LISTEN | Jets Draft Countdown - Ep. 1 (3/27)

Olivia Land has talked to the Mad Backer Bart Scott, so will here from her and Bart in a little bit. But e a another day, another pod here in Jets world. What's going on the greens Son is out. I think we've probably hit what the midway point of free agency. You know, we always talk about tears. You know, there's the first tier, the second tier, multiple waves and things like that. The Jets are still going to have to add a number of players um along the way here

before the draft. But it is draft season because we're less than a month away until April and the three Night Day UH Extravaganza begins and and and very unique format this year. We'll have to see how that all plays out. But Jets sitting there at number eleven in the first round, four picks in the top seventy nine overall, I know you are pumped for the draft, Greens, as is everybody in Jets Nation. Yeah. I love the draft, and what you know, without further ado, let's just dive

into it. We're gonna go alphabetically in regard to the core for the big four. So up first is the big man. That's McKay Beckton out of Louisville. And not only is he a big ugly, he's probably the biggest ugly six seven, three hundred sixty four pounds and oh at the combine he ran the forty and five point one seconds. You know, Jane Brugler of The Athletic always says, you look for traits and a guy, and the draft is highly you profile guys and no number of ways,

but you think of a guy's traits. Maybe sometimes over production and McKay Beckton was productive for the Louisville Cardinals, but oh my god, you think about these guys traits, they're off the floor. Yeah, agree, in some monstrous man, six seven three sixty four. I'll tell you what, I'm a little bit under five ten. I'm not even gonna give out my weight, but I can't run one what this guy and what money these prospects can do. It's just it is amazing. There's no other word for it.

And isn't there the great video of Beckton Donking. You know this is a guy who can get it up and throw it down right. Yeah. Former Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino said that he knew he wanted to offer Beckton a scholarship when he saw him doing reverse dunks in high school. And of course now I mean we I'm just gonna say his height and weight again, six seven, three hundred sixty four pounds. I mean, don't be deceived by his height and weight. He's a premier athlete, and

he's nasty as a finisher. He likes to punish people well, and that's the thing you keep on mentioning his weight, And I think it's fairer because where the teams envision him playing at, not only which side, because he is a tackle who started out at the start out on the right side for Louisville, but then he started shifting over right as his college career went on. Ten starts at left tackle as a sophomore and then eleven more at left tackle as a junior, garnering first team All

a CC honors. But that way, you know it's gonna be very interested. I'm gonna be very interested to see how teams project him at because when I hear three sixty four, a lot of times I'm thinking, oh God, maybe he'd be better suited for the right side, but he played both in college, most recently played the left

side in six seven, means he's awfully long. Um, I think he A lot of the traffic pondits, including they four mentioned Dane Brewler would say, hey, maybe a little bit raw, maybe he's got to get more refined, but wow, what a ceiling. When you're talking about beck then yeah, I feel like Beckton definitely has the biggest ceiling and

he's like a crazy athlete. And obviously we'll talk about all four of these guys, but in terms of Beckton, something that you know we'll get New York fans a little excited is that at the combine, somebody asked him, what do you think about New York? And I don't remember if the reporter was Jetter Giants. But he said, I love New York. I love the grimy nous that

New York basically is represented by. And I think that if he he's there at eleven, he'd be in a drinking option for the Jets along with the other three of these guys and just plugging along here quickly moving through these guys. Now, let's head talk about Andrew Thomas.

And I said alphabetical, so it's kind of funny going from B T T. But the other two tackles, Jetrick Wills and Tristan Worfs, are w guys, So we're going to te and Andrew Thomas is somebody that started on the right side in his collegiate career at Georgia when Isaiah Win, former first round pick of the New England Patriots, was on the left side, and then once Win got drafted, Thomas has been the guy at left tackle for two seasons for Georgia, and his strength accorded a bunch of

pundits really come in the run game. And he's another guy that's just nasty on the ground. Yes, started thirteen games at left tackle lest season Greens and the first team associated Press All American and of course first team All Conference guy to in two thousand nineteen, you would figure he's gonna come in and be a Day one starter. But we talked about this before here on the pod that it's funny how things have changed in a matter of months because because prior to this season, a lot

of pundits, a lot of pronosticators are taught. We're talking in terms of Andrew Thomas is going to be the top tackle overall selected, but I feel like these other guys have been so impressive with their workouts and their combines, showing that maybe he's going under the radar. He's long to Green's six ft five um, thirty six arms um. You know, he probably gets overshadowed because what other guys did at the combine, meaning Backton Wills and works. Yeah,

I think that's fair to say and Andrew Thomas. I said this earlier on another episode. It's almost like he's been under the microscope for longer than any of the rest of the prospects at offensive tackle in regard to the top guys, So it's almost like you forget that he's a good player because he's been analyzed for so long. But you look at his forty yard dash. I mean he's three fifteen and he ran the forty and five point two seconds. This is a guy, to your point,

is probably a plug and play kind of guy. And what you like about both Beckton and Thomas is that they've played both left tackle and right tackles. So in terms of the Jets, you know, we don't know where or how the front office envisioned somebody like George Fan where he's supposed to play or where they project him to play or Tomadoga. But the good news about the two guys we've talked about so far, they played both sides of the line. And in terms of Thomas, I

just want to say this. You talked about you almost forget about that he's a good player. Well, he was the first Bulldog to win the Jacobs Blocking Trophy in twenty one years, which is awarded to the top lineman in the SEC, has voted on by the coaches, and this is a conference that had the Joe Moore Award in the l s U Tiger's offense of line, which is voted the best old line in the country. So

Andrew Thomas is clearly a very good player. This guy Andrew Thomas is considered very good in the run game, and he's got a mller mentality. And the one thing I would like to mention about the Jets, as you mentioned media outlets having George Fan agreeing to terms with the Jets and his versatility. We talked about that at length here on the podcast. Brandon Shell, former Jet tackle, reportedly agreeing to terms with Seattle, as did Brent Quality,

um agreed to terms with the Houston Texans. So Shell was your opening day right tackle in two thousand nineteen, and Quality was slated before he got injured to be your swing tackle. So uh, moving parts, moving pieces here, and remember Kelvin Beecham remains an unrestricted free agent as of taping right now. All right, So on the other side of Olivia's interview with Bart and I will break down Jeddrick Wills and Tristan Worth. But right now, let's

see what Olivia and Barne to say. The Dynamic Duo is officially back. Olivia Land is here and on today's podcast, I am joined by Bart. Scott Bart, how are you doing a long time? I'm good, can't complain, can't complain at all all as well, how has been how has the at home treatment been for you? Um, it's been good. Um, just trying to make the best out of it. Right. So you're sitting home and what you're doing is you're doing things that you normally wouldn't do because you don't

have the ability to drive around go do things. So I spend a lot of time with the kids, being able to read books, watch you know, been watching Netflix all day. You'll spend time with the kids and really cook every day. You know. That's that's the big that's a big thing. You're cooking three meals a day. That's something you know. I have been been a part of since I was a kid, with my mom and my grandmother making sure that it was no McDonald's. Yeah. McDonald's

was only on Friday when I was growing up. I mean when he was watching Women's watching Only Matters, when Arkle was coming on, Mom comes on with the McDonald's on Friday. It was our only junk fool day. I love that. So you've been You tell me that you've been cooking, cooking every day. Yeah, let's see today, Let's see yesterday. When I cook yesterday, I kind of you know, I cooked two roasted chickens the day before. But then you know, after works, you just have you just have

the spare chicken. So what you do is you take all the spare meat off, you put it in there, you take the grease from it, you make a gravy, and you make chicken and rice, you know, with the grave, and then make some biscuits. It's like biscuits with like streaded chicken and rice. And did that. Then I made some tenderloins the day before. Then we had turkey tacos the day before that. So I'm not gonna lie. I

didn't know you had it in you. Yeah, today's making Today's man, you was gonna be uh cabbage and and corn beef. I love corn beef. Yeah, I'm impressed. All right, cool, So better see some of these cooking schools when the season starts and we get back into doing our next gen stats segments. You have to bring some foods we can test it. Absolutely. Yeah, let's talk a little bit into Jets free agency. I know you've been following the

Jets obviously throughout this entire offseason. It's been an uncharacteristic, very out of the ordinary off season. We know that. So a lot of times. The teams have not been able to make official announcements yet because of the coronavirus and the restrictions of travel. However, we do know that multiple NFL analysts around the league have reported a lot of stuff that Joe Douglas and the Jets have been doing in free agency to rebuild this roster. We mentioned

it right before we came on the podcast. You said that he seems to have added quite a few former Ravens players. Would have been some of your initial reactions to some of those additions on the squad. Well, just the fact that he's bringing god that he understands that

are important for culture. Um and it isn't you know, Joe dugans for the first time in free agents and just recent free agencies, not trying to win the back pages and it's not pretty, but these are very quality football players that are going to add a lot of depth. You have enough, you know, splashy players, right, you have you have the Jamal, you have most that you have Bell, you have Donald and so you have enough of those type of players. Now you need quality guys. You need

glue guys. You need guys that you can count on. You need guys with versatility, and that's what he's been trying to do. He brought in a lot of guards slash centers to be able to be swing man. I think you they still believe in Adoga to be that right tackle, maybe even a left tackle. You know, it'll be interesting to see where he decides to go in the draft, but I say, you know, you continue to

you continue to build on that left tackle. If it's a great left tackle there, you solidified that because you know, if you don't, Sam doesn't have time, He's not gonna be able to take the weapons that he's had so far perman. It was sad to see Robbie Anderson leaves, but Robbie Anderson took a deal. I believe that was for himself, betting on himself. He wants to bear to prove itself a little bit more with a quarterback. Yeah, you know, maybe he hasn't really went over a thousand yards,

so he wants to go. And whenever you see a player take a two year deal, they're betting on themselves, saying, Okay, after two years, I want to be back up and I'm sure everybody what I can do that I am a thousand yard receiver that I can't take the next step, and it seemed like he wanted to go somewhere where he was comfortable with the head coach. You know, it's a different relationship you have with your head coach when

you when you are in college. It's a different relationship with junior college coach than you and your professional coach. And yeah, I wish Robbie well, but when you look at Brashad Perriman, you know, great talent evaluators. We all give the Ravens, you know, staff and organization a lot of credit for their ability to to see talent, and they thought Brashad Perriman was worthy of a first round draft pick. He's a vertical receiver as well, averaging over

seventeen point six yards per catch last year. He's a burner. He may be faster than Robbie with some of his unofficial clock times at what four, one, nine and all these crazy things. He's a track star. So I think Joe, you know, I was able to fill that void. But he also was able to save some money because Robbie is at the tim million mark, Brashod is on the eight million dollar mark. Yeah. Absolutely, and we'll see more

how free agency unfolds a little bit. But you mentioned culture with Joe Douglas, and I think that's something he's really emphasized throughout his entire time with the Jets so far, and he's talked about how that is so important inside of the locker room. Being a former player yourself, why is culture so critical and how large of a role

does it play on a team? Because, like, like they said, and remember the Titans, attitude respects leadership, right, So, like, if you if you have great leadership, you're gonna have a great attitude. And sometimes things aren't always going to be going for you in the football seasons. You know, football seasons full of peaks and valleys. But if you have high character guys, you have a great culture, you'll be able to fight your way out of it and be able to rebound. But if you don't, you're just

going to have an environment that compounds problems. Right that what you call people or or teams are uh their their fair weather or there you know they're they're front runners. You don't want to have front runners because you know the majority of the time things are going to go bad, and you want to have people to have a belief that when things get bad or things don't go the way you think they're gonna go, they pull together. And

that's all about culture. That's all about having that family environment. You know, you want to have your players that pull together and not pull apart and fragment inside of a a locker room, because what happens is you get clicks. We have clicks, then you have division within the locker room. You need everybody pulling the rope in the same direction.

And that's what the cultures, all cultures basically about leadership and togetherness and humiliarly, yeah, that makes that makes a lot of sense, especially within a locker room, and you see the different types of personalities all coming together for that one goal. Now, I want to specifically zone in on the defense. You a former defensive player yourself, know how hard Greg Williams worked with its defense last year, especially when you think about the run defense. There ain't

number two overall against the run last year. Now, obviously they can use a little bit of help when it comes to um past defense, but you've already seen Joe Douglas takes some of the steps by report saying that he resigned quarterback Brian Pool. What other directions. Do you think they need to go on the defensive side. I mean, I see that they brought back George Jenkison. That's a good quality pick, right, He's a solid guy, but he

can't be your dominant pass rusher. You know, I look at guys out there like Marcus Golden that's still out there that can potentially be a retread. You know. Of course, the elephant in the room is would you pony up the money for gollege David Clowney if that price tag comes down. A move like that signals that you have you know, next year has to be goal time because you can't pay a player fifteen twenty million dollars a year and then not expect to be winning or in

the playoffs. But you know, this is the business wide open. With the exit, Tom Brady, you know you have an opportunity now to to to have somebody out other than the New England Patriots as pensylvan as the divisional champs. So we'll see how Joe wants to wants to go. You look at Buffalo, looks like they're all in. Miami's read too nicely and they still have a lot of draft capital. But the Jets, you know, can be right

there if sound chitect the next step. And that's why I said this all season has to be all about building around Sam Bronald. We know the defense can be solid. It can be a top ten defense with the pieces that we have. Great Williams is just that good, you know. You know, do you want an elite pass rush? Yes, you know, look at look out there some potential moves out there as well. You hear that Brandon Cooks is

potentially available. You know, you know in a trade that they want to move them because you know this would be the fourth time that he moved. But we all know that he's a quality number one receiver in his league. So it's moved to be made. And Joe Douglas sure he has a plan in the draft. You know, the great thing is if they decided to address the offensive side of the ball and get the left tackle with the you know, the eleventh pick. It's so many quality

receivers in this draft right now. You know, everybody wants to talk out you know last year, well the two best round wide receivers last year came in the second round. You talk about a J. Brown and you talk about

DJ Metcalf. You know, these are guys who are picked in the second round, So that second round draft pick for the Jets, and the fact that you know, Joe Douglas was able to flip Lennard Williams into a third and a fourth round draft pick if he signs with these guys, is another way to move up and down the board. Gives you board flexibility, gives you options, and you know, I think the Jets to be doing well

if they're able to pick any of those guys. You know, Joe Dougats has a great eye for for the offensive line. We know that, but this is his first off season and all eyes on him part. I know that you are one who absolutely loves defensive schemes because there have been a few times during our Next Gen Stats episodes where you've actually walked me through and explained a lot of schemes yourself. When you look at Greg Williams, what do you like specifically about his coaching style or what

stands out to you most? Well, what really stood out to me most by just kind of breaking them down and watch them last year, it was just the fact that he's a teacher, right, He's a teacher and that's the important part. You know. Um you hear when when Joe Judge came in with the Giants, the first thing he's talking about was he wants teachers. He doesn't want to hear what somebody can't do. You want to see what they can do. And I think that's what Greg

Williams kind of figured out. You look at what he was able to do with Hewitt, but what he's able to do a blessed on what he was able to do with Burgess. You know, these guys with guys that struggled at first, but then by the end of the season you can tell that they have been coached up, learn from their mistakes, and you know, it really helps you to be able to develop a lot of depth because in football, you know, a hundred percent injury rate

is usually what it is. Right. Everybody's gonna be injured or banged ever sometime. But if you have guys that you can plug in and now you have confidence in them because they were able to play. Now you have a guy the c J. Mos, if he goes down or if somebody else goes down, you feel confident that you've seen these players do it before and perform well. That's why it's great that he was able to retain them and bring some of those guys back. I think

George Jenkings is a great quality player. He makes the plays he's supposed to make, and then now that allows you to see if he can take the next step as he's on a one year deal, so God's be motivated. I like the fact that all these deals or deals that weren't at the top of the market, but they're also deals that they're flexible and you can get in

and out of them if guys don't perform. Okay, if you could choose, when you think about all of the free agents that are out there right now, whether it's be offensive or defensive, you can choose one top three ament to come over to the Jets. Who would you choose them one? I mean, I think I think the I mean the like I said, the elephant in the room,

it's the elephant, right. I mean, you talk about the most dominant players still left and available, it's you know, it's got to be the Damon Clowney and what he's able to bring to the team. But there's still some quality guys out there, some corners out there that I think that that can really help the healthy Jets out. But it depends on how they wanted to decide to build this team. But it has to start with the pass rusher. And when you think about the pass rusher,

if they can get Marcus Golden, that's one thing. You know, Marcus Golden is somebody that that you know, can really help them out. You know, he had ten sacks last year. He's a quality, you know, edge rusher. He would be great to add if you can't get Ja Damon Clowney. But you know, Ja Damon Clowney is the white whale

that everybody wants. The the issue is where he comes down and and and gives not a discount, but with the market dictate that maybe it wasn't as robust as he thought it was because you look at guys like Beasley, You look at guys you know, like Robert Quinn. They jumped off the off the field, they dropped off the free agency fast. So you know, maybe he'll be able to come back and maybe he'll decide to bring his you know, his his talents to Gotham City. All right, Bart, Well,

as usual, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Giving us a little bit of input on Jets free agency. Hopefully we'll talk soon and take care in home quarantine. Likewise, many thanks to Olivia and Bard and he A. Let's just keep plugging along here with the draft. We talked about McKay, Beckton and Andrew Thomas. Well, next up in the alphabetical order in terms of the Big Four is the Alabama right

tackle Jeddrick Wills. And we've talked about versatility before. Well, Jeddrick Wills has been a right tackle since high school and he protected to his blindside at Alabama, so he clearly had a very big role. And to a Taga Vloa actually called Jeddrick Wills the Alpha of the old line, and a lot of draft pundits have Wills as their

top rated offensive lineman. Physical dude, nasty street. Great point from you Green saying that, oh, he did play right tackle at Alabama, but oh, by the way, Alabama was playing with a gifted left handed quarterback last season. I don't know if you want to mess with it though, because he's so good on the right side. Um, it's all a matter of footwork, steps of releases, things like that. But this is a guy who's got a tremendous nasty streak. He plays with an edge. Um, he pretty much can

do it all. Uh. Solid run blocker, good past protector, great feet, good hands. He's kind of like the total package. And then in years past we'd all always say that total package has gotta be a left tackle. Well, maybe this guy is so good on the right side, and like you said, he's been playing it since high school, maybe you just don't mess with it. Maybe he just comes in and he's somebody's right tackle. I think that's an interesting point. And he's six four three twelve. He

ran the forty and five point zero five seconds. So the top guys that we've talked about so far freakish athletes. We haven't even talked about Tristan Worfs, who debatably had the best combine of any offensive lineman. But I just want to say this in terms of I think some people out there, fans or whoever may be, may say, well, why would you draft a right tackle that high? And

I'll point to a couple of people. The first guy I want to say is a former free agent of this class, Jack Conklin, who signed with the Cleveland Browns the eighth overall pick in two thousand sixteen, and then you think of somebody like Lane Johnson to the Philadelphia Eagles. He was a top ten pick. He's plugging play on the right side, and he's debatedly the top right tackle in the game right now. So to your point, why

would you mess with it? It's not I know a lot of people will say, well, left tackle is more important than right tackle. Well, you know, the way the game is shaping up, you gotta be able to protect no matter what the position is. So if you think Jeddrick Wills is the next Lane Johnson or you think he's gonna be a top elite right tackle, I don't think you messed with it either. I think that's a very good point. Yeah, And we went through the mock draft the other day. Uh mel kiper uh perhaps the

first real NFL draft guru. And he's still going strong. God bless him. Uh. You know, looking at the flashpoints for the tackles, here are the teams that I'm paying attention to. Green's Giants of four, Arizona Cardinals at eight, wild card, maybe Jacksonville at nine, and Cleveland at ten. To the Giants go with the tackle as early as four. Again, we talked about it the other day. Arizona receiver or

tackle seems to make sense there, We don't. It's hard to get a read what's going on in Jacksonville right now. We know they are rebuilding, but Cleveland definitely has some work to do with the line. I would imagine the Browns barn a move. They're gonna go with one of these guys at ten right before the Jets. That's just

my hunch right now. Yeah, I think that's fair to say, And it'll be interesting to see if maybe Joe Douglas and the front office potentially want to leap frog a team like the Cleveland Browns if one of these guys on the board, depending on how everything shakes out between now and then. But let's wrap things up. Who are talking about? Tristan wharfs and Worths absolutely blue doors off of Lucas Oil Stadium. He's six five, three twenty. He ran the forty yard dash in four point eight five

seconds abroad jump of a hundred. I this guy, you know, he you knew he was part of the Big four, but it almost kind of felt like he was maybe the the odd one out. And after his workout in Indianapolis. He might be the first guy taken, first true freshman to start for Iowa under head coach Kirk Farrence. That's saying something considering how long Farrens has been there. The other thing to take in an account is Iowa runs

a pro style offense. He has played both sides, just like a few a couple of these guys that we talked about today, but last year. Green's more on the right than the left. Home tenant tense starts at right tackle, three at left tackle. Um listen, state champion, high school wrestler, a guy who is tremendous in track and field as well. UH gifted athlete. It's funny you speak about the combine.

I was at his podium session and people were asking him, Hey, do you think you gotta get a little bit meaner? And the work said, you know, I consider myself a nice guy. My mom wants me to be a polite guy. I consider myself a nice guy. But listen, accomplished player and his athleticism just off the charts. Yeah. I think a couple of things here. One, he's the first Hawkeye to win Big Ten Offensive Linemen of the Year since

Brandon sheriff in ten. You mentioned Kirk Farrens. He's been there since ninety nine, and for Tristan Worths to be the first true freshman to start under him in a pro style offense, when you think about the kind of guys and the kind of nastiness that Ferrens and the Iowa Hawkeye program likes to employ, I think that says a lot about Worths and his nastiness. And in terms of right tackle left tackle, Dane Brugler of The Athletic

told me this. He said, well, the only reason why Tristan Worfs is playing the right side is because their left tackle cannot play on the right side of the line, so wors has the flexibility to be able to do both. And when you just even if you just watch his highlights on YouTube or just punch something, and you can see how well he moves, which is why he's such

an intriguing player. And I think that if any one of these four is on the board at eleven for the Jets, I don't think that they can go wrong. And I know some of the other names out there, whether it be trade back options or potential trade back options or the next tier, you think of guys like Houston's Josh Jones, who played in a lower level of

competition than the guys that we've talked about. You think about USC s Austin Jackson, and then even talk about somebody that played opposite of Andrew Thomas potentially in round two, Isaiah Wilson out of Georgia, Ezra Cleveland out of Boise State. But this tackle class is top heavy and there's a lot of talent here. If the Jets want to beef up their offensive line on draft night, yeah, and the chances are I would say good that there will be one or two there at eleven. Now, I don't think

all four are gonna be there. I don't think that's possible. We just talked about the Giants. We talked about UM Arizona, Jacksonville, Cleveland, UM and and some of their needs and where they are as franchises. But I don't think all four will be off the board at that point. And no, this too. Joe Douglas is not going to go into draft weekend saying I have to get this or I have to get that. He's not going to construct the roster like that. Um, you know, these guys, this is a top heavy draft

tachle class. But I would say to Greens, there's a lot of people high on the depth in terms of round two in three, And you just mentioned a number of those games and names, including Josh Jones, and some of those players might not be Day one starters for you, but ultimately they might project as starters. And when you look at the Jets where they're at, go back to last year too. Now this was before Joe Douglas came in as general manager, but the Jets took Chuma Dog

out of the USC in the third round. And again maybe potentially he could take a leap for you in between years one and two, So a lot to play out before then. But yeah, I don't remember a tackle class like this in a while. Yeah, I think that's fair to say. And it's funny that you mentioned. Obviously, it seems like right now all four of those guys

won't be available for the Jets at eleven. But you know, with that being said, the receivers we mentioned this yesterday, none of them might be taken by the chance by the time the Jets draft at eleven. And we'll break down the draft between now and April twenty three, when the first round is scheduled to go. Obviously will monitor, but it seems like all things are pointing that the draft will remain April twenty three to April. And that's all we have here on the Official Jet Podcast powered

by Amazon Web Services. E and I will be back next week. Many thanks to Olivian barn and e A. Have a great weekend and I'll catch up with you Monday. Yes sounds good. I guess Bob was shoosing and Marty Allons the Jets radio team, gonna take over on the pod tomorrow, so everybody at home enjoy that one.