• 6 months ago
Pat and Matt welcome on Thor Nystrom to discuss his draft grades, and why he graded the Patriots draft as an F.

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Transcript
00:00:00 You're listening to the Patreon Nation Podcast.
00:00:05 All right, welcome to another edition of the Patreon Nation Podcast.
00:00:33 This is your host, Matt St. Gene.
00:00:54 And today we have on a guy that's been on the show, I would say the last four years,
00:01:11 and he's a tough grader.
00:01:23 He's a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
00:01:45 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
00:02:03 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
00:02:18 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
00:02:36 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
00:02:52 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
00:03:14 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
00:03:42 on the curve. So there's two A-pluses every year, there's two Fs and then the other grades
00:03:46 are evenly distributed through there that, the fan bases of the teams I gave the A-plus
00:03:52 and the As too, like in the radio stations there, they want to have me on to fluff their
00:03:58 class up a little bit. And then it's the opposite way. Every year I got to go on the stations
00:04:04 and answer, I was on WEEI like a week ago, 10 days ago. I had to answer for my F grade.
00:04:11 And it's just, again, it's just by my numbers, my metrics, my pre-draft board. So there's,
00:04:20 I could be wrong for sure. I've been wrong before. You mentioned one of them. I've been
00:04:25 writing a lot of guys. I was the only guy in the industry that had Lamar Jackson as
00:04:28 a top five overall player. His class, Arif Hassan recently put out an accuracy thing,
00:04:33 ranking your top hundred guys on your big board over a five-year sample of individuals.
00:04:38 You're talking to the guy who finished number one. So it's like I have misses, have hits,
00:04:43 it just is what it is. And of course the day after the draft, you can't say, it's just
00:04:48 your read on guys. Like you mentioned, it's 500. So you're making 500 predictions on outcomes
00:04:54 that you don't know in advance. It's just my read today, right? Or the day after the
00:04:58 draft, whatever. But they could absolutely be right on these. I mean, that's the cool
00:05:03 thing about the future has to play out. Again, it's just, I did the work on the guys and
00:05:07 that was my take in the moment.
00:05:09 So yeah.
00:05:10 I like that you grade on the curve the way you do, because it's very easy to just say
00:05:15 this team got better because they drafted players. They get a B. But every team does
00:05:19 that. So forcing, you know, two A pluses, two Fs, it kind of controls for the fact that
00:05:24 every team is adding players here. So just because you got better, if you think you got
00:05:30 better, if every other team in your division got even better than you did, that's not a
00:05:34 good thing.
00:05:36 For sure. Yeah. You know, like all this stuff, you know, the 500 comps and then, you know,
00:05:41 some of these different things, they're all a response. Maybe the things when I was like
00:05:44 a kid or I was in high school, I was in college and early on in my time in the industry where
00:05:49 like, it was either like, why doesn't that exist? That's why for the 500 player board,
00:05:55 the 500 comps, I just wanted that to exist before I had the opportunity to do it. So
00:05:59 finally, you know, I answered the question with that. But then like with other things,
00:06:03 like the grading methodology, you know, of like both trying to put, you know, metrics
00:06:07 beside it that are, you know, were my pre-draft thing. So I'm not, you know, just sort of
00:06:11 eyeballing it. But a couple other things in there, they're just responses to maybe pet
00:06:15 peeves that I had about the draft grade cottage industry before I started doing this. And
00:06:20 one of them was great inflation. You know, it seemed like the lowest grades you'd ever
00:06:26 see on some, some fall, it was like B minus, right. Or a C plus. Well, if you have all
00:06:31 the grades clustered like that, how do you say for the audience, the thing that you're
00:06:36 reading for, you're hoping that someone who has done that work, you know, like you have
00:06:41 a different job, you work, you know, you're a, you're a lawyer, you're an accountant,
00:06:45 you don't have the time to all spring long and in the years advance of this, have watched
00:06:50 all these different guys and then, you know, gone through us. So you're just going to that
00:06:53 to try to get that person's opinion of how they, they see your draft class. Then the
00:06:58 next day, if you put all your grades, they're all A's and B pluses. You're, you're not really
00:07:04 telling the audience what you actually think about the classes. So, so that's why I ended
00:07:08 up doing it that way. And then one other minorish pet peeve about it was you'd see people, you'd
00:07:14 see artificial inflation of grades for teams that have more draft equity and an artificial
00:07:20 deflation on the limited, you know, scaled up picks that the grades that they were even
00:07:25 given out for the teams that had less draft equity. And so like, I wanted to remove, you
00:07:30 know, that from it as well and, and try to more judge the ball where it lies, right?
00:07:35 Like, you know, how did you do in the slots that you had? So that's, you know, that's
00:07:39 why I ended up doing it that way. Even if it gets me a lot of crap from fan base at
00:07:44 the next day, I, and you guys are great. The Patriots fans are great. The, the worst one
00:07:49 ever was, do you guys remember the year when the Raiders with Mayock had three first round
00:07:54 picks and they had Alex on Alex Leatherwood was one of them, right? That was the next
00:08:00 year. I believe this was the Jonathan Abram, Josh Farrell, Farrell. Yeah. And the top four.
00:08:07 Well, and they, you know, and then the second round, the Clemson corner, um, was it, did
00:08:14 you hate him? No, right. No, um, Mullen, I think. Yeah. But like all those guys were
00:08:19 in the top 40 when he, how, you know, and you look the next day, everyone in the industry
00:08:23 was giving them a is a minuses at worst B plus because they had had this metric ton
00:08:28 of draft equity.
00:08:29 So how are you going to say they didn't improve? Well, I gave him an F right. Because in my
00:08:33 opinion and based on my pre draft board, all they did was reach every single pick like
00:08:38 Farrell. I had 15, 18 spots beneath that Josh Jacobs. I had, you know, maybe 10, 15 spots
00:08:46 beneath that. Uh, Abram, I had is like a fifth round guy. I, I, I, I didn't like Jonathan
00:08:51 Abram, uh, that the game he had, I didn't see how it translated to the modern NFL. And
00:08:56 then Mullen Ida. So it was like, when you looked at my, they had by far squandered the
00:09:00 most draft equity, you know, my, my pre draft board was saying, so I didn't really have
00:09:05 a choice on that.
00:09:06 It was just a metric thing, but yeah, I got man, those Raiders fans came for me, they
00:09:10 found my Facebook page and they were taking the pictures off it. And then like one of
00:09:15 the guys, he made this graphic, like me getting tarred, you know, like, you know, like they
00:09:20 were doing all this kind of crazy. So it was, it was insane. But you know, again, like I
00:09:24 went on the show that asked me and that too, not many people came back on the other side,
00:09:30 apologize into Thor, but it's like, you know, you just have to get in. You call like, you
00:09:34 see it, that's the job. So happy to happy to talk about all that.
00:09:38 Also we have someone in the comments, we have someone in the comments upset that you call
00:09:41 yourself Thor. They are, they're upset that your name is Thor. It's like, what's your
00:09:46 name? No, that's his real name. Ladies and gentlemen.
00:09:50 I would pull out my driver's license right now. If that wasn't weird or a credit card,
00:09:55 if you know, you guys couldn't steal it from me, but yeah, that's my name. So my birth
00:09:58 also, also we missed out on a great opportunity should have been entitled the podcast should
00:10:03 have been the Thor hammers the paths. I mean like we just, I blew it, I blew it. I just
00:10:08 totally blew it. All right. So let's get into the draft. Let's get into the Patriots draft
00:10:13 and, and kind of where you, uh, you know, what it looked like for you. We'll start
00:10:17 with Drake May. And I said that you, you know, had, had comps to every player and you did
00:10:25 have real players for every comp except for one.
00:10:29 That was Drake May. And I actually DM you cause I thought it was a mistake and it was
00:10:32 not a mistake. Uh, but you had Carson Pence as, as your, um, as your comp to Drake May.
00:10:42 And so just explain that and also explain why you had him as your, so you had him as
00:10:45 your eighth overall player and as your QB for, um, so just explain, uh, explain why.
00:10:51 Yeah. So I, I don't like doing mashup comps and I don't like doing like, Oh, you know,
00:10:57 poor man's version of, or like, I like it to just fit in the box. But like with me,
00:11:02 I couldn't get one that I thought perfectly encapsulate at least gave that reader like
00:11:07 a, a good totem of where I saw it in my mind. Uh, there was like one dude. Um, and like
00:11:13 basically the, you know, and you also had the Carson, you know, and so you put it together
00:11:18 and then it's Carson Pence, but you know, Carson Palmer and Carson Wentz were the two
00:11:22 guys I was trying to, to mash up there. And Palmer spoke to the upside as the pocket passer
00:11:28 that I, that, you know, everyone sees in, in Drake May and his ceiling on that. I think
00:11:32 I see it pretty similarly to everybody else. You know, if that thing fully realized what
00:11:37 that would look like at the next level, the arm town speaks for itself. Um, but I also,
00:11:41 you know, he has that, uh, you know, that people would be like, you'd hear him come
00:11:45 to like Josh Allen or, or Herbert or some of those guys. He's not the same kind of runner
00:11:50 or athlete as those guys. Like he's a tough kid and he'll grind out the short yardage
00:11:55 stuff. I think in the NFL, um, he can steal some yards, you know, if it's not there, but
00:11:59 like I thought that part was getting a little bit overblown. And so I was trying to think
00:12:03 of someone where that better, uh, you know, the athleticism element was more, so I saw
00:12:09 more Carson Wentz in, in terms of that. And then also trying to not just like, I was a
00:12:15 little bit lower on Drake May. So, uh, the Carson Wentz one also lowered the Carson Palmer
00:12:20 a little bit, but, you know, while embedding sort of the athleticism element, cause I thought,
00:12:25 you know, that evoked more of a Carson Wentz as opposed to just the running thing, as opposed
00:12:29 to, you know, say Josh Allen. Well, like Carson Wentz too is such a, he alone, if you're invoking
00:12:35 his name can be all over the board for what exactly that means or how high the ceiling
00:12:40 is, how low the floor is. Cause you know, we saw how good it could be and we saw how
00:12:45 bad it could be with him. And I feel like there's a lot of that in Drake May, uh, one
00:12:48 of my comps for him, like I thought he had some Jordan love in his game where it was
00:12:52 just like, you know, he can be, he has those moments where it looks really good and he
00:12:56 has this structure and he has those out of structure moments and he's a good runner.
00:13:00 But, uh, there's just enough of those holes in the game where it's like, all right, he's
00:13:04 going to need to take a couple of steps forward at the next level. And he isn't, he isn't
00:13:08 the overwhelming athlete that Josh Allen is. He's like, you know, 90% of that or 85% of
00:13:14 that.
00:13:15 Yeah. And you know, it's funny cause like I, I, you know, all spring long, you know,
00:13:19 of course I'm coming to you guys from Minneapolis right now and around here was all about, you
00:13:23 know, the trade up and then what quarterback could the Vikings, you know, around your guys
00:13:27 parts, obviously it was, it was not about the trade, but if you know what quarterback
00:13:30 are we getting? And so it, you know, the questions became, it was May and JJ cause they were
00:13:36 the two obvious best fits for KOC system. And so a lot of, um, sort of stuff like that.
00:13:41 And so you had a lot of opportunities to talk about Drake May before this and the way that
00:13:46 I refer to it was, you know, and this, this will hit Pat on the question about, uh, just
00:13:50 ranking them a little bit, maybe lower than, than some other folks that think they're not,
00:13:56 um, how do you say like the, the, those aspects of his game that I don't like as much, they're
00:14:01 not nullifying and there is no guarantee that they remain there longterm.
00:14:06 And if they don't, he is going to be a superstar. But what I referred to them as was weeds.
00:14:12 There's a couple of weeds in that guy's game that just need to be plucked out. And so I
00:14:17 was advocating patience for him early on, whatever organization you went to, whether,
00:14:20 you know, in terms of the, uh, speaking as him as a potential Viking, you know, it was
00:14:25 more trying to get the fans, uh, at least prepared for that element of it, of like,
00:14:30 yeah, the upside really, really high. But it's like initially there maybe should be
00:14:36 a little bit of patience exercise there while some of those things get pulled out.
00:14:40 The thing, you know, people talk about the glitching that you sometimes see with him
00:14:45 and that's, that's, you know, something that needs to be worked on for sure. The thing
00:14:49 that, uh, one of the weeds that I was thinking about more though, like if you exercise the
00:14:54 first year patience, you're trying to pull it out right away was I noticed that when
00:14:58 sometimes he excuses mechanics, even when it's, um, a cleaner pocket, but that's not
00:15:03 as prevalent with him. But where I saw it all the time was when the pocket was about
00:15:08 to collapse. I loved, I love how he sets up immediately in the beats after getting that
00:15:13 bond shotgun. I love his little back pedal. You know, he doesn't square right away. He
00:15:16 does a little back pedal. So he's, he gets to see the, the, the releases. And then the
00:15:20 first few beats out of the entire field. Like I love that. And then I love the way that
00:15:24 he is moving around to try to keep the, the half halo in front of him at all times, like
00:15:30 in the beats after this now so that he has the runway to throw into. So, so I like sort
00:15:34 of the way that he'll subtly move this way and that, cause you know, just to sort of
00:15:38 manipulate that pocket and keep that runway in front of him. But it was the, so all that
00:15:43 stuff was good. It was like, but up until the moment when he starts to denote like,
00:15:48 Oh boy, Drake, the, the pockets about to collapse. And that was where I noticed the fast forwarding
00:15:53 of his mechanics. I'll put it that way where it was like, but also a fast forwarding of
00:15:57 his decision-making process. So it's like, Drake, we gotta, we gotta get this ball. We
00:16:01 gotta, you know, maybe before he would need to, he's, he's got some more beats, but instead
00:16:05 it's like, we gotta, we gotta, and then, and then just totally a skewing. A lot of
00:16:09 times the lower body wouldn't be there and he wouldn't even be squaring up some of the
00:16:12 times. And you saw like the accuracy go down and you saw more balls throwing up because
00:16:17 of this. That's the thing that one of the weeds that I would work on. But just to the
00:16:20 stats on that last year under duress, 43.3% of 90 passes under pressure last season for
00:16:27 a seven to five TDI and T rate. And with sack 28 times, that's, that's just one element
00:16:32 of the game. Again, like work on that, but you, you get those weeds out, you pluck them
00:16:37 out early. You got to start quarterback, maybe a superstar quarterback on your hands for
00:16:41 sure. What would be your development path? You know, if you're a head coach or offensive
00:16:46 coordinator of the new England Patriots year one, year two, year three, how are you trying
00:16:50 to develop him? And what are you trying to put around him on the field? So I would tell
00:16:56 him right off to get like, and maybe this would be a mistake, but I would tell him right
00:17:01 away, like we, you are a long-term guy here. You are the face of the franchise, but we're
00:17:06 going to go slow with you initially. Like, we don't want you going in there balls to
00:17:10 the wall to, you know, you against Jacoby every day. It's more like Jacoby is going
00:17:14 to be mentoring you. And we think that Jacoby is going to be starting early on in the season.
00:17:20 And meanwhile, I would, you know, you're the offensive coordinator there. You're the quarterback
00:17:24 coach there. I would, and of course they went through the entire evaluation with him. So
00:17:28 they know the elements of his game, obviously that they love and what that ceiling could
00:17:31 look like, but also the specific things to address what I'm referring to as weeds, those
00:17:35 guys, it would be like, I would have a, we're going to have a Thursday night movie session,
00:17:41 Drake, like after practice is done, after everyone else leaves the facility, we're going
00:17:44 to give you a big bowl of popcorn.
00:17:45 We're going to sit down in front of the projector today. We're going to work on this, this,
00:17:51 we won't call it a weed in front of Drake, but you know, today we're going to focus on
00:17:54 this element and you know, maybe we do the thing I just talked about, about that underdress
00:17:58 thing. It's not enough to say like, you know, and I never said this during the process of
00:18:04 like, Oh, he panics under pressure. Cause I don't think that that's what it is. I think
00:18:08 that no one ever walked through with him in this moment. Like you've done everything right
00:18:12 to this point, but your receivers aren't separating, but now you're starting to denote it. Notice
00:18:17 how often you are just that your decision, you're like, it's sort of a Yolo thing. And
00:18:22 then you're just a skewing the mechanics. We need to have a backup plan there. Cause
00:18:26 that's what I was sort of, it was sort of my theory for it is like, he was never walked
00:18:30 through that and you didn't see a backup plan with it, but it's like Drake and what moments
00:18:33 there with, with the pressure around you, would you have another beat to square your
00:18:38 shoulders? Maybe survey what moments should you just eat the sack? What moments should
00:18:42 you see if you can get lateral at least outside the hashes and then just throw that ball away
00:18:48 when we go to the Chucktown guy a little bit more, but like try to give him specific examples
00:18:53 on the film while you're sitting next to him in your sweat pants and you're eating the
00:18:56 popcorn. Like here's a specific example where you could go this, you know, keep this in
00:19:01 your head for when you see that on the field, that's how I do it with him. And maybe in
00:19:05 November, if he's developed a rapport with the guys, he knows the playbook. Well, you
00:19:10 feel good about that. You pulled some of those, those weeds out. Then if he, you feel like
00:19:14 he gives the team the best, then I put them out there. But I want to make sure that those
00:19:18 weeds were pulled first. And I feel by the way, the same way about the Vikings actually,
00:19:22 where it's like, I'm not trying to rush anyone because I don't think they're going to be
00:19:25 a Superbowl contender either way. Like if I was the, I know the Patriots fans really
00:19:29 want to see him, but that would be my concern is that the coaching staff and the organization
00:19:34 feels like a pressure of, we gave this guy a top three draft equity. So we gotta, we
00:19:39 gotta toss him out there right away. Show what he's got. Cause I wouldn't want, you
00:19:43 know, for some of these things to crop up right away. And then some of those are bad
00:19:47 habits to get embedded.
00:19:48 Right? No, it's a great point. It's a great point. And I, I gotta tell you like one of
00:19:53 the things that I, that I like about it. And of course there's, there's people upset in
00:19:56 the chat. I don't blame you. I don't blame you for being upset. It's okay. Also James
00:19:59 with the let's hope, let's hope McAteer is a weed whacker. But you know, the thing for
00:20:05 me is that one of the things I like about it, and again, it's an F and I know what's
00:20:10 an F and people don't like that. I understand. But one of the things I like is that you are,
00:20:18 you readily admit that you certainly could be wrong. And not only could you, could you
00:20:23 be wrong, but not that there's a possibility that, Hey, I didn't like this guy here. That
00:20:28 doesn't mean he's not going to be good. Right? And so, and I think that that's one of those
00:20:32 things that we have to understand is that these guys are rookies, right? And so you
00:20:38 see it one way and I might see it a different way. And we're going to talk about Jalen
00:20:41 Polk in a second because I think that Polk is, is interesting. And maybe we can talk
00:20:44 about that right after this.
00:20:45 I got a stronger take on that one, but with me, yeah, I'm not, I'm not arguing to get
00:20:49 like, again, I think I see a ceiling like other people. What people need to understand
00:20:52 in the chat is I put them eighth in QB4. It was a recognition of what I felt was the risk
00:20:59 of the, of the asset. I think I see the bonanza the same way everyone else does. It's just
00:21:04 from what I had seen a Drake may, I just thought it was a little bit elevated. And so to be
00:21:08 fair on that, if your own evaluation, you have to bake that in as well. So I thought
00:21:12 that that was the most accurate representation of that, where I put them.
00:21:15 Okay. All right. So let's, we've got to take a quick break. Let's take a break. And when
00:21:19 we come back, let's talk about Polk. Cause I know you have some stronger feelings about
00:21:22 that one. And that's one of those things that, that I think we can, we can hash out. Cause
00:21:28 I don't know if I disagree with you. I don't know if I agree with you, I should say, but
00:21:32 we'll, we'll hash it out. And I think it should be good conversation. So don't go away. We'll
00:21:36 be right back.
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00:22:40 All right, that's clearly that's an old ad reading. I had to get rid of that LeBron James
00:22:47 got swept out of the first round. But But okay, let's you watch the fight in two hours.
00:22:52 That's right. Can't win it. Maybe they'll maybe they'll meet the they'll actually give
00:22:56 the Celtics some competition in the finals. You never know. Maybe get there. They're early
00:23:00 to say that, but they're, they're killing it right now. So all right, let's get into
00:23:05 Jalen Polk. Jalen Polk, of course, goes 37 of the Patriots. You had him as your wide
00:23:08 receiver 19 122nd on your big board. And for me that this is where and of course, Caden
00:23:16 Wallace is a whole nother story. We I don't know if I disagree with you on the Caden Wallace
00:23:19 one. But But Jalen Polk, I think is where we're going to see the biggest kind of skew
00:23:25 of what Matt and I might think and what you think. So what's your reasoning for having
00:23:29 Jalen Polk, you know, almost, you know, past 100 and then wide receiver 19? Well, whenever,
00:23:39 you know, my whole argument with it is if if Jalen McMillan doesn't get injured in September
00:23:44 of this past season that that Jalen Polk, I don't think my ranking would have seemed
00:23:49 outlandish at all. I think he goes there or later in in the draft. Fortune smiled upon
00:23:55 him when when McMillan gets injured. McMillan have been the clear number two. In fact, the
00:24:00 year before is closer to, you know, the targets and stuff with the doomsday. But like I said,
00:24:05 Polk was always wide receiver three was wide receiver three at the beginning of the year.
00:24:08 And then he gets to step up when he gets starts getting more targets when McMillan goes down.
00:24:12 That's when he went ballistic. But the end of it, you know, that was against some of
00:24:15 these these crappy teams like, you know, Michigan State's defense or Arizona's defense or Arizona
00:24:21 State's defense or Stanford's defense. But at the end of the season, McMillan comes back
00:24:25 and it sort of reverts back to he's Polk is the afterthought guy again in this really
00:24:31 explosive passing offense that had what over 5000 passing errors, two active games in November
00:24:36 there where he didn't have one catch, you know, the average that he had in November
00:24:42 and then on in that season when they go to the title game is average and I had in front
00:24:47 of me but under 40 receiving yards per game, you know, and again, most of that was when
00:24:51 McMillan had come back. And also just as far so that's the constitution of the offensive
00:24:55 court and the prerogative of one of the great offensive minds that we have in this sport
00:25:00 right now, Kalen DeBoer is so so smart at this. It goes from what was it? And I a a
00:25:05 however, however you say and I a or however, and I and a I easy for me to say, but like,
00:25:12 you know, eight years ago, nine years ago, and now he's the head coach at Alabama. You
00:25:17 know, and then the panics who apparently Terry Fano was the eighth best player in the or
00:25:22 higher, you know, according to reports on his board, but like, you know, that that was
00:25:25 the constitution of their offense. And that that's what it ended up being. But as far
00:25:29 as the projection, like I don't I don't see him and I never saw him as an outside dude
00:25:34 in the NFL. I see him as a as a bigger slot. I think you're going to get the efficiency
00:25:38 that the part of his game that I like, I guess it's two things that you know, the thing that
00:25:42 he's sort of led by the hands are obvious. He has very good hands. And then he's got
00:25:46 the acceleration. So you know, you can get the crafty efficiency out of the guy, the
00:25:52 guy who's not going to flub anything. But I just didn't see him as a dude that should
00:25:56 be, you know, is should be playing on the boundary, or certainly there would be a standout
00:26:01 at that. And I think when I think guys like Polk can be hard to evaluate to a degree to
00:26:07 because it can be hard to tell exactly how fast he is exactly how quick he can move and
00:26:13 what his capability is a route runner can be. You know, some people have him as a top
00:26:18 40 guys, some people like you have him as a fourth rounder. And I think it's he's you
00:26:23 can get either impression from the tape. A lot of it is what you value in a player like
00:26:27 this too, I think. And he is, I think he's interesting, because there's some similarities
00:26:33 to what you know, Ron Wolf liked in receivers and what you get out of Jalen Polk. And I
00:26:38 think that makes sense. But yeah, I one of the things I read your piece on him, so I
00:26:44 went back and watched his tape today. And what's interesting is that even from game
00:26:47 to game from rep to rep, his quickness, his suddenness, his burst out of breaks, looks
00:26:52 very different. And it's hard to tell what's going into that. Because I think if he can
00:26:57 be that guy who's, you know, given it a full go and maximize that route running ability,
00:27:01 I think he could be a number one that he could be an accident, he could play outside the
00:27:05 numbers as a guy who's going to win with physicality. But also, if he doesn't quite have that burst,
00:27:13 he is, you know, a second or third option, who's going to play on the inside and be his
00:27:16 own beater, which is valuable, but not pick 37 valuable.
00:27:22 For sure. Yeah. And I saw more like the latter, you know, and it's, you know, I thought he
00:27:26 was certainly draftable, you know, that he should have gone right around the middle there.
00:27:31 You know, top top of the fourth round, I you know, is where I think we're at where I ended
00:27:35 up having, but like, I think he'll start in the NFL. But you know, again, like I, and
00:27:39 obviously with the draft equity, he will be starting but like, I just saw it as more of
00:27:42 that sort of big slot. And I do think you'll get the efficiency with it. But I want a guy
00:27:47 where I can project more of the explosive element. And if I in the slot, for me, it
00:27:53 would either be the receiver, the slot receiver who can has some sort of downfield elements
00:27:58 of their game, or it'd be the big, you know, the big slot, the tight end dude that they
00:28:03 can stretch the seam. But like, I do see him as more of like the paper cut guy. And I know
00:28:08 like the situation that he was in there. You know, I'm even arguing, maybe I suppose that
00:28:13 he was miscast, he should have been the dude in the slot. And maybe he should have been
00:28:16 in the Macmillan role. But like, the part that benefited him was, Odunze got all the
00:28:23 attention on the other side. Odunze was pressed, maybe the most in the nation last year, I
00:28:28 forget. But if not, it was certainly was at the very tip top of this class. And by margin
00:28:33 over the second guy. And then he always had the cornerback one over there, and then the
00:28:38 shading of the coverage. So you know, Polk got the opportunity to play against the CB2
00:28:43 when there was never any threat of a double coverage. And a lot of times there wasn't
00:28:46 any help over the top. So it's like you could sort of argue it both ways as far as the role
00:28:51 he was in.
00:28:52 Yeah. Well, you know, it's interesting because a comp that we saw a lot was Joey Myers. And
00:28:57 I think he's got a little bit more speed than Cody Myers. But I think as as a Patriots fan,
00:29:03 it's my take on it as a Patriots fan. It's very simple. The Patriots have gone for and
00:29:09 allegedly they were trying to trade back and not allegedly they were trying to trade back
00:29:13 into the first round. And I think they had their eyes on Xavier Leguette. And I'm happy
00:29:18 they didn't get him. And I'm happy they didn't get him for a very easy reason. They've gone
00:29:23 after guys like Leguette for years, and they've struck out every single time they've drafted
00:29:28 a guy like that. Every single time they've gone after a guy like Leguette, who's fast,
00:29:34 isn't a great route runner, isn't super crafty like, but he's like, you know, explosive and
00:29:38 he's big and look at that guy and he looks great with shorts on and without a shirt on.
00:29:42 It's great. That's awesome. But can he play friggin football? Right. And so like you can't
00:29:50 and then you can't develop them and it's a disaster. And so I look at Polk as a guy that
00:29:55 can be that steady guy. Now listen, is to me, is he going to be a home run wide receiver
00:30:01 one pick? Probably not. But if he can be a consistent guy, wide receiver two, even a
00:30:08 wide receiver three, to me, that's valuable for the Patriots because they haven't been
00:30:12 able to find guys like that. And again, for me, and listen, you know, maybe that's not
00:30:18 the value you want to pick 37, but that's kind of in my scar, like emotionally scarred
00:30:25 brain Patriots brain where I've, you know, we've missed on so many wide receivers. I
00:30:29 feel good about Polk because I feel like the floor is high, even if the ceiling isn't as
00:30:34 high, but again, I pick 37. You want to get a guy whose ceiling is really high, who you
00:30:40 think can be an all pro. And I just don't know if, if Polk was ever going to really
00:30:44 be that guy.
00:30:45 Yeah. And, and your points while taking, cause I, I agree with you that the floor is, is
00:30:49 high on Polk, right? Like I, you know, like I said before, I think he's going to start
00:30:53 for years. It's just, you know, I guess the more than my way of seeing it as out of the
00:30:58 slot as, as the efficiency guy could end up getting a lot of targets with that. But you
00:31:02 know, I could be wrong, right? Like, I mean, it was certainly on the Washington team that
00:31:05 made the championship game last year, he was a boundary receiver. So we'll see if that,
00:31:10 that ends up being the case again. But I agree with you that explosive element is the one
00:31:13 part of his game that, that I didn't really see. And I can't really project that to the
00:31:18 next level, but I think you're going to get efficiency out of this slot as well. If I
00:31:22 was them, I would have tried to do, you know, cause yes, I think, you know, it's a safer
00:31:26 one as far, as far as the floor, but I think you could have had the best of both worlds,
00:31:30 for instance, by staying in your slot and taking lad McConkie, a guy who's got like
00:31:33 a ludicrously high floor to me.
00:31:35 And you also have the higher ceiling, at least, you know, my way of seeing those, those two
00:31:39 guys, but you know, we'll end up seeing them.
00:31:41 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Before we move on to the next one, cause you mentioned Joe and make
00:31:46 bone, do you think you would have been a good fit for new England with the Drake may, or
00:31:49 do you like the bowl winner with what may bring us to the table?
00:31:53 Yeah. I mean, like I know you guys have pop Douglas and you know, you need bodies there,
00:31:59 but it's like, you know, I'm curious to see how that goes. But Macmillan of course is
00:32:02 the pure slot. I think the page, you know, I haven't seen any of the cause cause I've
00:32:05 had, I've been doing the UDFA rankings. So did they, did they mention they see him as
00:32:10 an outside guy? I assume by where they took them, that that was the case.
00:32:13 Paul, cause they haven't said, okay, I'm going to have some kind of camp this weekend. I'm
00:32:21 pretty sure. And there's going to be press at one of the days. So we might get our first
00:32:24 inclination of where they want to use him. Yeah. But yeah, as far as McMillan, I did
00:32:30 have McMillan above him, but it would just be about, you know but I see both those guys
00:32:34 as slots of the next level. I just think McMillan is going to be better at it, you know, and
00:32:38 speaking to the thing I was talking about before last, last two years, and you know,
00:32:42 as if you saw my draft grades column, but I have this stat in there, but the last 20
00:32:46 games, so there was 20 games last two years where Jalen McMillan, Jalen Polk were on the
00:32:50 field together and completed the game. 20 of them. McMillan had 124 catches in those
00:32:55 games for 1,657 yards, 14 touchdowns. Polk had 68 catches. So, so nearly half as much
00:33:02 for 1,210 yards and nine touchdowns, you know? So again, like, but yeah, I just see the both
00:33:08 them as slots and I just like McMillan more. Yeah, I will say I did. I've been studying
00:33:13 up on what Alex Van Pelt did with the Browns and how they use like Amari Cooper. There
00:33:18 were, there's a lot of plays where it's either he's backside one on one with a three by one
00:33:24 or they get him into the slot somehow and dial up things for him that way. And there
00:33:29 are a lot of routes there that I think Jalen Polk has shown on tape. So I think he's not
00:33:34 Amari Cooper, but I think some of that stuff you can ask him to do it and he'll be at least
00:33:38 somewhat successful. But yeah, how they use them, it's going to be very interesting for
00:33:42 sure. So, all right, let's the next one's Caden Wallace and I don't want to spend a
00:33:46 ton of time on the two offensive linemen. We could just kind of lump them together because
00:33:49 they got drafted back to back because I do want to get the Javon Baker as well. But like
00:33:54 those two offensive linemen, I think we can both agree. I think we can all three of us
00:33:58 agree that certainly Caden Wallace was a reach. Now the Patriots have said that they felt
00:34:03 that he could play left tackle, but I don't like, I haven't heard that from anyone else.
00:34:09 He played no left tackle in college. And so then the question becomes, well, maybe you
00:34:13 did think he'd play left tackle, but you took him at 68. Like, do you think you could have
00:34:17 gotten him at one Oh three? Like did anyone else see that? You know? And so that's, that
00:34:22 to me is the, is the question mark there. Now again, maybe they believe that, but like,
00:34:27 I don't know. I just, it's surprising to me. Laden Robinson's fine, but like not the kind
00:34:33 of guy I want to spend, you know, my top fourth round pick on.
00:34:37 For sure. Yeah. And that's sort of how I saw it. And it would have been, you know, some
00:34:41 of these things, you don't know how it went down in the war room. But like the way that
00:34:47 it sort of came across to me is that they were like, okay, you know, the third pick
00:34:51 we decided on May. So good. We're coming out of there. And then it's like, they're heading
00:34:56 into Friday and it's like that first pick, it's going to be a wide receiver. Right. Like,
00:35:00 you know, and they were, you know, you mentioned that they were possibly attempting to, they
00:35:04 either I've read reports where it was like, they wanted to get to fall to them, but then
00:35:08 there's other ones that they were, you know, thought they could get snipes.
00:35:11 They're trying to move up and however it goes. But anyway, obviously that dream was, was
00:35:15 dead heading into Friday, but it's like, they stayed on that path of like, it's going to
00:35:19 be a receiver. And I think they knew, I think the trade down would indicate, and I think
00:35:24 they might've even said this. So like they, it's like, they're at the very tippy top there
00:35:29 for Paul. He must've been the next, obviously the next highest receiver on their board.
00:35:33 I think I just would, I think remaining more open to the possibilities around you, even
00:35:39 if you see the prospects different than me understand that in the, on Thursday, that
00:35:43 was when it was the gold rush for the offensive tackles. If it's me and I'm the Patriots and
00:35:48 I'm seeing the environment I'm in where, you know, everyone's jumping over themselves,
00:35:52 the trade up that I'm looking at from the top of the second into Thursday, it's not
00:35:56 for Xavier like yet it's for an offensive tackle.
00:35:59 If that's what you're, you know, a position that you're going to prioritize, it feels
00:36:03 like they got caught on the wrong end of it. You know, like they, they took a different
00:36:08 receiver fair enough. They, at least they traded down once, but then they, because they
00:36:12 had done that, then the next pick, it's like offensive tackle. Well, they, all the good
00:36:15 ones are already gone. Right. But then, so it feels like they just reached up on, on
00:36:19 someone there and it was, it just felt like they were, you know, and I don't know, but
00:36:25 that's what it sort of came across like to me, but yeah, Caden Wallace, even at the point
00:36:29 we were at in the draft there, what pick, what did it end up being with him in the slot?
00:36:34 Early 68. Yeah. It's tough, man. Cause you got, we had the historic run of the offensive
00:36:39 tackles early on. And then right before that end of the second round, Rosengarten goes
00:36:44 and Suamatea goes in quick succession. Now we're, we're really in trouble as far as the
00:36:49 tackles go. And if you consider Brandon Coleman and tackle, I consider him a guard, but play
00:36:53 tackle at TC, but then he just went one pick before you, I would have done something else
00:36:58 there. Either get aggressive in the environment you were in trying to get up with a second
00:37:01 round pick to get into the back end of the first, to steal one of those other tackles
00:37:05 before they dry out. Or I would have something else, but it felt like they sort of had the
00:37:10 worst of both worlds. And I obviously do not see Caden Wallace like they do. I not only
00:37:16 am I, you know, if I'm wrong, people in the chat, feel free to clip this after the fact
00:37:20 to make me look like an idiot on Twitter. It wouldn't be the first ones, but I don't
00:37:24 left tackle is not a thing for me with Caden Wallace. For me, it was like, maybe you'll
00:37:29 see in camp if he can end up hanging at right tackle, but otherwise we're going to have
00:37:34 to try him at guard was more the way that like, I obviously did not like his tape as
00:37:39 much as the Patriots. They obviously see something different in him.
00:37:42 Yeah. Yeah. Which is risky for sure to go that far. And I do think, yeah, the Patriots
00:37:48 got stuck in a weird spot here where, you know, you're picking around the right spot
00:37:52 to get the wide receivers and the tackles you probably want, but they also go right
00:37:56 in front of you in both times. The new and ever reaching twice. And that's not usually
00:38:03 a recipe for success, although it doesn't, it doesn't mean those guys can't be good.
00:38:06 It just means that statistically that works out less of the time. I appreciate Ron on
00:38:12 my gachi from Yale was still on the board and they'd like, would you have taken him
00:38:16 there instead if you were going to go with a tackle?
00:38:18 Yes, I would have. Yeah. And I think if, if he hadn't been nicked up, you know, and then
00:38:23 miss the draft process cause of that and could have played in the senior bowl and then he
00:38:27 could have tested and everything. I think that kid goes quite a bit higher, but that
00:38:31 was like, you know, from memory, that was like one of the very few tackles that you
00:38:36 could get him. And then I assume a tear were like, but soon I tell you, you can see that
00:38:40 one so many different ways. Cause he's like the big band outcome guys, the guy, you know,
00:38:45 like he, yeah, the upside is there that he could potentially be one of the better tackles
00:38:49 that come out of this class or he could flame out immediately. So it's like, you know, you
00:38:53 sort of had to take him is betting on your own offensive line coach.
00:38:57 That's what it is. Yeah. Like his technique needs to be ironed out and the consistency
00:39:01 needs to be ironed out. But yeah, like with Wallace, it's, it's just like a lower ceiling.
00:39:05 And again, like, you know, at least my read of it, right? Like they, they obviously disagree
00:39:09 with me if they're already talking about left tackle with him, but you know, at least you
00:39:13 have the bullet of, you can kick them inside the guard if it don't work out a right tackle,
00:39:17 you know, even if I'm right about that. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you the thing for me is that
00:39:22 the, the Steelers stole my draft because I really, I wanted the Patriots to trade up
00:39:29 back into the first round and take Fortuno. I think that he was, you know, one of those
00:39:34 guys at left tackle that really could be a stud. And again, I don't know. I know some
00:39:39 people that protect him as a guard. I think that's insane, but whatever I looked at him
00:39:44 as, you know, as a really, really solid offensive tackle prospect that I thought was going to
00:39:49 drop a little bit towards the twenties and he did. And then he ended up there at 20 and
00:39:54 it was like, man, you gotta go get them. And then they take Layden Robinson over Mason
00:40:00 McCormick who McCormick is, was one of my favorite watches.
00:40:03 Cause he just was like this mean little guy with a massive frigging like cowboy call or
00:40:10 just wrecking people on South Dakota state. And it was awesome. And you know, Robinson,
00:40:14 I think has a chance. The interesting thing about Robinson and both Robinson and Wallace,
00:40:19 every Scott and report I read was like, yeah, they're not great. They're fine. They're not
00:40:22 great. But they could be starting day one. And I was like, okay, like they may have some
00:40:28 talent. And again, I feel like it's similar to the poke situation where they're not, there's
00:40:33 not a high ceiling, but there is a decently high floor for both guys.
00:40:37 Now, if you're projecting Caden, Wallace's left tackle, that's a pretty low floor, right?
00:40:41 But like overall as a player and as an offensive alignment, it's a fairly high floor. Um, and
00:40:47 so that's the way I kind of looked at those picks. And I think maybe that's what, that's
00:40:52 what they were going for was that higher floor, even if that ceiling was a little prohibitive.
00:40:58 Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And, um, uh, with Robinson, I feel like I, there's been guys like that
00:41:06 before that I've liked more in previous years and I've, I've gotten burned on it. And so
00:41:11 I think you could argue there that maybe I was a little bit punitive with him in my rankings
00:41:14 because of passing, having something to do more with past experiences than anything to
00:41:19 do with him. But like that sawed off, like, um, uh, like it, it, yeah, just like the,
00:41:26 the strength coming forward from the sought off dude is like springing forward. But like,
00:41:30 you know, on, you know, you start to think about him more in the NFL with that, the past
00:41:34 pro stuff and hit, you know, that was the one thing in college where it could come and
00:41:39 go. And then it's like, if he, you know, the technique doesn't get better, cross them up,
00:41:44 uh, the, the speed guys, that was my concern with that. But you know, like I said, some,
00:41:49 some of these guys in the past that were like that, I used to like that kind of guy more
00:41:52 and it, it, it just didn't work out a couple other times. So I, I could definitely be wrong
00:41:56 on, on Robinson might be the exception, but I do like that aspect of it. It's like, um,
00:42:02 it's like, uh, you know, like an alligator and then it's just like strikes, you know,
00:42:05 it's like, that's him coming out of the staff and he has the long arms and he has that North
00:42:09 South springiness.
00:42:10 I was trying to think of a better way to say, but it's like, that's what it is. Like, I
00:42:14 like him in the run game quite a bit. And I think, you know, you're talking about embedding
00:42:17 the floor. I think that's the thing that embeds floor. I, he gets on top of guys right away
00:42:21 and he gets to initiate the dance. Cause he's going to get off the snap. And then those,
00:42:25 those long arms that he has for a guard deceivingly. So for that more sought off frame, but, um,
00:42:30 that in past pro technique just needs to be worked on a little bit. And he has the length
00:42:34 for it. So we just got to make sure when you're, you know, cause some guys are just, and you
00:42:38 guys know this, um, like for Shanu, uh, from Penn state was like the opposite version of
00:42:43 this where that's a guy who's more comfortable sitting back on his heels and then we'll shuffle
00:42:47 with you. We'll shuffle with you. I will just keep you outside of me. And he's like, you
00:42:50 know, for like going for a Sunday drive. But when he has to go forward, like for sure,
00:42:53 it's the other way where he's like, ah, I don't know what to do. And you know, blah,
00:42:56 blah, blah. The feel is, is different. You know, even UFC fighters are like this, the
00:43:00 guys where it's more, you know, when they're coming forward, they're more comfortable than
00:43:04 when they have to sort of sit back and Perry and stuff like that. And Robinson will be
00:43:08 an example the other way. Can you get the, the feel for the past pro better potentially
00:43:12 than he plays way up.
00:43:13 Yeah. But I, I do, I do wonder here how much input, you know, new offensive line coach
00:43:18 Scott Peters has in this. And if there's a certain type of guy they're looking for where
00:43:22 they think, Hey, we know we can correct these issues. Um, so we're okay reaching a little
00:43:28 bit on this because we think he's going to turn into something better. You know? Um,
00:43:33 I think I've held for a while with how expensive offensive linemen are and how hard it is to
00:43:38 get five good ones. And if you have a good offensive line coach, that might be the best
00:43:42 value thing you can get in football because that's not a capped expense. And you can keep
00:43:46 that guy for as long as he wants to be in football and you can get a cheaper offensive
00:43:50 line because of it. So if Scott Peters can be that guy in turn, you know, third and fourth
00:43:54 round picks in the, in the starters there, um, that becomes a huge thing.
00:43:59 A hundred percent. Also Pat stats, uh, pointed out that, um, that yes, uh, Mason McCormick
00:44:05 is not little. He is in fact six, four. Um, but he looks little just when he plays, he
00:44:10 looks, he plays a little of the ground maybe. I don't know. Uh, but let's get, let's get
00:44:13 into your favorite pick. And the only pick that you didn't have as a reach for the Patriots.
00:44:18 I think it might be everyone's favorite pick of the draft for the Patriots. And that's
00:44:21 J Vaughn Baker. Um, just, you know, pick, pick it one 10 and C feels like a home run
00:44:30 slam dunk. Uh, you know, grand slam, all of the, you know, all of the, all of the accolades
00:44:37 you want to give it, give it because I, I love the pick. I'm very excited about it.
00:44:41 And uh, you know, and obviously you seem to be excited about it as well.
00:44:45 Yeah. Um, I, I love Javon Baker. I was hoping the Vikings would get access to him, but you
00:44:50 know, obviously that didn't happen and they weren't taking receivers, but like I, any
00:44:54 fan base that they got him, cause you knew you were going to get them on a discount because
00:44:59 beginning of his career is the five-star guy. He goes to Alabama that didn't work out. Then
00:45:03 it seemed he transferred to Kentucky just for the shortest amount of time. And it seemed
00:45:06 like him and the coaching staff weren't getting along his first couple of weeks there. So
00:45:09 he books it again, goes to UCF. And then it was like this, um, you know, in that offense
00:45:15 that Gus runs, you recall, uh, like talking about Bo Nix and early in his career and the,
00:45:20 the things that he had to do in the Melzahn offense at Auburn that didn't suit Bo Nix's
00:45:24 game, like sitting back in the pocket and then having to go through your options and
00:45:27 throw it down the field, that element of it. Um, Javon Baker, he was the leverage downfield
00:45:32 dude. They, uh, UCF didn't like, uh, John Rice Plumlee. He's a good, he's a great athlete.
00:45:37 You know, he played a center fielder on the UCF baseball team in addition to being the
00:45:41 quarterback and he's got the arm strength to get it down there, but the accuracy with,
00:45:45 with John Rice needs, needs some work. And so Javon would, would all this stuff downfield
00:45:50 if it's one-on-one Javon Baker's coming down with that thing. He just tilts it so far in
00:45:54 your direction. But I think the thing that people missed about his game is he has all
00:45:59 this other stuff that UCF just did not have the, the accuracy and the timing and their
00:46:04 passing system with the, with the quarterbacks that they have in terms of that for him to
00:46:08 be able to show, for instance, his skill winning in the intermediate area consists of, you
00:46:13 know, over the long haul just because of the constitution of the office and then breaking
00:46:16 the tackles after, um, he catches the ball. But I love his release package. His feet are
00:46:21 just like crazy legs, harsh. It's like, well, you know, the quarterback, it's like, you
00:46:25 know, like putting them in a trance and it's like, you're not getting your hands on that
00:46:28 dude out the line. He also has the strength. Even if you get a glance and shot on him,
00:46:31 you're not dictating the terms of that dance. You're not funneling him where you want to
00:46:34 go. He's, he's getting his free release and then he's, he's on his way. Um, and he's got
00:46:39 the burst. He doesn't, his downtown speed, it's not the greatest in the world, but he,
00:46:44 he has that burst and he knows how to stack corners is the other thing. So he'll, he'll
00:46:48 get you behind, you know, it's like on the racetrack, you're not getting past that car
00:46:51 and now he's in front of you. So he gives himself the best look for it. Downfield love
00:46:54 his hands. But yeah, I just think that the skillset for him, it's more fleshed out than
00:46:59 he was given credit for. I think, but you know, by, by the draft public, the other,
00:47:03 the other thing about Javon's agent is calling me right now. I'll get to it. Um, but the
00:47:09 other aspect about it was that I think where the NFL overlooked or not overlooked, but
00:47:13 maybe waited a little bit too much as I compare this, his Javon's personality to Stefan Dix,
00:47:19 who was another guy who fell further down the board and my hometown team got to take
00:47:23 advantage of that one. But it's the same thing where it's a dude who ardently believes he
00:47:27 is the best receiver in this class. If you ask Javon Baker, he'll tell you I'm the best
00:47:31 receiver in this class. And he doesn't understand. He thinks we're the crazy ones that we don't
00:47:35 see it. Right. And he just wants the ability to prove that. But that, you know, it was
00:47:38 the same thing as with the digs thing of like, come on another former five-star recruit that
00:47:43 fell down the board. And it, you know, it was like, is his, that, that part of his personality
00:47:48 where it's, you know, very loud and very, you know, you know, get me on the field. I
00:47:52 want some of the stuff he said after the draft, like Javon, maybe, maybe keep that part to
00:47:56 yourself. You know, I know you're excited, but maybe keep that to yourself where, you
00:48:00 know, like some teams may be thinking like, is that worth, you know, commensurate to the
00:48:04 pick, but where you got them, that's a smash value either way. You know, you guys heard
00:48:08 in the pre-draft process, you know, some of this stuff on the other side of it, where
00:48:12 people got upset with him, the blow and the kiss to the Oklahoma sideline was that was
00:48:17 the classic one. And every time, every time I talked about Baker on any of these shows,
00:48:21 I have to give this context because no one ever does. They're like, oh, you know, he
00:48:24 did the, he's a showboat and all this stuff. It's actually not what that was in that game.
00:48:29 So Oklahoma goes to UCF, UCF at the time, I think it was two and four, Oklahoma was
00:48:34 undefeated. Oklahoma was a 22 point favorite in that game, heading to down to Orlando or
00:48:40 whatever. And the Oklahoma had just scored. This is at near the end of the first half
00:48:45 Baker on that play gets deep, gets, you know, obviously takes it to the house to answer
00:48:51 that touchdown and keep the game close heading into halftime. When he ran by their sideline,
00:48:55 he like, they couldn't contain him in the first half. And that's basically what he was
00:48:59 doing. Like, I'm going to be here all day. Like we're not going away. So the game goes
00:49:03 into halftime where UCF is still like, we, we actually have a shot of, of killing Goliath
00:49:07 here. You know? And part of that was the energy that was in the crowd. UCF came within a failed
00:49:13 two point conversion at the end of that game from sending it into overtime against Oklahoma.
00:49:17 They ended up losing by two because they didn't get that two point conversion. But the only
00:49:20 reason that game was closed and it was like that was because Javon Baker went ballistic
00:49:25 and you get that other element of his personality sometimes where, you know, can come across
00:49:29 his showboating or it can come across as me, me, me same way with stuff on decks.
00:49:33 Right. It's just, that's the personality when the situations are in, things are going well,
00:49:37 you never hear that stuff about stuff on digs. It's the same thing with Baker. So like if
00:49:41 things are going well in Oz, you're not going to hear one thing about it. It's only if the
00:49:44 situation goes the other way, but I really love his game.
00:49:48 Right. Yeah. He's fun to watch. I think you need receivers who play with that kind of
00:49:53 an attitude, you know, at the position you play by yourself away from the formation,
00:49:57 a lot of one-on-one opportunities, whether it's wide receiver or defensive back, I think
00:50:02 you need a guy who has crazy belief in himself. And you know, it's funny, you mentioned stuff
00:50:08 on digs, you know, I think they're somewhat similar as, as players. I think Baker relies
00:50:14 on the contestant catches a little bit more than, you know, digs did. He's a little bit
00:50:18 bigger of a player, but similar attitude, similar pedigree, taking it similar spots
00:50:23 in the draft. Not saying it's a one-to-one, but he has the error bars and what Javon Baker
00:50:30 can be are very wide here. Yeah. Positive and negative.
00:50:34 Yeah. But I I'm, like I said, I'm bullish and I think like, I think he's better than
00:50:38 Polk. You know, I know the factors that led to it going the other way. I knew Polk was
00:50:42 going to get taken higher, but like, I think Baker is going to be the number one receiver
00:50:45 on the Patriots and, and, and not going to take them along. Cause I, here's the thing,
00:50:51 like people are like, Javon, shut up, like stops. But I, I agree with some of the things
00:50:56 that he says that people are like, Javon, shut up. Like I do, he's the best receiver
00:51:00 in my opinion, that's on the Patriots right now. Like, and I think, I think he's going
00:51:04 to prove that. I think he's going to blow past Polk and it's, it's going to be more
00:51:07 about like, am I going to lead this team in targets this coming season? But yeah, he,
00:51:12 he's a really good talent. It's just, you're going to have to work with him, you know,
00:51:16 with some of the other stuff, cause he's a guy who, you know, just like Stefan Diggs,
00:51:21 he emotes. And so you, you just have to make, you know, work with them and have a good environment
00:51:26 around him and, and understand that sometimes like he just has to let off steam and maybe
00:51:30 not take it, some of the stuff he's saying too, too literally and seriously. Yeah. Yeah,
00:51:34 no, it's a good point. It's a really good point. So I'm excited about Javon Baker, Javon
00:51:39 Baker. I think everyone should be more excited after hearing Thor. And, and so that's a good
00:51:44 thing. Now, listen, we got to take one more break. When we come back, we're just going
00:51:47 to blow through the rest of, I don't, we don't even want to talk about everyone, but this
00:51:51 one guy I want to talk about. And then someone had a question about the UDFA. So we'll bring
00:51:54 that up and then we'll get Thor out of here. By the way, I don't think I mentioned this
00:51:58 at the top, but you can read Thor's draft breakdown on fantasy pros goes through person
00:52:04 player by player has the rank. What I love about it is you like clip it and have the
00:52:08 rank next to the pick where you had them as a position, and then you go through your explanation.
00:52:13 So I like that a lot. So if you go on a fantasy pros, you can find Thor's AFC and NFC of course,
00:52:18 pictures in the AFC clearly. But you can see that and then, and you can go from there.
00:52:22 So anyways, take a quick break and we'll be right back. The Celtics are in the playoffs
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00:53:29 All right, we're back. Okay, so I lied to you. I do want to hear your thoughts about
00:53:35 Jaheim Bell quickly, but we also have to hear about Joe Milton. What you thought about Joe
00:53:39 Milton just super quick, taking about where you expected him to be taken. I just feel
00:53:45 like he's probably just a backup quarterback, right? But he's such a fun backup quarterback,
00:53:50 isn't he?
00:53:51 Yes, he is. Yeah. Yeah, he's like Nuke LaLouche. You know, it's like he, he, he might have
00:53:57 the strongest arm for throwing a football on planet earth. It's between him and Josh
00:54:01 Allen. There ain't no one else. I mean, put them all in. Those are the two that they had
00:54:05 the record for max Velo throw, you know, at the NFL combine Milton matched Allen for that
00:54:10 62 this year, but just absolute bazookas. And he's a crazy good athlete too. I don't
00:54:16 know if people realize how good of an athlete, like he's been, they clock them over 20 miles
00:54:19 per hour. I think it was the touchdown run against Florida. I forget that the long touchdown,
00:54:24 but the GPS had him really high. And then he'll do standing back flips before the game.
00:54:28 Like this guy's a stupid athlete with an absolute bazooka, but like, you know, obviously he
00:54:32 lost his job in Michigan earlier in his career to McNamara, then to Tennessee for, for Hypo.
00:54:36 And then last year had it for the full season, but you know, it didn't play as well as we
00:54:40 wanted and for him. And that's one of the easiest offenses as far as the progressions
00:54:44 that should have helped him with that. That's the one thing with him. It's, you know, he's
00:54:48 a great kid. Everyone raves about him, loves him. Jim Nagy couldn't stop. It's like, Jim,
00:54:51 you just met him one time. Like, you know, you know, Nagy was talking about like how
00:54:55 with all the helpers there in mobile, like Milton was going around and thanking them
00:54:59 all and like just doing different, you know, thank you notes to people and stuff. So, so
00:55:03 you love all that stuff. It's like, but he had the two good coaching staffs. And then
00:55:06 the last one, one of the better, more Kibbe friendly systems that we have and we're cleaved
00:55:11 the field and have for him. And some of the decisions still were, were not very good.
00:55:15 And then the, the, the technique and the mechanics need to be worked on. He's one of those Lloyd
00:55:20 Christmas, dumb and dumber. So you're saying there's a chance there's a one in a million
00:55:24 chance or maybe one in a thousand. And the other realities, he, it could be quick for
00:55:29 him and then he's got to go down to the UFL or maybe he doesn't even do football anymore,
00:55:33 but there's one shot, you know, where if, if that light turns on and it's the right
00:55:37 guy and it makes sense to him, he has all the physical ability in the world. You could
00:55:42 argue that he is more physically gifted than even Anthony Richardson, who went number four
00:55:46 last year, but he's way far away as far as the decision-making and then the vacillation
00:55:51 of the accuracy.
00:55:52 Yeah. Yeah. I, I totally agree. Totally agree with you. Matt and I have talked at length
00:55:57 about him and I love it. So, all right. Super quick on Jaheim Bell. Just give us, give us
00:56:06 the, you know, the, the 32nd view of, of the Jaheim Bell pick.
00:56:10 Jaheim Bell is, you know, he's a guy you're going to have to play at H-back or move him
00:56:14 around. He can't play the inline, but if you want to delineate, you know, whether that
00:56:19 or whether it's the big slot, you know, however you want to do that, that's where you would
00:56:22 deploy him out of. And the thing you want to do with, he has a very diverse, he's a
00:56:27 very interesting prospect. Like he was at South Carolina the season before they had
00:56:32 their injuries in the backfield were so bad. They, they just were like, Jaheim, can you
00:56:35 play running back? And then Jaheim became the running back. And then at the end of the
00:56:38 season, he was running for more than a hundred yards. You have that element, you know, you
00:56:41 just use them as, as the runner or, you know, the stuff that the manufacturer and touches,
00:56:46 but the thing you have to get that ball in his hands, but that's where he could do some
00:56:50 stuff. He breaks tackles, but you know, and he's got like good vision as a runner as well.
00:56:56 It's not like a crazy high ceiling, you know, he's not going to be winning down the field.
00:57:01 He's obviously short that the dimensions, you know, it is what it is, but like, if you
00:57:05 can get the ball to him short intermediate, if he can justify not only getting on the
00:57:09 field, but also I deserve a, you know, X percentage of that pie of the targets. But that's once
00:57:15 you get on the ball, that's where his special sauce is a manufacturer in the yards after,
00:57:20 after he gets that ball. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So now it's good. It's good. I'll tell
00:57:26 you what we got it. We DKB right here. Ready to be mad at the war coming in, you know,
00:57:32 just for clicks, but grades make a lot of sense. So I like it. See, this is what we're
00:57:37 talking about. So I hear, sir. And so, all right, here's a question here. We, someone
00:57:42 wants who is it? Sumo pockets wants your opinion on the UDFA signings. You don't necessarily
00:57:47 have to grade them, but maybe give us, you know, your, your favorite or who you think
00:57:53 could have an impact on the roster. Yeah. My, my favorite one was John three Hunter,
00:58:00 both in terms of where I ranked him on my board, but also, you know, the guy that I'm
00:58:05 most intrigued by. And I, I recorded, you know, not only is my UDFA grades out on fantasy
00:58:10 pro my, the class rains, but we also me and D bro on our, my Derek Brown, my, my colleague,
00:58:16 who's our top NFL guy. We, we have, we had a draft show this spring and we did a two
00:58:21 and a half hours on the UDFA classes. And so I, I talked about this on there. They came
00:58:26 out today on the, the dynasty feed of the, of the podcast deal or whatever. But if anyone
00:58:30 wants to check it out, but with, with Hunter getting a little bit deeper into it, calling
00:58:34 him what maybe the strangest sort of off the wall evaluation from, from this class in a
00:58:41 weird way. But the thing with him is he's, he's a, he's a terrible athlete. He gets,
00:58:47 you know, 26 percentile by, by res. He misses a bunch of tackles. The last two seasons combined,
00:58:53 he missed 50 tackles and you cannot drop him into coverage, especially if he has to have
00:58:57 his back turned to the quarterback. It was always bad when even in the Sunbelt, whenever
00:59:01 that happened. And so it's like, well, why, you know, why do you have the highest ranked
00:59:05 or why, why did the Patriots sign him? It's because that guy's good at one thing and one
00:59:10 thing only, but he's actually super skilled at this, which is getting after the quarterback.
00:59:14 If you put some, he's very clever with that, getting through the creases and the small
00:59:19 things he'll, he'll, he'll bounce off the glancing shot and keep his momentum going
00:59:23 forward. Coming downhill, coming downhill with that guy is, is what you want to do in
00:59:27 the run game. If he could, if he could fix that, the tackling for, he gets there. It's
00:59:32 just like he lets so many fish off the line, but it's all the stuff is the downhill stuff.
00:59:37 And he, he scared quarterbacks in, in the Sunbelt. So can they get, can he convince
00:59:42 them in camp that that skill is sufficient to at least convince them to give him the
00:59:48 developmental opportunity to potentially be a blitzing linebacker in the NFL? That's what
00:59:53 he's, that's his mission. I don't know if right now the tackling technique might be
00:59:56 so bad. You can't even use them on special teams. So I imagine that, you know, it's more
01:00:00 convincing them of the practice squad spot in year one, but that skill of his, of getting
01:00:05 to the quarterback and putting the pressure on when he gets sent, it's sufficient enough.
01:00:09 And it's a valuable enough thing in the NFL that he might be able to do that. So that
01:00:13 was the signing of theirs that I really liked.
01:00:15 I was going to say, if there's only one thing that you're good at, that's, that's a pretty
01:00:19 good one. Pretty good thing to be good at. Not a bad one. Good at one thing. Right. Yeah.
01:00:23 So we'll see. And I think, I think it's an interesting class. And again, you know, I,
01:00:29 I know I keep reiterating this, but one of the things that I, that I enjoy when you're
01:00:32 looking and talking, why I like talking to you so much about this stuff is that when
01:00:37 you come into it realistic, they're prospects, we don't actually know what we think. And
01:00:42 so, yes, we have our opinions and they are just that our opinions.
01:00:47 They're not a fact that we're not sitting here saying, you know, you're not sitting
01:00:51 here, Drake may sucks and JJ McCarthy is going to be incredible. And so, you know, and that's
01:00:55 one of those things that, Hey, you had an opinion about this. I have an opinion about
01:00:58 that. And then we'll see in three or four years how that opinion shakes out. And then
01:01:02 of course, sometimes it's like, well, yeah, I had that opinion, but the team, you know,
01:01:08 ruined or, you know, they didn't put them in the right situation.
01:01:10 They didn't put guys around them. And there's a lot of reasons why a guy could fail too.
01:01:13 So you know, when you look in a vacuum, yeah, maybe we're not happy with the grades, but
01:01:18 I think, I think that the reason that you're skeptical is reasonable. And you also look
01:01:26 at it and say, yeah, I might be wrong. And the Patriots may have done okay here, you
01:01:29 know? And so, um, you know, so we'll see. But again, it's, it's one of those things
01:01:34 that we let's have an actual conversation about the draft and look at it like a normal
01:01:39 person, right. And say, Hey, we don't know what we're talking about. We know we do, but
01:01:44 we still don't, you know, even the guys that know what they're talking about, don't know
01:01:47 what they're talking about for sure. Yeah. I mean, NFL teams miss on guys all the time.
01:01:51 What was the quarterback class? The last one we had with all the first round guys and how
01:01:55 many of them blamed out. Yeah. Like it just, you know, it just is what it is. And again,
01:01:59 like, you know, I, you know, it's just my take on the guys right now. And I put in the
01:02:03 writeup with the Patriots, even with the back grade, I gave him, I said, this is all going
01:02:07 to come down to if Drake may as a superstar. And if he is, it doesn't matter what happens
01:02:10 with the rest of the class, I'll be wrong one way or the other. Right. So like, and
01:02:14 on, on the other guys, you know, it's just, you know, again, my take, I was a little bit
01:02:17 lower on Polk, a little bit higher on some of the other receivers, but just my take.
01:02:20 And, and you know, if they prove me wrong, look, you know, like you mentioned at the
01:02:24 top hat making 500 predictions of 500 outcomes that haven't occurred. I have done this now
01:02:29 six, seven years, you know, with the, I think it's yeah, either six or seven, but I have
01:02:34 eaten, uh, can I swear on this or no? Yeah, sure. Okay. Well, I'll say crap. I eat crap
01:02:41 every year, right? Like you're going to be wrong on several, every single year, the NFL
01:02:47 team, they only get seven picks and they're wrong on multiple of them. So, and then their
01:02:51 UDFA flyer, they're wrong about a lot of them. So it's like, yeah, it just is what it is,
01:02:54 but it's a fun process. I, you know, I cover, as you can see behind me, college football
01:02:59 is my love. I covered these guys since they come out of high school, get years of exposure
01:03:03 to them. And then, you know, the ability to sit down, uh, do watch their cutups PFF ultimate.
01:03:08 I love that thing. It is just bang it all up, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Um, and
01:03:11 then, you know, they're, you get their testing data and everything, and you can start putting
01:03:16 this stuff together and ranking them against other dudes. I just love the whole process.
01:03:20 So I love doing it. Patriots fans. I'm sorry for my grade. Understand it's the bell curve
01:03:24 methodology. It's out of my hands. It was before the draft. Um, but I wish, I wish him
01:03:28 all the best and I hope Drake may becomes a star because he, he's one fun player to
01:03:32 watch. Yeah. We appreciate that. If you don't know what the bell curve is, I teach it actually
01:03:37 in high school. So go back to go back to school, do a little Google, check off what the bell
01:03:41 curve is and then we can go from there. So, um, but no, it's, it is fun. It's always fun
01:03:46 talking to you. Um, do you, do you have time to discuss the, uh, do you want to discuss
01:03:51 the, uh, I know you might have some strong opinions on it. The Austin rivers comments
01:03:55 on the, uh, Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, so Austin rivers, okay. Gets on the Pat
01:04:00 McAfee show the other day and says that he believes that there are 30 guys in the NBA
01:04:05 that could walk into an NFL locker room and play immediately. But there are zero guys
01:04:11 in the NFL that could walk into an NBA locker room and play right away. Um, I think that's,
01:04:17 I think 30 is an insane number, by the way, just a completely insane number. Um, what,
01:04:23 what's your opinion on this?
01:04:24 I think there's one guy named Austin rivers who wouldn't have been in the NBA as long
01:04:28 as he was, if his dad wasn't an NBA coach. What do you think about that? Let's get some
01:04:33 nepotism stats on that guy. Yeah. Yeah. And as far as the comment, it's like, it's, it's
01:04:39 just a weird thing to say. And especially for the source it's coming from, it's like,
01:04:43 Oh, it's a shut up. Why don't, why don't you let one of the good players say it? Uh, if
01:04:45 you're going to say, you know, whatever. But like, in addition to that, there are two different
01:04:49 sports, right? Like one of them prioritizes like the length and grace, right. And then,
01:04:55 you know, the hand eye coordination in particular, and I suppose lateral agility and vertical
01:05:00 explosion as well. But like, then the other one, there's, there's all the other elements
01:05:03 of other aspects that it, so it's like, it's, it's weird to compare them. I know we've seen
01:05:08 some basketball players, you know, college ones, Rico Gathers and Antonio Gates before
01:05:13 that, you know, all the guitars played some, uh, uh, Keon Coleman in this class was on
01:05:17 Thomas's class for a little bit, but you, you know, I mean like, I don't know, it's
01:05:21 like guys that can be skilled in that way and playing that, that, but like the number
01:05:24 that he said, walk off the court right now and get out of here. Those guys, like, I think
01:05:30 you probably have a better shot the other way if it was, you know, someone who was good
01:05:34 like in the NFL, cause at least physically, you know, but like, like you, you, you have
01:05:39 to have pretty high level technique and then the know-how, this is like, cause the thing
01:05:42 about the NFL, it's, you know, every single play, all the players' performance, they're
01:05:46 intertwined with everyone else. One of the great things about evaluation is you have
01:05:50 to watch them up close and in college and then try to unspool it from all the circumstances
01:05:56 around them and each play and all the things that go into that. Um, whereas the basketball,
01:06:00 it's more free flowing. It'd be tough to teach an NBA or the other way. Whereas at least
01:06:05 we all know where you step on a basketball court, everyone at least knows it's just,
01:06:08 so it's like physically, could you hang, would you have the skill, but stupid comments by,
01:06:12 by Mr. Austin Rivers. Yeah. As you think, I think you could probably find a decent number
01:06:18 of players who are like, Hey, we're going to put you on a practice squad for three years
01:06:22 and coach you into this. And you're going to be a backup tight end by the end of it.
01:06:27 But I don't think that's what he meant by that.
01:06:29 I don't think, yeah. Yeah. And you know, and like, I think you can argue for, you know,
01:06:35 cause there's the argument of like what sport has the best athletes on, on earth. And if
01:06:39 you want to argue that for bad, I'm like, I'm not gonna cause it's like the guys who
01:06:43 have the most unique dimensions. There's only so many, you know, seven footers walking the
01:06:46 earth right now in the NBA basically took all the most out of the ones. And so it's
01:06:51 like, yeah, I mean, in terms of some of that stuff, it's like, yeah, I get that, but I,
01:06:55 I don't understand. We're comparing apples and oranges. And then we're trying to say
01:06:58 that the orange is better, even though there's no way to prove that it's just a weird thing
01:07:03 to say. Yeah. By the way, when we're saying best athletes on the planet, I'm going to
01:07:07 give a shout out to hockey players because they can do so much incredible stuff and they
01:07:11 have to do it while skating. Uh, that has always blown my mind. So yeah, that one's
01:07:18 wild to me. And I, the other thing for me is that the, I don't know if there's any NFL
01:07:24 guys that walk into the NBA and play basketball only because I look at it this way, right?
01:07:30 Steph Curry is one inch shorter than Randy Moss, right? Like Steph Curry is the small,
01:07:36 one of the smallest guys in the basketball court. Randy Moss, one of the tallest guys
01:07:38 on the fourth one, the football field. And you're talking about one inch separation.
01:07:42 So like you take as big, physical, dominant wide receiver and put them in the NBA and
01:07:47 all of a sudden he's a shooting guard. Right. And so like, that's the only thing I look
01:07:52 at and say like, well, yeah, it's the, and the hand, I coordination and stuff is, is
01:07:56 difficult and the very specialized thing like shooting is a very specialized technique.
01:08:01 And so I understand it from that point of view. And you know, you can make the case
01:08:07 and I was listening to a podcast earlier today and they were saying, you know, Jordan, Mulatto
01:08:10 was drafted without literally without ever playing a snap of football. Right. And so
01:08:15 like, I, I understand, I get it. Like you can teach that guy eventually, but the level
01:08:21 of physicality, right. The level of physical, I mean, these NBA guys can't take any physical
01:08:29 contact and the level of physical contact that has to be there.
01:08:33 What about a game in a practice? Right. Like that to me is something that I don't know
01:08:40 if any of these guys are prepared for, right. Like Anthony Edwards looks like this big dominant
01:08:45 guy dominating and going hard in the paint and do it. You put them on a football field
01:08:51 and you know, let them run across the middle and let some safety take his head off. Like,
01:08:54 and of course it's a little different than it was, you know, 20 years ago, but still,
01:08:59 you know, that's, you know, you ask him to crack back, blog, you know, come down and
01:09:03 kick out at a defensive end or something like that. Like that's just not happening, you
01:09:06 know? And so that's the part where I look at it and say, look, man, I don't know. You
01:09:12 know, I don't know if, if I think it would be more likely for an NBA guy to be able to
01:09:17 make a switch into the NFL, but I just don't know if they could actually hang in the NFL.
01:09:21 They might be able to like, Hey, you might look good in shorts and a t-shirt, you know,
01:09:27 seven on seven. You want to tell me it's flag football, seven on seven flag football. Absolutely.
01:09:31 Those guys would be great. That's not what we're talking about. That's not the game.
01:09:35 And so, you know, it's, it's, it's a different situation, right? You want to say, Hey, you
01:09:39 know, for, for the seven on seven Olympics, you know, if I'm Canada, shoot, I'm taking,
01:09:46 you know, three NBA guys.
01:09:48 Cause I don't know anyone that plays football. Hey, you want to come play flag football in
01:09:51 the Olympics for Canada? Absolutely. Let's do it. You know, like, so, but again, you
01:09:55 talk about real football. I just, the physicality and the physical nature of it. I just don't
01:10:00 think they're built for it. Yeah. I, you know, like, I think he was trying to say we're better
01:10:05 athletes than NFL players. And I think if I was him, I just would have stuck to that.
01:10:09 Cause I, I totally agree with that. Like, even if, you know, you're, you can project
01:10:13 this specific athlete from the NBA. It's like, you know, like when LeBron, remember when
01:10:16 he came out of high school and then it was like a couple of years in, they were like,
01:10:20 Oh, he would have been like the best tight end ever. And it's like, well, well maybe,
01:10:24 but it's like, you know, to do that, you'd have to transition over and then you'd have
01:10:27 to teach them all the routes and, and, and, you know, what have you. It's not just about
01:10:32 the athletic projection of it. There's the NFL game. It's especially at that position,
01:10:38 but like, even like the ones that would project to receiver. So receiver, I don't know if
01:10:43 you guys saw this, there was a dude who had put a tweet out right before the draft. And
01:10:46 it was about the positions in the first round that have the highest bus rate. And he did
01:10:50 it. He basically did it by who got second contract, each position, safest position was
01:10:55 centered. The only one boss was Billy price. And then it was all the way down. Well, one
01:10:59 of the ones that had the highest bus rate, it was wide receiver. And my supposition for
01:11:03 that is because at that position, the athletic traits are overvalued. You constantly see
01:11:10 guys go and maybe the NFL is getting a little bit like 80 Mitchell did fall to the fall
01:11:14 to the middle of the city. That's around where he was on my board. I think I had him as a
01:11:18 late second round guy, but like maybe they're getting somewhat better at this, but historically
01:11:23 they will pump those guys way up at that position that are great athletes. But here's the thing.
01:11:27 You don't get separation by being a better athlete than someone you, you get away more
01:11:31 from subterfuge and efficiency of your footwork and keeping them off the beat of your sense.
01:11:36 And then the efficiency in and out, then the acceleration out. It's the whole package of
01:11:41 that. But like, why did Pooka Nuku go at the end of the fifth round last year? Because
01:11:45 he, he does, he's not a great athlete when you put on the shorts and then you, you know,
01:11:48 you have to do the test or whatever, but on a football field, when, when you're in pads
01:11:53 and then there's all the concepts as well that you have to, he becomes with the tracking
01:11:58 data, it plays way up. Cause there's no hesitancy. Like he, he understands, like he's got like
01:12:04 a supercomputer at it. And this is why he always gets separation, even though the guy
01:12:08 covering them invariably, if they went back and put on their, their, their shorts and
01:12:12 they went onto the track would be a better athlete than him objectively on the track
01:12:16 field. But he doesn't move as well on the field or as fluidly or, you know, and he's
01:12:21 getting tricked by Pooka over and over again, taking false steps.
01:12:23 If we was like, gotcha. And now you're getting stacked and bye-bye, you know, and they get
01:12:27 hit and hit on the hands and, and, you know, now he sees everyone, you know, like the,
01:12:31 it's just that, that sort of stuff. And I think that's the thing where Austin Rivers,
01:12:35 you probably just should, you want to make the argument, they're better athletes do that.
01:12:39 I think you could do that, but like the thing of like, Oh, we could just start sending guys
01:12:42 over there and they're going to be NFL standouts. Right. I don't think so.
01:12:47 Yeah. Yeah. Discounting the intricacies of the game. Yeah, for sure. But exactly, exactly.
01:12:54 And that's what I'm talking about. That's a great segue. That's a great way to finish
01:12:57 because that's my argument for the Jalen Polk pick is that, Hey, listen, he may not be,
01:13:03 he may not be the, the you know, the, the greatest athlete in the world, but I do believe
01:13:08 that he has that high ceiling, that high, that high floor that it will allow the Patriots
01:13:13 to at least have a guy that is competent at the wide receiver position, which they haven't
01:13:18 been able to draft in a long time. So, you know, that's, that's where I'm at.
01:13:22 I want receiver because it's so technique heavy development in the NFL can make a difference
01:13:27 there too. You're not just who you are when you come in and like from everything I've
01:13:32 read, it seems like the best way to approach wide receiver is just draft a lot of them.
01:13:37 Like you can find them in any round, find them at any spot. You can find them with basically
01:13:41 any combine performance, just kind of keep taking shots. So we all talk about the Steelers.
01:13:45 It's a great wide receiver drafting team. Go on pro football reference to go look at
01:13:50 the Steelers drafts at wide receiver. Look how many busts there are in there. There are
01:13:54 so many of them, but they just keep like every other year, a second or a third rounder. They'll
01:13:59 keep investing. And if you know, a quarter of those guys hit, you have good receivers
01:14:04 for sure. Exactly. So, all right, well, this has been a ton of fun as always, before we
01:14:10 let you go, you need to tell the people where they can read you and see you and hear you
01:14:14 and everything else. They're probably sick of me by now with that discussion we just
01:14:18 have with everyone who came in and why it's appreciated at least hearing me out. And again,
01:14:23 I hope I'm wrong. And when I am, then you can come in. I'll say it. I'll apologize.
01:14:27 I am all my misses. I, you know, hand up on it. I don't hype for that stuff. So I hope
01:14:31 I am wrong, but I appreciate you guys having me. It's always awesome to talk to you. You
01:14:34 can find me on Twitter, Thor KU, and then like the UDFA stuff that I was talking about
01:14:39 and all that sort of stuff. My post draft stuff is on fantasy pros.
01:14:44 Love it. I love it. So, well, thank you so much again. And we're going to have to have
01:14:47 you on again next year for the draft recap. And hopefully you'll be apologizing already
01:14:52 about the F from this year and we'll see what the grade looks like next year. So hopefully
01:14:56 it's become a yearly tradition and I've been higher on Patriots, you know, so, so the guy
01:15:00 that was saying like it was for clicks or I don't like new England or whatever. It's
01:15:03 like, you know, it's just, you know, it's year in year out thing, but yeah, we'll be
01:15:07 back to either either way. I think like 2022 they drafted Cole Strange
01:15:12 in the first round. I don't think you liked that, but I remember 2021 you're like, Oh
01:15:15 yeah. Mac Jones, Christian Barmore. You got, I think they got like an A in that year's
01:15:18 draft and that one didn't work out as well, but yeah, it is what it is. So what are you
01:15:23 going to do? So I like strange more than most that year, you know, I might not have had
01:15:27 him as a first round on my board, but I was, I was higher on him. I think Adam is a second
01:15:31 rounder than other folks. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're
01:15:34 right. I don't remember you hating that draft. So anyways, but nevertheless, so we will,
01:15:38 we'll do it again next year. I'm already looking forward to it. And, uh, and thank you again,
01:15:41 door and everyone out there. Uh, appreciate you guys. Thank you for coming through. Also,
01:15:46 someone asked about what we thought about the Brady roast. We actually did that on Monday.
01:15:49 So if you want to go back to our, uh, in the annals of, of PNN here, uh, we do have that
01:15:54 show. You can listen to it, uh, if you want to go back and look at that. So, uh, anyways,
01:15:58 thank you very much. And we'll be, thanks again, door. Thanks to everyone else. And
01:16:01 we will see you guys on Monday, uh, of next week, unless something crazy comes up scheduled
01:16:07 coming out next Wednesday. Pretty exciting, pretty exciting. So we didn't even get into
01:16:11 your Viking store, but you know, it's, uh, you know, it's okay. They crushed the draft
01:16:16 in my opinion. So, uh, nobody wants to hear my JJ McCarthy takes anymore, especially now
01:16:20 that he's on the Viking. So it's great. You know, if it works out, it's going to be the
01:16:26 best thing ever. And if you run out of my state, if it doesn't, if it doesn't work,
01:16:31 I was going to be playing over here.
01:16:33 Just make sure you keep refreshing and Zillow just in case. Yeah. Hey, where's the room?
01:16:41 We'll take you here in new England if you want, you know, there's some room for you.
01:16:43 Yeah. I mean, if they forgive me after that, then for sure I'll be down there. All right,
01:16:49 guys. Thanks, man. We'll talk to you.
01:16:50 Appreciate it.
01:16:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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