The Dave Pasch Podcast - Daniel Jeremiah

DJ will dive in deep on who the Cardinals are potentially looking at at number twenty three, who some players are he thinks would be a great fit, whether the Cardinals will focus on offense or defense at number twenty three. Where you're picking, you're kind of at the mercy of what falls you because the draft can go in so many different directions. But I still think, you know, firepower on offense. I think on the defensive side of the ball,

you know, just getting younger and more dynamic upfront. What does he think of some of the other draft picks. Does he like Aiden Hutchinson going number one to Jacksonville or does he take the field, What about Kenny Pickett, quarterback out of pit will he be the first quarterback taken in the twenty twenty two NFL Draft, And does he have a sleep a favorite player of his that maybe won't go early in the draft, but that he thinks will be an excellent NFL player down the road.

You can catch NFL Networks coverage and Daniel who will be all over the airwaves during live coverage of the twenty twenty two NFL Draft from Las Vegas April twenty eight through the thirtieth. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. Sign up for BETMGM today using code cards one thousand and get your first bet risk free up to one thousand dollars. New customer

offer paid in free bets. Visit betmgm dot com for terms and conditions. Twenty one and over Arizona only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step here he is from NFL Media, Daniel Jeremiah. So, Daniel, let's start talking Arizona Cardinals. What do you think the

Cardinals are going to be looking for? At twenty three because last year in the middle of the first round, the Cardinals had a player that they were hoping that was going to be there that happened to be there in Zavan Collins. Yeah, this year is a little bit different because you really don't know who's gonna slide and then maybe players that they have that might go early second round, but they have a higher grade than other teams that maybe they take at twenty three. What do

you think they're going to be looking for there? Well, I think there's so many different ways you can go and kind of you hit it where you're picking. You're kind of at the mercy of what falls you because the draft can go in so many different directions. But I still think, you know, firepower on offense, you know, trying to find another playmaker. It's a deep receiver group. You can kind of play that out and see how

it goes. Sometimes when you have a good number of whiteouts like we do, sometimes teams can be patient, which then maybe you're sitting there on the clock and you've got three or four guys you really liked, then you can slide back and still get you know, whoever that may be a trailing Burke's Jahan dots and you know, whoever your flavor is that you like out of that group, that's an option. And I think on the defensive side of the ball, you know, just getting younger and more

dynamic upfront, trying to find guys that fit there. I look at a guy just kind of knowing Steve over the years. There are certain players you could see kind of tickling his fancy And for some reason, I think of a guy like Davante Wyatt, who's just ultra, ultra explosive, a defensive tackle from Georgia. If somehow he were to be in that mix there, I could see that that being somebody he'd really like. What about a corner, because that's a position of need. The Cardinals drafted Marco Wilson.

He played very well last year given where he was picked and the fact he's a rookie, and Byron Murphy played well, not all season, but a good part of the seas and where you feel good about him. But that's still a position that the Cardinals are looking to upgrade. Yeah, there's gonna be guys there. I mean Andrew Booth, you know, hasn't been you know, fully healthy to be able to participate in everything in the spring out of Clemson, so I think there's a chance he'll be there when they pick.

I mean, I look at Stingley is gonna be gone, Sauce Gardener is gonna be gone, Trent McDuffie's gonna be gone. So you think you take those guys out of the mix there, but there'll still be some other intriguing names that you could look at. Booth would probably be the one if I'm kind of look at my list, who would probably be right in that range. Kyer Elham, another one out of Florida is somebody that's folks are on the league a little bit higher on him than I am.

He's you know, big and fast, you know big, long and fast. It was a little bit inconsistent for me, but I know some teams have him in that late one range. So that's another one you could keep an eye on there. But again, I think they're in kind of in a position where I don't feel like, can you tell me covering the team, But I don't feel like there's a gun to their head at any individual position. They can line up with twenty two guys and play tomorrow.

So I don't know that there's that one position where some of these teams, like you're like they don't have a tackle, Like they can't line up and play tomorrow. They kind of have to go in this direction. I don't really get that sense with the Cardinals. I'm glad you brought that up, because I didn't want to get your sense of how you evaluate their offseason. I've been telling this story to several people. I work a lot of NBA games with. Hubie. Brown was eight years old

as besta for fifty years. Hubie tells this story of He's an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks in the early seventies. Oscar Robertson is on the team. Kareem Abdul Jabbar is a young champion. At that point, they just won the championship. After that year, they had a year where they lose in the playoffs. At that time, Larry Costello was the head coach, the owner, Larry Costello, and Hubie.

Because then you only had one assistant, you didn't have this whole staff, they go to Vegas, the three of them to talk about the team and what to do in the offseason. Initially, everybody was traded except Kareem, but then over time they met like day after day for about four or five days. They didn't trade anybody. And I compare that to the Cardinals a little bit because I think initially the way they lost, the way they closed the year, a lot of people are like, man,

you got a clean house. Well, the Cardinals just did that a few years ago. They change coaching staffs. They drafted a quarterback in the first round the year after they drafted a quarterback in the first round. So I think what that tells me is seven and oh is real. Ten and two is real. To your point, you've got

twenty two guys you can line up and win. Maybe you're not good enough to win a championship just yet because you still need to add some pieces, but you're good enough where you don't have to make drastic changes. So based some of the Cardinals have done so far in the offseason, DJ, how would you evaluate that? Well, I think that's a great way to phrase it. I

love that background is the absolute best. I love listening to you guys, man, But you know, I think it's you want to use the early portion of the off season, which is free agency, to eliminate those die or needs that you have so that you can be nimble and be flexible and take best player available. There's no worse feeling in the world than to be sitting there on draft day. And I've been in rooms like this where

you're like, man, we don't have a starting safety. So whether we have to trade up to get one, or whether we don't feel like there's value where we are, we got to move back. But those you're sweating bullets when you when you're in the draft room in that situation. But that's why free agency helps to kind of fill in those holes. They didn't really have that much to do in terms of having acceptable level players at every position.

My challenge in this team kind of going forward, when you look at the quarterbacks you're gonna have to play especially, I mean, thankfully the NFC's is some of those guys have left. But the quarterbacks you're gonna have to get through to win a championship. You know. I know the offense there with Kyler it can be explosive. They need more. I just think they're gonna find there. You're gonna find

your way into some of those shootout games. And is as good as this group is, I think they need even more firepower than they have, and so that's a playmaker in any form. You know, however, you can find that. I don't think there's a you know, there's not a tight end worth a late first round pick. To me, I look at the running backs. There's a couple that I like. If you wanted to trade back into the top of two, you could add another player like a

Breece Hall, add even more firepower to that group. But to me, the one that makes the most sense is I think because of the quality of wide receivers in this draft, I think they've had a chance to get a real difference maker. I don't know that you can have enough in terms of weapons right now the way the league's playing. I had Ohio State this year and they absolutely destroyed Indiana. It was a ABC primetime game where they were just clicking, and those three receivers were

all phenomenal. Do you think any of those guys will be available? Chris Olave and some of the mock drafts has been there for the Cardinals at twenty three. You mentioned a couple of the guys earlier, Johan Dotson. I'm trying to remember who the other receiver was. The trailing burs from Arkansas. Yeah, who do you think would best

fit what the Cardinals want to do? Well? To me, the most intriguing one as Burke's because he gives them a two hundred and twenty five pound guy that can do a lot of the stuff that they do, you know, in terms of getting the ball in his hands, let him run after the catch, and it just gives them a little bit of a different look than what they've had.

You know, guys, you watched Debo. You see him inside the division, the ability to put him in the backfield, do different things, get the ball out of your hand quick and let guys make plays with the football. That's what he does. And to me, it's just you know, when I went back and looked at wideouts over the last couple of years, and I've tried to find, you know, what's that thing that they all have in common. The

top guys, the elite guys. You'll find all different play speeds, you know, find all different sizes, but they all had play strength. You know, when you kind of look at those top guys over the last couple of years, look at what Jamar Chase came into the league and did. Obviously you see debo. You see a j. Brown, you see DK in the division. These guys all are strong, physical guys. Cooper Cup has incredible play strength and people don't realize it's like two hundred and fifteen two hundred

and sixteen pounds. So adding a little bit even more strength to that group to kind of compent what you have there, get Dhot back healthy, you've got to speed guy with Rondale Moore. I think that's kind of a would be a fun ingredient for them to play with. Cardinals resign to me, and if you ask Steve Kime, he might agree. There are three top priorities zach Ertz, James Connor, Cole McCoy because of how important Colt is,

Kyler and Christian Kirk gets a great contract. He was on this podcast, and I know for him, while it was probably hard to not win a championship here with his hometown team, he was a Cardinal fan growing up. He's getting an incredible opportunity, obviously with a ton of money in Jacksonville. So a lot of fans here are like, Okay, well, what are the Cardinals going to do now? To replace They bring back Max Williams. Zach Ertz but what are

they going to do at receiver? And I keep saying, let's not sleep on Rondale Moore another Cardinals drafted him high last year's second round pick. He did not have the production that I think people thought he was going to have based on how the year started and what we saw in camp. How would you grade his first year and what did you think of him coming out? Did you see him as a eight to ten year

NFL receiver that goes to the Pro Bowl a few times? Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna actually look up to see exactly where I had him, because I always it's always a fun exercise for me to look back and see what number I had him on. So I kind of keep my little sequence list in here, and I'll pull up my notes that I had on him as we entered into the draft. So Rondell Hoore was my seventieth player. So he was my seventieth player. I said he was

at his best in twenty eighteen. He's had injuries, He's got big time stop start quickness, He's explosive, lots of shovel passes, lots of quick hitters, really explosive in the open field. I thought he was best as a catch and run guy. So that was kind of my my expectation. He went higher. I was what number pick was he? Do you remember? Oh, I got on my head. I'm trying to remember his early early second round. I can't remember. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, he was right, he was. He went

a little bit higher than I had him. But I would say kind of where I what my expectations were and what he did probably matched up. You know, for year one, him getting his feet wet in the NFL, you saw some flashes. Just wasn't you know, as consistent of a playmaker as you maybe want throughout the year. But you know, to me, I think he's he's on

schedule for what he's going to be. I think he's a unique player with his kind of size, speed, you know, kind of a unique guy in that kind of compact package. I remember during the draft process, I compared him to Darren Sproles, like that's who he looks like when he's moving out there in the open field. But you've got to kind of create ways to get him the ball. I did not think he was, you know, a pristine route runner or anything like that. He's get the ball

in his hands, and that's where the fund starts. He was picked forty nine, So okay, there you go, losing Chandler Jones. Can you address that that late in the draft. There've been plenty of guys who have been late first round picks. Chandler Jones wasn't a high first round pick and obviously has had a brilliant NFL career. Is that

something you see the Cardinals potentially addressing. Is there a guy that could be their late first round or maybe even because of a slower forty time or maybe the height and weight aren't what everybody falls in love with, might be a second round guy that could end up having a really good NFL career as an edge guy. Yeah,

I mean I think there's depth in this group. Um, you know, there's absolutely going to be one there when they pick, because I've you know, I've tweeted out there that there's twenty edge guys I like in the straft and that's how deep it is. It really really goes so um, you know, I look at a guy like Arnold E. Vakatie from from Penn State, who's who's really really explosive off the edge. He's kind of that compact build. To me, he's like a you know from from having

watched Marcus Golden. To me, he's like a little more souped up version of that, but just has a lot of snap and a lot pop in his hands. He's a really really good player. I think he's probably he's probably gonna go, you know, mid twenties to mid thirties, like in that range. Boye Mafe from from Minnesota's another one really really you know, kind of twitched up. He's a little bit tight um, but he gives you kind

of that fastball off the edge. In terms of that body type of Chandler if you were looking for somebody maybe outside the first round, you know, Drake Jackson from from USC kind of has that real long limbed I mean he's not as tall as Chandler, but really really long, real smooth. Just was a little inconsistent for USC over his career. But that's kind of more of a second round type option that you could put in that mix. So they'll, yeah, they're they're absolutely there's gonna have options

for edge rushers with their first pick. They're gonna have options there with their second pick as well. Daniel, Let's look at some of the other storylines around the NFL draft. Do you think Aidan Hutchinson will go number one or are you betting the field? Do you see somebody else getting picked first by Jacksonville. I think it'll be him. I know there's a lot of talk and about Trent Balky being there, and Balky kind of connecting him with his past with San Francisco and Alden Smith, And who's

the Alden Smith in this draft? Well, that's more Trayvon Walker than it is Aiden Hutchinson. So there's been that kind of plot floating around out there. I just look at it from from up above and kind of looking at the big picture of it, and I'm like, all the chaos that this organization has been through in the last year, don't you just want steady in the middle of the fairway? You know, easy choice, Aiden Hutchinson. He comes in clear packaging, Dave, you know exactly what you're

getting with him. So and I think that now, I think it's it's a little disrespectful to say, oh, he's a high floor player, which kind of insinuates this guy's never going to have more than eight or nine sacks in the NFL. Not he looks like when you look at kind of his numbers, his measurables, how he moves, there's a lot of Jared Allen, you know, to him. So to me, I think that's kind of for me, it's a no brainer. Um. I guess the still some uncertainty of what they'll do, but I think that's where

they'll land. One of my favorite stories in this draft is Kenny Pickett, the quarterback from pitt We had him week two against Tennessee and meeting with Patton Ardoozy, Mark Whipple at the time, the offensive coordinator whose son Spencer you know big or to the Cardinals staff last year, Yeah, and just how they raped. And we met with Kenny as well and spoke to him for about fifteen minutes. And they were surprised that he came back because they thought he was going to be a second or third

round pick. And they thought, that's that's good. You should you should do that. It's amazing. He's now potentially the first quarterback taken. Is there a comp for him in the NFL right now? Yeah? No, he's my top quarterback. I think he's like my twenty fourth overall player. You know, when you talk about comparisons, the first one that came

to mind actually was Hasselback. Like just watching him throw the football, he reminded me of Matt, just how he kind of moves around, and you know, you'd say Hasselbeck has I would use the phrase kind of has enough of everything, right, He's got enough arm strength, he's got enough athleticism. I don't know that Matt was ever superior in any of those areas, but he's above the line and everything. And that's to me kind of like what

Kenny Pickett is. The other. If you're looking for somebody that's on an NFL field right now, i'd say kind of a Ryan Tannehill, you know, throw on the move. He's good either way doing that. Everybody really enjoys enjoys his company. That's one of the things that comes up over and over again. I'm sure you've you've felt that way just being around him. We talked to guys that around him at the Manning camp. They say he was kind of the pipe pipe or all the other college

quarterbacks wanted to be around him. Same thing at the Senior Bowls, same thing at the Combine. So I kind of look at the upside for him, is you know, I you know, if you're looking at thirty two starting quarterbacks, Dave I would say he's got a chance to be a you know, the thirteenth, fourteenth best quarterback in the league. You know, when he hits his stride and gets going, you know. I think a Kirk Cousins is probably another

one that's probably in that range. You know, Kirk's never gonna be a top five quarterback, but you can win a lot of games with him. I think Kenny Pickett's the same same type. We always we always talk on the podcast about trucks and trailers. Right, there's maybe five to six trucks in this league that are quarterbacks that can literally pull the rest of the team along with him. Everybody else is a trailer. You're kind of reluctant, you're reliant on what's you know, kind of around you and

what's supporting you. That's what he's gonna be. I think he's gonna be a trailer. Put him on a good team with good players, and you'll win games. Do you have a favorite sleeper player somebody that you absolutely love that wherever this guy goes, whether he's a top ten pick or late first or middle of the draft, guy that you think is going to be a star. Yeah, I wouldn't say a star on this one. But to me, like John Metchi from Alabama who tore his ACL he's

like the forgotten wide receiver in this draft. But he's a really really clean route runner. He catches everything, he's tough. Just put him in the slot. You know. I talked about that play strength. He's got excellent play strength. He's gonna come into the league, he's gonna get he's gonna be healthy. He's probably gonna go in the third round coming off that injury. Man, he's gonna catch eighty five

balls every year for the next ten years. Like that, to me is kind of one of those guys that if you're in the in the room, you kind of just highlight him and say, Okay, that's that's one we'd like to get into the fold. You do a lot of work for the Chargers. Are you enjoying that? By the way, do you enjoy because you do such a great job, you know on your podcast or just analyzing draft picks, But in terms of calling games, are you enjoying that? And what's it like to cover Justin Herbert

every week? Well, it's a it's a friendly reminder of how you didn't grade him properly. I get reminded of that twenty times a year, So that's a unique experience as somebody who does personnel. But he's been Yeah, it's been great, man, And you you know what, there's of all the different things I've got to do that that might be my favorite. It's just because the spontaneity of it and the excitement. There's there's fans, it's being in

the studio and you know that's fun. The draft is pretty killer, you know when we get when we took that thing on the road and now you get hundreds of thousands of people out there, that's a pretty cool rush.

But being inside the stadium um and getting a chance to you know, see a really entertaining team with with Herbert and and Derwin, James and Bosa that the division is going to be killer um for these next few years here when you've gotten Mahomes and you know the Raiders have loaded up as well, the Broncos get Russell Wilson. So I'm fired up for it. It's a lot of fun working with Matt's the best um. You know, you would know better than anybody the importance of just having

somebody you enjoyed being around. Um and Mats match really good, and then we also just have a great time together on the road, so it's yeah, it's been a lot of fun. I've been trying to replace Wolf for almost twenty years now. It still hasn't worked, so I think I think we're stuck now. That's my favorite part of the preseason, by the way, is when I get I get into a hotel because usually it's like a Charger Road game, so I get into the hotel. Yeah, I'm

usually kind of working on something. I've got the game on in the background, and as soon as I hear Wolfee, I'm like, oh, that's distinguishable. You never have to wonder who's playing on the TV when you hear the voice come out there. I love it. It's great to watch how people respond when he's on TV in preseason that don't listen to Cardinal games during the year, and they're like, who is this guy? Yea, everybody thinks he's Putty from

from Seinfeld. Everybody compares him to the voice of Elaine's boyfriend from Seinfeld. It's Twitter hits it every time every year. It's amazing. Oh, it's so good. Look, I know you've told this story before, and I don't know if there's you know, a different aspect to it that maybe you haven't talked about publicly. But I'm curious, how did you

get to how did you get started with this? You know, I grew up a lot of times listen, I knew your name just listening to your dad, who's a famous Christian author and speaker, and it written a lot of books. How did you get into this? You know, why did you get into this? And are you surprised that where it's taken you? Yeah, you know it's a total it's a total god thing because I couldn't have scripted it

or planned it the way that it happened. You know, I grew up and I was always I was always a kind of a draft junkie, as somebody who played you know, high school and college football, was always into the draft. Didn't know exactly how I could ever work in the field associated with it, but I just was

interested in and always loved it. Um my dad, as you mentioned as a pastor, so during the Super Bowl in nineteen ninety seven, Chris Mortenson from ESPN, listening to my dad on the radio, every day, and so during that Super Bowl, there was two weeks, you know, between the conference championship game the Super Bowl. So he on that Sunday between went to my dad's church and wanted to introduce himself. So went to introduced himself to my dad. I was so this would have been my freshman year

of college. I was home during that time during the break. I went home for lunch after church, and Chris Mortenson's in my family room. My dad had invited him up to lunch. So that's how I met mort and we struck up a friendship. He was so generous with me, you know, took me to media day and met Reggie White, and you know, that was kind of my first introduction to that. So we had that friendship kind of developed.

So then you kind of fast forward. I go, when I'm playing at Appalachian State in my final year, my senior year, I tear my mcl and the opener against Wake Forest so kind of basically kind of ruined my whole senior year of football. But in what would have been maybe a frustrating thing, and this is a long winded answer, but I go, I'm in the training room getting treatment. Would have never been in there at this time, if I didn't have his knee injury. My brother's college

roommate he played with at Liberty. It was a scout for the Ravens and he was going through, you know, scouting some of our NFL guys, of which I was not. So he comes into the to the training room. He recognizes me as his roommate's a little brother who he hasn't seen in six years, comes over and starts talking to me. So we kind of connect. So then that was kind of a god thing how that timing happened. Well, I ended up after college through Chris, I end up

getting on as a production assistant with Sunday Night Football. Um, so I'm traveling around with them. I was the E m G producer and I was the spotter up in the booth and so we're doing a Ravens game and I ran into my brother's roommate again in that press box, and then he induced me to Phil Savage, who was the director of player personnel, asked if I'd be interested

in scouting. Had never thought about it in a million years, So interviewed with them, got on there, and that kind of started me down down the personnel path, which again the personnel then eventually led me to the TV path. So I could have never known that Chris Mornson was going to come to my dad's church. I could have never known I was going to get hurt, which would

lead me to meet my brother's roommate in the training room. This, all these factors came together, and that's you know, that's just kind of God guiding your life and taking you where you could never imagine you could go. Well, it's a great testimony, it's a great story. You do such a great job on all the platforms, whether it's on television, the podcast, the Chargers broadcast. Really enjoy your work, Daniel,

Thanks so much for spending some time with us. Well, it's a pleasure, is all mine to get a chance to visit with you. You know, we've had a chance to visit over the years. You know how much I admire respect the work that you do. There's nobody better, my friend. Thanks, DJ, appreciate it. Man. So, Daniel Jeremiah thinks the Cardinals will likely go offense in this draft.

He did mention potentially the Cardinals looking at the defensive line at number twenty three, but he expects the Cardinals to continue to load up in terms of adding weapons to Kyler Murray's arsenal, as the expectation is especially in the NFC West, even though Russell Wilson's no longer in the division. With the forty nine ers and the potent Rams offense, the Cardinals are going to have to score

points to win the division. He does think Aiden Hutchinson out of Michigan will go number one to Jacksonville, that that's the safest pick for the Jaguars at number one, and he has Kenny Pickett out of pit as his

number one quarterback. I also love Daniel's story just on how he got into this to begin with, from growing up in a Christian home with his dad being a pastor a famous author as well, and the connection to Chris Mortenson and how that turned into Daniel getting an opportunity eventually in scouting and now he is all over NFL Network and you can catch Daniel live coverage of the NFL Draft from Las Vegas April twenty eight through thirtieth. Daniel be on a number of NFL media platforms discussing

the draft. He's also host of the Move the Sticks podcast along with Bucky Brooks. Great to talk to DJ get his perspective on the Cardinals, their off season, and look ahead to the twenty twenty two NFL Draft. Can't wait for April twenty eight through the thirtieth to catch Daniel on NFL Network and also to see what the Cardinals do with their first round selection. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the

Arizona Cardinals, and by HeLa River Hotels and Casinos. Thanks again to you for listening to another edition of the Dave Cash Podcast.