Draft Season | The Athletic's Bruce Feldman on upcoming class

John Schmeelk, Tony Pauline, Eric Crocker and Bruce Feldman chat about the biggest names eligible for the 2023 NFL Draft, break down the QB class and react to the college games that have already been played this season. SUBSCRIBE: Apple | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | iHeartRadio 1:21 - Players who could rise on draft boards 14:26 - Good smaller school players 36:23 - Reacting to college games already played 52:06 - Quarterback class

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast is presented by Tommy Hill, figure a PVH
brand and an official partner of the New York Giants.
We are back with draft season after a few months
of a hiatus after the two thousand and two NFL Draft,
we are back. I am John Schmilk. Back with us
this year is Tony Pauli and Eric Crocker our co host.
And that handsome fourth faces see on your screen is

(00:21):
a friend of the program. He is Bruce Feldan. You
can see him on the Big New pregame show on
Fox for their college football coverage, and of course he's
also a columnist for The Athletic covers college football for them,
and the last couple of weeks we've seen his Freaks List,
which is his annual right of passage where he puts
out some of the best athletes in college football. That
kind of gives guys like us who are focused on

(00:42):
the NFL part of this good watch list for players
to keep an eye on during the years. So we're
gonna store at Bruce, then we'll kind of get into
a college football season preview after our interview. Bruce, thanks
for being with us, man, How are you? How is
your summer? I hope you got some relaxation because the
four months sprint is about to begin. Yeah, thank you
for having me. Summer was great. I got to coach
my son in a PV football league for two seasons.

(01:04):
That was awesome. And now, um, we talked about as
you guys, we talked so much about it, and when
the season's finally here, you kind of I'm getting goose
bumps already. So, UM, can't wait. This is gonna be
a big first weekend of the season and just I
don't know, I'm fired up. Watched a lot of preseason NFL.
Can't wait for that startup to awesome. I want to
start with your freaks list here, Bruce, and last year,

(01:24):
I believe you had eight in hundreds of number one. Right.
He had not had a ton of production before is
your last year, but people had their eyes on him. Um,
is there a player on this year's list that you
think fits that profile that maybe has not shown up
production wise in college football, but from the people you've
talked to, was ready to have that breakout year and
could rise to the top of draft boards around the NFL. Uh,

(01:46):
you know it's funny, It's it's it's too early. To
talk draft with this name, and it's a name that's
gonna be very familiar for NFL fans. But watch out
for Marvin Harrison Jr. That's obviously his dad was a
great receiver with the Colts. He's a receiver at Ohio State.
Different kind of you know, big. He's six three to ten. Uh,
super explosive. He was actually number two, like Aiden was

(02:06):
on my Freaks list. Uh. And he had a big
game at the end of last year in the in
the Rose Bowl against Utah. Now he was overshadowed a
little bit by Jackson Smith and Jigba. Keep in mind
that Ohios It's two star receivers missed that bowl game
to get ready for the draft, Garrett Wilson and Chris
alave So. Brian Hartline has develt a great receiver room.

(02:28):
But the things I hear about Marvin Harrison Jr. I
expect him to have a huge season and be really
a breakout star in the Big Ten. Yeah. Well, I
mean I think Bruce says it's too early to talk
about Marvin Harrison with the draft because he's not draft eligible.
I mean, he's only a true sophomore, so really, you
know as much as people will love him. He's not

(02:49):
going to be in the two thousand twenty three d
But Bruce was right on. I mean, if you watched
that rose ball, Marvin Harrison and Joba Smith n c J.
Strab were phenomenal, which is why everybody you know loves
Ohio State right now because of you know, specifically, I
feel in a way that rose ball where every time
they were down, Harrison was making huge plays, you know,

(03:10):
from the arm of c J. Stroud. Yeah, I mean,
you know on that point there my preseason, you know,
most people I work with think Alabama is going to
be the team to beat in the national title. Give
me Ohio State. And now, look, you know, as you know,
as you as you know covering the draft for a
long time, they you wouldn't see college quarterbacks unless they
were going to be in the draft out there throwing

(03:31):
for pro days. Different time now, and so talking to
some NFL people I talked to, they went to Ohio
States pro day and really felt like it was a
little bit of c J. Stroud's Pro day, even though
he was only two years removed from high school. CJ
could be in this draft coming out. I think he's
gonna win the Heisman. I mean, as you said, I
mean he is really accurate. I mean he is checking

(03:53):
all the boxes in terms of he's really smart. He's
a lot bigger kid than than Bryce Young, who's also
excellent at Alabama. C J is legit six two plus
maybe six threes up to he's really smart. I think
he's got all the um. You know, there's there's a
great little story about him in terms of when he

(04:15):
was coming up. He went to the opening, which is
you know, kind of is this big Nike event where
all the top high school soon to be seniors will
be at. It's also kind of in conjuncture at the
Only eleven. He was not a big name there. He
was really under the radar, and he blew up there
and he was so impressive that all the other Ohio

(04:35):
state commits who were, you know, big time more national names,
were like Colin Ryan Day, Hey, this is a guy
we want. And I think that speaks to not just
his ability, but also from the stories I heard from
people who worked with him there, um speaks to just
kind of his competitiveness and his belief and some of
those intangibles that I think you really want as a quarterback. Yeah,

(04:56):
and I'm like Bross Young, I mean, j does of
luxury the fact that he's bringing two big time receivers
back even though they lost Crystal Lobby and Garrett Wilson.
Where you know Bryce Young's favorite targets from a year
ago or now in the NFL. Right, And also yeah,
I mean and I think what's big here as you
had Ryan Day, who's as good as there is in

(05:17):
the college game. He's got some, you know, obviously NFL experience.
I think he's got that system that is in place.
Not to say that Bill O'Brien isn't what Ryan Day is,
but I just think, you know, there's something he can
build on. Beyond that, he's got a great running back
behind him and Trey Yann Henderson. I think also just
on Ohio State Lag, I think they will be even
more improved in the run game. Justin Fry, who had

(05:40):
worked with Chip Kelly. He he is and he worked
with Ryan Day early in his career. He's come come
to Ohio State. I think that will help them in
the old line because that was a little bit of
an issue for them last year. Not as much of
an issue as the defense was, but not to turn
this into the Buckeye Podcast or anything like that, but
I think they are going to be much must see TV.
You want to see this offense, go ahead, Yeah, No,

(06:01):
I was just gonna touch on Caesar's trout as well,
And I think for me as a perspective prospect, I
think the thing I want to see from him most
heading into this season is the intermediate passages. I think
we all watched that game against Utah and what it
looked like him pushing the ball down the field. Terrific
ball location, especially on some of those slot phase, but
intermediate it was a little kind of hit and missed

(06:22):
throughout the season. So if he can become just more efficient,
from that standpoint, we are talking about someone who can
potentially win the Heisman, no question. I'm sorry, I don't
want to. I don't want to take you all the
way down rabbit hole, take us, take up. No. I
was just gonna say, you know, just to that point,
he really developed as the year went on. Remember, it
was like there was a little bit of rocky moments

(06:42):
at times early on. It was his first year as
a starter, and I think that we saw it and
there was there was you know, some really good. On
the other side of the ball, Utah has a player
who I think will be an NFL cornerback down the
down the road, Clark Phillips. He was a bigger recruit.
He is the guy when you talk to him, you're like,
what want to do after football? And you already know
the answer is this guy if he does, if he

(07:02):
doesn't end up having a long, long NFL career, will
probably be a really good coach. You know, so lots
you know, there was lots of interesting talent on the
field that day at the Rose Bowl. Yeah, Phelps is
true junior. I mean, he showed flashes last year. Good athlete.
I'm sure he's the guy will make your freaks list,
not in shorter in short time. I don't know. But
if he's the tallest guy, just gotta polish his balls

(07:23):
cost But yeah, absolutely, I think I got films right now. Great,
it as a day too pick, But as I said
in my run up, he's got plenty of upside potential
and I could see him moving up draft boards if
he improves his game. You know, Bruce, I want to
follow up you guys mentioned you know how shrouds bringing
back his wide receivers and Bryce Young at Alabama is
not you know, we have rite of passages. Every year,

(07:43):
you have you know, marks on the calendar, you have
your holidays, and it seems like every year the last
decade it's been all right, what Alabama receiver or two
we're gonna go in the first round. So is there
gonna be an Alabama receiver that emerges this year with
Bryce Young as his quarterback to become the next Jamison
Williams who nobody was been talking about before Lessie's than
all of a Sunnen boom first round? I don't know

(08:04):
if this year you may have some younger receivers who
are still you know, we're not draft eligible. I mean
they you know, Jermaine Burton is a good receiver who
transferred in from Georgia. I think the guy that transfer,
the skill guy people will buzz about, is Jamaar Gibbs.
He was at Georgia Tech. He was the best player
on a really bad program. Uh, there's some guys I
talked to or who are coaches down there who've played

(08:26):
against him. We think Jamar Gibbs will be a Heisman candidate.
He's that good of a running back and so he's
the one I would say, really keep an eye on.
They have a good tight end camera in law too,
but not like he's not like, I don't think he's
quite as good as the guys in Georgia's tight end room.
I mean there's some there's some pretty good tight ends
around their Notre Dame has a stud over there and like,
well Mayor, but I think to me, the skill guy

(08:49):
that people will buzz about for Alabama is gives the
running back, not not the receivers. I kind of wanna
fall out there because you talked a little bit about
Jeremy Burton and you know he's transferring over from George
and I think he's a guy that had big time ability,
but that Georgia offense it's just not why receiver friendly
and instance of being able to be really productive. So
I mean, you look at those guys and some of
their numbers two or three catches a game. But I

(09:10):
think he's a guy who and then more spread out
offense that can really utilize his skill set. He can
be a guy who has a really good year that
kind of catapults him into the conversation that potentially being
a first round peak. Yeah, I think one of the
things that that. You know, when Monken got there as
the offensive corder, obviously he had done a really good
job as a head coach at Southern Myths than in
the NFL. I think they were mindful of, hey, this

(09:33):
is getting people are recruiting, using this against us and
recruiting that they they you know, you want to play defense,
this is a place to go. You want to be
a running back, this is a place to go. In
terms of having it open up, you know, whereas what
you know, it was a brief window, but like l
s u and they had Joe Brady, they were flocked,
flinging it all over the place. If you're a receiver,
you probably more inclined to want to go there. And

(09:54):
right now, I think if you're a receiver, you know,
you see the track record that Nick Saban and gotta
say it's next same because the offensive coordinators have come
and go. But now the way this offense is, you know,
you you'd be more inclined to look to Tuscal Looser
or Columbus than maybe Athens. George at this point, you know, Bruce,
I just get away from the offensive side of the ball.

(10:14):
I want to talk about your number one guy on
your Freach list, Mazie Smith of Michigan, Because you know,
all the talk last year was about Aiden Hutchinson and
even David Jabba, who had a great year up until
love his injury in pro Day. But when you watch
the film, I mean, it's number fifty eight that's in
the middle of that defensive line, that's commanding double team blocks,
that's basically freeing things, free things up for the guys

(10:36):
on the outside. And I love them as a player.
I couldn't couldn't imagine why people weren't talking about talking
about him more. I have him as a top twenty
five prospect, and then I read your column, your Freach list,
and he's the number one guy. So you're talking potentially
the melding of not only an outstanding football player, but
a great athlete and a guy that big, yeah, Tony,

(10:58):
Like I'll be honest, I was not planning expecting to
have him in my top ten, like I was at
Big Ten Media Days, probably a three weeks before the
Freaks List is coming out, and and Jim Harbor was
raving to me at a true freshman defensive tackle. They
have Kenneth Grant, who six four three sixty and he
said he ran a sub five flat forty, and so

(11:20):
some of the numbers, and so, you know, I talked
to Mozzi Smith about him more than I talked to
him about himself. And then there's another player. They have
their Julius welsch OFFF who has a really fascinating background.
Welsh Off was a champion mogul skier from Germany. He's
probably even bigger and certainly longer than Aiden Hutchinson. He's
not the football player, but he is. He's a special athlete.

(11:43):
And so when I was kind of asking for context,
there's their strength coach Ben Herbert, who had been at
Wisconsin and obviously was there with J. J. Watt. He's
developed a lot of special players and special big athletes,
and so we started talking not just about some of
these other guys, but then it got to Mazzy Smith
and some of the stuff he does that he was

(12:04):
explaining to me this this plot reactive reactive plio staircase
they do. It's not like the stairs in your house
or in the office. These are like twenty seven inches high,
so they're you know, really steep. And he's explaining, he
was I'm gonna send you the video, So you see
this guy. It was almost three pounds and he looks
like an enormous jack rabbit springing up these seven stairs

(12:25):
and it's insane to see how he can move. Especially
they sent me other videos of smaller athletes and we're
talking about you know, these are not just regular people,
these are elite athletes. How quickly they go and then
he goes we have this combo twist machine that he
is so strong that we actually had to call the
manufacturer and say, we gotta have you build an extension
to this because we need two hundred more pounds to

(12:47):
accommodate him. They couldn't do it, so they had to
find somebody else to basically specially make it. And so
if you haven't seen The freakslets I would encourage people
to go to it because there's video. And when you
see the video of what he's doing on this, watch
it and then watch it back to see the face,
the expressions on his teammates face as they see this
giant man just slinging weight around. It's crazy to see.

(13:11):
So I love that. You you know, he was already
on your radar. They think he is going to be
that much better this year because he's even in better
shape and he's just continued to build off of what
was already kind of in the in the pot work.
I mean, you said that he ran a six nine
free cone. Most defensive facts go to the Indianapolis combine

(13:31):
hoping to get under seven seconds, and here's Mazie Smith
at three pounds reportedly seven running six three seven. I
apologize running a time that defensive facts hope to do
it the combine. I mean, that's amazing. And again when
you watch the film, he's not an athlete on the

(13:53):
football field. He is a don good football player who
happens to be an outstanding athlete. Yeah, it's it's crazy
to see somebody that big because I mean, as you
guys know, it's one thing to be two nineties, another
thing to be almost three forty in doing what he's
doing right. And so like I like I said, I
had no intentions or expectations of him being in the
top ten until not only the strength coach who was

(14:14):
really walking me through everything they do with him, but
also then sending me the video to back it up right,
And so it's just crazy, um, you know, to see
what what he's gonna be able to do this season
as well. Okay, I want to ask you, Tony Bruce,
about two guys that are in your top fifteen that
are smaller school guys in our local in the New York,

(14:35):
New Jersey area. Andrea Carter the edge player out of Army.
I don't want asking and you gotta you gotta help
you with the last name Andre ass from Princeton. Uh
yoshivis y thank you from Princeton. Talk to me about
those two guys and and smaller school guys that you
think could break out this year. Andre Carter's is like

(14:57):
super productive player at Army. And he he was a
small school prep you know, basically prep school guy. He
was like a two star tight end prospect. He's got
great length. I think they told me is you know
six ten you know six ten wing. He's also like
a four to pro agility guy. And they said his
react you know the reactive times that where the arm

(15:20):
where Army tests them instead, there was like off the charts,
you know, just like so as good as he is
effort wise and as productive as he's been a lot
of times, you know, we've seen good players in the
Service Academy. Certainly at you know, Army, Navy, Air Force.
This one's a little different because of the length that
you see right, and I don't think this is maybe
the right comparison. I'll defer to to you guys a

(15:42):
little more on it because on the NFL side, but
like all level in a wave that was like bounced
around position wise at Army played tight end, play receiver
and then ended up being a really good offensive you know,
left tackle for the Steelers. This was a guy again here,
you know, in terms of um Harder was a tight
end and then moved over has continued to grow and
the coaches, I know, they're really speak highly of him,

(16:05):
and you know, I'm interested to see, you know, what
he ends up getting viewed at in the NFL's eyes,
because he's a heck of a football player. I can
tell you this right now, because scouts that I've talked to,
who you know, grade the underclassman before the season, they've
already got a day two great on them. So a
lot is expected of him the season. And you know,

(16:26):
as you said, can he you know, he is that
type of athlete with that link. Can he approve upon
his two thousand twenty one campaign. Yeah, In terms of
the Princeton receiver. So he's from Hawaii originally, he is
an elite h heptathlon. He's just an elite track athlete.
And he's pretty big. He's so a year ago or

(16:48):
new year ago probably like this past draft. Uh Tanner
Connor was a big time track athlete and FCS bigger.
He's probably six three, you know, closer to two thirty
that than Yoshiva is. But yoshimists will jump, he said,
thirty nine maybe forty inches. He he thinks he will
run in the low four threes. He's a he's a

(17:09):
very good player. My guess is there's still a lot
of work for him in terms of you know what
what what he can be. There's good, really good talent
in the IVY League, by the way, and there's good
talent not only in the IVY League that has left
the IVY League, right, So there's a bunch of guys
who come through Harvard that are either transferred someplace else
to fbs UM. You know, this guy is a really

(17:31):
special athlete. I don't want to say he's more athlete
than football player, that that's fair to him. But he's
got really good size. Ryan Flynn who's his position, coach,
loves his work ethic and what he what he does there,
I think an interesting player. You know, I don't want
to say, you know, he's in my top twenty. I
don't want to say he's one of the top twenty
football players UM in college football. But he's a big,

(17:52):
big time athlete and will be interesting to see how
he continues to develop because what he doesn't you know,
what he does in track is really really impressive. Tone
I asked you about Quintin Johnson of TCU, who you know,
you said, put up some pretty pretty outstanding athletic numbers.

(18:15):
I mean, the Big twelve for the most part, has
given us these bigger receivers, the Hakim Butler types, you know,
the Alan Lazard types that are basically guys that went
out for balls, but they can't separate in the NFL,
which is why they so often struggle. I know you
focused in the column on his athletic numbers. Do you
think he may be able to break that mold of

(18:35):
the Big twelve? The Toller receivers who went out for
the fifty fifty balls, who you know now can separate
at the NFL rather than just be a big body,
white out. I think so. The question mark here, guys,
is so Gary Patterson was at that school forever and
did an amazing job. Now here comes Sunny Dikes. He
was at s m U where they had really good receivers.

(18:57):
Different kind of receivers, but really good receivers. They're gonna
throw it around a lot. I don't know, like I
liked early on in his career, the quarterback there, Max Duggan,
had some really impressive moments, and then he had some
injuries and some ups and down. There was a lot
of staff uncertainty. I don't know what the quarter you know, like,
the question is going to be how good how much

(19:17):
better does the passing game get around him? Because this
guy definitely has some elite measurables. The question is like
does it translate onto the film? And I think it's
really right now too soon to tell. Where some of
those other guys you're talking about, you know, the Iowa
State guys, I don't think they were the athlete this
guy was. They may have been better football players, or

(19:39):
at least more especially in the case of Lazar and
more developed early um, whereas I don't know, you know,
in terms of the consistency of what you're getting here.
I mean, there's there's some guys. You know, Marvin Mims
is a big time receiver at Oklahoma in that same league.
But I don't know, you know, I'm the jury is

(20:01):
still out on it, Tony. I'm not to be perfectly honest.
One last thing for me. You know, you talk about
the Big twelve, you talk about Texas football, you talk
about Jean Robinson, but there's a guy who plays behind
Jean Robinson who is outstanding or running back in his
own right. It's just you know, he's on the wrong team.
That's Rashawn Johnson. And you know in your column you

(20:21):
watch Rashawn Johnson. He looks like a big downhill grinder,
you know, a guy who who's a short uardage ball carrier.
But you tell us that, hey, this guy is also
an outstanding athlete as well. Yeah, he's really explosive. He
is the like the alpha on that team. He came
in as a quarterback. He could do everything right. He

(20:42):
is the guy they lean on. He'll play wildcat, you know,
quarterback if they you know, in third and short, even
in the red zone. He's a really become a really
good receiver, Like if he told me that, you know,
like the Patriots draft and he's gonna play on defense too,
or you know, one of those teams, Like I would
not be surprised. Like this guy, I bet is going
to play in the NFL a long time, and he

(21:03):
may be a guy who does a bunch of different
things because he's just a really really good football player,
but he's also a really really big time athlete. Like
I don't want to say there's a similar player, but
there's a linebacker at North Dakota State. And we know
North Dakota State obviously has produced a lot of talent,
especially for an FCS program, but a little similar in
terms of like just a great all around athlete who

(21:23):
plays middle linebacker. He'd probably be a big time running back, um,
you know, really good ah back. Like there are some
guys like that where they may not quite have Like
one of my biggest freaks last year was Tarik Woolen,
the super long cornerback from you from U T s
A where they're just like wow athletes And I'm not
saying take is not a really good football player. But

(21:44):
then there's some other guys who are like they're they're
big time athletes, but they're also like probably even better
football players than they are, you know, in terms of that,
and I I think, you know, Rashaan Johnson definitely fits that,
fits that mode. I want to touch Bruce on a
couple of guys from Clems in your colleague. Dame Brugler,
who was a great job scouting for the athletic, has
three Clemson defenders, Trent and Simpson, Brian Brescie, and Miles

(22:08):
Murphy all in his top ten, and then they appeared
on your Freaks list as well. Tell me about those three. Yeah,
Rise was the guy who he's coming off injury, was
the biggest recruit of the I mean they're all big recruits,
but he was. I mean he's three hundred and ten
pounds and they told me they think he's gonna run
sub for eight in the forty right, and it's like
he's a big time interior guy. Miles Murphy has been

(22:32):
I don't say he's he's had a ton of production
there and he can really roll. I mean, will he
run four or five, nine at you know whatever to
seventy five. He's he's special. He was in my top five.
And then the linebacker is another guy who is gonna
run around four four and is a running hit guy.
Like the problem with Clemson last year, and I say

(22:54):
the problem that you know they it was a down
here for them was offensively they were a mess, right,
And so I think if these three guys stay healthy,
even without round of Brent Venables, who was one of
the best defensive coordinators in college football and he left
Clemson now to be the head coach at ou even
without him, I still think they're the team to beat
in the A s C, which is a which has

(23:15):
some good teams. Like I know, not to steer it
a little down there, but like NC State has great linebackers,
this is a really good NC State team. Even without
Ikey Iguana. They have a really good quarterback in Devon Leary.
Like it's not a cake walk for Clemson to win
their division, I think, But as long as those three

(23:35):
guys are are healthy, they're gonna be a big problem
for all these offenses. And there are some good quarterbacks
in the a SEC this year. Hey, Bruce, I do
have one more question, all right, And I know you
have Ringo pretty high, a lot of people like him
out of Georgia, but there's a cornerback who I haven't
heard of yet, and just talk to us a little
bit about him. Kristi Gonzale is a cornerback out of Oregon.
Looks like he has some big time potential. What are

(23:57):
some of the things you've seen out of him that
it's where he made your list? Yeah, Eric, he is
a an elite track athlete's for some background. I don't
know if you guys you know have seen watch Hard Knocks,
but like even they re aired this clip David Blow
the backup quarterback with the Lions. This is his brother
in law. His sister Um is a Olympian for I

(24:19):
think she ran for Columbia. She's a sprinter. This guy
has got good size. I mean he's six to two
hundred plus. He was a really good cornerback for for Colorado.
He ended up transferring out and right now I think
measurables wise, I mean, he's gonna test extremely well. Now
we'll see how he does with Oregon because he's on

(24:39):
a defense that new new coaching staff there. But there's
a lot of freaky athletes on this Oregon team, and
so how well they hold up at you know, at
in the secondary will be interesting because the secondary has
changed a bunch, right, But I think he's one too.
There's still some things that need to be cleaned up
a little bit with him in terms of just technique wise,

(25:02):
but everything he has in terms of length and explosiveness.
I mean, ring goes crazy explosive for being that size.
I mean, there's a little Patrick Peterson into him into
being that big. But I think with this kid, I mean,
you're talking about a really good sized cornerback who has
who has big, big time recovery speed. Since they got

(25:24):
two quickies for you really quick, I just realized you
mentioned Kayleie Ringo. We haven't mentioned the Georgia defensive player
or an Alabama defensive player, And I'm like, well, what
what's going on here? These are the predomprey I'm in
the defensive teams in the country. Who are some of
the guys from from this that side of the ball
on those two teams that that really stands out to you?
Gotta start with Will Anderson. He's the best college football
player in the country. His production is insane. He's just

(25:46):
a great football player. He's violently strong against the run.
I mean, he may be the best player Nick saban
has coached in Tuscaloosa. I mean, yeah, that's a wow
state man. I I think Nick Sabans would have a
hard time saying there's somebody better. I know he doesn't.
You know, it's like he is that good. He is

(26:08):
that good. Um. You know. On the other side, in
terms of Georgia, Jalen Carter was there were people I
talked to going to the National title game about the
Georgia defense. We know how many draft picks, how many
big time guys where they thought he was the most
talented player of the group. He couldn't come out from
the same area that produced Warren Sap. He is of Florida.

(26:28):
He is super strong and powerful, he's he's you know,
he's probably pretty much everything I think people want there. Uh,
he's special. You know. It's like those two guys if
you told me either one was the first pick in
the draft, and I think this is a good quarterback
batch coming up way better than you know what we

(26:49):
just saw. Um, but they are, like I said, if
you're talking about a guy as the best player Nick
Sabans had at Alabama, I don't think he really need
even need to say anymore. No, you don't now. My
final question is a more generic question about the athletic
testing Bruce, because I feel like, how tough is it
becoming to maybe compare and get context on some of

(27:10):
these timed events, because I feel like I don't want
to use the phrase, but I'll use it. You're kind
of gaming some of these times because you're training the
technique in these events so much better now than you
were a few years ago. The times are gonna naturally elevate,
even if maybe those don't show up on the field.
Then you also have the GPS timing, but different systems
maybe time in different ways. How comparable of those? So,

(27:30):
how are scouts in schools now using these different testing
methods to really get a truly accurate profile of some
of these guys athleticism in the changing world of technology
and scouting in college football? Well, I think John, obviously,
you know, they got to rely on what they see
on the field, and that comes more than who who's

(27:50):
an elite tester? Because I mean, I've had a bunch
of track guys and I always say they're track guys,
but they're elite track athletes who you know are freaks,
but maybe are not as good at football players, right, Um,
like I would use the example like John Metchi is
a really good football player from Alabama and they were
way I would say, way better. But they're much better

(28:11):
athletes than him in terms of like freaky measurables, but
they're not as good as you know what they do
on the field. And I think that's the part like
a lot of the stuff that happens where guys go
to trainers for the combine and they go through this
process and they learn how to I don't ways say
they have the answers to the test, but they basically do.
And so you see guys who test incredibly well, Um,

(28:33):
I don't. I don't know if it's fair to say
they gain the system or not. It's just like there
some of this for me, like the stuff that got
Marz Smith the number one on my list. Those are
those are tests, and those are things that that you're
not doing at the combine. Like there's no reactive plios staircase,
there's no combo twist machine. Yeah yeah, the thirty three

(28:55):
vertical jump for a guy who's almost three pounds, Yeah,
that would wow people. And in uh, there's definitely some
of that, but it's one of these things where I
think that's the that's the beauty of the process or
whatever when they get to the evaluation. I mean, like
there were NFL coaches I know who I think are great, um,

(29:16):
great at what they do, and they were a little
hesitant on Aidan Hutchinson because they didn't like his length, right.
You know, It's like, yeah, he can have great shuttle
times and everything, but there are certain you know, like
I'd go back to this, like I knew the old
Tennessee staff years ago when Lane Kiffin was there and
they had a short defensive back come to their camp

(29:38):
from New Orleans who did not run as fast as
a kid from Florida who was also a short defensive back.
They didn't offer Tyron Matthew. Tyron Matthew went to l
s U and had an amazing run there. You know.
So it's just like, you know, at the end of
the day, you're looking for, how can we see if
this football player is going to be great at the
next level, you know, maybe great in college. How is

(30:00):
this game going to translate? And you know, I'm sure
there's plenty of short dbs who were you know, maybe
didn't run great forty times who somebody took who probably
didn't turn out to be so good in college because
the game didn't translate. I think that's that's why it's
so fascinating. Why you know why I love the draft
process because it's not in it. It's it's so far
from a minute, so far from an exact science. You're

(30:23):
right about the combine and testing and things like that.
Man just off the street, I ran a slow forty
time for the New Orleans Saints, and uh I flew
home trained with the trainer. I went from a four
seven one in in three days, three days of working
out one hour each day. I went from a four
seven one to a four or five three just from
learning how to work run a takeoff liked, Uh, get

(30:47):
out and you're you just did a great mad for
whoever that person is who I hope you just made
them a lot of money because if you're a parent,
you're like, so, who trained Derek on those three days?
Because I think I suggest him to a lot of people.
But uh yeah, just learning little tricks and how to
explode out really just your take off, you can drastically

(31:08):
increase your time if you're not just naturally the fastest person. Ever,
Now I didn't last very long because clearly I'm closer
to a four seven four five that actually ran. But yeah,
you can, you can rid the system a little bit. Yeah,
it's it's neat to talk like. You know. The other
thing that's interesting on the on the freak side of it, guys,
is like I know, when it comes to the combine,

(31:29):
there's a lot of trainers who are hesitant to go
to say what they think somebody's gonna run because let's
say it's the training Eric and they say Eric's gonna
run four for three, And Eric runs four five too,
and that might be a really good time for him,
but it's people are in the perception is gonna be, yeah,
you didn't run what we thought Like I had the
year NC State had had all the D line, you know,

(31:50):
b J. Hill and it had oh god, Um Jones
and I'm blanking on Bradley Chubb and the fourth guy,
Um was the was the tester of the bunch and
he ended up like popping his hamstring on his first
run in Indy and then he like missed the first
his rookie year with the with the forty niners. But

(32:10):
it's one of those one of those deals where it's
like the expectations were sky high for for that kid
um and it just you know, that's that's the I
don't know as you guys know because you cover it
all year round. It's just an interesting process on a
lot of levels. Justin Jones, who was the guy you're
thinking about? Justin Jones is the guy at the charger.
It's the guy with the forty niners and you Contavious Street. Yeah,

(32:37):
Tony's encyclopedia. Man, if you need to need you get it,
get it. I gotta ask Bruce this, you know, you
know when I have to come up with a top
twenty five or Top one hundred or top to fifty,
TAZ because I basically do it all of the film
and I look at the measuables. But I'm looking at
your list here. You've got guys from Central Arkansas, Syracuse, USC,

(32:59):
Ball State. How do you come because to me, you know,
I would have a tough time compiling a list of
my top ten freaks. You go a hundred deep. What
is your process and how do you go about? But
this is this is just fascinating to me. So for me,
it's become like it started out almost twenty years ago
when I was at ESPN with ten guys, and then

(33:21):
over time I started developing more and more contacts around
the country, and I became a sideline reporter for Fox
probably seven years ago. And so before the game, two
hours for the game, you know, like the only people
are on the field side from me are the coaches,
the players, the staff, and NFL scouts. And so I

(33:42):
would have these NFL scouts come up to me and
ask me about the Freaks List, and we talked about it,
and somebody had written and all of a sudden, I'm like, Wow,
these guys are actually reading it. They care, and so
I like that opened me up to a lot more
people that I like picked their brains on. And so,
you know, like I do a two or three hour
call now the last couple of years with the Senior

(34:03):
Bowl staff, and I'll be perfectly honest, Like, four days
before this year's Freaks List came out, I had never
heard of a school called Quincy University somewhere in Illinois.
It's a smaller school. I've never heard of it. They
have a really good offensive lineman, and so Jim Naggie
and I talked about him. I ended up getting in
contact with the position coach, found out a lot more

(34:26):
about this kid, and you know, it's like there's a
lot of stuff there like that. But by now, like
I know a bunch of coaches in the Missouri Valley Conference,
which is which is the league that North Dakota State
is in and North Northern Iowa's in it, and there's
a lot of really good football players as you guys know,
that have come through there. So now all of a sudden,
not only do you know the context, but these coaches

(34:50):
have you know, like they they're familiar with it. They
have also had they know what a big time guy
looks like because they probably coached against him or had one.
Awesome stuff. Man, we appreciate you taking us a couple
of exture minutes going a little past our time. We
will really appreciate that. Following on Twitter at Bruce Felman
CFB and Bruce anything else you want to promote, the
floor is yours. No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I'm gonna

(35:12):
text Eric to find out who who is so I
can ask him pick his brain. And there's a lot
of great deals. If you want to subscribe to the
Athletic go check out his Freaks list and all the
other great college football covers. Thank you, Bruce. All right,
thanks guys, we thank Bruce Feldman. Again. You can find
him on the Athletic If you go to his profile
on Twitter, you click through, you can get all sorts
of deals for a subscription. Of course. Again, you can

(35:32):
find them on the Big high noon pregame show on
Fox Sports as well. And by the way, the offensive
lineman he was referring to from Quincy and no, I
hadn't heard of Quincy either, crop did you Quincy University?
And Tony how about you? Did you know Quincy? I
not Quincy University. But he knew about the player. Okay,
you know about the player. That's b J. Wilson, an
offensive lineman. So again, just some name that you guys

(35:55):
can put on your radar early on in this in
this process, I apologize I butchered a couple of last names.
I'm still learning about these guys. I'm not deep into
it like these two guys are. But we're all learning
this together. That's why we're doing these draft seasons. By
the way, starting in August, we'll do one a month.
Maybe we'll increase the frequencies we get later in the
year a couple of times a month, So when we
get to January, we're not doing intro studies. We're kind

(36:17):
of going into the intermediate studies already when we kind
of get started in draft season, come January and February.
All right, guys, we've actually already had a couple of
games here and in the college football season, including a
Big Ten match up, And why don't we talk about
that first Tony before we get the games coming up here?
In the class? In general? What did you see in
that Northwestern Nebraska? And I know a guy from Northwestern,

(36:39):
their left tackle, A lot of people think right now
he might be the top tackle in the class, had
had a pretty big game. Well, what did I see?
So much of the same from the prest I hate
to say it. I mean they blew the game and
they found the way to It's kind of sad because
everyone thought going in that game the brisk would finally
break that streak. As far as Skronski is concerned, yeah,
I I don't know. I've got Ronsky is a guard

(37:01):
on my board. I think he's gonna go about six
three and a half. He's very athletic. He's his zone
blocking guard. Played played well, but you know, as you saw,
he's got to get a little bit stronger. It's probably
on the three hundred pounds. Got to improve that run
blocking strength. He's got a good amount of upside. I
left the room for improvement at his game. Played relatively well,

(37:22):
but let's see what happens is he starts to really
get into the meat of that as Northwestern, I should say,
starts to get into that meat of that Big ten schedule.
Let me ask you something, Tony, because he played for
Texas last year, I think right, and I don't. I
didn't really know a ton about him. The quarterback from
Nebraska to transfer Casey Thompson. I think his name is right.
I thought he actually I thought he threw the ball
pretty well and his quick release has a pretty good
arm on him, and he made on kind of a

(37:44):
broken play. Well. He ran and he completely turned his
home back to the defense and then flipped around and
threw the ball down the field. Uh. That's probably something
that drives coaches crazy, but just you know, for the
fans watching, it was extremely entertaining. And as Chris was
a loop too. I mean, he's mobile. I mean he's
an RPO type quarterback. I think that the concern for

(38:05):
me is, you know, Scott frosts Achille heat Achilles Hill
has always been the quarterback position. I mean he hits
his wagon to Martinez the prior three or four years.
But nowhere everyone thought that Casey, that Thompson would be
a step up. Granted it's only one game. Let's see
where it goes from here. The guy's got a lot
of ability, He's got a lot of physical skills. You know,
can he improve can the Breska help him improve? I

(38:29):
think one guy that kind of stood out to me
in that game was probably Anthony Grant, a guy who
previously played in the junior college ranks, also started off
his career at Florida State. Uh. He had one really
kind of special playing nothing too crazy on paper, nineteen
carries a hundred yards, but he had this big explosive
play that really caught my eye where he made multiple
guys missed in the open field and just to be

(38:50):
able to run with the power that I thought he
did throughout that game and then show that open field
explosive ability, I thought that was something that really excited me.
Ran away from the defenders as well. But he put
a move on a guy in the open field and
open filtaco. I mean, that's tough, trust me, it's tough.
But the way he did it, making a move on
top of a movie really said setting it up to
get the angle that he needed to get to the

(39:11):
end zone. I thought that was kind of I don't
want to say special, but it was a really eye
popping play. The guy who I really liked before he
got hurt was the Nebraska tight end Travis Vocalect. I mean,
the guy is six six two sixty five pounds. He
runs in the four sevens, catches the ball very well,
someone who kind of when you talk to scouts about him,
you know, you get kind of a shoulder shrug. But

(39:31):
when you watch the film, granted he had a couple
of Titans last year, when you watched last year's film, Vocalect,
when he was on the field, you know it was
an impressive looking guy who did a good job catching
the ball when it was thrown in his direction. Had
five receptions for at least sixty three yards before he
went down with what seemed like an ankle injury. Hopefully
he's able to return sooner rather than later. But I

(39:52):
think that size with the guy that catches the ball
about well, there's always room for that type of player
at the next level as a third tight end. Yeah,
no question. Al Right, guys, we have three big matchups
coming up in the first couple to three weeks of
the college football season. I'll just throw them out and
you guys can pick out players, matchups, anything that might
excite it from these rosters Georgia Oregon. Will Um will

(40:13):
be the first one I'll bring up. He talked about
some of those players already with Bruce. But anything from
those two rosters that that you guys want to touch
and that really jumps out from from those two schools.
I think that the the byeline for this game is
George is playing against the quarterback that they're very familiar
with in bone Nicks, because Bone Knicks is now playing
at Oregon, which is one of the biggest, biggest, biggest

(40:35):
surprising transfers, I believe it in the offseason and so
sorted UH started sort of a hailstorm of UH of
issues at orburn with with the coaching staff. So that's
gonna be very interesting. And the fact is, when you
watch Bone Nicks the first two years at Over, and
he looked terrible. I mean he looked like basically a
chick with no head. The way he was throwing the

(40:55):
ball around. He wanted around, he was throwing on the past.
Last year he really showed a lot of development as
a passer. And he went from a guy who was
draft after thought, probably shouldn't have even been the starting
quarterback at the Orburn he was there because he was
legacy his father was the starting quarterback, to Hey, you
know what, this guy is a playmaker. I'll be interesting
to see if he could, if he's able to produce,

(41:17):
if he's able to move the ball against what is
still a stout Georgia defense. I think all eyes are
on bone Nicks. I mean, the guy who definitely has
all the right skills. Set the arm, you talked about,
the athleticism Tony Uh. He put those things on display,
you know, being more consistent from the pocket. That's something
that where you want to see, how does he take

(41:37):
that next step? You know Oregon they got a new
UH coordinators and think their whole new coaching staff. You know,
how would his game translate to the West coast? UH
A big time prospect. I think all eyes are gonna
be on him. Can his office line protect him from
you know, this SEC defensive line that's gonna be one
of the things that could definitely make things a little
bit more difficult for him. Well, you know, it's interesting

(41:59):
and I'm glad brought that up. You know, Georgia doesn't
have the defense that they had a year ago, and
you touched on that with with Bruce, with Bruce Felman
and and Jalen Carter and the in the sense that
he may be better than say Jordan Davis last year,
but overall it's not the same defense that it was
a year ago. But it's still pretty damn good because
you know, we talked about Jalen Carter with Bruce Felman,

(42:20):
Nolan Smith. When you watch this guy number four, he's
all over the place and he's a three. He complets,
he's forced all up the field, he complains space, he's
outstanding in pursuit. You know. Uh, Chris talked about Keeley
Ringing the cornerback. They also got another cornerback there, but
they have type tykee Smith, who transferred to Georgia from

(42:40):
West Virginia in two thousand twenty one. He was gonna
be one of the top quarterbacks, got injured in the preseason,
played a little bit early in the year, but then
they basically decided to see him. Tykee Smith is an
outstanding cornerback in his own right. This is what Boe
Nix is gonna be up against. And you know it's
funny because you know Chris talked about and they protect

(43:01):
bon Nis. Oregon, except for Penny Sewell, has a history
of getting guys that are selected late in the draft
that go on to have an good NFL careers. They've
got a couple of those guys this year. T J
Bass the guard, Alex forsythe the center who's one of
my favorites. Gott a kid by the name of Steven
Jones who's an offensive tackle. You know, they're not great players,

(43:23):
They're not Penny Sewell type players, they're not even close.
But they get the job done. They're very efficient, they're smart.
You know, the Giants have had some success with that
type of player in Shane Lemieu. That's the type of
offensive lineman that these guys are get the most impermanent
from their ability. Don't have mental mistakes. So it's gonna

(43:45):
be an interesting battle. I know Bruce mentioned to cornerback
Chris Gonzalez who's transferred from Colorado, but one other guy
on his Organ defense, and we're talking about a lot
of Organ guys, so hopefully we'll they have a chance.
But no se playing linebacker who Oregon a guy who
really plays downhill, plays with his hair on fire. I
think when you sit and watch like the All twenty two,
you can see like the athleticism is not like top In,

(44:08):
but he's definitely a guy who can kind of change
the dynamics of a game. So I'm curious see what
kind of impact he has against Uh, George smartest health,
I mean, one of those guys that knows what's going
to happen before it actually happens. Noah Sell very efficient,
takes good angles to the play, sometimes gets caught up
on blocks a little bit, but you know he's always
honestly both against the run and pass. Uh. They have

(44:31):
another they have a safety by the name of Tricks Bridges,
who I was at the game last year against Ohio
State and this kid he was in and out of
the game, but I mean he was a better athlete
than Verronan McKinley, who everybody loved rand the four six
five and didn't get drafted. Bridges is a great combination
of size, athleticis athleticism and he's a good player. You know,

(44:51):
one of the guys I didn't want to cut in
when Bruce was saying this, he talked about d J. Johnson. Uh,
he didn't talk about d J. Johnson is on his
Freaks list as one as one of his top one
hundred players. D J. Johnson is the kind of guy
that fits that mold of more athletes than football player
at this time. Let's see if he's able to start

(45:11):
to transition that great athleticism into football ability and football production. Yeah,
no question about all right, Let's let's jump to the
second big match up in the first few weeks, Ohio
State and Notre Dame. Where he talked about Ohio States receivers.
You talked about c J. Stradd right and in passing
Tony we kind of talked about Michael Mayer a little
bit about being outsiding tight end. I think Bruce mentioned him.

(45:32):
I'm looking at your preseason top twenty five. He's in
your top ten. Tell me about Mayor the tight end
out of Notre Dame. I mean, he's basically a power
forward at the tight end position. Is what it is is.
You know, he's not super fast, but he's fast enough
to get twenty yards down the field and create mismatches
in the secondary. He gets up in the crowd and

(45:53):
he comes away with the with the reception when three
guys are draped on him. Not the greatest blocker, but
it's not his fourth te They don't ask him what
to do. I think marriage one of those guys. He's
not gonna be a four or four five guy, say
like if an Endram was, he's more four six guy.
But he's just a very reliable height end who's got
great length, who looks incredibly imposing. I'd like to see

(46:15):
him improvements blocking. I'd like to see Notre Dame prioritizes blocking,
which they may do with the new coach. But he's
gonna be he's their number one target because not only
is the biggest target out there, but he's the most
consistent target for Notre Dame. I think in that game,
I mean, when it comes to the Ohio State and
really kind of the past protection and whatnot. Paris Johnson,

(46:36):
the guy who is listed as a tackle, He's played
a lot of guard there for a house state. You know,
is gonna transition to the officite tackle position. How is
he gonna look out there? Being able to play out
in space? That's something I'm gonna be keeping an eyeland,
you know what I mean? Able to They remember they
lost their two starring tackles last year, Petite free Air
and Mumford, So they're having new guys at both those spots.
Well Mumford, remember Mumford primarily played guard last year because

(46:58):
it was Dwan Jones. Oh that's he moved inside your
He's big as as almost as big as uh Filele
from from Minnesota, the kid from Minnesota who was a
massive guy who plays right tackle. You know, building upon
what WHATEVERIC was talking about with Paris Johnson, Yeah, let's
see if he can play, um you know, how his
transition is to the all important left tackle. People are

(47:20):
already saying Paris Johnson is gonna be the top left
tackle in the two thousand twenty three draft. I said,
let's put the brakes on that, let him take a
couple of snaps at left tackle. But when we start
to you know, annoint him that it's gonna go up
against Isaiah folks Ky, who was a terrific pass rusher
for a note you name more of an outside linebacker,
but a guy that can speedy rush the edge quickly
gets up the field. That's gonna be Paris Johnson. Isaiah

(47:41):
Folksy is gonna be a big matchup to watch on Saturday.
And Tony is one of the Ohio State guy in
your top twenty five. Got the last one in the
Ohio State center Luca Whippler, who you like, yeah, and
the Hoider States has a history of you know, we
talked about the tackles. They're interior offensive line and you
know Nick Mangold, all these guys go yeah, and they
they always go top sixty. Whippler is my next on

(48:03):
that list. Can play guard, can play center. He is
a tough matchup, but he's also very good on his feet,
gets out on the second level, com blocking motion. A
guy I don't think that a tier of that notesre
game defense is gonna be very strong or strong as
it has been in the past. Um And I think
Whippler is a guy to watch because I think he
can dominate Saturday. All right, let's go to Alabama Texas here, guys,

(48:24):
I know Texas is trying to put themselves in that
SEC title conversation. The young manning will be there and
next year, So talk to me about that matchup and
anything that you're looking forward to watching their Crocker. You
look excited. Well, in Texas, they have a lot of
young players that aren't really drafting eligible Jesse yet that
I I can't wait to watch and to see how

(48:44):
they perform against Alabama. But a Bama, I mean, they're
literally obviously with pro prospects. I think it's easy to say,
well Anderson, but one of the guys that I'm really
intrigued to see Jamir Gibbs running back to transfer from
Georgia Tech. That's the guy I'm gonna really be keeping
an eye between him. We talked a little bit earlier
about Jamaine Burton, the receiver. I thought he just didn't

(49:05):
have a whole lot of opportunities there with Georgia. What's
that gonna look like in the Alabama offense? And then
probably there was one more guy, Jordan's battle. Uh the safety.
You know, you don't see a whole lot of safety
secondary guys stick around at Alabama. They all tend to
leave a little early. But Battle a guy who people
were kind of expecting to come out last season standing
for another year. How how good of a start is

(49:26):
he gonna get to this season. He's gonna be one
of the top safeties to come out. So those are
definitely a few guys that I'll be tuned in for. Yea.
You know, Texas, when you look at the roster and
compared to the rest of the Big Twelfth Conference from
an NFL prospect point of view, really has them has
overtaken this season anyway, Oklahoma having the most the best
prospects for the most top ten prospects in the conference.

(49:49):
Spend it out there, Tony. But Texas is a lot
like the Brasta. They shoot themselves. You know, we talked
about the breast against Northwestern, they shoot their some cells
in the foot, or at least they have the past
couple of years. Against Oklahoma, I mean, they got a
real good tackle by him a Christian Jones, who was
a solid left tackle for in the past two years.
He slated to play right tackle. If he goes up

(50:09):
against Will Anderson, that's a big matchup to watch obviously.
You know, the two running backs be Jean Robinson and
Roshawn Johnson we talked about with Bruce. You know that
that is a you know, big dual headed monster that
Alabama's gonna have to stop. Uh. And Jalil Billingsley, who
was a real good or a decent tide in Alabama,

(50:31):
he now plays for Texas, and you know he's gonna
be playing with a chip on his shoulder. And of
course there's the matchup between or the byline of Sarkasian
playing against his old coach, Nick Saban, who really resurrected
his career, I think. But with with this game, the
question is Alabama is definitely the most talented, but con
Texas get out of their own way. It's funny down
Jeremiah said that he thinks watching this Alabama defense, he

(50:54):
thinks they might be more talented than the Georgia defense
last year, which is saying something given with that Georgia
defense like last year, so I have to wait and see,
um exactly how good they end up being a couple
of real quick John watching arch Manning but this quit
yours there, you know, and he's there right now, and
say that that's the guy kind of will he if
he can hold onto that spot, not just this year,

(51:15):
but next season as well. He's throwing to Xavier Worthy.
I'm super excited to watch Xavier Worthy. I've watched a
little bit of him when he was in high school
and then now is transition to college football. He's just
been tremendous and I'd say two thousand and twenty four
class is probably one of the top receivers to come
out of there. So they got some good young talent.
But will it be enough because Alabama is loaded? You know.

(51:36):
The thing is with with the Alabama defense. I think
they are incredibly talented in their back seven. You know,
Willie Anderson is a back seven defensive player, Henry Tatoa
who's a terrific linebacker. Brian branched the safety. Chris mentioned
Jordan's battle. They've done another safety there, but any of
the Marco helms that front defensive line, you know, pushing

(51:57):
putting will Anderson aside if you can. The interior is
not what it's been in the past. That's maybe an
area where Texas can potentially exploit it. Interesting, all right,
good to know. We talked about Bryce Young and c. J.
Stradde a little bit. We can touch on them again
that I want to just kind of get over you
on what you guys think the rest of that quarterback
class kind of looks like. I went back and I

(52:18):
watched a lot of both Young and Stroud just to
kind of get ready for the season. Know we're gonna
be talking about these quarterbacks log. I also watched the
Kentucky kid levis. I think, in my opinion, I know
Stroud has has the physical attributes. You look at better
size and everything, But if you look just based on
how they play the position and you take the traits
out of it, I think I probably like Young a
little bit more than Stroud. With the way he played

(52:39):
last year, I thought he was a little bit better anticipation.
I thought in like third and long situations he was better.
You know, I was surprised. I went back. I watched
all of Stroud's third and sevens and longer right. I
think he had sixty or so of those during the season.
He threw beyond the sticks maybe twice. They just kept
running shallow across this and he tries to hit the
shallow across you guys a run up field. So I

(53:01):
felt Young, You remember who else did that? Right from
my house state that Dwayne Haskins. He made a living
off of that with guys like Paris Campbell and those guys.
Just so shallows concept and you saw a lot of
Paris Campbell where he'd do across. He was one of
the tougher evaluations for me, not being able to see
Paris Paris Campbell. You know, it's just like legitimately around
routes had like a pro day and whatnot, but just

(53:24):
shallow across. If it's zone, he's gonna stop in the
open zone. If his man, he's gonna keep it going.
And they made a living off of that with Dwayne Haskins. Well,
and when you have those receivers that can make people
miss and get a field after catching a five yard pass,
I do it too. I don't blame him, but bottom line,
I think right now, though Stroud I felt played a
lot better at the end of the year than he
did at the start of the year. I thought he
really shod a lot of improvement. Um. I still think

(53:46):
Young overall probably put a little bit better than stradded
last season. Yeah, I mean there's no doubt about it.
I mean, right Young was definitely the most more consistent quarterback.
He's the more cerebral quarterback. He's more the thinking man's quarterback.
But when you're looking at it from a physical attributes
part of view, c J. Stroud is light years ahead.
C J. Stroud is a phenomenal vertical past I'm not

(54:08):
talking about just arm strength. I'm talking about actressy. I'm
talking about letting the deep receivers run to the football.
And you're absolutely right. Listen. I was at that first game,
the Oregon Ohio State game in Columbus in Ohio Stadium,
and c J. Stroud was not good. I mean, made
a lot of scrimmage and the play clock would run
down six five four and c J. Stroud is looking

(54:32):
to the sidelines for direction. I didn't think that they
let him play. And then they had a tough game.
I believe it was the following week Sorry about that.
I believe c J. Stroud had a tough game. I
believe it was against it was Tulsa the following weekend,
and even the first game of the year he struggled
against Minnesota. Really didn't get his groove on until October,

(54:56):
late October November when he really started to turn it
up and they let him way. So as far as
I'm concerned with c J. Stroud is which c J
Stroud are we going to get from the start of
the two thousand twenty two season. Are we going to
get the c J. Stroud that we saw in the
beginning of two thousand twenty one or the guy that
was unstoppable at the Rose Ball. I think c J.

(55:17):
Stroud has got much more upside than a Bryce Young.
But I think Bryce Young is basically Matt Jones plus
something because he's mobile, right, He's he's a better athlete. Yeah,
he's got he's got a slightly stronger on them, right,
and then the Matt Johns, although he doesn't have the
strongest of bombs. So I think the quarterback battle for

(55:38):
the two thousand twenty three draft will almost solely be
dictated on what c J. Strouds shows throughout the two
thousand twenty three season. If he shows improvement, if he
shows this Chris was talking about earlier, you know, the
ability to throw those, become a better intermediate passer, and
really round out his game. And he's not consistently looking
at the sideline for direction as he was early in

(56:00):
the year. You know, as the play clock wound down
and c J. Stroud's gonna be the first pick of
the drift Listen. Like I said, I was at that
Oregon the Oregon Stay game. Christal Love was getting frustrating.
He was throwing his arms in the air because he
was wide open. Chrystal Love couldn't have four touchdowns that day.
But c J. Stroud never looked his way. So you've
got to see that with c J. Stroutt Is he

(56:21):
walking onto one receiver or is he going through his progressions?
That's what scouts you're gonna wanna know, and that's what's
gonna dictate who the first quarterback selected in the two
thousand twenty three drafts or as for us on concerned,
as we sit here today, you know the end of
August two thousand twenty two, let's not forget a year
ago everyone thought Spencer Rattler was gonna be the first

(56:41):
quarterback select somehow is potentially a top ten pig exactly,
So things will things will change, and uh to kind
of touch a little bit more on the quarterback position.
I think Will Levis, he's a guy. I really like him.
The style office that they play at Kentucky. I think
his biggest downfall is just who is he really throwing
the ball to in comparison to some of these other guys.

(57:01):
We talked about Marvin Harrison, and we talked about uh,
Jackson Smith and Jigma that c J. Strouss going to.
We can't name a receiver over there had Kentucky right now? Yeah, yeah,
well that's what I'm saying. He lost on Wander Robinson.
So uh who you know. They got the new officer
coordinator going there to really help that rich Gan Guerillo

(57:23):
to kind of help transition or keep that same kind
of office together that they played with last season. He
plays under center, conturns back to a defense. He has
a big enough arm, he has, he has the mobility
and things like that. How well will he play? I'm
curious to that. But this one, the other guy I
really want to talk about, Jake Haner at a Fresno

(57:43):
State and he's very intriguing because he's an a fishing guy.
He can make all the throws, he has a nice arm,
and I mean I had someone tell me that this
is the best Fresno State quarterback since David Carr, and
I remember there's Derek car out there too, right, and
he doesn't have quite the weapons that Derek Carr had
card a ton of receivers that went on to play
in the NFL, not just Davantae Adams, but Josh Harper,

(58:04):
you had Isaiah Burst, you had um the other kid
out of Stockton, California, from Stocktown, Jalen Saunders. Right, So
all these guys that went to the league, and you know,
Derek Cark kind of not saying he benefited only from that.
Clearly he's a good NFL quarterback. But Jake Haynor, I mean,
he's he sounds like he's a really good prospect. The
cerebral or aspect of things. He has it. But playing

(58:25):
that first on state right now, So can he overcome
some of that? Not the biggest guy in the world now,
and that's gonna be the knock, right when you look
at even Bryce Young, but Bryce at least if he's smaller,
and you have questions, I will he played in the
SEC against big guys. Not gonna see Jake Hanner play
against that type of competition. He does have a USC
game early on. I think that's gonna be really big
to kind of jump start any type of hype that

(58:46):
might be surrounding. Well, remember he played well against Oregan
last year. That's when Oregan's first game of the year.
Heard heard his ankle, and Hayter played well. You know,
it's interesting because Haynter decided to go back for a
second senior season. He initially entered the transfer portal and
there was talk that he was going to go to Washington.
I don't know what happened, but he's back at Fresno State.

(59:07):
I mean he's more your Rice Young type of quarterback,
a very cerebal guy. You can you watch the film.
You can see him going through his progressions. You can
see him. You can see that he does a great
job with his reads. I think that the lack of size,
I think that, you know, he's got a decent arms,
deserving a great arm. Those combined workouts, the proto workouts.
Can he file flinging the ball downfield with speed? You know?

(59:31):
Great college quarterback as far as I'm concerned. You know,
it's a system where he's more of a game manager
on Sunday. And that's okay to have a game manager
if the other pieces are in place. Alright, a couple
other items I want to get to you boys before
we um say goodbye. Here Tony, I know you've done
more a deeper dive on the class than Eric and
I have so far. We're still you know, we're working

(59:52):
on fl Stoff or working on a bunch of other
stuff too. What do you think the strength is of
this draft class? Where is it gonna be strongest than?
Where do you think maybe you might if you need
someone at this spot? This This might not be the
draft to get it well. Obviously when when in the
early going, But right now everyone's gonna be talking about
c J. Sd Stroud and Bryce young But as far
as my boards concerned, it looks like it's gonna be

(01:00:12):
another really good defensive draft. I mean, you got Willie
Anderson at the top. You've got the two Cleansing kids
who I absolutely love, Miles Murphy and Brian breeze A.
I have a Smith and Jabba rated higher than Bryce
Younger she c J. Stroud, and then you have the
two quarterbacks. So I think there's a potential there to
get a real good defensive front player, defensive front seven

(01:00:33):
player in the in in the two thousand three draft.
I'm not too high right now on the on the cornerbacks.
We'll see what happens. Maybe somebody develops Allah the way
Ahmad Gardner did last year. But when I look at
my board, I like DJ Turner, I like Keely Ringo,
and it kind of falls off after that. I think
the offensive tackle class also leaves a lot to be desired. Yeah,

(01:00:56):
I was looking at you only have one in your
top twenty five, Tony. He's always down, He's I think
it's a kind of Stanford h who's an underclass and
right tackle at Stanford? Who's uh right now? Is I
believe that like number twenty one or number twenty two.
But again, I mean this necessarily, I'm very conservative with
my grades in the early going because I want to
see improvement from these guys. I want to see development,

(01:01:18):
see how they played during the season, fine, and see
what their actual athletic numbers are, what their what their
computer numbers are. So I tend to be more conservative.
But yeah, I mean, there aren't many offensive tackles that
have blown me away, or I feel are guys that
are gonna be first round picks in two thousand twenty three.
Crocking and Chima on strength and weakness of the class,
or just if you just want to take anything from

(01:01:38):
this college football season that you're excited to look that
you just like are pumped up about that. We haven't
mentioned that you want to bring up the floor is yours.
I think the conversation typically starts surrounding the quarterbacks. And
they talked about having, you know, two guys right now
in this top twenty five and we'll see if anybody
else kind of makes that jump. But there's a big
quarterback over at Florida right now. You know, there's just

(01:01:59):
these guys that want to see, you know, what do
they end up developing into? Because I believe that some
teams passed on quarterbacks last year because like, oh man,
the two like, that's the class if you want a quarterback.
Two three is a class to get your quarterback. Right now,
two guys in uh Tony's top twenty five. Maybe it's
not as strong of a quarterback class, but can somebody
kind of jump up. That's something to curious to watch.

(01:02:21):
We've seen it, by the way, right, Joe Burrow and
Kenny Pickett pickt egays that we're not highly regarded heading
into their final year, and boom, the first picks off
the board, right, and no one was talking about Kenny
Pickappie in the first round pick last year, it was
all you know, Spencer, Rattler and cm al. I mean,
you know, keep an eye on Tyler Van Dyke of Miami.
I have him graded much lower than other people because
I look at the inconsistencies in his game. There were

(01:02:43):
some games where he was right on, but there are
a lot of times where he's overthrowing receivers or he's
making receivers just backwards. I mean, that's a guy that
could make a big move up draft boards. A lot
has to be played out, and none of this, obviously
is in stone at this point in time. In the
quarterback I was talking about Anthony Richardson, big quarterback over
at Florida. I mean, inconsistent as a passer. But if

(01:03:05):
he can prove improve on that. We are talking about
our guy who has big time you no ability. He
has the mobility, to athleticism, etcetera, the arm strength, but
I gotta be more consistent as a passer first. So alright,
and final thing I'll bring up here, guys. I'm not
gonna go through all the players, obviously, because there's a
hundred and you know, two hundred three hundred players, but
the Senior Bowl put out their watch lists for the

(01:03:27):
two season, which is always a good thing. You want
to take a look at some of the seniors and
guys that might be graduating to track. Uh. They broke
it down in terms of conference. One hundred of the
players are from the SEC, not a surprise, seventies seven
from the Big Ten. I was surprised to see the
a C C right behind its seventy two. That conference
has been down lately compared to some of the others

(01:03:47):
Pack twelve and fifty one, Big twelve at forty eight
um the a C with thirty two. In terms of
the Nonpower five schools have the most um Notre Dame
with three players in that list, and then schools with
eight A War play years. These should not be surprises.
Alabama twelve, l s U eight, Kentucky and NC State
A two teams we've talked about today with ten. Bruce

(01:04:09):
mentioned NC State could have a very good year in
that a C C um oh Miss with nine, Oklahoma
with eight, Ohio State with nine, Michigan nine, Florida State nine,
so on and so forth. So always good to keep
an eye on what Jim Nagi is doing at the
Senior Bowl with some of those upper classmen. Well, you
know see what what surprising is of all unless I
missed it, of all the team breakdowns, I didn't hear

(01:04:30):
Clemson there. Clemson. Let me say I got Clemson. You
know what I do not see Clemson on the team
is my guests that a lot of they have a
lot of under classes. But that's the that's the that's
why you know the a c C is is the
a c C what number one? I think it's got
what sixteen teams in the conference. You've got You've got
all those teams, and then you're gonna have you're gonna

(01:04:50):
have more players. Good point. They've had a lot of
players are selecting draft Virginia Tech, although they're not where
they were, you know in previous years. North Carolina is
always had a lot of guys UH selected Sam how
old this at the Senior Bowl last year? Uh? The
North Carolina State UH is going to be an interesting story.
Bruce touched you talked about earlier or we touched on him.

(01:05:12):
You know, Devin Leary sort of a Jake Hafner type guy,
very surree roll sort of quarterback, not a big guy,
but protects the football and makes good choices. They have
a linebacker out there by the name of Peyton Wilson,
six ft four pounds, runs and plays in the four
six is. When you watch him on film, the guy

(01:05:32):
grades out as a top sixty pick. I mean, Scott
I had him last year's the third round of scouts
already going second round there. The problem with Wilson is
he's had a lot of issues with the shoulder. Missed
half the last season with the shoulder injury, had a
problem with the shoulder earlier on that. Peyton Wilson is
a guy that if he stays healthy and has a
big year and is able to complete it, you know,
complete the whole season, a lot of people gonna be

(01:05:54):
talking about the end of At the end of the
two thousand and twenty two campaign, could see him uh
at the Senior Bowl. Zach Sharbonet, running back out of
U C. L A, was a transfer from Michigan. I
thought he should have came out last season. I don't
know how much more he can improve his stock by
staying for a senior year, but run strong. Uh. You know,
we'll see if he has to kind of be that

(01:06:16):
one A one B running back at U c l
A this season, but you know, heading into a senior year,
I think he's someone that can definitely potentially improve his stock.
So that's one guy we already talked about. Jordan Battle
safety Obama. You got uh Joe Fucha the transfer from
Arkansas to UH Alabama l s U safety. So he's
kind of a tweener, a guy who has coverage, ability

(01:06:38):
to play in the slot, but he's listed as a safety.
He's a guy as well that I'm kind of curious
to see that's on that Senior Bowl watching from Arkansas,
right shark getting back to Charbonny, Scouts loves Sharbonna. I
mean I talked to scouts. They think, uh, they've got
Philly is a second day prospect. So he's got I
have to live up to. And you know, Christian maybe
writing maybe better off entering should have entered last year's trap. Alright, guys,

(01:07:01):
that was awesome. I wanted to ask Bruce about this,
but we ran out of time. He was very generous
at this time, but we ran out of it. How
do you think realignment is gonna impact this whole thing? Moving?
For Tony? Look out Frustrated, Tony looks at just me
breaking it off, and do you think we're gonna have
any other movement? Are other team's gonna bail? Is Oregon
in Washington and get out of the pack ten or twelve?
What whatever the hell they call now? Uh tony of
your thoughts. You know, first of all from as a

(01:07:23):
college football traditionalist and someone who grew up watching Ohio
State in USC playing the Rose Bowl. And you know,
I don't like this realignment. And the fact is this
is it's done for the TV contracts. You know, I
guess you know, if you ever go to the USC game,
you ever go to u c l A game since
U c l A, I mean usually the stadium is
hell full. And I guess what they figure is USC

(01:07:46):
and U c l A s dollar signs, moose TV
contracts and I guess the big ten things. Yeah, people
are gonna get up in l A County at not
o'clock on a Saturday morning to watch USC play Northwestern.
I don't know, I really don't like it. But when
I didn't realize USC and U c l A have
trouble selling take it's oh yeah, that's a disaster. I mean, yeah,
the Colosseum has not been full in a while. The

(01:08:07):
one thing about West Coast football, when you're not good,
you're not gonna get that that support man. And again
I moved here to Arkansas a couple of years ago.
The Razorbacks haven't been very good, and I think last
season was one of their better years over the last
few years. With kJ Jefferson at quarterback. They are always
behind their Razorbacks and and the stands are always gonna

(01:08:28):
be pretty pretty full. The whole state is behind them.
Is not like that in California. You have to be good.
I mean, Nebraska has been terrible. You can't get a
seat in the breast game, can't get to see I
mean watch the game this weekend. How many Bresca friends
were in Ireland. They're one of the best traveling teams
in the nation. Wisconsin is always full. You got to
you if USC, I mean back in nineteen what was

(01:08:51):
it a quick story nineteen nineties nineteen nineties six, I
went to scout two games live USC Johnson exactly US,
you play, UH play Washington State. That in the early
afternoon that evening, I went to see U C. L
A and Jonathan Ogden against Arizona. USC at the time
was I believe the fifth ranked team in the nation.

(01:09:12):
This was the week before they were playing Notre Dame.
You can walk up to the front gate and get
a ticket for five bucks. It was fifty full. You
mentioned Keishawn Johnson. I went to that game. There was
a true sophomore defensive lineman who absolutely blew me away.
No one was talking about him. I was like, forget
about Keishawn Johnson, keep an eye on this guy. The
guy's name was Darryl Russell. Yes, made five plays behind

(01:09:38):
the line of scrimmage in the first half alone. But
you know, get back to you know, it's not only realignment,
but it's the whole transfer portal thing, which kind of
makes the scouting much more. It makes it a lot
more difficult because you know, you want to watch Jaden Williams,
you want to scout them, you want to put them
on your LSU board, but you gotta waitch you get

(01:09:59):
through the average on a state film because Jaden Jane Daniels,
she said, Jade Dannis played for Arizona State. And when
you get guys moving across the country and now you've
got realignment. Remember, you know, scouting is broken down by
area scouts. You know you've got you got your Southwest scouts,
you got your Northeast scouts, You've got your Southeast scouts,
You've got your West Coast scouts. So now what's gonna
happen is the West Coast scouts. You're gonna have to

(01:10:21):
watch the U s c u c l A game
and pass it onto their Big Ten guy, guys who
covered the Big Ten, because now schools that are on
those two schools are on the Loft Coast are in
the Big Ten. So it makes it It makes the
opportunity for minor mistakes to happen more often because of
the fact that it's not neatly packaged as it once was.

(01:10:43):
It was great to chop it up with you guys. Man,
it's been too long. I have a four month old
now he's sleeping through the night, which is good. But
it's great to be back. We're gonna try to guide
all of our fans again. This is technically you see
from behind me the New York Giants podcast, but this
is for all NFL fans. I think we mentioned the
Giants and Tony did one story in the entire podcast
about Shane Lemieu, and that was pretty much it so
if you're an NFL fan, come check us out. We'll

(01:11:05):
talk draft over the next few months. Again, we'll be
once a month the first few months, and then we'll
see where we go as things begin to pick up
with the college football season. It's a lot of fun
guys as good to see you, absolutely funny to be bad.
Now now I got some I got some work to do.
Man dive into a lot of more of these prospects.
I'm ready for it. Yeah, me too. Man for Eric Crocker,
for Tony Pauline. And I'm John Schmilk. Once again, it's

(01:11:26):
draft season.