The Ringer NFL Show - The Official 2020 Mock Draft With Danny Kelly | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

Kevin Clark is joined by NFL draft guru Danny Kelly to dive into The Ringer’s final mock draft as we head into the 2020 NFL draft on Thursday night. Danny predicts how he thinks the first 17 picks will unfold and offers up some pre-draft superlatives. Host: Kevin Clark Guest: Danny Kelly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And if you have means, it's an unbelievably great and useful cause that helps our hospital heroes, emergency workers, and local restaurants. Please give whatever you can. The money goes directly to World Central Kitchen and it's a charitable donation. Once again, that's the ringer.com slash WCK. It's the Ring Run NFL show, part of the Ringar Podcast Network. I'm Kevin Clark joining me. Dark Night, draft guru, mock draft specialist, Danny. How are you, buddy? I'm doing really well, man. How are you doing?

I'm doing great because we're about to do a very fun exercise, which is we're going to go through your final mock draft. How many mock drafts did you do? This is my sixth total. Are you peaking at the right time? I sure hope so. I mean, it's very difficult to get a lot of mock draft answers correct. I think like the best of the best get like six or seven picks maybe out of the 32. No, I got a feeling about this. I got a feeling about this one. Going 32 for 32.

Hell yeah. Let's start with the top. I'm fairly sure that this one's going to work out. Give me number one Cincinnati. Who are they taking? This is what I'm taking straight to the bank. Joe Burrow from LSU. I think it's been locked in for the last few months.

No real mystery there. And it is the right pick for them, I believe, because they need to, you know, get a new guy that is going to be the franchise, the face of their franchise, bring them out of sort of the mire that they've been in. I don't know if that necessarily will happen with the way that they go about their business, but he's good enough, I believe, to elevate that entire team. Yeah, he's just really, really accurate. As we talked about on the quarterback show the other day, you know, just supremely confident, ice in his veins under pressure and all that. So everything to like about Burrow. I had a good talk with Greg McRoy, former Alabama quarterback,

current SEC network analyst. And, We're talking about both Tua and Burrow, and I asked him what the Bengals need to do to get Burrow to have immediate success, like some of the quarterbacks we've seen in the past three, four, five years. Immediate success is seen as kind of the norm now instead of the exception for young quarterbacks. There's a lot of reasons for that. We've talked about many of them on this podcast. But his point, which that was interesting, was, look, it seems so obvious, but you have to surround. on him with talent because when he was at LSU, the whole thing was, what's my mismatch and then hitting the mismatch? Whether that's Jefferson on the second, you know, on the safety or whatever it is,

he was able to identify that immediately and take advantage. And so a lot of his success is going to be predicated upon the offense that they build around him in Cincinnati. A.J. Green is a nice start. They have a decent running game. What kind of year do you expect for rookie Joe Burrow? Yeah, I'm actually pretty bullish on him. And as you know, I cover the fantasy football part of the game as well. And I'm excited about how he'll elevate the guys around him. I think Tyler Boyd is a very good slot receiver that can kind of play that Justin Jefferson role as the, like you said, the guy that they can get him matched up.

They can move him around the formation. They can do the same thing with AJ Green. moving around the formation, put them in motion, do all that stuff to try and find the mismatches. And I hope, very much hope that they bring a lot of the schemes and I guess just like philosophies of what they did at LSU last year to the Bengals offense this year. Otherwise, then that's when I start to worry a little bit if they don't do that. But I do believe that's what they're ultimately going to do. And so I'm very bullish kind of on what he can do for this offense. It's getting Jonah Williams back at left tackle should be a big boon for them.

And yeah, so I just think overall I'm very optimistic about what he can do as a rookie. Yeah, look, Zach Taylor has a system. He worked under McVeigh. We know what he wants to run. But I think he has enough flexibility to understand that you can run some of the LSU stuff. Put five receivers in a route and see what happens. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's where he excels is just decision-making.

So, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Make a decision and hit it. that that was that was where he excelled last year and with LSU that was perfect number two to Washington chase young uh yeah defensive end slash pass rusher I just think this is a no brainer pick for them to um gives them the ability sort of like what Nick Bosa was for the 49ers last year just a force multiplier for everybody else that's on that defensive line in that whole front seven um you know there's they have like three or four former first round picks on the off on the

defense line already adding him in there just making that front very, very fearsome, talented across the board. So I'm really excited to kind of see how he can turn around that defense, maybe transform the entire defense, because he's that good of a player. He's, I think I saw a tweet by that, that mentioned Scott McLuhan, former NFL GM and Super Scout type guy. Former Redskins GM. There you go.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. He said that Young is the best defensive end prospect he's scouted. So I believe that's what he said. So, I mean, he's that good of a guy. This is the caliber of player that you're getting in Chase Young. So I think to me, it's going to be enticing for them to trade back. But I don't know. At some point, you know, volume versus taking an elite prospect, you have to weigh your options.

But I think he's that good of a player that, you know, take what you got there at number two and build that defense out. Okay. I read your scouting reporter. I read what you think about the fit here. Am I reading it correctly that you? kind of like this Redskins defense? I mean, I certainly like their front. I mean, with Jonathan Williams,

Ron Payne, Montez Sweat from last year, who's super, super athletic, when you get that many guys in the front, it makes things very, very difficult, obviously, for the opposing offensive line. There's no one that you can really focus on in theory. And so, like I said, he's kind of a force multiplier.

It just makes everyone around him better. And I think that there's certainly a potential for them to take a big jump. I don't know if I'm ready to say that I really like them, but yeah, I think, you know, no, no, he'll hate them. Yeah, exactly. I like Ron Rivera. I do too.

And so, yeah, I'm bullish, I guess. Yeah, and I think that part of the Chase Young pick in general is that Ron Rivera wants to start building this defense in the way that he likes. And so I'm not, I'm not surprised. And I think that if this wasn't Ron Rivera head coach, the possibilities of number two would probably be a little bit different. Not to say that Chase, I mean, Chase Young was probably the, the most talented player in this draft.

Yeah. I've got him rated number one on my board, and that tells you a lot because I really like both Borough and Tua as talents. So, yeah, I think he is just, you know, as much of a no-brainer pick here as you can get. I just think it makes a lot of sense for them. For what they're trying to do, what Ron Rivera wants to do, it all kind of lines up.

So I'm guessing this is going to be their pick. Speaking of head coaches who want a player to unlock their defense, the Detroit Lions number three. The Detroit Lions, who, by the way, will have a Winnebago in their parking lot at their Allen Park facility for their IT guy to essentially live in on draft day to make sure there's no technological hiccups. Who are they taking? Who are they taking with their number three pick that will go off without a hitch because of their IT guys, Winnebago? I'm going with the chalk answer here, Jeff Akuta from Ohio State, Chase Young's teammate. Again, just one of the most clean, game ready, pro-ready cornerback prospects in recent memory.

Just kind of reminds you of Marshaun-Ladamore a little bit, like very, very fast. Can play multiple techniques, good size, great speed, elite athleticism, good ball skills. It's just like he checks all the boxes. There's not a lot to say. They traded away Darius Lay, so they need a number one corner in that defense. So, yeah, I mean, I just think it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I mean, I think so too. I mean, I think there's probably an argument for them to take a quarterback

if they love them and just sit them alongside Stafford, but I just don't think that the teams are quite frankly bold enough to do that, even though we know the value of the quarterback position. And I'm saying this is a Matt Stafford fan. I'm just saying when you have the third pick and there's those quarterbacks there, you have to at least think about it. All right, four New York Giants, Dave Gettleman on the clock. This one was tough because I think there's just so many different.

directions. Yeah, they're the giants. You never, how can you read Dave Gettoman's mind? Ultimately, I went with, like, Occam's razor on this. He's going to go for a Hogg Molly. And I lean Tristan Worf's of Iowa just because the combination of his size and athleticism, I think is going to be very, very intriguing. He can play both the left and the right tackle position so he can come in, potentially in year one and play right tackle,

switch over to the left side after, you know, the solder. regime or the soldier is gone from that offense or whatever. Experiment? The experiment? Experiment is the word I was looking for. Yeah. So yeah, I think it could be Drederick Wills, could be Bechtin, it could be Andrew Thomas,

any of these guys, and it could be Isaiah Simmons. That's the other kind of thought that a lot of people are having, but to me I just went with Wurfs just because the size, athleticism, versatility, all that. Who is the best linemen in this draft? I have Wurfs rated the highest.

But to be honest, they're all very, very close, I believe. In my final big board, they're 8, 9, 10, and 11. There's just four straight tackles right there. I think all four of them are going to go off in the top 10. And they're all very, very good players. But I just like to worst the most, basically, because of all those things I just said, you know, plus he's just really fun to watch on tape, I think. So there's a report from Ann Rap Report and others that the dolphins might trade up in the draft to take a tackle.

Yeah. Do you believe this? Andrew Thomas type. I don't know. It seems like such a strange rumor that I almost believe it. Like weirdly specific. Yeah. It's so specific.

I'm just like, oh. Yeah, I don't know. To me, it feels like a little bit of a smokescreen for them, you know, I don't know, like what their motivation is. It feels like one of those things that they leak to someone in the organization to see who's leaking. Like they just gave like 10 different people, different scenarios. So let's just see what shows up. Number five, Miami Dolphins, the team that has been linked to Tua,

or at least the top pick for over a year now, because their whole thing was they were tanking for Tua. Now he might be available at five. What happens? I mean, honestly, I have no idea. This is the hardest, I think, pick in the entire draft, just because there is an incredible amount of smoke right now that he's going to drop precipitously, maybe on draft day.

purely and I think mostly because of the injury situation, the injury risk, people are very worried about that. We know NFL teams are typically very conservative and all that. And you have to think like when there's a lot of smoke, sometimes that means there's fire. But I don't know. I just don't know if I believe it.

I really just think this is all sort of just the things that teams do in the week before the draft to try and throw people out their scent. I think Tua is that good that he's worth the risk. So I've got him at number five to the dolphins. And honestly, it wouldn't be that surprising if they did that trade up so they could grab two at number three. So I don't understand how this offseason is going to play out because no one does. So Sean Payton comes out today and says there's not going to be an offseason program at all for the Saints, even if they're allowed to by league rules. Mini camps in June just done.

I think that we probably overlook how valuable it is for teams to have post-draft mini camps. Malcolm Butler famously showed up at a tryout essentially with 20 other guys. They hadn't made the team after his draft, where he went undrafted. And his West Alabama testing numbers were wrong. And the Patriots got to see him up close. And they put him on the roster. And then he made one of the most famous plays the last 20 years shortly thereafter. And that's not going to be able to happen at all.

And this is a long way of me saying, if you draft a guy who's a medical question right now, I don't know. I'm not going to do the Dr. Strange simulate three billion times thing and figure out what's going on because no one knows how this plays out. And can he get, can he rehab effectively? Can he even play the first season? I have no idea.

This is the strangest off season in our lifetimes. All the little ripple effects are completely unknowable. right now, I just don't know how that affects anything. Do you have a thought on how the 2020 offseason will affect two of the prospect? Well, that's the problem is I suspect that teams that are already conservative might even go more conservative. Ultimately, I just can't, I just can't say that I think Tua is going to fall that far. I just think he's that rare of a prospect of the quarterback position. He's that good when healthy. So, yeah, that's, I had to go through this entire thought process and I went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth on it, whether to believe

sort of like all the smoke that's happening right now about Tua. But ultimately, I just decided, I think the dolphins are going to take him. And like I said, they may even trade up for him. Or they might trade up for Andrew Thomas. I will say, I think it's so strange, the entire, just back to the office is in part real quick. So a lot of people have told me that this might be the most talented on drafted free agent class in history because everyone's afraid of drafting anybody with red flags, whether it's medical character. Being a small school is not a red flag, but it's still, you have less information. So it plays out differently.

And the flip side of that is that the Lions, for instance, have already said that they're not going to take on a bunch of undrafted free agents because, quite frankly, there's no way to get them up to speed or see them on the field or whatever. What are you going to have them? zoom, you're going to zoom in with them and they're going to run around their backyard. Like it's so strange. Yeah. And so it might be the deepest I'm drafted for ageing class in history, but it also might be the

smallest. This is, oh, that's weird. You almost feel like the guys who didn't get drafted this year, you almost feel like teams should just double dip next year and say, you played at Oregon for four years. I'm just come to this tryout. Just stay in shape and come to this tryout. Smart teams are going to do this. Man, yeah, this is so bizarre.

So bizarre. And I, yeah, I mean, I think it's absolutely true. Like, they are already at such a steep, steep disadvantage, I guess, coming in and having to learn everything on the fly. And most of those guys, I'm getting cut. So I guess teams are like, what is the point of us? Like, are we going to give you our playbook and stuff? You know, like. Just why bother?

I mean, these guys, there might be a week of training camp. Yeah. Just like anecdotally, I know, like, for instance, the Seahawks do this every year where they run a, entire rookie like OTA, like a week-long OTA where they build, they build out these rosters of UDFAs and rookie free agents, plus just free agents that have been going through the process, don't have a team, all that stuff. And they build out like two 53 man rosters and they run like a regular, like it was training camp. They do that every year like the week after the draft. It sounds like competition. That sounds like somebody is competing. It's a competitive, it's a competitive

of caldron, as Pete would say. Is that, is that a Peteism, a cauldron? I believe that's what he calls it, yeah. I will say the one thing about this rookie class. So everyone in 2011, when the lockout happened, and everybody said, oh, the rookie class, you can just write them off. They're not going to have OTA's training camp, whatever. And then Cam Newton put up some of the best numbers in history.

The 2011 class was like one of the best in history, whether that's Julio Jones or AJ Green, JJ Watt. among them. I believe Blaine Gabbert was drafted in the middle of those guys there. Yeah. That was a little bit different. But what I will say is I think the undrafted guys are going to suffer, but I don't think necessarily that we need to do the takes about the rookies.

I think that the rookies are, rookies are going to be fine if history is any indication. All right. Number six, Los Angeles Chargers with new uniforms. Wildly praised new uniforms. I loved them. I thought they were great,

first of all. They did the uniform thing right. My pick here is Justin Herbert from Oregon. A lot of people have him going to the dolphins as well. So that's kind of the flip-flop there. I don't really know exactly how it's going to go. But I planted the flag of Tua and the dolphins. And so I'm going with Herbert with the chargers.

And that's a perfect situation for him to come in and take his time, like we were just saying, and take his time. They've got Tyra Taylor as a starter there. They don't necessarily have to start Herbert right away, but put him in there and see how he does kind of thing. And so, yeah, I think just all this smoke is that teams love Herbert, maybe a lot more than sort of the media does, I think, because I agree with that. Yeah.

It's one of those things where I think a lot of media people are looking at his lack of accuracy, his spotty decision making at times, and then NFL teams are, it really reminds me a lot of the Daniel Jones thing from last year where, you know, it was like, how could you take this guy on the top 10? Teams see all the traits and they just think that they can develop that guy. That's like a coach thing. They think they can develop this guy and turn him into a star. And obviously, Daniel Jones was a lot better than I imagined he'd be as a rookie.

So maybe Justin Herbert falls in his footsteps there. The Daniel Jones thing was a little bit weird. A little bit weird? Well, just in the sense that like he was totally fine, maybe fine being like a positive. The top end? Yeah, no, like the top end of it. And yet there are still people, there were obviously a ton of Daniel Jones to try. actors. And I was one of them. Robert May is one of them. You were one of them. But obviously,

other outlets had a bunch of them. Our friend Mina Kimes is one of them. And there's just this like year year-long victory lap from Giants fans. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is not, we're not there yet. Take it easy. Everybody take it easy. All right. The best thing you can say right now about Daniel Jones is still out. Right. Exactly. Okay. So let's just live in that. situation right now. Listen, if he turned out to be great, I'll turn getting me, I'll turn getting dunked on into content. It'll be great.

We're going to love it. Yeah. But we're definitely not there yet. You cannot dunk on anybody yet. All right. I agree. Number seven, Isaiah Simmons. Yeah.

I say, I already said it. Carolina. No surprise there. I think, I don't think he's going to fall any further than this. He's just so good. He's such a good player. I think obviously the quarterback situation and the tackle situation could push him down the board a little bit.

But for a team like the Panthers, getting him into that defense where he can do multiple different things for them, whether that's lining up sort of as like a slot corner, maybe like a safety, like Will linebacker, whatever. He can kind of do it all. He can pass. He can cover

the pass. He can rush the passer, cover the run. He's just very, very, very flexible, adaptable, high level player. I love him. I think he's going to be the one of the most fun players come out of this draft and I cannot wait to see how he ends up getting used in the NFL just because he just has such a diverse skill set. Yeah, I thought the discourse around him was sort of strange where like the last week everyone's like, what are you stupid? He's not a safety.

And it's like, well, he doesn't, we're not going to try to make him Ed Reed here. Like, he can do a bunch of different things in the field. No one's just going to put him at safety for the next 10 years. We can we can do some things with him here. Yeah, and I think this is similar to the, I guess, the scheme fit argument for for quarterbacks, because I think it does matter if you get him into a team that does not want to use him for his skill set, then maybe he's not worth a top 10 pick. You know what I mean? Right. If you don't have a creative defensive coordinator, you should just, you should not. Right.

Not be interested. But if you're willing and you have a plan, you know, to use him like Honey Badger or whatever was used early. in his season early in his career and then again later now in his recent couple seasons um if you have a plan to use him as a guy that can deal with uh opponent's mismatch creator type players whether that's you know like a tight end or a running back or whatever use that guy to neutralize the players that team the offensive teams are using to totally just run riot over you know defenses like then yeah i get that maybe he's not worth the top time but maybe you don't want to use him if he's just going to be only a box safety because box safeties are typically not worth top 10 picks.

But if you want to use them all over the formation and keep him on the field all three downs to do different things, then I think then that versatility is what makes him so intriguing to me. So yeah, it definitely matters where he lands. Where do you play him? I think, I mean, like I think honestly, like I said, it depends on the down and it depends on the situation. He mostly, well, he lined up kind of everywhere for Clemson, but he was over the slot. over the slot a lot. So he has those coverage chops. He has the ability. Most of his snaps were

at essentially what amounts to cornerback playing in the slot. Yeah. And he's a little bit big, I think, to play like full-time corner. He's 6-4-238. So he's not going to be like a cornerback necessarily. He's he's going to play probably going to play most of his snaps at some sort of linebacker hybrid, right? Yeah, like a like a guy that can yeah, come down into the box, play like a lurk role potentially line up against like I said a good title line up against Kelsey and cover him

or deploy him you know where you're taking away one of the offense's best players it's like I like Belichick's not going to get his hands on him because he's just probably going to go off the board too early but like a guy like that can see a player's unique talents utilize that in a

system where every week he's playing a different role and he's the wild card and offensive coordinators never know what you're going to get from him. That's the value, I think, in him. So saying, like, he's going to be a will linebacker in the NFL, go out there and run around. Like, to me, that's not what he is. Like, what he has. His upside is his ability to do a little bit of everything. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I mean, these people who are debating about his position, I understand why you would do it, but instead of debating about his position, just debate whether or not you'd want to include

him on your 11-person defense. And the answer is probably yes. Yeah. That's all. At-home fitness is more popular than ever now. People are trying all kinds of new activities like online fitness classes running outside and more. But more importantly, how are you monitoring your health during this time as you adapt to new routines? Wool is the fitness tracker that provides 24-7 personalized data into your body's activities, sleep, and overall recovery. Unlike other trackers out there, it's going to tell you when to push and when to rest. So you'll know if you're ready to crush a body pump class or if it's okay to stay in bed and stay. check out the latest mock draft. Right now, it could not be more important to have a product like

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to operate. He was running around quite a bit as a rookie, and he still managed to make a lot of things happen. He was still very, very good. Still had a very extremely promising rookie season. I think he's an ascending player in the league. But if you give him a little bit more time, a little bit more stable protection, he has the ability to carve up a defense. So it is one of those things where like, does a good defense help him more than a good right tackle? I could see team like talking themselves into either thing. Like the Seahawks will talk themselves into. to a defense over offensive line for the last 10 years, and this drives me nuts. But hopefully, I think the Cardinals will see the value in what could be like an absolutely

explosive offense and think that has a higher impact on like whether they're winning games or not. So I went with Will's in this one. The Cardinals are going to just be so fun this year. I can't wait, man. Yeah, like the offense getting Dondre Hopkins in there, year two for Kyler. Watching them on September 25th when the season kicks out. at UNLV's practice facility. It's just going to be great.

Just going to be an electric feel to the empty stadium. I can't wait to see Kyler and the boys. All right. Nine, Jacksonville. All right. So for the Jags, went with Derek Brown of Auburn, defensive tackle. He's another guy that's kind of fallen, I think, in the eyes of a lot of analysts and draft people over the last few weeks, last few months.

Just can he bring the pass rush upside to, him worth a top 10 pick is the huge question here. I think he certainly has the power and athleticism to do it. You saw flashes of it at Auburn. He'll just dominate a rep at times. But at the very least, the very floor is he's a dominant interior player who can plug up the middle of the field. They were very good bad against the run last year.

That's certainly not the most important thing in the NFL these days, but it will improve their defense in that area as a floor. I do think he brings the upside to develop into a good interior pass rusher. So I think a lot of people are just kind of worried because he didn't have a good, he didn't, he didn't test well as an athlete. And so people are worried about that now. Yeah,

someone said this the other day. I'm sorry I forget who, but Derek Brown joins a long list of players. I think Deshaun Watson being the most famous in the last decade, where college football fans were like, just take this guy, like what the hell is going on? And people who follow the pros only.

don't necessarily get it. I mean, I would say, even though he went really, really high, obviously, I'd say like Jalen Ramsey is somebody where it was just like, I looked at Jailen Ramsey, when Jailen Ramsey would play Miami,

I'd be like, Lord help us. Like, please, I don't, I don't want to watch this game. Like, this is going to be awful. And then, you know, I feel like that kind of matters

in a weird way. And Jailen Ramsey obviously is a superstar and a VL player. And so I do feel like sometimes we don't look at it from that way, but it's definitely a thing. All right, 10, Cleveland Browns.

I'm going with Andrew Thomas from Georgia offensive tackle. Again, any of these tackles could go in any particular order, I think, come draft night. But I think the Browns and Thomas just make a lot of sense. He's a plug-in play left tackle. He's the, I think, most polished left tackle in the class, at least for the first year. And so getting him into that offense, you know,

where they're going to be running. a lot. They're going to have a very balanced offense. You know, that wide zone. I think he's athletic enough to run that. He ran a zone his own running game at Georgia. So he just kind of fits there and yeah, just plug him in there. And I think it just makes a lot of sense. You got to give, you got to give Baker more time and get him sort of back on the horse and back to what we think he can be. So I think it's just, it's one of those things where like tackles are almost kind of like a boring pick, I feel like, even though they're such an incredibly important part of the game.

It's just kind of like boring. Like more fun if they added like a receiver here or something. But yeah, solidifying that offensive line, I think will go a long way. All right. 11 New York Jets. Joe Douglas is just going to keep building the offensive lines until they added. I'm not even sure. He's going to have one of those Pete Carroll compete cauldrons with just 53 offensive linemen over a weekend.

Yeah. So the Jets already have Chuma Doga. from last year, and I believe he's going to probably end up playing on the right side. And then they added George Vant in Free Agency, big three-year $30 million contract, I believe. But I don't think that necessarily precludes them from taking a tackle. I don't think George Fan is necessarily the answer. You know, he's in a guy that he could play on the right side for sure for them. So I'm adding Mackay Beckton here for the Jets from Louisville, you know, big guy,

6'7, 365-ish pounds, very, very athletic. He has the highest, I think, ceiling of any tackle in this class, just because he's so athletic and so big. You can do things that none of these other tackles can do with his length and his power and all that. I just think it's imperative that they get a support system around Sam Darnel. Like, what are they doing? They need to hurry and getting a left tackle, like a solid left tackle who can help him avoid. So like Sam Darnold, I think, struggled the most last year and the year before when he, like was trying to make something happen.

You know, like he's like scrambling around like last second, trying to like in the face pressure. He would just make these terrible decisions. And that's kind of been the story of his career. But just give him that extra beat or two, man. And he could maybe like take it next step forward next year. And so I think it's very, very important for them to get left tackle.

After this, there's a huge cliff of the talent level after at the tackle position. I understand that Sam Darmuzzi's a fifth year option and all that. But he's going into his third. year and at some point I got ratioed by Jets fans last summer for saying that the Jets are going to waste Sam Donald's rookie contract. Is there any path that they don't waste his rookie contract? I mean, presumably. So either Adam Gase turns it around

this year, which is uncharacteristic of Adam Gase. He has made the playoffs with the Dolphins, but I don't, I don't expect like a random 14 win season. Right. So unless he makes the play. playoffs, he'll probably be fired. And then they're starting again in his fourth year. Yeah. Yeah. And I understand he'll still be cheap. No, then they have to make a decision. That's what I'm saying. Then he just becomes expensive. And then it starts to impact. Once you get into year three and year four, it starts to impact your long term planning. And you can't go out and get these guys for a

three year deal, whatever. I mean, say what about Sammy Watkins. One of the things that Brad Veach told me was that when they signed Sammy Watkins, they structured it, knowing when Mahomes is going to get a expensive. This was in Mahomes as a rookie before he was a starter, but they said, hey, if we game this out and Mahomes is going to be a really good starter, we're going to have to pay him XYZ. And Sammy Watkins, that contract was structured to be expensive before Mahomes was paid. And that's what's going to happen. And so what I'm saying is that you, the shorter that window gets, if it only becomes one year or two years, you can't go out and sign a guy for three year. I mean, obviously, that's how time works.

That time is linear and that's how it works. What I'm just saying is that I think that we're overlooked the just the flexibility that a younger, younger quarterback gives you, and a quarterback in his third and fourth year does not have that from a cap standpoint. Yeah. I mean, I think, you hate to see it. At the very least, I'm with you,

they seem to be squandering what could be the prime time to load up on elite talent. Like you were saying, like load up on big contracts. Or get any elite talent. Yeah, they got, they got Levi-on Bell, and that's not working out.

When is the, when are you going to start listing elite talent? Jim, they might trade Jamal Adams, who is an elite talent. Oh, my God. I feel bad. Okay, let's just move on from the Jets. All right. 12, Las Vegas Raiders.

Yeah, this one is another tough one because they could go in any different direction. But I feel like Gruden's going to love Jerry Judy from Alabama, the receiver. He's a perfect fit for like that West Coast offense that's timing and precision and route running. And he has, he's the best route runner in the class. very like extremely fast feet he can he can separate underneath he can do it all in that west coast offense and like give derrick car whoever is their quarterback is um a target that will get open for him early in the route and he can also get deep he's also very good after the catch you know he's he's definitely up there in terms of the best one of the best receivers in this class i actually have cd lamar rated

high like slightly higher than him but i think jerry judy's very very good very high very high floor, very high ceiling receiver. Yeah, I mean, the Raiders, the Raiders are really interesting, and I think that a receiver could do them well. So we're only doing the first half of the draft here, but I do want to address this quickly. So with their second pick in the first round,

you have them taking Jordan Love. Yeah. I just, I feel like he's going to go in the first round. I just feel like that's an eventuality, inevitability. And it was hard to figure out what team is going to take him, but I just feel like, with the Raiders having two first round picks,

they can grab an elite talent like a Jerry Judy at 12 and still potentially... Yeah, and you can still potentially grab a very high upside but risky quarterback in Jordan Love a little bit later. There's a few teams in there that aren't likely to take quarterbacks. I already had the dolphins taking a quarterback. So in theory, they can look at the board and say none of these teams are super likely.

It's the 49ers, Buccaneers, Buccaneers, Broncos, Falcons, Cowboys, dolphins in front of them. None of these teams are likely to take another quarterback. Now, obviously, someone can trade up, but that's maybe the risks that they're willing to take there. So I got them taking Jordan Love. I know that Raiders fans,

a couple of Raiders fans were not happy with me for doing that, but I feel like the writing has been on the wall that they're not super, like, satisfied with Derek Carr. Yeah, because he's a quarterback who plays for John Gruden. Yeah, I saw that too. There was a lot when I retweeted, your thing. There were some Raiders fans who were very, very testy about your, your quarterback selection. I mean, people get it, people get very upset about mock drafts. It's just kind of,

it's this very interesting, fascinating subculture of people that get irate about mock draft situations. Yeah, let's not further inspect that. But what I will say is what I think is funny with the mock draft reaction culture, I guess you could say, is that every team is like, we're going to draft best player available. And everybody who observes the draft is like, best player available is always the way to go. And if you have like two selections with the Raiders and then everyone's going to be like, nice job asshole, you didn't get a cornerback. Like, wait, I thought we weren't drafting for need, which has happened. Right. It's every, it's every time. Do you know what the truth is, everybody dressed for need.

Best player available is a myth. Oh, man. Yeah. All right. Let's move on before we get more people mad at us. All right. San Francisco defending NF2 champions. Another very tough one because I kind of was going back and forth between C.D. Lamb and Henry Ruggs.

Ultimately, I ended up with Henry Ruggs to the 49ers. I just think they're going to be so fascinated with what he could bring to their offense, his ability to take the top off of defense. They've already got a couple of very strong tackle-breaking yards after-the-catch type players and George Kittle and Debo Samuel. Henry Ruggs gives them a sort of different element, that speed element, that take the top off of defense element.

And he's also good at yards after the catch. He has the capability of taking a slant and just getting it all the way to the house or whatever. And so, I don't know, this is a tough one for me. I just see so many people who plugged in people connecting rugs to the 49ers I don't have inside information on this in particular but I do just it just feels like there's so many people connecting them

there's something there. I'm in agreement with you how the receiver packing order plays out is really fascinating to me. Tampa Bay, the Tampa Bay Grandaneers. God. I can't believe you just said that. I went with Joe.

I went with offensive tackle Josh Jones Okay. He, he, this is probably going to be perceived a reach by people. And if it does happen. In the mock draft reaction community? Yes, exactly. But I mean, he's coming off of, he was a standout at the senior bowl. Coaches got to see him there.

I think the bucks clearly are kind of going all in on the season, bringing grunk back, you know, bringing Brady in. They got a good defense already. Like getting, getting an additional good player on the season. their offensive line can only be a good thing for this year and beyond. So, you know, I don't, they're in the situation where they could go defense, but I feel like they're going to try and build around Brady in the short term. Getting an offensive tackle in there would be a boost for them.

Yep, agree. Over under Grunk games played. And I'm going to set it at 10. Yeah, I was going to say 10. That's a good question, man. I feel it's got to be it's got to be under I want to my heart wants to say over but my head saying under deep down this is just a coronavirus take that word because it's you know there you go that's complicated how many games are going to be on the schedule we're all playing it at the wide world of sports at Disney that's true that's true the AFC will be in Orlando the NFC will be in UNLV all right 15 Denver Broncos John L way yeah CD Lamb, who is just high-level talent receiver, I just think it makes so much sense for the Broncos

to keep building around Drew Locke. If they want him to be the guy, I think it feels like they are optimistic that he's the guy for them. They've been searching for the guy for years now. And so putting a very strong sports system around him is going to give them kind of like, I guess, their best ability to have the,

like, it'll give them a chance to have enough information to say whether this guy is the guy. if that makes any sense. And so getting him, pairing Lamb with Coralyn Sutton, you know, obviously they got Noah Fant who's on the come-up at tight end. And I just think getting as much weapons around Locke and kind of seeing what he can do, it behooves them. So I don't see Lamb falling any further than this one. 16, Atlanta Falcons, who are rumored to be trying to trade up into the top 10. Yeah.

So I didn't do trades actually in this in my final mock draft, but I kind of. I kind of baked this in a little bit because I could see them trading up for C.J. Henderson. C.J. Henderson is broadly considered to be the second best corner in this class, and there's actually rumors that some teams have him as the number one corner in this class, which is kind of crazy. But yeah, he's just one of those guys, like elite athlete. Teams, I think, believe that he can turn him into a better producer in terms of ball skills. He produced more two years ago than this last year, but yeah, he's just high upside, extremely good athlete who,

it sounds like the Falcons really, really like him. He's another guy who played against Miami, and I was just like, Jesus Christ. That's a good, like, most of my draft takes before the combine are did they own Miami? That's a great rubric.

I'm a big believer in those things, so, yeah. It's kind of the color. A dozen of the, you should always do what your opponent doesn't want you to do thing. So like your opponent never once you go forward on fourth down, just do it. Your opponent doesn't want you to have a running quarterback, get a running quarterback. Don't make it easy on them. And if there's a tortured fan base that's just like, oh, Jesus Christ, this guy. That's a good metric.

I like it. The Jesus Christ, this guy metric. I'm all in all right. But that's interesting about C.J. Henderson, whether or not he's the top corner. I just corner play is so hard to diagnose. Yeah, yeah. It's really, you know, that's it. That's a whole different pod. All right.

Let's quickly do 17 because I want to get into the Cowboys pick. And then we're going to do a couple of superlatives with the back end of the first round. Yeah. So I got LSU pass-Risher, Caleb on Chase on to the Cowboys. it came down to me between Javon Kinloff from South Carolina and Chase on here. Ultimately, I just think they spent money in free agency the Cowboys did to kind of shore up their interior defensive line. Grabbing an edge rusher here makes a lot of sense. He didn't produce as much as you'd hope in this last season in his career at LSU,

but just very talented, very explosive pass rusher, great bend. reminds me of Brian Burns from last year a little bit in the way that he can kind of move like just very agile pass rusher that I think his upside is through the roof so I really really like him. All right. Give me the guy

in the back half of the first round who you think should be considered a much better prospect than he is. That's a really good question. So going through the back half of the in general this whole draft I feel like has the elite blue trip

the elite blue chip group of guys. And then there's this really, really huge plateau of, like, quote, second round talent that there's like 50 guys that could go in there or more. So I would say a couple of players come to mind. Jalen Rager is the first one that comes to mine. I think he's, I've got him mocked to the Eagles at number 21. So that's maybe even a little bit higher than a lot of people will have him. Some people might have him in a second round.

Yeah, wide receiver at TCU. I just think he's, you know, very. very, very explosive. He actually has, this is kind of fascinating, is he has somewhat similar testing metrics to D.K. Metcalf

in the sense that he's very, very explosive. Here he comes to the compete cauldron. Explosive vertical, like jump, broad jump. Very good speed, straight line speed, but had like atrocious agility scores.

And so like, it's like the D.K. Metcalf, uh, whatever, like, spectrum in terms of athlete, but he's much shorter. He's like 5-11, so it's a completely different type, like completely different look in a player, but same style, same style, like explosive, deep threat, one of the best deep threats in college football. I think he's an underrated player that I really, really like. So he's the guy that comes to mind.

And then let's see here, Patrick Queen, I got him at 32. He's an ascending player to me, like one year of starting experience. did a lot of things that were just like jumped off the tape like good instincts incredible speed very fluid like flying around the field you know he's a little undersized and lacks the experience of some of these other guys

but I think his upside is absolutely incredible so he's another player that I think could fall towards the end of the round or maybe into the second round but he has the talent to be quite a bit higher so you mocked this out to 64 Yeah. Is there who's going to be the steal of the draft if you include the top 64? And I'm just looking through my list.

So I think the first guy that- Can I stop you for one second? Yeah. Are we, I feel like Patrick Queen is a great candidate for us to be wondering why Patrick Queen dropped the Kansas City Chiefs in your scenario. Yes. Like if Patrick Queen goes 32nd to the Chiefs, I feel like we're all going to be like, what the hell was that?

Why did we let him fall? to the Chiefs. In December when he's playing, he's playing at the Grand Floridian Hotel at Disney in the lobby when they, when their games are held there, we're going to be like, what was that? Why did 31 teams pass on Patrick Queen? Am I wrong? No, I think that's absolutely true. I mean, that's why he's stuck out to me. It's just like, like teams, I think number one, he's not a pass rusher in a, like a pure pass rusher. So maybe that's a reason he'll fall a little bit. But he reminds me of like the Devin Bush, from last year, just like a heat-seeking missile, you know, that just flies around the field. Very, very fun to watch.

So I absolutely agree with that. The one guy I was going to say that I think he's not getting as much heat as I thought he might. Let's heat him up. Let's heat him up. Jeff Gladney from TCU Corner. I believe I actually talked about him maybe a couple episodes ago. You got him going 46 to the Broncos, replacing Chris Harris. This cornerback class has a lot of very, very intriguing.

players in it. He, at least from what I've seen is maybe not getting as much first round buzz that I thought he would, but you never know. It's one of those things that he could show up on and come in the first round. But he's just, he plays with a chip on his shoulder. You love to see that, Kevin. You just love to see it. Oh, you love to see it. No, he plays with a chip on a shoulder. He's very, very feisty, fiery, confident, super athletic. He's a little undersized. he's kind of wiry, but he's just, I just love watching him play. Like he's sticky in coverage. He's very physical.

He's fluid. There's just a lot to like about him. And I think he's going to be one of those guys that's like, how did he fall? How did he make it to the second round? Because I think he's going to be a very good pro. I can't remember exactly where I have him on my big board, but it's definitely in the first round. Let me see. Let me pull it up here.

I've got him ranked 22nd on my big board. So if he falls into the second round, I think that's a huge steal. Fannie Kelly. What a journey. Six mock drafts. Yeah. We're finally there, sort of, almost, tomorrow. I cannot wait.

What's your post-draft life look like? I'm going to do... Fothering a baby. You're going to be a father. I already fathered him, but yes. Well, no, I know that would be going to be a father. Let's not get bogged down with Samantha. Yeah. I think my plan is to like work for another week or two and then take a week off and just not think about the draft for that full week. But yeah, it's a, you know, I mean, I'm very excited to talk about where all these players land for the fantasy landscape. Like that's really exciting. Assuming there's going to be a fantasy football season. So yeah. There will be. I think there will be. Yeah. It's all that's all there's going to be. No cheering for anybody.

Yeah. It's just, we're just going to be watching it and enjoying. I might have to play fantasy football just as an extra layer. Yes. Because it's going to be so weird. We did it. I think that sports is going to return in like July, but it's going to be compaction weird.

And football will be having the normal season. I'm mostly joking when I talk about that whole thing. I think they'll have a full season. I'll just be in a different area. Then we'll be fans there. But I just kind of feel like it's all going to be so strange that we're just going to need more, more things. And fantasy football might help.

Are you a betting, are you into betting? Are you a big better? Not, not on the NFL. You're going to be, I feel like. No, I'm not. There's a lot of things, rooting for a team, betting, all of those things are things that I, I never got into as a journalist. I bet on golf and all sorts of other dumb, a lot of soccer, a lot of fighting sports.

The only things I win, I legitimately do win money on golf and boxing. Nice. because I am someone from 1926. All right, Danny Kelly, thank you so much. All right, thank you. Okay, thank you to Danny Keller for joining us. We'll be back after the draft. Danny will be back.

Mallory Rubin will be back. Going to have everything you need post draft will be a hell of a time. So we'll see you then.