2025 NFL Combine Preview + Bill Belichick Doubted Fred Smoot? | Command Center Podcast | Washington Commanders | NFL

On today's episode the Command Center Podcast, we're talking combine to attend or not to attend?

That is the question, is the question, and we're going to tell you how to spot a commander. It's a secret. Makes you stay tuned for that.

And then we've got friend's interview stories with a bunch of iconic NFL head coaches.

Be a Bailichick like Jod groomed like everybody.

It all starts right now. Welcome into the Command Center Podcast. I'm Logan Paulson here with Fred Smooth and Santana Moosa and as all it is I and as always represented by cognitive technology, Secure today, Shape tomorrow.

And just a reminder, we got a mailback episode coming up.

And you want to leave a question, make sure you leave it at that hawk outside at gmail dot com. We'll try to leave something in the description so you can see what the email looks like.

I'm always a big got to see it.

Yeah, you know, I'm dyslexic, so I got to see the word written now and then wrong with that hawk outside of gmail dot com. The hawk is starting to leave and started.

Getting as Yeah, because once it's not warming up, it's something brewing.

Last last week yeah.

It was brick. Yeah, yeah, it was very cool now and now is in its fifties. In the fifties, what do you think something something come on one.

Day about football players.

I say, it's two jobs we can walk into right at the football and it's being a doctor.

We know everybody, you know, we know how to repair body, and.

We know the weather. We can smell rain come, I'm telling.

You, and we know scientifically warm front, cold front.

Yeah, you know, you know when it's when it gets warm in an area where it's normally cold in the time of the year, when it's normally cold.

It's the calm before the store. So that's it. I learned that being in Florida, boys, so.

You know in Florida that's one hundred percent that happens all the time. So we just we're gonna do that mail bag episode we've been talking about for a couple of weeks. Now, make sure you leave your questions there. We can't do it this week, why because it's the NFL combine week, and so I think this is a good week to kind of do a little out of cleve you a little bit, kind of recapped Tennant and Fred's experiences go to the combine.

It wasn't school enough to go congrats.

Yes, And so we're gonna start off our first second with risk it for the biscuit attending the combine. This is presented by marsh McLennon Agency, your partner and risk in people's strategies.

So let's start with the highest level.

Concept, right, The easiest thing to talk about is what is the importance of the combine? And just again this is kind of just your first take.

What I always thought that the most important part of us attending the combine is one getting I guess having the privilege to attend. To me, I think that was the first and foreman. It's like if you if you got that call in that inviting saying that, hey you want the guys we want to see. To me, that was the most important thing. Then then two as a player was what we want for the player. I thought

They have enough tape.

Now, Yes, they want to see you compete against all these other guys, but you don't necessarily have to go out there and do it while you up there. Yes, And I'm not saying that we was the creators.

I was gonna say because like I remember last year, were telling a story about how you were doing your way in and the guy was trying to like he was trying to like push you to do your forty.

To me.

But I do think I do think that you bring up a great point like now with the pro day, especially if you're like a bigger recruit or a bigger prospect, you can go do it in an environment that you know, like in your own bed. I think that's something fans maybe don't understand. They're why is this guy doing it's forty. It's like you like so I don't know how it was at New Guys, but like when you go to the combine now, like they get you up at like six thirty am to do medicals, to go do interviews.

Speaking of that, this is what I've always felt was unfair about to come by. They fly us singing, and that first day is all medical.

It's it's and when he says all medical, like anything you've any injury you've had, I got to hang now they'll take you.

You get an MRI. Yes, and so you're in a hospital with.

A bone, marrow man everything.

And I asked myself, like, while I was there, do you actually get the top performance from a guy that you just took three packs of blood from and you want me to get up the next day and you're gonna give me some chocolate and tell me to run a forty twenty five as many times? So I always felt like, because everything starts with the medical, That's why I think the medical is so important is you've seen us play, but sometimes.

We don't even know it's something wrong with us.

So to get us there for the first day and it all to be medical, the second day really all to be physical, and the third day all to be mental.

And it is crazy, like it's so comprehensive. Guys have been diagnosed with cancer, blood disorders, part defects.

Coming out of this thing. It is extremely concible.

I think one of the things too, that I kind of took in of doing all that stuff, they was honestly hit. They was actually saying, who can go through this? And be prepared to get up tomorrow and do what they have to do get their job. So they're testing you. You're getting tested while you're getting tested. You see what I'm saying. Why you being tested?

But as a guy who coaches like forties and coaches vertical jumps, and I work with a facility like in the off season, you know it's out in California. They do a great job getting guys ready. Is the one thing that's like from that perspective is I don't want my guy going out there and running a forty when he's been up all night.

Right. Yes, I remember there was one night I was walking around the common I was meeting up.

With a guy like the coach, the forty coach. I met up with him and it was like ten thirty and he was doing forty prep with guys for the next day at ten thirty and I'm like, they should be in bed.

But they just they're like, I can't go to bed.

It's like it was even more they couldn't go to bed because they had a they had interview at eleven, yes, and I was just like, this is not fair to the guys. If you want the best performance now, I understand you want the guys to compete to all that.

People usually want a fast of forty cool.

It's your turf, man, it's your bed, it's your food.

And you just ain't get no blood today before Like you're you ain't eve nervous.

Think about this.

You played your whole life playing football.

You have put up enormous status, so you wouldn't even be here right and now everything comes down to you putting your hand on his line. And if I run a bad forty, that just dropped me. Like so it's like, damn if I don't, damn that if I do. But also this was another thing medically that I said because Adrian Wilson, our classmates say dead Arizona. I'm behind him in the dB line. You remember we have to walk

And it's so weird because they take those they take pictures of you, they take a front facing and a side.

Facing, and then when you're watching.

So when I was playing, I'd always go watch like the tight Ends and watch the combine and you know, just kind of for fun. And the video that they have starts with that picture.

Yes, it starts with them. I hate it. And so it's everyone sees, yea, you know what he's not calling to Tom Braden. You know what I'm saying.

And not only that, man, I mean you find out. I mean we all knew it's a lot of characters. We got one here with us, but in that line, it's got you got hecklers, you got guys that's talking like a chand was near me and I'm like, bro, this dude.

He won't stop talking.

Johnson, Chad Johnson, he wouldn't stop talking. And I'm like, boy, like, this is the time for us to be SI And I'm like, and that's another thing when you have so many guys, because you got to think about it too, because we came from an era when everybody didn't have a Pro Day.

You had to have. It was a privilege to have a program. Yeah.

So, like I was saying, before I even you know, got cut off, I was saying, I'm not sure we was one of the teams that set the bar for Pro Days, but I do believe that Miami at one point in time had so many guys leaving at one time they just auto Maggan knew like, oh yeah, I got to stop were going there, you know what I mean.

So we always took.

Pride in saying, hey, yeah far as the teams, you know, all the teams knew that Miami guys ain't coming here to do nothing, you know, and they don't get mad at them for that.

But also there was guys that was locally.

That probably played off, you know, how to stayed in college, but they from Miami and they was like, bro were coming down there.

You know, we don't work with y'all because.

All the schools, all the teams, all thirty plus teams are coming there to watch you guys.

So I've always took it.

I never took it for granted when we was there, even though they did all the whole having us up all night. But I feel like we were so prepared mentally from the coaching staff that we had what they're gonna do, because all of them was x NFL coach. Yeah, Miami, we had Bush Davis and Butch Davis came from the Cowboys, and most of his staff was you know, you know throughout the league. They told us way ahead of time

This basically the crew. I came in there. I was not coming to work out, like I let them know. I came in and did all my interviews. I even remember inside the interviews they did the bean bag tesses where they're throwing stuff over your should just to see your periview, like all kind of little mind games, with the New York Giants having the biggest written tests out of everybody.

Really, it was fifty two hundred questions.

Was it?

Was it the not the Wonderling, but it was the every team has a personal test.

Do you remember some of the questions from it?

Or I mean it was well, the questions were to me all over the place. It was no strategy of what they tried.

Was it kind of like the wonder Lick or was it it was.

Kind of like the Wonder li with their own version, but it was New York Giants. I think the New York they trying to not only tests your IQ, they try to see where you at when it comes to city life.

So they asked a couple of urban questions.

This is that.

So it was the longest out of the test and the longest out of the endinge.

So you did that for your they waste I feel like that's a waste of time. It like, isn't that the time where they like so for interviews, like they get you in a room, they have a form onna of view and they have informatter view.

So enter informa interview is like fifteen minutes.

You like have a couple of coffees and down it's hey, what's up, I'm so and so and they just kind of talked through a form ont of you is something they have to declare and so it's a block of time.

I think it's about forty that time.

They wanted you to come to with certain rooms you certain meetings. You went, then you actually got a package.

You got your package they or not yet they said till you finished.

They sitting in there watching you. It feels like a waste of time.

It's the way of time. I was with a fly if you were great me from that boy. It was a wrap that boy there.

So I went in there and I took I took a serious.

But the interviews ready to go.

The interviews with the camera sites just like our camera sine and the coach and the gym and the on either side, on either side, And now they're asking you about any discrepancies that came up on your record. They're gonna ask you about anything that happened on campus.

Now they're gonna ask you.

Fred Smooth, what happened September twelfth, teen ninety nine.

I was at a party. But you know, it's crazy that you bring that up, because that's the first thing I had in mind that they gonna ask me about the whole bar incident. My freshman year when I was a walk on, never asked me, And that tells me that when you get some expunge, you get some expunge.

I think to that point, like they do a really good job, like talking with the commanders, talking to their teams, that they have a pretty good like research kind of security is investigator investigate.

You could look at a kid and say that's the only thing you got. You got on this guy. He did nothing else the whole four years that he was there. So we probably don't even need to bring that up now.

But when they do investigations, were talking about talking to you, talking about talking to everybody in your bubble.

So you know, I work out of high school, right, I coached at high school. I was in the head coach's office. He got a call about a guy he coached. I guess it was six years ago. Now six years ago is sophomore and they were asking how he was in high school and he's getting drafted this year. And I did a report on you know, I just didn't report on him. And I was like, oh my gosh, Like, how how crazy is that?

Reaching out like that? They need to.

Know what type of person was he worked hard? Was he was he all over the place? Was he like what type of guy he is? And you can only find that out from the people that we've been around in the past.

And I think that's one of the reasons maybe why they don't ask tan about it, because like, you hang around Tanner for five minutes and like his coaching staff, they're going to vouch for him.

They're gonna be like, hey man, he's a good, good dude. He works hard like somebody's uncle. Yeah.

See the thing about it too, And that's I didn't know they was doing that until I bumped into people in the neighborhood and.

They like, yeah, I got a call.

I gotta know the same thing they find Fridz, they find bro Like they called my high school called my high school coach already knew that stuff, Like we had a bunch of guys that went pro already, so he he would tell us that stuff when we was in high school. Yeah, you know, I get that call down the road and if you ask you, if you, if you you or something something, I'm gonna tell them this what you The truth was one of those no nonsense got But I'm sure when they called by me, he

First of all, cross country ain't got nothing to do.

My cross country coach called me and was like, hey, I just got a call from the NFL, and I like what they asked you.

They just asked me about how you was you compete? Like what you tell them? I told him in your first cross country meet, you cheating.

They weren't surprised.

I ran literally down the hill and I finished so fast that they were like, come on, dude, you ain't ready.

I didn't run the course, you just know I cut down the hill.

I showed up at the line and the lady was like, telling me, you just read fifteen.

Me like, hey, I'm trying to win this thing.

But then they're gonna reach out to your pastor, if you went to church, and you being in the church, whoever they can get information from. They're going to find out what type of person you are, who you are because they know we're prepped at these meetings by agents.

So that's kind of like what goes on before the interview. Man, you kind of mentioned some stuff that happened in the interview. Anything else stick out to you when you're in the interview with those teams at the time, like, I.

Only got one thing that was funny and I love that.

This is my head coach had actually got a head coaching job with the Browns, my.

Cottage head Yeah, and me and Reggie was in.

I'm not sure we was in at the same time or we went in after each other. But I knew that interview was the shortest they because they asked me at the time. And trust me, we love but but David meant the world to me. Just forgive me the opportunity. But you know, it's so much, it's so much going on in your head. You don't know who to mention and who the and the GM or I think the owner.

Regu came. I was like, yeah, man, I said CJ name and they cut me short.

So d lowin and he's like no, I said, but I said, I said, So that's why your interview was wrong, he said, he said, because they want to hear they got you know what I mean and don't get me wrong, like both of them meant the world of us.

But CJ was more. He was.

My receiver coach, so I see him every day, the one that called me on the road from going home. Are you at and I'm I'm on my way to cal City? If you don't get your mind here and right now, watch some film you ain't playing tomorrow, like you mean, watch film. I want to go and see some folks. I don't care about your folks. You better watch this tape. So when you think back at all those memories, man, like that's the guy to me right now. Fourteen years in the league. I didn't learn much more

But every this man had me so equipped.

Like when we ran our routes, when we had to do actually work out for the scouts. Bro we knew in college everything was rounded round. We had round outs, we had round ends, we had round curls. He told us, okay, we got to change that because they want, they want, they want. So he schooled us on how to change

Which I'm a good coach.

So he had as so well together man to where I got to get him in his crew.

I gotta gi him as flowers, you know what I'm saying.

And I think that's soy for And again like do you have any kind of weird my whole?

So I don't.

I know you now well right, and we're friends now, But what were you like in college?

Wow?

And so I'm sure I'm sure no governor, I'm sure I'm sure that was like, oh, this guy's your uncle and.

Was known in college for being the mouth for the sound like talking trade. So all the coaches want to know, was I facetious in.

My trash manure? Was I authentic? I did?

So I never forget my John grew and I go to Justin.

You know he got this whale talking. God, I heard you saying, not like which one did you hear? He like talking bounce.

The world.

It's covered by water and you cover the wrists. What are you gonna do when you got to play against the Awquaman? Like first, but I ain't scatting nobody, So I'm getting into my home mode.

Man.

And because he's so Lucy Goosey, I'm Lucy Goosey.

I leave from him. And we just really going back and forth talking noise.

We said, so when you say back and forth, because like I heard, I heard an industring interview story from about a coach that we know pretty well and a receiver that's kind of famous the NFL now, and he was like he basically said, oh, I'm Julio Jones and the coach is like, no, you're not. And they got like kind of heated about it.

Was it heated? It was a heated discussion. It wasn't heated. It was all in fun.

I'm laughing, he laughed.

Fred Fred talked as much as crap.

Fred talked.

It was always you always got a sense that it comes from a good place.

You see what I'm saying.

Like sometimes like I'm listening to the dude tell people stuff about themself and I'm like, bro, like you just you can't say that in some places, like we want to fight.

When I'm from we don't want to. We don't want to. But when it comes from him, it's funny. You didn't feel that it was that aggressive for you to kind of offend, you know what I'm saying.

Like that dinner the other night, man, I was like, I'm surprised there's not a fight right now.

We had fun and I go from none serious Gruden to Belichick.

How was that?

And Belichick showed me some of his loose side, but he was very stoic. He was very into me as a player. Also because not only did he interview me at the combine when we had to do our trips, he flew me.

He flew me to New England.

So sometimes I wonder if they do that, and I think that there's probably both. They wonder if I wonder I they did that because they didn't get a good enough feel in the combin and I just want to see if it's the same guy again, you know what I mean?

And I think they want to I just think they want to dig a little deeper because he ended up taking Richard Seymour the defensive defensive defensive.

And he took Lennon Mines second round of him.

So he took these guys, but the interviews theirself was so different. One was just totally all bus Nick's kind of story. So Fred he more excellent about the problems because he's like, I see, you don't have problem with man man coverage.

You do vell and zone.

You're a willing tackler.

But what if I ask you to play special teams for the whole first year? Don't start how you're gonna feel about that? You've been a starter since it says you've been a starter here since tent Are you ready for the question? I was ready because while he's asking me on processing, you.

Know what I'm saying, like because like you know now they've got like these the preps, Like now, like, what are the things you do when you go to combine prep?

Is you have a coach that coach press and I had one that coached me.

I mean they prepped me, but also you can't prep me for thirty two different persons.

So this personality right here is basically expect to gadget.

He wants to know how you're gonna feel, and I was like, well, coach, if you want me to play special teams and you think that's better for the team. I do it, but I'm gonna still be fighting for this starting job. And so he you know, he was more trying to see mentally, are you a competitive to good question? And Bill Coward was very much a mixture of the two where he could sit up there you that Bubba Gum get serious without so getting loose enough for you.

Can relax and talk to him. Did you so both this question? Brother? You guys after the interviews you're like, I'm going to this team or did you have a feel for that?

I had no clue, b Bro, my enemy my interviews was almost like worthless.

At times. I was like, Bro, what did we just do that?

So if you have an example of like because honestly, bro, if you look at me coming out of college, the way I got into college, the number.

Was brought up. You see what I'm saying, Like, think about it. I walked on.

Let's talk about that, Like, how did you overcome being a walk on at University of Miami?

How did you you know?

How is it that you came into you know, college with no stars and nobody was looking at you?

But now.

Everybody and everybody saying if you you five eleven, you'll be the first receiver take it. We didn't talk about me being short, you know what I mean, you'd have thought these questions would have came up. So it was like can you can you go out here and play on the outside, like actually all.

Other questions like.

Like it's because like the questions that Fred's getting are the questions I would have expected, like a version of that.

I honestly thought that, And this is my take, Like it might be something different, It might be people might view it differently. I honestly thought that playing the way I played at the University of Miami, they ain't hand no the acts.

They looked at it and say, look this is what we know what we got, you know what I mean?

The question was the situation.

I was one hundred and seventy five pounds, so they want to know you think you're gonna be able to still run as fast as you do at So I'm getting asked these questions out for body, but me and Reggie asked.

But we got more questions about each other than we did about anything. How wasn't playing with Reggie? And I'm pretty sure Reggie asked.

The question right, they want to cross.

They wanted to cross and see it. I'm like, you know, he was the guy when I got there, I just followed it. I got in his hip pocket and made sure that I wouldn't you know, I wasn't gonna get looked over. And before you know it, I was next to him.

You know, we was. He was If you want to say he was one, he was one.

I was the next guy. And then before you know it, I made a name for myself. And that's the kind of questions we were talking more about that, you know what I mean, And they were like, oh, for real, So you looked at him as the number one guy. He was number one, he was freshman, he was all big East freshman, you know, our freshman year. Like I was just trying to get my name mentioned. Before you know it, I made a whole name for myself.

I wonder if the Miami thing, because Miami at the time was like we was dominant.

And I think too because CJ told us this, and this is the thing I loved about having CJ as at wide receiver coach my junior year. He told us, look, I don't care what you do. You know, he from New Orleans. He said, say, say, Bron, I don't.

Care what you did all year. Bro. We be playing Florida State this week.

I'm just telling y'all right now, if you go out here and you play well again Florida State, I'm gonna shake your hand at the end of the game and tell you it was nice coaching because you're going to the NFL.

You're going to the NFL, say, I'm telling you. I'm telling you, brother.

I went out there one eighty in Dog Cammebell my junior year, one eighty two Tugs. That boy came and told me, hey man, it's nice coaching.

Say CJ, how you going nowhere? And this is early in the season.

We played for stay week five, week six, Like CJ, I ain't going nowhere, and he telling me, your fool, bro here a fool if you don't know.

Yeah.

But I ended up playing that whole year, balled out, end up playing and came back my senior year.

But that's the kind of thing we had, so I kind of level.

I kind of took it at the level that I had came from, and the team it was almost like I don't need to ask questions.

I can turn so sure like you your head coach, like all of those connections are probably playing it.

And I was gonna because I'm like, cause I'm listening to him, I'm like, bro, my interviews was it like this.

But the thing is, also I feel like to come by after all this stuff we didn't put on film.

This is how you weed it out and find out reasons not to draft.

So I'm so glad you brought that up because really, you know, when you ever heard those stories like oh the Patriots going with a with a big board of thirty people, it's because they they are using this as an exclusionary process.

It's like to you, we're eliminating people that don't.

We were a part of a class where we saw a dude very telling it that lost his status because we remember, I don't know, it's the simple wash.

No, it wasn't simple.

It was the draft and flopped the drug and I don't think you floated it.

Theyll weed on the floor, on the floor and the like, and they ended up making them go home, sitting them go. So I'm not I want to call him by name. So Jason made sure we owned this send them by name. But it was somebody that was highly sought out. I remember they sent him home, yep, because you got to come back.

But so I think, like, you know, obviously like talking about the legality of weed and whether it should have been legal, then like that's that's I think what it is. It's like you're it's just a job interview, right, And so that's the can't you focus for three days you're there?

You can't even come here and not smoke, you know what I mean?

Somebody had had the hall we lit and you know, we in that hotel and they like, they're like who in here?

Who got the nerve? And they were like, yeah, that boy got sent home by yeah, I said, but they still waking. I'm talking about it on fire.

And I'm sitting there in myself like you need all this dreaming and all it worked.

But to me, I was like, you got to be a you gotta be a care that d really don't care.

But the crazy part.

About it, he still got a chance, a chance that came in the league. He didn't go as high, yeah, and he got it. He still got in because they knew he was very.

Very talented. But I think that's what this ultimately is.

It's like they want to get a feel for the person, right, They want to get a feel for like who you are, how you gonna be at the next level, how you gonna be when you get a little bit of money. And like the other thing is I've heard this too. It's like the we're gonna talk about the on field stuff here. This is a good leading is they care about the on field work. But it's really just like you knew this was coming, did you prep for it? Did you do the work? Because now there's all these facilities,

You weren't aware of this whole simple something like coming in overweight, right, this guy don't even care.

Yeah, so you're right.

It's truly mental make up here. But it's also the show, the show of physicality, the show of hi goes forded two inch vertical, he go this four three forty, he go two twenty five forty three times, like Leonard Davis, Like, I don't know if y'all remember big leonyarn I remember you know you're not your class classmate, Big Lennard started pumping that weight. I ain't see him stopped for two days listen to I was.

Like, I have never seen thathing. He was like six six, like three seventy or something.

And then I'm gonna tell you who had a hell of a day. Ghip Derreck Gips. Yeah, Derrick Gibson, safety from Florida.

So big.

I mean he was, he was big, he was fast at job senior ball with him. Yeah, I was like, I went back to he got that in high school. I played with the best safety in college football. I was like, it ain't nothing he can do.

One on one were receivers. He out there checking him just like a corner. And then he's six three two twenty five and.

He ran like I'm talking about he ran. He ran the second leg on the four bout one yester.

So he ran a four three, jumped forty inches at the comeby like he left no sterns on t but went to Oakland, I mean Oakland at the time, and live really took off. Yeah, so they go they go to think about it. The comeback is get you high. You go the worst company you're going to now, I'm sorry just what it is.

Yeah, So let's talk about that real quick.

So again, I think we gave a lot of time to the interview stuff because I think that's the interviews of the medical are the most important reason for the combat, Like that's why you go. So let's talk about the on field stuff, right. And my first question is if you're a top ten pick, would you do the field stuff?

If I'm a top twenty A, if I'm in the first round, And I totally agree.

I totally agree, And people say, why is that? Don't you want to compete it? In this day and age, teams have so much data. They have your GPS speed, they have your deceleration speed, they have your acceleration speed, they have your body weights.

It's all as long as you've interviewed, heartbeat, they've got it all in there.

My thing was too when it came to that, and like I said, thank God for the privilege of being from where I was from and us having the kind of season that we had those years.

We remember we kind of came back into dominance.

When I was there, and then we started off rocky and by the time we left out of that, we should have been national championship win champions that year.

But I bring that up because it was almost expected. Yeah, you can't have a side.

I kept talking trying, I ain't pay attention to that boy. It was almost expected that the you guys wasn't gonna work out. So to have that already given, I was making sure I was gonna take full advantage. And the reason why I say that because it's almost like what I went through in college and in my pros. I went through a quarterback every year in college, people don't know a new quarterback and then not get.

Your pros And it's the same story.

So if I'm finna have the biggest tests of my career or life to try to get these people to say what I did this past few years four years in college, it's shown up on this field.

I don't want to go out there with some Joe Blow I don't know, or some coach that's.

Trying to tell me you're catching the ball off, or even just these coaches who telling you to do these drills. I'm watching some of the drills a that time, I'm like, come on, coach, be.

Like on that guy.

That's why I like Steve Smith there, because Steve is so just you know, he kind of one tracked mind. He sees a quarterback, you know, quarterback trying to show their strength, throwing to a wide receive as hard as he can.

And Steve like, man, slow that ball down.

This is a ten year old hook round throw that with some touch. So this dude can catch the ball. And that's the problem. If I'm sure do her all right? And I know I'm already in the top half for the draft, and you tell you asked me to come in front of everybody on NFL network and throw to guys that I've never played with and on the field that I've never been on.

No, I'm not doing that.

Uncertainty, Come to Colorado now and watch me play.

I would say this if Horn or the other kid at fourteen, any one of them guys out there should do it.

Gonna go there.

But I know for a fact color Rado now has the same presence of how we did MIAI and they go.

He's outso do away. In Travis Hana's way of saying, come look at the wrist. Yeah, So it's not even that's.

The biggest I mean, he's already done that.

So he went to the Shrine Bowl, which most times the top guys like when you look at the talent rosters between the Senior Bowl and the Shrine Bowl. People go to the Senior Bowl. He went to the Shrine Bowl. Didn't work out. Yeah, interviewed with all that, interviewed with all the teams there, and you know I did that because he wanted. He had the three receivers at the Shrine Bowl. He's like, come watch my guys. Yeah, And I think it's an incentive, Like he's supporting his guys

He'll show. Yes, I would not be So let me just say this though.

So that's if you're like a first round pick, top twenty, pig, top thirty, whatever, Like I don't think you really need a whole bunch, right, I mean, let's just say it this way. If you're top three at a position, I don't think you need to do anything. However, if you think you can help yourself, you go to do it.

You should do it. Yeah, and let's talk about it's any questions in question, So like for.

Example, like Abdul Carter, like the number one d he's the number one edge on my board, maybe number.

One player in the drafts. He should not be going.

But if this dude comes out and runs like a four to two, has like a four one four seven split, jumps forty two inches, like, dude's gonna be the first break overall.

Like most definitely it's happening. Yeah. So if you know you're gonna if you know you're gonna ace the test, yeah, take the test.

If there's any doubt like so, for example, like Marvearet Harrison Junior last year, I think there was some doubt about how well it was gonna run.

Yes, so his high his top hands meet or who's.

The tight end for Philadelphia? God, his name Escapes span got Dallas Goddard. He didn't run a forty the entire pre draft process. If it's gonna be even if it's not gonna be an a plus, yeah, don't show up.

Throw it.

It was somebody else when he Oh, but he was fan boy Jackson.

Lamont he because he had to see.

He had I was seeing even to sit here and tell me, oh, yeah, you four too.

He needs to be a receiver.

I would listen to up to Eli said the other day, Eli man and said, you know what, I have never ran a forty ever one day in my life.

I had one one in high school, junior high school. You don't need He was like, I was just never gonna do it, Like, why would I do it when I know I'm not fast?

Like I can throw the I'm what I came. Don't give a team a reason not to be like, oh, he runs a five three.

But this is my question with that though, at one point you couldn't do that.

So I'm hell, Eli, get juice.

We know.

I don't know why I asked that question. My bad, I take that back.

But for any other guy, they don't have that privilege, you see what I'm saying. So so at one point, Bro, the forty was for everybody. They don't care what you think, you is, what you you gonna run? They want to see it. They want to see it for the simple fact that you're under the pressure like everybody else on this microscope and all eyes on you, the clock and it's silence, and everybody got they're gonna blow that with you or whatever's gonna happen, and they gonna get that time.

You couldn't know you could.

It was no fair dodging and I they you had to get it done unless you had and I think loophole.

I think too for what we experienced as players just back in the times.

You almost look forward to doing it.

I mean, even though you probably lived that weight, what one time you want, but you did it with with knowing that I'm gonna do it one time and tell you against what the coaches told me son most DB's and what they wanted to even right, I didn't do one twenty I didn't do I didn't do it, he.

Said, because you got under that knowing damn well you were gonna get one and a half reps.

They were like, that showed us you ain't really afraid of anything. We knew, we was looking. We was.

I could have threugh that T twenty five, but I'm like, do I want.

To be doing this?

And they gotta run They did a couple of years ago as they were benching before they were running, and then everyone was running slow, and so everyone just said, I'm not benching, and then they said, well, we want people to bench. So now they do the forty first because they want people to run. Because this is maybe leads nice to the next question. The most important drill at the combine is what in your.

Opinion, I think it's specialized to your position. Wait, dB, I think it's the w dria with the ball. I also think it's running routes on air backplaying through route because now I can see how smooth you out of your hips, how fluent you are, how fast you could turn.

It's interesting you say that, though, because everybody, like who doesn't go to the combine or watch the combine, it's going to say, oh, it's the forty.

But to me, it's the on field stuff.

And it's important because you go, you know, Fretzboo goos logan, Paulson goes Santanta Mosco. We all go right in order, and I'd be like, oh, he's a little bit tighter, he's gonna have a hard time with that. He's look at how he adjusted the ball. And again, the forty is the one that gets all the pub and I get why.

Because it has this.

Olympic. This fastest man in the world. It has this measuring to it.

Now, I will say this as a receiver, Uh, it might not be the most important, but I've seen receivers loose drop and gain status from running either a good or a bad forty.

But I would say this is also too to me. And I hate this.

I hated this drill and I'm glad we had to do it our pro day. They gottlin man bro.

I can't stand it when you got to catch them up looking both side.

I'm gonna be looking this way at the ball over the up. I'm looking here. I'm not looking here. I'm not looking here like I hate it, and I'm like, why we do it? So you know you know why we do it, and I know you hate it because we've talked about this before.

Is if you're evaluating receivers, it's the easiest way of the stuff they do with the combat hand to test hands and how they track the ball.

It's like when they're running through the gauntlet.

If they are jumping or slowing down like you want to see a dog run a gatlet, then they will sprint through that.

Son of a gun. There's no they don't wait for stop.

Why Yeah, because they tracked the ball maybewhere. Well yeah, right, they tracked the ball really well. Now this goes back to you need to make sure you've got five dudes.

Thrown the ball. They make you look like an idiot.

But like bingo, because I've seen quarterbacks and no matter how fast that receiver was running that gun and he had to hesitate and wait on the ball and that slow that messed up the whole drill.

So it's not gonna always be your fault. They could be the guy.

Now my drill, my gunland is trash because I got a quarterback up he shouldn't be up here throwing me.

To the doomsday is a xample for that. Rome went through the guntlet last year. It didn't look good.

No, it was he looks fine. And then he said he actually only lifted him again. I was just saying because he ran a good one. No, he ran a great one. His second one.

He literally asked him can I go again?

And they were like yeah, and they let him go again.

So do you gain information from like I just think from a dB perspective to see us fluently move our hips shadow routes and stuff like that. Catch the ball, you get more than watching us running the straight line, because unless it's a go route, that's the only time I'm gonna be running.

In the scrap yard.

I think the drills period, I think you get more from a receiver just seeing him run routes, you know. To me, I think that's the most important thing for a receiver. Like, look, I've seen Justin Jefferson running four to four at the forty in the forty and I'm saying to myself, I haven't seen him run that four four yet in the NFL. Like no, get he's so I mean, you know, he's so fluent and everything he does. So to me, I want to see your route. I want to see your routes. I want to see how

This is receiver. This is so interesting. You said that because like they you know, I do a lot of like trading on the side. Right.

So people that run with their feet slightly apart, so I'm talking it's like three inches. They run like kind of just outside their hips are better rout runners. They're better deceleration, they're better acceleration because they have a better base, right. But track athletes who are faster straight run with their feet closer together. So basically with the forty, you're testing the track thing. And then when you run routes you get to see like the specificity of the position. And

It is a dB I can watch and receive what do one practice of route running?

And you have Domini is from the.

First time I seen chay It run routes at the senior bow I bet I said, he's the Bisch property, the Bisch route run. It wasn't the ability to go vertical, it's his ability to stop, his ability to stop with no wasted motion and to get in and out of those breaks out like.

This dude is a tap dancer like this dude feet So.

For all your kids, are all your coaches at home, like it's the speed is important, but the stopping and the start of everything way more important.

You know.

It was great at that was this guy right here, right right there. I was going to bring up his story. It's crazy y'all say that. So we got a guy I don't know why I'm I'm drawing a blank right now.

On his name.

But oh, Melvin Bradon, Melvin brad he's a scout now he's he's actually an agent now. But he went through the years of scouting. He was a badass back in those days in the university. Mind he wont number five for the running back or he's from he's from the Miami area. He at the time when I came in as a freshman. You know how you have those practices where all the coaches come out, all the high school coaches and just check things out. Melvina, come out there.

He said.

The first day I ever watched you practice, he say, boy, you ran a comeback or something, and you gave a guy that that fake like you going inside and turn it back out.

And then he.

Said, I told her that's the first round draft pick. I was a true freshman walk on, so he was a scout.

You're a scout. Say, they say, who is that? He said, I don't know who it is. That's the first round draft pick. He said.

I told the receiver coach c J at the time. He say that's the first round draft pick. He was like, nah, boy, that's that's in tening, but he gonna but you gotta look. He said, yeah, I'm gonna watch them. But I just saw what just did.

If he do that all the time when he run routes, he a first.

Round draft, he say, tenor lady, you became them a sixth the next year, and I say, boy, the rest of was He said, y'all go ahead and get ready for him.

But it's crazy for you to bring it up because.

The times have we watched receivers go blow the forty out in the coming and then they take it in the first round like and.

Can't play for That's the big I hate about the draft because there's so many and the Raiders was known for this running good for You were right?

You were right? Yeah on man, like you finna tell me.

I just out there, put four years of work on film, and he's gonna draft this kid in front of somebody.

You learned from Jared Right, not learned from j Right.

I do not need to have I don't need to touch the peak of all athletic prowessies like Reggie. You know, Reggie ran four or five, probably four to six, and I remember C J joking with him about it. He's like boy, you're slow, but you but you know because he because like Reggie knew that his forty was probably going to be the be the worst thing.

He isn't. Nothing else Reggie did was not gonna be top. He was. He was. He was doing what he did in.

The pro pros as a freshman when he walked in that boy court to b being a dog. I watched that boy catch balls, like he made my hands better to look at. I can't drop it, but I think I think it's a scout.

Like when you watch the film and you watch Reggie, well, you understand that he's not the fastest guy, but he's technically sound. He catches football, and so in the drills, like if he's dropping the doll, yeah, but I'm saying, if he's dropping the ball all the time, then you're like maybe you go back and watch you know, it's it's literally you're just checking a box. You're saying, I think he's fast. Oh he's fast. On the forty, he's

Yeah, it's just not thing.

Not not with them kangaroo homes.

It's not a thing.

Right, So, like they're in like corners that have longer arms, like Fred Fred, I always do this all the time with the arm rings. I'm one of my f inchs harder than arms with the same length, same his ability.

Because when I did my measurements, they was very impressed with my hand side and they was like, my.

Gods, did you play basketball? And I like, yeah, I play basketball. They like this with them.

Loans come from and then allows, and they understood that if I got long home, if I'm getting beat, I could just stop and jump.

In your ability to contact the receiver at the line of scrimmage like you see it on film. Like you'll watch a guy, especially with dbs, who got long arms, the ability to reach out and touch somebody jam.

You would still be a yard and a half away from you.

And then if they miss, they can recover because they've got that extra special. So that's why that's important to me. And again it fills in the data. You can see a guy with like a DB's a good example of shorter arms. It's got great feet and he can compensate for it or tackle with shorter arms. It's got great feet. It's not the end all be all, but it's a good way to be Like, let me make sure this.

Isn't going to let me zero in on this aspect of it and see.

How it goes. Yes, correct.

It's like like Will Campbell for the for the LSU Tigers. He's going to be a top ten pick. Like I think he's gonna have short arms, is he? But his balance is the best balance I've ever seen. His feet are great, great, maybe you could do it because his feet are so good, but I'm aware of it now because of the arm light.

And we talked earlier about Travis Hunter Us He's just such a great athlete, but technically he's not sound now when I turn on that wil Johnson for him and watch real Johnson from Michigan, technically he's the best cornerback in dude.

I had the same thought.

So I just I'm doing receivers for tickets of the draft with Jason and we were talking about McMillan from Arizona, and I think he's a better receiver right right now. But Travis Hunter is a special athlete, like and so it's like you're pretty and the other thing.

He's playing both ways. You can tell there's times where he's tired. Yeah.

Yeah, Javon Curse, Dion Sanders named some more athletes who just.

Bailey, like Charles Woodson.

Bluefoot was very regarded when it came out.

Should I tell you, I'm just.

Saying as far as seans like freakish when you're watching Travils, honey, you can't put him in.

The bubble with everybody.

You gotta say the bubble him, Yeah, because because he does things that you'd.

Be like, how you you just did that? You know what I mean? That's crazy. Do you think he run a forty him? I probably would. I don't think fast.

He's he got nothing to hide in it, you know.

But I guess like for me, if you run like a four to far, it's like.

You're like, damned if I do, Damn if I like, I just don't see him benefiting.

From you talking about film all the time time, Like when you watch the film, you're like, damn. Like this dude's a special mover.

No, he's fluent in every way possible.

He's he takes that wide receiver of mind to conerback, and he takes that that conerback mind.

To wide receiver, and he displaces both of them.

Like he will find out a way to be the corner, just like he'll find out a way to stop a wide receiver.

Now, in my.

Comparisons we talked about it, I felt like it's a wide receiver. He's smitty Devnte Smith another guy that won the Heisman with the same body type in the same twitch as a corner baby Champ Bailey. All right, So I would rather have Champ did DeVante Smith? So then why I said I would rather put him a corner and swrinkle in some wide receiver because I believe that his defensive societies is higher inside.

Some more valuable. I think too. I think these are your finalide receivers.

Okay, So I get this question all the time, and I know we're getting tired because Hana gave us first y on.

So we're going to do this. How does spot a commander at the combine? Look at it? Look for clipboards that find the fine to call.

You know, it's from what I studied from Adam Peters last year. Yeah, you have to check the box. They're going to investigate are you a leader? Yeah, they're going to see do you love football? Uh, they're going to see you selfless?

And so those are right. I dropped the Mico now with you.

So I'll say this though, you're not going to see that in a forty You're not going to see that anywhere on the field.

It's going to be in the interview.

Yes, and also I guess if their team captain. So what I would say is like, that's why this problem, Like we talked, we started with the interviews first because that's the most more thing. But all that information is going to be in the interviews. And so as much as we want to be like, oh this guy's a freak, he's yeah, I don't know how he is as a person. And you can watch in the drills and if the guy's breaking it down and clapping it up, but their.

Coach do that too, so they know they're on camera. Right. So what I say is like, you will find a commander or the commanders will find it in.

The command Yeah, in the interview and the guys what they bring here a couple of times, Yes.

That's what I mean. We're good.

Like the way they convinced I'm gonna take you out of the top golf so I can sit back and just watch, like I want to see you in the environment that has nothing to do with football, like, and so they're more at the people than athletes, And.

That's the best way to go about it, man, because if you got the right people in here, man, you can.

Your locker room becomes what we saw this year.

And again they're gonna find good athletes that are good people. But that that personal element, the top golf thing, the interview thing, that's where it's all going.

But I also don't think they're gonna let the numbers dictate how they pick.

They're not gonna let your forty dictated.

They're not gonna let how many time you do the bench press, Like if you was on their board right there when you got there at four to four, ain't gonna help you climb their board. But that interview, we will help them.

Help you climb it.

And I think so too a lot of the time. Soon when they look at who they were today, I guess the team that they're leaving, you know what I mean, like that they're gonna look back at that player and like what kind of brother was he to the other guy?

Friend? Did he leave? What kind of you know who? Because I mean, like.

It must if we want to talk crap about Fred. Fred had the locker room always thriving, you know what I mean? This man like I just sit back on my back turn somebody was directly behind me, right across the dog on the locker room, and they'll be calling me to look to see.

What he got going on.

Hell, you want to get me to laugh, And I'm like, bro, I gotta get outside because I even to sit here in his locker room and listen to this jokes, to all this break on people. But you you want guys that bring guys together, And you didn't never see Fred with just the dbs.

He can go over there and chop it up with the lineman. The d lineman in there with our damn trainers half of the time, and they got them crying. So that's what you want.

You want a guy that you know that man when he comes in, not only is he going to play football and he's going to be a leader, even if he's not asked to be a leader. He's a guy that communicated and get along with everybody.

Yeah, absolutely, so I think that's it. That's how you find a commander. Right now for a last segment, hell yeah, Hell no, anyone specific. We're going to kind of just throw this in a catch all that you guys want to see, so they're all gonna be hell yeahs this week. But is there anyone specific or that you want to see her you're excited to see at the combine?

And why?

I mean I really want to see Honestly, I didn't really I never get up in for this, comeboy, so I don't know.

It's a tight turn, but it's.

So long, man, I never watch it, But I do want to see how should do during cam grays out after all said and done at their perspective pro days, you know, I want to see them at their pro see what they do. I watched a ton of football of both of those guys for the last few years, especially Cam last year being with them being with Miami, and the one thing that I took from watching them this year that they can't do in the league. Everything got be sped up because they took their time with

So I think there's guys where you can see like the anticipation, Like that anticipation word to me is you're throwing people open and if they show signs of that, then you can trust It'll like even if they've got to get better, like Je Daniel's good example, So everybody gotta get better something, Yes, so we didn't do a lot of like throwing people open because the offense didn't

Yeah, they didn't.

WHI receiver was just torching people so bad.

He didn't have to let me throw this safe ball up here to make sure the elite neighbors fuckers actually saw.

You saw that he got a quick release stuff. You saw the playmaking ability, like you see it. It's just like so for example, Jalen hurts like he held the ball a ton in college. He took a lot of sacks in college. She doesn't say anything now like that's there is a reason that you look for that.

That's what I brought it up because I'm thinking about Jennerherson. I'm saying to myself, I know, watching Miami all year, we was the only thing that we had a knock on cam, which it is hard to knock anything by him, and he like, man, get rid of that ball, you know what I mean.

But see what happened when you got them legs, When you got them legs, like fast guy.

He's just he's just very twitchy.

Yeah, he can, he can, he can, he can buy time, you know, most definitely. Yeah.

And so the other one I want to ask you about because I'm just curious. His exavier was Strepo past Santana mos for Miami's all time receiving yards leader ever by a Miami Hurricane with two thousand, five hundred and seventy three yards.

Yeah, that was mine, I believe. I'm not sure if that's his Dodgers. That was my thing. He shad I think he shattered minds. Yeah, he's a four hundred yard No, I did it like in three years because sold has he been in school? You know five?

Did he get a COVID?

Yeah, yeah, so he's been. He did it in two more years than five. But he's a dog. He's a dog. You look at him. This is my comp on him.

And I don't know a lot of the new new slot guys because it's like it's a guy.

In the Chargers you're talking about from Georgia, not him.

He knows it is a it's a it's a little dude. Yeah, he's pretty dope. But when I look at slot receivers, when I look at Restrepo, I think of a Julius Edelman, uh West West, welcome more Edman than West. He's a dog though he's a He's a but he can. He catched the ball to me like Reggie.

Wayne like, so he ain't gonna be great at no one thing, but good at everything.

Everything he can.

He can run outside. You can put him outside you want to, but I think he would. He would dominate in love with the Miami tight end Royal. We think we could probably get laying him over here.

I think he is a ultimate, like a weapon, like a movie. He my member little Jordan Reid is Jordan readers Slash. But I'm also throwing in my dad and people might not like to hear this. Kevin wins Winslow list.

He he does look like I Winslow. It's the eighty. I think it's the movement. It's just the man. He looks good when he got the ball in his hand and he moving like like I'm a little I'm more.

When you say am I more psyched about who can? I think I'm more about who can move up the draft? And this draft got like thirty running It's some telling though it got it got like thirty running back.

So if any room crowded. It's the running back room. I got my eye on a couple of guys. I got my own. Thirty two from l s U I mean from state. He's from Virginia, Henderson from He's from Virginia. Boy, he can roll Richie.

I like, uh South care atlanas Raheem Sanders, Rocket Sanders, he was at Arkansas first.

I am very intrigued by him. A big dude.

He about two thirty five, but he runs like a four three forty like he is to me.

So so is the running backs coming back? Man? Because I mean it's gonna.

Be no one's gonna get paid this but in this in this year's class, it could be thirty guys, yes, like it could be it could be thirty running backs drafted in the whole weekend.

Like that's how good they are.

You know, genty he's the front runner, but it's some guys behind him, Kingdon.

Johnson, I mean I got like it's Johnson, Hampton.

Hampleton, Like it's so many running I saw that.

I saw that watching college football this year, that there was a lot of running backs that was making bad for themselves every.

Time they try to smush the position. I watched him try to do it with the tight ends. I watched him try to do it with guards. I watched try to do it with safeties on defense. Every time they try to be a little position, it shows the importance the very next year.

Yeah, so I think those are all great running backs. For me, it's always a big position, especially for the Cranders. Is the offensive line, specifically Josh Shimmons from Ohio State. Like he's coming off of a knee injuries and do the medical. I'm really curious to hear.

It's a couple of guys from Ohio State, right how he.

Comes out of there, you know, so he's the left tackle, he works seventy one. Mine's been a little bit of Big Trent. You know how he runs around like really special athlete, not gonna do anything at the Combine, but he's gonna get his medical done and if that knee is on schedule, yeah, man, like he is a special football player. So man, we are, as you can tell,

Excited for them. I'm excited for him, but we also know the weight of it. Yeah, and we also know the importance of it.

And also Jason just texted me so rastrepo was twenty eight and forty four.

Yeah about I know he shared, I shared it, but he I say it.

I'm black that But I think that's going to do it for today's show.

And remember for the mail back episode, which is coming up next week. Week after we'll figure out we're gonna do that that hawk outside at gmail dot com. If you like this show, please make sure you like them describe wherever you get your podcasts. We really appreciate your support as always, and that's going to do it for the show.

Peace,