They Around the NFL podcast.
Invented live streaming during the NFL tram. Welcome to another edition of Around the NFL, the podcast that has everything concerning the twenty twenty three NFL Draft covered and doing it in an innovative manner.
As you just heard there the zum drop.
Dan Hans is here, Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal scattered across Los Angeles, but bringing all the coverage needs here.
Hey boys, you know, most podcasts I think would just like kick back and relax after we broke as many barriers as we did. It's like, I don't know, it's after hitting four home runs in the World Series. We show up the next day and hit another couple.
Let's go.
I feel like my physical body is still sort of in recovery mode from that live stream, but you know, we're here. I'm uncomfortable. I'm sitting in a chair. What can go wrong?
Yeah, once they got you know, once I got to the hospital and they got the tubes in me and I got the fluids that were necessarily to stay alive after the heat wave that struck that specific studio, I was able to reflect upon what was a very successful Thursday for our podcast. The live stream did really really good numbers and showed that you guys, the listeners are interested in that experience when it comes to our show. So that is something we have filed away for future
use potentially. And of course you knew we were going to bring in the podcast Goodness as well on Thursday. And now Saturday comes as the draft comes to an end. Seven rounds in the book, roughly seven hundred more compensatory picks in the books. And now we break down a draft that Greg, I know you're a big fan. I know you see it as potentially now problematic, but at the same time, it's got some juice to it. It's
got your brand connected to it. The trades tsunami forty one trades by last count connected to this draft, which is a new record. So GM's are more brash than ever when it comes to wheeling and dealing and this exciting time of year.
I like it, but I also don't want to hear anymore in March that it's like, oh my gosh, my heavens, I would never give up a fourth round pick for Stefan Gilmour, Like, who would do that? Then we get into the draft and the Patriots are like trading multiple picks to move up to take like a small school kicker, and no one gives a shit.
Whoa whoa, whoa whoa whoa whoa Whoahoa. We're gonna get to that. Why would nobody give this is exactly what I'm talking about.
I'm just saying they don't care about the pics. It's not about the kickers.
I just mean, Okay, the Saints then just they have some guy they want, Like the Lions moved up from the fifth to the third and just gave up all these picks for a guy no one was gonna take. Probably anyways, just like once they get here, they lose the value of the picks.
It is the straight like a strange hoarding event inside the NFL calendar, because the mentality seems to completely change, to your point, from the boundaries outside the draft, where it's like the idea of trading draft picks in the inside itself inside the weekend becomes this like flurry of activity, totally bizarre.
I love it.
So We're going to go through, as we do every year, the winners and losers of the twenty twenty three NFL Draft. And I was thinking about when I was going through it in my mind how.
To best handle it. I feel weird about really getting after.
Draft classes where it's like, oh, that guy was a weird fit there or weird pick, because it's so it seems like a fool's errand to try to really guess how these draft classes are going to play. But also you can look at what the needs of of of
a team or how things were handled. I know, Mark, you have something on your plate that you're going to share with us a little bit later about how some teams kind of presented themselves during and after the draft, and so we're gonna share some winners and losers, and we are you are going to share that, right.
Mark, I am planning to you.
Yes, that's a tease in the industry. Right.
My list is mostly winners, Like I have an article on NFL dot com too, and it's I could have just made it winners of the NFL Draft. You like some things better than others, and you kind of Jimmy Rigg some losers in there, but it's just like, ye better than others.
Well said exactly, So we'll give you. We'll try to give you both sides of the spectrum. But I think part of The good thing about the draft, and we talked about it with Damashek during the live stream, is that it is an optimistic time of year, so we're gonna dig into it.
I can get it going. I'm gonna go with a winner here in.
A broad sense, the AFC South, I think the AFC South has been a bit of a chore the last couple of years, and we've all had to suffer through some lean years. We've had to suffer through some you know, not so hot Thursday night football games through the years, and that could be about to change, or at the very least, the division, to me, has some much needed intrigue.
Now we already had Trevor Lawrence and a rising operation in Jacksonville, but now we have C. J. Stroud and Will Anderson in Houston, and that team seemingly pointing in a new direction, a positive direction. Anthony Richardson bringing his
completely unique athleticism to the QB position in Indianapolis. And by the way, Jim Irsay spoke with I think Judy Patista, our own Judy Patista, and he said, hey, they planned to play Anthony Richardson this year, Start Anthony Richardson this year and Ersay, because he's jim Irsay also said, hey, we would have taken him if we had the number one overall pick. And he also said, and this is
the sliding doors. Yeah, jim Irs likes to talk the sliding doors of the NFL draft that if Richardson was taken before they were on the board, they might have taken will Levis, who went later. Speaking of will Levis, even the Titans, there's some juice with the Titans who trade up in the second round for will Levis and now he's now positioned as the air apparent at QB with a chip on his shoulder the size of Nashville
after that first round free fall. So I'm not saying like all of a sudden, we're gonna have AFC South dominating their conference, but there's a little juice there now, and hey, that's overdue.
I'm with you.
I mean, I think you know, it was a year ago we were talking about the AFC West as this newly formed division with you had Patrick Mahoonmes but Russell Wilson, who we did not think was going to fall off a human cliff the way he did, and it was like the human cliff. Yeah, we cannot watch, cannot wait to watch these AFC West games all season long, and it didn't pan out. So I guess I come out of any draft weekend with a fair amount of cynicism
that half of this won't work out. But that said, like the tone of the AFC South and the hope around it, and the fact that we're not going to know right away that for the next couple of years, like these young quarterbacks going up against each other will become one of the more intriguing flip flops in all of the NFL, because the AFC South has been largely largely unwatchable at least portions of it for big chunks
of the time that we've been doing this podcast. And you've suddenly plopped like three super intriguing young quarterbacks into the mix on teams that are growing before our eyes. And the fourth is Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars, who, depending on how things go, could be a genuine AFC title game threat. So I'm with you on this right.
I'm totally selfish in that there's no way that these moves don't make them more interesting, and that's all I really care about. They're going to make them more watchable. The Colts are going to be extremely watchable. I believe with Anthony Richardson, the Texans at least have a vision, a direction. They've just kind of been wasting time for two years, and they are going to make these ten
AM games more watchable. It's funny that these teams, you know, some juice at the moment that they've taken away the requirements that you have to have a primetime game now because they're still probably not getting many primetime games yet, they're gonna, you know, the networks are gonna wait.
Amazon's wanting gonna.
Wait to see if they actually start winning games, Jacksonville be in primetime. I don't know if Anthony Richardson and Stroud will much, but it'll be good picks for us in our preview drafts. And what they did over the weekend too made me more excited.
Houston.
You know, there were all these little receivers that were available in this draft. Josh Downs went to the Colts. He reminds me so much of Hunter Renfro and now you kind of think of like a little jitterbug over the middle getting open. And then what Richardson does well, which is I think throw the ball deep to the outside, and he's got Alec Pierce and he's got Pittman on the outside, and it's like, Okay, you're putting something together here with a running game that as Jonathan Taylor, that's
gonna be tough to stop. And then you look at the Texans who are expecting to get John Metchi back their second round pick from a year ago, who had that battle with cancer, but he is expected to play.
And they took Tanked, who was my.
Favorite of all those small receivers, the man with the hootzpa to be like five seven and call himself Tank, who a lot of people thought the forty times that people just missed on that because he just plays so fast.
And so both of these.
Teams kind of added fun pieces during the draft too, along with the quarterbacks, and they're just going to be more fun that there's like a point to them this year.
Yeah.
Is there a team that's a bigger wild card at least on the offensive side of the ball than Indianapolis now? And I think that's if you're a Colts fan, you're really excited because you've went through this post Andrew luck Era, we don't need to go through the quarterbacks again, but they went through veteran after veteran after veteran, bottoming out
with Matt Ryan who didn't have much left. And now you go to the what's the opposite of Matt Ryan, like twenty twenty two Matt Ryan, it's Richardson and what he brings. And I want to see Jonathan Taylor. Let's not forget what Jonathan Taylor did in twenty twenty one when he had like a Jamal Charles in his prime type season, just dominant player before his ankle got jacked up and he was not the same player all season.
Think about that offensive line that was seen as like this, like absolute stone cold lock is one of the better lines in football, and then they had injuries and strange ineffectiveness with some suspect coaching.
What if that comes back together? You know, if.
Richardson hits the ground running, watch out. This team could really really shock people in the AFC this season. And I know the conference is loaded, but could one of these teams hit the ground running as a young team. Absolutely so AFC South, you got some juice.
Yeah, I'd also say just it's not a knock on Frank Reich, but we like the match of Shane Steichen with Anthony Richardson and the Texans to me, who have gone through a complete chaos, complete chaos with coaches over the past two years. Like I think Tomko Ryans is going to be someone that, like a season from now we look and see like he completely gave the Texans like a different kind of vibe and identity, and so
there's more like there's some coaching intrigue as well. Where I mean before, I just it was hard to take the Texans serious no matter what they were doing because they've been wandering through a total abyss for the past three seasons.
But they think they're gonna be good and they sort of have to be good with that trade they made for Will Anderson. It's a little bit of a subplot Cardinals fans can enjoy this year. Rooting against the Texans is always fun when you have a first round pick of another team. The fact that they gave up that first round pick for Anderson, that could be, you know, based on their previous history, a top five pick, a
top three pick. So I think they believe that they're going to be better than most people think, or else they would not give up that pick. Plus a second round pick this year top of the second, like the very first pick, essentially the second and the third round pick. The more time I've had to think about that trade, I think it was kind of insane. And Will Anderson almost has to be a Hall of Fame player to
make it worth it. But that they believe in it, and if he is that type of player, no one's gonna honk.
Then That's what I'm talking about with I don't like winners and losers exercises with the draft, Well, we just don't know yet because Will Anderson could be an absolute dominant player, and then it makes all the sense in the world. We need to see him play play my one last point before we move on to the next winner. Regarding the Colts, one other thing that's like, keep an
eye on this. Jim Irsay had a pretty wild season as team owner last year, and after years of you know, you're not necessarily connecting him to the way his dad handled running a football team. It was Jeff Saturday was the head coach last year, and it's like, how involved is he going to be now with this young, explosive, completely unpredictable entity at quarterback With Gardner minshew a respected veteran behind him. How much of his hands will be
in the mix with a rookie head coach. The cults are interesting to me on multiple levels.
I'll leave it there.
I mean, Ersa seems to bubble up the most when the team is struggling, because you could look at most of Frank Reich's tenure and say that Ersay wasn't like a meddaling nightmare on a week to week basis. I mean, things got real crazy and he took control of his property essentially. But things are working, and if Anthony Richardson's working out, he goes back to delightful little tweets and strange tweets and maybe not too much more. Hopefully that's
the hope for Colts fans. The other one, the other reality, is that he's just going all in. He's doing the George Stein runner in nineteen eighty five move.
I mean, we shall Levis.
The Levis tweet he sent out before round two was one of the most insane things I've ever seen. That he sent a tweet out to all the fans, should we draft Will Levis tonight?
You know, the day of round two.
And I don't know if he was trying to mess with Like, I don't know what he was doing, probably nothing important, but while we're in the AMC South, we should.
Think he crossed the rubicon. Greg, That's my I'm wondering if that's what happened last year.
What was that? Maybe he was trying I want it to happen right, Maybe the Titans.
He didn't want the Titans to take Levis, uh, and the Titans did, and the Titans traded up for him. Like I think that made sense that for where the Titans got Levis and where they are, and I called Levis a similar prospect to Ryan Tannehill.
It does make you just curious to watch.
They're a team we'll talk about plenty in August because of Levis's presence there and because they took Taji Spears like the next running back to replace Derek Henry. Like those two guys still feel a little precarious or at the very least like the last year they'll be in Tennessee.
There is what's up justin We'll also talk about them a lot because of me. Right, Well, it's your an accident.
Because of you and that rotating Titans helmet with your remote setup which I cannot get enough of.
I just love it.
Justin thanks.
How do you feel, by the way, how do you feel big picture right now about the Titans.
I feel like, if will Levis is a franchise quarterback, it's a home run draft and nothing else matters. If will Evis sucks. The fact that they came out of this draft without addressing wide receiver until their very last pick, and without addressing cornerback when you have guys who've been injured a lot and like, you know, unknown future contrast Christian Fulton in the last year of his deal, Caleb Farley never been able to really stay healthy or play
well well. I think it's a weird draft for the Titans. Maybe they you know, went with his best player available.
Thing. Ty J.
Spears, by the way, has like a crazy medical issue where apparently he doesn't have an ACL in one of his knees or something like that.
So overrated two lane guys don't need acls.
Yeah, hopefully, I hope it works out. Like I think
they got guys that can be contributors. You know, even in year one, I would say start will Levis now, trade Ryan Tannehill at some point for a pick next year, because if you don't know that Will Levis is your guy going into next year's draft, when you have two expected really great quarterbacks and Caleb Williams and Drake May and other guys that could pop up at some point, you can't go into next year's draft like so committed to Will Levis because you don't know what he is
yet that you pass on potentially your actual franchise quarterback.
So that's right.
I'm at, let's stick a pin in the Titans tuck. So we're going to get back to them a little bit later. Mark, you want to throw out a winner.
I will This to me came into full view during Day two of the draft, and you know his story. This is not a team that I've wanted to see thrive, but you just have to give in it. At some point. He's gonna do it because it's the Pittsburgh Steelers. I mean, they kind of did also if they had been listening to me, which no front office should be spending a second doing. But I found that the two players that I kind of talked about a bunch before this draft,
one of them was Joey Porter Junior. When I was like, you know, I've already been down this road. Just if you're the Steelers, historically, go get the son of a great former Steeler and just swing for the fence and see if it works. I think it addressed a need. But also Joey Porter fell to them appropriately. They made the right choice. They went and got him. I loved them going and taking Broderick Jones in the first round a need again, but they went and got a tackle.
I think that the New York Jets probably wanted right after him. And that's that line, which has been a problem for a couple of years, starts to become something that you can rely on. I thought they improved down the stretch over the course of last year. That whole offense is growing together. And then you add to the mix. One of the most fascinating players in the draft to me from a physical trades perspective, is Darnell Washington six foot seven. I think it might take him a little
bit of time to get going. From a production standpoint, Danny's not probably going to fulfill the quest that you put out there for a tight end to come on and just set the world on fire.
But can you.
Imagine being like a smaller cornerback trying to take down six foot seven Darnell Washington in space on a pass from Kenny Pickett. I just kind of like, compared to where we were thirteen months ago before last year's draft, where the Steelers offense post Big Ben seemed like it was a fading, old school mess, has gotten a lot younger all over the place. I think there's a lot to like about the fact that they're growing together. You've added a new offensive tackle and a really freaky tight
end that I cannot wait to watch. And Damaschek came on our show during the live stream and he talked about the Steelers as an eleven win team. That is a tall order in a super top heavy AFC. But Mike tom goes and wins seven, eight or nine games when you're in a so called rebuild, I don't think eleven wins. With the way that Omar Khan has just stepped right into GM and paved the road for the Steelers,
it's not out of control. It's not out of control prediction, you know, with how as unpredictable as every season is, the Steelers always to me or a team that could be double digit win and right now, I like where they're going.
They were that team that like kept taking the guy that was the highest one, like the consensus boards, like Daniel Jeremiah's board for instance, even in the fourth round when they took Nick Herbrig whose brother is on the team. They're so into brothers. It's a little it's a little too much. I think they sign Nate Herberg because they got Nate and Nicknaw.
Calm down a little bit, Yeah, come down with the brothers.
Calm down with the Suns.
Although it was worth your right taking Joey Porter just for the picture of Joey Porter seeing you're holding Joey Porter on the field at the Super Bowl, when when they wont like that alone, it's worth it.
I mean they were going to use that photo no matter. Would have been a cool but it's even cool area.
Why they wouldn't have Why would they?
Yeah, father and son, you know, legacy. I don't know. Maybe they wouldn't have.
The there had a lot to loaded in the truck. Of course they're going to use it.
Like they they went and got pick it last year in a weird quarterback draft. And if you're not going to have a like ultra talented freak of a quarterback, you build up the group around him, and that's a good looking group right now. I mean, you have Darnel Washington as your wide receiver too, as your tight end two now, and I'm not really counting on anything but from Alan Robinson, but they're they're good enough at wide receiver even without Alan Robinson doing much.
I think that's a fun team.
Yeah, we and we talked about the idea of their running game finally getting some teeth to it with improved line play. And you know, don't forget a Pat Fryarmouth who was a just outside the top five amongst all tight ends last year and receptions and receiving yards playing
with a rookie quarterback. So yeah, I think Washington, who again six ' seven, two sixty four, he's basically built like Aaron Judge, is going to go out there, and even if he's not immediately an offense of terror, who knows if he ever develops into that, he seems like somebody who could kick some ass in the blocking game at the very least, and some two tight end sets.
So yeah, late in the third round, that feels that's I feel like when you get late in the third round, fourth round, fifth round, start throwing the darts at like guys, that could be freaky.
There you go, it's a good pick. I agree.
The Pittsburgh Steeler's got a lot of positive pop, and I know Sheck was very excited about it. But Sheck was gonna be excited no matter what. Let's face it, winner, Greg.
I'll throw out a winner. Let's go Jordan Love. Let's go Mark Sessler too. You know, the Packers and Goody making Mark Sessler sandwiches, making Jordan Love happy. I don't think they're they're really making Aaron Rodgers upset by taking a bunch of second and third round like tight ends and receivers. But if that's a small bonus, something tells me Rogers isn't too plugged into like Day three, Day
two of the Packers draft. But Luke Musgrave in the second round pass catching tight end who I didn't love just because he looks so upright, like how could he not get hurt? And he spent a lot of his college getting hurt. But smarter people than me, like land Zierlin like thought, you know he's as explosive and DJ liked him too as any tight end in the draft. You took a receiver, Jayden Reid also in the second round, and then they took Tucker Craft, so they just like went three straight receivers.
Tucker Craft's a tight end as well, but.
He was a guy from South Dakota State who I did get a chance to watch it, Like Greg Cosell could not stop gushing about as a Dallas Godder type of clone. So they're building their team in a certain way. I think it was interesting that they went they doubled up a tight end specifically. I think they're going to be a run based team with a lot of aj Dillon and a lot of two tight end sets, a
lot of Aaron Jones, and I just like that. Yes, you took Lucas van Ness, which was such a Packers pick in the first round, but you didn't overlook Love and then you knew Sessler had Sandwiches on the line, so you took another receiver in the fifth round, don Tavian Wicks.
That's the man.
That's why I didn't That's why I didn't take the pick because it was Nebulos.
Oh wait, and another one was somebody.
Coming lay in the round two fifty six, Round seven, pick thirty nine, I missed that one too. Chevy's own granted both, so they went way over for and yeah, You're you're bound a hit one.
It's I can only imagine that these sandwich props that we boil up are massive talking points inside various team buildings and probably triggering thought processes. So I'm with you that they were listening to that. But I you know what I think about like Matt Lafleur, who for his entire run in Green Bay and it's been successful outside of January. I mean, you kind of were under held hostage to do exactly what Aaron Rodgers wanted to do on offense.
Right.
The big part of it was like Aaron Rodgers is going to freestyle a little bit, but in general, the offense has to be something that he's happy with, that's catered around him outside of not drafting picks for him. So they went and got a bunch of new guys around love, which I mean a just makes sense. They needed help at these positions. It wasn't like a vanity
project necessarily, but they went and did it. But I think that with the two tight ends and what they could do, like maybe Lafleur is a chance to put a little bit more of a personal stamp on altering what they do around a different type of quarterback. So for me, the Packers, who've sort of been the same thing since like twenty ten and even before that for a thousand years with Brett Favre, I'm not sure they'll
be better. I'm just weirdly more intrigued by them than I ever have been before, and I feel I like the idea of a completely fresh start.
And stick a pin in that thought, because coming up later this week or next week, we'll do our around the AFC and NFC in forty eight minutes and we'll kind of dig into the post mortem of the draft and looking ahead of what.
Things mean for these teams.
All Right, we got more winners to get to, a couple losers to get to, but first to break. All right, we're back, all right, GREGI how about a winner?
All right, let's go a Lions. They had a weird Thursday.
Let's just be real.
I heard some speculation from a couple places that they were a little bit like the fantasy draft, you know, manager at pick six that's spun out, because they totally expected the whole time to take Devin Witherspoon. No one thought the Seahawks were taking Devin Witherspoon. It just felt like a chock pick. And then suddenly you're trading out not getting good value at all. From going six to twelve. If you look to the trade jar and you take
Jamir Gibbs there, I like the Jack Campbell pick. Fine, he definitely fits in need, maybe as a higher ceiling. But after day one, and this is what happens when you're Brad Holmes and you just stack all these picks, you're gonna end up looking good. I mean, they had six picks in the first three rounds and the next four to me were really intriguing. Brian Branch, who they traded up to get ahead of the Patriots. Maybe the Patriots were taking Brian Branch. He just felt like a
Patriots player like Nick Sabans. Binky just can do everything, kind of a Chauncey Gardner Johnson type. And they have Chauncey Gardner Johnson already there, but man, that secondary is versatile. He's gonna be smart, he's gonna be there forever. They took my favorite tight end in the draft in terms of like a value in Sam Laporta, but I don't even know if it's a value anymore because they took
him over Michael Mayer, which is kind of wild. But man Laporta is athletic, and it's too easy to compare him to Kittle because he's from Iowa. But I just think he's going to be a big playmaker. And then you wait for Hendon Hooker until the third round, and at that point, like that to me was the perfect spot to do it. I know he's it's crazy. He's only three years younger than Jared Goff, who's been in the league for eight years and has started a hundred games.
But I still like the idea of having a young quarterback to develop. But when you take him in the third round, it's like not as much pressure that he's got to play anytime soon. If he just turns into a backup, who cares, that's fine. You just put spend a third round pick on it. So I kind of like what the Lions did if you add up all the three rounds and put it together. I mean, these are guys who are going to play for them, so
there's still a team. Because Homes set this up so well with all these picks that got a lot better with six picks in the first three rounds, And I kind of like that he's doing things differently. He's not worried about the draft Cognacenti.
I think it's like really easy for especially those of us that you jump onto the draft process a little bit later, and we're valuing positional need and positions in general over the players sometimes and like that. I think that contributed to their Thursday night looking a little wonky, and maybe it was, but also, and you know, this
is where Hard Knocks helps a little bit. Like one of my big takeaways coming out of Hard Knocks was like, wait a minute, this coaching staff is, for the first time that I can remember in Lion's history, is forward thinking. They they've shown they can develop players really well. So I thought what they did over Day two and Day three really just galvanized a roster that's already like a playoff level roster. And if and the one little thing is like Hendon Hooker is got a lot less of
attention because of the injuries, a little bit older. But if that pick worked out and they fell in love with him and he replaced Jared Goff, and did that kind of seamlessly. A season from now, this draft looks incredible because if you suddenly hit on a later round quarterback, you look absolutely genius.
I don't know Greg about Wines running a back his team around the NFL, but they remain.
Highly juicy, lot of heat around Detroit.
I would, I would do it, and it's it's despite being public number enemy number one on Twitter today because I sent some tweet about their backfield and Lions Twitter was not happy. I was basically like I said, Jamir Gibbs and David Montgomery, you know, because we'll get to the DeAndre Swift trader.
I guess we can mention it now. They traded DeAndre Swift for.
We will get to it in one moment week a little.
Later, but for not watch And I just said, like, Gibbs in Montgomery, isn't that much better than Jamal Williams and Swift.
I think that's fair.
Like they're probably better, and if Gibbs turns into a huge hit, then they're a lot better. But I'm just assuming some picks work, some picks don't. I'm not a big David Montgomery fan. That was one of my least favorite signings of the offseason. To me, that's a wash with Jamal Williams, and it's just like you spent a lot of resources to kind of kind of upgrade your backfield when you were really productive as a running team anyway,
So that was it. But I got I am getting severely ratioed to high head and someone what texted me about it and I wasn't aware, and it's something.
That is I think there's also sometimes when those things happen, the fan base knows it too, and they're just defensive about it because they just wanted to be and Gibbs, like kind of the point guys were making about Bijeon with Atlanta on Thursday night. I think for that to make sense, like Gibbs has to be a monster, like he has to be a stud, and David Montgomery has to be healthy and work in another a really nice complimentary way. But I think it really goes back to
you if you're going to use that. Everybody can talk about it, Oh finally running backs getting respect in the first round, sure, but you it has to be he can't be good, he has to be great, or you should have focused I think on using getting your roster better in other places and that's a neat seg to one of my losers.
We mentioned that, we.
Mentioned quickly there that they did make the move sending the talented, injury prone running back DeAndre Swift to the Eagles for a fourth round pick.
I believe it was five, yeah, two years ago.
And you know that in addition to their big Thursday Night where they brought in two defenders who are highly valued, Nolan Smith and Jalen Carter. Bringing those two gentlemen in and including all these other Georgia players that are entering the Fray over the last two years.
Here's Peter Schrager.
Late in the telecast on Saturday about something he heard regarding embittered general managers across the landscape.
Oh, I love this.
I talked to all the gms around the league. There is a little bit.
Of like a all right, guys, everyone, you here's enough with.
The Howie Rosemark the girls. There's a little bit of that too.
That that this is like a media just showering all the Eagles.
Did anyone in the Super Bowl? The teams in the NFC, you.
Know, like there is there is a competitive nature amongst these other teams that this Eagle squad has been getting at a Howie mother, And you know, I'll give Daniel Jeremiah who you know, I got to give him. The whole crew on NFL Network did great, including Jeremiah throughout the weekend, and Daniel forty two of his fifty top fifty on his big board. Forty two came off the board in the first fifty picks, which I really think.
His I hate saying this, guys, but.
Jeremiah's become such a titan in this industry that I really think he's now able to kind of affect things on some level because gms and front offices care about what Daniel Jeremiah thinks. But he quickly responded to Schrager's reporting there or the conversations he had by saying, well, how about this. And we know, by the way, DJ has Eagles ties as well, so he was going to
be a little jumpy on it. But still he says, I want to hear, go to those gms that you talk to and look at the Eagles roster and then look at that GM's roster and ask him if they would trade if they could, and then see how the conversation ends after that. I just got a it is a little the waterfall of celebration of Rosen, but he kind of earns it. And I think what he was
able to do with Carter and Smith they won. And then the DeAndre Swift trade is the exact type of move that you want your GM to make, and he does that all the time. I feel like he makes those common sense moves to bring in players that have a lot of upside at a good cost. And here's an example of why he is so good. He brings in he gives up that fourth round pick, and if DeAndre Swift, when his contract runs up, leaves the team next year, they can get a fourth round compensatory pick back.
So it becomes him essentially taking on DeAndre Swift, who is absolutely a monster when healthy and in the right offense, and he's not even giving up anything. And don't get mad because your GM doesn't think to do the same thing.
I totally agree. And it's like it was a year ago that, without a lot of pre whispering around this, he pulls off the aj Brown trade that completely changes the development of Jalen Hurts, changes the other offense entirely, and it's like, Okay, Hoe Roseman is doing it year after year, there's a consistency to their front office, and they went through a post Doug Peterson rebuild that took what fourteen days. I mean, there was no dark ages
for them. They turn around, change who they were, developed a quarterback and did it very quickly. So I do think that in general, it reminds me when we were at the Combine a couple of years ago and that like coaches Hotness Rankings list came out and yet a bunch of coaches grumbling about it because certain guys always get ranked high on that kind of a list by the subjective eye of many thinking this guy's hot or not, And like there's people just grumbling. It's kind of the
same thing, like they do listen to this. I think the one thing you kind of just start to hear is like these guys read, listen to everything, follow Twitter. They know that the temperature out there and there probably is sort of a consensus that Howie Roseman's a little over celebrated, but no one logically could break it down and say he isn't being celebrated for the right reasons
because he is. Because I think a year ago, like Les Snead was like this guy's changing the way the NFL works, and people are going to start to do things like the rams, then the rams fall off. A cliff who's talking about less sneed is still a very talented general manager, but he's not the sheic guy to discuss right now. It is Howie Roseman, And so if people are talking about you, that's the best thing. That's the best indicator that you're succeeding and damaging their goals.
Right, the best they could come up with, Oh, he didn't win the Super Bowl, sorry, like they scored thirty five points in a holding call prevented them from going after it one more drive. I think I've always gotten the sense. I mean, people in the NFL don't love Howie Roseman because he's a short, non next player, different background from a lot of front offices, and he's been killing it.
And so there's a lot of football guys it's short.
Sure, I was.
Gonna go with his background in general is just different. Let's just say that is that, you know, all that is different than a lot of the people running teams. And there's a lot of football guys who who kind of see that, and they see the analytics department there too, as a threat and they kept the Georgia thing going. Kelly Ringo there, Kelley Ringo their fourth round pick up cornerback.
Is if you go and look at like the preseason, like who's gonna get taken in the top twenty picks, top ten picks, he was all over that and he fell in the draft for various reasons. But it's like they take another Georgia guy who with a lot of talent at least that was kind of a boom er bust guy, and they get him late.
They got value everywhere.
Listen to this Georgia tidbit. A little over nine percent of the Eagles roster this year will be players drafted from Georgia in the last two years.
Five out of fifty three.
And by the way, that is funny and a little weird, but also like they like that program. That's a successful program. They so they see it as a football factory that the trust. And again it's kind of like not to dumb it down or flatten it, but it's like they have a process. He has a process, and sometimes you wish like your general manager would think this way as well.
Like how do I make my team better?
Oh, use the college program that pumps out consistently star defensive players. Oh, DeAndre Swift, he could be had at a very cheap price, and he he's from Jodover Miles sand Sanders Like yeah, oh my god, you're right, Like, I'll bring him in. I'll take him in. Oh if I do this the right way, I could even actually kind of get him for free. And I'm only paying him like one point seven to seven million this season.
It's like awesome.
So it's della be a nightmare for fantasy. Just stay away there.
You were shot by any Kenneth Gainwell and DeAndre Swift, Like, I get it, Lions fans. DeAndre Swift will frustrate you going for the big play and he's gonna get hurt a lot, and he's an inconsistent player, but his numbers speak for themselves.
He's very effective per touch.
But between him gain one penny, it's like they'll all get hurt, but they'll all take turns being good.
People sometimes sleep on howies too, just in general. And I know I know some howies and I know I know howes on both ends of the spectrum, like wildly impressive howies, and some howes are like very much like Well I don't know about that howie. He's on the positive end. Yeah, high variants, but he's one of the good howies.
Is that what you're referring to? No, I didn't think so. All right, go on, how about you, Mark, What do you got? Winner loser? Throw it out there.
Here's a team that I've been real tough on for the last year, the Cleveland Browns, and I think that this is a team that like basically had no draft capital, obviously because of Deshaun Watson. And that's the big question mark hanging out there, like what version of that player do you get this season after selling your soul for this quarterback? But one of the reasons they didn't have an extra pick this time around was because they went
and got Elijah Moore. There is some projection here, but if Elijah Moore were out alongside of Mary Cooper and Donovan People's jones, I liked what they did After reading about this pick more and more. That gets Cedric Tilden, the wide receiver out of Tennessee's one of the bigger guys in the draft, sort of an archetypal X guy who I think fits with Amary Cooper and fits in that it suddenly that was a weakness last year. The
wide receiver group was a weakness. They also were a team that were real soft up the middle of their defense, and they brought in Jim Schwartz as their coordinator, which I liked the coordinator switch in general. That was a problem all last year. But they were getting run on easy. I mean, there just was nothing in the middle. And they went and got Dalvin Tomlinson in free agency, but then drafted this guy, Siaki Ika, who is absolutely massive.
He is like a three hundred and thirty five pound front door.
Now.
I don't know what else he's gonna do for you in general, but it's kind of like described as a guy that makes things easier for other people around him. And so this guy, along with Tomlinson gives you that's sort of what Jim Schwartz wants in the middle of
his defense. So I like that. And then they went and got Dwan Jones the offensive tackle because Jedrick Wills, I think it's a real question market left tackle that did not work out post Joe Thomas the way that they've wanted, and I think this is a big season for him and Dwan Jones down at a number one hund and eleven is we'll see if he can play. But if he did, and you got an offensive tackle
right there, it's another potential need. And so without a lot of draft capital, I thought Andrew Berry, after a kind of a rough year, put together a good draft with what their resources were.
I had them down as a winner too.
Totally agree, partly because I'm just I did my wide receiver rankings on Twitter, really making people talk, making people think, and Cedric Tillman was very high on that list.
I loved his tape.
He just looks like a guy who I'd rather have than all these little receivers that were taken in this draft that I think can be productive.
I had him as the fourth receiver.
And I kind of liked that they took Dorian Thompson Robinson too, a pretty much the consensus QB six in this draft, who has a lot of good tape out there. Fifth round, you maybe get a back up quarterback who knows you know sewn well, I guess you're stuck with the Shawn Watson Forever.
De Shaun Watson was on Twitter spaces.
He did an interview this week end, it appears, and he had the quote, you can't define my career off of six games, and went on to talk about how he sees the Browns as a team that could sneak up and surprise a lot of people the way the Eagles did last year.
We shall see, but yeah, there's a obviously a big year. Yeah.
He also at one point, I don't know if it was on this space's Q and A, but at one point over the last three or four days, talked about the fact that Elijah Mora Elijah Moore to escape the toxic culture in New York. It's like, who are we, like, can we maybe chill out on describing cultures and teams right now?
Watson?
Yeah, I'll let his comments stand on their own on that.
Right, they did, They did get better without a ton of like easy resources. I think Daywon Jones is as a freak of nature too. How how how big that dude is. So it's a fair It's a good enough point by Watson that you can't judge like I've been killing him based on those six games. Those six games were so much worse than any six games he had
ever played ever, like in college or the pros. As a six games table that I think it's it's truly concerning, but it's also fair to point out, like you can't judge his entire career off of that, and we'll see.
I think they've set him up to succeed.
Mark, Do you have another one?
I have a loser for now, because you know, I think there was some buzz around DeAndre Hopkins leaving a terrible situation in Arizona. I think it can still happen, but kind of every time Rap Sheep talks about it, it's like it's not about to happen. There's nothing really on the horizon. I thought there was a world where he became like a Patriots wide receiver this weekend or
somewhere else, and it's not come to fruition. And right now, if you're DeAndre Hopkins, or you're or anyone on that offense, your career is just put on hold. You don't have Kyler Murray. I don't love that team in general. I think it's probably the worst roster in the league. And you've got a truly star wide out that someone's gonna want at some point, but he's tough to trade, and he's tough to trade for. Even the Cardinals we talked about this because they don't get a lot for it.
I know they probably want to move on from him just for the sake of it. But there's stuck pain so much of his salary that I think it maybe wasn't as easy a trade like to finesse this weekend, and so we sort of stuck in abstentia wondering what will happen with his twenty twenty three season.
I do, Yeah, I think veteran trades in general was like a loser. You know, Hopkins, Dalvin Cook, Zadaria Smith, Derrick, Henry, Ryan, Tannehill, Mac Jones, Trey Lance, Courtland Sutton, Jerry Judy, like all these guys you thought maybe could go. Not much really happened, Like the swift move came up during the draft and then happened quickly. Some of those guys, I think maybe one of the Broncos receivers and maybe Hopkins could make
sense in August. The others I'm not sure about. I think that more most of those guys will probably just stave at this point. Yeah, I don't think Hopkins or a guy like that's gonna get moved. That said, I think the Cardinals were winners weren't they They loaded up on picks for twenty like they did a nice job moving around the board where they sort of won each one of those trades. And they have two first round picks including the Texans next year, two third round picks,
like they loaded up for next year. I think they did a good job without really losing any picks this year.
Still makes sense to trade Hopkins, I would think, though, Yeah, I think I don't know if it's because of his is his market? Sometimes we see a veteran and we assume he as a market and then it turns out he doesn't.
Is that really the case?
Like, is this gonna end with Howie Roseman trading for DeAndre Hopkins and giving up a fifth round pick?
You know what I mean? Like there just has to be value. And I know they came out even strong.
And last Thursday and on Thursday night and said, you know, he wasn't going anywhere, But I don't know, Maybe I still think the shoe could drop there.
Well.
I think also once once we get players back on the field and a couple injuries hit here and there are a lot of the veterans that Greg mentioned might become more feasible to move, Greg, I would agree with you that I think that if you're the Cardinals or you're a Cardinals fan, you got to put this year and on hold and look at it through a different lens. And at least they loaded up for next year. And this is a this is a tank season. They're not going to call it that. We're not allowed to say that.
But if there's a chance Kyler Murray doesn't even play this year, if they don't want, what's the worth to playing him if he's coming off this injury. So it's like it could be a complete mail in job. But then you've loaded up for next offseason.
Yeah, there's something pff move. Timo Risk on Twitter, you know, posted this chart of trade value gained in the draft, and the Cardinals actually even passed the Bears in terms of how much surplus like money and value that they picked up, even though the Bears traded down from one and those two teams were let's see, about three and a half times more than any other team in the league. So they just put they've got a ton of resources. And they didn't do it by like getting rid of
this draft either. They filled needs and took some good players in this draft too, So I like that they are setting up for the tank and that Texans pick. Man, I mean, they're they're gonna be rooting against the Texans and hoping like that that's a top five pick two next year.
There's always one trade or two trades that you go into the ensuing season like keep an eye on that and what that can do to the draft board. That is certainly the case they you go, Cardinals fans, you know it's been there's some negativity or a critical discussion of your team on the show in recent weeks and months.
But nice weekend. There we go. The sun will come out.
Maybe not tomorrow, sun will come out in like two years something like that.
It's all right, all right, take a break and we'll keep going. Welcome back. You know, we gotta go to the kicker club. We gotta go.
You know why you talk about everybody's talking about the running backs getting some respect this year. How about two kickers going in the first one hundred and twelve picks of this strap, including a kicker going top one hundred, both my boys, Chad Ryland. The Patriots traded up to get Chad Ryland, moving up eight spots in round four to take the Maryland stud.
With the Jicks.
How do you feel about that? That jet feel grad with the Patriots.
My love of and supportive the kickers and how important they are in our league supersedes.
Anything, including my own family.
Wow.
And then Michigan's Jake.
Moody, who was absolutely nails for the Wolverines. He gets picked by the Niners, you know, in operation that everyone respects in the third round, and it's like, when is the last time that happen? I'll tell you what it is, the highest a kicker has gone in the draft. Since we don't like to bring this name up. It's like, you know, I'm reading the Harry Potter books with the boys.
I've told you I'm in book two now, and the main Baddie the antagonist early in the books, and I'm blanking on his name.
But he's also known.
As Voldemort Valdemort. He's known as the one who shall not be named. We do not like to bring up Roberto Aguaio's name around here. He is the one who shall not be named, the second round pick of the Bucks who was cut after one season. But that's the territory we're in. That the the Niners and it's usually a team that really is satisfied with their roster. And if we're gonna if we're gonna get on the Lions a little bit and be like, hey, or even the Falcons,
you had a good running back. Why'd you had a running back? Robbie Gould is a great kicker. He's old, but a great kicker. But they bring in this kid Moody. And here is the here's the phone call from Kyle Shanahan, Niners coach, to Jake Moody when they made him the ninety ninth overall pick.
Courtesy of the Niners.
Jake Congrassman, thank you very much.
Hey man, you gotta know, you gotta know how high we think of you. Man. We just we didn't take a running back. We spend a third round pick on a kicker. So that shows you how we feel about you, don't. Let's go two funny things there.
That's obviously the Niners like a little wink to people who it's a bit of a trope that the Niners just love taking those running backs every year. And I just thought it was funny because my son Jack does it, and all his second year old second grade buddies do it like, whether you're a boy or a competitive athlete in America now and beyond, you just say let's go all the time.
Let's go. Let's go.
I hear that from my kids.
Goop, absolutely, let's go, meg someone, you know, kick one through the rights, Let's go. You're playing, you're watching YouTube, you find a video you're like, let's go.
Oh commercial where it's just him saying let's go in different ways and in the first like four like let's go, and the last one is like let's go, and it's some like car Rental commercial.
Yeah, let's go is really it is what a pro culture right all the way down to elementary schools is dominated by let's go. But anyway back to it, big day for kickers when you get too in the top one twelve, and I like both picks. I do think it's just interesting San Francisco would had one of the best veteran incumbents and use the third round pick and a guy that I guess he'll be better, but you don't know.
And it was a couple episodes that we each announced like our guys in the draft, and I'd already picked Joey Porter, Greg, you took Taj Spears and Dan, you took Jake Moody, so you're your guy. Obviously, the NFL, or at least ONEFL team truly felt what you felt. I can't say I love the Niners' ability to draft much in this draft with what they had given up already with the Trey Land Steele. That situation going on the tree lance is weird. And I don't mind teams.
I think the one thing that I'm funny about the draft, it's like, oh, you would never draft a kicker, but then it's like eight out of ten teams seasons go totally on the brink when you get into that flux where you have to go find kickers off the streets. So if you go get the next version of Robbie Gould, like,
the Niners are that much more consistent offense. So I don't hate the move if it works out, but I'm not I gotta say their draft in general, it's just there wasn't a lot of ability for them to be to do much and it's just kind of a low walk. If you look at the two teams in the NFC title game, like what the Eagles did in this draft and what the Niners were able to do. It's vastly different, right.
I just think it's funny you said that, Mark, I go get the next version of Robbie Gold.
You literally had Robbie Gold and I know.
How old, because he's old. He's like what forty something.
I mean, I didn't mean statistically, I didn't see a lot of slippage. I don't think he's ever missed a field goal in the playoffs ever.
I mean it's a.
Little crazy that, Like, because hackers replaced Mason Crosby, that was surprising, or they're gonna try to that was that was less surprising.
That was a six round pick.
The Patriots drafted a kicker, as you mentioned, they traded up. They have taken some kickers high. They took Goskowski in the fourth round. But they traded up for a kicker, and they still had Nick Folk, who was, you know, doing well. But both Gold and Folk aren't hitting those bombs. And Kyle Shanahan loves himself. He loves setting up for long field goals. Surprisingly, like you think of him as this aggressive guy and he loves kicking field goals.
But you got to beat out Robbie Gold.
I like that.
The Patriots also drafted a punter. They drafted a kicker and a punter in the same draft with.
Robbie Gold's a free agent Gregy he was on the graveyards. Okay, so they just they said, we're moving on. I don't know, maybe there's some more to that story.
I have no idea.
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't because of the decline, but well, he didn't he didn't have he didn't have much range. By the way, the Patriots punter, I saw his picture and it's hilarious. Like the last punter they drafted.
Was didn't you have like.
How do I put this white supremacy paraphernalia tattooed on his arms? That that didn't go well, kind of short circuit in his career. The guy they drafted this time, total opposite. Looks like he's brewing his own beer and like hosts like a horticulture podcast or something like that.
I really, I really like this.
So the Pats replaced there. They reboot the entire booting games. All right, Mark, you want to bring some negativity to the proceedings.
Well I don't. I don't want to completely slash the Titans. So I think the gravedigger talked about the ways that this draft could be looked at positively, except I don't love what happened with first year general manager Ran Karthon in their post Peter Scaransi presser draft like he came out. Just let's play this clip and then I want to say Thursday night afterwards, Yeah.
This was actually Friday. This was the day to press or recap after they didn't draft a wide receiver and kind of got grilled for it.
Right, I just want to say something real quick, you know, today and as as yesterday, these kids are living their dreams right having their name called, you know, realizing the dream and being drafted. And I don't want these you know, interactions between us to always feel like we got to take a negative turn. And you know, this should be a joyous moment for us to praise these kids. This
is a moment. These kids are going to see this, you know, and this is a moment for them and their families to rejoice, and you know, because it's only going to happen once, you know.
So it's like I get it. This is the first time that Carthon's had a you know, press conference after his first draft, and but there's something about all that that did not was not received well by some in the room, uh for being a little preachy, like Paul Kuharski's who's a friend of the show, and I think I love him as a Titans reporter because he's a little acerbic, a little more cynical.
And anemy of the show. He wanted to take down Dan he was he.
Was ridicle of the Tyitoons moniker. But he's a little bit brassy and he's a little different than other reporters and that's okay.
Yeah, but peace was bridged during our time with him. If I recall and he said, if your confidence in the Titans is low, Mike Rabel, who usually does well to restore such things, didn't do a lot to reinforce it in that press conference, and Ran karth On gave some really poor answers, and then his second tweet, which was sort of a response to being preached at, was I'm not in kindergarten. If you draft a guy with a reputation for bad QB decision making, I'll be asking
about it. You may have heard it's a soft media market. It's not going to be what you ask. Sorry, Titans, We'll see all this plays out. But there was something about the Titans draft and they're overall like years long, including the trade of AJ Brown, to just sort of ignore the wide receiver position that I think is driving certain reporters crazy, driving certain fans crazy. You're hanging on to the idea that you drafted Colton Dowell in the
seventh round as the only addition at wide receiver. It was a major issue last year that team completely nose dived and vanished offensively down the stretch. And now you have Will Levis and Ryan Tannehill facing the same situation going into this season, and you're floating answers out there like, hey, we're a little smarter than you. Let's celebrate the players we picked, and please no critical questions. Don't love it.
I know where you're coming from on that.
I thought maybe although it wasn't, it wasn't he wasn't sparring or challenging the reporters. It came off as a little bit a touch condescending, and like one of the reasons I got into journalism and what I loved about it and love about it is that the reporter's job, on some level from my perspective, is to kind of be the voice of the fans and to be the
ones that ask sometimes the hard questions. And while I understand what Carthon is saying there, I also think to myself, Yeah, there are a lot of Titans fans that are like, hey man, we need to get a little more explosive. You traded away aj Brown, we need to kind of start building. And that question has to be asked, And it might be in conflict with your idea that we
should be celebrating these kids entering the league. I think there's room for that, but you can't tell another person in that room how they should be doing their job. You know, they're in two different positions. So I also don't think that Cartha should be killed over it, but that's not a great way to get your relationship going. Also, I don't know if Kuharsi speaks only for himself or if this is more of a big issue or bigger issue that's brewing behind the scenes over there.
But we'll see.
I mean, his tweet was pretty condescending and like, look at me too, So it was a little back and forth.
It's like, oh, you heard it's a soft market. I'm gonna I the guys who are on the radio.
I kind of liked it. I gotta say I like it too.
I kind of like both is just how I would say, Like I respect Carthun kind of bringing that perspective and he can speak on it if that's what he wants to, and I respect Kaharski coming back, and I think that's healthy. But there's always one guy on the radio in the town. It's like, Hey, you might not like it, but I'm gonna totally like it.
Is Usually that guy's kind of a jackass.
I mean, I'm with it dragon like I'm not. Also, I'm not trying to come out of this like flaming Carthon because I think like there's a reason they picked him and time will tell I be successful. It's just like, I think it's important in twenty twenty three and beyond to kind of nail these press conferences, Like you just don't want to come out with these talking points, and there seemed to be an apprehension to kind of answer the tough question around what is your plan with wide
receiver and et cetera. It's like you're gonna have to face those if you're not gonna go do what the fans want you have to face the.
Questions fair enough.
I think that was Greg is and you know, the New England media markets a no walk in the park. But that's like the type of questions I think one of the things Carson's getting at that maybe in the a New York market or a bigger market, like you're gonna get And maybe he's saying in Nashville and Tennessee, maybe that's not the type of line of questioning Carthon's expecting. But you know, Maurice Carthon, Rand's father, he knows that more what it's like to play in a big market.
I'm sure they'll work things out.
Relationship.
Yeah, we get Paul and ran together for a burger and a beer and we'll just sort it sort it out.
Mm soun yup.
All right, Have you got something else, Gregie? Yeah?
I mean are we are? We wrapping up here? I could do a lot of.
Quick one we got I got a bunch of little things too. We want to go a little more.
Yeah, let's let's do some some things. I enjoyed we mentioned it a little bit on Thursday. I like the Bears Meat and Potato draft. It was what they had to do. It wasn't flashy. I think they got bigger, they got tougher. I love the Michael Mayer pick to the Raiders, that was nice. I wasn't in love with
Tyree Wilson, but Josh McDaniels, that's good. Jonathan Mingo was kind of my guy at least a wide receiver in this draft, and you paired him with Bryce Young, So that's another thing to be excited about in terms of the offense in Carolina. And then I like the the college connections. Uh, Jake Hayner drafted by the Saints, Fresno State guy like Derek Carr. They already had a relationship,
they're already talking. He wants to be his mentor. And then stets And Bennett, the Georgia national champion who just won a title in Sofi Stadium with less Steed watching, is now the next Rams backup quarterback. And I know he's the backup because there's no other quarterbacks on the roster and they're both Georgia guys stets And Bennett and Matthew Staffords.
I like. I like the synchronicity there.
Here's a there's a connection to that because I have it labeled under weirdest tweet of the draft from ESPN's Diana Rossini.
Well, here's the tweet. I'm just gonna read it.
It was never a big secret that the Rams loved QB Stets and Bennett, but they played this out really well. I was told how important it was to get a QB in that room who wouldn't be a problem or cause issues. What they took him very early.
There was like a run on kind of surprising quarter back prospects or like, so they took him very early. Everyone knew they liked him, apparently, so they had to take him early. And I don't know about the problems thing. I mean, he did just have like a DUI. So I guess they're saying, like a guy that wouldn't like want the starting job right away, and he'll know his place because he's.
Friends mid round quarterback.
Right, Oh I don't know.
Oh so yeah, all right, I think that maybe that's what is that what it means Mark that if you took a high if not that they could even take a high draft pick this year, but if you brought in like some you know, playboy from the college game, it would tear apart the locker.
I guess.
I mean, I think, like because I don't thought the experience with Baker Mayfield, if anything was, was perceived to be positive and we all thought that like he and McVeigh got along well. But I guess if you had stuck with Baker Mayfield, you're gonna get a couple of quotes over the course of an offseason where he's telling you he wants to be the starter. I don't know. I mean, I don't know why anyone.
That's stafford in him were kind of buddies, which is like, okay, great.
Cool, Well you got another another nug there.
Greg, Oh, yeah, I got it.
I mean this should have been front and center, big winners. We got history being made. Riley Moss cornerback.
Where was he from? Iowa? Now I forget to Denver.
He's going to be the first white cornerback to be playing regular snap since Jason Seahorn.
It's been a long time here.
The guy zerline was talking up right.
He's breaking barriers. Went in the third round.
A lot of people really liked him, and so yeah, shout out to Riley Moss for just changing. You know, we talked about body diversity that I'm in favor of We just need all sorts of different types.
It's insane.
It's absolutely crazy that that's true that there hasn't been one since Jason Seahorn.
How about our short King Deuce Vaughn five to five. Yeah, he goes at round six, pick thirty five to the Dallas Cowboys. That's actually Marky a nice little spot, I think for our short King who enters the fray with Zeke out of the picture, with Tony Pollard come off a major leg injury.
They signed Ronald Jones in free agency, but come on, it's Ronald Jones. They also have Malik Davis, who is just a guy.
So our short King has a chance to do some things at five five, one seventy nine and coming up back to back one K seasons and All America Honors.
I love the idea of it. And you know, we work with a with a short king in mj D. I don't think he'd have a problem with me calling him that he didn't.
I'm here, Martin, I'm right here.
Yeah, you're not a former NFL running back. I'm talking about an actual someone who's doing what this person it's.
Over my shoulder right now.
It's very small, really not befitting you know, the honor Division one state champions.
I mean, Greg, I agree with your body diversity, but I don't think like one of the NFL teams is looking to bring in like an ex high school tennis player. I just don't think so.
I'm the short king of the podcasting game. They've never had a short podcast there.
I just I don't wanted to mean that trophy, Greg, But first of all, it's impossibly small for the achievement. And also it was a team tennis title. It wasn't a singles championship. I think we had established no disrespect.
Absolutely, but I went undefeated, you know that season starting you know team tennis.
It's three people. Basically, the three of us rolled, not taking.
Any we need, Like if we had the rights, we just roll in Springsteen's Glory days Right now, Mark, you got some stuff.
You know.
I'm not gonna go down winners and losers Boulevard. But I liked what the Bucks did in general, like I except for not addressing quarterback, which is weird. But they sit out there as a team that might go do that next offseason in a big way. But Cody Mak like the offensive tackle out of North Dakota State is a wildly immense, giant, amazing human who I think is gonna be an interesting fit down in super hot Tampa Bay.
And KLAIJAHKANTSI as well, well, ya ya diabli this guy or diabi this like edge guy that they got helps because Shaq Barrett's coming off in Achilles. So I think this was a sign that the Bucks aren't like they're reloading on defense a little bit. They got a tough offensive lineman. I kind of like the mood of what the Bucks are doing right now, minus the quarterback situation, because I, as much as I am pro Baker Mayfield, I don't see that going perfectly. Well.
It's a good job too, because I think the Bucks might be ranked thirtieth, thirty first, thirty second in times mentioned over the last three months on this podcast.
So that's a good job by you.
I'll throw them out there, I think. Although I haven't been on board with what I have perceived to be a premature push for the Atlanta Falcons the last two years, I do believe they are on a compelling path as we look ahead to twenty twenty three. Still wish, yes that they address quarterback in a different way.
Ryan Tannehill still available, Hey, heads up.
But I also I respect Falcons fans for what they've gone through the last five or six years. I'll never forget being at that super Bowl in Houston, I believe it was, and we all walk by this kind of rundown hotel on the outskirts of town that was completely booked out with Atlanta football fans partying, having the time of their life on Saturday night and thinking to myself, Ay, I hope my fan base gets to do this just
once before I die. And b God, that's the first group of people I thought about when twenty eight three went down. Falcons fans are so sick of twenty eight three, and the only thing that's made twenty eight three worse has been the fact that the team has not really been relevant or compelling really ever since. I know they won a playoff game the next year we were there against the Rams, but other than that, it's been really a down downhill ride.
Here.
Listen to this fan super fan. I wish I had his name. If we could get it, that would be awesome, justin but not, don't worry about it. Announcing a pick and then hearing someone shout from the crowd.
You know what they shouted, it's the two hundred and twenty fourth pick in the twenty twenty three NFS.
I was going to introduce the win planned to Falcon.
Select to Marco Helen's defensive back Alabama twenty eight three.
Good one. We've heard that before. I'm assuming that came from the New England section down in the orchestra. Pete. I'm so glad we got that on film.
Yeah, a little point in a mocking Yeah, we've heard that one before.
Falcons fans don't want to hear that.
It's time for them to build their next cycle of success so they can really move on from that horrific Sunday.
If you, if you, if you aren't watching this on YouTube, go find that clip, either on this episode or some where else, because what he's wearing there is one of the more like it completely combats my concept of male fashion being in a in a low place at the moment.
He is doing something completely different with his choices, and it was an eyepop and I think it gave that production a little life at that point because I was like deep in the seventh round, where you know, you're just struggling for something to say and like out comes this eye catching wonder.
It's a red suit with the dirty bird all over it.
You should watch this this YouTube, you know, hit the like, subscribe to around the NFL YouTube smash that like. Check out the live stream from the other night. It's still it's still cranking.
Does anybody have one more?
I have one more, but I'll defer to some you guys if you have yeah quickly.
Danny Kelly pointed out Devin h Chane during our running Back preview, and I wasn't familiar with him at the time, but he compared him to the running back version of Tyreek Hill. His explosiveness is insane. When I went to watch him this, he is an insane player. And now he's a member of the Dolphins. That's the fastest track team I've ever seen, and so I'm just excited about that him and most are in the same backfield, just
like he is pure speed. And then my last winner of the night, you gotta give it to the guys overseas, our buds, both Neil Reynolds and Will Gavin Neil of Sky Sports, Will Gavin of Toksport Radio, both introducing picks on day three, coming for a big in a big spot. They were sort of introducing young fans in the UK that actually said the pick. But they were there. They got their moment in the sun. They got some nice NFL network pop.
So good job by Will and Neil both.
I needed one of them to be in holographic form because I lost. As far as I.
Can tell, you get to that.
Yeah, I don't know if I tracked every pick, but it's not looking good for the non human making a pick.
Yeah, we will, we will get to that mark. He got something else.
I mean, I you know, I know, we talked to little Patriots, but I thought in general I liked their draft, and I think a winner has to be mac Jones because I had become more and more convinced that he was going to get shipped out of town that they were maybe going to go quarterback. In general, they hung out there on the fringe of the potential Lamar Jackson like Chase, and then a week later there's really no competition outside of Bailey Zappi for Mac Jones's job. He's
a star. I think he's the presumptive starter. I don't think he and Belichick are like the best of friends. But I don't think Bill Belichick's ever really been the best of friends with almost any of his quarterbacks. And so it's like, you got Bill O'Brien. It's a better situation than a year ago, and you haven't just been thrown somewhere else to start all over in another city.
Kean White, their second round pick, quickly, was as upset as I've ever seen. I really felt for him when he got drafted number forty six. I believe he was at the draft and he left because he was disappointed. And they did still have a camera on him when he got drafted in the second round. I've never seen a look has pissed off. He was not getting over it in the in the moment, So Kean White, A lot of people thought he'd be a top, you know,
thirty pick. I hope he brings that energy and he takes it out on the rest of the league.
Very nice, very nice. I wanted the ultimate winner. It's my last one.
I mean, no one won the draft in Kansas City at a higher level than Hollywood actor Eric stone Street, the Modern Family star. Loyal to the soil, as they say all over the coverage on NFL Network, and beyond stone it's stone Street Mania. Here he is announcing the Chiefs pick late in the draft.
Oh right, Kansas City, real quick. I'm so proud of our hometown. You guys showed up, showed.
The nationale Football League. What a great welcoming city. Kansas City is. So thank you, Kansas City. We love a we love everyone.
We love.
Hey man.
When you have an opportunity to just own the moment, as Stone Street has this weekend, you grab it.
You grab that rocket and you go for a ride.
And stone Street hopped on and he soared across the skies of Miss three days.
I mean he wasn't just like a Thursday night guy or a Friday night guy.
Hell no, he was in all three days.
And I've learned since like he had he has beefs with different reporters around the country. Jeff Howe of The Athletic, who was once covering the Patriots, he has a beef with stone Street because he once, uh, you know, talked a lot of trash about one of his articles. So it's like stone Street's in the mix and he's not going away.
Did you see what he was doing outside of the announcement there, He had rich Eisen in the passenger seat of his car, and he had he's got a vehicle with one of these like massive like speakers outside it.
He's sitting around.
Yeah, well he's driving around being like, hey, I'm rich ez Elite's pretending to be rich Eien. Insane sort of like bizarre stuff to people on the side of the street, like he's feeling himself.
Do you know what they call that CS? Classic Stone Street?
That is it is?
We love football? Sounds like it could be the slogan for next year season, just we love football.
Put that in the chamber. We might be firing that one off come next September. All right, before we say goodbye, let's check in on go get my lunch once again, Nick four tierf this was my vers one ever. I think by the way Nick fourth Tier reached out to me, you were concerned Greg that perhaps he was disrespected earlier last week that I couldn't quite place his name, But he took it in great spirits and signed a message to me Nick four Tier aka Ryan Frontier aka Chad Foster.
Chad Foster, this is just funny, Chest Foster.
But yeah, you took a bit of a dirt nap here, GREGI, well, will you finish under five hundred? So Tyree Wilson is the first defensive player taken in the draft.
No, he was not. It was who Will Anderson?
Yeah, Will Anderson, Dan and Mark pickup sangwiches there. Then you had all four of the top QBS Young Stroud, Levis and Richardson are drafted within the top ten almost but unfortunately Lett was fell out of the first round and I was taken thirty second overall, so he did not get that. Two more sanguages for Dan and Mark, and then you had d hops. We all got banged on the veterans being moved. You had d Hops traded to the Bills by the end of the draft. Two
more losses there, so you finished five and eight. Mark Sessler, hey man, listen, we talked about it. You're deep in the rear view in the standings. You just got chop wood for a few years.
That's it. And then here's a perfect example.
You have a seven in jacket for it. I feel like that's a good chopping wood jacket.
Sure, when Mark is wearing the faded black Levi's jacket on a Saturday, look out, Mark Went's seven and five. The Packers draft at least four wide receivers and tight ends big w only one sangwich though, you know because I found it to be egregious Nebulos mac Jones is not a Patriot by the end of the draft. There's your ding there. Dan and Greg took you on that, and mac Jones is very much It appears part of the equation there. A non human slash non animal makes
a draft pick. Dan and Greg both pick up sangwiches. There was there, ever a moment I saw at one point there were.
What the hell was it?
I turned it on today and it was monkeys or puppies or something.
There do animal dog pete on Daniel Jeremiah speaking of a winner in this draft. That dog is a winner.
They brought a boy stoy Pete on DJ. So that's good that Mark would have predicted.
Yeah, I should have.
I you know, I didn't sense that when I was cooking up my sandwich things. But I I'll be fully accountable. I did not track every single day three announcement. I like to watch as much as I can, but other human things were occurring during the day. But I know that if a non human, non animal had made a pick, I would be getting tons of tweets from people, and that is it was essentially totally quiet, so very confident that a non human, non animal was not a participant. Today.
Uh, the old Zeusser eight and four opening up a bit of a lead on the old Boss. The Texans state number two and draft to qb uh pick up two Q sangwiches there with CJ.
Stroud coming up the board too.
I just missed really cleaning up in this draft because I had the Jets like rogerck Jones in the first round, and another Schrager report was out there. He was saying on Friday that the Jets weren't happy with the quote unquote narrative that everyone thought that that's who they wanted, when that necessarily was the case. I don't know if I necessarily believe that, but the Jets were pushing back
against that. They ended up taking the edge rusher. So I missed that one though, so it cost me two sandwiches, and then I had once again we all got dinged with the trades. Titans trade either Tannehill or Henry by today, so I guess they still have till midnight for that, but I don't see it happening, So that's gonna cost me too. And then finally, the curse of the producer continues. Justin had no trades within the top seven picks, and as we said before, this was a historic draft.
There was more.
Trades than ever forty one, I believe, or in the forties somewhere. You had none in the top seven, and I believe there were two in the top seven.
So yeah, since you got that doubly wrong, you have to get.
Us two sandwiches each.
Okay, well, one day I will win a sandwich. Watch one day.
How did it go? Thursday night?
After that long day, And again, thank you to Justin and everybody behind the scenes, including Jessica as well, your lovely girlfriend who sat in on the live stream when you got home. Was she happy about being a part of it? Or was she like what was that all about?
Like? Where did she come down on the live stream? Ultimately a little bit of both.
She was happy to be there, She was happy to see it up like happening live and not having to watch it, you know, on YouTube at home waiting for me to get back from work. But at the same time, she did feel like, why was it a million degrees in that room. Why didn't you and Mark get more picks right in your mock draft? So I had something to do instead of just sitting there waiting for.
You guys to be wrong all night.
So yeah, that's where she came down.
I think it's a totally fair assessment.
By the way, I have some reporting I want to share about the temperature in that room. And this is something that I.
You know, I like the triple source, so I did.
I heard it, someone volunteered it to me, and then I checked in with a couple other people on this, and it has now been confirmed to me that the room where we did the live stream for five hours, which was filled with you know, roughly eight to ten people with lighting and cameras all over the place, it was known that there was an issue with the air conditioning weeks ago, and yet we were thrown to the wolves or thrown into the fire literally despite them knowing
full well what the outcome would have been.
Wait, and you triple source this. You triple source sourced it from within the building we were in. And when I say we, I'm not just talking about the three of us and not just justin There was a large crowd of hard working NFL media employees inside what was a room that was no bigger than a small bedroom. Essentially,
it's very compact, no windows, no ventilation. And you're trying to tell me that higher ups within the building knew that they were willingly throwing their employees, the people that they value, into this sort of hothouse for four plus hours. You're telling me that's the scenario.
I can only tell you what my reporting, uh came up came back with, which is they were fully aware greg that if they put that many people and that much lighting and that much equipment in that room for that amount of time, it was going to be a potentially dangerous experience, especially for the talent. And and that's all. And we could we could take action steps going forward as we head into the off season, the proper off
season for us. But I think I had to get that out there, and I know that's gonna rub some people the wrong way. Some shadowy leak figures that I would bring this reporting out here, but that that's part of what the zeuser has to do in terms of his reporting, and I'm just that's it.
Well, you know, Yessica had mixed feelings When Justin returned, Emica's feelings weren't mixed at all. She saw me and she was like, did you lose seven pounds of water weight tonight? Because you're looking good. When I walked in.
She's like, just get those soggy uh that soggi.
Underwear out of here, and then you know, let's go, let's go.
The night ended with Greg ringing out his tidy whities into the kitchen sink.
Don't need to visualize that, all right, I think that's enough.
Good stuff, good stuff. Another draft in the books. That is the tenth draft we've covered for the podcast. We've been involved with more address probably about twelve or thirteen as a group, but in terms of the around the NFL podcast are tenth and we thank you for listening, Greggie.
I know you checked it out.
The number is very healthy and robust, both with the stream and the podcast. You guys ten years, thirteen years in well, ten years into the show now have continued to support us and the show has continued to grow. And also again Justin jump back in here.
Justin.
This kind of is the year anniversary of Justin taking over as our full time producer, replacing Erica, who obviously was incredible for us, but Justin, that was a hell of a first year with ATM, so we thank you for everything you do.
Thanks. It's been a really fun year, learned a lot and looking forward to a year where now I know all the events and the ten pull things that we're you know, expecting to cover, so I'll be I think i'll be better.
You've done it all once. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves.
We haven't talked about this, but I actually ready to to ask you to be our our pre fiance producer.
We're pre engaging. We're pre engaged.
I don't know how that works. Yeah, I want to pre engage with you with Justin.
I just imagine us all on our knees, yes, well on one knee. Okay, that's that seems like a good time to get out. Thank you everybody. Until we got again. Like I said, we have around the AFC and NFC with special guests galore this week, so check back in on Tuesday.
Until then, Dan had the signing
Off for Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, Justin Graver, everybody behind the scenes, heat the call