April 16, 2025 • 16 mins
Mike Payton of A to Z Sports joins the show to further discuss the speculation surrounding a potential Jameson Williams trade, and also preview what the Lions should target in the NFL Draft.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Still a bit of ways away from the NFL Draft,
and that's fine.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Doesn't mean that you can't speculate.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
It doesn't mean that you can't sit there and project
what could be, not with just the draft picks, but
with the players who are currently on this Lion's team.
And tell you what, Mike Payton isn't afraid of it.
He's from A to E Sports. You fall him on
Twitter at A to Z Underscore Payton a t Z
(00:27):
Underscore Payton joins us here on this Wednesday morning.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Mike, thanks for the time. We appreciate it. Welcome to
the program.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
How are you good, Matt you.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Hey, I'm doing great. Keep up the great work man,
really good stuff. I want to get to the draft,
but first, you know, it gained a lot of traction
what you recently posted, and that's just the possibility that
Jamison Williams might be traded from the Lions. I understand it.
In fact, I said it last year that it wouldn't
surprise me and I would almost encourage it. Why do
(00:58):
you think that's a possibility.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, it really, you know, it comes down to just
dollars and cents at the end of the day, and
you don't you obviously don't want to lose a guy
like Jameis Williams because as we both know, he can.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Be a game changer.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
But you have to pay Brian branch at Kirbye Joseph
to top of the top of the market money. They're
probably gonna be the two highest paid safeties in the league.
You're probably gonna have the highest paid edge rusher at
Aiden Hutchinson's highest paid tight end, and Sam Report a
highest paid running pack at Jamior Gibbs. You need, you
gotta have money to do all that. And while you
(01:33):
know it's so possible to do all that with Jamison Williams,
you're looking at a guy in JMO who's probably, if
he has a great twenty twenty five, could get upwards
of thirty million dollars a year. The receiver position is
a very very expensive thing to pay for, and if
you are able to move off of anybody to save
(01:55):
any type of money, this is kind of your chance
to do that, and lotients have kind of showed some
interest in possibly doing that with bringing in Texas receiver
Matthew Golden, who has a lot of parallel with Williams.
So it kind of seems like maybe they might be
thinking about it, maybe not right now, maybe in next year.
(02:16):
But you know, if they do it now, there's a
lot of benefits.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, I think you're dead on. I think it's logical thinking.
I have to remind people, as good as Kansas City was,
they did move on from Tyreek Hill and they were
still successful. Does that mean most people should or could
expect that a wide receiver might be a first round
choice for them or are you looking at it as
(02:40):
a possible early round selection in general?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah, I mean it's really going to, you know, depend
on how the board falls. I think if they could
get a guy like Matthew Golden or you know, Tetro
McMillan from Arizona something like that, like that's obviously going
to change the way that they that they view the
rest of the draft. You know, it's going to be
hard to get at least what of like McMillan is
(03:06):
probably not going to be at twenty eight, but Golden
has a really good shot of being there. And if
he is there, and if they really liked what they
saw and they like how they can you know, essentially
store a lot of money for the future by taking
this guy, then I think there's a really good shot
they do it.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Mike Peyton from A to Z sports as whether it's
here on exes and bros follow them on Twitter at
A t o Z underscore Peyton, when you look at
you did a nice job of breaking down all the
different positions that they have paid. And we didn't even
mention Penny Sewel. We didn't mention Jared Goff either too
highly paid at their positions. How realistic is it that
(03:46):
Detroit can afford all of them? I'm not even sure
they can afford the two safeties, the tight end and
the running back at the rates that they're playing, And
that can be a good problem to have, But I
think it's a problem.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, I mean it's it's not going to be easy.
It's certainly possible that you could find a way to
make all this happen, but without sacrifice. Like, I just
don't see how you do it, you know, whether it's
you have one of these guys be the odd man out,
or you have to lose somebody you know that you
already love on this team. It's hard to do it,
(04:20):
but it can happen. But again, like these guys are
you know, I think Lions fans kind of look at
them like, hey, they're good, but they don't maybe realize
how good they are in the sense of the league
in a hole, like are some of the best players
in the entire NFL. They're all very young, and if
(04:40):
the Lions don't pay the top of the league money,
somebody else totally would. So that's that's what you battle with.
These guys are There's not going to be a hometown discount.
As much as you want it to be, Ayden Hutchinson,
some of these guys, it's just not going to happen.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, they're going to learn from what Carlton Davis said
last year. I mean Carlton Davis said, you know, he
took the hometown discount for Tampa. He wasn't going to
do it again and that's why he moved on. It's
a really good point, and I think it's a good
problem to have. On the other hand, I think it's
also what prevented them from dipping into a deeper trade
market for one of the bigger names last year at
(05:16):
the defensive end position. Am I off base?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
There?
Speaker 3 (05:20):
No, don't don't. I don't think so at all. You know,
you gotta do what you gotta do, and and everybody
would have loved Miles Garrett and Max Crosby, and I
know the Lions called on those guys.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
But Trey Hendrickson, Yeah, Trey Hendrickson.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
But those deals, I mean, they just shift what the
Lions are able to do with the guys that they
already have, just dramatically. And while you maybe might get
a super Bowl out of that, which is what everybody want,
I think the Lions want multiple super Bowls.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, I got to get there first.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Mike, you deal with this all the time where people
say I would go draft this guy, and it's an
emotional response I understand, but oftentimes it's linked to something
of need. What is Brad Holmes's philosophy in your mind?
And where does that line up for this year's draft,
for this team this year, do you think?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Well? Brad said it in a number of different ways,
and he said it again at the combine. We are
not indeed spased drafting team. We just go out and
get the guy that best fits us. And that's what
the Lions are. That's why they're so hard to predict,
and that's why you know, every year we're shocked at
something that they do. Last year was kind of easy
because you knew they wanted a quarterback really bad and
(06:37):
it just kind of fell that way. But you know,
this year, it could be an edge rusher in the
first round, could be an offensive lineman, could be a receiver.
It just really depends on how that board falls and
if one of these guys fall their way. But I
do know that they find the trenches to be very
important to them, So I would think that they would
(07:00):
be favoring edge or offensive line over anything at twenty eight.
And if somebody falls, I mean, I think they're they're
obviously going to go that route.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
What they weren't afraid to move on from Carlton Davis,
they weren't afraid to move on from Jonah Jackson.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Who do you think is the next guy they move
on from?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
You know, in terms of big players, you know, I
don't know if they're gonna I don't know if there's
that guy this year. I think I think you're looking
at more of the little thing to say. I mean,
Hendon Hooker, I think is somebody that could potentially be
moved relative relatively soon. I just look at you know,
he's twenty, he's gonna be twenty eight years old this season.
(07:43):
It's very clear at this point he's he's not the
successor to Jared Goff.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Why why? Why is that?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I'm glad you bring that up, Mike, I really am,
because that's where that was literally my next question about
Hendon Hooker.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
You know, you've been around long enough.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
That's like the most popular position in the entire city,
you know, the backup quarterback. Why hasn't it worked and
how quickly do you think they could move on?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You're not getting anything for him?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Okay, I mean these people who think that they're going
to get a high draft pick for him, it's just
not happening. Guy doesn't take any snaps. But why hasn't
it worked out for him? And how quickly might you
be able to replenish or at least bring somebody in
to compete with him?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, I think it's just, you know, it's a time thing.
Like I said, it could be twenty eight next year.
Like that is that just puts him really behind the
eight ball. He missed his entire rookie season, you know,
got thrown in this year, and like all summer long,
they essentially told us they didn't feel he was ready
yet they were thinking about carrying three quarterbacks and they
might have done that had Mate sunfelt not so bad.
(08:46):
And then as the season progresses there there's rumors that
they're thinking about Daniel Jones after he got released from
the Giants. And then they find Teddy Bridgewater out of
retirement to go right ahead of Hooker for the playoffs,
because again they just did not feel like he was ready.
And then this year they signed Kyle Allen to be
(09:08):
with him for quarterback too. I just don't I just
don't see him being quite ready to play in it.
And when you see it on the field, you could
see it. You know, he struggles with timing, he struggles
with you know, reading the field. It's just it's, you know,
you hate that it's not going to work out, but
it's probably not going to work out.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
It's a It really is amazing, isn't it how quickly
things can change. That The optimism was incredible for him.
You know, I think most people would say, look, that
was a good draft pick. I said it for sure.
But it's such a different level, isn't it. Mike, The
level of the NFL, and especially at that position, to
(09:50):
try and understand coverages, the speed of the game. It
really is one of the toughest spots in all of sports.
And it just goes to show you that it's not
so he's he's turning a page. There's much more than
we realize to try and get used to something like that,
isn't it?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Oh absolutely ed? And I mean that's the thing that
you see on the on the field when you watch
if it's a process takeing s he's either holding onto
the ball too long and taking a sack, or he's
trying to get rid of it too fast and he's
throwing a pick. It's just the game is so much
faster in the NFL that it isn't in college, you know,
and it's already really fast there.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, you tweeted this out just not too long ago,
within the last half hour, and people can follow you
a to z underscore Payton. The draft is about a
week away. Before then, we're going to profile some players
that make the most sense. Your first player is a
guy I absolutely love. And I know a lot of
people don't watch, you know, some of the lower levels
(10:48):
of college football. You and I do. We're dumb like that,
But you like Gray Zabel at least as a profile
as a possibility. A guy can play center, he can
play guard. You could throw him out of tackle as well.
But he's considered the number one center, believe it or
not by some boards. What do you like most about
this behemoth of an offensive lineman and how quickly he
(11:10):
should be able to come in and step in and help.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Well, I mean you just said it right there. It's
the versatility. It's the ability to say, hey, go start
at guard your rookie year. He could probably you know,
have a good chance of supplanting Graham glass Cow right away,
and then you know you have him played there for
a little while, and then when rag now is ready
to retire, he can move into that center spot and
(11:34):
you can you build around him. He just has that
type of mentality and that type of play style where
you know he's a bruising run blocker, really solid pass blocker,
doesn't allow a lot of sacks. I think he allowed
just one sack last year. A ton of pressures like
this guy is if you're if you're looking to build
an offensive line, if if the Lions were a bear
(11:58):
offensive line and not the guys that they are already have,
this is a guy I would start with this is,
you know, I'm not going to say he's been a
Sewel level player, but like he's a great player that
you could start your build around and offensive line with.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
He's a plug and play guy, right, He's a plug
and play you draft him. And I don't know what
your philosophy is. Mine has always been this, with the
exception of one, maybe two positions, my first three picks,
first three rounds, they should be starters for me. Now,
if it's quarterback or a cornerback, I think those are
the most difficult positions to transition to from college to
(12:35):
pro and I would give them a little bit more leeway,
especially at the quarterback position, but I think they should
be starters.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
What's your philosophy on that?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, I mean if that's you know, I think that's
kind of the normal draft ideal that you're looking for.
But I think with the where the Lions are at,
they're just such a stack roster at this point that
you would hope that your first three guys would be
prime time players that could come in and play right away,
But more more so, they're probably going to be you know,
(13:06):
one guy that comes in it plays right away. And
the rest are solid debts, guys that maybe can grow
into a starting role as time goes on, or you
lose some guys, you know, with big contracts. But I
think that you know, the lines are looking for players
that could play and fit their ideals, fit their culture,
and you know, but I don't think they're looking for
(13:28):
like the starting quarterback or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
No, no, no, But I would argue, if you think
he could fill in, if you think a guy like
Zabel could fill in for Graham Glasgow, what do you
do at right guard? If you happen to, you know,
take on your philosophy of the jameson William idea, and
you got a wide receiver in the top three rounds,
(13:51):
he would be a key contributor right away. And if
you've got a defensive end somewhere in the first three picks,
he would be at least a rotational player with Marcus
dav Important Derek Barnes. So I think that's where I
was going with it. But you mentioned him taking over
for a maybe supplanning a guy like Graham Glasgow, What
do you do at right guard? Or do you think
that's already been decided?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well, it seems like they're going with Christian Mahogany there,
and last year when he filled in, I mean he
just kind of took to it like a fish of water.
It looked really good. I think they saw enough to
where they feel confident he could be that starting right guard.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Okay, so you're comfortable with that, and obviously they're comfortable
well enough with it as well. It's a good thing, man.
It's a lot of depth there that's always helpful. What
will be most important as they look for the draft
before we let you go? What will be most important
as they view everything and knowing that they take the
(14:48):
best available player, not by position, but what would you
like them to address? What do you think the needs
are this team will have as you get ready for
the draft next week in Green Bay?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah, I think I want the same thing that everybody
else wants, is you know, you want somebody opposite Aden
Hutchinson that you know can be their long term An
offensive line lineman would be great. I like Gray's abel
a lot, and if they went with that pick, it
would be awesome. But at the same time, I feel
like they're pretty set there at the moment. They could
be okay, if they needed to have somebody who maybe
(15:22):
took a little bit of time to take over a
starting a role there. But okay, Edge Rusher, I think
is what you need. It's where you got to go.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
It'd be great if James Pearce fell to him, or
Michael Williams or somebody like that. You said on your
Twitter feed that you're going to profile some players? How
many players will you profile? As people follow you on
X and people.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Can do that?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
A to is the underscore payton as they follow you?
How many players can they expect to see you kind
of handicap as a possibility as a Detroit Lion.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I'm looking at right now, I'm going to do five,
and then next week I might dig it to a
couple other ones as well.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Well, beautiful, all right, look forward to that. I really
enjoyed having you. I know you're a big basketball fan.
You got the Pistons or Nicks, and then how many
games in the first round?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Give me Pistons and six? Can't wait? I just cannot
wait to start watching these kids.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, are you going to game six?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Is that why you wrote full Pistons versus Nicks first
round schedule?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Hello?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Game six? Is that why?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
You're going to.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Yeah, the original plan was to go to Game three,
but that's obviously night one of the drafts, so do that.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
That's bad scheduling, all right, good luck to you, have fun, Mike.
Don't be a stranger. We appreciate the time very much.
Keep up the great work.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Absolutely thanks Matt,
Still a bit of ways away from the NFL Draft,
and that's fine.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Doesn't mean that you can't speculate.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
It doesn't mean that you can't sit there and project
what could be, not with just the draft picks, but
with the players who are currently on this Lion's team.
And tell you what, Mike Payton isn't afraid of it.
He's from A to E Sports. You fall him on
Twitter at A to Z Underscore Payton a t Z
(00:27):
Underscore Payton joins us here on this Wednesday morning.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Mike, thanks for the time. We appreciate it. Welcome to
the program.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
How are you good, Matt you.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Hey, I'm doing great. Keep up the great work man,
really good stuff. I want to get to the draft,
but first, you know, it gained a lot of traction
what you recently posted, and that's just the possibility that
Jamison Williams might be traded from the Lions. I understand it.
In fact, I said it last year that it wouldn't
surprise me and I would almost encourage it. Why do
(00:58):
you think that's a possibility.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, it really, you know, it comes down to just
dollars and cents at the end of the day, and
you don't you obviously don't want to lose a guy
like Jameis Williams because as we both know, he can.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Be a game changer.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
But you have to pay Brian branch at Kirbye Joseph
to top of the top of the market money. They're
probably gonna be the two highest paid safeties in the league.
You're probably gonna have the highest paid edge rusher at
Aiden Hutchinson's highest paid tight end, and Sam Report a
highest paid running pack at Jamior Gibbs. You need, you
gotta have money to do all that. And while you
(01:33):
know it's so possible to do all that with Jamison Williams,
you're looking at a guy in JMO who's probably, if
he has a great twenty twenty five, could get upwards
of thirty million dollars a year. The receiver position is
a very very expensive thing to pay for, and if
you are able to move off of anybody to save
(01:55):
any type of money, this is kind of your chance
to do that, and lotients have kind of showed some
interest in possibly doing that with bringing in Texas receiver
Matthew Golden, who has a lot of parallel with Williams.
So it kind of seems like maybe they might be
thinking about it, maybe not right now, maybe in next year.
(02:16):
But you know, if they do it now, there's a
lot of benefits.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, I think you're dead on. I think it's logical thinking.
I have to remind people, as good as Kansas City was,
they did move on from Tyreek Hill and they were
still successful. Does that mean most people should or could
expect that a wide receiver might be a first round
choice for them or are you looking at it as
(02:40):
a possible early round selection in general?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah, I mean it's really going to, you know, depend
on how the board falls. I think if they could
get a guy like Matthew Golden or you know, Tetro
McMillan from Arizona something like that, like that's obviously going
to change the way that they that they view the
rest of the draft. You know, it's going to be
hard to get at least what of like McMillan is
(03:06):
probably not going to be at twenty eight, but Golden
has a really good shot of being there. And if
he is there, and if they really liked what they
saw and they like how they can you know, essentially
store a lot of money for the future by taking
this guy, then I think there's a really good shot
they do it.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Mike Peyton from A to Z sports as whether it's
here on exes and bros follow them on Twitter at
A t o Z underscore Peyton, when you look at
you did a nice job of breaking down all the
different positions that they have paid. And we didn't even
mention Penny Sewel. We didn't mention Jared Goff either too
highly paid at their positions. How realistic is it that
(03:46):
Detroit can afford all of them? I'm not even sure
they can afford the two safeties, the tight end and
the running back at the rates that they're playing, And
that can be a good problem to have, But I
think it's a problem.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, I mean it's it's not going to be easy.
It's certainly possible that you could find a way to
make all this happen, but without sacrifice. Like, I just
don't see how you do it, you know, whether it's
you have one of these guys be the odd man out,
or you have to lose somebody you know that you
already love on this team. It's hard to do it,
(04:20):
but it can happen. But again, like these guys are
you know, I think Lions fans kind of look at
them like, hey, they're good, but they don't maybe realize
how good they are in the sense of the league
in a hole, like are some of the best players
in the entire NFL. They're all very young, and if
(04:40):
the Lions don't pay the top of the league money,
somebody else totally would. So that's that's what you battle with.
These guys are There's not going to be a hometown discount.
As much as you want it to be, Ayden Hutchinson,
some of these guys, it's just not going to happen.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, they're going to learn from what Carlton Davis said
last year. I mean Carlton Davis said, you know, he
took the hometown discount for Tampa. He wasn't going to
do it again and that's why he moved on. It's
a really good point, and I think it's a good
problem to have. On the other hand, I think it's
also what prevented them from dipping into a deeper trade
market for one of the bigger names last year at
(05:16):
the defensive end position. Am I off base?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
There?
Speaker 3 (05:20):
No, don't don't. I don't think so at all. You know,
you gotta do what you gotta do, and and everybody
would have loved Miles Garrett and Max Crosby, and I
know the Lions called on those guys.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
But Trey Hendrickson, Yeah, Trey Hendrickson.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
But those deals, I mean, they just shift what the
Lions are able to do with the guys that they
already have, just dramatically. And while you maybe might get
a super Bowl out of that, which is what everybody want,
I think the Lions want multiple super Bowls.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, I got to get there first.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Mike, you deal with this all the time where people
say I would go draft this guy, and it's an
emotional response I understand, but oftentimes it's linked to something
of need. What is Brad Holmes's philosophy in your mind?
And where does that line up for this year's draft,
for this team this year, do you think?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Well? Brad said it in a number of different ways,
and he said it again at the combine. We are
not indeed spased drafting team. We just go out and
get the guy that best fits us. And that's what
the Lions are. That's why they're so hard to predict,
and that's why you know, every year we're shocked at
something that they do. Last year was kind of easy
because you knew they wanted a quarterback really bad and
(06:37):
it just kind of fell that way. But you know,
this year, it could be an edge rusher in the
first round, could be an offensive lineman, could be a receiver.
It just really depends on how that board falls and
if one of these guys fall their way. But I
do know that they find the trenches to be very
important to them, So I would think that they would
(07:00):
be favoring edge or offensive line over anything at twenty eight.
And if somebody falls, I mean, I think they're they're
obviously going to go that route.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
What they weren't afraid to move on from Carlton Davis,
they weren't afraid to move on from Jonah Jackson.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Who do you think is the next guy they move
on from?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
You know, in terms of big players, you know, I
don't know if they're gonna I don't know if there's
that guy this year. I think I think you're looking
at more of the little thing to say. I mean,
Hendon Hooker, I think is somebody that could potentially be
moved relative relatively soon. I just look at you know,
he's twenty, he's gonna be twenty eight years old this season.
(07:43):
It's very clear at this point he's he's not the
successor to Jared Goff.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Why why? Why is that?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I'm glad you bring that up, Mike, I really am,
because that's where that was literally my next question about
Hendon Hooker.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
You know, you've been around long enough.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
That's like the most popular position in the entire city,
you know, the backup quarterback. Why hasn't it worked and
how quickly do you think they could move on?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You're not getting anything for him?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Okay, I mean these people who think that they're going
to get a high draft pick for him, it's just
not happening. Guy doesn't take any snaps. But why hasn't
it worked out for him? And how quickly might you
be able to replenish or at least bring somebody in
to compete with him?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, I think it's just, you know, it's a time thing.
Like I said, it could be twenty eight next year.
Like that is that just puts him really behind the
eight ball. He missed his entire rookie season, you know,
got thrown in this year, and like all summer long,
they essentially told us they didn't feel he was ready
yet they were thinking about carrying three quarterbacks and they
might have done that had Mate sunfelt not so bad.
(08:46):
And then as the season progresses there there's rumors that
they're thinking about Daniel Jones after he got released from
the Giants. And then they find Teddy Bridgewater out of
retirement to go right ahead of Hooker for the playoffs,
because again they just did not feel like he was ready.
And then this year they signed Kyle Allen to be
(09:08):
with him for quarterback too. I just don't I just
don't see him being quite ready to play in it.
And when you see it on the field, you could
see it. You know, he struggles with timing, he struggles
with you know, reading the field. It's just it's, you know,
you hate that it's not going to work out, but
it's probably not going to work out.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
It's a It really is amazing, isn't it how quickly
things can change. That The optimism was incredible for him.
You know, I think most people would say, look, that
was a good draft pick. I said it for sure.
But it's such a different level, isn't it. Mike, The
level of the NFL, and especially at that position, to
(09:50):
try and understand coverages, the speed of the game. It
really is one of the toughest spots in all of sports.
And it just goes to show you that it's not
so he's he's turning a page. There's much more than
we realize to try and get used to something like that,
isn't it?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Oh absolutely ed? And I mean that's the thing that
you see on the on the field when you watch
if it's a process takeing s he's either holding onto
the ball too long and taking a sack, or he's
trying to get rid of it too fast and he's
throwing a pick. It's just the game is so much
faster in the NFL that it isn't in college, you know,
and it's already really fast there.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, you tweeted this out just not too long ago,
within the last half hour, and people can follow you
a to z underscore Payton. The draft is about a
week away. Before then, we're going to profile some players
that make the most sense. Your first player is a
guy I absolutely love. And I know a lot of
people don't watch, you know, some of the lower levels
(10:48):
of college football. You and I do. We're dumb like that,
But you like Gray Zabel at least as a profile
as a possibility. A guy can play center, he can
play guard. You could throw him out of tackle as well.
But he's considered the number one center, believe it or
not by some boards. What do you like most about
this behemoth of an offensive lineman and how quickly he
(11:10):
should be able to come in and step in and help.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Well, I mean you just said it right there. It's
the versatility. It's the ability to say, hey, go start
at guard your rookie year. He could probably you know,
have a good chance of supplanting Graham glass Cow right away,
and then you know you have him played there for
a little while, and then when rag now is ready
to retire, he can move into that center spot and
(11:34):
you can you build around him. He just has that
type of mentality and that type of play style where
you know he's a bruising run blocker, really solid pass blocker,
doesn't allow a lot of sacks. I think he allowed
just one sack last year. A ton of pressures like
this guy is if you're if you're looking to build
an offensive line, if if the Lions were a bear
(11:58):
offensive line and not the guys that they are already have,
this is a guy I would start with this is,
you know, I'm not going to say he's been a
Sewel level player, but like he's a great player that
you could start your build around and offensive line with.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
He's a plug and play guy, right, He's a plug
and play you draft him. And I don't know what
your philosophy is. Mine has always been this, with the
exception of one, maybe two positions, my first three picks,
first three rounds, they should be starters for me. Now,
if it's quarterback or a cornerback, I think those are
the most difficult positions to transition to from college to
(12:35):
pro and I would give them a little bit more leeway,
especially at the quarterback position, but I think they should
be starters.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
What's your philosophy on that?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, I mean if that's you know, I think that's
kind of the normal draft ideal that you're looking for.
But I think with the where the Lions are at,
they're just such a stack roster at this point that
you would hope that your first three guys would be
prime time players that could come in and play right away,
But more more so, they're probably going to be you know,
(13:06):
one guy that comes in it plays right away. And
the rest are solid debts, guys that maybe can grow
into a starting role as time goes on, or you
lose some guys, you know, with big contracts. But I
think that you know, the lines are looking for players
that could play and fit their ideals, fit their culture,
and you know, but I don't think they're looking for
(13:28):
like the starting quarterback or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
No, no, no, But I would argue, if you think
he could fill in, if you think a guy like
Zabel could fill in for Graham Glasgow, what do you
do at right guard? If you happen to, you know,
take on your philosophy of the jameson William idea, and
you got a wide receiver in the top three rounds,
(13:51):
he would be a key contributor right away. And if
you've got a defensive end somewhere in the first three picks,
he would be at least a rotational player with Marcus
dav Important Derek Barnes. So I think that's where I
was going with it. But you mentioned him taking over
for a maybe supplanning a guy like Graham Glasgow, What
do you do at right guard? Or do you think
that's already been decided?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well, it seems like they're going with Christian Mahogany there,
and last year when he filled in, I mean he
just kind of took to it like a fish of water.
It looked really good. I think they saw enough to
where they feel confident he could be that starting right guard.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Okay, so you're comfortable with that, and obviously they're comfortable
well enough with it as well. It's a good thing, man.
It's a lot of depth there that's always helpful. What
will be most important as they look for the draft
before we let you go? What will be most important
as they view everything and knowing that they take the
(14:48):
best available player, not by position, but what would you
like them to address? What do you think the needs
are this team will have as you get ready for
the draft next week in Green Bay?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah, I think I want the same thing that everybody
else wants, is you know, you want somebody opposite Aden
Hutchinson that you know can be their long term An
offensive line lineman would be great. I like Gray's abel
a lot, and if they went with that pick, it
would be awesome. But at the same time, I feel
like they're pretty set there at the moment. They could
be okay, if they needed to have somebody who maybe
(15:22):
took a little bit of time to take over a
starting a role there. But okay, Edge Rusher, I think
is what you need. It's where you got to go.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
It'd be great if James Pearce fell to him, or
Michael Williams or somebody like that. You said on your
Twitter feed that you're going to profile some players? How
many players will you profile? As people follow you on
X and people.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Can do that?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
A to is the underscore payton as they follow you?
How many players can they expect to see you kind
of handicap as a possibility as a Detroit Lion.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I'm looking at right now, I'm going to do five,
and then next week I might dig it to a
couple other ones as well.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Well, beautiful, all right, look forward to that. I really
enjoyed having you. I know you're a big basketball fan.
You got the Pistons or Nicks, and then how many
games in the first round?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Give me Pistons and six? Can't wait? I just cannot
wait to start watching these kids.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, are you going to game six?
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Is that why you wrote full Pistons versus Nicks first
round schedule?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Hello?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Game six? Is that why?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
You're going to.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Yeah, the original plan was to go to Game three,
but that's obviously night one of the drafts, so do that.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
That's bad scheduling, all right, good luck to you, have fun, Mike.
Don't be a stranger. We appreciate the time very much.
Keep up the great work.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Absolutely thanks Matt,
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