NFL Draft Triple Take (Offense), April 17, 2022

NFL Draft Triple Take (Offense), April 17, 2022

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of NFL Draft
Triple Take, presented by U P m C. Mike pursued him,
Matt Williamson and Dale Lowly, continuing to do what we
can to get you ready for the NFL Draft at
the end of the month. And we've got what we
think will be a fun segment coming up today. We've
gone through the draft candidates positioned by position and giving

(00:22):
you our top five in each position. We've gone back
and looked at all the positions again and giving you
a riser, a sleeper, and a follower. A riser, a faller,
and a sleeper. I should say, I hope everybody's following,
and Uh, today we're gonna color outside the lines a
little bit and give you our top ten offensive players,
not necessarily the order we think that they will be drafted,

(00:44):
but just the guys if we were playing pick up. Okay,
I want him, then, I want him the the guys
that we rank the top ten in the country on offense. Uh, Matt,
why don't uh you lead us off? Give us your
number ten Canada available for selection on that side of
the ball real quick. I want to make two little
notes here is we're gonna do defense as well. The

(01:08):
defensive top ten to me was far superior to them. Yeah. No,
I mean it wasn't even close in my opinion. And
the way I did my rankings, as you kind of mentioned,
is I'm not predicting where they're gonna draft. I didn't
put any more weight on the quote premium positions just
because you're a quarterback. I didn't put you, you know,
just whatever great I had on you as a player. Basically,

(01:30):
I just banged them out that way. So if a
guard and a tackle at the same grade, or had
a guard had a better grade than a tackle, I'm
not gonna get the tackle the benefit of the doubt
just because it's a more um difficult position to find.
So Trevor Penning is my number ten. Just before you
kick that off, I'll just add that's a that's a
good little uh context to provide. I based mine on

(01:53):
what I think they're high. End impact will be okay, okay,
not necessarily by position, but offset that, you know, core back,
if he's real good five years so now, might be
a little more valuable than a wide receiver who's real
good five years from now. That's just a little teaser
for you because my list is a little outside the line.
My list a little different from you guys as well,
because I based mine on if I were drafting for

(02:14):
a team that, oh, I don't know, needed a wide
receiver or maybe some offensive line help and possibly a quarterback.
That's how I looked at things. Wait to find Okay,
without further ado bad. The Trevor Penning fans out there
have been waiting long enough. They know he's your guy
here at ten. But why is he your guy? Yeah?
He and he actually just edged out Kenneth Walker, your

(02:36):
your buddy from Michigan State. I think Penning is a
great prospect. I mean, he's a nasty dude. He's got
great size. Um, he's got a little bit of work
to do with the technique of the position. And part
of me wonders, not that this is an act, but
I watched saw before the games, and I like to
beat people up at the Senior Bowl, like is that real?

(02:56):
I don't know. I wish I could sit down with
him and see if that's really I think lot of
penalties it is. I think it actually is. You know,
I watched there was a video of him out yesterday
that showed him. I think squatting like six fifty pounds
or something like that. It's just I think that's what
he hit, right, You see the guy who squats and
condunc Yeah, he's yeah. He's a big dude. Yeah and nasty.

(03:19):
And I talked to him at the at the Senior
Bowl the first time and watched him at practice. He's great.
He's number eight on my list, by the way. Yeah,
number ten I get Johan Dotson, the wide receiver out
of Penn State. Just a playmaker. I mean every time
you put turn on a Penn State game and everybody
knew he was getting the ball. Uh, he just got
the ball and and and did things with it, returns, punts,

(03:43):
There's a lot there to like, real real quick note
on him. Dale And I know you guys know this,
but people look him and go boy, he's small though,
but he's got a huge catching radius with long arms,
and he plays really aggressively, goes over the middle. He's
one of those plays bigger than his size. Guys. Yeah. Absolutely.
You mentioned that Kenneth Walker, the third running back from
Michigan State, got edged out for number ten on your list.

(04:05):
He did not get edged out for number ten on
my list, and one of the reasons why among his
one thousand, six hundred thirty six rushing yards this past season,
and I'm here to tell you it wasn't because the
offensive line was so outstanding. He did a lot on
his own because they had a great quarterback play. He
had a hundred and nineties seven on the ground and

(04:28):
five rushing touchdowns against Aiden Hutchinson, David an Jabo, Dax Hill,
and the rest of the Michigan defense which is seemingly
about to be drafted in front yard. I'll tell you what, Dale,
five rushing touchdowns in one football game. That's one more
than al Bundy. An't do better than that my number nine. Uh, Dale,

(04:51):
We're on the same wavelength here. Chris a lava from
Ohio State. I like all the Ohio statewide receivers, especially
the kid that's not coming out yet but time. I
don't know a lava Garrett Wilson, uh personal preference. I
just I've always thought a lava he makes it look
kind of easy and effortless to me. He does, and
there's there's a there's some similarities there between him and

(05:12):
Dotston as well. I mean, they're both good route runners.
Smooth Um. You know, Lave is a little bit bigger,
but they're both fast. There's there's just a lot there
to like and and I don't think he can go
wrong with either one of those guys. Matt, on the
other hands, go on the offensive line again, I could
see where if he likes to get in the trenches
and stay there. Yeah, maybe even should have had him

(05:34):
higher by my criteria, and that Zion Johnson. And because
I don't know where the negatives are. I mean, I
think he's a B plus in every category you want.
You know, he has some position versatility. People use these
terms like plug and play guy right away way too often,
but I think he is. I mean, I think he'll
be a day one starter and injuries aside, last eight

(05:57):
to ten years at a high level with guard boom
forget about dye kind of it kind of reminds me
of James Daniels a little bit if you watch the tape. Um,
you know, a little bit undersized, but just gets the
job done. Really smart electrical engineering major. Uh a lot
there to lake Dale's got penning. At number eight, I
went with Charles Cross offensive tackle from Mississippi State. Uh.

(06:19):
Particularly like the offense he played in against the caliber
of past defenses that they went against. Uh, he's he's
pretty hate to use that plug and play thing, but
you know how much harder are gonna get at the
NFL than what Mississippi was going against Matt Uh, you
finally uh decided to recognize the guy who actually touches
the football. Running Back Breece Hall of Iowa states your

(06:42):
number eight. Yeah, and I'm not suggesting that Hall is
worth more than penning and and pull back the curtain.
I have zero quarterbacks on this list. I'm not saying
he's worked more than any of the quarterbacks, but I
think he's really good at what he does. And you know,
if you're just gonna put a running back grade on him,
think you get deserves a pretty high grade. I mean
he has work, workhorse traits, he's good in the passing game.

(07:06):
He's got explosive long speed. I think he's a really
good prospect. Let's keep it with you and go to
your number seven, because, Uh, Tyler linder Bomb is a
guy we've talked about periodically on these shows, and jeezus
could be top fifteen, he could be out of the
first round. Uh, you're finally, uh, getting some clarity on him.
I'm guessing I think an exercise like this makes you

(07:27):
realize the value of linder Bomb. At least it did
for me, because you read all these mock drafts and
it's like, where can I find a spot to put
linder bomb? And he ends up going later or you
look at the combine and say he's a little light
and he's got short arms. But when you just say
I want to go back and watch the tape and
I did, I'm like, I just want to watch highlights
of linder Bomb and remember what he was on game

(07:49):
day Saturday in the Big ten. He's kind of awesome.
Well said, uh, my number seven is Penning uh Dale.
Your number seven is uh Malik Willis of Liberty. Yeah.
And I think he's a dynamic playmaker. Um you know,
I think that he if you look at him, it's

(08:10):
almost like a cross between and I hate to say this,
I don't want to put this kind of pressure on him,
but as a cross between Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen
in terms of the the arm strength and the speed
and the ability to make plays. Um, you know, is
it gonna take him some time? Absolutely? But it took
both of those guys time as well. And I know

(08:30):
Josh Allen played right away. It took it took Jackson,
you know, three quarters of the season before he played.
I think Willis will be best served going somewhere where
he sat for the first year. Maybe you use him
in some specific packages. And if you can do that
with him, um, you know, you can have a lot
of success because the guy is dynamic with the ball
in his hands. Number six. Both Matt and Dale have

(08:52):
Drake London of UFC wide receiver. Matt, why don't you
h give us a synopsis on London? Yeah, day, And
I've talked about him a lot on the drive after
not talking about him a lot on the drive, you know,
I mean just the last couple of weeks. Yeah, we're
starting to warm up to him more. And he's big,
he's got great body control, comes in and out of

(09:14):
his brakes a lot better than most six four dudes can.
And then I just noticed this as well that of
all the top receivers in this class, he's the youngest
of all of them. So, um, he has that touchdown
heavy profile, you know, you go up and get it.
So I think he's a nice addition, and one thing
Dale's mentioned a lot about him too, is most of

(09:35):
this receiver class is smaller, shifty, speed guys. There aren't
his many with his dimensions. Yeah, he's he'll block. Um. Yeah.
He kind of reminds me of te Higgins a little
bit in terms of the size and ability to go
get the football. Um. You know. So, I think if
you could say, hey, would you take Tea Higgins in
this draft? I think a lot of people would say, Hey, yeah,
I'll take te Higgins, sign me up. My number six

(09:57):
is a guy who has grown on me throughout and
he was will late to the party in terms of
the offseason evaluations. But Matt Correll, quarterback Mississippi. I'm not
in love with six to five pounds, but I think
this kid is tough. I think this kid is competitive.
I think he's got a lightning quick release characiball thirty
times against Tennessee. I don't know if I want my

(10:18):
quarterback doing that in the NFL, But you know, put
the tape on, he'll put his shoulder down, all six
ft two, two hundred five pounds of him and trying
to run through Alabama guys at the goal. One I mean,
he might say more about what Tennessee was last year
than anything else. It might, but the one thing that
has really been instructive to me, and you know, five
years from now, we'll see if it was correct or not.

(10:38):
But I think this quarterback class is much better than
it was initially given credit for. And I think some
of these guys are gonna win some games in the league.
Carol included Corral, excuse me, included. My five is Kenny Pickett, Matt.
You went with Cross We've already talked about him. Dale. Uh,
you went with Trayvon Walker. Actually I went with Jamison.

(11:01):
I went with Jamison Williams, and if he were completely healthy,
he would be higher on my list. Uh, he might
even be number one because he is that kind of playmaker.
I would have loved to have seen what kind of
time he clocked at this combined in Indian Happlis with
all these other receivers. Uh, you know, running sub four fours.
Uh you know, to see go out there and see

(11:22):
Jamison Williams run. I'm I'm guessing sub four, three five
somewhere in that range. Uh play special teams. Uh just
does everything well. I don't understand what happened with him
at Ohio State. Why well, I know they had a
lot of good receivers there, but he went to Alabama,
who typically has a lot of good wide receivers, and

(11:44):
immediately became a team leader in a star And that
says a lot to me. I think this guy is
gonna be great. I don't care about the tour in
a c L. I like him even yeah I don't.
I got him. I got him at four. My five
is Kenny pick at quarterback Pitts And I'm not saying
that the hands thing is insignificant, but particularly he gets

(12:06):
in the right spot a little warmer weather or dumb.
I know, sometimes you have to play where you have
to play, but uh, just took another look at the
production and you know, yards forty two touchdowns Conference championship.
I don't know what more uh the guy has to do.
I think he's got the intangibles as well. Uh. Both
of you guys have Garrett Wilson from Ohio State as

(12:28):
your number four. I have Jamison Williams. Matt. What is
the difference between Wilson and a Lava? Is there one
a little bit? Uh? A Lava worries me a little bit.
Both these guys, I will say, didn't exactly face the
same levels of corners that you see in the SEC.
I mean, Big ten isn't known for great corners, and
they had a little bit of time to get free

(12:50):
and open up and develop their routes a little bit
more than the SEC guys. I think Wilson is a
little more physical. I think he's a little more dynamic,
a little more fluid. And I'm not giving a lave
a hard time, but they haven't kind of like the
Georgia conversation, the best Receiver hasn't even come out yet.
And as the season went on, the Lava kind of

(13:11):
became the three, where Wilson became the two, and I
urged people to go, you know, go YouTube Garrett Wilson highlights.
They're about as good as you'll see. I mean, it's
a pretty fun watch. It is. The way he catches
the ball. It looks like it gets sucked into a
vacuum and it just it hits his hands and it
stays there. I mean, he's got the uh, the vice gript,

(13:34):
the quab Bolden uh Larry fits, Okay, I got this thing.
It's not it's not going anywhere. Matt, you mentioned your
three was Jamison Williams. Uh Dale went with Cross. We've
talked about him already. I've got a cam kwan You
from North Canaina State, the offensive tackle is my number three. UM,

(13:55):
Dale's got him at two, and Matt, you have him
all the way up at the number one. He's one
for me, but it's a soft one, I'll say. I mean,
I didn't feel super strong that he was the best
offensive player in the draft. Let's talk about both these
tackles for a minute, because we've all also got uh
Evan Neil from Alabama. That's Dale's number one, and he
is my number two. But uh, compare and contrast guys.

(14:18):
Matt will start with you. Um not a not a
great deal of difference. UM No, I mean they're both
very very good prospects. I don't know if we combined
our offense and defensive list, I don't know if Akwanu
or Neil would be in my top five or six.
You know. So, as we said to start to show,

(14:39):
the offense is a little light, and I didn't feel
like most years these guys would be the best offensive
plot prospect in the whole draft. Neil's obviously taller. Um.
The thing that stands out about Kwanu is I don't
know that I've seen a more powerful or explosive guy
in a long time on the offensive line. When he

(15:00):
snaps his hips and comes off the ball, he puts
people on their back. Yeah. I agree. I think I
think you know, you're you're kind of splitting hairs here
with these two. I do think you know, Akawana, even
though he's a little bit shorter, Um, you know, there's
there's some potential there because of his footwork that maybe
he could play left tackle. Evan Neil is more of
a right But I think Evan Neil coming in might

(15:22):
be one of the best right tackles in the league
right out of the gate. Um, you know he played
he played all four years in Alabama right out of
the gate too. Yeah. And I think both of these
guys again are what plug and play players, uh, you
know and so and so. Uh. There's just a lot
to like there. And I think you know, when you

(15:42):
look at these guys, if you want to try to
find a running game, you had trouble running the football,
and you draft Evan Neil at six seven, three thirty
seven pounds, you just run the ball behind that guy.
If you play, you're gonna get cards. Imagine if Kenneth
Walker the third ends up running behind him something that
team's not getting stopped. Hey, I guess there's only one

(16:04):
pick to go. That would be my number one and
uh my number one again. I I did this looking
five ish or so years down the road and who's
got the highest ceiling and who's most likely to achieve it?
And I got Malik Willis, quarterback Liberty, number one on
my offensive board, Dale, I wrote this up. You said
it better than I could have. He's a combination between

(16:27):
Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. If you need more than that,
are a little too high? Pretty good, Lamar Jackson. Yeah, okay,
over here, I'll take two. No, just this guy's really
grown on me. I went into this thing. I mean,

(16:48):
I knew there was a quarterback at Liberty that people
were high on when the season started. I didn't get
my first look on him until the Senior Bowl, and
I've been diving in ever since and I just nothing.
I mean, I know he is not plug and play,
let's establish that. But in the right spot, he will
contribute early and he may he may do magical things

(17:11):
when he gets his NFL feet under him. Here's the
thing about him. Guys. We've done all this draft prep
on this stuff, and we've talked about a ton of
people thus far. What haven't we talked about in this
draft process? Anybody, anybody else at Liberty. Nobody else at
Liberty has come up in any of our conversations. No
offensive lineman, no wide receivers, no running backs. He was

(17:35):
a one man show at Liberty. So when people talk
about what he threw interceptions in this game, or or
he he got sacked fifty two times last year, he
was he was playing with nobody around him. He was
playing with a bunch of accountants and and you know
things of that nature this time of year. Account is
a pretty good thing. That absolutely. But now when you're
trying to beat Syracuse, or when you're trying to when

(17:57):
you're blinding up against Old miss, that doesn't work so well.
I think the second half of Liberties playbook is Malik,
why don't you just make a play? Yeah? Absolutely, Thorton
willis something like they used to say, Clempson, Uh, who's
the little uh little receiver for the Raiders? Renfro. Yeah,

(18:19):
there you go. World knows you're getting the ball that
was in there. Hey, that was fun. We're gonna do
this again with the defense. We'll go through our top
ten selections again, not the order we think they'll be selected,
but just who we like in in that order. Uh.
You can catch this and all of these types of
shows on all the Steelers social media platforms, and as

(18:39):
I mentioned, we'll be doing the defense next and we
will continue cranking out the draft analysis right up until
the NFL Draft. Until next time. For Matt Williamson and
Dale Lali, I'm Mike. Pursuit of this has been NFL
Draft Triple Take, presented by u p MC