The Ringer NFL Show - Power Ranking the Top 10 Picks of the 2024 NFL Draft

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

Power Hour! In today’s episode, Ben Solak returns for another preview of ‘The Ringer NFL Draft Show,’ where the guys debate what each team with a top-10 pick in next year’s draft should do (5:14). “You guys want to do some emails?” (51:48) Pick no. 1: Chicago Bears (6:21) Pick no. 2: New England Patriots (12:57) Pick no. 3: Arizona Cardinals (16:15) Pick no. 4: Washington Commanders (20:35) Pick no. 5: Chicago Bears (26:14) Pick no. 6: New York Giants (29:23) Pick no. 7: New York Jets (36:14) Pick no. 8: Los Angeles Chargers (39:44) Pick no. 9: Tennessee Titans (44:45) Pick no. 10: Atlanta Falcons (48:38) Check out The Ringer’s Fantasy Football Rankings for positional rankings, waiver wire pickups, and much more! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Craig Horlbeck, and Ben Solak Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before you skip ahead on this ad slash trailer, we are doing a mailbag for our Friday preview show this week. It's going to be a fantasy playoff mailbag. So tweet us, email us, ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. You start sick questions, your matchup questions, fantasy courts, if you have any playoff collusion going on, or questions about corn or any of the other weird crap we talk about. So mailbag on Friday. All right, let's get to Power Hour. My name is Danny Hyphitz and I am joined by Danny Killing, Drek, Whirlabek, and Ben Solak. Woohoo. Boom. It is power hour. Today we power rank something every Wednesday.

And today we're going to look at the top 10 picks in the draft as of entering week 16. And what those teams are going to do at those spots. And it's going to be great. We're going to look through. It's going to be vibes. Like half mock, half like what are these teams need? Just half like a little vibes check in. Definitely.

But first, real quick, quick programming note. Next week is Christmas. We're going to tweak our schedule. No draft. next week. Draft show, we're going to bring it back. End of the regular season after the college football championship. We're going to bring the draft show back. Taking a couple weeks off for the holidays.

No fantasy show on Christmas or Christmas Eve next week. So we're going to have like a truncated recap, waivers trivia for you guys on Tuesday, December 26th. So little delay there for Christmas. Otherwise, everything's going to be normal. We're going to get to the draft. But first, Solek, Philadelphia Eagles. We're recorded this Tuesday.

No. No, no, no. There's no, dude. That's fine. 20 to 17. The Seahawks won a game that I don't care what the little probability charts say. It was like the Eagles were going to win the whole time. So I kind of had to feel to lose the Drew Locke.

Great. Just sick. Losing on national TV sucks. Losing on a game winning drive also sucks. Losing on national TV on a game winning drive to a backup quarterback, like this obviously blows. Like this is the worst. And I thought it couldn't get any worse.

And then Drew Locke finishes the game being like, and I love Gino so much. And I love my brothers. and we're such a great community, and isn't this so happy in my career? Isn't this all so beautiful? And everybody was like, yes, Drew Locke. Yes, Drew, we love you.

We're so happy for you. What a wonderful young man. I'm just there being like, no. You know the meme of the penguin who's sitting there like, well, now I'm not going to do it? Like, that was me. Just saying I'm being like, I don't, I'm not happy for Drew Locke.

I don't appreciate that Drew Locke loves his family and his friends and his teammates in his locker room. I'm mad. Just the one guy in the corner, not happy for Drew Locke. Everyone's just celebrating, Oh, what a win.

No, it was absolutely dreadful. I don't take the Eagles seriously. I'm writing about them on Wednesday, and I'm just putting a tombstone on their entire season, even though they're trending forth. Thank you for your time. Wow. It really was like the greatest day in Drewlock's life.

Like that posted interview, that he peaked that day. And he knew it too. He was like, this is it. This is my moment. The pinnacle. The worst part is that the little backpack celebration, right? Yeah.

Oh, my God. I loved it. Since he was in the draft, I was like, this is not good. Like, this is not good enough. Like, it's a bad sign. I don't, he's going to be a bust because this celebration is, I don't like this celebration. And the droolk did it in my face.

He kicked me to the ground. He stood over me and he went, uh, with a little backpack. And I was like, yeah, okay, I deserve that. You're right, though. It's not a great celebration. It's like, it's like, it's like, doesn't really visually translate that well. Like, I feel like if you do it wrong, you don't exactly know what somebody's doing. You're not even in your bag when you put a backpack on.

You're not, you're, you have closed the bag. It doesn't even make sense with the thing. I don't. Ah, bah, humbug. I loved it. There's an amazing moment on the broadcast where it caught Drew Locke doing that and then he was looking right at Gino Smith

on the sideline. Gino Smith is doing it back to him. It's a really good backup quarterback taunt because it's like not that good and he clearly hasn't really thought about it too much. Right. The problem is among friends, like don't put this on the pod.

The clip of him doing it to Gino is so sick. It's so hard. Gino's doing it back on the island. It's sick. But I just have to sit there and be like, so yeah. It's not great. I'm not peeking.

right now. Drewlock's speaking. Ben's not peeking. The Drewlock post game interview really was more like more emotional than like people winning Oscars. I think like quarterbacks have won Super Bowls and not given speeches that emotional. Like you could show that to someone and tell them that was a Super Bowl speech and it would totally fit the moment. I know it's like dude you guys are seven and seven now and you might miss the play. Hey, come on. I also I also have to say mediocre team. It's fine. It's fine. There's a lot going on in this game with the Eagles and stuff. But the only part that I truly cared about that I was like, whoa, was. Matt Patricia just being on the Eagles sideline six years after the Eagles won the Super Bowl

because Matt Patricia was such a terrible defensive coordinator. And him looking like somehow thinner and more like a movie villain. Like he looked somewhat like he looked more like older. But, you know, oh, I haven't seen this guy for years and he's like been planning stuff. I can't believe he's in power somewhere again. In power. This this game is the worst thing it's ever happened. It means Matt Patricia and Drew Locke.

I am suffering. I am at such a tremendous. slow. With this lovely note, we can transition to the draft here. We're going to go through the top 10 picks as of, you know, this moment in time. So there obviously could change in the next couple weeks. But for the most part, we have a decent sense of the teams that are going to be in the top 10. And we've got to just start peeking. It's almost draft time, man. So we're going to do this power hour style. And if you're unfamiliar with power after every two minutes, I think a few minutes, we're going to tweak it sometimes. But eventually you will hear this sound.

Or a lovely little copyright free jingle on Fandle TV. Which we're probably, it's not matching the bobbing of our heads, most likely, which makes out look back. Honestly, that's good content, though. That's fine. Yeah. And again, if you don't know, the TomTom Club was originally the royalty-free version of, because we couldn't get fantasy by Mariah Carey, but then ironically, we couldn't get the royalty-free version for Fandle TV. So now we just kind of are in like a Russian doll set of, like, royalty-free music that isn't working on various platforms. So maybe we can go.

Once again, if anybody has a connection to Mariah, please call us. Right. Okay. So with that said, Kyle, just put six minutes on this first one. Like,

there's no chance. It's the first pick. It's fine. Six minutes, Guy. Number one pick so far for the 20, 24 NFL draft is going to be

the Chicago Bears via the 2 and 12 Carolina Panthers. And I think we actually just have to start on this trade, just to revisit this trade, where last year the Panthers traded up for the first pick in a trade that, we don't want to make a referendum yet on Bryce Young's career, but so far, brutal. Not looking good.

The trade so far would be the, the Panthers get Bryce Young and the Bears get like either Caleb Williams or Drake May at quarterback, D.G. Moore at receiver. They could have had Jalen Carter with the ninth pick last year too, plus two second rounders, which honestly, if that actually ends up being that way in Bryce Young doesn't turn his career around. Yeah. One of the most lopsided trades ever. Oh, I mean, it's, it will go down, especially if either Caleb Williams or Drake May goes down as like a really good quarterback. Because then they missed out on not only missed out on Stroud, who looks like a top 10 quarter. quarterback, they're going to miss out on, you know, Caleb Williams or Drake May, which, I mean,

both of those guys have potential to turn into really good quarterback. So it could look really, really bad. Let's say that this holds for it now and the Panthers keep the first pick of the draft. There's, well, I'm sorry, the Panthers get the worst record. The Bears get their first pick in the draft. Dick, I want to start with you. Should the Bears, like asking the dumb question here, but Justin Fields has played so much better. Should the bears take a quarterback and trade Justin Fields? Don't you dare say no. or should the Bears keep Justin Fields and sign him and trade this pick,

which could get them probably maybe three first-run picks and more? Don't you dare say yes? No, I would love to see what the Bears could do if they did trade this pick in terms of building the roster. I think they should take a quarterback. I think at this point, it's probably just better for both players if Justin Fields, you know,

start somewhere else. I think he has been certainly playing a lot better, but I don't know. I still, it does still feel to me like he is on the borderline of like being a real starter in the NFL. I still think he has a lot to prove. I think if the Bears trade this pick and stick with Fields and then he regresses badly in year three or whatever, like it's going to look really, really bad for the Bears. So if I was the Bears, I probably would just trade Fields and take a quarterback with this pick. Craig.

Yeah, Craig. A Patriots call you up. Three first round picks for the first overall pick. You're the gym of the Bears. You say no? Three first round picks? Yeah, for one. So you're getting the Patriots pick this year, which is going to be like, let's say it's three.

So you're not getting Caleb or May, hypothetically, right? But you get that pick in the next two of whoever takes over this Patriots roster. Three first rounders. You're saying no? Yeah, I'm saying no. Four first rounders. You're saying no? Look, I don't know.

Five. Ten first rounders. That's the thing is, I would say at the beginning of the year, if you said bears getting the first overall pick with where they're out with Fields. I think the answer is like, right, there's no price. Like, I'm obviously taking the quarterback. With how Fields has recently played, I think there is a price. I think we've entered the world of like there is a price where they would move off it and keep Fields for another year. It would be a ludicrous, ludicrous price.

But I do think we're in that realm. Now, one thing that I think is going to get discussed, the analytics boys are going to bring it up is like, okay, stay at one, take the QB and also keep Fields. And now you have like the two dice rolls. I don't know. Like it's always very difficult to manage the locker room in that regard. I think that because Fields is going to get expensive a lot sooner than the young guy, I think you go for the young guy and you move off of fields. But to me, like, we are in the realm of prices. If I were a GM picking top five, top 10 who needed a quarterback,

I would call the Bears and be like, all right, what do you need to move off of one? I would make them give me a price that I have to say no to. I think we are in the real world possibilities now. What makes it more fascinating to me is the Bears' defense has been playing really well lately, too, or at least relative to how they were playing early in the season. And it's like whether it's real or just imagined, it feels like the Bears are closer to being a competitor than they were. even like a few weeks ago, you know what I mean?

So like they could talk themselves into being like, oh, if we trade this for three first-round picks, we can add a couple guys to the defense, we can add an offensive lineman, we can add a big time receiver, and then we're set, we're ready to go to the playoffs. I do think it is a fascinating discussion, but I think for everyone involved, it would just be better if they trade fields.

I just don't think you can get caught in Daniel Jones limbo where a player outperforms who he really is in the final half of a season, and you start talking yourself into all these scenarios in which maybe you can thread the needle and trade and get a bunch of picks and build the perfect team around him and then maybe you can make the playoffs.

It's like throw all of that away. Caleb Williams or Drake Mayer, two generational talents. You guys on the last draft show we did were like, oh yeah, Caleb Williams would be right on part with Trevor Lawrence coming out of Clemson. If you're a Bears fan, like I think that on this show it can get cute, right? We're supposed to talk about every possible scenario.

I feel like a Bears fan right now, if they're on this pod, would say, no effing way what I want to keep Justin Fields and trade away, no matter what I get in return if Caleb Williams is on the line. I think that's a great point, Craig. Like the risk management of it is, okay, if you trade Fields and are wrong, you trade it away, like I was going to make maybe fringe top 10, like probably more realistically like a top 13, 15 quarterback

who also was going to be on a second contract. And that middle tier of quarterback contracts tends not to be very like good bang for your buck, right? Whereas the risk of, okay, I keep fields, I trade away the first overall pick is you might have traded away CJ Stroud caliber play on CJ Stroud caliber money. The risk that the bottom is a lot lower when you keep fields and truce on. trade that first overall pick. So like and Dika, do you guys have a strong opinion yet on Drake May or Caleb Williams or is it just like just take one of them? And as long as you take one of them,

it's probably a smart, defensible decision. I would say I still lean Caleb Williams on this one, but I think they're both really high level prospects. Yeah, I met just like just take one of them. And so like if something happens to Caleb or Drake in the pre-draft process and you land on the other one, I think you're fine. But we'll see how this goes to the bears, what coaching staff they keep, so on and so forth. Wow. Really clean six minutes there. Quick question. Setting a high bar. We did perfectly and you want to...

I just want to ask. I just want to ask. Sorry, Tom, Tom. How much does Fields fetch in a trade? I just put two more minutes at the clock. This is so disappointing. Could have been a one-word answer. Six.

Six. Seven. And then it can't be a one-word answer. Second. How does this be fetched in a trade is inherently a multi-word answer. Two words. Second rounder. If I'm the Falcons, I would do two second rounders for Fields.

even though that's overpaying, I would want to see Justin Fields with Bijon, Drake London. Oh, that would be so much fun. Yeah. And he's also from Georgia. Just like, just try.

All right, maybe we didn't need the two minutes. Take the time off the clock. Can I take the two minutes away. They can't even see the clock. All right. Next up here, we have, as of now,

the New England Patriots, who are three and 11. I, we probably all agree that Patriots just take whichever quarterback, right? The Bears take Caleb Williams. The Patriots should take Drake May or vice versa.

I know our boss, Bill Simmons, is saying he wants to take Marvin Harrison, Jr. with the second pick, I think he's totally wrong. So first of all, everyone right now, can speak now or forever hold your peace. Does anyone to actually think the Patriots should just take a receiver? No. No. What is the argument? I haven't actually heard. I know Bill has mentioned that he wants Marvin Harrison Jr., but like, who's throwing to him? Like, what is? I think Bill's argument is that he feels that 90 plus percent confident that Marvin Harrison Jr. will be good. And that quarterback

is a coin flip? Yes, 60 percent confident. And if you look around at all the receivers, A.J. Brown, Tyree Kill, they're on and on that are elevating their quarterback that, like, why not just get that elite guy if you know that he's going to be elite? I feel that, but I'm also like, I think the opposite. Wouldn't you just go trade for T. Higgins? A guy you know is actually good or signed T. Higgins and then Jack Drake May, isn't that a better combination? This is the scarcity of, like, positional scarcity.

Yeah, the other thing is AJ was taken in the second round. Tyreek obviously taken in the sixth round for a dramatically different reason, but then was available via trade, right? You can get the elite receiver who's a quarterback elevator without spending a top five pick. Obviously, if you do and you get Jamar Chase, great, but Justin Jefferson was the fourth guy off the board in the 20s, man. You can go find that guy if you if you scout well. And then in a wide receiver class like this where it's freaking loaded, holy smokes, take the quarterback early. That's the only spot where you can get a good quarterback and then try to roll the dice on a later receiver.

I agree. Jaden Reed, Rishi Rice, Tank Dell, Josh Downs, all taken second or third round this year. Debo Samuel, D.K. McHugh, A.J. Brown, all second, third round players. So here's the question. Start with you, D.K., do you let Bill Belich make this pick, or do you kind of have him resign or trade him away? Do you let Bill Belichick do the Greg Popovich where the Spurs get Victor Wenimma? And you, or you just like, are you saying that Bill Belichick will not be the coach, but then you can let him make these decisions in the trap? No, no, I'm saying if you were Robert Kraft and you get the second pick,

do you want to hand this quarterback to Bill Belichick or you're like, no, we got to start fresh. I mean, I would keep Bill Belichick. I still think he's a good coach. I mean, I feel like a little bit feel like I'm taking crazy kids with the Belichick stuff. He's proven over the long term how great of a coach he is. I understand he's not perfect. But like every team has down years. It's like we can't just freak out over one or two down years.

So like. So I agree Belichick's a good coach. I need to know that Belichick's got an actual plan and offensive coordinator. That's not. Well, Josh Buchanan is available now. Right. Yeah. And that's the thing.

I think that when we talk about Belichick, I talked about Tomlin on the ringer NFL show kind of in a similar light earlier this week. We talked about some of these coaches that have been one place for a long time. their social network starts to run out, right? They just know they have the roll decks of guys. They know they haven't been on other teams, met other guys, had cross-pollination of ideas. They haven't gotten into the 21st century on stuff because they've just been hammering what they know.

It's like how your parents don't have any friends. And so with Belichick, I think that you have to sit down and say, all right, like Bill, you're a great coach. If we were to cut you, if you were to let you go, you'd be on every team tomorrow. We could probably trade you for picks. Like, you're absolutely a top coach. What's the offensive plan here, though?

Because if there's nothing clear for developing a first round quarterback, you don't want to go through the Mac Jones thing again where he shows up, he has some talent, and then he deteriorates over time. And so you need to know that, like, the plan and place to develop the quarterback is actually sound. Next up here,

we have the Arizona Cardinals who are 3 and 11. D.K., I feel like this is the easiest one in the entire draft where if, let's say, Caleb Williams, Drake, may have the first two picks off the board, you're the Arizona Cardinals. You have Kyler Murray. You just take Marvin Harrison Jr.

out of Ohio State, and you just pair him with Kyler Murray. That's it, right? Yeah, I think so. And this was obviously going to, be a lot harder of a decision if they were sitting in the number two spot. It doesn't look like they're going to do that anymore. But yes, I actually, like, even if they had been sitting in that number two spot, I think they have a better case for keeping the quarterback and drafting a guy

like Marvin Harrison Jr., building around Kyler Murray. They have a ton of picks going forward. They have the third pick, the 17th pick in the draft. So they have two first rounders, a second rounder, three third rounders and a four. So they have like a whole bunch of day one and two picks coming up here. I think they're going to have a bunch of money and free agency to spend. they've basically been like stripping it down to the studs and now they've just got a couple guys that they're going to build around and I'm kind of excited with what they can do. So to me

that would be the no-brainer move. Take a guy who has, you know, the ability to be like an offensive manipulator of the defense. Basically these guys that can change the way defenses have to guard you. And by the way, he's big, which is great because it seems like everybody on the Cardinals is very small right now. So they need some tall guys. Hey, Tray McBride

is the large man, big man. That's true. But actually, but yeah, to that point, like, having Marvin Harrison Jr. with Trey McBride, who looks like an ascending star. Michael Wilson was playing well before he got banged up. Exactly. They've got, you know, they have like a couple other guys that I think have shown some promise. So I don't know. There's, yeah, Dorcas still around. Get dorched.

Rondell Moore is pretty explosive. So they have like guys that can play complimentary roles. And I think dropping Marvin Harrison Jr. in there would just make this offense really exciting. Yeah. If you get 17 healthy Kyler Games and Drew Pat's saying their current offensive coordinator doesn't get hired away this cycle, Marvin's going for about 1,400, 1,500 yards as a rookie. I love that. Kyler's playing great.

Petsing can play, and Marvin is very talented. Where does Mark, sorry, Tom, Tom. Where does Marvin Harrison Jr. rank in the overall wide receiver prospect pool? Like, is he on the Mount Rushmore of college wide receiver prospects? I mean, this is tough because, like, I don't think anybody, like, even if you had Jabar Chase wide receiver one, you probably didn't rank him high enough. You know what I'm saying?

I think just because of how well I always played like Justin Jefferson, so on and so forth. I like Marvin as a prospect better than I like Jamar and better than like Jefferson. Now, I had Jefferson like, you know, wider super six in that class, right? Like I like, you know, a lot of, I like a lot of people missed on how good Jefferson would be. And so it's very hard to calibrate to like what they've been in the NFL now versus what I thought of them as prospects. But when I watch Marvin, I, it's very hard to find a deficiency there. Like he just, he makes every player in the field, right? He's a ball and hand player.

He's a contested catch player. He's an adjustment player. He's a separation player. like it's just there's there's nothing he doesn't do and so it feels like all right if these other guys have had these 1,000 yard, 1,200 yard seasons, right, Jamar Chase setting a record, like it feels like Marvin should be capable of that. Yeah, I think he stacks up when you look at like statistically, um, athletically, because he's reported to be he was on Bruce Feldman's freaks list. He's like going to run a four threes. He's like really

strong, explosive guy. Um, so he's going to jump and test really, really well. So like from a prospect profile point of view, I think he stacks up with some of the best guys, like Jamar Chase, AJ Green, Amari Cooper, you know, some of the best Clio Jones. Julio Jones is another great one. Some of the best prospects over the last like 10, 15 years. I think he definitely, you know, from a number of point of view, stacks up to those guys for sure.

I have a lofty comp for Marvin Harrison Jr. if we want. Yeah. Marvin Harrison. I know. It's just so funny to you when I see comps. People are like, he really reminds me of this guy. I'm like, he reminds me of Marvin Harrison. That's what I would say.

who he most, just off of like face and bone structure and name. He most reminds you, he looks like Marvin Harrison. Well, he got lucky in the gene pool because he's like five inches taller than his dad. I know, right? So, yeah, I think he's basically like a complete, you know, package at the receiver position right now. In terms of prospect profile.

All right. Next up here, Kai, just through three minutes of the clock. Let's just be real here. We're up and into three. I like to. I like just choosing a number. That's fun. Especially because we keep ignoring it.

Like choosing two numbers. Washington commanders would have the fourth pick. They're four and ten. And this is where the order could change a lot as we come down the home stretch here. But the commanders right now are the fourth pick. I think Washington is the first true trade-up candidate with the bears at number one. We'll see. But let's say that they stay here.

And I'm curious, the first three picks, let's say are Drake, May, Caleb Williams, Marvin Harrison, in some order. Washington traded away Montez-Swed and Chase Young, the defensive ends at the deadline. I feel like they could go edge, but they could definitely go offensive line. I think the question is quarterback. We have Jaden Daniels at LSU. We have Bo Nix at Oregon. I think this is the first of like the teams that would consider one of these like lower tier quarterbacks.

D.K. Is there someone? Jaden Daniels just one of the highsmen. Is there him and Bo Nix? Are any of these guys to you if the new owner of the Walsh and Josh Harris called you and said, hey, we're on the clock and I kind of, what do you think, Dekis? Should we take this guy at the top five?

What would you say? I think Jaden Daniels probably is the guy that I would recommend of all the guys that or left. I mean, if you look at what he did this year at LSU, like his stats are actually better than what Joe Brough did that, like, you know, his legendary season, which is just wild to talk about. They are. You never seen those side by

side. Okay, but the, but the SEC, the quality of defense. That's all I said. I'm not making, I don't have a take about this. That was my mind rejecting the facts. It's still just shocking. I'm giving you the facts of the numbers. D.K.'s doing the Brock Party MVP argument right now. He's like, it's just the numbers. It's numbers. What do you want me? Look at the numbers.

But like, yeah, I, I like, like Jane Daniels. I think there's, you know, he's not on the same tier to me as as Caleb Williams and Drake May. But he's an exciting prospect for sure. Uh, you know, his stats, like I said, he's a runner and a passer. He has incredible stats in both areas. He's really slippery and explosive in the open field. He can create plays out of structure. I think he has like a lot of the traits that you're looking for. I do worry a little bit that he's got like a pretty thin frame and he's been in college football for a long time. So, you know, that's as pluses and minuses. I think I actually teams are probably going to look at this as a plus going forward where, you know, he has so much experience just actually throwing football in real games. Like that actually does matter. So can I push back on that? I'm torn. I feel like Joe Burrow is this come out of nowhere prospect and part of me.

Not come out of nowhere, but I don't know. I'm torn about this. I think about Kenny Pickett. Where he was at Pittsburgh for so long and then he had this last year that was great. And no offense, Craig. Kenny Pickett sucks. And I look at this whole group of guys, the second two quarterbacks. Catching strays over here.

We'll talk about this more with the Giants, but like Jaden Daniels, like these are pre-pandemic starting quarterbacks in college football. Jaden Daniels, Bo Nix, Michael Pennix Jr., who I love. Michael Pennix was in college for 14 different Marvel movies that were released. I like that metric. At some point, like doesn't just, you want, like,

I don't know. It's, I think it's a double-edged sword because on one hand, you could say, oh, he's like 25 years old playing against a bunch of young guys, you know, with no experience. And so he's just benefiting from his age and his experience and all that. And like once he gets Sanifal, he's like already hit his peak. In other words. But at the same time, like we mentioned Brock Pretty.

Like Brooke Pretty threw a lot of passes in college. And I think some teams are going to look at this as like, that's a bonus. That's an advantage. That gives us more of a clear picture of who you are as a player. You have more reps. Just like the muscle memory of doing it. with a pass rush in your face. All that stuff is actually a benefit to, I think, some of these guys.

And so, you know, it's a different discussion when it's like the third or fourth, fifth pick or whatever than, you know, a late round pick necessarily, obviously. But I do think teams will look at that as an advantage in some ways. Washington and I, like the quarterback thing, absolutely Jane Daniels, a lot of stuff, is great, everything trade up. They should sit at four and take Olu Faschano out of Penn State. They should just take a tackle. Like, Foshano's lights out. He's young. He's unbelievably athletic.

They desperately need a tackle. like they're not in a position where it's quarterback or bust for them. They're not anywhere left at QB3. If you told me right now, fast forward to April, then you told me Commander sat up for and took Fashano without knowing anything else like unseen. I go like, oh, good pick. Have you bet on that already?

No, you can't bet on that yet. Okay, darn. He's like, come on, D.K., you know you can't bet on that yet. Otherwise, I totally would. Be reasonable. Washington's left tackles a 32-year-old former seventh rounder, and their right tackles, Andrew Wiley, who was a guard for the Chiefs.

So I think that they could, that tackles a pretty good spot. the weather gets cold, the NFL offers stay hot on Fandle right now. New customers get $150 in bonus bets when your first. $5 money line bet wins. If you want to have the Christmas Day games, the Chiefs over the Raiders, I think the Raiders are coming off this one of the best wins in recent franchise history. The Chiefs are clearly in this mode where they're upset about all the criticism that destroyed the Patriots. I think the Chiefs are going to destroy the Raiders. The Chiefs always destroy the Raiders. Never bet against Patrick Mahomes versus the Raiders. And I would bet on all the

overs of Mahomes, all the overs and the Chiefs, the points. I want Chiefs laying points. Chiefs Money Line everything. I love the Chiefs this week. If you've been thinking about joining Fandall, there's no better time to get in on the action. The app is so easy to use, and there's so many different ways to bet. Live seeing game parlays.

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First online real money wager, only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-witrable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt, see terms at sportsbook.fandul.com. Next up here, we have the Bears. They're going to be fifth as of this moment. So in this world, they have a quarterback.

Let's say they took Caleb Williams or Drake May. They don't have a second rounder. Chicago traded the second rounder to Washington for Montez Sweat. So this fifth pick is their first, or sorry, they're only picked till the third round. I feel like you still have to go offense if you're Chicago, right? Like they've poured so much into the defense. They have Darnell Wright, who they took it right tackle last year.

they have DG Moore, but I don't know right here. I feel like they have to go receiver offensive line. Do you feel that way, Solek? Yeah, I think that once you invest in the quarterback, you're now in the position where you invest in offense. I think defensively they've done a nice job. Like D.K. brought up there. They're a lot better than they were.

I think that the bears are a classic example of when they make these moves. You're kind of like, all right, they paid a lot for T.J. Edwards. paid a lot for Montez Sweat. Like, in a vacuum, like these might be overpays. But then once it's all in the field on a Sunday, you're like, oh, professional players. Like the defense is fixed. It doesn't really matter

whether they're being paid anymore. This is a lot better of a unit. So defensively, I like where they're at. Offensively, the tackle situation is tricky because Braxton Jones, who's a fifth round pick

for them two years ago to southern Utah, has looked like a player for whom the light bulb is coming on, has looked like a player for whom you can kind of leave at left tackle and feel good.

He was injured and he missed a lot of October and not been super available. It's similar to fields where like these next few months are going to, or next few weeks are going to decide

a lot for him. Jones is kind of in a similar boat. With Darno Wright at right tackle, I don't mind if they feel like they can do Jones and Darnel Wright for another year and instead they go wide receiver, right? Chase Claypool was supposed to be a guy for them. His performance, his culture, his effort wasn't good. They got him out of the building. Now wide receiver two is Darnel Mooney, who like blew a critical block on fourth down that would have won in the game against the Browns. He has drops. Like he's also, to me, like a guy who's got effort questions and culture questions. They, I think, need a better running mate for D.J. Morris. So I would lean receiver here over tackle.

And in a class like this with Malik Neighbors at LSU, Keon, Coleman Coleman out of Florida, say, Ro Madoonsay, Ro Madoonsay out of Washington. There's a lot of good options. Dika, do you have a preference of those receivers of one you'd pick? I think I lean Malik Neighbors from LSU. That guy is crazy explosive. He's so much fun to watch.

To me, he's the most fun guy to watch. Maybe even over Marvin Harrison Jr. I think Marvin Harrison Jr. I think Marvin Harrison Jr. still gets the nod as the best receiver in this class. But neighbors, extremely explosive. Very exciting. I think he'd compliment DJ Moore. pretty well.

Give them like a vertical element. He can run after the catch. He's just really, really good. So like, like Solak was saying, there's like four or five guys, I think in this class,

outside of Harrison, that could be first rounders and high first rounders. Everyone who hasn't watched any Malik Neighbors film should watch Malik Neighbors film. He's a five-play prospect. You watch him move on the field

for a quarter and you go, oh yeah, future NFL, a future star, right? Okay, moving on. Like, it just moves different

than the other guys on the field do. Yeah. And the state format just writes itself because they had the Mahomes and Ma Auto and now it's like his name's neighbors. Boom. Wow. That's how advertising works. Free advertising.

There you go. That is how advertising works. All right. Next up here. Kai, four minutes for the Giants. The Giants are here at six. Four? Four.

The Giants. Clear your schedule. First of all, first of all, can we just talk about how? Oh, it's a giant. The Giants. We were supposed to be talking. about whether the Giants would get Drake May or Caleb Williams. And my beloved Tommy DeVito, which was a lovely six-week fling of like Tommy Cutlets,

his mother making his bed. This is a great story. Having said that, he has played the Giants into the sixth pick. And I'm now sitting here asking you guys about Bo Nix at Oregon. Yeah. And like all these guys who, once again, I'm coming back on the quarterback thing. Because I'm like, I don't, the Giants passed on Daniel Jones or Justin Herbert because they had Daniel Jones. They had already drafted him.

I don't care about the Jones contract. They can get out of it. One mistake shouldn't mean you keep making mistakes. If one of these guys is a great quarterback, the Giants should take him. I want a quarterback or a fun receiver, but obviously you have to start a quarterback. But my issue with all these guys left in the board, Jaden Daniels and Bo Nix or Michael Pennix, Jr., who I'm interested in, is that they all have been in college for like six years. Like they're pre-p—think right now, if you're listening.

Where were you in, like, August of 2019? Because these guys were playing college football. Like, C.J. Stroud was like a junior in high school. And Michael Pennick's junior enrolled in college and played football. And then C.J. Stroud is now going to, like, be offensive rookie at the year and maybe lead the Texas to a playoff game. And all these guys are still playing college football. And I hear what you're saying, D.K., about how maybe that's a good thing.

But I'm like, if it took you six years to be good in college football, you get like two and a half in the NFL. How could you possibly adjust? Right. I think, I mean, with Daniels, he was pretty good early on. career and then he kind of bounced around in terms of like his teammates cleared out his locker and put it on Instagram live and we're like this guy sucks and then he won the high I don't know how college I don't are you saying you want a quarterback or you do not I want one of these guys to

be good and I'm worried I'm talking myself into a candy picket and I need an intervention if you can just let him know which one will end up good that's the one he prefer to high fits his point about jane daniels he threw touchdown pass to brandon iuk in college he was at a Arizona state and then he transferred LSU that like that like saying that is like whoa that's weird dude dude If you grabbed 2018, 2019 Ben, except at the time I was covering the draft full time and I was covering the Pack 12 and you put Jaden Daniels film in front of me

which I was watching him and said, this man, eventual top 10 pick after reading the Heisman, I would have been like, fix the time travel machine. You are a wizard. Like, there's no chance. That's the thing I'll say about Daniels relative to like Knicks and Pennix

and some of these other quarterbacks who've been doing it for a lot of years. Pennix, like he's been in college for so long because he's had these injuries, right? when he was healthy at Indiana, he was making NFL caliber throws. He still is at Washington. Nix has absolutely gotten better. I think a lot of that is the experience and the comfort kind of knowing what you can and can't get away with.

Daniels looks legitimately like a much different athlete than he did at Arizona State. Like at Arizona State, you were like, oh, he can run. And LSU, you're like, oh, he can run away from everyone. Like the actual wheels, he seems remarkably faster, remarkably more dangerous, true dual threat at LSU relative to what it was at Arizona State. So he's the one that interests me the most because. because physically he's become something new over his time in college. I agree with that. And Jaden Daniels is the one who pulls up my heartstrings as Giants fan.

If they don't get a quarterback, though, I feel like I want the Giants. They have a fun receiver. The Giants, I'm so like, you know how the chiefs have like Travis Kelsey, but then they have like Justin Watson and Marcus Vald as Scantling and all these guys who are more terrible to watch? The Giants' offense is like that, but they don't have Travis Kelsey. It's just all these skill players. Juan Dale.

No, Wondell Robson. A little Jayland Hyatt, Hyatt, little Dary, Slayton, not having a good time. Hyatt's good. I like Hyatt. I want a fun, yes, they're all excellent role players. Like, I look at, to your point, Roman, Roma Dunes. I'm not going to be able to say this. O'Donze.

O'Donzee for Washington. He is so fun. And I, I feel like that's the guy. I would be thrilled if the Giants ended up with Roma. Hyvitz, don't you think all of this is, like, the perfect example? Like, where your headspace is right now is exactly why your brother was incorrect in enjoying the Tommy DeVito wins. That's what I said.

I was like, look, I'll enjoy it. Oh, Tom, Tom, Tommy. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. Hyphitz fell for the DeVito stuff. Like he bought it. It's like, you know, you have a couple drinks. You don't think about the hangover. And then you wake up Sunday morning and you're like, man,

why did I trade away today for last night? I never changed my mind about the Giants would be better off losing because I'd rather end this. The Tommy DeVito thing was I actually have no control over this. So I should enjoy Tommy DeVito randomly being great. I disagree. You should have been mad the entire time. That's how you should live life. Yeah.

All I know is that at this time last year, we were in pods. Hyvitz was like, oh, the Daniel Jones extension's going to be crazy. And I was like, don't do this to yourself, man. And then here we are a year later, just don't do this to yourself, man. It's not the future. So, like, what would you do if the two big quarterbacks are off the board? And basically it's just Jane Daniels or Bonix or whoever, Pennix. Would you rather stick with Daniel Jones and pick like a skill player or an offensive

alignment or whatever maybe? Giants have picked a lot of offensive alignment lately that hasn't necessarily worked out for him. But what do you think is the best course of action in that specific scenario? I love the idea of Daniels with a small trade back if I can achieve it. I'd much rather take the role on him at 15 instead of five, right? That is a big difference overall in terms of the picks that you can get. I'm not sure you're going to be able to pull that off. Can I push back?

Can I ask you about that? So, like, that's exactly what people said about Daniel Jones is you should take him, but you shouldn't take him this high. And to me, and I'm charged here. But I don't understand why, because if you're saying, this guy's the future of our team, but also we don't actually think we should take him quite this high. I'm like, he's either good enough to take him or he's not. And the idea that we should like risk not having this guy that you want to build around,

I'm like, I feel like if the guy's not good enough to take at six, I don't even want him. So I largely agree with you. I will say that in the Daniel Jones example, they had both six and 18. So now that it was just, are you going to take him at six, you're going to take him at 18? It's kind of the conversation. Here it's, okay, if I can move back from five to like 12 and in the process, potentially get like a future first, then if I miss out on, Daniels or if Daniels doesn't work, I have ammo in the back pocket to move off of Daniel Jones

go trade for somebody, right? I like the idea of hedging the bet a little bit there because I don't have the two picks right now. I only have the one. So to me, like, that's where the value at is. If you believe in the guy, though, you do have to pay the premium. You sit there at six, you sit there at five and you take him. And I'm not going to, you know, I wouldn't hop on this show after the draft and be like, man, I would have loved if the Giants could have got Daniel, or could have got Jaden Daniels at 12, but they got him at five. So I hate the pick. I'd just say, all right, you know, they felt like they had to stay there and take him. They felt like someone was going to trade up to get him.

So you have to pay the premium price. That's the nature of picking quarterbacks. All right. Thank you guys for indulging me. I'm incredibly emotional about all this. All right. Next up here, we have the New York Jets whose seventh pick, which five and nine. I got to tell you, after all this is so funny that the Jets, after all of this

with Aaron Rogers are going to have a significantly higher pick this year than they did last year, which is unbelievable. And again, just as a reminder, when the Jets did the Aaron Rogers trade, there was a stipulation that if he played, I think it was 65% of the snaps. They'd send a first rounder. And if not, second rounder. Well, never mind, 65% of the snaps. He didn't actually play six snaps for the Jets. He's not coming back? Is it going to play?

Well, he did medically clear. Why would you believe he would come back? Who led you to believe D.K.? It's very unreasonable that he would come back. Feels like we've been talking about it a lot lately. He looks good out there. You see him throwing in shorts on the sideline? I heard he picked off a pass as a defensive scout team safety and that meant something. You know the meme of Eric Andre

shooting Hannibal Burris and being like, who would do this? It's just every week to Aaron Rogers. I'm going to come back, being like, why you guys think I'm going to come back? Who shot Hannibal? So here's the thing. I'm curious. So the Jets, you know, Robert Solis,

if he comes back as head coach, Aaron Rogers, the general manager of the New York Jets. I'm curious, D.K., who do you think since, I mean, Joe Douglas works there, but Aaron Rogers is the GM, as I understand it, since office coordinator Nate Hackett, Tim Boyle, the backup quarterback, Raidle Cobb,

Alan Zard and Dalvin Cook. We're all kind of signed by Rogers. D.K., who do you think Rogers takes as the Jets'DM in this draft? A receiver. Trade for Aaron Jones? Some old guy that he trusts and knows implicitly. No, I think it's like... David Bakhtiari just trades this pick for...

I feel like you have to go offensive line, right? For as bad as the receivers are behind Garrett Wilson, the offensive line is more important to... I mean, look at literally what happened to Aaron Rogers to start the season. Like, you have to keep him up, right? That's your number one priority. Yeah. Right?

I mean, that would make more sense, but my, the reason I said receiver is because, like, the Packers refused to pick a receiver in the first round for the entire time that he was in Green Bay. And it's like, Rogers is making decisions based on prior, like, spite and things like that. So that would be, like, my guess. The funniest answer would be quarterback if they just took a quarterback to sit behind Rogers. But, no, I agree with Craig. I have to take a line here. So, like, I'm curious. So Foshano from Penn State off the board, Joe Alt from Notre Dame is, like, widely seen as the next best.

tackle and also just as a lineman. I love a six-letter full name. That's just so great. Joe Waltz. Right out of the 50s. Joe Alt feels like, you know, right, the guy that in 50 years, they'll look back and be like, oh, Joe Walt, yeah, for sure, Joe Walt.

Steve Holt from arrested development. Steve. Joe! Joel! Alt's the pick for sure. I know that there are J.C. Latham fans out there who's the tackle out of Alabama. I don't think he holds a candle to Alt.

It's a bad class to need a guard. I just need an interior player. And for the Jets, I think that they have shuffling that they can achieve because like Elijah Vera Tucker and his versatility. But I imagine they see their bigger need

as tackle and tackle is the right spots. Like, alt would be the pick. I will say, by the way, the Jets haven't picked outside of the top half of the first round. Frick!

I think it says 2016 at this point. Their last seven first round picks have been 6, 3, 3, 3, 11, 2, 4, and 15. This is what I said. When I looked at the dock, I'm like, the Jets are picking in the top 10 again. What is going? It is astonishing how well the Jets do it not being good.

The Grey Anatomy is still on? Wow. 20 seasons, huh? The Simpsons? They're still making new Simpsons. Next up here, we have the Chargers 5 and 9. I actually think this is more, this is sadder than the Jets picking 7th is the Chargers picking 8th.

The Chargers are cursed. Brandon's Daly, the head coach has been fired. Justin Herbert's out for the. season. They fired the GM, Tom Telesco. I'm curious just before we even talk about who they take. And also, the cap situation isn't great. They kind of did the

thing where everyone knew they were going to be fired, so they spent a lot of money and it didn't work. So now there's just a lot of money spent. Anyway, I'm curious, D.K., do you think this is like the best job a coach your GM could take because you're in Southern California? You have Justin Herbert? Or is this like getting the job

at the Shining Hotel for the summer for the winter? Why are you guys considering me? This is a little bit weird. Yeah, 100% that's the dilemma that you have here. It's like every offensive coach is going to want to work with Justin Herbert. That makes this a good job. Like, this makes it a very attractive job.

But at the same time, you're taking over what has been like a doomed ship, you know, for the last, however many decades. Just never seems to work out. They have, like, a curse. Whenever, when Hyphids brought up, like, who should. they pick here? I'm like, I don't know. He's just going to get hurt. Like, what differences are make? I'll tell you exactly who they should pick. Easiest pick that anyone's ever made.

They should take their draft prospect board, cross out the seven names went before them, sort by 40-yard dash, fastest to slowest, and whoever's at the top of the list, take them, right? This team is so dramatically lacking speed, right?

And that was the big criticism with Telesco. Tolesco was one of those GMs that had pretty austere guard. rails, right? Flusco liked big bodies. He was going to draft players with size, players who were big enough to survive the hits at the NFL level. It still didn't work.

They had a ton of injuries. But he generally was like, I believe in big dudes GM. And accordingly, they just never had any team speed, right? Even at wide receiver, right? Go look at the speed threats they tried to get. It was Tyron Johnson and Jalen Giton and Quentin Johnston,

all these guys who are fast, but guess what they also were? Big. He refused to draft any smalls. And so you as a new philosophy bring into the building, whoever the new GM is, the hope is that they're going to, going to put a greater premium on athleticism.

So that way you can actually spread and shred with a quarterback in Herbert who's built to spread and shred because of the velocity of his throws, because of the way he processes on the field, you want to create space and create matchups. And they've just been so condensed over time. And so I would love to see them get speed offensively. The corner room desperately needs help. This is a good Kool-Aid McKinery spot. It's a good Nate Wiggins spot.

It's the corner out of Clemson, who I think is going to be that first corner off the board. You have to be able to add dynamic athletes to your quick-twitch positions. wide receiver and light corner. And so they're going to draft Brock Bowers at eight and it's going to piss me off. That's the Chargers. That's the one of the one. I was actually going to, yeah, I was going to suggest that. It might be kind of fun to have Brock Bowers on the team.

But yeah, then they just keep running into the same non-speed problem. Well, can't they get a speedy guy in the second or the third or the third? Is there a speedy guy that warrants the eighth overall pick? Craig, Craig, Craig, they should get a speedy guy at the first round pick and then at the second round pick and then at the third round pick. Every single pick just sort by 40 times. So slow. It does get, it's only, it was so amazing that they took Quentin Johnson, who doesn't really have the hands to catch Herbert passes, but he's that fast.

But so, like, important question, though, you mentioned getting a speedy guy. You, I believe you read, did you run, you run cross country in high school, correct? Yep. If you got to train for the 40-yard dash, like for a couple months the way the prospects do, how fast do you think you could run a 40-yard dash? I could get like 5-0s, but at the same time. Jake Bobo ran a 499. Do you think you could beat Jake? Bobo.

No. It's worth noting, I did at one point run the 40-yard dash when I was covering the draft, and I was fast, but I was not good at staying on a straight line. It's my first, like, 10-15 yards. There's a clip of it on the internet. I'm sure a listener's going to have it. My first 10-15 yards, I'm just wiggling back and forth. A lot of a lot of horizontal movement.

So I would need to get with one of those trainers to teach you how to get out of the blocks. I'll train it. I'll do it. I'll train you. D.K. seems to think we can all run like 4-8. He thinks Craig could run a 4-8. I was in with Craig? No way. I'm not, I think I could, I think you could break five. I think you could break five flat. I think you're out of your tree. We're out on the 40-yard dash and we're going to have to, we're going to have to interrogate the 40-yard dash. At the combine last year, the combine last year, they had like a fan run the 40-yard-dash experience. I don't know if we'll have it again this year, but we will be present. I still support the ring or combine. We should have a ring or combine. Yeah, you would, Craig, athlete that you are. I'm not even fast. I just want to know, I just want to know the specs. I support the ringer-

standardized test. I support a ringer SAT. I feel like that's where I would, that's where I would thrive. That's my area. But we've already done the SAT. We know what our scores are. I want to know what our combines score.

Let's play Ringer Jeopardy. How about that? Love Jeopardy. Oh, Claire McNair probably would win that one. That's true. Yeah. Next up, Tennessee Titans. Five and nine.

Ninth pick. Kind of like a fun five and nine, though. You know what I mean? Like a frisky five and nine. William Lewis. Our son. Our first point son. Billy jeans.

Have you guys watched some Will Levis film recently? What is this young man on? Who does he think he is? I love him to death. It's easy. This is the easiest evaluation of any player in the NFL. It's the Robin Williams joke that God gave man a brain and a penis, but not enough blood to run both at the same time.

Will his arm, though. He is exactly what I thought he would be in the very best way. Yeah. That man can throw the football. I think that we fell for this when Josh Allen was coming out. I think teams were like, have you seen him throw him? a football. Like, that's the only thing that matters. Have you seen him throw? And then when you watch Will Levis, chuck a football, you're like, I can fix him. I can do, I can work with this.

Ready to risk at all. He can do anything. He can do anything. As long as he can throw like that, I'm fine with it. Like, that's how I feel watching him. Will Levis is going to have people believing him and buying in him for a long time because they're just going to watch him practice like two times in August to go through 60-yard balls perfectly. And like, all right, we got to get that in a game environment. Even if it never comes to pass, I mean, four years in, they're going to be like, listen, you had a great week of practice. You see him spin the thing. We got to get him out there.

Levis is kind of just like brawock drew lock, isn't he? He's frat boy Ryan Tannahill. Frat boy, Ryan Tannahill. This Ryan Tannahill with a hat on backwards, man. I will say, Derek, so Derek Henry might be gone. Ryan Tannhill is probably gone. So it's just them building around with Levis. So I don't know.

I mean, what would you want to do here? Like, if we're building around, we can fix him. Do you want to give? I think the Titans, honestly, it's not in their nature of the current team, but they kind of have to go. wide receiver here, especially if DeAndre Hopkins ends up leaving. The tight, I mean, I feel like for two or three years now, we've been saying how desolate the Titan's skill players are.

But if Derek Henry's gone and if Hopkins either stays or he's 32, I mean, the Titans top players will be basically undrafted for agents and guys that couldn't make other teams. And Trailingbergs. And Trailingbergs, who I forgot about. I haven't sold my stock. I still like Traylenberg stock. I still believe. But yeah, I think, I think, so this is like a similar situation to like the

Bryce Young question where it's like, is Bryce Young bad? Maybe, probably. Or is the surrounding sporting cast just atrocious and he is just not good enough to elevate that group? And I think this is the same question you're going to have with Will Levis, not just this year, but like next year and maybe the next year going forward. Like they need to really add, I think receiver talent. They just need to, you know, this is like an offense that I don't think many

quarterbacks are going to like really put up big numbers in at this point just because they're so like, they just want to run. the ball, like bring opponents down to their level, like get a little bit of variance at the end and win the game kind of deal. It's funny. I feel like the last five teams that we've discussed, we all recommend taking a wide receiver. We're a fantasy show, Craig, you know? Right.

I think wide receiver is defensible. To me, the two biggest needs on the Titans roster are offensive tackling corner. I think like wide receiver obviously like Hopkins, you keep them, obviously he leaves, it becomes a bigger need. But I think there's free agent wide receivers that you can bring in and like they like Nick Westbrook and Keen. Like he works for them. They're going to be a heavy team. they're going to put multiple tight ends out there. Their tackle situation is abysmal, right?

This is a team that gave Andre Diller to big contract, and then was like, wait a minute, he's not good? He doesn't even remotely fit our personality or identity. That's weird. And then corner-wise, they're bad when their starters are on the field, and both of their starters, Christian Fulton and Sean Murphy Bunting are free agents. And so a lot of this depends on where they spend their money and free agency.

But right now I love where they're at draft-wise. Bottom of the top 10 is great to need a tackle in a corner. Because to me, that's like, the end of Fashonu-A-Lt range, and that's the beginning of Wiggins and, and Koolaid McKinstree, and then they're right there with those needs. And so I think they're in a good spot for addressing those two positions.

Next up, Falcons, six and eight, they have the 10th pick, which is hilarious because three straight years, they've had a top ten pick on a skill player they don't use. I don't know, Craig, do you think that's going four in a row here?

To me, this is very simple. If you're the Falcons, you fire Arthur Smith, and you hire Ben Johnson, and you draft Michael Pennix, and you live your life. You live your life. like it's like those two days words like one fire arthur smith two hire ben jonson three draft michael

peddx four question mark five prosper like that easy plan baby it's a very simple three step process do we do we think that at this point that arthur smith i can't answer the question because i'm too biased about this do you think he's coached his way out of a job at this point no you think he's going to stick yeah i mean there was a report a couple weeks ago that was like barring absolute disaster he's going to have his job and i think that is losing to the panthers not an absolute disaster i think i think i think i think It is the beginning of absolute disaster, but sadly, disaster is still recoverable when the leaders of your division are the seven and seven saints and the seven bucks and you're only a game out.

That's so stupid, though, like, just because you're six and eight in a terrible conference, that shouldn't affect your opinion of a coach. It's because technically they're still in contention. You should own a team, Craig, but I'll ask you. You do not. Not yet. I think this is the toughest thing owners have to do because constant turnover is awful and probably the worst thing you can do for your organization.

But also, when our guy, the other problem is that what we just were talking about earlier where, like, the charges spent all this money and free agency to fix the defense and stuff because Staley and Teleskin, they'd be fired if they didn't make the playoffs, and it didn't work, and now they're screwed. The Falcons, Arthur Smith's going to go in the next season knowing that he really has

to do stuff. And I don't know. Honestly, whoever just decided, no offense, Solac, I know you love Desmond Ritter, but I don't know how the Falcons went into this season with Desmond Ritter and Taylor Hineckee as their honest to God, like best options. at quarterback. And I don't know.

I'm so torn about this Falcons team. But I just, whoever decided Desmond Ritter would be the quarterback entering this season, I feel like should not make this pick. The theory, right, is like, okay,

like we have the infrastructure to develop a quarterback because our offensive line is so good. We have such good weapons and we run the football well. And then none of that happened, right? Like the Falcons, I derailed the Falcons and I also

force, for speaking about them again, like literally yesterday on the NFL show. So I resent being put in this position. But the Falcons were supposed, supposed to be like, we run the ball and then we go play action shot. They're 23rd in the league in Russian success rate. Like, their running game fell to pieces.

And that's why Arthur Smith is responsible. It's what he's supposed to bring. It's supposed to be what's unique about him. So they lost the environment to develop Ritter, who at one point in the season, the Falcons are four and three. Ritter was one of the best quarterbacks in the league by success, right? Like, he was one more accurate quarterbacks in the league. They were being successful.

And then he had a bunch of turnovers and they decided to bench him. And for some reason, that hurt his development. Like, who could have seen that coming? Were you bench it for Taylor Hinekeke for two and a half games? You lose all three of those Hinekeke games. back out there while you're already now below 500. So they did a bad developmental job on Ritter. They're going to do a bad developmental job of the next guy.

I once again, give two, give a second or something more, get Justin Fields on the Falcons. He's from Georgia. Just put him around all these guys. All right. That'd be fun. Emails. A couple of emails that want to hit up here. Emails.

Emails that ring your fancy football at gmail.com. If you have questions about, we have a lot to talk about here. Anything you want to hear. But people emailed in asking a lot about Caleb Williams. and we described Kailin Williams as basically gifted, like a prodigy when doing off-script stuff, but we haven't seen him play in rhythm yet, not because he can't,

but because perhaps he hasn't had to and they asked him be a superhero at USC. And there's a risk that maybe holds on the ball a long time, tries to be a hero, takes sacks in the process, hunting for big plays, et cetera, et cetera. Also, he's just six foot one, not as tall as you think. And Ryan emailed in to say that that just sounds like a description

of Johnny Mansell without the off-field issues. And then Chesky emailed in to say that sounds like a description of Zach Wilson. DK, would you like to respond to Caleb Williams as Zach Wilson? Yeah, the Zach Wilson one is great. And I think Ben actually beat me to the punch on this one. He tweeted it like in the summer.

So kudos to Ben. But yeah, basically the take I was workshopping a little bit is that he, Caleb Williams is like who everyone wanted Zach Wilson to be like stylistically. A guy with a big arm, you know, he can move around. He can scramble. He's a playmaker. But mainly he's just like has a really, really. strong, you know, elastic arm.

He can make plays, you know, out of structure and off platform. So, Ben, what was your, you added the description that was like, I think pretty perfect. Yeah. So when I was watching Caleb in the summer, like, before this, this year's worth of film, I was watching him being like, oh, like, when everyone was describing Zach Wilson in the 2021 draft process and I was watching Zach Wilson being like, what are you guys seeing? This is not happening at all. This is the guy they were watching.

Right. They were watching Caleb Williams film and thought he was his name was Zach Wilson. Like I think that the question of like, oh, he sounds like the Johnny Mansell arc. He sounds like the Zach Wilson. Right. Like when I watched both Johnny and Zach Wilson, I was like, I don't get what people are talking about. Like we're selling a bill of good on these guys. It's like a generational thrower and like a ludicrous arm and unbelievable playmaker.

And both Johnny and Zach do that. That's where their strengths are. But I don't see them as like 99th percentile. I see them as like 85th and 90th. Caleb is actually the truth of that. Right. I think that like a lot of the hype on Johnny, a lot of the hype on Zach was misleading. and that was part of the reason why those guys were overdrafted

and underperformed relative to expectation, I think it is accurate to say that Caleb is generational in terms of his playmaking ability when he does outside of structure with the arm allows him to do so and so forth. I think he's the real case, not like the bloated inflated case, the real case of what this might look like.

That doesn't guarantee he'll be successful, but that is to say that if you're like, oh, I've been burned on Johnny Manzal, I've been burned on Zach Wilson, I don't know about Caleb Williams. I would say, you know, we gassed up to Johnny Manzell. We gassed up Zach Wilson in that description. Caleb is the real thing

where if he hits rocket ship to the moon. Yeah, and I'd also add to that like Caleb Williams physically is much more gifted than Mansell or Wilson and bigger. Like he's thicker. Bigger being a big deal. I think like... Yeah, and so like to me it's

they, there's some similarities in the way that people describe them, but I don't see them as like similar players. If that makes sense. I think Caleb Williams has an incredible arm. He's big, thick, strong guy. He's, he's, he's like a really good runner. He'll like, he like bowled a guy over at the goal line at one point.

Like, yeah. The guy stood him up the goal line and Caleb Williams like carried him into the end zone. Like he's big, strong guy. I like Ben comparing him to Jalen Hertz physically. And that kind of like changed something in my brain when she said that. I went and looked at the two other and I was like, oh, right? Huge difference in terms of BMI. Yeah, where it's like Caleb

like actually can survive contact. He can justify playing the way that he does. Where when Zach Wilson runs around like that, once he gets hit, like he feels like he's going to crumble, right? The other thing I would say that's a bit critical about Caleb. Caleb checks the ball down. Right? Like what describes his ceiling, what describes why he's going to be the first overall

picking such an enticing prospect is what he does on the trick shots, the 50 yard throws, the out of structure throws. But Caleb will very cheerfully drop back, three step, drop, oh, you're giving me the shallow underneath and throw it right now. And that was a big criticism from me was Zach Wilson coming out where it was like, dude, you got to look at it and see it and take what they're giving you.

Caleb is more mature in the processing aspect than Johnny and Zach were. And also the Mahomes comparisons to Zach Wilson were kind of like insulting. But the Caleb Williams, just not that he'll be Mahomes, but when you watch Caleb Williams, it's hard not to think of Mahomes, because they have the keyhole test, right?

Every quarterback in the NFL can throw through a door and a lot of them can hit the knob and the best ones can hit the keyhole. Caleb Williams is one of the only people I've ever watched, like post Mahomes where I'm like, he can do that on one leg, on no legs, running backward. Like he can just hit the keyhole,

blindfold, 360, no scope. Yeah. The best throw I've ever seen in my life was in the Super Bowl. When the Chiefs were, remember when the Chiefs were down like 20 to the bucks in the Super Bowl at the fourth quarter and Mahomes did the Superman throw. And he was like, basically horizontal in the air and he hit, I think,

Jerich McKinner, he hit someone in the face and they didn't catch the ball for touchdown. And literally it was the best throw I've ever seen in my life. Horizontal Superman throws a ball 40 yards in a rope with like a foot off the ground. And the only, like Caleb Williams is like the guy that I feel like is capable of stuff like that. Like the left-handed touchdown passes like there's a basketball-esque like he thinks of things that I would never have thought of. Yeah. His off script, Sandlot stuff is the reason he's getting Mahomes

comps, I think, because, like, they, the way that they, like, waddle around, like, almost like their running gate is, like, kind of similar because they waddle around, but they avoid traffic. Like, Pablo Escobar, Narcos. Yeah, it's like, they avoid pass rushers. They scoot around and, like, make... They are both 0.1 mile per hour faster than the guy chasing.

At all time, just like, who-hoo-hoo-hoo! They're just like, Mario avoiding traps. They're fun to watch. So, all right, we have another email to hit here, which is from literally dozens of... of people. And we have, we talked about corn on the money show, Solek. Solek, we have a very important question for you. We have a Midwest past, fail test for you, whether, I'm not from the Midwest. But you're in Michigan. Okay, but here's the question, though.

Do you know when corn is supposed to be knee high? Fourth of July. Oh, God. You got to be knee high by the Fourth of July. Solac. You have no idea. We don't miss that. Yeah. There was a trivia question of what date was it supposed to be. And, I got an email from Mason that I think summarized the rage of everyone who listens to a show from the rage. Just anywhere knew that answer. Sorry. Jesus. It was like big mouse.

Rage. Rage. Rage. Rage. And Mason emailed in to say, me who grew up in a farm community in a rural Minnesota, listening to this and thought, lull, what a layup of a question.

Someone should know the saying, knee high by the 4th of July. And then he realized, wow, they're really not going to get this. And then he's like, well, at least D.K.

will laugh at the dorky rhyme. And then Hyphitz read the answer is knee high by July 4th. I laughed so hard My headphones just fell off I'm very embarrassed to be associated With three men who don't know The corn should be knee high by the 4th July Truly had no idea

Somebody tweeted us saying that like I literally had to pull the tractor over And calm myself down as I heard that I drove the tractor into the ditch I wouldn't be publicly admitting That you guys haven't grown porn That's kind of a tough look for you guys It's very very embarrassing The Ringer Coastal League podcast.

Craig claims that California is this big... I don't. Google does. But he doesn't know anything about corn. Listen, like 50% of the nation's soybeans are grown like 45 minutes from my house, man. Dude, soybeans are wild. Okay. Elaborate on that.

A whole podcast right there. Dude, soybeans are like the most essential global crop you've never thought of. I have. They're grown 45 minutes from my house. Well, yeah. Well, I was talking to the coastal elites over there. I didn't know with July 4th.

You live in Washington, Dese. And you're from New York. I, yeah. Settle down. I got on the Coastal Leeds podcast. My aunt actually, when she was in college, wrote a research paper and soybeans and did all this stuff and, like, like, worked for like, or no, it was for a job.

And she, like, she did everything about it. She did the price, how they were grown. Like, literally she could like, like a hundred page research paper and soybeans. And then was on a flight and someone was eating something. And, like, she tried it. And it was like, oh, what is this? And they were like, soybeans. She was like, not for me.

She had no idea what they looked like. I do like soybeans. I'm sorry to all the Midwesterners and everyone who thought that was such a layup question. I had never heard that. I grew up or I didn't grow up. I was born in Omaha, but I was four when I moved away to the city. And therefore, I did not inherit or absorb that information. Your city boy.

I know. So our two buildings. All right. That's all we got. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Sulaq. Thank you to all the Midwesterners and everyone everywhere who is really upset with us that

we didn't get that one. I'm sorry. I'm here for you. Sorry. All right. We're sorry, baby. We don't mean to upset you. We never try.

Thank you, Kai, for producing this episode. Thank you for help behind the scenes. Thank you, Dan Komer for research help. Thank you, Lauren. Lauren. Thank you, Depeche Mode. Who is that? But you don't know Depeche Mode, but D.K., you had a great chance.

You didn't know that, of course, we need to have on 4th July. By July 4th. Is that like, you know what? That's like the two buildings. That's like when Craig was like, it's the two buildings. Well, that's good. Anyway, you could have named the band Corn. That's all I was going to say.

Oh, God, damn it. Just do that again. I really messed that up. It wouldn't be organic, which is important. Like corn, yeah. Corn growing, right? There it is. But Depecheon's good.

They're like an English rock band from the 80s. You would recognize some of their songs. They don't have a lot of thoughts on it, though. Ben, what's your favorite band? Lewis Del Mar was the top of my Spotify rap this year. They're a lot of fun. Not familiar.

Yeah. They're just, that's just usual indie hipster stuff. I heard of them, you didn't. I saw them live. Yeah, yeah,

that was crazy. Wait, Tiki, wasn't there a thing where you and Kevin Clark realized you were at the same random concert outside Orlando in like 1997? Yeah. Back in,

uh, I think it would have been 2002. We both, I, a couple of buddies of mine flew to Florida to go see a Weezer concert because we had missed the Weezer tour when it came to like Washington

and we're like, F it, we're going to go to Florida because my buddy had, my buddy's grandpa lived in Florida like many grandpas do and so we stayed with him in Tampa and I was telling Kevin about this and he was like, dude, I was at that concert and Kevin was like in high school

or sorry, like a middle school at the time or elementary school so a little bit of an age difference. That's kind of like how CJ Strowd was at junior in high school and Bo Nix was a quarterback in college. I was in college at the time. But yeah, we crossed past. It's like we were talking about yesterday

with like our whole lives led to that moment and Kevin Clark was in the audience. Yeah, what is it? Sonder is that it called? Sonder. Yeah, 15 years later, whatever it was, we were coworkers. Wild, wild, wild shit. I can't let you flew across the country at, I guess you were in high school to go see a concert.

That's like, that's the quite the... What's the furthest possible distance you could travel? in the continental United States. Quite the trip for Weezer. You must really love them. Loved Weezer at the time. I mean, still love listening to their music.

I don't really follow anymore. Hyphus, would you fly across the country to see any artist right now? I flew across the country to see Porter Robinson. I flew from L.A. to Brooklyn for 30 hours to do that when it was a new turn.

All right. Never mind. See what? Port of Robinson. I actually don't know who that is. Porter? You're saying? Some say he's the weiser of

the edium seat now he's love Porter Robinson Porter Porter are you saying Pam? I wonder how many jet fuel emissions were put into the atmosphere by people flying to see Taylor Swift this year probably a lot.

Don't pull that thread so like there's the whole thing about Taylor Swift herself flying privately. Be careful Ben. Be careful. We're going to get canceled. Every time, every time Kirk Herbstree posts that clip on his social where he's like I'm flying to Jackson over Thursday night football and then on Friday

I'm traveling back home and then on Saturday I'm going to game day and then I'm going to Arizona cover. I'm always just like, man, the ozone. Here's my take. Taylor Swift should fly private. She's fucking Taylor Swift. What else is she going to do? She's supposed to hop on a flight, sit first class? That ain't going to work.

She's the most famous person on the planet right now. They have carbon credits. They should have private jet credits. It's like Taylor Swift gets one. Curr-Curve Street. Let them drive. Until we build an electric plane, I think she's allowed to fly privately. I know that sucks for the environment, but I genuinely don't see what else she can do.

Oh, Craig, just an elitist. Kirk Herbstrude is not getting mentioned by the Fed as helping the local economy the United States. That's true. Big difference. Well, I'm not going to do my Herbstrope right now. All right. Goodbye, everyone.

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