The Ringer NFL Show - Texans Trade Up for No. 3, Will Levis Falls, and More Round 1 Instant Reactions

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

The guys share their instant reactions to the most exciting picks and trades from the first round of the 2023 NFL draft, including the Houston Texans trading up for back-to-back picks in the top three, Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson going to the Indianapolis Colts, Kentucky quarterback Will Levis falling outside of Round 1, head-scratching decisions from the Detroit Lions, and more (1:05). Finally, they close with emails and America’s favorite segment: Two Jargons, One Lie (65:23). Check out our 2023 Ringer NFL Draft Guide here! Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Ben Solak, Craig Horlbeck Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers from the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's a new year and I have a new podcast here at the Ringer, Offguard, hosted by me and my guide, Pasha Higigi. Austin and I go way back and talk so much hoop already that we figure those time to fire up the mics and let you in on all of these conversations. Every week, Pasha and I will hit on the biggest stories happening in the league.

And get Austin's perspective of someone currently hooping in the NBA. Tap into Offguard every Friday on the Ringer NBA show feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. My name is Danny Hyphitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly, Ben Slock and Craig Krollbeck. And round one is over, and we are kind of loopy. You can go check out Danny Kelly's draft grades at NFLdraft.3.com, where he gave all your favorite teams great grades,

except for the Lions who kind of suck. Oh. We're going to go through the biggest screw-ups, the biggest steals of the 20-20threat draft, the boring picks that will be a hall of famers, the Eagles just becoming the University of Georgia graduate school. But first, we're going to run down the top five picks in this year's draft. Yeah.

Just a quick recap. Carolina takes Bryce Young quarterback from Alabama first. Houston takes C.J. Stroud. Ohio State quarterback. Then trades up again for some reason to take Will Anderson defensive end from Alabama. Indianapolis takes Anthony Richardson quarterback from Florida. Seattle. Then your beloved Sealks, D.K.

Devon Wetherspin quarterback from Illinois. I want to start with Carolina Bryce Young. I don't know how much time we even need to spend this. This is the only pick that we kind of knew the entire time. Right. It's the only thing that went according to plan, I feel like. Good pick, I guess. I'm a little worried about his size, but good player.

We've done Bryce Young to the Panthers. CJ Stroud to the Texans? Like, holy crap. How do we feel about that? How do we feel about that D.K. CJ Stroud of the Texans? Here's the thing. For all the consternation, a bunch of idiots like me, thought we'll love us might be this pick. But CJ Stroud is the right pick for the Texans here, right?

Yeah, and we're going to hear different versions of how the Texans ended up making this pick? Because during the day on Thursday today, we heard there were some whispers that the owner had stepped in and told basically Nick Casario and company that this is the pick. You guys can't screw this up. We're taking CJ Stroud. Stop messing around with this Will Levis stuff.

Unsure how real that is, but at the end of the day, they backed into the CJ Stroud pick, which I really like. I gave them an A plus because he is my top ranked quarterback. I think he's a high floor, hyper-accurate passer, very steely, very, you know, great, great poise. I just like everything about him. I think that there are some worries in terms of his ability to, like, do things out of structure.

But like he flashed enough to me to make him think, to make me think that he can do that at the NFL level. So, yeah, the Texans made the right pick here, I think. What happened? What happened? Will Levis was minus 1500, like eight hours ago to be the second pick in the draft. No one was talking about C.J. Stroud. going 7th of Texas. What happened?

Ted. CJ Stroud only started to move today. And I think that a lot of the framework for the discussion for the pick in the days leading up to the draft, the week leading up to the draft was like, well, they like the edges better than the quarterbacks, but the owner might make them take a quarterback. And Will Levis is the second quarterback on their board. So presumably it will be Will Levis. Like if they get forced him to a quarterback, it'll be him because they can't get Bryce Young,

so they'll get the second guy on their board. Then just today you start to get CJ Stroud hype at the pick. it starts to move a little bit. It's like, well, Nick Casario says, we don't care that David Mulligetta was his Asian and David Mulligetta was Deshaun Watson's Asian. Like, oh, that doesn't matter to us at all. But it's kind of like, all right, well, still,

like, you haven't been connected to Stroud across the entire process. There was never, ever, ever, ever, ever, any Texans to Stroud ever until the last 12 hours. Yeah. And it seems like for Cal McNair was the owner of the Texans. It was just, I want him. This is the quarterback I want.

And then... Stop fucking around. Right. And if we... And if we... Because you are not serious people. Yeah, everybody in the test of the organization. You're pre-industrians.

But then let's widen the scope a little bit, right? I think there's a clear sign that Stroud at two wasn't necessarily the pick that Casario wanted to make. Because he then went and got the third overall pick and took the guy that has long been rumored to be the next best dude on the board, Will Anderson. This is some mad and shit where you're like, I don't know who to pick. So I'm just going to trade up and take both guys. It's like when you have an auction draft and fantasy and you just spend like $55, on each on two different guys. Like I got Justin Jefferson and McCaffrey.

So I'm going to chill for a while. It very much was like, all right, like, Mr. McNair, we got your guy at two. We got Stroud. Can you leave the room now? Door shots find him. Okay, we got to go get Will Anderson, move up to three. We got to get a real player here. Like, it 100% is like the owner got to make one pick.

And the general manager got to make one pick. And that's how the Texans took 66% of the first three picks. Well, so like, my only question for you is, do you think that Nick Casar's, so Nick Casar is the gym, he came from the Patriots, but, you know, Jack used to be, which is a whole other thing. kind of hired Nick Casario and Jack Easterby got fired. And now D'emico Ryan comes in as the head coach. He's a six-year contract.

And we've seen before, it's a little weird, but we've seen before in the last five years where a GM, when they're kind of like the lame duck GM, sometimes they get fired in January. But sometimes the new coach comes in and is like, I'm not going to fire you and waste all the work you've done scouting these players. Right. We're just going to keep you through the draft. You can do all the grunt work. We're going to pick whoever we want.

And then we're going to fire you like the week after the draft. So I feel like there's two things that have happened here. Either this draft was like that scene in Game of Thrones when Tyrion tells like three different people his plan. Yeah, yeah. Of like who he's going to marry off Mercil to just to find who's leaking to Circe. And the Texans either did that on purpose and masterfully did this. Or DeMiko Ryans is just in charge and Nick Aserr is just going to get fired next week and go back to the Patriots like every other former Patriots person. I think because the Texans got a quarterback at two, Nick Aserio is not getting fired next week.

Like I think that like the the guy who signs Casero's checks, the owner wanted the quarterback, and he got a quarterback. So he's happy for now. And if Stroud's good, then Casario gets to chill and claim all the credit, right? Like, immediately what does Rapaport tweet out after the pick is made? The Texans get their guy at two, the guy they've always wanted it, too. The unquestionable pick since day one, C.J. Stroud. This being the same thing, rap was tweeting thing 72 hours ago about defensive players.

What are you talking about? He traded up to free for another guy. It's made up. So I think that the quarterback insulates Casario a little bit. but the dynamics in Houston are absolutely weird, which like Bill O'Brien takes over front office into Jack Easterby, into Deshaun Watson situation, into three head coaches in three separate years.

Me saying the Texans are a little bit weird. It's kind of like, all right, thanks, obvious, Captain obvious, you know what I'm saying? It's pretty clear. But yeah, I don't think the weirdness in Houston is done. With that said, the future of the Houston Texan offense for the next 10 years, theoretically, is C.J. Shroud, who, in my estimation, is the best quarterback in the class,

is a great player. The future of the Houston Texans defense for the next 10 years is Will Anderson, who in my estimation was a top three player in this class. The absolute bungling, the complete chaos

of this draft for the Texans might end up with two excellent players because that's how the NFL draft goes. Star and Scrubs. Yeah, what if they crush this though? It is Stars and Scrubs. It is real life. It's like everyone thinks they're crazy.

Like, whoa, we just got the best two players. You're mad about it? Yeah, like everyone looks at the deal. They're like, oh, they actually got swindled. They got fleece. And then like a week from now, we're just going to look back and be like, well, they have CJJ.

Stroud of Will Anderson. Well, yeah, like in, from my point of view, I haven't looked at my mentions yet. I'm sure I'm going to get some mad Texans fans because I gave the Will Anderson pick a C-plus. And even though he is my top-ranked player, I'm just like, I looked at the value. Look, they gave up number 12, number 33, so almost a first-round pick, the 20, the 2024 first-round pick, which could end up being very high, depending on whether it's theirs or Cleveland. Do we hear officially whether it was one or the other?

I can double check for you. I'm fairly certain it was theirs or not Cleveland. So that could be top five pick. A huge difference. Right. And then also a third round pick. Yes, it is Houston's pick. It is not Cleveland's pick.

So this could be a situation we're looking at with like the Broncos this year where they're giving, you know, how Seattle got the number five pick because the Broncos just sucked. And so this is a lot to give up. And this is how I grade. This is how I've always done it. If you're trading up, if you're trading multiple future first round picks for a non-quarterback, I always trade it down because it's just bad value. It's just not good business.

but that being said, they did get the top two players on my board, literally. So, good job. It wasn't great business in Draftier and Kevin Koster. It was like, I want my picks back. Yeah. You pancake eating motherfucker. Still haven't seen the movie, by the way. But you've heard the line.

Yeah, I know all the references. I will say, though, like, they did pay the Cardinals a lot. Like, there's no two ways around that. They did. For Will Anderson, if you start looking at it in the framework of, like, they got a franchise quarterback and a franchise. edge rusher for these cumulative picks a little bit better. But they did stay and take

C.J. Stroud with the pick they had and then trade a bunch of picks to go get an edge rusher. When we talk about Will Anderson, we're like, yeah, he's a great player, but he's not a Bosa. He's not a Garrett. And so it is a lot of eggs in the Will Anderson basket. They do need him to be good. I think to justify the trade, like really good, really fast. I think this

is D'Amico Ryan's just being like the San Francisco playbook with like, I understand you're saying not Nick Bosa, but I think in their mind they're like, yeah, I want a Nick Bosa and we're going to, you know, like, I want to get the Nick Bosa, but also don't want to do with the 49ers did where they just never got one. Or the owner was like, we're not going to do that. And they were like, all of we just do both.

Wow, we have all these picks that Casarra got. Let's just blow them all now, which he didn't want to do. Can we talk about the best thing that happened at the third pick was that Shams? Shams? Shams? I don't know, Shams. I don't know. Hives, were you aware of this?

He was tweeting out the picks. Like he was breaking the picks for the first three picks. He was correct for one and two. And then the third pick comes out. He tweets that the Cardinals are taking Will Anderson. It's incorrect. Oh, no. And he never tweeted again.

He never tweeted again the rest of the night. He quote tweeted and clarified. He was like, oh, he's like, I was wrong. Rap sheet got it. And then just the Texans took one of the same. He's like, this is, I'm like, this is a vice part. He was like, none of these guys are Victor Webbingiama. We're done.

I'm out. He's like, this is a prank. By the way, he tipped the Bryce Young pick literally like 20 minutes before they picked. Because he did it right at 5 o'clock and then they start and then they did all the intro bullshit that they do. So yeah, anyways, that was funny. Him just bailing after getting one wrong is so funny to me. Scared to compete. Yeah.

Go back to the NBA. Ben Simmons after he took one free pointer, but that's Shams. Is it Shams or Shams? Okay. I've heard of both ways. Now it's a sham. He's a sham. That brings us to the best pick of the entire draft or the most exciting one anyway.

I legit, Anthony Richardson to the cults, I think he's going to be Hall of Famer. DeK. can be otherwise. I think this is incredible. Credit to Chris Ballard, the GM of the Colts, who is, Again, Colts have had six week one quarterbacks in six years. And they, every time the Chris Ballard, the GM has asked, why don't you just draft a quarterback like a normal person instead of shuffling between Carson Wentz and Matt Ryan? He's always like, look, it's not about getting a guy.

It's about getting the right guy or else you guys will be mad at me and I'll be fired. And he just said that for five years in a row. And then, holy shit, this is the guy. Isn't it a D.K.? Yeah. And it's funny because it would be fun to go back and do like a montage of all the times we said, Chris Ballard likes big guys, likes big people. He definitely, like, lived up to his reputation that preceded him.

You know, I think this is a good landing spot for him. Shane Steichen coming in and can put, they can put Anthony Richardson on a development program similar to what they did with Jalen Hertz. In other words, make him a big part of the run game. You know, obviously Jonathan Taylor, this is going to be super fun to see what Jonathan Taylor does in this offense with Anthony Richardson, assuming he starts right away, which I guess we can't make that assumption necessarily. but and then you know ask him to do just develop slowly as a passer and get more weapons around him and do all that.

They didn't have to trade up to do this. So they have, you know, they have all their picks in theory going forward. And so this is a maybe not the best situation for him in the NFL, but it's a good situation for him. And I think he could develop in the system. I was going to ask out of this. So only three quarterbacks for taking. We'll get to that later. No Will Levis.

But out of C.J. Stroud to Houston, Bryce Young to Carolina. and Richardson to Indianapolis, which is the best fit in your guys' opinion. Indy, for me, because the Panthers traded DJ Moore to go up to number one and a first round pick and a second round pick.

And so they're giving up a lot of ammo to go get, like, guys to put around Bryce Young. CJ Stroud, like, the Texans are just a mess, generally. Maybe they'll start to get things together going forward, but like I would not say that's a stable franchise. And then Indy, obviously also not a super stable franchise,

but I think the weaponry around him, you know, you got Michael Pittman, Alec Pierce potentially. I think he fits pretty well with what Anthony Richardson likes to do, which is push the ball downfield, push the ball to outside of that numbers. See, I would say like Pierce does. Pitman does.

And that's the thing that I'm worried about is like the, you say like Chris Bowler likes big people. Yeah, but they don't have a lot of like speed at receiver, right? And that ability that, like, I think, stretch the field and take advantage of downfield shots is really important. now Frank Reich was running that offense and they were doing a lot of short stuff

Matt Ryan and Philip Rivers and what have you now Shane Steigin comes in and presumably bringing parts of an Eagles offense that just regularly chucked the football down the field off by action like the Eagles short passing game was like bubble screens and the running game you know so they don't need them with like slants and drags and curls and all the stuff that Richardson's not great at so there's a way to make it work I think that there's a little bit of an issue

with their receiver core they got to use those tight ends go get Hopkins yeah go get yeah right that would be fine I've been asking at speed I do think that Stroud landing in Houston is really good. It wasn't something we gave a lot of time to or thought to in the pre-draft process because, again, at no point was C.J. Stroud going to be a Houston Texan. But Bobby Slovak, who's the O.C. there, is coming from San Francisco. So this is, A, the ability to run the OG Kyle Shanahan stuff.

Oh, that's a good point, yeah. The ability to run some of the new age Shanahan stuff, which is a little bit more shotgun, a little bit more quick game, a little bit more isolation stuff, which is going to be similar to what Stroud ran in, in Ohio State. But he's also a great fit for the Shanhan offense because he's extremely accurate

over the middle of the field he can throw tight windows with anticipation and he can hang around in the pocket. He's not a super quick release. Not as good as Brock Purdy, but on that level.

Well, who is? So I do really like the Stroud landing spot for the Texans. There's definitely some, you know, weaponry concerns. Work to be done.

Robert Woods and Dalton Schultz are not exactly Marvin Harrison and Amika is a little bit different in terms of the caliber receivers can be thrown to. Yeah, Nico Collins, Noah Brown. Maybe Mitchie?

John Matchy. John Matchy. Come back. Camari Rogers. CJ Stroud did give a quote where he was like, man, I was really hoping the Texas were going to stay at 12 and get Jackson Smith and Jigba. It's like, well Anderson's just got picked. He's here.

You got, it's time to move forward. Forget your old team. Come in. TK. Do you want to take a victory lap on the Sealk's absolutely crushing the fifth pick? They got Devin Withersprone and quarterback. And then they also got Smith and Jigba at 20. Are you just over the moon?

I don't know. I don't know which pick I'm more excited about. I'm very excited. I told Soul like this during the draft, I'm like, I wish I would have kind of made the Witherspoon connection to the Seahawks more during the pre-draft process, but the Seahawks haven't drafted a corner in the time.

They've done 14 drafts of John Schneider and Pete Carroll, and I think they've never picked a corner before like 90 or something like that. And so I thought that there was like a remote possibility they could take one of these guys just because the way the board landed, but he was always their guy according to what they say. And it makes a lot of sense. compared him to Camp Chancellor spiritually, Devin Witherspoon, because he goes out there,

he hits hard, he flies around, he, like, wants to be an intimidator, he stands over guys and talks trash, like he's just a tone setter on defense. So I love this pick for the Seahs. He's a maniac. He's an absolute maniac. He's like a heat-seeking missile. His highlights are unbelievable. So he is a super, super

fun pick for the Seax just because he can kind of, in theory, like, recreate some of that intimidation factor that the CX used to have on defense that they just have not had whatsoever in the last, like, six or seven years or whatever it's been. And then the Justin Smith and Jigba pick, that felt like a pipe dream to me.

I never thought that was actually going to happen. You should have, DK, we watched the draft with DK. He was like pacing around the office when the 20th. He was like, no way they're going to take JASN. I'm going to convince myself they're not going to do it. He was like a giddy kid. I was like, they're going to do something stupid here. This is just too, it's too perfect.

I can't watch. And then So like told me and I was like, oh, shit. You look like Calvin at a fire department after they took him. Yeah. So I'm super excited about that pick, obviously. I think he's the perfect compliment to D.K. MacKaff and Tyler Lockett. He can run in the slot starting early on. They can move them all around the formation.

He's good at getting yards after they catch. Like, Gino is really good over the middle of the field in that area. So to me, this is just perfect. And then it also gives them a built-in bit of, you know, redundancy. If one of their receivers get hurt, they're not going to totally fall apart on offense, which is what we've seen at times for them in the past. And so super exciting pick. I was very afraid they were not going to do it, but they did it.

Every time you watch Tyler Lockett, intentionally fall down over the middle of the field, he doesn't want to get tackled. And every time you watch D.K. Medcalfe use the incorrect catch technique over the middle of the field because he doesn't know what he's doing. And now it's Jackson Smith and Jigba who's just so good in that area of the field. It is perfect. I freaking love it.

Yeah. And then Witherspoon with Tarik Wall and it's such a nice blend. It's your ability to kind of match up with guys. Like you have to deal with a high-weight speed dude. You have Tarich Wall and you have a guy who is, you know, is going to be more like combative, more contested, be able to play inside and outside. Now you follow him around with Devon Witherspoon.

Usually the ability to be so versatile. Pete Carroll, man, talking about Witherspoon, get me jacked up. It's like, you don't get guys like this coming through. He was like, this is a rare sort of player to have a corner. And I was like, you know what, Pete, it is. He compared him to Troy Palomalu, which I'm like, oh, okay, now we're talking. It's the spirit of the game. It's just like, it's the competitiveness.

He's, like, he's going to be so much fun with, like, Jamal. Just because they both just like love to play football. Right. So, yeah. Yeah. Seahawks, such a good draft class. Congrats on the clearly second best draft last. in the NFL draft.

Thank you. Quite the day for the whole squad here. I mean, Steelers and Giants were fine, but man, Eagles and Seahawks. What a day.

No, I'm going to put it off... No, we're putting off the Eagles thing. I personally did not have the bandwidth to do that right now. I want to talk about Will Levis. No,

we're not doing it. I refuse. What the hell happened with Will Levis? First of, I guess, where do you guys want to start? Do you want to start with him falling? Or do you want to start

with all the shots we got of him on that couch with the sister wives, girlfriends, whatever was going on there. His blood relatives, in theory. The first 20 picks, it was him with two blonde women and then an older blonde woman, which I

thought was his mother. However, that his hand was kind of on her thigh for a while. Just saying, don't know what was that with that. Hand was on his mom's thigh. Perhaps he was pointing out what we saw and what we commented on in the moment. Several shots. Hand on thigh.

Two blondes. We talking sisters, was the one, a girlfriend. And then later, towards the end of the first round, a woman in a red dress showed up. So maybe that's the girlfriend. There's a lot going on with Levis. That had to be the girlfriend at the end. It was starting. That was the biggest plot.

That was a bigger plot twist than Will Levis not being in the first round. Was that, I guess in retrospect, it makes sense that those with the sisters the whole time. He was also doing that thing where he was pretending not to care that he was dropping. He was singing. It was so annoying. I get why they didn't take him. It was singing Don't Stop Believing. He was, like, singing along, which is poetic, really, that he's singing, don't stop believing.

But, like, you can tell he was really trying to, like, show the world. Like, I'm cool with this. Like, wherever I land is fine. You know how, like, I mean, you guys probably don't. But for me, whenever I go into, like, a bar, like a party and I'm like, I don't belong here at all. So I'm like, I'm just going to stand and bob my head because that's how regular people look at when they're here. That was every time they cut to Willeis, he was like, this is a regular way.

You do the white guy overbite. Yeah, just, mm-hmm. Just Willelves were just bob in his head. He was like, not. I was like, looking at people, oh, what's up? Okay, like saying hi to folks. Like, they don't know you will. You don't, you're not supposed to.

This is the first round of the draft, and apparently you're not supposed to be here. To answer the question, hi, if it's, um, I mean, like, some people talked about, maybe Will Levis Fall, like nobody had this. Out of the first? Yeah, I was not expecting this whatsoever. He was, like, like, Craig brought out, he, on Fando, he was minus 1500, which is, like, implied odds of, like, over 90% to go in the top five picks. And he did not go in the top five picks.

And he did not go in the top. top 31. This is Donald Trump election all over again. And like... It's exactly like that. No, I'm talking about when all the betting odds had him winning and then it was like, Stop the go! Yeah.

It is, yeah. So like... Very narrow interpretation. But yes, you're right. No, I'm talking about the odds. Come on. Give me a break. You're saying that Willeyes is Donald Trump.

Okay. So we get it. William Donald Trump, but it. I mean, like, when you... when I was asking people, like, how did this happen? They were bringing up personality concerns. So maybe, I don't know, another connection. ESPN, Chris Mortensen was talking about, like, a turf toe problem.

He had to miss games this year with a foot injury. And, like, it's weird because whenever people were talking about the foot injury and the pre-draft process, they were like, wow, what a tough guy competing through the foot injury. He was getting shots before games. He was going out there and playing through the pain. And then all of a sudden you get to the end of April and it's like, we can't draft this guy's got a foot injury. What?

Like, I don't buy that the toe. co-injury was a sufficient reason for the fall. That's his agent, right? His agent's just saying that to justify his fall. I mean, yeah, well, Mort's reporting it. And more it tends to be, like, Chris Morinson from ESPN, more it tends to be really more like teams than agents in my estimation. It's, uh, for me, I think that, like, if there's anything to detail it to,

it's like personality concerns. It's like they didn't like the way. The interviews. Yeah, interviews. Like Breer was, yeah. But it's funny because, like, Breer was like, hey, like his interviews weren't that great. Some teams don't like him. Also, the Titans are huge fans. And then the Titans at 11 took Peter Skoransky. Right? Right. Like, I thought the Patriots were going to take him.

From what I understand, the Patriots were only going to take him if they could offload Mac and they weren't able to offload Mac, so they didn't take a quarterback. The Vikings, I thought were going to take him. And then the Vikings didn't pass on him for Hooker. They didn't take a quarterback, which, again, like the Vikings were like so strong. Like, oh, the sneaky round one quarterback team. It was, we had three quarterbacks go top 10. And then no quarterback go in the rest of the first round, which is the first time it's happened since 1971. It's been over 50 years since it's a draft with three top 10 quarterbacks.

In this case, it was three top five, but three top ten quarterbacks, and then no more quarterbacks in round one. It is very rare to see quarterbacks get pulled into the top of the draft, and then the gravitational yank of those guys not drag anybody else into round one. You just, in the modern NFL, you do not see this. So for Hooker, who had so much joy from the NFL for so long, And then for Levis, who like, even with like, oh, there's some question marks, was heavily, highly expected to be a top five pick was a favorite for the second overall pick 24, 36 hours ago. It's crazy.

It's really, really quite something. That was a jaw-dropping moment over the course of this drafts. My question is, where does he end up? So do you think, let me ask two questions. Number one, do you think Henning Hooker is going to go before Will Levis? At this point, I got no idea. I'd be totally thrown a dart in the dark. Yeah. And so just looking at the first, I was looking at the first couple of picks of the second round, Steelers, Cardinals, Lions, Colts, Rams?

It was funny because, like, Levis had a couple of Tan Hill Coms. I was like, oh, the Titans, like, let's do it. And they didn't go. And they got to the Vikings. I was like, oh, I comp. I come to him to Kurt Cousins. Like, this is great. Right. And who was the other big white pocket quarterback who Levis got comms to? Matthew Stafford. Rams, baby. Let's do it. Also the Liam Cohen connection. They have connections with the. Rams, obviously. So this could make a lot of sense. If the Rams are sitting there at number 36 and he's still on the board. It just feels like the Rams need a lot to help their roster. I don't know if they're going to go take a backup quarterback, but maybe.

They're worried about Stafford's health. I think the Rams are possible. Lions are possible. Constance screaming into our DMs, Raiders. Yeah, Raiders have the same pick of the second round. Yeah, after the Rams. Also, the Seahawks are there, which wouldn't be my first choice, but it's certainly possible. Yeah. I mean like, but

who goes first, Levis Hooker, where does either one go? No idea. Right. At this point, like, nothing that we were operating off of before day one, I feel stable on because, again, like, when you talk to people, they're like, dude, Levis might make it outside of the top 10, it'd be crazy, but he could.

This is Big 32. He's on the board. Like, this is flabbergasted. I just don't get it. Like, for a month now, everyone's thinking he's at least going top 12, and then he just, it's not even close. Like, how are we so incorrect, is my question?

Well, the injury, I think, has something to do with it. But, like, also, we talked about this ad nauseum during the draft process. Like, he's going to be a bus. Like, we're worried about his skill set. He got worse this last year. He had, he had, like, 23 interceptions or the last two years. Yeah, but hindsight is 2020. You can always backfill the reasoning of why this makes sense.

In the moment, we were like, well, you know, level at two. You know, he actually, it actually makes sense from the NFL to like him. Yeah, I get that. From my point of view, what I'm kind of saying is, like, I believed some of the hype that the NFL apparently liked this guy, but... Like, we could talk ourselves into why the NFL might like him, but we were still skeptical about his actual talent. And we talked...

I feel like we hit all of the reasons he's fallen, but we did buy into the idea that the NFL wouldn't care enough to, like, that they would still take him. So I think that's what happens. I was like, oh, the sort of guy appeals to the NFL, and the NFL was like, we hate him. Which, kudos. Like, take Anthony Richardson over him.

And that's good. I was surprised. Yeah. Speaking of which, kind of a bitter ending for Will Levis. And it's time for a special part of today's show. Brought to you by Heineken Silver. Yeah, baby. New crisp and refreshing.

Heineken Silver is only 3.2 carbs and 95 calories. And it tastes with no, bitter endings. And if you're a football fan, you've probably experienced one or two bitter endings. So let's talk about them because there was one trade in particular. that had a pretty bitter ending. So the Detroit Lions were at the sixth pick, and I think they're caught a little flat-footed because you're Seattle Seahawks, D.K.

Take Devin Witherspoon, cornerback in Illinois. They'd been lions probably thought they were going to get them. So Lions trade back. Good job. They go back. They go back to pick 12. And they take Jemir Gibbs, the running back out of Alabama,

which was kind of weird. because he was like A fringe first rounder And it's like the lions are picking again at 18 Just wait till 18 Then the lions get to 18 And they take Jack Campbell Who's a linebacker

That the two positions that you're not That you're not really able to make Like profit in terms of how much The guy's gonna make Versus how much they could be worth A running back an off ball linebacker And the Lions went and took the second best guy Hey by the way

You know what You know what goes down well after eating a hat? A little hyniquin. You wash that hat down with a Heineken killed her, Ben. The reason I say that is because Ben said, and I quote,

if Jack Campbell goes in the first round I'll eat my hat. Shush, shush, shish, shish, shish. Firstly, you can fake anything with AI. You write that down. This is a deep fake. They got people doing the president's voices playing Minecraft.

Most actors aren't even in the same room. Exactly. So firstly, you can just go ahead and remember that. Secondly, eat my hat is an idiot. as many people know informal saying Kai check the tape

Did he say literally? Not doing it literally Where's Dave Chang? Can he make Can we make like a hat smoothie or something? DK's wearing a hat right now. I am irate That I did not

At some point in the pre-draft process Say oh Jack Campbell aligns in round two Makes so much sense Is the sort of linebacker that they like It's the right area for him It's probably overdrafting him a little bit But they'll take him there They need the thumper

Between the tackles, Dan Campbell will like the toughness so that I could then say, oh, they took them at 18. This is bananas. This is the worst pick of the first round. Comfortably. Yeah. The Lions had, whenever I talked about the Lions pre-draft, I would say they have more capital in the first round than they are going to have it in future years. They are on the precipice of being a contending team. This is the draft to get them over the hump. And they traded back, and they still have picks second round, soon round three, and got the second best running back. Mm-hmm. 200 pounds. And in my estimation, the fourth or fifth best linebacker who does not have three down value.

Jemir Gibbs is the second earliest drafted running back in the last five years behind only Bijon Robinson who went four picks previous. And the lines actively passed on Bijon Robinson to get Jemar Gibbs. So like, we weren't, the top running backs weren't going at 12. Nageiras was 24 and Travis Hatton was 25 and Josh Jacobs was 20. Like, they drafted Jemir Gibbs as if you were better than all of those guys. which he's good, but he's not. And they have DeAndre Swift and David Montgomery,

which I'm proud of them for not putting too many eggs in the DeAndre Swift basket, but this is not how you go about team building at this time. You're so close. Get impactful players. These are not impactful players. I thought no team missed on greater potential than the Lions. It is not close with how they handled the bridge.

They were the darlings of sports media and fandom, I think, in general. like everybody loved everything the lions are doing. And then they kind of squandered that with this night. Quite a bitter ending, I'd say. D.K., you made a really good point that Jermere Gibbs is two-down running back, maybe. And that, like, Jack Campbell's a two-down linebacker. And it's like two-down off-ball linebackers, like the cheapest position to fill on a defense. And a two-down running backs like the cheapest position to fill in an offense.

And they spent their two first-rounders on those positions. I'm still trying to find a whack. I'm trying to find a Jack Campbell's related to Dan. in some way. There has to be a connection. Well, can I explain to you guys why this happened? It's really easy. This is a quote.

Like, the Dan Campbell kneecap biting press conference, I think got, like, that kneecap biting quote got too much, like, press. The real one that I love and think about all the time is, he's like, you're talking about Chris Bealman, who is in the Reliance front office. And he's like, I was talking to Chris about this the other day. And I was like, I love the fact we're only known as meatheads. I'm a meathead. I have limited brain capacity.

I like that people think that. I'm good with that, you know what I mean? Zero problem with it. That's a quote. He's playing chess. We're playing checkers. He's like years. The line's already,

they just signed David Montgomery in free agency. For like three years, 18 million, I think they gave him. And it's just you just don't, like the Jamal Williams performance is evidence that you do not need

to have a back that's like highly drafted or even has like elite traits to succeed behind this offensive line with a team that is oriented on running the football like this. And they're always, I shouldn't say always, because maybe they're going to change how they have Jamir Gibbs.

But it seemed like, given the way they've run the team last few years, they're always going to be by committee, right? We would get to week nine, and Craig Reynolds would have eight carries. Get to week 12, and Justin Jackson's toting the football. And you're like, well, I don't know why they're doing it like this, but they want to use a three-headed backfield. So why are you spending the 12th overall pick on Jemir Gibbs? Also, Jack Campbell can't turn around and run.

I don't know. I don't understand. Yeah, I mean, he could be a liability in pass coverage, which is a big part of the NFL nowadays. I just, to button this up with, with the Jamir Gibbs thing. I actually really like Jamir Gibbs. I think he's going to be super exciting

to watch this offense. But when I go back to last year, Kent Walker and Breeze Hall were both second round picks. Jonathan Taylor was a second round pick. You know, I think Bijon Robinson is a very, very special player who can be a three-down workhorse back.

I don't know if Gibbs is that guy. He's probably not that guy. So this to me just feels like a massive reach. Bitter ending. Thankfully, though, with Heineken Silver, you get all the taste with no bitter endings. only 3.2 carbs and 95 calories. That's new crisp and refreshing Heineken silver.

Order now at hynican.com slash silver. Must be 21 plus to purchase. Please enjoy Heineken responsibly. I was at a grocery store no less than five days ago. And a woman was giving out free samples of Heineken silver. I happily drank it. It was wonderful. Taste it just like a regular Heineken. You wouldn't know the difference. I like Heineken. Me too. Yeah. Green bottle? What more can you ask for? Simple man. Simpleman. I love that. Chris, fresh beer and a green bottle?

Done. Okay, fine. Biggest steal of the draft. Fine. Solac's been waiting for this. Solac, you could talk about the Eagles now. Take them off the leash. National Championship defense, which, by the way, is the third best defense in points per game surrendered in college football. History. In Jordan Davis, Nicopi Dean.

I can't remember all their names. This is so challenging. Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith, three of the four defensive linemen. This is hilarious. Okay, I had Nolan Smith going to the Eagles at number 10 in my mock draft. You guys got him at, what, 30? Oh, yeah. Great.

It's casual. It's casual. Why does the NFL keep letting the Eagles do this? relaxed. Don't worry about it. It's fine. Here's the thing. Drafting is actually very easy. You know, we do a podcast about it. People are like, okay, they say, our drafting is so challenging. I figure out the players are good. The personality, Eagles say, okay, who won the national championship? That guy, he's going to be a Philadelphia Eagle. And you know what? Eagles attended the Super Bowl last year. Don't know if you heard. Don't know if you were there. It's pretty sick game. It should have won.

Field was messed up. It wasn't defensive holding. It's a new opinion of mine, even though previously I thought it was a fine penalty. It's just crazy that I'm going to have to go back to an Eagle Super Bowl in February again. Two years in a rough. They're working me so hard here, man. I got to do the Philly Ponds. Ridiculous. No, the Jalen Carter is an excellent value at 9,

assuming that he's able to kind of settle into being a professional in the NFL. Obviously, Carter fell to 9 because of the off-field concerns that he has with. Majority and with decision making, making a bad decision to race in Georgia that led to the tragic death of a teammate a car accident, his subsequent arrest. Nolan Smith, no such off-field. field issues does have the red flag of weight. He's a sub-240-pound pass rusher, so he wasn't on the board for everybody,

but the Eagles have Hassan Redick, and they kind of know how to work around that, and they're fine with making that choice. So they bring in these players now, and assuming, all right, with Jordan Davis and handed with Nicoby Dean in hand, we have a good structure to bring these players along, install them in the defense and be successful. And they're never going to not draft those premium positions. Doesn't matter if Fletcher Cox's back, right? It doesn't matter that Josh Swett and Hassan Reddick post up for,

Brina Graham had a career year. Get Nolan Smith in the building. We're just going to keep on plugging and chucking. We're going to keep cycling through. we're always going to have a good pass rush. We are always going to have good quarterback play. The Eagles don't consistently drafts well because Roseman's not a good talent evaluator,

but the Eagles consistently make good draft choices in terms of like the positions they attack and the traits that they prioritize, and that widens their range for positive picks. And right now they're hot. The Jalen Hertz pick made them hot. The Josh Sweat pick made them hot. And then I think these Georgia defenders

are going to make them hot as well. It is such a fun team to run. I'm so excited to watch Jalen Carter line up next to Jordan Davis. Are you, D.K.? Are you? Really? Did the Steelers have to play the Eagles twice this year? Like the Giants do?

I'm not super excited about it, D.K. If you want a little preview of what it would look like with Jaylon Carter lining off office and Jordan Davis, I encourage you to watch the 2021 national championship game. George and Bulldogs, yeah. I just want to reiterate with Seleck's saying where it's like, yes, they were the best, like, third best defense in college football history, by points per game.

They're also very easily the second best defense of my lifetime by eye test where it's like, it's them and just that 2011 LSU team where I'm like, holy shit. Didn't the Eagles

last year also have the third most sacks in NFL history? Yeah. God damn. That way that you said that. I think they did, Craig. Yeah. Fact check, yes.

It's the vibes of like, do you remember when the Patriots just traded for Randy Moss? And you were like, you got for a fourth round pick? What? How is this allowed? It's exactly a hundred percent.

Same exact vibe is like, why does the NFL keep letting them do this? It's casual. Go of that. It's relaxed. I thought I feel when the Steelers got Alan Robinson, I was like, you guys don't know what you're doing.

Well, what's annoying is that the entire scope of last season changed because the Eagles wanted Alan Robinson and then the Rams got him and they're like, fine, I guess we'll just trade for AJ Brown. And that it's like, man, it just,

whatever. Giant's got Deonté Banks, cornerback from Maryland, so I think it's like basically the same thing. Great player. Wonder if he'll be good. Don't wonder as much about the Georgia defenders if they're going to be good,

but the Maryland player, I'm interested to see. I think they weigh about the same thing, the cornerback and no one's best, so we'll see. Does the corner run a 4-3-9? It's about that. Yeah, I think it's about that.

He ran like a 4-6 or something. He ran a 4-3-6, yeah. He's pretty fast. No, Deonté Banks, for the Giants, one of my favorite picks of the draft, and it's funny because you're sitting there at 20, The Giants are up in five picks. You know the Giants been looking at receivers.

Not a single receiver has gone off the board. You're like, wow, great for the Giants. And then 20 is Jackson-Bid and Jigba. 21 was Quentin Johnson. It was like four-striors. 22 was Zayfors. 23 was Jordan Addison. And the Giants was there at 25.

Like, wait, and this was exactly what Hyphitz was talking about in our pre-draft show. He was like, there's this run of picks before the Giants. Where everybody needs. Right, the players are the Giants need. But Deonti Banks made it down there. And Corner went weird, right? Like, Devon Wetherspoon up five. not super expected, but he was going to be corner one.

And then Emmanuel Forbes goes corner two to the commanders, Christian Gonzalez and 17 to the Patriots. Yeah, exactly. Was he the, he was a corner two? Wow, yeah. Right, right. You couldn't even see him on stage. I know.

Two-dimensional. It's amazing. And so for Deonti Banks to make it down to the Giants is, I think, huge. I think it's an excellent, wonderful corner for Wink Martindale's defense. You want to how good of a pick Deonti Banks was? Wink Martindale was celebrating in the war room with Joe Shane, no hat on, and the Giants still published the video. is the first published media of Wink Martindale without a hat ever.

Wing Martindon scrubs all that from the internet. But for Jonté Banks, he was like, it's fine. First team all, not taking my hat off. Tiger Woods is up there. Brad Paisley, that guy never loses a hat. And Wink. Wing Martindale's a real thing. Danic Kelly's on that list.

Brett Michaels, amazing call. It's because he wears wigs. It's like Andre Agassie at his prime. Yeah. Email us at ringer Fantasy Football at gmail.com for the, to, any updates to the never takes a hat off rankings? That's a really good one. And if you don't know what Wing Martindale looks like,

Wing Martindale's kind of like the mad-eye moody of defensive coordinators. Yes, that is absolutely correct. This is where I remember Craig doesn't know. Wait, was that a Harry Potter? It's a Harry Potter. You guys aren't cool. Hayfitts and I are cool, and we know who Matt I moody is.

Google Mad-Ey-Moodie, Craig. I always forget Craig just doesn't know Harry Potter. Congrats on your cornerback, Hyphitz. That was good job, Giants. All right, Craig, we got to hear your reaction. Let those who drafted the fourth offensive tackle, not throw stones. I'm very happy with Brojerk Jones.

We needed a tackle. We got it. It's boring whenever you take an offensive lineman, but it's what we needed to do. And I hope we take Joey Porter with the first pick of the second. That'd be awesome. Broger Jones, to get a tackle and then Joey Porter Jr. as a quarterback for the Steelers is like a coup. That's incredible. Yeah.

I kind of think the story, though, is that the Patriots help the Steelers leapfrog the Jets so that Belichick can fuck over the Jets warm of time. And I know the Jets fans probably don't care because they got Rogers and they're happy. But the Jets really needed to tackle. Like they're relying on basically if Dwayne Brown was like 36 or something and also not that good anymore.

And I don't know if you guys, this is an amazing stat from Rich Samini, who's a great chess reporter for ESPN. Mackay Beckton, who they took in the first round a couple of years ago, Mackay Beckton is the fewest games played for an offensive lineman drafted in the top 15 in the last 30 years.

Oh, that's tough. Like that's what happens when you have two kneecap injuries. They need to tackle. And they take Will McDonald. This was a weird pick. It's very peculiar to have Jermaine Johnson fall in last year's draft. Joe Douglas trade up for him in the first round and be like, wow, I love Jermaine Johnson so much. I got him at 26.

I was going to take him at four. This is unbelievable. And the entire league was kind of like, okay, man, you can get Jermaine Johnson in 26. Whatever, you're good. And then the very next year, Joe Douglas be like, I just got Wilmington to 15. This is unbelievable. And the rest of the league be like, yeah, okay, man. Like, you don't like the pass rushers to be like Joe Douglas.

You can continue to draft your first round guys that you want. He's relatively, he's way over drafting these guys. Like, McDonald was, like, going to be late in the first round. And then he goes up 50. So a good example is if the Texans had taken Will Levis at two, we would never believe that Will Levis would have just fallen out of the first round if they had not done that. Right.

If the Jets don't take Will McDonald at 15, he's probably still on the board entering day two. I think he would have made it. He was, like, minus 500, minus 600 to go first round. But, like, Felix Henry Dukke Uzoma, who was a 30-year-old. first pick for the Chiefs, that pick is Will McDonald's there. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, Andrew Duky was almost like

the next tier of like long outside rusher who's got some explosiveness and some moves and whatever, which I had William McDonald at 31 to the Chiefs because that's how I thought this was going to go. Yeah, I just like, especially for Nolan Smith to be on the board, Will McDonald is a 240 pound rusher

and so is Nolan Smith. William McDonald's a lot longer. And so it's like, all right, we need the length. But he's just fundamentally not as good of a player as Nolan is on all three downs. He just isn't. And he's also an older prospect. Like, I just don't.

50-year-senor who is going to be a 24-year-old rookie. He still needs to develop in a lot of areas. He may not be able to add weight. He can't. Not a chance you can add weight. It's just, yeah, I did not see that coming. If I have- Jewish grandmothers, we're going to connect him.

Here's the question. Here's the real question. If I'd come up to you guys two weeks ago, and I was like, yo, I did a mock draft, I want to bring it up on the pot and you can break it down. You're like, all right, sick, man. Like, what's the mock? And I was like, oh, these picks at one, two, three, whatever.

And then at 12, I'm Jumeir Gibbs, 13 Lucas Van Nax, 14, Broderick Jones, 15 one McDonald, 16 Emmanuel Forbes, 17, Christian Gonzalez, 18, Jack Campbell, 19, Colagic Hansi. You would have been like, no, we have to do real content. Like, the draft's coming up. The replies on Twitter would have been hilarious. This is the worst mock ever. If I start making mocks, maybe I'd nail it. Yeah. No, legitimately, if I said, like, let's do that, you'd be like, no, like, we got to do serious stuff, then.

That happened. That's all the picks. That was a real thing that occurred in the middle of draft. I have a question. Didn't Daniel Jeremiah nail the C.J. Stroud, Will Anderson thing in two, three. That's pretty impressive. Daniel Jeremiah had a top like six mock in scoring. And it's because.

Go DJ. Yeah, he was like, yeah. Sejy Stroudon, two, well, Anderson, three, obviously. Yeah. And it hit. I remember reading that. I was like, he's just hedging because he just wants one of these guys, which is what I did too in my mock.

But he obviously, he knows some people, you know. The other, I, if which one, talking about, like, steals. I can't believe the Bill's leapfrog the Cowboys for Dalton Kincaid, the tight end of Utah. That is such a fun pairing. Oh, yeah. It's extremely sick. The Bill's continued search

for functional target two after Stefan Diggs. Kind of just landing on like, okay, Dolan Kincaid's just good, right? We're not going to think about prototypes anymore. No more like, oh, Gabriel Davis is big and fast. Oh, we need a slot receiver. Just like, all right, Don Gaines very good

in catching the football. If this doesn't work, we've just got to go home. We're just never going to get a target to, like a really reliable guy. They're going to be able to move him around. They're going to be able to play him a little bit in line. He and Dawson Knox kind of have similar roles, but I don't think Dawson is not worse.

Dawson is not enough to move you off of taking the guy. The question for Kincaid is long-term health, right? The bill's obviously cool with him. A bunch of teams did not have Kincaid as an early player because of the back injuries. And so they just have to get lucky with Kincaid's health. And if they do, they have a really, really dangerous past game weapon, something that they desperately needed. Kincaid to the bills is sick.

I definitely thought Michael Mayer was going to go before Kincaid. Mayor didn't even go round one. That's a big surprise to me. Why do you think that is? You know, might have to do it with the fact that he just didn't test out of the, you know, off the charts or whatever. He was just kind of an average athlete. Might have something to do with that. Honestly, I thought there was going to be more tight ends in the first round because I didn't think the NFL was going to be as high on all these shrimpy receivers.

But I'm wrong about that. Zay Jones or sorry, Zay Flowers and Addison both win the first round. So, you know, the NFL still obviously values receivers, I think, a little bit higher than tight ends. And it's the same thing we talked about all through the process. Like, a lot of the best tight ends in the NFL come on day two. Right. The one thing I thought of with the bills is like they're just so fucking sick of losing to Travis Kelsey and like the chiefs. Maybe they're just like, you know how teams sometimes will like create a team that they,

one of their main rivals is like, hey, we got to get one of those guys too. And so now I'm thinking, how many times have they lost to the bills or to the Chiefs? Maybe it's not that much. But your point stands in the playoffs a lot. They've won the Super Bowl and the bills have it. It's like the Houston Rockets like built their team around trying to beat the Warriors.

Like they're like, we just to shoot as many threes as we can and that's how we can beat the Warriors. And I think a player of Kincaid's style helps Josh Allen a lot too because he's kind of a scramble drill guy who can like make a ton of, you know, hay after the catch and break tackles and do all this stuff that, you know, that the bills just really haven't had. So super exciting. Now they can have Gabe Dave just run like wind sprints down the sideline.

Stefan Dix can do his thing. And then, you know, in theory, Kincaid, hopefully soon can like kind of do things over the middle of the field and make a big difference there. Speaking of wind sprints, I wanted to talk about this wide receiver run. And it was all these little fast guys going. You get your Zayflowers and Jordan Addison. And then the Chargers come up. And I'm thinking great. At this point, I think Zayflowers and Jordan Edison are on the board?

Yep. Yeah. So it was Smith and Jigba went at 20. And that was it, right? Yeah. And then the charges come along and take Quentin Johnston at a TCU, who's like kind of just like Mike Williams, maybe a little shorter and a little faster,

but like the Chargers are just like really tall, slow guys. For Justin Herbert now. I mean, Quentin Johnson's not slow, but he's in on the spectrum of guys that are going to be like explosive, take the lid off the top of the defense type guys. That's not him really. He's more of like a yards up to catch creator type player. When the Chargers general manager Tom Telesco sees a guy run a 40 in the 4-4s,

She's like, where are you hustling to, son? Slow, slow down? Hey, you want to take a breather? And no need for this. Slow and steady wins the race. Yeah. Like, Quinn Johnson's a good athlete. He is.

He absolutely is. He's a good downfield threat. He's not like a vertical guy in the take the top off of the sense, but he absolutely can run away from guys. He just usually does it with the ball on his hands. So he adds some dynamic element to the charges offense, certainly more than they had. However, this is where, yeah, the height weight speed limitations. I should say the height weight limitations

can be frustrating, right? Like, this is what I was talking about the Colts earlier. The Colts need some big bodies. Well, you go and you look like the Colts don't have team speed at Passcatcher. The Chargers have the same issue. This is why Christian Watson was so valuable to Green Bay because Green Bay is very strict on like,

we need big receivers. And so they saw a big receiver that was fast, and they were like, get them, get them now. We need them, get him in the building. And so Johnson, I think, can still bring some of the fuel-starching element that the Chargers need. It just Zafers would have been way sexier.

It would have been way more, what I suppose. So out of the four receivers taken, we already kind of talked about Jackson, Smith, and Jigba to Seattle, and we probably like that the most. Out of the next three, Quentin Johnston to the Chargers, Zayflowers to Baltimore, and then Jordan Edison to Minnesota, which is the best fit. Yeah, by the way, hold on. We forgot to talk about Lamar Jackson. This is a draft podcast.

Contract extensions aren't interesting. Okay. It is Zay, though. Like, the Ravens are the biggest winner of the day, right? Outside of the draft that you start folding in the Lamar Jackson extension, I think they kind of dominate. But the Zay Flowers pick is awesome. It's really, really, really good for them. With

Rashad Bateman, Odell Beckham, Jr., you're like, all right, we have guys who are separators. We have guys who are quick and they're explosive in space and they can make guys missing and create big plays after the catch for us, but you're also banking on two players who are coming off of major injuries. And there is some redundancy in the roles

of Odell, plus Rashad Bateman plus Zay Flowers. There absolutely is. But you're hedging bets here and you're making sure you have something that the Ravens have so desperately needed, which is legitimate depth at wide receiver, options at wide receiver. Guys that are going to make plays. Oh, no. They might have two good receivers on the field at the same time. Oh, but they're in the same role. Yeah, the Ravens have had two good receivers on the same time since like 2017. Like, it's okay. You know what I'm saying? You can overload at this position,

which has become such an important position in the modern NFL, especially now that you're out of the Greg Roman offense. So I love the Zayfow respect for them. Obviously, getting the Lamar deal done before the draft kind of gives you the license to say, like, I would have to worry about like trade up for a quarterback or like trade back and accumulate future capital. We can just stay here and drafts a really good receiver at 22. Zayflowers at 22 and Jordan Addison at 23, I'll never forget for as long as I live because I had Zayflowers under 22 and a half and Jordan Addison over 22 and a half. So me and Harry Roseman, just the draft's very easy.

Just don't worry about it. Just, you know, just call your shots from afar. I love to add to that. I agree with everything you said. And I'm super excited to see what Todd Monkin rolls out for the Ravens offense. It could look completely different than what we're used to over the last four years. It better look completely different. Right.

And I love that they're loading up on pass catchers because it's like one of the sort of tenants of the last few years with the Ravens is they just have one less like eligible pass catcher on the field. Patrick Ricard. It's just like you're playing with one less guy on the field essentially in the passing game anyway. I really loved the Jordan Addison to the Vikings pick too. I think he's just the perfect. I mocked him so I was told him so like I was bummed because I mocked him. Addison to the Vikings like four times in the draft period and is like getting so bored of it that I just changed it with my final one. But like he's a perfect compliment to Justin Jefferson.

You know, I think he's a really nuanced savvy route runner that gives them a great number two option. And that's what I think what both Solich and I have always kind of viewed Addison as is like a really good number two. And so obviously with them losing Thielen, this is a logical fit for like a logical replacement, similar style guy, like a really good route. runner get open. But he's got a little more juice, obviously, than the teamland does. And so this is super exciting, along with T.J. Hawkinson, their offense is going to be humming. Yeah, the Vikings would have beat the Giants of Jordan Addison was on the team, like, just straight up.

Like, Kirk Cousin said to check down in the playoffs because Jordan Edison was in. Did Kurt Cousin had a check down on the playoffs? Did he have to check down in the playoffs? He did check down because Jordan Edison was home. Yeah. But it would have been a lot easier. All right. Well, we're talking about all these receivers.

I would also like to call out Arthur Smith. your favorite coach in the NFL. Arthur Smith, coach of the Atlanta Falcons. I love Arthur Smith. I've always loved Arthur Smith. What are you talking about? Arthur Smith, we yelled all year about like Kyle Pitts and Arthur Smith was like, I don't play fantasy football.

Well, you know what? Bullshit. I think- Stealing all the fantasy players, though. He just takes guys that people in fantasy love. So the Falcons draft Bishon Robinson. So, D.K., how do you feel about Bajon Robinson, going to the Falcons? There's the whole running back value debate, which we can or cannot get into that.

I mean, everybody's done that discussion. Give me what your heart feels and then what your brain feels. Right. My heart is very excited to watch the Falcons offense. This is going to be like appointment viewing because they have now spent top 10 picks on skill players, three straight seasons. Kyle Pitts is back, baby. Volume, maybe not. Okay, so he's not.

Translation. It's like the Ron Howard arrest of element. He was not back. It's a crazy take. Can we get Ron Howard to do some boys? Silvers. Yeah, let me just get him on the line. Dekke is saying, I'm excited to watch

the Falcons offense. Dek, I got news for you. You're going to hate this offense more than any offense you've ever watched in your entire life. I'm thrilled to watch this offense. B. John's getting like 25 times of the game, right? Return to Caveman Ball. Absolutely.

I loved watching this offense last year. Line up against like, oh, lighter defense. It's like, oh, we run a nickel and oh, we've undersized defensive linemen and just being like, ha, ha, ha, Tyler, Alger. and now it's Bujan Robinson, like, the Jemir Gibbs pick at 12. I was like, this is not the time to be taking an elite running back doesn't make any sense. For the Falcons, I get it because this is fundamental to the team.

They had Marcus Marriota attempting 11 passes last year, and they were like, this is good. This is the way we want to be. You can argue as to whether or not that's wise. I think there's some wisdom to it in terms of like zinging when the rest of the league zags. I think overall you want to be a more pass-happy team, but this is the way they've decided to build it. Running back is a important position for the Falcons, much more so important than it is for the average team. Getting Bejohn back there and having the ability to run Bejon and Tyler

Alger, not run them into the ground, hopefully not deal with overloaded wear on tires, not deal with injury, still have two guys who are excellent tackle breakers, and then have the large skill position players to be really, really good in space, really good on play action. I think the Falcons offense is going to work.

I think Falcons offense is going to work because it looks exactly like the Titans offense did three years ago when it was working, well. Like, we've seen this particular zag, heavy personnel, heavy play action offense, with a really talented running back who can grind guys down and Bijon can be that guy in the league. We've seen this work. And so I don't mind the pick

for Bejohn 8 at all. Kyle Pitts, he's, at the very least, I will say, I think Kyle Pitts is going to create explosive plays off play action. And that is going to be, he's not going to get a ton of volume, but he's going to get explosive plays. He's probably going to average like 16, 17 yards per catch. And so

that's exciting. The one thing I'll add, And this is kind of how I think have rationalized what the Falcons are doing here. From their point of view, if you're going to run the offense that they run, you're going to give your running back 20-something touches in a game. He's got to be able to do it. Don't you want that guy to be really good rather than just some fucking guy? Like you're giving this guy 20-something touches in a game. It's ideal if he's very, very good.

Yeah. So that's why they're doing it. Don't just give it to some jag. I didn't have the emotional journey that I think you guys did with Kyle Pitts in terms of like the fantasy things. Yeah. I don't think you have any idea how much D.K. hates. So like, you're talking all this stuff about the Falcons offensive, but you have no idea how much D.K. hates Arthur Smith. D.K. is not enlightened.

You have no clue. D.K. has not seen the great wisdom of prehistoric ball. All right? This is how our ancestors played football. All right? When they were gone up against the Tyrannosaurus rexes and the Stegosaurus's, they ran 12 first-enel play action. No, the, I think how. This is going to have a really good year.

I think he's going to have a really productive year. I don't know. That's all I need to hear. That's all I need to hear. Black, D.K. also used the term jag in that conversation, which is his,

it's just just a guy, which is like a real, real, like, it's the meanness that D.K. gets with prospects. It sounds so derogatory when he says it.

You know? It sounds so critical. That's because it's like also sort of synonymous with jagoff. Yeah. This is a jagoff. Kevin Clark noted this. Did you notice that Kevin,

I've never heard this term. Mel Kuiper dropped a jargon on the broadcast that I've never heard before. Oh, yeah? Uh-oh. Wait, you should do two jargons online. Oh, yeah. I can come. Oh, yeah.

Okay, I'll do that. Okay. I'll make up. Think of that on the spot. I'm going to come up with two lies. Before we finish the show. I'll do it later. I'll do it while you guys are doing something else.

Okay. While we're doing something else. I don't know. I don't know. I'll talk about it. Talk on yourselves. I would like to do a couple unanswerable questions. Yes.

Starting with, do the Packers know that they can take offensive starters? Because do they know they can take players on offense that don't have to... The emails we have at Ring and Fantasy Football at Gmail.com from Packers fans are so miserable, distraught. It's like these people are not okay. I will just give you a sampling of one from Toby. Tobias. I'm just hoping that my favorite podcast could make sense of all of this or find the humor from my pain.

I just watched the Packers drafted edge rusher, Lucas Van Ness, in a class that, from my understanding, is weak at edge rusher. And on top of it, all I see is the comp from NFL is Preston Frickin Smith, who is currently our overpaid, underperforming member of the Green Bay Packers Pass Rush.

Our current tight end room could be to be mistaken for a nickelback cover band. Samori Toure is currently slated to play meaningful third down snaps for this team. Am I overreacting or they go? It's just really sad. It's just really sad. This is a quintessential Packers pick.

Just a classic Packers pick. I had them taking Miles Murphy at 13 because I had Lucas Van Ness coming off the board all the time. If you told me Lucas Van Ness at 13, I was like, yeah, they're going to take Lucas Van Ness. Lucas Van Ness is very Rishon Gary-y. Yeah, like Tradesi. He's kind of a mix between Mershengar and Preston Smith.

Oh, wow. Right. They have a type for sure. And they also very much just love to piss off their fans who have been clamoring. just clamor. What's a stronger word than clamoring? Salivating.

No, that's kind of a positive. Beseeching. Pleading. Yeah. Beseeching. Imploring. That's what I'm looking for. I mean, this offense could be all-time bad.

I mean, there is not a lot of talent going on here with, you have Jordan Love, Romeo, Dobbs, Christian Watson, Samari, Toure. Tried in is Josiah Deguara and Tyler Davis? Bearcats great. Well, they could still get Michael Mayer on day two. Yeah. That might be kind of good. I mean, like, they've just been really good at getting good.

offensive players outside of round one, like Aaron Jones and Elton Jenkins, and they feel that way about Christian Watson. They felt the way about Devante Adams. Like, this is what they're incapable of doing. They feel that way internally. The thing is this. To me, it's less they don't draft

offensive players in round one. It's that they keep drafting defensive players in round one, and the defense keeps being bad. At what point are we going to realize that getting Joe Barry another first rounder on defense isn't going to solve the defensive problem because Joe Barry is still there. I think one more is going to work. Yeah, right.

If we just get him one more big, heavy-handed edge rusher. It might work for us. Like, you remember when Preston Smith was dropping into coverage over Justin Jefferson? Lucas Van Ness will be better in coverage over Justin Jefferson, and that will solve our problems. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Can we talk about some boring picks? Yes. Dude, I thought the most boring pick of the draft was the Tennessee Titans taking Peter Skoronski,

and then they cut to him and they're like, yeah, so his grandfather, won seven championships of Vince LaBardi. He didn't want to come to the draft. He's watching this from like a pizza place. And I'm like, wow, he's getting me in the Hall of Fame. It reminds me when Joe Thomas, like now Hall of Fame left tackle, wow, just didn't go to the draft and went fishing with his dad on a boat and didn't bring a cell phone. And I was like, wow, that's a power move.

That's what happens when you go to the Hall Fame. I have a question. This is something I always think about on draft night. The team always talks about how they were desperately trying to get a hold of the player. You know, like, there's all these stories like, oh, the player would, he didn't have any cell service or whatever. It's like Rogers. Do they have to get a hold of them or can they just pick them? They can just pick them, right?

Like, they don't have to talk to them first. I guess so. Do you need consent? Draft without consent. Right. Like, I don't know. I thought that was weird. What was the most boring pick? So, like, what did you think?

It's always O. lineman. Scronsky, yeah. I mean, Scronzsche is pretty, I would say pretty boring. It's like down the fair way. Saints, St. Brian Breezy. I was like, okay. Yeah, whatever. Go for it, Saints.

Live your dreams. Smith to the Cowboys is pretty boring to me. No, that to me, I was like, eh. Yeah. But he's from Grand Rapids, so represent Camden, baby. Wow.

But no, Mazzi Smith, that, that, the run on defensive linemen late, I generally found confusing. Like, I know it's not a great class,

but these are not great players. Like, we're already reaching. Like, Mazzy Smith, Brian Breezy, Felix, and you do Kuzoma.

To me, that's a lot of, like, go and get him. And then in classic Bengals fashion, the Bengals were the ones who got the guy, like Miles Murphy. Like,

okay, that actually makes sense in that range. Everybody else felt like they were scrambling for it. Meanwhile, the offensive linemen aren't going. So that, I'll say, Anton Harrison to the Jags would be boring, if not for the fact that they made the pick

because Cam Robinson's got a PAD suspension. That kind of sexes it up a little bit. Yeah, it does. I also think Cardinals did a really good job with trading down where they're like, we want Paris Jones. I know that some people thought it was weird or whatever, but that they traded back up,

but they were like, we want Paris Johnson Jr., and we're just going to trade down and trade back up and just take Paris Johnson Jr., but we'll just have a first rounder next year too. I thought that was pretty good. Yeah. Net, positive.

I didn't like Perce Johnson Jr. enough to be totally honest to trade back out in that spot. I would have just seen what happens at like 11 and 12. But yeah. But he speaks Mandarin and Portuguese, D.K. Does his father also drafted by the Cardinals? He also does seem like a really friendly, nice guy in the post-drafts.

Yeah. Honestly, he seemed like very, very high energy. Gargarious? Yes. Okay. No, but in general, yeah, I think get a first for next year because you're not planning on being super great this year and you might be changing a quarterback while also getting a guy who's just going to be helpful to Kyler now or to a future quarterback later. Like that is generally good business for the Cardinals. They were able to move out of three for a big deal and then still snagged Parris Johnson, who getting in front of the Raiders, I don't think was an accident there.

Like generally, well done. Like there was a moment there in the lead up where like the Cardinals were desperately courting offers for three. be like, are they going to blow this? Are they going to stay at three in pick? And they got out of that prior patch. I thought that was well done. Collage of Cancy to the Buccaneers was boring to me because I was just like, okay.

Like, no. I was more distasteful. He to me is somewhat similar to like the Will McDonald pick where, you know, median like result would be, he'll be a rotational player on the defensive line. He could turn into a star. It's certainly possible. He's very explosive.

But he is an outlier. Like we talked about in the pre-jraft process, he's small, and he has outlier-length arms. And so there's a thought here that he could only be sort of like a sub-package pass rusher from the interior. So like drafting a rotational player in round one for a team like the Buccaneers especially, seems kind of weird. 11 of the 31 picks were defensive line, man. That's bananas. This is not a good defense. This is a strange draft.

I don't know why we're tripping over ourselves. go get a guy. Like, I, like, I don't know about it. That confuses me. All right. Do you guys have other thoughts on this first round? Because I came up with the two jargons that a lie. I think we touched on basically every pick that was not Tyree Wilson to the rate seven of

the Raiders, which, sure, darnel right to the Bears 10, which like, yeah, everybody knew we were doing that one. And we talked about flat Stanley to the commanders, which elite 11th hour draft nickname. Yeah. Yeah, we basically said every name. Wow, great work, gang. We nailed it. So I mentioned, all right, well, also,

I want to mention we're going to be doing another pod after rounds two and three tomorrow, going up Friday night, Saturday morning, whatever. And then also our whole recap of the draft on Saturday. After that, young Solak will depart us. Again, he's not going to die. I keep saying that. Yeah, I got about three texts

over the course of the last two days. Hyphids where people thought I was leaving the race. because of the way that you presented. Yeah, my uncle was like, you're leaving? And I was like, no, just the draft bond. Your uncle got to like minute 70 of the pod? No, Hyford's opened the pod. And Ben, who's on the pod for the last time.

And you're like, you're gone forever? Yeah, man. Clickbait. Highfits, you know? We're going to be doing the fantasy football show starting. We're dropping our fantasy football rankings, our post-draft rookie vibes rankings are top 20, all that. At fantasyfifold.com.

And we're coming to you. every week of the summer on this feed. You don't have to do anything. We're going to change the name of the show, but you don't actually have to do anything. Just follow, subscribe, do all that jazz. And then, yeah, stick with us. And then we're going to have two more shows this weekend.

Time for some emails. You doing the two jargons, one lie? I'm going to do the two jargons and a lie. America's favorite segment. Okay. And if either of you, D.K.K.R. Ben, know this term, obviously, bow out. I actually, I mean, I hope now that we ruin the game.

It's actually going to be the opposite. It's two lies and a jargon. And the jargon is Mel Kuyper's advanced level use of Jag. So, D.K. uses Jag, like, oh, it's just a jag. He's just a guy. Mel Kuiper had a specific version of JAG, which is to describe

offensive tackles in the Big 12th. Okay. So, like, you know, they're playing all these clips of defensive ends rushing against Big 12 offensive tackles. And he either referred to them as one of the following. Guys in the fray, as in

future real estate agents. Oh, that's tough. BD like that like blocking dummy which is also like that I think AOG

another occupation guy Holy smokes I was positive the third one was going to be real because the first two were too rude but they're all mean

wait so two of them are lies yes yeah I made up two one of them Miel Kuiper used tonight

so one more time run through them future real estate agent blocking dummy or another occupation guy. I think the future real estate agent is what he said.

Yeah, I kind of agree. I don't think, I think future real estate agent is like an online thing. I don't think Khyber's online enough for that. What do you mean? I, like, we always do like, and I was going to go sell insurance,

and I feel like that's like a Twitter thing. I feel like that's for the youths. Yeah, it's like in the Big 12, the receivers are just playing against future. I'll say blocking dummies. That sounds like, that sounds like a good coach thing. Like, you look like a slut out there. Like, yeah, I think blocking dummies is the real one.

So you said, slut for a second. Sled. You're just letting anybody yet. It's pretty long evening. I'm going with what was it, a real estate agent? I'm going with that. Yeah, me too. I'm not blocking to me.

It's another occupation guy. God damn it. Kuyper said that on TV. Another occupation guy. That's not something anyone says. That's like him trying to do this telegram thing, but he couldn't think of anything. Exactly.

This guy's going to have a different job. Another occupation. That's not a football guy. It's a other job guy. Something else person. All right, Mel. Love Mel. This is like year 30 for Mel.

What a king. Mel, Mel, Mel rules. Like, he's the best. He's the king. That man must drink so much coffee. He invented this job. I interviewed Mel Kiper once.

And I got to tell you guys about Mel Kiper. Man, first of all, called his house phone. just doesn't have a sell. Just like classic. McShay was talking about how I heard a pod recently. Their pod, they do one together where McShay was talking about how Mel Kiper was super like moody and mean

because he doesn't like traveling. And I was like, man, the most relatable thing I've ever heard in my life. Like out of my comfort zone right now. I'm traveling. I'm on the road. Like, you know, that's Mel Khyper. He's like my grandpa. He doesn't want to leave his house.

He's all flustered. I want to shout out Mel Kuiper. Mel Kuiper's exactly like that on the phone call. Imagine Mel Kiper breaking down a prospect, but he's like asking you about your life. It was incredible. It's exactly the same person. Okay. So is this like our official post first round draft show?

Do we want to do the weird emails? Yeah. Totally. We got to stay on brand. Okay. Email. It's not like this is like on television or something. All right.

Once again, moms leave. Solich just called offensive wife and a slut, so... I didn't. All right, so back to the real journalism we do, which is what are the kids fucking on these days? Objects on the bed is what I'm looking for. Well, we... Do you say typhods?

Yeah. Well, we keep getting places people, the kids are fucked. All right. Oh, yeah, we got another one? We keep getting them. This is from... it's pretty weird I'm lying in bed next to

she's like what are you reading like this kid in Ohio had had sex at an amazing park oh my god Craig I actually will vouch Craig gets the emails up like they come up on his phone when you get in the notice

like somebody had second the chick fillet drive for anyway night It's from redacted. My now fiancant and I were visiting St. Louis to go to the city museum. Great place. Great playground for adults. Our hotel was right next to the St. Louis arch.

So we decided to do the tour. And in case you are not aware, you could go inside the arch and look out to the top. And in order to get up there, you get in these tiny pods of the tiny window that take you up the side of the arch and the inside. We rode up with another couple that they were observing. And once we got to the top, when we went back down, we were in the pod by ourselves. so we checked for cameras made sure nobody was outside the pod and we made history

Wow Not sure if anyone else has done this But I can saylessly say I've fucked in the St. Louis Arch Oh my God How long is that ride down I can't imagine it's super long Normalized

Normalized coming fast This all came together Thank you very much redacted Oh my God Going into the St. Louis Arch sounds like I wouldn't I would rather do literally almost anything in my life

than go I'm claustrophobic and afraid of heights. Anti-arch? It sounds terrible. Yeah, and then describing it as a little pod that you go up in? Like, is it not an elevator or, I don't know. What is a pod?

How does St. Louis arch work? It's a weighted cantonary arch. Oh, it's a weighted cantonary arch. It's the world's tallest arch. You look at it and you're like, that thing should fall over. No. Why is that thing staying up? Why did he build it?

Gateway to the West. I don't know anything about the relevance of that or where it comes from. To the West. How else you're supposed to get to the West, man? Right. You go through the gate. Through the arch. Yeah.

To write a passage to fuck in the arch. I like the Bass Pro Shop massive pyramid better. Yes. That one's good, too. Bass Pro Shop pyramid is late. It's like bigger than a lot of periods. If you've had sex in the Bass Pro Shop pyramid, email, a Rayford.

A lot of people have. Yeah. I think I have friends that have done that. I'm not kidding. There's a hotel in the Bath Pro Shop pyramid. Oh my God. Wait. We're going to talk about stories.

We have a redacted. friend that you know that is all I'll say is not allowed in a certain stadium. Oh, yes. Oh, is that your friend? Yeah. Oh, that's right. Yeah. D.K.'s friend.

I have a friend who shall remain nameless that is not allowed to go into a nameless stadium because of fornication in a bathroom. People being banned from like buildings for random reasons is really funny. I just like to picture the fact that they've got like his picture up on their security cameras and all the agent, all the people that running security at the like lines. is keeping a lookout for him so he can't come in, you know? That's the guy who was fucking his wife

during the game. We also got an email from Charles who says... Charles. Just to say Craig's desire for like things that have been laying down to the bed. He said he laid down a bunch of icy hots.

Get out. Oh, wow. Open? I imagine. I'm hacking it's icy hots? Open seems highly risky. What's the point of that? I mean, you got to do.

What's the point then? Fire nice. Song of Fire and ice. Why don't you try it and get back to this? You know what the best part is? They sell icy hot in the Bass Pro Shops. That's right. Maybe they did it in the bathroom at Bass Pro Shops.

There's a hotel in the Basqueau shops. Maybe they were both pretty, like, injured, you know? A lot of pulled muscles. They're like, two birds, one stone here. Trying to get ahead of the ball muscles. Preventative measures. Yeah, maybe they go pretty hard, and they're like, we're going to get hurt. So we need to just be ready.

Should we do a live show from that Bass Pro Shop period? Oh my God, yes. I love the best person. I wonder if that's hard to book. I wonder if people are doing stuff there. I don't know. You can charge a hefty fee? It's kind of a famous place.

NFL draft. 3-0.com. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Sulek. Thank you, D.K. Thank you to Austin. Thank you to Kai for producing this episode. Thank you to everyone for listening this far.

Corey and Richie. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Who else is there? Corey and Richie. Boom.

Corey and Richie. Thank you, Corey and Richie. Thank you, Lord. Lauren. Thank you, poison. Nice. You're on it. The second we mentioned, like, dudes who never take off their hats,

Dek's been on that the rest of the pod. Brett Michaels, baby. If anybody can think of a fifth, I feel like we have our top four of people who never show their head. What's the guy from Limp Bizket? Dirst. Fred Durst, yes. He doesn't take his hat off.

Is that right? Yeah, because he's bald. Okay. It's a common thing. Yeah. Dink is like, you might have heard of it. Balding. Yeah.

TK's like, I'm the fifth guy. I know, I was going to say, you want me in front of my name? TK brought three hats to work today. I'll throw my name into the hat, as it were. Yeah, yeah. I'll eat the hat. Also, for people that are not watching this,

I have an NFL hat because it might rob low bit. It's just an NFL brand hat. Which Corey bought me, by the way. Oh, nice. They bought it for the metal draft? Go watch a metal draft, by the way. Where can we find that? Do you know how to plug in this?

No fucking idea. Tiny Earl. dot com DK's the worst promoter in the world I actually think he's last If you ranked everybody in the world In promoting stuff Google metal draft ringer

DK I love your pod How can I listen? He's like on your phone Put your headphones in man It's streaming Just say podcast out loud It should start It's really true

I don't know what I'm doing We'll be back tomorrow But I mean who knows where Maybe you'll find this Live from Best Pro Shops tomorrow. We'll get there. Goodbye, everyone.