Alright, welcome back to the Buffalo Bread Podcast. This is our draft extravaganza leading up to the draft in two weeks. We have a couple of guests with us today to talk about their team's needs and the Patriots and the Dolphins. Unfortunately, our Jets expert, Jetspert, was unable to make this pod this evening, but that's okay. We will roll along and it doesn't matter anyway since the Jets will be trading all of their draft picks for Aaron Rodgers to flame out in epic proportions.
I'm going to let our guests introduce themselves next. But first a word from your Dan. Hello, I'm your Dan. Welcome to the pod everybody. JJ, very excited to get to the mock draft. You know that I have a hard and fast rule that I don't do any mocks until free agency has kicked off. So I've literally been waiting for this cherished moment in my Buffalo Bills offseason for several weeks.
I'm excited that we are changing the format and adding a few AFC East friends slash rivals, AFC East frenemies to the mix. So we're going to let them introduce themselves here and then we're going to kick off our three round draftacular. So Steve, why don't we start with you? Why don't you introduce yourself to our very loyal audience members, a little bit about yourself and your fandom. All right. Well, first I want to say I come in peace.
So whatever I decide or whatever I do, just know that I always will have the Finns interest in heart. As everyone said, my name is Steve. I represent the Miami Dolphins. I've been a lifelong Finns fan for since I've been able to watch football. I grew up watching Dan Marino all the way up through the good years, the bad years and the rebuilding years. Awesome. Welcome to the pod, sir. Brandon. Hi, thanks for having me back, Brandon, friend of me of the of the Buffalo Bread Nation.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to telling you all what I think about what the Patriots should pick upcoming drafts. So thanks for having me. No welcome to both of you. I like how you shouted out Buffalo Bread Nation as well. Like the Army, the Army, the Buffalo Bread Army. We we exaggerate, of course, we're more like a Buffalo Bills poker game with like four or five guys, right? But yeah, no, we we hope to get there one day. So yeah. All right.
So before we get into the draft, I'll break down the rules of how we're going to play this thing out, right. But before we get into that, Steve, Brandon, love for you to set up our audience for what you think your respective team needs are. Everyone heard if they listen to the last pod, where JJ and I think the bill should land in this in this year's draft, but we'd love to hear from your perspective what you think your team needs are. So Brandon, why don't we start with you?
Tell us why you're picking Will Levis in the third round. So for our first pick, we'll be looking at a head coach. How many of those? The goat gets the boot. Oh my God. You just got a lot of fans here. You really did. We are now a Buffalo Bread Nation. Thank you, Brandon. Welcome everybody. No, I mean, I have not been as a fan of the Patriots, not been enjoying all of the drama and the offseason talks about McCorkle Jones and the conflict with Belichick.
And obviously, you know, I think we're haunted by the failed experiments of Matt Patricia as the offensive coordinator there. So things really need to turn around. And I wouldn't say I'm super optimistic just because of how poorly the Patriots have chosen a draft, particularly the last couple of years. I think they rank last in terms of players drafted still on the active roster. So it's just kind of been a little embarrassing.
So I think this is a really a prove it year for the Patriots to figure it out of the draft and make some changes heading into the regular season. But McCorkle will be the QB this fall, you know, there will probably be chatter about Bailey's Zappi and some sort of quarterback face off at camp. But at the end of the day, it's going to be their first round pick. His failings will be chalked up to Matt Patricia. And honestly, you know, he deserves a fresh start.
So I think the answer here is to surround Mac Jones with weapons, give him the best chance possible. We have Juju for better or worse, we have Gassicki for better or worse. So what else can we give Mac to make him shine? So as we head to this first pick, I think I'll be leaning on the offensive side of the ball. So nice. I'm going to venture a guess and Steve will let you hop in here.
I'm going to venture a guess that's going to be a theme for all of these AFC East teams that we're going to be talking about, right? All of us to some extent have really suspect depth at offensive line. The Patriots in particular, looking for a little bit more depth that pass catcher wide receiver I know we're looking for that too. Steve, where do you fall with your needs? Are you similarly looking at the offensive side of the ball for Miami tonight?
So yeah, I mean really our needs like everyone else offensive line, I think the theme for this year is how can we protect Tua? He cleared concussion protocol, we're trying our best to protect him. And so for me, I mean, I got to focus continuing to focus on the offensive line where, I mean, we've seen it year in year out where guys get injured all the time.
And so just trying to put that the line as best position as possible to all right, next man up, where you can just go and immediately fill that need. So yeah, I'm focusing on offensive guard. I think that's one of our constant needs. And then also looking at tight end. We lost a very good tight end Mike Dusecki to the New England Patriots of all teams. But yeah, we got to fill that void as well. Definitely looking at someone that could potentially do some blocking a little bit better.
I think that was ultimately Dusecki's downfall as he was phenomenal hands, but that pass blocking and run blocking was a little suspect. So hopefully we can fill that void as well. But yeah, I mean, offensive line, we got to protect Tua this year. Maybe some of those later rounds, take a fire on a QB, never know what you're going to get. Not bad, pretty solid analysis. And I totally agree with you.
And it's weird that offensive guard is a position that's been largely devalued in the first half of the first round of NFL drafts. Because when I look at the athleticism of so many of the QBs in the league right now, you want to close out the middle for them. If you look at where Kyler Murray is an exception, he's like a toddler, he runs like a toddler that stole something, right. But every other athletic QB that's out there, they look to make their hey up the middle, right.
So if you don't have solid guard play, and your guards are constantly being beaten or manipulated by interior defensive linemen, or in a three, four a nose tackle situation, then you're limiting one of the best athletic attributes of your of your QBs. And to us since the recovery from the hip injury, he can move a little bit, right. But I agree with you.
I watched game after game last year of the Dolphins, just not being able to protect two up the middle and him running for his life around the edge, you know, so we're looking for something similar to I think, my guess is guard is going to pop up here for Brandon in these first few rounds as well. And it is not a deep draft for that position. So it'll be interesting to see who gets who gets Osiris Torrance, because that's who I really want. So yeah. All right, cool. Are you guys ready to mock?
We're ready to ready to mock. All right, so just for you listening at home, this is going to be a three round mock, not a full seven round mock trades are allowed. We're going pick for pick. We're not doing any players or anything like that. We are going to let the sim do most of the work. We're using PFF mock draft simulator. We have it tuned up here so that Brandon will of course be picking for the Patriots. Steve will be picking for the Dolphins.
And then JJ and I will do our best big baller bean impression. And we'll be picking for your Buffalo Bills. All right. So the sim we've purposely queued up to get a little bit slow. So you're going to hear probably a lot of banner or a lot of guffaws of of where the picks are coming from, especially as like, you know, the players that JJ and I want come off the board. So bear with us on that because we promise we have good stuff coming for you. All right, guys, here we go.
I am going to start the sim after I change the speed back down to slow so we can actually see what's going on here. All right, perfect. All right, I'm going to queue up the sim and the Carolina Panthers are on the clock. Bryce Young, that's absolutely the direction they should go with that pick 100%. Oh, man, the Colts go Will Levis. I'm so sorry, Brandon. Your Josh Allen is no longer on the board. For QBs in the top seven picks to which that that feels about right, right?
That feels about right. So we have gotten here to the New England Patriots. So just for the folks listening at home, some of the big names that have already come off the board, Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, go back to back. Will Anderson Jr. goes to the Cardinals. Will Levis at pick four goes to the Colts. Jalen Carter comes off the board. Anthony Richardson comes off the board at number seven for your for the Raiders.
Jackson Smith in Giba comes off at eight, a top 10 pick in the sim and going to the Atlanta Falcons. Chicago picks Skrinovsky. Skrinovsky, right? The tackle slash really a guard on Northwestern. Wow, Luke Van Ness, JJ, a top 10 pick here. And edge from from Iowa. Yeah, yeah, it's a big surprise. And then Quentin Johnston goes to the Jets for for our first AFC East rival pick. I like that pick because I'm not quite sure Johnston can catch the football.
So like he's a dude who looks like he's being attacked by the football when it comes at him. Like I get the traits are there, but that dude's a project. So I actually don't mind that he comes off the board to the Jets there. How do the rest of you AFC East folks feel about that? I have no concerns whatsoever. Everything is fine. That is that is on to the next pick. I love that. Holy crap. I love that. All right. Cincinnati. Yeah, I just Cincinnati. There you go.
On to the next pick, Brandon, you are up, sir. So you have quite the full board available to you. Which need do you want to focus on for your boys here? Yeah, I planned for this. So I'm already pretty, pretty set in stone here on whom I'm going to be picking, which is going to be a wide receiver. Like I said, I think we need to make up for the mistakes of the past. Let McCorkle shine, surround him with talent. And so Zay Flowers, I think is, yeah, you know, it's look where he's from, right?
Yeah, of course. Boston College. Boston College. So I think some of the best hands this draft class and really, really excited to see what he could do for us. So for me, that is the natural obvious selection would be Zay Flowers. And we drafted way back in the day, Trey Flowers in the fourth round. So we have a good track record with guys whose last name is Flowers. So let's let's let's lock that in. Rock solid analysis only that you can only get on the Buffalo bread pod.
I hate that pick, but it is. I hate that pick, but I love that you're doing it early because he really does give you guys something that New England has lacked really, really since going back to the Brady days, the latter half of the Brady years, like just a really fast guy who can eat up passes in the middle of the field. I mean, I think back to Julian Edelman, Wes Welker, these super tiny like mini slot guys that just absolutely ran shredded routes across the middle of the field.
And it wasn't just check down stuff. They were getting huge chunk yard plays across the middle for Brady. Zay Flowers is that guy. You set him in motion. Forget about it. It's unfair. He's got to release every time he is a dynamic weapon. Any concerns that Belichick will actually be able to use him as the proper weapon that he is, though? Oh, 100 percent. I mean, yeah, I already said it. They're terrible at utilizing the guys that they draft.
And so, yeah, I might feel differently about this pick if we didn't do the juju deal and hit Kelp's who we had, so, you know, it's just kind of the way the cards fell. But I really, really dislike juju since Schuster. It's going to be hard to watch. And so I hope, you know, it's a flowers coming in and running the show. Oh, yeah. And Zay can play on the outside, too.
So in those, you know, in those three wide outsets where you want to run the ball a little bit, you can still put you can still put juju in the slot and just let him block his face off right up the center of the field. That's now that's a solid pick that would make that pass that passing offense way more dynamic. All right, Zay Flowers, the pick is in at number 14. Darn All Right goes to the commanders, man. Hey, can you pause? Yep, I can absolutely pause. What do you want to look at?
Never mind. Yeah. So let's see. I was you can tell who I was pausing for. I know literally the pick that that happened just before I said you've got the pause button. Don't get paid from you. Don't can kid it. So I I love Kincaid, right? I Kincaid is getting very, very quiet comps to Travis Kelsey. Here's the thing for me and you, though, dude. Like, yes, Buffalo wants to run more to tight end sets, but Dawson Knox is inked for the next four years.
And they're very likely going to either restructure his deal again next year or give him a couple extra years on the deal to extend him. So Knox is your T E one. So for us to use a first round pick on a tight end, as much as I would have loved it, like how much would that guy actually be playing for us? What do you think about the snapshot the Knox is realistically going to get? I don't know.
But I just know that that's the way that the every linebacker coming out of every draft is like six foot to 214 pounds. So I'm I'm all about getting some beefy catchers in the middle, dude. I'm not against it. But I think we'll be able to find some beef later on here. All right. All right. Let's see here. B John Robinson goes to Jacksonville. Oh, man. And our boy Jordan Addison goes to goes to Brian Dayball over in New York, which is a good pick for them.
So so this is where I expected us to be at JJ. We are now at pick 27. Best player on the board right now is a safety and Brian Branch. Best offensive lineman on the board, according to PFPFF is Anton Harrison. It tackle best pass catcher left on the board right now is Michael Mayer, the tight end on a Notre Dame. And then the best interior defensive lineman we have is Mazze Smith from Michigan. And we also have to trade to trade opportunities.
Can we look at the trades because I want Mazze Smith or Mazze Smith. But I'm worried he won't be there. Thirty eight is the highest that they're going to get us. Thirty eight is the highest offer that we have right now. You can't drop 10 and get Mazze Smith because no defensive interiors really come off the board yet. Yeah, I mean, he's going to be the first one. And then this feels like there's going to be a run on that.
I mean, he might go he might go right here to to Philly, you know, so he might go around. He might go next pick to. Oh, yeah. Bengals. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. You just got a lot of teams coming up here that need interior defensive line help. And I don't want the Bengals or the Chiefs to have him so I might reach and get Mazze Smith here. And that's the problem. It is a little bit of a reach. We also I mean, you and I also said tackle Harrison fits that mold.
He's super athletic, and he's a little bit of a project. So he could be a guy that pushes Spencer Brown on the right hand side. But really, by drafting Harrison, we now feel like we've got our our Deon Dawkins replacement for the future. So that's another another possibility I'd be willing to entertain here. DeJuan Jones, my boy who I know you think is too, too tall and too big. We already have one of those too tall, too big guys on the right side.
And then we've got Osiris Torrance, who I guarantee you will not be there at 59. Right. But the bills have done a bunch with interior guard. I I'm good with the Smith pick if you're good with the Smith pick.
And for Bill's Mafia, I think the reason I'm good with the Macy's Macy Smith pick is that it's classic Brandon Bean to look at a draft and look at the parts that are thin in a draft and strike them aggressively and early, even if it's a little bit out of position for positions that where the value and the need matchup. I don't know if they have him as a first rounder and they might he might be off the board, you know, and they miss on him.
But I, the fan, am looking at a roster with three of the defensive interior players on expiring deals. And Ed Oliver looking to get a massive payday on a salary cap. The bills have no room on. So I'm looking I'm looking to go with that. He's an absolute gobbler in the run game. And I think that a lot of teams are moving back to power run to counter the same thing I mentioned, which is the entire league getting lighter and faster. Yep, I agree. I totally agree.
I think and I think Smith also gives us a little bit of formation flexibility. We talked about the need for defenses these days to be multiple. If you've got a true one tech like Smith in the middle of the defensive line, you can rush three and drop eight bring in Benford for for an extra rep and really start to cloud passing clog passing lanes for some of these these pass happy teams. So I'm good with Smith. I think he makes us better on defense.
And he address a short term and long term need we have at the position. Lock it in and let's roll. All right, before I lock it in Steve, Miami is picking at 51. So we're going to go for with a Brandon pick before we get to you. Do you have any interest in trading up at all from 51? Nope, I'm good. Okay, sounds good. We're letting it ride. Nice way to be. All right, here we go. Smith is the pick. And it is and Brian branch comes off the board next up.
Here's our boy Osiris Torrance man going to go into New Orleans. Jack Campbell to L the LA Rams. So there's one of our guys. Oh, Josh Downs comes off. Hang on, I'm going to pause right here because I want to bask in the glow of how much I hate what the Jets sim did. So the Jets picked up who they pick up in the first round again, I gotta remind myself, Quentin Johnston, all right.
They get back to back picks in the second round and they go Cody Mock, who is the tackle with guard versatility out of North Dakota State love Cody Mock and they go Steve Avila, who JJ as you know, my draft crush for interior offensive lineman, the best pure guard in the draft, best pure guard in the draft with real center transfer ability. So I mean, I hate the fact that the Jets have picked so well so far. That's a good haul.
Like that's a really good haul so far for the New for the New Jersey Jets. All right, we are on to the New England Patriots at pick 46. So Brandon, which way you want to head? You went wide receiver with your first pick. Yeah, pretty happy about that decision still. Especially because you were not happy about it. I was really really pissed about it. It just kind of solidifies that that was the right choice. Well, I mean, for this next pick, what would annoy you the most?
Well, I know it would annoy Brandon Bean if you were to pick an edge here, because that's just what Bean does. He constantly throws darts at the board on edge. So according to PFF, your team your team needs sit at QB. That's harassment. That is, I will not stand for it. Throwing it out there. Double offensive tackle, you do got to you know, you do got to think about that. And then edge, right? You guys could use a little bit of help on the edge to take some of the pressure off a judon.
And there's some good edges here, man. You got BJ Ojelari here from LSU. You've got Tuli to Tupulu from USC. I probably just butchered that name. Sorry. You've got some really decent options here. And then you've got some good tackle options down here too. If you wanted though to go super sick, Belichick, you would draft Luke Musgrave, the tight end out of Oregon State, and you would just run three tight end sets for the rest of the season. Yeah, I mean, I don't hate that idea.
I mean, this tight end class is really, really ridiculous. It's good. Yeah, it's ridiculous. So I mean, it almost seems like, you know, it would be sad not to get one of those high high level tight ends. And I can see Belichick actually doing that too. That's the yeah, no, totally. How long is the Gassicki deal? You know, I don't know off the top of my head, but they're gonna they're gonna line him up out wide, right? There's a lot of the chatter coming from from New England.
So like, if realistically, if you had Hunter Henry, and let's say, Luke Musgrave, you got a two tight end set there, you line up juju, you line up Zay on the outside, and then you got Gassicki on the other side. I mean, he's, he's gonna overmatch a lot of these tiny, tiny cornerbacks coming across the middle that that formation screams Belichick nonsense right there. Yeah, totally agree with you. Um, I think I need to go with the tackle here, though. I agree. What's the best tackle on the board?
Best tackle on the board. Let me just sort by that position. Best tackle on the board is Matt Bergeron coming out of Syracuse, super athletic, 63318 ish has played most of his college career at tackle but has some versatility switch switching over to guard as well. A in early or a late draft riser has been Blake Freeland from BYU. There's been a lot of chatter that he's going to come off the board or sooner rather than later. He's a big boy 68302 super freakish athletic.
And the only downside to him according to PFS, PFF is that he is so tall but so lanky that does he have real strength to play the position, but he's been a there's been a lot of talk about him rising up the board. Another draft riser has been Nick Selvedere out of Old Dominion. So he projects out more as a guard in the NFL, but he's got the athletic profile to play tackle and played tackle a lot at Old Dominion.
But picking him here would be criminal because he's probably going to be around in the third or fourth. 100%. So one of my favorites, Patriot players of all time is big boy Vince Wilfork. So as homage to Wilfork, why don't we take the big boy with break Freeland. All right, Blake Freeland is the pick. And here's what's interesting about that pick super athletic tackle with some positional versatility as well. O'Brien could do some fun stuff with that really good.
And that's just an offensive line that needs a needs a little bit of an injection of youth. All right, 51 we are on the clock for the Miami Dolphins. Steve, which direction you want to head here? All I can say is it's about time. I feel like I've been sitting here wasting away. But so I'm you know, I'm inclined to go the offensive lineman route for this first pick for us. I'll pull up tackles and I'll pull up guards for you too. So the the best interior offensive lineman on the board right now.
Luke whippler from Ohio State who really does project is just a center, right? A good center or a very good solid center but doesn't have a lot of line versatility that these other guys do. Joe tipman center out of Wisconsin has a little bit more line versatility here on the interior. We already talked about Bergeron. And then a really fast draft board riser recently has been Chandler's of Allah out of North Carolina State.
This dude has been climbing up a lot of draft boards for his ability to protect in the interior for pass blocking. He's a big guard too. So 65 325 really opens up the interior of the offensive line for that Miami run game. So you've got some rock solid options here. I would just like to point out for you know, those of you listening who can't see Dan's screen, I don't know why but the PFF draft simulator has Joe tipman's mugshot as the logo for his college.
Every other pick just as their college logo. That's right. And it looks like Joe dirt ate somebody who is top. He wins the mug Olympics at least. Joe dirt ate Creed Humphrey. That's what happened. Oh man. So do you want to take the do you want to take Creed Humphrey eater and Joe tipman or what do you want to do? I'm trying to look here. Did you say you were able to filter that down more specifically to the guard or is it just the line?
Yep, I can just bring up I can just bring up interior for you if that's what you want to see. So if tackle is not your game, here are all of your interior guys left. So in the top hundred according to PFF, you've got whippler who's at rank 48 overall by PFF tipman 52 overall, and you've got Zavala who is 70 overall. There's also juice Scruggs whose name is among the best I've ever seen. I mean, yes.
You know what, I think we're gonna we're gonna go with Zavala Chandler's of all out and North get that. That is a pick you guys would not regret. I'm pretty sure he's a dude who I had tuned up in a lot of my mocks might be hit for a little bit of a reach here with the rank being 70 and you picking at 51 but you identified a clear need for your team. He really is the best pure guard available left on the board. So why not? Right?
The reality is too for us, we get four picks for this draft for picks. And so just trying to maximize what we can and if we have to overreach a little bit, at least we can get the people that we can get. I'm good with it. Chandler's of Allah coming off the board here. All right. Oh, Keanu Keanu Benton goes I feel better about that. Jalen Hyatt goes to Chicago here. There's Berger and off the board Berger on to Jacksonville. Yep, absolutely. Man, those lucky punks. Luke Musgrave going to Dallas.
Oh, that's spicy. That's spicy. Dak Prescott with a Dolan Schultz replacement. That's great. All right, JJ. Here's where we're at. So we address defense with our first overall pick, which honestly, is very likely where where what's his face is gonna had Brandon being what's his face? The guy who's literally changed the fortunes of our entire franchise and made us proud fans again. That what's his face? That's no disrespect intended. We've got a couple of trade offers here.
The Oh God, and the best one is going all the way down to pick 82. Absolutely not. Right. So let's take a look here. So we drive we went with Smith, address the defensive interior, right? I mean, I think wide receiver. Yeah, I was gonna say I need offensive skill positions. I'm gonna bring up I'm gonna bring up wide receiver. I'm gonna bring up tight end for us. Right. So Darnell Washington, freaky, the freaky athletic tight end out of Georgia, still somehow on the board here.
He's been a fast draft riser. I didn't the bills do a top 30 with him? Yes, I believe. Yeah. You know, so he's still on the board. And I know we just had the tight end argument about round one. But here would be my case for Washington in round two. He is a natural pass blocker. So when I think about all those jumbo sets that Dorsey had to call last season, checking into the game number 69, Bobby Hart, right? You replace that with a two tight end set.
And I would argue with Washington, you're getting a better edge seal with this kid's technique and his raw size and athleticism. Plus, he's a threat to catch the ball. So it makes those two tight end sets effective in both the pass and the run. Whereas had we gone with someone like Mayer, right in the first round or even Kincaid, those are two guys who are minus pass blockers. That's not the case with Washington.
Little bit of a raw product when it comes to or raw talent when it comes to pass catching. But this dude is flashed big time. This might honestly be a steal here. Yeah, I think I mean, it's hard because I also like Rashid Rice. But there's kind of massive bust potential there. He has boomer bust. Yeah, because I feel like he looks like he's fighting the ball sometimes when he tries to catch. He doesn't have natural hands.
He's got like the full athletic profile, but that didn't result in the kind of production you'd expect for that athletic profile. So yeah, it's tough. You know, I see Tyler Tucker craft. Sorry. Yep. South Dakota State and the fact that I don't think he has any relation to Tyler craft really takes him a notch down for me. I don't see it. What do you think of Cedric Tillman? I have liked his tape a little bit. I was just circling here Perry and Tillman, right? So we should know here.
So here, top pass catchers on the board tank down Nathaniel doll out of Houston, Michael Wilson coming off. What is Wilson coming off of a back injury? He might be out for the first part of his first season. Right, right. Rashid Rice, who we talked about Tucker craft. And then we've got a T Perry and Cedric Tillman. So I at this point in the second round, this late, I'm not really concerned about PFFs ranking right on where things are at.
All it's going to affect is our our grade at the end of this. I'm more concerned about real world impact. And I think Perry and Tillman give us something that we don't have. These guys are true outside receivers. Perry has more slot flexibility at this point. I could see the bills going down because they value that Cole Beasley eats up zone coverage in the middle of the field type guys right with a little bit of yak yards after the catch.
I could see the bills with their organizational philosophy going down. But Perry or Tillman, they give you a little bit of hedge in case Gabe Davis does have a bus season or on the flip side of that has a breakout season and we can't afford him because then you immediately have what is becoming such a commodity, such a slim commodity these days. Big wide receivers with outside flexibility. And these guys are big. They're the two biggest wide receivers in the draft.
So Tillman is clocking in at 632 13 vice grips for hands in a T Perry who is maybe outside of JSN the best route runner in this class 631 98. Yeah, I mean, you're selling me, dude. I should be an agent, right? I was going to go Darnell Washington, but I think that it's, you know, we'll go dealers choice Dan pick us a T Perry or Cedric Tillman, whichever one you're feeling. Oh, I'm going to go till. So my gut says go Tillman, right? But here's where I had you a little bit on that.
Like the complexity of the route tree in Tennessee was not that great. Every comes in ready made, ready made with his route tree. Oh man, this one is actually tougher than I thought it would be. Well, could you not potentially Wade and get them on the get them on the turn? No, you can't 59 ranks 89. No because I guarantee you based on how this board has fallen, like Chicago's coming up here, they need an extra pass catcher.
Philly needs an extra pass catcher and that they have not drafted one as of yet. And then we've got Casey, who's also looking for a pass catcher as well. And that's just at the end of the second round. Dan, this is sports entertainment. Do we do it? Do we trade down to 89? I mean, who are we going to have? I thought it was 83. It was 89. Wasn't it? It was 82. It was 82. We're both wrong. Okay. Um, I mean we could trade down, but dude, I, I just kind of want to make the pit. All right.
Make the call. Any concerns about Josh Allen's elbow and throwing the deep passes this coming year where he might rely on more of those check down guys or guys going across the middle or maybe you should get a quarterback. Maybe we should, maybe we should had you that Josh Allen has washed up and Yeah, he's here. Zero games. I know. Right. Here's, here's the only reason I'd be willing to trade down.
Tyler Scott is still on the board for Cincinnati and I do think we have a good shot of snap and nabbing him at 91 and that dude is a versatile burner. Like I love Scott coming out of Cincinnati. We could accumulate a few more picks here. We could see if we could work, work our, our PFF trade magic here with the Buccaneers. Who's the second offer? I'm just curious here. Second offer is Seattle at 83. So yeah. All right to you, man.
It's it's doing a doing a bean and you know, being doesn't trade down that we trades up bean doesn't trade down, right? All right. I am I am going to go at Perry out of Wake Forest. I just the bills value guys that can separate Cedric Tillman because of his route limitations is not yet a good separator. He's a big contested catch guy. Perry is a guy who is plug and play for the bills at multiple locations in those wide receiver sets. And he's six five. I mean, he's huge, right?
He's a huge target. And Steve to your point, I've got no concerns about Josh with the deep ball. I actually think the deep ball was the only thing he could throw accurately after the injury last year. It was that short area yardage accuracy that really suffered with the UCL. So as long as that is healing and by all accounts, it is healing, I'm I'm reasonably certain that Josh is going to be fine and back to snuff with his accuracy next year.
And a guy like Perry not doesn't just give them a deep threat. He does give them a massive target that Josh can hit coming across the middle. And how often do we say Isaiah McKenzie is just too small a receiver for for Josh Allen? This takes care of that often is how often would say quite often like every pod. All right, I'm going to carry on. I love this pick. I was going to say if it's height you want, there are no Washington is six seven. He is a big boy. He is a big and he went next, right?
All right, let's see here. There goes Tillman at 70. We wouldn't have gotten them. Let's see. Tank Dell goes at 75. We wouldn't have gotten him either. You know. All right. What's your final pick of this mock draft QB Tanner McKee from Stanford staring you right in the face. Yeah. What do you think? I'm going to take a pass on that. All right. Can you can you talk to me about corners? Absolutely. Let's talk corners.
This is actually a halfway decent corner draft and you got some good options working for you here. So best guy on the board right now. Garrett Williams from Syracuse. There's some really good Syracuse prospects in this draft. 510 192. He is like this dude. So this dude is coming off of an injury wins with technique, right? I watched a bunch of Syracuse games this year because we're in upstate New York. We just suffer through a lot of Syracuse football.
Williams is excellent at marrying routes like his footwork is really savvy. He just needs help everywhere else like he doesn't have good ball skills. He's not a really big ball hawk. He's not great at the point of catch with with contesting it. But this dude is like glue, right? This dude's like glue with most wide receivers that he faces. I don't know as much about the next guys. JJ, you got anything here on Hodges Tomlinson from TCU or Jalen Jones from A&M?
You know, I don't have anything for either of them. That's, you know, Jalen Jones, I think is considered probably a solid pro ready prospect in terms of has the kind of skills to come in and do the things he needs to do. He's a big guy. I mean, six to 200. That's that's good size. It was a little bit, you know, even says here in the profile, like people didn't throw at him so he didn't get a chance.
You know, I think that's the thing that happens sometimes in college football is that there's always a weaker cornerback than the NFL ready guys. So they throw away. I would say that's the same for Corey Trice is actually of the next corners available. The one I think that is probably more more of that Patriot DNA guy. He's six, three. He completely smothers receivers. Quarterbacks weren't even looking his way.
He's an incredible tackler, I think, which is the thing that if I know anything about Bill Belichick, it's that he appreciates a guy who does not, you know, let people escape his grasp. And that's, you know, that's the profile on Trice. But yeah, I think I'm going to look at my guide for Travizius Travizius or Travius Hodges Tomlinson, which is a cool name. See, 58178 a little bit small, right for what Belichick wants to do.
I mean, you guys, I mean, Brandon, you guys play so much man, you guys play more man than I think just about anybody in the league. So a guy like Williams or a guy like Trice Williams simply because he's like glue and Trice because he's apparently a pterodactyl out there. Right. That does feel like it fits what Belichick is looking for more just for so everyone at home knows what we're talking about here.
We're at pick 76 Garrett Williams is PFF has PFF has him ranked as 57th overall Hodges Tomlinson from TCU 59th. And then there's a bit of a drop off. We go to Jalen Jones at 93 and then our guy Trice is sitting here at 95 with the overall rank and Hodges Tomlinson's five nine. He's probably a slot only at the next level. So if you don't need it, if you don't need a slot, I would probably stay clear of him. He doesn't have the size to play on the outside. All right.
Well, let's keep it close to home. I like the value. So when we when we do Garrett Williams, good call Garrett Williams heading to New England and that will complete your draft, sir. All right. So now Tanner McKee goes to Green Bay. Look at that. They're already in the third round hedging on Jordan. All right. So here we are, Steve. We are at Miami. You are sitting here sitting pretty here at pick 84. You do have three trade options. Baltimore looking to trade up two spots.
They're at number 86. Philly at 94 and Arizona 96 looking for a potential trade. Can you show me? I'm not really interested in trading. Sure. What do you want to say? Best available tight ends. Here you go. Oh, Luke's schoonmaker. So so this tight end class is like stupid. Awesome. Right. So there's a lot of really interesting guys. Schoonmaker is a guy that I've seen in a lot of Bill's fan mock drafts. This is a guy who's like third round.
If he drops to us, this is a dude who we should take to run those two tight end sets. Davis Allen has been a little bit of a draft faller out of Clemson. And then Zach Kuntz again, we're going with we're going with Sunbelt fun belt time here tight end out of Old Dominion has been another draft riser. Big draft riser. Six seven two fifty five. This dude is an athletic freak. His RAS scores are his relative athletic scores are off the charts for the position.
Really raw athletes schoonmaker a little bit more old school traditional tight end six five two fifty one. Right. He is going to give you a great seal on the edge and he's also going to give you some flex some options straight up the seam with his pass catching ability. So with me at schoonmaker with PFF rings just so everyone knows. Ninety six is schoonmaker and then it takes a big drop off PFF. The next highest ranked tight end is Davis Allen at 140.
So schoonmaker by all accounts your best tight end left on the board and it's a big need for your team. Exactly. And you know he's he's that traditional guy. He's going to be able to block a little bit. He can get out, do what he needs to do. I like him. Let's yeah. And that's why Gosecki wasn't playing right because he can't block. Yeah. I will say this about schoonmaker to coming out of the Michigan system.
Many of those those kind of teams tend to produce very strong, you know, technical blockers. That's going to be valuable.
And then schoonmaker his best trait by most draft nicks is his football IQ, finding the open space and setting down to be a QB friendly target, which I think is really helpful for to if the offensive line does not get fixed in this draft and free agency, if he needs a quick, you know, outlet option, I think schoonmaker might be that more than Gosecki who I think took a little bit longer to separate and wasn't as good at finding the soft spots in the zone. Yeah, I totally agree.
So schoonmaker it is. All right, Steve, I'm gonna hit schoonmaker for you and that'll close out your mock. JJ, it's all on us. Pick 91. So much pressure, dude. I just want to point out that 123456 wide receivers came off the board. Six came off the board after we picked at Perry. You made the right call there, my friend. Yep, I was getting greedy with the trade down scenario. I'm really pleased that we nabbed at Perry out of that. All right. So here's where we are at, sir.
We are at that place at pick 91 where we have no one willing to trade with us at this point. We have gone interior defensive lineman with Maisie Smith. We have gone wide receiver with AT Perry. And we still have a couple of needs that we need to address here. I have said it and I will continue to say it. I don't think Bean looks at an offensive lineman in the first three rounds. I think his focus really is on depth or addressing the interior defensive line.
I do think wide receivers on the table. And dude, I'll tell you what I also I think is on the table for for being his edge. I think within the first three rounds, I wouldn't be shocked if he went with another edge because we don't know how von Miller is going to fair coming out. So which direction do you want to head, sir? I'm going to look at this Nick her big out of Wisconsin. He's he's no he's too light. I think that's probably why he fell in the draft as well because he's a he's 6 to 228.
That feels like a linebacker to me. So I don't know that he's more like an edge outside linebacker than he is an edge. He's a three four. Yeah, exactly. A four three edge should be about 65 to 70 in the McDermott vein. Isaiah McGuire, what is his what are his stats? I'm here I'm just actually in a sort by edge if you want to take a look at that. Yeah. Let's see here. Isaiah McGuire out of Missouri. So six, four, two, 70. Yeah, he's getting closer.
That's more like that's more like a four three attacking style guy. Yep. We're good and run defense to which I got to tell you, I run defense for me for the bills that just has to improve this year. Our friends in New England have run the ball down our throat for multiple seasons now. We know that we have thanks Brandon. Brandon, you're still here. I thought you were done with your box. Still here. Still here.
Great. And Miami, depending on what they can do with the offensive line, they just want to get the ball out of two his hands as quickly as humanly possible. Like if they could somehow just do a direct snap to a wide receiver every play, I think they would. So the run game is going to factor in big for them. And I think they have openly signaled that with the fact that they dedicated so much free agent capital and space to bringing back their entire running back room from last year.
The bills and then Breeze Hall, we'll see how he comes back from his injury. But Breeze Hall is going to factor in big for the Jets this season as well. I think the bills got to do something to address their their run defense. McGuire does that Smith definitely does that. Right. And I don't think McGuire does it as much as some of the edges in this class. But I think that's because he he is a much more urgent pass rusher.
And he's not the guy that's going to kill you with the his like ghost move on the edge, like Vondell or anything like that. But he is definitely a power player and has killer killer kind of hand fighting techniques. So I like that. Yeah. If if this was in fact a full draft, I would say let's wait on edge till the fourth because I love this. Viliami Yeah, Fajoco out of San Jose State.
And I know he's smaller but Yassir Abdullah out of Louisville like just total athlete total like speed freak on the edge. And so I think I kind of want to go Isaiah McGuire on this one. I agree. And as much as Bill's mafia doesn't want to hear it edges edges an issue. We have made it a point to say that after 2023, there's no interior defensive lineman signed to this this group. After 2024. There are no edge rushers signed. There's no edge rushers on the roster after the 2024 season.
So this is one of those needs if we were to address it now would hopefully not sneak up on us in the future. So yeah, and one of the I mean, there is a possibility for safety here. But there's nobody on the board that I think being would want to spend a third round pick on agreed. They'd probably go for you know, a mid round pick for that for that position. Yep, I agree. I think trice here. Yeah, it would be a big maybe for them because I again, I think they're going to play more press man.
I've been saying that for two years that they need to quite frankly. But I agree. I think I think the real world pick here would be edge because it is still a need for this team. All right, is McGuire our guy? He's our guy. All right. And that's going to conclude our three round mocks. So let's see how the rest of the board shakes out here. I hate the Jets draft that I mean, out of the sim maybe did the best job for them at this point.
So we're all going to get our draft grades, which really don't mean anything at this point. So yeah, look at that my pick for at Perry got a D minus. F you, pff, that's all I have to say, because there were no wide receivers left on the board by the time we got to 91. Smith gets a C and then Isaiah McGuire gets a B minus. So for all of you like wondering at home, the grades are basically based on where you picked somebody versus where pff had them ranked.
And basically pff is saying we reached on everybody except McGuire who we got good value on. And you have done like a mock draft on the same simulator and pick the top rated player and gotten like four quarterbacks and like two offensive tackles. And then a grade which is a ridiculous draft. Yeah, I just picked I picked I did one where I picked best edge available for four straight picks and then I picked two QBs and I got I got an A minus. Yeah. So these grades don't matter but they're fun.
All right, Miami I love this Savala pick for you guys. I'm actually really pissed you got him you got an F from pff they don't think it's very good Steve. But I think it's yeah because you're reached. Same thing with schoonmaker but damn man schoonmaker solves all of your problems at tight end. This is this is this is serious additions here for Miami. This is a solid mock for you sir. And then let's see what New England got D plus for Zay Flowers. That makes no sense whatsoever.
It's all they've got a plus that yes, Brandon, I know. I agree you you drafted very well Brandon. No, but it's it's all because they've got him number 29 on the big board. Same thing with Freeland. Freeland has the potential to be one of the better tackles coming out of the draft. If he can figure out his size and strength stuff. D minus for that and then Garrett Williams because of the value. He was ranked 57. You got him at 76. You got to be so yeah.
So overall, gentlemen, how are we feeling about where we landed with our teams? I'm very happy. No, I'm very happy. I really wanted Zay Flowers with that first pick. Reading which I'm sure you guys probably don't, but I obviously listen to a lot of Patriots chatter and read a lot of stuff that predicts that say is a likely choice for the Patriots. So I think again, it will ease some of my woes about Juju Smith Schuster. And I hope that Flowers is the pick and a shining star on the offense.
So absolutely. You'd have I mean, God, your three wide receiver sets would be Smith Schuster in the inside Flowers on the outside and then who Kendrick Bourne? He'd be on the outside for you guys to probably still there. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's not a bad three wide receiver set to roll out there. And we know Mac Jones keeps claiming that he wants to spread it out, go three or four wide because that's what he did at Bama. So that actually gives you a unit where you could do that.
Yeah, that's that's that's a good pass catching group right there. When you add Hunter Henry into the mix to that solid sir. Yeah. Yep. All right, Steve, what about you? How you feeling? I love your draft for the two picks that it was. I think I think you made your team much stronger. You know, I'm happy to. I think if I had to go back and pick someone other than Zavala, I'd probably pick someone a little more.
Like that's very versatile that can cover a wide range because I'm looking at the depth chart and I'm like, Armstead's been injured at some at some point over the last year or two years. Eichenberg has been injured. Austin, like and so just that versatility, I think, is going to be ever more important because who knows about those starters? Yep. I agree. Your wide receiver depth, too. Like we know you have Hill and we know you have Waddle, but like, who's the third guy on your depth chart?
Well, do you need a third guy? And we have Cedric Wilson Jr. who's there last year. We just we have Braxton Barrios. We just signed, I think yesterday or today, Chosen Anderson. Oh, yeah. Formerly Robbie Anderson. So I think the depth is there for wide receiver and the speed like that is the the thing you guys like Robbie Anderson is fast. Chosen Anderson is super fast. Did he change his name? But he did. He did. He changed it to Chosen. Yeah. Fascinating.
It's like, you know, Chosen Anderson's on the Dolphins, formerly Robbie Anderson. Deontay Hardy is on the Bills, formerly Deontay Harris. Like there's a lot of that going on this offseason. But no, I think I think that that's it's it's not a massive need, but I think having a tight end around it out really helps out there because you can get double benefit of a pass catcher who also can fill in and chip the edge and give give some more time for two. That's a that's a fast wide receiver.
I got to tell you, Steve, if they're fast, but they're kind of like tiny, right? If any team plays zone against you guys, their defensive coordinator should be immediately fired like with all those little wide receivers like just bunch you guys up at the line of scrimmage and see what happens. Right. Make that offensive line hold up is is how I would strategize if I was a DC against you guys because that speed element on that unit is ridiculous.
The DC should be immediately resigned to take a year away from football. Oh, oh, it's too soon for the Leslie Frazier jokes. It's too freaking soon. Oh, man, that's great. Bill's Mafia. You asked for that, by the way, you asked for this to happen. So be prepared. The blood is on your hands. That's right. That's right. JJ, I honestly feel like this is a pretty realistic draft for the Bills. What we did.
I would not be shocked if picks one, two and three fall right around there for for being based on the team's needs, his tendencies in the draft and the positions that him and him and McDermott value. Right. There's a there's a good portion of those mafia with the departure of Truman Edmonds to Chicago that will like lay the car on fire and throw it off Niagara Falls without a linebacker in the first round.
But I'm guessing history is going to make them the villain because this is not a great linebacker draft. It's really not. It's really not. And Jack Campbell, who everyone is screaming for, went off the board early in the second round in this draft. And I think better for it at this point. Yeah. Give me miles Jack right and free agency on a one year event minimum and let's just piece it together. We have miles Jack at home, Dan. His name is AJ Klein and he's signing tomorrow. Oh, good call.
Good. See, and that's another sign to me that like they're not gonna they're not gonna spend a first round pick on a position they've added a crap ton of depth at. So guard is off the board. I think wide receivers might be off the board with the first pick to unless flowers JSN or Addison are there, which I don't think any three of those will be there at 27. I think wide receivers off the board in the first round too.
I really do think interior defensive lineman because Smith Smith has a very good chance to be there for them at 27. I would not see now I'm talking myself into betting on this. I think I'm going to put money on the first three picks for the bills being what we did. I'll split it with you. I'll split it with you. All right. That's huge. Awesome. All right. I love that we had our guests come on you guys. Brandon, I you're my favorite Patriots fan.
Steve my favorite one of my favorite Dolphins fans. If my niece is listening to this story, you're my favorite Dolphins fan, of course, but Steve's a close second. Awesome. Yeah, guys. Thank you very much for being on the pod. We appreciate it for all of you for having us. Oh, anytime, please. Anytime. Yeah. Except if you guys beat us this season, but if we win, you guys are more than welcome. Come on and give us your thoughts. That's right. All right.
And for all of you listening at home, like, share and subscribe wherever you get your podcast, Google, Apple and Spotify. And as always, go Bill's.