The Ringer NFL Show - Winners and Losers After Day 1 of the NFL Draft

Episode Date: April 29, 2022

Kevin, Nora, and Steven run through their winners and losers after the first round of the NFL draft. Hosts: Kevin Clark, Nora Princiotti, and Steven Ruiz Associate Producer: Isaiah Blakely Learn more... about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:01 This is Chris Vernon, and me and my buddy Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O Everything, host an NBA podcast called The Mismatch. They call it The Mismatch because I'm awesome and Kevin is a gigantic nerd. No, no, that's not why at all, Chris. They call it the Mismatch because I have a brain and you're a loudmouth bozo. Good grief. Anyway, listen to our amazing NBA podcast, The Mismatch. Or don't.
Starting point is 00:00:28 We really don't care. We're probably going to win a million awards either way. Chris, we do care. So don't say that. Please subscribe and listen to the mismatch only on Spotify. Did you really call me a bozo? It is the ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer podcast. Don't work.
Starting point is 00:00:53 I'm Kevin Clark. On a draft Thursday, round one is in the books. The Vikings selection just came in. It's another Georgia guy. Spoiler alert. Stephen Ruiz is here. Hello, Stephen. How are you doing?
Starting point is 00:01:06 And Nora Princeziata. Hello, Nora. Hi, Kevin. we're just laughing at the Rams who are inexplicably having a press conference, even though they don't have a first round pick. That's just what they do. They just engage. They just drive up engagement.
Starting point is 00:01:22 They won a Super Bowl to draw attention to their different social media platforms. But they're laughing because Cole Strange was the pick for the Patriots. I love Cole Strange. I was trying to get him on the radar of D.K. And so a couple weeks ago. But they were laughing because Sean McVeigh was watching Cole Strange tape because he thought he might be available at 104. And Bill Belichick said,
Starting point is 00:01:42 first round pick. Is Bill Belichick okay? Yes. He's the most okay. He's the only okay guy in the NFL. I think Bill is the same as he has always been. So your answer to that depends on whether or not you think the bill was ever okay to begin with.
Starting point is 00:02:01 Yeah, that's a tough question. I just have never heard of Chattanooga outside of any other context than them being a 16th seat in the NCAA turn. Yeah, but Stephen, the Patriots trading back and then taking a guard from Chattanooga who was widely mocked to them, except several rounds later, is like the most Patriots nonsense ever. Also, this is a T.O. Oracier. Terrell Owens went to, was a mock. Yeah, yeah. You got me. I don't know. I don't know about. I don't know about. No, I know. I know that, brother. Okay, so we're going to go through the winners and losers on a, so coming into this,
Starting point is 00:02:45 Adam Schaeffer tweeted this morning, it was going to be chaos. Someone said it was going to be the biggest chaos in 10 years. From my perspective, the most chaos happens when teams trade into the top three to get Mitchell Trubisky or Blake Bordals is sitting there and the Jaguars of the third pick. That to me is chaos. So I didn't expect just a bunch of guards and defensive ends going to be chaos. But there was a little bit of chaos in the middle of the first round when AJ Brown goes to the Eagles. And with that, signs a four-year, $100 million contract.
Starting point is 00:03:14 And then Hollywood Brown goes from the Ravens to the Cardinals. And we can get to sort of the machinations of that in a second. But that was the extent of the chaos. Debo Samuel stays put. The draft generally goes the way we thought it would outside of that. What we're going to do is we're going to have winners and losers. and I'm sure that both of those trades will come up within that. Interesting night.
Starting point is 00:03:38 Steven, who's your first winner? I'm going to say the Giants. I feel like it's been a long time since we've been able to say that, but just like approaching the draft normally really paid off for them and letting picks fall to them. I feel like this was the team in the last three years, and they were always drafting in the top 10, and you always could count on them to do something dumb
Starting point is 00:03:58 or something stupid that we could all laugh at. They just didn't do that. They made the smart pick both times. They picked in the top seven. Kavon Tibido, I think I think he's the best the best pass rusher in the draft. I think he's better than Hutchinson. I think he's more
Starting point is 00:04:12 polished than Walker and just as an athletic. I really like the Evan Neal pick. I don't know. It's just a solid draft for a team that really needed a solid draft. So last year, the Dave got him an era, however bad you think it was and whoever much you think it was dominated by like people
Starting point is 00:04:28 dunking on him on Twitter or whatever, it was worse. It was way worse. And I think that sometimes guys get into, I think, Chris Longstocked with this. Guys get into the meme zone and they can't get out of it on an NFL Twitter where Dave Gettleman couldn't do anything right. But the problem with that was that it was specifically Dave Gettleman is he literally could not do anything right.
Starting point is 00:04:48 Cadarius Tony is already being rumored to be on the trade block. Andrew Thomas, by the way, developed into a really good player last year. Let's give him his due. Daniel Jones, not getting his fifth year option picked up today. Dexter Lawrence did. Sequin Barclay is not going to see a second contract. Deontre Baker. not a good pick off the team had some off field stuff.
Starting point is 00:05:09 So this was a complete disaster and they could only go up. Do you wear the Giants right now as far as being good after this? I mean, I think this is a team that could compete in the NFC East, assuming the Cowboys take a major step back, which I think is very possible after their offseason and they really haven't added anything after losing Amari Cooper and some other pieces, Lyle Collins is a big loss. I mean, that division is up for grabs.
Starting point is 00:05:36 And if Brian Dayball is the coach that I think he can be and the coach that we saw in Buffalo, I see no reason why they can't win nine, ten games to compete for that division. Nora, G-Men. The thing that I think was really smart about it. And, yeah, I mean, look, for reasons that are fair and unfair, we've spent a decent amount of draft nights dunking on the Giants and making fun of the Giants. But the way this fell was really smart by them because, I think the guy they really, really, really wanted was Neil, who was definitely a top tackle on their board.
Starting point is 00:06:10 But when they got to five, the drop off at edge rusher was going to come a lot faster if somebody else took Tibido. And in any case, they were going to be guaranteed one of the top tackles. So it's just those little things where it's like, ah, yes, the decision making is sound here. And they wind up getting two of the best guys on either side of the lines. it seemed like a really, really good draft for them. They were on my list of winners as well. I think this shaped up pretty perfectly. Did you want to give us another winner?
Starting point is 00:06:47 Sure, Kevin. Let's talk about defense in general. Defense one. A real winner from defense won. We don't get to award defense a lot of flowers in today's NFL. Defense is back. I don't know if defense will ever be back. The offensive boom is over as of two hours ago.
Starting point is 00:07:04 Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Defense was back in the first five picks of this draft. And I think the thing to talk about here is that it was interesting to see the little mini run on corners start so early with the Texans taking Stingley. And then the Jets following up with Sauce Gardner. I wasn't expecting those guys to go quite so high. I mean, I guess we're parsing, okay, what's the difference between going third and fourth
Starting point is 00:07:32 versus fourth and eighth or something like that. But first of all, it was just the first draft since I think 1991, where at least the first four picks were all defensive players. And those two corners going so early was at least a little bit interesting to me just in terms of having come out of this pre-agency period where the cornerback contracts were not necessarily as big as some people thought they might be. those two are just great players. I like both of those picks a ton.
Starting point is 00:08:07 I like Gardner a little bit better than Stingley, but they're both great. I think they both fit into those schemes really, really well. So it was nice to see that. And I think everybody made out by making their teams better and their defense is better. I'm curious if you, Kevin, or Steven,
Starting point is 00:08:25 think that those choices are a reaction to anything other than just which players were on the board and what this crop of draft picks was. Yeah. I mean, I don't think, I think when there's no quarterbacks, you kind of see how it falls. It was funny when,
Starting point is 00:08:39 when Mina and I on her podcast were doing needs a couple of weeks ago, every team's need was pass rush or cornerback. Like, that's every single team, because you can just keep piling them on. Even if you have two of each, whatever, you just say,
Starting point is 00:08:55 oh, it's a modern NFL. Let's just add another one. There's even mean anything. I don't think it's any sense, some sort of, brand statement about where the game is going. Stephen, do you? No, I don't think so. I think it was just, like you said, there's no quarterback. There's no quarterback. And I don't think there was like a clear offensive tackle that stood out
Starting point is 00:09:11 from the rest. I think those top three were even and had their own strengths and weaknesses. And I just thought it was easier just to take a defensive player this year. Completely agree. All right. I'm going to give my first winner to the Baltimore Ravens. There's a couple of reasons for this. Number one, I don't want to spoil. the rest of the episode. The Arizona Cardinals are one of my losers. So I'm going to actually put a pin in the Hollywood Brown trade value discussion for one second.
Starting point is 00:09:39 But they got value for Hollywood Brown I thought was important. And then they get two players who I think if you took the team off and you say these two guys who could play who maybe had a couple of question marks that had nothing
Starting point is 00:09:55 to do with whether or not they could play went to a team. You'd say the Ravens are the type of team who would grab him. So Kyle Hamilton runs the slow 40. He goes 14. His tape is unbelievable. And then Tyro Linderbaum is a center. Maybe he's a little undersized. But he's a really good player, a really, really good player. And I kind of felt like, and I talked about this in actually one of my columns this week, where I thought that the positional value thing was eating itself a little bit. The debate was eating itself a little bit. And there was an interesting study done by over the cap by Jason
Starting point is 00:10:29 Fitzgerald the other day where he said that really if you look at the value of second contracts, you should really only take a couple positions in the first round. Quarterback obviously think something like 169% of their value relative to the second contract came on a rookie deal. Wide receivers, hugely, when you look at the second contracts, hugely valuable position, left tackle, hugely valuable position, defensive end. And that interior line and safety and tight end actually worth. were positions you should just stay away from.
Starting point is 00:11:02 And I normally agree with that. But in a draft like this, that's not deep. And everybody keeps saying, well, there's not a lot of talent at the top. No, I mean, it's actually not that deep a draft. It's kind of like the 2013 draft where I'm sure there'll be a fourth round picks to become all pros because that's just how drafts work. There's this thing as a bad draft,
Starting point is 00:11:17 just confusing drafts. But I think in the first round, there's not as much talent as it's normally is. And so to go out and say, you know what, I don't really care what these guys' second contract looks like. I don't care what the analytics say. like I'm okay with that. And that's why I think Hamilton and Linderbaum, a center and a safety in the first round,
Starting point is 00:11:37 guys who were going to start, guys who were going to play. I just saw a quote from Kyle Hamilton saying it's Super Bowl or Bus. He's been on the team for 20 minutes. I'm not really sure where we're going with that. But I think these guys are pure Ravens. I felt this way about Jordan Davis too. If he had slipped, that would have been obviously a home run pick as well. This is, this is a great parent.
Starting point is 00:11:56 I know Ozzy isn't the GM anymore, but this is a, like a classic Aussie Newsom's He's still around. He's still hovering. And this is a classic Aussie Newsom draft. I mean, I'm sure there were boards out there where Linderbaum and Hamilton might have been in the top
Starting point is 00:12:13 five. If you're ignoring positional value, these guys are like two players that you know are going to be good at the next level. And I agree with you. I think the positional value thing has gone like we've jumped a shark there. Just draft good football players. And the Ravens drafted two football players and trade it down.
Starting point is 00:12:29 in doing so. Yeah, I agree with you. I think they're one of the big winners, which, I mean, it's becoming a yearly thing. The Ravens kill the draft every year, so I'm not surprised at all. The Ravens also traded a player in exchange for a draft pick
Starting point is 00:12:43 that was higher than the pick they spent on him after getting all of the cost-controlled years of his rookie deal. Like, the only thing that went badly for the Ravens donated that Lamar Jackson tweeted, like, what the fuck, man. And honestly, if you just, if you describe that trade like generically like you just did, I would have guessed, oh, it was the Ravens trading to the Cardinals. I feel like those are the two teams that made the most sense in that type of trade, that genre of trade. Hey, I have another winner real quick, and it's Hollywood Brown's friendship because the report comes out that Lamar Jackson is best friends of Hollywood Brown.
Starting point is 00:13:20 But then the other report is that Kyle Lamarie won of the trade because Hollywood Brown is his best friend. Hollywood Brown, a great friend. he's an amazing friend he's an amazing friend um all right steven what's your next winner i'm gonna go with the texans and i feel i've done the giants i've done the texans now it's two teams that i have not complimented over the last three years and i think both of them are you just doing guys who picked or teams that picked two guys early they picked two guys early and they pick two great guys are like i think i think i think derrick stingley junior is it's a good way to
Starting point is 00:13:52 win a draft that's a good way to win a draft take good players a novel concept maybe uh some other team should try it. But I think Derek Stingley is the best player in the draft. I think he's the most special player in the draft. I think he has the best chance of anyone draft in the top five of being an all pro. I would not be surprised if he's an all pro within the next two years. He's that good. And I know people are concerned because there was injuries after that 2019 season when he was the best cornerback in the nation as a freshman as an 18 year old. But his 2021, 2021 tape is amazing. It's amazing. I know the results weren't there. But that's just how. cornerback play works. It's volatile year to year just because it matters about the quarterback
Starting point is 00:14:33 you're going up against, the receiver you're going up against. Like sometimes people get lucky, but his tape is immaculate. He's just a special mover. I think he's the best player in the draft. And the Texans got him at number three. And I like their second pick. I like the guard. I'm blanking on his name. I like him that much. Kenyon Green. I don't know. I just think it's a smart draft for a team that needed a smart draft. It's the same as the Giants. Nor are the Texans. back. I don't know the Texans are quite back yet. You have to have
Starting point is 00:15:03 arrived to be back. Texans were never a thing. There's no rules. There's no rules are back. Are they any good, Nora? No. Davis Mills is the quarterback of this team right now. They're not good right now, but maybe they could be good in a couple years.
Starting point is 00:15:21 Just trying to keep the Texans momentum train going. There was a, not to bring up their team. You and Nick Casario. No, no. Mina said that when she, she in Field did a pod and that they said something like, oh, I know what it was. They said that there was a self-aware rebuild.
Starting point is 00:15:40 And because no one ever says anything nice about the Texans, they just got aggregated all over Houston. It was like, oh, my, the national media is on the bandwagon. So, Stephen, you have a pretty good chance of being aggregated for calling the Texans a winner here. That's my goal. Like what should I say right now that could really get me out of year? You've already done it.
Starting point is 00:16:00 Davis Mills is the best under 25 quarterback people. The Houston Chronicle aggregate me. He's better than Lawrence. All right. So let's get to Nora's second winner. So we've done all three of my winners. Oh my God. What was your winner?
Starting point is 00:16:18 Because my winners were Ravens and the Giants. And defense. And defense. Wow. All right. I'll give you another winner. I'll give you another winner. Okay, I'll give you a bonus winner.
Starting point is 00:16:30 The Lions. Yeah. The Detroit Lions. The Detroit Lions got the guy who should have been the first overall pick is the second overall pick. Is that a massive gap? No, it is a gap of one pick. However, it is still a win.
Starting point is 00:16:44 Yeah. I like what the Lions have done. And I also think that the Lions, the Lions are, listen, I don't know how you define this. If you're drafting, just absolute dog shit teams last year. Like, I'd actually rather be the Lions in a heck of a lot of these other teams.
Starting point is 00:17:01 Like, I think they're building in the right way. The quarterback can come later. They're not going to be that good, so they're going to be in the mix next year. They were in games and won games they probably shouldn't have last year. I like Dan Campbell. I like Brad Holmes. I'm not against this Lions rebuild at all. I think they're doing some really smart things.
Starting point is 00:17:20 And Jameson Williams is the exact right pick for them. I was getting nervous when people were like, you know what? don't worry about the ACL. Any good team could take James and Williams. No, Jameson Williams needs to go to a patient team that can put him on some reserve list to start the year. Don't obviously just do the lightest work possible, watch them film during training camp.
Starting point is 00:17:40 And just we'll see you in November, brother. We'll see you in December. Like, just hang out a little bit. That to me is why I was excited to see the Jamison Williams pick at 12 to Detroit. All right. My next winner is, I have two. I'm going to go with,
Starting point is 00:17:59 I actually think I'm going to flick at this one because it's shorter one and I'm going to get to the longer one. I'm going to go with the Green Bay Packers. Here's why. So, first of all, Georgia is the first school in NFL history to have five defensive players selected in the first round in the same year. The Packers selected two of them, Devante Wyatt and Quay Walker. I really like both of these players.
Starting point is 00:18:22 and I also think what's interesting is they did what I think we thought was always a possibility because they went best player available and said we joke Nora about them only having a wide receiver board for night one. Well, they didn't have it.
Starting point is 00:18:36 But then Aaron Rogers goes on Pat McAfee and I'm like, oh man, like the only reason to do that is to appease Aaron Rogers. But then Rogers goes on McAfee and says, you know, we've had a lot of success in our franchise in the second record. Hold on.
Starting point is 00:18:50 That's not the only reason you do that. The only reason you do that, do that is because you traded Devante and you don't have any receivers. Well, no. So you can find receivers in the second and third round. Like, there's a lot of them. Like, after there were no wide receivers who went after the Packer selected. Okay. Sure. So like, so, so they've got options here. I was worried. But I'm just saying there was a reason that we all joked about that. And it wasn't that they needed to do it to make Aaron Rogers happy. It was because it's a real roster need for them. Sure. But I'm, it's not like
Starting point is 00:19:21 somebody went at at 23 and there's going to be some sort of litmus test like oh man we really need to see how that went um yeah no it shook out it shook out badly for them like with the with the with the uh jordan love pick the next receiver off the board if i'm not mistaken was t higgins so like that we that was a one to one we got to see like well would you rather have jordan love or t higgins pretty pretty obvious there um but so rogers goes on mackoffee which by the way had like 125,000 concurrent viewers. It's pretty good, by the way. But he goes on McAfee and says that they've had a lot of success in the past with second
Starting point is 00:19:59 and third round picks in the franchise. He seemed totally fine, totally confident with the way things went. And I think that that's, you know, he said there was a quote here. He said that Jameson Williams from what he saw was the most NFL ready receiver, obviously health notwithstanding. Quote, it didn't seem like there was a Justin Jefferson in this draft. It feels like everybody in Green Bay, including the quarterback, is totally fine. Just playing the day two receiver game.
Starting point is 00:20:32 Hey, Stephen? I want to know how much, like, how Aaron Rogers watches receiver film when he's watching prospects. Is he just watching targets only? He's watching every snap. He's watching Twitter, brother. Yeah, I believe it. I believe it. But I feel like a lot of teams chase the ghost of last season.
Starting point is 00:20:52 And I don't think the Packers did that. Fighting the last war. Yeah. And the Packers, to their credit, I know the last couple of drafts, their first round picks have kind of been questionable. And they haven't drafted that receiver that we've all thought they were going to draft. But I think it makes sense for them not to chase that hole that they've had for the last couple of years.
Starting point is 00:21:11 And it's an even bigger hole now that Devante's gone. I feel like if they tried to rebuild last year's team by replacing Devante Adams, it wasn't going to work. You lost a playoff game to Jimmy G. I think you needed a different team, and I think they need a team that can hang with these other teams on the defensive side.
Starting point is 00:21:30 And they're building that team. We saw those steps last year, and I think you're going to see even more steps this year. I think it's going to be a better defense, maybe a top 10 defense if one of these two picks hits. And I think that gives them a better chance. than just running it back and being the same team you were that lost in the playoffs the last two years. So I'm in agreement with you.
Starting point is 00:21:50 And I also think that Brian Gunn's ability to do this and take best player available, even when he knows there's going to be some media pressure, I think is pretty admirable. And that was part of that got him in trouble with Jordan Love. But, you know, I talked to him about this last summer. He basically said that him viewing Ted Thompson, when Ted went through all that stuff with Brett Far, really kind of was instructive for him where Ted was so about ignoring the noise that I think that he's totally confident
Starting point is 00:22:20 going in and just saying, let's get these two defenders, let's try to build what you said as one of the top defenses of both these guys hit. And I think they will, just viewing the Georgia defense. They'll hit in some way. They're not going to be both all pros, but I think they'll hit in some way. And certainly they're ready to play early because of the SEC stuff because of how good Georgia was. But I do think Brian Gunn-Kins does
Starting point is 00:22:39 a generally very good job at GM. Not that everyone doesn't sit around, sit around reading the ringer.com, but with the Georgia stuff and the fact they had five defenders go, can you briefly summarize your amazing piece the other day? Yeah, and I think the Packers are trying to set up their defense, kind of like Georgia has the last couple of years. I think a lot of NFL teams are. Are they readers?
Starting point is 00:23:02 They must be readers. Maybe they're readers. I don't know. I'm not going to say they are. But the Georgia defense, Kirby Smart, after 2018, their run defense wasn't very good. at least to Georgia standards. So they reshape their defense. I think they adjusted what kind of body types they were looking for it.
Starting point is 00:23:18 And they wanted a front seven that could hold up against the run without an extra guy in the box. And that's where defense is going at every level of the sport. And I think Georgia was doing it the best. And they got these players for a reason. One of the smartest defensive minds in football, Kirby Smart, was playing defense like this for a reason. And it worked for Georgia. and I think the smarter NFL teams will look past some of the concerns about the Georgia prospects and realize that these are the type of players that college football is going to start producing
Starting point is 00:23:49 and these are the type of players we're going to need on Sundays because our game is going in the same direction their game is going. So I really like this from the Packers. I think they're out ahead of the curve on the defensive side of the ball and they have the two-time rating MVP. I know a lot of people are probably going to write them off because they lost. Stavante. Honestly, I think this team could be better than last year's team,
Starting point is 00:24:13 especially if one of these two picks really hits. If both of them hit, I think this is a top five defense. Plus they got GBG probably out of the way, you know, the one obstacle. Right, right. They don't have to worry about it. It was out of the way. All right. Nora, we plowed through your winners.
Starting point is 00:24:31 Stephen, do you have your last one? I was going to go with the Packers. I'm going to go with the, uh, I don't even know. I don't know. I don't know if there's any other winners. I feel like there are a lot of teams just did what they're supposed to do. I'm going to go with the,
Starting point is 00:24:47 I'm going to go with the Seahawks. I really like that pick. I like them not reaching for a quarterback. I like them taking Charles Cross, who I thought was the best offensive tackle in the draft. And it could have been easy to pass on him because they do have Dwayne Brown. They could have moved. They could have just run it back with him.
Starting point is 00:25:04 I think it's a risky pick for them, but it was the best player available. And I think that that's the best way to, approach the draft and they did it. If they would have reached for a quarterback at number nine, I don't think it would have turned out the way they wanted it to. Okay. So the Philadelphia Eagles get Jordan Davis, who might be my favorite player in the draft. They trade for AJ Brown and give them that extension. And by the way, the craziest thing I put out earlier tonight, I said, did the Cardinals try to get AJ Brown?
Starting point is 00:25:38 Do they make that call? Maybe they did. And there were so many people, and there's football reasons why you wouldn't want AJ Brown on your team if you're the Cardinals or you don't want to pay them that money. I understand that. But when you're training for Hollywood Brown, people were like, well, they wouldn't want to give him that extension. Hollywood Brown was drafted the same year of AJ Brown was.
Starting point is 00:25:54 Was Hollywood going to play for free? They're going to have to pay them in some way. So it's not going to be like he's going to be on a rookie deal forever. He got a thousand yards last year. Anyway, the Eagles come out of this night with Jordan Davis, AJ Brown, remaining picks still in the second, third, fifth, and seventh. Legitimate game wrecker in Jordan Davis. Somebody, you mentioned, you just talked about the Georgia defense. This is some incredible stuff.
Starting point is 00:26:24 And how he still has picks. We knew he was going to be maneuvering around a little bit in order to get at least one top-end talent and still have some draft. I don't know, but the quarterback position in Philadelphia, I still don't. Maybe that's a next year thing. But damn, this, this retooling is going pretty well, guys. Yeah, well, and they needed those picks to be able to move around because if they hadn't moved up, he's probably going to Baltimore, right? And we've sung the praises of the Ravens, this whole pod. You're probably in a pretty good spot if your organization and that organization are sort of thinking alike in this case. So I'm with you.
Starting point is 00:27:10 Yeah, I really like the Jordan Davis pick, especially for that defense and how they play defense. They want to stick in too high. They want to be able to play zone every play. You need game records on the defensive line to be able to do that. And I don't think there was a better one in the draft in this guy. I really don't know why he wasn't a top 10 pick. He's big. He's strong.
Starting point is 00:27:30 He's fast. he was just perfect in the role he played at Georgia. He flashed in a role that isn't conducive to flashing. I don't understand how he dropped out of the top 10. Like football is a game played by giant athletic men, and he's the most giant athletic man in this class. So I asked people about that, and it really is that I here's what I think. I think that for a first round pick, there's always the,
Starting point is 00:27:58 I think it was Balli-Chek whose voices, but other people voices as well, that everything has to be clean on a first round pick, right? There's no questions, and the more questions you get, and this is kind of a sliding scale. Because with the first round,
Starting point is 00:28:13 the owners involved, you know, everybody has to sort of the coaches, the coaches are more. With Cole Strange, a clean first round pick. The coaches are more involved. The funny about Belichick,
Starting point is 00:28:26 Michael Lombardi's talked about this. What about Fellechechuk? He'll just be like, yeah, we need to special teams. guy. This looks good. We'll take him in the second round. They're like, yeah, we need a special teams guy. There's, like, on draft Twitter, there's always, like, one, one person that has,
Starting point is 00:28:39 like, like, a weird board. Like, they have, like, like, Matt Corral number one overall. I feel like Belichick would be that guy if he was on draft Twitter. Chris Sims. That's why Chris Sims and was on the Patriots. They know ball. Wait, guys. They sat around a new ball together.
Starting point is 00:28:54 Guys, can I pause you for a second? A.J. Brown tweeted and then I guess deleted. Tennessee, I love you, and you will forever be in my heart. And I can say this now. And then in all caps, this was not my fault. But I wish you all the best. That's incredible. Ruiz tweets after Ruiz's every week.
Starting point is 00:29:14 Chris Sims was a coaching assistant for the Patriots in 2012. If he doesn't leave that staff, that is just some, that's some interesting evaluations. I love, Chris Mons are my favorite people in media. He knows ball. Belichick knows ball. He would have been all over Cole Strange in the first. He was all over Zion Johnson, who's my guy, one of my absolute certified guys,
Starting point is 00:29:34 one of my favorite people in the draft. Anyway, back to my rant. So. Now, back to my rant. So when I was talking, because I'm a big, Jordan Davis should be a top 10 pick guy. And when I was asking around,
Starting point is 00:29:48 they're basically saying, it's really hard when everybody has to be on board with the first round pick to justify a guy they don't know was going to be on the field for every single down. And that's why, when I was talking a couple weeks ago about this idea that there were
Starting point is 00:30:03 people who were saying I'd rather have a worse edge rusher than a two down guy and let buddy I'm don't get mad at me I'm just the guy sending text. I'm not I'm getting mad at this person and known as multiple people, multiple people, lots of people and you wouldn't believe it.
Starting point is 00:30:19 My phone battery was just dying from the people who were just sending me. Jordan Davis is a two down player text. I'm kidding. It was like I don't know, like three guys. Here's my thing. Do you know who's a a great player on third and long. Every single defender in the NFL. Third and Long is so easy.
Starting point is 00:30:34 So if you get to third and long, you're going to be successful. Do you know who gets you to third and long? Jordan Davis. It's not that complicated. Dude, all, listen, man, all I do is I just go on the NFL Combine Database and I scroll through the great athletes and then I just say,
Starting point is 00:30:51 why can't you guys draft this guy with the 15th pick? And then some scout gives me some terrible answer. That's it. I'm with Fred Warner, by the last. way. I was like, hey, you guys should draft Fred Warner. How'd that work out? What did I say about scouts two weeks ago?
Starting point is 00:31:06 They don't know ball. They don't know ball. I was trying to get that guy Leo Chenel in the first round. You like 75% of the draft picks that were made tonight. It's like a very uncontroversial first round. Those were all owner picks. The scouts and scouts. I was trying.
Starting point is 00:31:22 The only scout was Kenny Pickett. I really liked this kid from Wisconsin named Leo Chanel. And I was telling and Danny and Solach said he wasn't in my first round pick. And so I just started a propaganda campaign that didn't work within the league circles. I did with Cole Strange, but I didn't text big bill about that. All right. So that's the Jordan Davis thing.
Starting point is 00:31:45 The Eagles understand the value of it. They understand he's a good player. Yeah, I don't, I don't think that there's the flip side, by the way. How do we feel about the Titans tonight? Was getting Burks in place of A.J. Brown good business? Well, it's interesting business, right? Because this is the thing that we've been talking about a little bit in the abstract, just with teams seeming a little bit more willing to move on from good receivers instead of paying them.
Starting point is 00:32:15 And then the Titans kind of took it to an art form by drafting the closest player comp available to the guy that they chose to move on from. I mean, it was honestly, they're doing the bills thing, right? The Vikings thing, trading Stefan Diggs and then draft, they're trying to do that. I feel like they're copying the Vikings blueprint step for step. They even gave Ryan Tannehill the same contract that the Vikings gave Kirk Cousins. I think it's a smart move, actually. I would not want to pay AJ Brown $25 million as opposed to paying Burks. He's probably going to make like $6 million a year.
Starting point is 00:32:50 I think that's a good swap for them. Less. Yeah, less probably. All right. Any other winners where we move on to the losers? I mean, I got to say Jalen Hertz. He has Devante Smith and Jay Brown now. He might, he might even throw for 3,000 yards this year. All right. Losers. Nora. Let's go. Well, let's talk about the quarterbacks. So only Kenny Pickett went in the first round. And now Kenny Pickett would not have been my choice if only one of these guys was going to go in the first. but ultimately we got a pretty clear picture of how the league viewed this class through the first round. And we had a good idea that it was not super favorable. But this was more dramatic than I was expecting it to be.
Starting point is 00:33:42 I thought two, maybe three guys would go in the first round. Ultimately, fit is what's going to matter, right? Like if we see Willis, Ritter land in good spots later on in the draft and get solid chances, that's great and that could ultimately end up better than going to a bad team higher up. That said, draft status is sticky. And ultimately, the more resources a team spends on a player, the more they're going to care about making sure that they do everything that they can to make that player successful.
Starting point is 00:34:14 And now a second round or a third round pick is still a significant investment. So that's not like, you know, DefCon won by any means for any of these guys. but it did surprise me to come away with the takeaway that the league was even more down on these guys than it seemed like going in to tonight. And I'm curious what it'll hold just in terms of where they fit. We may end up doing some reevaluations on sort of who's seen as, okay, this guy could start. This guy's going to have to sit. it just depends on where they land. But once you're out of the first round territory,
Starting point is 00:34:56 I do feel like the status that comes with that just changes a little bit. So I'm curious to see how the rest of it unfolds, but I was surprised that only picket went tonight. Stephen, Malik Willis, defender has logged on. Take it away. I don't understand this league. I don't understand that pick. I don't understand how you watch this league and make that pick.
Starting point is 00:35:17 I am at a loss. this one I I can't I know people make the argument that he's the most pro ready I don't think when you're drafting a quarterback in the first round you should be drafting for the next one or two years I think you should be drafting for the next 10 or 15 and even if you're going to take a pro ready quarterback I just don't know how can he pick he's the pick over even Desmond Ritter who I'm not the biggest fan of you watch his tape and he's I don't think he's pro ready he's jittery in the pocket and I know this league has had an infatuation
Starting point is 00:35:48 with taking jittery pocket passers in the first round. It hasn't worked out ever. It hasn't worked out ever. Like you took a worst version of Baker Mayfield. Gittery in the pocket. Yeah, I just don't understand it. They took Baker, like a worst version of Baker Mayfield after seeing how Baker Mayfield turned out.
Starting point is 00:36:07 I don't know. I don't know. I would have much rather preferred Desmond Ritter, who I think is a better pocket passer. I think he's the type of pocket passer that people think Kenny Pickett is. just because Kenny Pickett played for five years. He was three years older than everyone else on the field. He had the best team in the ACC around him.
Starting point is 00:36:24 I don't know. I don't know. It's a bad pick. I don't know. You're drafting for a first round contract, our first rookie contract. Because after that, he signs that second contract,
Starting point is 00:36:33 I just don't see how a quarterback like Kim provides value. So let me ask you, Steven, if you were the Steelers, would you have picked a different quarterback, or would you have picked no quarterback? Because the way I see the justification here in picking a quarterback is next year's crop of quarterbacks is going to be much better.
Starting point is 00:36:50 The Steelers don't really tank. Mike Tomlin doesn't really have losing seasons. They've got talent on that team. They're not going to go two and 15, which is going to be required to even be in the mix for a CJ Stroud or Bryce Young or some of the Florida quarterbacks. So I think that there's a case to be made that they're always going to be in the middle of the first round as a floor and that maybe if they thought this was the eval, it's okay to take them.
Starting point is 00:37:17 What would you have done? Would you take a quarterback or just you've gotten a lineback or something? I think I would have traded down. I think every pick that went on after their pick and it wasn't a quarterback, I think it makes the pick look worse. I think overconfidence in your ability to discern the best quarterback from the second best quarterback is what gets teams into trouble. And there's been studies on this that overconfidence in teams' ability to evaluate is what
Starting point is 00:37:41 gets them into trouble. And I think we're seeing an example here. They could have got any quarterback they wanted after pick it in the second round. I guess if they really loved him that much, that's, that's the reason why I don't like this pick. They seem to be so confident. They, they believe that he was the best quarterback by at least 12 picks. And I just don't see how you watch his film and come to that conclusion. Nora, any thoughts on how day two and day three shake out for the passers? Well, So just on Stephen's point on the Steelers, I kind of, I don't mind them taking a quarterback. I don't like the quarterback they took. I would have been a lot happier if they'd taken Willis or Ritter.
Starting point is 00:38:21 But there's a flip side to the humility argument where you do have to take swings at a certain point, right? And okay, yes. There were picks after they made their pick where quarterbacks were not taken. So theoretically, they could have traded back and still gotten their pick. of the quarterbacks. You don't really know how the board's going to fall. And at a certain point,
Starting point is 00:38:45 if you end up with the guy that you want and he's playing well, you're not quibbling over a few different draft spots. I don't mind them taking a quarterback there at all because I think you do have to have the humility to understand this may not
Starting point is 00:38:59 go right. We may not get the guy. This is not a draft class where we're going to have total conviction on anybody who's available to us. but you've got to take a swing at some point. So I have no problem with them taking a quarterback.
Starting point is 00:39:16 I just wish they'd taken someone else. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. I just think they're too confident that they were going to be able to pick out the best quarterback out of the bunch. I think you just, I don't know. I would have traded back and just especially with this class.
Starting point is 00:39:29 At some point, whenever you take a quarterback, you have to feel like you're taking the best one that you can take of the ones who are available. It sounds like you're. you're just advocating for taking three quarterbacks. No, I'm advocating for trading down instead of taking one of them first. A 24 year old with a seven out of 10 arm who wasn't good until he was three years older than everyone else on the field. Wait, wait.
Starting point is 00:39:53 Hey, Stephen, we kept talking about like, how do you replace Ben Rothensburg in that offense? And it's to get somebody as old as Ben Rothesbner. You can't miss a beat. You can't miss a beat. No, I agree with you, Nora. I think they should like they absolutely had to take a quarterback. But guess what? They could take Ritter tomorrow. They still can take Ritter tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:40:11 That's my thing. Like I'm just saying if they want, if they're committed to a boringish quarterback, I wish they'd taken Ritter. If they were ready to to make me a little bit happier, I wish they'd taken Willis. But my issue is not that they took a quarterback there. Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah, I'm saying they should draft a quarterback.
Starting point is 00:40:35 back tomorrow. It's already time to move on. The Kenny Pickett. The Kenny Pickett experiment is failing. What a weird quarterback room? Kevin Colbert, by the way, said that Kenny Pickett's hand size was overblown, quote, it was for us. I never even paid attention to it. Wow. Admitting to not doing your job.
Starting point is 00:40:53 I'll say this. There are really smart people who really do believe that in cold weather, you, a quarterback got to have big hands. It was a that was a, uh, capioli thing back in the day. because Cliff Kingsbury had small hands famous. Also, let's unpack that though.
Starting point is 00:41:09 Like, that's just stuff that they measure at the combine and they just hand the data to him. It's not that hard to pay attention to. It's not like you got to. It's not like the other GMs are going in there with a microscope. Oh, you mean like it's not hard. It's like it's a pretty easy thing to investigate. He went out of his way to ignore the data.
Starting point is 00:41:29 Yeah, he went out. He was ignoring the noise. he treated it like a like a spoiler for a TV show like someone was about to say Kenny Pickett's hands he's like no no no no no no don't tell me don't tell me don't tell me do you think he's found out by now do you think he held up to the Zoom he was just like put her there partner my theory is that
Starting point is 00:41:51 Colbert's leaving and he wants to make sure that the next GM doesn't do a better job than him and he has to deal with the Kenny Pickett contract talking for in four years dude I think Kenny Kevin Colbert might be in the Ozzy Newsom, like, still around role in next year. Yeah, well, that's going to be awfully embarrassing for him. Like, you chose Kenny Pickett as your Lamar Jackson. I think you're being really harsh on Kevin Colbert.
Starting point is 00:42:17 It's a bad pick, man. I feel very confident. Like, nobody knows anything about the draft. I think he's one of the best GMs in football. He also drafted Mason Rudolph on day two, and that was a waste of a pick back then. If you couldn't see that before that draft, and I don't know, like, what film you were watching. Mason Rudolph's film at Oklahoma State was God awful. Kevin Colbert has an unbelievable track record in general,
Starting point is 00:42:40 and specifically when it comes to drafting receivers, I'm not sure if his track record with quarterbacks is quite as spectacular. Ruiz, are you trying to get in the mix here for Stewards' GM? No, no, not at all. I don't want to go out. You know what Kevin Porter hanging around. You don't want to clean up that mess. You don't want to clean up that mess.
Starting point is 00:42:58 He set me up for failure if I take that job. No, no way. All right, Ruiz, who's your first loser? Like, my, my, my loser was the Steelers. I don't know where else to go. No, the Jets. I really didn't like the Jets draft. I know they took a lot of picks.
Starting point is 00:43:12 Like whenever anybody takes a lot of picks, they're like, oh, great draft. And I didn't like the draft. Whenever, whenever anybody slides, like 15 spots and then they, finally someone takes the guy, they're always like, well, great value. And it's like, well, maybe he just was bad. Yeah. And if you watch Jermaine Johnson's tape, it's not that impressive. Like, I know, Trey's,
Starting point is 00:43:31 Trayvon Walker was like he was the guy that like was just athletic and didn't really have any polish. Jermaine Johnson isn't better than than Walker. I don't think I don't even know if he was a first round pick in my opinion. Sauce Gardner, I think he's a good pick. I think he's going to be a good player. But he is a skinny cornerback and that's going to be a problem at the NFL level. And then who's their other.
Starting point is 00:43:50 Garrett Wilson. I wasn't the biggest fan of Garrett Wilson. I think he kind of has the same problem as Gardner just on the other side of the ball that he's skinny and he gets boxed out easily by big. physical corners and you're going to see a lot more of those in the NFL compared to the Big Ten. I thought Olive was the better receiver of those two. I'm not a huge fan of their draft. I don't think they're a much better team than they were earlier today. I think the first two picks with the Jets are fine. Germain Johnson was interesting. There was a
Starting point is 00:44:20 report by Charles Robinson that Jermaine Johnson didn't slide and that the media had always overrated him and he's a good player, not elite, and then, quote, needs the right personality fit too, not really sure what that means. But it didn't seem like there was a report that he was going to go at four at one point this week, and that just didn't make any sense. And Robinson correctly reported that this is, there was a different conversation happening in front offices and facilities than there were on Twitter and on television. So I'm actually okay with the Jets.
Starting point is 00:44:55 I mean, there's a, it's a strange amount of pressure on Joe Douglas over the next two years. because there have been a lot of high picks and I don't really know what's going on there. And Zach Wilson needs to take a huge jump. And hopefully, I think taking a receiver, would you, would you have taken a lave? Is that your, is that your qualm at 10? Yeah, I would have taken a lave,
Starting point is 00:45:17 but really, I don't, I don't like either of those receivers for the Jets specifically. I think the Jets maybe should have traded down. I don't know. I just, it was an awkward spot to take, to draft for them there. I don't know. I don't think it made sense for me.
Starting point is 00:45:30 I think that they were in no man's land that we talked about earlier this week where if you're at 10 and you want to trade down, there weren't a whole hell of a lot of teams trying to trade up for 10. So that that to me was pretty hard. I also think what's weird is that I'm just kind of talking about the notion around the league that at some point wide receiver becomes undervalued because there's so many guys available in the draft. But obviously the caveat that I've thrown in there is that on the other hand, people keep getting 25. million dollars if they catch a ball. And I wonder now if it's only going to accelerate and we're actually going to see in a weird way because of the free agency cost and you end up with the team like the Titans that's drafting a first round pick, using a first round pick on wide receiver. I actually wonder if, I think there were historic numbers of wide receivers in this first round,
Starting point is 00:46:24 I actually wonder if those price tags are now going to bully front offices into overvales, valuing wide receivers in the first round and it becomes a league of guys who want to you're either using a first round pick on a on a wide receiver or you're using 25 million dollars in cap space or you're the chiefs and the packers i don't i don't know where this this position goes going forward to you i feel like we've started to see where it's going like what what the titans did by swapping out a jr brown for yeah on the other hand like everybody else is like here's a first round pick yeah so so i i i don't i love trillenbergs mostly because of the hundred hunting boars with his hands and knives thing.
Starting point is 00:47:02 Like, that's just insane. He could be bad. This is the thing that happens with college players entering NFL. Sometimes they are bad. And we're operating with a pretty small sample size, right? Like, there's a reason that we're talking about this on pods all the time as a new thing that teams are testing out.
Starting point is 00:47:20 And this strategy worked out really, really well for the Vikings. And we're kind of seeing in terms of another peer, example of a team doing the same thing, we're kind of seeing example number two here. If it doesn't go well, then we've got a 50-50 proposition in terms of the results of our so small, it's probably meaningless sample size. Then you get into a situation where what you're paying for when you choose to pay one of these guys going into a second contract as opposed to dip into the draft where there's always going to be a great crop of prospects, but they're prospects for a reason. What you're paying for is
Starting point is 00:48:06 is the relative certainty that, okay, this has been a good player in the NFL. He's more likely to continue to be a good player in the NFL versus taking a swing and going, okay, this guy was really, really good in college. We think he's going to translate. Let's find out. So I just think that that's going to end up being sort of the pivot point of these decisions, I guess, because otherwise, why would you not go the route that the Titans are going, right? Like, why would you not pay less rather than pay more? But we talk all the time about the salary cap being malleable. And sometimes knowing that you have a good thing is a really valuable thing.
Starting point is 00:48:48 I'm looking at Trelon Burks' athleticism scores. And in the last five years, his most similar athlete is J.J.R. Sega, White's side. those are so those are so ridiculous there's a bunch of guys you don't have to get trapped in those athleticism comps are just purely athleticism not about anything else I just thought it was really funny because I was looking at it and I was wondering because
Starting point is 00:49:10 he didn't test as elite as maybe people thought I mean Debo was a 4-4-8 guy trail line I think was mid-four or fives and I think that people thought maybe that could have been a little better going into the combine so we'll see what I actually, I'm pretty bullish on Berks and I'm pretty bullish on how physical that
Starting point is 00:49:32 offense can be in general in Tennessee, even with A.J. Brown out. So I think it's a, I think it's an okay move and it's the best value that they could have gotten. I do it too. I think it was a great move. I don't you think that there are going to be a couple of these things that are going to go one way or another, and the way that they go is going to heavily influence how we think about this thing that we're spending time talking about. Yes. Yes. It's going to be totally based on a small sample size and teams are going to overreact.
Starting point is 00:50:03 That's how the NFL works. But I agree. I think the Titans were smart to do that. I think it makes more sense for their timeline, too. I don't think they're a team that's, I don't think they believe this, but I don't think they're a team that's going to compete next year and paying A.J. Brown $25 million for the next three years while they look for a new. quarterback beyond Ryan Tannahill, I think that's a waste of money.
Starting point is 00:50:25 They were also apparently not on speaking terms with H.J. Browns. That's a good point, too. Hey, do we at any point I want to talk about the first overall pick in the draft? So that's one of my losers. So let's do it. Who? The Jacksonville Jaguars. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:50:42 They got Devin Lloyd. That's pretty nice. Yeah, but they shouldn't have picked Strapon Walker's first overall. I did. Okay. It's not like a disaster. He seems like a very useful player, but they used the number one
Starting point is 00:51:00 kick on a pass pressure with single digit career sex. Yeah. It's a thing that you shouldn't do. Long arms, though. It was really funny. There were a bunch of 49ers writers who were like, this is not either. They were talking about the arm difference between,
Starting point is 00:51:13 the arm mic difference between Walker and Hutchinson. They're like, this is not a debate. Like, I can't believe anybody ever thought it was going to be Hutchinson with Trent Balke. running that team. There's like a really reductive and horrible saying about like men date like stockbrokers
Starting point is 00:51:30 and women date like venture capitalists where it's like somebody has a kernel of talent and you try to turn it into something else. And somebody, I was having a conversation. Somebody said that and I was like, Trent Balke. There's a Trent Balkeye application to this where it's just like, someday he could become something.
Starting point is 00:51:48 He's a VC? Yeah, I think he's a little bit of a VC. He's one of your single friends. Stephen, what were you going to say? Say what you want about Balkie, but he's been very good at drafting defensive lineman. He's been very good at it. He was with the 49ers. Alden Smith.
Starting point is 00:52:03 Alden Smith was a great player. And I don't know. I have no problem with them taking Trayb and Walker, Walker over Aiden Hutchinson. At least Trayvon Walker doesn't have T-Rex on. Who else did he draft? And he isn't a snap count jumper. I remember him drafting tank Keratin
Starting point is 00:52:17 because that was his bait. And that didn't really catch on. Yeah, but that's a cool name. Like, he can't, you can't fault him for that. That's a cool name. That's on tank for not living up to the name. His first name, well, here's the thing. I'm going to maybe change the narrative for you.
Starting point is 00:52:33 His real first name was Cornelius. So he could have been Cornelius. Oh, God. Everything I've said about Trembalchi complimentary, I take it back. You don't take it Cornelius. What if he went the whole, what if he went Cornelius Tank Caradine? What if he just, like, he made. like Don Winkledon down.
Starting point is 00:52:52 All right. Let's get out of 49ers D.N. nostalgia here. Stephen, what would you have done with the first pick? I would have done Tibido. I think they overthought. He was the best player for a year.
Starting point is 00:53:06 And then all of a sudden, we decided he wasn't because he, he likes to talk. I didn't get it. I didn't get it. I thought he was the best player at that position in college. On tape, he was athletic. I thought he checked all the boxes.
Starting point is 00:53:22 I get like some people were kind of concerned because he cared about his brand or whatever. But I don't know. I just think NFL teams, when you give them a lot of time, they're going to overthink things. And I think that's what happened here. He cares about his brand. Meanwhile, the Rams are like renting draft houses and holding social media symposiums. And Aidan Hutchinson had a podcast about himself. A 23-year-old rich kid from the Midwest.
Starting point is 00:53:50 the overcame adversity to become a top pick. All right. I need to talk about the, just a Cardinals rant in general. Yep. So they trade a 23rd overall pick for Hollywood Brown and the 100th pick. Hmm. So I don't really know where they're going as a franchise.
Starting point is 00:54:16 And I saw all the arguments on Twitter tonight. Oh, they're just trying to keep Kyler happy. I don't know. It seems to me like you could just give Kyler a bunch of money. He'd be pretty happy with that. Most people are. I don't know from a football standpoint, how much better this makes them.
Starting point is 00:54:33 Like, Stephen, when you're thinking about this offense in 2022 with Hollywood Brown, what is it, where does it improve? What does it look like? I don't even know where he slots in. Does he take Christian Kirk spot in the slot? Does he play outside? How funny was that report? How funny was that report they were like Andy Isabella's on the block?
Starting point is 00:54:49 Oh, cool. NFL teams would get right. NFL seems to get right on that. Yeah, yeah. No shit. He's on the block. He hasn't played in three years. And he's never,
Starting point is 00:54:59 he doesn't look like he can, he knows how to catch a football. But I don't know where he plays. Like he's 170 pounds and he's an outside receiver. Like he doesn't make sense as a football player. And the Cardinals just willingly traded for him. Like, they did good business by getting rid of Christian Kirk and not paying him all that money.
Starting point is 00:55:17 And then they turned around and trade it for, worst version of him if they're playing on playing him in that role or they're going to put him in the AJ Green role. And I don't know if he's better than AJ Green, who's like 33 years old and washed up. It was a bizarre trade. I still don't understand it. I don't know why they did that. Buddy, I got nothing for you. I'm not here to help on that. I don't, I don't know why they did that. And he weighs 170 pounds. There have been so many same, but there have been so many, uh, different mixed messages with the last couple of months with Kyler where there's a sort of a warning shot fired by Eric Burkhardt, his agent, and then almost immediately they give or they announce that
Starting point is 00:56:04 Cliff and Kime get extensions. Like I don't, this seems like a makeup call, but it's a pretty expensive makeup call. This, I mean, this isn't like bringing back Randall Cobb last year for for Aaron Rogers to hang out with. Like it's, it's, they're going to have to pay him significant money. It's not going to be $25 million like AJ Brown, but it's going to be something.
Starting point is 00:56:25 Nora, as you said earlier, the, the Ravens got the cost controlled years. They got the value. I'm, it sounds great that Hollywood Brown is a great hang. I just don't know how this helps the Arizona Cardinals.
Starting point is 00:56:37 I'd rather have the 23rd overall pick. I also think your question is, is another operative one, which is like, I would also rather have AJ Brown. and I'm curious if that was a possibility that was explored. Is Kyler going to be able to see Hollywood Brown?
Starting point is 00:56:51 Oh, boy. Why did you have to do that? That's a serious question. Like, who is running the routes over the middle for this team? Andy Isabella. Andy Isabella, too, maybe. They brought AJ Green back? Yes.
Starting point is 00:57:08 No, I mean, I knew that I, that's more of like a, I knew that he was back. It was more of like a, okay. Like, I mean, I don't, I just, it felt like 840 yards last year. That was fine. But like, I feel like there's, there's probably some better options out there. It's, I don't know what they're doing. They're, they're a team that I think is like chasing last year. Like we said, the Packers weren't doing. I think they're doing that. I think they lost Christian Kirk. They kind of panicked and they thought they needed a receiver. I guess they missed out on one that they wanted to draft. There was rumors that they wanted to draft Berks. And then they, they, they, they, they, they swung a trade for a middle schooler. It's gotten very personal. I mean size-wise. He's very small.
Starting point is 00:57:53 These players don't work in the NFL. You get the biggest and the fastest players, and that's how you win games. And they did the opposite. Any other picks you guys want to single out? Do we like what the Chiefs did? I like what the Chiefs did with their second pick. I like the Carloftus pick.
Starting point is 00:58:13 I don't like the Trent McDuffie pick. You just lost in the playoffs, mostly because your cornerbacks got bullied by the Bengals, and then you just drafted a cornerback who was getting bullied all over his tape in the Pac-12. I don't like that big. Physicality, I don't know. I don't know about Trent McDuffie as far as just the measurements and all that stuff. Listen, I, Veach knows ball, so I'm going to go with that. And Karloft is the same, and I wouldn't be surprised if both these guys hit just because Veach is a hell of a GM.
Starting point is 00:58:44 was an incredible, I love George Karloftus for no other reason than there was this incredible sort of like slideshow game thing on NFL.com where you could take a quiz to find out which prospect you were. And there was one slide where you had to choose where you
Starting point is 00:59:00 would want to go on vacation. And the options were I think like Charlotte, North Carolina, New Jersey, somewhere else in like the non-coastal United States and then the Greek islands.
Starting point is 00:59:17 What? Charlotte? It was like the outer banks. Do they mean the outer banks? We're flying into Charlotte? No, it was, I believe it was Charlotte, North Carolina. Because they were choosing places where, where prospects were from or had connections to. But it was just a tough, it was a tough lineup because it was kind of like, come on, guys.
Starting point is 00:59:38 All right, guys, anything else? I thought the Trevor Penning pick was weird by the Saints, but it's such a Saints pick that you can't even be mad at it. I feel like every year they trade up and they take a raw prospect and it turns out to be good so I can't even hate on it. Trevor Penning, like the factoid they gave on,
Starting point is 00:59:54 I think it was ESPN, is that he saw saw, and then he went and saw the sequels to it and that was supposed to be like proof that he was a good football player. I don't get it. He likes horror movies. So the same thing's just like very in peak form
Starting point is 01:00:09 this whole draft cycle. Like they traded way up if we're counting before the draft started twice for a good player in Olavé, who fits a need, that's great. They spent a lot of draft capital if you tally it all together to go up and get there. And then the penning pick is like, again, very saintly,
Starting point is 01:00:32 very saintly things tend to work out for them. So I'm just choosing to be cool with it. I feel like every year we get the saints straight up and everyone's like, this got to be a quarterback, right? And then it's never a quarterback. It's just like a player they're really into. Because they tend to take big swings. They happen with Marcus Davenport, remember?
Starting point is 01:00:49 Right. Where they trade it up and they used a bunch of capital. Famously. They're like, oh, what are they doing? Oh, they're getting kind of a random defense event. There wasn't really anybody's radar. They always look like they're about to do something like huge. And then it end up being a pretty normal football acquisition, always.
Starting point is 01:01:08 Let's quickly go through the most important people who are still available for day two. Kobe Dean, that surprised you, Stephen? No, I knew he was going to fall. He is an undersized linebacker. I just think teams are dumb for passing on him. Like, he was basically running Georgia's practices there. And that's a very complex scheme, probably more complex than anything you're going to run in the NFL. And he's very fast.
Starting point is 01:01:28 He's very physical. He's not afraid of contact. Like, ideal linebacker. I'm very surprised that, I'm surprised that Jacksonville traded up and didn't take him. And they took that. Yeah. So he was 17th on Daniel Jeremiah's list. People thought maybe he was a Patriot.
Starting point is 01:01:43 but once Cole Strange got in those crosshairs, there was no other option. Malik Willis as we discussed. Can I stop you for a second? Just for my own personal therapy, I want to say out loud on the podcast. I think Cole Strange was a bad pick. I think it was a good pick.
Starting point is 01:02:02 Give it a grade. It's called for embracing debate. Give it a grade. Live grades. Nora? C for Cole. I think it was a minus. I think Cole's really good.
Starting point is 01:02:15 Damn, I didn't know. Great athlete. Nor just shit it on my whole high school career saying C's a bad. C's a bad. You got into Maryland C's? I had to go to community college first. Is that really? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:02:30 I had to, I just transferred to Miami too. I didn't, I didn't really light up my high school transcripts. I was doing other stuff. I was knowing ball. I was elsewhere knowing ball. I was going to different sporting events. We were being a little of name. It tells like a memoir title.
Starting point is 01:02:45 Elsewhere, Knowing Ball. Reading the Bill James Almanac. It was more or less last in my high school class. All right. That's a different podcast. Breeze Hall is
Starting point is 01:02:55 28th ranked player running back out of Iowa State. Andrew Booth. I was a little bit surprised that the cornerback Andrew Booth didn't go just because there seemed like there could have been a run on corners
Starting point is 01:03:07 at the end there. Kenneth Walker are still there. Arnold, the pass rusher, Arnold, Penn State. I'm not going to botch his last name. He was getting a lot of buzz as a good athlete late in the first round. So there's some talent here. I wouldn't be surprised.
Starting point is 01:03:22 The quarterbacks, you know who they are. Matt Corral, Desmond Ritter. Obviously, we already did a segment on Malik Willis. So it's an entry, Sam Howell still up for grabs. So I think there's some intriguing names here on day two. Anything you guys are watching? It's the quarterbacks for me. I think a team, two teams are going to get better quarterbacks
Starting point is 01:03:41 than the quarterback taken on Thursday. night. Really? Stephen, you don't like Kenny Pickett? Why didn't you say anything? Stephen, how do you,
Starting point is 01:03:51 the Panthers didn't take Kenny Pickett. No, I know. I have to give them a shout out. I think they did the smart thing. Taking Icky, I was really expecting them to do something bad, like trade down and take a quarterback,
Starting point is 01:04:04 but they stayed put, they took off of the line, and take a quarterback, aka exactly what you wanted the Steelers to do. At pick 20, not at pick six. I'm just teasing. All right, guys, this is wonderful.
Starting point is 01:04:18 We'll be back. So follow the ringer NFL draft show for your round-by-round needs. We will be back on Saturday with a full wrap-up of all three days. And then we're going to be back on Monday with a mega wrap-up. We couldn't be wrapping it up any more than we already are. So we'll be back on Saturday and then on Monday with the big picture show. Guys, see you on Saturday. Can't wait.
Starting point is 01:04:43 Tooteloo. Thank you to Isaiah Blake's production help with additional supervision by Arjuna Ramkev. It's been the Ramallah show on the Ringer Podcast Network. See you Saturday.

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