The Ringer NFL Show - The 2022 NFL Draft For Dummies

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

The draft is two weeks away, so we wanted to take a step back and approach this as the SparkNotes version of the 2022 NFL draft. We touch on the essential information you need to know as you get ready for the draft. Later, we play America’s favorite game: Two Jargons, One Lie. (3:36) – What is the biggest story of this draft? (5:14) – Which team has the most at stake? (10:49) – Which team needs a QB the most? (16:28) – Who’s going no. 1 overall? (19:11) – Which type of players get drafted when? (25:25) – Who are the fantasy-relevant players? (33:05) – Who will fall in the draft but succeed in the NFL? (37:56) – Two Draft Jargons, One Lie (42:07) – Listener Two Jargons, One Lie Check out The Ringer’s 2022 NFL Draft Guide Email us! [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

Hey guys, it's Dave Chang here, host of the Dave Chang Show. You might hear me on with Chris Yang, Noel Cornelio, and a host of other guests. We've been on air for quite some time now, and it's changed over the years. But one of the things we always try to talk about is what's delicious, how to be a better eater. And you might hear me rambling incoherently, contradicting myself every five minutes. We talk about some sports and culture and all kinds of other things too. I think we're the most expert opinions you'll ever hear about anything. Check us out if you haven't before on the Ringer podcast network.

Welcome to the Ringer NFL Draft Show. My name is Danny Heifitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly, Ben Sulek, and Craig Krollback. And we're coming to you every Tuesday and Thursday to talk everything in the full draft today. Well, today is Wednesday, April 13th. You're listening to this on Thursday, April 14th, which means... Don't tell me what I'm doing. I'm my own man.

You know, you don't define me. You think it's going to be like Friday or Saturday? Yeah. Who knows? Well, listen whenever I'd say, well, please. People can save it for the weekend. Well, a fact is that Thursday when we're releasing this is two weeks to the day from the NFL draft. But guess what?

The draft goes Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So any of those days you're listening to it is two weeks from the NFL draft. So how about that, Solek? Oh, you've got me there. I can't. A lot of defeat time. You didn't see that coming. It's so facto.

So when we're two weeks out from the draft, I'm not going to lie, Deakin's Solac are draft experts here. They get a little itchy. They've been talking about the draft for a long time. And they want to veer off course. they want to start talking about weird guys. D.K.'s big board's going to go to 100. He wants to start talking about third rounders.

DK. and I were texting about Bo Milton the other day. Yeah. Yes. Want to do a Bo Meldon talk. Yeah. You ever heard of Bailey Zappy out of Western Kentucky? Is that where he's from? Okay.

Bailey Zappy is actually kind of cool. He's a good day. But we, this is actually, we're going to rain him in and we're like, oh, no, hold on. Most people are actually coming into the draft right now. And so we wanted to kind of do Spark notes. Now, for everyone who's kind of tuning in now, this is the Spark Notes, NFL draft for dummies, like those books they used to sell, kind of, that seems demeaning. It's kind of, it's like the questions your dad is going to ask you.

And we actually tried to ask our dad's questions to see what we did know. Yeah. Ben's dad had a very incisive question. It's pretty, pretty classic my dad question where he was just like, hey, how does the draft work? Right? Like, that's what's the deal here? The question was verbatim. I've always wondered how a team evaluates the merit of a player in light of physical ability

against behavioral red flags or vice versa. Dot, dot, dot. Actually, four dots. Adam Shafter Ellipsies there. Oh, Adam Shafter Ellipsies. Strong character, but not top of physical ability metrics. So that sounds like NFL draft questions for smarties.

For experts. Yeah, that's like experts. That's the whole draft in one question right there, Chief. That's everything. One of my favorite parts of working at the ringer is parachuting into the NBA. B.A draft two weeks before and just hitting up Kevin O'Connor and Jonathan Sharks and our NBA experts and being like, who's good? And I'm going to basically, we're going to do that for you guys because we actually have the right to monopolize your time. So we're going to go through this,

like we haven't really gone through any of this before. And we're going to start with a very basic thing, but something that's really worth zooming out on and kind of rewinding big picture questions. And best place to start, I'm going to throw it to Solek first. What is the story of this year's draft, So lack. The story of this year's draft is a poor quarterback class. It defines teams in the top five trying to trade out and being unable to do so. It defines teams in the late single digits and in the tens and even into big 20 with the Steelers thinking that maybe they might be able to snipe their guy and, oh, we can get a

real starter outside of the top 10. That's crazy. The last quarterback class that was considered like bad, we got to remember, was the Mahomes Watson draft. and those two quarterbacks were selected at 10 and at 12, and immediately for the teams that drafted them provided a really, really, really high caliber play. And so teams are hoping that they can do that again

outside the top 10, while teams inside the top 10 are wishing there was a team that would make a trade up. DK., do you have anything outside the top quarterbacks that you think is one of the biggest storylines or is the bad quarterback class, like, the main one? The one other thing that I think is super interesting is like this year's draft feels like a dynasty rookie draft.

There's like seven teams with two, first rounders or whatever it is. I haven't counted, what is it, five or six this year that have two first rounders. It feels like all the teams are doing the, you know, the productive struggle thing where they like trade back and trade good older players for a bunch of first rounders and then they're like trying to reset. This is happening in the real draft. So I think that is the other thing that's very interesting is just there's a lot of teams here with a ton of ammo. The Eagles just traded one of their first rounders. They still have two. So that's the other thing that I'd say is kind of like a big deal here is there's some teams here can really do some damage in the draft in the first round.

Can we stick with that? I want to know, one, like, who are the most important teams that have multiple picks in the first round here? And which teams can kind of change their destiny with this draft? So let me run through the list of all the teams that have the two picks. And then I want Deacon Solek to pick the ones that answers core questions. Craig's questions of which is like the team that has the biggest, the most at stake. Quag's questions. Quag's questions. I can't. Quag's, I don't know. You didn't know what you were getting into when you opened it that. It seemed like it should be easy. It was not.

No, it's never easy. Nothing's as easy as it seems. Anyway, so just to recap, it's really weird. The Giants have two of the top seven picks because the bears traded down with them for Justin Fields last year. So they have Chicago's first rounder. The Jets of Seattle's first rounder from the Jamal Adams trade last year. I cannot speak English. The Texans have two picks in the top 13 after the Deshawn Watson trade.

The Eagles, as D.K. alluded to, they got the Colts for, first rounder from the Carson Wendstee last year, and they had the Dolphins first rounder from the dolphins trading up, and then they sent one of those picks to the Saints. So the Eagles and the Saints both have two picks, and they're all four of those in the same five-picks band. The Packers have two first-rounders after trading Devonte Adams. The Chiefs have two first rounders after trading away Tyreek Hill. The Lions have the last pick of the first round and the second pick of the first round

after trading Matthew Stafford. So a lot of big trades, a lot of teams. And then eight teams don't have a first rounder at all, which is the most in NFL history. So with all that said, DK, let's start with DK, who of those teams, Giants, Jets, Texans, Eagles, Saints, Packers, Chiefs, Lions, which of those two teams has, like, the most at stake in this draft? Ooh, the most at stake? That's a very good question.

I would say maybe the Packers, since Aaron Rogers is 38 years old, and they're kind of like in win now situation. They just traded an all-pro, one of the best receivers, if not the best receiver in the NFL. they need to make these hits. They need to make these picks hit, right? Like, we made fun of their draft a couple of years ago where they traded up for Jordan Love,

drafted the running back and a tight end, and basically, you know, those players turned out, like, AJ Dylan turned out to be better than people thought. But at the end of the day, like, that wasn't like a win now move. I think they need to do something that is going to have a big impact in year one.

So, like, what do you think? Who is the most at stake? I think the Saints and the St. I want to say the Seahawks. They don't have two first round picks. They have a first round pick they traded for. But they also don't have

their original first round pick because the Jamal Adams trade. But the Saints and for the same reasons, the Seahawks are really interesting to me because we just got out of your quarterback era. You just left a very comfortable world of Russell Wilson for 10 years, of Drew Brees for 10 years.

You don't want to be out here. Yeah. It's Tulum. You know what charcoal is? Charcoal ice cream. You don't have the clothes. cholesterol. Steelers are in this boat as well of the 20th overall pick out of the Ben

Rothesberger era. A lot of these coaches have been there for a long time. A lot of these general managers have been there for a long time. And when the quarterback leaves, it creates this watershed moment for change, right? You see that in Pittsburgh where Kevin Colbert, the GM might be stepping down. You see that in New Orleans where Sean Payton, the head coach is moving on. Dennis Allen takes the reins. And then you have Seattle, where Pete Carroll and John Schneider have had a ton of success up there.

the whole time, which is a third round picket quarterback who hit, and that is not easy to keep doing. And so there are some teams that were mainstays of the last 10 years of football that are now at inflection points. Get this draft right, get a free agent quarterback right, get a draft quarterback right. Bang, let's do it for another 10 years. Miss it, and you're going to discover just how hard it is to get out of the slough,

out of the bog that is the middle class of the NFL. To loom? Well, that's funny, because the thing that you just laid out, Ben, it's like the timing of this is all terrible. You have teams like Seattle and New Orleans and Pittsburgh all needing to start over with a new quarterback, all storied franchises with good rosters, and right now there's no good quarterbacks. Yes.

I think like if we want to do a what's a quote that defines this draft cycle, kind of like take it that way, John Lynch at the Combine, General Manager for the San Francisco 49ers, was asked about the Traylands trade at this year's Combine and said, yo, you guys traded two first round picks for Tray Lance last year. did you do that looking at this year's class? And he was like, hell yeah, brother. He didn't say it like that, but he said it like that a little bit where he was like, we saw the veteran, this is a bunch of veteran quarterbacks moving around.

This is a great rookie quarterback class. Another shoe was going to drop. We weren't going to miss it. And we'd rather be a year early than a year late in terms of getting that next quarterback, that quarterback for the future. And I think that's a really important mindset. You think about the Eagles draft and Jaylon Hertz a couple years ago. You always want to be kind of early on your next era of quarterback.

opposed to being late. And I think that's one of the reasons that this NFL off season was considered one of the craziest in terms of phrasia. Just really the trades that were made. I mean, there were, I think the players traded around. I mean, Matt Ryan was traded, all these quarterbacks that we just mentioned. Carson Wentz went to the cults. I mean, I can summarize this real quick. I mean, the Broncos traded for Russell Wilson. Washington traded for Wentz. The Colts traded for Matt Ryan. The Browns traded for Deshaun Watson. Tom Brady came back out of retirement. And so one of the reasons I think it was such a nuts trade window was that teams. looked at this draft and said, we don't like these quarterbacks. And so they were more aggressive

than usual looking at the trade avenues and they were more willing to give up those picks. And so that's a really good point. So like, I think it leaves us with, I think, the next question is who needs a quarterback? If you want to hear more about the actual quarterbacks in this year's draft, we did a whole episode on that in our most recent episode. So you can check that out. The title, Craig, what's the exact title of that episode? It's very clickbaity. It's the most fun quarterback draft episode you'll ever listen to. Beautiful. It was a good time.

Check it out. However, for now you can just take, or if you want to learn more about them, listen to that. For now, take our word, they're not that fun. They're not that great. However, there are still some teams that need quarterbacks in this draft. You're not that guy, pal. Exactly. So, none of them 100%, no team 100% needs a quarterback this year.

However, there are a bunch of teams that kind of have someone that they could stick with, but it's like, and from the rest of development. It's like her? Her? So those teams are planned? So the teams, so the Panthers who could roll with Sam Arnold or whatever, they have the number six pick, the Seahawks who could roll with Drew Locke from the Broncos trade of the number nine pick, the Texans who could roll with Davis Mills, have three and 13. The Steelers have Mitchell Tribiskey because Rathesburg retired. They have the number 20 pick. So of all those, which of those teams do you guys think are the most likely to draft a

quarterback in the first round this year. Did you say the Falcons too? Sorry, yeah, we got to forgot them. So the Falcons traded away met Ryan, but they signed Marcus Mariotta, another one who's like, they could keep them, they could draft someone to have him sit behind Marcus. They're flexible. And I think for the reason Solek mentioned of, this is a bad glass, they're all kind of waiting on, they're in like the no man's land between last year's class and next year's

class. So the first, my first reaction is the Panthers seem to have painted themselves into a corner here in the way that they've approached the quarterback position. Instead of drafting a top 10 quarterback last year, they went with a corner. Uh, they tried to, it really is awful that cornerback and quarterback sounds so similar. It's bad for a draft season. Um, a C.B. They drafted a CB. High fit states when I use, uh, no, no, that's the one that you can. I actually agree with. So I want to rename the cornerback position. Uh, so anyways, the Panthers, they've kind of botched this whole quarterback situation, big time.

botched it. Batched it. They are now looking at... So number one, look, Matt Ruhl kind of feels like he's on the hot seat, I imagine. They've got a owner who I would say is probably errors on the side of impatient versus the long-term goal. And they've got no picks in the second or third round. So they have a sixth round. They have number six overall, sorry.

And then they have a fourth round pick, I believe is their next pick. So, I mean, I guess there is a lot of indications that they're trying to trade back a little bit. Maybe they've tried to trade out of six, get like a second and third or whatever. I had a couple picks here and there. They could still draft a guy in the 20s or whatever it may be, maybe even in the early second round. And that might be the best thing that they can do. But if they're sitting there at six and all the quarterbacks are still on the board, like it's going to be, you can have that trigger finger to like pull the trigger on one of these guys and just have a good quarterback in town because they can't,

going to 2022 with Sam Dardold as the only guy, right? So to me, the Panthers kind of stand out amongst all these other teams. The Seacocks, I think, have time to rebuild. The fact they traded Russell Wilson to me indicates that Pete Carroll and John Schneider have job security long term. The Falcons are nowhere near winning, whether they get a quarterback or not. And so I think they're going to take the long game, probably. They'll probably look to trade back also.

And then everybody else kind of has like a bridge guy that they can get by with. and they don't really need to, like, be too aggressive. So to me, the Panthers are sort of alone in this group. Ben, do you agree? I always say the Panthers are in the most dire spot. I do find it generally hilarious that the Texans have Davis Mills, and we're all just like, yeah, you know, two top 15 picks. That's good point.

We don't really actually talk about it. But where would Davis Mills be in this class? I feel like he would be, we'd be talking ourselves. Where would he be? If he went back to school and had a good year, I feel like he'd be number one. So off of my scout on him last year, he would be comfortably behind Desmond Ritter, comfortably behind Malik Willis. He would probably be behind Corral and right around my picket area as well.

Wow. Okay. Now I will say, that's how I felt about him coming out in 2021. He played better for the Texans than I thought he would. Did he play so good that I'm like, you know, he's probably better than Malik Willis? Absolutely not. How about this? Did you say absolutely?

I said astitutely. That was weird. Thought experiment. The Texans cut him and there's some weird eligibility thing. And Davis Mills is actually in this draft again. And you get him to a new rookie deal. After seeing him play last year, like real life, I don't know why he's in the draft again. I love this game, by the way.

I can play this game for two hours. He'd still be able to read her and well as for me. Wow. Okay. But like third or fourth, he was the third rounder last year. So that gives you an idea of the quarterbacks. Anyway. By the way, John Snyder said this in a press conference, I believe, at the owner's meetings.

Seahawks GM. Sorry, yes. The Seahawks' GM had said something along the lines. I don't know if he said it explicitly or just insinuated it, but basically if Drew Locke was in this class, they would have him rated probably as the number one guy. How do you feel about the fact that every single person left in the entire world who believes in Drew Locke works for the Seattle Seahawks?

How does that feel? Just 100% of them. No, Megan Schuster works for the ringer. Yeah, we do with Megan. That's where it's at. So all the quarterback stuff, forget them for a second. going number one in the draft, DK. Overall?

No, number one in the third round. Okay, number one in the third round. Who's that? That's a weird question. Don't you dare answer that question. No, I'm taking a swing. Jags are taking Justin Ross is 65 overall. Bang.

All right. You get that right. We're going to like bake you a cake or some shit. All right. So the number one overall question is actually an interesting one because typically, I don't know if it typically, but usually it feels like we have some indication

who it's going to be. Right now, it's like a toss-up between Aidan and Hutchinson, past rusher out of Michigan, and Trouin Walker, pass-rusher slash run defender out of Georgia. He is more accomplished, I'd say, at the latter, and the potential is elite with his past rushing skills, but he hasn't really shown it in terms of production yet. So I think the question of, like, who's going to be the number one pick actually tells you a lot about this draft because the guy Nick Tron Walker might be the first pick. a guy that you're describing as a run defender who hopefully learns to rush the passer.

I mean, look, I actually like him. I think he's insanely athletic. He's prototype size. Everything you want from a pass rusherer, like athletically and physically, he is, but he just didn't produce at a college level because of a combination of reasons. Maybe it was because they were asking him to,

you know, two gap or play heads up with the tackle and open things up for blitzers, whatever it may be. But, I mean, there's, like, there's flashes on tape where it looks like he could be a good pass rusher, but there's also flashes on tape where he looks pretty raw and he, you know, has a long way to go

to kind of get to that level. So it's kind of crazy, honestly, that Trouin Walker might be the first overall pick. Do you want to hear my favorite fun Trayvon Walker fact? Yes. So Walker initially at Georgia was a defense tackle. He initially was playing at 300 pounds. Oh, what's he?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. During his, he dropped down about 275 for his junior year, which is to say... So I did that as well, my junior year of college. Yeah. Which is to say The freshman 15. Yeah.

We got to remember this. Freshman 175. There's going to be two round one defensive tackle picks out of Georgia in the draft. It's Jordan Davis and Devante White. Davis is probably going to go

like top 15, top 20. Wyatt's probably going to go someone between 20 to 32. So Walker was as of like two years ago, the third best defensive tackle at Georgia. And then now

is the best pass rusher in the draft and the number one overall pick. It's, I watched more Walker today because there's increasing smoke that he's going to be the number one overall pick and I just don't get it, man. I cannot.

So what is it? Well, this is a really interesting conversation and we actually were talking about this earlier today. And I actually was not going to ask this on the podcast, but now I want to bring it up. D.K., you mentioned basically, why do certain players get draft? in certain rounds.

Yeah, yeah. And you basically said, obviously there's different school thoughts and we're oversimplifying. However, the first round is for players who are extraordinary athletes who are also produce

or are technically skilled. Like you have both. Get you a man who can do both. Crazy athleticism and also like technically refined. And the second, and grossly oversimplifying. And the second round is like guys who are, have athleticism,

but like there's a, there's some hole in their, there's, there's just some reason that they're not first rounders, right? There's one major flaw. Yeah, and then the third round is like guys who are good at football, but not crazy good athletes. And then as you go further in the draft, it's kind of like guys throwing darts at one or the other.

Crazy athletes who have no skill, who have no, like, technical ability. They play basketball. Or no production. Yeah. Like rugby players who are trying to play in the NFL or the opposite, guys with lots of technical skill, but no athleticism.

Right. So it's almost, like the NFL, which makes sense on its surface, but it also creates the possibility where sometimes teams galaxy brain themselves into a Trayvon Walker who, it is possible, becomes an incredible defensive end. It is also extremely possible that Trayvon Walker is the sixth best defensive player from his college in this draft. Right, right. Yeah, I mean, you framed it. I think that's exactly right though. There's such a wide variance in terms or like

potential outcome with Walker because honestly we just don't really know like what he would look like if he was just asked to pin his ears back and rush the pass or every snap like maybe he would be the best past rush in the NFL we don't really know. He has the physical talent to do it but typically these guys that have the physical talent no production are like late second or late first early second like Odeo Daffei last year. Would I say his name incorrectly there? O'Dath O'A.

Sorry, yes. He changed his name after the draft. So anyways, he is a guy that was like super, super athleticism, twitch, all that, but like zero sacks. And that was like a huge, massive red flag. There had been like no guys with no sacks at state. And he turned out to be a good player. Like, he is a good player in the NFL and he's going to be an even better player.

But typically this is like what I was getting to getting at when we were talking about earlier. It's like in the first round, especially in the top 10, you want guys that are elite athletes and elite producers. That's actually what Aiden Hutchinson is for more, like more or less. He's not elite at all athleticism, but he's fast,

he's quick. And he had 14 sacks. He set a school record last year. Like that's, he looks more like a first overall pick than anybody else in this draft. And that's pretty much why everyone's been expecting that to happen. So that's why I think like this is just kind of,

you're right, like maybe a galaxy brain thing that we're going to see here happen with Tron Walker. So I don't know. He could end up being really good, of course, but we've seen tons of, and tons of really high upside pass rushers just flame out in the NFL.

Top 10 picks just not work out in the NFL. But generally speaking, this is your Solac for if you need an offensive tackle, if you need a pass rusher, you need a receiver. This is the draft for you, right? Quarterbacks are barren, but that's it.

And then generally speaking, there's also like a wide variance on who's actually the best at those positions, right? Like the other weird part is not only is everyone disagreeing on the quarterbacks, but like the best receiver, the best tackle, the best defensive end, like widespread disagree on the one through five at all those positions, right? Yeah. Usually we know, like, okay, we'll put it this way. Every draft is going to

have like a star wide receiver. There's going to be a star wide receiver in every draft for the rest of time because there's just so many talented receivers and so many of them get picked and passing offenses are so much better at getting production out of young guys. Like, they're just going to be a star receiver. Usually we feel like we know who that guy's going to be. Like last year, it was like, it's probably going to be Jamar Chase. Might be Jane Laudal Waddle. Might be Devonte Smith, maybe we'll get two, but no, sure, March is, number one receiver. A couple years ago, right? Like, oh, you know, Marquis Brown, D.K. McCaff, Debo Samuel.

Like, there were guys who loved these dudes. Like, Metcalf was the one where everybody was like, yo, this guy could be a legit star. This year, it's like, okay, one's going to be a star. You figure it out, man. Like, nobody's got a good beat on exactly. Yeah. A guy's going to go top 10, probably. Garrett Wilson at Ohio State, Drake London out of USC, Jameson Williams, the Bama Speedsters,

had a ton of smoke recently that he's going to do. going to go top 10. He's going to be the first wide receiver selected. But there's a lot less confidence that we know who that guy's going to be. Same thing is true at tackle. Eka McQuanoo at NC State, Charles Cross out of Mississippi State, and Evan Neal out of Bama. All three are going to be top 10 picks. I think two of those guys have a chance to be really, really good. I really like Ekey and I really like Cross. But there's no consensus in the league. And so then pass rush sure that we've talked about. And so in general, not a class where even in the position groups, there's a clear one. The only position group where

there's a clear top guy out of all of them is center with tyler linderbom out of iowa even at safety like for the whole i was going to say yeah safety so whole old cycle has been kyle hamilton recently recently it's like oh dax hill oh lewis seen wow like yep the only position where there's a clear cut top guy is center running back is kind of close but i would say it's still a little bit messy no i don't even think i think that one's totally up in there too um this is i think more than i don't know, maybe we do this every year. But more than ever, it feels like this is the eye or the beholder class. I think that this is linked to COVID more than, I really do.

I think that, no, I'm serious. I think that it's about depth charts. It's about certain. I think that things getting messed up. I think that scouts not having a year prep. I think that COVID kind of has ruined a little bit like the, or changed a little bit of the variance. Maybe I don't know to what degree.

I think it's impacted it. But we were talking about receivers. And I just want to do fantasy, originally a fantasy podcast. the back in the day. Parking back to those days. Who are the fantasy guys we need to know in this draft, D.K? So the main guys, there's two running backs probably.

Breece Hall and Kenneth Walker. Kenneth Walker from Michigan State, Breeze Hall from Iowa State. And that's just really light. Like, I feel like last year it was way more than two. And I just talking about two days. Yeah, I think this year, there, and I've said this to someone, there's like two

probably starter, three down guys, Reese Hall, Kenneth Walker, and then I'll bunch of Khalil Herbert's. And I say that in like the way they are good runners, good players. Like when we saw Khalil Herbert come in and like start for David Montgomery, like he looked really good. Like he produced. He was efficient.

There's probably 10 guys in this class that could do that. But like it's anyone's guess when they're going to get that chance because they're probably going to be handcuffs or backups. There's two guys I think that have a solid, very solid chance of being starters. And that's Breeze Hall and Kenneth Walker at running back. Feels feels like it's not special. Okay. Receiver then.

I know there's like a, this is one of the stronger spots. I'm going to play a game. I want to play a game. Each of you. Gun to your head. Water, gun to your head, whatever, fine.

Yeah, water gun to your head. Craig. One of these receivers in this drafts, four years from now, three years from now, is a top five receiver in the NFL. Who is that? Berks.

Oh, I like that. I like that. So you say Trailing Berks and Marks sorry, is it because of that he hunts the wild boars with knives? Yeah, so, I mean, top five is very tricky because the top five receiver a year after your change is so much because the position where production is just so easy. But if we're going to call Debo Samuel's past season, a top five receiver season, if you get Birx in a system where they just live off of yards after the catch, he's the exact sort of guy

you want. So after a couple years, you know, develop the routes out a little bit more, hopefully make him want to block and be physical a little bit more as he enters the NFL. But in terms of size, explosiveness, tackle-breaking ability, hands, contested catch, yeah. Burks has elite traits. TK. Okay. So I've been completely like gaslit, I think, gone this entire class because I loved

Burks coming in and now I'm starting to like have some doubts, some nagging doubts. There's just enough smoke around him not running like clean routes and not winning in the right ways that translate to the NFL that I'm just sort of starting to like talk myself out of him a little. I still have him as my third receiver and in that top tier. But now, the more I think about it, the more I sort of look at it, like Jameson Williams, to me,

just seems like he's gonna be a star. He's the other name I would have said. It would have been him or Jameson. When amongst the wide receivers do you guys think Traylin Berks and Jameson Williams will get drafted? I think Trayland Berks will probably be the fourth one,

fourth or fifth picked. And that might actually be good for him because I really want him to go to the Packers. Like, if he goes late in the first to the Packers or, I mean, the Chiefs or something like that, where they're going to have a smart plan. He really reminds me a lot of D.K.

Maccalf in the pre-Jef process, not necessarily the styles that they play, but he, I think, is more sensitive to landing spot than some of these other guys. Like, James and William, Garrett Wilson, to me, Drake London, any of these guys can go to any offense in the NFL, more or less, and, like, have success. Like, Trayland Berks, to me, is going to be a guy that is going to need a coach

that has a plan for him and a team that has a plan to, like, get him involved early on and then work him up to be a good route runner in a specific offense order. This is exactly what the Seahawks did with D.K. McK. McHath. When D.K. McHaf landed with the Seahx, I was like, yes, that is going to work. Because his skill set matches exactly what the Seahawks want to do on offense, which is run down the sideline real fast like Forrest Gump.

Like, just go and Russell's going to throw it to you. Literally the first season in the NFL, I think D.K. Metcalf probably ran like three routes. You know what I mean? Amen. And then he's developed over the years. Like, he's gotten better at everything. And he's improved, which is what human. beings are capable of doing.

He was what Hyphus was talking about earlier, the guy who was super athletic but didn't necessarily have all the technical skills yet. And Berks is not the same style of player, but my point is more that, like, if they get him, like, I just keep using the Packers because I think it's a perfect fit. It's a matchmate in heaven. They love doing, like, Aaron Rogers goes the line. They see a corners playing off. He just throws a smoke route.

That like replaces the run game. They let him run in space. They let him pick up yards after they catch. I think that's perfect. They love screens. They love the screen game. They love RPO's. they do play action.

They do all the stuff I think that Burks would like excel in. But if he goes to like say a West Coast team or something where he's being asked to like be at a specific spot at a specific time and run these really precise routes, like he could struggle. This is exactly what I said about D.K. Metcalf earlier on in his career. So I think Berks has that upside. But again, like he's a little bit raw. And so I think he's a little more sensitive to landing spot.

So that's why it actually might be good that he falls a little bit. Can we digress for a second? I was thinking about the wide receivers who are taking first overall. Not in the draft, but like amongst their position. And like Jamar Chase last year, obviously had a fantastic year. And I went back. I looked at the last 10 wide receivers to get picked first overall among their position group.

Let me list them to you. Yeah. Jamar Chase, Henry Ruggs, Marquise Brown, DJ Moore, Corey Davis, Corey Coleman, Amari Cooper, Sammy Watkins, Tavon Austin, and Justin Blackman. Two of those... Wow. Maybe three, I guess you could say, of those 10, have worked.

And do you think that's because wide receiver at the top of the top five are just really hard to figure out who's the best one? because they're all kind of good. A lot of nature versus nurture is involved too with these guys getting drafted first. Maybe you're going to the teams with the worst quarterbacks, and that's why it's not working out.

But why do you think so many wide receivers that get drafted first don't pan out? I think a large part of it's because those teams taking the first receiver in the draft are desperate. And I'm big on like nature versus nurture, but if you look at those individual situations, I mean, Sammy Watkins,

that Buffalo team was not good. Sammy Watkins was very good, hurt his foot. I mean, the Justin Blackman thing, he was very good. He had all field issues. But if you just go through those. Some of those guys were not good. Some of those were just terrible situations. Really,

Jamar Chase is the outlier and going to a terrible team. But he had his college quarterback, they had the best, he had the best college receiver season ever, or not one of the best college receiver season's ever, and then went with the same guy to the NFL. So I just think bad teams taking bad, or good receivers. I think the additionally, yeah, they get desperate. Then you, it's like, it's similar to what happens with quarterbacks. Like you come in and you have to be the guy. There's a whole bunch of pressure on you. All the defenses are paying attention to you go, a lot of these guys go to a team where they're the number one immediately. and Jamar Chase was good enough to like overcome that

but he also had T. Higgins across from him and he had his college quarterback so he had a couple of massive advantages here. And he was like the greatest wide receiver prospect ever. Right. You mentioned Corey Davis. Think about Juju Smith-Schuster. Juju comes in.

Yeah, that's a great example. Yeah. Well, Jujs Smith-Schuster is working along Antonio Brown. Now, whatever you think of Antonio Brown, at the time before he really went off the deep end, Antonio Brown was amidst the greatest seven-year stretch for receiving yards in NFL history. And they had been.

It's the best seven-year stretch that is not Jerry Rice's seven-year stretch. and Juju got to work in that shadow. Well, no wonder he was having such a good time. Like, he was getting matchups he wanted because they had to deal with Antonio Brown. I think, and then you look at, Corey Davis didn't have that luxury.

You see a lot of second round receivers turn into like big time stars in their fellow. Because they're going to good teams? They're going to good teams in a lot of cases. And also they're going in and they're complimentary pieces of, like, an offense. And that's exactly what Hyphus is just saying. But like, I don't know.

I think that is something that you have to think about a little bit. So it's hard to get really excited. If like the first wide receiver, the board if Traillen Berks goes to the Jets or something you may not be as well the Jets are the Jets but yeah anywhere that they have to be the number one immediately

it's a little concerning I don't want any of these guys to go to Washington yeah retweet I have another question so like who is the player like my favorite draft pastime is scrolling through a draft from five years ago and being like how do he fall that low who is the guy this year that we will look back on and be like how did this guy

fall on the draft how all these teams pass on this dude? It's a very good question. I'll take Lewis seen safety out of Georgia. And this is the, this is the, there's two reasons for this. And the first is the one that you said earlier, right? We're like Traylon Walker,

maybe the sixth best prospect from that Georgia defense. This Georgia defense was just stacked. And safety is a position that inherently is like, solve some problems, you know what I mean? Cover up for some issues. You have so many responsibilities. and then 10 of Georgia's 13's opponents, scene just didn't have like any jobs to do

and just play free safety. He's not actually, I'm not going to be able to throw it on time. Anyway, he can't throw it all the way down here. Pressure's, pressure is already arriving. Passers was already there.

Seen comes down to the box to go like, you know, make a tackle. The Kobe Dean's already there. You know what I mean? Like they were just so talented that safety, which is not a position

that gets a lot of action. It's just a position where you're kind of in position, in your role, ready to act. Well, the rest of the Georgia defense was so good that scene they just didn't have to play

on the ball as much, like get as much production as a guy like a dachsale out of Michigan or Kyle Hamilton of Notre Dame. So that's number one. And the number two is, I think that we're going to see safeties matter a lot more in NFL defenses over the next five or so years. And that's something that I wrote about in the Kyle Hamilton piece, I talked about during the season last year. But as we move to a too high world, your safety is start to matter.

They start to become really important and prevalent players. And so to me, if I'm getting Lewis seen outside of the first round, I would not be surprised if this is a player who becomes a Josh Johnson type for some teams, a Jesse Bates type for some teams where he's probably not going to be a top five safety, right? He doesn't have a thing that level. Actually, his measurable are really great. His testing was awesome. But to me, like, this is a guy just going to become a 15 million per year guy on his second contract. It's going to become lights out, lock down safety in multiple roles, who went at like 45 overall. And in five years, a safety rises in its prevalence,

we're going to realize that this sort of a player should have gone a lot earlier. I think that's nail on the head. I mean, we talked about this a couple episodes ago. The cool safeties are coming back. Yeah, baby. I mean, it's gonna be fun again. Yeah. Oh, I just thought of such a better answer

for the good player thing. All right, whatever, fine. Go, who? Leo Chanel, linebacker Wisconsin. Leo Chanel? Good ball player. Chanel, like, is it spelled like Chanel? Like Coco Chanel.

C-H-E-N-A-L. Oh, so it's a little different. Wow. What a beautiful name, though. Leo Chanel. pronounced the same way, though, isn't it? I'm 98% sure, though. Once, once, I never realized it it sounded like Chanel Chanel and so once crazy. I said that. I was like, oh, wait, am I flipping it in my head? But no, pretty sure it sounds pretty right. I think you're right. Leo's a big

young man who can move, he can read, he can block deconstruct, he can cover, he can do everything a linebacker can do. Because he plays for Wisconsin, we're all convinced he's not athletic. He's, in my opinion, the second best linebacker in the class. Good ball play. Wow. I want to have Solek just do every scouting report in that cadence. This young man can play. I'll tell you what, he is his big, strong man from Wisconsin. Young man can play a little ball, right? It's like that transatlantic kind of accent. Yeah, it's like you're watching one of those kinds of...

Listen here, see? Leo Chanel can play football. The World War II, like, previews that show like the progress of the war. You know where that accent's really prevalent is... Hitchcock Christmas story. Not a Christmas story, sorry. Oh, I'm blanking. I'm blanking.

The Christmas Eve movie. It's a wonderful life. It's a wonderful life. I feel like that's a big time movie for that kind of accent. man, Jimmy Stewart's like the king of the Mid-Atlantic transatlantic accent. I can tell you what, like, who I'm doing in that bit if you want.

Yeah, I don't think it's, I think it's a reference to land on none of you. Has anybody seen the legend of Cora, the follow-up Avatar animated series? I have not. My friends love Avatar. Well, for anybody listening, the guy who introses the pro-bending battles, that's the voice that I'm basically doing when I do that.

That's pretty good. Yes. That's a deep cut, but it is a good cut. That is a deep cut. All right, speaking of deep cuts, we're going to do two jargons at a lie. America's favorite game. Two real draft jargons. America is a buzz about this. America is a buzz.

We can't stop talking about it. Who did the two jargons in a lie this week, DK or Solek? I did not. I've got it. Oh, sweet. Solex, Solok's always prepared. I know. I was like, shit.

I forgot. Consum of professional. What can I say? I just have a big Google doc full of jargons and I try to figure out what we're going to work together. All right. Good thing the draft is coming, by the way, because it feels like we're running out of them.

We are. We are scraping the bottom of the barrel What's funny is we can't do this next year Because there's not like a ton of jargons are going to be added Forget by then We'll forget by then, please. We have like 1,000 emails that we can go through I don't know what day it is

There's no way I'm going to remember We're going to start playing one jargons and two lies pretty soon Just because that's all lies This is the Chris Ryan experience, yes We have Ants on a Hill Looks good on the hoof See ball get ball

Ants on a hill looks good on the huff C ball get ball Craig I almost wonder if ants on a hill is like Craig is just grimacing and shaking his head

grimacing I almost wonder if Anson a hill isn't even about the players if it's like man I hate watching the film on this D3 prospect it's like the guy filming

it's like ants on a hill I can't see anything I don't know like it's so far away yeah I don't know this is the Nate Tice video clip that he's sharing on Twitter where it's a snow game and Penn State's wearing white uniforms

you literally can't see any of the players. What is this? Replay for ants? Seabull get balls. What was this middle one, Solek? Looks good on a hoof? Looks good on the hoof. On the hoof. I don't know if I say that word. Depends on where you are in the country. Looks good on the roof. Roof? What do you guys say?

I don't know what looks good on the hoof means. I don't know that. Well, there's roof. I would hope not. It's kind of the idea, Craig. my goal. Well, I don't even know what it could mean. I mean, on the hoof means like running.

Looks good on the hoof. Like he's hoofing it. He's running. Oh, I didn't even think of that. I don't know what I'm... Okay. You know, when you're hoffing it. Do you know, when you're hoffing it?

That's a phrase, isn't it? Yeah, that's a phrase. It is a phrase, yeah. Oh, okay. I... I don't think... I think looks good on a hoof is real. I'm between ants on a hill

and Seaball get ball. Ants on a hill, I almost wonder it must mean like disorganized defense or something like like you know maybe a player doesn't look good but it's like oh well why does the quarterback look good well the defense is like you know answer on a hill that one i can see being real no i think that one's fake because that i came up with that fake explanation really quickly but i've never heard the term so that one's fake hyphus is such an arguer he argues with himself yeah yeah dk takes it personally sometimes i'm like dude like i'd argue with me i think i'm like mad at people you guys don't know how many times offline i'm just like

Do we need to argue about this? You know, when we were at the Super Bowl... Do we need to have this discussion? D.K. has two children. Calvin and Hyphid. Craig, how you're acting like he's not one of the children? Craig's trying to be golden child because my brother locked him in a bathroom when he was a kid,

and this is his chance. Oh, goodness. I'm going to go with... I also'm going to go with ants on a hill. I was trying to think, which one's the fishing term, Ben? I'm going to go with ants on the hill is fake. I really thought I had you guys with this one. Ants on a hill.

It's an ardvark term. Yeah, that's Ardvark jargon. It's a what? Artvark jargon. Ardvark jargon. It's like ducks in a row. Bob Blah's loblog. Yes.

Ants on a hill is fake. Looks good on the hoof is literally exactly what it sounds like. Like when a guy is like warming up, when he's running around, right? When he's just like, you know, doing average athlete things, you're like, yeah, that looks good on the hoof. It looks like he can run around a little bit. which is just like, it's such a banal term. It's a weird. It's so

useless, but looks good at the huff is what it is. See, ball, get ball also extremely useless. This refers to a defender who, when he sees the player with the ball, he can go get him. Like, the reason I paired these two together is because they mean exactly

what they sound like and are useless. In terms of they're not like colorful or helpful whatsoever. Seaball get ball is aggressive defender. That's literally all it means. And then Ants on Hills is made up. So well-in to you guys. You guys have swept me the last two go-rounds.

I'm thrilled. Okay. I'm thrilled. No, I'm going to give you two jargents and a lie. Well, I left out, I'm thrilled because I got those and Craig just followed my lead, but that's why I was thrilled. Okay. I was trying to be humble, but I failed.

Two jargons and a lie. Do you guys want one about taxes? D.K., I just answered the question. Who is your other son? It's actually that. Two jargons and a lie. Do you guys want one about taxes because it's taxis? or do you guys want one about two we got a two bands that a lie do taxes do the taxes one you want

the taxes one also like what anytime high fits like decide something i just have to pick a different one or else it's considered piggybacking but i should just try and pick as quickly as possible and not think about it that was eating at you wasn't it i just hate when highfitz like gets on his high horse and just like thinks he's better than everybody oh boy i never do that except for when i do it uh three two jargons that a lie actually three jargons at a lie which ironically this tax one should have been audited. Adam says, all right,

below are three real acronyms and one fake acronym related to international tax law. I've included the pronunciations. Wow, this is definitely written by a tax attorney. Okay. Number one is B, which would stand for base erosion

and anti-abuse tax. There's guilty, which is global and tangible, low-taxed income. Losers, which is low-taxed offshore sale receipts, and then Shield, which is stopping harmful inversions and ending low with tax developments.

What the fuck? So be guilty losers and shield. Guilty is false. Guilty is false. Shield is false because that's Marvel and nobody else can have it. That's trademarked by Marvel. I can't, I'm not allowed to piggyback off the other two, so I'll just pick the first three.

Okay. Craig is still mad. I think Hyfitts got really mad that I got the first three, right, when we started this process. It has not forgotten about it. Yeah. You started five and oh, and I was like, oh, shit. So like, do you have a brother?

I do, five years younger. Oh, you're the older brother. These two are the younger brothers. Well, so here's the thing. When we were in Los Angeles, oh, my God. Craig and I grew up with older brothers who were like three or four years older. And so it's just second naturedust. D.K., who did not have a brother, was like, why do you guys argue about stupid shit?

I was a middle child with two sisters. So I was always the problem. The exact opposite, yeah. Here's the problem with me. My brother, since he was about two. I would say has been cooler than me in every single way. And this has never stopped. And so our relationship is flipped.

I'm like, hey, do you like me? Like, are you cool with me? And I'm like, I don't know. And I'm like, dang it. Oh, boy. This explains a lot. So you just wanted us to not argue. Like, why do you argue?

I was like, I don't know. No, I'm just curious if we need to argue in this scenario a lot of times. I'm like, is this something that's absolutely necessary to argue about? Because that's how it feels with almost everything. I'm going with guilt. I'm going with guilty. I actually am also going to go with guilty because as soon as you said it, I was like, that's like a legal term. That's like pretty dicey to name something guilty.

What was the one before losers? So there's beat, guilty losers and shield. Give me beat. I'm shield. Watch it be losers, which none of us picked. Okay. Oh my God, the fake one is loser. We're all losers.

Holy shit. Why don't I should have picked a losers? That's a really big selfie. Oh, my God. We are losers. global intangible low taxed income is real and then low taxed offshore sale you know why we should have known is that this losers would imply that offshore money is taxed that was such a tell i didn't really think about it to be honest i'm not going to pretend i understand how money and taxes work so that's not going to fool anyone we're not we're not feral hogs here right we don't have our economy on the show oh my god jesus what a callback there are like ten people who get that joke that have listened to minute 60 of that episode and minute 60 of this By the way, I'd like to use this moment to point out that several people emailed about the dirty pointer, which is from a band famous in like the 1990s in Wisconsin.

It's a thing. It's real. Yeah. It makes fun of the accent in that region, by the way. The Upers. I can't believe we're doing this again. We're not. Okay.

All right. That's all. All right. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Solek. Thank you to have an email. This email us at ring your fantasy football at gmail.com for two jargings of the lie. All your draft questions. we're going to be doing a green room live or I guess it's Spotify live now we're going to be live

next week at some point we're going to be live before the draft look out for that we've got updates coming to NFLdraft.30.com check out our draft guide thank you Lauren Lauren Lord thank you the Rolling Stones whoa I have heard of them I guess like you guys staring blankly at me and Craig shaking his head so yeah I usually look at all the bands that you give and I listen to them. Oh, okay. Well. I did with the jazz guy. Stanley Gets? Stan Gets, who's, by the way, when I heard that your dad's name is Stanley Highfitz,

I was like, hey, Stan Gets. Stan Hifitz. They kind of sound similar. Get it? No? Nothing? Okay. Just staring at me.

All right, goodbye.