The Ringer NFL Show - The 2022 NFL Combine Awards

Episode Date: March 8, 2022

We wrap up the combine by handing out awards, including the Mount Rushmore Award, the Barry Bonds Asterisk Award, the Maybe They Had an Upset Stomach Award, and more. We finish the show by reading some listener emails before playing America’s favorite game, Two Jargons, One Lie. Awards (7:40) Emails (54:56) Two Jargons, One Lie (57:46) Check out The Ringer’s 2022 NFL Draft Guide. Email us at [e-mail]. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Ben Solak, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I am joined by Danny Kelly, Ben Sulek and Craig Horlebeck. We're talking NFL draft every Tuesday and Thursday through the NFL draft in late April. And we're going to be handing out awards. We just got back from the NFL Combine. So we're going to go through the awards. Good enough winners, losers, but also some more. fun awards from the combine. But first, we have a very strange story to discuss.

I'm just going to read directly from an NFL statement. NFL commissioner Roger Goodale today suspended Calvin Ridley of the Atlanta Falcons indefinitely through at least the conclusion of the 2022 season for betting on NFL games in the 2021 season. The activity took place during a five-day period in late November 2021, while Ridley was not with the team and it was away from the club's facility on the non-football illness list. A league investigation. and covered no evidence indicating any inside information was used or that any game was compromised in any way, nor was there evidence suggesting any awareness by coaches, staff, teammates, or other players of his betting activity. Calvin Ridley responded with a couple tweets that said, I bet 1500 total I don't have a gambling problem.

Good tweet. So I want to ask you, have you guys ever lost 1,500 total? Do any of you have gambling problem? I don't know if I've lost 1,500 total. I might be getting there. I'm guessing, like, relative to the salaries that we make versus Calvin Ridley. I have lost $1,500. Oh, relatively absolutely.

Percent and a hundred percent. We're talking about like just on one game? Yeah. Yeah, or just the number one pick, whatever weird bets you make so left. $1.500 to him is like what, like a nickel for me? Yeah, I've lost that. We're breaking on a curve here. I empathize with that, that tweet tremendously, by the way.

I've said that to mayor, my wife, definitely before. It's just like, it's just $300 on a Mountain West game that I've never watched either team play before. I don't know what the conversation is here. Hobbies cost money. I don't know what you want to tell you. I'm of two opinions about this. The interesting wrinkle here is

so he's betting on the Falcons. He put him in parlaying them. The three game parlays, the five game parleyes, the eight game parlays. And we should note, he's betting on the Falcons to win. Yes.

Sources close to the situation believe Falcons will win game. Source being Falcons football player Calvin Ridley. I think the one, I have so many questions about this, one of which is the idea that a league investigation found that no inside information was used.

He plays for the team. I know he's like not. He knows all the players. Of way he was on the non-football injury list. He was not part of the team. But still, it's a little odd. You know what this reminded me of?

It reminded me of the former MLB commissioner, Fay Vincent, one said that every now and then in business, you need a public execution. And I felt that this is kind of Calvin Ridley getting the hammer because the NFL just feels such a need to draw an absolute red line in the sand to be like players cannot gamble. And if you put your stupid eight game parleyes down, you will miss. I mean, as Roger Sherman tweeted today, Calvin Lee bet $1,500 and lost $10 million, it's the worst bet in like the history of gambling odds.

Yeah. So I don't know. Especially with right now, just like with the gambling boom across the NFL and really all sports. This is time. Yeah. That was my first thought too is he's being made, he's being made an example of, right? like the NFL is expanding their reach. They're now, you know, investing in betting.

They're getting all the profits from betting. Like, or they're getting a piece of the profits from betting. Obviously, it's just going to continue to grow. You know, everybody is talking about betting now. It's like becoming bigger and bigger. And so I do feel like the NFL is like, okay, we need to make an example of him. We have this opportunity. The fact that they made an example of the guy who has been on the NFI list because of mental health issues is the thing that really did kind of

strike me as bizarre and I think that the punishment here for a year long suspension does feel like a lot. What did you guys think of that? The year long suspension for this. Well, I just want to note real quick that the day's late November we've now seen Lindsay Jones at the Athletic Report. It's November 25th to 28th. That's Thanksgiving Day weekend, which I do think kind of humanizes it a little bit.

He did some parlays on Thanksgiving. That's what we're talking about. And like, I can get why he was like, well, I'm not playing, so like, why? You know what I mean? The NFL was very quick to be like, no games were affected. But I think that's the year-long suspension, right? Is that this happens. Fandul, official sportsbook partner of the NFL, all right, hits up Roger. Fendle on this podcast, maybe.

Hits up Roger and is like, no. Like, the year-long suspension is directly related to how much money the sportsbooks have tied into the NFL in terms of those promotions. And how desperate the NFL is, I think, to keep those sports book happy and to keep that connection strong. There's just so, so, so, so much money right now in legal sports betting in the United States. And so you get that year-long suspension because, right, you want to send this big signal both to the players and of the sports book, hey, we really, really, really, really care about this roughly four times as much as we care about, like, some domestic violence suspensions, which is insane that, like, that is that codified and that message is sent so clearly.

I think that's a good point, so like a lot of people are going to make that connection. Those suspensions also are collectively bargained. A lot of those times those things are immensely disappointing, but I think the NFL looks at this as existential. And, you know, when they reversed basically decades of not allowing gambling in sports and not promoting it, and now this really three, five-year, just complete reverse pivot into,

we're actually going to have official sponsors and when we mention this on broadcast, we're going to sports books and football stadiums, all that jazz. They had to do it with the conviction that they could make sure it doesn't affect the integrity of the game. because that was the fear for a half century and now that there's any sniff of it they're just

trying to crush the dissent honestly so with that said yeah you guys want to talk combine yeah i do yeah NFL combined baby then i've combined how are you guys feeling by the way after a a long week less than a week late night i tried i tried to write today and my brain was scrambled my brain was over easy baby we were leaking out the years this is the third pod On the combine. You think that's enough? Too many, not enough. Feels right.

It feels right. Craig's just jealous that he wasn't there. It's okay, Craig. I'm not. After how I heard you guys talk about Indianapolis off mic, I'm not upset. I like Indianapolis. Don't, don't say it. I like Indianapolis on it off.

I didn't say who said something. I live in the Midwest. Let's see a process of elimination. Yeah. Okay. So with all that said, we're going to get the rewards. So lack, lead us off here. Give us your first award you want to give out from the combine.

for spending a week in Indy. Absolutely. It's my favorite part of Indy is, and I should say the Combine process, is something that we talked about a little bit on one of the previous shows, which is just the cut of the guy's jib, baby.

Sit down with him, meeting for the first time. It's the handshake firm, all right? You know, clear answers. Look you in the eye. Yeah, exactly. Look me in the eye.

And so this is the cut of the jib award. I'm a big fan of the cut of the jib. And this award goes to... I don't know what that means. I've never heard cut of the gym. You never heard the expression? What? Literally, no.

I like the cut of this guy's gym. Yeah. What? I really don't. It honestly just means like I like this guy's vibe. It's a sailing. Sailing reference. So the jib was a sail

and you could tell looking at a ship far away if they were like, based on the shape of their jib if they were friend or foe. I don't know which shape meant what or what those shapes further implied beyond friend or foe, but I just know the jib,

like that guy's got a square jib, we're chilling, baby. He's my boy. Like he's got triangle jib. sailors are very upset with me right now. I'm trying to say, like, he's spoiled for a fight. I don't know if it was like just pirates or if it was also like armadas and nations, whatever. But if you like the cut of a guy's jib, then you like the way your first impression of him is strong.

Seems like a solid dude. And Malik Willis, quarterback out of liberty, gets the cut of the jib award. Probably everybody now is seen by this point the video of Malik Willis stopping while he was walking on the streets of Indianapolis. There's a homeless woman, I believe it was, who was on the. the on the street and Malik stopped. He opened his bag. He had like packs of clothes like out of the combine gave him or were packed you know for him and he gives her

a pack of the clothes, talks with her for a little bit and then he he goes on his way. Malik attended Liberty University which is like a really really really Christian university and Malik has been very outspoken about like believe in and in this sort of stuff and so he's a very like every game's got like you know

like audience of one sort of stuff that's on his arms and like he's a very faith-based guy and so this is clearly something that's that's super important to him, but also, like, you know, not in a disparaging way, plays well for teams. You know, faith football family has always been a thing. Like, the three Fs have always been a thing that matters in this space. And so Malik, first, he's like a super faithful dude. And then you have reports from Ian Rappaport. Says on the NFL network desk, excuse me, this was, this was Rapsheet.

Is Rappaport? I never remember which one's. Yes, yes. Yeah. I feel very poorly for that, because I met, I've met these people now, but I just never, I can't give them straight. Okay. Never ever apologize for meeting someone in person being like, oh, I forgot your Twitter handle. Never, never say that. Rap said it's been hard for team to express what it's like interviewing Willis, because Willis is so smart.

He says he spoke to an office coordinator who said, it's like the thoughts are overflowing in his brain. Jeff Howe of the athletic. Liberty quarterback Malik Willis told me that teams have been surprised by his offensive knowledge overall and ability to retain offensive info and play calls. You know, this is like a common occurrence in the draft where they're like, this quarterback played in a super simple offense,

often goes to run black quarterbacks as well, where it's like he played in a super simple offense. Can he know what a defense is doing? And then they show up and like, yeah, like, I know what I'm doing. So it's resounding good interview reports from Malik as well. So you're hearing that just like teams like him, they like the way he behaves, they like the way he understands offense,

he's really good on the board. They like the cut of his jib. So in terms of this quarterback position that we've been looking for a guy, it really feels like Malik killed this week, even without running through very well, I'll be interviewed really well. So the cut of the jib award, Malik Willis. I have a question. Did the tape reflect what these interviews illuminated?

Like, could you tell on tape that perhaps he was smarter than his offensive scheme suggested? So, like, that's always, like, a difficult thing is to read those tea leaves. In general, I would say, no. Like, Malik's play style is very frenetic. And so oftentimes when a guy has a frenetic play style, you read between the lines and you say, you don't really know what he's looking at, right? A lot of Malik's interceptions, too, were him getting really fooled pre-snap to post-snap.

So there's stuff that needs to be cleaned up there that I still think needs to be cleaned up there in terms of processing and like that kind of like football intelligence, FBIQ that we talk about. But for the fact that he was able to go up on the board and like new protections, new pro concepts, because those are stuff like he didn't have to set protections, you have to run pro concepts in the liberty offense.

That is to his benefit. And not just knowing those ideas, but how you communicate those ideas, right? coaches practice communication. How do I get an idea across to a guy? And so when a quarterback can go up on the board and speak with clarity, speak with incisiveness, know what matters and say it in a strong way, that strength of communication resonates with those guys.

Because that's what they work on year round. Yeah. Also, it's like coaches these days, I think, or maybe forever, have always believed, like, teaching is very important. You have to be able to learn, too. Like, as a player, you have to be able to absorb that information and apply it. I think that's why coaches get so excited when a guy is able to go up on the blackboard or the whiteboard or whatever and like, you know, do plays, figure things out that they're asking them live. It's not like they come prepared with like a speech. It's like you have to react to the things that the scenarios that they're telling you.

And then so the ability to learn, absorb that and then apply it on the field, I think are really important things. this also bolsters, I think, what we had heard coming out of the senior bowl, which was he would come in and command the huddle, come in and like the guys all rallied around him, like glommed onto him kind of deal. Like he's just a leader. I think that's also, again, these are intangible, so it's hard to know firsthand what really happens in the huddle. But this is the reports that you're hearing. So that's an important thing.

I always go back to the, in this example, I think, stood out to me, obviously, because I was covering the Seahawks at that time. but when Russell Wilson was drafted by the Seahawks, he came in. Like, it was only a couple weeks after the draft and essentially ran their rookie camp. So the teams run rookie camp where it's like a bunch of rookies, a bunch of free agent guys. It's like a lot of these guys are just trying out. They're not even on the roster necessarily. And Wilson came in and he ran the entire camp.

He knew the playbook. He did all this stuff. And this is like just one anecdote, but kind of like I think it points to what. So like you're saying here is like, Willis seems to have. have sort of that it factor or whatever as a leader, as a guy who can retain information. So these are important things. Again, we won't really see them bear out, you know, for the next few months here. But I know teams definitely believe in this stuff for sure.

So without putting this all together, Dika, you've said that Maliklis is going to be the second best running quarterback in the NFL once he gets to the NFL behind Lamar Jackson. Arm strength-wise, it's like not quite Josh Allen, but he has one of the biggest arms and that would be in the entire NFL. After all this, now you're hearing about these other parts of his, you know, of his profile. Do you think he should be the number one quarterback taken in the draft? I think it's starting to feel like he's going to be for sure. He's definitely got the momentum going in his direction.

I think there's probably going to be some teams who go with Kenny Pickett. I think it's down to him and Kenny Pickett. Kenny Pickett from Pitt. But Kenny Pickett's just the safe version. He's the Andy Dalton of this. That seems not exciting. I mean, yeah. strong agree

that I think you laid it out there you know what though can we briefly talk about the Kenny Pickett versus Malik Willis thing because it seems like everyone's on the Malik Willis train right now and man him helping the homeless woman

I mean if we had to rank all time best looks that anyone's ever had at a combine is that number one I mean like off the field I mean like what a tremendous yeah like example of his character

for context if you didn't see this basically a reporter was sitting across the street eating at a restaurant or something, and he videotaped Willis as he was walking down the street in Indianapolis. So it seems as though it was a genuine in the moment, like how you act when no one is watching type moment,

and obviously that's a cliche, but like... We hope. If he set it up, look, I think that's like Machiavellian and brilliant, like, good for him. If he set that up and, like, planted it. Stop that. That would be all time if he set that up. Oh, my God.

I mean, like, part of me thinks that's even more impressive because then you're like... Yeah. It is stock up both directions. You know, Malik Willis was also logged in a Calvin Ridley's account but put in all the parlors. Right.

Yeah, he'd be like really a generous guy but also like just like a winner. You know what I mean? This is such a classic example of how like dumb the draft is because if you just like a player you like him if you don't, you don't. It's like Belique, great dude. Loves others.

You know, believes. And then like you learn it's a setup. You're like Malik, gamer. You know, knows how to work the system. You know, like whatever we need to say we can say. But I feel like right now, it's like, this is, it's Malik Willis' time right now.

No one's talking about Kenny Pickett. Yet he remains on the fringe of perhaps being the first quarterback taken in the draft. Can somebody give me some positives about Kenny Pickett? Everyone's been disparaging him for his hand size. Like, why is he still almost the first quarterback taken? So I would say, so like I'll go quick and then you can,

you can echo whatever and give your take. I think, number one, he improved, his improvement this last year, I think was very, very impressive. like the way he was able to run that offense, the way he was able to

basically get everybody on the same page. He elevated his teammates. He came in. He's very good in the pocket. He can manipulate the pocket, move around, escape the pressure, make plays out of structure.

And like some of the throws he made out of the pocket were incredibly impressive. So I think Pickett is obviously like his stock has gone down because of the hand narratives and everything. But is there anything else? Did he do anything else

to hurt his stock at the combine other than have small hands? Not at the combine. I would say his senior ball. He didn't throw as well. Like, Bigot, like they're throwing that nine ball.

And Pickett's nine ball was going to die. Because he has like a fine arm. And Malik was launching that thing into a stratosphere. Malik's got flight codes, man. I like that. So, I don't know.

It's, again, it's like going back to the floor versus ceiling argument. I think that that's the new jargon we need. We need like a new wave of jargon. I think flight codes. I like that better for like a thing on a quarterback. It's worth,

worth noting just as a quick, uh, emphasis that we're talking about, that's like who's the first guy. right now books-wise, Malik Willis minus 125 to be the first quarterback selected. Kenny Pickett plus 190, Matt Crowell plus 240. So as far as books see it,

Willis is further away from two than two is of three. So I would say right now, Willis is going to be one. That's a 60% and 62% proposition. What do you think, top 10? Yeah. Ben, right now, you have to gun to your head.

What team is he going to? Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh, they trade up? Yeah. I'm going to say Washington. I'm going to say Washington. Now, Ron Rivera said during the combine that this team needs a vet, which would be a pretty good head fake, but the free agency comes before the draft. So it's actually not because we'll know if you're not bringing in a vet by the time we get to the draft.

Fair. Yeah. So I think, Washington did that coming into the week? Also, who's the vet? Jacoby Brissette. Taylor Heineke. Carson Wentz. Mitchell.

Oh, God. He's a vet. Mitch Trimisky is already a vet. Second contract, baby. Third contract. So you want to talk about how Mitchell Trubisky's had a career renaissance because he just went away. Listen. Like object permanence, like a baby drops a toy over the end of the bath and looks over and sees.

He's like, oh my God, you still exist? This is, this is the, this is the Mary Your Daughter Award. This is the, please, Mitchell, get your butt up to this altar right now award. This is the, oh, I'm sorry, I already have a son-in-law. Kill him. I don't love him anymore. Get Mitchell up here. I need this man as my son award.

And it goes to Mitchell Trubisky because Brandon Bean, he was. the current general manager of the Buffalo Bills was asked about Mitch Trubisky's potential upcoming free agency. And his immediate answer was, nothing but positives about Mitch. He's a merrier daughter type of guy. Just want to get that in

at the top, baby. Say, listen. What are Billy Bean? I also want to throw that out. Brandon Bean. Brandy Bean's a different guy. Oh, sorry, not Billy Bean. I'm an A's fan. In case that makes no sense, Trubisky was actually the backup for Josh Allen and the bills this year, which you're forgiven if you didn't know. Yes. And here's

here's the amazing thing, right? So shows up every day with a smile on his face. Works hard. So why is he going to be a good free agent? Because he's smiling all the time, man. It's great. For his ups and downs in Chicago, he has never said a negative word about anything.

Yeah, when I also have a terrible time somewhere else and then I move, I don't talk about it while I'm there. I'm not like, oh, I really sucked in Chicago guys. Do you know that? I'm like, yeah, Buffalo, man. It's great. I love it here. Keep reminding people.

Yeah, let's let's do that. He goes on to say, I talk to Josh Allen a little bit as we were closing in on the deal just saying, hey, this may happen, making sure there was nothing I was unaware of, which there wasn't. Mitch just came in with open arms, open eyes, clear hearts, open eyes can't lose, learned our system with Ken Dorsey, Brian Dayball and Josh, and it really was just a great caddy the whole year, just a great caddy, just really, he was ready if his number was called. So basically, Brandon Beans, like, listen, he's smiling a lot, he doesn't talk about when he was bad, and he didn't come in thinking he might have won the job over Josh Allen. And for these

reasons, he's going to get 10 million. Think about how low of bar that is. That's the lowest bar I've ever. So do you really think that he's like a starting job? Hold on, hold on. Do you really think Benzile, like, that Mitchell Trubisky is actually going to get like a chance to have a starting job this season? Dan Graziano, Jeremy Fowler, ESPN, NFL Combine Notebook.

Teams are openly discussing whether Trubisky gets 10 million or more annually on a new deal. That his name is a hot one is not manufactured. It's real. His career reset in Buffalo. went very well. Again, I just walked you through what happened in Buffalo. He smiled a lot and didn't make anyone mad. So his career reset Buffalo went very well. And teams that will look to draft a quarterback could sign Trubisky to start this year. A Trubisky pairing with a first round quarterback, such as Malik Willis, wouldn't shock a few teams, the Panthers, Steelers, commanders,

giants, and potential Broncos are in the mix here. So a team is going to sign 10 million Mr. Trubisky to eight figures to get beat out by a first round quarterback in camp and then smile a lot for 17 games and be a quote great caddy end quote this is real and honestly I respect it shout out Mitchell baby Brandon Bean doesn't even have any daughters so it's like right how can you really know that how would you yeah exactly to we trust your judgment here no experience where's your point of reference guys what do you think Mitchell Chubisky's record is as a starter I actually know this I think is he 34 and 31st season or just regular season I was gonna say I was gonna say 500 I believe he's 34 and 31 yeah so he definitely he went 12 and 4

8 and 8 and 8. 8 and 8. So that's 38 and whatever the opposite of that is. Sean McVey memory over here. What the hell? And then, well, they had one more season after that. I remember what that season was. It was like five. It was like six to ten.

He's 29 and 21. Dang. Wow. Look at that. Not bad. What a winner. Kid wins. Do you guys want to have,

you guys want to know the reference for the quarterbacks in his range. So 10 million is the number you throw out there. So like I from ESPN. Taysom Hill. His average per year is 10 million. Ryan Fitzpatrick. Okay. Tayson Hill contract is never real ever.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, yeah, that's correct. Ryan Fitzpatrick last year made 10 mil. Teddy Bridgewater, 115, and then you got like a bunch of guys on the rookie deal. So it's not really that much, like if we're being honest. If they want a veteran Washington, they should go get Teddy. I feel like that makes sense.

Trubisky. James made 5.5, I guess. That's one that you could point to. The thing is that like... Tyrod mean 5.5. So maybe it is a lot. Bean also said later on that presser, he was like,

Trubisky gets a bad rap because Mahomes and Watson were selected after him, right? And those guys are really good at football. And it's like, okay. Like, yes, I agree that... As opposed to Trubisky.

Right. I agree that he's... I agree that we're all like a little more mean to him because he could have been somebody else. But also, like, you cannot... Like, he was like he won a lot of games in Chicago. Did he?

Was he in the field when the games are won? Yes. Did he win the games? We cannot be doing this right now with Mitchell. It was very evident and how he played. Can we just do a really quick round robin? Everyone give a team they want Trubisky to go to. And that could be either because you're trying to be mean and you want that team to suffer or maybe you just want Trubisky to have a career renaissance and you're a fan of him

and you want him to marry your daughter. No, I can do this really quick. I'll go first. I would like him to be on the Salt Lake Stallions of the A.A.F. Yeah, I was going to say. Yeah, I'd like him to be on the New York Giants. Come on. Don't do that. How dare you? Yes, how dare you? How dare you? A day ball. Listen, go birds. You ever think about it that way? You ever factor that in? How dare you?

Oh, man. I'd like for Billy Bean to recruit him to come to A's. You can take Kyler's spots at Wisconsin Whitewater and AA baseball or whatever. I think he's going to end up with the Panthers. Just start out there. Oh, that's a good one. Just like, what's the saddest thing for the Panthers? The saddest timeline.

The saddest thing for the Panthers. Him and Darnold can go at it. Let's talk more combine. I don't know how we just did. that much time in Trubisky, but you know what? It was legit a big part of the combine. It was, yeah, it's the number one league NFL takeaway is Mr. Trubisky

is going to start next year. Okay, so I want to give out an award, and I'm giving Jordan Davis. Mr. Mario daughter. That's what we should call him. Please, it's like Mr. Staghan. I find that whole thing very strange. Okay.

Jordan Davis, the defensive tackle to Georgia, I'm giving him the Mount Rushmore Award because Todd McShay throughout this line, I thought it blew my mind. I want you guys opinion. He said that Jordan Davis this week joined Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson, and Vernon Davis on his Mount Rushmore of the single best combine performance

he has ever seen, period. And among other things, the thing that went out, I mean, Jordan Davis, friend, what was this 40-0-Dash of 478? Basically, the best number ever for anyone over 3010 pounds. And like, to put that in perspective, Jordan Davis, who went to Alabama running a 478, Josh Jacobs, a running back from Alabama a few years ago,

ran a 4-6. dude Jordan Davis he broad jumped let's see a hundred twenty three inches I don't know how far that 10-3 his broad jump at 340 pounds 341 pounds which is by the way 97th percentile for defensive

tackles not just all humans defensive tackles you mean the weight not the broad jump he brought jump 103 which is the same as Garrett Wilson who weighs 183 pounds the wide receiver from Ohio State yes who's going to be probably like a top 15 pick so Jordan Davis is in

incredibly athletic. To back up the whole Mount Rushmore thing, by the way, High Fitz, I don't know if you ever follow the RAS, the relative athletic score, RAS. Kentley Platt does this.

It's a great website. It's really interesting to give you context of how athletic these guys are. It's kind of like the Spark score a little bit, but slightly different, like, calculations.

In his database, which includes 17,000 players, Calvin Johnson is first, Jordan Davis is second. You talk about like total athleticism from the combine measure? Correct. This is total athleticism and it's relative per position. That's why it's the relative athletic score.

And by weight and size and all that, yes. Correct. So it's like he is one of the most rare athletes in NFL history or combine history, I should say. Wait, so Calvin Johnson was one and Jordan Davis was two. Yeah. Okay. So that's insane.

You just read off what he did? So he was 6-6-3-41. That's huge for a defensive team. tackle, let alone any position. I've ever met anyone who's like 6-6-3-41. Is it like in a football context? Right. He ran a 478 with a 1.6-8 yard, 10-yard split, which is really good.

32-inch vertical and a 10-3 broad. Like, these numbers are like a really athletic running back. Him having the same broad jump as Ohio State Wide Receiver, Garrett Wilson, is insane. Yeah. It's pretty crazy. You know, obviously his 40 is not quite as good as like a really good. running back, but his numbers are really good. You had to say it, though.

I think he should play quarterback. Can he throw? He's faster than the homes, I believe. He is. Okay. Anquam Bolden ran a 4-7. Exactly. Here's my question for you, too. So this sounds like one of the greatest defensive players ever.

This is a player who, midway through college football season, people were talking about whether he should be a Heisman trophy candidate. And yet, is he, like, how very, valuable is Jordan Davis as an NFL player if he functionally just plays two downs? At Alabama this year, he basically didn't play on third downs. He was on the field in third down like less than

a fifth at the time. So, DK. and Solek, I'm curious what you make of that. Like, would you, D.K., you have Jordan Davis going in the first round of the charges. Why do you have that? So I think, number one, that is the big question. Like, is it worth drafting a guy who's, in theory, going to play on early downs? He's a run stuff for run stuffing isn't as important. the modern NFL, everybody's throwing now. You know, I think that's the big question. Teams are going to have to answer. But I think the thing about Davis is he has that untapped, I think,

pass-rusher potential. I think those numbers paint a picture of a guy who's extremely quick, extremely powerful, extremely athletic. Obviously, we know he's massive. And there is going to be the questions about his snap counts at Georgia. But like a lot of the Georgia defensive players were like rotating in. Like when you're going in and watching like the all 22 of Georgia, you have to skip so many plays if you're watching one specific player because they

rotate guys in and out, you know, because they have like 15 five-star defensive players on their freaking roster. It's critical. Yeah, they have to like get everybody in. So you've got like probably, I don't know, seven or eight defensive players on that, on that group are going to be like top two round guys. And almost all of them were rotating in. So I think that the rotation thing is a little overblown.

obviously with a guy who's his size, you're going to have to worry about his conditioning. You're going to have to worry about his ability to play a full snap count, whatever. But I do think at the end of the day, his upside as a pass rusher is what's going to make him potentially a top 15 pick. It's not because he's a good run suffer.

It's because he has the upside to develop into a really good, every down guy. So that's why, I mean, when I saw Davis, I was like, this guy's got real quickness. But if he can harness that into like pass rush moves and one gaping and all that, that's the big thing. Yeah.

And it's worth noting like, all right, he's 341, just a mountain of a man, gorgeous human being, well-fed young man, just healthy dude. That's bigger than like our other defense tackles. But like this is, we've, we've had the conditioning conversation and coaches have had the conditioning conversation around defensive tackles for a long time. And they've been drafted in Vita V at 13 and Derek Brown at seven and whatever you like for that time, right? If you think you got them, 66% of the snaps ain't no problem.

In fact, it's preferable because I'd like to roast. that guy. I like to keep him fresh. And then I'd like to get to week 19 where the center he's facing, the guard he's face can play at 100% of the snaps every single game. And I'd like for him to be cooking. And that to me, I get to take over late. And I really, really like that. And Danny brought up the critical point. We saw every single Georgia defender, and I know Hyvitz, you're about to talk about this. We saw every single Georgia defender eat in Indy. They ate all year. They ate in the national championship, and then they ate in Indianapolis. This was a defensive front, arguably unlike that, what we've ever seen in college football

goes up against that mid-20 or late 2010's Alabama front, right? The best dude, Jalen Carter, he's not even out. Not eligible. And he's gonna be like a top 10 pick next year. Well,

the guy behind Jordan Davis. The guy behind Jordan Davis is better than Jordan Davis. Potentially, yeah. The guy that Jordan Davis, who was like a Heisman contender midway through the season is not the best detack. So that's what I'm saying is like, understanding Jordan Davis has snap counts.

Number one, it's not even the problem. It should be meant to be. Number two, Georgia could, not only could rotate, not only should have rotated, legitimately like had to rotate because they'd had too many people. And so I take very little stock in it. I would take Jordan Davis top 10 without blinking. Top 10. Top 10 without blinking.

So what team makes sense for them? I see what D.K. saying about the Chargers because the Chargers have, you know, obviously a terrible run D, but it's kind of philosophical. I mean, what team makes sense for Jordan Davis? Yeah. And philosophical is the important word because if you're trying to live. in a too high world, and this has been said a bunch of times, a bunch of ways, and it's kind of

going to become a refrain this year. If you want to live in a too high world, your interior defensive linemen better be buck kickers. You got to steal a gap somehow. That interior player becomes a lot more valuable. So you look at a team like Denver Broncos at nine, right? The Vic Fangio defense, they're moving away from that now. I can't recall the new defensive coordinator is. But like, that would have made sense for them. The Jets at both 10 and at at four, again, like talking about just what makes sense for that, that team, interior defensive line. Quinn Williams is a guy that's potentially leaving this year.

He's more of a penetration player. If you want to live in a too high world, that player is going to be important. Carolina Panthers is six. I mean, they just drafted Derek Brown, but like hasn't been amazing for Derek Brown so far. These are systems that make sense for them. But the absolute best fit, yeah,

the absolute best fit is charges at 17. It's perfect. Can we elaborate a little on this Georgia defense? Because this is kind of insane. Yeah. Yes. So, what, of my awards for this week is...

Oh, I thought it was hype. Excuse me. Holy shit. Can you imagine playing the fucking Georgia Defense Award? Because they... This Georgia defense,

which by the way was like the best defense in college football and this isn't really a surprise. But they actually just blew up the combine. So I don't even know where to start. Multiple players at every level

of their defense tested out as like 95th percentile athletes. I saw this for ESPN. This is a good summation. Georgia had the third fastest 40-yard dash by defensive end, Trouin Walker. The fastest and second fastest by defensive

tackles, Devante Wyatt and Jordan Davis. The third and six fastest for linebackers, Channing, Tyndall, and Quay Walker. And by the way, freaking, what's his name, didn't even run. Kobe Dean, who is maybe the best linebacker on that group, didn't even run. And then Lewis Sein,

Lewis Seine ran a 437 and Broadjumped 112. So they are just ridiculous. Like, this is a ridiculous defense. I don't even get, like, Toronto Walker, by the way, under, I guess he flew under the radar a little bit because of what Jordan Davis do, it did. But Walker was like incredible, 6.5, 45140, 103 broad, 6.893 cone. Like all of those are really, really good numbers. And so I don't know.

Did I say seen wrong, sign wrong? Lewis sign? Yeah, Lewis Seen. My bet. So did Georgia kind of replace Alabama as like the guy that just take the defender from Georgia? because for like 10 years, it was just take the guy from Alabama, and then now Georgia is kind of equalized Alabama as the five-star recruiting factory. So if you just get the defender from Georgia,

should people just be happy if that's who your team ends up with in the first few rounds? Yeah. A little bit, yes. There's a deranged member of football Twitter by the name of Betts, who just is like this guy who was like a coach in the Pacific Northwest who just shows up sometimes. He's like tweets mad stuff and then leaves. He's just like a legend. He's a vigilante.

He's totally nuts. But he once said. I think about the Georgia recruiting process versus the Alabama recruiting process I think is very prescient which is that Alabama recruits the factory settings guys, right? Like, all right, highway speed.

They have, Alabama has an unbelievable investment in improving a guy's speed, improving a guy's strength, and the strength and conditioning program is second to none. So we bring in the factory setting guys who just clearly have the frame and the athleticist to do it and then they put them in their machine and they come out two years later

and they're unbelievable athletes. Alabama has literally like industrialized this process. Georgia goes and finds the exceptions. Georgia doesn't bring in factory setting guys. Georgia finds just like Nacobi Deans who's just like a bat out of hell, Nicobi Dean. They go and they find Jordan Davis,

who's a mountain with skates, like just like a guy who can fly at this size. They've had other dude like Jalen Carter's another one, like seen unbelievable athleticism, but they bring in these body types that are rare and these playstiles that are rare and this movement ability that's rare. And they build the ship out of uniqueness.

rather than Alabama. So it's kind of different philosophies, but in general, you look at the way that Georgia brings in these athletes and you say, if your defensive coach can't make something out

of Jordan Davis, Lewis, C, Nicobey Dean, Chandleton, Kui Walker, Jaylon Carter, Trayvon Walker, holy smoke. If you can't make out of these guys,

your defense coaching staff is the problem. Yeah, by the way, their punter. Their punter, ran 4, 5, 6. Yes. What?

Oh. Yeah. What? Georgia ponder, Jay Camarda, ran an official 4, 45, 6, at the combine.

Wow. The Georgia punter. Is that a record? Is that a record for a punter? I'm going to look that out. I think so. Faster than nine running backs and nine wide receivers,

Jake Camarda. Oh my God. I'm looking it up right now. The top 40-yard dash of all time. Oh, shoot. Yeah, he is the top punter of all time,

according to what I'm looking at here. Play 11 on 11 in the pun game, baby. He punts that puppy. He's down making the tackle. There's a couple kickers that ran in the four sixes. Mitch Wischnowski ran a 463 back in 2019. Yeah. Remember two episodes when we're like 40-yard dash?

It's silly. Now we're just like, actually, it's just draft your punners on the 40-R dash. Yes. Yeah. Let's keep rolling here. DK, give us another award. All that said, hyphen's good segue, by the way, because we're giving this one the Barry Bonds Award for one giant asteris to this combine.

Because there's a good segue, by the way, because there's a few. a chance these numbers, well, at least the 40 yard dash numbers were juiced a bit. I saw this per NFL research, the best ever, it was the best ever year for 40 yard dash. Since 2003, it was the fastest average time among all the players, which is 471. 31 players ran sub 4-4, which is the most ever. And if you're compiling all of them, fastest running back group, receiver group, offensive line group, defensive line group, linebackers, and defensive backs group. Is there any groups that are not in there?

is every group other than quarterbacks, I guess. Am I missing any other ones? Tight ends. So there's like all but two of the groups here were the fastest ever. Or maybe just the timer was the guy timing, it was wrong. And since we literally saw that happen on Thursday

on NFL network. Well, that was part of it. That might be part of it, but these are the official times and not the unofficial times. I don't know. No, I got to read an email from Chad. Because Chad,

he sent us an email and I was like, I have the same question. Chad. Chad. Chad writes, why does it take so long to get official 40 times during the combine?

If the NFL is trying to turn the combine into an actual spectator event, why don't they have an automatic timing system like they have at the Olympics? It's not like when we watch Usain Bolt run the 100 meter dash that we have to wait an hour or whatever to find out if he actually broke the world record. I'm guessing because they start at track and field with like the shot or whatever, like they shoot the pistol. Don't they, or I guess it's not really a pistol anymore, but they have like an automatic timer. I think the problem with the 40s here is you have to,

determine when the player starts his run. Oh, the player can decide when they go. I think there's a subjectivity here of when the player starts his run. I think that's like the problem. Why don't they just start with a bank? I mean, there you go. But then you're changing 30-something years

of like combine numbers. Oh, geez. All right. Eventually we got to grow as a nation, you know. That's the main thing that I think has been learned this week is that when we say electronic timer, we mean a timer that is run by electricity, but it's still started with a hand.

right like the electronic times our hand times just a different instrument than a stop watch it's a space bar instead of a stopwatch okay so I kind of feel like the I have if I'm giving an award it's the my faith in electronic timing

the 40 or dash times have been completely crashed award I feel like this is all BS now like max speed GPS stuff is the future baby how fast are you moving in the game isn't it funny though that we still lead every single players combine with what their 40 was. You know why? I've thought about this a lot. Actually, that's a good point. That's a really good point.

You know why? I think that's actually a part of the reason this was the best year ever for 40 times. It's because these athletes spend the last two months trying to get the 40 right. Like that's all they care about. There's guys that are not even doing any of the other events anymore. It's because they spend all their time

training so they can get the technique exactly right so they can get a good 40. So we idiots on these podcasts can talk about them and how fast they were in the 40. And it's like just like feeding this whole industrial draft industrial complex. The 40 is like not that important on a top level like point of view. But like it's important to these guys because we talk about at a ton. It pushes guys upboards.

It maybe potentially pushes guys higher in the draft and those guys make more money. It's just like then the agents want their players to do it. You know what I mean? So it's like it's kind of crazy. But that is another reason. That's probably a reason that times are improving is because these, These players are realizing the 40 is the most important thing. It's going to be what everyone talks about.

I'm going to train my ass off to get really good in this. It's really a stupid process. And the 40-R-Dash means basically nothing. Having said that, did you guys learn anything about any players in the 40-R-dash this week that made you really happy? Yeah. Yeah, I did. Do you want me to go?

Georgia punter. Yeah, exactly. There we go. So one more award here is the, okay, so Kenneth Walker and Breeze Hall are as fast. is Jonathan Taylor apparently award. Because Briseall, Iowa State running back, and Kenneth Walker from Michigan State, both ran sub-44. Brissal ran 439, Walker ran 4-38.

There are some indications that these running back times, again, were not quite accurate, but whatever. Like, this is the information that we have. And if you remember Jonathan Taylor, I believe ran 439 or 4-4 on the dot. And he's like a track athlete at running back. I mean, I don't longer trust the dot, but yes. right um but i think overall like those two times at least in my mind are going to push these guys up boards and the dynasty world it's going to solidify them as like early rat like top three picks

and dynasty drafts um in the fantasy world like it's going to boost their their stock like this is actually important that they ran so fast um because there was this indication or thought that this running back classes and all that good but bris hall and walker both had incredible production and there was just some question marks about like their overall speed and athleticism i think and then obviously they dispelled all those thoughts. So it was actually, I think, a big deal for both Brise Hall and Kenneth Walker running that fast. And both had good birds. Like, Breece Hall had 40-inch vert, which is really solid.

So overall, like a really good combine for those two guys in particular and the running back groups overall. So like, do you think any of these guys are first rounders, any of the running backs this year? I don't understand why Brice isn't. Like Josh Jacobs won 24. And we were like, yeah, okay. Like we were a little bit like a guy. But to me, Breeze is a better prospect of Josh Jacobs was. I like Bruce a fair bit.

I think that you're looking at a... I've seen, like, DeMarco Murray, which I don't mind. I like Joseph Adai as a comparison, which I'd obviously had a short career, but was pretty solid when he was with the Colts. This is an explosive big dude. He's got evidence as a past guy, and evidence is a past protector. I'll take it. I come to him to Antonio Gibson, which kind of feels like I'm underselling him at this

point. Yeah. Like Antonio Gibson, if he actually was a running back? Correct. For more than like four years. Antonio Gibson as if he had running back reps in college. Antonio Gibson, but running back. But with practice.

But like the athletic comp, I think, works now because they're both like 250, 20 pounds or whatever, and they both run in the four threes. Like, it works now. Can I give you as an award, which is really just a question? I mean, yes. I kind of just, the Kavon Tibido Tone Def Award.

Like, Kavon Tibado is the edge rusher from Oregon. He was like the number one prospect in this whole class, I believe, coming into college and was a top number one, maybe number two prospect. I knew the draft cycle a year ago and just really has fallen outside the top two, outside the top five. Some fringe people have him outside the top 10.

And it's like there's all these whispers that are becoming not whispers about, you know, his, you know, attitude, work ethic, whatever. Like, is he a, like, you know, is he too interested in NFTs and blah, blah, blah. He has a 50-year point plan for his entire life, all that jazz. I think on the, at a surface level, I don't at all think that having outside interests is a fact that you means you can't be in the NFL. I think it's silly. However, I was surprised this week at two things I saw from him,

considering that this is like the known narrative about him. Two things. One, he said at his press conference, he was talking, he was cemented in the terms that like he's a harsh critic of himself. But he said that there's nothing a coach can tell me that I don't already know. And that's because I'm honest with myself when I watch the tape. I think I know what he's trying to say.

But that's still a weird thing to say like there's nothing a coach can me, I don't already know. He's just come out and say, I'm uncoachable. He's trying to say, like, I understand myself. I know how I play. Like, I can judge myself purely, but it came off pretty bad. But it's just odd. But then Maxx that with the other, the other criticism of his game is he's inconsistent play

to play. They did motor, whatever you want to call it. But he's not, like, out there giving 100% effort on like every play. And that's like, you know, one of the known knocks and obviously, you know, agents and stuff prepare you to, like, patch up the weaknesses in your profile. So in the middle of the workouts, he does a couple of the workouts, right? I think you did the 40. I think he did the bench.

And then he stops. He leaves. He doesn't finish the workouts. Does that strike you as strange? Whoever once think the speaker is so like, does that strike you as odd? No, there's a fair number of prospects who will be working out, start to get momentum, like be doing well and then stop working out. Because the last thing you want to do is, is DK Metcalf yourself, where it's like,

this is the greatest comment we've ever seen. and then he runs a nine second three code and we're all like this is not the greatest three-game not the greatest compound we've ever seen and get that Pac-Man mock draftable chart where everything is 95th percentile

except for two drills are like third percentile and you're obviously thinking of that question so Kavan said on the podium he was going to do everything ran benched benched well he had more he had more reps

than the other person I think on the bench yeah which I mean like six six total whatever like edges actually tested, but he benched. Sure, but it was better than them. Anyway, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, good performance in that regard. Um, ran well, I think while he ran a four, six, five, I want to say, unofficial. Yeah, uh, four, six five, two seven, four, eight. I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, got a way down a four five eight. Oh, maybe that's unofficial. I don't know. Yeah. And then,

said, all right, been a good day. I'm not going to spoil this by, you know, maybe I came in like, you know, five pounds heavier than I'll work out of my pro day. And that's going to take time off agility, my explosives, my jumps, right? So to me, like,

that's the thing that a lot of, a lot of prospects do after they have a good 40, or, you know, they kind of like, that bell,

and I'm like, all right, we're not going to mess this up. But yeah, Tibidow is a beat of your own drum guy. There's nothing wrong with it. It's,

there are teams that think there's something wrong with it. Right. Right. So you're at the point where how much should you count out to what the league will demand from you largely,

right? You kind of like, you know, use Aidan Hutchinson as a foil here. Hutchinson, I don't think, has ever talked about anything besides football since this process began. Like, Timito Goblin podium was like, I play chess. And I had Hutchison was like, if I stop thinking about football, I'll die.

You know what I mean? Like it's like, like, how much you're going to kow to what the league wants to hear versus how much you're going to say, this is who I am? And you should draft me done. This is why I am what I'm going to be. Yeah, there you go. Okay. So I think this is like a perfect example. And I think Timot even said this on the podium.

He was like, you know, the media likes to kind of run with these narratives and everything. And I think it's, I personally, and this is me switching to me. Like, I personally think it's getting completely overblown. Like, this is a very common thing that happens with like as select. It's like it's certainly snowballing and he's going to fall for the reason. Yeah, like we're parsing the words he said, even though hyphets, you admit you know what he was trying to say with like the practice thing. Like he's a hard, he watches film. He's hard on himself.

And yet we're parsing what he's saying. And then like, for instance, just like as an example, Jermaine Johnson from Florida State, who is rising really, really quickly in the post draft process. Great ball player. I think he's a really good player. He played two days at the Senior Bowl, dominated, and then quit.

Like, he's like, okay, I've shown what I needed to show. I'm done. I'm not going to risk getting injured. I don't think I need to show anything else. And that was it. And this is essentially what Kavon-Tibato did was, like, he was like, he ran a 4-5-8 with really good 40. He benched a lot. And he was like, okay, I think I've proved.

that I've like been working out. I don't need to do anything else. And besides, like, Tibido is already a top 10 pick, like, almost guaranteed. And, like, how much movement in there is,

like, him jumping or whatever, going to, like, really create. So I think this is a, like, it's a strategy from Tibado and his agent or whatever. And, like, you know,

trying to work this whole system and work the narratives and work everything. But it is a common one. Like, players do this all the time. So I just think it's like, it is really kind of like, the media, like taking a small whisper and turning it into something bigger.

That being said, guilty charged. That being said, I'm not blaming you, Hyphids. I do think there are teams that are going to. No, blame me.

There are teams that are going to. I'm blaming Hyphids. Teams will look at some of the stuff that he likes off the field and think like, oh, he's not focused on football. Like, he doesn't love ball. But like, I don't think the Combine thing is really going to make a difference.

But I made up all the rumors. It's, please blame me. It's all for me. Okay. Craig, did you have an award? Yeah, it's the maybe they had an upset stomach award to the highly touted players who had a disappointing combine. This is to all the people out there who aren't great test takers, but they're smart.

They just aren't good on test day. You know, they get anxious. They get nervous. Is you projecting? Are you a bad test taker? I actually am a good test taker. But I, you know, I always felt bad. There's a lot of, like, my brother, terrible test taker, smart guy, terrible test taker.

He just, like, didn't like the environment. He could never perform well. But then, like, if you actually, like, sat down with him and talked to him about the subject, like, he knew a lot about it. and I know this doesn't really like align but like I just think Trailing Burks man he had such a bad combine I feel bad for him you know maybe he just had a bad day he was mistiming the 40

it wasn't working for him and I hope he doesn't drop for it do you guys think he will? I don't think very far now sixth best speed score yeah it's still pretty solid and the rest of them are small and the anti-big bias here

is big man moving relatively fast well except with Jordan Davis if you get to the other end the big spectrum people get very excited when the big people go fast, but he's like, Jordan Davis with the best speed score since 1999, which is football outsider's database. This is the problem. We wanted Traylon Berks to be Jordan Davis. And then when he was just a good athlete, above average athlete, and he wasn't the best athlete of all time, maybe like Jordan Davis, like that was where like the narrative's gone. It was like, that was disappointing.

It's kind of like a movie. It's like I got mad at Craig before the show for saying the Batman was a good movie. And I was like, don't tell me that because it's going to influence my opinion of the movie. My expectations, I want to go with a clean slate. It's like the prospects. You guys go in really excited for prospect. Exactly. But if I don't know anything, I'm like, oh, the guy seems like really, really athletic. If I'm a GM, I just, I only want to draft the guys who are

really good actually on the field, on tape in their college football season and then fall in the combine because they had a bad, or fall on the draft because they had a bad combine. I want all those games. Well, on that note, before we get the emails, I want to just cut the line and I want to ask you guys my own question, which is stock rising, stock falling. Player X's is,

stock is rising after the time out. Does that actually happen or is a stock rise? Like, D.K., you just said it. Who is it? Jermaine Johnson? Stock is rising. Sorry, he's, he's a defense. Florida State edge rush, yeah. And he was out of Georgia needed a transfer, right? Correct. So he was actually on that defense with all those other freaking five-star guys and, you know, like whatever. So did Jermaine Johnson's stock rising or is it really the teams have players they like? And then as the people in the media get a better sense of what their real boards look like at the teams. The media adjusts it, but the player's stock in the teams is exactly where it was. I think it's a little at both.

I mean, first of all, the problem is teams boards do change slightly as you go along in the process, as you get more information. So stock up is not like this made up concept. I would guess that they probably don't change quite as much as like the media narratives point to. But as these, there's a reason these, the league does these things. They do the senior bowl. They do the combine. They do the pro days. It's because they need as much information. They need the medicals. They need all that stuff on these players before they make their ultimate final determination of what these players are. And that's when you finally end up with the stock

up stuff down. They're moving up and down the board. They're getting different grades. All that stuff. You're talking to the guys. Do they love ball? That kind of stuff. So it's not like a made-up media narrative. But it is, I think, definitely. not as, it's probably not quite as dramatic as we make it out in the media. But then the other, I think, factor here that I think is interesting. And so, like, you've talked about this in the past, like, the coaches of the teams don't get involved in the evaluation process until, like, after the season is over, basically. And so you get coaches who come in and they're like, ooh, I like this guy. This guy has a firm handshake. I want him on my team. And then they start talking to people in the

media and they start talking to the GM and trying to like exert their influence on where these guys are on the board. Does that make sense? So like they're the coaches now are starting to influence the stock of these players and that moves them up and down the board too. So, uh, bottom line, it's not just like we're making up, stock up, stock down. I don't think it works quite the same way at the team level as it does at the media level. But these guys are getting their, their grades are changing slightly based on like the various inputs in the evaluation process. I think, yeah, I think you're like, I think it's 75% media getting to know what's going on and like 25% things actually happening. There's nothing funnier than when an insider writes a piece. And the opening paragraph is

like, Indianapolis, man, whole NFL is there. You could have to talk to a bunch of people you haven't talked to before. Anyway, here's who stock is up. Well, no, I don't really think it's who's stock is up. I think it's you talk to somebody you weren't talking to previously. So here's who I've talked about that I wasn't talking about before because I wasn't talking to these people before. Not to say that insiders are bad. Just to say like that's really what the phenomenon is. It's where we've got a lot more people talking to a lot more other people and you've got to try to figure out what's here saying.

What isn't? But generally just information is like getting crossed by between lines and coaches are starting to get involved. And that just makes this whole process blow up a little bit. Okay. So let's get to some emails then. That was my question. But we also have a good question from Connor here,

which is even more just like 101. But I actually really want to hear the explanation. So Connor. Connor. Connor. Connor. Connor says, I swear this is a genuine question

and not sarcastic. What is the point of making a mock draft? Clicks. Directed right at you, D.K. Is a mock draft? The sweet, sweet click. Clicks. Love that money.

Love that money. Dopamine. Love that money. Dopamine and ad revenue is pretty true. But Connor says, is a mock draft how these teams should draft and therefore a reflection

of how the writer views each player, player and their team needs? Or is a mock draft how the writer thinks the team will draft based on the team's draft patterns and decision makers and needs, et cetera, et cetera. I'm going to throw that at UTK. Well, not to set an offense, but both or either. I mean, look, it depends on who the person is making the mock draft. Generally speaking, I, my mock drafts are what teams, I believe teams will do.

It's more tilted towards like what the... Mock drafts are generally predictions, wouldn't you say? Yeah. They're not what they think the team should do. It's what they believe the team will do. It's based on like, you know, the narratives, what people are what people are projecting for each of these teams, like what you're hearing off the record, all that stuff.

But at the end of the day, like sometimes a mock draft is like, hey, this is an interesting scenario that could happen if a team trades up for a quarterback. What would happen from there? So I'd say it's both. But generally speaking, I lean towards predicting what teams will do. Okay. I just, I just, it's like lost over.

Sometimes, you know what I mean? Like, just the actual purpose is like lost over a little bit. I mean, it does depend, but clicks. Clicks, maybe. Yeah, and the nihilism is a good reminder that none of this matters. Like, what's the point of my draft? And it's like, predicting, but also we can't. So it's also like, there's a million variations of what could happen in a 32 pick first round.

Like, it's insane. So, yeah. It used to be to distract you while you were taking a dump at your office, but no one's at their office anymore. So now I don't really know what it's for. Now that knows. Okay. Another email. Joe said, y'all sounded good with the hush tones of Friday's podcast,

hope the baby or napping grandparent, whoever was on the room with you stayed asleep. So I want to say, you know what I was whispering? We were in a hallway and I don't want to be too loud. Okay. It's the first time anyone's ever yelled at me for being too quiet. I had a friend text me that said he loved our show because it sounded like we were doing a podcast whilst playing hide and seek. Maybe that's a new idea.

Hide and seek pot would be really high. I did listen. I listened back. apologies Joe Joe. Yeah, it did sound like we were whispering. That was kind of annoying. But we'll get better. Learn from it.

Move on. Flush it. And now we know. Okay. Let's get to America's favorite draft segment, which is two jargons, one lie. Yep. Now we're going to roll in here.

We got a couple. So lack, I want you to lead us off. We took a couple episodes off because Craig wasn't with us in indie. Solek, please give us two real pieces of draft jargon and one that is fake that you made up. We'll see if we can figure out the difference.

So it was Combine Week, obviously. We did some Columbide specific ones last time we were on. This time, it's, it's guy day. Because you're probably talking about guys. This guy, that guy. Big fan of this guy. So we have the chalkboard guy, lunch pail guy, and the height weight speed guy.

You got chalkboard guy. You clever, you clever dog. Highweight speed guy. This isn't the toughest one yet. Good. You clever. categories of guys. Ben definitely was like,

I'm not going to go out of left field here. I'm just going to pick something that sounds incredibly normal, which is smart. What was it? Height weight speed guy?

Chalkboard guy? Lunch pale guy. Highweight speed guy is, to me, like, surface level, that sounds fake. But then you're like... It's never what you first expect.

Chalkboard, obviously, okay, he's smart, lunch pale, like a big guy. What's that fullback? Craig was so certain he knew what lunch pale was until they had to say it. He was like, who was the Packers fullback Coon?

John Coon? John Coon. Yeah, like he's a lunch pal guy. Hi Fitz. You've been suspiciously quiet. I mean, all those terms are real. It's just applied to guy. Lunch pill.

They're all words. Lunch pill guy is real. Lunch pill guy. I mean, he brings his lunch pill to work, brings your heart at. That's real. height weights what's going on with height weight speed? I actually think they're all real

I think so like I think they're all real and a bad game I'm gonna pivot chalkboard guys fake okay Craig says shockboard guy's fake Hyvers what do you say

I think you're a fake so like I think they're all real okay which is respectful that's understandable I can't get Craig man Craig's too dogg on good in this game

right so you put a guy on the chalkboard when you want to see what he's what he can do well but you wouldn't really describe anybody as a chalkboard guy. That's not that's not what a phrase gets you. Would you call them a whiteboard? Because now people don't use chalkboards. Yeah, right. I originally had whiteboard guy and down was like, I'm going to wait, Craig's going to figure out that whiteboard is too modern of a

term. I changed it to chalkboard. But you're right, they always say put the guy on the chalkboard. We'll see what happens. Right, exactly. But they don't say chalkboard guy. Lunchbill guy is, right, as Danny said, it's a guy who brings lunch bill to work. You know what I mean? He's nine to five guy. He's going to do his job. You know what I mean? He's tough hard-nose dude. And then highweight speed guy, I thought I was going to get you, Craig. I really did. It was too unclever. I was like, it's, yeah.

And it's some random NFL guy. Especially because it's always used for guys who are big and tall. And like they're usually like average speed. But high weight speed. Like that's what it's become is just HWS. That's the slash like in the shorthand, HWS. And so height weight speed guy is a guy who is usually big, fast and tall. Jordan Davis.

There you go. Highway speed guy, baby. Do we get time for one more? because Dika, did you, because we missed one a couple last week. Yeah, I did bring him. Yeah, D.K. wanted to throw his hat in the ring here. All right, here we go. Hyfitz didn't even guess.

Heifitz just opted out. I'm just bad because they're all real terms. He's criticized Ben. All right, here you go. Here's three expressions. Two of them are real that I know of, and one is not real that I know of. I like how Danny's re-explained the game really quick.

All right. Number one, stick his face in a fan. Stick his face in the fan. the or a fan i don't know stick his face in a fake one uh climb the tree or number three come down into the briar patch what all right do people use these terms

dandy's is very like directionally oriented that's why i tried they were all the same that's tried to make it like a theme i'm glad you did it too i don't know what a briar patch is but that actually a briar patch is like a bunch of like twigs and thorns and stuff i'm gonna say that's real because that's so oddly weird to say That has to mean like, get into the mud and scrap. What was the first one?

Put his face in the fan? I think the middle one's fake. Climb the tree. Okay. High fits? I actually kind of agree with Craig where Clim the tree is like too straightforward. The other weird as hell.

Craig is a... Climb the tree sounds like St. D.K. would make it. Craig is a jargon whisperer. I know. Craig is a man of vernacular. Climb the tree as far as I can tell is not real. You know what? Climb the ladder is real.

I just made it a little different. You know how Craig does? this. Did we tell the story in the podcast there was a horse like a hundred years ago that count? Did we talk about this? And no one knew how it did it. And the horse and everyone's like, how the hell? And it turns out, well, animals are like a hundred times better at reading body language than we are because we have spoken language. So the horse would just like clop, clop, clop. And when it got to, it could see people's

body language dancing and would just stop when it got to the right number. And that's Craig doing all this. Craig just kind of like. Craig's just reading my body language when I read, climbed the tree. Well, it's like, I try and think of like what somebody would think of and trying to make up a fake one, but also for you, D.K. specifically, when you said the first one, what was it? Stick is facing the fan? Yeah. You said stick is facing the fan, and you went

A fan or the fan, I don't know. And I was like, well, if you made that up, you would know what you wrote. So obviously that one's real. Fucking Sherlock Holmes over here. Next time we play, my camera's going off. I'm bringing somebody else. I'm bringing marriage. None of them are real. No voice inflection.

All right. Some disembodied voice. You gotta pretend you're reading the fake one off some list that you just googled. Okay, so real quick, I'll just explain these. Stick his face in the fan. Actually, Ben, you can explain that. Yeah, so stick of face in the fan as a guy who, if it's nasty up front, he's still going to go in there, he's going to do it.

You know what I mean? If he knows he's going to get his clock cleaned, he's going to go and get his clock clean. He's going to stick his face in the fan. And then come down into the briar patch. I heard Alex Gibbs say this one time. And I never forgot it. It's basically like a corner who's willing to come in and tackle. Right.

The entire wide zone offense is predicated on the fact that corners won't tackle. And if corners can't tackle, they're willing to come down on the briar patch. This guy's willing to come down into the briar patch. Honestly, an incredible insight. That's all we got. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Solek. Thank you, Craig.

Thank you Alex Gibbs for Breyer Patches. And the wide zone. And the wide zone. But mostly thank you for calling our quarterbacks who can't happen. And Andy Greenwald for his show. Shout out Andy Greenwald, friend of the watch. Wow.

There we go. We're a friend of the watch. He's on the watch. Okay. Thank you, everybody. Thank you for listening. Most of all. Thank you, Lauren.

Lauren. Nathaniel Ratliff and the night sweats. Thank you. Great, great choice. Should we thank the band that's suing Dulelepa? Give me a drink. Did he say Daniel Radcliffe?

Nathaniel Ratcliffe. Rakecliff? I don't know. I don't know who it is. I can't pronounce names. Do we... You got it. Who's the band Suing Dooley?

But we should probably shout them out. Oh. I hate to say it. Yeah. Let me look it up. It's a reggae band like the 90s. Yeah. You know what?

You looked it up and it's like, you know, I think it's like the same. It's like, oh my God. It sounds super, super similar. Article sound system. And they would advertise their band as I respect that immensely. Shout out article sound system. That's a good hook.

I am devastated. So, okay. Goodbye everyone. I'm devastated. I'm devastated.