Drafting the Future: Mock Draft Special

Music. And we are back for another episode of the Rule the Jungle podcast.

I am your host, Anthony Anderson, and alongside me are both my co-hosts, one Mr. Tyler Bowles. And I think you all know who he is. He is the often imitated but never duplicated. This man would literally tell me to stop the show if I don't address him by this name. You all know him You all love him He is the one The only Tone Tree Will Appleton What's going on fellas.

Yeah the gang is back together I know Right Yeah, We're coming We're coming for other podcasts Right Right Come for your soul Right So. Before we started we all kind of We were talking off camera I mean not off camera Off the, Record Today's episode I thought it would be a little Interesting, We're going to do a three round mock draft Because I think right now it's a little early To do a full draft, Because With all the Tee Higgins talk, them potentially extending Tee, Jamar, and Trey.

They kind of want to see how things play out. So this is an early mock draft episode. So normally we would do them on Thursdays. Right now, because there's a lot going on in the three of our lives, we're kind of doing this on a Saturday. So we'll be putting this out. but hopefully here soon it'll kind of go back onto the normal schedule for mock drafts. So with that being said, I'm going to use PFF for my mock draft simulator. Tyler, what are you going to use?

Mock draft database because it's free. Okay. Well, what are you using? I don't know. I'll use PFF for now. I'm going to probably do my draft database the next time. Not because it's free, just for a different perspective. So Alright so the way we're going to do this We're going to each do it We're each going to play the role of general manager Or aka Tyler Duke Tobin. Overlord Tobin as myself, Dr. Doom Philbin's me. Yes. Dr. Doom Philbin.

That's me. There you go. With that being said, what we're going to do, and as a matter of fact, I'm thinking, what do you think, Tyler? I think this will be an interesting thing to do. Maybe what we can do, we'll see how our three-round mock draft goes. Maybe post our picks.

If you don't mind posting our Picks for Yeah, posting our Picks on the Not the Facebook page The social media page On TurnerX and let's get out And we'll see who did the best Absolutely I think that'd be interesting Something that we can kind of let the listeners Have a little fun So, We're definitely not going to go about.

What PFF thinks sorry we take do that anthony you know they're gonna they're gonna you know gut and corner us over 80 little boobs that they don't see fit so oh anthony by the way before we get started have you have you fiddled around with the advanced settings in the pff uh no why the funny the funny thing is that they're set up kind of weird to where sometimes you know maybe i can back up pff a little bit.

If I fool with these settings, I can get a truer, more accurate, like, you know, in the draft. Teams don't go by status quo. They don't go by draft needs sometimes. Sometimes it's like, what the hell is that, right? Well, this is a player we got on our board. And we got 40 receivers. Let's get another one. Like, remember the other, remember the first PFF draft we did last time? The Taylor took, like, five receivers? Or four receivers?

Yeah, I remember. Yeah. I was like, what the hell? And the Cardinals took, like, three? I'm like, okay, dude. Well, one makes sense. The other one didn't make any sense. It's just draft in the draft. Well, I found out in the settings, there's an actual draft for need. If you put on – if it's moved all the way to less, which it normally is, they just draft. They don't even – who cares? Like, care about positional value?

No, they – I'm like, wait a minute. Why is this on less? That should matter, shouldn't it? I think it would. You would think it would, but like the way I – I think the way typically – I know the way typically any of us that do these mock drafts, whichever team we end up going, we go, of course, lean towards how they typically tend to draft. And you know the Bengals – Typically –. Which I'm hoping in free agency, they address a lot of the needs to where they don't necessarily have to do this.

But every team typically does do some drafting for need. But anyway, I digress. We taste it. So last year, we kind of went either me or you going first, Anthony, and Will went last. Are we kind of going that format again this year? Will, do you want to go first? It doesn't matter.

I don't mind. I don't mind going to It won't be less controversial Might be pretty good at this I'll tell you what Because Will loves To flaunt his football Mallage, Him being the all seeing and all knowing The way We're going to do it I'm going to have it go Will then you Tyler then me Sure With that being said let's go ahead and get started Will you're up I am up, Allowing the computer to Screw up the draft Which they always do Wait a minute.

What is going on here KFF, Look at this It goes pretty good What's going on here Okay my draft simulator Act like it doesn't We're doing three rounds Or four Three rounds Three rounds That's... Let's make sure this thing is, uh, okay. All right. It was acting stupid at first. I don't know why. Just draft your players. Okay. So, with pick number 17 in the 2025 NFL draft, let's see if my guy's on the board. Where's he is? Hmm. So, weird things happen.

The Cincinnati Bengals select Walter Nolan, defensive tackle. Ole Miss. That's actually a really good choice I had a feeling you'd go there And I like that pick I would love watching Nolan at that pick Just because he was there Just out of curiosity, who went number one on your draft? Number one on my draft? Number one on my draft was Cam Ward Wow.

PFF will PFF will do these things With the advanced batting You really got to dig in and look at it Because I think this is Probably out of the What four or five times six times I've done this, They've actually only took it They've actually only took Cam Ward One time surprisingly One time I'm like what that's it once I think it's a better chance you got to think Oh did we Did we lose Will Will, Yeah Will Yeah Will you there Yeah yes yes Yeah, we lost you there for a second.

See, me speaking of PFF, this is what happens. Even though on this draft they took Cam Ward, right? I believe like three or four of the last time they didn't take Cam Ward. I was like, well, wow. Okay, that's why I said, Anthony, look in your advanced settings and see what they were set to. All right, so in my draft, Cam Ward also went number one. Just going down the list here, a couple of those stood out to me as well.

Mason Graham went fifth to the Jaguars. That's a name that I know a lot of Bengals fans were salivating over, to say the least. Right now, I've got two selections in my head of what this is coming down to for pick 17. I've got one on the offensive side of the ball and one on the defensive side of the ball. Obviously, the one you selected is still available in mind, and that's Walter Nolan. He attacked a lot of Mississippi.

Very good player there. I know that's a lot of where a lot of Bengals fans and a lot of the national media have projected him to go is to Austin 17. The other player that I'm also keeping in mind here is interior offensive lineman Tyler Booker from Alabama. That's another one I'm going to find. Yep, that's one of two there. Yeah, Booker, he's got great size, strong hands. He's a powerful run blocker. He's very young. He's only 21.

Pass blocking grade per PFF is 86.5. Run blocking PFF grade is 63.9. Yeah, he had a good season last year with Alabama. That being said, though, with this pick, and obviously we're making this before free agency anything happens, my hope is that we can address the ball, free agency, and then maybe get a veteran piece at this part and then draft a guy here. But I'm also taking Walter Nolan at pick 17.

And I'm hoping, like I said, we can go through free agency, Get a couple of veteran guards And then maybe we'll see what happens in the next round Alright, It comes down to me And I'm keeping in mind Because with the way my board fell, You had Cam Ward going to the Titans The first overall You had Abdul Carter going to the Cleveland Browns Boo, Looks like pick five went to The Jaguars And they took Travis Hunter. Mason Graham also went to the Patriots at four.

So, looking at things, James Pierce Jr. went to the Niners. Ashton Gentey went to the Cowboys, which I think a lot of people are predicting. Kenneth Grant, who was really high on my list, went to the Dolphins at 13. Luther Burden went to the Colts at 14. And Mike Green, which Mike Green, I don't know that he would realistically be there because, or if he was there at 17, that the Bengals would seriously consider him.

So looking at my board of who's available, you've got Will Johnson, Walter Nolan, Josh Simmons, Kelvin Banks Jr., Derek Harmon, Mike L. Williams, and Shamar Stewart. Those are the top that are available. If you look at, and correct me if I'm wrong on this, typically, I think the very last guy that we drafted that was a defensive tackle that was a high pick, was Dan Wilkerson. Correct or incorrect? Yeah, that's the highest pick we've ever drafted a lineman, if not mistaken.

For a defensive lineman. Yep. If you're going by draft trends, at least how the Bengals have trended, they typically tend to steer away and they look for value in the later rounds. But I'm with you guys on this. I've looked at tape on Walter Nolan. Walter Nolan stands out. He's an excellent run defender.

And right now with how we have done in the draft, not how we've done in the draft, with how we've done against the run the last two seasons, he would be a very, very welcome condition with some pass rush upside. So with that being said, although I do like Will Johnson at corner, but he's a bigger-bodied corner that I don't know that we necessarily have a need for. So I'm going to go against the grain as far as how the Bengals typically draft. I'm with you guys. I'm going Walter Nolan. Okay.

So Will, it's your turn. Round two. Two. Do you guys know how these things go? I'm going to get wild. Oh, that's a hit. Yeah, I just had one guy.

I'm looking at my board. There's one guy that's already available that I didn't expect to be there. Who was the player that you wanted? Talking to Will. Talking to Will, because he's up. Who was the player at mistake? No, no, no, it's not that. I screwed my dress up. I'm not doing it. Now I got to do it over again. What the fuck? We can't do it over again. You got to do it. You got to do it from another round. I know who I was going to take. I know who I was going to take.

Damn. I was looking at a certain player. And then, you know. What side of the ball? It was on defense. I tried to go back, you know. Looking at a certain player. I think I know which one you're talking about. Trying to go back. I'm trying to go back. Trying to go back to my draft. Because I was going to probably draft him. And then it kicked me out. It kicked me out. It's either one or two players I think I know who you're talking about.

No, I mean, TFF kicked me out. How did it kick you out? I don't know. It kicked me out totally. I told you you were talking about it. So it crashed. It just restarted. It did. But I did. I was going to give it a, you know, I was going to give it a glowing remark, too. And so it kicked me out. But that's okay. You see, now I've got to do my draft totally differently. So this goes down to TFF. Please fix this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So while Will's trying to get that... It's okay.

I got to do my first round pick. Or what I'll do, and I'll do mine. Maybe I should just do mine at the end. Give all the money at the end. Yes, Tyler, go ahead and do yours while Will's going to his technical difficulties. Okay, so there is two players I'm looking at in this kick here for number 49. Both, again, one on the offense, one on the defense. I'm looking on the defensive side of the ball. I'm looking at an edge rusher here by the name of Donovan Azarucco.

Azarucco? Yeah, from Boston College. Edge rusher, right? So, dude has a quick first step. He has been around the edge. He has great speed. He's got long arms, but he's a short guy, right? He's a short guy. Let me see, make sure I'm looking at this right. He's only 6'2", so he's not got a lot of reach. But could add weight to his front. But from what I've seen, he had a really good year last year. And apparently he's gotten better. Looks like he got injured.

But it looks like he got back to his 2022 form, but he also surpassed it as well. Looking at the notes here off the Project Game Day draft guide. So shout out to them for the notes for this mock draft we're doing today. It looks like Dell has him as one of the players that he might be overlooked and has a chance to end up going first round. So him at 49 here would kind of, I feel like, would be a steal if you ask me.

He's got a 26.1 win rate on true pass that's been 20.21. You're cutting that a little bit, Tyler. Okay. The other guy I'm looking at is Donovan Jackson from Ohio State. Interior offensive line and guard. So Donovan Jackson. I'm looking at two Donovans here. He's got the prototype size. He's got good arm length. He's got a strong anchor. He's really smart. He's got the football IQ. He's a four-year starter. Four-year contributor. He's got versatility. So he can play either guard or tackle.

Cost-blocking PFF grade of 71.6. and a run-blocking grade of 70.7. So, look at it here. Like we mentioned earlier, I don't really think you can go wrong with either of these picks. And I'm hoping we address guard and free 8-C. That's, I think, the main one we need to focus on first. Obviously, get the D-tackle in there, too. But coming down to an edge rusher versus a guard here. I'm leaning towards the guard. And it's not just because this guy is from Ohio State, OH, All right, Owen.

Donovan Jackson, I really liked his play last year. And he's part of the reason why Will Howard had a lot of time to throw in those playoff games. Like, the offense really dominated that ball. And Donovan Jackson is, like, one of the key pieces why. He gave Will Howard so much time. And I think I'm going to do it. I'm going to go Donovan Jackson here at pick 49.

No, that's not a bad pick at all. I know for me, looking at my board, I've got – Who's the one, JT Tula Maloloa, or is it the edge rusher for Ohio State? Yes. Yes, he's a – Yeah, because I know they've got him listed as available. But one guy I'm not – I did not expect to. I thought he'd go in an earlier round. I mean, I thought he would have went earlier was Tyler Booker from Alabama.

Yeah. And you know, and I think both of you know, me being a former lineman, offense and defense, I got me a little bit of a soft spot for the big uglies up front. So for me, my next pick is going to be Tyler Booker at pick 49. That is a steal. I don't know how it made it that far. That is crazy. Yep. And coincidentally, Donovan Jackson is on my board for round three.

But Will, are you Yep, I did my draft I did all my three of my picks I actually did better this time I think, maybe I was going to say just stick to your first round pick But since you redid it Go ahead and read off your first two Yeah, well my first two, 17th pick I took James Pierce Jr. Because he was taken last time See the randomness of PFF See those sliders I'll tell you about they're all over the place. My second pick, I mirrored you and was shocked that Tyler Booker was there.

And I'm putting this out there in the world, Bengals, if you guys are listening to his pocket. And he is there at this pick. Take him. Miles, I don't mean to cut you off real quick. The only concern I would have with James Pierce Jr. I think if I'm not mistaken, don't they have him listed at about 240 pounds, 240, 250 pounds? Yeah. I would probably have to have him. It's just me, though, but I would probably want him to at least maybe bulk up just a little bit, just a hair.

6'5", 243. So I would want him at least to maybe put on another 15 to 20 pounds. So even if he got up to 265. I'm okay with it. Nope, I'm okay with him being right where he is. I know people will go out there and say this and that and this and that. I can look back in history and see whether that doesn't make any difference. He may not come in and start right away anyway. It's worth time for us, right?

I didn't say we need the first run defense No, I get that So Guess what, because my third pick is The very same guy we talked about Right? Very same guy we talked about, Deion Walker Out of Kentucky Go UK Go UK. I'm surprised he was there I couldn't have risked Because there was only three rounds, and we had did four I would have tried to get him in the fourth round If he was there, but I had a feeling, the player, him and Walter, that would be ugly.

That'd be another, that'd be ugly. Just imagine. Y'all walk with me here. Walk with me here. Let's take a walk here. The defense line that we could possibly have. Okay. Take a walk with me. You're entitled to just take a look here. We've got Trey Henderson, right? He rushes from his, you know, right outside spot. That's normal, right? This is the third down, right?

Third down. Chris Jenkins next to him Walter Nolan next to him Oh, James Pierce, hey, he comes in third down That's the faster, that's what he does, right? He is a left even then And I looked this up too, that's why I took him I didn't take him to start I took him to rest the faster Everyone has their sights set Okay, Henderson, 7.5 You know, 19, 20, right? Hey, this kid We can't block this kid This Pierce kid, because he just gets

to get one-on-one when he's out there. He doesn't play the whole game. I gotta throw out when he goes up against bigger bodied tackles, Do you remember the highlight on right tackle one Mr. Marius Mims did? Who happened to Marius Mims? He's not going to get Mims. Hold on. Let me get this one in real quick. Think back to the Broncos game. What's that one thing you told me? Well, his internet reception is getting a little spotty.

You know, Here's the thing though What happened at the Broncos game with Orlando Brown Against, What Orlando Brown did to the Broncos Child abuse I can say this though, Mims is not Orlando Brown Let me first jump in there He's not Orlando Brown And two, he gets a practice against Mims Every damn practice So the one time Mims did Fling him in college, guess what Now every single day you see That guy, so you're prepared now. You're ready.

You want to go up and down a list of teams that we play that ain't got no two guys? He's got the height. It's just the weight. The weight I would want him at least to at least put on his team. It's a good thing. Wait, wait, wait. Hot side of Reddit was the exact same size. I was at 16 sacks. That was just two years ago. It's not about weight. He doesn't have to play. He's not playing hard now. He's coming in. You know what he's doing.

He's coming in rough the size. It doesn't matter whether you know us, man.

I respectfully understand where you're coming from. That just leaves Nolan to go wild on the inside. I respectfully understand where you're coming from. I respectfully understand. Will, to recap, who's your pick again? Yes. Three picks to recap. Yep. James Pierce Jr. James Pierce Jr. Tyler Booker. And Deion Walker Walker is his name. He's a big guy out of Kentucky. The reason why I did this is because Nolan was gone in this time around. That's just the way it is. That's the way it is.

Actually, the guy I was looking at was Nolan's running buddy at Ole Miss. I just can't remember his name right now. He's really good. Talking about Edge Rusher? Yes. I can't remember his name. I know you're talking about it. I'll talk about it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to take him with the second pick. I'm like, go ahead, Tyler. Tyler, go ahead. It's your pick. All right, so...

Doing this mock draft free free agency we don't know what the status is of you know obviously t what what situation's going on with him we don't know.

The situation with mike gisicki we obviously know that chase brown needs a backup running back so there was there was a couple things that i was looking for in his third pick because just just obviously for the first one we've done cam scadaboo is available right now and he's listed as the best running back on the board right now but i feel like we can get him the next round in the fourth.

I feel easily, I think we could. There's a wide receiver that I looked at that's surprisingly still here, and he's out of Utah State by the name of Jalen Royals. I really like him as a player. Also, Tez Johnson out of Oregon, I like him as well, just a little bit smaller on the stature there, but I like him as well. I think we can get Tez in the fourth round if we wanted to.

Jalen Royals, being here, he's like the 64th ranked prospect according to NFL mock draft, database simulator sets that's a little surprising he's here i was also looking at a couple edge rushers here one being kyle kennard out of south carolina and the other being jared ivy out of mississippi that would be walter nolan's running buddy that will there you go but for right now we have a we have a new sheriff in town as it comes to with our defensive coordinator al gold who, by the way,

just so everybody knows, lost the national championship game to OH. I know. And there's a pick here. There's a player here that's still here on the board. He was ranked the 62nd prospect, according to this thing. And, you know, a lot of people that I've seen do mock drafts have this guy in the third round to the Bengals, not only for his play, but who his coach was. And that is Mr. Xavier Watts, safety at a runner game.

And after going back and forth while you were talking about your picks there, I think I've narrowed it down to two. I've narrowed it down to Xavier Watts, and I've also narrowed it down to –, Jalen Royals, wide receiver out of Utah State. However, this right here is just me thinking, hey, we're going to address, obviously, the first round. I feel like we're going to still address guard and free agency. We're going to address de-tackle and free agency. I drafted those guys.

This is my assumption saying we're going to still have T. Higgins come this season.

So, obviously, with T. Higgins, we don't really need a lot of wide receiver help at that point because, obviously, we still got, you know, Yoshi, we still got Yoshi and obviously Mike is sick, he's been playing really well, assuming he's coming back too so I'm not even going to look at Elijah Royal from Miami either, not right now at least, although, him being still on the board here is kind of crazy as well as Harold Fannin

as well, Harold Fannin being on the board is a little crazy too If we stress this thing out more than, three picks you name two of my picks probably in round four and five, with Arroyo and Scatterwood. I'm looking at both of them in those rounds. You're right. I don't know if Arroyo would last five rounds. I don't think he'd last. Me neither. I don't see why he would. For my third round pick at pick 81, I am going to take to help get this defense back on track. I'm going to go to the Wiles.

Avery Wiles. I get that I think for me, If Xavier Watts had been available In the third round on my board He would have been my pick But I gotta Go with Will The big boy out of Kentucky, Deion Walker, As soon as Jeff mentioned him I went and looked At some tape on him Oh my god Oh my god, Dion Walker's my pick For the third round, And him and McKinley Jackson. Holy shit. Oh, yeah. Can you imagine that? Have them in there first and second down. We know you're running, huh? No, you ain't.

No, you ain't. No, you're not. I would almost think, like, if we drafted him, Jermaine probably would say, you know, let me change my mind here. I don't want to go nowhere. Get this deal done. I can make all these damn tackles. Ain't nobody blocking me. You know, these two freaking guys in there. And then the issue would happen, Jenkins and Nolan out there. Locking them the other way. Good luck. Good luck.

Because I'm looking so far, at least because I'm looking so far because and I'm looking in here as we speak at a lot of the PFF rankings. At least early on a lot of the decided after, say, next week, the week after with the Combine. Or at least a lot will be, you'll have a clearer picture. I know for me, I'm not taking Xavier Watts in the first round if I don't have to. Well, no, not in the first round, though. No. At least the way they've been.

At least the way. Because I think he's on their board. I would not be surprised. Actually, I'm not going to say anything. I would not be surprised if he was definitely on their board. Why would he not? He has to be on their board. Because, you know, I get that. That's where my general soliloquy that I'm trying to get in is that I think something tells me because in PFF, a lot of their database stuff is not far off.

There's some stuff that you're like, oh, wait, wait, come on now, think about this. But then there's some stuff that's just like, oh, okay, I can see this. So looking at where they've got him ranked, they've got him ranked getting picked somewhere in the 40s. I got a feeling I think the Bengals are going to have to probably trade up a little bit. And just so you guys know, I want to take Walter Nolan again, but he got taken to pick before I took him.

That's actually my pick almost no matter what, unless he's taken. That's it. If he's taken, he's taken. I understand.

If he's not taken, I don't see because if you ask me, Nolan over Pierce I say Nolan but Pierce is upset it's there, and this is like probably the second or third time he's been taken outside of the top 10 it don't happen on these fifth address one I've seen so I don't know about on yours Tyler he was taken right away he was second after Carter, it's almost like you know what's going to happen but you know the top 10,

you know the top five guys. Every draft, it just depends on the order, every once in a while. Like this time, they didn't even take – Tennessee didn't even take handwork. They took Carter, which I expect them to take. I don't know. Actually, I don't know. What did you guys think about that? Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, Anthony. Sorry. I know for me, what do I think about? Repeat the question, Will. As far as Tennessee, should they take Cam Ward, Travis Hunter, right?

Trey DePick, Abdul Carter. What do you think they should do? They can use all three. There's no question they can use all three. But here's the thing. And if you, I think in one aspect, if they do that, then they need to offer some kind of a guarantee to Brian Callahan that he's going to be able to still have his job unless he just like completely fucks up. Right. Because you look at how the, because you look at what he's done so far.

Callahan's not a bad coach. He's clearly not. I think he came into a situation with nothing. So I think if they're willing to give him one more year, I'd go ahead and go Travis Hunter. And then if I get them somewhere in the top five next year, then get my quarterback. But you know how NFL franchises are. They're not the most patient, which it is what it is. Because in the second round, they take linebacker Demetrius Knight.

And if I'm not mistaken who the hell are they taking it down I don't even remember because it kind of made sense what they've been trying to do let me get your thoughts Will, in your opinion, with Bill Callahan being the offensive line coach of the Tennessee Titans, I don't think the Titans O-line necessarily was terrible, no, I just I thought they were in the wrong position Yes, I think that's more or less I thought they were just position wrong,

You put this kid You put that kid in the left tackle You put J.C. Latham in the right tackle When he's clearly best suited Right I mean I think the only thing they gotta do. Is trying to see if they can try to find a decent leftist. It don't have to be fucking off the chain, but like a decent left tackle to turn around and be able to move that kid back to right. Your boy Dan Moore. Junior. Oh, good lord, nice. Fuck that guy. I'm just saying, I mean, tip the free agent. Why?

Because you know I'm always saying goddamn fuck that. You hate that fucking guy. And he's a tip the free agent. And I laughed and I was like Hold on, hold on Someone projected 8 million a year I'm like what?

And you know me And you know me And you know this is never a slight against Trey Because I love Trey Hendrickson I really do, but I've never understood How the fuck is it against Fucking the best fucking left tackles In the goddamn league He fucking just makes them look silly But against a fucking bottom dweller A bottom, Catfish motherfucker like him Oh, my God. They're just, it's like, sometimes it's like he's non-existent.

I love Trey. I love him tremendously. There's, so when I say this, and to the listeners out there, please do not take this with me talking shit about Trey. I'm saying that, like, God damn it, Trey should be fucking demolishing Dan Moore. Dan Moore should be out of the league because of Trey Hendrickson. And Trey Hendrickson should basically decimate him. So, oh, you know what? Also, also, Tyler, your Cam Scattable is also a very good idea. Very good pick. I, I personally like Devin Neal.

Out of Kansas. I think he will be available, hopefully, in round four or five. He did get injured in college. He didn't put up the 13-14 yards that he did the year before when the average was battled. He was a preseason, I think, number two behind Ollie Gordon in the conference. Let's continue. Just throwing little nuggets up there. I do watch college football. Last year, I think I took a dip.

I'll take a little drop, but you know, as everyone knows, you can't turn on the football on Saturday and not see an SEC game, correct? Right? True, true. So yeah, I've been able to see Kentucky and Ole Miss and yeah, way more, a lot more than you know, and I want to Trey Harris from Ole Miss also on my list if he's still hanging around there third, fourth round. I might take it just to thank him. He's definitely talented enough no matter what to come in and be at least 4-3 right?

Right now. Like right now. He's talented enough right now to be 3-4. Right now. Not a head case, right? He's not a head case. He's never got in trouble. He just plays. The problem with Ole Miss is that they throw it to him all the time. It's kind of like what's the name of out of Missouri? Burton? Every time I see him play, they throw the ball to this kid about 12 pounds. What do you mean, Christ?

All right So yeah So just to recap Before we I don't know if we have anything else to talk About this episode but just to recap Will and Anthony give me your three Draft for the smack draft For me I'm going Walter Nolan with Yeah interior defensive Lineman out of Ole Miss I went with Tyler Booker Guard out of Alabama, And I went with Deion Walker because at times and I'm going to say this and I'm very not, you know Tyler I'm just as knowledgeable about football but god damn it sometimes

Will can just sell god damn ice to an Eskimo, I can sell ice to a snowman, he sold me on Beyond Walker because originally if he would have been available Xavier Watts would have been my third pick, I won't lie. I think a lot will be decided next week. A lot will be decided next week. A lot will be decided next week. I know, right? With the combine. Yeah. Let me give you mine, I guess. Mine would have been exactly the same as yours, Epi, except they took Walter

Nolan, the Cardinals did. I'm like, that's a great pick. They stink on defense. Oh, yeah, no, they suck terribly. They stink on defense. That's a great pick. I don't... Arizona, if you're out there listening, don't do this. I will come. I will fly all the way to Arizona. I will. I will be so mad at them. They will become my... They will become my, Jaguars of PFF, right? They'll jump in front of it, right? Right. You know, remember, guys, remember last season, doing the draft,

Jacksonville drafted before us, and they kept taking my guys. It really pissed me off. Every week, I'm like, you son of a gun. Just know who I'm taking. So my three was James Pierce, New York. Defensive guy out of Tennessee. Tyler Booker, obviously guard. Guard, swing man out of Alabama. And then obviously Deion Walker. Huge, monster, massive man. You know what, Anthony? And I almost took another guy. And my other, my grandma took another guy. He was like, Mason Taylor. I didn't have that look.

There was another one. Yeah, the two A's. Yeah, the two A's. So, Deion Walker in the third round of my draft wasn't available for me to look at. So, I ended up going Walter Nolan, Donovan Jackson, and Xavier Watts. Interior offensive guard there for Donovan Jackson, obviously Walter Nolan. We expect, obviously, the Bengals. I would think probably that's a go-to pick there, which, like you said earlier, we haven't had a first-round D tackle pick since Big Daddy Wilkerson.

That's right. we'll see how this goes but um obviously you guys anthony will send me screenshots of your guys's drafts so i can post them to the uh social media i accidentally got out of mind i'll i'll text you over my i'll text you over my my stuff at that yeah yeah just put it on like your notes and screenshot or something but yeah absolutely so how do you guys feel about these drafts because For my picks, they gave me all A's.

I got an A-. They tried to tell me I should have went with Donovan Jackson. So I got an A- for James Pierce, an A- for Booker, and a B- for Walker. Surprisingly. I almost. See, it's because I apologized to PFF before I did it. Remember? Remember? True. See, I got all A's. No pluses, no minuses. Straight A's across the board. That's what I got. I got an A plus for Pierce, an A minus for Booker, and a B minus for Walker. I don't see that as a B minus.

He was there. He was in the top three or four of the guys to be, you know, right? I'm like, well, that's a B minus then. He was in the top three or four that you put up there. PFF liked that, right? See, I think next time what I'm going to do, I'm going to draft the best player, you know, winning wild drafts, but I just draft, the best player available. And see if PFF give me all A's. It probably still won't. Honestly, you know, Will, I'd love to have Walter Nolan at pick 17. I really do.

But my hope is that my hope is that the Bengals hit free agency from the ground running and they hit it hard. So much so that I wish that if they hit it hard, we just take best player available in the draft. It would have been Walter Nolan. I know. At 17, it'd still be able to be there. It'd still be able to be there. But round 2-3, you know what I'm saying? Not a draft for need there, but best player available. And I hope that they hit free agency and hit it strong this year.

Oh, wait a minute. Yeah. Somehow, if somebody slipped to us, it ain't supposed to. That throws your whole board off, which as you guys remember. When we did the MyGraphic Army, there was no other way. There's no way, right? And that almost never happens. Unless your board is set up strangely, weirdier than I'm thinking. I don't see why a board would be too much different. I mean, you know, Al Golden, he understands. He understands the offensive defense in the lines quite well.

Because he, even though he was a coordinator, right? He was a tight end in college. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You being a coordinator in college, you realize, hey, wait a minute. Wait a minute. We got a BG lined up, and he did that. And Notre Dame's offensive line definitely can't be nothing to see that. If you look at the past three years, how many linemen they put in the league, they got quite a bit. They got quite a few of them. Oh, no, you're not wrong. I've been paying attention.

So but i know my final thoughts are i know i think what's gonna what's gonna end up being prevalent i think after as soon as free agency starts at least the first few days of free agency once the dust settles you'll have a much clearer picture and i think at that point i think we'll do another mock draft. That's what I'm thinking, because I think at that point, we'll kind of have a more generalized idea of what we're going to do, of what they're going to do.

So with that being said, before we go ahead and end the show, because we're hitting about the 50-minute mark, did you guys have anything you wanted to add on that? Let's have a good free agency. That's all I can say. Well, let's have a great free agency by signing our own players. Yes. That's kind of what we're going to do. I think we're going to do. That's the hope. That's what I think we're going to do. Can you do anything else?

That wouldn't make any sense. But, you know, like I told everybody, long ago, first thought of this podcast, even if I disagree with a move initially, like draft-wise and busy-wise. As long as I can see the picture that they're trying to paint at the end.

If I can make some I'm going with it I'm going with it even if it isn't something I said we should do that's okay they don't have to listen to me, but it does have to make sense because people are going to ask me and they're like well why do they do this and that and this and the other and I'm like well here's what I'm thinking they're thinking this is not what I want to do right, I say that to you all the time I didn't know what the hell we were doing that's

what we did remember the game we had four tight ends Right? Did I expect that? No, no, but we did it Like for instance And I want to throw this out there As a matter of fact, you know what We'll talk about it in the next We'll talk about it in the next episode Yeah, But in the meantime, Tyler, go ahead and close out the show for us. Yeah, so once again, we thank everybody for listening to this episode of the Rule of the Jungle podcast. Our first mock draft of the 2025 season is underway.

How did we do? Did Will and Anthony get theirs right? Did I get mine right? Let us know. Wherever you guys listen to the show, give us the feedback. We appreciate the ones who do. The ones who listen, you can get us most podcast platforms anywhere. So definitely give us a listen. They're pushing the algorithm so more Bengals fans can hear what we have to say in regards to the team.

So we definitely thank you guys and appreciate that. And our results from this mock draft will be on the socials within the next day or so. So be on the lookout for that as well. So y'all can decide for yourselves who won the first mock draft of 2025. You can follow the social medias, RuleTheJungle on Facebook and at RuleTheJungle9 on Twitter. You can follow me on Twitter at TyraHoodA54. If you guys want to go ahead.

For me, you can follow me on X at AAnderson78, as well as the Instagram of mine at AnthonyAnderson535. Five and before we cut this saw before I turn it over to Will.

I've had a couple I've had a couple listeners reach out to me I want to say hey I appreciate I sincerely do appreciate it especially when it comes to giving feedback, and giving just your overall thoughts as a Bengals fan so there's been a couple of them and I think the ones that you know who you are I just want to make sure that I extend my my sincerest My sincerest appreciation in you reaching out, also helping to promote the podcast. So, Will?

All right. You guys can follow me on Instagram at AppleTin756. And you can follow me on the infamous X slash Twitter. I'm still waiting on you guys to tweet me. I'm still waiting on you guys to tweet me and stuff. Yeah.

At William, 288-18804. Again, that's at William 288-18804 The wedding watering Members there I'm going to have to play these things here And obviously this is Going to be the first of many With that being said, On behalf of Tyler, Will, and myself, We definitely offer Our sincerest appreciations To all of you for Tuning in.