Tough Cover Show: Phillies, NBA Playoffs, NFL Draft, and More - 04/12/25

Mark Henry Jr. and Sean Barnard talk #Phillies going cold, #NBAPlayoffs match-ups, #NFLDraft preview, and more!

In Hour 2, MRCROCKPOT joins Mark Henry Jr. diving into all things #NFLDraft!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Number one on your car radio preset hand. The new
and improved Iheard Radio w D A S and w
D two seven three D Philadelphia is Fox Sports Radio
The Gambler.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Talk right down and the language that everybody here can
easily understand.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Time to get ready for the day's action from the
sides to.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
The totals and everything in between.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Nobody does it better than the Top Cover with Mark
Henry right here on the Gambler.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
And Kennedy.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
Seunting the Counting the Colt.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Hello, and welcome to the Tough Cover Radio Show. I
am your host, as always, Mark Henry Jr. You can
follow me on Twitter at Mark Henry Junior Underscore where
we are streaming this show live, and you can follow
my co host on on Twitter at Shawn Underscore. Bernard One.
We got my guy on the Ones and two is

(01:35):
back in the studio.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Sean.

Speaker 5 (01:36):
How we doing Yeah, can't complain, Mark Henry Jr.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
We're coming off a nice full night of all thirty
NBA teams playing a full day off before the last
day of the regular season. Got a little Phillies fix on.
They're back on this afternoon, two fifteen. First pitch. I
believe that is, so can't complain limping along, hanging in there,
getting through it. How's your how's things with you?

Speaker 3 (01:55):
We're we're going, it's going well here.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
We have a couple of big events coming up for
me on the calendar. I'm ready to kind of skip
forward a week.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
We had next weekend, big weekend for me.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
We have, uh the obviously WrestleMania is coming up this
next weekend. We're gonna be talking about that next week
with Nick Pacone.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
But we also have the NFL.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Draft about a week and a half away at this point,
so two big events for me, and obviously NBA playoffs
start in any minute here. Playing games will be this week.
I actually have to decide whether or not I want
to go see the Bulls playing game on Wednesday, as
I'll be in Chicago.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
So.

Speaker 5 (02:32):
DeMar Duros an Invitational. I've heard the playing to being called.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, it's Bulls.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Who's the ten seed right now?

Speaker 5 (02:40):
Hawks? I think? Or no, the.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Hawks are playing the Magic so it's Bulls and he's
Heat Heat.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Bulls and Heat in the first round.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
I did see the Sixers and Heat in the play
in last year, so maybe I have to keep the
keep the playing tradition alive. But uh yeah, it feels
like we're on the doorstep of some stuff. We're in between. Obviously,
Sean and I not big golf guys. Sean much less
so than I even big time hater over there of
the links of golf, but.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
I would I would even say as far as hater here.
I understand it's difficult. I understand all that. It just
doesn't quite meet my criteria for a sport, which I
didn't realize was as controversial take as it seemingly is.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
I feel like I always anytime like the is this
a sport debate comes up, I feel like I never
have like a hard stance on it. I guess I
just don't know what constitutes a sport. It feels like
it can be a moving target if you want to
fit cheerleading or whatever we want to fit into it.
You know, so I don't know whatever I mean. Cheerleading

(03:45):
has been on ESPN. Does that make it a sport? Like,
doesn't I get I'm just saying.

Speaker 5 (03:50):
Like so's f one, So's.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
I could be swayed to darts be in a sport.

Speaker 5 (03:57):
Well, that's crezy.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
They haven't as the square garden.

Speaker 5 (04:01):
They have it in the back of your neighborhood bar too.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
You know, like, yeah, I don't have a hard stance
on it. But if you're a golf guy out there,
this is a huge weekend. This is one of your
favorite weekends of the year, the Masters. I always make
a couple of long shot bets. A couple of years
in the past I've had guys go deep and have
a chance. More Cala I think I bet one year
when he was pretty new and he had a good run,

(04:24):
and but this year.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
A couple of stinkers.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
I haven't even checked him since yesterday, but it's al
Taurus and Wyndam Clark not good for them. So a
lot of big names at the top, though, I'll.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Read it off in a little bit.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Actually, maybe towards towards the end of the hour, maybe
I'll read off the leader board if there's any big
names available. But a big weekend for the golf people
out there, as I'm sure that they talked about on
sports here, there and everywhere. I'm sure that Sean Brace
talked about it the last couple of days.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Obviously, big golf guys, So.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Those are you know, Luke Kharkany, those are good guys
to follow that are keeping up with the masters.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
But anyway, on this.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Side of things, like I said, it feels like we're
on the doorstep, on the doorstep of WrestleMania. For me,
on the doorstep of my biggest event of the year
in the NFL Draft, on the doorstep of.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
The NBA playoffs.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
I even was listening to part of my take yesterday
and Whitney was on. I was getting a little excited
for the NHL playoffs. I was looking at the bracket
and how it'll shape out. I always try to get
a future in right before the playoffs start.

Speaker 5 (05:25):
What did you saying, so Markey Pucks.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, I was looking at Florida, I was looking at Tampa.
I was looking at Colorado, was looking at Washington. Those
were kind of the four that I narrowed it down to.
It looks like Florida's gonna play Tampa, So I was thinking,
maybe I wait and see.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
From what I could.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Tell, I think they have the two best goalies Florida
and Tampa from just limited research while in an airport.
But I think I'm going with Florida and Tampa. Whoever
wins that first round series, I'll bet it. Then that's
my current thought on it. But anyway, we got a
lot to talk we got a lot to talk about.
I'll we have the Phills obviously not exactly feeling as

(06:07):
rosy as we were last Saturday going into that Doctar series.
But I'll let you kind of before I kind of
launch into my thoughts on it.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Where are you at right now with these kind of
recent struggles with phills, How worried are you?

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (06:22):
I get kind of the outpouring frustrations.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
I do think it's important through an MLB season to
keep in mind that don't get too high, don't get
too low, that it is a marathon. You're not gonna
win all one hundred and sixty two games, or to
look great on every night basis, even moments like last
night's game where they obviously the bats were completely dead.

Speaker 5 (06:37):
I think you can kind of chalk that one up too.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
They did not finish the previous night's game until one
am and then had to take a flight immediately.

Speaker 5 (06:43):
That it's not kind of the easiest.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
You don't get an ideal situation on an every night basis,
and I think we got to be aware of that.
That's sort of what makes baseball different in a regard
that there aren't the rest days. There aren't you know,
a week off in between games. It is this NonStop
cycle here, So there's things to be concerned about.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
There's no doubt about it.

Speaker 4 (06:59):
Alec Bohm has picked up right where he left off,
and it's particularly frustrated to me because I was starting
to get excited that we saw the two hits on
both the first two games of the season. Maybe he
can get off on the right foot, and I think
how he started this season would have a pretty strong
implication into sort of the future of Alc Baum in Philadelphia,
not heading down the path that we kind of hoped
was the case there. Brandon Marsh sort of the same

(07:21):
situation there, and obviously varying degrees to importance for each
of those guys. I liked that Rob Thompson is being proactive.
I like that he ditched the right hander left hander
approach and did bat Shorebur and Harper back to back.
I'm not worried about the Aaron Olea situation. I think
he got it out and looked pretty good last night,
to be perfectly honest, So overall, I'm still net positive
on this. Phillies team, even though I don't think that's

(07:41):
probably the general sentiment there.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, I'm still feeling fine. They're eight and five. I
do feel like you hit a little rough part of
the just how the schedule worked out when you lost
that game. What I will say is I think Toppers
made some questionable decisions the last couple of nights or
days or lineup un whatever you want to point to.
I defended him I think last week, even saying I

(08:05):
thought he was doing a great job and people should
give him credit. I did not like kind of tanking
that late night game and throwing the bullpen arms that
they did. I understand that there's a flip side of, uh,
you have to keep your top bullpen guys not pitching
every single night, But I didn't really understand tanking that

(08:26):
game when we knew that we would probably have a
tough time winning the next day after playing until one
or two am anyway, so and then having to travel.
So I kind of wish they would have poured all
the resources into winning that game and almost tanked yesterday
going into the game. And they kind of did that
anyway with some of their decisions too. But yeah, I
didn't love I also I hate Stott at leadoff. In

(08:49):
my opinion, a baseball lineup should pretty much just be
a ranking of your best hitters. The leadoff hitter gets
to hit more than anybody else on the team. I
the ninth hitter gets on base like even if there's
a big gap, like five to seven percent less than
the first hitter. I don't think you can play that

(09:11):
many games with having guys on. When you have guys on,
just bat your best guys first. In my opinion, I
would bat Bryce and Schwerber one and two. I don't
care about, you know, RBI spots and having a guy
in cleanup. I understand that, and that's the way I
grew up, Like when I thought about lineups grew growing up,
That's how I thought about it. Guys like James Spader
and other guys I follow on Twitter who are smart

(09:32):
baseball people have kind of totally worked me on that.
I really do think Bryce should be hitting lead off
or Kyle whoever the best hitter is, and the third
and fourth best hitter should be hitting third and fourth.
If you want to say that there's a couple guys
grouped together that are basically the same, maybe that's when
you start thinking about lefty righty and breaking ties and
things like that. I don't think you hit your like

(09:53):
six or seventh best hitter first just to you know,
break up lefties and righty's in the order. I like
that you abandon, didn't not adding Kyle and Bryce next
to each other.

Speaker 5 (10:03):
That's like, that was my biggest positive takeaway of it.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yes, yeah, I totally agree with that because it was
always stupid anyway, because they're both really good against left
handed pitching, so it doesn't really matter about the whole
lefty lefty thing with them. But I do think that
the stot leadoff thing that Ruben Tomorrow and you know
boomers begged for because they watched like the seventh best hitter,
but a you know, a good contact hitter hit first

(10:29):
for the whole entire nineties and two thousands. I think
it's I think it's dumb. I mean, show, hey, Bat's
leadoff right, like. I think that says a lot. Like
I think the Dodgers know what they're doing. I think
doesn't judge bat leadoff or second or something like that.

Speaker 5 (10:43):
Now, second, I want to say, second.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah he might bay. Second, yeah, I might be I
might be sure.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
But I think it's just I hate the.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Stot leadoff thing. I'll be honest with that.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
To you where to start, Yeah, to your point about
all that though, the fact that we've never had any
of the Rice Harper to lead off conversation.

Speaker 5 (11:01):
It has to because he doesn't want to write.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
You would think I imagine that, I would guess so or
Topper is a little more like set in his ways,
and you know, he was a coach for years and
years and years in those eras. Maybe he doesn't really
think of Maybe he wants his best hitter hitting third
and that's why he hit third for so long, and
he's only now started hitting second. Really, so yeah, maybe

(11:25):
maybe he's a slow adjuster to that kind of stuff too.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
But most for the most part, I think Topper has
been fine. It's just those couple decisions the last couple
of days kind of stuck with me. I never understood
hitting Boom fourth over Castianos coming into the year. I
Castiana's a much better hitter than Alec boom. Alec boom
way more power. Yeah, and something this actually kind of
goes with something else. Two rants that I want to go.

(11:51):
I have a couple of rants.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
For the Phillies.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
But people love to argue about runners in scoring position,
and I think the Phillies are twenty third right now
hitting a runner hitting runners in scoring position not great.
I think if you watched any baseball team outside of
the top two to three, you'd walk away over a
full season if you watch them every day frustrated about
runners in scoring position. I also think it's not a

(12:14):
sustainable or repeatable stat over a long term period. You
look at guys one year to the next. At the
RBI rankings, I mean you see constantly guys who have
one hundred and twenty RBIs who are not a top
twenty five hitter in baseball. They just happened to, you know,
stumble upon a really good season.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Let me pull up.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
You know, we had Alec Bohm last year who was
one of the best hitters in baseball with runners in
scoring position. He was terrible with runners out of scoring position.
If you kind of sort those numbers out, what.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Does that mean.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
I think it just means a pretty small sample size
and he was lucky and had a good year at
that He had, you know, a ninety seven RBIs for
two straight years without breaking his seven to eighty ops.
I think a lot of that's luck. I think a
lot of that is having a ton of opportunities with
guys on in front of you, which he's had too
many batting in that four hole in my opinion, And yeah,

(13:07):
he's come through in.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
A lot of those. But I mean Bryce Harper.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
When Bryce Harper won MVP, didn't have adrbis did that
mean that he wasn't having a great season. No, it
means that he didn't get enough chances and luck didn't
find his way to you know, having a lot of
guys in rounders of scoring diss and having a lot of
opportunities depends what relievers you're facing.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
You know, did they bring in their best.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Reliever to face you or did they leave in a
guy another spot too long to face Boom instead of
bringing in a new guy. Like there's so many things
like that that drive me nuts, and I don't think
year to year, week to week, months to month that
those things are repeatable. I understand that Phillies fans are
frustrated because last year we saw a lot of those things.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
This year we see a lot of those things. And
one other thing, this is.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
About Brandon marsh and Brandon marsh has been terrible. Yeah,
he's been horrible this year. He's been horrible since halfway
through last year.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
There's no to that. There's some hard conversations to be had.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
But the people acting like he's been terrible the whole
time he's been here, and they don't understand why we're
still playing and we're giving him a chance. Hit eight
thirty ops in twenty twenty three.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
He was OPS plus.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Measures the average OPS of all of Major League Baseball,
that's one hundred. He was a one twenty nine OPS
plus guys like show hair in like the one sixties
generally like just to give an idea.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
So he was well, well, well above league average.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
In twenty twenty three with a three sixty OVP, a
really good walk rate. And guess what, he had the
same k rate then that he does now thirty six percent.
And that's a high k rate. But something I read
that's always stuck with me for a long long time,
and I get it. You watch a strikeout and it's frustrating.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
They didn't make.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Contact, they're just hacking up there. Like I understand strikeouts,
they're frustrating. Eighty to ninety percent of the t time
an out is an out isn't out. I understand that
you'd like to see a ground out or a flyout
or a line out instead of a strikeout. You only
move runners over or score runners with an out ten

(15:15):
to twenty percent of the time. Now, if we want
to get into you make guys throw more pitches. Yeah,
there's there's obviously value. It's not just coming up there
and striking out in three pitches. I'm not saying that,
but I'm saying people get so fixated on strikeouts, and
it's why the city didn't appreciate Ryan Howard the way

(15:35):
that they should have when he was as good as
he was when he was.

Speaker 5 (15:38):
I think they do now, by the way, Oh for sure.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
It's easy to go back and watch the towering home
run highlights and things like that, and it's fun, but
you don't remember watching him strike out twice a night.
But it didn't matter if he was getting three RBIs.
You know, it's it's always bothered me. And I read
that back in the day when Adam Dunn was a
guy who would hit two thirty two forty and have

(16:05):
a great ops and have you know, a ton of
home runs, A ton of RBIs and people would think
he's stuck because he struck out all those times.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
He was a really good hitter.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
He was one of the best hitters in baseball, and
I think if he would have came around now, people
would have appreciated that more. In general, people care, I
think less about strikeouts generally when you're looking at the best,
you know hitters. But I think Phillies fans we go
a little bit nuts about strikeouts, and I understand it
can be frustrating and Marsh's kry.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
When he's not having an eight.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Thirty ops or seven to fifty plus ops, whatever you
want to put the number at.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
It's unacceptable.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
But if Marsh was having the year he was having
in twenty twenty three, we weren't complaining about the strikeouts.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
Yeah, no, you're right about that. You hit on a
lot there, Like the March stuff is. It's kind of
complicated from the standpoint of like when this trade was
first made for him. The book on him, or at
least my perception of the book on him, is that
the glove is one hundred percent there, the hit is
a question mark or the hit tool is a question mark.
And then he got here and he hit awesome for
the first stretch in Philadelphia. As you just pointed out there,

(17:09):
the strikeouts have clearly been an issue, and you're right
about the point that you can take those strikeouts when
the productions there doesn't look as good. When you're still
striking out at that rate but still not getting those hits,
that's when you got some trouble there. And for Marsh specifically,
I think it looks especially bad just in contrast to
the rest of the lineup here. Like it's one thing
when you can put up with a guy striking out.
It's another thing when you sit through Alec Boham going

(17:31):
down lifelessly, Nick Castiano's going down lifelessly, and then here
comes Brandon Marsh and it's sort of the same outlook there.
And I will say with Marsh specifically, there is kind
of a lifeless or helpless approach when he is striking
out that it just doesn't look competitive up there.

Speaker 5 (17:44):
You're right about the results of the results. It is
what it is.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
And also like we know the same situation with Johann
Rojas that it's frustrating. I think the root of it
is there hasn't been a better solution provided for all
of this that we're still kind of running down what
we know is the case with Rojas and marsh there,
So I kind of think that it looked good at first.
We're sort of back in that same boat. I'm still
optimistic about Kepler, but that was sort of the hope

(18:07):
in my brain is that he could be this like
clear cut left fielder guy that is ready as a
bat in this lineup and being a key figure, hasn't
fully worked itself out yet, not selling the stock or
given up on that. But I think collectively it's looked
worse because of all the other factors.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
I have legitimate lineup concerns about the Phillies, and it's
really about kind of those like the third through sixth
best batters in the lineup, or even if you want
to say the fourth through sixth best batters.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
In the lineup.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
I think Trays looked pretty good here recently the past
couple of days.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
I think he's fine. It's your third best hitter outside
of Bryce and.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Kyle, but you probably need a little right handed power
and Nick is obviously so up and down.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
I think Nick is fine as your fourth or fifth
best hitter.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
You probably are going to have to replace one of
the third base or Brandon marsh spots.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
I would imagine. I still think Kepler is.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
I think he's got a great approach at the place.
He's a ton of pitches, he walks a good amount.
I would like to kind of kee keep that up.
What I will say is everybody's freaking out about the bullpen.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
The bullpen, the bullpen, the bullpen.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Every game that any bullpen pitcher gives up a single run,
people want to go nuts and yell at Dave Dombrowski,
and I get it to a certain degree. I wish
we would have kept Jeff Hoffman. Yeah, it's hard. That
was clearly a medical issue. The Braves tried to sign him,
he failed that physical. The O's tried to sign him,

(19:36):
he failed that I never called him the O's.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
That was weird.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
The Orioles tried to sign him and he failed that physical.
So clearly, I don't think that's a Phillies issue.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
Like, Yeah, other organizations viewed it the same way. Clearly,
maybe you.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Can say we should have ignored the doctors. I think
that's a hard thing to say.

Speaker 4 (19:56):
By the way, there's a real chance where a couple
of weeks or months from now, we're all of a
sudden celebrating, Wow, it's a really good thing.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
They didn't give him money.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
I think the one that confused me more was actually
a guy who Debrawska clearly liked enough to trade for
last year, and I didn't even love him necessarily. But
Estevez didn't get that much money. I was surprised that
they weren't more, and it sounded I remember they were
talking about him, sounded like he didn't even have interest
in him. Maybe it's one of those things where once
you get him, maybe you're less impressed than you know.

(20:26):
I don't know, but I felt like Estevez would have
been a perfect guy to sign if you weren't going
to sign Hoffman, to just have like another option at
the back end. I don't even I didn't even love him.
I was saying last year he was like my fourth
or fifth guy out of the bullpen. But they could
use a fourth or fifth guy out of the bullpen.
My argument, though, the one thing I'll say, I think

(20:49):
people that want to go trade for Mason Miller, Ryan Hellesley,
whoever you want to say the top bullpen arm is
I want every asset they are going to trade at
the deadline to be for a bat, to be for
a right handed guy who brings some pop to the lineup.
If it's not a right handed guy, a guy, a
left handed guy who can hit both sides of the plate,

(21:11):
or lefties and righties.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
I should say, and I.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
You look at what the bullpen will be in October,
if they're able to get there, and you can only
start four starters right and we're probably going to start
Zach Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Christopher Sanchez, and one of Jesus
SLUZZARDA Ranger Suarez an Andrew Painter. I don't think that'll
be Andrew Painter. I think Andrew Painter will be coming

(21:38):
out of the bullpen in October.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
By the way, hitting one hundred right now. Andrew Painter, Yeah,
he looked disgusting. He's going to be a demon out
of the pen in October.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
That's I've been. It's my opinion he should just be
a bullpen guy all year.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
That's my take.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Everybody wants to do the innings control, don't bring him
up until June July and then just let them loose.
I guarantee if they do that and we get to
late September, there will start to be conversations from his agent, Oh,
we got to start limiting the innings and we're getting
into a playoff runt.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
That would be miserable.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
And I guess it wouldn't be that miserable if you
use him out of the bullpen after that. Anyway, I
almost would have rather just had had him be the closer,
like any point, just be like all right, like here
you go, like you're gonna pitch one hundred innings. This
year's eighty innings, so whatever we tap that at. I
get that there's some stuff like you want him to
get into like an MLB starter routine, and you know,

(22:37):
maybe there's arguments that the bullpen and using him every
two days or whatever you want to say, like maybe
that actually would hurt his arm.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
I'm not a doctor, but there was part of me
that thought that would actually be the best way to
get use out of him over the full year anyway,
especially since you're showloaded in the rotation. I thought that
that would be something to look into. They asked Topper
about that, and he said, he's a starter. So it's
seems like no one agrees with me.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
So whatever.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Ranger obviously has tremendous bullpen experience and also good starting
experience in the playoffs, but I think he is probably
going to be the guy who goes to the pen,
another lefty arm out of the pen, and Lozardo, who
looks disgusting, I think will probably be the fourth arm
out of their rotation for the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
That's given all these guys stay healthy.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Obviously, but every conversation we're having is given everybody stays healthy.
So I don't have too much of a problem talking
about this. If you have a bullpen of a Ryan Kirkering,
Jose Alvarado, Matt Strom, Ranger Suarez, Andrew Painter, Jose Ruiz,
and then two more names, I think you feel pretty good.
I think you feel like you have the best bullpen

(23:45):
in baseball at that point, once you throw a Painter,
once you throw a Ranger. With those top three, and
my biggest point is, I think we go toe to
toe with any bullpen in baseball when it comes to
our top three guys. O'Ryan to me is going to
be one of the best relievers in baseball. By the
end of this year. He had a two ERA last year.

(24:06):
Matt Strom was one of the best relievers in baseball
last year. Who knows if that's repeatable to this year,
but as of right now, that's what we're going on.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
And he's been good to start this year as well.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
So and then you have Alvarado, who's been our best
reliever so far this year, I think, or maybe our
most electric reliever at least. So I think you put
those three guys up with any top three in baseball.
The issue right now is that fourth, fifth, sixth guy.
And I think that the problem is that the sixth, seventh,
eighth guy feel unusable in big spots right now. I'm

(24:38):
not freaking out about the bullpen. Oh how are you feeling?

Speaker 4 (24:42):
Yeah, I'm not as optimistic as you are, but do
share most of the sentiment there, Painter.

Speaker 5 (24:46):
I just need to see it a little bit.

Speaker 4 (24:48):
Obviously we haven't kind of had his opportunity against MLB hitters,
and the stuff looks disgusting, the clips look at now. Yeah,
I'm not even like skeptical that it all happened. It's
just kind of like penciling him, penciling him in for
a role. I just need to, you know, see a
little bit of like how does this actually all fit together?

Speaker 5 (25:04):
Type of thing. It is disappointing.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
The writing is so clearly on the wall for Ranger Suarez,
like this is his finally are in Philadelphia, which really
sucks for me. Lozardo looks unbelievable, and I do think,
like pretty certain he would be that Game four starter
if things play out, and he probably will learn that
by now that the slider's unreal. The dude's got it.
I'm turning to a Rozardo guy quite quickly here. But
as far as the bullpen as a whole, they need,

(25:26):
I would say one of Romano or or Joe Ross
to be somebody in this bullpen, and I'm not really
sure Jose or Yeah.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
I guess you could throw Ruez, so you would rank Ruiz.

Speaker 4 (25:39):
I mean, obviously he's been better than them thus far,
but do you have optimism for Romano or Ross being
like a notable guy in this bullpen.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
I felt pretty good about Ross until pump down the
middle tough.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
That was disgusting.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
I mean he had that two innings the other night
or one point two like he wrapped around that was nice.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
I mean he gave up a run, but I thought
he overall did pretty well. And that's just.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
I'm not a Romano guy. I don't believe in Romano.
I didn't believe in him when they made the signing.
I think relievers lose it fast generally, and I thought
he lost it last year in Toronto. I also just like,
even when he was really good, I was never like,
oh my god, this guy's just filthy, like compared to

(26:28):
like a like an Emmanual class right now, or like
a Mason Miller, Ryan Helsley, like those top closers now,
because for a couple of years that Romano was like
a top five to ten Fantasy closer. But I think
a lot of that was situation and opportunity, and he
was good, but I never felt like he was this
disgusting arm So I'm not a fan.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
I don't see him working himself into a role, to
be honest.

Speaker 5 (26:50):
Okay, I'm not overly optimistic.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
The thing I'll share is the velocity was back in
that Extra Dings game when he finally did return.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
That was probably the best, for sure, the best we've
seen him.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
Looking at Philsey, you m to this point, and he
talked about that they found something in his mechanics that
has increased his velocity by three miles per hour. Three
miles per hours a lot in the grand scheme of
a pitcher, and that's type of you know, outlook there.
So we'll see what happens there. But that's sort of
my I guess X factor for the bullpen. They need
one of those guys to at least be not quite
like a high leverage guy, but very capable and like

(27:20):
those in between innings. And that's sort of my jury
out for discussion. I'm not quite where you are as
far as optimism for the pen.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
The bullpen was good last night too.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
I mean, the bullpen shot Saint Louis down, the offense
didn't show up. I think my whole thing is, do
you think that the bullpen stops this team from getting
to the playoffs?

Speaker 5 (27:40):
I agree with your take. I think a bat.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
If I was to assess what is the greatest chance
this Phillies team does not go deep in the playoffs
or does not win a World Series, I do think
not having a bat or the outfield still being such
a question mark is a far larger concern than the
bullpen and agreement there.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, that's kind of my big things. And who knows.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Maybe this is the year where the Phillies trade every
asset that they have that's not painter or you know,
from a prospect perspective, and go all in and maybe
they see that opportunity.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
I think probably not.

Speaker 4 (28:08):
I think to get more specific for like my take there,
I think the answer and this guy may not even exist.
So it's like, you know, you obviously it takes two
to tango and you have to have a player available
to go out there and get it. But I think
it's a right handed center fielder who can play every
day and has legitimate bat is the answer hard to
get for sure, There's not a lot out there, but
when talking about like the missing piece, that's who I picture.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
I was looking around last night just for this segment
to try to find some ideas, Like I wasn't even
specifically going position, like I was kind of just going
like looking at the teams that are either stinking right
now or expected to stink. I think the two names
that I keep coming back to, it's it's an Aeronauto

(28:50):
from Saint Louis, third baseman, and that's job that's a
bone replacement, and I like it.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
I've talked myself into it.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
I think you put aeronauto in this lineup with Kyle
and Bryce, and you use him as protection there and
you bat him forth or kind of behind those guys.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
I think he looks.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
Better than he has in recent kind of stretches in
Saint Louis still really good glove obviously, and I don't
think it's going to cost a lot of prospects. It's
going to cost you money. It's just you just have
to probably pick up his contract, maybe even part of
his contract, and maybe trade them Boom as an expiring guy.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Maybe there's part of me that thinks that that would
have been done if it was possible in the offseason,
but Saint Lewis continues to think. I think they're going
to have to trade him. So Aaron and is the
guy I kind of keep coming back to my buddy
Pat Moran, who you know is obsessed with Brett Rooker
from the A's and he's a beast. I mean, he's
a forty plus home run true guy. Normally I'd be

(29:54):
all in on that. I think power has become underrated
in the MLB. I think guys like Kyle Schwart the
last couple of years have actually been underrated when you
talk about like MVP All Star voting, a Silver Slugger,
things like that, just because you look at how much
power has declined, and I value even like Pete Alonzo.
I actually think like gets underdrafted in fantasy and kind

(30:14):
of got underpaid. I thought there was a lot of
teams that should have really paid Pete Alonzo, including the
Phillies maybe, and the Mets got him for much cheaper
than I think they should have because I think his
powers undervalued and he's come out and.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Hit the cover off the ball.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
But yeah, I think that the problem with Rooker is
it presents a DH question. He is a terrible left
fielder and Kyle Schwerber is also a terrible left fielder.
So it's basically, do you sacrifice, you know, having a

(30:54):
terrible fielder out there for having another forty plus home
run another kylege Ford on the other side of the plate.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
Basically, we've tried it before, right you know, they've gone
down that back the thing.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
I'll say, and I'm less bullish.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
On it now.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
I think you've I think I complained about it on
the show with You last year. We went to the
World Series with Kyle Schwer we're playing left field. It's
not like impossible to just mash your way to a
World Series. I'm a little less open to it now.
He did get hurt when he tried to play there
last year.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Rooker. I'm gonna look it up as we're talking.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
I want to see how many games Rookers played in
the field, because I know he DHS mostly, but I
mean he is Last year he had a nine to
twenty seven ops, thirty nine home runs, one hundred and
twelve are RBIs one sixty five ops plus five sixty
two slugging like the year before, thirty homers in only

(31:55):
one hundred and thirty seven games, get five point six
war last year, he is an absolute beast. I'm trying
to see how many games he's played here.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
Yeah, and those are unreal numbers right there. Like that
is like a huge addition. If that you can talk
about that you think he's actually on the table or
a possibility.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
Yeah, I mean he's the way that they run the organization.
I can't see why not. So last year he played
fourteen games in the outfield. He has not played a
single game in the field yet. This year he played
fifty eight games in the outfield in twenty twenty three,
I think he was very bad at it, but he

(32:38):
didn't come in tenth in MVP voting. By the way,
last year, it's silver Slugger for the DH and the AL.

Speaker 3 (32:45):
He's like a pie in the sky.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
They probably have to give up crazy assets to go
get him. I probably do it and figure out the
rest later. Those are kind of two names. Outside of that,
it's a lot of would that team give up that guy?
Is that guy not good anymore? Like Ryan McMahon from
Colorado is a lefty kind of utility guy. Better than utility,

(33:09):
but they can play a lot of positions. Spencer Steers,
a guy I've always really liked from Cincinnati, had a
little bit of a down year last year and it's
really started slow since ADDIE's got a lot of guys
kind of like they always They have like a couple
prospects even that haven't got up yet, And my thought
is there's probably gonna be one or two guys that
get left out. Maybe if you could sneak in and

(33:29):
steal Spencer Steer, I'd be interested in that. These aren't
moves that are going to get people outside of like me, excited.
So it's an interesting situation. I don't think the bat
is necessarily there, like that makes total sense. That fits
one hundred good fielding center fielder who's a right handed

(33:50):
bat who can hit, Like, I don't think it's out there,
so they're gonna have to take what's the best available
kind of thing.

Speaker 5 (33:57):
Yeah. No, I mean that's the reality situation.

Speaker 4 (34:00):
And a lot of this like still falls on the
core man, Like when we talk about why the Phillies
can win or why they should be making a deep run,
it's on Trey Turner, It's on Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber,
Nick Castianos. The guys that are supposed to be core
guys have to continue being that.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Now.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
I think my philosophy has shifted a little bit as
we've seen this like evolution of the Phillies mentality here,
how this has been such a mash first, figure out
defense later type of perspective that sort of has required
guys like Brandon marsh and like Johann Rojas who are
plus defenders who can kind of cover that up. I
don't think we can have quite the gap that is

(34:35):
currently how you like have hitters and have fielders essentially
and I get that's doing them a little bit of
de service the guy like Marsh for that. But if
you can find a little bit more balance across this
entire roster, that to me would feel like a win.
I think that ship has probably sailed at this point
in the game. We have the pieces that we have,
but like having just a defensive mind in center fielder
which has been necessary for stretchers and really isn't anymore

(34:55):
with Kepler out in leftfield, who's totally adequate at worst
as far as the defender out there. But I don't know,
I would like a little bit more balanced piece overall
in the outfield.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Yeah, I think the problem with like a Rooker is
Kepler probably goes to the bench mostly and centerfield probably
becomes Rojas.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Like I think, if you.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Have Nick and Rooker out out in the outfield, you
probably are gonna want Rojas out there in center field
even more than marsh and Marshall get time too, I'm sure,
but yeah, it would become a Kepler ride in the
Pine situation. Maybe Kepler gets traded in that deal. He's
only an expiring deal though, So yeah, it's interesting, and
I'm not even saying Kepler's the guy they have to replace.

(35:35):
I think it's just if you wanted a guy like Rooker,
you're not really worried about what you have now, you're
worried about like what he could bring. And I mean
that lineup with Rooker Batton in the three four hole
would be that that really changes things more than and
also one more thing I want to say about the bullpen.
Bullpen pitchers are just so fickle, year to year, month

(35:57):
of the month, stretched to stretch.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
It's so hard for me.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
People complain that Dombrowski doesn't Oh, why does he spend
eighteen million on three guys instead of going out and
spending eighteen million on one guy, Because if that one
guy stinks, then you're screwed. I think he and to
be honest, has he done a great job signing bullpen arms? No,
not really, he has not done a fantastic job he
I mean he did good trade for Alvarado, he did

(36:21):
he like he has done some things here and there.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Hoffmann was a good find.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Strom was a great find who they signed to be
a starter and then became a reliever.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
But they've made good.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Fines, they've obviously struck out. I think we think about
that more because we're following this team. I think if
you follow pretty much any team, teams strike out every
year on bullpen guys because you think about these guys,
they're getting fifty to sixty innings like total. You have
a couple of bad outings, it completely ruins your stats
for the whole year. And now you look at it
and oh, well, this guy's stunk and it wasn't worth

(36:55):
eight million dollars. It's hard to do that, and I did,
Like I said, I didn't like the Ramana signing when
I when they signed it. So I'm not really defending that,
but I'm just saying it's hard for me to want
to go out and spend eighteen million dollars on a reliever,
or go out and want to trade for Mason Miller
or Ryan Hellesley and give up all these assets for
this stud closer, because I think these guys lose it

(37:16):
so fast and year to year, these I mean, Emmanuel
Classe had like a terrible season and the next year
he has like a one zero era as the best
closer in baseball, with like sixty saves on a great
Guardians team last year.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
So it's just I think relievers are show fickle.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
There was a famous adage and Fantasy Baseball for years,
don't pay for saves because they're show fickle year to year,
and I think that kind of goes to what we're saying.
But let's take a break and on the other side,
we're going to talk a little NBA playoffs, a little
NBA Draft sixers locked in to the fifth spot of
the lottery, a couple Eastern Conference matchups locked in for

(37:54):
the play in and for the three six and four
to five matchups in the first round.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
We'll discuss on the other shock.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Welcome back to the Tough Cover Radio show. Sean Bernard
loves that intro. That's that's one of your favorites. That's
a go to for Sean Bernard. Back on the Tough
Cart Radio show, and let's switch gears here.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
That was some good Phillies talk. I didn't think we'd get.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
We'd get thirty five minutes of some Phills talk, diving
into some bullpen stuff. Some concerns we have, but my take,
calm down, Goose fro Bra, Everything's gonna be fine. Bulleople
is going to be top ten in baseball by the
end of the year. And best in baseball.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
When we get to the playoffs, watch out.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
So let's move on. Let's talk a little NBA. And
we had some some matchups before we get to the lottery. Well,
let's talk about the NBA playoffs, which are more faster
approaching than the lottery or the NBA draft. Here, and
we had two matchups get locked in, and I believe
it's what you wanted with the four being the Bucks
and Pacers. I think that could still flip as to

(39:03):
who the four and the five is, but it's locked
in that it will be Bucks Pacers and the three
six will be Knicks Pistons. I'm pretty sure the Pistons
have given the Knicks a lot of trouble this year
when they've played them, if I remember correctly, is that correct.

Speaker 5 (39:19):
Three and one against them.

Speaker 4 (39:20):
The Detroit Pistons are also have two wins against top
top three teams in the NBA, of which the New
York Knicks are zero and ten in those matchups. May
go as far as saying, Mark Henry juniord that I
think the Detroit Pistons are who the New York Knicks
have intended to build into becoming.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
I'm trying to see if there's series markets here over
your employer on DraftKings.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Yeah, we got it right here, dis expectful.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Just remind us four twenty five for the Knickerbockers, you
have the Pistons at plus three thirty?

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Are you going to be taking that?

Speaker 4 (39:53):
I will be in and those of you who would
like to get rich along with me, I do think
that is the way to bet it here. I'm waiting
for the series spread to come out because to me,
like this is a seven game series for sure in
my mind that I think there's gonna be a battle,
there's gonna be a war, It's gonna be a very
entertaining series. I think it's wild that the line is
that much in the next favor. I understand them being favored,
but my honest prediction, and I was texting with Sam

(40:14):
Austrey about this leading up to it, my prediction for
the line was between minus one eighty and minus two
hundred in favor of the Knicks.

Speaker 5 (40:20):
For it to be this high, I think it's crazy.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
I have it right here, this spread.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
If you wanted to get Pistons plus one and a
half games plus one forty five.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
That I think is that's my favorite bet of the
bunch here, because I'm not blind to I think it's
the Knicks should win this series if they want to
consider themselves a serious contender or you know, winning NBA franchise,
which I wouldn't throw them in either of those categories there,
but if like that is what they should, they should
take this personally that they should win this series. So
I get that here, But I do think it's gonna

(40:49):
be a battle. This Piston's team isn't backing down or
rolling over to anyone. Man.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
I would probably go Nixon Nixon six would be my guess,
and you finish it in Detroit. I just think that
this next team is such a classic, like first round
will be fine, and then we get to the second
round and they'll be exhausted and they'll be pummeled by
whoever they get to. And obviously we know it's going

(41:14):
to be the Boston Celtics. But I think it will
be a fun series.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
I do.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
I think Detroit obviously fun Uprise team. I think it
being kind of their first taste at it as opposed
to this next bunch having been here a couple of
times in a row, and at least one they've.

Speaker 5 (41:31):
Won one one round, one round in this core.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
Well they what.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Year did they win the first round? They won the
first round series a couple of years ago.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
I'll pull up. That was pre Jalen Brunson for sure. Really,
I'm pretty sure. I don't really, you might be right
about that. You might be right about that.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
It's definitely obviously pre Cat, pre O g pre McHale.
So that's fair. I thought that this, uh, I thought that.

Speaker 4 (41:57):
They back to back years have won one round. So
I tell you a way. The twenty twenty twenty one
where they lost to the Hawks was what it was
in my head, which was pretty yady.

Speaker 3 (42:07):
Yeah. The year before last they lost to the Heat.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Remember, yeah they lost the Heat. Yes, because I yeah,
that makes total sense. Jimmy Butler knocked them eye. I
remember that now. But yeah, I'm going with the Knicks.
I think it'll be a fun series. But I do.
I do like that. I like how confident you are
there and that plus one and a half. And this
is one that I'm kind of looking at. The Pacers

(42:33):
and the Bucks. The Pacers minus one seventy five, Bucks
plus one forty five. I think the Pacers have the
Bucks number and the Pacers have played, are playing much
better basketball down the stretch, Bucks playing worst basketball down
the stretch. Haliburton seems to kind of be himself again,
Benedic Natheren really breaking out as well. Miles Turner expiring,

(42:55):
he's a free agent. He's trying to prove himself a
little bit here. I I kind of love this Pacers team.
I expected them to have an even better year this year.
I thought that they'd win maybe like fifty five games,
but it looks like they'll finished right around that fifty number.
They're just so deep, you know, going into this run.
I think you feel really good at about at least

(43:18):
seven guys, and I know you like Ben.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
I think eight guys, and then I know you like
Ben Sheppard.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah, and then you have Jaris Walker who was a
top seven pick, who.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Yeah, you love him as well.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
I just think this team has so many different lineups
and kind of like they could go big, they could
go small, they could kind of go wing heavy.

Speaker 4 (43:37):
Like Smith, Like they have a ton of guys.

Speaker 5 (43:40):
Man.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Yeah, I didn't think that they're and we talked about this.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
I like them to kind of beat the Bucks pretty easily,
maybe minus one and a half games, at plus one ten.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
Is worth a worth of sniff.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
But I'm just telling you the way you feel about
the Pistons as the next is kind of how I
feel about the Pacers once they get to play the Cabs, Like,
I think they're gonna have a dance in that series.
They'll probably won't win, but I think that series goes
six to seven games and they really give the Calves
everything they can handle. This is a team that's obviously
they made the conference finals a couple of years ago.
Was that last year? Yeah, last year they made the

(44:14):
conference finals. Last year beat the Knicks exactly. I think
that it's a team that has been through.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
The Wars a little bit.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
They have the depth. A lot of these guys have
been here. I Haliburton's playing way better down the stretch.
Mather and obviously, like we just mentioned, I think is
a different version of himself than we've seen before.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
I really like this Pacers team. I think they could
give the Cavs trouble. Wow.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
Well, I mean, I do agree with you that I
think they beat the Bucks here. I think it'll be
a fairly I give Giannis enough respect to win at
least two games in the series that I think it
will be pacers and six at the best case scenario.
For Indiana's perspective, it's been weird. It's been like an
opposite season of what they had last year. That last
season they look terrific to the first part of the
year with Tyrese halburt and leading the charge, and obviously

(44:57):
these are kind of connected. How Haliburton plays is how
the team looks. They were terrifically the first half of
the season, really kind of limped into the playoffs and
slowed down in the second half year with Haliburton's play
being at the forefront of not looking like the all
star version of himself. This year has been the opposite
that he started the year kind of slow and then
he's been on an absolute tear down the home stretch
of the season, with the team following. To give a
little bit of respect to the Bucks, they are on

(45:17):
a seven game winning streak. Giannis is still that dude
and can kind of carry a team for stretches here,
but Damian Lillard's on availability certainly changed the outlook for
this team, and I think there's gonna be some pretty
like deep conversations this summer about the future of Giannis
in in Milwaukee there, so we'll see how it all
shakes out. I did want to throw one question at
you from the The Nixon Piston series again, who's the

(45:39):
best player in the series and why is it not
Kate Cunningham It's.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Jal is it? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (45:45):
Like definitely?

Speaker 3 (45:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (45:47):
Really?

Speaker 3 (45:48):
I think so, Yeah, I think pretty comfortably.

Speaker 4 (45:51):
I don't think Kate Cunningham has gotten the flowers nationally
that he deserves.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
I agree with that. I agree with that.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
I think you underrate Frontson a little. And I think
Brumson's really good.

Speaker 5 (46:01):
He's very good.

Speaker 4 (46:02):
He's a better scorer than Kate Cunningham, no doubt about it,
more efficient scorer than Kate Cunningham.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
I would argue.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
Kate is definitely a better playmaker, definitely a better rebounder,
definitely a better defender, and I think, like the guys
around him, like from a talent perspective, the Knicks have
more talent there, but they also have more flawed guys.
Man like you're Karl Anthony Towns is a guy that
I the talent is at.

Speaker 5 (46:25):
I don't think you can win maybe even on like
I don't.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
You certainly can't win a championship with Karl Anthony Towns
as a key part of your team.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
I don't agree with that. I think Minnesota could have
won the championship last year.

Speaker 5 (46:38):
Why didn't they?

Speaker 3 (46:39):
I think that Anthony.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Edwards wasn't ready to be the number one guy on
a championship team. I really do believe that, and I
think you have some issues with Gobert. But I think
if if things broke differently, I think they could have
easily won the title. Or maybe maybe I shouldn't say that,
Maybe they should. Maybe I should say that they could
have lost to Boston in the finals. Obviously they were
in the conference finals. They could have beat in Dallas. Yeah,

(47:03):
maybe I don't.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
I guess I'm not that passionate about it. I think
Cat's really good. I don't think Cat's the problem.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
I think I think he's a problem. Like defensively, you
can't do anything with him man like that. This has
been my takeaway from the Knicks this year as a whole,
and again I don't take them seriously. I don't even
think they went around. I would be surprised if they
were able to, you know, give the Caves any sort
of series in that second round there Likes or Boston, Yeah,

(47:30):
they're not. I don't think they make any sort of
noise in that, And you know whatever, we'll get there
when we get there. The Knicks as a hole this year,
Like offensively they've been better than I expected they could
get to, but defensively they've been so much worse than
I thought was possible. Like they've been a bottom ten
defense for pretty much this entire season. You can't play
Cat as a five because he's gonna get bullied by
whoever that guy is there. He also can't guard in

(47:50):
space on the perimeter. I think Kate is gonna absolutely
eat in the pick and roll reps and just putting
him in space making him guard, you kind of can't
play him as a four either because of these same reasons.
So I don't know is incredibly talented, He's a unique
basketball player, but I kind of think he creates more
problems than solutions as it pertains to winning.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
And then I don't even think it's really worth talking
about the play in in the Easter or who Cleveland
and bost are gonna play. The interesting kind of drama
here left in the NBA season is what happens in
the four through seven spots in the Western Conference. From
what I understand, correct me if I'm wrong. Okay, See
is the one yes, Houston is.

Speaker 5 (48:27):
The two yep.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
The Lakers are the three yes.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
And then the Grizzlies, Kings, and MAVs are locked into
the play in as the.

Speaker 5 (48:37):
Eight through ten correct yep.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
And then you.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
Have Denver, LA, Golden State, and Minnesota currently as the
four through seven Denver in LA LA Clippers that is
with forty nine wins, Golden State and Minnesota with forty
eight wins.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
I wanted to get who's playing The.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Clippers are playing Golden State today, you have Minnesota who
almost definitely is going to beat Utah and move to
forty nine wins. So, from what I saw, people were saying,
as it correct to say that the loser of Clippers
Warriors is probably going to be in the seventh hole.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
The Clippers can't be six. Mathematically, we won't get a
Lakers Clippers series. I saw mathematics that won't work out.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
We talked about this privately. That is a nightmare for
the Clippers. So they are very happy to avoid Lakers.
Clippers to avoid a seven game road series because that's
what that would That's what that would be for the Clippers.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
I don't care that you're in your own arena. That
would be a Lakers home series.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
But you don't respect the wall. You don't respect the
wall into it.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
I don't respect the wall. But what you're saying is
they can't be the sixth. Does that mean they can
be the seven?

Speaker 5 (49:55):
I'm looking at it in front of me. I believe so.
I know.

Speaker 4 (49:57):
I read earlier today that they can't be the Mathematically
that that one's impossible. So I think they could theoretically
drop to seven and be that top playing team. Looking
at it, yeah, because if the Timberwolves and Warriors each win,
that would drop them to the same record. We're getting
into the tiebreaker game. It's gonna be all. This is
like a whole webman. The more I've looked at it,
the more confused I've gotten.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
And Denver plays Houston, but Houston has no reason to care,
so you'd think.

Speaker 5 (50:21):
They rested everyone last night too, So.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Yeah, and you think they probably don't want to play Denver,
so you think that they probably would would let Denver
win there, and if Denver wins, they lock in the
four sheet.

Speaker 4 (50:34):
Yes, yes, that one's certain, so Denver controls their own destiny.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Yeah, if Denver wins, they lock in the fore seed,
and at the Denver end, the Clippers win, we get
Nuggets Clippers.

Speaker 5 (50:45):
Yep, yep, that'll be the series.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
So that can if both those teams win, which I
think is likely, that seems the most likely way that
this plays itself out, that will be the first round
series Denver and Clippers, which is an interesting series there.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Well, Golden States he before and a half though for
tomorrow against the Clippers, so I guess so if Denver
and the Warriors have a tibreaker of Minnesota, so I
think it's gonna be if Denver wins that the winner
of Clippers Warriors, I think it's here's my prediction. I
think Denver's going to beat Houston. Minnesota is going to
beat Utah. I think we feel pretty good about that.

(51:22):
And then what that means is the winner of Clippers
Golden State is going to be the five playing Denver, okay,
and the loser is going to be the seven in
the play and playing and I think they win that game.

Speaker 4 (51:35):
Okay, all right, yeah, yeah, I do think I honestly
don't think that is if that's the pathway you're talking about, Like,
if you're the Clippers right now, and that's how things
play it out, that you lose this game, you drop
to seven, you have to play Memphis in the first
playing game, and then you draw Houston if you win that.
That's a pretty sweet path to be perfectly honest, I
would not mind if that's how things shake out if
I'm a Clippers fan.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Oh that's the tream.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
That's that's interesting because like you theoretically want to avoid
the play in I get it.

Speaker 5 (52:02):
But but yeah, if you're the.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Five seed playing Denver and then you have to go
play Okay see in round two as opposed to you
get that seventh seed if you win that home playing
game and then you go play Houston, who is currently
seventh and odds in the West as.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
The two seed.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
That No, I didn't know that. That doesn't fully surprise me.
But that is pretty shocking.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
There's seventh in conference title odds in the Western Conference
as the.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
Locked in two seed.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
They will which to me tells me the Lakers, Nuggets, Clippers, Warriors,
or Timberwolves will be favored against them in a series.

Speaker 5 (52:38):
Yeah, yeah, I think certainly, which is that's.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Whoever they play.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
If it's not Memphis, if Memphis doesn't get into that
seven hole, they will be an underdog as the two
seed with home court in that series. So fun little
wrinkled there, but I think it's gonna be. Yeah, if
you're if you're the Clippers of Golden State, I think
you tanked the game today.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
I really do. It's funny to say.

Speaker 4 (53:00):
For tomorrow, I should say the loser might be the
winner in that game for real, and how you set
yourself up. And by the way, for the Rockets people
that like I almost feel bad for in a way
that like, you guys have done things right, you're winning
the right way.

Speaker 5 (53:10):
You have this young core.

Speaker 4 (53:12):
I still just don't think I take you seriously and
I don't think that you can ever change me. My
pushback is, as we list off all these teams, if
you're the Houston Rockets, how many of these series do
you have the best player in? Because I really can't
find a single one.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Yeah, yeah, zero points zero zero, not a single one,
but incredible. If you're the Rockets, who who would you
rather play more? I guess between the Clippers and Golden State,
you'd probably rather play the Clippers.

Speaker 4 (53:41):
Right, probably because that like you could do some fun
things with it just being a physical, you know, grinded out,
defensive minded games. Plus you always run the risk of,
you know, James Harden can win you or lose you
a game depending on the mood that he shows up.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
In hard against Houston. I didn't even think about that.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Especially with like he kind of you know, obviously the
timelines with him being traded sort of launched this whole rebuild,
and now they're back.

Speaker 5 (54:04):
That would be that. I think the NBA should be
rooting for that too.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
And then or you get Houston Golden State, you know,
a new era, I guess, but I think Golden State
in five if that's the case.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
By the way, I can't believe they lost to the
Spurs the other night. By the way, that's what really
complicated a lot of this. There were seventeen point favorites
in that game.

Speaker 3 (54:24):
Yeah, they'd be locked.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
I think the Clippers and them would pretty much be
locked in to the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
In Minnesota be sitting in the play And.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
By the way, if you're Houston, maybe if Minnesota is like,
we'll lose to you, Thahl and then we'll sit here
in the seventh seed. If you're Houston, I don't think
you want to see Minnesota. I think I guess you
probably would rather.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
See Minnesota than the Clippers.

Speaker 4 (54:43):
You gotta play somebody like I don't great about any
of these matchups.

Speaker 3 (54:48):
They want Memphis is what they want. Yeah, I really
want Memphis. But let's wrap it up.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
We're going on the other side. Come back, stay tuned
for the Tough Cover Radio Show. We are going to
be interviewing my guy Dives. You can follow him at
mister Crockpott talking all things NFL Draft from my podcast,
the Armchair Scouts and Eagles Pimple Network. We cover every
position group every week and we've got some fun shows
planned leading up to the draft. Here show that fun

(55:14):
little hour or forty five minutes talking every position group
in this draft and going to some of our favorite guys.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
So stay tuned. Nobody better than Dives.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
We'll be back next week with more Tough Cover Radio
Show live.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
Number one on your car radio preset hand, the new
and improved Diehard Radio app WDAS and WD two seven
three D Philadelphia. I is Fox Sports Radio The Gambler.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Welcome back to the Tough Cover Radio show right here
on Fox Sports to Gambler, and I am joined by
one of my co hosts and one of my favorite
guests to have here on the Tough Cover radio show.
We've got my guy, Dives. You can follow over on
Twitter at mister Crockbitt and check out everything he's doing
on YouTube over on the party on broad podcast channel, Dives.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
How are we doing? Man?

Speaker 6 (56:00):
Well, man, A couple weeks away from the draft? It's
almost Christmas.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Yeah, this is really we Dives, especially, I grind in
my own way all all year with you know, gambling
on college football, and that's how I kind of start
with the evaluation and finding guys.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
And we do a.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Podcast Dives and I together during the year called Armchair
Scouts that we're continuing right now with Shane haff and
Ryan Reese. But Dives is grinding the moment the NFL
Draft ends. Dives will be grinding for next year's NFL Draft.
So he is an absolute machine and he's the perfect

(56:37):
guy to go to, especially early on when no one
else is putting out those content in the summer in
the fall about the upcoming draft. Dives kills it more
than anybody, I think, and Dives does a great job
in general with all things drafts, So go and check
him out. Let's just kind of go from each position
group and talk thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs in the middle,

(56:59):
and we'll highlight some guys as we go along, some
storylines as we go, some of our favorite guys for Dives.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
But quarterback.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Obviously, here in Philadelphia, we don't have a lot of
need to talk about quarterback. But I think we're both
pretty comfortably thumbs down on this class as a whole
compared to kind of recent classes. But the question I'll
ask you, I asked this to Shane last week. Cam Ward,
He's gonna go first overall. I think he's your QB one.

(57:30):
But do you think that this is kind of a
crazy reach for Tennessee. Should they be kind of considering
other options and maybe taking best player available figuring out
quarterback in the future. I'm kind of more of the
mindset that this might end up looking pretty kind of
funny in a couple of years, looking at how they
passed Travis Hunter, abdul Carter, some of these.

Speaker 6 (57:49):
Other guys, I fully agree, Yeah, that should be the pick.
Travis Hunter, Abdul Carter, somewhere in that vein. What a
bad year for a quarterback a team that needs a quarterback.
Because I like cam Ward. He will be a first
round pick, no doubt about it, and he will be
the number one pick, no doubt about it. But if

(58:12):
I put him on my big board, he's probably in.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
My like thirties.

Speaker 6 (58:15):
The door is much further down the line. So there's
a hope that maybe Jackson darts sitting there when the
Eagles are on the clock, and how he can.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
Use that to trade back a little bit.

Speaker 6 (58:28):
But for cam Ward, there are some things to get
excited about. You know, he's got a twitchy release, He's
got good feel for pressure.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
He plays like a point guard.

Speaker 6 (58:38):
He's big, like like Ben Roethlisberger, but he can improvise,
you know, on a dime. He kind of has a
funky side arm throw. But there are some question marks
about him. You know, his decision making can be questionable
at times. There's times when he throws some bad balls
into the middle of the field. He needs a lot
of coaching in that area. But in terms of alpha mentality,

(59:01):
in terms of having a dynamic arm and enough mobility
to make plays out of the pocket outside of structure.
I think he's clearly number one for the quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
And you mentioned Dark there, and he's been a fast riser,
and I kind of look at Dart the exact same
way we looked at bo Nicks last year, where he's
a fifties to sixties type guy. Obviously, Bonnicks ended up
going first round then playing really well last year.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
He landed in the perfect system.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Though, we'll see if Dart kind of gets as lucky
as bo Nicks does.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
Where is Dark for you.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
In terms of how far down past Shador or whoever
you have as QB two, Where does Dark kind of
land for you?

Speaker 6 (59:40):
Sure he will probably those chance he goes first round,
he'll probably be drafted day two. He is a reach.
He's a massive reach. He's more of a Day three
kind of guy. In the big scheme of things. There's
some promising physical skills, like if you're an RPO offense,
there are some things that might get you excited. He

(01:00:01):
can extend plays, he can get some yards with his legs.
He's got a smooth and quick release. Very good underrated athlete,
I think, really fun player to watch during his time
at Old Miss. But those natural physical tools someone's gonna
bet on those and uh far too high?

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
Yeah, and I want, I know, I'll just save the question.
Dives is not like Jalen Milroe, not a Jalen.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
Milroe guy from.

Speaker 6 (01:00:29):
Remember dude, so and to be fair, like I was
a Jalen Milroe guy. I called him a first round
pick this time two years a year ago, and I
rooted for him, and I watched a lot of Alabama.
I don't buy it whatsoever. And I was wrong before.
I mean I I threw some shade up bow Nicks

(01:00:50):
at this time last year's draft, and he looked great
last year.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
So who knows.

Speaker 6 (01:00:55):
But in terms of Jalen Milroe, he.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
He needs a lot of work. He's a guy that
can throw a deep ball.

Speaker 6 (01:01:04):
He's obviously a great athlete, but when it comes to
maneuvering against pressure, when it comes to hitting windows, finding
guys in stride, and making good decisions.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
With the ball, man, he's light years away. Light years.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Yeah, let's move on to a good position here, and
a position that might be the best position group in
the class. To be honest, maybe we can debate that
with another woman we get to the last one.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
But running back one of the stories of the draft.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
A great, great position group here, especially the top two
guys Ashton Genty Omarion Hampton, and I think as draft
people in general, we use the word generational too often,
and I'm guilty of it myself. I think I've said
it about guys who have panned out to be anything
but generational at times. What I will say is, if

(01:01:55):
there's any use of generational that I think does apply,
it is to Ashton GenZ. I think he's that special
of a running back prospect. I guess what I'd ask
you is kind of where he ranks with some of
the top running back prospects in the last couple of years,
like Bijon Robinson, and is he the best running back
in recent memory that you've kind of evaluated or the

(01:02:17):
highest guy that you'll have ranked in your big board.

Speaker 6 (01:02:20):
He's right at that same tier. I think he's a
lot for the top ten. I think he's a blue
chip prospect, just as Bijehon Robinson was. I mean Jon
Robinson when he came out, he was every bit a
blue chip prospect. And you look at Ashton Gent He's
a bellcow man. He is a throwback running running back prospect.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
Elite vision.

Speaker 6 (01:02:43):
There's not a lot of weaknesses with this guy. He's
kind of your like traditional do it all Saquon Barkley
kind of back that you know, is decisive in his cuts.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
He's got strong feet, a lot of power, great.

Speaker 6 (01:02:58):
Vision, can manipulate defenders, can create, you know, I can
make defenders miss went between the tackles, outside the numbers, like,
there's not a lot he can't do. And I think
he's got upside as a receiver.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Oh yeah, to be untapped at the next level.

Speaker 6 (01:03:14):
So he's your three down back and it's crazy he's
not in my top ten.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
Which which is nuts.

Speaker 6 (01:03:23):
But but that don't get but a lot of that's
positional value.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
Of course for me personally, I just mind. It's what
it is. But anyway, I think Ashton Gents is right
there with Jon.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
Yeah, he's a guy who I am usually the guy
who makes fun of running backs going high. I had
Bijon in the twenties. I was not as high on
Bijon as you know, a.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
Crazy generational prospect as others were.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
I'm crazy about gent like he reminds me of Lady
and Tomlinson like, which is not a comp that I
would normally want to throw out there as one of
the best players I've ever seen, so I just think
he's special. But another guy who's got a lot of
special traits is Omarion Hampton, and I think there's a chance.
My bold prediction is Genty's gone before Jerry Jones can

(01:04:06):
make the can make the.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
Pick and he goes. Just give me a Marion Hampton.
Just give me that guy.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
He's good too, And I think that it's kind of
a Jamior Gibbs thing where he ends up going way
higher than we expect. How close is Hampton to Genty
for you and your rankings, or how big of a
gap is there.

Speaker 3 (01:04:23):
There's a there's a good gap, there's a decent gap.

Speaker 6 (01:04:26):
It's not I mean, I think in terms of Ashton
Genty top ten, no doubt into this draft. But I
think Martin Hampton will probably be drafted somewhere in the teens,
late teens, early twenties.

Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
And he's a great prospect.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
Another guy that's.

Speaker 6 (01:04:41):
More of a do it all back load to bring
down great size, great contact balance, but light feet, doesn't
have a leap, breakneck long speed, but man, he he's
also got a weapon in the passing game.

Speaker 3 (01:04:59):
He he his tape is a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:05:01):
Of fun, and he'll probably be a first round pick
and he might not be the only him and Jent
might not be the only first round picks in this draft.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
And all that kind of seguees right into this. The
two Ohio State guys are probably running back three and four.
Maybe Caleb Johnson or maybe some other people have something
to say about that. But out of the out of
Trevion and Quinchawn Jenkins, who do you prefer?

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
Who do you think as the higher upside?

Speaker 6 (01:05:27):
God, I hate this question. Look, I love both, they're
writing that same tier. I personally think, and call me crazy,
that Travon Henderson could be the second running back off
the board. I think it's that much of a complete prospect.
I think he's underrated just in terms of being a

(01:05:49):
leader on and off the field, his explosiveness. Teams always
fall in love with that. He's a great, great receiver
as well, just a home run hitter. And I think
Trevon Henderson, if I had to pick right now, I
think is.

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
The better running back.

Speaker 6 (01:06:05):
That being said, Kuchan Juk is great pass protector, can
pick up blitzes another just like Amarion and Ashton GenZ.
A complete running back prospect, you know, more of a
he can you know, push the push the marker, get
first downs. But I like Trevon quite a bit and

(01:06:26):
I think he's being slept on. I think he's a
sleeper to get picked over Amarion Hampton.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
And outside of that top five, those those top two
we mentioned the Tuahia State guys and Kill Johnson. Who's
your favorite guy outside of that? That's probably maybe maybe
a Day two guy, maybe even a Day three guy.
But who's the favorite guy outside of this guys?

Speaker 6 (01:06:46):
No doubt it's Batial Tuton out of Virginia Tech. I
think he was the winner at the Combine. He exploded
on the scene last year. It last two years, twenty
five rushing touchdowns, over two thousand yards man at the
combine four three eight forty yard dash. Then he had
a four three two forty yard dash. I mean he
he put up better numbers than Saquon Barkley and Jamior

(01:07:09):
Gibbs in terms of measurables. A lot of people saw
him as a Day three guy heading into the Combine,
but I think he's a solid Day two prospect, has
a bit of a way to go. But uh, there's
a lot to like about this guy. Great athlete, he's
a bowling ball. Uh, he would be a really fun
pick for the Birds if he sneaks somewhere on that

(01:07:31):
day three range.

Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
I'm riding hard for r J.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
Harvey, my guy from up There's so many guys that,
you know, it's ridiculous how many guys. I mean, DJ Giddons,
Dylan Samson, camp Scatavoo.

Speaker 6 (01:07:47):
For Shard Smith, a former wide receiver, great fit to
kind of battle will Shipley in that that you know
RB three role you could talk about Damian Martinez. I
think it's got three down running back upside. There's a
lot of dudes in this is, like you said, a
generational class that we'll be talking day three on the

(01:08:10):
draft party, and you know, how are these guys still
sitting here?

Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
I don't like. It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:08:15):
So a position that I think I'll go thumbs in
the middle. I think dives gonna go thumbs up though
wide receiver.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
Where we got on wide receiver, I'm thumbs up, yeah, because.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
You love Trey Harris. That's your absolute thought. And I
am so upset. I said this on our Receiver show.
We just did an armchair Scouts. Everyone should go check
out on the Eagles pinfull network. I thought I loved
Trey Harris. I mocked him to every I do these
Twitter threads where I do mock drafts for every team,
and every team that needed a receiver was getting Trey

(01:08:46):
Harris in the second round.

Speaker 3 (01:08:47):
I mean it was.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
It wasn't even an option. Had him twenty in my twenties.
In the rankings, I have him as a top second
round prospect, and then dives sends his rankings in our
group chat and he put Trey Harris eighth overall. So
I'm like, oh, man, now I look like a hater
on Trey Harris having him twenty eighth.

Speaker 3 (01:09:03):
But I love the guy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
He's my wide receiver too in this class. I don't
understand how some guys are getting buzz over him.

Speaker 6 (01:09:13):
Why do you love Trey Harris so much? Because I
think he's just a complete prospect. He's a guy that
can play inside and outside. He can create separation off
the line, great contested catch, guy, can stretch a defense particle.
I think he's an underrated route runner and you just
look at the production. He's not the biggest guy he's

(01:09:33):
not the fastest guy. I just think in terms of
probably being an elite wide receiver two in the NFL,
I think he's got everything you're looking for.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
Tech McMillan, super polarizing guy. I am really high on
Tech McMillan. I think he's an elite receiver prospect, one
of the best I've evaluated in a while. I think
Marvin was better last year. To me, I think that
Dunsday was a little better. He He's one of the
five or show best prospects I think in the last

(01:10:05):
five years at the wide receiver position. For me, I
just love he's so prototymple that size, that X receiver.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
There's not a lot of that in this draft. In
terms of the size.

Speaker 2 (01:10:14):
He reminds me of Drake London, with more kind of burst,
more ability to go get it. Where do you land
on the Tech McMillan kind of debate because there's people
who think, like me, I have him fourth overall, like
I think he's a top five go overall guy. Then
there's people who think he shouldn't even go in the
first round, like Steve Smith's the former Fanthers receiver.

Speaker 3 (01:10:33):
Where are you at on ten again?

Speaker 6 (01:10:35):
I really like this wide receiver class, but is filled
with you know, Z and slot kind of receivers. There's
not a lot of pure ex alpha dog number one
receivers on the outside like Tech McMillan. I mean, he's
a catch point monster. I think he's ten to fifteen
pounds away from being a.

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
Mike Evans clone.

Speaker 6 (01:10:58):
He's I think he could have done even more in
twenty twenty four if it wasn't for Arizona being a
complete mess. But obviously a guy that's going to dominate
in the red zone, dominate against smaller corners, great size,
breakaway speed, elite ball tracking, catch radius, measurables, can win vertically.

(01:11:19):
I mean, there's so much to like about him. He's
currently my number four prospect overall on my.

Speaker 3 (01:11:26):
Big board and a blue chip guy all the way.

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
Two guys that I'm not as in love with as
the general consensus out there at the wide receiver position
is Matthew Golden and Luther Burden. I think you're a
little bit higher on them than me, but I don't
know if you have first round grades on them kind
of sell me on why these are two guys that
should go up in that first round and kind of

(01:11:51):
to these. You know, I feel like a lot of
these playoff teams at the end do have some wide
receiver needs the chief some other teams out there at
the Bills. Why are Luther Burton and Matthew Golden. I
mean they might not even be there at that point,
but why are they worthy of being first drop picks.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
For you, Luther Burdon.

Speaker 6 (01:12:09):
I think DeShawn Jackson just an elite playmaker with the
ball in his hands. Did not put up consistent production
in twenty twenty four, and he came into last season
as a top ten prospect. He's a guy that can
create separation. He's a guy that you might need to
move around a little bit on offense in the NFL,

(01:12:32):
might struggle against press, against bigger corners, but he's a
home run threat and he's a guy that can take
it to the house at any moment. I think his
best football is in front of him, and then Matthew Golden.
I mean I think of Devonte Smith. The guy's tape
is out downright silly. I mean, his route running is crisp.

(01:12:53):
He can make defensive backs look ridiculous. He can stretch
a defense, hit you in the middle of the field.
He's kind of been the guy that has blown up
ever since. I'd say, you know, the college football Playoff kind.

Speaker 3 (01:13:11):
Of came out of nowhere. I watched a lot of Texas.

Speaker 6 (01:13:15):
And I kept waiting for Isaiah Bond to, you know,
blow me away. I kept waiting for Gunner Helm to
blow me away, Jayden Blue blow me away, Quinn Yours.
But it wasn't any of those guys on offense. It
was Matthew Golden who made ridiculous catches after ridiculous catches
and sold me with his route running.

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
I think he's a total prospect.

Speaker 6 (01:13:36):
I think there's a chance. I think there is a
small chance he's the first receiver off the board after
a ticking.

Speaker 3 (01:13:43):
There's a chance he goes over to Well.

Speaker 2 (01:13:45):
I don't think it'll happen, but there's a chance someone
falls in love with Golden. I think Golden it makes
a lot of sense to denver at one. That's not
the pick I would make. I'd rather than take like
a Trey Harris or Buka. But I could see tem
Payton falling for that to guy moving on the tight
end a position group that I am firmly thumbs down

(01:14:06):
thumbs down. The tellight ends I'm out, but I love
the top two. I do love the top two. I
love Tyler Warren and I love Colston Loveland. I have
Warren seven, I have Loveland twelve. I don't think either
of those guys are nearly going to be even close
to available when it comes to the Eagles pick at
thirty two. Obviously a lot of controversies surrounding Dallas Goddard

(01:14:27):
does not seem like he's going to be here. Not
great poker by Nick Sirianni in the media there, I
felt like, but a lot of talk about that kind
of next tier of guys, especially I'm hearing a lot
of Elijah Arroyo, a lot of Mason Taylor, a lot
of people connecting those dots. Obviously, there's there's Harold Fannin

(01:14:48):
out there, there is Gunner Helm, a couple of guys
I'm forgetting but for me, and this is kind of
my bold take here, and people aren't gonna like this
because I think Mason, Taylor and Royo probably both go
in the top fifth.

Speaker 3 (01:15:00):
I don't have a tight end outside of Warren in
Loveland in my top eighty five. So there's a lot
of buzz.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
I heard a royo at or Taylor at thirty two
to the Eagles today.

Speaker 3 (01:15:11):
How would you react to that?

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
And where are you at on this tight end class
outside of Warren in Loveland.

Speaker 6 (01:15:17):
It's been disappointing as a guy that I was very
pro tight end coming into the Senior Bowl and the
combine and the depth has kind of just the buzz
has kind of fallen off. Obviously, I'm a big Tyler
Warren guy. I think he's a top ten prospect, just
that tier underneath Brock Bowers.

Speaker 3 (01:15:38):
I think he's got it all.

Speaker 6 (01:15:39):
Not a great creator off the line of scrimmage, but
I mean he's the total package. I mean, I would
love him at Midnight Green Colston, Loveland. I'm a big
fan of He didn't get a chance to kind of
showcase his abilities last year due to that mess of
a quarterback situation at Michigan.

Speaker 3 (01:15:56):
But a big receiver, more of a move tight.

Speaker 6 (01:15:58):
End kind of dude. And my bold take is Mason
Taylor's drafted over him. I think Mason Taylor has a
chance to be the tight end two in this draft.
I think, in terms of inline tight ends, a guy
that can block, a guy that can be a good receiver.
I think Mason Taylor is a very good prospect. We

(01:16:18):
didn't get to see him to his best abilities last year,
but an elite level athlete, fluid mover. The most receiving
yards he's had in a game was back in twenty
twenty three. Mark, do you know how many yards that was?

Speaker 3 (01:16:33):
How many? Eighty eight?

Speaker 6 (01:16:38):
So the production does not meet the hype. But man,
I think he's a weapon. I think he's got true
tight end one upside. A guy that I really like
for the Eagles on that day to ranges gunner Helm
Because there's a lot of gadget guys, a lot of
guys that can do a lot of different things as
a receiver, not a lot of tight ends that are

(01:17:00):
great blockers. I think gunner Helm is one of those
few that can be more of a tight end two
kind of guy with a chance to be a tight
end one.

Speaker 3 (01:17:10):
But Gunnerhelm was one of them. Elijah Royal, great athlete,
good blocker.

Speaker 6 (01:17:16):
I mean he's coming from a system in Miami that
was a power running style offense.

Speaker 3 (01:17:21):
Uh So he's used to.

Speaker 6 (01:17:22):
Being you know, thrown in there on the line of scrimmage,
you know, blocking, blocking, heads. But for me, at the
end of the day, I would be shocked if Mason
Taylor is not a Philadelphia Eagle sometime day two.

Speaker 3 (01:17:36):
Wow, well yeah, I would.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
Really, I'm really hoping they just don't take a tight
end and that's.

Speaker 3 (01:17:43):
I'm with you.

Speaker 6 (01:17:44):
Bring back Dallas Goddards so we don't even have to
have this conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
So frustrating once. I one thing I was thinking about today.
It just popped in my head. If Dallas Goddard's traded,
give me all the AJ Brown stock in fantasy, all
the AJ Brown stock.

Speaker 3 (01:17:58):
That's going to open up some targets something.

Speaker 2 (01:18:01):
Let's move on here to a position group that I
wanted to get to because something Dives and I might
disagree on here. I think Dives hates this O line class.

Speaker 3 (01:18:13):
We can't stand it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
I've talked myself into it a little bit more. I've
got four first round grades and then I've got nine
second round grades.

Speaker 3 (01:18:23):
So I've got thirteen.

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
Guys in my top fifty from O lineman and I've
got three guys in the bottom half of my top ten.

Speaker 3 (01:18:31):
Dives isn't as high.

Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
Dives thinks that this is a lot of these tackles
gonna end up moving inside. But a guy that you
do love, who I think is kind of firmly planted
into the first round Dives does this once a year.
He finds a guy who ends up like like Graham
Barton last year, we're going fully fully ends up like
being a top twenty lot. It seems like that's great

(01:18:53):
is Abel from North Dakota State. He's just outside of
my first round. He's my number twenty nine overall player,
a top second round pick. I think that's gonna end
up looking dumb potentially when he goes like twelfth.

Speaker 6 (01:19:06):
But tell me why he loves Abel compared to man,
he's such a great athlete. If there's like one position
that would kind of shock me, especially in the first round, uh,
it would be offensive line, given how great Stoutlin is
at developing tackles with a lot of traits and great Zabel.

Speaker 3 (01:19:25):
Has the goods man.

Speaker 6 (01:19:26):
He's you know, he didn't do a lot of athletic tape testing,
but he had a thirty six and a half inch
vertical jump at the combine that was the most the
best mark of all offensive lineman.

Speaker 3 (01:19:37):
He's like six six.

Speaker 6 (01:19:39):
He's an old school grinder that fits kind of that,
you know, blue chip mentality or blue collar mentality on
that Eagles offensive line. Great positional versatility, He's got extensive snapchat,
guards and tackle. Wherever position in the NFL he can
fill it. Negative one. He's been called for a lot

(01:20:01):
of penalties. He did decrease that a lot from twenty
twenty three to twenty twenty four. But a guy that
can be an ascid in any scheme. He probably could
be that. He could be that backup center, and to
be honest, the Eagles don't even have a backup center
right now. Man, he could be a right guard, he
could be a tackle, he could be whatever how he

(01:20:22):
wants him to be. And man, he would just be
perfect to groom in that Jeff Staltlin University.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
And then with the top couple guys, with a couple
of guys who I think are going to go in
the top ten here in Will Campbell and armand Membu,
tell me why you think that they're kind of more
likely to move inside and more likely to not be
worth that top ten pick.

Speaker 6 (01:20:47):
Will John, I mean, we're gonna be talking about wigspan
all night during the draft watch party. That's the theme
with a lot of these guys, and that's a big
reason why I'm less high on this compared to last
year we had Joe Ald and Fashnu and all these
guys that I thought were elite level tackles. Membo I
think is going to be a top ten guy. I

(01:21:09):
think he's the best tackle in this group, has a
chance to be the first offensive lineman off the board.
I am not high on Will Campbell. He played pretty
much all his snaps that left tackle, But I think
on the interior, where he's working in a phone booth,
is his best path to, you know, being a star
at the next level. But you look at some I

(01:21:30):
like the depth in this class a lot more than
the guys at the top. Guys like Tate Ratledge just
an elite athlete on the interior. A guy like Charles
Grant elite athleticism that could probably he's got a wrestler's
background by the way Mark, he could start on the
interior work his way to the outside. A guy like

(01:21:51):
Holland Pierce elite measurables to be groomed to be a
tackle of the future down the road. There's a lot
of fun ones. So for me, another one, Arianta Ersery another.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
Guy that I'm falling in love with him.

Speaker 6 (01:22:05):
I mean, I I I'm not high on the class,
but I think there is depth and quality in that depth.

Speaker 3 (01:22:13):
There.

Speaker 6 (01:22:14):
I'm probably missing one, but yeah, ariontay Ersery is a
guy that I think fstigles really well what they want
to do as you know, a heavy run scheme.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
And I think he's a confirmed tackle in a class
of a lot of tackles who might end up moving inside.

Speaker 3 (01:22:30):
Like I think he's locked in.

Speaker 2 (01:22:31):
You know, he's going to stick a tackle long term.
And yeah, it's officially close to the draft because that
I always have about I feel like it's around twenty
five first round grades, usually not the thirty two. I mean,
I think that's how most NFL teams are allegedly, but
I don't ever have thirty two. But every year I
have about twenty five. I'm steady with that, you know,

(01:22:53):
February through April and we get to this point, I'm like,
you know, I do like Trey Harris a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:22:59):
I like a book a lot. I like grays Abel
a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
I like ariante Ursery a lot of these guys' first
round grades. I'm gonna try to stop myself I'm I'm
capping my first round grades if I have it now,
but Ursery is making me think twice. I really do
think that that guy's gonna be worth a high pick
and gonna live up to that.

Speaker 6 (01:23:18):
It's such a fascinating story what the Eagles do at
thirty two. I mean, I've said this many times on
our show, like there's not a lot of difference between
like guys outside just outside of the top ten.

Speaker 3 (01:23:29):
All the way through thirty two, all the way.

Speaker 6 (01:23:31):
Into round two. It's kind of depending on your scheme
what you want out of your prospects. It's all scheme fit.
There's a lot of question marks about a lot of
these guys, and there's a really good chance someone falls
to Howie and thirty two and they stay put and
they get them or I think the strength in this

(01:23:52):
draft is Day two they trade back, you know, load
up and just move all around the board on and
kind of get guys that fit what they're looking to do. So, yeah,
it's gonna be interesting to see how this board falls.
I still always believe in like best player available at
thirty two, which will probably be d Line. I think

(01:24:15):
the pattern we have seen so far at least recently
is you know, I think there's gonna be a major
run on DE tackle and edge between rounds one and two,
So it will definitely be in Howie's interests to jump
on those two positions from the jump. But it is
a really weird draft, and my rankings compared to like

(01:24:37):
mass media could not be different more different.

Speaker 2 (01:24:41):
Yeah, it's you know, it's scary when you have those
rankings that are so different sometimes, but then you don't
want to just do groupthink and go back to what
everybody's thinking, because then what's the point of you evaluating
it for yourself. So I always struggle with that, Like
I have Benjamin Morrison eleventh. Overall, we're gonna get to
that he might not go in the first round, and
you know, I might look pretty silly there, But let's

(01:25:03):
talk about edge and D tackle. You just talked about
it there, and I think we can kind of combo
it a little bit there.

Speaker 3 (01:25:07):
It's just overall, pass rushers and D line.

Speaker 2 (01:25:10):
There's three guys that I keep coming back to as
my kind of dream scenario that one of these guys
is falling and we make up move up to twenty
four or whatever the case may be and it's James
Pierce is the top one for sure. Derek Harmon from
Oregon and Walter Nolan from Ole, miss Those are the
three guys that I keep coming back to as guys

(01:25:34):
that I think could be Year one real difference makers
for the Eagles. At pick thirty two or obviously moving
up just a little bit, you have a ton of
those picks on day three, maybe that could help a
little bit facilitated deal. Those are the guys I keep
coming back to as kind of the dream scenarios. Honestly,
if you want to open up to beyond edge and

(01:25:54):
d tackle throws, who am I missing?

Speaker 6 (01:25:58):
Donovan Azeraku I think would be a really good fit.
I mean he has some struggles on tape as a
run defender, but as a pure pass rusher, guy that
can fit into that rotation, good length, good first step
off the line of scrimmage. I think as a Rocky
would be a guy that how he would be all over.

(01:26:18):
I think Kenneth Grant is another name that has some
really good tape pass rushing skills, good run defender. TJ
Sanders another guy that has a lot of traits. I
think he's more of a second round pick. But I
do think there's talent there. He just needs a lot
of coaching, a lot of coaching. But you name the

(01:26:40):
big ones. I mean, James Pierce Junior is kind of falling.
I don't think anybody has any idea where he's going
to go. I could see him going to the top ten.
I could see him falling out of the first round.

Speaker 3 (01:26:52):
There's some there's some weird reports out there for whatever.
Believe whatever you want.

Speaker 6 (01:26:59):
But at least when on tape in college, he's dropped
back in coverage a little bit. He's an elite athlete,
kind of fits everything the Eagles want to do there,
so he's a good one. And then there's a lot
of guys in like round two and stuff. The guy
that like I have been in and out, like one week,
I'm all in, the next week, I'm all out is

(01:27:21):
Nick Gordon. Nick Gordon is like six'. Three he visited
The eagles. Recently he took his picture With Brandon graham
and Made Brandon graham.

Speaker 3 (01:27:30):
Look pretty small by the, way interesting.

Speaker 6 (01:27:32):
Photo But Nick gordon is the arguably right there With
Schmart stewart as like the biggest Boomer bus pick in this,
draft not the most explosive. GUY i personally Think Nick
gordon will be a more of a defensive tackle down the,
road and you're just you're hoping it all comes. Together but,

(01:27:54):
Man Schmart stewart IS i think the most fun prospect
in this.

Speaker 3 (01:27:58):
Group in turn of what the hell is?

Speaker 6 (01:28:01):
He his athleticism is off the, charts one of the
most athletic defensive lineman we've seen in a, while, RIGHT i,
mean is he A Fletcher?

Speaker 3 (01:28:12):
Cox is he an?

Speaker 6 (01:28:13):
EDGE i think if he were to come to The Philadelphia,
eagles he would be a defensive tackle like A Fletcher.

Speaker 3 (01:28:18):
Cox but, man his tools are.

Speaker 6 (01:28:21):
Ridiculous and we saw a recent mock THAT i Think
Daniel jeremiah had him going to The Philadelphia, eagles and
that JUST i would BE i don't know IF i
would be excited about that.

Speaker 3 (01:28:34):
PICK i, COULD i.

Speaker 6 (01:28:37):
AM i would be looking forward to that draft watch party,
though because the reaction to that would be really.

Speaker 3 (01:28:45):
INTERESTING i, mean he's he's.

Speaker 6 (01:28:47):
Got to be high on the list of one of
the most elite traits you've ever seen in a defensive
lineman prospect with no production.

Speaker 2 (01:28:57):
And one NAME i didn't you didn't, mention who is
just outside of that tier Of Pierre, Scharmon nolan for
me Is, Princely Princely umanlin out Of Old.

Speaker 3 (01:29:07):
MISS i have him as a first round.

Speaker 2 (01:29:09):
Guy SO i like him actually more Than skrtin Or
azeraku Or green.

Speaker 3 (01:29:15):
Or schmar Or. MICHEL i really really Like.

Speaker 2 (01:29:18):
Princely that game he had Against, georgia he just terrorized,
them AND i feel like that lives reent free in my.
Brain where are you at on him as kind of
An eagles? Fit which who's At princely prince.

Speaker 6 (01:29:31):
Just a mold Of CLAY i mean in terms of,
length in terms of being a three down. STARTER i
think he has all the. Tools he is great, production
it's just a matter of him putting it all together
at the next. Level there's a lot of guys like,
This and just to circle back On Derek, harmon who
is without a doubt one of.

Speaker 3 (01:29:51):
My favorite picks for The eagles at thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:29:53):
TWO i, mean HE'S i don't think he would be
a sexy, pick BUT i think he's the most realistic
option to put on this defensive line inside outside. Versatility
he can win one on. Ones his heads are a little,
tight but man, LIKE i think he can do a
lot of things that we saw From Milton williams and

(01:30:14):
fit with Like, Moro jomo And Jordan davis as just
an amazing rotation next To Jalen.

Speaker 2 (01:30:20):
Carter you Said Derek harmon might not be a sexy.
Pick don't speak for. Yourself i'd be hot and. Bothered
i'd be hot under the. COLLAR i Love Derek, carmon
so he's. Perfect i'd be in love with that. PICK
i think he's the top fifteen guy for. ME i
haven't wow, COOL i have the fourteenth, overall SO i
really really Like. Harmon and one last guy before we

(01:30:41):
move on to. Linebacker you, mentioned or well you didn't
Mention Walter, nolan the other old miss. Guy he's right
there With harmon for. Me there's a lot of rumors
he's gonna go seventeen To, cincinnati So i've actually kind
of stopped thinking about. Him i've become more of A
James Pearson Derek, harmon that's my. Hope But Walter, nolan
where are you at on him as An eagles?

Speaker 4 (01:31:01):
Fit?

Speaker 6 (01:31:02):
Dude he's like my number eight prospect. Overall, okay, wow,
Yeah i'm super. Happy definitely a bet high. Prospect another
guy that's kind of Like James Pierce. Jr has been
projected all over place at a lot of variability with.
Him he needs to grow as a pass.

Speaker 3 (01:31:21):
Rusher he has to develop.

Speaker 6 (01:31:24):
Counters but you look at the base as a run,
defender you look at his upside as a pass. Rusher
on the Vic, FANGIO i think he's versatile to be
a three. TECH i think he can play and even
fronts odd. FRONTS i think he's got, major major upside
and with the future kind of uncertain With Jordan, DAVIS

(01:31:45):
i Think Walter nolan With Derek harman are probably my
two favorite.

Speaker 3 (01:31:49):
Snarters, YEAH i totally agree those.

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
ARE i think those are Both Jalen carter protectors as.
Well it keeps him kind of as a leader as
he is right now and teams from being able to
triple team him and.

Speaker 3 (01:32:02):
To take him out of the. Game.

Speaker 2 (01:32:04):
Linebacker there's two, Guys Jalen walker And Giad campbell WHO
i am a little bit lower on than. CONSENSUS i
have both as high second round, prospects not as first round.
Prospects it seems like they're, both if not, locks pretty close.

Speaker 3 (01:32:20):
To locks to go in the first.

Speaker 2 (01:32:22):
Round what AM i missing with both, guys especially Especially,
campbell BECAUSE i think With, WALKER i know what my problem.
IS i think he's a tweemer in terms OF i
don't think he's good in, coverage AND i don't necessarily
know if he has the size to be an.

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
Edge SO i know my issues are With.

Speaker 2 (01:32:38):
Walker although great, Tape like there's a lot of tape
out there that's definitely really. Impressive With, campbell what AM i?
Missing why should he go top, ten top, FIFTEEN.

Speaker 3 (01:32:48):
I THINK i don't think he's going top, ten top.
FIFTEEN i think he's more in the. Twenties oh THEN
i don't have a problem with. THAT i have him
like thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:32:58):
Something, yeah, YEAH i think he's more in the, twenties
if not probably high second. Round really the, TRAITS i,
mean this guy blew up at the. Combine his measurables.

Speaker 3 (01:33:10):
Were off the.

Speaker 6 (01:33:11):
Charts he's got the you, know The bama, bloodline and
it's just really all about the. TRAITS i, mean he's
a guy that can you, know cover tight. Ends he's
a guy that looks really good at the line of.
Scrimmage just an athletic, freak amazing arm, length amazing, speed
six three two hundred and forty four. Pounds, YEAH i

(01:33:33):
think he's more of A day two, Guy but it
really wasn't until this combine that all this all of
a sudden he was getting all this first round.

Speaker 3 (01:33:42):
Bucks.

Speaker 2 (01:33:42):
Yeah i've just seen a couple of, big big names
having like top ten, overall AND i think that's.

Speaker 3 (01:33:48):
Extreme for, me it's kind of Where i'm.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
AT i think the linebackers of thumbs down probably overall
compared to some of the for. Sure but outside of those,
guys who's your favorite third? Guy for, me It's Stanny.
Stutsman i'm gonna take a guess. That for, you It's Carson.

Speaker 3 (01:34:05):
Schwessinger AM i? Right? No, wait, YES i have them
in the same.

Speaker 6 (01:34:11):
TIER i think it's LITERALLY i think it's Like stutsman's
like forty eight and Like.

Speaker 3 (01:34:16):
Schwessinger schwessenger is like forty. Seven like it's right.

Speaker 6 (01:34:19):
There AND i Think Chris Pooh paul is right in
that same.

Speaker 3 (01:34:24):
Tier SO i did not.

Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
Know his nickname Was pooh until Until dives told. ME
i thought he was Just Chris Paul, junior AND i
thought there was a lot of fun to be had with. That,
obviously with there being a Famous Chris. Paul there's even
more fun to be had with Poop.

Speaker 3 (01:34:38):
Paul there's a.

Speaker 6 (01:34:40):
There's another guy That i've been mocking to The eagles
all the, time and he, met actually met with The,
eagles and when it't surprised me if he's like a
round three selection and kind of shocks some, people it
Is Teddy buchanan out Of. California he's a guy THAT
i think Fit's Vic fangio's scheme really. Well, again great
trade forty inch for ten to five broad six two

(01:35:03):
and thirty three. Pounds he had the best vertical leap
of all the linebackers that. Tested best vertical, jump, yeah
best vertical.

Speaker 3 (01:35:12):
Jump and then you look at what he.

Speaker 6 (01:35:14):
Does he's a great coverage linebacker AND i think he's
one of the bigger sleeper prospects in this. Draft so
we're gonna be talking a lot about. Him he might
be in my top one. Hundred Teddy. Buchanan not a
lot of love out, there but you heard.

Speaker 3 (01:35:29):
IT i like. IT i like.

Speaker 2 (01:35:31):
It so let's get to WHAT i tease that running
back might be the best position group. HERE i think
it's pretty. Clear actually it's defensive. Back if you're combining
corner in. Safety, overall it's definitely defensive. Back it might
just be corner even if you take the safeties. Out
but how many defensive backs do you have as first round?

(01:35:51):
Grades Because i've got, nine nine first round grades if
we're counting corners in, safety six corners and three safeties
depend Dot baron's probably a, corner but six corners in
three safeties for me.

Speaker 1 (01:36:07):
A.

Speaker 6 (01:36:07):
Lot hold, On i'm still going, man.

Speaker 3 (01:36:10):
And i'll just read them all while to fill the.

Speaker 2 (01:36:13):
Air Will, Johnson Travis, Hunter Benjamin, Morrison Xavier, Wats Malachi,
Starks Nicko, Man Marie, Darien, Porter Maxwell, harriston And Judai.
Baron those are my nine first round grades there for
my defensive. Backs and we're going to be doing our
defensive back show this upcoming week on the Armchair. Scouts
everybody can check that. Out how many did you end up?

(01:36:35):
With and do you have any different ones than?

Speaker 3 (01:36:36):
ME i think you have more than. You.

Speaker 6 (01:36:39):
Wow, yeah in terms of first round, GREAT i think
it's a sneaky.

Speaker 3 (01:36:45):
Position, Yeah Travis.

Speaker 6 (01:36:47):
Hunter, Obviously Will johnson is my number one prospect in the.

Speaker 3 (01:36:50):
Draft Sevon Revel.

Speaker 6 (01:36:53):
Jr great, size great, athlete recovering from, injury should be
ready to, go but absolutely a stone cold outside cornerback
at the next. Level Benjamin morrison first. ROUND i think
he's in my. Twenties Ja Da baron is the best
nickel corner in this. DRAFT i think he's potentially a top,

(01:37:14):
ten top fifteen. Guy Trey amis out Of miss is
very solid as. Well and then you get to another combine,
Winner Maxwell, harriston great, size great, athlete great great. Prospect
there could be a Sneaky eagles. Pick Malachi starks my

(01:37:34):
number three or four overall.

Speaker 3 (01:37:37):
PROSPECT i.

Speaker 6 (01:37:37):
Love i've been A Malakar starks guy for. Years his
tape last year isn't as good as it was in
twenty twenty four or twenty.

Speaker 3 (01:37:50):
Three but he is a great center.

Speaker 6 (01:37:53):
FIELDER i just his tape is amazing And i'm not
going off that. Hill then you get TO Nicki, man
worry uh inside the, box elite athlete that is just
a mold of. Clay someone's gonna roll the dice on
him and just say, whatever let's see what.

Speaker 3 (01:38:11):
We got in.

Speaker 6 (01:38:12):
Him he's that popped off tape on a really Underrated
South carolina, defense AND i mean you could go on
and on About Exaber.

Speaker 3 (01:38:20):
WATSON i Love Exavier, watson best ball hawk.

Speaker 6 (01:38:23):
In this, draft but that could be a sneaky you.
Know guy to watch Is Kevin winston out Of Penn,
state who also had an Elite pro day that nobody talks,
about was hurt basically all last year was a first
round pick heading into last. Year could be a sneaky
round two selection for.

Speaker 2 (01:38:45):
Sure so let me get you out of. Here on
one final. Question IF i made you predict right, Now Philadelphia,
eagles what happens on draft? Night give me either a trade,
down trade, up stay in the same.

Speaker 3 (01:38:57):
Spot who they? TAKEN i?

Speaker 6 (01:38:59):
THINK i think they stay put number thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:39:02):
TWO i.

Speaker 6 (01:39:03):
Think CAN i give you my dream?

Speaker 3 (01:39:05):
Scenario? Yeah for?

Speaker 6 (01:39:06):
Sure, okay here we. Go all, Right so The eagles
will trade. Back they trade back from thirty two and
get an extra you, know day two selection at number
round forty. Five and there is a guy that we
haven't even talked. About Is Braidon swinson out OF. Lsu
he's an edge, rusher great. MEASURABLES i Love Braidon, swinson.

(01:39:28):
MAN i think he's a terrific. FIT i think he
fits The eagles. Scheme to a t amazing run, defender
has all the trades how he will be looking. FOR
i think they end up With Mason. TAYLOR i think
that's a. LOCK i think in terms of in line tight,
ends he's right there at the top of the, list and.

Speaker 2 (01:39:50):
Then lady guy on my list give me, something.

Speaker 6 (01:39:54):
And THEN i think they end up With andrew. MCCOOBA
i do Like andrew mccooba is a safety out Of.
Texas we didn't even talk about, him but he is
a guy that fits The eagles in terms of.

Speaker 3 (01:40:05):
Versatility he's a guy that can play. Deep he's a
guy that can play the. SLOT i was shocked at
HIS ris scores.

Speaker 6 (01:40:12):
And testing at the combine BECAUSE i thought his, tape
just Like Mather Chai, starks was way. Better BUT i
think he is the versatile kind of chest piece like
A cooper De gene for. Them SO i like him a.
Lot and those are my guys Man outside of, that.

Speaker 3 (01:40:33):
If they stay put at thirty, Two Walter.

Speaker 6 (01:40:35):
Nolan Derek, harmon those are great selections for The. BIRDS
i Think donovan as a roku is really high on
how he's, list he probably goes top. Twenty Mike green
throw him off the out the. Window he's not on
their big. Board AND i think corner is a Sneaky day.

Speaker 3 (01:41:00):
Two selection for The eagles as.

Speaker 6 (01:41:01):
Well you look at what's available In Shavon Ravel, junior
or you look At Benjamin.

Speaker 3 (01:41:08):
Morrison Or Maxwell.

Speaker 6 (01:41:12):
Harriston those are all guys that fit The eagles really.

Speaker 3 (01:41:15):
Well, yeah for.

Speaker 2 (01:41:16):
Sure just while we're we were throwing out names, Late
DB's a guy Who i've fallen in love with over the.
Process Noel williams from cal is a guy Who i've
Raised ballhawk just just an absolute.

Speaker 3 (01:41:29):
GAMER i love how he covers and, Yeah i'm Just
i've become a big.

Speaker 2 (01:41:34):
Fan he's sixty one overall for, me BUT i could
see him kind of rising up.

Speaker 3 (01:41:38):
There but that was great stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:41:40):
THERE i thought we'd end up going way longer than
THEN i thought on going through all the, positions BUT
i think that was a nice little primer on all
the position groups there for someone for people maybe who
are jumping into the draft of just a couple of
weeks to. Go, everybody go and check Out dives On
twitter at Mister, krockpot check out our pot over At Armchair.
Scouts check out everything he's. Doing over at party on Broad.

(01:42:02):
Dives thanks so much for coming on, Man thanks for
having me man.

Speaker 3 (01:42:06):
Anytime