The Ringer NFL Show - 2025 NFL Draft First-Round Recap

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Sheil, Steven, and Diante get together right after the 32nd pick in the NFL draft to debate and share their instant reactions to the biggest story lines of the night. Topics include: Jags trade up to... get Travis Hunter Giants draft Abdul Carter and Jaxson Dart Falcons Trade up for James Pearce Jr. Shedeur Sanders not drafted in first round Raiders draft Ashton Jeanty They end the pod with quick takes on the rest of the picks. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, and Diante Lee Producer: Chris Sutton Social: Kiera Givens Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Folks, it's Jay Kyle Mann from The Ringer, and as always, basketball is so freaking, freaking good. It's so good, in fact, that the Ringer's NBA draft show is finally back just in time for a ramp up to June. We've got you covered every week as we take an in-depth look at who's got next for the NBA's future. We'll talk the rising and falling stocks of the best and the brightest prospects in the 2025 NBA draft class. From Cooper Flag to Dylan Harper, the BJ Edgecom, and more. tap in with me on the Ringer NBA draft show every Wednesday and make sure that you follow, subscribe, and hit us with those five-star ratings. Ringer NFL show, Shiel Kabatia here with Deonté Lee and Stephen Ruiz, the first round of the NFL draft in the books. All the mock drafts are over.
Starting point is 00:01:05 We got some surprises. We got some chalk. We got some big-time trades, which we will analyze and perhaps criticize. I'm speaking for myself there. on that one. It was fun. It was an entertaining top five there as the Jaguars moved up. And then, of course, we got some more moves later in the first round. Deontay, how we feel? Well, this was a good first round, right? As far as first round of NFL drafts go? I think so. I think that, you know, the things that we expected to be chalk outside of the Jaguars trade,
Starting point is 00:01:38 if you just look at the names and where they're drafted was relatively chalk. And then, you know, you kind of get through the teams and it seemed like the door was open for a lot of different things to happen. And so there was enough to kind of keep us locked in. I was just going to ask Stephen if he had anything in passion to say the way that Mel Kiper and Joel Klatt sounded, speaking about Shador Sanders throughout the first round. Oh, my God, I feel like it got pathetic at the end there. Mel Kiper started naming Tom Brady and Drew Reeves and all these.
Starting point is 00:02:04 Aaron Rogers. He brought up Aaron Rogers. Let's pump our brakes a little bit. Have you watched the Shador tape? I mean, I'm not like totally against him as a prospect, but invoking those names. I feel like that's raising the bar a little too high for the guy. Shador Sanders still on the board as we go into Friday night,
Starting point is 00:02:21 which as someone who loves content, this is good for team content. Now, any team could take him. It could be a surprise team. It could be a team that already has a quarterback. We'll get to Sanders and talk about whether any of these teams should have drafted him in the first round. But let's start with the biggest stories. And the big story was a trade in the top five early on.
Starting point is 00:02:41 It feels like if you had any credentials as a national, NFL reporter, you put out a tweet at some point today that said, watch out for the Jags. Jags might be up to something. Jaguars, listen, watch out for that. And they were up to something. They move up from five to two. James Gladstone, the 34-year-old in his first NFL draft moves up from five to two, gives up a 2026 first, this year's second, which is the 36th overall pick, and a fourth,
Starting point is 00:03:16 for number two overall, a fourth round pick and a sixth round pick. The Jacksonville Jaguars take Travis Hunter while the Cleveland Browns move down to five and take Mason Graham. Let's talk about this from the, I didn't think we're going to be leading the show with the Jaguars, but they made the move up to two, and they got maybe the most exciting player in this draft. So let's start with it from the Jaguars perspective,
Starting point is 00:03:41 and then we can talk about the Browns-Diante. Your thoughts on the Jaguarian, moving up, giving up a future first to acquire Travis Hunter. I would say before today, it really wasn't even something that I was thinking about. And it's funny. Like, I was kind of resigned to the whole Mason Graham thing. It makes a lot of sense. You look at their depth chart.
Starting point is 00:04:00 You can make all the arguments in the world for why he would have been a productive member of that defense. But I appreciate the fact that James Lassau walked in the building and said, you know what's better than having the right pick? Having the coolest pick. I want the coolest player that I can get my hands on in this draft. Why just get this red chip guy If I can get a one of a kind type of football player
Starting point is 00:04:19 Then we can move up to do so Obviously, you know, you do have to give us some draft capital in the future So this does kind of make it interesting Talking about what Jacksonville was going to be like in 2025 But setting all that to the side They got the best player in the draft on their team Isn't that the point in the draft? Isn't that the point in the draft?
Starting point is 00:04:35 To come away with the best players in the draft I feel like the Jaguars did that And we can talk about, you know, the price they paid And I do think the price they paid kind of signals how they view him and then you can also just read into the comments. Like Gladstone came out and said it. He was like, we view him as a player who can like transcend the sport or change the sport,
Starting point is 00:04:53 which makes me believe that they're going to try to at least for one year play him on both sides of the ball, which is something I feel like you have to do to get the value out of this. Because this was a quarterback price they paid. Yes. This wasn't the typical. We're only moving up three places to get a defensive guy that we like that's at the top of our board. This was we view this guy as a franchise changing player and we're going to, to do everything in our power to get them. And like the Jaguars apparently before the draft
Starting point is 00:05:19 weren't just talking about trading up. They were considering trading back. So everything was on the table for them. But I'm glad that they went with this approach because like the they said, sometimes you just got to do something that's cool. And I think they did that here. And I'm excited to see this and how it works out. Because we like people have brought up the name Dion and then they've said in 1996, he played both ways. He didn't really play both ways because they gave up on the experiment in like November. They're like, all right, this is not working. Dion's not really a good wide receiver. He was still an all-pro that year.
Starting point is 00:05:47 But after the first game, and the only reason he even played there was because Michael Irvin was suspended. I did some background on it today. And there was quotes from Troy Ackman being like, he's not really that good of a wide receiver, so maybe we should stop doing this. I think with Travis Hunter, there is a legit chance.
Starting point is 00:06:03 It might be for like two or three years that this guy could be a star on both sides of the ball. Yeah, the upside is tantalizing the fact that he goes to a team that is saying, no, we are going to try this. We are going to try to play him on both sides of the ball. It's really exciting. I mean, he could end up being like the most exciting player in the NFL. Like you guys said, the coolest player in the NFL,
Starting point is 00:06:26 the most unique player in the NFL, the most fun player in the NFL. So to me, this is what is. It's like a two things can be true situation here for the Jaguars. One is if you're a Jaguars fan, I'm with you guys. This is awesome. We have a player who we can be. so excited about. I mean, the first rep he takes in the spring when he's taking reps on both sides of the ball in training camp, that first game, you know, what jersey are you going to buy? He seems like
Starting point is 00:06:53 a great guy to root for all that thing is, all those things are going to be a lot of fun. And if you're a fan, that's going to be a lot of fun. The price, I would not, I would not have done the deal. You know, for every trade, you have to say, would you have done the deal or would you have not done the deal? And then, you know, you might look back in three years and say, that was stupid. I should have said, yes. I mean, this to me, you know, it is a big price. You're giving up the future first. Next year, you're giving up five overall this year and you're giving up 36 overall this year. I mean, you're talking about the fourth pick in, you know, in the second round tomorrow. So I was just sitting back thinking like how many players, non-quarterbacks in the NFL would warrant that type of compensation. Guys, we already know about. And so if I'm always thinking about, hey, don't be overconfident.
Starting point is 00:07:40 then your ability to scout prospects and evaluate prospects and be able to project them, just because every year we see guys in the top three, top five who don't pan out, even when everyone convinces themselves before the draft that they know that, no, no, this one's different. He's absolutely going to work. I would have been confident enough in my ability to do that, but I'm with you guys, James Gladstone. New character in our lives, good for you. You're entertaining.
Starting point is 00:08:05 You're providing content. You didn't just sit back and you took a big swing. And so it will be fun to watch. I understand why they did it. I mean, yeah, there's a scenario where, you know, three years or maybe just a year from now where like, it was worth it. It was awesome at corner. It was awesome at receiver.
Starting point is 00:08:22 It's like they traded for two players by getting this player. So that's actually in play with this guy, which we've really never been able to say about for any other prospect in our entire lives, which is the best part about it. Doesn't it make sense that we would get one of these players eventually? Like, they used to do it back, like back in the 50s where they weren't even paying attention to nutrition. They were smoking cigarettes on the sidelines. Like, I would imagine that doing it now makes more sense than Chuck Ben and Eric being able to do it in the 50s and drinking a beer and eating a steak after the game. It's crazy, though.
Starting point is 00:08:54 There's been so many unbelievable athletes, you know? And like in college, they don't let guys do this. So, like, that's really what it comes down to. Like, they let him do it in college. So then they're like, all right. Maybe O-Ton. Did O'Tani have an effect on this, too? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:09:10 But, yeah, I like the outside-the-box thinking, Deontay. I do, too. I mean, and James Glass-Sone is young. Like, if this goes horribly wrong, this is not going to be the last time he ever works in the league. And if somebody tries to press him on it, all he has to do is pull up Travis Hunter's tape coming out of Colorado and be like, you sit here and tell me that you wouldn't take a chance
Starting point is 00:09:27 on a player this good if he had the opportunity to do so. Like Stephen said, I think that, and I think you kind of hinted at this as well, Sheal, right? When you start talking about the compensation, It almost necessitates that you have to play them on both sides of the ball. And I think that that's the thing that makes me a little queasy because what you're paid to get access to the guy, not only does he needs to play on both sides of the ball. He probably needs to play like a pro bowler on one side of the ball and an above average
Starting point is 00:09:52 starter on the other, whichever way that works out for this trade to be worth it. But I do think if you look at the skills that he brings on both sides, playing at receiver, he can be in the slot if he need him to be. He can be outside if you need him to be. as a corner, I think that if they're running a lot of zone that's going to really kind of work in his favor, there are ways in which you can try to avoid him being a high-impact player in terms of needing to tackle a bunch.
Starting point is 00:10:16 And I think if you're able to accomplish that, then this is probably a success on just taking a chance on something in general. I am just really fascinated to see about what the usage really is when we start looking ahead at what Jacksonville is going to be running on offense and defense. Well, obviously, like, the floor is very high. the floor, not the floor, but the ceiling is very high.
Starting point is 00:10:36 If the ceiling is, we might get like a two-way star a la Otani. Like, that's maybe one of the highest floors we've seen for a non-quarterback in recent draft history or maybe in the whole of draft history. But I would argue that, like,
Starting point is 00:10:49 there is a huge margin for error that you just don't get with these other top five picks. Because, like, even if you look at him as just the cornerback, I think he has versatility. He has a cornerback where he can be a man corner. He can be a zone corner.
Starting point is 00:11:01 He's a playmaker. He's a deterrent. Like, you do not target him. That's how college teams treated him. I could see him getting the Dion treatment where it's, or even like the Richard Sherman treatment for a more modern comparison, where it's like we're not even testing that side of the field, which is like valuable in its own right.
Starting point is 00:11:16 But then when you look at him as a wide receiver, he played primarily in the slot his first year in Colorado, moved to the outside, his second year. And mind you, this isn't a position he's been playing like full time. He didn't play full time both ways at Jackson State. he moves outside and has his best year. He becomes a super star than he was in a slot. You would imagine that's harder to do to make an impact on the outside.
Starting point is 00:11:42 But whether it's like catching the ball short and then turning that into explosive plays, catching 50-50 balls down the sideline, winning on vertical routes, like there's a lot of versatility when you look at both sides of his skill set. So I think even if he fails as a cornerback and then fails as a slot receiver, you can put him outside. If he fails outside as a receiver, you can put him in the inside. If he fails as a perimeter quarterback, you can try him on the inside. So there's so many different things you can do with them.
Starting point is 00:12:06 But I think this is like a high floor move for the Jaguars, even though there's a ton of risk here. That's interesting. Yeah, the bust factor is lower because he could, you know, he can bust on one side of the ball and be good. He can still be good on the other side of the ball. And then you still have a player. I mean, it is true, especially when you look at what, you know,
Starting point is 00:12:26 wide receiver 3s get paid in today's NFL. Like, you know, if that is the actual. a floor, then it's like, all right, you know, he's performing like a $10 million per year player. If he's a wide receiver too, now you're talking differently about it. So there definitely is that upside, especially on a rookie contract, that even if he were awesome just at wide receiver, then at least contract-wise you'd be getting it now, not draft compensation-wise. You obviously would need more than that to justify it. But it's fun. Let's see what it looks like. I mean, just offensively, Trevor Lawrence, Brian Thomas Jr., Travis Hunter,
Starting point is 00:13:02 new coordinator and coach and Liam Cohen. Let's see what it looks like. And then defensively, who knows as well. So just now, I will say this. This isn't like, this is a new coaching staff and inexperienced coaching staff. He's not going to a team where I'm like, they're going to have a great plan to try to make this thing that no one's ever tried in, you know, in 60 years. they're going to have a plan to make it work. So that makes me a little like, I don't know what their plan is. I can't say I have a lot of faith in them. Which team would have a plan?
Starting point is 00:13:32 Which team would you trust to do that? Because no one's ever done it. Yeah, I mean, well, if you said like the Steelers or the Ravens or the Chiefs or like there's probably a handful of teams. Teams would have institution, like proven institutional knowledge of how to handle just where I trust their confidence. Unconventional situations. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:51 But you're right. I mean, it doesn't mean that they would have a better plan, but it's, least I would be like, well, they've proved competent at their jobs where the Jaguars have been a disaster of a franchise since Shod Khan bought the team, like literally the worst franchise in the NFL when you just look at win. So that makes me a little bit nervous, but they got new people in charge. So maybe they will make it work. All right, I went on the record. Now, you guys did not go, Deonté, would you're James Gladstone? Would you have made this deal if it were on the table? I don't know if I would have made the deal if it was on the table.
Starting point is 00:14:24 grown said no. I don't think so. I don't think so. And it really says nothing about Travis Hunter as a player. I just think the future draft capital is a little bit more, a little too valuable for what we can't say for certain looks like an all pro at either side of the ball. Like to me,
Starting point is 00:14:40 in my evaluation of him, I look at him as more as like a B plus player on both sides. He has a potential on both sides of the ball. But I would say stepping into the league because of the size, I would say it's probably closer to B plus. And I just don't know. if that's enough to make that move. And like you said, Shield, this is not an offensive tackle.
Starting point is 00:14:58 This is not an edge rusher. This is not a quarterback that you're moving up for, right? Like Houston was very aggressive to go acquire Will Anderson a couple of drafts ago. And I think that, you know, I think they might end up being bailed out of this because they were able to deal Laramie Tunsel. So they don't really have to feel the loss of draft capital that they handed away to make that deal over the next couple of drafts. But like those are the kinds of players I think about where it's like,
Starting point is 00:15:21 all right, if you're an all pro at that position, at these positions, it instantly changes, right, the trajectory of your franchise. I'm just not certain about Travis Hunter, the usage and whether or not he's going to be healthy enough, whether or not they're going to land a role that works on both sides of the ball. That's not to say he's incapable. I just think it's really expensive for an organization that has not bought a lot of confidence for me over the last couple seasons.
Starting point is 00:15:47 Ruiz? Yes or no? I would have done. I like the move. So I guess I got to say yes. Okay. I would have done it. I like the conviction.
Starting point is 00:15:55 I like the fact that I think Gladstone is viewing this first round pick that he traded last, or next year as one that's going to be at the bottom half of the draft. I think that that was always like the secret to the Rams approach was they didn't value those first round picks as much as other teams might have because they just assumed they'd be drafting in the last 10 picks of the round. I mean, they think he's a foundational player. And if you're going after a foundational player, I don't think the price is ever going to be too high. Are we going to kill the Titans if Cam Ward sticks? because presumably they could have had the same deal and they turned it down. I know they didn't have the pick in hand, but in theory, they kind of did because they didn't take this offer. We wouldn't do that.
Starting point is 00:16:34 So I don't see much of a difference there. All right. So Ruiz says he would do it if he was Gladstone. I think Deonté and I are saying, no, it's just a risk. It's like how much risk are you? Yeah, we all love like, I hope Travis Hunter is the best player in the end. I hope it's evident by week four next year. It's like Travis Hunter is the best player in the NFL.
Starting point is 00:16:53 That would be fantastic. and that possibility exists, again, with the uniqueness of this situation. I would not have been willing to take the risk on if I were glad it's done. But that's why it's fun. All right. Other side of this one, the Browns, you guys might disagree with me on this one. I don't know. But I thought this was a great move for the Cleveland Browns.
Starting point is 00:17:13 When we talked about Andrew Barry when we were going over the GMs during our recent podcast, I think one of the things I mentioned was that he worked under Howie Roseman and he called Howie Roseman the best GM in all of sports, I think he said, during an interview. And I think Howie Roseman's one of his best traits is being able to get out of a mess. Even if it's a mess he created, he's able to get out of it and figure out a path going forward. And I said, I need to see that from Andrew Barry because we know what the Deshawn Watson situation is at this point. There's no longer a debate about, you know, is he going to come back and who he's going to be. We know what that is.
Starting point is 00:17:49 And I felt like they needed some pathway to find a quarterback solution. And that did not exist in this draft with the number two overall picks. So to make this trade and now to go into next year's draft with two first round picks, meanwhile, you're able to build up the rest of your roster. You draft Mason Graham. You've got now these multiple high second round picks tomorrow. I thought it made all the sense in the world. It just gives you flexibility.
Starting point is 00:18:16 It gives you options. if there's a veteran quarterback who comes on the market next offseason, that's great. If you just feel like, hey, with these two picks, we can move up to get somebody we like. That's great as well. So I felt like they needed some kind of life raft to give them an option to find a quarterback in the next year or so here. And so from the Brown's perspective, as much as I would have to have Travis Hunter on my football team, quarterback is everything.
Starting point is 00:18:44 And I would have made this deal every single time if I were. Andrew Barry. Deante, where are you on the brown side of this? I felt like we were laughing about this a week or so ago, right? About how every time a player seemed like they were picking up some steam as being a top three pick, anytime Andrew Barry is in front of a microphone, he made sure that everybody knew that the Browns would be interested in taking the guy, right? When Shador Sanders was still in conversation as being a top five pick, oh yeah, man, you know, we'd consider bringing in the quarterback.
Starting point is 00:19:09 You hear that come through, obviously talking about Travis Hunter last week, you know, as an Otani-like figure. Somebody can play on both sides of the ball. They definitely showed a lot of interest there. The same with Abdul-Carter. So they played it the way that you're supposed to, right? You wanted to make Jacksonville, you wanted to make New York, you wanted to make New England,
Starting point is 00:19:28 Las Vegas, if they were interested in trading up, feel like they needed to get control of the draft. If you knew Cam Ward was going one, you were offering control of the draft or whatever the top prospect was for the teams behind you, and that's what you were going to negotiate off of. And I thought that they played that leverage really well, I thought it was wise. I think their return is great for what this franchise needs to get out of the hole that they've dug themselves.
Starting point is 00:19:51 And Mason Graham is going to be an instant impact player for them. Right. Like that's not a sexy pick, which is fine because I think that this is going to be one of those transactions that we look at two, three years down the road. It's going to be that spider web of they received this from Jacksonville and then they were able to turn that draft capital into these players and these picks. And they were able to do this with the money that they were able to get back based on how they operate in free agents. and seeing all of those things. And we said this in our GM tiers as well, right? If he's a GM that we all believe him to be,
Starting point is 00:20:20 if he's as wise as he puts out, you know, in front of microphones based on the relationships he's built in the media and what we've heard reported about him and how they try to approach things as, you know, with as much innovation with all the analytics and taking in an account every different perspective as possible, this was going to be the draft where they start putting that in the motion. And I think that this trade is probably the first step in doing so.
Starting point is 00:20:42 Yeah, I can't remember the last time, I was like this impressed by Moos from this organization in particular. But the last time was probably around 2017, 2018, and what did they have to show for that? I feel like it's the smart approach, but it's the smart approach based on one viewing the league through one lens. And that's the analytically inclined lens where you're trying to stock up on draft capital. You always adhere to positional value because I think that's what this was. I think the bounds were like, we're not going to.
Starting point is 00:21:14 get a quarterback here, obviously. This is an offer you can't resist. Of course, we're going to move down, and we'll just, you know, we'll just take a defensive tackle and try to get a quarterback next year. But, like, what if it doesn't work? And they did pass on Travis Hunter. And this would be like, what, the fourth or fifth time in the last 10 years that Browns fans have had to watch their team trade down, stock up on draft picks, miss out on generational talents, and then have nothing to show for it a couple years later. Like, I think on paper it is the right move, but the right move isn't always made on paper. And I think, like, we're seeing two ends of that spectrum here with the Browns making a very, like, the right move based on numbers and the Jaguars making the risky move.
Starting point is 00:21:50 But if in three years we see that Travis Hunter is one of the best players in the NFL, and Mason Graham's a good player, but not much more. And the Browns didn't end up finding a quarterback, which is very huge if, even with the section of first round pick. It's still a huge if, as evidenced by the Brown's entire history, then I think we're going to be having questions about the process here. It kind of feels like the Browns are getting the Fell Forward Again Award here. Like how many times are going to be able to make the same move without showing any progress for it? Yeah, there's no guarantee. There's never a guarantee. It's always under 50%.
Starting point is 00:22:26 There's no plan that guarantees you a quarterback. I just, again, if I'm putting myself in their shoes and would I have done this deal, I would have because I just don't see a path for them to compete for a Super Bowl to be relevant without having a quarterback. And I don't know what their other options are. It's not free agency. If it is trade, well, now they have more resources to trade for a veteran quarterback. And again, obviously the best way would be to take a flyer on somebody in the draft. And you're right.
Starting point is 00:22:57 Like we could be at this time next year, we could be like, man, remember last year we thought this was going to be a great quarterback draft? And, you know, we get to the draft next year and we're like, none of those guys are really great prospects. So there's always, always is some uncertainty. I like the flexibility. It gives them. But you are right that if Travis Hunter is just awesome and they got to watch this guy in their, you know, professional sports are littered with tales of misery just like that where every
Starting point is 00:23:26 fan base knows who their team passed up on who eventually turned into a superstar. And, you know, you're having a couple of. drinks with friends and it automatically turns to remember that draft and so and so when we took this or we trade it out and you're or you're watching the guy on a huge stage. You know, Travis Hunter maybe on Monday night football next year. So yes, that that always exists. Having said that, I would have done this deal if I were the Brown. Stiante. I'm doing this deal 100%. I would have done the deal too. I'm just, I'm just playing devil's avid. Yeah. I like that. It's good to show the other side. It makes a lot of sense. And here's how you,
Starting point is 00:24:00 here's how you circumvent that. If you're Andrew Barry, you're bring David Cutcliffe in as a consultant. And then you started asking about Archie Manning. Hey, man. How do you feel about your grandson coming to play for Cleveland? You know, you start building those relationships a little bit, start calling around Indianapolis, seeing all the people that Peyton liked in this time there and make sure they're in the building.
Starting point is 00:24:21 And then, you know, at the top of the draft, you go make your move to go get your quarterback to the future. And you should definitely do that as aggressively as possible because I 100% believe that the Colts and the Giants and a bunch of other teams are going to be on Archwatch as soon as this draft is over. It's a good thing that family doesn't have a history of not letting their players go to inept franchises. There you go. All right.
Starting point is 00:24:44 Jaguars, Browns covered that. Let's take a break. We come back. We got some more big trades. We got no Shador Sanders in the first round. We do have Jackson Dart in the first round. And then some other big storylines we're going to get to. The NFL draft is here.
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Starting point is 00:26:08 So we had jacks, we had another trade, the New York Giants, you know, they draft a dual Carter at number three overall, and then they trade back into the first round. They trade to 25 with the Houston Texans from 34. They give up 99 and a 26 third round. pick and they take Jackson Dart, which Ruiz, you as someone who is going to, you know, I assume continue to rank QBs. If you had to rank QB rooms, let's say, you know, maybe I'm not giving you work, but let's just say in your head, you know, it's July, you're getting excited for football, the QB
Starting point is 00:26:51 room of James, Russ, cutlets, and Jackson Dart. I mean, do you just want to maybe spend a few weeks in North Carolina? Jersey and just attend all those practices and maybe chart some of these passes or how are you feeling about the Giants QB room and their move to trade up for Jackson Dardt? I know right now that at some point I'm going to be ranking all four of these guys that all four of them are going to end up playing. It's going to be Russ first.
Starting point is 00:27:19 Eventually, James is going to get in there. Darts, the fans are going to cry for DART. And then once all three of them, you know, fall in their face, we're back to Tommy Cutlets again for the third straight season. It always comes back to him. Yeah. Cutlets is still there. I'll be honest,
Starting point is 00:27:34 I didn't know cutlets was still there until I was getting ready to send a tweet out tonight. And I'm like, oh, yeah, there's cutlets still on the depth chart. Deonti, I don't know how closely you evaluated Jackson Dart during the pre-draft process. But what do you think of this swing for the giants? I mean, on one hand, it's like, all right, they moved up nine spots and they gave up 99 overall in a 26th third.
Starting point is 00:27:58 This isn't going to ruin your franchise. if you fail here with Jackson Dart. Now, I'm not the biggest Jackson Dart guy, so I would be a no to doing the deal at the same time. I generally operate with the, if you like a quarterback in the first round, and this is the price, like I don't have an issue with going and taking him. Where are you with Jackson Dart? I mean, the tape was just like wholly unimpressive, right?
Starting point is 00:28:23 He's not toolsy. That's the thing. Yeah, usually it's like toolsy guys who are not finished products. I think we talked about that before. that's not Jackson Dart though. And he's one of those guys that you have to squint at every point of the evaluation to see the outline of something that looks interesting, right? And that to me is not a first round quarterback.
Starting point is 00:28:41 I think that Shadr Sanders, in a lot of ways, checks some of the same boxes. And I would say Jackson's Dart is a little bit better than him athletically, not a ton, but a little bit better. And the same thing applies to him as well, right? Like the arm talent is not special. This is not a guy that's driving the ball at all three levels of the field. This is not an anticipatory thrower. He was 100% rigidly locked to the system that he was running at Ole Miss.
Starting point is 00:29:04 This is not a guy that was creating out of structure a bunch. And I just don't see anything on tape that looks like anything other than the design of the offense, allowing Jackson Dart to be able to play on easy mode at all times. And it's not the same as like Tua or Mac Jones who were playing in like at the beginning of the RPL era where teams really didn't have an answer for slants out of the size. slot and you can't even really judge how they're able to process the field. Even with Jackson Dart trying to push a ball down field, none of that looks like, oh, he got to the top of his drop.
Starting point is 00:29:37 He saw where his safety was going and he just knew how to get to the backside of the progression. It's Lane Kiffin drew up this meticulously planned play action pass and all he's got to do was launch the ball 35 yards up to seam and a guy running a post is going to be there. That doesn't translate to the league for me, right? Like I think about Hendon Hooker, I think about a lot of these quarterbacks who come from these very quarterback-friendly college offenses where you don't have to do any of the heavy lifting
Starting point is 00:30:02 at the line of scrimmage or once the ball is snapped. Jackson Dart's going to be one of those guys who's probably two years away from being two years away as a processor. And the Giants need more than that. They need a guy at least athletically that could step right in and be able to bail them out of some problems. He's not going to be that guy. And I don't trust Brian Davel, based on his work with Daniel Jones,
Starting point is 00:30:21 over the last couple of seasons, to be able to get that out of dart either. Yeah, it's tough. The move wasn't that expensive for them. It wasn't a rich deal. It's not going to be a prohibitive deal in the future for whoever. If they have a new GM next year, he's not going to be handicapped by this deal. But the next coaching staff probably will be because they'll be tied to this quarterback,
Starting point is 00:30:41 whether Dayball's there or not. I don't think John Mayer is going to be like, all right, we dropped this guy in the first round. And I know we got rid of Dayball and Shane, but you don't have to, you know, commit to this guy. I don't think that's going to be the case. I think you're locked into, like, at least three years of Jackson Dart being your future if you're the Giants.
Starting point is 00:30:59 And that's not a future that I'm necessarily excited to be a part of just based on what you guys have laid out. I mean, even beyond the tape, because like, as we have said many times, like, nobody is good at evaluating these quarterbacks and projecting what they're going to be. But you can evaluate objectively tools. And he just doesn't have tools that compare to the top quarterbacks in the NFL that we see today. And I saw Sal Pal Antonio mentioned that Brian Daibal had compared him to Josh Allen. And if you're seeing Josh Allen on his tape, like I need to see the tape you're watching because I don't see any. The size isn't there.
Starting point is 00:31:32 Like I know Dart is a bigger quarterback compared to Shador Sanders, but he's not Josh Allen. He doesn't have Josh Allen's arm. Like what part of Josh Allen's game does he have besides the bad footwork coming out of the league? The quarterback who played in New York that comps best to him is Zach Wilson. That's like, and I think that Zach Wilson is a better extender than Jackson Dart was. As you said that, I'm like, hmm, I actually think that that does make sense.
Starting point is 00:31:56 Make sense. Like you think about Zach Wilson at BYU, a lot of the hype around him was like, oh, the deep ball. And then you go and you watch the deep ball. And it's like, these are all very high arc passes, which are beautiful to watch. Like there's nothing better on the end zone copy than seeing a quarterback, tilt the shoulders, launch one. And you just get to see the trajectory of the ball the whole way. That looks great. How many throws in the NFL do you get to see from that?
Starting point is 00:32:19 Even from a Josh Allen, a Patrick Mahomes, a Matthew Stafford. those aren't the passes that beat high-level NFL defenses. They don't even give you access to those unless something's gone horribly wrong. You're going to have to drive the ball in the closing windows. That was not Ole Miss's offense. That's not what they had to deal with in terms of the defenses they saw because of the ways that they played on offense. And Jackson Darts tools, to the point that Stephen's making,
Starting point is 00:32:44 don't portend themselves to look like a quarterback that can adjust to the NFL game by being able to make those passes. So it's going to be a lot of the TAs, the RPO game, the back foot, and you've just got to throw the ball to a spot, and you've got to really be able to have some great velocity. That's what Jared Gough has been able to do over his career, is that he has underrated arm talent and velocity on those passes. You don't see that when in Jackson, Dars's tape.
Starting point is 00:33:09 I don't think he's going to develop that once he gets to the league. This is the guy that's been in college a long time. I don't know why this is the guy you trade up for, even if the price is not that expensive. Is this like the Bo Nix effect? Like we saw Bo Nix obviously have some success. they got to the playoffs. His stats, he didn't like the world on fire with his stats. But it felt like the takeaway.
Starting point is 00:33:29 Jane and Daniels was a different thing, but they were both kind of lumped in because they were older prospects. And we're kind of seeing that with Jackson Dart. But he didn't play in a system like Deonti said earlier that translates to the NFL. We've never seen a quarterback from this style of offense succeed in the NFL. That's not hyperbole. We've literally never seen a quarterback from this offense succeed. We've seen every single one of them fall flat on their faces and actually play worse than where they were.
Starting point is 00:33:53 draft it. So yeah, that's the hard part for me. I don't take issue with the price they paid. It's just that having the confidence that this guy is going to be a job saver, I just don't see it. I would have preferred them kind of sit back, see where the draft board falls, maybe Shador falls for you. And if that's the consolation price, so be it. I don't see Jackson Dart as a quarterback can use it to trade up to draft. And I'd say Nick has a better arm and he's a better athlete. So like even in that, like, no doubt. That's a tough. comp to make as well. This is just, I just don't see it, right? It's just you have to take a very particular view to make this work and I don't see it working out. Again, yes, quarterback evaluation
Starting point is 00:34:33 is very difficult. I'm sure we all had takes before where we didn't think a guy was going to be good and he was good or vice versa. So the NFL can't figure it out. I mean, you see that every single year with where guys go and then who's good. But let's be honest here. If they were, if Joe Shane was just hired as GM, this office he said of the New York John, then not making this move. They're not trading back up in the first round. They're not feeling that urgency to, hey, we have to get a young quarterback in here right now. This is, to me, a Hail Mary attempt where you sign Russ, you sign James. I mean, there's a lot connecting Brian Dayball to this. I think Albert Breer reported that Dayball got glowing reports from Joe Judge and Charlie Weiss, which to me,
Starting point is 00:35:18 if I'm a giant fan. Why am I taking their opinions on how they feel about quarterbacks? Yeah, I mean, because they worked, yeah, they worked with Jackson Dart at Ole Miss. So I think to me, this is a, hey, Hail Mary attempt. Maybe he gets in there, flashes, you can design some stuff. He looks good. There's some excitement about the team. It feels like they're trending in the right direction and you buy yourselves another year. Now, we've talked about it before.
Starting point is 00:35:42 It doesn't, it does drafting the quarterback in the first round guarantees you nothing. Guys get fired all the time after drafting quarterbacks in the first round. But it gives you a chance if he's good. versus James, Russ, and Cutlets gave you no chance. So it's a Hail Mary. I don't think it's likely to work. You guys don't think it's likely to work. It's not a crazy cause.
Starting point is 00:36:04 So if you're a Giants fan and you say, well, at least it gives us a little bit of excitement or a reason to watch training camp or whatever, and that's fine. I don't think they're going to be a very good team this year. I think they're going to be in a situation next year where I know Ruiz, you said this probably is, you know, this could tie you to him.
Starting point is 00:36:22 for two or three years. It could go very badly. If they have a terrible year this year and they're picking in the top five next year, I wouldn't be surprised. They could very easily be looking at quarterback once again, especially if they've got a new coach and a new GM at this time next year. I'm just kind of shocked that ownership allowed them to do this. You said, like, if this was the first year, they wouldn't be doing this.
Starting point is 00:36:44 I'm shocked that it might be their last year and they're letting him do this. Like, I can't overstate how badly 2004 went for these things. Like not even the seat, they went three games, and it never felt like they had a chance of being anything throughout the season. Like from the first game, I think they played the Vikings in the first game, got blown out and it felt like the season was already over. They had to cut a quarterback that they gave $160 million to just two years prior to that. This regime, yes, I feel like that does, I feel like in some people's heads, it's like that was a previous regime. No, no, that was this, these people did that. And then there was the Sequan-Bartley fiasco, which was so bad.
Starting point is 00:37:22 have to say this again, it was so bad that hard-docs off-season is now canceled because nobody wants to get embarrassed like they did. We got deprived of good content because of how bad it was. Yeah. No, I'm with you. I mean, listen, if you really want to rip them, you could just take a step back and be like, they went into this off-season with, they probably thought they were going to get fired. The owner's like, no, I don't want to be viewed as an impulsive owner. You know, I'm a classy owner. Let's get. And with their backs against the wall to figure this out, they go Russ, James and trade up for Jackson Dart.
Starting point is 00:37:56 I mean, that's tough. I know, listen, I know they tried other options and they weren't available to them, but you know what? Everyone in the NFL is playing by the similar rules
Starting point is 00:38:07 where it's not easy. That's why you have to figure it out. And I don't know that they figured it out. Imagine you went back in time of year and told Giants fans that that was their outlook for 2025. That's what I'm saying. You'd be horrified. And the crazy thing is right now you don't feel much better
Starting point is 00:38:22 than you would a year ago if you heard that. Right. Yeah. Well, Abdul Carter hopefully is a fun player if you're a Giants fan and maybe you got some pass rush this year and a fun defensive line there. All right, that was not, though, the worst trade of the night. I can quite easily identify the worst trade of the night, which we're going to talk about next year,
Starting point is 00:38:42 which is, in my opinion, the Atlanta Falcons trading up from 46 to 26 for edge rusher James Pierce, Jr. And in doing so, they give up a 2026 first round pick. Now, they do get a third this year, so I want to be fair. They got a third and a seventh this year. But they give up a 2026 first round pick to move up 20 spots and take James Pierce, Jr., Deante, before I go off, if you can, explain this to me from the Atlanta Falcons perspective.
Starting point is 00:39:26 Why are you putting that on Deontes? Oh, I don't want that on my shoulders. All right, Ruiz. You want to play you? You want to do the devil's advocate? All right, you are Terry Fontenow. Please explain this to me. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:39:42 Like, I feel invincible because I got away with what I did last year in the draft. Who cares? Like, I'll just do whatever I want. He earned goodwill by taking the first Georgia player, I think the Falcons have drafted in 50 years. And how is that possible? They have been a powerhouse. You're right there. I couldn't believe that when that graphic flashed on the screen.
Starting point is 00:40:00 Sorry, to interrupt you. I have nothing else. I wasn't going to come up with a salient point about how this was like low-key smart strategy. No, it's a bad trade by a bad GM. And it's straight out of the Mickey Loomis playbook. You know, you trade back into the first round for an edge rusher who's never going to do anything for you anyway. And you just trade it back to get a name, right?
Starting point is 00:40:22 Like, that's it. You leave this first round with a tweener at 15 that probably would have been available at 26 when you made the trade, to be honest with you. And then you trade up to 26, give up a future first round pick, which we talked about it with Jacksonville, right, that the assumption is that they're going to be picking in the back half of the first round. I don't know if Terry Fondon knows this. The Falcons do not project to be a team that's drafting 25.
Starting point is 00:40:47 or later coming up this season. So this could very easily be giving up a top 12 pick in next year's draft to get an edge rusher who I don't know if he can be a three-down player totally, undersized, a guy that was productive, but you actually look at the pass rush wins, and it's not always stuff that's going to easily translate to the NFL level. And then you have Jalen Walker, who's going to probably need his entire rookie year just to find out what his real role is going to be in an NFL defense, whether it's at edge or off the ball or a combination of both. And I am once again looking at a Falcons roster that just does not make
Starting point is 00:41:26 any sense to me. I don't feel like they've actually checked off the necessary boxes to get themselves over the hump in their division and certainly not in the conference at large. And Terry Fonton, I was just going to get away with this again. We're going to be right back here next year in the draft. And they're going to be giving up more future draft capital to get a first round pick in for a name that you've heard of, but not a guy that solves their problems. I really try to be careful with like, you know, takes on draft night because it's like, I don't have all the answers. I could be totally wrong about some of these players.
Starting point is 00:41:57 But this, I will be shocked if, you know, our takes on this age poorly. I mean, this is reckless, you know, reckless roster management. This is malpractice. I wrote down in my notes, like, worship. front office in the NFL, I think now, is the Atlanta Falcons. Now, I would have to take a deeper, you know, take some more time to figure out if they're worse than some of the other ones. But this is a crazy move to trade up and give up a 2026 first.
Starting point is 00:42:28 You mentioned it, Deonti, they are such a, you know, the low variance for them next year is very low. They could stink next year. Now, I don't know that I'll predict them to stink. They're probably more mediocre or slightly below average. But there's a scenario where they absolutely suck next year in a draft that is supposed to have good quarterback talent where that first round picked that they possess could be really, really, really valuable. And who do they move up for? To your point, I mean, if you pull teams around the NFL and ask them to rank like the edge rushers that were available from 26 to whenever the Falcons would be picking in the second round, there would be different orders. This isn't like a home run prospect that dropped for some reason that you can explain and you feel like you're getting a steal.
Starting point is 00:43:18 Maybe he'll be good. He played fewer than 35 snaps per game in college. To Deontes' point, I think there's a lot of concern by some NFL teams that he is not a three-down player in the NFL. He's undersized. You already drafted an edge rusher earlier in the round. And this is the rule number one for the offseason. but the draft don't fall in love. You fell in love.
Starting point is 00:43:41 You convinced yourself that we have to have this guy and you give up a future first round pick to acquire him. I don't know what you're doing, why you would do that, why there's no one in the room who says, let's just chill. Maybe we make some bobo offer. And if they take it, all right, they take it. But no, a future first. How is no one in the room stand up and say, no, we are not doing that.
Starting point is 00:44:06 Chill in the second round. we'll get another player, we'll get another edge rusher. He's not like on some other tier compared to everyone else we have. This was a shocking trade. This was the worst move in my opinion by any team in the first round. I totally agree with you. I don't even know. I haven't seen an argument in favor of the trade.
Starting point is 00:44:26 I'm really interested to see how Terry Fondon and Arthur Blank and the brain trust there justifies it. But I just don't see how this really works out for Terry Fonto. Like I disagree with Deonti. I don't think we're going to be talking about this next year because I think Fondon is going to be out of there. And if he isn't, then all power to him. Like, that's an amazing job security
Starting point is 00:44:48 that I couldn't even fathom. But that's what it feels like. It feels like this guy has won like two Super Bowls and can do no wrong. I don't know how you pull off this boot and convince ownership to back it. The last two years with them, again, the Pennix thing looks good now,
Starting point is 00:45:02 but it wasn't about just the Pennix pick. It was about the cousins' signing and then the penics pick and then this, I mean, the last year for them has just been laughable disasters with these moves they've made from the beginning of the draft last year or the cousin
Starting point is 00:45:18 signing to the draft, to the season they had to this draft, the first round of this draft has just been a complete disaster. Now on the other end of that, nice job by the Los Angeles Rams because I know how we need is so good at this. Yeah, I mean, this is fantastic for them. They were probably, they were probably
Starting point is 00:45:36 he was probably shocked. He probably thought he heard wrong. You had a bad sell or something like, wait, the 2026 first because they move back. They now have two first round picks going into next year's draft where their team that really can take advantage of that flexibility. I mean, if Stafford's looking good next year and they're close, now all of a sudden, you can trade that first round pick and get a veteran that's on the market and really try to go for it again.
Starting point is 00:46:03 If Stafford starts showing signs of age and it felt like they were a little concerned with that last year with the little, you know, dance they did with Stafford in the offseason. Well, now you have an opportunity to do the hardest thing in the NFL, which is to go from one really good veteran quarterback to not missing a beat and taking a flyer on another one. Now, I know it's not going to work out for all these teams, but I'm just saying they have the flexibility now to do that. I mean, that could be a top 10, a top eight pick. That's definite.
Starting point is 00:46:31 But even if it's like the 15th pick, I mean, what a valuable resource that is to move back 20 spots. And by the way, a draft that all anyone could agree on in this draft was like, hey, not much of a difference between 20 and 50 in this draft. You know, the middle, there's just all kinds of players in there. That's where you're, and they're able to just move back 20 spots. They'll probably still get a player they like in the second round. And now all of a sudden they have a first round pick in their pocket. So huge, huge win, in my opinion, for the Los Angeles Rams. And we had also heard like, oh, like in the in the run up to the draft tonight, to the first round, We heard like, oh, watch out, like, picks 20 to 25.
Starting point is 00:47:09 There could be a lot of action. Could be teams looking to move up, which I think now we could say was probably a smokescreen. Yeah. But the trades that did happen after the Jaguars trade, we had to wait a long time to get our second trade. One was for a quarterback, which, like, regardless of how you feel about Jackson Dart, that's always, you can always explain that away. We thought he was our guy. You got to trade for your guy.
Starting point is 00:47:28 The other trade was the Eagles jumping up one pick. Like, they didn't really, it wasn't a major move at all. The Falcons were the one team. that wanted to get back into this range. Like you said, like no one else really wanted to be here. They wanted to move down. The Falcons were like, actually, we'll do it.
Starting point is 00:47:42 And we'll give up a package that nobody would have expected. And reputation matters so much, right? Like, not only are the Falcons unnecessarily aggressive in these situations. They've also proven to just, like, have a bad kind of hold on value, a bad understanding of value outside of day one draft capital. And you made a deal with the team that knows how to use day two and day three, draft capital as well, if not better than anyone in the league. Even looking at what's remaining in the 2025 draft for the Rams, they've got like four six-round
Starting point is 00:48:13 picks. I trust less need to somehow find a starter with these four-sixth round picks. They've got a fourth round. There's enough where they can move around. They can pair up their number 90 pick, which is in the third round, and 127, which is in the fourth round, to move up to get closer to pick 50. And they might be able to find multiple starters on day two. and still have enough day three depth.
Starting point is 00:48:38 And I think that Jordan Rodriguez at the athletic pointed this out on X tonight, which is that they've now loaded up and got themselves some 2026 insurance in case this year is not a contending year. They don't have to be committed to Matthew Stafford. They don't have to be committed to Devante Adams after this season. If it just comes up that this needs to be a clean break and leaning on the vets for one more year on offense, we've gotten all that we can get out of it and it's time to turn the page.
Starting point is 00:49:04 they've now got all the ammunition you need to be able to control their future going forward now because of what they were able to do tonight. And that's exactly what you want to see from a GM, is that if they can't ensure that they can get the guy that's going to make a change right now, they have now given themselves a bunch of different opportunities moving forward. And I think that that's why Lesneed continues to come out of drafts looking like one of the best GMs in the league. And the Falcons are like on the other end of that. Like the Rams are like, oh, wait, we expect them to be good.
Starting point is 00:49:32 But if they aren't good, like they have these options. where the Falcons are like, we expect them to be bad. And even if they aren't bad, and they don't get. And they don't have their pick. Yeah. In the worst spot. Yeah, that's a, well said. That's, you summed it up in one sentence, what it is for both, both of these teams here.
Starting point is 00:49:47 So we will see what happens. I mean, and if you're a Rams fan, you get the excitement. This is an underrated excitement, exciting thing to be a fan when you have another team's first round pick. Like now if you're a Rams fan, you're invested in every Falcons game next year. You are just rooting against that. And they're in the conference. So, like, they get to play common.
Starting point is 00:50:04 opponent so you get to see them all the time. Yeah, there's little that's better than that. Also, the Falcons. So there's going to be some, like, hilarious losses, too. Yes. They're going to be like, oh, they're going to win this game. They're going to Falcons it. Yeah, no doubt about it. All right. Let's take a break. We come back. We will get to the big storyline. Shador Sanders falling out of the first round. Why did it happen? Should a team have taken a flyer on him? Where will he go in the second round? And then we will run through some other picks that caught our attention. All right.
Starting point is 00:50:35 We're back on the ringer NFL. So now I feel like a real hipster podcast because we didn't get to Shador Sanders until we're like 45 minutes into the podcast. You know what? I think it's okay because I think people were watching going, all right, enough with the shots of Shador Sanders. If he gets picked, tell me more about him, but we don't need to do this over and over and over again.
Starting point is 00:50:55 And so Sanders does not get picked. The closest it felt like was 21 where the Steelers just. sat there. They didn't have to trade up. They had the 21st overall pick. And I think there was a report. I don't know if it was NFL network or ESPN that they were a little bit torn in the building that should we take a flyer on Chador Sanders with that pick or not. They choose not to do that, taking Derek Harmon, the defensive tackle from Oregon. Now, Josina Anderson reported after the first round that the Steelers wanted an answer from Aaron Rogers before the draft. And they know the outcome.
Starting point is 00:51:32 of that conversation. So did they go into the draft knowing that, nope, Aaron Rogers is going to be our quarterback. If they didn't know that, would they have taken Chador Sanders? I don't know. But anyway,
Starting point is 00:51:43 he doesn't get taken in the first round. Brown's pick 33rd and 36th. On Friday, will they draft Shador Sanders and say, hey, we didn't have to take him in the first. We didn't have to trade up. But in the second,
Starting point is 00:51:55 we got this extra second round pick. It's worth it. Or will he just continue to fall, maybe to a mystery team? Ruiz, think of this? Were you surprised? Did you think the Steelers should have taken him at 21? And how do you think this thing plays out? I guess I'm not surprised. I'm kind of surprised because I guess everyone expected him to go in the first round. But like when you consider all the reporting we
Starting point is 00:52:17 heard about like, oh, we don't know if he's like too cocky. It was borderline entitlement. I'm always like uncomfortable hearing that from like guys in the NFL because we know they know they've done around those tropes all the time. But I do think the league as a whole told us how they felt about Sanders because we haven't seen second round quarterbacks be a thing the last couple of years. And the fact that he wasn't taking on the first round and leads me to believe that the league, I don't think viewed him as even a second round prospect, which when you watch the tape, I think there's a wide range of evaluations with this particular prospect. And that was always going to be the case because he's a polarizing figure just based on him being
Starting point is 00:52:51 Dion's son, based on being the face of one of the more polarizing college programs of the last couple of years. But when you watch his tape, there's nothing remarkable about it. I think people sell his accuracy, but that's only because that's really the only thing you can sell. He doesn't have a big arm. He's not a fast guy. He's not a big guy.
Starting point is 00:53:11 He's not a guy that makes the best decisions every time. He's not Joe Burrow. I've seen people throughout that comp, and I don't get where that's coming from at all. So in the fact that he did drop to the second round, like I wonder if maybe there is a chance that he falls to the third round. Because if teams don't view him as the second round talent and they're not willing to move up in the first,
Starting point is 00:53:31 that maybe they did view them as a third round talent all along. And like I said, if you watch the tape, I do think you could see that conclusion. Deante, I mean, the big question is, is this all tape, traits, prospect evaluation, what percentage of it is what Ruiz was saying? Is they're just like, oh, it's going to be a circus, it's Dion's kid.
Starting point is 00:53:56 Because I think that's going to be a big part of the conversation. I do think when people put too much into that, I'm with you guys. It's like, nope, I think most people who just kind of, if you just looked at the film and you, nothing else, you weren't like, I'm blown away by this guy. At the same time, Jackson Dart did get taken in the first round, and I wouldn't be like, yeah, he has first round film either. So it is kind of a hard conversation to say, all right, well, what was it more of? Was it just a combination of the two, Deonti?
Starting point is 00:54:23 How do you see that? It's certainly a combination of the two. The phrase I keep coming back to his margin for error. Every time I think about Shador, it's all about margin for error. If you think about the tape, right, there's not a lot of margin for error because there aren't any impressive physical tools that you're evaluating. If anything, I would say he comes across, and I kind of wrote this about this, and they should be up on the site at the ringer tomorrow by the time this podcast goes up.
Starting point is 00:54:45 You watch Shadour, and if you're optimistic, Stephen said it. You say, oh, he's an anticipatory thrower. Oh, he's an accurate passer. I think if you're looking a little bit more pessimistically or a little more pragmatically, he comes across as like a hyper-trained quarterback, which makes a lot of sense. You're a legacy kid. You're a legacy football player. You've been trained to play this position since high school.
Starting point is 00:55:06 Your father has been your head coach at every stop so far in your football life. And I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that coming in the door, right? Like you use the tools that you have to the best of your ability. And I think that Dion has done a really good job, kind of manicuring an opportunity for Chodor to develop and try to maximize what he has available to him. But that margin for error is slim on the field. And if you have a slim margin for error on the field, you know what you don't want to hear is that teams feel the way that the reports are out there that they felt about them in the interview process.
Starting point is 00:55:38 I'm not here to say whether any of that is true or not. And like Stephen, like you said, Sheel, usually when I hear that, I almost by default, go in the opposite direction. Me too. Because I just don't trust NFL establishment, NFL establishment media. A lot of times to get those messages across. It's usually dripping in a bunch of other stuff that we all know we don't have to. say. But I will say like the margin for error is slim in that respect because there's nothing on film to back it up and say even if he is this way. We can look at the film and say this guy
Starting point is 00:56:07 still worked it because he can win us football games. I'll use an example from just last year's draft. Some of the criticism that we heard about Caleb Williams almost bordered on like challenges to his masculinity based on his demeanor, how he handled losses and stuff like that. And that was a lot of stuff I was really uncomfortable with. But at the end of the day, Chicago never had to think about it. Because you turn on the tape and you see the guy roll out and jump and throw a past 55 yards downfield on a rope. And what is there to talk about? That's a quarterback you take number one overall. That kind of tape doesn't exist for Shador.
Starting point is 00:56:36 And then you look at the profile. I think he's taking 96 sacks, 94 sacks over the last two years. And it's time to throw was like 2.96 seconds. Here are the four quarterbacks that took that long to throw or longer. Sam Donald, a guy we don't trust. We've all said we don't trust him as a quarterback. Jake Hainer, a guy. you don't trust as a quarterback, a backup, Lamar Jackson, the most dynamic athlete in the NFL
Starting point is 00:56:59 at the position, and Jalen Hertz, a guy who we were very frustrated with all year long because of how long it takes him to throw the ball, and he takes a bunch of sacks as well, and he is in maybe the most perfectly manicured situation to be a guy that holds the ball forever and it not wreck your offense's viability. Shador Sanders does have an uphill climb, I think, as a quarterback, and I think that tonight was a manifestation of how slim the margin for error was, because if Pittsburgh was the team, they only have this pick in the first 64. They don't have a second round pick. So if they're waiting on him or Aaron Rogers, I'm going to ask Aaron Roger.
Starting point is 00:57:34 And if Aaron Rogers says yes or I'm seriously considering it, I'm not spending the 21st pick on a quarterback that has this profile coming into the league. So it's unfortunate that the conversation kind of drug on so long, because I think the now Shador is just going to be subject to a bunch of stuff that is unnecessary now because there's a race to put content out. But he just wasn't a first round quarterback. And I can't say that I'm shocked in hindsight that this is the way that night one played out in the draft. I mean, when you view him, like, I ended up liking him a bit more than I expected to like him just based on the live viewings when I watched the tape.
Starting point is 00:58:05 I was like, all right, I see what's here. But like, when you watch the tape, do you even see a second round prospect there? Like, I really didn't see it with a lot of these guys outside of Cam Ward, who I think is the most under. I'm completely shocked that he didn't get more hype throughout the draft season after like really diving into his film the last week or so. But with Shador, I really do think that the first issue was the tape. And then the personality was a secondary issue and the whatever, distraction, whatever you want to call it, of having Dion be your dad and everything that that brings, all the media attention that brings.
Starting point is 00:58:39 I think that was the secondary in this regard. We've seen that throughout. This is the draft. Like, we've seen difficult personalities go first overall all the time. Yeah. If you think a guy can play and win your games, then you're overlaught. looking pretty much any other thing you could possibly see. The narrative was written months ago.
Starting point is 00:58:59 It was written at the Combine when all the reports started leaking out that like teams didn't love his interview process. So I think that's going to end up being the prevailing notion. But I think at the end of the day, the real evaluators, the guys that are making decisions in those those war rooms just didn't see a player that was worth the hype. And maybe this will end up be the best thing for him. We'll see where he lands. Maybe he'll land with a, you know, experience.
Starting point is 00:59:22 offense, offensive coach. So it'll be interesting in the second round. Browns have the first and fourth pick. The Raiders have the fifth pick, would they say? The Browns are going to take them. I feel like the Browns are going to let two picks pass without taking a quarter. They are a positional value-pilled team in front of all. I just, we've seen them take swings on quarterbacks in the second round,
Starting point is 00:59:45 like going back to the early stages of the money ball experiment. So I just don't think that will happen. And they can do that and not have her preclude other needs. needs that they need to address, right? Which is really what that trade did for them, is it allowed them the opportunity to do so? If it's not them, though, I could see him sliding more than anybody expected. Jets at 42, would they consider it? New Orleans at 40, another team that might consider it.
Starting point is 01:00:09 How about the Niners, Ruiz, at 43? No, that's not happening. It's not happening. No? Okay. I can't imagine he and Kyle Shanahan would get along the greatest in a quarterback room. Seahawks at 50 and 52. that's a real possibility that's kind of similar
Starting point is 01:00:25 to the Browns thing are they just like hey we got Darnold for one year you have to like him that's the thing you know if you don't like him you're not just taking MVP
Starting point is 01:00:33 because like hey it's the second round you take him so it has to be a team that likes him so that will be the story on Friday night how far does he fall
Starting point is 01:00:42 where does he land what's the setup all those things so we will see what happens there with Shadour Sanders sorry a few other story lines here
Starting point is 01:00:52 we can look at and then if there's anything else you guys wanted to get to. Raiders didn't eat their vegetables. First we thought, all right, Brady's going to. Now, I didn't see Brady in the draft room. I don't know if he was there or not. I did when they showed it on TV. I didn't see him in there. I saw SpyTech.
Starting point is 01:01:08 I saw Pete Carroll. I saw Mark Davis. You know, they had the press conference last week where I forget what Pete Carroll said when he was asked about Jent. Be careful. Yeah. I mean, Pete Carroll. He still got his fastball.
Starting point is 01:01:21 That's what I learned, man. All right, here's what we'll do. We'll make it obvious that we want this guy. We'll make it so obvious that everyone will say it's too obvious. There's no way they're going to take him. And what do they do? They end up taking Ashton Genties. So this to me is a little bit like the Jaguars Travis Hunter conversation.
Starting point is 01:01:38 Where if you're a Raiders fan, be excited, man. You get to watch this dude every day, every week next year, every week. Hopefully, stay healthy for the next four years. He is a very, very fun back and having a fun back. is a great fan experience. Now, should they've eaten their vegetables and taken Membu or someone else? The nerd in me is saying, yeah, probably they should have gone offensive line. But that doesn't mean it's not going to be a lot of fun to have Ashton Genty on your football team.
Starting point is 01:02:08 Ruiz, what do you think? Were you surprised? I think we had landed on they're not going to take Genti on this pod. So we got duped by Pete as well. I'm a little surprised. I'm a little bummed out too because I do think there's been like resurgence of the star running back over the last couple years, or over the last year, really. But the common denominator there is a decent offensive line, or a good offensive line,
Starting point is 01:02:31 or you have Lamar Jackson in his gravity. And the Raiders don't have that. So I'm expecting, like, a Bejan Robinson situation where, like, it's clear that this guy is awesome and it's fun and we see the flashes, but you're not going to get enough juice from that squeeze. And I just, I don't see how it works out where, like, the Raiders have, like, the Raiders have like this dominant offense where they're able to utilize the running back as much as as teams like front running teams like the Eagles and the Ravens who are up and they have leads
Starting point is 01:03:01 in the second half and you can ice away a game. I could see Ashton Janty's like production just being curtailed by that by game script alone. Yeah. Deontay, you agree? I think that when we were, when we first started doing our mock drafts and just started talking about the draft process, I think that one of the questions, shield, that you had posed and I agreed with this is, what is this draft going to tell us about what the power structure is like in that building?
Starting point is 01:03:27 You know, how much influences Tom Brady have? Was he just here to make sure that the right guys got in the door? Or is he going to have an outsized influence in personnel as well? What is spy tech's belief is going to be like? How does that manifest itself with him being the GM and not being behind Jason Light? And then there's Pete Carroll. And to me, this first round pick,
Starting point is 01:03:45 so it's like Pete Carroll said, give me my guys, right? Give me my guys. And Pete Carroll also strikes me as a coach. I think he can speak to this too, Sheel. Like, not that he doesn't believe in doing things like the smartest ideas football-wise, but he's one of those coaches like eating vegetables is for losers. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:04:00 All right. I want a steak. If I can have a steak, if I can have a burger, why am I going to have Brussels sprouts? You know, like he wants the guys that make, you know, very instant, obvious visual impact on the field on a play-by-play basis. Genty outside of Travis Hunter is a guy who does that more than anybody else in this class. And I can see how it works. I think that every argument that we've heard about you need a great offensive line to maximize running back value is true.
Starting point is 01:04:26 And I think that if it doesn't work, that's going to be the conversation that we're having. To me, if you're Vegas and you're in this position where we're in the AFC West, we're chasing a lot of really talented teams that have franchise quarterbacks and strong infrastructures. We just need to get impact players in the building as quickly as possible. From that standpoint alone, bringing in Gentie makes sense, especially in this class because there wasn't a lot. of things to do unless you were going to totally trade back and get out of the top five or top 10. And I don't know if that would have positioned Las Vegas any better to try to make a quick roster pivot. Yeah, I can just picture care. I haven't seen this press conference, but I can just hear. You know, we want to establish ourselves as a physical, you know, run football team and
Starting point is 01:05:12 this guy, you know, embodies what we want to be about as the Las Vegas, this new era, Las Vegas Raiders football. And he's going to, and he's going to use all these, uh, and he's probably going to refer to the Marshawn Lynch trade back of the day. But I'm with you guys. I mean, yeah, it's great to have the great running back when you have other stuff in place. This roster has a lot of holes. They need a better offensive line. Is he going to be able to be the impact player he can be with this offensive line?
Starting point is 01:05:38 Now, again, if you're a Raiders fan, you could just be like, it's cool. We got Ashton Gentie. We got Brock Bowers. We upgraded your quarterback with Gino Smith. Pete Carroll's bringing a new energy. We got Tom Brady. Like, it's okay to be excited. But yeah, I tend to be with you guys that this probably should have been a more eat your vegetables type of draft.
Starting point is 01:05:57 But maybe we'll be wrong. Maybe he'll be a difference maker. Maybe their offensive line will be just good enough that you can see the impact of a guy like Ashton Gentie. So that was at six, which I thought it worked out great for the Jets. Mbou falls to them at seven. You hope Fashunu comes back from the injury. And now Fashnu and Mbu, it's a nice offensive tackle group there. If you're the Jets, I mean, you still look at this.
Starting point is 01:06:20 And I'm like, Garrett Wilson, Soss Gardner, Quinn and Williams, your linebackers, the tackles, it's like you haven't figured out quarterback and there's some other stuff that I don't want,
Starting point is 01:06:30 but man, there's like some good, young, talented players on this team where you're a Jets fan, Deonti, I feel like, you know,
Starting point is 01:06:39 you can feel a little bit hopeful after this first round. I think you should. You shouldn't hate where you stand right now. I think that they can still use a little bit of wide receiver help. can obviously use help at tight end as well. But this is kind of like a cleansing.
Starting point is 01:06:55 This is going to be kind of like a cleansing season anyways. Where you're just going to, you know, where you're hoping that Aaron Glenn gets guys to play hard, play above their typical level. You try to build up the trenches. I do think they're interior. And this has been the issue with New York for the last like three, four years, right? You look at the names of the offensive line depth chart and you say, if they're healthy, Elijah Barrett Tucker can move bodies in the run game.
Starting point is 01:07:15 John Simpson should be able to help you in the run game. Joe Tipman has proven himself to be a pretty good center. early in his career. If Ola Fashana was a player that he was coming out of Penn State and Armand Mimbo's athleticism applies instantly in the NFL, there's no reason why you can't have a good run game, especially when you consider Justin Fields, Breeze Hall and Braylon Allen in the backfield, right? And you look at the defense and the defense has a lot of the necessary pieces to be a good defense, right? And they just haven't been able to get guys to be healthy and they haven't had the combination of scheme and impact players enough so to be able to get them over that hump.
Starting point is 01:07:48 but I can see the outline of a competitive team. I don't know if this is like a six or seven seed in the AFC. That's kind of tough, given what they're going to be competing against in that conference. But they can be one of the biggest headaches to deal with in the NFL on a week-by-week basis at their best because they have a lot of the component parts you need to do so. I mean, they kind of have, and this is where they got their offensive coordinator from, but they kind of have like the same parts that you saw in Denver last year. Right. The defense plays over. It's had a little bit.
Starting point is 01:08:15 Like we expected it to be good, but it's even better than you expect. the offensive line is way better than anyone in expected. You have a run game. You can put together an easy offense for the quarterback to handle, a limited quarterback in Justin Fields. I don't think in that division you can win 10 games, but I do think they can be competitive. Like we saw early on in Detroit under Dan Campbell,
Starting point is 01:08:39 obviously Aaron Glenn was there. I think that's the goal for this coming season. And then after that you can build upon it. But I agree with you. like this, I just feel like the draft board fell to them in a way where they really couldn't screw things up. It was all about taking the right tackle, but it was very obvious that they were going with that position.
Starting point is 01:08:58 Yeah. If Membu goes to the Raiders, then I don't know what they would do at seven. It would have been a much harder conversation. When we did the mock draft, I was the Jets, and I was like, I want Graham, Membu or Campbell to fall to me and Membue ends up falling to them. All right. Let's do this. I'm going to read out like five picks at a time.
Starting point is 01:09:17 and then open the floor if you have anything to say about any of them. And we'll do that for the to close out the show. Does that work? Yes, do it. And listen, if we don't get to your team, we're doing another show Saturday. We're doing another show Monday. We got a lot of time to get to all of these teams. We have a whole offseason after the draft.
Starting point is 01:09:36 So we're going to get to the big stuff here. And then we'll get to the other stuff later. All right. So the Jets take Membu at 7. Then the next five are Panthers go Tet McMillan at 8. Saints go Kelvin Banks at 9. Bears go Colston Loveland, tight end from Michigan at 10. 49ers go Mike Lilliams at 11. And the Cowboys go guard Tyler Booker at 12. Ruiz, out of that group of picks, any of them catch your attention for good or for bad. I was kind of surprised that Loveland went ahead of Tyler Warren, but like thinking about Ben Johnson's offense, thinking about Sam LaPorter, I think it does make sense.
Starting point is 01:10:13 and I think it does, it gives you a clue as to what this offense is going to look like. I think Ben Johnson, when he got hired and he got introduced, he's like, it's not going to be a copy of Detroit's offensive line. But you look at the moves and you look at this pick and you're like, I think it's kind of going to be a copy of Detroit's offense. I don't know if it's going to be as good because he doesn't have the offensive line that he had in Detroit. But, I mean, I like the fit here. I think Loveland's a good player. And I think there was an argument to be made that he was the better tight end of the two. I know Warren got most of the hype throughout the year.
Starting point is 01:10:42 but Loveland does have good tape, and I think he's a better fit for that offense, perhaps. Deontay, anything from that group? To me, this was the most interesting sequence of picks in the first round to me because there was just so many doors open, and, you know, you mentioned it. I think everybody's board is a little bit different, and you got to see how different teams' boards were.
Starting point is 01:11:03 So I would say, like, Michael Williams being the second edge to come off the board, that was a really interesting move to me. I was really happy with that with San Francisco. I mean, that kind of supports what I'd seen on tape, right? Which is when he's healthy, he is explosive. I thought that his first step still look good in spite of the fact that he was dealing with an ankle injury all year long. And he's got all the necessary physical traits to turn into a great edge rusher.
Starting point is 01:11:26 And now you're dropping a guy that's got these great physical traits who was productive even though he was hurt. And you give him to maybe the best defensive line coach in the NFL. And he doesn't have to be the lead pass rusher there. I really like that for San Francisco. And one of the youngest prospects in the draft. Yeah, right. Like just turning 21, yeah, turning 21, I think by next month or something like that.
Starting point is 01:11:47 So just like a ridiculous in terms of age curve and how productive he's been and what he looks like he can be given the arm length and size at this age. I would say Ted McMillan at first I was really fascinated by it with Carolina. And then it's funny, you look at the rest of the first round. It's like I don't think that anybody that was picked after are players that I would rather Carolina have had. I think that this is a smart, another smart chance to take on finding a number one receiver. I think that Ted McMillan is going to be quarterback friendly in the NFL, even if he doesn't
Starting point is 01:12:18 turn into a dominant ex-receiver given his size. I think that he's going to work really, really well in Dave Canales's offense. Yeah, I agree with that. Like, when I watched him on film, that was the first thing that jumped off. He's like, he's a quarterback-friendly wide receiver. There are concerns about, like, his love for football and how much he loves watching tape. But we talked about that before, like, who cares? The one concern I did have watching his tape was there were instances where it seemed like he gave up on routes. And like his quarterback would still throw the ball anyway, which made it look even worse. But that would be by one concern.
Starting point is 01:12:52 But like in terms of fit and the position they took and best player available, I think it was a good pick by Carolina. All right. Next group here. Dolphins at 13 take Kenneth Grant defensive tackle from Michigan. Colts get Tyler Warren, Penn State tight end at 4. Falcons with their first pick. Take Jalen Walker, the Edge from Georgia, and the Cardinals.
Starting point is 01:13:16 The Cardinals take Walter Nolan from Ole Miss at 16, and the Bengals take Shamar Stewart, the Edge from Texas A&M at 17. The one that got my attention here, and I have no issue of taking a big, strong, powerful man, like Kenneth Grant. But to me, this just screamed. GM knows where his bread is buttered.
Starting point is 01:13:34 GM knows how to keep his owner happy. His owner is, of course, Stephen Ross, who I think I read on Wikipedia as I was preparing for the pot, has donated $478 million, I believe it is, to the University of Michigan and has the business, I think the business school is named after him or something. And so I don't know that this is the best use of resources by the, uh, by me dolphins to get a, you know, good, good nose tackle. Monster of a man and Kenneth Grant at 13. I don't know that that's the thing that's going to benefit them the most. I was a little bummed that I think in one of our mocks,
Starting point is 01:14:08 we had Tyler Warren going to the dolphins. And I thought that would have been a real, really fun fit for that all, just kind of lean into your strength, make yourselves really hard to defend. They don't go in that direction. So, Deonti, that was my big takeaway from this group is that, as our old friend Ben Solac used to say, that rule number one for the job is to keep the job.
Starting point is 01:14:28 And I think Chris Greer knows how to do that, maybe better than any GM in the NFL. I think that is interesting, right? Because, like, you looked at there out, If you went on like our lads and look at their death chart before bringing in Kenneth Grant, it was like three names, four names, playing defensive tackle for them. And they're like a three, four team. So you knew they had to add something.
Starting point is 01:14:45 I think it's really fascinating that they did it this early because I think that day two of the draft is like chock full of defensive tackles that can come in and be what Kenneth Grant is, which is kind of a run stuffing defensive lineman type. Even if you had to reach to try to get like a Tileak Williams and end up going to Detroit at 28, if you wanted to trade back into the first round, if he had an inkling that his draft stock would have been that high. With Detroit, then I could have understood that. I just would have thought at 13, you go out and you get a guard.
Starting point is 01:15:15 Even if you don't get a Tyler Booker, you don't get a Kelvin Banks because they were drafted ahead of your spot. Gray's able, who went to Seattle, would have made a lot of sense for them as well. I don't hate it. Like you said, Kenneth Grant, I think is going to be productive for them. I trust him in this defense. It's just a nose tackle at 13. maybe I'm just kind of burned by Jordan Davis in Philadelphia.
Starting point is 01:15:37 I just don't know how you get requisite value at 13 for a guy who plays like Kenneth Grant. He's got to be Vita Vaya for you to get that value. Like that's the only pick I could think of where it was that type of player at that range where it worked out and the team is still happy about it. That was very surprising to me. But I think like the theme of the middle of this draft was like we saw the trench, the trench guys, like the interior guys kind of, there was a kind of a run on them. And I think that just kind of speaks to the conversation about like the running back and the return of the run game.
Starting point is 01:16:07 I think teams are really cognizant of building up their trenches and they saw last year how big that was. I think that was the theme of the mid-first round this year. Yeah, there you go. All right. Next group here, Deontay mentioned it. Gray's Able, North Dakota State offensive linemen goes to the Seahawks. They try again. You know, maybe it'll work out for them this time.
Starting point is 01:16:28 Good prospect, versatile prospect at 18. In one of the more surprising picks I thought in the first round, the Bucks go and Mecca Egbuka, wide receiver from Ohio State at 19. Broncos take cornerback Jade Barron from Texas at 20. Steelers, as we mentioned, took Derek Harmon, defensive tackle from Oregon at 21. And then the Chargers take Omari and Hampton running back North Carolina at 22. I don't mean to just play the type here.
Starting point is 01:16:57 but I mean there's no other I mean position we talked positional value come on the chargers could have gotten greater positional value right than Omari and Hampton a North Carolina running back at 22 have you said have you seen your roster try and I like Hampton good player you know could have a great season next year could be one of the better backs in the NFL but I just look at that roster and go man I that is not where I would be spending my resources Ruiz what do you think of that pick no I was I was disappointed by that pick I think this is a team that needs to build up through the trenches. Like, I know they've done, they took all last year,
Starting point is 01:17:33 but they've spent a lot of resources on running backs, or they at least have tried to bring in a lot of running backs since Harbaal took over. I just don't see how this moves the needle on offense. It doesn't move it enough to where they needed to move to be able to compete with the Chiefs. And we saw last year at the end, like when they couldn't block the Texans pass rush
Starting point is 01:17:53 and they couldn't really run the ball on the Texans, how that offense just totally imploded. and I don't see how you come away from that game not thinking like we need to shore up the interior offensive line and that's not what they did they went the other way they kind of put the cart before the horse and took the running back first and I just don't see it leading to significant gains
Starting point is 01:18:12 for the offense maybe you marginally improve but they needed to do more than marginally improve this offseason yeah they were down in position to have like a luxury pick like that with the state of their roster I mean that that I did not like Deonti, anything else from that grouping that caught your attention? I mean, with the Chargers, that was the one to suck out to me as well, right? And it's funny that Matthew Golden goes one pick after it, because I'm like, that would have been ideal to have a combo of he and Ladd-McConkie kind of playing insider out.
Starting point is 01:18:41 You know, you can do a lot with those two in the passing game. If you wanted to bring in to Donovan Jackson, who's like a very flexible guy to play guard, you know, he can maybe bump around. He can be a swing tackle for you in case I'm Alt or Slater or down. that would have made a lot of sense. Max Hirsten is not a perfect corner, but he goes at 30. They need help at corner, and that's the speed factor that they don't really have on defense, at least not as speedy and skilled as Hirsten is coming in the door.
Starting point is 01:19:10 So that was really, it's just a fascinating idea to me because Trayvion Henderson is still there. Caleb Johnson from Iowa is not necessarily a speed threat, but a really balanced back, something that I think that they need as well, similar to an Amari and Hampton in that respect, even though he's not as explosive. There's just, there was a lot available, I think, at that position. I don't know if 22 was where they needed to make that move. I would say outside of that, the Matthew Golden thing, if you only think of it as Christian Watson being hurt,
Starting point is 01:19:37 he's going to be hurt to start season more likely than not, and you don't know exactly when he's going to be back, and then you think about Romeo Dobbs kind of stagnating over the last couple of years, and they've waited for him to really step up and be more of a factor in the offense. I think that makes sense. It's just really crowded in that wide receiver room.
Starting point is 01:19:53 I don't know how they don't end up having a deal at least one of these guys by the trade deadline just to make space for all their young guys to play. Everything else I think made a lot of sense. Harmon makes a bunch of sense for Pittsburgh. They need a Cam Hayward succession plan, and he's going to fit in that defense no matter what. He can play right now, not a guy that has to sit back and wait. And then last was Jad A. Barron, who was kind of interesting going to Denver. Because I just figured that their back seven was set after free agency, bringing Hufunga.
Starting point is 01:20:23 You have, you have Dre Greenlaw playing linebacker. I thought that Jayquah McMillow was a pretty good nickel for them last year, too. So I guess it was one of those things like, do you have to turn good into gooder, so to speak? You know, I don't know if you really made as big of an upgrade given the draft position. But I think it'll be fine. I appreciate the fact that they're pouring into that defense because that did a lot of the heavy lifting for this team last season before Bo Nix kind of turned a corner. Do we think the package just took a receiver for the pop from the crowd? The crowd did go insane when Mark Murphy announced that pick.
Starting point is 01:20:56 Yeah. And he did build it up actually pretty well. He did. For all his whining about the brotherly shove, this offseason, he did a good job when the spotlight was on. And he whipped the crowd into a frenzy there. So Packers take Matthew Gold. And that's a fun pick at 23.
Starting point is 01:21:15 Vikings go Donovan Jackson, the guard from Ohio State at 24. Giants, we talked about Jackson Dart at 25. Falcons, we talked about James Pierce, Jr. at 26. And then the Ravens take, oh, how they can't get away with this pick with Malachi Stark, the safety from Georgia there at 27. One question I had, actually, and we haven't watched press conferences or anything yet because we started recording this right after the first round. The Vikings at 24, if one of those trades were available to them, like that trade that
Starting point is 01:21:47 the Rams got, because the Vikings, remember, they went into this draft with like the lowest draft capital of any team, I would be curious about whether that trade from the Falcons was available to them at 24. Same deal at 24 because that to me would have made a lot of sense for them to accumulate more draft capital. And I like Donovan Jackson, but you know, you're taking a guard there. It's not like you had a premium position, a guy that you had to get at that spot. So that's something I want to keep an eye on here in the days ahead, see if they knew that
Starting point is 01:22:20 that deal was out there on the table for them. Yeah, that, that, like, that's what I brought up with the Titans thing with the Jaguars. Like, I know they obviously didn't have the pick and didn't give it away, but you would imagine the Falcons would have rather moved up to 24 and would have given you the same offer they gave. Right. They offered. So, like, I'm with you there.
Starting point is 01:22:41 It's kind of strange. Yeah. I mean, part of GMing is, yeah, knowing what sometimes, I mean, it is very fast-paced, you know, and I know a lot of it gets done beforehand and you're having to be. having those conversations beforehand, but not to dump on Joe Shane Moore, but that's another scene that sticks out to me from last year's hard docs when he was like timidly, you know, going up to like the Patriots box at the combine. Like, hello, Mr. Elliot Wolf, you know, I'm like, what is happening here? Like I thought GMs, a lot of times that you build those relationships up so that
Starting point is 01:23:13 when it gets to that time, you know, you're comfortable having those conversations. So who knows? Maybe they did not know that that was on the table for them. All right. Close it out. The Lions, listen, they got their own board. Tileak Williams defensive tackle from Ohio State at 28. The commanders go offensive tackle, so they should have two new offensive tackles with Jeremy Tunsell and now Josh Connerly, Jr., the offensive tackle from Oregon. Bills go corner with Maxwell Hirsten, cornerback from Kentucky.
Starting point is 01:23:46 Eagles take Jihad Campbell from. Alabama. They trade up one spot, give up a fifth round pick, and the Chiefs close out the first round with Josh Simmons offensive tackle from Ohio State. Deontay, these are contending teams at the bottom of the draft. Who caught your attention? I'm really happy with Washington being able to leave this offseason with a veteran in Laramie Tunsell and Josh Connolly to build and be in a right tackle for them. And I was really skeptical after making the Tunsell trade because of where they were drafting. There was no guarantee that there was going to be a starting quality offensive tackle available. Because at that point in the time, at that point in time, I think that all those guys
Starting point is 01:24:25 are being projected as being like top half of the draft type of guys, at least top 20 to 25 players. So for a commonly to fall, a guy who can step in immediately, I think that this is a smart way. Everything that they've done this offseason on offense, I think, has been about trying to avoid the regression that might be coming in year two and keeping Jaden Daniels upright and being able but a build on this passing game is the best way to do so. So I think that that was probably the best move of this cluster. And we were talking about it a little bit before we got on air, right? The only other one that stuck out to me was Philadelphia bringing in Jehahad Campbell.
Starting point is 01:25:00 And this is not like a, oh, Howie Sees a meme thing. This is more like a positional value and availability thing to me that I'm really fascinated by. Once we're off of this podcast, I'm going to go right in to see what they said in the press conference after because Jahad Campbell is dealing with the Torin Labrum he got surgery on. And even the most optimistic view of it is maybe he'll be ready by training camp. That doesn't say you're going to be ready for contact. That just means you might be cleared to participate to start working out around training camp, right? That's really fascinating to me when you think about the fact that if he's going to play linebacker,
Starting point is 01:25:36 he would ostensibly be backing up Nikobe Dean if he were healthy. And that's a guy who's dealing with the Torin Patelotenten. So just like that position, moving up to bring in a guy that's dealing with an injury to play a position where you've already got a guy that's more than likely going to start the year on the pub list. And there's no guarantee that he's going to be ready to play at any point in the season, given the nature of his injury. I would just love to hear what Howie Roseman's thought process was on that. All right, Ruiz. Any final thoughts on those picks or anything else from the first round before we call it tonight? No, I thought those last four picks that kind of were the perfect picks for each of those teams and exactly what each of them needed.
Starting point is 01:26:16 I think we talked about Maxwell Harrison kind of being the perfect Bill's cornerback in the Malk draft pot a couple episodes ago. And then I thought, like, for the Chiefs, almost best case scenario. Great, yes, great pick for the Chiefs. Josh Simmons, obviously, there's some concerns there. But like when he's healthy, he's a first round pick, like a first round prospect at offensive tackle, had a position of need. and they were able to trade down and get them. So, yeah, perfect draft for the Chiefs. Chiefs get Simmons at 32.
Starting point is 01:26:47 There's injury stuff, but when healthy, highly thought of prospect. And so now, you know, they add a wide receiver, someone on day two. Maybe we're looking at that depth chart a little bit differently than we have been earlier in the offseason. So like I said, we'll come back on Saturday night, and we will do winners and losers from the entire draft.
Starting point is 01:27:07 So some of that will be based on what we saw, round one, but it's going to be more trade. There's going to be more chaos on day two, on day three of the draft. So we'll do a big recap show on Saturday to get to all of that. All right. Thank you to Stephen Ruiz. Thank you to Deonté Lee. Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing in Kiera Givens on social.
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