Welcome into Road to the Draft, coming to you from the Bucks Studio, presented by Ticketmaster Casey Phillips. Here were a senior writer and editor, Scott Smith. We love this series every year.
I love the Draft.
Who doesn't love the Draft.
It's the excitement of the future, the potential.
And every player you pick is going to be a star.
Obviously, every player is the one piece you were missing it would have gotten you there. And that's what's so fun about this. And you know, especially we know since it is a road to the Draft, it's a little bit of a long road. This is our first we're just getting on the road.
We're on the on ramp.
We're on the on ramp here, which means we have a lot more of these coming up. We have a lot of different ways we're going to talk about it.
This year.
We've got a whole new setup as well, so we're gonna be able to incorporate some film studies, some mock drafts. But this first week, we felt like the perfect place to start was who are a lot of the guys we're seeing very frequently mocked in that first round to us? And I know, not just that, but you also have a bit of a theme behind the idea of why you chose these particular guys.
What is that?
Yeah, well, believe me, the mock draft season is well underway. You can find endless numbers of them already here in mid February. But it's probably gonna change a lot, right, And the three players that I picked are showing up in a lot of these mock drafts. But also I have a feeling that any or all three of them, you could see their draft stock change significantly, either up
or down before the draft. So this is just a starting point, and it may not even you know, we may look at it back at this two months later.
No, Bucks aren't a drafting any of these, but.
Right now they're popular picks for the Bucks. And I'll explain why I mean that with each player.
As we go.
Okay, so tell me about who we have here.
I mean a team that clearly no one ever gets drafted from in the NFL.
I was gonna say having this up here while we started might have been a giveaway, except how many Alabama players are gonna get drafted?
Yeah?
Probably all of everybody on the whole screen.
Well, in this case, we're looking at g Hot Campbell. The off ball linebacker right here, number one.
Also, look at our fun technology of this year. Who doesn't love it?
Never used to? I know, I'm cooking Kidney candy star.
So this is g Hot Campbell, number eleven, six three and forty four pounds. He's an off ball linebacker, but he does have some pass rushing ability. He had one hundred and seventeen tackles last year, but also five sacks. So some analysts believe you take this player to play like a Levante David type position, but you might get some edge rush out of in two Like not, I'm not gonna call Michael Parsons, but that kind of idea.
Sounds perfect for a Todd Bowles defense too, in terms of what we want to.
Use you here and the sky splits Yes.
So he's like I said, six three two forty four. He was a semi finalist for the Buckets Award, which is the best linebacker in the nation. So let's take a look at here at some of his plays.
This one.
You're going to see him in coverage because he does have some pretty well developed coverage skills. You'll see that he really figures out where he's supposed to go on the zone, So you'll see me he's got his eyes in the quarterback, he's reading where he's going with it. You know, that's pretty good instinctive there. He clearly wanted to get the interception, of course. And here's another one. G Hot Campbell's right here this time. It's going to
be another example of dropping into coverage. And as you know, whenever you're playing cover two with two safeties, your middle linebacker has to be able to drive down the middle to make the cover two works. So you'll see him here dropping coverage, which is an important thing for scouting. G Hot Campbell reads the play, gets the pick. You know, that was pretty much thrown right to him, but we've seen defenders don't always catch them.
Yeah, not a given, and it was great again for it to be thrown right to him means he was right in the exact spot he was supposed to be in.
And now we want to see him tackling, right. He's a he's a sure tackler. He rarely miss his tackles. So you'll see him right here. This is obviously going to be they're gonna run it. They're gonna try to run it in and you'll see him make a really nice play, read it and get the shoot the gap there and get him wrapped up well behind the end zone. So anyway, a couple more players can run here while
we're talking. But you know, the idea here is that kJ Britt j R. Russell, and Levante David, they're all they're all free agents. We're hoping, of course, that Levante decides to come back, but yeah, your.
Whole inside linebacker room practically is potentially a free agent. So yeah, I think that not not surprising to think that could be an area that they target this year.
So the thing is, even we're hoping Levonte comes back, right even if he does come back, you know, as great as he's been, he still has been the last couple years, at some point he's going to hang him up. He's clearly been thinking about it the last couple of years. So you do want to think about the future of that position. But as I was saying the theme of how these guys draft stock may riser fall out, I think right now a lot of analysts out there are
doing the connection thing. They're doing what we just did. Buccaneers could lose a lot of linebackers. It's a really big position to need. What's the best linebacker on the board. Put them at number ninety, right, But as we've seen a lot through the years, unless this off ball linebacker is something has some really special skills, like maybe if you do think you can be a good edge rusher, you don't usually have to spend a first round pick
on that position. So I could see as the time goes on, as we get closer, more analysts saying no, that's a player teams will probably target in the second round. Yeah, or maybe they'll discover that, yeah, he has these other talents that he could rise even high.
And then of course what are the Bucks do in free agency of Ladante or not? And then other outside people in terms of are bringing back your inside that that's always the interesting thing about ho much free agency can change a position of need like this as well, that suddenly you can go from wow, we had three potential free agents to we we apparently no free agency.
Yeah, that's a good point.
So, like we said before, we're really early on this road and there's a lot of factors still to go. But let's take a look at another player, and to stay on defense. In fact, that's going to another thing today.
I'm going to guess that's a theme a lot in the next few months.
And you can see here.
Now we're looking at Georgia, which has sent roughly a million defenders to the NFL, most to Philly in the last couple of years, and we're gonna look at another guy. Now, this is a guy considered more of an edge rusher than an off ball linebacker, and that's right here. It's Jalen Walker. Now, the history with him is the previous two years he was a rotational guy and mostly a third down guy as an edge rusher.
So last year was the first.
Year that he played a lot of off ball linebacker and all he did was win the Buckets Award, which we were talking about Jihad being a semi finals for He won it, so obviously it went very well. This is a very very talented, quick, explosive guy. That's why there's a lot of thought that he could be a really productive edge rusher, but he hasn't played there for very long, and you know, there's sometimes there's there's cops or expectations you're going to get this out of a player,
and he doesn't get there. So I'm reminded of a couple of years ago when the Jaguars took Trayvon Walker of Georgia, very similar.
I don't think they're related.
Over Aiden Hutchinson based simply on Tree and he's been pretty good, but he hasn't been eight hutches in. So let's take a look at some of his plays. Here, he's you know, obviously it's a good chance to see him coming off the edge becomes more of a run blitz.
Good pursuit.
You saw how fast he was and how he recognized the play. Now what you're gonna like about this is you're gonna see how well he sets the edge. Because he's not the biggest guy. He's kind of a tweener like six three two forty five, which was one of the reasons why some people think he might play some off ball as well. So he's not the biggest guy. But watch how will he sets the edge here against
the tackle and then disengages. So we're talking about this guy right here, he's gonna he's gonna engage with the with the tackle. It's a lot bigger than he is, and he's gonna.
Stand him up.
They're trying to they're trying to do the option. The read option quarterback runs. You see how he stood him up there for a little while and then sheds him at just the right moment to get the play.
Looks like maybe there's a little pretty excited.
Look.
That's a that I really wanted to show you that one because I thought that was very impressive. So anyway, again, this is a guy that you might consider. He's being compared to Nolan Smith, also from Georgia, who drafted by the Eagles, and he kind of came on this year, so it could you could be talking about a guy that needs a little bit to develop to be a top notch edge rusher. He's he's a little bit. He's very quick and explosive and I think you'll see that
here as he comes around the edge. So obviously he ran right around that guy dipped the shoulder at the right moment. Really good play, right, So you do see the explosiveness and the and the idea that he'd be able to be a really that bend.
Effective edge rusher.
But he doesn't have a lot of moves yet. He doesn't have a big tool set of pass rush moves. But that's what NFL coaches like.
Yeah, right, So if you're.
Getting that kind of success without even having that many tools. Think about once they give you more.
Yeah, and so this is kind of a deep class in the first round for EDG rushers. I think he's the when when we're getting him in these mock drafts, he's like the fourth or fifth EDG drusher off the board. So it could be that the Buccaneers are targeting that
position and it might he might go higher. Like I said before, I could see these guys really moving around a lot, and if people if he goes the combine and blows it away with his with his forty yard dash and his agility drills, I could see his stock going up and he may end up being out of range for the Buccaneers unless they move on. So that's why I think he's a guy again volatile draft stock between now and then. And one more clip of him
right here. This is like a power move, so you just kind of that guy has a lot of weight on him. Yeah, and he was pushing him back, so that was pretty impressive from another angle here, and.
Even when he's kind of on the ground, still goes in trying to make that.
Yeah, he's got a motor, that's for sure. Now, we're gonna be talking in a position that I think, you know, I'm very fond.
Of, yeah, and that you can never ever have enough of.
According to Scott, that will be put on your tombstone someday.
Well, we never have enough corners?
Did we not see that?
This past year and the year before that, and all the years we.
Were going down to fourth to six?
I actually wish you wouldn't have said that so often. It's starting to feel like maybe it's your fault.
But you have been right.
Yeah, maybe I spoke it into existence.
Yes, but this is Benjamin Morrison of Notre Dame, and he's the guy that I actually gave.
To us in my first mock draft of the year. That's just how it fell. He was there.
I'm like a good cornerback. I can't help myself. So I took that over an Ed Druscher. So we're talking about number twenty here, Benjamin Morrison. Obviously pretty easy to pick him up. Let's see him on this coverage. Just a quick reaction there. So he's got very quick feet, you know, he's got he's very fluid in his motions, you know, and you can play inside and outside what you see? Yeah, what you see there is a really good to be able to mirror and close quickly on routes.
That's very important when you're playing.
In the slot.
That's like a big deal, right.
This one reminds me of something that Raheem Morris said when he was coaching defensive backs. I didn't really need to circle him there because.
It's a lot of nice of him.
Watch this back again. Raheem Moore so always used to tell those cornerbacks look and lean. It's kind of like using the sideline to help you in the coverage. So as you're running with your guy, you're also kind of leaning towards him and forcing him more and more to the sideline. And that was always something that Raheem Moore said. Oh, it's maybe all the coaches do, but I just remember
him saying it. So as you see the guy goes to the sideline, he's able to run with him, and he's keeping his eyes on the football, but he's also kind of directing him towards the sideline. Yeah, and so he's making him run on a room. You'll see that even better on this next clip, which is from another angle. See how he's he's forced him towards the sideline.
That Yeah, No, it's now he's the only one that could make that catch.
Yeah, and it's nothing that's going to be called a penalty. They're not hand fighting or anything. They're just he's he's leaning on him.
Yeah, use the sideline to your advantage.
So that's a really nice play there.
He Now here's the deal. So we're talking about guys whose draft stock could go up and down.
Right.
He had hip surgery in October and missed the rest of the season, was having a good season, had a really good twenty twenty three season. But anytime a guy has a medical issue like that, you have to wonder if that's gonna how are they you know?
And that's when the combine becomes.
So you're exactly right. It's exactly what I was going to say. You hit.
What happens to him at the combine, running and all that, it will be far less important than what his medical show. So if you feel good about him, he could go higher because good cornerbacks are hard to find, and they're they're they're going to rise up the draft if they do.
Well, So great stuff for sure.
Those a breakdown to some of these guys, and again this is just the beginning of the road of the draft. We're gonna have several more of these where we look at it every which way to Sunday, so that you are ready to know what the Bucks might do, not just in the first round, but the draft overall.
So we'll see you next time.