The Ringer NFL Show - The Take Purge: NFL Draft

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

Welcome to the first annual Take Purge. All NFL draft–related takes, including things you don’t actually believe, will be legal for 60 continuous minutes. All rational thought, logic, and professional credibility will be suspended.  Email us the takes you must purge! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, everybody? I'm John G. Stremski, born and raised New Yorker and a long-time sports radio host. And I'm here to tell you about my new podcast, New York, New York, with JJ. The first podcast on the Ringer and Spotify dedicated to you, the New York sports fan. I'll be giving you my thoughts on all the teams, plus fantastic guests, gambling picks, and thoughts from you. We'll be coming to you on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights, plus bonus episodes, whenever I got to get something off my chest. Make sure you follow the show on Spotify. This is not a test.

This is your emergency podcast system announcing the commencement of the annual take purge. At the siren, all takes, including things you don't actually believe, will be legal for 60 continuous minutes. No players, coaches, or media members of any kind will be granted immunity. All rational thought, logic, and professional credibility will be suspended. The Ringer Podcast Network thanks you for your participation. May our take God Chris Sims be with you all. Okay, it's the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, D.K. Craig, we are T-minus a minute to here from the take purge. Yeah.

Are you guys ready to cleanse your souls? Got some takes. I want to fire off these takes. Get them out of my system before the draft hits. I'm a little scared. What are you guys going to say? 60 minutes, unfiltered takes. So like, I feel like the NFL drafts, it just draft season corrupts us. Yes. There's four months. There's nothing to talk about.

We're just speculating about what we think is going to happen. And we kind of go crazy. And you get these urges, these takes, these thoughts that cross your mind that are unacceptable. Like, are the guys who opted out of the season soft and do they love football? And you're like, oh, my God, am I a terrible person for thinking this? But those are the horrible things that cross your mind when you have four months to think about whether a guy should go third or fourth or fifth in the draft. And so we kind of needed a safe space. Pure chaos? A space of pure chaos? A purge anarchy? Is any of the purge be like a nice, a safe place? It feels like a dangerous place. I don't think so. It's the opposite. Anything goes in the next 60 minutes, take-wise.

You cannot hold me for my takes. I just want, you know, I want all the analysts out there. I want them to have their own take purge. I want them to reveal all the takes that they think at 2 a.m. before they go to bed as their eyes bleed staring at the computer screen after hours of research. and they start to think delusional takes. I want to know those takes from the analysts. Yeah, we should be a holiday. DK, what did you say the Amish do? Oh, I was talking to Mina about our idea for the take purge, and she said that we should call it, take Springer, like Rum Springa, the Amish kids

that go out into the world with the English and just get to experience. Yeah, they basically just go a little bit. Well, not all of them do, but a little bit nuts. You know, dabble in some stuff. things and see how every see if they want to stay out in the world or if they want to go back to the to armish this is like our take springa this is what we're doing oh my god is that is that is that what i think it is that the sound you know i think i know what this means is it time 60 minutes

any take goes oh my god we need the security doors to drop down okay D-K. Yeah. It's the take perch. Anything goes. It has begun. Yeah. Fire.

All right. For starters. We need everyone to fucking cool it with the Zach Wilson hyperbole. That's how I feel. Just take a deep breath. Wait, what does that mean? The Zach Wilson hyperbole, that he's good? Is that the hyperbole?

That he is the next Patrick Mahomes. That he's the next Aaron Rogers. I started this draft season and I was on board with Zach Wilson. I still like him. I think he's a good person. player. But the takes, they're radicalizing me. Like the absurd takes, they just like, it's making me crazy. So the Patrick Mahomes thinks, he's closer to Johnny Mansell than he is to Patrick Mahomes. Oh my God. He's closer to a less funny Baker Mayfield than he is to Aaron

Rogers. Let's just calm down. He's an exciting prospect. I get it. He's like a fun player to watch. He makes these crazy throws. He throws across his body. He has, he can throw the ball from all different arm angles. However, I'm going to say there are things to worry about. The jumping competition, I think, is going to be a big deal. What is he going to do under pressure at the next level? I saw the stat from PFF's Austin Gale. I thought it was kind of illuminating.

PFF grades versus top 25 defenses over the last three seasons, so that's EPA per play aloud. Mack Jones, 92.2 grade on 209 dropbacks, that's number one. Justin Fields, number two, just below him with 90s. 1.2 grade. Trevor Lawrence, he falls in there in the middle, 17th overall, 78 grade. Zach Wilson, 44th, 68.2 PFF passing grade against top 25 defenses. Now, I understand the team around him isn't as good. So you're going to be on a crappy team. You're playing really good teams. Like, it's just going to be harder for you to excel. But I do think that,

I don't know, man, like the Mahomes stuff, the Aaron Rogers stuff, it gets to me. It annoys the shit out of me, frankly. And I think, number one, that's setting him up to be a disappointment. If you think he's going to fucking turn into Patrick Mahomes, you need to, like, reassess your expectations, I think. So that's all I'm going to say about that. Just like Cool it a little. You have betrayed our take God, Chris Sims. I know. I mean, Chris Sims, I think has Zach Wilson over Trevor Lawrence. And you know what? I respect him for making that call. And for you know, going against the grain. However, I disagree with it

to say the least. It's what the tank purges. Did you see that name that was like Zach Wilson looks like the Disney actor who would play Zach Wilson in a movie about Jack Wilson? He's very handsome. He's a handsome man. I have to think that it's a factor

of the rise. Hyphids, you mentioned that the other day, and that is like the most hilarious one, but I wanted to bring up a couple more that I've heard from my buddy Derek Klassen. He goes, I can't believe we have. have this QB class in front of us

and Kids Bob Jim McMahon is being touted as QB1. Kids Bob Jim McMahon! And then Bryce Rossler, this one was great too. He goes, we should not be... These are tweets, by the way.

We should not be second guessing if Justin Fields is better than polygamous Case Keenum and FCS Midwest Tuskers QB number five. That would be Trey Lance. Anyways. Wow. Does your soul feel cleaner?

He looks like he's like the douchebag older brother on Sweet Life of Zach and Cody. Oh my God, he does look like Zach and Cody all grown up. That is what he looks like. Wow, D.K.'s lost right now. D.K., is your soul feel cleaner now? There's a weight lifted, yeah. Look, I just want to reiterate. I like him.

I think he's like a Baker-Mayfield-level prospect, and that's a good player in the NFL. Just stop with the Mahomes shit. He's not Mahom. I can't wait for him to be my homes He might be purge That's amazing Craig you want to purge something Yeah I got to take

I need to purge Here's where I'm at now After all the shit the last month What's going on with Mac Jones Mac Jones will end up on the Patriots And not only that He will be the best quarterback in this draft At this point

I think it's just the most likely scenario I'm just going to get on the bandwagon wagon now. It's really cheap. I'll buy a ticket. I'll take a seat and shut up. I mean, come on. Doesn't this just make sense at this point? Everyone is so incorrect about the NFL draft in quarterback specifically across the board forever. Doesn't it just make sense that Matt Jones is just going to be the best quarterback? He's going to step in. His first year, he'll be like extremely accurate. And whether he's on the Patriots, nine or whatever, they'll go like 10 and 6, and he'll just like immediately be a fringe pro bowler. And we'll be like, oh, Mac Jones is really good.

That's what I think could happen. the hyperbole yeah like the the the hyperbole the the the rhetoric is it always goes too far with some guys I actually kind of feel bad for mac Jones because he's like become a punching bag because everybody thinks that Justin Fields should be the guy there at least I do maybe I'm projecting I feel like I feel very strongly the 49ers should take Justin Fields to be ridiculous be absurd if they take Mac Jones it'd be fucking absurd however I agree with you Craig he's not a bad player and he's probably

going to end up a good pro and then we're all going to be like damn it what are we's thinking Tray Lance won't start Trevor Lawrence will suck

on the Jags year one or he'll be mediocre I don't know what's going to happen with Fields Mac Jones will be really good you watch it's just going to happen

I'm going to other way I need to get something off my chest I don't think he's going to go in the I don't think Mac Jones is going to go in the first 20 picks of the draft and we're all going to feel

really stupid for having his conversation for talking about this constantly yeah Like literally, I think that he's not even going to freaking go in the first 20 picks, and we will just feel so dumb. Like, the only reason we are even talking about this is because the Niners traded up,

and then like half an hour later, it came out like, oh, maybe it's for Mac Jones. If it weren't for that, we would never even be discussing if Mac Jones was a top 10 pick. And if you look at, you just read the tea leaves, there's going to be three quarterbacks taking top three. And then it's really hard to discern who the next quarterback is. going to go to. It's like the Broncos are at four. There is a odd quarterback out. We got musical chairs. There are four teams that definitely want one. The top three and the Broncos. We don't know who this fifth quarterback's going to go to, right? And what are you seeing from the Adam Schaefter Twitter timelines and Ian Rappaport? You know what you're seeing? Sometimes those Twitter

timelines are like the classifieds back in the day. Like you put up ads. The Falcons want to trade back. The Cowboys want to trade back. The Panthers want to trade back. The Giants might want to trade back. The Giants have never traded back. And so what does that mean? They mean they want to get out of there. But here's the thing. That means that they haven't heard anything. Like, you didn't hear about the dolphins wanted to trade back.

They just did it. If they're putting out an ad to all 32 teams like, hey, we all want to move. It means no one wants to move up. I don't think any of these teams are actually looking at Matt Jones as this top dude. And I don't think if you just tick off the teams that actually need a quarterback, the ones that don't need a quarterback, the ones that don't need a quarterback, I don't think they're looking at first round. Yeah, we're going to invest years into Mac Jones.

I don't think so. I don't think the bears are looking at this. Like, yeah, we just double down on Trubisky. You know who we're going to follow up the Trubisky pick with? Mack Jones. I don't think so. I don't think Washington, that's a whole new regime there. I don't think they wanted to find their tenure with Mac Jones.

I don't, the Steelers just doubled down on Tomlin. They brought Rothesberger back. I don't think they're thinking Mac Jones. I think that we have talked ourselves into this. I don't think it's going to happen. and we will basically end up roughly with the order of quarterbacks as we had it in like early February.

I still think Mack Jones is going to end up on the Patriots and he'll be incredible somehow. After second round pick. This all works out like together. I think Mac Jones is the second I pick would make me happy. I wanted to shout out Colin Coward,

who is also up there, take demigod, Colin Coward. He this week was talking about the Niners and how he's like, I just don't believe they're taking Mac Jones. And he was like, his whole thing was how tight-lipped the Niners are about everything. And how when John Lynch came to the Niners, he was like, my number one thing I wanted to change

and I wanted to ensure was that the Niners don't leak shit. I don't ever want to leak shit anymore. And he made it a big deal that even his hiring did not get leaked. Colin Cowher went back through all the deals that the Niners have made since John Lynch has been there. And it was like, the Jimmy G deal did not leak. It kind of surprised everybody. The Trent Williams trade did not leak.

Them trading up to number three did not leak. John Lynch has said, I'm concerned. Dude, the Niners trade. The Trent Williams trade happened because Joe Staley withheld his retirement announcement for like a month and a half so that they would have more leverage in that trade. They didn't even leak his retirement. John Lynch has said, I'm concerned about leaks when leaks are accurate.

But when they're inaccurate, I don't really, that's not really a leak. So to me, the idea that the second they trade up, immediately everybody in the world knows that it's Mack Jones, seems a little far-fetched to me. This, yes. This feels it's almost too certain. Everybody's hearing it. I absolutely agree with you, Craig. I think it's like just, it's eerie.

It's weird. The Niners interviewed nine candidates for GM. John Lynch was not one of them announced, yet he was the one chosen. I'm just saying. Well, here's the thing that I here, yeah, I completely agree with you. I think it's fishy.

It seems bizarre. This is a good, it's a good purge. However, the response would be like, what do they have to hide? Why do they even care if it gets leaked here? They care about everything. So, all right, here's... I agree, though. I think this is...

It's too much. This leads into another one of my purges. I don't think the Niners know who they're taking. Wow. I totally disagree with this. That's insane. They traded three first to not know. This makes no fucking sense to me. I feel like, I think that they

had a level of comfort with who is available. And then they're like, like, well, we want to trade up. Who do we trade up with? But anyone you trade up with, you can get jumped for the guy you want. So it's like, well, just play a little game theory here. What spot do you go to? Do you trade up with the Panthers? Do you trade up with the lot? But you can keep getting, if you don't get that dolphins pick, you're going to get, you're going to get leapfrogged. So they just went and got to pick themselves. And I think that they were in that 12 range and they were satisfied maybe with who they'd be able to get in the

lower bound of the, like the top 10. But you have to go all the way to three to ensure you get that person. And I feel like when they made that deal, they weren't even 100% sure who they wanted. So they traded up just to have the option of who they wanted. Yeah. I think they were basically like, we know we like this group. We'll figure it out over the next six weeks. Are you saying they don't know if they're going to take a quarterback or you don't know they don't know. No, no, no, they're taking a quarterback. So here's where this doesn't make any sense me. I'm saying that when we were all like, it's for Mac Jones. And we're all like, oh my God, who are the Niners going to take? I'm saying the Niners were also like, oh my God, who are we going to take? Here's where

Here's where I think that doesn't make any sense is Mac Jones, Trey Lance, and Justin Fields are not like similar prospects. They're not similar players. It's not like you can be like, oh yeah, we've got three very similar guys. We'd be happy with all of them. It's like they're all completely different and totally different stories in terms of how they would have to play that. So I don't get that. Like, why would they, I just can't, I cannot imagine being in that.

position where you're risking so much of the future of your organization and you're like, eh, I like any of them. Like, you have to have fucking conviction to go up to number three. That's why Huyvesant is giving out this take in the 60 minute window, the 60 minute purse. He could not say this in the light of day. I keep coming back to where Kyle Shannon was giving this interview after the, they traded up, not interview his press conference.

And he said that him and John Lynch, even when he was on vacation, him and John Lynch are on the phone like eight times a day. And Kyle Shannon's wife is telling him like, hey, like, this is the same conference. conversation you keep having it. And I'm like, is it that different than when you're overthinking which player you should like pick up from waivers and fantasy? Like obviously everything's about it different. But at the same time, I can see them overthinking everything about the decision. Do you think Kyle Shanahan's wife is jealous that he has a tattoo of somebody else on his body? Chris Simms just keeps coming up on this spot. Take God. The take God. I'm going to get a tattoo

of Craig's initials and I'm going to ask my girlfriend when she thinks of it. By the way, this is definitely a take that people are having high fits. It's not like you're conjuring this. It's a thing. And I just, I don't believe it. I can't see it. I don't understand how that could be possible. I'm just so jaded by the whole thing.

I don't know. Is every take on the show just going to be about Mac Jones and the Niners? I hope so. It's like the story of the draft. Do you guys think it's bizarre that we've been waiting for three years for Trevor Lawrence to be draft eligible?

And it feels like we're barely talking about him. You know what I mean? No, no one's speaking about it. There was like this giant SI story that came out, and we're all like, oh, he seems well adjusted and just moved. This is the first time, yeah, that's like the first time we talked about him the whole time, too. It was like, yeah, he's going number one. He's awesome.

Well, that is why. That is the single reason why, to spin this to fantasy football, why when you have the first pick in the draft, when you know you have the first pick in the draft for months and months, and it's like a snake draft, and Christian McCaffrey's sitting there is the clear, obvious option, you start to talk yourself into other shit because it's boring. You're like, well, what, I mean, maybe say,

one guy who explodes. I think that's what the Niners did. they trade it up? I think that's what the Niners did. They wasn't at the pick. They're like, hmm, you start to overthink it. But while we're in Take Purge, what did you guys think of Trevor Lawrence saying that

he doesn't feel the need to like worry when people doubt him and he doesn't care and he basically lets things slide off his shoulders? If Justin Field said that, he'd get crucified. That's what I think would happen. I think you're exactly right. I thought it was an incredibly well-adjusted thing. Genuine question.

Do you think it's a negative? when a like a superstar player or a player that we think is going to be a superstar can't just immediately conjure like a chip on their shoulder we all watch Michael Jordan make up shit that would make him mad

so he could like you know get this guy back I don't even remember who the defender was but it was like this or the guy that he like oh yeah he made up that conjured up like this slight that this guy this rookie player I think of it was yeah yeah yeah he said he talks

shit to him on the court. I can't remember all the exact details, but basically Jordan just made this shit up so he could like motivate himself to play better. And this other guy is like, I didn't say that. While we're here in Take Purge, I hope that Trevor Lawrence becomes an amazing

quarterback because I think that that's a much healthier way to live your life. And I think the idea of holding on to like small slights or inventing small slights from like decades ago to just motivate yourself every day is like deeply and healthy and kind of a bad example for children. Kind of it in something saying something insane.

It's like a little bit insane. Let me ask you this. Here's a genuine real question. I don't like that all these successful athletes can't let go of like. Can you be a highly successful quarterback in the NFL without being kind of insane? Well, this is the Meena Kimes theory of like,

and this is I think this is the truest thing I've ever heard about quarterbacks is Mina said this on Bill's pod. Quarterbacks have to believe in God or believe they are a God. Most of them are the latter. Yeah. Trevor Lawrence believes in God. It seems a lot healthy.

Rissillo and Bill always talk about Carmelo Anthony and how you have to have that kind of mentality that you're the best and they were like whenever Carmelo played LeBron or Kobe in the playoffs, he was never like oh shit, like I'm now playing the best guys in the league. He's like, yeah, like it's me versus them. This is an even battle.

Like, finally, I get to play somebody up to my caliber. That's what Carmelo thought. Can you imagine? I wish I was like that. That would be amazing. It's the only way. Oh my God. Okay. I think I should probably just double down on religion. There's my take, Purge.

Okay, who else? D.K., got another take? I got a take. I'll be ready to fire off here. LSU's Terrace Marshall is going to be this year's Justin Jefferson. You guys are both like, okay. You said Jemar Chase is going to be the third best team on his third best team for

LSU. Craig, got it. Yeah, so here's the context. Marshall was, yeah, in 2019, he was the number three guy in the LSU behind Jamar Chase, behind Justin Jefferson. Chase opted out in 2020. Terrace Marshall went in, put up big numbers. He had 731 yards and 10 touchdowns, I believe, in like seven games.

Just really good production and a totally different offense with a new quarterback. He's projected to be like the fourth, fifth, sixth-ish receiver to come off the board. He's definitely after the big three, which are Devante Smith, Jamar Chase, and Jalen Waddle. but when I look at everything kind of like together with Marshall he's got size 6-2-205 he's got length speed he ran a 4-4 at his

pro-day explosion 39-inch furt he's got size I don't know if you noticed this but like a lot of the receivers in this class are tiny Don't say Smith he's tall but he's very tiny also he's got so Marshall has the size element he's got production

he's young and he took the same path as Justin Jefferson at LSU he lined up outside in 2019, scored 13 touchdowns that season. He moved inside to the slot in 2020. I feel that people are making that a little bit of a negative in his prospect profile that he only played in the slot this last year, but he can play on the outside. Remember last year when Justin Jefferson was drafted. It's literally the conversation we have with Justin Jefferson. Yeah, it's the same conversation we had. I just feel like people are sleeping on Marshall.

He's a former five-star guy, elite athlete, good size, speed, good at the catch point. He's not going to be the first receiver taken, but I think he has got. he's got a chance to be like one of the most productive guys immediately. Of course, this is before we know where he lands, but I'm going with it anyway. I like it. This is exactly what we talked about last year. I like doing a quick Wikipedia scout. I just like typed in his name.

I'm like 6-3-200. Nice. Good frame. I'm in. Craig's in. It's all about the frame. Can't have it unframed. Craig, give us a take.

Purge your soul. Kyle Pitts will be fine. I was waiting for this. I knew this was coming. He'll be fine. Not bad. Not bad. Just fine.

He'll be fine. That's all. Cop hits will be fine. When does this actually ever work out? Give me like a comp. What's like a, where are you going to go with? What's fine? For today's NFL, the tight ends that you see across the league.

Who's fine? Eric Ebron? Oh, God. No, he'll be better. You did it. He'll be better than that. He'll be better than that. I looked at the list of the tight ends who were taken first at

their position in the draft in the last 15 years. Here's the first tight end taken in each of the last 15 drafts. Ready? Cole Komet, T.J. Hawkinson, Hayden Hurst, O.J. Howard, Hunter Henry, Max Williams, Eric Ebron, Tyler, Copee Fleener, Kyle Rudolph, Jermaine Gresham, Brandon Pedigrew, Dustin Keller, Dustin Keller, Greg Olson, Vernon Davis, Heath Miller, and Kellan Winslow, Jr. I would argue that one of those worked out. Greg Olson is the only one. so few of those guys were even average

it's gonna be fine I'm just saying he'll probably go to the Falcons have a decent year with Matt Ryan they'll ditch Matt Ryan for a rookie Kyle Pitts will be fine athletic maybe he'll be Evan Ingram Kyle Pitts is Evan Ingram

Oh my God That's good Wow that's a good one I mean like usually once again My idea is that when everybody thinks one thing Just Zach Just get the other way Here's the thing with Kyle Pitts

The floor has been set and it's pretty simple. You have to be a Hall of Famer. If you do not join the top tier of Kelsey Kittle, if you want Arthur, Darren Waller in there, whatever, then he's that he did not live. If he's not top four at the position, kind of soon,

he's just not what was promised. Kind of soon, like immediately. He has like four games to prove himself and that's it. You have September. If we get to November. We get to Columbus Day and then you are not this guy. D-K. Where are you think Kyle Pitts will go in fantasy drafts amongst tight ends?

Fifth? Yeah, like fourth or fifth? Let's say he goes to Atlanta. He's going to be massively overdrafted as a rookie, right? Yeah, he's going to go in the 50s, and it's going to be like, oh, yeah, he's a rookie. Like, he won't even get three catches in a game until, like, October. I just, the tight end list blew my mind. Craig, this is great because, number one, yes.

It does feel like we do this every year, and there's always the reaction, like, oh, but this guy's different. And like I will say to you, Kyle Pitts is different. He's different. He's rare. But like I feel like people have said that shit before. So I don't know.

You know, is maybe, like, I don't know if he is different. I think he's different. But here's what I'm going to say. So I've been doing a few dynasty drafts lately. I play in a lot of tight-end premium dynasties right now.

And so we've been doing rookie drafts. And Kyle Pitts went number one overall over Trevor Lawrence. in one of my drafts. And then we did like a poll online about it. And people were like okay with that. The hype is the hype is insane around this guy. Like never seen before hype around a tight end. It's out of control.

I got it. I got a take. Okay. Okay. This honestly is not even super related to the draft. It's more of an offseason take. But I just, I have to get this off my chest.

I have told nobody this. You are the first two people I'm telling. Oh boy. Do you remember Dan Cameron? Campbell's press conference, the introductory one is a lion's head coach. Knee caps. Yes. I loved it.

I loved that press conference. That's it. That's the tape. I loved it. This is like a confession. I thought it was great. I thought it was awesome. He spent the, he's an opening statement with he just spent the first 10 minutes

thanking people. He didn't even talk about the team. He's called a filibuster. And then he just like, remembers he's supposed to talk about the Lions. And he's like, here's what I can promise you. I can't promise you wins or losses. You don't want to hear that shit. we're going to be this city and we're going to like bite kneecaps,

we're going to take a hunk out of you. And everyone else is making fun of him on Twitter. And I'm just like, wow, I love this guy. I would run through a wall for him. I got to say, when he was doing the whole kneecap biting bit, it was pretty funny because he was like, we're going to bite your kneecap off, okay? And then we're going to get back up. We're going to knock back.

And then we're going to get back up, okay? And we're going to bite your knee. I love just how he kept like, he's like walking us through it. it like very vivid imagery. He's like, we bite one kneecap off. All right, so now you only have one kneecap left. And then we're going to bite the right kneecap. Do you need me to start over?

Are you following? Okay. We're going to get back up second time. We're up again. We're biting off that other kneecap, okay? And then you're going to knock us back again, all right? So we're on the ground now. You have no knees, but we're on the ground again.

And then we're going to get back up, okay? I just love that. I love like the, I don't know what, just like it was like storytelling. It was vivid. I love the idea of he's like, we're going to be down 28-0,

but man, will we be, we're getting back up. You're going to be maimed. You're not going to have fucking knees. I would play for that guy. That's all I'm going to say. He's like,

you know the guy who got all his limbs cut off and Monty Python? That's going to be us. But we're not going down. Just a flesh wound. That's my guy. So, if it's your,

You're a, you're the now the ringer Lions fan. I'm just, I just, I just fucking love this guy. I just do it. Get rid of, you can keep your scheme, Lawrence. Give me more guys like Dan Campbell and Joe Judge who will just like wrestle with their players in the mud on a rainy day. We should do like a fan draft.

If we had to like redo, like we should do like a draft between the three of us of like secondary teams to be fans of besides our three. Yeah. Who did you take great? I love the idea that High Fitz likes to Lions. I've done that with baseball. I'm just an Angels fan now.

I just watch your hair time. like literally whenever I can. Sometimes it's fun to do that. I'm a Raptors fan now. What? Why did that happen? They drafted Malachi Flynn, who is from San Diego State, and he's been like really good for them in the last month.

And I just love, I just watch the Raptors now to watch him. It's funny we just sequestered all these Canadian teams to like Tampa Bay. The only thing Craig, the only, I follow Craig on Instagram. And the only thing you ever post on Instagram is like San Diego State basketball. You wouldn't know that he's like a part of the ringer. that he covers fantasy football. He's just like San Diego State basketball. That's all.

Yeah. And a nice beach pick. I don't know if we've ever even told Craig this. We ordered him a custom Kauai Leonard's San Diego State jersey as like a birthday or Christmas gift or something to thank him for like three years ago. And it just never came. Oh yeah. By the way, I vet moed you that money.

Never saw it. Oh, yeah. I paid for it. I paid for it. So we're both just eating it, I guess. That's fine. No, I'm eating it. Where's my damn jersey?

I, so the real, this was like right before the pandemic and there was a giant shutdown and we ordered it from China and I just never came. Did you inquire on my behalf? There was a lot going on. It's just never followed up. I don't think I don't know what to do it. I'm sorry. Some fucking mailman in America is wearing a Kauai jersey. Oh my goodness. It's just being our post. I don't even know what happened to it. Anyway, I'm glad I purged that. That's been sitting there for a while. What else we got? All right, I got one. We need to pump the brakes a little bit on Jalen Waddle.

Oh my. D-Ks are all just like, this prospect's not good. No, that's not what I'm saying. In fact, I have him number 11 on my board. So let's just be, let's just be careful. I'm not saying he's bad. I think he's going to be a good, exciting pro. But you really lose me when you have him ranked over

Devante Smith or Jamar Chase. I just think those two are such a clear tier one. in my mind. And so I've seen a couple things around the Twitter sphere lately. Peter Schrager on Tuesday said, Chase, Waddle, and Smith are all viewed as number one receivers in the NFL. And AFCGM told me all three graded out better than every wide receiver in last year's loaded class. So they've got Waddle over Jerry Judy, especially over CD Lamb,

which I think is just mind-blowing over Justin Jefferson, over all these guys. I think that's crazy. Jeremy Fowler. Jalen Waddle is the third receiver off the board and a lot of mock drafts. Fourth of your counting Kyle Pitts. But I've spoken to a multiple NFL personnel evaluators who believe he will be the best overall playmaker in the draft.

I don't know, man. I just don't get it. And then Nick Saban, his coach in college. He's one of those guys like Alan Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan. They can make plays when nobody else can make that same play. He's one of those guys. Can we just not?

do that. Nick Sammons never watched basketball, I think. I agree with Craig. I have a rule that if a coach compares their player to Michael Jordan, then you don't listen to that coach about a player ever again. But having said that, I agree, D.K., because this Bill,

Bill, Bill, Bill has this alien test. Bill Simmons, not Bill Belichick, but maybe Bill Belichick has an alien test, too. But, like, that if you just dropped the aliens here and they watched the college football season, and they saw Devante Smith get, like, 1,600 receiving yards and 22 touchdowns and win the Heisman trophy,

and then have, like, 200. receiving yards and three touchdowns before half time of the national championship game. And then we had a draft. And they're like, you know who we're going to take first? His teammate who had the broken ankle. Right. So, yeah. So like, I get that. And the Waddle, I guess like

the people that would disagree with me vehemently on this, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of them, would tell you that Jalen Waddle actually was outpacing Devante Smith in yards throughout the first four games. However, I'm just going to say, I think Devante Smith proved time and time again, like he's a special,

special player. He completely took over when Waddle was out. Waddle, he's never caught more than 45 passes in a season, and that was in 2018. Never more than 848 yards in a season.

Again, that was in 2018. He's 5'9-180. It's not like he's big and Devante Smith is small. He's 5-9-180. And he's like 15 days younger than Devanti Smith, so he's also old.

So to me, like, I look, again, to reiterate, I like him. I think he's explosive as hell. But when people start talking about him being Tyree Kill or like the second coming of Tyree Kill, I'm just like, slow down. No one is going to be coming in and be Tyree Kill. Number one, I just don't think he's as fast or explosive as Tyree Kill. But just let him get to the NFL. We don't have to compare him to like the fastest player in the league already. Well, this is what happens. You're so busy looking for the next Tyree Kill. You miss the first, Devonte Smith. there you go

if Nick Sabin compares Jalen Waddle to Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant then who the hell is Devante Smith? That's my question No, he compared Devante Smith to Michael Jordan Oh, I thought he compared Waddle to him No, he compared Waddle to all these guys Yeah, wow

Oh wait, what? Yeah, I'm saying, so who the hell is Devante Smith then? I complete What the Okay, that blows my mind I have no idea what to think now I'm going to double check to make sure

that I'm correct on this 5-9 speedster with a broken foot. Let's do it. Yeah. I mean, so, like, Craig, that's exactly what I'm talking about. It's, he doesn't have the size. He doesn't have the production. He's at speed.

But we've seen how many teams have, like, completely whiffed just trying to chase that speed. I think he's a very good player. But I'm just saying this. It's like, it's the exact same conversation, the Zach Wilson conversation. I'm just like, just pump the brakes a little bit. Like, you know what I mean? he's a very good player, but let's not compare him to the most explosive player in the NFL. So I wrote a story on this this week, and I spoke to Mike Renner, who is the pro football

focus, like the lead draft analyst. And he, because specifically I called him because he had Waddle ahead of Smith on his board. And he actually moved Waddle behind Devante Smith for his final board this week. But his reasoning was for injuries. Like, if they're both healthy, he sees Waddle as the better player for the explosiveness. His point was basically he's lowering him because. his broken ankle, but also like if Jalen Waddle gets injured and he loses that explosive this, he's not Jalen Waddle anymore. So like, I think that's actually like an opinion that's

shared by many like really smart people, but I agree on the basic point that here's the thing. Devante Smith was the best receiver against press coverage in college. Like, and he was, like he was the best receiver in press coverage over the last five year period. The second best receiver in press coverage was Devante Smith in 2019. And I understand. And Mike Renner would point out that college cornerbacks playing press at 180 pounds, very different than an NFL quarterback doing it at 205.

And you have 35 pound advantage over Devontian press. That's bad. However, at a certain point, he's unreal, unguardable, 200 plus yards in the college, in the national championship game. I feel like teams can figure out what to do with him. Yeah.

It's actually very, I feel like my Waddle stance is a little bit similar to Craig's stance in that, Like, we've fallen for the, quote, special thing before in the past. Like, Henry Ruggs, extraordinarily fast. I know that not everybody had Ruggs as, like, their top player. But it seems to happen kind of like every... Paris Campbell...

Paris Campbell, explosive, speed, explosive, special speed. He's going to be a disperance maker in the NFL. He's just been hurt his whole career. Marquis Brown, and I fell for this shit. High Fitz, you can just go ahead and dunk on me. like explosive playmaker. I totally fell for it. And he's been fine in the NFL, you know.

He's actually, you know, outplayed his draft slot in expected value or average value, whatever, the PFR stat. But it's not like he's been a star and it's certainly not been as good as a lot of people like me thought he would be so far. So I'm just like leery of like being like, oh yeah, this guy has the speed to be absolute game changer. I feel like maybe like I've just been hurt in the past. pass. I don't want to fall for it again. We need to start going the other way with like 40 times an explosion. Like we need to just be like, I need them to run a four or five, like are really good in the middle of the field. I don't care if they have breakaway speed. Like, what are the odds that's

going to happen every game? Like, I want a guy who's good in the trenches. Speed matters, but there's like Paris Campbell, Henry Rugspeed, which is your fast, but you can't make people miss. And the difference is Jalen Wado can make people miss. I'll give him that. Like he was the punt returner. Yeah, but that's not speed. That's like a gillity. incredible return. Nobody's awesome. That's the difference. It's like speed doesn't mean you can make, like there's still 11 grown like men who are paid

millions of dollars to just bring one of your knees down. Like Dan Campbell style kneecap. Like just because you're fast doesn't mean you can make them fucking miss. Like like, you know, dodge ball. Like there's also that that should be the combine them running through. If you can dodge a car, you can dodge a ball, which throw wrenches at them while they're

running the 40. That is actually the skill. Yeah, because it's like the fastest car doesn't win the race. It's the best driver of the car wins the race. Are you watching Formula One Drive to survive, haven't you? No, I actually have only seen one episode of that show. It's really good. Anyway, we don't have to talk about that.

All right, so you heard it here first. Waddle, he's going to be amazing. No, I don't know. Also, his name's funny, okay? You know what? I think of it every time. It's hilarious. Waddle.

You know what, Ducks Waddle. It's like the nomative determinism thing, but opposite. Okay. Other takes? I got a take. Yeah. Mel Kuiper Jr. has no idea how trades work. He just doesn't get it.

So Mel Kuiper's been doing mock drafts for 40 years, literally before I was born. Like, I don't want, like, legend, absolute legend. However, he has never done mock trades in his mock drafts as a point of principle for like his entire career. And he changed that rule this year. And he's now doing trades in his mock drafts. draft. The most recent, like he's just, you can tell he's never done it before. He has the most recent mock he did. He had the dolphins trading up with the Falcons. So the dolphins who are at six

trading with the Falcons to go get Kyle Pitts and the Falcons taking Tray Lance at six. So the Falcons trade down to get a quarterback. And then the dolphins who've already traded down from three trade back up to four to get a tight end. and he explained this on his podcast by saying I needed to get Trey Lance off the board. He just didn't want to give him to Atlanta. Is there a chance that this is like a mock draft in the take purge realm that he's trying to do

or something? Like it's a mock draft purge. He also explained that he needed to get Kyle Pitts in the top four. That was his other thing he said. I feel like like eternal respect to Mel Kuiper. However, it's like reverse engineering. Adam Schaefter needs to sit down for

a half an hour and just explain how this works to him. I think that... Are you saying you don't think anyone would trade up for Kyle Pitts? The Falcons trading down and then taking a quarterback anyway? Oh, yeah. That would be... Look, I'm just saying. It's a little ridiculous.

We have the quarterback of our future, but we're going to do it later. Don't forget, the Ravens, never forget. The Ravens traded back. No, they took Hayden. Hearst in the first round and then they traded. Yeah, and the rest of the rest is revisionist history.

The rest is revisionist history. They say that, you know, we knew Lamar. If they knew Lamar would be Lamar and would have been a freaking MVP, they would have taken him at 25. Not the tight end first. You're basically calling Mel Kuiper

a mock draft boomer. Basically. I am saying, okay, boomer to Mel Kuiper. I'm saying, you know what, stick, you know what? I think you should make the trade thing a one year thing. Or he'll just get better at it.

That's what I'm saying. It's the training wheels. Learn how trades work, boomer. You know what the problem is he doesn't have Twitter So maybe he just doesn't follow Schaefter on Twitter Craig, you got one? Yeah, Trevor Lawrence's hair is bad Okay, let me ask you this

First of all Okay, no, actually I want to know first. Why is it bad? His hair line is a yard behind his nose A yard. Oh my God That shit is climbing up to the tippy top of his cranium I'm not going to participate in hairline jokes just for the record.

There's something to be ashamed of. Shut up, Hyphitz. People lose their hair. Like, whatever. I'm sure I'm next, all right? It happens. It comes for us all. And Trevor Lawrence needs to embrace it. He wears this thick, like,

three to four inch thick headband at all times to just slap it. That's the LeBron. That's how you know. It's a bad hairline. Right over the hairline at all times. And honestly, it's not even just the hairline. His hair is. kind of just like thin and hangs there. Like it's not like this like stringy.

Luscious, flowing. You say it's just long. Yes, it is literally just long straight hair. Like Herbert had this nice curly flow. I want you guys to check Slack right now. I just sent you. There's this guy. Do you guys remember Joel Stave?

He was the quarterback at Wisconsin like five years ago. I've heard that name. Oh, that's nice hair. Much more volume. Voluminous. What is this photo of Trevor Lawrence? He just said. He looks like a white walker.

What is this photo you found? It's from high school. That's his senior year. Oh my God. Like, listen. Yeah, it's bad hair. You're right. Yeah, wow.

It's compelling. He's got like Logan Paul syndrome. You know, Logan Paul's hair? It's like he's growing it so long to kind of give the illusion that it's good hair and that it's not receding. That seems to be what people do. So if you're a head and exec at head and shoulders, do you give Trevor Lawrence, do you sign Trevor Lawrence for the head and shoulders commercials? What's the mean like wired or tired, wired? head and shoulders

like a traditional big corporation they'd be like yeah let's do it but if Trevor Lawrence is really smart and wanted to corner a new market he should go to like Roman and be like let's do it you got hair loss and you're 23 years old

so do I folks you know what I was just trying to picture is if so if Lawrence did the LeBron thing where you get like hair plugs or whatever it is the treatment that LeBron got alien hair but he didn't actually cut off his other hair

he'd have all these little like short like sprouting hairs on his forehead. And he'd be almost like a... Like a golf course, like a failure than the roof. Like Joe Dirt. He would just look like Joe Dirt. Listen, I mean, if he wants to do it, he should do it.

Elon Musk did it. Elon Musk has the most insane hair transformation of anybody in human history. I don't even know what Elon Musk's child's name is. This is even like a... They don't even letters from the alphabet in it. It's like something, something, Archangel, something. Oh, Jesus. Anyway, I just wanted to put it out there that people...

The idea that people compare Trevor Lawrence to sunshine to Ronnie Bass. I do all the time. It's ridiculous. Hifists won't shut up about it. Ronnie Bass had 30 times better hair than Trevor Lawrence. Ronnie Bass is a little pudgy. That's the thing about Ronnie. What are you talking about?

As long as we're doing the purge thing, I've never seen Remember the Titans. Oh. Dude. Are you fucking kidding me? Wow. I've seen that movie perhaps more than any movie ever made. I have an inside joke with my buddy who constantly heckles me for not seeing it and now I will just not watch it ever because of that.

That movie is good. Dude, Bill's like that with like the Big Lebowski. Yeah. Bill doesn't like the Cohen brothers. Yeah, I don't either. I think... Oh, what? Okay, so...

Really? This is the purge. Let's get them out there. I didn't like the Rocky movies either. At the end, we should do some non... I think the Rocky movies suck. Football Purge. What the...

D.K. Stop. All right. The perch can't handle this. Fired. Oh, my God. D.K. stop. When do I get to say that my coffee is a lie take? Coffee is a lie?

You know my stance on coffee. I know. I'm going to save that for the hottest thing. I got one. I got like a kind of real one and then like a ridiculous take. What do you guys want? One's... I actually really, really do believe this.

I think the Patriots can't draft receivers because of the Patriot way. Because of it. It's not like a flaw in it. It's because of the Patriot way. Because you want a diva? Yeah, exactly. Like, there was this green beret who was trying to like figure out, like, what, how to get players, you know, how to, like, weed out, how to improve on the 50% hit rate in the first round.

And he asked Bill Belichick, what's the biggest challenge you have in drafting players? And Belichick said, I can't figure out who will buy in, like who will buy into the culture. I feel like the Patriots were really good drafters. But the blind spot they have at receivers is not like this random hole. It is a direct, is the flip side of the coin of what they look for, which is they look for people who are like incredibly dedicated or whatever. And I'm like, not dedicated, it's the wrong word. But the point is receivers must have a different kind of ethos to succeed.

The job is a lot more like a basketball player. Yeah, it's a lot more like a basketball player than an offensive lineman. An offensive lineman's job is to sacrifice for your teammates. That is priority number one. protect your teammates. A receiver's job is you get the ball. You have to ask me the, give me the ball.

So why did Randy Moss do so great? I think, but that's the swing and miss they took, right? What do they send from? Like a conditional fourth round pick? And that was like a shit, but that's the only swing they take and it worked. You know what I mean? I think that the reason, like,

I think there's a real reason they pass on people. And there's also, they took the Nikil Harry. Bill Belichick picked Harry over Debo, Samuel and AJ Brown. This is from Albert Breer, based on Harry's performance during a non-workout visit to the team, and also Bill Belichick's relationship with Neil Harry's college coach Todd Graham. Now, he overruled the scouting staff.

Like, they like Debo and A.J. Brown more. And I think that he leans very heavily on what college coaches who he trusts think about the players' intangibles. And he whiffs. Man, imagine A.J. Brown on the Patriots. That'd be interesting. Yeah. This is an interesting take.

Does Tom Brady leave? Yeah, I don't know, man. This is definitely interesting. I like the idea that you have to be like a little bit crazy to be to be like an elite receiver though. I think it's like just like quarterback. Not crazy, but like you just advocate for yourself in a way that is not always like. Right, right, right. You got to be cocky and confident.

You got to be Dion Waiters. Everyone has to be Deon Waiters where the second you get in the game, you're like, I'm going to drop 30 in 10 minutes. It's what you said about Carmelo Anthony. I feel like Caramello Anthony mentality gets weeded out by the Patriots scouting process. and that is kind of why they can't fight good receivers. I don't think it's an accident. You all got to take. Who else got to take?

I got one. So I think Trace Serman is the running back sleeper in this class, and he'll be a starter in the league by year two. So Ohio State running back, Tray Sermon, he's a former four-star guy. He ran for almost 1,000 yards and scored 13 touchdowns in 2018 when Carla Murray was the quarterback there. He split the backfield 2019,

hurt his knee, ended up transferring, to Ohio State. Sorry, that was at Oklahoma originally. He transferred to Ohio State. It took him a little bit to get, like, integrated into the offense and adapt to the offense and get fully over his knee injury. But when he was all those things, he was integrated into the offense, knee was healthy, all that stuff.

He just turned into a monster in that offense. He had in three straight games this year, 112 yards in a touchdown on 10 carries against Michigan State, 331 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries versus. northwestern and 193 yards in the touchdown on 31 carries versus Clemson. He just went absolutely bonkers and sort of like showed the upside and the

ceiling of what you could get if it all kind of like comes together for him. I think he has to land in a good spot. But if he gets into a situation where he can like run outside zone and do his thing and get like a good amount of carries, I think he could be a fantasy stud. So he's my sleeper in this running back class.

What are the odds he's the best running back in this class? probably pretty low but he would be the guy outside of the top three that I would bet the most on that he would be It's the take purge It's the take purge man

16% Okay Wow No hesitation I don't know what that noise was You made before 16% It was super disturbing But I love that you had that number

I gotta take to follow that up That's running back related All right I think Naji Harris will be a top 10 fantasy back next year Ooh On the Steelers I don't know

you know, honestly, I'm like, I'm coming around to it. I feel like this is a running back studio. You're like, oh, screw it. Sure. Our line's going to suck. But, you know, maybe we're being overshad. He's being overshadowed by just how good every other skill position is this year in the draft. But like, I don't know.

He looks like he's got every single thing you need. I read your bio on him on the draft guy, DK., on the ringer. NFLdraft.orgher.com. There you go. He can catch passes. He's got extremely nimble feet. He's big. he's elusive.

The only thing he doesn't have is like home runs. He wasn't that fast in the 40. I just don't care about that. He can only bust off 30-yard runs instead of like 90-yard runs. Like, whatever. Running back stock has never been lower in the draft.

It's like the opposite of Apex Mountain for running backs right now. So. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe Naji's like a steal at the end of the first. I love this.

Plus he's a fourth player from the Alabama offense. So he's the fourth player from the Alabama offense that we've discussed on this podcast, who will go probably in the first round. Graham Barfield, he tweeted the top five running backs and missed tackles forced per catch

over the past six college classes. So the most missed tackles per catch. Najee Harris is first. Out of all the running backs in the last six years in college football is first. Wow. I don't know. I'm down.

Let's do it. Oakland guy too. I love it. I don't know of Oakland. Somewhere in the Bay Area. Yeah, yeah. He's from the area. And I think he was training with Marshawn Lynch for a minute,

or at least he knows him. So love that. He knows him. Was that the new Sean McVeigh's friend? He knows Marshall. Yeah, exactly. He knows Marshawn. Also,

Juju is advocating to draft him, which I just can't stress this enough. Juju, just take a breather about Pittsburgh, dude. He's just got to chill. Just take it easy, chill. Juju on his one-year deal.

Can you imagine if they listen to the guy on a one-year contract? Well, Juju said it, so we got to do it. Well, we just underpaid Juju for one year. Yeah, Juju. Even know if we wanted you like three weeks ago, dude. I got one.

Purge your soul. Hi Fitz, we've talked about this ad nauseum on the ringer NFL show. It's just the hit rate of quarterbacks in the NFL draft and like the odds of becoming a very good pro. I just want to say it's starting to feel like I've got this like nagging thought in the back of my mind that Tray Lance is just going to be a bust. So I have some reasons for it. And the biggest reason is the lack of experience. And I'm not just talking about, like, him playing at a lower level. He was playing at the FCS level against, like, worst competition.

That's obviously a concern. However, and it's also a concern that he only, he did not play, or he only played one game this year. So he's, like, gone a full year almost with no football going into the NFL. That's tough. But he has 27 games, 27 starts. ever, like at a high level of quarterback in high school and college combined, 17 games in college and 10 as a high school varsity quarterback. So 27 games. That's unreal. Compare that to Trevor Lawrence, who it's like in the 90, 96 games in college in high school. That's a lot. So Trey Lance,

wild. Trey Lance, he had, he was like a Wishbone style quarterback. They were like a run heavy offense in high school. He threw 113 total passes in high school. I saw this stat for Mike Renner. He was tweeting about this today, too. He threw 130 passes all of high school?

No, in varsity. Are you kidding me? So he, I don't know how many threw on the TV team. I don't care about his JV passes. We're not fucking counting JV stats, though, here. Well, first of all, I'd be alarmed if he was on the JV team for a while. Are you sure?

Are you sure that's right? I'm not 100% sure, but that's what I saw when I went to the site that showed the high school stats. I'm fairly positive. Kyler Murray has thrown 50 passes on a high school game. You're saying

you're saying Trey Lance. Tray Lance has thrown 113 passes as a varsity quarterback. I mean, I guess they could be a really run heavy team and they throw it like 10 times a game. Yeah, that's exactly.

He scored a ton of touchdowns. He's a very good runner. That's going to go in the first round of the draft. Oh, you guys, I have it. He's right. He threw nine passes his junior year on varsity, and he threw 104 his senior year.

Yeah. And he completed. 56 of them of the 104. 53%. Dude. Okay, so for context, I understand we're talking about high school, but for context,

Trevor Lawrence threw 161 touchdowns in high school. If you want some context. Trevor Lawrence started 56 games in high school. I just think it's extremely concerned. So, like, oh, actually, I want to get back to this. Because Mike Renner, he tweeted this today. I think it's extremely interesting. It's wild.

One of the biggest, like, red flags for quarterbacks coming into the NFL is a lack of experience, lack of game experience, a lack of attempts, a lack of starts. It's one of those things where when you're trying to do predictive stats, like, game started is like one of the best ones. It's very predictive. So, renter, per renter from PFF, career passing attempts from top QBs in the draft. Kellyn Monde has the most 1370. Trevor Lawrence, 1147.

Zach Wilson, 841, Kyle Trask, 815, Justin Fields, 622, Mac Jones, 560, Davis Mills, who has 11 career starts in college, 442 pass attempts.

Trey Lance, 319 pass attempts in college. Add in his high school, he's thrown like 500 passes ever as a quarterback in game. So if he were to play 16 games as a rookie, if you were to play 16 games as a rookie,

that would be more past attempts than he had in high school and college combined, probably. Yeah. So, like, I keep coming back to this because it's like with the way that I like understand it. Hi Fitz, you and Casey, Kevin Clark went, went golfing this week. When I go golfing, because I go, the only time I go golfing is when one of my friends has a bachelor party. And I never practice. I never go to the driving range. I just go out there and just fucking take wax at it.

and hopefully something happens, the best way that I can understand what it would be like to have that few passes and those few starts and then try and go into the NFL is like basically trying to go golf without ever practicing your swing. It's just crazy to me that...

AKA how most people golf. So do you think Trey Lansing goes in the first round? Yeah, I think he's going to be a top 10 pick. Do you? Because that seems insane. Yeah, I don't think it's, I think the teams are still going to love the tools. and I love the tools.

I think he's a very good player. It's just such a huge projection. And I think, look, again, like, I've got him ranked pretty highly on my board. He's securely the fourth quarterback on my board behind Trevor Lawrence Fields, Wilson. But the tools are there for him to be an excellent player. And I wouldn't say this necessarily,

but a lot of people think he has, like, the highest upside. And honestly, and I want to mention this too now because we're talking about, like, what we've heard, Lance Zierland has mentioned this several times he's he's outstanding on the blackboard he's very very smart knows his football has good football IQ they've gotten him ready

to play at North Dakota State like in terms of like the preparation and all that but I just think man the lack of live reps is so concerning to me so I'm not impressed by the blackboard stuff with Trey Lance and I don't mean to take that away from him in any way like obviously it's a very important thing however he didn't play a season

he's trying to be an NFL draft pick all you had to do for the entire fall was learned that stuff. So while it is a good thing, it's kind of like if he had showed up and not crushed it, like it would have been super concerning. You know what I mean? Like you had the entire fall. He just crammed for a test.

Yeah, like the FCS season was moved to the spring. It's not his fault. I'm just saying like, you're going to have all these meetings with NFL teams. Like, you need to be able to do this. Yeah. Bottom line is like, I love Trey Lance.

Tools, his skill set's incredible. I think if he puts it all, all together, he could be a very good player. But to me, he is the highest risk. He's by far the highest boom-buss player, quarterback in this draft just because of that lack of experience, lack of game starts, lack of throws in games. Like, that matters.

It absolutely matters. So I think this is, whatever team it takes him, it's going to be a process, I think, to, like, you know, get him so he can hit the ground running when he gets into the lineup. But I just don't want to have too high of expectations for him because, like, I mean, this was the big, this was the huge knock. on Mitchell Trubisky when he came into the NFL was a lack of experience.

He wasn't even the starter at North Carolina like the year before he like blew up and everything. He couldn't like beat out the guy in front of him. So it's just like, I don't know. Isn't Mac Jones similar? I mean, Mac Jones hasn't thrown that many passes.

Yeah, Mac Jones, 560 passes in his college career. And it's absolutely a concern with him too. I think he has the same amount of starts. 17 starts. I'd say the big difference is, one, he played this year, and two, he had by far the most difficult strength of schedule of any of these players. So those kind of put him above. But I absolutely put Mac Jones on the same level in terms of, like, boom, bust, and we just don't really know who they are.

Like, I think, you know, this is pretty easy to say, I guess, but, like, Mac Jones and Trey Lant seem like the biggest bust potential of the quarterbacks. No way. And Mac, best. Craig, you got another take? Best QB in the draft. No,

I'm all, I'm all taped out. All right. I got one more. Drafts are stupid. What should they do instead? They're ridiculous. Drafts are insane.

You know who the things, you know, you know who like gets drafted? Athletes and like the military, the military draft people to go to war in times of crisis. And then sports teams do it like routinely. how is this still a thing?

Like, D.K. and I touched on this a little bit of the NFL show. I can't. It is such a bizarre thing that you just draft all the college kids every year. I'm like, all right, you're going to go, you're going to go to Denver and you have to play for the Broncos. And you're going to go to Foxborough. Like, where does, like, we're like, whoa, where's Justin Fields going to go? Has anyone asked Justin Fields where he wants to go?

Because that's how it works for every other industry in this free country. You get to decide what city you want to live in. what company you're going to work for, except the football players and the basketball players who just like, you want to do that? You have to go work for them. It's crazy. It is insane that this is the system. It sucks because a lot of these like extremely good players have to go to some crappy team and, you know, it's brutal. Why isn't that? It's like the league is like parody, but it's bizarre as a system if you think about it. So what's your solution? You have a sliding scale. you have a set amount within the salary cap,

which teams already do. Teams already carve out 10. They know what they're going to have to spend for the teams, for the teams, like making the picks. So you carve out a salary cap. You give the bad teams,

just to spend on rookies, like a rookie pool of money. You give the bad teams more money to spend. And you let them recruit, you know, like every other fucking industry in this company in this country that is competing

for talented people. Job fairs, I don't know. Have Bill Belichick, like have a little table. table at the comes to knowledge campus and try to convince people to come. Yeah, but then wouldn't trade, I mean, Trevor Lawrence would never go to a shitty team then. He would take a little bit less money and just like go to the Patriots. Well, that's what you get as a reward for being a good

organization. Perhaps some of the horrible shittiness in some organizations is because there's zero incentive to improve because you could just be bad and get good picks. Perhaps that was who read out some terrible qualities and some football teams. Also, it would fix itself because if you're not going to be a starter, there's only eight teams from to pick from. And guess what is good for, like, good for as a fan. If the teams who have bad, mediocre quarterbacks will move on for Trevor Lawrence, you can trade them. That would be fun. It would be fun

if the Raiders would just trade Derek Carr and sign Trevor Lawrence if he wants to go to Vegas for some reason. But realistically, there's only so many starting spots and players will go to places that they can play. But it doesn't matter. That's a secondary concern. It's a free country. You just get to pick where you work.

It's ridiculous. Imagine if that happened in any other industry. What's other sport parallels? Like, European soccer do that? I don't know enough about. Well, they have like academies. The problem is that America outsources the amateur stuff to college. So no one has to pay for it. That's why the NCAA exists.

But it's like in soccer, they have academies and they fund a downstream talent system. Hear me out. Anyway, we don't, we don't go on with all that. The draft is essentially a snake fantasy football draft, right? It's not exactly snake because, like, it doesn't go backwards. Yeah. It's essentially a snake draft. And all we talk about is how people who do snake drafts,

and fantasy football, you know, that's for the simpletons. No, it's not a snake draft. It's just a draft, it's just a draft instead of an auction draft. Snake is like the direction of the rounds. I know, that's what I just said. It's still a draft.

The non-snaking. Bill derides the IQ of people who do snake drafts at every chance he gets. Right. Like, it's basically saying like whatever pick you get, like you have to take, like the Patriots are not going to get Trevor Lawrence. That's how it is. What if we just made it an option draft?

What if we gave everybody fake money? I mean, it's like a salary. It literally is the salary cap, yeah. No, but I don't want to do it based on how much money teams have. Let's give everybody $1,000 monopoly dollars. But you know, the bad teams could get more money. Or we just make it dead even and be like, listen, if one team wants to spend all of their $1,000 and bid for Trevor Lawrence

and not get anybody else in the draft, go for it. Let's just do an auction draft. That actually is a much more fun version of a draft, and that's actually a really good idea. However, it's still a draft. That's a good idea. However, it's still a draft, and drafts are ridiculous. They should have to recruit, and we can still get draft content. We'll just be flight tracking where Trevor Lawrence is flying around America.

Or the job interviews are like live. That'd be cool. Yeah. Imagine if every single prospect had their own little LeBron decision or like the way these high schoolers all now do like the recruiting things. Wouldn't it be really fun of Trevor Lawrence. I monitor Trevor Lawrence's Instagram every day for like four months. Not if you're a Jags fan.

No, but like, who cares? Has it been fun to watch? everyone not talk about the Jaguars and your one chance everyone to talk about the Jaguars? I'm just saying that would create like Steelers, Cowboys, Niners, Packers, Bears. Like those teams would just be good every year. And the Lions and the Jags and the, like all those teams are just sucked. What if all the players just went to their own, their favorite teams growing up? And Ebs and Flows, though, Haifitz, right?

You know, these teams, they catch a good quarterback and they go on these, you know, look at the cults of Peyton Manning. It's like, that would never happen if your idea was implemented. Yeah. They shouldn't be rewarded for going two and 14 with Curtis Painter and lucky into the Andrew Luck should have had some agency in where he went. And perhaps the fact that he did not is why he had to retire after seven years. I'm split. I think that's,

I love the draft is stupid. I think we need to just rework the draft somehow or just figure it out. It's ridiculous. This is for sending soldiers to war. This is not for like gainful employment. High Fitz is very passionate about it. I'm sure Trevor Lawrence would agree with you. if he came on right now.

He'd come on to Zoom. He'd have his big headband on. He'd be like, yeah, I don't want to go to Jacksonville. I want to interview. Just like, I also want to be signed with Roman. Yeah, I want to sign with Roman and let me interview in Pittsburgh. I'm down. All right.

Is that the siren? That's it. The first annual take purge is over. Oh, my God. It's over. We're back to normal. Wow. I feel cleansed.

Got some takes out. That was good. Maybe there will be a second take purge come fantasy season. Who knows? This gives like a biannual. Two times a year? Wow. Well, I hope you guys are feeling lighter.

My spirit, I'm flying. I'm sworn right now. That was the first take purge. Let us all give thanks to our take God, Chris Sims. And we implore you. If anyone listening has a take, they want to purge themselves, please email us at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com

and we will read the best take purges people send in. Craig, you look like you were going to say something and you did. No, love it. Send us your take. Purge. Purge yourself. Great. Send us your takes. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you, Lord.

That you, Taylor Swift. Shouts out to Nora for Taylor Swiftpot. Every single album, go listen and ring her dish. All right, thank you, everyone.