In today's episode of Tickets to the Draft, We've got the skill guys, the playmakers, the running backs, the wide receivers. You've got record breaking forties, we've got aliens, six to seven wide receivers. We've got receivers pretending to be horses out there. Man, it was wild. We got quarterbacks Adrian McCarthy, Bowe Nicks, Michael Pennix Junior, and the quarterback boards are shuffling.
That all starts right out. Welcome on into the Tickets and Draft Podcast presented by Sea Geek, the official primary ticketing partner of the Washington Commanders. I'm Logan Paulson here with Jessic Guy Jason, and we are just finishing up Day three of the combine receivers, running backs, and quarterbacks. And it was a marathon of a day, but a lot of fun because these are the guys, are the playmakers in this year's draft class.
This is the best day of the combine. Thanks to Sea Geek, we had the best seat in the house right well, we really did. We had a good time. You were getting up with your exercise bands and working out halfway through because it's a lot of I mean, there's a lot of guys to watch here, But man, is it fun watching these guys do their drills, watching these quarterbacks spin it?
Yeah? Absolutely, And again, the the top top guys didn't participate, right, so who are they? They're Caleb Williams, Jane Daniels, Drake May didn't do anything.
Marvin Harrison Junior.
Yeah, Marvin Harrison Junior, the leak Neighbors didn't participate. But I think with the quarterbacks that second tier guys is really fun. Specifically JJ McCarthy man, like, he's so interesting watching his film, watching him throw today. And then honestly, like people talk about Malik Neighbors not not participating, Marvin Harrison Junior not participating, I mean it was great to watch Brian Thomas Jr. And romadonsay, Man, he is a special prospect, you know.
And so that wide receiver group is special, right. There's a lot of really good players here, and when we break them down, we're gonna do running backs, then wide receivers in quarterbacks. When we break down the wide receivers, like we're gonna we're gonna nitpick yep, because you're all really good. So I just want our listeners to keep that in mind. When we're looking at, like what differentiates
this guy from this guy? When we get through the ride receiver group, it's going to be it's going to be the smallest details. They're all very good.
They're all very good, and if you disagree, please leave a comment. You know, Like again, we're trying to flesh out all of our evaluations and if you guys see something different, we'd love to talk to you about it, So make sure you leave a comment.
Yeah. Absolutely. Now a group that may not have as many top end of the drafts players is the running backs. Now why do you think that is with this class specifically?
You know, it's funny, like there's just not that guy, you know, like last year there was the Jamir Gibbs, there was the guy drafted by Atlanta, J John Robinson. Yeah, and I think they were special and I think, you know, when the drill work and the testing. Obviously v John didn't kill the testing the way a lot of people thought, but Gibbs ran a four three and six four three eight, and just the bagwork, the dexterity of movement, the way
they caught the football was just different. And they kind of fall in that offensive playmaker category and I think what you'll find with the NFL and at the NFL devalues running backs. The value tight ends the values linebackers to a certain extent. But when you find a special prospect in that group, you're going to get bumped up
into the first round. And So while I think there are guys that are, you know, I think, very very talented, like I'm not, I think they're very good running backs, I don't think there's that game changer at the position. And when you talk to guys scouts and coaches at the combine, you know, we go out every night and talk to people, one of the things they always say is, like running back value, you want to pick a running back in the third round, Like that's where the value is.
And I think a lot of these guys are guys that fit that billing, that are good football players and add value because they have a kind of a specific superpower that they bring to the table.
Right where Washington got Brian Robinson as an example, is a third round pretty good talent there.
Antonio Gibson too, right, Yeah, and that's.
Been a trend, yeah, Like it used to be teams taking running backs in the top five, right, And definitely in the first round that was very valued. Now it's not that running backs aren't valued for a team, of course he are, but it's like you can find later value with running backs. So it started to it's just a trend in the NFL. Well, wide receivers flying up right, we could see a lot of these wide receivers going in the first round.
And I think a big reason for that with the receivers specifically, and we're going to talk about them more detail in a second is there's a lot of those dynamic playmakers in that group, a lot of them. I mean, there's probably eight guys going to go on the first round.
There's a bunch of guys in the second round where you say, man, this guy in last year's class, like this is going to sound crazy, but you know, Johnny Wilson is probably the first receiver taken in last year's draft class, Like that's how bad last year's draft class was. And this year he's probably the twelfth, fifteenth guy on
the list. So yeah, I think there's a lot of that going on here in terms of it's just a saturated class with dudes that can make plays on the football and make your offense significantly more explosive with with one pick.
Yeah, it's also the way that they that the league is moving, right, they're moving to the more pass catchers, right, the more pass heavy offense. Excuse me, and you want more dynamic playmakers. You don't just want one guy, you want two guys, maybe even three guys in your wide receiver room that are weapons that other teams need the game plan floor for, and that includes now running backs. Right, running backs are becoming more and more and more a part of that passing game. And we saw it here
with the Commanders with Brian Robinson this last offseason. So before last season started catching the ball a lot in training camp, right caught the ball a lot more in season than he did the year before. So we're starting to see pass catching is important with running back. So let's go to the running backs here, the first to go today, and let's talk about some of the guys that kind of showed that pure running back ability and then what that means for them if they're not pass catchers. First.
Yeah, So I think I think it's important that when we're talking about the running back group today is talking about the two guys I think probably like one the combine Isaac Gwendero from Louisville was a guy that absolutely, I mean absolutely murdered the combine a testing standboint. Like his numbers are kind of unbelievable. He ran a four to three at six foot two hundred twenty one pounds. He had a forty one and a half inch vertical jump and a ten to nine broad So crazy explosive athlete.
And when you watch the film at Louisville, he kind of falls in that traditional runner bucket a little bit. He kind of reminds me a little bit of Breese Haall on how they used him at Iowa State, And what I mean by that is they ran a lot of kind of inside zone runs and he never really
got to be like that playmaker. But I do think at the NFL level, because of that speed, because of those explosive measurements, when you go back and watch his film, you see that even on the inside zone stuff where he gets some air and some grass, he's able to create explosive plays. And I think even though he kind of falls in that traditional runner bucket a little bit more, he still catches the ball pretty well. And I think that's the thing you see with this running back class.
That's unique, and I think it's kind of this kind of mirrors this trend you're talking about with offenses getting more pass centric. Even guys that are kind of traditional runners catch the football naturally. Actually then runners. Did you know ten years ago when I was playing, and so he's a guy I wanted to give a shout out to.
And also Jalen Right from Tennessee, you know not didn't wasn't used in the past game at Tennessee, but he ran a four to three eight today, had the fastest miles per hour for a five yard split of any running back over the last three years at the combine. So very dynamic, explosive guy. He led the nation in explosive rushes last year for the Tennessee Volunteers. So he's five to eleven, he's two hundred and ten pounds, but has this explosive skill set. So again, not a true
pass catcher necessarily. But I think when you're a scout and you look at this, you say, hey, man, like this, dude, these guys are kind of falling that falling that weapons category because speed kills. I think you just have to look at Miami and how they've addressed the running back position. Maybe not a h and I think was unique and that he was a very skilled playmaker and runner. But moster a is a guy that I think fits this gold He's got explosive qualities and they've built an offense
around what he does well. And I think you could do that with both of these guys.
What are some other guys that stuck out? Those were the speachers who was rid of two fastest times for the running backs that ran the four free three for Isaac in the four three eight for Jalen. What are some of the other guys that stuck out to you? And why if they're not, is it because they blended well with rushing and passing or talk to me about those guys first and we'll lean to more of the pass catching back.
Sure, so I think, yeah, Like there's like Ray Davis is the guy from Kentucky who's just at every step of the His film's good. His senior ball was very solid, His combine performance was very solid. He ran a four to four, which is faster than I thought he would run. But got that natural vision like when they do the bag drills. He doesn't get flummixed like when they have to read the bag. His feet are always under him.
He's kind of this bowling ball build. I think he does catch the ball again, does catch the ball better, but it's more of a traditional worker back. But I think today he got the show that he catched the ball. Not He's not Dylan Laub or any of these guys that are like almost receivers in terms of how they catch the ball, but very skilled. Kamani val Valdall excuse me, another guy that is a traditional runner. And again you
see he ran a four to four to seven. Awesome for him, kind of showing that explosive measurement, but good vision, good power, good contact balance, but more of a traditional back. You know. Brandon Allen, the guy from Wisconsin, didn't run his forty today, but in the bag drills you see his tremendous size. He's sixty three, he's two fifty. He runs pretty well, he moves pretty well. I think he catches the ball, okay, because he had to do that
last year at Wisconsin. They're getting away from their traditional power running stuff. But in my mind, in the way, I think a lot of scouts look at him a traditional runner, right, and I think that's where those guys stood out to me as having unique skill sets. But I'm also like, I think it's interesting that even though they are kind of these traditional runners, they aren't liabilities in the past game and they were able to show
that today. So guys that stuck out to me again because they I think they tested pretty solid, but also their field work was good, and I think one of the things, like with Brandon Allen, for example, he didn't test he had two drops today, But the thing that I liked about him is how he moved. There wasn't
a lot of tightness in how he moved. He's just a big, kind of flexible guy, and I think that there's a role for him at the next level, where prior to today, I was a little bit concerned about him just being too stiff and too big, and I think all those guys kind of were in that bucket and they all showed, hey, I can do something more than just pound between the tackles.
Basically, let's talk about Marshall Lloyd from USC because he might be the first running back off the board whenever that is. It looks like he's trending to be that way, okay, and he has good film. He did very well at the senior role. The knock on him, or one of the knocks on him is yeah, but he played with Caleb Williams, so there's not he's not running in the boxes eight man boxes because they respect Caleb so much,
they're backing out. He runs a lot out of the shotgun, which may be a good thing these days there's a lot of running out of the shotgun in the NFL. But that used to be a knock, right, is that he wasn't getting in that behind when the quarterback was
under center and running from behind that. So what about him stood out today or were you like, you know, some of these concerns that I'm seeing that people are talking about because I'm playing with Caleb Williams starting to see which way did you go today?
So every again, he's a guy that I liked his film, and again when you mentioned it, when you watch his film, they're running into a lot of five man boxes, right, He's got very favorable numbers. But I think at the Senior Ball you just see a guy who's a good football player, you know, I think he catches the ball better than people think. At the Senior Bowl, got a bunch of wheel routes. I think looked very in control catching the football here today. And I think he's got
the size. I think he's six six footish two hundred and seventeen pounds, and he's got the violent running style, you like, he wants to finish runs and he's got an aggressive kind of who's the running back for Kansas City with it runs so hard?
Check out?
Yeah, but he's got a little bit of that to his running style, and I think and I think he also catches the football well, So I think, to me, he that's why I think he's going to be one of the first backs because he's not super flash, but he's super consistent and I think that's something that I value.
And every step of the process. Film was consistent, Senior Bowl was consistent, combine performance was consistent, and they're to me, as an evaluator of talent, there's value in the guys that just come to each event and are like, hey, you want me to run routes with the receivers, because he did do that after he stayed and did like receiver route tree, which I don't think of him as but I like that he's willing to try that. I'm like, I like the he was able to show off his
hands in that way. But he's a guy that, again just every stage of the process, does a great job. Not super flashy, but I could see a team taking a shot on him late in the second round, earlier in the third.
And guys that stood around to run some of those receiver routes to show scouts that they can do. That was a Dylan Woub from New Hampshire. Ye, let's talk about him a little bit because he's interesting with this group.
He's very interesting with this group because I think one of the things about his film he runs like in this kind of shotgun spread offense and not the most
dynamic runner. And what I mean by that is he's fast, he's powerful, but he just doesn't have a lot of shake in the hole, and then all of that kind of goes away when he gets They line him up in the slot quite a bit on linebackers, and he runs a tremendous route tree and so it's almost like he's a slot receiver that moonlights as a running back.
So I do think that that's something you know, very not he's not this player, obviously, but very Christian McCaffrey ask in terms of his ability to kind of line up and run like a traditional route tree, like a slot receiver, I think he's a little too stiff for some of that. But in terms of his ability to run a choice route, to run a deep post from outside, like he's got that in his bag, and I think he kind of represents the direction the position is going.
And I could see a team definitely taking a flyer on him as a guy, a developmental punt return, special teams type, guy that could be kind of a Danny Woodhead at some point for them. A guy that runs well in between the tackles, but also and find those matchups win on a choice route, running an option route, much like an Edelman or an Amondola would kind of
that similar body type. And again, if you can find players that can create matchups through personnel like he can, I believe you feel pretty good about it.
So, speaking of guys that catch the ball, yep, let's move on to the wide receivers.
Yeah, yeah, cool, let's do it all right. There a lot of guys to talk about it.
Yeah, there's a lot. So let's talk about the big dogs. The big dogs, the ones that everybody's heard their names. One hundred times. But there's a reason. Yeah, And boy did they remind you why they're the ones that you talk about all the time at the combine because they look good.
Yeah.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna say, why don't we start with one of the best names in the combine right now? Roma Donza.
D It's a great name, what a name, but it's a great wide receive. So first off, everyone knew that he was going to come in and he wasn't going to light the world on fire from a forty standpoint, but he took care of business. He ran a four to four great job. Check that box. Explosive measurements good, check that box. And the thing that just kind of sealed the deal for me and him, obviously his film
was outstanding is when he ran routes. So he was in the second group, and so we got to see everybody run, they're slipping their phone, they can't on the same page with the receivers, and I just felt like every route that he ran, he's able to sink his hips, he's under control, he's underbalance, he's getting out quickly, he's catching with his hands, and I just thought that is what a first round potentially top five player at the position,
no potentially top five player in the draft. Looks like just came in and just checked every question mark off for me, and I was like, that's exactly what we want to see from a potential top five pick. So he had a great combine in my opinion, I think he got a little tired near the end of the on field stuff because we'll talk about the quarterbacks here in a minute, but they were really helping him out.
But I thought his consistency in the in the gauntlet drill is consistently, it's consistently with the route tree, and it's just his route running fundamentals like his ability to run the comeback, the curl, the deep dig. All that stuff was on full display. And that just gets me fired up because to me, one of the hardest routes for big receivers to run is that is that fifteen to twenty yard comeback, and he just made it look incredibly easy, and so I had no more questions, Like
he was who he thought he was. He gets comped to Larry Fitzgerald. I think that's a very good comp He's not going to kill you with vertical speed, but he's a great contested catch guy. He runs excellent, his excellent route running fundamentals, and he just put that on display for us.
Yeah, he looked really smooth, really smooth for as big as he is, right, he just looks smooth. And speaking of guys that ran nice routes as well, Brian Thomas Junior from LSU, Yeah, the other LSU receiver.
Not moleage neighbors obviously, and so he measured in at six y three I think two ten, So bigger guy obviously, and dropped a couple of balls. But one of the things that I had a question with with him coming in is I knew he was going to be fast, and I think he ran a four three five or four three four, So he was fast. But with fast guys, one of the questions you have is can they run a full route tree or can they run something resembling
a full route tree. And so he did a great job with the gauntlet, very smooth, but he also ran the curl, the comeback, the dig and with good fundamentals, smooth in and out of his cuts, didn't get bogged down the way some of these other guys were going to talk about later. And I just felt like you know, he had a couple drops, and I'm with that they're probably going to be on Sports Center. But in terms of the things that he needed to answer for me
as an evaluator, came in and ran fast. You're supposed to be fast, run fast, Jack, and can you run routes? I thought he ran excellent routes on air, and I thought he showed great route running fundamentals. So to me, I think he just knocked it out of the park and I think he jumped a lot of these other guys were going to talk about later.
Yeah, so I want to bring up something with him real quick, because you're like, yeah, he dropped the ball whatever. But then we'll look at like tes Walker a deseniable and he's like, oh man, he's dropping the ball, so not a big deal. So wait, why are we That sounds hypocritical to us. Why are we saying one way and one the other? And I would say, real quick, and then you can give your reason why I would
say that. A the film shows that he's very sure handed and beat not every ball thrown is created equal, and he was in a group where he had a couple of drops, a ball in him in the hand, it wasn't the best place ball, right. He had to contort his body to try to get it was behind him on his back hip something like that. And it's like, yes, he should be making these catches, but it wasn't. We're not talking about like this ball hit him right in
the hands while he's running smoothing around. It wasn't a well thrown ball, right, whereas Tez Walker has shown it every now and then, that ball can be right there in the bread basket and it's and it hits his hands.
Yeah, I think I think you hit the nail on the head there. I think it's a film study thing. I think when you just look at the consistency of his film in terms of how he catches the football, I don't really have any issue with it.
You know, like you're going to an anomaly we saw.
Yeah, you're going to be working with new quarterbacks, and we'll talk about that a lot, and the next group of receivers are going to talk about. But when you're working with new quarterbacks, the ball comes off the hand a little bit differently. And I think that was some of it, you know, And I think this is a I think it's important to acknowledge that this is an extremely stressful environment. You know, this is this is an opportunity to kind of be like, you know, like every
drop means something. They can cascade, then they can become multiple drops. But again, the thing I wanted to see was foot speed, hip ability to sink your hips in and out of routes, and I thought he did a great job of that in a way that I was
not expecting. And it makes you believe there's a foundation there for a true X receiver, which is ultimately what you're looking for when you're looking for kind of that stud playmaking guy that can line up on the ball versus man and man coverage and win for you.
So yeah, and speaking of the studs, let's talk about liget behavior. Leget from why am I blanking South Carolina? So all the schools run together, all the names and schools run together. But he's not in the same category, I would say as the Romo dunes A certainly, or the Brian Thomas junior. He's like just outside of that, maybe like late first round, second round.
Maybe it was like a second round player. And I think this is this is this is a guy that I just I kind of you just fall in love with a little bit because he just every everyone you talk to says he's a great kid. He works really hard,
a little up and down at the Senior Bowl. And I also wanted to bring this up WHI we're talking about receivers because I think, thinking back on our Senior Bowl content, I don't know if we acknowledge this well enough, but it's the first time they're playing padded football in months, and they're working with new receivers and sometimes they get at a little out of whack. And I just honestly was blown away with him because at the Senior Bowl we didn't get to see kind of his full repertoire
of stuff. And he came out here. He didn't drop a ball, He ran really fast. He looked huge. I think he was like two two twenty five.
His legs look big.
Like him and Lad mcconchney were standing next to each other, and they look like different species of human being.
Yeah, but they're the same height, Like they're about the same height. Yeah, but he just get just looks bigger. I think, did you writ what did you write down?
In you he's a horse, like I wrote down to see a horse question mark, Like he was standing next to Luke McCaffrey and they're exactly the same height, and they and Xavier just looks so much bigger than him, and and the other thing. I was just impressed with how he ran routes, the consistency with which he ran routes. Guys are slipping all over the place. He didn't slip
one time his feet runder him. All these criticisms about him not being able to run routes, him not be able to sink his hips, him not be able to adjust the football in the air at a high level. I was like, I didn't see any of that today.
He didn't drop a single ball today, Yeah, which not that's uncommon, right as all these guys drop at least one ball, like whether it's in the gaullet or one of the roundtrees, because it's just a badly thrown ball. But not him. He made adjustments to it, he called it, he grabbed it, even on the bad balls.
He was special today, absolutely, And there was a kind of an element of like what we talked about with quinnyon Mitchell, like it's not always perfect, but he's got so much horsepower out of his cuts, like the way he can close to a football is very special. Ran a four to three nine today, forty inch vertical, ten to six broad. You're just like he answered, he was supposed to be physical free. He was a physical freak. And then on top of that, I thought he showed
a great technical acumen. So he's the guy that, to me like kind of falls in that top group today as as someone who sort of won the day, and I think deserves a lot of credit for whatever he's done between the Senior Bowl and now to get himself ready to go. Didn't look out of shape at all, looked totally fine. Some of the other guys get a little heavy legged as the day goes on. I just
give him a ton of credit. Came out for one of the biggest shop interviews of his life, and I think he just, at least from the on field portion, just aced it.
Yeah, he did a great job. Now let's move on to the wide receivers who were the just a steady at his studies. We knew what they were in film, which is good players, and they came out here to comment and said, Hey, guess what, we're good players. We're going to confirm that for you.
Yeah, and you know, Lad mcconchney was a guy that seener Bowl super steady here, very steady. I think there's some physicality issues that make you think, oh, like where does he actually fall? During the broadcast they made a comparison to Garrett Wilson physically from a height, weight, speed standpoint, They're very somewhere, but they have very different play styles
but consistent route runner. Love to see that. Luke McCaffrey a guy that I think a lot of people have kind of pushed off, as you know, Christian McCaffrey's brother, all that kind of thing, like in the Gauntlet Drill. He reminded me of what Puka Nakua did in the Gauntlet Trill and when the whole point of the Gauntlet Trill is to run as fast as you can, not lose any speed, and stay on the ground.
Don't jump when trying to catch the ball.
And he did that at a very very high level. Jakwan Jackson from Tulane, No Tulsa from Tulsa, Tulsa.
Jakwan Jackson, No, he's still ling too lane.
Sorry, Yeah, I thought he just came out and showed that elite twitch that you wanted to see from him. He's a smaller guy five to ten two hundred is two hundred and five pounds, but snappy like Santana Moss, snappy in and out of his cuts. Was not always on the same page with the quarterback. Again, I don't give that as him, but the superpower you needed to see from him. He came out and showed you that.
Yeah, he's not as fast as Santanamo's. Just to get that clear. Yeah, about four two you're talking about the twitch.
Yeah, the twitch in and out of his cuts, his ability to like violently throw his feet into the ground and then not lose any speed coming out. Yeah, and we liked him at the Senior Bowl. I thought he came out, showed showed a very solid performance.
He had a route today where his shoulders went over his feet correct right, and he kept his balance and popped up and cut violently the other direction. And you were like, that's really hard to do by having your shoulders go over your feet, maintain your balance and still gain.
Speed, like really nerdy route running. People call it like a sense of false acceleration. And so what you do is you throw your chest forward as you're slowing down and it makes the DV think you're trying to run by them and it's and it's hard. It's hard to do that at a high level, and he showed that he could do it. And so that is someone you circle.
You say, I don't know what his exact role is at the next level, punt returner, third fourth receiver that comes in man man situations, but that physical skill set was there, which is great to see. And then Brendan Rice from USC obviously Jerry Rice's son, just I think he ran well for how big he is, Like everyone
was worried he was going to be slow. I think he ran a four was it a four to four seven something like that, ran well, jumped well, and then was just super consistent on the field like he was consistent at the Senior Bowl. He's consistent here and I like that.
And I felt bad for him because he had a lot of bad balls, like uncatchable balls thre in his way.
But is he in the first group or the second?
He was in the second group. But even with that, and you could see his frustration a little bit. And I don't I don't want to speak for him. I don't know if his frustration was where how the balls were thrown or that he didn't catch them or whatever, but you could tell that, like it doesn't matter if I catched the ball or not. He was going out there. He was going to run the route the best he could, very very steady.
Another guy that was in pretty good shape throughout the whole thing. A ton of routes and again, every time you drop the ball in these drills, they make you go again, and so you can get easily during these periods, which are about an hour and a half long, a thousand high speed yard cards, which is very, very taxing
on the body, So kudos him. And then Jaylen Polk is a guy from you dub who I don't know what he is at the next level because he's got a little bit of stiffness, but never drops the ball, runs good routes and his film is awesome in terms of contested catchability. And he just came out and did that today, you know, on the field and in an environment where there's a lot of bad balls, where there's people missing throws, like he made the quarterback right a
lot diving on the ground. There was one where they run like an inn to a high corner and he tracked the ball well and dove on the ground and Romo Dunze comes up to him and lifts him up, and everyone's jacked up. And so that that's the kind of player he is, and that's kup of energy that he brings, and.
That's what you see in his film. He he's an alpha for that ball. He says, it's mine, I'm going to go get it. It's a little bit. He doesn't look like Terry McLaurin. I'm not going to say that, but when Terry goes to get those fifty to fifty balls, he has that like this is mine. Yeah, I'm the one that's coming down with it. That's what Polk looks like.
And he's built a little bit different than Terry.
He's different wider back, and.
That physicality and the mentality. So those those guys for me are just like I think they're good football players. I think there are some physical limitations in some cases, you know, lads a little bit on the small side, pokes a little bit stiff, But I just in terms of the nuance of playing the position, I think they just do a great job with it.
Let's not forget about Ricky pearsol.
Oh, our guy Ricky Pets.
Let's not forget he actually had four one.
I know, but like he's he's a guy that you know, like you want to put him in the steady eddie, but I think it's he ran a four four one.
He also had a forty one inch vertical. I think he had eleven foot broad jump and for a little for a guy that everyone thought was just kind of a slot receiver, those are explosive horsepower measurements that I would kind of think about even putting him into a winners category for the day, because not only did he test extremely well, he ran great routes like we thought
he would, great change in direction. He's a little bit smaller upper body wise seeing him in person than I thought he would be, But I don't really care about that because he's a guy that's going to fit some
type of role at the next level. And you know, if you're looking for a receiver that I would be ecstatic about playing here in Washington, who could be that three that kind of Curtis Samuel or replacement if necessary, I would jump at the chance in the third round if he's still there, to run that ticket up because
he you watch his film in college it's excellent. You watch how he tests it, and to see him test better than expected, you're just like this guy could be a I don't want to say a dynamic playmaker because that's overstating, but a consistent playmaker at the NFL level.
Well, another guy that in that vein the combine really helped him out, really pushed them up. I think tes Walker stood out today and he needed to have a good day, and he did right so real quickly he ran a four to three six, which is great.
And jumped out the gym if I remember correctly, I don't know if you looked it up. Look it up while I'm talking real quick. Sure, but a guy that at the Senior Bowl had a hard time catching the football, just was not very consistent catching the football. And it's a red flag because on film you see him also drop the football, and so you're kind of like, man, the most important part of playing receiver at the NFL level,
at any level is catching the football. I don't care how fast you are, I don't care how big you are, I don't care how twitched up you are. If you can't catch the football, that's concerning. And so today he came out and we've already talked a little bit about how challenging it is for these receivers to catch balls from new players. He didn't drop a ball, he didn't drop a ball. He ran excellent routes. I mean, you still see some of the issues with his rot running technique.
He's a little high hipped, he has a hard time sinking. But I think he's violent with his feet and a guy that could be again like kind of in that Wallace from Pittsburgh over the top playmaker if he can kind of catch the football the way he did today. So I think, again in the vein of a guy who needed to kind of answer a lot of questions in a big time job interview, he did that. I mean, there's so many they probably caught fifty balls today, or
had the opportunity to catch about fifty balls. Now that's probably too much. Thirty to thirty five balls. He didn't drop one of them. So didn't drop it in the gauntlet, didn't drop it in the warm up. You can tell that was a point of emphasis for him, and I think that's awesome that he came out and kind of put his stamp on that.
Yeah, he looked fantastic. I was pleasantly surprised to see that, especially after the tough Senior Bowl the last time I saw him a four to three, six forty yard dash of forty point five vertical monster pretty good and eleven two monster.
Those are monster explosive numbers. And so for him again to come out test so well, jump like that, run like that in a big moment, it's hard to do that. Man, there's fans there, there's scouts there, everyone gets a little bit tight, little bit of tense. I think he just did a great job again, and all the questions that came up in the Senior Bowl, like kind of not answering all of them because he still fights the football a little bit. He still he's not the most natural catcher,
but I liked it. That was a point of emphasis for him. So I'd say he's also kind of in that pseudo winner category for sure.
All right, well let's look the other direction, right the winner. I don't want to say a loser, because nobody hears a loser. They're all NFL dwalent And like I said, we're gonna be nitpicky, we're gonna split some hairs. But a guy that came in here that we're all that. We said, all right, let's see if you can check some boxes. Was Keon Coleman from Florida State.
Yeah, and Keon Coleman is a guy that I love. I love watching this film. He is great. He's probably the best contested catch receiver in the class. The problem is like he doesn't separate well on film. So he needed to come in here and show me something, show me something from an explosive speed standpoint. So he comes in, he runs a four to six two. Okay, that's not fatal, but it's not great. Then you're like, okay, well, if he comes in and shows some route running nuance, maybe
that four to six two isn't an issue. And every route that he so. First off, I got to give him his flowers. On the gauntlet drill, he did it better than anybody at the combine. He sprinted through the thing, his feet never left the ground. He caught the ball naturally with.
His twenty miles an hour.
He was hitting on that, which is what you want to see in that droll. So great, great job. But anytime we had to change direction, anytime we had to run an out, a deep dig, a comeback. He is very stiff in his hips and ankles in a way that makes it hard for him to sink into breaks. And we're gonna talk about Johnny Wilson here in a second, But when you watch Johnny Wilson, his kind of counterpart at Florida State sink and run routes, it just looks
completely different. And that to me, when I watched him in routes on air today, it became instantly clear why his separation percentage is so low compared to everybody else. So I think he could have come in here and if you would have run a four or five or a four four seven, four four nine, it had been like, Okay, he's got the vertical speed to be this home run threat. But now I think his role becomes a little bit
nebulous about what he's good at in the NFL. Again, contested catch monster, but so was Kanil Harry, a guy that could contested catch any out, contested catch anybody, but couldn't separate and obviously had a very kind of lackluster professional career.
Ker Coleman, I hope, I hope he's successful. He looks like he has all the tools. It's just there it feels like there's just one thing not clicking. And I hope he goes to a team that gets a coaching staff around him that like figures it out, because he is a monster for contested catches and just give him that little bit of something that helps him create separation so he can be a big success. Yeah, you talked about Johnny Wilson. I want to lump two guys together.
I want to lump Johnny Wilson and I want to lump u Xavier Worthy from Texas. And there's a reason I want to lump them together, and that reason is they came into the combine with a lot of questions around them. Did they prove did they answer those questions? Did they prove it to you? Because Johnny Wilson ran a four or five three and it being at six ' seven and the size he is, We're like, that's good,
that's great. We're glad we saw that. You said he did the rat Sorry Logan, he said he did the routes and he sunk his hips and he looked great, and you're excited about that. Yeah, right, these are all positive things. Then, Xavier Worthy, we have questions about his route tree and what he can do was as far as like, can he do these comebacks? Can he do all the rout tree h That's basically he comes in and he runs a record setting four two one forty. That was phenomenal to.
Watch in the atmosphere.
The atmosphere was a coach. They were showing coaches on the board that were like pulling for him, and it was like it was great. But then he doesn't do anything. He's like, I'm done for the day. I'm not going to run any routes for you. I'm not going to show you that i can do these things, even though there's questions for it. I'm fine with just being the fastest forty time ever at the combine right whereas Johnny
Wilson derees. I want to lump him. He does all these things we said, we checked the box, good forty, looking good in it, rounds and jump. But then halfway through the drills he's like, I'm good, Yeah, I'm done. Now. He could have an injury, we don't.
Know, or his agent could have said yeah agent, he just.
But for whatever reason, he's just just stopped. He went on, got dressed, put his bag on, stood with the with the guys stood at the team, was rooting them one and all that, but he like he only did about half it. Why so, like, why do we even though they came in and did positive things, we still have questions about him.
Yeah, so I think let's sart with Johnny Wilson because he's a guy that I I love tall receivers, I love outliers, thirty five inch arms. He jumped thirty seven inches at two hundred and thirty five pounds. He had like an eleven nine broad Like, he did a great job testing. Remember the four four, five, three forty, Like that's awesome for a man of his proportion. And then he goes out and you're like, we'll see what happens. And he runs excellent routes. He catches the ball with
his hands, he runs a great gauntlet trill. He just it's all there, and you're like, oh my gosh, this guy can play his way into what I would categorize as a two. You know, like he at the Senior Bowl, he didn't lose a rep in one on ones, he didn't make any mental like, he had a good week of practice, and then at the Senior Bowl he stops after the second day he wins all his one on ones on the second day and then says, I've got an injury. I have to go. You're like, okay, that's okay.
People do that at the Senior Bowl.
That was tough. And then like we felt bad. Yeah, keep seeing you injury, that's fine.
And so then here it's like you are doing something. You're having an excellent day, You're running good routes. He made an excellent like this throw, so he ran a big out right and I forget who it was, but they kind of put the ball way to the sideline over his head, so he tracked it over his head. He cut it right off his shoelaces as it was falling down, popped it up, and then finished the drill. And that was his last catch.
And at six seven, that was amazing.
And just seeing him run in comparison everybody else, you're like this, and and again his ability to sink and come out of cuts at that size is it's it's really special to watch. But I don't understand why you didn't finish the Senior Bowl and why you didn't finish this drill. I know I've got we're gonna do some investigative reporting. And figure out what's going on with them, But do you have an injury problem? Can you only
run a certain number of routes like what you're conditioning? Like, So I feel like that the physical stuff was all answered for me, but the character of the composition of his competitive character is still in question.
Yeah, And it feels like that's unfair because we don't know. We don't know if he could have had an injury, he could just be taking the advice of his agent and like he's doing all the right things. But because we don't know and we're not privy to that, they should and we don't, Like we're not teams, right, maybe they're telling the teams, Hey, here's what's going on whatever,
and that's fine, but we don't have that information. So all we have is like we you're right there every time, like we want to fall in love with you, or I want to fall in love with you and write when I'm about to, you're like.
Oh no, no, that's exactly I think.
And it's like, oh no, just just just finish it out, Yeah, finish it out. But I hope he's I hope he's healthy. I hope it's not an injury. I hope it is his agent saying, you know, stuff like I hope and I just hope it's not him being like, you know, I think I'm done.
Yeah, I hope that too, because again, I want guys who love football, who are passionate about football, and those are the guys you bet on. Those are the guys that get better and that didn't happen today and so and so that that's one element of the people you asked about. The other guys. Xavier a Worthy obviously tremendous performance. The problem I have with this is he's five or eleven. He waited at one sixty five, obviously, jumped out the
gym all the every explosive measurement you want. His ten was great. Everything about it was great. I think he ran the fastest ten in the history of the combike. Dude was out there today. From an from a measurement standpoint, I don't have any question when I watch this film there, I had zero questions about that. Like I think I told you before I ran, I think he's gonna run a four two. I think I said that too. Yeah, and he goes out and runs a four two. Great.
My question is, what how do you run routes, you know, like, I don't care how fast you are, how do you run routes? And so I was really hoping because on film he works a vertical route tree. People get hands on him, they bump him off the stuff. It's a hard time changing direction. Maybe that's just the rout tree they're asking him to do a Texas. So I really
wanted to see him run today. I really run routes and for him just put the backpack on him, like you're not a first round pick, and maybe he will be now for the forty. But I think teams have gotten wise to understanding that fast guys, really fast guys. Guy. If you look at everybody who's broken records at the combine in terms of forty outside of Chris Johnson, tend to not be the greatest football players. John Ross is the most recent example. Drafted by the Bengals in the first round.
That's the record that worthy beat today.
That's and not a kind of a lackluster career. So I just wanted to see him play football, or play a version of football, or play something that simulated football, and he just didn't do that. So I'm a little disappointed with that. Again, he will go down in history as the fastest man and dude.
And it was electric. I was pulling for him. It was so exciting because they liked and we don't want to take anything away from him for doing that. It's awesome.
Yeah. And then just to walk you through, like he ran a four two five and I'm like, he's not gonna run another one. And he gets up to the line and the building is quiet. It's like it's like electric and it's running again, and then he runs the he runs the forty, and then for the second time. For the second forty, the NFL puts up the time on the big screen and they flash up the four to two right or four to two one right as
he's finishing, and the stadium erupts. They have clips of coaches like double checking their stopwatches and looking at the numbers on the screen. Yea, and it was just it was awesome. And so they showed ap yeah, and he was just oh yeah, clapping, and then they start a picture of a scout looking at his stopwatch, looking at the number, double checking it, talking to someone next because you don't believe that it happened, and it's and it's cool to be there for that kind of moment in
Combine history. But as a town evaluator, that's great, but I want to see you run some routes and catch the football.
Yeah, it's like and it's again, it's the same for me, the same Johnny was. I want to love that. Yeah, right, and that's great, but this isn't just a track meet. You need to go play some football, right, You need to show.
Some football run routes, like, yeah, the football skills because you're not playing football. There's no pads on. It's the end of where Olympics. We get that. I need to see the fundamentals like Romadonsday showed me, Brian Thomas showed me, right, the xavierly Get showed me they were not they had a great workouts and they weren't too good to do this other thing. And I just again, we're going to
go back and watch the film, grind the tape. But I had questions about his route running and I was hoping to get them answered today or at least shades of that answered today, and he didn't do it. So awesome, congratulations him, but didn't quite work out. And then there's another guy we want to talk about too, Adie Mitchell.
Right, Yeah, let's do it.
Ab Sos, Texas teammate, and he's a guy that everyone's going to be super stoked on him because he ran like a four to three five or four through four.
He ran a four to three five.
He jumped crazy, like his jumps were awesome, like all the explosive stuff you're talking about, and you go back and watch the film and he's an explosive player, but I didn't know he was that explosive. And then he gets on the field and all of the questions you have about his route running technicality were just exacerbated to
like the millionth degree. He gets stuck in brakes, he's slipping coming out of cuts, he's drifting on routes, and quarterbacks missing the throw, and so you're like, he is not technically where he needs to be. Physically, it's all there for him, but the technical stuff was not there.
And so you kind of say, even though he had a great day measuring and like coming out of that lab and saying, man, I can do all this stuff from a physical standpoint, the nuance of the position escaped him in a way that makes me think maybe it wasn't the best day for him.
Yeah, and he had a couple drops, which is tough. And this was with the group with b Nix, Yeah, and JJ McCarthy and Sam Hartman who doesn't have the best arm but he's fairly accurate. And it's like, Okay, that's tough.
Yeah, right, that's tough because Joe Millen was out there too, would and say what you want about Joe Miller at least today was pretty accurate on the whole.
Had a pretty good day. Yeah, So that was that was tough and it's hard to So here's the thing. Yeah, so here's the thing. The combine isn't to be all end all right, like and we mentioned this before, like the weight that you used a combine to evaluate a player is like it just is supposed to support the film or push you to like maybe I miss something
in the film. And also, these guys are gonna have pro dase, right, So like with Xavier Worthy with Adie Mitchell, they're gonna have a pro day at Texas and hopefully this answers questions again, right, And it's like they get to do this combine stuff again where they're more comfortable and it's like they get to work a little bit more and they get to be like, oh, Combine was a fluke or like it, and we're hoping positive things for these guys.
And I think the thing with Adi Mitchell though, it's like the film shows that he's not the most nuanced or outrunner, so you're like, but it also showed that for Brian Thomas, right correct, And so Brian Thomas comes to the field and you see the nuance, and with Adie Mitchell it was like there was it was like he was bashing a hammer into the ground, like there was no nuance there, and you're like, ooh, that's a lot of work to do.
And now the great thing about receiver is I think if you look at DK Metcalf, who's again not a nuance route runner, but is a stallion out there, you can cultivate an offense to speak to guys' skill set. So you're fast, you're explosive. We can find a way
to make that work. But that role diminishes in size because you're, again the the nuance the artistry of the position isn't there now, Like you said, he goes to the he goes to his pro da kills it like you might be a first round pick, but I would be reluctant to kind of give him that designation after the field work today.
Yeah, And I keep hedging because I think this is important because a lot of times, and it's not just with fans, with listening to Combine talk or draft talk, it's like, we get this just in general in our conversations. It sounds like sometimes when you're pointing out things that it's like, Okay, he has trouble with this, he has trouble with that. It doesn't mean we hate the player, right, and it does it mean like they're a bad player.
We're not saying, by any means that any of these guys that we're bringing up some questions with, whether it's Adie Mitchell or King Coleman that we're like, or or Johnny wilson Eman or Xavier Worth that we're like, Oh, they don't they don't deserve to be drafted to it. That's not what we're saying. Like I said at the beginning, this is a very good wide receiver class and we are going to split hairs to try and figure out where they're going to fall and where they're going to rise in this draft.
And I still think Adie Mitchell is the second round player, but I think he's worth it.
He's worth the second I think I could.
Have been a first I think he could have jumped Keon Coleman and a first round player if he had done better in that area. And it's a small thing. It's a small thing, but I think that's kind of that's what we're I think he's still good. I'd still have, in the right situation, want him. Same thing with Keon Coleman, quite honestly, But there's more questions about them as opposed to those first three guys we talked about who came out and just knocked the ball out.
Yeah, these guys still could have great NFL careers, right, and they're still draftable, still definitely draftable.
Their top sixty players.
Yeah, So I just want to reemphasize that, like, just because we're talking about these things doesn't mean we're like saying they're like bad at football. They must certainly are not right, all right, So, guys going from Texas to Tennessee, we just talked about Joe Milton, and we just talked about the guy that ran the fastest forty. Let's talk about this laser cannon of an arm that Joe Milton got to show off. This dude threw the ball. I measured seventy yards, which is.
Nuts seventy yards to a completed pass, so like it's gonna fall. It's probably like seventy it was. It was. So, you know, we've been to the combine a couple of years in a row now, and we see the guys do it, and they start on the ten, they do their drop back, the receiver runs out and they catch the ball approximately between the fifty and the forty five. That's on the other side on the on the other side of fifty right, So that's approximate where the ball catches.
And so Joe Millian gets out there and I'm like, this dude's about to like, you know, he can throw the ball eighty five yards in the air, let's see it. It kind of sounds like an urban legend almost. So he gets back there, he does his drop and instead of throwing the ball, he holds it for like a half a second. So the receiver is just getting farther and farther away, and You're like, he's gonna underthrow this, Like there's no way he can throw the ball as far.
And he launches this sucker and it lands on the minus twenty nineteen eighteen yard line and the receiver catches it. And I've never seen a ball travel that far in the air to a completed position before. Like he is a physical freak. He threw the ball sixty two miles an hour. Like I don't know if he broke the record, but he was probably close. Like he is a monster when it comes to throwing the football. He's not the most technically sound quarterback from a film standpoint, but the
tools man. He's fast, he's big. He did a he did a handspring backflip after they scored a touchdown to finish the drill. Like he weighs two hundred and forty five pounds. Like, dude is a monster, and so in terms of winning the combine, Like did he make every throw? No? Is he the most amost accus guy of all time? No? But does he have a cannon for an arm? And is he blessed with everything you could possibly need to play the position? Absolutely?
I said this before, I'll say it again. He reminds me of Serx from three hundred. He's a massive, He's a massive man, and he has a absolute laser cannon of an arm. It was really impressive to see. But the other guy that was stealing the spotlight in this group for quarterbacks, even though he had that great seventy yard throw, the guy that was getting all the attention, that all the eyeballs were on was JJ McCarthy. Ye, now, why are the eyeballs on JJ McCarthy logan, I.
Mean, I think so when you watch the film, I know there's not a lot of throws. You have to watch a lot of games to get the number of throws. You need to kind of fill out your evaluation. But you see great ball velocity, great ball placement, and you see NFL throws in the tight windows. You see a
confidence an you see an athleticism. So I was little disappointed didn't run a forty, But I think the thing that just jumps out at you, like right when he gets back there is there's Joe Milton's arm right which is just straight raw horsepower. And I will say JJ's arm is not far off. Like I said, I said, Joe Milton through the ball sixty two miles an hour. JJ threw at sixty one. And so in combining kind
of this tremendous physical gift. There's also a little bit more nuanced there when it comes to playing the quarterback position. Like they're running a big out today and JJ is throwing with anticipation, throwing to a spot. Milton is just relying solely on the horsepower of his arm. You'll see the guy make the cut. He'll throw it to the
guy and make the catch. But I think JJ just you saw the physical gifts that get everybody so fired up about him, and you saw him layering that in conjunction with some very very high level quarterback kind of it's not high level because it's routes on air, but understanding, hey this, I can use my mind, my wedge here, I can use my driver, I can use the putter for this throw. And they were all pretty accurate. And again they're throwing to a very eclectic group of receivers
and he just kind of physically separated himself. And also you can tell he has a good feel for some of the finer points of the position.
Yeah, and he was. It was a really interesting quarterback group to watch because you had Milton, you had McCarthy, and you had Bononix as well and b Nicks just for distance, right, I wrote these down. These are all These are not official. These are just what I marked when I looked at it. Milne had the seventy yarder right then McCarthy was a sixty four yarder.
Oh wow, that's not bad. Put that out there.
And then bon Nix was fifty five. Right. So bon Nix is known for being pretty accurate. Right, well, McCarthy was matching those nice touch throws, those nice accurate throws. And then he was out throwing Bonnicks as far as strength and complete a pass down there, just a little bit below Milton, So he had a It was almost like if you take a little bit of what Milton has, a little bit of what bow Nicks has, and you put it in one quarterback, that hero, it's JJ McCarthy.
So yeah, when I was like, when we first started doing this, he was not one of the quarterbacks I evaluated because he wasn't at the Senior Bowl, right, And then I started looking at film. You were sending me film of him, and it took a lot of games to get at least a decent amount of throats to understand what he was capable of. And he's got a very strong arm, right, he is accurate with the ball when he does throw it. He can move right, he's athletic and can move in the pocket, can make a
play with his legs. And it was just interesting because it feels like he came out of nowhere even though he's the quarterback of the National Championship time, right, And I do want I do see where you hear that other teams, other scouts are saying like, hey, this guy may slide in and be the fourth quarterback off the board, maybe a top ten pick. Yeah, you're starting to see if you if you start to squint, you're starting to see it.
And I think especially today, you know, like I know he threw with those guys right who And I think bo Nix is kind of in that fourth fifth quarterback conversation between him and but he outperformed him today. And then you compare him to what they did with the second group. And I think Penix has an excellent arm, but he doesn't have the touch does and I think his arm actually was less effective in certain situations, certain
throws than McCarthy's arm. And so I don't want to say he kind of blew those guys out of the water, but he kind of did to me, Yeah, and again the film is very good too, and the ability to kind of use different clubs is something that I can't overstate the importance of because Penix does a great deep ball, but everything in between is a little bit dicey, and
I think he's very accurate. I thought he was very efficient today, But you see, there's just a little bit more with McCarthy, and I think Pennix is going to be a serviceable pro. He might even be a good started at some point. Same thing with bon Nicks. But there's something there's something special about his physical skill skill set that makes Jim Harbaugh say he would take him first overall if he could like that. And again, I don't think Jim Harbro is being hyperbolic. I think he
genuinely believes in that guy, the leadership stuff. I think he probably interviewed really well. So after today, it feels like to me that he is the He's established himself
very firmly as the fourth guy. And we'll see. We got to watch more film, the evaluations on going process, but seeing what he was able to seeing what he was able to do from film and apply it in this setting, and to see just you know, Bonix throwball, McCarthy throwball, Joe Milton throwball, Pennix throwball, Rue right after another. You're kind of like, man, that arm is special, that accuracy is special. And he did. It's not like he
made every throw. He missed some throws. That's he's thrown in a bunch of different receivers, but it was it was a pretty good performance by him today.
Well, the combine, because I keep saying it, the combine shouldn't be everything. So like the hesitation that I have with McCarthy, like as just a guy, right if you're talking to me and I'm just a guy, he just hasn't done it enough. There are guys like the BONNICKX and Penix, they've done it enough. I've seen a lot of throws. I've seen them do a lot of different type of throws. I've seen them put teams on their back with having the throat like we've seen that. Haven't
seen it as much with McCarthy. So like that's the worry is like, yeah, he's got all these things when it's routes on air, right, or when it's asked for, when he's asked to do it just in burst little burst, But if you're gonna draft him high, right, if he's going to go in the top ten or be the fourth quarterback over or fall somewhere in there, he's gonna have to do it more than he did it in college. He's gonna have to put a team on his back a lot more because you're taking a team that needs
a lot of help. You would think you're not drafting in the top ten if you're not a team that needs a lot of help. So, like guys like Caleb Williams, you say, well, he can go out there. He can do things that even if your team needs a little help and growing and rebuilding, he can still win you games, right with his type of skill set. That's that's the evaluation of him. With McCarthy, maybe he has those, maybe he doesn't. But like I just I don't trust it.
I haven't seen it enough. So what do you say to just a guy like me. He's like, it's just there's just not enough data.
Point, there's no there's no rebuttal to it. It's true. I think the thing about it is I put my coaches had on here, and I know coaches are going to look at what he does and say we can work with that because it's special. I think that's what you come down to, and I think you again, I've told our listeners to go back and watch the TCU game from last year, and you see he makes mistakes. He's not perfect, but you see high level NFL throws and the tight windows over the middle of the field,
and they are tough. He's under pressure. He does a great job. And I think coaches, GMS they watch that and they say that I don't care how long bow Nix has played football, I don't care how talented he is. He's never going to have that physical skill set. And I think that's what's happening right now is it's like
the mystery box. You've seen enough to say, oh, it's not really a mystery, like talk yourself into it, and then you see him throw today and you're like, oh my gosh, Like if I was a coach like the one you totally blind without the names, you know, I'm picking that one. I'm picking him today because and he's just gonna have more upper He's going to throw it his pro day. They're going to see it more. I
bet you he's a top ten pick. And it's because it's because he's shown a little bit and that little bit is really good, and then he's got the physical tools to kind of make you say wow. And I think that's what the NFL is, right, It's projecting. It's projecting. And we talk about this a lot in terms of our big spreadsheet that we have of all the prospects. Is there are physical rate limitters to the position. And like with offensive linemen, it's foot speed and arm length
or body mass or height or whatever it is. And with a quarterback it's arm talent, accuracy, athleticism or things that no matter how long we talk about, I can't coach you to be better in those areas necessarily. Maybe accuracy, but arm talent no negotiable. And then the fact that he's done some of these NFL throws, Like just to give you some context, like Pennix doesn't make these throws. They're all outside, they're all deep comebacks, they're all deep fades.
He doesn't throw out the millfield. Jane Daniels doesn't throw over the midfield. Right, even even our guy Bo Nicks, who's got a wide array of throws, isn't an offense that is very insulating towards him. So even though he has more throws, they're simple, easy reads. These are the ones that McCarthy does are challenging NFL level throws, And I think people say that's something. If he can do that there, we can make that happen all the time
at the NFL level. So I think that's why after this week, you're not going to see anybody have anybody but him in that four slot.
Well, let me put you on the spot. Okay, Washington trades back. Let's say they trade back. The common one is eight, right, they trade back to eight with the Atlanta. So Atlanta moves up to two, get a couple of So, yeah, you can build more with your roster with these picks. Okay, but we still want a quarterback. Are you feeling comfortable with JJ McCarthy there at eight for Washington?
I'm getting there. I mean, I think I told you this morning, if I had to pick, if I was picking between fourteen and twenty, I'd feel excellent about it.
But he's not going to fall.
He's going to fall that, he's not going to fall that far. So I think the idea of getting JJ McCarthy apose is in a perfect world. JJ McCarthy at eight, he sits for a year, we draft another offensive lineman, they get better, the continuity improves, he does the Patrick Mahomes thing, and next year he comes out and we're ready to rock and roll. I understand if you dropped a guy in the top ten, that's not a reasonable expectation.
But he's very good and the stuff that he does well is very high level NFL stuff, and he's still got a lot of growing to do, but that talent, I can I'm getting intoxicated just thinking about it. It's it's very high.
Yeah. The last about a month ago, maybe maybe just a little bit less than a month ago, on this podcast with Zach Selby, with you Me, we did a mock draft battle and Selby we did what happens if we trade back from two into eight and Selby picked bo Knicks at that spot. I would love to do that again, and we probably will in the next coming weeks.
We're gonna do that same thing again with the new evaluations we have, And I'm very interested in what Selby, you Me, or Fred Smooth does now that we know a little bit more about JJ McCarthy, does he overtake bo Nicks?
Moving there on that shore I tried to push I tried to push him that way, you know, because of because I think I think, I think people are really high on bo Nicks, because the numbers for bo Nicks are excellent, like completion a percentage, advanced completion percentage adjusted to complete a percentage. But when you look at like difficulty of throw in that offense, it's not very high.
Which again that's not taking anything away from him, like he made the throws, but the high level stuff isn't there. And like you said, it's not there all the time for McCarthy, but when he has to, when they have to throw in Michigan's offense, it's tough. So I think that's part of it.
One little, one little more thing. McCarthy is much younger.
Than Boonex, that's true.
And there's something a learning there too.
Yeah, there really is.
Yeah.
I mean that's the whole thing with Drake May and Jane Daniels too, right like that, there's there's a malleability appliability there. You can kind of mold them as you want them to be. And and I do think there's something special about that. You know that he's been in a pro style offense, he's been with with uh the coach of the Chargers now, like he understands what the expectation is going to be for him. He went to IMG Academy, that's basically playing professional football in high school
or college football in high school. Like he has been on a track to be to have a high level of professionalism. So there's something definitely intoxicating about it. But it's still a projection, like one hundred percent. So I'm not saying I know I have the answer, but he is. He's very to be sure.
What a day?
What a day?
That was a fun day. I love football, and the Combine is a Indianapolis does a fantastic job at it. Lucas Oil is a beautiful stadium. Everybody's super nice. It's a great facility, and man, I just love football. Watching these guys do football.
Things is a good day. It's a football junkies dream. And so we just sit there, talk ball and get to watch all these guys come through and get to see dreams hopefully happen.
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