The Ringer NFL Show - A Historic QB Fall, A Run on RBs and WRs, and Day 2 Steals

Episode Date: April 30, 2022

We discuss a shocking fall for the remaining QBs on the board, including Malik Willis, Desmond Ridder, and Matt Corral. We later highlight the best fits at RB and WR, how the Ravens keep making great picks, and the teams who won Day 2. Check out The Ringer’s 2022 NFL Draft Guide Email us! [e-mail]. Hosts: Danny Kelly, Ben Solak, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Sean Fennessey. We've got something special cooking on the Prestige TV podcast. I'll be recapping one of my favorite shows, HBO's Barry, every Sunday night with the writer-director star of the show, The Great Bill Hater. We'll talk about the show's wild twists and turns, its special brand of dark comedy, and how it all came together. So on Sunday nights, immediately after a new episode airs, you can hear Bill and I break it all down on the Prestige TV pod. Subscribe on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Ringer NFL Draft show. My name is Craig Horrell. I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Ben Solac. Danny Hyphityn's at a wedding.

He's the best man in that wedding. I don't know if you heard. Important. No, he's the best man. He's not missing it for a normal wedding. He's the best man. Normal wedding. It is a screw off.

Kick rocks. I'm doing a draft podcast. Anyway, day two of the draft is in the books. Rounds two and three are behind us. Another avalanche of traits, ton of traits. Seven Georgia defenders went in the first three rounds, an NFL record.

Sheesh. But I think, I think we've got to start here. The QB fall. So Kenny Pickett went 20th to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The next quarterback did not go until Pick 74. Desmond Ritter to Atlanta. Malik Willis fell to picks 86 to the Titans.

And then the Panthers took Matt Corral at pick 94. D.K., yo. How did it feel to pass on Malik Willis like nine times as Seattle? It was very bizarre because there was like legitimate talk during the pre-draft process of taking him at nine. Like, Seahawks fans were debating whether we should just get it over. with, rip that band it off, take him at nine. They passed up on him, I believe, three times on day two today.

And so, like, it was, it was very bizarre. It was surreal. Like, I never really, like, we've talked about this, the quarterback class, you know, this whole draft period. And we were always a little bit down on them, you know, for obvious reasons. But I don't think anyone expected this. Like, you know, in my heart of hearts, I did not expect this insane fall into the third round for all these guys other than picket.

And so I think that was just. just like a huge shock. My question for you first off, first off the back, Craig, do you feel like the Steelers maybe overplayed their hand a little bit here? Could they have waited to the second round and still draft a picket? Listen, you can always play the what if game, you know?

I mean, we'll never know, but like that was the first thing I was thinking was like, holy shit, like all these quarterbacks are dropping. The Steelers literally could have waited until the third round. I don't know. Ben, do you think Pickett would have been there at 52? This point, yes. Like, I would have said no up until

pick 74 when Desmond Ritter went. I was like, you know, I think it probably would have been there at 52. By the way, Sam Howell still off, still not drafted. It's going to be the fourth round. I mean, this is just insane. I really earnestly believe something happened. Like, I don't know if it was just like no team wanted to be the first team to pull the trigger and like even after the Steelers did, everybody was still gun shy.

Because what, what is really earnestly weird. is the Baker-Mayfield rumors of it all. All of this would be explicable. All of them like, all of them like, all right, they just really hate this quarterback class. We got got. They don't like any of the quarterbacks. All of it was talk.

All of it was smoke. They hate all the quarterbacks. Except for, I feel like an old-timey detective in a, you know, whatever, like a, you know, BBC series. Except for the fact that, like, Baker Mayfield had no trade buzz whatsoever coming into the draft. And then, lo and behold, on day two,

in Rappapaport every time they tossed him in his little glass cage where he's just floating above a river. I don't really get that, but whatever. He's like, hey, the Panthers trade talks are drumming up. Like they're really, they're calling about Baker. You know, the Texans drumming up. Might call Baker, might call Jimmy. And maybe that's just, I don't know, NFL draft smoke. Maybe that's just we're just talking about it because we're here.

But the whole point of the Baker-Mayfield trade market was that it was supposed to be like, all right, whatever team doesn't draft a quarterback. Right. goes and trades for Baker. No teams drafted any quarterbacks and randomly it was like, time to trade for Baker. Why? They're all there.

All of the players you thought might be there are still there. Like, I don't, I do not understand what happened. I have never seen the league be that reticent to take chances on quarterbacks ever. And I would have told you in a million, billion years, even if they were patient in round one,

they were going to go in round two. and they just didn't. And meanwhile, the Panthers were like, hey, what's the Baker? Any updates on Baker? Anything new on Mayfield? To me, that is perplexing. Makes no sense.

I don't understand it. And then they traded up to take Matt Corral. Yeah. So, first of all, this is the longest since the second QB in a draft has been drafted in the modern draft era. Seventy fourth is the longest since 1970 that a quarterback is the second So none of us have been alive.

Yeah. So let's talk about fits for a second here. How do we feel, I'll start with you, D.K. Do you like Desmond Ritter to Atlanta? Yeah, I think that one actually makes a ton of sense. He can sit behind Marcus Mariotta in year one. You know, stylistically, they've been calm to each other quite a bit. And his skill set, I think, meshes well with what Arthur Smith wants to do on offense.

So by hopes of him turning into a starter in the league have diminished dramatically in the last two days. Because, frankly, you don't see third round quarterbacks turn into starters very often. And as soon as the first round ended, all of these quarterbacks, like, their probabilities of turning into a starter, like were cut in half way, if not more, like dramatically, dramatically cut. And so, like, you know, at this point, you have to look at it more like a, you know, they have this developmental guy that they could potentially develop down the line and turn into a starter. We'll see, but they'll probably end up just taking someone else or signing a veteran. Like, the odds of any of these guys turning into starters now are really low based on the history of the NFL. So while I do really like the Ritter fit in Atlanta, my hopes are not high. Same with the Titans and Willis, in fact.

I really like that fit. I think it makes a lot of sense. Didn't it feel like the Titans were like, fine, we'll take him? Like it passed them so many times. Like, fine, we'll take Malik's Willis. Yeah. It really did. And it makes sense because, look, Tanna Hill is not going to be the long-term answer probably

for them. And now Willis has like a no-pressure situation to go in there. There's an established starter for now. And he can go in and develop and learn that awesome. and not be like really under a lot of pressure. Solock had a great tweet today during the draft where it was like, Malik Willis, Derek Henry and Traylon Burks, like good fucking luck tackling this team. And that's, of course, if Willis ever starts.

But still, like maybe they'll use Willis in like certain packages or whatever. The draft is about having a philosophy. And the Titans philosophy for years has been, we don't care if you're good at football or not. We don't care what you've done off the field. We care what your grades are. We don't care what program he came from, what your production is. None of it.

Are you big? Check box. Yes, no. Are you big? You are a Tennessee Titans, sir. Young man, come play. Mike Vrable. If Mike Vrable feels like if you hit him, it would hurt.

Mike Vrable will draft you, right? And so Traylenberg's in round one. Big healthy, young wide receiver, all right? I forget who the round two pick was. Malik Wilson, round three, though. It was Roger McCreery, and then they took Nicholas Petit Frere, or however he says. A little brother. Is that what, is that what that means? Petit Frere?

I don't know. I think it means little brother. Yes. So Roger McCreary, not a particularly dense dude. That's okay. It's corner. You can only get around it so well. But Malik Willis is such a clear example of like this is just like a dense guy. Because he's a tough to tackle dude. Derek Henry is a tough to tackle dude. Traylenberg says a tough to tackle dude. All they do is they get body types in the building who are thick, physical. And they generally, like they don't need to be tall.

Like Rashon Evans, Malik Willis. They're not like tall dudes. Derek Henry happens to be. but they just want dense, thick men in the building in Tennessee. And I respect that draft philosophy immensely. There's going to be a lot of... This is like the chip on your shoulder quarterback draft.

Desmond Ritter looked pissed when he got drafted. He was like about fucking time. We've talked about this before. He's an intense, he's an intense dude. It's worth noting that Ritter, Jeremy Fowler, VSPN, had this, like last month. He said, like, a team told me that one of the reasons why they were impressed with Ritter

is he walked in to their meeting. with a plan in place to how he was going to unseat a veteran, which is intense, right? Like, veterans starting quarterback is like, here's how I'm going to beat him out. Like, this is how it's going to go. The veteran in Atlanta is eminently beatable. Right?

And I know this because he was a backup last year. So Marcus Mariotta, like Arthur Smith knows him. Arthur Smith also didn't want him running the offense the way he was running it in Tennessee. He wanted Ryan Tannahill. That offense didn't work as well under Marioada as it did under Tanahill, which to Tanahill is my. Ritter comps. There's a lot of interconnectedness here. I agree that being selected in round three makes me feel worse about Ritter's potentially starting ability because we don't typically

see that in round three. But in terms of landing spot, in terms of opportunity to win reps, like I don't think the Falcons are going to be good this year. So so long as Ritter doesn't absolutely tank camp, he should have the opportunity to play in year one, just because they're going to be bad. And so you're going to get a chance to maybe start some games. Whether it's late in the season, whether it's middle of season, Mario has been banged up. during his career or whether it's early in the season because you win the job. And getting reps, it's the absolute number one thing to development. So Ritter landed in a good spot.

Willis, it remains to be seen. Tanhill, like, isn't the problem on offense for the Titans, right? He plays well enough that it's not, he's not the sort of guy that's going to be removed. He's usually a little bit more of an Iron Man. But that's what Willis needs, as Willis does need more time to, like, get up to NFL speed. Altogether that he fits the Titans' offensive philosophy well. And then how do we feel about speed? You mentioned that, you know, the draft is all about a,

philosophy. So let's get to the Carolina Panthers drafting Matt Corral here. How do we feel? The Matt Corral versus Sam Darnold competition. That's going to be a saga. Just electric. I just can't wait for that. So if you had to predict which of these three quarterbacks

is going to start the most games this season, who is it? Oh, Ritter comfortably. Yeah. Ritter then Corral and then a cavern and then Willis. I think that that last game that Tannahill played against the Bengals leaves a little bit of a sour taste in our mouth in terms of of his performance,

but I still think in terms of a regular season quarterback, especially a guy with such a huge cap hit, he is not so easily unseated as these other guys are. With that said, man, jokes aside about the Titans, I am impressed by the self-awareness of that team, because they were the number one seed in the AFC. And anybody who followed the ring around a fellow show followed my coverage of the league this year knows I never bought the Titans. The preeminent hater. Yes. I was always just like,

this team isn't actually that good, right? They were the number one team in the AFC, got the first round by, and then they lost in the first round to the eventual AFC champions. It could have been very,

very easy for this team to tell themselves that they were a left guard and a secondary pass rusher and a third corner away. And we'll just, we're going to pay AJ Brown and everything, which like they kind of still

should have paid AJ Brown everything, whatever. Pay AJ Brown everything. draft some immediate starters, make some trade-ups in the draft, and go try to run this thing back and let's go win the AFC. So we were the one seat last year. But I think they did a very good job in honestly evaluating their roster and the reality of their season last year.

And they said, we're going to kind of reset this a little bit. This is absolutely a bit of a reload here in Tennessee. With trading agent round to get Traylon Brooks, which is just objectively getting cheaper, and then getting Malik Willis in the third round, which obviously, like, very cheap for a quarterback, but still, these are future pointing moves, right? Even Nicholas Petit Frere to be a developmental left tackle behind Decker who had health problems

this year. Like this is, or not Decker, Luan. I can never keep track which ones in Tennessee and which ones in Detroit. Doesn't matter. Luan who had health problems this year. So this is a nicely forward pointing draft for Tennessee, and that impresses me. I think that takes a lot of maturity in the building to say that. So to me, Willis is, I don't expect to play at all this year to start.

Maybe he's like a package guy like Lamar was in year one for the Ravens. Ritter and Corral have a better chance of unseating their veteran quarterback in play in this year. And then somehow, not drafted, Carson Strong, not drafted, Bailey, not drafted. We'll see what happens tomorrow with that. But let's keep on this people who fell theme here. Nikobe Dean, who is a first round talent, fell to Ben's Eagles. Ben, take it away.

Firstly, go birds. And secondly, go dogs. As no one said. Yes. Nicoby Dean is a shorter and undersized backer, which always is going to introduce some uncertainty into his evaluation. He was a guy who clearly, as we were coming up to the draft, there was some doubt as to whether or not he'd be a first round player.

Lo and behold, he's there in the middle of the third round. As he's falling, Ian Rappaport tells us that the peck injury he sustained was a major peck strain. This was before his pro day. And he elected not to have surgery on it. He had a different procedure that I'm not going to pretend understand. Jeremy Fowler says has a pectoral injury that teams evaluated, but independent doctors sent letters to teams clearing him and classifying the injury as a peck strain,

sources say. Albert Breer said he has a whole litany of injuries that concerned teams. He had ankle, foot, shoulder, wrist, all during his college career. He had a groin injury as well before his pro day. His knee has wear and tear. There's a lot of medical red flags for Nacobie Dean. That's the simple reality of it. So typically when that's the case, players either viewed one of two ways. If this is degenerative, then he's like only a first contract player. So he makes really sense for teams who's need him to plug and chug him right now. Or if it's like a cumulative as this is, it's the chance that he doesn't play well, period. He's just never available and he's never back to full athleticism.

The Eagles have shown they're comfortable drafting those players, right? They drafted Sidney Jones coming off of his Achilles a few years ago. They're comfortable taking that risk, especially when they feel like a really quality players come at a discount. If it, if what it takes, is a 60 spot drop, multiple injuries for the Eagles to finally draft a first round caliber linebacker. I don't care. I'm fine.

We finally have a good one. I haven't felt good about a linebacker in Philadelphia since Jordan Hicks. Weren't people talking about him being a first round pick for the Eagles, potentially? Way, way, way, back early in the process.

And then it kind of became clear, Devin Lloyd. Everybody wanted to mock Lloyd to the Eagles. And I was like, guys, they will never draft a first round linebacker. The sun will set in the east. Darkness will come across the face of the land before they draft a first round backer. Here they have a first round caliber

backer at a huge discount. Whether or not Nacobi Dean remains healthy. This is a really nice, relieving pick for Philadelphia. This is a good pick because it shows that they understand that linebacker's a problem. They refuse to address it, which is obstinate and irritating,

but this guy, if he hits, won't just be like, oh, he's good enough. This is a legit impact player at linebacker. And getting to play behind Davis, Fletch and Javon Hargrave, such a beefy interior line to keep a smaller linebacker clean, it's going to be really to his benefit. So fell because of the peck injury and electing not to get surgery on that. It looks like he may be a little bit of a medical red shirt.

But for Philadelphia, that fits the bill. I did see, I think Roseman had a presser right after the draft just like a few minutes ago, and he said they're expecting him to be ready for camp. So, like, as far as they're concerned, like, he's healthy-ish. Like, he's healthy enough to come in and play. like maybe there are concerns around future injuries piling up. But yeah, yeah,

this one's interesting. And this is, again, this is something that always happens every year. There's always a couple guys that are viewed as first round players, first round talents, you know, in some cases like top 10 talents and they completely just fall,

fall, fall, and you don't really exactly hear why until like usually, you know, the afternoon on day two and people are starting to be like, what the fuck is going on here? Like, why is this guy still not picked last year? The one that comes to mind is Jeremiah Ousukom,

Coramoa, who was picked by the Browns of 52, but he was a top 10 player on my board. And lo and behold, he's been awesome for the Browns. You know, obviously there was medical issues. I can't remember if it was a knee or something like that with him that had him drop down boards. But this one actually reminds me a lot of it because they're similar players. Like Owusa Coramoa is a heat-seeking missile. I think he might be a little bit or a lot bit more athletic than Nikobe Dean. But like Nikobe Dean plays really fast.

And he just flies to the football. And it's important to note the role that Outsu Koroamoa plays is the role that Nukobi will have to play. Nukobi cannot play Mike for the Eagles. Just like he's like an overhang defender, like rover, like guy that's kind of just, you know, moving around and coming down hill typically. Yeah. If you think about a three receiver set to one side and then one receiver to the opposite side, Nikobe Dean is going to exist somewhere between that third receiver and the tackle to that side, right? That overhang position.

And he's going to float in that area. He's going to buzz to the flat sometimes. Sometimes he's going to buzz to the hook, right? And he's going to run with that seam, right? Sometimes he's going to blitz. Sometimes he's going to, you know, go and work back to the middle of the field. They're blitzing from the other side. That overhang guy can solve a lot of problems for you.

Because Nukobi can be a box safety on one play and he can be a blitzing linebacker on another play. And that's great. He cannot play Mike. Not big enough. It's not Darius Leonard. Because he's just not big enough and can't do everything in the same way. But in that overhang role, that Ousukoramo role, very, very, very nice fit. So there was a lot of teams today that had their first.

pick. There was eight teams we really didn't discuss yesterday because they didn't have any pick. The Bears, the Broncos, Colts, Browns, Raiders, Niners, Rams, and Dolphins all did not have a first round pick. And then the Cardinals and Bucks traded out of it yesterday. So out of those eight teams, nine teams who selected their first player today, who do you think came out on the other side the best? I hate to say it because we do this every year, but it's freaking the Colts, right where just every year Ballard drafts well like he just drafts good value against the board

good players and then inevitably they end up like not being able to rush the passer they don't have actual cover minute corner and they have the same problems every single year and I've complained about them a lot but talk about organizational philosophy this team had Michael Pittman at wide receiver big guy

can run routes can win the ball over the rim and then drafted Alex Pierce wide receiver at Cincinnati in a second round ex volleyball player body control and hand-eye coordination up at the top, up at the apex of the jump. Ex- Volleyball, you don't hear a lot of volleyball to football guys. It's like Gisicki and this guy.

Volleyball is a nice thing to have, right? Because that player understands how to elevate and how to work in the air, which is really important to downfield receivers. So Pierce, that size, and then this team already had, Moe Allie Cox, everybody's favorite, supersized,

developmental tight end, and then they drafted Jolani Woods. Out of University of Virginia, he used to be a quarterback recruit to Oklahoma State, went to Virginia, switch over to tight end. raw than sushi, but oh baby, is he big and can move?

We need to talk about the fact that Jelani Woods and Moe Alley Cox are literally the two biggest human beings on Earth. They're bigger than Jordan Davis, I'm pretty sure. They're Titans big. Yeah, these are the pillars of Hercules right here. It's the dream that they're paired up now. Literally

the dream. I've been hoping for this. Ian Arditz is like a running bit of a lot of it. Big, motherfuckers. That's their whole thing. Yes. Big, big, big. Also the Jacksonville Jaguars have four linebackers. It's great. We love to see that. They love the linebackers. And then Bernard Raymond and Nick Cross, two players who are, you know, oh, baby a sneaky

top 40 guy. They get both them in the third round. So it's good value. They've done a great job developing these tackles that need work, these small school guys, Danny Pinter. They got Braden Smith out of Auburn a few years ago. Raymond is in that mold and the Nick Cross can be a deep safety for them, which is something that they have a little bit of a question mark at.

They signed Rodney McLeod. He's a little long in the tooth. Cross can push McLeod for reps if he hits. So it's a great draft from the Colts all the way through. and obviously the first round pick they didn't have because they traded for Carson Wentz, but they have Matt Ryan now in place. And so once again,

the Colts, if they got quarterback right, look like a good playoff team. This is our third year in a row doing it. Especially in the AFC South now. Like you said, with the Titans kind of like half rebuilding and then you have Houston and Jacksonville, this seems like the Colts can't win this division,

brother, you can't win any division, man. At this point, you got to put up or shut up. I need the Colts to win something here for me to really, really buy into Ballard. and Reich. And this is, this is yet again, another good Ballard draft. Looks great on paper. We got to see it execute on the field. So, let's go. That would be like the clear number one. There's a couple other teams who took players that I'm interested and intrigued by. I don't really understand why the Broncos took another tight end, considering they already have

Albrado. But they took Nick Benito, the pass rusher, and Greg Dolsich, who is probably one of my favorite sleeper tight ends in this group. Like, he's just, he's just explosive down the seam kind of guy, like really high A dot in college like really rare high A dot in college like just a big play creator. But I don't really understand the plan when they have Albert O who's also like basically the exact same type

of player. So I don't know, maybe that's just like the future for them. Like maybe he'll take a couple years to get going on that. But Bonito is a really interesting pass rusher for them. So I think that was a great pick. The 49ers are sneaky kind of fun too. This is like the all sleeper team. They took Drake Jackson, who is one of my favorites. I forgot how much you liked Tyrion Davis Price. I forgot you as your guy.

Yeah. So to me, this is like, I'm not even saying this was like they knocked it out of the park, but I just think it's an intriguing draft. So Drake Jackson was one of my favorite sleeper pass rushers. He's a kind of guy. His weight fluctuated a lot in college. I don't know where he'll settle, but I think if he gains weight, he has very natural explosion and bend.

And so he could be a guy that they develop if he gets a little bit heavier, I think, in playing their defense. And then Ty Davis Price, surprisingly, shockingly, like no one was talking about this guy prior to the draft. was kind of like my my little like favorite sleeper like in day three i was expecting him to be like a fifth round pick or something uh but the the 49ers of course pick him in the third round over guys like isaiah spillers ameer white uh damian pierce you know some of these darlings of like tape heads you know maybe not tape heads they so like i don't think anyone expected

davis price to go in front of those guys so i think that that was a really interesting pick you're telling me kyle shanan overdrafting a running back he's nothing done well with this third round surprise picks. I'm so I'm hoping this will change the narrative because in the past we've got Trace Armin who looks like he'll probably never play a snap for the 49ers. And then who is the other guy?

Joe Williams. Joe Williams not on the board. He never played one time. So hopefully Tyrone Davis Price doesn't go down this trail. If Price gets three touches in a game, he's exceeding expectations. Yeah. And then this is the other guy that is interesting. Danny Gray from SMU who by the way, Solac told

me like two weeks ago, hey, this guy's going on day two. Huge hat tip to Solek for kind of planting that seed. I like what I saw from him. He's very explosive. He ran like a four three something. He's raw. His hands are not very good. He definitely needs to improve his hands catching technique and kind of just get more comfortable and confident there. But the 49ers love them some guys that can run after the catch. And Danny Gray is that guy. So I think if Devo does end up getting traded, which I don't know what that's going to happen right now. But if he does end up getting traded, like Danny Gray could actually have a pretty big role for this team.

So I don't know, this is, I'm not saying that they did a great job. I just am very intrigued by this draft. Like, it's guys that I kind of had on my radar as sleepers. So I'll be looking forward to see kind of how that all pans out. You know who, you know who Danny Gray reminds me of a little bit, D.K.? Who's that? Who has some kind of similar traits to? Can be seen in sort of a similar role to.

Debo Samuel. He's the name of the King's. I was watching Danny Gray. The Debo Samuel role, you know what I mean? We can't comp everyone to Devo Samuel, but also. maybe we should because, I mean, he is like incredibly explosive after the catch. Like, that's like

kind of the thing about him. So, the one team that I think deserves mention here maybe in like not a great light. I say maybe, because I'm not actually really sure. The Chicago Bears roster was really bad. And the reason it was really bad. I wanted to bring this up. Yeah. It's because they had like not a great GM situation. Sorry, Ryan Pace.

Never met you, but just didn't really love the work. Wasn't a super big fan. over the last few years. So they got Justin Fields. They traded this year's first round pick to move up to Justin Fields. It was a great move. And Ryan Poles kind of inherits this roster

that's really, really, really gutted. Right? He trades Khalil Mack. They make it just super clear. Like we are going to rebuild this thing, right? Like, Akeem Hicks has gone. Eddie Goldman has gone. Like all of the stables, Alan Robinson,

everybody, like, we're cleaning a house and we're starting from scratch. So yes, they did need a second safety. Jaquan Brisker, second round pick who's a good player at Penn State, like him. They did need another outside corner.

Kyler Gordon out of Washington. Good player, like him. The secondary was probably the strongest part of this roster before day two. And then no round one pick. Their offensive line is horrible. How many players on their

office line can you name right now starting? Tevin Jenkins. Is he even healthy? I don't know. Yes. Tevin Jenkins, Cody Whitehair. Lucas Patrick is their center

Dakota Dozier's their right guard Larry Boredum is the right tackle He's a fifth round pick last year Larry Bormis their starting right tackle Their wide receiver room Any guesses who's who's their starting three receivers right now It's like it's moody it's I think they got Byron Pringle

Yeah two for three Yeah but Pringle got arrested I think so That's uncertain Very true not great I don't who's their third The best name of any player in the entire league Eponymus Equanimius

Oh my goodness So I'm not When you are rebuilding this sincerely, you should not be drafting for need. You should be drafting for value. And then Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker, they drafted for value. And I really don't fault Ryan Poles for that. It's just a little bit like, I would have been sick if value was also a guard. You know, like that would have been great.

But whatever, fine. Anything on offense. Yes. And then they get to the third round and they go and they make a picket receiver. And it's like, all right, they even drafted for value. Kyle Gordon and Jaquam Brisker, some of the best players on the board left, and they made those selections.

And they draft a receiver, and it's Veles Jones Jr. Vylus Jones Jr. He's 25 years old. Oh, no. He's older than freaking Mooney. He's my age. All right.

He's older than Mooney. I started doing this. I started covering the draft in 2018, okay? And my first responsibilities were to scout the PAC 12. And when I did so, I was evaluating an upcoming underclassman named Vylus Jones Jr.

Who played at USC. And then in the five years of my career, Vylus Jones has remained in college and continued to play ball. He was at Tennessee as a graduate transfer. He doesn't have great film. He had like a nice senior bowl. He's a good kick returner. A lot of people go to college for seven years, Ben.

Yeah. Super, super, super senior. And that's fine, except for when you're then being drafted to be an athlete. It's usually better when you're not coming. Doctors. Yeah. He is older than Darnel Mooney, straight up. Yeah.

It's not, it's not the vibe, man. So, like, all right, you did such a good job drafting for value. You're taking this rebuild long. That's going to suck for Justin Fields. A little bit has to play behind this bad line again. He has to play with these bad receivers again, but whatever. Like, I get it. You're being responsible.

And then you go and you draft a receiver, and the best guy on your board was Vela Jones, Jr. And there were a lot of guys on the board. When we should get into that, we should get into the day two wide receivers. Is he even going to be a receiver? Is he even going to be a receiver? or did they draft it to be a returner? If they drafted a return man in the top 80? Come on.

With their quarterback having no help, I'm going to be a sad boy. Yeah, he's explosive, but that's about it. Like 25-year-old, the history of 25-year-old seven-year college players is probably not very good.

He's smarter, though. It took a lot of classes. So I'm going to go through the wide receivers. A lot of wide receivers went rounds two and three, and I want you to tell me, I'm going to split it up into two halves. We'll stop after the Steelers pick and then we'll finish the second half later.

So the Packers traded up. They traded the 53rd and 59th. Come up to 35. They grabbed Christian Watson, big boys, 6'4. And then I'll continue here. The Giants, Wondale Robinson, the Texans, John Mechie, the third.

Both those players are guys I had never heard of. The Patriots took Tyquan Thornton, another guy I've never heard of, and then the Steelers took George Pickens. Yeah. So out of the five of those guys I named, Biggest win, biggest loss. I would say

the one that I'm most intrigued with is George Pickens in Pittsburgh. Yeah, buddy. George Pickens. So he was, I think, not widely, but like a lot of people would probably believe

he was like a top five talent at receiver. He's a former five-star guy blew it up as a freshman at Georgia, but then he tore his ACL in 2020. I like that, by the way. Get it out of the way. You got to get the ACL out of the way.

Everyone's going to do it. Everyone's doing it. So, but then he didn't come back to, late in the season last year. He did make a couple big plays, but basically he didn't have a lot of tape over the last two years. There are apparently, this is what we heard over the last few days, is that their teams have been kind of like investigating some background, like off field stuff, like immaturity. I don't think there was anything criminal, but like just, you know,

he maybe is not like the most mature guy or whatever. That was like, I mean, he once had a full fist fight with a Georgia tech player on the field. So that way can infer. Part of the reason you like him is because he's like, you know, pushing down a DB and then staring at the best. You know that meme where there's the one guy happily looking out the bus window and then the other side there's the sad guy on the bus? Got some dog in him. Yeah. Yeah. He's got some dog in him, but it's both sides for George Pickens. Like, I, he's got some dog in him.

He's also got some dog in him. And that's the thing about George Pickens. Steelers also, I mean, Steelers have done a good job of handling, you know, perhaps sometimes uncooperative personalities. Antonio Brown, Levion Bell. They took in Martavis Bryant. Martavis Bryant. The second they made the Pickens pick, I was like, shoot, it's Martavis Brian again.

Because the play style is similar. It really is. He can be that sort of a field stretcher. And now Pittsburgh's got this core of Claypool, Deontay and Pickens. They got Friarmouth. They have Najee Harris. And now Kenny Pickett, a strong young core, which I am excited about. Hopefully, if Kenny Pickett sucks, there's no reason other than it's on you, big dog.

Right. Well, the offensive line's not great. But yes. It's not great. They made some improvements. It's not great. But still, I mean. You mentioned Claypool.

The other guy that I think is worth mentioning here. Well, I'd like to talk about all these guys, frankly. Christian Watson reminded me of a skinnier version of Claypool coming out. Basically, like, super, super athletic, like explosive guy. Is this the guy you envision the Packers taking with their first wide receiver off the board? There was a lot of people connecting Watson to the Packers in the first round. Like, I think more so it was like Trelin Burks was kind of like a very popular Packers won, Chris Olavé, but both of those guys went off the board way earlier than expected.

or maybe not way earlier. To me, this was, yeah, this was like the butt of the joke, right? Where it would be like, yo, this first six receiver is going to go, like the top 20 picks and the Packers are going to be stuck drafting Christian Watson in the first round. In the sense that, like, it's not unreasonable and it's not terrible, but like, it's going to happen. And lo and behold, they didn't do it in the first round. They did at the top of the second. They traded up.

Yeah. He is a, he's an inconsistent player. He was an inconsistent, he's got really nice flashed, but he was an inconsistent player at the FCS level. He's going to be, have a high demand, high volume. in the NFL level tomorrow. It's a scary thing. It's a big jump. If you guys had to guess,

is he going to be the number one fantasy football wide receiver for the Packers this year? No. Lazzard. Wow. Yeah. Is he going to be the second?

Do we count in tight ends? Sure. Tanya, I would say, I would say it goes Lizarre, Tunyan, and Watson, especially because both Luzard and Tanya are such good tight end producers.

He says, knowing how fantasy football works. so Christian Watson I think he's an intriguing one but there's a wide range I think of outcomes for year one particularly like I wouldn't be surprised if he develops into a really good player but it may take a minute the one Dale Robinson pick was maybe one of the more intriguing picks of the second round period because number one no one to the giants I don't know what number it was it was pretty early um earlier than two two atwell went yeah this is the this is the two outwell slash dwayne escridge pick of the second round this year. Has that ever worked? Has the little quick guy who's like 5-7 ever worked? I don't know. Pave on Austin, like does it ever work?

Markese Brown maybe? So there's actually a really like in-depth and interesting explanation to this. No. Okay. Yeah. Never once. What are they thinking here?

Like honestly like so so like just play devil's advocate and tried to tell me on the reason they did this pick because I was like number number one. I was surprised how high he went. at number two, I was very surprised some of the receivers he went above. Also, do they need a wide receiver? Like, is that really something you need to grab? So it's the Cadarius Tony thing, right?

It's like, oh, Cadarius Tony was really fast. Joe Wondell Robinson. And Joe Shane, who's their general manager now, obviously he and Brian Daibble both came from Buffalo where they had Isaiah McKinsey. And they were like, man, he's got a little Isaiah McKinsey to him. And it's like, oh, you mean that player

that you like occasionally used as a gadget it late in the season. That's who he's got to him right now. Your top 50 pick. Who blew up when all of your other wide receivers were hurt during the season? You remember how you like fell bass backwards into using Isaiah McKinsey

when Cole Beasley wasn't available? That's who this is right. And then he was also like, oh and also Dionne Branch. It's like, all right, well, you can't do that. That's like Isaiah McKinsey and Dion Branch. Somewhere between those two is where we expect to use Wynnell Robinson. Yeah.

Yes. So I really struggle the devil's advocate that. To me, like I said on Twitter like, they watched the Rams draft shoot out well in the second round never use him and they're like we got to get us some of that baby that's that's good cooking I think the bull case the bull case for Robinson is that they see him as

and this is not saying a lot obviously but they see him as like a JD McKissick style player where he's a college receiver but he also played running back for Nebraska early in his career so he's kind of got that versatile dual threat style like skill set where he literally could line up in the backfield run it. Like he has experience doing that. He's small, but he can do it. Um, so I, that's kind of like how I see it down envisioning what he can do, like slot receiver slash running back slash kind of dynamic

gadget guy. But like, that's not a second, that's not an early second round pick. That's what you do in like the fifth round. Um, so I thought that was a head scratcher. And, you know, I'm not like even a, I like Robinson, like fine. But like I just think he, like early, especially ahead of some of these guys that got taken later to Skymore, George Pickens. Um, um, Mechie, you know, Jalen Tolbert, like,

even Danny Gray, like I'd probably rather have Danny Gray at this point. Like, that's the kind of the one that made me really scratched my head. But I'll be very interested

to see how they decided to use them though. The Giants have, I'm looking at their wide receiver group right now. I think they have, I could be wrong, but I think I'm close. I think they have five wide receivers

excluding obviously Wondale Robinson who have had over 180 yards in a game. Gala Tony, Slayton, Shep? I think Shepard has had really big games like that

and there's one other really secret one. I say it's Ross or Pettus, right? No. They don't have Pettus anymore. Hmm. Okay, don't tell me I'm gonna think about it more during the podcast. Do you want the team he was on

when he did it? No. Okay. All right. Well, do me a think. Okay, so let's keep going here. I want to talk about the Patriots. We've got to talk every time the Patriots

draft, we've got to talk about it. So they drafted this Tyquan Thornt out of Baylor. Is this finally going to break up the streak of crappy Patriots wide receivers. No. Yeah. So here's the, he was supposed to be like a fourth round pick probably or like a late third because you don't really see receivers that run four to go in anything later than the

fourth round, third round. So like I think third round was sort of his floor. So he was maybe going to go higher than people were expecting. But, you know, he, I think he's actually kind of intriguing. I don't think he, I think he went way too high. But I think he is kind of an intriguing player. Like, you know, he's got the explosive, the explosiveness. he's got that speed.

He runs away from guys. I think he plays bigger than his size because he's really, really skinny. Yeah, I mean, like, guys, this size typically don't work out. And, like, the Patriots don't have a strong track record. But I do think it's intriguing because he has that four two speed and can kind of, like, bring that element to their offense. I'm fine saying he plays bigger than his size. I would shy from implying that he plays to a sufficient size of the league, right?

Like, he might play bigger than his size, but also, you don't, you don't really love contact too much. Sure. That's a difficult part of his game. It's nice to see them really prioritize the speed element. I don't know if they have the quarterback for that. And I don't know if Thornt is ready in year one to be that right now, right? Usually you see this sort of a body type and a role going like round four, five, six.

John Hightower, Jamon Moore, you know, Quez Watkins. Quiswarkins. Yeah, yeah. And this is, this is two rounds early. I think they might thrust him into a role he's not ready for right away, which worries me. Let's keep plowing through the second half of these receivers. So the Colts took Alec Pierce, the Chiefs took Sky. Moore, the Bears, Veles Jones Jr.

We covered him. The Cowboys took Jalen Tolbert, the Browns took David Bell, and the Niners took Danny Gray, which you've also covered. What is your favorite fit here? I would guess that it's Sky Moore to the Chiefs. That's a really fun one, yeah. Yeah, he's a inside-out guy.

I'm guessing they'll probably play him in the slot a lot. He's like really quick off the line, good release off the line, great hands, some yards after the catchability. He's kind of exactly what they need. He's like a miniature version of juju, but a little bit more juice, I think. And so, you know, if they're trying to get,

they're trying to improve their offense and evolve their offense to not be so reliant on like deep over the top passing, which of course they got MBS and so he can do that element. But like I think Sky Moore will be the guy that like gets pepper with targets over the short and intermediate area and kind of like pick up yards after they catch things like that. So I like the fit and I like the player. It makes a lot of sense.

There's people connecting them in the first round. So them getting him the 22nd pick of the second round is pretty good value, I think. I love Sky Moore. I do want to give a shout out to David Bell Perdue going to the Browns there at the end of the third round. Browns don't have Jarvis Landry anymore. They go and they grab him, Marty Cooper. Presumably Donovan People's Jones remains wide receiver too.

We obviously saw some really nice flashes from him last year. We all saw inconsistency. Bad drops from third down in critical situations. They have Anthony Schwartz, right? Third round pick from last year, tracks art of Auburn, Field Structure. But again, not a consistent stick mover at receiver. Tchain Grant.

The way Jerry, right, Jequem Grant. Not possession receivers. Talk about possession receivers. On third and five, go get me a bucket. The prototype of which is Jarvis Slandry. Tough, reliable hands, good routes. David Bell, baby. It's hard for a rookie to step right into that role

because it's so about details, so much about consistency. But David Bell does that really quite well. David Bell is a nuanced, impressive veteran player who I think can become a very good friend of Deshawn Watson's on passing downs early, where there is a vacuum for like actual wide receiver two. People's Jones and Schwartz and Joaquin Grant kind of like illustrate a fun wide receiver too

of like, you know, Kevin Stefansky wants to be a heavy 13 personnel, heavy 12 personnel, let's get some shot plays going. And Cooper's were really, really good stick mover on third down too. But when you're in third and eight and there's no more, let's put three tight ends on the field, David Bell, I think is going to be able to get on the field and be an important player. I like that that fit a lot as a discount Jarvis Landry

to protect yourself a little bit from losing that player. wasn't explosive, but was valuable. Just a ball player. It's football playing Jesse. So let's get to running backs, and running backs were finally drafted. The Jets traded up to take Brees Hall, first running back taken.

The Seahawks took Kenneth Walker the third. I guess they just don't remember that they had the best running back in the league the final five weeks of the season. The Bills took Dalvin Cook's brother, James Cook, the bucks took Rashad White, commanders took Brian Robinson's Jr., and the Niners took Tyrion Price,

which we discussed. Let's start with Hall and Kenneth Walker and their fits. D.K., what were your thoughts? So the Hall one makes a lot of sense. Dude, the Jets are just absolutely loading up on offensive talent to surround Zach Wilson. They want to make everything as humanly possibly easy for Zach Wilson, which is actually a very good idea. It's like a good plan.

Hopefully, Zach Wilson can kind of step up to the play and play a little bit better this year. But I think, you know, the idea of surrounding him with a lot more talent, they got Garrett Wilson in the first round, traded out for Breeze Hall. Last year they had Elijah Moore, Michael Carter. So they've got two good receivers, two good running backs in last two years. Plus, Corey Davis, I think is still a good possession style receiver when he's healthy. They went and got Jeremy Rucker, baby. A good tight end.

So, like, they're just absolutely loading up on talent around Zach Wilson, which I think is the right plan. Riesel was the number one running back in my mind coming in. And he was the first running back to go. Yeah, they're just going to do their thing where they're going to try and be balanced. They're going to run the ball, play action, things like that. Like, it makes a lot of sense. As for the Seahawks, man, like this is the most, you know, like last, yesterday, we're, we're all excited or I was all excited because the Seahawks went completely off brand and, like,

took a tackle and like, you know, whatever. They're back. They're back. This is the most on-brand day I've ever seen for the Seahawks. They first, they picked an old small school, well, is small-ish school, Minnesota, linebacker slash pass rusher. That was like a senior bowl standout. So old small school senior bowl standout.

the trifecta, the Seahawks trifecta. And then they drafted a running back, you know. So like, I actually, and I know that Ben doesn't like, Boy Amafé, the pasturcher they picked. I actually liked him. I had him like 50-something on my ranks. I think he's got a lot of traits that you look for as like a second round pass rusher. He's going to have to develop. He's going to have to get better.

But he did remind me of Daryl Taylor, who the Seahawks have on the rest already. And then Kenneth Walker, like, I'm kind of just like done trying to fight like what the Seahawks are, believing in, you know what I mean? Like, what's the point at this point of, like, continuing to, like, rail on them for just loving receiving, like, loving running backs? Three years ago, they drafted a running back in the first round. It's a complete failure. And then they come right back and get somebody, what, ninth in the second round?

That's why you got to go and get the next guy, right? Because, you know, Penny was a miss, despite the fact that you just saw the best play of him you've ever seen in three years. Got to get another guy. Doesn't matter who's been carrying the ball in between and how good he's been. That's not important. Let me play the devil's advocate for the Seahawks in this case. And I'm just going to stay right ahead.

Like, I'm actually excited to watch him play. Like, he's a really fun player. He's a fun ass running back. Like, that's kind of exciting. The value isn't great. And, you know, they have a lot of other holes in their roster. I would have probably rather they picked, you know, I don't know, a receiver or defensive end or whatever. You know, but like at the end of the day, I think the way that the Seahawks want to play

and the way that they're very determined to play, apparently. is very balanced, run the ball, be able to beat you up on the ground. When Rashad Penny was at his best last year, like down the stretch, he was the best running back in football, like, frankly. And a big part of the reason was he was creating explosive plays, like nobody's business.

If the Seahawks are wanting to play with an absolutely adamant, they want to play that way, being able to create explosive plays on the ground is absolutely critical. You can't just have three yards, four yards, two yards, three yards, one yard. And they expect to, like, have an efficient offense, So like the ability to create explosive plays on the ground is huge. Rashad Penny, he's 26 years old.

He's been injured his almost entire career. Obviously they hope he pans out and like outplays the contract, but he's on a one-year deal. It doesn't look like Chris Carson has, Chris Carson might never play football again. So if they're looking and they need to create offensive like explosive plays on the ground, like this is the best running back on the board at the time. It actually does make a little bit of sense. There isn't really other highly, highly explosive running backs in this class. in that ilk or in that, uh, at that talent level. So, um, that's kind of like my devil's advocate defense of the Seahawks in this,

in this draft. And I've, I'm also just like tired. I don't want to defend. I don't want to have to like fight against like upstream against the Seahawks anymore. What's the point? Might as well just be happy. Yeah. I'm going to be excited to watch Kenneth Walker because he's a really fun runner.

And that's it. They also, by the way, they took two tackles I think are pretty good. They take Abe Lucas in the third round. Um, and ironically, both Abe Lucas and Charles Cross are like, like air raid tackles that are like less experienced as running. Got a pass block for Drew Locke, baby. We're opening this thing up. So they kind of talked out of the both sides of their mouth.

They got pass blocking tackles so they can pass. And then they got a running back so they can run. So, you know, I actually don't hate this yuck straft. This is why good player, bad player is such an important construction. Because when you're done with positional value, which is for the nerds, that sucks. And when you're done with team building and planning and premium positions, you know, whatever, you just go, man, Kenneth Walker, school ball player. previously my team did not have the good ball player now they do objectively a good thing happened

because plus one good ball players occurred this is what ben this is exactly this is what i told the the seahawks group chat uh when when because everyone was freaking out immediately like god like what the hell you know this is such seahawks on brand and twitter was just like having a field day with this it was pretty funny um but i was just like you know what i this last year the seahawks took a running back or they they took a receiver in the second round and I like the Kenneth Walker pick infinitely more than I like the Dwayne Eskridge pick. Like, infinitely. How about it?

I don't care about it. I mean, I understand that receivers are more valuable, but like, I think Kenneth Walker is a far better player. Put it that way. And that's exactly what Ben is saying. Like, he's a very good player and he's on the Seahawks now. So like, that's good. Yes, in a binary sense, he is good, not bad. Good player on Seahawks, turn brain off.

The best way to consume the draft. Well, much like there are good players and bad players, there are good draft announcers and bad draft announcers. Oh my gosh. We've got to take a breather here and talk about this dude. Ed Marinaro. I don't even know if that's how you say his name. Ed Marinaro.

No one's ever looked and sounded more like an Ed Maranaro. Maranaro sauce. I don't know what his nickname is. What is the hell? was that? D.K. wrote on the dog, the boomers must be stopped. He came out here and did a stand-up set for like four minutes. He like straight up leaned on the, on the like the lectured. He was like hitting on the crowd. So he was about he about to do yeah. What do you guys? What are you starting to mean? What do you start talking to

the crowd just looking for material like what do you do? You're a plumber. Wow. He was pulling the out of people in the front of from the front row or whatever. It's like Jesus Christ, dude. What is he doing up there. And not only that, a woman who works for the NFL comes out, like, like, taps him and he's like, hey, read the goddamn card. Warren Beatty, read the card. Warren Beatty. He's rambling. Tell him to read the card. My wife is not a football fan at all. Never has been in Grove and football family. She used to work as the producer in a local news station, right? So she was only like that woman on that headset in the station, right?

And, like, spent her entire day creating a schedule, like, to the tenth of a second of choreographed, tosses and throws and commercials and whatever. And then she would get, you know, some gas bag anchor on and be like, you got to move. Like, here we go. Like, so she, the draft of her, she's like, oh, Trayvon Walker won, that's nice. He seems like a nice young man. Like, she's nothing, right? She has never been more locked into the draft than when that woman came out to tell her to read the pick. She was like, exactly.

This is what needs to. She was up out of her chair. Yes, this is it. I'm out of my chair for NCOB Dean. She was up out of that chair for that NFL network production leader,

assistant manager, whoever it was. So we all got something out of the draft today in this all like household and it was a beautiful thing. I couldn't believe it. I had secondhand embarrassment.

It was like watching Michael Scott in the office. I was like, what is this guy doing? I think I will never forget that. I will literally never forget that. That was like maybe an all-time draft moment. I have a pet theory.

he was a plant from the league and here's why every subsequent guest announcer usually does one to two dumb things that waste time E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles you know what I mean like which John Dornbos did do

I have after that guy it was the most efficient guest announcing picks day two I've ever seen because everybody was deathly terrified that's because that woman was like Hey, look at me in the eyes. You read the card and get off stage. I will lump you in with that man in a heartbeat.

You will be remembered with Ed Mulanaro if you do anything that makes me walk out onto that stage. The only person who was immune was Kyle Brandt because he's Kyle Brandt. Everybody else was like, hello, go Vegas. I love the 49ers with the 85th pick. Get me off this stage. They just wanted to leave. They were sorry to be done. So, league plant and a smart one at that.

Well, the weird thing was it was like, so Kyle Brant went up and. had this whole spiel. It was like he was like a wrestler or something, you know. And so it was like that looked planned and scripted. Ed Mulanaro, he just went up there. They were like, hey, can you stall for three minutes? He's like, no problem. He's like, I don't have any, I don't have any material.

He went up there, and it was like he had no plan. He just started talking at the crowd. He's like, he was striking up a conversation at the grocery store. He's like, I got drafted by the Vikings. That was the second to last team I wanted to get drafted by. What the fuck, dude? Number one, Packers! And he's like, any Packers fans out there?

Waited like 10 seconds. He's filibustering the draft. It was like the most unbelievable thing. I can't even... So I looked him up. So he's 72 years old. He played in the NFL for four years... Five years.

He then became an actor and was the head coach in the show Blue Mountain State, and he was also in Hill Street Blues. He was that guy! He was head coach of Blue Mountain State guy. Holy shit. He played for the Seahawks.

He did. Well, for like a year, yeah. Dude, imagine he was announcing the Seahawks Pickett 40. We all are positive. It's Malik Willis. And he's just up there for an hour. That was the, oh my God. I'm still just, that was the funniest shit I've ever seen.

So Ed Marinaros going down. Don't have that guy show up to a party because he'll never leave. I googled it. Like the YouTube video of him doing it is over two minutes long. Just sitting up at the podium. Two minutes 30 is the number I saw. Two minute 30 of him just. I would love to be that woman, the manager woman,

and somebody was probably in her ear like, do we have to go out there? This has never happened before. He's not even close to being done. We don't see light at the end of this tunnel. When she was like, hey, wrap it up, he's like, oh, she's telling me I got to announce the thing. He kind of kept going for like another 30 minutes.

He waved her off. She like pointed to the car and he was like, bah. I don't need to, no worry about it. I know how this works. People in their 70s and, dude, they just don't give a shit. shit. They'll do it ever they want. The boomers must be stopped, Craig. Okay. Moving on to it, you know who else should be stopped? The Raven's front office. Seriously. You know the meme of Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad that everybody posted? It's like,

he can't keep getting away with this. Right. I just always remember like playing video games, watching streamers really like, man, this gun's O-P. It needs to be nerfed. Ravens got to be nerfed, man. This is O-P. You can't just keep doing this. You're ruining the game. Rooting the sport. It is so funny that every single team is like, wow, who's our best player left? Velas Jones. I think Vilas Jones are best players. This is probably good, right? The 25-year-old receiver you can't catch.

This is probably good. And then the Ravens get on the board and they're like, okay, who's actually the best player left? Instead of like all the other things everybody was thinking, who's actually still good? Oh, Travis Jones? Could have been a first-round pick? Why not him in the third round?

Craig, do you know tennis? I think I'm going to completely butcher this analogy, but like I feel like the Ravens or the Roger Federer of football because basically Roger Federer is just like, I'm so good. I can just sit here and like return until the till my opponent fucks up kind of deal. He's just like so like confident, cool. Like he doesn't mess up. We'll let you make a mistake.

Yeah, literally just like I'm just going to go out here and hit the ball back to you and you're going to fuck it up. Like this is what the Ravens are as drafters. They basically are like, okay, everyone else, you guys can all like freak out, stress out, screw up your pick, reach for guys, blah, blah, blah. And we'll just sit back here and take really good freaking players. So to run down their draft so far It's like it's actually just absurd

To read who they've drafted so far Based on like the pre-draft rankings And the mock draft everything They had Kyle Hamilton in the first Tyre Linderbaum In the first Like unequivocally the two best players At their position based on like pre-draft rankings So they got the best safety in the draft

They got the best center in the draft And they took David and Jobbo out of Michigan If he didn't he tore his Achilles Earlier in the year If he didn't tear his Achilles Would he have been the best linebacker in the draft? He would have been like a top 15 pick probably And so they got

got those three guys. And then, so the Eagles jumped above the Ravens in the first round to grab Jordan Davis, which is obviously great for Ben and content and all that stuff. There was a lot of indications thinking that the Ravens were going to take him. So instead of worrying too much about that, they just sat there and took a couple really good players. And then, by the way, got arbitrage version, like the discount version of Jordan Davis. I'm not saying he's as good as Jordan Davis, but like stylistically similar, Travis Jones from Yukon, who is like this, you know, six foot four 330-pound guy who ran incredibly fast, like one of the

most impressive athletes in this combine in this draft. So they get the arbitrage version of Jordan Davis. The Ravens are just absolutely knocking it out of the park. And it's just like they didn't even break a sweat, it felt like. How do they keep getting away with this? How do they keep getting away

with it? Eric DeCosta, baby. Right. All right. So as we wind down here, I wanted to flick at the tight ends. Some tight ends went, no tight end went in the first round. we had Trey McBride go to the Cardinals, Jelani Woods of the Colts. We've kind of mentioned them.

I mentioned him. Greg Dulcich, we mentioned to the Broncos and then Jeremy Rucker to the Jets. Trey McBride to the Cardinals is interesting because the Cardinals have been a wasteland at Tide End for as long as I can remember. Do you think this is a good fit?

And is this the tight end who's going to be the most fantasy relevant this year? Not this year. My first reaction was like, why are the Cardinals taking Trey McBride? They just re-signed Zackert to like a new multi-year contract. but then I kind of thought about it more and I was just like look

tight ends in general typically take several years to like develop into like a good player a productive player like you may see McBride come in and play a small role you know I could be completely wrong and he has like a huge role but this is generally how it happens with

tight ends is like it's a slow starting position you have to learn the offense you have to learn how to block and play as a receiver so my guess is he probably won't be like a superstar in year one but like down the line once earth's is gone because Earths is 30-something years old, 31 years old. He's not going to be around forever.

I think this was like a long-looking move for them, like a long-term move. He was probably considered the best tight end in his class. Like it was close between him and Dulcich between a lot of people. You know, he's a guy who had over 1,000 yards last year, like big-time receiver. It makes a lot of sense for them. Like we saw what Max Williams was able to do for like short stints.

And then, of course, they traded for Earths last year and he was productive. Yeah, they're just like loading up around Kyler Murray right now. Obviously, they traded for Marquis. Brown yesterday, and now they get McBride. You know, they've got Hopkins already. They've got AJ Green on the outside. So, you know, like they're just doing the same thing, basically the Jets are doing, like trying to make life as easy as possible for Kyler Murray.

And I like it actually. So it didn't make a lot of sense to me at first, but then I think it's just a long-term move. Here's the thing. Long-term move, preparing yourself for the decline of your 31, upcoming 32-year-old tight end? Good. signing said

3, 132 year old tight end to a 3 year $31.5 million deal two months ago. Yeah. And they also lest we forget signed Max Williams back as well.

Oh yeah, that's right. And this ain't no 12 personnel you know, Doug Peterson, Frank Wright team. There's no 13 personnel Kevin Stefansky team. This team lived in 10 personnel last year. That is no tight ends. They currently have like three

that they clearly feel comfortable paying slash playing slash drafting. So either they are philosophically going to change who gets on the field for them, which I would not hate at all if they spent more time of the tight end in line, more time of two tight ends on the field. McBride can absolutely and probably

should be more of a flex player. Like there's a way this works, but it requires changing the way they line up a little bit, which I would like to see, but I'll believe it exactly when I see it and on a moment beforehand. So weird surprising pick. I would not have had cardinals drafting tight end with their

first pick on my Bingo card even a little bit. Cardinals continue to just be a very weird franchise. Okay, to finish up here, which teams or team, if it's just one, in your opinion, won today's draft? We'll start with Ben. Falcons, I think I'd have had quite a good draft. I don't love, so obviously I'm a big Ritter guy, and they got running the third round, and I think Ritter is a player who can stick for them in a player who can matter. They also got Arnold Dupacady, the pass rusher out of Penn State in the middle of the second round. If after those first four edges went, right, where it was the big three at the top of the draft,

George Carloftus, it was four three. And then obviously, Jermaine Johnson as well as a really good player, if there was another edge that you were going to make me draft in the first round, it would have been at a decade. So I liked the fact that they made that pick a lot. They're clearly prioritizing athleticism and also developmental athleticism because they took Troy Anderson. And Troy Anderson do not get a twisted,

linebacker out of Montana State is not a good football player right now. He was playing quarterback and tight end a couple years ago, right? He does not yet know how to play linebacker. But in the same, if I can't argue in one breath, you know, you got to draft Jordan Davis because you don't get an opportunity to draft Jordan Davis every year. And then in the next breath, say, we should not draft the 6 foot 4, 245 pound 4, 440 yard,

running linebacker. You can get him at, yeah, you get him at what there would be, they picked them, I want to say, like, outside the top 50. It's a good swing, in my opinion, for a young, it's early, but it's a good swing for a young team that ain't winning anytime soon. Then they get ridder. And then DeAngelo and Malone, really productive edge rush out of Western Kentucky, who's also a little bit of like a off ball, Sam, situational pass rush or kind of a hybrid player. Again, not like my favorite player in the world, but good for the value and he's a versatile guy, right? He and Anderson both represent investments in the second level of the defense that desperately needs it, especially having lost Foye-A-Lu-Con this year in free agency.

So Falcons, good job on round two. Team speed is kind of, it's like a thing that we talk about, and it's, it's sort of amorphous because you don't, you're not always having the same players on the field at the same time, but like, Josh Norris likes to say something. If you have slow linebacker, you have slow defense. And so I think that Anderson, like, like Solex said, is raw. Like I compared him actually to, to like if Cordare L Patterson played linebacker. Like he is so, like he is a versatile, like freak athlete who just,

plug him into your lineup and let him do stuff until he learns how to be like a more refined and nuanced player. This guy, this guy is like the, he has a crazy story, backstory. Like, he's like the biggest type A person I've ever seen in my life. He was all state at quarterback and safety in high school and led them to a state title. He won state titles in 100 and 200 meters twice, both his junior and senior season. He was this high school valedictorian. He went to Montana State, started as a running back and a linebacker. He was like the like top one of their top two or three guys in career like yards and touchdowns as a running back. Then they asked him to switch to defense. He did that. He was like first team FCS All-American.

So like he was just incredible like the high achiever of high achievers for everything that he's done throughout his whole career. I think that's what they're betting on is that this guy works his ass off. He's an elite athlete has really good length. When I watched the state, frankly, it was like this guy is not very good at this yet. But like, because he was like, Like he's not good at taking it on blocks. He comes in too high. He doesn't, he takes the cheese on stuff and, like, runs in the wrong direction. Like, he's clearly still learning how to play the position.

But this is the type of athlete that you bet on. So I actually really like that pick. Just because it's exciting and he has that potential to turn to something so much better down the line, be a better pro than he was a college player. The team I was going to talk about was the Chiefs, who I think. That was the other team that was on my mind. Quietly knocked it out of the park on both day one and two. We're sick in day two, so Skymore was their first pick.

Again, I just think he's like a perfect fit for what they want to do the way that their offense is going. And it was a great value for them. Brian Cook, safety out of Cincinnati, I think is a really exciting player for them. So they've got now in the first two days, Trent McDuffie, George Karloftus, and Brian Cook. And then, by the way, and So like, I'll pitch this to you. But they grabbed Leo Chanel with the 103rd pick, who is another guy who's like hyper athletic. like maybe the one of the best all-around athletes in this draft. And so they're betting on their trade.

So like, give me your spiel on Chanel because I know that you love him. If you gave me, if you gave me a draft room and just let me like willy-nilly pick the players that I liked and just kind of ignore everything. I would have gotten Brian Cook, Leo Chanel, and George Carloft is on my team in a heartbeat. That's three levels of defense that I like. And all three of them now are here on the Chiefs defense, which did need an infusion of talent. Chanel, right? We're talking about if you can draft a linebacker with size and athleticism, you are a in a really interesting spot in terms of your development.

6.3, 250 can move and can jump. Chanel's a legit off-ball linebacker playing at old school off-ball linebacker size. Really big deal because he's going to function for you on third down. He can fill zones. He can run with the tight ends up the seam. He has shown that he has done it previously. You can also blitz for you.

And 250 hits different than 230, right? Like, N'Cobo Dean is a good blitzer. But 20 pounds of Leo Chanel matters when you're coming up that B gap and the guards ready for you, right? That length, that size is a difference. And then playing at Wisconsin, man, they ask a lot of their backers. You've got to do a ton of work. Mentally, Chanel's ready to play, man.

He's ready to go. Spaggs is a complex defense, and he has shown in the college levels that he is capable of handling a lot of responsibilities on any given play. So the fit is appropriate because one of the things about like Willie Gay, who was big, fast, explosive, could cover linebacker out of Mississippi State, second round pick a couple years ago, is that Gay made all the sense in the world for the Chiefs at the time, they just weren't able to get him on the field right away because it is a tough playbook to learn in Spag's defense. I don't think Chanel will have as big of the

learning curve, just by virtue of the defense that he played in. So really quality players should have gone earlier than a hundredth pick, right, a three-digit pick. I think he should have gone only top 75. And Brian Cook is just a roof safety, right? Yeah. Only a couple in every single draft, only a couple still in the league. But if you want to drop the guy single high right now for the Chiefs, one Thornhill can do it, but he has been inconsistent as much as I love one Thornton Hill. Brian Cook gives you another out. Leave Justin Reed in the box where he's at his best. So two really good picks on day two on the defensive side.

Chiefs are drafting extremely well. They also have six more picks. They came into the draft like a shitload of picks. The Ravens have four fourth round picks next week, man. If you want to, the Ravens can't keep getting away with this. Brother, they're about to keep getting away with this several times. Yeah, they're going to take all my favorite sleepers. Damn it.

Yeah. Well, that just about does it. According to my research, I don't think anybody from Chat, was drafted today unfortunately. Who is, was anybody like super small school we drafted? No Nugis. The Nuga. Nobody from the Nuga, unfortunately.

But, um, all right. We'll be back. We'll be back tomorrow. Don't you fret. Wrap it up. Yeah. We'll be back to wrap it up. Go through rounds four through seven,

sleepers, give a little kind of recap of the entire draft process. So yeah, thank you to Ben Solak. Thank you to Danny. Thank you to Ed Marinaro and that stage manager. Hero. She needed just one of those big old-timey hooks to just pull him off the stage. Big pain, yeah, exactly. The hat just stays in the one position, like, floating as he goes away.

Right. All right. And lastly, thank you to our commissioner, Lauren Michaels. Thank you, Lauren. Thank you, Carlos. Yeah, but I say, thank you Carlos. Oh, and thank you Carlos, producing the show. Miami fan, not a lot going on for him, but he's happy.

he got Tyree kill yeah that's a good that's a good gift I guess also men at work I want to throw it out to the Australian band men at work because we had Australian fella on the

cave on Timidao Tibodow yeah I'm not even gonna try it it was great he basically made fun of Craig for imitating you know what though it's like I'd love to hear the three you do it like I'm the best at it and I get you would not love

I was like one and a half episode into this podcast, and you're like, Ben, Australian accent. I was like, we aren't at that place yet in our relationship. Why can just draw an Australian accent for you? No warning. Get that judgment. That's good.

So men at work, I like it. Down Under, good song. Not going to try and sing it last. Classic. All right, we will be back tomorrow.