day. Yeah. And it's, and again, all the credit in the world for showing up here and competing. And that's, it is a big deal to do something like that. But there is a difference of expectations. And you're looking at Ryan, Riley Leonard as a potential backup in the league as a day three pick, as Jalen Milroa might be a franchise quarterback. So just to kind of keep that in

perspective about how that affects how you're viewing a player. I'm not ignoring you and like texting people right now, by the way. I just, I just, I don't know. It wouldn't be the first of you were doing to me. I thought this was interesting. The other quarterback, big name quarterback, and quarterback that I legitimately, like, am intrigued how he performs this week and coming off a phenomenal year for Oregon is Dylan Gabriel, right? Dylan checked in that, undersized as expected. He's, he was 5, 10 and a half, okay? Two hundred and two pounds, thickly built for that frame. Nine inch hand span. We talked about that. It's kind of like the Mendoza line, if you will. A couple thoughts on Dylan, but let's just go with the fun stuff first.

He, so throughout the weekend, we'll talk about something like zebra technology is unbelievable, right? Jim Nagy, executive director here at the Senior Bowl, he's done a great job of making sure that scouts have what they need. This has got to be the most valuable part of the evaluation process, right? And in doing so, what's the technology that scouts are looking at? zebra technology is utilized for the for miles per hour what's the top speed play speed and to be honest with you and i know a lot of executives and television might not want you to know this because the combine coverage is so important right and we have so many eyes on it it's more important to me at least than a lot of scouts that i talk to when you got pads on yeah when you're playing the game when you're chased when you're chasing someone

What is your true play speed? So the 40-yard dashes, it is a tool that is absolutely utilized, especially cornerback and wide receiver. And ironically, an offensive line, it correlates to success in the league, which is wild. We'll get to that when we get to the combine next month. But for now, the zebra technology, usually we talk about it in reference to the speed of players on the field, miles per hour, right? They also do this thing.

They track the, it's called ball metric leaders. They had the ball metric leaders. And this I should mention is just from the national practice. This is the one with Chuck and Gabriel on that side, a quarterback. Gabriel had the fastest initial air speed of 74.9. Now, I read that 74.9 miles per hour, okay? I was reading on X, it was flipping through, and it was like Josh Allen, and one other guy were tied for the, tied for the most, or the fastest in terms of ball speed

at the combine where they also test it. And it was like 64 miles an hour. Let's just call it that right now. I'll find the exact number. But the point is that's like 10 miles an hour faster. So Gabriel has a stronger arm to Josh Allen. That's what's, if you just get. That's what you're just going on social media, you're like, holy shit, Dylan Gabriel's got to.

Just cut this clip. He's got to have him saying. That five, ten and a half quarterbacks got a stronger arm than Josh out. So, like, so first of all, the first thing I read there, it's initial speed is coming out. I don't know. I've got to go back and talk to sources and figure out. Second thing is probably maybe they've got to like, they've got to correct it and get more, whatever it is. But like, I watched him today, and I will say this.

Dylan Gabriel had more zip on the ball. There's a, ironic, like, I've done so many live games and have been out there. I just never had him at UCF live in the sideline. I've never did an Oklahoma game when he was there. And I didn't go out. I was here with you guys Saturday nights. My guy mensch, right? Throughout the season.

So I haven't seen him throw live. So this is an unbelievable tool to be able to be there and see him throw live. And what I saw on tape was above average, you know, like totally functional NFL arm, but not a good NFL arm. I saw a little bit more zip out of him today, but that was more like the intermediate throws. I'm interested as the week progresses, more vertical driving the ball, how he throws the ball. But I did feel like the ball was coming out of his hand really well today. But I also watched Josh Allen in Wyoming.

The Mountain West Championship game, I was there for that. It was negative 8 degrees. I was bundled up like a total idiot. We saw him there, saw him at the Combine, saw him here at the Senior Bowl. Josh Allen has a stronger arm. So we're going to break news. Do you want to have that conversation now, or do you want to wait for the combine to talk about

how important is to see a quarterback throw alive? Is that something we want to wait? I think kind of wait, but I mean, go ahead. Give me one thought on it. And then we can advance it when we get to the combine. I think it's very difficult to gauge. You can get a feel for it. There's no question from watching tape

how much arm strength the quarterback has. But when you see them throw live, you just get a better feel for it. I don't know if that's the most articulate way of explaining it. I don't have a scientific. Here's how I would put it. When I evaluate quarterbacks on tape, and arm strength can also be the most overrated aspect of evaluating a quarterback.

You can have the strongest arm in the world, right? I mean, Anthony Richardson has one of the strongest arms in the world. We'll see if he can develop into a great quarterback, right? It's the mental process combined with the ability to place the football. Those are the top two traits you're always looking for. But is it a factor? Absolutely. Would you much rather have Josh Allen's arm than to a tongue of ILO's arm?

Yeah. Yeah, you would. It opens more things up for your offense. So here's how I would look at it and we can move on from it. And I think it's a great conversation to have at the Combine. I would say this. Tape gets me not only in the neighborhood of what a player's arm strength is, but gets me in the cul-de-sac, right?

But there's like four or five houses in the cul-de-sac. And in terms of, like, absolutely narrowing out, like, that's the house. Like, that's exactly what his arm-strength is. is you have to see it life. That's the best way I can put it. And so for Dylan Gabriel today, it wasn't Josh Allen's arm. Like, don't believe what you're seeing. We were there and saw it with our own two eyes.

But the ball snapped off more. Bigger picture, we love his game. Yeah, I love his game. We love his game. Like the way he processes, the thing that I loved watching today, too, and it shows up on tape, but to see it live, like every rep, one-on-ones, seven-on-sevons, team. my goodness, are his feet married to his eyes?

And by that, I mean, like, every, if his eyes are going there, his feet are married to it. You see so many quarterbacks, especially, like, longer levered, taller guys, longer legs. It's hard to keep your feet moving. And certainly, like, lower center of gravity, shorter quarterback, it's easier. But it's just his game. Everything's tempo. It's deliberate. It's quick, right?

I saw a quarterback who everything was, it was. I walked away from now seeing him live, and I've thought this before, but I really believe, if Tua Tung of Ioloa's talent is here, right? And Josh Allen's here, and Patrick Mahomes is here. He's motioning. But, yeah, sorry, I know a lot of people are audio. If it's a whole notch above for, like, the top tier quarterbacks, then you go a notch below for Tua, right, wherever that notch is.

Just in your mind, wherever you think Tua is talent-wise, I think it's just a slight notch. below is the talent level of Dylan Gabriel. Just a slight notch. It's a great calm. But I think that, I mean, the left side, obviously, the south paw throwing the ball from the left side, but like undersized, not great vertical throwers, not guys who are going to drive it down the field,

but in terms of like processing, the quickness, ball out on time, knowing where to go, always having an answer in their brain and bringing their feet in their eyes with it, like that's what I see in him. And so is there a starting role in the answer? NFL forum. I'm not sure, but I'm also like, I'm open to it eventually in the right system, the right timing. Like, you saw what, you know, what we've done with, with Miami and where

he progressed when Mike McDaniel came in. Like, I think he can be a very good backup who can win some games in the NFL. And I'm excited to see how he develops throughout this week. So are we a quarterback pod now? Okay, here we go. Okay. You know what? I mean, it's nonstop. We will get, get we will get back to the offensive skill guys but to your point i got our our offensive line he's dying to tell you about north dakota state all right listen mickshay let's get in the trenches let's get in the trenches he doesn't want me to do it it's not sexy enough the mitchie show is brought to you by fanduel every pass every play every prop it's super bowl 59 and it's all happening on fan duel bet on America's number one game with America's number one sports book any way you want.

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Has anyone else noticed? This guy's becoming a real serious part of the offense for the chiefs. Over one and a half receptions. Let's get that together in the same game parlay. I'm looking at Fanduel right now. It says plus 184. Let's take that from them. Plus, to make the Super Bowl even sweeter,

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$5.1st deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets, which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook. Fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. What stood out to you in the trenches?

I thought the second practice had, I mean, just dudes everywhere along the defensive line. The first practice, I thought, maybe a little bit better offensive line play. Who stood out to you? Who kind of really caught your eye? And who were the guys that stand at this point after the first practice to really make some money, if you will? The guys I thought really got off to a strong start. My first guy, North Dakota State, offensive tackle, Gray's Abel, who kicked inside to guard and center. man, he was quick getting to the second level.

He's quick getting off the ball. He was kind of the story today, right? Man, he was so competitive. And this is what I mean. When I say he's competitive, not only was he competitive within the play of each snap, right? He was trying to get every rep that he could get. Some guys hide.

Or they just want to get their one rep, their two reps in. You know, I look good on that rep. I'm not going to be eager to get back in. This guy was trying, like one-on-one's team, he was trying to get as many reps as he could. I turned him and Shane, I was like, this guy came to work today. Like he came, he had a mission.

And his mission was, I'm going to show these guys that I will compete, snap in, snap out. And that can be great. And you can still start losing. And it doesn't look good. He was, I thought he was balanced. I thought he was quick. I thought he was tough.

It wasn't all clean, but he had a great day. Interesting with him, right? Offensive guard is where we're projecting him. He's got the frame, like physically, 6, 5 and 38s, 316 pounds. That jumps out at you at tackle. but 32 and a quarter inch arms. And just for anyone who doesn't know,

there's certainly been great tackles in the league that have had 33-inch arms and their offensive line coaches who laugh and then there are other offensive line coaches are like, I'm not dealing with 33-inch arms, okay? Like 34 is kind of like we talked about the 9-inch hand span from pinky to thumb. 33-inch arm is kind of,

34-inch is kind of that Mendoza line for offensive tackles, typically, not for everyone. his are 32 and a quarter so it's like that can be really it can impede you and why is it important because you've got a lot of defensive ends that have 34 35 some 36 inch arm length and if they can get into your body and do this and lock out against you then you're like you're like the 10-year-old with his like 18-year-old uncle trying to you know as he's holding your head down and you're trying to throw punches and you keep missing thing, right? And so that, to me, he's a guard all day in what is kind of like a sneaky,

good guard class, and I don't want to spend a ton of time on this. I think you play center, man. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I think it's center. Advanced this thing. That quickness, too? I think he can play that. I mean, you can look, again, add value to who you are and that versatility. He can play both, right? When you're trying to find ways to save roster spots and you've got a guy that can play guard and center, I mean, they're often, the NFET, NFL teams are looking for that all the time. The other guy I'm going to say is Virginia Tech defensive tackle and these people's.

Look, if you're 289 pounds with shorter arms, 31 and three quarters, and you play defensive tackle, you better be quick, you better be disruptive. And he was all of that. He was living in the backfield today from the very beginning. I mean, he was fired up. He was excited. I love the energy that he was bringing. Again, an undersized guy better be disruptive, and that's what he was doing today.

I'm going to go back to the interior offensive line for a minute. Nobody wants to sit and drive in a car and listen to a show or watch on YouTube. Very few. I get it. But I also know that those same people are probably watching on Sundays and watching if they're a Bears fan, watching Caleb Williams get just annihilated. They're watching CJ. Right. Right? CJ Stroud. Like, we can't protect him. Like, there's a lot of really talented quarterbacks that don't have the protection they need up front. And what it excites me is you've got

Armand Membou from Missouri, could be a tackle, could be a guard. First round pick. Tyler Booker, Alabama, guard all day long. He's going to be, some people think first round pick. Top 40 pick, I think overall, somewhere in that range. Marcus Bow, Purdue, we watched his tape yesterday, together you and I. Dicey Oregon game, awesome versus Ohio State. Awesome versus Penn State.

Unbelievable athlete. Might be a center. played right tackle at Purdue. Okay? So there's a lot of good, and Zabel's another one, right? So there's a lot of good interior offensive linemen in this class that it's going to be critical to teams as they start to build. Defense front, you mentioned one guy. Yeah.

Who else stood up? I'm going to give you some guys that I liked what I saw today. I want to see a little bit more. Not that they had bad, bad days, but I'm intrigued by their frames. Like, you look at the B.C. Edge, Donovan Ez-Iraku. Yep. And you look at him, you're like he's 6-2-248 kind of undersized, and then you realize he has 34-5-inch arms.

Kind of a 3-4 outside linebacker build, that kind of a player. Explosive. He had probably the best of the three guys I'm going to talk to about. He's probably the guy who had the best day. I think the UCLA Edge, Olu Wak, Femi, Olu-dejo. I hope I'm saying that right. Well, for as long as it took you to get out, I hope you got it. I know, man.

And I apologize if I didn't get it. Listen, I watched his tape. This guy was an off-the-ball linebacker. And if you look at what's happening with that player specifically, he's ascending. He was an off-the-ball linebacker. He moved to edge. He had a career year this year. I thought he was better at the end of the year than he was at the beginning of the year.

Now you show up at the Senior Bowl. Florida State transfer, right? I think so. I think you said that, yeah. All right. Looks good. I mean, he, and you're watching him today and maybe not making a lot of splash plays, but there's a bootleg and you see him sink his hips and redirect to chase the quarterback.

He's moving really well. A guy that we're over the course again. We're on Tuesday. We're going to see the next two days. That's a guy I've got my eye on. And then really, the Minnesota edge jaw joiner, who is long and 64-263, a guy have not watched his tape yet. I'm excited to watch his tape.

He was flashing today. I think he was the fastest thing. Yeah, I'm pulling it back up. Right. You know, there was some Minnesota on Minnesota violence today where he took on Arionte, Urshari and beat him with an inside move. Flashes, again, I want to see these three guys. I'm intrigued by their frame.

explosiveness, their length. There's three players that keep an eye on it over the next couple days. Dude, you ready for this? Jod Joyner is 6-4-263 pounds. Yeah. He's got 34 and 1-8th-inch arm length. That's long arms. He was 19.64 miles per hour.

Yeah? On the zebra technology today at the Senior Bowl. What I say? Well, what I... No, I didn't put the point on. I get it. Yeah. But I want people to understand. Like, we're talking about, oh, you got up to 21,

21.4 miles an hour on that vertical rally for a wide receiver sometimes. So to be at 19.64, the second fastest was Mike Green from Marshall, who's going to be a first-round pick. Okay? I want you to understand. I'm just trying to put this in context. Like, jaw joiner, not a lot of people out there know who jaw joiner is, okay? And we're all learning together here. Munch was driving me crazy.

I'm watching Dylan Gabriel. I'm watching Jackson Dart. I'm watching Jalen Milro. Seeing how they spin the ball. I'm watching these wide receivers. I'm seeing if Elijah Oroho is a good enough athlete to overcome the fact he's not a ball. All this stuff, right, with skill guys today. He won't shut up about Jod Joyner.

So now I look at the height weight. Now I see a 19.64 miles per hour. I look at the Marshall first round defensive end, Mike Green, right? And he ran a 19.08. So a half a mile per hour below what Joyner ran. And he did that. Let's just look it up. What was his height and weight?

Mike Green was 603-1-251 with 32 and a quarter inch arms. Yeah, so you're talking about like 15, you know, 13 or so pounds off of what jaw joiner was, right? Yeah. Talking about a full inch shorter than what jaw joiner was. And running a half a mile an hour faster. And more importantly, the third fastest of the defensive lineman was Ty Robinson from Nebraska at 1589. So we talk about a jump. The only other guy that was in his class

was Mike Green, who we know was going to be a first round pick. So if you want to talk about coming out on the first day of the senior bowl and getting attention, it's a good way to do it. Like this, he was great on the field. You confirm that. The measurable is outstanding.

The speed outstanding. Like he's got a lot of defensive line coaches that are flying into Mobile from all over the country being like, hey, a personnel director, hey, college scouting director. Who's this guy? So I just I love stories like that just one day of practice all of a sudden this guy is like Yeah ascending right great who else jumped out? I thought Josh Connerley had a great end of the practice

They had these one-on-ones in front of the whole team with Oregon offensive tackle Yeah Oregon offensive tackle Josh Connerley They called up you know they call up guys in front of the whole team and when you get called up in that you know you're You're a dude you know that people are looking at you and they want to see how you do and he just locked down the UCLA UCLA Edge, who I was talking about, his name that I couldn't get out. He just locked him down. I thought he was a little bit up and down early, but settled down and did really well. And then if we're going to talk about the other side of the ball, I'll say this.

As a former interior offensive lineman, you do not want to see Walter Nolan on the other side of you. The Ole Miss defensive tackle is just a problem. I mean, he beats double teams. You could try to block him with two guys and he can still beat you with quickness with strength. I thought he was outstanding today. And it really wasn't surprising based on what you see on tape. I would not want to be an offensive lineman on the American roster, right? No.

I look out there, you got Dionne Walker from Kentucky, who's 6-7-340, Walter Nolan, who's just an absolute dude out of Ole Miss. You got Jared Ivy from Ole Miss as well. You've got, just go Omar Norman Lott, who's moving up this year. T.J. Sanders, a three technique, who I just watched his tape. I really like the way he moves. and then you said even even some of the

the outside guy like Barron Sorrell from Texas had a nice day yep Kyle Kinnard from South Carolina Shamar Stewart who we're in love with by the way if you haven't looked check out at McShay 13

my ex feed mentioned I got I mean we were locked in a room all day yesterday we had nothing else to do besides watch tape and number four for Texas A&M he's wearing 14 here in roster, Shamar Stewart. Like, if he's not a top, if there are 20 other better players than that guy,

based off of the tapes we were watching yesterday and really drilling into him, then I don't know what I'm doing. So, there's just a lot of talent. I can't wait to see, like we said, first day of practice, a lot of install and drills. They were physical parts. There were one-on-ones. There were groups

and team run and all that. But tomorrow is going to be kind of a make-it-or-break-it day for these guys in the trenches in terms of the physicality and the toughness. Wide receiver. Interesting group. Not the best I've ever seen here, but still a lot of talented

players. Just kind of go through the notes. It was interesting. The Iowa State receivers, both day two prospects, okay? Jaden Higgins, who's the bigger of the two wide receivers, and then Jalen Noel, his teammate, who's the smaller guy, he's 5'9

and a half. 5-9 and 3 quarters, 196 pounds. I thought Noel really showed out today. I thought he did a great job in terms of his route running. I thought he was a player who could get off the line of scrimmage when they tried to press him at times. I was really just impressed with his game, plucking the ball on the run.

That's why I wrote pluck and run, natural hand-catcher, speed, you saw a second gear with him, okay? So Jalen, Noel, I thought, had a really good day. On the flip side, and it was, again, it was day one, but I expected Jaden Higgins, who's a bigger receiver, to come in and kind of out physical guys. And, yeah, have contested catches, not the fastest dude in the world, but I expected him to be consistent catching the ball and make some plays. I thought he struggled today.

Six three and three quarters. So he checked in 217 pounds. You know, body beautiful looks the part. But very, I just, when I watched him, I saw a guy who was struggling to show a second gear to separate and and he had a big drop in the team session today and it just it was interesting to me but i also looked up too and and after writing a couple notes on him i realized he's going up against a really good corner who's that number eight guy right who's who's number eight and i was like oh no okay so maybe it's okay that he's not separating azarié thomas from florida state and i

mentioned in the open, he was the best player on the field that I saw today. And again, I wasn't, regardless of any position. And I want people to understand, like, nobody watched Florida State after the first couple weeks of the season unless you were a diehard Florida State fan, or a really good team was playing him, and you're a fan of that team. That program fell apart this year. But Thomas, I was so impressed with the, like, you talk about easy speed and flipping your hips? Like, he looked like it was like child's play day. him. Guys making sharp breaks in and in and out of their breaks and he was just smooth and everything was easy. When I watch cornerbacks, I want to see the I want to see the arm length. I want to see

the speed. I want to see how they press. But most importantly, I want to see their movement skills. And is it, are they struggling? Is it like everything, hard work? Or is it easy? Right. And it was just so easy for him today. Even the way he's tracking the ball early. Like individual, I mean, you're just individual, right out of the gate, they're just throwing balls to the corners, their defensive backs, they're tracking them, they're going up. The way he's attacking the ball, the way he's controlling his body, I mean, it was right out of the gate that you saw a different kind of player. I look at this cornerback class, right?

And there are some good players. Travis Hunter, are we calling him a corner or a wide receiver? We've talked about that. You almost have to break the evaluation up differently. Thomas has ten and chance, by the way. Yes. That's, that's, what's his arm length? 32.5.

With his height? 601.4.191. So he's 6.1.5. How long was the armor game? 32 and a half. Above average to good arm length. Like, good arm length is a corner. 33 is like when you're like, oh, okay, he's a Seattle corner. You know what I mean? He's one of those cover three guys. But that's, like, those measurables are, they're not elite, but they're very good. Check, check, yeah, big hands.

Then you see the easy speed on tape and in person, and you see the movement skills, the confidence. Like, I thought it was interesting this week. Bill Belichick went through. I think it was on the pivot, maybe. Like the checklist that, sorry, Nick Saban did, talking about Bill Belichick and learning about defensive backs and what they look for in corners.

And, like, they kept bringing up, and then we saw a checklist come out. I've seen them before, something like 15 years ago. A coach who was on the staff at Alabama shared some of the critical factors and things you look for. But so important to them, one of the things was how comfortable are they, how effective, efficient, and relaxed, and productive are they when the ball's in the air, which makes all the sense in the world. And you can't measure it with a number.

You can't get a miles per hour on it, but you know it when you see it if you've done it long enough. And this guy's comfortable when the ball is in the air. Yeah, natural. And so that's going to lead to fewer pass interferences. No panicking. It's good. Yeah, like that. There's always that like moment of truth in coverage, right?

Where, all right, I got out of phase, but now I've worked my way back into phase, but I had to like overextend and I'm like, and then I get to the point and now I go, and I'm going up for the ball and I can't gather my, like the body control. I can't gather myself calmly and like with body efficiency to get there. and if I can't get my head turned around, I've got to work my way up from the way the technique DB coaches teach it. It's from belt buckle up through helmet without making any contact, right? You can't do that when you're overextended,

but when you have easy speed and you're relaxed when the ball's in the air, that's when it goes from, oh, he's good in coverage, he was there, but he didn't make a play, or he's always there, but he's not, you know, this guy's going to make a lot of plays because of that. Yeah. I think he's had a chance to be a top 25 pick in this draft. And it was one day of practice. And I started this whole thing off by saying, anyone he says, like, I saw one day of practice, he's the first round.

I already had him in the first round. I had a first round great on him coming into this week. Mention can attest to that, right? But it confirmed, like, yeah, like, I'm seeing it live with my own two eyes, and we're seeing with a great competition, really good NFL-level caliber-wide receivers, that he's, like, the best player on the playground, you know? He's the best athlete in the court. You can always tell who's the guy.

He was the guy on the perimeter today. Yeah. And that's awesome to see. That was awesome. Yeah. Again, from start to finish. So that jumped out to me. I'm just going through some of my other notes.

Xavier Restrepo, 200 pounds. He's built thicker than I thought in person. I thought he had a really good day. The Miami-wide receiver, 5-9 and about a quarter, if you will. 5, 9 and 3-8s, if you want to get technical, 200 pounds. That really good routes, knows how to get open, catching the ball, never going to be like that vertical, big burner down the field, but you know what you're getting with Restrepo, and we saw it today.

I think from all the wide receivers, though, the most impressive in terms of separation and difference-making ability, but it comes with a caveat of I'm scared about his size was Tess Johnson. He was, and you got to understand, too, there's a lot of one-on-ones and seven-on-sevons. There's no pressure coming. There's not a lot of, like, there's some press man, but when you're doing one-on-ones, it's really hard. The onus is on the cornerback to cover, right?

Right. Because you've got this whole field, and there's no other traffic. So it's more challenging for the cornerback than it is the wide receiver in a lot of cases. But Tess was different. Like, his inability to get off the line with his quickness, his ability to get in and out of breaks, he was a problem all day long. So, yeah, he's time. Yeah, and it's a huge butt.

And I was concerned even before practice started. I turned to mention, I was like, look at Tess, man, 5-9 and a quarter, 156 pounds. Not 165. I was hoping like 170. 156 pounds. That's a problem. And yeah, he was coming off the long season.

He's got a whole off-season to bulk. He won't play at 156 in the NFL. He'll play closer to 1-70s. 70, you'd like to eventually get him to 180 without losing all the juice. That's going to be kind of that finding that sweet spot for him, but he's always going to be a small, linear guy. And we saw him, I mean, unbelievable toughness in that, who was, Oregon lost to Ohio State in that Ohio State game where every Oregon duck it felt like was going to the locker room,

going in the blue tent, all that stuff. He left the field too with an apparent neck injury, but came back on the field. of great toughness, unbelievable competitor, great story, too. Look it up, if you will, like what he had to overcome. You know,

he lived with Bone Nixon's family. Like, he had to overcome a lot in his life. So you're always pulling a little extra for guys like that. But as an offensive coordinator coming here, and I'm like,

all right, can we get him to one, like, Strength and conditioning guy, like nutrition people, can we get him to like 175, okay? And can I get him as a number three and put into some different place?

Like, there's some stuff he can, knew that no other receiver I saw had the juice to do today if you can manufacture ways to get him clean releases and to keep him away from traffic and just give him a chance in space. But how early do you draft a player like that? Great question. I mean, that's a tough call, right? Because you know how much I love him.

Yeah. I mean, his burst after the catch, I mean, the zero to 60 is insane. And I think he's tough. And I think he's like all the things that Todd's already been saying. I, you know, I just completely agree with. The problem is when I see that frame, and he did have some problems staying healthy, right? I mean, he was banged up this year. I mean, that's concerning to me when you're looking at a receiver that size.

I don't disagree. I don't. But I'm interested to see as we get more physical in practice as the week goes on. How well does he run? Yes, yeah. Stop focusing on all the negatives, man. Tess Johnson had a great day of today. He's probably going to be a third round pick because of his size, is my guess.

somewhere in that range. But I think there's a place for him in the league is the number three and number four where he can contribute and if utilized properly, he's got a chance to be an additional weapon, an offensive chess piece if you will. Goodness, you exhaust me. I agree. All right.

Wait, whoa, talk about the other dog. Yes. Yes. Come on, man. Yeah, I wanted to see, though. Jalen Royals, big name all throughout the season, got injured late in the year. Production wasn't as good as it was the year prior from Utah State. I want to see more tomorrow.

I want to see more. He's capable of more. Right? Based on what we've seen. I think he's capable of more. I was a little underwhelmed today. Maybe it was a lack of opportunities and all that. Two other receivers I want to mention real quick before we move off of it.

Come on, man. I know. Chimier Dyke, I believe. The Florida wide receiver, I don't expect him to run great. Probably a four or five guy, just based off of like literally watching him on tape and then watching him here, I think, like, four, five. That sounds about right. Okay.

Six foot, just over six foot, 192 pounds. He catches everything. He had three of the best catches we saw all day long. Like, one was in traffic pluck. Another one was a great, like, away from the body adjust. Third one was an in-cutting route. Got it with one hand and, like, kind of propped it back up and brought it in. Just a guy that you don't expect to hear a whole lot from

when you've got other big name wide receivers here. I was really impressed with Dyke from Florida today. The other guy, you talk about someone who has been through a lot, man, Jack Besh, and like to his family and the tragedy that they just endured with their son, Tiger, his brother, Tiger, Besh. It's worth noting that, you know, doing the right thing, Jim Nagy, obviously, and his entire staff, thoughtful enough to make sure that it was recognized this week. Tiger died in that just horrific shooting and incident in New Orleans on New Year's Day.

And he was a football player at Princeton, if you're not aware of the story. And a great return special. Like all conference, unbelievable return specialist at Princeton was working at Wall Street. Just everything going for him in life, right? Ivy League graduate, working on Wall Street, great family and friends, and lost his life in that just unspeakable tragedy. And the fact that Jack has been able to use this as strength and rebound from that and be here because he knows his brother, like as a former wide receiver and return specialist as well,

like, there's just no doubt in his mind that his brother's like, you've got to be here and you've got to go compete. And if you watched Marty Smith, look it up on YouTube. The story that he told prior to the national championship game, like talk about like tears just streaming down my face. and I'm sure thousands of others, including his own. He got embedded with that family and understood just the depth of the tragedy of that family. Jack is a player, though, and that's how Jack's brother Tiger would want him to be recognized this week, and we'll do that. Jack as a player had an awesome day of practice. He did, and you kind of can just feel the strength in him and what he's going through.

like everything was intentional and done with with unbelievable pride and effort right he's a he's an intriguing prospect man he really is six one and a quarter 215214 pounds he's faster than than people want to give him credit for because he was a lot like mostly like a not a possession receiver but he didn't over a thousand receiving yards this past year started at lSU okay jack did after two seasons at LHU, transferred to TCU, had an okay year, and then it just had this huge, I don't want to say resurgence, but a huge jump in play and performance this past year.

62 catches, 1034, and seven touchdowns. Every time we made a play today, I'm getting one of these, I'm getting the chicken wing. Yeah, because obviously you're pulling the story, but also like, okay, it's not just the story. It's like this guy's a legitimate, maybe a day two prospect.

Like he's that good. And he's physical. And just watching his tape, he blocks, he does the dirty work over the middle, but he's got juice too. And I actually talked to Nagy. Nagy made the comparison.

He's not saying he is this or is going to necessarily be this because there's only, you know, talking about the top tier. But he said, everyone's looking for the next Puka Nakua, and you start to look at some of the traits and what makes Puka great

and the strength after the catch and the running ability, and the toughness and the blocking and the team first guy. Like, keep an eye on Jack Besh, man. Number seven at practice this week. And obviously, you know, in his brother's honor and everyone is wearing the decal, as I was, I don't know if I even finished the story,

but everyone's wearing the decal on their helmet in honor of Tiger Besh. So an unbelievable story, but also on the field where Jack would, where Jack is focusing and Tiger would want the focus. He is doing an unbelievable. job. So, yeah. So that's that.

Yeah. Not the best in the business. No, the best color man in the business. We lost, we lost Yucre, too, man. Are we talking about Terrence Ferguson or no? Please, go ahead. All right, Terrence Ferguson, the Oregon duck, I thought the tight end had a great day. Separated well, good routes, caught the ball well.

Just, again, a lot of, like, what we're talking about, what you'll hear it over and over again is, do they make the difficult look easy? and if they make the difficult look easy and it's natural for them, that's a player that you are projecting to have a successful NFL career. For Ferguson, I saw that all day, the way he was catching the ball, the way he was getting out of breaks. He just looked good. He looked natural.

You know what's interesting to me, I should say? We came into the year, and it was Colston Loveland, the tight end from Michigan was the clear-cut number one. Most people were talking about Colston Loveland is the number one. Mason Taylor from LSU probably is the number two. and Tyler Warren is the number two, three, kind of in that range, right? Well, Tyler Warren went on to heaven, I mean, just one of the all-time epic seasons and, like record-setting seasons in college football, continue to develop as a player.

He's going to be the first tight-down off the board. Quite honestly, it could be a top 15 pick, no problem with it. Like, he's one of the best 15 football players in this class. Colston Loveland didn't have the best year. Quarterback issues there coming off that national championship year, all the issues that they have. still a phenomenal player. I think he's going to be a first round pick.

Somewhere in that like 20 to 32 range, okay? Great. But it was Mason Taylor was kind of the assumed. And Mason Taylor's here, and you want to talk about body beautiful, like obviously Jason's son, like he got all the genetics and more. He just looks the part. He's physically built. He's athletic.

He moves well. He had a great catch today on a play. I think it was from Jalen Milrow, a little off target. He had to reach out and make it. So he's doing good things. but I really just felt like and it was one day of practice I'm just saying if you're dropped on this planet

for one day and could only watch what we watch today Ferguson was clearly like the best performing tight end and I think to Mench's point I just watching him I just saw a guy who he made it look easy you know he just he made it look easy I wrote down like great double move on the post corner route

natural mover. He knew how to like when to show his shoulders and flip his hips all like fluidly. Some guys are segmented in their routes, especially at tight end when you're those long levered, six, four type of guys. And he's almost six five, six oh four, seven, two hundred and forty five pounds. He's not the biggest, but like he's got room on his frame to grow. But he's just really smooth and effortless, everything's with ease. Reliable, gets open, good hands.

What else do you want from a tight end? And I just underline this. Makes it look easy. I don't know. I thought Terrence Ferguson was off to a phenomenal start. And I think this tight end class, as we get closer to the draft, starts to get a little bit better. Elijah Arroyo.

It's a good group here. He's standing out within a good group here. Mason Taylor is here. I think we were clear about that. But Harold Fanon, the kid who had the outrageous year at Bowling Green, he's here. Jake Brittingstool from Clemson, who's a talented player. He's here.

Jackson Hawes from Georgia Tech, he's here. And these are all good players. It's all players I like. And when you're standing out with that group, it means that much more. Yeah, it means. And so let's see if he carries this on through the week. And then obviously into the game on Saturday. And then, yeah, and you mentioned, I mentioned Elijah Arroyo,

man, he looks the part. He is athletic. I think he's still kind of scratching the surface. That's what I gathered from him. I saw that until, like, he had a great start to the year. And then his production was kind of up and down. More downs, quite honestly, than up. But was that, like, Cam Ward?

The game was outrageous. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Outrageous. But I want to see, is it a byproduct of, like, Cam Ward, the system, all the weapons they had? Martinez, a running back. They had Restrepo and a bunch of dudes at wide receiver. Was he kind of overlooked a little bit?

But he's certainly, like, he's an F tight end all day. Like, I don't need him to block much. Like, maybe, crap, you know. way 250 though, which is good for him. Again, still an F tight end, but I was happily surprised, or, yeah, happily surprised by that size. So a lot of excitement with the tight end group. Wide receiver, I think it's okay.

It's an okay group. There's some guys standing out that we touched on. Running back is the hardest position. Running back and lineback are two really hard position. Safety is always hard to evaluate, in my opinion, at least. But running back here is really difficult because what makes you great as a running back, it's not necessarily, like Emmett Smith is one of the greatest of all time, right?

And he ran like a four, five, eight or something, you know, whatever it was. So it's hard to watch running backs, especially the first day of practice where there's a lot of install. There's a lot of seven on seven. There's a lot of like one-on-one. Yeah. It's the instincts, the vision, the knowing when to cut, all those things that make of running back a great running back. So it's hard. But a couple guys stood out to me just in terms of their movement.

I know. Shut up. We're going to talk about every player today. It's going to be good. Do you get somewhere to go? I took you out to a beautiful dinner last night. Thank you, by the way. Chuck's Fish.

Chuck's Fish was unreal. We talked about Chuck's Fish. Early in the year in Athens. Well, Chuck's Fish is Chris Eddings. Thank you very much. Service and food. Service impeccable. Food was phenomenal.

You mean, me and Marissa, we dined like champ, like, last night. I order the best. You did. You did. The Red Snapper, risotto. Yeah. spoiled. I was going, oh, the running backs.

So the running backs, a couple guys jumped out to me. I wanted to get to. Yep. That's my guy earlier in the year from SMU, right? I thought Breschard Smith. Here's the thing I noticed about Breschard Smith, because a lot of guys, like, we, again, going through, like Damien Martinez is an absolute nightmare to tackle.

He's a grinder of a runner. He does all these great things on the field, competitive, playing in the bowl games, pounding, you know, running over dudes. what did you gain from Damien Martinez today? Not much. Caught the ball pretty decent, but there wasn't a lot to gain from today's evaluation process for him.

Breschard Smith, though, is interesting to watch. I just wrote, and I don't think I've ever written this note, and it probably doesn't even make sense, but for some reason, like, he was a sharp glider. And by the, like, he was so smooth in his movements, and everything was always advancing, and he was kind of doing it with suddenness, but he's just so like smooth.

Like the way he was gliding in and out. I just know he was different. His movement skills were different than the rest of the running backs. And this is a talented group. Jarquez Hunter from Auburn. You've got R.J. Harvey, who's going to be a day two pick from UCF. Trevor E.N., everyone knows coming out of Georgia, the transfer, Devin Neal from Kansas.

There's a lot of good running backs here. I thought his movement skills were different, Prashad Smith today. I loved. He went up against. I forget who the defender was. And Smith ran an out route, and he got covered. And the defender was talking all kinds of smack, yelling, pick up the ball, no way. The very next rep, I was like, oh, man, I've seen this kid run routes.

Like, yeah, I'm not sure that's, this is not the dude you want to call out. And Smith comes up and, like, does a, you know, shakes outside for a second and then slips inside. And, I mean, it was over at the top of the route. I mean, it was before it even starts. it was over, catches the ball, runs down field, and, you know, just kind of looks back at him. It doesn't really say anything. But I was like, man, careful what you wish for with that kid. Before we move on, we'll wrap up here in a second.

But thank you, everyone, for checking in. Like, this is awesome. Like, you got to remember, I did this 15 years. And it would be like, yeah, watch all this stuff. And come on, you get 90 seconds. Give me three guys that popped and make sure two of them are quarterbacks, right? So to be able to do this with, like, my God. mensch and to break down all this stuff and he makes fun of me because I talk too much.

I want to talk about too many players. But this is great. And I hope you guys appreciate everything here and appreciate the urgency of it. We're fresh off the practice field. We're here today. We're going to be back tomorrow on Wednesday. We're going to be back on Thursday after those three practices. And I think on Thursday will be the appropriate time.

And then we'll do it next week as well to look back. and start to mock draft by that. We're going to mock it up next week. We're going to mock it up. I think it's next week. I think it's next week. We'll give you all the details as we get closer. But the important part is thank you for watching.

Please click the button, subscribe, like, all the stuff that helps us stay in business. We get producers and cameramen. We all want to feed our families. We need to keep this thing going. But also make sure that you're back tomorrow. Because tomorrow is the most important day, I think, for a lot of positions, especially in the trenches, Wednesday's practice, make sure we'll be here, we'll pump it out as quickly as we can and get it to you.

We also had an awesome conversation with Nick Casario, the general manager. He was just like some of the stories with Bill Belichick and this process. We're going to do that again. We've got Eric DeCosta. We're trying to bring you as many general managers throughout this process leading up to the draft. Kind of the similarities, the differences, the process, is what drives them still, how they're building their roster, stuff that I don't know, I feel like they want to share because they don't often, they're just, they're always the guy that's coming

out saying they cut the player, they sign this player, we won or we lost, you don't get to see enough of the guys that really build this roster. So we're going to feature that moving forward as well, and we'll have information when we're, we're going to share these GM interviews that we're doing. Let's just wrap it up, man. Tomorrow, Wednesday's practice. Give me a couple guys that you're really excited to watch and what you're kind of wanting to see. It's jaw joiner. I mean, we hit on it, but I'm just going to say it again because I just want to reiterate. Yeah. It's the Minnesota Edge jaw joiner. I really want to see him have a good day. I'm also very intrigued by the Ole Miss Edge, Jared Ivy. I think he's kind of, you know,

he's in that middle tier. I've been higher on him. I thought he flashed day. He's got good tools. I kind of wanted to see him take it to the next step and elevate his game. And hopefully, Armon Membu, who did not practice the right tackle for Missouri, whose tape I love. Hopefully he's able to go tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. But if you can go, he's a player to keep an eye on. I mentioned Thomas, the cornerback from Florida State, was a clear-cut best player

if you were just dropped on this planet for one day to watch. Like, he just, he was awesome in every area that you would want a cornerback to be awesome. But I also, Maxwell Hirsten from Kentucky, man, did he have a good day too? I always keep this notebook, and I'm not going to be you guys can't keep a notebook where I do like tiers of guys. Just off of practice this week, like what I'm seeing, who's the elite tier, tier two, tier three. I've got him like right in that. Is he the bottom of tier one? Is he top of tier two?

He's a guy and I'll move the, like this page will be unrecognizable by the end of the week. But it's something I'm just keeping an eye on. He's a guy that I think is going to keep getting better as the week goes on. And I thought he was really good this week, the cornerback from. Kentucky. And I know I'm a sucker for it, man. But like Jackson Dart, now that he's got the installs, now that he knows his receivers, this is, like, this is his chance to shine. He's got Wednesday practice, Thursday practice. He's a competitive dude. He's the alpha. Like, is he going to, I want to see him become, like, stand out. Like, take over this team. Barking orders, now he knows

what the orders are. Like, I want to see him kind of, we've seen it. before. I've seen something like Josh Allen from day one to day two. Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert, day one to day two. I go about like Carson Palmer back in the day. Like the great ones elevate. Baker Mayfield, like we've seen guys come here and just elevate. I want to see that from Jackson because there's a lot of buzz and a lot of guys in his corner

that even I wasn't aware of coming into this week. So that's going to be the biggest storyline here. And Jalen Milrow, what's the progression day one to day two? How does he progress from a day that was not ideal, but it's a jumping off point, and let's see where he is on day two. And yeah, I mean, there's a whole bunch of guys, but that's, and Josh Connerly, that's my guy, man, going back from a long time. Good day, want to see more, want to see him dominate, want to see him show the athletic skills.

It's going to be a big day for him and a big day for all these players. So once again, we appreciate you being here. We appreciate you joining us throughout this entire week. We'll be back tomorrow. from my good friend Steve Mench. I'm Todd McShay. We'll see you soon. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C.

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