The Ringer NFL Show - The WR Draft Prospects Who Could Change Your Team | The Ringer NFL Draft Show

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

This week, the guys discuss a handful of potential first-round wide receivers and what they like (and dislike) most about each prospect (1:44). Marvin Harrison Jr., Ohio State (9:28) Rome Odunze, Washington (13:38) Malik Nabers, LSU (17:27) Brian Thomas Jr., LSU (22:08) Keon Coleman, Florida State (27:04) Troy Franklin, Oregon (35:50) Xavier Worthy, Texas (39:25) Adonai Mitchell, Texas (43:12) Tez Walker, UNC (47:40) Ja’Lynn Polk, Washington (50:46) Ladd McConkey, Georgia (55:01) Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Craig Horlbeck, and Ben Solak Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Galaxy lights, Coachella, Lightning Bolt necklaces. Did you catch all the Scandival clues? Last March, one cheating scandal launched a reality TV investigation that generated hundreds of conspiracy theories, thousands of podcast episodes, and millions of dollars in revenue. I'm Jody Walker, host of an American Scandival. Ahead of the Vanderpump Rules premiere, relive the pop culture phenomenon that rocked a reality nation, starting January 23rd on Ringer Dish. Welcome to the Ringer NFL Draft Show. My name is Danny Hyattford's. I am joined by Danny Kelly, Ben Slog, and Craig Horlebeck.

Today, we are looking at all the wider series that could go in the first round of the NFL draft. First, I just want to let you know. We're coming to Wednesdays for the rest of the season. But the season's almost over, and then after that, we're coming to twice a week on this feed, which is the Ringer Fantasy Football Show feed. We're going to change the name to the Ringer NFL Draft Show feed.

So just subscribe and follow. because we don't even ask you to do that ever. We just ask you when we're changing the name to lose track. And you don't have to worry about the name of the show if you're subscribed. There you go. It'll let you know when there's a new episode.

You just click. I don't know that show with the Danys and Craig's there and the other kid. I forget his name. And they talk to draft. You don't even describe it to your friends just by people. Yeah, exactly.

Danny, Danny, Craig and the other guy. It's fine. So, boom. Hit the button. Now, Salk, you're not the other guy. You're a long-lost family member. Okay. We're going through the draft.

And again, we're going through the wide receivers that could go in the first round. And I think that's particularly important because DK, as you have painfully noted throughout the season. NFL teams do not have enough wide receivers this year. And there are a lot of wide receivers in this draft. So yeah, it's kind of a weird thing because it feels like there's been so many good receiver drafts over the last few years. But at the same time, this year, it felt like there was a shortage of like playmakers that could elevate offenses. obviously the quarterbacks this year were pretty bad and that was this whole big problem onto its own

but like I think they could have helped by having better receivers, better playmakers I mean if you look around the league I mean look at the good teams like the chiefs one good receiver half the year like Rishie Rice came on in the second half of the season but other than that no good receivers the chargers were down like three or four guys

they were relying on people like Jalen Geithen Alex Arison the Pats the Patriots zero good receivers Maybe DeMario Douglas, if you want to count him. The Panthers. Half a good receiver, maybe. Jets, one good receiver, bears, one good receiver, Cardinals. One good receiver, maybe. If you stack them on top of each other.

Did you mention the Giants? The Giants, they got like seven-slaught receivers. They're like the three receivers in a trench coat equal one receiver. I think if you went around the league, bottom line, if you went around the league and we're making like a draft needs board, I think like 20 something, 24 teams need receivers this year. And so obviously it's a good season. It's a good year in the draft to have receiver need.

And I think these guys coming into the league could have a pretty big outsized effect going forward over the next few years. So it's very, very exciting. And so, like you made the excellent point last years. It might have been two years ago at this point. I've been saying this for years. I will continue to say it for years every year forever. You said there would never be a bad, wide receiver draft again. And I'm curious if you could elaborate on why and also where this, even within that context,

where this draft class of receivers stacks up. Right. So there are just, there are two things that have happened in college football over the last decade, decade and a half that have just led to an explosion of wide receiver talent in the field. The first is that college teams are just way better at throwing the football, right? Like not that long ago, like a lot of college teams are like, all right, we're going to do our three quarterback rotation or run the read option and like throw it nine times a game, right? But with the advent of RPO and with spread offenses, you just throw the ball a lot more.

And so now more receivers get more reps to develop and to grow and to put film out there. Adjacent to this is the development of seven-on-seven football at the high school level, right? In the fall, you play 11-on-11 with an offensive line. In the spring, you play seven-on-seven. You've doubled the amount of reps that a quarterback can get and a wide receiver can get. And then adjacent to that seven-and-on-seven kind of advent is the second point, which is that now that we can throw the football, And now that we have all these reps for receivers, we are funneling athletes into receiver that

weren't there previously. We have expanded the amount of body types you can get into that position, right? Yeah. Did Tank Dell come out last year? Tankdale wasn't an NFL player 20 years ago. He couldn't make it into the league. Now Texas are taking him in the second brown pick, right? We're talking about Xavier Worthy out of Texas. So 170 pounds. I know what it's like to be 170 pounds. It doesn't feel NFL size, fellas. But we can get these guys working at, uh, at the college level and then even at the NFL level. And that's even true, like, in the other directions,

where you have guys who have more, like, running back-e sort of body types. I always think of Traylon Berks. It was like 6-2-2-35. Play in wide receiver. We can make a lot more of these body types works. We have so many more reps for these guys. So now the pool is just so deep.

There's so many guys at so many schools, group of five schools, power of five schools. We got Malachi Coralie out of Western Kentucky. We got guys on guys on guys. The numbers are too big, such that there's never going to be like an actually bad class. ever again. Do you think that makes first round wide receivers more or less valuable now that you can get Tank Dell on the third, Rishi Rice was late second, I think, Pooka Nekul is like the 20th

wide receiver off the board. Because tight end is so deep now, are teams as pressured to take a wide receiver in the first round? So it's interesting. It's a little bit of we're seeing inflation right now. We're seeing like, you know, we should see if supply goes up and demand goes down, right? Like, okay, there's tons of really good wide receivers. So pass on them. the first rounds and take them later. And you're seeing some teams, like, I think the chiefs have very clearly been a team that they're like, all right, we're going to forget about top receivers and we're just going to get a second round guy in Skymore, a second round guy in Rishie Rice, late round guy and Justin Ross. We're just going to kind of try to do this, you know, in the back end.

See the Rams, right? Cooper Cobb is a third round pick. Pook and Naku is a fifth round pick. You're seeing some teams go after it this way. But in general, there's still a huge thirst for wide receivers in the top 10 and in the top of the draft. So right now, supply is going up and demands going up. So it feels a little bit like a bubble, right? It feels like at some point, we're going to sit down and think, okay, all of these teams that are drafting receivers super high, they're just not getting enough bang for their buck. Or we'll sit down and say all these teams that think they can gain the system and find the right guy in the third round, they're not smart enough. They have to start spending the early picks. So we're in a little bit

of a weird bubble right now with wide receiver value in the NFL draft. The supply demand one's a really good point because in theory, yeah, more receivers take them like, you know, they're cheaper. But in reality, the supply is up because the demand is also up in college football. And so the reason there's more receivers in college football is than trickling the NFL as they have more like demand is also up in the NFL. So it's kind of...

And remember, again, like going back to 20 years ago, we weren't fielding three receivers as frequently as we are now. And we weren't throwing the ball as often as we are now. So now not only is the third receiver playing more, he's seeing more targets. So we just, we need dudes. Get them in the moment. The more I cover the NFL,

when I first started doing fantasy in the NFL, I was like, this is nothing like, fantasy football is nothing at the NFL. and then the more I do it. I'm like, actually, it's kind of like when you have a two-quarterback league you need to take the quarterbacks. The wide receivers instead of fullbacks,

more receivers. All right. So we're going to go through the wide receivers. And one last point in the receivers, they really can change a team, though. Like, AJ Brown went to your Eagles, So lack. And the Eagles, like, made the Super Bowl.

And honestly, a good receiver, maybe this little crass, it's a little bit like Viagra. Like, honestly, you know what I mean? Like, sometimes the love life, you know, it's a little stale. Like, let's be real. Like, a lot of offenses were flaccid.

Like spice it up. You guys. The Patriots offense was flaccid. You threw him over in Harrison Jr. It won't be that way. Titans without A.G. Brown? Flacid. And like, that's kind of what Viagra just went generic.

You ever seen a Titans offense without A.J. Brown on its own? Not for me. Not for me. I love how, like, the idea of free agency is, like, NFL teams looking at those ads where the two people are holding hands and two bathtubs. Oh, Seattle? Yeah. Well, Seattle.

Little Hymns ad. It's a staff going to the background? That's NFL Free Agency. Dude, that bathtub scene is iconic. Everybody knows that. Dude, the bathtubs... You tell me you have two bathtubs, side by side? In your building, Craig?

You're outside? You don't have the double bathtub going? Dude. Outside overlooking a lake. But yeah, you know, you just throw a little blue pill pookin to co at Matt Stafford. He's 20 years younger. So I think that it really is... Chase Higgins?

Yeah, it makes her drives last longer. You know what I mean? It's just like when the touchdown when the moment strikes, you know? So we're going to go through the receivers. We're going to see how much juice they can kind of add your offense. And again, if you watched your football team this year, and you're like, oh, I wish we had a better receiver. We will go through all the guys to your team.

All your teams will be able to get on this. So instead of improving your sex drive, you improve your football drive. Exactly. Oh, that's success rate. I can hone that better. I'll come back with that. Yeah. There's something that.

You can improve your blood flow. We're going to be four minutes into this pod, talking about Troy Franklin and Craig's here. Like, wait, drive. It's all about blood flow, Craig. The sex drive, but it's success rate on drives. It's like success drive. I don't know. Workshopping.

We're further away now, I think. All right. So we're just doing a little word association for you guys. We're going to go loosely, you know, some buckets. But we've got to start with the only guy we've got to start with here, which is, you know, if you had to bet your life on one guy being a grand NFL receiver. We have Marvin Harrison, Jr., wide receiver from Ohio State. D.K., I want to story with you.

What word or words come to mind when I just say Marvin Harrison, Jr.? You remember Wayne's World? Swing! No, I was going to say total package. But everything is sounding sexual now. But anyways, Marvin Harrison, he truly is like an elite prospect. he has size, elite speed, elite ball skills. He's the son of a Hall of Fame receiver.

Like basically everything you want about it, the production is there. You know, he's just basically like as good you can get in terms of prospects at receiver. So obviously he's extremely, extremely exciting. I don't know for sure that he's going to be the first receiver pick, but probably like 80%. You know what's funny is that he's so he's 6'4, right? And his father, Marvin Harrison, is six foot. Like he is legitimately bigger, like way bigger than his dad, which I feel like you don't see a lot. usually like, like LeBron's kid is smaller than LeBron, right?

Like, Steph is smaller than his father. I feel like it's rare that the son of the athlete is way bigger than the father. And he's also like explosive. Maybe they're giving him human growth hormone when he was a little kid. Yeah, it's power creep. It's a new era. Marvin Harrison, the third, give you six, eight, Marvin Harrison, the fourth and seven.

You know what else is funny? Marvin Harrison Jr. did this interview on college game day earlier this season. And they asked them, what's something you want, your son does not have that you had in your game? And he left. She's like, oh, yeah, the one thing I want my son I have, he's like, you got to complain for the effing ball.

And they're like, what? He's like, he's like, he's got to complain. He literally was like, if I had five catch of 70 yards, Peyton Manning, Monday morning meeting, I'm not going to the meeting. I need the ball until I talk to you. And then, so be a diva. He's just saying be a diva. He was like, so you're saying your son should be a bigger diva? Marvin Harrison's like, yeah.

And I'm like, this is the Ricky Bobby scene. He was like, I'm glad my kids are talking to you this way, Chip. You know the way they're talking to. You know. Marvin Harrison Sr. is sitting at home on an NFL Sunday, watching Justin Jefferson put up record numbers and just being like, if Reggie Wayne wasn't on the team, I could have done that.

You know he is for sure sitting there believing it. But yeah, I mean, it's simply, Marvin Harrison, best prospect since Jamar Chase, who's the best prospect since Julio Jones, who's the best one since Larry Fitzgerald? Does that get the cosign from both of you? I mean, like, approximately, yeah. And all these guys hit, right?

Like, when you know a wide receiver is good, like they don't bust. Yeah, Sammy Watkins. Sammy Watkins very famously was a can't miss guy. Oh, okay. I mean, he was still in the league's like a year ago. That's week one ride receiver in NFL history. Jerry Rice in week one and Nelson Agler or the other 16 weeks. But usually, right?

Like the hit rate for like a very highly touted wide receiver prospect, it's usually pretty strong, right? It's higher than the other positions too. I'm sure there's data studies on it that are interesting. I mean, like, you know, it's easier to capture the strong, like the best ones in your head. there's a lot of first round receivers who miss, but in my recollection,

like in terms of top five, top 10 picks, it feels like it's, yeah, it's really strong. There was one season where like Corey Davis and John Ross. It was all the last draft.

There was another one in the year. Cory Davis was like top 10. Josh Dodson. Josh Dodson. Yeah, TCU. I think if you're like talking like prospecting though, Marvin Harrison,

he checks like almost every box that you're looking for. Like production, multi-year production, you know, elite athleticism. on the freaks. He was the number one player on Bruce Feldman's Freaks list, which is the, like, or maybe number two. It's like the most athletic players in college football. And he was like right at there at the top. And so

he's he's got everything you want. Size, length, playmaking skills. Like his actual skills as a receiver, the way he catches the football, the way he bends down and twists and contorts in the air to catch the football. Like he has everything you want. So it's hard to build a case for him actually not working out in the NFL. So yeah, I would say he's, he seems, seems like one of the safest, you know, prospects in a long time. Anyone who sets up a jugs machine in a hotel lobby is my kind of receiver. Yeah, and that's the other thing is like he has the work ethic that you really want,

or at least he apparently does. And so that's another big part of being a good pro. So if we keep going here, so Marvin Harrison, Jr. feels like a certified lock. If you keep going here, next up, kind of a blue chip, the blue chip guys, let's go with Roma Dunzee out of Washington. Ben, when I say Roma Dunzee, what word comes to mind? All that bag of baguizza is with Roma Dunzee. There's nothing he can't do well on the field.

All that's a bag of bag of check. I like Rome a lot. I know that Malik neighbors at LSU is, I think, the flavor de jour for like wide receiver too. I know those people who think he pushes Marvin Harrison. For me, I, Malik's amazing. I prefer Rome. To me, I think it's more like Harrison's a clear one than Rome and neighbors are the top of that

second tier. The thing about Rome is just six, three, two, 16 is not supposed to be able to move like that. And then on top of having, I think, a high caliber athleticism, he's got legit speed, he's got multiple gears, he has change of direction. and yeah, you can elevate. On top of that, he has legitimate, like, wide receiver skills, right? Like, you can very clearly see him, like, work against coverage. You get back to the football and he tracks the ball early.

You see him block. You see him develop spaces or outrunner. You see him win through contact. One of the things that I think going through this class, a lot of the bigger receivers in this classroom ain't as good through contact as I want them to be, Rome checks the box, right? Rome will win. And when he's getting battered, Rome will win in tight spaces up against the pylon,

up against the sideline, safety coming in. Like, he does not mind a little bit of contact, which a really big deal. If you're going to be an exclusive receiver down the field, whether that's middle of the field running that ding and get hit by a safety or that's up against the corner tight to the sideline, like you've got to be able to win through size and he does it. So like, you want to hear a stat on that?

According to PFF, he had 28 contested catch situations this last season. He caught 21 of them. That is, that's actually like unheard of. If you compare it to Marvin Harrison, who I think is one of the best receivers, you know, he's good at it. He had 13 out of 30. Like 21 out of 28. this guy is really, really good

at the point of playing. Quite literally taking 50, 50 balls and making them 75%. Now, one thing I will say is that contested catch can be as much a quarterback status can be a wide receiver stat. And one of the things is that Panics was very good. I get in the ball somewhere where Rome can make it work, right?

They're like, we're going to talk about Keon Coleman out of Florida State. It was really bad congested catch numbers. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Coleman made balls that should have been uncatchable. Right. Come contested catch the balls just by his athleticism and by his size, right? So that stat can take you down a lot of different roads, but it matches the film for O'Donzee.

O'Donzee is the sort of guy where, like, Craig asked, like, do guys this early, you know, flop? I said flop instead of bust. A guy like O'Donzee is just so good. That's what you need the blue pill for. It's just so good at so many things and check so many NFL athleticism boxes, height, weight, speed, acceleration, elevation. Like, it's just so hard to see him not becoming at least something valuable at the level, let alone what I think it can be, which is like a true wide receiver one. Yeah, I think the contested catch, like, percentage or rate or whatever, like, sometimes

that is overused. And when you talk about it, it actually turns into a negative because it usually means they can't separate. Like, if they're having a lot of contested catch situations, a lot of times it's like, well, that just means they've got defenders on them at all time. Wasn't that Quinn Johnston kind of? There's been a lot of guys throughout the years. Like, Nikiel Harry, I think, was one of them.

Like, just not a very good separate. You know, he's just too not twitchy enough. I, with the thing about Rome, though, that I like is when you watch him run routes, like, he's twitchy. He can separate. He can really move and create separation. He's really good at separating late,

which is a huge deal when you're a bigger guy. So, like, to me, the contested catch thing, sometimes it's a red flag. In this case, to me, it's a plus. It's a positive for sure. I love Odunzi as well. I just feel like if your name is Rome, Adunza, you can't be bad, right?

It's never, historically, a name is Coles Roma Dunzei. Flopping? No chance. Hall of Fame name class. The other guy that's in this category is like another potential top-ton pick is Malik Neighbors, the wide receiver from LSU. DK. When I say Malik Neighbors, what words comes to mind?

I want to go fast. You quoted Ricky Bobby earlier. Like he is the most explosive receiver in this class. Like he is just pure, hot, nasty, badass speed. And watching him is a true. delight. He's one of the most fun players to watch in this entire class this year because everything he does is just turbocharged,

extremely explosive. His acceleration is ludicrous. And he runs after the catch. He led college football and receiving yards. He was second in touchdowns. Second in the Bolitnikov voting. Really, really good player. I think there's some things that he'll have to

iron out at the next level, like his technical route running and things like that. But overall, his total skill set like decent size extremely explosive good at the catch point you know very competitive very like he has that diva style

like personality I think just there's a ton of things like about this guy and I think so Marvin Harrison's like real son because he actually asked to the ball he's right I think there's going to be six foot 200 more Marvin Harrison size yeah he's a little closer

I think there's going to be people that will prefer neighbors over Harrison even though that might sound sacrilege I think by the time we get to the draft, people are going to be talking about that. Here's my question. I have a theory about Malik Neighbors. And, D.K., we talked about this on the Friday show.

We were talking about how, I think certain numbers make you look faster or slower. Malik Neighbors wears eight. I firmly believe if Malik Neighbors wore number one, he would look faster. But when I watch Malik Neighbors, he's fast, but I'm like, oh, he's kind of thick, too. And I'm like...

It's because of eight. There's no sharp edges on eight. Yeah, but he's not like AJ Brown. It's just he wears number eight and AJ Brown wears 11, which I think makes AJ Brown like slimmer. He's compact. He has like a muscular frame. He's not skinny like a lot of the receivers coming out lately.

You're right though, Hife. It's like how stripes make you look like heavier. Like there are certain numbers that make you look faster. Also, when Julio Jones joined the Eagles this year, Julio Jones was number zero, which I thought was only something you could do in the NBA. I did not. No, they just added that in the NFL.

Exciting stuff. No, Julio is number 80. I think his uniform was just like folded over, perfectly so it looked like double zero. And he was on the field for like five plays. Craig, I literally Googled this during their last game because I was like, is he zero zero? Like that seems, I didn't know

they were allowed. The Eagles jersey is notoriously tough for eight, sixes and zeros. So, wait, the font, wait, if anyone out here is like a, on the off chance, it's like a freaking, what's the term? That's calligraphy calligraphy or calligrapher. Emails or your fancy football at gmail.com. If we can go further and tell us which fonts. The best fonts.

Escalate like the number thing Craig's talking about with the stripes versus but you can be zero zero ban you said no that's a new relay pass I just double checked it they tried to get double zero last year and we're unsuccessful getting it they got seven last couple of the single zero

in come on it's like the daylight savings of the NFL is pass it Michael Pierce man 360 pound nose tackle for the Ravens Vita Vaya 345 pound nose tackle for the who yeah bucks let's get the double zero for the big fellas all right this is necessary 100% the jersey number analytics is a very

It's a very real thing. It's a very serious business about how speed is affected by the number you wear. Speaking of serious business, Malik Neighbors also, he has his touchdown dance called the Squabble.

Oh yeah, the little, he does like, do it. No, no, I'm not doing it. That's bait.

Craig, I can recognize it. I know what you're doing. That's like this. Yeah. All the young kids are doing it in the NFL. Like, Jaden Reed does it.

Rahit Shihud does it, Tank Dell and Stroud do it? Dude, how long until Malik Neighbors leads the league and touchdowns in the NFL and it's like on the view teaching joy Bayhar how to do the squabble. The view?

You think Malik neighbors is going to go on the view? I feel like maybe he would be on my Jimmy Fallon. No, I'm saying once like there's a whole cycle to how this stuff goes. And once it makes like the Today Show and Hoda Coppies doing like the Gritty, then your parents ask me what the Gritty is and then the Gritty's dead. Well, I was going to say how long until we've got Mike Gisicki horribly attempted to do this day. Giski is a reaper for touchdown dances, man.

You see Gizzi Gizzi coming. around the corner. It's ball kicking. It's like, all right, we need a new one. We're done. He's just the Steve Buscemi meme of the NFL. Fellow kids. Hello fellow pass catchers. I see that young, cool dance you're doing. I'm going to give that a shot. That's how I feel on this podcast, by the way. Dika, you mentioned that Malik Neighbors was second in the FBS in touchdown catches. He actually was second on his own team, too. Brian Thomas, the other receiver in LSU, led the FBS touchdown catches.

I don't think he's quite a lock top ten. He's kind of like, we're kind of a tiered down now from a dude's human league neighbors. So lack, when I say Brian Thomas, LSU, what word comes to mind with you?

Mew. You know the sound that you make when a kid has a plane? It's not full John Gannon Pee per view. That's like done. So it's more just like fast train on the trip.

Yeah. Yeah. Neer. Yeah. Yeah. Mew. Yeah. Brian Thomas,

64205 with wheels. Thomas is fun to watch. I'll tell you, Thomas is one of those players where when you're first watching him, you see him get off the line of scrimand, you're like, oh, he's fast. And then he hits a second gear and you're like, wait, wait a minute, what? I thought you were, that wasn't top speed? This is top speed? He's got the ability to get down the field and really stretch you out.

This is the sort of player who can be a dynamic downfield threat. He's 642. He's listed 64205. I'm not sure he's carrying 205 for real, but that height and that length shows up. Who was it last draft that we said? We had to make jeans for him with the pockets at the knees.

Joey Porter Jr.? Yeah. Brian Thomas Jr. is one of these fellas. He had a catch, I think it was Mississippi State. They played. He had a touchdown catch back pile on where he just snags this thing

in Spectre gadget out of nowhere. And he gets up to celebrate and you see his arms just dangling at his kneecaps. No wonder, man. You can't defend this. He is big, fast, and long, right? He really has that ability. I like Thomas relative.

There's a lot of big fast long guys in this class. Tess Walker out of UNC, Troy Franklin, out of Oregon, Xavier Worthy, there's a lot of guys. The thing about Thomas that I think separates him for me right now is that I've seen him play through contact. I brought this up earlier, play through contact a little bit more successfully. You see him retain the attention. You track the football.

He didn't get pressed much. And that's going to be the tricky thing here is just with the way that L is you structured that offense. He and neighbors both didn't have to deal with a ton of press. Can you explain why that matters? At the NFL level, you're going to see a lot more press than you do at the college level. It's not going to be the primary coverage you see, but you're still going to see it a lot more. Because the passing game these days is like timing based, and then when you stop the timing,

the receiver, you stop the timing to play. Certainly that, but also just fundamentally, at the college level, you're lucky if you have half a corner that you trust a press. At the NFL level, you're going to have a couple, right? that you say, okay, if this guy can be successful pressing for us. The other thing is that, like, because of where the hashes are, it's easier to get safety help over guys in the NFL versus in college. And so you can run, like, press stuff and put a deep path safety and run in cloud.

Like, there's a lot more ways to get press coverage done at the NFL level. So that's going to be the big question for Thomas, because if he has a good enough release package, and I like what I've seen from him, but you're kind of still a little bit of an outstanding question, then you really have a player who can be a Christian Watson's type of guy. Okay. That's exactly who I comped him to. Yeah.

Like not only are we getting the potential of like you can have those games. There's just two catches for 90 yards. But it's also, and this is what the Packers drafted Watson four. They didn't really get this out of him. But you can also be a guy who we can funnel like six, seven targets to. Like you can moonlight as a true wide receiver one for us. That's ideal that what you have is your wide receiver two, right?

We start talking about the Niners with Debo and I yuking the Eagles with AJ Brown and Devante and the Bengals with T. Higgins and Jamar Chase. You want your number two to be a guy who he could just be number one. any given week. And Thomas feels like that to me, where he has that utility to be that field structure to be that second thread,

the big play guy, but then he also can show up as a wide receiver one. He's like Jalen Waddle if you stretch him out along the vertical plane, you know? Wow.

So I get a little bit, so right now I think he's mainly like a lock to be in the first round. Most people think he'll be a first rounder. I have heard people talking about how he might be in the top 10.

To me, that's Brian Thomas? Brian Thomas, yeah. I think that's a little bit rich for me. I think he is. name was better, maybe, but Brian Thomas isn't really getting the job done. Right. I don't know.

He's still, Malik neighbors. Still a little bit raw, still a little bit like unrefined as a path as a route runner. You know, he's just unpolished. He's extremely, extremely explosive. But I feel like a lot of teams have made this

mistake in the past of just like, here, this guy is so fast. He can change our offense completely, except for we need him to do other stuff too. That's one of the reason why I brought up Christian Watson's name is because you're like, all right, like the Watson thing was so cool in theory. And then obviously Thomas gets the,

in the SEC, not the FCS bump. Mel Kuyper's first mock, which just came out this week, Brian Thomas 14, as his top 16 pick, and he went before Keon Coleman. A little rich for my blood right there with Brian Thomas.

Very likable player, but it's a really, really good wide receiver class. I'm not sure I'm all the way there on BT just yet. So Keon Coleman's the receiver at a Florida State. You saw like you mentioned earlier, what comes to mind when you hear Keon Coleman

at a Florida State? Almost, close. We're so close to having, like, the big thing here. Kion, man. watching Keon reminds me of how when I watched Nico Collins at Michigan, where you're just watching going like, how's him,

the big man's moving a lot better than he's supposed to be moving. Like there's just, there is a, Kion Coleman is like a five-play prospect where you just turn on the film like, all right, see some Keon Coleman. You watch him on five routes. Yep, NFL, here we go. Like he's just that, he's so well put together.

He's so well built. He's just got good mass, good density. He's got good flexibility. He can sink and he can change directions. He can explode. He's got speed. Like, he's got length. I mean, like, this is, you, this is proto, typical wide receiver size, period.

Six foot four, two, 15. You don't usually hear all the words you just said. Beautifully built. I just, oh, love it. And then he, like I said, like, he legitimately runs routes, right? Now, I wouldn't call him a perfect route runner. He's kind of out there, like, it's a little bit like, you know, when, when, when, uh, amazing athlete picks up a basketball for the first time in ninth grade.

And they're just like, oh, is this how you do it? You dribble and you go and you shoot. You're like, did anybody teach you how to do this? Like, he's just like kind of running routes. He's like, oh, I might just like spin this corner, get in the blind spot, break this back. I'm open now. And it's like, okay, like, none of that made sense. Like, that was weird.

The timing of it was wrong. And like, Jordan Travis is sacked right now. But that was really cool. Like, the fact that you can do that is insane. We just need to put some polish on this. We just need to get this closer. Now, there was a graphic that was going around like last month of Keon Coleman's stats this season compared to the other top guys like neighbors and Marvin Harrison and Odunze.

And this goes back to some of the stuff we were talking about. Like, the contested catch rate is way lower than some of the. those guys, the amount of his targets that were contested catches were higher than a lot of those guys. His yards per route run was down this year relative to his Michigan State films. He was a Spartans transfer to Florida State. And so there's a little bit of a distaste for his statistical profile relative to these elite producers, these top round one guys. And there's also, I think, some frustration with that he runs hot and cold. There's some inconsistency. I think his quarterback play wasn't that great. I know that Travis is viewed as potential NFL are not really for me. And I think

Coleman mentally checked out at times. I'm going to give you that for sure where like he's kind of like, all right, like this is a Johnny Wilson game. This is a, what's the running back's name? D.K. Benson. This is a Benson. Yeah. I'm not going to be.

This isn't my game and I'm going to kind of play at 90%. And that's something you want to ask him about for sure. The best of Coleman stands up against the best of anybody in this class. Neighbors, Harrison, Odunze. I don't care who you pick. Man, like the three touchdown game against LSU, the Syracuse catch over the middle of the field. like, I want this guy in my building. I want this guy in my building.

I get my wide receiver coach, say, hey, like, fix him. We're going to make you an OC in two years. Here we go. He is really, really, really enticing when you squint and you see what it might look like a year in the future. Also, played basketball for six games. Yeah, he's a big time star in basketball in high school. And the catch that you're referencing, so lack about the one against Syracuse, I don't know if I've ever seen a more impossible-looking catch.

Like, it was truly one of those situations where it was like five feet over his head. he jumped up snagged it was like a P-rod he he snagged it with one hand what like piss rod and he snagged it with one hand brought it in like it didn't even look like it was it looked like the most impossible thing you never heard the term piss rod what is a piss rod it's like a frozen rope a very hard pass yeah i feel like you've never heard the term is that a football term or did piss rod come from somewhere else with you on this one i'm i'm i'm alone man you're on an I don't got a on Pissrod. The ghosts,

100% know this term. Pissrod is a very well-used comment. Email us at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. If you've heard the term P-Rod. I think it's usually more, it's usually more associated with baseball. Watch baseball in my own life. Dino Bavors,

who's the Syracuse head coach, you know what he said about Kiann after that game? What? He said, God was showing off when he made him. Oh, okay. So, line. Here's exactly all you need to know about him. He's six, six, four, two, 15, or whatever it is.

He was their punt returner. that's pretty crazy so I'm on Urban Dictionary and Pissrod it is a baseball term it's when a batter hits a line drive so hard and straight that it looks like a Pissrod but DK it says that a Piss rod

is in fact a boner A lot of things are a boner Craig that's good to know P-Rod anyway I've been saying P-Rod for 20-something years Should we did get it had another disagreement on like not disagreement just the term he didn't use

I had it for the end. Did we just do that now? Or should we just say? What is the term? Was it? He used the term pre-funk on the Friday show to talk about a pregame. I was gone. I missed that show.

And I just kept seeing my email all weekend. People just emailing us in the title just said pre-funks. And I was like, I truly have no idea what this is going to mean. So like I assume you've never heard the term pre-funky. No, is that real? So I wasn't saying it wasn't real. I was just telling Dika. I was wondering if it was like an age thing or a regional thing.

So we got a lot of emails. I mean, Mike, Mia, a lot of people, mail. Oh, is it like a, it's like a pregame? Yeah. Yes. So people, me even emailed in to say, I grew up in Western Washington, and I'm in my early 30s, never heard the term. And then Mel emailed in, I'm pretty sure D.K's making up pre-funkey, he's really

busting all over himself, which I really appreciate it. But I looked into this. I'm sure I'm making it out. No, DK, you're claiming that it's like a Pacific Northwestern. I'm not claiming anything. I'm just claiming I've used it for a very long time and it's very commonly used. I never heard of it. So I looked it up.

I never heard of it either. Wildly. Seattle Magazine wrote an article about this last year. And the headline is, it's incredible. It's the birth of pre-funk. Pre-funk is, and it's from the article, pre-funk is actually a regional phrase specific to the Pacific Northwest, and it's a shortened version of the word pre-function.

And they found this ticket bill dated back to 1977, the year Seattle had a Mardi Gras celebration. And I quote, Seattle, the first ever Mardi Gras celebration was first conceived as a way to give a midwinter lift to people's spirits because everyone, I guess, was really sad in Seattle. I'm telling you. This is great.

They found this a flyer. Yeah, some bar just had a pre-function Fat Tuesday party at Doc Manage Tropical Rainstorm. And it was on January 20th, 19th, January 20th. Dek and I had this conversation on January 19th, which I thought was really weird. All right.

I'm going to now drop this in casual conversation and make people ask me about it. This is good. If you've been watching the NFL playoffs from the sidelines, there's still time to get in the game with Fandall, America's number one sportsbook. New customers bet this Sunday's conference championship games with $150 in bonus bets, guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet.

Fandall has so many ways for you to pick up a W. I think the 49ers are going to beat the Lions. I know that's basic. It's not exactly a hot take, but I think the 49ers, if anything, you're going to get value because they looked bad against the Packers. It was raining. You can't see rain on TV. That's weird.

I don't think Brock Purdy is going to have any issues when it's not raining. So unless it's going to rain, bet on the 49ers, I think that just them, it's an opportunity that they didn't look at full capacity, but that's not going to happen again this week. So it's obvious and also underrated. So if you want to follow my pick, go to Fandall right now, get started with $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. Just visit fandul.com slash ringer fantasy. That is fandul.com slash ringer fantasy. Make every moment more with Fandle an official sportsbook partner of the NFL must be 21 plus and present in select states gambling problem.

Call 1-800 gambler or visit the ringer.com slash RG. $5 pregame money line wager required first online real money wager only $10. First deposit required bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire. Seven days after receipt, see terms at sportsbook. That's fandul.com. A couple guys that, looking at these guys, I think these are the Devante Smith guys, the petite meat on their bones, guys. Petite.

Just a petite body type. Our skinny kings. Yeah. These wiry skinny guys, Craig has a love-hate relationship with the skinny guys. I do. I've kind of been like, my theory has been debunked because of, you know, C.D. Lamb has been, Devante Smith's been great. So I, I need a win. I need a real win here. So one of these guys needs to bust. Craig, you're just projecting. You want to bulk up. And therefore you want all your receivers. I do. I do want to bulk up.

Well, how's the way? Where's the bulking pot? Wait, in the spring, we were talking about this, man. What's happening? From your mouth to Bill Simmons's ears, Bobby Wagner and I are trying to get it off the ground. We're trying to get some seed investments. You guys are doing some real, like, water. cooler like hyping. It's like, real grassroots campaign. People are into it. That's why it's Pew K sure is hot right now.

We should just do the bulk pod when DK is on vacation. Like we literally should just do the bulk pot. We've honestly thought about, we have a lot of ideas. So coming soon. Troy Franklin, the wide receiver from Oregon. D.K., what comes to mind when you think of Troy Franklin? Uh, Twitch. Deep threat.

You know, he's very, he very much reminded me of Devante Smith when I watched him. We should make them give sounds instead. I liked when Ben made a sound. What's sound reminds you of Troy Franklin. I make sounds independent of what I'm asked, let's be honest.

Yeah, I like the near so like I can't do it well. Can you do the sound the plane sound again? That was good. DK, what sound is Troy Franklin? That's a great question. Shit,

you really try. Troy Franklin's like a, like he's like when he moves he makes a guy miss her. Oh, like the sports setter announces. When he has a cut, when he has a cut,

it's just, who, whoa, oh, oh, it's like Chris Berman. What? Yes.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, there's one play I have in mind, just in my mind where he caught like a deep pass and then reverse pivoted and just left everybody in the dust. He's very good. He's, like I said, he reminded me of Devante Smith.

I would say minus the hands thing. Like his, he drops, he drops too many passes for my taste, but I'm still going to be high on him just because he's so explosive. How skinny is he? So I saw, he was listed on NFL.com at 6.3.180.

So needs to get on that bulking pot right now. So he's me. He weighs five pounds less than me. That's kind of terrifying. I did a true media search, 6.3.180. I looked up guys, like, wide receivers, I mean, wide receivers who are that tall, 6 foot 3 and 180 pounds. One wide receiver drafted in the 21st century. Solek, could you guess who that person was?

Say it again? Who is it? I said, say it again. I was looking at my Xavier Worthy notes. One wide receiver, 6 foot 3, 180 pounds drafted in the 21st century. Like that, like that tall, but that weighs that little. Is that overall or is that first round? Any, any round, just drafted.

Did they have a productive career? Are they famous? I asked So like for a reason. Okay. So no. Yeah. Well, yes, it's a classic that guy. It's an immaculate grid pole.

I don't have it. Todd Pinkston. Oh, Todd Pinkston. One guy drafted. So, I mean, that really, we are really, DK, that we talked about this a lot this season, though, that weight is not your fate. That guy's like Tankdale,

that only is like 5-8-175, but he's playing outside in the NFL. NFL. So, you know, Devonte Smith, when the highsman is receiver for like the first time, almost 30 years. So like these skinny guys can do it. But I never think of Todd Pinkston as being that small because they had the big shoulder pads back then. And I was also like eight. The aesthetics. Yeah, exactly. But big shoulder pads. I just thought, all right, he's got big shoulders. There you go. Six three one 80 is quite thin for that height. I mean, when you think of like Devonte Smith is like what? Six foot, six one and he's like 16, five, hundred and 70 pounds.

like 6.3.180 is really, really thin. I'll be curious to see if he really is 6.3. It is one of those things where they usually elevate the numbers. Yeah, it's okay, guys. I was lying. No,

height adjusted weight, aka BMI, is a pretty decent signal of how successfully wide receiver is going to be. There's plenty of exceptions, and it's typically guys who are like insane movers. And that's Troy Franklin. Like, when Franklin And Franklin's got that, I'm going to say a wide receiver who I don't mean, but he's the first guy who comes to mind with this.

He's got that Justin Jefferson thing. The other guys like the Keenan Allen and the Stefan Diggs where his knees are just like this way, that way, the other way. Like he's just like breaking like, you know, just like he's doing the squabble. And you're like, how are you upright, my guy? And he's retaining speed through all of this. It's something to see. Like plastic movements or whatever, yeah. Talk about the skinny, the skinny kinks.

The Xavier Worthy, you mentioned select receiver to, Texas. What word and or sound comes to mind with Xavier Worthy? Hide him, right? Like, this is, this is a classic. This is a classic example of, of, a hide and seek with a wide receiver. Like, all Texas does is just put him in spots

where nobody can touch him. And then they run him down the field as fast as you can. And it's great. It is, see, he's 6-1-172. I, I, to me, that's- How much do you weigh? I weigh 164 this morning. To me, wow. To me, dang, to me,

To me, 6-1-172 is not a functional size to play NFL receiver. Now, I would have said that about Tank Dell, and Tankdell had a nice season before the injury. I would have said that about Tutu Atwell, and 22 kind of came around and had a role this year. I said about Devontad. Vant was 6-1-170, and I was like, listen, I get him in the Heisman. Like, it terrifies me to take him.

And then the moment the Eagle struck him, I was like, he's a Heism winner. What do you want, dude? Like, he's going to be great. And then he was. So there's worlds where he's going to be successful. It terrifies me. One thing I will say for worthy is that he's got a legitimate

mid afterburners, right? Like, I mean, like, the dude just explodes off the ground. It's obnoxious. And then he can track the football. And this is the Deshawn Jackson theorem, right? You want, oh, we're going to draft this deep threat. We're going to draft this speed threat. He's going to be a track star.

He's an ex-track athlete. He's amazing. He's going to stretch the field for us. I have one question. Can you find the football? Because the one thing that Deshawn did that made him the deep threat that every other deep threat aspired to be is that Deshawn was the first guy to find the football every time.

And he always got to it. And he was tough and would get through contact and he would jump. Like, there's other stuff. But the main thing with Deshaun is he could find the football and adjust. Worthy can find the football and adjust. And that's the thing. If you want to hang your hat on this guy having a valuable NFL role, it's that, right? The Alabama touchdown, played Alabama the second, third week of the season.

He's running this big post. And Quinn Ewers goes to hang it up for him. And Ewers hangs it too far downfield, right? So the thing about running the post, you're running to that pylon. He's now has to lean towards the field goal posts, right? So he's got to have his head over his shoulders and he's curving that run to go find that ball and he does and he catches it with a safety on his back.

Like that is a high difficulty catch that you really want your speed threats to have. And so impressive ball tracking, inconsistent hands, I will say. And that's kind of what you're living with with the speed threat. So he's not going to be a Devonta Smith because Devante catches everything

that's within a mile of him. He's more so going to be right in your willful or mold of things. And that's got value. I just think there's other guys in this class who can do that for you who weigh like 190. It's a little better for me. Nice lubricated muscles with a little fuller there.

So on the same notes, guys for 6-1 and under 180 in the 21st century in the first two rounds. It's just Devonti Smith, James, Williams, Paul Richardson, and Todd Bickston. So, but that's just part of a larger trend. So at this point in the show, like, Xavier Worthy, like,

I see like in the second round range for you guys right now, or is you later? I mean, I think it's a day two player, because he's a role player. There are receivers that we're talking about after him and receivers that we aren't even talking about that I like better than him. But both he and A.D. Mitchell,

who's the Georgia transfer at Texas, they're the two longhorns. They're going to be highly talked about guys because they were, you know, played in the semifinal and super productive and whatever. So we'll see, right? Like, worthy reminds me a lot,

arc-wise. It's not on the field at all. But remember how Jalen Hyatt was such a big deal last year because Tennessee and all the stats and he's the speed threat. And then, Jayon Hyatt's going to go first round. Jail Hyatton's going to go, you know, whatever. top 20 and then high went to middle of the third round.

That, to me, that's how this worthy thing is going to go. Right. There's going to be a ton of talk about him. There's going to be a ton of visibility on him. And then some guy you've never heard about a power five school or a group of five school, excuse me, he's going to go 20 picks earlier. Because there's just not a lot. There's going to be plenty of teams that cut him from the board because of his size.

Speaking of which, so you mentioned, so you have Xavier Worthy at Texas. Then you also have the guy you just mentioned, which is A.D. Mitchell at Texas. His name is spelled like Adonai, which is. means my lord in Hebrew. But he pronounces it Adanii, and he likes that to be called during games, but his friends call him A.D. Mitchell. So I'll just call him A.D. Mitchell to prevent all of you having to figure out.

You're his friend. Yeah, we don't have personally. Yeah, it just seems simpler. Anyway, D.K., when you see Adonai Mitchell transferred from Georgia. So honestly, I feel like you probably, if you watch the college football championships, you probably saw Adonai Mitchell calls him. Yeah, he makes a lot of big plays in the playoffs, by the way.

Yeah, he's kind of like a gamer. So I'm curious. He's a big game guy. What words and or sounds? Do you associate with Adinaim Mitchell? The words I associate are silky smooth. He's just so smooth. He reminds me the way he moves of CD Lamb in terms of just kind of like,

like how do you describe how someone moves? It's kind of hard, but he just, he turns out there so easily. He's got a little bit of twitch to him. He's tall. And he's, I wouldn't say he's like super, fast, but he's really twitchy and sudden in the short area. And so...

What are his specs? What's his height and weight? Let's see. I've got him listed at 6-4-192. So he's tall and skinny. I don't know if he's really 6-4, though. He's probably like 6-3. Yeah. I love that all these heights are just wrong. We look at NFL.com. We're going to the combine. They're at press conferences.

We can ask them. Do you feel bad that you lied about your height? Yeah. Wish you weren't such a liar. That's why you got to watch the guys. Because you see like 64205 with Brian Thomas. You're like, okay, sure. And then you would see 6,4, 2, 15 with Keon Coleman. You're like, yes. No, that's 100%.

Yeah, you got to watch him. But yeah, A.D. Mitchell, number one, like I said, he, so he caught a go-head touchdown in the national championship against Alabama two years ago. He caught a game-clinching touchdown against Ohio State in the college football playoffs in the final last year. And then in January, he caught a fade-past touchdown that put Texas within striking range of Washington, and I'm winning. but essentially like he's had these huge stage touchdown catches and he's like got that alpha mentality

there was a famous like a couple of plays before he's caught that touchdown against Washington. He was like staring at the bench like give me the ball. He's kind of got like the George Pickens like you know the famous picture of George Pickens standing in front of TV like that to me is like how I picture Adi Mitchell a little bit like just he's got that he really wants the ball in the big situation so I love. I was laughing watching that game because his name is Ato and again like that's That's like, it, like, you know, Hebrew, it's like, my lord. And so I was thinking about Quinn Ewers, who's the quarterback for Texas when he threw up that ball.

You know, what do we call those like prayer shots or like Hail Marys? I was thinking Quinn Ewers was like Ricky Bobby against Philadelphia. He's like, help me Jewish God. He just like throws the ball. There you go. Nice reference. Wow. Help me out of nine.

Help me Oprah Winfrey. Oh, man. But anyways, yeah, I really like him. I think he, you know, he's probably going to be a day two guy, probably going to be a second rounder. I would be willing to take him late in the first. I think he's that good. I think he's going to be a big-time playmaker. Like I said, he gets off the line really easily. He's very twitchy and sudden. He's good in contest and catch situations. He has really good body control. He can do a little bit after the catch. And he's a good deep threat. The other thing I think is key here is he

so like you were mentioning it with with Xavier Worthy. Like he has this ability to like stretch just a little bit further than you think he's capable of stretching to catch like a bomb that's a little bit off target or like a little bit too far ahead of him. He has a couple plays where you were just like chucked the ball up to the moon and let like threw it out for him and he like went on went under and got it like those are not easy catches. He tracks the ball beautifully. So I don't know. I think there's a lot to like about him and I think his size competitiveness and just like short area burst all kind of put I would take him over worthy at this point. Yeah, I think you're right to kid, like Adonai.

I think he's a polarizing player. And I'm curious, I wanted to ask, there's another guy that I think is kind of polarizing. Also, a lot of these guys are transfers, which at some point later in the draft, should we come to look at out. That's the new normal. If we were doing the guard class breakdown,

it'll be a lot of transfers. This is how it is, you know? The other guy, so, like, I wanted to ask you, Tess Walker, receiver at UNC is another guy, but just, I think it's going to be really polarizing. I'm curious, so, like, what words come to mind or sounds? I love the sounds. when you think of Teswalk at E.NC.

Love to sounds. It's not really a sounds guy for me. I have to really like a guy to do it want to be a sounds guy. Taz Walker's linear. That's kind of cutting. Yeah. This is a straight line player. They got an A-R-A-inspired system there.

He's lining up at right wide receiver. He's running four routes, and we're going to just take advantage where the space is, right? We're going to run a little, you know, glance, like a little inside slanting that everybody runs now to space. We're going to run them on the deep post. We're just going to throw the ball up there. We're going to run the curl to the outside. Like, you know, we kind of just, we have our, our menu of routes. That's what we give to him.

He's got legit speed to him. He's got afterburners. If you're like, Ben, this is the seventh guy you said this about. Yep. Welcome to this wide receiver class. It's just a lot of tall, slightly thin guys. You can really run. And so he can fly.

He disappoints a little bit in terms of like after the catch and quickness and change of direction. I think one of the things that really stands out about some of the top guys in this group, Troy Franklin and Brian Thomas, being the two that really come to mind is, like, and Keon even as well, they've got speed, but they can sink their hips down and they can really snap and change direction. I say Tez is linear, because I don't think

he cuts as well, both without the ball and with the ball, so that's rat running and then yak. And then Walker doesn't survive contact the way that you want him to. He loses a lot to physical corners. He had a tough time in that Virginia game, or he was getting bullied a little bit on the sideline, and reps weren't giving him the flag, and he didn't really

have an answer to that. He's just really used to playing in space. And most of his best plays are untouched plays. And so accordingly, like, at the NFL level, you're just worried how he's going to deal with new size and new strength and a system that doesn't get him as free release, as many free releases as you want. So the hands are a little bit inconsistent through contact. And I think just in general, the play through contact is worrisome.

And so I see him in the first round of mocks, right? He was, he was, I want to say 29th in DJ's mock most recently. To the Chiefs, I think. Yeah. Which, like, I don't mind it because Mark Hesvold of Scantling is not good. and this guy can be better in that role. Like absolutely he can. But there's other receivers that I prefer in this class to Walker.

Both for that role and then also just trying to figure out, okay, like what's going to be successful for them and what isn't at the NFL level. We've just seen a lot of players, in my opinion, come out with this profile and this offense where it's like, right, high weight speed in a wide open spread system. We just get them pre-releases and we go. That gets to the NFL level and it just takes them a long time to get their sea legs under them because it's just such a different beast in the league. And so Walker for me is of all the guys that you keep seeing in the first round,

that you see Troy Franklin, you see A.D. Mitchell, which I think that's like rich for me for A.D. Mitchell. You see Brian Thomas. Like of all the guys, Walker's the one to me where I see in the first round. I'm like, I don't need to be spending a first round pick on this profile of a player. Kind of Gabe Dave, like a vertical threat on the outside. Yeah. I would even say, like Gabe Dave is, I like Gabe Dave better through contact. And that's, we're talking about Gabe Dave right now. Like, that's kind of where my head immediately goes. Right. Next up here, we have Jalen Polk, also receiver at Washington, teammates with Romadunzee.

Tough on your Jalen Polk. You don't even know the best name on your own team. Is it Polk or is it Polk? I think Haifis just says Polk that way. Yeah. Oh, that's right Harrison. Do you pronounce the L and Polk? You say Polk?

J-L-N-Polk? Yes, that's why it's written that way. Polk. Polk. How do you pronounce the P? How do you pronounce F? Folk. You say the L and Folk?

Folks. Yeah. Folks. You say folks? Fulks. Folks. Yeah, you do say, yeah.

I say, like George W. It's like he would say folks. Like you're like, you can, okay, you can, you can reduce folks like the plural

like people, but you don't ever call it folk music. It's folk music. Yeah, folk music. No, no, you pronounce the L.

It's a subtle L, but it's there. This is an emergency. email ring of fantasy football at gmail. com. No one's going to agree on this, by the way. You can just act like the letters are there for no reason.

Not only, it might be regional. All right. Not only am I not saying you guys are wrong. I'm not saying I'm right. I'm basically like batting 10%. I think it's regional, I'm sure. It's like pillow versus pillow.

But, well, no, that's black and white. Milk versus milk. Whatever you just said is so unacceptable. That's just wrong. No, milk and milk also black and white. Do you say pillow? No, I'm, okay, first of all, I'm on the right side of history with both of those words, for the record. However, I know a lot of people.

There are a lot of people say that. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Two different temperatures of water come out of the tap. There's hot water and what water? Cold. Cold. Right.

Cold. Right. My wife says code. And I just noticed it after years. Did she say code word? I've known her for over a decade. She's like, man, it's cold outside. I'm like, are you a child?

Did you file for divorce? It sounds like her nose is plugged. She's like, it's cold outside. That's cold out. That's great. Where is your wife from, Ben? Michigan. I think she just sucks at talking.

I don't know. It's all right. I suck it talking and it's like my job. I didn't even think about this. This partially explains your whole dolphins thing. Dolphin. Yeah. You kind of pillow dolphin. Dolphin.

You kind of pillow dolphin. Dolphin. That's, yeah, it's, I don't know if it's an accent or beach a better. Dolphin. So I'm trying to get Jalen Polk. There it is. Yeah, that had three L's in it. Got to get down to one.

I know. I'm working on it. Jaylen, I'm so far. I'm so sorry. If Jalen Polt actually does say poke, that'd be funny. You know what the best part? His name is spelled J-A-A-A-A-posterfy, L-Y-N-N. So I looked up the pronunciation,

and it's spelled just like J-Lan, like J-L-N-Rose. Never in a million years did I think to look up the pronunciation of Polk, but I've been... Polk, whatever. Anyways, he got a football D-K, what word do you associate with him? Ball player. Just a straight-up ball player. He, uh, I just like him a lot.

He's really strong. He's got good size. He can run after the catch. He catches everything. He can separate. Why is he 10th? Why isn't he third? I think he lacks a fifth gear or whatever, an extra gear. He's just not explosive.

And I think like this kind of goes along with everything we've been talking about. These are the guys that we like, right? We like the slow guys. We like the guys who are good at everything except the 40. I think so he's probably going to be a second rounder. Did Puka d'akua have that gear in college? No. No.

And when Puka broke that one running as a Giants, I lost my mind. I was like, where in God's name did this come from? So I just look at Jalen Poke. Look, man, speed is different when you're getting chased. We should have somebody chase people at the 40. I think about this all the time. This is my theory on Mahomes. It's like, Mahomes is weird because it's like you can't.

The 40 are dash. You should be chased like the cougar and Ricci Baba. You can't run as fast. When you're not being the shit, it's DNA. You're telling me when they bring in all those ex-players for the Combine broadcast, they couldn't get them all to line up and chase some dudes turn the 40. You don't mean Richard Sherman would it love that? Dude, yes.

also old guys love nothing more than proving to younger guys that like they're still more athletic to them. It's like it also your DNA. There's an idea here. I love the Cougar idea. Yeah. How fast would Jalen Polk run chased by Cougar you think? Low four or fives. I don't know.

Nice. It's pretty good. Moves him out the board. He's fast enough. And I would say the same thing about Ladd McConkey. Our boy, Ladd. Ladd. Ladd.

God. God. Ladd. Incredibly. When you see the name Ladd McConkey, immediate reaction, I'm not going to like this guy. L-A-D-D. This name's L-A-D.

First ballot, I thought this guy was like playing in the 1950s. Also, I looked him up. His whole family has great names. His father's name is Benji-Maconke. And his brother's name is Hinton-McConkey. Lad is the top of the three, though, for sure. When I think of La-Mac-Mac-Mac-Kin, I think of like a Julian Edelman type, who's just like gritty.

Amon-Ross, St. Brown, just like a guy who's going to sit over the middle, get the job. done. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I like Ladd McConkey. He's a baller. He's he's really good. Craig, you mentioned, you actually said it. I think he reminds me of Amun Roste St. Brown. Every time he catches his ball, he's running full speed.

He's full speed at all times. He has incredible, like, I think pretty rare change of direction. Like the Patriots are going to freaking love this guy, you know, for his change of direction. Not just that he looks like Julian Edelman. But yeah, Ed West Walker. Yeah. Not for those. I literally said just by based on his name, I gave two con. I said,

Julian Edel and Almanin Rahsa St. Brown, and you basically just confirm both of them. He looks like one and he plays like the other. Amar Ross St. Brown is a good comp for me because he doesn't have, he doesn't have great size, but like the way he changes directions is is really, really special. He's a good route runner. He catches everything. I can't believe his name is Ladd.

That's such a lacrosse name. Two D's, by the way, it's two D's. That's his middle name, apparently. X, he's full lad. He's not just all lad. He's lad. He's the lad. L-A-D.

Andrew Ladd-Lad McConkey. Is it short for something? No, just Ladd. It's long for Ladd. It's like Ken from Barbie. It's like, are you lifeguard? No, just Beach. Yeah.

Ladd is going to, so Ladd's a senior bowler and Ladd's going to have a day because the senior bowl is built for separation. One on one. There's no other players on the field, but you in the corner and Ladd is going to break some poor young man's ankles on the field. See, like Ladd's going to be on like three Super Bowl teams and he's just going to be like a reliable third wide receiver on the team that everybody loves. What an incredible plug as well.

We will be at the senior bowl next week. And we'll actually be meeting many of these players. So one, email us at Ringinfancy Football at gmail.com. What do you think we should ask? What should we ask Ladd-McConkie? Should we ask him a football or his name? I think you should ask him about poke versus Polk. We got to figure that out.

Ladd is a distinctive boy's name of English origin. It means manservant. Man-servant McCongy. I got to be honest, I hate the phrase manservant. That's really off-putting for like several. It felt like hearing that. Very cringy. Multiple levels of cringe there.

I will say, it's a great wide receiver class of the senior bowl this year, man. We are, we are. We're set. Where do you fall on Lad? Do you like Lad? I like Lad. Yeah, he is what he is, right? You can't trick yourself in a saying, oh yeah, I'm going to get Ladd, 120 targets this year. I guess if he's St. Brown, then he can. But Ladd's there, Tess Walker's there. Jerry Rice's kid's

there, Brandon Rice, another junior. Why is he, why is Marvin Harrison, Jr.? So good with Jerry Rice's kid, no good? That is a bummer. I only saw the film on him, like, watching Caleb Williams, because he's on USC. I wouldn't have known he was Jerry Rice's kid if I didn't know that he was Jerry Rice's kid. Just, you know, just a college receiver just is what he is.

Also, Luke McCaffrey, the other McCaffrey brothers there too, just all the Nepo babies. Yeah, yeah, so we have a McCaffrey. Xavier Legget is there out of South Carolina. I like him a lot. I watched Malachi Corley last night at Western Kentucky. He's good. Everybody who said he was like Debo, no, but he's good. Come on.

They're fun to watch. Yeah, we'll be at the Senior Bowl next week. Last question for you guys in the receivers. I just came back from the future at the 20. 20-24 seasons just concluded. A wide receiver, just won offensive rookie of the year and broke Pukinaku's record for most receiving yards by a rookie. It is not Marvin Harrison Jr.

It's not Roma Dunesie. It's not Malik neighbors. Who did it? D.K. want to start with you. So he broke the receiving yards and catches? Most receiving yards by a rookie receiver. And it's not a first rounder.

That's a great question. I'll go with... I'm going to go with Jalen Poke. Polk. You did have a sound for Polk. There you go. There's your sound. Galen Polk.

Oh yeah, you did a little... That was your sound for him. Keon Coleman for me, no question. I would say it's Keonon. Early flag plan for Ben is Keon Coleman. I like this player a lot. Boom. All right.

That's all we got. We're going to do emails, but we ended up just doing them in the middle of the show anyway. I will just say, Aiden in Australia emailed in to say that busting in Australia means you really need to take a piss.

So it's actually really normal in Australia. Like a P-Rod. Can you pull over... Mom, can you pull over the car? I'm busting. It's like a totally normal thing to say. Oh, wow. So that was like wild.

You got a piss rod going. You really got to go? Nothing in Australia is like real. You know, it's all made up. Like, they should do whatever they want down there. It's just insane. Wild stuff. We're not going on over there.

All right. Australians always email in every your fancy football channel. I feel like you, I feel like what they were really saying was burst and then their accent just made it sound like bust. Oh, wow. That's like a good theory. Craig, wait, give us the Australian. Craig can do a good Australian.

an accent. I mean, I feel like it's like first, but Blue Stone? Best. Dude, Morgan Robby actually gave an interview with Benedict Cumberbatch

or no, sorry, I was confused him. Killion Murphy, I can't believe to confuse them. It was like a Barb and Heimer interview and they were talking

about doing accents as you're explaining that Australians have smaller mouths than a mouth, I can't say that word either, mouths than Americans, so they have simple tongue movements or something

and Dick is like, yeah, obviously. No, no, no, I heard that interview. You knew that? I heard that interview. I think it's like, not that they have bigger mouths, it's like when you grow up, the tongue movements that you use, you speak with a smaller

mouth. I don't think they're physically smaller. I don't think. I could be wrong. I don't know either. I was weird, I was like, I don't know. That seems like that would be a weird, like, evolutionary thing. The people in Australia have small mouths.

I would, you could tell me anything about Australia. That's probably true. It's because of all the poisonous animals that live in. Yeah, I don't know. You don't want to swallow a spider. All right. Thank you, TK. Thank you, Craig.

Thank you, So lack. Thank you to everyone behind the scenes. Thank you, Tucker. Thank you, Kai, for producing this episode. Thank you, Dan Comer for research help. Thank you, Jack, for help behind the glass as well. Thank you, everyone for listening. Emails for your fantasy football at gmail.

Behind the class. I like that. That's cool. It's a cool way to say that. There's no class. It's a fake studio. We're online. Thank you, Lorne.

Lord. Thank you, 112. 2.13 to you, too. I'm just always looking at Craig and now Solac, just desperately thoping they've heard of these indie bands. Oh, do you remember? remember 311?

Speaking of number. This is just times, D.K. This is just, there's times on the clock. It's 309. It's three. Yeah.

I will remember 311 in a few minutes. We're going to be talking about that in two minutes. Wait, 311. 112. The only thing I remember is they did that song

with Mace and Notorious B-I-G. Room 112 where the players dwell. Don't, don't, don't. Wait, is 1-12 is both the name of the band and the song. of a different

is a band and a song? That's a... They're what? You don't also have that question. You said, room 112. Is that an unrelated to 112 or did 112 is the band, right? That's the name of a band

and or performer. I don't know anything about it. I just remember that lyric. Am I the only one? They're a band that goes by 112 and in a song, they say 112.

Dan, Hyph, if you remember when the Beatles were like, were Beatles, we go around the floor and scourge it things. Yeah, like that. When the Eagles were just like, ah, like that? Yeah, same thing. What band says their name the most in their lyrics? Oh, that's a great question, Craig. Oh, DJ Khalid.

Oh, DJ Khalid. But he's like a DJ. Oh, Pitbull. Yeah, pit bull's a good one. DJs have to say their name, otherwise people don't know who they're on the song. DJs can't count. Well, they can count.

Does Pitbull say Pitbull? It's like he says Mr. Worldwide. Yeah, but that's who Pipple is. Yeah. 15 musicians who name-checked themselves in pop songs. Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears. This is just a list of people. I'll do more Googling.

It's A-Con. I think A-Con is a great one. It's A-Con for sure. He says his name literally at the beginning of every song. It's A-Con. Oh, that reminds me. Jason Durulow. Oh, yeah, J-Sindarulo.

Dude, who's the first? Running back on the Browns. Pierre Strong, he got to start when all the starters were benched and he was like, Pierre Strong's going to show him what Pierre Strong's got. I love people who speak in the third person. In the third person. I did earlier.

I did earlier as an early Ben flag plant. Third person's important. You got to integrate it. All right. Part of a balanced diet. Oh, my God. All right. Goodbye, everyone.

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