Episode 150 - XFL vs. USFL: Talent "Arms Race"!

Coming up this week on the Marcast. Well, here we are post XFL twenty twenty three season. The XFL just held its rookie draft. They're signing undrafted free agents in the offseason, trying to scoop up all of the unsigned talent they can before the USFL completes in season. In the words of a semi famous punk band from these Chicago suburbs, this and the scene, it's a arms race. Exciting show this week, your friend and mine, Rick

Sarah Tella coming back on the program. Big news from Rick in his own football career here. But also we are grading and analyzing the XFL team picks here in the off season. Rick has grades for all of the team's rookie drafts as well as the undrafted free agent safe signs, and we are spotlighting players you should keep an eye out for heading into XFL next year. Well, I think it's an arms race right whose pockets are deep enough to laught

for the long haul? And as much as I want to through both leagues be sustainable and survive, I don't know if that's going to be the case read and hopefully it's not the case, but I think that the XFL is

really not paying attention to what the USFL is going to do. They're gonna go about their business, and I do believe XFL has secured the greater level of talent, and so therefore I believe that the demand or the desire for the street free agent, at least their preference, is going to remain the XFL at least that's my understanding from the community and individuals I've spoken to. And then don't change the dial. You are here on the correct YouTube channel

here the email somewhat known as the USFL Hating Podcast. We are back Pat Raffino off of our Monday and Tuesday USFL recaps here on the main show. This week we are doing our official the Mark cast all USFL twenty twenty three team awards, handing them out. Pat has done a ton of homework you

don't want to miss. At that point, I feel like it's more of a fan bias than an actual like analytical perspective of like, oh, you know, Boogie didn't make it or this guy did make it, and it's like, I mean, they all played really well throughout the whole year, and at some point the line of demarcation gets like I put boogie as my

defensive tackle. And then we are barreling through the CFL season. Already on the week three, the BC Lions will have hopefully America's team here hopefully have beaten the Winnipeg Blue Bombers here at Thursday night before you're listening to this, but the big slate of games this weekend, we're bringing back Derek Taylor, the voice of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. You talk to everything CFL Week three. How bad are the Elks? I guess right now, right now?

Really bad? Apart from the Gino Lewis one hundred two yard reception in week one, what do they have? Two hundred yards passing at fifty percent rates? And the run game, which I think a lot of us thought was going to be really good because Kevin Brown looks like he can really hammer dudes and run that ball. Hasn't you know, hasn't picked up the slack should be. I want to help you enjoy. Hey, guys, welcome to

the marcass read here recording things a little out of order this week. Busy work week for me, so hopefully this all comes out correctly. Here busy week here, We've had the undrafted signings here with the XFL posting all that coming off through rookie draft last week. I know, John Bogel, Evan Wilsmore, coach, Craik Sports, we all kind of did the live breaking analysis of all of the bad as the draft picks came down last Friday. If you miss that, that was a good time. Were about an hour

or so kind of knee jerk reaction on that. But I was talking with Rick Sartella. He said, I want to come back. I want to do a full breakdown. I got grades and everything for all the teams, how the DPPs and everyone, the coaches, what Rick thought of all that, and also just really cool like kind of backstory tidbits on a lot of the players Rick has been acking here, so something it's not like the sexiest thing in the world here with the you know these players and do we know

them? Does the casual viewer all that? I think Rick does a good job kind of fleshing that out, but kind of the you know, the conundrum right now is XFL signing all of this talent you know USFL and they did there was it the college draft and all that. How is that all going to pan out in the arms Race for the talent. I hope that

was a good reference this week. The Fallow Up Boys song came out in oh seven, if you want to feel old about that here in the year twenties twenty three, but it was going back and forth with smog from the desolation of what the Hobbit movies whatever, hoarding the treasure and decided to go with the arms race all the Fallow Up Boy So I hope you enjoy that.

Rick also has some news to break today, some announcements from Rick Saratella here coming up in his role with the i FA the International Football Lines. Really excited and honored that Rick would take the time and feel the desire to come on our show to share some of that, hoping that we can be helpful to them and everything in their endeavor is coming down in the future. So really appreciate Rick taking the time to come on to share that news.

Like I said, did Pat Rofino coming back? Pat and I do our weekly live recaps following the USFL games over the weekend. But Patti is back, He said, I wanted to do a you know, I have Pat write articles for the website throughout the year, and Pat said I want to do an All USFL Team Awards, So we did that. Pat came on really exciting. Like I said, I talked with Pat every week, but

like getting him on the main episode, so I hope you enjoy. And then, like I said, Derek Taylor, a voice of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who is either going to be happier or sad today with the BC Lions hopefully having beaten them at home. That's that's quite the conundrum. They're BC traveling to Winnipeg to do that, but hopefully they win that. Lots of CFL stuff to talk about. I love catching up with Derek. We've had him on the last two CFL seasons, so certainly a delighted as well.

That's gonna do it for me. Today. We will be doing our USFL you know recap show on Tuesday. I believe next week Jason Hussey will be joining me as well for our Monday recaps. I hope you guys are enjoying those. For the CFL, I think we're gonna do probably a live kick you know, kick off to the championship game here with the USFL. If that's the words I'm looking for next week for Friday, so look for

information from now. I'll reach out to everyone kind of now figure out if we want to do something prerecorded their live, but keep a lookout on the twitters and Facebook's. I'll keep you guys updated for that. But should have a live show next week at getting ready for the big us Championship game, which happens to fall on my birthday, so kind for the USFL to do that. Also, Canada today a day so infamous in Canada, the Mark

cast birthday that Canada decided to make that a national holiday. So I hope you guys enjoyed the episode. We'll see at the end. Take care well.

We tried to get this gentleman on for the rookie drive busy guy here, but I said this is almost better because we kind of do the knee jerk reaction stuff and I do like a little bit more Ricks prepared here. We have grades and a little bit more formal on this. So we're talking all the XFL, the hoarding talent here, all the XFL offseason and signing and stuff. How are you doing, Rick, I'm doing great, Red happy to be here and excited for all the new players getting an opportunity in

the XFL. Great opportunity for these young men on the outside. Maybe not in a training camp or futures contract. Hey, there's plenty of opportunities in the XFL, and I'm pumped up to shed some insight. Yeah. So you know when the USFL did their college draft, it was in February. It was kind of pre the NFL. Do you like the timing of how the XFL here where it's okay, it's kind of mid June. We're given players a sense of direction here. Do you like kind of how they're looking

at you? Is it better or worse? Well? I think that I do like that the season ended and there's something to talk about right now. I do wonder like, hey, a player gets his rights taken by the XFL, Well, there's gonna be probably another nine months or so here until we report the training camp. So what happens when they get approached by other

leagues or they get signed and picked up? So I think there was a sick nificant strategy involved because you're trying to identify guys that you believe will still be available to you nine months down the road. So you want to draft talent, but you might not want to draft the guy who's too good, because chances are he might get picked up. So it was fascinating to me to see the individual team approaches in terms of strategy and how they selected the

players, and we can dive into some of that perfect that. So we'll go here. I've got both tabs up. I guess we'll start with the Ricky drafts kind of since that was the first thing. Kind of get your thoughts on all of that as we go through. Okay, so whether we got here, I do want to just start with Arley. Intend to go, Dad, You said you've identified some key players of each How do you want to tackle this? Yeah, so I mean starting with the draft.

I don't really think that players should worry too much where they were taking, what round they were taking. I think the bottom line is here you're going to have an opportunity to compete. And if you were drafted as opposed to being an undrafted free agent, well chances are the team probably likes you a

little bit more than some of the those other guys. But I think what's great about the XFL they they don't care where you come from, FBS, FCS, they don't care about the helmet sticker so once you get into training camp, anybody has a shot. And Si Barnett at a Davenport man. I wrote about this young man leading up to the NFL draft. He led the team in receiving, he led the team in punting. Oh, by the way, he's the field goal kicker as well handles kickoffs. This guy

what can't Si Davenport of Barnett do out of Davenport. I think he's gonna bring a lot of excitement to the XFL, almost like a jackknife. And I know special teams has been talked about a lot in the alternate football universe, But how exciting is it a guy who could come in make a sixty yard touchdown, catch, stay in the game, kick the extra point, kick, the kick the kickoff. Oh, by the way, we can punt too. So I like that. Connor Degenhardt, aut of New Haven,

I really liked this young kid. I thought he was one of the top twenty or twenty five quarterback prospects in the twenty twenty three NFL Draft. Now read there's a there's a big hole in the scouting community in the NFL because there's this big group think box, and because Connor Degenhart who actually led the FCS. I think in passing the two years he was at holy Cross. But then I kept asking all my Northeast scout friends, Hey, did you see the new Haven kid? What do you think of that new Haven

kid? Hey? That new Haven kid's a player. But because he wasn't on the Blessed Though or the national teams didn't go in, they didn't give him a look. They didn't take him seriously. This kid has a dual threat six foot six, two hundred and thirty five pound cannon arm quarterback, four year starter conn and Degenhart, remember that name. I think he could

be a star in the XFL. And then Merlin Robertson out of Arizona State, one of these super seniors who at one point was being talked about as a potential next level prospect, didn't really take his game to the next level. Had success early on and in Sundevil's career, but then kind of plateau.

So now he's gonna have an opportunity to show off some of that past rushing prowess for the Arlington Rene gates in terms of Arlington, and I think in the in the off whatever Wednesday claimed yesterday, I think there's another quarterback here, but with the rending Gates taking Connor taking the quarterback, and obviously you know we did Louise and kind of all that stuff. Does that tell you anything about how they're looking, they're approaching that they're kind of just stockpiling

right now as they can. Well, I think, you know, the quarterback position, and I don't care what league you are, you can never have enough of them. Look at the Memphis show Boats for example, you know, so to me, and look at the NFL. You know, you're only one snap away from your backup quarterback. And look at the situation that Arlington ran into last year at the quarterback position. And then you see

the success that Louis Perez has enjoyed. Well, if I'm an NFL team, I would love to have him as a camp arm as a ninety man roster camp invite. And then again, you know, you come in and you're a thrower, You start in pressing and say, hey, maybe we should sign this guy to the practice squad. So I think Arlington kind of saw the writing on the wall. Hey we might lose Louis Perez. This

is a good looking player, let's draft him. And you know, I can dive into the free agents, or we can keep that separate however you want to work it. Yeah, why don't we do that? We can do We can do the Arlington free agents here as well as see Yeah. So Noah Henderson out of ECU again a multiple year starter offensive lineman. I kind of projected him as a guard at the NFL level. He might get a chance to stick at tackle for the XFL, So I think he's gonna

come in compete for a starting job. Noah Tailor out of North Carolina, linebacker, started off at Virginia. Very good physical specimen, probably a strong side linebacker, can get after the quarterback, set the edge against the run, and even drops back and pass coverage for a big man a little bit. So Noah Henderson out of ECU. Noah Tailor out of North Carolina.

Bob Stoops tapping into his college resources there. Yeah that's interesting. Yeah, he's probably got you know, some of these guys, but Bob and his staff movie a leg up on that. Just in terms of relationships and things. I don't know you have that makes any difference at all or not? Yeah, anything anything else from the running gads. Yeah, so you have Connor Blumrick as well, quartering back out of Virginia Tech. So yeah, definitely kind of picking up as many as they can right now, kind of

wanting to figure out what they're going to do coming in the camp. Yeah, I mean overall, I mean I did it. I did letter grades. Initial reaction. I gave the Arlington running gades an A minus. I actually thought they had the second best overall draft slash free agent signings. Well, it's interesting too because and we were talking on the you know whatever, the draft show we did last week. You have some of these teams, Okay, we've had issues anyway we need to figure out, right, you

know, we need to work on a defense or whatever. But then some of these teams, you know, like the defenders, we have a bunch of these guys signed at the NFL. Then you just got to make up for the holes that you have. So you're kind of getting the holes in two different directions here, whether it's hey, we were so good, now we have players that are getting taken or we really need to shore up whatever

issue of our team. Yeah. I think also the common denominator amongst all the teams is offensive linemen, right, whether they drafted him or signed. Every team is looking to add depth and competition at the offensive line position.

Yeah. I remember we had air Galkon here god like two years year and a half ago now talking about that that he said, you know, come, come with all these leagues competing quarterbacks and O line And he said, back with XL twenty twenty, they had a list of you know, unsigned offensive linemen that they could bring in if there was injuries. And he said when when COVID shut that league down, he said, there were very few names on that list, so that people that they could still call up.

And that was only five weeks into the season. So absolutely so a minus for Arlington here. I guess we'll go back DC defenders here, starting off on the rookie draft. Yeah. DC Defenders, Now, I remember when we recap their initial draft before the season, we talked about, man, they're gonna run and gun and look to run some spread formations. Look at all the wide receivers, and again they had success with their wide receiver unit. I think bond's kind of doubled down here with two big playmakers.

Tye Scott at a Missouri State again an FCS under the radar prospect who you know, quite frankly had some concerns amongst the scouting community in terms of whether he could separate. Okay, coming from that small school competition caliber of talent. Well, guess what. Now he'll get to prove in the XFL that he can be a big time playmaker at the next level. And C. J. Johnson again ECU very productive, can make a lot of plays over

the middle, can play outside inside. I think I think Vaughan saw an opportunity that hey, we might lose some wide receivers to your point read let's double down. And then again Jack Plumbo out of Iowa, a polished offensive lineman. The Hawkeyes do one thing. They take two and three star recruits, they coach him up, and by time they depart, they have a fundamental baseline that can really as a low baseline. Right, So the ceiling might not be as high for a Jack Plumber, but you know what you're

getting very fundamentally sound, a polished player. And then Alex Jensen out of South Dakota, a multiple years starter. And those two guys again, whether they come in and compete for a starting job or provide depth, I think it's going to serve them well. I gave the DC defenders a B and I did have Josh Falo at a usc a tight end as one of the undrafted free agent signings. He caught my eye at one point for the Trojans. He was a bona fide test catching target and he did run into some

injury struggles there throughout his collegiate career. So if Josh Falo can kind of get back on track healthwise, I think that's another again passing target for the DC Defenders quarterbacks in the passing attack. Yeah, be curious to see where they go and then they We're still kind of waiting this Talmu get picked up somewhere. He kind of bounced around last year, so it'll be curious kind of if they really need to reevaluate kind of what their core identity is or

if they can run it back. You know they bring you know, Derrick King, right, this kind of the primary guy who're moving forward? Absolutely correct, So moving so beat moving on here, Like we got Houston Roughnecks coming up, the Houston Roughnecks. Yes, And I will say that Bob Morris was locked in all week at the NFLPA Collegiate Ball He was he was there for the duration, and he was looking for talent, and he took a number of our guys from the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, some of them that

I was shocked, quite frankly that they're still available. Let's start off with Lindsay Scott out of Incarnet Ward, coached by G. J. Kinney, and I'll tell you what, five ft ten But if you look at the frame read, he's very similar to a Kyler Murray. The arm strength is not much less than a Kyler Murray. The scrambling ability is arguably just as good. And if you remember Charlie Ward back in the day, he was probably about thirty years too early for the NFL. But Lindsay Scott, to

me, is the reincarnation of Charlie Ward. I think this guy, along with Connor Degenhart, who we talked about with Arlington, I think Lindsay Scott is a guy who could take the league by storm. I really do another dual threat seven year, seventh year senior read he's got a lot. I think he accounted for seventy touchdowns passing and rushing this past season. And then Michael Ayers out of Ashland. I am stunned that they were able to acquire

this young man. He is an NFL talent. He came out of high school unranked defensive back, one hundred and eighty five pounds, soaking wet, bunked up forty fifty pounds during his time in college, became a linebacker, very good coverage skills, flies to the football, great lateral coverage. A true athlete, this, Michael Man. This is what the xf BEL is

all about. Developmental prospects, and Michael Layers is a great one, as is Jason Adamola at a Notre Dame tweener right, lacks the arm length, lacks the prototypical height, but man, he started several years there for the fighting irish showed glimpses. I think he can be productive in spurts. I'm curious to see how they're going to use them on the inside outside. Is he a kind of versatile defensive lineman that they move up and down the line.

I think he's going to make an impact for the Houston Roughnecks, and that's why I gave them an A. I thought Bob Morris had the best draft, and I like Braydon Johnson, the undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma state whether he plays wide receiver or tight end. I think that'll be a nice pest catching target for their offense. The interesting thing too about Lindsey Scott is he was obviously a couple of the players picked up by both the USFL

and the XFL, so they'll be curious kind of. You know, we've talked a lot about how these drafts are kind of like the Canadian neglist, where you know if you come in that you know you might never set foot in their life, be curious to see you know, you do the XFL, and then if you get cothered it doesn't work out. I don't think

the USFL is going to say no at that point. I mean, do you do you find it interesting that both these leagues are kind of taking competing idea of philosophies here in terms of kind of getting these rights taken up for teams. Well, I think it's an arms race, right whose pockets are

deep enough to last for the long haul. And as much as I want to see both leagues be sustainable and survive, I don't know if that's going to be the case read and hopefully it's not the case, but I think that the XFL is really not paying attention to what the USFL is going to

do. They're going to go about their business, and I do believe XFL has secured the greater level of talent and so therefore I believe that the demand or the desire for the street free agent, at least their preference, is going to remain the XFU at least that's my understanding from the community and individuals I've spoken to. Interesting is that do you attribute that to better scouting, better you know, directors, the player personnel kind of doing there. I

mean, what do you attribute that too? I think in the twenty twenty three landscape, read the industry that we're in, the players that were targeting, a lot of it is about the pizzaz the rock brings sex appeal. They just have a more significant presence. And when you look on the TV channel there's more than a hundred people in the stands. That counts for something. Post COVID shots fired here. No, I'm not, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not saying I'm not. I'm not I'm not firing shots.

I'm just being honest that when I turn on the TV and there's eighty seven people in the stands. I say that that's an issue. That's all I mean. I think it's valid. Anything else from Roughnecks you said you gave that, would you say great? Did we get a great for the well? Hey, the Roughnecks I gave an Ay, Bob Marris, hats off to you. All Right, let's go here back. We got Ricky

drafts here, we're flying through. This is good Orlando Orlando Guardians. Okay, So Rock Martin out of Oklahoma State, he's another guy, highly productive inside outside. What I like about brock Martin reed is he can bring pass rush from the interior. That's a rare skill set. A lot of times you get opportunities at the NFL level when you can do that. But I

think Brock Martin again, he's got those alligator arms. He's gonna scare off NFL decision makers, and so he'll get an opportunity to come in and make his presence known. Darius Joiner out of Duke another P five pedigree, can play safety, can play corner. We'll see, you know, kind of weird. He settles in on the defensive side and then on the offensive side. I thought Jared Horst from Michigan State, you know, the Spartans are

another program. They have a long history of putting drafted free agent offensive linemen in the league, and that's again because of their ability to cross train players and then teach them the fundamental So Jared Horst out of Michigan State was the guy that caught my attention on the offensive side. They also signed a fighting Irish bow Bauer, the linebacker, an undrafted free agent. Orlando to me, I felt like had one of the more disappointing rookie drafts just in terms

of impact. I think Rock Martin will make an impact, but I guess, you know, from the skill positions. I felt like Orlando needed to build on the skill positions. I did not see them achieve that, so I gave them a C plus. It's interesting too. Yeah, we've had on Buckley kind of postseason and then he was on our pregame show for the championship game. You know itself. Admittedly, they did not do a great

job team building last year. I think he would have him first and foremost, like you know, he had never done this and trying to bring in Larry Lee and kind of figure all this kind of stuff out. Interesting the day you feel like they haven't taken that next step here, even kind of with a year and knowing like, okay, these are the things we need to kind of focus on. It's hard, you know, when you've never

done it before. There is an adjustment period and I think you know, you see some of the titles some of these Bob Marris worked in the NFL. Right, Von Hutchins, I always go back to, has been scouting these guys for the last several years. When you're not living that life and then you come in and try to play catch up. You're competing against others who have three, four, five, ten year head start. It's not that it's you know, it's easy for us to sit here in our chairs

and say, oh that was great, man. They blew that opportunity. Listen, there's more than just talent, right. It's about scheme, it's about fit, it's about DNA right, It's about a person's attitude. Right. Because again, you know we see this with the CFL. The biggest lesson to be learned a guy like Brock Martin. I never met him personally. I'm just gonna use them as an example. Oklahoma State, big time

player, All Conference, someone like that. They might have an ego, right, they go up to the CFL, they get their ass kicked right because they think, ah, I got it like that. But that's not the case. There's a high level of talent in the CFL the XFL, especially with the starting teams. Okay, where where you see the bigger separation of quality is the depth, right, the twos and the threes. But in terms of the starters the XFL the CFL, I think they're both very

formidable. And that's why you've got to kind of meet these men. You've got to sit down, you got to talk with them. You gotta understand where their head is at. You want to pick their brain and know like what is your why why are you here and why do you want to participate in this league? Because there are a lot of players read who feel like are too good. And then there are a lot of players and I'm not knocking this either it's NFL or nothing, and they have a clear vision and

I respect that. Okay, everybody is a case by case basis the hardest thing to measure heart and head. I say it all the time, and that's why there's a need for scouts. That's why there's a need for general managers and that's why you know you you bat three hundred, you're doing great

well. And like you said, there needs to be you know, even if you're only buying into the XFL for that one season or you know, USFL, to get to that, there has to be a level of buying and kind of like why are you here and what's your why and whether you know whether you're going to be here for you know, three or four years, you're going to be here for a year, like you at least got to be committed while you're here and kind of go for it absolutely. So

at see for them. I love Trull Buckleys. I wish if they performed on the field like they do, therefore they go. I love them coming out of Syracuse too. I remember he was a good player coming up here in San Antonio. Bramas, hines Worth and company. Yeah, the Brama's. So I'll start off. Jalil Billingsley out of Texas, Okay, came over from Alabama, lost the starting job to Lato, followed Sarkasian over to Texas. Left the program just this past season. Okay, So there was

a lot of questions about his commitment to the game. Of what we just talked about this right, the love for the game, the passion for the game. And so he was another player we had at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. At one point, Jalil Billingsy was thought to be a top one hundred overall NFL prospect. So here he is now, very athletic, very limber. Okay, And now I heard he did very well in his team interviews at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. Apparently not well enough because here he is now

he's gonna have to go prove himself. And again, teams want to see that level of commitment. Does he come in, does he work his ass off, does hear the starting job? Does he dominate the level of competition. If Jalaile Billingsley checks off over those boxes, he'll be playing in the National Football League in two years. Right, that's the journey. Okay. I love the pick. By the way, Chris Smith at a Louisiana Lafayette.

You know, he was probably the best looking running back down at the Tropical Ball this past season, and the Tropical Ball pulled some good players. Chris Smith very good between the tackles, runner, capable hands out of the backfield, I I like his ability to fit into the kind of rotation and add a little bit of variety to that San Antonio backfield. On the defensive side, Lorenzo McCaskill, the linebacker, was the guy who stood out to

me who I think could come in and make some noise. And then you've got the undrafted free agents. Luke Ford out of Illinois. I saw them list him as a wide receiver. I believe he was a tight end for the line I so I don't know if that was a typo or they want to try him at wide receiver. I would imagine his natural fit though, is at tight end. And then Nazier Right, I gotta give a shout

out to my guy out of William Patterson. And that's the things that get me excited is that whereas the NFL, you do have teams, scouts, decision makers, who's gonna stand on the table for a guy from William Patterson. Not too many individuals. And that's what I love to see. Guys like Nasier right get a bona fide, legitimate opportunity. And so I gave

the Brahmas a solid beat. I appreciate this. The insights here and the stories I think, and this is why you're a good person for this kind of fit to come in, because it's really hard to sell this as exciting, right, A lot of this kind of we're talking here offseas whoever. But I think for you know, casual fans or people like me, I don't know any of these players, and so getting the insights from you, I think it's incredibly help and kind of rounding out people's thoughts about this.

So I really appreciate that. I think it's very helpful. That's why I enjoy being here. Read so rams okay saying anything else on them, We'll move here. What do we got? C dragons here? Mueller and company? And this is obviously a team close near and dear to my heart. So how do we do well? You'd be happy to know I gave them a B plus? All right, So they had the third best draft in my book, and that's because tightest Swin from Wyoming, whoa buckle up.

This young man made a very strong case to be the NFL PA Bowl MVP. If you go back and watch this year's edition, he toted the rock I think close to twenty times, and he really broke a lot of tackles, busted off big runs. You talk about yards after contact, you better wrap up Tightest Swin out of Wyoming I thought, I thought he made a strong case for MVP of that game. Kolbe Reader out of Iowa State. This is an instant impact guy for the Cyclones. You might remember his brother,

Troy Reader. They played together at Delaware. Kolbe Reader now is twenty seven years old, another one of these seventh year seniors. Had a lot of injuries along the way. But when you talk about forty one inch vert four to five forty prototypical modern day linebacker, size does an excellent job setting the edge against the run. Now, I think he's the prototypical weekside linebacker.

Now will Kobe Reader want to participate at twenty seven years old? Is he about that journey trying to get to the NFL because he will have to play another season and then he'll be a twenty eight or twenty nine year old trying to break into the NFL. That's the fascinating backstories, right, Everybody loves the story of an underdog. I'll tell you what Kobe Reader's story is

fascinating. And then how about Sam Burt and Malcolm Lee and that Kansas Hawk program to turnaround that they enjoyed, and that's because of these two young men on the defensive side, and so they tapped into some of that Jayhawk's success. Hopefully that breeds off on the rest of the team. And then in terms of the free agent that is going to be intriguing. How about the Nicosy Perry at a Florida Atlantic. He's just a big body quarterback, can

sling it around very consistent. But there was enough flashes there right that shows the tantalizing upside. And so I don't think Nicosy Perry is a guy that's going to come in and replace Ben Denucci. But I do think he's a guy that you want to have around because the right coach might say, hey, I can work with that. Give me a year to just groom him, teach him the verbiage of the offense, tweak some of those mechanics, get the upper body and sync with the lower body, and then suddenly you

might have a player here. And that's that's where the quarterbacks liking Nakocy Perry, who have enjoyed success at the collegiate level, they need those reps. I say, it all the time. Nothing replaces in game bullets. You cannot teach experience, and so yeah, I thought there was a great balance by the way on both stacking the offense and defensive side of the ball for the Seattle Sea Dragons. Well, the other thing you said was bringing in

this Nikosi Perry. You know, I don't know how long Ben d Nucci's leashes here with the Broncos, right, and if that is going to pan out for everything he wants, I don't. I don't know if Danici is about that life of coming back and doing the XFL again. I think this is like, you know, I mean, we kind of we did this and it was fun, and now I don't I don't see him making a second return here, So I don't know if Montes is the answer. I think they had Harrison Frost as well, so you know, no one else

really saw. I think Montez got one snap or something in the game. So you know, we certainly need to figure out something there with Seattle without a d go in here. Whether we got St. Louis next, Yeah, the BattleHawks. So we got a couple of guys here that stuck out to me. You know, I am fascinated that this Nico Bolden at a Kent State did not get picked up by the NFL. Now, he was dealing with the hand injury. We had him out at the NFL PA Collegiate

Bowl as well. But talking to Nico, looking up at this man six foot four right, two hundred and twenty pounds, kind of that Cam Chancelloresque type of safety. Okay, go look at the production through the roof, dangerous with the ball in his hands. Now, I do think the medical did not check out well, which is why he was still available. But man, this might arguably be the best player chosen in the draft overall.

Nico Bolden at a Kent State Matthew Jester, I gotta show love you guys, may or may not know on based here in New Jersey, but again out of Princeton, right, something tells me read that maybe that Princeton degree could be put to better use and earned more money than in the XFL. But again, where's his head at? Does he just love the game so much that he wants to play, So that'll be a storyline that we pay attention to. And then they drafted a tight end. They signed a tight

end, and I like both of them for their on field talents. At least Kamore Gamble out of UCF kind of had a streak career and then he was drafted. Kamari Averitt was signed, and I think this was probably the most controversial signing or selection because if you don't know the story of Kamari Averitt out of Bethune Cookman, former P five pedigree off the field incident has been well documented. I'm not going to discuss it here. It can very easily

be found. I'm gonna stick to his on field talent. Maurice Jones Drew told me that he might be the best player in attendance at the NFL PA Bowl. Maurice Jones Drew loved this man. We sat back watched to make plays all week long. Big time pass catcher, six five, two hundred and forty pounds, runs like a deer. The man obviously has some talent. Anthony Becked took a chance. Anthony Becked rolled the dice and so I am going to be fascinated to see what comes of it. And then Don

Peterson at a Nevada another free agent signing. I want to mention lacks the true size maybe to play in the NFL, six foot three hundred pounder maybe doesn't check off the boxes from a measurable standpoint, but again got after the quarterback there, made a bunch of plays. And that is somebody where, you know, if he wants to have a professional football career in an ultimate league. Don Peterson, you know, that's the kind of guy that maybe

it hangs around for a couple of seasons. Unlike abandoned the Nucci who you mentioned, But overall I liked what Um Saint Louis did. I gave the Battle Hawks again a solid beat. Oh it's good, like you said, with some of these, you know, Camari, it's you knowest league of opportunities here if they want to do that. And we've seen other players, you know, Kavanti Chirpin and people get you know, kind of work through and get their way in. And John Oakman was another good example in the

CFL. Uh So Cema the last one here go back to the draft. We got the Vipers here obviously with um, you know Woodson being gone, I think Joey kind of did a lot of the you know whatever for them right now kind of in the interim. So what did you make because they're a little bit of a different situation here without the head coach. Yeah, Joey Clint Kal's I respect greatly. Again, this is just one man's opinion. I gave them a D as a dog, I gave them the worst

grade. It's okay, beauty's in the eye of the beholder. I just didn't see a lot of players that stood out to me personally right. And it doesn't mean that they didn't draft quality caliber players. It means that we talked about this in the beginning of the segment. Every organization has different strategies, and maybe they tried to find guys that said, hey, I don't think they're going to be in the NFL, but they fit in our system

pretty well, and I think that's kind of the approach they took. Now, Robert Mitchell at an NC Central's a good looking offensive lineman from the HBCU ranks, and I like that pick. I think he's a guy that's going to come in and compete for a starting job. A lot of the other players they chose, I had to go back and do some research on them, and I'm still learning and finding out about them. So either they did a tremendous job or a very poor job, and that's to be determined.

You know. On the undrafted free agent side, the BYU defensive lineman Lorenzo Faut too. He comes from a football family, so again, guys that love the game, Guys that came up with that football pedigree. And so those were like two guys that really stood out for me on the biggest Vipers in terms of impact. I don't see it, but I hope I'm wrong. And so they graded out with the worst draft, but hey, everybody has an opinion and we know what we make of those read Well, that's

good. I appreciate that. You know, they Vegas has a lot of heavy lifting, both on the field and off the field. They're coming into the season, so you would certainly like to see them not handicapped it too much. That was good. D any other thoughts on this? And I know we have some other rick news here we're going to talk about, But you have anything else from the draft or the assignings? No, you know, I just wish that there was more. I do believe that there is

a thirst for live coverage. I give much props to you and the Mark cast for hosting a live show or as close to live coverage that you guys could possibly provide. But I just have taking my industry related hat off right, and just from a fan of the league, because I am. I'm a big fan of the league. I expect and want more. That's me speaking as a fan. Like there's a draft, sign me up, I want I want to know about it. I want to know what's going down.

I want to hear about these players. I think that your statement of saying, man, I love the backstories, like that's how you create a following, that's how you relate the fans to the players. And I think that the fact that we didn't have the backstories, or we didn't have the reaction from the coaches, or we didn't have live player interviews talking about how

they felt about the whole experience. I go back to the wood analogy that the tree really fall because nobody was there to see it, and so to me, I just I want to see more. I get it. It's not something that set up four but a phone call to the kid over here, we could have made it happen. Come on, buckle up. But overall, listen, I like what the XFL is doing, and I just hope that they are able to sustain. We saw them burned through five hundred

million in a matter of months. The fact that they only lost sixty million, I thought was a job well done. Call me crazy, but I did not expect them to make money this year. No, I mean, well, that whole story has just been frustrating, you know, with all that coming out. But now I know it's I think that it just there's an expectation when you call it a draft, that there's something that's going to

be done. We're like I said, if they were just going to drop the names like they did with this, I wouldn't call it, you know, I wouldn't call it that, or I wouldn't promote, you know, because they're promoting it. Hey, we're signing all these players today and all the teams are tweeting out this all last week. Why would it just done what you did this week and just drop the list and go here we got

these guys. You're not going to make a deal about it, you know when I talk with the league and it just said like we know we need like we know, like we're next time, next time, and you know it's a next time until there's not a next time. And if you don't have enough interest in a lot of this stuff. That's kind of my thing is at some point I want, you know, USFL, if you could combine both of them, not merging, but just the philosophies of things.

Where the USFL made a really big deal of their college draft and I don't think it really was a big deal, but they live tweeting and they had all this kind of stuff and if you, yeah, if you could marry that with the XFL, and I, yeah, I have issues with that, but that's for another day. So you have other exciting stuff for whether we have going on. I saw it when I was trying to find you to talk about the draft. I said, what the heck is ricks twitter

handle? What do we have going on? We're changing things around here, so what's going on? Yeah, so you know read, Uh, it's an exciting time for me personally coming on board. Um, gonna make this announcement here. I haven't stayed in anything publicly, but you know, I appreciate the platform. I do believe the Mark Cast is really the authoritative voice

for alternate football. So I appreciate the fandom and the following, and we're gonna make a little bit of news here and just get it out there that I am joining the International Football Alliance as their executive vice president and director of International Relations. What the heck does that mean? Rick? Let me explain before I do. I want to be clear because I know a lot of well respected individuals in the football community and industry that I've already told me that

I'm crazy. I hear you, I understand, and I get it. So with that being said, I want the listening audience at home to understand that this is not just the launch of a new football league. It is the growth of American pro football internationally around the globe. And the league mission and my personal mission is going to be to grow professional American football around the world. And we are based in Mexico. We're a Mexican based league with

American pro football rules. Will have three teams in Texas, three teams in Mexico. In fact, we just announced a team, the first ever team relocating from Mexico to Dallas, the Pioneers, and we have independent ownerships. But we're not coming in and saying, hey, we're bringing American pro football to the Mexican fan base. No, we are going to grow and develop

the game from a youth level. We're going to develop youth programs and every city we're in we're going to establish flag football leagues, women leagues, and it's to grow the game, not just the league, the game of football internationally. And that's our hope, that's our expectations. If you look at the logistics of where each team is strategically placed, they can all be shuttled on buses, okay. And so that will be the first season we will

have independent ownerships. We will be based in each cities. There will be no hub. We want to connect with the community and establish ourselves in the markets. We're going to kick off in June twenty twenty four. And there's more. We'll have a rookie draft in December. There's going to be eight combines before then. The first one will be held July twenty ninth in San

Diego. There will be several in Mexico. We're coming to the northeast, the southeast, the midwest, the west coast, and we're gonna find the talent and they're going to be eligible for our draft, and they're not going to be just eligible for the International Football Alliance. We are working with strategic partnerships and relationships with other international leagues around the globe. There is a broadcast deal in place. I can't announce that yet, but I've been very impressed

and blown away with the leadership and ownership groups, and I'm excited. Well, now you get to you know, you got to put your money where your mouth is here where it's been like, yeah, we spent here and you know we're critiquing whatever. Now you're getting diving head into this. What inspired this or brought this on for you to get involved? Well, they

called me and pursued me aggressively. I feel like that the past twenty plus years, I've been kind of grooming for this job, for this role because here at the NFL Draft Bible, I've been boots on the ground read for the last two decades of living this life and providing players with opportunities. And now I get a chance to do it for the entire world. I feel like the future of American pro football is in my hands. That's how I look at it, and that's what I'm excited to do. I feel like

this is the next challenge for me. I was so excited to learn that American Pro football is now the second most watched sport in Mexico behind soccer. It has surpassed baseball. So there's a thirst for this in North America and there is a huge thirst around the world. And we are going to empower other countries to be sustainable, educate and teach them how to develop their leagues. And we're gonna work with other leagues. We're not in competition. We're

gonna work in association. And the salaries, I know is going to be the first question. It's going to be very comparable to what you're seeing in these alternate spring leagues. Well, this is exciting. I'm glad that we can kind of help be a part of this. You know, you have a home here. Anytime you want to say anything or do anything, so

I appreciate it. Anything else about this or anything else before we get out of here the back, you know, I do have a couple of things, you know, ri c at IFA dot football for any inquiries, a couple of housekeeping notes. So in order to be eligible for the December an All Girl Draft, you have to compete in one of the eight combines. We will immediately have a supplemental draft held in January and then the free agency

signing will happen in February leading up to the June kickoff. Okay, there is some confusion there amongst a John Jenkins combine that players were told they were going to be in the if A draft pool. The league office is currently investigating the whole situation and any player who participated in that event, we will

be reaching out to you to clarify your status. Okay, but you will have the opportunity to be eligible for the if A draft and if you choose to come and compete in one of these other IFA affiliated camps or combines, if you did participate in the John Jenkins camp, we will waive your fee so that you can come and work out in front of the if A decision makers such as how Mummy, such as Mark Lazano, Sancha as Noel Mazzoni and individuals such as that magnitude. So we're looking forward to it. Stay

on the lookout. Yes, my Twitter handle will now serve as everything if A. Buckle up. The floodgates are about to open, and I appreciate you read providing the platform right here on the Mark Cast to get that news out there. Well, Rick, I appreciate it. Like I said, the wealth of knowledge here, so you know whatever you're involved in, and I certainly appreciate it and that we'll get you back on. But thank you so much, like I said, for doing the time and prep and kind

of having all this ready to go. It means a lot, So thank you sounds great. Well, normally we go live every week. It's very

rare now that we actually prerecord this, but I'm sure we'll She'll get into the same Shenani against it. We have Pat Raphino here, Pat, how are you doing? I'm doing well, man. I just got done practicing my long snapping. Probably do about twenty reps today just in case I calls, So be ready, Yeah, be ready for the call. Well, we've had so you know, Pat and I've been doing our Monday recaps or Tuesday recaps USFL. Now, the USFL haters that we are have assembled our

own all all USFL team here for the mark cast. Pat, how's the article up? I will publish it on Friday with the article are you with the video here? And then we're going to take umbridge with the USFL list as well. So any preface stuff before we get into this. Really Um, I saw a couple like obviously, Mike did a Mike did his own article. Um Luke Miller from Newsroom did an article. M a meme was

made by the network guys. So I mean, I mean, I appreciate anyone who takes the time to physically write all this stuff down rather than you know whatever. And I'm not trying to throw shade, but regardless, there are a lot of people who are putting out so their stuff on Twitter and their platforms as well. So I think it's you know, I think it's pretty cool, you know that a lot of people are in the community. I think I think there was only one other person I saw outside of news

Hub to do an all XFL article All the XFL. And I apologize that I was watching that I didn't do do one, because you know, we were kind of rolling pretty hard in the USFL season and believe it or not, like I do have like a real gledge, but yeah, but I but yeah, I felt like we needed to do to do it, you know, we have I had a little bit of time, so I had no problem doing it well. And the cool thing about the all USFL team kind of thing is you're able to you know, I mean magoo and stuff.

I mean, some guys are gonna get accolades regardless, but it's good to kind of put a spotlight on some of the positions and maybe don't get as much bizazz or some of the players aren't, you know, kind of going the whole way down picking quarterback, you know, positions all the way down, special teams and all of that stuff. So first off, at USFLU what is it now? The USFL dot com? I could never remember

their actual thing. Uh, this was different than you know, the R. J. Young I think had his like stand out halfway through the season with no offensive lineman or whatever. This is a little bit more full fledge here. I don't know who exactly with the USFL put this together, but but what stands out to you about the all USFL um the offensive lineman and I believe Kyrie Woods was not on it. Um. Offensive line is the hardest position to evaluate, right and I'm pulling it up on my computer right

now. So there are two guys that stood out to me, Marquis Lucas and I believe Kirk Kelly. Both of them did not get all USFL honors. They were the highest some you know Ben Cooper and Mark excuse me, Mike made a very good thing about this. Is like Ben Cooper did ninety percent of the work for a lot of guys, you know what I mean. Like, obviously there's some football pizzazz in there that you need to figure

out. But in the end, like you know, the grade is the grade for a reason and ninety percent of the time, like it is accurate and whatnot, and it does coincide with how air quote the popular vote of a lot of this comes down. So to see to see, uh, excuse me, Kirk Kelly and Marquis Lucas not getting any recognition was a little bit disappointing to me. Into U Kyrie Woods as well, So I don't think he was selected either at the safety position. I think he was the

highest graded player in during PFF. But now that's saying that's end all be all. I think that'd be extremely irresponsible. But that's my opinion. I'm really glad. I felt like this gentleman Adam Rodriguez got snubbed last year.

I think he was second in the league in sacks. Seeing him get the award this year pretty solid in my case, or in my opinion, and then I mean so and well, we'll kind of deviate off some of this a little bit, but I went with Ryan Navarro for my long snapper, and I know who cares about long snappering right outside of me, but there is a you know, cult like community that does. And the way I did it was as many snaps as you could have, like the like the

punting thing. You know, you could take the statistics how you want, inside the twenties, hang time, this that longust plant yardage um. For me with like the special team's position, it always comes down the volume. So like if you went, you know, ninety three for one hundred, you know, obviously that's an even number ninety three percent, But like when you obviously up the volume, you're gonna shine yourself for more miss kicks or like, okay, you had seven misses, but they were all from fifty

five and out. You know, That's it's kind of like Sebastian Janikowski. They would try to field goals with him from sixty plus and it's like he had five miss field goals and in a year and it's like, yeah, they're all over fifty though, Versus a guy who kind of took the cheap route and you know it was hitting forty forty forty forty any other big science I felt like Boogie wasn't on here, any other kind of big notable snubs

that you saw a kind of outcry today from the Twitter series. Yeah, I mean, like you really couldn't go wrong in my opinion, with John Atkins, Toby Johnson, Boogie Roberts. There's only two spots, so it's kind of just like who's your guy type of thing, you know what I

mean, And it's like who who did you like the most? It kind of goes like I would flip points on all three of those guys, and that's pretty much what I did, including the Pittsburgh Muller's defensive tackle Isaac I can't say his last name, it starts with an S, but I mean he was another guy that was up there as well. I mean like it kind of in my opinion, it kind of gets a little goofy goofy with that, like sometimes just it's too close, you kind of wonder wonder what

was the deciding factor? And that intrigues me more because if you know, as long as any and four of those guys were like they're all gonna feel snubbed obviously the ones you didn't make it, but regardless, like at that point, I feel like it's more of a fan bias than an actual, like analytical perspective of like, oh, you know, Boo, you didn't make it or this guy didn't make it, and it's like, I mean, they all played really well throughout the whole year, and at some point

that the light of demarcation gets, like I put Boogie as my defensive tackle, but I just felt like he meant more to the team than Toby, you know, and like other people could call me wrong and Toby would call me wrong and that's fine, but you know, it is an opinion based rating for some of these less sexy positions. No Matt Mangel as well, a friend of the show on here. I mean, I guess no surprise,

right, I mean, like Magoo and everything. Somebody whom running back MARYA, Mark Thompson, West Hills, I mean, some of them, I think you're a little bit more cut, you cut and dry who you're going to have on there. What was the issues with Mark Thompson tweeting that he wished he played quarterbacks he could get the MVP because they haven't US hasn't right announced their MVP yet, but it's presumably Magoo. It is Mark Thompson

trying to make the position the case that he should be MVP. I mean he has an opportunity to, and I mean Kavante Turfin won it last year through playing in multiple facets of the game, whether rushing the ball, catching the ball, and returning kicks and punts. Right, So it's like, we're not in that NFL sphere where essentially the m is the best quarterback right

now. And we've talked about this a couple of times where when Andrew Luck played, he was the most valuable player because of what they did without him.

Right, So it's like, do TJ pleasure to me? Devalues Mark Thompson as the MVP a little bit because of how great TJ was the first two weeks when Mark was out, Alex Magoo came in and granted, he put up some great stats and everything like that, he put up some great stats, it was really impressive and whatnot, but he came in as the backup and to see what he did to that team, like the drop off between him and Jamar Smith like non existence if anything. They accelerated on that

accelerated a little bit. So then you take and I might be talking in circles here that same logic with TJ. Pleasure to Mark Thompson, Like if Mark Thompson's gone, they have another running back in there, they might be doing the same thing. Where as far as Magoo's gone, it's not happening with Jalen Morton. And we've we've seen Kyle Silier. You know, I think he improves a little bit, you know, because I think this team

is better than the Breakers from last year. But regardless, like you know, Soldiers soldiers been Bank was banged up in the UH in the XFL, he was banged up all last year, Like we kind of know who he is at this point. Anything else from this one will get to your list over on the Mark Cast. Anything else from the Usabella list, I mean justin Hall, I get it. Um, I don't really like the only two receivers, but I mean I only put one running back in mind,

so I mean pick and choose. I did give a fullback shout out online. Um, you know it's it's a position and the NFL does it, so why not us, Like you know, it's it's my opinion. You know, I can't. I can't fault any of these guys. Man, Like, you know, we don't know what the actual analytics of the voting committee committee are. So until we do know, then we're kind of in that rock and a hard place as far as like who's who and whatnot? If that makes sense. So we have this up mine here in draft mode

right now, the Mark cast. I don't want to go through all USFL team. Hopefully I have this formatted correctly. We can edit anything to hear and published when we go left, what do you have? Where do you want to start here? I mean, we'll go. We'll go. You know, if who if if if not McGoo, then who. I'm willing to hear the argument. I don't hear anything, you know what I mean. I feel like everyone's pretty on board with that. Mark Thompson's a pretty

easy easy pick for me. Um, you know, West Hills kind of fell off a lot and there was more offensive weapons around him. When we talk about value at the position, Thompson was the most valuable running back, you know what I mean? And he is I believe he is the second second place in the MVP case. And then uh, I mean throwing whoever you want for a position for hell EJ. Perry for all I care, right, but then you go into I gave Mason Stocky the full he was

my next He was my next one. A lot of teams obviously don't use the traditional fullback. He did a lot of you know, receptions out of backfield working as an HVAC. The only person close to him is a friend of my show, Clint Sigg, who when he was out there, he was lining up in the backfield a lot. You saw some JJ Wilson and Daniel Helm did some stuff, but in reality was Mason Stocky was the most traditional true fullback, and I do think that deserves a lot of accolades and

recognition. So if Mason's watching this, you know, just let people know like people care about your existence, you know what I mean, and that we see you doing the hard work. So I felt that was nice to know. Receiving receiving Corps Devin Gray, big shout out to him over five hundred yards kind of got a little bit under shadowed with Corey Coleman there unanimous

pick. Corey Coleman, I feel like is everyone's guy. Joe Walker had a really good season for the Panthers through Um, you know, very versable guy. Uh played on some spec teams and whatnot. Over five hundred yards, led that Michigan team and receiving UM the next one, dave On Davis. Really with the absence of Victor Bolden and UM Marlon Williams getting hurt, really came the guy over there, you know, became him and Magoo outside

of Sternberger. You know, those guys combined for over a thousand yards and I think to twelve of magoose touchdowns. I don't think enough people talked about him and after his want I don't know if the word struggles is appropriate from the roughnecks of the XFL. Really great to see him, you know,

become a top five receiver in this league. I didn't do honorable mentions because you know, there's so many guys you can give credit to, but the Breakers receivers, Trey Quinn, all those guys, you know, those third and four spots can be start becoming your favorite, your favorite by you know who's your favorite guy. The thing is about Devin Gray I wanted to throw in there is that he was their holder as well for the majority of the

season. So the fact that he kind of did a double duty and with the injuries that they had, and then essentially you know Terry Wright coming all older later, that guy did a lot of great work and worked really hard to be able to put be put in a position to you know, help this team almost make a playoff run. Moving down the tight end. I put Jay Sternberger set the all time the new modern record for receiving touchdowns. Real cute there, but also the fact that it was really him and davey

On Davis with like a random guy doing some good stuff or CJ. Marrable having a good game. Sternberger had his drops and whatnot, but we didn't see as much of a tailoff as we did with Sage sarat who just burst out of the gate offensive line. Real fun position. For me, I got a little lazy with it. I went with PFF for Kirk Kelly and Marcus lucas Is and excuse me, Shamarius Gilmore, where some of the top rated offensive linemen for PF. That makes the job a little bit easier.

And then when I started looking at this right you know, some of the things I didn't agree with, So that's when I decided to put Terry Pool in there, because Terry Poole, you really saw that Muller's offense stabilize and get consistent. When you do these PF scores, if you give up the sack, it's the player that you were blocking. So with Troy Williams, with him running around and whatnot and doing all this goofy stuff, you might

have your defensive player give up the sack. Well, guys been running around the backfield for nine seconds. Someone's gonna get lucky, you know, and trip this guy up. Terry Pool, older guy was released from the Generals, playing the XFL the afn't. I know he's with NFL teams, but I don't know if he's played in an NFL game. Regardless, he's like thirty one thirty two years old. Really loved what he did throughout the whole USFL seasons. And then there's a leadership presence as well. Noah Johnson.

Big thing about I liked about him was how terrible that Michigan Panther's offensive line last year was. And while they weren't great, once again, the stabilizing force he brought to this team was outstanding. And really it was essentially what kind of helped them get to the playoffs, and then the leadership he showed along with Ryan Nelson and Bordarius Ham in that final game with a rookie quarterback is something that you don't obvious to get on the stat sheet. That's good.

A lot of good work here going through any I guess surprises in terms of the number of players from teams. I mean, it looks like it's pretty well distributed. It's always funny a team like the Malers ends up getting a bunch of Hey, you know they're in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean last year they sent the most guys to the NFL. I believe, I think they hit seven or eight inhime was Yeah, it was them, and like the Gamblers both like some of the worst teams ended up having most

of the guys. It's always weird how that it just doesn't equate. I don't know if you blame coaching or whatever at that point of why I couldn't figure it out. Yeah, I mean, at that point it's just you know, I mean the Gambler's defense last year, we've talked about a lot like studs upon studs upon studs, you know, moving down to defense here, what you got so got into my defense. Breeland speaks pretty easy boys Boogie John Atkins, you know John Atkins. I felt I was really glad

he got the air quote official all USFL ranking. He's been a consistent disruptor. I've talked about him on the show a bunch of times. He had the Player of the Week nominee. But something about Boogie Roberts' game this year, while he's been such a face of this league, he came into the season way leaner, way stronger, firing off the ball, and to see his fundamentals didn't look like last year he was kind of just clogging holes.

This year he was moving people. It's actually using more technique, and a lot of people don't realize he's I don't want to say he had a year off from football, but wasn't actively on you know, the waiver wires and everything like that from twenty one to twenty two. So now you see him come back, um, and you know, probably was training a little bit

harder this time. So we're getting there to the point where it's like this guy really took not that he didn't take it seriously before, but he stepped it up a little bit and then you saw the overall success of Tavino and Ruben Foster and that you know, those those are stats you don't always see with a defensive lineman, is you know, clogging taking two blocks so your linebackers can make all those tackles. Um you know, Adam Rodriguez underrated player.

You know, last year he got snubbed. This year, you know from both of many many sources, he was you know, honored, and then Hercules Modafafa talked about it a lot. I felt like every time I was watching him, he was he was making a play in the backfield or something like that, or disrupting player, disrupting plays in the backfield. It was really great to see, especially on that on that Stars game where he was moved from the right side to the left side and got the game winning

sack. Moving on down here, whether we got Frank and everyone else here with the linebackers, I mean, I don't think many people are gonna argue with Frank and in Tavino pretty easy, pretty easy picks. Top two tackler, does he know, top two tacklers in the league, does he know had a lot of of of interceptions, turnovers, you know, game changing plays, get into one defensive Player of the Year or of the week or four times this year. Um digs playmaking type. Guy really came on late

strong in the season. Really liked a lot what he did, and he had a great last two weeks, which is really kind of what gave me a little bit of a recency bias for the guy as well. Moving on down here, he's easy choice for me. Lavonte Taylor. While sometimes he kind of played I don't want to use the word lacks days ago, but sometimes coverage kind of lacks and he got really the benefit of the doubt from from like you know, a bad ball or nothing. Overall, I don't

think he gave up any touchdowns throughout the year. Sometimes it seemed like they didn't even look to his side of the field and whatnot. Really just you know, overall, solid, solid player played the you know, made a lot of great pass deflections. I think he was saying they were missing like six pass deflections from him as well. Though he didn't get any interceptions,

he definitely felt like sometimes half the field was taken away. Brian Allen overall PROS pros, solid, solid person up in the run, another leader on that team. I felt that he you know, was an additional stabilizing force and an underrated signing. I think last year he played with the Saints for a little bit after leaving the Stallions in twenty two. Real great player in my opinion, older guy. I think he's had a utah and just a

great stabilizing force, long body, taller corner, real athletic dude. While his statute might not always be the most appealing, every time I saw that guy looked like he had you know, when they're running. I felt like a lot of times when I saw a big play and Brian Allen was on the field, he was taking away his option and that's something that stood up for me. Mark Gilbert for interceptions, another great, great asset to that

Muller's team. And then kind of a little bit easy on the free safety port Kyrie Woods highest greaty player on PFF made my job a little bit easy to go into that selection. And then showing Mwani playing that center field coming up in the box, I think, in my opinion on the Panthers, Kaid Nakula played a similar role and I think he did better than him. However, Nikola didn't have as many reps, so I had to give it this Lwani for the second year in a row. Well, there you go.

Look at there a moving down special teams. I though we got mangling here. Glad to see Lizaguilar on here. Some of you know, some of these are a little bit more obvious. Derek Dillon is level with the show boats. Not here on special teams. I mean we talked about a little bit Navarro. I think l led the league in reps for most like

snaps between the punts, field goals and extra points. I think he led it by like six I did the math for all of it, so it took me that It took me a minute to do it, so that I kind of gave him that because I don't think I saw a bad snap for him. Grant they had a block, but sometimes, you know, sometimes blocks on the snapper's fault. Mangel a lot of reps. I think he had the second most punts in the league's real up there in yardage. Friend

of the show as well. A little bit of a bias towards that and a lot of these. Yeah, I mean Mangel. Mangel and Miller were my two guys, and I flipped the point. I have to go with I have to go, and you know, I'm doing a little bit shilling as well, hoping to have him on my show at some point. Um, aguilar, you know I was gonna put Kessman, believe it or not because of the twenty one made field goals, but something about putting the team

on He put the team on his back for about three weeks. You know, they didn't score any touchdowns for three weeks, and um, you know ninety I think he had ninety five points, which was the most for the kickers one and then two was second in the league. It didn't get much easier for that. Not much I can say about Derek Dillon. Um, I feel like he was personally robbed. Led the league in all purpose yards,

two big return touchdowns. Um, you know, split time at returner as well, and still managed to have almost seven hundred or over seven hundred return yards, I believe. But you know, they opted to go with, uh, they opted to go who they go with? Excuse me, um, I think they went with Josh Simmons. Yeah, I mean I didn't go punt returner. I just kind of went, uh, you know,

just general return specialist. Um I da Henny. I think personally was a good choice if you're going to break it down the two, um, you know, but you know, Josh Simmons had some great returns, but I felt like Deon Kane was above Josh shimm in my opinion. But he also was out for a couple of games and whatnot as well, I believe. So, I mean, someone's always getting robbed, right, And then they went with a specialist, Vinnie Papolli. So Papolli make a lot of

a lot of special teams tackles on kickoffs. You know, they said a couple of times after he scored a touchdown, he'd be making the tackle and kickoff. Good for him, he's invincible. Maybe it was a maybe it was a thing for his father. You know, that's great. I know, it's it's crazy. Liked the thing to turn around at that with some of these players are going to do a double duty out there. Is is

pretty crazy. And that's and we talk about that in nauseum, right, Like I don't need Vinnie Papolli to put up six hundred yards in the usf BEL to prove to me as an NFL player. I need Vinnie Polli to average seven yards of return will probably a little bit higher twelve yards of return and make tackles on you know, for example, a guy like Joshua Cribbs, who's not on the NFL anymore obviously, but a guy like that, you know, That's what I mean. Well, I think you've done good

work here. We'll talk a little playoffs here before we get out of here. Anything else from your list US and LS list, anything else on this not really And you know, I hope you know and who who are we?

Right, We're just a couple of Bernis doing this, But I mean, I just hope you know, some of these guys don't get caught up in these awards, you know, like we you know, Tyler Huntley went to the Pro Bowl last year over some other quarterbacks like two touchdowns, you know what I mean, like Taylor hunt Will you know, different division or conference, but you get what I mean, Like hopefully you know, I've seen some people tweet out the other the other outlets, and you know,

while we might not always be as friendly every day, it is good to be recognized. And I'm glad that there's so many different facets facets to this and whatnot that like someone out there can feel that someone who has no allegiance to them in a way was recognized, you know, and that makes people feel good. And I mean, you got a pretty decent following on Twitter and whatnot, and you know, depending on the day, my tweets get

you know, retweeted by Mike Floorio. So I mean, just part of it's it's less about us and putting a content out there believing about not that and I want to come off as like a participation trophy guy, but more for these guys to know that people people care, that they're putting their body and the lives on the line to entertain us and have them reached their goal. So I'm glad I could do that and that my list was different than the usffos because I did this before they came out. Well, I think

it's good. I think it's valuable. I think you know, like I we joke every Monday or TZ in here, we get a lot of grief for all of the USFL stuff and hate in the league eleven the league with every like you know haven't gone through and watched all the games, like you haven't broken down and analyzed all of them. That we have every Monday or

Tuesday. It's good. I think it's a good stamp. I think it's a good kind of showcase of your work and this kind of attention the entire season and kind of be able to, you know, put a bow on it and say these are people that stood out to you and this is why. And I think it's good. Like I said, I see a lot of people talk online. They don't produce content at all, and so I, you know, whether it's you or the newsroom guys or whoever, like

putting out the content, like actually putting the workout. I think speaks volumes versus like, oh, I tweeted something funny like it's at that neat Yeah, And I mean that's that's the goal is, you know, we might make one or two guys days feel better. So we did our big just before we get out of here, we did our playoff kind of preview a little bit on the Tuesday's thing. Any any updated thoughts on either the you know, the sound division with the Breakers and then the statues or with the

Mullers and was it Mullers and Panthers in the North? Um? Not right now? I mean we're still waiting on more information, you know. I mean, I don't have depth charts. I know, the Stallions brought in Ryan Pope was the most recent recent signing and whatnot. Injury reports haven't come

out. So it's a little bit hard to be like, oh, you know, because how many times do you feel like X players doing X thing and then you know, like, yeah, this guy had a great game and you find out on Monday he had a torn he had a torn hamstring. Well Homey ain't playing anymore, you know what I mean. So it's like I can't you know, it's a little bit hard for me to deviate off my path of where we've had, you know, a lot of this

stuff going on originally, if that makes sense. Yeah, it's just weird, Like I was thinking about this too, because we've obviously lamented you know, the communications and everything and certain hubs being better than others and you know, providing players and whatnot. You know, half the teams are gone now right, you know that aren't in the playoffs and then this all move on.

It's just weird. I mean, we saw the Radians this week down you know we can I guess touch on that, but you know, we kind of we've said the similar things every week on here with the decline radiings, but it does feel like this kind of just a wet fart then evaporated into the distance here. I mean, we'll see, like we'll see what

the weekend ratings are, but I don't know. I just felt like going through the XFL season, having the league, you know, continually helping, you know, all the different content from creators we know, with like interviews and content, and this is what we're doing. Like the USFL, it just it feels like it's just such on its own island. I know they

gives to faun and them, you know players from time to time. We've certainly had guys on earlier in the season when I was a little bit more motivated to keep following up, but I don't know, it feels like they just then they're just going to kind of move on here. It doesn't feel like we've lived through this the same way we do with the XFL. That's probably my Homer and me, but it does feel like we were a little bit more invested, like all together and that kind of moving on here.

I mean, we had and I'm sure some people are doing it, you know, like you know, some of the local outlets. I've seen some stuff, but I you know, I covered the battalaws weekly zoomed, you know what I mean. And maybe and maybe that's like the trajection for next year something that I'm not trying to like, you know, there's there might be one person wearing a lot of hats. I mean, I know there's

one, like you know, he's doing a lot of different things. So sometimes things just kind of are like, Okay, I need to knock out my big checklist, you know, and whatnot. So I feel like, sometimes you know, things are just a lot's going on, and you know, there's I don't want to say that. I don't want to like poo poo us or like any media outlet or even like they're quote more established ones.

It's just like there's a lot going on and I got to move all this stuff around and we have to do this and we have to do that, and it's like, you know, we don't have time to do zooms with everyone, you know, once a week and whatnot, and like I think, and it's kind of hard. It's not hard, it's not easy, but I feel like at some point you become in a routine once the

season starts and whatnot. I know, Memphis did a good job with like open media practices and Whatnotum, you know, but I'm not in Memphis. You're not in Memphis, so it's a little hard to do stuff like that, you know. So I give that Memphis Sullivan branding out there a lot of credit because I was getting those emails all the time and they were doing a lot of stuff. Detroit had that transition of like who was who was doing their stuff as well. I mean, Heather's done a lot of good

stuffs as well. But I think I think right now, it's just I would not be surprised in the future if we went from zero to sixty because I feel like people are hearing what we're saying and not when I say we, I mean like everyone, you know what I mean. And I feel like how these leagues they all worked hair court work together, but how they you know, take bits and pieces and whatnot. Like everyone's going to probably see what works for them, what doesn't work for them, and whatnot,

and I think from there we could see a lot of growth. And I'm hoping like for us, we're a little bit more involved of next year and whatnot. But both you and I are not in those markets that kind of like is where I'm just kind of like, well, would it be different if I was in Birmingham, if I was in Canton because Paul Woods was down there. They gave Paul Woods, and Paul Woods is way different than you or I, but like they gave Paul Woods pretty much free reign from

what I saw when he was doing his McLoud stuff. But you know that might be just because of the history between him and McLeod, you know what I mean. It might have been a clause in the contract and whatnot. Well I think yeah, I mean I think too. It was like because that was a little bit more preseason, right, I don't you know, I am not in any you know, we weren't in Arlington, but I was provided people from the XFL all the time, right that we're in Arlington.

Like my thing is, it's the XFL goes. It's all of the CFLs better because they have more you know, hands dealing with a lot of this with their teams. But it's this whole like, Okay, we're out of season, we're not worried about this or like we don't have you know, we don't have time for this like it's out of season, and then once it's in season, it's like we're so busy, like we don't have

time for this. It's like, so, when are you going to have time for this because you don't have time preseason and you don't have time in season USFL. I think once the season. I think those first couple those training camps, like that's when I got on, like Brandon Aubrey and I had Oh, that's when case cooks and stuff like that was all preseason. It's like once the season starts, like, well, we don't have time for this anymore. Like no, that's when that's when people wanted to do

this. That's when people are interested in this. Yeah, I mean I have no idea. I'd like to I'd like to be down in Memphis next year and a little bit more and you know, depending on where I'm at with like my businesses and whatnot, like because I offered to, you know, go to Detroit and do like my own stuff and like you know, out of pocket. Just things in line up and it is what it is, you know, just send people agetting back to me. You know,

everyone's busy. I get it. So I'm curious to see I only think it like Memphis. I use this perfect example because they were doing like the open practices from media. Like I'm really curious to see if like I go down the Memphis and I spend a good month there, right, excuse me? Like what's you know, spending my own money, my own time, my own resources, excuse me? And seeing what happens down there, Like how not that I'm gonna be a trendsetter or anything, but like could that

lead to more openness and whatnot? And I mean you've seen my studio, you know what I mean in Saint Louis. And if I bring that down to them and I'm doing all my stuff, and it's like could they get people who are way bigger than me, that are way more notable than me? And like whether you know? Because in my opinion, you're one. You're one. Like a guy that doesn't get talked about enough. Is Josh Butler on the Panthers students a social media superstar? You know what I mean?

Like Julian Allen social media superstar. They kind of did it with chaste the more it's not very good at all. You know, he's kind of a meme. But like that's something that like I thought they could have used those platforms a little bit to kind of push things out, you know, And it's kind of like what the XFL did with Destroying and that I don't know if you knew he had five million subscribers on YouTube and it just seemed

like he kind of was just doing it to do it. And I saw him, like I saw him in Saint Louis on the sideline, and he was just kind of being there, you know. It seemed like it was more disinterested, like when the camera wasn't on him. So I'm very curious

to see. Like I feel like if you get one or two of these dudes who actually like cares about football and like not the way Destroying does and whatnot, and you get them to like put them on the podcast, you know or something like that, like what what does that do for a lot

of this stuff? You know? Like and that's kind of like one of my goals is like, you know, obviously big enough, so I can't alight some of these guys would be the user exbo and like get more people into this and whatnot, and like, I don't know, I feel like I feel like it's going to come. You know, working with the league. Hopefully we get to that point and then more people kind of reach out of the reach in. And you know, I was a little disappointed.

I don't follow Josh Butler on these like tiktoks or anything like that, but you know, it would have been cool to see some of that. Yeah, well, I think we'll continue this. We'll I have a post here on next week following the playoffs, and then we'll obviously talk post championship game as well, so more time for this. But I think today this is a good stopping point. I appreciate the work for the l USFL team.

Like I said, we'll have that on the website and the links and all that stuff, and obviously all the work all season covering this and doing the recaps and sus it's very much appreciated. Pat Yeah, no, and read

I'm honored to do it. You know, like I was on someone else's show last night and oh it was just well, this has been what twenty almost this will be I think week nineteen going in the week twenty, and you know, if you don't count the preseason and whatnot, and well, it's been exhausting and you know a lot of guys like us who do both

leagues or you know, on fumes and whatnot. It's been an amazing experience and I'm really glad that I've been able to, you know, be in your community and so many other other other people's community, both on the mainstream and you know, in the freelance. In the freelance as well. Yeah. I like these the XFL only podcasts to take the Okay season finale, we're coming back next year. I go, Okay, you know that's that's interesting. So now none of that here. Everybody back here every week.

Paraphina, thanks so much again. Well, this is a gentleman that we've

had on before and then I think it's like a Twitter thing. I think once you respond to someone sweet, I've seen all your tweets last week. I so we need to get Derrek Taylor back on here. It's been a couple of times. How are you doing, sir? Everything is pretty good. Uh. When when the team you're calling games for wins games you contribute nothing to them, but they win you just the warm glow envelops you and everybody's happy to talk to you. It's it makes my job pretty easy.

Yeah, so we're friendly now. Because obviously BC's playing winn a Peg. This will air after that, so right now we're friends because BC, that's America's CFL team, is like all them general thoughts on winn a Peg. I mean, we'll kind of do a rundown here, but I mean it feels like they haven't lost the staff. They just kicked the snot out of this. To Scatcher the rough Riders, Michael Ball was like, wow, it's still like we can still feel okay about this. I'm like, can

we really? I mean, they look really good this year. Yeah. Their offense is as advertised. I thought it would be the best offense in the league. To me, it's certainly the best receiving core in the CFL, and it comes with the best quarterback in the CFL. I don't know that I expected forty plus points in each of the first two games, Like they're a practice talking about, yeah, we could be better, blah blah blah, and I just do the math and think, if you keep putting

up forty burgers, you're gonna set the season record for points. Right. Sure, it's early, but if you think you can get better and you'll start having fifties on the board, that The record I think for points is six hundred ninety eight. They're gonna blow pass that. So it's been pretty great. Two guys have two touchdowns, everybody else has one. They're spreading it around. It's it's what I thought it might be at its peak.

But it's happening in weeks one and two, which is very unusual because the last year I felt like when they pay like started slower and there were just they seemed to be more concerned last year going in versus and then obviously he didn't really you know, they went all the way anyway, but it seemed like they weren't coming here hot. Yeah, oh yeah. Last year it was two slogs against Ottawa. It was a low scoring game in Week one, and then some weather was a factor in Week two, but that was

low scoring as well. And honestly, it was a lot of the same personnel right there. There was Greg yellingson and we didn't necessarily know what Dalton shown was at that time because he was just starting his career. The offensive line was virtually the same, the quarterback was the same. But yeah, they are a mile ahead of where they were to start to start the twenty twenty two seas. Should should rough Rider fans feel good in their loss?

Here? It was like what twenty seven forty five? I just I was. I watched that game, and I know Termper Harris looked good. It really didn't feel close to me. I know, the score was closer and then they didn't go for it and you know I settled for the field goal and kind of all that seven. Should Siscatchewan wheur Frier fans feel good?

I think they should. If Jane and Grant doesn't make the return of a lifetime, that's a three point game and Winnipeg has the ball on its own twenty yard line, and I think if you're Saskatchewan, you would feel pretty good about that. Hey, our defense. Winnipeg's offense is doing well against our defense, but our defense can show up. Right. Their offense was roughly two point seven times better than I thought it was going to be because

they don't have their three best receivers. There's no Keyan Shaeffer Baker, there's no Braden Lennius, there's no Durell Walker, and all of a sudden, oh, here's Samuel Evelis. Okay, here's three touchdowns from Samuel Levelis and Harris through one of the it's gonna be one of the top ten pas asses from a quarterback in the CFL this season. He dropped one just over top of Dietrich Nicol's shoulder too. I gotta go back and see who the receiver

was. But we're in the booth, going how that? How does that ball get there? Because it gets like this far over top of Dietrich Nicol's shoulder, who hadn't turned yet. And I thought, Harris is on and and if he is on, he's the second best quarterback in the CFL. And that's a great place to start for an offense that I was. I was super impressed with offense. According to Kelly Jeffrey, I don't really know much about him. He wasn't their first choice, but he had it going.

Is he is Harris that big of an upgrade over Cody or is it just that maybe we've gotten a better team around him, because I, you know, Cody and I kind of feuded and now we're friends and Cody and I, you know, he's a friend of the podcast, so I want to I want to support my boy here in Montreal. Yeah, I'm I'm one of I feel like I'm one of the few people who's still on Team

Fajardo. I I still think Cody is an accurate passer. I think what he can do with his legs is a real added, developed, real added dimension to his game. I'm still on Team Fajardo. I think it's it's an upgrade in a way. I think they absolutely needed of Harris can just command everything and the ball could be out fast if he needs it to be right. That was his m O and parts of his career was you can't get to me. We have a two percent sack grate because you can't get

to me in time. I think he just adds something different. And Fajardo was injured last year. Let's not let's not pretend that Fajardo didn't have a have some injuries he was dealing with last year. I I I'm still on Team Fajardo. I just think that a change just had to happen. But while it's Harris, it's also Jason Moss is out and Kelly Jeffrey is in right. Offensive coordinator changes as well, and they'd hope to add some offensive

line things. It's a lot has changed apart from Fajardo as well. Was that the greatest top three. I think John Hodge called the top three kickoff return in them all time, it's or pome return without you. I I struggled to think of ones. There are ones that are more important, right, So we kind of have to take the context of the game out of it. Because Jeneryon returned one in the West Final, and he returned one

for a touchdown in the Gray Cup. Those are bigger, right, because it's in the Gray Cup, and oh my gosh, they now lead the Toronto Argos. But I mean, if you just take all if you take the context of the game out of it, skill for skill, it's it's

got to be top three old time. And I don't know what would be ahead of it because he makes the first guy miss and then he goes, well, I gotta cut back now, and and just when you watch it again, there their Special Teams coach Paul Boudreau said, that's as close to a guy doing it by himself as maybe I've ever seen. You go yeah, because when he cuts back, people can't hold their blocks or they're gonna

get called for a penalty. So you gotta let him go. And any stiff arms this guy and then he stiff arms that guy and then he stiff arms he turned the corner and cut back, and it was it was incredible. When I listened back to the call I made at the time, I was impressed with making the first guy miss and then all he cuts back. Okay, this could go really bad or this might be something, but then just the NonStop guy's fallen off. I'm like Bo Jackson and tech Mobile back

in the day, right, that's just fallen off them. It was. It was incredible and to add in the challenge element and it essentially, to me, it almost ended that game that that play stood because all of a sudden, it's a ten point game and you've just been decimated by one of the greatest plays that we'll see, probably the greatest player we're going to see

all year. That even though they're still nineteen weeks to go oh yeah, like you say, it was cool that they went and they go, no, we've review, like we've gone through and we've you know, we've checked all of this and then all you know, because it is such a game changing play at that point that they kind of got to go back through. In terms of, like I said, we a Winnipeg BASTI playing. I think the original tweet I saw that got us on this was the horrendous Elks

performance here, you know, at BC shout out. I was very happy to see that, right, and I wanted so a couple of things. First off, do you how bad are the Elks? I guess right now, right now? Really bad? Apart from the Gino Lewis one hundred two yard reception in week one, what do they have? Two hundred yards passing at fifty percent rate? And the run game, which I think a lot of us thought was going to be really good because Kevin Brown looks like he

can really hammer dudes and run that ball. Hasn't you know, hasn't picked up the slack. There was a point late in that game where TSN flashed the graphic where Gino Lewis had one target and one catch for something like nine yards only three hundred and twenty grand and you've thrown the ball one time? Ye yikes, And it's I'm I'm not a Taylor Cornelius guy. I haven't been for a long time. I think he's just got a fundamental flaw that's

just unrecoverable at this point. But there's so much else around him, and Stephen McAdoo, for all the flack he takes, has had success in the Canadian Football League. His offense might not be super intricate and super complicated and full of fakes and cool pre snap motions and stuff, but the they can get it done with Stephen McAdoo offense. So it's it's less than It's much

less than I expected. Even though I don't think Taylor Cornelius is particularly good, I really did expect more, and being shut out, like being shut out for the first time in forty six, forty seven years, is interesting. I put a lot of that on Chris Jones and who he's picked to be a kicker, because if you can't there at least two, if not three circumstances where every other team in the CFL would be trying a fifty fifty one fifty two yard field goal, and he runs out Jake Julian to punt

because I'm guessing he doesn't trust Faithful as his kicker. You can't you can't do that. You you absolutely can't do that. You can't play field position and hope that Julian can can maneuver every punt perfectly or else you're gonna turn you know, we drove to their forty five and we punted for a single, and now it's at the forty. You're not gonna win that way, So just get get some points. If you have to go to get Mark Leggio if Hamilton released him, get a kicker, get a kicker and put

your global somewhere else. Well, I just don't get There was a couple of tweets and the one, you know, Taylor Cornelius. You know we've seen like twenty six or whatever games now, like we've seen enough of this, like we kind of know. I just don't, you know, Chris Jones, you know, we're obviously new where to cover in the CFL brought in and everyone says, oh, it takes some time, and you know, give him a couple like at what point does he is he on the

hot seater? Is he kind of more should be more under scrutiny here. Yeah, it's it's got to be coming because it's it was interesting to watch certain folks believe in Taylor Cornelius or believe that Cornelius can get a you know, the shot, and they've kind of moved the goalposts on. Well, it's not your two where a guy develops, it's your three, well,

and usually it's your two that we talk about this stuff. But I can I can understand because I know smart football people who are huge Cornelius fans still you Cornelius fans, because he has this incredible ability for his size to run and navigate the pocket and scramble, and his arm is in radibly strong. He probably I mean, it's probably the strongest arm in the Canadian Football League, just not real accurate, which is kind of an important part of that.

And then it comes back to Chris Jones committed all this money to Cornelius for next year as well. If I'm not mistaken, and I've been working from this premise that I don't know that I think Chris Jones is a great general manager. He's obviously able to coach guys up and get get his guys, and guys fall in love with him for whatever reasons are of what he is behind the scenes. But I just look at moves that he made when

he was the GM and sask and the head coach. I never got the impression that he cared much about his offense like he had Zach Collaris, And I never got the impression he cared too much about his offense, and I thought that might be changing when they go and get Gino Lewis and Stephen Dunbar and Kyron Moore to add to Manny Arsenal and their Canadian talent. But then they'll they'll have done weird things that I don't understand, Like Dylan Mitchell popped

last season. Well, Dylan Mitchell's already been resigned. Dylan Mitchell was on the first year of a rookie contract, already resigned. You're not taking the two plus one that you have with him, the you can get him on a minimum salary for a time, and you decided to resign him. Lady Kevin Brown didn't start till late in this season. He's already been resigned.

And I don't I don't understand if they were afraid those guys were gonna leave for the USFL or the XFL, which would be their only concerns because the NFL is always an option for everybody at the end of the season. So I'm back to I don't know if I think Chris Jones is great at this whole GM thing, and maybe someone else should should take that over because there's just a lot of a lot of a lot of decisions that maybe it's my own ignorance. I just don't get well, I think it was I can't

remember if it was Hodge. Someone was on here talking that that was why Cornelius got that big contract when he did. As I guess, there were calls from the XFL or whatever, which you because obviously he was with the Vibrus about his last year. When they signed Cornelius and then he came out and threw it was like the end zone interception there that the you know, the Elks lost to get at home, Like the week that he signed the contracts, you're like, can we can we get that money back? And

just it seems weird. Yeah, to focus so much money around Cornelius and not really have a quarterback there they could do, but that was kind of what they did last year. It was like, I mean, I don't know. It feels like sometimes in the CFL, like well we can pay a lot for this receiver that will elevate the quarterback, and I don't know if that really is how it works out. Well, they had so many weapons right when we were contemplating, well, how does it look as we're

forecasting the season, say in March or April. You look at this Elks receiving corps. It's it contends with the Bombers for what's the best one, Like Gina Lewis is a stud. Stephen Dunbar you have to move his position, but he's a stud. Dylan Mitchell absolutely popped last year and he was in a lot of guys top fifty list as we voted for the CFL Top fifty. And Kyron Moore is a guy who who can be a weapon in multiple ways. Manny Arsenal's that reliable veteran. There's so much love for Gavi

Cobb from the University of Manitoba, who was injured last season. They're not without Canadian talent in Forbes, Mon Blow and Danny Vandervoort who had a couple of touchdowns in a game I called and caught me totally off guard. They are not without talent and this receiving corps, and they've got Canadian offensive linemen that teams would like, you know, would probably like Mark Cordy, maybe not the price they pay him, but they would like Mark Cordy to be

there. One of their interior offensive Linemen. It's just yeah, when you everything they've done makes sense for if you believe Cornelius can be great, right, everything absolutely makes sense. If you're working for the basis that Cornelius can be a great quarterback, signing him to that deal makes great sense because pretend he was top level, you'd be saving one hundred and fifty two hundred grand

over what a top level quarterback should get paid. I just don't get it, because I've never thought I'm at the point where I don't think Cornelius is salvageable in the Canadian Football League because of the problems that I've discussed in a bunch of places. I just I see all the things that is proponentcy, but I don't see the thing I need to see, which is the consistent ability to hit receivers who are even fractionally open in the right spot to get

them touchdowns. Gino Lewis Week one open in the end zone. It but just put a foot in front of him, but it's a foot behind him into the fender, and then they don't can run second and down. They have to kick a field goal, and you just can't leave that on the table at this level. In terms of quarterbacks. You know, Vernon here my boy in BC, and I thought that, you know, the first week he felt good, they said, he, oh he played good here. Last week, I wasn't as in brass ride. I mean, twenty

two. You know, twenty zero is in the miraculous score. I mean, I think that Brenda was very happy to get that one touchdown. I saw him kind of thanking God for that. But you know, obviously Winn a big defense and all that's going to be a tough struggle this week. But overall, how has he done this year? Kind of now that it's it's his house, it's his team, I think he's been okay to your point, twenty two nothing like. That's five field goals, right, five

field goals. I feel like every time the offense comes out the field and the field goal team comes on, they're like, this is a loss. We should be getting seven, but we're having We're having to settle for three. That's just me putting words in their mouths. They want to be scoring touchdowns, right, and in games against better opponents, you're gonna have to

score touchdowns. I was thinking about the matchup they had with the with the Bombers, Well, the Bombers are putting up forty a game that's going to be roughly fourteen field goals. You'll need to get the forty and beat them forty two forty one, right, Like it's it's so hard to get there with field goals, so you've got to be able to put it in the

end zone. Their Week one opponent was Calgary. Calgary did not look anything like Calgary that we've been used to for fifteen years, ten years, whatever it is. So it was fine, and the game against Edmonton was okay. The numbers or three hundred yards, I get it. I'm not overwhelmed with Vernon so far, and I'm and I the funny thing, tell me this strikes you as funny. People are talking about Vernon's gonna break out.

I have this feeling like Vernon is always the breakout guy. And then I think he's thirty and I saw him play in the old Taylor Field in Saskatchewan, which was twenty fourteen, like he's been around a long time. He kind of he is what he is, and it's it's certainly workable. But to think he's gonna take a Josh Allen year two to year three leap from the Buffalo Bills. The guys, he's thirty's he's been around a long time. When you've thrown more than a thousand passes, we kind of we get

it. We kind of should understand what you are well. And my problem is, you know, even if if BC sits at two all season here in the West, you're still going back to Winnipeg here and getting your ass kre like he did last year. I mean, like, you know, like we kind of know what this is. Anything can happen. I mean

I kind of hate anything can happen. But the Bomber's first first week game, they gave up three touchdowns on a block punt, a essentially oh Calars fumble that ends up in the end zone, and a fumble on a return that essentially ends up in the end zone though it took one extra offensive play. If you get to that game, you're you're in a good spot. And I mean, Winnipeg's offense is flying. Winnipeg's defense is not, in

my mind flying. And it was a spot we looked at in the offseason and went every year they another team just chips away a piece of this Winnipeg defense. Right Stephen Richardson went to BC after twenty one, and Casey Sales got very nice money to go to Hamilton in twenty two. And you know, okay, well that's those are two big presences in that defensive interior. And okay, well, now this is they're going to run out a young defensive backfield. You know, the back six is quite young. Though it

has some very strong spots, it's quite young. And the salary cap nature of the sport, you're paying no all this money for collaris and Kenny Lawler and these guys. You know, it takes. If you're going to pay big money in some spots, you have to go you know, thinner in some other spots. And we're at the I think we're at the point where the Winnipeg defense of twenty twenty one, that's that's not your twenty twenty three

defense by any stretch. Those guys were world beaters and now it's they're gonna have to outscore like the offense is gonna have to outscore some performances by their defense. In my mind, in terms of I'm kind of looking here at this schedule, in terms of the other teams Hamilton right now, it seems to be kind of in a free fall ride and Bow and we didn't look good. And I had said, I think Bows, you know, maybe

passed his prime. And I didn't live through all the Bow. You know, everything I've known about the CFL is like he's competing with Jake Mayer and then Jake Mayor takes over. But how big of a deal is it? Bo's out, Matthew Shields is playing, and then you know, just in general, they didn't look good with Bow. Yeah, they weren't. In some spots, they weren't too far from looking good. In the game against Winnipeg and week number one, they had receivers Chris Godwin or Godwin and Tim

White running in behind Winnipeg defensive backs and Bow would just miss them. And you go, that's that's close. And then if you're on Hamilton side, you go, ah, why can't you? Ah? It would have been so right here. It's it's one of those things that happens. I think I'm perhaps most excited for Hamilton's because in what we've seen of Matthew Schiltz, the guy who will take over this week, he's exciting and he he has some promise, right. I think I've I've personally been foiled by guys who

have kind of a Matthew Shilts skill set in past years. Um, but Shilts, to me, throws the ball better than anybody I can kind of think OF's. He's the scrambler, he's the he was the second quarterback in some plays last season and they'd throw him a swing pass and he'd try to get up field stuff like that. But I think he's a better pastor than some of the guys that that I can think of running quarterbacks from from America

who would come up here. So I'm really excited to see how it works with Schiltz and then how it works with Schiltz once defensive coordinators get a look at him and what Hamilton does with him, because it's a it's a different skill set than bo does. So it'll take Tommy Condell, you know, he'll have to change some stuff up. But I'm really I'm honestly, I'm holding out a lot of hope for Matthew Schiltz because I think there's I think

there's something there and it could be harnessed, So it could be. This could be for as long as Bow's out. This could be a positive move for the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Well, that's the thing is, you know what if Matthew Schiltz comes in, then just lights the world on fire, and then you're like, oh, you know what do we I mean I was looking when they said the three down had the injury report, like Bo's

getting a ton of money. I mean, it's just crazy to think, like you have all this tied up in him and to not to still not be performing well coming in you know how it's been the first couple weeks. Yeah, it's I think of him as the perennial bounce back guy, or we'll give him credit for bounce back because Bo hasn't been bow since twenty eighteen, so nineteen. I think the broken leg was in nineteen shoulder twenty one,

twenty two. I went into this season thinking, oh, Hamilton's gonna be pretty good because there's a chance that Bo gets back to it and then I whatever whatever's going on, if it's if it's the shoulder, if it's if it's something else, it just it hasn't been there through two games so far, and it's it's going to be a while now with the injury. So yeah, but I just feel like he's when guys who have hit those

heights right, MLP level, Great Cup, MVP level. I always feel like, okay, they can get back there, barring something having changed dramatically. When Calars was at his lowest point, I in my heart knew Calars could be backrop again because I'd seen him in fifteen be phenomenal, phenomenal, So I always believed in that, and part of me is still stuck with that with Bo. But then you go, there's there's there's some injury things

that are that are affecting him. I feel like, whether it hurts at the moment, it's it just looks like it's really it's affecting the way he's able to play. How impressive was Chad Kelly here with the Argonauts as sway Kelly is and how everyone gets to call him, I think he was fine. Like that first quarter I thought was okay, well look at this happen, and he scores three touchdowns, but two were quarterback sneaks, so I kind of don't care about those. The scramble was fantastic right where it was

it Ja Garrett Davis. He kind of faked out and gets into the end zone and went, okay, this looks this looks fine. The numbers look fine from week number one, and they want at home. So I really want Chad Kelly to be good because we're not overwhelmed with great quarterbacks and the CFL right now. So I would love it if he was eighty percent of Nathan Rourke. That'd be phenomenal for the CFL. At week one was fine. I think I'm I'm gonna want to see more go on when the receiving

course fully healthy, we'll get a chance to see more. But yeah, to me, it was I just know what I've seen, and I'm like, yeah, okay, that's that's good. Let's let's build from there. And Toronto may may have something, but I can't be one hundred percent sure. Is that the easiest money in the world. Bet Toronto over Edmonton this weekend? I just Edmonton's gotta figure something out, right, Um, yeah, it's it's gotta be what the line must be like seven or seven a

half. It's but pushing pushing out. Amilton's gotta find some points because somebody, someone's getting fired, losing their job, and if if they don't start writing this thing right, they're back at home where they haven't won since eighteen fifty six. I think it is the actual I don't know, it's been a while, but I really would like Edmonton to be good because the league's

the league's more fun. If Chris Jones led teams are good, and if Gena Lewis is clowning defensive backs and if if you know, there'd be a lot of swag in that defense. If they were up fifteen late in the game and Luchez Purifoy got a pass knockdown, there'd be a lot of swag in that and to me, that makes the game a lot more fun. Last couple of questions here, we'll get you out of here. I appreciate your time all the way. You know, got the bye week, and

you know mozz only I guess when he comes back. They've looked terrible with I mean, they've just I don't know. If Missoli comes in there and kind of rebounds that, what have you made him? Out the way here? I'm surprised that it has gone this way through two games and Massoli, here's a lot of problems. When they come back, you know, here's your defined number one quarterback and let's go. We can do some stuff. I think in the current ecosystem or the current grouping of Canadian quarterbacks. I

end up ranking Massoli quite high. But then to me, he's a guy with a very with a high ceiling and a low floor because he can he can take the twenty one Great Cup, come into that game in relief when Dane Evans gets hurt, and take Winnipeg to overtime, the last drive to force overtime into the win in that game. Incredible, Like Massoli was awesome in that game, and he'd been pulled in the East Final the game before

you go. Okay, So high ceiling and low floor as well. But that's I mean, I had preseason wagers that he was going to lead the league in passing. I think he's in that offense is going to fire up some numbers when it gets going. I'm I'm surprised because I remember Nick Arbuckle's first start was a game Calgary against sask in my first year there, and Arbuckle looked fantastic. So for him to transition from that, it's been a long road from nineteen to twenty twenty three, with a lot of stops along

the way. It just hasn't come for him the way Honestly, I thought it would that if they want to go to Tyree Adams. I get it, Like I totally understand, but yeah, you have to be you have to believe that Massoli can cure a lot of what ails them, but they're not without problems in other spots as well. Yeah, Arbuckle, I just

he's kind of duty at this point. I mean, he's just not I feel bad, and he really is trying to play his hard out there, you know, trying to make moves, but it's just not working out like that. Because the last team I want to come, want to hit on Calgary. You know they're win here. Not an impressive game, you know the Calgary Ottawa Thursday night Fest? Was it last weekend or last week So Calgary with Mayor and all of that, Like are they are? They re

downding here? What do you make of them? I'm I there's quarterbacks. I'm in on and I'll be in on forever. There's quarterbacks we've talked about. I'm out on and I'll be out on forever. Jake Mayer's I don't know, it's kind of Jake Mayor and that offense. I'm kind of sliding toward out on because I just I find Calgary really at least it's painful to watch. Like, okay, a five yard stick route, let's bubble screening out to this side stick route. It's the hitch screen. Oh, somebody

throw the ball down the field to Maleek Henry. Someone fires some balls down that trail of dukes. Looks like he's tall. Hammers something down field. Get some deep crossers, give me something to grab onto instead of okay, over here, it's like it's like watching just a chess match, but not that not that entertaining queen's gambit type chest, but like an actual chess match where it's thirty minutes between moves and Spasky just go. It's I find it

really rough to watch. It's the shortest passing offense in the CFL, and it just I don't know. And this is part of what I don't know is bo loved to move the ball down the field in Calgary, and Jake does. When he first came in, was this We kind of felt like he was this gun slinger. Right, Oh, he got picked off. He doesn't care. He's hammered it downfield, deep middle again, let's go

gunslinger. And this is just the opposite of gunslinger. This is Trevor Harris on you know, like four downers before the game, right, Let's okay, we're controlled and we're getting it out super slow. So I don't know how. I don't know how that's all going to play out. And I don't know if they do that because they believe it's the best way to go, or they believe that's what Jake Mayor can can offer them. So I'm I'm on the continuum. I'm leaning towards howd on Mayor, but he is

still accurate with the high completion percentage, which is about to expected. So yeah, I don't know. And Calgary's offseason was weird and that twenty something players got away, like not thirty year olds, twenty somethings who were super valuable got away in free agency. So what's what's happening behind that. I have a lot of questions about Calgary and they yeah one and one, and

they were not super impressive to me in either game. So I'm waiting to see, you know, week three and maybe through week six will have a better idea at least I will. Well, yeah, that's like you know BC here and two and though, but you know, stamps didn't look good week one and then Elx we've talked about it nausea him, so we'll see. But yeah, I like may Or. I don't know if it's like too much pressure now and you know, the safety blankets gone with bo and

it's kind of all your thing. And he he seemed was it against was it far Han? Was he interviewing them on the sidelines like halftime he was very rude to far Hands, like, well, we gotta figure this out. I don't you know, don't don't be rude to far Han there. So, Derek, I appreciate it. I wish you bad luck when the Blue Bombers tomorrow, I guess the VC Lions, But otherwise I really appreciate it. In your busy schedule and everything, so it means a lot you're

taking the time to come on now. I appreciate you having me. I love talking about the CFL, so I appreciate that that you do too. Awesome. Thanks a huge, special thanks to all of our guests for coming

on this week. Like I said, Derek Taylor, voice of the Blue Bombers, taking time out busy week and getting ready to call that game. I really appreciate him making the time in his schedule, Pat Rafino coming on earlier in the week to accommodate my work schedule. Certainly appreciate all the work that Pat has done all season with his USFL recaps and doing our show and doing the stuff for you know, Mark over at the Hub and everything else,

and then putting together the all USFL list. I thought that was really cool that Pat felt inspired to do that, and I think that that's great to kind of give a spotlight to a lot of these players that maybe wouldn't get the recognition otherwise. In the huge special thanks to Rick Saratella coming on Big Football News with Rick with the IFA and everything going on with that. I told Rick offline, I am a welcome vessel for anything that Rick wants

to talk about. In that way, I appreciate him being a friend of the show and the connections and knowledge that he has. So good luck to Rick and everyone over with the international football lines should be exciting. That will do it for me today. Hope you guys enjoyed the episode that like you subscribe, like you say, give us up to thirty five hundred subscribers, and I hope you guys will have a good and safe weekend. Take her h