Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
Speaker 2: source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and
Speaker 2: whatever stupid stuff they decided to drop into the show.
Speaker 2: Now here's your host, Paul Charchian.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our first in a series of draft rookie
Speaker 1: related Fantasy Football Weekly episodes. I'm Paul Charchian. Very pleased
Speaker 1: to be joined by Thorne Eystrom. It's great to have
Speaker 1: you back.
Speaker 3: It's good to be here.
Speaker 4: The combines going on even as we speak, we have
Speaker 4: the whole thing going on. So it's a great time
Speaker 4: of the year, one of the best times of the year.
Speaker 4: Love draft season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the best.
Speaker 1: And you know, we obviously you've been on the show
Speaker 1: for a long time, but we didn't have you at
Speaker 1: this time last year, so we didn't have you breaking
Speaker 1: down players for us, but now we do.
Speaker 3: Well. I was happy I could get my pook in
Speaker 3: Na Koua.
Speaker 1: Yeah you got it out there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we end. But yeah, I'm excited to talk
Speaker 3: through it the entire process.
Speaker 4: Like you know, especially guys that draft early on, you know,
Speaker 4: some of the underdogs and the best of all.
Speaker 3: People, you can get ridiculous values.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you draft those those things before the NFL
Speaker 4: draft actually happens and we find the values here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: The guys we're going to talk about now are gonna
Speaker 1: be some of the bigger names in this show. The
Speaker 1: premise of what we're gonna do with you thora is
Speaker 1: this today's show, We're just gonna do first blush observations
Speaker 1: about your favorite five guys at quarterback, running back, wide receiver,
Speaker 1: tight end. So and this is in part for me
Speaker 1: because like a lot of our listeners, you know, we're
Speaker 1: all focused on the NFL for most of the season
Speaker 1: and super Bowl gets over catch your breath for two
Speaker 1: weeks and now here we are today, and so I need,
Speaker 1: I still need like basic overview for a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys. Then in the coming weeks, we're gonna drill
Speaker 1: down with you on each position and do deep dives
Speaker 1: on players and go deeper into every position. Love it, Aye, way,
Speaker 1: I'm super excited. Okay, So we're gonna hit twenty guys today.
Speaker 1: Twenty Let's begin at the quarterback position, and the player
Speaker 1: presumed to go first overall, but not necessarily. Let's start
Speaker 1: with Caleb Williams.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Caleb Williams, the upside the ceiling that people talk about,
Speaker 4: that's absolutely real. The high end flashes that he's shown
Speaker 4: are about as good as you'll see for a prospect
Speaker 4: coming out. I do think there's a little bit higher
Speaker 4: of a risk in that profile that maybe has been discussed.
Speaker 4: I'll just start with the gud. I mean, elite athlete
Speaker 4: at that size, elite arm and elite improvisational ability. He'll
Speaker 4: run around, buy his time in the pocket, and then
Speaker 4: he'll see a dude way downfield who's broken off his route.
Speaker 4: He can hit him on the hands, he can get
Speaker 4: the ball out immediately from any angle, throw across his body,
Speaker 4: get it on the outside of the other hash, different
Speaker 4: stuff like that.
Speaker 3: That's all the good stuff.
Speaker 4: Five Star guy had plenty of pedigree hand pick by
Speaker 4: Lincoln Riley. Lincoln Riley kicked out of the other five
Speaker 4: star that he had in their Spencer rally. Yeah, so
Speaker 4: he could start Caleb.
Speaker 3: Williams' career there. And then obviously Caleb went with him
Speaker 3: to us. See.
Speaker 4: The two things I'm concerned about ones off the field.
Speaker 4: One is on the field. The offfield one. It's not
Speaker 4: that he's a bad kid or anything. It's just there's
Speaker 4: weird vibes around there. His dad has asked for like
Speaker 4: weird stuff, like looking into the NFLPA agreement, see if
Speaker 4: they can get out of a rookie deal. Can we
Speaker 4: get some steak in a team. It's weird.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that it's it's bad or it's going
Speaker 3: to pour tend disaster here.
Speaker 4: It's just a weird vibe. Like Caleb Williams doesn't have
Speaker 4: an agent. They're like, we don't need one because it's
Speaker 4: fixed salary, different stuff.
Speaker 1: Like that, which is not inaccurate when you're gonna go
Speaker 1: in the first I don't.
Speaker 3: Fix to the draft.
Speaker 4: And he has a different company that does his marketing,
Speaker 4: so the advertising stuff like he's already fine with. And
Speaker 4: then the one thing on the field that is just
Speaker 4: a little bit concerning. And I don't think this is
Speaker 4: a nippick. I think it's an actual concern. He takes
Speaker 4: a lot of time to throw the ball. Now this
Speaker 4: is by choice, you know, but it's also endemic to
Speaker 4: his game, like he wants to be back in the
Speaker 4: pocket by time a lot of it and then give
Speaker 4: his receiver time to break off the routes.
Speaker 3: But he's in terms of the.
Speaker 4: Time to pass the last two seasons was near the
Speaker 4: top of the class, well over three seconds.
Speaker 3: He needs to get the ball a quicker in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Jade and Daniels. There's some steams starting
Speaker 1: to emerge that Daniels could pass by Caleb Williams potentially
Speaker 1: go to the first in the first and I think
Speaker 1: from a fantasy standpoint, Jayden Daniels is gonna be the
Speaker 1: first player taken because of the running.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean Jade Daniels. The floor certainly is higher
Speaker 4: than Caleb Williams is because I don't see how he busts.
Speaker 4: He does two things that at an elite level that
Speaker 4: will translate to the NFL. The deep ball number one
Speaker 4: has one of the best deep balls that we've seen
Speaker 4: in the last ten years come in the NFL. In
Speaker 4: conjunction with his ability to steal yards.
Speaker 3: As a runner.
Speaker 4: Yeah, those two, it makes them so hard to defend,
Speaker 4: like you're gonna keep you know, a linebacker spy up.
Speaker 4: If you do that, you can't have the second safety deep.
Speaker 4: It becomes a spacing problem for the defense.
Speaker 3: Whatever.
Speaker 4: So those are the things you like about him. The
Speaker 4: ceiling maybe not quite as high as Caleb, but he
Speaker 4: does have a higher flare.
Speaker 1: Well, fantasy ceiling could be higher. If he's for sure,
Speaker 1: he is definitely gonna run more. Yeah, I mean last
Speaker 1: year ran for over a thousand years. I don't know
Speaker 1: if he passes Caleb. I ambullish on the idea that
Speaker 1: he passed Drake May, though, in what people see as
Speaker 1: the board to go in that number two slot. If
Speaker 1: he doesn't go number one, I think he's a better
Speaker 1: fit for what Cliff Kingsbury looks for in a quarterback,
Speaker 1: going back fifteen to twenty years of his career. I
Speaker 1: looked at the last nine quarterbacks that Cliff has worked with.
Speaker 1: Six of the nine were guys that won outside of
Speaker 1: structure as much as they want inside of structure. That
Speaker 1: it's not a Drake May trait. Jade Daniels fits out
Speaker 1: a lot more. Drake May is the next quarterback. I
Speaker 1: do want to talk about much more of your traditional
Speaker 1: pocket passer, a little bit of mobility, but that's not
Speaker 1: his game, right, I don't want to. You know, the
Speaker 1: comparable feels like young Kirk Cousins almost, you know, who
Speaker 1: actually had you know, a little mobility in the first
Speaker 1: first part of his half of his career.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4: I think there's there's parts of his game that have
Speaker 4: been correctly forwarded and and and things to get excited about.
Speaker 4: That's the the stuff at you know, big strapping pocket
Speaker 4: passer with an enormous arm, like he is a sniper
Speaker 4: downfield and he has all the arm he needs for
Speaker 4: every single throw, you know, like I said, including consistently
Speaker 4: threading threatening vertical. The one thing that I think has
Speaker 4: been overblown about him, it's it's the thing about like
Speaker 4: the athleticism and running like he gets camped to like
Speaker 4: Josh Allen for instance, or even Justin Herbert. I don't
Speaker 4: think he is yet. He's not even close to the
Speaker 4: athlete certainly of Josh A. Not as good of a
Speaker 4: runner as either of them. I don't think his arm
Speaker 4: is quite as good as Justin Herbert's either, So I
Speaker 4: think these are sort of like apocryp full comps for him.
Speaker 3: I hope people don't get upset with this.
Speaker 4: But my comp for him is Carson Pence, which is
Speaker 4: a combination of Carson Palmer and Carson Wentz. I you know,
Speaker 4: it's it's not that he Carson Wentz, but I think
Speaker 4: the pocket game is way better. That's why you know,
Speaker 4: you put Palmer in there. But I think he's more
Speaker 4: of a stand in the pocket type guy in the
Speaker 4: NFL now gonna win with the running, that part of
Speaker 4: his game is not going to translate. Sam Howell came,
Speaker 4: you know, came out of the unc offense. He ran
Speaker 4: a ton, but that didn't translate.
Speaker 1: And then the although I still contend it could translate,
Speaker 1: they just didn't let him.
Speaker 4: Could it gone last year? Yeah, But like Drake May,
Speaker 4: I definitely don't think it is. And and the one
Speaker 4: other part of the game that I think is overblown
Speaker 4: is outside of the pocket off script stuff, he's not
Speaker 4: as good with that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: That then I think he gets credit for.
Speaker 1: Let's go to a player that you've been banging the
Speaker 1: drum on relentlessly, Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy. You know, there's
Speaker 1: there's steam that has him going as as high as
Speaker 1: you know, the lottery of this year's draft into the
Speaker 1: top ten. Then there's you know, there are other play players,
Speaker 1: are other people that have him going in the middle
Speaker 1: of the second round. So you know, we've seen a
Speaker 1: huge divergence of thoughts on JJ McCarthy. Tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about his game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely a big fan of JJ McCarthy. I think
Speaker 4: he's a really good athlete. He did not test athletically
Speaker 4: at the Combine. I think he's going to do that
Speaker 4: at his pro day when he does. I think he
Speaker 4: runs in the four or five and that's a really
Speaker 4: important aspect of his game. He steals yards, but the
Speaker 4: more rare trait of his game is getting outside the
Speaker 4: pocket throwing on the run. Absolutely does not need his platform,
Speaker 4: and he makes really good decisions when he's on the move.
Speaker 4: It's just a super rare trade where you know, there's
Speaker 4: not many guys that came out the last decade that
Speaker 4: you can point to to do that stuff with the
Speaker 4: consistency that he does. People talk about his volume stats,
Speaker 4: but when you look at the per pass stuff and
Speaker 4: when we look at the high leverage stuff, that's where
Speaker 4: he flips from being on the bottom end of some
Speaker 4: of those guys that we've tossed out to being one
Speaker 4: of the best. He was seventy fourth percentile in seven
Speaker 4: of the categories that PFF looks at to define quarterback
Speaker 4: play standard drop back percentile adder beyond the six percentile,
Speaker 4: avoids negative places percent under pressure percentile outside the pocket
Speaker 4: percent ole, third and four down percentile, and positively graded
Speaker 4: throw percentile seventy second percent I'm sorry, seventy second percentile
Speaker 4: or above. No other quarterback in that top five or
Speaker 4: even in the class was above fifty two percent in
Speaker 4: every one of those.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go to Michael Pennix, who I think
Speaker 1: you know, everybody assumed would have been just a lock
Speaker 1: first rounder. The disastrous National championship game took a ton
Speaker 1: of the luster off, and now we're looking at somebody
Speaker 1: who may end up falling to the middle of the
Speaker 1: second round potentially definitely.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And a lot of that stuff with him is
Speaker 4: going to be informed by how the medical news that
Speaker 4: we get about him coming out of Indianapolis. A guy
Speaker 4: who was first four years when he played in Indiana
Speaker 4: had a season ending injury and every single one of
Speaker 4: them too or to his lower body, to his knee,
Speaker 4: and we'll see what they say about that. He was
Speaker 4: able to stay healthy last two years of Washington, So
Speaker 4: that was a good part of that. The on field stuff,
Speaker 4: I love him when he's in the pocket and he
Speaker 4: doesn't have to move off his spot. You know, he's
Speaker 4: like a sniper who needs that gun on the you
Speaker 4: know whatever and not moving whatever. When he starts moving, though,
Speaker 4: the accuracy falls off a shelf. So when you can
Speaker 4: pressure him quickly different stuff like that, he starts making
Speaker 4: poor decisions. And like I said, the accuracy does not
Speaker 4: carry with him when he's on the move.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go to the running back position. Thor
Speaker 1: as we're zipping through your maybe I don't know if
Speaker 1: this is necessarily your top five because I don't think
Speaker 1: you've really ranked everybody yet. As we're recording right now,
Speaker 1: the combines in process, so sort of yeah, rafter, I like,
Speaker 1: do we put that right? Everybody's got the right to
Speaker 1: change their mind in early May, when we're almost two
Speaker 1: months away from the draft. Right, let's go to the
Speaker 1: running back position. Let's start with one of the fastest
Speaker 1: guys in this draft at any position, Tennessee running back
Speaker 1: Jalen Right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Jalen Right, freak of an athlete, was on the
Speaker 4: Bruce Feldman free clist. The reports that we've gotten about,
Speaker 4: so we know that he's he's a confirmed twenty three
Speaker 4: point six miles per hour on which is insane. It's
Speaker 4: crazy speed. You're you're talking literally world class speed. And
Speaker 4: this is Bruce Feldman that reported this forty four inch
Speaker 4: vertical confirmed in the past ten eight broad jump. Bruce
Speaker 4: Feldman also reported that in high school Jalen Wright ran
Speaker 4: a handtime four to eight forty. Now that's Olympic speed.
Speaker 4: It's stupid and the kids not small either. This is
Speaker 4: not an air scatback. He has sides with him too.
Speaker 4: We'll see at the combine what he ends up playing
Speaker 4: in at but probably to twelve ish, I would expect
Speaker 4: somewhere around there. He showed a lot of different stuff
Speaker 4: at Tennessee. He was in this three man rotation, but
Speaker 4: this past season he moved to the top of it.
Speaker 3: He started getting the work.
Speaker 4: He's showing some receiving shop, but specifically his elite trait
Speaker 4: is hitting that accelerator when he has that line to
Speaker 4: the goal line. Yeah, and he starts a racing that angle.
Speaker 3: Nobody's quick. Now he's getting there. All right.
Speaker 1: Let's go to Florida State's Trey Benson and I've I
Speaker 1: was watching him today and man, do I I like
Speaker 1: this kid? I think his game's going to translate really,
Speaker 1: really well to the NFL. He also has speed, nothing
Speaker 1: like Jayalen, right, not on that level, but the vision,
Speaker 1: the change of direction, the tackle, breaking the home run,
Speaker 1: the home run plays. Trey Benson from Florida State looks
Speaker 1: to me. He looks NFL caliber to me for sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, getting off the bus, he probably is the top
Speaker 4: one in this class, you know, I mean in terms
Speaker 4: of the side speed combination, he definitely is the top.
Speaker 4: Last measurement I had on him was six one two
Speaker 4: twenty one. We'll get an updated one.
Speaker 3: Sick in Indianapolis running back.
Speaker 4: Yes, And by the way, in the prop markets right now,
Speaker 4: the books have set his forty at four to three
Speaker 4: nine man at that side so well, and he's got
Speaker 4: a sprinting in his background and everything like that, and
Speaker 4: plenty of explosive plays on tape. So we'll see if
Speaker 4: he ends up being able to break that number. If
Speaker 4: he does, obviously the stock he's going to surge. Interesting
Speaker 4: evaluation didn't play much his first two years at Oregon,
Speaker 4: in part because he had this devastating knee. He tore
Speaker 4: his acl MC elateral meniscus, medial meniscus and gracial tending,
Speaker 4: which I know what that was, which I guess it's
Speaker 4: a hamstring thing. As a true freshman when he was
Speaker 4: on like the you know, the practice team whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 4: didn't play much as a sophomore, but in uh he
Speaker 4: transferred to Florida State. Twenty twenty two was his enormous
Speaker 4: breakout season. Uh, I mean across the board was awesome,
Speaker 4: but we're truly historical. That season, he became the first
Speaker 4: guy in PFF charting history to break more tackle attempts
Speaker 4: than were He was the only guy over fifty percent
Speaker 4: in that so he was breaking you know, two tackle
Speaker 4: attendzie breaking more than one every single time. So I
Speaker 4: truly prolific tackle breaking that the play came down a
Speaker 4: little bit last season. I wonder if that was an
Speaker 4: offensive environment thing. He's a guy who should be projected
Speaker 4: as a bellkow who never got that opportunity because he
Speaker 4: was playing in a Mike Norvel offense. A guy who
Speaker 4: has used, ever since going back to Memphis, a platoon
Speaker 4: of running backs. I think Benson would have been better
Speaker 4: served than one where he could you know, sort of
Speaker 4: get going and warm up and everything like that. But yeah,
Speaker 4: very very talented kick moving to the next level.
Speaker 1: The you and I may differ on Texas running back
Speaker 1: Jonathan Brooks. I watched one game just him against Houston,
Speaker 1: so I'm just I'm very early into this, but I
Speaker 1: liked some things. I didn't love anything. And you know,
Speaker 1: I thought his change of direction was okay, the speed
Speaker 1: was just okay. He can catch. You know what I
Speaker 1: really bothered me is open space. The guy does not
Speaker 1: maximize opportunities. I saw him get tackled a bunch in
Speaker 1: just one on one open space situations, and it felt
Speaker 1: like he merely took what the Texas offensive line gave him.
Speaker 1: I didn't see special traits, at least in one game
Speaker 1: for Jonathan Brooks from Texas.
Speaker 3: What do you think?
Speaker 4: And I don't think he's a special athlete either. And
Speaker 4: one of the disappointing things about his injury from November
Speaker 4: is that we're not going to see him in the
Speaker 4: pre draft process. He is not going to have to test.
Speaker 4: So not only is he coming off the knee injury
Speaker 4: that's going to affect his rookie season, but we don't
Speaker 4: We have no idea what that athletic profile is gonna be.
Speaker 4: But I agree with you. You know he is not
Speaker 4: a special athlete by any means. He's not a huge
Speaker 4: back either, just to tick over two hundred pounds. The
Speaker 4: one trait I really like about him is contact balance.
Speaker 4: He's one of those guys where he'll bounce off the
Speaker 4: glancing shots and everything like that and keep on moving.
Speaker 4: But I totally agree with you, like doesn't have the jews,
Speaker 4: doesn't have the long speed, and the make you miss
Speaker 4: is is good but not great.
Speaker 1: Notre Dame's Audric Stimy s Timmy Sma stim I'll have
Speaker 1: this down by the draft. I'm confident talk to me
Speaker 1: about him.
Speaker 4: I hope he does well in the NFL because I
Speaker 4: like saying his name, and Notre Dame loved him last season.
Speaker 4: He was the reason that that team was good and
Speaker 4: it wasn't because of Sam Hartman estimate last year ninety
Speaker 4: four point two PFF grade that is speaking of historical
Speaker 4: sixty four broken tackles with that, by the way, an
Speaker 4: elusive rating of one twenty six point five, which is
Speaker 4: very impressive because this is a two hundred and thirty
Speaker 4: pound hammerback.
Speaker 3: He has good feet.
Speaker 4: I really like that, and I like the power as well.
Speaker 4: He runs more angular, but he has really good contact
Speaker 4: balance for running with that style certainly brings the power.
Speaker 4: One really important thing about his evaluation finding out what
Speaker 4: the speed is, finding out what the splits are in Indianapolis.
Speaker 4: The athleticism is the one thing you question about him.
Speaker 4: But last year certainly opened a lot of.
Speaker 1: Eyes Michigan's Blake Korum had the luxury of running behind
Speaker 1: this amazing offensive line and it made it. I think
Speaker 1: it makes him a challenge of challenging evaluation because so
Speaker 1: many guys could have succeeded, and he looked good in
Speaker 1: that offense. But he does have some nice traits. He's
Speaker 1: clearly very shifty, really good footwork in balance. It looks
Speaker 1: like he's got some sneaky speed as well. What do
Speaker 1: you think of Blake Korm?
Speaker 4: He another weird evaluation last year at the beginning of
Speaker 4: the season, he did not look impressive at all. He
Speaker 4: looks sluggish. He was coming off an injury of his
Speaker 4: own from twenty twenty two. In the beginning the season,
Speaker 4: he was basically being a scorter for five free yards
Speaker 4: every single run by that sick offensive lines, in particular
Speaker 4: run blocking offensive line. I believe this is off memory,
Speaker 4: so forgive me if I'm out by a couple, but
Speaker 4: I believe Michigan was number two in PFF run blocking grade.
Speaker 4: Last year pass blocking grade, they were significantly lower. That
Speaker 4: offense was built to have that mauling line for Korum
Speaker 4: get the free yards before contact. The year before we
Speaker 4: had seen shops of Blake Korum a breaking more tackles.
Speaker 4: He's certainly an agile kid. He's one of those bowling
Speaker 4: ball type bill guys that the short and pack guys.
Speaker 4: I like the agility. He doesn't have long speed though,
Speaker 4: And the thing about last year where it really affected
Speaker 4: his numbers as far as the sluggishness early on elusive
Speaker 4: rating for Blakekorm was only twenty seven point four last year.
Speaker 4: One hundred is what is considered like solid. This kid
Speaker 4: was at twenty seven point It was one of the
Speaker 4: lowest we had. Yards after contact was one of the
Speaker 4: lowest we had. He was better the year before, so
Speaker 4: you do have to give him that. In his own system,
Speaker 4: I think that could work out. But for me, he's
Speaker 4: more of an early down guy, not going to get
Speaker 4: the receiving work in the NFL. Some people disagree with
Speaker 4: me about that, but I didn't see much of him
Speaker 4: as a receiver at Michigan.
Speaker 1: When we come back, let's talk through wide receivers, beginning
Speaker 1: with Marvin Harrison Junior, who seems to be the consensus
Speaker 1: number one. We'll see if you and again I don't
Speaker 1: expect you have all your rankings done at this point,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of great a lot of great
Speaker 1: receivers to talk about, and at least four guys that
Speaker 1: could go in like the top ten eleven picks of
Speaker 1: this draft. So we'll talk to that when we come back.
Speaker 1: Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly, Paul Charching, thor An Eistrom
Speaker 1: with you. You can follow Thor on Twitter at thor
Speaker 1: ku Rochester and I am at Paul Charching Ohio State's
Speaker 1: Marvin Harrison Junior. Everybody has got slotted into pick four
Speaker 1: of the NFL Draft, and it feels like it's been
Speaker 1: this way.
Speaker 3: We knew this was gonna happen. At this time last year.
Speaker 1: We knew Marvin Harrison was going to be one of
Speaker 1: the first players taken in the draft. So no big
Speaker 1: surprises here unless you see something different than most two.
Speaker 3: I definitely buy that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the sports books have the first non quarterback taking
Speaker 4: odds and Marvin Harrison justifiable, he's like minus eight hundred.
Speaker 3: I'm not surprised it's.
Speaker 4: Not bettable, but yeah, he's definitely the top non quarterback.
Speaker 4: And in this elite wide receiver client like truly ELEE one,
Speaker 4: where you have three guys that would be wide receiver
Speaker 4: one and almost all the classes you know, past five
Speaker 4: six years whatever, he stands at top of them.
Speaker 3: What makes him unique.
Speaker 4: You have the prototypical boundary X type frame that he's
Speaker 4: in right like he came off the factory line, but
Speaker 4: he has the route running chops and understanding from his father, Marvin,
Speaker 4: who you'll recall was not the you know, in terms
Speaker 4: of the athleticism at all. He was a small guy
Speaker 4: as well. Yeah, Marvin Harrison had to win on route
Speaker 4: running and that was the thing that he taught his son.
Speaker 4: But his son got all the physical.
Speaker 3: Guests that he didn't get. And the thing you.
Speaker 4: Love about it is so the release package there. There
Speaker 4: was teams that tried to press him. You're not pressing him.
Speaker 4: His footwork is really good off the line. He has
Speaker 4: the strength off the line, and then the route running stuff.
Speaker 4: I really like his ability to throttle down and then
Speaker 4: throttle back up, he weighs absolutely no motion in it.
Speaker 4: And then along the route path he's constantly toggling up
Speaker 4: and toggling down his speed. So it's really difficult to
Speaker 4: get a sense of like, where's that route break gonna begin?
Speaker 4: Which way is he gonna go? What's he trying to
Speaker 4: do here? Is he trying to get downtown on me?
Speaker 4: Is he gonna cut in?
Speaker 3: You know? Like what's gonna go on?
Speaker 4: Because of all those different cool things, he does love
Speaker 4: the ball scales, everything like that, so he is justifiably
Speaker 4: the wide.
Speaker 1: Receiver one in this awesome wide receivers. All right, who's
Speaker 1: the receiver you like next after him?
Speaker 3: I would put Melik Neighbors. I love Molik Neighbors. I
Speaker 3: love Malik Neighbors too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because that big body, the big the big build.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the well neighbors.
Speaker 4: So the NF, this is the way the NFL is
Speaker 4: going right with the speed receivers like this. I caught
Speaker 4: Melik Neighbors to Jamar Chase. It felt too easy because
Speaker 4: he's coming out of LSU whatever. But they're the same
Speaker 4: body type. They're gonna test very very similarly athletically, and
Speaker 4: you know, I sort of see them in the same phylum,
Speaker 4: but he's just a ferrari.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, not kingdom, not family, not order. I don't
Speaker 1: remember all the other Yeah, all right, I like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but yeah, like the unique thing about neighbors a
Speaker 4: couple of different things. He's a very very rare guy
Speaker 4: in terms of it seems as though he accelerates while
Speaker 4: he's changing directions. It's instant acceleration out of the route, breaks,
Speaker 4: instant stopping whenever he wants. He gets separation at will
Speaker 4: because he can be going full speed and then he
Speaker 4: stops on the dime. He can come back, he can
Speaker 4: break in whatever he wants. But the other guy can't
Speaker 4: do that. Even if he guessed right, he wouldn't be
Speaker 4: able to athletically.
Speaker 3: Stay with him.
Speaker 4: So that's how he's always creating that and then he
Speaker 4: becomes his demon with the ball in his hands afterwards.
Speaker 4: He's got really good vision obviously, the agility, and then
Speaker 4: that speed. Last thing I'll mention about him, that's unique.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he taught himself this or if
Speaker 4: this is just natural or what. But you don't see
Speaker 4: you with a lot of guys, but very few. He
Speaker 4: does not move his upper body much when he is
Speaker 4: running at full speed. Everyone when they're running, they chug
Speaker 4: their arms. This guy's got his arms pretty static all
Speaker 4: on there. But he's running at four to four maybe
Speaker 4: even high four threes, and so guys have a really
Speaker 4: hard time gauging first of all, how fast.
Speaker 1: He's actually right, you might think he's at full throttle
Speaker 1: because it doesn't look like coasting exactly, because that upper
Speaker 1: body is not moving whatsoever.
Speaker 4: And then it's also really difficult to know because he
Speaker 4: doesn't telegraph it with any upper body movement where he's
Speaker 4: going to break his route off. If he is going
Speaker 4: to break it off.
Speaker 1: I saw some great blocking on some film on Malik
Speaker 1: Neighbors too.
Speaker 3: He's a dog.
Speaker 1: Let's go to let's stay with the same team. Let's
Speaker 1: talk Brian teammate, Brian Thomas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Brian Thomas is your uh more for me, the
Speaker 3: prototypical number.
Speaker 1: By the way, you can't comp him to t Higgins
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna come okay, Goods. I actually come from
Speaker 4: to George Pickens, another kid that came out of the
Speaker 4: SEC recently. But it's it's one where it's the big
Speaker 4: outside receiver who has the downtown uh But you know,
Speaker 4: the ball scales downtown whatnot. He gets up off the ground,
Speaker 4: he can high point it. He knows how to pin
Speaker 4: guy's behind his back. He might be a bit faster
Speaker 4: than Pickens in terms of what the testing is, but
Speaker 4: it's the same sort of utility. I don't see Brian
Speaker 4: Thomas ideally as a wide receiver one in the NFL
Speaker 4: on his team. I see him as a really really
Speaker 4: good number two like he was in college.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I could see that.
Speaker 1: Let's go to uh, let's go to Ladd mcconkee, who
Speaker 1: must be related to Phil?
Speaker 3: How many common mcconkey's can there be there? There is
Speaker 3: not a lot of mcconkey's, right, So is there? Do
Speaker 3: you know?
Speaker 1: Is there any connection between these between Ladd and Phil?
Speaker 3: All have to get deeper into the research. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure about that. What I do know about
Speaker 4: him is it's separation at will. That guy separates like
Speaker 4: you and I breathe down at the senior ball last year,
Speaker 4: Tank we had a thing with Tank Delaware after Tank
Speaker 4: Dell embarrassed all the defensive backs and one on ones
Speaker 4: on the Tuesday. On the Wednesday, they started grabbing him
Speaker 4: at the route break because the defensive backs didn't want
Speaker 4: to get embarrassed getting left in the dust by Tank
Speaker 4: Dell in front of all the NFL evaluators. Wow, he
Speaker 4: changed the behavior at the defensive backs more than anyone
Speaker 4: by far that year in those one on ones.
Speaker 3: That was Lad McConkie.
Speaker 4: This year, Ladi McConkie dusted everyone on Tuesday just like
Speaker 4: Tank Dell had on Wednesday.
Speaker 3: When he came out. It was a little bit different thing,
Speaker 3: but it changed his behavior.
Speaker 4: Nonetheless, the defensive backs started playing eight yards off the
Speaker 4: guy in one on ones. They were not interested in
Speaker 4: attempting to press him because they knew he was going
Speaker 4: to embarrass him with the footwork and then the separation
Speaker 4: is just going to start earlier. The defensive backs were
Speaker 4: basically saying, you can have a free reception anywhere within
Speaker 4: six yards of the line of scrimmage. I will just
Speaker 4: see that and then try to front all of.
Speaker 1: The availuyeoho, amazing.
Speaker 3: We got to get to a Dunza. We skipped over
Speaker 3: a Dunze.
Speaker 4: Let's do it, yeah, oduns So he's the other one
Speaker 4: of those top three guys six to three, he's gonna.
Speaker 3: Be two fifteen to two twenty.
Speaker 4: I think he's gonna test better than other people do
Speaker 4: in the NFL. NFS and Blessed or the two preseason
Speaker 4: scouting services for the NFL they put out projected forty
Speaker 4: times they had Odoonza in the four fives. I think
Speaker 4: he's gonna run very low four fourths, maybe even high
Speaker 4: four threes. Certainly that's been the reports. Odonza is the
Speaker 4: only one of the top three receivers who is athletically
Speaker 4: testing in Indianapolis.
Speaker 3: They asked him why, and he said, I'm good exactly.
Speaker 3: He said, people have.
Speaker 4: Always undersold my speed because I'm a long strider. So
Speaker 4: I'm moving way faster than it appears on the television screen,
Speaker 4: and I'm gonna prove it. So I thought that was
Speaker 4: really cool. I love his play strength at that size.
Speaker 4: He's a really good round runner at that size and
Speaker 4: elite ball skills. If he tests as well as the
Speaker 4: reports have suggested that that he could, I see Julio
Speaker 4: Jones at him. I think there's a lot of similarities.
Speaker 4: Certainly the same package in terms of the height and
Speaker 4: the weight. And then, like I said, the report, the
Speaker 4: reports of his test very similar to how Julio tested
Speaker 4: coming out let's go.
Speaker 1: To the tight end position. Brock Bauers was. At this
Speaker 1: time last year, people were telling me Blrock Bowers was
Speaker 1: going to go in like the top six players of
Speaker 1: the draft. I don't think that's quite gonna hold uh in.
Speaker 1: Barks is just a lot of good players at the
Speaker 1: top of this draft. I think it feels like maybe
Speaker 1: a top heavy draft. I don't think Bower's played badly
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 3: Not at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So let's go to the tight ends. Let's start
Speaker 1: with there, because Black Bowers, I think it's the one
Speaker 1: tight end that pretty much everybody's got pegged in the
Speaker 1: first round. And I've seen him as high as pick
Speaker 1: six or seven, as low as pick like eleven twelve
Speaker 1: in that area sphere.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's where I think he'll go.
Speaker 4: Very very good prospect, obviously, I don't know if I get,
Speaker 4: you know, all the way to a generational tight end.
Speaker 4: I don't even think about him as a tight end.
Speaker 4: To me, he's a Swiss Army offensive weapon. They lined
Speaker 4: him up outside, they line him up in the slot,
Speaker 4: the line him up in line, they line him up
Speaker 4: in the backfield. Would they would do ender rounds to him?
Speaker 4: They would manufacture touches because the special sauce of brock Bowers.
Speaker 4: It's with the ball in his hands. Afterwards, he has
Speaker 4: the speed, the potent if he gets an angle to
Speaker 4: potentially take it downtown. But the tackle breaking it's reminiscent
Speaker 4: of Sam Laporta from the last class, where he has
Speaker 4: that combination of the short area agility in conjunction with
Speaker 4: the power. So it's really hard to square him up.
Speaker 4: And when you don't square him up, he is absolutely
Speaker 4: running through your arm tackle attempt. And he's a solid blocker.
Speaker 4: I will also say for being a bit undersize round
Speaker 4: two hundred and forty two hundred and forty five pounds,
Speaker 4: but he can do all the different blocks.
Speaker 3: I've certainly played a lot of inline at Georgia.
Speaker 1: All right, it falls off from there at the tight
Speaker 1: end position. But there are some other guys that could
Speaker 1: be Day two picks, right Jatavian Sanders. Talk to me
Speaker 1: about him, Texas.
Speaker 4: He is the one that I'm very interested in, particularly
Speaker 4: from a fantasy perspective. Jatavian Sanders is going to be
Speaker 4: a more valuable fantasy asset than he is a real
Speaker 4: life asset because it can't block. He's just a big receipt.
Speaker 4: He should be a big slot in the NFL. Like
Speaker 4: maybe not even consider him a tight end. He should
Speaker 4: just be playing in the slot. But super duper athletic.
Speaker 4: The speed, I love the speed, I love the agility.
Speaker 4: The change of direction for his size is upper tier.
Speaker 4: He also has good core strength and balance. He's one
Speaker 4: of those guys that cannot get jarred when he's running
Speaker 4: the routes at the catch point, guys try to go
Speaker 4: through his back different stuff like that. You're not doing
Speaker 4: that either. You can't jar the kid. But yeah, he
Speaker 4: has that ability to separate for all those reasons. This
Speaker 4: and then he has the ball skills at the end
Speaker 4: of it. But that athleticism, the strength that allows him
Speaker 4: to get open and winning contested situations where he is
Speaker 4: really really good in the contested situations. He also makes
Speaker 4: people miss when he has the ball in his hands.
Speaker 4: Not going to break tackles, but he will make you miss.
Speaker 4: But but yeah, the nippicks on him. He doesn't block
Speaker 4: at all. So that's the big thing. You just have
Speaker 4: to know you're getting the big edge.
Speaker 1: We don't care about blocking.
Speaker 3: We don't not in fantasy.
Speaker 1: You know else can't block very well, Travis Kelce.
Speaker 3: Yeah, who cares?
Speaker 1: Yeah, who cares? If you're good enough of a receiver,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. They can't all be George Kittle.
Speaker 3: That's exactly right, right, Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: Ohio State's Cade Stover presumably not the son of former
Speaker 1: Browns kicker Matt Stover.
Speaker 4: I don't think so, but I will look into that.
Speaker 4: He's an interesting kid who was a prep basketball star.
Speaker 4: Then he was Ohio's mister football as a senior, mostly
Speaker 4: as a defensive guy. He signed with Ohio State as
Speaker 4: a four star linebacker. Then they and by the way
Speaker 4: I pulled this up for you, two forty seven Sports
Speaker 4: comped him when he was coming out of high school
Speaker 4: and signing with Ohio State to Anthony.
Speaker 3: Barr, Yeah, okay, all right, as a linebacker.
Speaker 4: They then Ohio State switches him to defensive end when
Speaker 4: when he gets to campus. So he played those two
Speaker 4: positions as a freshman, moved a tight end as a sophomore,
Speaker 4: but then briefly went back to defense twenty twenty one.
Speaker 4: It was the last two years full time tight end
Speaker 4: where he broke out. You see that springy athletics, you
Speaker 4: know athleticism, that of course comes with being a basketball player,
Speaker 4: different stuff like that, and a guy who had the
Speaker 4: ability to bend the edge when he.
Speaker 3: Was rushed as an outside pass rusher.
Speaker 4: He also has the skills as a receiver, even though
Speaker 4: he's really early on with it. The hands certainly speak
Speaker 4: for themselves, only two drops, one hundred plus targets last
Speaker 4: two years. I also think he has an advanced route
Speaker 4: running understanding for where he's at with that position in
Speaker 4: terms of this stuff like the stop start agility, getting
Speaker 4: into the route breaks, different stuff like that, the footwork
Speaker 4: in there, and he's coming along as a blocker. He
Speaker 4: uses his length well, is one thing I like about him.
Speaker 4: And he knows angles and he understands leverage as well.
Speaker 4: Needs to continue working on his technique and the core
Speaker 4: strength for that area of his game to become upper
Speaker 4: tier in the NFL. But a very interesting prospect, noneth.
Speaker 1: Last, all right, that's Ohio State's Kate Stover. Let's do
Speaker 1: We're gonna do three straight Big ten. Well, pretty soon
Speaker 1: they're just all big ten. Yeah, right, tight end conference, babe,
Speaker 1: It is a tight end conference. And we will have
Speaker 1: an Iowa connection coming up in a minute. Penn States
Speaker 1: THEO Johnson.
Speaker 4: He's one of the better size athleticism combinations in this
Speaker 4: tight end class, and he's showing chops as a receiver.
Speaker 4: The one thing that you know sort of concerned you
Speaker 4: in college was there was inconsistencies there, But you have
Speaker 4: to give them the benefit of the doubt of the
Speaker 4: offensive environment.
Speaker 3: He came from.
Speaker 4: Drew Allard, their quarterback, even though he's a value who
Speaker 4: would recruit, really struggled the past couple of years. THEO
Speaker 4: Johnson was in a twelve personnel offense where they had
Speaker 4: another tight end they would throw the ball to as well,
Speaker 4: but Alla wasn't a particularly good thrower. I like those
Speaker 4: skills of Johnson. I want to see how he tests,
Speaker 4: but I like the receiving skills, and he played really
Speaker 4: well down in Mobile. When we saw him at the
Speaker 4: Senior Bowl, was clearly the best tight end there. So
Speaker 4: the best overall tight end, best overall tight that we saw. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so he definitely moved up there. If he can do
Speaker 4: it again at the combine, there's a big opportunity for
Speaker 4: these guys who are not amongst that top three tight
Speaker 4: end group that we just talked about. There is perceived
Speaker 4: to be an enormous tear drop after that. So all
Speaker 4: these guys in this grouping, if any of them can
Speaker 4: stand out for the rest of this draft process, you
Speaker 4: could potentially jump up there, maybe even go at the
Speaker 4: end of the day too.
Speaker 1: There's a bunch of teams that need tight ends right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Miami does, the Jets? Do the Bengals do? Man, imagine
Speaker 1: dropping yourself into the Bengals offense or the Miami offense.
Speaker 3: Yes, as a as a good tight end. Oh, that'd
Speaker 3: be I want to Tavian Sanders in one of those two.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be nice?
Speaker 3: That's what I want. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: Let's go to uh Iowa via Michigan. Eric All, who
Speaker 1: I had not heard of until you just you know,
Speaker 1: you dropped his name on me a couple of days ago.
Speaker 1: The give me the update on on Eric All.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's coming from both the sort of the TEUs.
Speaker 4: He played for Jim Harbaugh Michigan for a couple of years.
Speaker 4: Then he came over with Cade McNamara, the quarterback that
Speaker 4: they had the transferre to Iowa. JJ McCarthy stole his
Speaker 4: jab of course, so they came over. Last year was
Speaker 4: supposed to be Eric Hall's like you know, national coming
Speaker 4: out party whatever, and he was playing well. But the
Speaker 4: problem was McNamara came into the season hurt and then
Speaker 4: summarily was knocked out for the season. Then Eric All
Speaker 4: tears his ACL in October when he was starting to
Speaker 4: look really good in that offense. This was coming off
Speaker 4: a season ending back injury when he was at Michigan
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty two. He's only played in ten games
Speaker 4: over the last two years, but he looked really good
Speaker 4: twenty twenty one, last full season that we saw when
Speaker 4: he was a soft more thirty eight catches, four hundred
Speaker 4: thirty seven yards and two touchdowns. I really like his
Speaker 4: combination of size, speed, and feet. He can change directions
Speaker 4: really quickly, also accelerates really quickly out of route breaks
Speaker 4: to return to top speed. You can line them up anywhere.
Speaker 4: He's showing that over the course of his career. Obviously
Speaker 4: was coach well at both the schools that he was at.
Speaker 4: There are some concentration drops on film. That's the one
Speaker 4: thing is a receiver he'd nitpick. And then he also
Speaker 4: lacks play strength, so he's not a great blocker even
Speaker 4: though he tries. You know, he can pick off the
Speaker 4: smaller guys with his length stuff like that, but he
Speaker 4: gets ragged out by the bigger guys and then along
Speaker 4: the route path he can get jarred a little bit.
Speaker 4: So those are the couple things. But for me, Eric
Speaker 4: Hall is the sleeper in this tight end class. This
Speaker 4: would be a guy.
Speaker 1: Can any Iowa tight end be a sleeper at this point?
Speaker 4: Well, we've seen some slip through the cracks and then
Speaker 4: became studs in the NFL, like all of them.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: They basically rehab redo all of the drafts from all
Speaker 1: of these well other than Offan yeah, no offense. The
Speaker 1: one Iowa tight end that just and obviously he's still
Speaker 1: in the league and he's not bad.
Speaker 3: He's not terrible. It just hasn't.
Speaker 1: But for the brotherhood that he's with is y pedigree.
Speaker 1: Because you have a mount rushmore we do. Basically there
Speaker 1: is a mount rushmore there. Now we'll dive deeply into
Speaker 1: all of these guys in the coming weeks.
Speaker 3: I can't wait.
Speaker 4: And so we'll have all the athletic testing profiles combine,
Speaker 4: can bake all that stuff and then do a little
Speaker 4: bit deeper dies.
Speaker 3: I can't wait for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So well, over the coming shows. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: some free agency shows because free agency looming, We're gonna
Speaker 1: have some big moves. Whose Kirk Cousin's gonna be throwing too, right?
Speaker 1: Is Baker Mayfield automatically going back to Tampa Bay? All
Speaker 1: the free agent running backs, you know, sa Kwon Barkley
Speaker 1: and Tony Pollard and Josh Jacobs. There's gonna be so
Speaker 1: much happening.
Speaker 3: I can't wait for that.
Speaker 1: And then we'll be you know, a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of the second half of March. In April, we'll
Speaker 1: be talking with you, yeah, breaking down all these positions.
Speaker 3: Though.
Speaker 4: We're gonna find some sleepers too, and a couple of
Speaker 4: these episodes, we're gonna get out in the weeds and
Speaker 4: go sleeps. Yeah, And you know it doesn't work every year,
Speaker 4: but last year, you know, Puka was one of my guys.
Speaker 4: Tank Dell was one of my guys, you know, and
Speaker 4: he ended up going in the third, but you know,
Speaker 4: at this time last year he was considered like a fourth,
Speaker 4: fifth round guy.
Speaker 3: But yeah, we will find you guys, some sleepers out there.
Speaker 1: I don't expect you to get them, all right, but
Speaker 1: your hit rate last last preseason was very high. I
Speaker 1: think about the only the only guy I remember you
Speaker 1: really pounding the table for that didn't do much was
Speaker 1: Roshan Johnson.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: Other than that, I think you were really really good.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, I'm still I'm still bullish on Rochan. But yeah,
Speaker 4: we we had a good process last year, and you know,
Speaker 4: just bring the same thing over this year and hopefully
Speaker 4: we can we can find some unearthed some of those
Speaker 4: diamonds in the rough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be fun. Thanks tork Wait. I will
Speaker 1: talk to you next week. Everybody, Bye bye. Fantasy Football
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