This episode of Football 301, very fun show today. We're going to be talking about the six second year quarterbacks that were drafted in the first round last year. Caleb Williams, Jane Daniels, Drake May, JJ McCarthy, Michael Penix, and Bo Nix. Where are we at with them? Up

optimism scale how we feel their 2025 can go just thoughts observations blemishes strengths some gushing plenty of gushing about some of these players that sound nasty but let's keep going with it we're also fans to show olympic team we give our five players that we would start our 2028 flag football olympic team with very fun show with charles mcdonald matt harman see you guys in a sec

Hey, everyone. It's Ariel Helwani, and I wanted to let you know that over on Uncrowned, in partnership with Yahoo Sports, we are doing incredible things Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and sometimes Saturday as well. We focus on the wild and wacky world of MMA Monday through Wednesday. It's the Ariel Helwani Show live on YouTube at 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursdays

My guys, the boys in the back, they're live also at 1 p.m. Eastern to talk about everything going on in the world of mixed martial arts. And then on Friday, we take you into the weekend with The Crack with Pete C. Carroll. Also, 1 p.m. Eastern live on YouTube. Now, you can get all our shows on our official podcast feed as well. And don't forget, during every UFC pay-per-view, we've got a watch party and a post-show as well. It's madness over at Uncrowned. Come hang with us.

♪ ♪

Hello and welcome to Football 301. I'm your host, Nate Tice. Very fun show for you today because that's all we do here. We only have fun shows for you here at Football 301 and Yahoo, but we're going to do a really fun one today. We're going to look at second year quarterbacks because there are six of them. Really, there were seven of them last year for including Spencer Rattler, but six in the first round that all are going to be starting in 2025. So we're going to check in on them.

detail our level of optimism for each of these players, what we want to see them work on, maybe see what they, you know, what would be a good season for them this season, expectations, manage all that. And also we had a little bit of news about,

the olympics the nfl is allowing their players to play in the 2028 olympics and flag football so at the end of the show we're going to give our five players that we want to start our olympic teams with just a little bit of fun there because this is may we're talking about the nfl year-round sport and it truly is going to be a year-round sport when we're talking about the olympics we're going to fill that summer schedule as well but here to talk about those quarterbacks and to talk about the olympic team my guys matt harman how you doing today matt

I'm doing great. Yeah, I've seen a good bit of all of these second year quarterbacks, not just preparing for the show, but a couple of these guys are tied up with rookie receivers as well. So I'm very excited. This is this is a fun group of six players. So I'm hyped to get into it.

It really is. All of them interesting. All of them had some interesting things last year. Maybe one's TBD, but there's stuff to talk about there. But actually, one of the guys we're going to be talking about, this guy's favorite team. This guy's the starting quarterback for that is Michael Penix, Atlanta Falcons, and my guy, Mr. Vertz, Charles McDonald. How are you doing today, Chuck?

I've been great. I'm down in North Carolina visiting my parents. My birthday is coming up on Memorial Day. I've been outside as much as I can, you know, hanging with the dogs. I don't get to see that much. So it's good. It's good. You know, we're going to come in and tear into my soul and have an honest conversation about Michael Penix. But other than that, I'm feeling good.

Just drag you, throw you in there, just drag you into that discussion. I know we've kind of waved away some of these going like, we'll get to it, we'll get to it. But now we're forcing our hand getting into it because like Matt said, it is an interesting group of guys. Six quarterbacks were taken in the first round last year. Caleb Williams, Jane Daniels, Drake May, Michael Penix, JJ McCarthy, and Bo Nix. All five of them.

last year. J.J. McCarthy suffered an injury in the preseason, so did not play it. Sam Darnold, of course, was the Vikings quarterback, but looks like he is starting now in 2026. I mentioned Rattler as the other guy. The Saints is kind of a mess, so we're just going to absolve from talking about Rattler right now. And so that kind of we get some clarity on the situation in New Orleans. But we're going to talk about the optimism. Go one to ten on these guys where we maybe think

That where we feel the optimism now, maybe where we feel about at the end of the season and what would a good year look like for all these guys? We're going to talk about first guy that was one one and kind of the consensus one one. Maybe not my number one guy, but generally a very highly regarded prospect. That was Caleb Williams going to the Chicago Bears last year.

It was messy. It was a messy season in Chicago. We have talked about it plenty of times on this show of failed Hail Mary defense there, just the season falling apart when they came back after their bye week. So it was bye week, Hail Mary, everything unraveling for the Chicago Bears, especially on offense. The offensive line had a lot of woes. Caleb Williams took a lot of sacks, had an up and down year with some flashes in there, but just a very disappointing season for the Chicago Bears and, you know, they're

Number one pick that they have a lot of optimism for there. But Matt, I'm going to start with you because I know Roman Dunzay is one of those rookie receivers that you watched. So I know you got plenty of Caleb Williams watching here. But when you were looking at Caleb, what stood out to you, good or bad, from him from his rookie season? First thing that comes to mind, you're like, this is what I just kept noticing with this guy. I mean, I just think he was so...

doomed kind of from the beginning and we'll kind of talk about some of that. I'm here pretty sure in short order. I'm pretty sure, but like I just don't think that that offense was ever going to work for a variety of reasons. I think coaching staff, it was ill-equipped. I also just think they put

a little bit too much on his plate. And Nate, I know you talked about that at times during the year is almost like a positive that they were tasking him with this many things, but I don't, especially what we know now, I don't think that they were preparing him to be tasked with all of those things. And even beyond just like the protection stuff and, you know, identifying things at the line and sort of just being kind of the, the field general, um,

I just think that receiver room was so poorly constructed. They had a lot of talent. They had a lot of names in there, but there wasn't clear-cut roles like this guy's doing this and this guy's doing that. It felt kind of mishmashed together. There was obviously a lot of ego and politicking issues. So that's the first thing that comes to my mind. Actually watching him play, I think the things that's really –

like encouraging for him is when he is, you know, I think there's been a kind of, kind of a discussion of, can he be like a Jared Goff type of quarterback for Ben Johnson, which I don't think you want Caleb Williams being Jared Goff. They're two very different players, but I think when he is feeling the rhythm of plays and, and it likes the structure, I think he's really confident and decisive. But then when I think he doesn't like what he sees or he's not confident in the protection in the route concepts, um,

I think that confidence completely erodes from his game, and so then does the fundamentals, and so does then the accuracy down the field. That was the thing that I think was...

I think a lot of people have made this point is that like, if you look at his, you know, catchable ball rate or stuff like that, or his accuracy metrics down the field, they're really poor. I think a lot of that can be cleaned up. If you just, if you just improve the structure of the offense, like I really don't think we could talk enough about how bad it was last year. And obviously all the metrics bear that out. You know, he's 26 and adjusted yards per attempt. He's 31st in EPA per drop back. He's 33rd in success rate among guys who had 200 plus attempts. Like it was bad.

The metrics were bad. The results were bad. But I think, again, just my original point there was I just do really feel like he and a lot of these players here were set up to fail. Not that there was open throws that he didn't take, that he needs to get the ball out faster. But again, I just think structurally...

Like one thing started to compound into another to the point that like, I think all the fundamentals for him really got pretty poor throughout the course of the season. No, all great points. And I'll expand on some of those too. And some of that, the article to maybe just that Seth Wickersham wrote, what's not article. He wrote a book.

about quarterbacks, American Kings, that's coming out. And there's an excerpt that came out on ESPN talking about Caleb Williams going through last year. So the protection stuff was something I thought was extraordinary because I was like, I don't see rookie quarterbacks handling this. And then also he's talking about, oh, I didn't really know

What to watch. I'll talk a little bit more and dive into that, but I did think that was interesting, kind of a disconnect what was going on in Chicago. But Charles, it was such an up and down season. I mean, Matt just referred to some of the stats. Every stat you look at, it's bottom five, bottom five, bottom two, bottom three. Historically, this year, it just does not stack up where there's one thing they can stand on. But

Why do you think I'm just assuming here, just maybe offhand conversations we had, why should there still be optimism with Caleb Williams? Why do you think maybe I know you liked him a lot coming out of college as well. Still do. Still do. And why do you still do still have that optimism still? Why do you like him? Because.

I guess I'm getting older. I'm getting soft. I don't... I just don't feel the need to slam some of these guys when they go through ruts as rookies. And...

I tend to focus more on the highs because that's what we're chasing. That first year in the NFL is always going to be hard with an offensive line where, as we described during the season, you got Darnell Wright at right tackle, then four guys on the ground. Half the plays is what it felt like. It was a bad situation, but I think at its best, the game that I come back to is, I don't remember if it was the first or second Vikings game, but it was the one that they played at Soldier Field last year. When Caleb

Yeah, when Caleb remembers, like... Oh, wait. Actually, like, among NFL quarterbacks, I'm one of the better athletes in the league with an absolute cannon for an arm, and he plays like that. You can just see, like, where...

where like potential like top 10, top five quarterback play can be down the road. Cause there were, there were plays where he's confident stepping over the pocket, firing downfield and the really tight windows. And it's just perfect on the money. And I, I hope that maybe playing in a more stable environment with Ben Johnson and hopefully these offensive line, you know,

upgrades are at least going to get them back to a stable-ish platform. He can actually just show it and let it rip because, yeah, I'm with Matt. The Jared Goff stuff, I would hope that you can think Cale Williams can eventually do a little more than Jared Goff is doing for your offense. And that's not to say that Jared Goff isn't a quality quarterback because I think he's obviously proven that, but there's not that extra gear of athleticism that I think

uh, makes you go. And you even saw it when they went to London and they played the Jaguars and Brian Nielsen's coming out with that ridiculous, we're going to play cover two man, every single snap. And Caleb was like, okay, fine. I'm going to go. And he almost got like a hundred yards rushing in that game. So I just, I, I just hope that this year in this environment that he can remember that like skillset wise, he's one of the baddest dudes in the league. Uh, and that's still there. So hopefully they can just get an environment to coax it out of him. Uh,

You know, last year was bad. Last year was bad. You know, we even had Thomas Brown. He was saying, how many pounds did he lose in like the three weeks where he took over? Oh, my God. He was like, I'm not eating. You're a head coach. I'm not eating. Like my head coach isn't eating. I don't know. I'm scared. I don't know what's going on. So hopefully this is better for him. And I'm still full all the way in on Caleb Williams. That's for the future.

If I was a Bears fan, I would never want to think about the 2024 Bears again. And I say this actually as some sympathy with my buddy Andy Barron's over on the fantasy show that our producer Colin is texting him excerpts from these articles, that ESPN article, the excerpt from the book that you mentioned. I was like, dude, we have to stop because if I was a Bears fan, again, I would just want to... And I know we're talking about the season in retrospect because it's instructive a little bit to what goes forward, but

I would be hoping that none of that matters. Like by this time next year, that like 2024 Bears team and Keenan Allen and all this stuff, we just laugh at it. It's a little bit of like a little funny footnote on Caleb Williams' great career. That's what I would be hoping for.

Yeah, but the fact that going into Trevor Lawrence's rookie year with Urban Meyer, there was a part of me that goes, man, this might get ugly. Just thinking about Urban Meyer. Last year, I was like, I didn't think Ibra Foose was the greatest coach in the world, but I always thought there was some competency there, and I thought at least there would be some competency. I didn't think it would just end with such bad feelings.

I thought maybe people would be underwhelmed, especially the expectations that were going in last year. This is the greatest rookie ecosystem ever. QB, all that stuff, which I didn't agree with a lot of it. I was like, no, I think it's pretty good. But that whole line is now. All right. Now we can kind of refresh it and actually have some optimism about what that situation is with everything. But no, the Seth Wickersham book.

Um, there's a lot of quotes or a lot of sourcing from Caleb Williams, his dad about how, uh, Caleb Williams had, you know, hesitations with going to Chicago, you know, the place that quarterbacks die. And then, uh, so he ended up with him going like, no, I want to turn this team around. I want to turn the city around and get a bill, which I, I thought that was that result or that final answer from Caleb, at least reported answer from Caleb was actually should have been the takeaway as opposed to the trepidation that everyone that they had, which was

I mean, we all know this with the Chicago's history on offense, especially, but even last year was like, well, this was founded. This was not unfounded. This was very founded hesitations that they had in there. They had about this situation. So.

I thought the end game there, there, he's like, no, I want to go there and I want to change this. But his whole quote about, oh, no one's telling me what to watch. It's not that the players don't watch film and especially quarterbacks. And I could tell Cale Bones watches film. I actually think that's one of his, his mind has been one of my, the most pleasant surprises of his game. Like I really think he's can be a supreme processor and the fact he can handle the pre snap stuff. Well,

What he was referring to there, because I had so many replies when I quote tweeted and all that, I couldn't help myself. And people were just like, oh, you need to be told to watch film. It's like, it's not that he's not watching film. When you go in each week, you go, all right, we're playing the Seahawks here. Man, on third down, they're going to run a lot of quarters. You've watched for some blitzes here. Okay, this is the percentages of that. What I think Caleb was referring to is he never had those extra meetings going like, all right, I put on the film.

What's our game plan? What should I be focusing on? Which quarterbacks get to like you get to that point where you can just plop on the film and know your kind of checklist when you're watching film. I'm going to watch third downs here. I'm going to watch who's the pass rusher getting after us. What does this corner like to do? Do they have any indications of blitzes? And you work down that checklist. That's what he was referring to.

Which, honestly, hearing a lot about Shane Waldron after the fact and hearing about the other coaching staff, I'm like, yeah, I'm not shocked here. Like that nobody was just sitting down and going like, all right, we're going to go through this. We're going to do these extra meetings. So that was just the reporting and the quotes came out, made it look just even a bad and especially probably was bad.

But the fact that he could handle so much, they're doing no huddle where he's signaling everything and calling the plays at the line without listening to the headset. I can tell he's not because he's just doing it right away. Protection stuff, that stuff is so advanced. Matt, what you said, maybe it wasn't the best thing because it's putting so much on a young quarterback that hasn't played. But the fact that I think that the long-term growth, the long-term benefit of that will, it will...

it will pay debit dividends even if it just was such a rough year but

I'm optimistic. I am pretty excited to see what this looks like. They beefed up the offensive line. This guy, Caleb, is going to be a sub-6-2 quarterback. You're always going to have to have a strong interior, which we've talked about. I do like that. Dan Rauscher is the offensive line coach. You know who was his quarterback for a long time? Drew Brees, sub-6-2 quarterback. So they have a better infrastructure here, which I think is obvious. I don't think you even need Football 301 to dive into it, but I do think it's actually –

The perfect one-to-one as far as scheme, play style of coaches, what they prefer, philosophy with the quarterback. So I think this is going to look good. I think they're going to put him on the move more with bootlegs, which I think is going to match their run game. I think he's going to be good in play action. Caleb's comfortable performing under center, which is, Matt, what you're referring to a little bit about that Jared Goff stuff. Caleb, as much as people think he's kind of a playground, run-around quarterback,

he wants to be an instructor quarterback. That is why I always bring up the Drew Brees comparison. That is what he wants to be. He just also can do the creation craziness, unbelievable balance. One of the most balanced athletes I've ever watched on film. And I really mean that, especially at quarterback. And I

And I think he was stubborn last year, got some bad coaching. But man, I really am optimistic. I was watching some of these games. I watched the 3-6 game against the Seahawks in Week 17. That Vikings game that I referred to. Charles, I watched these this last week. And they were just so much good. There's so much good pocket movement. He couldn't rely on... Keenan Allen's running the wrong route sometimes. It's like when your longtime vet is running wrong routes or bad spacing or getting beat up.

Who can I rely on as a rookie? You know, like that is, those are the guys that you're supposed to just set your clock to, you know, like, and so that it was just mess. We just, I don't know. We can say it 500 different ways. It was a mess. And, but I am still optimistic at Caleb. I mean, I'm going to, I know it's kind of a made up scale. I'll sit here on May 21st and say, I have like an eight optimism about how this year is going to look because of just what the in-between stuff, the minutia of what Caleb did last year, Matt higher, lower,

I was going to give it like a seven. I really think the key here is the coaching staff. I think this is a group that's both from Ben Johnson and the quarterbacks to also the receivers too, like Antoine Randall-El. I think all these guys are really invested in actually teaching these guys.

these players, which I think is key. I think it's going to be key for him. I think it's going to be key for Roma Dunzey, who those guys are just never on the same page against zone coverage. So that's a pretty consistent thing that I think matters here. And also, I mean, in addition to the offensive line, also, I just think like

I don't know. Expectations should be pretty, should be pretty, they won't be because of the bears and they always talk themselves into like, Hey, this is our year. But I do think that expectations like should be pretty modest here. And like him just even being functional in this offense, being functional, like to me, I think that's well within the range of outcomes. And yeah, I, I'd give it, I'd give it a seven. I think the one thing also to DJ more, this is, this is his, we'll see like what DJ more is in this offense. And, you know, I think the Luther burden pick was instructive to them kind of putting his feet to the fire, but yeah,

This is the first time DJ Moore is going to be having the same week one starting quarterback in his entire career, which I think is pretty crazy. Talk about you guys. You definitely weren't on the same page at times last year. So hopefully DJ Moore, the consistency of quarterback could be a little bit more bought into the proceedings here.

Charles, what number are you dropping on the optimism scale at this point in time? I'll give it a six. I'm still kind of worried about this offensive line. Drew Dallman's okay. To me, he's like an average starting center. And anytime a team is trying to get rid of someone they just signed to a big contract a year ago, I would take that as a red flag in terms of the Jonah Jackson trade. So then potentially you're looking at like,

All right. The right side of our line is all right because Donald Wright's good. And Jonah Jackson, to me, is a huge wild card. And the left side, I guess, just depends on how good Joe Thune still is, which, you know, he's getting up there and he could fall off at any time, too. So I think there's a little bit more danger here with the offensive line, maybe than people are saying. But it's better than what they had last year. And that alone should get it going. So I'm going to give it a six.

Okay. No, I think that's fair. The number one thing he's got to cut the sacks. And I think some of it was that situation. And I think some of it was stubbornness. He's going to take more. He's always going to be an above average sack rate guy because he wants to create and wants to stay, go through the progression and wants to do all that stuff. So he's always going to be a little higher, but he can't be above 10%.

So like that, that has got to be the one thing, even more than the deep ball stuff, which Matt, you addressed. It's just that sack stuff. And I think that's just going to come with a better, more conducive ecosystem and stuff. So maybe that's what's leading to the optimism, but I think that's very fair, Charles. I wish they,

I know they took Trapilo on day two as a tackle, but just a little more depth. Just one more interior guy and I'd feel way better about this. So I think that's fair. I'm really excited to watch the Bears this year. I think it's going to be really, really cool with Ben Johnson and Caleb and what they do. There's going to be ups and downs, but I'm still optimistic on it.

Getting into the guy that I think universally we can say had the best year amongst these rookie quarterbacks. And I think that's definitive. Of course, one rookie of the year. I think it was very well earned as Gene Daniels, the number two pick to the Washington Commanders.

finished with the fourth highest ep per play among rookie quarterbacks since 2012 uh there's 28 quarterbacks i'm referring to this list quite a bit so might as well just drop it in now the three guys above them that finished higher were dac prescott rg3 and russell wilson and then the rest of the top 10 is mac jones andrew luck justin herbert teddy bridgewater and kyler murray and then james winston if i can count the 10 um

Man, I don't know where you guys want to start with the strengths of this game is Matt Jane Daniels. I have some reviewing of him. Have you watched Luke McCaffrey yet? I'm going to save that one till we see if he's OK. OK, I wasn't sure that was part of it. I know you've watched plenty of commanders, though, and everything. But Jane Daniels, how's he feeling right now? May 21st after we, you know, we're outside the glow of maybe the rookie season still still high on him.

Yeah, I'm still glowing. Spoiler alert for our quarterback ranking show. Yeah, I was going to say. I have Jaden Daniels ranked really high. I just think he checks so many boxes. He's accurate to all three levels of the field. Obviously, I always talk about it. He's obnoxiously cool under any sort of... Not pressure as in past rushers, pressure in terms of the moment. Nothing is ever too big for him. I think you can't say that enough. I also thought that he was...

like a better scrambler than maybe I thought he'd be in the NFL. He was like a more, he led all quarterbacks and scramble yards. And again, he was like a true weapon there. And, you know, I think there's some moments where, Hey, maybe you want him to sit there and like stare down the barrel instead of taking off, but he's so productive and useful as a scrambler. You almost don't want to hold that against him. So I just also think like they're the nitpicks in his game that you can make are truly nitpicks. And there are nitpicks that you could say about guys like,

you know, that were young players at different points, points of their career too, that we now consider among like the games elite. And, you know, I, I mean, truly, I think that is the, the ceiling for him is to be considered in, you know, that Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, like cohort at some point. So I, I, I'm very optimistic going forward. I, the only thing, only hesitation I have about is not about him is just,

Did they kind of do enough? Like, did they make the right moves in terms of the pass catchers? Like you mentioned Luke McCaffrey. I thought McCaffrey showed some things in very brief moments, but he barely played, which I think is a little bit concerning that considering they didn't have a lot of guys combating him on that depth chart. McLaurin's still great, but he's a sneaky older player. Not that I'm predicting like a McLaurin fall off, but he is a sneaky older player for being a 2019 draft pick.

Debo is Debo Debo has the third worst success rate versus man coverage in reception perception history last season real big fall off for him so that's like the only thing I'm a little bit worried about but otherwise yeah in terms of Jaden Daniels himself I saw everything I needed to see in year one to think like this is one of the next best quarterbacks in the league

Charles, similar levels of optimism, or do you have anything maybe that you're like, I maybe want to see this in year two and beyond? I don't really know how to. It's weird to kind of talk about the commander's offense because they just live and die so much on third and fourth down. But when you look at their first and second down numbers, those are still pretty good, too, which is kind of like I don't.

It's a weird combination of stats, but usually when you see teams that have so many third down plays and so many fourth down plays, that means they suck on first. But their numbers averaged out to be pretty good. So I think I still think they should have a pretty good year on offense. I think getting Tunsell and Connerly this offseason at tackle was huge. Because even if Tunsell could just cut down on the penalties...

I think that's still probably pretty good left tackle. All in all, it's an upgrade of what you had last year. We talked about Connelly a bunch where we're all high on him and think he can be one of the better tackles of the league. So that's pretty good because...

Daniels is someone who's going to expose himself to a lot of hits. He did pretty well last year, I think, to stay up. I mean, we saw that huge hit in the game against Tampa Bay where he got rocked out of bounds. And you could see, oh, okay, he really does weigh like 190-something. I was nervous. That was week one. I was nervous. Yeah.

And I think he was like, wow, that space close a little quicker than against Florida. Yeah. You still have the most, you're like, oh, okay. He does still weigh like 195 pounds. That's a little scary. But man, like the escapability is just, it's so hard to find. And I think that,

As long as he can run a 4-3, I don't really see why that's going to go away. I think that they're probably going to be one of the better offenses in the league this year. I just want to see if they can, I guess, avoid how many third and fourth downs they have to play because you know over the long haul that's just not sustainable style football, just living in these one-play samples. But other than that, man, the more I looked at it, I was like, man, I think I'm still in on this guy. He just generated so much by himself, and now he has a little more help on the offensive line.

What was really encouraging for me or really where I was kind of like reviewing them again. It's, it's fun watching them in season, then taking a breath and then watching them after, you know, a few months after it's just that he doesn't make mistakes like that. It's just, he's so hyper efficient is how I kind of just keep describing them almost like Dak that can run a four, three, you know, where it's just like, yeah, that's a really cool player. And, uh,

It's even the blemishes, even blemishes I still have. Okay. Takes a few too many sacks and doesn't throw a ton over the middle, which is always what I prefer. Guess what? He threw it better over the middle than he ever did in college. And it's already a thing where he can hang his hat on it.

So, all right, that blemish, that blemish isn't enough to hinder his game. You know what I mean? Like he can win in other ways so well throwing to the outside, throwing accurately when he does take sex. He also doesn't take back breaking sex. Like, yeah, he has a high sack rate. He took the six most sacks last year. I think it was his sack rate was over 9%, but he only lost the 11th most sack yards.

You know, it's a lot of two yard losses, three yard losses, four yard losses. Yeah. You don't want your quarterback to get sacked that much and take those. But when you're going for it on fourth down every time, all right, we'll get it. All right. Say I take a second first down. It's first and 15 or second and 15 now.

six yard gain, seven yard gain on second down. All right. It's 39, 38, eight, another six yard gains, fourth and three. There's a first down. So like those weren't backbreakers. It's not like Jalen hurts, take sacks. They're 15 yard losses, you know, like that. And Russell Wilson, when he took sacks, especially early in his career, 12 yard losses, those are drive killers done dead. This is what Ben Johnson was referring to when he was talking about EPA and taking sacks. And even when he's wanting to work on with Caleb Williams,

That was like, that was like a night. I wouldn't say a pleasant surprise, but it was like, okay, you can win this way. That's okay. You can be a runner. You don't take huge hits. It takes a couple. We just laughed about the box one, but I mean, I'm looking, even just thinking like right now, I can only remember two or three bigger hits that he took. So,

So I was like, all right, that's already an improvement. You're getting out of bounds. You're getting efficient yards. He's able to pull out defenders grass a lot better than I thought his wiry strength is actually he's pretty strong and be able to pull out of guys, which again, pleasant surprise. I had it. I had some iffiness on that, how it translates to the NFL. He's already shown as a rookie, you know, so that was that was pretty cool. Like, I think no matter what, the floor of Jane Daniels is always going to be so high because he's efficient, doesn't make mistakes, accurate and can run.

And yeah, there's gonna be times where it's gonna be a little boom bust with how, how open things are down the field. I still want him to push the ball sometimes. I think sometimes he takes the low on high lows a little too often. These are minor blemishes. Like, I mean, those that again, nitpicking that is truly nitpicking. Like he is.

I was kind of hesitant on him throughout the year, reviewing him. I'm like, no, this is a keeper. This is a guy that's not going to have that scary RG3 fall off or that scary Mac Jones fall off. I don't think sometimes it will be as good because they're so hyper-efficient on third and fourth down. But, man, I don't know. I see this sticking. And I see them boost up the offensive line. That's only going to help. They have even more reliability. Maybe even some more guys can create some yak. But, like, he was making –

Zach Ertz had chemistry, you know, like, cause he was just so good throwing them all. Like, you know, that's what it's cool when these good, these quarterbacks do that with these random guys. And it's like, Oh, they have chemistry. And it's like, usually it's cause the quarterback's pretty good, you know? So I'm not going to take that away. And speaking to the scramble stuff, he had the, he had 75 scrambles last year. I think we brought us up,

at the end of the year award show when we gave him brick of the year 75 scrambles last year is the most in true media's database which goes back to 2002 third highest scramble rate he had a 71% scramble success rate

53 of those 75 scrambles were an efficient play for Washington. That's tremendous. That is, that's how you win games. And that's how you stay ahead of the chains constantly. So man, it doesn't put the ball in harm's way. Accurate and can run. That's a good, good, good combo of quarterbacks. He's skinny and I'm going to keep an eye on that, but he's showing a lot that I'm like, Oh man, this is a real good player. My optimisms. I mean,

At least Nate. I might be, you know, I think maybe commanders are going to have some cold water thrown on that sometimes this year, harder schedule, some of the luck that they had. But man, I think James is always going to keep them in games because his floor is so high. So yeah, at least Nate for me, maybe even higher. Charles, you feeling the same?

Yeah, I feel I'm about an eight. I just think, because I went back and watched, like, this is just, he's a special guy. The speed and the accuracy alone are enough to keep you at a high four. And he's going to keep attacking down the field. It's a lot of fun to watch him play. Is it the most complex offense? No. But I like watching it. I like watching it. And they score a lot of big plays. Right. Honestly, I would say Requiem for Cliff Kingsbury, man.

Like it's like just watching them man all last year. I don't think I even use that term right, but I'm going to use it like that. But it's but honestly watching them like just it's honestly it was a cool offense and watching him operate. It's a cool thing. It's a perfect merging of quarterback skill set and offense. What about you, Matt? What's your optimism skill at?

Yeah, I'll go nine. I'd go 10 out of 10 if I again, if they had like one more dynamic pass catcher or even like another back somewhere in this offseason. That's the only thing kind of hold me back from 10. Yeah, I think it's gonna be fun. I mean, I think one of the fun conversations is going to be which NFC East quarterback you take.

You know, like, do you prefer Dak, Jalen Hurts, or Jayden Daniels? Like, I think that's going to be a fun conversation to watch throughout this year, because especially three very stylistically different quarterbacks. Even if Hurts, Jayden Daniels is like the split of those two, Hurts and Dak. You know what I mean? Like, he's the merger of it. Maybe much faster, of course. But yeah, kind of the in-between of those guys. So I think it's going to be fun to watch how that all goes throughout the year. All right, going on to the number three pick.

We went one, two, three in this class. That is Drake May Patriots quarterback. Now the entire staff has been fired. So he's got a whole new coaching staff with him. Same with like Caleb Williams that we just talked about before. But I'll save my Drake May thoughts for the end of this discussion. Charles, I'll start with you. Actually, Drake May. How are we feeling about what his situation is this year for the Patriots? What we saw from him last year. Where do we stand with Mr. May?

Man, I'm excited. I'm excited because last year was awesome. Because I thought last year, I don't know. I understand Jaden Daniels won Rookie of the Year, but sometimes I felt more impressed with what I was seeing from Drake May. Only because it just felt like the structure of the team was different.

Obviously, there was something. At all. At all. No offensive line. The weapons that they had didn't really work out. I guess Gerard Mayo was a widow mean to, what's his name, Jalen Polk, and that made him forget how to catch the ball.

So maybe that'll... Dude, I can't get enough of that storyline. Give me a break. Oh, my coach is so mean to me. The Patriots receivers, man. They were awful. Oh, my God. What a mess. Yeah. What a mess. It was just a terrible mess. And I...

we'll see what happens with Stefan Diggs. Um, I don't know how much you can bank on that, but at least they just threw enough bodies at this where it's just like, someone's gotta, someone's gotta come out of this group. We, we, we gotta have at least one guy that, uh, that emerges as like a real pass catcher, whether it's Kyle Williams or Polk comes back and has a better year. Uh,

I hope it's not Matt Collins. I think we've all seen enough of the Matt Collins experience over the past few years. But I think what Drake showed last year in terms of just being able to generate offense by himself, I think he does that well even standing in the pocket with the way that he's able to throw guys open, just fearless under pressure. The accuracy while guys are coming after him, I thought it was just so impressive that at

With what they had around him, I think he finished 12th or 13th in EPA per dropback last year among all quarterbacks, which is kind of crazy because I think when you look at most quarterbacks and guys who kind of need a supporting cast around them, they probably would have drowned in that situation last year. So the fact that he could even just stay up and just be his own generator of plays when things are falling apart, it gives you such a high floor for what this offense can be. And now they at least have...

They at least have, you know, one quality starter in the offensive line, Will Campbell, hopefully. And Morgan Moses is an upgrade over what they had last year. Still a little concerned about the interior. Garrett Bradbury is starting at center for now. Isn't all that exciting.

Doug Marone off of the mind coach is a little shaky too. But Drake can do it, I think. I think this is going to be a big year for him just because he himself is like this own lightning rod of production, no matter who's around him. So I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself because I do doubt like

Some of the coaching pieces around this and the off the line is still there, but I just thought he was so good last year, especially down the stretch that I still find myself being all the way in here. Yeah. Flashes are very bright. And, and again, I'll talk about it in a sec, Matt, before I get to my gosh session of Drake may, because did you chart, chart Jalen Polk? All right.

I did. Because it took you 15 seconds before you're like, yeah. Well, he played so much for like five or six games and then finishing the sample. So it was real quick, which is actually really interesting on the Polk thing because I wrote this in his reception perception profile that he was he's the perfect type of player that

base that i think was set up to fail coming to the year because like they had him run the nine route was his most commonly run route and he basically took all of his snaps from x receiver which there was quite literally nothing on his um on his college film his rp profile as a prospect that indicated like he should be doing that but then as charles pointed out he also did nothing to earn himself like any goodwill or role catering so it's one of those like

well okay yeah i'd love to see him in a different position but what do you want to be doing remember we joked about this we're like his the calling cards of him are like he catches everything and he's a good blocker and he's smart and it's like he's dropping everything and he's going to the wrong guy blocking the wrong guy and false starting he might he might have been the worst blocking receiver in the league last year like that or at least that i've seen so far which again he was so good at that in college so part of part of me does think i mean

educated guess not a lot of good coaching going on in new england last year but um that's still a

was high school was he was a former high school coach yeah sorry i don't want to dog the guy but i looked at his resume and i'm like yeah this is making a lot more sense now yeah i mean even even you could argue gerard mayo was a little bit set up to fail last year too because he was promoted like into like he promoted like multiple levels probably just wasn't really ready for that gig so i'm i'm hoping for um hampton va's finest gerard mayo like that he eventually finds his way back into the coaching game if that's what he wants to do but um

Just didn't go well for anybody there last year. But yeah, my point on Polk that once they actually got him back into the lineup, they actually started playing him off the line of scrimmage a ton. But at that point, he was so phased out, it didn't matter, and he barely played. So just weird stuff all throughout New England's offense last year.

for a guy that they were like, yeah, we would have drafted him over Ladd McConkie anyways, even if we didn't trade down, which I mean, I wouldn't have said that. I wouldn't have said that. No. No. You had him here. I know. And then he went before you. That's all you had to say. I mean, they traded out of the pick that eventually became McConkie and they said they still said, yeah, don't worry. We would have taken him again. Wouldn't have said that because, yeah, Charles, like Ladd would be exactly what this team needed. All that being said, like that

that was what was going on last year. And I think Drake may just, I was awesome in, in that environment. I'm obsessed with two stats of his. Cause I just wrote a piece on receivers in and out of the quarterback wilderness. And I was looking at some Drake may stuff kind of in sort of relation to that. Number one,

He was second in scramble yards behind only Jaden Daniels, which is impressive anyways because he didn't start a full season. But the 407 yards he had on scrambles was...

almost all of his 421 rushing yards. So they didn't have nothing from a design rush perspective with him. And that's impressive. Yeah, seven. And I think they're going to do a ton more of that. Like Drake's already talked about, hey, I was watching some of that Cam Newton offense with Josh McDaniels in 2020. So that's a reason to be optimistic. And among players who threw 200 pass attempts last year, when the middle of the field was open,

post-snap, according to PFF, he was fifth in passing success rate. No runs felt like passing success rate. The guys ahead of him are Baker Mayfield, Joe Burrow, Tua, of course, and Lamar. That's a pretty good company for him to be in while he's throwing to a bunch of goofball receivers and has poor pass protection and all that.

I'm, I like the digs edition. I think digs played well last year. He's obviously an older player coming off an ACL, but if he can even give you kind of like a facsimile of what he was last year, that's good. I love Kyle Williams. I think we're all excited about that pick. So yeah, I'm, I, I think that Drake may showed us a lot last year. Like you gotta watch, you gotta actually watch it. You don't just look at the stats and then you have to watch what happened. Um,

He's a really good over-the-middle passer. He's accurate. He's got a great arm, very talented. So, yeah, I'm very confident that if the coaching staff is good, things all kind of coalesce there and a few of these receivers break out, we could definitely be talking about the breakout quarterback performance of the season.

I know I'm not, I'm not all the way. Sure. If it's to the moon this year, but we're launching that way, you know, like it's, we're halfway there. We're at least out of the stratosphere and circling a lot or circle. We're, we're going around. We're like, Oh my God, I just thought of an astronaut lot, lost it right away, but we're going around. We're John Glenning it. We're going,

Going around the earth over and over. Yeah, there we go. I said seven design runs. And honestly, it was fewer than that because four of those that were counted as runs were like snap fumbles. So cool. So that's three. And I think two of the other ones were sneaks. So I think it was one designer on the entire year. And this is a guy that's an excellent athlete. That's why I really liked him coming out of college. But I'm glad you brought that up, Matt, because that's one of the optimisms I have about Josh McDaniels.

as the OC. And I mean, Patriots coaches are like the King of the Peter principle of God, but like, all right, McDaniels just being an OC and just being in charge of the offense. I like, he always has structured offenses. They had a really good run game. They tied stuff together with what the quarterback likes, whether it was Tom Brady or Mac Jones or Cam Newton, like no matter what the offense really fits the quarterback, which I like. I bring up this anecdote all the time that

McDaniels, when he was that one year with Cam Newton, which is one of my favorite random offenses since I've been in media, he let Cam keep his cadence, which is a very unique cadence. But I always thought that McDaniels, who everyone thinks is some hard-o, he is, but that he's so player-unfriendly and all that, it's like, no, no, he understands what his players are good at, what they're comfortable with, and he goes with that. But that run game that he used with Cam Newton, we'll always have that Patriots-Seahawks-Seahawks

Sunday or Monday night game from that year where it was magical, where it looked amazing. But like now imagine May, not as aggressive as you would with Cam because Cam can handle so much between the tackles. And May is like 225. He's not Cam 250. But he can do those runs. He is a sick athlete. He was second in scramble rate only behind Jane Daniels last year. And his success rate was 69%.

on 45 scrambles. Nice. I know. That's excellent. Like, you had to, it was easy. Uh, I tried to round it up too. It was like 69 on the dot too. So, uh, but his, his, you know, anything above 60% is great.

So like the fact that you're near 70, that it was fifth among all qualifying scramblers last year. It's what you want. And on top of the throwing stuff, I'm glad you brought up the drop back success rate stuff or the success rate stuff, Matt. Um, you finished 16th and just drop back success rates. So including scrambles and sacks and everything, uh, which at 46.5%, that's seventh among all rookie quarterbacks since 2012. So it's Dak, Russell,

Mac, Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck. Good start here. Jane Daniels, also a good start. Mac Jones, RG3, and then Drake May. And then he's above Stroud, who everyone thought had one of the best rookie quarterback seasons in our lifetimes. Tannenhill, surprisingly, actually. And then Justin Herbert, who also had

a rookie season that we consider one of the best amongst our lifetimes. And so like, that's great that his efficiency is already at that high level in this bad circumstances. And the fact that I thought even early on, he'd be a little boom busty as a quarterback until he figured it out.

He shows so much more already. I, of course I was optimistic about him as a rookie going in. He was my number one guy in last year's class, but I'm like, I'm up there. My optimism with this. Cause I think it'd be really cool with the quarterback situation. I'm sorry. The offensive player color situation, a better offensive line, uh,

And, you know, it can't get worse. Even if I think it's going to be like the 20th best offensive line, it's better than 32nd or 30th. I also just, you know, I just think this makeup around him is going to be so much better that he's going to excel. I think I'm really excited to see what he does this year because I he's a star.

But he is honestly, I think all these three guys that we talked to Caleb has that shot to like these guys to me are all star quality players. And and I am always more of an optimist, but I really, really think with these guys, I think all three are top 10 guys that we're going to talk about every year. Maybe not this year for Caleb or maybe not all the way there, but in their careers. But yeah, arm.

creativity would also, you just mentioned, Oh, if you just look at the box score, it's not always great. Watch some of the highlights. Even if you don't watch every down, watch some of the highlights of Drake may, and they're up there as some of the best in the league. So I'm very, very excited. I'd put my optimism as an eight as well, because I'm just giving all these guys eights. Uh, but what about you guys, uh, Charles? Uh, I'll give it a, I think I'm at a seven. I, I don't know how to feel about McDaniels. I know how I feel about Doug Marone. So I'm going to give it a seven. Uh,

And we'll take it week by week. But I think I'm giving him a seven mostly because I just believe in him as a talent so much. But supporting Cass, I'm still – we're going to see. We're going to see. Because Josh McDaniel's last stint as a coach for the Raiders did not go well. And Doug Marone had one of the worst iterations of Alabama's offensive line that I've ever seen in my whole life. And now he's back in the NFL too. So –

I'm glad you bring up the Doug Marone stuff because I also have a lot of hesitancy on that. I think of his old reputation from 10 years ago when he became a Jacks coach. Before Jacks. Before Jacks. He has not been a good line coach since he became the Jacks head coach. So that's a decade. Yeah. He went down to college and it was still bad. When Nick Saban overseeing him. So I don't know. With talent too. With guys that became first rounders on the line too. Matt, what about you?

I think I'll go seven, too, for a lot of the same reasons. Like, yeah, I have some of the minor coaching staff questions. I think the receiver room at best could be average. But still, I think going from maybe sub par from the worst in the league is pretty huge. And I think the offensive line being that way is big. So, yeah, them being a seven is really just a testament to how much I feel about Drake May.

Yeah, I know. It's kind of funny. Scott Peters, who's kind of an unknown line coach, I would feel better. He was the offensive line coach last year. Their offensive line stunk, but I thought their rules were really good. Like they were well taught. They got the most out of that group.

Scott Peters, who's now the Bengals offensive line coach. I actually like that hire for them. But that was actually one where I was like, no, keep him. Keep him. He's fine. He's fine. Oh, Doug Marone. Okay, we'll see. So it's kind of a weird way. The guy that was more unknown, I felt better about than the guy that's known. All right, we're going to take our first break and then we'll get back to the other three first round quarterbacks from last year.

All right, we are back. And actually, I have to double and triple and quadruple check this every time because I want to go over these quarterbacks in chronological chronologically drafted order. I'm like, oh, yeah, Panics was fourth. So we're going to Michael Panics. Number eight overall selection for the Atlanta Falcons. Kirk Cousins started most of the year, but Panics took over the last month or so of the season. Charles, I'm going to give you the floor.

How are we feeling about Michael Penix?

in May before he starts his second year starting in quarterback. Oh, I really wish they had held on to that first round pick, man. And there's not to say. I'm still thinking about it. It's all connected. It's all connected. It's all connected, you know? So that, this is why I was just like, oh man, really? Like we're going to do, giving away the first round pick right now?

So, I think Penix, like, when you average out all of it, is probably fine. I don't know if he's going to be, like, consistent enough to be good. But, you know, we were talking about it yesterday. And I think that he could end up being one of these, like,

box score scout lovers where you look at the final score or you look at the final thing and it says like what 21 of 35, you know, 315 yards, two touchdowns, two picks like, Oh, that's not that bad. And then if you like watch the game, like a lot of it comes like one or two plays, you know, because he can, he can absolutely generate the big plays with his arm. He's got a cannon. Um, but it's just, it can be all over the place sometimes. Uh,

And I don't know how reasonable it is to expect that part of his game to change, right? Because that's who he was at Indiana. That's who he was at Washington. And that's who he was in the short sample size we saw him last year. So with that seven years of playing like this, I mean, I'm going to guess that that's probably who he is. So I think they have...

I think they have enough around him to push for, you know, potentially seven, eight wins, depending on how the rest of the NFC South shakes out. But I struggle to see a world where, like, especially this year, his first year as a starter, where,

The accuracy gets pulled back into a point where he can be consistent enough where the arm strength is a factor on every play instead of 60% of his plays. I think there's a two-play sequence between

in the game where they had against the Commanders last year that I think just fully describes who he is as a player because they had Drake London wide open in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. That ball couldn't hit a baby in the stands, bro. And Drake was wide open. And then the next play...

You have Kyle Pitts who's draping like quadruple coverage on the goal line and he pins it right on his chest in the storm of defenders for a touchdown that got them back into the game. So those are the two panics and you're going to see a lot of both in every single game that they play. It'll be as fun as is aggravating. I think it'll probably equal out to about an average season when we're all said and done. You almost nailed it like seven, eight wins. They're over under win total right now is seven and a half. The

the patriots have a higher win total than the falcons right now patriots are eight and a half i know this is betting and all that but we don't play defense in atlanta that's we don't do that well no no you do but then you get 240 pound edge rushers so you can yeah get the panthers and the bucks maybe yeah maybe maybe matt what about you with michael panics um

Yeah, he's a journey, man. I mean, just even watching him... Journey comma, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Exactly. Even just watching him throw out routes last year in his three starts was...

It was a wild ride. I mean, on the whole, he had 15 attempts on just out-breaking routes last year, 11 completions, 9.8 yards per attempt. But actually putting your eyeballs on those four incompletions, it's like Charles said, you could hit somebody in the sand because they weren't even close. So it was either the best catch of Drake London's career or...

or the most disgusting miss that you've ever seen a quarterback make when Drake London is wide open. So, like, as a big Drake London guy, I'm excited about Penix because I think there's a lot about his game that we've just never seen a quarterback be able to access Drake London in those areas. And I think the offense is so well-constructed to get the most out of Drake as an in-breaking route guy that I think Penix, as long as he can hit the broad side of a barn, will be able to get – will be able to, like –

like London will make him a better quarterback. He'll make him a more like he looks more like an accurate quarterback with like Charles said, when you look at the box score, because he's such a good separator and they design him so much good stuff over the middle of the field. And then he does have the arm and the stones to access those deep outbreaking routes and things like that. It's just,

Can you be consistent, not just drive to drive, but like play to play? So I think I'm not, he's going to be a tough guy for me to play some of the options, like the autism scale. So I'm going to be thinking about that as, as you're talking here, but that's just, again, just watch him throw out routes. And I think you'll get like sort of the, the journey that I'm talking about here. Yeah. The first,

first couple drives against Carolina in week 18. I don't think he throws one on target throw. Even one that's been highlighted because people... And I'm not... I went through it and I was just like, wow. Okay, okay. There's one throw like early in that game where he hits... I think he hits Mooney on the sideline. But I wasn't sure if he was actually... Yes, I was like, I don't think he was actually throwing Mooney on that play. No, he wasn't.

eyes, everything. I watch it a hundred times and people are clipping that like it's some S tier throw. No, he just missed so bad that it ended up being a whole shot throw. And that's the thing. He has an absolute hose. Yes. You can hang clothes on the throws that he... I mean, he can whip that thing. It's just...

it's elongated, you know, someone, someone had a great joke last year when he was coming out. Cause they were trying to just make, I wish I could credit them, but they said, uh,

Byron right Byron left which Like seriously because he's a lefty He's truly a left hand quarterback So he's like a mini Byron left which And I was like yeah that actually nails it There's not a lot of touch on his throws He's going to try though And I do like that I do appreciate that The Washington Commanders game He throws a because Bobby Wagner can't cover So he throws a seam ball

on a dagger concept, which not a lot of guys do. Like even vets do it. Jordan Love does. And we laugh like, oh, aggressive during love. Dak Prescott doesn't work. Yeah, you better have your head, you know, your chin striped, strapped up. If you're a receiver, Dak Prescott, there's panics taking an extra hitch and just goes, yep. Yeah.

Rifles it in. And the receiver gets destroyed by the backside safety. Actually, a poor design, I will say, if I were critiquing the design because you have to hold the backside safety. That's another discussion. But he's going to try it. And I always like quarterbacks that try it. There's a little Jay Cutler here where it's like he's going to make some highlight throws. He's going to have five misses that you're like, no other quarterback misses like that. Yeah. He's not accurate. I'll just straight up say he's not accurate. He's not.

He's truly just a howitzer back there and just...

You just hope that he goes into the right spot because it's going to blow up. Raheem Morris talked about the pro day or the private workout. The ball was whizzing by his ear when he was playing linebacker. I was like, did you see where it went? It went over your head. That quote killed me because you need to hear it. We can see it. We know that he has a strong arm. I can see it. Yeah.

Honestly, when you guys were talking about it might have hit a baby in the stands or whatever, I thought of Varsity Blues where the guy, James Van Der Beek, clocks it and he throws it to the sideline and he hits the guy on the horse.

Like that, that's so funny. So we're just totally making fun of everything, but it's just like, it's wild when you watch it. Like the commander's game, the Panthers game, I was watching those. There's just some bad misses and not like where it's like, Oh, you got knocked off the launch point. You got knocked. So he has to clean that up. But like Charles said,

I've seen a lot of Michael Penix. I watched him at Indiana. I watched him at Washington. This was his biggest negative was that he, his accuracy is all over the place. It's scattershot. He's going to give guys chances. I'll even bring up the commander's game again. He had a back of the end zone where he misses one guy, but then it's, it's an extended play. He gives Drake one of the shot, the ball in the back of the end zone. I'm like, he tries it at least some guys would just scramble, take a sack or whatever. It's like, I appreciate that. But the thing is too,

It's going to get harder. Last year, the Falcons finished with a 49.1 rushing success rate on running back runs. Okay, sounds high, right? Just running back runs. That's tied for the best rushing success rate by a team since 2002. They're tied with the 2004 Chiefs, who had multiple all-pro linemen in Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson. It's literally the best running back run game that we have seen in modern football. I consider modern football from 2002 onwards.

It's going to get worse. So there's going to be more on it. I'm just saying it's math. There's no, it can, it's going to be a really good run game. That is what this team is based on. I thought there was a big siloed offense though. Zone run, zone, run, zone, run. No play action looked like zone. No bootlegs looked like zone. The offense got to be a little more conducive. And I think better for that to just, that's just me looking holistically at the whole offense. Yeah.

Thing is with him, he doesn't really throw well on the move. Like, you know, because he's so rigid and everything. So I'm curious how they kind of solve that formula for their offense because their run game is going to be very good. Not going to be historically good, but very good. Might be historically good. Who knows? But I do think there's going to be a drop off. He's going to have to do more lifting because of that. So.

we'll see the highlights are gonna be cool matt i'll put the i'm gonna put it on you now what's your optimism scale now i think i'm gonna i'm just gonna compare him to like the scorpions that they used in game of thrones like the big uh like crossbow things that they shot yeah yeah yeah yeah they either don't they it doesn't yeah they crank it to take you gotta really crank it up and when it hits something it's it's gonna kill a dragon but

But when he misses, it's not even going to come close. It has truly no impact. For the Scorpion, Michael Panics, I think I'm going to go five and a half. I think I'll go five and a half because I'm very excited to watch him. He's going to be... Even if I don't watch the game on Sunday just because it's in the one o'clock window or whatever, that's going to be a fun rewatch game. It's going to be a blast. But your point about...

just like natural regression with the run game and also like them and the Cardinals are on my radar that they did like truly nothing on offense like nothing and and I know that I know that they had to do both those traditional yeah both those teams needed uh I mean from like a personnel addition personnel yeah both both of those teams like needed so much help on the defense I get it but I think you I still do uh

All in, man. God, I love this team so much. But I think you're also inviting some natural regression when you don't make any sort of additions either. And yeah, I think the run game needed to evolve from strictly outside zone stuff. Does that bring down the efficiency? And we're talking about all these outbreaking routes. Darnold Mooney's best stuff last year was working outbreaking routes with Kirk Cousins. And he's just not...

Not as big of a target as Drake London. So does he have that season again? So there's a little bit more questions, I think, than maybe we might be giving it credit for on this offense right now. But I do really... Our buddy Derek Klassen talks about honorable football. And I think Michael Penix is going to be really high on the honorable... Good results, good or bad, I think he's going to be very high on the honorable and watchability rankings. In wrestling, there's a guy named Chris Candido and his...

was that no gimmicks needed. And that's kind of Michael Penix. Like there's no, there's no gimmicks with this. This is just straight launching balls and everything. Uh, no,

No, I really like that. Cutler, I brought up that comparison. Brandon Marshall was probably the receiver that did best with Jay Cutler. And then my dad was there. They drafted Alshon Jeffrey for a reason because it was like, we need big bodies because that ball is going to go every which direction. So I think Penix is of that same ilk where they're drinking London and Kyle Pitts are actually great for this because of the wingspans that they bring. Charles, I'm scared to ask, actually. I'm excited to ask. Where are you at? Optimism scale. Five.

I guess. Okay. Average. Just like I expect the final output to be. Yeah. I know, right? I'm going high too. That's kind of how I feel. It's not that I'm not... Guys do things. They grow as pros. Ways we don't ever expect. You know that? But it's not like I'm...

not looking forward to watching the Falcons. I'm excited to watch this offense. Bichon rocks. You know, like the run game is awesome. Tell our years. Awesome. Drake London's great. Like, you know, like I, I think there's going to be a lot of cool with the offense. I just think there's going to be some real lows with some of these throws.

I'm scared of the O-line health regression too because they were so healthy last year. Very good point. And now Dahlman's out. I don't really think that's a huge loss. I thought Nuzle played just fine in the replacement of him too. So it'll be kind of interesting. Lefty center snapping the lefty quarterback. I was just going to bring it up. I was just going to bring that up. I've never heard that. That's so rare. Most lefty centers, they teach them when you're under center to switch hands, to go righty. Ah.

because it just feels weird as the quarterback. It really does. It feels like the finger, all it feels weird. That's not a bad, but no, the Falcons have so many lefties. Dijon's a lefty. Drake London's lefty. Penix is lefty. Now the center is lefty. Yeah, they're onto something here. They got a great batter's lineup.

great bullpen working here they can get all the lefty hitters out uh no but that is something but great shout out but the center though he actually i think he's solid i actually kind of like him but the whole line health is something we got to keep an eye on all right going to the next pick our next quarterback selected that was jj mccarthy minnesota vikings i feel like this one will be a little shorter we've actually talked about a little bit about this um on a recent show talking about new faces that we really like new additions uh matt brought up

the offensive line trio for the Vikings. And that kind of led to a little mini J.J. McCarthy discussion here. But, you know, he gets hurt last year. Had some preseason moments at a game where he had some nice plays, had a couple of negative plays in that one as well. Gets hurt, has a couple of surgeries this year. Vikings play weird footsie with other quarterbacks apparently. And then, but now it looks like just what we thought J.J. McCarthy will be the starting quarterback for the Vikings in 2025. Matt, I will start with you.

How do you feel about JJ McCarthy off of a game and a half of preseason tape or so? And I don't know what Michigan... Oh, Roman Wilson. You know, you got some Roman Wilson in there as well. Yeah, but JJ McCarthy thoughts though, Matt. Yeah, no, I think...

Again, this is another situation I was writing about because of the quarterback wilderness stuff. Like, I think you kind of have to say that the Vikings receivers are at least what I called like facing a fork in the road. Like, you know, it just depends on, and I think Drake London, same thing. Like it depends on if JJ McCarthy, if JJ McCarthy and Michael Penix are good, then they're not in the wilderness. And if they aren't, then they are like, that's just, it's, it's as simple as that. And we don't really know who JJ McCarthy is going to be yet, but I will say just like looking back at the stats on Sam Darnold's year last year, it's,

was really sick. So like, even if we all like, we all know who Darnold is as a player and like, how much do we attribute that to him? And how much do we attribute that to the ecosystem? I think I know my answer to that, but like, regardless, that's a high bar to clear for a first year quarterback to come in. And like I said, just on passes of 10 plus air yards last year, Darnold was sixth in total EPA added. He was fifth in adjusted yards per attempt on those throws. And

And he was seventh in success rate. So, like, again, just statistically, one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Is McCarthy going to come in and do that right away? I don't necessarily know. But at the same time, I think they can have a good season. And this offense can be very, very good, even if he doesn't. So, I think, yeah, he's obviously the trickiest eval, just because...

Like we haven't seen him play in the NFL yet, where at least we got like three games on Pennix. And I did like McCarthy a lot as a prospect. Like I think he was probably of these guys, probably number four for me, tear down from the top three to everybody else. But I think he'd probably have been my fourth guy. Yeah, I'm generally like I think you could drop almost anybody in this offense and they'd get some production. And I think McCarthy can ultimately be more than that in time.

Yeah, I know. I think that's a, that's a great point. It's like just bringing up like the Falcons run game. It's like, it's probably not going to be as good as this, even if there's other better parts. It's like, it just, it's hard to recreate that, especially just the circumstance and everything. Charles, what about you with JJ McCarthy? What have you seen so far? How can I just feel about it?

I don't know. I just, I am just having a personal struggle with myself because I don't want to say no excuses for a guy who's never started an NFL game. But look at this offense, man. Like, look at it. And we know, we already know so many pieces of this offense are certified good. We know the coach is good. We know the receivers are good. We know when healthy, the tackles are good. We know when healthy, the interior offensive line should be good too. So,

I, I, I, if everything stays up and like they're, and they suck on offense this year, that would be a pretty red, like pretty huge red flag. But I also want to give him like the grace of coming off of an injury and not playing all of last season. And we only saw, well, there was only one preseason game, right? Before, before he got hurt. One, I,

It was one against the other Raiders. It was pretty good, though. It was pretty good. No, it was. It was good. Right. One bad play. One bad third down pick, I believe. And other than that, it was all pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. But it's still like... And then he got hurt and we haven't seen him play since. So I don't know what to expect of him, but it will be kind of disappointing if he wasn't able to really hit, like start on the right foot with this supporting cast and the amount of talent that they have. So like on an optimism scale, I think...

I think I still got to go seven or eight just because KOC, KOC is here. They invested in the O-line. You got three new interior players, one that can kick out the tackle in case that you have problems there again with injuries. I don't know. Get it done. Just do it. You got to be great. It's time. They got to compete. Look, they're ready to go now. You know, they are. The moves they're making. I mean, you don't get so aggressive in drafts unless you're pushing, you know,

you know, like it just, it doesn't work that way because it just contracts. Uh, but no, I,

I said this the other day when we were talking about the new offensive line and everything. It's like, I actually think this is one of the best ecosystems for a first year starting quarterback that I can think of. Probably comparable to Mahomes with his first year starting. Obviously, you know, Kelsey and Tyreek, the line was pretty good too. Justin Herbert, his first year starting had a pretty good circumstances. Got to remember the chargers only had that high pick because of injuries the previous year. They still had a pretty good roster there. But like,

This is good. Like, and so that's the thing is like, he doesn't have to rock the world. We don't need a true, Oh my God, I've never seen this super Nova type of rookie season. It's just competency. And that's all. Honestly, if he is just a competent quarterback up to a level of like,

one of those cousins years when he was in Minnesota, that is already a win. Anything more than that is a cherry on top. Like I honestly truly think that just with the control of the contract where they're at this day and age. Um, but he can create, he's a good athlete that he's a very loose athlete.

And I think that that's why I had some optimism for him as a prospect. He was my QB for as well. I had, I had Drake May, Caleb Williams, and then like a half gap Jaden, and then like a full gap. And then it was JJ, but I understood I would take him in the first, I thought I'd be more comfortable in the twenties. Um, but that's just how this goes. You know, uh, a comparison I had for him was rich Gannon when he came, uh, when I, as I remember him as a pro.

who's a skinnier quarterback, could run, could throw well on the move, was accurate, elastic athlete, loose athlete. You know, maybe nothing was overwhelming to his game. Rich Gannon was all, I'm picturing him with the Raiders, not his early Minnesota days, Delaware or anything, but was another guy that actually looks a lot like J.J. McCarthy in how they play.

But I like the tools. He's aggressive. He's good pocket movement. Doesn't take sacks. Throws the ball in the middle. He'll be aggressive and really trying to push the ball. A lot of that's in structure. You know, like he can operate that offense. I thought some of the

uh pre-snap stuff he showed at michigan was good that's probably why these coaches i i know coaches loved him in interviews and i'm sure because of that offensive system put him so much in michigan so i think a lot of that stuff will be pleasant like pleasantly i won't say surprising but like a pleasant quality of his game some of the more polish that he has even if he's a first year guy first year starter and younger and all that so my like optimism i guess is like

Like a six, you know, like a six or seven, just because I think the ecosystem is so good. And I liked him. Like, I do think he has a lot of qualities. I didn't think he was a true, true blue chip quarterback prospect, but there's a lot of good with this game. And I just think KOC will make it work. The one negative I had with them or a big one I noticed was.

This is just more of a mechanical thing was when he would push the ball outside, outside the numbers, his accuracy would kind of wave. And that was because he would just get really elongated. That's more like me, former QB, QB coach going like, oh, I've really worked with him. I think KOC can see these things and fix them up too. And I think he's a good athlete and young. He can fix these things. But that was like one little mechanical thing. But Matt, where was your optimism level with McCarthy's first year starting?

Yeah, I'll say six and a half here. And I really just in kind of in contrast to what we talked about with the Falcons, you guys mentioned it too. I like that they...

invested both in mainstay things on the offensive ecosystem, like the three guys in the interior offensive line, but even added like Jordan Mason at running back, you know, who I think can give them something more as like a power based runner. He was really good on gap runs for the Niners last year. And even Ty Felton in the third round at the time, I was like, Oh, that's kind of a weird pick. But I mentioned all those really good stats for Darnold as a downfield passer. It felt like at times like, man, they could use a couple more guys.

like layups and i think ty felton his best stuff as a separator is underneath and what he does with the ball in his hands so um yeah i think like that again just kind of in contra nothing that like oh man i think ty felt like he's not gonna damn i have a thousand yards or anything and jordan mason might be in a timeshare but like these are just the little tiny things that you do to consistently invest in your offense to make it better on the fringes

Great point. Because like you said, if Darnold, yeah, you're not going to reach those Darnold highs in some of the areas, but make everything else better. The offensive line is automatically better, which will make the run game better, which makes some of those negatives that happened last year a little bit better. So that's great.

great great point all right getting to the final first round selection from last first round quarterback selection from last year's draft the guy that started the entire season had some real lows to start the year really battled back the second half of the year in champaign system that is bo nicks denver broncos quarterback i don't think i've ever talked about him on this show so i know you know i think this is the first time we're ever going to discuss about bo nicks and the broncos no but charles i'll start with you

Bo Nix, Broncos, 2025. How do you feel about Bo Nix right now as a starting quarterback?

Um, he's fine. I think for what his role in the offense eventually became, I thought, you know, it was better than the start of the season by the end because as a start, I wasn't sure he was going to make it to the end of the season. When, you know, they're coming out against Seattle and throwing for like three yards in an attempt. And there were a few games like that. It looked a little shaky, but I think they found a role tremendously.

for him to be productive within the offense by the end of the season. You know, keep him on the move. A lot of screens, like the one game that comes to mind, sadly, is the game they played against the Falcons where they just kind of peppered him to death, peppered him to death on screens. Yeah. No one could tackle. And by the end of the game, we got 300 yards, three touchdowns, you know, and that's that. I think the best part of both games is probably like

I guess when they're on scripts, I'm trying not to make him sound like a little guppy man, you know, guppy quarterback that can't do much on his own. But it did kind of seem like towards the end of the season, Sean Payton realized, you know, we got to realist him a little bit because when he was just trying to do the standard quarterback stuff, it didn't go well. But when they pulled it in and were like, all right, screens and play action, so the more your game, they got a little more productive. So I don't know what that says about Bo really himself, but...

I like the surrounding pieces they have for him. Anytime you have Sean Payton, I thought he showed that he still has got his use last year as far as being an NFL play caller. You're going to probably be able to be pretty productive. I think Bo needs to get better at just, I guess, throwing down the field and being a little bit more accurate when it's not going to be dressed up and clean for you. And that's something that I still think has a long ways to go for his game.

Yeah. No, I think that's too. I think that's what Sean Payton, that coaching staff, that's such a good job for the record. Okay. We tried, we tried to maybe give you now full cheesecake factory menu, but you know, but like maybe we'll limit us down to like a fast food menu, maybe like maybe in and out level, you know, just keep it nice and simple. Just like eight items on here and we'll just go from there. Nice and cheap and everything. So I think that was a good coaching, but also understanding what your players are and everything. Matt, what about you? Uh,

I was thinking about the 27 year old rookie receiver that the Broncos had last year. But what about with Bo Nix, though? How do you feel about him? Optimism with him or just what you see, what you maybe want to see out of him this year? Yeah, I think what I want to see from him is maybe like a little bit more consistency and kind of like in the draft.

I don't want to say intermediate area of the field because he's an interesting player when you look at him. We've talked about this a lot. The screen game is really good in this offense, and I think he was really good about getting the ball out and just

not effing it up on those screenplays which is you know it's kind of like the bare minimum but it's like before i get into this sort of my new show and i'll just say like the the kind of state of the state the state of the union for bonix like i think he verifiably clears the bar of like all right this guy can be our starting quarterback and like we can go to work with this guy like i'm not concerned i'm not concerned about him like being a oh he's sneaky bad or yeah like he's a bust or anything like no that's that's nonsense i think he i think he verifiably clears the bar to like

like that quarterback wilderness thing. Like if they don't have anybody that kind of qualifies here, I guess Sutton kind of has a time to screw. Like, I think he's out of the quarterback wilderness with bone Knicks. That's good enough. So with that being said, like, I think when you kind of parse some of the stats out with him, like,

this is the best way to describe Bo Nix is again on 10 plus air yard throws. Like he's 17th in adjusted yards per attempt, but he's 27th in success rate, which that's not the worst thing in the world, but I think it kind of speaks to who he is. Like he's a little bit boom bust again. That's not the worst thing in the world. Like Jordan love is kind of the same way where the success rate is low, but like he's ninth in adjusted yards per attempt. So, I mean, it's, it's a little bit, obviously a better version of that, but yeah,

Same thing with Jordan Love, where I'd like to see him even out a little bit as a player. And I think with Bo Nix, that's what... In his second season, surrounded by much better players now. I mean, they've added some of the additions there. I kind of really like the more I've thought about Pat Bryant in this offense, the more I think it makes sense.

You have an Ingram addition as a move around guy. RJ Harvey is a running back like they got a little more juice there than they did. Even Marvin Mims like a times last season was really fun for them. So I think they've got enough guys to do like what Sean Payton wants to do. And I think Bo Nix can be good enough to do that as well. So I'm I'm pretty, pretty comfortable with him going into second season.

Yeah. The one good thing with him that carried over from college is he doesn't take sacks. He gets in. That's part of his play style. He's willing to check that ball down very quickly. It's going to be a touchdown to check down kind of operating system, which works with a Sean Payton offense. But man, he's a really good athlete.

I mean, really, really good athlete. And I think he's a good scrambler as well. But he had a 4.1% sack rate last year, which ranked fourth among all quarterbacks. It's the second best sack rate among 28 qualifying rookie quarterbacks in 2012. So it is something up there. It's something, again, to hang your hat on.

They had a 13.4 pressure to sacrate. Broncos offensive line is great. And the offensive line system or in the system that they have in the coaching and what they call scheme wise helps it out a lot too and helps Knicks out a lot too. You know, a lot of extra tight ends in their running backs in there to hang in protection. You know, you get extra bodies in there.

But that's how he was in college too. Because one of my things evaluating him was like, oh yeah, he's got a really good arm. He just doesn't always use it. Like, cause he was throwing so much check downs and screens and everything. And this year we got to see the arm unleashed and it could be all over the place. Sometimes it was great. Sometimes you have the Browns game, the third down where he hits the guy down the pipe or the bills, the opening drive against the bills and the playoffs. Again, what you were talking about though, Charles scripted plays and everything.

Good. He has a good understanding. And that's going to kind of lead to my negative with him or really what I want to see. A lot of screens. We already mentioned that. Sean Payne's always going to call a lot of screens. So that's the thing is like that's never going to really go away. That's part of the offense. And especially with the running back they took in the second round. Yeah, there's going to be even more screens. But the thing that I noticed the most was how many throws happen outside the pocket and not just bootlegs or play action.

But on third down and second and longs, which are considered passing downs, they would do what I call extended sprint outs, block the big sprint outs, which is three-man routes. He catches the ball.

then he leaves the pocket and then they seal the edge and really essentially turns the reads into a bootleg read. You got a high, you got an over route and you got an under route. And they would do that a lot on third down. And I've seen offenses do that. Coaches do that as a changeup. Hey, we're playing a heavy blitzing team. This is just a way to make it easier on everybody. They would do it like every game and it would just be like every third and seven, third, nine. Okay. There's another extended sprint out. 25% of his throws were from outside the pocket last year, which led the NFL. Uh,

I want to see that number come down. I wanted to see his straight drop back. I have to read one, two, three, four.

He's shown a couple times he can do it, but that was not their strength of their game. That was not their fastball of their offense. So I just want to see that, the true drop back, the true dissecting the defense, truly finding the correct read consistently. When it was scripted plays, that first third down of the game, great. But middle of the second quarter, second half of the games, it becomes so scattershot. I mean, I watched that Chargers game from the last month of the season, and

I could count on one hand how many true dropbacks there were. And I would say maybe three fingers how many true dropbacks there were. Screen, screen, screen, play action, play action, play action, heavy shot play, extend sprint outs, da, da, da, da. So those launch throws are good. The

He can throw on the move. I just want to see a little bit more of the traditional dropback stuff. He finished 19th in dropback success rate last year, which is solid. 17th among rookies since 2012, so right in the middle of the pack. The quarterbacks around him were Mariota, Wentz, Minshew, and Darnold. Burrow was a little bit higher than that, but kind of the same little area. Running backs weren't great. They had like one and a half pass catchers. I'll count Mims as one as a pass catcher. Should improve this year, but I do think

Yeah, athleticism and understanding what Peyton wants on some of these plays is going to give him a nice baseline. I think that he can keep you in some games, but I do want to see more of that real quarterback stuff. I'm going to be pretty optimistic about it because Sean Peyton's not going anywhere and the offensive line's not going anywhere. So, again, I'm going to say it's a seven here. I want to see a little more of the traditional dropback stuff. But, Charles, what about you? I'll go six or seven.

Matt? Yeah, seven for me too. I do think, to your point, he could be one of these guys that four years from now we're having these little debates about, yeah, but what does he look like outside of Sean Payton's office? Well, guess what? Right.

unless Sean Payton decides he wants to retire again. You retire again. Something about New Orleans. People just retire and then they eventually come back. He wrote to do that again. Like he's not going to go anywhere. He's going to only ever probably play for Sean Payton as long as things go well there. So I think I'm yeah, a seven is fine with me. All right. We are going to take our last break and we'll come back with our Olympic. I don't know. Dream five. First five guys we'd start the team with. We'll go with that. See you guys in a sec.

All right. We are back. NFL owners this week pass a resolution 32 to 0. 32 to 0. Not even the Raiders abstain from this vote, which used to be kind of their shtick. On Tuesday at the Spring League meetings, actually in Minneapolis, that they'll allow players, NFL players, to try out and participate in the flag football event.

during the 2028 Summer Olympics in L.A. Should be fun. I'm actually kind of surprised that they did it, but it did seem like a little there's a lot of swell happening for this. So I'm actually not as surprised as maybe if you asked me a year ago. The rules are it's 10 player team limits, five on five. A maximum of one player from each NFL team will be allowed to participate. And each club's designated international player is also permitted to take part

for their country. We're going to give five players. I know we said 10. I know it's five on five offense, defense, yada, yada. We're just going to get five picks that we'll start our dream teams with who we think that we would start definitively this team in 2028, the football dream team. We got to get a better name than dream team, though. We got to get our own little thing. So we got time to marinate on that. Matt, I'll start with you because I know you've been working long and hard on this list. Yep. I was popping on the tape, like just trying to

imagine there's no tackling and just, you know, flag called around the sources. I've been doing a lot of work on this. Um, number one, uh, I actually, I, yeah, I'll just go one to five. Uh, number one, I had Bijan Robinson. Um, number two, I had Malik neighbors. Uh, number three, I had Jameer Gibbs. Number four, I had Garrett Wilson and number five. I, I wanted to go Bucky Irving, but I thought that was too chalk. So I wanted to go, I want to go with one hipster pick. And I actually just talked about him. I'll go Marvin Mims here.

who's one of the best kick returners in the league. Pure speed. He's one of the best kick returners in the league. Pure speed. Pure speed. That's awesome. Yeah, and it was like, hey, you know what? Marvin Mims couldn't run routes as a rookie, but they made him work when they just flared him out of the backfield. So again, yeah, I mean, a lot of guys, obviously two great running backs. I also kind of wanted to go young. I don't know if this was galaxy brain, but I was like, oh, this is the 2028 Olympics. Like, hey, these guys can't be about to retire, you know?

So we need him ready to go in a couple of seasons here, a few seasons here. But yeah, I mean, all good like after catch receivers too. And then again, like a fake receiver in Marvin Mims. No, I like that. Yeah, run back second catch. Yeah, a lot of guys then space are going to make

Three guys miss. I understand the line of thinking here. You just, you appear speed. I love that. That's so awesome. Charles, what about you? I went with Lamar Jackson. Well, I don't know if this is one to five. This is just my five. I got Lamar Jackson, Jameer Gibbs,

Justin Jefferson, Brian Thomas Jr., and Jameson Williams. So I did go... I want to say I was influenced by watching our friends Stephen Ruiz and Seth Galina argue about this for about the past 24 hours about what a good flag football team would be. Not we. I don't want to say we. They came up with the idea. We were not part of it. We were just observed. Just around it. Yes. Yeah.

they came up with the idea of a speed. I think it makes a whole lot of sense, but I can't let go of the idea that I want a joystick. Okay. We're going, we're NFL players going against guys from like, like,

Like from France or Spain. Come on, let's get Jameer Gibbs in the open space and make someone look absolutely stupid. Yes, exactly. Yeah, I already know we can run past everyone. These are NFL players. But wouldn't it be funny to see like Lamar Jackson, Jameer Gibbs run a little option stuff in the open field and nobody can touch them?

Yeah. I'm, if they get anything less than gold, when this happens in four years, kick them out the country. Send them to Canada. I was going to say, we need, we might need to disband the entire country. Like I think. Yeah. No, it should be mercy rule every game. If we, if we do this right. Yeah. I, um, Seth, Rob, a great point. Cause he's been around flag. I think a little bit was that, uh,

It's such a narrow field that it's like verticality becomes as much of a strength as just horizontal speed, which I was like, oh, shoot, that's not because my original team would have been somewhere to what Matt had. All right. Yeah. Sort by phone booth, guys. All right. Here we go. We got all this. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. So I think definitive number one, I'm making I'm seeing if this guy can join my team and going from there is Lamar Jackson because it's just as a quarterback, they can't scramble. Yeah.

Yeah. But they have to make the first guy, they have to make that pass rusher miss, you know, like, so you need, so like automatically to me, quarterback already limits. It's like Lamar, Kyler Murray, Jane Daniels, you know, like,

josh allen i guess a little bit but i'm thinking as shifty as possible uh that i want back there um and i went patrick certain the second i want big corners that can possibly moonlight as a receiver if you need it oh my god you're never throwing i mean they're never throwing a pass at him like it's gonna be great justin jefferson just i don't think i need to speak any but justin jefferson seems really enthusiastic about that about this so also i just like feel like he's a lock i want aj brown

because he has the size he has some explosion after the catch he's not gonna break it when you're off but i mean no yeah he will yeah he's gonna form shiver god as i try to go for the flag yeah he's gonna mow them down all right it's a health risk it really aj brown is a health risk i mean like mike evans would be a health risk are you kidding like these guys yeah i know and think of any of the fast tight ends um

And then my hipster pick here, defense. Because honestly, this is what Steven talked about too. He had Kyle Hamilton as his pass rusher. And that actually kind of inspired me. Where I was like, oh yeah, the best pass rusher is a good glitzing DB. So I went Trent McDuffie.

as my fifth guy just as a pass rusher because I just think he's really good at it and the opposing team's quarterbacks can be really quick so don't have to worry about size he just has to stay in the box on it and you can do some coverage ability as well I almost went Jalen Ramsey but that brings up the age stuff you know yeah you know we're talking about 2028 he's gonna be 33 then so but size and everything so that was my five that's fun

That was fun. Better than, better than what I expected. I like the differences that we had. I actually were very surprised. I thought we'd have some chalk, uh, through all the teams, but thank you guys for joining me. We're closing it out today. We'll be back next Wednesday after Memorial day. I am Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate Tice on blue sky. They underscore Tice at Twitter. That's Charles McDonald. You can find them at four verts and that's Matt Harmon. You can find them at either Matt Harmon or Matt Harmon underscore B Y B. Mel.

Mailbag questions. We will get to those. Send those questions to football301mailbag at yahoosports.com or leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe to us. Follow us. Rate us. Watch us on YouTube on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. Thank you to everyone behind the scenes. Thank you to everyone for listening. Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend. See you guys next time. ♪♪♪

you