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All right, thor Nystrom from Fantasy Pros is about to stop by to talk about the draft. Before we start with four, I want you to grab your phone.
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So thor Nystrom is our college football NFL Draft analyst for Fantasy Pros, which has been just such a great podcast for the volume. We monitored it for a long long time and there's a lot of there's about ten thousand fantasy podcasts out there, and Fantasy Pros was the one we really latched onto about a year ago. We brought him on board for the football season. Such a home run. So he's the Vikings correspondent at Fantasy Pros, a team I've spent a lot of time talking about.
He has released the Thoor five hundred, so the Fantasy Pros podcast on the volume has been a big hit, and his top five hundred players and gives player comps for all five hundred. This is not This guy's living on Mountain Dew, folks. He may be on Central Time, but he's on Mountain Dew. This guy is working it. So I want to start with interesting because I have called the Minnesota Vikings the furnished apartment of the draft for a quarterback.
They have everything.
Just move in, get your diet Coke, put it in the fridge. You're ready to go. Elite left tackle, two receivers, top tight end, star running back. I think the offensive line's good, not great. Maybe he needs a little help interior, but I think a great coach. The tall Sean McVay, Kevin O'Connell, and Sam Darnold playing for a year. So I have theorized that they wouldn't get one of the top three picks, so they'd have to settle for JJ McCarthy, who's my least favorite of the quarterbacks.
But now that.
New England is taking calls today, I feel like, oh, I think they want Drake May because there's a guy on the Viking staff who has some history with Drake May, Josh McCown. So as somebody that is all over the Vikings, is that kind of Is that kind of the strongest rumor that they would be the team to move up to three and go get a Drake May, who, by the way, needs polish. And that's what Kevin O'Connell does, that's like his skill set.
Very well said very well. Put yes, and I would think that they would be leaning that way. Josh mcconna chorus coached Drake May in high school, used to watch Drake May's film when he was in the Jets facility with another guy in the quarterback room there, a guy named Sam Darnauld. So what you were talking about the offensive infrastructure around the hypothetical rookie quarterback, but you also would have that extra layer if it was Drake May.
Also a situation where you know that he is going to be afforded some patients early on if it ended up being Drake May or or J. J. McCarthy whoever that ends up being, and one of the best play callers offensive play callers that we had to your point with that as well, very good situation.
Yeah, you know, so JJ McCarthy is the one. And I said this today on my show or that about every two to three years, there's a quarterback that I just I don't get. And I've been doing this a long time, thirty years, so I've got a lot of executive scout guys I talked to. I don't talk to him players as much as people in the business. I didn't get Johnny Manziel, I didn't get t Bow. I didn't get Mitch Trubisky. I I got Baker. I thought it was a reach. I didn't get Zach Wilson at all.
I didn't get Daniel Jones. I don't love JJ McCarthy. I think he's a project. I think he needs an offensive coach. I think when I watched him play, my take was he missed a lot of laps. He's not a strong armed guy. Caleb's got a much stronger arm. Drake May's got a much stronger arm. Panis has a stronger arm that he needs to sort of be lined up thor he needs protection. He needs to point in the right direction. It reminds me of Trubisky. The ball can die if he doesn't really step into it.
Well.
In the NFL, you don't get a step into it. You know you're in muddy pockets. You're feeling on all these I mean, you've you have, you've right your top five hundred players, does McCarthy give you any pause?
I'm higher on McCarthy than you. He's actually the number three player overall on my board. He is QB three, but number three overall as well as far as the traits that he brings in you have the athleticism number six three cone at the NFL Combine your regardless of position at seventeen pounds heavier than his Michigan bio, which also sort of checked the size concerns with him. And then I think his arm is a little stronger than you do. And he retains that arm strength on the run,
also the accuracy on the run. But just speak into the arm strength that the NFL Combine sixty one mile prower max VLO throw was one mile prower underneath the record, which Joe Milton tied Josh Allen's record for that. The thing with him, the use of the athleticism with that arm in conjunction together on the field is what makes me excited about his projection to the next level. We see this every year calling with the quarterback who has a good arm and he's athletic, but those two things
absolutely do not work together with one another. Joe Milton would be an example of that from this class. But with McCarthy, he takes those mechanics with him when he is moving around, keeps the eyes down field, keeps the upper body cock to throw in that throwing platform under him. It's why last year he completes seventy two percent and change in the aggregate completion percentage seventy one percent and
change while scrambling. Most quarterbacks, you see there is an enormous drop off in their completion percentages even when their feet begin to shuffle. But certainly when they begin to scramble with McCarthy, you don't see that as much. Obviously, winner going back to high school of the sixty three and three, he had the two state title there, made a third state title when he was in high school. Then people, you know, they'll say that he was carried
by Michigan. People forget that when he went to Michigan, Michigan was coming off a two to four season, that COVID season, and people wanted Jim Harbaugh gone. JJ McCarthy not only committed there, he stayed true to that commitment. Then he helped the coaching staff accrue the ridiculous recruiting class that they ended up getting that ended up turning Michigan around. They make three straight college football playoffs, obviously culminated last year winning the national title when JJ was
a twenty year old true junior. And they don't beat Alabama for sure. I don't even know if they get there without JJ McCarthy, they certainly do not roar back that double digit deficit they had in the second half to beat Nick Saban. And what was Nick Saban's last game. You wonder if that had not happened, if Michigan did not have JJ McCarthy, would Nick Saban still be the coach of Alabama right now? Alabama certainly would have won that national title. So he sort of flipped that the
College Football Playoff there as well. I think there's exciting tools there. I absolutely think you can make an argument for him, let's say at the number three slot, but anywhere after that.
To me, all right, that's a good argument in his favor. So there Something came out today from a researcher at ESBN, and I thought it was fascinating that he went twenty drafts back and if you did not sign a second contract, you were considered a miss, not a bust, but a miss. Well, centers over the last twenty years in the first round only first round for a ninety two percent HiT's insane
receivers were a twenty seven percent hit. So I'm going to throw my theory out to you thor because I do theories occasionally.
This is how my brain works.
So I've always, like the Packers been very reluctant about first round receivers. Now, Calvin Johnson's an exception, Randy Moss, I think Harrison's an exception. But here's my take. It is a spectacular position. Most touchdowns in football are not dynamic a running back, a running back, a quarterback, a tight end, receiver. Touchdowns are spectacular. They break the huddle first.
They're the NBA player in football not really reliant on anybody other than a quarterback that can get them the ball. They don't rely on a left tackle for protection or a guard for a lane. They break the huddle, go get open or throw me open. So they're often the best athlete on the field. Cornerback is probably second, but corners aren't six four sixty five. These are magnificent athletes. They break the huddle first. We have a term diva receiver,
not diva guard, not diva strong safety. They come with personality. If you add fire to that personality, high first round pick, you're sort of validating their greatness. Whereas many of the receivers who have armor on Satan round Houka Nakua, who are midpicks with a chip on their shoulder, with something to prove. So I'm not saying I wouldn't draft it. But that's in a li arming miss rate. Seventy three
percent miss rate, thor that's insane. Now, the second highest miss rate was tight end at thirty three percent hit rates, So you know, sixty seven percent. I would explain that because a lot of college tight ends cannot block at the next level. All Iowa tight ends block. That's why Iowa's so great. When Dalton Kincaid came out, I had two execs say, this kid blocks like in Iowa tight end Dalton Kincaid's a great tight end. A lot of college guys, don't they spread it out in college football.
Thoor that they get to the pros. They can't block a defensive end there. They're Mike Gseki. They're just pass catchers and coaches want blockers. So, but I want your explanation. I understand why a center often the smartest offensive line. Not a lot of flamboyants. Either you can do it or not. You don't have to be a super athlete, right, you can test for that. But wide receiver seventy three percent miss rate or this is what you do for a living, Explain that.
First of all, I think I know who that eight percent is in the center is. I think that's mister Billy Price. And as far as the as far as the wide receivers go, here's.
What I think that is. Colin.
You set that up well talking about the athleticism and the best athletes that we have on the field. And you know, during the pre draft process we send them out to Indianapolis and it's the big deal. Now it's televised on prime time and there's so much pomp and circumstance as far as the athletic testing goes. And now we have the RAS page where you can pull up their athletic composits and compare it to all the players that have entered the NFL since the mid eighties at
their positions and different stuff like that. And what you see is the rising of players based on athletic traits and their size athleticism combination where the receiver position. And I don't think people give this enough. Creditor think about this enough. So much winning of the separation it doesn't come from athleticism.
It comes from terfuge.
It comes from putting yourself in the cornerback shoes and then keeping them off the beat of your scent the entire time, throwing different stuff at him.
We got to release package. It's like cards, flipping over the cards.
I'm gonna show you different one every single time, so you can't predict where I'm going, you can't funnel me towards the sidelines. I'm the one who is dictating the terms of the dance. Then I'm gonna get into my route really quickly. And then you know all that different subterfuge stuff, plus the the economy of footwork and movement into and out of rout brands, and then things like acceleration. Right then we start talking about things like late hands.
There's a receiver coming out of the FCS this year. I think he's gonna go phys six round who has the late hands thing all day? And I think he's gonna play way up at the NFL level because that Jalen Kocher.
I'll all shout him out.
But all these different sort of little skills that you cannot test for in Indianapolis. But Indianapolis is the thing that the shoots some of these wide receivers up fast. When these other skills hooka and those guys they have them.
Yeah, that's a really fascinating way to look at it, and you're the second person that's brought that up. I was just when I saw that today, I thought, I've just seen so many big personalities come in the first round and then it's like they don't work on their game, and then you see a Puka. Also, it's interesting thor is about ninety percent of the league run zone. So really a lot of this is the ability to come out and read the zone. It's not about running over people.
People the two deep safety people take that away very quickly. You've got to figure out how to read a zone. Like Puka came into this league and he was like a nine year vet. I mean, Stafford was telling people it practice. This kid like he's been in the league for twelve years. He's reading the zone. And so I think, to your point there, receiver has these little gifts death by a thousand cuts to a dB, these little gifts that are hard to see at a combine. It's a
really really fascinating take. So thorn Eystrom, if you're just joining us here, he has released five hundred he ranked five hundred players and has player. So I don't think there's a ton of sleepers. But I do think what you do is you get players that are overshadowed. Like I'll give you an example a player that I think is really interesting. He's fast enough, he's productive, he was a transfer bortal guy from Memphis to USC.
Taj Washington.
Taj is wiry and strong again, fast enough, productive in the room, good work, ethic And when I watched probably almost every USC snap, my takeaway is, well, he's not as bulky as Brendan Rice. He's not as strong as Michael Pittman was there or maybe his gift that is Drake London. But I watched him and I texted at GM about two weeks ago. I said, if he's available in the fifth round, that kid, I don't remember drops and you talk about late hands amor On Saint Brown
was known as a real natural hands catcher. So Taj Washington, you tell me this is what you do for a living. I think he's a fifth round ish guy. Am I out of my mind?
No, you might get my job calling. I love the way that you set that up. And I'll tell you a couple of contextual things just about his data right, because you do the.
Underwear Olympics thing with him.
He's small, not the most athletic, as rascore isn't the best. But let's look at some other stats with Taj Washington. There is so few receivers in this class that can match him in these metrics. Ninety eighth percentile PFF last year receiving grade versus single coverage, ninety six percentile in separation rate last year PFF, ninety fifth in separation percentile against single coverage. And this was a guy who had
over three yards per route run last year. I also think, you know, with a guy like Taj Washington, it's like, oh, well, he was.
In a really good offensive environment.
One way you could potentially push back against that is this is a guy where it's the route running stuff he will gain that separation short and intermediate. Did that actually go together very well with Caleb Williams' game? A guy who likes to scramble around and it's the three and a half seconds average time to throw. He likes to allow guys to flower their routes out deep. I don't know if that was the best fit. I think
the anticipatory thrower with Todd Washington. It could start to juice up his targets at the next level.
And I like that.
Shout o't con of a potential sleeper in the wide receiver class.
Okay, here's a player that I think and I love if you poke holes in these because I love when I think I know something I don't know shit. So a player that worries me is the track guy, the Texas receiver largely viewed second round or one hundred and sixty five pounds. Man, I watched Texas play four or five times. I saw drops. He's tiny. If you look tiny at me in college, you're going to be really tiny in the pros. I want you to talk about him. I understand track guys. You know it's all wow. It's
all jaw dropping stuff. It's hard. Remember Trayvon Austin came into this lake and oh, people were wow. And after about three sweeps, I'm like, he's too small to to at. Well, you have to to to is so small. You have to get him in motion because you he gets clogged up at the line. So I want you to talk about zaver Worthy.
Yeah, I want you to talk about him. He worries me.
Yeah, zeber Worthy is an interesting case where he breaks the record for NFL combine forty times.
That was a cool moment in Indianapolis.
But yeah, and the athletic trades are obviously there, and he was a guy who went to Texas. Interestingly enough, Colin, he was supposed to be one of the guys in the Vonted Michigan recruiting class with J Jim McCarthy. There was an issue that had to do with Xavier Worthy's admission,
which reopened his recruiting. His recruitment. He ends up getting courted to Texas sort of at the last second by Steve Sarkishan who was coming in, who sold him on being the DeVonta Smith of his new luk Longhorn offense. He's not the same type as DeVonta s matt Now, but the skinniness and some of the dimension stuff, there's similarities there. Davonte is a lot more polished and the play strength that he plays with and the ability to win when he is in tight quarters and the contested
stuff is better with that. Worthy is more of the jitterbuck guy, and it's all the athleticism and it's that high octane stuff off of the line. But obviously struggles with the size, you know, just being one hundred and sixty five pounds, and to your point, the one concern that I had about him. They pounded Xavier Worthy with targets, but there was a lot of drops. I saw the same thing that you did, Colin. They had in Week two, one of the first primetime, big time games that we
had in the college football season this year. You recall Nick Saban's Alabama CRuMs and Tie traveled down.
To Austin, Texas.
Xavier Worthy licks some guy on this whip route right at the goal line, and Alabama did not have another dude on that side of the ends. Xavier Worthy was by himself running down the goal line. Quin youwers did what he was supposed to to lead him that away towards the pylon because there was a trailing defender back. You didn't want to leave the ball there. You want to lead Xavier Worthy out. So this was a free touchdown. All Xavier Worthy had to do is reach his hands
out and it was that free touchdown. Let's start the touchdown celebration. Ball clanks off his hands. He had done everything prior to that moment, and then the ball claiks off his hands just one example, but you saw this.
It was a recurring theme with his tap.
I will give him the contextual benefit of the doubt of he was pounded with targets. We talk about his team A eighty Mitchell, why didn't he see more targets. I'll tell you why, Quen you Weers was obsessed with throwing to Xavier Worthy and Steve Sarkishan would scheme up all this different stuff for Zavier Worthy. I wonder with NFL coaching, can we work on the ball skills at all?
And then if Xavier Worthy no longer is that target hounded the wide receiver one, if he's the wide receiver two or wide receiver three, especially initially, will that help out some of that different stuff? But it absolutely bears mentioning and I agree with if you that is the risk of his profile.
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is for our audience, really fun an interesting player. For me, it's not a great running back draft, and I have noticed this for I'm a recruiting used to be really into recruiting, and then I married a woman with four kids and I have two so I don't have the time. But California is a great example of we have thirty
eight million people in this state. In any one recruiting cycle of two hundred and fifty Division one players, we'll have thirty five to forty five Division one receivers, twelve quarterbacks, and three running backs. The kids, they get it, you don't get a second contract. They want to be edge rushers, corners, receivers, quarterbacks. Kids always are on the forefront of cultural shifts and trends.
Not old guys, young kids. Running back position, you get an occasional star by John Robinson, But by and large, I couldn't tall the last bad receiver draft. I'm not sure I could say the last great running back draft. Blake Quorum is interesting to me. So Blake is small.
That's okay.
You can be small. Been a lot of successful small backs. He got hurt, he came back, or I didn't think he was the same running back. I just didn't see it. I don't know if I could go in the third round. I thought he was a second round guy. Before the I thought he may be the best running back in the country. It doesn't look the same to me. How is he being judged by you and others?
Yeah, that injury that you're referring to at the end of the twenty twenty two season when he was tremendous, coming awesome during that season he comes back from and by the way, if that did not happen, he might have been like after his first year at this point, might have been in last year's draft, right, like that was the reason he had to go back to Michigan coming off that injury, and then he acclimates himself slowly, certainly the first half of the season. Totally agree with
you on that look sluggish. The burst wasn't there. The cuts we see with him were not as violent and not as smooth. I absolutely agree with you, And you can see this in Blake Korum's numbers last year. Yards before contact happens to be the exact same number as his yards after contact. It was two point four, I believe on both accounts. So the offensive line was really helping him out, especially against the front part of that schedule where they played some Cans in September, just getting
the push. But yeah, can you harken back to that twenty twenty two with him where he had a bit more juice, had a bit more speed or is this what we have athletically? I think that that's a big thing to look at with him. A lot of the things that we like about Blake Koram are intangible things
that cannot be tested for Anapolis. Running with tempo vision that sendsing the cutback lanes and getting in there, forcing off angle tackle attempts of a guy who should be able to hit you flush, Just that slight movement right before that guy leaves his feet so that you can get the arm tackle attempt that. Then you can run through different stuff like that with Blake Korum. But the athletic stuff he does not have. He's a little bowling ball type that lacks high end speed.
For sure. His quarterback JJ McCarthy is faster than him.
There is the one time when true freshman season for JJ McCarthy in the Big Ten title game against Iowa. I love this play. People need to look it up if they haven't seen it. He hands it off to Korum. They're at their own forty yard line. Quorum gets out to the second level and then is starting to break
away into the open field. JJ McCarthy zooms past Blake Korum in the open field, gets down the sideline and ends up slowing down for him so he can make a block around the ten eight yard line to spring Blake Korum into the end zone. But he had Quorum has those intangible type things, the passing game utility. He wasn't used as much as a receiver at Michigan. That was Donovan Edwards. In the pre draft process. He has shown some hand stuff running the routes, didn't drop a
ton of balls. I'll give him the contextual benefit of the doubt on that, but I agree with you calling him a little bit lower on Blake Korum than some others.
I think I have him as RB six in this class.
So you know, I did a feature on FS one today today being Wednesday, eve of the draft, about you can get speed almost anywhere on the draft, but the man upstairs, God does not give us six foot six, three hundred pound, fifteen pound men with great feet. That Almost all of the top fifteen offensive tackles ever, going back to Jim Parker, are first rounders, all of them. There's very few sleeper offensive tackles. Now you can still Mackai Becton.
There are whiffs.
There are often weight issues, just like NBA centers, big centers weight on the feet. You can have feet and back issues, but there are positions, and I think offensive tackle is one is overwhelmingly you're Trent Williams, Jonathan Ogden, Anthony Munoz, ron Yary, the really great ones. God does not create six six, three hundred and fifteen pound men that are nimble. He just doesn't. When you see one draft him early, you're not finding him in the sixth
Speed is different. I've talked to a GM, a Super Bowl winning GM, who has said he won't draft He by and large, will not draft a corner in the first two rounds. He believes third on you can find speed everywhere. There's tons of corners. Is there a sleeper?
Probably not tackle. Of all these.
First round tackles, what's interesting to me is Joe Alt probably is the safest from Notre Dame. But I don't think he's a seven time Pro bowler. I think he's a good twelve years arder Pro bowler.
Two.
Is there another tackle in this first round that you look at and he's not as complete as Alt, He's not as finished as Alt, but you think he could be the tackle in ten years we go, there's your seven time Pro bowler. Because historically the one position in football with the stars come in the first it's left tackle. Who's going to be the guy we come back and maybe it's Ald or maybe it's not.
Yeah, the other one I would toss out now, he's not going to be a left tackle, but it's JC Latham. And that's the thing about this class is Alton Lez can play left tackle. Outside of that, it's Olive Fishanu from Penn State. And then the discussion about Troy Fittanu from Washington. Does the organization in question that is discussing him believe that he can hang a left tackle. But outside of that, the other guys in the first round,
you're at the top there. You're talking about right tackle projection between Latham, Fuaga, Amirius Mims, Tyler Geiden certainly could play left tackle, but there is bigger risk there. There's bigger variance band it out comes with what he could become. I just like Latham so much because he is so dang strong. He is a bully coming forward, he moves people, and at right tackle he absolutely can handle his pass
pro responsibilities. I think that that guy is going to make a bunch of Pro Bowls when he reached the NFL.
That's what he is.
What he is not is the left tackle, but just talking about a guy that is going to excel in the NFL and in the NFL game.
You're talking about a guy coming out of Alabama six six.
Three forty five with an eighty five inch wingspan, one of the biggest in this class, over thirty five inch arm length and again has that two way utility and a game that projects to the NFL.
So I would toss All Latham.
By the way, Lane Johnson Tristan Wurse. You know, sometimes we reduce the importance of a right tackle, and many can play both, but in a sport or the quarterback, it's such a quarterback centric league. Two elite tackles really matters. I mean, Patrick Mahomes has been blown out once in a big game in his career. It was the Super Bowl, missing his tackles. Like these right tackles, they are gold bars. There's a lot of lefties Michael PENNOCKX in this draft,
and frankly, tackles are tackles. They're the most athletic offensive lineman. If you get again, if you get six six, three thirty and good feet, you just draft them. They're just not many of them. One of the reasons that brought pretty, and I think his ceiling is fairly low. But Brock Purtty is sort of your classic. He reminds me a little bit. I think the kid at Tulane may be more talented. Pratt four years three to four years of
starting didn't carry great talent. I've always had this kind of belief that I don't want somebody from Alabama or Ohio. Stated quarterback CJ. Stroud of course breaks through, but most Ohio State quarterbacks, even the gifted ones, they all put up great numbers, but they're throwing to five star receivers, five star or left tackle. They play with leads only Michigan in the conference. Do they feel like they go toe to toe with somebody that's got equal talent? Some
years Penn State. So I look at Pratt at Tulane and I look at rock Purdy, and I see a lot of the Traps beat up a little no five star players on their run. Pratt's got it. If you look at his childhood and what he's overcome. I could see a Denver saying we need players. I could see a New England saying thor we need players. We're trading that we need guys. Nobody can withstand this roster. Tell me your thoughts on him. My comp was Ken O'Brien, which is aging me terribly. That's a terrible comp for
a young guy like you. Thor talk about Tulane's quarterback and what you see.
I love the blast from the past comes, you know, I've jayde Daniels, t Randall, cunning of JJ McCarthy to Ridskin, and so I love the blast for in the past there.
And I also like you evoking Michael Pratt.
I think that there's a lot to light there with Michael Pratt when he goes to Tulane speaking of moribund programs.
And having to be the dude the impetus to turn a program around.
That program stunk when he got there, and then you know, Willie Fritz had identified him, and then they'll you know, everyone remembers Tulane beat in usc and then last year they remained good even though Taja Spears and Dorian Williams on the other side had gone to the NFL. Michael Pratt didn't have a lot of supporting talent last year, but he kept doing it that.
He is very very steady.
He gives you accuracy, He can move around He's an athletic kid, very very sharp kid. People around him rave about him. That's the stuff that you get with Michael Pratt And yes, like he's that guy where if you're starting quarterback gets injured, he's going to go in and not embarrass himself because he doesn't make mistakes right. He is going to run your offense exactly as you ask him to. He's going to get the ball out expediently and hit a guy on the hands, whether it's shorter intermediate.
The one thing is when you're pushing that ball more than forty yards downfield, that's where it can start to flutter on them a bit.
It's the only thing that.
I have about his athletic you know, the traits that you see on the field. The only other thing is just to keep an eye on is the medicals. He had some concussions at Tulane, there was a shoulder thing, but outside of that, like you know, as long as your team's medical staff is cool with Michael Prattz medicals, it's giving you the thumbs up. That kid absolutely behind
all those quarterbacks we've talked about all process. This is a kid that people probably should be talking about a little bit more so.
A lot of times we forget this that a college quarterback and a pro quarterback, to a large degree, they can be elevated significantly with their coach. So CAYLEB Williams has Lincoln Riley, a super high creative coach. Jaden Daniels has Brian Kelly, Michael Pennix, Kaylin de Board. This is these are really high end. I think Dan Lanning does a terrific job at Oregon. They scheme up most of their plays. Bo Nix is not asked to go off
script very often. And so, and this is not a knock on Mac Brown, but he was never known at Texas. He was the southern gentleman, the great recruiter. He didn't run terribly sophisticated offenses. I mean it was that was kind of the reputation. So when I look at Drake May, I think, and this was my criticism on Justin Herbert's coach at Oregon again seem more as a recruiter as an offensive genius. The offensive line coach Mario Christobal. So a lot of people banged on Herbert for being sort
of kind of a remedial offense. They didn't ask much of him but the coach doesn't run that. He's a former offensive line coach. He wanted power run the ball, and Oregon didn't have a great backup, so they wouldn't let him run until the Rose Bowl. So I look at Drake May and I think what if I had to put him with Lincoln Riley or Brian Kelly or
Calin de Boorr. And some of the criticisms on him are he's inconsistent, but we have a history thor in recent years Josh Allen Jordan love of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson. The unfinished product with good traits ends up being the best quarterback in the class, and that's Drake May. He's not refined. He needs to be sandpapered. Is it a fair defense of him that he didn't run a sophisticated offense. He wasn't put in a position as often to succeed
his team. Wasn't his gift he'd you know, he didn't have some of the elements that you know, Michael Pennix basically had an all star team. Bo Nix has Franklin another great receiver. How do you view Drake May contextualizing his inconsistency, the kind of pedestrian offense, because boy, the traits are really good. Size movement arm. He looks like Justin Herbert.
He sure does.
And you set that up very very well early on kitecture lead Early on in Drake May's career in twenty twenty two, he was on fire. It was like, what's the our cake game? With the basketball boom shacka laga. He was absolutely on fire. The first ten games that he started in twenty twenty starting his college career, the first games that he had started in that Phil Longo offense,
was absolutely lighting people up. And this was his first exposure to college football and it was like, oh my gosh, who is this kid?
You know?
And the ripping the balls down the field? You saw everything with the arm talent, and in that system they allow you to go down field a lot more. And he was destroying acc teams that did not keep the two high safeties up down the field. You've seen all those elements of his game, the stuff that you're talking about. I totally agree with you. This year, you went see they had an offensive coordinator that maybe we don't respect
his acumen quite as much that came in. We won't get into that, but that hurts obviously, Josh Downs leaving because Phil Longo went to followed Luke Fickle to Wisconsin. Then Josh Allens had gone to the NFL, Antoine Green had gone to the NFL, and then the NCAA strangely decided right before the season that they were going to be punitive with has Walker in particular to Tulsa neuter Drake May's wide receiving corp, which was a bit odd.
The point that you made that I really liked is you have seen a sort of pattern with that coaching staff guys on it. Mac Brown, guy's going back a little bit where maybe some of the finer points of the position weren't worked on as much. And when Drake May was ripping all those teams up in twenty twenty two, early on in the season, he didn't need to in.
Order to rip those guys up.
You know, all the arntal was there, the looks were there, that the receivers were there. But this past season, when the offensive system wasn't as good, when the supporting cast had cratered around him, that's where you started to see what I refer to as weeds in his game. They are not things that necessarily will be there forever. In fact, they could be plucked out theoretically pretty quick.
Next year. You might need to exercise some patience for him, but that's all they are. They're weeds.
Someone he needs a constant gardner, someone that will be with him. Late night film session, kid, I got a bowl of popcorn. We got your film up here from last year at un see. Today we're going to focus on this area of your game. Today, we're going to focus on how you lost your mechanics a little bit when you were under durest.
Is one thing that I noticed.
He'll start to speed up his decision making and then sort of eskew the lower half in particular to get the ball out in some of these situations. Or there will be sometimes where the decision making glitches a little bit that we saw crop up more this past season, but some of it is easily fixable.
Colin.
I don't know if you saw this. A moment that went viral in my state of Minnesota. Last week. Kevin O'Connell had given a speech at a church and afterwards there was a Q.
And a session, at which point someone went up and asked.
A question about the evls of JJ McCarthy to Kevin O'Connell the evails of JJ McCarthy against Drake May and talking about you know, JJ ran that pro style system for Harbaugh and he had this success last year and YadA YadA, Drake May, you look at him and you see all the natural armability that you would ever want.
And you look back a little bit, you see it justin Herbert.
You see it, Josh, except there's that sloppiness with the footwork, and sometimes the mechanics get walky. And basically the guy was asking him, how do you sort of weigh the sort of the polish of the guy coming over to the pro style yes, against the Drake May thing. And I thought O'Connell's response was so interesting because it talked about exactly what we're talking about right now.
But how there's as long.
As O'Connell sees all the box checks of what he needs to see, if the guy has the attributes to be a difference maker at the NFL, there are.
A couple areas that he believes that he could.
Fix, and fans around here believed that he was referring to Drake May's footworks.
Just something for people to keep in mind.
Yeah, and I think Drake May is one of those that would struggle if he got a defensive coach who didn't understand the nuances of the position. I think, well, first of all, I think anybody that I think Drake May would be a much bigger success, in my opinion in Minnesota than JJ McCarthy.
That's just my opinion.
I think Drake May needs He's Josh Allen, not quite as gifted, but he needed Brian. You know, Josh Allen would have been successful. If he never gets stable, he'd be successful. But Dable really cleaned him up. I watched Josh Allen against Oregon and Iowa because somebody said, watch this kid.
He was a mess.
I mean it was huge, he looked. I mean, he's the biggest player on the field right for Wyoming, but it.
Was it was raw.
I mean he had a hose, but it was raw. And I think there's some of that with Drake May. He just needs to be cleaned up and Kevin O'Connell will do it. Let me throw this out before we close. I'm not Sam Hartman and me is a little a little ham inagger.
I don't get it. I see.
I think he's a less talented Sam Howe, tell me I'm wrong.
What do you see?
I'm not gonna tell you you're wrong on that one.
I think Sam Hartman though, after when his playing career is over, I'm not bullish that it is gonna last very long. We can't cry for him though, because I think there will be television contract for him immediately.
He is one of the best looking people that you will ever see in person.
We were down with him at the luncheon at the Senior ball in mobile even like the inkstin you know guys or whatever.
They were all like, oh, look at that guy. Who is that guy? You know?
It's like Sam Harmon, very good looking guy, very charismatic. But yeah, he lacks arm strength. He is not a good athlete, and he accrued stats in some rather gimmickey offenses, the Clo offense at Wake Forest, and then of course last year he had a solid supporting cast around him at Notre Dame.
Yeah, Jason mcintyreke. He was telling me, I like that Notre Dame quarterback and I'm like, Jason, that don't die on that hill. That is not the guy. That is not the hill to die on. He's just not a starting quarterback in the NFL. For this has been great continued success. We will circle back to you for sure. By the way you do evaluations, you also do a mock draft. Give me your top five in your mock draft.
Top five by Ed Caleb Williams one, Jaden Daniels two, JJ McCarty three. That's obviously crux point right there, whether that would be JJ or Drake May. Number four is another free spot on the board in Marvin Harrison Junior, so long as Arizona stays there. And then in the five slot, that is where I had the Vikings consummating their trade up to go and get their guy, reunite him with this high school coach, Rocks McCown and selecting Drake May in the number five slot.
Yeah, I do believe Minnesota accumulated that second number one pick to move up. And by the way, because they are so gifted offensively, I think they could give up both their ones and potentially a number one next year. They have their left tackle, they have their receiver, they'll have their quarterback. They have I mean, they really have
an edge rusher they like. Minnesota reminds me a little bit of Houston, although in a better spot the year before where they have slowly quietly gotten B B plus free agents. They put some offensive people together. If they hit on the quarterback, watch out for the Minnesota Vikings. The only thing I'd worry about is that the Bears offense, the Lions, the Packers. That's going to become the best
offens division of football. That division is you could do a Pro Bowl team, an offensive Pro Bowl team in the NFC North that could beat the rest of the league.
It's about to get It's about to get fun there.
And the one other thing I was going to say about the Vikings next offseason, they're projected at the most salary cap room in the entire NFL because this offseason they are carrying the most dead cap hit.
It's called the Thor five hundred. It was released last week on Fantasy Pros. Thor ranks his top five hundred players and gives player comps for all five hundred. As you can tell, he's absolutely encyclopedic. The Fantasy Pros, in my opinion, is the best fantasy pod out there. This is great stuff. Thor, Thank you so.
Much, Thank you, Calin appreciate you having me on.
A lot is made of the NBA ratings, and I have touched on this. Baseball, hockey and the NBA are increasingly international, and I don't think that necessarily helps your domestic ratings, but I do think the NBA is really dynamic. I've said before the sports that I truly loved of NFL, college football, NBA, especially the playoffs, World Cup and a
great UFC fight. That's my five and sports gambling. But I thought one of the things that's been interesting about the NBA that I really appreciate, and it doesn't benefit the young teams, but it benefits the tough teams is that the NBA has decided to do this. And this has always been an NFL strength, the ability on the fly to change rules. Baseball really struggles with its traditionalists and its lore and its history. But the NFL has always, even though it's the number one sport by a long
shot in America, always views itself as an underdog. And it's not called America's past time baseball is, so the NFL's always willing, views itself as a TV show, always willing to evolve, a few years ago, in that Super Bowl Nick Foles Brady, the league literally changed its cash rule in the Super Bowl and a couple juggled catches that, in my opinion, were catches were granted its touchdowns and catches that weren't during the regular season or the playoffs
before the Super Bowl. So I really do appreciate the NBA. There was a big story this year in the NBA for diehards. I'm gonna die hard, but I watch a lot of NBA after the deadline, trade deadline.
I'm into it.
Almost every night or every other night, watching at least a half of a game. And there's been this talk about that they started officiating the sport differently, and I really appreciated this, and I've noticed it in the playoffs. One of the reasons regular seasons are struggling in all major sports outside of football is because other sports lack urgency. The iPhone is distracting all of us. But the NBA decided to call fewer fouls, and I think it's really
helped the game. I think these playoff games there's fewer whistles, there's fewer free throws. I really appreciate this. You know, during that Nicks Sixers scrum on the floor the other night, and I picked the Sixers to win this, so you know, I'm looking for Philadelphia to come out of this malaise and beat the Knicks. I think they have more good players. But I appreciated the NBA letting the play go when the ball's on the floor.
Give me a break. That is just hustle.
A ball hits the floor, players hit the floor. I'm not calling fouls unless it's egregious. I loved the NBA not calling a foul. Effort wins. The Knicks had more effort. What I didn't like is the NBA coming out where the next day they come out and say that, well, there was two fouls that weren't called and they should have called a timeout. What value does that have? Embarrassing your officials the game is over. It extends the reddit board crowd who thinks the league is rigged and there's
a conspiracy. We know the league isn't rigged because major markets like Detroit, Atlanta, DC, previously before the last couple of years, New York. But in the toilet forever, the league is not rooting for Wemby to go to San Antonio, Zion to New Orleans, John Morant to Memphis, and to have Oklahoma City in Minnesota and Denver running the West, Steph out and Lebron about to be out. That's not
what the NBA is hoping for. But I do appreciate when a league on the fly, even in season, has an interpretation of this is hurting the quality of the product for the fans. And what the NBA has done, they're speeding the game up, fewer whistles. College football has made multiple changes last several years. Speed the clock up. It is my number one complaint. Baseball, by the way, pitch clock first year attendance up eight percent, ratings up eleven.
People are telling you, we love the games. We don't have all day. So a lot of people criticize the NBA. I thought it was really smart by Adam Silver. People were they made it sound like it happened in a smoke filled room. He just said, fewer whistles, let them play. And I think the NBA playoffs to this point have been really good, really intense, and really physical. Yukon won
a national championship. They were the most physical college basketball team I saw, and Minnesota is pushing around the Suns. It works, it matters, and it makes for a better product. I love sports, but I have kids. You have kids, you have work. I don't have all day. Keep them going, speed them up. These are TV shows. It's entertainment. That's why Hollywood doesn't have three hour movies, right, there's like
two hours. Fifteen minutes is to cut off for most movies unless they're going to be all time epics like Oppenheimer the volume. Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, take a moment rate and review