The Ringer NFL Show - NFL Draft Rumors Buy or Sell? Plus Draft Props!

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Sheil, Steven, and Diante get together to analyze and debate some of the biggest rumors floating around the NFL media sphere as we head towards the 2025 draft. Rumors include: Shedeur Sanders to the Giants? (4:23) Shedeur Sanders not even drafted? (9:11) QBs going higher than expected (14:04) Jacksonville Jaguars first pick (28:25) Ashton Jeanty and Tyler Warren go top 10 (35:51) Kirk Cousins trade? (40:59) Possible veteran trades (50:34) They end the pod by sharing some of their favorite draft prop bets (1:00:03). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Shiel 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

All right, my birdie buddies, my car saving pals. My eagle enthusiast, it's Joe House here. Major season is finally upon us. The Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, and Fairway Rowan is here to break down all of the storylines. Offer a little help on those betting cards for every single major this golf season. Join me and our Incom. comparable accomplice, our tour boots on the ground.

Nathan Hubbard, as we guide you from Augusta all the way to Northern Ireland, Royal Port Rush. Away we go. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Shield Capadia here with Stephen Ruiz and Deonté Lee. It is draft week. The rumors are flying. What do we actually believe?

We're going to talk about that. And then a little throwback to the regular season. We've got draft props. We've looked at them. We got some long shots potentially. We're going to bring back the props contest from the regular season, if you were a listener then. And we'll pick out a few each and see how we do, see who can be victorious in this contest at the end of draft weekend. Deante, are you ready to unload all of your final draft thoughts as we count down to Thursday night?

1,000%. I did a second mock draft that's going to be up on site by the time with this podcast. is published. So I'm kind of in that draft delirium. I think I've looked at every prospect two or three times over, at least the ones that I care most about. I've got that prospect. The Teague with certain guys that are at the top of the class, he's spent so much time talking about it. I've thought about every machination there is. I think I'm ready for the thing to just be here so we can actually react to what's happening. I've barely been in the draft trenches, if you want to call it that. And I'm already ready. Come on. Four days is too long.

We should have done the draft like two weeks ago. Basketball has it figured out, man. soon as the season is over, we're bringing in the young players. Like, there's no need to waste time here. You just wait. They're going to get NFLified at one point, and they're going to realize that they are, I feel like they're losing attention. Like, they could get more attention if they, like, drew out the draft process for a month and it would get to the level of the NFL eventually, but I'm happy they don't do it. And I'm hoping the NFL turns out all this money they're getting from all these networks and they go back to a more casual draft cycle. Never in your lifetime, buddy.

No, it's going the other way. As I've said before, one round a day, seven days, maybe one round a week, seven weeks. That's coming. You know, maybe we'll all be retired by then or, you know, out of the NFL content game. But I think sometime in our lifetimes, it's going to go in that direction. It's going to be on Netflix. We're going to binge watch it on Netflix. That's right.

Thursday, a new pick is going to come out. Seventh round only. Mock draft. We'll be doing daily shows for those. All right. So this week is always interesting because you have all the lead up like you guys mentioned. And then this week, the rumors start to fly where it's like, no, no, no, all this stuff you've heard the past two months or whatever, that's not what's going to happen. This is going to happen.

And you always have to say, all right, what do I believe? What don't I believe? Maybe if you're an enterprising young person trying to get in the NFL content game, you know, let's analyze this. Which insiders, whose draft intel is good the week of the draft? because you always look at some of this stuff sideways and go, wait, what changed between two months ago and now? So we're going to sort through some of the rumors. We're going to talk about what we believe, what we don't believe, what's a smoke screen. That word gets thrown around a million times this time of year.

So we're going to do that. And then, like I said, we will get to the props in the second half of the show. So this draft, I feel like Shador Sanders. There's probably some Shador Sanders fatigue. But the truth is, three days away, it doesn't, feel like anybody has a great handle on where he is going to get drafted. So the first few of these have to do with the Colorado quarterback, Shador Sanders. All right.

Rumor number one, the Giants are actually interested in Shadur Sanders at number three. So Giants last week had the private workout with Shadur Sanders. Adam Schaefter reports no team has done more work on a single player than the Giants have done on Shadur, San. Sanders, private workout, official visit, combine interview, pro day, sending people to all of his games during the season. Deante, buy or sell that when we get to Thursday night and the Giants are on the clock, that they could actually end up just taking Shador Sanders. I'm selling this. I'm selling this. I feel like a lot of this, maybe not substrafuge. I do think that there's probably some genuine interest in Shadour Sanders, potentially being a

pick for them, but not at three. I don't think that they would look to take him that early to preclude themselves from getting an Abdul Carter, from getting an offensive tackle, which that would be a surprise to me if they went that direction instead of bringing in a guy like Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter, if what the Browns are doing is just trying to pump up the idea that they would take Hunter at two and they go in another direction. We would have heard it by now. I don't think the Sanders-Shably would have been quiet about this. I don't think the Giants would have been particularly quiet about this either. And I think that what we've seen more so over the last week and a half has been all the other quarterbacks that can be bumped into the back half of the first round. And that usually happens around mid to late April.

As you start hearing about your Tyler Shucks, your Jalen Milrose, this team started thinking, okay, 50 or option. We might have an opportunity to sell some of our day two draft capital to go get a quarterback that we think has, you know, if we take the long view, an opportunity to be a starter for us. We just have not heard that kind of hit around Shador's name. I would be massively surprised if he ends up being a top five pick. Yeah, I'm going to sell it too. And for the same reason, Deontes is saying I feel like the lack of smoke around Chador. Like, even threatening Cam Ward as a potential QB1 is kind of the red flag for me that this isn't going to happen. And like even the reports that we're getting this week that suggests that the Giants are thinking about it.

We have one report saying that they're split on Chador and another prospect. And then we got another report from Adam Schefter. And he's quoting like multiple unnamed GMs. So one of the GM says, oh, if they like them at three, they'll take them at three. And that's the quote I see getting passed around going, oh, look, there's giant smoke. But that doesn't mean anything, of course. That doesn't mean anything. They're like any player they're going to take them at three.

I just can't see it. I can't see it. Especially in this draft where it seems like there's more value on day two and day three, where you should be trying to trade down. It sounds like a lot of teams are trying to trade down. I think you should value that pick and not reach for a quarterback. So I think the Giants want to trade down. And I think that's the reason that we're seeing.

all these connections to Chador in hopes that they can bait a team into trading up for it, which I don't think is going to happen. And they're equipped with the draft capital to get back into the first round if they wanted to. They've got 65, they have 99, they have 105, they can trade future draft capital if need be. And there are a lot of teams, I think, between 20 and 32 that would be interested in talking shop if you put multiple picks on the table. I just can't imagine number three is what they're going to go with to take a quarterback

because it's going to take away all these other options, all the other optionality that they would have with the third overall pick. A trade back would be more plausible to get Sanders later in the first round than them taking them at number three overall. All right. We're all on the same page, I think, with the Shador Sanders stuff to the Giants. You know, the report Ruiz mentioned where Adam Schaefter says there's not a consensus in the building about Shador Sanders. I was trying to just figure out what could that potentially mean. You know, is this Joe Shade saying, I got to throw a Hail Mary here? You know, Like maybe if he ends up like C.J. Stroud or Jaden Daniels as a rookie, all of a sudden it's the only way to save my job.

Is it ownership saying, all right, but we've had this process and we don't really like him that much. We have to look out for the long-term interests of the franchise. I don't know. You know, it's someone like Brian Daibald saying, no, no, there's other quarterbacks who I like later who will be just as good as Shador Sanders for me immediately. But those are some of the balls in the air, which goes back to them. Keeping Shane and Dayball, it just feels like, why did they do that? You know, this feels like a time to have a clean break where if you had a new GM and a new coach, you would just have clear eyes about this thing and say, hey, we don't need to rush into anything.

But now you have different motivations here potentially with guys trying to save their jobs. But we all agree, even with that, I don't think that the Giants take Shador Sanders at number three. All right. So sticking with Shador Sanders, you got the other extreme here. All right. So he doesn't go at three, some speculation. Maybe he doesn't even get drafted in the first round. Maybe a team like the Cleveland Browns or the New York Giants to Deontes point,

they think about trading back into the first. And we'll get to those possibilities eventually here during this discussion. But maybe they sit back and say, we don't need to do that. Shador Sanders is not going to get taken in the first round. Ruiz, do you think that that's possible? possible that the disinterest in Shadur Sanders has gone that far that he could still be on the board when we start the draft on Friday? I mean, I do think it's possible.

And I think you're hearing talk suggesting that Jackson Dart could even surpass him as QB2. And when you look at their profiles and you look at the quarterbacks to tend to get drafted in the first round, Jackson Dart's profile looks more like a first round prospect than Shadr Sanders. He's younger than him. He has a stronger arm than him. I could see NFL teams kind of falling in love with him. as a prospect, depending on how his interviews go. If he nailed his interviews, I think there's not a question in my mind that he might go

or that he will go ahead of Shador Sanders on Thursday. Wow. Deontay, what do you think? I'm selling this, but I do want to acknowledge it as plausible, right? And the reason why I'm selling this is that I'm more so in the camp that we're going to see multiple quarterbacks taken on the back end of the first round, then I am the belief that it would just be like Cam Ward and then maybe a Jackson Dart or a Tyler Shuck or Jalen Milrow, leap them.

Because there are just so many teams that could use a quarterback, even on a flyer, right, that could jump into the back end of the first round. Cleveland is a team that has three picks between 33 and 100. They could very easily package something up to get in, you know, to take a Shador Sanders if that's the direction that they wanted to go. Seattle, if they wanted to have a plan already in the building at quarterback, right? They could look at Shador and say, all right, if Pittsburgh's not interested, if Cleveland's not interested, and Philadelphia or Kansas City or Buffalo are okay with taking a step back in the draft order,

we might be able to jump in and get a fifth year-year option on a guy because we know he's not going to be starting in year one or year two anyways, and we can get an honest evaluation of them and not be up against it contract-wise, the way the Packers were with Jordan Love last off-season, right? So I think that that's more of a possibility than anything. I do think that it's telling as far as a conversation about Shador that you hear him much closer to, Jackson Dart, Tyler Shuck, Jalen Milrow, and the debates are, okay, what are the ceilings of these guys? And are those ceilings high enough to justify them leaping over a guy like Shador Sanders, who I think the NFL maybe looks at as more of like a known commodity coming into the league, right?

That he's going wherever you think his floor is at, his ceiling is just as if not more limited, right, as a quarterback because he doesn't have physical tools, and because some of the passing profile doesn't necessarily portent towards him being an elite level quarterback. right? So I think that that's an interesting thought, but I do think ultimately I'd sell this and that multiple guys end up going between 20 and 32. I do wonder how the fifth year option kind of plays into this because we have like a glut of teams drafting at the top of the second round that need a quarterback that won't be able to get one at the top of the first round, obviously. So they could trade back, but you also have the Browns at 33 taking, that's the first pick of the second day. They theoretically could stay there and get the second quarterback if they wanted to. But I just don't think that's going to.

With them looming there, their pick looming, I think we are going to see teams trying to jump in. But I wonder if that's even an advantage to have the fifth year option at this point, where it's guaranteed now. Where before you could pick it up, if the guy doesn't play well in his fourth year, you just let him go for his fifth year. That's not a possibility now. And you're kind of locking yourself into that fifth year with a quarterback that you didn't feel strongly enough about to draft at the top of the first round. I don't know if I would want to do that if I were a team. Yeah, but at that point you have, what, three years of, you know, three years of information. on the player before you have to make that decision.

So I think teams would probably still look at that and say, hopefully we would know by that point. You're right. I mean, if it's a team that's just taking him, not as a luxury pick, but yeah, they're like, hey,

Deonté mentioned a team like Seattle where you're not going to play him right away. Then, you know, you have a point. You might get to that, you know, after three years and be like, we don't know.

We don't know what this guy is. Right. Yeah. But if you're a team that's like, no, we believe he's going to come in and play right away, then that's when it becomes an advantage. there. So I think he's, I'm more with Deonti. I just think that at some point, someone will say,

hey, even if we think he's a solid average starter and we can put him in a good infrastructure and the desperation with quarterbacks, all those things that someone will take him in the first round. But that would be quite the story if he falls all the way out of the first and is still there on day two of the draft. All right. Next one here. We're sticking with quarterback and this is a good jumping off points of some of the things you guys just mentioned. Do we get a Michael Pennix-like surprise or a Bo Nix-like surprise with a different quarterback, maybe other than Shador Sanders, going higher than expected? So some of the names out there, you just mentioned it. Some teams could have Jackson Dart from Ole Miss over Shador Sanders per Adam Schaefter. Some teams have Tyler

Shug rated as their top quarterback in the draft over Cam Ward. the 26-year-old rookie. Where am I, Brandon Whedon people out there? Who remember that back in the day? So he's another one there. I mean, there was what a Jalen Millrow, Pittsburgh Steelers, dinner or something that got out there. Does someone look at him and say, hey, he's Tulsi? Maybe he's got the best most upside of all these kind of set.

He got invited to the draft too. Yeah, got invited to the draft. So maybe someone looks at him and says, hey, we're not going to play him right away. but if we want to bank on some upside here and he should draw some Jalen Hertz comparisons that, hey, if we build a team around him, we can do some different things with the right coordinator with Jalen Milro. Deante, your thoughts on whether the story Thursday night could potentially be, hey, one of these other quarterbacks went, let's say, in the top 15 when nobody was predicting that.

I do think it's possible. I think you have to look at New Orleans, right, with a bit of a raise. eyebrow because it's not exactly clear what their draft plans are. I think that they've been kind of poking around all these quarterbacks. And they're in an interesting position. It's kind of a pivot point in the top half of the first round because they're not a team that has to take a quarterback. They could go best player available.

They could address other things. They could trade back. There are a lot of teams kind of in that 12 to 15 range that might look at that, that spot is their last opportunity to get what they might believe is a blue chip or a fringe kind of blue chip, red chip guy. in that draft range. So I could definitely see a quarterback ending up going in that spot. Maybe not from New Orleans.

Maybe they trade out. But I look at the Saints as well and say, if Carr's not going to play to start the year, if the timeline on them is unsure, do you have a coaching staff in that's not married to him as a player? Maybe they could take, if not Chador, right? If Shadour goes earlier, if there's an unexpected piece of this where maybe a Tyler Shuck

or a Jackson Dart ends up going, I would not be shocked after what we experienced in the 2020. draft, right? Like, I do think that all options are open for quarterback. It's not necessarily something that's on my board. What I would expect to do in terms of where the draft order is currently set, but I would not rule it out. I would buy this one if I had to pick.

Ruiz, what do you think? I think I'm going to sell it. It just seems like the league at large is low on this draft class. I saw, like, an anonymous quote in a Shepter report saying that Cam Ward would have been the seventh quarterback in last year's class. Yeah, I thought I was like, geez. It is nonsense. I cannot believe that that's the case, considering his profile as a prospect.

But it does seem like the league is low on them. And I do wonder if we have this grouping, this cluster of quarterbacks below Cam Ward. I do wonder if that kind of pushes them all down. It's kind of like the opposite of a rising tide raises all boats type situation where teams are like, we could just draft the guy, the QB3 in the second round. So we don't need to take QB2 right now. I could see that happening. And I think that's more likely, but I do think this is the class that is really going to test how quarterback crazy this league is.

Last year, I do, that was crazy. The league lost its mind, six quarterbacks, I think, in the top 12 picks or whatever it was, with some prospects that I don't think would have gone in the first round in most years. But this year, it's even, it's a more questionable class. Like from top to bottom, we have none of those generational prospects like we had at the top of last year's class. I just can't see it happening. But if it does, yeah, the NFL is quarterback crazy. And we're never going back to a time when it isn't.

I would say, like, I want to believe, Stephen, like, if you're just evaluating, if all this is about is raw evaluation, judging it against where you're drafting, everything Stephen is saying is 100% correct. The issue is that if you just go back over the last decade, it's just not founded in any draft, even the ones where they swear up and down that they're not in love with quarterbacks. I think about the Dwayne Haskins, Daniel Jones draft. Nobody was really in love with those guys coming into.

of the league. And then you look up and they both go in the top 16 of the draft. Right. Like we have, I would say the Kenny Pickett, the E.J. manual years, those are much more of the anomalies than they are the norm. And what we know of the NFL is, even if the teams in the top 16 right now aren't projected to take quarterbacks, there's always going to be a team that's desperate enough to get in the mix if they think that their guy isn't going to make it to the second round, to the 25th pick, et cetera, et cetera, just using those as raw examples.

Like I just, I don't believe for a second. that there's enough discipline in the NFL for an owner to sit back and say, we'll wait until pick 40, whatever, to see if this quarterback lands here. That's not the way the draft works. Teams are going to be aggressive if they feel like that's the only opportunity to get a potential starter at this position. What qualifies as a penics, though? Like, how high do they have to go for it to qualify? I mean, I think if a non-shadour award guy goes in the top 15, that would be the story of Thursday night, right? If that happens? Honestly, top 20, I would be first. the shots. I think that that's fair.

Yeah. Okay, so identify the team then. Like, what's the team that's going to have you like hands on the head, surrender co-braing? All right, let me give you some. Let me give you some. Okay. So, well, you know, I'd land with Deonté where I, you know, the sort of analytical part of my brain was with Ruiz, where it's like, no, I don't think so. But then the factors of, I think some teams will look at last year and go everyone made fun of the Broncos with Bo Nix and they got to the playoffs. and hey, Michael Penix, all right, it was a weird process, but I bet they're happy they have my. I'm really, I know this isn't me, just to be clear, I'm saying I could see NFL teams thinking like this,

that, hey, you know, Michael Penix was a bad process at the time, but they're pretty happy they have Michael Penix now versus Kurt Cousin. So maybe they will, those are the lessons they will take from that. And so I look at some of the quarterback desperate teams. I also look at the rest of the positions in this draft, in the premium positions like offensive tackle, edge, defensive tackle corner. I see a lot of players with more question marks than usual in like the top 20 of this draft.

I say I like this player, but I like this player. But like you can see how it wouldn't work out with some of these guys, maybe more so than previous years where you just felt like you have cleaner prospects in the top 20. So I think you add those things up. And I do think we are going to be in store for a surprise in the top 20. So Deontay asked for teams. Now maybe it's a team that trades back in, you know, as we mentioned, a team like the Browns or the Giants trading back in.

The Saints at 9 are a wild card. The Steelers at 21 do not have a quarterback on their roster. And then the true ones that I think would be, whoa, type deals. I mean, you have to look at the Raiders. I think maybe they trade down. I don't think they're going to do it, but I'm just saying, you know, Gino Smith is, what, 34 years old. The Seahawks, I think you have to look at.

I mean, they had Russell Wilson. in his prime and they were looking at quarterbacks. Now, John Schneider hasn't consistently acted on that impulse, but they were certainly looking at quarterbacks even when they felt like they had one. And Sam Darnold, it's a one-year commitment. So that is a team I'm looking at if we have a surprise. And then I think if we go down a little further into the first round,

would the Los Angeles Rams look at this and say, we're going year to year with Stafford, you know, we got a good infrastructure in place. At some point, we need to have a plane, for post-stafford, hey, Sean McVeigh really likes quarterback X and thinks he can work with him. Now, I think McVe's preference is probably to just work with veteran quarterbacks the rest of his life. But who knows? That could be another one.

So I don't know. Did I miss any teams that are on your guy's radar? I have two that are like totally unexpected. This is not me saying that like I've talked to anybody. This is not me saying that I expect this. But I look at the Jets and I'm like, they don't have any reason not to. You didn't really have no reason not to. And you can still tell Justin Fields, these next two years are your two years,

if you prove that you deserve those two years. We're not necessarily bringing this guy to come take your job right now. This is a plan for 2030 for the New York Jets, right? I think that that would make a lot of sense. And again, I hate doing this because I get so many Colts fans that hit me up and they're like, what's your deal, bro? Like, we're all upset too. Well, what's your deal?

I just look at the Colts F-14. and if you're Chris Ballard and you have what seems to be infinite job security, why wouldn't you bring in a guy and say, hey, like, yes, Daniel Jones is here to compete, but bigger than that, we want to make sure that we keep all of our quarterback options open.

We've seen teams bring guys in when they already have incumbent starters and they compete. And then in a couple of years, that rookie turns into a starter down the line. We don't know if Daniel Jones is going to be healthy enough as a veteran option to be a backup. And if this guy is a backup, this protects us against Anthony Richardson because of his playstyle.

And we'll see. If Anthony Richardson is good enough, then we don't have to worry about it. And we'll figure that out down the line. But for the next couple of years, we want to bring in a guy who we think has promise at the position. And again, it's not expected. I just think that it's plausible when you look at the draft board, considering the fact that there aren't a lot of camp miss tackles, edge rushers, corners, defensive tackles, like you were saying, Shield.

There's not as many knockout options available for teams. I think the team that would shock, the most realistic team that would kind of shock me and have me doing the Surrender Cobra is Seattle. I just can't see you justify the move for Darnold, the Darnold contract. I know they've done it in the past, but that just brings into questions like Darnold's whole, the reason he's there, basically. Like, why are you here if we have a quarterback and why did we give you all that money? They're not like ready to win a Super Bowl this year.

So it wouldn't make much sense for the timeline. But I could totally see it happen because John Schneider, like you said, They were looking at quarterbacks. They were looking at Josh Allen when Russell Wilson was still there. So I definitely think it's on the board. A team definitely not going to take a quarterback in the first round, probably not the second round. But I would be interested to see if Philly takes a swing on like a Millrow type because

the quarterback factory, keep it churning. Yeah. You know, obviously you had the backups come in last year and they looked good and you can flip those guys for picks down the line. That seems to be what they're going after. I don't know if that's like necessarily plausible in today's NFL where every NFL team wants quarterbacks and drafts them highly. But I do think the Eagles are interested in building like a quarterback farm that they could flip into assets down the line. Yeah, you can never rule out

the Eagles. Absolutely. Especially, yeah, Mill Row is an interesting one on day two where it's like, all right, you know, the best version of Millrow, you could put in that offense and you wouldn't have to change a lot of things there with the run game and everything. So that's interesting. The Jets, I'm with you, Deont, and they've really made a big emphasis during the series. Karen Glenner of like stuff's not getting out of the building. We're keeping quiet. This isn't going to be the circus it was under previous regimes type thing. So I'm with you.

It's like it's Justin Fields. I'll do respect. It's just in Fields. That's not stopping you from doing anything. You know, that is like setting kind of the floor. But if you like one of these guys and, you know, when you sign Justin Fields,

you thought, hey, Schuador Sanders probably isn't going to be there at seven. We don't love him enough to trade up. But now all of a sudden months later, it's a different scenario. That wouldn't shock me at all. And then, yeah, Seattle, you're right, Ruiz. That would be the most penics-like one,

because it is the team that just signed the quarterback. Now, it's not the same guarantees that Kurt Cousins was, but it's like, hey, they just signed a quarterback. And now months later, they're drafting a quarterback in the first round and where are they going with this whole thing. So there's a lot of wildcars in there that could be pretty fun. And the Rams taking a quarterback would be like the Packers taking Jordan Love. and what was that, 2020?

I mean, what you, maybe, like, LaFleur did it? Maybe McVeigh does it? Who knows? Yeah, looking back, they're again. They're probably happy they have Jordan Love now in post-Rogers. So who knows? I'm pretty much in the camp of you can almost always justify. I've changed my tune, you know, I used to just make fun.

But now I'm like, you know what? I don't know. A quarterback evaluation in college is so hard that if you want to take it, if you want to throw a dart and you're not trading three first round picks for it and it's just a guy who felt you, go ahead, knock yourself out if you feel like there's a chance of it working up. There is value, you know, especially with a guy like Shador Sanders, where it's like, if you get an average starter in the 20s, like there is actually value to that.

You know, you can still build up the rest of your roster. You see what guys like Donald get paid on the open market. So I think you can justify it that way too. So, all right, I'm buying it. I'm buying some fireworks with one of these other quarterbacks in the first round on Thursday night. All right. Let's take a break. We come back.

We got some other rumors to get to and then we will get to the props. The NFL draft is here and if you want to make every pick a little more exciting, Fandul is where it's at. The app is simple, secure, and packed with exclusive offers.

Plus, when you win, you will get paid instantly. No waiting around. And if you think the draft is just about waiting to hear names called Think Again. With Fandual, you can bet on pick positions. Which team will draft a player,

exact orders, top five and top 10 picks and a ton more, including some ringer specials. And right now, new customers can bet just five bucks and get 250 in bonus bets if you win. So before the draft kicks off, download the Fandual app and get ready to make every moment unforgettable. Fandual, official partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C., first online real money wager only, $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-mistrawable bonus bets,

which expires seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook. Fanduel.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. All right, we are back on the Ringer NFL show. This one's picking up some steam.

The Jacksonville Jaguars at number five. I feel like this is one of those where for weeks, months, it was like Mason Graham, Mason Graham, Mason Graham. And now everywhere I look, hey, don't be surprised. Jaguars could be a wild card. At number five, we got this new interesting character, James Gladstone in our lives. No one knows what are his preferences, what direction does he want to go in? And so you look at them where this is really a draft that could potentially start with the fifth pick, where if you feel like, hey, first three are going to be Ward, Hunter and Abdul Carter and the Patriots go with, whichever offensive tackle they like the most. They may be number five is when we start to look at it and go, okay, now it's really starting right here.

So could they go with someone like a Tet McMillan and say, hey, let's set Trevor Lawrence up with Ted McMillan and Brian Thomas Jr. That's pretty fun. Could they say, hey, Tyler Warren, we can do a lot with this guy as a playmaker in Liam Cohen's offense. Do they look at Ashton Genty and say they? You know what? I know it's against conventional wisdom, but, man, it would be nice to have a running back like that in our offense. So, Ruiz, do we see a surprise a wild card with the Jacksonville Jaguars at number five? I'm selling again. I think the reason you kind of laid out with Gladstone being an unknown commodity is the reason that we don't really know what they're going to do. And they don't do top 30 visits, which is another way that we kind of figure out what Claire's teams are interested in.

But I think that's the point. They don't want you to know who they're interested in, and that's why we're kind of filling in the blanks for them. It's become like a mad-lips thing because that's what happens when you don't know around draft time. You just start throwing stuff and hope something sticks to the wall. But, I mean, you just look at the depth chart, and you look at that glaring hole, that defensive tackle, and the guy's right there, the perfect prospect is right there.

Like, why would you not take him? I just think doing anything else would be trying to do too much and trying to accelerate this offensive rebuild that you, are starting by bringing in Liam Cohen. That's why you bring in Liam Cohen. So you don't have to like pay premiums for these players to get a good offense. No, I think they do eat your vegetables pick here. Deontay?

I'm selling this too. I do just think it's interesting. And a lot of this maybe just is the shroud of mystery that is James Glassstone and Liam Cohen. You know, are they a brain trust? Is it just the GM running the show, right? And there's Tony Besseli. Exactly.

You know, so there are just all these. there's a lot of characters that probably have a lot to say. It was funny being on FanDuel as we were getting prepped for the show. And while I was looking at the team that would draft, Asht and Gentie, the line was moving as I was in there. And I think that it went from Raiders plus 130, Jacks plus like maybe in the mid-200s, 240, 200, getting as low as Jacks plus 180,

which is like, we're getting close to that's like close to like coin flip territory now between teams that could possibly draft Genti. But I think ultimately, by the time we get to Thursday, it's going to be pretty clear. The most obvious need here is going to be defensive tackle for this team, and the best defensive tackle is actually falling right in their lap based on the way that the draft is projected to go in the top five. I don't think that they mess with that.

And the last thing I'll say is, like, I don't really make much of the whole not doing top 30 visits thing for James Glassstone. Jordan Rodriguez of the Athletic kind of talks about how less need does that with the Rams. I think that's maybe just being borrowed there. Also something that I think is a lot easier to do in Los Angeles. where a lot of guys might kind of be local or within that 50 mile radius of L.A. County, you know, where their facility is located at and you can bring guys in. And maybe that's something you can do in Jacksonville, right, because there are a lot of

Florida prospects who are around so you can kind of bring them in, you know, because their high school is close by, or you can go to their high school where they're working out or you can send scouts out for a day, which is something else that Lesne did with the Rams before Gladstone moved over. So I don't make much of it. I think that this is just a lot of mystery that's going to be much to do about nothing by the time Thursday gets here is probably Mason Graham. Yeah, the Rams would have like their, I think it was assistant to the GM travel around and kind of interview the players at their school rather than bringing them into their facility. And Gladstone has like a similar guy in his front office. I don't know if he's doing the same jobs.

And he's Charlie Stone. I don't know if he's doing that same job. But I do think that, yeah, I don't think that means much either. I think you just get a different look at them. They say they don't want it to bias their evaluations of these players. I don't think it makes a difference either way. But I do think that's the reason. Because the top 30 visits get reported to the NFL.

That's how they get leaked out. And the Jaguars don't want that to happen. That's why we don't know anything about who they're visiting with. Yeah. And I think Gladstone did some of that with the Rams where he would visit and kind of sign off and on prospects and stuff for Lesley. So it's a different way to do that. Yeah, just to clarify for people who aren't aware you're allowed to have 30 prospect visits to your team facility.

But to Deontes point, if it's a local player within whatever the vicinity is of your area, then it doesn't count as a top 30 visit. You could have the local ones there. So yeah, stuff gets leaked out, often gets leaked out by agents. So it's like, you know, it can be, hey, you know, our players visiting Team X. They could get drafted that high type thing. If it's a lower one, they might say, hey, don't take that visit because, you know, we don't want to be drafted that low. So there's some of that stuff in there. You know, Howard Roseman, I think, talked last week about how the Eagles used to do it as sort of a, hey, distraction and mislead people.

But now they're just like, no, we just, these are players. We want more information on it. It could be an off-field thing. It could be an injury thing. It could be a, hey, you know, there's some prospects in this class where it's like they put on 30 pounds last year. It's like, well, you know, and maybe their production fell. Well, why did you do that last year? How much did it affect you trying to get information, all those kinds of things?

So, yeah, teams use them in different ways. But there are other ways to get to the prospects. There's the combine. There's the senior bowl. You can interview people. You can go to their schools. You can do private workouts with them there. So, yeah, it's not just that having them in.

The limitation is to have 30 non-local prospects to your facility. But there are many other ways to, get to these guys. So I'm with you guys. This is a sell to me. That just, that roster screams build the lines of scrimmage. Like, just do that. You know, you're not going to be a Super Bowl team next year. Let's

build the lines of scrimmage. Let's get some blue chip players, offensive line, pass rush. You know, you have a wide receiver who he did a good job with drafting last year. And Brian Thomas Jr. You have a corner in Tyson Campbell. Like you've got some players at those kind of perimeter positions.

And now it's about, hey, let's really take your time and be a little more patient and build at the lines of scrimmage. So I still think it's going to be Mason Graham. I wouldn't be shocked though if this was a wildcar. So I'm selling, but I'm not selling strongly there, which brings us to our next one here. Ashton Genty and Tyler Warren both go top 10. And if you want to be spicy, maybe even top five. Now you're seeing, I'm seeing report said, hey, I can't remember, I think it was Daniel Jeremiah, maybe that. hey, you know, Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland, everybody loves these two guys. You know, don't be surprised if in a year where the premium positions might not have as many clean prospects at the tight ends get moved up the board.

So Deontay, Ashton Jenty and Tyler Warren both go top 10 and are off the board when the San Francisco 49ers, unless they trade up, potentially pick at number 11. What do you think? I say this is a cautious buy for top 10, but I'm certainly selling for top five. And I'm really only buying this because I'm looking at a team like Chicago. And you think about Ben Johnson and his time with Sam Leporta, and maybe he looks at Tyler Warren and says, hey, let's just take a chance on getting this guy now instead of having to give away our second round picks to try to get back in the first round

on what might not even be a certainty that he or a Loveland would be available later on in the draft. But outside of that, I would say that that's probably the most narrow outcome, right? I think that Gentie is going to go top 10 maybe no matter what, just based on everything that we've seen so far. It will be a surprise if he slipped. Tyler Warren, to me, I think, is a little bit trickier to find a landing spot for it, not because he's not talented, but just because it's tough to justify drafting a tight-in that highly. And there are a lot of horror stories, I think, in the NFL right now about taking tight-ins highly, expecting them to be major contributors early in their career, the amount of time it takes for them to learn

and complete their skill set, health, all those reasons. You know, there's a lot of issues maybe to consider at that position. But outside of maybe New Orleans in Chicago, I don't see a lot of other Tyler Warren teams. So I'll say bye because he's that talented. But I'm probably not feeling that great about it. And I think that this is ultimately an indictment on the rest of the receiver class and the quarterback class that were you talking about tight ends and running backs being considered as top 10 of potentially top five picks.

I do, I'm going to buy it. And I do think part of it, I do think part of it, is an indictment of the wide receiver class. But I do wonder if it's, like, influenced by the last couple of years where we've seen the best offenses make good use out of just playmakers. It used to be wide receivers. Those were the premium positions at the playmaker positions. We paid those guys.

We didn't pay the other guys. But now we've seen in the last couple of years teams weaponize a tight end, weaponize a running back in ways that we didn't really. I guess they didn't get paid like it a couple of years ago. So I do wonder if, like, teams are looking around the league, looking at the successful offenses over the last couple of years. and being like, I can envision Ashton Genti playing that role for our offense. I can envision Tyler Warren playing that role for our offense.

And that makes them more liable to go. And I think the other factor influencing this is that the other premium positions, there just aren't a lot of blue chip prospects. Like at offensive tackle, there's questions where there usually isn't. They're usually like a surefire top five pick along the offensive line. Same with cornerback. There's not an elite cornerback prospect. There's Hunter who, you know, plays two positions and there are question marks about him as a corner.

I think that's also influencing this. So if there is a year to draft a tight end or a running back in the top 10, maybe it's this year. I'm a buy also. Yeah, the point Deonte you made is another one where I wonder if there's some recency bias. Brock Bowers last year, let's get our guy.

Where if you look at like the previous 10 years, man, it was a horror show with tight ends. Even Tudgeon who was turned out to be a really good player. I don't know if that was the right use of draft capital at the time that was picked. Like the best case scenario might be like Vernon Davis. He was like the fifth pick in the draft. And he was a good player.

I don't think he was ever a great player. Yeah. And like an all-time outlier athletically. Right. All-time outlier athletically. Yeah. So we'll see if anybody talks themselves into it. I was just looking at landing spots.

You know, the Jets at 7. Would they go, Tyler Warren? The Panthers at 8. Would they go Tyler Warren? If, you know, if Ted McMillan's off the board or if they just look at it and say, hey, Warren is a more reliable playmaker. We can do stuff with him. I don't know, maybe Bears at 10 are another one.

Bears fans were very upset with me for taking Michael Williams over Warren and Gentie in our last mock draft. Come on, ain't you here, Deonté, eat your vegetables? Sometimes you've got to build on the lines of scrimmage. You can't just get the toy right away, haven't you see? You know, Ben Johnson's been their trading picks for offensive linemen. I just thought maybe they want a defensive lineman. Bears fans, that's all.

No, sorry. So the Bears could be another team at 10 for, You know, either Gentie or Warren. Raiders are kind of everybody saying, are the Raiders going to end up? We're at with Ashton, Genti, we'll see. So those are some of the teams I had written down. I'm a buy on this also. I think when we look up after the top 10, I think both those guys, if I had to say,

would be off the board. All right. A couple more to get to here. Now we kind of move to, hey, some maybe non-draft picks, veterans getting moved type things. Next one is Kurt Cousins gets traded this weekend. So this was in Adam Schaefter's draft intel column where he said Falcons have had conversations with teams about trading Kurt Cousins. They want teams to take on $20 million of the $45 million that are guaranteed to Kirk Cousins. Teams have been willing to say we will take on $10 million of the $45 million guaranteed

to trade for Kurt Cousins. And he also noted in there that the Falcons are asking for a lot in return. But there wasn't a specific description about what a lot means. So I'm not sure what a lot means. I have a hard time thinking anyone's giving up more than like a day three pick for Kirk Cousins at this stage. But I could be wrong. Maybe you guys feel differently.

Ruiz, at the end of draft weekend, does Kirk Cousins have a new team by yourself? I'm going to sell this just because of the money. And they're asking for the $20 million, which they're not going to get. I think other teams are offering maybe $10. But that doesn't include the $2 $10 million roster bonuses that he's also due. And the first one guaranteed on the fifth league day of this year. So I just don't see. I see that being prohibitive.

I think it's going to take it's going to be a drawn-out process where Cousins kind of like goes around and gets openly courted by teams and then picks a team. I don't see it happening this fast. That's such a big investment for whatever team trades for him because you're essentially locking yourself into Kirk Cousins for the next couple of years at like about $40 million per season, which I don't want to pay Kirk Cousins $40 million. And I don't want to commit to that right now without thinking.

I don't want to do it in the heat of the draft when you're on the clock. Teams are offering you picks and stuff like that. I just don't think that's the time to make this type of trade. And maybe I'm wrong, but I don't really recall a lot of quarterback trade's going down on draft weekend. Deontay, what do you think? I'm selling it because the numbers are just a little too disparate for me. And then when you consider the roster bonuses, as Stephen was mentioning,

if you're talking about $40 million, that's essentially what Matt Stafford's being being paid right now on an average basis. And you're not getting Matt Stafford level play out of Kirk Cousins in 2025. You're not getting a can take you down to the wire against the best team in the playoffs type of quarterback in Kirk Cousins. He's never been that. 10 million that you're eating as a team and then you think about those roster bonuses.

Now you're talking somewhere around like Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Gino Smith, which is like wild card-esque type of quarterback, right? A guy who might be able to get you in the dance if he's healthy and playing at his best, that's the kind of dice rule you'd be taking on a Kirk Cousins. But yeah, $20 million, if you're telling me to take on $20 million of this guy's salary just to consummate this deal, we don't even need to have a conversation.

You're not serious about moving the guy yet. When that number comes down, then it'll be a different thing to talk about. Yeah, and I think it will eventually come down. The thing that was interesting in that report is that Shepter threw out the Vikings as a possible team. Next thing I was going to mention. I mean, that was maybe I thought Ruiz the most interesting nugget in that entire column that he said, two potential teams, the Steelers and the Vikings, the Steelers, okay, they don't have a quarterback. Wait a minute, the Vikings?

I mean, they just, there's even the J.J. McCarthy, stuff when they're out on Rogers, it was all couched a little bit. It doesn't sound like they are in a place right now as we record this on April 21st where they feel 100% that we are moving forward with J.J. McCarthy, that there still could be another shooter drop, whether that's because McCarthy hasn't shown he's 100% healthy and maybe a month from now, it'll be a different story. Whether it's, hey, we like him, but we're throwing in a first-time quarterback to this team that just got Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen and signed a bunch of vets in the offseason.

And you look at that depth chart. It's a pretty good depth chart. It's a very good coaching staff. It's a team that won a lot of games last year. Are they looking at it going, are we sure our best chance to win right now in a wide open NFC is going to be with the first time quarterback? Or Kirk Cousins, guess what? He's played in the scheme before.

He's played with Justin Jefferson before. He knows the coaching staff. He knows the playbook. Is that a door we still want to leave a little bit open? So I was with you, and you're probably right, that there's no real rush for a team to say, hey, let's do this on draft weekend. Like, you know, Tuesday of next week, that deal should still be on the table. But that, my ears perked up a little bit when I saw those two teams for sure.

Yeah, I think that would be the surrender COVID moment of the weekend. That happens. I can't fathom it happening. I know Shepton threw it out there. Maybe there's smoke there, but I just can't see that happening after they parted ways. two years ago. It would be a fun trade, but I do think it's more of the second option you kind of threw out there because we haven't heard any reports about any setbacks in his rehab, McCarthy I'm talking

about. It does seem like they're looking at their roster. They're looking at a Super Bowl window that's open right now that will close in a hurry just based on how the roster is built, just based on the coaching staff, which I think is going to start getting plucked after next season, especially if they do well. And they're thinking, is this really the guy that we can maximize this window? with. And that's not an indictment of him. He's a

essentially a rookie quarterback who didn't get to play his first season. I wouldn't, even if I love J.J. McCarthy as a prospect, I still wouldn't feel comfortable handing him the keys to this car. I think that's fair. And he was a very young prospect. He's an unknown. It doesn't mean you were

dumb to draft him. It's just like, all right, circumstances have changed. Yeah, just acknowledge the truth. Yeah, we have a window that's different than maybe we thought it was. You're going to be our quarterback eventually. Kurt Cousins isn't going to be there for three years. But for one year, do you slow play it and say, let's take a shot still with a veteran and let's save J.J. McCarthy here a little bit.

So I don't know. When I read that, I was kind of like, I kind of think that might happen eventually. There's too much that keeps going on that, hey, you know, they haven't closed the door on this veteran quarterback, that veteran quarterback. And the cousins thing, you're not bringing the drama of an Aaron Rogers, you know, he's someone who's going to be well liked in the building and has those relationships. And, you know, you can sell it as, hey, he's going to mentor J.J. McCarthy. And it's just one year. You know, we don't want to force a first time.

Do you buy that? You think if they traded for Kirk Cousins, it wouldn't cause a con, like, I just, I don't, I think it would cause a controversy. How so, though, with who? Like, I actually think. I feel like the fans. Well, not people that matter's point. That might be a little bit presumptive, right, that J.J. McCarthy would have an issue with it.

And maybe I'm only saying that because we don't know a lot about how JJ McCarthy views the arc of his career and how he views recovering from the surgery and what he's been told in the building. Right. Like, we don't know. And we've heard more about veterans that might be options for Minnesota. And you just kind of have to read some tea leaves, I guess, and what the messaging might be and why we know that Minnesota is poking around veterans. It's from other teams. That was the point that sheppler said. It's from another GM, which, like, and that's like, how do you read into that?

Do you read into it like, oh, they're just, you know, throwing shit out there? Or do you read into it like the Vikings have been in contact with multiple teams? And that's why we know. Right. And agents are saying, hey, the Vikings have asked if guys are available, right? Like, that's a different conversation. If that's why GMs and other teams are saying that the Vikings are interested, then that is a separate conversation.

I just don't assume that it's going to be controversial. And if you're J.J. McCarthy, the roster is good, but I'm an unproven commodity. If I've got to sit, but I know I've got an insurance that I'm going to be. be here after my second third year in the league, which I think he would be. There's no reason for Minnesota to cut bait with the guy. Why not sit tight for a little bit? You know? Okay, so they bring in Kirk Cousins.

Let's say they do well. Do they bring Kirk Cousins back for another year? And then now you have one season that Jay, Jay McCarthy gets to play before you have to pick up the fifth year option. Like, you have to decide. That's a plausible hypothetical. That is a plausible hypothetical. I just think that's a 2026 problem.

I think if it's 2025 and you're JJ McCarthy, you just play out the stream. I mean, that's kind of the awkward position they're in because they drive. I mean, they obviously could not have foreseen what happened last. I don't think they expected to win 14 games. Right. They weren't supposed to be that good. That's the problem. They weren't supposed to be this good. Yeah. I'm sure McCarthy wants to play. I'm sure he's like, this isn't ideal. I thought I'd be further along my career by now, but like stuff like that happens in the NFL, you know, and if the team is winning, and again, there's all veterans all over that roster, and you're winning the NFC North

or you know, you're winning 12, 13 games again, then you can't really say anything. If you're the, you know, rookie quarterback who had an injury and hasn't done anything, what are you going to say? It's like you don't really have a leg to stand on there. So you can be annoyed by it, but I don't know. I kind of trust their coaching staff. I kind of trust their infrastructure, O'Connell to like massage that situation pretty well

where, hey, JJ, you're still valuable. We still love you. But here's the situation. Like I actually think they're one of the teams that would, be able to handle that. So that's an interesting thing on the back burner to keep an eye on here. All right, last one. Last rumor. Well, this is just a question actually. But there are a lot of veterans apparently available for trade. And so over under one and a half veterans who get traded this weekend. And here are a bunch of names. Again, these are courtesy of Adam Schaefter.

Ready for the list. Here we go. Will Levis, Traylon Burks, Widersey. of her Titans former first round pick. Kavon Tibado and Evan Neal from the New York Giants, which I just feel like that's a great example of don't be too confident in your draft opinions this weekend. I mean, those were two guys who were taking five and seven. I'll raise my hand. I was saying the Giants did well here, you know, address the lines of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

These both seem like good prospects. And here we are a few years later. And they're both on the trade block, according to Adam Schaefter. Jalen Hyatt, wide receiver of the Giants. Sam Howell, quarterback of the Seahawks, they bring Drew Locke back. Tyree Wilson, former first round pick, edge rusher from the Raiders. This one surprised me a little bit. Maybe I just have missed it, but Greg Newsome.

Same quarterback for the Browns. Right? Yeah, I didn't know. I thought they were pretty happy with Greg Newsom, but maybe I'm wrong there. Travis E.T.N. running back from the Jaguars. Another one that surprised me here. O'Dafay Oway, Edge Rusher from the Raiders. That's just the Ravens business, though.

That's what they do. They just churn out edge rushers and they sell them out. I guess so. Yeah. I mean, they spent a first round pick on him and he had coming off a pretty good year last year. I thought that one surprised me. George Pickens did not surprise me. Wide receiver of the Steelers.

Rashad White running back bucks. Kishon Boutte, Patriots wide receiver. And then some of the better known veterans here. Jalen Ramsey, Jair Alexander, Kirk Cousins, we mentioned. Dallas Goddert, we mentioned on a recent. show. Mark Andrews of the Ravens. Eric DeCosta was asked about him and did not make it sound like he's definitely coming back. And then Trey Hendrickson, who we had as a trade to the Detroit Lions in our last mock draft. Ruiz, what do you think? Over under one and a half of those players,

or maybe have other ones in mind who get traded on draft weekend. I'm going way over. I think we get at least three or four. And I think that's just the way that we've seen NFL front offices move more often recently. We see more players getting traded in the last couple of years. And these are, I do think, I don't know if any of these players are going to fetch like a monster deal. I don't think it's going to like, you know, break the internet if any of these guys get traded. But like Mark Andrews is the one that I think would make, would move the needle the most in terms of like the league landscape and contenders, depending on where he ended up. I do think it's going to affect Baltimore's offense in a way if he's not on the team next year. But I do think they can kind of

overcome not having them. We've seen him miss time the last couple of years. He obviously had the unfortunate drop against Buffalo in the playoff game. I wouldn't be surprised if they move on him from him, especially with Isaiah likely ascending over the last couple of years. Chargers? I'm trying to look for a team for Mark Andrews. You got Greg? Chargers was the first team I thought of. Okay. All right.

I think if Loveland goes or Tyler Warren goes early and now maybe Indianapolis is looking at Loveland is their next best option to address Titan. now there's no top guy on the board. I can see them bringing in Mark Andrews. All right. Maybe Los Angeles, maybe the Rams. I do wonder if they would hesitate to trade within the conference.

The Chargers, maybe they don't view the chargers as like an imminent threat. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. All right. Deonti, you're over too on this group. I mean, you were coming in with the trades hot and heavy during the mock. So I assume you're over on this.

I do expect it. I think that this is also, again, a function of a function of this draft because there's not a lot of big time difference making talent, at least as it projects now. I think that there are going to be teams that are going to be interested in bringing in vets on short-term deals where you're not going to have to part with a ton of draft capital. Like Stephen said, I don't think that any of these things are going to be mind-melting deals. I think that Trey Hendrickson might end up being like the hottest commodity, and that's on the assumption that Cincinnati doesn't work anything out.

And you look at some of the older guys, I do think there's a lot of, if they were going to stay with the team that they're with, they would have been extended already, especially when you look at Goddard and Andrews, right? I think if they were going to stick around, they would have been extended already. They wouldn't be approaching the end of their deals as is. So I do expect them to be moved over the weekend, if not on day one of the draft.

And then there are the surprises that you kind of pointed out, Sheel, right? Like, Adafé Owe, I would not expect him to be moved. I think that that's a valuable piece for the Ravens because they don't, even though they do a good job with developing edge rushing talent, they've done such a good job at taking their time with OA and getting him to a level where he would, was really productive against the run and as a true pass rusher.

I couldn't imagine parting ways with him now when it looks like he's approaching his peak. And the same with Greg Newsom. Greg Newsom to me, if you move a guy like that, it's because you're taking Travis Hunter and you just want to play him at outside corner and you don't want to play around with their corner rotation and trying to figure out who's going to be a nickel. They said they like Hunter as a wide receiver. Exactly, which makes it confusing. That's part of the reason why I was confusing looking at him is like,

Andrew Berry just said that they've looked at Travis Hunter as a receiver. And he said that earlier in the draft process as well. So that would be a little bit of a surprise. I think that he would fetch some interesting draft capital back if that's what Cleveland is prioritizing in this class. But the rest of the guys, I don't expect them to do anything or bring back anything that would change the course of the league, right? Kvon-Sibodot could be a bat swing for a team like Detroit. If they don't want to overspend to ring in a guy like Kendrickson, you might be able to get a couple years of decent play. And I think he could, can be a secondary edge rusher.

But outside of those guys, there's really not a whole lot here. I don't think George Pickens nets a bunch in a trade either. I think maybe the outside of the names I just mentioned, the biggest surprise is that Sam Howell is still on a rookie deal. I feel like I've watched a lot of Sam Powell over the last couple of years. I don't know why I thought that he was on his second contract already. Yeah. They gave up, what, a fourth round pick for Sam Howell, right?

The only thing now that I'm looking at it, like he may have the most trade value. you of any of those guys I just mentioned. I mean, he is 26 years old. He's coming off a 10-sack, 23-hit season last year. He's playing 20-25 on his fifth-year option. So at least for one year, you get him at a reasonable price. I guess the thinking there from the Ravens would be, we don't want to, we're seeing some of these edge rushers what they're getting. We don't want to pay him that for 2026 and beyond. We don't view him as that type of cornerstone player. So let's get something for him now. So I mean, listen, Chef, is not getting that out of nowhere. Maybe that's a, hey, let's test the waters a little bit and let's

get, you know, let's throw this out there and let's see what kind of calls we get, you know, before the draft. But yeah, I would say Oway and Greg Newsom, those were the two that kind of surprised me there. The Pickens one would be interesting. But if I'm a team, I would let the Steelers deal with that problem, just see how it plays out and just wait for people. We're coming to this to the deadline. And I feel like the Steelers have a long history of dealing with trouble making wide receivers. And then, leaving Pittsburgh and being even worse in other places. Yeah, that's a them problem.

That's a Mike Tomlin problem. I'm with you. That's one where you just look at the team getting rid of the player. If the Steelers don't want to hang on to George Pickens, a player they drafted, I'm not going to bet on myself to give up draft capital and make that situation work, even if you do like the player. But yeah, I mean, they make the DK Metcalf trade, so that wouldn't be shocking if they say, all right now, let's see what we can get for pickings.

I would just be very curious about the team that is confident enough to go ahead and acquire him. So there you go. Who would you rather have, Ramsey or Jaira Alexander at this point? Ramsey because I think I can convert in there, I guess. Well, Nuson is number one on that list. Yeah, I would say Nuson for sure. Newsom is number one on that list.

But after that, I would say Ramsey because I would try to pitch him on moving to safety. Yeah. That's interesting. Jair Alexander, I was looking at the age, entering his age 20. seasons. Yeah, has only played 14 games the last two seasons here. And the Ramsey safety thing, that's interesting entering his age 31 season, but has been way more durable here over the last

three, four, five season. So if you're a, I feel like contending team, veteran defensive coordinator who says, I got a plan for him. He's going to help us for a year here, maybe two years here. Yeah, Baltimore. That's what I was thinking. It's going to happen eventually. Man, you could just see that. If you're Baltimore and you got a day three, you know, a day three pick that you can send over. You can bring in Jalen Ramsey. Hey, you play free safety next to Kyle Hamilton.

I wouldn't hate that. I want that to happen now. I wouldn't hate that at all. Yeah, they would figure out. Yeah, that's a good one. I like that one quite a bit. All right. So we are thinking we're going to see some trades.

We're all going over on one and a half some of these veterans kids. This is a long list. I feel like most years, we don't have a list like this days before the draft where we're saying These are all the guys that are out there via a national reporter that could potentially get traded. So that seems like it could be a pretty big storyline this week and throughout draft weekend. All right. Let's take one more break. We come back and we will get to our props for the 2025 NFL draft.

All right. We are back on the ringer NFL show. Let's talk through the rule. Do we have any rules here? Is this, I mean, is this a legit? Are we going minus one, 20 or better like we were during the season? We can do that. All mine are plus odds.

Yeah, I'm going long shots. Yeah. So this is just, you know, this is just have fun with it. It's a one-time off-season thing. You know, you can try to win, of course, but I might just go crazy plus 1,000 on some of these, looking at some of the ones I like. I got a long list ahead of me,

so I need to figure out which ones I'm going to pick. So I'm not starting. Ruiz, you are the reigning champ from the regular season. So you get us started. Give us one prop. that you like. All right. We have a natural segue

from the O-A discussion. I'm going to go Ravens Plus 100 to draft a defensive lineman or edge with their first pick. I just think they're in that range, the perfect range. You look at their top 30 visits and who they've been talking to

and it's a lot of guys that would be available in that range. The one thing I will say, and this has nothing to do with my pick, one thing that raised my eyebrows with their top 30 visits, Ashton Janky was one of their visits. And he was really the only player

in that top 10 range that visited with them. I don't know. They did it for a reason. Maybe it was like one of those howling things. That's weird. Maybe you're trying to motivate Derek Henry to, you know, you're like, hey, we're counting down the days.

But that was interesting to me. I didn't see that. Wow. Yeah, that is. I can't come up with the reason. Yeah, I can't wrap my mind around. It was the first one that was reported to is February 25th. It was like literally their first visit.

Huh. I mean, you would have to trade up obviously, like a massive trade. up for Ashton Janky. Very, very uncharacteristic of Baltimore. Yeah, that's a strange one. I don't know. Maybe they, you know, sometimes you bring a guy in. I saw some report that some team is bringing guys

in to then ask about their teammates or people they know. But, Boise's, you know, if you have a Georgia guy or something, I could see that. Boise State, I don't know if you have a bunch of guys there that you're like, we need to get Intel on. So that's an interesting one. I did not see. All right. So Ravens, well, plus

100 to draft a defensive lineman or an adresher. I think that's pretty good. I mean, the other one, the other guy when I'm going through these mocks that I always see think about for the Ravens is if like Malachi Stark's is, you know, just the best player available and everyone's going, the Ravens did it again. And how did they, how did everyone let him slip to, uh, to the Ravens here late in the first round? But, no, I think that's a good one.

All right. Deontay, what do you have? What's your first one? Um, I've got a couple of good value ones that I'll leave for the. the end. I'll go with, I guess, a little bit of longer eyes. And it's going to be Luther Burton being a first round pick at plus 230. I just look at the back end of the first round. And there are a lot of teams that could use a wide receiver like him to add a little bit of juice, right? Not expected. But if Minnesota thinks they can make an upgrade over Jalen Naylor,

why would it would Luther Burton as a act? That would be an interesting wide receiver core. That would be exciting. You know, if you're the chargers and you like having Lad as a flexible slot or outside option. Luther Burden allows you to maximize that versatility. Again, not expected because the charges just don't seem to prioritize wide receiver talent in that kind of way. But I look at

maybe even a Baltimore. You look at the Rams. You look at Detroit and I think that Brad Holmes has mentioned that they want to add high quality depth at the wide receiver spot as well. Washington is another team that could be interested. Kansas City could be interested. So I think

that there are a lot of opportunities towards the back end of the first round for Luther Burden, they'll come in. I think that people maybe have fallen out of love with him a little bit after his tape in 2024 because it wasn't as explosive consistently as it was in 23. Obviously, the quarterback situation, the offensive situation in general, not as stable, not as sound this year as it was last year. But the speed is there, the hands are there, the yards after catchability is there. I wouldn't necessarily say that it's a one-to-one comparison.

But you look at what the chiefs have gotten out of Rishi, right? as a guy who can kind of move around and create after the catch, I think that if you're optimistic on burden, that's the sales pitch. He's not perfect size-wise, but he can do so much with the ball in his hands, it's worth taking that chance and trying to develop him as a route runner. So what wide receiver do you think he is? Like which pick would you go? If I had to guess, if I had to guess for like where he ranks within the draft,

he would probably be the third wide receiver to go, will be my guess. I'd say McMillan still goes first. and golden goes second and I think that burden will be the third wide receiver off the board. Okay. Burden, Egbuka, those are the guys kind of in the mix there in the second half of the

first round. All right, I'm going to go with the most bore. This will be the most boring one we have during this conversation. But you know what? I like it. Sometimes you try to grab a winner. Arizona Cardinals, first drafted player, defensive linemen or edge. I just look

at their depth chart and I'm like, it's pretty obvious what I think they need. They signed Josh Sweat in the offseason. I look at where they're drafting at 16. I think that could very much align with a defensive lineman at that spot or if they trade up a little, trade back a little. I think I can't remember if I had Shamar Stewart or somebody else like that there in the middle of the first round that felt like, all right, this could be a good fit for the Arizona Cardinals. So yeah, that's a boring one.

I will have more exciting ones. But, you know, I'm trying to grab a winner here early with the Cardinals first drafted player defensive line or edge at plus one. 135. All right. Ruiz, what do you got? What's number two? I was kind of shocked at how long these odds were when I checked this morning, but I checked just now, and the odds have already gone down from plus 400 to plus 320. And I think it's because Todd McShay said that he's heard that teams could draft Ted McMillan as high as five. This morning he was plus 400 to go in the top 10, and now he's plus 320, which I think is great value. I think it's almost a lock at this point that he'll go in the top 10.

maybe not just because of like the questions about his commitment to football. There was the clip of him saying he doesn't really watch football. He doesn't like watching film. But like he's a wide receiver. I don't want my wide receiver crime in film. I don't care. I would move him up my board if I saw that. Man, you're this good.

You don't even watch film? That's great. What are your other interests, young man? If my wide receiver tells me that he knows what cover three is, I'm pissed. I'm like, no. Get back on TikTok or something. We need TikTok brain wide receivers now. That's right.

You should look, you should be looking at their. content, not whether they watch film. Is this someone who after a three target game would be able to fire off of a fun tweet that goes viral that no one really understands? That's how you should be judging it if it's going to be a good

wide receiver or not. Who cares if you watch this film or not? Totally agree. We need to come up like it's not the wonder lick test, you know, some version of that we need to come up with for wide receivers. I like that. I didn't realize that. Plus 320 for Ted McMillan to go top 10

because I had like a one of these I was considering was Ted McMillan to go fifth overall or I can't remember if it was top five or fifth overall at plus 1,800. But yeah, top 10 feels like a good bet because you got the Jaguars at 5, you got the Raiders at 6,

you got the Jets at 7, you got the Panthers at 8, you got the Saints at 9. I'm like all those teams could potentially draft Ted McMillan there in that range. It doesn't mean they're definitely going to, going to, but that's kind of interesting that it's favored that he's going to drop out of the top

10, which is good news for a team like the Cowboys, maybe who drafts, they draft 12. That to me, I think I said it before, is one of my like the player team matches that I can just see so clearly in my head that would help that team that would make a lot of sense. So I like that one with 10. I think 12 is probably his floor. Yeah. Is it floor or ceiling? I never know how it works with the, like, with the draft over and unders, I never know if over is like a

higher pick or a lower pick, very confusing. Maybe I'm just gone. That's probably that. It's probably just that. All right, Deontay, what do you have? What's your next one? I won't spend much time on this one. I'll actually probably jump to another one because I had the Jaguars taking

to Tessoro McMillan. It was plus 1,000 when I was looking earlier. It's at plus 700 now. But still, like, if you're just looking at maximizing value, it would be a bit of a surprise, but I do think that there's some good value there. Even Gentie at plus 185 is kind of interesting, right? Again, unexpected picks, but I do think that there's if you're looking to put something down on a pick in the top five, that's probably

where most of the entry would be, would be Jacksonville at five. Instead, I'm just going to go with the one that we've kind of covered earlier. Shador Sanders being drafted by the Browns, which was plus 360 when I checked this morning. You look at the draft capital in the top 100. You look at the fact that they're at 33, so it's not going to be big, a big time expense for them to move up to 30, 31, 32, assuming that Sanders drops that low, even if they want to be more aggressive, and try to get closer to 20, where they have a little bit more certainty of where he's going to be at because a lot of the teams and the teens don't necessarily have a pressing quarterback need. I just think that Cleveland has all the machinations that they need in terms of draft capital

and ways to kind of maneuver around to be able to make that work. And I think that that would probably be a good management of draft resources for them too. If you're able to bring in Travis Hunter at number two, whether you look at them more as a receiver or corner, and you're able to take a swing at quarterback, I don't love Sanders' projection, what his ceiling might be in the pros, but I would be lying if I said that that wasn't the right kind of management of draft resources for a team that has just lost so much blue-chip talent and depth over the last two to three seasons because of what they had to give up to get Deshawn Watson

and what the contract is going to be in terms of how it's going to preclude them building in the years to come. So, yeah, I think that Sanders is a brown is something that should be considered plausible going into the draft, and I think that Plus 360 is a good opportunity with what Fandals are right now. See, that's how you pick up a teammate right there, because if I'm not mistaken, I totally forgot to address this one by herself. Did we do that? Do we do that one by herself? Or did we, I think we forgot to do that. I forgot to do that one. Okay. So there you go. I think we covered Sanders twice. So there you go. Deiote says, all right, I'm not going to call Sheila out and say, what are you doing, man? This was on the list. Plant a flag later. I'm just going to come back to it in the

props. We'll get to the discussion. But I believe in transparency. And so. I am the one accountable. Take responsibility. We did not do that. That was one of our buyer's sales. The Browns trade back into the first round for a quarterback after taking Travis Hunter at number two. So there you go. Deante laid out the scenario very clearly there.

They've got 10 picks. They've got the most draft capital in the NFL. They've got four picks in the top 100. So if he gets to the 20s, do they make a move and come back and get him? Deonti says, that maybe put a little lettuce on that prop. There. All right. My next one. I'm looking at two teams that I think could draft a wide receiver. Let me talk it out and then I'll decide which one I want to go with here. Broncos first drafted player wide receiver is plus 360. Now I see in all these mocks, Marian Hampton, the running back from North Carolina going to the Broncos at 20, I look at it and say, are we sure they wouldn't like a Matthew Golden or a Mecca Buka or maybe a Luther Burden at that spot at 20? over a running back. So that's one I have in mind.

But you know what? Let's go for even better odds. And let's say the Los Angeles Rams draft a wide receiver with their first pick. They draft 26. That's plus 900. And Mecca Buka just kind of screams

Rams, Sean McVeigh to me, professional wide receiver. Come right in, pair him with Bukkah. Everyone's going. He's going to step right into the Cooper Cup roll and be good here. So I'm going to go Rams first drafted player, a wide receiver at plus 900 for my second prop there. I like that fit because not only does he do like the route running stuff and you can get open,

he's a professional route runner, but he also blocks. And Sean McVeigh would love that. The other, I do, I'm kind of buying the Broncos running back thing, just looking at Sean Peyton's history with the same. Maybe I'm just reading into it too much, but they always prefer for like day three wide. receivers. They may do with wide receivers. They did use of draft capital on some running backs. Reggie Bush was obviously a high pick, and then Mark Ingram, I think,

was the first round pick when he came out. True. I think Mara was the second round, right? Yeah, I think Mark Ingram was or something like that. All right, yeah, that's a good point. They could. Maybe he's learned, you know, learn from some of that. Sean Payton, learning from the past.

It's the craziest thing anyone said on this podcast so far today. All right. Last one, Ruiz, what is your third prop? What do you got? All right, this might be the most boring one of them. I'm going to go 49ers. They're plus 165 to draft an offensive lineman with their first pick.

I'm just looking at their top 30 visits and how it seems like they're border shaping. It's a lot of first round guys in there. It seems like, oh, we want either an offensive tackle or you want an edge rusher. And whichever the best player available, we're going to take them. And there are a lot of day two guys, too, at both of those positions. So I'm assuming that their top two picks are going to be some combination of that. order is the thing that's unclear at this point. But I think how the board stacks up offensive linemen will be their best bet.

They're an interesting team. Yeah. They're an interesting spot. The 11th overall pick. If you're in the building, you can talk yourself into. We're going to be right back in the mix in 2025. Do they feel the pressure of, hey, let's get someone who can play and contribute and be a difference maker right away. We're not going to be picking this high, you know, many years going forward.

and then we talked about their history with these first round picks has been pretty much a disaster. One of the worst kind of track records here with the capital they've had in the first round. Now they've made up for it in later rounds. But yeah, the 49ers are a real interesting wildcard at number 11 in this draft. All right, Deontay, what do you got? What's the third one? I've got a boring one here. And then I think after we clear our three, we can start talking about some of the more interesting ones before we sign off here.

I'm going with the Dolphins first player draft to be in an offensive linemen at plus 150. This is a meat and potatoes props contest right here. There's just no way. There's just no way. You look at where they're drafting. Unless they moved up, there's really not even a lot of flexibility to do a lot else with their draft position. Guys like Kelvin Banks will probably be there. You'll have an opportunity to maybe get Josh Simmons if you believe that he can step in and play at either tackle spot,

assuming that Patrick Paul can play left. There's a chance for you to bring in a Tyler Booker if you want to bring in a guard. I don't think that Booker should be considered a top half of the first round pick, but you do have the opportunity to do so even if they were to trade back. And there are a bunch of guys, you know, towards the 20s that they do trade back, which will make a lot of sense. You think about Josh Connerley in that respect. You think about Gray's Abel, who's kind of like a fringe, you know,

kind of 20 to 40 type of prospect in this class as well. There's just no way Chris Greer can leave the first round without addressing offensive line, which probably means that he's going to take another receiver or running back or something like that with the 13th overall pick, but everything about this death chart screams that they need to address the offensive line, interior or tackle. All right, there you go.

Dolphins, offensive line. I'm going to go with a real long shot for my third one. Like, are we sure the Patriots are definitely taking Will Campbell over Armand Membu at number four? Like, I think they are, but Membu is plus 1,300 at number four. And I don't like see a clear,

like there wouldn't be one of those that they should be minus 600 to plus 1,300. Campbell's minus 470 and Membu's plus 1,300. You know, there's a part of me that says they could look at it and go, we like Membu better. I don't think that's crazy. I think they're both, you know, good prospects there. And so I think they could look at it and say Membu's got a higher upside. Let's go ahead and draft him. We know he can play tackle right away.

Again, I like both those guys, but plus 1,300 for Armand Membou to be the known. number four overall pick. All right. It's like the real draft. We have a run on offensive line prop bets. I know. The only podcast you'll listen to that we're just, we got all the old line prop bets you need, you know?

You're not getting this anywhere else. Deonti, you had some others you wanted to get off your chest there? Yeah, so I've got one that's kind of like, if you wanted to stack a couple of props, these might be interesting. This one kind of feels like cheating, where if you were to take both Panthers first position, drafted defensive line and linebacker,

that's a Jalen Walker pick. So if you want to put the two of those together, if you want to put one on one and some more on the other, that way no matter what Roger Goodell says he is, if you really believe that he's going to be the eighth overall pick, I think that that's a good way to kind of look at that spot. And then there are some that are maybe interesting to pair together or to kind of juxtaposed to one another.

Jalen Milrow being a first round pick at plus 130 is an interesting one to take for all the reasons we've talked about in this show about teams. Only plus 130 for that, really? Exactly. So there's that one which feels like great value. So these QBs might be going in the first. I mean, I never know if these odds mean anything or not with the draft.

But yeah, I would have expected that to be higher than. You're right though, because I looked at Jackson Darts and they were like minus something huge. Like he's going in the first round. I was like, all right. I thought it was more of a quick flip, but I guess not.

There's an interesting kind of piece of analysis you can do there with what's expected with the draft. And if you want longer odds, and I don't know if I believe this, but Milro being the first quarterback drafted after Ward is plus 1100. So if you believe in one, there might be a good reason to put some less on the other to steal the sheelism. So I like that one.

And then Tyler Shrews plus 700 to be a first round pick is kind of enticing. Again, if you believe that quarterbacks are going to be bumped by the time we get to Thursday. And then the last one that was interesting to me, and this is not long. It's just an interesting conversation piece, is Jada Bearing being the first non-Travitz or DB drafted at plus 185. I think that not only is this plausible because we have just not heard any positive news about the way the teams are evaluating Will Johnson. Besides saying, yeah, the tape is good, but we just don't know what kind of athlete he is.

Johnny Barron goes and runs sub 4-4 at the Combine. He's got great tape as a tackler, really competitive guy. If you liked a Trent McDuffie, you can try to see the outline of a Trent McDuffie and Jada Barron, even though McDuffie I think was a better coverage prospect than Baron is coming into the league. I just think that we've heard much more positivity around Barron and his prospects as a pro than we have about Will Johnson as of late.

So I wouldn't be shocked at all whether it's as early as 8 through 10 to the mid-teens, if Barron ends up being the next DB drafted after Travis Hunter. I like it. I could see the Barron one. I could see the narrative, hey, in a draft where you're not sure about a bunch of these guys, this is a guy we know can come in and play for us right away.

and it's going to have the competitive attitude and all those things. So, yeah, I could certainly. He's got inside outside flexibility, the wholesale pitch. Is anyone touching Bill's top four exact order prop? Did you see that on Fandall plus $2,200? Can you see any other name, but Shador Sanders is in there? I might have taken it. But, yeah, Shador, Shadour it too.

I'm not going with Bill on that one. I can't go. Well, I was wondering when he had to turn that in. You know, that might have been one that, that might have been up there for a while where maybe he'll redo that special for this week. The only other one I had was Saints, where I could see them being a wild card and taking quarterback, but draft a defensive lineman or edge is plus 300,

which I thought, all right, that's an area. They got to get better. They got to get younger the way the board might fall there at number nine, whether it's Mikel Williams or something else. That could be potentially interesting. That's a Mickey Lewis classic. You think you're taking a quarterback and they draft some edge rusher? Yeah.

10 spots too high. That's a Mickey Lewis Classic. Play the hits. I mean, Mikel Williams is essentially Marcus Davenport, right? There's a cop there, I think. It's Jamar Stewart, you know, Peyton Turner. Hey, big, strong, fast guy. Not a lot of a production here, but we're sure it's going to work out when he gets in our system.

There you go. So that's my last one. All right, those were the props for the draft. I think, boring, breaking news, the next time you will hear from us will be Thursday night. night. After the first round of the NFL draft, will we be talking about a Shador Sanders slide? Will we be talking about a Jalen Milro surprise?

Will there be a veteran dealt? What will be the shocking moves on Thursday night is an unpredictable draft in many ways, which I think is a lot of fun. And we will be back to cover it all on the Ringer NFL show on Thursday night. All right. Thanks to Deontay Lee. Thank you to Stephen Ruiz. thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing and Kiera Givens on social.

I'm Sheila Kapadia. We will talk to you Thursday on the Ringer NFL show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. For Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.Help.com. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit CCPG.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MD gambling help.org in Maryland.

Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline, ma.org or call 800-32750-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-8778 Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York.