April 14, 2020 • 45 mins
In this episode, Middlekauff discusses the art of GM's determining draft value, his top 5 GM jobs heading into the 2020 draft, why he thinks Christian McCaffrey is worth the money in his massive new deal, why he's not sold on Drew Brees as an announcer, the abrupt end of the XFL, and other headlines from around the league. He also answers listener questions in Middlekauff's Mailbag. Follow John on twitter @JohnMiddlekauff and go to theherdnow.com to find the latest content. Subscribe now!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
What is going on everybody? John Middlecoff three and Out
podcast off a crazy weekend of quarantining back again. We're
about ten days away from the National Football League hosting
their draft, so thank god we got something to look
forward to in this quarantine life. And uh, I'm gonna
(00:30):
dive in today off the top of the show, the
thing that I enjoy most about the draft and something
that it just really excites me heading into a draft,
and then even on draft night, I also listed the
top five general manager jobs going into just this year,
so this draft, but leading into this fall that I'm
most intrigued to see and that if I could put
(00:53):
myself in these jobs. I listened them one through five,
the ones that I want because I think they're in
the best position to just have a huge impact. And
then I just chose a bunch of other topics, things
that have happened over the last when's the last time
I talk to you? Friday? So Saturday, Sunday, and then
even today on Monday, but I want to And then
of course Middlecoff mail Bag at John Middlecoff is my
(01:14):
Instagram handle. Direct messages wide open. You can slide in
and uh, I'll read your question here on the podcast.
And uh also if you can, I know a lot
of you have I greatly appreciate it. Go to the
three and Out podcast. It has I know a lot
of you listen on Collins Feed. Also have my own feed.
(01:35):
If you go to my own feed, it has the
little picture of the microphone. If you like the show,
just leave a review. And for those of you that
have greatly appreciate it. But let's start what I like
most about the NFL draft. Like any person in their
late twenties early thirties, you get a little spare cash
and it doesn't even need to be much a couple
thousand bucks. You're like, what am I gonna do with
this money? My rents paid, my foods paid. You're like,
(01:59):
you know, I like business. I went to business school.
Let's start kind of sniffing around. You get some friends
that maybe work in the financial world, the e b
s with over beers, Like god, this sounds kind of cool,
especially for those of us that like gambling on sports.
You're like, well, I'm putting hundreds of dollars on you know,
random playoff series and golfers on major tournaments, and you know,
(02:21):
Penn State to cover on a Saturday night, I might
as well, instead of putting some of that money, diversify
and bet on a company. And, as Tony Robbins says,
if you just bet on companies that you use every day,
you're already proven that you believe in it. Hell, I
got an Apple computer, I gotta I'm looking at an
iPad and I got a phone. So what did I
do A couple of years ago? I invested in Apple,
(02:41):
made some money. Pretty novel concept, not that difficult. I
like the stocks and I actually think the draft is
a lot like a stock market, because I think we
think when we say these players out loud, like Jerry Judy,
he's just a lot to become a star, we all
think he's gonna be a good player. I don't know.
(03:02):
I've seen a lot of players that we thought were
gonna be really good players and they haven't become that.
Maybe he gets hurt, maybe he goes the wrong situation.
Who knows. We think every first round pick is gonna
be sweet. The reality is maybe half our and then
the reality is a much smaller percentage are actually impact players.
There's a decent chance on draft night Brandon Aiyuk or
(03:24):
Justin Jefferson is the best wide receiver out of the group,
and they might be the sixth or seventh wide receiver
off the board. So the key on draft night is
whoever you acquire. It's about paying the right price. Because
right now, I'm a big Netflix guy and have been
for a long time, and I bought in originally at
(03:46):
three hundred dollars. I took the money out a while
ago when it was at like threeft. It's nowt like
almost four hundred dollars. I believe in Netflix. They've crushed
it in the pandemic. We're all watching a lot of Netflix.
They are way a head of every streaming service. Even
with added competition in Amazon Prime, Disney created one. They're
still in great shape that they have a they're the
(04:07):
lead dog in the industry. They're they're gonna crush for
a long time. There's a chance that stocks eight hundred
dollars in ten years. Who knows. You could convince me.
Here's the thing, though, if you don't have a lot
of cash buying a four stock like you're only gonna
get Hell, if you've got four thousand dollars, you're only
getting ten shares. I'd much rather find a company that
(04:28):
was worth forty and by four hundred shares make that
mass right. My point is the profit is in the buy,
not the cell. The key on draft night is not
overpaying for stuff, because all a draft slot is is
whatever player you're taking, there is that guy's value that slot.
(04:51):
Now it takes two to tango. You can't always trade back. Listen,
I hated the Raiders number four overall pick last year,
taking Cleveland Farall at four. You cannot do that now.
Mike Mayock has gone on record. I think Mike max
already like a top ten GM in the league. He said, well, listen,
we wanted to trade back. We just couldn't. We couldn't
find a partner. I'd say, you know, that's fair, but
(05:12):
I can't take a player at four. Let's just say
four is worth a hundred dollars. Let's just say I'm
just making an even number. You bought a fifty player,
so he's never gonna have any trade value. He's already
we saw a year and he's terrible. So even if
he gets solid, he's never gonna be that great. You
would have been better off taking a guy with the
higher ceiling, because again, he might not be good either,
(05:35):
but at least if he does hit, maybe you keep
maybe a trade. At least you got options in years
to come. You gotta take Devin White, you gotta take
at all. You just gotta take a different player. Daniel Jones,
who was taken six overall, again hated the pick. Not
because I don't believe in taking your franchise quarterback high,
but I believe a team that had two picks, they
(05:55):
could have got the other player or that player at seventeen.
Because Daniel Jones, I feel very confident to this day,
though Dave Gettleman disagrees they would have got him at seventeen.
The one team that he had to worry about team
in his division, the Washington Redskins, because the head coach,
Jay Gruden, who's now fired in the offensive coordinator for
the Jacksonville Jaguars, wanted him. But the reality is, and
(06:15):
something that was public, we all knew Daniel Snyder wanted
Dwayne Haskins, who's the quarterback of the Washington Redskins. Dwayne Haskins.
Why because owners usually win the argument, so understanding value,
you could have got Daniel Jones at seventeen. Now, again,
the the deal was made, it's over. Daniel Jones is
(06:36):
on the Giants, and instead at seventeen they have a
nose tackle who Dexter Lawrence is a good player. I
don't like taking a nose tackle in the first round,
but that's an argument for a different day. I think
when you look back, sometimes your favorite player in a draft,
as a general manager, as a head coach, whoever is
in charge of your draft, might not be the guy
you take in the first round. John Schneider's favorite player
(06:59):
in the two thousand twelve of draft was clearly Russell Wilson.
It was the player that he loved the most. He
took him in the third round because he knew value
you you could he could easily justify. I believe this
guy is gonna be our franchise quarterback. I'm gonna take
him at I think they had the fifteenth pick that year.
I think it might have been the year they took
Bruce Irvant. Take Russell Wilson the first round. I love
(07:20):
this guy, favorite, one of my favorite players I've ever scouted.
I think he's gonna be a stud. Take him in fifteen.
He would have been viewed as crazy at the time.
Several years later, he would look like a genius. But
it wasn't about that. It was about understanding that you
could get Russell Wilson in the third round. Now there's
a risk. Guess what. There's a risk with everything. That's
why the key is from really the senior ball till now.
(07:43):
You're just acquiring information where a guy is gonna go.
That is the entire key with the draft. Understanding the
player that you want, what his value is in the draft.
Just because you love certain players, and if you love
certain players, whatever team you are, you believe that guy
is gonna be a good player. But there is a
separate argument about understanding where you need to go to
(08:05):
pick that player. John Snyder is good at this. Now
I'm not saying he always gets the draft picks right,
because he misses, just like any general manager. But since
two thousand twelve, he's traded his first round pick every
single year up down, mainly backwards and for players, and
in seventeen and nineteen he made multiple traits. But the
reality is he's always trying to get the value correct. Belichick,
(08:28):
Howie Roseman, the Niners do a pretty good job of this,
and again they've missed. They took once upon a time.
Solomon Thomas, who they miss because he's not good enough.
He doesn't have a position. Again, tries hard. You know,
backup player, but you don't pay backup player. You don't
draft a guy number three overall to be a backup,
just like you don't draft Trubisky. That's again, more than
(08:49):
when they took Trubisky, they miss evaluated the value on
that player. Now they would have had do he wasn't
gonna last till like ten. He might. You know, some
of those teams that took Deshaun Watson my homes, it's
pretty clear the Chiefs would have taken my homes. But
who knows. Maybe Bill O'Brien, like to Shawn, you know
Trimisky more than Deshaun Watson. I doubt it, but it's
(09:10):
Bill O'Brien. You never know. But if I would have
told you instead of trading up from three to two
to get Tramisky and given up a second or third
round pick, imagine if Ryan Pace had traded back three
or four spots and acquired a second and third round
pick and acquired Mr Bisky. I don't think we look
at it the same, and he more than likely could
have done that. That to me is the key is
(09:32):
that anyone in business will tell you always never be
afraid to walk away, don't get caught up on a price.
They'll always be more options. And that's what's gonna be
complicated about this zoom situation trying to make trades. But
I do think the best general managers we'll just I mean,
there's tax, there's emails, there's a million ways to get
ahold of people will figure it out, because you never
(09:54):
want to pay one point four million dollars for a
million dollar house unless you have unlimited money. Like if
the Miami Dolphins traded, Let's just do a hypothetical four
picks for Joe Burrow four number one, pick, five, pick, eighteen,
pick and the next year's one. You go, that's a lot.
(10:17):
They're paying one point three million, hell one point five
million dollars for a one million dollar home. But in
a couple of years, if Joe Burrow is good, that
million dollar home would immediately become a two million dollar home,
and you go, it was well worth the overpay. But
there is enormous risk. They also have more money just
because they have multiple first round picks. So anyone moving
(10:39):
up with multiple first round picks, they have more capital
to deal with when you when you move up and
you have a single pick, like your pick fourteen, and
you're moving up to the single digits seven or eight,
it's gonna cost you a lot more because you've gotta
deal with future picks. Who knows how good you're gonna be.
That future pick could be a lot higher. Hell, it
could be a lot lower. There's just a lot of unknown.
(10:59):
That's the entire key to the draft. It's just knowing value,
understanding the right value of what to trade for a player.
And then, to me, the least important is the player
because so much of the player is out of your control.
You know how hard he's gonna work, what he's gonna
fit like in your system. I'm not saying you haven't
done that work and you feel confident at the time.
(11:21):
But has there ever been a draft pick in the
first round where a general manager goes, you know what,
that pick sucked. I didn't want that guy. Know. Every
time you see a draft room, in the history of
draft rooms, when a player is picked in the first round,
high five hugs and kisses. Maybe there are a couple
examples where a team gets you know, in a tough situation,
(11:43):
but I would say plus percent of the time it's
jubilation because you really want the player. You assume the
player is going to be good, but the reality is
half the time he's just not for for whatever reason.
For whatever variable is the reason he failed. So the
key is to spend the right amount of draft capital
(12:04):
on that player. If you can ever get him for cheaper.
You have to be able to move down if those
options are there. You also have to be willing to
not get caught up on one individual player have options,
so you can spend the right amount of draft capital.
That's where the teams get in the best situations where
they're not over extending themselves. They're also you can also
(12:25):
overthink it and when your information is wrong, trade back
and then the players gone. So it's this really separates
the smart guys from even the kind of smart guys
that just don't have the information. That's why when I
was at the at the combine, every general manager, every
coach was telling me the key this week and the
key moving forward is information, information and information. What's the
(12:46):
key in real estate, location, location, location, The number one
key in draft is information, information, information, and then siphoning
through that information what's correct. And clearly the best general
managers have the best contax. They got information coming from
their scouts, they got information comes from opposing general managers.
They use the Peter Kings, the Peter Schrager's, the Adam Schefters,
(13:08):
the rap sheets to then acquire information. And then they
use all the information they're getting and then try to
figure out what's correct and what's not, and then you
kind of formulate your plan because again, this is just
an economic exercise. It just happens to be with draft
picks and people. Okay, let's dive in to the top
five general manager jobs I would want, and it doesn't
(13:31):
even necessary. The team doesn't have to be good. I
factored in how many draft picks you have. I factored
in where your team is, expectations, and just kind of
what I would want. I'll start at one and go
to five. I think the number one team. If you're
a general manager, the number one thing you'd want are
draft picks, because draft picks allow you to shape a
(13:55):
team how you want to shape a team. It's exactly
what the Miami Dolphins did. They traded basically anyone that
could play, and you know they probably want a few
too many games down the stretch and put them at
number five, but you can't dispute they currently have, according
to my math, three first rounders, two second rounders, and
(14:17):
a third. They have three picks in the top seventy,
with three of them being first rounders and two pretty
good second rounders. And then next year they have multiple ones,
oh and multiple twos. The amount of high level picks
they have is staggering. So if they hit on six
picks this year that are really high next year two
(14:38):
first rounders to second rounders, let's just go ten picks.
If they hit on six of those ten, so, especially
given that a lot of them are really good picks,
you can get impact players. They could be really good.
They also have the m O if they want to
get crazy to move up. I just think it's a
(14:59):
unique job. The franchise has little history of winning. Since Marino,
they have been the most average franchise in the league.
I mean, there have been some more below average franchise chess,
but I'm pretty sure the last twenty years I remember
seeing a stat like last year they were perfectly at
five hundred. Now they might have won a couple of
games might slightly be above it, slightly below it, but
(15:19):
for a long period of time they were exactly at
five post Marino. It's pretty nuts. I didn't love selling
off really good players because you drafted Minka, you drafted
Laramie Tunsil in the first round. The key when you
trade those guys, they have to find a franchise quarterback.
If not this year, next year, but they have to.
You can't go through this tank. This isn't in the NBA.
(15:41):
What's the key to tanking finding a transcendent player. The
key to tanking in football is to find a quarterback.
So either this year next year, they have to get
a franchise quarterback. But they are stocked with premium picks.
And I think any general manager in any sport would
die for this type am o in a draft. So
(16:02):
I would say the number one general manager job that
I would want, like probably any football fan would want,
just given how many picks they have, would be The
Miami Dolphins went a little off the beaten path at two,
but I'm factoring in the ability to win a Super
Bowl this far. This fall, he had, you know, one
of the biggest free agency moves in the history of
free agency. Now it may turn out not to be,
(16:22):
but Tom Brady signed with Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They were
seven and nine last year with a quarterback, and through
thirty picks, they have basically everyone on offense coming back.
Their defense really came on at the end they resigned Sue.
They should be pretty solid. They have three picks in
the top seventy six. They have a first round or
fourteenth overall, second round overall, and the third rounder of
(16:43):
seventy six. Then they have multiple fourth round picks. So
if up those five picks, they hit on three really
good players adding Tom Brady. They have Bruce Arians, a
playoff coach. They have Todd Bowls, a playoff defensive coordinator.
I don't think it's out of the realm impossibility that
you can call Tampa Bay a Super Bowl contender with
a really good draft. Now they gotta get impact players,
(17:07):
whether it's a legit running back, some legit offensive linemen,
maybe a legitimate defensive back. But they are in a
position if they do a good job in this draft,
to be poised to not just compete to win their
division with the Saints, but to compete to win the NFC.
If Tom Brady is good, and clearly I believe in
(17:28):
their coach I believe in their coaching staff, and I
believe in their talent. So if you add a good
draft to their existing talent and their upgraded quarterback, I
think Tampa, all of a sudden, you've got Jason Lte
could be Executive of the Year. My third would be
Mak and the Raiders. They went seven and nine last year. Now,
(17:48):
they had some high highs. They played really good for
a stretch and we're six and four. They had some
low lows. They got their ask kicked by the Jets.
They lost their last home game ever in Oakland to
the Jacksonville Jaguars. But they had a really really productive
draft and they went seven and nine, and right up
until the last three or four weeks they were in
the playoff discussion. Well, now they got two first round
(18:10):
picks twelve nineteen. They also have three third round picks,
so you could package maybe two of those threes and
get into the second round. You could always use one
of those first round picks and trade back. Here's the
key with the Raiders. They have a lot of solid players,
Like they just have guys that you can win with
(18:30):
their problem is they don't have enough blue chip players
like That's why they acquired Antonio Brown, That's why they
need They tried to get Byron Jones. Now we could
argue a Byron Jones a blue chip player, but they
need impact starters because the only way to make the
playoffs is two fold. First and foremost, you need difference
making players and then you need depth. Well, the Raiders
(18:52):
have depth. They had a bunch of draft picks the
last couple of years. They signed a lot of players
in free agency the last couple of years. Depths not
their problem. They don't have enough players when they're playing
the Chiefs. They don't have guys that can make plays
like the Honey Badger and Tyreek Kill. They don't have
players when they're playing the Chargers. If the Charges get
good quarterback play to hang with Keenan Allen, Mike Williams,
bosup Ingram and uh Derwin James, they need to find
(19:16):
a way. If they can use these two first round
picks to get difference making guys, get a star corner
and star wide receiver to go with Jacobs, to go
with uh with Darren Waller, all of a sudden, you
might have something and maybe you can get in that
wild card mix. You got to come out of this draft.
Maybe maybe trade those three threes to get up near
(19:37):
the top of the second round and get another sweet
player and try to get three impact guys. The raiders
biggest issue right now is star players. They don't have
enough of them. You can't make the playoffs without them.
You can you can win six to eight games just
being consistent running the football. Their defense is awful, but
in theory and playing a little bit better defense. But
(20:00):
this draft, given that, I think this draft on paper
looks excellent with a lot of impact players, and they
got two high first round picks. They got a chance
to make a big impact. Okay, you might think I'm
a little crazy here, but just listen to me. But
I'm gonna go with the New York Giants. A couple
of years ago, they took sa Kuon Barkley, which was
too early for a running back, but there is no
disputing he's a star. Last year, again, a lot of
(20:21):
unknown on Daniel Jones. But if Daniel Jones, it just
becomes a top fifteen quarterback. That means you have your
franchise quarterback and franchise used loosely right, He's not gonna
be Mahomes Russell Wilson. But if he's just solid, you
got your quarterback for the next decade, to go with
sta Kwon Barkley, and to go with potentially whoever you
nail at pick four. If you have the stones and
(20:44):
the balls to do this, it could change your franchise forever.
Isaiah Simmons, if he's your guy at four, and let's
say you hit on that guy, all of a sudden,
you have a generational player on defense, a generational player
on offense, and your starting quarterback in a three year period.
Pretty good situation. You hired the right coach again, I'm
(21:05):
I'm going on some assumptions. Met Joe Judge. Pretty impressive guy.
I don't know anything about him. He might be a failure.
We we don't know, welcome to football. But what if
he's good. So all of a sudden, Gettleman's hired a
good coach, he's drafted se Kwon a good quarterback, and
he's acquired a suitet player at number four. Now, this
alfico could go very wrong. Daniel Jones stinks the number
(21:28):
four pick. If you get Isaiah Simmons, he doesn't work
inside your defense and it doesn't look right. All of
a sudden, you're drafting the top five again. You're fired,
very risky. But if you get this right, and if
you were right previously with Daniel Jones, Dave Gettleman, there's
a chance I'm just throwing this out there, there is
a chance within the next you know, by the end
(21:49):
of the season. Dave Gettleman by no means looks like
the village idiot that he does now because he's the
easiest person for the media to crush, he's the easiest
person for the analytical community to crush. I think there's
a decent chance that when all the dust settles, people go,
you know what, Dave Gentelman turned out, he actually did
a decent job. Gotta nail this, and he needs Daniel
Jones to be good. The last team. This is factoring
(22:11):
a little what they have on their team right now,
and they have one of the best quarterbacks we've ever
seen in Patrick Mahomes, who's years old. In the last
two years they went to they went won the Super
Bowl and the previous year they lost because of an
offside in the NFC Championship game. The Kansasy Chiefs have
a pick in every round. If you just hit on
(22:34):
three of the seven players to become solid starters on
your team, cheap labor. Given that you're playing Patrick Mahomes
about to probably the next year a lot of money.
You already got a pretty high priced team, and Hill, Kelsey,
Honey Badger, Frank Clark, Chris Jones gonna need to get paid.
You need cheap labor. Well, it'd be pretty exciting to go.
(22:55):
You know what, I got Patrick Mahomes for the next decade,
kicking everyone's ass. Now out what's on me as a
GM to nail draft picks and just get solid starters.
Because if I get solid, functional starters that are on
my team for three or four years making seven d
eight hundred thousand dollars, I'm gonna be tough to beat
and I might rattle off three or four Super Bowls.
(23:16):
That is the key. These next couple of drafts for
the Chiefs are huge because if each nails these drafts,
and I when I say nail, get three starters. If
you come out of this draft with three starters, you're
golden because then next year you can get rid of
some players that make a lot of money. You can
siphon in your younger players. You gotta balance out the
high end expense with cheap labor and Mahomes, Frank Clark,
(23:41):
Tyreek Kill. These guys aren't going anywhere, and they shouldn't
because obviously Mahomes is a great player. But you're gonna need,
you know, a decent amount of people on a decent
amount of players, decent amount of your of your roster
on minimum type contracts. That your second, your third, your
fourth round picks. And for the first time in a while,
Kansas City has a lot of picks because they haven't
(24:02):
made any traits. So they're just sitting there and you
get this right, like you could become, i mean, a
powerhouse dynasty. Help. I think it's fair to say they're
the Super Bowl favorites right now. How could they not
be the best player in the game, Patrick Mahomes. You
put talent around him offensively and defensively, because we saw
last year. If their defense plays well, they're gonna win
(24:22):
a lot of games. And that's just that's just a
reality for Kansas City and looking forward to and again
that's the thing about a draft like the Chiefs, it
won't be that sexy on draft night because they're drafting
at the end of it. At the end of every
round where it would be sexy is like week seven,
You're like, Wow, they got two starters from that draft
and three other guys that play. Then then they're in
(24:42):
pretty good shape. Okay, let's dive into some topics just
around football things that have happened over the weekend. Number
one topic on Monday was Christian McCaffrey get topics story.
Christian McCaffrey signed a contract and as the latest, I
haven't seen how much guaranteed he got. I guess sick
teen million dollars a year. I've seen a lot of
people analytically freak out. I don't love paying running backs.
(25:06):
Derrick Henry carried the Titans to the a f C
Championship game. Wouldn't pay him, make him go a year
to year, make him go on the franchise tech Zeke Elliott.
I didn't love paying him that much money. Christian McCaffrey's
kind of a different animal. He was the first player
last year since Roger Craig and Marshall Falk to join
(25:26):
the thousand thousand club. He's had over a hundred catches
two years in a row. I was way too low
on him coming out. I thought he was gonna be
like a glorified Julian Edelman. Turns out he's like Jarvis
Landry meets say Kwan Barkley. He's one of the top
ten non quarterbacks in the league. He's twenty three years old.
He'll be twenty four when the season starts. But he's young,
(25:50):
he's productive, he's high character. You can turn things around
quick if you're the Panthers. The problem also with McCaffrey
because of his position, you couldn't flip him like a
Laramie Tunsil or like a Jalen Ramsey, and at his
position he's their level or Khalil Mack. Because if you're
the Panthers and you really want to reset, you'd want
to trade him for a couple of first round picks.
(26:11):
The problem is no teams trading You would a couple
first round picks for him, and then I see, oh,
sixteen million dollars way too much for a running back
when you factor in how much he impacts the game
receiving and running the ball, and it's sixteen million. He's
only eight percent of the cap this year. Well, if
it goes up another twenty million next year, You're already
(26:32):
at six percent of the cap. He doesn't cost that
much money. People act like sixteen seventeen, eighteen million for
these elite I can't believe you spent this on that guy.
Serious the cap we don't have a ten million dollar
cap anymore. Times have changed. Money's all relative. So I
like the signing Drew Brees signed with the NBC, which
(26:54):
to me is a little weird. If you're Drew Brees,
time is on your side. Anytime you retire and want
to join the media workforce, you're gonna have multiple, you know,
networks lined up for your services. I don't get why
you sign a future contract if you're him, don't you
want to live in the moment, try to baby win
(27:14):
the Super Bowl? What if you want to come back
for a couple of years. I just that to me
is a little bizarre. What what is the rush? Where
are these networks going? Who are they were? Who are
they getting better than him? Now? I don't even think
Drew Brees gonna be that good, like I think Manning
would be good. I think Philip Rivers would be pretty good.
I think there's chance Drew Brees wouldn't be that good.
(27:36):
And I think he's a fantastic human being, probably like
one of the highest character guys in the NFL history.
But the one thing you see with Romo is he's
kind of a guy's guy. He just kind of lets
it flow. He's fun. Then you get some guys that
are kind of critical, like a Troy Aigman. Like what
would be Drew Brees is lane. He's not gonna be critical.
It's not really his style. Is he super fun of me?
(27:57):
He's a nice guy, but is he super fun guy? Again?
I have the utmost respect for Drew Brees. I am
a huge Drew Brees guy. I just I don't know.
I want my TV personalities to be a little crazy
John Madden, John Gruden, Tony Romo. You could argue Troy
Aikman is like the high end super button up, but
(28:17):
he he lets it rip. I don't Drew Brees a
little corporate for me. I I don't know. I I
don't know if he's gonna be great at TV, but
I still don't understand why he's signed early. The XFL
went bankrupt, you know, they owe a lot of people money.
Their revenue stopped coming in and the way business works.
I don't think people understand this. I saw with the
(28:39):
media like Finch Young stiffed a lot of people. No,
he did not. Anytime you get involved with a startup,
and I have several times over the last three or
four years, you're risking a lot. There is no guaranteed
the money's gonna keep flowing. There is no guarantee you're
gonna get the money your promise. Part of the reason
you get involved with the startup because it sounds really
good non paper, and even something like the XFL that
(29:01):
sounded good on paper, it had tangible things going for it,
It had legitimate partners, it had money backing. Things are
out of your control. Corona hits boom, no more revenue
League screwed. Vince Young is not taking money out of
his personal accounts to keep this thing afloat, especially when
there's no certainty when this thing's gonna end is who knows,
(29:23):
like he did the right thing. You just go bankrupt,
and everyone that from Bob Stoops to the executives of
the players like that's part of the deal. You sign
up with something risky. Sometimes it goes under. For every
Apple and Amazon that hit. There's a million companies you
never heard of. And I actually don't think Vince Young
did anything wrong or Vince mcbanhn did anything wrong here.
(29:44):
They were set up to succeed. They were having success
and the Corona hit and now they're bankrupt. Like it's
it's pretty complicated when I see a lot of people
this was inevitable. No, it wasn't. They would never have
gone bankrupt without Corona. Would it have been some success,
I don't know, but for sure as hell was not
going under, they were getting more more viewers than NBA games.
(30:07):
They were fine. Was it some rage? It wasn't the
next NFL, but it was serving a specific purpose and
it was working and it gave the television networks inventory.
But Corona hits, it comes to a screeching halt. There
is no money, and unlike the NFL, they don't have
bank accounts as a league to just go through a
(30:28):
rainy day. There was no rainy day fund. That's part
of a startup, like part of having success as a
startup is getting off to a strong start so then
you can kind of snowball it into more success. And
they were off to a strong start in Boom Corona.
They're they're done. Vince McMahon, This is not personally liable
for this stuff. There's a reason the XFL was a
(30:50):
corporation LLC or whatever it was. People don't spend their
personal income to keep you know, startups that there's no
certainty for it to keep to stay afloat. This just
wasn't gonna happen. So I Vince Young, did I keep
calling him Vince Young? Vince McMahon did the right thing.
Interesting little nugget here that Alden Smith and Mike McCarthy
(31:13):
started a relationship at Jay Glazier's Jim It's where Alden
first met Mike McCarthy, and it shows you, like, would
the Cowboys have signed this guy? Just off hearsay from
Jay Glazer that he's turned his life around, that he
looks good. Sometimes in life it's just where you are
who you run into. And clearly Mike McCarthy, I don't
(31:34):
want to say put his reputation on the line, but look, Jerry,
you know, and Jerry's an easy sell on this, like, hey, Jerry,
I think we should do this. And Alden you see
him at the gym, you see how healthy is Sometimes
Also if you're sweating around a guy. You see, if
he smells like booze or not. It's the number one
place to kind of alcoholic smell. So if he's not,
if he smells clean, you're like this guy. You know,
(31:54):
he seems like he's sober. You can see it in
the guy's face. McCarthy was able to have a personal
inter action with this guy that probably helped, you know,
it clearly did. I mean, I think uh Alden's agent
even said a big reason this happens because McCarthy felt
comfortable they developed a personal relationship at this gym. I
didn't know this. Mike McCarthy's daughter is an inspiring actress.
(32:15):
I wouldn't have guessed that pretty cool nugget from Peter King.
Roger Goodell will announce all the first round picks from
his basement. At first, I thought, you know, this is
kind of stupid. They're doing it on zoom, and then
he realized, like watching some of the Masters over the weekend,
they had Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods do the recap
of their master's victory. You know it's not ideal, but
(32:36):
you know, these are the cards were dealt, and we're
just dealing with them and it's still entertaining. I think
it'll be fine. I think it'll make for some funny moments,
and I think for years to come, we'll look back
on this and talk about the Corona Draft, and I'm
sure we will have some viral moments that we will
never forget. Okay, let's dive into the middle Cough mail
bag at John middlecoff is my Instagram. Slide up right
(33:00):
into those direct messages and you'll get your questions right here.
Very little has been discussed about the running backs in
the twenty draft, given the strength of wide receivers, corners, quarterbacks,
and offensive line, and a diminishing view of running back
value in recent years. Where do you see some of
the top running backs going Swift, Dobbs, and Taylor were
(33:21):
all exceptional in college, but seemed rarely mentioned as first
round options. I would expect one of them to go
in the first round, probably Dobbs, could see Taylor, but
either Dobbs or Taylor to go somewhere in the twenties.
I think the other two guys we'll get drafted high
in the second round, like Chub in years past, Derrick
(33:43):
Henry and years passed. I think that early second round
spot has just been a sweet spot for running backs.
Teams feel comfortable drafting a guy there. You don't feel
like you're using a first round pick. Now, you could argue, like,
imagine if you had Derrick Henry as a first round pick,
you have the fifth year option, you have a little
wiggle room. But I just think that those two guys
(34:05):
can play. I mean, Jonathan Taylor is a ball or
j K. Dobbins can play really good. Swift is solid.
I like Zack Moss, though he's not gonna go that high. Um,
it's just it's just tough to me. He is just
catching the ball. If you can catch the ball, you
can play running back in two thousand twenty, And obviously
you can play if you can't catch the ball. I mean,
(34:27):
you have high level value if you can run it
and catch it. I'm talking about a guy that can
add seventy eight catches, because if you're not a seventy
eight catch guy, I struggle drafting really high. Now. Zeke
is somewhat of an outlier, but I think that's gonna
be the question on Jonathan Taylor. Jake can catch, I'd
(34:47):
have to I don't. I don't know enough about Swift.
I feel like, off the top of my head, he
can catch. But don't quote me on that. I think
you got close on Tom doing stern. I see the
Patson Belichick as the micromanaging boss, constantly telling Tom just
throw the ball. No media, we don't want to hear
your take on drafting and recruiting. Just throw the ball.
But Tom's Tom knows he can do all those things.
(35:10):
We've all left bad bosses, and when we find an
organization that just says, yeah, go do it, we trust you,
it's liberating. I would agree the Bucks trust him and
new and that's new. Tom is gonna run with it
and I'm here for it. Hashtag Sacramento Proud. The difference
is Tom did not leave a bad boss. Tom left
arguably the most successful boss in the history of the league.
(35:33):
Now where I think we could meet in the middle
is even if you work for a super super successful guy,
it's one thing to have a five eight tenure run.
Twenty years a long time. I think of twenty years
of marriage a long time. If you have a kid
year one of marriage right by the time twenty years
is over, that kid's second third year in college. So
(35:54):
that's that is a very very long period of time.
We all grow tired of each other, no matter how
much money we're have, no matter how much success we're having,
no matter how much you liked and respect the other person.
It's a natural reaction. So I do agree it's new
and fresh, this notion. The Bucks trust him, obviously they do,
(36:14):
but they don't have a choice to Tom's in control.
Tom has the leverage. The Bucks do what he wants
them to do, and he'll do what he wants to do. Now.
He's a great guy, great teammate. Tom wants to do something,
He's gonna do it. He didn't do that with Belichick
and a lead Do I mean the success speaks for itself.
Do you think the O T position has been thoroughly overvalued?
I'm asking your regards to my beloved New York Giants.
(36:37):
Do you think they would stand pat at four and
select an offensive tackle rather than draft Simmons or trade down.
I think having a competent, potential pro bowler is fine.
You don't need Ogden out there, even though a player
like him would be nice. Stay safe out there. I
don't think it's necessarily overvalued because it's the guy blocking
the highest paid guy on defense, and those are pass rushers.
(36:59):
So whoever the highest paid guys on defense, You're gonna
want your player on offense to be really good whoever
they have to go up against. Right, That's why you
want good receivers to go up against top corners, why
you want good offensive lineman to go up against copp
defensive lineman. And they protect your quarterback. So I don't
think they're overvalued. Now you're You're right, like, you can
get by with a very solid starter. You do not
(37:22):
need to Anthony Moonio's Tony Boselli, Orlando Pace you just
need or Tyron Smith. You can Hell, you can win
a Joe Staley has been to multiple Super Bowls and
he's a solid starter. You know, Jason Peters is a
high end guy, but hell, the Chiefs have had a
lot of success with with Eric Fisher, who's a solid starter.
(37:43):
So yeah, I think sometimes the hype it's not like quarterback.
You need a Pro Bowl quarterback to win big. In
the NFL, you do not need a Pro Bowl tackle
to win big. You need a good tackle and good tackles,
but you don't need a lead tackle. So I would
tend to you're onto something, Let's do it every morning
on the way to work. Appreciate it. Question for the pod,
(38:04):
where does Jalen Hurts go? Listen? I'm not a huge
Jalen Hurts guy as a quarterback. I think he's more
of a hybrid player. I don't think he throws it
well enough in the NFL. I do think a lot
of NFL teams are gonna disagree with me. I think
he ends up going in the second round. I would
take in the third probably and move him kind of
playing like a Taysom Hill role. I see more Taysom Hill.
(38:25):
I think teams are gonna see I don't want to
say they're gonna see Lamar Jackson, but they're gonna see
some Lamar Jackson in his game. I do not. I
just I think Lamar just throws it better, clearly does now.
But I'm not the biggest Jalen Hurts at quarterback A
in your in your opinion, what are the most important
(38:45):
traits that a corner must have in order to be great? Well,
it depends what scheme you're in. If you're in a
zone scheme, tackling is big. Instincts in space are big.
Spatial awareness is big if you're in a man end scheme.
Top in speed is huge. Ball skills are massive. Ball
skills are huge no matter what. Instincts like you can't teach,
(39:08):
and instincts are when the balls in the air, do
you play the ball? Do you never look at the ball.
That's a huge separating factor. You know, tackling can be overrated,
but I don't want to whoos. I don't need Richard Sherman,
who's like an elite tackler, or trying to think of
a good tackling corner. He's the guy that always jumps out.
(39:29):
But I need my guy to be able to wrap up. Uh.
You gotta have good feet. You gotta just be competitive.
You gotta have a short memory. You gotta be confident. Uh.
I think I think most corners, most great corners, are
confident or tough or mentally tough, have elite ball skills,
(39:51):
have elite instincts. From your time as a scout, who
is your biggest home run and biggest bust? A? J. Jenkins?
In terms of prospects, you advocated for the Eagles to draft,
regardless of whether the Eagles ultimately drafted those players. Well,
my first two years I worked in the pro department,
and you're not playing as big of a role, you know.
(40:12):
I was, you know, evaluating like practice squad guys and
just starting players like they don't, they don't care what
your opinion is on like Hellodi Nada. I'm just thinking
of some top player Logan Mankins, the Namdi Asomwa who
we ended up signing, Like you don't. You don't, really,
You're not in those conversations. Now, I'm going to take
credit for this. Andrew Sendejo was a guy I really loved.
(40:33):
It was the UFL at the time, some like minor league.
I liked him. Took him to Lewis Riddick. I said,
we need to work out this guy. You know, certain
things are out of your control when you're one of
the lower guys in the totem pole. I was all
over him. He was sweet guy. Another guy that I
like coming out my last year on the road. It
(40:54):
was a big ziggy Ansa guy. I don't we didn't
have many people in the building. There were big ziggy
Ansa guys and if it wasn't for injury, he was
sweet guys. I missed on. I didn't miss on that.
Barkley didn't like him trying to think of pro guys.
I didn't do college long enough to have a long list.
I really was only involved in college full go one year.
(41:15):
I was involved in my first year a lot with
like practice squad guys and free agency and really doing
more like you know, I mean when you're when you're
a twenty five year old pro scout, they just your opinion.
It's you're more telling your opinion to the other scouts
in the room then to the bosses. In fairness, like,
(41:36):
I don't know if my opinion not that I was wrong.
I mean I was, you know, I just tend to
be pretty good. I was on the right guys. But
the reality is, um I didn't play. You know, they
weren't like, who should we sign now again? We I
was in agreement. I liked a lot of the guys
we were signing, but it was more practice squad guys,
ranking practice squad guys, ranking back in guys when guys
get hurt, setting up workouts, and then in the draft
(42:00):
what I did. By the time I was doing college ship,
Kelly got there and he definitely didn't care what I
had to say. Here's a quick question about wide receivers
in the draft process for you, how consistent is touchdown
production from a college the pros? If a guy catches
double digit touchdowns in college, is that a good or
reliable measure for future pro production? The guy haven't mind
is Tyler Johnson, who got twenty five touchdowns at Minnesota
(42:21):
the last two years. I think the number one key
when looking at college production is context. So if you've
got twenty five touchdowns, what I would do as a
GM or scouting director or whoever, I would siphon those
twenty five touchdowns out and I would watch them all individually.
Are ten of those twenty five blown coverage in your
(42:42):
wide open? Are a large majority of them in type coverage?
You know, there are guys every year that have double
digit sacks, and they get six of their ten sacks
in games against lower level opponents, and three of the
ten sacks are when the offensive tackle doesn't even touch him.
So I think there's a balancing act when it comes
(43:02):
to college production. I think sometimes if you're playing in
the SEC and you're catching it on a bunch of
NFL defensive backs, it's gonna translate. If you're playing you know,
you see Davis and cal poly and you get twenty
sacks a year. It's not as important. Doesn't mean it
won't translate, But I think you need to dive in
(43:22):
the individual place. Once I see do you have the
skills are not to translate, then the individual production has
to be put in context. Who are you doing this
against any of these guys? You're doing up against the
future pros? The guys that are future pros? How good
are they? Uh? How much is scheme? How much is
the individual player? I think that's why the draft is
pretty complicated. New fan of the show from Northwest Indiana,
(43:47):
Keep up the good work. Me and my friends always
argue about if you had to pick a quarterback to
play the Super Bowl tomorrow, who would you choose? And why?
Would love to hear your choice? This is an all
time selection too, uh. I mean you'd probably have to
go Montana or Brady just because they have a combined ten.
(44:08):
You know, if just the fun, like just a watching
a guy have fun, I think you would go like
Peak Farv or Peak you know what we're seeing in
mahomes that's there is a fun factor. So if you
just give me Peak Brett Farve or what last year Mahomes.
I would feel just as good taking one of those
two guys as I would Farve or Brady, even Russell Wilson.
(44:32):
Like you gave me Russell Wilson in a Super Bowl game.
I'd like my chances that there's an element to me
of how entertaining is the player, how much I enjoy
watching the player, how talented is the player at the
given time I pick him. Now, if you get Brett
Farve in the wrong year, you've got no chance. Brady
has shown the majority of his career. If he's in
the Super Bowl, he's got a very very good chance
to win it. Same with same with Montana. So I
(44:55):
think the safe pick would be Brady or Montana. My
bold picks would be Mahome. Ms are four just out
of the love of the game and then entertainment factor.
Appreciate everyone listening, stay quarantining, enjoy life, and uh let's
just keep on trucking. And the draft isn't too far away,
so we still got football in our life. Have a
good week. Talk to y'all soon. M
What is going on everybody? John Middlecoff three and Out
podcast off a crazy weekend of quarantining back again. We're
about ten days away from the National Football League hosting
their draft, so thank god we got something to look
forward to in this quarantine life. And uh, I'm gonna
(00:30):
dive in today off the top of the show, the
thing that I enjoy most about the draft and something
that it just really excites me heading into a draft,
and then even on draft night, I also listed the
top five general manager jobs going into just this year,
so this draft, but leading into this fall that I'm
most intrigued to see and that if I could put
(00:53):
myself in these jobs. I listened them one through five,
the ones that I want because I think they're in
the best position to just have a huge impact. And
then I just chose a bunch of other topics, things
that have happened over the last when's the last time
I talk to you? Friday? So Saturday, Sunday, and then
even today on Monday, but I want to And then
of course Middlecoff mail Bag at John Middlecoff is my
(01:14):
Instagram handle. Direct messages wide open. You can slide in
and uh, I'll read your question here on the podcast.
And uh also if you can, I know a lot
of you have I greatly appreciate it. Go to the
three and Out podcast. It has I know a lot
of you listen on Collins Feed. Also have my own feed.
(01:35):
If you go to my own feed, it has the
little picture of the microphone. If you like the show,
just leave a review. And for those of you that
have greatly appreciate it. But let's start what I like
most about the NFL draft. Like any person in their
late twenties early thirties, you get a little spare cash
and it doesn't even need to be much a couple
thousand bucks. You're like, what am I gonna do with
this money? My rents paid, my foods paid. You're like,
(01:59):
you know, I like business. I went to business school.
Let's start kind of sniffing around. You get some friends
that maybe work in the financial world, the e b
s with over beers, Like god, this sounds kind of cool,
especially for those of us that like gambling on sports.
You're like, well, I'm putting hundreds of dollars on you know,
random playoff series and golfers on major tournaments, and you know,
(02:21):
Penn State to cover on a Saturday night, I might
as well, instead of putting some of that money, diversify
and bet on a company. And, as Tony Robbins says,
if you just bet on companies that you use every day,
you're already proven that you believe in it. Hell, I
got an Apple computer, I gotta I'm looking at an
iPad and I got a phone. So what did I
do A couple of years ago? I invested in Apple,
(02:41):
made some money. Pretty novel concept, not that difficult. I
like the stocks and I actually think the draft is
a lot like a stock market, because I think we
think when we say these players out loud, like Jerry Judy,
he's just a lot to become a star, we all
think he's gonna be a good player. I don't know.
(03:02):
I've seen a lot of players that we thought were
gonna be really good players and they haven't become that.
Maybe he gets hurt, maybe he goes the wrong situation.
Who knows. We think every first round pick is gonna
be sweet. The reality is maybe half our and then
the reality is a much smaller percentage are actually impact players.
There's a decent chance on draft night Brandon Aiyuk or
(03:24):
Justin Jefferson is the best wide receiver out of the group,
and they might be the sixth or seventh wide receiver
off the board. So the key on draft night is
whoever you acquire. It's about paying the right price. Because
right now, I'm a big Netflix guy and have been
for a long time, and I bought in originally at
(03:46):
three hundred dollars. I took the money out a while
ago when it was at like threeft. It's nowt like
almost four hundred dollars. I believe in Netflix. They've crushed
it in the pandemic. We're all watching a lot of Netflix.
They are way a head of every streaming service. Even
with added competition in Amazon Prime, Disney created one. They're
still in great shape that they have a they're the
(04:07):
lead dog in the industry. They're they're gonna crush for
a long time. There's a chance that stocks eight hundred
dollars in ten years. Who knows. You could convince me.
Here's the thing, though, if you don't have a lot
of cash buying a four stock like you're only gonna
get Hell, if you've got four thousand dollars, you're only
getting ten shares. I'd much rather find a company that
(04:28):
was worth forty and by four hundred shares make that
mass right. My point is the profit is in the buy,
not the cell. The key on draft night is not
overpaying for stuff, because all a draft slot is is
whatever player you're taking, there is that guy's value that slot.
(04:51):
Now it takes two to tango. You can't always trade back. Listen,
I hated the Raiders number four overall pick last year,
taking Cleveland Farall at four. You cannot do that now.
Mike Mayock has gone on record. I think Mike max
already like a top ten GM in the league. He said, well, listen,
we wanted to trade back. We just couldn't. We couldn't
find a partner. I'd say, you know, that's fair, but
(05:12):
I can't take a player at four. Let's just say
four is worth a hundred dollars. Let's just say I'm
just making an even number. You bought a fifty player,
so he's never gonna have any trade value. He's already
we saw a year and he's terrible. So even if
he gets solid, he's never gonna be that great. You
would have been better off taking a guy with the
higher ceiling, because again, he might not be good either,
(05:35):
but at least if he does hit, maybe you keep
maybe a trade. At least you got options in years
to come. You gotta take Devin White, you gotta take
at all. You just gotta take a different player. Daniel Jones,
who was taken six overall, again hated the pick. Not
because I don't believe in taking your franchise quarterback high,
but I believe a team that had two picks, they
(05:55):
could have got the other player or that player at seventeen.
Because Daniel Jones, I feel very confident to this day,
though Dave Gettleman disagrees they would have got him at seventeen.
The one team that he had to worry about team
in his division, the Washington Redskins, because the head coach,
Jay Gruden, who's now fired in the offensive coordinator for
the Jacksonville Jaguars, wanted him. But the reality is, and
(06:15):
something that was public, we all knew Daniel Snyder wanted
Dwayne Haskins, who's the quarterback of the Washington Redskins. Dwayne Haskins.
Why because owners usually win the argument, so understanding value,
you could have got Daniel Jones at seventeen. Now, again,
the the deal was made, it's over. Daniel Jones is
(06:36):
on the Giants, and instead at seventeen they have a
nose tackle who Dexter Lawrence is a good player. I
don't like taking a nose tackle in the first round,
but that's an argument for a different day. I think
when you look back, sometimes your favorite player in a draft,
as a general manager, as a head coach, whoever is
in charge of your draft, might not be the guy
you take in the first round. John Schneider's favorite player
(06:59):
in the two thousand twelve of draft was clearly Russell Wilson.
It was the player that he loved the most. He
took him in the third round because he knew value
you you could he could easily justify. I believe this
guy is gonna be our franchise quarterback. I'm gonna take
him at I think they had the fifteenth pick that year.
I think it might have been the year they took
Bruce Irvant. Take Russell Wilson the first round. I love
(07:20):
this guy, favorite, one of my favorite players I've ever scouted.
I think he's gonna be a stud. Take him in fifteen.
He would have been viewed as crazy at the time.
Several years later, he would look like a genius. But
it wasn't about that. It was about understanding that you
could get Russell Wilson in the third round. Now there's
a risk. Guess what. There's a risk with everything. That's
why the key is from really the senior ball till now.
(07:43):
You're just acquiring information where a guy is gonna go.
That is the entire key with the draft. Understanding the
player that you want, what his value is in the draft.
Just because you love certain players, and if you love
certain players, whatever team you are, you believe that guy
is gonna be a good player. But there is a
separate argument about understanding where you need to go to
(08:05):
pick that player. John Snyder is good at this. Now
I'm not saying he always gets the draft picks right,
because he misses, just like any general manager. But since
two thousand twelve, he's traded his first round pick every
single year up down, mainly backwards and for players, and
in seventeen and nineteen he made multiple traits. But the
reality is he's always trying to get the value correct. Belichick,
(08:28):
Howie Roseman, the Niners do a pretty good job of this,
and again they've missed. They took once upon a time.
Solomon Thomas, who they miss because he's not good enough.
He doesn't have a position. Again, tries hard. You know,
backup player, but you don't pay backup player. You don't
draft a guy number three overall to be a backup,
just like you don't draft Trubisky. That's again, more than
(08:49):
when they took Trubisky, they miss evaluated the value on
that player. Now they would have had do he wasn't
gonna last till like ten. He might. You know, some
of those teams that took Deshaun Watson my homes, it's
pretty clear the Chiefs would have taken my homes. But
who knows. Maybe Bill O'Brien, like to Shawn, you know
Trimisky more than Deshaun Watson. I doubt it, but it's
(09:10):
Bill O'Brien. You never know. But if I would have
told you instead of trading up from three to two
to get Tramisky and given up a second or third
round pick, imagine if Ryan Pace had traded back three
or four spots and acquired a second and third round
pick and acquired Mr Bisky. I don't think we look
at it the same, and he more than likely could
have done that. That to me is the key is
(09:32):
that anyone in business will tell you always never be
afraid to walk away, don't get caught up on a price.
They'll always be more options. And that's what's gonna be
complicated about this zoom situation trying to make trades. But
I do think the best general managers we'll just I mean,
there's tax, there's emails, there's a million ways to get
ahold of people will figure it out, because you never
(09:54):
want to pay one point four million dollars for a
million dollar house unless you have unlimited money. Like if
the Miami Dolphins traded, Let's just do a hypothetical four
picks for Joe Burrow four number one, pick, five, pick, eighteen,
pick and the next year's one. You go, that's a lot.
(10:17):
They're paying one point three million, hell one point five
million dollars for a one million dollar home. But in
a couple of years, if Joe Burrow is good, that
million dollar home would immediately become a two million dollar home,
and you go, it was well worth the overpay. But
there is enormous risk. They also have more money just
because they have multiple first round picks. So anyone moving
(10:39):
up with multiple first round picks, they have more capital
to deal with when you when you move up and
you have a single pick, like your pick fourteen, and
you're moving up to the single digits seven or eight,
it's gonna cost you a lot more because you've gotta
deal with future picks. Who knows how good you're gonna be.
That future pick could be a lot higher. Hell, it
could be a lot lower. There's just a lot of unknown.
(10:59):
That's the entire key to the draft. It's just knowing value,
understanding the right value of what to trade for a player.
And then, to me, the least important is the player
because so much of the player is out of your control.
You know how hard he's gonna work, what he's gonna
fit like in your system. I'm not saying you haven't
done that work and you feel confident at the time.
(11:21):
But has there ever been a draft pick in the
first round where a general manager goes, you know what,
that pick sucked. I didn't want that guy. Know. Every
time you see a draft room, in the history of
draft rooms, when a player is picked in the first round,
high five hugs and kisses. Maybe there are a couple
examples where a team gets you know, in a tough situation,
(11:43):
but I would say plus percent of the time it's
jubilation because you really want the player. You assume the
player is going to be good, but the reality is
half the time he's just not for for whatever reason.
For whatever variable is the reason he failed. So the
key is to spend the right amount of draft capital
(12:04):
on that player. If you can ever get him for cheaper.
You have to be able to move down if those
options are there. You also have to be willing to
not get caught up on one individual player have options,
so you can spend the right amount of draft capital.
That's where the teams get in the best situations where
they're not over extending themselves. They're also you can also
(12:25):
overthink it and when your information is wrong, trade back
and then the players gone. So it's this really separates
the smart guys from even the kind of smart guys
that just don't have the information. That's why when I
was at the at the combine, every general manager, every
coach was telling me the key this week and the
key moving forward is information, information and information. What's the
(12:46):
key in real estate, location, location, location, The number one
key in draft is information, information, information, and then siphoning
through that information what's correct. And clearly the best general
managers have the best contax. They got information coming from
their scouts, they got information comes from opposing general managers.
They use the Peter Kings, the Peter Schrager's, the Adam Schefters,
(13:08):
the rap sheets to then acquire information. And then they
use all the information they're getting and then try to
figure out what's correct and what's not, and then you
kind of formulate your plan because again, this is just
an economic exercise. It just happens to be with draft
picks and people. Okay, let's dive in to the top
five general manager jobs I would want, and it doesn't
(13:31):
even necessary. The team doesn't have to be good. I
factored in how many draft picks you have. I factored
in where your team is, expectations, and just kind of
what I would want. I'll start at one and go
to five. I think the number one team. If you're
a general manager, the number one thing you'd want are
draft picks, because draft picks allow you to shape a
(13:55):
team how you want to shape a team. It's exactly
what the Miami Dolphins did. They traded basically anyone that
could play, and you know they probably want a few
too many games down the stretch and put them at
number five, but you can't dispute they currently have, according
to my math, three first rounders, two second rounders, and
(14:17):
a third. They have three picks in the top seventy,
with three of them being first rounders and two pretty
good second rounders. And then next year they have multiple ones,
oh and multiple twos. The amount of high level picks
they have is staggering. So if they hit on six
picks this year that are really high next year two
(14:38):
first rounders to second rounders, let's just go ten picks.
If they hit on six of those ten, so, especially
given that a lot of them are really good picks,
you can get impact players. They could be really good.
They also have the m O if they want to
get crazy to move up. I just think it's a
(14:59):
unique job. The franchise has little history of winning. Since Marino,
they have been the most average franchise in the league.
I mean, there have been some more below average franchise chess,
but I'm pretty sure the last twenty years I remember
seeing a stat like last year they were perfectly at
five hundred. Now they might have won a couple of
games might slightly be above it, slightly below it, but
(15:19):
for a long period of time they were exactly at
five post Marino. It's pretty nuts. I didn't love selling
off really good players because you drafted Minka, you drafted
Laramie Tunsil in the first round. The key when you
trade those guys, they have to find a franchise quarterback.
If not this year, next year, but they have to.
You can't go through this tank. This isn't in the NBA.
(15:41):
What's the key to tanking finding a transcendent player. The
key to tanking in football is to find a quarterback.
So either this year next year, they have to get
a franchise quarterback. But they are stocked with premium picks.
And I think any general manager in any sport would
die for this type am o in a draft. So
(16:02):
I would say the number one general manager job that
I would want, like probably any football fan would want,
just given how many picks they have, would be The
Miami Dolphins went a little off the beaten path at two,
but I'm factoring in the ability to win a Super
Bowl this far. This fall, he had, you know, one
of the biggest free agency moves in the history of
free agency. Now it may turn out not to be,
(16:22):
but Tom Brady signed with Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They were
seven and nine last year with a quarterback, and through
thirty picks, they have basically everyone on offense coming back.
Their defense really came on at the end they resigned Sue.
They should be pretty solid. They have three picks in
the top seventy six. They have a first round or
fourteenth overall, second round overall, and the third rounder of
(16:43):
seventy six. Then they have multiple fourth round picks. So
if up those five picks, they hit on three really
good players adding Tom Brady. They have Bruce Arians, a
playoff coach. They have Todd Bowls, a playoff defensive coordinator.
I don't think it's out of the realm impossibility that
you can call Tampa Bay a Super Bowl contender with
a really good draft. Now they gotta get impact players,
(17:07):
whether it's a legit running back, some legit offensive linemen,
maybe a legitimate defensive back. But they are in a
position if they do a good job in this draft,
to be poised to not just compete to win their
division with the Saints, but to compete to win the NFC.
If Tom Brady is good, and clearly I believe in
(17:28):
their coach I believe in their coaching staff, and I
believe in their talent. So if you add a good
draft to their existing talent and their upgraded quarterback, I
think Tampa, all of a sudden, you've got Jason Lte
could be Executive of the Year. My third would be
Mak and the Raiders. They went seven and nine last year. Now,
(17:48):
they had some high highs. They played really good for
a stretch and we're six and four. They had some
low lows. They got their ask kicked by the Jets.
They lost their last home game ever in Oakland to
the Jacksonville Jaguars. But they had a really really productive
draft and they went seven and nine, and right up
until the last three or four weeks they were in
the playoff discussion. Well, now they got two first round
(18:10):
picks twelve nineteen. They also have three third round picks,
so you could package maybe two of those threes and
get into the second round. You could always use one
of those first round picks and trade back. Here's the
key with the Raiders. They have a lot of solid players,
Like they just have guys that you can win with
(18:30):
their problem is they don't have enough blue chip players
like That's why they acquired Antonio Brown, That's why they
need They tried to get Byron Jones. Now we could
argue a Byron Jones a blue chip player, but they
need impact starters because the only way to make the
playoffs is two fold. First and foremost, you need difference
making players and then you need depth. Well, the Raiders
(18:52):
have depth. They had a bunch of draft picks the
last couple of years. They signed a lot of players
in free agency the last couple of years. Depths not
their problem. They don't have enough players when they're playing
the Chiefs. They don't have guys that can make plays
like the Honey Badger and Tyreek Kill. They don't have
players when they're playing the Chargers. If the Charges get
good quarterback play to hang with Keenan Allen, Mike Williams,
bosup Ingram and uh Derwin James, they need to find
(19:16):
a way. If they can use these two first round
picks to get difference making guys, get a star corner
and star wide receiver to go with Jacobs, to go
with uh with Darren Waller, all of a sudden, you
might have something and maybe you can get in that
wild card mix. You got to come out of this draft.
Maybe maybe trade those three threes to get up near
(19:37):
the top of the second round and get another sweet
player and try to get three impact guys. The raiders
biggest issue right now is star players. They don't have
enough of them. You can't make the playoffs without them.
You can you can win six to eight games just
being consistent running the football. Their defense is awful, but
in theory and playing a little bit better defense. But
(20:00):
this draft, given that, I think this draft on paper
looks excellent with a lot of impact players, and they
got two high first round picks. They got a chance
to make a big impact. Okay, you might think I'm
a little crazy here, but just listen to me. But
I'm gonna go with the New York Giants. A couple
of years ago, they took sa Kuon Barkley, which was
too early for a running back, but there is no
disputing he's a star. Last year, again, a lot of
(20:21):
unknown on Daniel Jones. But if Daniel Jones, it just
becomes a top fifteen quarterback. That means you have your
franchise quarterback and franchise used loosely right, He's not gonna
be Mahomes Russell Wilson. But if he's just solid, you
got your quarterback for the next decade, to go with
sta Kwon Barkley, and to go with potentially whoever you
nail at pick four. If you have the stones and
(20:44):
the balls to do this, it could change your franchise forever.
Isaiah Simmons, if he's your guy at four, and let's
say you hit on that guy, all of a sudden,
you have a generational player on defense, a generational player
on offense, and your starting quarterback in a three year period.
Pretty good situation. You hired the right coach again, I'm
(21:05):
I'm going on some assumptions. Met Joe Judge. Pretty impressive guy.
I don't know anything about him. He might be a failure.
We we don't know, welcome to football. But what if
he's good. So all of a sudden, Gettleman's hired a
good coach, he's drafted se Kwon a good quarterback, and
he's acquired a suitet player at number four. Now, this
alfico could go very wrong. Daniel Jones stinks the number
(21:28):
four pick. If you get Isaiah Simmons, he doesn't work
inside your defense and it doesn't look right. All of
a sudden, you're drafting the top five again. You're fired,
very risky. But if you get this right, and if
you were right previously with Daniel Jones, Dave Gettleman, there's
a chance I'm just throwing this out there, there is
a chance within the next you know, by the end
(21:49):
of the season. Dave Gettleman by no means looks like
the village idiot that he does now because he's the
easiest person for the media to crush, he's the easiest
person for the analytical community to crush. I think there's
a decent chance that when all the dust settles, people go,
you know what, Dave Gentelman turned out, he actually did
a decent job. Gotta nail this, and he needs Daniel
Jones to be good. The last team. This is factoring
(22:11):
a little what they have on their team right now,
and they have one of the best quarterbacks we've ever
seen in Patrick Mahomes, who's years old. In the last
two years they went to they went won the Super
Bowl and the previous year they lost because of an
offside in the NFC Championship game. The Kansasy Chiefs have
a pick in every round. If you just hit on
(22:34):
three of the seven players to become solid starters on
your team, cheap labor. Given that you're playing Patrick Mahomes
about to probably the next year a lot of money.
You already got a pretty high priced team, and Hill, Kelsey,
Honey Badger, Frank Clark, Chris Jones gonna need to get paid.
You need cheap labor. Well, it'd be pretty exciting to go.
(22:55):
You know what, I got Patrick Mahomes for the next decade,
kicking everyone's ass. Now out what's on me as a
GM to nail draft picks and just get solid starters.
Because if I get solid, functional starters that are on
my team for three or four years making seven d
eight hundred thousand dollars, I'm gonna be tough to beat
and I might rattle off three or four Super Bowls.
(23:16):
That is the key. These next couple of drafts for
the Chiefs are huge because if each nails these drafts,
and I when I say nail, get three starters. If
you come out of this draft with three starters, you're
golden because then next year you can get rid of
some players that make a lot of money. You can
siphon in your younger players. You gotta balance out the
high end expense with cheap labor and Mahomes, Frank Clark,
(23:41):
Tyreek Kill. These guys aren't going anywhere, and they shouldn't
because obviously Mahomes is a great player. But you're gonna need,
you know, a decent amount of people on a decent
amount of players, decent amount of your of your roster
on minimum type contracts. That your second, your third, your
fourth round picks. And for the first time in a while,
Kansas City has a lot of picks because they haven't
(24:02):
made any traits. So they're just sitting there and you
get this right, like you could become, i mean, a
powerhouse dynasty. Help. I think it's fair to say they're
the Super Bowl favorites right now. How could they not
be the best player in the game, Patrick Mahomes. You
put talent around him offensively and defensively, because we saw
last year. If their defense plays well, they're gonna win
(24:22):
a lot of games. And that's just that's just a
reality for Kansas City and looking forward to and again
that's the thing about a draft like the Chiefs, it
won't be that sexy on draft night because they're drafting
at the end of it. At the end of every
round where it would be sexy is like week seven,
You're like, Wow, they got two starters from that draft
and three other guys that play. Then then they're in
(24:42):
pretty good shape. Okay, let's dive into some topics just
around football things that have happened over the weekend. Number
one topic on Monday was Christian McCaffrey get topics story.
Christian McCaffrey signed a contract and as the latest, I
haven't seen how much guaranteed he got. I guess sick
teen million dollars a year. I've seen a lot of
people analytically freak out. I don't love paying running backs.
(25:06):
Derrick Henry carried the Titans to the a f C
Championship game. Wouldn't pay him, make him go a year
to year, make him go on the franchise tech Zeke Elliott.
I didn't love paying him that much money. Christian McCaffrey's
kind of a different animal. He was the first player
last year since Roger Craig and Marshall Falk to join
(25:26):
the thousand thousand club. He's had over a hundred catches
two years in a row. I was way too low
on him coming out. I thought he was gonna be
like a glorified Julian Edelman. Turns out he's like Jarvis
Landry meets say Kwan Barkley. He's one of the top
ten non quarterbacks in the league. He's twenty three years old.
He'll be twenty four when the season starts. But he's young,
(25:50):
he's productive, he's high character. You can turn things around
quick if you're the Panthers. The problem also with McCaffrey
because of his position, you couldn't flip him like a
Laramie Tunsil or like a Jalen Ramsey, and at his
position he's their level or Khalil Mack. Because if you're
the Panthers and you really want to reset, you'd want
to trade him for a couple of first round picks.
(26:11):
The problem is no teams trading You would a couple
first round picks for him, and then I see, oh,
sixteen million dollars way too much for a running back
when you factor in how much he impacts the game
receiving and running the ball, and it's sixteen million. He's
only eight percent of the cap this year. Well, if
it goes up another twenty million next year, You're already
(26:32):
at six percent of the cap. He doesn't cost that
much money. People act like sixteen seventeen, eighteen million for
these elite I can't believe you spent this on that guy.
Serious the cap we don't have a ten million dollar
cap anymore. Times have changed. Money's all relative. So I
like the signing Drew Brees signed with the NBC, which
(26:54):
to me is a little weird. If you're Drew Brees,
time is on your side. Anytime you retire and want
to join the media workforce, you're gonna have multiple, you know,
networks lined up for your services. I don't get why
you sign a future contract if you're him, don't you
want to live in the moment, try to baby win
(27:14):
the Super Bowl? What if you want to come back
for a couple of years. I just that to me
is a little bizarre. What what is the rush? Where
are these networks going? Who are they were? Who are
they getting better than him? Now? I don't even think
Drew Brees gonna be that good, like I think Manning
would be good. I think Philip Rivers would be pretty good.
I think there's chance Drew Brees wouldn't be that good.
(27:36):
And I think he's a fantastic human being, probably like
one of the highest character guys in the NFL history.
But the one thing you see with Romo is he's
kind of a guy's guy. He just kind of lets
it flow. He's fun. Then you get some guys that
are kind of critical, like a Troy Aigman. Like what
would be Drew Brees is lane. He's not gonna be critical.
It's not really his style. Is he super fun of me?
(27:57):
He's a nice guy, but is he super fun guy? Again?
I have the utmost respect for Drew Brees. I am
a huge Drew Brees guy. I just I don't know.
I want my TV personalities to be a little crazy
John Madden, John Gruden, Tony Romo. You could argue Troy
Aikman is like the high end super button up, but
(28:17):
he he lets it rip. I don't Drew Brees a
little corporate for me. I I don't know. I I
don't know if he's gonna be great at TV, but
I still don't understand why he's signed early. The XFL
went bankrupt, you know, they owe a lot of people money.
Their revenue stopped coming in and the way business works.
I don't think people understand this. I saw with the
(28:39):
media like Finch Young stiffed a lot of people. No,
he did not. Anytime you get involved with a startup,
and I have several times over the last three or
four years, you're risking a lot. There is no guaranteed
the money's gonna keep flowing. There is no guarantee you're
gonna get the money your promise. Part of the reason
you get involved with the startup because it sounds really
good non paper, and even something like the XFL that
(29:01):
sounded good on paper, it had tangible things going for it,
It had legitimate partners, it had money backing. Things are
out of your control. Corona hits boom, no more revenue
League screwed. Vince Young is not taking money out of
his personal accounts to keep this thing afloat, especially when
there's no certainty when this thing's gonna end is who knows,
(29:23):
like he did the right thing. You just go bankrupt,
and everyone that from Bob Stoops to the executives of
the players like that's part of the deal. You sign
up with something risky. Sometimes it goes under. For every
Apple and Amazon that hit. There's a million companies you
never heard of. And I actually don't think Vince Young
did anything wrong or Vince mcbanhn did anything wrong here.
(29:44):
They were set up to succeed. They were having success
and the Corona hit and now they're bankrupt. Like it's
it's pretty complicated when I see a lot of people
this was inevitable. No, it wasn't. They would never have
gone bankrupt without Corona. Would it have been some success,
I don't know, but for sure as hell was not
going under, they were getting more more viewers than NBA games.
(30:07):
They were fine. Was it some rage? It wasn't the
next NFL, but it was serving a specific purpose and
it was working and it gave the television networks inventory.
But Corona hits, it comes to a screeching halt. There
is no money, and unlike the NFL, they don't have
bank accounts as a league to just go through a
(30:28):
rainy day. There was no rainy day fund. That's part
of a startup, like part of having success as a
startup is getting off to a strong start so then
you can kind of snowball it into more success. And
they were off to a strong start in Boom Corona.
They're they're done. Vince McMahon, This is not personally liable
for this stuff. There's a reason the XFL was a
(30:50):
corporation LLC or whatever it was. People don't spend their
personal income to keep you know, startups that there's no
certainty for it to keep to stay afloat. This just
wasn't gonna happen. So I Vince Young, did I keep
calling him Vince Young? Vince McMahon did the right thing.
Interesting little nugget here that Alden Smith and Mike McCarthy
(31:13):
started a relationship at Jay Glazier's Jim It's where Alden
first met Mike McCarthy, and it shows you, like, would
the Cowboys have signed this guy? Just off hearsay from
Jay Glazer that he's turned his life around, that he
looks good. Sometimes in life it's just where you are
who you run into. And clearly Mike McCarthy, I don't
(31:34):
want to say put his reputation on the line, but look, Jerry,
you know, and Jerry's an easy sell on this, like, hey, Jerry,
I think we should do this. And Alden you see
him at the gym, you see how healthy is Sometimes
Also if you're sweating around a guy. You see, if
he smells like booze or not. It's the number one
place to kind of alcoholic smell. So if he's not,
if he smells clean, you're like this guy. You know,
(31:54):
he seems like he's sober. You can see it in
the guy's face. McCarthy was able to have a personal
inter action with this guy that probably helped, you know,
it clearly did. I mean, I think uh Alden's agent
even said a big reason this happens because McCarthy felt
comfortable they developed a personal relationship at this gym. I
didn't know this. Mike McCarthy's daughter is an inspiring actress.
(32:15):
I wouldn't have guessed that pretty cool nugget from Peter King.
Roger Goodell will announce all the first round picks from
his basement. At first, I thought, you know, this is
kind of stupid. They're doing it on zoom, and then
he realized, like watching some of the Masters over the weekend,
they had Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods do the recap
of their master's victory. You know it's not ideal, but
(32:36):
you know, these are the cards were dealt, and we're
just dealing with them and it's still entertaining. I think
it'll be fine. I think it'll make for some funny moments,
and I think for years to come, we'll look back
on this and talk about the Corona Draft, and I'm
sure we will have some viral moments that we will
never forget. Okay, let's dive into the middle Cough mail
bag at John middlecoff is my Instagram. Slide up right
(33:00):
into those direct messages and you'll get your questions right here.
Very little has been discussed about the running backs in
the twenty draft, given the strength of wide receivers, corners, quarterbacks,
and offensive line, and a diminishing view of running back
value in recent years. Where do you see some of
the top running backs going Swift, Dobbs, and Taylor were
(33:21):
all exceptional in college, but seemed rarely mentioned as first
round options. I would expect one of them to go
in the first round, probably Dobbs, could see Taylor, but
either Dobbs or Taylor to go somewhere in the twenties.
I think the other two guys we'll get drafted high
in the second round, like Chub in years past, Derrick
(33:43):
Henry and years passed. I think that early second round
spot has just been a sweet spot for running backs.
Teams feel comfortable drafting a guy there. You don't feel
like you're using a first round pick. Now, you could argue, like,
imagine if you had Derrick Henry as a first round pick,
you have the fifth year option, you have a little
wiggle room. But I just think that those two guys
(34:05):
can play. I mean, Jonathan Taylor is a ball or
j K. Dobbins can play really good. Swift is solid.
I like Zack Moss, though he's not gonna go that high. Um,
it's just it's just tough to me. He is just
catching the ball. If you can catch the ball, you
can play running back in two thousand twenty, And obviously
you can play if you can't catch the ball. I mean,
(34:27):
you have high level value if you can run it
and catch it. I'm talking about a guy that can
add seventy eight catches, because if you're not a seventy
eight catch guy, I struggle drafting really high. Now. Zeke
is somewhat of an outlier, but I think that's gonna
be the question on Jonathan Taylor. Jake can catch, I'd
(34:47):
have to I don't. I don't know enough about Swift.
I feel like, off the top of my head, he
can catch. But don't quote me on that. I think
you got close on Tom doing stern. I see the
Patson Belichick as the micromanaging boss, constantly telling Tom just
throw the ball. No media, we don't want to hear
your take on drafting and recruiting. Just throw the ball.
But Tom's Tom knows he can do all those things.
(35:10):
We've all left bad bosses, and when we find an
organization that just says, yeah, go do it, we trust you,
it's liberating. I would agree the Bucks trust him and
new and that's new. Tom is gonna run with it
and I'm here for it. Hashtag Sacramento Proud. The difference
is Tom did not leave a bad boss. Tom left
arguably the most successful boss in the history of the league.
(35:33):
Now where I think we could meet in the middle
is even if you work for a super super successful guy,
it's one thing to have a five eight tenure run.
Twenty years a long time. I think of twenty years
of marriage a long time. If you have a kid
year one of marriage right by the time twenty years
is over, that kid's second third year in college. So
(35:54):
that's that is a very very long period of time.
We all grow tired of each other, no matter how
much money we're have, no matter how much success we're having,
no matter how much you liked and respect the other person.
It's a natural reaction. So I do agree it's new
and fresh, this notion. The Bucks trust him, obviously they do,
(36:14):
but they don't have a choice to Tom's in control.
Tom has the leverage. The Bucks do what he wants
them to do, and he'll do what he wants to do. Now.
He's a great guy, great teammate. Tom wants to do something,
He's gonna do it. He didn't do that with Belichick
and a lead Do I mean the success speaks for itself.
Do you think the O T position has been thoroughly overvalued?
I'm asking your regards to my beloved New York Giants.
(36:37):
Do you think they would stand pat at four and
select an offensive tackle rather than draft Simmons or trade down.
I think having a competent, potential pro bowler is fine.
You don't need Ogden out there, even though a player
like him would be nice. Stay safe out there. I
don't think it's necessarily overvalued because it's the guy blocking
the highest paid guy on defense, and those are pass rushers.
(36:59):
So whoever the highest paid guys on defense, You're gonna
want your player on offense to be really good whoever
they have to go up against. Right, That's why you
want good receivers to go up against top corners, why
you want good offensive lineman to go up against copp
defensive lineman. And they protect your quarterback. So I don't
think they're overvalued. Now you're You're right, like, you can
get by with a very solid starter. You do not
(37:22):
need to Anthony Moonio's Tony Boselli, Orlando Pace you just
need or Tyron Smith. You can Hell, you can win
a Joe Staley has been to multiple Super Bowls and
he's a solid starter. You know, Jason Peters is a
high end guy, but hell, the Chiefs have had a
lot of success with with Eric Fisher, who's a solid starter.
(37:43):
So yeah, I think sometimes the hype it's not like quarterback.
You need a Pro Bowl quarterback to win big. In
the NFL, you do not need a Pro Bowl tackle
to win big. You need a good tackle and good tackles,
but you don't need a lead tackle. So I would
tend to you're onto something, Let's do it every morning
on the way to work. Appreciate it. Question for the pod,
(38:04):
where does Jalen Hurts go? Listen? I'm not a huge
Jalen Hurts guy as a quarterback. I think he's more
of a hybrid player. I don't think he throws it
well enough in the NFL. I do think a lot
of NFL teams are gonna disagree with me. I think
he ends up going in the second round. I would
take in the third probably and move him kind of
playing like a Taysom Hill role. I see more Taysom Hill.
(38:25):
I think teams are gonna see I don't want to
say they're gonna see Lamar Jackson, but they're gonna see
some Lamar Jackson in his game. I do not. I
just I think Lamar just throws it better, clearly does now.
But I'm not the biggest Jalen Hurts at quarterback A
in your in your opinion, what are the most important
(38:45):
traits that a corner must have in order to be great? Well,
it depends what scheme you're in. If you're in a
zone scheme, tackling is big. Instincts in space are big.
Spatial awareness is big if you're in a man end scheme.
Top in speed is huge. Ball skills are massive. Ball
skills are huge no matter what. Instincts like you can't teach,
(39:08):
and instincts are when the balls in the air, do
you play the ball? Do you never look at the ball.
That's a huge separating factor. You know, tackling can be overrated,
but I don't want to whoos. I don't need Richard Sherman,
who's like an elite tackler, or trying to think of
a good tackling corner. He's the guy that always jumps out.
(39:29):
But I need my guy to be able to wrap up. Uh.
You gotta have good feet. You gotta just be competitive.
You gotta have a short memory. You gotta be confident. Uh.
I think I think most corners, most great corners, are
confident or tough or mentally tough, have elite ball skills,
(39:51):
have elite instincts. From your time as a scout, who
is your biggest home run and biggest bust? A? J. Jenkins?
In terms of prospects, you advocated for the Eagles to draft,
regardless of whether the Eagles ultimately drafted those players. Well,
my first two years I worked in the pro department,
and you're not playing as big of a role, you know.
(40:12):
I was, you know, evaluating like practice squad guys and
just starting players like they don't, they don't care what
your opinion is on like Hellodi Nada. I'm just thinking
of some top player Logan Mankins, the Namdi Asomwa who
we ended up signing, Like you don't. You don't, really,
You're not in those conversations. Now, I'm going to take
credit for this. Andrew Sendejo was a guy I really loved.
(40:33):
It was the UFL at the time, some like minor league.
I liked him. Took him to Lewis Riddick. I said,
we need to work out this guy. You know, certain
things are out of your control when you're one of
the lower guys in the totem pole. I was all
over him. He was sweet guy. Another guy that I
like coming out my last year on the road. It
(40:54):
was a big ziggy Ansa guy. I don't we didn't
have many people in the building. There were big ziggy
Ansa guys and if it wasn't for injury, he was
sweet guys. I missed on. I didn't miss on that.
Barkley didn't like him trying to think of pro guys.
I didn't do college long enough to have a long list.
I really was only involved in college full go one year.
(41:15):
I was involved in my first year a lot with
like practice squad guys and free agency and really doing
more like you know, I mean when you're when you're
a twenty five year old pro scout, they just your opinion.
It's you're more telling your opinion to the other scouts
in the room then to the bosses. In fairness, like,
(41:36):
I don't know if my opinion not that I was wrong.
I mean I was, you know, I just tend to
be pretty good. I was on the right guys. But
the reality is, um I didn't play. You know, they
weren't like, who should we sign now again? We I
was in agreement. I liked a lot of the guys
we were signing, but it was more practice squad guys,
ranking practice squad guys, ranking back in guys when guys
get hurt, setting up workouts, and then in the draft
(42:00):
what I did. By the time I was doing college ship,
Kelly got there and he definitely didn't care what I
had to say. Here's a quick question about wide receivers
in the draft process for you, how consistent is touchdown
production from a college the pros? If a guy catches
double digit touchdowns in college, is that a good or
reliable measure for future pro production? The guy haven't mind
is Tyler Johnson, who got twenty five touchdowns at Minnesota
(42:21):
the last two years. I think the number one key
when looking at college production is context. So if you've
got twenty five touchdowns, what I would do as a
GM or scouting director or whoever, I would siphon those
twenty five touchdowns out and I would watch them all individually.
Are ten of those twenty five blown coverage in your
(42:42):
wide open? Are a large majority of them in type coverage?
You know, there are guys every year that have double
digit sacks, and they get six of their ten sacks
in games against lower level opponents, and three of the
ten sacks are when the offensive tackle doesn't even touch him.
So I think there's a balancing act when it comes
(43:02):
to college production. I think sometimes if you're playing in
the SEC and you're catching it on a bunch of
NFL defensive backs, it's gonna translate. If you're playing you know,
you see Davis and cal poly and you get twenty
sacks a year. It's not as important. Doesn't mean it
won't translate, But I think you need to dive in
(43:22):
the individual place. Once I see do you have the
skills are not to translate, then the individual production has
to be put in context. Who are you doing this
against any of these guys? You're doing up against the
future pros? The guys that are future pros? How good
are they? Uh? How much is scheme? How much is
the individual player? I think that's why the draft is
pretty complicated. New fan of the show from Northwest Indiana,
(43:47):
Keep up the good work. Me and my friends always
argue about if you had to pick a quarterback to
play the Super Bowl tomorrow, who would you choose? And why?
Would love to hear your choice? This is an all
time selection too, uh. I mean you'd probably have to
go Montana or Brady just because they have a combined ten.
(44:08):
You know, if just the fun, like just a watching
a guy have fun, I think you would go like
Peak Farv or Peak you know what we're seeing in
mahomes that's there is a fun factor. So if you
just give me Peak Brett Farve or what last year Mahomes.
I would feel just as good taking one of those
two guys as I would Farve or Brady, even Russell Wilson.
(44:32):
Like you gave me Russell Wilson in a Super Bowl game.
I'd like my chances that there's an element to me
of how entertaining is the player, how much I enjoy
watching the player, how talented is the player at the
given time I pick him. Now, if you get Brett
Farve in the wrong year, you've got no chance. Brady
has shown the majority of his career. If he's in
the Super Bowl, he's got a very very good chance
to win it. Same with same with Montana. So I
(44:55):
think the safe pick would be Brady or Montana. My
bold picks would be Mahome. Ms are four just out
of the love of the game and then entertainment factor.
Appreciate everyone listening, stay quarantining, enjoy life, and uh let's
just keep on trucking. And the draft isn't too far away,
so we still got football in our life. Have a
good week. Talk to y'all soon. M
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