The Ringer NFL Show - The Perfect Mock Draft, Part 2: Picks 17 to 32

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

Sheil and The Ringer’s own Steven Ruiz, Diante Lee, and Austin Gayle complete their group mock, discussing the moves they think each team will make (including trades) during the first round of the 2026 NFL draft. (00:00) The perfect mock draft, Part 2: Picks 17 to 32 (00:46) No. 17 Detroit Lions (03:59) No. 18 Minnesota Vikings (07:49) No. 19 Carolina Panthers (11:34) No. 20 Philadelphia Eagles (14:43) No. 21 Pittsburgh Steelers (19:32) No. 22 Los Angeles Chargers (23:38) No. 23 Dallas Cowboys (25:40) No. 24 Cleveland Browns (27:46) No. 25 Chicago Bears (30:17) No. 26 Buffalo Bills (32:20) No. 27 San Francisco 49ers (34:24) No. 28 Houston Texans (37:37) No. 29 Kansas City Chiefs (40:55) No. 30 New York Giants (41:41) No. 31 New England Patriots (43:01) No. 32 Seattle Seahawks The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available.Host: Sheil KapadiaGuests: Diante Lee, Steven Ruiz, and Austin GayleProducer: Chris SuttonVideo Editor: Stefano SanchezProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Shil Kapade. We got the second part of our mock draft today. Hopefully you watch or listen to the first part, picks one through 16. Now we've got picks 17 to 32. What we think will happen,

not what we think should happen. We've got my friends here, Austin Gale, Deontay Lee, and Stephen Ruiz from the Ringer. Let's take a break. We will come back with the second part of our mock draft. All right, they're stealing the phone out of Howie Roseman's hands. So it looks like you got to make the pick with the Lions at 17. Yeah, I want to go edge rusher here with the Lions,

but I'm just going to go best offensive linemen available. And for me, that's Monroe Freeland. I feel like that. I feel like we all predicted it was going to be a hole for the Lions last year, just with how the offseason worked out. Ragnow, retires, comes back, doesn't play, all that. And it just seemed like that offense lost its superpower. And I think you need to rebuild that before you can even address the needs

on the defensive end. Because I think if you do go defense here and you're reaching a little bit on some of these picks, just to fill a hole, I think you just lose sight of what you guys were. And I think for the lines to be the lions, they need a great offensive line

for that offense to work how Dan Campbell wants it to work. So I'm just going to go offensive linemen here. I like it. I like the pick. You lose Taylor Decker, and now you have a guy who can maybe come in

and has a high ceiling there. So I think if one of those old linemen were to fall to 17, Proctor, Freeling, I think that would be a pretty good spot for Detroit. It also allows you, right, with Detroit, they're kind of talking about moving Penae Soule to left tackle, but I think there's probably people in the building

that, like, if they have an opportunity at Freeling, and I think they could even be looking to trade up, depending on, like, how the board falls. So, like, if we can get Freeling, and yeah, we have a developmental piece at tackle, but that allows us to keep Sewell at right, and we don't have to play Larry Borum, the tackle they just brought in.

I think that's a situation they'd much rather be in, rather than we're moving Sewell from right to left, we've got Borm at right tackle, We don't have the kind of the future at either position figured out. I think that Freeling is something they're going to look for at 17. All right. You are up, Austin. 18.

The Minnesota Vikings is Kevin O'Connell just saying, this is my show. I'm adding myself an offensive toy. Whereas Brian Flores saying, get out of here. I'm the best coach in the building. We're taking somebody I need. Austin, before you make a call, before you make a call. Howie has wrestled the phone back out of his assistant's hands. and he's calling and saying, you know who I want here,

and I'm going to also try to sweeten the deal because there's a couple of things I want to check off. Can I offer you a first in both my third round picks to get to 18 and get Jonathan Grenard? And Granard? You want Granard? To go from 23 to 17 and you're giving me Grenard and two third round picks?

That's right. Wow, blockbuster offer from Howie Roseman-Slais-I-Ley-Lee here. I was hoping I didn't have to put another fourth round pick to make this happen. Meanwhile, the Vikings are operating without a GM. They're like, oh, no, we don't even have a trade value chart. We don't know what to do here. Hey, chaos is a ladder, man. If there's anybody who can take advantage of this, it would be how he rose.

I think that there's one, you know, at 18, you know, the Vikings been mocked by like everyone doing a mock draft, one of the safeties, right? Whether it's Dylan Thineman, the Oregon safety, or the Toledo safety, I mean, Emmanuel McNeill Warren. to not draft a safety to replace Harrison Smith and Brian Flores' defense and to trade back and give away Jonathan Granard, I think it would just be malpractice for Flores and that defense. I'm not doing it. All right. Austin says no, I like the offer, though. Deonté, all right, Austin, who are we taking then with the Minnesota Vikings?

So I do think it's Kevin O'Connell, his team, and he's the captain now, and I think that he needs to make sure that this Kyler Murray experiment works. And I think as the board falls, a compliment to the... the Jefferson-Adison combination they have. I'm taking a Kai Lemon out of USC. Interesting. Interesting. I think I'm just throwing the absolute kitchen sink and saying, hey, Kevin O'Connell,

San Diego State legend, if you are this quarterback whisper, this elevator, this kingmaker, and you wanted to keep Darnold, and you were on record wanting to keep Darnold, and this situation is what you want, we're giving you no excuses. Hey, here comes, Kyler, you have Addison, you have Jefferson, you have a good offensive line, you have to figure out how to make this work. And just no excuses in terms of we're going to bring this safety and all this stuff. Because I think that the Vikings defense obviously could add talent,

but Flores is such a floor razor. They were top five in EPA points and yards allowed for drive all last season. I still believe in Flores being able to do that even without adding a safety prospect here and what they're going to have to do to figure out Harris Smith, I think it's okay. But Lerman getting to this spot when I think all of the questions on what the Viking ceiling is in 2026

is the quarterback position and the offense. and can this get close to what it was with Sam Darnold two years ago. So I'm going to McIlan at a USC. Just to add to your point about the Flores thing, I think Flores is a coach that prefers veterans anyway. And I think that he's a guy that can target guys who are already in the pros, see their skill set, figure out how they fit into his defense.

And I think he's also a defensive coordinator that pros want to play for. I don't think you have to waste the pick on a defender here. And I like the approach here. I have a question, though, about not just Lemon. This is just a generic question. Do you guys think the value of a slot receiver is falling now that we've seen teams kind of go back the other way, our offenses specifically go back to bigger bodies, fullbacks, tight ends on the field, that we're going to see less 11 going forward and maybe a player like Lemon gets devalued because of that.

I think we're going to see less 11 moving forward. But I also think there's going to be this, and maybe this is opposite to the Lemon thing, but you're going to need receivers to block, right? I think the receivers that you do have on the field, I think there's this increased interest in they can't just be past catchers. they have to be guys that can block and help kind of be that last block that opens up this explosive run. But go ahead, Deonti, sorry. No, I was going to say, I think that really what's happening is that we're shrinking the band of outcomes that teams are happy with with slot receivers.

And I think that in general now, we're just going to start looking at receivers as can you be explosive or not, right? And if you can't give me explosive plays, we're instantly just going to start dropping you down tiers in our free agency and our draft boards. And that's where I think someone like Lemon becomes really, really interesting, right? Because I think that he fits a mold from a decade's prior slot. receiver, right? A guy who can be a chain mover, he's going to do dirty work, he's not going to be afraid to make contested catches between linebackers and safeties, even if it means taking some contact on the catch. I think that we've seen just enough of him being able to fight through tackles for you to believe that he can give you, I guess, moderate to average-ish yards after

catchability, but ultimately you're not really getting any explosive place for him that aren't going to be designed or aren't going to be the result of someone drawing gravity and him bushing open as a result of that. I'm really fascinated to just, see how the league, we'll see a lot about how the league feels about him and slot receivers that fit that archetype. And I think Omar Cooper exists in this kind of realm as well. We're going to see a lot about how the NFL feels with these guys who are not necessarily explosive plays instantly when they walk into the league. So are you thinking like Randall Cobb type player who I don't think was explosive. But I do think like for the Vikings and maybe you bring in like the draft value discussion here.

But I do think for the Vikings like Lemon would fit in naturally because they have the explosive playmakers on the other. outside. I think if you're going to lean into the Kyle and Murray thing, I think one thing that Kyle and Murray is really good at, he probably doesn't get enough credit for it, is the quick game stuff. And you need a slot receiver like that to kind of maximize that talent from him. Speaking of slot receivers,

Deante is up with the Carolina Panthers at number 19. He was just mentioning Omar Cooper. Is that a player? He looks at knowing full well that if he messes up this pick, he's going to hear from angry Panthers fans like Stephen Ruiz. Deontay,

who do you got for the Panthers at number 19? This is a tricky one because I do think that some of the concerns for this player might wrinkle the feathers of Panthers fans. But I'm going with KC Concepcion here. I just think that the ceiling is too high as a receiver to pass on. And my biggest priority for me, anytime I've done mock drafts and just been thinking about the Panthers is we need to make sure that there's an environment to get a fair and accurate evaluation of Bryce Young

before we put any type of extension on the table. And the best way to do that was to address offensive line and free agency, which they did was bringing there Rashid Walker. And now you have a need, I think, or at least you want to go get a guy who can potentially supplant Xavier Leggett in this wide receiver rotation.

And I think that Casey can definitely do that. I think that he's much more explosive than what we've seen from Xavier Leggett, not that he's not athletic. He just hasn't been detailed enough as a route runner and separator. And then once the ball's in his hands, I don't want to say that he's Jalen Waddle, that is very aspiration.

but you just see that kind of comfort at being able to make people miss, separate and make big plays, even when he's at top speed, in a way that's really difficult for wide receivers to attain. So I like what the ceiling can be here, and I think the mix of him, McMillan and Jalen Coker could be a pretty dynamite, young three-wide receiver combination.

Ruiz, you're good with this? Are you going on Reddit and ripping the Panthers? I have your phone number, Deontz. I have your phone number, Deont. He doesn't. No, I hate the pick with all my heart. I hate a wide receiver that can't catch the football. And I think there is a difference between, I think there is a, wait,

you called the GM an idiot before you're getting back. As I said, I were like receivers you can't catch. No, no, no. I hate the pick with all my heart. I didn't think you're going to feel that strongly about it. You know, but it was really the justification. We need to give price. He picked up his fifth year option and we're still trying to give him a fair environment

to evaluate him. It's going to be his entire life. You need to keep surrounding him with stuff to make sure it can work. No, no, I like the thought process from Deonté like going for that explosive receiver. I just hate a receiver that can't catch. And the difference between him and a guy that

has like high drop numbers and the difference and then you watch him play and it seems like he's fighting the football when he goes out there. I think there's a huge difference between those players because I think the drop numbers statistically could be influenced by like where you're running your routes and if you're running over the middle you're going to have higher drop numbers.

Right. But a water sheer catch the football is just a non-starter for me, especially in this organization where I've lived through Kelvin Benjamin and I live through Xavier Leggett. So that's the one reason I would push back against it. But the explosive nature part of it, I think, is really something that the Panthers will need going forward, especially if Bryce Jones their quarterback. All right. I am up with the 20th pick, the Dallas Cowboys. Howie Roseb is not done, Sheel. What's that? Rosen's not done. I'm putting the first and a fourth in for number 20 overall. A first and a fourth.

Come on, Howie. Ty Sootsam. That's it. I'll give you a one in a three. This is the only haggling I'm willing to do. One and a three. Because I got two third round picks to play with. That's my interdivision, my interdivision tax here.

According to the Jimmy Johnson chart, you need, uh, it's 90 points of value that you're dropping here from 20 to 23. Nobody who talks like that uses the Jimmy Johnson. One in a three. All right. That's true. That's true.

You got a deal. One in a three. Philadelphia Eagles are. up at number 20, Deonte. Who did they move up for in this spot? It's for the one guy that I think would excite Howie Roseman, would excite this franchise, would add a little bit more dynamic ability, would kind of take you out of having to play 11 personnel all the time, and it gives you an heir apparent to Dallas Goddard.

We're going on with Kenyon and Sadeek here. This makes for a very easy press conference. This is what the Eagles are all about. We go find guys that have blue chip potential that can be all pro, pro-bow level players multiple times during their rookie deal that we're going to want to keep around for a long, long time. Kenyon Sadiq is at, right? Kenyon Sadiq is 100% that. And then what we've seen from him as a blocker suggests that there's even more growing that he can do.

He gets a little bit bigger. I think being with Dallas Gowder will be very instructive for him because Dallas Gowder didn't come in as the greatest blocker, but showed effort and continued to grow and at his best was a plus blocker for them. So I love this fit offensively. You can use Keni-Sadik in a bunch of different ways. I think that we'll wait on trying to find an heir apparent see if maybe Blake Miller falls into the second round and we can go get him there.

I think this would be one of how he's misses. I think this is a miss. Trading up and going and get Sadiq, I've been on record. I like Sadiq a lot. And he's a younger player. And I think everyone wants Sadiq to tap into this blue chip potential. Right, George Kittle-esque player. Yeah.

And history, I think, tells us very loudly with this specific position that tight ends, oftentimes these first-round caliber tight ends like picking back to like David and Joku, Evan Ingram, more. Don't get, like don't start to deliver surplus value until their second contract. And I think Sadiq, though I like him coming in, he's second to Gauder and then like maybe he's the heir parent. Goddard's only on a one-year deal.

I just think ultimately you're not going to be getting the production from Sadiq that makes sense for, and now obviously we're at 20 now. Maybe this is where it starts to make sense for him to come off the board, but you're trading up for him, so you're giving up extra capital. I ultimately think that I'm going to be licking my chops to get Sadiq on the open market when he's on an expiring contract in three, four, four, four, five years from now, rather than kind of saying, you know what, I'm going to be the guy that fixes him on this rookie deal and, and unlocks that potential versus the one who could benefit maybe when he's like,

again, he's only like 20 years old. So five years from now, 25 years old entering, or still in his prime, that's when I want to enter the Sadiq sweepstakes, not so much in the top, you know, 20 picks in the first round this year's draft. We're really speed running like the replication of the Carson Wensair, or the end of the Carson Winsair. We've got the reports about the anonymous reports about the quarterback in the locker room, you're leaning into 12 personnel again. I remember the Earths in Goddard draft, or when they got Goddard and Adam's hurt. But I agree with Austin here. I like him as a player, but if you're trading up for him here, I think that's when you start

to lose value. But if I'm picking him and I have the pick, I really like this pick. And I think it makes sense for Sean Manning coming in. I think he fits that style of offense. I think he's going to be able to do stuff with him in the play action game where he's not like the focal point of the play, but he's the checkdown option who can do that. stuff after the catch. I would like to see that in this

offense, but I would probably criticize the trade up on draft night. All right. Eagles move up again. Once again, Howie Roseman moves up. Kenyon Sadiq at number 20. That brings us to the Pittsburgh Steelers Ruiz at 21.

So we're doing, we're going for accuracy and we're not doing what I would do, right? I just want to make that. I want to put that on record before I make this pick. I'm going to go with Ty Simpson. I think this is the one team that needs a quarterback. I knew the Simpson discourse was coming today. I knew this was coming today.

And it's good content. We have to talk about Simpson on this podcast. I like Simpson as a player. Like I watch him and I like him. You know what my comp is? He's less accurate at Drew Breeze, which may make you think like, oh, I want that player in the first round.

No, Drew Breeze was a second round pick for a reason. And I don't think just because he turned into a Hall of Famer doesn't mean we need to go back and go, oh, we can take six-foot guys with weak arms. in the top half of the draft. We don't need to do that. I think Simpson is the type of guy that you wait for day two, take him, bring him into your system.

I think he can play right away. I really like how he moves in the pocket. I like how he goes through progressions. He doesn't have the arm, and it's just obvious when you want. You can see how it affects his game. There are guys that don't have the arm, quote, unquote, but you don't really see. Let's go back to, like, Matt Ryan,

who didn't have the strongest arm. He had a good arm, but not like the strongest arm. But you never watched Matt Ryan and were like, oh, this is limiting. his game. But when you watch Ty Simpson, you can see it in the accuracy. When he has to put extra mustard on the ball, has to drive the football, the ball sprays everywhere. And you see guys are wide open running over the middle, and he's throwing a dig into a window. And he can't control the football. And sometimes he throws it, he throws his receiver into a hit. Sometimes he makes the

catch more difficult than it has to be. Sometimes it results in a drop. And that's my one problem with them. That natural throwing ability just isn't there. And that's the one thing I don't think you can teach. And I love everything else. Like the processing is on point. I think he's better than Mendoza in that regard. But my thing is, we are drafting these guys for what they're going to be 10 years from now, especially quarterback.

I think Mendoza has the higher ceiling. I think he has the better arm, so I don't think there's a question there. But with Simpson, I just can't see using a first round pick on him. But I think the Steelers who drafted Kenny Pickett not too long ago, Kenny Pickett and Simpson aren't the same player. But I think if you

are willing to draft, can he pick it in the first round, you probably thought he was as good as Simpson is at processing, which wasn't the case. But I do think Simpson is a player that Mike McCarthy is going to love, particularly. An old school West Coast guy with good footwork, and he could go

through his progressions, like that's catnip to him, and I think he'll ultimately end up taking. I mean, isn't less accurate Drew Breeze, young Drew Breese, Brock Purdy? That's always just, that's just been the quarterback I've had in mind when I watched Ty Simpson. And like, I think that in some ways, if you look at the way that Brock Pretty has developed, Brock Pretty could honestly

be like an aspirational outcome for Ty Simpson. That's not saying that Ty Simpson is walking in, totally at a deficit in a bunch of critical factors and that there's no way it can work outside of these perfect circumstances. But I just look at, I look at Brock Pretty early in his career and everything that Stephen was saying about Simpson applied to Purdy then. Off platform, you had no idea where the ball was going to land. You know, holding the ball for, you know, longer than three seconds, a longer than 2.75 seconds. because you had no idea what the placement was going to be. We saw a lot of mistakes down the field.

And I think that ultimately what we've seen over the last two years when Prudy's been healthy is a guy who can extend just enough, has just enough armed talent, and the more that he is able to kind of gather in terms of processing pre-snap and being able to make quick decisions if the picture changes, I think if you're drafting Ty Simpson, you're hoping that his combination of mobility, functional arm strength,

and the decision-making that we've seen and that willingness to push the ball downfield land you with the quarterback who play similarly to Brock Purdy and maybe you believe you can get a little bit more value out of Simpson because he hasn't played as much and it's possible that with more reps you get a better player.

I think he's a little more polished in the pocket than Brock Ferdy is or was. That's fair. That's fair. Coming out of Iowa State, I think that's fair. Even now I don't think that's the greatest strength for Purdy. I think the greatest strength, which has, I think we missed the mark on the Purdy

analysis when he first ascended and we were like, oh, well, he's not this like big, strong athlete with a strong arm, so it must be processing an accuracy. And then we've seen over the last couple years, he hasn't been very accurate. And the process, his time to throw is one of the highest in the NFL. When he takes more sacks than you would expect for a guy

who's supposed to be a timing and processing guy, I think Simpson as a prospect, and I want to reiterate, as a prospect, is what people thought Brock Purdy was that first year when he exploded. I think Brock Purdy, if anything, he has shown his ceiling is much higher than that over the last couple years. Just for. All right, let's take a break.

we come back and we get to the Los Angeles Chargers. All right. Ty Simpson goes to the Pittsburgh Steelers at 21, Austin. That brings you up 22, the Los Angeles Chargers. Okay. For what it's worth, I do think Simpson to Pittsburgh, it's a landing spot that makes sense. And I think this is right around the range where I think the Simpson sweepstakes should start.

I think that he is worth that back end of the first round, especially in this year's class, when a lot of these top, right now, where the board has fallen. Like a lot of the top 20 consensus players are already off the board. I think teams will be calling to kind of get that fifth year option trade back up into the first round

if he doesn't go to Pittsburgh, if that's the case. For the Chargers, I think there's part of me that wants to reach on interior offensive line and look at Oregon's Emmanuel Pregnon or Texas A&M, Chase Bessontas, but at the same time,

I do get excited by the receiver position and some of the guys that are available here. I do think some of it might be like what a Mark Cooper Jr. can do and what they want Ladd-McConkey to be. Could be redundant. This is a tough spot. I think I'm going to go Dylan Theeman, the Oregon Safety, who I think a lot of people have coming off the board at 18.

They have Tony Jefferson at Strong Safety right now. Elijah Molden playing free safety for them. I think that adding Thineman immediately competes for a starting spot on that side. I think the one thing that like stops me from maybe making this pick is I do think Harbaugh specifically wants Big Ben in the first round. and if Falk is still here or some of these other guys that have come off the board Proctor,

I think they're going to be looking at those guys. But if not, I think the best player available on the board right now is Dylan Theeman. I didn't think you'd be here. I think throwing resources at the secondary is always smart draft positioning.

I think I'm going to go Theneman here at 22. I think truthfully, this would be, this would be a good spot maybe to consider Peter Woods, right? If had Camel Banks and I had a foot injury, I think that he actually would have been an awesome fit playing up front

for Los Angeles. I think they're really just this draft board the way that we've kind of gone through this exercise. probably puts a team like the Charters at the biggest disadvantage because, you know, wide receiver were more juice like a Casey Conception is not on the board. You don't have Jordan Tyson falling where maybe you can go, you know, get him at value because he's dropped further than people expected in this process.

And all of the, you know, high-octane edge rushers are off board as well. So you don't have, you know, a Joey Bosa replacement or, you know, or, you know, somebody who can maybe fill in for Khalil-Mack when, you know, maybe inevitably because of his age, he has to miss a couple of weeks. So this is kind of concerning, I think, if you are. Los Angeles, especially because the guards in this class after Yawane isn't, aren't sexy enough to be able to reach here. So yeah, this is tough.

I would be really kind of interested if Tiananmen were in L.A., what the role would be. Because I think that you want Tiananmen close to the line of scrimmage or close to the ball. And unfortunately, any time that he gets close to the ball, that means that Derwin James probably is not. And that means you're probably making the wrong decision. So it will be fascinating to see what that kind of usage would look like in this secondary. Hold on. The pick wasn't in yet.

It looks like they wanted the pick in, but the broadcast is saying it hasn't been called in yet. They may have got a last second call from Jerry Jones saying, we just want to move up one spot. We will swap our fifth, our fourth for your fifth. We just want to move up one spot. Are you interested, Jim Hunt Barbaugh? Who are you taken?

Well, we can't tell you. who we're taking you're moving up one spot. You can't tell me who you're taking who you take it. Are you taking Thetamon? If you're taking Thetamon, then I'm going to say no. All right. All right. Listen,

no one said Jerry, you know, he operates by his own rules. And so he didn't get the call in in time. No, no. Is this our way? Is this the third executive we're going to call dumb on the show?

Yeah. He maybe should have tried to be a little bit more savvy because the Cowboys thought when they traded from 20 to 23, they were going to be able to get Thinam in. and they were going to be able to do, like Deontes said, like the Eagles, Quignon Mitchell, Cooper, DeGine, and they were going to say, you know what, we're going to get our own white safety to pair with our stud cornerback,

but they're unable to do it here. The Anemann goes off the board, and so now the Cowboys are left there at 23, and they say, you know what? We're going to get an edge rusher. We like, and it's our board. We're going with T.J. Parker from Clemson. He's going to fit this scheme very well.

We're going to have him at the edge of, there with these defensive tackles who we like a lot. We're not going to do any Michael Parsons comparisons. We're going to talk to Jerry before the press conference and say Jerry, please do not that's not what we're talking about here. Just let Will McLeigh handle it. Let Christian

Parker handle the press conference, the press tour. But we like T.J. Parker, Jermad McCoy, we come out of the first round with those two players and an extra third with our trade with the Eagles. Deontay, we're feeling pretty good about ourselves in Dallas. I think the combo of T.J. Parker

with Sean Gary is like the perfect mix of guys who have the skill sets that suggest that they should be very productive players and they only get you like six and a half seven sacks in a year and it feels like you're just underwhelmed the entire way and that's not to that's not to say that TJ Parker is not a good player coming out I just think that when you watch the tape you see a guy who has all the skill all the ability you look at 2024 and it looks like a guy who might be turned in the corner to be one of those premier edge rusher prospects coming out and then you watch in 25 and it's a lot of getting close but not delivering a lot of plays where you feel like you should just get a bigger impact for a guy who's been considered a first-round prospect,

basically throughout his collegiate career. And I think ultimately he's well-rounded enough for you to be happy with it. I do think, again, if you're Dallas, you're really kicking yourself with the way that this board worked out because all the high-profile guys that you would have liked to have added weren't available when you got, when you traded back to 23. By the way, I would love to be on the fake podcast where we get to react to the report that Jerry Jones try to make a trade up with a team that already had drafted. that would be cold.

It felt a little too real, didn't it, Ruiz? Like, that actually could happen, I feel like. Do you have a Jerry Jones impression to make it more real? You know, I thought about it, but it would try it comes to me natural. Let's see, let's see. Maybe in the future, maybe later in this pod. Maybe he'll try to trade up again here for somebody.

All right, I'm up again. Back to back. I've got the Cleveland Browns, I think, right? Yeah, 24 here. I've got the Cleveland Browns. Now, the Browns picked earlier. They took Caleb Downs, right? Austin, you took Caleb Downs for the Browns at number eight.

So now they're at 24 here and they say, we thought we wanted to get some offensive tackle help. We thought we wanted to get some wide receiver help. What direction do we potentially go here? We're going to surprise, well, this is tough. I'm going to go Caleb Lomu, the offensive tackle from Utah in this spot for the Cleveland Browns. We also considered Omar Cooper Jr. Austin.

We also considered maybe Max Iana Chor. You took the first pick for Cleveland. Did I screw this up for us? Or was Lomu an okay pick for the Browns here? I think I would have picked Lomu in this spot as well. I think that I was strongly considering offensive line at the top with them. And I think you're looking at Maui Noah. Fano was already off the board.

I think they need to, you know, I think Andrew Barry, I'm sure where your guys' head is on this. I think he might be a little bit, on the hot seat. And in terms of just like, I think if this offensive line plan that he put together does not work out at all

where he kind of structured the roster in a way that like you're going to lose five starters in one off season. And when we ask them about at the combine, he's kind of like, oh, I like what the Bears did. They kind of threw an offensive line together in one off season.

They traded for a guy. They brought in two guys. And that's how we're going to do this. So if this doesn't work, like the offensive line frame that they've done, bring in Zion Johnson, Elton Jenkins, trading for Titus Howard.

They're going to need insurance. And I think Lomo is that insurance. He comes in as like that sixth offensive lineman for them and maybe he's not starting at left tackle right away, but if Duan Jones goes down, he can come in. I think Lomo is smart, especially at this part of the first round. I think it makes sense with that, like, analytics-backed approach to just throw a bunch of darts at the dartboard when you're trying to solve a problem with the team. And I think they can't come away from this first round without an offensive lineman.

Yeah, yeah. Let's take one more break. We come back. Ruiz is on the clock. All right, Brown's Caleb Lomu at number 24, which brings us to a very interesting pick the Chicago Bears at 25 Ruiz. You're on the clock. Where is Ben Johnson going? What's going to make him rip his shirt off that he's so excited with this pick? I see this more as a Dennis Allen pick.

I'm going to go Zion Young because I just think that's like the ideal defensive lineman for a Dennis Allen defense, long, strong. You need that when you play the type of if you're going to be in too high and you're going to need guys to two gap and you're going to need guys to set the edge in the run game. And I think Zion Young can do that. I think that the bears are in a spot right now after last year's, I would say, ambitious offseason approach where they were targeting certain positions and trying to build up the offense as quickly as possible for Ben Johnson. I think you go with the Eat Your Vegetables

type draft here. Zion Young, Deontay, what do you think on that Dennis Allen defense? It's interesting to me. I've really had a hard time trying to figure out what the bears would do in this spot because in most mock drafts is you're just not going to be picking from the best edge records available. And I do think that they need to address the position. So you're looking at maybe you go defensive tackle in the same conversation we were having with T.J. Parker and being a little bit disappointing on tape in 2025

would apply to the number one D tackle on my board in Peter Woods. And then you think about like Cassius Howell, who's like a DPR, but then I looked at this when I was doing the last mock draft I did, he would easily have had the shortest arms on Chicago's roster. Right. Like that's just not a thing between Ryan Poles and not Dennis Allen either. He likes those big buy.

power rusher types. And Zion Young is probably the best bet to bring it here. Is it an overdraft? Maybe. But if you're Chicago, I think you want to spend as many of your picks in the top 100 as possible just throwing darts at defense because you cannot bank on forcing a historic amount of turnovers again to try to keep things, you know, even during games and not have to ask Caleb Williams to be a hero or your safeties to go jump a route again for you

to win football games. I feel like Alan, like I would ordinarily not recommend draft. for fit in a scheme. But I think Dennis Allen is one of those defensive coordinators where you trust him to get the most out of like a guy that fits his scheme. So that's why I would be confident. Maybe drafting Young would maybe four or five picks

too high than you would expect. Okay. Sion Young, the safety, I know he gets mocked to the bears quite a bit, Emmanuel McNeil, Lauren Toledo. He's still on the board there as well. 26, the Buffalo Bills. Austin Gale, you know, no matter what you do, don't worry, the owner's going to stick up for you.

And if it gets screwed up, he's going to say it wasn't his fault. Joe Brady made him pick this player. Who do we got, Austin, at 26? It's tough. I think that this would be a spot if we were doing a two-round mock, which I know our producer, Christopher Sutton,

doesn't want us to do for another hour. If Ty Simpson was still on the board, I think the bills could be receiving calls for someone to come back up and get them. I think that getting out of this, spot and going into the second round is something I think the bills could even entertain, especially trying to get just like cheaper, but also just like pick up more capital and add more rookies. I think they need pass rush juice. They added Bradley Chubb and they had Grigar Rousseau

on the edges, but I want someone that could fly and peel back on the edges. And that's why like thinking about Cash Chowel, Texas A&M Edge, even though he has the short arms, maybe that's who we were looking at here. I also think that, yeah, they've added some guys in the secondary. They brought a D. Alford playing the slot. Do you know, so I think it's going to be a debt piece for them the safety and then CJ Gardner Johnson, the veteran, but I still think they need help in the secondary. And part of me is like, do I just take like Avion Terrell here

or Chris Johnson in the San Diego State Corner or even the safety, Manuel McNeil Warren and attack the secondary? I think that's ultimately what I'm going to do. I think I'm going to take Chris Johnson out of San Diego State. Oh. My Aztex, San Diego State at 26. I think he's got inside, outside volatility.

You know, they're going to learn what a defense is like without Sean McDermann. But they brought him this DC, Jim Leonard. Every nerd loves Jim Leonard. I'm excited to see what he gets out of this group. I think it's a hatchpad. It's a hodgepodge group that's going to have a lot of new starters, bringing Chris Johnson to,

and just play him wherever he fits the most in year one and figuring him out down the road. Ruiz Jim Leonard, the early favorite for hipster DC of the year in 2026. I know you like to keep track of those rankings, right? He's got to be way up there. Favorite? I think he's already won it. He hasn't even coached a game and he's won't.

I think he might be right. There I. Chris Johnson goes to the Buffalo Bills, which brings us to Deontay and the San Francisco 49ers at number 27. This is where you would like to have an ear to the wall to just hear what the argument is between what Kyle Shanahan wants and was maybe best for the franchise. Because I think that you would like maybe to get in Emmanuel McNeil Warren because the safeties that they've drafted have overall been kind of disappointments. I've liked Jaya Brown and flashes just hasn't been consistent enough and has dealt with injuries. you like Malik Mustafa in flashes, another guy who's been dealing with injuries. His play style is kind of conducive to being banged up because he is definitely going to lay his body on the line to show up and make tackles out in space. And we haven't necessarily seen the kind of coverage versatility.

I think they need to maximize that position. But you know, Kyle Shanahan, he's looking at these wide receivers, man. If I'm going to go make a Super Bowl run, I've got to go outscore Sean McVeigh and Matthew Stafford. I've got to find a way to finally score a touchdown against Mike McDonald, right? Because I haven't been able to do that in a regular. regular season. I think I'm looking at an Omar Cooper Jr. and saying, I can turn that into Debo Samuel, right? I can go get this guy and turn him into another Debo as a guy who can catch the ball underneath. He's going to make people miss. He's going to go find me those six to eight

hidden yards, right, after the catch. That's something that I would be really interested in if I were Shanahan. And I think that he'd be a good fit if we're thinking about the 49ers trying to make a super strength, even more of a super strength out of this offense. Yeah, he would, I mean, he would automatically become among the favorites, I think, for offensive rookie of the year in that scheme. Really? I feel like he was there.

Ricky Pierce all there. They just brought him Christian Kirk. I mean, obviously, maybe you're playing him over Kirk. I mean, I think there's a lot of him. You're drafting over Kirk here, for sure. I don't think he'd have the production to be. Yeah, you're probably right.

Shanahan's kind of tough on, on young receivers too, I would say. Absolutely. Yeah. Maybe not tough enough on Brandiouk in hindsight. Bad take shield, bad ting. Jeez. You got strong takes it out.

Sorry. It's bringing Monty Austin forward to just dunk on you for the spot. We need to stop. All right. Omar Cooper Jr. there at 27. We have the Houston Texans here at 28. Now, this is tough because as I was prepping, I was like, you know what?

Probably going to go offensive line. Maybe take one of these guards that shouldn't go this early, but we're going to do it anyway. But you still got Emmanuel McNeil Warren on the board. Do they say, hmm, you know what? That might be good value that we don't want to pass up, Babion Terrell still on the board. Peter Woods, you know, is that a player?

They look at it and say, man, he's still available? This guy was in like, very high in the mock drafts at the beginning of the season. Didn't have a great year, but still a very good player. All right, you know what? I'm going to stick with my initial instinct and go with Chase Bissontes, the guard there. You know what? I thought about some of the defensive players, but I looked at it. And I think they probably just want to establish that identity.

identity still on the offensive line. So from Texas A&M, I think he fits there, maybe a bit of a reach. I don't know, Deontes. Do you think they would go with the defensive player in this spot? Or do you think we stick with what we think going into the draft that they would go offensive line? I think had Caleb Banks not broken his foot at the combine, this would be a great spot for Caleb Banks because they need an interior disruptor that has pass rush upside, a three-down interior guy to really round this out.

I think that that might be in play for them. I don't hate Bissontes. I think the interesting thing is trying to consider what they're going to do with their two second round picks, right? And that's not necessarily today's exercise, but they've got a couple second rounders where they might be able to address the interior of their offensive line. They might be able to go add some depth at defensive tackle

because I think that most of the D tackles in this class project better as day two guys and they do as day one guys. So maybe there's still an opportunity where you can go get your hands on a Caden McDonald if you want to run stuffer maybe instead. right so I'm very fascinated to see what they do with their first bit because it probably informs what their second round is going to look like I also think that they if they're thinking offensive line I think that they maybe want to take a swing on one of these tackles right the I can't pronounce this last name of i Yanke or Arizona State or Ihanichor, Max Ihanachor or Blake Miller. Yeah, I thought about those two as well.

I think they like Ed Ingram. They just brought in Wyatt Teller, the longtime Browns guard. I think they want to start those two guys at guard. And I don't know. I think that they have an embarrassment of riches on defense, the swarm slash swarm defense. And they do need maybe a pass rushing three technique. But part of me is where the value is where it's sitting,

I don't even hate them like throwing resources at the secondary. Like you're telling me like McNeill Warren or Aviontorell in this spot. I don't know. Like the guy, I just think maybe making the strength of super strength is smart. Terrible pick. Yeah. Second in a row, that was an awesome port like pick right there.

That was, I mean, that was a complete disaster. But you know what? Sometimes the pressure gets to you when you're on the clock and it got to there. They only got eight minutes. Yeah.

I apologize. If it was 10 minutes, I would have nailed it eight minutes. It got to me. So I apologize. I'm putting you on the hot seat right now. You try to make a trade after a pick was already made. I forgot about that.

Listen, you know, when we get later in the draft, when you're older, it gets to you. So that's going to be my excuse here for some of what's happening. All right, Ruiz, you're up 29 Kansas City Chiefs. Who do you got? I'm going to go with Maxi and Notchor to fill that void that the chiefs,

that whole that developmental tackle that never develops under Kansas City, which seems to be a guy they have on their roster, add to the roster every draft. But we didn't take offensive tackle with our first pick. So I think that just makes sense. I think you have to build up this offensive line.

And we've focused so much on wide receiver with them. And that's the reason why the explosive plays have gone away from their offense. But I think it's just, I don't really have enough time to give Pat, time to sit back there and let routes develop. And he has to usually rush his throws when he's throwing deep. So I think they need to start building up that offensive line. This is a risky pick. I think he might not be a good player for another year or two.

but I think it's a chance you have to take if you're the chiefs. You have to take high upside picks here because like you said, they have the ninth pick this year, but when is that ever going to happen again? I think if you're Howie Roseman, you're upset because I think the hope

is that someone like Ahanichur falls right into this range and maybe you can package up your second round pick with another third and try to sweep in here after you make your first, first round pick to get a guy like Ahnichor because he can wait, right? He doesn't have to play immediately. You can kick him inside to guard

if he wanted to compete with Tyler Steen. He's a great athlete, somebody who's continuing to learn the game. But I do like this pick for the Chiefs, because you have Jaylon Moore in theory to be the guy that he competes with, right? And he kind of sets that water mark. If you can cross this and you're good enough to be a starting tackle in the league at worst. And I do think that a honnature ceiling is through the roof as a guy who is a late riser in this process. And I think you saw last year that they were willing to move guys around,

especially in training camp. When they were trying to figure out their offensive line, they were moving right tackle to left guard. It was crazy to keep track of. So I like that. But if you're Harry Roseman, you just wait four years until, you know, second contract and you sign them and you get a Mackay Beckton type player. All right.

The chiefs come out a round one with Mansor, Monster Delane, the cornerback, and Max Ihanachor at 29. The New York Giants, Austin, at number 30. What direction are we going in after their trade? This is you, right? I can't remember.

I think it is. Ruiz, right? I think it's Ruiz. I guess the 30th overall pick is mine, but you traded away my dolphins pick. So, like, I don't know if I keep it. Do I keep it if I'm slotted in at number 30? It's a great question.

Ruiz and Austin, you have to come to some type of consensus. Deonti traded up with Miami, right? Deontes, like, I'm giving us my 30th overall pick, which was my pick, which you probably should have conferred with me on when you traded it away. But I was supposed to be true. I only got eight minutes on the clock, man. You got to make fast decisions under duress.

I was supposed to be drafting for the dolphins at 30, and then that pick got traded away. Maybe it's, I guess, who was the Giants at 5? Who accepted that trade? I think it should be them who take it here. I think I'm the one, yeah, I'm the one that took that. So am I drafting as the Giants? Drafting as the Giants at 30.

It's the Giants pick, and I, you know, the three of you have to come to consensus because it sounds like it's all your pick. So Ruiz, you lead us off. Austin didn't want it there. He passed it off to you. They didn't want it. They traded away. I had it. And then it's gone. All right. You three.

Louise Austin Deante. Who are the Giants taking at 30? Oh, oh, oh. The Toledo safety. Yeah. Yes, I like that. Can we all agree on the board? Best play on the board. I think he's the... Playing with Javon Holland. That would be a good pair. Yeah, yeah. I think you need someone to replace Tyler Nubin. I think Dinard Wilson bringing in that system. I think you want another safety, another guy that can play next to Javon Holland. I think you can't ignore that second safety spot like some other teams might be able to do.

So I think that just makes sense. And it's best player available. Team need fit, scheme fit. I think it checks all the boxes. Let's see how easy that was. You guys can work together. Manuel McNeill Warren, the safety from Toledo goes to the Giants at 30. Deante, the New England Patriots at 31.

What do we got? This is really tricky. This is really tricky. Now the McNeil Warren is off the board because I would have 100% jumped on that. if he had fallen to New England here. I think, ah, this one's rough for me because most of the offensive linemen are really interested in are also off the board that could have played maybe inside or outside or somebody who could compete with Morgan Moses as he's aging to play the right tackle spot. I think this ultimately ends up being a best player available type of situation for them. I'm going to go with someone that might not even play the majority of the snaps,

but can give them a lot of value in the box. And that's going to be Cade McDonald to be a defensive tackle here for New England. I think that there will be some questions to ask for a team that has Christian Barmore and Milton Williams, so there's a lot of money already tied up in the position. But I think we saw last year that what they really want to do is be able to play out of base, play their heavier bodies up front, really not allow you to run the ball between the tackles. And trust that the combo of Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis can play tight enough. coverage where you can't just play one-on-one ball out on the perimeter either.

Katie McDonald kind of makes it a near impossibility, I think, for you to feel good about running the ball from B-Gap to B-Gap against this defense. All right. They load up on the interior, on the defensive line, which brings us to the Seattle Seahawks, my pick at 32. And when I was prepping, I didn't have this guy's name written down, but I think if Peter Woods is still available at 32, and Mike McDonald's, like, I could work with the that skill set here.

It's too good value to pass up. I'm not going to reach for a guard or reach for another position. So the Seattle Seahawks, I thought maybe Cato McDonald would be the guy, but if he goes before Woods, I'm going to stick with Peter, go with Peter Woods here, the defensive tackle from Clemson at number 32. And that is the perfect mock draft. You heard it here.

What do you think, Ruiz? What's the over under on just prospects we got right that will be picked in the first round. So not even matching it with teams. These are the 32 guys who are going to be picked on Thursday night. 32 out of 32.

Come on. I like that. This is a ringer NFL team, man. We're not missing picks. I like that. 32 out of third. Do we think a key messador,

the Miami Edge, was I think 25 years old? Do we think he just falls out of the first round? You can't be a senior citizen. Blind spot for me. Like, I'll admit, this is a total blind spot for me.

I think that he could very easily be a very productive pro the moment I see his name. show up on the ticker in the first round, I am absolutely going to Twitter to blow up whatever GM makes this pick. Yeah, I mean, he's just, Zion Young is like how he's an older prospect. Zion Young is three years younger than Akim Mestore.

Like, it is kind of, I feel like Messador, you want to talk to yourself, and I like love the way he plays. But I think maybe this is right. Maybe he does end up falling out of the first, just because you're drafting a guy who's going to be almost 30 when you're deciding on his fifth year I buy wish, or 50-year option. I've always said this is a pro-ageism podcast.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. The issue there, right, is like, I think we're really smart about wide receiver and breakout age, right? Like, everybody kind of understands that late breakouts at wide receiver probably means there's a red flag with those guys.

We don't necessarily apply it the same to other positions. And I think it absolutely should. I think it means something to me that Akim-Mezador is really just kind of like a tweener type throughout his college career. And then he gets to a team that's going to have multiple pros on it that's competing for a national title. You're playing across from another surefire

first round pick and now we get the best play out of you at 25 i don't know that's just always going to be a hang up for me fair i got to i got to say you know austin gale loves ball when two hours in he's like well the texan's in the second round and hey what do you guys think of a keem messador i mean this guy the energy from austin gal you know who doesn't love draft season he loves jesus awesome is a walking can of celsius okay that's right i'm ready to start the second round if you guys Okay, that'll be maybe on the YouTube channel. I don't know. Netflix might have vetoed the second mock draft. But you check that out or maybe on Austin's social media.

He'll do every second. Maybe he'll go all the way to the seventh round. Maybe he'll do a seven round mock. Why not us? Anytime. All right, there you go. First round mock from the ringer NFL team. Thanks to everyone for listening.

Appreciate Christopher Sutton for producing Stefano Sanchez on video and additional production supervision from Connor Nevins and Arjuna. Ram Gopal. I'm Sheila Capadio. We'll talk to you next. time on the ringer NFL show.