April 7, 2020 • 46 mins
In this episode, Middlekauff looks at Roger Goodell's virtual NFL Draft rules, how teams will manage it, how trades could be impacted, and the biggest NFL Draft and free agency risers and fallers due to the Corona quarantine eliminating pro days, workouts, and medical evaluations. 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 Little Coop three in
out podcast. That's Me, That's the show. Back at it
again Monday afternoon, April six, recording. This means we're about
two and a half weeks away from a virtual NFL draft.
I got a bunch of thoughts on that I've texted
around the league. We had breaking news this morning. Roger
(00:32):
Goodell mandated it for the entire league. You know, you
had to have some uniformity. You couldn't have one team
doing this, one team doing that. Not not in these
times when you're not Some places aren't allowed to social gather,
so I don't know. In the South, I don't even
know if they have rules. The Saints were gonna do
it at a brewery. No, everyone has to be at
home individually. Gonna get complicated. We'll dive into Matt off
(00:54):
the top. Then we got some risers and followers, uh,
that are impacted by this corre own us. Some draft
players that I think have been impacted, obviously, some free agents,
some big picture thoughts just on the corona. Just some
things that have been helped during this time and may
gain an advantage, and some individuals or just big picture
things with the league that have been impacted because of
(01:16):
this coronavirus. And then of course what we do every
week and every show. Middlecoff mail Bag at John Middlecoff
is my Instagram and direct message is wide open. You
can slide in answer any question you want or ask
any question you want, and then you get an answered
here on the show. That's how we do are interacting.
You know, it's like the modern day phone calls for
(01:37):
a radio show. I've I've personally not a huge radio
phone call guy. Like if I'm listening to a host,
I come for them, not the Collers. But again that's
maybe more of a West Coast thing and more of
a New age thing. I know historically, you know the
frances Is the ROMs take a bunch of calls. I
used to like him when I was younger, can't stand
him now. And uh, but I do like interacting with people.
(01:59):
I just like it's it's a more controlled environment this way.
Plus it's hard to do phone calls as a podcast.
It's kind of the way we do it, the way
we interact here. Also, if you listen to the podcast
and like the podcast, I know a lot of you
guys listen through Colin's feed, but I also have a
three and out feed, So if you go there, if
you can leave a review on iTunes or Apple, I'd
(02:20):
greatly appreciate it. I know a lot of you have,
and I already appreciate it, but I'd appreciate it more
for people that like the show that you hit me
up on d M s or emails or tweets or whatever,
please leave a review. Be greatly uh we we we
would like that before we dive into the virtual draft there.
This weekend, Trump held a phone call with all the commissioners.
(02:43):
Of course, after it comes out that he's hoping that
they can get football in the fall, my timeline freaks out.
It does feel I know Colin talked about this on
Monday morning on his show. It's kind of weird. It
feels like a lot of media members are rooting for
the Corona in a weird way, not necessarily for to
you know, kill people or anything, but in the sense
of just to shut everything down for a while. Listen.
(03:04):
I don't judge anyone on words like the actions speak
louder so to say like yeah, we hope to have
football in the fall, to me, you should be able
to say that, is it gonna happen. No one knows.
I mean less than a month and a half ago.
I was at the combine, rubbing elbows, hugging people, and
now we've been quarantined for three weeks. Here's what I know.
I'm rooting for businesses football because if football is off,
(03:27):
that means the economy shut down. And if the economy
shut down for the next six eight months, we're in
a great depression. That's that's not a hot take, that's
a fact and check out. You might want to google
what depressions and recessions due to people. Most people I
know at this point they are following the rules in quarantine,
are much more nervous and scared of the economic impact
(03:50):
because they got their kids. Their kids aren't leaving. They're
all staying inside. There were Am I gonna lose my job?
Am I gonna be able to pay the rent? I
have to keep making these payments? How am I gonna survive?
Than they are of the corona and the media, and
I'm talking some of the sports media, definitely. Some of
the political media is so extreme with all this stuff.
We're all just trying to get by. Most people I
(04:10):
know following the rules, trying to do the right thing.
But you know what, we all want business to start
up again, whether that's in a month, whether that's two months,
whenever that is, that's what we should all be rooting for.
And let's call it what it is. The media tends
to be extreme in one way, kind of anti business,
and it feels like they like this chaos. I don't
my friends, I didn't. I don't have a journalism major.
(04:33):
I went to just I have a agg business major.
Most of my friends work normal jobs. This impacts them.
Some of them get laid off, some of them run
small businesses and losing their ass. Like that's not a
fun time, Like we all do you know how America
should be united right now, rooting to us to fix
this quarantine and make this go away so we can
(04:53):
just start living lives again. And sometimes it feels like
that's not the case, which has been baffling me. I
like Twitter, but Twitter has become these last two weeks
a very and it's always been kind of a weird place.
It's a bizarre, bizarre, uh kind of echo chambers the
wrong word, but just a just a place where hate
(05:16):
thrives and negativity thrives. It's it's baffling, it really is.
I actually thought, you know, we always hear everyone comes together,
and again it's social media. It's a small percentage of people.
Most people I talked to, you know, are staying up
beat as much as possible, but just want to do
the right things. So this ends. So whether football comes
back whenever, I don't know, O t A is probably gonna.
(05:38):
We all think, like the Masters, they all moved all
this stuff. We should be rooting for all this stuff
to eventually come back. And I think that's the message.
If you follow this rules, we can get come everything
come back. That's that should be the end goal here.
And sometimes it feels like if you're wrong, watch the
wrong political show or fallow the wrong person on online,
it's like they want us to be shut down for forever.
(06:00):
It's it's kind of bizarre. But let's start with the
virtual draft. And obviously Corona has forced the NFL's hand,
and there were stories. I think last week wasn't that
the Saints were gonna have a a draft, not a
draft party, but have their entire staff at a brewery.
Then different teams were thinking about, you know, working at
(06:22):
a hotel, just just different places. They couldn't work at
their facility. Once I saw that on this weekend, I
was having a few pops, you know, and I was like,
this is not gonna work out. You can't have one
team doing this, one team doing that, and then us
in California, the people in New York or some of
these states are you know, Pete Carroll and Seattle quarantined
at home. This is not an equal playing field. Yet
(06:45):
they're all supposed to follow the same rules. So Roger Goodell,
and I would imagine he was pressured by certain clubs.
You gotta have some uniformity here. We all should be
mandated do the same thing. So he mandated, you're all
doing the draft at home. And several things jump out
to me and I think we've realized for a while
it was gonna be virtual, like there was Vegas got
(07:05):
canceled a while back, every team, but we didn't know,
like you have to be at home. Now you wonder
like something, is everyone gonna follow the rule? How do
you mandate that? How can you really check? I don't know.
I'm sure some people are gonna break the rules, kind
of like quarantining. We're all supposed to quarantine right now,
I don't think everyone is. And here's the thing. Let's
(07:26):
start with this. When you have a draft room and
your draft information. When I was a West Coast Scout,
I input that information into the Philadelphia Eagles system. I
would imagine many of you's sales people. Uh, any business
you work in, right, your company usually has its own system,
so you put everything in there. Your company controls that. Well,
(07:49):
here's the problem with this, and usually it's just you
guys in the draft room all it's a controlled environment.
When you got everyone at home, it's no longer controlled.
So everything's got to be all for Zoom. Now we
got the Internet, so you can access your you know,
whatever team you work for, if you're the Patriot Scout
or you're a forty Scout or a Cardinal Scout, whatever,
you can access all that information. But then to tell
(08:11):
your general manager, let's say you're going over Zoom because
Zoom seems to be the hot thing that everyone's using.
Here's the problem. I don't know if you've been following
the news, Zoom has had a lot of security breaches,
and I would say this. Peter King wrote that people
in the league are nervous that other that teams will
hacken to other teams Zoom conferences. I actually think that
(08:33):
would be really difficult and you would need like some
extreme I T guys to figure out how to do that.
And Mid Corona, you're trying to run a draft. I
don't know if you're gonna waste too much time doing that,
but I do think there would be quote unquote hackers,
whether they're in America in the world the moment the
drafts going. You know that thirty two franchises are on
(08:55):
huge Zoom conferences, and some of those conversations might let's say,
between my head, my general manager, and the area scout,
tell me about this guy, and you'd go, well, Nick Saban,
Dabbo Sweeney, you know, uh, Mario Cristo Ball told me
this guy is a ship head, or let's just say
something like that, and and someone's hacked it in and
(09:16):
that goes viral. If I'm a team right now, why
am I comfortable going on Zoom? They're having breaches all
over the place. This is proprietary information. Where we're talking
about individuals, we're also talking about other individuals, be like
burning your sources. Can you imagine if some of these,
let's say, uh, like political stuff that's being written the
Washington Post, I had a zoom conference with all their
(09:39):
political people or the New York Times or whatever, and
they're talking about their sources and what they've heard, and
it just went viral. That wouldn't be good. So I
think those concerns are legitimate. I would say this if
I was a GM, how comfortable are we with if
I'm talking to Roger Goodell that our zoom conferences will
be secure? Can they guarantee that for us? Because if
(10:00):
they can't, I would think if I was a GM
about not doing any zoom, we would have my t
guy set up conference calls or some way on your
iPhone where you just do like I don't know if
you can do this ten way called twelve way call
and you're just on the phone with everyone, because the
zoom thing seems a little risky. It's one thing I
recorded on my other podcast. We had Hunter Mayhan on
(10:23):
he zoomed in boom boom recorded it's easy. You're seeing
all these you know, television shows, zoom. That's easy. It's
all public information. The draft is not a public information deal.
It's a lot of secretive information. It's a lot of
information that the the the college coaches that give you,
they trust you that it never gets out. And for
the most part, well maybe information does get out, the
(10:44):
source never gets out. That's where I would be very
nervous if I was a team an information about a player,
maybe a player on my own team. What if I'm
thinking about trading him and we're here's the reality ship
gets talked. I know the way two thousand twenty Hard Knocks,
you don't see anything. Remember back Hard Knocks twenty years
ago when you got legitimate inside personnel meetings and guys
(11:08):
are getting blasted. That's what we like because the moment
if that gets out somehow it's hacked and goes viral,
we're all retweeting it and we're all l O l
ng it. You know who would not be good for
the players who are being talked about. So that would
be my number one thing. How can we guarantee that
Zoom will be secure because they're having issues. So the CEO,
(11:28):
I think was on CNBCS like, we're doing everything possible
to figure this out. Well, the drafts in two and
a half weeks. Maybe we don't have enough time. And
in fairness to Zoom, I don't think Zoom realize I
don't know enough about their company, but the coronavirus was
gonna happen in America would be dependent on Zoom. Trades
a huge part of the NFL draft. Our trades and
(11:49):
a huge part of the NFL draft. Trades are dependent
on what players are being there. Unlike free agency, where
at the combine we can go would you be willing
to trade me the player for this pick or would
you be willing to trade me this player for this player?
And you can map stuff out so you know when
free agency happens, you already have trade talks that have
(12:09):
happened and it's already in motion. It's hard to have
those conversations. I looked it up. Last year. In the
first round, there were six trades. But here's the thing.
The first trade didn't happen until the tenth pick, and
it was the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and
the Pittsburgh Steelers traded up for Devin Bush, the linebacking
from Michigan. I don't think if you're the Steelers, you're
(12:31):
having these conversations like you understand that Bush might be there.
Maybe you have some initial conversations about the tenth pick,
but you have those get in tents on draft day. Well,
trade talks usually involve multiple people, your general manager, your
head coach, your salary cap guy, your college scouting director.
(12:52):
It's easy when you're on the draft room. Well, if
you are on Zoom or you're you guys are all
on you know, an iPhone on a you know or
what I guess no one has like landlines, and you're
trying to streamline this process, it gets a little difficult.
One thing you'd probably have to do is maybe starting
next week, by the time the board is set, you're
(13:12):
gonna have to run some fake drafts and run a draft,
you know, maybe run like a three round draft, just
so you can feel out this process, because it is
gonna be really, really complicated people. And I've said this before.
I've argued for the NFL not to complain in the
sense of listen, this is the cards you're dealt. You
gotta play with the hand that's in your You know,
(13:34):
you got what you got. In a perfect world, you'd
love to get dealt you know, pocket aces. You know,
at this point in time, you got Delta two and
a four. It sucks, but this is this is the
reality here. And I go back and forth on this.
The one thing I always get back to is there
a company in America right now that is making some
of their most important hires. In the middle of Corona
(13:54):
in April, not one. You see what American businesses are doing.
They're firing people, they're people off their furlowing people. Yet
the NFL is making their most important highers right now,
or they will when the draft comes. Financial investments of
guaranteed cash to your first rounder. And for the Bengals,
for example, that number one picks pretty easy. They've probably
(14:15):
known for months. I would say most teams in the
top ten have a pretty good idea who's gonna be there.
But for every team, like pick twelve and beyond, it's
somewhat of a guessing game. You got an idea three
or four. But we see every year trades happen. How
do you conduct these trades real time? How do you
get the streamline the process of talking over the iPhone
(14:37):
if you're comfortable on zoom. I don't know if I
would be as a general manager again, that that would
be a little bit on the league. See if I
could work with Zoom and maybe get us some special
security ways to block it. I don't know. I don't
know enough about technology. I'd have to talk with my
T guy, but I would say there's a lot to
be learned there. And the the other thing that kind
(14:57):
of is highlighted is are there going to be more
busts in a draft than normally? And I don't think
there will be. Now there might be more guys that
are cut at the final cutdown after training camp that
normally would have made the team because in O T
A S or rookie minicamp they got to stand out.
Meaning by the time we got to training camp, those
(15:18):
guys were maybe instead of being with the threes or fours,
we're running with the two slash the ones. It's gonna
be harder than for those guys to make hey, especially
because in training camp this year, what are you gonna
be without? You're gonna be without all the spring reps.
So you're gonna be trying to get your starters and
the guys that you now are gonna play more reps.
(15:40):
So how does that fifth, six or seventh round pick
that in past years might ended up being a starter
or might have been the number one backup. Now that
guy might not get enough reps. They may not might
only have two or three preseason games. You may cut
players that you normally would have kept. You may not
have a guy back on your practice squad just because
of limited reps, or some teams will think big picture
(16:03):
and go, listen, we saw enough here. We're not gonna
get rid of this guy. We're gonna keep it even
if he's not ready. That's where I think it will
be pretty complicated. But the reality is we won't know
three or four years from now how it goes, because
what they say draft picks miss anyway. But to me,
it's like, how many did did higher percentage of third
fourth rounders not making in this draft than than the
(16:24):
previous five or six drafts. It'll be a long term study.
We won't know real time, but it's it's gonna be
wild and they're definitely gonna be some highlights of this
virtual draft. Okay, let's talk about some risers and some
followers in the in the post Corona world we're living
in because typically in free agency, the second tier guys
(16:47):
you can fly to. You you get your own doctors
and medical staff get to work on the players. Uh,
that clearly got shut down. Then during the draft process,
not only do you bring guys into your facility, but
an underrated part of the draft process that got wiped
out was team sending their coaches and executives to put
(17:11):
players through individual workouts. So if you were thinking, hey,
I kind of like this guy in the second but
maybe he's the first round talent, you send your running
back coach or d line coach, whoever, maybe an assistant director,
maybe your GM goes and you'll work him out, You
spend the day with him. Hell, you might take him
to dinner that night and you get a lot of
time with him. That's not happening. So basically, since three
(17:31):
weeks ago, everything's been on halt everything, and I think
it's impacted some individual players and just overall situations. Let's
start with my number one riser. During the season, I
talked to a lot of scouts that like Ceedee Lamb,
and I said, where do you think he's gonna go?
And most people I talked to I thought he was
gonna go in the twenties, and I kind of agreed,
(17:53):
and I like Ceedee Lamb. I think he's got a
chance to be like DeAndre Hopkins. But where was DeAndre
Hopkins once upon a time drafted? He was not a
top ten pick. I'm pretty sure I'm trying to look
it up right now. DeAndre Hopkins went at the end
of the first round. He was picked twenty seven, and
I thought that was kind of his cop, like that
(18:15):
type player. I'm pretty sure that Ceedee Lamb, when the
dust settles, is probably not making it past thirteen, and
there's a decent chance he's the first wide receiver off
the board. I would have thought that, you know, before Corona,
I didn't think that necessarily leaving the combine. I feel
like that's kind of the case right now. My number
(18:36):
one biggest loser. When I left the combine, I thought
that Jordan's Love was a lock. He was already a
lock first round pick. But I thought he was a
lock like top twelve pick. I don't know if he
is anymore. I thought a huge part of Jordan's Loves
draft hype slash success was gonna be in the thing
(18:58):
that I mentioned, and I opened this up about the
workouts when quarterback coaches and offensive coordinators and head coaches
went to Jordan's Love, whether he was at Utah or
Miami or wherever he was post combine and put him
through workouts, I think he would have shined. He has
the physical attributes, he has the big arm. His tape
(19:18):
was pretty crappy this year, though we can counter it
pretty easily new coach weird system. They tried to mesh
a couple of things. It didn't work. But when you
get a guy like him, who's kind of a raw product,
who's kind of like this guy that you think can
be something, personal workouts for guys like that really help,
and I think that would have put set in stone
(19:39):
he was gonna be a top fifteen pick because we've
seen the power of quarterbacks, the power of talent teams
overdraft that I'm not sure. I'm not saying he still
might not be, but I'm pretty confident that Jordan's love
has an opportunity now because of all this craziness and
because of all this unknown to just fall a little
bit in the draft. It won't shock me if he's
(19:59):
drafted in the twenties. Marcus Mariota. If you would have
told me that Marcus Mariota would have been the number
one backup chosen when free agency started. I don't know
if I would have believed you, but the way in
Corona everything happened with you couldn't have visits. The quarterback
Domino's kind of fell the Raiders. You know, if if
(20:21):
John Gruden, who has a twenty million dollar quarterback in
Derek Carr, wouldn't have paid Mariota the seven and a
half million dollars that's number one. He's the highest paid
backup right now in the NFL. Who else was paying
Mariota that much money, you know, especially at the time
when Cam Newton ultimately got cut yet Jamis Winston became
a free agent after Tom Brady went to Tampa. You
(20:43):
gotta have some Domino's fall, like I don't know if
Mariota his market would have been as strong now. Mariota
was got awful last year. By no means do I
think he stinks. He just had a bad year, lost
his confidence. They brought in Tanney Hill that you could
tell did the Did the coaching staff stop believing him?
I don't know. He was bad. The coaching staff was
(21:05):
looking in another directions, bad combination. But he has played
at a high level in previous seasons. He was a
high pick for a reason was he probably overdrafted looking back.
For sure, now he wasn't necessarily overdrafted on the time
of that draft, but just when you look back some
of his flaws, you know, in a perfect world, he's
probably like his true NFL talent probably should have been
(21:25):
like a second round pick. But I do believe that
Marcus Mariota can be a starting quarterback again in the future.
But if the Corona doesn't happen, and just some of
the weird stuff going on in the NFL, I don't know. Now,
John Gruden was gonna be there no matter what. But
seven and a half million dollars from Marcus Marriot, I
think he benefited from the corona. One one NFL quarterback
(21:47):
that has one million percent been impacted the most. I
would say no player in the NFL has been more
impacted by the coronavirus than Cam Newton because Cam Newton, listen,
He's had an up and down career, but he's had
way more ups than downs, and a couple of his
ups m VP of the league, being a Pro Bowl
level guy leading a team to a playoffs several times
(22:10):
when he's on being able to play with anyone he
would get a job immediately if medically he could check out.
But what's the big problem for Cam Newton. Your doctors,
your trainers can't get him medically right now that they're
they're not able to interact with him. If this process,
if we were just living in two thousand nineteen normal times,
(22:30):
I I just think it would be impossible for him
not to have a team April six. I think it's
absolutely impossible. Jamis Winston, maybe a guy like Jamis because
he's a little more polarizing he's been in some trouble,
might have to wait till after the draft. But I
just I can't see under any circumstances if Cam Newton's
a doctor could go he's healthy enough to sign a
(22:52):
team not signing him. Obviously there are impact of like
how much money does he think he's earned or I
mean think he's were how much does a team think
he's worth. They'd have to somewhat meet in the middle.
I don't know what his number would be. It would
probably be an incentive lace deal. Maybe you have to
sign a one year deal. You can't convince me though
that NFL teams he's can't freaking Newton. He's had more
(23:15):
than enough moments to get a job. And I do
understand you talk to people in the NFL. We don't
we don't know how a shoulder is. There are people
in the NFL right now that think his shoulder is
shot and shot might be strong, but just never gonna
be the same. And he's just they wouldn't touch him.
And I think that because last year the tape was
so bad and it was coming off the shoulder injury,
(23:39):
that it's freaking a lot of teams out and unless
they can get their hands, their doctor's hands on that shoulder,
he's in trouble. Big winner, I would say the biggest
winner right now is the NFL. Talked about it in
the opening that they've benefited a lot from the timing
of Corona. Their season was over, the Super Bowl just
happened to combine and had just happened. They can function,
(24:03):
whether you agree with it or not. You can have
free agency virtually, you can have the draft virtually, they're
going to You can't play the NBA season virtually, you
can't play Opening Day, virtually, you can't play the Masters virtually.
Either played or you don't. And all those got wiped
out for the NFL boom, everything stopped. Free agency. Here
(24:24):
we are. Everything still stopped. A month later, Boom Draft,
here we are, and they've benefited greatly. There are many
businesses besides, like the beer industry, the food industry. Some
of you guys working in specific industries probably add some that.
When I say the food industry, I don't say the
restaurant industry. I say the food industry, like Safe Way
(24:45):
and Save Martin, Albertson's in those stores. That are businesses
booming for them because we're all eaten at home NonStop.
But the NFL has just thrived because they've had inventory
for stuff happening that can just happen on social media,
where the other leagues had to shut down their product.
And then I would say, the biggest loser is going
(25:05):
to be the Goodell Hugs Forever. The NFL first round
and I got to go live to the event. It
was actually Cam Newton, Jere It was a great draft.
It's like Cam Newton, J. J. Watt, Julio, A. J. Green,
Alden Smith Von Miller. I mean it's it's actually one
of the great drafts of all time. That Star Study group. Also,
you got a throw in like Blaine Gabberton and I think, uh,
(25:27):
the quarterback from Washington's forgetting his name, oh, Jake Locker.
But it it had some stars and it's cool. I
mean that moment when your name gets called, especially once
we get past the first couple of picks, you don't
know who it's gonna be. And then they announced j. J. Watt,
you know, DeAndre Hopkins, Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes, blah blah
(25:49):
blah to a tongue of baloa, ceedee lamb, Jerry Judy.
Their lives have been made. They got drafted into the
NFL in the first round and they come out there
they give goodella hug. It is a cool moment. It
is a great event. It does not clearly huge ratings.
This one will probably be the highest rating one and
(26:09):
it's gonna kind of suck. It's gonna be Roger announcing
from his like living room. The Oakland Raiders have drafted
Jerry Judy, right, the Carolina Panthers have drafted Isaiah Simmons,
and again we're gonna make do the best we can
because these are only options. But that's that's a huge
moment that sucks for the kids, especially the high the
(26:30):
first round guys. They're gonna miss out on a once
in a lifetime opportunity. You don't get to make that up.
Maybe next year when we're back to normal, all the
first rounders can announce the pick. I don't know, Maybe
we can do something with them to involve them. But
the draft was also gonna be in Vegas. They were
gonna have at was it the Blaggio was the Blaggio? Yeah,
(26:52):
with the water and they were gonna have a stage
on the water, players coming out on a boat. It
was gonna be insane, was gonna be so cool. It
was gonna be one of the most outrageous things any
sports league has ever done. It was like w W
E meets the NFL in Vegas and they had to
cancel it, and that there's no way around it. That sucks. Okay,
(27:16):
let's go Middlecoff mail back at John Middlecoff. Got a
lot of questions at John middlecoff Instagram d m s
slide right in give it a follow if you like, uh,
post do some hits of stories. I need to start
posting a little bit more. But we're a on quarantine,
Like what am I gonna take pictures of? Hey? John
pod is pretty good sarcasm. What better time than this bleep?
(27:38):
Agree to give us your all time eleven on offense
and defense. Maybe even throwing a kicker and punter would
be cool. Cheers from Austria. Wow, okay, punter. I'm going
Ray guy just because I like him and when he
got introduced into the Hall of Fame, I saw a
football live it was just I like that guy. Kicker.
I'll probably go Tucker offense, I'd go my my personal
(28:02):
I mean, I fell in love with football, Steve Young,
but I think my favorite quarterback ever, like I love Brady,
I love Manning, but just a guy that was, like
you know, and I kind of hated the Packers, but
I love this guy was far I mean I far
be just if I just had in his peak to
watch a game. He's what I like to watch. Running
(28:23):
back beat Barry Sanders tight end, probably be Gronk, but
you know, Kittles moving up the list, I'll go Moonio's uh,
let's let's throw it back to a career that was
cut short. But Selly. Let's go Larry Allen my center
because when I was at Fresno State, he spoke to
the team and this guy was the baddest m effort,
(28:45):
even if like he could barely walk. He was tiny
because his back was all shoddy. It looked like five
ten Jim Otto, complete badass. Let's go Steve Hutchinson wide receiver,
Jerry Rice, Randy Moss. Let's go defense D line. We'll
go Reggie White. What are we gonna run up? What's
(29:05):
run of three? Four? So I get some outside back. Now,
I was round a four three. Let's go Reggie White.
Uh D tackles. I'll go. I'll go to a little
new school. I'll go Aaron Donald I met. I didn't
meet him. I just stood next to him at Starbucks
of the Combine, and I just always liked this guy.
John Randall, badass, other defensive end. This guy was a
Super Bowl m v P. That's gonna be personal. I
(29:27):
put a lot of money on the Broncos because I
just I didn't think the Panthers gonna win, and Von
Miller won the Super Bowl m v P. So I'm
gonna put him on there. I know technically it's an
outside linebacker, but he's a hybrid. We'll go Lawrence Taylor,
middle linebacker. I'm a sucker for this guy. Patrick Willis. Uh,
you know, I think Pete Navarro Bowman again sucker for
these two players. Bowman willis my favorite inside linebacking Dooever,
(29:50):
I think both of them could have played will Sam
Um Mike. You know, we'll do whatever you ask him
to do. I mean they're probably you can put Ray Lewis.
You know younger Ray Lewis, he could really fly. Or
Locker was probably a true Mike, but he he was
so athletic in his prime he could do it all again.
Dating myself a little bit like Mike Singletary. I didn't
(30:10):
really watch him play. Corner Dion Sanders, safety, ed Reid,
Rod Woodson, other corner Reevus. Also, I'm a soccker for Sherman.
Sherman make my team, so that's offense, defense, my kickers, coach. Uh,
you know that, I'll go Walsh. I'll go Walsh just
(30:31):
because Walsh was a badass. That's a good question. Not
that's not bad. Off top of my head, throw a
little squad together, I mean you probably could do. Probably
missing some guys slot receiver, slot receiver, I'd go a
couple of tight ends. I'd go like Gronk and who's
like a great tight end from the two thousand's trying
(30:52):
to think, I don't even know you're not thinking Street
during quarantine. Uh love your takes. Two questions. Two questions
on arm strength. Football personalities talk about arm strength all
the time, but almost as if if it's a if
it's a static and can't improve throughout college or in
the NFL. Can quarterbacks improve their arm strength or are
(31:14):
they generally always gonna have about the same range. I think,
for the most part, since I've really been watching this
stuff critically, I'd say once I got into Fresno State,
no way, you really started watching guys, and I saw
a lot of guys that played in college or in
high school film like Matt Barkley, and trying to think
of some of the West Coast quarterbacks that made into
the pros. I saw Derek Carr in college. I mean,
(31:36):
Derek Carr's arm has been really strong since high school.
Those are two guys that jump to mind. I don't know.
Barkley didn't really make it, but he stayed a long time.
You know. Aaron Rodgers, I would say, is somewhat of
an outlier. His arm got dramatically stronger. I think Brady's
arm improved, But think about most guys in the league,
like Drew Brees's arm never got strong. He works his
ass off, Payton's never got strong. Rivers never get strong.
(31:59):
I think it's a little bit like a pitcher. It
would be interesting to talk to a baseball pitcher about this,
especially a good one. Can can your arm strength get
that much stronger? You know, if you're like a starting pitcher,
you kind of throw what you throw. Just think out
of the guys whoever your favorite baseball team is. For
the most part, once a guy gets to the big leagues,
really when he's younger, is gonna be as hard as
(32:20):
he ever throws. Then it goes down. I think football players,
for the most part, it doesn't improve that much. Can
you break the current NFL starters into tears of arms?
Frank is the other part of the question. Stafford Mahomes Alan, thanks, John, Yeah,
I would say, off the top of my head, the
five best arms in the league. Mahomes Stafford jump right
(32:41):
off the page. Josh Allen for sure. Uh, Rogers used
to have just a howitzer. I don't think it's quite
as strong, but it's still pretty damn good. And when
he wants to let it rip. He he can go.
Lsburg Lamar Cam Cam used to be big with a show.
Older's all messed up. Brady dot as much. Breeze, No Dak,
(33:03):
no DeShawn, no Jimmy No. Chargers don't have a quarterback
golf No Eli's gone, uh, Patriots on the quarterback, Kirk Cousins, Nort,
Carson Wentz, you know, Carson Wentz, Mahomes, Stafford Rogers, Josh
(33:23):
Allen Rogers used to be a lead. I just you know,
at thirty six, I don't think he quite spins it
like he used to, but he's still upper echelon. Then
I think there's just a group of guys like Russell Wilson.
You know, it's just not in the top tier. But
he's as good as anyone. He needs to let her rip,
you know, Brady. I still don't think when Brady has
(33:44):
time in the pocket and sets his feet and throws
a dart, he can throw it as well as anybody.
Deshaun Watson sneaky doesn't have that great of an arm.
I mean it's solid. You know who's underrated arm strength?
Kyler Murray, Kyler Murray. When he lets it rip, you're
like I remember watching them like by the end of September.
My take on Kyler was, this guy is not gonna suck.
(34:08):
I don't know, it's you know, it's out of his control.
How good his team is is I mean, Vance Joseph
is their defensive coordinator. They're awful. His coach has never
coached in the NFL. It's lots out of his control,
but just his pure talent is like damn. I think
some of the younger guys, Jamie's okay, Donald, you know, okay,
Josh Rosen actually was pretty solid, but he's never gonna
(34:31):
I mean, is Josh Rosen close to being out of
the league. Baker's okay, Lamar's solid, Lamar's actually I'd say
gotten a little better. Uh. Derek Carr actually has a
pretty good arm. It was funny. He gets kind of
knocked for being a checkdown guy, but his arm strength
actually is pretty good. Found you a few months back
(34:52):
on Colin's podcast. Do you think that Bill Belichick tanks
this season, drafts Lawrence, then surrounds him with weapons and
turns into another ten to twelve year tend to twenty
your reign. Yeah, I mean, I think that's They're not
gonna tank their team is too good, that their defense
is too good. Now I've seen I don't know if
it's quite Reddit or just some Internet rumors. Could Detroit
(35:15):
trade I think the Patriots have what do they have?
Twenty two three? Somewhere in the early twenties, would they
trade all the way back to three? Let's say the
Patriots like twa would you trade them three for that pick?
Stephen Gilmore? And like a second Stephon Gilmore was Defensive
Player of the Year and he's under contract and they're
trying to win now, just throwing out there. I saw
(35:37):
it again. Not I don't. I wouldn't say it's a
credible source, but it was enough that I was like, uh,
you know, it might be something there. I really enjoy
the listeners show. I go to a Minnesota State University,
man man Cato, the school Adam Thland went to, Well, Good,
Little Good, Little Nugget, which is division to school. I
(35:58):
was wondering how much time out spend looking at lower
division prospects. Well, you, most teams besides like two in
the league go there. They're either involved with blessed Oh
shows you how long I've been out of the game.
There was like or like a National scouting Service I
forget the name of it. And you go to a meeting,
(36:19):
you know, and like after the draft, so usually drafts
in April, usually by the end of May, and you
go to this meeting for like four or five days
and they give you a book or like a pamphlet.
It's like a three ring binder. Hell now it might
be on iPads, I don't know, but it usually it
used to be in Marco Island is where we went
when we were in Philly, and most teams are there
(36:39):
and it's badass. You're right on the water. It's like
a sweet little vacation, and you go through all the
players in your area that a scout that works for
the service had gone through. Like if you have your
scout California, let's say you've got three states California, Oregon, Washington.
You go through every college I'm talking USC to you
(37:00):
See Davis, to Division three schools, and if they got
legit prospects, they write them down and so if there
is a sweet player at that school, like Adam Feeling,
you would know before the season starts. And because of
stats and stuff, you're keeping an eye on that stuff
in your area plus buzz just starts. You know, I
think the term like diamonds, I need to find a diamond.
(37:24):
That used to happen a lot in the seventies and
eighties in sports in general. Remember Blue Chips, the movie
with Shack and Penny Hardaway when Nick Nolty goes to
like to buy you and just shacks in there, you know,
playing on like that would hoop and it's It's still
one of my favorite movie scenes ever. Skinny Shack just
throwing alley oops, dunking, dunking on dudes, blocking shots. I
(37:46):
think sports used to be a lot like that, Like
a scout used to find, hey, hey, coach, I got
this guy here, Hey I got this guy there in
in pro basketball, football, and baseball. I think that's very,
very difficult now because the internet scouting sir versus now
for high school athletes has become such big business that
you just you're hearing about these guys at such a
(38:08):
young age that it's hard for guys to get under
the cracks. And in football, probably more than like in baseball,
a lot of guys playing the big leagues that went
to junior college. In basketball internationally, now the world so flat.
I would say, how many guys non Division one players
get drafted in the NBA. Not very many. In football,
(38:29):
you do get a lot of Nonpower five guys and
definitely some lower divisions, definitely Division one Double A right
North Dakota State where he's from. I went to cal Poly.
We've produced some NFL guys UC Davis. We have some
out West, but there's a lot in the Midwest and
the South. I think they play a pretty big role
in the draft. Are there gonna be a lot of
(38:49):
Division two in Division three guys drafted? No, it's just
not the case. Doesn't mean they can't necessarily play, but
you know, usually they're there for a reason. Who's the
best incoming offensive skill position player in your opinion, that's
a hell of a question. Listen, I like, if if
I know the guy can catch, and I don't know,
(39:10):
I'd have to text around. But I love Jonathan Taylor.
I think Jonathan Taylor's a stud. I like all three
wide receivers a lot. I like Jerry Judy, I like
Ceedee Lamb, and I like Henry Ruggs. Depending on what
my team needed, if I needed in a Marii Cooper
and Marvin Harrison route runner, I'm going Judy. If I
want a DeAndre Hopkins, those type guy, I'm going Ceedee Lamb.
(39:30):
Now you could argue when you and if I, if
I wanted to Sean Jackson speed demon, I'm going Rugs.
I think the thing if you're gonna pick one of
those three players, the guys that usually translate the best
are the Hopkins type guys, the physical players, the dudes
that make great contested catches. Now, you can argue that
the route runners can always get open, but sometimes and
(39:52):
they're hard to fail. The one thing is with the
Ceedee Lambs is they usually hit in the sense of
they're just gonna function the It's hard for Jerry Judy
to fail because you're getting open, but they can underachieve,
where the Rugs is probably your biggest swinging for the fences.
You could strike out or hit a home run. You know,
(40:12):
John Ross a couple of years ago was draft to
D eight. He's been a royal bust. Uh. You know
Marii Cooper is an underachiever. He still averages seventy catches,
a thousand yards and six touchdowns a year. So I
know people in Oklahoma they love Ceedee Lamb I think
when you look at Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley, his guys
to play for him what he asked of you. Like
(40:33):
their standards, there are sneaky pretty high. How many Oklahoma
guys over the last besides like Baker have failed And
I wouldn't call Baker a failure yet, But I'm just
saying coming to the league and played well. Mixing uh
Sterling Shepherd trying to think of a couple off the
top of my head. Obviously Kyler Murray, even Baker, and
he starts all the offensive linemen, look at Mark Andrews,
(40:55):
goes right to Baltimore and beats out the dude drafted
ahead of him. It's so you see these guys. Markey's
Brown was hurt last year in and out, but he's
gonna be a good player. These guys coming to the
NFL ready to play. I just I think see Lamb's
gonna be a really good player. Like I said, I
think I think he might be the first wide receiver drafted.
Big Packers fan here, do you think Devin Funches has
(41:16):
a chance to be an impact for free agent signing?
I feel like Rogers could elevate him. Also, what wide
receiver should they take in the first round. I would agree.
If you think about it, they've had some back shoulder
fade guys like James Jones had a lot of success there.
James Jones couldn't run. I saw I talked to James
Jones when I was at the Super Bowl. I love
James Jones, San Jose State guy. But when you have
(41:38):
an accurate quarterback that can just throw seeds on the
back shoulder stuff because Funches can't really run, so Canny
resurrect him. I mean when you say resurrect, if he
gets forty catches, that'd be pretty good. When you look
at wide receivers at the end of the first round,
I think the s U guy is really I you
is how you say his name, Mims. The Baylor kid
(41:58):
is very very interesting. Would a kJ Hammler, the guy
that can just fly from Penn State? Would he make
any sense? There? Is that too high, but I I
do think it's time for the Packers to start drafting
some offensive players for Aaron Rodgers. For the love of God,
I was wondering if you would break down the Pack
twelve for me hopefully this football season. Who is the
(42:20):
worst and best? Please go over the coaching changes. That's
a lot um. I would say the best team in
the Pack twelve going into the season is gonna be
organ They're returning a ton of guys. They're gonna have
a new quarterback, but their defense is basically all returning
their offensive skill guys should be back from injury, and
if their quarterback is just solid, they're really really good.
(42:42):
They host Ohio State Week two at in Eugene at
Austin Stadium. That's gonna be one of the biggest games
probably of the nonconference in the country. Uh that they
should be the team to beat. I don't really even
think there's a close second. I maybe a s U.
I mean, they're gonna return the quarterback who's got a
chance to be really really good. But it's gonna be interesting.
Like in college football. You know, the the off season
(43:05):
in college football is really big because, unlike the NFL,
you get to wear pads in practice, you do do
a lot of work the strength program for college guys,
unlike the NFL. I heard rich Richard Sherman say this
within the last month. He's like, you know, I do
most of my hardcore training, like leading up to training camp.
The off season is kind of when I relax. Now,
(43:26):
he's an older player. But in the NFL, what you
get in four or five years you have a specific regiment.
Do you know exactly what you're doing when you're a seventeen, eighteen,
nineteen year old kid at Colorado, at Alabama, at l
s U, at Washington wherever. Your growth as a human
is huge, putting on the muscle mask, going through the
(43:46):
intense training, and they're not gonna get that. I would
say the worst cal actually might be a sleeper to
their Their defense is really good. Return to quarterback Bill Musgrave,
the offensive coordinator, I would say the worst team in
the Pack twelve probably gonna be called RADO. I would
expect them to be really bad. My friends don't believe
Russell Wilson is a top five quarterback in the league.
(44:09):
I'm not sure how to convince them how good he is.
Can you discuss what NFL people see in his game
that the regular fan cannot. Well, if your friends don't
think Russell Wilson's a top five quarterback in the NFL,
I don't know what they're watching. Because he's easily a
top five quarterback in the NFL. He's probably a top
three quarterback in the NFL. You'd argue after last year,
(44:29):
you know him, Lamar and Mahomes by far the three
best quarterbacks in the league. And the difference is Lamar
Jackson can't win in the playoffs because he can't throw
first downs. So I can't put Lamar Jackson above Russell Wilson.
I know we got the MVP at great regular season.
Can you win a playoff game Russell camp and clearly
Mahomes can too. I don't know. He's just he's incredible.
(44:50):
He's one of the greatest playmakers we've ever seen. He's
one of the greatest scrambler and throwers we've ever seen.
He's one of the great carriers of a franchise we've
ever seen. He's one of the great deep ball throwers
we've ever seen. He's just a bona fide superstar. I
mean to me, he's he's just your no doubt about
it eye test guy. You watch a Russell Wilson game
(45:13):
and you just come away going, God, that number three,
that little quarterback Seattle has got is a baller. Okay,
we'll end on that. I hope everyone stays safe, keep
quarantining and so we can get the hell out of
this and UH got out of our houses sooner or later.
Keep your head up. We just gotta keep trucking. And
(45:33):
UH at least we got the draft not not too
far away, so but under two and a half weeks.
By the time here the second podcast the week by Friday,
will be under two weeks until the NFL Draft, So
I guess we've got something to look forward to. And
UH keep flattening that curve, baby, audios say, and
What is going on? Everybody? John Little Coop three in
out podcast. That's Me, That's the show. Back at it
again Monday afternoon, April six, recording. This means we're about
two and a half weeks away from a virtual NFL draft.
I got a bunch of thoughts on that I've texted
around the league. We had breaking news this morning. Roger
(00:32):
Goodell mandated it for the entire league. You know, you
had to have some uniformity. You couldn't have one team
doing this, one team doing that. Not not in these
times when you're not Some places aren't allowed to social gather,
so I don't know. In the South, I don't even
know if they have rules. The Saints were gonna do
it at a brewery. No, everyone has to be at
home individually. Gonna get complicated. We'll dive into Matt off
(00:54):
the top. Then we got some risers and followers, uh,
that are impacted by this corre own us. Some draft
players that I think have been impacted, obviously, some free agents,
some big picture thoughts just on the corona. Just some
things that have been helped during this time and may
gain an advantage, and some individuals or just big picture
things with the league that have been impacted because of
(01:16):
this coronavirus. And then of course what we do every
week and every show. Middlecoff mail Bag at John Middlecoff
is my Instagram and direct message is wide open. You
can slide in answer any question you want or ask
any question you want, and then you get an answered
here on the show. That's how we do are interacting.
You know, it's like the modern day phone calls for
(01:37):
a radio show. I've I've personally not a huge radio
phone call guy. Like if I'm listening to a host,
I come for them, not the Collers. But again that's
maybe more of a West Coast thing and more of
a New age thing. I know historically, you know the
frances Is the ROMs take a bunch of calls. I
used to like him when I was younger, can't stand
him now. And uh, but I do like interacting with people.
(01:59):
I just like it's it's a more controlled environment this way.
Plus it's hard to do phone calls as a podcast.
It's kind of the way we do it, the way
we interact here. Also, if you listen to the podcast
and like the podcast, I know a lot of you
guys listen through Colin's feed, but I also have a
three and out feed, So if you go there, if
you can leave a review on iTunes or Apple, I'd
(02:20):
greatly appreciate it. I know a lot of you have,
and I already appreciate it, but I'd appreciate it more
for people that like the show that you hit me
up on d M s or emails or tweets or whatever,
please leave a review. Be greatly uh we we we
would like that before we dive into the virtual draft there.
This weekend, Trump held a phone call with all the commissioners.
(02:43):
Of course, after it comes out that he's hoping that
they can get football in the fall, my timeline freaks out.
It does feel I know Colin talked about this on
Monday morning on his show. It's kind of weird. It
feels like a lot of media members are rooting for
the Corona in a weird way, not necessarily for to
you know, kill people or anything, but in the sense
of just to shut everything down for a while. Listen.
(03:04):
I don't judge anyone on words like the actions speak
louder so to say like yeah, we hope to have
football in the fall, to me, you should be able
to say that, is it gonna happen. No one knows.
I mean less than a month and a half ago.
I was at the combine, rubbing elbows, hugging people, and
now we've been quarantined for three weeks. Here's what I know.
I'm rooting for businesses football because if football is off,
(03:27):
that means the economy shut down. And if the economy
shut down for the next six eight months, we're in
a great depression. That's that's not a hot take, that's
a fact and check out. You might want to google
what depressions and recessions due to people. Most people I
know at this point they are following the rules in quarantine,
are much more nervous and scared of the economic impact
(03:50):
because they got their kids. Their kids aren't leaving. They're
all staying inside. There were Am I gonna lose my job?
Am I gonna be able to pay the rent? I
have to keep making these payments? How am I gonna survive?
Than they are of the corona and the media, and
I'm talking some of the sports media, definitely. Some of
the political media is so extreme with all this stuff.
We're all just trying to get by. Most people I
(04:10):
know following the rules, trying to do the right thing.
But you know what, we all want business to start
up again, whether that's in a month, whether that's two months,
whenever that is, that's what we should all be rooting for.
And let's call it what it is. The media tends
to be extreme in one way, kind of anti business,
and it feels like they like this chaos. I don't
my friends, I didn't. I don't have a journalism major.
(04:33):
I went to just I have a agg business major.
Most of my friends work normal jobs. This impacts them.
Some of them get laid off, some of them run
small businesses and losing their ass. Like that's not a
fun time, Like we all do you know how America
should be united right now, rooting to us to fix
this quarantine and make this go away so we can
(04:53):
just start living lives again. And sometimes it feels like
that's not the case, which has been baffling me. I
like Twitter, but Twitter has become these last two weeks
a very and it's always been kind of a weird place.
It's a bizarre, bizarre, uh kind of echo chambers the
wrong word, but just a just a place where hate
(05:16):
thrives and negativity thrives. It's it's baffling, it really is.
I actually thought, you know, we always hear everyone comes together,
and again it's social media. It's a small percentage of people.
Most people I talked to, you know, are staying up
beat as much as possible, but just want to do
the right things. So this ends. So whether football comes
back whenever, I don't know, O t A is probably gonna.
(05:38):
We all think, like the Masters, they all moved all
this stuff. We should be rooting for all this stuff
to eventually come back. And I think that's the message.
If you follow this rules, we can get come everything
come back. That's that should be the end goal here.
And sometimes it feels like if you're wrong, watch the
wrong political show or fallow the wrong person on online,
it's like they want us to be shut down for forever.
(06:00):
It's it's kind of bizarre. But let's start with the
virtual draft. And obviously Corona has forced the NFL's hand,
and there were stories. I think last week wasn't that
the Saints were gonna have a a draft, not a
draft party, but have their entire staff at a brewery.
Then different teams were thinking about, you know, working at
(06:22):
a hotel, just just different places. They couldn't work at
their facility. Once I saw that on this weekend, I
was having a few pops, you know, and I was like,
this is not gonna work out. You can't have one
team doing this, one team doing that, and then us
in California, the people in New York or some of
these states are you know, Pete Carroll and Seattle quarantined
at home. This is not an equal playing field. Yet
(06:45):
they're all supposed to follow the same rules. So Roger Goodell,
and I would imagine he was pressured by certain clubs.
You gotta have some uniformity here. We all should be
mandated do the same thing. So he mandated, you're all
doing the draft at home. And several things jump out
to me and I think we've realized for a while
it was gonna be virtual, like there was Vegas got
(07:05):
canceled a while back, every team, but we didn't know,
like you have to be at home. Now you wonder
like something, is everyone gonna follow the rule? How do
you mandate that? How can you really check? I don't know.
I'm sure some people are gonna break the rules, kind
of like quarantining. We're all supposed to quarantine right now,
I don't think everyone is. And here's the thing. Let's
(07:26):
start with this. When you have a draft room and
your draft information. When I was a West Coast Scout,
I input that information into the Philadelphia Eagles system. I
would imagine many of you's sales people. Uh, any business
you work in, right, your company usually has its own system,
so you put everything in there. Your company controls that. Well,
(07:49):
here's the problem with this, and usually it's just you
guys in the draft room all it's a controlled environment.
When you got everyone at home, it's no longer controlled.
So everything's got to be all for Zoom. Now we
got the Internet, so you can access your you know,
whatever team you work for, if you're the Patriot Scout
or you're a forty Scout or a Cardinal Scout, whatever,
you can access all that information. But then to tell
(08:11):
your general manager, let's say you're going over Zoom because
Zoom seems to be the hot thing that everyone's using.
Here's the problem. I don't know if you've been following
the news, Zoom has had a lot of security breaches,
and I would say this. Peter King wrote that people
in the league are nervous that other that teams will
hacken to other teams Zoom conferences. I actually think that
(08:33):
would be really difficult and you would need like some
extreme I T guys to figure out how to do that.
And Mid Corona, you're trying to run a draft. I
don't know if you're gonna waste too much time doing that,
but I do think there would be quote unquote hackers,
whether they're in America in the world the moment the
drafts going. You know that thirty two franchises are on
(08:55):
huge Zoom conferences, and some of those conversations might let's say,
between my head, my general manager, and the area scout,
tell me about this guy, and you'd go, well, Nick Saban,
Dabbo Sweeney, you know, uh, Mario Cristo Ball told me
this guy is a ship head, or let's just say
something like that, and and someone's hacked it in and
(09:16):
that goes viral. If I'm a team right now, why
am I comfortable going on Zoom? They're having breaches all
over the place. This is proprietary information. Where we're talking
about individuals, we're also talking about other individuals, be like
burning your sources. Can you imagine if some of these,
let's say, uh, like political stuff that's being written the
Washington Post, I had a zoom conference with all their
(09:39):
political people or the New York Times or whatever, and
they're talking about their sources and what they've heard, and
it just went viral. That wouldn't be good. So I
think those concerns are legitimate. I would say this if
I was a GM, how comfortable are we with if
I'm talking to Roger Goodell that our zoom conferences will
be secure? Can they guarantee that for us? Because if
(10:00):
they can't, I would think if I was a GM
about not doing any zoom, we would have my t
guy set up conference calls or some way on your
iPhone where you just do like I don't know if
you can do this ten way called twelve way call
and you're just on the phone with everyone, because the
zoom thing seems a little risky. It's one thing I
recorded on my other podcast. We had Hunter Mayhan on
(10:23):
he zoomed in boom boom recorded it's easy. You're seeing
all these you know, television shows, zoom. That's easy. It's
all public information. The draft is not a public information deal.
It's a lot of secretive information. It's a lot of
information that the the the college coaches that give you,
they trust you that it never gets out. And for
the most part, well maybe information does get out, the
(10:44):
source never gets out. That's where I would be very
nervous if I was a team an information about a player,
maybe a player on my own team. What if I'm
thinking about trading him and we're here's the reality ship
gets talked. I know the way two thousand twenty Hard Knocks,
you don't see anything. Remember back Hard Knocks twenty years
ago when you got legitimate inside personnel meetings and guys
(11:08):
are getting blasted. That's what we like because the moment
if that gets out somehow it's hacked and goes viral,
we're all retweeting it and we're all l O l
ng it. You know who would not be good for
the players who are being talked about. So that would
be my number one thing. How can we guarantee that
Zoom will be secure because they're having issues. So the CEO,
(11:28):
I think was on CNBCS like, we're doing everything possible
to figure this out. Well, the drafts in two and
a half weeks. Maybe we don't have enough time. And
in fairness to Zoom, I don't think Zoom realize I
don't know enough about their company, but the coronavirus was
gonna happen in America would be dependent on Zoom. Trades
a huge part of the NFL draft. Our trades and
(11:49):
a huge part of the NFL draft. Trades are dependent
on what players are being there. Unlike free agency, where
at the combine we can go would you be willing
to trade me the player for this pick or would
you be willing to trade me this player for this player?
And you can map stuff out so you know when
free agency happens, you already have trade talks that have
(12:09):
happened and it's already in motion. It's hard to have
those conversations. I looked it up. Last year. In the
first round, there were six trades. But here's the thing.
The first trade didn't happen until the tenth pick, and
it was the Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and
the Pittsburgh Steelers traded up for Devin Bush, the linebacking
from Michigan. I don't think if you're the Steelers, you're
(12:31):
having these conversations like you understand that Bush might be there.
Maybe you have some initial conversations about the tenth pick,
but you have those get in tents on draft day. Well,
trade talks usually involve multiple people, your general manager, your
head coach, your salary cap guy, your college scouting director.
(12:52):
It's easy when you're on the draft room. Well, if
you are on Zoom or you're you guys are all
on you know, an iPhone on a you know or
what I guess no one has like landlines, and you're
trying to streamline this process, it gets a little difficult.
One thing you'd probably have to do is maybe starting
next week, by the time the board is set, you're
(13:12):
gonna have to run some fake drafts and run a draft,
you know, maybe run like a three round draft, just
so you can feel out this process, because it is
gonna be really, really complicated people. And I've said this before.
I've argued for the NFL not to complain in the
sense of listen, this is the cards you're dealt. You
gotta play with the hand that's in your You know,
(13:34):
you got what you got. In a perfect world, you'd
love to get dealt you know, pocket aces. You know,
at this point in time, you got Delta two and
a four. It sucks, but this is this is the
reality here. And I go back and forth on this.
The one thing I always get back to is there
a company in America right now that is making some
of their most important hires. In the middle of Corona
(13:54):
in April, not one. You see what American businesses are doing.
They're firing people, they're people off their furlowing people. Yet
the NFL is making their most important highers right now,
or they will when the draft comes. Financial investments of
guaranteed cash to your first rounder. And for the Bengals,
for example, that number one picks pretty easy. They've probably
(14:15):
known for months. I would say most teams in the
top ten have a pretty good idea who's gonna be there.
But for every team, like pick twelve and beyond, it's
somewhat of a guessing game. You got an idea three
or four. But we see every year trades happen. How
do you conduct these trades real time? How do you
get the streamline the process of talking over the iPhone
(14:37):
if you're comfortable on zoom. I don't know if I
would be as a general manager again, that that would
be a little bit on the league. See if I
could work with Zoom and maybe get us some special
security ways to block it. I don't know. I don't
know enough about technology. I'd have to talk with my
T guy, but I would say there's a lot to
be learned there. And the the other thing that kind
(14:57):
of is highlighted is are there going to be more
busts in a draft than normally? And I don't think
there will be. Now there might be more guys that
are cut at the final cutdown after training camp that
normally would have made the team because in O T
A S or rookie minicamp they got to stand out.
Meaning by the time we got to training camp, those
(15:18):
guys were maybe instead of being with the threes or fours,
we're running with the two slash the ones. It's gonna
be harder than for those guys to make hey, especially
because in training camp this year, what are you gonna
be without? You're gonna be without all the spring reps.
So you're gonna be trying to get your starters and
the guys that you now are gonna play more reps.
(15:40):
So how does that fifth, six or seventh round pick
that in past years might ended up being a starter
or might have been the number one backup. Now that
guy might not get enough reps. They may not might
only have two or three preseason games. You may cut
players that you normally would have kept. You may not
have a guy back on your practice squad just because
of limited reps, or some teams will think big picture
(16:03):
and go, listen, we saw enough here. We're not gonna
get rid of this guy. We're gonna keep it even
if he's not ready. That's where I think it will
be pretty complicated. But the reality is we won't know
three or four years from now how it goes, because
what they say draft picks miss anyway. But to me,
it's like, how many did did higher percentage of third
fourth rounders not making in this draft than than the
(16:24):
previous five or six drafts. It'll be a long term study.
We won't know real time, but it's it's gonna be
wild and they're definitely gonna be some highlights of this
virtual draft. Okay, let's talk about some risers and some
followers in the in the post Corona world we're living
in because typically in free agency, the second tier guys
(16:47):
you can fly to. You you get your own doctors
and medical staff get to work on the players. Uh,
that clearly got shut down. Then during the draft process,
not only do you bring guys into your facility, but
an underrated part of the draft process that got wiped
out was team sending their coaches and executives to put
(17:11):
players through individual workouts. So if you were thinking, hey,
I kind of like this guy in the second but
maybe he's the first round talent, you send your running
back coach or d line coach, whoever, maybe an assistant director,
maybe your GM goes and you'll work him out, You
spend the day with him. Hell, you might take him
to dinner that night and you get a lot of
time with him. That's not happening. So basically, since three
(17:31):
weeks ago, everything's been on halt everything, and I think
it's impacted some individual players and just overall situations. Let's
start with my number one riser. During the season, I
talked to a lot of scouts that like Ceedee Lamb,
and I said, where do you think he's gonna go?
And most people I talked to I thought he was
gonna go in the twenties, and I kind of agreed,
(17:53):
and I like Ceedee Lamb. I think he's got a
chance to be like DeAndre Hopkins. But where was DeAndre
Hopkins once upon a time drafted? He was not a
top ten pick. I'm pretty sure I'm trying to look
it up right now. DeAndre Hopkins went at the end
of the first round. He was picked twenty seven, and
I thought that was kind of his cop, like that
(18:15):
type player. I'm pretty sure that Ceedee Lamb, when the
dust settles, is probably not making it past thirteen, and
there's a decent chance he's the first wide receiver off
the board. I would have thought that, you know, before Corona,
I didn't think that necessarily leaving the combine. I feel
like that's kind of the case right now. My number
(18:36):
one biggest loser. When I left the combine, I thought
that Jordan's Love was a lock. He was already a
lock first round pick. But I thought he was a
lock like top twelve pick. I don't know if he
is anymore. I thought a huge part of Jordan's Loves
draft hype slash success was gonna be in the thing
(18:58):
that I mentioned, and I opened this up about the
workouts when quarterback coaches and offensive coordinators and head coaches
went to Jordan's Love, whether he was at Utah or
Miami or wherever he was post combine and put him
through workouts, I think he would have shined. He has
the physical attributes, he has the big arm. His tape
(19:18):
was pretty crappy this year, though we can counter it
pretty easily new coach weird system. They tried to mesh
a couple of things. It didn't work. But when you
get a guy like him, who's kind of a raw product,
who's kind of like this guy that you think can
be something, personal workouts for guys like that really help,
and I think that would have put set in stone
(19:39):
he was gonna be a top fifteen pick because we've
seen the power of quarterbacks, the power of talent teams
overdraft that I'm not sure. I'm not saying he still
might not be, but I'm pretty confident that Jordan's love
has an opportunity now because of all this craziness and
because of all this unknown to just fall a little
bit in the draft. It won't shock me if he's
(19:59):
drafted in the twenties. Marcus Mariota. If you would have
told me that Marcus Mariota would have been the number
one backup chosen when free agency started. I don't know
if I would have believed you, but the way in
Corona everything happened with you couldn't have visits. The quarterback
Domino's kind of fell the Raiders. You know, if if
(20:21):
John Gruden, who has a twenty million dollar quarterback in
Derek Carr, wouldn't have paid Mariota the seven and a
half million dollars that's number one. He's the highest paid
backup right now in the NFL. Who else was paying
Mariota that much money, you know, especially at the time
when Cam Newton ultimately got cut yet Jamis Winston became
a free agent after Tom Brady went to Tampa. You
(20:43):
gotta have some Domino's fall, like I don't know if
Mariota his market would have been as strong now. Mariota
was got awful last year. By no means do I
think he stinks. He just had a bad year, lost
his confidence. They brought in Tanney Hill that you could
tell did the Did the coaching staff stop believing him?
I don't know. He was bad. The coaching staff was
(21:05):
looking in another directions, bad combination. But he has played
at a high level in previous seasons. He was a
high pick for a reason was he probably overdrafted looking back.
For sure, now he wasn't necessarily overdrafted on the time
of that draft, but just when you look back some
of his flaws, you know, in a perfect world, he's
probably like his true NFL talent probably should have been
(21:25):
like a second round pick. But I do believe that
Marcus Mariota can be a starting quarterback again in the future.
But if the Corona doesn't happen, and just some of
the weird stuff going on in the NFL, I don't know. Now,
John Gruden was gonna be there no matter what. But
seven and a half million dollars from Marcus Marriot, I
think he benefited from the corona. One one NFL quarterback
(21:47):
that has one million percent been impacted the most. I
would say no player in the NFL has been more
impacted by the coronavirus than Cam Newton because Cam Newton, listen,
He's had an up and down career, but he's had
way more ups than downs, and a couple of his
ups m VP of the league, being a Pro Bowl
level guy leading a team to a playoffs several times
(22:10):
when he's on being able to play with anyone he
would get a job immediately if medically he could check out.
But what's the big problem for Cam Newton. Your doctors,
your trainers can't get him medically right now that they're
they're not able to interact with him. If this process,
if we were just living in two thousand nineteen normal times,
(22:30):
I I just think it would be impossible for him
not to have a team April six. I think it's
absolutely impossible. Jamis Winston, maybe a guy like Jamis because
he's a little more polarizing he's been in some trouble,
might have to wait till after the draft. But I
just I can't see under any circumstances if Cam Newton's
a doctor could go he's healthy enough to sign a
(22:52):
team not signing him. Obviously there are impact of like
how much money does he think he's earned or I
mean think he's were how much does a team think
he's worth. They'd have to somewhat meet in the middle.
I don't know what his number would be. It would
probably be an incentive lace deal. Maybe you have to
sign a one year deal. You can't convince me though
that NFL teams he's can't freaking Newton. He's had more
(23:15):
than enough moments to get a job. And I do
understand you talk to people in the NFL. We don't
we don't know how a shoulder is. There are people
in the NFL right now that think his shoulder is
shot and shot might be strong, but just never gonna
be the same. And he's just they wouldn't touch him.
And I think that because last year the tape was
so bad and it was coming off the shoulder injury,
(23:39):
that it's freaking a lot of teams out and unless
they can get their hands, their doctor's hands on that shoulder,
he's in trouble. Big winner, I would say the biggest
winner right now is the NFL. Talked about it in
the opening that they've benefited a lot from the timing
of Corona. Their season was over, the Super Bowl just
happened to combine and had just happened. They can function,
(24:03):
whether you agree with it or not. You can have
free agency virtually, you can have the draft virtually, they're
going to You can't play the NBA season virtually, you
can't play Opening Day, virtually, you can't play the Masters virtually.
Either played or you don't. And all those got wiped
out for the NFL boom, everything stopped. Free agency. Here
(24:24):
we are. Everything still stopped. A month later, Boom Draft,
here we are, and they've benefited greatly. There are many
businesses besides, like the beer industry, the food industry. Some
of you guys working in specific industries probably add some that.
When I say the food industry, I don't say the
restaurant industry. I say the food industry, like Safe Way
(24:45):
and Save Martin, Albertson's in those stores. That are businesses
booming for them because we're all eaten at home NonStop.
But the NFL has just thrived because they've had inventory
for stuff happening that can just happen on social media,
where the other leagues had to shut down their product.
And then I would say, the biggest loser is going
(25:05):
to be the Goodell Hugs Forever. The NFL first round
and I got to go live to the event. It
was actually Cam Newton, Jere It was a great draft.
It's like Cam Newton, J. J. Watt, Julio, A. J. Green,
Alden Smith Von Miller. I mean it's it's actually one
of the great drafts of all time. That Star Study group. Also,
you got a throw in like Blaine Gabberton and I think, uh,
(25:27):
the quarterback from Washington's forgetting his name, oh, Jake Locker.
But it it had some stars and it's cool. I
mean that moment when your name gets called, especially once
we get past the first couple of picks, you don't
know who it's gonna be. And then they announced j. J. Watt,
you know, DeAndre Hopkins, Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes, blah blah
(25:49):
blah to a tongue of baloa, ceedee lamb, Jerry Judy.
Their lives have been made. They got drafted into the
NFL in the first round and they come out there
they give goodella hug. It is a cool moment. It
is a great event. It does not clearly huge ratings.
This one will probably be the highest rating one and
(26:09):
it's gonna kind of suck. It's gonna be Roger announcing
from his like living room. The Oakland Raiders have drafted
Jerry Judy, right, the Carolina Panthers have drafted Isaiah Simmons,
and again we're gonna make do the best we can
because these are only options. But that's that's a huge
moment that sucks for the kids, especially the high the
(26:30):
first round guys. They're gonna miss out on a once
in a lifetime opportunity. You don't get to make that up.
Maybe next year when we're back to normal, all the
first rounders can announce the pick. I don't know, Maybe
we can do something with them to involve them. But
the draft was also gonna be in Vegas. They were
gonna have at was it the Blaggio was the Blaggio? Yeah,
(26:52):
with the water and they were gonna have a stage
on the water, players coming out on a boat. It
was gonna be insane, was gonna be so cool. It
was gonna be one of the most outrageous things any
sports league has ever done. It was like w W
E meets the NFL in Vegas and they had to
cancel it, and that there's no way around it. That sucks. Okay,
(27:16):
let's go Middlecoff mail back at John Middlecoff. Got a
lot of questions at John middlecoff Instagram d m s
slide right in give it a follow if you like, uh,
post do some hits of stories. I need to start
posting a little bit more. But we're a on quarantine,
Like what am I gonna take pictures of? Hey? John
pod is pretty good sarcasm. What better time than this bleep?
(27:38):
Agree to give us your all time eleven on offense
and defense. Maybe even throwing a kicker and punter would
be cool. Cheers from Austria. Wow, okay, punter. I'm going
Ray guy just because I like him and when he
got introduced into the Hall of Fame, I saw a
football live it was just I like that guy. Kicker.
I'll probably go Tucker offense, I'd go my my personal
(28:02):
I mean, I fell in love with football, Steve Young,
but I think my favorite quarterback ever, like I love Brady,
I love Manning, but just a guy that was, like
you know, and I kind of hated the Packers, but
I love this guy was far I mean I far
be just if I just had in his peak to
watch a game. He's what I like to watch. Running
(28:23):
back beat Barry Sanders tight end, probably be Gronk, but
you know, Kittles moving up the list, I'll go Moonio's uh,
let's let's throw it back to a career that was
cut short. But Selly. Let's go Larry Allen my center
because when I was at Fresno State, he spoke to
the team and this guy was the baddest m effort,
(28:45):
even if like he could barely walk. He was tiny
because his back was all shoddy. It looked like five
ten Jim Otto, complete badass. Let's go Steve Hutchinson wide receiver,
Jerry Rice, Randy Moss. Let's go defense D line. We'll
go Reggie White. What are we gonna run up? What's
(29:05):
run of three? Four? So I get some outside back. Now,
I was round a four three. Let's go Reggie White.
Uh D tackles. I'll go. I'll go to a little
new school. I'll go Aaron Donald I met. I didn't
meet him. I just stood next to him at Starbucks
of the Combine, and I just always liked this guy.
John Randall, badass, other defensive end. This guy was a
Super Bowl m v P. That's gonna be personal. I
(29:27):
put a lot of money on the Broncos because I
just I didn't think the Panthers gonna win, and Von
Miller won the Super Bowl m v P. So I'm
gonna put him on there. I know technically it's an
outside linebacker, but he's a hybrid. We'll go Lawrence Taylor,
middle linebacker. I'm a sucker for this guy. Patrick Willis. Uh,
you know, I think Pete Navarro Bowman again sucker for
these two players. Bowman willis my favorite inside linebacking Dooever,
(29:50):
I think both of them could have played will Sam
Um Mike. You know, we'll do whatever you ask him
to do. I mean they're probably you can put Ray Lewis.
You know younger Ray Lewis, he could really fly. Or
Locker was probably a true Mike, but he he was
so athletic in his prime he could do it all again.
Dating myself a little bit like Mike Singletary. I didn't
(30:10):
really watch him play. Corner Dion Sanders, safety, ed Reid,
Rod Woodson, other corner Reevus. Also, I'm a soccker for Sherman.
Sherman make my team, so that's offense, defense, my kickers, coach. Uh,
you know that, I'll go Walsh. I'll go Walsh just
(30:31):
because Walsh was a badass. That's a good question. Not
that's not bad. Off top of my head, throw a
little squad together, I mean you probably could do. Probably
missing some guys slot receiver, slot receiver, I'd go a
couple of tight ends. I'd go like Gronk and who's
like a great tight end from the two thousand's trying
(30:52):
to think, I don't even know you're not thinking Street
during quarantine. Uh love your takes. Two questions. Two questions
on arm strength. Football personalities talk about arm strength all
the time, but almost as if if it's a if
it's a static and can't improve throughout college or in
the NFL. Can quarterbacks improve their arm strength or are
(31:14):
they generally always gonna have about the same range. I think,
for the most part, since I've really been watching this
stuff critically, I'd say once I got into Fresno State,
no way, you really started watching guys, and I saw
a lot of guys that played in college or in
high school film like Matt Barkley, and trying to think
of some of the West Coast quarterbacks that made into
the pros. I saw Derek Carr in college. I mean,
(31:36):
Derek Carr's arm has been really strong since high school.
Those are two guys that jump to mind. I don't know.
Barkley didn't really make it, but he stayed a long time.
You know. Aaron Rodgers, I would say, is somewhat of
an outlier. His arm got dramatically stronger. I think Brady's
arm improved, But think about most guys in the league,
like Drew Brees's arm never got strong. He works his
ass off, Payton's never got strong. Rivers never get strong.
(31:59):
I think it's a little bit like a pitcher. It
would be interesting to talk to a baseball pitcher about this,
especially a good one. Can can your arm strength get
that much stronger? You know, if you're like a starting pitcher,
you kind of throw what you throw. Just think out
of the guys whoever your favorite baseball team is. For
the most part, once a guy gets to the big leagues,
really when he's younger, is gonna be as hard as
(32:20):
he ever throws. Then it goes down. I think football players,
for the most part, it doesn't improve that much. Can
you break the current NFL starters into tears of arms?
Frank is the other part of the question. Stafford Mahomes Alan, thanks, John, Yeah,
I would say, off the top of my head, the
five best arms in the league. Mahomes Stafford jump right
(32:41):
off the page. Josh Allen for sure. Uh, Rogers used
to have just a howitzer. I don't think it's quite
as strong, but it's still pretty damn good. And when
he wants to let it rip. He he can go.
Lsburg Lamar Cam Cam used to be big with a show.
Older's all messed up. Brady dot as much. Breeze, No Dak,
(33:03):
no DeShawn, no Jimmy No. Chargers don't have a quarterback
golf No Eli's gone, uh, Patriots on the quarterback, Kirk Cousins, Nort,
Carson Wentz, you know, Carson Wentz, Mahomes, Stafford Rogers, Josh
(33:23):
Allen Rogers used to be a lead. I just you know,
at thirty six, I don't think he quite spins it
like he used to, but he's still upper echelon. Then
I think there's just a group of guys like Russell Wilson.
You know, it's just not in the top tier. But
he's as good as anyone. He needs to let her rip,
you know, Brady. I still don't think when Brady has
(33:44):
time in the pocket and sets his feet and throws
a dart, he can throw it as well as anybody.
Deshaun Watson sneaky doesn't have that great of an arm.
I mean it's solid. You know who's underrated arm strength?
Kyler Murray, Kyler Murray. When he lets it rip, you're
like I remember watching them like by the end of September.
My take on Kyler was, this guy is not gonna suck.
(34:08):
I don't know, it's you know, it's out of his control.
How good his team is is I mean, Vance Joseph
is their defensive coordinator. They're awful. His coach has never
coached in the NFL. It's lots out of his control,
but just his pure talent is like damn. I think
some of the younger guys, Jamie's okay, Donald, you know, okay,
Josh Rosen actually was pretty solid, but he's never gonna
(34:31):
I mean, is Josh Rosen close to being out of
the league. Baker's okay, Lamar's solid, Lamar's actually I'd say
gotten a little better. Uh. Derek Carr actually has a
pretty good arm. It was funny. He gets kind of
knocked for being a checkdown guy, but his arm strength
actually is pretty good. Found you a few months back
(34:52):
on Colin's podcast. Do you think that Bill Belichick tanks
this season, drafts Lawrence, then surrounds him with weapons and
turns into another ten to twelve year tend to twenty
your reign. Yeah, I mean, I think that's They're not
gonna tank their team is too good, that their defense
is too good. Now I've seen I don't know if
it's quite Reddit or just some Internet rumors. Could Detroit
(35:15):
trade I think the Patriots have what do they have?
Twenty two three? Somewhere in the early twenties, would they
trade all the way back to three? Let's say the
Patriots like twa would you trade them three for that pick?
Stephen Gilmore? And like a second Stephon Gilmore was Defensive
Player of the Year and he's under contract and they're
trying to win now, just throwing out there. I saw
(35:37):
it again. Not I don't. I wouldn't say it's a
credible source, but it was enough that I was like, uh,
you know, it might be something there. I really enjoy
the listeners show. I go to a Minnesota State University,
man man Cato, the school Adam Thland went to, Well, Good,
Little Good, Little Nugget, which is division to school. I
(35:58):
was wondering how much time out spend looking at lower
division prospects. Well, you, most teams besides like two in
the league go there. They're either involved with blessed Oh
shows you how long I've been out of the game.
There was like or like a National scouting Service I
forget the name of it. And you go to a meeting,
(36:19):
you know, and like after the draft, so usually drafts
in April, usually by the end of May, and you
go to this meeting for like four or five days
and they give you a book or like a pamphlet.
It's like a three ring binder. Hell now it might
be on iPads, I don't know, but it usually it
used to be in Marco Island is where we went
when we were in Philly, and most teams are there
(36:39):
and it's badass. You're right on the water. It's like
a sweet little vacation, and you go through all the
players in your area that a scout that works for
the service had gone through. Like if you have your
scout California, let's say you've got three states California, Oregon, Washington.
You go through every college I'm talking USC to you
(37:00):
See Davis, to Division three schools, and if they got
legit prospects, they write them down and so if there
is a sweet player at that school, like Adam Feeling,
you would know before the season starts. And because of
stats and stuff, you're keeping an eye on that stuff
in your area plus buzz just starts. You know, I
think the term like diamonds, I need to find a diamond.
(37:24):
That used to happen a lot in the seventies and
eighties in sports in general. Remember Blue Chips, the movie
with Shack and Penny Hardaway when Nick Nolty goes to
like to buy you and just shacks in there, you know,
playing on like that would hoop and it's It's still
one of my favorite movie scenes ever. Skinny Shack just
throwing alley oops, dunking, dunking on dudes, blocking shots. I
(37:46):
think sports used to be a lot like that, Like
a scout used to find, hey, hey, coach, I got
this guy here, Hey I got this guy there in
in pro basketball, football, and baseball. I think that's very,
very difficult now because the internet scouting sir versus now
for high school athletes has become such big business that
you just you're hearing about these guys at such a
(38:08):
young age that it's hard for guys to get under
the cracks. And in football, probably more than like in baseball,
a lot of guys playing the big leagues that went
to junior college. In basketball internationally, now the world so flat.
I would say, how many guys non Division one players
get drafted in the NBA. Not very many. In football,
(38:29):
you do get a lot of Nonpower five guys and
definitely some lower divisions, definitely Division one Double A right
North Dakota State where he's from. I went to cal Poly.
We've produced some NFL guys UC Davis. We have some
out West, but there's a lot in the Midwest and
the South. I think they play a pretty big role
in the draft. Are there gonna be a lot of
(38:49):
Division two in Division three guys drafted? No, it's just
not the case. Doesn't mean they can't necessarily play, but
you know, usually they're there for a reason. Who's the
best incoming offensive skill position player in your opinion, that's
a hell of a question. Listen, I like, if if
I know the guy can catch, and I don't know,
(39:10):
I'd have to text around. But I love Jonathan Taylor.
I think Jonathan Taylor's a stud. I like all three
wide receivers a lot. I like Jerry Judy, I like
Ceedee Lamb, and I like Henry Ruggs. Depending on what
my team needed, if I needed in a Marii Cooper
and Marvin Harrison route runner, I'm going Judy. If I
want a DeAndre Hopkins, those type guy, I'm going Ceedee Lamb.
(39:30):
Now you could argue when you and if I, if
I wanted to Sean Jackson speed demon, I'm going Rugs.
I think the thing if you're gonna pick one of
those three players, the guys that usually translate the best
are the Hopkins type guys, the physical players, the dudes
that make great contested catches. Now, you can argue that
the route runners can always get open, but sometimes and
(39:52):
they're hard to fail. The one thing is with the
Ceedee Lambs is they usually hit in the sense of
they're just gonna function the It's hard for Jerry Judy
to fail because you're getting open, but they can underachieve,
where the Rugs is probably your biggest swinging for the fences.
You could strike out or hit a home run. You know,
(40:12):
John Ross a couple of years ago was draft to
D eight. He's been a royal bust. Uh. You know
Marii Cooper is an underachiever. He still averages seventy catches,
a thousand yards and six touchdowns a year. So I
know people in Oklahoma they love Ceedee Lamb I think
when you look at Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley, his guys
to play for him what he asked of you. Like
(40:33):
their standards, there are sneaky pretty high. How many Oklahoma
guys over the last besides like Baker have failed And
I wouldn't call Baker a failure yet, But I'm just
saying coming to the league and played well. Mixing uh
Sterling Shepherd trying to think of a couple off the
top of my head. Obviously Kyler Murray, even Baker, and
he starts all the offensive linemen, look at Mark Andrews,
(40:55):
goes right to Baltimore and beats out the dude drafted
ahead of him. It's so you see these guys. Markey's
Brown was hurt last year in and out, but he's
gonna be a good player. These guys coming to the
NFL ready to play. I just I think see Lamb's
gonna be a really good player. Like I said, I
think I think he might be the first wide receiver drafted.
Big Packers fan here, do you think Devin Funches has
(41:16):
a chance to be an impact for free agent signing?
I feel like Rogers could elevate him. Also, what wide
receiver should they take in the first round. I would agree.
If you think about it, they've had some back shoulder
fade guys like James Jones had a lot of success there.
James Jones couldn't run. I saw I talked to James
Jones when I was at the Super Bowl. I love
James Jones, San Jose State guy. But when you have
(41:38):
an accurate quarterback that can just throw seeds on the
back shoulder stuff because Funches can't really run, so Canny
resurrect him. I mean when you say resurrect, if he
gets forty catches, that'd be pretty good. When you look
at wide receivers at the end of the first round,
I think the s U guy is really I you
is how you say his name, Mims. The Baylor kid
(41:58):
is very very interesting. Would a kJ Hammler, the guy
that can just fly from Penn State? Would he make
any sense? There? Is that too high, but I I
do think it's time for the Packers to start drafting
some offensive players for Aaron Rodgers. For the love of God,
I was wondering if you would break down the Pack
twelve for me hopefully this football season. Who is the
(42:20):
worst and best? Please go over the coaching changes. That's
a lot um. I would say the best team in
the Pack twelve going into the season is gonna be
organ They're returning a ton of guys. They're gonna have
a new quarterback, but their defense is basically all returning
their offensive skill guys should be back from injury, and
if their quarterback is just solid, they're really really good.
(42:42):
They host Ohio State Week two at in Eugene at
Austin Stadium. That's gonna be one of the biggest games
probably of the nonconference in the country. Uh that they
should be the team to beat. I don't really even
think there's a close second. I maybe a s U.
I mean, they're gonna return the quarterback who's got a
chance to be really really good. But it's gonna be interesting.
Like in college football. You know, the the off season
(43:05):
in college football is really big because, unlike the NFL,
you get to wear pads in practice, you do do
a lot of work the strength program for college guys,
unlike the NFL. I heard rich Richard Sherman say this
within the last month. He's like, you know, I do
most of my hardcore training, like leading up to training camp.
The off season is kind of when I relax. Now,
(43:26):
he's an older player. But in the NFL, what you
get in four or five years you have a specific regiment.
Do you know exactly what you're doing when you're a seventeen, eighteen,
nineteen year old kid at Colorado, at Alabama, at l
s U, at Washington wherever. Your growth as a human
is huge, putting on the muscle mask, going through the
(43:46):
intense training, and they're not gonna get that. I would
say the worst cal actually might be a sleeper to
their Their defense is really good. Return to quarterback Bill Musgrave,
the offensive coordinator, I would say the worst team in
the Pack twelve probably gonna be called RADO. I would
expect them to be really bad. My friends don't believe
Russell Wilson is a top five quarterback in the league.
(44:09):
I'm not sure how to convince them how good he is.
Can you discuss what NFL people see in his game
that the regular fan cannot. Well, if your friends don't
think Russell Wilson's a top five quarterback in the NFL,
I don't know what they're watching. Because he's easily a
top five quarterback in the NFL. He's probably a top
three quarterback in the NFL. You'd argue after last year,
(44:29):
you know him, Lamar and Mahomes by far the three
best quarterbacks in the league. And the difference is Lamar
Jackson can't win in the playoffs because he can't throw
first downs. So I can't put Lamar Jackson above Russell Wilson.
I know we got the MVP at great regular season.
Can you win a playoff game Russell camp and clearly
Mahomes can too. I don't know. He's just he's incredible.
(44:50):
He's one of the greatest playmakers we've ever seen. He's
one of the greatest scrambler and throwers we've ever seen.
He's one of the great carriers of a franchise we've
ever seen. He's one of the great deep ball throwers
we've ever seen. He's just a bona fide superstar. I
mean to me, he's he's just your no doubt about
it eye test guy. You watch a Russell Wilson game
(45:13):
and you just come away going, God, that number three,
that little quarterback Seattle has got is a baller. Okay,
we'll end on that. I hope everyone stays safe, keep
quarantining and so we can get the hell out of
this and UH got out of our houses sooner or later.
Keep your head up. We just gotta keep trucking. And
(45:33):
UH at least we got the draft not not too
far away, so but under two and a half weeks.
By the time here the second podcast the week by Friday,
will be under two weeks until the NFL Draft, So
I guess we've got something to look forward to. And
UH keep flattening that curve, baby, audios say, and
Host
John Middlekauff
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