Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ten thirty d NFL Combine is happening in India this week,
(00:03):
which is where the crew at Suomer Sports is posted up.
And Sam Brookhouse, who was with Suomer Sports and wrote
a piece or contributed to a piece at least that
we referenced on yesterday's show, he is kind enough to
join us from the combine. Sam, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, I'm here at the combine, And honestly, this is
my favorite event of the year. And the reason why
is because that's the data scientist. It's my job to
gather data points and I'm able to get so many
good data points from analysts and agents and team guys
and et cetera, et cetera. On this draft class. I'm
happy to talk about here.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
How much should I care about ruben Bain's arm size?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So look, I mean there's like broad what I call
broadcast stats, like the first time since X and something
since why, Like I believe the statistic that's floating around
is that a player with the armlesth or below that
arm lest has not seen a ten stacked season in
like twenty years or something like that. That being said,
(01:06):
you look at his wingspan, it's actually not that bad.
And you try to consider what Ruben Bain did, and
it reminds me a lot of the Will Campbell stuff
from last year. And realistically, we're hard on Will Campbell
because of his performance in the super Bowl, But who
doesn't look bad when Mike McDonald is scheming up against you?
And also Drake may himself as a high sack player
(01:27):
and sometimes invites pressure by moving up in the pocket
and dropping deep. So there are elements of Will Campbell.
But I guarantee you if you go ask Mike Brabile
if he could have gotten quality start after quality started
out of Will Campbell like he did for the majority
of this year, if he would still take him at three,
he would. And so I think there are certain players
that you just have to make you have to make
exceptions for, and in my opinion, that is Ruben Bain
(01:49):
because we see multiple blue chip analytical traits from him,
and typically that means that you're a pretty good prospect.
So if the arms aren't as long as they need
to be, main has clearly figured it out, operated around it,
and succeeded at the power five level. And so I
think given that production profile, which is up there with
(02:11):
the likes of Aiden Hutchinson and others. I do think
he's a top tier blue hip player in this draft.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
You love data, and this week you can swim in
all the data coming out of the combine. What data
this week should I be paying attention to the most?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah? The reality of the situation is when you're looking
at the actual athletic drills, which everyone is watching right
now and everyone will be watching throughout the weekend. If
I had to rank it out of ten how much
I care, or rather how predictive it is of future performance,
I'll rank it about a three of ten. Now, what
does that mean? It means. It means it is enough.
(02:50):
It's not a one or a zero. It's enough to
care about. But it's certainly a part of the puzzle,
and it's not a massive part of the puzzle. The
way I like to describe it is if you are
within a blue Ship grade in a scouting system, which
basically means you expect a player to be a pro
bowl or an all pro, or looking at some of
the other grades, you think that you could be a
starter or a backup or something like that. You may
(03:12):
move someone with the exact same grade up a spot
on your big board because of his forty yard dash
if you're a defensive end for example, or because of
his short shuttle if you're a if you're an intier
offensive line, and maybe you'll do that, but in reality
it's still a three out of ten. That's my true belief.
That's what the correlations show, and I think that is
(03:34):
what you got to look at during the combine.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
At which position can the combine best predict future success
for these guys?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, so if you're looking at the maximum, So if
you're looking at the forty yard dash, what can I
most clean from that? That's little inside linebacker position. The
problem is most of the other drills are pretty useless
for inside backers. So if you're looking on average, it's
the offensive line. And boy are we happy that it's
the offensive line because it's difficult to find other data
points that can really help us historically, I'm talking going
(04:06):
back twenty thirty years. Historically, it's hard to find other
data points that can compare and contrast offensive linemen. So
it's about a two point seven across all of offensive
line metrics and particularly tackles the adage from the scouting community,
Draft athletic tackles does not come from nowhere. It actually
(04:26):
shows up in that historical combine data going back twenty
or thirty years. It shows that when you get can
get fast tackles, and you can get tackles that can move,
as evidenced by the athletic tests, it actually means something
good or it can nudge you up in the big board,
and it can predict slightly. It can be a part
of your prediction for your performance at the next level.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Sim Brookus from sumer Sports is with us.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
The combine in Indianapolis is happening right now.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
How often do you go you know, you and I talked.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
You were at the Senior Bowl right when you start
to get a sense of you know, at which position
is the class of players deep? At which position is
there may be not as many high end prospects. How
often do you go into the combine thinking one thing
about players at a certain position or maybe a class
as a whole, and then come out of it feeling
a different way.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It happens quite a bit. And again, like I'm a
data scientist, I'm trying to figure out the consensus and
prove or disprove the consensus, because that's what the wisdom
of the crowds is and that's how data is best used.
So I was coming into the combine thinking that this
was a really good defensive tackle class. And they're on
the field right now in Indy as I speak to
you right now, Guys like Caleb Banks, like guys like
(05:40):
Lee Hunter. Uh, there's a big kind of uh Kayla
McDonald out of Ohio State. There's a big number and
a big name list of defensive tackles that I had
in my mind that indicated that this was a really
good defensive tackle class and people could find a position
that it's rising in its premiere due to the success
(06:02):
of the Mike McDonald defense and the big Fangio defenses
that like to drop a lot of guys back and
utilize the defensive tackles to stuff to run on first
and second down. I don't necessarily think that is the
consensus case anymore, and I'm interested to dive deeper into
data to try to prove or disprove that. I was
noticing that guys like Lee Hunter, for example, did not
have great data profiles. But what I've kind of learned
(06:25):
coming in and talking to multiple analysts and seeing their
data and comparing it to what we have, or maybe
it's some new pieces of data that some people thought
to look into. It seems as if this could be
a really good defensive tackle class, and it's a deep class. However,
there's probably not any top fifteen level players, which means
probably not any defensive tackles that will end up being
(06:47):
all pros on average based on their prospect profile in
this draft at all. And so what does that mean.
There's gonna be a lot of teams that really struggle
to stuff to run that are going to be lacking
and betting that some these guys that don't have as
good as a profile can work out for them. That
was a radically different thing than I thought was going
to be the case coming in. And now that I've
(07:08):
kind of seen the consensus and seen what the film
guys think, I'm going to keep digging into this in
the next couple of weeks. Hopefully we'll have an answer
by the time we get to the pro days. But
that was definitely something shocking to me and kind of
changed my hypothesis about what this draft should be. And
I'm getting ready to test that hypothesis once I leave Indy.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
You know, I don't have many folks on this show
who use the word hypothesis, which is why, which is
why we call you Sam.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Let me ask you about Caleb Downs.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So when you just watch him on tape, and I've
watched really smart people kind of point out some of
the things he can do, it's I mean, you walk
away from it going I'm not sure there's a better
football player in this class.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
But he plays.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Safety, right, So the question of positional value comes into play.
We've talked about him a lot here because the Bengals
need safety help. If he's there at ten, there's going
to be a lot of teams that decide, you know,
we love him, but we're not going to take a
safety in the top nine. Maybe the Bengals don't take
a safety in the top ten. What does data tell
you about a player like him when you go okay
on film? He does all these things, but he plays
(08:10):
a position that is not regarded as a premium position.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
So I think there's a couple things, and I'll start
off with the premium position comment. I am a data scientist.
My goal is to value these players, and as a result,
I would really really struggle to take a safety a
running back or an inside linebacker anywhere, definitely before pick fifteen.
And in the case of running backs, I really wouldn't
(08:36):
even do it in the first round. I'd start to
consider linebackers around maybe pick twenty, pick twenty five. I'd
start to consider safety is around pick fifteen. Now let's
move on into the Caleb Downs discussion. Here's the guy
who is positionally versatile, can basically do it all. Our
scouts think that he potentially could even stretch out to cornerback.
(08:56):
We don't have any data on that, but he has
basically done it all and done it all well, whether
that was aut Alabama or whether that was at Ohio State.
So the data does like him. It thinks he's a
quality college prospect. Let's go one step further. The consensus
big board this year will likely settle with three players
at the top who are all non premium positions. Number one.
(09:20):
We've heard a lot of people that think it could
be Caleb Downs. We think we've talked to a lot
of people who think it could be Jeremiah Love, and
then Sonny Styles seems to be I don't know if
you can call him a riser, but as we kind
of dust off the diamond here on the consensus big Board.
It seems that Sonny Styles could be in the consensus
third best player at his position in this draft. Here's
(09:41):
what people need to get out of their mind, though,
And I really found this out this week and I
double checked it with the data, and it turns out
to be correct. People want to go get nick him
and worry, they want to go get Kyle Hamilton, they
want to go get Derwin James. Because there's three really
really good defenses, and that's three defenses that have these
kind of big nickel safeties that allow teams to play
a nickel against thirteen personnel or twelve versonnel. Caleb Downs
(10:04):
is not that, and I think that's a misconception that
people really think that because he's positionally versatile, he's going
to be the type of run defender banger that we've
seen from those defenses. I don't think that's the case.
I think a better comparable in terms of size that
I've heard is someone like Buddha Baker, a guy who
can make every tackle but isn't necessarily going to be
acting at like a linebacker or an edge rusher anytime soon.
(10:27):
So I think that's the misconception with Caleb Downs. I
think that's the reason why we could see him fall
past five. But a lot of people seem to believe
that he's the best player at his position in this draft. I,
for one, am a positional value guy. Thus, I wouldn't
really consider drafting him over an excellent edge rusher, excellent
wide receiver, excellent tackle. If I were a general manager.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Well put Sam, enjoy the combine, man, Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Thank you all so much.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
That's our guy, Sam brouckwe suomer Sports. Checkout suomer sports
dot com. Sum Er Sam du a terrific job uses
the word hypothesis a lot. We appreciate his time. If
Caleb Downs is there at ten, I'm taking them. I've
watched the Bengals B and I don't have the twenty
(11:16):
twenty five numbers in front of me, but I watched
them in twenty twenty four. B by far and away
the worst team in the NFL at giving up explosive plays.
I would imagine they're not that far removed from the
bottom in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
I'm taking Caleb Downs.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Thirteen away from five o'clock. But I mean, that's it's
it's a very relevant discussion. Right, there's a reason why
it was. Jamal Adams was the last safety go to
the last safety to go in the top eight. If
I'm not mistaken, Like there's discussions about positional value that
are there, and they're fair and they're legitimate, and they
(11:53):
don't just happen here. Twelve away from five o'clock five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty, Justin Cyclones, who's going to be the franchise's
all time leader in points, is going to join us
at five point twenty on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
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Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
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