Speaker 1: They Around the NFL podcast, What's not the oldest person
Speaker 1: at Coachella? Londy was there too, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: From the Chris Leslie podcast studio. It's around the NFL.
Speaker 2: I'm Dan Hansis, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler here, and yes,
Speaker 2: the time has come. I liken this to the particularly
Speaker 2: high profile Aaron Rodgers appearances on the Pat McAfee show,
Speaker 2: when suddenly you're hosting a much larger audience than typical.
Speaker 2: So we welcome music fans right now. And the time
Speaker 2: has come now for Mark Sessler's review of Frank Ocean's
Speaker 2: controversial weekend closing set at Coachella. Greg, I think the
Speaker 2: right move here is for us to just kind of
Speaker 2: get out of the way and let Mark monologue this
Speaker 2: and take us through boots on the ground. Mark, there's
Speaker 2: a huge global audience here right now. Pins and needles
Speaker 2: for days, they waited on Monday Prize and disappointed. Now
Speaker 2: they're back.
Speaker 3: I could give you a more comprehensive review of snail Mail,
Speaker 3: which was occurring during the daytime. I had a very
Speaker 3: atypical strange weekend. It was wonderful, but I didn't stay
Speaker 3: for the latest stuff.
Speaker 4: Uh night after night. Wait, but we've planned out the schedule.
Speaker 3: The way to actually set up a segment like this
Speaker 3: would be to check with me on what I actually
Speaker 3: witnessed and saw with my own eyes, because you knew that.
Speaker 5: On Monday and he really built this up.
Speaker 3: I was I thought Bad Bunny was amazing. Did you
Speaker 3: see any of that? Like I didn't brought out post
Speaker 3: malone and there was a massive technical glitch that caused
Speaker 3: problems among the people there live.
Speaker 4: It was I don't know if you've been, but it
Speaker 4: was fun.
Speaker 2: I've never been.
Speaker 3: It was a like I one of my main goals
Speaker 3: was to avoid like a dangerous sunburn, which I partially did.
Speaker 4: I believe correct. And I'm a big snail mail fan,
Speaker 4: so I like the shout out. I've seen them.
Speaker 2: They were a few times. So for the Frank Ocean audience.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we just don't we don't have I think it's
Speaker 4: isn't it.
Speaker 3: Isn't it like sort of on brand that I would
Speaker 3: go to this and not come back with like the
Speaker 3: You and I might have different goals when we'd go there,
Speaker 3: and I maybe missed some of the things that would
Speaker 3: have been high on your list.
Speaker 2: So did you go?
Speaker 5: It was late night. You were saying that they went
Speaker 5: to one in the morning every night. You didn't think
Speaker 5: got shut down oceans Uh late, It's.
Speaker 4: Been a lot of recording since then.
Speaker 5: There was I want to be an ice skating rink,
Speaker 5: all these people that they had hired, uh, and then
Speaker 5: they didn't see an ice skating right now.
Speaker 2: He suffered an ankle injury on a bike on the
Speaker 2: Coachello grounds. Did you catch that or any of that about? No?
Speaker 3: So what I did was like went around like ten
Speaker 3: to eleven in the morning because it is so crowded
Speaker 3: that if you go during the day, everything is wide open.
Speaker 3: And so I do more like ten to eight, eight
Speaker 3: or nine, and then went back and watched some of
Speaker 3: the later stuff on.
Speaker 4: A live YouTube feed.
Speaker 3: Would you go back, absolutely, because I think I next
Speaker 3: time I'd know how to attack completely differently. I was,
Speaker 3: you know, total new be early.
Speaker 5: What are your feelings on the youth of America? Is
Speaker 5: the future bright?
Speaker 4: I think it's fantastic.
Speaker 3: Corporation people were great, There was not I was not
Speaker 3: the oldest person, by the way. There are definitely other
Speaker 3: people floating around of my age set. But you know,
Speaker 3: I would say there's it would unquestionably in the older
Speaker 3: rung of ages.
Speaker 2: All right, justin, did you have anything before we move on? Oh?
Speaker 6: Shoot, you caught me half guard. No, I hope Mark
Speaker 6: had a great time.
Speaker 5: I mean, who is this even talking?
Speaker 4: I don't even know Mark?
Speaker 6: Did you have fun? That's all that really came.
Speaker 4: I had a time. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: I cannot give you a completest review on each of
Speaker 3: the acts. You know you're you know, no, no, sweat No,
Speaker 3: I mean I floated. We built it up.
Speaker 2: We got the audience. Yeah, and they learned a hard
Speaker 2: lesson here.
Speaker 4: I think they did, so did I? Next time, I'll
Speaker 4: I'm going to be more cautious on my return.
Speaker 2: Coming up today on around the end of fell Oh
Speaker 2: my god, Jesus, take the wheel, take us the draft night.
Speaker 2: We're not there yet. We got more. We got more
Speaker 2: draft talk coming up. But we're lucky to have someone
Speaker 2: that's excellent in this realm and really the NFL overall
Speaker 2: in terms of coverage, Ben Solak from The Ringer. We're
Speaker 2: gonna have him on to talk about some of the
Speaker 2: the kind of outliers and some of the oddities of
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty three NFL Draft. It's kind of a
Speaker 2: weird draft, especially in like the measurables department.
Speaker 3: I think he also explains it really what what he
Speaker 3: what he means by that, and what it means for
Speaker 3: the future of the draft too, is intriguing.
Speaker 4: These are these are human beings.
Speaker 5: So we're gonna got it change the you know, we're
Speaker 5: not gonna call it the freaks of the Draft, but
Speaker 5: it's kind of like you know who, who's kind.
Speaker 2: Of like that headline Okay, yeah, like that's pretty good.
Speaker 4: Sort of what they are specimens?
Speaker 5: Yeah, guys who stand out a little bit. Maybe we
Speaker 5: haven't hit us hard and stuff.
Speaker 2: Physical specimens.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you want just freaks. That sounds like it's something
Speaker 4: Ana tests to the freak show.
Speaker 2: That is the twenty twenty three NFL Draft. Look Away freaks.
Speaker 2: This is a showman right here, look away slammer. Freaks
Speaker 2: of the twenty twenty twenty twenty three NFL Draft. Not bad.
Speaker 4: I think it's you've got something to sing with there.
Speaker 2: They're hideous colon all right, Before that, let's hit some.
Speaker 5: News party back time Pump snagging a throw for the.
Speaker 2: Episode Wide Open Gray that are you touchdown?
Speaker 4: Sad Friend? Just go?
Speaker 3: Are you?
Speaker 7: Are you his on fire, your foe is propped, Party Doo, monsters, Comma,
Speaker 7: all of them.
Speaker 2: Colon breaking down the twenty twenty three NFL draft.
Speaker 4: You're a storehouse of contents.
Speaker 2: Rock Purdy, he took the league by storm late in
Speaker 2: the most recent NFL season. Mister Irrelevant, as he's known,
Speaker 2: the final pick in the draft, stepped in a quarterback
Speaker 2: for the Niners after injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy
Speaker 2: Garoppolo and thrived and although he suffered a serious elbow
Speaker 2: injury in the NFC playoffs, the Niners are very high
Speaker 2: on Purty and see him as the future of the position,
Speaker 2: which takes us to a report from NFL Networks Ian
Speaker 2: Rapaport on Wednesday. He said that the Niners have fielded
Speaker 2: calls from teams interested in trading for Trey Lance. Rapaport added,
Speaker 2: the Niners have not actually picked up the phone themselves
Speaker 2: to dial up any teams, but they have answered the
Speaker 2: phone when teams have inquired about his availability. Ian added,
Speaker 2: no trade is imminent, but you know those things can
Speaker 2: change quickly, and they want to make sure Perdy's rehab
Speaker 2: is going well. But there's interest in Lance from other teams. Mark,
Speaker 2: You're back, so I'll tee you up. I know you
Speaker 2: are a big, pretty guy, big forty nine ers guys,
Speaker 2: big forty nine ers guy, and Trey Lance was once
Speaker 2: the future. They traded up a huge amount of capital
Speaker 2: to get him, and this is the first kind of
Speaker 2: open sign that they might be looking to kind of
Speaker 2: cut ties and move on.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be surprised if something like this happened. I
Speaker 3: think the big problem pr wise for a rather teflon
Speaker 3: John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan, I mean extremely like they
Speaker 3: haven't really needed Trey Lance over these past couple of
Speaker 3: years they've still gotten deep into the playoffs.
Speaker 4: Is after you gave up so much on.
Speaker 3: A quarterback that has essentially barely been able to be
Speaker 3: on the field, it looks like today as a big
Speaker 3: of a quarterback with as you could find, and somehow
Speaker 3: that stink doesn't really stick to Kyle Shanahan and company,
Speaker 3: what do you get back for him? Because it's like
Speaker 3: that there's no way for them to win that battle,
Speaker 3: And it's like, yes, you're also you're at that point
Speaker 3: gauging in hope, being that the small sample size you
Speaker 3: got from brock Purty is who he really is because
Speaker 3: just the league is gonna catch up. And it makes
Speaker 3: me think of our friend Chris Wrestling when we got
Speaker 3: that six game sample size from Jimmy G after they
Speaker 3: traded for Jimmy G a couple of years ago, and
Speaker 3: he looked like the second coming of Joe Montana, and
Speaker 3: then we got the real version of him, which was
Speaker 3: much more variable. Do you do all this and do
Speaker 3: you go into next season after quarterback depth has been
Speaker 3: their issue year after year? Do you possibly move on
Speaker 3: Trey Lance? And then going to next season with that
Speaker 3: quarterback position being like Rock Purty or Bust It's party?
Speaker 2: And then right now, Sam Darnold, Greg, let me see
Speaker 2: you up. Just by reminding people what they gave up
Speaker 2: to get Trey Lance. They traded with the Dolphins right
Speaker 2: before the twenty twenty one draft. They got the number
Speaker 2: three pick in exchange for the number twelve pick that year,
Speaker 2: the first and third round pick in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: and the first round pick this year. So they paid
Speaker 2: dearly to get this guy, right.
Speaker 5: It was essentially a similar trade to what the Panthers
Speaker 5: just gave up to get number one one. Overall, that's
Speaker 5: what it costs two extra first and then the extra
Speaker 5: pick and you still gave up, you know, the trade
Speaker 5: down in that draft, and we haven't seen him play.
Speaker 5: He's had one hundred and thirty two snaps dropping back
Speaker 5: to pass in the NFL, and half of them were
Speaker 5: in them monsoon And so people like to throw out
Speaker 5: Lance's numbers in that game.
Speaker 2: I watched that game. It was just forget about it.
Speaker 4: It was a preposterous game.
Speaker 5: And the other times, though, he hasn't looked totally ready
Speaker 5: to go in terms of his little regular season action,
Speaker 5: made a couple of nice plays his preseason action. You know,
Speaker 5: he's looked like a guy who needed development, which isn't
Speaker 5: surprising for a guy who didn't play that much in
Speaker 5: college and played at North Dakota State. I think you
Speaker 5: don't worry about what you get back if it's like reasonable.
Speaker 5: I mean, the Lions just traded Jeff Okuda, who was
Speaker 5: the number three overall picking the draft, what just one
Speaker 5: one draft after Lance or one draft before him, like
Speaker 5: the exact same, you know level, and they got a
Speaker 5: fifth round pick back and you move on. If they
Speaker 5: could get like a second for Trey Lance, I think
Speaker 5: they would take it. And I think the fact that
Speaker 5: Ian is reporting this, and the way you framed it, Dan,
Speaker 5: I think was was smart. The way Ian reported this
Speaker 5: makes you think like this is very much like the
Speaker 5: forty nine ers a year ago putting out similar reports
Speaker 5: that they're getting offers about Jimmy g Now, maybe history
Speaker 5: is instructive there nothing ever happened, but it really feels
Speaker 5: like it's the forty nine ers who are putting up
Speaker 5: a little bit of a for sale sign here on
Speaker 5: Trey Lance, which would tend to make you think it
Speaker 5: spells the end of him.
Speaker 2: This is this is fantasy, it's fugazy, it's but there
Speaker 2: is like logic to that twenty twenty one NFL draft
Speaker 2: which started with Trevor Lawrence and moved to Zach Wilson,
Speaker 2: then to Trey Lance top three, mac Jones taking seven
Speaker 2: or eight picks after that, God, Trey Lance for mac Jones.
Speaker 2: Doesn't that make some sense? Trey Lance from Zach Wilson,
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 5: Like Field set Wait was fin O Fields was in
Speaker 5: there too, and then mac n at fifteen, right, So.
Speaker 2: I mean that when you look at that, obviously Lawrence
Speaker 2: is a hit, Zach Wilson is a bust. Right now,
Speaker 2: Trey Lance is you know, trending toward bus, but he
Speaker 2: still hasn't played enough justin fields. The Bears think that's
Speaker 2: a big hit, and Mac Jones is this big question mark.
Speaker 2: I just wonder what Trey Lance's market is because the
Speaker 2: things he has working for him that, for instance, the
Speaker 2: Jets don't have with Zach Wilson, who I'm sure they
Speaker 2: would like to trade if they could, is Zach Wilson
Speaker 2: played a fair amount and not only showed that he
Speaker 2: was injury prone, he showed that he wasn't playing at
Speaker 2: a high level and then handled some things poorly with
Speaker 2: the media. Lance is still kind of a mystery on
Speaker 2: some level.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think also the Mac Jones thing
Speaker 3: is interesting is obviously there's some connective tissue to Kyle Shanahan.
Speaker 3: I don't know how Zach Wilson would ever be involved
Speaker 3: in a trade for Trey Lance. I think you can
Speaker 3: still look at Trey Lance and say untapped potential. There's
Speaker 3: a lot of teams think they probably could do with him.
Speaker 3: There are tools there. He just had extremely light college
Speaker 3: experience and has extremely late NFL experience, So it's an unknown.
Speaker 3: I had a team that stands out though, to me
Speaker 3: a little bit, because it keep feeling like we hear
Speaker 3: hearing that the Texans are not interested in maybe taking
Speaker 3: a quarterback at number two. You've got Demigo Ryans, who
Speaker 3: knows Trey Lance. You got Bobby Slowick, their new offensive coordinator,
Speaker 3: who was the passing game coordinator under Shanahan, who worked
Speaker 3: closely with Lance. They'd at least know what they think
Speaker 3: they're dealing with, and you could get them for cheap
Speaker 3: and then use those first round picks to make your
Speaker 3: team better.
Speaker 5: That could make some sense, like the Titans could make
Speaker 5: some sense. I mean, I don't doubt in any way
Speaker 5: Ian's reporting. So he's saying that they're fielding calls, and
Speaker 5: he's clear to point out they're not making them. Now,
Speaker 5: if you're Trey Lance reading this reporting, I don't know
Speaker 5: if you are that invested in the parenthetical that they're
Speaker 5: not making them. I think you see these reports and
Speaker 5: you're not too excited about it if you're Trey Lance.
Speaker 5: But I don't doubt that teams are making those calls,
Speaker 5: and I'm sure those calls are like how low is
Speaker 5: this price? Essentially because I'm sure a team like the
Speaker 5: Titans would take on Trey Lance if the price was
Speaker 5: like a compensatory third round pick, I doubt it's that low,
Speaker 5: and it's figuring out during the draft how low will
Speaker 5: the forty nine ers go. Like the Lions, for instance,
Speaker 5: again with the number three pick, I know was a
Speaker 5: cornerback and as one year older, they basically were just
Speaker 5: ready to give away Jeff Okuda no matter what. They
Speaker 5: had decided that Alan Robinson, who will talk about later,
Speaker 5: the Rams were gonna give him away no matter what.
Speaker 5: I don't think the forty nine ers are at that point.
Speaker 5: I think they're closer to where they were with Jimmy
Speaker 5: g a year ago, which is if they don't get
Speaker 5: the right price, and I'm just gonna guess A two
Speaker 5: sounds about right for them, then maybe they just hold
Speaker 5: on to him one more year and see what happens
Speaker 5: as a backup, because it's too late that his peak
Speaker 5: value is gone. It reminds me a little of another
Speaker 5: Tray with the Hawks, Tray Young right now, it's like
Speaker 5: the value it's too late for to trade different sports.
Speaker 5: I know it's you know, it's not the same as
Speaker 5: the NFL, but in some ways.
Speaker 3: It's as completely different than basketball in that case.
Speaker 2: It may not be maybe maybe not.
Speaker 5: It really makes the like if you were better cool of.
Speaker 2: Green Day, you know, his value was higher maybe in
Speaker 2: two thousand and four. Now what are you gonna get?
Speaker 4: I've just say, six year old.
Speaker 5: You have all the possible mark drops the things he said,
Speaker 5: it's kind of bizarre. That's the one that's been hammered
Speaker 5: the most on this Pots got.
Speaker 2: Legs, legs for days. Last thought before we move on,
Speaker 2: because we got to move because we've got Sola coming up.
Speaker 2: Butterfly effect dog like Rock Party was the last pick
Speaker 2: of the draft. They had no intentions of playing them.
Speaker 2: And now you fast forward a few months, half a year,
Speaker 2: and he is there, locked and loaded future right now
Speaker 2: they think they let Jimmy g go. They're gonna trade
Speaker 2: potentially number two three pick from a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: And then it's Sam Darnold who's backing up Rock Party.
Speaker 2: It's like there's a lot invested in Party being the
Speaker 2: real deal now in San Francisco, unless, unless there's something
Speaker 2: else up San Francisco's sleeve. Let's move on. Yes, Alan Robinson,
Speaker 2: he is on the move. I was a little surprised
Speaker 2: that they found a taker the Los Angeles Rams. But
Speaker 2: and you look at the trade terms and it's like, okay,
Speaker 2: the Steelers acquire wide receiver Alan Robinson, who was really
Speaker 2: pretty terrible, let's face it, with the Rams and his
Speaker 2: one year there. So the Steelers get Robinson and a
Speaker 2: seventh round pick from the Rams for a seventh round pick.
Speaker 2: And this is important as well, Gregie. Los Angeles will
Speaker 2: pay ten point two to five million of Robinson's fifteen
Speaker 2: point twenty five million salary, and they get to move
Speaker 2: up seventeen spots in the draft.
Speaker 5: Still seventeen spots in the seventh round. There can be
Speaker 5: a lower total. I mean that anyone can be traded.
Speaker 2: Can I just say, let's say, you know, it's not
Speaker 2: a big deal, but I feel like the Steelers lose
Speaker 2: this trade. They move up seventeen picks in the seventh round.
Speaker 2: Who gives an f and you're paying Alan Robinson five
Speaker 2: million dollars this year. Alan Robinson's a five million dollar
Speaker 2: player right now.
Speaker 5: I don't think that's a crazy risk reward scenario.
Speaker 2: That has some pretty bad tape last year, and he's
Speaker 2: pretty bad with Chicago's I.
Speaker 5: Guess that's that's fair enough point, Like who else is
Speaker 5: making around that much money this year Paris Campbell signed
Speaker 5: in free agency. He's making around that Daria, Darius Slayton
Speaker 5: for the Giants' those guys. But I see your point.
Speaker 5: He's a third. He's gonna be their third receiver. They
Speaker 5: were very thin after Deontay Johnson and George Pickens. He's
Speaker 5: a little too similar to Pickens in me, like, there's
Speaker 5: not that many of those guys out there, and so
Speaker 5: there was a huge drop off after their top two.
Speaker 5: So he would be their third receiver. It doesn't seem
Speaker 5: like a crazy gamble, but you're right, it probably won't
Speaker 5: really result in more than.
Speaker 2: Wide receivers are still left me.
Speaker 3: He averaged thirty four yards per game over the last
Speaker 3: two seasons, so you're right. That Chicago year felt like
Speaker 3: he was a mailing job. And last year, I mean
Speaker 3: we were, you know, going into the into September coming
Speaker 3: out of rams camp with the most flowery reporting around
Speaker 3: Alan Robinson possible, and he completely flatlined. And it now,
Speaker 3: with what they've traded before, it looks like a completely care.
Speaker 2: If we're looking for depth for Pittsburgh, I'll use the Graybeards,
Speaker 2: a team of thirty and over veterans, Odell Beckham off
Speaker 2: the board, Jarvis Landry still out there, right, Yeah, would
Speaker 2: you rather have Jarvis Landry, t Y Hilton still out there,
Speaker 2: Julio Jones still out there, Randall Cobb, Robbie Chose, and
Speaker 2: Anderson is off the market now, Sammy Watkins. Anyway, these
Speaker 2: are other options. Probably you can get it at cheaper cost,
Speaker 2: but I guess you can look. You could squint and
Speaker 2: say maybe, and the Steelers are good with wide receivers.
Speaker 2: They can unlock something in Robinson that wasn't there last
Speaker 2: couple of years.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're not asking to be number one, So.
Speaker 5: I guess I'm just saying, like, I'm not gonna go
Speaker 5: nuts slamming him when he's making like a little more
Speaker 5: than Byron Pringle and Nelson Aguilar. That's sort of the
Speaker 5: level they're at. But you're right the rams where I
Speaker 5: guess just happy for anyone to pay any of his salary,
Speaker 5: which is telling they just wanted to totally. They just
Speaker 5: were paying to give him away, which is crazy. Appear
Speaker 5: ten million to give him away appeared on our show
Speaker 5: during Corona. Yeah, and his career went off completely off
Speaker 5: the map very soon after. I'm not saying that they're
Speaker 5: but it's just a warning to players in general if
Speaker 5: you were to appear on the show like the Future
Speaker 5: is a Mystery.
Speaker 2: Pretty bad segment with a no in at the RAMS
Speaker 2: camp as well, some a lot of noise being picked
Speaker 2: up by Donald.
Speaker 5: Was right next door with our friend Mary Hollywood making
Speaker 5: a lot of noise over the loudspeaker, and Alan Dudson
Speaker 5: was disrupted.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to point fingers, and I know, especially
Speaker 2: after the last show at Justin but Grave Digger, that
Speaker 2: was a bit of a test for you at RAMS
Speaker 2: Camp last summer when Ricky was alpha dogging that and
Speaker 2: and doing this loud speaker interview with Aaron Donald, Like
Speaker 2: you could have went over there and pulled the plug
Speaker 2: on that interview so we could have gotten better. Alan
Speaker 2: Robinson sounded the ship has sailed, but that's all.
Speaker 6: Sorry about that. I guess I really dropped the ball there.
Speaker 6: But it was cool to see Ricky out there just
Speaker 6: doing her thing talking to Aaron Donald.
Speaker 4: Do you do you think.
Speaker 2: That answered some great It's like a pr flag. But
Speaker 2: Erica is a wonderful former colleague of mine and a friend.
Speaker 2: It was good to see her.
Speaker 6: So you don't see like Daniel Jeremiah on her podcast
Speaker 6: the other day. Put that on APN story, So, you know,
Speaker 6: very good shouting her out.
Speaker 2: We love Ricky, We love Ricky.
Speaker 4: Went to Australia.
Speaker 2: She did killed it. She tried out as a RAMS
Speaker 2: cheerleader recently. I haven't heard the results of the tryout.
Speaker 2: I'll check in with She saw Taylor Swift and Tampa.
Speaker 2: I know that's an important thing for her. If Taylor
Speaker 2: Swift closed Sunday night at Coachella or are you watching
Speaker 2: absolutely in other news, this is cool, this is very cool.
Speaker 2: Tomar Hamlin he plans on making a comeback in the NFL,
Speaker 2: and he got into more detail in a press conference.
Speaker 2: His quote, I'm here to announce that I plan I'm
Speaker 2: making a comeback to the NFL. He told her reporter.
Speaker 2: He's twenty five years old. Of course, he had that
Speaker 2: really horrifying incident on January second, on Monday Night Football.
Speaker 2: He explained the nature of the cardiac arrest. One of
Speaker 2: those one in a million, one in a billion, whatever
Speaker 2: it is, hit at the exact wrong time that messed
Speaker 2: with his heart rate and it needed to be restarted obviously,
Speaker 2: and it saved his life. The Bills announced the safety
Speaker 2: was cleared for football activity, so the Bills are cooled it.
Speaker 2: Hamlin's cooled it. This would be one of the great
Speaker 2: comeback stories and really not since Mark Let's see, what
Speaker 2: would it be Alex Smith. Would there be more of
Speaker 2: a slam back slam dunk comeback. I know it's a
Speaker 2: different sport slam dunk comeback player of the Year than tomorrow, Hamlin.
Speaker 3: I mean, we're months removed from wondering, like A if
Speaker 3: he would survive, like b if he would live a
Speaker 3: normal life, and now we're here, and I like it.
Speaker 4: It would be incredible just to see him on the field.
Speaker 3: And I think you're right that if you just pull
Speaker 3: the comeback player of the Year odds off the table,
Speaker 3: because there's literally there's no second place opportunity for anyone
Speaker 3: to even survive in that contest.
Speaker 5: I think a guy kind of lost that he was
Speaker 5: an important player for them, like a good, young, improving safety.
Speaker 5: They did bring back Jordan Poyer this year, but like
Speaker 5: he'll have a big role on the team. I mean,
Speaker 5: I'm sure I'm not the only one that's gonna be
Speaker 5: somehow like seeing him out there is gonna you'll have
Speaker 5: mixed feelings like you almost you just you just hoping
Speaker 5: for the best. You know, how can you not think
Speaker 5: about what happened? But all power to him that he's
Speaker 5: he wants to play, He's ready to play.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Best of luck to DeMar Hamlin. That's what's happening
Speaker 2: in the news. Let's take a break and then welcome
Speaker 2: in Ben Solek. Sexy asked our music department to pull
Speaker 2: up some Frank Ocean like music. Now we're doing over
Speaker 2: in the music department.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't how much they had to pick from,
Speaker 3: but they've they've made it a selection.
Speaker 2: Joining us now is a man who knows his stuff.
Speaker 2: We here. Here's the thing about our podcast. When we
Speaker 2: have a draft person on or someone that knows the draft,
Speaker 2: they are the real deal. So let's welcome in Ben
Speaker 2: Zolac of The Ringer, who does excellent work covering the
Speaker 2: league as a whole, but also just obviously a stud
Speaker 2: when it comes to the draft season, and we're going
Speaker 2: to get things going with Ben. How are you?
Speaker 8: But I'm doing well, Greg, You're looking vibrant today, just
Speaker 8: right Orange.
Speaker 4: Thank you?
Speaker 5: Yes, still Hawaii in my mind where it still still
Speaker 5: a SWEATR. But thank you for pointing our listeners to
Speaker 5: the YouTube channel. I know you're a big YouTube stor doing.
Speaker 5: We're trying to grow it.
Speaker 4: That second, well, just how did Dan and I look?
Speaker 4: But when you're you're in that front.
Speaker 8: Largely largely muted, largely.
Speaker 2: What is what is over your left shoulder? Right now?
Speaker 2: What does that say? Ben? Before we get into the
Speaker 2: outliers of the NFL draft up?
Speaker 8: Yeah, So that's that's my white board. It goes up
Speaker 8: a lot. Like Greg said, I do a lot of
Speaker 8: shows for the Ringer, and the white board always got
Speaker 8: a bit on it, And for the past month it's
Speaker 8: been Anthony Richardson no matter what which I wrote it.
Speaker 8: I didn't realize that zoom was gonna cut off Anthony
Speaker 8: Richardson most of the time. So I've been explaining this
Speaker 8: a lot. It's obviously a call back to the great
Speaker 8: Kevin Costner film Draft Day, and also my feelings on
Speaker 8: a top of the quarterback class.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we're going to get to the draft step,
Speaker 2: but I want to start there because this continues to
Speaker 2: pop up, and I think maybe Ben is someone who's
Speaker 2: active on social media and has a following. You are
Speaker 2: pushing this narrative that Draft Day is a good movie.
Speaker 2: Why are we doing this? Why are we pretending like
Speaker 2: if we go back and watch that film, I still
Speaker 2: haven't seen it again, in which Jennifer Garner plays a capologist,
Speaker 2: tell me that that is a good movie or just
Speaker 2: a movie that has football in its narrative structure and
Speaker 2: uses the real logos that to me, that's the only
Speaker 2: thing that movie really had going for it. Are you
Speaker 2: going to say that was a good film?
Speaker 8: Ben so, absolutely not not a good film by any
Speaker 8: stretch of the imagination. For three hundred and fifty eight
Speaker 8: days of the year. Now is it a nice centering
Speaker 8: experience to hear them? Like, you know, make these like
Speaker 8: all of all the memes, all of the tropes right
Speaker 8: where it's like, ask me if anybody went to his
Speaker 8: birthday party, Oh, I should see how far he's throwing
Speaker 8: the ball. Like it just reminds you that, yeah, everything
Speaker 8: we talk about in the NFL draft, if you were
Speaker 8: to just put it, like get a third person view
Speaker 8: on it, you realize how bananas this entire process is,
Speaker 8: how all of this is contrived. It's all made up.
Speaker 8: That's why Draft days fun to watch.
Speaker 2: All right, maybe I'll revisit it. Let's stop.
Speaker 5: Wait, but I want to know if Ben is a
Speaker 5: wear because Ben was probably fourteen years old when it
Speaker 5: came out that one of the three hosts heres had
Speaker 5: a pull line used in the promotions of the movie.
Speaker 5: And the line was full of Heart from start Zarnis
Speaker 5: dash Mark Sessler, and it was literally in the trailer
Speaker 5: of the movie.
Speaker 3: I literally just give a little bit of backstory to
Speaker 3: this because I had gone to say history, I mean,
Speaker 3: I had gone to see I learned a great lesson
Speaker 3: and as a younger person yourself, like, I hope you
Speaker 3: would not fall into this trap based on this this
Speaker 3: parable but like I was at my parents' house in
Speaker 3: South Carolina and it was well into the evening. I
Speaker 3: had a couple of glasses of wine to me and
Speaker 3: had at some point offered to give a review to
Speaker 3: the pr team of Draft Day. In short, they called
Speaker 3: me on the phone and I read something that I
Speaker 3: had written which was a little too flowery and maybe
Speaker 3: a little too like. They pulled one line out of
Speaker 3: it and suddenly it goes national with me glowing over
Speaker 3: Draft Day, and I've never lived it down.
Speaker 4: So don't follow in my.
Speaker 2: By the way too long. Didn't read Mark was drunk
Speaker 2: when he gave that quote. No, I would say heading there, yeah,
Speaker 2: and I'll set I've said it before. We're going to
Speaker 2: get to it. But now we're on this draft day thing.
Speaker 2: We were there at Radio City Music Hall when they
Speaker 2: were shooting scenes for Draft Day, and I'll never forget
Speaker 2: the panic when they were looking for Frank Langela, who
Speaker 2: played I think the owner maybe of the team, and there,
Speaker 2: Where's Where's Frank? Where's Frank? And Frank langel was wandering
Speaker 2: down Broadway and they had to send a PA to
Speaker 2: track him down so he can get the shot before
Speaker 2: the draft started a little inside base.
Speaker 4: Imagine if they had not gotten that shot.
Speaker 2: Imagine Flynn Langella.
Speaker 8: All right, enough lost the whole show.
Speaker 2: Let's get to it, Ben, Should we start Richard's Yeah,
Speaker 2: which is like the only He's the ultimate freak, Anthony
Speaker 2: Richardson no matter what, the Florida quarterback and you are, obviously,
Speaker 2: based on the whiteboard, a huge fan, one of the
Speaker 2: heaviest qbs ever detested the combine and scored off the
Speaker 2: charts on all the measurables. And do you say, Ben,
Speaker 2: because of that because he's such an athletic freak outlier
Speaker 2: that you got to take a chance on this unicorn.
Speaker 8: Yes, but also no. I think that the most important
Speaker 8: thing to say in the Richardson evaluation you talk about
Speaker 8: him is that while he is a project right, he
Speaker 8: cousney to development. He's got rough edges, he needs work.
Speaker 8: He is not nearly like the raw ball of play,
Speaker 8: you know, a year away from being a year away.
Speaker 8: He's not that caliber project. There's shades of gray. We
Speaker 8: love to go like either a guy's a project or
Speaker 8: is ready to play. And it would be nice if
Speaker 8: the world were that binary, but it isn't. When I
Speaker 8: look at when Trey Lance came out of North Dakota State,
Speaker 8: he goes three overall. When Josh Allen comes out of Wyoming,
Speaker 8: he goes seven overall. Those guys were doing fewer developed
Speaker 8: things as pocket passers than Anthony Richardson. Was Richardson as
Speaker 8: one of the lowest sack rate quarterbacks to come out
Speaker 8: in recent years. He is unbelievable, like buying time in
Speaker 8: the pocket, finding a checkdown, getting rid of football. This
Speaker 8: isn't like a crazy scrambler, make it all up to
Speaker 8: always backgard football he does legitimate two two, three oh
Speaker 8: three level things in the football field. He's only started
Speaker 8: twelve games, so he's not complete. There's inconsistency, there's easy mistakes,
Speaker 8: but it is not challenging to see the final form
Speaker 8: of this player in terms of the actual like you know,
Speaker 8: professional top button button quarterback stuff, and he's a runs
Speaker 8: a four to four and he's two hundred and forty pounds.
Speaker 8: You can froll the ball sixty uys and so now
Speaker 8: we're describing a truly elite ceiling, not saying he's gonna
Speaker 8: make it, not saying he's gonna be Josh Allen, but
Speaker 8: saying that that the idea that, oh, if you take
Speaker 8: Anthony Richardson, you're gonna lose all your games in twenty
Speaker 8: twenty three and then maybe by twenty twenty four he's ready.
Speaker 8: I don't I don't subscribe to that. I see a
Speaker 8: player that gonna need a little bit of time. The
Speaker 8: first couple of starts are going to be rocky. But
Speaker 8: I could see you getting a functional NFL offense out
Speaker 8: of him very quickly.
Speaker 3: And you guested with Danny Kelly on the PFF mock draft,
Speaker 3: and you had the number one overall pick for the Panthers,
Speaker 3: and you you boldly just took Anthony richards and then mentioned.
Speaker 4: A lot of the stuff that you just did.
Speaker 3: I do wonder, though, because Bryce Young obviously is another
Speaker 3: outlier in terms of his size, his weight, and how
Speaker 3: you project that over the course of time in terms
Speaker 3: of deliberate durability when you made that pick in that
Speaker 3: situation that when your mindset, is it pro Anthony Richardson
Speaker 3: or is it also mixed with concern as if in
Speaker 3: that case the general manager a coach taking on the
Speaker 3: Bryce Young project beyond the stuff you like about him.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's it's a mix. It certainly is. The way
Speaker 8: I like to talk about Bryce Young is this. I
Speaker 8: love watching him play. Great player, awesome dude, He's an inspiration,
Speaker 8: He's sick, He's so much fun. Can't wait to watch
Speaker 8: him play for somebody else, so excited to root for
Speaker 8: him when somebody else takes the swing on the five
Speaker 8: ft ten, two hundred pound quarterback.
Speaker 5: Do you feel awkward at all as a slighter, shorter
Speaker 5: man to talk about a prospect that way?
Speaker 8: Extremely so. I did our Big Bryce Young Scouting Report
Speaker 8: video for the Ringer of This Week and literally in
Speaker 8: the top minute. I go. Now, I understand if people
Speaker 8: are frustrated about a person my size complaining about Bryce
Speaker 8: Young's size, because it really does feel like a very
Speaker 8: small pot calling a larger kettle black. But that's the
Speaker 8: reality of it is. I'm not trying to play the NFL.
Speaker 8: He is right, and for Young, the size in terms
Speaker 8: of shortness is a concern ability to see over the
Speaker 8: middle of the field, the way affects his dropbacks. The
Speaker 8: size in terms of slightness is a concern. The durability
Speaker 8: the hits. He plays a style of ball that invites
Speaker 8: a ton of contact, and you have to be concerned
Speaker 8: about the body armor, the durability, how long he can
Speaker 8: sustain his level of play five, six, seven years. I
Speaker 8: think that like Young has already succeeded from an outlier
Speaker 8: perspective and his size by playing as well as he
Speaker 8: did in the sec Like he's already shown that he
Speaker 8: can handle it, and he can he can get it,
Speaker 8: he can get it done. He can he can achieve
Speaker 8: at this lower size at the college level. Now he's
Speaker 8: got to do it again at the pro level, where
Speaker 8: everything gets raptured up a couple of notches. It's a
Speaker 8: very very thin eye of the needle that you're trying
Speaker 8: to thread. To me, I don't know if I want
Speaker 8: to make the pick right.
Speaker 5: And it sounds like he's got to go first and
Speaker 5: they're not gonna be that worried about it. And he
Speaker 5: did take lots of hits in the SEC But to
Speaker 5: stick with Richardson one one last thing is like, I
Speaker 5: I don't think he's been over hyped like I've been.
Speaker 5: I've been getting some grief on Twitter that I have
Speaker 5: a type in terms of quarterback prospects. It's like there
Speaker 5: is no other type that's like Anthony Richardson coming out
Speaker 5: in the draft. Cam Newton is the only one that
Speaker 5: could compare physically in terms of what he can be
Speaker 5: as an athlete. But he might have the best pocket
Speaker 5: presence in this class, and so that's why he doesn't
Speaker 5: seem like he's that big of a risk. I think
Speaker 5: he has a high floor. Maybe he doesn't have and
Speaker 5: he has a high ceiling too, but maybe he doesn't
Speaker 5: reach that. But is his like inaccuracy doesn't seem that
Speaker 5: bad to me. They were just throwing down the field
Speaker 5: and for the most part he was accurate enough and
Speaker 5: My type is like athletes, but it's also pocket presence,
Speaker 5: Like Philip Rivers is my favorite quarterback just about over
Speaker 5: the last twenty years because he has insane pocket presence
Speaker 5: and Richardson has that which is like you kind of
Speaker 5: can't teach that. He moves around and makes time in
Speaker 5: the pocket. So that's like two things to me. It's
Speaker 5: hard to imagine having those two things and not succeeding.
Speaker 5: And he's the ultimate freak. He would be the most
Speaker 5: fun person.
Speaker 4: So Mark, absolutely I would agree with you.
Speaker 2: Oh, I didn't know if you had.
Speaker 3: Oh, I have someone that I have been fascinated with,
Speaker 3: and I heard you talk about him a little bit.
Speaker 4: It's Darnel Washington.
Speaker 3: When we talk about a physical freak six seven two
Speaker 3: sixty four, and just when to watch some of his tape,
Speaker 3: just the way he appears next to other human beings,
Speaker 3: even very large human beans on the field. I guess
Speaker 3: the question is because there's there's no doubt that like
Speaker 3: he would absolutely be a tantalizing idea for scouts, for coaches,
Speaker 3: and what you might turn him into. Do you think
Speaker 3: that he can come in and be highly productive as
Speaker 3: a pass catcher after what you've seen of his college tape.
Speaker 8: Not in your one, because right now, Washington is a
Speaker 8: guy in order to produce, you have to funnel him targets.
Speaker 8: You have to choose to throw him the football. He's
Speaker 8: really good yards after the catch, right He's really good
Speaker 8: turning a shallow passing into a big long run. In
Speaker 8: terms of his route trait, in terms of how he
Speaker 8: addresses the ball downfield. He's in need of development. The
Speaker 8: reasons because Georgia had him and Brock Bowers, who you
Speaker 8: to watch college football, brock Man Bronx about as good
Speaker 8: as it gets through a college tight end. He's unbelievable.
Speaker 8: He's gonna go very, very high next year. And so
Speaker 8: they let Brock be the receiving tight end, and then
Speaker 8: Washington would stay in the block and occasionally they lead
Speaker 8: him out using on play action and then he'd get
Speaker 8: a catch here, catch there, because I'm a stampeding tyrannosaurce
Speaker 8: rex after the catch. But he's not like he just
Speaker 8: got a ton of reps and a ton of opportunity
Speaker 8: to develop in terms of a true pass catcher. So
Speaker 8: if you draft Washington early on to get him to
Speaker 8: produce in the passing game, you have to decide, Okay,
Speaker 8: we're running a Darnell Washington play. Hopefully, over the time
Speaker 8: he plays in the NFL, leon a plus blocker for you.
Speaker 8: He's a weapon in the running games. He can lead
Speaker 8: block right, he can be impactful in space. And then
Speaker 8: with those catches that he gets in the design game,
Speaker 8: he starts to grow his route tree more downfield, more
Speaker 8: mature route tree that you tend to see from NFL
Speaker 8: tight ends. And now you got a stew going. I mean,
Speaker 8: now you're you're cooking with about as complete of a
Speaker 8: tight end as you can get. He's very, very exciting.
Speaker 8: I'm increasingly becoming accustomed to the idea of him going
Speaker 8: at the back end of round one. I think if
Speaker 8: you're talking like two or three weeks ago, I would
Speaker 8: have said, no, I don't think it's happening. The closer
Speaker 8: we yet, the more it seems like there's a couple
Speaker 8: of chances for him to go late round one. I
Speaker 8: think by pick fifty he's gone.
Speaker 5: Well, you brought up, you know, his playing time, and
Speaker 5: you kind of have to look deeper when you look
Speaker 5: at that Georgia roster, like why you're not getting them
Speaker 5: any snaps and so when I think for or size outliers,
Speaker 5: like they have two more in this draft that we
Speaker 5: could talk about. Nolan Smith to me is like a
Speaker 5: prototype that we really don't have in the NFL, Like
Speaker 5: maybe it's a Son Reddick. Maybe the way that defenses
Speaker 5: are now playing like five defensive linemen essentially like five
Speaker 5: man fronts at the same time, and the fifth guys
Speaker 5: like sort of defensive lineman but not really and that's
Speaker 5: a Son Redick. That could be Nolan Smith, who just
Speaker 5: seems like an insane pass rusher but it's just incredibly light.
Speaker 5: And then also you have Jalen Carter as your number
Speaker 5: one overall player, and he's a freak in terms of
Speaker 5: his talent in terms of what he can do at
Speaker 5: that size. And we haven't really talked about Carter that
Speaker 5: much other than the off field stuff. So I guess
Speaker 5: between those two, i'd love to hear, like why you
Speaker 5: why you do have Carter first and kind of taking
Speaker 5: away the off field stuff because he's also a guy
Speaker 5: that hasn't ever played more than four hundred snaps in
Speaker 5: a season, which is wild for a guy who was
Speaker 5: the presumptive number one overall pick, Like why why would
Speaker 5: he be that high without seeing him on the field
Speaker 5: as much as you would want.
Speaker 4: In Georgia.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm just like moving my hands around a lot.
Speaker 8: And there's no there's no way to talk without hands.
Speaker 8: It's never done before.
Speaker 2: Four year old Sicilian grandmother like in the kitchen, go ahead, now.
Speaker 8: My my family is is Russian, right, Russian immigrants and
Speaker 8: just always everything. So all the time I'm on pods
Speaker 8: and you're hearing snapping and clapping in the background because
Speaker 8: it's me imitating my mother. Uh Carter and Nolan smith Man.
Speaker 8: I don't know what they feed him in Georgia. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 4: I like you.
Speaker 8: When you talk to college people who like like look
Speaker 8: at recruiting, they say, the biggest difference between Kirby and
Speaker 8: at Georgia, Nick Saban and Alabama is saving kind of
Speaker 8: recruit skies, okay, a good high weight speed and then
Speaker 8: we can add mass to them, we can develop them.
Speaker 8: Kirby just drafts guys who just move differently than everybody
Speaker 8: else moops. He just he just find scours the country,
Speaker 8: finds the ten guys you can't teach it, and gets
Speaker 8: them all in a bulldog's uniform. So with Nolan Smith.
Speaker 8: This is the sort of body type and athletic profile
Speaker 8: that years ago was going to be carrying two hundred
Speaker 8: and thirty pounds. It was going to be playing wide receiver,
Speaker 8: and said, now he's carry two hundred and forty pounds
Speaker 8: and he's playing He's playing edge's playing pass rusher. The
Speaker 8: enthusiasm that this young man has for defending the run
Speaker 8: at this size is really sick. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 8: awesome to see and he gives you hope that he's
Speaker 8: gonna be able to hang on the edge of the
Speaker 8: NFL level. You bring up a Son Reddick with Chennan
Speaker 8: Nuwosu long time charging now with the Seahawks is another
Speaker 8: example of he's going to stand up, He's going to
Speaker 8: line up super wide away from the tackle. He's going
Speaker 8: to be impactful pass rusher. Can he stay on the
Speaker 8: field for all three downs? Can you put him on
Speaker 8: the field in first and ten? That's the big question
Speaker 8: with him, and with the way he plays the run
Speaker 8: on the SEC. I think you can, but i'd be
Speaker 8: hold him my breath. I mean, those first couple of
Speaker 8: weeks watching him in training camp, you're really hoping that
Speaker 8: that he's got that stuff. He's gonna be about a
Speaker 8: eighty pound deficiency to the guys he's playing in the
Speaker 8: running games. So it's scary, but he's got an encouraging
Speaker 8: film with Carter. The rotation at Georgia is part of
Speaker 8: is part of a result of how well they recruit.
Speaker 8: It's also part of the recruiting process. They are willing
Speaker 8: to get young players on the field. We're willing to
Speaker 8: put really talented freshman retrot freshman sophomores on the field,
Speaker 8: and accordingly you kind of get some of these low
Speaker 8: snap counts. It doesn't bother me too much with him.
Speaker 8: Carter's the sort of guy where you know, you watch
Speaker 8: him for about five ten plays you go, oh yeah, no,
Speaker 8: three hundred and ten pounders don't move like this. This
Speaker 8: isn't real. This is a figment of this has been doctors.
Speaker 8: This is ai footage. It's it's it's endominic and Sue esque.
Speaker 8: In my opinion, I've heard Fletcher Cox. I think that's
Speaker 8: a warranted comparison as well. This is a guy with
Speaker 8: double digit sack potential from the interior. Yeah, conditioning is
Speaker 8: going to be a question in year one, but if
Speaker 8: I'm taking him top three, top five, top ten. I'm
Speaker 8: trying to maximize his role in my defense.
Speaker 2: Just that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, if he needs some time off in year one,
Speaker 8: I'll give him that time off in year one to
Speaker 8: ensure he's the force he can be on third down.
Speaker 8: So I'm not too too concerned about the volume.
Speaker 2: Let's let's circle back does everything with this draft that
Speaker 2: we talk about the outliers, the freaks of the draft.
Speaker 2: This draft is small. It's like a it's going to
Speaker 2: be a short number one pick. You got short r
Speaker 2: you got smallish wide receivers. But let's talk Ben the
Speaker 2: short King dou spawn running back here at Kansas State
Speaker 2: five foot five GREGGI five to five Gregy. You got
Speaker 2: him the shortest dude ever measured at the combine. MJD
Speaker 2: one of the great running backs of the aughts. Also
Speaker 2: NFL employee here now has him as his number fourth
Speaker 2: ranth running back aspect. What do you think of MJD?
Speaker 5: Who they rounded up to five seven or so?
Speaker 2: So right, there's something there well Ben.
Speaker 5: And Ben, but also weighed about thirty more pounds coming out.
Speaker 3: Ben's friend in Cooker, Tanny Kelly, called this player MJD
Speaker 3: with a tapeworm, so there is some connective tissues.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about our short king out of Kansas State.
Speaker 8: He is a delightful young player, as quick as a wink,
Speaker 8: He's tough as nails. It's actually really good in pass
Speaker 8: protection because he's naturally predisposed to chopping.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's a.
Speaker 8: Great cup block player because it can't really be much
Speaker 8: of anything else. So he's actually really good in pass protection.
Speaker 8: I think there's a way that he's a special teams player.
Speaker 8: I'm not sure that he's got runaway speed such that,
Speaker 8: like you know, he's he's going to be like a
Speaker 8: truly impactful returner, but he's not. He's physical and and
Speaker 8: he can hang. You can definitely make guys miss. You
Speaker 8: are very limited in terms of what you can run
Speaker 8: with him as a true running back because he's just
Speaker 8: not going to be able to break the number of
Speaker 8: tackles that you need him to in the first levels.
Speaker 8: Really hard to get him to run between the tackles
Speaker 8: consistently at the NFL. So I'm sadly out on our
Speaker 8: short kingdom span. I do find Ducebawn a delightful player.
Speaker 8: He's very fun to watching. His college career fun Yeah, you.
Speaker 2: Just just put another chip on his shoulder.
Speaker 5: It feels you looked in the mirror and just thought, like,
Speaker 5: you know, you're you've been down on some of these shorter,
Speaker 5: smaller guys. Is there something you need to work out?
Speaker 5: You know, in terms of like is it is it
Speaker 5: coming from the end, you know, the big guys.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to.
Speaker 5: Say toward be proud, like I love me some tankd
Speaker 5: del I like some of these smaller receivers.
Speaker 4: I think we raised them up.
Speaker 5: Let's let's lift them up then instead of trying to
Speaker 5: hold them down. Let's football is for big guys. Let's
Speaker 5: bring this up on the screen here. And this was
Speaker 5: a tweet that that you responded to the other day.
Speaker 5: Someone explained this Ben, someone's coming at you, uh in
Speaker 5: this time of year when you're obviously putting a ton
Speaker 5: of work in about your actual playing history, and you
Speaker 5: swatted them down.
Speaker 8: Yeah. The folks like to say all the times guys
Speaker 8: never played a Snapple football in his life, which means
Speaker 8: that they haven't watched fifth and sixth grade Strausburg High
Speaker 8: School football exactly. I was the starting slot back, thank
Speaker 8: you very much. I Uh. We were in a practice
Speaker 8: in seventh grade before the season started and future first
Speaker 8: round pick of the Colorado Rockies. Mikey Nickeract who was
Speaker 8: our quarterback hit me in Oklahoma Drill. He's a quarterback now.
Speaker 8: Hit me in Oklahoma drill and left an indent in
Speaker 8: the turf where my body landed. I distinctly remember looking
Speaker 8: up to the sky and going, yeah, marching band. I
Speaker 8: think is probably that's where the marching band across.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, good move, that's all good. Mark's Pop Warner
Speaker 2: days have floated our show for years. We've always needed that,
Speaker 2: Like what are our bona fides? Like? Mark played in.
Speaker 3: Pop Warner A play that played in the backfield, and
Speaker 3: if I were not roughly twenty years older than Ben,
Speaker 3: we might have faced each other on the field.
Speaker 4: I wanted one of those fields.
Speaker 8: But absolutely, yeah, it's I love the uh. I love
Speaker 8: that you never played. It's like, yeah, man, like everyone knows, no, nobody,
Speaker 8: nobody was watching my stuff going well, this guy definitely
Speaker 8: played in college and they saw your tweet and they're like,
Speaker 8: wait a minute, no he didn't. You're not breaking any news.
Speaker 5: You do you have a favorite of those small receivers?
Speaker 5: Do you any of that you like? Because you mentioned that.
Speaker 5: I think there's nine that are under one hundred and
Speaker 5: eighty pounds in this draft, which is just crazy. And
Speaker 5: there's guys like like Tank Tail, who's probably going to
Speaker 5: be a Day two pick, but you know it's like
Speaker 5: one sixty five, which is just another level.
Speaker 8: Yeah, if I can sneak Zay Flowers in there, the
Speaker 8: young man in Boston College is one eighty two. Love
Speaker 8: a Zay Flowers. That's a that's an explosive player with
Speaker 8: a lot of deep potential. I think that I think
Speaker 8: Zay's gonna go earlier than people think. I think Ay's
Speaker 8: got a good chance to be wide receiver one, depending
Speaker 8: on where Smith and Jamie goes. League likes him a lot.
Speaker 8: The Patriots have like met Zay Flowers third cousins at
Speaker 8: this point, Like the Patriots scouting staff has just lived
Speaker 8: with Zay Flowers for the last month. It seems like
Speaker 8: he's a legit option there in the teens. Uh. And
Speaker 8: then if we go true under one eighty, Josh Downs
Speaker 8: out of unc is really fun.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 8: It's always cool to see a smaller receiver be really
Speaker 8: really effective in contested cash situations, which is what he is.
Speaker 8: He's got a great knack, he's got a great eye
Speaker 8: for the ball, very very shifty. He's just a slot.
Speaker 8: There's just all slots at the NFL level, and the
Speaker 8: slot position is moving away from small, speedy guys, and
Speaker 8: it's moving towards big guys who can contribute in the
Speaker 8: blocking game and can contribute in the running game. And
Speaker 8: so it's just harder to find homes for these dudes
Speaker 8: than it was five ten years ago.
Speaker 3: One little note on Zay Flower today, he is actually
Speaker 3: working out with Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs brought him in
Speaker 3: for that specific reason. I know they'd have to move
Speaker 3: around again him, but that would be juicy.
Speaker 2: Indeed.
Speaker 8: I love it well.
Speaker 2: And we'll end things with this a tweet from earlier
Speaker 2: today from Benjamin Solac, where you could follow him on Twitter.
Speaker 2: Day one of the twenty twenty three NFL Draft is
Speaker 2: in eight days, and I think I could better predict
Speaker 2: the first five picks of the twenty twenty four draft
Speaker 2: than I could the twenty twenty three draft. I kind
Speaker 2: of like that. Yeah, like I I the draft store,
Speaker 2: you could kind of nail the top ten or get
Speaker 2: close to it. Not as compelling to me as these
Speaker 2: wide open years, so it will be fun, Ben to
Speaker 2: see how it all plays out.
Speaker 8: That's the that's the sentiment of somebody who does not
Speaker 8: attempt to bet on the NFL draft. Right there exactly
Speaker 8: on my side on the line, I really like those ones
Speaker 8: you can figure out on the top ten.
Speaker 5: I do like that, and I do like you said
Speaker 5: to me, like we've now reached that point of the
Speaker 5: draft process. You put a more moratorium on new draft takes.
Speaker 5: No more draft takes. Everything has been said, and now
Speaker 5: we just kind of ride right out the next nine days.
Speaker 4: Nothing new.
Speaker 8: Yeah, anybody who's dropping a I think X could y
Speaker 8: on April fifteenth. You're just bored. You're just bored out
Speaker 8: of stuff. Time to stop. We've done enough. Let's see what.
Speaker 2: Happens, uh, Ben. Thank you for joining us, Buddy, and
Speaker 2: everybody follow Ben on his NFL stuff, his draft stuff
Speaker 2: at the Ringer of course and the Ringer NFL Show
Speaker 2: on Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcast.
Speaker 4: Ben, thank you very much, Bud appreciate it, fellas big,
Speaker 4: sure you, Ben, Thank you.
Speaker 2: There he goes. Good stuff from Benjamin Solak. All right,
Speaker 2: one more break and then we'll finish up the show.
Speaker 2: All right, we're back.
Speaker 5: You know, you know, we've been like doing this show
Speaker 5: a while. When yeah, people we have on we're in
Speaker 5: their teens when Draft Day came out, I don't really
Speaker 5: know that, but that would be my guest.
Speaker 4: I don't know where he's at. He's twenty six, I believe.
Speaker 2: Let's just say Ben is most likely younger than us
Speaker 2: and perhaps significantly so. But he knows his stuff. And yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't. There are people that will. And speaking of which,
Speaker 2: here's a plug. Mark, you have your mock draft coming up.
Speaker 2: Justin Graver, our producer, kind of put his kind of
Speaker 2: made his big arrival at the draft last year in
Speaker 2: terms of our universe by competing with his own mock
Speaker 2: draft that he really did well. Yes, and now what
Speaker 2: we have here, Greggy and they are different sports, but
Speaker 2: there's a bit of a Magic Bird thing going on
Speaker 2: here now between Graver and Cessler in terms of the
Speaker 2: mock draft coming up this next week. So I'm very excited.
Speaker 3: I don't know if if I'm Magic or Bird in
Speaker 3: that scenario, but if Magic or if one of the
Speaker 3: two were massively detached from the penning results.
Speaker 5: That this documentaries made, it's definitely missing, you know, kind
Speaker 5: of one component which I think was a factor in
Speaker 5: the whole magic thing, the racial given talent here but
Speaker 5: you know or that any talent. Yeah, it could be it.
Speaker 2: Yes, we're missing the racial component of this.
Speaker 4: Say to another level, yes.
Speaker 6: Justin I have been putting a lot of pressure on
Speaker 6: myself to actually do well this year because I feel
Speaker 6: like I did pretty well last year. You know, ten
Speaker 6: team player matches would have tied for first according to
Speaker 6: the Huddle Report that grades all the mock drafts. But
Speaker 6: now I'm like, if I don't live up to those
Speaker 6: expectations I've set for myself, I'm going to be very disappointed.
Speaker 6: And it's an unpredictable draft.
Speaker 3: So as someone who I think nailed maybe one pick
Speaker 3: last year, I will tell you that you'll wake up
Speaker 3: the next day and life continues to force jah.
Speaker 2: You've said, Mark, I don't know if this is still
Speaker 2: the case a few weeks later, that you've been reinvigorated
Speaker 2: by the draft process this year, which makes me think
Speaker 2: you might be ready to deliver your masterpiece.
Speaker 3: I will say that I think that, as Ben was saying,
Speaker 3: this is the Ben Solock has done thousands of hours
Speaker 3: of work and does not believe you could even do
Speaker 3: a better mock than just simply guessing next year's draft.
Speaker 3: I think that's an ominous roadmap for myself attempting the
Speaker 3: same process. But I think that also says anyone can,
Speaker 3: like my mom could do one of these and probably
Speaker 3: get in the top five.
Speaker 4: Thing in this little idea, Yeah my mom, you get
Speaker 4: your mom to do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it would seem like the hard air thing, or
Speaker 5: the more you think it's for my mom would be
Speaker 5: would be would be knowing which players are going to
Speaker 5: be good at football at the NFL level. But you
Speaker 5: can't really do that immediately after the draft.
Speaker 4: You can't.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 5: No one knows who is actually good at doing that.
Speaker 5: They don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be kept up at night about the missing
Speaker 2: racial component of the mock draft.
Speaker 5: I'm just saying, you're expecting it to take off. That's
Speaker 5: sort of the unsaid Larry. You know bird magic thing, right,
Speaker 5: I don't think it would have taken off in the
Speaker 5: same way.
Speaker 2: Two whites takes away some sizzle here. Hey, speaking what
Speaker 2: you've got a big announcement? What day?
Speaker 5: What day are we dropping your mock? By the way,
Speaker 5: do we have a plan for that.
Speaker 4: I'd love to know.
Speaker 3: I'd also love to know the about next week, what
Speaker 3: day next, later in the week, let's go later.
Speaker 2: Obviously next next Monday, No, next late next Wednesday. That's
Speaker 2: that's the latest week can go.
Speaker 3: I think went right up to the edges. When we
Speaker 3: do it because there's new information coming.
Speaker 2: In, you do it like the Mayok version. It's like,
Speaker 2: I'm not with all these the riff raft. I give
Speaker 2: you one mock draft and that's all you get.
Speaker 3: There's no.
Speaker 4: We've done it on Wednesdays. Yeah, we'll do Wednesday, big announced.
Speaker 4: I always remember draft Day. You're like, oh, things have
Speaker 4: already changed. My mock's all messed up.
Speaker 2: He does care.
Speaker 3: I like that you do care about us, like a
Speaker 3: little dog, like biting at your attempting to just do your.
Speaker 2: Shut up big announcement on the draft. We've been teasing this,
Speaker 2: and now here it is. Do we have the horns?
Speaker 2: Do we have the medieval times or the height of
Speaker 2: the English Empire? Yeah, some call it a fallen empire now,
Speaker 2: but listen, we have a huge overseas fan base, so
Speaker 2: we would never say.
Speaker 4: That we don't reference in that way.
Speaker 2: We will be doing a live stream of the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three first round NFL Draft from the NFL Media
Speaker 2: Headquarters here live YouTube stream. We will be on camera.
Speaker 2: This feels like a mistake. We'll be on camera for
Speaker 2: all three plus hours of the first round, chopping it up,
Speaker 2: discussing the different moves, the picks, the trades. We'll have obviously,
Speaker 2: if you're familiar at all with the Friday Fun Show,
Speaker 2: we'll have a comments section we'll have we'll interact interface
Speaker 2: with our listener slash viewers, as well as other fun
Speaker 2: things to come, which we should be planning post haste,
Speaker 2: but that will be a component as well.
Speaker 5: Hopefully we'll be coming shopping by. I feel like a hang.
Speaker 5: It's a hang where we still got every anyone who's
Speaker 5: the audio only we're still doing the podcast afterwards, recapping
Speaker 5: round one as we would always do, and if you
Speaker 5: wanted to check out the YouTube, it's got to be
Speaker 5: best live, but I think it'll be up there on
Speaker 5: YouTube after the fact to just rewatch it over and over.
Speaker 2: Mark people say this is revolutionary. No one's ever done
Speaker 2: this before live stream, and that's just what we are.
Speaker 2: We're innovators.
Speaker 3: I hang it from a technological angle. We've always been aggressive,
Speaker 3: and this is another example of it.
Speaker 5: It's like, have you ever wondered what it'd be like
Speaker 5: to just hang out with us? As we watched the draft.
Speaker 2: They're just like regular guys. It's like hanging out with
Speaker 2: guys at the bar right there. That's the show.
Speaker 3: Do we do the thing now where we uh we
Speaker 3: brag about not going to the men's room the entire time.
Speaker 4: We just sit in the chairs for now.
Speaker 2: No, I'll be using the laboratory multiple times.
Speaker 4: Okay, so many coming, so many times as we please. See.
Speaker 5: That's one of the things about Dan when you're when
Speaker 5: you watch games with him, you're just like, what.
Speaker 2: Is he missed the entire third quarter?
Speaker 4: Irish? Goodbye?
Speaker 2: He had time and he's still gone? Is he? Okay?
Speaker 2: That's that's what separates our show. We're in the bathroom
Speaker 2: all the time.
Speaker 4: It's very different. It would be. It would be a
Speaker 4: lot of fun.
Speaker 5: It's like they're just buddy is It's like, that's the show.
Speaker 5: It's too many drops at this point. I we haven't
Speaker 5: done this though. It will be a fun, fun time
Speaker 5: to hang I am looking forward to here.
Speaker 2: Here's my here's my picture of the audience, because we
Speaker 2: really want you to join us the listeners. It could
Speaker 2: be really good and fun. It could be really bad.
Speaker 4: Also, yeah, what.
Speaker 3: If we get like thirty eight minutes in and we
Speaker 3: realized this is ishtar, this is a complete.
Speaker 2: It's what I mean, Like, if we're all of a
Speaker 2: sudden doing our version of Draft Day, it's we're in
Speaker 2: and you get to see that.
Speaker 5: Although it could be like Dan's surprise birthday party that
Speaker 5: Emily through Dan could just be like, no, we're any
Speaker 5: can we.
Speaker 2: Do deuces if we don't like the flow?
Speaker 4: And it's just I think so.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you get to do that a
Speaker 2: pandemic you can call, you can parachute out.
Speaker 5: It's not on the NFL now or anything like or
Speaker 5: NFL Plus or anything. So it's like we're we're running,
Speaker 5: it's our call. That could be part of the dramatic tension.
Speaker 5: Will we get to.
Speaker 2: Our doing like that? The Shadowy League figures seem somewhat
Speaker 2: invested out. Here's a oh here it is. Look at
Speaker 2: this from April eighth, twenty fourteen, Draft Day's official Twitter account.
Speaker 2: I wonder if that still exists Draft Day Movie. I
Speaker 2: guess it does. Mark Sessler, NFL Colon hashtag Draft Day
Speaker 2: delivers on the great tension of the NFL.
Speaker 5: There's full of art, get your tics.
Speaker 4: What a what a disaster? Absolutely retweeting this with no content.
Speaker 2: And there it is as full of heart from.
Speaker 4: Start, do not grow to finish.
Speaker 2: Mark Sessler, Comma NFL dot com Comma around the League.
Speaker 4: I that was the beginning of my break with Twitter,
Speaker 4: roughly a decade ago. When is it? Are you broken together?
Speaker 3: I lost interest in it and it was because of
Speaker 3: that and the resulting So thanks for retweeting that, Greg, If.
Speaker 4: You're going to be finding that right now, appreciate that.
Speaker 2: Is it? What happens to these Twitter handles when the
Speaker 2: movie's long gone? I guess it just oh man, Dennis
Speaker 2: Leary was terrible in this movie. Got to still be there.
Speaker 5: They've got a retweet of rich who had.
Speaker 2: Garner the cap? They put p Diddy in it? What
Speaker 2: a mess? Anyway? All right?
Speaker 4: It was meant to be the Bills before the Browns.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. The other thing is, how could you ever
Speaker 2: get behind as a sports fan any movie that opens
Speaker 2: with the Seattle Seahawks defending Super Bowl champions have the
Speaker 2: number one overall pick. Get out of here? Yeah? I will.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna find this.
Speaker 3: There is a column somewhere on NFL dot com where Dan,
Speaker 3: you and I both gave our viewpoints on it, and
Speaker 3: I know that you've you've recently come down so hard
Speaker 3: on it. I I want to go back and see
Speaker 3: what you wrote, because I thought you were a little
Speaker 3: bit closer to the middle, and I will.
Speaker 4: I'll dump up my results.
Speaker 2: Perhaps perhaps a little closer NFL dot com fresh. I
Speaker 2: remember our boss at the time was very pointed in, Hey,
Speaker 2: you can't kill the movie. We haven't.
Speaker 3: It's sort of an absurd like written product. If we
Speaker 3: can't give an at review.
Speaker 2: If if you if we could track that down, if
Speaker 2: you read that back and forth, because you weren't over
Speaker 2: the moon about the movie until Yeah, the Glasses of Wine.
Speaker 3: But it's been advertised as if I consider it to
Speaker 3: be like Apocalypse now or something, which is not not
Speaker 3: the case.
Speaker 2: No, Greg, the Seattle Seahawks and the film are the
Speaker 2: defending Super Bowl champions, as I think they were in
Speaker 2: real life at the time, and then they were like
Speaker 2: they had the number one overall pick.
Speaker 5: I mean this, Yeah, the Seahawks have the number five
Speaker 5: pick here after first.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying that I don't think that's ever happened
Speaker 2: in the history of this sport anyway. All Right, that's it.
Speaker 2: Anything else live stream next Thursday night, Huge Mega Mega
Speaker 2: eight pm Eastern or something like that. Be there, seriously,
Speaker 2: be there and heed. The car.
Speaker 1: Is never too old to rave in the desert with
Speaker 1: black pink. Doesn't know what a black pink is, but
Speaker 1: that's not gonna stop them. Baby, need someone to hold
Speaker 1: this camera so we can get a good pick in
Speaker 1: front of the giant ferris wheel. We'll be at the
Speaker 1: Mojave stage if you need us.