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Speaker 1: Dave McGinnis, Rhett Bryan, Amy Wells, I'm Mike Keith and
Speaker 1: he thought he was out of it and we pulled
Speaker 1: him back in. The Executive director of the Senior Bowl,
Speaker 1: Jim Nagee, thanks for joining us here at the combine.
Speaker 1: Absolutely glad to be here. What are you doing at
Speaker 1: the combine? Well, I'm not looking at my phone like
Speaker 1: I was every two seconds in Mobile when you guys
Speaker 1: were down there. So that was great. Your segment with
Speaker 1: coach mac was the highlight of the week. Oh, the
Speaker 1: two of you guys talking. There's got to be a
Speaker 1: huge sense of pride that what well, over eighty percent
Speaker 1: of the Reese's Senior Bowl participants got an invite to
Speaker 1: the combine. Uh, it's it's got it's higher than that.
Speaker 1: I'm not a math I wasn't a math major, but
Speaker 1: we have I think there's one twenty four out of
Speaker 1: one twenty seven. Oh, so that's like ninety seven percent.
Speaker 1: I apologize, well, done well. I'm like, I gotta be
Speaker 1: a sense of pride there. I was. I'm mad about
Speaker 1: the three guys that didn't get I know you are
Speaker 1: the kid from Bowling Green, Carl Brooks. Brooks was really
Speaker 1: the one who jumped out, isn't it Carl Brooks is one.
Speaker 1: And then there was a linebacker from Sack State, Marte Mapu,
Speaker 1: who we called up from the NFLPA game. They did
Speaker 1: a great job scouting Marte. He came in a two
Speaker 1: phenomenal days of practice. I was watching with a head
Speaker 1: coach watching the nine on seven drill. He was is
Speaker 1: a two hundred and eighteen pound guy, was just blowing
Speaker 1: up inside run stuff. And uh, there's talking off talk
Speaker 1: to teams. He might go on Day two and he's not.
Speaker 1: And he's not here at the Combine. I mean there's
Speaker 1: always Combine snubs and they usually go later in the draft.
Speaker 1: If Mapu goes in the third round, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: one of the all time. I think Kevin Bayer is
Speaker 1: the last highest and he's another Senior bowl A lum,
Speaker 1: but I think he's the last highest Combine snob first
Speaker 1: pick of the third round, while he almost went in
Speaker 1: the second he almost well, and there were he was
Speaker 1: the sixty fourth pick because there was actually one less
Speaker 1: pick in the second someone forfeited a pick, right, so
Speaker 1: theoretically he was the last pick of the second round.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, so that could be huge if Marte
Speaker 1: goes that high. So being able to be here and
Speaker 1: see these guys go through the process again to that
Speaker 1: pride thing, watching them take the next step. Not only
Speaker 1: does that make you feel good as someone who's invested
Speaker 1: in their careers a little bit, but also as an evaluator.
Speaker 1: You got a lot of stuff, right, Yeah. No, I
Speaker 1: don't look at it that. I'm excited for the guys.
Speaker 1: I'm excited for the players, and that's been cool. I
Speaker 1: saw a bunch of them last night when they were
Speaker 1: working on their forty starts. Some guy, they overthink this stuff,
Speaker 1: don't they. They can't just put their hand down and run,
Speaker 1: but they can't not do it right right, No, So there,
Speaker 1: so I saw a bunch of the guys, and it
Speaker 1: is there's things I do miss about working in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and I missed Draft Day probably the most draft week
Speaker 1: in the most but but Draft weekend is a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. From a Senior Bowl perspective because you're seeing,
Speaker 1: you know, last two years, one hundred and six guys drafted,
Speaker 1: So you just get you get happy for these guys
Speaker 1: over and over and over because you know they're realizing
Speaker 1: their dreams. So that's what it's all about, Jim again,
Speaker 1: pride and without picking favorites or anything like that. But
Speaker 1: who do you think is someone give me a couple
Speaker 1: of your Senior Bowl guys that really have a chance
Speaker 1: to pop this week in the Indian app Oh, you know,
Speaker 1: we do the Zebra technology stuff during practice that all
Speaker 1: the teams have in. Our fastest guy this year was
Speaker 1: Darius Rush, a big corner, a big long corner from
Speaker 1: South Carolina. Who, um coach, you know this The lazy
Speaker 1: scouting take on big corners is I don't know if
Speaker 1: he can run, you know, like that's just we do that.
Speaker 1: We just tend to do that with these guys. Now
Speaker 1: that we know Darius canna indeed run, because that was
Speaker 1: a question going intomobile. Last year, our fastest guy was
Speaker 1: Tarik Cooling and he comes here and runs four to six.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think Dari's gonna run that, but
Speaker 1: um so, I think he's gonna do really well. Um,
Speaker 1: one of the defensive linemen from from Northwestern who had
Speaker 1: a good week at a time while at a barre,
Speaker 1: is a guy that if he hits everything that Bruce
Speaker 1: Feldman put You know, Bruce Feldman does the Freaks List
Speaker 1: article every year. Um, so Bruce, Bruce. We've actually helped
Speaker 1: Bruce the last couple of years. That's been a fun
Speaker 1: project to work on with him. But if if if
Speaker 1: Tommy hits all his marks it was like thirty seven
Speaker 1: verse ten eight broad four or five short shuttle six
Speaker 1: nine three, if he hits everything that Bruce laid out
Speaker 1: in that he will have the number one mark. He
Speaker 1: would have been the number one defensive tackling last year's
Speaker 1: combined at every single event, which would be incredible. Wow.
Speaker 1: Will McDonald fourth, Yeah, when we got there and you
Speaker 1: just eyeballs on it. You keep watching him during the
Speaker 1: whole process. Give me your take now after watching all
Speaker 1: the tape, will look different than all the other edge players. Athletically, Yes,
Speaker 1: he just looked different coming off the ball. He looked
Speaker 1: different dropping and we're talking about a guy that played
Speaker 1: a lot of four eyed five technique in college. So
Speaker 1: he never even was you know, really a line wide.
Speaker 1: You know, they didn't even really kind of use him.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not saying against Iowa State, but you're
Speaker 1: talking about a guy that had thirty three sacks over
Speaker 1: the last more seasons in a scheme that wasn't really
Speaker 1: suited for his skill set. He'd never really dropped into cover.
Speaker 1: Some of the coverage stuff was like so natural to
Speaker 1: the guy. He can do anything you want. And he's
Speaker 1: a high school track guy, so he's like a six
Speaker 1: nine high jumper, um, so you know he's got all
Speaker 1: this stuff. And again, just the eyeball test, I mean,
Speaker 1: you put on the one on ones, he just looked
Speaker 1: different than everybody else. Well, he looked different to me
Speaker 1: than what I saw, you know, just running through some
Speaker 1: prelim tapes. But because he was, he was moved in there.
Speaker 1: And then so what I'm you know, sitting in the stands.
Speaker 1: I showed you the picture of written I went, I
Speaker 1: had to go buy sweatshirts because we were not smart
Speaker 1: enough to stay dress warm enough. The seconded, so we
Speaker 1: had a thirty degree drop from day one to day two.
Speaker 1: And both of us are veterans, you know, and so
Speaker 1: we show up and we're shivering in there up in
Speaker 1: the stands. I gotta find some clothes, and the Senior
Speaker 1: Bowl was selling clothes, so anyway, I went, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: bought us some hoodies and then then we were just fine.
Speaker 1: But just watching him on, just watching him, I'm going,
Speaker 1: this isn't the same dude, because he was moved into
Speaker 1: a four eye and he was and he was asked
Speaker 1: to do so many gap things. But then when what
Speaker 1: you guys did down there, and I give you and
Speaker 1: your people a lot of credit, and the coaches that
Speaker 1: were coaching coach, I thought those mixed staffs did a
Speaker 1: nice job. I thought those blended staffs did a really
Speaker 1: good job down there. But I'm watching him and I
Speaker 1: kept I kept telling these guys, I said, this guy
Speaker 1: kind of looks like something that might be able to
Speaker 1: do something, you know, especially in a sub role to
Speaker 1: begin with, to look at and needs to get a
Speaker 1: little heavier, right, Yeah, he's working on that. He told
Speaker 1: us at the podium yesterday. He was playing at two
Speaker 1: thirty five during the season. He's at two forty three
Speaker 1: right now. Wants to hit two fifty. I think he
Speaker 1: was two forty two in Mobile. But yeah, if as
Speaker 1: long as he's trending in the right direction. But you're right,
Speaker 1: is a situational past Rushturant. I think he can be
Speaker 1: that guy next year. I think he's a guy that
Speaker 1: if you're a if you're an odd front team, he
Speaker 1: could play three four outside linebacker with ease. I've been
Speaker 1: I was into three four defense for a lot of
Speaker 1: years in the league in New England and Kansas City,
Speaker 1: and we played with a lot less athletic guys than
Speaker 1: Will McDonald. So yeah, the arrow is pointing up. You know,
Speaker 1: one thing we did for our overall Practice Player of
Speaker 1: the week. The regular practice players, they vote on each other,
Speaker 1: so wide receivers vote on DB's old line, votes on
Speaker 1: d line. But for the overall Practice Player of the Week,
Speaker 1: we pulled I pulled two guys from all thirty two clubs,
Speaker 1: so we had sixty two votes. Will McDonald got a
Speaker 1: bunch of them. Wow, Yeah, he did interesting. As you're
Speaker 1: going through, I guess the weeks in between the Senior
Speaker 1: Bowl and the Combine, maybe for some of the guys
Speaker 1: who didn't have the best weeks at the Senior Bowl,
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on. There are guys, you know
Speaker 1: who struggle to kind of find their footing in that environment.
Speaker 1: How much room is there for improvement or for progress
Speaker 1: to be made for them to kind of make up
Speaker 1: and have a better showing at the combine? Is that
Speaker 1: something that happens very often? Yeah, that's a that's a
Speaker 1: good that's a good question. Yeah, I'm sure if you
Speaker 1: asked all these players, were all of them totally happy
Speaker 1: with their performance in Mobile. No, But the way I
Speaker 1: was brought up in scouting, again, this goes goes way back,
Speaker 1: but the old axiom was you can never hurt yourself
Speaker 1: by playing in an All star game. You know, again,
Speaker 1: they're they're making a statement to the thirty two teams
Speaker 1: how competitively they are. I mean, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people telling these kids not to be in events like
Speaker 1: the Senior Bowl, so um, so they helped themselves just
Speaker 1: by coming, and they helped themselves by competing. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure some of those guys, you know, wish they would
Speaker 1: have done a little better. But but yeah, they give
Speaker 1: room to make up with the testing. But I think
Speaker 1: the smart teams are really always going back to the
Speaker 1: tape anyway. I can just speak to the teams I
Speaker 1: worked for and me personally when I made the biggest
Speaker 1: mistakes is when I came to Indy and I put
Speaker 1: too much stock into what they did out there in
Speaker 1: shorts and T shirts, not to not to minimize the comment,
Speaker 1: this is a big this is an important event. It's
Speaker 1: a big event. But I think you always have to
Speaker 1: go back to the tape and if if a guy
Speaker 1: didn't have the week he had, Mobile teams are going
Speaker 1: to go back to the college tape and be like
Speaker 1: was he better in college? Like why why did you
Speaker 1: get that Senior Bowl invite? So it's just a constant process.
Speaker 1: If you're doing this the right way as a club,
Speaker 1: you're constantly rechecking yourself okay, and you're really going back
Speaker 1: to that college tape over and over and over and
Speaker 1: just making sure you're seeing seeing it right. In the
Speaker 1: time between the Senior Bowl and now, we found guys
Speaker 1: in Mobile that we became intrigued with that maybe we
Speaker 1: did know that well going in. So I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: around the group and let us ask you about those players.
Speaker 1: The first guy I want to ask you about it,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna lead with this because I think he's very interesting,
Speaker 1: keyon white defensive lineman. I think from Georgia Tech. And
Speaker 1: I say, I think, because man, he's first, he is,
Speaker 1: he is. Now, Keyon's a Keyon's a good one. I
Speaker 1: was scared we're gonna lose Keyon with the Senior Bowl
Speaker 1: because I was. I was driving home the week before
Speaker 1: the Senior Bowl and Daniel Jeremiah from the NFL Network
Speaker 1: calls and he said, now, because I'm watching this kid
Speaker 1: from Georgia Tech right now. He's like, man, he's really good.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, he is really good. He's like, he's
Speaker 1: better than some of these guys people have going in
Speaker 1: the top ten. I said, DJ, please do not put
Speaker 1: him in the top ten and one of your things
Speaker 1: right now, because then an agent, an agent's gonna see
Speaker 1: that and he's gonna not gonna send him the mobile. Now.
Speaker 1: He's very versatile. I know in that he came to
Speaker 1: our game. I think he was two eighty inmobile. He
Speaker 1: was playing in the low two nineties at Georgia Tech,
Speaker 1: so he must have dropped some weight. But yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a guy you can move up and down the front,
Speaker 1: you can stand him up, you can put his hand down.
Speaker 1: He's a mismatch against guards, a super athletic guy and
Speaker 1: he's really natural. Maybe we talked about this on the
Speaker 1: air in Mobile, but he was a guy that when
Speaker 1: I started watching him as a second year, he was
Speaker 1: a second year player. They moved him from tight end
Speaker 1: to defense, and his first year on defense he had
Speaker 1: nineteen tackles for loss, which tells you he can find
Speaker 1: the football. I mean, there's instincts there. So he's a
Speaker 1: really high upside player. I would be surprised if he
Speaker 1: got out of the top twenty picks. You mentioned what
Speaker 1: he does against guards. Let's talk about a guard that
Speaker 1: you had that is, by all indication gonna be in
Speaker 1: the bottom of the first round, maybe a little higher
Speaker 1: than Nato. Cyrus Torrance from Florida. It's an impressive size
Speaker 1: guy that I saw down there on the field. After
Speaker 1: those practices tell us about Cyrus talking incredibly strong, just
Speaker 1: a strong, strong human being, and he doesn't get moved
Speaker 1: even when guys get into him, he doesn't get moved.
Speaker 1: You know, I was actually was talking to one of
Speaker 1: the guys that's training in him right now. I didn't
Speaker 1: know you could do this, so I'm not up on
Speaker 1: the sports science stuff like I probably should be. But
Speaker 1: they can measure hamstring strength on some device they have,
Speaker 1: and the average in the NFL, the average player is
Speaker 1: like a seven hundred, and you know Cyrus's were like
Speaker 1: nine hundred. So, like they said, it's the strongest they've
Speaker 1: ever had come through this this you know, particular training facility.
Speaker 1: So really strong guy. When he gets his hands on you,
Speaker 1: it is completely over. So he's a he's a day
Speaker 1: one starter. I don't know if he's gonna fit for
Speaker 1: all teams. I think, you know, for teams that run
Speaker 1: a lot of wide zone stuff. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's gonna be O Cyrus's thing. But if you're a
Speaker 1: gap scheme team that wants to come downhill and move
Speaker 1: people off the ball of Cyrus as your guy, there's
Speaker 1: a guy that showed up there. Of course, we stayed
Speaker 1: and watched all of it that I was not familiar
Speaker 1: with when I went down there, but I kept watching
Speaker 1: him and watching him, and you know, some of the
Speaker 1: drills that you do that the one on ones are
Speaker 1: really valuable, especially you know for two areas the offensive
Speaker 1: defensive line and then the space guys. How about Jaden Reid, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jaden had a really big week. Yeah I thought so too,
Speaker 1: Yeah he did I was really happy for him because
Speaker 1: we were watching Jaden a year ago. He was a
Speaker 1: that we identified as a junior graduate. Um, we've really
Speaker 1: worked hard. We can bring those guys now if they
Speaker 1: graduate by December, so that that fall at twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: we knew Jaden was going to graduate, so we put
Speaker 1: a lot of working on him, and then we get
Speaker 1: to the end of the year and he decides to
Speaker 1: go back to school, which is great. And statistically he
Speaker 1: wasn't even their leading receiver at Michigan State this year.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we've had at day two grade on him
Speaker 1: going back two years now. Now, did this numbers look
Speaker 1: like a day two receiver? Probably not on paper. I
Speaker 1: think he caught fifty five balls for six or seven
Speaker 1: hundred yards. But but he was almost uncoverable at Senior Bowl.
Speaker 1: Really dynamic, quick and fast. Both was a really hard cover,
Speaker 1: can return punts. He has legit NFL starter punt returnability.
Speaker 1: And again I think he's I think he's gonna have
Speaker 1: going in that day two range, which beforemobile. I don't
Speaker 1: you know, he's probably more of a fourth, but I
Speaker 1: I would be surprised if you got out of the third. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: and just watching him, and again, of course Michigan State football,
Speaker 1: which is good football, but they run it. You know,
Speaker 1: they'll line up and run it, so your receivers aren't
Speaker 1: going to have the numbers. But I was impressed with
Speaker 1: him just watching and he seemed to be especially coming
Speaker 1: out of that offense. No disparity of the offense. He's
Speaker 1: got some nuance to him, especially in the slot. I
Speaker 1: mean he's a slot guy, don't you think. Yeah, some
Speaker 1: of some of the some of the head and shoulder stuff,
Speaker 1: some of the stem stuff. Yeah. Really it really advanced.
Speaker 1: And you can tell me this coach. I just remember
Speaker 1: another former Spartan that you guys said, Derek Mason. If
Speaker 1: there's any I didn't see, I'm too young to Derek
Speaker 1: was a couple years older than me, so I wasn't
Speaker 1: scouting yet. But um, is there any similarities there to
Speaker 1: Derek Mason. D Mace was a little stronger because d
Speaker 1: Mace was a strong dude. I mean, you know I
Speaker 1: was coaching when we had d Mace there. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: he was extremely strong, but very very crafty inside and
Speaker 1: even for you know, the stature, A really good combat
Speaker 1: catcher and just as competitive as they come. Nice draw there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just sounds like you do this for a living. No,
Speaker 1: Derek Mason. I'm a Michigan guy, so I remember watching
Speaker 1: Derek Mason rip us up every year. It seemed like
Speaker 1: you mentioned the Zebra technology but showed on the scoreboard
Speaker 1: there at a stadium and mobile speeds. One of the
Speaker 1: speeds that got my attention was Luke Musgrave, the tight
Speaker 1: end from Oregon State. Yeah, in terms of size, speed combo,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be. He probably gonna be the top guy
Speaker 1: in this tight end class. Now, I'm not saying he's
Speaker 1: gonna be the first tight end taken because the Notre
Speaker 1: Dame Kid Mayor is a really good player, Dalton Kincaid
Speaker 1: from Utah, who was gonna come to our game, but
Speaker 1: he actually he broke his back in the last game
Speaker 1: of the year, So I don't even know if Dalton
Speaker 1: Kinkaid is a really good player. But Luke Musgrave, yeah,
Speaker 1: he hit I want to see. He was our eighth
Speaker 1: fastest overall player in the game, which at two hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty pounds is pretty crazy. How much fast. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's faster than our corners in white out, So yeah,
Speaker 1: he he's I don't think he gets out of the
Speaker 1: second round. I know there was some talk, I know
Speaker 1: DJ talking about Dann Jeremiah. I know he had him
Speaker 1: in the first round for a little bit, but I
Speaker 1: don't know if he's gonna go that high. But he
Speaker 1: had some drops during the week. But second round I
Speaker 1: think is probably where he'll end up. I'vean Pace, the
Speaker 1: linebacker from Cincinnati. What an intriguing player, no doubt. There's
Speaker 1: always guys that are better than I think they once
Speaker 1: we get him ammobile live and Pace definitely falls into
Speaker 1: that category this year because he was kind of a
Speaker 1: late ad for us, you know, we were He's not
Speaker 1: very big. You know, he's five. He was five eleven three,
Speaker 1: five eleven four, so, you know, five eleven and a half.
Speaker 1: Not a very big guy, but he just and he's
Speaker 1: got a really unique style because he's so under sized. Like, coach,
Speaker 1: you would not coach this guy to play linebacker the
Speaker 1: way he plays it, but he's figured out how to
Speaker 1: play with his size. I told him he reminded me
Speaker 1: a little bit of Teddy Bruski when I was in
Speaker 1: New England with Teddy, Like you would never draw it
Speaker 1: up the way Teddy did it because he was always
Speaker 1: dipping under blocks and slipping around stuff, and he just
Speaker 1: had a really unorthodox style about him. And that's what
Speaker 1: Ivan's got. And you got to the game that you
Speaker 1: can really see like linebackers and running backs, those are
Speaker 1: two positions the game itself are really important for. And
Speaker 1: I haven't had nine solos and ten total tackles and
Speaker 1: the one on one blitz pick up stuff. I don't
Speaker 1: know if we had a running back put a hand
Speaker 1: on him all week. I mean, he just just out
Speaker 1: quicked everybody. Having been a linebacker coach in the league,
Speaker 1: for that's how I cut my teeth. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you something that I always worked on with smaller linebackers
Speaker 1: like that. And if it wasn't if it wasn't a
Speaker 1: take on strength, I would always tell him eyes before feet,
Speaker 1: and if your eyes get you there first, I don't
Speaker 1: care how you get there, you know, but but your
Speaker 1: eyes can't be late if you're undersized. Sometimes you can
Speaker 1: be late if you're bigger and you've got some shocking
Speaker 1: shit to you. But you're right. He's a jazz player,
Speaker 1: but he his great, great eyes and he's got great eyes,
Speaker 1: and that'll that'll that's what makes him, and he was
Speaker 1: he was not even personally, I'll own this. I had
Speaker 1: a question about his play speed off the Cincinnati tape,
Speaker 1: and he was another guy. He came down. He might
Speaker 1: have been the fifth fastest guy in the game or
Speaker 1: sixth fastest it with crazy times. If you look at
Speaker 1: the guys that ran what he ran this year, what
Speaker 1: those guys ran in Indie last year, this guy might
Speaker 1: run in the four threes, which I mean I thought
Speaker 1: he was more of a four or five guy. But
Speaker 1: but he he blew it out on his zebra stuff.
Speaker 1: Coachmac a faster David Long type player face. Yes, now,
Speaker 1: David Long. David Long played more on the edge. Itst Virginia.
Speaker 1: He was more rush guy. Okay, and West Virginia. This
Speaker 1: guy's been behind the ball and it was seeking gaps.
Speaker 1: David Long learned to k and d the Sarreguard triangle.
Speaker 1: This guy's done this. Yeah, but but he's faster. I
Speaker 1: want to say David Long's Yeah, first time off the
Speaker 1: ball was Inmobile was where he was back there full time. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: it was because it wast Virginia. I mean, and he was,
Speaker 1: you know, a tremendous player, productive, but they edged him,
Speaker 1: and which I probably would too because he could get there.
Speaker 1: So I lose track of these guys once they get
Speaker 1: to the NFL. Is David Long has become a really
Speaker 1: good player for the time, absolutely good. Hey, he's a
Speaker 1: free agent this offseason and there's a lot of talk
Speaker 1: and Mike Vrabel said here earlier in the week, Jim
Speaker 1: that you know, the Titans would certainly like to entertain
Speaker 1: the notion of bringing him back because man, he's he
Speaker 1: is an impact player, particularly on third down. You know,
Speaker 1: that's an area where he's gotten to be a big
Speaker 1: player there. Third down defensive percentage with him and without
Speaker 1: him he missed time due to hamstring injury was very
Speaker 1: by twenty percent to the negative when he was not
Speaker 1: on the field. Wow, that's valuable. Yep. This week we've
Speaker 1: been talking a lot about offensive linemen. Are there linemen
Speaker 1: that showed up big and mobile that we should be watching? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was the group to me after watching all the
Speaker 1: tape that really stood out. I thought we and I
Speaker 1: still do think we had a good group of edge
Speaker 1: group and in the defensive line was good, but that
Speaker 1: old line group really handled him. Um, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: say all six guys are going in the first round.
Speaker 1: But I do think we have six guys that have
Speaker 1: a chance to go in the first round. You know,
Speaker 1: they all they all showed out. You know. I think
Speaker 1: we might have spoken about Cody malk when we were
Speaker 1: when when you guys were down in Mobile. The North
Speaker 1: Dakota State kid. He's just he's just interesting me because
Speaker 1: he can play all five spots and he'd only been
Speaker 1: a left tackle at North Dakota State. I know in
Speaker 1: the game he played left tackle, right guard, and center,
Speaker 1: so he played on both sides and he played all
Speaker 1: three spots. So he's a really interesting guy. I know
Speaker 1: he moved on from Taylor Lawan. Jalen Duncan from Maryland
Speaker 1: is a guy that athletically made it look easy, and
Speaker 1: he took a lot of one on one reps against
Speaker 1: Keyon White from Georgia Tech, who who we talked about,
Speaker 1: and he shut him down. If you're looking for just
Speaker 1: a natural pass protecting left tackle, Jalen's got that ability
Speaker 1: to be a really good one. He just needs to
Speaker 1: become more consistent. As Maryland tape was up and down,
Speaker 1: and I thought he put together a good week. Now
Speaker 1: when we flopped him to the right side. He didn't
Speaker 1: look as comfortable because that just hasn't been a spot.
Speaker 1: The teams know that. But when you just looked at
Speaker 1: the left tackle reps, that guy looked like a starting
Speaker 1: left tackle. You know, I'm gonna steal Retz guy here,
Speaker 1: but we steal each other's guys all the time, a
Speaker 1: lot of draft stuff together. But and this is his guy,
Speaker 1: and he jumped on him early. Tyja Spears, Yeah, ty Jam.
Speaker 1: He was the overall practice player of the week and
Speaker 1: he won by a decent margin. Just a really dynamic
Speaker 1: football player. And sometimes it's hard to gauge running backs
Speaker 1: during the week because we're not going to we're not
Speaker 1: tackling to the ground, you know very much. I mean
Speaker 1: it happens every once in a while. We're not supposed to.
Speaker 1: We tell the guys not too. But his ability to
Speaker 1: get through the whole old that initial burst and then
Speaker 1: really what's most exciting when he gets a second leveler
Speaker 1: in space. He's got eyes in the back of his head.
Speaker 1: He feels stuff. I mean, you see some of the
Speaker 1: cutback runs on two lane tape he made. He made
Speaker 1: usc look silly. In that Bowl game. I think he
Speaker 1: had five touchdowns in that in that Cotton Bowl. But yeah,
Speaker 1: phenomenal week. I think he's put himself in that conversation
Speaker 1: in the top you know, three or four backs in
Speaker 1: this draft, I think I think Bijean Robinson from Texas,
Speaker 1: everyone knows he'll probably go one. Jimir Gibbs from Alabama
Speaker 1: is a really good one. Um. But Taj is in
Speaker 1: that next conversation after those guys just watching his tape
Speaker 1: collegiately and when you vetted him to bring him in
Speaker 1: to Mobile, did the spatial awareness surprise you or did
Speaker 1: you see that on tape? So I saw that on
Speaker 1: tape that was going back to so he was a junior.
Speaker 1: He was a guy that was a junior that we
Speaker 1: that we got early in the two lane staff was
Speaker 1: great telling us like, hey, Jim, this guy, if he
Speaker 1: has a good year, he's coming out and we want
Speaker 1: him to go out. He's you know, wants to take
Speaker 1: care of his family. But yeah, that's what jumped out
Speaker 1: was the stuff in space. His open field run skills
Speaker 1: are are pretty dang special. So you know, get him
Speaker 1: involved in the past game, get him out there on
Speaker 1: the perimeter like he's gonna make people look foolish and
Speaker 1: he's got he's got. He's a true home run hitter
Speaker 1: and it's it's and it's not like some home runners
Speaker 1: are all speed based. You know, you just get him
Speaker 1: and they go like Chris Johnson, You've got Chris Johnson,
Speaker 1: Like you get christ in space. He was gone, Like
Speaker 1: this guy's gone because he can just weave and make
Speaker 1: people miss and sees things and feels things and he
Speaker 1: kind of picks his way and makes guys look stupid
Speaker 1: and then he ends up in the end zone. What
Speaker 1: are you hearing since you had Hendon Hooker down to
Speaker 1: the Senior Bowl even though he couldn't play due to
Speaker 1: the knee, right, what are you hearing about him in
Speaker 1: the weeks that have followed and as we head into
Speaker 1: this weekend where the quarterbacks will be a feature. A
Speaker 1: couple things. One that he did a great job in
Speaker 1: those interviews and that was that was big for him.
Speaker 1: The guys that coached him during the week, that sat
Speaker 1: in the room with him, just how supportive he was
Speaker 1: with the other quarterbacks even at practice, but in the
Speaker 1: room picking up everything. Um, and I think, what, guys,
Speaker 1: you're starting to see? I know, Daniel Jeremiah just I
Speaker 1: keep bringing up DJ, but I know he just threw
Speaker 1: him in the back end of the first round or something.
Speaker 1: Or there's some first round talk with Hendon right now,
Speaker 1: and I think that's because a lot of people are
Speaker 1: really getting their hands dirty on this quarterback class, and
Speaker 1: then they get to Hendon and they're like, well, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, Like this guy's better than some of the
Speaker 1: guys being talked about above him, his tapes, better than
Speaker 1: these guys. Why aren't we talking about this guy? So
Speaker 1: I think I think you're getting some of that because
Speaker 1: right now, I mean a lot of these gms haven't
Speaker 1: really gotten their hands dirty on these prospects until around
Speaker 1: now Senior Bowl time February, and now they're they're watching
Speaker 1: the Will Levis's, the Anthony Richardsons, and then they get
Speaker 1: to Hendon's tape and they're like, this guy's pretty darn good.
Speaker 1: We talked about what an impressive young man he was.
Speaker 1: Coach McK and I talked about it just in conversation,
Speaker 1: about his interaction with his teammates even though he didn't play, obviously,
Speaker 1: and his interaction with fans in the stands, signing autographs, whatever.
Speaker 1: We were just looking at this quarterback class. We think
Speaker 1: he's probably quarterback number five in this despite the ACL Yeah,
Speaker 1: after the Big Four on Thursday night, Yeah, he probably
Speaker 1: will be in again. The thing with him and you
Speaker 1: guys have spent time around him, there's just a genuine
Speaker 1: quality to him, like he's not you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know how to describe it, but he's just genuine to himself,
Speaker 1: and you feel like you're meeting the real guy every
Speaker 1: time you're around him and his teammate. I think teammates
Speaker 1: feel that he's just a he's just a really good dude.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and there's a lot been made about the
Speaker 1: age factor because he's twenty five. I think that's really overblown.
Speaker 1: I think all these guys are playing longer. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's the Tom Brady TV twelve effect or whatnot,
Speaker 1: but you know, you can take some years off the
Speaker 1: front of a in a guy's NFL career because they're
Speaker 1: playing a lot of years on the back end. You know,
Speaker 1: it used to be you remember, I mean, guys got
Speaker 1: to be thirty three, thirty four, they were done. I
Speaker 1: mean that was that was the end of a quarterback,
Speaker 1: you get. But now they're all playing thirty eight thirty
Speaker 1: nine forty, So who cares if he's twenty five when
Speaker 1: he's coming. Well, he's a mature guy too, and he's
Speaker 1: very mature. Here's what I got for you. And again
Speaker 1: this is I want you to You've got all the tape,
Speaker 1: You've watched it all, you vetted him all two most
Speaker 1: consistent corners, Uh, in the whole class of the Senior
Speaker 1: Bowl guys. I haven't got to all the junior guys yet. Um,
Speaker 1: senior wise, I'll say yeah that the senior Uh, Julius
Speaker 1: Brents was a huge winner of Senior Bowl week the
Speaker 1: Kansas State Corner. Again, I think he's got the longest
Speaker 1: wingspan on record since we've been doing the wingspans at corner. Um.
Speaker 1: You know there he's an Iowa transfer, right. You know
Speaker 1: a lot of times a lot of people move those
Speaker 1: Iowa corners to safety when they get to the NFL.
Speaker 1: This guy's not moving to safety. He is a for
Speaker 1: a long bodied guy, really fluid mover. Um was really
Speaker 1: dialed in in practice. Uh. You know he forced in
Speaker 1: the one on ones. He forced some no throws in
Speaker 1: the one on one periods, which you don't do. You
Speaker 1: really got to be blanking guy in one on ones
Speaker 1: for the quarterback just not to even throw it. Um
Speaker 1: and he did that. So he he was a name
Speaker 1: during the week when I'd ask guys buddies from around
Speaker 1: the league, like who's standing out, Julius Brent's name came
Speaker 1: up repeatedly, um, you know. And then and then I
Speaker 1: brought up Darius Rush earlier and from South Carolina. He's
Speaker 1: another guy that that I thought really stood out. Kyu
Speaker 1: Blue Kelly from Stanford had a great week too, you know.
Speaker 1: And let me just say this about about your practice
Speaker 1: organization that I liked, you know, as far as just
Speaker 1: a former coach watching practice. I like the fact that
Speaker 1: you've got officials out there because that's one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things, as you well know, and for us to know,
Speaker 1: it's a difference for corners coming into this league as
Speaker 1: far as the area that they can make contact and
Speaker 1: just to just to throw the warning flag saying you
Speaker 1: can't do that now, you can't do that now. And
Speaker 1: you could see guys, you know, as the week went on,
Speaker 1: start to understand where the no touch zone was, which
Speaker 1: is as you well know, huge, being a little less grabby. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: now that's that's a point of emphasis for the league.
Speaker 1: You know, we the referees we had during the week,
Speaker 1: we're from all around college football, and those are the
Speaker 1: guys being looked at because they're the NFL scouting them.
Speaker 1: So the Senior Bowl week is a scouting opportunity for
Speaker 1: college referees. And they were all in town. So we
Speaker 1: ad SEC being all the all the power fives, a
Speaker 1: couple group of five refs and and that was a
Speaker 1: big proving week for them. So it's huge having them down.
Speaker 1: It's a great move by you all right, halftime of
Speaker 1: the OTP or special guests, the executive director of the
Speaker 1: Reese's Senior Bowl, Jim Naggie, and we're talking now about
Speaker 1: the Duncan Rewards program. Download the app to join today
Speaker 1: and start saving and stacking your way to the free Duncan.
Speaker 1: You'll love Duncan Rewards, Save him, stack, abuse them however
Speaker 1: you want. America runs on Duncan terms apply well to
Speaker 1: your earlier point. Having officials at those practices, being able
Speaker 1: to see guys going through a practice, working with different coaches.
Speaker 1: That's the benefit of these all star games, right, It's
Speaker 1: such a different way to evaluate other than just shorts
Speaker 1: and T shirts, jumping high and running fast. Right, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: And I think the overlooked part of the practice week
Speaker 1: four a lot of guys that coach Mac and some
Speaker 1: of the gms that they don't have the all the coaches.
Speaker 1: But if you don't have the benefit of going to
Speaker 1: a college practice in the fall, you miss out on
Speaker 1: practice habits. There's a certain things about way guys practice
Speaker 1: with tempo, with focus. I give Mike Tomlin a lot
Speaker 1: of credit, like he's there every year. He's in the
Speaker 1: middle of those drills because he's keying in on the
Speaker 1: little things. He's looking at body language. He's looking at
Speaker 1: when in the offensive line defensive line one on ones,
Speaker 1: when an offensive lineman gets his butt whooped, I mean,
Speaker 1: Mike's looking at their face. He wants to see what
Speaker 1: that immediate reaction is in you know, what we do
Speaker 1: is they take two reps back to back. So the
Speaker 1: same guys go two reps in a row. So he
Speaker 1: wants to see the bounce back rep. What does that
Speaker 1: offensive lineman look like in the second rep? Is he
Speaker 1: coming back fighting as he hanging his head? So there's
Speaker 1: so many little things that you just don't see on
Speaker 1: even our tape. You watch the practice week tape, you
Speaker 1: don't see that little stuff. You've got to be there
Speaker 1: in it. And I think the smart teams roll up
Speaker 1: their sleeves and take advantage of it. You know what.
Speaker 1: Let's dovetail into where we are now. You know, for
Speaker 1: seven years I worked the floor here with linebackers, and
Speaker 1: what you brought up is so so important because watching
Speaker 1: the human interaction, how well do they take advice, how
Speaker 1: well do they take instruction, how well do they improve
Speaker 1: on the instruction they have gotten. And the value of
Speaker 1: the Senior Bowl to me is you've got days and
Speaker 1: days and days of it here. You've got one day
Speaker 1: of it. You've got one day of it position specific.
Speaker 1: But you know that that is that is so important.
Speaker 1: When I first started coaching the Senior Bowl, everybody was
Speaker 1: on the field, remember those years, and everybody, everybody was
Speaker 1: circling every drill and mosh pit. There's a mosh pit.
Speaker 1: And when you were a coaching that, you were going, Wow,
Speaker 1: don Sheila's watching me. I better give them something good
Speaker 1: to you know, good to watch. I think the way
Speaker 1: you've got it now is so good. But still, when
Speaker 1: you can watch those types of things, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: a great insight to that. So it's so important at
Speaker 1: the combine, and I know, you know most of the
Speaker 1: teams try to do this. You try to plug in
Speaker 1: guys from your club in different areas, Like you want
Speaker 1: your linebackers coach doing the linebacker drills. You want you
Speaker 1: want as many coaches doing the drills as possible. I
Speaker 1: know when I worked in New England, I was a
Speaker 1: group leader for seven years and you basically usher the
Speaker 1: guys through the week. You just make sure they get
Speaker 1: to where you make sure they're up in the morning,
Speaker 1: you take role, you make sure they're at their interview
Speaker 1: like so you kind of heard them through the week,
Speaker 1: and you know they know when you when you get
Speaker 1: with him the first night, you say, hey, I'm Jim Nage,
Speaker 1: I'm scout for the New England Patriots. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: your group leader for the week, so they know you
Speaker 1: work for a club. And for the first couple of
Speaker 1: days they're usually on their pas and cues. By day three,
Speaker 1: day four, they let their guard down and you really
Speaker 1: get to see who's who um And they would always
Speaker 1: debrief us. I'd always have to put together kind of
Speaker 1: a one liner on every guy in the group, and
Speaker 1: and you knew which guys you wanted to be Patriots
Speaker 1: and which guys you didn't. Um some of these guys
Speaker 1: really declare themselves during the week. That's why you see
Speaker 1: those those group leader spots are coveted with with these
Speaker 1: NFL teams because you get four full days of behind
Speaker 1: the scenes stuff and watching the guys with each other
Speaker 1: and how they interacted. Who's the loaner, you know, and
Speaker 1: who's the leader, and guys really separate themselves that way too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we used to ask our guys that did that group
Speaker 1: leader the first question. We would debrief them, you know,
Speaker 1: as coaches, who'd you have to wait on, who'd you
Speaker 1: have to call to wake up you have? I mean
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. I mean, this is really great insight. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: there's so many great takeaways. All right, So let's wrap
Speaker 1: up with this, turning it back toward the Titans. Okay,
Speaker 1: you mixed up the coaching staffs this year. The NFL
Speaker 1: requested that you do that. One of the guys who
Speaker 1: got a big chance to be an offensive coordinator was
Speaker 1: Charles London, who is now the Titans passing game coordinator
Speaker 1: and quarterback coach. Charles apparently blew everybody away in mobile
Speaker 1: tell us why Titans fans should be excited that he's
Speaker 1: part of Mike Vrabel's new offensive staff man. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of things and I just connected. I had to
Speaker 1: hit him up. I had to get his new Titans
Speaker 1: email the other day because I send an email out
Speaker 1: to all the coaches trying to get some feedback on
Speaker 1: the week, and first got to respond. I'll say that again,
Speaker 1: little stuff, right, but he was the first coach out
Speaker 1: of thirty coaches to hit a response back and give
Speaker 1: me ideas in the week. But very detailed. He had
Speaker 1: a plan. I mean, we're talking about these guys through
Speaker 1: this thing together in about ten days and he was
Speaker 1: responsible for that whole playbook, so very detailed, very professional.
Speaker 1: Watching him with the players, good communicators. So you know,
Speaker 1: the league wanted to do this for a reason. They
Speaker 1: wanted to showcase some of these guys. I mean, Charles
Speaker 1: is to me, he's a guy could see him as
Speaker 1: head coach someday, just the way he handles himself, not
Speaker 1: only with the group of coaches, but with those players.
Speaker 1: And it's amazing. He comes out of Duke and he
Speaker 1: goes to Cleveland and runs Cleveland Stadium. He's a business major,
Speaker 1: that's what he's gonna do. And the Patriots group the
Speaker 1: Crafts are looking at the Browns Stadium as they get
Speaker 1: ready to build Gillette, as they finish that process, and
Speaker 1: they hire him away to run Gillette. And so he's
Speaker 1: in business. He's making good money, but he says, I
Speaker 1: want to coach, and so he gets back into coaching
Speaker 1: at Duke and has worked his way up. Amy, you
Speaker 1: met him last night for the first time, he blew
Speaker 1: you away. He's fantastic, such a great guy to talk to,
Speaker 1: so nice, so interested in what you're saying, incredibly engaging,
Speaker 1: all things that you would think are incredible traits for
Speaker 1: a coach. And I just talked to him for five minutes. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that backstory. That's incredible, isn't that crazy? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a guy who could have done
Speaker 1: other things, could have worked less hours, could have probably
Speaker 1: made even more money, but chose. I mean, he was
Speaker 1: in his twenties when he had those two jobs. And
Speaker 1: yet I mean, this is a special human being. I
Speaker 1: think he is going to be a fixture in this
Speaker 1: Titan staff. I knew him when he was just an
Speaker 1: offensive assistant sharing an office with Arthur Smith. And then
Speaker 1: the next year Jonathan Gannon came in to be an
Speaker 1: offensive assistant. So Mike Munchak hired some pretty good that's
Speaker 1: a magical office, right then I go hang out in
Speaker 1: that office. Those religion I was there, you know, one
Speaker 1: year with Charles Ann with with Arthur and just missed
Speaker 1: because Jonathan Gannon. I've visited with him this morning. He
Speaker 1: was at the Rams before he came to the Titans
Speaker 1: that year. When I left, the Titans went to Rams.
Speaker 1: But all three of those guys, you went, Okay, I mean,
Speaker 1: these are some young dudes that kind of get it.
Speaker 1: You've got to love that. The Reese's Senior Bowl has
Speaker 1: become the launching point now for seemingly everything. Well that's
Speaker 1: why we the draft starts in Mobile. We hope it's
Speaker 1: catching on a little bit. I don't get this. You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny. In the last two years, I know, you
Speaker 1: always have to do a sales job because not every
Speaker 1: agent and person who's in a player's ear thinks it's
Speaker 1: the best thing. Do you find you're having to do
Speaker 1: less of a sales job now? For sure, for sure,
Speaker 1: and I do I always try to make this point. Um,
Speaker 1: the game has been great forever. In the guys before
Speaker 1: Phil Savage, the former Browns GM was was my predecessor.
Speaker 1: He did a fabulous job with the game. Game has
Speaker 1: been great forever. You just look at all the great players.
Speaker 1: We're getting ready to put together a seventy fifth anniversary
Speaker 1: team and uh, it's it's it's a crazy group. Um.
Speaker 1: But I feel like we we've tried to market it.
Speaker 1: We've tried to stay current. I mean, all these kids
Speaker 1: grow have grown up with phones in their hands, and
Speaker 1: so that's why we've had to use the social media.
Speaker 1: It's really worked. Um. I mean that's probably the biggest
Speaker 1: thing we've done differently, because I'll say this, when we
Speaker 1: started doing the social media stuff, I used to get
Speaker 1: a lot of snarky responses like, hey, Naggie, nobody cares
Speaker 1: about your little game. And I'm like, little game. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm Aaron Donald rattling up. But but but I used
Speaker 1: to but they used to frustrate me. I'm like, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about? Little game? This game has been great. Um.
Speaker 1: We don't get that anymore. I think people understand now
Speaker 1: and again with the games. I mean, yeah, our numbers
Speaker 1: are a little bit better than than they've been. But
Speaker 1: but but it's been a great game for a long time.
Speaker 1: But it really it's it's just bringing the awareness to
Speaker 1: like what a great game it's been. You know, we
Speaker 1: really needed to shed a light on You do a
Speaker 1: great job of social media. Dave does an outstanding charge
Speaker 1: social media. Yeah, he does. We've got a great team.
Speaker 1: We're lucky to have David Miley. We're up here, you
Speaker 1: guys say the song yesterday, So that was that was great.
Speaker 1: They were up here just talking to the different coaches
Speaker 1: and gms about the Senior Bowl and all that. And
Speaker 1: I know that they talk to some players at the
Speaker 1: podium getting feedback about their experience with you and Immobile.
Speaker 1: Do you get consistently good feedback that it was a
Speaker 1: good launching point for them to get to hear? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are best recruiters. I mean, let's face it. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're all gonna go back next year and talk to
Speaker 1: the guys that were there before. And I think that's
Speaker 1: where it's gotten easier, is that these guys because so
Speaker 1: this year's class, we're all either fresh or high school
Speaker 1: seniors or a freshman in college when our first crew
Speaker 1: came through. So I mean, if you can break through
Speaker 1: it as at a particular school and have guys come
Speaker 1: and help themselves and have a good week, that's what
Speaker 1: you're looking for. These these are the players, are the
Speaker 1: ones that sell the game the most. Reese's Senior Bowl
Speaker 1: Executive Record Jim Nagee, thanks so much for taking time
Speaker 1: with us. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks. I love coming
Speaker 1: on for coach Dave McGinnis, Rhet Brian aby Wells, Mike
Speaker 1: Keith says thank you for listening to the O. T. Pete.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the big show where the license go. Everybody
Speaker 1: knows it's our house. Fighting thoughts. Tennessee making its three
Speaker 1: greatness is meant to be