April 8, 2022 • 13 mins
NFL Draft Triple Take (DT), April 8, 2022
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of NFL Draft
Triple Take, presented by U P m C Mike Pursuit
of Matt Williamson and Dale all your three stars of
draft preparation. If I could mix in a hockey analogy,
and I can, because I'm running this stuff. If you've
been paying attention throughout the process of these programs, you
(00:20):
know that we've already gone through, position by position the
best of the prospects. Uh. In advance of the upcoming
NFL Draft in late April four our further review portion
of the process, we are taking a second look at
the positions, but under the context of riser, faller, and sleeper.
We're not giving you our five top candidates. We're just
(00:41):
sort of picking and choosing. And it's been a lot
of fun to do it that way, and we're gonna
have some more fun today as we do defensive tackles.
Let's uh jump right into it, uh, Dale, your riser
is a guy from the University Connecticut that has been
rising for a while now. Yeah, not basketball player either,
from the University of Connecticut, Travis Jones. You know I
(01:04):
I saw him at the Senior Bowl and he looks
really good. He has heavy hands when he when he
strikes the offensive lineman there, they he jolts them, and
I'm thinking, Okay, maybe he's available somewhere in the middle
of the second round. He's starting after a really good combine.
You know, everybody talked about the two Georgia guys. He's
six four and ran a four nine to He's really athletic. Yeah,
(01:31):
I mean that that's just kind of what's happening with
these guys this year. But you know, you watch him
on tape. He gets to the quarterbacks, he can rush
the pass her a little bit there because of those
good hands, and there's maybe a little bit of buzz
and he may sneak into the end of the first round.
Now he's not making it to the middle of the
second round. Matt, you got the same guy. I've been
(01:51):
doing that a lot. I'm stunned by that, But I
was doing the yawn thing because the Dale's point, there's
a lot of guys that people would be doing back
flips over if it wasn't for the Georgia guys, and
this guy is probably one of them. Yeah, I mean,
everyone looks at Jordan Davis and goes, wow, that's a freaky,
massive human being nose tackle modern day NFL, and I
(02:12):
think Travis Jones isn't that far off. And to reiterate
what they was saying origine, I looked at him and said, oh,
he's a good prospect day two guy, and you know,
maybe even late second round. I think he could go
Thursday night after just tearing up every step of the way.
You know, like Dale said, Senior Bowl, great, check that box, Combine,
check that box. I mean it sounds like the interviews
(02:33):
are good and things like that. He's a dominant player
that can eat up blocks but also push the pocket. Yeah,
I think he was in my top five and the
Senior Bowl was kind of his coming out party. But uh,
no end in sight to the tension he's been generating.
I'm cheating a little bit on my rise or I
went with Logan Hall of Houston. Uh, Houston called to me,
(02:54):
defensive lineman. I think he's more People would classify him
as an end than an interior guy, and at six
eight three, I can see why you would do that.
But he was most effective to me in a four
man front, a sub package pass rush scheme where he
was one of the two interior guys, and uh, those
guys are in demand now. You don't have to be
(03:15):
a starter to contribute on defense. If you can get
to the quarterback. Uh, there's a spot for you. And
I think this guy can do it. Uh. He's a
good looking athlete, ran Well, and I like Daniel Jeremiah's
description how he gets around blocks either off of them
or between him. He gets skinny, big guy, you know
two and eight three founds. He finds a way to
get skinny and swim through there. So pretty good technique
(03:37):
and Houston a pretty good program for producing defensive lineman.
Something to be said for going back to the Well
in terms of Faller, Mike, real quick, I don't think
you're cheating at all with Hall. I mean, look a
lot of these six six long arm Eric Armstead, the
forrest Buckner types that they line up inside more to
do out now you know they louse problems. Yeah, like
(03:59):
if if you will allow it, Matt, who am I
to argue? I'll take that. Matt. Let's just stick with you,
since you just gave me a gold star for what
I thought was a chief Uh, your follower, I'm stunned again.
Not only are you agreeing with Lollie or is Lolly
agreeing with you? But you have less than complimentary things
to say about a guy from Texas A and MC.
(04:20):
They just keep popping up, and it's been a few
in a row now, and this is uh the Marvin leeal.
And part of it's because, you know, after the last draft,
and he can't overreact to these things. Everyone's talking about
this guy like, oh, he's gonna be a top ten
pick two thousand, twenty two, five star recruit. And I
keep watching him and I keep trying to really like
(04:40):
him and see it. But in his case, I think
the word tweener is a negative thing. You know, for
many many years tweeners. Is this just a strong safety
or a linebacker? He's a tweener. He's neither. Now the
league loves tweeners, you know, kind of like you mentioned
with Hall, is he an ender? Tackle doesn't matter? Bump
him in. I look at Leal though, and the thing
he's most comfortable would end but he's not really twitchy
(05:03):
enough or you know, explosive off the edge. And then
when they bump him inside, he doesn't have that Hall
impact as a pass rusher, and he gets pushed around
a little bit, so I'm just not sure what to
do with them. Still, you went with a guy. I'm
a little upset by this. Uh, not that you're wrong
on your assessment of John Ridgeway of Arkansas, but apparently
(05:24):
you were not swayed. And I'm sure you are aware,
as a lot of people are, that this kid likes
to call himself the Vanilla Gorilla, which, if you're gonna
give yourself a nickname, not a bad effort, right, but
not a bad effort. I I'm I'm in the camp though,
that you can't give yourself your own nickname. It has
to be it has to be put on you by
somebody else. You know. When the draft process started, I
(05:48):
thought this guy might be a Day two guy. Uh.
The more I watched him, doesn't really give you much
of a pass rush. He's a big guys, He's probably
a straight nose, but a five point three second forty
yar dash eight four on the broad jump, just no
explosiveness there. Um. He is a former wrestler, which is
a check in his cat, you know, in his his
(06:08):
ledger for him. Um, but he just doesn't have much
of a pass rush plan. And if you're gonna be
a day two pick or better, you've probably better rushed
the pass her. So I think he follows the day
three sometime. Um, you know, he's he's just basically a big,
run stuffing defensive tackle. Not that there's anything wrong with that,
(06:28):
but as we've seen that, the league doesn't value those
guys quite as as much as the guys who at
least give you a little something as a pass rusher. Yeah,
I'm kind of uh following the same sort of thought
process my follower, faller, excuse me, and you're not going
to agree with this, dale because it's the same guy
that you're gonna get to for your sleeper in a minute.
But oh, Tito Obonia from u c l A. You know,
(06:51):
six ft four three four pounds, twenty nine reps on
the bench. He's a former shot put guy, not just
in high school at U c l A. This drength
is there. I don't see the strength and play all
that much. I don't see him do all that much.
And he did not run a ford to combine and
then he got a hamstring early in the drill portion
(07:13):
of his day. Reportedly he did not run at U
c l A's pro day. So he's kind of stuck
in neutrals. I put it in the written version of
this program, and I had a hard time figuring out
what to make of this kid, because you know, at
six four three twenty four and from a big time
school such as U C l A. I want to
like him. I didn't know what to make up, so
(07:33):
I deferred to Lance zero Line of NFL dot Com,
who assessed in his right up that uh Obonia does
not have the pad level or the quote parking break
to hold it down as a three four nose. He said,
he's not an NFL pass rush threat. He's got heavy feet.
It's a strong guy. Maybe should go back to the
shop put circle. I don't know the reason he was
(07:55):
my sleeper Mike was I I watched him. He showed
up a lot during the scene year Bowl practices, and
I don't know if that made it on the TV
or not, but he was very active in those uh
running and chasing down guys and and things of that nature.
I like the way his motor ran. Uh. That's in
that situation. There were some times where he did get
blocked and double teamed and things of that nature. That's
(08:18):
gonna happen to those guys. Uh, but I think there's
I think there's some tools there from what I saw
a guy that a guy that I just i'd like
to see a little more, a little more often, I guess. Yeah.
And I think because he didn't run and didn't test
and do all those things, that's why I put him
on my sleeper list because I think he's kind of
an untapped Well yeah, I mean nobody knows really what
(08:43):
it is. Kind of like you know, when the guys
who had the later pro days uh that didn't work
out at the at the at the combine are kind
of out of sight, out of mind, and so other
people were moving up the boards and things of that nature. Well,
these guys were never went anywhere on the boards. Um,
you know, we'll see where they with this works out
for those guys. But I like the player. I liked
what I saw of him at the Senior Bowl. Um,
(09:05):
we'll see where he goes. Matt, You're sleeper uh comes
from Oh my god, the Southeastern Conference. Yeah, l s
U guy Ferrell just kind of sticking with the nose
tackle theme. You know that. I think this guy kind
of you. I mentioned how Jones got overlooked because of
Jordan Davis. Well, I think both those guys are over,
you know, making Farrell kind of an afterthought and l
(09:27):
s U really had a down year. A lot of
their prospects took a step backwards, but not this guy.
I mean, he got the full opportunity to really play
the nose full time for the first time this year,
and I thought he took a monster step forward. And
I just wanted to keep, you know, keep talking about
these giant pluggers because the league wants to play you know,
lighter boxes nowadays, and I think these guys are starting
(09:49):
to rise in demand. Yeah, no question. It's a great
point because, uh, if you can get a guy with
size who can get you the push, then you're you're
covered with the smaller bodies. Mind I'm cheating again on
my sleeper. Thomas Booker from Stanford, who actually has called
a defensive end by Stanford, But again, I think he's
an inside guy. Played inside a lot, not a ton
(10:12):
of production here, but his last year taught me, uh,
maybe production is not all that important, at least not
as important as I used to think it was. Because
guys that either played little and did little or didn't
play at all, the previous year had had very impressive
rookie years. Last year, Booker six three, three hundred and
one pounds. And he's one of these guys we've talked
(10:34):
about this in a couple of positions. Doesn't look anywhere
near three hundred one pounds. He just looks like a thick,
solid athlete that can do a lot of different things.
And it might be one of those guys, uh that
does a little bit better in the NFL then than
he did a college for whatever reason. But ran really
well in Indianapolis. Not one of those, uh, Matt to
(10:54):
your earlier point, not one of those three hundred plus
pound guys who ran a sub five forty. But it
wasn't as fast as the Georgia guys. So who cares
Dale wasn't as fastest Travis Jones, So who cares but
three hundred pounds under under five and uh. He's also
a former team captain and a finalist for the William V.
(11:15):
Campbell Award, which is the academic heisman. He's been active
in the community. Its checks all the intangible boxes. I
think he's got the physical skill set to make some
things happen. Yeah, I mean, I assume he's obviously very
book smart, being a booker from Stanford and and uh,
(11:35):
those guys. You know, I think sometimes intelligence gets overlooked
as a treat with these guys. Yeah, you know, I
think it's smart. I think if you're able to learn
quickly and learn and take it directly from the classroom
to the field, Um, it gets you on the field
a lot quicker than the guy. He may be more talented,
but it takes him a few more reps physical reps
(11:57):
to learn what he's supposed to do. Yeah, and I
think Stanford, for whatever reason, gets more credit for that
than any other institute. The Stanford guys gotta be smart.
I mean, you know, it's it's it's the Michigan state
of the West, so it likes to think. I want
to remind everybody that you can catch all of these programs, uh,
all of our pre draft stuff as uh we called,
(12:20):
for lack of a better term, all of it is
available on all of the Steelers social media platforms. You
can catch Matt and Dale on the Drive on s
n R. You guys talking to any draft on the drive.
Just so we keep ending up with the same guys
in here. We've talked about all these guys for months now. Well,
(12:41):
we'll be talking about it again sooner rather than later.
Until then, I want to thank everybody for finding us,
however and wherever you found us, for Matt Williamson and
Dale lolly On Mike. Pursuit of this has been another
addition to the NFL Draft Triple Take, presented by U
P m C
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of NFL Draft
Triple Take, presented by U P m C Mike Pursuit
of Matt Williamson and Dale all your three stars of
draft preparation. If I could mix in a hockey analogy,
and I can, because I'm running this stuff. If you've
been paying attention throughout the process of these programs, you
(00:20):
know that we've already gone through, position by position the
best of the prospects. Uh. In advance of the upcoming
NFL Draft in late April four our further review portion
of the process, we are taking a second look at
the positions, but under the context of riser, faller, and sleeper.
We're not giving you our five top candidates. We're just
(00:41):
sort of picking and choosing. And it's been a lot
of fun to do it that way, and we're gonna
have some more fun today as we do defensive tackles.
Let's uh jump right into it, uh, Dale, your riser
is a guy from the University Connecticut that has been
rising for a while now. Yeah, not basketball player either,
from the University of Connecticut, Travis Jones. You know I
(01:04):
I saw him at the Senior Bowl and he looks
really good. He has heavy hands when he when he
strikes the offensive lineman there, they he jolts them, and
I'm thinking, Okay, maybe he's available somewhere in the middle
of the second round. He's starting after a really good combine.
You know, everybody talked about the two Georgia guys. He's
six four and ran a four nine to He's really athletic. Yeah,
(01:31):
I mean that that's just kind of what's happening with
these guys this year. But you know, you watch him
on tape. He gets to the quarterbacks, he can rush
the pass her a little bit there because of those
good hands, and there's maybe a little bit of buzz
and he may sneak into the end of the first round.
Now he's not making it to the middle of the
second round. Matt, you got the same guy. I've been
(01:51):
doing that a lot. I'm stunned by that, But I
was doing the yawn thing because the Dale's point, there's
a lot of guys that people would be doing back
flips over if it wasn't for the Georgia guys, and
this guy is probably one of them. Yeah, I mean,
everyone looks at Jordan Davis and goes, wow, that's a freaky,
massive human being nose tackle modern day NFL, and I
(02:12):
think Travis Jones isn't that far off. And to reiterate
what they was saying origine, I looked at him and said, oh,
he's a good prospect day two guy, and you know,
maybe even late second round. I think he could go
Thursday night after just tearing up every step of the way.
You know, like Dale said, Senior Bowl, great, check that box, Combine,
check that box. I mean it sounds like the interviews
(02:33):
are good and things like that. He's a dominant player
that can eat up blocks but also push the pocket. Yeah,
I think he was in my top five and the
Senior Bowl was kind of his coming out party. But uh,
no end in sight to the tension he's been generating.
I'm cheating a little bit on my rise or I
went with Logan Hall of Houston. Uh, Houston called to me,
(02:54):
defensive lineman. I think he's more People would classify him
as an end than an interior guy, and at six
eight three, I can see why you would do that.
But he was most effective to me in a four
man front, a sub package pass rush scheme where he
was one of the two interior guys, and uh, those
guys are in demand now. You don't have to be
(03:15):
a starter to contribute on defense. If you can get
to the quarterback. Uh, there's a spot for you. And
I think this guy can do it. Uh. He's a
good looking athlete, ran Well, and I like Daniel Jeremiah's
description how he gets around blocks either off of them
or between him. He gets skinny, big guy, you know
two and eight three founds. He finds a way to
get skinny and swim through there. So pretty good technique
(03:37):
and Houston a pretty good program for producing defensive lineman.
Something to be said for going back to the Well
in terms of Faller, Mike, real quick, I don't think
you're cheating at all with Hall. I mean, look a
lot of these six six long arm Eric Armstead, the
forrest Buckner types that they line up inside more to
do out now you know they louse problems. Yeah, like
(03:59):
if if you will allow it, Matt, who am I
to argue? I'll take that. Matt. Let's just stick with you,
since you just gave me a gold star for what
I thought was a chief Uh, your follower, I'm stunned again.
Not only are you agreeing with Lollie or is Lolly
agreeing with you? But you have less than complimentary things
to say about a guy from Texas A and MC.
(04:20):
They just keep popping up, and it's been a few
in a row now, and this is uh the Marvin leeal.
And part of it's because, you know, after the last draft,
and he can't overreact to these things. Everyone's talking about
this guy like, oh, he's gonna be a top ten
pick two thousand, twenty two, five star recruit. And I
keep watching him and I keep trying to really like
(04:40):
him and see it. But in his case, I think
the word tweener is a negative thing. You know, for
many many years tweeners. Is this just a strong safety
or a linebacker? He's a tweener. He's neither. Now the
league loves tweeners, you know, kind of like you mentioned
with Hall, is he an ender? Tackle doesn't matter? Bump
him in. I look at Leal though, and the thing
he's most comfortable would end but he's not really twitchy
(05:03):
enough or you know, explosive off the edge. And then
when they bump him inside, he doesn't have that Hall
impact as a pass rusher, and he gets pushed around
a little bit, so I'm just not sure what to
do with them. Still, you went with a guy. I'm
a little upset by this. Uh, not that you're wrong
on your assessment of John Ridgeway of Arkansas, but apparently
(05:24):
you were not swayed. And I'm sure you are aware,
as a lot of people are, that this kid likes
to call himself the Vanilla Gorilla, which, if you're gonna
give yourself a nickname, not a bad effort, right, but
not a bad effort. I I'm I'm in the camp though,
that you can't give yourself your own nickname. It has
to be it has to be put on you by
somebody else. You know. When the draft process started, I
(05:48):
thought this guy might be a Day two guy. Uh.
The more I watched him, doesn't really give you much
of a pass rush. He's a big guys, He's probably
a straight nose, but a five point three second forty
yar dash eight four on the broad jump, just no
explosiveness there. Um. He is a former wrestler, which is
a check in his cat, you know, in his his
(06:08):
ledger for him. Um, but he just doesn't have much
of a pass rush plan. And if you're gonna be
a day two pick or better, you've probably better rushed
the pass her. So I think he follows the day
three sometime. Um, you know, he's he's just basically a big,
run stuffing defensive tackle. Not that there's anything wrong with that,
(06:28):
but as we've seen that, the league doesn't value those
guys quite as as much as the guys who at
least give you a little something as a pass rusher. Yeah,
I'm kind of uh following the same sort of thought
process my follower, faller, excuse me, and you're not going
to agree with this, dale because it's the same guy
that you're gonna get to for your sleeper in a minute.
But oh, Tito Obonia from u c l A. You know,
(06:51):
six ft four three four pounds, twenty nine reps on
the bench. He's a former shot put guy, not just
in high school at U c l A. This drength
is there. I don't see the strength and play all
that much. I don't see him do all that much.
And he did not run a ford to combine and
then he got a hamstring early in the drill portion
(07:13):
of his day. Reportedly he did not run at U
c l A's pro day. So he's kind of stuck
in neutrals. I put it in the written version of
this program, and I had a hard time figuring out
what to make of this kid, because you know, at
six four three twenty four and from a big time
school such as U C l A. I want to
like him. I didn't know what to make up, so
(07:33):
I deferred to Lance zero Line of NFL dot Com,
who assessed in his right up that uh Obonia does
not have the pad level or the quote parking break
to hold it down as a three four nose. He said,
he's not an NFL pass rush threat. He's got heavy feet.
It's a strong guy. Maybe should go back to the
shop put circle. I don't know the reason he was
(07:55):
my sleeper Mike was I I watched him. He showed
up a lot during the scene year Bowl practices, and
I don't know if that made it on the TV
or not, but he was very active in those uh
running and chasing down guys and and things of that nature.
I like the way his motor ran. Uh. That's in
that situation. There were some times where he did get
blocked and double teamed and things of that nature. That's
(08:18):
gonna happen to those guys. Uh, but I think there's
I think there's some tools there from what I saw
a guy that a guy that I just i'd like
to see a little more, a little more often, I guess. Yeah.
And I think because he didn't run and didn't test
and do all those things, that's why I put him
on my sleeper list because I think he's kind of
an untapped Well yeah, I mean nobody knows really what
(08:43):
it is. Kind of like you know, when the guys
who had the later pro days uh that didn't work
out at the at the at the combine are kind
of out of sight, out of mind, and so other
people were moving up the boards and things of that nature. Well,
these guys were never went anywhere on the boards. Um,
you know, we'll see where they with this works out
for those guys. But I like the player. I liked
what I saw of him at the Senior Bowl. Um,
(09:05):
we'll see where he goes. Matt, You're sleeper uh comes
from Oh my god, the Southeastern Conference. Yeah, l s
U guy Ferrell just kind of sticking with the nose
tackle theme. You know that. I think this guy kind
of you. I mentioned how Jones got overlooked because of
Jordan Davis. Well, I think both those guys are over,
you know, making Farrell kind of an afterthought and l
(09:27):
s U really had a down year. A lot of
their prospects took a step backwards, but not this guy.
I mean, he got the full opportunity to really play
the nose full time for the first time this year,
and I thought he took a monster step forward. And
I just wanted to keep, you know, keep talking about
these giant pluggers because the league wants to play you know,
lighter boxes nowadays, and I think these guys are starting
(09:49):
to rise in demand. Yeah, no question. It's a great
point because, uh, if you can get a guy with
size who can get you the push, then you're you're
covered with the smaller bodies. Mind I'm cheating again on
my sleeper. Thomas Booker from Stanford, who actually has called
a defensive end by Stanford, But again, I think he's
an inside guy. Played inside a lot, not a ton
(10:12):
of production here, but his last year taught me, uh,
maybe production is not all that important, at least not
as important as I used to think it was. Because
guys that either played little and did little or didn't
play at all, the previous year had had very impressive
rookie years. Last year, Booker six three, three hundred and
one pounds. And he's one of these guys we've talked
(10:34):
about this in a couple of positions. Doesn't look anywhere
near three hundred one pounds. He just looks like a thick,
solid athlete that can do a lot of different things.
And it might be one of those guys, uh that
does a little bit better in the NFL then than
he did a college for whatever reason. But ran really
well in Indianapolis. Not one of those, uh, Matt to
(10:54):
your earlier point, not one of those three hundred plus
pound guys who ran a sub five forty. But it
wasn't as fast as the Georgia guys. So who cares
Dale wasn't as fastest Travis Jones, So who cares but
three hundred pounds under under five and uh. He's also
a former team captain and a finalist for the William V.
(11:15):
Campbell Award, which is the academic heisman. He's been active
in the community. Its checks all the intangible boxes. I
think he's got the physical skill set to make some
things happen. Yeah, I mean, I assume he's obviously very
book smart, being a booker from Stanford and and uh,
(11:35):
those guys. You know, I think sometimes intelligence gets overlooked
as a treat with these guys. Yeah, you know, I
think it's smart. I think if you're able to learn
quickly and learn and take it directly from the classroom
to the field, Um, it gets you on the field
a lot quicker than the guy. He may be more talented,
but it takes him a few more reps physical reps
(11:57):
to learn what he's supposed to do. Yeah, and I
think Stanford, for whatever reason, gets more credit for that
than any other institute. The Stanford guys gotta be smart.
I mean, you know, it's it's it's the Michigan state
of the West, so it likes to think. I want
to remind everybody that you can catch all of these programs, uh,
all of our pre draft stuff as uh we called,
(12:20):
for lack of a better term, all of it is
available on all of the Steelers social media platforms. You
can catch Matt and Dale on the Drive on s
n R. You guys talking to any draft on the drive.
Just so we keep ending up with the same guys
in here. We've talked about all these guys for months now. Well,
(12:41):
we'll be talking about it again sooner rather than later.
Until then, I want to thank everybody for finding us,
however and wherever you found us, for Matt Williamson and
Dale lolly On Mike. Pursuit of this has been another
addition to the NFL Draft Triple Take, presented by U
P m C
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com