Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the NFL
Speaker 1: Draft Triple Take, presented by U P m C. I'm
Speaker 1: Mike pursued it along with Dale Wally and Matt Williamson.
Speaker 1: We are prepping you and getting you ready for the
Speaker 1: NFL Draft to the extent that we've gone over not
Speaker 1: just every position, but now we are in the process
Speaker 1: of taking a further review at every position, going over
Speaker 1: every position not once, but twice. The difference that's saw
Speaker 1: the one but significant first time around. We each gave
Speaker 1: you our top five candidates for drafting at the positions
Speaker 1: cornerback in terms of what we're talking about today, and
Speaker 1: this time around, we're giving you a riser, a faller,
Speaker 1: and a sleeper. Now, I'm gonna go just a little
Speaker 1: bit out of order on this one because one of
Speaker 1: the dynamics that has developed as we've done these one
Speaker 1: of the characteristics is that Dale and Matt, who are
Speaker 1: each other's work wife, her husband, whoever you want to
Speaker 1: phrase that, they they performed so admirably together on the
Speaker 1: drive on s n R. They have often come up
Speaker 1: with the same guy this time around whatever, the same
Speaker 1: rise or the same fall or the same sleeper, but
Speaker 1: this time, guys, we we completed the hat trick. We
Speaker 1: are are follower is unanimous, and he is uh darien. Yeah, Georgia,
Speaker 1: you want to lead us off and then we'll all
Speaker 1: just give a little insight as to why, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this guy played defense for the national champs and he's falling.
Speaker 1: How can this be? Yeah, he's he's won a lot
Speaker 1: of football games, He's been an integral part for a
Speaker 1: couple of teams. But he has some off the field things,
Speaker 1: you know that we're a worry before all this process.
Speaker 1: I think playing on that awesome Georgia defense gives you
Speaker 1: some leeway too. It makes life a little easier when
Speaker 1: the pass rush is getting home like that. But you know,
Speaker 1: he didn't work out at the combine and ran a
Speaker 1: four seven five in the forty and his jumps were
Speaker 1: also pretty poor, so his tenure split was really slow too.
Speaker 1: I mean, it just was had a good workout for
Speaker 1: him at all. And is Matt mentioned that off the
Speaker 1: field stuff? I mean he got kicked out of Clemson,
Speaker 1: asked to leave Clemson, and ended up at Georgia. Talk
Speaker 1: about going for like how does that happen? Like, oh, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna leave this national championship program to go to
Speaker 1: this one. Uh, you know, so good for him, but
Speaker 1: those times that that workout did not help him at all.
Speaker 1: And and uh he might have to move to safety. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. You know, he was a wide receiver Clemson
Speaker 1: initially I think fifteen passes for their for their national
Speaker 1: championship team. In team he eventually got kicked out. And
Speaker 1: the head coach Dabos when he says he loves them,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's just it's just something that happened.
Speaker 1: He doesn't hold it against the kid. Uh. Kirby smart
Speaker 1: raved about him. Uh, particularly after Georgia thump Michigan. He
Speaker 1: was the m v P of the Orange Bowl, the
Speaker 1: National Championship semi final, a couple of interceptions, but uh,
Speaker 1: you mentioned those times. And you know, one of the
Speaker 1: things we've talked about a lot during these shows is
Speaker 1: that being great it's not as great as it usually
Speaker 1: is because there's so many freaks out there that have
Speaker 1: gone so far past what our normal standard is for
Speaker 1: being really impressed. This is not the year to be
Speaker 1: going the other way, particularly off the field. There's just
Speaker 1: too many people available that don't have bad times. That
Speaker 1: don't have a relatively checkered past, too many strikes against him.
Speaker 1: You know, he needed he needed to run well to
Speaker 1: kind of alleviate some of those issues for the off
Speaker 1: the field stuff, and it just didn't happen. Day. Let's
Speaker 1: stick with you will do rise or second? Usually we
Speaker 1: lead off with that, but uh, well we'll take that
Speaker 1: second this time around. Who you got? I got Tarik
Speaker 1: wool in a Texas, San Antonio And and this is
Speaker 1: a guy again who caught my eye at a Senior Bowl. Uh.
Speaker 1: They were putting out a spreadsheet every day down there
Speaker 1: that they send out to the media of who were
Speaker 1: the fastest guys. Uh. During the practices they had the
Speaker 1: trackers on them, and he ran like twenty three was
Speaker 1: a late was a late addition to the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, I gotta start watching this guy.
Speaker 1: So I watched him in the next couple of practice, Like, wow,
Speaker 1: is he big? I didn't know how big? Six four
Speaker 1: two oh five and he had a four to six
Speaker 1: forty at the at the NFL scouting combine, he had
Speaker 1: a forty two inch vertical. You want to talk freaky athletes,
Speaker 1: this guy might be the freakiest athlete in this entire draft. Um,
Speaker 1: now he's gonna be raw. Um you know U T.
Speaker 1: S A Is not a big time program. But man,
Speaker 1: you could take this guy in the in the you know,
Speaker 1: in that day two and and mold him a little
Speaker 1: bit and you're gonna have something there. Because at six
Speaker 1: four two oh five, to be that fast shouldn't be
Speaker 1: humanly possible. And they have a lot of those guys
Speaker 1: that are. They're really long striders, are really high cut
Speaker 1: like sprinters, you know, like you saying bowl. But he
Speaker 1: can change direction and drop his hips. There's a lot
Speaker 1: to work with their Yeah, I'd like that, you know.
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna overthink him. Six four two oh five,
Speaker 1: four point to six. I had him number five when
Speaker 1: we did the top five. Now, I think that was
Speaker 1: way higher than most people initially assessed this stuff, which
Speaker 1: is why I had relatively low hanging fruit from my riser.
Speaker 1: I went with Roger McCreary of Auburn, who's a really
Speaker 1: good player, just missed cracking my top five, but uh,
Speaker 1: he's just checking the boxes as a lot of them are,
Speaker 1: just maybe not in an unprecedented fashion, but uh, really
Speaker 1: good football player. Got his forty down to four point
Speaker 1: four six at the Auburn Pro Day. Uh. The only
Speaker 1: thing I don't like about him is everybody keeps talking
Speaker 1: about this story how he child's baked beans with sugar.
Speaker 1: That's his that's his favorite meal. And uh, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I want to be around him while he's
Speaker 1: eating it. I don't know if I want to be
Speaker 1: around him after he's eating He's sitting around the campfire,
Speaker 1: you know, like a blazing saddle style secret weapon on
Speaker 1: the field. But he he does not lack confidence and
Speaker 1: coming out of the SEC. Why would he because there
Speaker 1: have been many, many, many receivers coming out of the
Speaker 1: SEC last couple of years. He's seen them all. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Good football player. Uh yeah. In this draft, if you
Speaker 1: didn't run a sub for four at the cornerback position,
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna talk about you. Matt. Uh you went up
Speaker 1: to a happy valley for your riser. Yeah. I almost
Speaker 1: went with Jalen Armar Davis from Alabama. Yeah, as I
Speaker 1: say it, But I went with another guy, a young
Speaker 1: man with three names here in three castro fields from
Speaker 1: Penn State. Um. I think he has some technique work
Speaker 1: to do. I think he's gonna, you know, need a
Speaker 1: little bit of time. A boy he has traits. I
Speaker 1: mean he's six to almost two hundred pounds long, like
Speaker 1: he's built in a lab to play press man coverage.
Speaker 1: He's also flexible. We can go up and play the
Speaker 1: ball high pointed and he ran a four three forty
Speaker 1: And indeed, so I'll take my chances on developing him.
Speaker 1: This is becoming more of a thing, is it not.
Speaker 1: We're getting away from this guy had eighteen sacks, and
Speaker 1: we're getting more towards projecting what a guy with this
Speaker 1: height and this weight that runs an x x x
Speaker 1: forty yard dash. We're getting more towards that part of
Speaker 1: it than we are the proven production, are we not?
Speaker 1: I think so. I mean especially this time of year.
Speaker 1: And I think that at times, that's when mistakes are
Speaker 1: made to you forget what you're watched on tape, you know,
Speaker 1: and you just kind of what have you done for
Speaker 1: me lately? Process at times, and I think there's some
Speaker 1: mistakes made that way. But I also think analytics has
Speaker 1: something to do with it that if I see all
Speaker 1: these measurables and I've got ten years of data to
Speaker 1: look at, when my hit rates pretty good. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: stay in that lane. You know, it works out well
Speaker 1: when when both things mesh, when you have production and
Speaker 1: and that. But you look at the other way, I mean,
Speaker 1: why didn't he have any sacks? Why didn't he have
Speaker 1: any production? Because he has all these athletic traits, so
Speaker 1: he goes both ways. Stay with you, Dale, interesting sleep
Speaker 1: where you came up with. Yeah, I'm gonna stay at
Speaker 1: the small school guys, kind of like I did with U. T.
Speaker 1: S A. I'm going to Sam Houston State from my
Speaker 1: sleeper cornerback as Ziam McCullum again, another good size cornerback
Speaker 1: six to one. He ran a four three three forty
Speaker 1: at the combine with a thirty nine inch vertical and
Speaker 1: then at a three nine four twenty yards shuttle. Um.
Speaker 1: This is a guy who not only has those intangibles,
Speaker 1: the the athleticism, he had thirteen interceptions in college as well.
Speaker 1: I mean he's actually got production as well as measurables. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, but again it's a small school. He originally
Speaker 1: signed with Utah coming out of coming out of college
Speaker 1: or out of high school in in in Texas as
Speaker 1: a twin brother. The twin brother and he decided they
Speaker 1: wanted to stay closer to home. They're both I guess
Speaker 1: they lined up at safety in high school. They were
Speaker 1: the two starting efeties and they're they're identical twin brothers.
Speaker 1: Go figure that out, uh, you know, trying to figure
Speaker 1: out that if you're a quarterback. So you know, they
Speaker 1: ended up going to Sam Houston State. And again it
Speaker 1: was a five year player there, which you're going to
Speaker 1: see a lot of those guys in this year's draft.
Speaker 1: But thirteen interceptions in five seasons, that's good. That's pretty
Speaker 1: good ball skills for me. Now you're keeping it in
Speaker 1: the lone star state. Tell us about Marcus Jones from Houston.
Speaker 1: He is five eights exactly. He's not five eight and
Speaker 1: a quarter. Uh. He doesn't have long arms, he has
Speaker 1: a small hands. He's only a slot corner and we
Speaker 1: can you know, discuss, you know, what's a true slot
Speaker 1: worth in today's NFL. But everything else is about to
Speaker 1: say about him is awesome. I love this player. He
Speaker 1: is unbelievably twitchy, He has great feet, He is you know,
Speaker 1: designed to deal with the Edelman's and the Welker types
Speaker 1: out of the slot. He is tough, he has great
Speaker 1: ball skills. Um, he's a valuable contributor on defense, but
Speaker 1: only in that role. But this is what I love
Speaker 1: about him. He's the best returner in the entire class.
Speaker 1: I mean, he has nine career return touchdowns and also
Speaker 1: will run down on punts and kickoffs. As a gunner.
Speaker 1: You know, he'll stick his face in the fire. Maybe
Speaker 1: his new team even hands him the football or gets
Speaker 1: him on offense. I mean, this guy is a great
Speaker 1: football player, and I truly believe if he were six
Speaker 1: ft he might be a top ten day he were
Speaker 1: five ten, he might be. Right now, he just he
Speaker 1: just isn't. That's the only problem, right, he never will be.
Speaker 1: My sleeper is a Lante Taylor of Tennessee, a guy
Speaker 1: who at the start of the process people were wondering
Speaker 1: is he a corner or is he his safety? Well,
Speaker 1: he ran really well at Tennessee's pro day. Uh well,
Speaker 1: actually in Indianapolis as well. Um six ft hundred and
Speaker 1: nine nine pounds, and one of his biggest backers throughout
Speaker 1: this offseason process has been Jim Nagy, who's the executive
Speaker 1: director of the Senior Bowl. He's seen a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys come and go. He says that Taylor. Nagy says,
Speaker 1: Taylor is inarguably the most innately physical corner available. Not
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's that, but he's physical and
Speaker 1: he can run it. So again, don't have to to
Speaker 1: go too too far. Once you get into, uh, the
Speaker 1: portion of the draft where the sleepers are are being
Speaker 1: heard from, all the more reason to go with the
Speaker 1: measurables and and the you know, projections as opposed to
Speaker 1: the production. Not that he's a bad player at Tennessee
Speaker 1: binding stretch of the imagination, but I think as this
Speaker 1: process has continued, he's shown people he is a corner
Speaker 1: and he might be a pretty good one. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a nice sleeper there. I think it is. If Nagy
Speaker 1: is his biggest supporter, Ramon and Foster might be his
Speaker 1: second biggest supporter, because well, anybody who went to Tennessee,
Speaker 1: that's you know, automatically the way that goes. Yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: never forget the one year Ramon showed up to camp
Speaker 1: and he had to tee the tennis See logo wheel
Speaker 1: covers and then he got he got out of the clippers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: come for you remote, you know what, forever that's gonna
Speaker 1: do it for quarterbacks. Probably not a moment too soon.
Speaker 1: I was about ready to start singing the sport and
Speaker 1: fight song. I was getting so fired up. You can
Speaker 1: get all this stuff on all the Steelers social media platforms. Uh,
Speaker 1: thank you for finding us. We we appreciate it. If
Speaker 1: you've been with us all along, we really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: If you're new to the show, well we're happy about
Speaker 1: that as well. We're gonna keep doing it right up
Speaker 1: until Draft night, uh late April, the first round on
Speaker 1: a Thursday night, then rounds two and three on a Friday,
Speaker 1: and then it finishes up on Saturday. And uh, if
Speaker 1: if you're not prepared as you need to be by
Speaker 1: then it's because well you just haven't been paying close
Speaker 1: enough attention. That's gonna do it for us. For Matt
Speaker 1: Williamson and Dale Lollly on Mike, pursuit of this has
Speaker 1: been still another edition to the NFL Draft Triple Take,
Speaker 1: presented by U P m C