The Ringer NFL Show - Top-10 WR Prospect Player Comps, Kirk Cousins is a Raider, and Ping Bodie Won a Spaghetti Eating Contest Against an Ostrich

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

The guys run through 2026 draft WR comps, throwing out NFL comparisons, debating ceilings vs. reality, and figuring out which traits actually translate when it matters. (00:00) Intro (01:35) Raiders Sign Kirk Cousins (10:01) Player Comps for the Best WR in the NFL Draft (01:11:20) Aaron Rodgers vs. Jalen Hurts Pt. II (01:14:46) Emails (01:18:24) Ping Bodie vs. an Ostrich Discord link: https://discord.gg/Ge8bbYHrau Check out The Ringer’s 2026 NFL Draft Guide: https://theringer.com/nfl-draft/2026/big-board#content Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Austin Gayle, Abou Kamara, Carlos Chiriboga, and Cameron Dinwiddie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome with the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, aka the Ringer NFL Draft Show. My name is Danny Hyphen, today. I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck, and we are going over the best receivers in the 2026 NFL draft. DK., people have said maybe this is a bad draft. The more I look at it, I think it's kind of good.

But the receiver position is maybe the best or maybe the deepest position in the entire draft this year. I'd say off the top of my head, corners and receivers. There's a lot of very good players at those two positions. And there's a lot of different types of receivers. Pick your flavor. there's anything that you want any flavor any flavor you want

can do like a sampler just like a what of the whiskey samplers yeah or ice cream is where my head was going yeah me too it's kind of like the combine really is kind of like a sampler yeah I'm a child so I was thinking ice cream DK's a man so he's thinking of you guys like debris in your ice cream you know Craig you don't no I don't I don't really like toppings on my ice cream I like it I like I don't know I don't really like that you said debris but yes I like it well I feel like You saying debris led me to believe that you didn't like toppings, but I think you do. I don't know.

My brother started saying it. Do you like contaminants to your ice cream or leading to witness, Your Honor? Give me more of that. Disgusting contaminants. All right. Let's get into some news before we get into all these receivers. I want to start. So the Raiders start Kirk Cousins.

And I actually, we have not talked about this or communicated this at all. But I did on Instagram, you little Instagram start now. I saw that video. There you go. You saying Instagram Star makes it really. It's just taking to Instagram. Are you going to start the only fans next? I would love that.

You said it like it was an only fan. So I read as Adam Schaefter's tweet, he posted this, and I read this, and I actually thought it was still April Fool's Day with all the dumb April Fool's jokes he made, or everyone makes, because I just saw Schefter says, Kurt Cousin signing five-year $172 million deal with the Raiders. And I was like, is this a joke? And then I realized that, kind of, it's a one-year deal for $20 million with the Raiders. that blah, blah, blah, could be three for a hundred.

But he's signing a one-year deal with $20 million. I actually think this is pretty significant. D.K., what was your first reaction to this? That we're not going to see Fernando Mendoza for a little bit here, which is probably good for him, good for the organization. It's going to be hard once their season starts to not get, like, everyone's going to want to see him play, I bet. But this is going to be good for him in the long run,

basically get to learn behind a veteran and Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins has played in a lot of places and a lot of different offenses. and it's got to be exciting for the Raiders too, I think, a little bit because Cousins, at least theoretically, is going to make the offense competitive. So, I don't know. I think this is good for everybody, even though it's going to kind of be disappointing for Mendoza stands and everybody kind of looking forward to watching him. Craig, the jokes kind of write themselves here, right, with Fernando Mendoza learning

to Kirk Cousins in Vegas. The comp was Kirk Cousins, you know, vibes-wise. He is a Kurt Cousins style guy mentally. Yeah, I think we need, I know that Hard Knocks is the Patriots, but I want it in Vegas badly. Seahawks too. I don't talk about this a lot, but my first job in the NFL is I worked at the Washington now commander's building and I worked for the team website, which, you know, you work for the team. But you were there in the building and you do see the players.

And Kirk Cousins was the quarterback this year. And he ended up talking about this on the Netflix show. But this dude's notebook, like his actual planner, like he wrote what he's doing for every five segment of his day is the most organized thing I'd ever seen in my entire life. He had whole highlighters. Like it was like the first day of school. Six a. m.

To noon. That's day one. Noon to six. That's day two. I got you beat already. Six to midnight. Boom. That's day three.

I'm living 21 days a week. You're not even, in Vegas you could do either way. Some people have that like six a.m. is the end of their fourth day in Vegas. You know what I mean? Don't you think Kurt Cousins? This is, Shefter tweeted this, which is remarkable.

This is the 11th straight season in which Kurt Cousins's contract. will be fully guaranteed. Nobody, he's, no one else has done it like Kirk Cousins. Not only is this man maximizing his abilities financially. I would also say Kirk Cousins' career, like physically high fits, just ties into what you're saying about like how he prepares himself for the game and all that stuff. I feel like Kirk's career basically went as well as it could have for how good he is.

Well, it's funny because it's, I think it's a good example of like sometimes you get money and it's not actually what you want life because Kirk Cousins, I think the money was just something that happened on the way and all he ever. wanted was to be named a starter of a team and be the team starter from college on to Washington. He was the second quarterback drafted in that Washington team after RG3. And then Washington gave him the job, but wouldn't give him a contract. The GM didn't remember his name. The GM didn't know, Bruce Allen didn't know his name.

Kirk Cousins. All he wanted was a team to say, you're the quarterback. You don't have to worry anymore. Kirk Cousins lived 12 years, basically just like on edge to be replaced the next year. And he, but he's also an example of how the NFL system works of the, of the, The best players don't make the most money. The players who are good enough to get paid, but bad enough the teams keep letting them leave.

That's a free agency. Yeah, because they had free agency. Like, Kirk Cousins has made the money because he kept dating free agency. And then anyone can, like the great players actually don't make as much. But in terms of the Raiders, I think, I think this is the right move.

And I think benching Fernando Mendoza for a lot of the benching is the wrong words. Letting him sit and learn. He's benching. He's benching. He's benched his ass. You have to play to be benched. You have to start.

It's true. I think this is the right move. I think it takes someone like Tom Brady to have the Hutzpah to do it, but everyone's like, was the number one pick? You got to play. Why?

Like, that wasn't the norm in the past. You have to have an apprenticeship as a quarterback. And I actually pull this quote that Tom Brady went on Stephen A. Smith's podcast a couple years ago.

How did you remember this, by the way? You said this in your little video, your little Instagram video. Great call back. The only only fits video. But Brady went on Stephenie Smith's pot. He said, I think it's a tragedy

that rookie quarterbacks play early. Like a tragedy. is what Brady called it. And I'm just going to read the quote. He said, the reality is the only reason why we have rookie quarterbacks play early is because we've dumbed the game down, which has allowed young quarterbacks to play. It used to the game, he's talking about, used to be thought of at a higher level. We used to spend hours and hours as quarterbacks in the off season, in training camp,

trying to be a little bit better than next year. That's kind of old man shit. This is very boomery. But then Brady says, kids in that fucking video games. Yeah. Well, he's committed, I mean, Tom Brady played through three CBAs, which is crazy because the right for 10 years. But Brady, then the next thing he says, I think what happens is it discourages coaches from going to deep levels because they realize the quarterbacks don't have the opportunity

to go to a deep level. So they're just, the coaches just teach quarterbacks where they're at. That's true. Like, that's just true. Like, and that you see that with Tua running a bunch of, you know, RPO's in Miami, RG3 originally, they just gave him the Baylor offense. Like, you do see, I wouldn't call it dumbing down, but Brady says that. But I think overall, I don't Roger sat for three years, Patrick Holmes sat for a year, like Tom. Brady sat for a year, and I think it takes an owner-level person to have Tom Brady's confidence and be like, no, he needs to sit and like learn the habits professionally how you treat people in the building, how you go about studying and everything? I think it makes a lot of sense to do.

How many first overall picks have sat for a whole season? It's been a long time. Any? I'm sure in the 20th century. I don't think since. Yeah. I don't think because Brady was a sixth-round pick. That being said, I do agree with him. I do think this is what's best for Rendoza in the long run, probably. I agree. This is smart. Also, Kirk Cousins is the perfect kind of quarterback to learn from. Like, it'd be one thing if the starter was not good and it was like, you wouldn't necessarily want your guy to learn from him. But Kirk is like the perfect example of somebody you'd want to model your game after, especially like Mendoza. So, and it's nice for Raiders fans because half the time, you know, your first run quarterback, you know, starts the season one and five

and you're like, well, it's over. And like, at least now you can like, delay your hope, you know? You can have a whole season of being like, ooh, how good is Mendoza going to be? And you're also at letting everyone else prepare at a level that isn't at Mendoza's level. It's at Kirk Cousins' ability to function the offense, which again, say what you want of Kirk.

Just a reminder, he finished 5 and O at the Falcons. The Falcons were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs in December 1st, finished technically tied for the lead in the division. And if Kirk had played more of last year, I don't know. I actually think, I mean, he certainly was healthy. He had the Achilles tear,

and then he looked bad, but I think he was clearly two years removed from the Achilles. he's, I think he's healthier and better now than he was actually two years ago coming off it initially. So I think this is a good move and I, I'm radicalized on this, but especially when you hear people have been, like, if you hear like Matt Hasselback explain how much he learned, I don't know, quarterbacks seem to all feel this way, that it's like we're just thrown into

the absolute wolves and you need a couple of years to get to really process it. It's like long term planning. Let's look at the division that the Raiders are in. They're going up against the fucking chargers, the Broncos and the chiefs. You don't, Mendoza doesn't, you're not going to win this division this year. It's okay, you know? Like, let's plan for two, three years down the road here. Yeah.

So a lot of teams are lying when they say they'll bench their quarterback that they drafted really high. Not bench. Sorry. Sit. I think this one's going to happen. I think we might not see. Bench. Bench.

Bench. We should make that graphic. First of all picked, benched. Fuck. Yeah. Let's put that Instagram next to my, yeah, my Thursday. The first number one overall pick to be benched in 40 years. Also, we should say we're recording this on Thursday, April 2nd.

So if any big news is happening. Bank it. between now and when we're going this goes up on Monday that's probably super worth it's April 2nd happy birthday to my brother happy birthday to Scott who actually we got on the show for Craig's birthday and just made fun of told stories that embarrass Craig yeah okay hard not hard there's many of those out there all right let's get into the best receiver the best receivers in this class yeah what do we have here how many do we have we have we have 10 guys and some honorable mentions yeah so we're going to get into top 10 guys

11 guys. 11 guys and we're going to do the high end and low-end comps. 50 shades of... Yeah, we're going to do the shades of for these... Do you want the middle comp too or do you just want the high end and the low end? I want you to start with high low. I want you to start with high low and then hit you with the middle. Ooh.

Okay. How about that? Sure. But again, this is like the best version of a guy's career. Like if you look back, you're like this guy is so much better than we thought and then we look back or the actually, it's got so much worse than we thought. That's not really how I looked at it actually. For me, it's more like the high-end. stylistic comp. Like you're getting this type of player.

Not like, here's his statistics after seven years in the league. Okay? Yeah, yeah. You're saying like, it's the same thing. I think we're saying the same thing. I don't think you have to explain a high end comparison and a low end comparison. People don't get it. I think we're on the same page. Stylistic. Stylistic. Sure. So let's start with Carnell Tate. Yeah. Out of Ohio State. He is 6-2-192 pounds. D.K. Yeah. What is your high-end comp for Carnell Tate and what is your low-end comp? Best case, worst case? Best case, you're getting a Chris Olavé type player.

Worst case, Rashad Bateman. Where some excitement around him coming into the league. I don't think where he landed helped him all that much, but he was pretty much a disappointment as a first-round pick. And then the middle range for me is like a Terry McLaurin type of player too, where not a superstar necessarily

but a very good player going to put up multiple thousand-yard seasons. And I just think he has a high floor, Carnell Tate does. Do you think Chris Olavé, now knowing what he is, if you could go back in time, when was he picked? 12th? Something like that?

2020. Oh, yeah, he was 12th. Saints traded up, I think 12th pick. Something like that, right? Do you think that's worth it? That his skill level, his talent right now is like a top 10, top 12 pick? Yeah.

You do? It was the 11th pick. Yeah, because I think, again, it is relative. You can't get a superstar with every first round pick. And there's so many first round picks that end up being misses. I do think he's worth a first round pick. Hyvin, do you agree with that?

That high, I mean, of a first round pick. I think Cardinal Tate's better than Chris Olavet. I think it will be better than Chris Olavet. I agree, D.K., like, all the Ohio State receivers at this point are like these incredible high floor guys. I know, it's crazy. My high end, it's funny. I wanted to make my high end, really the highest end for Cardinal Tate as like Justin

Jefferson. Like, that's like, they have a weird amount in common. And I could go into that. But I kind of think I should be number two receivers on their own team. Wait, I want get into it. What do they have in common? They, I would say, first of all, basically the same height. They're both like 6-1.

They're basically the same weight. They're both like 195. I would say they're both weirdly happen to be at absolute elite blue blood programs for receivers, Ohio State LSU, where Justin Jefferson and Cardinal Tate, overshadowed by like the best receiver prospect in six or seven years where it's like, it was Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson, who's younger than them, is Jeremy Smith, who's like Julio Jones Reborn. with Cardinal Tate.

And I think Jefferson and Cardinal Tate don't really have any elite physical abilities. Not elite size, not elite speed, not only the acceleration. Like, they have fluidity. They have like body control and like polish and technique.

In other words, like all the things you actually need to play receiver instead of the things that just coaches or scouts want to hear. But like the body control of Cornell Tate, the catching of the football. Like I think Cardinal Tate and Jefferson have like some Roger Federer

or ass receiving. And what I mean by that is looks effortless. You start to, yeah. I'm feeling this in my chest right now. This is actually making me really good. Starting to feel a tingle. This one from six to midnight. Yeah.

I have a rule that like Grancowski and Justin Jefferson and you're not supposed to compare certain players, but I think there's actually a weird narrative similarity. And if nothing else, the receiving. Colonel Tate, if nothing else, enters the NFL and I think could join the Mount Rushmore of the best players in the NFL at catching a football. Like if you just know the game jackpot at recess, you throw the ball up who catches it. I think it's DeAndre Hopkins.

Three flies up. Yeah. Three flies up, sure. But like you catch a ball. Who's going to catch it? DeAndre Hopkins had the best hands in the NFL. Like, who's going to get it? And then it's T. Higgins.

It's Justin Jefferson. And I think Cardinal Tate actually is right there in terms of the hands. He's like Tee Higgins at the catch point. Yeah. My medium comp was Teney Higgins. Like he's just a smaller Tini Higgins at the very least. You should start doing this. If you can help me out on these comps.

What I guess? I try to talk to talk to you when you do the comps you don't want to talk to me but the I well no you're just busy

it's okay yeah that's it but I let's keep pulling on that thread you get yourself on the phone with hyphids you're gonna be on the phone for 90 minutes minimum

yeah that's my problem it's true but um anyway I never try to compare anyone to Justin Jefferson but I just think there's a weird amount and if you don't want to do that then I think

imagine if George Pickens was an academic all American that's kind of also what I like about Cornell Tate? What are you trying to say? I don't know if George Pickens, maybe he was third team all academic American.

He's a knucklehead, Craig is what we're saying. I think Cardinal Tate's fucking awesome. Yeah, this really, I like that. I just feel like Cardinal Tate, everyone's like, well, he's good, but he's not great. No one wants to call Carnell Tate great. And I look at him like, isn't this everything that is succeeding in the NFL right now?

Like he's a modern player. He is like a professional. He's hiding in plain sight. He can move anywhere. It's like, you know, it's like Jackson Smith, Jigba was supposed to be a power slot, he just won offensive player of the year. I don't know.

I look at Colonel Tate. I think the ceiling is in all the places. Like he can be absolute A plus elite at all the things that matter for being a wide receiver, which is getting open and playing, doing every kind of route at every spot. Is he a better prospect than Jackson Smith and Jigba, DK? Ooh, good question. I think JSN had a lot better production coming into the league. So like if you're looking at it analytically, but I think the perception of

him as a prospect, yeah, he's probably considered higher. And he's probably going to go quite a bit higher than J.S.N did in the draft. J.S.N. went like, what, 18th, 19th? Yeah, something like that. George's barking his head off on cue. Sorry about that. Your dog? Okay. That's all right.

The dog is just like, don't you compare him to JSN? My very high level opinion of Carnell Tate is that he seems fine and will be a solid receiver in the league and will be like a good, he could be a good number one on your team closer to a Chris Alave type thing. I think that's right. He gives me like Devonte Smith, like, you love him on your team. team.

Devante Smith is a good one too, yeah. Similar to why I meant with Teeny Higgins, where it's like the most, and again, Jefferson is the highest end, but I think the realistic one is Tini Higgins. Cardinal Tate's probably like the best or second best number two receiver in the NFL right there with T and Devonte.

A couple stats on Tate real quick before we move on. He averaged 17 point yards per reception, so he's a deep threat last year. Zero drops. He went 12 of 14 in contested catch situations according to PFF and 22 out of 32 in his career. He has crazy body control when you go up in the air and he twists and contorts and gills over guys and plucks the football.

It is very reminiscent of like a T. Higgins where you're just like, I don't understand how he caught that. So I love this guy. I do agree. Maybe he doesn't profile as a, you know, pure number one and whatever that means, but I do think he's going to be really good player. You know who else did profiles as a number one? Justin Jefferson who like only played in the slot.

He was a slot receiver and it was like, can he play outside? Turns out, yeah. The only thing I'll say about Cardinal Tate, so the places he could go, Browns at number six could take him. I don't know if we could talk about that as we get closer. Do you take a tackler receiver there? Washington could take them at seven.

I think all the teams of Ohio State receivers like Ohio State receivers. So Terry McLaurin and Cornell Tate, Saints, the next pick. Chris Olavian, Colonel Tate. The Chiefs at 9 could take him. I think Miami at 11 is like the lowest he'll go, Colonel Tate. My question for you guys, and I think my lowest comp for Cornell Tate because he's the highest floor player, I thought my lowest comp from him was if he goes to Cleveland, it's like, how did you feel about Jordan Addison last year with Shudor Sanders?

Like Jordan Addison playing with J.J. McHenmanusie is kind of like if Colonel Tate's going to play with Shadour or just Sean Watson, I'm like how valuable is that? I have no idea. Yeah. I agree. He seems like a safe pick. Honestly,

most of these Ohio statewide receivers, like 90% of them pan out, but recently it feels like. Crazy hit rate. Don't mention Marvin Harrison. Just don't. The idea that he might be the worst one is insane. It's totally on the table.

Yeah. Okay. The next guy here, Lennon at a USC, 511, which I think surprised some people. People thought he'd be a little bit shorter. 511, 192 pounds. D.K., give me your high-end, low-end, and middle range for Mackay Lemon. I think the high-end for him, and this is stylistically, again, and sort of narratively,

Jackson-Smith and Jigba, low-end, Jalen Rager. Okay. Remember him? Sure. I think he was, people were very excited about him because of the yak ability. I liked him. Yeah. Athleticism, all that stuff.

That's kind of what makes me. just a little nervous is because I think people are talking about Mikai Lemon, he runs after the catch. He's really tough and physical after the catch and eludes tacklers. But he is primarily a slot guy. At least he was at USC. That's what Jackson Smith and Jigga was in Ohio State. Also, not the fastest guy in the world and not the biggest guy in the world.

Those are another two things that we kind of talked about with JSN. So that's like why, stylistically, they're a little different players. I think Mikey Lemon is more rugged and physical. but some of the narratives that you're hearing about him. I think if McIleman can end up playing on the outside in the NFL, that'll surprise some people. But I wouldn't put it past him. But to me, the biggest question is,

how is he going to be deployed in the NFL? So what's your middle range for him? A guy like Jarvis Landry, something like that, where you get him over the middle of the field, he's pretty productive, but maybe not like an elite player and not elite athlete. I think I saw, I think I stole that from someone. I apologize, Cameron Ross.

top of my head, who it is. Brett Whitefield, I think he mentioned that. But to me, that click too is where it's just a really tough, rugged interior receiver who's probably gonna be pretty productive, but maybe not the fastest guy in the world. Hi Fitz, where is he for you? I have Mikhailimmon. My high end was a Moner St. Brown, but faster.

And I think that they both went to USC, but Michael Lemon literally is like, I look at my game like a Moner St. Brown. They're also like same size, same height, same weight. And McKay Lemon, honestly, same kind of player. Can Amara play in the slot, move around? Turns out, yeah, but he's, even Amara, half his snap. are outside. But McCoy Lemon, I think he's faster than a Monra. He blocks his ass off like a Monra. Like, you can tell you, he's got that dog in him kind of got that dog. He just, he just is a physical.

Once to win every play. Yeah, he is just a competitor. Yeah, competitor. And some receivers take a route off. Some receivers take it when they're not getting the ball. Some receivers don't want to block. If it's going, McClemon is just going like never doesn't stop, which I love. He reminds me of a running back. Like, once he catches the ball, if you just turned on the film, once he's already has the ball, I would think he's a running back. And that's the thing. Look, in a perfect prospect, everyone's like size like Calvin Johnson, as fast as Calvin Johnson, like has acceleration like Tyree Kill. But at some level, then the next group after those guys are all, you're elite at stuff,

but then you're average and something else. Michael Lemon's totally average in size. And he's kind of average in speed. Everything else is phenomenal. He's a great, like his hands are great. Like, I think he's great at catching in traffic. He's physical. He's the kind of player I really love.

The way I described Mikele Lemon, he gets a lot of Ann ones. like when cornerbacks or defensive backs are trying to like foul him or get there early, he'll just catch it anyway. Yeah, he is incredible at the catch point in terms of just want to body control to go up. And he doesn't, he's not very big, obviously, but he plays above his his weight class at the catch point. This is the Bolittincoff winner in 2025. He won the award for the best receiver in college football. Yeah, he broke 21 tackles according to PFF, which is eighth in the country, almost half of his yards.

came after the catch. So he's, he's definitely sort of the short and intermediate demon, but he also caught 16 passes of 20 plus yards, which was third most in the country. So he wasn't just a short and intermediate guy. He is able to go vertical. We start, DK, can you do that entire analysis again, but just do the McClellan head nod the whole time? He, he's, he's, he's, well, this is like, I think a great example. He's intense. He's just an intense dude. Yeah. This is why I've heard some people compare him to Steve Smith. I don't think he's, he's not as physical as Steve Smith or his explicit. by physically being punched multiple teams to the face.

Steve Smith, senior, right. But I think he's kind of, you know, personality-wise, they're very intense people. Yeah. Yeah, with plenty of time for him to punch someone. Plenty of time for him to punch people. Ken Lucas deserved it. Just two drops last year, too, so he has great hands.

Also, his dad played running back at UNLV. So, Craig, I think that's the McKaylin, the running back you see. His dad literally was a running back. He gives me running back vibes. Multiple uncles also of his played pro baseball, like his athlete family. Can we quickly just for a second read the last? Can I read you the last 15?

I'll go quick. Bolitnikov winners? Oh, no. I actually can picture a couple of these. It's remarkable. I'm going to start. Hold on. Hold on.

Hold on. Hold on. I'm going to start. Okay. You guys want to say them? No. Go, go. Go do it.

I'm just kind of like guessing, actually. But no, go ahead. Are we done? I'm going to start in 2010 and work my way up to now. Bletnikov is also for the best receiver in college football. Yes. Justin Blackman. Marquis Lee, Brandon Cooks, Amari Cooper, Corey Coleman, Dedey Westbrook, James Washington,

Jerry Judy, Jamar Chase, Devante Smith, Jordan Addison, Jalen Hyatt, Marvin Harrison, Jr., Travis Hunter, McKay-Levin. There's some misses in there. Kind of a mess of a list, to be honest. That's like a 30% hit rate. It's crazy too because some of the guys... Of them even being like productive. Like Marquise Lee, Brandon, I mean, Brandon Cooks was fine.

Like Corey Coleman, D.D. Westbrook, James Washington? This is crazy. Amar Cooper is a different game, guys. Jalen Hyatt? Don't even get, we're getting it to him later. Justin Blackman was incredible and he had off the feet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, blackman was great. But like, this is a tough stretch.

Well, that's the thing is, so stats don't work. Like that's, I think everyone's gotten better, especially in like fantasy two and dynasty. People are better and just overall people are better at looking at rate stats, things adjusted for strength of schedule and opponent. Like, yeah, you just kind of look at yards and touchdowns. And it's, uh, college football's funny. So every Heisman photos like that, too.

you look at old Heisman photos of the four guys. It's literally the dragon meme where it's like three guys that are just like elite NFL players. And then like Diego Pavia is in the photo. And it's like every single year if you go through the Heisman, it's just three guys that are incredible and one guy that you forgot existed. Well, and like usually sometimes the guy who wins the Heisman is like, it's like Tim Tebow or it's like he's the best at college. It's like American Idol or sometimes like clearly Carrie Underwood's going to be the one even though she didn't win, you know? Yes. That's actually perfect.

You're like, we know who's the start. We know. We all, though. Yeah. Okay. Number three guy here, Casey Concepcion, even though his name is Kevin Concepcion. Goes by Casey. The Casey stands for Kevin Concepcion.

So he's like Kevin Concepcion and Concepcion. That's why we call him D.K. Kelly. That's right. Whoa. From Texas A&M, 511 190, DK, high-end, low-end. So the high-end for me, Brandon Ayyuk, well, maybe previous to this latest, whatever's happening with him. And then the low end would be a guy like Don Tavian Wigs.

But those guys feel bigger to me than... I think... And Casey Concepcion feels bigger on the field than 5-11-1-9. I don't know why. Maybe it's just the uniform differences or body composition. I think he's kind of a lower-cut guy, so he has like a long torso and he just looks taller. I don't know what it is.

Casey, let me tell you what it is. Casey Concepcion has the best receiver number. I've decided. Do you guys know what it is? It's number seven. Every receiver doesn't... Every receiver that hasn't thought to wear seven is insane. It's a perfect number for receiver.

So let me give you a quick elevator pitch why I chose those two guys. He's very sudden. He just moves differently than everybody else on the field. I felt that when I was watching Ayuk in college. I feel that when I watched Concepcion run routes, run away from guys after the catch, all that stuff. He's just sudden. But the hands thing is a little bit of a concern.

And he'll make these incredible ridiculous catches over a guy and then drop the easy one. So that's kind of why I thought of Dante. Kevin Wicks. Wicks also is another guy who, you know, he's a good route runner and he gets open and he has these flashes, but just can't really put it all together. So that's kind of where I want with that. I think the mid-range guy is something like a Khalil Shakir where he's just very after the catch can make guys miss, very smooth mover, just a natural feel for getting yards after catch and weaving through the defense. Hi, my, the, I think I wanted for the highest end, I actually wanted to just quote Casey Concepcion. and how he looks at his own game. And he says, this is like guys he watches. He says, releases, I like to watch Devante Adams. Top of the route. I like to study Justin Jefferson after the catch.

I try to play like Jim R. Marchease. Of course, course. This is like the David Montgomery scouting. Yes. Back of the day. Feet of Sequin. The power of, I don't even remember who it was.

Power of Derek Henry. But no, I think it's like, this has been said. I think it's Stefan Diggs before the catch, but then what if Stefan Diggs became Brandon Ayuk after the catch? because Casey Concepcion, it's rare to find guys that are as good after the catch. You also have the,

just the ability to separate. I think Casey Concepcion's separation is incredible, but he also is just great after the catch. And I think he's phenomenal. He also, so he has a speech impediment. Casey Concepcion talks with a stutter. He actually said, he basically, he repeats a lot of,

some words he might just repeat multiple times in his sentence. And he said at the combine that he basically, ashamed is the wrong way. He just used to be, you know, self-conscious about it, but he actually wanted to do a press conference at the combine specifically for people who to have stutters to realize, like, it's not a big deal. And like, you know, so it was actually like heartwarming to hear him talk about wanting to be an inspiration for people's stutters. So I wanted to mention that. But his, the, the, to Dek's point about the suddenness of just the way he moves, I mean, Casey Concepcion, like, at the very least, I had at my low end is Curtis Samuel because at the very least, I'm like,

I think this guy is just like a guy that they are going to try to get the ball for design touches and it's going to be like an elite punt returner at the absolute worst. Yeah, he's a good punt return, good, just spatial awareness, acceleration, ability to beat guys like to the angle, I guess, or whatever. And so, yeah, he's just really exciting to me. I think he's maybe a step down from the first two guys in my rankings, but I would be super stoked to have him if you pick him in the first round. You think he will be a first rounder?

It sure feels like it. It sure feels like that's kind of where he's being projected. You know, you never really know, but I think he's in that range for sure. He's probably going to be like a later in the first type of guy. I would love to see a list of how many guys, how many wide receivers under six feet tall go in the first round on average. So I think that the way the NFL works. Definitely not top 10 a lot.

Yeah. Teams are geared toward number one receivers or like X receivers. Like Denzel Boston, I think is a guy that. will go in the first round because there's only so many guys that are six foot five have the size and actually can play as a true ex-receiver outside on a boundary. Those guys I think just end up going high.

And then Mikey Lemon, I Michael Lemon and Casey Concepcion, I do think they go because everyone just wants explosive plays. But I agree at D.K. later in the first. I think, I mean, the Rams could take Kevin, Casey Concepcion 13. I wouldn't be shocked. Jets could take him at 16.

I think the Steelers could take him at 21. The Brown's at 24. Buffalo at 26. If they didn't take a DJ Moore, and then I think the Dolphins at 30. All those teams are guys, I don't know if they're in position to pass up a guy like this. I'm dude. If the Steelers got some quick little shifty guy to pair with Pittman and DK, I would love that. Um, D.K., I wanted to ask you, where do you think, if you had to place all these guys into tiers, who is in tier one? Is it these three guys? Is it just Carnell Tate and McCoy Lemon? Who's in tier one? I would say for me, it's Tate in Tier 1.

And then... Okay. Lemon and Concepcion and Tyson and Boston and tier 2. Okay. Well, then let's keep going. Let's get to Jordan Tyson out of Arizona State at number four here. 6-2, 203 pounds. D.K., give me your high-end low-end for Jordan Tyson.

I love Jordan Tyson. High-end, Devante Adams. The way that he gets off the line of scrimmage, the way he separates from guys and spins corners around and just so twitchy and quick-footed, that's kind of what he reminds me of Devante Adams. And then the low end version would be someone like Adi Mitchell who I really liked Eddie Mitchell's tape and his route running. And he just, I don't know why I can't catch the ball at the catch point for whatever reason. You just see so many like big opportunities that just don't quite make it. You know what I mean? So, but Tyson for what he's worth has for what

it's worth has way better production profile than 80 Mitchell. I first of all, the Devont Adams comp, I agree, is like a more exploit Jordan Tyson's like a more explosive Devonthe Adams. because Devonthe Adams, though, also was not a good catcher of the football his first two years. He had a huge drop rate. So I think that is the other part of the comp that works. The 80 Mitchell thing gets me.

I had Jerry Judy, and I think that the reason, as his lowest end version for Jordan Tyson, and the reason is those both work, 80 Mitchell works for the drops because the problem with Jordan Tyson is, he's an end, his brother's,

first-round pick for the Cleveland Cavaliers, brothers and NBA athlete. And I think Jordan Tyson is like NBA athleticism, complimentary. Yeah. But frankly, Jordan Tyson is like NBA physicality derogatory. And so it's, he's not a great receiver of the football. He's not great with the hands.

It's not great with the contact, not great with all the things that you actually want in a receiver. Like, McClellan's smaller, less explosive, but better at going and getting a football. And then I had Jared Judy because I also think there's a lot of wasted footwork, like a lot of like freelancing, a lot, which is always, you never know if that's fixable or not. I thought Judy was known as like the ultimate route technician and he had the best feet and footwork. That's what he wants you to think. That was the narrative coming out. Coming out of college, it was like he's the best route runner we've seen in years. Yes, but then what happens is you get obsessed with that.

And so it's like looking at bodybuilder, yeah, you're Jack, but then what you care about is actually looking in the air instead of function of strength. So they call TikTok routes now and it's like this disease among teenagers who like takes you five seconds to get open. Yeah. And then but something's like doing spins on your hand like a break dancer. He's like the point guard like going through his legs behind the back not going anywhere. Literally.

Yeah. Yeah, so the most devastating thing I've heard any person say about any player all draft season was Ali Connell. He does a great substack called Read Optional, which is, I think, the funniest name also I've heard. Read Optional for a football newsletter is paid is funny. That should have been the name of our show. Fuck, that's good. I know. Read Optional is a good name.

I think he would notice if we changed it. Yeah. So let's change it. Maybe he'll sue us. Let's fight him. We got to quantify lawyers. Exactly. Ali Connolly said that Jordan Tyson thinks he's Kyrie Irving, but he's actually Brandon Jennings.

That's tough. I wish I understood that. That's actually perfect because Brandon Jennings is like, has elite handle, but cannot do half of what Kyrie can do. You know that it's Carson Wentz time, Carson Wentz? Yeah, yeah. Like that's Brandon Jennings. Like, it's Brandon Jennings. Yeah.

And I think so, and I brought this up before, there, he has, it's an interesting. interesting sort of contradiction because Tyson has a very big catch radius and he will he will have plays where he goes up really high and grabs like an off target pass, you know, and reels in these really high degree of difficulty plays. But then there's too many times and this is what I see with AD Mitchell, I feel like, is he just kind of gets pushed off his route and then doesn't even have an opportunity to make the catch down the field. Or just doesn't position himself very well to make a catch when it's when it's a 50-50 ball. So I just think he needs to play a little stronger. I think he has all the tools. The other thing to mention, of course,

He's been injured every year that he was in college. That's a worry. I don't know if it's as big of a worry as people are making it out to be because a couple of these were a little bit fluky, like the collarbone thing. Collarbone hamstring. Not a big, the hamstring thing does worry me a little bit

because he's still dealing with that right now. He re-agravated the hamstring, hamstring last year, collarbone broke in the year before that and then did not play in 2023 because he tore his ACL MCL and PCL at the end of 2022. So I don't know, my response to that is we've already seen him be incredible after that. That's fine, but we saw that.

it with Michael Pennex. I think the point is if you tear the ACL again, it's the second time on the, like, it matters. It's not nothing. Yeah, sure. I'm not saying it affects, I'm not saying it can't be explosive. I'm saying it's, it's something when you're talking about whether you're a first round pick. I think my thing with Jordan Tyson, it's what D.K. said last week when we talked about him. I think Jordan Tyson has the highest ceiling in this draft because, again, he's actually more explosive than Devante Adams, and it's not impossible that Jordan Tyson's drafted by the Rams and gets to learn footwork from Devante Adams. And Devante Adams is the only, of all the receivers that I think could have played in the NBA

at different circumstance, Devante Adams has NBA level footwork. For sure. That's why he's able to be able to 34. Body positioning, you know, the way he's like boxes people out is very basketball-esque. Yeah, dude, the Rams taking him at 13 to slot him in with Puka and Devante and DeVante and learn behind Devante. But it's not just the box, yeah, it's the release. It's the first second off the line of scrimmage.

It's your first four steps, like that off the dribble off. It's the same thing. It really does look like he's taking people off the dribble. It's why Devonte's so good inside like the five-yard line because he just has to like juke somebody get open. And that's why he has 14 touchdowns. And so you win that way with intentionality. And I think Jordan Tyson lacks that. But that doesn't mean he can't do it.

So I actually think if he went to the Rams, I actually think he could be in a Hall of Fame track. I like Jordan Tyson a lot. He has a he was one of the in this class has one of the best analytical profile statistics. He broke out early in his career. So he's definitely a guy that I'm very interested in. He's the only guy that clearly jumps off the screen to me. Like when I watch him, I'm like, wow. And I should say, yeah, the tools.

Another guy who jumps off the screen to me is Denzel Boston out of Washington. He's 6-4-209 pounds. D-K., give me your high-end low-end. I don't know how high to go with this because I feel like my high-end comp you guys aren't going to like. This would be more like a mid-range, but Cortland Sutton-type player, just a guy that can box out, win at the catchpoint. Maybe someone like, this is probably too much, but, um, shit now I'm forgetting his name the the Cowboys guy that was Des Bryant like someone like that

where he's just so good at the catch point dominates people the smaller corners you just throw it up for him you know he's going to come down with it that's the type of player Denzel Boston is he boxes out he has a very natural feel for using his frame to just keep corners out of the picture kind of deal and he has great hands very rarely drops the ball the low end version of that is like a Josh Dotson, who I remember coming into the league, kind of the idea was he's just so good at the catch point. But the problem is sometimes he couldn't separate. So I think Boston has the ability to separate,

but that's kind of, this is one of the question marks you come, coming into the league is, is he just a contested catch guy? Because that doesn't really work in the NFL. You have to be able to run routes and separate too. So I think Denzel Boston, actually, he's able to separate. My high end for Denzel Boston is Tederoa McMillan, honestly. Yeah, that's exactly.

Could be that good. Yeah. The Cortland Sutton, Michael Pittman's a good mid-range. I think my low end for Denzel Boston was Nico Collins, but the first two years of his career when no one cared about him and he got like 30 yards a game. Sure. Before he actually was good.

It's just like he will play outside receiver and be anonymous, but he can play because he's big. And like he, Denzel Boston will play in the NFL, just a matter of whether he actually becomes anything. I think, to your point, D.K., I think that is the right question. Denzel Boston is he doesn't have the top end speed of. like Mike Evans or AJ Brown or Nico Collins of those like other guys that are huge and fast unicorns. He's Denzel Boston

lacks the top end but he's twitchier. Again, he's a six foot four punt returner. You don't see that a lot. I know. He had a touchdown or two. He had a punt return touchdown. It's why the Ted McMillan comp I like because there's just like a lot of energy and agility for his size like going in and out of breaks when he has the ball and it has to like shake people. For how big he is, he is really, really agile, which I like

a lot. Yeah, Craig. This is what I wrote my scattering report on him. was big-bodied pass catcher who plays with a hard-to-fine combination of fluidity and power. He does. To that point, too, sometimes I'm like we should make a checklist of just like little follow-ups. Denzel Boston's big, but he plays big. Sometimes big guys don't play big. Josh Doxon, to your point, he was at TCU.

You're not playing. Some guys, if you're big and you can't get open, you're relying on contested catch, that means you can't get open. Denzel Boston actually can get open. He can beat press coverage. like he can do all that. It's not all contested catches. But when he has to contest the catch,

he fucking goes and gets the ball. You need big guys who play big, which is important. So I think the aggression, it's kind of like a tone setter. I like Denzel Boston a lot. You know, it's funny. I was going through this episode

and I was prepped and I was like, why have we been calling this a bad draft? I'm like, I actually think all these guys, someone's always bad, but I'm like, I'm lucky. And I'm like, these are all like real NFL players, man. I think especially this line,

I think Boston's a first rounder. The receiver group is probably the most exciting. group in the in the draft i yeah and i'm curious what you think about this dk because the thing about where denzil boston goes and i'll just say for a second he falls to the second round well because we had that mock where he did fall to the second round i think right yes yeah and that was like i don't see that happening now well i think because the teams at the back end like maybe the miami dolphins if they take carnal tate with the first pick maybe they wouldn't take another receiver the chiefs we'll see what happens but i was thinking about if you look at the second round the first

picks are the jets who absolutely need an ex receiver like that with gart wilson i think the titans the next receiver. They have like Calvin Ridley and Camer DK. The Raiders probably do. You know what I mean? And then even Cleveland, 39. He hasn't really done anything. Yeah. And I think all the, if Boston fell to the second round, I think actually one of those teams are going to move back up into

the first and go get them. Yeah. Yeah. And they back at the first. I think there is a world. I don't know if this will happen. This is maybe going to be a big surprise for people, but there's a world when he's the second receiver taken. Because I think everything we talked about with Lemon. It's just alluring. There's a lot you can talk yourself into with him. Mm-hmm.

He, I had, he caught 10 of 13 contested catches from PFF, just two drops. He has awesome hands, concentration, body control, physicality. He plays above the rim. And he's, I think he could play on in the slot. I think he would be a really good guy that can just move around the formation, went over the slot. He's really good at in breaking routes. What were you going to say, Hyviz?

Well, in JSN, remember the NFC championship game a few times JSN lined up in the backfield and they basically lay in like a running back, ran the running back. Which we just talked about running backs. Running backs lining up at receiver. It's way more valuable for a receiver to line up as a running back. Denzel Boston did that a couple times. It's six foot four. Yeah, he's a great athlete.

Yeah, I really like him. There's a lot to like about him. I think those are the five receivers that would go in the first round. Are Cornell Tate, McCoy, Leman, Casey Concepcion, Jordan Tyson, and Denzel Boston. Do you feel that way, D. D.K., I think those are the five guys. I think those are the favorites. There's one more guy that has gotten a lot of first round buzz, and that's Omar Cooper from Indiana.

Yeah, let's get to him next then. He's six foot. 204 pounds. What do you see as your high end for Omar Cooper? So again, this is field on the field, Rishi Rice, a guy that can take the ball over the middle and run after the catch. He's really good on deep crossers, big physical brakes tackles, just a natural feel for spacing and getting open. It makes circus catches. He is an interesting one though, because he played outside early on his career and then they put him in the slot his final season at Indiana. That's where he really thrived.

And I don't know if he's going to be an outside receiver at the next level. So this is kind of a similar question as you get with like Mackay Lemon where what's the role, how highly do teams value a guy who maybe is primarily going to be a slock guy? I don't, I'm not saying he's only going to be a slot guy, but that's kind of where he thrived this last year. And he's kind of one of those big physical yak guys. And I don't know if that's a first round pick.

It's usually more of like a second round pick. So we'll see where he goes. But I really like him. I mean, as you watch him, you just grow to like this guy a lot because he's tough, physical, catches everything. He's a quarterback's best friend. He runs after the catch. He's just a football player.

So there's a lot to like. I just don't know if the profile is a first round pick. Yeah. And again, sometimes the guys do fall or don't have a great physical trait, but just like are kind of ballers. Good at football. I love. Sorry, I forgot to do my low end comp. My low, my high end comp is Rishirice or peak juju.

My low end comp is current juju. Oh, that's me. You can't move. He's the oldest 28-year-old man of the world. Omar Cooper, so my high-on comp was, I don't know, Brandon Ayuk. I feel like it's cheap. I didn't want to do Debo because Debo's on my list of people you're not allowed to compare people to unless you blend them a little. My medium range is Jaden Reed.

I think Omar Cooper reminds you a lot of Jaden Reed is incredible with ball in his hands. Is he a slot or can he play elsewhere? But he plays like a grown-ass man. That's why I love Jaden Reed and I love Mark Cooper. I had big Josh Downs. Big Josh Downs, yeah. And it's like, can they play elsewhere? I don't know, but they're talented.

My low end for Omar Cooper was Greg Ward. You remember that guy? He was in the XFL or something and then went to the Eagles when they were all injured. He was their number one for two months. Oh, yeah. But like he's small, but he just was like, oh, this guy is, I don't know he's in the NFL, but he's just like kind of just racking up 85 yards a game for the Eagles down the stretch. I think Omar Cooper, so the game, Indiana's game play in his game play.

Like at half time in the national championship game, Kurtzignetti, because Miami kind dominated Indiana in the first half, Rubin Bain really did. And Kurtzignetti's like, we'll be fine. game early on. Yeah, and he's like plans to get the ball at number three. But like that was kind of the whole thing. So the thing with Omar Cooper, I don't look at him as he's a slot only guy.

I look at Omar Cooper as the same way they did with Jackson, Smith, and Jigman and Seahawks, they're like, we're just going to make every single thing for him the easiest thing possible. But what that ends up looking like, and Matt Harmon does a great job at reception perception, breaking all this down.

He's a great site, great pod. But Matt Harmon was pointing out that Omar Cooper was basically never aligned outside or on the line of scrimmage. Because what they, when you're offset, that means they can't press cover you so they don't even jam you.

So that can be seen in two ways. Well, this guy sucks. Like they don't think he can like handle press or he can't handle outside. Or they're like, no, we put our best, why do we give, you know, it's like, why do you give your toughest battles to your strongest warriors?

It's like, give the strong warriors the easy fucking battles. It's like, put Justin Jefferson in the slot, put him all set. Why are you letting anyone hit Justin Jefferson the line of scrimmage? And so I think that's what Indiana did with Omar Cooper.

So he just kind of had the easy button every time, but a lot of us, screens, but I don't know. I want, he's the kind of player I want to be great in the NFL. He has a lot of, he strains really hard after the catch. So he's breaking tackles. He's spinning off of guys. He's straining to get the first down, straining to get into the end zone. I think coaches will love him because he's really reliable and tough. He has strain. Reminds me of constipated, but I know what you mean. Football guys like that word, strain. I hear a lot in like GM like is that like an exertion type. Yeah, exactly. You're not just, you know,

trying for a little bit and then giving up. It's like it's a heavy good more thing. You don't just look for your dog for an hour and then give up. You got to get out there and you find your fucking dog. That's true. It's like the scale of how easily are you tackled from Tyler Lockett to Debo or Pooka Nakuwa. Totally. Totally.

And like yeah, Omar Cooper, he doesn't go down. Yep. Okay. Next guy here. Chris Brazel or Brazzers. Yeah. I feel like it's, I think that's how you pronounce it.

The second at a Tennessee. 6-4-198 pounds. I'm going to give you guys my comp off my brief scouting of this man. It's just skinny Marquez Valdez-Cantling. Oh, no. Oh, fuck, that's perfect. That's not great.

For me. Somehow skinnier, MBS. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I think he's like eight pounds skinnier. So I did BMI for the first time ever. I actually have never looked into BMI. Yeah. But for NFL players, but I was like, what's the threshold?

And I was like, well, Devante Smith, I was like it's like the skinniest guy I could think of and he's 23 and then Vidavea was like the thickest guy I could think of and he's 42 42 and then so on this 20 this Devontes Smith the Vitavaya scale crisp razors here is like half a BMI bigger than Devante Smith he's basically the same thinness yeah six four one 98 yeah this is a this is a this is a body profile that didn't really work for a really long time in the NFL however I will say it has been working a little bit more just way the game is going George Pickens is probably the best example of this.

He's like 6-3-200. There's a handful of guys that are kind of coming. Brassers don't move like Brian Thomas Jr. I don't remember what his weight was, but he's kind of in the same mold, a super skinny, very fast guy. The downside would be, and this is my mid-range slash downside

is a DJ-Chark type player. Or Denzel Mims, who came into league. Everyone was really excited about him. You too. I think Brazers. You too. I love Denzel Mims. We all loved Denzel Mims.

I still believe. I never loved Denzel Mims. Don't put that on me, Ricky Bobby. He's still here. He's on the Dallas renegades. Damn it. Is he really? Nice.

He's still playing. He claimed he got food poisoning for salmon or mercury poison. He lost 20 pounds in Jets training camp once. He didn't have room to lose 20 pounds. He was good for a second there. Anyways, so yeah, I think that, Craig, you bring up a great point. Like this body type is not typically that super-6. in the NFL.

He, but I do think he has pretty rare body movement and control. That's the thing that kind of drew me to him and gets me excited about way he could be in the NFL. Same way George Pickens just moves a little bit different. The way he can drop his weight and cut and come back to the football and change directions really quickly. I don't know if he's to Pickens level, but I think he's in the ballpark. So yeah, I'd say that's kind of the only thing that gets me excited about him. This Tennessee offense, not a great track record. Been waiting for you to say it.

Yeah, and that's kind of the thing is he, to me, he is more just like a dart throw at a guy who moves different. And he has some pretty incredible catches on tape as well. But he is an outside guy that can get down the field and he can run a few routes if he develop his route tree a little bit. Is this to me screams like tall, skinny fast guy that runs straight? MVS. Yeah. My high end comp. You don't want him.

I understand that. I actually do. I think he's got a wide. wide range of outcomes here. Yeah. My high on comp for Chris Brasers here was malnourished Christian Watson. Like imagine Christian Watson just didn't have the energy to run after the catch. Watson to me, how much heavier is he?

Watson to me feels, even though he's hurt all the time, feels way sturdier. Well, he's feistyer. And like Robbie Anderson's the midrange. But I guess, Jail. Robbie Anderson, sure. Robbie chosen. Robbie chosen. MVS, though, is a good comp.

Because again, the problem for me is Tennessee. And first of all, so Chris Brasel, Brasers here is from Midland, Texas. Shout out Midland. Great band in Midland. DK, I hope you remember to thank them. Is it Midland, the Friday Night Lights? No, do they play Midland in Friday Night Lights? Probably.

I need to watch Friday nights. Friday Night Lights, I won't lie. The movie or the show? The show. I watched the movie. Movie rips. I got to watch the show. Everyone's screaming right now.

I'll watch Friday Night Lights, fine. Chris Brasel's dad was an NFL receiver, but here's the thing. He went to Tennessee. He also went to Tulane. He went to Tennessee. I don't know how to evaluate this guy. I can't. I kind of refuse to.

I'm scarred by Jalen Hyatt and the Giants, but the Tennessee offense, for the people who don't know. Balitnikov winner, Jaylen Eyet. Exactly. I hate that guy. I hate that guy. I hate that clown. But the Tennessee offense, it's like the spreadiest of the spread.

Like, it's not real. Like, it's like that motherfucker's not real. The receivers look like they're, it's like the NBA offenses now where the guys just post up in the corners. Like, they use the whole width of the field. So the receivers are just standing. Basically, they look like coaches. You know, March Madness is like the coach kind of runs on the court a little bit.

Like that's where the receivers are. And then they're running a play every 15 seconds And it's like fake It's like there's nothing real about it It's you might as well be playing handball Or curling honestly with the space And so I don't know how to evaluate this person All I know is everyone has gone through this program

Has been bad and underwhelming It's like it's just Cedric Tillman And Jalen Hyatt and Dante Thornton like these guys I am a little scared To dismiss a guy who's six foot four And could run a four three seven And I get that I also don't want to bet

This is what we always do Look at you being like oh six foot four four three seven like no hyper six foot four four three seven but like isn't this this is what we always say a year later looking back oh yeah you don't want to just bet on those incredibly raw physical traits that don't mean anything is he good at football or not yeah i can't tell because he played at two lane against fucking southernness i would say like if you want to feel a little bit better about this profile go watch his tape at two lane because he was running a much more wide route tree he was lining up all over the field and doing and it was really exciting damn the problem just tape bogged you the

You know, I actually did watch this too late shit because I refused. And I'm like, he's playing Southern Miss. And I'm like, and Alabama State. And I'm like, I don't fucking know what I value. I don't know what this means. That's an honest thing. I'm like, I don't know what it. This, you want me to read you the schedule of fucking Tulane in 2020, 2020,

2020. I get it. And I'm, but I'm not even saying he's bad. I'm saying I genuinely, like, I'm not pretending to be a total expert here. I genuinely have no idea what that is worth. He,

yeah, he and he and Zachari Branch, we'll talk about next. So the two guys on my, receiver list who I'm like, my head says, hell no, but my heart says, hmm, maybe. But your body's telling you, my body is telling me, these guys move diff. Brasers, you're kind of like, I'm not, you know, I'm not into this and then you got a little wiggle. Brasers, it's like, you can't, you can't describe it, but you know it when you see it, you know.

That's good, D.K. Chris Brasers, my mind's telling me no. The flesh is weak. But yeah. Hold on, D.K. He's a siren song because he's tall and super fast. Damn, Chris Brasers, great game against Florida Atlantic. He only had 26 yards

or Zee's Carolina though. FAUU? Yeah. Southern Miss, just three catches, 35 yards. Definitely. His quarterback allowed him down.

His coach would have put him in, he would have been a superstar. A couple of these teams don't even have a link on sports reference. Like, it's not even blue. Like,

there's no hyperlink. They don't even have a school link. They're catfishing you in the schedule. They're not even a real team. It's like that Texas high school team that was literally fake. Remember that? Bishop Sycamore?

Bishop Gorman, whatever That was crazy. That was crazy. Bishop Sycamore. Bishop Sycamore or something. Something Sycamore. Yeah. Do you think we can start a fake school?

Like accepted South Harmon Institute technology. Like not even having kids show up and play is wrong, but do you think we could schedule a game with like IMG? Do you think we can schedule a game? I think with AI we can do anything. That's right, D.K. We can make videos. That's what they want you to think.

Yeah. Okay. Speaking of brazers. Next guy. Yeah, seriously. Zachari Branch out of Georgia, D.K. 5-9-177. You love this little guy.

Tell me, buddy. Fucking sicko. Sleep in it, pig. He's fast as fuck. That's the thing. He's very twitchy, sudden, explosive receiver that makes guys miss, blows past. This is the screen pass guy, right?

The guy just only catches screens. Yeah. Half of a. catches his his average depth of target here's the deal though he's really fucking good at that do what they call Michael Thomas like slant god what screen god I'll take it

the high end version is like a poor man's Percy Harvin I'm not saying he's Percy Harvin but in that ballpark high end high end is that's poor man's Percy yeah okay I was like an MVP candidate for I tweak your high end sure the first time we talked to with Zachary

Branch you told me that you thought this Zachary Branch has a doctor's strange odds of becoming better than Tyree. There's one version in all the different, whatever, galaxy. One in 14 million. Is he as fast as Tyree Kill? He's pretty fucking fast. I want to look up his 100 times.

He was a track guy and call in high school. He does not look as fast as Tyree kill. Not as fast as Tyree. If Tyreek is like the only player I'd ever give a 100 in Speed in Madden, branches of 98, but he does have the same way Tyree Kill could catch a screen and like actually make people miss. He's the closest thing to Tyreek at. that since Tyree Kill, but he doesn't actually have any of their skills.

Tyree Kill is by far the fastest person I've ever seen play football and is the only person that I would have said, you doctored this tape, this must be fast forwarded. Tyree Kill, I've never seen anybody look like Tyree Kill. I don't think Zachari Branch does up. Hence the 13,9,999,000. Give me a break. I'm not saying he's going to be Tyree Kill. He ran a, he ran a 10.

Based on straight line speed, I don't, it doesn't seem similar to me. He ran a 103. in a hundred in high school, which is really good. I don't know if it's like Olympic level, but it's really fucking good. So yeah, he's really fast. I will say he's, he's not, he's like a small little guy,

but he's built, the reason that the Percy Harvin or just like Tyree killer, whatever, because he's a thicker build. He's not just like a teeny tiny guy. I think you can utilize him as a de facto running back at times. You can use them in the special teams in the return game. He's a really good returner.

I think he has a chance to be a useful player in the NFL. I'm not saying he's going to be an L pro. But again, this is another guy that I'm like, all the analytics, all the stats that you look at, I'm like, no way in hell, this is going to work. But I believe, I believe in him for some reason. I don't like players like this guy on my team. He's a thirst trap. This is the most, Zachary Branch is the most go home to your wife player.

To me, to me, there's been a hundred thirst trap type guys like this, but then when I watch him, he just looks differently. He just looks different to me. The guy that kind of, the low end comp for me that comes to mind is Malachi Coral who was the exact same narrative. It was just like giving a ball in space. He's going to make things work. You know,

he's really tough and physical after the catch, blah, blah, blah. But he could, he just like couldn't catch. And I don't think that's Zacharii Branch. I think he's much more physical at the catch point. And just a more natural receiver. But to me, again,

I'm admitting it. Like this is not a logical thing for me. I just really like him. I think Zachary Branch, my, again, I think Dr. One in 14 million chance of becoming Tyree Kill. but I think in reality my mid-range is Tavon Austin

where he's going to catch screens run clearouts and he can return puns until 2035. Right. And then my low end, there is Tony. Right. But like the point, to tweak the Tyree kill thing, it's not long speed. It's the, we always joke though who would win a game of tag.

It was like Tyreek, Lamar Jackson. Zachari Branch right now could probably beat every NFL player in a game of tag. Like he would probably win. I'm not even kidding you. But the five-star recruit, number one receiver recruit in high school, but he was so athletic that he never learned any relevant skills.

I disagree. I don't think he's a good receiver. I don't think he can catch. I don't think he's like. I disagree with that. I think he's fucking, he's a body catcher. I don't know.

He's 5 foot 8, 177 is yote. He's like ripped. But that also is bad in a way because that means he's not getting, I don't think he's getting that much bigger. But I agree. I think his route tree is like a bonsai tree.

It's literally just screens. It's like screens that can run. He honestly, Craig, Zach Ryan Branch should go to the Steelers because all Aaron Rogers wants to fucking do anyway is just throw screens and slants and just throw like deep shots. It's all.

Zacharii Branch can do anyway. You might as well play for the Steelers. Should take a Waymo to Pittsburgh. He should be so lucky. Okay. Is that all on Zachary Branch? I'm going to irrationally be a Zachary Branch stand.

I've just decided. I know that it's irrational. How much do you? Is it because I don't like him versus probably a big part of it? That always plays a factor. Yeah. I feel like D.K.

There's usually one flag plant guy that D.K. has every year that works out. He's not going to be my flag plant guy. That's different. This is my. irrational love guy it's it's it's your it's your hall pass that's what it is sure you know how like sal does the what's the bet every super bowl where it's like Gary Russell the Gary Russell the Gary Russell DK I want you week at the draft you're gonna I'm gonna buy you a big flagpole and you're

gonna plant it on the podcast and it's gonna have the guy's name on the flag so you need to what are the stipulations there was Devon A-chan whatever three years ago I want that yeah does it have to be like a lower-end guy or is it any I would say somebody you think is not going to be a first rounder. Got it. It has to be that. This is going to be fun. Okay.

Okay. All right. I think it's got to be a cornerback. I've never heard D.K. talk about cornerbacks the way he's talked about him this year. Chris Johnson, has D.SU. Yeah. I like that guy a lot.

Okay. Next guy here. We're going to move right past his name because none of us agree on how to pronounce it. Jeremy. Jeremy. What was that? No. No.

Say again? Jeremy Bernard. Sonny. Sonny. Out of Alabama. 6-1, 206 pounds. D.K. High end for Mr. Bernard.

Hyford said I can't use the word, the words Debo Samuel. So how about Randall Cobb? Cibode Daniel. Yeah, Randall Cobb, high end, low end, Dwayne Eskridge. You probably don't even remember him. I do. I do because he was the second round pick for the Seahawks and then he never did anything. So Shade Waldrum was like J.S.N.

You're the new Dwayne Eskridge. Yeah. The reason I bring up Cobb is because he's a utility player. He just does a little bit of everything. He is a, he's a receiver, returner. He gets out, he gets out there in the backfield and runs, runs like a running back at times. He has a really natural ability to run. Like, Kirk, you were mentioning with Mikhailomi, he turns into a running back.

I see the same thing with Bernard. He just, he just is a natural runner. When you get the ball in his hands, he just knows how to weave through a defense. And he has great hands. He blocks the shit out of everybody. I think he's just a, very good, like football player, but he's... I like this guy. This guy's going to work, I think.

This guy's going to be a steal. Yeah. This is my kind of play. Like my mid-range. This guy's like the opposite of Chris Brasel, where I'm like, he doesn't jump off the page in any specific statistic or physical way. And yet when you watch him, you're like, this guy's just good and strong and he's hard to take down and does everything right. Yeah. But he's not that fast and not super tall and whatever. Exactly. I think Jeremy Bernard is the kind of guy that falls to the third round because he's a jack of all trades. But I think if you have enough trades,

that actually becomes your, your ace, like if you actually can do enough things. And Randall Cobb's a funny comparison, D.K., because you're right. That's not as sexy as I wanted him to be. You're right, it's sexier to say Jeremy Bernard's, like, if Robert Woods thought he was Debo Samuel and he could play everywhere and line up everywhere.

But Randob's a good comp, because I think, Bernard is just, it's a high IQ guy. And the thing I thought of when you said Randall Cobb, was Randall Cobb once had a kickoff return, where the ball bounced near the sideline, and Randle Cobb stepped out of bounds, one foot in, one foot out, and field of the ball. Because technically that means you get the ball

the 40. That was out of bounds. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it's like, it's not that complicated, but most people never, most guys would never think to do that in that moment. It was like 15 years ago. And Bernard's the kind of guy where I'm, he, he just is so aware on the field of

what's happening. Again, I like, he, I like that he can run up running back. I like that it can be receiver. He lines up everywhere. But the thing that I think, if one play that speaks the most about him is a third and 10 and a three point game in field goal range, the Bama let him take a direct snap on third and 10. And I,

all coaches think about all week is how to let, especially college coaches, is how to not let our players fuck up the game. It's all they're worried about it. How will our players fuck this up? We got to make everything like more, like they don't want to let anyone screw anything up. And it is unusual to see a receiver trust as much as I,

I love Bernard. The only downside and the reason I don't, I can't quite, he probably wouldn't be my flag plant guys just because the stats are not where they need to be in terms of just yards for outrun and some of the overall stats that he had in college. It just was typically guys like this don't make it in the NFL. But he could be kind of one of those outliers just because of everything that he can do in so many different ways. Better in real life than fantasy.

Kind of like Robert Wood's in Buffalo. Yeah, probably. The germ. I love him. I'm diseased. All right. Next guy here. This is the last main guy on the list.

And then we'll get to a couple of honorable mentions. Chris Bell out of Louisville. Bill, D-K, I did a very cursory YouTube scout of this man, and my initial comp for him without looking or reading anything is less explosive Anquam Bolden. Oh, that's fun. How do you feel about that? Less explosive than Anquan Bolden?

Yeah. Because Bolden, like, famously was really slow. But I guess I mean like, Anquin Bolden had a very productive career. And it was like, I don't know. I'm like, yeah, this is like a 0.8, Enquant Bolden. Right, right. Bolden was one of the toughest players I've ever seen play in my life. He was awesome.

He's Antoine unboldened. Ooh, there we go. That wasn't that good. Yeah, he, no, it wasn't. You've had that. But like, I think the high end comp that I've seen, and there's one play in particular, I want to say it was against Miami,

but I could be wrong, where he took a slant and just ran past everyone on the field. And everyone's- Chris Bell. This is. Yeah, Chris Bell. And you see this play, and you're like, okay,

this guy could be AJ Brown. So that's the high, income. The low end comp. It was my high end comp too. You should have prepared me for that. Wow. Craig, are you sitting down?

Have you girded your loins? My goodness. I didn't know that's where this one. Don't stand up. I should say he's 6 to 222 pounds. This is a big man. He's very fast at that height and weight. The problem is he is coming off an ACL tear.

So there's some big question marks there with how healthy he'll be for his rookie year and all that stuff. The low end comp for a big, strong, fast. physical guys would be something like John Mingo, Jonathan Mingo or Trailingberg. That's the same two guys I had, A.J. Brown and John Mingo. Wow. Okay.

And you know who Jonathan Mingo's comp was when he was coming to the draft was Anquam Bolden? So look at us. Really? It's kind of weird, actually. Nice. Yeah, Chris Bell, Louisville. He might have had a chance at being like a first,

second rounder coming into this draft if he hadn't torn his ACL. But yeah, he's one of those guys. Big physical wins on in breakers, runs after the catch. He's kind of in that Rashid Rice mold, too, where just for whatever reason, he can just run away from the defense after he catches the ball, very smooth transition transition from catch to run.

And, you know, accelerator and basically just the type of athlete that you want to bet on. But I think he's still a little bit like he doesn't have a full route tree. Coming off the injury is a little bit of a concern. And he's not a precision receiver. He's more of like a power receiver, I'd say. So there's some downsides to this, but I think he's definitely a guy worth betting on just because of the size, you know, acceleration, top end speed and physicality as a receiver. I'm laughing because I was thinking when you were like, he doesn't really win with precision. He wins with power.

And I was thinking about the Brian Dable and the hard knocks did all these interviews of the quarterbacks that you're Drake May, Jen Daniels, James, James, McArthur, all the guys. And he was doing the whiteboard of Jen Daniels. And he's like, so what are you doing this play? what do you do this play? And Jay Daniel, he was like, so what throw, and Jane Dato is completely lost track. And Brian Dabble's like, so what do you do? What throw do you make?

And Jan Dio was like, throw a touchdown? But that was kind of A.J. Brown's rookie year, like at Ole Miss. Like him and D.K. Metcalf, it's amazing as they were. They weren't that amazing in the offense. D.K. Metcalf had the neck thing. Age Brown had knee issues. And like, and the Titans, guess what? AJ Brown would see the most polished guy rookie year?

Nope. Guess what? He had like 1100 yards and he should have had his season ending knee. He had a season inning knee injury in week two. And he was like, I'm going to play through it. And then he had like, it was just unreal. And like, I think a lot of people have independently been like whispering that Chris Bell's like A.J. Brown.

He fits the profile, you know. And it's hard. There's a lot of guys that kind of come into league that are big and fast. But I think he does have some of the movement ability, movement skills that you see from AJ Brown. So, D.K, you said if he didn't tear his ACL, he could have been a first or second rounder. I think there was people that were kind of talking about that. Yeah.

To me, I'm like, he should still be. The ACL tear is not what it used to be. I don't care. It's like, okay, I guess you don't get him for a year. But I'm like, if this guy's A.J. Brown or has a shot of being A.J. Brown, fucking take him in the second round. What are we doing? I think, I don't think it's a, I don't think Chris Bell was going to be like the 15th pick.

I think Chris Bell was like, he might be the 29th to 30th pick. And now Chris Bell will probably just move down like 10 spots. It's not like a round drop. Oh, so you might move down. You think he'll be the 30th rounder still. 30th pick? You think Chris Bell's going to go 30. He could go fringe first round?

I think he was going to, I think he, that's where he was going to go before he tore his What about now? Who's to know? Because it's about the evaluation of the knee and the player. And so, I mean, again, real A.J. Brown went like 60th. Yeah. The Eagles took J.G.R. Segal White set over D.K. Metcalf in real life. But if you now know that if you think he could be A.J. Brown, to me, that's like a

second round. I don't care what's wrong with his knee. This is my fear, though, with Chris Bell is I feel like we're setting this man up to fail because we have a lot of these and it's like you compare them to the top end and we're like yeah it's funer to do that but they're probably in the midrange Chris Bell the problem is there's enough AJ Brown where you're like maybe and then I actually don't have a mid-rate I couldn't really think of a good mid-range comp but it's not realistic to expect them to be that that's not fair but I don't really I don't think that was kind of lost for a mid-range would be someone like Cedric Tillman or something like that where a guy who flashes but then just hasn't

doesn't really put it together it's so hard to judge kill me to judge Brown's receivers I mean, when Javis was the quarterback for the Brown, Cedric Tillman looked like. Oh my God, wait. Jerry Judy was like second in the NFL in yards for half year. Tilden went to Tennessee, then the Browns, and then guess where he went to high school? I'll give you one guess on the whole world.

Midlands. Bishop Gorman. Gorman is a real thing. All right. Bishop Gorman is the high school. Bishop Sycamore's the fake one. Bishop Gorman's the real one. All right.

But yeah, I like this guy. I just think there's the worry about the knee and everything. AJ Brown is also probably one of the more like, one of the more difficult kind of styles of wide receiver to replicate or hope for it. Like his physical talent is so ridiculous that. Yes. Thinking anybody could be him is probably a fool's errand.

And again, I don't want to pretend. We do chase these types of guys. AJ Brown is like the freak of freaks. I have an opinion, but I don't want to pretend like I could even now go back and watch AJ Brown's college tape and be like, yep, I see it now. Like no. I wouldn't. It's like, I don't know.

Also, I went to his pro football. By the way, I went back and looked at my scouting report on AJ Brown and I called him a slot receiver because he almost only played in the slot. And I was like, man, that's crazy. Also, now he's, you know, one of the top. He just does it all. If his name was Arthur, probably falls to the, his name's Arthur. He went by Arthur Brown. He falls to the third round.

Is his name Arthur? Arthur Juan. Also, in pro football references his nickname is parentheses, swole Batman. Swole Batman. I like it. I love a nickname. I love a nickname that doesn't roll off the tongue. Swole Batman.

Arthur Wan. That's kind of a cool name. Arthur Juan. Yeah. It's a good age. So those are the top 10. There's a couple of honorable mentions here. Who do you want to mention that we haven't yet?

I think Antonio Williams from Clemson is worth mentioning. He's getting some big buzz right now too just because the sudden movement skills. People are comparing him upside comparing him to Ladd-McCocki type player. And so I think he's an interesting one. He didn't have a ton of explosive plays this last year, but you can see the versatility and just ruggedness that he brings to an offense. 511, 187 pounds. Yeah, he's a little bit undersized.

He played mostly in the slot, but he accelerates really quickly, super productive. He runs after the catch. He has soft hands. He does a little bit of everything. He threw two touchdowns in his college career. He puts an effort as a blocker. So he's, I think, a guy. will come into the league and like probably end up starting and we're not talking about it very much.

Okay. That's Antonio Williams out of Clemson. From Clemson, yes. Okay. Anyone else? Yeah, I think, yeah, we don't have to talk about Malachi Fields being Matt Collins again. There's a bunch of other guys. But yeah.

Okay. So, dip into the class. I think it's a good receiver class. After the draft, we will probably do a bunch of, we'll do like winners, losers, all this stuff. We'll also at some point get back to fantasy, fantasy rankings. We can talk about dynasty once guys have teams. And again, yeah, if you like our draft. coverage. We stick, stick with us. We'll help you get ready for your drafts in August. And we do the

whole season. We literally do Forteous as a week during the season. So the other thing I wanted to mention was a line we missed. We asked all these, we talked about the Jalen Hertz story at the the Eagle, ESPN this week about the Eagles and discontentant of Jalen Hertz. And Zach emailed in a good Zeebo line we missed. Because we were talking about Jailen Hertz, the Eagles fans care. You, you guys were arguing about Aaron Rogers, all this stuff. So we got to align that Zach, for Zach's breakfast was two eggs over easy toast and nice coffee. This is from the Hertz article? Yeah, this is from the Hertz article.

So the line we missed was Hertz changes plays so often. It can be hard to get into a rhythm as the play caller. Coaches might call the same play three times in a game without the play actually being run as it's called. And if the Eagles call a play that Hertz doesn't like early in the game, that can sour the mood for the rest of the game. I don't remember that. Well, then in an anonymous source said, it's almost who's got the better play call,

Hertz or the coach. I don't remember that from this article. If you don't remember that, that's because it's not from the ESPN article. It's actually from 2018 article about Aaron Rogers and Mike McCarthy from 2018. And Sports Illustrated, Alba Prier and Kaelin Collar wrote an article. You lied to me. Break up of Rogers and Mike McCarthy. So to your point about Aaron Rogers would never defend your quarterback, kind of verbatim.

Completely different. Legitimately completely. Aaron Rogers can make any throw on the field and wants to and is the most talented quarterback in the league at that time. And that was, well, that was what, a year before he went back-to-back MVP's? An anonymous coach said it's McCarthy and Rogers are like two really smart guys, ultra-competitive, almost like who's going to try to get the blitter play call. It's a big, it's basically it's a thick-sweighting contest.

It's weird that they're going to work together again. Like, this is weird. Eight years after they broke up, it's weird that they're reunited. That's all. I know. I had nothing to do with this, Craig. This is all hyphids. I mean, I just don't, I don't think comparing Jalen Hertz to Aaron Rogers is fair.

But that's just me. So we should say that the poll that we put out, I was right. Over 60% of Eagles fans said they are fed up with Jailen Hurd. Fed up. That's so interesting. You know the, it's, wait, you know the stat that the like the 2024 election? It was, you were actually much more likely to get accurate results if you asked who is your neighbor voting for than if who's you're voting for. Right, right, right.

We should do that with Eagles fans. What is your, what is your closest Eagles? Well, they're anonymously, if they're voted, they're anonymously clicking something. It's not, you know. I'm just saying. What is your closest equals friend think of Jalen Hertz? Here's the difference. If I'm the fan of the Packers, I would say let Aaron Rogers do whatever the fuck he wants.

If I'm a fan of the Eagles, I am not saying let Jalen Hertz do whatever the fuck he wants. Right. That's the difference. I agree. Okay. Let's get into the receivers. You guys just been attacking me lately. Last two apps.

You guys are on my throat. For once, it's not me. It's D. What are you talking about? You're the one who just did this. Well, that was because it was funny. You just inserted a fake quote into an article. I didn't do that.

Yeah, but that was funny. It was good. It was good. I think it was mad about it. I know you're, again, we recorded this Thursday. I would love to talk about the Yukon, or sorry, the Yukon Buncherbeater of Duke, but it was three days ago from when we recorded.

We forgot yesterday's show to talk about it. And then we're putting this up. It's going to be. You can be out of the tournament by now. Yeah. The championship will be, over by the time some people listen. So I'm not going to talk about that. So instead I want to read a couple emails. One from Casey. Casey. Concepcion. Kevin.

Breakfast is just a can of ice coffee. A can. A can of ice coffee. Not fucking just fucking put it in my veins. I had one the other day. It was good. We were talking about people. We wanted another round of people saying that their grandpa's invented stuff. So Casey says since I was a kid my buddy's grandfather is adamant that his friend invented the jump shot We know a lot of people who invented basketball I feel like if you, that means you invented basketball

if you invented the jump shot. Well, Pappy says that nobody's actually Papi says nobody was actually jumping to shoot a basketball before his best buddy Whitey Scoog. Come on. And I'm sending you his Wikipedia page. Whitey Scoog.

Scoog with a K, S-K-O-O-G. And I got to say, I don't know if this is true, but he was born in 1926 and he did actually, he was on the Lakers. Whitey Skug was drafted by the Lakers, which I started to take much more seriously when I heard this. According to Wikipedia, some credit Scug with being the creator of the jump shot. What does that mean? I don't know.

His friends probably edited it to say that. He was the first guy to shoot a basketball while jumping. No, he said they weren't standing. They were all standing and he was short So he had to jump to do it And they probably all made fun of him Dude, I know we say that as a joke Think of, dude, remember last year we talked to

Catchers in baseball We're just on two feet The whole time for a hundred years No one ever thought to jump No no no, they wouldn't splute They wouldn't split, now catchers split I know, I know they're like lean on one knee now Yeah and the answer is

And the answer why didn't catchers do that for it? Because it's easier on your knees And it's easier to throw at a second base And the answer is well you look like a pussy and they made fun of you if you did it. So no one did it for 100 years. I think it was the jump shot. Everyone made fun of this guy for jumping.

And then they all started doing it. He's a spaz. He keeps jumping when he used to shoot. You Nancy? That's funny. I guess he's 5-11. I'm looking at some pictures of him shooting the jumper. He really jumped when he was like he was like really jumping.

I feel like that should be called a scoog. Scoog shot. If you jump really high to shoot, that's called a scoog. Yeah, yeah. The University of Minnesota is saying that they're trying to give him credit for inventing the jump shot. I love all these images from early days of basketball, man. These photos are crazy. It's crazy.

This was a thing. He's also like truly holding the ball with only one hand and all the photos. His like the placement hand is not even close to the ball. It's the basketball version of a football trading card where the guys are just like leg is up in the air. Hold on. Ken Sailors is also being credited with inventing the jump shot. But they're like the same age. both born in 1921.

So like there was like a couple decades here when nobody was shooting to put the ball in there. This was like who really invented Tesla, you know? Right. So anyways, this guy, Casey, his grandpa, his grandpappy. His roommate, his friend's grandpappy. All right. So shout out to the scug.

I'm willing to soft believe this. I think it's better than the guy's grandfather was like, I invented the turnaround. I'm willing to believe this. Yeah. I'm willing to soft believe it. Next time I'm playing basketball, I'm going to tell the shortest guy in our team that, dude, you just got a scooge more. Just scooke. Under scoog, yes, scoge more.

Now scook less. All right, this one's from Chris. Seabone. Chrisie. Subject line didn't even write anything in the email. It's just a photo and he put a subject line at. The subject line is just 1919 outfielder named Ping Bodie won a spaghetti eating contest against an ostrich. God damn it.

This country. People, dude, back then, the things that we did as entertainment, like, I bet you the whole town was like, we got ahead. The ostrich spaghetti eating contest is tonight. We're going. Get your Sunday best. Yeah. Well. Get your Sunday best.

I, let me tell you something. Fuck. So I was like, Boady won a, that is a madlev. One of spaghetti eating contest against an ostrich. And so he just sent me a screenshot of a tweet. I'm like, there's no way this is real. So I look it up. Well, let me read you.

guys some shit from MLB.com. This is real. This is real. So Francesco Stefano Pizzolo. Okay. Who was nicknamed Ping, Bode, because of the sound of the bat. Okay. Ping.

What Bode? I don't know where Bodey. Well, Wikipedia has him as Frank Stephen Bode, born Francesco Stifano Pizola. Ellis Island did a fucking number on this guy's name. Yeah. They hacked the shit out of this one. Yeah. They had a heavy hand.

My goodness. So Ping Bode. was, I shit you not, Babe Ruth's roommate. Come on. Wow. There were not very many people in this country back in the Babe Ruth's roommate. And so people asked him, what's the way? Babe Ruth had a roommate. First of all. No.

I know. No, Richard, he was making $20 a week. So they asked him what's like to room with Babe Ruth. He said, I don't know. He's never there. He's always out. He said, I'm just here with his suitcases. He's never, he's always playing baseball. Dambling.

So Ping Bodie, who's in the National Italian American, Italian American Hall of Fame, I believe, with Tommy DeVito's agent. Right. Ping Bodie, one of the first Italian Americans in baseball is said to have inspired the DiMaggio brothers to play baseball. Wow. So Babe Ruth's roommate. All right. Inspired Joe DiMaggio to play baseball allegedly. And he once said that, he was asked, why should people see the Philadelphia athletics?

He said, and I quote, I and the Liberty Bell are the only attractions in Philadelphia. I like his, I like his Hutzpah. So anyway, this man is known not for being baby to his roommate or inspiring Joe to manage him. He's known for the following story. This is from MLB.com. The 5 foot 8, 195 pound ping bode

was a voracious eater. And during one Florida spring training in 1919, Yankees co-owner Cap Houston heard word. His name is back in the day. I know. Cap Houston's a good name.

So Cap Houston heard about Percy the ostrich. Of course. Who was a resident of the nearby Jacksonville Zoo. This is what happens when you don't have the internet.

Yeah. Yep. You're like, what do we do? It's an ostrich. Guys, I heard about an ostrich. I don't have to work today. What do I do? So,

he hears about Percy the ostrich is a resident of the nearby Jacksonville Zoo. And apparently, Percy the ostrich has been dubbed the world's greatest eater. This is like how you sell tickets to a zoo

in Jacksonville, Florida. Come see the world's greatest Austin. Guy. Yeah. So step on up.

Cap Houston arranges for Ping Bodie to have an eating contest with Percy the ostrich. And Boett. Think about how that

conversation went. Guys, look, I know it's an ostrich, but we've got a guy. I'm not letting some fucking bird beat me at eating,

all right? So Cap Houston's asked Pigbody. He's like, I'm down. And he's like, I'll let you pick the food. And so Bing Boat, he's like, I want him spaghetti. Okay.

Sure. They do. I can't wait to tell you this. The eating contest, they did it like a boxing match. Sure. With a, like a ring and a bell. Okay. And they set it up.

And, oh, I thought that was funnier than you guys. What I'm waiting? I'm waiting. I did not know that was the punchline. He's in Austria's in a boxing ring. with an ostrich doing eating spaghetti. Was the ostrich wearing like old-timey boxing shorts really high up? Yeah.

But he's in a boxing ring. Wanging in at 6'8, 525 pounds. Let's get run it through a rumble. This is during spring trading. He's a pro baseball player. I mean, what else he's going to do all day? So the showdown, like the sports writer W.O. McGeehan had the best coverage from the event. Can I read you?

W. O. McGeehan's accounting of this food, of this eating contest. Yeah, you got to do it like an old-timey voice, though. Oh, I, oh, yeah. As the combatants struggle with the platters, the cheering of the spectators shook the pavilion. There were times when it was all that the police could do to keep the crowd from tearing through the ropes into the ring. You had a bunch of people that were super into it.

Who? So was it a close fight? Like, how did it go? I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. I'm so excited. I'm very glad you asked. So the first few rounds were really close.

with the ostrich. They had multiple rounds. Do they each have a plate of spaghetti in front of them? Each round is one plate. They get a full plate of spaghetti. And it's just like, who can go the fastest? No, it's just like loser leaves town. Oh, it's volume.

This is how the Olive Garden came up with the bottomless pasta. So at one point, Pingbody throws his fork into the crowd, just starts eating with his hands. This is like the original YouTuber. Wow. Yes. It's like Jake Paul would have done this. Jake Paul, where is your fight an ostrich? What are you doing?

So at one point, the hostage, So listen. So the ostrich started to strungle at the end of round two, came back full force round three, and at one point, ate his handlers pocket watch. Just took it off of him. That was like, let me show you I still got it. Just like you can see it stuck in his throat. So like fucking cartoon.

Just goes down his throat. So apparently post pocket watch, the bird slowed down, allegedly. This is me reading into it. No one says this, but I think the pocket would have a bottleneck. So apparently In round 10 Percy staggers out of the ostrich 10 rounds

10 rounds 10 plates of spaghetti 10 plates of spaghetti This guy was a great eater Percy's 5 foot 8 this man The hot dog guy What's his name? Kobayashi Joe Chish He probably missed a game to do this

That's not great about this Percy So Percy the ostrich On the field Staggers out in round 10 and before he gets starting, Percy ostrich falls to his knees and passes out head face first into the spaghetti.

Wow. Did they count? Do they count? The ostrich falls face first into the spigy. Everyone's waiting on baited breath. Was this ostrich like how did it in between rounds like what was going on? Like where was it?

Where they're like, I'm cut? People being like like, was it being held against its will? I'm assuming like I have no idea. I have no idea. I don't know if W. O. McGeehan made all this shit up. I don't know. But I do think this happened.

I would like to believe the ostrich did fall face first into the spaghetti. What happened to Percy? So, well, Percy felt, I think, I don't, I'm worried the pocket watch may have affected him. I don't know. But Ping Bodie was declared the undisputed eating champion of the world. Wow. Yeah.

Of the world. Of people who would sign up in Jackson's. older than sprint training. Step on up and see the amazing spaghetti-eathing guy. I am just picturing this ostrich passed out in a boxing ring and a face of spaghetti. Dude, Ping probably had his pick of every woman in town the next morning. It's like Wilk Chamberlain. I got six women in three rooms.

Lord. Oh, God. And the ostrich is the perfect animal for the story. I don't know why. Perfect. It wouldn't be funny if it was a horse But an ostrich is just fantastic You know when we were in Africa

You inevitably like you're in these Cars like looking at all these animals And you you start to have these conversations of like Is there any animal I could beat in a fight And you're like looking at like a wart hog You're like could I beat a wart hog now maybe not Hell no The one animal that we thought

Maybe if your life depended on it Could you kill could you take down an ostrich If it was like to save your mother's life Could you take down an ostrich? ostrich. So, ostriches are just like dinosaurs. So it's,

they are. They have, they have a funny kid. They're like a fucking rat. So it's funny you say this. So apparently the most dangerous animal in Australia, or one of the most dangerous animals in Australia is actually emus. And like,

again, we talked about the Australia had an emu war. They actually brought Lewis machine guns against the emus in the 1930s. They actually, and they lost. The emus won. The emus won. The emus one.

The regiments of the British army to kill emus in Australia. And they fucking ran back with their tails. They lost from the fucking emus. I feel like the skinny legs and the skinny neck are vulnerable to me. But here's the thing. You could tie its neck in a knot. I dive at the legs immediately. It's on the ground.

Now it's kind of me versus the neck, you know? And my mom's, remember, my mom's life is on the line. Yeah, sure. There's a lot of neck to choke. My adrenaline is at a 12 out of 10. You could choke. There's so many, there's so much, you know. So many things I could tangle and bend.

Yeah. I don't know. Well, so here's the thing. I follow this guy on Instagram. I think they're going to kill you. Probably. This guy, I think his name's Gator Boy Chris. I don't want to ever get bit by an alligator.

It's like my biggest realistic, not realistic fear, but it's my biggest. When I'm in South Carolina or Florida, anywhere, there's alligators. I'm like, I don't fuck with gators. Okay. It's like you ever seen Archer? They survived the KT extinction soon. I don't, I mean, I agree with you that I don't also don't fuck with alligators either. But anyway, I am obsessed in Instagram with these guys who like fuck with gators, basically.

Sure. So this guy does an enclosure he's like Steve Irwin on Instagram, but he has emos too. And so the emus, as Dicca said, they're like raptors. They have steak knives for toes and they can kill you

and what they actually do to defend themselves is they disembowl you. They just fucking dice you up like Zorro in your abdomen and they let you bleatheel. Holding your intestines like the beginning of Tropic Thunder. Yeah.

So this guy, what he does with his emus he lets him walk free and when they're getting through puberty they get like, you know, the young bucks. And so all the emus on his guy's property trying to fight him, which means kill him. And his arm is like three inches longer than their legs.

So when he's around the emus, he's taking a selfie, talking about something else, and an email will just run up to him. And he just like throat chops the emu. And the emu was just wagging at steak knives three inches from his belly button. I am obsessed with this guy. This can't be legal. I don't know. Florida.

Florida. Florida. The response to that is it's Florida. So Craig, the question is, it's what's your length? Do you have my 30-4-inch arms? That's true. I do think I have like a 6-3 wingspan. I don't know.

I thought we established you don't actually have very long arms. You don't. I thought you have like 30-inch arms. No, I have 34-inch arms. We measured. Ruben Bain would be killed by an ostrich. That's a fact. Ruben Bain could never beat an ostrich.

Oh, that's good stuff. I wouldn't find an ostrich, I don't think. I know, but I'm saying life on the line. If you had to. I'd rather fight an ostrich than like a lion, correct. Hippo is last. I don't think you have any, I don't think there's any way to be a hippo.

We can rule out lions and rhinos and hippos. I'm saying, you know, right? But I actually think you have a better chance of killing a lion than a fucking hippo. Okay, sure. Okay, but those, you have zero chance against all of those. I'm talking about something you have a shot.

Yeah. Okay, that's fair. Ostrich is, those pigs are big, too. What are they called? Like, you're dangerous. You're telling me, James Harrison in his prime

versus an ostrich who you're taking James Harrison How sharp are their toes? Sure Those are emus I don't know if ostrichs have the same sharp toes They have the same like hook They definitely have sharp little claws though

Who do you think could eat more? Ping Boatie James James Harrison or an ostrich Have you guys seen the Shane Gillis has an L sketch about the Lehmu emu? It's really funny no Oh maybe wait remind me It's like a racist emu.

Oh, it's like the emu's like the cop. From the commercial, like Leemu or enum. The he was racist. It's very funny. Oh my God. Well, I didn't I didn't know where that story was going, but I'm glad we went on that journey. Pingboaty. Whatever happened to, I want to know what happened to Percy.

Whatever happened to the zoo? We'll find out what happened to Percy. I got to tell you, the thrill of my life is looking into these and like the guy who like did the ostrich. thing was baby with his roommate while this was happening. It's just like the fuck. He comes up, babe, what'd you do today? Never, the lesson is never underestimate how much a tiny, how much pasta, tiny Italian man can eat. There you go. 11 plates. This says he finished his plate before Percy even got started in the 11th around. The OG muffing her. He's like, can I get some more? Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Thank you to Percy the ostrich and Pink Bodie and

Zach for emailing that in. Thank you, Cam, thank you, Carlos. Thank you, Austin. Thank you, Abu. Thank you, everyone who's doing the bracket challenge and he'd be on it. I would comment on it, except we're recorded this before the Final Four has happened,

and you were listening to this either right before or after the championship's been decided. So our next episode, we will announce the winner. We will mail them, ringer merch. And, yeah, we'll have quarterbacks coming soon for positional previews. And then we're going to be together in at Los Angeles for the draft.

So that'll be really fun. And yeah, email us at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Any other animals with Wikipedia's? That one's hard to beat. We've got, we've had quite a few good ones. Yeah. Like the headless chicken.

And you know what? While we're at a voice or voeck. Vogeck. Vytec of the bear. Actuals. We're going to do mailback at so right about the draft. Email us actual draft questions, things you want to know about your team,

but players, whatever, fantasy, whatever. Yeah. Thank you, Lord. Lord. Thank you, Midland. Hell of it. Midland's great.

Midland's great. Midland's phenomenal. Thank you for remembering. Midland is a great country band. I don't love country, but I do like some country. And my friends love like the most basic pop country imaginable. Like my friends are obsessed like Florida, Georgia line ironically. I think pop country is the worst type of country.

I agree. It's all the same. You ever seen the medley where someone took like eight songs from 2016 and made them all the same and they're all the same song? Have you heard the Bo Burnham song pandering? Oh, that's so good. It just reminds me of the. Political gerrymandering I'm busy pandering

And he just does like his little key changes It's great It's incredible But Midland's good Sorry I think of the Sorry the Team America World Police freedom isn't free In fact there's a hefty fucking fee

The music in Team America is pretty fucking great I will say Continue hyphids I mean that's hard to follow up Team America with that But drinking problems. It's real country because it's about, it's sad because it's like, what is it? Real country is sad.

That's the difference. The music is sad. Midland, the chorus of one of my favorite songs, it's like, you know, you start singing a song and then you're like, what is this? And you're like, in the 100th time, I was like, people say I've got a drinking problem. But I don't have, I don't have a problem drinking at all. Yeah. Like, it's like, don't think about the Johnny Cash lyrics.

You just listen. Right. But yeah. Yeah, drinking problem. phenomenal. Nice. Midland. Great band.

All right. I'll check it out. Team America. God, great movie. When's that rewatchables, Greg? I feel like Bill has not seen it. It really is great. Goodbye, everyone.

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