Welcome to a new season of NFL Draft Preview, presented by Verizon, Ethan Greenberg and Dane Googler in the Flesh. This might be like the first podcast in the last three years that we've done in person. Yeah, you know, I mean we every every combine, we catch up every you know, usually to Senior Bowl. But yeah, I feel like most of the time I'm looking at you in a box, so it's good to see him first. Yeah, it's nice to see you in person as well. You're battling through this week. Yeah, I am. You know, when you have four younger kids and this time of year, it's always tough. But a lot of talking this week, but we'll power work through. We'll make it happen. You know. That's your diet this week. Cough drops and some more water. Probably not Probably better than I know, I said this to you yesterday. Yeah, better than a lot of the media members here throughout the week. Probably healthier yeah, probably, Yeah, but uh, you know, it's you got to find that secret sauce and hopefully it works out. But Dane's not a tea guy. We learned that this morning. I'm not you know, I It's well documented. I have the diet of an eight year old, and so mountain dew diet, mountain dew. Yes, yes, yes, yes, But you know what, it's sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. You gotta do what you gotta do. And this is an important week we got we have a lot to talk about that. We do have a lot to talk about, so we're gonna preview the combine. But first I just wanted to kind of set up the Jets draft and the overall setup of the draft, because this is the first year in three drafts the Jets don't have two first round picks, and so they have the thirteenth pick in the first round. And we'll talk about a lot of the guys that have been mocked to the Jets because I think as of now you're kind of the outlier. And we'll get to that in a little bit. But the Jets don't have a ton of capital like they have in the past. But also they had a very good draft last year, i'd say the least. Let's just start with the general picture. What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of this overall twenty twenty three draft class. Yeah, and I think it's a draft where the intrigue. I mean, it's always the quarterbacks, right with the intrigue starts, and very much so with this class. You've got four quarterbacks at the top. Where you talk go team to team, you're gonna get a different order one through four, how they see them coming off the board, how they're graded beauties in the eye of the beholder. I feel like we talked about that every year, but it's it's so true in a quarterback class like this, where you've got guys that have each one has flaws, but each one's very good in their own right, and so each team's gonna look at it a little bit differently with their scheme, with their culture, and so it starts with the quarterbacks. That's where that's where it all starts. And if you're the Jets, I mean, you're sitting there at thirteen. We don't think the Jets are gonna draft the quarterback probably, you know, we feel pretty good they're going to add a veteran at some point in that direction. All right, So you know, if you're the Jets, you're you're thinking there's probably four quarterbacks you're gonna come off the board in front of you. Good chance knocks another good player down to you. In terms of the non quarterbacks, I think it there's two guys at the top, Will Anderson, jay Lec Carter. After that, that's when there's a lot of debate who's in that second tier, how many are in that second tier, and what's the gap between that first tier and second tier. And I think there's a pretty decent gap between that first tier and second tier. There's some good players in that second tier. I love Christian Gonzale as a corner of Oregon. Tyree Wilson from Texas Tech has a lot of ability. Brian Branch from Alabama's one of my favorite players in this draft. But overall, you know, I think it's it's a draft with not a ton of blue Chippers. But I think when you go to certain positions, the depth is really there. First round, second round, third round, edge rusher, tight end. So for certain positions, it's a really deep group. Okay, So, going off of what you've just said, if you're the Jets at thirteen, based on what you just said, it seems like I know this is early considering this is March first when we're recording this, and the draft isn't for essentially two months. If you're at they're at thirteen, and you have a cluster and you know that there's good death. This might be one of the drafts where you elect to trade back or be pretty open to it. And we've seen Joe Douglas do that in the past, right, And you're always looking to trade back. You're always hoping to have those options. You know, you want your phone to ring. So when it comes to your pick, if the guy you want is there, you take them. If you know you're kind of split, you're not you like the guys available, maybe don't love them, you have hopefully have that option where if you want to move back, you can do that. And because I think this is a draft where a second round, third round, there's there's plenty of depth. That's some some key positions, and you know, I keep mentioning Ed Rusher, that's it's just such a deep group. This year. You go into the second round, third round, and there's some good names there that you feel it can help your team. What does a second round or third round pass rusher look like in the NFL, Well, you know there's something something wrong with them. Obviously they didn't go first round, Whether they're a little undersized, or maybe they didn't have the testing numbers. Uh, maybe they're more traits than production in college, so they don't have they didn't have double digit sacks. But you know what, you know, Daniel Hunter classic example of a guy who had the traits, didn't have the production. So you know, I think that's where scouting comes in and you have to identify those guys and say, okay, you know what we Uh, you know, got a big augilary from LSU. A guy who's a little bit undersider exactly a giant's pass rusher. Uh, has a lot of ability, but maybe a little undersize. Maybe you know, might not go first round, but in the second round he's sitting there. I'd love the value at that point. Does he also have is it was it a z's augilary that was shorter with long arms? Yeah? Right? Does his brother also have long arms? It will find it officially here this week. Uh, you know, at the combine. But you know, yeah, he is a little bit undersized, but he's you could tell he watches as an older brother. You know, you could tell he's he's really in tune with how to win, you know, even though he is a little bit smaller, using that to his advantage, So using his pad level, using that leverage, and you know, just throwing an LSU tape and he is fun to watch. He's a guy you wind up and just let him rush. Speaking of brothers, Nate Herbig Jets guard. Yeah, his brother Nick Herbig was just talking over there, and he was talking about how much he learned from actually Nate and Lane Johnson watching those guys work out together in the off season. He worked out with them, Yeah, yeah, and he said that offensive lineman having a different mentality really work out with a chip on their shoulder, which you could definitely see that in the way that Nate Herbig plays the game. But before we get to the Combine preview, I just want to ask you a couple a couple of fun questions that set up the twenty twenty three draft. The first one is what's your favorite player name that you've come across so far? Oh? Man, um, player name? Um? Shoot, that's a good one. I'm really putting you on the spot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm trying to think here. Um. You know, there's there's a lot of classics, you know, like Lucas van Ness. Just it sounds like a Bond villain. You know. It's like, that's a good one. Uh. You know there's some you know, more catchy names later on the draft, but you know the more notable ones. Yeah, like Lucas VanNess is great. Um gosh, I'll keep thinking about. Okay, yeah, you can come back to us. The other one is you're so great at finding people's backstories. Is there a backstory that stands out to you at this point in the draft? Because the one that I keep coming back to whenever I see Jalen Watson the Chiefs Corner, I always think about, Yeah, it didn't qualify to what he went to Juco, didn' qualify to go to USC, worked out of Wendy's, ended up at Washington State, and he ended up having a very successful rookie year in Kansas City. So that's the one that stands out to me. It's just an awesome story that stuck with me. Is there one that comes to mind for you at this point? There's always and there's there's so many and they're all they'll all be in the draft guide, you know. It's there's a lot of fun ones. Are yat and the Beast right now and it's an ongoing. You just gave me like anxiety saying it's already March. Uh, but you know it's it's work on it every day and you know, we'll see where we are with the in the death settles and the you know, first week in April. But uh, my favorite is probably Tyson Agent, the quarterback from Shepherd D two quarterback who's here already. His I mean he's a Shepherd. I mean he grew up in the panhandle of West Virginia. You know, a born raised a good player. I mean he he entered the transfer portal, um he won the Harlan Hill, the D two. Hisman basically as a junior, entered the transfer portal. Maryland watered him, Northwestern wanted him, West Virginia wanted him. Uh. He decided to stay put and you know, had a really good career. He's the all NCAA all time leader in passing yards. So you know, fun story. But the best part about it is his dad. His dad is a professional arm wrestler. He has won twenty eight world championships. Left handed and right handed and ambidextrous arm wrestler. He's naturally left handed or no, he's right handed, but then he realized, hey, there's a market here for left handers, so I'm gonna do left handed two. Um. I've spent some time with him. He is a fun fun uh, really fun. I did a story on Tyson back in December, and I talked to his dad for about an hour about it, and man, he's just a really fun guy. He's uh, he's someone that you will just say, the Jets draft to Tyson in the seventh round. You would hear from Travis his dad. Uh, he is a fun guy to talk to. Um. And it's just a fun story because he is literally a world champion when he won twenty eight world championships. Uh. He's very open about it. He's like, no, that's that's how I make my living. He's you know, Uh, Tyson knew is gonna be a good Christmas or not based on how I won that year. Uh. So it's just uh, it's a really fun story. Oh yeah, and I'd be an awful arm wrestler. Well, and I asked, Tyson, did you ever wrestling your dad? And he's like, nah, it's whack. So he's it doesn't run, but you know what, Sean Larmes running the family because he's a pretty good quarterback. Yeah, well that's a that's a great story. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited to see what else comes out as you start to dig up on these players. But we are at the combine, so I do think it's fitting that we talk about the combine. And there's a couple of things that people should know about as they tune into the coverage and just see what happens on social media whatnot. The top storyline it has to be the weight of Bryce Young, the Alabama quarterback. I'm sure it is, but you know what, I don't I don't really care that much. He's small, Like you know, yeah, he's small quarterback. If he's one hundred and ninety five pounds or two oh one doesn't really matter that much. You know, he is a small quarterback. Um, yeah, I know. He's been trying to put on the weight for here at the combine. If he is over twinter pounds, that's great, But his playing weight is in the low one nineties. Are you where do you stand? If I set the over under at the way and at one ninety nine point five. My guess, uh, you know, going into this was he's gonna be five ten and a half one hundred and ninety eight pounds. Okay, so you know I think he'll be drinking a lot of water that morning. Um, you know it's he's not worth he's not throwing here, which I think. You know, he's been trying to focus on adding weight, and I have I have a sneaky suspicion at the pro day when he's gonna throw, he won't weigh in. Um, you knows best, you can right lose whatever way to make you which is kind of silly. Look again, we know he's small. That's you know, it's not like, uh, it's gonna it's gonna change anybody's mind if he comes in at two o two compared to one ninety two. Um, he's just wall quarterback. And that's that's the biggest thing. Because if you if you were six three two twenty, he'd be the slam duck number one overall pick. We wouldn't be a discussion, it wouldn't, you know. But the fact that he is a complete outlier size wise, that makes it interesting. The last twenty five years, there have been three hundred and one quarterbacks drafted. Only two were below six foot and below two hundred pounds. Neither of those guys were drafts the top one hundred, So this is a complete outlier size wise, and it's kind of a testament to how good he is as a quarterback that we're still talking about him as a strong candidate to be that number one overall pick. But you do think that is maybe now actionally the top storeline, maybe not? Probably right? Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, that's a lot of people are gonna be interested to see what he comes in at height wise. You know, is he over five ten weight wise? Does he get over two hundred pounds? Yes, it's we just haven't seen a quarterback like this in recent memory. I mean, you have to people get so tied up with, you know, comparisons, and it's just hard to find a true comparison for him because we haven't had a guy like this, uh you know, this size, be this talented and so you know you're here all the time, we've we've never seen a quarterback succeed in the NFL this size. Well, I would my argument to that is we've never seen a quarterback with his level of talent this size either. So you know, I don't think we've really seen a player like brace Young at the NFL level before. Okay, so I was going to ask you the player with the most to prove, but I want to add a qualifier that it can't be a quarterback because the quarterbacks, I think you were talking about it a little bit before, if you're following the draft or you're just starting to to your point, seems like the or is in the eye of the beholder. One from four. So with guys like Will Levis out of Kentucky and Anthony Richardson like they might put on a show, they might, they might not based on they looking shorts and a T shirt. But if I were to throw in the qualifier of a non quarterback with the most to prove, who do you think that is? Well, because you did bring up those two names, I do want to mention with Anthony Richardson, how just you know he's gonna while during the workouts, but how important the interview process is for a guy like that, who he has under four hundred past attempts in college. You know he's a redshirt sophomore, still very young, so that interview process is going to be huge for teams just to understand where he is in his development, What does he know? What doesn't he know? And you know, because that's all gonna factor in into how early we can get him on the field, because I think this is a player that needs these reps. You know, I don't. I don't know that you're gonna draft Anthy Richardson and then send him for two years. You know, let's not he You want him on the field to get better. And because the biggest issue with him is just the consistency factory, especially with his accuracy, you want him getting consist reps with number with your number one offense out there. So the interview process for Anthony Richardson's gonna be huge. Um. In terms of the non quarterbacks, you know who has the most to gain, Jackson Smith and Jigba the Ohio state wide receiver who you know, was so productive a year. Agoes a sophomore, actually had better production than Garrett Wilson or Crystal Lave for the buck Eyes miss basically this entire year with the hamstring injury. And so I don't even know. He's probably not gonna be able to work out this week. I don't know, but it's just it's gonna be a big week for him. Hopefully we do get to see him do some stuff. Um, but this entire process for Smith and Jigba is gonna be a really important Yeah, don't He's not an elite athlete. That's not what makes him a productive receiver. But he just you know, he can't test like a bad athlete. And I kind of wonder if this is gonna be like I remember last year with Drake London, who you know, we're waiting all draft process. What's it gonna run, what's the what's the testing gonna be? Never never end up testing? Yeah, and his pro day he caught, caught passes and things like that, but never ended up running forty And you know what worked out. Okay, he was still the first receiver drafted with Smith and Jigbo. We'll see if he follows the same thing where you know, we never actually see him run a forty or anything like that. But all I know is he's a really good route runner, really good ball skills. You're gonna plug him in the slot and he's going to be a really productive, high volume target very early in his career. I think when you read the tea leaves of what happened to Smith and Jigba this season. I think if you're just looking at you like that's a little fishy, like a hamstring injury shouldn't necessarily prevent somebody from playing all season. But then yet again, Drake London's a great point. Even I'm thinking about Nick Bosa his last year, but it was different because, yeah, the circumstances were much different. Also, I think people thought, okay, that was a season ending injury. Nick Bosa's an extremely talented player and he's just gonna get ready for the draft. Well, and you talk to people that have had like really bad hamstring injuries, it's one of those things that if you come back a day too early and it just reaggravates it and you're out another couple of weeks. You know, it's just one of those injuries that it's tough to know when you're good to go, and the moment you think maybe you are, then that's when you injured even a little bit more and you just prolong how long you're gonna be out. And I think that's that was the case with miss and Jigbo, who tried to come back a couple of times throughout the course of the season. Um, you know, I mean, Ohio State was a national title contender up until the end, so I have no doubt that he wanted to be out there, wanted to play. I mean, he's really close with c J. Stroud and a lot of those guys. So, um, you know, it's a shame. Uh just you know, we were robbed of seeing that offense at full strength. Even without full strength, they came within a missfield goal of beating Georgia and uh likely going on to win a national title against TCUUM. So you know, it's it's a shame we couldn't see him out there because he's a really good player. But you know, I don't you know, when his name started popping up in top ten on box drafts, I don't think that was ever really realistic. I don't think he's viewed that way. But he's still a potential first round pick and getting out there being able to catch passes kind of reminds scouts that, hey, I'm still still a really good player. You know that's going to be important for him throughout this process. Combine week, you always see some freaky numbers. Yeah, can you give us some players who you think will just be a top of the like the freakiest numbers. We're definitely gonna have some, that's for sure. You know, Devin A. Chain, the running back from Texas A and M, was also a track athlete at A and M. And he's not a track guy playing football. He was football through and through. H led the SEC in all purpose yards this year. You know, he's just a really good player. Uh. This earlier this year in March, he ran twenty point twenty in the two hundred meters, which just for context, to qualify for the Olympics, you have to be twenty point two four, So he was under what you have to do for qualified for Olympics. So an amazing speed athlete and it translates to the field because he controls his gear so well. I'm eager to see how much he weighs in at he's listed at win eighty five. We don't see a lot of running backs under one ninety have you know, productive NFL careers know you could over win ninety, you can, you can work with that. You know, we've seen guys drafted in the first round under two hundred pounds in that position, whether it's Chris Johnson or U. C. J. Spiller. Job at best we've seen it before, but for Ris Johnson as in like speedy Chris Johns. Yes, because as you said this, Chris Johnson and C. J. Spiller both were Jets at one point they were. Yeah, that's exactly right, but both under twitter pounds, both speed guys. And I think Chin could be that um after h Chan. You know, I think a lot of these pass rushers are gonna test really well, you know, like not quite Travon Walker, but like Lucas van Ness from Iowa to seventy five might getting the four fives and the forty really freaky athlete. Um. I'm a big fan of Christian Gonzalez, the Oregon Corner. Fascinating background. His dad is a semi professional basketball player six nine from Colombia. Um, you know his older sister. Both older sisters are accupless track athletes. His older sister, Melissa, who is married to David Blow, the NFL quarterback, she was in the picks for Colombia in Tokyo. And so it's it's one of those things that he has. He got some of those bloodlines too, some of those genes, and I think he's gonna put on a show. He's six two, right, around two hundred pounds, gonna run in the four three. He's gonna jump really well. So Christian Gonzala is one of those corners. Kiley Ringo another one from Georgia six two to fifteen cut up. Speed's gonna be outstanding. He's gonna test off the charts. So plenty of big testers here this year. If I had to ask you right now to crown the fastest forty, which I think you did correctly last year, who was the last year? You know? I really wish you didn't ask me. I got to look it up. Yeah, I'm trying to think who was the fastest for you last year? We had we did, We did have a few this year. I do think a chain has a good chance. I think that having that track background is so so important because you you understand how to get down to the stands. You had to explode with your technique. You understand how to just the mechanics of how to get the best time, and so h he has. I think he's at least one of the top three favorites to run the fastest for you. I think Christian Gonzalez is in there. Um Kili Ringo, who I mentioned also in there. But if I had a bet, I'm probably going with h Kaylon Barnes, Yeah, Baylor. Yeah, that's right. I'm pretty sure you hit that on the head yep. Because Taekwon Thornton was also in the running. He was the third fastest behind Tariq Willin. Obviously Tariq Willin had a fantastic he did, but I'm pretty sure you hit that on the head last year. Yeah. I mentioned it a ton last year at the Combine was how Baylor is bringing a track team did Annapolis? How you know with with Thornton and Barns and uh yeah, they That goes back to uh just how they recruited and Matt Rule. He was like for athletes and you know, a couple of years later it manifested itself here at the Combine. Okay, So I was, You've given us some players that you're intrigued to see how they perform, you know, how they weigh in and stuff like that. One thing I just want to ask you, well, I want to ask you two things before we wrap up Episode one of NFL Draft Preview presented by Verizon. The first one is a lot of people right now in the mock draft circuld have the Jets take and the tackle, whether that's Proderick Jones, whether that's Paris Johnson. And we'll talk about those guys at a future date. But you went in a different direction with Brian Branch, just simply put why, well, what's the safety h really you know, the including nickel back in that mix. What what's that depth chart look like next year for the for the Jets? You know, it's it's a little unsettled right now. So I think that you look at a guy like Brian Branch, who is, in my opinion, clearly the top safety this year. Um, now, every team's going to look at him a little bit differently. Is he Kenny? Is he a true safety? Is he strictly a nickel? I'm of the belief he could play anywhere you want in the secondary, you want to play on the perimeter as a corner, he could do that. There's nothing in his tape that says he can't do that. Um. You know, he plays that Minca Fitzpatrick star role and that Alabama defense, and in a lot of ways, he's very similar to Mica Fitzpatrick. M not not as big, and I think that's the big concern with him. Uh is he You know, a lot of ten years ago, if you're under twitter pounds, a lot of teams aren't drafting you at safety. You have to be at least over twitter pounds in today's NFL. With the way that Brian Branch can match up and be that type of weapon, Um, I think that's incredibly valuable because you can he can line up, you line him up in the slot, he can face tight ends, he can play the post, you can play him man the man. You can do so many things with Brian Branch that that separates him from more traditional safeties, uh, that that we see. So this is not a great safety group. Um, you know, I don't. If I had a guess, I would say Brian Branch is the only true safety that's gonna go in the top fifty. Maybe another one sneaks in there. Um Antonio Johnson from Texas A and M even though he's even he's more of a nickel as well. But uh, you know, I think that with Branch, you're just getting a versatile guy that can fill a lot of hats, uh and just do a lot of things for you. And he's just he's a smart player, he's athletic, he's tough. Um, you know, like I said, he's a smaller guy, but you never watch his tape and say, oh, you know, like it's I wish you were bigger because he's he's not missing tackles, he's showing up. I mean, he's he's doing a lot of things that you want out of your safety in your nickel The star defense or the star role in the Alabama defense. Is that just basically what you said in terms of a versatile piece. You line them up wherever and he does anything and everything. I mean it's basically you're in nickel. You're you're you're playing a nickel corner role but also serving as a safety who can play in the box depending on how you know, what's the personnel grouping on offense. Um, you know, basically so you don't have to you know, you don't have to come off the field. You know, it's it's their nickel package is their base package at Alabama, and that Star is a an integral part of what they do. So, um, being able to match up with whatever, whether it's speed in the backfield, size in the slot, whatever it is, whatever offenses are gonna throw at you. Brian Branch gives you that versatility to match up. So one final question for you, And admittedly I will preface this by saying it is a selfish question to me, but it is also because I've not been able to ask this question in many, many years. Okay, Syracuse has three players at the combine who yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, you ever heard of him? Have you ever heard of him? Um? They're known for basketball except for this here. So there's three players. Matt berg Ron, who is at the Senior Bowl, Garrett Wilson not Garrett Wilson, Garrett Williams. Williams, Garret Wilson's a jet I'm getting my team's mixed up here. And lastly, Sean Tucker. Yeah, how would you power rank them as prospects? Uh? Well, clearly burg Ron is the top of the group. I think he has a chance to be a top two round player. Did a nice job for them at left tackle. Um, his best fit might be inside a guard, as a zone guard. That might be where he is base. He's so good as a run blocker, Um, Syracuse player, so good. Love that as a run blocker. Now pass protection, that's where it falls apart a little bit. And that's why we're talking about him as a second or third round pick, but as a run blocker, he's really really talented. With the acl injury for Williams, uh, that kind of clouds it a little bit. Um In terms of if he were healthy, I would say clearly Garrett Williams next at the corner and then Shan Tucker. But because of the aclum, this is a big week for him. You know, not gonna work out, But what's the injury? Look like our teams okay with it? Um, you know, just the rehab everything like that. So this is a big week for Garrett Williams. And then with with Shaun Tucker, he should show up well, pretty pretty well here. He's a track guy, so you know testing he has a really good sixty meter time that translates really well the forty yeard dash. So Sean Tucker should do I have a really good week here. I'm not as high on Shaun Tucker as a lot of people. Um, you know, it's a really deep running back group this year. Uh B. Sean Robinson's gonna be a first round pick. Jamir Gibbs fell Obamas in my opinions, the first round pick, and then you've got a clump of ten to twelve fifteen running backs in that second the fifth round range. Tucker's in there somewhere. I think he's probably more in that fourth and fifth round range. But he's a good player. I really like him in the screen game. I'll take it. And Shan Tucker was a great player for Syracuser. He was at the end of the day. It makes me happy. It makes me happy here and you talk about it makes me happy that we're able to do the first episode of NFL Draft Preview presented by Verizon in person. Thanks for powering through. And then you know, I guess next week I'll see him back in the box. Yeah, well, we'll plenty to recap. Instead of talking about who's going to run the fastest time, we'll talk about who actually did, and we'll talk about you being two for two in the last two years. That's it. It's so yeah, officially I'm going with a chin. Yeah, we'll see how that works out. Okay, all right, Dane, appreciate the ton, Thank you. Thanks man.

Welcome to a new season of NFL Draft Preview, presented by Verizon, Ethan Greenberg and Dane Googler in the Flesh. This might be like the first podcast in the last three years that we've done in person. Yeah, you know, I mean we every every combine, we catch up every you know, usually to Senior Bowl. But yeah, I feel like most of the time I'm looking at you in a box, so it's good to see him first. Yeah, it's nice to see you in person as well. You're battling through this week. Yeah, I am. You know, when you have four younger kids and this time of year, it's always tough. But a lot of talking this week, but we'll power work through. We'll make it happen. You know. That's your diet this week. Cough drops and some more water. Probably not Probably better than I know, I said this to you yesterday. Yeah, better than a lot of the media members here throughout the week. Probably healthier yeah, probably, Yeah, but uh, you know, it's you got to find that secret sauce and hopefully it works out. But Dane's not a tea guy. We learned that this morning. I'm not you know, I It's well documented. I have the diet of an eight year old, and so mountain dew diet, mountain dew. Yes, yes, yes, yes, But you know what, it's sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. You gotta do what you gotta do. And this is an important week we got we have a lot to talk about that. We do have a lot to talk about, so we're gonna preview the combine. But first I just wanted to kind of set up the Jets draft and the overall setup of the draft, because this is the first year in three drafts the Jets don't have two first round picks, and so they have the thirteenth pick in the first round. And we'll talk about a lot of the guys that have been mocked to the Jets because I think as of now you're kind of the outlier. And we'll get to that in a little bit. But the Jets don't have a ton of capital like they have in the past. But also they had a very good draft last year, i'd say the least. Let's just start with the general picture. What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of this overall twenty twenty three draft class. Yeah, and I think it's a draft where the intrigue. I mean, it's always the quarterbacks, right with the intrigue starts, and very much so with this class. You've got four quarterbacks at the top. Where you talk go team to team, you're gonna get a different order one through four, how they see them coming off the board, how they're graded beauties in the eye of the beholder. I feel like we talked about that every year, but it's it's so true in a quarterback class like this, where you've got guys that have each one has flaws, but each one's very good in their own right, and so each team's gonna look at it a little bit differently with their scheme, with their culture, and so it starts with the quarterbacks. That's where that's where it all starts. And if you're the Jets, I mean, you're sitting there at thirteen. We don't think the Jets are gonna draft the quarterback probably, you know, we feel pretty good they're going to add a veteran at some point in that direction. All right, So you know, if you're the Jets, you're you're thinking there's probably four quarterbacks you're gonna come off the board in front of you. Good chance knocks another good player down to you. In terms of the non quarterbacks, I think it there's two guys at the top, Will Anderson, jay Lec Carter. After that, that's when there's a lot of debate who's in that second tier, how many are in that second tier, and what's the gap between that first tier and second tier. And I think there's a pretty decent gap between that first tier and second tier. There's some good players in that second tier. I love Christian Gonzale as a corner of Oregon. Tyree Wilson from Texas Tech has a lot of ability. Brian Branch from Alabama's one of my favorite players in this draft. But overall, you know, I think it's it's a draft with not a ton of blue Chippers. But I think when you go to certain positions, the depth is really there. First round, second round, third round, edge rusher, tight end. So for certain positions, it's a really deep group. Okay, So, going off of what you've just said, if you're the Jets at thirteen, based on what you just said, it seems like I know this is early considering this is March first when we're recording this, and the draft isn't for essentially two months. If you're at they're at thirteen, and you have a cluster and you know that there's good death. This might be one of the drafts where you elect to trade back or be pretty open to it. And we've seen Joe Douglas do that in the past, right, And you're always looking to trade back. You're always hoping to have those options. You know, you want your phone to ring. So when it comes to your pick, if the guy you want is there, you take them. If you know you're kind of split, you're not you like the guys available, maybe don't love them, you have hopefully have that option where if you want to move back, you can do that. And because I think this is a draft where a second round, third round, there's there's plenty of depth. That's some some key positions, and you know, I keep mentioning Ed Rusher, that's it's just such a deep group. This year. You go into the second round, third round, and there's some good names there that you feel it can help your team. What does a second round or third round pass rusher look like in the NFL, Well, you know there's something something wrong with them. Obviously they didn't go first round, Whether they're a little undersized, or maybe they didn't have the testing numbers. Uh, maybe they're more traits than production in college, so they don't have they didn't have double digit sacks. But you know what, you know, Daniel Hunter classic example of a guy who had the traits, didn't have the production. So you know, I think that's where scouting comes in and you have to identify those guys and say, okay, you know what we Uh, you know, got a big augilary from LSU. A guy who's a little bit undersider exactly a giant's pass rusher. Uh, has a lot of ability, but maybe a little undersize. Maybe you know, might not go first round, but in the second round he's sitting there. I'd love the value at that point. Does he also have is it was it a z's augilary that was shorter with long arms? Yeah? Right? Does his brother also have long arms? It will find it officially here this week. Uh, you know, at the combine. But you know, yeah, he is a little bit undersized, but he's you could tell he watches as an older brother. You know, you could tell he's he's really in tune with how to win, you know, even though he is a little bit smaller, using that to his advantage, So using his pad level, using that leverage, and you know, just throwing an LSU tape and he is fun to watch. He's a guy you wind up and just let him rush. Speaking of brothers, Nate Herbig Jets guard. Yeah, his brother Nick Herbig was just talking over there, and he was talking about how much he learned from actually Nate and Lane Johnson watching those guys work out together in the off season. He worked out with them, Yeah, yeah, and he said that offensive lineman having a different mentality really work out with a chip on their shoulder, which you could definitely see that in the way that Nate Herbig plays the game. But before we get to the Combine preview, I just want to ask you a couple a couple of fun questions that set up the twenty twenty three draft. The first one is what's your favorite player name that you've come across so far? Oh? Man, um, player name? Um? Shoot, that's a good one. I'm really putting you on the spot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm trying to think here. Um. You know, there's there's a lot of classics, you know, like Lucas van Ness. Just it sounds like a Bond villain. You know. It's like, that's a good one. Uh. You know there's some you know, more catchy names later on the draft, but you know the more notable ones. Yeah, like Lucas VanNess is great. Um gosh, I'll keep thinking about. Okay, yeah, you can come back to us. The other one is you're so great at finding people's backstories. Is there a backstory that stands out to you at this point in the draft? Because the one that I keep coming back to whenever I see Jalen Watson the Chiefs Corner, I always think about, Yeah, it didn't qualify to what he went to Juco, didn' qualify to go to USC, worked out of Wendy's, ended up at Washington State, and he ended up having a very successful rookie year in Kansas City. So that's the one that stands out to me. It's just an awesome story that stuck with me. Is there one that comes to mind for you at this point? There's always and there's there's so many and they're all they'll all be in the draft guide, you know. It's there's a lot of fun ones. Are yat and the Beast right now and it's an ongoing. You just gave me like anxiety saying it's already March. Uh, but you know it's it's work on it every day and you know, we'll see where we are with the in the death settles and the you know, first week in April. But uh, my favorite is probably Tyson Agent, the quarterback from Shepherd D two quarterback who's here already. His I mean he's a Shepherd. I mean he grew up in the panhandle of West Virginia. You know, a born raised a good player. I mean he he entered the transfer portal, um he won the Harlan Hill, the D two. Hisman basically as a junior, entered the transfer portal. Maryland watered him, Northwestern wanted him, West Virginia wanted him. Uh. He decided to stay put and you know, had a really good career. He's the all NCAA all time leader in passing yards. So you know, fun story. But the best part about it is his dad. His dad is a professional arm wrestler. He has won twenty eight world championships. Left handed and right handed and ambidextrous arm wrestler. He's naturally left handed or no, he's right handed, but then he realized, hey, there's a market here for left handers, so I'm gonna do left handed two. Um. I've spent some time with him. He is a fun fun uh, really fun. I did a story on Tyson back in December, and I talked to his dad for about an hour about it, and man, he's just a really fun guy. He's uh, he's someone that you will just say, the Jets draft to Tyson in the seventh round. You would hear from Travis his dad. Uh, he is a fun guy to talk to. Um. And it's just a fun story because he is literally a world champion when he won twenty eight world championships. Uh. He's very open about it. He's like, no, that's that's how I make my living. He's you know, Uh, Tyson knew is gonna be a good Christmas or not based on how I won that year. Uh. So it's just uh, it's a really fun story. Oh yeah, and I'd be an awful arm wrestler. Well, and I asked, Tyson, did you ever wrestling your dad? And he's like, nah, it's whack. So he's it doesn't run, but you know what, Sean Larmes running the family because he's a pretty good quarterback. Yeah, well that's a that's a great story. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited to see what else comes out as you start to dig up on these players. But we are at the combine, so I do think it's fitting that we talk about the combine. And there's a couple of things that people should know about as they tune into the coverage and just see what happens on social media whatnot. The top storyline it has to be the weight of Bryce Young, the Alabama quarterback. I'm sure it is, but you know what, I don't I don't really care that much. He's small, Like you know, yeah, he's small quarterback. If he's one hundred and ninety five pounds or two oh one doesn't really matter that much. You know, he is a small quarterback. Um, yeah, I know. He's been trying to put on the weight for here at the combine. If he is over twinter pounds, that's great, But his playing weight is in the low one nineties. Are you where do you stand? If I set the over under at the way and at one ninety nine point five. My guess, uh, you know, going into this was he's gonna be five ten and a half one hundred and ninety eight pounds. Okay, so you know I think he'll be drinking a lot of water that morning. Um, you know it's he's not worth he's not throwing here, which I think. You know, he's been trying to focus on adding weight, and I have I have a sneaky suspicion at the pro day when he's gonna throw, he won't weigh in. Um, you knows best, you can right lose whatever way to make you which is kind of silly. Look again, we know he's small. That's you know, it's not like, uh, it's gonna it's gonna change anybody's mind if he comes in at two o two compared to one ninety two. Um, he's just wall quarterback. And that's that's the biggest thing. Because if you if you were six three two twenty, he'd be the slam duck number one overall pick. We wouldn't be a discussion, it wouldn't, you know. But the fact that he is a complete outlier size wise, that makes it interesting. The last twenty five years, there have been three hundred and one quarterbacks drafted. Only two were below six foot and below two hundred pounds. Neither of those guys were drafts the top one hundred, So this is a complete outlier size wise, and it's kind of a testament to how good he is as a quarterback that we're still talking about him as a strong candidate to be that number one overall pick. But you do think that is maybe now actionally the top storeline, maybe not? Probably right? Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, that's a lot of people are gonna be interested to see what he comes in at height wise. You know, is he over five ten weight wise? Does he get over two hundred pounds? Yes, it's we just haven't seen a quarterback like this in recent memory. I mean, you have to people get so tied up with, you know, comparisons, and it's just hard to find a true comparison for him because we haven't had a guy like this, uh you know, this size, be this talented and so you know you're here all the time, we've we've never seen a quarterback succeed in the NFL this size. Well, I would my argument to that is we've never seen a quarterback with his level of talent this size either. So you know, I don't think we've really seen a player like brace Young at the NFL level before. Okay, so I was going to ask you the player with the most to prove, but I want to add a qualifier that it can't be a quarterback because the quarterbacks, I think you were talking about it a little bit before, if you're following the draft or you're just starting to to your point, seems like the or is in the eye of the beholder. One from four. So with guys like Will Levis out of Kentucky and Anthony Richardson like they might put on a show, they might, they might not based on they looking shorts and a T shirt. But if I were to throw in the qualifier of a non quarterback with the most to prove, who do you think that is? Well, because you did bring up those two names, I do want to mention with Anthony Richardson, how just you know he's gonna while during the workouts, but how important the interview process is for a guy like that, who he has under four hundred past attempts in college. You know he's a redshirt sophomore, still very young, so that interview process is going to be huge for teams just to understand where he is in his development, What does he know? What doesn't he know? And you know, because that's all gonna factor in into how early we can get him on the field, because I think this is a player that needs these reps. You know, I don't. I don't know that you're gonna draft Anthy Richardson and then send him for two years. You know, let's not he You want him on the field to get better. And because the biggest issue with him is just the consistency factory, especially with his accuracy, you want him getting consist reps with number with your number one offense out there. So the interview process for Anthony Richardson's gonna be huge. Um. In terms of the non quarterbacks, you know who has the most to gain, Jackson Smith and Jigba the Ohio state wide receiver who you know, was so productive a year. Agoes a sophomore, actually had better production than Garrett Wilson or Crystal Lave for the buck Eyes miss basically this entire year with the hamstring injury. And so I don't even know. He's probably not gonna be able to work out this week. I don't know, but it's just it's gonna be a big week for him. Hopefully we do get to see him do some stuff. Um, but this entire process for Smith and Jigba is gonna be a really important Yeah, don't He's not an elite athlete. That's not what makes him a productive receiver. But he just you know, he can't test like a bad athlete. And I kind of wonder if this is gonna be like I remember last year with Drake London, who you know, we're waiting all draft process. What's it gonna run, what's the what's the testing gonna be? Never never end up testing? Yeah, and his pro day he caught, caught passes and things like that, but never ended up running forty And you know what worked out. Okay, he was still the first receiver drafted with Smith and Jigbo. We'll see if he follows the same thing where you know, we never actually see him run a forty or anything like that. But all I know is he's a really good route runner, really good ball skills. You're gonna plug him in the slot and he's going to be a really productive, high volume target very early in his career. I think when you read the tea leaves of what happened to Smith and Jigba this season. I think if you're just looking at you like that's a little fishy, like a hamstring injury shouldn't necessarily prevent somebody from playing all season. But then yet again, Drake London's a great point. Even I'm thinking about Nick Bosa his last year, but it was different because, yeah, the circumstances were much different. Also, I think people thought, okay, that was a season ending injury. Nick Bosa's an extremely talented player and he's just gonna get ready for the draft. Well, and you talk to people that have had like really bad hamstring injuries, it's one of those things that if you come back a day too early and it just reaggravates it and you're out another couple of weeks. You know, it's just one of those injuries that it's tough to know when you're good to go, and the moment you think maybe you are, then that's when you injured even a little bit more and you just prolong how long you're gonna be out. And I think that's that was the case with miss and Jigbo, who tried to come back a couple of times throughout the course of the season. Um, you know, I mean, Ohio State was a national title contender up until the end, so I have no doubt that he wanted to be out there, wanted to play. I mean, he's really close with c J. Stroud and a lot of those guys. So, um, you know, it's a shame. Uh just you know, we were robbed of seeing that offense at full strength. Even without full strength, they came within a missfield goal of beating Georgia and uh likely going on to win a national title against TCUUM. So you know, it's it's a shame we couldn't see him out there because he's a really good player. But you know, I don't you know, when his name started popping up in top ten on box drafts, I don't think that was ever really realistic. I don't think he's viewed that way. But he's still a potential first round pick and getting out there being able to catch passes kind of reminds scouts that, hey, I'm still still a really good player. You know that's going to be important for him throughout this process. Combine week, you always see some freaky numbers. Yeah, can you give us some players who you think will just be a top of the like the freakiest numbers. We're definitely gonna have some, that's for sure. You know, Devin A. Chain, the running back from Texas A and M, was also a track athlete at A and M. And he's not a track guy playing football. He was football through and through. H led the SEC in all purpose yards this year. You know, he's just a really good player. Uh. This earlier this year in March, he ran twenty point twenty in the two hundred meters, which just for context, to qualify for the Olympics, you have to be twenty point two four, So he was under what you have to do for qualified for Olympics. So an amazing speed athlete and it translates to the field because he controls his gear so well. I'm eager to see how much he weighs in at he's listed at win eighty five. We don't see a lot of running backs under one ninety have you know, productive NFL careers know you could over win ninety, you can, you can work with that. You know, we've seen guys drafted in the first round under two hundred pounds in that position, whether it's Chris Johnson or U. C. J. Spiller. Job at best we've seen it before, but for Ris Johnson as in like speedy Chris Johns. Yes, because as you said this, Chris Johnson and C. J. Spiller both were Jets at one point they were. Yeah, that's exactly right, but both under twitter pounds, both speed guys. And I think Chin could be that um after h Chan. You know, I think a lot of these pass rushers are gonna test really well, you know, like not quite Travon Walker, but like Lucas van Ness from Iowa to seventy five might getting the four fives and the forty really freaky athlete. Um. I'm a big fan of Christian Gonzalez, the Oregon Corner. Fascinating background. His dad is a semi professional basketball player six nine from Colombia. Um, you know his older sister. Both older sisters are accupless track athletes. His older sister, Melissa, who is married to David Blow, the NFL quarterback, she was in the picks for Colombia in Tokyo. And so it's it's one of those things that he has. He got some of those bloodlines too, some of those genes, and I think he's gonna put on a show. He's six two, right, around two hundred pounds, gonna run in the four three. He's gonna jump really well. So Christian Gonzala is one of those corners. Kiley Ringo another one from Georgia six two to fifteen cut up. Speed's gonna be outstanding. He's gonna test off the charts. So plenty of big testers here this year. If I had to ask you right now to crown the fastest forty, which I think you did correctly last year, who was the last year? You know? I really wish you didn't ask me. I got to look it up. Yeah, I'm trying to think who was the fastest for you last year? We had we did, We did have a few this year. I do think a chain has a good chance. I think that having that track background is so so important because you you understand how to get down to the stands. You had to explode with your technique. You understand how to just the mechanics of how to get the best time, and so h he has. I think he's at least one of the top three favorites to run the fastest for you. I think Christian Gonzalez is in there. Um Kili Ringo, who I mentioned also in there. But if I had a bet, I'm probably going with h Kaylon Barnes, Yeah, Baylor. Yeah, that's right. I'm pretty sure you hit that on the head yep. Because Taekwon Thornton was also in the running. He was the third fastest behind Tariq Willin. Obviously Tariq Willin had a fantastic he did, but I'm pretty sure you hit that on the head last year. Yeah. I mentioned it a ton last year at the Combine was how Baylor is bringing a track team did Annapolis? How you know with with Thornton and Barns and uh yeah, they That goes back to uh just how they recruited and Matt Rule. He was like for athletes and you know, a couple of years later it manifested itself here at the Combine. Okay, So I was, You've given us some players that you're intrigued to see how they perform, you know, how they weigh in and stuff like that. One thing I just want to ask you, well, I want to ask you two things before we wrap up Episode one of NFL Draft Preview presented by Verizon. The first one is a lot of people right now in the mock draft circuld have the Jets take and the tackle, whether that's Proderick Jones, whether that's Paris Johnson. And we'll talk about those guys at a future date. But you went in a different direction with Brian Branch, just simply put why, well, what's the safety h really you know, the including nickel back in that mix. What what's that depth chart look like next year for the for the Jets? You know, it's it's a little unsettled right now. So I think that you look at a guy like Brian Branch, who is, in my opinion, clearly the top safety this year. Um, now, every team's going to look at him a little bit differently. Is he Kenny? Is he a true safety? Is he strictly a nickel? I'm of the belief he could play anywhere you want in the secondary, you want to play on the perimeter as a corner, he could do that. There's nothing in his tape that says he can't do that. Um. You know, he plays that Minca Fitzpatrick star role and that Alabama defense, and in a lot of ways, he's very similar to Mica Fitzpatrick. M not not as big, and I think that's the big concern with him. Uh is he You know, a lot of ten years ago, if you're under twitter pounds, a lot of teams aren't drafting you at safety. You have to be at least over twitter pounds in today's NFL. With the way that Brian Branch can match up and be that type of weapon, Um, I think that's incredibly valuable because you can he can line up, you line him up in the slot, he can face tight ends, he can play the post, you can play him man the man. You can do so many things with Brian Branch that that separates him from more traditional safeties, uh, that that we see. So this is not a great safety group. Um, you know, I don't. If I had a guess, I would say Brian Branch is the only true safety that's gonna go in the top fifty. Maybe another one sneaks in there. Um Antonio Johnson from Texas A and M even though he's even he's more of a nickel as well. But uh, you know, I think that with Branch, you're just getting a versatile guy that can fill a lot of hats, uh and just do a lot of things for you. And he's just he's a smart player, he's athletic, he's tough. Um, you know, like I said, he's a smaller guy, but you never watch his tape and say, oh, you know, like it's I wish you were bigger because he's he's not missing tackles, he's showing up. I mean, he's he's doing a lot of things that you want out of your safety in your nickel The star defense or the star role in the Alabama defense. Is that just basically what you said in terms of a versatile piece. You line them up wherever and he does anything and everything. I mean it's basically you're in nickel. You're you're you're playing a nickel corner role but also serving as a safety who can play in the box depending on how you know, what's the personnel grouping on offense. Um, you know, basically so you don't have to you know, you don't have to come off the field. You know, it's it's their nickel package is their base package at Alabama, and that Star is a an integral part of what they do. So, um, being able to match up with whatever, whether it's speed in the backfield, size in the slot, whatever it is, whatever offenses are gonna throw at you. Brian Branch gives you that versatility to match up. So one final question for you, And admittedly I will preface this by saying it is a selfish question to me, but it is also because I've not been able to ask this question in many, many years. Okay, Syracuse has three players at the combine who yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, you ever heard of him? Have you ever heard of him? Um? They're known for basketball except for this here. So there's three players. Matt berg Ron, who is at the Senior Bowl, Garrett Wilson not Garrett Wilson, Garrett Williams. Williams, Garret Wilson's a jet I'm getting my team's mixed up here. And lastly, Sean Tucker. Yeah, how would you power rank them as prospects? Uh? Well, clearly burg Ron is the top of the group. I think he has a chance to be a top two round player. Did a nice job for them at left tackle. Um, his best fit might be inside a guard, as a zone guard. That might be where he is base. He's so good as a run blocker, Um, Syracuse player, so good. Love that as a run blocker. Now pass protection, that's where it falls apart a little bit. And that's why we're talking about him as a second or third round pick, but as a run blocker, he's really really talented. With the acl injury for Williams, uh, that kind of clouds it a little bit. Um In terms of if he were healthy, I would say clearly Garrett Williams next at the corner and then Shan Tucker. But because of the aclum, this is a big week for him. You know, not gonna work out, But what's the injury? Look like our teams okay with it? Um, you know, just the rehab everything like that. So this is a big week for Garrett Williams. And then with with Shaun Tucker, he should show up well, pretty pretty well here. He's a track guy, so you know testing he has a really good sixty meter time that translates really well the forty yeard dash. So Sean Tucker should do I have a really good week here. I'm not as high on Shaun Tucker as a lot of people. Um, you know, it's a really deep running back group this year. Uh B. Sean Robinson's gonna be a first round pick. Jamir Gibbs fell Obamas in my opinions, the first round pick, and then you've got a clump of ten to twelve fifteen running backs in that second the fifth round range. Tucker's in there somewhere. I think he's probably more in that fourth and fifth round range. But he's a good player. I really like him in the screen game. I'll take it. And Shan Tucker was a great player for Syracuser. He was at the end of the day. It makes me happy. It makes me happy here and you talk about it makes me happy that we're able to do the first episode of NFL Draft Preview presented by Verizon in person. Thanks for powering through. And then you know, I guess next week I'll see him back in the box. Yeah, well, we'll plenty to recap. Instead of talking about who's going to run the fastest time, we'll talk about who actually did, and we'll talk about you being two for two in the last two years. That's it. It's so yeah, officially I'm going with a chin. Yeah, we'll see how that works out. Okay, all right, Dane, appreciate the ton, Thank you. Thanks man.