It is Monday and you know what time it is.
FRPC is on the air and we're talking football and our guys here.
The Canadian bomber, the Canadian shot, the Canadian Bill Simmons.
And for this podcast, the Canadian my Tomlin Nico, me to tell how was your weekend?
Did you watch any March madness?
Did your soon to be wife, Shannon, finish the Hogwarts game?
I need a lot of details because I feel like I haven't caught up to you in about three
or four days.
Yeah, going on here at the house.
What's up?
Oh, I've been doing pretty well lately.
Doing pretty well.
I have had March madness on the TV nonstop over the last few days.
This is my absolute favorite time of the sports calendar.
And yes, yes, Shannon has finished up Hogwarts legacy.
She's running around doing a few final touches on the game, but she's finished the main story
now.
And I have to say that I absolutely love the game as as did she.
It's a wonderful adaptation of the world and it really makes you feel like you're a part
of it.
These are some of the conversations that we have offline.
But I thought that we needed to bring it in the podcast for two reasons.
One, I haven't talked to my guy in a while.
And some of you know, I had a podcast that put out yesterday.
Unfortunately, it is usually on Friday, but we put it out yesterday and it kind of capsulized
what has been going on with me for like the last three or four days and decisions that
are being made.
But we are here Monday.
And speaking of the madness, we have some madness in the NFL that we need to get.
First thing that we need to talk about right now, and it's the elephant in the room literally
and figuratively what do about Jalen Carter and defensive lineman from Georgia in his
off the field situation, his pro day, his enormous talent that cannot be denied.
What's our thoughts on him right now?
What would you do with your big board right now with one Jalen Carter, which I'm a little
sad that his last name is Carter?
Oh, well, I think when you look at the Jalen Carter situation there, there, I feel like
there's some level of less implied malice behind the what happened and the off the field issues.
So I think there are teams that are going to look at it like a maturity issue rather
than a bad guy issue that I'm not trying to judge it for myself.
I don't know the man.
He could be the greatest student in the world who made a mistake or he could be downright
despicable.
But I think that kind of parachutes his draft status a little more than other people we've
seen in similar situations.
I think he's going to fall.
Beforehand, I was fairly convinced he'd be the first non quarterback off the board in
the draft.
But now I'm starting to look a little later in that top 10 for him.
I'm wondering if perhaps when trading back, the Bears targeted that ninth pick as a spot
that they thought they might still be able to get Jalen Carter and also acquire the windfall
of draft assets they had incoming from Carolina.
So currently I say I'm viewing the ninth pick as a bit of a floor for him.
If he fell to 10 in Philadelphia, that would be absolutely insane, too.
But that's around the range.
I'm thinking we're going to be looking at Jalen Carter on draft day.
So Jalen Carter has wowed us with his talent on the field.
So impressive physically.
And there's nothing that you can do with him on the defensive line.
Here's my problem.
Bro, you are entering your job interview and you're coming to the job interview in a disheveled
suit.
If that basically.
And also it doesn't look like you kind of really want the job.
Like stop eating cheeseburgers, bro.
Nine pounds over your weight.
The other deal is that he didn't even finish the proceedings on the pro day.
Not a good look unless he has a promise in the draft.
I don't know that to be true.
I have not checked on it.
I don't know if he just kind of I have a locked in spot.
I don't know Chicago's that team.
I don't know what the Raiders are that team.
These are the type of guys that I start putting little check marks next and I go, this could
go really well and somebody is going to have a steal or we are going to be talking about
this guy two or three years from now and going, what a disappointment he has been.
My question to you is.
It's going to be culture if he flourishes, correct?
It's going to be a facility that has a no nonsense tolerance for his type of behavior
that he is shown over his years in Georgia because if we are thinking that this is the
only incident, let me kind of run down some of the things I have heard.
One late to meetings.
Two late to practice.
Three not showing a bunch of intensity in practice.
Four multiple little skirmishes that have happened away from the team.
I'm not saying he's a bad guy.
I say he's young.
But I'm wondering with all of that being said, Nico, what organization personally would you
want Jaylen Clark to go to to really kind of put his career back on track?
And I swear to God, if you say the Pittsburgh Steelers, we are going to have a problem.
No, no, no.
If you want to talk in terms of maturity, that would actually be playing with Cam Hayward
would be great for him.
However, I hear you got a little bit of madness on the mind there because you did say Jaylen
Clark instead.
Oh my God, I did.
I went card or you did.
Oh my God.
Sorry.
Hey, shout out to my guy who tore his Achilles.
I am a UCLA fan, so therefore a clap all day.
So yeah, Dalyl Carter.
I'm sorry.
I'm Paul.
Yeah, no, it's all good.
J. J. Lynn Carter.
I haven't heard, obviously, as much of this stuff as you have on missing meetings and
stuff.
I've heard some people talk positively about him on that side here and there.
But that being said, everyone wants to talk positively about their prospects at this time
of year.
I personally had dismissed the nine pounds overweight at the pro day a little more and
being unable to finish the drills because of the legal situation that had came up at
the same time.
And the fact that he he'd actually been summoned to court and he'd been going through a lot
of this that involved the death of his friend, even though the way Carter handled the situation
was awful running away.
Everything happened still.
Can we give that a little background so everybody knows what we're talking about?
OK, yeah, yeah.
The situation that Jalen Carter got an arrest warrant issued for earlier this month was
he was involved in a drag racing situation with another player on the team and also a
member of the team staff.
Something happened.
The other member of this team staff ended up crashing and ultimately passing away.
And Jalen Carter left the scene of the crime.
He didn't.
We no one knew until long after this is just now becoming public information.
And all of this broke in the days leading up to his pro day.
So I kind of had written that stuff off as someone dealing with serious mental trauma
at the time, more so than the character issues of not wanting to to try hard.
Because like as much as you talk about him off the field and not necessarily you, but
I just as much as you can talk about Jalen Carter off the field and problems he might
have in the locker room, when you watch him play, he looks like one of the hardest workers
on the field.
Even if he's like the run is to the opposite side, he's still working his ass off to make
it through the block and just get himself into the head of that offensive lineman.
So I feel like if you get him in the right situation with the right guy, maybe the Eagles
alongside a guy like Fletcher Cox at 10 would be that perfect situation for him.
And he'd also be next to a guy in Jordan Davis, who people say great things about off the
field as well, and also went to Georgia.
So there's familiarity there as well.
I think if you're looking at it just as far as the best situation for him as a young man
is concerned, I would say it's probably Philadelphia.
I have a couple of things to say one, if you think you can get over on talent alone, you
are wrong.
He will have to work harder.
This is a fact.
And I need you to take this a little bit more seriously, Mr. Carter.
Basically, I need you to take your, your now vocation because you're out of school now.
You are a professional athlete.
Take your job seriously.
Now the one team I do not want him to go to and there were rumors and what have you.
And I want to talk this out a little bit.
The Las Vegas Raiders are sitting at seven.
Okay.
Now would he fit that defense?
100%.
Would he be the A typical Raider?
Turns out to my guy, Jeff Levine, who is a Raider fan, he would be a phenomenal Raider
because of all the stuff.
Letting a young man with millions of dollars he has never seen before in Vegas does not
seem like that would be a good idea.
He will reference Henry rugs as a template for that situation.
Also another guy who relied on his talent.
Another guy who didn't like to practice.
Another guy who had maybe some issues with his temper at the University of Alabama.
I don't want him anywhere near Las Vegas at all.
I just don't think it's the type of place for him, not just organizationally wise, but
the city, just not the right for that city.
I'm sorry.
So yeah, I like Philadelphia, the team that I'm really interested in.
And I want to get your thoughts because he hasn't done it in a while.
And the last time he did do it, it was for Georgia player.
Get your thoughts on the hoodie getting real froggy and trying to move up to get Jalen
Clark or Jalen.
Oh my God, Jalen Carter.
It's that time of year madness.
I'm telling you.
I would, I would like it just in terms of player and fit.
I'm not so sure it lines up perfectly on the, as far as team needs are concerned.
I think they could use a few other guys, maybe even another receiver, despite the addition
of Juju Smith this year.
Don't reach for any of these guys.
I don't think you necessarily have to reach.
I think people, if they, if they sit where they are, there's going to be some solid players
falling into their lap.
Just just for me, if I'm at 14, I'm the GM, I'm making this call.
There's not one wide receiver I'm drafting.
Oh, I would.
14.
I would.
If you're talking like 18, 18 now I'll draft.
I would very easily take Zay Flowers at 14 and he is the exact type of guy who I think
would fit perfectly into that New England system.
He is an incredibly hard worker, great route runner and a guy who, when I turn on the film,
obviously I'm not trying to say he's going to be this player and he doesn't have the
strength that this guy has, but he reminds me a lot of Antonio Brown.
He moves in the same way and beats people in the same way and does have levels of strength.
It's just not a B level where you can throw a defensive back on his ass with one arm.
I think that's the, in my opinion, the best receiver in this draft and I think it's an
almost picture perfect fit for this team in New England, especially considering.
We got good, we got good news.
Hold on.
Hold the presses.
Stop the presses right now.
Okay.
Zay Flowers out of Boston college is the number one wide receiver on your draft board.
Oh yes.
Yes sir.
Yes.
Okay.
So let's, let's go here.
Yeah.
Okay.
We buried the lead.
This is why pre-production is very important folks.
This is why it's very important.
Yes sir.
Zay Flowers is a five foot nine, maybe five foot 10, what?
180 at most.
Combined weights, but he came in a bigger, a little bit bigger than was expected.
Now Zay Flowers is a, is a monster route runner.
He is very skilled and he gets in and out of his breaks.
So it's, it's, it's not even.
It's funny, but we've been hearing the gentleman out of TCU, Quinn Johnson.
We've been hearing Addison out of USC.
A lot of people like in Jigba from Ohio state, but people are really up and down.
It fluctuates with him.
They love him because the two Ohio state dudes that were there last year said he he's better
than.
He was better than both of them up until this year.
He, he was like, if you look at where Garrett Wilson was as a sophomore versus where JSN
was as a sophomore, it leaps and bounds.
JSN was the better player.
He was banged up a lot this year and he lost his job to the best college receiver I think
I've ever seen in Marvin Harrison Jr.
But he, he's still an incredibly talented player.
I have questions with him on the top end speed.
I don't think he can quite get there and he moving as more into more of a slot guy type
situation.
I I'm just not sure a guy who can only really be your slot full time is a guy I want to
invest highly in.
So you believe that Zay Flowers has the potential to be like a number one.
I it's it's obviously hard to be your prototypical number one as a five nine slight receiver,
but we're seeing more and more of it.
Look at the receivers in Miami in Tyree, Kale and Jalen Waddle.
He's not quite that fast for four to speed and he came in a little hair over five nine.
But I, I think he can be almost that level of impact player.
I think he's an incredible receiver.
Now you know what this leads to, right?
Nico for you more work, more work for you, Nico, because people are going to want to
see like your top ten on your position boards.
I know that the I will come up with it.
We'll clamor for that.
I know the people will clamor for that.
Yeah, we'll we'll get that out sometime early, early April, I think something like that.
Maybe the end of March.
I want to move on and I want to talk about the Aaron Rodgers to the Jets and the hold
up in a possible.
Fix to this hold up.
So what's your first thoughts on Aaron Rodgers, the compensation and why do you think this
is taking this amount of time?
We when we last talked about this, we weren't sure necessarily what the hold up was and
we kicked around the idea of the compensation being part of the problem.
But over this last week with Aaron Rodgers coming out, I've made my saying explicitly
I've made my intentions clear and it's to play for the New York Jets.
I think that's what the hold up is.
The fact that Aaron Rodgers has came and said I want to play and I want to play for only
this team has made the Jets say to the Packers, no, we're not giving you a first round pick.
It's kind of similar to the situation a few years ago when Gronkowski came out of retirement
and said I'm playing, but I'm only playing for Tampa Bay.
So the Packers obviously are hesitant to move off a guy like Rodgers without receiving a
first round pick in return and the Jets don't want to give away everything that they've
built up.
I think I've heard this idea kind of kicked around and honestly, I think eventually the
landing spot is going to be something like this.
A second round pick this year and then a second round pick next year that maybe has an option
to become a first rounder depending on how far the Jets make it in the playoffs.
Hypothetically, let's say if they make it to the AFC Championship game, it becomes a
first round pick.
Something like that I think is where we're going to land eventually, but the fact that
we haven't landed there yet shows that either the Packers are pushing strongly for more.
There's been rumors that have been disputed, but rumors that they're demanding Garrett
Wilson in the deal.
So if anything like that is going on, we might be sitting here for another two months.
But what I think and hope is going to happen is probably a construction more like what
we were originally talking.
I have a thought.
This is where I become we don't transfer some of this energy a little bit because I'm going
to be a little bit more like Bill Simmons.
What about option B staffer to the Jets?
I think that's what the Jets maybe I'm not 100% sure it is necessarily Stafford, but
be it Stafford, be it cousins, be it someone else along that line.
I think that's why the Jets are holding strong right now with their unwillingness to move
more and saying we'll just go in another direction.
However, as we both know and acknowledge, getting Stafford and getting Aaron Rodgers
are not the same thing for this organization.
Rodgers would shoot them into an entirely new world and they've built the Rodgers offense
already.
They've got his receiver, they've got his offensive coordinator.
They're probably working on acquiring Randall Cobb right now.
This is the Aaron Rodgers system.
As much as the Jets are currently trying to play this position like they could go multiple
ways, they've backed themselves into a corner as well.
Well, here's what I'll say about this particular situation.
When you go to the Rolls Royce or exotic car dealership, you don't mess around with the
price tag Woody Johnson.
You just buy the item and be done with it.
Now listen, I'm not saying give up five first round picks or what it would seem to be as
a super haul for somebody 39 years of age, but he is a former MVP quarterback and we're
talking about within the last couple of years, go ahead and give up the first round drought
compensation.
You're not going to pick anybody better than him in the draft.
You know, so definitely not.
Go ahead and get this deal done so that all of us can sleep better because I know that
emergency pot is going to be hectic with the schedule that I currently have and what Nico
currently has.
Well, I think the argument to the contrary of that is if you're making the move to go
all in for Rogers, you are putting yourself in a very short window.
There can be arguments over whether it's two years, three years.
I've even heard some people argue it's one year that he was looking at retiring this
off season.
Maybe he'll retire next off season.
So if you're moving all of that for this very brief window, you kind of don't want to give
up your other assets because you're going to need to add more to this squad around Aaron
Rogers.
This is a great defense last year.
The offensive line was incredibly injured throughout the season.
If Mackay Beckton has proven an inability to stay healthy at this point, which he has.
So you kind of need to make sure everything is fortified to the level that it can get
you a Super Bowl because that's what you're basically going all in for at this point.
So I understand the hesitancy on the jet side a little more for that reason.
There's a fix to this that everybody seems to not have come up with.
If you are so worried about whether Rogers is going to be like a one year rental because
he's going to go into his dark room at the end of the year and contemplate his mortality
when it comes to NFL football, then just take the pit and move it back one year, just move
it back to the to 24.
Get your office alignment or whatever else that you have decided that you need as a quintessential
piece to finish this team that looks like it would if everything goes the way it should.
This team should compete for the AFC East.
If everything goes right.
Don't push the pick back a year instead of 2023, make it a 2024.
And deal with it then if that's what you're trying to do, because I don't think that Green
Bay lets them go without a first round pick.
I just I don't see that.
Yeah.
And but I think that's what the conversation already is.
As far as everything I've heard has not really involved this year's pick.
It's been mostly around next year's.
And I think more so they're worried about that maybe for future trades rather than the
person they're going to select.
What I thought you were going to say, and now I'm kind of kicking this idea around in
my head a little bit more is what if the conditions on the first round pick for next year had
to do with whether or not Rogers retires?
Bingo.
I think that might be the final thing to push us over the edge.
And if anything's going to guarantee you safety, it would be that.
This seems like a no brainer that they could work these type of verbiage into the contract.
And I am shocked that the owner or someone who was it?
Scott Douglas goes to Green Bay.
Let's not talk to good because who's the president now?
Who's president up there?
Oh, I like Mike Thompson is somebody else's Murphy, right?
I'll get you with the name.
Go to Green Bay and go ahead and handle this and get this worked out.
Stop wasting time and posturing.
I understand that you don't want to get fleeced.
That's very important.
Mark Murphy.
Murphy.
Yeah.
So Murphy and just sit down, have a conversation and get this done.
Do not deal with Brian Gooden Kuss whatsoever.
Because Gooden Kuss is hate trading right now.
That's what he's doing.
He's hate trading Aaron Rodgers.
Because one, he understands that Jordan Love is now his quarterback.
One, he just doesn't like Rodgers.
He doesn't like him.
He's going to try to get back as much as possible.
I'm going to try to hurt Aaron Rodgers as much as I possibly can.
To help him not be able to get to the Super Bowl, because that's the one thing that Brian
Gooden Kuss cannot have is that dude goes to New York and wins the Super Bowl.
Because you know what that means?
He Aaron Rodgers was right.
And Gooden Kuss cannot have that.
Cannot.
So that's my question.
If for some reason this falls apart.
Now like you said, you already made the statement.
This team is set up for Aaron Rodgers.
This would turn into being the same situation that Denver had last year.
Basically, yeah.
Because Denver believed in its heart that it had Aaron Rodgers.
By the way, my high friends, I know this probably is like the first time you're hearing this.
Maybe you heard some whispers or whatever, but there were long talks.
Went down the road with Aaron Rodgers.
Why do you think Hackett got the job?
Yeah.
I think that's been that's been kind of kicked around and reported at this point that they
were zeroed in on Rodgers and ended up pivoting to Russ.
And that was a monumental mistake because that team was set up for Rodgers and this
team is set up for Rodgers.
And listen, I'm not trying to trade Stafford.
I love Stafford.
He got us a Super Bowl, which I will always be grateful for because having luck, having
the ramp in Los Angeles is a dream come true after them leaving, going to St. Louis.
But a fifty seven million dollar contract.
Shoulder and neck issues.
And you know, this is the time to pivot if you can, because on the horizon is next year.
Yeah.
And next year.
It's all about Caleb Williams.
Next year is all about for the NFL.
Caleb Williams, Derek May, the quarterback crew that is coming out next year.
If we if you guys think you like this class, wait till next year because that class is
better and it's better at the top end.
And I think it has actually has more depth than this year's class.
I think this year's class is fairly deep.
I like the depth overall.
That's because you like Anthony Richardson.
Well, even like in Canada, when I start to think of depth, I think of like guys who are
going to go outside the first round and like the the Hendon Hookers and Tanner McKees of
the world.
I think there's a few guys.
I'm Malik Cunningham.
There's a few guys later in the draft this year who are going to start games in the NFL
at some point in their career.
And that's just not normally a thing that happens just as long as not DTR.
Yeah.
Long as he doesn't start an NFL, we're good unless he's a running back or wide receiver.
No, I think DTR is going to have a decently long career as a guy who comes on your practice
squad to emulate Lamar Jackson the next week or whatever kind of quarterback you're going
to be going up against.
I think that's kind of like the floor for him, but he could work his way into being
like a package backup of QB three.
Yeah, decision making will have to get a lot better for that to happen in the NFL.
I watched him for a long period of time.
One of the reasons why I keep my hair short is because I don't want to have to pull it
out.
Yeah.
Well, I don't think you're going to really put him in positions where he's going to have
to make any decisions inside the RPO unless he takes a monumental leap that we can't see
coming.
And speaking of uber athletic quarterbacks, the Lamar Jackson drama continues.
This is as soap opera as all my children.
What is it?
What's the other one as a was it?
They live.
What about in the beautiful?
Whatever you want to call this.
We're starting to hear teams, thoughts on the teams that have kind of peeked his head
out of the doorway and said, we might be in.
Oh man.
I we've already talked about hoodie in this podcast, but I'm just begging that he's not
the guy who ends up making the move.
That is the thing I stand most terrified of.
And to be honest with this team, they're putting together clearly prioritizing run after catch
players in juju, Mike, a sec.
It kind of lines up nicely for someone like Lamar Jackson.
So I feel like they might be in the conversations right now.
And as I've said, since I first kicked around this idea a couple of months ago, that's the
thing that terrifies me the most in my heart.
The hoodie with Lamar Jackson.
The only thing that will be greater for me personally, and it has nothing to do with
my team per se, but it just has to do with the aesthetics.
Could you imagine Lamar Jackson on Crenshaw Boulevard?
Could you imagine Lamar Jackson on Martin Luther King Boulevard or Manchester?
Could you imagine my boy rolling through Hoover?
Could you imagine my guy running, rolling through south of Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles
getting Tommy burgers, getting your fat burgers, getting so, you know, getting so getting all
that going on, being straight hood.
Oh man, I, I would love to see Lamar in LA just for the spectacle of it all.
Back in the day, I used to, when we were still not sure what team was going to move to LA,
I used to always kick around that the Panthers would be the best team to move to LA because
Cam Newton would have been such a star and Ron Rivera connecting with the Hispanic community
would have been an absolute home run for the situation.
Lamar Jackson, I think he captures some of that same energy.
I always have thought that the big reason there hasn't been the stronghold of football
in LA is because you haven't really had that dynamic guy to just take over the city in
the way someone like Kobe did or Magic back in the day.
And if you had a player like Lamar Jackson on the Rams, he could absolutely do that.
And we know what the mantra is by less need.
What is the mantra about picks when it comes to less need?
I don't curse on this podcast usually.
So I give it to my boy.
Do not fucking matter one bit.
That's right.
After picks pretty much, we don't care.
Lamar Jackson in Los Angeles, by the way, we got a ton of soul food places that he can
grow up on, you know, I'm saying we can get them at the first any church, you know, I'm
saying we can get them up.
We can get him right up at the front with all the stars, magic, everybody.
Yeah.
All the Vika a Fox.
He can be sitting right next to Vicka a Fox in first any church if he like.
We can make that happen for him.
No problem whatsoever.
And there is nobody in this world at this present time that I would want as a quarterback
in Inglewood, California.
The only reason I say it like that is if you grow, if you grew up here, you understand
what Inglewood really is.
There is nobody who fits Inglewood more at this present time than Lamar Jackson.
We lost our guy, Jaylen Ramsey, because that was our street cred guy.
Lamar Jackson would take that mantle and then bring it to new heights because that's my
dude.
I want him to stay 100 percent authentic the way he is.
And I'm looking forward to seeing who actually is going to go out and make that leap for
him.
Now, we we tease about the Inglewood and Los Angeles and whatever.
And we talked about New England.
Now, my question to you is, is that we talked about this the last time I believe that you
are on the pod.
We have like six, seven quarterbacks.
If that is difference makers in the NFL, we have 32 teams that leaves us with 26 to 20
player teams who have quarterbacks, but obviously are not Lamar Jackson.
I understand that you have to build the fit around him.
Is it that hard?
Is it really that hard?
Like if you I don't know.
I mean, obviously the.
The San Francisco offense might not be what he needs, but is it really hard to build around
him if you have a good offensive line?
I I don't think so.
And he could work great in San Francisco even.
I.
I think the Ravens thought it was very hard to build around Lamar Jackson.
And I think early in his career, that was true.
But we've seen him develop as a thrower of the football.
And now he can actually do that, let him do that.
Like that, I think a West Coast system where he has some easy reads, he can maybe throw
to people in similar ways to how he was throwing to Mark Andrews or even a guy like James Proche,
who came close to the line and they had some some chemistry there.
I think he can continue to succeed so long as you just have a check down valve for him
when the things aren't going properly.
And you don't need to run the ball with him as much as Baltimore did.
You can let him be Mike Vick or RG 3 where all the runs are just they happen because
they happen.
And he's going to make big plays on on situations like that.
So I think.
Like multiple teams could make a guy like Lamar Jackson with work.
They just need to be willing to try new things with him that he hasn't necessarily tried
before it maybe work out some of those kicks.
Yeah, I just I'm very confused.
A a talent like this has come on to the market and we are not hearing people like step on
other people to get to him.
Now I understand that is a cat and mouse game that is being played.
You don't want to.
Show your hand, so to speak, and put things out there.
But if you're a team that's pretty much right there.
Why would you not go out and get a quarterback?
And here's the thing.
It's not like you're going out and getting Aaron Rodgers.
Who might be a two year deal.
Three year deal if you're if you're really, really optimistic.
Lamar, I mean, other than injury, catastrophic injury, which will create a guy right now,
we do not want that to happen to Lamar Jackson.
But he's 26, 26 years old.
The only thing that I can think.
That is the hold up is the little dirty secret that only it seems like me is holding on to.
Because I still question the accuracy.
But the problem is, is that the data the last two years is incomplete because Baltimore
hasn't put anything around him.
So now I'm at a point where I can't grade him, can't grade him because he has nothing
really around him except Mark Andrews.
And that's not sufficient enough for a top in quarterback.
To really show what he can do.
So please put something around him and allow him to flourish.
That would be my hope if he stayed in Baltimore, which I do not think will happen whatsoever.
I will go ahead and still say that that.
I do not believe that Lamar will end up in a Baltimore uniform.
If he does, I will come back on this pot and say I was wrong.
And do the meat and cocoa.
But I don't think that's going to be the case.
Yeah, yeah, I definitely agree with that.
And I had a hard time pulling up the stat quickly.
But I'm pretty sure Lamar has been near the league lead over the past five years in dropped
passes as on top of everything else.
So even when the accuracy is working, he just has the players throw it on the ground.
So he can't really build that rhythm.
And we see him in a new offense that's kind of getting him going in the way you treat
normal quarterbacks.
I think it's it'll be different in that category.
Swipping topics.
One real quick thing, because I know you have a Pittsburgh thing that you want to get to.
So I want to go back a little bit, Nico.
Yeah.
I remember maybe maybe about five, six years ago, maybe a little bit longer.
There was a gentleman who was drafted and he was going to get drafted early.
Then a video surfaced.
Yeah.
And my man was higher, not than a kite, but then our our space station.
In outer space.
All right.
The International Space Station.
So now my man just received 50 million dollars guaranteed.
Yes.
And he's doing something really smart.
He's not signing long term contracts.
It's two and three year deals.
And let's get out and get more money.
He is pushing the AAV for offensive linemen to new heights.
I want your thoughts on Larry Mead Tunsel becoming the LeBron James of the NFL.
That that is a decent comparison, actually, obviously not as players, but just in terms
of what LeBron did for contracts for elite players in the league.
I think that's definitely also true for for Laramie.
Her cousins tried to do it, but didn't didn't work too well for him.
He's a very good player, especially when he gets the the penalties under control.
Sometimes he has that problem, but he's one of the best tackles in the sport.
I'm really happy that the Texans kept him because there were a lot of rumors that they
were going to ship him off somewhere else after trading so much to get him in the first
place and you're about to bring in a brand new quarterback and you're trading away your
franchise left tackle.
That didn't make any sense to me.
I think I'm really happy for Laramie Tunsel being in such a good spot after such an awful
thing happened to him on draft day.
It also broke on draft day that he took money to play at Ole Miss, that some person in his
life he pissed off, I guess, and started leaking all the information about him.
I remember hearing that gas mask video that eventually came out was from like four years
before his draft situation.
He was like a 17 year old kid in the video and that it was always awful that that happened
and especially the way the NFL treated the situation with Roger Goodell being like, oh,
that's why the draft's exciting.
So to see Tunsel be making so much money at this point and be in such a power position
in the league, it's something that warms my heart.
I think it was really smart for them to lock him up, especially now.
Especially now.
You're about to go get a quarterback.
You can't be playing around.
You can't be playing around with that.
Lock that dude in for sure.
And I just love the move, how he's doing it.
I thought it was interesting because the only reason we talk about Laramie Tunsel usually
is the draft picks and the compensation that, you know, that Miami got for him.
You know what I'm saying?
And now you're looking at him in a completely different light and there are offensive linemen
who are now in middle school who are going to be looking back at this situation going,
I would like to thank Mr. Tunsel for allowing my family to have generational wealth.
And he was a true pioneer for us.
So I'd like to thank him.
I can't wait for that.
That Larry Matunsel is going to be kind of like the new version of the Underground Railroad
to offensive linemen getting paid.
Very, very exciting.
Yeah, I'm super happy with basically the whole way that situation unfolded.
It seemed like it was going to be something sinister.
And especially considering the Texans organization has some pretty black marks on them recently.
So to see them get something like this right was something that made me happy.
Yeah, they've had a rough go a little bit lately.
You had some information about the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Everybody drink.
Oh, yeah.
My mother, who is wrecking comfortably in the hospital, dealing with all myriad of elements.
So this is going to help her.
What do you got on the Pittsburgh Steelers?
I came into free agency and how it kicked off with the whole Kam Sutton, Patrick Peterson
thing.
Pretty disappointed with the way this new organization was starting to handle things.
The first thing that set off alarm bells in my head is this stat that I didn't immediately
know but I knew in my heart.
During the entire Kevin Colbert era, he never once gave a multi-year deal to outside free
agent over 30 years old.
And the literal first signing Omar Khan made was a multi-year deal to 32-year-old Patrick
Peterson.
And that had me instantly nervous that this organization was going to completely change
the way they were doing business.
But then every move that followed since then, he's been targeting young free agents, 26-year-old
guys, giving a guy like Cole Holcomb, a solid middle linebacker for Washington who's coming
to Pittsburgh, a three-year deal, giving Nate Herbig a three-year deal, who I'm over the
moon about the Herbigs signing, but even going forward bringing in Isaac Simalu, there is
a clear emphasis on this team on getting stronger in the front seven and on defense, also including
Landon Roberts there, and on offense having those maulers on the offensive line, similar
to what they had in Philadelphia.
And I couldn't be happier about that.
That is the exact way I think you need to build a football team is through the trenches.
I was curious to see what role Andy Weidl truly had on the Steelers.
And clearly the influence is huge, because they're going to get his guys, his type of
dudes that haven't necessarily been the Steelers type of dudes historically.
So we're in a spot where I am now incredibly excited about the Omar Khan era, where only
like two weeks ago I was sitting nervously.
And as you're optimistic about the Omar Khan era, I am less optimistic about the less need
era.
Oh, and I'll put it to you this way.
The games is gone.
Yeah, A'Shaun Robinson is leaving right out the door as well.
I will I packed the bags of Taylor route.
That's why you and I haven't talked over the last four or five days.
I packed his bags for him.
I did all the boxes.
I put all the newspaper inside the stemware and everything for him.
I couldn't get Taylor out of town quick enough for me.
But are the defections off the defensive line are alarming to me because there hasn't been
any coming in.
Nothing.
We have literally we have no defense line at this point except for Andon.
And I have no idea what the move is unless you're telling me that we're stripping it
down.
Then if we are stripping it down, we need to get rid of Matthew Stafford.
If we're stripping this down, let's go ahead as aggressive as we were about F2Pix.
We need to be as aggressive as aggressive about re acquiring picks and building this
team.
I don't know what we're doing.
I'm actually in one way, I'm kind of.
I'm OK with it because those guys did not provide the physicality that I would enjoy.
I long for the days of Michael Brokers.
Shout out to my guy.
Really underrated player Michael Brokers.
I love Michael Brokers.
But is this a draft deal?
Is this a because I haven't heard anything why this is the pivot for the Rams.
What's your thoughts on the lack of defensive line, the Exodus and also not acquiring defensive
line via free agency?
What's your thoughts?
I'm really curious if the Exodus has started.
It seems like you're kind of tiptoeing around it at this point and unafraid or sitting a
little afraid to make that Stafford move.
That being said, I'm not sure what situation Stafford would just slide into easily right
now unless that Jets thing changes.
There's a ton of teams that he would slide into because I'm going to tell you right now,
if Tennessee, who I do like the feeling signing, they're definitely they're cutting everyone.
They're bottoming out with all the power in their body.
I think Tennessee, I'm pretty convinced they're in the Caleb Williams lottery next year.
Well, I'll tell you this.
I don't know for certain.
I don't.
And we are not that far away from it, but I'm just I'll just throw this little nugget
out there.
The whispers of trading Aaron Donald during the draft will get larger.
So you know, Aaron Donald is a prime candidate for a draft day trade.
That would be a go ahead and say you heard it from your boy.
And listen, I'm not trying to break news.
This is me reading the tea leaves.
This that's what it is.
It is.
There is no real evidence.
I haven't talked to anybody, but I do believe that as we get closer to this draft, I am
starting to think that Aaron Donald will no longer be a Los Angeles round.
And that will start the rebuild.
That will be the seminal piece that starts it.
That would absolutely start the rebuild if if that's truly happening.
I would love to throw Pittsburgh's hat in the ring.
I you don't want to give me a first round paper.
I don't want to.
I don't want to stay over there in Pittsburgh or Edmonton or whatever that little data.
What is it?
The fast train, the bullet train that goes from Edmonton to Pittsburgh?
Yeah, that one.
That train.
You can stay on that train.
I need.
Ah, me.
I don't want to give my first round pick this year.
I know I might be I might be able to be talking into it.
I don't know.
The more the more I think about it, the more I think of it as a possibility.
But I have a trade partner for you.
OK.
I'm here for it.
We've done a lot of dealings with the Detroit Lions.
People remember the staffer deal, but Michael Brockers also went over to that.
Now it was viral, like free agency or whatever.
But they had that talk before beforehand.
So my thought is a team that is on the rise, a team that is young.
Yeah, they're missing the quarterback.
They're not the only team that's star chasing defensive people.
But they are a candidate.
The other team that I want to deal with, just so you know, and this starts my campaign on
Jerry Jones today.
I told you it was coming.
Yeah, I would like to get that person in a room.
He loves stars.
He loves them.
He loves them a lot.
You'd move heaven and earth for Aaron Donald.
I believe it.
Is there any way we can get that old man?
Who loves talking on the radio?
In selling his team and trust the star and we built Jerry's world and all this other
stuff.
Can we get that guy in a room?
Without Steven, without anybody else.
Hey, yo, Aaron Donald, what can we get the Herschel boss to trade?
Can we run that back?
No, no, no.
No, no.
Run that back the other way for us.
You know what I'm saying?
That's what I'm looking for, because that dude right there, that's the that's the linchpin
that you betrayed.
That's the dream.
I don't think you can get him in a room without Steven anymore.
Unfortunately, I don't think they let him out of the building that had a doubt about
the Johnny Manziel thing to day is the most compelling story.
I have heard on a draft day situation.
Do you have you heard this?
Yeah, I've heard it, but tell the listeners.
OK, so we are.
Back to a time where Johnny Manziel was relevant.
He was at Texas A&M.
They were calling him Johnny Football and he was just an absolute stud in a certified
jeep.
No question.
Shots out to Enzo Amore.
With that being said, Johnny Manziel is going in the draft and there is a story out there
that Jerry Jones, they had to literally take the phone out of his hand.
Snatch it.
Because he was going to put in the Johnny Manziel thing.
They literally had to get him out of the room.
And if you remember that draft, who did they draft?
It was Frederick, right?
It was a center.
Yeah, it was Frederick, right?
And at the time, right?
Yeah, at that time, people thought it was a huge reach and it wasn't.
But you know what would have been a really big mistake?
Drafting Johnny Manziel.
Yeah, into Dallas.
With all the issues that he has.
That would have been awesome.
So I'm hoping to get the same guy.
In a room and say, here's Manudonnell.
Here you go, buddy.
Here you go.
What's up?
What can you give us for it?
But those are my thoughts.
That's what my thought is that I believe that at the end of the day, as we get closer to
this draft, I believe that the Rams may have a first round pick.
That would be ideal.
I think that's the direction the organization should move.
I just I've got a feeling they'll be a little more hesitant.
Now staying in Texas, I want to hit you with a couple more things.
OK, what's our policy on drafting running backs in the first round?
Niko, don't do it.
All right.
It is a try and true mode of thinking.
OK, now we didn't get this out of thin air.
This is something that we have calibrated.
This is something that we have put deep thought into.
This is something that we submitted a thesis to the Sloan conference to.
All right.
B John Robinson is going to get drafted in the first round.
He's going to.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
OK.
Even then, the top 10.
Yeah.
Now we're here.
We're at this point.
Are we starting to see a shift in thinking about drafting running backs in the first
round because of the necessary skill set that they provide in the passing gang?
Also.
Past protection of the ability to get yards after the catch yards after the first initial
contact.
What's your thoughts on B John Robinson being the I guess.
What patient zero of this new new deal?
I don't.
To me, it's kind of cyclical with running backs like we have a few years.
We'll have a great guy like B John come in the class.
And then all of back in the day, it was Todd Gurley.
Todd Gurley came into the class and then everyone knew you need to take Todd Gurley in the first
if you want to get Todd Gurley.
Huge mistake with him.
I will tell you personally, I wouldn't have done that.
Yeah, I think I because I think the injuries before.
Yeah.
But I think that we're going to see B John go up high.
I also have a feeling we might see a guy like Jameer Gibbs get drafted in round one towards
the back half.
But I think it's going to probably lead to a few more years of guys taking the running
back of the day up high.
And some of those guys are going to be bussed.
Some of those guys are going to be hit.
Maybe with some luck, we'll get another Saquon Barkley mixed in there.
But eventually, there's going to be more wrong selections at the running back position than
right ones.
And teams are going to come back around to not selecting running backs in the first round.
And then we'll have a few years without any running backs in the first round.
And it just seems to repeat and repeat and repeat like this over and over.
And I'm expecting something similar to end up happening here.
We'll see B John go in the first and maybe a few more.
But I just still think it's a bad idea.
So if if there were a running back to make me change my mind, B John would probably be
that guy.
Niko, I have a theory that I want to run past you.
I put a lot of thought into this.
I had to open the Diet Coke to because there's a lot of gravity to the situation.
I believe that running the numbers in I test and just kind of looking at football as a
whole.
I think we've hit a a new like development in football.
The defenses are allowing offenses to go from the 20 to the 20 as easy as possible.
Do whatever the hell you want.
So what we're going to do is we're going to stop you in the red zone.
The adjustment to that.
All these itty bitty linebackers that you have in your front seven, we're going to get
a physical running back.
And now I think we're going to see a shift from I'm not saying that quarterback will
never it's always the most important position.
And I think there will be an emphasis on running backs who can find the end zone in multiple
ways.
You can't be just a running back.
Get the catch it.
Get sweet.
Maybe you can do some wildcat, whatever.
But if you show that in your college tape, the offensive needs something because we saw
it this year.
Yeah.
The red zone efficiency this year went down because defense are loading up.
They have a they have a 12 defender on the back end, which is the out of bounds.
And there's not a lot of room to navigate.
So you have to be more creative.
You know how you can checkmate that situation.
You get a running back that you can guarantee yourself some end zone touches.
That might be the key to springing some of these offenses in some of the red zone inefficiency
that we saw last year.
I I could see parts of that.
The more I the way I look at it more is we're in as everyone likes to say the cliche a copycat
league.
Last year, the team that we saw that was consistently successful in the red zone and in short yardage
situation was the Philadelphia Eagles.
The weather they did the push that everyone gets mad about or not.
They were in the way.
You're mad about that.
And I'm sorry to cut you off, Nico.
If you're mad about that, think you got a problem because here's the thing.
Everybody wants an edge in your dress.
They just found the right guy.
Who squat six hundred pounds as a quarter.
Yes.
And they found those maulers along the offensive line who are going to push the defensive line
out of there.
And I think that's more of the direction it's going for the short yardage game is just getting
these mammoths up front and having an athletic quarterback who can provide your defense some
duality over the RPO game out of the play action game and just leave the defense kind
of guessing.
I think we're going to see more of a shift in that direction rather than going for these
running backs in the first round because the running backs worthy of it are just so rare.
We there's like one safe one.
Blarkly.
We've seen guys like Todd Gurley, Leonard Fournette go in the first round and play really
well but just burn out quickly.
And I think we're going to probably repeatedly see that with running backs, especially with
the way the games played today.
The one other thing that I will rebut on that is this.
Keeping your quarterback healthy is the number one priority.
If we can take a couple hits away from him again by giving it to the running back in
those tight situations in the red zone.
And if you accumulate that over a 17 game plus playoffs plus they don't play in the
preseason whatsoever anymore.
So don't worry about that.
But if you can cut those hits down even three hits a game.
That's 50 what 51 less hits in a regular season.
That's that's significant to a quarterback.
And what's the most disposable position in the NFL?
The running back.
So if you can get a running back who is disposable and we have said many a time to each other
and on different platforms on different podcasts.
By the way this is our first journey down the podcast road.
We are glad that you guys are here but this is not our first journey down it.
That you can find a running back in the third round.
But some guys are worthy of a first round pick because they have a nose for the end
zone and they can be instrumental in the red zone efficiency game.
And that's what I'm thinking that we're going to see.
I wonder if the guy who is 6 to 220 pounds who is flying around as a linebacker.
He doesn't get enough money and your career is so much shorter at the running back position.
These elite athletes just don't play the running back position anymore.
They move to the defensive side of the ball.
Some of them even move to the offensive line.
We've seen guys become if you're taller you can become a tight end.
There's more positions for you to play that are going to lead to more money for you long
term than the running back position.
That's probably the biggest problem and the reason why we don't really have those elite
running backs anymore.
It's really only a certain body type that if you're like 5'8 to 5'11 and you're around
that 200 to 230 pound range you can basically only play the running back position.
Those guys repeatedly play the running back position and we've seen elite players come
out of that build.
You're not going to see these game changers at the same rate anymore.
I would be honestly more willing to just throw a 5th round pick at the running back position
every single year hoping I get a hit once if I don't dispose them.
That's a 5th round pick doesn't really matter.
I like that.
I believe in that.
I was just trying to see if there was a way that we can help this slight, slight dip in
the red zone efficiency.
I think there's a niche opportunity for somebody.
B. John is the guy who turns the running back position around.
I don't know.
I don't think so.
I think we are in a passing league.
I think this is where we're going.
But teams want to win.
You're right.
The quarterback being up at the line pushing, getting the yard, getting a couple yards.
I mean in Philadelphia case they get six yards when that happens.
They just got nothing but road graders and mallards up there.
Everybody's an animal and the biggest animal is probably the smallest guy, which is Kelsey.
Yeah, he's the absolute beast.
What is he like 35?
Yeah, he's up there.
I thought he might retire after this year.
I wonder if they would have won the Super Bowl if he would have hung it up.
Maybe.
Yeah, but I am.
I'm looking at that as maybe a different alternative to finding a quarterback that squats 600 pounds.
Yeah, I'm wondering if you can run probably not the same thing as effectively, but if
you can run a similar thing with a lesser sized quarterback because I know after acquiring
two of those very same road graders off that Philadelphia team, the Pittsburgh Steelers
are going to try the QB push this year.
It's going to happen.
It's going to be worked into the offense.
So we're going to see if you can have some level of success.
You're not going to have the same level of success, but if you can have some level of
success with a small guy like Kenny Pickett, which is basically like the polar opposite
in just like build to a guy like Jalen Hertz.
Yeah, it will be interesting to see if this becomes such a trend in the NFL that everybody
just starts doing it.
Brady was the first one.
He was like really the first one to kind of really perfect it.
But her taking it to such a level, taking it to a level that is, oh no, this can be
part of the offense.
This is if we really wanted to, we could run this on first down and get five, six yards.
And now we're at second and four.
Now nobody wants to see that.
They want to see the ball flying in the air and whatever.
But I'm going to tell you a guy who doesn't care what the fans think, what the audience
thinks, what TV thinks.
If Bill Belichick thought that he can get five, six yards on first down doing that.
He would do it.
And he doesn't care about the game.
He doesn't care about the quality of the game.
He doesn't care about any of that.
These football coaches want to win.
The one thing we know about the NFL, because we've been saying it forever, shots out to
Jerry Glanville, who was the one who kind of coined this phrase.
So we going back, by the way, for the kids who are listening to this podcast and do not
know who Jerry Glanville is.
He said the NFL stands for not for long.
So your job is dependent on how successful you are.
And I don't care how I win.
You see what I'm talking about?
I don't need credit.
I don't need to be the smartest guy in the room.
I just want to win.
So if you're telling me on first down, I'm guaranteed five yards.
If I run this play, I'm gonna do it.
Yeah.
I'm running on second, third, fourth.
I couldn't agree more.
I don't need to listen.
We saw teams last year throw the full football nine times.
Okay.
We saw now it, it goes against what the trend is.
We have 4,000 yard passer.
It's just a new trend.
It's I think sooner enough, this is going to turn into what the trend is.
If it's successful enough, like obviously, if you have a Patrick Mahomes, you want to
air the ball out all over the field.
But if you don't have that level of passer, you need yards anyway you can get them.
And even Jaylen Hertz is like one of the better passers in the league, I think.
And they still know that they can get yards with the display time and time again.
So they keep going back to it mostly, mostly in short yardage situations.
But we've seen them do it even when it's not short yardage.
I want to credit Nico on one thing.
One of the reasons why I give him some of the nicknames is because of the fact of thought
process.
And I don't know if he mentioned it on a pod or if it was just in conversation.
I believe it was on a pod, so go back and listen to the archived pods.
He was talking about the new breed of quarterback.
And did we usher in a new breed of quarterback where he was going to have the ball a lot,
not just throwing it, but running it and running it efficiently.
And we're not worried about whether he can take a pounding, sort of speak, pause.
We'll just go ahead and say that.
I don't need Kendall hitting me up on Twitter.
I don't need it.
Kendall, just stop right now.
I know you're listening to this podcast and we're like at the one hour, 15 minute mark
or whatever.
Do not tweet me and talk about that.
Just letting you know.
But I think that you brought up something very key.
If you can't get the guy like a Mahomes, you talked about a different type of game manager.
And I want you to expound on that because I think it's a key point of where the league
is going to go because I think Kirk Cousins is a dinosaur.
And I think that Jalen Hurts is the velociraptor evolution.
Yeah, I, I, it's crazy to think that because I kind of agree that in some ways the Kirk
Cousins type is the dinosaur.
But even like 10 years ago, he was kind of like the modern style of quarterback.
The guy who comes to mind with the modern game manager for me the most, and I really
hope he can get to this level.
But coming into the league, it was a guy like Trey Lance.
And it's because he could play without making many mistakes.
He does the West Coast stuff.
He throws it short.
He completes it.
But he also gives you the running element.
It's not something that has happened from quarterbacks back in the past very much.
When I first started watching football seriously, there was a guy in Alex Smith, who was like
the quintessential game manager, and he had wheels, but they never used it.
Nowadays if Alex Smith were to come into the league, I think he'd be averaging 500 rushing
yards a year.
And it just adds such an element to your team because the West Coast system you're trying
to make teams defend horizontally rather than vertically because it's difficult to cover
a very wide NFL field.
Once you add the element of running as well, you have to cover so many more yards of the
field horizontally.
And it just absolutely puts defenses in a spot where they have nothing to do unless
they want to play a spy and take a player out of coverage and all of a sudden you get
dotted up.
It's clearly, I think, the direction the league is going in.
If you can't find a guy like Mahomes, if you can find a guy who can be Brock Purdy but
also run the ball and pick up a few yards here and there, you're in a really good spot.
So this is why I hired Nico.
This is why.
Because you know, you know how I feel.
Because this is what we're talking about, because we are trying to think outside the
box because at the end of the day, Mahomes don't grow on trees.
Josh Allen's don't really grow on trees.
But you can win a football game with a really good quarterback, not a great quarterback.
And now if you say to him, we're also going to allow you to use your wheels to get yards
and to matriculate us down the field without turning the ball over.
This seems like it can work.
This seems like a really good idea because the one thing that a lot of old school football
coaches talk about, there are like four things that can happen when a ball is thrown.
Your quarterback can get sacked.
It can be incomplete.
It can be an interception or the positive thing.
It can be caught.
Now there's a couple other little things with that we can add on to it, but that was the
big the big addition in the early 2010s is we started getting these wide receivers who
could draw a pass interference calls as well.
And that became another positive play for the offense.
Now that we're 10 years removed from this, we don't have cornerbacks that are as grabby
as they used to be.
So that pass interference getting you those significant yards you can get otherwise is
not as a reliable form.
So we've seen teams move more into the direction of moving the ball sideways.
And we've seen those teams continuously get to the Super Bowl.
And even the Bengals do a great job of it considering that they have a deep passing
attack.
They do a really good job at just sending Jamar Chase and Tyler Boyd on slants quite
often.
And it just leaves the defense even more confused.
So there I think their needs we're moving into a way where there needs to be two different
ways for your offense to win, be it horizontally, horizontally, vertically or with the running
game.
And as long as you have two of those things checked off at an elite level, you could be
a Super Bowl team.
I think at this point, like that's kind of the baseline that you're looking for from
an offense.
And boys and girls, if you want to build a football team, that's exactly how you do it.
You want to minimize risk and you want to highlight the exceptional talents of these
athletes as far as that's concerned.
And I think that what we might see over the next five to 10 years is Jamar Hearst, but
a little bit bigger, right?
Like six, two maybe.
Maybe two, 15 to 20.
You don't need them to be a tank.
Super agile, good arm, but protective of the football.
Our boy at Ohio State came out a little too early, man.
JT Barrett.
Yeah.
It wasn't great quarterback at all.
No, but he would have.
He could have managed.
Like, I'm not saying he would have been a star.
I'm saying like, what was the dude out of Nevada?
What's the dude out in Nevada?
I'm thinking of a whole couple of years ago.
It was a guy.
I can't remember.
I feel like JT Barrett stayed a little too long and could have done more coming into
the league.
But we're looking for a certain prototype now in the NFL.
Yes, of course you want the quarterback who has the huge arm.
The accuracy is great.
The anticipation is great.
Carson Strong.
Sorry.
Yeah, it is.
It is Carson Strong.
He got hurt pretty good.
Yeah.
So that's the type of quarterback you're looking for.
Somebody who values possessions and has the willingness to run when nothing's out there
and just go off script.
I wonder if our guy, because he showed it in the Georgia game, is CJ Stroud going to
unleash this part of his game on the NFL?
Because I'm going to tell you right now, that's what scouts want.
That's what scouts want from him.
They saw the Georgia game and that's why.
That's the only reason he's in this top chemistry quarterback.
Yeah.
It's because of the Georgia game.
So just that little bit of enticement has got him to this level.
Could you imagine if he was doing this the whole year?
Yeah, he'd been the number one quarterback, I think, without question.
He might still be the number one quarterback just based off doing it once.
I think part of my struggles with CJ Stroud is he's someone who works very well in structure.
But as soon as the structure starts to break down, I really question what he's going to
do.
And that's a lot of times when your true football talent comes out and you're outside the structure
so much more in the NFL going up against these elite players than you are in college.
So I think actually bring it back to the Steelers, everyone drink.
That's why Kenny Pickett was so successful.
He was kind of the opposite of CJ Stroud.
He thrived outside of structure, but had a bit of an issue completing passes and actually
just executing the offense at times, staying in the pocket.
He didn't have to do that very much in Pittsburgh this year because there was breaking down
constantly and that's part of what helped him thrive.
He was doing what he was comfortable with.
And when you're not very comfortable with the uncomfortable with someone like CJ Stroud,
that gives me big question marks in the league.
The problem with CJ Stroud is the problem with all Ohio State quarterbacks.
You have great talent and unfortunately in the Big Ten, you really don't play against
teams that can handle all the talent that you have because they're going down to Florida
and California to get the speed and skill guys.
Unfortunately, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, they just
don't have the talent level.
So the windows that he's thrown into are so large because his talent is so vastly different
than the other teams.
We never really see him up against talent that is going to look as close to the NFL
as possible until we saw that Georgia game.
Georgia game.
Yeah.
And that's when everything changed.
One game, buddy.
One game.
I just wish I could have seen that type of performance from Stroud a little more.
That leads to part of the problem, I think, with the modern college game.
You're seeing these elite quarterbacks continuously go to programs with other elite quarterbacks.
So they only end up getting 20 starts in college, something like that.
So it makes the evaluation process significantly more difficult than it used to be back in
the day when you were looking at multiple guys coming into the league with like 50 starts
by the time they got there.
So I think that a guy like C.C.
J. Stroud could really thrive once we get in the league, especially based off that game.
That gives me a lot of hope.
But the problem is you just you can't know nowadays.
And that's probably a big part of why we're seeing a very high number of quarterback bus
versus back in the day when Ryan Leaf was like a rarity.
Now it feels like every year we're getting a Mitch Trubisky who's basically the like
obviously wasn't as hyped as a guy like Ryan Leaf, but he went in the same area.
The one thing I will say and then I have a personal thought and then we can wrap it up.
But the one thing I will say about C.J.
Stroud is this is that of the four quarterbacks that everybody's talking about in this top
tier of the draft, he's the one guy that you sit there and you have like the least questions
about you do question him.
There are questions about him.
But he's like he's not he doesn't have the greatest arm, but he has a good arm.
He doesn't play off script, but we have the Georgia game.
He doesn't turn the ball over, but how much pressure did he have?
What teams did he struggle against?
Penn State, Michigan.
Right.
You didn't struggle in that Georgia game, really, but he did struggle against Penn State
and Michigan.
So now you look at Anthony Richardson, you look at Bryce Young, you look at Will Levis.
All three of those guys have that one glaring thing and it's glaring where C.J. doesn't
have the one glaring thing.
A lot of things are like there's some things, but they're not like a beacon from space that
you can see.
I will say it.
I will still say it.
I moved on my quarterback ranking, so, you know, OK, Bryce Young is the number one quarterback.
I am going to buy the guy and I'm going to buy the character and I'm going to buy the
talent.
I don't steal.
I still do not know if the physicality is going to cut him literally in half.
Bitch, I pray every time Kyler Murray touched the football.
Now I will have another quarterback that I will be praying for.
You might have to pray even harder for every time he touches the football.
Man, I am going to be on this dude.
Man, I the first time he steps up in the pocket and gets cranked, I'm going to fucking my
heart's going to jump out of my chest.
The one thing I worry about is concussions because of the whip, the whiplash action of
the the the collision.
So the head snapping back and him being small.
Those are the type of things I think about.
But I sat there and I was like, you know what?
I can't do this.
I see the kid.
I see the talent.
I see the progressions.
I see the leadership.
I see the calmness when everything is burning down around him.
So on.
So for me, as much.
As I'm scared about the height, the weight, slender build, all of that, if I'm just going
off talent.
He's my number one quarterback and that's what I'm based on.
Yes, I know he's going to work hard.
I don't think he's going to get in trouble.
He hasn't shown any propensity for that.
Oh, no.
If you look at if you talk to anybody at Tuscaloosa, they'll tell you.
Yeah.
Prospect outside of the height.
Everything else checks out with flying colors and well, the height and weight, because if
it was just the height, he'd be my number one prospect, too.
But the weight has me questioning it a lot.
He is an incredible young player and I totally understand having him first.
I've talked to a lot of people who do have him first.
Then I get it.
I just I'm just scared.
No, I get it.
I understand why.
I just got to be bold.
I was sitting there and I was straddling the fence last week and and I sat there and talked
myself into like CJ Stroud and I was like, well, if you look at everybody else, they
got all these like real like super glaring issues.
And then I was thinking to myself, wait.
Bryce Young.
Is very, very talented.
And all the poise and the and the the ability to dissect defenses and things of that nature
that we always look for in quarterback and manipulate the defense to move a certain way.
These are all things that he does.
So why am I even though I know that there is this huge albatross around him with the
high weight deal.
I'm going to let that go and I'm just going to look at the talent and the talent tells
me he is QB one.
I understand the concerns from everybody else.
They are my concerns, too.
But I'm a bet on the guy.
I'm a bet on Bryce Young.
So family fans, roll tide.
Your guy in my book is QB one.
I know Nico does not agree with that at all because of the height and weight.
I wouldn't say at all.
It's just it's hard.
I get it.
Yeah, it's just out of fear that I I don't have him there.
It's more that I'd be scared to take him than I don't think he's the best quarterback.
This is the most interesting science project we have ever had in the NFL, Nico, and I can't
wait to see it.
Way out there.
I cannot.
Yeah, this draft class is actually pretty huge for that because another guy who I have
all those questions on is Emmanuel Forbes.
He's an incredible corner from all the film I've watched.
I wasn't familiar before the combine, but after he showed up, I checked.
I checked in on him and he is really great.
But a cornerback who is trying to weigh in at one hundred and sixty six pounds is just
something like we've never seen something even close to that before.
How do you press against Deandre Hopkins?
I have to press against anyone.
I you got to play off the whole time.
So he he's only going to go to very specific situations.
Full coverage teams and like, yeah, but the thing is, you look at him on the field, he
doesn't look like he weighs one hundred and sixty six pounds and he doesn't tackle like
he weighs one hundred and sixty six pounds.
So it just it gives me the biggest question I've I think I've had in a draft class.
Like I don't this isn't a guy like to to at well who I'm just like writing off my board
entirely because of the size.
I can't it it.
It gives me a headache trying to think of the way he's going to work.
Like it has the league truly gotten this much smaller.
I I don't think so.
On the he brought up the name that I really am.
Can you waste the draft pick more?
Then to to at well.
No, no.
Second round pick.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
This this part is probably going to go a lot longer than I thought it was going to go,
but I'm going to get this take off.
How the hell does a round draft of five foot seven, five foot six, one hundred and fifty
pound wide receiver?
I go.
This is going to work.
Yeah.
In the second round.
I don't know, man.
I'm not sure where he would have got taken if you wouldn't have taken him.
I don't think.
I don't know, but I can't retire.
And that was it, buddy.
That was what his life was going to be.
That was what his life was going.
I wonder if that was like a McVeigh selection.
Like, I have no idea.
You you would think it was just because he's like an offensive player with so many question
marks.
You think the head coach would need to bang the table for him.
But I from the minute it happened, I kind of giggled and kind of assumed this was going
to be the outcome.
Yeah, I want to find the scout and I want to find the I want to find who pounded the
table for him.
I really do.
And if it is McVeigh, I'm going to say this right now.
No disrespect to you, sir.
But you can go ahead and go to the TV booth right now.
If that was your if that was your guy that you pounded the table for.
I need you to pound the table for some shitty players.
Listen, I need you to pound the table for six foot two.
One hundred and ninety five to two hundred pound like fifty, fifty guys that turn them
into eighty, twenty guys.
That's what I need you to pound the table for.
I don't need you to pound the table for five foot five hundred and twenty pound dude that
looks like he's in junior high school.
I don't need that in my life.
He's going to play for the Elks in a couple of years.
I can't understand it.
The cornerback that I have been doing a lot of work on is dude out of Illinois.
Yeah, he's been with their spoon.
He's ridiculous.
If you not seen this guy at all with a spoon is a corner out of Illinois.
And when I tell you that he enjoys physicality, it is a complete understatement.
He's about can cover.
He can hit and he is around the football all the time.
We got a couple of corners like that in this class, because a guy like Christian Gonzalez,
I absolutely love for the same reasons.
He's unafraid to get in the muck behind the line of scrimmage and tackle guys.
He rarely misses tackles.
Same with with their spoon.
That's not something you often see out of top cornerback prospects.
And both of them are incredible coverage players as well.
But at least we can tell us this physicality.
You look at the traits, you look at the height, look at the weight, you go, OK, that that
makes sense.
Right.
Yeah.
For the people who do not know the cornerback out of Illinois, do me a favor.
Just tell them how tall he is, how much he weighs.
I'll come up with the exact numbers right now.
Dude, it's not six feet.
I'm going to know right now.
Yeah, no, he is a shorter.
He is a shorter dude who comes up and like displays physicality despite a smaller frame.
Can't be 200 pounds.
I think he's probably about 190.
I think he's five, five, 10, like three quarter.
He got five, 11 and a half.
That's really older than I thought.
And one eighty one at the combine.
So he hits like Michael Michael Parsons.
Yeah, he no hyperbole.
This dude loves to hit people.
Well, to the whistle ball skills to nasty, nasty corner.
He will be the guy who's going to rip off your favorite wide receivers chain.
He's going to be that guy.
Yeah.
So you like that type of player, which I do.
I like that type of player man with her spoon.
If you're a guy, so please go YouTube some clips on with a spoon, the cornerback out
of Illinois, if you haven't done it, go do it right now.
And trust me, you will come back to myself and Nico at Frontrunner PC on Twitter and
at Nico F.R.P.C. on Twitter and you give us your thoughts.
If you are a cornerback need team, just do yourself a favor and just look at him, go
into a dark room, nobody around.
It's going to be very seedy.
You probably feel very uncomfortable with yourself, but the Nirvana you're going to
feel once you see this kid's tape, you're going to love him for the Canadian bomber.
The Canadian shaman, the Canadian Bill Simmons and the Canadian Mike Tomlin.
Nico, sign us off, let the people know what we might have in store for them Friday since
we didn't get it done on Friday because of me.
Oh, well, we it was it was because of life.
It wasn't because of you, but we got some more basketball stuff coming.
We we've been watching a ton of March Madness.
It'll be good that now we're going to have a few more days to digest the games and maybe
watch back the ones we missed.
We'll be covering that as well as the winding down and the NBA season going into the playoffs.
We got some interesting playoff races, including a few teams in the West that you might you
might love.
So I think we're going to be covering all that.
We again appreciate you guys so much for tuning in.
And please make sure to check us out on Twitter at Front Runner PC and at Nico F.R.P.C. and
ICO.
So thank you again so much, guys.
And we'll talk to you later.
And I have one hot take that I'm going to teams.
I'm an old guy, but I have a generational take on the NBA that's coming up on Friday
that is going to set the world of place.
Yes, it is a strong take.
Super strong take.
I'm so excited to drop this situation.
I put a lot of thought into it.
So it really is not a take.
It's actually a thoughtful process.
A lot of people will be really upset about it.
So can't wait for that.
All right.
We're going to sign off and we will see you guys on Friday.
Take it easy.