Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition to the NFL
Speaker 1: Draft Triple Take, presented by U P m C. Mike
Speaker 1: pursued it along with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson. We
Speaker 1: are the first line of Triple Take here at Steelers
Speaker 1: dot com and on all of the Steelers social media platforms.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you've been keeping up since this process began last month.
Speaker 1: If you have not, here's how it's put in working
Speaker 1: and how it's gonna continue to work leading up to
Speaker 1: the NFL Draft at the end of April. We take
Speaker 1: a position by position look at the prospects. We've gone
Speaker 1: through all the positions once, so instead of giving you
Speaker 1: our top five again, we are justing UH and after
Speaker 1: further review, coming up with a riser, a faller, and
Speaker 1: a sleeper. As we continue our draft prep and today
Speaker 1: we are talking about quarterbacks. And I know quarterbacks get
Speaker 1: all the attention all the time, but Matt, I think
Speaker 1: all the UH uncertainty shall we say this year? You
Speaker 1: know the standard UH narrative had has been for a
Speaker 1: long time now. While there's no Trevor Lawreds, there's no
Speaker 1: clear cut number one guy, you don't know what you're
Speaker 1: gonna get with these guys, and yet anybody gonna be
Speaker 1: surprised the four of them go in the first round, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, when it's all said and done, they're always
Speaker 1: in demand. I mean, I know people have been hard
Speaker 1: on this class, and yeah, there's not a Trevor Lawrence,
Speaker 1: there's not an Andrew Luck. But I still think there's
Speaker 1: five guys that may end up starting a lot of
Speaker 1: games when it's all said and done. And clearly, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is, you know, a draft, it correlates with the draft.
Speaker 1: But it's been a crazy, crazy offseason in the quarterback world.
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson, Shawn Watson. I mean, big names are moving
Speaker 1: in trades and so that opens up some new spots too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is not the draft class. This is not EJ.
Speaker 1: Manual and Gino Smith that uh you know people are
Speaker 1: looking at but they're kind of talking about it that way. Dale,
Speaker 1: So we ate ourselves and say it's not the n D.
Speaker 1: It's certainly not that either, though, Mike I would agree
Speaker 1: with that, Yes, I do. I remember all those guys,
Speaker 1: Dan Marino, John Elway, Ken O'Brien was the outli there
Speaker 1: was two more, Tony Eason. Tony Easton was in there,
Speaker 1: and the kid from Penn State, right, black black. There
Speaker 1: you go. A fearsome five some, if ever there was one.
Speaker 1: I don't think we've got quite that to work with
Speaker 1: this time either. But uh, you know, the more I
Speaker 1: get into this process, and maybe it's just familiarity, and
Speaker 1: you know, you get a little more impressed with recent exposures.
Speaker 1: But I'm starting to like a lot of these guys,
Speaker 1: and I'm starting to love my riser. And this is
Speaker 1: gonna be kind of inconsistent with the spirit of the thing,
Speaker 1: as Dicky Dunne would say. But Malick Willis was my
Speaker 1: number one guy when we did the top five, and
Speaker 1: Malick Willis is my riser because he did his pro
Speaker 1: day and Malick Willis put on a show, guys, and
Speaker 1: I get what it is. I get that the first
Speaker 1: read is the only read, and I get that the
Speaker 1: guy is always open, and I get that there's no
Speaker 1: rush and that you're throwing in a controlled environment. But
Speaker 1: this kid put on a Oh. There were some questions
Speaker 1: about his deep ball, among other things, as people have
Speaker 1: tried to gauge his readiness. And I don't care if
Speaker 1: it's against no coverage and no rush. When you can
Speaker 1: run around behind the line of scrimmage the way he
Speaker 1: did and turned and fired the ball sixty five yards
Speaker 1: downfield and hit a guy in stride at the goal line.
Speaker 1: I'm impressed his his personality was oozing through my television screen. Uh.
Speaker 1: Daniel Jeremiah has done way more of these things than
Speaker 1: I have. Uh these proa Day said it was the
Speaker 1: most joyful one he'd ever seen. He also said he
Speaker 1: couldn't remember seeing a better exhibition of deep ball throwing.
Speaker 1: I still don't think Malik Willis is a Day one
Speaker 1: Game one, Season one, you know, plug and play guy.
Speaker 1: But that upside matt to me, at least, it just
Speaker 1: keeps going a little higher and a little higher than
Speaker 1: a little higher. Yeah. And the more and more you
Speaker 1: learn about him, the more you have to like him.
Speaker 1: And you know, kind of what you said to is okay.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe he doesn't read defenses, or his accurate
Speaker 1: or his anticipation isn't where it needs to be the
Speaker 1: second you put him on the field, But okay, um, Well,
Speaker 1: then he shrugs off a defensive end and buys two
Speaker 1: more seconds and somebody gets wide open and he drills
Speaker 1: a football to him or he touched in and runs
Speaker 1: for twenty yards. I mean, he has some trump cards
Speaker 1: that are going to get him out of the problems
Speaker 1: he puts himself in. Dale We had talked the last
Speaker 1: time we did quarterbacks. But even if you don't want
Speaker 1: to plug and play this guy, you could have a
Speaker 1: package for him. You can do things. Yeah, it could
Speaker 1: be a third and one guy. He could be a
Speaker 1: goal line guy, could be a change of pace guy.
Speaker 1: You don't have to just sit him and learn and
Speaker 1: watch and be seen and not heard. He can contribute
Speaker 1: even if he's not the guy. Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 1: That's the difference between these these guys who have that
Speaker 1: mobility factor, uh, and and the guys who are pure
Speaker 1: pocket passers. That you can come up with things for
Speaker 1: these guys to do um. And it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be a Cordel Stewart like slash A put him out
Speaker 1: there at wide receiver. Now you put him at quarterback
Speaker 1: and just say, hey, go make a play. We need
Speaker 1: we need two yards here. And so there's these guys
Speaker 1: can do it. And mileek Willis can definitely do that. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to like her. I like to that
Speaker 1: you mention his personality because I've talked to him now
Speaker 1: a few times between the Senior Bowl and not talk
Speaker 1: to him, you know, privately, but been in situations where
Speaker 1: I'm sat there and listen to him hold a press conference,
Speaker 1: and he is an impressive guy. He handles that stuff
Speaker 1: really well, which is what you want the face of
Speaker 1: your franchise to do. He's he's very laid back. Uh,
Speaker 1: but you see that leadership quality in him. And Uh,
Speaker 1: I just I love the kid. Okay, So you're not
Speaker 1: familiar with these shows. Uh, you might not be aware
Speaker 1: that Matt and Dale formed the tag team for the
Speaker 1: show called The Drive on s n R and as
Speaker 1: that since they spend so much time together, they invariably
Speaker 1: pick the same guys. Well, we go through these lists,
Speaker 1: So which one do you want to talk about? Riser,
Speaker 1: Desmond Ritter? Go ahead, Matt. I'm really warming up though.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think his personality, his maturity is obvious. Um,
Speaker 1: he won eight percent of his games at Cincinnati and
Speaker 1: he really changed what that program is and how they're
Speaker 1: viewed nationally. Uh. He was the best tester at the combine.
Speaker 1: Willis didn't run um, but the big thing with Ridder
Speaker 1: for me, Willis didn't run in his pro day either,
Speaker 1: nast them. Why not, he said, because I know him fast.
Speaker 1: Lamartin run either, you know, like we know you're fast.
Speaker 1: You know there's nowhere to go with down. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing is like when when I was brought up
Speaker 1: in the scouting world, it was kind of taught to me,
Speaker 1: and it was certainly true that court A Matt quarterbacks
Speaker 1: don't get more accurate in the NFL. Well, that adds up.
Speaker 1: Things are harder. But lately, Dak Prescott, Josh Allen, more
Speaker 1: and more, you're seeing guys improve their accuracy at the
Speaker 1: highest level of play. And the reasoning behind it is
Speaker 1: technologies so far advanced, the biometrics and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: And Ridder has been working out with Josh Palmer and
Speaker 1: they've they've talked about it publicly that his stride length
Speaker 1: was a bit of an issue and that's why he
Speaker 1: had just throw some balls where you say, what went
Speaker 1: wrong there? And he's gotten better and better with his accuracy.
Speaker 1: And I trust some of these quarterback gurus to work
Speaker 1: out those kinks with things like biometrics that I don't
Speaker 1: know anything about. Bill. Let's talk about the faller category
Speaker 1: because I believe it or not, I think you and
Speaker 1: Matt have come up with a different guy. Oh good,
Speaker 1: really okay, Well my follower is Carson is strong. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was there was there was some talk that maybe
Speaker 1: this guy might work his way into the conversation, would
Speaker 1: be into the top five type conversation. And you know,
Speaker 1: watching him throw the football, you know that you know
Speaker 1: he's a pocket passer, he's not the most mobile guy,
Speaker 1: is coming off of a major knee injury. But watching
Speaker 1: him throw the football at the combine the accuracy that
Speaker 1: you'd want to see from a guy who's purely a
Speaker 1: pocket passer wasn't in the ball place, but wasn't great.
Speaker 1: And I just told us that the accuracy doesn't matter anymore.
Speaker 1: You get better like that because the stuff he doesn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I want to see them. I want to see
Speaker 1: that the accurate when you're throwing the ball against air,
Speaker 1: when there's no defenders there and a lot of his
Speaker 1: like crossing patterns and think of that nature were down
Speaker 1: low where they were you know a little bit behind,
Speaker 1: and things of that nature. And and I just think that,
Speaker 1: you know, he's gonna be there in the third round
Speaker 1: for somebody that doesn't mean he can't be a good quarterback.
Speaker 1: You know, he's got size, he's he's got a big arm,
Speaker 1: but I just don't see him breaking that top five
Speaker 1: this year, you know, Matt. One of the other troubles
Speaker 1: is it's not like a dropback. Pocket passers totally extinct,
Speaker 1: but you better have ten years of experience in a
Speaker 1: lot of in helmet savvy built up over the years
Speaker 1: to make the quick read and to you know, get
Speaker 1: the ball where it needs to be as quick as
Speaker 1: it has to get there. And guys coming in just
Speaker 1: don't have that right. I mean, guys like a mac
Speaker 1: Jones a year ago. You better be pretty far advance
Speaker 1: inst mentally. And I'm not saying strong isn't. But my
Speaker 1: right up of him was, yeah, he's a big, strong
Speaker 1: arm pat park pocket passer, but if that's all you
Speaker 1: can do, you need to blow my doors off throwing
Speaker 1: the football. And he was fine, but he wasn't amazing,
Speaker 1: you know, in the postseason and whatnot. I also wanted
Speaker 1: to throw Bailey Zappy out there. He was my follower
Speaker 1: because he was I mean, he was that six guy
Speaker 1: at the Senior Bowl and you know the postseason, he
Speaker 1: just doesn't look like he throws it well enough. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what. I didn't do a deep, deep dive
Speaker 1: on Bailey Zappy, but I watched Michigan State play Western
Speaker 1: Kentucky this year, and other than when Michigan State played
Speaker 1: Ohio State, that was the guy I was the most
Speaker 1: afraid of all season long in terms of the other
Speaker 1: season's quarterback. It's like the Tide, just drop back thro
Speaker 1: drop back thro drop back thro. I just didn't stop.
Speaker 1: It was Revlentless and he did an awful lot in college.
Speaker 1: But I'm with you on the pro evaluation. But I'm
Speaker 1: sorry by the way that I had the ti Mary
Speaker 1: to suggest that you guys would have taken a different
Speaker 1: player there. I don't know. I don't know what I
Speaker 1: was looking at. But to to fall to Carson Strong
Speaker 1: is falling entries. I colored outside the lines a little bit.
Speaker 1: My faller is everyone besides Malik Willis, with the possible
Speaker 1: exception of Kenny Pickett, because I just don't see all
Speaker 1: these other guys. Okay, he does this well, but he
Speaker 1: does that well, but he could be this, but that uh,
Speaker 1: They've all got uh shall we say a potential blemish
Speaker 1: or uh an unknown, something that might make you a
Speaker 1: little nervous. I find it astounding. I opened the show
Speaker 1: by saying, we won't be surprised if four of these
Speaker 1: guys go in the first round, but uh, Matt, we
Speaker 1: probably won't be surprised if one of them goes in
Speaker 1: the first round either A right. I mean you look
Speaker 1: at a team like Detroit picking thirty two, or some
Speaker 1: of the team's picking early second round that have quarterback
Speaker 1: needs and aren't gonna use an early first round pick
Speaker 1: for it. They could trade back in. We just know
Speaker 1: they always go Dale Kenney Pickett's you know. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: seems to be the hand sized thing. Yeah, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people are could have paid any attention to that,
Speaker 1: but some are right Yeah, I mean, especially if you're
Speaker 1: a cold weather team. Um, you know you're gonna look
Speaker 1: at that and say, okay, is this going to be
Speaker 1: an issue for us? Um? You know, the fumbles weren't
Speaker 1: as big an issue last season for him as they
Speaker 1: had been in previous seasons. He only had three last year. Um,
Speaker 1: but you look at it and you're okay that that
Speaker 1: hand size. I mean historically guys with that hand size
Speaker 1: who are below nine inches just don't have a ton
Speaker 1: of success in the NFL. Doesn't mean that he can't,
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that he won't. I mean that the gloves
Speaker 1: that he wears are legal, So there's no reason to
Speaker 1: just to say that, well he wears gloves. Who cares
Speaker 1: they're legal. You're allowed to do it. But uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it will be an issue for some teams. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's just the reality of it. I'm betting Dale
Speaker 1: and I have the same sleeper. By the way, we might.
Speaker 1: We might. Yeah, you do, Matt, Before you get to that,
Speaker 1: I didn't take an ivy leaguer to figure that out.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about pick it before we
Speaker 1: moved on Matt. Something Daniel Jeremiah the NFL Network said
Speaker 1: during the Combine coverage. He said he researched the fumbles
Speaker 1: and most of them would pick It occurred when Pickett
Speaker 1: was trying to run or you know, evade in the pocket,
Speaker 1: and he said, invariably it was the trail hand coming
Speaker 1: off the ball. Daniel Jeremiah, who was a former quarterback
Speaker 1: at app State, which you know, has beaten Michigan. So
Speaker 1: you take his word to the heart. Can you can
Speaker 1: you naturally run with two hands on the ball or
Speaker 1: is that easier said than done in terms of changing
Speaker 1: your style. I think that's great analysis. And look no
Speaker 1: further than you know who the Steelers played with for
Speaker 1: the last two decades and his ability to pump fake
Speaker 1: with one hand on the ball or shrug one guy
Speaker 1: off with that off arm. I mean what advantage that is.
Speaker 1: And that's what worries me about pickets hands is if
Speaker 1: he can't really control that football, especially when it gets
Speaker 1: harder or wet or cold or whatever, that that's that's
Speaker 1: when the ball comes out and it's just hard to
Speaker 1: you know, uh, consistently operate with two hands on the football.
Speaker 1: Plus you don't run as fast. Yeah, it's unnatural too,
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, yeah, just balanced and everything else. I
Speaker 1: will say, this guy's the quarterback with the largest hands
Speaker 1: in the NFL right now is Dak Prescott, and fumbles
Speaker 1: are an issue for him. So it's not it's not
Speaker 1: just a hand size things. It's a pocket, present thing,
Speaker 1: presents thing as well. You know, do you feel the
Speaker 1: pressure when it's coming and so that that can be
Speaker 1: part of it as well. M Dell, how big are
Speaker 1: e J. Perry of Brown's hands? You know what, I
Speaker 1: don't know, and I don't care because he does every
Speaker 1: you know, if you look at his athleticism, um, you know,
Speaker 1: he's not going to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. Maybe,
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe he developed into one. But you could
Speaker 1: do some stuff with this guy's your backup. Maybe maybe
Speaker 1: he turns into the next Uh yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: know that that kind of guy. He's six to he's
Speaker 1: two eleven, so not huge but but decent size. But
Speaker 1: he ran a four or six five, looked really athletic
Speaker 1: at the combine, throws the ball fine. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot there to work with. He's an Ivy
Speaker 1: League guy. So you look at that and you say, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe he's maybe he's a little smarter than your average bear.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I could see him having a
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick like career where he's just kind of one
Speaker 1: of these guys that hangs around for for ten fifteen
Speaker 1: years and and is always uh landing in spots where
Speaker 1: he you know, he gets a chance to come in
Speaker 1: and ride in on the on the white Horse and
Speaker 1: save the day. Madam, I remembering this correctly, was Perry
Speaker 1: one of the quote unquote throwing quarterbacks at the Combine
Speaker 1: that I'm not sure about. No, I don't think he was.
Speaker 1: He he tested and everything. Yeah, I think he's interesting.
Speaker 1: I mean transfer from Boston College. Um you Brown missed
Speaker 1: a year because of COVID, if not more. They had
Speaker 1: a big stretch there of a yeah yeah, But then
Speaker 1: he was the m v P of the East West
Speaker 1: Shrine game. Really lit it up at the Combine and smart, tough,
Speaker 1: as Dale mentioned, like, I think he's the personal protector
Speaker 1: on the punt team and you know, you snap it
Speaker 1: to him and he throws the ball and gets you
Speaker 1: out of a game. And maybe he's a short yardage
Speaker 1: rusher at times, just somebody you want to add to
Speaker 1: the mix. I mean a Taysom Hill type. And again
Speaker 1: Dale and I had the exact same three Mike. I mean,
Speaker 1: believe this or not, but during the drive during the
Speaker 1: season on Fridays, we make score predictions, and there was
Speaker 1: a stretch a year ago that we had like ten
Speaker 1: in a row where we picked the exact same score.
Speaker 1: I mean to the point where I would have it,
Speaker 1: I would write my score down and then have met
Speaker 1: it was. It was completely random and we were getting
Speaker 1: the same score. Every time. It's not a hard sell.
Speaker 1: The share we share a brain that's scary. My sleeper
Speaker 1: is purely a numbers guy. Cole Kelly Southeastern Louisiana six
Speaker 1: seven to forty nine through for over ten thousand yards
Speaker 1: and eighty five touchdowns, ran for eight hundred forty one
Speaker 1: yards and thirty eight touchdowns in college. What do we
Speaker 1: want from quarterbacks? Guys? We want people with size. We
Speaker 1: want people who could throw it, and we want people
Speaker 1: who could also run it. Yeah, people lead their team
Speaker 1: to touchdowns. You mentioned there are a lot of touchdowns.
Speaker 1: There a lot of touchdowns. So you know what. I
Speaker 1: didn't do a deep guy on deep dive on this guy,
Speaker 1: but uh I caught a glimpse of the numbers and yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: sure for a sleeper quarterback, why not? Yeah? I mean, like,
Speaker 1: if you bring that guy, a guy like that in
Speaker 1: as a camp arm, you never know, Um, he could
Speaker 1: turn in your off season basketball team got a lot better.
Speaker 1: You know, six seven to forty nine playing against the
Speaker 1: gym teachers and like that. I think he could post
Speaker 1: a few of those guys up. I'm sure tight end too,
Speaker 1: those Logan Thomas types. You know, it's it has been
Speaker 1: known to happen. Just uh get athletes and figure out
Speaker 1: what they do best once you get them. That's gonna
Speaker 1: do it. For our quarterback further review, I want to
Speaker 1: remind everybody that you can catch all of these types
Speaker 1: of shows on all of the Steelers social media platforms.
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep doing it and doing it and doing
Speaker 1: it between now and the NFL Draft at the end
Speaker 1: of April. Thanks for finding us for this version, however,
Speaker 1: and wherever you found us, until next time for Matt
Speaker 1: Williamson and Dale Lally on Mike PURSUITA and this has
Speaker 1: been the NFL Draft Triple Take, presented by U P
Speaker 1: m C