Patriots Catch-22 2/19: NFL Scouting Combine Preview

This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan Lazar and Alex bar Blazar from Lazarre. Hello, everybody nailed it, joined us always by our bark.

Here is Evan Lazar and Alex bars. But if they want a rookie kicker to meet, Ben sALS, here's the guy.

Ben Salt. There's your kicker. I am definitely in a much different spot in my research than you, clearly, so I'm still in the top one hundred and hang on real quick because I have his number six of seven from fifty plus last year, twenty one of twenty four total. Okay, there's your kicker minute, Ben sALS. I feel like we allow for the kicker minute, like the last ten minutes of the show. When somebody asks about kickers, I'm like, all right, this is your time to show give him.

I give my ticket this point.

Better call Salts, better better calls sauls Uh. The Patriots do need a kicker. You keep reminding me of that every time I do any off season preview write ups or anything.

Agent. They do have Parker Romo, but Joways lies a free agent.

We don't trust Parker Romo.

Well, he just doesn't have a lot of experience, at least somebody to bring in for like they had last year. Somebody bring in for competition.

All right, all right, sure, well, kickers, I believe specialists are Wednesday night next week at the combine. Yeah, that first group on the on field workouts, and then Thursdays when the position players start, the non specialist start.

So no, the defensive line and linebackers are with the kickers on Wednesday. I think, No, we're on Thursday.

No, I don't think so. I think you're specialist are on Wednesday night. Yeah, all right, I think something different this week this year. Anyways, semantics, the Combines next week my favorite week of the NFL calendar. And you are going, sir, is your first combine? Right, Yes, you'll you'll see what I'm talking about. The biggest reason why I love the Combine. It's just enough football that you get to do the

I guess let's starts franchise tag stup because we can do that pretty quickly.

Okay, so franchise tags latest. The franchise tag window is now officially open. I believe it's like March fourth or March second, where it closes, like right before the start of the league year. The big news is that it does sound like t Higgins is expected to get the franchise tag from the Cincinnati Bengals, and it seems like this is a placeholder for them to be signing him to a long term contract. Is where this seems to

I just never expected him to become available, like however it happened. I never was really expecting them to have a chance to do that. Now, you know, it's all well and good to sit here in mid February and say we want to sign it. If you're the Bengals and say we want to Scigniicans to an extension. Once you actually start putting numbers on paper, maybe it gets

Yeah, well, I guess I'm a little bit old school when it comes to a roster building, especially with the wide receiver position. I always view wide receiver as the finishing piece. I think that that's the last piece that you drop into the puzzle. And once you have the foundation of offensive line, quarterback play, now you can go ahead and take the wide receiver. You know, make that Aj Brown trade, make that Stefan Diggs trade.

Or just if you're picking in the top ten r you know, next year and we're your way. So who knows. Yeah, next year projects to be a better year for receivers in the draft. You never know who's gonna be available on the veteran market, Like next year there should be. It's too early to do that, you know, where would Tech McMillan rank the next year's class because we don't know who's gonna come out and blah blah blah blah blah. But like I'm gonna guess Tech McMillan would not be

So here's the thing, though, when it comes to receivers, and this has been an old We've hammered this on this show and our past shows and all, yeah, plenty, the bottom line with the receiver position in this league, T Higgins caliber and above receivers do not hit unrestricted free agents.

I think Calvin Ridley's probably as good as you're gonna get.

So now that go, and Calvin Ridley's older, and you know that that was a big part of it with him. So, like you look at a lot of these different avenues to add receivers, really you can cross unrestricted free agency off. If you're looking for that true number one guy. That's not happening. It's never going to happen. Even if T. Higgins moves into trade. Now on the franchise tag, teams are going to maintain team control on an asset of that magnitude. They are not going to allow T. Higgins

Now, maybe you're giving up less than it would take to get that caliber of player. Like I've said in this world, push back on that. Right, if you can trade, go back to the brand Nayuk trade last year, apply it to DK Metcalf because I think they're comparable. So that would be thirty eight one or four. I don't know if the Seahawks want Kendrick Bourne because I was in anik Staire. So we'll throw in a future fourth, right, Yeah, thirty eight and one O four. Thirty eight's the premium

No, but it's not But it's not apples to apples.

It's not apples tabbles. You have to pay him, and he's older and all that. I get it, but like I want to like not anti using draft capital that way. I just think it has to be sure worth it.

So my point being is that really the best way to attack this receiver thing is to draft and develop your own receivers like that, that's what the best teams do, right, And to your point, that might not be a move that the Patriots can really make this offseason, Like, I don't think that the best use of the fourth overall pick. And this is something that's going that's starting to bug

They have to develop the player on top of that.

All that's all fair. But if I'm the Patriots in this particular draft, in this particular offseason, I'm not closing doors on making some home run trade for DK Metcalf or whatever. The case may be, but I would look at it that way. For this year, I would stress the trenches like we all want them to do for the most part, and I would add receivers. I'm not saying don't add receivers, and I'd add receivers with upside.

And now it's really tough to look at one of those guys that's going to come in and be the guy you wanted to be. Like, you know how I feel about Stefan Diggs. I think for years he's been one of the more underrated receivers in the league. But he's now on the wrong side of thirty and he's coming off torn Aco, so that's you know, you're asking for a lot there.

He is Dallas bound.

We talked about that'd be interesting. We talked about Cooper Cup. We talked about Deebo Samuel last week. I think Cooper Cup he hasn't really been that engine of an offense for you know, three years now.

Ye, I mean really took over that role almost as a rookie.

Yeah, but he's also been banged up, and you know, he doesn't quite look like the same player Deebo Samuel, the same thing. He's dealt with injuries, he doesn't quite look like the same guy. And then you're getting into like, you know, DeAndre Hopkins, where's he at at this point? He's in his thirties. I think like Deontay Johnson's a free agent. Who would he played for four teams last year. Mike Williams like, these are the kind of players start

Decker, Like no, Joey Galloway pulled.

Joey Galloway for like a week. I don't think it could be quite that bad. Johnson, Dumarius Thomas, Chad Johnson might be up there to where it's like they probably should have kept a Marus Thomas in twenty nineteen. But it, yeah, like those guys feel more like that kind of signing than somebody's gonna come in here and really change the offense. Yeah, Diggs could if he's healthy, but thirty off of torn acl is risky.

Yeah, I don't think they're in a position to land a guy like Diggs. I think he's gonna be contender chasing, ring chasing. I also think he's gonna want to play with his brother in Dallas, and that might be a really good fit for him. There. So the last one I guess as of right now, a couple more. Actually there's two more. I wanted to get to Tray Smith in Kansas City. Now the report today is that probably

Look, I'm with you on that. I just I know they have a lot of cap space. I get that. Yeah, but it is a finite amount, yep. And if it's Tray Smith as like your second or third best for agents signing, I can totally get behind that. I agree with you they need a starting left guard. I don't know that they need like a top five left guard in football or I don't know where you'd put Tray Smith in that ranking, But like i'd I don't know.

And look, maybe it's it's not a big deal to him whatsoever. I'm also not completely losing sight of the fact that he's a right guard, So he played right guard in Kansas City, Joe Toney obviously played left guard in Kansas City or has played left guard in Kansas City. I don't know if it's as big of a deal as flipping at tackle. I think flipping at tackle tackle is problem as big. It might be a little bit of a bigger deal. But at the same time, we've

Didn't Did he play left guard like early in his career? Am I imagining that.

He's only played right guard in Kansas City? To my knowledge, I went back and clicked through a PFF, and I'm pretty sure he's only played right guard. Maybe he played left guard in college. You know those guards, It's it's different than.

That's even further back. Yeah, guards is easier because you're still it's about which way you're moving. Guards are moving. Well.

It's also just like I think you know guards tend to cross train a lot more than tackles, I would say, especially in college, and they flip around and stuff like that. So I'm not saying it's a deal breaker that he that he played predominantly right guard in Kansas City, but it's a it's a factor. I think if you're gonna pay a guy that kind of money, yeah, and then now we're gonna we're gonna flip sides, just like they've done with other people.

You know me, I'm very anti lineman flipping sides, Like I think you play your position, but if it's doing it, guard is not easy. Doing it tackles a completely different beast like it's not it's a little apples to oranges. I will say this. I've seen some people Sayking Tradesmiths play tackle. I'm out on that one. Oh go get a real tackle, I'm out on that one. If you want to move to the left guard, I'll have that conversation. I'm not playing him at right tackle. I'm certainly not

So last one here you mentioned him, Javon Holland, who it sounds Cameron Wolf last night on NFL Network. I believe it is reported that they it's trending towards no tag for Jamon Holland in Miami, So he's gonna be a free agent. Now it goes back to a little bit of what you were saying about, like the twenty twenty one offseason, right, if you're gonna spend him, you

Players of a who's ahead of them. If we're taking t Higgins off, probably you.

Know it's gonna be him, It's gonna be Sweat, it's gonna be Trey Smith. You know, those are gonna be the top three, I would.

Think, and it'll take him out of Tray Smith.

So he's a really really good center fielder, awesome free safety. Now you just paid Kyle Dugger, you just pay Jabriel Peppers. We don't know what's gonna go happen with Jabriel Peppers off the field, right all that illegal drama and stuff like that with him, So we'll see what happens with

And we know they're not a player afraid to play three safety like you can absolutely have all three of them on the field at the same time. We've talked about them using some small or quicker linebackers. Now most of those guys are still two twenty five. Kyle Dugger and Jabrill Peppers are both around two fifteen. But these good football players, like, can you do some stuff where they're essentially it's not gonna be full time, but swapping into maybe those those smaller linebacker roles.

I just wonder if one of those guys dugg Er Peppers. And obviously it's complicated with Peppers, so I don't know if this is how much you'd really get. I don't even know if it would be an option, but I'm not ruling out trading either one of those players and signing a guy like Javon Holland, keeping one of those guys and then having a much more uh, you know, like I was saying, you know, the puzzle fits a lot better in the back end together with those guys

Byered you buy Ard the a Why do you harp on that because it was difference? Does it make I have never heard of Pear.

I'm rolling here, you said his name, continued, Kevin Byard, whatever you want to get that on this guy, you know, for a long time in Tennessee, was Pro Bowl, all Pro caliber safety, playing that that perch up top, you know, playing over the top of the of the defense.

And I just.

Wonder if Frabele would look at Javon Holland and see a pretty similar player, because I do and see a pretty similar skill set. I love the idea of going after Javon Holland. Now, yeah, it has to make sense, Like you have to make that safety room work, and you don't want to have you know, just like we were talking about with guards, you're gonna have what thirty forty million dollars invested in three safeties. That's a that's a lot of money in terms of the roster building.

Have so much These are some of the things you can do when you have not just a quarterback, but they have their star corner on a rookie contract as well. Those are big money positions. So and they really, what do they have invested in linebacker? Bentley's deal isn't significant? No, so you can't it's significant. He's a good player, but like it's not a lot of money. So if you're saying, all right, well, you know, we're not. We have these three safeties, so we're not. You know, maybe that's a

Yeah, I look at free agency maybe a slightly different than the draft in terms of best player available, because in free agency, there's not the pool isn't as large in terms of the top end town, the pool.

Isn't as large, and it's not like you get to pick your free agent and then thirty free agents go before you get to go.

There, right right, So in free agency, I think when you go into free agency with needs in mind, like we need a left tackle, we need a wide receiver, we need this player, you end up with mediocre players in those spots. A lot of the time you and I'm not trying to throw shade at these guys, but like in twenty twenty one, you know, you end up with the Nelson Agalors and you end up with a guy in Johnny Smith who wasn't really a fit, but like it was the best tight end on the market,

You're not paying tackles and if you get your tackle in the draft, you're not gonna be paying tackles for a few years now.

You know. And you have a really sturdy, very really good depth to the pocket. For Drake May, yeah, he has a pocket to step up into. He's got a nice clean shelf all the time. You can run the football, you know, up the middle, up the gut, you know, just like Josh McDaniels wants to do. Like you can really look at that and say, all right, we have we have something to build off of, just like Kansas City,

Okay, one of them is about some guys you really like, so I don't think you're gonna have.

It number one to me.

Yep.

And this is not Patriot directly related, but it's Patriot adjacent. This is the time of year where the quarterbacks really start to solidify themselves, right. You start to get into those meeting rooms, you start to get into throwing sessions.

Just within that even if one goes and it's not the ideal scenario, but somebody's showing enough that the Raiders or the Saints fall in love and are willing to give up the typical quarterback package to move up and get them.

Yeah, fair enough. Looking quickly at these quarterbacks, I haven't done deep dives into these quarterbacks, but I have done, you know enough that I feel watched Xavierstrepo.

You've watched Travis Hunters.

So I've seen enough of them at this point to have a take. And I look at cam Ward, I kind of I think I might have test you this. I see a little Justin Fields and cam Ward there's an issue with holding the ball. There's an issue I think in terms of decision making and prosing speed that exists there. But there's all sorts of multiple talent, right, There's a lot of physical talent, there's a lot of

I don't think so.

I see a good athlete, but not a great athlete. I see a good arm, not a great arm. And I see some moxie and some toughness. H So I see a little bit of bon Nix in there with him. But overall, like I Bonix went what twelve or whatever it was last year, and you know, justin Fields, I think it was ten or eleven wait to Chicago.

You compare Sanders to bon Nicks, but you also compared bo Nicks to quinn Ewers.

I don't think I've ever compared both you did last year.

You did last year. I remember this very what is You're like, what does it matter? Because quin you weres Anders are nothing like.

I don't think I ever compared both you did.

I remember it, Okay, I don't know. I think is a better athlete and you're giving him credit for I thinks is a pretty good athlete. He had a I mean, that offensive line in Colorado was atrocious, yep, and he had to compensate for that a lot, and I think he did a good job of it. But it definitely impacted him at times. I'm trying to again, I can't get behind Nicks. I'm trying to think of a better comp. I'm going back to like quarterback classes in my mind right now.

I feel like my my comp with Nick's other than like the skill set part of it is more just like how I viewed the ceiling and the floor of Shador Sanders.

Like I think can elevate a little bit. I don't.

I don't know if he's a true elevator, but I think if you put him with Sean Payton and behind a great offensive line, and now that you know what Denver basically said bo Nix up with, I think that there's a really good chance that Shador has a pretty good start to his career.

I think he can do more in terms of like throwing receivers open, and I think he can access some more parts of the field than bo Nicks can, especially when you're talking about between the numbers. I still can't really come up with a comp. I'm like trying to go back through the years in my brain, but I don't know.

It doesn't matter. Yeah, the comp isn't important. The important part is is that this is the time of year where it really kind of starts for these quarterbacks in terms of all of the interview process, the vetting process, and all that kind of stuff that makes a lot

I want to add on to that, But real quick, how about as a comp that's not a do on say Baker Mayfield because they both kind of have that moxy they can bols. What are we talking about? You did you need?

You need to go watch bo Nix last year with Denver?

I really don't. Yeah, you do.

It was better than you think.

The the other thing about the uh.

You just said Baker, that's literally bo Nicks.

No, Baker, Baker. Baker is more of a live arm. I think he's better in the intermediate, he's better in the pocket. Maybe if we're doing floor ceiling or middle ceiling.

Okay, I think if you're comparing him to Baker and bo Nicks and I'm comparing him to Bonnicks, I think we're in the same ball.

I think, yeah, we just feel very differently about Bonex. Yeah. I know. The other thing with the quarterbacks too, is like, does anybody else enter this conversation? And I know that sounds ridiculous in this quarterback class where you know, comparing the top prospects to Justin Fields and Bonnicks. But if somebody else does move up, you know, now maybe a third teams trading up for that pick, or somebody moves up in the late first round, and that pushes a

Good agent, It's J. J.

McCarthy all over again. I have no clue what is going on there, but you know what, sure, I'll say this, I think an NFL teams should totally give up a ton to trade up to four to take Jackson Dart right like I would love that, Please do go ahead. It's not gonna happen, But like does Jackson Dart build on any of that momentum. Will Howard off winning the National Championship and really turning things around off that Oregon game. He's got the frame, he's got the arm, he's a

That was an interesting one to me.

Those are the three if there's gonna be a those are the competitors with QB three. To me, it's Will Howard, it's Jackson Dart, and it's Jaln Milroe. Will Howard and Jaln Milroe or kind of a flavor thing. I'm literally only including Jackson Dart. It's the same thing we did with Will Levis a couple of years ago too, where like he's not even as good as he's not. He's

I have no idea what anybody saw in Jackson Dart that week in Mobile, that all of a sudden he became the darling of the quarterbacks that were in Mobile. Jalen Milroe is intriguing ish because I hate to do this to them, but like it's a copycat league. People are gonna see Jalen Hurts and they're gonna think Jalen Milroe. They just are. It's lazy and it's bad. But that's just the bottom line, that's how the league works. They're gonna look at him dual threat quarterback, somebody that most

But whatever the case, No, what do you mean, you know, if they don't want to pay Rock Party.

It sounds like they're gonna pay Rock Party.

If they don't want to you Will Howard on day two.

If they go to brock Purty with the Daniel Jones contract and it's like really kind of just a two year deal, then maybe obviously Chip Kelly is in Vegas. Now, say he need a quarterback.

Vegas for Will Howard makes a lot of sense.

If you're looking for that brock Purty type of quarterback where all you're asking him to do is hit the buttons on the controllers in a perfect situation with the perfect line and perfect skilled players and all that kind of stuff. Will Howard just did it at Ohio State, right, And he can do that. And I think he's different from JJ McCarthy because JJ McCarthy was like high ceiling, low floor, right, whereas I think Will Howard is just game manager.

Well, there's already different. Will Howard's a lot more experienced, he's bigger. Yeah, JJ McCarthy was more athletic. Howard is more athletic than people think, especially if you go watch the Kansas State tape. He did more with his legs at Kings Sikes in need to last year, except the one time he really didn't need to when he did against Oregon. But I don't know why I keep going back to that, but like he's yeah, he's that guy.

Right, So that's the quarterbacks. They spend way too much time on quarterbacks for team.

It's no, but it's definitely it's how it sets up the board for the paper.

It's definitely irrelevant, and not only just last thing. It's not only irrelevant at four. It could be relevant at thirty eight because you brought up Will Levis, who goes early second round, and is I think he's the first pick of Day two Titans trade up for that he might have, They might have. It sounds right, So it's a factor twenty three. It's a factor in the in the draft of how these quarterbacks fall and what that

April second, Sunday or March second, sorry Sunday, mark your calendars.

That to me is the second biggest story line. I've gone back and forth enough about on Twitter with people. I think everybody understands my stance on Will Campbell. The one thing I'll continue to just say about Will Campbell stop calling it a major reach if they take him at four. We got to stop with that. It's not

Out last year, which is I still think where he is, yeah, as a player.

And now he is this year. He's sixth on the consensus board. He's sixth on Dan Brugler's Top one hundred, He's eighth and DJ's top fifty. He is a top top prospect in this draft. If he comes in next week and he's got thirty two and one eighths inch arms, that we have to put it to bed, and I will let it go. I will put it to bed at that point. I don't think that's going to be the case.

I don't think so either. It's just a hunch.

I don't have any great information, a hunch.

It's more a hunt for me because Daniel Jeremiah tweeted I think in late January that Campbell was working out as a tackle and he could he can go buy a tape measure he can measure his arms right. If he thinks he's gonna be going through the process as a guard, training is a tackle is a massive waste of time and a very important taking his life. So if he's still training as a tackle, my guess is he has an idea that he's going to measure in as a tackle.

I think he's going to come in right over thirty three inches. And this is just a hunch. I don't have any inside information. I just think he's going to come in right over thirty three.

Have you seen the people who did the thing where it's like the computer generated it's him, and all right, we know he's this tall and he'll do this, and it's gonna as talking fever about this the other day. He's gonna come in at thirty two and seven eighths because that's for the content, that's where it's the best. Because he comes in thirty three or higher, he's a tackle. Yeah,

I look at Will Campbell's film and I just I've watched multiple times. Yeah, I try to see both sides of it. I just don't think that length is his biggest issue. I'm not saying that he doesn't have to make up for it a little bit in other ways, because he does.

There's no such thing as a perfect process. But I don't I see.

His biggest issue to me right now is that he overshoots or oversets his landmark to the outside, and that opens up those inside counters, right, so he gets spun off, or he gets beat to the inside, across his face and things of that nature. That to me is more about like footwork than it is about length. And with tackle play and offensive line play, everything starts from the ground up. It's a lot like quarterback. It's everything starts

Tackle in the by the way, he's.

Strong as heck. It's probably his best strength is his core strength and his upper body twitch and his power in his h in his body. He's a very strong dude. So when you check all three of those boxes, like those are the foundational elements to me to play tackle.

In the league.

Now we can talk about, all right, how is he going to hand fight? How is he going to set to counter the fact that he doesn't have the great length? That's all coach, which I agree is all coachable.

So as Lexie's functional length, we'll.

Get to Will Campbell, you know, we'll see his arm length. Maybe we put it to bed one way or and now there, let me.

Ask you this. I'm putting it to bed because a lot of people want them to trade down, and we talked earlier about how they don't have a clear starting left guard. Yeah, let's say they sign Alaric Jackson in free agency, right, and you know they moved down in the draft. Let's say they moved down to like ten eleven twelve somewhere in there. Would you take him as a guard at ten eleven twelve.

Oh, at ten eleven twelve, probably.

Not a four. I'm not at four if they depending on what happens in free agency, there might be because I think he's a hell of a guard too, if he's playing guard. Yeah, Like, if you move down, there's a chance he's, you know, one of the better players of bill. I don't know that i'd take him over like a Tyler Warren, But if you move down that far, you get what's fair for it. I'm not writing him off in Tigerly, it just becomes a lot, lot lot less realistic.

I just look at two things that I hear a lot with Will Campbell. One is that he'd be a massive reach out for I need this not sure that needs to stop, but that's not true. And the other is the word value, and that the value isn't good enough, which I'm not really sure what that means.

I it's it's something. Well, it's like, what does that mean? It's also the thing people Well, I think it's just something people use as a placeholder. I feel like it's a This is a and I'm not like coming at anybody. I mean this honestly, and it's something I've dealt with. This is a difficult draft to talk about because of the lack of talent. Yeah, and a lot of things

And the other thing with the trade down thing that that's starting to bug me is why is the team at at nine or the team at seven or the team at ten or whatever, like you have to have a reason to trade to nine.

Six And I shouldn't have been using seven. I pulled that out of my ass. It's six and nine.

It's okay, But you're convincing me. Then they're trading up for the quarterback, right, which I.

Just don't see happening. It's not a guarantee, but just for the sake of the conversation, right.

Correct, But like that's what we're doing. We're just making up conversation. And like six and nine to me, like every we would all unless Abdol Carter, Travis Hunter is sitting there at four, Yeah, I would confidently say that we would all take the trade down. We would all do it. We would all trade down in this draft. It's the way to go for them. It adds draft capital.

That's that's the other thing. You don't just move down if it's all right, you know Saints called move down to nine, you know will give you nine and a third round pick. No, that's not worth it, and you don't want to set that precedent, even if somebody might say, well, if that's all you can get in this draft, it's better than nothing. But now next year, when you're on the phone with teams, like you've set and this is gonna happen to other teams too, like you've set the value.

It's just comes back to you have to look at it and say, who is trading up and why are they trading up? And then to your point, who is going right from at nine? To make sure that you're getting Will Campbell at nine now or Ted McMillan at nine.

For these mythical players that are going in between that. You know, if there's nobody who feel comfortable being drafting at four and five or six guys you feel comfortable drafting at nine, guess what those five guys are going between four and nine, right, Like, that's who's gonna fill Somebody's gonna fill that gap. So that part's really important to keep in mind that you're, uh, it's six sixth right on Danie jeremiahs board, Will Campbell sixth.

He's eighth on on DJ's and he's sixth on Dane Brew.

Fine, that's fine. And I don't know if he has the quarterbacks above them, but like I don't believe you can almost just erase those guys that he does, or if he is genty above him, you can erase genty right. Well, that goes to my other point of best player available, and this is bugging me. Just take the best player available. And you know how I feel about this, yea, what

So I think this is like a new segment that we might have and I understand that it's it's a little bit maybe pretentious on our end, but like the things that are just bugging us about the draft discourse, because I feel like this draft is already getting it. I've ever a.

Long time said best player available as a myth. I've said that for two or three years.

A month and that's not new. And I'm already annoyed by several things. The trade down one is annoying me because this is one of those drafts when I and when I was in Mobile, everybody everybody wants to trade down. Nobody wants to pick in this draft. Everybody wants to.

Trade downing you keep everybody.

If everybody wants to trade down, then who is trading up? Like I know, to go back to go, I will say it's crazy. Everyone wants to trade down. No one wants to pick high in this draft.

I'll entertain the trade up trade down thing a little bit more because at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, we know teams will get dumb about quarterbacks. We know We've seen it time and time.

Teams might get dumb about the quarterbacks in this draft because it's at that point it's just like the town stinks anyways. So like, if we're Tennessee and we really have a strong grade on cam Ward.

We feel good about it. We don't think he might not be an MVP.

Caliber quarterback, but we feel like he can be a starting quarterback in this league and we still have like a comparable ish grade on him as we do on Abdul Carter, Then like, why wouldn't we take the quarterback? Right? And that's how I feel about all the options for the Patriots at four to like your best player available point.

It does start to factor. It's the tie breaker.

It's a tiebreaker, right, because otherwise it just you have to pick somebody. So to get to who you're gonna pick, you're gonna start to go to some of the things that maybe don't matter quite as much as the overall talent of the player, but are factors in the decision. Positional value, how we interviewed, how he measured, how is athletic testing, Like all these different things are gonna start to be the tiebreakers because all this talent is kind

Will Johnson and we can debate, We can debate what the biggest need is at that point, like that's fair to do. And I think we both think it's tackling of those edge rusher. I might have that conversation, but yeah, yeah, to me, it's at that point. Position does factor and as well. But I'm not ruling out the trade down entirely. I'm not.

I'm just telling you that I get that everyone wants out of this draft.

I get that, and it suddenly and then suddenly you're a GM and you know the owner is really breathing on you. Who's our quarterback going to be this year? And maybe get some intel. You know, you're the Saints at nine, that were the Jets at seven or eight, whatever. You know, the Jets are hot after one of these quarterbacks announce all right, you know, gotta we gotta make ownership happy. We gotta save our jobs. We need this quarterback. We got to move like that can all. I will

Okay, next point on here for me in terms of the combine. Now that we've gotten all that off our chests and I can die, I digress on those points. Josh Simmons, So medical rechecks, Yes, that's big time this time of year. My guess is that teams that are interested in Josh Simmons will also have him in for thirty visits to get their own medical staff on location to go through the knee as well. But his torn bertel attendant and his knee, I don't remember if it's

Yep?

So Cole Strange missed an entire calendar year of football.

It is worth noting. Didn't he say he had a setback?

I don't. I don't remember hearing that, but you could be right. But so Josh Simmons a left tackle for Ohio State. There's there's two big things to go to discuss with Josh Simmons. Because the other thing that you hear a lot of and I'm not like as I'm bothered by this is like the Will Campbell stuff. But the other here thing you hear a lot of what Josh Simmons is. Well, just take Josh Simmons, right, Just

Overall, I don't know why I thought cold Strange said that I can't find it.

Oh you mean Josh Simmons.

No, close Strange.

You think Strange had a set back.

No, I thought I remember when he came back. I thought I remembered him saying when he was like talking about rehab that he was like, oh, like that he had a setback on so normally, so.

That injury has become worse than like the torn ACL Like ACLS, they have kind of streamlined the surgery and the rehab and they have a good feel for that injury. This injury torn Betel attendant is a deadly injury like it is not. Again, well, let's say you're being metaphorical there. Yeah, of course deadly injuries.

Okay, that has a literal meaning devastating injury.

Yes, Uh, to have and so cold strange missed an entire calendar year of football. Josh Simmons was injured in November of last year, which means that at best we're projecting him to come back in November of this coming up season to make his NFL debut as a rookie.

Right So, in.

All intents and purposes, if you're drafting a guy like Josh Simmons as of right now, and there'll be a report next week from somebody that he's way ahead of schedule, because he always is, what happens, you know, the agent puts it out there. I think his agents Drew Rosenhouse, he'll put it out there that he's way ahead of schedule and make it known that he's going to be

And even then is he going to be the same player after the injury. It's a very difficult injury to come back from. So on one hand, just from a Patriots point of view, I don't know that this team can afford to have its first round pick not play like they need to be better in the first Roundick is going to be a part to that and he's not going to play. And then on top of that, are you getting the same player? Is their risk of re injury? All of that. You know, I've compared it,

So the other thing that's big with Josh Simmons and I just wanted to point out I think this has to be part of the conversation. Josh Simmons played five games last year for Ohio State. He played junk, He played nobody. He played a terrible you know, typical big time college program opening schedule right where he's playing, you know, really just not at like high level competition. So he

He get hurt against somebody good.

He got hurt against Oregon. Yeah, in the first half against Oregon. He played like twenty snaps against Oregon. So if you want to draft a player in the first round based off of twenty snaps against Oregon, then be my guest. But my point that I'm getting to with Josh Simmons, his tape took a really big leap from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four. The problem is is that once Ohio State got to the meat of

Yeah?

What hose?

Listen And I've been saying it for like three weeks. What the hell so texted that to you?

So it's like Dominic Easley, right, So all of these things add up to him going to a team like that. It for the Patriots, I just don't think it's a very safe pick for them. I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense. But his medical recheck will happen, We'll see what the knee looks like. We'll hear from me and Rappaport that he's six months ahead of schedule, and we'll talk more and more about Josh Simmons as we go. Who is your other.

I was I'm just gonna say, on Simmons, if he gets to thirty eight, I'd entertain it a little more, especially if they don't take a tackle at the top. But he's not getting past the Chiefs at thirty one. There's no way. There's no way. The other injury guys, his teammates Seth mc McLaughlin, who was the center there at Ohio State, was a starter at Alabama. We'll started at Ohio State. He got hurt a little later in the year Tours Achilles, so that's another very significant injury.

Yeah. The only other guy that I just because I watched him recently, actually yesterday. I don't think his injuries major, but Cameron Williams from Texas, the right tackle he had that knee injury in the College Football playoffs. Yeah, but it seemed like that was maybe more severe than what they initially thought, and he kind of cut it through it for the sake of the College Football playoff and played terribly. But that's not his fault for playing back.

Sawyer is very good on a.

He did a lot better against against Jack Sawyer or not Jack Sawyer. It was the Georgia tape, so they played Georgia in the regular season. Yeah, and he was a lot better in that tape than he was later in the College Football playoff. Still not like in love with him, But that's a thing too. I meant to bring up. With the tackles, It's hard in this class to me to find a Day two tackle that I love. I don't really, I'm not crazy about any of them.

You think he has a franchise starter upside.

I do. I think he can start in the league. I left tackle just because guys that big that have his movement, but it's weird. His movement like translates the run games, but he's not as graceful in pass protection. He's a lot more lumbering when he's in his past set. When he's run blocking, he's like really athletic for his size. In pass protection not so much. And then you get to like that Donovan Jackson from Ohio State is a

I will say this though, the run on tackles is the theory I have. The run on tackles last year was not an anomaly because there's such a shortage at the position. I think this is gonna become a norm. Once the tackles start going, they're gonna go. And so some of those guys you just mentioned, like maybe we don't love, but they're gonna go higher than we think. I think this is until we get balanced back out in this tackle shortage ends, which when that's gonna be.

Next storyline here for me. Yeah, I mentioned it briefly before, but all eyes are gonna be on Travis Hunter's podium when he goes up there and he answers questions about what position he wants to play, what position he's going to play. Teams obviously privately are gonna have conversations with him about their plan and their vision for how they

I think it happens on the team.

I would play my wide receiver period.

What if you're like in, he's not a fall as far, but like if you're the Eagles who were loaded wide receiver.

In corners, like I guess, Like, yeah, I guess at the end of the day, you want to be really specific about it.

How many team's gonna have a shot at him five if we're being generous?

If so, what at all? It's And I've had the same take on him the whole time. What it comes down to with Travis Hunter is where is what is? How is he going to be more impactful for your football team? And I just personally feel like he'd be more impactful playing wide receiver. I think that that's a given. Like you know, and everybody keeps on throwing at me because I'm you know, big Will Campbell guy. You know what Dante Scarnecki has said about scoring touchdowns or sacking

This is a guy that scores.

Touchdowns on offense, had sixteen of them last year, and with Colorado, this is a guy that mixed big plays on offense with the ball in his hands at the catch point. He is a very very good receiver. Is he a better corner on film? Yeah? Probably? But like again, where is he gonna make the biggest impact on the football team. It's gonna be a wide receiver. I'm interested, really interested to hear what he says about it. He's listed as a defensive back. I don't want to look too much into that.

I think that's just logistics.

Yeah, and we'll see what happens. You know what he says. But the Travis Hunter of it all is a big time storyline.

I'm gonna throw one more kind of substoryline in that. And you wrote about this guy too. He's not the only one that I think the position question is relevant. Yeah, Savian Williams.

I like Savon Williams a lot, but I too, I'm terrified that's so not your guy. Well, you also like Trey Harris. What is going on with you? I'm terrified of Savian Williams would.

Be, but you should like him and be terrified of him.

I the thing with save On Williams, and I put him in that like role specific tier because I think that's what it is. You have to have a creative plan and usage. It's a lot. We talk about this all the time with like like John new Smith and things like that.

Now Johnny Wilson.

The difference between him and like a John new Smith with Josh McDaniels is Josh McDaniels had Cordeal Patterson and made Corderill Patterson a viable player for the Patriots in what eighteen was that seventeen eighteen? He won a Super Bowl right somewhere around there, No, when we were covering the team, So I want to say it was eighteen because he had the kickerturn in Chicago.

Yeah, eighteen eighteen.

So they were a step ahead on Cordeal Patterson running back, like they I they should take credit for that. They did it first. They put him at running back first. So if you see a guy like saving I'm not taking Savion Williams and expecting him to be any sort of savior. I'm not take I don't even know if i'd take him in the top one hundred. But if he if he's there at like one oh four for them in the fourth.

Round, brainer, no brainer.

I think he's a big time playmaker, and I think he's a little bit more fluid than Cordele Patterson. Maybe not as explosive in a straight line, but like, I feel like his route running, he's got a little bit more like sink and wiggle to his game.

I'll be interested to see if he does any of the running back on field drills. Yeah, that would be interesting and I think that would tell us a lot. I figure he's gonna go He's listed as a receiver, right, I believe, so he's going to go through that and I expect him to the receiver drills and that'll be interesting too, because like his route running is a big question.

But yeah, his hands, his hands are terrible. That I think is the biggest question.

Does he do any of the there's a chance the gauntlet is ugly if he goes through the So you know he's gone to the gauntlet too, don't they do they?

I don't remember. I think so he's a body catcher. He's got bad drops on film, like he's got some bad drops on film that like almost lead to interceptions, you know, like they just like bounce off his hands and pop up in the air and guys are around the ball. So you are you need to scheme touches for this guy, right, you need to get this player

I like, that's not your like fun, he's fun. He's fun.

To be clear with Trey Harris, because you a couple of people brought this up to me. I like Trey Harris, but I'm not that's not my kind of guy. And like I'm if I had to bang the table for anybody in that tier, wouldn't be Trey Harris. But I watched his film and I was like, Okay, I can see it, Like I can see the ability there. A lot of his his yards and a lot of his big time production came against garbage defenses. But regardless, you know, you can see the movement and all that kind of stuff.

Be Tes Johnson's forty, I think he can break I.

Think I think he's gonna break the record. So I shouldn't say I think he's gonna break it. I think he has a chance to break it. I think it's worth watching.

I have I had your two guys, Tes Johnson, Isaiah Bond Yeah, on my list of players to watch. And I'll tell you why. What's the question I ask you every time you bring them up? Fast and what?

So let's see the teds Johnson's not just fast.

Let's see the gauntlet. I don't care so much about the ford. I mean the forty will be interesting if Tes.

Johnes Tess Johnson's quick.

Well, so I'm saying, let's see the Gauntlet. Let's see the three cone. Yeah, if he does, let's see the shuttle.

People aren't doing three cones anymore.

Let's see the shuttle then, yeah, the gauntlet will be telling like that. Let's see him and Bond. Let's see how they do in those in those. And with Tesz Johnson to especially, I know he measured it at the Senior Bowl. Did he put any more weight on? Did he hear the noise and put any more weight on? Between then and now?

The problem with Tedes Johnson in terms of waight, and I haven't thought on Isaiah Bond too. The problem with Tesz Johnson is that I don't know if his frame can support any more weight, Like he's only five nine. Yeah, well that's so like you just here's who he is, Like he's too too out, well, at worst, he's tanked. At best, does he stay healthy? I don't know, right, Like, well, if.

You're gonna use top forty pi kind of guy, which is probably where they would need to take him, you kind of need him to stay healthy.

He I think he's faster on film than Isaiah Bond is Isaiah Bond's got that like gliding vertical speed right where like when he runs a fade, it just builds builds builds, and all of a sudden, he's buy you. Tedes Johnson is like blistering fast like he is quick, fast, agile, all of it. He pops off the film. In terms of his game speed, it's different than everybody else on

That is a gift.

That's a big if, but he is a big time playmaker if he stays healthy. Okay, what else you got?

I think we pretty much hit on everything. Just we talked about the tie breakers. That pass rush group from like twenty to fifty. Yeah, is so crowded.

Yep, so just kind of so as well take one at four.

Right right, sorting some of those guys out. Well, if it's.

Carter besides Carter, Carter, Carter was the exception, the last one that I had here. It's gonna surprise you a little bit. I am mildly intrigued by this running back class.

You should be.

The strength of this draft on offense is that running back and tight end. I think both those positions are gonna put on absolute shows. Yes, and this combine I think they not only is it the strength in terms of just there's great talent and depth of those two positions. I think they're great athletes at those two positions as well. So I think this is gonna be a combined group in both categories. A couple of guys I'm looking out.

For evan running backs to watch. Let's hear this.

I love Omarin Hampton. He's gonna go high. He's probably gonna go first round. So he might be way out of.

The page that I think that's coming from me.

I think he might be RB two in this class.

Shouldn't be. He might be. You're right, he shouldn't be, but he might be.

He's very very good.

Shout out to it, as Jeremiah right. With three running backs in the round. That's how you do a mock draft.

I have to think that. Two things I keep. I say it all the time. With him, I'm biased because I saw him at run routes at Drake Mace pro Day. I loved what I saw, and I think Drake loves him. So there's gonna be that element of it. Maybe it's probably high, too high for running back. Who's the running back from Kansas.

The Neil Devin.

Neil is the other guy at the Senior Bowl. I was really impressed with really good burst to the edge. I think he's gonna put down maybe not like the greatest forty time, but like those ten yards.

More good ten yards play.

He gets agility. I think he's really smooth with the football as well. So those are the two running backs. I mean, there's obviously one hundred running backs, but on the top of my list.

I'm still fascinated. I can't get over all e Gorton. Alli Gordon's twenty twenty three at Oklahoma State was so dominant. He was so good, and I know he took the step back last year, but just looking at it and the big picture of what Oklahoma State football was last year, he was never in a position to succeed last season, and I got it frustrated him and all of that. He is a rare build at that position. He's faster

Yeah.

Like I just think he has so many great traits and we've seen him a bell cow back like he he was that Oklahoma State team in twenty twenty three. Right now, I'm seeing projections for him anywhere from you know, very late day two to I think PFF. Hasn't it like one fifty? Yeah, if you can get Ali Gordon at like one oh four, that would be an outstanding pick. But I think he's gonna have a really good combine and maybe blow that up.

Yeah, I mean, look, all these running backs are worth talking about.

Yeah, it's even get to we didn't even get to Scatabow and.

Yeah, I mean it's a great class. Like just to read quickly here if I can pull it up. You know, Dan Brugler's top one hundred ad just at running back. I mean there's there's got what atching gent y. Caleb Johnson from Iowa was really good.

He could be.

Trayvon Henderson from Ohio State, Jordan James Jenkins from Ohio State, Dylan Samson, R. J. Harvey is his top one hundred. I mean it's not every year they have won two, three, four, five, six, seven eight in the top one pop.

We're gonna tell you that's because a week it's a week class. That's not true. This running bad class holds up in other years. A lot of people have Henderson over Judkins.

A lot of people do.

I don't know about that. I think Henderson if you want a guy to be, you know, sturdy, reliable, four yards four yards four yards, Like, he doesn't lose yards, he doesn't go down easy, He's consistent, all that. Like, that's Henderson and there's value in that player. If you want a guy who's gonna like a home run hitter, a guy's gonna break big runs, guys more explosive, a little more dynamic, it's Judkins. So if we're ranking like

Yeah. I tend to agree with you based off of the playoff too. I thought that he looked like a game changer.

There's a place for Henderson. Henderson's really good too. But you know, if you want to try to copycat league, right, Yeah, if you're trying to find the next Saquon Barkley, and I'm not saying Gwin, John Judkins is Saquon Barkley, you're trying to find that kind of back. Judkins is much closer than Henderson is to me.

So running back tight end, Yeah, tight end again another position that's absolutely loaded in this draft. I think there's playmaking tight ends, there's blocking tight ends. There's like guys that can kind of do a little bit of both, like Tyler Warren, and there's also just straight up receiving tight ends, you know, like a Colston Loveland if you

And then there's the Kittle type.

Yeah, but yes, you're right, but people don't give Kittle enough love.

No, but like that more like h back movie. Yeah.

So the guy that in funny that you mentioned that, the guy that I'm really interested to see. I wasn't wow, like I wanted to be at the Senior Bowl. So I'm interested to see Harold Fannin's testing. The fact that I get it was at Bowling Green and I get they probably didn't play this like Murderer's Row of a schedule.

He did you have a really good game? Who they played one Power five team? He was good. I think it was a and.

M but fifteen hundred yards at tight end in college football is unheard of, Like, that's absolutely unheard of. I think he's gonna be a great athlete as well. You know, obviously Elijah Royo is coming off the Great Senior Bowl, but I think that he is kind of like a finesse tight end. Like I think that's gonna be a setting where he's gonna do really well. In Mason Taylor

Yeah, I'm interested to see nesbit. Like I get, he had a rough year and that knocks him down some. I'm surprised he's been knocked down as far as he has, so I'll be interested to see if he can build that back up at all.

All Right, So that's the combine. I'm sure we'll have by questions about the combine, but I want to get to your calls and your emails and the emails Barth are just I mean, we're inundated with the emails, so we'll try to get through as many as we possibly can. But confidence it's important to have when you're on the road. With Bridgestone tires on your car, truck, suv, or minivan, you're riding on your tires, you can trust Bridgestone tires or engineer to give you peace of mind so you

What's going on?

How are we doing.

Doing good today? So I had a question for you guys. I one of the guys that I'm very much intrigued by is the wide receiver for Iowa State. Not Jalen Noel, but Jayden Higgins.

Yep.

I will love him as a Day two pick, but if we're not able to get him, I wanted to get your guys opinions on possibly three possibly three Day three guys, have you watched them? If you have, what do you think about him? The first guy is Damuel Brown, the second guy is Kyron Lazy from LSU, and the last guy is Elijah Badger from Florida. And I'll take it off there, guys, as always, sorry about the joy.

It's okay. You got any takes on those guys? Those are deep cuts.

Yeah, So Kyen Lacey has some that was the LC receiver. Yeah, I don't remember the exact details, but he has some serious legal issues, Like he's not.

There's some I mean, I don't know if what with Keishan Boudi was serious. But from a player perspective, he kind of reminds me of like the guy that was supposed to be the next guy at LSU that wasn't the next guy for whatever reason at LSU. Kind of a similar story.

Yeah, he was there, there was He's accused of head on crash, fatal crash, hit and run, leaving the scene of a crime. Yeah that's yeah, So Kyraen Lacey, I probably I would be surprised at this point if he gets drafted.

Yeah.

Who are the other wide receivers?

He said, I don't I didn't recognize the other ones. I'm not gonna lie, he said.

I'm trying to pull up the list here because if I see it, I'll remember it. He said something thing he didn't give the school for one of them. I know we set somebody from Florida.

This is great radio.

I don't think it was chim DK, but you saw a DK at the Senior Bowl who I liked. He was a Day three guy.

Yeah, some of those drops, but some of those senior Bowl guys. I know your guys.

Call Elijah Badger. Yeah, we're gonna gover Florida receivers. I like DK.

All right, let's take Sean and Ottawa. What's up Sean?

Sean?

You there? Okay? Sean callback and if if you have the time, he's probably afraid of USA Canada tomorrow. N I didn't want to talk to us Americans. Uh, let's get to these emails. A lot of emails, tons of emails. So we'll try to get through all these over the last half hour here of the show. Starting here. Well, I'll start with this email. All right. This email subject line is from Floyd in Michigan, who's a regular listener.

It's essentially all you know.

It's also I should say a conversation two of Okay, well, what's going to be available through other avenues of talent acquisition. You can go and sign Milton Williams to play three technique. You can go and draft the kid from Toledo, Darius Alexander, to play three technique. On day two. You can go and draft you know, players like that on the second day of the drag on the edge. If you want to go that route. What you can't do is find

Yeah, I'm with you, all right.

Mike Green is another prospect that's come up a lot. So there's a couple of things I would say about with Mike Green. You know a lot of people. Is Mike Green actually edged two in this class? Obviously I'm dull Carter's edge one? Is Mike Green actually edged two in this class? The two things I had mentioned with Mike Green One, he is really a pass rush specialist, Like you are going to have to make him into a pure weak side pass rusher that is not expected

But that's a lot of the edge rushers in this class.

Lot of speed guys.

A lot of guys who are pass rushers and aren't going to do great against.

So he's one of those guys. To me, if you're drafting somebody four overall, you need to make sure that player is a three down, all purpose player. I don't think you can draft a guy at four overall that's gonna end up turning into just a pass rusher. I

Yeah, I agree with you, all right, does we can't go in the first round. It's not that high.

Yeah. So this is from Aiden. He's asking for two trade candidates. Our opinions on two trade candidates, one being Michael Mayer from the Raiders, which is becoming a really popular take. They have Brock Bowers obviously as their number one tight end. Josh McDaniels drafted Michael Mayer, I believe in his year with the Raiders, I.

Think sounds right mayor was.

Yeah Sam laporta draft Yeah, so I'm pretty sure that's the case. If not, he played for Josh McDaniel.

Or was he twenty three mc daniels was.

There in Vegas. The other one is Trey Hendrickson at the Bengals, who are maybe paying t Higgins, maybe paying Jamar Chase, obviously already paying Joe Burrow. So someone there most likely is gonna have to be the Ottoman out. It could be Trey Hendrickson. I'm in on both of these players. Obviously very different price points, like in terms of what the compensation would be, but I think Michael Mayer would be a nice tight end too. I remember

Yeah, so I think that that was the player. Mayor's a good blocker. I I wouldn't be against Michael Mayor. I think the idea of four to six from like moving down two spots and getting Michael Mayer. I think you should get more back in that trade, especially in this draft when they were good tight ends. He would need something else on top of that, But as a whole, I wouldn't mind Mayor. Hendrickson obviously should be a target if he's available. They need that pass rusher. He's a

Yeah.

Joe Burrow has been very public about wanting to keep everybody. Talking to people in Cincinnati, it sounds like he's been as forceful behind the scenes and putting the pressure on ownership. And if people say, oh, you know, they only have so much money to spend, well, if Burrow's willing to take a pay cut or just move it even just move his money around. The cap can be manipulated, as

Only like a little bit with Hendrickson is he is thirty and he you know, he's going to be going into his thirty one age thirty one season. I just do think that that matters for the Patriots in terms of windows and stuff like that. You could get Trey Hendrickson for this year and he would obviously give you

He might be. I mean some of these edge rushers are starting to play like longer now. This is kind of a trend that's started to happen. These guys are still effective players, they're in their mid thirties. If he's here for another three years. Yeah, he could be there at the start of their true contention window.

He reminds me a little bit of Judon just in terms of play style and all that kind of stuff. So I'm not anti Trey Henderson. I just I just wondered, you know, at thirty one years old. All right, Next question here from Andrew who says he's a long time listener, second time emailer. You usually hear first time emailer, but second time email he is a pretty long winded email.

Yeah, I think it's defensive front too, that's where most of the experiences, you know, linebackers, line and all of that. I'd agree with that.

Yep. So this email is from Ron and he says congratulations, and he says that he is so happy that Alex is going to the Combine this year, and so I can just now is a good time to say this Because of that, We're gonna do a live show from the Combine next week on Radio Row in the Indianapolis Convention Center. So Alex and I it sounds like it will be Wednesday afternoon. I don't think it's public gets.

A very long time time in the making.

Yeah. Absolutely. So the other question that that Ron here has just about some of the Day two guys. He mentions Ursery, who he talked a little bit about.

I don't think he's a Day two guy at this point.

And Landon Jackson, who had a nice end of the week at the Singer Bowl, a big, you know, defensive end outside linebacker type. And eighty five.

Now there's there's your edge center, there's your run stopper on the edge. That's he's kind of the opposite of a lot of these guys we've talked about where he's not quite there yet as a pass rusher. I think he's a three down player, but his pass rush room game has room to grow. His run game is what makes him so impressive at this point.

Yeah, I think he's a little bit too like Anthony Jennings in my mind, like you already had that player kind of yeah, see that.

I mean, if they were going to stay in the old defense, I would say, is a replacement for Dietrich Wise if he's not back. Yeah, you know, you could have him put on ten pounds and play him hand down. But if they're going to be this, you know, quicker, smaller defense than he had, Jennings is in that role.

So with er three, I mentioned you know already a little bit about Er three. I like Ersrie, I don't love Erstrie. I think the big thing with Ersrie to me is just that he's just gonna have those natural physical limitations of a six foot six, three hundred and fifty pound person, right, Like, he's just not a nimble mover. Uh he's maybe you could put him as nimble mover for his size, but we're not. Then we're putting that

Yeah, yeah, it gets a little tougher.

All right. Two more guys. This is from Christian from Virginia. One of my guys in this draft, Luther Burden, and he asks, how heavily do you weigh his last season struggles on Luther Burden And you know, just the twenty three tape versus the twenty fourth tape. This is a fair question. Obviously, Yes, I would say that Luther Burden including Travis Hunter would be wide receiver three. Not including

Sure.

Again, like I said, we're else we were talking about the Mike Green. Like I said, with Mike Green, I'm not in the interviews. I'm not a scout, so I don't. I hate judging like the mental tough hangs off the field.

I just want to separate this though, because it's Mike Green. It's like it's been and I don't know what happened, but yeah, it's been. I think like character concern has been brought up with Luther Burden. It's basically just that. So when it comes twenty three, twenty four, Brady Cook, who I liked, just fell off. I don't know what happened.

Yeah.

I don't want to pick on the guy, but he was not good. Naturally, that's gonna impact the wide receivers and in certain games when it was going well for Luther Burden. Anybody who watched that BC game saw it. He got a little emotional inside of mine. It wasn't full on Odell Beckham boxing the field gold net, but he was clearly frustrated. And that's where the and you saw it in the body language two where he would

It's also wide receiver for you.

Right, find a good wide receiver that's okay, not getting the football. If Burden gets down into the twenties, if they're gonna do the trade backup for a receiver thing, let's say they take Campbell or whoever at the top right, not Ted. So they take Campbell, they take Carter, they take Michael Williams, even if it's Tyler Warren honestly, and then they move back up into the twenties. Twenty four to me is the sweet spot because the Vikings have

So I look at Luther Burden and think it's gonna go one of two ways.

Ye.

He's either gonna fly off the board yep, and he's gonna be gone by fifteen, right or something.

That's probably about his ceiling, like twelve to fifty right.

Or he's gonna be on the board forever because teams have crossed him off.

So Adie Mitchell, Sure, yeah.

Adie Mitchell or something like that, you know, And all of a sudden, he were starting day two and now.

And then the Chiefs trade up and get him. He's amazing.

Yeah, so there's a world because of that that Luther Burden is available closer to where the Patriots are gonna pick at thirty eight. But if he is, then you have to weigh the question of, well can we manage

Well, you know who my comp is for this and you hate it? Yeah it's Jordan Addison. Yeah, different players stylistically, and Jordan Addison transferred, But this is what happened with Jordan Aison. You're buying top bullet Pit. I think did he win the Bullet and a Coffee was a finalist? Yeah. In his sophomore year, transferred to USC and USC Wow, Lincoln RD, He's gonna even better. Didn't really work out there and suddenly people started saying, maybe he's not a

There's just a lot of freshman year is pretty good. There's just a lot of evidence of that of you know, the second year. You know, maybe it's a true freshman breakout or a true sophomore breakout. Drake may like Drake, you know, his big season was his true sophomore season. Then he took a little bit of a step back freshman or yeah, maybe it's retroan freshman and took a little bit behind hell for you a little step back. It's just young breakout player, three level separator, awesome with

Know how I feel about Jack Sawer.

I think Jack Sawyer is probably not a natural pass rusher in terms of like winning one on one. He's probably better like within the scheme, you know, stun simulated pressures like getting him free and things like that. Good solid enough run defender in terms of just base run defender. But as a pass rusher, I don't necessarily think he's gonna be like a difference making one on one edge rusher.

The brings the edge, high motor, physical player, tone setter, character guy, all of that. He can't lead your pass rush. But if you're let me put it to you this way. If they're two edge guys next year, or Josh Sweat and Jack Sawyer, how do you feel about that?

Oh? Very good? Yeah, exactly, because I think Jack Sawyer is a perfect compliment. He's a perfect Robin, right, like if somebody else is drawing all the attention and he's just gonna be able to just you know, use picks and games and stuff like that and get after the quarterback and like harass people.

Everybody wants to compare to Mike Vrabel because he's at Ohio State and Vrabel's here and it's the top of mind. Rob Ninkovic, not bad, Rob Nikovic. And you so now you and I mean you just have to go find your Chandler Jones or your Trey Flowers, like those are good players obviously. But again, if you get a guy like Josh Sweat, or you trade for guy like Trey Hendrickson and then you have Jack Sawyer on the other side, here you go, you're off and run.

Yeah.

Uh.

Nicholas Nick asks about Mason Graham, who I've I've been on the record about being you know, uh lukewarm. I guess I would say is the best way.

I want to be careful about this because I feel like, especially this time of year, we start to go down this road not thinking the player is a fit for the Patriots and not thinking he's a good player, or two different things. Yeah, I think Mason Graham's a very good player, and in an other world, or the Patriots win a couple more games this year, maybe we're talking about him as a much more realistic option at four with the other players we think are going to be

So the question here though, I guess PFF gave him a really high run defense grade, which I frankly could care less about. But in the run defense grade, I guess he was really high. I've said in the past, which is true, that I think he's kind of, you know, an average run defender. I think, you know, with PFF, they they probably put a lot of weight into run stops and stuffs and things like that, which is all

And so when you don't.

Again like we were talking with edge rushers, like when you don't have that length to really extend and and separate from blocks in the run game, it becomes more difficult to do things like two gaping and stuff like that. So if you're expecting him to shoot gaps and slither around blocks and slip box and slide inside gaps and things like that, Like, if that's the type of defense you're gonna play, then he's a great player for that.

And I'll include this too, let's not forget. And I honestly I have to remind myself of this when I saw jeremiahs Mok the other day. Yeah, Michigan is another defensive tackle that's gonna go in the first round. Yeah, I watched him the other day.

Kennth Grant.

YEA is also a really good player. But Kenneth Grant was the run stopper in that group. So when teams are running, they're running at Mason Graham because the Kenneth Grant's like threered and forty pounds. He's a nose tackle, so he's getting most of the attention from offenses in the run game. They I wanted to run at Gram. I like Kenneth Grant. He's a good player. Does make sense for the Patriots. He's a good player.

Uh. Dave says that he is happy that I've mentioned that Ashton Denty is a blue chip player in this draft even though he plays running back. And he thinks that that's very big of me.

As as I'm impressed you've you fully and brak. You didn't you let me do my whole best player availables made up. You didn't belly ache about having to admit the running backs and the punters are good. It was good.

Uh. This email the subject line is telling you to shut up. Yeah, okay, there you go. We get those something about what just that's it?

That's the whole email? What time? What time was that email? Uh?

Twelve thirty seven, just be quiet to stop.

What I was saying about half an hour, and I remember, I don't think that was the best avail.

I think that was later last week. It was you know, it would be me shut up next week.

No, I know, I'm just I'm curious what set that off? Uh yep.

This emailer says that they love hearing you interrupt me about pronunciations, which.

I'm off that I can. Oh, maybe that's what it was.

As we're in like a deep philosophical conversation and I say somebody's weird name, and then all of a sudden we have to derail from the conversation for you to correct me. What was it, Kevin Bayard? Apparently I said, really bothered you.

A lot of emails.

I'm trying to get to the best ones here, I know, Okay, this one just saying, you know, if Will Campbell, if I think that the patrons don't have a left guard on the roster, at least a good you know, a good left guard, Like why wouldn't you take Will Campbell? Anyways, I'm not that crazy. Like, positional value still matters a lot to me. I understand that you can make the argument that he's going to be like a Zach Martin

Not A four. If you can get a Hault to trade down and he's still there at like ten eleven, twelve, i'd consider it. I'd have to see you else would be on board. I'm not taking him as a guard A four though.

Yeah, Okay, a lot of scenarios. I don't know if I can read all these are tough.

Yeah, it's it's tough radio.

Yep.

That's more male bag question.

So this question is not really draft related, but I do think it is. It's pertinent just about when does Drake May start getting with Josh McDaniels to start learning the playbook and stuff like that.

And was Josh McDaniels higher too three weeks ago?

Yeah, technically, technically I think it's it's the start of the off season program in April is like the technical time. But Drake May, I'm sure already has the playbook. He's talked about the library, you know, the Tom Brady library that Josh McDaniels has that you can go back and watch all of that. So I think he's already cooking and all those things Henry asks, And I think this is an interesting player I'm not sure about for the Patriots.

Also, I mean he's only played right tackle.

Yep.

I guess if they were to sign whoever one of those Cam Robinson or Alaric Jackson, and you know, you're okay, now we're gonna draft Membu to play on the right side, and we're just gonna, you know, give up on Kane Wallace. Experiment like that could make sense. I could get into that, But I'm not drafting member to play left tackle.

Yep. I agree with you. No, definitely not to play left tackle. No, that's and.

I'm not drafting a right tackle in the first round when left tackles still a need and there's left tackles on the board. But if they have left tackle answered, you know, if they move down a little bit, yeah, as a right tackle, I could get on board with that.

Yeah. Uh, it's another question. From Steven that I always find interesting. You know, a lot of people will say to me, well, it doesn't none of it actually matters until we get through free agency, like because we don't know, you know, right is gonna happen in free agency. I

But I wouldn't say that.

It's like it's a big sway for me, Like I still think you're gonna target the best players at premium positions in the top of the draft. Maybe if you if you sign a tackle and free agency, you don't draft Will Campbell. But if you really love Will Campbell, like as much as I do, maybe a Jackson plays right. Maybe Will Campbell plays right. Like we just did this with the Chargers.

How long do you and how long did you sign him for? Maybe Will Campbell's your left guard this year and the next three he goes out to tackle. I wouldn't love that, but I could see something like that. It's also like get this stage too This is more about just learning who the players are. I know we're getting into some scenarios and would you take this guy here in this and that, But we're just kind of

All right, last one and then we'll take these calls and then we'll wrap it up. Willie is telling us that we should just enjoy and appreciate the rest of the draft. I think early on in the show we were getting a little hot and bothered by some of the takes and the draft. I agree. The draft is my favorite time of the year. It is a difficult time of the year though for me. I'm not gonna lie because and I love it. I love all the

Eye, especially this time of year, because there's so many unknowns. Right, Will Campbell's arm length is a variable, like a very significant variable in this entire draft that we don't know about. The Travis Hunter position thing is a very significant variable in this draft that we don't know about. The quarterbacks essentially being wild cards. They could go top three, we might not see either of them go top twenty, right, Like, we don't know. So it'll clear up a little bit

Like?

Where are these guys are gonna go? Whatever they become. After that, we'll see you're more into that second part, which is projecting the careers. The first part of it that like how the draft is gonna go. It's it's a really hard year for that.

I think it's it's exceptionally hard year in general, because, like I keep on saying all show, there's not a lot separating some of these guys. So it's really a what do you value in players? What's your flavor? Like, what type of players.

Do you like?

What are do you think their needs are? And like where their biggest needs are. So I, personally, you know, think that left tackle is their biggest need. So obviously I'm going to pound the table for the best left

There's a case for Ted McMillan. There's yeah, I mean there's cases for Carter and Hunter. Whether or not they'll be on the board is even that's not consensus at this point. There's still people talking about Carter Hunter is the pick, and maybe the quarterbacks do push one of them down, maybe they end up there, Like we don't know that that they're wrong.

Okay, we gotta be quick, guys on the on the phones, but I don't want to leave you guys hanging. So Kendall is in North Carolina, it's up Kendall, Hey, good.

Hey, if we will design Deris Slayton their free agency and also Travis Travis Hunter agreed to play receiver and we picked him at four. What is the best way to use them as a zoor? Thanks?

Thanks Kendall. I would use Travis Hunter as a Z. I think his best usage is as a Z. I think his frame and like it just a lack of kind of play strength and mass that he has to his game. He might struggle a little bit against press corners as a true boundary X. That's not saying he couldn't do it. Like my con for him is DeVante Smith, who does play a little bit of X for Philadelphia at times, but is predominantly playing off the line with AJ Brown playing the X. So that's how I would

Hey, I'm gonna give you just a quick scenario here. So if Campbell's arms measuring at thirty two and seven eight love and you anticipate that Hunter and Carter.

Off the board at four crime.

Who would you make your number one pre agent priority? And who would you ideally take it for if you were the decision maker?

Thanks for the calls. That is the scenario.

This is you You really want to get people at each other's throats. That that's the one, that's the one that is going to be the most divisive. You're You're not gonna find two people with the same answer seven as uh thirty and eighths and Hunter and Carter off the board. This, this is this is the big one. Lights are bright.

I'm still taking Campbell.

I'm still taking Campbell.

If you what I can and I get it. It's a game of inches, YadA, YadA, YadA. We're talking about an eighth of an inch man, Like if that's the difference between him being a really good you know, I hate to use red franchise, but franchise left tackle and not, then I think he's gonna have other issues that contribute to the not. It's not gonna be an eighth of an inch of an arm line.

I'm just gonna stick with what I said with the quarterbacks last year when people would call and be like, well, you know, quarterbacks bust and blah blah blah, And it's a risk. I'm not I'm not striking out, looking getting the bat off my shoulder. And if I strike and you know what, even if I strike out, he's still gonna be a damn good guard. And you've got to figure out tackle now. And that's unfortunate. And I've also said this to you, I think the threshold people are

Wasn't that long, was it?

But he all right, yeah, seven years and he was a solid starting left tackle. He didn't worry about him. He wasn't Joe Thomas. But nobody was really here being like, oh, they got to replace Nate Solder. They got an upgrade Nate Solder, and they had a good roster at the time. You could kind of pick and choose like that, Yeah, if Will Campbell's that, if you get eight to ten years of set it and forget it, left tackle play

Like thirty three and like, I think it's thirty three and a half.

I know some people hear that and they're like, that's not enough for the fourth overall pick in this draft. If that's who they get, I'm sleeping like a baby. I'm so okay with that.

Yeah, I think that's a good point. Then you have to make the end this in this draft, and then.

Who who's your top free agent priority? The other question, Josh.

Swatson, Yeah, that would be.

My joan Javon Hollins like one bee.

Yeah, but in this draft you have to realize that hitting a double might be what you get in this draft. You might not hit the homer in this one. This is not it. I don't know if it's built for that. And that could be true for Campbell, Graham, Tent, whoever. But all those guys I compare Tent to Drake London, like, good player, but not Randy Moss, right a player will Campbell to Ryan Ramchick, good player, but not Joe Thomas. Right, that's all these guys to me in this draft. All right,

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