Eagle Eye In The Sky PodcastEagles Entertainment right there to night did hold him? Give you everything you got? Play fast, play hard, best big d one tonight in Times poll to turn right.
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You're listening to the Eagle Eye in the Sky podcast. Now here's your host, Bran Duffy. That's right the other day, and we're getting you ready for the Combine this week. As the Eagle Line of the Sky podcast continues, I'm Fran Duffy, and as always I think we've got a great show for you here on episode number five twenty one. At the top of today's show, we've got Draft Buzz where I catch up with my friend Ben Fenel from NFL Media, where we're gonna go position by position with a handful of superlatives to get you ready for the Combine. Where we've we talked a lot about these draft prospects around the Senior Bowl. We're gonna continue that discussion here with the National Scouting Combine taking place in Indianapolis. And there's so much that you could take away from the combine. Obviously, the Athletic Test you get a chance to meet with them from a media standpoint. More importantly, the teams get some FaceTime with all of these players, over three hundred and twenty players in attendance across all of these positions. The medical testing is huge, huge, hugely important for a lot of these players as well, and so a lot to be decided, a lot to be talked about, not just with the draft, but with free agency and trades and all things that go into player acquisition and team building over the course of the next several days. And it all takes place out in Indianapolis, where the entire NFL is going to convene. So an important few days ahead here, not just for the Eagles, but for all thirty two clubs. Let's get into it, though, we've got a lot to cover, you can make sure. But by the way, before you get into this, you can go check out my combined cheat sheets position by position previews a lot of the stuff that we're talking about here, I dive a little bit deeper into a position by position preview. All of these are articles you can go find on philadelphiagles dot com, the Eagles mobile app. I'm tweeting all of those out as well. If you're like what you're here, If you're excited about this podcast, rate review, subscribe, hit over to Apple Podcasts, leave us to review, appreciate all the feedback and support we have gotten in the last several weeks that said, let's get to it. Now it's time out for Ben in Draft Buzz. Now it's time for Draft Buzz, all right, So here again with us four draft buzs, my friend Ben Fenels, we're gonna go position by position, getting you ready for this week's combine out in Indianapolis. And Ben, I know you're excited to to get going out to Indy. Just real quickly, if you could just kind of refresh our listeners. Your role with NFL Network, NFL Media getting ready for this event.
Well, a lot of it's in the preparation and the lead up to our four day coverage of you know, the scouting combine. I work very close to it, Daniel Jeremiah, our lead draft analysts and preparing video of all the different prospects and drill breakdowns in the lead up to the combine so we can you know, air it and entertain you guys for those four days. So then during the broadcast, I'll be working in the truck and trying to be eyes and ears for DJ and also our producer Mike Mark Titelman, who also does Thursday Night Football. He'll also be our producer for the draft, So it's a whole team, it's a whole operation. It's a lot of prep and then kind of when you get to the event, you can kind of let it all play out. As many high profile events typically a lot of the work is done ahead of time and then you can just roll downhill once you get there. So it's always exciting to converge on Indy as it's a football mecca for that week of nothing but scouts and players and GM's and everybody in between and the media, and it's a really fun week as you know, no.
Question, it's one of my favorite weeks of the calendar year. And with that said, we've got a lot of players that we're going to try and jump into here, and we're going to go position by position in the order with which they are going to work out. And the first group that is going to hit the field at Lucas Soil Stadium on Thursday afternoon the defensive line, and that first group is going to be focused on the defensive tackle. So that's where we're going to start here, and we've got a number of different Soperlos will hit with each position group. We'll try and hammer through a few names here with each group and move on defensive tackle, best athletic workout. Who are you expecting the top athletic scores from from this interier defensive line class?
And I think this has to be Michigan defensive tackle Chris Jenkins, who is not like his father in that his father was this big, burly nose tackle played in the A gaps. Chris Jenkins is actually more of a three tech. I think he may be a three tech five tech hybrid at the next level. Much lighter feet, much more athletic profile. And you've seen it in his freakless numbers over the past few years, inseing upper body statistics over thirty reps to two twenty five. In combination with some light feet, some really good three cone and shuttle drills, I think he's going to look really good in shorts and a T shirt. Now, this doesn't mean he's a perfect player. Now, he you know, I has some power in some lower half issues against the run. Because of that, he's very light footed. So I think, you know, when we evaluate a lot of these brands, there are no perfect prospects. So I think a lot of them come with ebbs and flows and pros and cons and it's fun to dive into, but a'll workout at the combine. This is where Chris Jenkins shines.
Yeah, for me, I want to talk through tech Defensive tackle Byron Murphy. This is a player that a lot of people feel will go off the board in the first half of round one, and honestly, when I watched him on film for the first time this fall, you could absolutely see it. Six one, three hundred and eight pounds, a true junior, so a third year player, outstanding athleticism on film, but also really stout on contact. He's well built, he looks powerful. Now he's shorter, right, so he's six ' to one, but he's three h eight. He kind of you know, so he's like that shorter frame. He kind of looks like a Grady Jarret type. He moves like a Grady Jarrett type. But he really filled out, so you can get some like Javon Hargrave compass in there as well. But this is a really athletic, stout, dense defensive lineman and the movement skills really really shine. So I would expect that he's going to be one of the better testers once we get out to Indianapolis. Let's get now to the next one. Here, someone who could surprise us, A stopwatch shocker. I love talking through these with you. Who's one that stands out of someone who could surprise us with the way they work out.
It's got to be Deveandre Sweat because I'm three hundred and fifty plus pounds. No matter what he does, it's going to look impressive. Now, this is not a slug nose tackle one tech. This is a guy with a good first step and a good get off, very much like our own Jordan Davis coming out of Georgia. A guy that's much more athletic than his heightweight, speed profile may suggest. So a guy that people are trying to figure out what he can do as far as get up the field and some subpackage alignments and schemes like that. But at six ' four and all intents about three hundred and fifty five hundred and sixty pounds. I know he was a little shy about getting on the scale at the Senior Bowl, but he's going to have to hear in Indianapolis to get an official measurement. So I think six ' four three fifty three sixty. It's going to look really impressed about their forty yard dash moving around. It is in shorts and a T shirt out there, but anything at that height and weight it's going to look good.
Yeah. And for me, I'm gonna go with Brandon Dorles, another guy that was down at the Senior Bowl six y three. He's a little bit lighter, certainly two hundred and seventy pounds. We're talking maybe one hundred pound difference here. Dorles has been a guy that has kind of flexed between both defensive end and defensive tackle throughout his time with the Ducks. But when you see that that quickness off the I've compared him in the past to current Eagle Milton Williams. I wrote down David on Yamato while watching him, a brilance speaks if you remember him coming out of All Miss a few years back. I think when you look at Dorless, he's got that hybrid skill set that I think plays really well to today's game. He's going to be scheme versatile, he can fit with a lot of different teams and systems moving to the NFL, and that ability to win as a rusher from multiple techniques, both inside and outside. I think that's going to allow him to test a little bit better than people think. And he was extremely productive throughout the course of his career with Oregon as well. So this is the guy I think that's got a high floor and a high ceiling, really excited about what he can bring to the to the table, to the next row back.
Trust Antonio Smith, I do that's a good tech sayings. He used to have the Samurai sword celebration. He was also like a three tech five tech. He played some other teams as well, but a similar type of player.
No, that's a really good one. Let's go to the next category here, trust the table. You know a guy that we're not expecting to test well. You know, he's not a guy that's known for his great athleticism, but that means don't count it against him when the test scores come back modestly. Who's the guy that steps up into this category for you?
This is gonna be McKinley Jackson at Texas A and M. This is more of a true nose tackle, more of the you're not moving me off the spot, but I'm also not moving forward a lot. That line of scrimmage dweller. He's actually a really good player. For him. I think he knows how to stack and shed. He understands his gap assignments, can really get off those blocks too, has some lateral range. I just don't think this is really the workout for him, you know, playing in space, running forty yards in a linear. He's not particularly explosive in the jumps, so I don't think this is going to be a really place for him to shine. But McKinley Jackson high recruit texts A and M. I promise you, this kid's playing on Sundays, not really sure where he's going to get taken. Probably a Day three type of player you're going to see out there on goal line, short yardage, early downs for an NFL team. I promise you that.
Yeah, for me, I'm going to go, I'll stay in the SEC here and I'm going to go with Miszoo defensive lineman Darius Robinson, who has lined up both inside and outside. And I mean, look, this is a fifth year senior who went down to Mobile and took off, and now he is getting first round buzz. You're seeing him show up in mock drafts as a guy that can go off the board later in the first round and look, the toughness and physicality really show up. His ability to win for multiple techniques also show up. I don't know that, like the top end athleticism is always there, And obviously depending on how you can textualize it, if he's going to be viewed as an edge guy or as an interior guy, that will change how those test scores are viewed. But if you're looking at him as as an edge rusher, I don't know that he's going to have like one of the most impressive workouts. This is a guy that I think you know, from an analytical profile standpoint, there's gonna be some questions there, right because you know, he was kind of a fifth year, like late late in the career blow up guy, kind of a one year wonder from a stat standpoint, took advantage of that extra year of eligibility. But I think when you look at Robinson, certainly a guy that's going to be one of the more prize targets from that group, especially because of that hybrid skill set. I know you've done work on Robinson as well.
Yeah, and whether you're trying to see if he's inside or outside. Some teams you him as both. Maybe he's like a Deniko Autry that's a base defensive end and slides in and you know, tries to you know, out athletic, a big Burley guard and some sub packages. So I think a guy that where he's gonna play yet isn't really settled, and that's okay. He may be a versatile player for one of those schemes like a Ravens or a Steelers that kind of play people in different spots.
All right, let's now go to the last one here before we move to the edge group positional workout you're most excited for from the defensive line and looking for, you know, in terms of the positional workout, not necessarily athletic testing.
I think Brandon Fisk is going to be a lot of fun. This kid moves really well at just about six four or three hundred pounds. Reminds me a lot of like a Matt Ionitis or like a Derek Wolf. Just a really high energy guy that can play some four eyes, some three tech. You want to play nose tackle, will probably do it for you. You don't play running back, They'll probably do that for you too. He's a guy you just want in your locker room. Really infectious personality, but some really intriguing athleticism as well. So he's a bit of an athletic kind of mauling, you know, spark plug defensive tackle. I think he's gonna be a really fun player and a guy that I think if he gets on the field in the right scheme, he's going to be able to really produced and not only the run and the pass.
For me, and I like that call for Fisk. I'll go with another guy that was down at the senior ball We talked about him a couple weeks ago, and that's Michael Hall from Ohio State. Very similar build and skill set to to the to the Texas kid Byron Murphy that we just talked about. But I think when you look at Hall, this is the guy that has played mostly as a nose tackle, but his explosiveness really shows up and that athleticism I think is going to pop in those position drills. You're really going to see that versatility show up. Just a really impressive, physically imposing player. I'm excited to see what he can look like in this positional work. Let's now go to the edge rush group and that's going to be the second group that takes the field at Lucas Oil Stadium on Thursday afternoon. Best athletic workout from the guys that you know, they would be considered edge rushers in the NFL.
And now this one's a little tricky as we sit here on Friday ahead of the combine not knowing which guys are going to be in the edge or the defensive tackle group. So some guys that maybe right on the fringe. I could go either way, but Yukon's Eric Watts, I think is going to be one of the darlings of the week. This kid is an impressive of specimen at six five, two seventy seven, so he's right in there and that you know, I could be a detack, I could be an edge player, but he's going to look like a Marcus Davenport and a Marii Barnow, you know that type of height, weight, speed, impressive athlete. He has some rawness and some technique issues as far as being a football player, but he's going to look great as far as just out there jumping around, running around, running in a straight line. He's going to jump up, you know, through the building and look really good moving around.
Yeah, Watts was a guy that I was really high on going into the week of practice at the Senior Bowl, just after studying him. That that athleticism, and it is kind of what we were talking about with dor Liss earlier, right, that ability to win for multiple techniques, win with length, with win with athleticism. That really shows up in a number of ways. For me, I'm going to go with the Alabama pass rusher. A lot of people are excited about potential top ten pick here in Dallas Turner, former big time recruit. He was the number one pass rusher in high school coming out when he signed with Alabama. And you see that athleticism. You see that skill set show up time and time again. He's long, he's explosive, he can turn the corner. So I think when you look at Dallas Turner, he's a guy. I think we'll shine here in the athletic testing portion of the workout. Let's now go to stopwatch shocker. Someone who's gonna surprise you with that workout and someone maybe off the radar that a lot of fans, a lot of our listeners aren't necessarily aware of.
I think Chop Robinson at Penn State, which I know is maybe a hometown local kid here playing at Penn State. Was initially a Maryland transfer. But his freakalist performance of running four four seven at six three two fifty is really impressive. So if he's anywhere in those numbers, I think he'll be the one to kind of surprise us. Chris Braswell Alabama is another one as well. I think he has some power issues at times, you know, power rushes stall out, but I think he can really get off the ball. He's an explosive athlete. He's a guy that has some real linear speed and can jump through the roof too. So Chris Braswell Alabama, don't forget about him on the other side of Dallas Turner. But Chop Robinson Penn State too, that might steal the show.
There's not a lot of like smaller school guys this year at the Combine Ben. It feels like the transfer portal has allowed a lot of those players that you know came from lower levels of competition. Okay, let's transfer take another year and go somewhere, you know, in the FBS level or a group of five level to really kind of show off what we can do. But one guy from a smaller school that I do think is going to shine out in Indianapolis. Jlex Hunt from Houston Christian. This is the guy that started his career in the IVY League at Cornell as a safety, then transferred down to Houston Christian and moved to the front seven, became a pass rusher this year and was the defensive player of the Year in the Southland Conference. This is a guy that's been productive as a rusher, goes to the Senior Bowl as an edge guy. So you see that athleticism, you see that length. Converted college safety. He's going to do some dropping in some of those drills down there as well, so he's going to show off some of that flexibility. This is the guy off the radar for most people following this event, but I think at the end of the day he'll be one that everyone's kind of said, Hey, that kid from Houston Christian really kind of he shined in a lot of different areas this past week.
To say, Javon Solomon actually out of Troy, who's that undersized rushler that you know it may struggle on some early downs, but he's got a lot of that James Houston, Bryce huff Josh Yuci sub rushing demon kind of profile to him, so he could have a good workout too. But I like your pick.
All right, let's go trust the tape here someone that is not necessarily known for their athleticism, so don't count it against them when they don't blow up the drills.
I feel like we're going to have the same player here as we've been talking about this player through a lot of the season, and that's Washington edge rusher Brail and Trice. But I think it's a really productive player. He's a three down player. I just don't know if this is going to be his day to kind of shine as far as lower half explosiveness, linear speed, fluidity in space. Really much like the way Bradley and I played at Utah and the way he kind of transitioned to the pros. I also wrote Mario Addison, who's that type of tough guy defensive end, doesn't play great in space. He's not the twitchiest rusher, but just a good, well rounded football player. I think that's what Brail and Trice is it.
That'd be a good career if he became Mario Addison. What we see in the same exact way, So it's.
Got one hundred and forty four pressure is the last two seasons. That kid's incredibly productive.
No question, that's something he'll certainly be able to hang his hat on moving into the week. Adiza Isaac, I think is kind of a similar kind of profile, right, But for me, I want to go with a big name player because a lot of people are excited about Jared Verse, and no one has been more productive in getting after the quarterback thirty six and a half sacks over the course of his college career, both at Albany and in the last two years at Florida State. But I don't I mean, I'm interested to get your thoughts here. I don't think that versus going to go to the combine and kind of you know, he's not going to jump out of the gym. He's not gonna have the fastest forty. But he's big, he's strong, he's powerful, he's really physical. He can use his hands well. He hangs his hat on that part of his game more so than his athleticism. Do you kind of see that the same way?
Yeah, I see some upper power, you know, in the way he had bull rushes guys that long arm or he can stack in shed, he's a good first step. You may see some lower half explosiveness and the broad jump, but he's not a guy that's particularly fluid in space or particularly bendy around the edge and some of those pass rush drills. So not really sure wherehills shine. But he may just have a really solid workout across the board, which is really all he needs to really put his stamp as being a top fifteen, top twenty player.
All right, let's go to the best positional workout. When you get to these pass rush positional drills, what are you most excited for? Who you excited to watch here in that portion of the workout?
Man, I really want to see lot Too in the running club drill and just see the kind of fluidity in his pass rush and to see him string moves together where you go from that spin move to the handswipe to then the rip climb and bend at the top of the rush. I think a lot Too is the best pure rusher in his class, really fluid hands, but also a really loose lower half to kind of work in combination with his hands. I think that running club drill you're going to see it all put together.
He's always gaining ground as he's working his hands, and I said to me, he'd be a guy I thought about using in the last category two in terms of I don't think that he's going to blow the doors off the athletic testing portion, but just know what he is. He is arguably one of the best technicians we've seen at that position in recent memory. Obviously the medical is going to be big for Latsu next week or this week, but I think when you're looking at the way that he can impact the defense, his hand usage and his technical proficiency is a big, big part of his game, and he's.
The bad natural rusher in his class. Frame. Now, he has some issues against the run, some pointed attack stuff holding up with his lower half, just watching the Oregon State game and his battles with Fiuaga out there, but as far as rushing the passer, this kid is just pure QB production.
Agree, totally, let's go. I'll stay in the PAC twelve. Actually I want to go with Jonah Ellis from Utah. A little bit undersize six two two forty three, so uh, you know, a different kind of frame from Latsu, but really active with his hands. He times up his moves. Well, he's got a lot of tools in the toolbox that way. So uh, he's a guy I would expect to look good in a lot of those same drills that you lose.
I com for him his house high Smith and I don't know if it was just all those spin moves I saw, but the same heightweight, speed profile. Another guy that really excels getting after the passer. Has some issues against the run here and there at his length on the edge and the PAC twelve, but a guy just knows how to how to get after the quarterback. And the NFL certainly likes those guys.
And again, as you mentioned with the edge guys, as we transition over to linebacker, a lot of these guys are kind of blurred between all three of these groups.
Right.
There's gonna be some of these edge players that are working in Group two, and there are some are gonna be working in Group three with the linebackers. Some are gonna be working with Group one with the defensive lineman. So I would say, from the process standpoint is the one the murky part of the player selection process for the combine is that these guys in these groups are a little bit murky in terms of where they land. That said they're all going to work out on Thursday, So we're going to see them all on Thursday afternoon on the turf at Lucas Oil. But let's get to the linebackers here. Who are you expecting to have the best athletic workout from that group?
This has to be Peyton Wilson at NC State, who's just going to be a dripping, you know, tall, long, lean, athletic explosive. He's going to look like Jack Campbell, but maybe better in the way Jack Campbell really kind of put a stamp on his profile and you know, thrusted himself to be in a first round pick last year at the Lions. I think Peyton Wilson's on a similar trajectory. He's going to be really tough to pass up, very much like a Jack Ambled, very much like the way kway Walker kind of took advantage of his postseason process. But he's going to run in the high four fours. He's going to jump through the building. He's going to look good at six four, two thirty eight. As a lacrosse background, as a brother that plays for the Brewers, this kid's going to check all the boxes you need.
Yeah, I look the the shoulder injury from a couple of years ago, the costume that one season. I mean that's something that has kind of cottle bit. Yeah, that's going to be the issue everything with him. The film. The film is outstanding with Peyton Wilson, So I'm right with you there. Let's go with Texas linebacker Jalen Ford. Built a little bit different. He's got a little bit thicker upper half, I think when you're looking at Jalen Ford, but the athleticism, the sideline, sideline range, the top end speed, all of that is there with Jalen Ford. I would say Trevin Wallace, another player from Kentucky, and you're talking about all three of these guys, I think Ben in that same general area. Right. Wilson, we'll see just because of the medical but I think you're still talking about somewhere like day two early day three range with all these guys. But I would say Jalen Ford would be the athletic workout I'm most excited to see. But a guy who could surprise, who's someone you're expecting that could perform a little bit better than expected from the linebacker.
Group, Well, you just set it up. I think that's Trevon Wallace, who's my favorite sea ball get ball linebacker, and those are typically the explosive, straight line linear linebackers. And this kid's going to fly in the forty. It's going to jump through the roof and the jumps and the broad and the vertical. But he has some issues on the film, has my violations at time, at misdirections, he can get stuck on blocks at time, has some issues with some lower half strength. But as far as just seeing it and going that's Trayvon Wallace. You're going to see it in the forty. You're going to see it in anything linear out there at the combine.
For me, I'm going to go. I'll stay in the SEC. I'm gonna go to Mississippi State linebacker Nathaniel Watson. He's listed two hundred and forty four pounds. He's got outstanding length, so kind of similar to what you were talking about with Kwai Walker. Now, I don't think that he's quite the athlete. Kuay Walker was out of Georgia a couple years ago, who was a first round pick for the Packers. I think when you look at Watson, he's probably Morgan kind of in that range that we're talking right right in the middle rounds. But he's a fluid athlete. He's got range. He's really slippery in terms of avoiding blocks and finding the football. He's been really productive the last couple of years, both as a run defender and as a pass rusher. He's been an excellent blitzer over the course of his career. We saw how active he was down at the Senior Bowl. He felt like he was at the ball constantly, especially the last couple of days of practice. So I think when you look at Watson, he's a guy. Because he's listed to forty four, I think a lot of people say, oh, he's not going to test it as well. I think he's going to test really well and at that size it will come off as very impressive. So Nathaniel Watson a guy I'm excited to watch here.
You know, Fran, there's some guys this class that I call CEO type linebackers. You know, maybe like a Tommy Eikenberg or Nathaniel Watson. I just think these guys are just so experienced or just so smart out there on the field. I mean, Nathanael Watson's played in fifty seven career games in the STC nearly six hundred special team snaps. This kid is an experienced player, maybe has some limitations, like you had said, won't wow you like kway Walker did. He is a guy that's going to play on Sundays and maybe you're starting linebacker before you know it.
All right, let's go to the next one here. Trust the tape. Someone we're not expecting to test well, but don't count it too much against him. Who's the first person that comes to your mind?
I think that's Maris louf al At, a Notre Dame, who's kind of that burly, husky linebacker that you really just want going forward. If he has to carry a tight end down the seam or a running back on a wheel, you're probably in trouble. He is a kid you want to blitz on third down and stuff the run on early downs, very much like a Frankie Luvu. By the way, Ernest Jones has e merged with the Los Angeles Rams is a nose, nonsense, go forward through your face type of linebacker that maybe the combine isn't really the place for him to highlight and show that that so I think he's a guy that the tape looks really good, had some highs and lows at the Senior Bowl Week if you could find him, had some really impressive plays out there in one on ones and the team periods as well. He's a guy go back to the film. This is a football player at heart, just may not be the shorts and a T shirt workout guy for you.
For me, I'm going to go with a name that a lot of Eagles fans will be very familiar with, and that's Jeremiahter, Junior, the junior from Clemson. To me, I think when you look at Trotter, he is He's not the same player as his dad was, right, But I think when you look at his ability to make plays outside the tackle box and make plays along the sideline, a lot of that is from his play recognition, his instincts, and his effort. Right. I don't think that he is the most explosive athlete, but I think when you look at the way that he plays, you know he's still able to find the football. And so if he doesn't test well, I'm not going to hold it against him because that's what my expectations are coming in. If he does test well, then you know, I think that that's now we're talking about maybe him going a little bit higher than people are currently talking about him. He was in first round mox back in the summer, in the spring. That's that has since cooled off. We have not seen that over the last couple of months. But we'll see exactly how Trotter tests once he gets out to Indian Do you have.
A comp for Trotter?
What's that?
Do you have a comp for Trotter?
I don't do you.
Yeah, I have two names written down because I think he's going to measure in right around six foot five thirty, maybe even be a five to eleven guy. So it has to be somebody with a shorter profile. I have David Long Junior, who's carved out a really nice career coming out of West Virginia. He just took a free agent contract to the Dolphins after starting his career of the Titans. And then Wesley Woodyard's kind of a throwback knee. He was a veteran linebacker with the Broncos out there, But shorter profile guy that can really move laterally good Blitzer, I mean Trodder Junior ran four eight to one in high school, so He's a guy that's probably going to come into you know, the four sixes and look pretty good out there in the field.
Yeah, And I think there were some He kind of reminded me a little bit of like Nacoby and Nikoby Deane coming out of doorge as well. I think there's some similarities there as well. Have a positional workout. Who are you excited to see go through position work?
Well? One of my favorite players in this class I think is going to be a darling of a week. He's going to be a guy that won't wow you. Maybe not a pluses in any workout or any drill or any test, but he's going to be an a B plus across the board and it's going to work himself right into an early Day two selection. I think that's Cedric Gray out of North Carolina. I think this kid's a tremendous athlete. He's really good against the run, yet he can move backwards in his zone. Drops, good lateral range, good special teams player, tremendous ball skills. He has some really impressive interceptions in his career. He has five picks, seven forced fumbles in his career. He ran four sixty one in high school, so he could be a four or five to five guy as well. Really athletic. He won't wow you in the four fours like a Peteon Wilson, but he's no slouch either. So he's a guy that can play like you know, the way Jalen Smith, you know, played at Notre Game, or even like a Telvin Smith at Florida State, the way he converted to linebacker in the NFL. He's a really athletic player. I think he's gonna have a great week and kind of put his stamp on being a round two player.
No, that's a really good one. I like Cedric Cray a lot, and I honestly a player that I think is very similar is Junior Colson from Michigan, who sure a similar kind of frame kid, you know, six three, two hundred and forty seven pounds. I wouldn't count him as like purely explosive, but this is the guy that I think, especially at that size, he's really quick, he's rangy, he's got the believe to make plays outside the tackle box, outside the hashes. He's tall, he's thick, long, he's got good block attention. His ability the key and diagnos is really strong, he doesn't miss a lot of tackles. His misstackle rate was really really high. That kind of backed that up based off what you watch on films. So I think when you look at Junior Colson, he's a player that declared for the draft after the National Championship season with Michigan. A lot of people view him as potentially the number one linebacker in this class, and I think that he's a guy that I'm excited to kind of watch go through drills because for a player that big, again, he moves pretty well. I don't think it'll be enough to say, like, oh, one of the big winners from an athletic testing standpoint, but I think going through drill work, I think that will be a win for Junior.
I really like this linebacker class. You know, I don't think there's going to be those first rounders. You know, maybe Peyton Wilson tests his way in there, but the medicals probably pull him back. But as far as Day two, early day three, I really like this group out there, and I think there's some other guys like Michael Barrett at Michigan. It's a really veteran player, high school quarterback, special teamer or even like a Curtis Jacobs at Penn State. I mean, where do you plug these guys, fran I think they're Day three players that are really athletic, really experienced. We're going to have to play on Sundays. It's just the whole battle of draft capital and where you take them and positional value. But I like this linebacker group.
Yeah, it's a beauty in the ivyholder kind of situation. I think with a lot of those guys, right, and some of them are going to be seen as more scheme specific than others, But it is an interesting group. I think it's better than last year's group. I think go overall on the whole.
Hey, Tommy Aichenberg is going to be like a Josie Jewell. You know, he's going to be a guy that's going to go in the fifth or the sixth round and end up playing a thousand snaps and have two hundred tackles for you.
All Right, Well that said, all those players, they're all taking the field on Thursday. Let's now get into the players we're going to see Friday here at Cornerback. Best Athletic Workout. Who you expected to see the Top scores from this.
Week has to be mister group of five of this year's class quiny and Mitchell at a Toledo, He's going to run in the four threes. He's going to rep two twenty five over twenty times, which is going to put them in very, very elite company. Only fourteen players in the last twenty years of the Combine have run in the four threes and put up over twenty reps of bench. That means you are really fast and really strong. It is a two elite categories. Quinian Mitchell did those on his freak lists over the summer. On Bruce Feldman's Athletic article. I really think he's going to do it again in Indie and still a show.
I love Quinyan Mitchell. We talked about him at Senior Bowl, so I don't need to wax poetic on him any more than I already have. This would have been Cooper de Gen for me, but obviously, as our friend Dan Bruger from the Athletic broke last week, he will not be participating in athletic workouts as he's still recovering from a late season injury, hoping to work out four teams closer to the draft. So for me, I'm going to go with another potential first round pick here in Nate Wiggins, the corner from Clemson. Who, I mean, the athleticism just pops on tape when you watch him. He's explosive, he's got really light fee really fluid and out of cuts. He's got the ability to match ro outs. I mean, all the athletic traits you're looking for from a corner, he's got those man cover traits.
Yeah, he's a really good play You could see the speed with him and those two rundowns he had this year over fifty yards, forcing a fumble, hogging down ball carriers. He's reportedly in the four twos. He's tall, he's long, he's strong, really fun player in Wiggins.
All right, let's go now to stopwatch shocker. Who could surprise us with the way that they work out at this position. Who who's the first one that comes to mind for you?
Well, min was gonna be Nate Wiggins because he's flirting with some four to two speed, which is always a stopwatch shoker out there. I'll give you another one here and Cam Hart at another game, it was a converted receiver nearly six three, two hundred pounds He's a really good looking player. He was also in the freaklist over the summer. He may put up that vaunted forty in vertical eleven foot broad which you cross those two boxes. That's the kind of Byron Jones jump out the building, you know, Olympic type jumps. He's reportedly been putting up forty inches right around eleven feet in the broad cam. Heart's a good looking player, probably a Day three player, early round four, Round five, had a really nice steener Bowl week in my opinion, kind of looks like Akila Witherspoon and just that long and tall frame out there. I think some schemes are really going to like him, but he's going to jump through the roof.
For me, I'm going to go with a player that I think right now kind of being viewed as like an early Day three, maybe late Day two type of pick. Correct me if I'm wrong here, But this is the guy who saw the field early on his career at Oregon, transferred down to Auburn, and now has turned into a call He started the last couple of years there for the Tigers. That's DJ James under six foot right around one hundred and seventy pounds, So this is a light compact of a very slight corner. But that said, he's got really fast feet, silky smooth athleticism, fast twitch athletic leaper, good body control, and then good speed. I mean he can carry vertical routes really really well on tape as always in phase down the field. So you know, he's a player that to me, like when you when you watch him, even if he doesn't stick with that first team ben, I think that DJ James is one of those guys that he's going to get a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth opportunity because you just don't see a lot of guys that move this way at the corner spot. And so if you've got those man cover traits, that's going to serve you well. That said, I think DJ James is a guy that it definitely keep him in mind as one of the top athletic testers in Indy.
I feel like every year there's these corners out there I just cannot quit that just aren't that big. And you know he may be one hundred and seventy pounds under and seventy five pounds. He just want him in a bigger package. But he plays so much bigger, very much like Nikkel Roby Coleman, you know out of USC and the way he played in the NFL. I just want these corners to be a little bit bigger, like a Meek Robertson at a lot tech a few years ago. He just can't quit them. They're tough, they have ball skills, they can cover. Just that height weight profile scares you a little bit.
Let's go to the next one. Here, trust the tape. Someone we're not expecting to blow the doors off the workout at corner. Oh, who's that for you?
You know, this may surprise some and may surprise myself, as I may be wrong next week, But I actually think this is Kamari Lassiter.
No, that's my first name that I've had.
Some long speed issues with that. I just see a clone of Jordan Lewis coming out of Michigan, who is a four or five to five guy that carved a really nice career. Is that Nickel safety in the NFL? I think last similar. He's a really tough player, physical player, not only in his jams at the catchpoint run support being a flat defender. I just see some issues sometimes and transition the long speed I do see the burst of close. I do see some recovery, it's just that long speed and the strides. He maybe five to eleven one seventy nine, so he's not the biggest player as well, but he plays tough and just maybe won't be the testing darling as a you know, a Quinian Mitchell Terryan Arnold, Nate Wiggins, you know some of those guys ahead of them.
Yep, Lassler was the first name I wrote down. I think that he is like a perfect of all the of all the positions we're doing. He's the guy that I think is like the first name that pops in my mind for this category. So I really like Koloid mcinstry on film, but I'm not expecting him to be an outstanding athletic tester, So you know, I think he's one certainly to keep in mind. There another one, And I kind of struggled with this this year at Corner because it feels like there's a lot of trait cy ish players in this group. Kouloid McKinstry was who I ended up breaking down. I think he's going to run well. I think the forty will serve him well. I don't know that like the change of direction stuff is going to be as strong.
So he's a little tight, he's a little stepped.
Yeah, and so that's why I, you know, going in like I'm not expecting it. And so if he doesn't do that, well, I think others will. Oh maybe he drops down the board a little bit. That's kind of table stakes for me.
And I see like a clone of Akudah, which puts people's brains in pretzels. Because Akudah at Ohio State was one player probably overdrafted then the injuries were brutal early in his career. You really don't know what he is even as a fourth fifth year veteran in the NFL. But another guy with the long speed, with the length, with the profile, just a little tight hips, a little tight ankled, and just had some technique issues at time. But Akudah had a similar heightweight, speed, profile and draft spot as McKinstry.
Let's go to our last category here for corner positional workout we're most excited for. Is there a drill that you like most with the cornerback spot.
I think it's that gauntlet drill and I really want to see I hope we could see, you know, Coop and his ball skills. But I think Jarvis Brownlee out of Louisville is going to steal the show too. Another one of those corners in my corners, I need them from South Florida. Jarvis Brownlee absolutely from South Florida out there, but his natural ball skills, his tenacity, his kind of physical play style. I think you're gonna see all that you know out there at the combine. I think that gauntlet drill you can really see the natural ball skills in some of these corners, and a lot of them are converted receivers that make it look easy.
I'm gonna go with another Florida kid and Terry and Arnold from Alabama, who was an All American this year. He had five picks, twelve PBUs and as a red shirt sophomore, he's gonna be a twenty one year old rookie. He's been again. The production stands out in that loan year as a starter, great energy. I expect him to be one of those kind of tempo setters throughout the course of the workout. But the drill that I like the most ben from the corners. I love watching them go through the box drill where they kind of have to like redirect, You'll come forward, going to your back pedal, flip your hips, then turn and find the ball downfield. And Arnold, who's got press man traits like all day. I think that's that's a drill where he could really shine. So I'm excited to see him go, you know, go find the football, track it and come down finish with it. I think Arnold is a guy that could really stand out in those drills.
Yeah, he's a really good player. He's going to check all the boxes out there. He's the premier heightweight, speed, cover press corner out there in this class. It's going to be him and Quinny and Mitchell kind of debate. I think for the next three months.
All right, let's go safety. Best athletic workout from the safety class, so these guys will also take the field Friday.
I think this has to be Kalen Bullock at the USC. I think he is the most fluid athletic long safety in this class. Really reminds me of like a Jesse Bates type of player. You want to play him in the post, you want to rob some routes in the middle. Maybe has some inconsistencies coming downhill and attacking the alley and run support. But on the back end, he's going to ball howk and play you know, absolutely number to number and take away a lot of deep throws.
This kind of speaks to what I think is the depth of the safety class because I wrote three names down potentially for this one, depending on which wey you're going to go. I didn't write down Kaalen Book, so I think that and again I don't. I don't argue with that with that selection either because I wrote down Jalen Simpson from Auburn. I wrote down cam Kinchins from Miami. But the guy I want to highlight is Tyler Nuban from Minnesota, who I think is kind of flying under the radar because he didn't go to the Senior Bowl. But this is a guy that a lot of people felt was the number one safety in the country coming in into the season, and I think that that film holds up. He can do everything for you on the back end. He's physical, he's instinctive, he can play the ball, he's athletic, He'll come downhill as a top down run defender. He can play close to the line of scrimmage. So to me, like Tyler Nuban if he ended up I mean, look, if he ended up going like twenty eighth overall, you know, thirty first overall, if he's snuck into the back end of round one, would not shock me, because he's got that kind of skill set. I do think he's probably more of like a early to mid round two type. This is kind of the feel of his skill set. But Tyler Nuban, he does, he does a lot for me. He'll be a guy I think we'll test really well. Yeah.
I had an area scout friend that said he reminds me so much of Mika Fitzpatrick Yo, and that he thinks that's how it would be used at the next level. And just his heightweight, speed, athleticism, special teams thirteen career interception good Blitzer. His kid's a playmaker over the middle of the field. Now it's just the battle of positional value, which early day two seems like a lot of guys have fallen into, whether that's Brian Branch, Jalen Patree, Jevon Holland, seems like a lot of those playmaking safeties are kind of getting pushed to early round two. That could be nubin country, all right, let's go.
To a Stopwatch shocker who's going to surprise us with his athletic workout.
All right, this is an interesting name, and this may surprise even more than my last pick at Kaln Bullock, which I thought was a pretty shoe win for athletic bok out there. But this player, I think is tremendous and he got the late call up to the Senior Bowl. Four year player at Fresno State, then transferred over to Oregon. This is Evan Williams, who's a really really interesting safety. Is a three down player, great instincts, great length, great athleticism. I think he can cover exceptionally well, yet he can play against the run. I just can't quit this kid. I think this is exactly what you want out of that nickel safety spot. Maybe not that small corner you play in there, but that athletic safety that may maybe has some traits to like a Sydney Brown and the way he played at Illinois last year. Maybe a little little bit longer as he's Evan Williams is about six to one or so, but I think he's really going to have a great workout.
Rant that's a guy. It's a really good one. I'm going to go with another safety a similar kind of build, also went to the senior ball, but much different profile because this kid was only a true sophomore, but he went on an LDS mission, so he's been three years at least removed from high school from Utah. SciOne Vaki, who was a two way player at Utah this year. He actually had seventy five touches on the offensive side of the football. He's returned kicks in the past. He's done a little bit of everything. But when you watch him as a safety, actually wrote down Eagle safety Sidney Brown while watching I think he's got a similar kind of skill set in terms of just being like kind of a little bit on the shorter like, but dense, explosive, kind of like a rocket playing from depth. It spent a lot of time like in the box and in the nickel. I like his play personality. He's he averaged almost ten yards of touch five touchdowns on offen this year. He's got extensive special teams experience. And I mentioned the running back background in Utah, but that even goes back to high school. Ben he was the blocking fullback for Naji Harris at Antioch High school early in his early in his career coming out of California, ended up transferring, went to Liberty High School just to get some love. But I think when you look at Vaki the play right now, I think he's definitely a multiple ball of clay. I don't think he's ready made as a safety yet, but I think that when you look at the trades, he's really explosive, He's fluid, a really good blitzer. Like there's a lot to like. But again, I think he's still some time away from being able to make a real impact as an every down defensive player. But he's certainly a fun player to watch here. I think he'll be a guy to watch out in Indianapolis. Let's go to the next one. Trust the tape. Who's the guy we're not expecting to test?
Well? All right, I'm stealing two names here, but they're kind of similar as they both wear red out in the PAC twelve and it's going to be Jiden Hicks at a Washington State and Cole Bishop out of Utah. I think both these guys have tremendous tape, tremendous versatility. They could be guys that can play some half yield on the back end, some cover for safety. I think they can cover the slot. I think they could also play some dime linebacker if you really needed them too. Guys that are really comfortable down in the box, physical safeties. I just don't think they're elite athletes. You know, if they're going to be in the drills with Tyke Smith and Cam Kitchens and Kalen Bullock, they're probably not that fluid, rangey, explosive safety. These are guys are good football players with good size. At Jayden Hicks is six three, two fifteen, so I think he really reminds me of like a Kyle Dugger at a Leonori Rye. It can be that hybrid sub package safety for a team.
And Dugger, I mean he blew the doors off the combine and that's what got him drafted in the top fifty. So if Hicks is able to do that from an athleticism standpoint, then I think that we're talking a right like he's gonna have a rocket on his draft stock. But if he doesn't, because I agree, I don't. I didn't see like a plus plus athlete on film.
Yeah, I don't see the testing of a Dugger, But the usage and the versatility. Maybe a Josh Medallist is a more fair whatever.
Yeah, I liked him on Phil he was Actually he was the first name I wrote down for this category. Of the other guy I wrote with him was Javon Bullard from Georgia. Kind of similar to what we were saying about his teammate and Kamari Lassler, where I don't think that he's like a plus athlete, but he's just a good football player. He sees things well, he's a reliable tackler. He can do a couple of different things with interchangeable safety as a deep player for the Bulldogs and that split safety scheme. So I think when you look at Bullard, he's a guy that I'm not expecting to to, you know, run there. He's not gonna, you know, blow up the forty. He's not gonna jump out of the gym. But I do expect him to be a viable starting safety in the NFL. Let's go positional workout. Who are we most excited to see go through the position work out in Indy?
Well, I want to see those little spark plug Nickels, you know, the Mike Sanstrils, the Tyke Smith's out there. I want to see them move and change directions, whether that's the box drill as you had talked about, of that W drill, guys that can get really low and fluid in their pedal, put their foot in the ground and explode the other direction. So I think Tyke Smith Mike Sanstrall are going to be the two premier Nickels in this class, and I think they're going to look pretty good out there workouts.
I'm gonna go with Jalen Simpson from Auburn, who, like his teammate DJ James from the Corner Group, he's really he's really light. He's a sub one hundred and eighty pounds safety, which that's I mean one hundred and seventy eight pounds. That's lighter than any safety drafted in the last decade. So we'll see what he comes in at in indye. We'll see if he drinks a couple of gallons of water before stepping on the scale and getting going. But this is a guy that's got a corner background, right, He's a corner up through twenty twenty two and then made the move to safety last year. So you and you see that on tape. I mean, this is a guy that closes ground fast. He's got impressive closing speed when they go through all of these drills. I gotta go through the order here. But whoever is going around Simpson in the safety group that might be in trouble because you're gonna see this guy blazing and then you're gonna see you know, whoever is not after him. That's tough sledding for that guy more often than not. So I'm gonna go with Jalen Simpson there with a position workout. I'm excited to see it actually might be Tikey Smith now that I'm looking at it, just because of the alphabetical order from that safety group now changes to the order of operations from a position work here in the combine this year, the tight ends are actually working on Friday with the dB. So I want to go now through the tight end position best athletic workout. What are we exciting here? What are we excited to see here from Indianapolis from this group, And.
There's some really athletic profile tight ends in this group. There's obviously a premier one at the top out of the SEC. I'm going to go over to the ACC though, and I'm going to go Jaheem Bell out of Florida State. I think he is going to be one of the more athletic tight ends in this class. I know people are thinking, what about Brock Bauers, what about Jatavin Sanders. This Shaheem Bell is an interesting ballplay playmaker. I don't really know what he is yet the next level, he may just be a chess piece weapon for an offense. But he's going to look really good moving around, jumping, running, He's a really interesting athlete South Carolina Transfer. He's gotten some running back reps. He's got some tight end reps. He's gotten some reps out wide. I think he has a vertical Who did he beat down the left hand sideline? Was that Kimari Lassiter? Yeah? Yeah, he dropped the rate in the bucket. It was very similar to a ringo play where he also got beat over the top end of the bucket. But Jahem Bell is a really interesting player. Don't forget about him after those first two.
I like it well really quickly. I will just hit on Brock Powers only because I got a good story to go along with it. Because you know that one of my favorite things to do in the combine is talk with all these guys and you know, just kind of ask them not just about themselves, because they're so like, you know, they're schooled at this point in terms of like answering questions about their game. I like asking them about their teammates and also guys that are coming down the pipe. And so a couple of years ago, it was a March of twenty twenty two, Georgia had three linebackers. One of them was Nikobe Dean we talked about kway Walker. The third one was Channing Tindall. And Tindall was known as like a sideline to sideline kind of explosive freak athlete. Was only he never started for the Georgia defense, but was a key player for that national title team. And Channing Tindall I asked him, Oh, you know, you guys had this freshman tight end, Brock Powers, Like, what can you tell me about him? And he said, you know, when he first got to campus, me and a few of my teammates on defense, some of the combo guys, we were all doing gassers before practice, and so Brock Bowers comes over, He's, oh, can I run with you guys? And they all looked at him and he's he's a very unassuming frame. I know there was this like picture that went viral of him and Gronk at the Super Bowl and just Grounk just dwarfing brock Bowers, and everyone's like, Oh, this guy's gonna be a top ten pick. But they all kind of looked at brock Bowers up and now like yeah, yeah, sure, rookie, you want to run with us? And then he just burned them. They just like raised by them on two or three straight gassers, and so they're like, all right, Like this guy's got legit athleticism. Channing Tyndall the day after he told me that he went and ran four four eight, So I'm like, okay, Like brock Bowers is going to be in those like load of mid four fours at two hundred and thirty plus pounds. He's a he's a really interesting athlete. I wrote down Dallas Clark, But you know, I think that when you look at brock Bowers, he is a fun, fun player, and I do expect him to test really really well.
I have three names right now, I wrote Dallas Clark, Vernon Davis, and Jordan Reed. Now I don't think he's going to be a four to three, you know, type of tester like a Vernon Davis. But the Jordan Reed heightweight, speed profile testing, I can see that.
Yeah, and Jatavian Sanders also from Texas outstanding athlete, like he checks all those boxes do. I want to make sure we give him some love as well. Let's go to stopwatch Shoker, who's going to surprise us with his workout?
Well, this was going to be my rock Bowers there as. I think he'll be the darling as far as the jumps and the speed out there. Jatevan Sanders shouldn't be far behind. But jahem Bello ran four to six in high school, jump thirty eight inches in high school. He'll be right up there with him. So I really want to work in jaheen Bell's name into there. He's got to be a Day three player based on his usage and kind of creative profile and background. But a bit of a ball Clay right now, a guy who I've compared to Charles Clay or even a Trey Burgen who a lot of Eagles fans now coming out of Florida. He didn't really know what he was coming out of Florida either, So a little bit of vision Jaheem Bell, could you know, be that day three version of Jadevan Sanders.
I'm trying remember the defense that were going up against. So I remember when he was at South Carolina, like him taking handoffs and taking the you know runs up the middle for like forty yard touchdowns. Like you know, Jeane Bell is that kind of athlete in the SEC. I want to go with Jared Wiley from TCU, who I actually didn't watch before the Senior Bol. He was like one of the names I just like didn't get to before making the trip down there. He's six six and over two hundred and fifty pounds, and I was just I was kind of caught off by how well he got off the ball. He's a really smooth, effishent athlete. He's got speed down the scene, he could pull away in space. After going back and watching him again after the Senior Bowl, usually the athleticism stands out. And he's only been playing tight end for a few years. He was a high school quarterback when he was coming out. So I think when you look at Jared Wiley, he's a guy I think could impress in terms of how he works out. I don't think that we're talking about him in that way at this point, Let's now go to a trust the tape who we're not expecting to blow up in these drills.
I think that's gonna be a J Barner at at Michigan Good, which every year there's these big ten tight ends. You know, maybe not the high caliber level of a Samuel Porta, but maybe like at Jake Ferguson, you know down there in Dallas, who you know doesn't have the exciting pass game upside, he's a guy you're gonna need out there on every down the block defensive bends, do the dirty work in the run game, be a reliable weapon on third down in the red zone. AJ Barner is a guy compared to Anthony Sano, which maybe has a little bit of stiffness running and maybe doesn't have the elite separation skills. This kid's gonna block his butt off in the run game and be a three down player for somebody. Now it's just a battle of the draft capital, but his tape looks great. Also, a transfer from Indiana team captain over five hundred special team snaps in his career as well, so he'll do all that dirty work stuff you need on the roster, just maybe won't have the sexiest forty times or jumps you know out there in Indy.
I'll throw another big ten tight end at you for good measure, Brevin span Ford from Minnesota favorite just under six to seven, just under two hundred and seventy pounds, Like, he's not going to be that Kate.
Stover in this group too. What other big ten tight ends we got out there?
Yeah, exactly, He's a He's a great blocker span Ford, and he like embraces that role. So I'm a big fan of him for that role. But he's just not he's not going to test well well beat out there positional work The.
Three names I have for brevand spain Ford are Darnell Washington, Lee Smith, and Laden Toilolo.
There you go throw like old school or like career, Marcedes Lewis and there even Tho. Lewis was a first round pick. Obviously, let's go down positional workouts. We're most excited to see.
Man, it's got to be those two guys at the top, you know, Brock Bauers, Jatavan Sanders. Collectively, those two are gonna move like h backs, are going to move like receivers out there. They're gonna be past game weapons for somebody. Now it's just the conversation of team needs and draft capital to go get these tight ends out there. So I think those two are going to steal a show. There's a couple you know, maybe later. I like that you mentioned Jared Wiley, who I think he's gonna move really well for his size, is a much taller, longer profile tight end with some upside in the past game as well. But those Big ten tight ends fran that I like blocking their butt off that aren't going to really be able to show themselves outside of that blocking explosion drill. So look out for the sled during that one.
I think the one that I don't know if I'm like excited about the workout is more of them just like intrigued to see the workout is Cad Stover from Ohio State. Just because of the background. He won Big Ten tight End of the Year this past year with second team All Conference. But I think when you look it's over and he looked at his background. He was a defensive player when he first got to Ohio States a d end as a true freshman, played both ways back even in just in twenty twenty two played both tight end and linebacker, so really didn't play full time at the position at tight end until this season. So what does he look like? He didn't go to the Senior Bowl, he didn't go to the Shrine Bowl. Like, I'm excited to see what he looks like out in Indianapolis. That could be like a high upside kind of selection for a team. When do you get to the middle rounds of this draft.
We had THEO Johnson somewhere in there too.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Yep, he's another one. It's a three down player, just like those other big ten guys, just like a Jake Ferguson blocks defensive ends, can do all that backside stuff, can do the split flow stuff, climbs really well in the run game. Just not the greatest athlete. So I think that's going to kind of put him on early Day three, but just lump him in with the other big ten tight ends that maybe aren't the sexiest as far as draft capital, but are going to play on your team on Sunday. I promise you, all.
Right, let's get over to Saturday where we've got the running backs, the quarterbacks, and the wide receivers at running back, best athletic workout, what do you got.
I think it's got to be Bucky or who. I think he's going to be the best kind of you know, pass game running back, the kind of slasher, that perimeter back, the satellite back that can do some stuff in the slot as well. It's only about a one hundred and ninety pounds, very much like a Devin Singletarry or Jerrick McKinnon out there, but he can do it all for you. Just maybe you don't want banging on you know, third and one and the short yard of stuff between the tackles. He's a combo back in that regard, so you're gonna want to compliment him with somebody out there. But this is the nature of the NFL. You want a guy that can really take advantage of matchups in space, and Bucky Irving is an impressive athlete.
Poor job by me because I wrote two names down for this and Irving was not one of them. But he should have been, certainly for me. The two days I did write down Jalen Wright, who was a freaklister at Tennessee. Some of the numbers from Bruce Veldman forty four inches in the vert that'd be higher than any running back draft in the last decade. If you hit that, one hundred and twenty eight inches in the broad would be outstanding. He ran under six three and the fifty five meter in high school, So this is the guy that he's got some wheels to him for sure. And then the other one's Blake Quorum. Look five eight to ten, he's like short and dense. Dude. Some of these numbers like Bruce Feldman. He had Bruce had him as the he was a side mentioned in the freaklist this summer. Man like he was like it wasn't like, oh he wasn't one of the top one hundred, but he was like, oh, we're also gonna mention Blake Quorum, but just casually just threw in there. Oh yeah, six three nine in the three cone and three eight nine in the short shuttle. It's like, what both of those would be better than any running back drafted in the last decade. Obviously we've had some crazy athletes at that position, So uh, if Quorum does that, which, by the way, like dude, he's had you know, he had Aiden Hutchinson as his number two. Freak it lasted a couple of years ago, and the numbers were like outrageous, and Aiden Hudgson almost hit it. Could he pay same thing? Like almost hit those numbers. So you know, even though those those there might be some home cooking with some of those numbers from those schools.
I had ridiculous numbers or Sean Gary had ridiculous numbers. I think the Michigan Wolverines are gonna a trademark this freaqualist pretty soon.
Yeah. Well, the strength coach went to the Chargers with Harboss, so we'll see if that can continue.
Oh and interesting here.
But that said, let's get to the next one here. Stop watch shocker. Who do you got for us? Who's going to shock us with their workout?
I think it's going to be Braileen Allen out of Wisconsin, who's going to come in over two forty and reportedly running the four fours, who has an incredible get off and you really get out of that stance and get out of the blocks. Reminds me a lot of the way like Steven Jackson came into the NFL really tall running back, and maybe he doesn't look like the normal profile we expect, but he's got some giddya up and some juice and can really run between the tackles and make those defenders pay in space. So at six ' two reportedly two forty five running in the four fours, Braylan Allen's a really good player.
So I wrote him down. He was the first one. If you didn't mention him, it was going to be Braileen Allen for me. He was also a freakleist guy. Some of the ten yard split stuff with him just just freaky at that size.
He's also a good pass protector too, So he's a guy I think coaches are going to love.
Let me go to a completely off the radar here, because this guy's got one college start from Louisville, started his career at Wisconsin U and was a high school wide receiver, right, so this is a guy who's really not played the running back position often. He was a three time state champ as a in the long jump, one hundred meter, four by one, one hundred relay, three state runner ups as well high school basketball player. This is Isaac Gorendo from Louisville, one of two Louisville backs going to the Combine. This kid's gonna fly, so he's gonna like no one knows about Garndo right now. He went to the Shrine Bowl, but again just that has not been like a productive collegiate player. But I think we're coming out of everyone's gonna like, oh, like he's gonna be everyone's like favorite, Like day three, I want to get this guy Adams a return man. He's been a productive return guy throughout his career. He'll be a lot of people's mock drafts, so on all those mock draft simulators. So Isaac Corendo, he'll be a guy to watch here for the for the combine. I think he'll shock a lot of people.
That's a good one. I've been dancing around his tape on my watch list here over the past few days. I get to him, I'll prioritize him this afternoon.
He's got some he's got some juice for sure. Let's go trust the tape. Who are we not expecting to work out? Great? But we still like the player.
I think this could be Trey Benson for the State.
Good one.
Who I think is that guy that you know kind of wants to put the ball under his armpit and like fight every defender. You know, He's a guy like the way David Montgomery played at Iowa State, or even like a Jeremy Hill at LSU. The guy it just seems like he's angry all the time. I just don't know where he's going to be able to show that at the combine. Maybe has some long speed in the forty and has some lower half explosiveness, but he's just a dirty work runner out there that can make people miss, whether it's violently or with some elusiveness. I want him on my team. I want to give him the ball in third and one. I just don't know where an Indie's going to shine.
Yeah, I think that's a really good one. One of the names I had written down, and I would say cut from the same cloth. Ray Davis from Kentucky. I'm not expecting him to blow the doors off the athletic testing portion of the workout, but he's just a good football player. It makes people miss, really strong through contact. He checked a lot of those same boxes you're talking about with Trey Benson. Isaiah Davis too, similar from South Dakota State. He doesn't have any juice. What's over like he might I don't know like what he's gonna run in the forty. I can't imagine it's going to be a strong number, but he's a good football player as well. Let's go to the position work out. Who are you most excited to see go through all the running back specific drills here in Indianapolis.
I think collectively, as far as catching the ball, you know, making the right reads and the cuts in as far as a running back and the drills and the test, I think Marshaun Lloyd yep is going to be a big winner this week. Who's a South Carolina transfer. Was a leading rusher for USC this this year. Maybe a little bit undersize at five nine, two fifteen, but very much has like the no Sean Marino or DeAndre Swift profile that I think can do a lot more. In the past game. Lloyd's got some really impressive plays in the past game. He's got some seam touchdowns, really creative stuff in the screen game. It's got some vision at times that drives it crazy. Sometimes circle circles back for a forty yard touchdown, sometimes circles back for any yard loss. You know, he's one of those running backs but maybe tries to do too much in the offense. But he's a really productive player, and he's a really athletic player. He's going to look good at pretty much every drill.
Yeah, it was the first time I wrote down for this category. I'm glad that you hit on him. I'm going to go with another Senior Bowl player in Dylan Loub from New Hampshire five nine two ten. He was one of the darlings from the Senior Bowl just because of what he can do as a pass catcher. Just really quickly with Dylan Loub the last two seasons at New Hampshire, so twenty twenty three and twenty twenty two, he has scored touchdowns as a runner obviously as a pass catcher nine touchdowns receiving the last two years touchdowns both as a kick returner and as a punt returner each of the last two years. So you're talking about the four down flexibility there with Dylan Lobby. I think that that's He's also pretty good in pass protection as well. So very easy to project a role for Dylan Loub in the NFL, like as easy as if he gets here in this process. So you know, as long as everything else checks out, he should be good for a Day three se name ad for him.
Fran actually wrote down Evan Hole. You know the way he came out of Northwestern? Was that last year or two years?
Last year at Northwestern?
Yeah. Yeah. He's a good pass protector, catches the ball well inside the tackle outside. Maybe he has some limitations as far as what he's going to run thing and things like that, but he's going to be a guy. I just think you just can't get off the field and the guy you want in your locker room and maybe on the field on third down for some teams this fall, So.
The running backs go first on Saturday. Then after that we've got two groups of quarterbacks and receivers. So we'll start here with the quarterbacks. Best athletic workout. What do you expect to hear.
Best athletic workout. We'll see what Jaden Daniels does, but it has to be him, Fran. You know, he's the most explosive runner out there. Whether you want to call him some hybrid of Lamar Jackson and Randall Cunningham. You kind of see that lean frame, explosive movements and the twitchy long arm. Jalen Daniels. Jaden Daniels, as we all know, Heisman Trophy winner Arizona State Transfer. He checks a lot of boxes. I don't want to say easily the most athletic, but he has a very very impressive athletic profile.
Yeah, and much different from Joe Milton, who I was gonna go with here just because Joe Milton is I mean, he's like what six six and like two hundred and forty plus pounds, whereas Daniels is a slender, lean frame. Milton is well built. He's got a huge, like huge, huge, huge arm, but also like extremely athletic as well. It was after a seven on seven drill first day of Senior Bowl a couple a few weeks back, completed a pass and then did a standing backflip go after the drill ended, So you're just like, Okay, this guy is a freak show athlete at that position. So I would expect, you know, we don't know, like athletic testing, how often the quarterbacks go through the full gamut of work, but if either of those guys does the full list of drills, they'll be one of the best athletic testers at the position. Really in recent memory, let's go stopwatch shocker. Who's a guy that could surprise us with a good workout.
I actually think this is going to be a shocker as far as what he tests and some of the numbers he puts up with. I've heard reportedly in the four fives that's JJ McCarthy good one. I think it's a tremendous athlete at six three, two hundred and five pounds, maybe a little bit slender for NFL standards, you want them a little bit more in that two fifteen two twenty. I know some people have compared him to an Alex Smith or Ryan Tannehill, but a little bit more body armor around the ribs and through the core as far as you know, muscle mass and things like that, which he certainly has room to grow. He's still a very young kid and he just turned what twenty one years old last month. So JJ McCarthy, he's a guy that I know a lot of people want a bigger body of work in that run first offense. But watch a lot of the QB Run game they designed for him as well. He got out of dodge quite a bit. Whether it's scrambling or some QB power and some zone and reed stuff. This kid can boogie, and I think he's going to look really good testing in Nindy really quickly.
Are you like pro JJ McCarthy. Are you cautious with JJ McCarthy as a quarterback.
I am. I'm pro JJ McCarthy. I think he showed a lot of NFL style traits I would look for on the field. I do have some issues with some things. I think he's a bit of a one speed thrower. Everything is a fastball and flat, very much like Justin Herbert coming out of Oregon. But as far as his vision, his ball placement, his kind of confidence in his accuracy as we had seen, you know, with those defenders turn quite a bit through his two year starting and then his ability to perform in big games. He's done a lot of things I think you would want as far as being an NFL quarterback, and just go through the gamut of quarterbacks started games this past year in the NFL. JJ McCarthy has a skill set to at least compete, contend, perform in the NFL. And let's see how it looks early and what his coaching is like and supporting casts and as we know, all those other factors that determine success.
Yeah, I do like J. J McCarthy. I'm a fan overall of his game. I think he's that's a good one to have here in this category. We'll see what he does. From a testing standpoint this week. For me, I want to go Michael Pratt from two lane. This is a really athletic He's a kind of a one read and go type of quarterback. So you do a lot of examples of him taking off and running over the course of the last couple of years. Well, a lot of touchdowns on the ground, some big plays on the ground. The arm strength is definitely there too, So I think from a physical tool standpoint, you really like what Michael Pratt brings to the table. He's got really light feed he can be using the RPO games on reeds and then like I said, scramble pick up the first down. He's got big plays on tape all over the place. Kind of reminds me a little bit of like a Daniel Jones type. I think that's the scene, that's what you're hoping for. I think with Pratt, I think you're probably looking at like the middle rounds at the end of the day for him when it's all said and done, especially in this quarterback class. But I do like the tools, the skill set there from Michael Pratt. Let's go now, trust the tape, not a guy we're expecting to have a great athletic workout in Indianapolis.
I feel like this is kind of Michael Pennock's country right there where I think you just have to keep going back to the tape with this guy, which he put up prolific numbers and pushing the ball down the field not only at Washington but his time at Indiana before that. He's another guy people want to dive into the medicals with some of his injuries in the past as well. But he's not going to look great running around, moving in space, jumping running. I don't think he's going to have the biggest arm as far as showing it off as far as a gun or throwing around the yard. But he knows how to play the position, and I think there's something to be said with that. So keep going back to the tape, and he's one of those guys you can't quit the tape. He's a productive player and he's a really good quarterback, just doesn't have I have those traits you're excited about as far as prospects and this time of year that we you know, try to hype up and really get excited about yep.
I think I'm gonna go with his Pac twelve cohort there in bo Nicks. I don't think Bonix is gonna, you know, go out and run the fastest forty. He's not the biggest, strongest, fastest. But I do like b Nix and what he's put out on film over the last couple of years. Which if you had told me this in twenty twenty one, I would have said, Fran, like, you are crazy, just based on what we saw at Auburn. But I like the quarterback we've seen in the last two years at Oregon. He's operated that offense at extremely extremely high level, traditional workout. Most excited for what are you most going to see from the quarterbacks?
I think it's just Drake May in general. Yes, And you know, I don't think people really appreciate the type of athlete that he is. I don't think he's run sixty five yards through Ohio State type of you know, athlete like Trevor Lawrence did. But Fran he's also not far off. You know. He's six four, two twenty and moves incredibly well and just that one little asterisk. He comes from our freak show family of athletes, with the two brothers at basketball at North Carolina, the one baseball player at Florida or Old Miss or something like that. This kid can really move around. He's six four, two twenty. He looks like that prototypical NFL quarterback. He's built like Drew Bletsoe. But this kid can move and I think he has a lot more mobility and upside as far as being a runner than people think. I know, Caleb Williams steals a show with his you know, magic as far as you know his loose arm, and Jayden Daniels being an athlete, and JJ McCarthy obviously is prolific winning at Michigan game. Drake May you don't really know what his kind of trait is. I just think he's a tremendous athlete, and I think a lot closer to Trevor Lawrence or even a Josh Allen than we think.
No, I think all of that. I agree with everything that you just said there. I would be remiss. So we did not mention Caleb Williams just because it presumed number one pick and some of the highlight throws he put on film over the last couple of years with USC, I would expect we're going to see that arm talent show up in Indianapolis. No word yet if he is definitely working out. Remember that string up a couple years where a lot of the top quarterbacks didn't go or didn't work out in Indy. That's it seems that that has backed off a little bit and we've seen more of the top guys go out, especially when there's like a head to head type of situation, and I think we will see that here in this one. I do think it's interesting. We will see Drake May and j D McCarthy again, considering both guys are able to work out and do decide to work out, they will go back to back out in Indy, which it was always good, but you can see those guys really go back to back rep after rep after rep. So that will be interesting to note as well. Let's now go to the receiver, so also taking part in drill work on Saturday. Best athletic workout from the receiver position.
Spin the wheel here, yeah, right, dripping athletic says and I want to I want to play basketball at some of these guys, But give me Brian Thomas junior at LSU Nice. It was six four, two hundred pounds, dynamic background in basketball. I think it was a thousand points scorer every year of his high school career. But his case is going to jump through the building. He can run, He's tall, long, explosive. It's going to do everything that you know Christian Watson kind of did as a tester as well. You know, he looks like Justin Hunter or Valvez Scantling, don't forget about it, Scanting I think rant in the fourth threes as well. But Brian Thomas Junior, I think he's going to look the part as far as being that heightweight, speed specimenute receiver.
That's a good one. I had him on my list as well. I'm going to go just with the low hanging fruit of Marvin Harrison Junior, just because you know, when watching him in the summer, you know I wrote down obviously we're writing out all the notes down on him. The athleticism was not something that I was like at the top of the list, like you were talking about, like his release package and it's route running and he's got outstanding hands and you go through the body type all that stuff and then the freak list comes out, and some of the numbers that Bruce Velman put out with him last August are just eye popping, especially at that size. And so if he goes and he tests that way, I mean that's where like you get into like Larry Fitzgerald and Jamar Chase and some of those like true freak show players at that position. If Harrison does that, you know, I think that just kind of cements him as top three, top four pick in this draft. Molik neighbors obviously outstanding athlete as well Brian Thomas's teammate there as well. A lot of like you said, you could like spin the wheel here. Roma Dunze apparently is gonna like run sub four four, which at that size would be outstanding. So a lot to cover here with this position. But who could surprise us? Who's a Stopwatch shocker that could shock us with his workout this week?
I just feel like the past few years some of the Stopwatch shockers have been like unusual heightweight, speed guys like Taylon Thornton, a little bit tall, long receiver at a Baylor ran the four twos, or even like a DK Metcalf who's an absolute horse. I think this class is going to go back to the small guys. Oh, and I'm looking right at two guys. That's gonna be Roman Wilson out of Michigan nice who runs in the fourth threes could flirt with the four two nine, and then Malik Washington out of Virginia, who's five eight, one ninety very much looks like Zay Flowers the way he came out of last year. But I just go back to not really this level of speed, but the way like Trindon Holiday and Jacobe Ford came out years back and they had that oozing four to two, four to three speed in at Munchkin package. That's kind of these two guys. Roman Wilson's five ten league, Washington's slightly smaller at five eight in height, and then one ninety. But these guys are gonna absolutely boogie. We'll see if anyone can squeeze in the four twos there at neat Wiggins.
No, it's a uh. Those are two really good names and important ones to know going in. I'm gonna go uh to those hight weight speed guys though, or at least for one of my first one. Dude, what do you think ke on Coleman's gonna run this week because there's a lot there are some people that feel like, oh, he's not gonna run well, Like, I don't see the speed, I don't see the suddenness, the explosiveness. I don't know. Man, Like when I when I watched him against LSU and the opener, I see a guy who's like six ' four and two ten, and you see like that basketball player background, and You're like, this guy is fluided out of cuts and he is explosive and he is sudden, like I saw that on a film. That's why I've been shocked that people have been so divisive with his athleticism. I didn't think that was gonna be a question. I thought that was like a strength of his game, was like his movement skills at that size. So, uh, what do you do? I think he's a guy that is going to be seen as a big winner coming out of the week.
I just think he's so much at the catch point and after the catch with you know, sudden moves and hurdling guys and things like that. I don't know if people just see the oozing long speed the way like Elik Neighbors just catches a shallow and goes eighty yards. I just don't think you've seen that or gotten that feel. But that's not to say he can't do that, which is exactly what you're speaking to. So I think the elusiveness and that start stop explosiveness. We'll see if he has a long speed in the forty. But he may be another guy that doesn't have that A plus test or that AA plus drill. But it's just an AA minus across the board for the week.
And what I love about Kean Coleman like as often who's used downfield like a drop rate in his career of just around four percent, which is outstanding. And I would say the same thing about the next guy I wanted to bring up, and he's a little bit more of the compact type of body type, Jermaine Burton from Alabama, six foot one ninety four, just under seventeen yards averaged upth of target like extremely high number, like it always targeted downfield drop rate of under three percent, Like this is a guy who just like never puts the ball on the ground. You love that for that that combinations outstanding and he just blows by SEC defenders regularly. So to me like, I think he's a guy that is kind of flying under the radar and will be squarely in that like day two discussion by the time we leave Indy. That's my that's my prediction there.
Yeah, that's not bad. Are we on trust the tape or we.
Trust the tape? Let's go now, let's go next to who is crazy?
We just got through the Stopwatch shocker, and we didn't mention Xavier Worthy, who is a ten to five to five hundred meter guy. I mean we didn't mention, you know, Jalen McMillan, who is a ten to six hundred meter guy you can absolutely boogie as well, which Jalen McMillan. I've heard everything from first round receiver to seventh round receiver. This guy is one of the more polarizing receivers because he has that injury and was obviously in the offense with two other dynamic receivers. Some people really like him, some people think he's just a guy one of the more interesting profiles there. But some of these guys have some serious track backgrounds. But as far as trusting the tape, yep, I think it's got to be Lad McConkie. You know, I don't know if he's going to run in the you know, the low four fours or jump through the building. But as we all know, this guy plays receiver. He separates and catches the ball. And I love this time of year of going back to what these positions really require. And receiver does not require you to jump through the building, run for three and be six four To win, you have to separate and catch the ball. That's what Lad mcconkiy's done every step of his career, just put on the tape, and he, I think is the proverbial trust of the tape prospect this week.
See I almost used him as my stopwatch chaker. I think he's gonna run a little bit better than people think. But at the end of the day, like I think that he fits in this category too, just because, like you check all these other boxes with.
Him, he ran in high school, so he's not going to be slow. He'd probably be right around four or five, though we'll see if a good start or maybe a little quick twitch on the stop you get him into like a four to four eight ballpark.
At the end of the day, like people I think are going to are quick to pigeonhole like, oh, he's just a slot guy. Like I think he can play outside and I think he'll show that he has that skill set to be able to do that with the way he runs and the way he tests. I want to go Jamari Thrash here, another guy that was down the scene bowl. I think Thrash he's not the white the route runner that that McConkey is, but he's got a really good release package and he's a he is a savvy route runner. He sets things up well, he's got good body lean, he messes with his pacing and his pad level through the rally. He sets things up pretty well, pretty reliable at the catch point, more like smooth and fluid than he is explosive and sudden as an athlete. Right, So not a guy that I think is going to blow the doors off the workout. But I think he's a really reliable pass catcher. I think he's he's good, a good a guy that projects well. It's like a number three, number four type of receiver you know in the league. And I think that's that's perfectly fine. So I do like a Jamari Thrash and what he brings to the table. Let's go down positional workout we're most excited for out of all these guys. I mean, you and I both love the Gauntlet, right, Is there a guy that you're expect excited to see go through the gauntlet.
I think Malik Neighbors and his ability to kind of pluck that ball, maintaining speed and going. Ye, there's another guy. Just want to fill out my basketball team with. Obviously Harrison, Brian Thomas, Keon Coleman, but Adi Mitchell. Don't forget about it. Donna Mitchell out there as well, who's every bit of six four to two hundred pounds like the rest of them, transferring over from Georgia. I think he's going to be a big winner of the week. I don't know if he's a four to four guy. I don't know if he's a forty inch vertical guy, but he's not far off either. He's a guy that I think is the you know, the premier ball winner of this class as far as winning above the rim. Very much like a George Pickens or maybe even our own Alshon Jeffrey the way he came out of South Carolina a few years back.
Yeah, and he's like the way he snaps things off It is just really really impressive.
He's got that suddenness of the time.
Yeah, so I think he's going to look good like in the route running portion of things as well, you know, when he's like dialed in. He's as gifted as a lot of these guys that were talking about in this class.
So here's one for you to put you on the spot though, fran Gauntlet drill. Who do you want to see as far as maybe to challenge that, Who's a guy whose hands have put you into question that you really want to see? You go through that gaulet.
Drill really quickly, just buzzing through.
I want to love you the one for me while you're thinking, which I think we were really excited to watch down in Mobile and left us a little bit disappointed. And that was t Who's an impressive player, has real interesting power frame to kind of win deep and separate. His hands really left us disappointed down in Mobile. So he's a guy that separated that just didn't win the ball and the catch point as much as we needed to. So he's a guy I think you really want to watch go through that College drill.
That's a really good one. I think that you know he's a he's a player I would put in that list. Honestly, a lot of these other guys, like you know, I didn't have like huge, huge concerns about their abilities, you know, in terms of like the catch point. It's a it's a good receiving group from from that end of it.
I want to see if Ricky pearsalk in one hand every ball.
Through the guy right, that would be a good one. It's one other name we just haven't mentioned. And I think that the drill worker will be big for him, Malcai Corley, And because especially because of the usage right like he was, everything was so close to the line of scrimmage and yack, yak, yak, everything was yards after catch with him, Uh, what does he run? You know? Does he have that that vertical ability? And then it's as far as like all the route running stuff like in the vertical truck ball tracking things like that, Like that's something. He's a player that I think will benefit from this workout in terms of just being able to prove that, hey, you know what, I've got this in my bag. So maybe not even just a gauntlet with Corley, but some of those vertical route stems that we'll see from them in the workout. I think will be big for him out of Western Kentucky. You know his drawn comparisons like a Deebo Samuel type. But I think the workout will be big for Malachai Corley.
Yeah, and three names really equivent mentioned Troy Franklin, Jalen Polk, Javon Baker. It's a really good receiver class. I just would hate to go through this whole segment.
I mentioned those, Yeah, and then I think for me, let's get into the last day here, Sunday's workout offensive lines for our last position here, best athletic workout. Who you expect? There's a few options here. Who are you most expecting? A top shelf workout from?
Quite a few options here, and it may surprise some as it's going to be a guy that could find himself outside of the first round frame and that's Kingsley. Sumatiaya at a Byu I think is going to be the darling of the week. As far as his move skills and patterns, He's going to test a lot like you know Tristan Wurfs or Penney Sool. He's that type of athlete, not the level of consistent player though, So he is that body of work that offensive line coaches are going to want to get their hands on that really don't come across every year as far as the draft and being a prospect, But he has some really rare movement skills and you know, athleticism. So he's a guy that I think is trying to work his way into the first round and after Indy he could stamp it in there being a back end a Round one.
Yeah, I think that that's I mean, he was number three on Bruce's freaklist and a red shirt sophomore, twenty one year old rookie. He's Penny Soole's cousin. You mentioned that the similarities to Penny. Penny Sool's cousin was a team captain this year as a red shirt sophomore. Like, there's so much to love about the profile with Kingsley, but obviously, like I said, kind of a multiple ball of clay. From that standpoint, I probably would have gone Jackson Powers. Johnson here, the center from Oregon who, like Kingsley, was a thirty year player only a one year starter. But it sounds like he's not going to work out just because of an injury sustained down in Mobile. So I'm going to go with Tyler Goeyton, the tackle from Oregon or from Oklahoma who I mean, former tight end who converted the tackle. Only a one year starter, so another small body of work. But this guy's got outstanding feed, great range, really fluid, explosive athlete. The change of direction stuff is going to be all impressive with guiton. So he'll be the guy that I want to highlight here as the best athletic workout. Let's go now with someone who could surprise. Who's someone that is kind of off the radar or maybe you might test a little better than people think.
I'm going to go with a Yukon prospect, and that's Christian Haynes, who I thought had a great week down in Mobile. But he's got really really good film as well. If you get your hands on at Yukon, that independent program that's played some variety of different opponents as well, so you can watch him against SEC opponents. He's played Arkansas, he's played Clemson, he's played Michigan in twenty twenty two. He reminds me almost like a clone of Dylan Parnham coming out of Memphis. Of Pears back also reminds me a little bit at Zion Johnson, the way he plays two kind of narrow stand guys that are really quick off the ball. I bet he's going to flirt with a five second forty that looks really good in space. Maybe the premier zone blocking guard in this class. I think Zach Frasier is the best zone blocking center. Put him next to Christian Haynes for his zone blocking team. The guy that can reach three techs. Good on the back side, but he's nasty too, as we saw in the Senior Bowl. So I thank Christian Haynes is going to be a big winner this week.
Yeah, I think when you look at Hanes too, I mean this is a guy that was one of the best pullers in the in the group as well watching him on film, just outstanding reps on the move from him, so looking good. He'll look good in that drill work as well. And I would say the same thing for Graham Barton. You know, college left tackle, started his career at center, and that's where a lot of people feel he's going to make the move to the interior in the NFL. So he's got some position flexibility. But I love this guy on the on the run, moving up to the second level, third level, He's outstanding in space and so Graham Barton one of my favorite personal favorite offensive linemen in this class. There are a couple other games that can throw in here too, Brandon Holman from TCU, Dominic Pooney from Kansas. I think it's going to test well. I think Graham Barton, he's another one I think could really surprise people with the way he tests. Let's now go to the next one. Trust the tape. Who's a guy that not a great athlete based off film, so don't kill him when he doesn't blow up the testing.
I'll give you an inside and outside guy here. These guys are the premier people movers in the class, but that means they're probably not the most athletic, or the most fleet of foot or the most fluid in space. And that's jac Latham on the outside for Alabama at right tackle, who's the strongest player in this class. He moves people out of gaps. He may not be for every scheme, maybe not a zone blocker, but if you think he looks like a Max Starks or a Mike au Potty, Carl Nix, those kind of hulking tackles maybe even slides into plays guard at the next level that wants to move people in the run game vertical displacement. That's JC Latham. I bet he reps close to thirty maybe even forty in the bench press, but I don't really know what else. He's going to look great in out at Indy and then on the inside. Christian Mahogany at a Boston College is very similar. He's a kind of mauling inside offensive linemen, moves people in the run game, is surprisingly good in pass protection, but again, a guy you're not going to get out in space in the screen game, he's probably not going to cut off a lot of people on the backside of his zone, has some movement limitations also off that torn acl He reminds me a lot of like Aaron Banks who plays left guard for the forty nine ers, or even the way Big V transferred transition into guard with the Lions. More of that hulking tackle that can play much more. Can find phone booth there. So Mahogany may not be for everybody, but certain schemes are going to like these guys.
Yep I wrote down four names going into this and then knowing you were going to pick a couple, two of the names I wrote down where JC Latham and Christian Mahogany.
So I don't think difference from Osiren sor and slash right.
Yeah no, no, that's a really good one too, you know from last year. For me, I'll go also with an outside guy and inside guy. Talisa Fuaga from Oregon State. Out standing run blocker, right tackle. Some people think it could be a guard. I don't think he's like great in space, but he's a really good offensive line. He's just a really good player. And then Cooper BB from Kansas State as well. I don't think that he's going to blow the doors off the testing, but you know, this is a guy I think just again i've really accomplished football player with what he did at KSU, but then also just projecting forward to the NFL, he's just really strong, he's physical, he's got good eyes. Everything you like about an interior kind of like a grinded out offensive line, and that's what Cooper BB brings to the table. Let's now go last category here, Ben positional workout. We are most excited for the offensive line on Sunday. What do you like here?
Well, I think it's got to be Amarus Mims out of Georgia because I think anyone's just looking to see this guy on the field in general. So if you get him on a football field, that's a win. It was going to be Jackson Powers Johnson, who unfortunately may not be working out, but fran he's over three hundred and thirty pounds. I know that is a rare company to be that big at center. I know he reminds people of Creed. Humphrey Creed came out Oklahoma at three ten? Is that listed at three or four with the Chiefs. This is much more of a Ryan Jensen type of barrel chested center, which are very rare. Maybe Bradley Boast in Carolina. But to be that bige at center, that is an impressive, impressive player. And the way he gets out in space runs down the field in the screen game, that was really excited for him. But we'll go back there. I think a Marius Mims may steal the show.
That's a good one six seven, three forty and is not a slug at all. Athletically only eight starts, so he's barely played. But I think when you look at the skill set. There a lot to be excited about with Amarius Mims. You know, Ben, since we didn't do like a draft talk throughout the course of the football season usually you know me, I'm like a stickler for pronunciations. There's one player that I haven't like nailed the pronunciation yet for him, and that's the Yale tackle Kuran Amagaji. That's my best stab at it right now. I tried a Yale media guy, couldn't find a pronunciation guy. So I'm going with that right now. But he's another guy who's he's such a hard projection because everything you saw from him was again there was not a lot of reps against professional quality lignemen, and you for that, you're like, okay, let's let's go to the Senior Bowl or Shrine Bowl. You know, it's something where you can see. And he couldn't go because of an injury, and so he was gonna go to the Senior Ball, couldn't go, and so now we're really kind of left to our own devices in terms of projecting into the league. Hopefully he's healthy enough to go from a workout standpoint in Indianapolis, because then at least you can say, okay, let's just see him like side by side with some of these other guys you know, in this class and kind of gage him against his peers that way. But if he doesn't go like now we're all right, now, we're now we're leaning onto the pro day, and it's just gonna kind of all be numbers at that point, it's tough. I really like the film, Like, if the traits are outstanding with him, I think there's a lot to work with, but the projection will be tough there.
With his life is freaking she has nearly thirty seven inch arms. The tape's impressive, but the level of competition is just glaringly not good enough. So I have some more sobering comps. I know some people are a little bit high on them. But it reminds me a lot of oli Udo coming out of Elon a few years ago.
See, I think he's great, Like Udo Udo was like not like Jacy Latham, but he was like, you know, he was like more of a slow footed offensive toile. I didn't think he had like that athletics say this kid can get out of his stance, like he's really explosive that way.
Yeah, a similar heightweight length. I think also had thirty six inch arms, but yeah, we get a little bit better mover. But as far as being a small school profile, the developmental traits or even like a Matt Pert, he came out of out to go very long player, but certainly a project player. But you saw the upside maybe didn't materialize with the Giants as they had hoped. Oliuda also has played quite a bit for the Viking, So he's the type of guys you probably take on middle of Day three and could end up underscreen on Sundays before you know it. As we know, this league needs offensive lineman, they need young ones, they need ones or traits to develop, and that could be the ill kid.
I kind of like the Matt Pairt company. He went early third round to the Giants, and I kind of feel like that's where I.
Had thirty five and a half inch arms and was also a big, long strung kid as.
He was, and he was really athletic. There were there were questions about like his level of competition too, but he got to go down to the senior ball prove himself down there, right, And that's so that's where we're kind of at with Amagaji is what what is he? You know, it's going to be a huge leap of faith. And if it were any other year, I think that that would be okay. But just with this offensive line offensive tackle class, like, he's just gonna get lost in the crowd. So if he's able to go to Indy and test and do everything and do everything you know out there, I think that that will serve him well throughout the rest of the past.
As far as like height, weight length, though it's pretty rare. He's six or five nearly three thirty with thirty six and three eight arms. You know me, I'm a stickler for height weight comps yep. So just to plug in those numbers with a little bit of flex underneath. There really aren't a lot of guys, so I think twelve or fifteen guys showed up so settled into per in oli udo, which may leave some to be desired, which could end up this kid could end up being a Hall of Famer, could up being a pro bowler like Jordan Malatta, could be a you know, enterprise rent a car worker in two years. I think that's the lottery. You take it to the draft and the fun part of it.
I want to look really quickly at Matt Parrots like athletic athletic stuff, because I do really liked that that comp he played a ton man. Matt Parot had forty eight starts at their almost thirty four hundred snaps played in his career athletically at the cop he actually did not test all that well. He ran four nine, He ran five five oh six? Uh off the off the the laser he ran it was actually it was a solid workout, but not an overwhelming weight. What's that?
What was his height weight?
Uh? He came in, of course, I bet he came in three hundred and eighteen pounds, thirty six and five eighth inch arms. Out of this length, he's actually the longest tackle from an armlengk draft last four.
Not bad there, No, it's it was.
It was not terrible. It's not bad. It's not bad.
Uh yeah, the basketball background, right.
What's that?
Oh? You know what?
It was fort nine in the short shuttle. That's what it was. It was for which that's that's not a bad that's not.
A good num. Okay, yeah, I was gonna say pretty good for any four that all day.
But no, I think when you look at uh at this kid. That's he's gonna be one of the more interesting players in the dudecause, honestly the film, it looks like he could go and like blow up the combat. Like he's one of those like guys that it's athletically like he the way he flies out of his stands and he's got the ability to govern his speed. He's got some juice. Like there's something there.
So I thought Jeff Schwartz said it great on Twitter. He's like he looks like he's playing with his food. Yes, which is that was the level of you know, edge rusher he was playing with where he was essentially able to block guys kind of with one hand and his eyes elsewhere. You know, he's just one of those really wasn't challenged. I just want to see more which that scenior what week could have been huge?
Well that's the thing too, is that he had a teammate in Nick Gargiulio, who's at Yale, who's actually.
Going to get South Carolina.
He transferred down to South Carolina and played this year. He started twelve games for the game Cock. So you know that obviously we were able to get that from him. Two time team captain. Gardjulio was a captain at Yale and then was a captain his first year at SC. So yeah, let's get some bonus action there with the offensive line. Then we covered a lot of names ninety minutes. I really appreciate the time here again on the Eagle Inn the Sky podcast. They we'll catch up next week and kind of just recap everything after we get home from Indy. Exhaustive preview there from Ben Fennell. Appreciate his time as always. We'll catch up if it's not with Ben, with somebody after the combine here, just to go through who stood out, who helped themselves, who were some of the most impressive positional workouts. I'll be on the boots on the ground in Indianapolis throughout the course of the entire week, taking in all the action, talking with a lot of players. So we'll break it all down next week right here on the Eagle EE in the Sky podcast. We'll talk to you next week.
