April 12, 2022 • 13 mins
NFL Draft Triple Take (CB), April 12, 2022
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the NFL
Draft Triple Take, presented by U P m C. I'm
Mike pursued it along with Dale Wally and Matt Williamson.
We are prepping you and getting you ready for the
NFL Draft to the extent that we've gone over not
just every position, but now we are in the process
of taking a further review at every position, going over
(00:23):
every position not once, but twice. The difference that's saw
the one but significant first time around. We each gave
you our top five candidates for drafting at the positions
cornerback in terms of what we're talking about today, and
this time around, we're giving you a riser, a faller,
and a sleeper. Now, I'm gonna go just a little
(00:43):
bit out of order on this one because one of
the dynamics that has developed as we've done these one
of the characteristics is that Dale and Matt, who are
each other's work wife, her husband, whoever you want to
phrase that, they they performed so admirably together on the
drive on s n R. They have often come up
(01:03):
with the same guy this time around whatever, the same
rise or the same fall or the same sleeper, but
this time, guys, we we completed the hat trick. We
are are follower is unanimous, and he is uh darien. Yeah, Georgia,
you want to lead us off and then we'll all
just give a little insight as to why, oh my god,
(01:26):
this guy played defense for the national champs and he's falling.
How can this be? Yeah, he's he's won a lot
of football games, He's been an integral part for a
couple of teams. But he has some off the field things,
you know that we're a worry before all this process.
I think playing on that awesome Georgia defense gives you
some leeway too. It makes life a little easier when
the pass rush is getting home like that. But you know,
(01:48):
he didn't work out at the combine and ran a
four seven five in the forty and his jumps were
also pretty poor, so his tenure split was really slow too.
I mean, it just was had a good workout for
him at all. And is Matt mentioned that off the
field stuff? I mean he got kicked out of Clemson,
asked to leave Clemson, and ended up at Georgia. Talk
(02:09):
about going for like how does that happen? Like, oh, yeah, okay,
we're gonna leave this national championship program to go to
this one. Uh, you know, so good for him, but
those times that that workout did not help him at all.
And and uh he might have to move to safety. Yeah,
it's interesting. You know, he was a wide receiver Clemson
initially I think fifteen passes for their for their national
(02:33):
championship team. In team he eventually got kicked out. And
the head coach Dabos when he says he loves them,
and you know, it's just it's just something that happened.
He doesn't hold it against the kid. Uh. Kirby smart
raved about him. Uh, particularly after Georgia thump Michigan. He
was the m v P of the Orange Bowl, the
National Championship semi final, a couple of interceptions, but uh,
(02:56):
you mentioned those times. And you know, one of the
things we've talked about a lot during these shows is
that being great it's not as great as it usually
is because there's so many freaks out there that have
gone so far past what our normal standard is for
being really impressed. This is not the year to be
going the other way, particularly off the field. There's just
(03:18):
too many people available that don't have bad times. That
don't have a relatively checkered past, too many strikes against him.
You know, he needed he needed to run well to
kind of alleviate some of those issues for the off
the field stuff, and it just didn't happen. Day. Let's
stick with you will do rise or second? Usually we
lead off with that, but uh, well we'll take that
(03:40):
second this time around. Who you got? I got Tarik
wool in a Texas, San Antonio And and this is
a guy again who caught my eye at a Senior Bowl. Uh.
They were putting out a spreadsheet every day down there
that they send out to the media of who were
the fastest guys. Uh. During the practices they had the
trackers on them, and he ran like twenty three was
(04:02):
a late was a late addition to the Senior Bowl.
And I'm like, okay, I gotta start watching this guy.
So I watched him in the next couple of practice, Like, wow,
is he big? I didn't know how big? Six four
two oh five and he had a four to six
forty at the at the NFL scouting combine, he had
a forty two inch vertical. You want to talk freaky athletes,
this guy might be the freakiest athlete in this entire draft. Um,
(04:24):
now he's gonna be raw. Um you know U T.
S A Is not a big time program. But man,
you could take this guy in the in the you know,
in that day two and and mold him a little
bit and you're gonna have something there. Because at six
four two oh five, to be that fast shouldn't be
humanly possible. And they have a lot of those guys
(04:47):
that are. They're really long striders, are really high cut
like sprinters, you know, like you saying bowl. But he
can change direction and drop his hips. There's a lot
to work with their Yeah, I'd like that, you know.
I wasn't gonna overthink him. Six four two oh five,
four point to six. I had him number five when
we did the top five. Now, I think that was
way higher than most people initially assessed this stuff, which
(05:10):
is why I had relatively low hanging fruit from my riser.
I went with Roger McCreary of Auburn, who's a really
good player, just missed cracking my top five, but uh,
he's just checking the boxes as a lot of them are,
just maybe not in an unprecedented fashion, but uh, really
(05:30):
good football player. Got his forty down to four point
four six at the Auburn Pro Day. Uh. The only
thing I don't like about him is everybody keeps talking
about this story how he child's baked beans with sugar.
That's his that's his favorite meal. And uh, I don't
know if I want to be around him while he's
eating it. I don't know if I want to be
(05:51):
around him after he's eating He's sitting around the campfire,
you know, like a blazing saddle style secret weapon on
the field. But he he does not lack confidence and
coming out of the SEC. Why would he because there
have been many, many, many receivers coming out of the
SEC last couple of years. He's seen them all. Yeah.
(06:11):
Good football player. Uh yeah. In this draft, if you
didn't run a sub for four at the cornerback position,
nobody's gonna talk about you. Matt. Uh you went up
to a happy valley for your riser. Yeah. I almost
went with Jalen Armar Davis from Alabama. Yeah, as I
say it, But I went with another guy, a young
(06:32):
man with three names here in three castro fields from
Penn State. Um. I think he has some technique work
to do. I think he's gonna, you know, need a
little bit of time. A boy he has traits. I
mean he's six to almost two hundred pounds long, like
he's built in a lab to play press man coverage.
He's also flexible. We can go up and play the
(06:53):
ball high pointed and he ran a four three forty
And indeed, so I'll take my chances on developing him.
This is becoming more of a thing, is it not.
We're getting away from this guy had eighteen sacks, and
we're getting more towards projecting what a guy with this
height and this weight that runs an x x x
(07:15):
forty yard dash. We're getting more towards that part of
it than we are the proven production, are we not?
I think so. I mean especially this time of year.
And I think that at times, that's when mistakes are
made to you forget what you're watched on tape, you know,
and you just kind of what have you done for
me lately? Process at times, and I think there's some
(07:36):
mistakes made that way. But I also think analytics has
something to do with it that if I see all
these measurables and I've got ten years of data to
look at, when my hit rates pretty good. I'm gonna
stay in that lane. You know, it works out well
when when both things mesh, when you have production and
and that. But you look at the other way, I mean,
(08:00):
why didn't he have any sacks? Why didn't he have
any production? Because he has all these athletic traits, so
he goes both ways. Stay with you, Dale, interesting sleep
where you came up with. Yeah, I'm gonna stay at
the small school guys, kind of like I did with U. T.
S A. I'm going to Sam Houston State from my
sleeper cornerback as Ziam McCullum again, another good size cornerback
(08:23):
six to one. He ran a four three three forty
at the combine with a thirty nine inch vertical and
then at a three nine four twenty yards shuttle. Um.
This is a guy who not only has those intangibles,
the the athleticism, he had thirteen interceptions in college as well.
I mean he's actually got production as well as measurables. Yeah,
(08:44):
you know, but again it's a small school. He originally
signed with Utah coming out of coming out of college
or out of high school in in in Texas as
a twin brother. The twin brother and he decided they
wanted to stay closer to home. They're both I guess
they lined up at safety in high school. They were
the two starting efeties and they're they're identical twin brothers.
Go figure that out, uh, you know, trying to figure
(09:04):
out that if you're a quarterback. So you know, they
ended up going to Sam Houston State. And again it
was a five year player there, which you're going to
see a lot of those guys in this year's draft.
But thirteen interceptions in five seasons, that's good. That's pretty
good ball skills for me. Now you're keeping it in
the lone star state. Tell us about Marcus Jones from Houston.
(09:25):
He is five eights exactly. He's not five eight and
a quarter. Uh. He doesn't have long arms, he has
a small hands. He's only a slot corner and we
can you know, discuss, you know, what's a true slot
worth in today's NFL. But everything else is about to
say about him is awesome. I love this player. He
is unbelievably twitchy, He has great feet, He is you know,
(09:50):
designed to deal with the Edelman's and the Welker types
out of the slot. He is tough, he has great
ball skills. Um, he's a valuable contributor on defense, but
only in that role. But this is what I love
about him. He's the best returner in the entire class.
I mean, he has nine career return touchdowns and also
(10:12):
will run down on punts and kickoffs. As a gunner.
You know, he'll stick his face in the fire. Maybe
his new team even hands him the football or gets
him on offense. I mean, this guy is a great
football player, and I truly believe if he were six
ft he might be a top ten day he were
five ten, he might be. Right now, he just he
just isn't. That's the only problem, right, he never will be.
(10:36):
My sleeper is a Lante Taylor of Tennessee, a guy
who at the start of the process people were wondering
is he a corner or is he his safety? Well,
he ran really well at Tennessee's pro day. Uh well,
actually in Indianapolis as well. Um six ft hundred and
nine nine pounds, and one of his biggest backers throughout
(10:58):
this offseason process has been Jim Nagy, who's the executive
director of the Senior Bowl. He's seen a lot of
these guys come and go. He says that Taylor. Nagy says,
Taylor is inarguably the most innately physical corner available. Not
I don't know if he's that, but he's physical and
he can run it. So again, don't have to to
(11:20):
go too too far. Once you get into, uh, the
portion of the draft where the sleepers are are being
heard from, all the more reason to go with the
measurables and and the you know, projections as opposed to
the production. Not that he's a bad player at Tennessee
binding stretch of the imagination, but I think as this
process has continued, he's shown people he is a corner
(11:40):
and he might be a pretty good one. Yeah, that's
a nice sleeper there. I think it is. If Nagy
is his biggest supporter, Ramon and Foster might be his
second biggest supporter, because well, anybody who went to Tennessee,
that's you know, automatically the way that goes. Yeah, I'll
never forget the one year Ramon showed up to camp
and he had to tee the tennis See logo wheel
(12:00):
covers and then he got he got out of the clippers. Yeah,
come for you remote, you know what, forever that's gonna
do it for quarterbacks. Probably not a moment too soon.
I was about ready to start singing the sport and
fight song. I was getting so fired up. You can
(12:22):
get all this stuff on all the Steelers social media platforms. Uh,
thank you for finding us. We we appreciate it. If
you've been with us all along, we really appreciate it.
If you're new to the show, well we're happy about
that as well. We're gonna keep doing it right up
until Draft night, uh late April, the first round on
(12:42):
a Thursday night, then rounds two and three on a Friday,
and then it finishes up on Saturday. And uh, if
if you're not prepared as you need to be by
then it's because well you just haven't been paying close
enough attention. That's gonna do it for us. For Matt
Williamson and Dale Lollly on Mike, pursuit of this has
been still another edition to the NFL Draft Triple Take,
(13:05):
presented by U P m C
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the NFL
Draft Triple Take, presented by U P m C. I'm
Mike pursued it along with Dale Wally and Matt Williamson.
We are prepping you and getting you ready for the
NFL Draft to the extent that we've gone over not
just every position, but now we are in the process
of taking a further review at every position, going over
(00:23):
every position not once, but twice. The difference that's saw
the one but significant first time around. We each gave
you our top five candidates for drafting at the positions
cornerback in terms of what we're talking about today, and
this time around, we're giving you a riser, a faller,
and a sleeper. Now, I'm gonna go just a little
(00:43):
bit out of order on this one because one of
the dynamics that has developed as we've done these one
of the characteristics is that Dale and Matt, who are
each other's work wife, her husband, whoever you want to
phrase that, they they performed so admirably together on the
drive on s n R. They have often come up
(01:03):
with the same guy this time around whatever, the same
rise or the same fall or the same sleeper, but
this time, guys, we we completed the hat trick. We
are are follower is unanimous, and he is uh darien. Yeah, Georgia,
you want to lead us off and then we'll all
just give a little insight as to why, oh my god,
(01:26):
this guy played defense for the national champs and he's falling.
How can this be? Yeah, he's he's won a lot
of football games, He's been an integral part for a
couple of teams. But he has some off the field things,
you know that we're a worry before all this process.
I think playing on that awesome Georgia defense gives you
some leeway too. It makes life a little easier when
the pass rush is getting home like that. But you know,
(01:48):
he didn't work out at the combine and ran a
four seven five in the forty and his jumps were
also pretty poor, so his tenure split was really slow too.
I mean, it just was had a good workout for
him at all. And is Matt mentioned that off the
field stuff? I mean he got kicked out of Clemson,
asked to leave Clemson, and ended up at Georgia. Talk
(02:09):
about going for like how does that happen? Like, oh, yeah, okay,
we're gonna leave this national championship program to go to
this one. Uh, you know, so good for him, but
those times that that workout did not help him at all.
And and uh he might have to move to safety. Yeah,
it's interesting. You know, he was a wide receiver Clemson
initially I think fifteen passes for their for their national
(02:33):
championship team. In team he eventually got kicked out. And
the head coach Dabos when he says he loves them,
and you know, it's just it's just something that happened.
He doesn't hold it against the kid. Uh. Kirby smart
raved about him. Uh, particularly after Georgia thump Michigan. He
was the m v P of the Orange Bowl, the
National Championship semi final, a couple of interceptions, but uh,
(02:56):
you mentioned those times. And you know, one of the
things we've talked about a lot during these shows is
that being great it's not as great as it usually
is because there's so many freaks out there that have
gone so far past what our normal standard is for
being really impressed. This is not the year to be
going the other way, particularly off the field. There's just
(03:18):
too many people available that don't have bad times. That
don't have a relatively checkered past, too many strikes against him.
You know, he needed he needed to run well to
kind of alleviate some of those issues for the off
the field stuff, and it just didn't happen. Day. Let's
stick with you will do rise or second? Usually we
lead off with that, but uh, well we'll take that
(03:40):
second this time around. Who you got? I got Tarik
wool in a Texas, San Antonio And and this is
a guy again who caught my eye at a Senior Bowl. Uh.
They were putting out a spreadsheet every day down there
that they send out to the media of who were
the fastest guys. Uh. During the practices they had the
trackers on them, and he ran like twenty three was
(04:02):
a late was a late addition to the Senior Bowl.
And I'm like, okay, I gotta start watching this guy.
So I watched him in the next couple of practice, Like, wow,
is he big? I didn't know how big? Six four
two oh five and he had a four to six
forty at the at the NFL scouting combine, he had
a forty two inch vertical. You want to talk freaky athletes,
this guy might be the freakiest athlete in this entire draft. Um,
(04:24):
now he's gonna be raw. Um you know U T.
S A Is not a big time program. But man,
you could take this guy in the in the you know,
in that day two and and mold him a little
bit and you're gonna have something there. Because at six
four two oh five, to be that fast shouldn't be
humanly possible. And they have a lot of those guys
(04:47):
that are. They're really long striders, are really high cut
like sprinters, you know, like you saying bowl. But he
can change direction and drop his hips. There's a lot
to work with their Yeah, I'd like that, you know.
I wasn't gonna overthink him. Six four two oh five,
four point to six. I had him number five when
we did the top five. Now, I think that was
way higher than most people initially assessed this stuff, which
(05:10):
is why I had relatively low hanging fruit from my riser.
I went with Roger McCreary of Auburn, who's a really
good player, just missed cracking my top five, but uh,
he's just checking the boxes as a lot of them are,
just maybe not in an unprecedented fashion, but uh, really
(05:30):
good football player. Got his forty down to four point
four six at the Auburn Pro Day. Uh. The only
thing I don't like about him is everybody keeps talking
about this story how he child's baked beans with sugar.
That's his that's his favorite meal. And uh, I don't
know if I want to be around him while he's
eating it. I don't know if I want to be
(05:51):
around him after he's eating He's sitting around the campfire,
you know, like a blazing saddle style secret weapon on
the field. But he he does not lack confidence and
coming out of the SEC. Why would he because there
have been many, many, many receivers coming out of the
SEC last couple of years. He's seen them all. Yeah.
(06:11):
Good football player. Uh yeah. In this draft, if you
didn't run a sub for four at the cornerback position,
nobody's gonna talk about you. Matt. Uh you went up
to a happy valley for your riser. Yeah. I almost
went with Jalen Armar Davis from Alabama. Yeah, as I
say it, But I went with another guy, a young
(06:32):
man with three names here in three castro fields from
Penn State. Um. I think he has some technique work
to do. I think he's gonna, you know, need a
little bit of time. A boy he has traits. I
mean he's six to almost two hundred pounds long, like
he's built in a lab to play press man coverage.
He's also flexible. We can go up and play the
(06:53):
ball high pointed and he ran a four three forty
And indeed, so I'll take my chances on developing him.
This is becoming more of a thing, is it not.
We're getting away from this guy had eighteen sacks, and
we're getting more towards projecting what a guy with this
height and this weight that runs an x x x
(07:15):
forty yard dash. We're getting more towards that part of
it than we are the proven production, are we not?
I think so. I mean especially this time of year.
And I think that at times, that's when mistakes are
made to you forget what you're watched on tape, you know,
and you just kind of what have you done for
me lately? Process at times, and I think there's some
(07:36):
mistakes made that way. But I also think analytics has
something to do with it that if I see all
these measurables and I've got ten years of data to
look at, when my hit rates pretty good. I'm gonna
stay in that lane. You know, it works out well
when when both things mesh, when you have production and
and that. But you look at the other way, I mean,
(08:00):
why didn't he have any sacks? Why didn't he have
any production? Because he has all these athletic traits, so
he goes both ways. Stay with you, Dale, interesting sleep
where you came up with. Yeah, I'm gonna stay at
the small school guys, kind of like I did with U. T.
S A. I'm going to Sam Houston State from my
sleeper cornerback as Ziam McCullum again, another good size cornerback
(08:23):
six to one. He ran a four three three forty
at the combine with a thirty nine inch vertical and
then at a three nine four twenty yards shuttle. Um.
This is a guy who not only has those intangibles,
the the athleticism, he had thirteen interceptions in college as well.
I mean he's actually got production as well as measurables. Yeah,
(08:44):
you know, but again it's a small school. He originally
signed with Utah coming out of coming out of college
or out of high school in in in Texas as
a twin brother. The twin brother and he decided they
wanted to stay closer to home. They're both I guess
they lined up at safety in high school. They were
the two starting efeties and they're they're identical twin brothers.
Go figure that out, uh, you know, trying to figure
(09:04):
out that if you're a quarterback. So you know, they
ended up going to Sam Houston State. And again it
was a five year player there, which you're going to
see a lot of those guys in this year's draft.
But thirteen interceptions in five seasons, that's good. That's pretty
good ball skills for me. Now you're keeping it in
the lone star state. Tell us about Marcus Jones from Houston.
(09:25):
He is five eights exactly. He's not five eight and
a quarter. Uh. He doesn't have long arms, he has
a small hands. He's only a slot corner and we
can you know, discuss, you know, what's a true slot
worth in today's NFL. But everything else is about to
say about him is awesome. I love this player. He
is unbelievably twitchy, He has great feet, He is you know,
(09:50):
designed to deal with the Edelman's and the Welker types
out of the slot. He is tough, he has great
ball skills. Um, he's a valuable contributor on defense, but
only in that role. But this is what I love
about him. He's the best returner in the entire class.
I mean, he has nine career return touchdowns and also
(10:12):
will run down on punts and kickoffs. As a gunner.
You know, he'll stick his face in the fire. Maybe
his new team even hands him the football or gets
him on offense. I mean, this guy is a great
football player, and I truly believe if he were six
ft he might be a top ten day he were
five ten, he might be. Right now, he just he
just isn't. That's the only problem, right, he never will be.
(10:36):
My sleeper is a Lante Taylor of Tennessee, a guy
who at the start of the process people were wondering
is he a corner or is he his safety? Well,
he ran really well at Tennessee's pro day. Uh well,
actually in Indianapolis as well. Um six ft hundred and
nine nine pounds, and one of his biggest backers throughout
(10:58):
this offseason process has been Jim Nagy, who's the executive
director of the Senior Bowl. He's seen a lot of
these guys come and go. He says that Taylor. Nagy says,
Taylor is inarguably the most innately physical corner available. Not
I don't know if he's that, but he's physical and
he can run it. So again, don't have to to
(11:20):
go too too far. Once you get into, uh, the
portion of the draft where the sleepers are are being
heard from, all the more reason to go with the
measurables and and the you know, projections as opposed to
the production. Not that he's a bad player at Tennessee
binding stretch of the imagination, but I think as this
process has continued, he's shown people he is a corner
(11:40):
and he might be a pretty good one. Yeah, that's
a nice sleeper there. I think it is. If Nagy
is his biggest supporter, Ramon and Foster might be his
second biggest supporter, because well, anybody who went to Tennessee,
that's you know, automatically the way that goes. Yeah, I'll
never forget the one year Ramon showed up to camp
and he had to tee the tennis See logo wheel
(12:00):
covers and then he got he got out of the clippers. Yeah,
come for you remote, you know what, forever that's gonna
do it for quarterbacks. Probably not a moment too soon.
I was about ready to start singing the sport and
fight song. I was getting so fired up. You can
(12:22):
get all this stuff on all the Steelers social media platforms. Uh,
thank you for finding us. We we appreciate it. If
you've been with us all along, we really appreciate it.
If you're new to the show, well we're happy about
that as well. We're gonna keep doing it right up
until Draft night, uh late April, the first round on
(12:42):
a Thursday night, then rounds two and three on a Friday,
and then it finishes up on Saturday. And uh, if
if you're not prepared as you need to be by
then it's because well you just haven't been paying close
enough attention. That's gonna do it for us. For Matt
Williamson and Dale Lollly on Mike, pursuit of this has
been still another edition to the NFL Draft Triple Take,
(13:05):
presented by U P m C
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