Voice of the Chiefs Mitch Holthus and Senior Team Reporter Matt McMullen break down the Chiefs’ 2025 draft class, plus first-round pick Josh Simmons stops by.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the academic world, you're identified of the class you
graduate with. Not in the National Football League, you are
labeled and identified as you begin with the class that
you begin with. And so today, on this addition of
defending the Kingdom, we introduce you to the Kansas City
Chiefs class of twenty twenty five. And yes, we're excited
(00:22):
about them. It's all brought to you by Ticketmaster, your
friend all year long, whether it's during the season or
during the non playing season. Let's keep it on an
RPO at the five.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's a lead plot.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Take us into the hands on this side, tux down
Chanzas City. Hi everyone, I'm Mitchelda's voice of the Kansas
City Chiefs along with senior team reporter Matt McMullen. If
you're not fired up at the beginning of this episode,
we will get you that way by the time we
are done, as we are going to talk about the
class of twenty twenty five. And by the way, the
(00:54):
Irish Brigade, the co commanders of the Irish Brigade are
both West Point graduates. Their son who was in the
class of twenty six. Next year he'll be a first day,
they call him, so he'll be in his senior year.
But West Point Annapolis Air Force Academy, they'll identify you
by your class class of. You know, George Pickett was
(01:15):
the class of blah blah blah blah blah blah, MacArthur
Eisenhower class of nineteen twelve. I think, well, in the NFL,
you're the class of when you begin. So we know
about the class of twenty twenty two and how great
they are, but the class of twenty twenty five. You
and I are fired up about this group. Once the
Draft was over and I just kind of looked back
(01:36):
at it going back to front, I got real excited
and I saw some parallels to the class of twenty two.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
It's funny because like on Draft night on Thursday, we're
in this conference room Mitche and a few others, and
we're so ready to go, so fired up, just like
everyone else is. And then you get to Saturday, like
middle of Saturday, and we're so tired, Like you and
I were both here so late every single day, but
we're still one hundred miles an hour. But there's no
(02:02):
one here on Saturday except for the draft people. Like
on Thursday and Friday, it's still a normal work day
for accounting and finance and sponsorship and all the people
that don't have a lot to do with the draft,
and then we're there as well. But on Saturday, it's
like a ghost town except for at least in the
business level, except for like us and the production people
and social media and graphics and all that. Not a
(02:23):
lot of people. So anyway, you can kind of do
whatever you want and be a little bit weirder than
maybe you normally are in the office. And after we
got I think it was Jalen Royals, I was in
my office at that point working on something and I
hear you down the hallway just going yeah, so yeah,
we're fired up for this one. We'll talk about it.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I ran up and down the hallway on the Jalen
Royals pick like it was Yeah, I goes ten years
old and it was awesome. Before we jump into the class,
and we'll start with the first round pick, josh Simmons.
Let's go around the world.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
What do you got so just two today because we
have a lot to get to.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
For Joshua Williams, Dustin Colquitt. Let's see all the number
twos in chiefs history.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, Dustin had it for a long time, didn't.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
They wit a hogg it for fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
He deserves it though. Shout out to Keith and Junction City, Oregon.
You ever been to Junkson City, Oregon?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Not? Have you? When you did the Kaiser Volcanos.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
No, I'm not really familiar with Junction City.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Junction City, Kansas now or PJ Gidden soon Now I
was on an Indianapolis colt.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yep, not him, No, not him, Junction City, Oregon. Never
been there before, but wall have to check it out.
Shout out to you, Keith. And then you know how
people have.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Like sea hockey that's like real sea hockey country, Oh
for sure?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know how people have like
Instagram accounts for their pets?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Now?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Oh yeah, okay, So I heard from Jenny the Cat.
So I got a message on Instagram and I thought
it was from someone just named Jenny, But then I
read the message and realized that this was a pet
Instagram account. So I went into it, and Jenny the
Cat said they were a street cat from Denver, but
they were adopted by a chief fan and rescued from
the dark side and they've seen the light. So shout
(03:58):
out to you, Jenny, and of course you're your owner
as well. And thank goodness, Jenny, the cat was safe
from being a Broncos fan. You know, I've done the
same for my wife. I know what this is like.
Haven't fully converted her dad yet. I converted her mom.
But I understand the struggle of converting a Broncos fan,
even if it's a cat, and it can be done.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
There's only three animals I would follow on Instagram, okay.
One my daughter's cat from Botswana.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
That's pretty impressive, bubs.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, it goes nuts on tuna. They don't even have
to open the tuna. You just like bring it into
the room and the cat just freaks out, all right.
Two my son and my granddaughters. And my son's wife's
dog Lola. And of course I would follow her twenty
four hours with a camera. And that is Pip. That's it,
(04:47):
your dog, Pip.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And I appreciate that Ellie created an Instagram account for Pip.
My first got her but kind of fell off the wagon.
And Pip's been able to do a lot of cool
things and interact with people and do cool stuff. I
wish we kept big going, but she stopped. I don't
know why.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I do a lot of public speaking across the country,
mostly in the Midwest. I'll take credit. It made Pip
a little bit famous. People are like, people know who
Pip is. We talk about the spirit of Pip.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
We did that PSA for for Iiowa. Yeah, and she
was like featured. I brought my dog into the studio
and this is a couple of years ago. She had
a little bit more energy then. I really didn't know
how this was gonna go. This took my dog to
work and took her into the studio. But you know,
she didn't like poop in the middle of the studio.
There was no like total disaster, and it was a win.
(05:32):
We have a great photo it's on my office of you,
me and Pip. It's awesome. She had no idea all
the great success she would help us achieve in the
years that followed that.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It is in my corner of the closet too that
I have here in the practice facility. You know it's
up there, prom and you, me and Pip. Yeah, Well,
my daughter and her husband's cat goes nuts on catnip
and tuna. We're gonna go nuts on The twenty twenty
five class of Kansas City Chiefs, and it'll start with
the Chiefs number one draft, Josh Simmons out of Ohio State,
(06:03):
and it's we talked about him before a little bit.
We're going to hear from Josh in just a bit.
He joined us in studio. But if he wasn't injured,
this guy would have been probably the first left tackle
taken off the board. He started out the twenty twenty
four season like a ball of fire, had a good
twenty three season with Ohio State, and before that a
(06:25):
right tackle at San Diego State. Went to Madison High
School in San Diego's where he played. Transferred later to Helix,
but COVID knocked him out of playing for the Helix Highlanders,
Alex Smith's alma mater. But this is a very skilled,
large human being. You're going to hear from him in
a second. But excitement to get Josh Simmons based on
(06:46):
what it could be. We don't know exactly what we
have right now because of the injury, the Teller Tenont injury,
but there is excitement in thinking that this guy could
be a long time Pro Bowl caliber left tackle.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
So the draft of my it's about three things. It's
about adding really talented players to your team. Obviously, it's
about making your team better in terms of position groups
that you might need some more depth at or maybe
a future starter at. And maybe first and foremost, it's
about value. You can't just take players at certain spots
because you love them. You have to also work the board.
(07:21):
When will these players be available and all of that.
This is incredible value getting Josh Simmons at thirty two. Overall,
you look just about anywhere you look at Dame Brugler's
Draft Guide, Matt Miller's Draft Guide, Pro Football Focuses Draft Guide,
Daniel Jeremiah for NFL dot Com. Everyone agrees that this
guy would have been a top fifteen pick, maybe the
(07:41):
top tackle off the board. And the only reason he
fell to the Chiefs at the bottom of the first
round is that knee injury. And I understand, like there's
no guarantees of stuff like that, but you trust your doctors,
you trust your athletic training staff, and the Chiefs have
the best in the business here in Kansas City, led
by Rick Burkholder. And if they say we believe it
this guy, we think he'll be good to go, you
(08:02):
trust it, You go with it and you get incredible
value at that spot. You get a player that allowed
one sack on his last six hundred pass blocking snaps
at Ohio State playing in the Big Ten. This isn't
like a projection where he was at a small school
facing you know, maybe smaller competition. He was facing the
best of the best every single week and he was
the best out there, best player at his position before
(08:24):
getting hurt. Last season, he allowed one quarterback hurry, no hits,
no sacks. Quarterback was not touched when he was out
there on one hundred and fifty eight pass blocking snaps. Again,
you get a player like this at thirty two overall,
it doesn't happen. I mean, we talked before the draft
saying how it's very difficult to find like your blue
chip left tackle prospect because those guys go in the
(08:46):
top ten and the Chiefs are not picking in the
top ten. The Chiefs have had no down years under
coach Reid. This is an incredible situation where this guy
would have gone a lot higher. He fell to you
because of a certain situation that was out of his control.
He's attacked his rehab in the time since he apparently
nailed the whole interview process, all that stuff, and you
get this guy at thirty two. I mean hopefully, and
(09:07):
I have a great feeling that we're going to look
back on this like five years from now and say,
how did the Chiefs get Josh Simmons at thirty two?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Overall incredibly athletic, terrific feat in the Chiefs offense. They
asked their linemen to move a lot their tackles, think
of screens, and Simmons is excellent at it. Either zone blocking,
now maybe not the man blocking in the run. There's
what the knaka is on him, is the so called anchor.
But he's also comes from a very athletic family. His
(09:34):
dad played for the Baltimore Orioles and the Detroit Tigers.
You look further, his uncle was Chris Muafala. Sorry I
used to do this Fuamala Maafalu, who was a longtime
fullback for the Pittsburgh Steelers played against us, right, And
so the fact that he comes from bloodlines, he's been
(09:56):
around it a little bit like Pat, so this is
not new to him to be at this level. Matt
and I had a chance to have Josh Simmons setting
right here the Chiefs number one draft pick of the
twenty twenty five class, A big defending the Kingdom. Welcome
to Josh Simmons, our number one first round draft pick
(10:16):
of this twenty twenty five class, and first of all,
welcome to the Chiefs Kingdom.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Thank you so glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
When you got chosen, when you got the call, what
was going through your month?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Like a little bit of everything more surreal, Like I
was telling people that like chicken and pickles, like you're
waiting for your mom to kind of wake you up
for school. Like it was one of those surreal moments.
So I was just trying to take it all in
and kind of still in the process of it.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
This is funny for us because we've been doing podcasts
talking about potential draft picks for like weeks and months now,
and we've talked about you so many times and now
you're just sitting here with us and you're a Chief.
What were the emotions like when you realize, like I'm
going to be blocking for Patrick Mahomes of all people
to start your NFL career.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah, Like, so a lot of high expectations, so you
got to like hit it really hard.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Pat Mahomes is like the pinnacle of you know, throwing
footballs right now and probably going to be like the
future of it. So definitely iveing to like understand like
you have a big task and a big assignment, and
obviously there's a lot of vets in the room, so
you just got to really just put your head down
to work and you know, don't get anybody's way.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
And that being said, Josh, how much did the Ohio
State experience and the SDS you experience. But at Ohio
State you're going into a program that had the expectation
to win a national championship, So dealing with that every day,
how much did that help you mentally and emotionally get
you ready to try to be with a team that's
won three Super Bowls and want to get another one.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, so I guess you're familiar.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
So college the NFL is like, I can't compare that,
but I get the feeling of always having pressure and
always having to chase, always getting better, and just always improving.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
So I know that's this is a team that's always improving.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Pat's always improving, Traps Trace Smith's always improving, greed Hump
is always improving.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
So just got to look up to those dudes and
do it how they do it.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So you had an incredible first year at Ohio State.
Scribbled this down. You allowed one sack on almost five
hundred pass blocking snaps in twenty twenty three, and you
were off to an even better start last year like
one quarterback hurry like no hits, no sacks until you
got hurt. How do you think you improved as a
player between twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. Why
were you off such a great start?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
I think it was just kind of some of the
habits that I built. I'm not gonna be honest, I
wasn't the best practice of them, but that offseason I
definitely had like a you definitely like realize, like, okay,
let's uh every walk through rep, let's kind of go
a little harder or maybe put yourself in a game
situation that way, when you do go to practice, you're
playing a lot harder, a lot better. You're kind of
able to see things that you saw on the walkthrough,
(12:37):
and then you just kind of take training that much
more serious, like a weight room I think should be
anybody playing on the line scrimmage like second home, so
you get stronger in that aspect, and I mean only
good things happened from there.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Obviously, one of your strengths is your ability to move,
and this offense is one that loves screens and have
an all five lineman move. How much did your expriantoid
stsu playing right tackle help you get ready for this
because you played right tackle for the Aztecs and left
tackle for ohiose Tock.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Uh, so you kind of get I guess you learn
how to play everywhere. Like I'm not really I can
play left tackle, but I'm an offensive lineman. So if
I even need to play left guard, right guard, whatever,
I'll definitely do that because I know how to do that.
But it definitely kind of you kind of learn and
have to adjust on the fly because playing right tackle
to left tackle it was a big adjustment. It's not
(13:29):
as easy I feel like people think. So you definitely
have to kind of kind of like drop it and
like get to it. Definitely hone it on your craft.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So Brett Beach was explaining a little bit about all
the work they did on you and a lot of
Zoom calls, I understand it, a lot of interviews and
they interviewed you, I think on zoom a few days
ago before the draft and to see like how much
you retained from some of the install they did like
a month earlier. What do you remember about that call,
because clearly it went pretty well.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Yeah they Yeah, Like like you said, it was a
lot of recall and kind of like what they were
kind of like they'd kind of walked through like some
of the base pro stuff, and so there's just kind
of like, how remember what I told you here?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
What do you do here?
Speaker 4 (14:05):
And stuff like that, and then you know, asking like
where I'm at in my angreen bay.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I'm at home. It's a little stuff. It wasn't that long.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Culture is a big deal. It's been a huge deal
with us to win twelve straight winning seasons. But there's
a subculture that exists with the offensive linemen and you're
going to be surrounded. You already mentioned Tray and Creed,
but the fact that in that room, in that culture,
how do you enhance that culture? How do you absorb
that subculture of the old line.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
So for me, I just learn I'm definitely picking brains.
I have the first time being in the NFL, So
I don't know exactly what takes back.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
All I can do is soaking information and soaking.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Kind of kind of turn into like a little ten
year old and kind of see what you know the
grown ups are doing and kind of follow their footsteps.
Obviously don't want to get anybody's way, but definitely working
hard in that aspect.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
See, you've only been here for like forty eight hours.
But what are you excited to do in Kansas City?
What are you excited to learn about the City's a.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Lot of barbecue. I think it was Q thirty nine,
was it those?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's one of them, Yeah, because a bunch of them.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Is probably the best things I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So you've already had some barbecue. Oh yeah, Okay, off
to a good start for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Well, it's awesome to have you here. You seem to
go to red places, like you know, you just keep
staying red, right, So you're a wardrobe. But what do
you look forward to the most? As you get started
and we get started right away with Rookie Minicant.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Just yeah, like like you said, that tradition in that
culture this is second or none in the NFL. I think,
you know, playing in February and January is a testament
to that. So just getting accustomed to it, Like just
kind of reaching out to new players. You know, they've
been here obviously, Like I said, Trey Creed, those are
like real dudes who probably the.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Culture is oozing out of them.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
So just kind of asking again, like asking them, don't
getting their way, but definitely like kind of learn, come
to learn.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Now Chiefs Kingdom get excited because Josh Simmons is adding
to that offensive line room, so a lots to be excited.
He's an engaging human. Did you notice that?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Oh yeah, no, for sure, And he's excited to be here,
which I'm fired up about. It would be very easy
for a player in his situation to kind of be
moping about the fact that you felt at thirty two. Overall,
it's funny because we keep talking about this like a positive.
But for him, I mean, he going into the season
thought he was going to be the top tackle off
the board, probably taken in the top ten, top fifteen,
(16:21):
all that, and there's money lost there. But for him,
he seems fired up and he knows that this is
the best situation for him. That it's not just one
sided where we're lucky that we got value with this guy.
For him, he sees value in it as well. I
think that he's going to a Super Bowl contender that
has an opportunity at left tackle for him to come
in and compete and to maybe win that job. And
(16:43):
it really in so many ways as a match made
in Heaven. If I told you this in February, that
we're going to get this guy and he's going to
be fired up to be here, and we can talk
about OTAs in camp and going into the season saying
that we've got this great problem here where we have
a first round draft pick in Josh Simmons and a
player that we believe as well, and Jalen Moore coming
over from the forty nine ers. They're going to compete
(17:03):
for that spot here over the next couple of years.
Just a big kind of change, I think from even
a few months ago.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
The medicals the big issue that's not a secret, but
your point is a good one. The cooperation from Rick
Broke Colt and his athletic training staff. We talk about
it at nauseum with the team doctors, and that's Paul
Schreppel and his crew. I'm a big fan of those
guys and the scouts and the coaches. There has to
be collaboration. Your dad is a prominent attorney in prograduate
(17:31):
of the University of Missouri School of Law. I got
accepted to three life law schools, decided not to go.
But if you and I were arguing the case for
the chiefs collaboration and cooperation, it would be people's opinion
versus Tray Smith, and we would go to that where
a sixth round pick, now redrafted, would be a first
round pick. Nuff said. We move on because we feel
(17:52):
like Josh Simmons, and there's a lot of opinion that
he's going to be up and running a little quicker
than we thought.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah. I think there was a lot of think I'll.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Said, I thought it was going to be October of
twenties five. Yeah, before we even saw this.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Guy, I think a lot of us assumed it might
be like a red shirt ear situation. I am not
getting that impression. I'm getting the impression that he is
going to have a chance to be ready by training camp.
I don't know what that means necessarily. I don't know
if that means he's in pads on day one in
training camp, but I think he's going to be doing
things at training camp, and likely I think he'll have
an opportunity to compete for that spot. I don't think
(18:26):
this is a red shirt year by any means. I
think he's going to have a chance to play. So
I'm fired up to get to camp and to see
what he can do. You kind of glazed over something
just now though you got into law school.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah you didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, three different law schools, So why didn't you do it?
Because I want to be sitting here with you?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah, I was in law school.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I wouldn't be to be with your dad on uh
huh South American case.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I'm glad that it didn't work out.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, I lock Clark for two years too interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
New one DTKY every week.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah that's cool, so decided not to go. Don't look
at my lsat score. It's okay to get in. But yeah,
wasn't going to be in a lat review. I don't
think anyway.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
You would have been amazing at that, like closing statements
and stuff. You would have been incredible. I'm glad you
picked this line of work, but you would have been
really good at that.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, you never get that far anymore though, you always settle.
So anyway, we move on to our second case, which
is the people of public opinion versus Omar Norman Lot,
the defensive lineman inside lineman from the University of Tennessee.
Started actually at Arizona State University, played for HERM. Edwards,
the former chiefs head coach at ASU for the Sun Devils,
(19:31):
and played a lot actually at ASU, and then when
ASU went through their issues, he transferred onto Tennessee. Interesting
here because people, and I'll just be right there too,
looking for where this pick was of looking for a
day one starter on the interior defensive line. Now you
hope that maybe Jerry Tillery becomes that guy. Or the
(19:52):
rotation big here rotation because Norman Lot becomes a replacement
for Turk Wharton. And if you watch us, they talk
about his hands and his hands being so good, and
his one gap penetration is snap quickness. He was a boxer.
Omar Norman Lot was a boxer, and you can see
it in the way he uses his hands and how
(20:12):
quick he is. Sometimes you get a little too quick
because he'll get some penalties maybe, but jumping, the jumping
the snap count. But this is a one gap penetrator
and a pass rusher is an interior defensive line.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
And you mentioned his hands. I think he had the
largest hands of any defensive tackle at the combine, which
those things matter in the end. You know, I don't
love saying rookies are replacements for players that get twenty
million dollars a year from another team, but that's kind
of what we're saying here with Turk Wharton. What I'd
amended to a little bit is that I think Norman
(20:47):
Lot is further along as a player than Turk was
when he came in here as a rookie. And we
were really impressed with Turk when he first came in.
But Norman Lot did some really great things at Tennessee
last year and throughout his career. Last year he led
all interior defenders in pass rush win rate and win percentage.
He trailed only James Pierce, who got drafted in the
(21:08):
first round, by the way, in terms of pressures on Tennessee,
despite ranking twentieth on the team in defensive snaps. So
you might wonder, well, why wasn't he playing more? They
had a heavy rotation at Tennessee with their defensive tackles,
and if you think about like Nil, now you get
all these prospects that come in. You have to let
all your players play, So it makes sense that he
(21:29):
wasn't playing a ton. What matters is that when he
was on the field, he was incredibly productive, like more
productive than any defensive tackle in the nation. So you
just look at the tape, you evaluate what you see
when the player is on the field, and he's going
to have a chance to come in here and kind
of fill that void left by Turk where you're that
three tech pass rushing defensive tackle on passing downs. And
(21:50):
he is shown during his college career and especially last
season he can do that really really well. And he's
bigger than Turk. So Turk Wharton was a really good
player for this team. I think kind of underappreciated throughout
his career. But to go out and get a player
like this when I think this might have been like
our biggest need. Honestly, if you're going through the list
of needs for the Chiefs, that defensive tackle you could
(22:13):
put next to Chris Jones on passing downs just to
have some depth there and a guy that has some
juice and some twitch. We got that player and Omar
Norman Lott and I look at a lot of different
big boards because everyone kind of has different opinions and
I try not to get too much into the group think,
which happens sometimes with these players. But Pro Football Focus
had him as the number four defensive tackle on their board,
(22:33):
behind only Mason Graham, Walter Nolan, and Kenneth Grant, and
we got that guy. So I love this pick and
I'm excited to see what he can do.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Negative would say, did that many snaps? You look at
his win past percentage win rate of his snaps, but
they're saying, well, that's not a lot of snaps. Well, again,
it goes back to your rotation. One of the reasons
the Chiefs have been elite on defense really since twenty two.
You look at twenty two, twenty three, and twenty four.
We talk about the scoring defense, let the rushing defense.
(23:04):
A big reason is this rotation that the Chiefs have
in the NFL. And it's nearly impossible to have Mike Danna,
George Carloftis Felix and yudikiu Is. I'm gonna go right
down the line. Now you get inside, you get Jerry Tillery,
Chris Jones leads the way, Mike Panell. You look at
a seven or eight man rotation. This is where Norman
Lott fits in, and it segues right into our next
(23:25):
guy because Jelotti is right there with the rest of them.
So to get asked in Jelotti another guy that has
been an outstanding pass rusher. His twenty twenty three was
crazy with eleven sacks, and the sacks fell off in
twenty four, but it wasn't a effort. I think you
got more attention. His brother's an MMA fighter and it
(23:49):
shows because this guy plays football like he's doing mixed
martial arts and if you look at him, you're going
kind of reminds me of George Carloftis. He works out
with George Carloftis. Yeah, these two guys know each other.
And so this defensive line rotation of all the dudes
that I mentioned didn't throwing Norman lot You got another
one right after that with Gelatti.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
So Gelatti and George share a common college coach. A
coach that was at Purdue with George then was at
Louisville last year with Gelatti, and he linked them up
so well. Before any of this happened, George was reviewing
Gelatti's film and telling them, Hey, this is how you
need to get better. This is what you got to do,
and being kind of like critical because that's what everyone needs,
(24:32):
right and saying, hey, this wasn't very good. You could
do that better, And Gelotti would would text George ask
him thoughts on things, Hey can you break this down?
What do you know? They're now teammates. Everything I've gathered
about Gelotti is he is like a super super high
character guy and he's a high motor like he's going
to give it everything he has. And that sounds a
lot like someone else we know, George Carloftis, So it's
(24:54):
kind of like like George is established. I don't want
to say that, you know, Gelati is going to be George.
He has to go out there and earn it. But
we might have drafted another George Carloftis, and I think
we'd certainly take that. I love his size. He's sixty
three two hundred and sixty four pounds, so he's a
total Steve Spagnolo edge rusher kind of prospect where he
can play inside and outside just like George does from
(25:15):
time to time. He's a Bruce Feldman freaks list guy,
like athletic freak. If you look back at his Feldman's article.
I think it was twenty twenty two. We talked about
some of the crazy things that Gelotti did to get
on that list, and also you mentioned the great production
two years ago he did. He had fourteen and a
half tackles for loss eleven sacks in twenty twenty three.
(25:35):
Traditional numbers down a little bit last year, but the
pressures created were actually higher last year than the year prior.
He had sixty pressures created last year, fifty eight in
twenty twenty three, so everything was there, just didn't necessarily
have like the sacks, but the pressures were still happening well.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
And again people the criticism here his looks like a
sub guy. You did not get a starter with the
Chiefs since Spagnola. Here's what we're going to try to
tell you here, the fact that you have eight starters,
and that's what's crazy. I mean, you got Chris who
stands out right, he's the elite inside defender now in
the National Football League. But the other guys around him
can play inside and outside and they do a lot
(26:14):
of different things. The other thing, but Jelatti would be
developing more moves and counter moves. He'll have to do that.
The negative the red flag on him was, well, wait
until he faces the lead offensive tackles in the league.
That's not gonna work. He's gonna have to have some
other stuff. You can say that about every past rusher
in the college football. Sure, that's what Felix is learning.
Felix has got some stuff, but now he's learning move
(26:36):
four and move five. And that's where George being big
brother for Gelatti helps.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I remember when George first came out and the whole
rap on him was he was just a power rushers,
the bull rusher, he couldn't get around the edge. I
think George proved those doubts wrong. I mean, George is
one of the best young pass rushers in the NFL,
consistent eight to ten sack guy every single year. And
that's what Gelatti could turn into. And he'll have opportunities here.
And I'm with you looking at just the edge rushers.
(27:01):
So now you have Charles men who, you have Mike Dana,
you have George Carloftis, you have Felix and new Dicky Uzama,
who even though the volume stuff hasn't been there for Felix,
like when he's been on the field, Felix has made
some plays, and then you add Gelatti in the mix
now as well. You still have Malik Herring here, and
you have those interior rushers. It's just really exciting. And
this has been kind of the impetus I think of
(27:22):
the offseason is just getting better in the trenches on
both sides. And with both Jelatti and Norman Lott, we did.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
That long season. You don't want to grind guys into
the ground. I know you're trying to win fantasy football
with a guy you know on sacks. But for the
Kansas City Chiefs to run that long race with a
bunch of different guys who all can play up front
is one of the biggest assets the Kansas City Chiefs
have have had and will have going into twenty twenty five.
(27:50):
Another asset that they will have, well, let's put it
this way. Cam Ward was the one to one pick
of the twenty twenty five draft for the Tennessee Titans.
There was a pick against him when they played cal
Buy the Chiefs pick in Noah Williams and Noel You
talk about ball skills, guy, just listen to this. First
(28:11):
of all, he loves to tackle, So see if this
sounds like a corner that Spags would like. Two hundred
and three total tackles, one hundred and thirty four of
those are solos, fourteen career interceptions, seven last year, four
scoop and scores, and the pick six. Oh throw in
an eighty yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Now he's
(28:32):
a bigger thicker. I don't think it's too far to
give the comp here to a potential replacement over time
to Austin Reed. Yeah, he looks safety ish with corner skills.
He could look he plays in the box. He obviously
wants to tackle, which is a rerequisite for playing for
Steve Spagnolo and this defensive secondary group, but also has
(28:54):
the ball skills. So here again is a guy you
talk about valuing the draft, What double value it appears
to get.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Noel Williams, You know what's funny is I love late
night sporting events, like when Ellie is asleep and it's
like eleven forty five and I can't sleep and I
can win.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
The Cornhall Championships.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
So not so much like random stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
It's like that they have the NASCAR suits on right
with all the sponsors.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I can't quite get into that it's more like the
sports that I love. But I'll parachute in as like
a fan of a random team. Like last night, I
stayed up until like twelve forty five watching the Oilers
and King's playoff game because it went to overtime. I
just decided I was going to root for the Oilers,
and I watched it and then went to bed afterward.
And who knows if I'll ever watch the Oilers again,
but I'll do that sometimes. And I remember watching that, uh, that.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Miami cal playoff overtime hockey.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
It's the best, it is the best, but any.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Second, any fraction of a second, decides it.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
I stayed up till like two am watching that cow
Miami game where Noel Williams picked off cam Ward. I
remember that. It's the only time I watched Miami or
col all your I watched that game, and it's just
funny that now Noel Williams is a chief.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
A long time ACC rivals.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
By the way, how crazy is it that's an ACC
Conference game. It's like a six hour flight. The game
ended at like I mean, it was like twelve forty
five Central time. It was super late and they had
to fly all the way back to Miami, just saying
but anyway, I mean, I'm super excited about Noel Williams
for a bunch of reasons. You laid them all out.
It's the length. If you look at this corner class,
(30:28):
particularly kind of where they got Noel Williams, a lot
of good corners, but it's a lot of nickels. It's
and that's important, but it's players that are not going
to play on the outside very much or have that
safety versatility. It's guys that are going to play in
the slot. Well, Noel Williams is what was numbers here.
He's six foot tall, I think two hundred pounds with
ball skills, so seven interceptions led the FBS last year.
(30:51):
His fourteen career picks were the second most of any
player in this draft class. He mentioned the scoop and scores.
He's durable, fifty career starts, all right, so he's not
getting hurt very often. And the run defense really stands
out to me that you talked about, because so many
times corners, especially corners like with ball skills, that have
a lot of interceptions, that's maybe all they care about.
They're not super interested in defending the run. But wherever
(31:14):
you look, whether it be Matt Miller, PFF, Dane Bugler.
Everyone talked about how he might have been the best
run defending corner in this class, Like he's an outstanding
run defender. We asked him about that. On his post
draft press or, he talked about how much he enjoys
being a run defender, Like every single play, it's not
about can I just get an interception here, or is
the ball coming my way? Can I set the edge here?
(31:36):
Or as a running back coming my way? Can I
help my team in any way I can. That's a
mindset thing that just a lot of corners don't have
because they're playing that outside, premium skill position, and that's
a big deal. So Spags is going to love him.
We know that he also has a ton of special
teams experience as well, so I think he'll fit in
right away on special teams. And he gives you flexibility
on the outside where if Trent McDuffie's playing inside more.
(31:58):
Now that Christian Fulton's here in town, you Jillen Watson
as well, you can mix him in the rotation too.
That's just a really good group of long corners who
make your defense better Overall.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
The secondary for the Chiefs in twenty twenty five could
be measurably better. And Noel Williams is part of that.
The knock on him not great straight ahead speed four
or five, but setting the edge. We think about that
in the run game. Which great that you brought that up,
but the edge is also said in this era of football,
on bubble screens, tunnel screens, it cannot get outside. And
(32:32):
the chief corners have done. You go look at Jalen Watson,
you go down to obviously Trent McDuffie, but Joshua Williams,
even Chuarius Ward back in the day where you lock in,
you cannot let that play get outside. The Chiefs are
the best team in this league in defending those kind
of plays because their corners are physical, They're willing to
make plays like that and they get to the outside.
(32:53):
It's even the strip play in Germany of Tyreek Hill.
It's a play, it's a perimeter play, a quick, okay,
quick route, but you cannot let that plaguet outside. If
your corner is physical enough to hold the edge that
somebody can come in and rip the ball out and
then your safeties and backers come to fill that's what
this kid can do, and he does it in his sleep.
(33:13):
Now we go to Saturday. Now we go where everybody's
gone right, accept the Scouts and bird and there and
social and the sixty five TPT Crew and Jalen Royal's
of Utah State, the fighting Aggies from Logan, Utah becomes
a Kansas City chief. I whooped and ran down and started.
(33:35):
I came in and saw you guys so fired up.
And this guy, to me is a Juju Smith Schuster lookalike.
Now let's jump into what's not so obvious about him.
Why did he get to Utah State? He was a
zero star recruit.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
You love this, I love this.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
He goes to Georgia Military. He was a point guard.
So in the summer, guys that want to get to
the NFL go to all these camps. Right, colleges have
their own combines. So issue company might be a regional,
but whatever, And these they go to camps to get
on the circle start to be looked at. He didn't
do any of that. He's playing AEU basketball as a
point guard. This guy could have been a Division one
(34:13):
or high Division two basketball player. Think about Pat Mahomes.
The reason he wasn't was highly recruited. Was the fact
that not only was a baseball prospect, he could have
been a Division one basketball point guard. Okay, this kid
goes under the radar, goes to Georgia Military Institute Junior college. Right,
I said he was in formation, not single back formation,
(34:34):
literal formation with somebody yelling at him. All right, shows
up at Utah State and blows up so here. The
year he had in twenty three was crazy. The only
FBS wide receiver with seventy plus catches, fifteen touchdowns, seventy
five first downs. This dude picked up man and he
stayed loyal to Utah State. He stayed there two years,
(34:58):
and he was going to have another. He gets hurt
seven games into this last year at Utah State. I
cannot wait to meet this kid. I cannot wait to
talk to him. He's got IQ, he's got toughness, looks
like Juju Smith Schuster. But I've often said this, and
I'm fired up. You can tell I like my lineman
to be wrestlers. Yeah, create Humphrey. If you got a
(35:18):
stud athlete who was a stud high school wrestler, love it.
Offensive and defensive line footwork, leverage, move, countermove, hand placement.
I love my wide receivers and quarterbacks to be point
guards in basketball, and that's what this kid is. I'm
fired up about it.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
No, I am too. It might be my favorite pick
of the draft. Again, crazy value here. Look at the
big boards, like Pro Football Focus had him as the
sixty overall player, Dan Bugler had him as the sixty
three overall player. We get him at one thirty three.
And he's not just a flash in the pan guy
like that. Twenty twenty three season gets a lot of attention,
but I think he was off to an even better
(35:54):
start last year. He was fourth in the FBS and
receiving yards per game through seven games when he got injured.
They missed the final five with the foot injury. Maybe
the foot injury is why he fell. I don't know,
but his production was crazy when he was on the field,
and the Juju comp is good because he's kind of
like this like stocky physical receiver. But he's not just
(36:15):
like possession guy that catches the ball and contorts his
body and that's all you get. He's like a big
play machine. I mean, he had ten catches of fifty
or more yards over the last two years, most of
any player in the FBS, nobody had more than this guy.
He has good speed. He runs a four to four
to two like that's a good speed for his size.
(36:35):
But it's his ability to make defenders miss, like in
space that makes him so special. And that's what Juju
was so great at early in his career and it
still is. Seventeen forcemiss tackles last year. That was eighth
among all receivers in the FBS prior to getting injured,
and he averaged eight yards after the catch. Watch this
guy's highlights, like it's endless of him just making players
(36:55):
miss in the open field. He reminds me a lot
of Rashi as well, where he kind of turns in
are running back when he has the ball in his hands.
He's stocky and physical but also elusive at the same time.
I just think Coach Reid's gonna love this guy. Like
stuff behind the line of scrimmage for sure, but also
quick slants ten yards down a field. He'll make a
guy miss and break it off for a big play.
(37:16):
So you had a player like this to a group
that already includes Rashie Rice who will be healthy, Xavier'
worthy obviously had a great season last year, Hollywood Brown
going to be healthy and have a full season now
with the Chiefs and Juju Smith Schuster. I mean, that's
a really, really good group of receivers in compared to
what we had this time last year going into the draft.
(37:36):
I mean, this has just been a revelation. I think.
So we're hoping to see more firepower and more explosiveness
from the offense this year. I think we're gonna get
it because of the guys that we're getting back from injury.
And then you throw this guy in the mix. Just
really fired up about it.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
I've talked about the door hinge receiver. I learned that
in coach reads first year here and back in twenty thirteen,
how important they are. We'll save that for a whole
other episode. But this guy could be your door hinge
receiver and become so vital to this football team. All right.
Then it goes Saturday, just there's a spectacular data. You're
talking about value, immediate impact, and then Jeffrey Bass I
(38:16):
think it's Bess or boss Abassa. But this guy, what
he did at Oregon reminds you. And by the way,
going back to Royals, his high school was Evan Ingram's
High school. It was Bradley Chubbs High School.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
So there's dudes that come out of Jalen Royals High
School and you Royals fans went into were Royals eighty five?
Stay tuned on that. We'll see.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
I can't get him fifteen, but maybe eighty five and.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Sixty nine the first year of Royals existence doesn't work
because that's ineligible, all right, but eighty five would be
kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
It would be you know. I asked him on his
post draft zoom call. I was like, are you a
baseball fan at all? And he's like, you know, I'm
trying to get more into baseball. And I'm like, are
you aware of what the team's name is in Kansas City?
And he is aware. So there's like a marketing opportunity
there that I think you should take advantage of.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Quick Before he throws out the first pitch at a
Royal skame.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
The Royals already tweeted about it, like immediately They're like,
that's a great pick. I mean, how funny is it?
I remember like studying all the receivers and seeing him,
and the thought crossed my mind, how funny would that
be if he ended up here, and of course it
just works out that way.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I'd be like the Royals taking a picture named Ralph Chiefs.
Yeah right, the chief bender of some of those you know.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
So now, yeah, he'll have to go get a Royals jersey,
Royals Royals and then of course his jersey's going to
say Chief's Royals. I just feel like, especially if it
was eighty five, a lot of people are going to
buy this jersey. And if he's as good as that,
we think he's going to be even more, we'll buy.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
It, love it and love the Oregon linebacker and Jeffrey
Bess if you look at him now, a couple of things.
You have to go be on the obvious with all
these guys. We got an MMA fighter, we got a boxer,
we've got a point guard. And this one is a
guy who started as a safety. Fact he came to
Oregon as a safety. To me, you're looking at it,
(39:57):
there's a little bit of Willigay junior in him, because
it looks like the open field kind of linebacker safety combo.
But then you look at what he did four years
of special teams at Oregon four years. So when he
became like mainline starting dude for the Ducks. He didn't
come off special teams. He was awesome and his play
speed is off the charts. But what he did was
(40:20):
in the Senior Bowl was ran the huddle for the
national team. So now you start to think green dot guy,
and he was essentially we know about Nick Bolton and
what he does is the green dot for the Kansas
City Chiefs, the traffic cop air traffic controller. That's what
Jeffrey did for the Oregon Ducks. And so you bring
that into play with a guy that looks like he
(40:41):
can play will maybe some mic, special teams, open field,
hybrid safety, total spags guy, but this looks like a
Dave Tobe guy from day one.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
I get like college val victorian vibes from this guy.
He's really really smart and you can tell it's when
he talked to him and all of the coaches if
he you look at draft guys, they just rave about him.
I mean, this guy is super intelligent and is capable
of handling a lot of information and data coming in
and that's why him being the green dot at Oregon
(41:11):
is so useful because it's really hard to do that,
like the green Dot is the quarterback of the defense.
Like here in Kansas City, it's Nick Bolton, and he's
the one that's relaying everything to everyone on the field
in like an instant. And that's what Jeffrey Bassa did
at Oregon, a big time program, playing a lot of
big time games every single week, and he was the
(41:31):
guy in the middle of the defense calling the whole thing,
and that's really difficult to do. His first game ever
at linebacker was against C. J. Stroud in Ohio State
when he was asked, because of injuries at the linebacker position,
can you move from safety to linebacker? And how cool
is it that he was like, no problem, Sure, I'll
do it. He played safety his whole life, was recruited
(41:52):
as a safety, going to be a safety at Oregon,
got asked to move to linebacker, and he said, yeah,
I'll do it to help the team, and what do
you know, he ended up being really good at it,
super consistent, had at least forty five tackles in all
four seasons at Oregon. You mentioned the special teams experience,
and how cool is it that your green Dot is
playing on special teams? How many major programs is there
(42:13):
green Dot playing on special teams and kick coverage and
stuff like that. Like he just kind of says the
kind of guy that he is, he wants to help
the team any way that he can. And to me,
he reminds me a lot of Drew Tranquil, because Tranquill
was a safety at Notre Dame moved a linebacker. Kind
of that hybrid coverage kind of guy. That's what Basa is.
But Drew also can wear the green dot. I mean
when Nick was hurt a couple of years ago, Drew
(42:35):
was our green dot, and Bassa's the same kind of player.
So if you're looking for kind of a comp to me,
it's Drew Tranquil And yeah, well they Gay is a
great one as well, where super athletic coverage guy can
get out there and cover. And I'm excited about this
because you can never have enough of these guys. He's
going to help us on special teams and also just
makes that linebacker room even deeper with another player who,
(42:55):
god forbid, if you had a bunch of injuries, is
capable of going out there handling all the bullets flying
and the data and can call a defense. Not an
easy thing to do, and we might have gotten another
one here in Jeffrey Bassett.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
We talk about the defensive line rotation. Think of the
linebacker room. Now, this guy walks in with Tranquill and
Leo Chanel and Nick Bolton and Jack Cockran go right
down the line. I mean this, it's a really really
good linebacker room. And I think special teams could be
appreciably better next year, not only because of him, because
of others. And then the last pick. Going into the draft,
(43:26):
I was hoping to get it started. You know, third
down backs. Man, I've just an I can't believe this
is real, what you're about to say. And so I'm
thinking we haven't got the third down back. Now we're
nearing the end of the draft, right, and so but
we have a guy that works in graphic arts here
(43:47):
named Jordan Geesler. A year ago he came into We're
nerding out and all this stuff. He goes, I'm gonna
tell you the guy that I like, and it's Carson Steel.
I go, it looks like the Jungle law guy. Right,
he's got the whole hair, he's he's sure he's not
on Survivor or something. And we end up taking him.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
He was like three hundred and fiftieth on PFF's big board.
I'm like Jordan, I just don't know, and this is
my guy.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
This my guy ball I go ball State, Yeah, ball State, Uclabel.
This year it was Brishard Smith and SMU and this
is what about a week and a half before the
draft goes this is my guy.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
This is my guy.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
So we've looked at him, but it made me go
back and look, oh, okay, look more at this guy
who was a wide receiver at Miami and then transferred
to SMU. SMU then said we're going to make you
a running back. In fact, their quote was We're going
to make you the SMU version of Isaiah Pacheco Burshard Smith. Though, well,
(44:40):
let's go back to what I said. I was wanting
a starting defensive like day one player. Well, okay, think
of the rotation here. We got that covered third down
back p Rhine leaves us goes to Cincinnati, who's the
younger version of Jeric McKinnon. And I cannot wait to
watch Smith because when I've mentioned that to different people,
(45:04):
they've all nodded to the affirmative and the fact that
this guy, yes, he his crazy production crazy. In twenty
twenty five. He ran the ball two hundred and thirty
five times thirteen hundred and thirty two yards six yards
of carry essentially. Then he threw in fourteen rushing touchdowns. Oh,
let's add thirty nine receptions for three hundred and twenty
seven yards all purpose yards. He was fourth in FBS
(45:28):
all parpers Oh, let's see Jantes first. Uh huh, Yeah, okay,
I know he's heard he's going to the Raiders.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Scatoo of Arizona State goes second. Yep. Third was Hampton
who goes to the Charger. He goes to the Chargers
the Divis Division. This kid was fourth. Yeah, Oh my gosh,
crazy production. And when you watch the video, this could
be Jeric McKinnon coming out of SMU.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
So, I know, the Monday after the draft you look
at every single player and you say, this guy is amazing.
How this guy all of us all that. I can't
believe that we got this guy in the seventh round.
Just flip on his tape. It's super just electric. I
mean with the ball in his hands when he has
an opportunity, he is electric. He is four to three
to nine speed. Give the third fastest forty time of
(46:15):
any running back at the combine. You mentioned the ridiculous production.
I mean nearly two thousand yards between rushing, receiving, and
kick return yards. Nineteen plays of twenty or more yards
last year, I was in the top five among all
running backs. And so on one end, he's a former receiver,
like you said, and you can tell, like when he
goes up to attack the ball, he attacks it like
(46:36):
a receiver. Sometimes with running backs it can be kind
of awkward if they didn't do a lot of that,
like in high school or college. But with him, he
runs routes and attacks the ball in the air like
a receiver. But a lot of times if you have
this conversion where you have a receiver go to running back,
they're kind of like a fish out of water. As
a runner, he's not like he has like contact balance.
He's bouncing off defenders. I mean he had eighteen total
(46:59):
touchdowns last year.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
One cut ability. Yes, like he's done it on us.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
You'll make a guy miss. It's incredible. But also like
at least in college, between the tackles, he was getting
tough yards, like moving the pile, like getting the ball
on the two yard line and punching it in for
a touchdown. There's a lot of potential here with this guy.
And that's why he reminds me so much of Jeric,
because Jeric was not the biggest player, but he played
way bigger than he actually was. Jeric was a great
(47:22):
pass blocker, like he would run through defenders twice his size,
and I mean, that's a really lofty comp like Bashard
will have to work to be a Jerck McKinnon in
this league. But it's just impossible not to watch his
tape and think that is Jack McKinnon and to add
a player like this to our offense. We know how
valuable and how effective Jeric was like in the screen
game in the red zone. This guy's perfect for that
(47:45):
kind of thing. So also the new kickoff rule, like
how the kickoff is being moved at the thirty five
Now there's gonna be a lot more kickoffs, and he
has a ton of experience handling kickoffs in college. If
you put a four to three to nine guy back
there who can make players, he has contact balance, he's
perfect to handle kickoff duties. So he'll have to earn
that role. But just I mean Burshard Smith getting him
(48:07):
in the seventh round. I think you let out a
yeah in the hallway after this one too.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Saturday, it was just a hallway.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
I couldn't believe we went around. I couldn't believe because
we had talked about it all week, like like this
guy's available, because everyone was talking about like the top
five or six running backs, like the Caleb Johnson's and
the Scatabooze and all these players, and yeah, those guys
would be great. But I kept thinking like that guy.
Jordan showed us Brashard Smith, like he would be a
lot of fun and he would fit KOA. Treed's offense.
(48:35):
And we got to the seventh round. I guess I
could kind of forgot, And when we took him, I
was like, I cannot believe we got him. He's a chief.
Jordan's two for two.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
And this kickoff return ability. He averaged twenty five yards
on a per attempt and over his college career in
kickoff returns, including a ninety eight yard touchdown on a
kickoff return. And you mentioned the four to three nine speed.
So you're getting a lot with this guy. Super excited
about him. It's always key we talk about how versatile
people are within the organization.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
So when you get a graphic artist and a graphic
designer who can pick your players that this is my guy.
You and I are going to go to him next
year about two months before the draft and going now
who you got?
Speaker 2 (49:16):
He has a reputation to uphold, so you have to.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
Do it way to go. Jordan, You're a very talented dude,
but man, you've now to pick two running backs in
two straight years in this guy. But Brishard Smith completes it.
So overall this class and we're gonna watch him now.
It starts right away this week. As you'll see this
posted this week becomes rookie mini caamp, a lot of
try out guys, undrafted free agents. We'll get into all
(49:40):
that in episodes coming up ahead. But this class, the
class of twenty five, really anxious to see him.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah, and listen, we're very excited about it, but the
reality is the grade is incomplete. I mean, they have
to go out there and play. We think all these
players are going to help us, and we're very excited
about the value and the talent that we brought in here,
but they have to go out there and we won't
know how good this class was for a couple of years.
But one thing I do from time to time is
I go back and look at our episode in twenty
(50:08):
twenty two called the Base Ten, and it was basically
what we're doing right now, immediately after the twenty twenty
two draft class. And we all know how transformative that
class was. We don't win back to back super Bowls,
we don't go to three super Bowls in a row
without that draft class. And it's fun to go back
and listen to what we were saying about those players
(50:29):
and the potential that they could achieve here in Kansas City,
talking about, Hey, I think Trent McDuffie can be one
of the best corners in football. Here's why I think
George Carloftis is going to help our defensive line. Here's
why I think Isaiah Pacheco could help this team. Jill
and Watson can help this team. I love his length,
all that stuff, and it turns out that all worked
out perfectly for the Chiefs. And I'm as fired up
(50:50):
about a draft class about this one. I'm as fired
up about this class as I was about that one
back in twenty twenty two. And again they have to
go out there and earn it and p it. But
hopefully in a couple of years we're looking back at
this episode and saying, man, that class really changed everything
we know about the.
Speaker 1 (51:06):
Base ten system, right, we all use it. The base
ten draft class of twenty twenty two brought us two
Super Bowl championships. The biblical number for perfection is seven.
There's seven in this group. Maybe a couple of years
from now we'll look back and say this was a
perfect pick. But just know this. Do you graduate from
high school or college, or graduate from West Point, you're
(51:27):
identified as the class in which you ended. In the NFL,
you're identified as in the class of where you begin.
And we like the beginning of this class of twenty
twenty five
In the academic world, you're identified of the class you
graduate with. Not in the National Football League, you are
labeled and identified as you begin with the class that
you begin with. And so today, on this addition of
defending the Kingdom, we introduce you to the Kansas City
Chiefs class of twenty twenty five. And yes, we're excited
(00:22):
about them. It's all brought to you by Ticketmaster, your
friend all year long, whether it's during the season or
during the non playing season. Let's keep it on an
RPO at the five.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's a lead plot.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Take us into the hands on this side, tux down
Chanzas City. Hi everyone, I'm Mitchelda's voice of the Kansas
City Chiefs along with senior team reporter Matt McMullen. If
you're not fired up at the beginning of this episode,
we will get you that way by the time we
are done, as we are going to talk about the
class of twenty twenty five. And by the way, the
(00:54):
Irish Brigade, the co commanders of the Irish Brigade are
both West Point graduates. Their son who was in the
class of twenty six. Next year he'll be a first day,
they call him, so he'll be in his senior year.
But West Point Annapolis Air Force Academy, they'll identify you
by your class class of. You know, George Pickett was
(01:15):
the class of blah blah blah blah blah blah, MacArthur
Eisenhower class of nineteen twelve. I think, well, in the NFL,
you're the class of when you begin. So we know
about the class of twenty twenty two and how great
they are, but the class of twenty twenty five. You
and I are fired up about this group. Once the
Draft was over and I just kind of looked back
(01:36):
at it going back to front, I got real excited
and I saw some parallels to the class of twenty two.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
It's funny because like on Draft night on Thursday, we're
in this conference room Mitche and a few others, and
we're so ready to go, so fired up, just like
everyone else is. And then you get to Saturday, like
middle of Saturday, and we're so tired, Like you and
I were both here so late every single day, but
we're still one hundred miles an hour. But there's no
(02:02):
one here on Saturday except for the draft people. Like
on Thursday and Friday, it's still a normal work day
for accounting and finance and sponsorship and all the people
that don't have a lot to do with the draft,
and then we're there as well. But on Saturday, it's
like a ghost town except for at least in the
business level, except for like us and the production people
and social media and graphics and all that. Not a
(02:23):
lot of people. So anyway, you can kind of do
whatever you want and be a little bit weirder than
maybe you normally are in the office. And after we
got I think it was Jalen Royals, I was in
my office at that point working on something and I
hear you down the hallway just going yeah, so yeah,
we're fired up for this one. We'll talk about it.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I ran up and down the hallway on the Jalen
Royals pick like it was Yeah, I goes ten years
old and it was awesome. Before we jump into the class,
and we'll start with the first round pick, josh Simmons.
Let's go around the world.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
What do you got so just two today because we
have a lot to get to.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
For Joshua Williams, Dustin Colquitt. Let's see all the number
twos in chiefs history.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, Dustin had it for a long time, didn't.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
They wit a hogg it for fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
He deserves it though. Shout out to Keith and Junction City, Oregon.
You ever been to Junkson City, Oregon?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Not? Have you? When you did the Kaiser Volcanos.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
No, I'm not really familiar with Junction City.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Junction City, Kansas now or PJ Gidden soon Now I
was on an Indianapolis colt.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yep, not him, No, not him, Junction City, Oregon. Never
been there before, but wall have to check it out.
Shout out to you, Keith. And then you know how
people have.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Like sea hockey that's like real sea hockey country, Oh
for sure?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know how people have like
Instagram accounts for their pets?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Now?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Oh yeah, okay, So I heard from Jenny the Cat.
So I got a message on Instagram and I thought
it was from someone just named Jenny, But then I
read the message and realized that this was a pet
Instagram account. So I went into it, and Jenny the
Cat said they were a street cat from Denver, but
they were adopted by a chief fan and rescued from
the dark side and they've seen the light. So shout
(03:58):
out to you, Jenny, and of course you're your owner
as well. And thank goodness, Jenny, the cat was safe
from being a Broncos fan. You know, I've done the
same for my wife. I know what this is like.
Haven't fully converted her dad yet. I converted her mom.
But I understand the struggle of converting a Broncos fan,
even if it's a cat, and it can be done.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
There's only three animals I would follow on Instagram, okay.
One my daughter's cat from Botswana.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
That's pretty impressive, bubs.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, it goes nuts on tuna. They don't even have
to open the tuna. You just like bring it into
the room and the cat just freaks out, all right.
Two my son and my granddaughters. And my son's wife's
dog Lola. And of course I would follow her twenty
four hours with a camera. And that is Pip. That's it,
(04:47):
your dog, Pip.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And I appreciate that Ellie created an Instagram account for Pip.
My first got her but kind of fell off the wagon.
And Pip's been able to do a lot of cool
things and interact with people and do cool stuff. I
wish we kept big going, but she stopped. I don't
know why.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I do a lot of public speaking across the country,
mostly in the Midwest. I'll take credit. It made Pip
a little bit famous. People are like, people know who
Pip is. We talk about the spirit of Pip.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
We did that PSA for for Iiowa. Yeah, and she
was like featured. I brought my dog into the studio
and this is a couple of years ago. She had
a little bit more energy then. I really didn't know
how this was gonna go. This took my dog to
work and took her into the studio. But you know,
she didn't like poop in the middle of the studio.
There was no like total disaster, and it was a win.
(05:32):
We have a great photo it's on my office of you,
me and Pip. It's awesome. She had no idea all
the great success she would help us achieve in the
years that followed that.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It is in my corner of the closet too that
I have here in the practice facility. You know it's
up there, prom and you, me and Pip. Yeah, Well,
my daughter and her husband's cat goes nuts on catnip
and tuna. We're gonna go nuts on The twenty twenty
five class of Kansas City Chiefs, and it'll start with
the Chiefs number one draft, Josh Simmons out of Ohio State,
(06:03):
and it's we talked about him before a little bit.
We're going to hear from Josh in just a bit.
He joined us in studio. But if he wasn't injured,
this guy would have been probably the first left tackle
taken off the board. He started out the twenty twenty
four season like a ball of fire, had a good
twenty three season with Ohio State, and before that a
(06:25):
right tackle at San Diego State. Went to Madison High
School in San Diego's where he played. Transferred later to Helix,
but COVID knocked him out of playing for the Helix Highlanders,
Alex Smith's alma mater. But this is a very skilled,
large human being. You're going to hear from him in
a second. But excitement to get Josh Simmons based on
(06:46):
what it could be. We don't know exactly what we
have right now because of the injury, the Teller Tenont injury,
but there is excitement in thinking that this guy could
be a long time Pro Bowl caliber left tackle.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
So the draft of my it's about three things. It's
about adding really talented players to your team. Obviously, it's
about making your team better in terms of position groups
that you might need some more depth at or maybe
a future starter at. And maybe first and foremost, it's
about value. You can't just take players at certain spots
because you love them. You have to also work the board.
(07:21):
When will these players be available and all of that.
This is incredible value getting Josh Simmons at thirty two. Overall,
you look just about anywhere you look at Dame Brugler's
Draft Guide, Matt Miller's Draft Guide, Pro Football Focuses Draft Guide,
Daniel Jeremiah for NFL dot Com. Everyone agrees that this
guy would have been a top fifteen pick, maybe the
(07:41):
top tackle off the board. And the only reason he
fell to the Chiefs at the bottom of the first
round is that knee injury. And I understand, like there's
no guarantees of stuff like that, but you trust your doctors,
you trust your athletic training staff, and the Chiefs have
the best in the business here in Kansas City, led
by Rick Burkholder. And if they say we believe it
this guy, we think he'll be good to go, you
(08:02):
trust it, You go with it and you get incredible
value at that spot. You get a player that allowed
one sack on his last six hundred pass blocking snaps
at Ohio State playing in the Big Ten. This isn't
like a projection where he was at a small school
facing you know, maybe smaller competition. He was facing the
best of the best every single week and he was
the best out there, best player at his position before
(08:24):
getting hurt. Last season, he allowed one quarterback hurry, no hits,
no sacks. Quarterback was not touched when he was out
there on one hundred and fifty eight pass blocking snaps. Again,
you get a player like this at thirty two overall,
it doesn't happen. I mean, we talked before the draft
saying how it's very difficult to find like your blue
chip left tackle prospect because those guys go in the
(08:46):
top ten and the Chiefs are not picking in the
top ten. The Chiefs have had no down years under
coach Reid. This is an incredible situation where this guy
would have gone a lot higher. He fell to you
because of a certain situation that was out of his control.
He's attacked his rehab in the time since he apparently
nailed the whole interview process, all that stuff, and you
get this guy at thirty two. I mean hopefully, and
(09:07):
I have a great feeling that we're going to look
back on this like five years from now and say,
how did the Chiefs get Josh Simmons at thirty two?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Overall incredibly athletic, terrific feat in the Chiefs offense. They
asked their linemen to move a lot their tackles, think
of screens, and Simmons is excellent at it. Either zone blocking,
now maybe not the man blocking in the run. There's
what the knaka is on him, is the so called anchor.
But he's also comes from a very athletic family. His
(09:34):
dad played for the Baltimore Orioles and the Detroit Tigers.
You look further, his uncle was Chris Muafala. Sorry I
used to do this Fuamala Maafalu, who was a longtime
fullback for the Pittsburgh Steelers played against us, right, And
so the fact that he comes from bloodlines, he's been
(09:56):
around it a little bit like Pat, so this is
not new to him to be at this level. Matt
and I had a chance to have Josh Simmons setting
right here the Chiefs number one draft pick of the
twenty twenty five class, A big defending the Kingdom. Welcome
to Josh Simmons, our number one first round draft pick
(10:16):
of this twenty twenty five class, and first of all,
welcome to the Chiefs Kingdom.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Thank you so glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
When you got chosen, when you got the call, what
was going through your month?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Like a little bit of everything more surreal, Like I
was telling people that like chicken and pickles, like you're
waiting for your mom to kind of wake you up
for school. Like it was one of those surreal moments.
So I was just trying to take it all in
and kind of still in the process of it.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
This is funny for us because we've been doing podcasts
talking about potential draft picks for like weeks and months now,
and we've talked about you so many times and now
you're just sitting here with us and you're a Chief.
What were the emotions like when you realize, like I'm
going to be blocking for Patrick Mahomes of all people
to start your NFL career.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah, Like, so a lot of high expectations, so you
got to like hit it really hard.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Pat Mahomes is like the pinnacle of you know, throwing
footballs right now and probably going to be like the
future of it. So definitely iveing to like understand like
you have a big task and a big assignment, and
obviously there's a lot of vets in the room, so
you just got to really just put your head down
to work and you know, don't get anybody's way.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
And that being said, Josh, how much did the Ohio
State experience and the SDS you experience. But at Ohio
State you're going into a program that had the expectation
to win a national championship, So dealing with that every day,
how much did that help you mentally and emotionally get
you ready to try to be with a team that's
won three Super Bowls and want to get another one.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, so I guess you're familiar.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
So college the NFL is like, I can't compare that,
but I get the feeling of always having pressure and
always having to chase, always getting better, and just always improving.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
So I know that's this is a team that's always improving.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Pat's always improving, Traps Trace Smith's always improving, greed Hump
is always improving.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
So just got to look up to those dudes and
do it how they do it.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So you had an incredible first year at Ohio State.
Scribbled this down. You allowed one sack on almost five
hundred pass blocking snaps in twenty twenty three, and you
were off to an even better start last year like
one quarterback hurry like no hits, no sacks until you
got hurt. How do you think you improved as a
player between twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. Why
were you off such a great start?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
I think it was just kind of some of the
habits that I built. I'm not gonna be honest, I
wasn't the best practice of them, but that offseason I
definitely had like a you definitely like realize, like, okay,
let's uh every walk through rep, let's kind of go
a little harder or maybe put yourself in a game
situation that way, when you do go to practice, you're
playing a lot harder, a lot better. You're kind of
able to see things that you saw on the walkthrough,
(12:37):
and then you just kind of take training that much
more serious, like a weight room I think should be
anybody playing on the line scrimmage like second home, so
you get stronger in that aspect, and I mean only
good things happened from there.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Obviously, one of your strengths is your ability to move,
and this offense is one that loves screens and have
an all five lineman move. How much did your expriantoid
stsu playing right tackle help you get ready for this
because you played right tackle for the Aztecs and left
tackle for ohiose Tock.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Uh, so you kind of get I guess you learn
how to play everywhere. Like I'm not really I can
play left tackle, but I'm an offensive lineman. So if
I even need to play left guard, right guard, whatever,
I'll definitely do that because I know how to do that.
But it definitely kind of you kind of learn and
have to adjust on the fly because playing right tackle
to left tackle it was a big adjustment. It's not
(13:29):
as easy I feel like people think. So you definitely
have to kind of kind of like drop it and
like get to it. Definitely hone it on your craft.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So Brett Beach was explaining a little bit about all
the work they did on you and a lot of
Zoom calls, I understand it, a lot of interviews and
they interviewed you, I think on zoom a few days
ago before the draft and to see like how much
you retained from some of the install they did like
a month earlier. What do you remember about that call,
because clearly it went pretty well.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Yeah they Yeah, Like like you said, it was a
lot of recall and kind of like what they were
kind of like they'd kind of walked through like some
of the base pro stuff, and so there's just kind
of like, how remember what I told you here?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
What do you do here?
Speaker 4 (14:05):
And stuff like that, and then you know, asking like
where I'm at in my angreen bay.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I'm at home. It's a little stuff. It wasn't that long.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Culture is a big deal. It's been a huge deal
with us to win twelve straight winning seasons. But there's
a subculture that exists with the offensive linemen and you're
going to be surrounded. You already mentioned Tray and Creed,
but the fact that in that room, in that culture,
how do you enhance that culture? How do you absorb
that subculture of the old line.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
So for me, I just learn I'm definitely picking brains.
I have the first time being in the NFL, So
I don't know exactly what takes back.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
All I can do is soaking information and soaking.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Kind of kind of turn into like a little ten
year old and kind of see what you know the
grown ups are doing and kind of follow their footsteps.
Obviously don't want to get anybody's way, but definitely working
hard in that aspect.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
See, you've only been here for like forty eight hours.
But what are you excited to do in Kansas City?
What are you excited to learn about the City's a.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Lot of barbecue. I think it was Q thirty nine,
was it those?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's one of them, Yeah, because a bunch of them.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Is probably the best things I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So you've already had some barbecue. Oh yeah, Okay, off
to a good start for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Well, it's awesome to have you here. You seem to
go to red places, like you know, you just keep
staying red, right, So you're a wardrobe. But what do
you look forward to the most? As you get started
and we get started right away with Rookie Minicant.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Just yeah, like like you said, that tradition in that
culture this is second or none in the NFL. I think,
you know, playing in February and January is a testament
to that. So just getting accustomed to it, Like just
kind of reaching out to new players. You know, they've
been here obviously, Like I said, Trey Creed, those are
like real dudes who probably the.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Culture is oozing out of them.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
So just kind of asking again, like asking them, don't
getting their way, but definitely like kind of learn, come
to learn.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Now Chiefs Kingdom get excited because Josh Simmons is adding
to that offensive line room, so a lots to be excited.
He's an engaging human. Did you notice that?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Oh yeah, no, for sure, And he's excited to be here,
which I'm fired up about. It would be very easy
for a player in his situation to kind of be
moping about the fact that you felt at thirty two. Overall,
it's funny because we keep talking about this like a positive.
But for him, I mean, he going into the season
thought he was going to be the top tackle off
the board, probably taken in the top ten, top fifteen,
(16:21):
all that, and there's money lost there. But for him,
he seems fired up and he knows that this is
the best situation for him. That it's not just one
sided where we're lucky that we got value with this guy.
For him, he sees value in it as well. I
think that he's going to a Super Bowl contender that
has an opportunity at left tackle for him to come
in and compete and to maybe win that job. And
(16:43):
it really in so many ways as a match made
in Heaven. If I told you this in February, that
we're going to get this guy and he's going to
be fired up to be here, and we can talk
about OTAs in camp and going into the season saying
that we've got this great problem here where we have
a first round draft pick in Josh Simmons and a
player that we believe as well, and Jalen Moore coming
over from the forty nine ers. They're going to compete
(17:03):
for that spot here over the next couple of years.
Just a big kind of change, I think from even
a few months ago.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
The medicals the big issue that's not a secret, but
your point is a good one. The cooperation from Rick
Broke Colt and his athletic training staff. We talk about
it at nauseum with the team doctors, and that's Paul
Schreppel and his crew. I'm a big fan of those
guys and the scouts and the coaches. There has to
be collaboration. Your dad is a prominent attorney in prograduate
(17:31):
of the University of Missouri School of Law. I got
accepted to three life law schools, decided not to go.
But if you and I were arguing the case for
the chiefs collaboration and cooperation, it would be people's opinion
versus Tray Smith, and we would go to that where
a sixth round pick, now redrafted, would be a first
round pick. Nuff said. We move on because we feel
(17:52):
like Josh Simmons, and there's a lot of opinion that
he's going to be up and running a little quicker
than we thought.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah. I think there was a lot of think I'll.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Said, I thought it was going to be October of
twenties five. Yeah, before we even saw this.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Guy, I think a lot of us assumed it might
be like a red shirt ear situation. I am not
getting that impression. I'm getting the impression that he is
going to have a chance to be ready by training camp.
I don't know what that means necessarily. I don't know
if that means he's in pads on day one in
training camp, but I think he's going to be doing
things at training camp, and likely I think he'll have
an opportunity to compete for that spot. I don't think
(18:26):
this is a red shirt year by any means. I
think he's going to have a chance to play. So
I'm fired up to get to camp and to see
what he can do. You kind of glazed over something
just now though you got into law school.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah you didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, three different law schools, So why didn't you do it?
Because I want to be sitting here with you?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah, I was in law school.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I wouldn't be to be with your dad on uh
huh South American case.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I'm glad that it didn't work out.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, I lock Clark for two years too interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
New one DTKY every week.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah that's cool, so decided not to go. Don't look
at my lsat score. It's okay to get in. But yeah,
wasn't going to be in a lat review. I don't
think anyway.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
You would have been amazing at that, like closing statements
and stuff. You would have been incredible. I'm glad you
picked this line of work, but you would have been
really good at that.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, you never get that far anymore though, you always settle.
So anyway, we move on to our second case, which
is the people of public opinion versus Omar Norman Lot,
the defensive lineman inside lineman from the University of Tennessee.
Started actually at Arizona State University, played for HERM. Edwards,
the former chiefs head coach at ASU for the Sun Devils,
(19:31):
and played a lot actually at ASU, and then when
ASU went through their issues, he transferred onto Tennessee. Interesting
here because people, and I'll just be right there too,
looking for where this pick was of looking for a
day one starter on the interior defensive line. Now you
hope that maybe Jerry Tillery becomes that guy. Or the
(19:52):
rotation big here rotation because Norman Lot becomes a replacement
for Turk Wharton. And if you watch us, they talk
about his hands and his hands being so good, and
his one gap penetration is snap quickness. He was a boxer.
Omar Norman Lot was a boxer, and you can see
it in the way he uses his hands and how
(20:12):
quick he is. Sometimes you get a little too quick
because he'll get some penalties maybe, but jumping, the jumping
the snap count. But this is a one gap penetrator
and a pass rusher is an interior defensive line.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
And you mentioned his hands. I think he had the
largest hands of any defensive tackle at the combine, which
those things matter in the end. You know, I don't
love saying rookies are replacements for players that get twenty
million dollars a year from another team, but that's kind
of what we're saying here with Turk Wharton. What I'd
amended to a little bit is that I think Norman
(20:47):
Lot is further along as a player than Turk was
when he came in here as a rookie. And we
were really impressed with Turk when he first came in.
But Norman Lot did some really great things at Tennessee
last year and throughout his career. Last year he led
all interior defenders in pass rush win rate and win percentage.
He trailed only James Pierce, who got drafted in the
(21:08):
first round, by the way, in terms of pressures on Tennessee,
despite ranking twentieth on the team in defensive snaps. So
you might wonder, well, why wasn't he playing more? They
had a heavy rotation at Tennessee with their defensive tackles,
and if you think about like Nil, now you get
all these prospects that come in. You have to let
all your players play, So it makes sense that he
(21:29):
wasn't playing a ton. What matters is that when he
was on the field, he was incredibly productive, like more
productive than any defensive tackle in the nation. So you
just look at the tape, you evaluate what you see
when the player is on the field, and he's going
to have a chance to come in here and kind
of fill that void left by Turk where you're that
three tech pass rushing defensive tackle on passing downs. And
(21:50):
he is shown during his college career and especially last
season he can do that really really well. And he's
bigger than Turk. So Turk Wharton was a really good
player for this team. I think kind of underappreciated throughout
his career. But to go out and get a player
like this when I think this might have been like
our biggest need. Honestly, if you're going through the list
of needs for the Chiefs, that defensive tackle you could
(22:13):
put next to Chris Jones on passing downs just to
have some depth there and a guy that has some
juice and some twitch. We got that player and Omar
Norman Lott and I look at a lot of different
big boards because everyone kind of has different opinions and
I try not to get too much into the group think,
which happens sometimes with these players. But Pro Football Focus
had him as the number four defensive tackle on their board,
(22:33):
behind only Mason Graham, Walter Nolan, and Kenneth Grant, and
we got that guy. So I love this pick and
I'm excited to see what he can do.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Negative would say, did that many snaps? You look at
his win past percentage win rate of his snaps, but
they're saying, well, that's not a lot of snaps. Well, again,
it goes back to your rotation. One of the reasons
the Chiefs have been elite on defense really since twenty two.
You look at twenty two, twenty three, and twenty four.
We talk about the scoring defense, let the rushing defense.
(23:04):
A big reason is this rotation that the Chiefs have
in the NFL. And it's nearly impossible to have Mike Danna,
George Carloftis Felix and yudikiu Is. I'm gonna go right
down the line. Now you get inside, you get Jerry Tillery,
Chris Jones leads the way, Mike Panell. You look at
a seven or eight man rotation. This is where Norman
Lott fits in, and it segues right into our next
(23:25):
guy because Jelotti is right there with the rest of them.
So to get asked in Jelotti another guy that has
been an outstanding pass rusher. His twenty twenty three was
crazy with eleven sacks, and the sacks fell off in
twenty four, but it wasn't a effort. I think you
got more attention. His brother's an MMA fighter and it
(23:49):
shows because this guy plays football like he's doing mixed
martial arts and if you look at him, you're going
kind of reminds me of George Carloftis. He works out
with George Carloftis. Yeah, these two guys know each other.
And so this defensive line rotation of all the dudes
that I mentioned didn't throwing Norman lot You got another
one right after that with Gelatti.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
So Gelatti and George share a common college coach. A
coach that was at Purdue with George then was at
Louisville last year with Gelatti, and he linked them up
so well. Before any of this happened, George was reviewing
Gelatti's film and telling them, Hey, this is how you
need to get better. This is what you got to do,
and being kind of like critical because that's what everyone needs,
(24:32):
right and saying, hey, this wasn't very good. You could
do that better, And Gelotti would would text George ask
him thoughts on things, Hey can you break this down?
What do you know? They're now teammates. Everything I've gathered
about Gelotti is he is like a super super high
character guy and he's a high motor like he's going
to give it everything he has. And that sounds a
lot like someone else we know, George Carloftis, So it's
(24:54):
kind of like like George is established. I don't want
to say that, you know, Gelati is going to be George.
He has to go out there and earn it. But
we might have drafted another George Carloftis, and I think
we'd certainly take that. I love his size. He's sixty
three two hundred and sixty four pounds, so he's a
total Steve Spagnolo edge rusher kind of prospect where he
can play inside and outside just like George does from
(25:15):
time to time. He's a Bruce Feldman freaks list guy,
like athletic freak. If you look back at his Feldman's article.
I think it was twenty twenty two. We talked about
some of the crazy things that Gelotti did to get
on that list, and also you mentioned the great production
two years ago he did. He had fourteen and a
half tackles for loss eleven sacks in twenty twenty three.
(25:35):
Traditional numbers down a little bit last year, but the
pressures created were actually higher last year than the year prior.
He had sixty pressures created last year, fifty eight in
twenty twenty three, so everything was there, just didn't necessarily
have like the sacks, but the pressures were still happening well.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
And again people the criticism here his looks like a
sub guy. You did not get a starter with the
Chiefs since Spagnola. Here's what we're going to try to
tell you here, the fact that you have eight starters,
and that's what's crazy. I mean, you got Chris who
stands out right, he's the elite inside defender now in
the National Football League. But the other guys around him
can play inside and outside and they do a lot
(26:14):
of different things. The other thing, but Jelatti would be
developing more moves and counter moves. He'll have to do that.
The negative the red flag on him was, well, wait
until he faces the lead offensive tackles in the league.
That's not gonna work. He's gonna have to have some
other stuff. You can say that about every past rusher
in the college football. Sure, that's what Felix is learning.
Felix has got some stuff, but now he's learning move
(26:36):
four and move five. And that's where George being big
brother for Gelatti helps.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I remember when George first came out and the whole
rap on him was he was just a power rushers,
the bull rusher, he couldn't get around the edge. I
think George proved those doubts wrong. I mean, George is
one of the best young pass rushers in the NFL,
consistent eight to ten sack guy every single year. And
that's what Gelatti could turn into. And he'll have opportunities here.
And I'm with you looking at just the edge rushers.
(27:01):
So now you have Charles men who, you have Mike Dana,
you have George Carloftis, you have Felix and new Dicky Uzama,
who even though the volume stuff hasn't been there for Felix,
like when he's been on the field, Felix has made
some plays, and then you add Gelatti in the mix
now as well. You still have Malik Herring here, and
you have those interior rushers. It's just really exciting. And
this has been kind of the impetus I think of
(27:22):
the offseason is just getting better in the trenches on
both sides. And with both Jelatti and Norman Lott, we did.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
That long season. You don't want to grind guys into
the ground. I know you're trying to win fantasy football
with a guy you know on sacks. But for the
Kansas City Chiefs to run that long race with a
bunch of different guys who all can play up front
is one of the biggest assets the Kansas City Chiefs
have have had and will have going into twenty twenty five.
(27:50):
Another asset that they will have, well, let's put it
this way. Cam Ward was the one to one pick
of the twenty twenty five draft for the Tennessee Titans.
There was a pick against him when they played cal
Buy the Chiefs pick in Noah Williams and Noel You
talk about ball skills, guy, just listen to this. First
(28:11):
of all, he loves to tackle, So see if this
sounds like a corner that Spags would like. Two hundred
and three total tackles, one hundred and thirty four of
those are solos, fourteen career interceptions, seven last year, four
scoop and scores, and the pick six. Oh throw in
an eighty yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Now he's
(28:32):
a bigger thicker. I don't think it's too far to
give the comp here to a potential replacement over time
to Austin Reed. Yeah, he looks safety ish with corner skills.
He could look he plays in the box. He obviously
wants to tackle, which is a rerequisite for playing for
Steve Spagnolo and this defensive secondary group, but also has
(28:54):
the ball skills. So here again is a guy you
talk about valuing the draft, What double value it appears
to get.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Noel Williams, You know what's funny is I love late
night sporting events, like when Ellie is asleep and it's
like eleven forty five and I can't sleep and I
can win.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
The Cornhall Championships.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
So not so much like random stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
It's like that they have the NASCAR suits on right
with all the sponsors.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I can't quite get into that it's more like the
sports that I love. But I'll parachute in as like
a fan of a random team. Like last night, I
stayed up until like twelve forty five watching the Oilers
and King's playoff game because it went to overtime. I
just decided I was going to root for the Oilers,
and I watched it and then went to bed afterward.
And who knows if I'll ever watch the Oilers again,
but I'll do that sometimes. And I remember watching that, uh, that.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Miami cal playoff overtime hockey.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
It's the best, it is the best, but any.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Second, any fraction of a second, decides it.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
I stayed up till like two am watching that cow
Miami game where Noel Williams picked off cam Ward. I
remember that. It's the only time I watched Miami or
col all your I watched that game, and it's just
funny that now Noel Williams is a chief.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
A long time ACC rivals.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
By the way, how crazy is it that's an ACC
Conference game. It's like a six hour flight. The game
ended at like I mean, it was like twelve forty
five Central time. It was super late and they had
to fly all the way back to Miami, just saying
but anyway, I mean, I'm super excited about Noel Williams
for a bunch of reasons. You laid them all out.
It's the length. If you look at this corner class,
(30:28):
particularly kind of where they got Noel Williams, a lot
of good corners, but it's a lot of nickels. It's
and that's important, but it's players that are not going
to play on the outside very much or have that
safety versatility. It's guys that are going to play in
the slot. Well, Noel Williams is what was numbers here.
He's six foot tall, I think two hundred pounds with
ball skills, so seven interceptions led the FBS last year.
(30:51):
His fourteen career picks were the second most of any
player in this draft class. He mentioned the scoop and scores.
He's durable, fifty career starts, all right, so he's not
getting hurt very often. And the run defense really stands
out to me that you talked about, because so many
times corners, especially corners like with ball skills, that have
a lot of interceptions, that's maybe all they care about.
They're not super interested in defending the run. But wherever
(31:14):
you look, whether it be Matt Miller, PFF, Dane Bugler.
Everyone talked about how he might have been the best
run defending corner in this class, Like he's an outstanding
run defender. We asked him about that. On his post
draft press or, he talked about how much he enjoys
being a run defender, Like every single play, it's not
about can I just get an interception here, or is
the ball coming my way? Can I set the edge here?
(31:36):
Or as a running back coming my way? Can I
help my team in any way I can. That's a
mindset thing that just a lot of corners don't have
because they're playing that outside, premium skill position, and that's
a big deal. So Spags is going to love him.
We know that he also has a ton of special
teams experience as well, so I think he'll fit in
right away on special teams. And he gives you flexibility
on the outside where if Trent McDuffie's playing inside more.
(31:58):
Now that Christian Fulton's here in town, you Jillen Watson
as well, you can mix him in the rotation too.
That's just a really good group of long corners who
make your defense better Overall.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
The secondary for the Chiefs in twenty twenty five could
be measurably better. And Noel Williams is part of that.
The knock on him not great straight ahead speed four
or five, but setting the edge. We think about that
in the run game. Which great that you brought that up,
but the edge is also said in this era of football,
on bubble screens, tunnel screens, it cannot get outside. And
(32:32):
the chief corners have done. You go look at Jalen Watson,
you go down to obviously Trent McDuffie, but Joshua Williams,
even Chuarius Ward back in the day where you lock in,
you cannot let that play get outside. The Chiefs are
the best team in this league in defending those kind
of plays because their corners are physical, They're willing to
make plays like that and they get to the outside.
(32:53):
It's even the strip play in Germany of Tyreek Hill.
It's a play, it's a perimeter play, a quick, okay,
quick route, but you cannot let that plaguet outside. If
your corner is physical enough to hold the edge that
somebody can come in and rip the ball out and
then your safeties and backers come to fill that's what
this kid can do, and he does it in his sleep.
(33:13):
Now we go to Saturday. Now we go where everybody's
gone right, accept the Scouts and bird and there and
social and the sixty five TPT Crew and Jalen Royal's
of Utah State, the fighting Aggies from Logan, Utah becomes
a Kansas City chief. I whooped and ran down and started.
(33:35):
I came in and saw you guys so fired up.
And this guy, to me is a Juju Smith Schuster lookalike.
Now let's jump into what's not so obvious about him.
Why did he get to Utah State? He was a
zero star recruit.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
You love this, I love this.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
He goes to Georgia Military. He was a point guard.
So in the summer, guys that want to get to
the NFL go to all these camps. Right, colleges have
their own combines. So issue company might be a regional,
but whatever, And these they go to camps to get
on the circle start to be looked at. He didn't
do any of that. He's playing AEU basketball as a
point guard. This guy could have been a Division one
(34:13):
or high Division two basketball player. Think about Pat Mahomes.
The reason he wasn't was highly recruited. Was the fact
that not only was a baseball prospect, he could have
been a Division one basketball point guard. Okay, this kid
goes under the radar, goes to Georgia Military Institute Junior college. Right,
I said he was in formation, not single back formation,
(34:34):
literal formation with somebody yelling at him. All right, shows
up at Utah State and blows up so here. The
year he had in twenty three was crazy. The only
FBS wide receiver with seventy plus catches, fifteen touchdowns, seventy
five first downs. This dude picked up man and he
stayed loyal to Utah State. He stayed there two years,
(34:58):
and he was going to have another. He gets hurt
seven games into this last year at Utah State. I
cannot wait to meet this kid. I cannot wait to
talk to him. He's got IQ, he's got toughness, looks
like Juju Smith Schuster. But I've often said this, and
I'm fired up. You can tell I like my lineman
to be wrestlers. Yeah, create Humphrey. If you got a
(35:18):
stud athlete who was a stud high school wrestler, love it.
Offensive and defensive line footwork, leverage, move, countermove, hand placement.
I love my wide receivers and quarterbacks to be point
guards in basketball, and that's what this kid is. I'm
fired up about it.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
No, I am too. It might be my favorite pick
of the draft. Again, crazy value here. Look at the
big boards, like Pro Football Focus had him as the
sixty overall player, Dan Bugler had him as the sixty
three overall player. We get him at one thirty three.
And he's not just a flash in the pan guy
like that. Twenty twenty three season gets a lot of attention,
but I think he was off to an even better
(35:54):
start last year. He was fourth in the FBS and
receiving yards per game through seven games when he got injured.
They missed the final five with the foot injury. Maybe
the foot injury is why he fell. I don't know,
but his production was crazy when he was on the field,
and the Juju comp is good because he's kind of
like this like stocky physical receiver. But he's not just
(36:15):
like possession guy that catches the ball and contorts his
body and that's all you get. He's like a big
play machine. I mean, he had ten catches of fifty
or more yards over the last two years, most of
any player in the FBS, nobody had more than this guy.
He has good speed. He runs a four to four
to two like that's a good speed for his size.
(36:35):
But it's his ability to make defenders miss, like in
space that makes him so special. And that's what Juju
was so great at early in his career and it
still is. Seventeen forcemiss tackles last year. That was eighth
among all receivers in the FBS prior to getting injured,
and he averaged eight yards after the catch. Watch this
guy's highlights, like it's endless of him just making players
(36:55):
miss in the open field. He reminds me a lot
of Rashi as well, where he kind of turns in
are running back when he has the ball in his hands.
He's stocky and physical but also elusive at the same time.
I just think Coach Reid's gonna love this guy. Like
stuff behind the line of scrimmage for sure, but also
quick slants ten yards down a field. He'll make a
guy miss and break it off for a big play.
(37:16):
So you had a player like this to a group
that already includes Rashie Rice who will be healthy, Xavier'
worthy obviously had a great season last year, Hollywood Brown
going to be healthy and have a full season now
with the Chiefs and Juju Smith Schuster. I mean, that's
a really, really good group of receivers in compared to
what we had this time last year going into the draft.
(37:36):
I mean, this has just been a revelation. I think.
So we're hoping to see more firepower and more explosiveness
from the offense this year. I think we're gonna get
it because of the guys that we're getting back from injury.
And then you throw this guy in the mix. Just
really fired up about it.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
I've talked about the door hinge receiver. I learned that
in coach reads first year here and back in twenty thirteen,
how important they are. We'll save that for a whole
other episode. But this guy could be your door hinge
receiver and become so vital to this football team. All right.
Then it goes Saturday, just there's a spectacular data. You're
talking about value, immediate impact, and then Jeffrey Bass I
(38:16):
think it's Bess or boss Abassa. But this guy, what
he did at Oregon reminds you. And by the way,
going back to Royals, his high school was Evan Ingram's
High school. It was Bradley Chubbs High School.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
So there's dudes that come out of Jalen Royals High
School and you Royals fans went into were Royals eighty five?
Stay tuned on that. We'll see.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
I can't get him fifteen, but maybe eighty five and.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Sixty nine the first year of Royals existence doesn't work
because that's ineligible, all right, but eighty five would be
kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
It would be you know. I asked him on his
post draft zoom call. I was like, are you a
baseball fan at all? And he's like, you know, I'm
trying to get more into baseball. And I'm like, are
you aware of what the team's name is in Kansas City?
And he is aware. So there's like a marketing opportunity
there that I think you should take advantage of.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Quick Before he throws out the first pitch at a
Royal skame.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
The Royals already tweeted about it, like immediately They're like,
that's a great pick. I mean, how funny is it?
I remember like studying all the receivers and seeing him,
and the thought crossed my mind, how funny would that
be if he ended up here, and of course it
just works out that way.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I'd be like the Royals taking a picture named Ralph Chiefs.
Yeah right, the chief bender of some of those you know.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
So now, yeah, he'll have to go get a Royals jersey,
Royals Royals and then of course his jersey's going to
say Chief's Royals. I just feel like, especially if it
was eighty five, a lot of people are going to
buy this jersey. And if he's as good as that,
we think he's going to be even more, we'll buy.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
It, love it and love the Oregon linebacker and Jeffrey
Bess if you look at him now, a couple of things.
You have to go be on the obvious with all
these guys. We got an MMA fighter, we got a boxer,
we've got a point guard. And this one is a
guy who started as a safety. Fact he came to
Oregon as a safety. To me, you're looking at it,
(39:57):
there's a little bit of Willigay junior in him, because
it looks like the open field kind of linebacker safety combo.
But then you look at what he did four years
of special teams at Oregon four years. So when he
became like mainline starting dude for the Ducks. He didn't
come off special teams. He was awesome and his play
speed is off the charts. But what he did was
(40:20):
in the Senior Bowl was ran the huddle for the
national team. So now you start to think green dot guy,
and he was essentially we know about Nick Bolton and
what he does is the green dot for the Kansas
City Chiefs, the traffic cop air traffic controller. That's what
Jeffrey did for the Oregon Ducks. And so you bring
that into play with a guy that looks like he
(40:41):
can play will maybe some mic, special teams, open field,
hybrid safety, total spags guy, but this looks like a
Dave Tobe guy from day one.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
I get like college val victorian vibes from this guy.
He's really really smart and you can tell it's when
he talked to him and all of the coaches if
he you look at draft guys, they just rave about him.
I mean, this guy is super intelligent and is capable
of handling a lot of information and data coming in
and that's why him being the green dot at Oregon
(41:11):
is so useful because it's really hard to do that,
like the green Dot is the quarterback of the defense.
Like here in Kansas City, it's Nick Bolton, and he's
the one that's relaying everything to everyone on the field
in like an instant. And that's what Jeffrey Bassa did
at Oregon, a big time program, playing a lot of
big time games every single week, and he was the
(41:31):
guy in the middle of the defense calling the whole thing,
and that's really difficult to do. His first game ever
at linebacker was against C. J. Stroud in Ohio State
when he was asked, because of injuries at the linebacker position,
can you move from safety to linebacker? And how cool
is it that he was like, no problem, Sure, I'll
do it. He played safety his whole life, was recruited
(41:52):
as a safety, going to be a safety at Oregon,
got asked to move to linebacker, and he said, yeah,
I'll do it to help the team, and what do
you know, he ended up being really good at it,
super consistent, had at least forty five tackles in all
four seasons at Oregon. You mentioned the special teams experience,
and how cool is it that your green Dot is
playing on special teams? How many major programs is there
(42:13):
green Dot playing on special teams and kick coverage and
stuff like that. Like he just kind of says the
kind of guy that he is, he wants to help
the team any way that he can. And to me,
he reminds me a lot of Drew Tranquil, because Tranquill
was a safety at Notre Dame moved a linebacker. Kind
of that hybrid coverage kind of guy. That's what Basa is.
But Drew also can wear the green dot. I mean
when Nick was hurt a couple of years ago, Drew
(42:35):
was our green dot, and Bassa's the same kind of player.
So if you're looking for kind of a comp to me,
it's Drew Tranquil And yeah, well they Gay is a
great one as well, where super athletic coverage guy can
get out there and cover. And I'm excited about this
because you can never have enough of these guys. He's
going to help us on special teams and also just
makes that linebacker room even deeper with another player who,
(42:55):
god forbid, if you had a bunch of injuries, is
capable of going out there handling all the bullets flying
and the data and can call a defense. Not an
easy thing to do, and we might have gotten another
one here in Jeffrey Bassett.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
We talk about the defensive line rotation. Think of the
linebacker room. Now, this guy walks in with Tranquill and
Leo Chanel and Nick Bolton and Jack Cockran go right
down the line. I mean this, it's a really really
good linebacker room. And I think special teams could be
appreciably better next year, not only because of him, because
of others. And then the last pick. Going into the draft,
(43:26):
I was hoping to get it started. You know, third
down backs. Man, I've just an I can't believe this
is real, what you're about to say. And so I'm
thinking we haven't got the third down back. Now we're
nearing the end of the draft, right, and so but
we have a guy that works in graphic arts here
(43:47):
named Jordan Geesler. A year ago he came into We're
nerding out and all this stuff. He goes, I'm gonna
tell you the guy that I like, and it's Carson Steel.
I go, it looks like the Jungle law guy. Right,
he's got the whole hair, he's he's sure he's not
on Survivor or something. And we end up taking him.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
He was like three hundred and fiftieth on PFF's big board.
I'm like Jordan, I just don't know, and this is
my guy.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
This my guy ball I go ball State, Yeah, ball State, Uclabel.
This year it was Brishard Smith and SMU and this
is what about a week and a half before the
draft goes this is my guy.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
This is my guy.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
So we've looked at him, but it made me go
back and look, oh, okay, look more at this guy
who was a wide receiver at Miami and then transferred
to SMU. SMU then said we're going to make you
a running back. In fact, their quote was We're going
to make you the SMU version of Isaiah Pacheco Burshard Smith. Though, well,
(44:40):
let's go back to what I said. I was wanting
a starting defensive like day one player. Well, okay, think
of the rotation here. We got that covered third down
back p Rhine leaves us goes to Cincinnati, who's the
younger version of Jeric McKinnon. And I cannot wait to
watch Smith because when I've mentioned that to different people,
(45:04):
they've all nodded to the affirmative and the fact that
this guy, yes, he his crazy production crazy. In twenty
twenty five. He ran the ball two hundred and thirty
five times thirteen hundred and thirty two yards six yards
of carry essentially. Then he threw in fourteen rushing touchdowns. Oh,
let's add thirty nine receptions for three hundred and twenty
seven yards all purpose yards. He was fourth in FBS
(45:28):
all parpers Oh, let's see Jantes first. Uh huh, Yeah, okay,
I know he's heard he's going to the Raiders.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Scatoo of Arizona State goes second. Yep. Third was Hampton
who goes to the Charger. He goes to the Chargers
the Divis Division. This kid was fourth. Yeah, Oh my gosh,
crazy production. And when you watch the video, this could
be Jeric McKinnon coming out of SMU.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
So, I know, the Monday after the draft you look
at every single player and you say, this guy is amazing.
How this guy all of us all that. I can't
believe that we got this guy in the seventh round.
Just flip on his tape. It's super just electric. I
mean with the ball in his hands when he has
an opportunity, he is electric. He is four to three
to nine speed. Give the third fastest forty time of
(46:15):
any running back at the combine. You mentioned the ridiculous production.
I mean nearly two thousand yards between rushing, receiving, and
kick return yards. Nineteen plays of twenty or more yards
last year, I was in the top five among all
running backs. And so on one end, he's a former receiver,
like you said, and you can tell, like when he
goes up to attack the ball, he attacks it like
(46:36):
a receiver. Sometimes with running backs it can be kind
of awkward if they didn't do a lot of that,
like in high school or college. But with him, he
runs routes and attacks the ball in the air like
a receiver. But a lot of times if you have
this conversion where you have a receiver go to running back,
they're kind of like a fish out of water. As
a runner, he's not like he has like contact balance.
He's bouncing off defenders. I mean he had eighteen total
(46:59):
touchdowns last year.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
One cut ability. Yes, like he's done it on us.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
You'll make a guy miss. It's incredible. But also like
at least in college, between the tackles, he was getting
tough yards, like moving the pile, like getting the ball
on the two yard line and punching it in for
a touchdown. There's a lot of potential here with this guy.
And that's why he reminds me so much of Jeric,
because Jeric was not the biggest player, but he played
way bigger than he actually was. Jeric was a great
(47:22):
pass blocker, like he would run through defenders twice his size,
and I mean, that's a really lofty comp like Bashard
will have to work to be a Jerck McKinnon in
this league. But it's just impossible not to watch his
tape and think that is Jack McKinnon and to add
a player like this to our offense. We know how
valuable and how effective Jeric was like in the screen
game in the red zone. This guy's perfect for that
(47:45):
kind of thing. So also the new kickoff rule, like
how the kickoff is being moved at the thirty five
Now there's gonna be a lot more kickoffs, and he
has a ton of experience handling kickoffs in college. If
you put a four to three to nine guy back
there who can make players, he has contact balance, he's
perfect to handle kickoff duties. So he'll have to earn
that role. But just I mean Burshard Smith getting him
(48:07):
in the seventh round. I think you let out a
yeah in the hallway after this one too.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Saturday, it was just a hallway.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
I couldn't believe we went around. I couldn't believe because
we had talked about it all week, like like this
guy's available, because everyone was talking about like the top
five or six running backs, like the Caleb Johnson's and
the Scatabooze and all these players, and yeah, those guys
would be great. But I kept thinking like that guy.
Jordan showed us Brashard Smith, like he would be a
lot of fun and he would fit KOA. Treed's offense.
(48:35):
And we got to the seventh round. I guess I
could kind of forgot, And when we took him, I
was like, I cannot believe we got him. He's a chief.
Jordan's two for two.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
And this kickoff return ability. He averaged twenty five yards
on a per attempt and over his college career in
kickoff returns, including a ninety eight yard touchdown on a
kickoff return. And you mentioned the four to three nine speed.
So you're getting a lot with this guy. Super excited
about him. It's always key we talk about how versatile
people are within the organization.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
So when you get a graphic artist and a graphic
designer who can pick your players that this is my guy.
You and I are going to go to him next
year about two months before the draft and going now
who you got?
Speaker 2 (49:16):
He has a reputation to uphold, so you have to.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
Do it way to go. Jordan, You're a very talented dude,
but man, you've now to pick two running backs in
two straight years in this guy. But Brishard Smith completes it.
So overall this class and we're gonna watch him now.
It starts right away this week. As you'll see this
posted this week becomes rookie mini caamp, a lot of
try out guys, undrafted free agents. We'll get into all
(49:40):
that in episodes coming up ahead. But this class, the
class of twenty five, really anxious to see him.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah, and listen, we're very excited about it, but the
reality is the grade is incomplete. I mean, they have
to go out there and play. We think all these
players are going to help us, and we're very excited
about the value and the talent that we brought in here,
but they have to go out there and we won't
know how good this class was for a couple of years.
But one thing I do from time to time is
I go back and look at our episode in twenty
(50:08):
twenty two called the Base Ten, and it was basically
what we're doing right now, immediately after the twenty twenty
two draft class. And we all know how transformative that
class was. We don't win back to back super Bowls,
we don't go to three super Bowls in a row
without that draft class. And it's fun to go back
and listen to what we were saying about those players
(50:29):
and the potential that they could achieve here in Kansas City,
talking about, Hey, I think Trent McDuffie can be one
of the best corners in football. Here's why I think
George Carloftis is going to help our defensive line. Here's
why I think Isaiah Pacheco could help this team. Jill
and Watson can help this team. I love his length,
all that stuff, and it turns out that all worked
out perfectly for the Chiefs. And I'm as fired up
(50:50):
about a draft class about this one. I'm as fired
up about this class as I was about that one
back in twenty twenty two. And again they have to
go out there and earn it and p it. But
hopefully in a couple of years we're looking back at
this episode and saying, man, that class really changed everything
we know about the.
Speaker 1 (51:06):
Base ten system, right, we all use it. The base
ten draft class of twenty twenty two brought us two
Super Bowl championships. The biblical number for perfection is seven.
There's seven in this group. Maybe a couple of years
from now we'll look back and say this was a
perfect pick. But just know this. Do you graduate from
high school or college, or graduate from West Point, you're
(51:27):
identified as the class in which you ended. In the NFL,
you're identified as in the class of where you begin.
And we like the beginning of this class of twenty
twenty five
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