The Ringer NFL Show - The Top 10 NFL Mock Draft and Little-Known Free Agency Facts | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: March 26, 2020

We run through the first 10 picks of the NFL draft, predicting who each team will select (0:25), before former NFL agent Joel Corry calls in to explain what’s happening in free agency, including how the CBA is affecting players' new contracts, how quarterback supply exceeded demand, and how this year was different from previous years (33:50). Host: Kevin Clark Guest: Danny Kelly and Joel Corry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Liz Kelly and welcome to the Ringer Podcast Network. We hope The Ringer can provide you entertainment and companionship during this time. So as always, feel free to check out The Ringer.com, where we're still covering the latest in sports, pop culture, tech, and media. And the Ringer's YouTube channel can provide endless amounts of entertainment. You can find that at YouTube.com slash The Ringer. It's the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Kevin Clark. It's time to start talking draft.

That means DK. Danny Kelly, the Dark Knight, is here with us. Danny, what's up, man? Oh, you know, not a whole lot. Just kind of dig it into all these draft guys. How are you doing? I'm okay. I'm okay.

Is there anything you've gotten into surprisingly or gone down as far as a rabbit hole during this working home period you didn't expect? Like, are you into like hockey now or something? Because you just started watching YouTube at some point? So, no, I have not. And the real story is I'm taking care of a child and working full time right now. Also, like, the free time isn't really as much as I wish it was right now in this time of streaming and binging and all that. So I'm very, very glad that I get to think about football, though.

It's a very nice distraction right now. So I'm working full-time as well. That's the part that we have in common. Because I do not yet have a child, the child-raising part is going towards putting in my room. and watching old college football games on YouTube and reading novels that I missed over the past 400 years of what I'm at. So that's where I'm at right now. I'm automatic putting within about eight feet. That will not matter.

And I'll three put everything as soon as I return to a golf course in late 2022. And yeah, that's where we're at. So let's start with the draft process. What am I reading right now? I am reading a bunch of sports books. I read, I talked about this on Rucilla last week, I just read The Hot Zone, which is about Ebola. And I don't recommend it for people right now

unless you want to learn more about very scary diseases. I think all the people that are watching contagion right now and outbreak and stuff, it's like going crazy on Netflix right now. Well, I don't think, yeah, and people reading the stand as well. I read 100 pages of the stand and I was like, I'm, I'm kind of out on this. Yeah. I did not, I did not finish the stand. It's also like, it's also like thousands of pages.

It's like 1,400 pages. Yeah, it's not thousands. But still, man, let's, come on. I read a little Faulkner, a little Faulkner, a little William Faulkner missed him in, in high school and college. Yeah. And so reading a little prose and then a little Corny McCarthy as well. I did a bunch of non-fiction. I'll probably make a, probably make a, probably,

make a video of it later this week about the nonfiction. Because I feel weird. I don't like recommending fiction to people because everyone's so different. I just like recommending nonfiction because it's like, well, you'll learn some stuff. What's the harm? Yeah, I like that. All right. Let's talk about the draft because we had free agency.

That's mostly settled now. Although things are still coming out, obviously there's a second wave of free agency or a third wave depending on how you view free agency. But essentially now, the dominant thing is the draft. Adam Schaefter had the idea. I think it's genius. I've actually thought about this for a while. while of instead of pushing the draft back is just expanding it and having it be like a week

long event yeah and i don't necessarily see the harm in that what about for the people that are covering it well it's going to be in the studio they don't have to fly oh okay well so i mean we're going to have to cover it anyway no it's three days or five days or whatever i'm okay i'd rather have the content so as a fan honestly as a fan it is a fan it It does make sense because there's no sports right now. We need the distractions, all that stuff. As a fan, though, I'm just desperate to find out how this all goes. And so that would be crudely.

That would just be excruciating to me to spread it out seven days. I understand that. I totally understand that. And I get that. And I don't necessarily think it would happen, especially this year. But I've long thought that if the NFL moved it from Saturday to Friday, or excuse me, Saturday to Thursday. and because they want more eyeballs on it.

There's a reason that they now have combine drills in prime time. They're trying to program the offseason. They've tried to do this for a number of years and kind of make this a true 12-month sport or 10-months sport or whatever you want to call it. And I wouldn't be surprised that they tried to fiddle with a draft just a little tiny bit.

All right. Let's do a mock draft. Your draft guide is coming out later this week. I want to just roll through a mock draft and then have a discussion on each. Some of these picks will be obvious. We won't spend that much time on it. Some will be extremely curvebally, as you put it before this podcast started.

So you're the expert. If you haven't read Danny Kelly's draft guide, you have to stop whatever you're doing, including listening to this podcast. It just goes straight there, just consume it all. So having said that, number one pick Cincinnati Bengals. Don't feel like there's going to be much controversy here. No, Joe Burrow, for sure. I mean, I can't see any reason now at this point that it's not going to be Burrow.

I mean, there was a time maybe a month or two ago where people were starting to talk like, oh, if Tua gets healthy and his hit checks out of the combine, all that stuff, if he goes and does a really good pro day and all that, you know, all those parts of the process, if those went perfectly for Tua, then there could be a chance that, you know, the Bengals might think about it. But I don't think any of that's happening. I think Bro's the guy. That's the plan for them. That's how, you know, that's basically what you're hearing everywhere.

So, yeah, Burrow, don't overthink it. I think he's the number one pick. number two okay I agree with you you don't you don't think if you just took the teams away if every team was drafting do you think Joe borough would be picked 32 times out of 32 or would some of them go with Tua oh that's a really interesting question I bet you that I bet you it's close enough that a few teams would certainly go with Tua like maybe it would be and what's the argument for that um you know maybe it's just a style Tua has more yeah longer um he's done it longer like he has multiple seasons of very very high level production he's very very very, very quick processor. You know, they're a little bit different styles. They both don't have elite arm talent. Like, neither of them have elite arm talent. Both of them are extremely, extremely accurate, though.

And so, I don't know, it would honestly probably just be one of those things where someone has a preference over one guy or the other. Maybe it's the leadership or intangibles or whatever it is. But I think there's certainly the argument that Tua could be the top guy for a few teams. Because, I mean, just look at what he's done in college. he's super accurate really really quick processor he's he reminded me kind of a little bit of true breeze in the sense that he just gets the ball out he knows exactly where he's going with the ball at all times and so i i would guess there's at least a few teams that have him at the top of the board but borough

is i think probably the vast majority the number one guy all right number two washington so i think this is going to be very interesting for the redskins because they'll have an opportunity to trade back i'm sure teams will a either want chase young at that spot because because Chase Young is a elite defensive lineman prospect. And so there's certainly going to be teams. Can you quickly compare him to somebody? Let me pull up my draft guide. I've got him compared to Jadavian Clowny.

Some people don't like that. I was mostly looking at the physical traits. Like Jadavian Clowny's physical, he's just a big, strong, explosive, quick, kind of just like a game wrecker. And that's how I see. You know, if you wanted not to undercut your point, if you want Chedevi and Clowny, you know you could get right now.

Right. It's a free agent to Devee and Clowny. Yeah. And so I think, so I've had some people that complain about that. I think, you know, there's other people who,

you know, there's certainly a bunch of other comps that would work. I think he's a little bit unique, but the way he's built, I think Young is going to come in and be more productive than Clowny is in terms of Sacks and all that. Clowny's been a very good player,

but the Sacks haven't always been, I think, where he wanted to be or where people expected to me. And that's probably why as of 212 on Wednesday afternoon, he is still a free agent. It's because I think the sack total is a question mark. The injuries are a question mark. So, you know, comps are always a little bit dangerous

because people think you're saying, oh, he's not going to have very many sacks in the NFL or whatever. But to me, it was more like a physical. He is just a dominant, big, strong, fast, long defensive end who can do a lot of different things for you. But yeah, there's tons of guys that you reminds me of. actually. If you were Washington,

wouldn't you think more about taking Tua, too? I just feel like there hasn't been enough discussion. So I think that's out. I assume that's out. They trade for Kyle Allen, who's going to be the backup, I guess, or whatever.

And then they have Dwayne Haskins starting, I suppose. I don't know. I mean, I understand Ron Rivera wanted to start with Chase Young and building on a defense like that. But if you think,

if you're convinced that Tua's in league quarterback, I think you kind of, unless you have a quarterback, you think you win the Super Bowl with, I think you should always leave the door open to take a quarterback you think you can win the Super Bowl with. And so I guess it comes down

to how this new coaching staff feels about Duane Haskins. I don't know. And so if they feel like Haskins is a good NFL starter, I can buy a Chase Young pick. I just think it's maybe a little closer than we've all given it credit for

just as far as how much value to a brings to a franchise. I mean, if you look at the amount of improvement that the Cardinals had last year, And they did the exact same thing. Obviously, they went with Rosen the year before, ended up deciding to give up on that, I guess, after one year and go with Kyler Murray at the top pick. They completely overhauled their offense, and it changed everything.

I mean, to me, they're an ascending team now. The Cardinals are. And I don't know, I would definitely not call the Redskins that. I do think getting Chase Young on the defensive line would be a hell of a lot of fun. But quarterback, I mean, everything revolves around your quarterback. honestly. And so, I mean, I certainly wouldn't be shocked. It would be surprising, but I wouldn't be completely, completely shocked if that's the route they went. All right. Quickly, Detroit Lions, number three. Yeah. So, again, this is a situation where the Lions could certainly trade back. I think the odds on favorite is that they'll trade back.

Let's not do trades, I suppose, here. So I think the Lions, obviously, after trading Darius Slay, are going to need to have great. their defensive secondary. They've got a ton of needs, but I think Jeffrey Akuta from Ohio State is just as, he's as safe and as high floor, high ceiling of a cornerback prospect in this class. He's really, really, really elite. So this is a little bit of a no-brainer if they want to go to the quarterback,

cornerback route. If they want to go to a different route, though, they have, I mean, they've got a million different options here. You could go with a guy like Isaiah Simmons from Clemson, who is just this amazingly athletic, versatile linebacker slash safety slash corner like slot corner type guy

can pass rush a little bit too they have their pick of the litter in terms of the tackle position you know defensive tackle position they could go Derek Brown or something like that so they got or a receiver even if they wanted so there's just tons and tons options here but I think

the best case or the most I guess predictable case is Jeff Okuda here yeah I mean I think that that is what everybody thinks especially after you, as you said, did you trade Darius Slay? Darius Slay really hates Matt Patricia. Yeah.

I cannot emphasize this enough. Darius Slay despises Matt Patricia. Yeah, I think that that's the pick here. I could see, again, I could see a weird situation where either, I mean, them trading back would not be a weird situation. You can't trade back too far because there's only a certain amount of elite defenders in this draft. But I don't know.

I mean, is there, if they believe in. Tua. There might be a situation where maybe they just let him sit behind Matthew Stafford for a year. Yeah. I don't know. I just, I keep, I keep, I keep struggling with the idea that Tua is really going to fall to five and or six. And, and we'll get to that in a second. But I just think this, this league talks itself into quarterbacks that are really bad all the time. And Tua is really good. And so I kind of feel like in the same way that every bad quarterback gets overdrafted, Tua will, in some way find a way

to get picked in the first three picks. This is my, this is just a completely uneducated just feeling of what, what this league does when there's a good quarterback

should we just, should we just do this. We should, I think we should just do a trade. I think the, I think the, the chargers are going to trade up to number three.

Okay, so is this, is this your scenario in which, in which they get? Yes. Or, or, I think,

I think the chargers. We talked about this before the pod. So how does this happen? Right now, the two teams that are most commonly linked to Tua are the Chargers and the Dolphins. You know, and there's tons and tons of opinions out there. There's tons and tons of little whispers and reports on which teams like which guys more. The overwhelming, I guess, majority of what I've heard is that the Chargers absolutely love Tua. And it would make a ton of sense.

You know, they let Philip Rivers go. The dolphins seem to be a little bit, like, behind in terms of the, rebuild than the Chargers are. The Chargers have like a good defense. They've got a lot of really good pieces. They've got really good offensive weapons. To me, the charges are a little bit further along in like the competitiveness area. And having a guy like Tuah could completely turn them around.

And the Dolphins are a little bit further behind, in my opinion. So I think the Chargers are going to be really aggressive here and trade up to number three with the Lions. Of course, the only wild card here is the dolphins have a shitload of draft capital to trade. so maybe they can make a better offer. But I do think the carnal, or sorry, the chargers are going to trade up to number three and take two at number three.

So let's just pencil that in. Okay. So for the New York Giants, Dave Gettleman and the New York Giants, wheeling and deal in here at four, open for business. Again, you know, if another team wants to come up

and get Justin Herbert, this is the spot to do it. And I don't, but I don't think... I mean, I guess. Does Dave Gelleman have an operating phone? I don't think he's ever traded back. He said they're open for business. Yeah, he hasn't.

So. He is, he and, he and like Mike Brown are the two guys who don't understand that you can. Although the Bengals are spending money now, New Age Bengals. Yeah, they're not. So isn't the Bengals thing like, we're not in the business of making other teams better or whatever? So weird. I don't. The Bengals thing is a lot of things.

All right. At four, who do you like if the Giants keep good? So I think my favorite pick here, I think, would be Isaiah Simmons, the linebacker out of Clemson. But I think they're going to go offensive tackle. And I think based on Gettleman's history, it's going to be Mackay Beckton out of Louisville. Just big, strong, fast, rare, rare size. What an athlete. Rare, rare size.

Yeah. Like, I, I, I, I, I, do you think that the guys who, who worked out at the combine will have an advantage because they did it and weren't at the pro days. or it didn't have to wait till the pro days, all that stuff. A guy like Bechtin who absolutely dominated, ran a 5-1, 40-yard dash to 364 pounds. Do you think those guys will have a little bit of advantage? Do you think that's just kind of scouts and GMs saying that now, and then by the time it rolls around,

the pro days will have kind of a negligible. I think for guys this high in the draft, it will be an advantage. I mean, there's certainly guys that potentially could fall out. you know, they could have maybe worked their way into the middle rounds if they had a great pro day. Teams see them and around them and see their athleticism, see their size or all that, and then maybe move them up their board a little bit. For the guys like this, you know, being there and watching Beckton run that 40, you know,

I think that's going to be solidified. He wasn't going to fall, you know, based on what happens at a pro day or guys weren't going to maybe go above him, I think. So, yeah, I think these guys certainly have an advantage because they've been around all these scouts. They've been around all these GMs. Now there's just all this uncertainty. There's not going to be pro days. You know, there might not even be medical checks after this. So the two.

Probably not. And there won't be, I mean, it's going to be really hard to get, I'm not really hard. It's going to be impossible to get any of this that's done. I think it's going to probably be a little more of a risk-averse draft in the sense that if you haven't triple-checked on something, whether that's medical, whether that's, you have a concern about some incident in the past, whatever it is. like it's going to be hard to nail down certain question marks. And I think that that's, I think that it won't be huge. Like I don't think there's going to be people who would have been drafted in a third

round normally who would go undrafted. Like I don't think it's going to be that big. Yeah. But I think maybe, you know, a couple, there are going to be a couple of cases where it's like, oh, well, we couldn't get a second look at this knee or, you know, this guy was kicked off his team. We couldn't figure out why. And we normally would talk to 100 people and instead we talk to three kind of thing.

I think that's spot on. Yeah. That's all. All right. next one we have number five it's the Miami Dolphins so with two off the board I think the dolphins here go Herbert um Herbert's one of those guys where a lot of people aren't super high on him but I think a lot of NFL teams are I think they look at you know his size his athleticism his arm and they see a guy that they can mold into a very good quarterback you know and he's got he's he's

mature he's learned a whole bunch of different offense at Oregon throughout the years. You know, he's got kind of a lot of the traits, I think, coaches look for our quarterback, and they didn't have to move around to get him. He just kind of falls into their lap here. So I think that to me makes the most sense for them choosing him here. Yeah, I don't know if they're going to force that.

I really don't because I talked to Chris Greer about this in December for a piece I wrote. I think that they understand that mistakes are made when you overdraft a guy. And this is not, they're not. building for 20, necessarily. They're building for a long time. And that's why they made the most transactions in recent memory, took a huge dead cap charge. Like, I think this might be,

I think if two is off the board by then, I could see them rolling it over another year and trying to check out what it might happen next year. You know who'd be really interesting here is Isaiah Simmons? Because he's the kind of guy. He's the kind of guy you could build your defense around. They already have two really good cornerbacks, getting a like a movable chess-type guy like him

that defense. That'd be a lot of fun. I could definitely see them kind of leaning that way. Do you want to do that? Do you want to have that be the curveball here? No. We're going to, this is your mock draft that we're annotating. Now mine. Fair enough. All right, well, I'm going Herbert, but I do... We will stick to the mock draft. We will stick to the guide. No one's rushing to the ring on.com to read my draft guide.

Well, for the record, this is a little different than the actual one I have up at the site right now. We're making this a little separate content. Yeah, we're just giving the people some bonus content. They need it. All right. Six. Is this the charges? pick or the giant's pick. Now this is the lion's pick. The lion's pick, excuse me. And lo and behold, yes, this is the lion's pick from Kuhu is still there, which makes perfect sense.

Wow. Makes perfect sense for the lions to trade back, pick up whatever they pick up, and then still get their guy. I think six, six is five, six and five is fine for them, for the lions, because there's still going to be defensive playmaker that Matt Patricia can build as a brilliant team around. So I love, I love people, oh man, Matt Patricia, Patricia, there's so-and-so, and they're saying this Oketa. They're always so-and-so, be a great fit Matt Pritch's defense. Like, have you seen Matt Patricia's teams play?

Is anybody a good fit for the Lions right now? I'm curious. Are any Lions fans kind of optimistic about the Patricia regime right now? Hit us up on. They are. They are. They can tweet. I'm curious.

They can hit you up. You don't want to know. I'd be intrigued. Actually, I will check your mentions to see how it goes. I would like to see the arguments that Matt Patricia is all right time. the Darrell Bevel experiment has seemed to be working pretty well. Like they seem to unlock.

It was fine. I mean, Matt, the Math Stafford health thing really mattered last year. Yeah, for sure. Matt Stafford is really good. And like, that's why I was very hesitant to say that the lion should look at Tua at three

because I'm a big Matthew Stafford fan. But I also just sort of get value and how much more valuable an elite quarterback is over other positions. All right. Uh, seven Carolina Panthers. So yeah, I mean, they can go in a million different directions here. Yeah, weird team, because we thought they were tanking at some point because they trade turners or the chargers.

We don't really know what they're doing. They're letting a lot of talent out the door. Then they sign who they believe to be a franchise quarterback for $60 million. So I've been, I think there's a lot of smart people there. Um, I think that rule is smart, but I don't know the direction this team is heading in. So I'm intrigued to hear what you think. I think they're trying to do the thing where they compete and rebuild at the same time. So they're not trying to tank for a high.

That always works. It's one of those things. Classic. Classic working thing. I mean, that's how it feels. That's why you sign a veteran quarterback to that contract. That's why they signed Robbie Anderson, I guess. I didn't really understand that, you know, transaction.

I mean, Robbie Anderson became so cheap that I'm fine with that. I like that Robbie Anderson signing. I kind of lean them going Simmons because I just, just think Simmons is one of the top like five, four or five best players in this draft, period, even counting the quarterbacks. So, you know, you got Luke Keeckley who just retired. And, you know, if you want to refill that position and put a really, really good player there, I think Isaiah Simmons makes a ton of sense.

And so I don't know what the analytics would say about taking a linebacker at this spot, but I think he's one of those players that kind of transcends position and can do a million different things to your defense and makes them a lot better. So I think that's my favorite fit for this spot. All right. Eight, the Arizona Cardinals. I think the Cardinals... It is so funny that the Arizona Cardinals have a top 10 pick,

got DeAndre Hopkins, and the Houston Texans who have traded away DeAndre Hopkins and DeVian Clowny in the last two years have zero more dollars. I can't even believe that. Just iconic. Just iconic. All right, the Cardinals have picked in eight. So that move for Hopkins is a great, great.

move and not just because they get a top tier receiver for cheap, but it gives them a lot of flexibility at this number eight spot. They can do, they could go like any different direction. They still need a lot of help on defense. I personally lean towards them building their team and their identity around Kyler Murray, around that offense, around the Cliff Kingsbury, you know, air raid style offense. So I think they go with an offensive tackle here to shore up their offensive line,

give Kyler Murray a little bit more time to pick a part of defense, all that stuff. So there's multiple guys that have been mocked to him, mocked to the Cardinals of this spot, you know, whether it's Tristan Worf from Iowa, who was another athletic, absolutely outstanding athletic tester at the combine, you know, ran really, really fast, jumped out of the building, all that stuff. I'm going to go with Jedrick Wills just because I think you can plug him in immediately at right tackle. He's a mauler. he's really really steady, really good player. Just kind of a high floor immediate starter for the Cardinals and they can hit the ground running.

I love Worf's too. Either of those guys really would work. Andrew Thomas is really good as well from Georgia. So they have their pick of like three of this is from Alabama, Thomas is from Georgia. Yep. And then Worf's from Iowa. So yeah, I think, you know, pick any of those three guys and I'd be perfectly happy with that for the Cardinals. But I'm going with Will's here.

Perfect. All right, nine Jacksonville Jaguars, they might be tanking a little tiny bit. They might be finishing off what we thought the Panthers might be doing. It's crazy looking at their defense now compared to like a few years ago, like when they had all these, what looked like the cornerstone franchise pieces, you know, and now like all those guys are gone. So it's very, very, it's a bummer for them, but they have to kind of like start rebuilding, restocking the shells. And again, you know, they can go in a million different directions. I kind of lean, so like in my last mock draft, I gave them Derek, Derek Brown here from Auburn.

Brown is one of those guys that's fallen maybe a little bit in the eyes of some people on the outside because he did not test that well at the combine. He was not athletic. He wasn't explosive in those tests. And it didn't really match up with the tape. Like the tape is good. He's very disruptive. He, you know, shoots gaps.

He can take on double teams. He can do all the stuff you want. from a dominant interior defender. And he was a star for that Auburn team. But maybe that made him fall a little bit. So having him be here still at number nine, I think is a pretty good choice. Like the Jags could take him and just feel really good about it

because they're getting a guy that they can just plug into their defensive line and go. So Brown, I guess, is a popular pick for the Jags, but it just makes a ton of sense because they're building from the trenches and kind of starting from there. They could also go corner, but there's a lot of corners they could get later. They have two picks in the first round. They could go receiver.

Same deal. There's so many receivers in this class that they could wait and still get a really, really good receiver like in the second round or with their second first round pick. So ultimately, I kind of went with a guy who was in a sort of a tier of his own at the defensive tackle position. All right. Let's do the Browns and we'll do some rapid fire. Hit me. Hit me with the Browns pick.

Number 10. Browns need a tackle. They need a left tackle. someone who's going to protect Baker Mayfield. That's the biggest thing. And with Worf's and Andrew... They added Jack Conklin, but they still, they might need a little more work still. They got their right tackle kind of locked up.

Yep. Both Worf's... This was the heel. And we, last year when Mays and I and you, Danny, we were all talking about the Browns and we're like, well, the offensive line's bad, but, you know, they'll figure that out. And they just didn't figure it out. And this off season, they're just sitting there. and they're being patient

and they're not taking big swings they're just building the offensive line and I actually quite like it. Yeah, I think it's a smart play here and I think I'm going with Andrew Thomas from Georgia. Okay. And he is a plug and play left tackle.

He has experience, excuse me, his experience on both sides of the line, but so that gives him a little bit of that like at a boost. Like if Conklin were to get injured, they could plug him in at either side of line if they wanted to.

But Thomas, I think he's a natural left tackle. He can start from day one. gives them the stability on the offensive line that they definitely need. I think he fits the scheme that Stefansky's going to run. He's got movement skills. He's very athletic. Now, all that said, I think Tristan Wirth from Iowa is you can make pretty much all the exact

same arguments. So either of the guy, again, either of those guys fit here. Worf's is sort of a prototypical zone blocking offensive lineman because he's very, very athletic. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Browns lean him. has some experience at left tackle. He mostly played right tackle, but he has played left tackle so that, you know, they could see him on the left side. Because I think Conklin's pretty much set for the right side, right? I mean, that I would imagine. Oh, yeah, yeah, of course.

So anyways, I'm going with Thomas. He can run that wide zone. Look, they want to be a run-heavy team, I think, under Stefansky. That's what they were for the Vikings. And so it just makes perfect sense for them to get in. Plus, there's a huge tier drop-off after the top four tackle. So I don't think they can wait. I don't think they can pick something else here and then wait later and get an elite tackle. I think this is the spot they have to get that left tackle. All right, we'll do some rapid fire real quick.

Give me someone who's going to go underdraft and it's going to make you mad. Oh, it's going to fall you, you think? Yes, someone or just someone who everyone is sending is a third round pick and should be higher. Something like that, where you're going to go, why did we let this guy drop? Whoever it is. It can be any sort of prospect.

So the first guy that kind of comes to mind in that is T. Higgins from Clemson, the receiver. He didn't test... Deep, deep receiver class. Yeah, super deep receiver class. There's some guys that have really risen up in the, during the process. Denzel Mims from Baylor is kind of like the superstar that he dominated the senior bowl. He dominated the combine.

Higgins, meanwhile, did not. I think he tested at his pro day and did not, it didn't put up a good explosive number. So people are kind of a little bit, like forgetting about him. And so I could see him falling not only out of the first round, but maybe a little little into like the mid-second or whatever. I think he's a really, really good player. He's got the traits to be like a very good deep threat on the outside. He's got, he lives above the rim. He's, he's very much like a contested catch expert, but he's smooth, athletic. Above the rim. I like that. Yeah, he lives above the room. That's one of my favorite scouting terms. So I could see him falling a

little bit, but I still think he's like a really good player. So he's the kind of guy who I'm like, man, how did he fall out of the first round? I could see that happening. When we get close to the draft, you to just do 10 minutes on your favorite scouting terms. We'll have Daniel Jeremiah on or something too. That would be actually really fun. Sand in his pants. Let's very quickly move on from whatever you just said. All right.

No, I get it. All right. Exact opposite. Who's going to get overdrafted and make you mad? I would say, you know, the Jordan Love thing, I think, is going to be a very, very interesting one to watch because, you know, he's, there's so many caveats that go in to the Jordan love evaluation. Number one, he was really good in 2018.

His 2019 season was kind of a disaster. There was like 20 touchdowns to 17 picks. Like he was just throwing terrible picks. Making bad decisions with the football. So accuracy was kind of all over the place. But teams absolutely love his traits and his arm. He's got good arm talent. You know, he can kind of throttle in between throwing fastballs

and throwing like touch passes down the field, all that. He can move around. He's athletic. So there's tons and tons of traits there And there's like whispers coming during the combine That he was gonna be like a top 10 pick And so that's to me that feels like a The Ryan Nassad Memorial

Why is this guy rising up the board Spot? And to be clear like I like him I think like taking him in the late first round Is ideal because it's not like you're trading a top It's not like you're giving up a top 10 pick for this guy You don't have to trade up for him Like if he's there late in the first round

or in the early second round, I think that's a great pick because he is absolutely just a project type quarterback with all the traits you want, but it's just going to take a little bit of time to get him ready to go. At least that's how it seems

based on his 2019 season. But like we saw with Daniel Jones last year, and like you mentioned earlier in the pod, teams go crazy about these quarterbacks, so he could be a top 10 pick. And I think that would be just a very big, risky move for whatever team. I'm not saying he's going to bust,

but I think he's a very much of a boom bus player. So he's the first guy that comes to mind. Last question. Is there a team that is on your radar that might just completely lose their minds or not and just do something drastic? Like, you know, I trade up 20 spots or sell the, you know, pull of Ricky Williams trade

or even, you know, this obviously was not losing their minds. But I think everybody was really surprised when the chiefs traded up to the top half of the draft to take Patrick Mahomes, that kind of thing. Is there a team that's good now or that might take some wild swing or say, hey, we got to settle off for Tua. Is there a team that you've circled or say,

hey, watch this team because they might do something wild? I'm kind of looking at the Jaguars, honestly, because they've got two first round picks, including a top 10 pick. If they wanted to trade up and get Tua or someone like that, they could do it. Now, that's going to piss people off because MNshu Mania and all that.

And I like Minchu, actually. But if you have a chance to go up and get Tua, I think they're a team that's me, You can see the team train back to nine. They could give up their other first round pick, and that's the deal. And they go up and get it to a, you know, I could see that having. There's a world where that happens. Am I saying it's going to happen?

No, but it's something that I'm kind of looking at, just based on the fact they have those two first round picks. And they're sort of, like you said, they're rebuilding. They're starting for a little bit from scratch. So, yeah, that's definitely one that kind of comes to mind. The Vikings have two first round picks now, too. So they've got the ammo to kind of do some things if they want. wanted to. The 49ers now are sitting pretty at number 13. They also have number 31 in this draft. So they can kind of, they could do some things. I think they'll probably trade back.

They probably won't be like the type of team moving up. But they have the ammo to do it now with that second first round pick. So yeah, those are kind of the wild card teams. The Raiders are always bit wildcard as well. Okay. Danny Kelly, thank you for joining us. Yeah, thank you. Okay, we're joined now by one of the smartest guys as far as breaking down salary cap NFL contracts. And I felt like we needed him on to explain what's happening in free agency right now. Joel Corey, former agent, negotiated a lot of contracts. How are you doing, Joel? I'm doing pretty good.

How are you guys doing? Doing good. So let's break down big picture what happened in free agency here because I've heard a lot of people talk about how there was a first wave of free agency. And then it almost skipped to the end of free agency. And now there's bargains everywhere. and there wasn't a second layer. Because of the CBA, because of coronavirus, meaning that the second tier for agents weren't able to get medicals.

And if you have a question mark, it's harder to get through there. Big picture, Joel, what happened in free agency this year that's different from previous years? First thing is you had a glut of quarterbacks on the market. You usually have this year, which was highly unusual, that supply greatly exceeded demand. normally you have one veteran quarterback who's a potential starter on the open market. And he's bad. It's not Tom Brady and Philip Rivers. Normally it's just a bad quarterback.

Yeah. Or like that's how Kirk Cousin's got the fully guaranteed three year contract because he's a good, not great quarterback. He was available. So you had teams clamoring for him. This year, it was kind of like take your pick what you want. I can have a Brady. I'll have a Rivers.

I'll have a Bridgewater. Well, Breeze is going to stay put. So let's see. We're going to get a quarterback here, here, here, here. So you got guys like James Winston, who's still searching for a club? That's the first thing, which struck me. Not a great year to be a receiver on the open market unless your name is Amari Cooper. Great year in the draft. And if you have a year which is talent rich at a position in the draft, sometimes that affects what happens in free agency and vice versa. If there are no players at a position in the draft, then there's a run on them in free agency. And it becomes a great. great for those guys. Those are two things that have really stood out. I don't want to be a running back. Well, that's been true for a while, but especially this year, yeah. Yeah, well, we were starting to see a resurgence to the running back market with Todd Gurley in 2018 when the Rams

inexplicably gave him an extension of two years left on his rookie contract when the market was under 10 million per year. He could dramatically reset it. He got cut. So basically, he got 22 point five million dollars more than he would have had the Rams had him play at his rookie contract and then let him go into free agency this year great one fall for him um Melvin Gordon tactical era in terms of his holdout and overpricing himself should have taken that 10 million dollar per year offer from the charges last year if it had any type of decent structure because he fell way short of that um going to the Broncos two-year deal 17 million dollars less than 14 million fully guaranteed so his holdout

was to Austin Eckler's gain because it gave me an opportunity to show, I can be a full-time running back. Is there anything that the CBA has shown immediately? Because I think that one of the things about the 2011 CBA was how much it changed the way players were paid, obviously, the rookie salary cap scale and all that stuff. I think the big thing, Joel, is obviously when the TV deals kick in is that some of these guys like Patrick Mahomes or Doc Prescott are going to make a, you know, gobs of money. But is there anything, you know, I think that the minimum salary stuff for veterans, kind of the NFL's kind of fake version of what the NBA does a little bit. That applied to some of the players.

I think Nelson Al Gore is one of them. But is there anything that you thought that the new CBA changed about this free agency that we're already seeing or will we not figure that out until year two or three or four? Yeah, length of contract. Because we're going to have the percentage of the players share go up with the 17th game and then even higher when the new TV deals kick. kick in. You saw more guys want to do shorter term deals like James Bradbury does a three-year deal. Jack Conklin does a three-year deal. So they get another buy to the apple when they're in their

prime as opposed to doing the traditional five-year deal. I guess if you're Byron Jones and you're going to get 46 million fully guaranteed signing. Just take that. Yeah, they take the long-term deal. But you have guys trying to time it up so that they'll hit the market again when the new TV money's infused so the cap goes up tremendously along with the higher revenue share. Is there a signing that we're not talking enough about that you thought was just a home run value for a team? I'm going to go other end of the spectrum first. I'm going to first, Vita, I'm not going to try to say his first name. Yeah, I got you. But I won't do it justice. Who would pay that guy $10 million per year considering he's a mediocre at best

guard tackle, whatever you want to call him. That was one of those. I was like, what are we doing here? Now, on the owner of the spectrum, I like the Raiders signing Corey Littleton for $12 million per year on a three-year deal, considering that market is closer to $14, $15 million per year. Javon Hargrave, who is a run stuffer who has some pass rushability, going to Philly for 39 million over three years. Emmanuel Sanders. I like them from a team standpoint.

Going to the Saints, getting someone else who can be a legitimate threat so they're not throwing every pass to Michael Thomas or Camer out of the backfield. 16 million over two years. That was another deal I really liked a lot. There's a little bit talking about it's on Twitter, and I think you talked about it a little bit about just the market moving at cornerback and Byron Jones resetting a market where I think a lot of guys were underpaid. I think that for as valuable as cornerbacks were, I think that there were a lot of steals. Patrick Peterson set the market, what, six years ago and it didn't really move since then? Is there a position group right now, you think, is being underpaid?

Is it still cornerback? We can still get those values and you should go out and kind of get an elite cornerback or try to trade for one because, you know, 15, 16, 17, 18 million dollars is not a lot for those guys or is another position right now? Yeah, it's still cornerback. And the mind-boggling deal to me is Marcus Peters at the end of the regular season signs for $42 million over three years. And if James Bradbury can get $15 million over three years and Marcus Peters is a guy who produces turnovers. And when he's properly focused is an all-pro cornerback, I was wondering what he was doing in that standpoint. Because if you adjust Patrick Peterson's deal for cap inflation, it's almost $21 million a year. So the market still isn't where it should be.

The guy who should move it in a significant way is Jalen Ramsey. Because when you do when you trade for someone, give him a boatload of picks and don't give him an extension at the time of the trade, you hand that guy a ton of leverage. The Rams have been cutting players left and right, which to me signals they're going to extend him. So he could be the guy that really moves that market. That same principle in terms of making a mistake, not doing an extension, applies to the trader-in-chief, Bill O'Brien. You might as well hand Laramie Tonsul, a blank contract. And I'm going to fill it in because you gave up basically two first and a second to get him and didn't do the deal at the time of the trade. So he can name his price as far as I'm concerned.

and it's cornerbacks, not cornerback, tight in. It moved with Austin Hooper. He's the first tight in to sign for over $10 million per year. But it still lags because Jimmy Graham in 2014 signed at $10 million per year. Then at $18 signed at $10 million per year. And he was the only $10 million per year tied in on two different deals until Hooper got to $10.5 million a year. So George Kittle, if and when he gets an extension, is going to blow that out of the water.

The Eagles were negotiating with Zach Ertz when they got Lane Johnson and Brandon Brooks done. So I'd imagine that's going to be a number pretty high up there. If I'm Ertz, I'm looking at, I'm the number one receiver on the team. I should be the highest paid guy catching any passes on this team. That's Alshan Jeffrey at $13 million per year. So if you want me to sign an extension, You can pay me more than that.

But they've got an interesting dilemma there, and I know I'm digressing. They drafted Dallas Goddard in the second round a couple of years ago. So if you pay Ertz, does that mean you're willing to trade Dallas Goddard? Or if you think Ertz is going to cost too much money to resign, then are you ultimately going to have to trade him in his contract year? But let's say Ertz gets done. The guy who's going to be most interested in that and will probably be marching on Andy Reid's door to get a new deal, be Travis Kelsey because they came in the same draft year. And when they got extensions, they were done a week apart. So I think that deal will be more relevant to Kelsey than Kettle, than Kittles deal will be.

Is there a last thing for you, Joel, is there a team right now, a GM who has had a streak of good signings or is managing the cap? I think every three years ago, everybody, two years ago, even we were talking about how he was putting that team together. When you start looking around at these contracts, and just how the teams are built right now. Is there a team in 2020 you're circling where we're saying, Dan, that's a lot of good contracts. Is that maybe Eric Acosta in Baltimore? Is it somebody else? Yep, that's the one I was thinking of because you gave up a fifth round pick to get Marcus Peters. And then you gave a fifth round pick to get Callais Campbell. And then you have value signings with both. You had a tight end. There was a spare part. And you traded him, Hayden Hearst. Now you have more draft capital to worry if you want to move up and get a,

receiver in the draft, you can do so. Plus, you got a great value signing last year of Mark Ingram. So I like what DeCosta is doing. Also kind of like some of the moves that Denver's making because those have been kind of value signings to a degree. If you can get a running back for under $10 million a year that potentially is a thousand yard back, I kind of like, I like that move. Getting AJ Boyer to come in and J. Casey in a trade, those are pretty good moves. No, it's interesting. I think Denver's had a handful of bad off seasons the last couple of years. And I think they're maybe, maybe starting to get how to spend their money this year and how to create value. So I think that's interesting.

Well, if they have a quarterback, that's death. And they may be on the pro to success with Drewlock isn't it? Good luck. I said Drewlock. I just said they should bring in competition for Drewlock just in case he's not. And a bunch of Broncos fans got mad at me. Yeah, Cam Newton's available. Yeah, that was what spurred it.

And not just Cam Newton, but anybody. I mean, like, unless we know for a fact that Drew Locke is a franchise quarterback, you shouldn't stop looking to upgrade. And I found out very quickly. What Elway could do is he could personally tutor the NFL, the interception machine in James Winston. Yeah, exactly. I would stay away from Winston, but I think there's some interesting options out there.

But what I found out very quickly was that Denver fans love Drew Locke. And so I'm going to step away from any and all Drewlock analysis until we get more of a sample size on this guy. all right joel cori thank you so much for joining us and uh yeah thank you so much for joining us joel thank you thank you to joel thank you to dany kelly uh we'll be back soon with another episode of the ringer unfell show and the render podcast network