The OTP | NFL Scouting Combine Day 5

the combine? Well, I'm not looking at my phone like I was every two seconds in Mobile when you guys were down there. So that was great. Your segment with coach mac was the highlight of the week. Oh, the two of you guys talking. There's got to be a huge sense of pride that what well, over eighty percent of the Reese's Senior Bowl participants got an invite to the combine. Uh, it's it's got it's higher than that.

I'm not a math I wasn't a math major, but we have I think there's one twenty four out of one twenty seven. Oh, so that's like ninety seven percent. I apologize, well, done well. I'm like, I gotta be a sense of pride there. I was. I'm mad about the three guys that didn't get I know you are the kid from Bowling Green, Carl Brooks. Brooks was really the one who jumped out, isn't it Carl Brooks is one. And then there was a linebacker from Sack State, Marte Mapu,

who we called up from the NFLPA game. They did a great job scouting Marte. He came in a two phenomenal days of practice. I was watching with a head coach watching the nine on seven drill. He was is a two hundred and eighteen pound guy, was just blowing up inside run stuff. And uh, there's talking off talk to teams. He might go on Day two and he's not. And he's not here at the Combine. I mean there's always Combine snubs and they usually go later in the draft.

If Mapu goes in the third round, that's gonna be one of the all time. I think Kevin Bayer is the last highest and he's another Senior bowl A lum, but I think he's the last highest Combine snob first pick of the third round, while he almost went in the second he almost well, and there were he was the sixty fourth pick because there was actually one less pick in the second someone forfeited a pick, right, so theoretically he was the last pick of the second round.

Oh yeah, yeah, so that could be huge if Marte goes that high. So being able to be here and see these guys go through the process again to that pride thing, watching them take the next step. Not only does that make you feel good as someone who's invested in their careers a little bit, but also as an evaluator. You got a lot of stuff, right, Yeah. No, I don't look at it that. I'm excited for the guys.

I'm excited for the players, and that's been cool. I saw a bunch of them last night when they were working on their forty starts. Some guy, they overthink this stuff, don't they. They can't just put their hand down and run, but they can't not do it right right, No, So there, so I saw a bunch of the guys, and it is there's things I do miss about working in the NFL, and I missed Draft Day probably the most draft week in the most but but Draft weekend is a lot

of fun. From a Senior Bowl perspective because you're seeing, you know, last two years, one hundred and six guys drafted, So you just get you get happy for these guys over and over and over because you know they're realizing their dreams. So that's what it's all about, Jim again,

pride and without picking favorites or anything like that. But who do you think is someone give me a couple of your Senior Bowl guys that really have a chance to pop this week in the Indian app Oh, you know, we do the Zebra technology stuff during practice that all the teams have in. Our fastest guy this year was Darius Rush, a big corner, a big long corner from

South Carolina. Who, um coach, you know this The lazy scouting take on big corners is I don't know if he can run, you know, like that's just we do that. We just tend to do that with these guys. Now that we know Darius canna indeed run, because that was a question going intomobile. Last year, our fastest guy was Tarik Cooling and he comes here and runs four to six. I don't I don't think Dari's gonna run that, but

um so, I think he's gonna do really well. Um, one of the defensive linemen from from Northwestern who had a good week at a time while at a barre, is a guy that if he hits everything that Bruce Feldman put You know, Bruce Feldman does the Freaks List article every year. Um, so Bruce, Bruce. We've actually helped Bruce the last couple of years. That's been a fun

project to work on with him. But if if if Tommy hits all his marks it was like thirty seven verse ten eight broad four or five short shuttle six nine three, if he hits everything that Bruce laid out in that he will have the number one mark. He would have been the number one defensive tackling last year's combined at every single event, which would be incredible. Wow. Will McDonald fourth, Yeah, when we got there and you just eyeballs on it. You keep watching him during the

whole process. Give me your take now after watching all the tape, will look different than all the other edge players. Athletically, Yes, he just looked different coming off the ball. He looked different dropping and we're talking about a guy that played a lot of four eyed five technique in college. So he never even was you know, really a line wide. You know, they didn't even really kind of use him.

I'm not I'm not saying against Iowa State, but you're talking about a guy that had thirty three sacks over the last more seasons in a scheme that wasn't really suited for his skill set. He'd never really dropped into cover. Some of the coverage stuff was like so natural to the guy. He can do anything you want. And he's a high school track guy, so he's like a six nine high jumper, um, so you know he's got all

this stuff. And again, just the eyeball test, I mean, you put on the one on ones, he just looked different than everybody else. Well, he looked different to me than what I saw, you know, just running through some prelim tapes. But because he was, he was moved in there. And then so what I'm you know, sitting in the stands. I showed you the picture of written I went, I had to go buy sweatshirts because we were not smart

enough to stay dress warm enough. The seconded, so we had a thirty degree drop from day one to day two. And both of us are veterans, you know, and so we show up and we're shivering in there up in the stands. I gotta find some clothes, and the Senior Bowl was selling clothes, so anyway, I went, I wouldn't bought us some hoodies and then then we were just fine.

But just watching him on, just watching him, I'm going, this isn't the same dude, because he was moved into a four eye and he was and he was asked to do so many gap things. But then when what you guys did down there, and I give you and your people a lot of credit, and the coaches that were coaching coach, I thought those mixed staffs did a nice job. I thought those blended staffs did a really

good job down there. But I'm watching him and I kept I kept telling these guys, I said, this guy kind of looks like something that might be able to do something, you know, especially in a sub role to begin with, to look at and needs to get a little heavier, right, Yeah, he's working on that. He told us at the podium yesterday. He was playing at two thirty five during the season. He's at two forty three right now. Wants to hit two fifty. I think he was two forty two in Mobile. But yeah, if as

long as he's trending in the right direction. But you're right, is a situational past Rushturant. I think he can be that guy next year. I think he's a guy that if you're a if you're an odd front team, he could play three four outside linebacker with ease. I've been I was into three four defense for a lot of years in the league in New England and Kansas City, and we played with a lot less athletic guys than

Will McDonald. So yeah, the arrow is pointing up. You know, one thing we did for our overall Practice Player of the week. The regular practice players, they vote on each other, so wide receivers vote on DB's old line, votes on d line. But for the overall Practice Player of the Week, we pulled I pulled two guys from all thirty two clubs, so we had sixty two votes. Will McDonald got a

bunch of them. Wow, Yeah, he did interesting. As you're going through, I guess the weeks in between the Senior Bowl and the Combine, maybe for some of the guys who didn't have the best weeks at the Senior Bowl, there's a lot going on. There are guys, you know who struggle to kind of find their footing in that environment. How much room is there for improvement or for progress to be made for them to kind of make up and have a better showing at the combine? Is that

something that happens very often? Yeah, that's a that's a good that's a good question. Yeah, I'm sure if you asked all these players, were all of them totally happy with their performance in Mobile. No, But the way I was brought up in scouting, again, this goes goes way back, but the old axiom was you can never hurt yourself by playing in an All star game. You know, again, they're they're making a statement to the thirty two teams

how competitively they are. I mean, there's a lot of people telling these kids not to be in events like the Senior Bowl, so um, so they helped themselves just by coming, and they helped themselves by competing. And I'm sure some of those guys, you know, wish they would have done a little better. But but yeah, they give room to make up with the testing. But I think the smart teams are really always going back to the

tape anyway. I can just speak to the teams I worked for and me personally when I made the biggest mistakes is when I came to Indy and I put too much stock into what they did out there in shorts and T shirts, not to not to minimize the comment, this is a big this is an important event. It's a big event. But I think you always have to go back to the tape and if if a guy didn't have the week he had, Mobile teams are going to go back to the college tape and be like

was he better in college? Like why why did you get that Senior Bowl invite? So it's just a constant process. If you're doing this the right way as a club, you're constantly rechecking yourself okay, and you're really going back to that college tape over and over and over and just making sure you're seeing seeing it right. In the time between the Senior Bowl and now, we found guys in Mobile that we became intrigued with that maybe we

did know that well going in. So I'm gonna go around the group and let us ask you about those players. The first guy I want to ask you about it, I'm gonna lead with this because I think he's very interesting, keyon white defensive lineman. I think from Georgia Tech. And I say, I think, because man, he's first, he is, he is. Now, Keyon's a Keyon's a good one. I was scared we're gonna lose Keyon with the Senior Bowl

because I was. I was driving home the week before the Senior Bowl and Daniel Jeremiah from the NFL Network calls and he said, now, because I'm watching this kid from Georgia Tech right now. He's like, man, he's really good. I'm like, yeah, he is really good. He's like, he's better than some of these guys people have going in the top ten. I said, DJ, please do not put him in the top ten and one of your things right now, because then an agent, an agent's gonna see

that and he's gonna not gonna send him the mobile. Now. He's very versatile. I know in that he came to our game. I think he was two eighty inmobile. He was playing in the low two nineties at Georgia Tech, so he must have dropped some weight. But yeah, he's a guy you can move up and down the front, you can stand him up, you can put his hand down. He's a mismatch against guards, a super athletic guy and

he's really natural. Maybe we talked about this on the air in Mobile, but he was a guy that when I started watching him as a second year, he was a second year player. They moved him from tight end to defense, and his first year on defense he had nineteen tackles for loss, which tells you he can find the football. I mean, there's instincts there. So he's a really high upside player. I would be surprised if he got out of the top twenty picks. You mentioned what

he does against guards. Let's talk about a guard that you had that is, by all indication gonna be in the bottom of the first round, maybe a little higher than Nato. Cyrus Torrance from Florida. It's an impressive size guy that I saw down there on the field. After those practices tell us about Cyrus talking incredibly strong, just a strong, strong human being, and he doesn't get moved even when guys get into him, he doesn't get moved. You know, I was actually was talking to one of

the guys that's training in him right now. I didn't know you could do this, so I'm not up on the sports science stuff like I probably should be. But they can measure hamstring strength on some device they have, and the average in the NFL, the average player is like a seven hundred, and you know Cyrus's were like nine hundred. So, like they said, it's the strongest they've ever had come through this this you know, particular training facility. So really strong guy. When he gets his hands on you,

it is completely over. So he's a he's a day one starter. I don't know if he's gonna fit for all teams. I think, you know, for teams that run a lot of wide zone stuff. I don't know if that's gonna be O Cyrus's thing. But if you're a gap scheme team that wants to come downhill and move people off the ball of Cyrus as your guy, there's

a guy that showed up there. Of course, we stayed and watched all of it that I was not familiar with when I went down there, but I kept watching him and watching him, and you know, some of the drills that you do that the one on ones are really valuable, especially you know for two areas the offensive defensive line and then the space guys. How about Jaden Reid, Yeah, Jaden had a really big week. Yeah I thought so too, Yeah he did I was really happy for him because

we were watching Jaden a year ago. He was a that we identified as a junior graduate. Um, we've really worked hard. We can bring those guys now if they graduate by December, so that that fall at twenty twenty one, we knew Jaden was going to graduate, so we put a lot of working on him, and then we get to the end of the year and he decides to go back to school, which is great. And statistically he wasn't even their leading receiver at Michigan State this year.

So yeah, we've had at day two grade on him going back two years now. Now, did this numbers look like a day two receiver? Probably not on paper. I think he caught fifty five balls for six or seven hundred yards. But but he was almost uncoverable at Senior Bowl. Really dynamic, quick and fast. Both was a really hard cover, can return punts. He has legit NFL starter punt returnability. And again I think he's I think he's gonna have

going in that day two range, which beforemobile. I don't you know, he's probably more of a fourth, but I I would be surprised if you got out of the third. Now, yeah, and just watching him, and again, of course Michigan State football, which is good football, but they run it. You know, they'll line up and run it, so your receivers aren't going to have the numbers. But I was impressed with him just watching and he seemed to be especially coming

out of that offense. No disparity of the offense. He's got some nuance to him, especially in the slot. I mean he's a slot guy, don't you think. Yeah, some of some of the some of the head and shoulder stuff, some of the stem stuff. Yeah. Really it really advanced. And you can tell me this coach. I just remember another former Spartan that you guys said, Derek Mason. If there's any I didn't see, I'm too young to Derek was a couple years older than me, so I wasn't

scouting yet. But um, is there any similarities there to Derek Mason. D Mace was a little stronger because d Mace was a strong dude. I mean, you know I was coaching when we had d Mace there. Yeah, but he was extremely strong, but very very crafty inside and even for you know, the stature, A really good combat catcher and just as competitive as they come. Nice draw there. Yeah, I just sounds like you do this for a living. No, Derek Mason. I'm a Michigan guy, so I remember watching

Derek Mason rip us up every year. It seemed like you mentioned the Zebra technology but showed on the scoreboard there at a stadium and mobile speeds. One of the speeds that got my attention was Luke Musgrave, the tight end from Oregon State. Yeah, in terms of size, speed combo, he's gonna be. He probably gonna be the top guy

in this tight end class. Now, I'm not saying he's gonna be the first tight end taken because the Notre Dame Kid Mayor is a really good player, Dalton Kincaid from Utah, who was gonna come to our game, but he actually he broke his back in the last game of the year, So I don't even know if Dalton Kinkaid is a really good player. But Luke Musgrave, yeah, he hit I want to see. He was our eighth fastest overall player in the game, which at two hundred

and sixty pounds is pretty crazy. How much fast. I mean, he's faster than our corners in white out, So yeah, he he's I don't think he gets out of the second round. I know there was some talk, I know DJ talking about Dann Jeremiah. I know he had him in the first round for a little bit, but I don't know if he's gonna go that high. But he had some drops during the week. But second round I think is probably where he'll end up. I'vean Pace, the

linebacker from Cincinnati. What an intriguing player, no doubt. There's always guys that are better than I think they once we get him ammobile live and Pace definitely falls into that category this year because he was kind of a late ad for us, you know, we were He's not very big. You know, he's five. He was five eleven three, five eleven four, so, you know, five eleven and a half. Not a very big guy, but he just and he's

got a really unique style because he's so under sized. Like, coach, you would not coach this guy to play linebacker the way he plays it, but he's figured out how to play with his size. I told him he reminded me a little bit of Teddy Bruski when I was in New England with Teddy, Like you would never draw it up the way Teddy did it because he was always dipping under blocks and slipping around stuff, and he just had a really unorthodox style about him. And that's what

Ivan's got. And you got to the game that you can really see like linebackers and running backs, those are two positions the game itself are really important for. And I haven't had nine solos and ten total tackles and the one on one blitz pick up stuff. I don't know if we had a running back put a hand on him all week. I mean, he just just out quicked everybody. Having been a linebacker coach in the league,

for that's how I cut my teeth. Let me tell you something that I always worked on with smaller linebackers like that. And if it wasn't if it wasn't a take on strength, I would always tell him eyes before feet, and if your eyes get you there first, I don't care how you get there, you know, but but your eyes can't be late if you're undersized. Sometimes you can be late if you're bigger and you've got some shocking

shit to you. But you're right. He's a jazz player, but he his great, great eyes and he's got great eyes, and that'll that'll that's what makes him, and he was he was not even personally, I'll own this. I had a question about his play speed off the Cincinnati tape, and he was another guy. He came down. He might have been the fifth fastest guy in the game or

sixth fastest it with crazy times. If you look at the guys that ran what he ran this year, what those guys ran in Indie last year, this guy might run in the four threes, which I mean I thought he was more of a four or five guy. But but he he blew it out on his zebra stuff. Coachmac a faster David Long type player face. Yes, now, David Long. David Long played more on the edge. Itst Virginia. He was more rush guy. Okay, and West Virginia. This guy's been behind the ball and it was seeking gaps.

David Long learned to k and d the Sarreguard triangle. This guy's done this. Yeah, but but he's faster. I want to say David Long's Yeah, first time off the ball was Inmobile was where he was back there full time. Absolutely, it was because it wast Virginia. I mean, and he was, you know, a tremendous player, productive, but they edged him, and which I probably would too because he could get there. So I lose track of these guys once they get to the NFL. Is David Long has become a really

good player for the time, absolutely good. Hey, he's a free agent this offseason and there's a lot of talk and Mike Vrabel said here earlier in the week, Jim that you know, the Titans would certainly like to entertain the notion of bringing him back because man, he's he is an impact player, particularly on third down. You know, that's an area where he's gotten to be a big

player there. Third down defensive percentage with him and without him he missed time due to hamstring injury was very by twenty percent to the negative when he was not on the field. Wow, that's valuable. Yep. This week we've been talking a lot about offensive linemen. Are there linemen that showed up big and mobile that we should be watching? Yeah, that was the group to me after watching all the

tape that really stood out. I thought we and I still do think we had a good group of edge group and in the defensive line was good, but that old line group really handled him. Um, I'm not gonna say all six guys are going in the first round. But I do think we have six guys that have a chance to go in the first round. You know, they all they all showed out. You know. I think we might have spoken about Cody malk when we were when when you guys were down in Mobile. The North

Dakota State kid. He's just he's just interesting me because he can play all five spots and he'd only been a left tackle at North Dakota State. I know in the game he played left tackle, right guard, and center, so he played on both sides and he played all three spots. So he's a really interesting guy. I know

he moved on from Taylor Lawan. Jalen Duncan from Maryland is a guy that athletically made it look easy, and he took a lot of one on one reps against Keyon White from Georgia Tech, who who we talked about, and he shut him down. If you're looking for just a natural pass protecting left tackle, Jalen's got that ability to be a really good one. He just needs to become more consistent. As Maryland tape was up and down, and I thought he put together a good week. Now

when we flopped him to the right side. He didn't look as comfortable because that just hasn't been a spot. The teams know that. But when you just looked at the left tackle reps, that guy looked like a starting left tackle. You know, I'm gonna steal Retz guy here, but we steal each other's guys all the time, a lot of draft stuff together. But and this is his guy, and he jumped on him early. Tyja Spears, Yeah, ty Jam. He was the overall practice player of the week and

he won by a decent margin. Just a really dynamic football player. And sometimes it's hard to gauge running backs during the week because we're not going to we're not tackling to the ground, you know very much. I mean it happens every once in a while. We're not supposed to. We tell the guys not too. But his ability to get through the whole old that initial burst and then really what's most exciting when he gets a second leveler in space. He's got eyes in the back of his head.

He feels stuff. I mean, you see some of the cutback runs on two lane tape he made. He made usc look silly. In that Bowl game. I think he had five touchdowns in that in that Cotton Bowl. But yeah, phenomenal week. I think he's put himself in that conversation in the top you know, three or four backs in this draft, I think I think Bijean Robinson from Texas, everyone knows he'll probably go one. Jimir Gibbs from Alabama

is a really good one. Um. But Taj is in that next conversation after those guys just watching his tape collegiately and when you vetted him to bring him in to Mobile, did the spatial awareness surprise you or did you see that on tape? So I saw that on tape that was going back to so he was a junior. He was a guy that was a junior that we that we got early in the two lane staff was great telling us like, hey, Jim, this guy, if he has a good year, he's coming out and we want

him to go out. He's you know, wants to take care of his family. But yeah, that's what jumped out was the stuff in space. His open field run skills are are pretty dang special. So you know, get him involved in the past game, get him out there on the perimeter like he's gonna make people look foolish and he's got he's got. He's a true home run hitter and it's it's and it's not like some home runners

are all speed based. You know, you just get him and they go like Chris Johnson, You've got Chris Johnson, Like you get christ in space. He was gone, Like this guy's gone because he can just weave and make people miss and sees things and feels things and he kind of picks his way and makes guys look stupid

and then he ends up in the end zone. What are you hearing since you had Hendon Hooker down to the Senior Bowl even though he couldn't play due to the knee, right, what are you hearing about him in the weeks that have followed and as we head into this weekend where the quarterbacks will be a feature. A couple things. One that he did a great job in those interviews and that was that was big for him.

The guys that coached him during the week, that sat in the room with him, just how supportive he was with the other quarterbacks even at practice, but in the room picking up everything. Um, and I think, what, guys, you're starting to see? I know, Daniel Jeremiah just I keep bringing up DJ, but I know he just threw him in the back end of the first round or something.

Or there's some first round talk with Hendon right now, and I think that's because a lot of people are really getting their hands dirty on this quarterback class, and then they get to Hendon and they're like, well, wait a minute, Like this guy's better than some of the guys being talked about above him, his tapes, better than

these guys. Why aren't we talking about this guy? So I think I think you're getting some of that because right now, I mean a lot of these gms haven't really gotten their hands dirty on these prospects until around now Senior Bowl time February, and now they're they're watching the Will Levis's, the Anthony Richardsons, and then they get to Hendon's tape and they're like, this guy's pretty darn good. We talked about what an impressive young man he was.

Coach McK and I talked about it just in conversation, about his interaction with his teammates even though he didn't play, obviously, and his interaction with fans in the stands, signing autographs, whatever. We were just looking at this quarterback class. We think he's probably quarterback number five in this despite the ACL Yeah, after the Big Four on Thursday night, Yeah, he probably

will be in again. The thing with him and you guys have spent time around him, there's just a genuine quality to him, like he's not you know, I don't know how to describe it, but he's just genuine to himself, and you feel like you're meeting the real guy every time you're around him and his teammate. I think teammates feel that he's just a he's just a really good dude. So yeah, and there's a lot been made about the age factor because he's twenty five. I think that's really overblown.

I think all these guys are playing longer. I don't know if it's the Tom Brady TV twelve effect or whatnot, but you know, you can take some years off the front of a in a guy's NFL career because they're playing a lot of years on the back end. You know, it used to be you remember, I mean, guys got to be thirty three, thirty four, they were done. I mean that was that was the end of a quarterback,

you get. But now they're all playing thirty eight thirty nine forty, So who cares if he's twenty five when he's coming. Well, he's a mature guy too, and he's very mature. Here's what I got for you. And again this is I want you to You've got all the tape, You've watched it all, you vetted him all two most consistent corners, Uh, in the whole class of the Senior

Bowl guys. I haven't got to all the junior guys yet. Um, senior wise, I'll say yeah that the senior Uh, Julius Brents was a huge winner of Senior Bowl week the Kansas State Corner. Again, I think he's got the longest wingspan on record since we've been doing the wingspans at corner. Um. You know there he's an Iowa transfer, right. You know a lot of times a lot of people move those Iowa corners to safety when they get to the NFL. This guy's not moving to safety. He is a for

a long bodied guy, really fluid mover. Um was really dialed in in practice. Uh. You know he forced in the one on ones. He forced some no throws in the one on one periods, which you don't do. You really got to be blanking guy in one on ones for the quarterback just not to even throw it. Um and he did that. So he he was a name during the week when I'd ask guys buddies from around the league, like who's standing out, Julius Brent's name came up repeatedly, um, you know. And then and then I

brought up Darius Rush earlier and from South Carolina. He's another guy that that I thought really stood out. Kyu Blue Kelly from Stanford had a great week too, you know. And let me just say this about about your practice organization that I liked, you know, as far as just

a former coach watching practice. I like the fact that you've got officials out there because that's one of the biggest things, as you well know, and for us to know, it's a difference for corners coming into this league as far as the area that they can make contact and just to just to throw the warning flag saying you can't do that now, you can't do that now. And you could see guys, you know, as the week went on, start to understand where the no touch zone was, which

is as you well know, huge, being a little less grabby. Yeah, yeah, now that's that's a point of emphasis for the league. You know, we the referees we had during the week, we're from all around college football, and those are the guys being looked at because they're the NFL scouting them. So the Senior Bowl week is a scouting opportunity for college referees. And they were all in town. So we ad SEC being all the all the power fives, a couple group of five refs and and that was a

big proving week for them. So it's huge having them down. It's a great move by you all right, halftime of the OTP or special guests, the executive director of the Reese's Senior Bowl, Jim Naggie, and we're talking now about the Duncan Rewards program. Download the app to join today and start saving and stacking your way to the free Duncan. You'll love Duncan Rewards, Save him, stack, abuse them however you want. America runs on Duncan terms apply well to

your earlier point. Having officials at those practices, being able to see guys going through a practice, working with different coaches. That's the benefit of these all star games, right, It's such a different way to evaluate other than just shorts and T shirts, jumping high and running fast. Right, yeah, no, And I think the overlooked part of the practice week four a lot of guys that coach Mac and some of the gms that they don't have the all the coaches.

But if you don't have the benefit of going to a college practice in the fall, you miss out on practice habits. There's a certain things about way guys practice with tempo, with focus. I give Mike Tomlin a lot of credit, like he's there every year. He's in the middle of those drills because he's keying in on the little things. He's looking at body language. He's looking at when in the offensive line defensive line one on ones, when an offensive lineman gets his butt whooped, I mean,

Mike's looking at their face. He wants to see what that immediate reaction is in you know, what we do is they take two reps back to back. So the same guys go two reps in a row. So he wants to see the bounce back rep. What does that offensive lineman look like in the second rep? Is he coming back fighting as he hanging his head? So there's so many little things that you just don't see on even our tape. You watch the practice week tape, you don't see that little stuff. You've got to be there

in it. And I think the smart teams roll up their sleeves and take advantage of it. You know what. Let's dovetail into where we are now. You know, for seven years I worked the floor here with linebackers, and what you brought up is so so important because watching the human interaction, how well do they take advice, how well do they take instruction, how well do they improve on the instruction they have gotten. And the value of the Senior Bowl to me is you've got days and

days and days of it here. You've got one day of it. You've got one day of it position specific. But you know that that is that is so important. When I first started coaching the Senior Bowl, everybody was on the field, remember those years, and everybody, everybody was circling every drill and mosh pit. There's a mosh pit. And when you were a coaching that, you were going, Wow, don Sheila's watching me. I better give them something good to you know, good to watch. I think the way

you've got it now is so good. But still, when you can watch those types of things, I mean, that's a great insight to that. So it's so important at the combine, and I know, you know most of the teams try to do this. You try to plug in guys from your club in different areas, Like you want your linebackers coach doing the linebacker drills. You want you

want as many coaches doing the drills as possible. I know when I worked in New England, I was a group leader for seven years and you basically usher the guys through the week. You just make sure they get to where you make sure they're up in the morning, you take role, you make sure they're at their interview like so you kind of heard them through the week, and you know they know when you when you get with him the first night, you say, hey, I'm Jim Nage,

I'm scout for the New England Patriots. I'm gonna be your group leader for the week, so they know you work for a club. And for the first couple of days they're usually on their pas and cues. By day three, day four, they let their guard down and you really get to see who's who um And they would always debrief us. I'd always have to put together kind of a one liner on every guy in the group, and and you knew which guys you wanted to be Patriots and which guys you didn't. Um some of these guys

really declare themselves during the week. That's why you see those those group leader spots are coveted with with these NFL teams because you get four full days of behind the scenes stuff and watching the guys with each other and how they interacted. Who's the loaner, you know, and who's the leader, and guys really separate themselves that way too. Yeah, we used to ask our guys that did that group

leader the first question. We would debrief them, you know, as coaches, who'd you have to wait on, who'd you have to call to wake up you have? I mean all of that stuff. I mean, this is really great insight. Yeah, no, there's so many great takeaways. All right, So let's wrap up with this, turning it back toward the Titans. Okay, you mixed up the coaching staffs this year. The NFL

requested that you do that. One of the guys who got a big chance to be an offensive coordinator was Charles London, who is now the Titans passing game coordinator and quarterback coach. Charles apparently blew everybody away in mobile tell us why Titans fans should be excited that he's part of Mike Vrabel's new offensive staff man. There's a lot of things and I just connected. I had to

hit him up. I had to get his new Titans email the other day because I send an email out to all the coaches trying to get some feedback on the week, and first got to respond. I'll say that again, little stuff, right, but he was the first coach out of thirty coaches to hit a response back and give me ideas in the week. But very detailed. He had

a plan. I mean, we're talking about these guys through this thing together in about ten days and he was responsible for that whole playbook, so very detailed, very professional. Watching him with the players, good communicators. So you know, the league wanted to do this for a reason. They wanted to showcase some of these guys. I mean, Charles is to me, he's a guy could see him as head coach someday, just the way he handles himself, not only with the group of coaches, but with those players.

And it's amazing. He comes out of Duke and he goes to Cleveland and runs Cleveland Stadium. He's a business major, that's what he's gonna do. And the Patriots group the Crafts are looking at the Browns Stadium as they get ready to build Gillette, as they finish that process, and they hire him away to run Gillette. And so he's in business. He's making good money, but he says, I want to coach, and so he gets back into coaching

at Duke and has worked his way up. Amy, you met him last night for the first time, he blew you away. He's fantastic, such a great guy to talk to, so nice, so interested in what you're saying, incredibly engaging, all things that you would think are incredible traits for a coach. And I just talked to him for five minutes. Yeah, yeah, I didn't know that backstory. That's incredible, isn't that crazy? Yeah?

I mean, this is a guy who could have done other things, could have worked less hours, could have probably made even more money, but chose. I mean, he was in his twenties when he had those two jobs. And yet I mean, this is a special human being. I think he is going to be a fixture in this Titan staff. I knew him when he was just an offensive assistant sharing an office with Arthur Smith. And then the next year Jonathan Gannon came in to be an

offensive assistant. So Mike Munchak hired some pretty good that's a magical office, right then I go hang out in that office. Those religion I was there, you know, one year with Charles Ann with with Arthur and just missed because Jonathan Gannon. I've visited with him this morning. He was at the Rams before he came to the Titans that year. When I left, the Titans went to Rams. But all three of those guys, you went, Okay, I mean, these are some young dudes that kind of get it.

You've got to love that. The Reese's Senior Bowl has become the launching point now for seemingly everything. Well that's why we the draft starts in Mobile. We hope it's catching on a little bit. I don't get this. You know, it's funny. In the last two years, I know, you always have to do a sales job because not every agent and person who's in a player's ear thinks it's the best thing. Do you find you're having to do less of a sales job now? For sure, for sure,

and I do I always try to make this point. Um, the game has been great forever. In the guys before Phil Savage, the former Browns GM was was my predecessor. He did a fabulous job with the game. Game has been great forever. You just look at all the great players. We're getting ready to put together a seventy fifth anniversary team and uh, it's it's it's a crazy group. Um. But I feel like we we've tried to market it.

We've tried to stay current. I mean, all these kids grow have grown up with phones in their hands, and so that's why we've had to use the social media. It's really worked. Um. I mean that's probably the biggest thing we've done differently, because I'll say this, when we started doing the social media stuff, I used to get a lot of snarky responses like, hey, Naggie, nobody cares about your little game. And I'm like, little game. I mean, I'm Aaron Donald rattling up. But but but I used

to but they used to frustrate me. I'm like, what are you talking about? Little game? This game has been great. Um. We don't get that anymore. I think people understand now and again with the games. I mean, yeah, our numbers are a little bit better than than they've been. But but but it's been a great game for a long time. But it really it's it's just bringing the awareness to like what a great game it's been. You know, we really needed to shed a light on You do a

great job of social media. Dave does an outstanding charge social media. Yeah, he does. We've got a great team. We're lucky to have David Miley. We're up here, you guys say the song yesterday, So that was that was great. They were up here just talking to the different coaches and gms about the Senior Bowl and all that. And I know that they talk to some players at the podium getting feedback about their experience with you and Immobile. Do you get consistently good feedback that it was a

good launching point for them to get to hear? Yeah, there are best recruiters. I mean, let's face it. I mean, they're all gonna go back next year and talk to the guys that were there before. And I think that's where it's gotten easier, is that these guys because so this year's class, we're all either fresh or high school seniors or a freshman in college when our first crew

came through. So I mean, if you can break through it as at a particular school and have guys come and help themselves and have a good week, that's what you're looking for. These these are the players, are the ones that sell the game the most. Reese's Senior Bowl Executive Record Jim Nagee, thanks so much for taking time with us. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks. I love coming on for coach Dave McGinnis, Rhet Brian aby Wells, Mike Keith says thank you for listening to the O. T. Pete.

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