The Ringer NFL Show - 2026 NFL Draft Winners and Losers

Episode Date: April 26, 2026

Sheil and The Ringer’s own Diante Lee get together after the third day of the 2026 NFL draft to assess which teams and players either raised their status heading into next season or inexplicably put the development of their organizations on the back foot over the weekend. (00:48) 2026 NFL Draft Winners and Losers (01:25) Cleveland Browns (09:44) New York Giants (15:56) New Orleans Saints (21:00) New England Patriots (32:14) Jacksonville Jaguars (39:44) NFL draft quick hits The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Diante Lee Producer: Chris Sutton Video Editor: Stefano Sanchez Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm your host, Sheel Capadia, the 2026 NFL draft, is in the books. We're doing winners and losers today. We're looking at the entirety of the three days. Which teams do we feel like, hey, they did a good job with the resources they had. Which other teams do we say, you know what? I don't know. I don't know about what they did with some of these decisions over draft weekend. So we're going to have on my friend, Deontay Lee, from the ringer to winners and losers with Deontay when we come back.

We are back here on the Ringer NFL show doing draft winners and losers. We did the first round, Deonti, after Thursday night. A lot of picks have been made since then, what, like 226 picks or something like that? There have been trades. There have been stories. And so we're basically just ping ponging back and forth. You could do a winner. You could do a loser.

What topics are front of mind you get to get us started? Where are you going? You going positive? You go a negative. How are we starting this? You know me, man, I'm the eternal optimist. I feel like that is just my mode of being. For everything maybe not Eagles related, I am an eternal optimist.

So let's start off with the winner. And I think I'm going to go off the beaten path, somebody, or I guess a team, a franchise, and an executive brain trust that I probably don't give very much credit too often. And I'm going to say it's the Cleveland Browns. My first winner as well, Deontay. What a moment for the Browns on the Ringar NFL show. It's already the most positive buzz they've gotten, I think, since I started. working here. So there you go.

Absolutely. I mean, and I feel like so often we're talking about like, you know, how analytically driven their decision making is. And, you know, they always seem to want, they always want to be pushing maybe a stride and a half ahead of wherever they think the trend lines are supposed to be, right? They're going to take whatever data you get from the draft or free agency or whatever. And they're going to try to maximize it to me. And it's not necessarily that they abandoned that approach in this draft.

I just think that to me, they went with. was obvious, right? Which is that they needed starters. They especially needed starters on offense. And I think that they really went out with their top 50 picks and approached this like, we need to walk out of this with three potential starters. And I think that they did that. Getting Spencer for no, I think, was probably the best top 10 tackle they could have grabbed,

right? That's somebody that I've been very warm on throughout this process. Even when there were questions about whether or not he was going to be able to play out at tackle, does he need to kick to guard. They ended up getting a versatile guy, and I think that they need a guy like that to where, even if he's not the perfect prospect at tackle, they can still get starting quality from him on the interior. I think the wide receiver duo of Casey Concepcion and Denzel Boston, not only does that fit two major needs that they had, they didn't have a field stretcher and explosive play threat the way that Casey Concepcion can be. And they don't have a big body die that can go out and win out on the perimeter the way that Denzel Boston can. So if those two guys end up being the best versions of themselves,

I think you're going to be really happy. And I think it complements guys like Harold Fanon and Cohn Jenkins and all the guys that they have on offense really well. And it gives whoever ends up under center taking quarterback snaps for them an opportunity, I think, to be successful. And then I loved maybe a major value for me for how much I liked this tape. Getting Emmanuel McNeil Warren right at the tail end in the second round, I felt really, really happy with them being able to go out and make that pick.

And most of their day three picks, as well, I would say are guys that project to be able to compete to start maybe outside of tail and green who might need a little bit of time to hone some of the mechanical issues and some of the decision-making issues that come up with him as a quarterback. It's so hard at this night especially talking draft. What happens is I feel like the worst teams, sometimes the worst franchises in the NFL get the most shine. And sometimes it's just because, well, they had high picks of course, like, of course, you know, they're going to draft prospects we know and we've heard of. And so I do want to, you know, that context is always

important. And also the context of they created this mess. You know, this is all about digging out of that hole from one of the worst decisions of our lifetime a team has made, which is the trade for Deshawn Watson and the ensuing contract for Deshawn Watson. That is what they're trying to dig out of. And that is this regime, that is Andrew Barry, that is this ownership who made those decisions. So that is all important context here. Having said all that, man, And that might have been the biggest caveat in the history of the show right there. But having said all that, I'm with you. If the goal here was to dig out of that hole and try to find a path towards getting on the right track and building a winning franchise, I think they did a really nice job here.

I mean, you mentioned it with all the players. I don't need to repeat what you said. I think they did a good job. Premium positions, starters, also trading down from six to nine. So you read the draft, you know, kind of the rest of the league. you read that properly, you let the chiefs move up, you get additional draft capital and you still get the offensive tackle you want there. And then this really goes back to last year, Deontay,

because this has been at least a two-year process of trying to dig out of that Deshawn Watson ditch. And, you know, last year the Jaguars want to move up for Travis Hunter. They say, all right, come get him. And they get the additional first round pick this year, which worked out well for them. Because then later in the draft, you mentioned it, they get Carson Schwessinger, they get Harold Fanon Jr. get Quintin-Shoddkins. There's a chance that if the Cleveland Browns make the playoffs,

that I don't think it's going to be this year. Let's say two years from now, even three years from now, we look back and we say the 2025 draft and the 2026 draft, we say, man, look, look at what they did at those two drafts. That set the stage. All these core players are from those two drafts. And that is part of NFL GM. Now, not all GMs get the opportunity when you screw something up really badly

to get a second opportunity. But even someone, like I would say, Howie Roseman of the Eagles, like maybe his biggest strength is when they have a disaster of a season, figuring out a way to get out of that, to move on from certain assets, and to rebuild the roster.

And so I think Andrew Barrier, we've criticized him a lot in the past and totally rightfully so. I don't, you know, take back anything I purpose. I don't feel bad at all about anything I said. But to look at it objectively and fairly, I think he's done a good job here, these last two years. Now, having said all that, the big, you know, the elephant in the room is we don't know what they're doing at quarterback. We don't know if their head coach is going to be any good. And they still profile as, you know, one of the worst teams in the NFL in 2026. But it's a step in the right direction. You know, it's almost like we talk about the jets. Like, can you, are you putting an infrastructure in place where when your quarterback lands, hopefully, for both franchises next year, that the guy has a chance to succeed. And I think you can make the case that they're on the way to at least doing that.

Absolutely, right? We don't often get the gift of really taking a long view with franchises, because this isn't the MLB. This isn't baseball, where you're happy about a draft pick with an understanding that I might not see this guy playing at the biggest level for half a decade, right? But I do think that for Cleveland, from Cleveland's perspective, the only way they're going to dig themselves out of the Deshaun Waston Ditch as you coin is to think like that, right? Who are guys that for five years from now when we finally have cleared all this dead cap that we are eventually going to have at the end of the Deshawn Watson deal

because we have to continue to rework his contract to be able to create some kind of functional cap space in the present day. These might be the players that now we are ushering in the new era with. And I think that that's the right way to look at it. Honestly, you think about teams like Denver after the Russell Wilson

trade and being able to dig out of that ditch. Now, obviously they were able to pivot quickly because they got out of that deal quickly, right? And there just weren't as, there wasn't as much guaranteed money, so the ramifications aren't as severe. But I think they're trying to take that approach of, let's maximize what draft capital we do have. They were able to, as you said, gin up enough interest in the number six pick to be able to add

even more draft capital. They didn't cost themselves access to the players that they wanted at the top of the draft. And everybody they've brought in really since day one, again, just project as starters are guys that can be there as plus contributors for a long time. and I think that that is a huge win. Really, the last two drafts have really projected, I think, really well for Cleveland. Maybe they're not a playoff team in the next two or three years. But honestly, I think that this is one of the few teams,

and there will probably be some other rebuilders that we're going to talk about later today, where that's not going to be the metric at all, honestly. They just need to look like, is there positive momentum happening? Do you have playable guys at all three levels of your defense? Are you re-addressing your trenches? Are you being smart with your money? And I would say over the last two off-season, the answer has been a resounding yes for the Browns.

And for that reason, at least I feel really kind of encouraged where they're at. And ultimately, how we're going to feel about them is going to come down to whether or not Todd Monkin and his staff can maximize these young guys and speed up their developmental curves. And what, yeah, and what they do a quarterback next year as well. We'll see you there. So there you go, Browns fans. Don't say, we never say anything nice about your team. I mean, that was what, a strong eight minutes or so where we're just heaping praise. It may never happen this way.

It may not happen for a long time, but who knows? They've got some interesting players. They've got some good players from last year. Let's see what it looks like once we get to August and September. All right, I'm continuing with the theme here, Deonté, a team that I have pretty consistently ripped, an organization I have pretty consistently ripped on this podcast over the years, pointing out, hey, don't just make fun of the Jets in York. There's a team that's actually been just as bad as them for the last 10 years that still

gets talked about as a class new organization that knows what it's doing. And that's the New York Giants. And I think the New York Giants had a nice three days here. You know, I had much, we all know it's John Harbaugh calling the shots. But I think that that first round couldn't have gone any better for them. We spoke about it a little bit on our previous pot. Arvel Rees dropping to five where he could have gone as high as two. Francis Maui Noah dropping to 10, where he could have gone as high as three. Three, yeah. You get good value for two players.

You're building the trenches. Arval Rees, we'll see. John Harbaugh did drop a positionless defense quote there. It makes me nervous. I don't know why it is that that makes me nervous. Yeah. Yeah, let's see, do you have the coaching staff to be able to do that? But I think we can all agree,

Reese is a very talented player with huge upside that can help you win. in different ways. And we just kind of don't know what those ways are going to be. It could go poorly if you really are struggling to define his role. But there's also a chance that he's awesome. And then Matt, we know I think he's going to start at guard for them, they said. But then it gives you a tackle option for the future. It gives you a tackle option if someone goes down with injury.

So I think Thursday night worked out really well for them. And then in the second round, they get Colton Hood, the cornerback, who I think he's a pretty exciting player. You know, 21 years old, high-end traits, hasn't played. played a lot of football, just 13 starts. So there's certainly some uncertainty there, but it's a guy with upside at a premium position, who I think you got at a good spot in the draft here.

So potentially you got the best offensive tackle in the draft. This is all theoretical. Potentially, you got the best defensive player from the draft. I don't think that would shock us five years from now. And then you have a chance to get a really good quarterback there in the second round. So they spent their draft capital in the smart way. They spent on premium position. they've had six top 10 picks in the last five drafts, which is wild.

So again, there's a lot of caveats on post-draft analysis. That's a caveat because after they drafted Kavana, Tibado and Evan Neal in 2022, I said, good job. You addressed good positions with, you know, good players. And that really hasn't worked out. But I think this draft, as we sit here right now, this is about as good as you could have hoped if you're a New York Giants fan. My winner for New York was really Joe Shane being able to draft off of,

maybe the successes of John Harbaugh as, you know, the guy that might be making the final decisions in that building and being able to shield himself in case things go poorly, right? For the first time, maybe in Joe Shane's career as an executive as a decision maker, if something goes wrong with these picks, he's not the guy who's got to bear, you know, the brunt of whatever criticism comes with it. But I think to your point, they did exactly what they needed to do. I think that round one, especially having two top 10 picks, the best outcome for them is that they get two high-ceiling players.

And I don't know if you could have found a more high-ceiling guy in the offensive trenches in Francis Maui-Noah, whether he does play guard or tackle. And then Arvel Reese, obviously, is this edge linebacker hybrid. And then in the second and third round, they found high floor guys, guys that can go play a role, even if they don't necessarily have star potential,

they can step into the league right now and give you something. I think the Colton Hood is like, can be at least based on the tape that I've seen, he can be an immediate upgrade over Deontay Ban. who was just kind of proven himself to be really tough to play, right? It's been really hard, I think, watching him being out there on the perimeter. You just haven't gotten the kind of coverage upside they thought they would from a guy who came into the league kind of being that speed, length, you know, vertical jumper type, right?

They just haven't gotten that level of play from him. Hood can come in and supplant him as maybe number two or number three in the cornerback rotation. That should be interesting. And then Malachi Fields has been a guy, I think, for like the last season or two, I've had an eye on, right? big bodied wide receiver, somebody who in theory should be able to go win on the outside or be able to body guys up, move the chains on third downs. You can be a red zone threat.

And he doesn't necessarily have to be a star here because you have Malik neighbors already. You kind of have guys for roles in this offense already, and it does give Malachi Fields an opportunity to just go out and do a job. And if he's able to contribute to this offense in that way, I think that that's a win. So yeah, I think that for them, all three days of the draft, they went out and addressed needs that they had. Obviously, you'd like to be saying that you're dropping these players in around someone like Dexter Lawrence, but you can't have it both ways.

You don't get the number 10 pick without making that deal, right? So you kind of just have to take the good and bad with that. And ultimately, if you were telling me going into the draft that they were going to be dealing Lawrence, to be able to come out with this as your bounty, right? From the draft, I think that you're probably feeling pretty good about where this franchise can be, if these guys hit.

The Shane thing is so interesting because is he going to still be is his key card going to work a week from now? There's been kind of a lot of buzz about is this just, hey, he built the draft board and you brought on Harbaugh in January so you keep him on board with the scouts and Harbaugh

is making the final decisions, but at least you have all the background stuff there from Shane. I'll give him credit. You know, like obviously we've, I'll speak for myself. I have ripped him and criticized him. And again, I don't take any of it back. What I have said, you know, he's not a good job of trying to swallow his pride where Harbaugh at every turn is just letting it be known that this guy has like

no role really in the organization anymore. He's done a good job being like, all right, the situation is what it is. It's not how, you know, I would love for it to be ideally. But I get it. That's how things work in the NFL. And now we see if he sticks around past this year or if he's doing something else when we get the draft time in 2026. All right. Browns and Giants. I mean, this is business and this is what draft analysis is all about these teams getting a lot of love. What's your next one here, Deontay? Next one, we're going to another team that I don't think I've had very many positive things to say about for the last two or three seasons. And I'm going to make a winner Tyler Shuck in just the New Orleans Saints offense in this draft. This is something that we talked

about a little bit after day one, right? Because it went out and made an inspired pick in my opinion. taking a chance on Jordan Tyson to be, you know, potentially their number two wide receiver, maybe a number one at his healthiest, you know, if you think of, he can get open and have that inside, outside flex to play opposite. Chris Olavé,

and then you go out and get Oscar Delp, who was kind of like a do everything, jack of all trades, probably won't be one of the 10 or so best tight ends in the NFL, but I think checks all the boxes of what you expect, a starter that gives you plus value. I'm really happy about the Delp pick. And I like Bryce Lance,

right? as a day three guy. And I think that not reaching for a player like this because obviously there are going to be some questions about how we're fine. He's going to be going to be as a route runner in the league. Are you going to be able to count on him to be more than just a vertical stretch guy or more than just a jump ball winner? But the explosive play potential is 100% there. And then you look up and for a team that last year dropped their rookie quarterback into a

situation where Chris Olavut was basically the only dependable wide receiver that they had. you now have wide receivers that have high ceilings that are also on the exact same timeline as your quarterback. I almost called him a young quarterback. Can't do that because it came in the league at like 26 years old, right? But for a guy who needs the reps and needs to continue to develop, you now have other young guys that you're going to be trying to develop alongside them, which is going to give you a chance, I think,

to evaluate this entire situation holistically and not put Shuck in a situation where we're asking him to be a superhero if these wide receivers and tight ends are able to hit for them. It's a nice turnaround from, I would say, at this time last year, I think I was probably calling them the most irrelevant, you know, franchise. I mean, never right there with the Cardinals for me. Or one of them. Yeah, they were one of the most.

You're just like, they're stuck. They're not doing it. You know, they got nothing. And now, we'll see with shock. You know, he's got to, you know, do it here in his second season. Can he improve? Can he take a significant step up? But I'm with you.

Now they're at least interesting. Now I want to keep my eye on him. Watch him. What does he look like with these two wide receivers? Is there something to this thing? Have they turned it around where they can be a competitive team, a playoff team? I actually just pulled up the odds because, you know, that Vandals got those up now. Who do you think is the favorite to win the NFC South in 2026, Deont?

Give me the order. Give me the order of what you think from favorite to one through four. This is obviously not in my, it's not an easy question. because obviously you think probably they're a little they're bunched together more so than any other division but if you had to rank a one to four based on the odds what we what would you say I would say my impression of the division right now would be that Tampa Bay is first correct Carolina second and then I'm wow so I'm guessing Atlanta must be second in Atlanta second yeah okay and then Carolina in New Orleans after that will be will probably be

the order I would lay out yeah I'm trying that I'm trying to I'm trying to decide how surprised I am by this. Yeah, I don't, I don't know that I view the Falcons that way. I don't know that I view the Falcons as the second best team in the division right now. That's the one that surprises me the most. The Falcons at two. Yeah. Now, I guess if you want to make the case, they have the most proven commodities outside of the bucks

because you do have Drake London, you have Kyle Pitts. You know, I do think though, I mean, that is a lot of trust that to a tongue of Iloa or whatever you're going to get from Michael Pitch Jr. when he's held again is going to make you I'm guessing I mean in the NFC South eight games sometimes gets it done so I guess I'm guessing when the wind totals come out you're going to say that Atlanta's probably like

seven and a half on the line for their over under on total wins. That's exactly what it is just pulled it up seven and a half so I guess I can see that I guess I could see that I guess I could see that and that also is quite the indictment on Carolina's season that is them saying that all those four downs that they converted all those close

games they were able to win it was 100% of fluke and not to expect that that defense to be as good as it was last year, and certainly not to expect very much from Bryce Young in 2026. Yeah, Panthers are six and a half. They're over under. Saints are six and a half. They're over under as well. And then the Bucks who are just sort of a forgotten team,

they're at eight and a half is they're over under. So, I mean, like I said, very bunched between six and a half and eight and a half, all four teams there. We'll see where we land in August and September. with those teams in the NFC South. All right, let's take a break. We come back. Hate to do it, but I'm going to have to, yeah.

It's time to turn to some losers here. It's time. We got through the first segment being positive. Deontes positivity rubbed off on me. We were positive, but now it's time to maybe rip. This episode is brought to you by L'Oreal Group. Beauty is a powerful force that moves us. That's why Loreal Group has built a business that is inclusive at its heart

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Visit wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Some teams here when we come back. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show. I think we got to get into this story, Deonti. New England Patriots are a loser from this weekend. It has very little to do with their draft, nothing to do with their draft.

It has to do with this Mike Rable, Diana Rossini's story, which has been the biggest story in the NFL offseason. Let's just be honest. But it has been, I had thought for a while there that, well, this is kind of more of a media story than a football story. You know, if you kind of, you know, if we are making a big deal about every NFL head coach who was potentially, I'm trying to choose my words carefully here, unfaithful to their partners, you know, I think it would be probably be a large percentage of the league there. So I was like, well, I don't know, nothing's really coming of this. But now as more photos come out, more reports come out, that this is not just about one weekend in Arizona, that this is six years ago in New York, that this is after Mike Brable was fired from the Titans and Biloxi, Mississippi, all these things that are coming out from the New York Post and TMZ and wherever else it becomes a different story because Rable has had to address it multiple times to the press.

and then it kind of reached ahead draft weekend where he says, I'm not going to be in the building for day three of the draft because I'm seeking counseling. So he gives this statement to ESPN. Then he holds multiple press conferences there. He says, you know, the report said he's going to plan to be with his family outside of Massachusetts. And it just leads to so many questions here. You know, and again, if you're interested in the media aspect of this, the press box from Brian Curtis has done a great job.

Joel Anderson, Joel Anderson. They all had really good discussions from the media perspective, but from a head coach football perspective, like what is he seeking counseling for? That has not been communicated to me. Like what wrongdoing is he specifically admitting to here? It said he would still be able to communicate with the team on Saturday.

So I'm like, is this a performative thing? like, why are you starting this, the Saturday of the draft? Is that supposed to make me think like, oh, you're really taking this seriously? And you're so remorseful that you're giving up day three of the draft year. Is it there's more stuff that's going to come out? And I don't want to wait for that to happen until I say, I've taken steps to remedy this. I want when those things actually do come out and do happen,

that I can say, hey, I'm already working on it. And I told you I missed day three of the draft. for counseling. So you have all those things happening right here, but it is unusual for a head coach to not be in the building day three of the draft. I don't know how much it actually matters or not to be quite honest. You have the draft board. I know Vrable has the final say on everything there, but it's like this is the team that made to the Super Bowl last year. This would be a big story if they were seven and ten. This team was in the Super Bowl last year. They were on the rise with the young quarterback. And now we know that it's very difficult to get back to the Super Bowl or even have a very successful season the year after losing it. I think the last time, if I'm not mistaken, was the Patriots in 27, 2018 and they lose to the Eagles and then they come back and they win it the next year. But I think other than that, it has been very rare to get back the following year. And so now if you're looking at the Patriots and you're looking at 2026 and this uncertainty around the head coach and the story surrounding them draft

weekend. This is a time where most fan bases are just so excited about their teams. I mean, every fan base thinks we crushed the draft. You know, oh, screw those guys. They may, you know, they're calling us a loser, but this guy's going to be awesome. This guy's going to be awesome. Don't sleep on us. You know, we're going to be a playoff team. And then you have the Patriots and their fan base where I just feel like they've got to be thinking, we got the year from hell coming up here in 2026. And there's more important, obviously, there are children involved. There's more important stuff involved here, but we're talking about it from a football perspective. This has to be for a team coming off the Super Bowl as downtrodden as a fan base could be in late April,

Tiante. So that's why I've got them in the loser category. I mean, there's just no, there's short of the most dire circumstances happening, there's no bigger gut punch. I think that could happen ahead of the draft than your head coach being royal in this kind of controversy. And to your point, I think that if you're a fan, I think even if you're the biggest homer that you can be, you have to be very frustrated in just how shrouded in words that mean nothing this whole situation has been, especially from Mike Brable, right? And then the fact that the things that are kind of hinted at from Brable also seem to undermine the stories that we were receiving, or at least the statements that we were

receiving from Diana Rusini's side and Stephen Ginsburg of the Athletic, right? And I think that all of that is played out now to this point where we can say pretty definitively that whatever whatever internal investigation was happening at the athletic clearly resulted in something that they were displeased with and under that kind of duress and maybe that is why Diana Rossini ultimately resigned. But strictly speaking to the Patriots and what I do believe is probably a little bit of them being performative is the fact that you decided to do this on day three of the draft without ever really directly acknowledging what the situation is, right? That's the weirdest part, yes.

Why are you leaving that to us as the public, as the media, to have to converse about when you called an entire press conference, it could not speak directly about whatever this situation is, to your point about maybe trying to get ahead of these things, it was very appreciate by the New York Post to wait until after that press conference and then have more things published in terms of photographs. I think that the first one was after the firing in 2024 from Tennessee, when they're seen kind of at this bar together

and then you get the ones from back in 2020 where they're out together and a couple takes of photos of them as well. So I think that maybe with knowledge of what's to come, you kind of start to get ahead of it. It's also very fascinating though that that would be the strategy

because Roger Goodell, I think, has already kind of put out information to the media that this is not a league disciplinary issue, right? This would be a team matter. So the only reason I would think that you would want to step away is if you believe that this can only get more embarrassing for you and the team from here. And I would hate to speculate because everything about this situation has been taking what facts we do have

and then people who speculate for a living blowing this up as big as they can. And there are some parts of this that are very serious to your point about whether or not people were unfaithful. We don't know the intimate details of what was going on at their relationship. I think that from a media perspective there is a conversation to have about just what these relationships are between insiders and the people that they are getting information from and that maybe this is just the most salacious version of it, if you're talking about a potential affair or extramarital relationship between the two parties involved. But I just think there are just so many layers to this that kind of blow my mind and maybe the most frustrating aspect

of it is the fact that Mike Vrable can't speak directly to it and that I guess we're supposed to receive him stepping away from day three of the draft, which is all about your area Scouts and what information they and the GMs have been talking about and your assistant coaches and what they've kind of evaluated on film. These are the guys who are really making those picks anyways. I am not moved by you stepping away from the team in this. And this is also not going to make this story go away because there are a lot of people who have very strong feelings about the media, about unfortunately women in media because

we do still have to deal with the misogyny that comes from the public and from NFL fans and sports fans in general. Mike Vrable cannot just counsel this one away. You cannot, my family needs me this one away. This is still going to be a talking point. And I think that ultimately, like you said, when you get back to training camp, they are still going to be staring down the barrel of this thing.

And I can't imagine that you can have a normal season under these conditions. Yeah, it's like the consequences for this are like, Rassini has already resigned. Like, so that is you can, you know, so that has already happened. Anything else that she's going to deal with is going to deal with, is going to be about her home life. It's really not going to have anything to do with her professionally. Yeah, that part of it is over, at least for the time being here. But with Braybill,

he is trying to coach the defending Super Bowl champions here in 2026. And yeah, I'm with you. I just, is it family counseling? Is it marriage counseling? Was there a way? It felt like what they were trying to do was get ahead of the story and be like, let's, you know, we kind of screwed it up when it first surfaced and we released the statements. And you can understand it. At that time, you're just denied, you know, we see this throughout different walks of life all the time with people in the news. That the first move is denial, denial, denial.

This is nonsense. And then, you know, you hope it's like, there. Hey, if that sticks, then cool. A lot of times that doesn't stick because more information comes out and you can't just deny. And then, you know, then looks like you lied or at least you went forth right there. And then you get to the next phase, which is the phase of rabbles. to your point, Racini hasn't said anything publicly

to indicate that she's at this phase. But Braybill's at this point where it feels like he wants to convey a sense of wrongdoing, remorse of being apologetic, yet it seems very clumsy. And part of that is probably just

the NFL work. Like he's speaking in NFL coach speak. You know, he's like, I want to attack this challenge head on. Right. Wait, what are we talking about here? What are we talking about? So it's very difficult to figure out what his next move is, what their next move is.

But yet this does feel performative to me to be like, all right, day three of the draft. He's not going to be in the building. Yet he hasn't said what he's done wrong. He hasn't really just indicated. I know he might not want to come out and say it explicitly, but even indicating it, I haven't been, you know, a good husband. I have it, you know, whatever it is. Again, we're speculating.

We're all going by, what, eight photos or whatever it is we've seen. And then some statements and then you're trying to connect dots left and right. But it is just, it is a bad situation for a fan base that was all in on this guy. I mean, they were just, they thought, you know, we lost Belichette. We had one bad year with Mayo in between there. Now we got Frabble. Now we got our quarterback. It's back to the promised lane.

And that's what it looks like last year. And now you kind of just wonder. like, what does this year look like? What do the next three years look like for this organization? So, yeah, they absolutely have to be on the list of losers from the draft. All right, no easy transition from that one, Deonti. We're going to go in a different direction. But what's the next one?

You got winner or a loser here? I've got a loser. And I'm still, like, kind of perplexed just at how everything is played out. And it's going to be hard to talk about their draft without bringing up 20, or not bringing up 2025 and just last season and how they handled it in general. But my loser here is Jacksonville. I did not love their draft. I thought that the neighbor, I'm sorry, I'm going to absolutely butcher.

I think it's Borchiture. Yes. Ney Borkatured pick was way ahead of where you would see on my most consensus boards. When I watch and evaluate, I don't see a tight end that you'd want to take near the top 50. Somebody who would need to be somebody who could step in immediately and contribute and maybe have star potential. So I don't know if I see that in his game. You go out and you get another tight end on day three. And not that that's a problem,

but this feels very much like a reactive draft, right? Then maybe looking at how they lost games last year and saying, okay, if we just plug these holes or we have extra tight end depth, so that way of course, Strange Mitch is time. We don't only have to be one style of team. And they did not get players, in my opinion, that fit that offensively. And then on the defensive end, I don't know exactly what you expect to get out of Albert Regis.

I think that he's a fine player. Again, no star potential there. And maybe I guess for me and the reason why I have them as a loser is, well, we were all laughing and joking and really enjoying James Gladstone and Liam Cohen last offseason. The game of football. You know? And they were just speaking in all this flowery language about how they wanted to attack this process to add talent. and ultimately where we landed now was an objectively excellent

20-25 season, an objectively excellent 20-25 season out of nowhere. They absolutely caught fire after like mid-October and were one of the toughest teams to beat in the NFL. In this off-season, all we have heard is that Travis Hunter's probably not going to be the same kind of two-way players that they thought they were

trading for, right? You have not really made any market improvements on this roster outside of that. Some of that is just because some of their money is tied up and they've had to make, they're going to have to start making difficult decisions in the future because some of their young guys, they're going to have to make decisions on how they're going to pay them and how much they're going to pay them. And you've got the Trevor Lawrence money kicking in. This is the kind of draft where even though you don't have a first round pick, you have

to nail it because you do have a ton of top 100 draft capital. And those all need to be players that you see either having a high level trajectory where they could be stars in a couple of years time or can still. step in and be average to better starters right this moment. I don't necessarily see that in this draft. I don't want to be a total prisoner to the consensus board because if these are good players, like I do believe Emmanuel Pregnant can be a good player as a guard. That could work out for them.

I do like their wide receiver duel as day three picks and Josh Cameron and C.J. Williams, those can end up being decent depth for them. But if you just look at it on the whole or you kind of aggregate these picks, it's really hard to find a lot to be excited about, I think. and for that reason, for a team that is going to have championship aspirations in a very competitive division, I don't know if they took the extra step forward to make sure that they stay at the top of the AFC South. Yeah, we talked about the contensis board stuff a little bit on our last pod.

And I think it's fun to look at certainly day two and day three. And the idea is not, oh, just go with what everyone's saying. That's not it. But the idea is, if a guy is at one spot in the contensis board and you take him way higher than that, then it's true. spared a question, could you have traded back? Is there a way you could have got him while doing something else rather than just taking him at the spot you took him? And Nate Borkature, this tight end from Texas A&M, they took him 56th and the consensus boards had him, I believe, at 162.

I mean, it was just from nowhere close to being ranked that high in this high end class by just about anybody you would ask. Right. So it's just, you know, if you just look at the difference and where a guy got ticket and where he was ranked on the contentious sports, board. I mean, that qualifies as one of the biggest reaches in the second round. And this is coming off, like you mentioned, this is a draft where you didn't have a first round pick. So, you know, you certainly could be thinking about, hey, what are some ways we can get additional resources? They did make a bunch of picks. Like you said, they did still have a bunch of top 100 picks. So it's not like they only drafted four players. But I think you open yourself up to criticism by taking a guy 56th,

who's 162 on the consensus board. And then you're right about this. does go back to last year because as you were just, you know, discussing that with Gladstone, which I'd kind of forgotten, like, has a GM ever set up a prospect worse for success than the way he managed that last year? It's hard to think of one. It's hard to think of one. He's going to change the game of football. And the guy has not played a snap in the NFL.

And here we are a year later. You gave out, you used a first, you used two first round picks on him. and I think you like Travis Hunter. I like Travis Hunter. I love Travis Hunter. I hope he's an all pro corner this year. And I think that's in the cards. He could be.

You just have him focus on corner. He could, we could be saying he's one of the five best corners in the NFL by the end of the year. But that, you know, remains to be seen, has to be proven. And I'm with you. I think it was a great coaching job last year from Liam Cohen.

Like I think he proved, hey, I can go from one place to another place, one quarterback to another quarterback. And I can get the most out of this guy in Trevor Lawrence. And we can have an offense. that really cooks here. And they did that.

And they got a nice defensive season. I thought they overachieved on that side of the ball. But I do think it's fair with the team building aspect of this, is now they try to make the step from, hey, plucky playoff team, fun team, to know this team can actually contend for a Super Bowl. Now's when you have to like the stuff around the margins has to be really sharp and you got to build the roster in a certain way.

And I do think that remains to be seen for the Jaguars. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, I'm stuck. like where other teams are at in their division. I think specifically you look at where Houston is at and the way that they were able to plug needs that I do think

will help move the needle for them in the AFC hierarchy. I look at Jacksonville and I think that we're just right back in a position where you're going to be asking your head coach to have to absolutely maximize every last player that you got in in order to be able to hold your spot. That is part of coaching, right? And if we get to October and November, and the Jags are definitely underperforming.

I am going to come back and say, hey, Liam Cohen, at the end of the day, we got a, what, 12, 13-1 season out of you last year. I want to see that level of coach on a year-by-year basis. There's some accountability to be held there if we do get there. But just as a GM, this is one of the few opportunities for a team that wants to contend when you do have as many picks because they were able to approach this draft with high volume

to be able to come out with guys that you can at least feel like are either contributing to push you into that Super Bowl conversation right now or in two or so years are going to be able to supplant some of your vets and be able to fill in roles to be able to hold you at whatever spot you're at. And I just don't know yet if they've accomplished either. And based off my evaluation of some of the players they picked, I just feel a little bit more kind of bearish on where they are right now. All right, let's take one more break.

We come back with some more winners and losers. This episode is brought to you by Activia. You might already be eating yogurt, but not all yogurts are created equal. Activia contains over one billion probiotics per serving to survive and reach the gut alive. When it comes to gut health, Activia is the number one family doctor-recommended probiotic yogurt brand. Choose Activia, feel good from the inside out. Visitactivia.ca for more details. From the 2026 NFL draft.

All right, we are back here on the Ringer. NFL show. I've got another loser Deontay. I was here. Matthew Stafford. I mean, the Ty Simpson pick is the story of the draft. If you had to say, what's the

one thing that we're going to remember from this three years from now, five years from now? And so we discussed it when we were discussing the moves in the first round. Since then, you know, I was reading kind of the coverage just from Less Need and Sean Miffee's media

availability. And if you're read about that. I was reading about this in the athletic. It's like they couldn't really, they weren't like in a state to be excited about it. You know, like they were trying to manage the situation knowing how the pick of Ty Simpson at 13 was going to be perceived by the public, by the media, trying to keep their current MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford happy. I was reading this from Nate Atkins from the athletic. He wrote, across beats covering the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts and now the Rams This was the first time I've covered

a first round draft pick news conference where the regime showed so little excitement about the player selected, which I thought was very interesting context. It was an 11-minute news conference where they almost seemed like sullen rather than excited.

And McVeigh, the first thing he was asked about Simpson, I guess, was about if he's going to be the backup. And he said, we'll see he's going to compete with Stets and Bennett. It was somebody who has never once threatened to, like, be their top backup. They wouldn't have had Jimmy Garapola there if they thought the Setzen

Bennett actually should have been their backup quarterback. Yeah, he had something going on off the field. I don't think it's been reported, but he was away from the team for a little bit. So this is what they're saying about the guy they drafted 13th overall in a season where, again, they are contending for a Super Bowl. They are among the Super Bowl favorites. and if I'm Stafford, I'm just looking at all the guys taken after him. And it just feels like, now they can still win the Super Bowl.

They still have a very good team. There's a chance this works out for them if they win the Super Bowl in the next year or two with Stafford. And then if Simpson takes over, they look great with all this. But I even more and more impassioned that they've outsmarted themselves here. And that they felt like, hey, you know, this is going to get criticized. but this is the right thing to do. I really feel like there's going to be a moment during the 2026 season

where we all look around and we go, man, they could have really used player X right now. Whoever that is, Mackay Lemon, Kenyon Sadiq, whoever it is, a tackle, whatever, whoever was high on their board that we're going to say, they really could have used this player right now as they try to compete for a Super Bowl. And I just think they've created such an awkward situation with a player who they've had some, you know, for as well as that marriage has worked out with Stafford and McVeigh, it's gotten prickly a couple times. It's gotten prickly.

They've had these rocky off seasons where it's usually, you know, financial, based on financials and how much Matthew Stafford wants to get paid and whether he wants more guaranteed money or an extension. But again, a year ago, we were talking about this guy shopping himself to other teams. Is he going to be, there were teams that are on the record with, man, we thought we had a shot at him. We wanted to bring him in. And then he goes back and has an MVP season. So now this kind of just hangs over their entire 2026 season. And I just think it was unnecessary. And I continue to want to know the intimate details of whether everyone was on board with this. Because they obviously

feel like we got to manage this and make it look a certain way because we don't want to upset our MVP quarterback right now. Absolutely. And you know what? It's so funny. I think I might have been willing to accept that, hey, you just take Ty Simpson because it's good process. You know that you're eventually going to have to find a replacement at quarterback down the line. They must not have been interested in getting someone like Kenyon Sadiq in the building. They must not have been interested at all at getting some of these other options in. And then with their second round pick, they take Max Clare. And I was like, wait, if you guys were in the market for tight ends in the top two rounds of the draft,

why would you not go get Kenyon Sadiq, who was a much more dynamic version. And I would say if you're comparing Claire to Sadiq, Claire does not project nearly as well as a blocker, in my opinion right now, as what you could get out of someone like Sadiq. So you can't even, to me, make the sales pitch of like, hey, we wanted to go get one of these 6-6-255-pound guys who are just going to be on the backside of whatever, our little run scheme. and we're using him to be, you know, kind of like an honorary sixth offensive lineman. That's not what they went on in draft. Claire is going to go be another receiving type guy, which is why you'd go take him that high. So that one really kind of flummoxed me. And then to come back to the pick itself, which obviously we covered on day one of the draft,

in writing about it, right, like one of the biggest thing is you always want to go and see, like, what's the precedent here, right? What are the trend lines? Historically, what can we expect? And when I went back over the last decade and was looking for, first round quarterbacks who only had a year's worth of starting experience. And you start seeing names like Mack Jones and Anthony Richardson and Trey Lance and Dwayne Haskins and Mitchell Trubisky.

Right. And the only real hit in that crop is Kyler Murray, who physically is worlds apart from anyone else in this cluster. You have to be concerned if you're a Rams fan. You've got to be concerned if you're Sean McVeigh. And you can try to pitch me until you're blue and the face about it's not going to be the same with those guys because Simpson gets to sit and learn behind Matthew Stafford. But Simpson's game is not Matthew Stafford's game. They're not the same. And if they were

similar, he wouldn't have been available at 13 because the Cardinals might have taken him number three overall. The Jets might have taken them. Number two overall. If you genuinely believe that a guy like that had that level of ceiling. And like you said, I think to wrap up my point on this, this does not mean that I'm not going to pick the Rams to win a Super Bowl when it's season preview time. They're my pick right now. I have no reason to waver on that. They went out and they addressed their defensive backroom with Trent McDuffie and Jalen Watson basically within the same week. They already had one of the most high-attained offenses, both on the ground and through the air in the NFL. And hell, for the last two postseason, they have taken the eventual champions down to the brink

and can very much feel like if we had one more chance with the ball, if we had one more opportunity, If we can make one more play call, that might be us holding up the Lombardi trophy in each of the last two seasons. I get it if you're the Rams and you're arrogant enough to believe that you've done enough work. And now it's time to be a little forward-looking. I just feel like that pick specifically, if you were going to go take a project, you could have taken a project elsewhere. You could have gone and taken like a Max on Honichor or a Monroe Freeling and say, hey, we're going to take our time with this guy. He's going to be our right tackle of the future.

Or he's going to compete with Warren McClendon to go play right tackle. right now. We'll just see where that lands. Ty Simpson at the absolute best case scenario doesn't have to play until maybe 2028, 2029 because that's the level of development I think he'll need. And there's still no guarantee that his ceiling is high enough to justify

this pick right now. And you know what else I was thinking was about McVeigh and Stafford and why they have this sort of superpower together? They're both obviously great on their own, but put them together. And I really thought their superpower has been

the ability to figure things out during the course of a game. Like this is why, you know, Vic Fangio defense isn't going to shut them down because they say, all right, we're coming in with this game plan, but this guy's really hard to go against. We need to, if we see this, hey, what do you see? I see this. Hey, what do you see? I see this. Okay, let's pivot to this. They are awesome at doing that against the most complex defenses in the entire NFL. Who's the only team that could do anything against that Seahawks defense?

Like, we forget now they were going up and down the field against the Mike McDonald Seahawks defense that was incredible against everyone else because they had the ability to figure it out. You know why?

Because McVeves a great offensive coach but also Stafford has seen everything. He has seen everything. He has this library of reps. Doesn't mean every game's going to be perfect. But when some of the physical tools start to diminish,

he can make up for it because he is so smart, he's able to make high degree of difficulty throws. I mean, the no-look throws are not like performative. It's like he is literally holding the defender. That is kind of built into the design of this now. He's opening a window because he's looking here and the defender's not closing his own

window and now he can throw it there. I mean, it's incredible. And so if I'm like thinking about the Rams and in the future and life after Stafford, I'm going like, we're going to be able to, veteran quarterbacks are first of all going to want to play for Sean McVeigh. And we have a talented roster and it's Los Angeles. I don't think you're going to have trouble, you know, attracting veteran, the next version. and Matthew Stafford.

It might not be as good, obviously, but you can get veteran quarterbacks to come play there. And now if McVe's superpowers, the ability to figure things out on the fly, and he's going to be doing it with a quarterback who started 13 games post high school at some point. That doesn't align with me. Those things don't mix.

They don't mix. It's not going to look as good. I don't care how good McVeigh is and how good the supporting cast is. So, yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I'm just leaning into, I don't think they should have done that. And man, I would love to be a fly on the wall of Matthew Stafford's private conversations with family, with friends, with his agent, with whoever.

I'm sure he will try to be the good soldier at his next press availability and say, I'll take him under my wing. I was young once. I'm trying to give back to the game and all that. And he probably, I'm sure he will be. He seems like a great teammate. I can almost guarantee he will be. And you know why?

because Matthew Stafford's going to say, you can do whatever you want with that draft pick. But since you made that decision, you are going to pay me what I'm asking for. You're going to give me the years or the money. Absolutely. If not, I will go hit the open market and I'll see what Matthew Stafford is worth

to the rest of the league. Because I've already proven I can step into a place. I can be at this advanced age and still bank me to make an NFC championship game to be a playoff contender if I'm healthy. yeah, if I'm him, you're going to pay me and then after you pay me and give me the years that I'm after,

now I can come in and be quarterback developer. But outside of that, yeah, I can't imagine that he's feeling the warmest about this pick, this decision, and what it means within this timeline of this team trying to get back over the hump. All right, so, all right, let's rewind

down here, Deontano. Do you have any more here that you wanted to get off your chest? I can hit you with a couple of quick hitters here otherwise in a minute. Let's do some quick hitters. I got a winners and losers. One winner, one loser. And then I think just one conversation that kind of interests me before we get out of here.

Winners here is kind of like the obvious. It's the good process teams. It's the teams that take multiple bites at the Apple. It's the teams that are willing to trade up to go get guys who are high on consistent draft wars because they believe they won't be available later. And it's the usual suspects in that respect, right? I think about Dallas. I think about Baltimore.

I think about Philadelphia. I would say all three of those teams. while maybe their worlds have not changed as franchises. And Dallas maybe takes the biggest leap because they did take multiple bites at the Apple as far as defense. And if all those guys hit, they will be able to kind of catapult themselves maybe

into being more closely into the playoff contender, pool of teams in the NFC. But those three teams and teams that just approach to draft that way always seem to come out of the draft with everybody feeling like they got a little bit better, at least. They got marginally better. And I would say all three of those teams

got at least marginally better by addressing needs. And then the loser for me would be the rebuilding teams in a light draft. So I'm thinking about Miami. I'm thinking about Arizona. It is probably, I'm trying not to slam them because the truth's being told. There just wasn't a lot to choose from deep in this draft. I would say that day three of this draft is one of the lighter ones that I can remember

since I've been working in the media trying to find players that you think have high upside. And maybe they weren't drafted as high because they didn't produce a bunch or the amount bounce around a bit or maybe even miscast. There's really not a lot of that in this draft. So you look at like Miami who has a boatload of picks. It's like, yeah, I think they did the right thing with each of these picks individually. But I look at these names and I try to judge the upside after you get out of the second round.

And you're just kind of crossing your fingers as something happens with these guys. None of these guys, I think, strike me as players who will be stars or plus starters by the end of their rookie deals. And obviously with Arizona, I think that we hit that pretty hard on Thursday with the Jeremiah I would say that most of their picks after do still leave me kind of scratch in my head. Although, Deonte, did you see after we spoke that they spoke to the media and said they had the wrong phone number down for Jeremiah Love? I don't know if you caught that or not, but they were having a hard time getting in touch with Jeremiah Love when the question was why, like the clock was kind of winding down there, you know, what was going on? And Monta Aston Ford said we had the wrong phone number down for

Jeremiah love and then why can't you just say we were trying to trade out and we couldn't trade out? It's okay. I think it was Bedwell who was next to him was trying to be like yeah like you know, don't please don't say that. Don't make us look the dumber than we already

look here but it's just I mean poorly run franchise, bad ownership, no direction. I honestly don't even know if it's Austin Ford who makes that pick. If it came out in 48 hours that ownership just kind of put their foot down and was like hey we got nothing going for us. Let's go take

the exciting running back, sell some jerseys, get people excited. That would not shock me as well. And you're going up against. I mean, Rams, Seahawks, Rams, and 49ers in your division. It feels just about as hopeless as it gets for a franchise and a fan base post-draft, like we were kind of saying with the Patriots for a very different reason. But yes, I think the Arizona Cardinals definitely deserve a mention there as well. Let me see.

What else did I have written down? I did have that Cardinals. I was like, we got to hit him for being a loser. once again here. So I'm glad you brought that up. We did that there. What did you think, Deontay? This was one, this was like just missed the cut for me. Where I'm like, I don't think I want to go totally go in on them, but I have some questions about what they did. And that's the Los Angeles Chargers who I think are going to be. You're with me? Okay. Because I think they're going to be a pretty trendy, maybe Super Bowl pick next year. And I get it. Mike McDaniel being there, that's exciting.

O-Line gets healthy. That's exciting. We talk. talked about Messador, 25 years old in the first round. Maybe he'll be good. I would not be spending my biggest draft resource on a guy who was 25 years old. And then in the second round, they take interior offensive lineman Jake Slaughter from Florida. Now, usually you would say interior offensive lineman, great. Makes sense for the Chargers. However, he played center exclusively in college.

And they signed Tyler Beaudish, which I think was a good sign. in the off season. And I think they announced Jake Slaughter as a guard. So with their second most valuable draft resources, again, they didn't have a lot. They had one top 50 pick. They had two top 100 picks. Their second most valuable draft resources, they're taking a guy who played 33 games at center over five seasons.

And now it sounds like they're going to move him to left guard. So maybe it'll work out great. I do kind of trust Mike McDaniel to figure it out and nobody's looking for. But that's like a lot of uncertainty with my two biggest draft assets when I feel like I have a team that could really contend next year. I mean, Keel and Rutledge went later in the first round. If you were looking for a guard, you could have went out and gotten Rutledge, right? Yeah, they really could have. That would make me feel better about them, honestly, if that was the move.

Chase Missantis could have been an option, right, for them. That would have made a lot of sense to put him in that guard. And his play style matches perfectly, in my mind, with everything that I think about Jim Harwa, right? playing tough, being able to win between the tackles, being able to play bullyball when you want to and control the line of scrimmage. So to pass on that and then ultimately land on Jake Slaughter, who I think his skill set might be able to slot over to guard.

But like you said, you're taking a guy who kind of was playing a specialty role. He only really knows center. And you're telling me you're going to slide him over in the league with an interior offensive line that already has had a reputation that these guys are just kind of on a revolving door from one spot to the next and you have no idea who's going to be lined up in one spot on a weekly basis and none of them seem to be able to move people on the interior in the run game or keep

Justin Herbert from being pressured up the interior. I'm really kind of concerned, I think, on the whole of their offseason. And we talked about this again on Thursday where he didn't spend much money in free agency, which, okay, I mean, the charges have never been notorious for being big splash guys in free agency, even though I think there were a lot of players that have gone elsewhere in the league that they should have been in on. And you're thinking, okay, maybe in the draft is because they're planning to go take high upside players. And then you look at the list,

and Akeem Mesedore at 25 years old does not strike me as a high upside player. Could be good. But that is really more of a eventual Kalil Mac replacement to me than somebody who's going to have some high upside or star potential. Jake Slaughter, again, a projection because you're moving his position. I think even Brennan Chompson, right? I don't see guys that I can squint and convince myself that they are going to be changing the way we look at the AFC West or changing the way they will look at the hierarchy in the NFL because the Chargers now have shot to the top of what we think contenders are. These are still maximizers at the end of the day.

Jim Harbaugh knows how to get the most out of these guys. Mike McDaniel has a long track record of getting the most out of his offensive pieces. We will see about Chris O'Leary as a defensive play caller. but I am definitely waiting with bated breath to find out how exactly this picture is supposed to come together and why they believe this year is going to be any different than the up and down nature that 2025 was. Yeah, I think that's well said.

All right, what else did I have here? All right, here's another loser, Deontay. Headlines about the Pittsburgh Steelers, you ready? I'm going to read one for you. This is a sad headline. I'm sorry, Steelers fans. Pittsburgh looked beautiful on TV. Have you been to,

Pittsburgh, Deontay before? I have not. I have not. I've heard it's a great city. Yeah, I've heard of a great city. I like a Pittsburgh. I thought it looked great on TV. Record number of fans showed out. So there's not a shot of Pittsburgh the city. Love Pittsburgh the city. But headline, this is in the athletic. Mike McCarthy bet on himself. Let the Drew Aller first Will Howard competition begin. I feel like every word of that made me feel worse than the one before. I mean, and this is, by the way, that didn't even mention Aaron Rogers, who they're just, you know, waiting on still where we thought, all right, I think their owner or what said, hey, we're going to get an answer from him before the draft. That didn't happen. Okay.

Definitely didn't happen. No, now you'll get an answer, I guess, after the draft. So that's the QB competition. Meanwhile, while you wait for Aaron Rogers, this is just not a good time for anyone. They had the thing about wanting McKay Lemon in the first round, which I still don't understand how you call the prospect. before it's your turn to be on the clock? Like, isn't there always a chance that someone's going to trade up and take the guy? So for those who missed it, that was an NFL network report that they're on the phone with Mackay Lemon and now the footage is out there thinking that the Cowboys are going to... At the very least, that's a horrible job of gathering intel because they absolutely could have been making calls to 2019, 18, and 17 to just see if those picks were up for sale. So that way you can gauge whether or not somebody might be making a leap to go get a player

that you're interested in. Exactly. Yeah. So they were, they thought the Cowboys were taking a defensive player. We're on the phone with Mackay Lemon. You're going to be a, you know, Pittsburgh Steeler. And then he gets the call from Philadelphia during that call with Pittsburgh. And his agent comes running in saying the Eagles just traded for you. So I don't know, not a, not a great, it just feels like the Steelers are, you know, it's kind of like they're in the place there are, they always are, except they don't have Mike Tom. Which I don't think, you know, that does not make me feel great about them either.

All right, I'm scrolling around here. Let me see. All right, here's one more for you. We can finish on this one, unless you have anything else. I had the Minnesota Vikings maybe as a loser here. I was on the frame. I was saying with the Chargers.

I was kind of on the fringes with him. Yeah, I'm not like all in with my chest. Oh, my gosh, they blew it. But here's the case for the Vikings. I am just concerned about how they are navigating the league-wide waters without a real G. You know, they fire Questia dophabam. late in the process.

It's a bit of a surprise there. Kevin O'Connell obviously has the keys. His guy is Rob Brzezinski is sort of acting as their GM here. And you're like, all right, let's see how this goes. And they take Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks in the first round at 18. He was 44 on the consensus board.

So that is one of the biggest reaches of the entire first down. So even if you like the player, and I absolutely see the upside with him. Like I think there's a case where three years for now, we're like, man, he is absolutely one of the best defensive players from this draft. But he's had, he's had injuries, there's uncertainty, there's question marks. It seems like if you had a stable infrastructure, stable GM in place, could you have navigated that

a little bit better, maybe traded back, got some additional draft capital, and then still taking him, maybe you're taking him, you know, in the late 20s or whatever it is in the first So that's one. And then the Jonathan Grenard trade, I mean, it really sounds like this just came down to money. Where if you read some of Kevin O'Connell's quotes, he's like, he's like, I love Jonathan Grenard. Like he was great leader. He was a captain. He was good for our culture.

He was very productive when he was healthy. He was playing through injury last year. Now he wanted more money and they didn't want to give him more money. But that's like on the short list of things that GMs have to deal with. Player isn't happy with contract. Okay. Like this is another day in the NFL. In the office, yes. In the office. And a lot of times, if you believe in the player and you're trying, you're kind of in win now mode, which I think they are, you're trying to come to some sort of agreement. Hey, can we guarantee you this much? Hey, can we throw in some incentives? Hey, what if we do this in this year? Like, those are the things that GMs have to deal with. And instead they end up just trading him, you know? And they're, you know, Brazinski, this is from the athletic, said very difficult decision for our organization. It's something we understand is not making us a better team.

team today where he just like, huh, man, I don't know. It just does, it feels like that doesn't inspire confidence. Doesn't inspire me. Yeah. So that's why I kind of had them in the loser category, even though I'm kind of bullish on the Vikings, I think. I'm going to see where I land in August or September. But I feel like they have a chance to be a pretty good team in 2026, but I don't necessarily love how these things, you know, along the margins are going for them. I feel like the reason why I really don't love the Caleb Banks pick is because it immediately felt like the Dominique Orange pick is a way to backstop against the fact

that if he does break his foot or if he continues to have foot issues, that you have another interior defender that can come in and play. I don't love that, right? If the big swing is Caleb Banks, then the big swing is Caleb Banks because you believe that his health

is not going to preclude him from being a contributor for your team. I look at Jay Golda, who's like by size, a really by size and athletic profile, a very interesting linebacker, but they have this exact style of linebacker, a straight line, run ahead, try to get across the line of scrimmage

and make a tackle in the backfield, good blitzer type. Their roster is not hurting for players who can do that. That's been the entire build of this defense. I would think, again, that if you're going to be picking at or near the top 50, you'd want to bring in a guy who's either going to break the mold or who shows either instant production or a high ceiling, if you're not breaking the mold, especially at a non-premium position,

it's entirely possible that Jay Golda is going to be the 51st pick and just kind of hanging around, they're a linebacker rotation, right? Caleb Banks, if he gets hurt now, it's just going to be another guy hanging around your D-line rotation. And if there's one thing that has dogged the Vikings since drafting Justin Jefferson, which should have been transformative when he was there with Kirk Cousins, it's the fact that their drafts have just led them nowhere. And they have continually been forced to spend extra money on veterans.

to try to build up depth by overspending in free agency. And it has not netted the type of team that I think they ultimately want it to be. And this draft doesn't feel like much of a break from those decisions. So yeah, if I'm Coizio Dolominsa, I'm looking around like, hey, this might not have just been a me problem. Clearly, it seems like just this entire decision-making process is maybe a little bit more flawed than what we were giving it credit for in Minnesota over the last few. years. Yeah. It's like, are they up for this? It's sort of the question you ask when you look at

some of these decisions. All right. Those were some winners and losers from the 2026 NFL draft. We, of course, have much more time to talk about the teams, the decision, the picks and everything else that we didn't get to in this episode or the previous episode. We will do that in the future for sure. All right. Thank you to Deonti Lee, my friend, from the ringer for joining me throughout draft weekend here. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Stephano Sanchez on video and additional production supervision by Connor Nevins

and Arjuna. Ram Gopal. I'm Sheila Kapati. We will talk to you next time on the ringer NFL show. 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800

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