On today's episode of Tickets to the Draft podcast presented by Sea Geek, we are taking a deep dive into the second and third rounds and breaking down the newest commanders at all starts right out.
Welcome on into the Ticket of the Draft podcast.
Presented by officialing partner of the Washington Commanders. I'm Logan Paulson here with just a guy Jason, and we have just finished up Day two for the Washington Commanders. For how many picks? We got five picks in today, all good football players.
You're breaking up just a little bit, Logan, But I think what you're asking me to do here is go through the list because we're presented by Sea Geek, and I had the best seat in the house in Detroit with Santana Mawson Brian Mitchell, and what I saw out there was I saw us take Joshn Newton with the thirty sixth pick. He goes by Johnny the defensive tackle from Illinois. Then we had a trade. Okay, we traded back with Philadelphia, a division rival. I thought that was
pretty interesting. What do you think about that? Before I break down the trade?
You know, I don't know people get into that all the time.
I think if it's the best, you know, if it's the best trade value, you don't care about the guy. You don't want the guy that they're trading out for because you're trading out of the spot and get the best value for it, even if it is with a
division rival. I mean, I think there's blocking player. But I think it sounded like the trade, at least from the stuff that I was reading, was very advantageous for the commanders and their goals, and kind of I look at it, the commanders got what they wanted, and it doesn't really bother me that Philly got a player that they wanted, because I think that we were able to add multiple players that we will kind of the commander's math that I look at there.
So Yeah, So what the trade ended up being was that Philly got our second round pick that was number forty, and we swapped with them. We moved back ten spots to fifty, so we basically did a little swap there in a second Then Philly received our third round pick, the seventy eighth, and our fifth round pick, the one hundred and fifty second. Now we got another second round pick, so we basically moved up from the third round to the second round, getting that fifty third pick. I think
that that's what twenty some spots. So basically what we did is we took what was our third round pick, we moved up, we moved back ten spots in the second round. That moved our third round up twenty some spots, and then we are the one sixty first pick in the fifth round. So it was basically my guess was that Peters and the front office was like, hey, we
have a big board here. We have a bunch of guys that we feel comfortable with that we can move back ten spots, but we also have some guys that may not be there in the later in the later rounds, like getting into that third round, we want to kind of stay here in the second and grab a couple of guys back here stay in this tier. So this made the smart move for them, but it seemed like a smart move for them.
All right.
That's just again, all right, So then we went to what those picks ended up being. So the fiftieth pick was Mike Sanders, still the defensive back from Michigan. Small little guy but twitched up quick. He's probably going to be in the nickel I would think. Then in the fifty third pick, we got Ben sinnat the tight end from Kansas. I can't wait to hear you break him down. In the third round, the sixty seventh pick, Brandon Coleman,
that's where we got the tackle from TCU. And we have remaining picks number one hundred, right, that's.
The last one hundred, and that was Luke McCaffrey.
Luke McCaffrey, the wide receiver six ' to two out of Rice, little brother of Christian McCaffrey.
Yeah, and you know so, I think, just on the whole, I think Johnny Newton's kind of the most interesting, not the most interesting. I think he surprised me of the day, not because of you know, the player necessarily, but because he was still available. And I think that the Commanders did one hundred percent of the right thing of taking a tack who twitched up, got great hands, he's got a great motor, he's a captain, very productive player, understands
how to win from a pass rushed at. And then really nice depth rotational piece for the Washington Commanders.
And I think it also allows.
You to deploy those different body types, those big defensive tackle bots of Don and John Allen in different ways by getting another pass rusher on the field. So I love that, And I think that's an example of kind of what you alluding to, Jason, where you say this guy, you know you're on a board kind of head and shoulders, like too good to pass up.
Let's take him.
And I think that's kind of how I feel about Johnny Newton and again very as that he was and I had a first round great on him and really happy that he ends up falling to the Commanders.
Yeah, I mean I agree. I think our fans have been winning for so long the best player available strategy. Like we hear that all the time. The Ravens are attached to that the best player available, best player available. And I think this is where it actually plays out, or at least where you see it play out, because I'm with you, Logan, Like when I released my big board, I add Johnny Newton as a first round talent like on my board and the second best interior defensive player on
the board behind Byron Murphy. And so when you're getting into this spot, I'm saying to myself, Yeah, that makes that's best player available strategy, right, It's what you Now I'm not saying they're using my big board, but if they were, if I were doing it, like, I would do that move right, So I would think that they had something along that line where it's like the talent level is here, we just got to take it and we trust that we'll be able to fill the positions
with our scouting right and trusting our scouting for the later rounds to fill these other holes. But I'm super excited. I think he's a great player.
Yeah, no, I think he's a great player. And again, I just go back to the physical competitivenessness that he I mean, we're going to say that those two words a lot with these prospects. And I'm not just saying it because that's what Adam Peters said.
That's what I'm saying because that's.
What you see on film with all of them, and Johnny Newton's uh, no exception to that.
I think he just he plays incredibly hard.
I love seeing prospects that play like that, and then you couple that with some athletic talent. You know why the first round, if I were to guess, I think he's got a little bit of stiffness to him. But I think the other things that he does well in terms of get off the motor, hand play out for some of that stuff and allowed him to be a productive player and I think encourage a very positive projection, especially.
In this in this Wit defense.
So and then the second guy is Mike sanderstill from Michigan, and man he is he is a special football player, like when I you know, people talk about him being the soul of that team along with Junior Colston, the middle linebacker that you know the Chargers end up drafted later. But man, he is all over the field. He's he's instinct excellent click and close ability. The instincts are off
the chart. He's a captain on that team. He had six interceptions, and he's a guy that you know played inside, has played inside in college, but is going to be an inside player kind of that rotational.
Piece in that defense.
And you see all these defenses now that run you know, three safeties in a nickel, and I think the Commanders are kind of building that foundation to get that done. And people say what about Kwan Martin, And I just say, man, you need good football players, and he is an excellent
football player. Things that Peters mentioned as press conference is that you know, obviously he came in as a receiver, but at his proto he also did receiver drills and just kind of showed off kind of that ballerty and again like he like in terms of a football player, like instincts to screens, tackling on runs, like there's a fearlessness to his game, which I love for a guy that's you know, five nine and a half and one
hundred and eighty five pounds. So again, just a football play in Johnny and the guy that I think to his team's better right now.
So yeah, absolutely, And for Mikey comeing from Michigan, right so national champ and I know a lot of people would say does this fill in need? It absolutely feels a need, right because Kendall Fuller has gone. Kawan Martin was kind of that guy that was in the slot a little bit last year, but he can play that safety or that Buffalo Nickel type role and let Sanders
Hill kind of move to that position there. But either way, right, one of the things that Quinn and Witt have been saying is they're not gonna let a the name of a position that you play like, They're not going to let that handcuff them, right. They're gonna put players in positions to make plays on the field. And it doesn't matter if you like you're a quote safety or a nickel or whatever. They're going to put you on the
field where they think you can make an impact. And I think all these guys can be on the field. At the same time, I'm also super excited that he's a ballhawk, right, six interceptions this year if we get if Forbes gets back into that tendency, which I think he can, Like, you've got wit putting together once again. Another secondary that just that ball is life. They got to have it, and it looks like they're getting some players that have the talent to go get it.
Yeah, And again I just think, you know, you're trying to change a culture with an organization, and you get a guy who's a captain and Johnny Newton who just plays his absolute face off. You get a guy and Sanders still who is extremely competitive, plays extremely hard, does the things that are difficult for corners to do normally, like tackling and you know, taking on blocks, and he's very willing to do that.
So it just makes me excited. Man.
They did such a great job in free agency of bringing in people like that, and I think these two guys definitely fit that build and it leads you, honestly.
Right into the next guy.
Bensonatt from Kansas State, the tight end who is you know, I kind of had him.
As more of like a full back in my mind. You know, he's six three and.
A half two hundred and fifty pounds, but you know when he goes to the senior ball, you see him do more traditional why stuff, in line stuff, and I think.
He was very competitive in those situations.
And then you couple that with his ability to get into two point run a you know, not a super sudden athlete, but has some vertical speed, some vertical routes, savvy which gets you excited. And I think, again, you know we're going to you're gonna get tired of hearing this, but a competitive, tough guy that plays football the right way. And you know, like what does that mean? Like I'm willing to block, I'm going to finish plays, I'm going to finish runs. I'm going to make tough catches. I
don't care if I'm getting collision. Like that's what he is, and I think that's just that's awesome. And then in terms of usage, I think, you know, again, if he wears number thirty four in college, he reminded me a lot of Kyle Uschek. But the way you use Kyle Uschek is you getting twenty one personnel, So you know, a tight end in a fullback, he's your fullback, but that fullback is actually a mismatch speech because the defense
now has to match in base defense. Now I can motion that guy to the slot, I can put him in line, I can motion him out out wide, and we can get a match up on a linebacker. And I think he's good enough as a route runner to win some of those matchups. So I really really like this pick a lot. And I think when you think about the flexibility that it gives the offense, it's going to be pretty special in terms of pieces. And I think it's great that he's going to get to learn from zach Ertz.
Yeah. Absolutely, And if you go to the Commander's YouTube page, you can check out the media press or interview that we had. We have of all our draft picks. But what Benson I was saying is he is a he wanted to come here. He loved his talking with the coaches when he interviewed with them and met with them. He loved it so much that this was his number one place. Super excited to come here, super excited because of Cliff and what coach Kingsbury can do with him.
He said, I'm a skilled guy that can do a lot of things. I'm excited to be a versatile Swiss army knife for him. And then guess what he also said, Hey, I know Jade and Daniels. I actually worked out with him a little bit out in Calli and like, what an athlete, what a baller, what a player like? This could not be a better place for him, That's what he was saying. And like, yes, how great is it to finally have players that were drafting here like openly saying this is where we want to be.
Yeah, yeah, I know, and I'm totally with it.
I know, And a lot of fans were, you know, maybe higher on the guy from.
Texas what's his name, traditions, Javan.
Sanders, and I just think Ben gives you so much more, so much more of what a traditional tight end does while also maintaining some of the ability as a pass catcher. Like if there was a guy Obviously brock Bowers is in his own category, but this Spenser knot's like brock Bowers light and so I think with a with a very savvy offensive coordinator, he can he can maximize that. So, you know, maybe not the vertical passing threat that Sanders is,
but I think just a much better football player. And you know, you love comments like that at the presser where he's excited.
To be here, he wants to be part of the organization.
Multi sport athlete and the other thing about him, you know, not a walked on to Kansas State and then earned his scholarship and a guy that's seen adversity and fought through things.
And when you hear Dan.
Talk about you know, Jaden's process fighting through adversity and the different schools, the different programs. You know, the concussion I forget against Alabama then coming back against Florida and playing well like bensonat has elements of that to him
as well. So again, really excited because I think he's again tough guy, but a nice movable piece that has some past game upside and some nice physicality in the run game despite maybe not being you know, kind of THEO Johnson in terms of builds for example.
So yeah, and talking about that like dog gas attitude right that Dan Quinnon mentions all the time. Now I wanted to mention that Johnny Newton and his presser said, I thought I was a first round talent and now I got a chip on my shoulder and on our show that we were doing on our Command Center Special Live, That's something that Brian Mitchell was saying before we made
that pick. He wants guys at this point who feel like they should be taken higher than they were and are going to come in improve it, prove that they were a first rounder. And it's like, because that's the attitude he wants with people, right, and it's exciting that we're getting these guys that have this type of attitude. It's clearly Peters and Quinn are looking for guys that want to play football and they want to play it
in a chip on our shoulder manner. So we were just talking there about the defensive line and Johnny Newton, let's move to the offensive line. We got to protect Jayden Daniels. We know that we need to add some depth at all offensive line, and with the sixty seventh pick we took Brandon Coleman out a TCU tell us about him, Logan.
Yeah, Brandon Coleman is a guy that I found his off season process to be very very interesting because I think, you know, the first day I watched him, he's kind of like this thick lower half guy, you know, kind of big burly upper body, and he wears like a cowboy collar, you know, like a board that you see like an old school high school linebacker wearing.
And you're like, man, that's a guard if I've ever seen one.
And I think, you know, you watch him and he plays guard at TCU. He plays a little bit of left tackle, you know, they had some injuries they had to move around the front. And then he goes to the Senior Bowl and he plays guard and he doesn't really play a lot of tackle. And then you know, as you're watching the film him and then you go to this, then you on a combine excuse me, and dude tests off the charts. He runs a four ninety nine, which was one of the faster times at the combine.
He has thirty thirty five in charms. He has a thirty four hinge vertical, which were an offensive lineman. I think is like ninetieth percent time, fifth percentile. Excellent job there, does a great job with the movement Joe's You're like, well, if this guy's such a tremendous athlete, like why wasn't
he playing left tackle? Then you go back and watch the Michigan game from twenty twenty two where they you know, I think it was the National Championship game or the semifinal game, and he's playing left tackling and some really good NFL players, NFL pass rushers, and looks in total control. So it was a little bit of a confounding evaluation to me as to kind of saying, why did he see you move them into guard?
But as so far as.
A player goes very physical, very powerful, very powerful man, very strong hands, got good snap from the hips, contract well to the second level kind of reminds me in terms of, you know, if you see him and projecting as a left tackle, which I think you know, based on what Adam and Dan had said, that's kind of the direction they see him going.
Understands the pass protection.
Line really well, knows how to use His length is more of a forty five degree setter as opposed to a vertical setter, which he which shows me that he understands the angle of the rusher and how to kind of maximize what he does well, which is get hands on guys quickly and anchor. And if you look at DJ Humphries from Arizona when Cliff was there, is a little bit of an undersized guy, not a truly traditional tackle build.
The same range.
So six four and a half three point fifteen to three twenty five, that's exactly what Brandon Coleman is And it's kind of like, oh, my gosh, like this is the type of guy they're looking for here, and very smart football player, played multiple spots on the offensive line captain at TCU, and has that mauling kind of dog offensive lineman, you know, like kind of roll you up and spitch you out type of mentality, which you know,
again like just kind of fits. So that was a really interesting evaluation for me for the offseason, and I think a lot of people myself included, were like, oh, let's go for a tracy player like Patrick Paul or Kieran Amadiji from Yale, like these guys that have all
these measurables. But here's a guy that's been very productive in college, very consistent in college and has showed an aptitude that those other guys have not shown yet in terms of finishing, finishing plays and playing with that aggressive physical mindset on every down, you know, as opposed to a guy that's going to have to learn on the job like Karan On a DG from Yale, or a guy that's gonna have to clean up a lot of
his technique like Patrick Paul from Houston. So very very you know, kind of a whirlwin in terms of evaluation, but a guy that I think fills a need and could potentially be tremendous value here because of the athletic upside with that.
Sixty what pick was it? Sixty seven? Seventh yep? Sixty seven yep.
So let me tell you something real quick about him. He had one three hundred and seven pass blocking snaps. This is all according to pff okay. Of those one thousand, three hundred and seven pass blocking snaps, he allowed only fifty four QB pressures. That's it, fifty four. And how many sacks did he give up?
Three? Three?
Yeah, three, that's insane. And when you have a young quarterback that's back there, yes, I mean he might not start right away. I mean maybe he does, he might not. Cornelius Lucas is on the team that could maybe be there, so that Coleman can kind of learn a little bit before he gets in there. But that's what you want, right, Yeah, Like that's what you want when you have a young
quarterback sitting back there. All right, Let's move on to our last guy, and that would be Luke McCaffrey, who had a career high of thirteen receiving touchdowns in twenty twenty three. That's six among wide receivers. He's from Rice, a smaller school. Most people are going to recognize that last name, McCaffrey. And Peters knows McCaffrey's pretty well, don't you think.
Yeah, I knows him pretty well, that's to say the least.
And so, you know, like when they made this pick, I'm sure a lot of fans, you know, maybe we're surprised, I think because there's other guys.
Maybe more recognizable.
You know, you're Devon Teese, Walker's your Javon Baker's, Johnny Wilson's whatever. But I think one of the things that I would call attention to here with Luke McCaffrey is I think he fits. He has a level of professionalism to the way he plays, which to me makes him, I don't want to say a surefire thing, but as close to a surefire guy as you can get from
a mentality standpoint. You know, he tested really well at the combines, you know, for as high and he's he's almost two hundred pounds, you're at at four four seven. He did really well with the movement and the agility stuff, which was great, very competitive at the Senior Bowl.
But when you watch him at Rice.
Dude has this relentless pursuit of greatness, you know, like he's really willing to kind of put his his health and his body on the line for those physical catches. He's grounded through the catch point in a way that reminds me a lot of Puka Nakua. Now they're not the same player, but it's that same kind of skill set. And so when I watch him play, I just see a guy is that screams to me, big slot. And so what is a big slot. A big slot's a guy that's going to go dig out of safety for
you. You're going to motion, You're going to maybe cut a defensive end, You're going to do the dirty work. But by doing the dirty work, you open yourself up in the passing game because he does have rot running nuance. And I think it's crazy to see all the rout running nuance that he does have because you know, he's only been playing receiver for two years. He play quarterback in Nebraska prior to this, So his man has been
very impressive. His physicality is impressive. His hunger to be great is a parent when you watch the film, and he's a guy that is just a you know, is an easy bet.
He's going to be a pro for a long time.
You can just tell by the way he approaches things, and you hear stories about his brother and his father. His mother was a softball player, his grandfather was an Olympian. Like he comes from a long line of professional athletes. And I know there's other guys, other names that were maybe more recognizable at this point in the draft, but I mean, he is just a surefire thing.
And the other thing I wanted to call.
Attention to is I think he has some returnability and especially given the new kickoff return rules, it's going to play like a gap scheme run or a power run. And he hits the way his running style when he gets reverses or he's a wildcat quarterback. At Rice is downhill and hyper aggressive, and I think it just fits perfectly with that new kickoff rule where you're trying to basically find a way to create gap scheme, run and
hit a big you know, for a return. So the mentality, the toughness, the physicality, the relentlessness, the conditioning, it's all there, and I think he's just going to get better because of that. He's a guy that's going to continue to get better and a guy you want to bet.
On for sure.
Dogs, right, that's what we got. We got dogs and getting the best player available while also addressing needs. Man, what a time to be a Washington Commander fan. I am so excited about what this team is going to do this year and what Dan Quinn and Adam Peters are putting together. It's a new era here in Washington. Man. We have the one thirty ninth, one sixty first, and the two twenty second pick still left. That's all tomorrow. Can't wait to see what we find there. I'm sure
there are going to be some hidden gems in there. Yeah, man, what a what a fun time.
Yeah, it's been a lot of fun, and I think it's it's so cool. I think to see the vision, you know, for the for Adam Peters and Dan Quinn and how they were able to execute that, and I'm excited to see how that goes tomorrow because I think in one of the things I was noticing is like, man, how do you how do you feel how do you find guys that continue to have this dog mentality, this leadership mentality. But they did a great job of staying true to that model and finding people that fit that mold.
And I can't wait to see the guys that come up with in the fifth and the seventh rounds tomorrow.
It's gonna be a lot of fun.
So absolutely, this has always been a lot of fun with you.
Logan.
Yeah, it's been great, man, And I don't know if we're into another one of these, but this has been an awesome draft process and it's great to see all these names that we spent all this time evaluating now here as the newest commanders.
So yeah, awesome.
Yeah, I think that's it.
I think that's it, Buddy,