Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: All right, thor Nystrom from Fantasy Pros is about to
Speaker 2: stop by to talk about the draft. Before we start
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Speaker 2: So thor Nystrom is our college football NFL Draft analyst
Speaker 2: for Fantasy Pros, which has been just such a great
Speaker 2: podcast for the volume. We monitored it for a long
Speaker 2: long time and there's a lot of there's about ten
Speaker 2: thousand fantasy podcasts out there, and Fantasy Pros was the
Speaker 2: one we really latched onto about a year ago. We
Speaker 2: brought him on board for the football season. Such a
Speaker 2: home run. So he's the Vikings correspondent at Fantasy Pros,
Speaker 2: a team I've spent a lot of time talking about.
Speaker 2: He has released the Thoor five hundred, so the Fantasy
Speaker 2: Pros podcast on the volume has been a big hit,
Speaker 2: and his top five hundred players and gives player comps
Speaker 2: for all five hundred. This is not This guy's living
Speaker 2: on Mountain Dew, folks. He may be on Central Time,
Speaker 2: but he's on Mountain Dew. This guy is working it.
Speaker 2: So I want to start with interesting because I have
Speaker 2: called the Minnesota Vikings the furnished apartment of the draft
Speaker 2: for a quarterback.
Speaker 3: They have everything.
Speaker 2: Just move in, get your diet Coke, put it in
Speaker 2: the fridge. You're ready to go. Elite left tackle, two receivers,
Speaker 2: top tight end, star running back. I think the offensive
Speaker 2: line's good, not great. Maybe he needs a little help interior,
Speaker 2: but I think a great coach. The tall Sean McVay,
Speaker 2: Kevin O'Connell, and Sam Darnold playing for a year. So
Speaker 2: I have theorized that they wouldn't get one of the
Speaker 2: top three picks, so they'd have to settle for JJ McCarthy,
Speaker 2: who's my least favorite of the quarterbacks.
Speaker 3: But now that.
Speaker 2: New England is taking calls today, I feel like, oh,
Speaker 2: I think they want Drake May because there's a guy
Speaker 2: on the Viking staff who has some history with Drake May,
Speaker 2: Josh McCown. So as somebody that is all over the Vikings,
Speaker 2: is that kind of Is that kind of the strongest
Speaker 2: rumor that they would be the team to move up
Speaker 2: to three and go get a Drake May, who, by
Speaker 2: the way, needs polish. And that's what Kevin O'Connell does,
Speaker 2: that's like his skill set.
Speaker 1: Very well said very well. Put yes, and I would
Speaker 1: think that they would be leaning that way. Josh mcconna
Speaker 1: chorus coached Drake May in high school, used to watch
Speaker 1: Drake May's film when he was in the Jets facility
Speaker 1: with another guy in the quarterback room there, a guy
Speaker 1: named Sam Darnauld. So what you were talking about the
Speaker 1: offensive infrastructure around the hypothetical rookie quarterback, but you also
Speaker 1: would have that extra layer if it was Drake May.
Speaker 1: Also a situation where you know that he is going
Speaker 1: to be afforded some patients early on if it ended
Speaker 1: up being Drake May or or J. J. McCarthy whoever
Speaker 1: that ends up being, and one of the best play
Speaker 1: callers offensive play callers that we had to your point
Speaker 1: with that as well, very good situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, so JJ McCarthy is the one. And
Speaker 2: I said this today on my show or that about
Speaker 2: every two to three years, there's a quarterback that I
Speaker 2: just I don't get. And I've been doing this a
Speaker 2: long time, thirty years, so I've got a lot of
Speaker 2: executive scout guys I talked to. I don't talk to
Speaker 2: him players as much as people in the business. I
Speaker 2: didn't get Johnny Manziel, I didn't get t Bow. I
Speaker 2: didn't get Mitch Trubisky. I I got Baker. I thought
Speaker 2: it was a reach. I didn't get Zach Wilson at all.
Speaker 2: I didn't get Daniel Jones. I don't love JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 2: I think he's a project. I think he needs an
Speaker 2: offensive coach. I think when I watched him play, my
Speaker 2: take was he missed a lot of laps. He's not
Speaker 2: a strong armed guy. Caleb's got a much stronger arm.
Speaker 2: Drake May's got a much stronger arm. Panis has a
Speaker 2: stronger arm that he needs to sort of be lined
Speaker 2: up thor he needs protection. He needs to point in
Speaker 2: the right direction. It reminds me of Trubisky. The ball
Speaker 2: can die if he doesn't really step into it.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: In the NFL, you don't get a step into it.
Speaker 2: You know you're in muddy pockets. You're feeling on all
Speaker 2: these I mean, you've you have, you've right your top
Speaker 2: five hundred players, does McCarthy give you any pause?
Speaker 1: I'm higher on McCarthy than you. He's actually the number
Speaker 1: three player overall on my board. He is QB three,
Speaker 1: but number three overall as well as far as the
Speaker 1: traits that he brings in you have the athleticism number
Speaker 1: six three cone at the NFL Combine your regardless of
Speaker 1: position at seventeen pounds heavier than his Michigan bio, which
Speaker 1: also sort of checked the size concerns with him. And
Speaker 1: then I think his arm is a little stronger than
Speaker 1: you do. And he retains that arm strength on the run,
Speaker 1: also the accuracy on the run. But just speak into
Speaker 1: the arm strength that the NFL Combine sixty one mile
Speaker 1: prower max VLO throw was one mile prower underneath the record,
Speaker 1: which Joe Milton tied Josh Allen's record for that. The
Speaker 1: thing with him, the use of the athleticism with that
Speaker 1: arm in conjunction together on the field is what makes
Speaker 1: me excited about his projection to the next level. We
Speaker 1: see this every year calling with the quarterback who has
Speaker 1: a good arm and he's athletic, but those two things
Speaker 1: absolutely do not work together with one another. Joe Milton
Speaker 1: would be an example of that from this class. But
Speaker 1: with McCarthy, he takes those mechanics with him when he
Speaker 1: is moving around, keeps the eyes down field, keeps the
Speaker 1: upper body cock to throw in that throwing platform under him.
Speaker 1: It's why last year he completes seventy two percent and
Speaker 1: change in the aggregate completion percentage seventy one percent and
Speaker 1: change while scrambling. Most quarterbacks, you see there is an
Speaker 1: enormous drop off in their completion percentages even when their
Speaker 1: feet begin to shuffle. But certainly when they begin to
Speaker 1: scramble with McCarthy, you don't see that as much. Obviously,
Speaker 1: winner going back to high school of the sixty three
Speaker 1: and three, he had the two state title there, made
Speaker 1: a third state title when he was in high school.
Speaker 1: Then people, you know, they'll say that he was carried
Speaker 1: by Michigan. People forget that when he went to Michigan,
Speaker 1: Michigan was coming off a two to four season, that
Speaker 1: COVID season, and people wanted Jim Harbaugh gone. JJ McCarthy
Speaker 1: not only committed there, he stayed true to that commitment.
Speaker 1: Then he helped the coaching staff accrue the ridiculous recruiting
Speaker 1: class that they ended up getting that ended up turning
Speaker 1: Michigan around. They make three straight college football playoffs, obviously
Speaker 1: culminated last year winning the national title when JJ was
Speaker 1: a twenty year old true junior. And they don't beat
Speaker 1: Alabama for sure. I don't even know if they get
Speaker 1: there without JJ McCarthy, they certainly do not roar back
Speaker 1: that double digit deficit they had in the second half
Speaker 1: to beat Nick Saban. And what was Nick Saban's last game.
Speaker 1: You wonder if that had not happened, if Michigan did
Speaker 1: not have JJ McCarthy, would Nick Saban still be the
Speaker 1: coach of Alabama right now? Alabama certainly would have won
Speaker 1: that national title. So he sort of flipped that the
Speaker 1: College Football Playoff there as well. I think there's exciting
Speaker 1: tools there. I absolutely think you can make an argument
Speaker 1: for him, let's say at the number three slot, but
Speaker 1: anywhere after that.
Speaker 2: To me, all right, that's a good argument in his favor.
Speaker 2: So there Something came out today from a researcher at ESBN,
Speaker 2: and I thought it was fascinating that he went twenty
Speaker 2: drafts back and if you did not sign a second contract,
Speaker 2: you were considered a miss, not a bust, but a miss. Well,
Speaker 2: centers over the last twenty years in the first round
Speaker 2: only first round for a ninety two percent HiT's insane
Speaker 2: receivers were a twenty seven percent hit. So I'm going
Speaker 2: to throw my theory out to you thor because I
Speaker 2: do theories occasionally.
Speaker 3: This is how my brain works.
Speaker 2: So I've always, like the Packers been very reluctant about
Speaker 2: first round receivers. Now, Calvin Johnson's an exception, Randy Moss,
Speaker 2: I think Harrison's an exception. But here's my take. It
Speaker 2: is a spectacular position. Most touchdowns in football are not
Speaker 2: dynamic a running back, a running back, a quarterback, a
Speaker 2: tight end, receiver. Touchdowns are spectacular. They break the huddle first.
Speaker 2: They're the NBA player in football not really reliant on
Speaker 2: anybody other than a quarterback that can get them the ball.
Speaker 2: They don't rely on a left tackle for protection or
Speaker 2: a guard for a lane. They break the huddle, go
Speaker 2: get open or throw me open. So they're often the
Speaker 2: best athlete on the field. Cornerback is probably second, but
Speaker 2: corners aren't six four sixty five. These are magnificent athletes.
Speaker 2: They break the huddle first. We have a term diva receiver,
Speaker 2: not diva guard, not diva strong safety. They come with personality.
Speaker 2: If you add fire to that personality, high first round pick,
Speaker 2: you're sort of validating their greatness. Whereas many of the
Speaker 2: receivers who have armor on Satan round Houka Nakua, who
Speaker 2: are midpicks with a chip on their shoulder, with something
Speaker 2: to prove. So I'm not saying I wouldn't draft it.
Speaker 2: But that's in a li arming miss rate. Seventy three
Speaker 2: percent miss rate, thor that's insane. Now, the second highest
Speaker 2: miss rate was tight end at thirty three percent hit rates,
Speaker 2: So you know, sixty seven percent. I would explain that
Speaker 2: because a lot of college tight ends cannot block at
Speaker 2: the next level. All Iowa tight ends block. That's why
Speaker 2: Iowa's so great. When Dalton Kincaid came out, I had
Speaker 2: two execs say, this kid blocks like in Iowa tight
Speaker 2: end Dalton Kincaid's a great tight end. A lot of
Speaker 2: college guys, don't they spread it out in college football.
Speaker 2: Thoor that they get to the pros. They can't block
Speaker 2: a defensive end there. They're Mike Gseki. They're just pass
Speaker 2: catchers and coaches want blockers. So, but I want your explanation.
Speaker 2: I understand why a center often the smartest offensive line.
Speaker 2: Not a lot of flamboyants. Either you can do it
Speaker 2: or not. You don't have to be a super athlete, right,
Speaker 2: you can test for that. But wide receiver seventy three
Speaker 2: percent miss rate or this is what you do for
Speaker 2: a living, Explain that.
Speaker 1: First of all, I think I know who that eight
Speaker 1: percent is in the center is. I think that's mister
Speaker 1: Billy Price. And as far as the as far as
Speaker 1: the wide receivers go, here's.
Speaker 4: What I think that is. Colin.
Speaker 1: You set that up well talking about the athleticism and
Speaker 1: the best athletes that we have on the field. And
Speaker 1: you know, during the pre draft process we send them
Speaker 1: out to Indianapolis and it's the big deal. Now it's
Speaker 1: televised on prime time and there's so much pomp and
Speaker 1: circumstance as far as the athletic testing goes. And now
Speaker 1: we have the RAS page where you can pull up
Speaker 1: their athletic composits and compare it to all the players
Speaker 1: that have entered the NFL since the mid eighties at
Speaker 1: their positions and different stuff like that. And what you
Speaker 1: see is the rising of players based on athletic traits
Speaker 1: and their size athleticism combination where the receiver position. And
Speaker 1: I don't think people give this enough. Creditor think about
Speaker 1: this enough. So much winning of the separation it doesn't
Speaker 1: come from athleticism.
Speaker 4: It comes from terfuge.
Speaker 1: It comes from putting yourself in the cornerback shoes and
Speaker 1: then keeping them off the beat of your scent the
Speaker 1: entire time, throwing different stuff at him.
Speaker 4: We got to release package. It's like cards, flipping over
Speaker 4: the cards.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show you different one every single time, so
Speaker 1: you can't predict where I'm going, you can't funnel me
Speaker 1: towards the sidelines. I'm the one who is dictating the
Speaker 1: terms of the dance. Then I'm gonna get into my
Speaker 1: route really quickly. And then you know all that different
Speaker 1: subterfuge stuff, plus the the economy of footwork and movement
Speaker 1: into and out of rout brands, and then things like acceleration.
Speaker 1: Right then we start talking about things like late hands.
Speaker 1: There's a receiver coming out of the FCS this year.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna go phys six round who has
Speaker 1: the late hands thing all day? And I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna play way up at the NFL level because that
Speaker 1: Jalen Kocher.
Speaker 4: I'll all shout him out.
Speaker 1: But all these different sort of little skills that you
Speaker 1: cannot test for in Indianapolis. But Indianapolis is the thing
Speaker 1: that the shoots some of these wide receivers up fast.
Speaker 1: When these other skills hooka and those guys they have them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really fascinating way to look at it,
Speaker 2: and you're the second person that's brought that up. I
Speaker 2: was just when I saw that today, I thought, I've
Speaker 2: just seen so many big personalities come in the first
Speaker 2: round and then it's like they don't work on their game,
Speaker 2: and then you see a Puka. Also, it's interesting thor
Speaker 2: is about ninety percent of the league run zone. So
Speaker 2: really a lot of this is the ability to come
Speaker 2: out and read the zone. It's not about running over people.
Speaker 2: People the two deep safety people take that away very quickly.
Speaker 2: You've got to figure out how to read a zone.
Speaker 2: Like Puka came into this league and he was like
Speaker 2: a nine year vet. I mean, Stafford was telling people
Speaker 2: it practice. This kid like he's been in the league
Speaker 2: for twelve years. He's reading the zone. And so I think,
Speaker 2: to your point there, receiver has these little gifts death
Speaker 2: by a thousand cuts to a dB, these little gifts
Speaker 2: that are hard to see at a combine. It's a
Speaker 2: really really fascinating take. So thorn Eystrom, if you're just
Speaker 2: joining us here, he has released five hundred he ranked
Speaker 2: five hundred players and has player. So I don't think
Speaker 2: there's a ton of sleepers. But I do think what
Speaker 2: you do is you get players that are overshadowed. Like
Speaker 2: I'll give you an example a player that I think
Speaker 2: is really interesting. He's fast enough, he's productive, he was
Speaker 2: a transfer bortal guy from Memphis to USC.
Speaker 3: Taj Washington.
Speaker 2: Taj is wiry and strong again, fast enough, productive in
Speaker 2: the room, good work, ethic And when I watched probably
Speaker 2: almost every USC snap, my takeaway is, well, he's not
Speaker 2: as bulky as Brendan Rice. He's not as strong as
Speaker 2: Michael Pittman was there or maybe his gift that is
Speaker 2: Drake London. But I watched him and I texted at
Speaker 2: GM about two weeks ago. I said, if he's available
Speaker 2: in the fifth round, that kid, I don't remember drops
Speaker 2: and you talk about late hands amor On Saint Brown
Speaker 2: was known as a real natural hands catcher. So Taj Washington,
Speaker 2: you tell me this is what you do for a living.
Speaker 2: I think he's a fifth round ish guy. Am I
Speaker 2: out of my mind?
Speaker 1: No, you might get my job calling. I love the
Speaker 1: way that you set that up. And I'll tell you
Speaker 1: a couple of contextual things just about his data right,
Speaker 1: because you do the.
Speaker 4: Underwear Olympics thing with him.
Speaker 1: He's small, not the most athletic, as rascore isn't the best.
Speaker 1: But let's look at some other stats with Taj Washington.
Speaker 1: There is so few receivers in this class that can
Speaker 1: match him in these metrics. Ninety eighth percentile PFF last
Speaker 1: year receiving grade versus single coverage, ninety six percentile in
Speaker 1: separation rate last year PFF, ninety fifth in separation percentile
Speaker 1: against single coverage. And this was a guy who had
Speaker 1: over three yards per route run last year. I also think,
Speaker 1: you know, with a guy like Taj Washington, it's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: he was.
Speaker 4: In a really good offensive environment.
Speaker 1: One way you could potentially push back against that is
Speaker 1: this is a guy where it's the route running stuff
Speaker 1: he will gain that separation short and intermediate. Did that
Speaker 1: actually go together very well with Caleb Williams' game? A
Speaker 1: guy who likes to scramble around and it's the three
Speaker 1: and a half seconds average time to throw. He likes
Speaker 1: to allow guys to flower their routes out deep. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that was the best fit. I think
Speaker 1: the anticipatory thrower with Todd Washington. It could start to
Speaker 1: juice up his targets at the next level.
Speaker 4: And I like that.
Speaker 1: Shout o't con of a potential sleeper in the wide
Speaker 1: receiver class.
Speaker 2: Okay, here's a player that I think and I love
Speaker 2: if you poke holes in these because I love when
Speaker 2: I think I know something I don't know shit. So
Speaker 2: a player that worries me is the track guy, the
Speaker 2: Texas receiver largely viewed second round or one hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty five pounds. Man, I watched Texas play four or
Speaker 2: five times. I saw drops. He's tiny. If you look
Speaker 2: tiny at me in college, you're going to be really
Speaker 2: tiny in the pros. I want you to talk about him.
Speaker 2: I understand track guys. You know it's all wow. It's
Speaker 2: all jaw dropping stuff. It's hard. Remember Trayvon Austin came
Speaker 2: into this lake and oh, people were wow. And after
Speaker 2: about three sweeps, I'm like, he's too small to to at. Well,
Speaker 2: you have to to to is so small. You have
Speaker 2: to get him in motion because you he gets clogged
Speaker 2: up at the line. So I want you to talk
Speaker 2: about zaver Worthy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want you to talk about him. He worries me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, zeber Worthy is an interesting case where he breaks
Speaker 1: the record for NFL combine forty times.
Speaker 4: That was a cool moment in Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and the athletic trades are obviously there, and
Speaker 1: he was a guy who went to Texas. Interestingly enough, Colin,
Speaker 1: he was supposed to be one of the guys in
Speaker 1: the Vonted Michigan recruiting class with J Jim McCarthy. There
Speaker 1: was an issue that had to do with Xavier Worthy's admission,
Speaker 1: which reopened his recruiting. His recruitment. He ends up getting
Speaker 1: courted to Texas sort of at the last second by
Speaker 1: Steve Sarkishan who was coming in, who sold him on
Speaker 1: being the DeVonta Smith of his new luk Longhorn offense.
Speaker 1: He's not the same type as DeVonta s matt Now,
Speaker 1: but the skinniness and some of the dimension stuff, there's
Speaker 1: similarities there. Davonte is a lot more polished and the
Speaker 1: play strength that he plays with and the ability to
Speaker 1: win when he is in tight quarters and the contested
Speaker 1: stuff is better with that. Worthy is more of the
Speaker 1: jitterbuck guy, and it's all the athleticism and it's that
Speaker 1: high octane stuff off of the line. But obviously struggles
Speaker 1: with the size, you know, just being one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty five pounds, and to your point, the one concern
Speaker 1: that I had about him. They pounded Xavier Worthy with targets,
Speaker 1: but there was a lot of drops. I saw the
Speaker 1: same thing that you did, Colin. They had in Week two,
Speaker 1: one of the first primetime, big time games that we
Speaker 1: had in the college football season this year. You recall
Speaker 1: Nick Saban's Alabama CRuMs and Tie traveled down.
Speaker 4: To Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1: Xavier Worthy licks some guy on this whip route right
Speaker 1: at the goal line, and Alabama did not have another
Speaker 1: dude on that side of the ends. Xavier Worthy was
Speaker 1: by himself running down the goal line. Quin youwers did
Speaker 1: what he was supposed to to lead him that away
Speaker 1: towards the pylon because there was a trailing defender back.
Speaker 1: You didn't want to leave the ball there. You want
Speaker 1: to lead Xavier Worthy out. So this was a free touchdown.
Speaker 1: All Xavier Worthy had to do is reach his hands
Speaker 1: out and it was that free touchdown. Let's start the
Speaker 1: touchdown celebration. Ball clanks off his hands. He had done
Speaker 1: everything prior to that moment, and then the ball claiks
Speaker 1: off his hands just one example, but you saw this.
Speaker 4: It was a recurring theme with his tap.
Speaker 1: I will give him the contextual benefit of the doubt
Speaker 1: of he was pounded with targets. We talk about his
Speaker 1: team A eighty Mitchell, why didn't he see more targets.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why, Quen you Weers was obsessed with
Speaker 1: throwing to Xavier Worthy and Steve Sarkishan would scheme up
Speaker 1: all this different stuff for Zavier Worthy. I wonder with
Speaker 1: NFL coaching, can we work on the ball skills at all?
Speaker 1: And then if Xavier Worthy no longer is that target
Speaker 1: hounded the wide receiver one, if he's the wide receiver
Speaker 1: two or wide receiver three, especially initially, will that help
Speaker 1: out some of that different stuff? But it absolutely bears
Speaker 1: mentioning and I agree with if you that is the
Speaker 1: risk of his profile.
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Speaker 2: the Colin Cowherd draft coverage. You're into it, They're into you,
Speaker 2: and they deliver Prism, Don Ross Select got them all,
Speaker 2: all the top cards and more. I don't want to
Speaker 2: go too far into the weeds, but I think this
Speaker 2: is for our audience, really fun an interesting player. For me,
Speaker 2: it's not a great running back draft, and I have
Speaker 2: noticed this for I'm a recruiting used to be really
Speaker 2: into recruiting, and then I married a woman with four
Speaker 2: kids and I have two so I don't have the time.
Speaker 2: But California is a great example of we have thirty
Speaker 2: eight million people in this state. In any one recruiting
Speaker 2: cycle of two hundred and fifty Division one players, we'll
Speaker 2: have thirty five to forty five Division one receivers, twelve quarterbacks,
Speaker 2: and three running backs. The kids, they get it, you
Speaker 2: don't get a second contract. They want to be edge rushers, corners, receivers, quarterbacks.
Speaker 2: Kids always are on the forefront of cultural shifts and trends.
Speaker 2: Not old guys, young kids. Running back position, you get
Speaker 2: an occasional star by John Robinson, But by and large,
Speaker 2: I couldn't tall the last bad receiver draft. I'm not
Speaker 2: sure I could say the last great running back draft.
Speaker 2: Blake Quorum is interesting to me. So Blake is small.
Speaker 3: That's okay.
Speaker 2: You can be small. Been a lot of successful small backs.
Speaker 2: He got hurt, he came back, or I didn't think
Speaker 2: he was the same running back. I just didn't see it.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I could go in the third round.
Speaker 2: I thought he was a second round guy. Before the
Speaker 2: I thought he may be the best running back in
Speaker 2: the country. It doesn't look the same to me. How
Speaker 2: is he being judged by you and others?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that injury that you're referring to at the end
Speaker 1: of the twenty twenty two season when he was tremendous,
Speaker 1: coming awesome during that season he comes back from and
Speaker 1: by the way, if that did not happen, he might
Speaker 1: have been like after his first year at this point,
Speaker 1: might have been in last year's draft, right, like that
Speaker 1: was the reason he had to go back to Michigan
Speaker 1: coming off that injury, and then he acclimates himself slowly,
Speaker 1: certainly the first half of the season. Totally agree with
Speaker 1: you on that look sluggish. The burst wasn't there. The
Speaker 1: cuts we see with him were not as violent and
Speaker 1: not as smooth. I absolutely agree with you, And you
Speaker 1: can see this in Blake Korum's numbers last year. Yards
Speaker 1: before contact happens to be the exact same number as
Speaker 1: his yards after contact. It was two point four, I
Speaker 1: believe on both accounts. So the offensive line was really
Speaker 1: helping him out, especially against the front part of that
Speaker 1: schedule where they played some Cans in September, just getting
Speaker 1: the push. But yeah, can you harken back to that
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two with him where he had a bit
Speaker 1: more juice, had a bit more speed or is this
Speaker 1: what we have athletically? I think that that's a big
Speaker 1: thing to look at with him. A lot of the
Speaker 1: things that we like about Blake Koram are intangible things
Speaker 1: that cannot be tested for Anapolis. Running with tempo vision
Speaker 1: that sendsing the cutback lanes and getting in there, forcing
Speaker 1: off angle tackle attempts of a guy who should be
Speaker 1: able to hit you flush, Just that slight movement right
Speaker 1: before that guy leaves his feet so that you can
Speaker 1: get the arm tackle attempt that. Then you can run
Speaker 1: through different stuff like that with Blake Korum. But the
Speaker 1: athletic stuff he does not have. He's a little bowling
Speaker 1: ball type that lacks high end speed.
Speaker 4: For sure. His quarterback JJ McCarthy is faster than him.
Speaker 1: There is the one time when true freshman season for
Speaker 1: JJ McCarthy in the Big Ten title game against Iowa.
Speaker 1: I love this play. People need to look it up
Speaker 1: if they haven't seen it. He hands it off to Korum.
Speaker 1: They're at their own forty yard line. Quorum gets out
Speaker 1: to the second level and then is starting to break
Speaker 1: away into the open field. JJ McCarthy zooms past Blake
Speaker 1: Korum in the open field, gets down the sideline and
Speaker 1: ends up slowing down for him so he can make
Speaker 1: a block around the ten eight yard line to spring
Speaker 1: Blake Korum into the end zone. But he had Quorum
Speaker 1: has those intangible type things, the passing game utility. He
Speaker 1: wasn't used as much as a receiver at Michigan. That
Speaker 1: was Donovan Edwards. In the pre draft process. He has
Speaker 1: shown some hand stuff running the routes, didn't drop a
Speaker 1: ton of balls. I'll give him the contextual benefit of
Speaker 1: the doubt on that, but I agree with you calling
Speaker 1: him a little bit lower on Blake Korum than some others.
Speaker 4: I think I have him as RB six in this class.
Speaker 2: So you know, I did a feature on FS one
Speaker 2: today today being Wednesday, eve of the draft, about you
Speaker 2: can get speed almost anywhere on the draft, but the
Speaker 2: man upstairs, God does not give us six foot six,
Speaker 2: three hundred pound, fifteen pound men with great feet. That
Speaker 2: Almost all of the top fifteen offensive tackles ever, going
Speaker 2: back to Jim Parker, are first rounders, all of them.
Speaker 2: There's very few sleeper offensive tackles. Now you can still
Speaker 2: Mackai Becton.
Speaker 3: There are whiffs.
Speaker 2: There are often weight issues, just like NBA centers, big
Speaker 2: centers weight on the feet. You can have feet and
Speaker 2: back issues, but there are positions, and I think offensive
Speaker 2: tackle is one is overwhelmingly you're Trent Williams, Jonathan Ogden,
Speaker 2: Anthony Munoz, ron Yary, the really great ones. God does
Speaker 2: not create six six, three hundred and fifteen pound men
Speaker 2: that are nimble. He just doesn't. When you see one
Speaker 2: draft him early, you're not finding him in the sixth
Speaker 2: Speed is different. I've talked to a GM, a Super
Speaker 2: Bowl winning GM, who has said he won't draft He
Speaker 2: by and large, will not draft a corner in the
Speaker 2: first two rounds. He believes third on you can find
Speaker 2: speed everywhere. There's tons of corners. Is there a sleeper?
Speaker 3: Probably not tackle. Of all these.
Speaker 2: First round tackles, what's interesting to me is Joe Alt
Speaker 2: probably is the safest from Notre Dame. But I don't
Speaker 2: think he's a seven time Pro bowler. I think he's
Speaker 2: a good twelve years arder Pro bowler.
Speaker 3: Two.
Speaker 2: Is there another tackle in this first round that you
Speaker 2: look at and he's not as complete as Alt, He's
Speaker 2: not as finished as Alt, but you think he could
Speaker 2: be the tackle in ten years we go, there's your
Speaker 2: seven time Pro bowler. Because historically the one position in
Speaker 2: football with the stars come in the first it's left tackle.
Speaker 2: Who's going to be the guy we come back and
Speaker 2: maybe it's Ald or maybe it's not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the other one I would toss out now, he's
Speaker 1: not going to be a left tackle, but it's JC Latham.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing about this class is Alton Lez
Speaker 1: can play left tackle. Outside of that, it's Olive Fishanu
Speaker 1: from Penn State. And then the discussion about Troy Fittanu
Speaker 1: from Washington. Does the organization in question that is discussing
Speaker 1: him believe that he can hang a left tackle. But
Speaker 1: outside of that, the other guys in the first round,
Speaker 1: you're at the top there. You're talking about right tackle
Speaker 1: projection between Latham, Fuaga, Amirius Mims, Tyler Geiden certainly could
Speaker 1: play left tackle, but there is bigger risk there. There's
Speaker 1: bigger variance band it out comes with what he could become.
Speaker 1: I just like Latham so much because he is so
Speaker 1: dang strong. He is a bully coming forward, he moves people,
Speaker 1: and at right tackle he absolutely can handle his pass
Speaker 1: pro responsibilities. I think that that guy is going to
Speaker 1: make a bunch of Pro Bowls when he reached the NFL.
Speaker 4: That's what he is.
Speaker 1: What he is not is the left tackle, but just
Speaker 1: talking about a guy that is going to excel in
Speaker 1: the NFL and in the NFL game.
Speaker 4: You're talking about a guy coming out of Alabama six six.
Speaker 1: Three forty five with an eighty five inch wingspan, one
Speaker 1: of the biggest in this class, over thirty five inch
Speaker 1: arm length and again has that two way utility and
Speaker 1: a game that projects to the NFL.
Speaker 4: So I would toss All Latham.
Speaker 2: By the way, Lane Johnson Tristan Wurse. You know, sometimes
Speaker 2: we reduce the importance of a right tackle, and many
Speaker 2: can play both, but in a sport or the quarterback,
Speaker 2: it's such a quarterback centric league. Two elite tackles really matters.
Speaker 2: I mean, Patrick Mahomes has been blown out once in
Speaker 2: a big game in his career. It was the Super Bowl,
Speaker 2: missing his tackles. Like these right tackles, they are gold bars.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of lefties Michael PENNOCKX in this draft,
Speaker 2: and frankly, tackles are tackles. They're the most athletic offensive lineman.
Speaker 2: If you get again, if you get six six, three
Speaker 2: thirty and good feet, you just draft them. They're just
Speaker 2: not many of them. One of the reasons that brought pretty,
Speaker 2: and I think his ceiling is fairly low. But Brock
Speaker 2: Purtty is sort of your classic. He reminds me a
Speaker 2: little bit. I think the kid at Tulane may be
Speaker 2: more talented. Pratt four years three to four years of
Speaker 2: starting didn't carry great talent. I've always had this kind
Speaker 2: of belief that I don't want somebody from Alabama or Ohio.
Speaker 2: Stated quarterback CJ. Stroud of course breaks through, but most
Speaker 2: Ohio State quarterbacks, even the gifted ones, they all put
Speaker 2: up great numbers, but they're throwing to five star receivers,
Speaker 2: five star or left tackle. They play with leads only
Speaker 2: Michigan in the conference. Do they feel like they go
Speaker 2: toe to toe with somebody that's got equal talent? Some
Speaker 2: years Penn State. So I look at Pratt at Tulane
Speaker 2: and I look at rock Purdy, and I see a
Speaker 2: lot of the Traps beat up a little no five
Speaker 2: star players on their run. Pratt's got it. If you
Speaker 2: look at his childhood and what he's overcome. I could
Speaker 2: see a Denver saying we need players. I could see
Speaker 2: a New England saying thor we need players. We're trading
Speaker 2: that we need guys. Nobody can withstand this roster. Tell
Speaker 2: me your thoughts on him. My comp was Ken O'Brien,
Speaker 2: which is aging me terribly. That's a terrible comp for
Speaker 2: a young guy like you. Thor talk about Tulane's quarterback
Speaker 2: and what you see.
Speaker 1: I love the blast from the past comes, you know,
Speaker 1: I've jayde Daniels, t Randall, cunning of JJ McCarthy to Ridskin,
Speaker 1: and so I love the blast for in the past there.
Speaker 4: And I also like you evoking Michael Pratt.
Speaker 1: I think that there's a lot to light there with
Speaker 1: Michael Pratt when he goes to Tulane speaking of moribund programs.
Speaker 4: And having to be the dude the impetus to turn
Speaker 4: a program around.
Speaker 1: That program stunk when he got there, and then you know,
Speaker 1: Willie Fritz had identified him, and then they'll you know,
Speaker 1: everyone remembers Tulane beat in usc and then last year
Speaker 1: they remained good even though Taja Spears and Dorian Williams
Speaker 1: on the other side had gone to the NFL. Michael
Speaker 1: Pratt didn't have a lot of supporting talent last year,
Speaker 1: but he kept doing it that.
Speaker 4: He is very very steady.
Speaker 1: He gives you accuracy, He can move around He's an
Speaker 1: athletic kid, very very sharp kid. People around him rave
Speaker 1: about him. That's the stuff that you get with Michael
Speaker 1: Pratt And yes, like he's that guy where if you're
Speaker 1: starting quarterback gets injured, he's going to go in and
Speaker 1: not embarrass himself because he doesn't make mistakes right. He
Speaker 1: is going to run your offense exactly as you ask
Speaker 1: him to. He's going to get the ball out expediently
Speaker 1: and hit a guy on the hands, whether it's shorter intermediate.
Speaker 1: The one thing is when you're pushing that ball more
Speaker 1: than forty yards downfield, that's where it can start to
Speaker 1: flutter on them a bit.
Speaker 4: It's the only thing that.
Speaker 1: I have about his athletic you know, the traits that
Speaker 1: you see on the field. The only other thing is
Speaker 1: just to keep an eye on is the medicals. He
Speaker 1: had some concussions at Tulane, there was a shoulder thing,
Speaker 1: but outside of that, like you know, as long as
Speaker 1: your team's medical staff is cool with Michael Prattz medicals,
Speaker 1: it's giving you the thumbs up. That kid absolutely behind
Speaker 1: all those quarterbacks we've talked about all process. This is
Speaker 1: a kid that people probably should be talking about a
Speaker 1: little bit more so.
Speaker 2: A lot of times we forget this that a college
Speaker 2: quarterback and a pro quarterback, to a large degree, they
Speaker 2: can be elevated significantly with their coach. So CAYLEB Williams
Speaker 2: has Lincoln Riley, a super high creative coach. Jaden Daniels
Speaker 2: has Brian Kelly, Michael Pennix, Kaylin de Board. This is
Speaker 2: these are really high end. I think Dan Lanning does
Speaker 2: a terrific job at Oregon. They scheme up most of
Speaker 2: their plays. Bo Nix is not asked to go off
Speaker 2: script very often. And so, and this is not a
Speaker 2: knock on Mac Brown, but he was never known at Texas.
Speaker 2: He was the southern gentleman, the great recruiter. He didn't
Speaker 2: run terribly sophisticated offenses. I mean it was that was
Speaker 2: kind of the reputation. So when I look at Drake May,
Speaker 2: I think, and this was my criticism on Justin Herbert's
Speaker 2: coach at Oregon again seem more as a recruiter as
Speaker 2: an offensive genius. The offensive line coach Mario Christobal. So
Speaker 2: a lot of people banged on Herbert for being sort
Speaker 2: of kind of a remedial offense. They didn't ask much
Speaker 2: of him but the coach doesn't run that. He's a
Speaker 2: former offensive line coach. He wanted power run the ball,
Speaker 2: and Oregon didn't have a great backup, so they wouldn't
Speaker 2: let him run until the Rose Bowl. So I look
Speaker 2: at Drake May and I think what if I had
Speaker 2: to put him with Lincoln Riley or Brian Kelly or
Speaker 2: Calin de Boorr. And some of the criticisms on him
Speaker 2: are he's inconsistent, but we have a history thor in
Speaker 2: recent years Josh Allen Jordan love of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 2: The unfinished product with good traits ends up being the
Speaker 2: best quarterback in the class, and that's Drake May. He's
Speaker 2: not refined. He needs to be sandpapered. Is it a
Speaker 2: fair defense of him that he didn't run a sophisticated offense.
Speaker 2: He wasn't put in a position as often to succeed
Speaker 2: his team. Wasn't his gift he'd you know, he didn't
Speaker 2: have some of the elements that you know, Michael Pennix
Speaker 2: basically had an all star team. Bo Nix has Franklin
Speaker 2: another great receiver. How do you view Drake May contextualizing
Speaker 2: his inconsistency, the kind of pedestrian offense, because boy, the
Speaker 2: traits are really good. Size movement arm. He looks like
Speaker 2: Justin Herbert.
Speaker 4: He sure does.
Speaker 1: And you set that up very very well early on
Speaker 1: kitecture lead Early on in Drake May's career in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, he was on fire. It was like, what's
Speaker 1: the our cake game? With the basketball boom shacka laga.
Speaker 1: He was absolutely on fire. The first ten games that
Speaker 1: he started in twenty twenty starting his college career, the
Speaker 1: first games that he had started in that Phil Longo offense,
Speaker 1: was absolutely lighting people up. And this was his first
Speaker 1: exposure to college football and it was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: who is this kid?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 1: And the ripping the balls down the field? You saw
Speaker 1: everything with the arm talent, and in that system they
Speaker 1: allow you to go down field a lot more. And
Speaker 1: he was destroying acc teams that did not keep the
Speaker 1: two high safeties up down the field. You've seen all
Speaker 1: those elements of his game, the stuff that you're talking about.
Speaker 1: I totally agree with you. This year, you went see
Speaker 1: they had an offensive coordinator that maybe we don't respect
Speaker 1: his acumen quite as much that came in. We won't
Speaker 1: get into that, but that hurts obviously, Josh Downs leaving
Speaker 1: because Phil Longo went to followed Luke Fickle to Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: Then Josh Allens had gone to the NFL, Antoine Green
Speaker 1: had gone to the NFL, and then the NCAA strangely
Speaker 1: decided right before the season that they were going to
Speaker 1: be punitive with has Walker in particular to Tulsa neuter
Speaker 1: Drake May's wide receiving corp, which was a bit odd.
Speaker 1: The point that you made that I really liked is
Speaker 1: you have seen a sort of pattern with that coaching
Speaker 1: staff guys on it. Mac Brown, guy's going back a
Speaker 1: little bit where maybe some of the finer points of
Speaker 1: the position weren't worked on as much. And when Drake
Speaker 1: May was ripping all those teams up in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: early on in the season, he didn't need to in.
Speaker 4: Order to rip those guys up.
Speaker 1: You know, all the arntal was there, the looks were there,
Speaker 1: that the receivers were there. But this past season, when
Speaker 1: the offensive system wasn't as good, when the supporting cast
Speaker 1: had cratered around him, that's where you started to see
Speaker 1: what I refer to as weeds in his game. They
Speaker 1: are not things that necessarily will be there forever. In fact,
Speaker 1: they could be plucked out theoretically pretty quick.
Speaker 4: Next year. You might need to exercise some patience for him,
Speaker 4: but that's all they are. They're weeds.
Speaker 1: Someone he needs a constant gardner, someone that will be
Speaker 1: with him. Late night film session, kid, I got a
Speaker 1: bowl of popcorn. We got your film up here from
Speaker 1: last year at un see. Today we're going to focus
Speaker 1: on this area of your game. Today, we're going to
Speaker 1: focus on how you lost your mechanics a little bit
Speaker 1: when you were under durest.
Speaker 4: Is one thing that I noticed.
Speaker 1: He'll start to speed up his decision making and then
Speaker 1: sort of eskew the lower half in particular to get
Speaker 1: the ball out in some of these situations. Or there
Speaker 1: will be sometimes where the decision making glitches a little
Speaker 1: bit that we saw crop up more this past season,
Speaker 1: but some of it is easily fixable.
Speaker 4: Colin.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw this. A moment that
Speaker 1: went viral in my state of Minnesota. Last week. Kevin
Speaker 1: O'Connell had given a speech at a church and afterwards
Speaker 1: there was a Q.
Speaker 4: And a session, at which point someone went up and asked.
Speaker 1: A question about the evls of JJ McCarthy to Kevin
Speaker 1: O'Connell the evails of JJ McCarthy against Drake May and
Speaker 1: talking about you know, JJ ran that pro style system
Speaker 1: for Harbaugh and he had this success last year and
Speaker 1: YadA YadA, Drake May, you look at him and you
Speaker 1: see all the natural armability that you would ever want.
Speaker 4: And you look back a little bit, you see it
Speaker 4: justin Herbert.
Speaker 1: You see it, Josh, except there's that sloppiness with the footwork,
Speaker 1: and sometimes the mechanics get walky. And basically the guy
Speaker 1: was asking him, how do you sort of weigh the
Speaker 1: sort of the polish of the guy coming over to
Speaker 1: the pro style yes, against the Drake May thing. And
Speaker 1: I thought O'Connell's response was so interesting because it talked
Speaker 1: about exactly what we're talking about right now.
Speaker 4: But how there's as long.
Speaker 1: As O'Connell sees all the box checks of what he
Speaker 1: needs to see, if the guy has the attributes to
Speaker 1: be a difference maker at the NFL, there are.
Speaker 4: A couple areas that he believes that he could.
Speaker 1: Fix, and fans around here believed that he was referring
Speaker 1: to Drake May's footworks.
Speaker 4: Just something for people to keep in mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think Drake May is one of those
Speaker 2: that would struggle if he got a defensive coach who
Speaker 2: didn't understand the nuances of the position. I think, well,
Speaker 2: first of all, I think anybody that I think Drake
Speaker 2: May would be a much bigger success, in my opinion
Speaker 2: in Minnesota than JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 3: That's just my opinion.
Speaker 2: I think Drake May needs He's Josh Allen, not quite
Speaker 2: as gifted, but he needed Brian. You know, Josh Allen
Speaker 2: would have been successful. If he never gets stable, he'd
Speaker 2: be successful. But Dable really cleaned him up. I watched
Speaker 2: Josh Allen against Oregon and Iowa because somebody said, watch
Speaker 2: this kid.
Speaker 3: He was a mess.
Speaker 2: I mean it was huge, he looked. I mean, he's
Speaker 2: the biggest player on the field right for Wyoming, but it.
Speaker 4: Was it was raw.
Speaker 2: I mean he had a hose, but it was raw.
Speaker 2: And I think there's some of that with Drake May.
Speaker 2: He just needs to be cleaned up and Kevin O'Connell
Speaker 2: will do it. Let me throw this out before we close.
Speaker 2: I'm not Sam Hartman and me is a little a
Speaker 2: little ham inagger.
Speaker 3: I don't get it. I see.
Speaker 2: I think he's a less talented Sam Howe, tell me
Speaker 2: I'm wrong.
Speaker 3: What do you see?
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna tell you you're wrong on that one.
Speaker 1: I think Sam Hartman though, after when his playing career
Speaker 1: is over, I'm not bullish that it is gonna last
Speaker 1: very long. We can't cry for him though, because I
Speaker 1: think there will be television contract for him immediately.
Speaker 4: He is one of the best looking people that you
Speaker 4: will ever see in person.
Speaker 1: We were down with him at the luncheon at the
Speaker 1: Senior ball in mobile even like the inkstin you know
Speaker 1: guys or whatever.
Speaker 4: They were all like, oh, look at that guy. Who
Speaker 4: is that guy? You know?
Speaker 1: It's like Sam Harmon, very good looking guy, very charismatic.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he lacks arm strength. He is not a
Speaker 1: good athlete, and he accrued stats in some rather gimmickey offenses,
Speaker 1: the Clo offense at Wake Forest, and then of course
Speaker 1: last year he had a solid supporting cast around him
Speaker 1: at Notre Dame.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jason mcintyreke. He was telling me, I like that
Speaker 2: Notre Dame quarterback and I'm like, Jason, that don't die
Speaker 2: on that hill. That is not the guy. That is
Speaker 2: not the hill to die on. He's just not a
Speaker 2: starting quarterback in the NFL. For this has been great
Speaker 2: continued success. We will circle back to you for sure.
Speaker 2: By the way you do evaluations, you also do a
Speaker 2: mock draft. Give me your top five in your mock draft.
Speaker 1: Top five by Ed Caleb Williams one, Jaden Daniels two,
Speaker 1: JJ McCarty three. That's obviously crux point right there, whether
Speaker 1: that would be JJ or Drake May. Number four is
Speaker 1: another free spot on the board in Marvin Harrison Junior,
Speaker 1: so long as Arizona stays there. And then in the
Speaker 1: five slot, that is where I had the Vikings consummating
Speaker 1: their trade up to go and get their guy, reunite
Speaker 1: him with this high school coach, Rocks McCown and selecting
Speaker 1: Drake May in the number five slot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do believe Minnesota accumulated that second number one
Speaker 2: pick to move up. And by the way, because they
Speaker 2: are so gifted offensively, I think they could give up
Speaker 2: both their ones and potentially a number one next year.
Speaker 2: They have their left tackle, they have their receiver, they'll
Speaker 2: have their quarterback. They have I mean, they really have
Speaker 2: an edge rusher they like. Minnesota reminds me a little
Speaker 2: bit of Houston, although in a better spot the year
Speaker 2: before where they have slowly quietly gotten B B plus
Speaker 2: free agents. They put some offensive people together. If they
Speaker 2: hit on the quarterback, watch out for the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 2: The only thing I'd worry about is that the Bears offense,
Speaker 2: the Lions, the Packers. That's going to become the best
Speaker 2: offens division of football. That division is you could do
Speaker 2: a Pro Bowl team, an offensive Pro Bowl team in
Speaker 2: the NFC North that could beat the rest of the league.
Speaker 4: It's about to get It's about to get fun there.
Speaker 1: And the one other thing I was going to say
Speaker 1: about the Vikings next offseason, they're projected at the most
Speaker 1: salary cap room in the entire NFL because this offseason
Speaker 1: they are carrying the most dead cap hit.
Speaker 2: It's called the Thor five hundred. It was released last
Speaker 2: week on Fantasy Pros. Thor ranks his top five hundred
Speaker 2: players and gives player comps for all five hundred. As
Speaker 2: you can tell, he's absolutely encyclopedic. The Fantasy Pros, in
Speaker 2: my opinion, is the best fantasy pod out there. This
Speaker 2: is great stuff. Thor, Thank you so.
Speaker 4: Much, Thank you, Calin appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 2: A lot is made of the NBA ratings, and I
Speaker 2: have touched on this. Baseball, hockey and the NBA are
Speaker 2: increasingly international, and I don't think that necessarily helps your
Speaker 2: domestic ratings, but I do think the NBA is really dynamic.
Speaker 2: I've said before the sports that I truly loved of NFL,
Speaker 2: college football, NBA, especially the playoffs, World Cup and a
Speaker 2: great UFC fight. That's my five and sports gambling. But
Speaker 2: I thought one of the things that's been interesting about
Speaker 2: the NBA that I really appreciate, and it doesn't benefit
Speaker 2: the young teams, but it benefits the tough teams is
Speaker 2: that the NBA has decided to do this. And this
Speaker 2: has always been an NFL strength, the ability on the
Speaker 2: fly to change rules. Baseball really struggles with its traditionalists
Speaker 2: and its lore and its history. But the NFL has always,
Speaker 2: even though it's the number one sport by a long
Speaker 2: shot in America, always views itself as an underdog. And
Speaker 2: it's not called America's past time baseball is, so the
Speaker 2: NFL's always willing, views itself as a TV show, always
Speaker 2: willing to evolve, a few years ago, in that Super
Speaker 2: Bowl Nick Foles Brady, the league literally changed its cash
Speaker 2: rule in the Super Bowl and a couple juggled catches that,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, were catches were granted its touchdowns and
Speaker 2: catches that weren't during the regular season or the playoffs
Speaker 2: before the Super Bowl. So I really do appreciate the NBA.
Speaker 2: There was a big story this year in the NBA
Speaker 2: for diehards. I'm gonna die hard, but I watch a
Speaker 2: lot of NBA after the deadline, trade deadline.
Speaker 3: I'm into it.
Speaker 2: Almost every night or every other night, watching at least
Speaker 2: a half of a game. And there's been this talk
Speaker 2: about that they started officiating the sport differently, and I
Speaker 2: really appreciated this, and I've noticed it in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: One of the reasons regular seasons are struggling in all
Speaker 2: major sports outside of football is because other sports lack urgency.
Speaker 2: The iPhone is distracting all of us. But the NBA
Speaker 2: decided to call fewer fouls, and I think it's really
Speaker 2: helped the game. I think these playoff games there's fewer whistles,
Speaker 2: there's fewer free throws. I really appreciate this. You know,
Speaker 2: during that Nicks Sixers scrum on the floor the other night,
Speaker 2: and I picked the Sixers to win this, so you know,
Speaker 2: I'm looking for Philadelphia to come out of this malaise
Speaker 2: and beat the Knicks. I think they have more good players.
Speaker 2: But I appreciated the NBA letting the play go when
Speaker 2: the ball's on the floor.
Speaker 3: Give me a break. That is just hustle.
Speaker 2: A ball hits the floor, players hit the floor. I'm
Speaker 2: not calling fouls unless it's egregious. I loved the NBA
Speaker 2: not calling a foul. Effort wins. The Knicks had more effort.
Speaker 2: What I didn't like is the NBA coming out where
Speaker 2: the next day they come out and say that, well,
Speaker 2: there was two fouls that weren't called and they should
Speaker 2: have called a timeout. What value does that have? Embarrassing
Speaker 2: your officials the game is over. It extends the reddit
Speaker 2: board crowd who thinks the league is rigged and there's
Speaker 2: a conspiracy. We know the league isn't rigged because major
Speaker 2: markets like Detroit, Atlanta, DC, previously before the last couple
Speaker 2: of years, New York. But in the toilet forever, the
Speaker 2: league is not rooting for Wemby to go to San Antonio,
Speaker 2: Zion to New Orleans, John Morant to Memphis, and to
Speaker 2: have Oklahoma City in Minnesota and Denver running the West,
Speaker 2: Steph out and Lebron about to be out. That's not
Speaker 2: what the NBA is hoping for. But I do appreciate
Speaker 2: when a league on the fly, even in season, has
Speaker 2: an interpretation of this is hurting the quality of the
Speaker 2: product for the fans. And what the NBA has done,
Speaker 2: they're speeding the game up, fewer whistles. College football has
Speaker 2: made multiple changes last several years. Speed the clock up.
Speaker 2: It is my number one complaint. Baseball, by the way,
Speaker 2: pitch clock first year attendance up eight percent, ratings up eleven.
Speaker 2: People are telling you, we love the games. We don't
Speaker 2: have all day. So a lot of people criticize the NBA.
Speaker 2: I thought it was really smart by Adam Silver. People
Speaker 2: were they made it sound like it happened in a
Speaker 2: smoke filled room. He just said, fewer whistles, let them play.
Speaker 2: And I think the NBA playoffs to this point have
Speaker 2: been really good, really intense, and really physical. Yukon won
Speaker 2: a national championship. They were the most physical college basketball
Speaker 2: team I saw, and Minnesota is pushing around the Suns.
Speaker 2: It works, it matters, and it makes for a better product.
Speaker 2: I love sports, but I have kids. You have kids,
Speaker 2: you have work. I don't have all day. Keep them going,
Speaker 2: speed them up. These are TV shows. It's entertainment. That's
Speaker 2: why Hollywood doesn't have three hour movies, right, there's like
Speaker 2: two hours. Fifteen minutes is to cut off for most
Speaker 2: movies unless they're going to be all time epics like
Speaker 2: Oppenheimer the volume. Thanks so much for listening. If you've
Speaker 2: enjoyed the podcast, take a moment rate and review