May 1, 2024 • 22 mins
Lance Zierlein of the NFL Network joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about Atlanta drafting Michael Penix at 8th overall in last week’s draft, the Seahawks taking Byron Murphy at #16, plus Seattle’s picks of Haynes, Auburn cornerbacks, and Knight.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
As part of our exclusive in depthcoverage of the NFL, Your Home for
the twelfth Man proudly presents NFL NetworkDraft analyst Lanserline, brought to you by
Moss Bay Hall, Queen Anne BeerHall's sister location on the East Side in
Kirkland. Incredible food, local craftbeers and fresh cocktails with friends. Come
check out Mosbay Hall in the heartof downtown Kirkland now with Lanserline. Here's
(00:25):
Safti and DoD god Hey. Bythe way, you want to warn a
thousand dollars our nationwide cash contest,Enter the word bills at ninety three three
KJR dot com for a shot towin one thousand dollars. Here he is
from the NFL Network, All courtesyof her friends at Moss Bay Hall.
Check him out Mossbayhall dot com.Lance Zerline, Lance, how are you
(00:45):
man going? Well, I'm outof my patio grilling steaks. Oh Jesus,
it's the post. I'm having apost draft for me hard work zone.
You son of a bitch, justrubbing it in. Unbelievable. Man.
Well, we are sitting at abar though, at Jimmy's on First
across the street from t Mobile Parkafter the Braves a Mariner game tonight.
(01:06):
So not a bad second option.But let's just go back and get some
of your thoughts on what happened lastweekend. We'll dive into the Seahawk class
and in a second. But youknow, we're all Husky fans out here.
Man, Michael Pennock's going number eightto Atlanta despite the hundred mill guaranteed
to Kirk Cousins. Your take onthat, yeah, shots, I mean,
like everyone else, I just Idon't When it happened, I just
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said, what what are they doinghere? I don't understand? And I
you know, I was on thelive broadcast for every pick round, you
know, first pick, all theway through the last picking on the air.
I just, you know, Ijust couldn't believe it. And when
you think about what Atlanta needs.They need rushers, they need you know,
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they they need receivers, There's alot they need. There could have
been a lot more valuable picks.But the more I started thinking about it,
I said, you know, ifyou really have a belief and a
trust that Michael Pinnix is the bestor maybe the number two quarterback in this
draft, and you were playing forand you know, would you pass on
that player? I guess is whatI'm trying to say. I understand that
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some other players can help you rightnow, but if you get a special
quarterback, give you and you trulyhave to believe he's special if you're taking
it there. But if you thinkhe's special, you know, we saw
what happened when Aaron Rodgers was taken, and you had to sit with Brett
Faarr for two and a half years, and Aaron Rodgers waited and waited and
lo and behold, they had oneof the smoothest transitions from Hall of Famer
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to Hall of Famer that we've everseen. And so if they believe in
that and they have the willingness toput it all on the line, which
they did, I have a lotof respect for it. I don't agree
with it. I wouldn't have doneit, But the more I think about
it, I understand that they didn'twant to pass on a special player.
So I get it. But whatI think is going to happen now is
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Kirk Cousins is going to be underimmense pressure because the most popular guy in
every team in every city is thebackup quarter and I think Kirk Cousins is
gonna have to live with that nowbecause when things don't go well, everyone's
gonna be yelling for Pennis. Well, wasn't Pennix always going to be available
at eight? This is the thingthat confuses me beyond anything, is it's
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like, if you loved Penix inMarch, great, just say you know
what, We're gonna get Pennix ateight in March? I mean, was
there a thought that they could getthat Penix could get stolen from them and
that's why they went and got Cousins. See, this is what I don't
know. I don't think that's it. I think they had not so when
free agency rolled around, I don'tthink the tit the coaches had gotten into
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the tips. Let me tell youhow the timing of this works. The
timing works like this season ends.And my dad was an NFL coach.
I'm speaking from that knowledge, andthen you know, being friends with some
of the gms around the league,so it does like this. Coaches,
after the season's over, your firstthing is looking at your own free agents,
deciding who you're gonna keep. Thenthe coaches will go look at free
agents who the front office targets,so they're gonna get through those guys.
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By the time you go to thecombine. The coaches really don't know any
of those players, believe it ornot. And now the front office guys
they'll know a lot of them,but typically general managers are going to be
behind too. They're still learning alot of those players, because free agency
is the very first thing, especiallyif you've been in the playoffs deep,
which of course Atlanta wasn't. ButI think what you have to know is
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that the timetable such that free agencyhits. Deals are made at the combine
a lot of times initial discussions andright after the combine, you know,
we're in March, and all ofa sudden you got to go get into
free agency. The way I seeit, Atlanta just didn't have it fully
scouted. They didn't have coaches,didn't know them yet, didn't know Penix,
the coach. I really think youknow that Kirk Cousins was a discussion
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they were having since December, maybeJanuary, and so you can understand that
Michael Pennix was not in the discussionback in January. They thought Kirk Cousins
helps us right away. You know, all this quarterback's been you know,
missed for years in a row withinjury. But the more they got into
it, the more they looked intoit, they said, wait a minute,
Penis is a legit is a legitguy we should be considering. And
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maybe the coaching staff and the offensecoordinator got in there and said, hey,
I want Pennix too, Let's gethim. So I just don't think
they had it all the way scoutedby the time free agency. Well,
maybe the Falcons should bump up theirtimeline by a couple of months next time.
What the heckped to? I meanthey weren't in the playoffs. Yeah,
no doubt. Lance zer Line iswith us NFL Network. Curtis of
her friends at Moss Bay Hall willhave a question for you at the end
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of the segment based on something Lancesays first person text in four, nine,
four or five won the right answerwill win fifty bucks to mos Be
Hall. So when the Hawks cameup at number sixteen, Lance on Thursday,
they had their pick if they wantedto, of every defensive player in
the draft except for layout two lotto did they get the right guy in
Bayern Murphy? They did? AndI think I talked about this with you
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guys in the air. At onepoint, I really didn't have any doubt
that Murphy would be would be theguy. I think a lot of people
around the league thought that John Schneiderwould not let Murphy get by if he
got to sixteen. I think whenChris Ballard and Indianapolis signed the forced Buckner,
they extended him along with Grover Stewart. Basically he kind of took Byron
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Murphy out of the picture at fifteenbecause that's a class at Chris Ballard pick
right there at fifteen, and soonce he was out, I figured Seattle
would be the final landing spot forhim. He wouldn't fall any further than
that. So I think they absolutelygot the right pick. I mean,
you have a dominant defensive front.Now you have guys who can line up
in an even front or on frontthe three four, the four to three
big men who can rush. There'sa you know, Byron Murphy is in
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great shape. He's going to bea three down player. So yeah,
I think that you know, youcould have gone pass rusher, you could
have gone with another defensive back.But in terms of the guy that I
think will have the longest, thebiggest impact to the longest, it's going
to be Byron Murphy's all right.Comparing Murphy to the defensive players, now,
compare him to a guy like TroyFaltano that was still there that Safty
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and I both wanted at that position. Should they have taken Faltano instead of
Murphy, it's you know, itwas a choice to me, is a
player that would have made a lotof sense in that spot. You can
play him at either tackle spot,you can play m at guard, and
he's gonna be a starter for youvery quickly. He's he's tough, he's
physical. Now we'll get into thethird round pick who's also tough and physical,
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yep. At guards. So Ithink ultimately they had a plan of,
Hey, this is one or twoguards that we really like in the
third round, we're gonna stick withour tackles, and we are going to
take the best player available in thedraft, probably a guy they had in
the top eight picks of the drafton their board as my guests, and
they just basically said, we're gonnatake that guard later in the draft,
We're gonna take that offensive lineman laterin the draft, and we're going with
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best best available on the board.Well, Christian Haynes Lance lands zerline with
us NFL Network talking draft courtesy atmasspe Hall and Christian Haynes was the guy
you're talking about from Yukon number eightyone. Jim Mora junior not playoffs,
but his son was on the showwith us on Monday and he was raving
about him. I mean, hewas almost putting his reputation on the line
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for Christian Haynes from Yukon. There'sa need at right guard here in Seattle.
Did they fill it with Christian Haynes. Yeah, I think they did.
You know, he's not the mostmobile guard. He's not going to
have tremendous range in terms of outsidezone. But you have to remember Scott
Huff, the offensive line coach forSeattle, was in Washington and they played
a lot of inside outside zone.Like obviously he saw enough on tape where
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he gives the blessing that yes,he can do everything we need him to
do in this offense. In therunning scheme. What he is is he's
very tough, he's got a meanstreak, He's powerful at the point of
attack. He does a nice jobof getting into position before he engages whenever
you're moving latterly. So I thinkfrom a technical standpoint, he's got good
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technique. I think he's wired theway you want him to in terms of
his toughness and a little chip,you know, the chippy, a chip
on his shoulder and that kind oftoughness that that Scott huff is gonna like.
And then you know, I thinkyou get a smart player too.
He really had some great battles downat senior ball. You could see he's
a violent, violent guard. SoI think he allows you to get downhill
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a little bit more and be alittle bit more physical between the tackles.
And Christian Hanks, I love thefact that you tweeted about a Seahawks draft
pick that said he should have goneway before and then the Seahawks take him,
and that's Auburn corner, DJ James. Why did you like him so
much before the Hawks take him?And why do you like him now?
Well, I mean swatch tape.He's he's got. You know. The
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thing that hurts him is he's onlyone hundred and seventy some odd pounds.
He's he's really like and that that'swhat hurts him. That's what causes him
to drop because in today's NFL,they're just looking for whoever the weakest defender
is out there to exploit. Andso against the wrong team, you're gonna
end up having them run at himall day long. They'll put you in,
they'll put you in your your nippackage. He's going to be a
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slot corner and then they'll just runat them all day long. So that's
you know, that's going to bea concern moving forward. But man,
if you watched him. I watchedhim last year. I wrote him up
last year because I thought he andNeemiah Pritchett. I thought those two guys
were going to come out last year, so I wrote them both up.
And I thought Neemyah was, youknow, about a fourth rounder last year,
and I thought DJ James was asecond to third rounder. And I
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still thought the same thing. Watchedhim on tape, very fluid feet,
fluid hips, makes plays in theball. He's taken on some of the
toughest wide receivers in the SEC,like there's no reason he's substantially better as
a cover corner than many of theguys who went in front of him in
terms of just pure you know beingable to cover it now, the size
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and ability to hold up and withstandforce. Whenever teams run at him,
it's going to be an issue.But if you want to talk about somebody
who can just cover the Hawks stoleI mean just stole DJ James going in
the sixth round. That's that's justcrazy to me. Wow, Well that's
uh. I was gonna asks youfor your favorite Day three pick between Tyrese
Knight, Barner, Neamiah Pritchett,Lemeya from Utah James and then Jirell from
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Finley, But I think he justanswered the question well. And I like
Pritchett too though. Listen, Pritchettis a long limbed press corner who kind
of fits the old school mold ofwhat we saw there during Legion of Boom.
He's that kind of corner, thelong corner who can range play some
cover three from a side shuffle,can get in your face and just go
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press man all the way around thefield. So I like both of those
guys. I thought that was agood picking. And a J. Barner
is a J Barner. I talkedto the Michigan strength coach who is now
with the Chargers Jim took him more. He's one of the best in the
nation. And he told me.I asked about Barner and he said,
Barner came over from Indiana and thereason he came over he loved it in
Indiana. He was a teen captainthere, but he wanted to challenge himself
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and he just doesn't like he hasto have challenges, so he came to
Michigan. He said, Man,from day one, this guy was just
a monster in the way fit inwith the guy is great because he's just
all about football, all about competing, competes in practice, competes in games.
He's a big time blocker that's youwant to see a tight end how
competitive he is. One of thefirst things you do is turn on the
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run blocking tape and A J.Barner will get after your tail. And
that's one of the things that Ireally liked about him is I think he's
an average pass catcher at best,but I think as a run blocker,
really talented and can help your runninggame get better quickly because he's he's got
the mentality to do it, andhe's super super competitive and he's a strong
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player too. Now, the oneguy Lance that John Schneider took well ahead
of where his consensus was. Wasthe linebacker from Utah Night. I think
he was like seventy or seventy twopicks earlier than consensus. Why did John
read so much? And do youlike that reads or or is it one
of the worst picks that Seattle madeTyrese? Yeah, yeah, I didn't
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love it personally. That's just myview on that for me. You know,
I thought Jordan Brooks he went alittle earlier. Jordan Brooks way back
when he was drafted too. Iget it. Tyres Night is very His
testing was just average. He's anaverage athlete, kind of average speed.
His production looks great, but alot of those tackles are assisted tackles as
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opposed to solo tackles, which youknow, I always like. I like
a little more sheriff than posse whenit comes to my linebackers. And then
and then, you know, Ithink the one thing that concerns me a
little bit is is he's got highend production from a tackle for last lost
standpoint, but a lot of itis him just kind of shooting downhill,
taking some shots, guessing, andhe's not disciplined. He'll lose his run
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fits. He will do some thingsthat kind of fall outside the scheme of
the defense, and so I thinkhe's gonna have to play a much more
disciplined brand of football. He's gonnahave to learn to be smarter with his
read and react and really find hisrun fits and play inside the scheme.
To make it in the NFL,you can't. You can't freestyle as much
as Tyre's Tyrese Knight was allowed toa ute. Well. Land zerlines one
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of us who never freestyles. Everythingis carefully planned out, by the way
with him, I want to askyou about some of the undrafted free agents
they brought in. They've got areally great history of the Hawks. Do
have undrafted free agents? I meanGeorge Fan, Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kurse,
to name a few, Uh,George Hallani running back from Boise State,
Jack Westover from you, dub TaliaTounga Biloa the quarterback from Maryland,
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anybody else? I mean, yougot Chavon Cordero from San Jose State their
quarterback as well. Easton Gibbs,Wyoming linebacker. Any of those names stand
out to you, Well, theonly one that really stands out to me
is Halami. I think Halami couldhave been a sixth, sixth, seventh
round pick in there. He's gotgood size, he runs with good he
runs with good tempo and good urgency. I thought he had a good combine
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too. You look good coming outof the backfield. So Halami, to
me, he's one of those guysthat I circled as a naked player.
Where you know, don't you gettingthe sixth seventh undrafted? It's really just
a matter of finding the right fitsfor you. I remember, I can't
remember where Kate Carson running back outof Oak State. You had Chris Carson.
Chris, I can't. I can'tremember where he was drafted seven.
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I'm thinking it was later. Yeah, And I remember thinking, man,
if this guy runs to his sizeand becomes more physical and less less finesse
and starts really getting behind his pads, he's got a chance to be a
good player. And sure enough,that's what he did in the NFL.
And I look at Hallami and he'sgot size, he's got decisiveness. So
he's one of those guys to methat it's just a matter of going to
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the right fit, the right scheme, and having a coaching staff that kind
of believes in you. So Ithink he's got a real chance to make
the team. Lance fourteenth straight offmy brother will not make the team,
Okay, I can tell you that. All right, fair enough, fair
enough. Fourteen straight offensive players ina row. This is a one year
aberration? Or is this a trendas we are just going more and more
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offense in the NFL. Well,you had the rarity of having a deep
offensive tackle draft, and it's sucha valuable position. We typically don't see
offensive tackle drafts that are this goodat the front end loaded up, and
I think teams just said, look, we got to have our offensive tackles,
and you had three wide receivers whowere excellent, so those guys were
going to go, and then youhad quarterbacks that had enough you know,
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box checking going on that teams.It was just I think it's just I
think it was an intersection of threeimportant positions that all happen to have good
depth in the front to middle partof the first round, and that's what
happened. I think it's you know, if you're looking, if we have
a great running back class next year, it won't matter. It's still going
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to be you know it, we'llstart turning into pass rushers because now next
up will probably be pass rushers,that'll probably be pass rushers and quarters and
so you know, it's just everydraft is a little bit different. But
this just happened to be a yearwhere where the biggest needs. I mean,
the only other thing you could lookat his past rush, past rush
is the only thing that I thoughtgot pushed down a little further than I
expected, but not too much further. You went made a comp about Roma,
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Doonza. We haven't talked about Romeyet. You made a comp.
I believe it was Davante Adams,right, and tell me now, my
comp is Larry Fitzgerald. Oh,Larry Fitzgerald. That's right. I will
take that as well. I've heardthat. I I've heard the Adams comp.
I've heard the Devanta, the LarryFitzgerald comp. Talk about the fit
for Rome with Caleb Williams in Chicagobecause we were really excited to see him
go there. I just think it'sperfect. I mean, they already are.
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Buddy, Buddy, you've seen allthe graphics where they were on the
same flight, and you know bothof those guys. You guys know Rome
He's just such a just such agreat personality, really easy to get along
with. I think Caleb Williams grubspeople the wrong way because he's kind of
laid back and he's he just hedoesn't have that same quarterback intensity that people
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are used to. But I thinkthe two of them will be really good
for each other. I think they'regonna vibe right away together. I think
they're going to be close. Youremember, you guys will remember years ago
and Troy Aikman and you know,had you had the triplets with Troy Aikman
and Michael Irvan being able to cometogether early in their career, you certainly
want to be able to grow withthe player early on. You want you
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want to have a quarterback who hasa chance to grow with a young,
you know, young wide receiver.With the young quarterback, you have that
and he happens to be a bigtarget that can win catches. And so,
you know, I think what CalebWilliams is going to have as somebody
he can trust, He's going tohave a safety blanket that can play outside,
they can play in the slot andcan become a go to wide receiver
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for him that he can really trust. Because Rome's gonna catch it if you
throw it to him. I mean, it's just that's who he is.
You guys know that. But Ithink the personalities are gonna fit great.
And I think I think Chicago's reallygoing to love both those guys. But
I think, you know, therewas there was a little bit of the
Caleb Williams stuck and the people justkind of started to pick at the personality
a little bit. Well, nowyou now that you have Rome a Denze
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there, I think he kind ofsoftened people's you know, in Chicago,
their fuel for oh, this guy'stoo much a weird guy and into this
and he didn't care about he paintedhis nails. And you gonna have Roma
Denzey in there, and you're justgonna see two guys who are easy going.
And I see it with CJ.Stroud, who's intense on the field,
but there's an easy going nature tohim in Tank Dell And it was
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great here in Houston. It wasphenomenal having those two guys as as close
as they were. You know,I'm kicking yeah, no doubt, lanceam
kicking myself and I'll have to Texasto you. So Rome was on the
show with us on Wednesday or Tuesday, sorry, of last week, and
I played your scouting report for Romeon the show and we got we got
Rome, We got Rome's take onit. I don't have it handy yet,
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but i'll I'll send it off toyou and you can get you can
hear what Roma Dunes they had tosay about your analysis of the last week
before the draft. It's kind offunny, but dude, I got to
ask you before you go, haveyou had a chance at all? Because
the Hawks have went through another draftwhere they did not take a quarterback?
Right, I mean, right now, it's the Gino and Sam Hall Show.
Have you thought it all about Quinn? You, Carson Beck, Schador
Sanders, cam Ward, Dylan Gabriel. Is there anybody that we as Seahawks
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fans should be keeping our eye onfor next year's draft? I mean cam
Ward is interesting, He's up inthat in that area. I think cam
is still gonna be entering well hewas, Yeah, I think I think
I think he's the guy to keepan eye on. Has not talked about
as much. I mean, Shaduris gonna be one of these players that's
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gonna be very polarizing and teams aregonna have to be okay with with the
personality. We'll see how that goes. Right now, he just seems like
he's he's very immature right now now. Dylan Gabriel, i'd say, does
not have the physical skills me mentionedand I'm I'm and honestly, I was
underwhelmed by by uh By Quinn yoursfor much of last year. The guy
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I think you got to keep aneye on is Carson Beck at the very
top of the list. So Idon't expect Seattle to be picking in the
top three, top four. Sowith that in mind, I do think
it's gonna be a pretty deep draftnext year. I do think it has
a chance to be one of thosedrafts that my rival this year. I
know we're laved for a brick.You want to hear Rome's reaction to your
analysis. I do, I do. All these guys get upset when I
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have any negatives, like and yetI'm growing. I'm comparing them to a
Hall of famer. I don't knowwhat he said, but I'm comparing them
to a Hall of famer. Allright. So, so, so we
played your analysis where you talked abouthow, hey, Rome doesn't need to
always go for the fifty to fiftyball. He can create some separation.
And we played that clip for Rome. So I kind of feel bad because
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this does not include your analysis.It just includes Rome's reaction to it from
last Tuesday. Check this out.I wouldn't say so. I wouldn't say
so. I think, you know, he got some of the things right
on me in regards to you know, the the athleticism and the personality as
well. But I don't know.It seems like he hasn't watched enough you
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know, film, arre enough tapeon my you know, wide receiver play
as a whole contested catches. Ifeel for me is just you know,
the cherry on top of a completewide receiver play. So you know he
has his opinion. That's all right, But I wouldn't agree with that at
all. Now there you go,There you go, not so bad.
Now, keep in mind to havehim as the fifth best player in the
draft. Yeah, and it's theway it works, and a cop to
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him in hall of favor. ForGod's sakes, I know, well,
you know what, if I watcheda little more tape, I may put
him at Jerry Rice. Oh hereyou go. Or maybe you drop him
down to Brian Blade, who knowsHey, Lance, great stuff. Let's
let's keep in touch. We'll talksooner, right, Okay, thanks guys,
we'll see it all right, man, Lanzer line with us on the
(22:33):
ever way late for a break.We'll get to all of that and recap
it. And by the way,we asked him about all the undrafted free
agents, and he gave us onename of one guy he really likes in
the Seahawk Free Agent class text andwho that player was to four nine four
five one first correct answer gets fiftybucks to Mosbey Hall right here on ninety
three three kJ R f M
As part of our exclusive in depthcoverage of the NFL, Your Home for
the twelfth Man proudly presents NFL NetworkDraft analyst Lanserline, brought to you by
Moss Bay Hall, Queen Anne BeerHall's sister location on the East Side in
Kirkland. Incredible food, local craftbeers and fresh cocktails with friends. Come
check out Mosbay Hall in the heartof downtown Kirkland now with Lanserline. Here's
(00:25):
Safti and DoD god Hey. Bythe way, you want to warn a
thousand dollars our nationwide cash contest,Enter the word bills at ninety three three
KJR dot com for a shot towin one thousand dollars. Here he is
from the NFL Network, All courtesyof her friends at Moss Bay Hall.
Check him out Mossbayhall dot com.Lance Zerline, Lance, how are you
(00:45):
man going? Well, I'm outof my patio grilling steaks. Oh Jesus,
it's the post. I'm having apost draft for me hard work zone.
You son of a bitch, justrubbing it in. Unbelievable. Man.
Well, we are sitting at abar though, at Jimmy's on First
across the street from t Mobile Parkafter the Braves a Mariner game tonight.
(01:06):
So not a bad second option.But let's just go back and get some
of your thoughts on what happened lastweekend. We'll dive into the Seahawk class
and in a second. But youknow, we're all Husky fans out here.
Man, Michael Pennock's going number eightto Atlanta despite the hundred mill guaranteed
to Kirk Cousins. Your take onthat, yeah, shots, I mean,
like everyone else, I just Idon't When it happened, I just
(01:27):
said, what what are they doinghere? I don't understand? And I
you know, I was on thelive broadcast for every pick round, you
know, first pick, all theway through the last picking on the air.
I just, you know, Ijust couldn't believe it. And when
you think about what Atlanta needs.They need rushers, they need you know,
(01:48):
they they need receivers, There's alot they need. There could have
been a lot more valuable picks.But the more I started thinking about it,
I said, you know, ifyou really have a belief and a
trust that Michael Pinnix is the bestor maybe the number two quarterback in this
draft, and you were playing forand you know, would you pass on
that player? I guess is whatI'm trying to say. I understand that
(02:10):
some other players can help you rightnow, but if you get a special
quarterback, give you and you trulyhave to believe he's special if you're taking
it there. But if you thinkhe's special, you know, we saw
what happened when Aaron Rodgers was taken, and you had to sit with Brett
Faarr for two and a half years, and Aaron Rodgers waited and waited and
lo and behold, they had oneof the smoothest transitions from Hall of Famer
(02:30):
to Hall of Famer that we've everseen. And so if they believe in
that and they have the willingness toput it all on the line, which
they did, I have a lotof respect for it. I don't agree
with it. I wouldn't have doneit, But the more I think about
it, I understand that they didn'twant to pass on a special player.
So I get it. But whatI think is going to happen now is
(02:53):
Kirk Cousins is going to be underimmense pressure because the most popular guy in
every team in every city is thebackup quarter and I think Kirk Cousins is
gonna have to live with that nowbecause when things don't go well, everyone's
gonna be yelling for Pennis. Well, wasn't Pennix always going to be available
at eight? This is the thingthat confuses me beyond anything, is it's
(03:15):
like, if you loved Penix inMarch, great, just say you know
what, We're gonna get Pennix ateight in March? I mean, was
there a thought that they could getthat Penix could get stolen from them and
that's why they went and got Cousins. See, this is what I don't
know. I don't think that's it. I think they had not so when
free agency rolled around, I don'tthink the tit the coaches had gotten into
(03:36):
the tips. Let me tell youhow the timing of this works. The
timing works like this season ends.And my dad was an NFL coach.
I'm speaking from that knowledge, andthen you know, being friends with some
of the gms around the league,so it does like this. Coaches,
after the season's over, your firstthing is looking at your own free agents,
deciding who you're gonna keep. Thenthe coaches will go look at free
agents who the front office targets,so they're gonna get through those guys.
(04:00):
By the time you go to thecombine. The coaches really don't know any
of those players, believe it ornot. And now the front office guys
they'll know a lot of them,but typically general managers are going to be
behind too. They're still learning alot of those players, because free agency
is the very first thing, especiallyif you've been in the playoffs deep,
which of course Atlanta wasn't. ButI think what you have to know is
(04:23):
that the timetable such that free agencyhits. Deals are made at the combine
a lot of times initial discussions andright after the combine, you know,
we're in March, and all ofa sudden you got to go get into
free agency. The way I seeit, Atlanta just didn't have it fully
scouted. They didn't have coaches,didn't know them yet, didn't know Penix,
the coach. I really think youknow that Kirk Cousins was a discussion
(04:46):
they were having since December, maybeJanuary, and so you can understand that
Michael Pennix was not in the discussionback in January. They thought Kirk Cousins
helps us right away. You know, all this quarterback's been you know,
missed for years in a row withinjury. But the more they got into
it, the more they looked intoit, they said, wait a minute,
Penis is a legit is a legitguy we should be considering. And
(05:09):
maybe the coaching staff and the offensecoordinator got in there and said, hey,
I want Pennix too, Let's gethim. So I just don't think
they had it all the way scoutedby the time free agency. Well,
maybe the Falcons should bump up theirtimeline by a couple of months next time.
What the heckped to? I meanthey weren't in the playoffs. Yeah,
no doubt. Lance zer Line iswith us NFL Network. Curtis of
her friends at Moss Bay Hall willhave a question for you at the end
(05:31):
of the segment based on something Lancesays first person text in four, nine,
four or five won the right answerwill win fifty bucks to mos Be
Hall. So when the Hawks cameup at number sixteen, Lance on Thursday,
they had their pick if they wantedto, of every defensive player in
the draft except for layout two lotto did they get the right guy in
Bayern Murphy? They did? AndI think I talked about this with you
(05:55):
guys in the air. At onepoint, I really didn't have any doubt
that Murphy would be would be theguy. I think a lot of people
around the league thought that John Schneiderwould not let Murphy get by if he
got to sixteen. I think whenChris Ballard and Indianapolis signed the forced Buckner,
they extended him along with Grover Stewart. Basically he kind of took Byron
(06:16):
Murphy out of the picture at fifteenbecause that's a class at Chris Ballard pick
right there at fifteen, and soonce he was out, I figured Seattle
would be the final landing spot forhim. He wouldn't fall any further than
that. So I think they absolutelygot the right pick. I mean,
you have a dominant defensive front.Now you have guys who can line up
in an even front or on frontthe three four, the four to three
big men who can rush. There'sa you know, Byron Murphy is in
(06:41):
great shape. He's going to bea three down player. So yeah,
I think that you know, youcould have gone pass rusher, you could
have gone with another defensive back.But in terms of the guy that I
think will have the longest, thebiggest impact to the longest, it's going
to be Byron Murphy's all right.Comparing Murphy to the defensive players, now,
compare him to a guy like TroyFaltano that was still there that Safty
(07:01):
and I both wanted at that position. Should they have taken Faltano instead of
Murphy, it's you know, itwas a choice to me, is a
player that would have made a lotof sense in that spot. You can
play him at either tackle spot,you can play m at guard, and
he's gonna be a starter for youvery quickly. He's he's tough, he's
physical. Now we'll get into thethird round pick who's also tough and physical,
(07:26):
yep. At guards. So Ithink ultimately they had a plan of,
Hey, this is one or twoguards that we really like in the
third round, we're gonna stick withour tackles, and we are going to
take the best player available in thedraft, probably a guy they had in
the top eight picks of the drafton their board as my guests, and
they just basically said, we're gonnatake that guard later in the draft,
We're gonna take that offensive lineman laterin the draft, and we're going with
(07:49):
best best available on the board.Well, Christian Haynes Lance lands zerline with
us NFL Network talking draft courtesy atmasspe Hall and Christian Haynes was the guy
you're talking about from Yukon number eightyone. Jim Mora junior not playoffs,
but his son was on the showwith us on Monday and he was raving
about him. I mean, hewas almost putting his reputation on the line
(08:11):
for Christian Haynes from Yukon. There'sa need at right guard here in Seattle.
Did they fill it with Christian Haynes. Yeah, I think they did.
You know, he's not the mostmobile guard. He's not going to
have tremendous range in terms of outsidezone. But you have to remember Scott
Huff, the offensive line coach forSeattle, was in Washington and they played
a lot of inside outside zone.Like obviously he saw enough on tape where
(08:35):
he gives the blessing that yes,he can do everything we need him to
do in this offense. In therunning scheme. What he is is he's
very tough, he's got a meanstreak, He's powerful at the point of
attack. He does a nice jobof getting into position before he engages whenever
you're moving latterly. So I thinkfrom a technical standpoint, he's got good
(08:56):
technique. I think he's wired theway you want him to in terms of
his toughness and a little chip,you know, the chippy, a chip
on his shoulder and that kind oftoughness that that Scott huff is gonna like.
And then you know, I thinkyou get a smart player too.
He really had some great battles downat senior ball. You could see he's
a violent, violent guard. SoI think he allows you to get downhill
(09:18):
a little bit more and be alittle bit more physical between the tackles.
And Christian Hanks, I love thefact that you tweeted about a Seahawks draft
pick that said he should have goneway before and then the Seahawks take him,
and that's Auburn corner, DJ James. Why did you like him so
much before the Hawks take him?And why do you like him now?
Well, I mean swatch tape.He's he's got. You know. The
(09:41):
thing that hurts him is he's onlyone hundred and seventy some odd pounds.
He's he's really like and that that'swhat hurts him. That's what causes him
to drop because in today's NFL,they're just looking for whoever the weakest defender
is out there to exploit. Andso against the wrong team, you're gonna
end up having them run at himall day long. They'll put you in,
they'll put you in your your nippackage. He's going to be a
(10:01):
slot corner and then they'll just runat them all day long. So that's
you know, that's going to bea concern moving forward. But man,
if you watched him. I watchedhim last year. I wrote him up
last year because I thought he andNeemiah Pritchett. I thought those two guys
were going to come out last year, so I wrote them both up.
And I thought Neemyah was, youknow, about a fourth rounder last year,
and I thought DJ James was asecond to third rounder. And I
(10:22):
still thought the same thing. Watchedhim on tape, very fluid feet,
fluid hips, makes plays in theball. He's taken on some of the
toughest wide receivers in the SEC,like there's no reason he's substantially better as
a cover corner than many of theguys who went in front of him in
terms of just pure you know beingable to cover it now, the size
(10:43):
and ability to hold up and withstandforce. Whenever teams run at him,
it's going to be an issue.But if you want to talk about somebody
who can just cover the Hawks stoleI mean just stole DJ James going in
the sixth round. That's that's justcrazy to me. Wow, Well that's
uh. I was gonna asks youfor your favorite Day three pick between Tyrese
Knight, Barner, Neamiah Pritchett,Lemeya from Utah James and then Jirell from
(11:07):
Finley, But I think he justanswered the question well. And I like
Pritchett too though. Listen, Pritchettis a long limbed press corner who kind
of fits the old school mold ofwhat we saw there during Legion of Boom.
He's that kind of corner, thelong corner who can range play some
cover three from a side shuffle,can get in your face and just go
(11:28):
press man all the way around thefield. So I like both of those
guys. I thought that was agood picking. And a J. Barner
is a J Barner. I talkedto the Michigan strength coach who is now
with the Chargers Jim took him more. He's one of the best in the
nation. And he told me.I asked about Barner and he said,
Barner came over from Indiana and thereason he came over he loved it in
Indiana. He was a teen captainthere, but he wanted to challenge himself
(11:52):
and he just doesn't like he hasto have challenges, so he came to
Michigan. He said, Man,from day one, this guy was just
a monster in the way fit inwith the guy is great because he's just
all about football, all about competing, competes in practice, competes in games.
He's a big time blocker that's youwant to see a tight end how
competitive he is. One of thefirst things you do is turn on the
(12:13):
run blocking tape and A J.Barner will get after your tail. And
that's one of the things that Ireally liked about him is I think he's
an average pass catcher at best,but I think as a run blocker,
really talented and can help your runninggame get better quickly because he's he's got
the mentality to do it, andhe's super super competitive and he's a strong
(12:33):
player too. Now, the oneguy Lance that John Schneider took well ahead
of where his consensus was. Wasthe linebacker from Utah Night. I think
he was like seventy or seventy twopicks earlier than consensus. Why did John
read so much? And do youlike that reads or or is it one
of the worst picks that Seattle madeTyrese? Yeah, yeah, I didn't
(12:58):
love it personally. That's just myview on that for me. You know,
I thought Jordan Brooks he went alittle earlier. Jordan Brooks way back
when he was drafted too. Iget it. Tyres Night is very His
testing was just average. He's anaverage athlete, kind of average speed.
His production looks great, but alot of those tackles are assisted tackles as
(13:20):
opposed to solo tackles, which youknow, I always like. I like
a little more sheriff than posse whenit comes to my linebackers. And then
and then, you know, Ithink the one thing that concerns me a
little bit is is he's got highend production from a tackle for last lost
standpoint, but a lot of itis him just kind of shooting downhill,
taking some shots, guessing, andhe's not disciplined. He'll lose his run
(13:43):
fits. He will do some thingsthat kind of fall outside the scheme of
the defense, and so I thinkhe's gonna have to play a much more
disciplined brand of football. He's gonnahave to learn to be smarter with his
read and react and really find hisrun fits and play inside the scheme.
To make it in the NFL,you can't. You can't freestyle as much
as Tyre's Tyrese Knight was allowed toa ute. Well. Land zerlines one
(14:05):
of us who never freestyles. Everythingis carefully planned out, by the way
with him, I want to askyou about some of the undrafted free agents
they brought in. They've got areally great history of the Hawks. Do
have undrafted free agents? I meanGeorge Fan, Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kurse,
to name a few, Uh,George Hallani running back from Boise State,
Jack Westover from you, dub TaliaTounga Biloa the quarterback from Maryland,
(14:28):
anybody else? I mean, yougot Chavon Cordero from San Jose State their
quarterback as well. Easton Gibbs,Wyoming linebacker. Any of those names stand
out to you, Well, theonly one that really stands out to me
is Halami. I think Halami couldhave been a sixth, sixth, seventh
round pick in there. He's gotgood size, he runs with good he
runs with good tempo and good urgency. I thought he had a good combine
(14:52):
too. You look good coming outof the backfield. So Halami, to
me, he's one of those guysthat I circled as a naked player.
Where you know, don't you gettingthe sixth seventh undrafted? It's really just
a matter of finding the right fitsfor you. I remember, I can't
remember where Kate Carson running back outof Oak State. You had Chris Carson.
Chris, I can't. I can'tremember where he was drafted seven.
(15:16):
I'm thinking it was later. Yeah, And I remember thinking, man,
if this guy runs to his sizeand becomes more physical and less less finesse
and starts really getting behind his pads, he's got a chance to be a
good player. And sure enough,that's what he did in the NFL.
And I look at Hallami and he'sgot size, he's got decisiveness. So
he's one of those guys to methat it's just a matter of going to
(15:37):
the right fit, the right scheme, and having a coaching staff that kind
of believes in you. So Ithink he's got a real chance to make
the team. Lance fourteenth straight offmy brother will not make the team,
Okay, I can tell you that. All right, fair enough, fair
enough. Fourteen straight offensive players ina row. This is a one year
aberration? Or is this a trendas we are just going more and more
(15:58):
offense in the NFL. Well,you had the rarity of having a deep
offensive tackle draft, and it's sucha valuable position. We typically don't see
offensive tackle drafts that are this goodat the front end loaded up, and
I think teams just said, look, we got to have our offensive tackles,
and you had three wide receivers whowere excellent, so those guys were
going to go, and then youhad quarterbacks that had enough you know,
(16:21):
box checking going on that teams.It was just I think it's just I
think it was an intersection of threeimportant positions that all happen to have good
depth in the front to middle partof the first round, and that's what
happened. I think it's you know, if you're looking, if we have
a great running back class next year, it won't matter. It's still going
(16:44):
to be you know it, we'llstart turning into pass rushers because now next
up will probably be pass rushers,that'll probably be pass rushers and quarters and
so you know, it's just everydraft is a little bit different. But
this just happened to be a yearwhere where the biggest needs. I mean,
the only other thing you could lookat his past rush, past rush
is the only thing that I thoughtgot pushed down a little further than I
expected, but not too much further. You went made a comp about Roma,
(17:10):
Doonza. We haven't talked about Romeyet. You made a comp.
I believe it was Davante Adams,right, and tell me now, my
comp is Larry Fitzgerald. Oh,Larry Fitzgerald. That's right. I will
take that as well. I've heardthat. I I've heard the Adams comp.
I've heard the Devanta, the LarryFitzgerald comp. Talk about the fit
for Rome with Caleb Williams in Chicagobecause we were really excited to see him
go there. I just think it'sperfect. I mean, they already are.
(17:33):
Buddy, Buddy, you've seen allthe graphics where they were on the
same flight, and you know bothof those guys. You guys know Rome
He's just such a just such agreat personality, really easy to get along
with. I think Caleb Williams grubspeople the wrong way because he's kind of
laid back and he's he just hedoesn't have that same quarterback intensity that people
(17:55):
are used to. But I thinkthe two of them will be really good
for each other. I think they'regonna vibe right away together. I think
they're going to be close. Youremember, you guys will remember years ago
and Troy Aikman and you know,had you had the triplets with Troy Aikman
and Michael Irvan being able to cometogether early in their career, you certainly
want to be able to grow withthe player early on. You want you
(18:15):
want to have a quarterback who hasa chance to grow with a young,
you know, young wide receiver.With the young quarterback, you have that
and he happens to be a bigtarget that can win catches. And so,
you know, I think what CalebWilliams is going to have as somebody
he can trust, He's going tohave a safety blanket that can play outside,
they can play in the slot andcan become a go to wide receiver
(18:36):
for him that he can really trust. Because Rome's gonna catch it if you
throw it to him. I mean, it's just that's who he is.
You guys know that. But Ithink the personalities are gonna fit great.
And I think I think Chicago's reallygoing to love both those guys. But
I think, you know, therewas there was a little bit of the
Caleb Williams stuck and the people justkind of started to pick at the personality
a little bit. Well, nowyou now that you have Rome a Denze
(18:57):
there, I think he kind ofsoftened people's you know, in Chicago,
their fuel for oh, this guy'stoo much a weird guy and into this
and he didn't care about he paintedhis nails. And you gonna have Roma
Denzey in there, and you're justgonna see two guys who are easy going.
And I see it with CJ.Stroud, who's intense on the field,
but there's an easy going nature tohim in Tank Dell And it was
(19:18):
great here in Houston. It wasphenomenal having those two guys as as close
as they were. You know,I'm kicking yeah, no doubt, lanceam
kicking myself and I'll have to Texasto you. So Rome was on the
show with us on Wednesday or Tuesday, sorry, of last week, and
I played your scouting report for Romeon the show and we got we got
Rome, We got Rome's take onit. I don't have it handy yet,
(19:41):
but i'll I'll send it off toyou and you can get you can
hear what Roma Dunes they had tosay about your analysis of the last week
before the draft. It's kind offunny, but dude, I got to
ask you before you go, haveyou had a chance at all? Because
the Hawks have went through another draftwhere they did not take a quarterback?
Right, I mean, right now, it's the Gino and Sam Hall Show.
Have you thought it all about Quinn? You, Carson Beck, Schador
Sanders, cam Ward, Dylan Gabriel. Is there anybody that we as Seahawks
(20:04):
fans should be keeping our eye onfor next year's draft? I mean cam
Ward is interesting, He's up inthat in that area. I think cam
is still gonna be entering well hewas, Yeah, I think I think
I think he's the guy to keepan eye on. Has not talked about
as much. I mean, Shaduris gonna be one of these players that's
(20:25):
gonna be very polarizing and teams aregonna have to be okay with with the
personality. We'll see how that goes. Right now, he just seems like
he's he's very immature right now now. Dylan Gabriel, i'd say, does
not have the physical skills me mentionedand I'm I'm and honestly, I was
underwhelmed by by uh By Quinn yoursfor much of last year. The guy
(20:45):
I think you got to keep aneye on is Carson Beck at the very
top of the list. So Idon't expect Seattle to be picking in the
top three, top four. Sowith that in mind, I do think
it's gonna be a pretty deep draftnext year. I do think it has
a chance to be one of thosedrafts that my rival this year. I
know we're laved for a brick.You want to hear Rome's reaction to your
analysis. I do, I do. All these guys get upset when I
(21:07):
have any negatives, like and yetI'm growing. I'm comparing them to a
Hall of famer. I don't knowwhat he said, but I'm comparing them
to a Hall of famer. Allright. So, so, so we
played your analysis where you talked abouthow, hey, Rome doesn't need to
always go for the fifty to fiftyball. He can create some separation.
And we played that clip for Rome. So I kind of feel bad because
(21:27):
this does not include your analysis.It just includes Rome's reaction to it from
last Tuesday. Check this out.I wouldn't say so. I wouldn't say
so. I think, you know, he got some of the things right
on me in regards to you know, the the athleticism and the personality as
well. But I don't know.It seems like he hasn't watched enough you
(21:48):
know, film, arre enough tapeon my you know, wide receiver play
as a whole contested catches. Ifeel for me is just you know,
the cherry on top of a completewide receiver play. So you know he
has his opinion. That's all right, But I wouldn't agree with that at
all. Now there you go,There you go, not so bad.
Now, keep in mind to havehim as the fifth best player in the
draft. Yeah, and it's theway it works, and a cop to
(22:12):
him in hall of favor. ForGod's sakes, I know, well,
you know what, if I watcheda little more tape, I may put
him at Jerry Rice. Oh hereyou go. Or maybe you drop him
down to Brian Blade, who knowsHey, Lance, great stuff. Let's
let's keep in touch. We'll talksooner, right, Okay, thanks guys,
we'll see it all right, man, Lanzer line with us on the
(22:33):
ever way late for a break.We'll get to all of that and recap
it. And by the way,we asked him about all the undrafted free
agents, and he gave us onename of one guy he really likes in
the Seahawk Free Agent class text andwho that player was to four nine four
five one first correct answer gets fiftybucks to Mosbey Hall right here on ninety
three three kJ R f M
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