The Ringer NFL Show - 2025 NFL Draft Superlatives: Biggest Swings, Heat Checks, and TeSlaa Stock

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

The guys are back to recap the entire 2025 NFL draft by giving out superlatives using DK’s draft grades. They talk about who had the most humiliating weekend, who made the biggest swings, who played it safe, and more! (00:00) Intro(04:48) 2025 NFL Draft Superlatives(06:10) Most Humiliating Weekend(10:29) Unexpected Redemption Arc(30:02) Swinging for the Fences(47:08) Getting on Base(52:57) Arrested Development Bland Award(59:37) Overcompensation Contenders(01:05:04) Other Drafts We Loved(01:16:16) Drafts We Didn't Like(01:18:44) Random Factoids(01:23:33) Two Guys Drafted and a Lie (01:28:03) Emails! Check out our 2025 Ringer NFL Draft Guide here!⁠ Email us! ⁠[e-mail]⁠The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit ⁠www.rg-help.com⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: ⁠Danny Heifetz⁠, ⁠Danny Kelly⁠, and ⁠Craig Horlbeck⁠Producers: Kai Grady and Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the brand new Zach Lowe show. That's right. I'm back to have the same in-depth NBA conversations you're used to. We're going to talk about the games. Yeah, the games, the X's and O's, the drama, the trades, the playoffs are coming up. And now you get to see every episode in full on video on Spotify and on my own YouTube channel. Episodes drop every Monday and Thursday with a collection of guests you're going to love. So make sure you follow and subscribe to the brand new Zach Lowe show.

on Spotify or wherever you watch or listen to your podcast. Let's go. Welcome to the Ringer NFL Draft Show. My name is Danny Heifitz, and I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbeck and the 2025 NFL draft is over. We did it.

We did it, we did it, boys. Cam Scadabo is a New York football giant. Shador Sanders is an NFL player and a Cleveland Brown. One of those is exciting. Barely. But most important of all, the whole reason we're here,

the reason we do this, Jack Sawyer is the Pittsburgh The hero Captain Jack Captain Jack Captain Jack Intercepted is a Pittsburgh

Steeler Craig Is this the greatest moment of your entire life I don't know how I didn't see this coming Because he's the most Steelers he drafted Of all time Yeah Isn't he?

Like undersized None of the metric But just like a gamer Makes things happen He's out there Big plays seem to come to him He's the hero And he's like

The Herbig's type You know it's like He comes from the school of the Nick Herbig, and that's what the Steelers like, and he's going to be great. Does it ever feel like we're in a simulation? Camp Scataboo to the freaking Giants, Jack Sawyer to the Steelers, it's just like it's too good. It's working out too well for us. Aaron Rogers probably to the Steelers, right. Ironically, I don't actually know.

I mean, Russell Wilson playing for our three teams is also one of those. That's weird. That's also, yeah, what the hell? I honestly, I don't know if we've ever actually just referenced the college football player more than we've referenced Jack. Jack, did we play the clip? Sawyer. The greatest clip in the history of college football, as far as I'm concerned. Can we just play it?

Warren, look, gang. And it's intercepted at the goal. Wow. The hero. Captain Jack. Captain Jack. Look, gang. I love the looking.

Dude, it's the idea that. We've never talked about a fourth rounder more. I guess Shador Sanders was a fifth rounder. I was going to say. You know, the spirit of what we're saying, but we've never, we've never. We've never talked about a fourth round edge rusher more than we have Jack's. Jack Store. No.

So we're going to go through, so we're going to go through, DK's got his draft grades, and you can read DK graded everybody's draft. So you can go to NFLDraft.com, and you can see DK's grades for all 32 teams. If we don't get in depth enough on your team today, then you can go and read those there. You love grading draft. I mean, you're supposed to wait three years to grade a draft. You love grading drafts like less than three hours after an end. Oh, yeah.

It's the best. I actually kind of get annoyed when people say you can't grade a draft. It's like, what did we do all this work for before the draft? No, that's a great question, DK. Actually, though, what did we do all this work for? I just think it's like, it's like saying you can't grade a draft right away is like saying you can't talk about a game before it happens. It's like we're allowed to talk about the things we have opinion on.

I don't understand this. Hell, you can be second, third, four? I spent the last four months formulating opinions on all these players. I'm going to give my opinion on these players, all right? And the fit and all that. It is funny, though, because it's an extension of a mock draft and that, like, you're still just being. subjective about how you feel about a player.

It's like, I built my mock and the grades are based on, did these teams pick the players that I liked? Yeah, people are always complaining like, oh, we don't know what's going to happen with these players for three years. That's right. We don't know what's going to happen before a game happens, but we can still talk about it. We can still analyze it.

We can still have an opinion on how it works. D. Dic is mad. I don't actually like, look, I don't like love doing draft grades. It's not like the most fun thing in the world. But the fact that people get mad about draft grades is silly to me. People get, no, dude, people get so, it's similar to the fantasy football when the machine spits out, you got a B minus. People are like, what?

And I know. I actually was talking to someone yesterday about this who's just a fan, didn't even know, like, didn't even really realize that we, like, I covered the draft or anything. They were just talking about, yeah, man, I just, I read all, it was a Seawks fan. He was like, I just read these Seahawks draft grades and I see someone give me an A minus. And I'm like, fuck you. That should be an A plus. And he's like, I just feel that I just scroll through and I hate scroll. And I was just thinking about them coming upon your grades and just every, everyone who doesn't get an A is just mad at you.

And that's okay. D.K., when is the 2026 mock dropping? I'm excited. Probably like next January. Oh, dang. Not this week? Okay. Okay, so we're going to go through the NFL draft superlatives,

and we're going to go through big, give out a bunch of awards, basically, or supportatives. D.K. seems to have strong opinions on that, too. What a superlative is? I mean, I just looked up the definition of a superlative. That's all. I just, I don't know.

I just, I'd love the fact for those that I don't know what we're talking about. High Fitz and Craig didn't know what a superlative was. We did superlatives, and I just thought that's a different word for a word for a word. So we're like superlatives like something. And D.K.'s like, it has to have most or best. And I'm like, I don't. Right. The definition of the word.

Yeah. Of all the things that I don't care about, it's this argument. Yeah, I agree. I'm just going to move on. So just a reminder before we jump into this, we will, at some point this week or next week, we're going to change your name back to the Ringar Fantasy Football Show. We're not going anywhere. I mean, we do four episodes a week during the season.

We do three a week in August. Like, we do so many episodes. And so if you found us during draft season, please stick with us, like, not begging you, but kind of. But we do episodes every single week during the summer, frankly, some of the most fun and definitely the weirdest episodes we do are over the summer in May and June

when we get kind of squirly. So stick with us. Hit follow or subscribe. If the name change thing just confuses you, just hit the button. And then that way, there's nothing to be done.

The feed is the same, but we change the name because, you know, it's really simple that way. So stick with us, and we are not going anyway. We're not leaving. We're not leaving.

Don't touch that dial. Don't touch that dial. I like it when Craig says it. Will you say it? We're not fucking leave. Oh, no. Don't touch that dial. Yeah, that's great.

Okay. Our first award here for the 2025 NFL draft. Most humiliating weekend goes to Shador Sanders, who narrowly beats out Dion Sanders and Mel Kriper Jr. For this Most Humiliating Weekend Award. Poor Mel. For Mel. Mel had a all-time down bad weekend.

Mel got dressed down by Reese Davis. He was, like, frustrated. You can see it coming out. I love the phrase dressed down. Dressed down. That's not good. Shador Sanders goes 144th to the Cleveland Browns. Shador is the fifth pick,

sorry, the sixth pick of the fifth round, which is 144 pick still ends up Cleveland Brown, which is just like, what a brutal beat. D.K., we've had now a data marinerator in this. What do you make of Shador Sanders to the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round? Dude, okay, first of all, just big picture, the Cleveland Browns.

There was just so much going on with the Cleveland Browns draft. Like, from start to finish, I don't know what to make of it, because obviously, to start out, they traded back out of the Travis Hunter pick, which is, you know, I think a decision that we're going to look at for years and years,

and they could end up going down as like the team that passed on Travis Hunter. And so that's like how they started this draft out. Obviously, yada, yada, yada, you get to the fifth round. They've already taken Dylan Gabriel. And now they're trading up to get Shadr Sanders. Just the most bizarre turn of events I can imagine. I don't understand what happened.

I think. And people were making this connection. I don't know. I don't have any like official, you know, inside info on this, but it sure felt like and looked like based on the reactions of, you know, the GM and the head coach, Stefanski and Barry that this had come down from the ownership to go ahead. Oh my God. The video of the Brown's draft room when they drafted him and they're all just expressionless. Oh my God. Literally it was.

It looked like they were in the waiting room at a hospital. Dude, someone tweeted that it looked like, or sorry, post up blue sky that it looked like how people. people at a golf event clap when someone like taps in for double boge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sitting there like, it's very polite. Oh, no. Like, it looked like if you, it did look horrible. And then it does seem like Jimmy has them the owner was just like, okay, I want this guy now.

Well, if you're, if you're into connecting dots and if you're into reading between the lines about what Schaefter tweets, I believe. Shefter says, I want to say, like on the show, right after the pick happened, Schepter was saying something like Dion and Shadur had. quietly developed a good relationship with Jimmy Haslam over the last few months, which is, to me, just basically saying, like, look, he kind of stepped in. It doesn't make any sense to me to take Dylan Gabriel and then trade up and go get

Shudor Sandh. I don't mind it at all, honestly, just from a pure value perspective, like, Washington's, Robert Griffin, the third, and then took Kirk Cousins to the fourth round. Everyone's like, what? And then suddenly, Kirk Cousins, starting for the team a couple years later, I actually don't mind it. I think it's funny when you have, Deshawn Watson, who's not going to be part of the team.

Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dylan, Gabriel, Shador Sanders? What a crazy group of people. Nightmare blunt rotation. Yeah, no, when you put it that way, I guess it does make sense. Ultimately, like, end of the day, the Browns had, like, a pretty good draft when you look at, I like some of the players they've drafted it for sure. On that note, going through it. So the Browns traded back from the second pick where they could have had Travis Hunter.

They pick up Mason Graham, the defensive tackle out of Michigan, top de tackle in the draft, put him next to Miles Garrett. The first pick of the second round, they took Carson Schwessinger, the, Schweringer or Schweringer? Westinger, I think. So the linebacker in UCLA, he's like the, what is he studied? He's like biomechanics and everything and looks like he's a Targaryen. Super rangy, flies around. Chase is like, always around the ball. He's an exciting player for sure.

And then they got Quinshaw Judkins, the running back of Ohio State and Dylan Samson, the running back into Tennessee. So they kind of get a thunder lightning backfield. Harold Fanon Jr., who like broke all the metrics at pro football focus for receiving grade. Went to Bowling Green. So small school, that's weird, but also like one of the most productive tight ends we've ever seen in college football ever. And then Dylan Gabriel and Shador Sanders,

like all of these players individually are really interesting, all on the same team. The Browns kind of did a great job. Plus, I got a first rounder next year. Just to be completely honest, if I'm looking at this, if you didn't show me the team that did this, I would have been like, oh, that's a great draft.

Plus a first rounder, but since it's the Browns, it's just kind of weird, because I just feel like they're so dysfunctional, you know what I mean? Yeah, if we want to give a superlative, like the most unexpected redemption art, I kind of think it's the Browns.

I really do. I think you redid the order of this draft. Everybody would like it much more for the Browns. If you just slot it in Chador at the Quinshan Judkin spot, like the round two pick four. But it's the same guys. I think everyone's like Browns crushed it. And then Joan Gabriel's the last pick. Shador is their third guy.

Whatever. The Shador is their second rounder. I think everyone's like, wow, the Browns finessed this. They didn't take Shador in the second round. Hell yeah. They trade it back. They maybe are going to get a top 10 pick next year from the Jags and maybe have their own top 10 pick next year.

It's like they got. two quarterbacks they can test up for this year. They might have two top 10, top 15 picks next year and could go after another quarterback if they wanted to while getting two great running backs, an awesome defensive lineman, and a tied end that can help fill in for Anjoku who's going to be like 30 years old this year.

I don't know. I'm kind of like, I think the Browns kind of crushed it. And the Shador thing overshadowed all of it. The Shadr thing and the Travis Hunter trade. I think you have to factor in, they traded out of Travis Hunter, which is, you know, obviously, it could end up looking really good for them.

It could end up looking really bad. I think for fans, it's just like, man, that fucking sucks. Like, just deflated feeling after moving out of that spot. But, you know, it could end up being a really good decision. Can I defend it for a second? Because I think, I really actually might be the biggest believer in Travis Hunter of anyone in football media. Right. Like, it's been funny to kind of realize that what I thought would be a very mainstream take,

which is Travis Hunter will play both ways, kind of realizing, like, no one seems to believe he'll play full time. And everyone kind of thinks, like, people who think that are kind of, I think a lot of people think I'm dumb, honestly, for thinking that he can take up the physical brutality of full games. I'm like, he's a cornerback receiver. He's not a fucking guard tackle. He's running a lot of wind sprints out there. Yeah, but I'll admit, I'm the first one to admit, Travis Hunter doing the both,

and clearly the Jaguars paid for the Travis Hunter trade for Hunter to play both ways. Literally what they paid, they paid almost quarterback value. Like everything the Jaguress have done and said, I mean, James Gladstone, Duky Houser, the 34-year-old child GM, who is now like all-time legend to me,

came out and basically was like, he had this whole, He sounded like a salesman. He was like, we took him to set the identity of our team because he pushes the boundaries of what could be. He sounded like the president in that, what's the movie where they send the asteroid, the drillers to asteroid?

Armageddon. He sounded like the president of Armageddon talking about like if the asteroid destroys the earth. He's like, we are pushing the boundaries of everything. But Travis Hunter playing both ways is the hard road. Like it might not work. You're trying because he could be like one of the greatest players in the history of football.

But like, it's so complicated to do this. the Browns being like, if he did it for us, I don't know how good we'd really be. What if we just did something easier and took a shitload of picks and just built a better team? I think that for where the Browns are, that is the right move.

It does seem complicated to do that. And for an owner as mercurial as Jimmy Haslam, you don't necessarily want a player like Travis Hunter and your team that requires such like thought. And I think that he makes, Travis Hunter makes so much more sense on a team like the Jaguars with Liam Cohen, who's like a very modern cutting edge coach

who has like, You need a three-year leash for your coach if you're going to take Travis Hunter. So I think it makes sense for both sides. I think I saw Bill Barnwell, our buddy, talking about this on Blue Sky, like, right after the trade happened, he was like, based on the reactions I'm seeing, which is like half, what a horrible, horrible trade for the Jaguars and what a horrible. And then the other half, what a horrible, horrible trade for the Browns? It's probably pretty sensible for both teams, ultimately. You know what I mean? It's just, if you're just going off of the overall reaction right away, I think it makes sense.

down. If a team is trading up with you for a non-quarterback and you can get a first-round pick the next year and all you do is you still stay within the top five. I feel like that's pretty damn good. And they also got a second though. They got, I mean, they got the Quinn Sean Jenkins pick out of this too. Yeah. And like I agree with you. It's about, I think Travis Hunter makes way more sense in Jacksonville. I also think because there already is Brian Thomas and and Travis Hunter now not needing to be the number one receiver to shoulder the load of like being the go-to-wide receiver, I think, it makes a lot of sense. Him being the number two, I think, is the perfect fit for him trying to be this two-way guy.

If he stepped into Cleveland, the quarterback situation is a mess, and he immediately becomes the number one receiver on the team. That is just way harder for Travis Hunter than already stepping in with Travis Hunter and having, I mean, with Trevor Lawrence and having Brian Thomas. To me, it's just a much smoother transition. He doesn't have to carry the team on his shoulders. Yes. The other thing we have to talk about while we're on the Browns is the old Dion Sanders tweet

that started circulating after Shador went to. Cleveland, which is Dion tweeting in 2018, and I'm going to quote, love what the Browns have done this offseason, this 2018. Love what the Browns have done this offseason, but if I'm a young quarterback, ain't no way I'm going to Cleveland, I would pull an Eli Manning of all caps, Eli Manning if possible, hashtag, think about that, hashtag truth. Dion said that about Cleveland. And then flash forward seven years later, record scratch freeze frame.

Wow. Do you guys feel bad for Shador? Yes and no. I really feel strongly yes and strongly no. What do you think, K? The phone call, the prank call was pretty messed up. I didn't, wait, what happened to prank? Somebody pranked him and said, what was it?

These kids from Ole Miss called him. It's on video. I think this is real. I don't know. Called him and said, like, they pretend to be Mickey Loomis and said that they're going to take him. And he thought it was real and they were excited. And then at the end of the call, the guys are like, just kidding and hung up.

And I think they're like students at Ole Miss, I believe. That's kind of mean. Also, there was a report that it was. Unfortunately, it was a number that was assigned to a phone for someone in the NFL, so they're like investigating this. There's rumors that it's, again, this is rumors. This is bullshit on Twitter. No idea if it's real. But there are rumors that it's Jeff Ulbrick, the Falcons defensive coordinator, the former coach, the interim coach of the Jets. Oh my God. That it's his son, Jack's Oldbrick, who goes to Ole Miss, and he's in the video.

Wait, wait, sorry, Jeff Holbrook's son is in the video? Well, people think. People are identifying his face. But he goes. to Ole Miss and he's in the background of this video and people think it's his son that was, you know, behind this call. Yeah, that's very fucking. He just got five. He just he was the Jets interim coach. He's pretty respected defense coach and he just got hired as

the Falcons D.C. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So, and again, to be clear, we don't know of Jeff Obrick's. No idea if that's true. It's a rumor online. Hyphids, I can't believe you didn't see the prank call. That's, that's messed. No, I did not. Okay. It's super messed up. Like that. I was telling Liz, basically, Liz, my wife couldn't be further removed from the NFL draft and she kept

being like, did that poor quarterback get drafted yet? I feel bad. He's falling. Same with Skiffy. She was like texting me. That's kind of like creating one of the worst moments in your life to get. Because like all these players say the call is one of the best moments of their entire life. It's the encapsulate.

Even Shador, who I do think is still kind of code. And I think there is still like rich entitled kid coded thing with Shador where that kind of seeps out of him. Having said that, it still is the encapsulation of everything you've ever worked for in your entire life to get drafted. That call is literally the encapsulation of all. And not just the discipline. day. But the sacrifice, anyone good enough to be in the NFL draft has sacrificed a lot of, like relationships, family time, like, like just they sacrificed a tremendous amount and persevered through a lot of adversity, even for someone that growing up as rich and famous,

Shador. And that phone call is literally your entire life. That's what you see grown ass men, like, breaking down in tears. So to kind of like hand and then rip it away, like, that's some real douchebag 19 year old shit. I mean, Shadur has been force fed humble pie for the last 72 hours. Yeah. Like, he, if he's. If he's. succeeds, it'll honestly be one of the coolest stories in NFL history. We joked about this with a bunch of other players

where we've said it was about multiple quarterbacks in the past where like, I think we said something about Baker where it was like we joked about it, but we were like, Baker probably would have been better going like 31st than first. You know what I mean? Like Baker probably like Baker needs to be motivated, which is a joke. But like he kind of is always

best when he's been counted out, even going back to like or college. And yeah, well, I'm actually, I think should do her it's funny because the NFL is clearly saying he's not a starter, but in a way, like, motivated Shador on the... Also, I think it's going to make the team because one of these quarterbacks probably won't. I think NFL teams don't invest in quarterback anymore.

It used to be normal for the backers to carry five quarterbacks 20 years ago, and they just don't now. But Watson Flacco Pickett Gabriel Shador. Watson has to be on the team. And then... I mean, I hate to say it, but I feel like Kenny Pickett's got to go. I mean, Flacco at least... I think Pickett has to go, yeah.

Flacco at least you can bring in the veteran presence he can teach these guys. Yeah. I mean, Gabriel and Shador, drafting, I mean, you know, maybe one in the best cup, but realistically, if Jimmy has them wanted Shador, he's going to make the team. Dylan Gabriel, if they had the grade, he's going to make the team. And then so, yeah, Flacco's probably going to start. The guy they traded for, Kenny Pickett is probably going to be good.

Can I be honest, honestly? Like, Dylan Gabriel and Shador competing? I actually think that's smart, even if it's a crazy process for Jimmy Haslam, the owner to come in to D.K.'s point, if you just, we was like, love is blind. If we just, if I thought the Ravens did this, I'd be like, great job, Ravens. And so, I fucked up process, but it looks like a good plan from the outside. In three years, if it turns out that Shudor becomes the starter for the Browns and is pretty good in the league, like, we will look at this as a masterstroke by the Browns because they're like, look, this kid obviously is feeling himself a little bit too much. I say, kid.

I don't really think he's a kid, but like that's what they're saying. You can't. Craig and I can't because that's weird, but you're old enough. I don't think I ever want to like actually use the word kid about a player genuinely. They could be your son. But you know what I mean? I'm saying from their point of view, this kid needed to be humbled a little bit. He's obviously feeling himself way too much.

And like the way they orchestrated it were taking, they literally took another quarterback before him. If that ends up working out in a couple of years, I mean, we will look back at that. It's like a really smart move. And I know we're like harping on this, but the last thing I want to say is about why the other 31 teams didn't want to take him, including the Browns. The Browns didn't want to take him. This is very much a Raven situation to me.

If he ends up being good, I don't want to hear shit that the Browns knew because like they clearly didn't want him in the fifth and the owner made him do it. Jonathan Jones, for CBS reported Shador, seems to have, I'm quoting Jonathan Jones, sandbagged some of the interviews for teams he didn't want to play for. Now, obviously, just the nature of that information, I think that's like teams guessing, but the idea is, and this is like a report from,

it was a very detailed CBS report from Jonathan Jones, who I think does great work. Basically saying, I've talked to like a couple dozen teams about this, basically, or maybe like 15 or so. And he was like, it just, it really was the accumulation of all the stuff we were talking about. Like, teams kind of did know. he tweeted every time the Raiders lost, thank God, last season. And they did kind of notice like, oh, they don't want to go to the Browns.

And like they did notice he retired, like Dion retired his son's jersey. And like, they did kind of like, like, oh. And then once the Raiders didn't get the pick, he was like in the Giants cleats, throwing a neighbors. And like, then he's like, and they're like, and then they're whispering after he left. He's like, did he throw this interview? Did he try to be dumb? Like, did he try to be.

Also, did he work out or throw or do any testing at any point? At any point during... Yeah. So I think it's like you said, it's the accumulation of all the different things that kind of happened during this draft process, which is why like my initial reaction was like, I don't really feel that bad for him. But as it, like, he's a human being. Obviously, this is really embarrassing.

And I do feel bad for him for that. And I don't, you know, he's not necessarily fully responsible for all of the things that are around him in terms of what I think teams of view as distractions or fears like Trump is tweeting about him during the fucking draft. Like this stuff is not his fault necessarily. No. It's crazy weekend for him. I know we're talking about him a long time,

but it was pretty absurd that Donald Trump, I mean, everything going on in the United States right now was fucking eating a little bit of the door falling. I think ultimately this might be the best thing that happened to him because if he went like third or even 20 second or something like that and was awful and came in and was terrible and it was basically kicked out of the league in two or three years, like now, I mean, especially if he basically walked in and was entitled and was like, I'm good enough, you know, I'm going to step in and it be a starter.

And then he collapsed. that's pretty tough, I feel like, on a human being to go through that. Now coming in as like the most disrespected draft pick of all time, eating all of that humble pie. Like, if anything is going to get this guy to like work his ass off and like be a start in the NFL, it will be this. So I don't know. I kind of feel like if Shador is going to work out,

it's only because of a situation like this. I totally agree, Greg. I also, like Jamie Lannishton kind of weirdly became a likable character now with Shadour. I also like the idea of Trump or whoever tweets from Dan's Kavina or whatever. The idea that they're at like the Pope's funeral and they're just firing off your door taste. Tweeting about Dion. That's just unbelievable. Okay.

We can move on from Browns. You put on a hell of a show this weekend. Crazy. What was up with the, I'll use it, I'll use the technical term here in case people are in their car with their children. What was that with the scrotum on the screen? Oh, the bone. Man. What was that?

For those you didn't see it, the, the, T-back. There's like a graphic they played with team logos, and the Brown's one was a dog bone. But when you cover up the dog bone with the letters, the bottom of the dog bone. Sure looks like testes. But the dog bone was bouncing up and down and hanging and moving.

Dog bones don't typically do that. That was, it's not a dog bone movement. It's like even like a little rift. It's. Yes. That was like truly one of. Why are there cubes on this bone? You can't convince me that anybody thought that was a dog bone.

even the people who made it. They knew. They knew. Come on. Oh, my God. Really good. Yeah, that's probably correct. Okay.

Another team I want to give another Jamie Lanister candidate for most unexpected redemption art. The New York football Giants and Joe Shane. I got to tell you, when Joe Shane pushed Seekwon Barkley out of that window in the first episode, I didn't think I would ever grow to like Joe Shane.

You know, kind of thought it was out. And then, holy cow, the Giants get Abdul Carter from Penn State, who a lot of people had his maybe the best player in this draft, and if Travis Hunter isn't able to play both ways, Abdul Carter probably is the best player in this draft. They gave up two, I have questions about Jackson Dart at Ole Miss,

but the Giants gave up two third rounders to get a quarterback, and if he's good, that's not even in the same year, which is kind of nice. It's like one this year, one next year. It's a third rounder. Get a quarterback. They kept the third, the better third rounder in the dart trade,

so they had the first pick of third round, which the Giants never do. They always give up the higher pick in the round. Got Darius Alexander. D.K., that was your number, 46th player on your big board. The Giants got him 65th. Perfect compliment to Dexter Lawrence.

Yeah, they kept scooping up really good value, especially according to my board, but I think the consensus was that every one of their picks was a really good value. You go from Darius Alexander, who, again, it's just going to be so fun to watch the Giants' defensive line. This was the identity of the championship teams back in the day. They are super deep on the defensive line.

It's going to be fun seeing them battle against, like, the Eagles and whoever, like some of the best teams in the NFC, that defensive line is really going to set the tone. Am I biased? I was going to say it's a top five defensive line. I think Giants have a top three defensive line. I mean, they could. They have the potential to get to that point.

I really like Darius Alexander. You can't really depend on a third round, you know, rookie to, like, put this team into the top five. But I think ultimately they have a lot of, a lot of talent on the defensive line now. They went got Camp Scataboo, which is super fun. I was still thrilled after day two. And then they start the day, they start Saturday by getting Scataboo. Ajax. When that happened, it was.

like nine o'clock in the morning over here and I was like hi this turn on your TV. I was losing. I'm not going to lie. And also, I'm in this weird thing where I probably should spoil the picks and have content out earlier. But I like watching the draft and not being on. Like I like not knowing. Like you actually want to have a few moments of being a fan.

And so I think sometimes, DK, you make fun of me for doing that. But the reason I do it is for the genuine shock of seeing the giant select scataboo, which I actually never once considered that the giant. would take him. I know. I didn't really think about them

as a team either for them, for him. But he's perfect with Tyrone Tracy. Also, he is the most fun. Dude, I,

oh my God. I can't believe the Giants get to, I can't believe the Scataboo. Yeah. Oh, my God. So I think Joe Shane

kind of crushed this draft. Also, don't forget, they got Marcus and Boa in the fifth round who I thought was like, worst case third rounder.

You know what I mean? I thought that was incredible value. When I saw you guys pick him, I was best because I wanted the Seahawks to take him at that point. And then Thomas Fadone, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly,

but at one point he was a pretty highly thought of tight end prospect, super athletic guy out of Nebraska. He had a couple of injuries in college, but he has some outside. I mean, I just liked it pretty much every pick you guys made other than, like, I was just kind of like,

I don't know if I really believe in the Jackson Dart thing, but at the end of the day, and again, this is a stupid pun, but like, he got to throw Dart at the quarterback position. I don't, I'm not like,

I'm open to the idea that Jackson Dart does develop into a starting caliber quarterback in the NFL. So I think you've got to take swings at that position, and they didn't have to spend a ton for it, a late first. And to get into that spot, like if you're trading up for a quarterback, usually, it's going to cost you bare minimum a future first.

And so, I mean, I like the value there. Scataboo is awesome. I think Scataboo is so fun. Dude, every pick the Giants made was arguably the best player in that round. Like, Abdul-Carter might be the best player in the first round. I think you could argue that Darius Alexander's the best player in the third round.

you could argue that the Purdue Guard is the best player of the fifth. And then the other players are quarterback, which you have to try into Craig's point. Scada Boo is one of the five most fun players to watch play football in the entire draft. Completely changes the vibe of the team, the offense, the spirit of the team when he's out there. There's just like a grittiness, like an energy that he brings. He's just so likable.

The whole team feels different, I feel like that. The Giants quietly, Russ has already been named the starter. But if James Winston steps on the field, the giants are like very close to the top of the Red Zone rankings of Jamis with Lake Neighbors and Scataboo on the field. Like, that's actually quietly pretty high on the I want to watch the team play football. And so that is my review.

I am aware of the Giants are far. I know I'm renting about this too. I am aware the Giants are very far from beating the Eagles. I am aware of the Giants literally have to scrap and claw to make a wildcard round and this team is still kind of in quarterback purgatory and Jackson Dart will probably suck. And I'm still kind of out on Dart a little bit of myself and I wish I was more excited about that. Having said that, the Giants offense has been one of the least watchable offenses the entire time both of you have known me.

The Giants, even when the Giants made the playoffs, they were the most boring goddamn offense to watch. And for the first time, and I think, like, since 10 years ago, like when Odell Beckham was healthy and I didn't sprained, like, had a high ankle sprained. The Giants' offense is going to be fun and interesting to watch.

Maybe, or at the very least, Russell Wilson will miss me like neighbors and he'll be, like, mad and yelling at it. But, like, this is an exciting Giants' offense. I haven't felt that way in 10 years. And at some point, I do want to go back to, like, watching my team and having fun, as opposed to, like, the whole,

I hate watching this team every week. And I don't feel that way going into the season at all. I kind of just wish Russell Wilson wasn't on the team. I wish it was just James and Dart. I do too. I do too. I, yeah. All right.

If it's not to get you jacked up about a player that probably won't end up doing anything, but regarding Thomas Fadone the second, he was the number one tight end of his recruiting class back in 2021. Guess who he was just ranked a little one spot higher than in that recruiting class. What year? In 2021. Kyle Pitts. Brock Bowers.

He was the number one tight end in that recruiting class ahead of Brock Bowers. Obviously, look, I'm not saying anything. But he was obviously very, very highly thought of at one point. So he was kind of on my radar just because of that. Okay. So now I want to do the Bryson DeShambo swinging for the fences picks, which I know is a mixed metaphor because that's baseball. But the Liv Golf is in Mexico City right now and all these guys are just like hitting

drives 450 yards. And then Bryson does his like long drive. thing where it can hit the ball 450. And I think some teams did that. Like we mentioned the Jaguars, but holy cow, like James Gladstone

the GM of the Jaguars, like truly like swung for the fences with this draft. Don't you feel that way, DK? Oh yeah, big time, big time.

It was not a boring class. That's for sure. I saw somebody talk about this on, um, on blue sky. Basically it's like a first time GM will typically like trade back, accumulate picks because it's the safe thing to do.

It placates the fan base. They're like, is the right process or whatever, and you're not, like, putting too many eggs in one basket right away. Nope, not Jimmy Stones. He just freaking went out there.

He went out there in the first move he made, essentially, was to, like, mortgage the future of this franchise. It's, like, pretty wild. Find the biggest guy in prison, punch him in the face. Yeah.

I respect him so much because I think a lot of these people, and I'm not even judging them. I don't like me a child. I think a lot of people get these jobs and they get a little afraid to make something big, because the reality is even head coaches,

it's more likely. to get another job. GMs very rarely get a second GM job. Takes you forever. You have to, like, rebuild your reputation for like 15 years to do it. It's very difficult to get a second GM job. And this guy's 34.

And the idea, like, I actually was a little worried that he would be scared because when they did the free agency class and they kind of just seemed to have used the Jaguar stuff and they're just giving, it just was a weird mix of players

I didn't really understand. But I'm like, well, you had two weeks to do it. And then I look at this draft and I'm like, there is a vision here. I'm very impressed with what the Jaguars did. again, maybe Travis Hunter will flame out, but you guys know how I feel. I just, I respect not being afraid with an intelligent gamble. The other team that I think just absolutely swung, wait, sorry, last, the Jaguars, D.K.,

they took, they got Basial Tootan, Devon, A. Chan guy from Virginia Tech. Yeah, I was super excited about that. I think it was interesting that some of the running backs actually fell into day three. We were expecting, I think, a bigger, earlier run on running backs, but it happened pretty early in round four. There was a run on running backs, and Tutton, I think that's a great. landing spot for him in terms of ETN is either in the last year of his deal probably there or could get traded before the season ultimately. So Tutin has like a runway to maybe end up as a team starter sooner than later. Super explosive.

I think he's going to give them that explosive element that are looking for. Now with Brian Thomas, Travis Hunter and Tutin who has incredible speed, like this offense is so much more dynamic. And fast. Yeah, it's going to be an offense that you have to respect. You know what I mean? And so I love that pick. I think that's super exciting. Hinton and RJ Harvey going to the Broncos,

I think are two of the more interesting landing spots for guys that nobody was talking about that much prior to the draft. So yeah, I loved that pick, and I'm excited to see what you can do early on. The other team that I think swung for the fence is the Falcons. Terry Fontenough, the GM of Rahmores, the Falcons coach, just going and getting Jalen Walker,

the pass rush out of Georgia, probably a pass rusher. And then training a future first to get James Pierce at Tennessee. and then, I mean, swapping out, they got Xavier Watson and safety out of Notre Dame and they ended up getting Billy Bowman and their safety out to Oklahoma. And, I mean, they got seventh round tackle doesn't really matter to me.

But, like, DK, what do you, now that we see what happened with the Falcons draft, what do you think of the, I guess the Falcons went for it. I know, they're, they're moving up and down the board, like they're a team that's one player away from being a Super Bowl contender. You know what I mean?

Like, this move felt like a team is approaching the end of their window for championship opportunity, you know? And they're like, we got to get another pass rusher to put us over the top instead of a team that just hasn't had a pass rush in a decade or whatever. Like it was a very aggressive move. I don't love the idea that they traded a future first rounder to pick at 26. You know what I mean? That to me is pretty rare. And so I mean, I understand

if you're giving up a future first rounder to pick in the top 10 of a draft or the top 15, but you're picking at 26. And so that pick next year, if you if things don't go well, if you know, your quarterback gets hurt or whatever, if panics get hurt, I mean, that's the story on him. He's just been hurt every year of his career, basically, other than the last one. And so this could end up being a top 10, top 15 pick,

and it would be, like, then at that point, it'd be this one of the most atrocious trades I can think of. Obviously, if James Spares turns out really good, probably won't remember it that much, but I don't know. I just felt like this was a move a team makes when they feel like they're really close to being a Super Bowl contender,

not a team that has holes pretty much all over the roster. And on that note, and I think the Falcons, look, I've been saying for a long time, I think the Falcons are a defensive line away from being a real team. It's weird because of the Falcons, you should never believe. But here's the thing, D.K., my fear with the Falcons move is two, is there's two problems. One, I just feel like they're frankly trying to be the Rams.

Like, at the end of the day, like the Falcons, like Rahmores came from the Rams. Zach Robinson and the coordinator came from the Rams. And I feel like there's one element of jealousy of Jared Verse and Braden Fisk. And I know they made the trade with the Rams, and maybe I'm being simplistic. But you know what? He worked there for a long time.

I kind of do think, well, not a long time, but I do think that there is an element of wanting to chase that high. The other thing is, there's almost a weird element if we told the Falcons get a pass rush for so long, they almost missed the boat because everyone else is getting bigger on defense and trying to stop the run. Like all these other NFC teams, and we talk about that in a moment. They're all kind of gearing up to beat the Eagles,

being like, we need huge people to stop these teams. And I look at the Falcons, I'm like, the run defense of, like, Jalen Walker and Pierce, so you're going to have to play. And I'm like... They're both like 240 pounds or whatever. Yeah. I'm like, oh my God.

Like, the Falcons beat the Eagles in week two, because that was the week, the Sequin drop, and Kirk Cousins actually had the great fourth-year comeback. And I'm like, dude, if these two's played for this Eagles, the Eagles would, like, pave over this defense. And that is one thing I'm watching for is like, they don't have a detackle presence on this team. They don't really have a great run day.

The first round pick is brutal. I mean, and giving it to the Rams is, I mean, if Michael Pennix, like, misses a month or two and they trade Kirk Cousins, like, that's a top five, 10 pick the Rams just got. Press conferences are funny after the draft because you think they say nothing. But in reality, every now and then, like, what guys think pours out of them? And I don't know if it was Jordan Rodriguez, the athletic.

Someone asked John McVeigh, what does it feel like to have two first-run picks for eight years without any? And McVeigh just immediately was like, for now we've two. And I'm like, you know what I mean? Like, that's going to burn a hole in their pockets. They have just like, all the Rams get to take you guys. They have to move around and do some pretty interesting things. I was going to say the same thing, Hyfitt's like, you can't judge all trades this way. but the way that the Rams talked about doing this deal,

they were basically like, it reminds me so much of like a dynasty trade that you make where someone sends you a first round, like a, sends you an offer for a first rounder for a player that you're not like that excited about. And you're like, oh, sure. Okay.

Yeah, like you run to hit that accept button before they change their mind. Like, that was kind of how it felt like the Rams were talking about this. It was like. You like screenshot it and text your friend. Like, am I missing something here? Yeah. Yeah, like, did this guy get hurt?

Did he get hurt? Right. Like, he's been arrested? So it was one of those things where it felt like, judging by the reaction of the Rams, I just feel like this is a bad move for the FAPF? I mean, yeah, we'll, yeah, we'll take your first for moving out of the 26th pick in the first round. Sure, of course.

Another, just swinging for the fences team, just the Bears. Ben swinging Johnson over here. I know. With the Chicago Bears. Very aggressive. Yeah. Colston, Loveland, tight end of Michigan. And then they get Luther Burton, the receiver from Missouri.

And then they someone get an offensive tackle named Ozzy Trappolo. I won't lie. I didn't know there was an Ozzy Trappolo in this draft. I'm going to be totally honest. And then Shabort Turner from the defense attack with Texas A&M, I think it's quite good. They got a Ruben Hippolyte. Ruben Hippolyte is wild. The second.

Ruben Hi. The second. Kyle Monon, Joe. Dude, there are some wild names in this draft. But it's a good. I had Ozzie Tripilo or Tripolo, Trapolo in my top 100. I think he's, I don't know if it felt like a little bit of a reach to grab him there because he's got some balance and leaning

issues because he's like 6-8. He's a really, really tall guy. Six-foot-eight guy named Ozzy is crazy. His dad, I want to say, was in the NFL. Yeah, 6-8-3-16. So I think he's got a lot of potential. It felt a little bit like a reach at that point, but I mean, getting more offensive linemen

is going to be a good thing for them. But, I mean, this draft is going to be defined by Loveland Burden and kind of like what that can do for the offense. I just said this on the other show, but I just love the idea of Ben Johnson more than anyone I trust him to like utilize his playmakers in the way that they're going to thrive. And so I'm really excited with what Loveland can do.

And Craig, I know we kind of went back and forth a little bit on Burden but like I'm getting really excited about what Burden can do because he landed in this situation with this coach. And so I mean, this could, if Burden kind of keeps his head on straight, this could be like almost an ideal landing spot for him. Yeah, I think there's like a decent chance

that it's like week four, and Luther Burden is immediately the best rookie wide receiver. I was going to say, my new thing for this all season is the week one. Just a gut. It's a good. I think it's a good gut check. Week one test. How many quarters of Luther Burden being great do you need to see until you're like, oh my God, is he like clearly the best receiver in this draft?

Probably like two. Two? Right. I think two. Last, I mean, last year, do you remember when Xavier Worthy scored two touchdowns in the first game for the chiefs? And I was like, look, he's not going to score two touchdowns. touchdowns every game, but scoring two touchdowns in your first game, that's got to mean something. It was also so, I'll never get over that because we spent five months being like, well, you know what,

football isn't like a 40-yard dash. And then the chiefs, the first touch he got, the chiefs just recreated just ran faster than everyone else. Well, they manufactured those touchdowns for this rookie. And you're like, yeah, they're manufacturing touchdowns for a guy in his first game. Manufacturing touchdowns is like the whole point of football. How would he, how many players that were really excited about don't score two touchdowns in their first seven games or eight games. You know what I mean? Like two touchdowns in your first game.

I know his target rate was like 12%. It's not going to continue on at that rate. But like, scoring two touchdowns is cool. When someone as creative as Ben Johnson is like, I want fucking Colston Loveland of Luther Bird and I think the league is in trouble. And also I still think Luther Bird and whatever questions there are about like his,

I don't know what the hell the Lutherberg questions are. Basically, they're like, I don't, NILD, or whatever. if Ben Johnson could deal with James and Williams, I think Ben Johnson can deal with Luther Burden. That is my take. I'm going to go to Craig here because he's objective. Craig, how many times have I made fun of D.K.

for saying that like a tight end is athletic or just an NFL player is athletic? I just hate that word because they're all... Probably more than you've mentioned Ted Lassow. It's probably a lot. So naturally, my comeuppance, D.K., your Seattle Seahawks, while we're talking about swinging for the fences,

your Seattle Seahawks had actually one of the most athletic drafts ever. Yeah. It was pretty amazing. So Gray Zabel, according to the RAS score, the RAS score was, if you'd look at him as a guard, it's like a 9-9 or something like that. One of the most athletic guard prospects that they've measured at the combine, Nicky Mnwarre, literally the number one ranked safety of all time, according to RAS score. Elijah Oro, Royo, I should say, he didn't have testing this season because he was coming off an injury, but he, I want to say the GPS had him like 21.7 miles an hour or something like that, which is like legit receipts. speed, anything over like 21 is really, really fast. And the Seahawks are even talking about him as, you know, we didn't feel the need to go out

and draft an X receiver because he is so fast and so explosive. And they might line him up on these like YISO moves out on the outside where he's just basically running X receiver routes. So that's super exciting. And then, of course, Jalen Milrow, another guy that didn't test, but the, I mean, the athleticism was apparent on tape. He's one of the fastest guys on the field every time he goes out there. Saybin said on game day, which I had heard this and I thought it was

but Sabin said Jaylon Milroy was the fastest player at Alabama Yeah And he's like not fastest quarterback Jaila Miller was just straight up The fastest player on the team Which I had heard and thought was hyperbole Did that count?

A couple of years Maybe he wasn't on a team with Jameson Williams But he was on a team with Isaiah Bond He was like insanely fast That's what Sabin said And again Sabin is literally a college recruiter Like there's probably a lot of lying

That he's very gifted at But that is what he said And he seemed like he meant it Maybe I'm an idiot for believing what Nick Sabin says But I thought that was an incredible thing I kind of didn't think that was a real thing Yeah, I feel like there's, you know, there's times where you look at a player's testing times and you're like, I don't know if I really ever saw that on film.

Like he just doesn't move like that on a football field. Jaylon Milrow, there's absolutely no doubt in my mind. He's one of the most athletic quarterbacks in the NFL right now. He's just so explosive. He has good vision. He's really slippery as a runner. And his footwork in terms of his acceleration is his ability to gather and cut is almost like a running backs. He has a natural skill as a runner.

The Seahawks already talked about in their post-draft presser. We're talking about utilizing him in like third-down situations and things where they can... Like basically what the Steelers did with Justin Fields. That's why I wanted him

because I thought he made perfect sense for somebody like Aaron Rogers who like you don't really want on fourth and one QB sneaking. Yeah. So I actually comped him to Justin Fields. I think he's a little faster than Fields, but the way that the Steelers...

I think it's awesome just having a Taysom Hill type on your team. Like just like having that on your team makes so much sense. And Jalen Milro is just like a souped-up hyped up version of that. And I think it's awesome. Milro was why I put this in swinging for the fence.

I think this is the biggest, this is to me the highest upside pick in the entire draft. I think that Milro were, again, Milro, there was playing from the pocket in Alabama. They're absolutely, like, I mean, Nick Saban was the first to talk about, like, how much work he needs to do.

Going to Seattle, where Milro does not have to play for two years because of Sam Darnold, like. Kind of perfect. It's rare that you get a quarterback where the floor is, damn, like, he's probably going to be like a, like, here's, again,

Taysam Hill. We don't talk about this a ton because the Saints suck. Tastom Hill as a goal line quarterback is, like, unbelievable. And the idea that Jalen Milrow at the very, like his worst case is he can just be a goal line quarterback for like 10 years. And like his upside is straight up like a top six quarterback in the NFL. I am so, I am more jealous of the, of the Syllocks getting Jalen Milrow than any pick in the draft.

I think there's like a small chance or big chance, I guess, but that we're kind of like gassing ourselves up about Nero. He was a third round pick for a reason. quarterback, he could suck, but it's a third. But look at all the other third round picks. Like the upside of a third round guard is not that high. That's exactly what I was going to get to is basically like in the third round. I mean, if you look at the hit rate of a first rounder, it's like 50% of third round hit rate is really low in terms of getting a really good player, a pro bowl type player.

I think Milro, like I said the other day, he is in the range of outcomes. Superhero is in that range of outcomes. I don't think he's very unlikely he'll reach that. But this is exactly the type of like backup quarterback you want to have on your team. He's also the first who will admit that he has a lot to work on, which is cool. He seems like a very upstanding guy, character guy. But, D.K., are you a little worried that the quarterback that Jalen Milroy will have to learn from is none other than Sam Donald? Yeah, yeah.

Like, Jalen Miller will need, like, basically, it's like, can he, could he develop into a pocket pastor? And the guy, can he make good decisions and the guy who he'll be learning from the Sam Donald? Yeah. I mean, yes, when you put it that way, that's not like my favorite thing of all time. But yeah, they need to bring in like a flacco type, you know. Well, they have Drew Locke. Maybe he's a vibes guy. Right.

I don't know. Drew Locke seems like he's having a lot of fun all the time. He's been, and he's had the disadvantage of kind of being a backup when he, when he's expected to be a starter for, you know, a couple of years. So you can maybe teach him about being a pro and preparation and all that stuff. What Drew Locke to teach him about being a pro? Drew Locke, who forced the Broncos in his situation where they had to play Kendall fucking hint in that quarterback?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Drewlock. Drewlock who caused the New York Giants the fucking first pick in the draft by being 07 Tom Brady for the only time in its entire life. Sorry. Drew was doing four touchdowns in that game.

Hell yeah. Looking now, would you rather have had the first pick and have Cam Ward right now or exactly what you have currently? It worked out really well, but like if the Giants were happy with Carter, the idea that you could have traded. It's the same thing as like Bill Simmons keeps saying where it's like, it could have

traded out of the pick and gotten, like the Titans probably would have traded up for Cam Ward. we're getting literally anything. So at the very least you could have got that Travis Hunter package, which I would have liked the option to get the Travis Hunter package for another, you know. But anyway, yeah, and again, I know we said already, but Nick Emud Worry, the safety of South Carolina, the only safety to ever get a 10.0 relative athletic score from the NFL Combin.

So it's just an insane. Seattle got an awesome thing. It's really cool. I know the Seahawks used to be really into like the Spark score stuff. Like they used to use that. But a lot of the time they would have, they would draft really athletic. guys and then try and move their positions. In this draft, they just drafted

a bunch of guys that are super, super athletic and are going to play the positions that they know how to play. So I'm pretty excited about it. College Football 25. Just, you know, we'll figure your position later. Speaking of Seattle, Ichero, I want to do the Icheroad for just like the best of just getting on base. Like those other teams were talking about hitting

home runs, these teams just hit singles. The Pittsburgh Steelers, Craig, your Pittsburgh Steelers, just over and over just getting on base with all these picks. Classic Steelers draft. You know, they take smart defensive players, they get a running back that fits the scheme. This is classic Steelers. Derek Harmon in the first round, the detackle to Oregon.

Also, super sad story that, well, it's beautiful, but also quite tragic. His mother was basically on her deathbed, and he was able to make it to the hospital after he got drafted to tell her that he was drafted, and then shortly after she passed away. Extremely sad story, but also very touching, like so amazing that he was able to do that to see his mom in a moment like that before she died. That is insane. We don't have to get all sappy about it, but like there is something, those stories,

nothing to me hits, like those stories where it sounds like someone's like holding on for something to experience it. And like, you know, the stories are like, you know, like couples where like, you know, one of them goes and then the other goes like two weeks later but they're like 100 years old. And you start to think like, oh my God,

maybe there is like, I don't know. It gets, I don't know. It was emotional. Yeah. You could see on his face the pain, you know, when he was drafted in the, whatever, the draft room that they were, were hanging out doing that.

You could just see the pain on his face. You know what I mean? It was like a very bittersweet moment, I'm sure, for him. So this is like a good reminder of the human element of all of this. So many of these guys have incredible stories. Jack Bess, obviously, incredible story. A very tragic story, of course. But like, throughout the draft, you just hear so many of these stories that you hadn't

really considered before or heard before. And I'm busy, like, grading these guys' acceleration or, you know, whatever, their hands when they're catching the football and it's like, man, you know, obviously these are human beings with really complicated backstories and it makes it makes it more poignant and, you know, obviously like the human side of everything is, is really cool to see. Like, yeah, like on that, so I mean, while we're being all sap, like the, I, next to Dion during during one of the shooter things, there was a baby, it was like, whose baby is that? And it was Dionne Sanders has a daughter, I believe, named DeAndre.

And DeAndre, I was just looking into it. And she had a couple very difficult pregnant. It was just like it was a complicated birth, basically. Because I had heard, and I remember Dion saying something about like, we've had a tough year. And I was just like, what? And like even something like that where Dion who's, you know, is famous and like who's more of a fair target than Dion?

Like who is asking for more attention? Like you are in the public sphere. And even something like that. I'm like, yeah. And that's one of the reasons it is fucked up to call Shador on draft. You know what I mean? You don't know what he was going through. So as we just probably are going to go back to making fun of a bunch of players.

But no, the Derek Harmon thing is the, the quickest tears have come out of my eyes in a long time. That was like, grateful. It's also great at football. You're happy with the draft overall for the Steelers? This is exactly what I wanted them to do. I'm thrilled, to be honest. And you like the Will Howard pick a lot.

Yeah, I mean, look, he's a six-round quarter-rack, so you can't get too excited. But we met Will Howard. We met him. Nice guy. Right. He's going to be great. Hall of Famer. Hall of Famer.

Was sick in the college football playoff on Ohio State. And look, you know, if he's a backup for a couple of years, You never know. You compared him to Matt Hasselbeck D.K. Like, if he turns into Matt Hasselbeck, I would be thrilled with that. He just reminded me of Hasselbeck. And guess what? He was picked 185.

And I believe Hasselbeck was the 187th or ninth pick or something like that. So kind of a similar backstory. Will Howard has to sit? And I think he could be okay. He has to sit, though. And like, I don't, I didn't love Caleb Johnson in the pre-draft process, but him with the Steelers, but everyone calls him mini Derek Henry and putting mini Derek Henry with Arthur Smith.

There are worse, they're a worse parents. Yeah, yeah. That is phenomenal. And also, D.K., what we're here? Is Jack Sawyer actually good or what? He will be. You just know he will be. So the thing about him is, and the reason he fell the fourth is...

He's going to make some huge pick in a wildcard game, and everyone's going to be like, Jack Sawyer! The hero! I think the main reason he fell is he's just not explosive. Like, just plain and simple, not explosive player. He is a former, like, big-time recruiter. I want to say he was a five-star recruit. You know, he's obviously very good at football.

He's one of those guys that's going to have to win with power and guile and like hand use and all that stuff and just the savviness. It's all the white, you know, white coated stuff, of course. But like Jim Rat. Yeah, but like. Reminds me of Kyle Vanden Bosch. He was not.

When I was watching him, he's not explosive, but I still kept thinking like he's just always in the right place. He's always, you know, I think he's a good, he'll probably end up being like a rotational guy for you guys. And like I said, he gets, he's just in the right place the right time. That's a good feel for the game. Blake Cashman, that was a cop. He's probably never going to be a 10-sack guy.

or whatever. Blake Cashman was not like comp. Who was it? Wasn't it? No. Oh. Let's see here. Probably a white guy.

Let's be honest. No, I said Derek Barnett. Kind of like a slow but like technically sound rusher. Okay. Also not a white guy. So good job. Not a double digit sack guy probably, but like a solid rotational player. The Steelers also drafted a guy named Yaya Black, which is like the coolest name ever.

And again, yeah, Derek Commer, defensive tackle. Yeah, yeah, Black defensive tackle. Again, the Ravens ran for 299. guards on Mike Tomlin's defense in the playoffs and that can't I mean they just literally very Steelers he draft uh so you steers did a great job the other one again just while we're here of just like getting on base dude the Raiders I am very impressed and again what the me the Derek Karmid thing the jack bash being like you're not getting one player when you take me you're getting two because I'm like tigers always with me because he's don't know his brother passed away in the

terrorist attack and just like yeah that's the Raiders transformation into the most lovable team in the NFL is pretty like it's it was very quick so I yeah right it always also just think they got a bunch of good players. Next up here, Craig, you want to take this one? Yeah, this is the Arrested Development Bland Award. Has there been an under-discussed first-round pick? First overall pick? First overall pick, as there is with Cam Ward. I mean, we joked about how we didn't talk about Trevor Lawrence in the lead up to that draft five years ago because it was like, we all knew it was going to happen. But Trevor Lawrence was also like this kind of bankable talent that we felt there wasn't much to talk about after because we kind of assumed, you know, he was the best

prospect sense, whoever, and your luck. Kim Ward is like this interesting, we don't know if it's going to work out pick, and yet because of all the Chatur chaos, the Travis Hunter trade up, literally no one's talking about the first overall pick in the draft, quarterback Cam Ward going to the Titans.

Like no one. It's so wild. He was like sobbing and weeping, and they showed a video, I think it was of his, Cam Ward's father making a video about how it's like every, I think the video was like, you've inspired Zero Star Recruits everywhere.

It was more poetic than that. But Cam Ward was like, bawling, like weeping, honestly weeping. And I don't think he's really got it. That is pretty wild. It is cool. And again, I know I'm savvy of this, but the Cam Ward thing, big picture to me, I think it's interesting that, like, Cam Ward is the most modern first pick ever in

that this is such a function of the NIL transfer portal era. There is zero Cam Ward chance that he ends up in 10. Again, Cam Ward got a fifth round grade from the NFL draft advisory committee last year. It's not like he'd be the fifth quarterback. He was a fifth round grade last year. like that's insane. Well, that was exactly what happened with Borough, too. Yes, it happened with Borough, yeah.

That last year in college really can make a difference and it really can move the needle. Sometimes it's like a red herring and it doesn't end up being very, like it doesn't end up working out like Kenny Pickett. Kenny Pickett, I think probably had the same situation where got a bad grade from the advisory board and then went back and was awesome in his final year in college. I don't know. You worked out as well as it could have for Kenny Pickett, but yeah. Sure, sure. But I mean, I'm just saying like he wasn't very good. but sometimes sometimes it's like that extra year in college is that experience that you get. It really does change who you are as a player. And, you know, I'm a believer in Cam Ward.

I think there's a chance that could look back on this and be like, damn, we passed up Abdul Carter and Travis Hunter and our quarterback isn't that good. But I really think he has a chance to be like a foundational, you know, franchise quarterback for them. I agree. I think the Titans offensive line is going to work out, to be totally honest. Like I am a believer that like maybe I'm a simp. But like the Bill Callahan, there is a.

history for like for 30 years basically of year one the line's all right and then year two under bill callahan the offensive line did joe gets a lot better and i think that as much as i made fun of them for taking dan ward junior left tackle that's the price of you overpay for competence competence the panther's overpaid for competence with the carolina guess what you know what it was worth paying like a hundred million dollars guaranteed to the two guards if it means price young actually is your quarterback like sometimes you do got to get what you pay for and overpay if it means like in the grander scheme and i think that paying to give cam war to real line where you can move j c latham to right tackle. You have Scrantzgate left guard. You have Kevin Zaitler at right guard. You have

Cushing-Berry and that's a good line. It's easier to get receivers and add to their bad receiver room. They got Tyler Lockett. But it's easier to upgrade that. We didn't really talk about that. They also drafted our guy, DK. Elikaio Minore. Yeah. They got him in the fourth, I want to say. So they drafted Gunner Helm, the tight end from Texas, who has really good hands. He's like a big red zone target. Ultimately, I kind of like what they did all throughout the draft. I mean, they even got, this is kind of an underrated story that Mike, we might be talking about by the time it comes training camp, but Xavier Estrepo,

the top receiver from Miami, who ran like a 4-8, he ended up signing an UDFA, undrafted-free agent contract with the Titans. So he's reunited with Cam Ward. Dude, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he makes the team and is like, by year two is like starting for them.

He also, he could be year one starting because like just being, look, Cam Ward is one of the reasons he went first is he is able to play in the pocket, but he's also able to like make off script plays. And weirdly, this rookie Xavier Restrepo is going to easily have the best chemistry with what Cam Ward's looking for in a given play if he can get on the field side. Just one of those guys that's a football player. He ran a 4-8. So that's like... I think I think Restrepo is going to be good. I think that will work. But to the point, and I belaboring it. But again, he's the first pick we barely talked about him. Cam Ward. I'm very sappy about this. I think this is the American-D-1 offer from Incarnate Word to the number one pick in the draft. That is a very American dream story. And it's a very modern college football story. And I think it's really ironic.

that Tennessee Titans get this guy almost entirely because of the transfer portal, like two weeks after, you know, the University of Tennessee volunteers lose the quarterback, Nico, you know, his name is Amaloeva, but let's be real, everyone's going to call him, I am a liva. Like, everyone's going to call him, Nico, I am a Liva. Because, like, he transferred out. I'm not going to be working here anymore. Dude, he goes to, he's like also like part of the transfer portal history now.

He's part of college football history. Nico's just like, goes to the spring game as part of a negotiation. and then Tennessee was like, go kick rock son, you're off the team. All the coaches were thrilled that the other coaches around the league or the country were happy that Tennessee did that to him. He goes to UCLA. The UCLA quarterback transfers to Tennessee. It was basically a trade, which is crazy.

But like, it is so funny to me that, like, as everyone in Tennessee, like Tennessee volunteers fans are like, damn, the portal sucks, then the Tennessee Titans draft this quarterback almost entirely because the portal exists. And it's like such a double-edged sword, but it's funny to me. It was like the same two-week period. Anyway, I don't know if anyone cares about what I just said, but no, I think it's interesting. Okay. Is he going to get more money at UCLA than he was going to get at Tennessee?

So I think he kind of blew it a little, but I think that there's a dad situation there. It's not just Dion. Like, there's a whole archetype of like there are like snowplow dads or like just helicopter AAU dad. Like there are more Lavar balls than you think behind the spotlight. You know, I mean, I mean, Kyler's dad, Tua's dad. Like there's a lot of these dads that are very involved. I mean, Caleb Williams, who, at that. think his dad gets a bad rap, but there's a lot of, you know, sometimes be an NFL quarterback,

like you need a vision early on. It's like Gronk's dad was having them do weight training at eight years old, you know, it doesn't happen by accident sometimes. So I think that, um, that just happens sometimes. But the Nico thing, it sounds like his dad was negotiating or something with Tennessee. And basically he, he was getting, I think, 2.4 million. And I think they saw Carson Beck go to Miami for four million. And they were like, well, Nico's better than Carson Beck. Yeah. And then Tennessee was like, we gave you a contract. Like, they, paid you $2.4 million a year over, like, for four years

when you were a high schooler and you want to renegotiate now. They're like, no. And so the whole thing's there are no rules. It's a lot less out there now. I hate it. They didn't make changes. They needed to regulate the shit. It's, it's weird. I want to, I want to, the other group,

we can group these teams and Dekin curious which these you think is the most interesting. I think the group that's funny to me that the most, the most overcompensating teams, I think all these, we talked about the six degrees of Kevin Bacon and all these teams trying to be the I got to tell you, all these things trying to beat the Eagles. Like, the 49ers, the first five picks were defensive linemen, the bill, or sorry, defenders. The Bill's first five picks were defenders.

The Lions went and got trench guys. The Chiefs had a trench draft. Like, it is hard not to look at what the Bill's Lions, Chiefs, 49ers did and not think they are thinking about the Eagles in the back of their mind. Like the Niners in particular. The bills in particular, I think, are the interesting one. What are we going to say about the Niners? Whatever you want. The Niners just got huge.

Like the 49ers just got massive human beings. I think you could say the bills did even went further on that. So maybe if you're the bills you're looking at like, we can't get past the chiefs. Who is the team that just beat the shit out of the chiefs? What's the thing that they do? They dominate on the defensive line. The bills, obviously, they picked a corner in the first round,

but then they turn around and got T.J. Sanders, who is massive. They got Landon Jackson, an edge from Arkansas, who is more of like a power rusher. He's a huge guy, 6,6, like 260 or something like that. Big power rusher. They went and got Deoni Wobster. from Kentucky who is, I think he's 6-8-3-30. Whoa.

He's legit, massive. And so just looking at their draft and like, man, they really wanted to beef up on this defensive line. And they already have like some pretty big defenders already. So I don't know. I just thought that Bill's doing what they did was pretty classic. It's like, man, we got to figure out how to get past the chiefs and maybe just having a massive, massive defensive line is the way to do it.

Yeah. I mean, I totally agree. I mean, I think that's actually dead on, DKs. So, you know, we think about all this stuff is very complicated with team building, but the bills did, yeah, I think you're 100% right. The bills watch the Eagles kick the shit of the chiefs, and they're like, oh, my God, we need to be able to do that. Yeah.

They already have Greg Rousseau, who's massive human being. AJ Epenessa is like a power rusher off the edge. This is just like they're very much loading up and trying to turn teams into one-dimensional. So basically make other teams one-dimensional. Don't let them run. And I think 49ers did that too, because you look at the nine. And again, they had no. diners went from being the Eagles with defensive line depth

three years ago to being having none honestly after Nick Bosa and the Niners went and they got Michael Williams the edge from Georgia and then he went out of the demigorgian. The demigorgian with the demigorgian arms and then you have Alfred Collins who's another massive defensive tackle from Texas. Huge big boy. Again

Alfred can only be a huge guy if you're named Alfa. Also he's related to Trent Brown isn't he? Isn't he like Trent Brown's nephew or something? Oh is he? Yeah. Trent Brown which Trent Brown? Also massive. Dude, Alfred Collins, 6.6.3.30. And he moves well. He's a powerful guy.

Yeah, and then they went to CJ West, the defense attack from Indiana. He's also, how big, he's also just a, but to me, that's the theme. He's like a bowling ball in the interior defensive line. And part of that I know is the nature of this drafts, but D.K., I really do think that this is teams looking at Philadelphia and they're like, like, there is some element of like, these teams got pushed and they're like, I don't want to get pushed around by the Eagles anymore. Like, not figured it. They literally are tired of being pushed by the Eagles. The Packers are trying to legislate it out. Everyone else is like, oh, maybe we'll just beat them.

It really is the old cliche, and we talk about it all the time how the NFL is like the pendulum swings one way or the other. It's like you get, teams get lighter and faster, so the defense has to get lighter and faster, and then the pendulum swings back. The offense starts going with heavier guys, run the ball, and then the defense has to adjust. And, yeah, I think, apart from the fact, I think it obviously also matters that this is just a really good defensive line class.

Like, there was a lot of really good defensive linemen. the class. But, but yeah, I mean, I think teams were looking at, and this is what I was going to say, is the cliche is if you can't stop the run, like, you just can't do anything. If a team can run on you, they'll just stay on the field the entire game. You know what I mean? They'll just keep getting first downs. They'll control the football. They're not going to turn it over as much. And your odds of winning those games, they just like squeeze the life out of you. So I think teams are starting to realize, like, look, we actually have to be able to stop the run. I know it's it's not, doesn't sound that important in the modern game when you have all these superhero

quarterbacks, but teams have to stop the run or you just become, like, you can't get off the field. You can't get off the field on defense. Yeah. It really does come around. Okay. Are there, also while we're here talking about the Eagles, the Eagles did really well too.

I know, all the good teams had like really solid dress, I thought. All the top teams in the NFL, the Eagles, the Bills, the Chiefs, liked their dress. I'm just furious that the Eagles got Jihad Campbell linebacker in Alabama. Like, I just, I hate that. Andrew McCuba, the safety of Texas. they just, they had a good draft. Yeah, fun, fun players.

Ty Robinson's another good defense. Who's this Cam Williams, the six-round tackle that he took out of Texas? Cameron Williams, he was getting first-round buzz for a minute there during the last season. He's not a first-rounder, obviously, because he's just not very technically sound. He's pretty raw,

but he is built like a brick shit house. He was, he is built like a prototypical power offensive lineman. I'm so mad that the Eagles got this guy. Stoughtland is probably going to coach him up and turn him into a, all pro type player. Like, that's just like,

I remember seeing that. Of course the fucking Eagles. Yeah, of course the Eagles took this guy. But he's raw and I think he has a lot of work to do. But he is like if just go look at him up, he looks like he's going to turn into an all pro. That's infuriating.

All right. Are there any other drafts we have talked about that you loved or anyone who did talk about, but is there anyone in particular? Honestly, my favorite draft and I'm not doing, the immediate reaction for everyone was like, oh, quit trying to soak up to Bill Simmons.

I really love the New England Patriots draft. They had like as good of a draft as you could do from the position that they were drafting in. Obviously, like, winning that game late in the season and losing out on the option of drafting, Travis Hunter sucks for them. But I really like their draft basically start to finish. Will Campbell in the first round,

obviously get a potential 10-year starter on the offensive line. Trayvion on Henderson, explosive, get a compliment Ramadre Stevenson perfectly. Obviously, getting him in. to protect Drake May is going to be huge. So their first two picks are very good players in pass protection. So that is like, of course, exactly what you want for your young quarterback who got the shit beat out of him last year.

And then Kyle Williams in the third round, who really good route runner is going to get open early in his routes. He has take the lid off the defense type speed as an outside guy, can kind of play all over the formation. He could end up being a starter for them right away. Jared Wilson, Georgia Guard or Georgia Center. He was like one of the top centers in this draft. A lot of people really liked him.

He's just a one-year starter, so he's a little inexperienced. But again, one of the most athletic centers we've ever seen, according to the Rasker. Josh Farmer was another guy I had in my top 100. He's another guy that's just built like a brick shit house. He's so powerful on the inside, not a big pass rusher, but the guy that will like collapse the pocket, defend the run, just super powerful. I think he has a lot of upside. And then Brayden Swinson, LSU Edge, another guy that I'm. had my top 100.

He just looks like a pass rusher. He's just big, tall, long, explosive guy. I think he's still ascending. So I think they got six guys in my top 100, which is by far the most of any team. So I just thought they did a great job. You just suck to get to Bill Simmons. Anyway, I'll be on Bill Simmons pod soon.

Check your bank account. You just got to raise. No, unfortunately, I agree with you, which sucks. I know. I'm not the only one who's saying this, by the way. No, the truth is worse, which is the Patriots did a good job. You know. Craig, is there anyone that you liked?

Any of the drafts that you like, Craig? Yeah, I have to admit, I kind of like what the Jets are doing. I think just holistically, not just with the draft, but with their entire rebuild. I think sometimes the rebuild feels inauthentic. You're not buying it when the new coach comes in and he gives the speech and you're like, I just don't feel it. And with Aaron Glenn, I feel it. He's like the no BS.

He's kind of the silent type, which I really respect. He's kind of like, we're going to prove it on the field more than we are going to prove it, you know, at the press conference. I like that every time he's asked about stuff, he's kind of just like, you know, they ask him about Aaron Rogers, whatever, and he's like, I love Armin Membo, he's going to be great. He just ignores the question.

He just ignores it. And I actually think that's the opposite of a circus. And the Jets have been a circus for as long as I can remember. And it actually finally feels real this time that they're not going to be a circus. Like they went in, they made smart picks. They took Armin Membu, a right tackle. The offensive line is going to be like really young, really good.

They got Mason Taylor. They got like a very good tight end to slot in and be an immediate starter. Not flashy, not like a big, you know, speed guy or anything. It's just a really good football player. It just feels like they made a bunch of smart picks to build a foundation that backs what Aaron Glenn is bringing. Even they got the corner in the third round of Zarier Thomas, who they got him 70 third over. He was getting first round buzz for a little while. Yeah, they got him 73rd overall.

D.K. had him at 38th on his big board. I just kind of like what the Jets are doing. I know obviously Justin Fields at quarterback. I don't really know. but they're building something that feels real for the first time to me. I'm allowing myself to kind of get excited about the Jets offense this year, just because, like you said, they have a really good offensive line and, or they have the potential to have a really good offense line.

A lot of young guys, but obviously they've invested a ton in this offensive line. And then Justin Fields, just as a runner, is incredible. He's an amazing runner. I don't know what he's going to do as a password. That's always been the problem. But they could be one of those teams that's, like, strangely hard to defend just because they can run the ball so well. Both of their running backs are all three of their running backs are really good. Breece Hall, Braylon Allen, Isaiah Davis, Craig would probably quibble with me saying

Brise Hall is really good, but that's fine. Hopefully he's healthy this year. But yeah, I mean, it's just, this is going to be a fun team to watch, actually, I think. I kind of keep wondering if Justin Fields is the next Sam Darnold. Obviously, Justin Fields could be bad. It's not, I mean, it's his fifth NFL season. Like, Justin Fields could be bad, obviously. However, I keep thinking about the situations that Justin Fields failed in, a Bears team that was whole. horrible with a terrible offensive line that threw Justin Fields to the wolves in week three. And I think Justin feels like

he kept playing like the Super Bowl champion bucks and all these Miles Garrett and all these incredible defenses to start. Oh yeah. Yeah. And he couldn't. And like Justin Fields was not the right kind of quarterback to learn under a bad offensive line. And you look at the Jetso line with Olu Fashano left tackle and Membo at right tackle, AVT at right guard. Like the Jets have, if they should have a solid offensive line. And I kind of do wonder of Justin Fields with time actually circles back and is 80% as good as we

thought he would be when we thought he should be the second pick in the 2021 draft. And I'm actually, I'm not going to bet on the Jets because they're the Jets. And I'm not as optimistic about it because he doesn't have the Kevin O'Connell in this or the Justin Jefferson that Donald did last year. But I do wonder if Fields is the next, I mean, how many times we have to see a Gino Smith, a Baker Mayfield, Bryce Young last year, Donald who were like, clearly like when these guys who are talented go to the right situation, I don't know about the Jets offensive coordinator, but I do wonder if Fields could be something like that.

I think that the need, I like that. I like that thought. I don't, I wouldn't rule it out, obviously. If you're looking at the Jets receiver core, though, it's pretty barren. Outside of Garrow Wilson, there's nobody I feel confident. They have no one under contract. They should just fucking run the shit out of the ball and make that their identity. And I bet you being like, they're ultimately the Jets, which is why I don't want to bet on them.

That's why Aaron Glenn is making them not the Jets to me. Like, he's taking them out of that mold. And I wouldn't even say, also, Justin Fields, I don't even, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say he failed in Pittsburgh. He went four and two. He threw one pick. I think he had five touchdowns, one pick in his six games with the Steelers. He went four and two. They beat like the Falcons, the Broncos, the Chargers, and they lost the other two games by three. Like, Justin Fields was not bad with the Steelers. It was just Russell Wilson was sitting there behind him, and they had to make a call. But I kind of liked what Justin Fields was doing last year a little bit, to be honest. I wish it'd

gotten the chance. So does Justin Fields, obviously. But my only issue with the Jets is the other redemption stories are generally speaking, like pretty good offensive coordinators were guys that at a lot of time. Geno Smith, I think, is harder when to compare because he was a backup for so long that he has so much more experience. Baker, though, Baker was revived with Liam Cohen,

who was brilliant. And Dave Canales. But we didn't know Liam Cohen was Liam Cohen before he became Liam Cohen, right? I think more than, I think a lot of these coordinators it is very difficult to gauge how good they are. Right. Liam Cohen, I think, is the exception.

Like, Sean McVeigh, I mean, Liam Cohen was so respected and influential, even when he was in college coach talking to these guys in the offseason and then like go, I don't know. I think Liam Coe, but for the most part, you're right. We have no idea what Tanner-Rang could be. He was with the Lions for a long time, so maybe there's something there. So why isn't he the Lions' offensive coordinator?

That's my question. That's a red flag. Like if he was so good, you'd think Dan Campbell would be like, because he would be an offense quarterback if the Lions, they went to the Jets, which would suggest Dan Campbell didn't want to be the Lions offensive coordinator. Did not seem as the Air apparent. That, to be, is a red flag, frankly.

other than that, I think Justin Fields could be good. Yeah, other drafts, the Cowboys draft, I hated it because I thought it was good. I think the Cowboys did really well. They still, look, the Cowboys are a punchline because Jerry Jones, we make fun of them. I know where the Sun's going to be almost a year from now. However, the Cowboys have stayed relevant in large part because they're incredible at drafting. They're good at Ray. Jerry does not let Will McLeigh leave and Will McLean runs their drafting.

And Will McLeigh, like, this was at old school 2014. The Cowboys were the ones who just sat there and let C.D. Lamb come to them. The Cowboys got Tyrone Smith and Zach Martin, Travis Frederick. Like this draft where the Cowboys sat and got Tyler Booker, whichever was like, Oh, to reach. I think Tyler Booker is going to be a 10-year. He's going to be multi-time all pro guard. And then getting his Iraq who had Pass Rusher, I can't believe they got Savon Reveld,

the corner. Like, I just think the Cowboys cornerback, unfortunately, the Cowboys' draft was great. And quietly, getting the Texas running back. Jaden Blue. He's electric. I mean, I'm actually a little, it's easy to say, oh, Cowboys taking Helmets scouting, taking another Texas running back. He could be their, he could be a Pollard version, a version of Pollard for them. I'm a little worried that he's going to, that's actually a sneaky, great running back picks.

So I think the Cowboys unfortunately crushed it. He was in, Jaden Blue ended up being in, I think Daniel Jeremiah's top 100. He wasn't really on a lot of people's radars. He was just kind of like a really fast guy, but there might be something there. I think I was listening to Nate Tice had his dad, Mike Tice on his podcast. before the draft. And he was talking about Tyler Booker. And obviously, Booker's thing is he's a little bit slow foot, lead-footed,

because he's just a big guy, not super athletic laterally and all that. But Mike Tice, obviously, will, he'll forget more about offensive line stuff that I'll ever know. But, like. Well, my dad knows as much, but, yeah, I don't know. But he was saying he likes Booker in a pass-heavy offense because he just, like, sets the pocket. And you can just sit there in the pocket as the quarterback.

he's just going to, you know, set the depth of the pocket, give you a good chance to throw the football. Like, I don't know. I'm kind of starting to feel a little bit bullish about this, this, Dak Prescott next year and coming back and this offense being a little bit better. They still need help at receiver, I think. And again,

they're thinking about the Eagles. They were thinking about Jalen Carter. Like, they're thinking about Tyler Booker blocking Jalen Carter for 10 years. I promise you that that was talked about. Yeah. They did not do not do anything at receiver. Maybe, maybe they go get Pickens.

I don't know. I don't know what's going on at Pickens. Nobody got traded this draft. Yeah, there were... Sam Howell was the only trade I saw. Was there any other trades? Very few. There were a lot of players we thought would get moved.

Jalen Ramsey wants to trade, Dallas Goddard. I can't even list to Mojaro, Alexander. I think it probably speaks to, like, maybe just teams... I don't know what the feeling was on the value of some of these picks, but I do think there were far fewer trades. I mean, leading up, obviously, which I thought was more characteristic of the first round in the belief there, but then even the later drafts, I think teams just...

Yeah, they clearly... They clearly had a different value on this draft class overall. I mean, that's a good segue to something I said to you guys yesterday. I want to say it's like I was going through some of the teams. I'm like, I didn't love any of these drafts, honestly. Like I think the Patriots had a good draft, the Eagles. The Seahawks had good drafts. But there were so many teams that were just like a B minus C plus.

And I think the more I look at the class overall, I'm like, this just wasn't a great class. Or at least it's hard to get too excited about this class. Maybe it'll end up being a really good class, but I don't know. I just didn't feel like a ton of teams really knocked it out of the park on this. Are there any drafts you didn't like, you actively didn't like, DK? Not really, no. I mean, I'm trying to, let me look at my grade. You gave a C plus to the Lions, and I think you gave a C to the Bengals.

The Bengals, I think, are just really high variance. I think the Shamar Stewart pick is risky in the sense that, look, he's a super, super athletic but didn't produce much in college. They're the kind of team that kind of need somebody who's going to come in and contribute right away. Like their defense was horrific last year. And Shamar Stewart might need a little bit of a runway to develop. I don't know if that was like the right pick for them.

So I think they just kind of, I don't think it was a bad draft, but it just didn't get me excited. The Lions, the trade that that grade only basically goes to Isaac to Slaw thing. I thought was kind of weird. Otherwise, like, Isaac to Slaw that the lines traded up. future third rounders for like a guy whose profiles as like a day three pick. Am I being crazy to say that it's highly likely that Isaac Tisla would have fell to not just, I mean, certainly the pick that they gave up, like the hundred and second pick.

Like Tesla would have thrown out. I don't know. I mean, that's the one thing we can never know. But yeah, I mean, that's what it felt like. But if you're doing odds, you'd be like, do you think it'll happen yes or no? The answer is pro. Like, you would pick yes. He was a chance he would have fell to the fourth.

Arifasan does a like a consensus board or whatever. and I want to say Tislau was one of the highest, the worst reaches of the entire draft board. And he got, they had to trade two future picks to go get him. That's the kind of thing where, like, it's a tremor for like,

it's one of those things where are we just, all the lions being meatheads? Yeah. Where you have the couple great draft classes and you look back in a couple years, the lines fall back to Earth and you're like, oh, this is like a hint of like there's something, you know, it's, you called it.

Brad, Brad Holmes, the GM of the Lions is feeling himself. Like, he started 11 for 11, and I was just shooting like from the logo, heat checks. Yeah. And I also just think, think like if you look at the lion's draft, it's, it's meat and potatoes. It's Tyleek Williams, who is a really good run defender in the first round. I don't think a lot of people had him as a first rounder. Um, so there's maybe a slight reach there. Tate Ratledge and then Miles Frazier in the

fifth round, I thought those were both good picks, but it was just like, there's no stars in this group. It's just a really down the fairway draft for them. That's why I didn't give them like a high grade. I do think they got some good players, but, you know, there's not like, this is not like a draft where you look back in a couple years and like, oh my God, that's how they became a Super Bowl team. You know, it's just like a couple of solid contributors probably out of this class. Okay.

I have a couple of random factoids here. I have some dumb shit I want to do with two players in a lie and an email. Is there anything else, D.K., you want to get out, any of those you feel about this draft class before we go? Because I have a bunch of other stuff here, but... Yeah, let's get to it. All right. First, I want to do a few random facttoids from this draft.

One, Houston drafted three guys named Jalen. Yeah, there's a lot of Jalins in this class, I noticed. And they all spell their names a little bit differently. Yeah, J-L-I-N, the receiver from Iowa State, J-A-Y-L-I-N. And then there's J-L-I-N-N-N, and then there's J-L-N-N-N-A-L-N-N-A-N. there's Jalen Smith, the cornerback from USC, and then there's Jalen Reed, the safety from Penn State. And they drafted a guy named J-D-N.

Yeah, and there was a lot of, like, J-L-E-N or J-Y. Yeah, different spellings. I kept getting it all fucked up. Well, J-L-Rose claims he's the first J-Lan. J-Rose claims his mom basically invented the way J-L-A-L-Lan. Oh, yeah. And then that's where all the, because all the J-Lens are the same age. They're all, all the J-Lens are just post-F-F-F-F-F-F-M-Gigan.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's funny. I remember thinking that a bunch of times just studying the draft. Like, God, another fucking Jalen. So many Jailens. Another random factor. Tampa Bay signed as an undrafted free agent.

The heaviest player in NFL history. Desmond Watson, a defensive, obviously, he's a defensive tackle from the University of Florida. Desmond Watson weighs 464 pounds. Lord. That feels too heavy. That feels too heavy to place for us.

Oh, my. Look at this guy. He is an absolute unit. Desmond Watson came to college, weighing 385, went to 415, then 415 to 450, and then up to 464. He gained 100 pounds in college? Yes. I don't know. Big boy.

I guess he went on drafted, so what's the big deal? Oh, my God, he's huge. Dude, I mean, this reminds me, I used to wonder, you ever seen the Italian job? I have. You know, I always wondered why, like, there's a scene in Italian job where Desmond Watson guy just kind of has a machete and his. a guard. And I was wondering why they don't put people like that at hockey and goalie. Like, isn't Desmond Watson, like, geometrically just bigger than the net?

Like, he should just sit there, right? Like, he could just block the net. Right, right, yeah. Honestly, it's not a bad idea. Could he just sit, could he literally sit on the ice in front of the net? Just lay down. How wide is the, is the net? I don't know.

But you put the pads on him. You get to put pads on a 465-pack guy. DK, can someone like this play in the NFL? Like, how, like, he's undrafted guy. Probably not, yeah. You got to be able to move a little bit. I mean, he might be like an early down run plugger or something like that. He's only there for tush pushes.

They just put them in. Right, right. The regulation I saw that he net is six feet wide. Is that regulation size or what? Dude. So I guess that's a little too big, probably. She's just sitting there. Watson is, I don't know, I can't get over 464 pounds.

Okay. This one blew my mind. This is my favorite factoid from this draft. it might be my favorite factoid for many drafts. I have to triple check this, but I think this is correct. Tyler Shuck will almost certainly be the last player ever drafted in the 1900s.

Drafted who was born in the 1900s. Sorry, born in the 1900s. Right. Tyler Shuck was born in the 1900s. He's from the 1900s? Almost certainly the last one. My God. I do think about that a lot as I age

and if we all have children and our kids get older, our kids are going to think it's disgusting that we were all born in the 1900s. I have, Jackie had it. But hearing from someone from the 1800s, it just sounds weird. Jackie had this former coworker that would make fun of me because she was younger and

she was like born in 1998. And she was like, you're so old. And I literally told her, it was like, guess what? Your grandchildren are going to see that you were born in 1990 something. They don't give a shit. If it's 1992 or 1998, you were born in the other millennium. And that is how it would be your entire life. You were born from not the 2000s.

That's all we are. Do you remember that thing that went viral of the professor who posted an email from a student? That was amazing. Hey, professor, just want to make sure... The kid walks in. Yeah, the research is like, oh, is it okay to cite something? I found this great paper from 1984, but is it okay to cite a research from the 1900s?

They didn't have computers back then, right? Oh, my God. I never felt older. How'd they do research? Books? Sometimes I think about how we got to the moon in the 60s. Oh, it's wild. And I still don't really understand how that happened.

Did we, Craig? Yeah. Dude, even just like clocks. Like, we got to the moon with people writing you down on paper. What's the, what? They're like doing the math. Like on a chalkboard. We didn't have Expo.

Somebody come check my math. Yeah. Okay. Man, the draft is over, guys. I know. Weird. It's not over until we do this. I would like to now do now that it's, now the draft is over.

Craig, I would like to play game with you called two guys drafted over the weekend and a lie. Okay. I have a few. this one is called two players drafted this weekend and one player from the 1929 Pittsburgh Pirates Ooh

You have to tell me which one of these was on the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1929 and which ones were NFL players Okay Now, Sparky Adams Hmm Robert Longer Beam

And Gavin Bartholomew Longer Beam sounds like a Like a euphemism for a guy That had a big dick Yeah I'll read him again One of these was the 1929 Pittsburgh Pirate

and two were drafted this weekend. Sparky Adams, Robert Longerbeam, Sparky. And Gavin Bartholomew. I think Longerbeam is current. Sparky Adams? If that's a nickname,

that sounds very 1929 piracy to me. But Gavin Bartholomew doesn't sound like an athlete in any era, really. I'm going to go with Sparky Adams is the pirate. That's who I would have guessed, too. Yeah, Sparky Adams is the Pittsburgh Pirate. Sparky is not a nickname that people use anymore. We got to give us Sparky. If I picked a different one, I think I could have got you.

Dude, before George, when we adopted George, his name was originally Sparky. Really? Oh, that's great. Because he was like, I think he was born on Fourth of July or something. You know, D.K., I don't know why, but when I was a kid, I always wanted a pet named Sparky. Really? Do you want George? You can change the name back.

Yeah. I should have picked, there's a guy in the pirates named Burley Grimes. I should have picked him. Burley Grimes. Dude, Robert Longerbeam. Here, I have another one. I have another one. Bobby Longerbeam.

All right. Two NFL players drafted this weekend and one name from the Key and Peel East West video. Oh, yes. Anus Peoples. Okay. Elypsies quarter. It's not anus.

It's a neas. It's not ape tit. It's a petite. The Rimpists for 400. Wait, so can I, Hyvins, I see these are in this Google Doc we're looking at. Am I allowed to look at the names or no? Yeah, sure. Okay.

I just want to say the spelling and stuff. It's Aeneas. Aeneas Peoples. Aeneas Peoples. Elysses quarter. Zeke Biggers. Elypses? Quarter?

That kind of sounds like it's in the Iliad. Elyt Elyt. I guess they all. Aeneas Peebles. No, I think Aeneas. but you called it anus, which means does Key and Peel call it anus? I'm going to say the key and peel one is

aneus peoples. He is real. You probably should have noticed that from D.K. being mad at how I pronounced the name. Sorry. Elypsies quarter is from the key and peel. The second one. Was it really just an ellipsis, though?

Like it wasn't actually the word ellipsis? I'm wondering. I think it was named ellipsies. Kind of like a Greek hero. Dude, before you guys got in here, this morning, I was talking to Carlos about Zeke Biggers. Zeke Biggers, Miami Dolphin.

Love that. Love that name. Zeke Biggers. All right. Last one here. Two NFL players drafted this weekend and one character from Lord of the Rings. Oh, Christ.

You can read these guys. Two NFL players drafted this weekend, one from Lord of the Rings. Smale Mondin. S-M-A-E-L. That one. That's Lord of the Rings. Orronday Gadsden.

O-R-O-N-D-E Okay Tom Bombadil I'm going with Smale Smale is real Damn Smell is a real player Which one was Lord of the Rings

Tom Bobbondi Tom Bombadil Tom Bombadil He's like a character Of the books that no one ever Put in the movies Because it's just like Why is this guy here?

Smale Yeah, Smale is literally a Georgia Bulldog That's now a Philadelphia Schmiel Sounds like a dragon I don't think there's a shh At the beginning But

Well I But I like how you added that. That's good. All right. It does, it does look exactly like a Lord of, it's like he is a Hobbit for sure. He's what made me think of it. Okay. One, one email here before we get out of here.

Email. Sure. All right. This one's from David. Dave. D-bone. We were talking in an episode two days ago. Why is the bone?

What the bone come from? Well, it's from the Browns thing, you know, the bone. Why do it do that? The T-bone. T-bone. T-Bone. I guess T-Bone stayed. To go from there?

Yeah. Craig, that was like we had a guy at the live show who came in a tea bag show, Tyler, or a teabag jersey, Tyler Badgett. Oh, yeah. It's his name, Bejit? Bejit. Teabag. Great nickname.

All right, Dave, what's up, Dave? So we were, I went on a rant about how dumb it was to me that the Hulu has a chat power show because it's like based off a fucking YouTube video. And I'm like, how are you going to make a TV show off a YouTube video? Like, now it's like, well, yeah, that's the, dude. Well, yeah, that's what the email is like, Hi, Fitzger and 80 at Ted Lasso was based on fucking S&L commercial. It was just like a bit on SNL.

It was literally an advertisement for NBC getting the Premier League. That is how Ted Lasso started. That was literally all they had to work with. I'm so upset I didn't think about that until right now. And we many people, but David had the funnest one of just like, how stupid are you, Hyford's your favorite show, one of your favorite shows? Literally an ad.

The same thing. At least the, the Eli Manning one was not an ad. Yours is a fucking commercial. Well, he wasn't an ad as a Red Bull funded the whole thing. Yeah, but still. It was like a comedy bit. You can't say anything. You can't give an opinion

without being a hypocrite in some way. It's hard to be a hypocrite. You know how, like when Riscilla reads emails, people always start with their height and weight and how much they can bench? I think we need our own version of that. I don't know what it is. But maybe it's like David, Tampa Bay,

two eggs and a banana for breakfast. You know, I want something. What did you have for breakfast? Let's get submissions on that. Last movie you watch. I want something. Maybe just like what workplace platforms they use the most? What movie best exemplifies your life?

I like, well. What movie do you identify the most with? Yeah. Favorite movie, most recent movie watched. I kind of like what they had for breakfast. What if it's like their favorite and least favorite take we've ever said on the show? Yeah, but that requires work. Yeah, that's true.

I want them to just be like, this is easy. I had I had honeynut shirios and almond milk. you know. All right. Email us what you think people should email us. Yeah, it's good. That's good,

Craig. Ring your fantasy football at Gmail.com. Yeah. All right, that's the draft. So we still have stuff coming out. We're still going to talk a little bit more about the draft. And we have more fantasy thoughts coming. Rookie landing spots.

There was so many skill players that went. It was one in the morning last night and I was looking up rookie dynasty rankings. We're going to talk dynasty rankings. We're still have like more stuff coming real football. If you stuck with the draftsy, please stick with us. Like we still talk football like literally every week. We're going to have content,

including more of stuff this week. Thank you. Honestly, bottom of my heart. Thank you, everyone who has been listening through the whole draft season. We love it. We hope you guys have enjoyed and we have more coming,

but I'm very earnest. Thank you to everyone who has listened. It feels like we just finished a marathon. I know. Thank you, NFLDraft. Like everyone who worked on the draft guy, I think everyone read the draft guy. D.K. does,

I don't even want to tell people how many hours DK puts into that thing. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you, everyone works on the draft guy. Thank you, everyone at the site. Thank you, Kai. Thank you, Carlos. Thank you, Austin.

Thank you, Troy, for pinch hitting. Thank you, Lorne. Lorne. Thank you, Everclear. Oh, God. Hey, Hyphins, you were talking about the live band in Green Bay during the weekend? What was the deal with that? So there's a band, I guess, that plays during the draft.

And, like, people can kind of hear it on the broadcast. And then I've heard through the grapevine that people don't think the band's that good. No offense to the band. It's like a house band. But also the acoustics of the draft are kind of a nightmare. So I don't know if it's them or what, you know? So as if the in-person draft experience couldn't get any worse, the band sucks also.

Gotta say, it looks like people were having a good time. Well, probably the drinking. The GoPack Go chance, I got to say, we're super fun.

Yeah. Like I said, the Matthew Golden like reliever walkout onto the stage was sick. That alone makes it worth moving the draft out of New City.

Yeah. I want them to keep the combine in Indy, but that literally, even last year, Terai and Arnold, the lines walking out to Detroit, like when the player

comes out to the team, it is actually like, incredible. I wouldn't go that far, but yeah. You don't think it's cool? I wouldn't call it incredible when Matthew Golden walks out in Greenfield. No, but if you think about it from,

not necessarily for me, but if you think about it from his perspective and you think about how cool it is to get drafted. On a galactic scale, not that cool. Yeah, but the idea of walking out to like two, that's 150,000 people and they're all, and that's where you're going to play. And you can see your stadium,

I think that's kind of crazy. It was pretty badass, I got to say. Yeah, that's cool. I don't know. I just have trouble with the draft as an entire event. People going to it. There's more people there than Coachella. I don't understand.

You're going. When you put it like that, that sounds like party. Like you would rather go watch a guy announce another guy's name at a podium than go see like Beyonce. I just don't get it. Dude, I will say it's funny when they, you can point it out when they take a random lineman and they cut to the Dolphins fans. Well, yeah. Oh, it's so good. There's such a good one.

I tweeted it some guy they announced some lineman I was like I think it was the second round and he's clearly like I have no idea

who the fuck this guy is and then he notices he looks to the right and the camera's right on him and then he's like yeah yeah he really did I want to say there was a

if only the Browns could have like pretended that when the Browns took Swessinger yeah they zoomed right in on a Browns guy

and like you said Craig it was like he was very clear he didn't know who this guy was like hell yeah sure I don't know.

It's good. Ever clear. I don't remind me who they are. Oh, they were like a band from the 90s that did not grunge. It was like surf grunge maybe or California grunge. I don't know how you would explain it. But really good band I listened to a bunch when I was in elementary or middle school and high school. Their big song is Santa Monica?

Yeah. Father of mine. I bet you'd recognize some of their songs. because they're kind of big there for a while. Elektra made me blind or something like that. What's the name of the song? Cool. Kind of sounds like Beach Punk.

Yeah, Beach Punk might be good. Oh, heroin girl was a good one. Check that out. Nice. And the funny thing about the bands with all of us is I feel like DK's generation and kind of era of music is so like trapped in like a seven-year window

that Hyphitz and I know all the band, like, music before that era and after, but nothing in that specific spot, you know? Yeah, yeah. It's because you give me a band from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, I'm like, sure. And then you give me some like late 90s. Well, they were all ubiquitous at that point. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And then those all kind of evaporated away from the mainstream and people still love them, obviously. And so Hyvitz and I came too when it was like, you know, I don't know, backstreet boys and Britney Spears. And so I just like, I have no idea any of these pants that you mentioned. It's funny. It is a little bit like from the, the,

yacht rock movie where I think pop music got big again and then kind of drowned out all the punk stuff that I was listening to for a little bit there. There was like in the late 90s, early 2000s punk got kind of big like a little bit mainstream but then like pop music just kind of took back over after that and well those bands kind of faded into the background. It became more niche. And also there's just like the staggerness of like you

get frozen in time when you first have a kid but then your kid introduces you the new culture. So it's like my mom couldn't tell you anything about 90s rap but she actually knows about 2000's rap because I was listening. It's like, low-key, like, if Craig and I have kids, like, we're going to get frozen in time, but then that's going to be around, like, when Calvin actually starts doing culture, so D-K's going to actually start to know more about what's going on than we will. Yeah. My kid will be intimately familiar with levels by Avici.

Oh, yeah, he's going to know. I might name him Avichy. Who knows? That's good. Do it backwards. Just spell it. Run levels. Run that by Liz.

John Avichie Horalbeck. That's good. John. I don't know why, right? Maybe you should name it, your son, John. Yeah. What's wrong with John? Great name.

Nothing. I just can't picture Craig naming his son John for some reason. Nothing wrong with the name John at all. Lipsies. Great Sean. The guy's Avichy Horelbeck. You guys didn't really say anything when I called James Gladstone Jimmy Stones. I feel like that should be his nickname.

Jimmy Stones is good. Jimmy Stones is good. He feels like a good fellow's character. Jimmy Stones is good. It's like a character from Snatch. Jimmy Stones. I haven't seen Snatch. Oh, man.

Yeah, Jimmy Stones is like sitting. I'm not going to do the cliche thing where I get upset about this, But Craig, it is a good movie. It's a good time. All right, goodbye, everyone.