Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where the real honesty was Argentina
Speaker 1: is one hundred and sixteen minutes without a shot on goal.
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: I'm still in Massachusetts for one more show before I
Speaker 1: returned to the West Coast, and we really get this
Speaker 1: training camp going. You know who else is back from vacation.
Speaker 2: It's Nick Chook.
Speaker 1: No one else I would rather talk position battles with
Speaker 1: on July.
Speaker 2: Twentieth than my friend Shoppie.
Speaker 3: How you doing fantastic? Happy to be back. Hopefully the
Speaker 3: sunburn isn't showing if you're watching on YouTube, because I
Speaker 3: spent a lot of time outside and now I'm happy
Speaker 3: to be in front of the camera talking football with you.
Speaker 1: We are team minus forty eight hours two days until
Speaker 1: the first two teams show up for training camp. Those
Speaker 1: are the Hall of Fame Game participants, the Panthers and
Speaker 1: the Cardinals. On this show, we're going to talk position
Speaker 1: battles and yeah, I mentioned the World Cup is over,
Speaker 1: and so that means I think it's time to turn
Speaker 1: our attention to football.
Speaker 2: And I was thinking because I watched the World.
Speaker 1: Cup Final and the Odyssey back to back yesterday and
Speaker 1: it was about this same amount of time before Argentina
Speaker 1: got a shot as it took for Odysseus to get
Speaker 1: back to Ithaca. Now the movie's not over then, spoiler alert.
Speaker 1: You know you got a little while more to settle things.
Speaker 1: But that was about the same. I'm ready for I'm
Speaker 1: ready for our football. You ready to make these position
Speaker 1: battles interesting?
Speaker 2: Show? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Hopefully this is just theatrical and dramatic as the as
Speaker 3: The osse was.
Speaker 2: I recommend it. It was a great, great movie. It was fun.
Speaker 2: Not much news.
Speaker 1: Like I said, the last couple of weeks is the
Speaker 1: quietest few weeks in the NFL news cycle all season long.
Speaker 1: It's going to crank up this week really with all
Speaker 1: the teams, the coaches, a lot of them are returning
Speaker 1: to the office on Monday as we're taping, and so
Speaker 1: the only two items of news that really caught my
Speaker 1: fancy since Thursday when we last taped. The Ravens finally
Speaker 1: signed a center, Ethan Posk, who spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time on your Rams is I mean on your Browns
Speaker 1: rather Shook is a very capable center now the favorite
Speaker 1: to start there. And then an executive for the Cardinals,
Speaker 1: their director of Scouting. Ryan Gold, director of college scouting,
Speaker 1: was suspended for gambling. The Cardinals said they fully supported
Speaker 1: the decision, and he is accused of providing confidential, non
Speaker 1: public inside information regarding their draft selections before the picks
Speaker 1: were announced, and also participating in parlay bets on the
Speaker 1: NFL and college games. I mean, this is like, this
Speaker 1: is a career ender, and I keep keep being stunned
Speaker 1: by anyone would be dumb enough.
Speaker 2: To get caught with this stuff.
Speaker 1: But it really does seem like the NFL is trying
Speaker 1: to make an example, and the Cardinals say they don't
Speaker 1: have any problem with it.
Speaker 2: They fully support the NFL's decision.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're right. How can somebody, you know, think
Speaker 3: that they can get away with it? Really? I mean,
Speaker 3: as two people who undergo annual training and understand very
Speaker 3: much the rigorous standards of the NFL applies to everybody
Speaker 3: associated with the NFL when it comes to gambling, don't
Speaker 3: even consider it. Just sit back and watch everybody else
Speaker 3: place their bets everything else, and just laugh along with them.
Speaker 3: And that's it. That's it, nothing more.
Speaker 2: He's denying it.
Speaker 1: His lawyer says his wife was in some ten dollars
Speaker 1: picks pool and that he didn't know about the drafts.
Speaker 1: There was another report that said he hit a five team,
Speaker 1: five name parlay of the draft picks, which I think
Speaker 1: would have been done before the draft, which would seem
Speaker 1: almost impossible even if you were like the team owner
Speaker 1: and the GM.
Speaker 2: How do you really know who you were going to take?
Speaker 2: I guess unless you put like a bunch.
Speaker 3: Of different combinations, they can't all be as accurate as
Speaker 3: I was projecting Jeremiah Love to the Cardinals at three. Sorry,
Speaker 3: good job.
Speaker 1: I mean you could be if you work for the
Speaker 1: Cardinals apparently, but yeah, we'll track that story. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is about the best position battles in the entire league.
Speaker 1: I thought we would frame this about why you should
Speaker 1: care about these position battles. We'll be previewing the season,
Speaker 1: talking training camp throughout, so this is more of an
Speaker 1: overview of the best position battles to watch. We'll see
Speaker 1: how many we can get through. Wrote down about seventy,
Speaker 1: but that's more for my own preparation. We'll use it
Speaker 1: in other spots. We will not do seventy on this show.
Speaker 1: Maybe about half of that. But let's start with the quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: I ranked them roughly in order of interest for myself,
Speaker 1: and so I started with the three biggest quarterback battles,
Speaker 1: but to me, the number one battle is still Kirk
Speaker 1: Cousin versus Fernando Mendoza. And the more shook that we hear,
Speaker 1: and there's a new report, including one from rap Sheet
Speaker 1: last week, that the plan is Kirk Cousins, not just
Speaker 1: for Week one, but all season. It's like the more
Speaker 1: you keep telling me that, like almost the less I
Speaker 1: believe it.
Speaker 2: It's like, we get it. That's the plan. We get it.
Speaker 3: You're telling me you're a cynic, you're a skeptic. You
Speaker 3: don't believe that they're pushing it that hard that it
Speaker 3: might not unfold that way. I actually, you know, when
Speaker 3: you just brought these up, I was like, this is
Speaker 3: not the most intriguing to me, because I believe that
Speaker 3: this is going to be the plan. And I believe
Speaker 3: it because of the way Clint Kubiak framed it when
Speaker 3: he essentially campaigned for the Raiders to go out and
Speaker 3: add a guy like Kirk Cousins. I firmly think that
Speaker 3: it's going to be a month to half of the
Speaker 3: season before they make the transition, because what have we
Speaker 3: seen in these battles in the past, Which is that,
Speaker 3: all right, we have the veteran, We're going to start
Speaker 3: the season with the veteran, you know, kind of just
Speaker 3: slowly on ramp onto the season, and then within the
Speaker 3: first month, either it's clear that the veteran isn't capable,
Speaker 3: or you just decide, all right, now the young guys ready.
Speaker 3: Sometimes that aligns with the bye week. Their bye week
Speaker 3: is way late in the season, So I don't think
Speaker 3: it falls in that range, at least as we stand
Speaker 3: here right now. But I don't. I think that this
Speaker 3: battle is more about getting Fernando, you know, acclimated to
Speaker 3: the offense and getting ready for when he does take
Speaker 3: the field eventually, because he will. Then it is about
Speaker 3: a real true battle for the starting job. But you
Speaker 3: know what, if you're sitting back thinking I don't believe you,
Speaker 3: I mean that that makes let me make the case.
Speaker 1: Let me make the case I should I should make
Speaker 1: the case. And why you should care about it, because yeah,
Speaker 1: you can put that out there. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: it's two players that I'm interested in. We spent a
Speaker 1: long time with Kirk Cousins. I think he played better
Speaker 1: football at the end of last season with the Falcons
Speaker 1: and people realize and so I actually think either one
Speaker 1: of these can provide fairly good quarterback play. But the
Speaker 1: reason why I still think you should care about it.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about this kid, for Nando Mendoza, and I
Speaker 1: just don't believe any world where if he shows up
Speaker 1: and he's awesome, And this is a guy who I
Speaker 1: think as a prospect, you know, compares favorably to any
Speaker 1: quarterback that was in last year's draft class, and is
Speaker 1: pretty advance mentally and is great physically, and he's an
Speaker 1: older kid that if he comes out and just looks
Speaker 1: awesome in camp, and if he looks awesome in the preseason,
Speaker 1: you can't tell me it's not a battle Like, I
Speaker 1: just don't believe them. It's more about Fernando Mendoza. Now,
Speaker 1: do I believe that the bar for him to actually
Speaker 1: be able to play Week one or maybe he's really
Speaker 1: battling against like a Week four version of Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: that's not doing well, is high. Is higher than it
Speaker 1: would be for most number one overall draft pics. Sure
Speaker 1: it is, but he might be able to clear that
Speaker 1: if he's just awesome, like that to me is a
Speaker 1: really interesting battle to watch because I think the Raiders
Speaker 1: based on their quarterbacks partly and Koobie could be a
Speaker 1: fun watch this year no matter who's at quarterback.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, and I think this is a good
Speaker 3: pivot toward why the preseason is still intriguing for a
Speaker 3: lot of reasons, and one being that if he goes,
Speaker 3: you know, into this preseason and sees a significant amount
Speaker 3: time because you think about it, Kirk Cousins isn't going
Speaker 3: to play all that much in the preseason, I don't think,
Speaker 3: given that he's a veteran, although you do want to
Speaker 3: see how he handles the offense. Then that's where the
Speaker 3: scales can till because the style of quarterback that Fernando
Speaker 3: Mendoza is, Like, let's consider his journey to Indiana. He
Speaker 3: was playing at cal Cal operating in largely irrelevance, you know,
Speaker 3: out in the West Coast, just not being a very
Speaker 3: strong program at this time. Nobody was really paying attention
Speaker 3: to him. Nobody had him, you know, being the number
Speaker 3: one pick in the draft, didn't even have him being
Speaker 3: a first round pick. He kind of quietly goes to
Speaker 3: Indiana and then takes the College Football World by storm.
Speaker 3: How did he do it with his play on the field.
Speaker 3: It's not somebody necessarily that you look at and go
Speaker 3: generational talent and credible arm, all of that stuff that
Speaker 3: draws that buzz. So you're not going to really get
Speaker 3: got to get that buzz out of just regular training camp,
Speaker 3: but you would get that out of preseason games if
Speaker 3: he plays a significant amount of time, and that's where
Speaker 3: the scales could tilt or it could get really interesting.
Speaker 3: So I'm kind of buying in now a little bit.
Speaker 3: You got me a little sold.
Speaker 1: Well, Also, there's a chance, and I just said how
Speaker 1: I liked how Kirk Cousins looked at the end of
Speaker 1: last season. In one of these years, Kirk Cousins could
Speaker 1: show up and just look kind of old, or he
Speaker 1: could have some minor calf injury that keeps him out
Speaker 1: for two weeks of camp and then it's just suddenly over.
Speaker 1: So we'll see an injury is also part of our
Speaker 1: number two battle. That's to a tongue of iloa, and
Speaker 1: that's Michael Pennix. It's a truly open competition. We don't
Speaker 1: know if Pennox is going to be fully ready to
Speaker 1: start training camp, and these just feel like two afterthoughts.
Speaker 1: They didn't make our top thirty two quarterbacks when I
Speaker 1: drafted them around July fourth with John Ledyard. And yet
Speaker 1: let me take you shup to make my case for
Speaker 1: this one is number two to a distant time in
Speaker 1: our past twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Let's say we're a.
Speaker 1: Little guy by the name Nick Shook, you know, just
Speaker 1: finished his top fifty nine starting quarterbacks of twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three season. Everyone that started who was ranked number nine
Speaker 1: overall on that list.
Speaker 3: Shock, Oh no, this is at the end of the
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three season. Oh no, that was too. That
Speaker 3: was too That was two law, That was two and
Speaker 3: tuck of my law.
Speaker 1: You know what quarterback was coming off a National Championship
Speaker 1: Game appearance and was about to get taken as a
Speaker 1: future franchise quarterback.
Speaker 2: That was Michael Pennock. It wasn't Pennix.
Speaker 1: That wasn't that long ago that we were thinking of
Speaker 1: these guys in a much different way. And Tua specifically,
Speaker 1: I think can work in the right system. Whether Kevin
Speaker 1: Stefanski is that right system will see. But this is
Speaker 1: a legitimately open battle. And look, I only need to
Speaker 1: even bring it back twelve months ago to think when
Speaker 1: we were much higher on Penix's potential. He you know,
Speaker 1: he played through an injury, he didn't look great when
Speaker 1: he was out there last year, but overall, he's not
Speaker 1: that far removed from being a top ten overall pick.
Speaker 1: So I think that some juice and some real intrigue
Speaker 1: because I don't know who's going to win this job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's plenty of intrigue there, given that do you
Speaker 3: have a new coaching staff, You have two guys you
Speaker 3: have no idea where they are in their careers right now,
Speaker 3: and they both kind of feel like they're at a
Speaker 3: gotta have it crossroads type of situation, which is that
Speaker 3: like TWA is now on his next stop, he was
Speaker 3: unceremoniously discarded by the Dolphins and needs to prove that
Speaker 3: he can still hack it in the NFL, and Penick's
Speaker 3: got to prove that he's healthy enough to play and
Speaker 3: that the injury concerns that followed him from Indiana to
Speaker 3: Washington to the NFL aren't as significant as some might
Speaker 3: have thought them to be, and especially when he got
Speaker 3: hurt last year. So like this is year three for him.
Speaker 3: He's got to start to take control of this franchise
Speaker 3: quarterback role if that's what he's going to occupy, Whereas
Speaker 3: Tua needs to prove that he still belongs in the NFL,
Speaker 3: and they're both going into a new system with a
Speaker 3: coach who runs an offense that kind of favors two
Speaker 3: his strengths, but he's still got to go earn it
Speaker 3: and Penix's going to be healthy enough to compete. And
Speaker 3: I think that this is one of those situations where
Speaker 3: we're going to see both of them this season. At
Speaker 3: some point, We're going to go from Tua to Penis,
Speaker 3: or we're going to see Penicks start and maybe he
Speaker 3: has some struggles and they throw to in there at
Speaker 3: an act of desperation at some point. So it's really
Speaker 3: really intriguing to see exactly how they start this season.
Speaker 3: I lean toward Tua because I think if the Falcons
Speaker 3: are being, you know, kind of cautious about this and smart,
Speaker 3: they'll give Pennix more time to make sure he's fully healthy.
Speaker 3: But then again, he could be ahead of schedule. We
Speaker 3: just don't know that right now.
Speaker 1: Right there's a big question of if Kevin Sevanski is
Speaker 1: looking for a quick trigger guy to just distribute and
Speaker 1: get the ball out, which he's had when he's had
Speaker 1: his best offenses.
Speaker 2: That is definitely toua.
Speaker 1: Both guys are similar and that they've struggled kind of
Speaker 1: thrown over the middle of the field, but Pennix is
Speaker 1: much more drop back.
Speaker 2: And throw it deep.
Speaker 1: I mean, he would fit well on like a nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight Raiders team or something like that, which does
Speaker 1: not feel like the Kevin Stefanski Falcons. We shall see
Speaker 1: our third one just because the name value is one
Speaker 1: that might not last that long. We don't think JJ
Speaker 1: McCarthy is going to really compete with Kyler Murray. But again,
Speaker 1: we were only about a year removed from thinking they're handing.
Speaker 2: The keys over to JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 1: That bet kind of made sense at the time that
Speaker 1: they get rid of Darnold and now he's here just
Speaker 1: trying to keep his Vikings career really alive. I think
Speaker 1: there is a scenario where he is not on the
Speaker 1: team by the end of training camp if someone wants
Speaker 1: to trade for him, and it's just clear that Kyler
Speaker 1: and Carson Wentz, who's also on the roster, just make
Speaker 1: more sense as a one to two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this one speaks I think too, where this franchise
Speaker 3: is currently in their timeline, which is that they expect
Speaker 3: to compete for a playoff spot, and they'll point to
Speaker 3: the fact they won nine games last year with no
Speaker 3: reliability at the quarterback position as the main reason for
Speaker 3: them to have that sense of urgency. And it does
Speaker 3: feel like Kyler's just going to end up winning this
Speaker 3: job very quickly, and that the competition is more of
Speaker 3: a charade than an actual competition. And I also like
Speaker 3: to sometimes try to find some clues in the tea leaves.
Speaker 3: Tea leaves being promotional photos and as what I most
Speaker 3: recently saw, they're taking photos of both Kyler and JJ.
Speaker 3: So not decided yet, but I think it's going to
Speaker 3: be Tayler's job.
Speaker 1: No, They're going to have to walk that line, and
Speaker 1: it's going to be a really fun one to watch.
Speaker 1: That's the thing is it's consequential. All these are consequential
Speaker 1: because it's starting quarterbacks, of course, but specifically in the
Speaker 1: case of the Vikings, there is a scenario where they
Speaker 1: hit their peak this year, Like their number three wide
Speaker 1: receiver is Juan Jennings behind Addison and Jefferson. Their defense
Speaker 1: could be top five in the NFL. There is a
Speaker 1: scenario where they're winning that division, where they have a
Speaker 1: home game in the playoffs, where they're at three seeds
Speaker 1: something like that, and so that obviously makes it more interesting.
Speaker 1: But you never know. Maybe JJ McCarthy could shock us.
Speaker 1: All all right, those are the quarterbacks. I'll leave the
Speaker 1: other quarterback battles for a minute just to not only
Speaker 1: talk quarterbacks at the top. How about the only guy
Speaker 1: in one of our top thirty two rankings that's involved
Speaker 1: in one of these early position battles Eagles Edge j
Speaker 1: Loox Hunt versus Nolan Smith. I'm putting that as the
Speaker 1: number fourgan position battle just because these guys are good.
Speaker 1: Like I took Jalx Hunt at one of my top
Speaker 1: thirty two pass rushers. He's not even guaranteed to necessarily
Speaker 1: start because Nolan Smith played a lot of good downs.
Speaker 1: You have Jonathan Grenard on the other side. It is
Speaker 1: a very deep position. They also signed Arnold Ebachetti, Like
Speaker 1: you have numbers there, but that's something I know Eagles
Speaker 1: fans and certainly the reporters are going to be kind
Speaker 1: of tracking who has the lead there between Hunt and
Speaker 1: Nolan Smith.
Speaker 3: As a starter, and it's really fascinating because there's so
Speaker 3: many different elements involved. You speak about the depth, you
Speaker 3: also look to the numbers in the production. Last year,
Speaker 3: like Jalox Hunt played nearly two hundred and fifty more
Speaker 3: snaps than Nolan Smith did. Last year, he had one
Speaker 3: hundred and sixteen more pass rushing snaps, He had a
Speaker 3: higher quarterback pressure percentage, He had more than twice as
Speaker 3: many sacks. Run stop percentage was about the same. The
Speaker 3: next gen numbers favor jalox Hunt. The PFF grades favor
Speaker 3: Nolan Smith. So then you go, how do we drill
Speaker 3: down on this further and figure out exactly what's going on.
Speaker 3: Let's go to contracts, all right, Well, Nolan Smith former
Speaker 3: first round pick Jalox Hunt, year later, third round pick
Speaker 3: Nolan Smith do to make thirteen point seventy five million
Speaker 3: dollars next year on the fifth year option. Jalox Hunt
Speaker 3: a lot a lot more cost controlled at one point
Speaker 3: seven nine million dollars next year. So if it becomes
Speaker 3: a financial thing, where do we save money here or there,
Speaker 3: or where do we have to spend more money or
Speaker 3: because we've already dedicated that money to this guy, this
Speaker 3: guy needs to play more. That becomes an important element
Speaker 3: in this entire equation, or it becomes one of those
Speaker 3: things where you just ride the hot hand. Maybe they
Speaker 3: both have good camps in preseasons and you start one
Speaker 3: here and you just hope that he plays well, and
Speaker 3: if he doesn't, you rotate him in and out. Like
Speaker 3: there's a lot of different avenues and directions in which
Speaker 3: this could go. But it's a good problem for the
Speaker 3: Eagles to have, especially given that you know they've kind
Speaker 3: of turned over that position a decent amount over the
Speaker 3: last few years. I'm excited to see how this one
Speaker 3: plays out.
Speaker 2: I sort of.
Speaker 1: Forgot Ajpines is on that team too, so they have
Speaker 1: like five different edges if you want to call.
Speaker 3: A different guy than those two guys, though very different.
Speaker 1: Nolan Smith is a guy who made a big impact
Speaker 1: two years ago when they won the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: Made a big impact in the Super Bowl. So did
Speaker 2: jalox Hunt, and the.
Speaker 1: Fact that they picked up the fifth year option is
Speaker 1: a show of confidence. But I think jay loox Hunt
Speaker 1: is more likely to get that long term money than
Speaker 1: Nolan Smith is, and I think it's more likely that
Speaker 1: only one of them gets it. From them than both
Speaker 1: of them, because it's just tough to pay everyone. Number
Speaker 1: five on my list is a guy who I saw
Speaker 1: on the news a little bit over the weekend, so
Speaker 1: I just decided to move him up the board. It's
Speaker 1: the Giants running back competition. People just assume in fantasy leagues.
Speaker 1: It seems like the cam Skattaboo is going to be fine,
Speaker 1: But that is a massive injury he's coming back from.
Speaker 2: He's hoping to be ready for the start of training camp.
Speaker 1: But Tyrone Tracy is there, Devin Singletary is there, and
Speaker 1: they might split up the carries and it might be
Speaker 1: more about just seeing if Skataboo is healthy. And it
Speaker 1: doesn't make you feel great if you're a Skataboo guy
Speaker 1: to see him doing a backflip that he can't even
Speaker 1: land at the Fanatics disaster over the week and I
Speaker 1: don't know what I call it disaffler just because Logan
Speaker 1: Paul and Tom Brady are pretending like.
Speaker 2: They're going to do a WWE fight, Just come on, Tom.
Speaker 1: Disappointing scatabo thing though, cracked me out, but he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm fine. The next day he said he's fine. But
Speaker 1: you do wonder if this is the guy that's going
Speaker 1: to be able to stay healthy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I don't think any uh, any front office
Speaker 3: guy is excited to see one of his, you know,
Speaker 3: lead running backs doing a backflip at an event in
Speaker 3: July somewhere and of injury. It was okay, but yeah,
Speaker 3: that's fine. But it was as soon as I saw
Speaker 3: him hit the ground hard and kind of fall over,
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, no, oh no, let's not have
Speaker 3: another injury, not off after what happened last season. But
Speaker 3: it's a really interesting backfield, I think because there are
Speaker 3: some parallels to the last time the Giants were really great,
Speaker 3: which is the earth, wind and fire backfield of the
Speaker 3: two thousand and eight Giants, which was you know, Brandon Jacobs,
Speaker 3: Derek Ward and a mod Bradshot. Because I think this
Speaker 3: whole backfield kind of could take on that identity with Skataboo,
Speaker 3: Tyrone Tracy and Devin Singletary. Last year, it felt like
Speaker 3: it was kind of Tyrone Tracy's backfield until the Skataboo.
Speaker 3: I don't know if i'd call it emergence, but him
Speaker 3: and Jackson Dart felt like they breathed new life into
Speaker 3: this team until Scataboo goes down, then it really became
Speaker 3: Tracy's backfield is in there as you know, an experienced
Speaker 3: option that you know can do a lot of different things.
Speaker 3: So I think that the depth is good for them.
Speaker 3: They want it to lean on any of these guys primarily,
Speaker 3: they'll be able to kind of do different things. Given
Speaker 3: which running back they want to put back there, there's
Speaker 3: an opportunity to run two back sets if they want to.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of flexibility there, and so I don't
Speaker 3: think I necessarily need to sort it out. I think
Speaker 3: I'm more excited about the potential of the group overall.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's the reason you should care is
Speaker 1: probably more about fantasy. And Scataboo specifically coming off a
Speaker 1: dislocation of an ankle in addition to the broken leg.
Speaker 2: That's serious stuff.
Speaker 1: And so that's a player I would be watching if
Speaker 1: he gets some preseason reps or what the reports are,
Speaker 1: just in terms of how he looks in camp.
Speaker 2: I'm putting a cornerback battle, isn't it? My number six?
Speaker 2: And Broncos fans.
Speaker 1: Would probably rightly say that Riley Moss versus Jaday Baron
Speaker 1: is not exactly a battle because Riley Moss is an
Speaker 1: established starter and it'd be pretty shocking if he was
Speaker 1: not the starter opening day opposite Patrick. Certain I buy
Speaker 1: that to a point, but they took Today Baron in
Speaker 1: the top twenty for a reason. And sometimes the biggest
Speaker 1: jump you make is in your first real off season,
Speaker 1: and that's what it is for Today Baron. Right now,
Speaker 1: the Broncos have all but said they love Jakaon McMillan.
Speaker 2: In terms of how he's played.
Speaker 1: He's going to be the slot, so Baron is not
Speaker 1: really playing that position and they have great depth at cornerback.
Speaker 1: This is a great problem to have that you couldn't
Speaker 1: get your first round pick on the field for more
Speaker 1: than three hundred and four hundred snaps.
Speaker 2: I just posit shook.
Speaker 1: And this is why I think Broncos fans in and
Speaker 1: regular fans should care about this too, because this is
Speaker 1: a championship contender that if Baron comes out there in
Speaker 1: plays to his absolute potential, and I know he fits
Speaker 1: better maybe inside than as an outside corner, but they're
Speaker 1: playing him outside like there has to be a world
Speaker 1: where he's just a better player than Riley Moss and
Speaker 1: they just want to get him on the field, and
Speaker 1: it stinks for Moss, who's a good player and is
Speaker 1: going to be entering his free agent year, But that
Speaker 1: Baron just takes that job no matter what they're saying
Speaker 1: publicly and in terms of all the reporting that's gone
Speaker 1: on so far.
Speaker 3: It's one of the higher pressure situations for a second
Speaker 3: corner to enter in the NFL because you're playing opposite
Speaker 3: patz Artan, which means you're going to see a ton
Speaker 3: of targets. And Rally Moss saw the most targets in
Speaker 3: the NFL last year at one hundred and sixteen, and
Speaker 3: the numbers that he put up were pretty solid for
Speaker 3: the most part. You know, he tied for first in
Speaker 3: the NFL with Carolina's Mike Jackson. And passes defense at
Speaker 3: nineteen ballhawk right was decent at sixteen point four percent.
Speaker 3: Not as good as Mike Jackson, but that was a
Speaker 3: completely different defense in situation that Jackson's operating in. If
Speaker 3: you're trying to find some comparisons, a lot of man
Speaker 3: coverage out there, which is where Rally Moss thrived. He
Speaker 3: had a really good separation average separation window it was
Speaker 3: like less than three yards. His tight coverage percent was
Speaker 3: really good too, Like he was consistent in being in
Speaker 3: tight coverage. But what he had a problem with was penalties.
Speaker 3: Twelve penalties last year. It became, you know, a running
Speaker 3: theme with him in this Broncos defense. And if you're
Speaker 3: looking for another you know, say he piles up a
Speaker 3: bunch of penalties again early in the season, Well you
Speaker 3: have a guy that you can easily roll out there
Speaker 3: to replace him. So I think what we're gonna get
Speaker 3: is somebody in a contract year who they trust to
Speaker 3: play a solid number two corner in Riley Moss, and
Speaker 3: they're going to find every avenue possible to get Baron
Speaker 3: out there. And I thought what Sean Payton said about
Speaker 3: Baron during OTAs is interesting. He said, I quote, I
Speaker 3: think there will be two things. A he has position
Speaker 3: flex inside and out. Then there will be packages where
Speaker 3: I'm sure he's in where I'm sure we're in throwing situations.
Speaker 3: Vance and those guys are going to look at what
Speaker 3: we're wanting to do with our people. But he said
Speaker 3: he's out there in competing and doing good. He sounds
Speaker 3: like he's high on him. He said he's wise beyond
Speaker 3: his ears. All these things that are typical of a
Speaker 3: second year player getting ready to make that jump. It's
Speaker 3: just that we haven't been able to see him do
Speaker 3: it last you know, so far he played thirty percent
Speaker 3: of defensive snaps last year. He just wasn't on the
Speaker 3: field all that much because they didn't need him to be.
Speaker 3: So I'm curious, because of what you said about McMillan
Speaker 3: and how they love him at the slot, do they
Speaker 3: find a way to force Baron on the field or
Speaker 3: eventually do they just say, hey, we got to get
Speaker 3: you out there in Riley Moss's spot, given that Riley
Speaker 3: Moss is on a contract year and you are our future.
Speaker 3: So that's one that's going to be fun to watch
Speaker 3: from the very beginning because I think going to see
Speaker 3: a lot of both of them with the idea that
Speaker 3: eventually this should be Baron's job if he can go
Speaker 3: out there and take look.
Speaker 1: And they are a team that's going to be among
Speaker 1: the AFC favorites, and it's a good problem to have
Speaker 1: they have.
Speaker 2: They have a couple of safeties.
Speaker 1: In Hufunga and Brandon Jones, who they love, but you
Speaker 1: can you can use Baron in a few different ways,
Speaker 1: so it's maybe not as simple as Moss versus Baron Dott.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, if a guy that talented the light
Speaker 1: goes off, then suddenly he might be on the field.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Our next three are what I'm calling wide receiver more asses.
Speaker 1: We you know, you don't really use that word more
Speaker 1: ass how you pronounce it. It doesn't sound right, you know,
Speaker 1: But it's just it's kind of like a confusing bog
Speaker 1: of a wide receiver position at three different teams. I'm
Speaker 1: going to throw out Washington after Terry McLaurin. Uh, there's
Speaker 1: just a group of players. Treylon Burks, their rookie, Antonio
Speaker 1: Williams free agent. They brought back Diami Brown, Luke McCaffrey's
Speaker 1: relatively high pick that's been around for a while. Jalen
Speaker 1: Lane is another one that's been around. Van Jefferson is
Speaker 1: on this team. They just have to figure out what's
Speaker 1: going on. After Terry McLaurin again, Shook, I'm going to
Speaker 1: list a lot of names here the Giants wide receiver
Speaker 1: situation until Malik Neighbors gets back on the field.
Speaker 2: These are their receivers.
Speaker 1: I've never listed so many players, you know, but you
Speaker 1: have no idea if they're even going to make the team.
Speaker 1: It's outrageous. Darius Slayton, you would figure, is pretty locked in.
Speaker 1: After that, It's Malachi Fields, the rookie. Darnell Mooney's on
Speaker 1: this team. Juju Smith Schuster's on this team. Odell Beckham's
Speaker 1: on this team. Braxon Barrios is on this team. He's
Speaker 1: a special teamer. Jalen Hyatt was a high pick pretty recently.
Speaker 1: You never know he could bounce back. I threw an
Speaker 1: Xavier Gibson, who is a pretty good return man for
Speaker 1: the Jets for a while.
Speaker 2: He's around.
Speaker 1: Isaiah Hodgens has actually been their second or third receiver
Speaker 1: at various and I mean, this is just an insane
Speaker 1: group of receivers. And until Neighbors is back on the field,
Speaker 1: this is all their receivers. And they basically have to
Speaker 1: figure out with the new John Harbaugh Naggie's staff, what
Speaker 1: is the order going to be? Can we really have
Speaker 1: Odell be our third receiver? Like is Mooney like the
Speaker 1: number one slash two? I just don't know as a
Speaker 1: rookie gonna show up in terms of field. It's just
Speaker 1: totally wide open in terms of their receiver. I'll stop
Speaker 1: there because that's a lot of names between Washington and
Speaker 1: the Giants, which intrigues you more.
Speaker 3: I think that it's gotta be the Giants, just because
Speaker 3: I have no idea how they're going to actually sort
Speaker 3: all of this out, and because ideally their top two
Speaker 3: once neighbors is back, is pretty set in stone, and
Speaker 3: the rest of us just like figure out who's had
Speaker 3: a good camp and who we believe in from the
Speaker 3: short end maybe long term. We're also entering a season
Speaker 3: with a team that has the same front office but
Speaker 3: a new coaching staff. So you are thinking, like, Okay,
Speaker 3: some guys like Jalen Hyatt, for example, typically in past
Speaker 3: years with the same front office and coaching staff, there
Speaker 3: would be a little bit more leeway. We have to
Speaker 3: justify this pick. We give him more runway to prove
Speaker 3: that he is going to be on this team, that
Speaker 3: he deserves a place on this team. Well, now you
Speaker 3: got the same front office but a new head coach,
Speaker 3: so you're not in lockstep in that area. If the
Speaker 3: coach says he's not cutting it, guess what, I don't care.
Speaker 3: If that was a pick you made, he's not good
Speaker 3: enough to make my team, He's out of here. So
Speaker 3: I think his margin for air is much slimmer. But
Speaker 3: you go through the rest of that group and you're
Speaker 3: looking at like Malachai Fields and you're looking at that
Speaker 3: like Darnell Mooney, two very different players, and there's places
Speaker 3: in their career at this point. You look at Juju,
Speaker 3: who I feel like has been on nine teams now
Speaker 3: but continues to find jobs. Odell does he have anything
Speaker 3: left in the tank? Why did they sign Odell and
Speaker 3: Braxton Burios on the same day, Like, there's so many
Speaker 3: questions to answer here and to figure out where they
Speaker 3: fit into the system, and we don't really know that
Speaker 3: much because it's the new staff. So I'm fascinated to
Speaker 3: see how this plays out, and I have a tough
Speaker 3: time projecting exactly how it's going to because a so
Speaker 3: many recognizable names, all in different places in their career,
Speaker 3: and I just don't know exactly how they're going to
Speaker 3: work with Jackson Dart in this entire offense.
Speaker 1: I checked the pronunciation at least from the dictionary, and
Speaker 1: I think it would be morass morass, Okay, so.
Speaker 3: We need like a flatter Oh yeah, but.
Speaker 1: You can say the end of the word and yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd throw the dolphins entire receiver group in the mix.
Speaker 1: I just kind of grouped these three together because it's
Speaker 1: just like three groups that are kind of a mess. Yeah,
Speaker 1: from top to bottom, you have Jalen Tolbert who used
Speaker 1: to be on the Colbert and the Cowboys. You have
Speaker 1: Malik Washington who's been there a couple of years. You
Speaker 1: have a couple of rookies, and Caleb Douglas and Chris
Speaker 1: Bell who's coming off an injury, Taj Washington, Terris Marshall,
Speaker 1: who knows what's going to happen there. Let's wrap up
Speaker 1: before the break with the last two quarterback battles. In
Speaker 1: terms of starters, I put your boys Deshaun Watson and
Speaker 1: Shadarra Sanders here with Cleveland, and then the Arizona quarterback
Speaker 1: battle is open Jacoby Brissett and Garson Beck and Gardner Minshew.
Speaker 2: What do you think there?
Speaker 3: I think the Browns are going to do everything in
Speaker 3: their power and I think I've said this for a
Speaker 3: while now to make Deshaun Watson give you one. And
Speaker 3: I think that they're gonna say everything that they need
Speaker 3: to say to push the propaganda machine in that direction.
Speaker 3: And it's not until they take the field the preseason
Speaker 3: where they're actually going to be held accountable for that,
Speaker 3: and they have to be honest about where they are
Speaker 3: in that battle. It's a low ceiling battle. I'm not
Speaker 3: excited to see how it plays out. I just know
Speaker 3: that's their best two options, and I'm pretty sure that
Speaker 3: neither of them are going to be their option going
Speaker 3: into twenty twenty seven, So it doesn't really matter all
Speaker 3: that much to me other than the fact that it's
Speaker 3: going to be what they have this year. I'm much
Speaker 3: more intrigued by the Cardinal situation, not because that team's
Speaker 3: going to be in a bit any better. I think
Speaker 3: they're actually gonna be worse, but because we have a
Speaker 3: nice little comparison between journeyman veteran who's proven to be
Speaker 3: a very he's a plus backup, He's a guy that
Speaker 3: you can count on. He's a guy that actually generated
Speaker 3: more offense and more successful you last year than he
Speaker 3: did with Kyler Murray versus Gardner Minshew, who's a backup
Speaker 3: that I would like to have on my team, but
Speaker 3: I'm not excited about starting him. And then there's the unknown,
Speaker 3: and his name's Carson Beck, and nobody would have thought
Speaker 3: that he would even be in the consideration for a
Speaker 3: starting job at this time if he hadn't led Miami
Speaker 3: to the National championship last year. And I got a
Speaker 3: weird feeling that it's going to be Jacobe's job and
Speaker 3: at some point in this struggle filled season that they're
Speaker 3: about to embark upon Carson Beck's going to see the field.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you should care about it because the
Speaker 1: Cardinals are better than you realize. I think I think
Speaker 1: if they were in the NFC South, you convinced me
Speaker 1: that they could come in second place. I don't think
Speaker 1: this is a bad roster. I think the offensive line
Speaker 1: has potential. I think the skill position to group outside
Speaker 1: a quarterback is good. And Mike Lafleur, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit of an early test of his coaching ability. We've
Speaker 1: seen coaches like Shane Steiken lift up Jacoby Brissett Frank
Speaker 1: Reich like we've seen Jacoby Brissette put up numbers with
Speaker 1: the right coach, and so if he's out there with
Speaker 1: this talent, I think they could be an entertaining offense.
Speaker 1: Their schedule is brutal. We talked about it on our
Speaker 1: last show. That's the hardest schedule in the league, and
Speaker 1: so they're not going to end up with a great
Speaker 1: win loss record, but I think they could be watchable,
Speaker 1: more watchable with Jacoby or Minshew for that matter, than
Speaker 1: I think they would be with Carson Beck. But will
Speaker 1: be tracking the rookies development in training camp too, because again,
Speaker 1: when it comes to rookies, especially mid round guys, you're
Speaker 1: kind of battling against. Yeah, the mid season version of
Speaker 1: whatever Jacoby Brissett looks like. Is it worth taking a
Speaker 1: look at Carson Beck. I think you're absolutely right. And
Speaker 1: when it comes to the Browns and should like, hey,
Speaker 1: surprise me kid, you know, I think he could at
Speaker 1: least be more entertaining than Deshaun Watson would be. And
Speaker 1: if look, if they're going to be talking about Shoulder
Speaker 1: on ESPN every day, well we'll try not to over
Speaker 1: talk about him here, but I'm gonna watch every game anyways, shook,
Speaker 1: and so I want to be as entertaining and watchable
Speaker 1: as possible. I think there's a better chance for that
Speaker 1: with Schaudur this season for Cleveland. You never know, the
Speaker 1: better the Browns are, the better the press conferences are
Speaker 1: going to be for Todd Monkin, and I think that.
Speaker 3: Would Oh, you know what, I like that. That's a
Speaker 3: good reason to hope that they have a little bit
Speaker 3: of success. I don't think they're going to, but that's
Speaker 3: a good reason to want them to win some games.
Speaker 2: All right, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: We're going to come back and fly through the rest
Speaker 1: of our top position Battle of the twenty twenty six
Speaker 1: training camp. It's just a few days away. Back on
Speaker 1: NFL Daily Cardinals Panthers Hall of Fame game. It's July twentieth.
Speaker 1: If it feels to anyone listening like we should be
Speaker 1: further along at this point, you're right. Training camp is
Speaker 1: starting on like the latest day possible because of just
Speaker 1: how the.
Speaker 2: Calendar fell this year.
Speaker 1: Now with the teams going over to Australia, those teams
Speaker 1: are starting a little early. The Patriots and the Seahawks
Speaker 1: are on a Wednesday, so they're coming earlier. But if
Speaker 1: you compare it to last year, you know, teams were
Speaker 1: already showing up for the most part. The rest of
Speaker 1: the NFL will be showing up over the weekend this week,
Speaker 1: some of the teams come and start training camp, but
Speaker 1: it is about as latest as we ever had, which
Speaker 1: gave us a little more time to prep this list.
Speaker 1: I got seventy position battles written down, shook, I think
Speaker 1: we'll get to thirty five that are maybe worthy of
Speaker 1: mentioning on the show. This is where I started to
Speaker 1: get dorky. I kind of am into a couple of
Speaker 1: linebacker battles with the Dolphins. Jacob Rodriguez is a rookie
Speaker 1: that I really am curious to see how he fits
Speaker 1: at the NFL level. He could start next to Jordan Brooks,
Speaker 1: but first he has to beat out either Tyrel Dodson,
Speaker 1: who used to be with the Bills and has been
Speaker 1: there for a little while, or Kyle Lewis is there,
Speaker 1: who is also kind of an interesting prospect. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you had any takes on the Indiana product,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of a fun little group. I would
Speaker 1: assume Rodriguez is the favorite there to start, but that's
Speaker 1: something I'll be tracking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm curious to see exactly how they deploy Kyle
Speaker 3: Lewis because he's like six feet like what is he
Speaker 3: two hundred pounds two twenty and he kind of projects
Speaker 3: more to me as kind of like a box safety
Speaker 3: than a traditional linebacker, Like he worked out with the
Speaker 3: linebackers of the combine. He's listed as a linebacker. I
Speaker 3: see him as a sub package linebacker or not as
Speaker 3: somebody who's playing you know, first and second down, although
Speaker 3: the majority of defense is now operating subpackages, so I
Speaker 3: guess it's kind of an example of the evolution of
Speaker 3: the position, I think. But it's an interesting group on
Speaker 3: a team that I don't expect to be very good,
Speaker 3: but does have some intriguing players. Because Jordan Brooks is
Speaker 3: a noted pillar of how they're going to rebuild this team.
Speaker 3: Jacob Rodriguez would probably be a first round linebacker in
Speaker 3: most other classes that don't include rvil recent sunny styles,
Speaker 3: and so I think that he's actually going to come
Speaker 3: in with some pretty high expectations, just a matter of
Speaker 3: figuring out exactly how they all slot. And in Dodson
Speaker 3: as a veteran who was pretty productive for them last year.
Speaker 3: All things considered, I think it's one of the few
Speaker 3: position groups so they actually have some pretty good depth,
Speaker 3: and it's a good problem to have that they have
Speaker 3: to sort these guys out, and I expect all of
Speaker 3: them to play. I just think that Lewis will be
Speaker 3: more in a specialized role than somebody is going to
Speaker 3: see a ton of snaps.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are so many Dolphins positions that are wide open,
Speaker 1: but this is the one where it's like, oh, these
Speaker 1: I'm actually intrigued by these.
Speaker 3: With these guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, cornerback is way down my list where it's just
Speaker 1: a million guys that should not be competing to possibly
Speaker 1: be their number one cornerback. The other linebacker spot that
Speaker 1: intrigues me is in Dallas, where they're probably going to
Speaker 1: start to marve on overshown as their middle linebacker and
Speaker 1: have the green dot in this helmet, but it's not guaranteed.
Speaker 1: And there's just an intriguing group there with him, de Winters,
Speaker 1: who they traded for from San Francisco, Jayshaun Barram, who
Speaker 1: was one of our guys, Ali Connelly's favorite draft prospects.
Speaker 1: Chamar James is another veteran that's been around, and so
Speaker 1: just shake all those up. It's a brand new offense
Speaker 1: defense rather with Christian Parker, and I think sometimes with
Speaker 1: new coordinators you have surprising results. So that's what I'm
Speaker 1: going to keep an eye on. My next group is
Speaker 1: a ton of offensive line positions, and I'll start with
Speaker 1: the Cowboys who say that their first round pick from
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, Tyler Geyton, is going up
Speaker 1: against Nate Thomas, who played some for them last year,
Speaker 1: and that it is in open competition.
Speaker 2: So whenever you.
Speaker 1: Get like a left tackle spot that's open on a
Speaker 1: quality team, to me, at Matt the Bears left tackle
Speaker 1: spot is open. Braxton Jones is back and is probably
Speaker 1: the favorite over Jedrick Wills and Theo Benedict who are
Speaker 1: behind him. They just keep resigning Braxton Jones even though
Speaker 1: they always wanted to replace him. And then the Panthers,
Speaker 1: their left tackle spot is pretty open with Rashid Walker,
Speaker 1: who was a free agent pickup, and then Monroe Freeling,
Speaker 1: who was their first round draft pick. You would think
Speaker 1: is the favorite, but you never know, they might bring
Speaker 1: him along slowly. So those are three teams that are
Speaker 1: trying to compete this year that have left tackle spots
Speaker 1: open for you, Which one of those stand out to
Speaker 1: you the most.
Speaker 3: I think the Cowboys talking about Moble competition is them
Speaker 3: trying to push Tyler Gutton to take the next step.
Speaker 3: I don't think that it's actually a legit competition based
Speaker 3: on what they saw from Thomas last year. Maybe I
Speaker 3: could be wrong. Rashid Walker versus Monroe Freeling is pretty
Speaker 3: wide open because Freeling comes into the NFL, you know,
Speaker 3: with a pretty high reputation as a rookie, whereas Walker
Speaker 3: was a guy who a lot of people thought was
Speaker 3: going to get a pretty big deal in free agency
Speaker 3: and did it and just lasted out there and lasted
Speaker 3: and lasted and finally ended up in Carolina, which kind
Speaker 3: of speaks to how the league views him versus how
Speaker 3: maybe we view him. And I have no idea exactly
Speaker 3: which direction that's gonna go, because they're also in a
Speaker 3: situation where they're kind of just trying to figure out
Speaker 3: who's going to play in place of ikey Ikuanu for now,
Speaker 3: right maybe not long term, could be, you know, it
Speaker 3: could be wide open long term, but for now and
Speaker 3: then the last one the Bears. I don't think Jed
Speaker 3: will is going to compete, seriously, he didn't play football
Speaker 3: last year. His final year with the Browns was not good,
Speaker 3: and I think that that's probably Braxton Jones's job. But
Speaker 3: it's good for them to have some depth there, you know,
Speaker 3: considering some of the injuries that they dealt with, upfront
Speaker 3: last year and a team that comes in with high expectations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm kind of the flip side.
Speaker 1: Another similar spot is the Lions right tackle, where Blake
Speaker 1: Miller I assume was going to be penciled in as
Speaker 1: their right tackle of the future. He's their first round pick,
Speaker 1: he fits the profile in Detroit. I would consider him
Speaker 1: the favorite, but the local reporting says that Larry Borum,
Speaker 1: the veteran, will have a chance to win that job.
Speaker 1: That's just something to keep an eye. You never know
Speaker 1: which rookies are going to show up and just not
Speaker 1: be ready for pro football. And so that's what training
Speaker 1: camp is for. And then I threw in the Patriots
Speaker 1: first round pick to Caleb Lomu, who's taken snaps at
Speaker 1: right tackle in the off season, but also took some
Speaker 1: snaps at left tackle, where Will Campbell is going to be.
Speaker 1: And so it's Morgan Moses is the veteran there who's
Speaker 1: going to have a lot of veteran days off. He's older,
Speaker 1: and there's just a scenario where if Lomo looks awesome,
Speaker 1: that they're ready to kick Will Campbell inside. I really
Speaker 1: doubt that's going to happen this offseason. But it's just
Speaker 1: kind of figuring out where Lomu fits for the Patriots.
Speaker 3: I don't like to sit back and be like I
Speaker 3: was right all the time, although I do it occasionally,
Speaker 3: but I do feel like the entire football world needed
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl to then get on the Will Campbell
Speaker 3: move to guard train, and now they won't let it go.
Speaker 3: And I think that even the Patriots drafted if with
Speaker 3: that kind of in mind, like maybe this is what
Speaker 3: we do long term by selecting Lomu. I would be
Speaker 3: very excited to see him coming to camp and just
Speaker 3: tear it up right away, like that would be awesome, man,
Speaker 3: given his background, you know, Utah offensive line and that
Speaker 3: sort of thing, Like, I would be very excited to
Speaker 3: see that type of player just instantly make a difference
Speaker 3: and then also solve this issue because we're going to
Speaker 3: continue to hear about this and it's not really even
Speaker 3: a knock on Will Campbell. I've always said solid average
Speaker 3: to solid tackle, but could be a very very good guard,
Speaker 3: and I think that's still his long term path. Maybe
Speaker 3: this is the first step toward that. Maybe they delay
Speaker 3: it for another year, like you said, but the idea
Speaker 3: that having another talented young guy in there to make
Speaker 3: that happen. That's always going to catch my eye.
Speaker 1: Yeah, injuries will play a big part there, Like if
Speaker 1: Moses suddenly goes down, then it's all set.
Speaker 2: Lomo is that right tackle.
Speaker 1: But Will Campbell believers will tell you that he was
Speaker 1: coming off knee injury in that playoff run when it
Speaker 1: didn't look quite as good. So he's going to have
Speaker 1: to prove, you know, he's healthy and looking good. The
Speaker 1: other offensive line battle I thought was most interesting here
Speaker 1: was the bear center where it could be the rookie
Speaker 1: Logan Jones or Garrett Bradberry, the former Patriot who they
Speaker 1: traded for. So that's one to keep an eye on there.
Speaker 1: Let's go to some running back ones. I had four
Speaker 1: running back battles that I thought were intriguing. I'm going
Speaker 1: to make the case of why you should care about
Speaker 1: the Chargers preseason. There is an assumption, including by me
Speaker 1: when I took Omari and Hampton very high in our
Speaker 1: running back draft, that he is the next big fantasy back.
Speaker 1: I think that's very possible to even likely, but there
Speaker 1: were times during his rookie year where he was a
Speaker 1: little tentative. It is a new offense with Mike McDaniel
Speaker 1: and Mike McDaniel in the past has liked to rotate
Speaker 1: his backs until one really earned being the guy. And
Speaker 1: the other two players in that backfield are Kamani Videl,
Speaker 1: who is one of the best past protecting rookie backs
Speaker 1: you'll ever want to see and it was a tough
Speaker 1: player and a guy who can eat carries. And Keaton Mitchell,
Speaker 1: a speedster who they handpicked in free agency to have
Speaker 1: a role. So to me, marian and Hampton is going
Speaker 1: to have a role, a big role, likely the starting
Speaker 1: role on this team. But I do think how quickly
Speaker 1: he can pick up the offense and look in some
Speaker 1: preseason work will impact whether he's getting the line's share
Speaker 1: of the carries or maybe they're going to spread it around.
Speaker 1: That's going to affect not just a really good team
Speaker 1: with the Chargers, but a lot of fantasy drafts.
Speaker 3: I hope that those who went to the Mri and
Speaker 3: Hampton experience last year got a nice dose of reality
Speaker 3: in the fantasy world, which is that stop spending high
Speaker 3: picks on rookies who haven't taken an NFL field yet.
Speaker 3: Please please stop doing it. I hear it every year.
Speaker 3: I have my friends be like, what do you think
Speaker 3: about this rookie? Don't take rookies high. It's a blind selection.
Speaker 3: Please don't do it. Having said that, his tentativeness from
Speaker 3: last season, I think could partially be blamed on the
Speaker 3: fact that he started the season injured. Like had. He
Speaker 3: battled health issues for a good portion of his rookie
Speaker 3: season before he was able to really hit the ground running.
Speaker 3: And so if you give him an entire offseason to
Speaker 3: really get acclimated to this new offense, I think that
Speaker 3: he could really flourish in it because what you described
Speaker 3: and the two guys behind him in community Vidal and
Speaker 3: Keate and Mitchell are two very different styles of running backs.
Speaker 3: Hampton is the perfect blend between the two, where he's
Speaker 3: got speed and power, and I think that he could
Speaker 3: be a force in Mike McDaniel's rushing attack. However, I
Speaker 3: like the strengths of this entire backfield as a whole.
Speaker 3: I love a good Mike McDaniel backfield that relies heavily
Speaker 3: on different types of running backs who can be rotated
Speaker 3: in and out and just thrive behind good blocking schemes
Speaker 3: because that's what he's always been a master of. So
Speaker 3: I would really love to see this offense run the
Speaker 3: football this year, and I don't care who it is
Speaker 3: running the ball, because they love to run it. That
Speaker 3: they tried to establish as their identity. Even when they
Speaker 3: lost their offensive line mostly the most of the offensive
Speaker 3: line last year and couldn't do anything offensively, you come
Speaker 3: back with the healthy offensive line on all of these
Speaker 3: different types of running backs there, Let's pound the rock, baby,
Speaker 3: like the hat says behind me that you can't really
Speaker 3: see even if you're watching on YouTube. Run the damn ball,
Speaker 3: Run the damn ball in LA.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I listed that one high just because I think
Speaker 1: these players are intriguing and I don't think it's as
Speaker 1: much of a cinch for Hampton to wind up with
Speaker 1: three hundred touches this year, such good players around him,
Speaker 1: and so.
Speaker 3: That that's a similar good problem to have.
Speaker 2: Though, yes, it is a good problem to have.
Speaker 1: And so that's similar to the other three quote unquote
Speaker 1: battles that I listed here. I put the Commander's bucks
Speaker 1: in Seahawks running back situation. It's just ones to keep
Speaker 1: an eye with the bucks. You have Bucky Irving coming
Speaker 1: off a bad year. You have Kenny Gainwell, who's making
Speaker 1: a good amount of money, who I think is going
Speaker 1: to have a big role. You gave Sean Tucker a
Speaker 1: pretty aggressive tender in restricted free agency, making sure that
Speaker 1: he stayed home, and so those three guys are kind
Speaker 1: of figuring out the mix with this staff. Rashad White
Speaker 1: and Bill Krofsky Merritt in Washington are going to figure out,
Speaker 1: you know, what they're going to do. And Jerry McNichols
Speaker 1: is still there. And then in Seattle I kind of
Speaker 1: mentioned the battle of Jenarian Price was drafted too starts,
Speaker 1: so he's got to prove that he can be that
Speaker 1: guy right away. They also signed a veteran, Emmanuel Wilson,
Speaker 1: who was last seen with the Packers. You had George
Speaker 1: Hallani who was taken snaps in the Super Bowl, so
Speaker 1: ye know that's that's where something. And then Zach Charbonny's
Speaker 1: health is just something to watch there. And because it's
Speaker 1: the Seahawks and the defending champs, everything matters a little more.
Speaker 1: But I think all three of those spots are fairly
Speaker 1: open in terms of figuring out like what the in
Speaker 1: terms of participation of each one of those running backs
Speaker 1: are going to be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, two of these three groups I'm excited
Speaker 3: to see because they're well balanced and they have good
Speaker 3: depth and they can do a lot of different things.
Speaker 3: Like I like the role of Bill Krosky merit in
Speaker 3: the second year after hopping on the scene but not
Speaker 3: having to be the guy. Because Rashad White's also in
Speaker 3: that backfield, I don't think there's quite as much depth
Speaker 3: there as there is in Tampa where Bucky Irving, if
Speaker 3: he has a bounce back year, you pair him nicely
Speaker 3: with Kenny Gainwell, who was one of my favorite pass
Speaker 3: catching backs last year. I think he can do a
Speaker 3: lot of different things. Sean Tucker one of my favorite
Speaker 3: just like classic powerbacks, guys that run hard, guy that
Speaker 3: was even taking kick returns last year. I love the
Speaker 3: depth of that backfield and what it presents the you know,
Speaker 3: the options that it presents them. The Seahawks I'm a
Speaker 3: little bit more cautious with because as much as I
Speaker 3: like Jadarian Price coming out of Notre Dame, he has
Speaker 3: a rookie and the depth there is a little bit concerning,
Speaker 3: not just because he lost Kenneth Walker, but also because
Speaker 3: Zach Scharbay is coming back from an acl injury that
Speaker 3: he suffered in the playoffs, which means you know, he's
Speaker 3: not going to be probably one hundred percent to start
Speaker 3: the season. And like you mentioned George Lane playing in
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl, Yes, but he was also a guy
Speaker 3: that's at the bottom of that depth chart. Emmanuel Wilson
Speaker 3: veteran like, there's just not as much quality depth there
Speaker 3: that I can rely on at this point in the season.
Speaker 3: That's the group that I'm more concerned about than excited
Speaker 3: to see unfold.
Speaker 1: And we'll be playing in the first game of the year,
Speaker 1: and I would expect Zach Charbonay to be on the
Speaker 1: pup list or short short term injured reserve. It's just
Speaker 1: really tough to come back from the injury that quickly
Speaker 1: at that position, and Price a rookie has never shown
Speaker 1: he could be the guy.
Speaker 2: I don't really think he profiles as the guy.
Speaker 1: I think he profiles as a great compliment to a
Speaker 1: guy like Zach Charboni who But in the meantime, I
Speaker 1: am curious how that's going to look on opening Day.
Speaker 1: I love quarterbacks, and so I'm put some backup quarterback
Speaker 1: battles here in my top thirty five at the Mason
Speaker 1: Rudolph versus Drew Aller versus Will Howard combination in Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: is funny to me. And whoever wins that battle, you know,
Speaker 1: could wind up playing if Aaron Rodgers got hurt and
Speaker 1: we can kind of see who is Mike McCarthy's favorite
Speaker 1: quarterback of the future. We have a Ty Simpson versus
Speaker 1: Stetson Bennett qute unquote battle if Ty Simpson can't beat
Speaker 1: out Stetson Bennett and they can't trust them to play
Speaker 1: a little if something happened to Stafford, well what are
Speaker 1: you doing taking them thirteenth overall?
Speaker 2: And then you also just for uh, just for laughs.
Speaker 1: I'm into the Sam Howell versus Joe Milton preseason that
Speaker 1: we're gonna have for Dallas.
Speaker 2: Those are those are my backups that I like.
Speaker 3: Last throwing that left throwing so good because it's just like, really,
Speaker 3: come on, but you're right, well.
Speaker 1: This is why I do this exercise, Nick, because I
Speaker 1: was going through each and every team, look at the
Speaker 1: depth chart, reading some about each team, and I was
Speaker 1: just like, oh, I kind of forgot Sam how on
Speaker 1: that team.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and Joe Milton is still there.
Speaker 1: I was just like, I just saw myself on like
Speaker 1: Saturday night, August thirteenth, watching some Sam Howell Joe Milton
Speaker 1: experience that we're going to end up talking about it.
Speaker 3: And we're like, oh my god, Sam Howe is having
Speaker 3: a Jared Stidham preseason. I'm just kidding, that's not going
Speaker 3: to happen. The best of these three, I think it
Speaker 3: most intriguing to me is Pittsburgh because this has already
Speaker 3: divided people into camps. In Pittsburgh if you're really paying
Speaker 3: attention to it, there are the Mason Rudolph diehards, who
Speaker 3: are like, no matter what, you have to keep him
Speaker 3: on the roster because god forbid Aaron Rodgers goes down,
Speaker 3: the whole season's over, but Mason can save us and
Speaker 3: keep us afloat, which he has proven in recent years
Speaker 3: that he's capable of keeping you afloat. But then there's
Speaker 3: also the Drew Allers, the future camp and we spent
Speaker 3: a third round pick on him because he's going to
Speaker 3: be that guy. And then there's that group of people
Speaker 3: in Pittsburgh's front office who were leaking stuff or maybe
Speaker 3: speaking on it publicly last year and then into this
Speaker 3: offseason before the draft, they were like, will How's awesome.
Speaker 3: He didn't see the field at all last year. But
Speaker 3: we really believe in Will Howard so much that we
Speaker 3: spent a third round pick on Drew Aller. And I'm
Speaker 3: not a hater against Will Howard because he got my
Speaker 3: team a national championship. But all three of those guys
Speaker 3: are not going to be on the roster by the
Speaker 3: end of camp. So it's just a matter of who goes,
Speaker 3: and do you go youth versus somebody who's older and proven.
Speaker 3: And Mason Rudolph, there's some who have a theory that
Speaker 3: Rudolph's just not going to be on the roster. I
Speaker 3: have a hard time believing that if you are really
Speaker 3: guy I am that.
Speaker 1: Guy Will, I would say he could make it to
Speaker 1: the practice squad and you just pay it, you know,
Speaker 1: you figure out some salary.
Speaker 3: Somebody's poaching him from the practice squad because there are
Speaker 3: worse backup situations in the NFL than Pittsburgh. And that's
Speaker 3: why I'm like, I can't really see that as a
Speaker 3: like a feasible option if you believe that you're going
Speaker 3: to compete, because if Rogers does go down, granted he
Speaker 3: rarely gets hit because he gets the ball out so quickly.
Speaker 3: Then you're in a bad spot if you're turning to
Speaker 3: Drew Aller or Will Howard to try to carry your team.
Speaker 1: I'm most interested in Ty Simpson because they have traditionally
Speaker 1: played their number three quarterback like all throughout the preseason.
Speaker 1: You would think they would want to get Ty Simpson
Speaker 1: some experience. I don't care how much you try to
Speaker 1: lower expectations. He's a top fifteen quarterback in the entire draft.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be very curious about the daily tramp
Speaker 1: camp reports and also what he looks like in the preseason,
Speaker 1: and you better beat out that's inbedded. Speaking of guy
Speaker 1: you talked about a lot in the draft, Jermald McCoy,
Speaker 1: I threw in an ear as my next position battle.
Speaker 2: We're up to about twenty five on the list.
Speaker 1: Jermal McCoy was practicing a little bit in OTAs it's
Speaker 1: wide open there at the cornerback two spot for the
Speaker 1: Raiders where Eric Stokes is number one.
Speaker 2: I guess Darien Porter would be the favorite.
Speaker 1: But McCoy has a chance to really prove the Raiders
Speaker 1: right that they've had faith that he didn't need any
Speaker 1: more surgery. He was a fourth round pick, but just
Speaker 1: going to be tracking him because of his draft journey
Speaker 1: and how talented he was when he was on the
Speaker 1: field at Tennessee.
Speaker 3: Fourth round pick with a first round status before his
Speaker 3: injury at Tennessee, and somebody who I think if he
Speaker 3: can get healthy, I kind of think about Will Johnson
Speaker 3: last year with the Cardinals, where he was coming off
Speaker 3: of injury and he wasn't quite the guy that you
Speaker 3: thought he was going to be year two. After such
Speaker 3: an injuries, usually when they get back to themselves that
Speaker 3: they're ever going to get back to their former selves
Speaker 3: at all, that's when it happens. So maybe it's a
Speaker 3: little bit early for McCoy, but the fact that he's
Speaker 3: out there on the field is encouraging. And it's a
Speaker 3: team that, Look, we had a lot of optimism or
Speaker 3: at least excitement with them last year when they got Geno,
Speaker 3: and we saw how much of a nightmare that was
Speaker 3: because their offensive line was the worse in the NFL.
Speaker 3: I feel actually more excited about them this year because
Speaker 3: I think they're actually doing a pretty good job of
Speaker 3: rebuilding this team. And that's one of those underlying little
Speaker 3: secondary storylines where you're like, oh, Gerald McCoy also a
Speaker 3: guy that's the fourth round and ends up actually playing.
Speaker 3: I kind of caution against being excited about his rookie
Speaker 3: season because of the injury that he came off, but
Speaker 3: he didn't play football last year, so this could be
Speaker 3: year two and maybe we do see it, and that's
Speaker 3: one of the ones that we'll be intriguing for sure.
Speaker 1: We're starting our division preview series a little later this week,
Speaker 1: and so we're going to talk Raiders more there. I'm
Speaker 1: intrigued to of how they kind of shake out their
Speaker 1: edge position wide receiver.
Speaker 2: They have questions, but we'll leave it there for the Raiders.
Speaker 1: A cornerback spot that doing research for this surprised me
Speaker 1: a little was the Buccaneers cornerback spot. And so this
Speaker 1: is going to make my top thirty five because again
Speaker 1: a team I think is going to make the playoffs.
Speaker 2: These are good players that they have.
Speaker 1: At cornerback in terms of Zion McCollum, the second year
Speaker 1: player Benjamin Morrison, Jacob Parrish is in that mix, and
Speaker 1: those three are reportedly competing for two spots on the outside. Now,
Speaker 1: McCallum makes a lot of money and it would be
Speaker 1: the heavy favorite and it's expected that he's one of
Speaker 1: those two spots that leaves Morrison in Parish, who was
Speaker 1: great last year in the slot. And yet all the
Speaker 1: reporting from Tampa suggests that the slot job is just
Speaker 1: going to be handed to Keyante Scott, who was one
Speaker 1: of my absolute favorites in the draft. I chose him
Speaker 1: as one of my guys and he fell all the
Speaker 1: way to day three, and yet they're saying now that
Speaker 1: the slot job is going to be Conte Scott's, which great,
Speaker 1: that's going to make me feel smart, although it's pretty
Speaker 1: rare at a hand of day three pick a starting
Speaker 1: job right off the bat. And if that's the case,
Speaker 1: that's a good battle on the outside. And I'm curious
Speaker 1: if Jacob Parrish, who is really good, can translate that.
Speaker 1: So I know we're getting in the weeds here, But
Speaker 1: this is a Todd Bowles cornerback group. I think this
Speaker 1: defense has really high variants. I think they have top
Speaker 1: five to eight potential, and like a lot of Todd
Speaker 1: Bowles defense, it could look bad in a given week.
Speaker 1: But man, there's a scenario where this is one of
Speaker 1: the more intriguing cornerback groups in the entire league. And
Speaker 1: then you have Antoine Winfield and the good safety group too,
Speaker 1: and they can really be dangerous.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that defense is ultimate ceiling comes down
Speaker 3: to how effective Ruben Bain can be right away, because
Speaker 3: they have lacked that edge rushing presence really since like
Speaker 3: the final year of Shaq Barrett or final two years
Speaker 3: of Shaq Barrett. Really, it's been a while since they've
Speaker 3: had a difference maker at edge rusher because Sosan Redick
Speaker 3: didn't work out there, right, But the strength of this
Speaker 3: defense is that secondary and they felt so good about
Speaker 3: it that they moved on from Jammel Dean, They moved
Speaker 3: on from Christianizian in the offseason. They let them both walk,
Speaker 3: and then they went and spent that pick on Keyante
Speaker 3: Scott because they liked the group overall. This is one
Speaker 3: of the ones that's I'm not necessarily so much fascinated
Speaker 3: as I'm just excited to watch how they all kind
Speaker 3: of settle into their roles and how they could be
Speaker 3: moved around, because I think this is going to be
Speaker 3: what they need to depend on, is the back end
Speaker 3: of that defense unless that pass rush gets a lot
Speaker 3: better than it has been over the last few years.
Speaker 3: So it's good. It's just a lot of talent, and
Speaker 3: you like it when you see a lot of talented
Speaker 3: players in the back end of the defense.
Speaker 1: They're pretty wide open in terms of their second linebacker
Speaker 1: spot too, so I'll keep an eye on that. I
Speaker 1: have the Titans wide receiver group up next, mostly because
Speaker 1: I'm curious Calvin Ridley could be traded depending on how
Speaker 1: training camp lines up. So follow my line of thinking here,
Speaker 1: Shook Carnel Tate is locked in as one of their
Speaker 1: top three receivers, Wandell Robinson, he gave a lot of
Speaker 1: money to Brian Dables there he's locked in. And then
Speaker 1: you have these rookies from a year ago, Elicio and
Speaker 1: Tamar Dka, who both showed some potential. You have Calvin Ridley,
Speaker 1: who took a reduced contract to stay and is really
Speaker 1: talented and had great seasons in the NFL and could
Speaker 1: be a really good number three. I just think, depending
Speaker 1: on how camp looks, how the second year players are
Speaker 1: improving and fitting a new offense, that either Calvin Ridley
Speaker 1: could wind up leading this team in receiving as possible,
Speaker 1: or he could wind up getting traded in camp. If
Speaker 1: kind of the younger guys step up. And that's why
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of keeping an eye on this Titans
Speaker 1: wide receiver spot.
Speaker 3: It's not that it's a team that's necessarily just for
Speaker 3: cap space, but they could move on from him if
Speaker 3: they wanted to. They'd save seven point seven in cap
Speaker 3: this year, and it would make sense given that he's
Speaker 3: thirty two years old and that he does have some
Speaker 3: variants in his career. Obviously, only played seven games last year,
Speaker 3: but after a thousand yard season, his second of you know,
Speaker 3: second straight in the last two years, he had three
Speaker 3: hundred and three yards. Like he just he was non
Speaker 3: existent in this receiving corps, and it was a receiving
Speaker 3: corps that desperately needed a player like that, given that
Speaker 3: they relied so much on DK and on Iom Manner
Speaker 3: last year for cam Ward. So this is part of
Speaker 3: why I'm more excited to see the Titans this season
Speaker 3: and just more optimistic about them, maybe not in terms
Speaker 3: of overall record, but just how this offense is going
Speaker 3: to function because I think finally cam Ward has some
Speaker 3: you know, improved weapons around him. Wandiale. Robbinson was excellent
Speaker 3: last year. I thought it was a great pickup for
Speaker 3: them going into this season and Tate, you know, they're
Speaker 3: taking a big swing on him at fourth overall, but
Speaker 3: he's also a very good receiver and was the best
Speaker 3: contested catchmaker in college football last season. I think that
Speaker 3: translates immediately, so he's got better options. It's just a
Speaker 3: matter of how do you sort out this group. I
Speaker 3: think it's the four minus Calvin Ridley that you're going
Speaker 3: to end up seeing on the field for the most part,
Speaker 3: and I think that moving on from Ridley is very realistic,
Speaker 3: especially if they feel like now is the time to
Speaker 3: get the younger guys more reps and really push it
Speaker 3: toward the future. But Ridley could have a bounce back.
Speaker 3: He could, you know, be healthy and be the productive
Speaker 3: guy that he was two three years ago, and then
Speaker 3: it just adds more depth to the group. I just
Speaker 3: feel like if there's going to be a time for
Speaker 3: them to move on, it's probably pretty soon.
Speaker 2: Sneaky old Calvin Ridley.
Speaker 1: It's weird for myself, with you know, my increasingly gray
Speaker 1: hair on the side of my head, to call a
Speaker 1: guy that thirty one years old sneaky old. But I
Speaker 1: just wouldn't have guessed that Calvin Ridley was thirty one already.
Speaker 2: It snuck up on me.
Speaker 1: The Bengals edge position is something I'm keeping an eye on.
Speaker 1: I assume Miles Murphy will start opposite boy Mafe, but
Speaker 1: I'm curious if they're gonna get anything out of last
Speaker 1: year's first round pick Sjamar Stewart. I'm curious if they're
Speaker 1: gonna trust Cashius Howell to just be a fireball off
Speaker 1: the edge as an early second round pick, a pass
Speaker 1: rusher I liked a lot, so I'm gonna keep an
Speaker 1: eye on that. The Giants' cornerback situation has some names
Speaker 1: I'm kind of interested in. Colton Hood was a second
Speaker 1: round pick. Your old guy, Greg Newsom, who's bounced around
Speaker 1: the last year from Cleveland to Jacksonville now to the Giants,
Speaker 1: I would assume is the favorite there. And Deontay Banks,
Speaker 1: their former first round pick, is still around. There's some
Speaker 1: more wide receiver three battles that I like. Josh Palmer
Speaker 1: and Kean Coleman is an interesting one in Buffalo. How
Speaker 1: about a little Xavier Leget. Chris Brazzle, my two lane
Speaker 1: guy in Carolina is kind of fun. And then New
Speaker 1: England after Romeo Dobbs and aj Brown. It's pretty wide
Speaker 1: open with good players, and I'm not sure they're really
Speaker 1: going to figure that out in camp, but I think
Speaker 1: they could wind up trading a guy like Kaishawn Boody
Speaker 1: or Mac Collins, ord Mario Douglas.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Kyle Williams is there as well. So
Speaker 2: that's a lot of depth that wide receiver.
Speaker 1: Do any of those wide receiver battles you strike your
Speaker 1: fancy more than others.
Speaker 3: Well, first, I want to say that, yes, we don't
Speaker 3: know what we're going to see how the Bengals edge guys,
Speaker 3: but they have more depth and more options than they've
Speaker 3: had in like the last four or five years, and
Speaker 3: that should be a reason to be encouraged if you're
Speaker 3: a Bengals fan. So that that alone kind of just
Speaker 3: tempers my or this way to some of my concerns. Right,
Speaker 3: But when it comes to this receiver group, you're right,
Speaker 3: and I when I look at the group for the Patriots,
Speaker 3: I think, oh, well, now is probably the time to
Speaker 3: move on for Mac Collins if you're going to you know,
Speaker 3: store out the rest of this group. Well, where should
Speaker 3: Mac Hollins go? Oh? He should go back to Buffalo.
Speaker 3: Oh But that's an indivision trade. They would never do that,
Speaker 3: but that's exactly where I would like to send him
Speaker 3: because I don't like the Bill's receiver situation still, because yeah,
Speaker 3: for coming down a number three between Joshua Palmer and
Speaker 3: Keyon Coleman, and you think, well, that's not actually a
Speaker 3: bad set of options to have, but behind that it
Speaker 3: gets really thin again, just as where they've been over
Speaker 3: the last few years, and I would like for them
Speaker 3: to have a return trip for mccollins. But yeah, so
Speaker 3: there's there's different situations. It's a not an embarrassment of rishes,
Speaker 3: but it's a bit of a luxury for the Patriots
Speaker 3: as opposed to the Bills, who would probably happily take
Speaker 3: one of those guys. But I don't think that would
Speaker 3: ever happen between these two franchises, given that they're competing
Speaker 3: for the same division title. But in a perfect world,
Speaker 3: if I could play matchmaker, that's what I would do.
Speaker 1: It drives me crazy that the Patriots would be way
Speaker 1: less likely to help out their division rival Bills by
Speaker 1: trading mccollins. I totally agree with you. Then the Celtics
Speaker 1: were to trade Jalen Brown to the seventy six Oh
Speaker 1: sure here here Jalen Brown.
Speaker 3: Well, well, did they kind of sell mccollins down the
Speaker 3: river publicly when they tried to trade for somebody else?
Speaker 3: Did they do it? Did they sell mc collins down
Speaker 3: the river when they tried to trade for a J.
Speaker 3: Brown and then actually did trade for a J. Brown?
Speaker 2: It's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Help out your rival. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The last one I have listed is another wide receiver.
Speaker 1: One I just thought because the forty nine ers are
Speaker 1: going to be competing to be one of the best
Speaker 1: teams in the NFL, that's their hope. That just keep
Speaker 1: an eye on Deshaun Stribling, who is their rookie wide receiver.
Speaker 1: Christian Kirk is in that mix if we're looking at
Speaker 1: depth to Marcus Robinson is still on that team.
Speaker 2: And then I.
Speaker 1: Also included just Ricky Pearsall's health. Obviously, Pearsall and Mike
Speaker 1: Evans are going to be starters if they're healthy. But
Speaker 1: Pearsall is just a guy that has not been able
Speaker 1: to string multiple weeks of help together, especially in training camp,
Speaker 1: and so if he can't, then Stribling's development, Kirk staying healthy,
Speaker 1: just curious how that shakes out. With a wide receiver
Speaker 1: friendly offense and a wide receiver focus coach in Kyle Shanahan.
Speaker 1: I believe that's our thirty fifth and final position battles.
Speaker 1: Are you excited about the forty nine ers camp? Do
Speaker 1: you care about all these? Are you ready to go shook?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah. This has been a good primer and I've
Speaker 3: shifted from holding on to the final glimmers of summer
Speaker 3: and I am now ready for football season to arrive
Speaker 3: because of this exercise that we've gone through. And also
Speaker 3: I feel a little more excited because some of the
Speaker 3: guys that we mentioned. I did list on players I
Speaker 3: expect to improve this season because the situation is surrounding
Speaker 3: then Bricky Piercell, Treylon Burks, a couple of those guys
Speaker 3: that come off the list off the top of my head,
Speaker 3: so plenty of reason to watch. Training camp is basically here.
Speaker 3: I am going to the Hall of Fame game, which
Speaker 3: is around the corner. Come on, come on, set ready, folks.
Speaker 2: August sixth not that far away.
Speaker 1: I could release a position battles list, how about number
Speaker 1: thirty six to seventy.
Speaker 2: I just don't know if the interest would be there.
Speaker 1: Maybe you have to sign up for our Extra Secret
Speaker 1: newsletter to find out that Kaylin rutch Ledge Versus Jake
Speaker 1: Andrews is number fifty seven on my personal list. We've
Speaker 1: got Austin Booker and Dio Odengbo the Bears Edge battle.
Speaker 2: Way down the list.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of cornerback battles. I feel like
Speaker 1: every cornerback two spot is wide open. We've got some
Speaker 1: running backs, but we'll get into it all. That's what
Speaker 1: we do.
Speaker 2: On NFL Daily.
Speaker 1: We have a daily show really starting Wednesday, We're going
Speaker 1: to be going daily for the rest of time.
Speaker 2: Sorry Eric Roberts out there, and thank you.
Speaker 3: Thinking about pitches right now for your substack the regular
Speaker 3: season dot substack.
Speaker 1: Dot cost just like I don't know if people would
Speaker 1: be that interested in the rest of them, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to use it.
Speaker 2: For my own preparation.
Speaker 1: I wanted to say thank you to Eric Roberts, who's
Speaker 1: back on the ones and twos helping to produce us
Speaker 1: this week. He was gone last week, and Kyrie Douglas
Speaker 1: did an incredible job manning the ship. So I also
Speaker 1: wanted to send a big thank you to Quab and
Speaker 1: to Kyrie Douglas for handling the audio and the video
Speaker 1: last week.
Speaker 2: They did a great job.
Speaker 1: Like I said, we'll be back to daily really starting Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Me Jordan Rodrieg back.
Speaker 2: In the studio. It's not quite QB Island, but it's close.
Speaker 2: You'll see.
Speaker 1: It's a brand new edition of a QB Island. We
Speaker 1: got spinoffs going on NFL Daily that's coming up on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: We'll see you then,