The Ringer NFL Show - 2023 NFL Mock Draft: Trade Ups and Landing Spots for Young, Stroud, and Levis

Episode Date: February 16, 2023

Welcome back to another episode of ‘The Ringer NFL Draft Show!’ This week, the guys walk through The Ringer’s 2023 NFL Draft Guide and break down Danny Kelly’s analysis regarding his most recent mock draft (2:19). They later close with an email and America’s favorite segment: Two Jargons, One Lie (53:54). Check back in on this feed Tuesdays and Thursdays for episodes of ‘The Ringer NFL Draft Show.’ Check out our 2023 Ringer NFL Draft Guide here! Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Ben Solak, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Watch out for mouth tendrils and follow along on. Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. The NFL Draft Show. My name is Danny Hyfitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly, Ben Salk, and Craig Krollbeck. And yes, the NFL draft show, because we're the ring of fantasy football show, we change the name and change the art. It's complicated. But we're still the same thing.

It's kind of weird. Fantasy show is dead. To be clear, the fantasy show will be back later. But for now, since it's draft time, yes. I guess we'll see. We'll see how the next four months go. Okay, exactly. So, no pressure.

Keep the people guessing. It's provocative. All right. So Super Bowl is over. If you want to listen to our recap, we recapped it earlier on this feed, which was the fantasy football show, but now it's the draft show. It's a whole thing. Soak probably recapped it in a thousand places too. My condolences, by the way, Solek, sorry about that whole thing. That's okay. I had the worst feeling a fan of a team can have, which is tie scoreboard, late in the fourth, kicking the Baltimore homes. And you're just there in person, just watching inevitability dawn. That's how the dinosaurs felt with the meteor, man, just looking up like, yeah, that's going to hit. It has. that's going to be a sucker, isn't it? Just watching the lands. Where we were sitting, we were sitting in the end zone that Mahomes was coming towards.

He's like coming towards us. Exactly. Just that meteor wearing 15, just getting a little bit bigger, scrambling right into my heart. Oh, buddy. Here we go. Staring down a cavalry charge back in the day.

Yeah, absolutely. Little battle of the bastards except instead of John Snow, it's T.J. Edwards trying to tackle. Patrick Mahomes on a scramble. It's a tough one. Oh, my God. All right. Well, now we have the draft, which is, you know, like the Super Bowl, but better.

Absolutely. Go with that. At least the top 10 pick. That's pretty crazy. Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. We're going to go through on this show today. We're just going to go through DK's mock draft, which he actually released a couple weeks ago. And we never actually went through it on the show.

So we're going to go through it right now and go to NFLDraft. Dot the ringer.com, which is absolutely beautiful and fantastic. And has all of DK's extremely wonderful analysis. And it's also just straight up the best draft card that exists anywhere. So check it out. Thank you. And we're going to literally go through and, you know, when you open a mock draft and you kind of scroll, and you're like, this is dumb.

What's with this? We're going to do that to Dick his face and be like, why did you do that? Oh, God. And we're going to just, you know, put him on the stand. I'm too tired to defend anything. You know how long the Super Bowl week is, you guys? I mean, you guys were all there. Seven days?

It's long. It's the longest seven days in the world, in a good way. But I'm also extremely tired. So my, we also went to waste management, which like, eight me three years. Why did we do that? Well, also, it's like, I think this is like the least relatable. content is this exact stretch where all these reporters are complaining.

But I had to go to the Super Bowl and then I'm not complaining. I'm saying it was so much fun. I'm tired as fuck now. That's all I'm saying. Is it that? I mean, a lot of normal people go to the Super Bowl. It's not like for the only people they get to go to Phoenix. It's a little relatable. As a person who got stuck in the several throngs

of pedestrians in front of the auxiliary press spots because the stadium has such bad flow, I can confirm there were a lot of people at the Super Bowl. That was not safe. It wasn't. There were There were crowds. It was rowdy. We were approaching mob status.

Throngs of Eagles fans is never safe. Let's be honest. I very much agree. All right. Let's get to it. Let's get into it. Let's do it indeed. All right.

Number one, DK., you have the Panthers trading up with the bears. Yeah. And they're going to take Bryce Young for Alabama. So there's two things here. There's Bryce Young and then there's the trade-up. Let's start with actually with Bryce Young. Sure. Your draft comp for Bryce Young.

I love this. It's Fran Tarkinton meets Jason Kid. Yes. Would you like me to explain that? Yes. So Fran Targinton, famous. famously is was I guess he was kind of one of the first guys that would just scramble around for about 10 seconds and then make a play he was the original and a lot of reasons

Russell Wilson was compared to Fran Targinson is because he's Tarcinton was because he would like to scramble around he was kind of small he would evade the rush just a magician behind the line of scrimmage and that is exactly what Bryce Young is and then the Jason kid thing is just like Young just always seems to know where everybody is on the field I always love that about Jason Kidd he just know he just had spatial awareness to know where everyone was on the court at any given time. So put those two together. You got Bryce Young, quarterback out of Alabama, who is tiny, is the big problem.

He's very small. He's probably, he's like an outlier small. The photo of Bryce Young and Mina Kimes, ESPN personality, is making the rounds on Twitter today. Because they met at some sort of like event. And it's just Mina and Bryce taking a photo looking to be generally the same height. As some people concerned, Mina has clarified, she was, wearing four inch heels. I don't know Mina's exact height,

but this is where we're at with Bryce Young. Mina's kind of tall also. She's not short. Yeah, Mark Ingram did an interview with Bryce Young after one of Alabama's games, and they're buffered the same height. Bryce is wearing cleats. And we know Mark Ingram's height.

That guy's 5'9. So it is internet sleuthing hours in these NFL draft streets trying to figure out just how tall Bryce Young is. Did you guys see the memes that Major League Baseball changed the side of the bases? Like, the base is going to be bigger. But then people kept photoshopping the bases

to look bigger and bigger until it was like air. and Judge next to Jose Altova. That's where we're going to be at with Bryce Young and all the other quarterbacks. You know what I mean? It's they're all 6, 3, 64. And now Bryce, this photo with me to come.

She's like, I was wearing foreign chills all caps. But her clarifying almost makes it worse. I feel like everyone underrates. The strike stand effect. Yeah, exactly. If you have to defend it, then that's actually a problem. I also think the most underrated part for, you know, for all our NFL draft analysis of like, oh, like, you know, all the things we think they're thinking about.

Dude, I think it's underrated how much people in the NFL really are biased against small people. Like big people really don't respect small people in professional sports. Hi, Vitch, you just read my mind. I wanted to ask, where does Bryce Young's size fall on the list of things that NFL GMs care about?

I think it's very important. So I could take it because I could see you thinking it through. I mean, I think it's two. No, it's three. No, it's two. One is crimes. and then two is being small, which is almost a crime, but not.

It's because you don't get arrested for that one. Crimes. One is legitimately like off-field baggage, you know, the term that's used a lot, which is kind of like a very neat and tidy word, but off-field conduct and how that might affect the team's investment of the draft pick

and the team's investment in money, how it might affect the people, how they view the team, the culture of the locker room, whatever. And then number two, like, and the reason I said it might be three is because you might say talent. You might say how good is he at football. But in reality, there are going to be teams who look at Bryce Young's measurables and say,

okay, well, he's not going to be on our board. And then they'll watch him. And some of them might watch him and say, okay, this guy is so good. He's such an outlier. He's so, so, so, so talented. We are going to put him on our board, even though he's too small. But I would argue there's going to be more teams who will watch him and say, wow, this guy is really good.

But we don't take dudes who are that small. And so to me, it's two. in terms of like the list of things NFL teams care about. Mike Tomlin was asked like five years ago, would you ever consider having a safety call the plays on defense? And he was like, no, nobody wants to take instructions from a little man

and a huddle. Let's be honest, football's a big man's job. That's a quote. He said, a little man. How big is an NFL safety like six feet, two, ten?

He's like a little man. No one wants to hear from him. That's an amazing quote. I didn't know he gave that. That's incredible. Dude, this is how they think, though. Is this why everyone hates Russell Wilson? Is this why all his teammates

apparently hate him? No, I think there's other reasons. All the short quarterbacks, Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray, Baker, despised by the people they've played with. Like, there's a theme here. What's about Drew Breeze? What about Drew Breeze?

Okay, well, like, Drew Breeze, I think, was like generally liked as a player, but like, let's talk about some of Drew Breese's off the field, you know, investments and interest. So, yeah. Is this high? Is this is, are we officially NFL's heightest?

Is that the title of the bond? Is it, maybe there's no respect because they're not tall? Or maybe something about being short around all these tall guys does something your personality. It's like manifest destiny a little bit. Yeah. I think the other thing to mention about Bryce Young is not just his height, but his frame is very small. Like, he's a small person.

He's not, he's not Kyler. Kyler is a sick little guy. Russell Wilson. Sick little guy. Sorry, that's just a weird thing to say. But you know what I mean? These guys are like built to take hits more than Bryce Young. He's just like, he's short and skinny.

So that's not great. So like, is he about your size? I am 5'7, a buck 60, which I haven't weighed myself since my two-week travels to Alabama and Phoenix for the Super Bowl. So we'll just say 160 and we'll just leave it there. So he's a little bit bigger than he was still. I'm bigger. I also have met Bryce Young.

I did not take a photo with him, but I met him and Steve Foxx's quarterback camp a couple years ago. And I will say that like that's a camper like, CJ Straub was there, Malik Willis was there, I'm trying to think about it. Like Quinn Ewers was there, a bunch of like, you know,

guys who were going to be coming up NFL quarterbacks for there. And Bryce is remarkably small and remarkably slight relative to those guys. Like the lack of body armor is the scouting term. He's six foot.

What is his size? Less than six foot. He's like 5'10. And people are guessing he's going to be anywhere from like 185 to 1.95 or so. But we're going to put so like in four inch heels

and have him meet Bryce Young and we're going to see what happens. I want to know, D.K., if you have two options, you can either add 20 pounds to Bryce Young, or you can add two inches to Bryce Young. What are you picking? Inches. Oh, pounds for sure for me? Pounds?

Just be got... Disagreement. Yeah. Whoa. Just stretch him out. That's all I'm looking for. Well, the thing is, like, if you make him taller and he's still that size, he's even thinner now, and I'm worried about, like, how hits are going to a crew.

He also, for a short quarterback, throws over the middle of the field quite well. Now, we have a little bit of Zach Wilson theorem here, which people are like, oh, man, Zach Wilson, such a good process. They're such a good pocket manager. And then you watch the BYU film and you're like, this guy's playing behind a wall. This guy's playing behind a physical wall of people. Bryce Young,

the Alabama office line wasn't great this year, but it was still a lot better than a lot of the past rushes they faced. And he's so good managing the pocket. So there are some like, okay, maybe he's not going to be as good in the middle of the field when it's NFL size, NFL speed, and he's not getting the same level of pass projection. But overall, I think the body of work,

Bryce Young's good thrown in the middle of the field. So I don't need too much height on him, to be honest. I'd much rather get the density. and feel better about him taking hits, break and tackle, so on and so forth. The density. I don't know why. But also, he's good in a pocket, but we were talking, I think a couple months ago, how Brayshung kind of stands upright.

It's almost like Craig and I trying to see over all the people. Yeah, the golfers. He's on his tippy toes all the time. Anyway, let's get to the other side, though, Brayshund. So you have the Panthers trading up here, D.K. There's a lot going on. There's Jason Luckin-Four at CBS said that he, I mean, this is like fourth hand, but it's like he heard that there's a lot of GM.

that believe, or not a few GMs that believe that the Bears might trade Justin Fields. I don't know if that's worth anything because, you know, the Bears might, it makes no sense for them to be willing to do either and then whatever their ultimate plan is. But my other question is the Panthers now they have Frank Reich, who is the quarter, he's now the head coach of the Panthers. I believe he's never actually coached a quarterback under six at three. Are we going to say that Frank Reich, not going to take a small guy? It's Frank Reich short people biased?

Does that really matter? Does that matter that he hasn't coached a quarterback under six three? I don't know. There's just not very many under six three quarterbacks in the NFL's. There's no quarterbacks his size. So Bryce Young's size. So I don't know. I actually, after I made this mock and talking to people at the senior ball and just basically rethinking it,

I think if they do trade up into the number one spot, it would probably be for either Will Levis or C.J. Stroud or potentially even Richardson, Anthony Richardson. Because just I think the combination of. and Scott Fitterer, their GM, I think size is going to matter to those guys and like physicality and just durability and all that stuff. So I think I would probably change it now at this point. Well, so in this mark here, you got the Texans of the second pick.

You got C.J. Stroud going to the Texans at two. And so let me get this straight. The book on C.J. Stroud is, well, he was really good at Ohio State. But is that bad? It's like what we were saying about the Eagles all week. They've led every moment of every game. But what if that's a bad? thing. I feel like is that basically what we're talking about in Stroud? I mean, I don't think that,

I don't know. Is the Ohio State that big of, the Ohio State thing is that big of a narrative right now? So, like, are you picking up on that? Like, is that something people are actually really talking about a lot of the fact that he went to Ohio State and everything? I think that that always gets talked about because the Ohio State quarterback thing is like me and you're just going to bring it up. And also is difficult when like the wide receivers he was playing with are all almost winning offensive rookie of the year slash winning offensive. They're all like top 10 picks. Exactly. James and Williams, Garrett Wilson,

and Chris Olavet go like 10, 11, 12 in the draft. and all those guys are playing for Stroud. It is, I think, a reasonable concern. Well, he was at Ohio State before that because he could go out of field with Chuck.

Jackson Smith and Jigma, who is also going to be a first round pick likely. So there you go, right? That's the long and the short of it. It's like the talent disparity is huge. And Ohio State quarterbacks have, even for like the guy who I think has been successful in going to be successful in league,

Justin Fields, Fields absolutely had a learning curve arc over the course of his first year that was like, holy smokes these guys ain't getting open the way they used to. It's just part of it. It's absolutely something I think you have to be cognizant of. Stroud's quite a good prospect. It's just this matters. It does.

There's just other stuff in terms of like film evaluation and how he does on the board. That stuff matters too, and you weigh it all against itself. Yeah, I think the other thing was Stroud too that a lot of people are concerned about. And he assuaged some of these fears with how he played against Georgia in his final game in college. but he was very just robotic. Like he would just drop back, hit his back foot, get rid of the ball. He wasn't trying to scramble. He almost never kept it on the zone read like quarterback option.

He almost always handed it off. It was like he didn't want to carry the ball. He didn't want to get hit. Or maybe on the other hand, he didn't need to because they just had such a juggernaut offense. They just didn't really need him to do that. When they played Georgia, he made a couple of, he made like three or four really ridiculously awesome plays out of structure where he, you know, bobbed and weaved, evaded the evaded the, evaded,

and threw two touchdowns on those plays. So a lot of teams will be like, okay, well, we know he can do that. Maybe he just wasn't doing it in this offense because they were just freaking dominating every time. Or, you know what I mean? Like they just had such a good skill talent that he could just get rid of the football and go from there. But I think that is really the big thing with Stroud is can he play out of structure? Is he just so robotic that he's going to be? And this is why I think people compare him a little bit to golf.

Like can he create on his own? So the Cardinals of the third pick, and you gave them Will Anderson, who's the for shot Alabama and kind of been a presumptive top-free pick for like a year or two at this point. And then the Cardinals went and hired Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. And they kind of did the thing where they agreed on it. But then they had a wait till after the Super Bowl. And then his defense was shredded in the Super Bowl. And it actually reminded me of Job buying the Dove in the Rested Development.

And then he kills the Dove. Squishes it against the door. And he's like, what's your return, Paulus? I like this pick, actually, for the Cardinals still. Ben, do you think this makes sense for a guy like Gannon? Yes, because I think that Will Anderson is a dude who can absolutely dominate as a pass rusher. And Gannon's defense, the only time I've seen it work has been the one time he had a dude who's absolutely dominating as a pass rush for that being Hassan Redick. There's not a defense under the sun for which a player like Will Anderson doesn't work.

Because Will Anderson is a ridiculously good pass rusher. And that's everybody in the league right now. Like there's, like I said, there's no defense that for which it, for whom it doesn't work. So like for the, you've had a weird, I feel like you've had a complex relationship. watching Jonathan Gaines' defense all year for the Eagles. How should Cardinals fans feel like about this guy where it's like, you know, his defense, I mean, shredded in air quotes. I feel like that's a little unfair.

But I don't know. How do you feel about Gannon and this hire for the Arizona? I'll say this. I don't think coordinator performance correlates as strongly to head coach performance as we'd like it to. Accordingly, when you look at Gannon's record in Philadelphia, really good defense against bad quarterbacks, really good defense against average quarterbacks. Then the second you start to hit good quarterbacks. Played Patrick Mahomes twice.

Played Justin Herbert. Derek Carr even had a great day against him. Dak Prescott. These guys ripped this defense to shred. It's a pretty basic lineup and play sort of defense. It doesn't have much to it in terms of post-net movement and confusion. It doesn't have a lot of teeth. So when you run into a Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, Mahomes just kind of gets whatever he wants the whole game. And even when your pass rush moves him off his spot, he's Mahomes.

That's what the elite quarterbacks can do. And that's why I think you need a, an offense that generally like scares as has more of an impact on on top quarterbacks than than what Gannon brings. But despite the fact that he had this, this defense that had these issues, he was really beloved in Philadelphia and successful in Philadelphia because, I should say beloved like inside the team building. The city of Philadelphia did not like Jonathan Gannon, but in the team building, like Nick Serrani

loved him, the players loved it. Outside they hated him, but that's their form of love. Yeah. Yeah. They, he was a really good communicator. He was a really good teacher. He's really going to be like the details of the players like in terms of like the film studying how they executed.

You could tell like they knew what they were doing. There was impressive work there. And the reason I bring that up is to say, I think he can do a good job leading dudes. I think he'd do a good job running a team. I think he can be a great CEO coach. If he's like, I also have to call the whole defense. And then I'd start to get worried if I was a Cardinals fan.

I feel weird. He was a cornerbacks coach till like two years ago. Is it weird? I don't know. It's so odd to me. Like not even courtier. Like a cornerbacks coach in 2020. And then now he's just like running a team.

Right. And like Dimeco Ryan's was like a linebacker's coach at that time. And then Dimeco went from like defensive quality control in 2017 and went all the way up. So you say, okay, what's the difference between a guy like Damico and a guy like Gannon? Well, Domeico had like all like a third round pick and Fred Warner, fifth round picking, Drake and Drey Greenlaw, a seventh round, an undraft three agent, Azizel shall hear, fifth round pick in Dalaijana, fifth round picking Talano, Hufanga, a free agent, Sam's Epicon. She was making a lot out of not a lot on the defense.

Gannon had the most loaded defensive coverage that you're really going to find in the secondary. Tj Edwards, Marcus Epps, some guys who obviously came along, but altogether, like, they were stacked in terms of talent. D'Meco, I thought, brought guys along a lot better. With Gannon, the reason why I think he's risen the way he has

is because I think he's a really good interviewer. Like, if you listen to his press conferences, he's a great communicator. He understands how to, like, get his message across in one or two lines that are, like, simple. He has, like, good, like, you know, zingers. He's got good, like, platitudes. So, sort of stuff, like, that plays well in interviews.

Like, why do guys get jobs? Because they interview well. Why do they do a good job? Different than interviewing well. And that's why with Gannon, I'll be curious to see what it looks like in Arizona. But I'm not surprised he got it. I think he's a really good interviewer.

Do you think defensive coordinators rise up quicker to get head coaching jobs than offensive? Like when you think of somebody like Brandon Staley, who I think was a defensive coordinator for one year before he became a head coach, and now you have Gannon. Sala, I think was one for three years and it became a head coach.

Do you think it's more likely that defensive that defensive? Well, if you have the best defense in the league that happens to Staley or game, Anand and Damika Ryan's. Otherwise, it's like the Zach Taylor's who go from quarterback coach. You know what I mean? It's getting picked off the offensive guys.

I feel like those are the guys that make the leap faster. Yeah, I don't think it's, it happens any faster. I do think that the league is desperate for defensive. I'm hesitant to say defensive revolution. That's too grandiose of a term. But defensive advancement to catch up to some of these top quarterbacks. Yeah. And so they start looking for that and hunting for that.

Now, they bark up the wrong trees because. owners like, you know, good interviewers. That guys are the top button button. That guys would be a good face on the franchise. You know what I'm saying? Like they wanted to look a certain way. A lot of like the young and recent offensive hires have been like offensive whiz kids

and those have been successful. A lot of these recent defensive hires, these whiz kids have not been nearly as successful. You know who's been successful? The guys who've just been around for 30, 35 years and have been so, so, so good, so steady. Talk about your Bill Belichick, talk about your Mike Tomlin,

who's defensive background, talk about your Vic Fangio. and talk about your Luanarumo, who's who's in Cincinnati. Defensive coaches tend to be better when they have a really big menu, when they have a really, a lot of experience and they've seen everything. A Rolodex. And to me, like, going for some of these young guys, I think, can be missing the force for the trees there a little bit.

Also, that wasn't a joke, like a metaphor Rolodex. You literally want defensive coordinators to be old enough that they still have a Rolodex. And that's how you know. They're not digital. Yeah, not at all. Flip phone. Flip phone decorders. All right.

Call to the fourth pick here. Dki, you have them taking Will Levis. If this is on the board shakes out. I mean, first of all, Jim Ursay basically just keeps, you know, we always talk about teams doing subterfuge and keeping everything in shadows. Jim Ursay had to introduce Shane Steichen as the new head coach. And basically was like, yeah, we got to find a young quarterback. And then at one point literally said, like, he literally was like, yeah, man, like there was a joke about them trading back. He's like, I don't know, that Alabama kid's something.

I love this. He's a wild card. What are you doing? Oh, yeah. And apparently Ballard, like, snapped a glance at him, like, snapped his head over and was like, dude, shut your freaking mouth. Jim, or says your uncle saying stuff at Thanksgiving.

You're like, please stop talking. All the beat reporters, too, are saying basically the cults cannot do like another veteran retread. So I don't, maybe there's just, they're just embracing the fact that everyone knows they're going to take a young quarterback or at least assumes that they're going to take a young quarterback and just playing off of that. But it is kind of funny that the owner is basically just saying, yeah, yeah, we're going to take a guy there. Let's do that.

You also tweeted out a picture of him like three years old. on a literally riding a bear at what he says to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. And the caption was, my relationship with the Chicago Bears goes back more than 60 years, which I assume is a joke about him trading up for the first pick. Yeah. Except I don't think it's a joke. Are they letting kids ride bears at the zoo?

I didn't know about this when I was in Chicago. I'd been riding up there. They didn't use seatbelts back then. People were smoking when they're 12 years old. Wild Wild West. Yeah, honestly, the only thing missing for this photo is a cigarette. He should have been smoking while riding the bear. What do you think of Levis the fit with Shane Steichen?

Steichen? Stichen. I was thinking more about nicotine bear as a precursor to cocaine bear. Cocaine bear. Nicotine bear is just like even keel. He's no longer stressed. What did I? Didn't somebody in sports media try to say Stikin's name and mess it up?

I can't recall now. Me? Just now. Yeah. Is it with CH or is it the hard C? Is it Steichen? It's Steichen. I think we should call him Stichin until,

really earns, like, you know, maybe like a three-game win streak, and we'll call him Stiking. Stiking, all right. Well, anyway, Shane, the nice thing about Stiking is he's had a, he's had an experience a lot of different quarterbacks, right? Yeah. Goes from calling a great offense for Philip Rivers calling a great offense for Jalen Hertz, two quarterbacks that literally could not possibly be more different if they tried. And what impresses me the most about Stiking is just how well he sequenced his play calls together.

He has a really, really good job on Sunday of like figuring out what's going to work for the offense and what won't. He doesn't bash that into the wall. good situationally, right? I think just generally he's a very strong play caller. And I hope that he does call plays in Indianapolis as long as he has the bandwidth for it. What quarterback Steichen leans to, I think it could be any of them. I really don't think that he gives us a particular angle. With that said, Chris Ballard does because as Craig asked earlier, how much does this sort of thing matter? Ballard doesn't really draft smalls. You go and you look at the

history of him, his drafting of the position, obviously we don't have a ton of quarterback because they haven't freaking drafted one. But if we look at the other positions, they tend to have a lot of bigger guys at the position. Look at their wide receiver room where everybody's like 6-1, 6-2-plus. This is a coach who likes tall players and a quarter likes big players. Excuse me. So I think that Ballard probably trends towards the bigger guys. But at this time, Colts are kind of occluded.

We don't really know because Ballard hasn't drafted a quarterback. So we don't have a lot of data to go off of. So, D.K., you had them giving Will Levis, you know, that is, I'll give you a break because that was before the owner literally was like, I like the other guy. but you have Levis of Shades of Ryan Tannenhill and I'm curious like Craig's comp too Thad Castle from Blue Mountain State

like what is what is the can you just explain Will Levis? People don't know what Will Levis is Oh my God Will Levis he's a bit of a enigma honestly he's so like number one he has very intriguing

tools really strong arm he's really athletic he was used like Intriging tools What a way is too Toolsy as fuck How about that, Craig? He was basically used like a Taysom Hill style player early in his career at Penn State.

So he's a very athletic guy. He could be used in the run game if they wanted to. I'm not saying he's going to be like, you know, as athletic or dynamic as like a Jalen Hertz is. But he can run around a little bit. Well, you compare to Tasem Hills unfair because Taysam Hill is like a future Hall of Fame or you don't want to put that on one of the other.

Yeah, I'd rather say he's closer to like, you know, the almost MVP of the league Jalen Hertz than like Taysam Hill, who's much better. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, much better. But he's very inconsistent. You know, his accuracy comes and goes. His decision making is a little bit erratic. I think people are worried about the fact that he's like a 24-year-old coming into the NFL

and didn't really develop in his final year in college. He actually got markedly worse. The players around him were worse, but he didn't really like elevate the offense as much as people wanted. Basically, it's like he's very toolsy, but he didn't elevate the offense as much as people probably want. And so now they're going to look at him. I kind of like, I kind of see him as like a Justin Herbert style. prospect where most of

the draft Twitter hates him, but NFL teams love him. So it's going to be very interesting to see where he goes. I think he had in Solac has been the first to say this. He's been saying it for longer than I have. Like, Will Levis Mikeo number one overall?

Like it wouldn't be that surprising. Wow. And Justin Herbert comp really threw me there at the end. Yeah, so like nodded at the Herbert comp. Why is that Solac? Why were you like vigorous like, yes, yes, Herbert, we'll love us. Because when Herbert came out,

we all were just like, please watch the film. He's not good at throwing the football. the league was like, bha. And then it turns out, Herbert was really good at throwing the football, way better than anybody in the league thought, let alone we thought right away, right? It was really illustrative of how much the Oregon system and the lack of Oregon weapons held him back. And then you look at what happened in Kentucky this past season where they lose Wondale Robinson, they lose Luke Fortner, they lose NFL guys from their roster.

Liam Cohen, their officer coordinator, leaves to join the Rams coaching staff. they bring in Rich Gangarello who Rich Gangarello is just getting jobs straight enough Kyle Shanahan's name. He's just never had a good offense underneath him. That's a whole sever conversation. And they really, really, really struggle Kentucky does on offense.

And when you go and you watch, okay, like, why are they struggling? What's exactly happening? You see a dude in Levis who's playing like he has the entire world on his shoulders, who knows he has the entire world on his shoulders, doing everything you can to keep this offense together. And at least just some really good plays,

leads to some really bad plays. I like, I'm so completely and totally fine with Levis. I think that that that tan hill comp is a really, really good cop. I remember I was texting Danny when the first time I did live a film like over a month ago. And I was like, dude, this dude's just like Kirk cousins. Like, what's the big deal? Like, it's just a good Kirk. He's just a nice, nice solid Kirk.

Nothing's not wrong. Good Kirk. Yeah. And but so much is going to get folded into his evaluation because of the quarterback he's being measured up against. He's a white quarterback versus a black quarterback. He's going to get like the pocket passer. He's going to get like the leadership thing.

Right. A guy, CJ Stroud's not going to get because Stroud's just a quieter dude. Like, so much of the issues with quarterback evaluation that we've really tried to bring it out of the spotlight for last like five years, they're captured in a guy like Levis. I said, if he does go one over Young and he does go one over Stroud, it's going to be a heavily scrutinized and examined decision. And deservedly so, you know, it's a lot of good quarterbacks in this class. And Levis is one of them. And so if he, if the separating factor is that he just like has good vibes, that's not necessarily a great process. Well, I'd like to do a little compare and contrast here.

And so that's the cults, D.K., you have the Will Levis going to the Colts at four. The fifth pick, you have the Seahawks. You know, they're taking Jalen Carter out of Georgia. But the Seahawks have two picks in this draft. You also have the Seahawks taking at 20, Anthony Richardson, the quarterback out of Florida. I want to just skip to that because you've got Anthony Richardson at Florida going 20th. And I think, you know, you're not out on a limb there. I think the general consensus is like, you know, Stroud, Will Levis, Bryce Young,

or you go in some order depending on the team interests and trades. And then Richardson's like his own tier of this ball of upside. Solac described them as basically like underbaked Josh Allen, except playing in the SEC instead of like at Wyoming. Josh Allen with a little gooey center. Yeah, exactly. Paul Hollywood's like, oh, no, it's little underbaked. I can't do that.

Stodgy. Stodgy. Stodgy. You never want to hear stodgy. At some point, we should rank all the things you don't want to hear from Paul Hollywood on British baking show. Garrish, oh my God. But why?

Garish. That's the worst one. Mary Barry said something a woman made once was garish. And I didn't know what that word even meant. And my mom was like horrified. It's like, ostentatious, right? I don't know.

It was. Like far too like colorful and bright like in your face. Yeah. You do not want to have an old British woman say garish about anything you just bake. Okay. Anyway, I don't know how that. I'm excited for me to be the first person to pivot from Will Levis to British baking show.

But serious question. What is like one thing Will Levis does well that Anthony Richardson like can't do? Like, why is Will Levis going to go ahead of Anthony Richardson this draft? Because here's my thing. I get that Anthony Richardson is like chaotic, right? But he's two years younger than Will Levis. When Will Levis was Anthony Richardson's age, Will Levis was Taysam Hill at Penn State and had to transfer just to play quarterback

somewhere. So, like, how is Anthony Richardson younger than Will Levis? Like, how is he not going to go above Will Levis? I don't get it. Yeah. I think it's hard. It's difficult. Number one, he might go high.

Like, there's a chance, Richard. This one team loves Richardson. He just goes number one or number two or whatever. Like, I think it's in the realm of possibility. The big thing with him is, I believe he has 13 starts in his total college career. You know, we're talking like similar a number of passes in college as like Trey Lance had. Like, he is very wrong. And Matt Jones went 15th.

Absolutely. So maybe he does go that high. Like, we don't really know. And I think the thing, too, is like, Trey Lance was in. I would say he felt like a little bit more of a polished passer. But I think Richardson is getting undersold for how much polish he has in the pocket. Like he can move around in the pocket. I think he has the ability to, you know, go through his progressions, do all that stuff.

He's just getting a lot of, it's almost like cliches. But I do think there is something to the idea that he has 13 starts. Like that's not good. That's typically that's really not translated to the NFL very well at all. And look at where Trey Lance is now. Not to say that his career is over, but like having experience with live bullets in in games, is so important for these quarterbacks. So I think there's probably going to be the perception that Will Levis has more

polished. He has more experience. You know, he's seen more things. Like, he's just able to deal with stuff that, like, you can only get with experience versus live reps.

And so I think the big thing with Richardson is, like, he has legit elite potential. He might be the most gifted quarterback. You know, he's by far the most gifted quarterback, I would say physically in this draft. But like,

he might be one of the most gifted quarterbacks in the NFL, like period, just based on his skill set. But you may need, like a few years to develop him because he just literally has like almost no experience. It's kind of crazy coming into the NFL with 13 games, 13 starts. So I think that's the main thing. But like basically, I actually really like Richardson.

A lot of people, a lot of Seahawks fans accuse me of basically like setting this draft up to be like my perfect scenario and like they're not wrong. This would be awesome. I do wonder how many teams are going to like be willing to invest like a high first round pick on a guy with that few college starts and college passing attempts. You know what I mean? I love that many people were like, is like many people accused me of

and they're kind of right. That's the thing about whenever you're accused by a lot of people about something. You've often, you've got it. I would say like, I think Levis is a better thrower right now than Richardson is. I think he's got more arm angles,

more accurate. He's got, and the ability to kind of like throw on the move and throw from weird positions better than Richardson does. Richardson is so long and such a big dude that it can be tough for him to like do little sidearm release or like,

throw on the, like, you know, was feet aren't connected to the ground. He's just huge. And so it's really hard to whip that thing around. Levis, the reason why Kirk immediately came to mind is because Levis has got this like three quarters release. That's extremely Kergian.

And it's deadly accurate. It lets him get around guys when they're unblocked when he's on rollouts. I think he's a better thrower right now. If you took all the dudes and push their, if you took Levis and Richardson and Stroud and Young and pushed all their sliders up to a hundreds, they were the most accurate versions of themselves, the most, you know, they could hit their throw power consistently,

whatever. Richardson would be the best throw of the football. He's just, he's not there yet. And right now Levis is like, Levis, you could drive that dude in a McVang offense tomorrow and he could throw the ball in an NFL level. I've no doubt about that. Richardson, you're still trying to figure it out. And that manifests. I agree with that completely. That manifests and like he'll just like completely

miss on just like a little dump off to the outside swing pass or whatever. And it's just like, how did you hit a guy 30 yards down field and then the next play, you just like overthrothed over his head on just a five-yard out route or something. So that, it It's just a sporadic, the accuracy comes and goes. It's just, you know, he just literally needs more reps, I think.

It's like Josh Allen, right? I mean, that was the comp, right? Yeah, he's more Josh Allen than Levis, I think. Well, Levis is going to get Josh Allen comps, but... When somebody says Levis reminds me of Josh Allen, I don't listen to the rest of what they say. Unless they're like, as a dude, then like, okay, cool, whatever, I don't care. But I think Anthony Richardson really is the comp to Josh Allen, and Josh Allen's comp was basically Cam Newton, and that's what I feel like with Richardson.

And I don't know, I guess of everything we've watched in the N-of-Farston. fell last few years. I don't know. Especially also, I feel like the other part of this I think about with Richardson, I feel like the Eagles kind of showed the future of football in that Super Bowl where it's like the way that they were running that offense with Hertz and everything. Just I don't know. It's like, why can't seriously, why shouldn't the Eagles take Anthony Richardson with the 10th pick and then just let him sit behind Jalen Hertz for two years?

And if Hertz gets hurt, they have Richardson. Like, and then you could trade him for more? Like, why? This is not allowed. Don't put that into the world. But what can Anthony Richardson do? What can Jane Hertz do that Anthony Richardson could not do with two years on the bench learning? I know.

Like, I am not even slightly kidding you. And I'm telling you, like, Eagles Twitter is 100% think there's a chance this is happening and is dreading this happening. But that's how it is. Why shouldn't they? Well, right. Like the Hart is the starter. Richardson's the backup. Right.

So the argument, right, being that you bring in Richardson, Richardson develops behind Hertz. If he gets any reps, after like Hertz gets banged up, you know, purse of the shoulder injuries. So Richardson can play for a couple games, give him some good. experience and then maybe Richardson develops long and then he's a starting quarterback and then you move on from Jalen Hertz. You don't have to pay him $50 million a year and you keep Anthony Richardson nice and cheap. All of that is well and good in terms of maximizing expected value out of players and manipulating the cab and yourself competitive advantages. Then you have to go tell AJ Brown and that's where it gets dicey.

What if you keep both? It's, it's, it's, it hurts is clearly the leader of the team. But like, why shouldn't they keep both or even just Shane Stuyken went to the Colts? Why shouldn't the Colts just take Anthony Richardson, be like, all right, cool, we're going to do all that again. Well, it's, the Eagle, isn't it really freaking weird if you just almost won the Super Bowl and your 10th pick in the draft as a backup quarterback? No, I get that. Yes. My larger point is, but I forget the Eagles doing it.

Yes, it is weird. Aren't the vibes slightly questionable? My larger point is Shane Stake and just left and go to the Colts. Let's just say teams trade up above them, like, if the Colts took Anthony Richardson and just we're like, all right, you're going to either sit behind a vet for one year or whatever. I guess I'm just confused of everything we're learning about where the NFL's going. It's not that Anthony Richardson can't fail. Obviously, he's like, you know, it's a high, you know, upside guy.

But like, I don't know. What part of it, like he's a cyborg. He's a flame thrower. Like, I don't know. So can't you teach him to do all the things that Jalen Hertz does? Hopefully. I mean, like, Hertz is a unique story in that like the past seven years, Hertz has gotten better. like Hertz showed up at Alabama and was like, all right,

we got to bench this guy in the national championship game for two, a tongue of our love because he can't hit the broadside of a barn. Seven years later, he's playing in the Super Bowl. Like, it's bananas how well Hertz has developed as a player. Development is not linear, nor is development easy. It's hard to say, okay, we get Richardson in the building, then he's a little bit better through year one, and then we get to year two, he's a little bit better.

I wish, but that's not always the case. That's an important thing to remember. And what I would say to the Richardson point, Like, let's take the Colts as an example. Chris Ballard almost lost his job this year. I think that's fair to say, right? One of the reasons why Ballard almost lost his job is because they've never gone a young quarterback in the building who is, you know, the guy who's going to be the dude for the

chiefs and you're going to get a second contract or be the dude for the Colts, get a second contract, take them to the playoffs. So if you're Ballard right now, you are thinking you get one shot to draft the young quarterback. And if it doesn't work, you're going to lose your job. you're also thinking if it doesn't work fast, I might lose my job

regardless. If Richardson comes in and has to sit for a year behind Jacoby Brissette and we're watching Jacobi Brisset by week 12,

Jim Ersson might show me the curb, right? You might show me the door. That's what I'm looking for. Take me to the curb.

The number one most important thing is what I always say to remember is that a general manager's second most important job is to win championships. First most important job,

keep the job. Cash those checks. Hang on, baby. This is a tough business. And it is easy to lose this job. And so with Richardson, you have to have a good environment to develop the quarterback, good quarterbacks coach, patients from the front office, patience from the coaching staff, patience from the ownership, veteran quarterback ahead of him to show him the ropes.

You also, though, need to understand that if it doesn't work, you're probably gone. And general managers don't want to bet on a very unsure thing, even with a super high ceiling, if they feel like their job security is in question. That's why John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan took Trey Lance because it's like, yeah, man, We ain't going anywhere. We're killing this. Let's see if we can really swing for the fences here. Can you guys rank the quarterbacks based on the

Won't Get Me Fired metric? C.J. Stroud number one and they won't get me fired? No, Levis is one. Really? I'd say for sure. Yeah. Now, Levis is like, you know, Hey, sir, how are you?

I'm excited to be a Carolina Panther. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's, that's, that's, give this guy a chance. He's a leader of men. Do his teammates like him? I think his teammates like him, right? Love him.

Yeah. Love him. Part of me wanted to compare him to Carson Went. like no one likes Wentz and like Will Levis is liked by everyone. Maybe I'm coming around on Will Levis now. I don't really hear a lot of everyone, now that I hear Ben being like, Levis is good. He's totally fine.

He really, really is. Like the Tanehill comp works because everybody likes Tannel. Tannels are really tough son of a gun. He can hang. Levis is like a fine first round quarterback prospect. You can't be convincing yourself that you're getting, you know, Josh Allen. That's your line to yourself there.

But he's a fine prospect. it's just a big part of his appeal to teams is going to be, yeah, the handshake. If Will Levis was in last year's draft, would he be the first quarterback taken? Yes. Yes, because I'm literally, I'm literally trying to remember who the quarterbacks were from last year. Pickett, Ritter. Belich-Willis? Yes, he would be, for sure.

He would have been for sure. What about Anthony Richardson? Oh, that's a good question. I think he would have probably gone ahead of everyone, but maybe Pickett ahead of him, but I don't know. No, I think Richardson would have gone before Pickett. Yeah. Right now. Obviously, like last year,

Richardson had played one game. The player that we've got right now, I think Richardson would have gone before picket. I always like to compare it to a draft before just so I can, like, have better context. Last year's draft, last year's quarterback's class was like a all-time bad class, I feel like.

And we, I don't even think we realized it at the time. Like, we were still low on them going in, and then the NFL was like five levels lower. You know what I mean? No, I sat on this podcast for four months. I was like,

the NFL's obsessed with quarterbacks. They always go for them. We're not going to get E.J. manual. And then we got thoroughly E. E. It was a lot. That was a very strange thing. I feel like that almost will never happen again.

Like, teams are always... It was like this super bad. It was the beginning of Superbad. It's like, you ever seen Kenny Pickett on his own? Not for me. Yeah. Well, picket's... I don't know if we need to like single him out.

He's fine. He's fine. He's fine so far. I was just on a walk with my dad because I'm home right now and he was complaining about Matt Canada. And then he starts going, oh, but Mike Tomlin will always get us a winning season. and whatever.

And I was like, yeah, Dad, that's sick. Gosh, Steelers fans drive me nuts. Dealer fans are so weird. It's so odd.

It's like, you can't criticize the Steelers, but they like have to criticize the Steelers or they're, I don't know. It's odd. Yeah. All right.

I'm dating a Steelers fan flex, but just getting that out of the way. Okay. DK, I'm scrolling through your mock draft. You also have the Raiders 7th. You have them taken Christian Gonzalez here, obviously.

So that's the news of the week. We're recording this Wednesday. Raiders, cut Derek Carr this week. Released him. One, I find this very funny just overall how this played out. They made him walk the plank.

I think it's funny Derek Carr always looked like a pirate and was on the Raiders. No one ever talked about that. Yeah. We never talk about that. How is that? Why is he like that? It's just natural.

He just looks like a pirate. Natural dark eyelashes? I don't know. Maybe he's born with it. Maybe it's Mabelene. There's no way. Maybe it's Mabelian. He has preternatural

eye lighter. Who knows? Anyway, I have been wondering because if you're the Bears, that's why I kind of don't, I kind of don't know if the Bears are going to trade Justin Fields because the way I look at it

with the Bears, the first pick is if this, literally forget the real life NFL, you're in a fantasy football league and you have the first pick in the draft and you can trade the picks. And everyone just really wants a quarterback. I don't know, just go with me here.

Everyone wants a quarterback. And the people who are, behind you are desperate. The Jim Ursay already talk about how he wants the quarterbacks. Mark Davis and the Raiders, I cut their quarterback, don't really have a plan to replace him. And then you've got the Panthers who have literally done nothing but sift through everyone else's trashed a quarterback

for three years trying to get one. And I'm like, those are three desperate owners trying to trade up. And I'm curious, do you think the Raiders end up with a vet, like Aaron Rogers? Or do you think the Raiders and the Panthers are going to basically end up in a bidding war to get to that first spot with Chicago. But if Chicago takes a quarterback too, then like,

is it the Cardinals? Like, I don't know. How do you guys see the landscape here with the DECA? Start with you. Like, what do you make of the Raiders right now? It's really weird. Extremely tough to read that. Even Jared Stidham, I think, is a free agent.

So, you know, who knows what's going to have in there? But the whole off season, to me, I felt like they just been, they're going to target the veteran market for this, especially because they have Devante Adams under contract. Like, I think Aaron Rogers is going to be someone that they go after. Maybe even a guy like Jimmy G.

There's a couple of guys on the, free agent market that they could go and get and like get by with. I don't know if I see them trading up to number one, but, you know, obviously we can't totally preclude them from doing that. Well, Mark Davis shaved his head.

So he's basically like a Bond villain. Is that real? Was it not? Did I get photoshopped? And I just saw a picture that. I don't know. I believe it's real. Oh,

what would be more expensive if you're the Raiders, trading up to one or trading for Rogers? Well, I think Mark Davis's hair plugs for years were like way more expensive and that now they're funding it, the funding the possibility of paying Rogers. Now they have some extra money to go around. Yeah.

I think it's trading up to number one, but I'm not sure. And that's why I'm saying. I think number one's more expensive because more people want to do it. The Colts want one, and I think the Panthers are going to want one. And Rogers, realistically,

there's literally a maximum of three teams. But the quick thing with Rogers, he's on his darkness retreat. So I feel like he's not listening to this podcast. So I'll just talk about. It'd be really funny if he was. He was just, like floating in like highly salted water, so he's floating in pitch black darkness, but naked.

The only thing he's got going on is R pod. Well, that's sensory deprivation. He's just in a room. Like, he's in like a prison cell with the slot. Well, some senses are being deprived, right? Right. It's like a half-sensory deprivation. Yeah.

And just the only thing he hears is me going like, Levis is a Kirkman. Like just my stupid voice. He's notting along and he's like, he's right. Levis is like. It was really a media darkness. for a treat for him to just consume as much meat as he can in a row. It doesn't sound relaxing or pleasant. It's a good way to decompress from the season.

I got to tell you, we're making fun of this 10 years from now. It's going to be like the new thing is to just be four days without your phone. Just in the dark. Everyone's going to love it. The first thing I said, the first thing I was Super Bowl week, people were like, Rogers going on in sensory deprivation. How dumb. I was like, that sounds awesome.

Right now, are you kidding me? I'm in Radio Row. There's 10 Vigillion Lights, cameras, and people doing radio shows and podcasts everywhere. All I want to do is being in a cabin where none of you can. confine me. Yeah, but people are going out

to the woods and camping for fucking generations. He's going into a dark room. He's literally doing like solitary confinement on purpose. Yeah.

There's a difference. There's a difference. It's a difference. It's fucking torture. Anyway, here's the thing for Rogers. I think for all those reasons, a lot of teams are like,

you know what? I'm out. But the short thing with the Rogers trade package, they have to pay him $100 million dollars cash, basically. But he could play a year

and be out. And so they're like, we're not going to just give you a first round pick, the seventh pick, and then maybe like pay them $100 million cash for like, you know, one year. So I think you're going to have to give up, the Raiders or Jets would have to give up like a third rounder this year. And then if Rogers is literally just commits to playing. So whatever they want to do, like on the roster week one or whatever, then they'll let, all right, we'll give you a first rounder next year. Because they're not going to get stuck paying them 50 million a year and, you know,

either have them retire on them. It's like, we'll give you the first, no, he comes back for two seasons, which makes sense, honestly. But you couldn't get the first overall pick with a third and a future first. Also, yeah, a lot of it depends on how desperate the jets are, but I do think it costs more a trade up to one. I think the Raiders will go veteran. The other thing is, I think the Raiders have a good trade piece in Darren Waller, whose contract is very tradable. And when he came back from injury and they were just like still starting Foster Moreau, it was kind of like, hey, what's up? Hey, what's going on over here, guys? And they talked about Waller was rumored to be part

of the Devante Adams trade back in the day. Like the Packers were trying to get Waller full it in. And so if they're doing another Packers trade, another Packers are interested in Waller. So I won't be surprised if it's like Wallard plus premium pick plus small pick. And then that's how they end up getting Rogers to Las Vegas. So where do we think Derek Carr goes? Because the Texans

and Colts probably going to draft a quarterback. They're not going to do a veteran. The Raiders are out. I feel like the Titans moving on from Ryan Tannahill to go get Derek Carr would just be like a weird move. Yeah, why I do that? So is it basically just Derek Carr? It's basically either the Jets or the NFC South. Panthers

Saints, Falcons, Bucks, take your pick, or like the Jets? Is that basically like one of those teams? Yes. That's pretty much everybody, right? Said Falcons? Did you say Colts? They're not going to do the Colts. We just talked about how they're not going to do another retread.

But who knows? Maybe they will. Buccaneers, because he's like a pirate. He could just stick with the theme. He wouldn't even have to dress up for Halloween. Just wears this uniform. All right. I want to button up this quarterback thing of these four guys.

If you guys were running a team and you were the GM and you actually had job security, who would you pick? Like, not like, oh, I have to keep my job. Like, you're like, oh, I will. like to build around this human being? Yeah, I struggle with this question a lot because I like all these guys. I don't love any of them. I think the answer for me is young.

If I have job security, then yeah, I'll take the small. It's just tricky because, like, I think if Young, I think Young's first year in the league is going to be great. And I think a second year in league is going to be great. And then I think the hits are going to start to accumulate. And I just don't know how long the time horizon is on Young. And that's why, like, when Young gets drafted and he isn't the first overall pick and then he ends up playing Incredibles first year, we're into a whole like, everybody was so

dumb and just thought they couldn't draft him because he's small and they're going to be so good now. It's like, yeah, it's not about now. It's about five, six, seven years from now and how long his career is relative to the other guys. But I think young is the horse I'd hitch my wagon too. Yeah, I agree. He's just the best football player of the four. I mean, obviously, the other guys I think have, or Richardson in particular has the highest upside, I think.

But I also think Levitz has a very high upside. But I would say Bryce Young is just a pure and natural football player. He's just a gamer. He's really fucking good at football. and I would football plan, Jesse. Yeah, I would just most likely want that guy on my team.

You could do the, you could do the crypto thing. You can start having commercials and then just dump all your stock. Just trade him after three years and you don't have to worry about the rest. Pumping dumb quarterbacks. Yeah.

It's so funny. I've never heard less positive talk about the guy potentially going number two overall in the draft in C.J. Strout. It's all Bryce Young. We jump right to Will Levis and how Tulsie. He is an interesting and a great guy.

Then we go to Anthony Richardson, the most physically talented quarterback we've seen in a long time and so raw. And then C.J. Strauds is sitting there. Going to go number two overall and nobody gives a shit. I think I honestly think there's a little bit of, I'm not saying he's like Trevor Lawrence level prospect, but there's a little bit of like just fatigue over talking about this guy because we talked about him a lot last year too.

And, you know, he's just sort of been the guy that everyone assumed is going to be the guy. And he puts up these elite numbers. He's like, I mean, his numbers are absolutely absurd. You know, and so I think maybe there's just a little bit of that going on. and he also is just not flashy. Like he doesn't have like a big personality. He doesn't.

And other than that last game at Georgia, like he he doesn't really do stuff that's like, whoa, holy shit, look at that. Like most of it was just like he hits his back foot, he gets it out and throws like a 50 yard touchdown or whatever. He just distributes the football to his playmakers, lets them do the work. And she's not a flashy player.

But I do think he's a very good player. I comped him to late career, Dak Prescott. Like he's just solid. like he just distributes the football. He's not really that flashy, you know? And so I think there's a little bit of that going on. Yeah, Craig, what's the kind of movie that's like a type of movie that if you want to make it now,

the executives are like, oh, no one wants to go see that anymore. It's like a pocket passer that can't really run. And you're like, okay, but like, it's kind of, it's a solid movie. Yeah, yeah. Doesn't have to be the Avengers. It's like literally every movie before 2010. They're just like, now we're good now. We just want to make superhero movies.

A movie like, here's a perfect one. scent of a woman with Al Pacino and our boy. That's a name. That's a name for a movie. Yeah, that movie's about like a war veteran who's blind, who travels around with this young kid for two and a half hours, like learning about life. And it's like, that ain't happening.

That's not happening. It's not going into the theaters. By the way, listen to The Town, amazing podcast that Craig produces. It's about, and some of the episodes lately have been just about, like, what's happening to movie theaters? Like, what are we going to do? my god, we got to have, we should do Craig and Matthew Bellany on for cross-episode. We're just going to compare all the quarterbacks to types of movies.

Ooh, I like that. Boom. We could do that. That would be fun. I'm well equipped for that show. Does so like more about movies? Is Bellany a football fan? A little bit.

Yeah, he doesn't have, he's not like a diehard NFL guy, but he went to Berkeley. He roots for Berkeley. So no. Big Rogers guy. I'm trying to think of who Will Levis is. Will Levis just good movie. Just, you know, it's like hyphids. It's how you feel about bullet train.

You're just like, yeah, had a great time. Great movie. No, no. I love my Antoin. It's not going to win best picture, but, you know, I watched on the flight out back home. I watched where the Croddads sing. And I was just crying in my chair. And I was like, don't watch movies, man.

This is awful. I got strange next to me. That's amazing. Give me the Leo Chanel tape. Yeah, I was watching Josh Downs before I watched the movie. I don't like Josh Downs, by the way. I don't get where the Josh Down type is coming from. But that's in a separate conversation.

Too small? Or what? Yeah, too small. And like, air rate offense. and like, don't we know that these guys are fake by now? Yeah, I'm not, I'm not into it. By the way, Anthony Richardson is Babylon. Let's just do this right now.

Anthony Richardson's Babylon. What's Will Levis? Will Levis is like Transformers. No, no, no. What movie does every dad love? Oh, he's like a World War II movie. Levis is like letters from Ewozima or something. It's like, I don't know.

Yeah, cool. World War II, Clinise would dads are in. I can see Clint East would be in like, well, Levis's grandfather. He's like, Unforgiven. he's partially he's he's he's like a vaguely related to the east woods i could see j stroud like a boring movie but it won best picture it's like shape of water everyone's like i don't really get it but it's all the critics seem to like it the artist so i mean brice young is ant man just kind of sitting right there oh oh wow good one's mean but it's correct all right let's get to some emails um we got an email

uh from william okay william william yeah william we had an extended conversation solac after the Super Bowl about how the flyover was perfectly timed. And we were like, how do they always do that? With Stapleton saying Brave. I remember watching Hifitz watched the flyover and being like, yo, this dude loves a flyover. It's all about this flyover, dude.

I've got my watch out. That's what I'm passionate about. And I look over and Hyper is just like, definitely planes, dude. It's just like up in his seat, like pump in his fist. I was recording. I was also in the stopwatch for the anthem. completely forgot to hit the stop button because I was just looking at the planes. Yeah, the media is not allowed to cheer for the game, but for the

flyover, you could do whatever you want. I just on two feet. Well, whatever. Seriani is up there bawling on the big screen, so it's all right. Well, D.K.'s was talking about how his son's really into cars and trucks. And I'm like, I'm basically just still a child just for planes. Just like, dude, planes fly. No one talk. People are not talking about it. It's pretty fucking awesome. They're very loud. This is crazy.

Like, no one, how are they doing that? It's just a chunk of metal. It's just fucking flying. How's that happen? How are clouds a billion pounds? I don't know. I don't get anything in the sky. Literally it's just fucking, it's like explosions are powering this thing. And explain to me how wings work.

You're telling me a giant metal plane flies directly through a one billion pound cloud and we're fine. We're just inside that. Did you guys see? The molecules bit, right? We're just accepting that. I'm molecules.

Oh yeah. The world's made of molecules. Oh, Okay, got it. Meanwhile, it's like, oh, this wall, don't touch it. Paints wet. You're like, I don't know. I got to see for myself.

We're all made of molecules. This chair's made of molecules? Okay, got it. How do the molecules know it's me? How do we know that I'm, those molecules know I'm me? Okay. Anyway, what did William say? You have to gather.

So William said, after years of listening, and being asked to send it an email. It's finally my turn. You guys... Badgering, William. Send us up to the big emails. My favorite genre of email is actually when someone has always wanted to email us and waits until they, we ask about something that's exactly their expertise. He says, you guys were discussing how the military can be so accurate with flyovers.

Well, I'm an air traffic controller working at a high level facility in Los Angeles. Wow. Not the guy with the orange wands, by the way. He said, I've worked with B2 bomber. over the Rose Bowl and the Rose Bowl parade just this year. Fun fact. We found them. We found the guy.

Can I claim William as a friend? Can I be like, I have a friend who actually worked in a high little facility in L.A. Fun fact, this year, the B2 bombers flew all the way from Texas. And the timing to do the flyover was within a two-minute frame. How do they do that? That's ridiculous. So he says, it's literally just a matter of being accurate and precise and precise.

with routing and timing. The winds, the aircraft, the speed, the precise GPS routing, all are just calculated to a T so that the aircraft can get there at a specific time and then they hold, do a holding pattern around the area. Once there's about 30 seconds left to the music, they get to go and they get to the stadium at the precise time. And then also the artists know there's a flyover so they extend their vocal notes to coordinate, you know, fly off.

Also, there's four of them. So they have to like maintain formation. So that's like not easy either, I'm assuming. I just love this idea of just the planes, just like circling the stadium ominously. getting ready to like, I'm here! Yeah, what the weird thing is? Whatever you see the videos, though, they're not like

just circling the stadium. They're like just they fly straight. They're probably circling, they're probably circling like a mile away or something. Well, the county, because they're planes. They're fighter planes. Here's my thing. I want to interrogate this because William's question,

there was a little sneaky thing at the top there. He didn't want us to catch. William said, hey, I'm an air traffic control guy. I've worked at a very important, whatever spot in L.A. and I'm not one of those orange wand peasants. All right. I'm not one of those.

William, all right. Williams up in his little ivory air ATC tower, just sneering, just looking down on the orange. Literally. Look at these dudes who walk around with their wands. I think they're so important.

I'm up here calling shots. And I'm now interested in this rivalry. I'm very invested in this rivalry that I've created completely and totally in my head between air traffic control guys and the tower, the office workers, the drones, and then the orange wand dude.

This is a good little sharks and jet sort of a thing. We can do a sitcom, you know, and air traffic control station. I think it'll be good. If anyone knows what those wand guys do, email us at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. And honestly, I know what the wand guys do.

I know what derailed. They tell the planes. Does that all they do, though? That's kind of important. What are you talking about? I got a snapplesack one set out. So the fucking planes don't crash. Correct.

I have a follow-up question for William. Why, when I landed in Phoenix, was there no gate available for me for 45 minutes, even though we've known for weeks that my plane was going to arrive at said time. So you're just treating William now like Southwest customer service. I'm just yelling. William, I'm going to scream at William until he cries. Because I had to wait for 40 minutes on the tarmac. Why did South West do a stock buyback instead of investing in digital infrastructure, William? Can we limit turbulence, William? I don't love that. What's the deal with that.

William, if somebody stands up and applauds, immediately after the plane lands, am I permitted to buy air laws to just sock them in the face? Can that be allowed? No one talks about it. There's no laws in the air. When you're up in the air, there's no laws. No laws apply to you. International waters. Yeah. Skies. Again, what's up with the sky?

Yeah. Okay. We're not meant to fly. Let's get into this real quick. This is unnatural. Have you heard the story of Icarus? Okay. Man, wasn't meant to fly. It's unnatural.

We can't understand heights that way. It's just not supposed to have it. Stay on the ground. Williams got two jargons and a lie on the air traffic controller thing. Nice. Oh, sex. This is great. Oh, nice.

Two jargons and lie air traffic control world. First is down the shitter. Okay. Light chop. Like a shot, like a light chop. And then I'm Tom cruising in it. Tom Cruise is fake. right past the...

Tom Cruising is fake. The tower? Doing a flyby? Down the shitter sounds bad. Like, I don't... We don't want to be talking to something happens. A plane goes down the shitter. Jargon implies...

See, does jargon imply that this may not be official, you know, workplace... FAA... That's what I was... ...approved terminology because if it's really just jargon, I'm Tom cruising it.

might very well be real. Well, down the shitter, I don't think you could say on a radio. You can't say that to a pack, can you? Sure, you could. Is the radio going to physically stop you from the words going through? Also, I just feel like people,

I feel like pilots are... One step below locker room talk, Craig. Yeah, they're keeping it casual fast and loose. Yeah, they're all in the military, yeah. But they're wearing ties, man. I think so, just down the shitter, maybe, like, if you circle the airport, you know what I mean,

and then slowly descend in a circle, like a corkscrew? Who's descending that way? If you're like flying into like Kabul or whatever, how do you say that word? Cabool? Light chop seems most in. Yes, Kabul. Anyway.

Cabool. Light chop seems most likely to be real, right? Light chop is just turbulence like Craig was just saying. Obviously, we all, everybody knows light chop is real. I still think Tom Cruise in it. I think it's two on the nose. I don't think air traffic control would want to be defined by Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise in it is such, it's such an obvious choice that I would be surprised that William

who works for air traffic control would add this because it seems so obvious to be fake. So that's why I'm going to say down the shitters fake. And I had a Tom Cruise in it. Like that is so obvious. Like the fact that he just launches with like tosses in a Tom Cruise reference. Like that has to be real.

Otherwise it's way too blatant. So Tom cruising is the lie. Damn it. Yeah. What's up? What's up boy? Come on now. I overthought it.

I never actually guessed. I just went along with, I was just going along. Hyphus just kind of plows through. Yeah. That's fine. But whatever. I just kind of like that Craig was certain.

I expected too much out of you, William. Down the shitter just means they got 30 more minutes to work. Like you're going to be really busy. And then the light chop is exactly what you mean. Light turbulence. Yeah. Light chop. Everybody knows about a light job.

What does down shitter mean? Honestly, it means like you're swamped. But like there's planes coming. So you can't actually like, you know, not. You can't push your meeting. It's a plane. Danny is trying to summon a hypothetical descent and landing pattern that involves

the corkscrew. a toilet bowl. Tactical landing or whatever they're called when you're flying into a hot zone. That's what I was thinking. It's when a plane circles a football stadium on Super Bowl Sunday. I was about to fly over the next one.

Waiting for add the rockets for a glare. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Okay. All right, let's get out of here. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, So like. Thank you, Craig.

Thank you, Kai for producing this episode. Thank you, Lorne. Lorne. Thank you, Haley Williams. Can we pretend that airplanes? Bob. B.OB was hot for like a good five years. By the way, he's a flat earth, truther.

I can't tell you what it really is. B.O.B is a flat earther. ironic that he has a song about airplanes. Wait, can we just... Did Solich just start doing like the M&M love the way you lie? Is that not right? Is that something else? Yeah, that was 100% love the way you lie by M&M. Yes, I love when this happens.

That's all me. I did my best. At some point, somebody raps an airplane. right? Yeah. Yes, B-O-B. It's his song. Okay.

But hey, Ben's got Rihanna on the mind. I get it. Yeah. I enjoy the Rihanna performance a lot. I was like, I only know three Rihanna songs. And the whole time I was like, I know this one too. I was very pleased. Rihanna got me pregnant.

Everyone was talking about it. I was talking about you getting pregnant? Yeah. I just saw it trending. I was like, oh, everyone knows. If it's pregnant? question mark. That was what was sending.

All right. Emails at ringerfinacy football at gmail.com. What, about quarterbacks? About anything, you know. Players, movies,

wand guys. Different subsections of your workplace employment that you hate when you have there's this rivalries of. That's what I'm invested in. It's a good one.

All right. Goodbye, everyone.