Speaker 1: NFL Inside Report is a production of the NFL in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. I'm Red Lewis and this
Speaker 1: is NFL Inside Report. Over the course of the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, we have reset the rosters in the
Speaker 1: NFL and now in less than ten days, teams across
Speaker 1: the NFL will be making their additions via the draft
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas, and that is where we are shifting
Speaker 1: our focus here today. Reminder to subscribe, rate review our
Speaker 1: show on the I Heart Radio app on Apple Podcast
Speaker 1: wherever you get your pods. We certainly appreciate it. And
Speaker 1: with us today a couple of guys that have been
Speaker 1: on the ground for much of this pre draft process
Speaker 1: here for pro days to combine and essentially anywhere in between.
Speaker 1: Talking to James Palmer and Jeffrey Chitta. Gentlemen, great to
Speaker 1: be back here with you, and Jeff's got a great
Speaker 1: piece out right now. Um on pass rushers as they
Speaker 1: try to make this transition to the NFL from the
Speaker 1: college game. Will into that here in a little bit,
Speaker 1: but I want to start with some of the wide
Speaker 1: receiver situations that have gone on recently. Both you guys
Speaker 1: cover the Chiefs a bunch the Tyreek Hill move one
Speaker 1: of the biggest of the off season, sending him to Miami.
Speaker 1: He then gets the big money deal. Right. Davante Adams,
Speaker 1: similar situation, leaves Green Bay. It's another huge contract there
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. And now there's like that next round
Speaker 1: of guys that are looking for that kind of money. Right.
Speaker 1: Forty Niners, Deebo, Samuel Commanders, Terry McLaurin, Titans A J. Brown,
Speaker 1: who has made some interesting moves on social media recently.
Speaker 1: Let me start with you, James here real quick, just
Speaker 1: on on this phenomenon. Are you into or not into
Speaker 1: the reading into the scrubbing of social media from a
Speaker 1: players are scrubbing of a team and all of their
Speaker 1: information from a player's social media platforms. I thought, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden the question came out, and I was like,
Speaker 1: are we on Good Morning Football? Is this? Like if
Speaker 1: you were? I'm not. Again, Do I need a whiteboard
Speaker 1: to tell you what I'm thinking about? You know? Is
Speaker 1: am I in with this? Listen? This is the generation
Speaker 1: that we're dealing with and the generation that is making
Speaker 1: up a large portion of the NFL. And this is
Speaker 1: how apparently communication is. Uh, this is how you tell
Speaker 1: everyone how you're feeling. And I think in terms of
Speaker 1: the receiver spot, the more people I talked to, it's
Speaker 1: like the Christian Kirk deal is the one that kind
Speaker 1: of skewed everything in terms of how this landscape was going.
Speaker 1: Not that it was like obviously not the biggest, but
Speaker 1: it was like whoa, and then everything kind of happened
Speaker 1: a little bit after that. I just think what's happening
Speaker 1: is now we're seeing and you know, I live in Denver.
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson more or less told the Seattle Seahawks, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna play for the Broncos. Let's make that happen. And
Speaker 1: players are getting more power, and players are making their
Speaker 1: voices known. Jeff like clearer and clear about this is
Speaker 1: where I stand. This is where I want something to happen.
Speaker 1: But we also have seen you can fix it pretty
Speaker 1: quickly with a new contract or everybody we find. Eventually,
Speaker 1: it seems to mend itself quickly, even though people like
Speaker 1: to floice opinion in terms of social media about where
Speaker 1: they stand with where their pleasures are with their contract. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's uh. I think it's that, and I
Speaker 1: also feel like it's the players can read and they
Speaker 1: can see what's coming behind them. They know that this draft,
Speaker 1: for example, has got six or seven receivers who are
Speaker 1: first round talents. They saw what happened with Justin Jefferson,
Speaker 1: they saw what happened with Jamaar Chase. Obviously, they saw
Speaker 1: what happened with Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams and those
Speaker 1: guys as well. But there's there's a small window here
Speaker 1: to make your money, to make that big money out
Speaker 1: because if you're a GM and you're talking about paying
Speaker 1: a second second, excuse me, a second round pick, a
Speaker 1: guy's in the last sums contract now big money. You're
Speaker 1: also probably looking at guys like Garrett Wilson or Drake London, uh,
Speaker 1: people like that, Chris olav and saying well, I could
Speaker 1: just go with this guy, but we just find as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and that's part of where I wanted to get
Speaker 1: into because James, you saw one of those wide receivers
Speaker 1: that could be In that discussion down in Alabama's Road
Speaker 1: with Jamison Williams, what was the since you got down
Speaker 1: there um about him as a as a prospect that
Speaker 1: teams might see, as you know, a high level player
Speaker 1: that provides a little bit more cost control than maybe
Speaker 1: some of the wide receivers that are established in the league. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had a goal of going down there. Rent I
Speaker 1: was like, who in the right mind would want to
Speaker 1: leave the Ohio State University thinking? And so now I'm joking,
Speaker 1: but that was actually when I talked to evaluators, like
Speaker 1: they were kind of curious, going, where's the competitiveness? Right?
Speaker 1: Did you not want to beat out Chris Lave, Garrett Wilson,
Speaker 1: Jackson Smith and Jigba. It's a it's a huge lee,
Speaker 1: crowded wide receiver room. Why did you leave? Right? And
Speaker 1: And I kind of heard he didn't really like Ohio State.
Speaker 1: That's kind of a bummer, But I didn't have anything
Speaker 1: to do when I was down in Alabama finding out
Speaker 1: with his competitiveness. And that was one of the things
Speaker 1: when I got a chance to talk to Nick Saban
Speaker 1: for a little while, was like one of the things
Speaker 1: that he said, Jamo's competitiveness is kind of what made
Speaker 1: their team special. And I had just pointed out to
Speaker 1: me by a couple of teammates about the way practices
Speaker 1: would go when he first got there first the first
Speaker 1: day of practice he was with them, I was totally
Speaker 1: was one versus ones. He catches the ball in the
Speaker 1: middle of the field, there's two safeties about I don't know,
Speaker 1: six ft apart from each other. He goes through without
Speaker 1: even getting touched, And defensive players started asking guys in
Speaker 1: the secondary like, are you guys Lofen like you were
Speaker 1: going a d percent right, And they're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we were. He's just that much faster than we are.
Speaker 1: And you're talking about a program like Alabama. But what
Speaker 1: stood out to Saban and stood out the teammates, And
Speaker 1: this is why Saban told me his demeanor is so
Speaker 1: unique for the wide receiver to where he wants to
Speaker 1: be a gunner on special teams. He wants to play
Speaker 1: kickoff like they'd go ones versus once for a period.
Speaker 1: And I think we've all known the reputation and the
Speaker 1: stories of Alabama practices, right, and how they run and
Speaker 1: how hard they work. They would go from that period
Speaker 1: and then the very next period is a special teams period,
Speaker 1: And I was told by teammates like they've watched him
Speaker 1: sprint over to a special teams punt period and he'd
Speaker 1: be the gunner coming down on punt immediately after he
Speaker 1: was running deep balls with the first team offense and
Speaker 1: they are like, jeez, this guy works like that type
Speaker 1: of competitiveness, Saban told me is what made their team
Speaker 1: kind of special. And I think I learned something about
Speaker 1: him as an individual, and he has been going up
Speaker 1: boards because the talent is ridiculous. But I think the
Speaker 1: way that he in a lot of receivers, right, Jeffrey, like,
Speaker 1: don't change the way your team vibes a lot of times, right,
Speaker 1: That's not the position you usually look to when you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: looks guys kind of holding things together. He has a
Speaker 1: little bit of that. Yeah, And again you go back
Speaker 1: to the guy that just mentioned Jamaar Chase and Justin Jefferson.
Speaker 1: In the NFL, I think that what you're seeing in
Speaker 1: the league is people looking for those kinds of talents
Speaker 1: at that position now, players who can come and right
Speaker 1: away and completely change the complexion of your franchise. I
Speaker 1: do have to laugh, though, because he probably want to
Speaker 1: be a gunner for Ohio State because if I have
Speaker 1: plenty chance to do that job down there with a
Speaker 1: lobby and those guys. But I give you credit for
Speaker 1: bringing up his his his work, his work ethic. You
Speaker 1: guy I do love that left him as a player. Yeah,
Speaker 1: look at you two, and you know we're looking at
Speaker 1: the Chiefs, who now have you know, two first round
Speaker 1: picks right there, back to back as it currently stands,
Speaker 1: and if they stick right there, I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: be out of luck. Um with maybe the first five
Speaker 1: wide receivers could be off the board by that time.
Speaker 1: But Jeffrey, do you see that as a place that
Speaker 1: they still want to go or do you feel like
Speaker 1: they're set with the addition of Markquis, Balda Scantley, Jujue
Speaker 1: Smith Schuster in company there in case, I think James
Speaker 1: would attest to this. I think that when I look
Speaker 1: at the Chiefs going for receiver in the first round,
Speaker 1: a lot depends on what's there. I don't think that
Speaker 1: as aggressive as Brett beaches, he would go up to
Speaker 1: draft a receiver at that spot. I think you'd go
Speaker 1: up to get to edge rusher. But I do feel
Speaker 1: like they have a certain type of receiver they like
Speaker 1: to have there, and so guys who were more like
Speaker 1: the Drake London's, the bigger, the six four pound guys,
Speaker 1: the trailer burke type guys, even though they're athletic guys,
Speaker 1: they just don't fit their mold. I think Jamison Williams
Speaker 1: is that kind of player. I think Chris O. Lobby
Speaker 1: would be a great player in that in that system
Speaker 1: because it was route running and it's just his sophistication
Speaker 1: as intelligence, his i q um. But I think that
Speaker 1: they'll sit there and see what's available to them, and
Speaker 1: if they don't like it, they'll buy trade back and
Speaker 1: take one in the second round. Again. All these guys
Speaker 1: we just talked about, the Deebo Samuels, the A. J. Brown's,
Speaker 1: the people of that nature, Um Terry McLaurin. Those guys
Speaker 1: were all second third round picks. And so you can
Speaker 1: sit there and find a pretty good player at that position.
Speaker 1: You don't have to go up and get just the
Speaker 1: big name guys. Right now, Jeff and I were texting
Speaker 1: about this yesterday. I think we both in factly believe
Speaker 1: that Brett Vach is not sitting there with both those picks.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna pick in both of those spots. I
Speaker 1: think we talked about this on on NFL now like that,
Speaker 1: the need of pass rush with the Chiefs, especially with
Speaker 1: everybody else's pass rush in the division is just a
Speaker 1: monster monster need um. Chris Alave actually has a similar
Speaker 1: mindset to Jamison Williams. I were talking to Terry McLaren
Speaker 1: about it this past year because I love to talk
Speaker 1: about my buck eyes. So I asked him, you know what,
Speaker 1: you stay chat room. Yeah, we're always just you know,
Speaker 1: down here at the bus. But he said, he's like,
Speaker 1: he's like, he came up the same way I came up.
Speaker 1: They're really close, Terry and Chris Lave and and he's
Speaker 1: like he did the same things I did. Like and
Speaker 1: I remember because I watched every game, like Jeff watches
Speaker 1: every Michigan game. I'm surprised that we're able to get
Speaker 1: able to watch the Ohio State this year. I watched
Speaker 1: some watch on repeat. I watched the last ten years.
Speaker 1: I watched the last ten years on repeat. Anyway, Uh, well,
Speaker 1: he's like, he's like, Chris did the same things I did.
Speaker 1: And he was blocking punts as a freshman, and he was,
Speaker 1: you know, on special teams, and he's like, he did
Speaker 1: it the same way I did it. And I think
Speaker 1: it makes you a better player at the next level.
Speaker 1: And James and Williams is kind of the same sense.
Speaker 1: Both those guys would fit in Kansas City. Rend I,
Speaker 1: I I'm just curious what they're thinking is with both
Speaker 1: of those picks. And remember they have two second rounders
Speaker 1: and two third rounders, so he has the ammunition to
Speaker 1: manipulate and move for anybody that they really see that
Speaker 1: as a as a distinct target target for them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it will get to perhaps some of those edge
Speaker 1: rusher possibilities that the Chiefs could see down there at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the first round when we get when
Speaker 1: we get a little bit deeper into this episode here,
Speaker 1: especially with Jeff uh put that piece out on NFL
Speaker 1: dot com about the pass rushers. But I didn't want
Speaker 1: to get back to Alabama here for a second and
Speaker 1: kind of relating back to this situation that the Chiefs
Speaker 1: are in, because part of the reason they were in
Speaker 1: that Tyreek Hill situation is you had the one year
Speaker 1: franchise tag that you had to pay Orlando Brown, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, with with where he was at one able
Speaker 1: to get the long term deal done in time, and
Speaker 1: so you know, you're committed to that number, and and
Speaker 1: that's where they were at, and so you know, Tyreek
Speaker 1: Hills on his way. Um. Evan Neil is by the way,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the top two, if not the
Speaker 1: top guy depending on who you ask um in terms
Speaker 1: of tackles in this draft class. And you got to
Speaker 1: see him down there, in addition to guys that Christian
Speaker 1: Harris James, who are gonna be potentially you know early
Speaker 1: day two picks. Just your thoughts on some of those
Speaker 1: other Alabama prospects down there from your time at Tuscalusa. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for Evan Neil is a different cat, and I mean
Speaker 1: that in a good way. I mean, I've never seen
Speaker 1: a guy go through this whole pro day wearing a watch,
Speaker 1: uh the entire time, especially when you're going through all
Speaker 1: those past blocking drills and I'm like, He's like, I'm
Speaker 1: keeping track of my calories. He told me like, I
Speaker 1: just want to see how much I burned during this,
Speaker 1: during this lurkout. And he didn't want to do that.
Speaker 1: You know that he didn't do any of the drills
Speaker 1: at the combine. He wanted to do them all all
Speaker 1: down there. And I mean to be six seven three
Speaker 1: forty five and move the way he moves and to
Speaker 1: play multiple positions at Alabama, very few programs probably would
Speaker 1: have a guy like that play different spots in their
Speaker 1: career on the offensive line. But what really stood out
Speaker 1: to me talking to him, I'll be outside of his
Speaker 1: intelligence and the in the type of makeup he has
Speaker 1: in terms of character, is he had zero penalties this
Speaker 1: past season six total for his three years starting at Alabama.
Speaker 1: So I think that to me and Jeff and I
Speaker 1: we were talking about this before the podcast started, about
Speaker 1: the edge rushers and raw talent and and being a
Speaker 1: tactician of your craft. If you don't have any penalties
Speaker 1: like that, that that shows you're coming in as a
Speaker 1: pretty polished player because you know how to play the position.
Speaker 1: On top of the physical attributes that he has. He'd
Speaker 1: love to go number one. They haven't had a number
Speaker 1: one pick from Alabama I think in seventy four years,
Speaker 1: so he would like that to happen. Um, what was that?
Speaker 1: What's that? What's that guy? You know? When I was
Speaker 1: doing Alabama as a quarterback? Um? Yeah, a long time ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well I name it was was not NFL. That's it
Speaker 1: doesn't technically count if you want to skew the staffs
Speaker 1: the way I just did. But um, but yes, there
Speaker 1: you go. Did you get that off the top of
Speaker 1: your head, you google that or do you still use it?
Speaker 1: Just it just took a little. It took a minute
Speaker 1: to circle back through the filing system in here. So
Speaker 1: I gotta I got it. I got it, and then
Speaker 1: the other guy real quick. I think like Christian Harris
Speaker 1: and I went to l s U the next week
Speaker 1: and people were talking about him. I talked to a
Speaker 1: head coach that was like, he's gonna he's gonna play
Speaker 1: inside and he's gonna play for an eternity because they
Speaker 1: love his makeup, they love the athletic says m he has.
Speaker 1: I talked to Harris for a long time Abama. He
Speaker 1: was like, dude, I was the safety and a running
Speaker 1: back and I'm at a camp and Hugh Freeze pulls
Speaker 1: me over to another drill. It's like, hey, play linebacker.
Speaker 1: He's like, within a few weeks, I'm getting linebacker offers,
Speaker 1: and in two months he has to prep to play
Speaker 1: linebacker to start at Alabama and ends up playing for
Speaker 1: three years after Hugh Freeze at a camp tells him
Speaker 1: to go, hey, let why don't we try at linebacker?
Speaker 1: And now everybody is really really around the league. His
Speaker 1: name keeps coming up. When I talked to people just
Speaker 1: because of his makeup. He's he's just he just gets it.
Speaker 1: He's so professional in a sense and just understands kind
Speaker 1: of what what would be asked of him. And there's
Speaker 1: there's some teams that are would be really really excited
Speaker 1: to have him him one day to just an interesting,
Speaker 1: interesting kid with the transition he went through in the
Speaker 1: way he was able to make that happen so quickly
Speaker 1: and then play there's other guys breathing down your neck
Speaker 1: in Alabama and just move into linebacker and play for
Speaker 1: three years is crazy. You know you mentioned Evan Nel.
Speaker 1: When I was at Michigan's Pro day. I was talking
Speaker 1: to some scouts there about him and they kind of
Speaker 1: mentioned the irony of effect that in a different year
Speaker 1: he wouldn't be probably the hands on the odds on
Speaker 1: number one pick just because of the talent. Everybody down
Speaker 1: there was raving about him. But you look at the
Speaker 1: Jaguar situation having Cam Robinson on a franchise tag, Like
Speaker 1: I had a couple of personnel guys just telling me
Speaker 1: that there's no way they can't take Ade Hutchinson number one,
Speaker 1: or that was treybon Walker being to talk. I think
Speaker 1: it will still be Hutchinson, but just the feeling in
Speaker 1: that camp was that one. This is a weird draft
Speaker 1: because you might have ten picks go by without having
Speaker 1: somebody touching the football get drafted, which rarely happened. Uh
Speaker 1: Lee Willis gets in there, Garrett Wilson. But the fact
Speaker 1: that Aid Hutchinson, a guy that a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago was just a good player trying to see if
Speaker 1: he could play at a high level get into the
Speaker 1: first round, might end up being the number one pick.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like, as much as he's very as
Speaker 1: much as James raid about Ohio State, I would worry
Speaker 1: about Michigan now. And the fact that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: you talk about d to Send, you talk about Daxton Hill,
Speaker 1: you talk about David Ojabo. Obviously a tough story there
Speaker 1: at their pro day going down with Achilles tear Um.
Speaker 1: The town they have coming into this draft is pretty
Speaker 1: impressive as well. One last note on Harris, I thought
Speaker 1: this is wild because we always love combine measurements. So
Speaker 1: when I was talking to him at the combine, he
Speaker 1: his broad jumped with eleven feet right, he runs a
Speaker 1: four four four, and Christian goes, dude, I never brought
Speaker 1: jumped over ten before the combine. I was like, what happened?
Speaker 1: He goes the combine has a measurement line at nine
Speaker 1: ft and eleven feet. I thought the eleven stripe was
Speaker 1: the ten ft stripe. And he's like, so I was
Speaker 1: just jumping for that. It's like, and maybe when the
Speaker 1: lights come on, I just played better because he's like,
Speaker 1: I also never ran a four or four four in
Speaker 1: any of my training. He's so he's like, I was
Speaker 1: blowing he we were all blown away by his combine performance.
Speaker 1: He was like, I had no idea who's gonna get
Speaker 1: any of those numbers because I never measured at any
Speaker 1: of those numbers. But it's kind of interesting though, because
Speaker 1: that's kind of the discussion that we've been having on
Speaker 1: path of the Draft a bunch, and we talked about
Speaker 1: it this week, you know, with these off the ball linebackers,
Speaker 1: because you know, like you're looking at a guy like
Speaker 1: Devin Woydum or maybe a guy like Nikobe Deane from
Speaker 1: Georgia um as potential first round picks. But then you
Speaker 1: see guys like Christian Christian Harris, Troy Anderson from Montana State,
Speaker 1: Chad Movement from Wyoming, and quay Walker from Georgia, Like, like,
Speaker 1: all right, can we get like a similar type player
Speaker 1: at a better value in the second round? And so
Speaker 1: that'll be an interesting storyline, uh to see play out there.
Speaker 1: But Jeff talked a little bit about what's going on
Speaker 1: in Michigan kind of becoming I think what Aidan hutcheson
Speaker 1: his term pass rush you now is that it used
Speaker 1: to be they had that that title, right, but they
Speaker 1: don't have any They go, buddy, now they've all gotten um,
Speaker 1: it's a finess program up there now down there, yet
Speaker 1: check out the highest paid dbs three of the top
Speaker 1: the top three. We're gonna Jeff sort this thing out
Speaker 1: and take a quick break and come right back on
Speaker 1: into the port with another look at the pass rushers
Speaker 1: in this class. I'm back here with the NFL and
Speaker 1: side report. James Palmer, Jeffrey Chadia back here with us,
Speaker 1: and Jeffrey has been working on a piece about pass rushers,
Speaker 1: especially as they make the transition now from the college
Speaker 1: game to the pro game. And look at I've mentioned
Speaker 1: this also on Path to the Draft. Like you know,
Speaker 1: last year we had the quarterbacks go one to three, right,
Speaker 1: and this feels like the opposition party's response to the
Speaker 1: state of the Union. Now we might get edge rushers
Speaker 1: go one to three and this year's draft, right, because look,
Speaker 1: you know those those are the two positions that are
Speaker 1: you know, arguably at the at the highest premium in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Here at this point of course, there's no
Speaker 1: argument about quarterbacks, um, but yeah, the pass rusher is
Speaker 1: certainly taken on that level of importance in this league.
Speaker 1: Let me just toss talk a little bit about that,
Speaker 1: you know, the piece that you got out right now,
Speaker 1: and Jeff, like what you learned in your study about
Speaker 1: these guys in this position, Well, it started off really
Speaker 1: and to be honest with you, started off as a
Speaker 1: day withd Ojabo da Fe always story because those two
Speaker 1: played together at the Blair Academy in New Jersey and
Speaker 1: Ojabo saw the success that Alway had as a player,
Speaker 1: decided to play football at the age of fifteen. And
Speaker 1: then I went to Michigan's pro day and Ojabo towards
Speaker 1: Achilles and that kind of killed that story. So we
Speaker 1: were kind of scrambling, and so we started looking at
Speaker 1: some of the other players in the draft of that position,
Speaker 1: guys like Boya Mafe and Bikte and you know Ojabo,
Speaker 1: George Carloftis, and we realized a lot of these guys
Speaker 1: picked up football pretty late um or came from the
Speaker 1: country is to pick it up. Or you had guys
Speaker 1: like Jermaine Johnson who had one big year, And so
Speaker 1: we started looking at some of these players and looking
Speaker 1: at it always and started saying, well, got man's look,
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of players are coming in
Speaker 1: this league without having the typical background or having being
Speaker 1: as well rounded at this position, and just talking to
Speaker 1: a different personnel people, they agree that what you're seeing
Speaker 1: in the NFL nowadays is a lot more passwords was
Speaker 1: coming in who were raw, largely because they're putting better
Speaker 1: at the position. You're seeing more spread formations and r
Speaker 1: p o s and college of the team just saying
Speaker 1: go get the quarterback. And what you're getting is guys
Speaker 1: like people I just mentioned who are having great success,
Speaker 1: who want to skill the defending the run or some
Speaker 1: of the other things you want from defensive lineman, edge rushers,
Speaker 1: outside linebackers, but have a huge upside to NFL teams
Speaker 1: and James you know this year you're in the town
Speaker 1: where bon Miller was dominant player for forever. They've just
Speaker 1: picked up Randy Gregory and Adam Bradley Chubb. It's just
Speaker 1: like the way this league has gone now, with the
Speaker 1: way the passing has gone, with what quarterback player has gone,
Speaker 1: everything now is about getting after quarterbacks with four down
Speaker 1: lineman and making it happen. And these guys that I
Speaker 1: just mentioned have a great future because of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have you mentioned four down lineman making sure you
Speaker 1: get a quarterbacks there. I mean, that's that's the way
Speaker 1: the league's becoming. Right, Like we were talking Ravens or
Speaker 1: we're supposed to talk Ravens on TV and it didn't
Speaker 1: have it. But like they've struggled to get after the
Speaker 1: quarterback as you mentioned, like like they've had to blitz
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years to get pressure, and
Speaker 1: that's hurt them late in games, right, That's hurt them
Speaker 1: in close games in the fourth quarter because the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: like Mahomes and company can can destroy you when you
Speaker 1: have to bring extra pressure. We look at what Cincinnati
Speaker 1: was able to do against Patrick Mahomes by getting pressure
Speaker 1: and kind of playing the position, playing the pass rush
Speaker 1: a little bit differently. It's funny you mentioned where I'm
Speaker 1: at in Denver. It's like, I remember the appeal of
Speaker 1: Bradley Chubb just five years ago as the number five
Speaker 1: overall pick was mostly because he was so skilled at
Speaker 1: the position. He had multiple pass rush moves, he had
Speaker 1: the ability to come at you with a variety of
Speaker 1: things to where he had some things that these other
Speaker 1: guys were talking about didn't have because he was coming
Speaker 1: in polished. But I think players like Micah Parsons, it's like, Oh,
Speaker 1: a guy can just come in that's an unbelievable athlete
Speaker 1: and just be like, hey, go get the quarterback and
Speaker 1: the sacks NFL quarterbacks like on a regular basis. I
Speaker 1: think we have to remember that, like that's not the norm.
Speaker 1: But Ratt, Jeff and I were like joking, like it's
Speaker 1: it is what coaches think they thinking about quarterbacks to
Speaker 1: that's why the same guy's keeping it. Well, I can
Speaker 1: fix it because the raw talents there, but I know
Speaker 1: how to get to him. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: thought of I can get this raw town into my
Speaker 1: building as a pass rusher, and then we add the
Speaker 1: moves like and we add a variety of moves and
Speaker 1: and he goes to the pass Rush summit, like the
Speaker 1: von Miller and company put on like and we can
Speaker 1: develop it then they have, you know, the athletic ability
Speaker 1: to start off with. It's wild how that's kind of
Speaker 1: changed in a sense to where it's funny five years
Speaker 1: ago Bradley so polished, we need that, and now it's
Speaker 1: it's a little bit of a different thinking because of
Speaker 1: the athletes. Let me hit Jeff on one piece of
Speaker 1: the story you were talking about boy Mafe. Did he
Speaker 1: tell you the story or did you find out about
Speaker 1: the story about how he got his first scholarship offer
Speaker 1: and how he was honoring his commitment to the track
Speaker 1: team when his high school football coach had set up
Speaker 1: a workout for their football players in front of a
Speaker 1: certain college coaching staff or whatever. But the track coach
Speaker 1: wouldn't let him out of track practice to go to
Speaker 1: that football showcase, you know, for for college. And then
Speaker 1: and so he's literally running on the track outside of
Speaker 1: the football field right that goes around the football field
Speaker 1: while all of their while all the other football players
Speaker 1: are doing their workout and the college coaches are all
Speaker 1: turning away from the football, this huge kid pass everybody
Speaker 1: on the track. He told me that recently. A couple
Speaker 1: of got a couple of months ago. Now he is
Speaker 1: such an interesting prospect, isn't he phenomenal potential? He's fascinating.
Speaker 1: I love his story too, because just like a Jobo
Speaker 1: when Nepique, I mean, he's his parents came from Nigeria,
Speaker 1: immigrated here, and they had a tradition in their family
Speaker 1: of sending every kid there four kids. Every kid had
Speaker 1: to go spend the eighth grade in Nigeria at boarding school,
Speaker 1: and so he left. He wasn't like you to play
Speaker 1: a little peewee football with his buddies, but I think serious.
Speaker 1: So he left and he was just like, I'm not,
Speaker 1: you know, gonna go out here and see what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll play some soccer, play a little basketball when
Speaker 1: I come back. He was five six when he left.
Speaker 1: They came back and he was six four, and before
Speaker 1: that wouldn't let him play. He grew alo one year
Speaker 1: one year. So he came back and the dad was
Speaker 1: that The parents were like, oh my god, I guess
Speaker 1: he can play football. Not because he's big enough. And
Speaker 1: he's got a brother who played college for small Collus
Speaker 1: football in Minnesota and a cousin who played uh small
Speaker 1: college football, and they both saw him and they said, man,
Speaker 1: you could be you could be at least a couge player.
Speaker 1: Maybe the NFL play it with your side and athletic ability.
Speaker 1: And he was so wrong when he started playing with
Speaker 1: a freshman in high school in Minnesota that it was
Speaker 1: like he was playing tag out there. He didn't have
Speaker 1: any sense or any instincts. But again with that cousin,
Speaker 1: the brother people in his corner, he just blossomed. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing, James, It's like you see um in
Speaker 1: the NFL nowadays. You see these guys come out of
Speaker 1: nowhere and the way the game is being played, it's
Speaker 1: so much easier for them to prosper. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is a kid who was a three star recruit, didn't
Speaker 1: know what he was doing with the fresh in high school.
Speaker 1: Now he's about to be a first round pick, be
Speaker 1: able to Jobo came here starting to play football and
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen, lived in Scotland, grew up in Nigeria,
Speaker 1: and there's something about I think, you know, maybe it's
Speaker 1: a cultural thing here too. That's what um Uh boys
Speaker 1: cousin said, was that Nigeria is such a militant culture,
Speaker 1: that football is a militant game. The ability to pick
Speaker 1: things up quickly. Sometimes it helps coming from someplace else
Speaker 1: and not being caught up in all the hype of
Speaker 1: what American football is. Like sure, I'm gonna get that,
Speaker 1: I say, I have two quick questions. One, how many
Speaker 1: questions do you think his parents asked him to make
Speaker 1: sure like the right child came like that size difference
Speaker 1: to be like are you my son? Like mind blowing?
Speaker 1: And who is this track coach? Like, dude, you coach
Speaker 1: high school? Like no, man, we gotta meet Friday. There's
Speaker 1: no like have a chance to help your you know,
Speaker 1: college prospects by any means, no way you're not allowed,
Speaker 1: which is you got the last laugh right exactly. But
Speaker 1: to just point too with the way this is trending
Speaker 1: in a lot of I have sadly have not been
Speaker 1: able to read the story yet, which is a bummer. Um.
Speaker 1: But but Saban said this to me, like the game
Speaker 1: has played in so much space now right, that that
Speaker 1: is such an advantage if you have that athletic ability
Speaker 1: and in the technical aspect of everything happening right in here,
Speaker 1: isn't maybe his neat because you can play out in
Speaker 1: space and you can just find a way to make
Speaker 1: a play. It does change the way you look at players.
Speaker 1: He told me that it has changed the way my
Speaker 1: guys coming out are perceived by NFL guys because of
Speaker 1: the way the NFL games playing in space. Is why
Speaker 1: he was saying, Christian Harris is a guy that that
Speaker 1: NFL teams should really like because in space, without athletic ability,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's an advantage. That's what's happening with some
Speaker 1: of these other spots too. And we certainly expect the
Speaker 1: addressers to kind of dominate the top ten of the
Speaker 1: first round. I mean, like you could get minimum four
Speaker 1: off in the ten picks, you know, with with Hutchinson,
Speaker 1: Trayvon Walker, Cabon Thibodeau and Jeremy Johnson from Florida State
Speaker 1: that you all mentioned there, and then maybe another two
Speaker 1: or three before the round is over. Like I mean,
Speaker 1: it could go in the first round. I think a
Speaker 1: pretty good I think someone could pick a flower on him.
Speaker 1: Sure he remember what the cowboy cowboys are picking in
Speaker 1: the mid twenties. Remember what they did with Jalen Smith
Speaker 1: in the second round a couple of years ago, after
Speaker 1: the devastating knee injury. Um, you know, and and it
Speaker 1: was for them in the near term, right, correct, Thank you?
Speaker 1: All right, James, you were also at l s U
Speaker 1: Pro Day, which kind of gave you a unique perspective
Speaker 1: on on two guys with top ten potential in this class,
Speaker 1: but only one of them was actually from L s U. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's funny because they're very different in terms of
Speaker 1: the way they're perceived by all of these evaluators, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, Derek Stingley is like Pro Day was maybe
Speaker 1: the most anticipated pro day of this offseason, right because
Speaker 1: of what happened the last two years, playing just ten
Speaker 1: games after two thousand nine, team tape essentially shows him
Speaker 1: as a first round pick as a freshman, really and
Speaker 1: then you know, there's so many question marks. And this
Speaker 1: is what I got being there and talking about there
Speaker 1: are teams that are terrified of Derek Ston, that are like,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna touch him. Like there, I can't forget
Speaker 1: the two years after. And I tried to dig on
Speaker 1: with him a little bit. Uh, he didn't really want
Speaker 1: to talk about it, honestly, about the two years and
Speaker 1: obviously injuries are part of it. But then there's the
Speaker 1: other aspect of it where everybody you talked like the
Speaker 1: talent is off the charts, Like the footwork is incredible,
Speaker 1: the ball skills are out of this world. I I
Speaker 1: just Scout walked by me when he's going through his
Speaker 1: drills that Brandon Stanley was essentially like halfway through started
Speaker 1: running himself. He was so intrigued by Stanley, like a
Speaker 1: Scott just walked by me on a ball that goes
Speaker 1: up and he makes a plan. He's like his ball
Speaker 1: skills just phenomenal, and I'm like, yeah, Like it's just
Speaker 1: he stands out like with the way he moves, it's
Speaker 1: so effortless, you know, coming off the list. Frank, we
Speaker 1: have to remember though, he like only preparing for these
Speaker 1: combine drills and and and stuff for three weeks before
Speaker 1: he performed at the pro day in terms of being
Speaker 1: cleared to do all those things, and he just like
Speaker 1: it was so easy. You know. Everybody has a routines,
Speaker 1: like you know, they're they're nineteen different, like our movements
Speaker 1: before they jump up and do the birth like all
Speaker 1: these different things. He like literally just walked onto the vert,
Speaker 1: jumped up and did it, walked over the broad jump
Speaker 1: was like ready and jumps and goeses like and he
Speaker 1: got every number almost to the inch. Talking to people
Speaker 1: close to him that he knew he was gonna get
Speaker 1: it was insane, like thirty eight and a half, he
Speaker 1: thought he jumped thirty eight. He did tend to in
Speaker 1: the broad he thought he'd have ten three, like four
Speaker 1: three seven. He thought that's exactly what he was going
Speaker 1: to get. The talent is so so they're some evaluators
Speaker 1: believe like when the program makes a little bit of
Speaker 1: a turn and you played at that high level and
Speaker 1: you're at a championship caliber, like sometimes your play can
Speaker 1: go down. Is the desire there? Like there's all these
Speaker 1: questions that teams are trying to get answered, but they
Speaker 1: can't deny Jeff the town that was like the most
Speaker 1: you know, I popping aspect of him, And I think
Speaker 1: if you just watch him verse Jamar Chase in practice
Speaker 1: that tape from twenty nineteen, you're like, okay, like this
Speaker 1: is worth the try. I think Clyde Edward Hilaire is
Speaker 1: here playing in Kansas City and he was on that
Speaker 1: champion team with these guys, and somebody's unearthed some footage
Speaker 1: of Joe Burrow talking about the most FREAKUS athletes on
Speaker 1: that l s U team. Number one guy was Edwards Hilayer.
Speaker 1: Still don't understand how that happened. The other guy, Jathan Jefferson.
Speaker 1: Jamar chays that Derek Stingley. It's amazing that that name
Speaker 1: was put out there, but not not a slam on,
Speaker 1: but just sort of an amazing rebel ation at the time.
Speaker 1: But but the point about the cornerback play, you know,
Speaker 1: talking to personnel people on the league as part of
Speaker 1: the store I was doing the other side of that
Speaker 1: whole pass for us. Emphasis is just that it's so
Speaker 1: hard to get guys who can excel in man coverage
Speaker 1: today who can compete with the Jamaar Chases of the world,
Speaker 1: with the Justin Jeffersons, and that it's like teams that
Speaker 1: are so they wanted. Even when they get guys who
Speaker 1: have that ability, they still want to play off, They
Speaker 1: want to play more zone, and they want to do
Speaker 1: more things that are more cautious as far as defending
Speaker 1: the past, because as we've just said, the quarterbacks are
Speaker 1: so good, but there's so many talented receivers out there
Speaker 1: nowadays that it got like Derek Stanley, even with the
Speaker 1: injury history, even with all the questions here, can still
Speaker 1: end up being a top fifteen pick just because of
Speaker 1: the potential that the need there. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: want to, you know, get on Denzel Ward here for
Speaker 1: the big conducty sign, but my god, they got big
Speaker 1: a huge amount of money for being I don't seem
Speaker 1: as the same player as Jaylie Ramsey, but what he
Speaker 1: can do for a secondary we're talking about here, what
Speaker 1: they're extily can do for a secondary. Just give somebody
Speaker 1: a chance to win a win on one battle with
Speaker 1: a receiver real quick on this. I'm and this is
Speaker 1: what I just thought of this now. And I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if this is hurting Stanley or not, but like
Speaker 1: you look at Sauce Gardner the other top corner with
Speaker 1: him and to not allow a touchdown in three years
Speaker 1: and starting to go all right, here's one guy that
Speaker 1: never took a play off. It appears to a guy
Speaker 1: where it's like what happened the last two years. I'm
Speaker 1: wondering if the comparison hurts Derek Stingley at all, right,
Speaker 1: because of what you're seeing with soft Nur going like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a guy that just every single play. It's
Speaker 1: the end of the world for him. There's only um,
Speaker 1: you know about four teams that are going to have
Speaker 1: to make that decision because it's quite possible that sauce
Speaker 1: Gardner is off the board. Um. But but yeah, when
Speaker 1: you look at a guy like Trent McDuffie from Washington,
Speaker 1: who's you know, like a technician at the position, um,
Speaker 1: and you know it's hardly challenged this last year at
Speaker 1: Washington cause he's that good, you know, Like, are like,
Speaker 1: all right, I've got I've got kind of a what
Speaker 1: I feel like it's a sure thing here. But maybe
Speaker 1: a guy with a much higher ceiling that is talking
Speaker 1: about which right, Like, then everybody should be picking Derek Stanley,
Speaker 1: like because the ceiling is is up here for him,
Speaker 1: or everyone should be picking Trayvon Walker and the jack
Speaker 1: should really be considering Trayvon Walker over Radon Hutchinson. It's
Speaker 1: the production, projection and the whole thing. But and there's
Speaker 1: enough teams, right, I've talked to their like I think
Speaker 1: when he gets to the league, he'll be a superstar
Speaker 1: with death all right, last one here, because the head
Speaker 1: coach of the l s U Tigers is Brian Kelly Um,
Speaker 1: who knows very little about the players that were there
Speaker 1: at l s U competing at the pro day. Um,
Speaker 1: but you did, being the you know, professional reporter that
Speaker 1: you are, really start connecting the dots back to his
Speaker 1: time at Notre Dame where he has another high level
Speaker 1: prospect in this draft. Yeah, and Kyle Hamilton's. And that's
Speaker 1: what I wanted to talk to him about. It was
Speaker 1: kind of the chess piece and that that was his
Speaker 1: analogy before I got to it. But he was like,
Speaker 1: he told me, he's like, he's your rook, he's your night,
Speaker 1: he's your whatever you want it to be. Make moves
Speaker 1: on the field that nobody else can make. And he said,
Speaker 1: you combine that with his off the charts intelligence, it
Speaker 1: allows him to be a piece that in really each
Speaker 1: game week of preparation, you can use him almost in
Speaker 1: a different manner. And he was like, in the NFL game, like,
Speaker 1: how is that not needed because of the talent that
Speaker 1: comes in, Like one week it's a Travis Kelsey, right Chevan,
Speaker 1: the next week it's you know, it's somebody else on
Speaker 1: the outside that he might need to help it work.
Speaker 1: The way offenses have these these talented chest pieces on
Speaker 1: their side of the ball. I'm curious why that position,
Speaker 1: like because everybody said, well, don't take a safety that high. Well, like, well,
Speaker 1: if these like George Kittle's and Travis Kelsey's are so
Speaker 1: unstoppable on offense, why isn't that piece that can guard
Speaker 1: them more valuable on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 1: Because he told me, like the way you can use him,
Speaker 1: it could could change each week. So I don't get
Speaker 1: why that's not something that teams would absolutely value at
Speaker 1: the first half of the first round. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: the only thing about Kyle Hamilton's that that scares me
Speaker 1: is the forty time. And that's the thing that everybody
Speaker 1: talks about when you're running four or five six or
Speaker 1: someone said as slow as four seven, Um that that
Speaker 1: that's that's eye popping. And I think at his size,
Speaker 1: the best comparison you have with Sean Taylor, who was
Speaker 1: a freakish athlete who was like legitimately like a four
Speaker 1: or three four four dude who could do all types
Speaker 1: of things. And the thing that scares me about Hamilton's
Speaker 1: is just you end up having a situation like with
Speaker 1: Isaiah Simmons that came out Clemson um a few years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: position listen can do all these different things, but then
Speaker 1: it's like where is the excelling? And I hope that
Speaker 1: it works out. I think it has to be the
Speaker 1: right scheme. I think it's got to be the right
Speaker 1: coach who understands I take advantage of that, because if
Speaker 1: it's not, then I could easily see him being isolated
Speaker 1: on someone like a you know, like a Darren Waller
Speaker 1: and getting taken advantage of. Like it's it's really easy
Speaker 1: to take advantage of guys who are not that quick
Speaker 1: in this league. And so that's the only thing I
Speaker 1: wonder about. But other than that, I think he's a
Speaker 1: terrific player. I'll give you guys stand this thing, just
Speaker 1: a little sneak peek at the one and only Rhet
Speaker 1: Lewis mock draft that next week draft a lot of integrity. Yes, Um,
Speaker 1: so you know we we obviously we kick off draft
Speaker 1: week with my mock draft on Monday. That's just that's
Speaker 1: just like a tradition. Um. So I've got I mean,
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna have Kyle Hamilton's going to the
Speaker 1: Houston Texans at the overall pick, just because like I
Speaker 1: can't necessarily. I just I have a hard time finding
Speaker 1: a home for him in the top ten unless somebody
Speaker 1: comes into the top ten to try to get him.
Speaker 1: But then I'm like, are people really giving up draft
Speaker 1: resources to trade into the top ten for a safety
Speaker 1: um and and not to say that like it's not
Speaker 1: an important position, but like they are, just I feel
Speaker 1: like other need other positions of value, like tackles. I
Speaker 1: think you can see teams trade up for edge rushers.
Speaker 1: You're gonna see guys trade up for corners. Perhaps it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a hard position to be dominated at today's
Speaker 1: just because so many people by like too high safety. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so many teams are afraid to blitz now. And like
Speaker 1: you said, James, that being a chest pieces great, but
Speaker 1: you've got to be playing chess so that can work.
Speaker 1: I mean you brought up Isai Simmons, like I remember
Speaker 1: talking advance shows if their defense coordinator about it, like
Speaker 1: he's like, it's it's cool, but it's more work for me,
Speaker 1: Like I would have that like that piece and that
Speaker 1: that versatility, But then I gotta figure out how we're
Speaker 1: gonna use you and then the other ten around you,
Speaker 1: how it all fits together. But I do think like
Speaker 1: there to have that impact. We were talking about Kansas
Speaker 1: City and we're talking about you know, Tyron Matthew and
Speaker 1: like Jeff, you and I have talked to enough players
Speaker 1: who are like, if he's not on the field, the
Speaker 1: defense doesn't work well. If we're talking about importance, there
Speaker 1: are some situations and I think that scheme fit exactly
Speaker 1: his importance. Like they couldn't disguise what they wanted to disguise.
Speaker 1: They couldn't hide him in terms of blitzing and something
Speaker 1: it could just because of a specific skill set. But
Speaker 1: I think that's you know why these pieces. An addresser
Speaker 1: fits everywhere right, like tackles fit every everywhere. Essentially, you
Speaker 1: got to find the right fit in find the right fit, flourish.
Speaker 1: Don't find the right fit, you're kind of failing. How
Speaker 1: do we make Yep, that's just one thought. Um, but
Speaker 1: that was we got a sneak peek. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: you know, like maybe I should tease that at the
Speaker 1: top of the show back and change, Like Charles Davis
Speaker 1: is mock draft, like every pick like you have to
Speaker 1: have like people on NFL now like wondering what was
Speaker 1: he thinking here? Oh, the other day not the favorite. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like that. What are you thinking here? Charles like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll show you guys my mentions once that thing drops
Speaker 1: on Monday of draft week, so look forward to that.
Speaker 1: That'll be a whole episode. Just gonna read mean tweets
Speaker 1: to rhet following his mock draft. So that appreciate your insights.
Speaker 1: Let me read a couple of them too if I can. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's your g MF reference to close it except this,
Speaker 1: All right, that's gonna do it for this episode of
Speaker 1: NFL Inside Report. Thanks so much for being with us.
Speaker 1: Reminder to download, rate, and review our show and the
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Speaker 1: the ride. For our producers Thomas Warren, Tim Paracca, and
Speaker 1: Harrison Sanford. I'm your host, Bret Lewis. We'll catch you
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